The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson (Morning) July 24, 2024.
Part 1: Baal HaSulam Letter 8.
Reader: Hello, we are reading from the writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 8. You can find the study material in kabbalahgroup.info and on the Arvut System. You can also send questions through these websites. Anyone asking questions in the study hall is asked to stand up, hold the mic close to his mouth, and speak loudly and clearly.
Letter 8, Baal HaSulam.
Reading: (00:36) Letter 8, Baal HaSulam.
April 3, 1922, Jerusalem
To my honorable friend...
I must comment on your slacking in your work of writing, to approach me every once in a while with information of your points. It would have added a few benches at the seminary, and I have already proven to you in my previous letter from the first of Nissan [March 30].
See in Midrash Rabbah, Yitro [Jethro]: “Rabbi Yirmiah [Jeremiah] said, ‘What if when He gives life to the world, the earth will quake? When He comes to avenge the wicked, who breached the words of Torah, it will be even more so, as it is said, ‘Who can face His wrath, and who can calculate the day of His arrival?’ When He desires, no being can face His might. When He rises in His anger, who will stand before Him? Whoa, who will not fear You, King of the nations?’” Although the words of Rabbi Yirmiah make inherent sense, concerning the Torah, as long as you engage in it, you find flavor [reason] in it.
Let me illuminate them for you.
You find in the poem, “You are more terrible than all terrors, prouder than all who are proud; You surround everything and fill everything.” Interpretation: We see dreadful terrors and pains that are worse than death. Who is the one doing all that? ... This is His name, You are more terrible than all terrors,” who is removed from them!
Also, we see how many people—since the beginning of time until today—have tormented themselves with afflictions and self-torment, all in order to find some rhyme or reason in the work of God, or to know who is the owner of the capital.
Yet, they have all wasted their lives away and left the world as they came, without finding any relief. Why did the Creator not answer all their prayers? Why was He so haughty over them, so unforgiving? And what is His name? “Prouder than all who are proud,” this is His name (see my poem, attached to this mail, which asks for whom the field was sown, for I have the right answer). But they who suffer the terrors and perceive that removed pride know for certain that the Creator is removed from them, although they do not know why He is removed.
What do poets say about this? They say that there is a sublime purpose for all that happens in this world, and it is called “the drop of unification.” When those dwellers of clay houses go through all those terrors, through all that totality, in His pride, which is removed from them, a door opens in the walls of their hearts, which are tightly sealed by the nature of creation itself, and by this they become fit for instilling that drop of unification in their hearts. Then they are inverted like an imprinted substance, and they will evidently see that it is to the contrary—that it was precisely in those dreadful terrors that they perceive the totality, which is removed by foreign pride. There, and only there, is the Creator Himself adhered, and there He can instill them with the drop of unification.
He turned everything around for them in such a way that one who has unification knows that he has found ransom and an open door for instilling Him.
This is what is written in the poem, “You surround everything and fill everything.” During the attainment, abundance is felt. It appears and sits precisely on all those contradictions. This is the meaning of “more terrible than all terrors, prouder than all who are proud,” and naturally, “He fills everything.” The poet knew that He fills them abundantly, and none else perceived the pleasantness of unification with Him until it seemed to him, at the time of his wholeness, that the afflictions they had suffered had some merit, to value the savor and pleasantness of the abundance of unification with Him. His every organ and tendon will say and testify that each and every person in the world would chop off his hands and legs seven times a day for a single moment in their entire life, of tasting such a savor.
This is the law of the leprous on the day of his purification;
He was brought unto the priest for all his fault.
It is a judgment for every good deed;
Thus you will meet its operator in a land of duty.
Every passerby shall have it;
It is known how ... [unclear in Hebrew] and He will dwell.
What is His conversing at that time
While strolling among great beasts?
There, an ear is lent to very pleasant words;
Rivers of persimmon are extended, dents over dents.
They see what is heard—that it is only their fault that it is pleasant.
Their stench goes as far from them as the east is far from the west.
He laughs at them because He has known their souls forever.
The ransom will not be limited at all in their eyes,
When He gives Himself to them for ransom,
And every stranger will be ears for fine words.
It is a hand for every vessel of purification.
He will grip it to disclose the light,
To create, and to sustain the light on it,
In the sentence of redemption and in the sentence of transformation.
And although all these do not elude you, I wish to fill with them the words of Rabbi Yirmiah. This is his sublime meaning with his allegorical words, “What, etc., ... When He desires, no being can face His might. When He rises in His anger, who will stand before Him? Whoa, who will not fear You, Oh King of the nations?” That is, “more terrible than all terrors, prouder than all who are proud,” and all in order to sound “the words of the living God.”
In other words, the sublime terrors were established only to see the voices, which the eye cannot see nor the heart think or contemplate. Until He came to that quality, the Creator was operating without any grievance for the operation, as it is sensed that the operation still did not exist. For this reason, throughout this terrible and long process, He desired and consented to His operation, to disclose it for the destined time.
This is what Rabbi Yirmiah said, “When He desires, etc.,” meaning that His intention is only to admonish to worshipers of the Creator that that sublime side will always be before them once the act has been sufficiently revealed.
Therefore, who is to be held accountable that His honor will not be desecrated, for what fool would say that the Creator is lenient? He brings the verse, “Who can stand in the day of His wrath, and who can calculate the day of His arrival,” from the long and sublime past? The day of His wrath is the one that calculates the day of His arrival; they are weighed together as though on scales.
By this you will understand the words of Rabbi Tarfon, who maintains that they say, “Enough.” He proves from the verse, “And her father indeed spat [Hebrew: spat, spat] in her face, she will be disgraced for seven days,” much less for the Shechina [Divinity] to have at least two weeks. And still he concludes, “She shall be closed up seven days,” meaning just as before the action and the Shechina were exposed, and there was only “Her father indeed spat in her face,” meaning exposing her face.
It is considered two spits—one is considered the heart, and one is considered the mind, as in “more terrible than all terrors, prouder than all who are proud.” Saying “enough” before the Shechina to begin with, if you are pure-hearted you will understand through your heart the meaning of the words that after being closed up for seven days they went on their way in the campaigns of the Torah, unlike prior to the completion of the quarantine.
Even if my mouth was filled with singing like a sea, my lips with florid praise as its numerous waves, it would not be enough to detail the righteousness of the Creator, who has done, is doing, and will do before His creations, which He has created, is creating, and will create. I have thoroughly learned that great masses were, and are, yelling in the world at the top of their lungs but remain unanswered. They come alone and they leave alone. As they begin, so they end, myriad subtract, but do not add, and woe to that shame, woe to that disgrace.
It is a precise rule that sanctity increases and does not decrease, but the uniqueness of the Creator—who takes pride over the bodies, which are devoid of any desirables—does not wane at all. Rather, He even prides over “the elect men of the assembly, men of renown,” and they, too, unless they carefully watch over themselves not to waste their time, He will be able to rid them of their world like the first, since the Glory of the World is strong and does not change for fear of His creations, of course.
Many great people have erred about it because they said that they were certain their hearts were awake. And the writing says, “And Er [Hebrew: awake], the firstborn of Judah, was bad in the eyes of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death.” The sages say, “Even one who is slacking in his work is brother to one who destroys,” for the most important is to pay attention and be mindful, and “Whatever you find that your hand can do by your strength, do,” to extol and to sanctify His great and blessed name.
And precisely in a mindful manner, not as the cry of the fools, who know how to utter words without a wise heart. The wise one, his eyes are in his head, and he knows no bodily forces. He is not Er or Onan, but rather, “The words of sages are heard with contentment, with fervent scrutiny for the Creator alone.
It is written in The Zohar, “Everything is clarified in the thought.” There are no outcries here, no self-tormenting or any illness or mishap whatsoever. Rather, “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace,” “All who are gluttonous are angry,” and “Anyone who is angry, it is as though he is idol-worshiping,” and his soul departs from him.
But we should do much scrutiny and think with all our aim and strength, and “All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who mention the Lord, take no rest for yourselves, and give Him no rest until He establishes and makes (the fearing and the whole) Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
Let me tell you the truth: When I see the most vain ones wasting their lives away, it does not pain me whatsoever because in the end, no spiritual misfortune happens to them, only a body of flesh and bones that is tortured, and for which it was made, as has been elaborated above. The fate of every beast is the slaughter, and being mindless, they are all as beasts.
All of nature’s orders do not sadden the pure-hearted. On the contrary, they rejoice the hearts of the understanding. But when I see the fallen ones, the men of renown, it is as though a blazing, fiery sword pierces my heart, for they torture the Shechina with the follies that they lie and fabricate.
Woe unto this beauty that withers in this dust, the holy, faithful drop. All the prolonged guidance is turning so as to reveal the face of the truth, and upon its revealing, it returns and throws pure, faithful water on every corner of the guidance and reality. Then, all who are empty fill up, and all the afflicted are bestowed upon, and there is neither an iron-web nor a cobweb here. Rather, there is great glory here and faithful love returning and coming back from the Creator to His creatures, and every place where He lays his eyes heals.
Happy is the ear that has never heard slander, and happy is the eye that has never seen a false thing. All that He curses is utterly cursed, and all that He blesses is utterly blessed. Everything that comes out of His mouth has neither doubt nor surplus. Rather, this is the thing which the Creator commanded, “Adhere to Him.”
Dust, dust, how obstinate you are. All that is beautiful to the eye withers in you; how insolent you are. That eye that blesses wherever you turn, how has it become strangeness, and every place He looks burns and becomes consumed? How will those most desperate people be comforted “with a comfort of vanity and joy of the flesh”? What shall they answer in the day of calling? It evokes contempt and wrath.
Therefore, I have spoken at length against those people with whom you are face to face, and of the words they fabricate, such as the expansion of corporeality. As they are, so are their works, “All who trust them,” and “Cursed is the man who trusts man and makes flesh his arm,” and “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.” “Happy is the man who did not follow the counsel of the wicked, ... but delights in the law of the Lord, and on His law does he reflect day and night,” as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created for it the Torah as a spice,” and “If you encounter that villain, draw him to the seminary.” How man does not fear or feel that his master is assisting him.
This is what I told you face to face at a time of joy, that the primary sin of the generation of knowledge [generation of the desert] was according to the verse, “Our fathers in Egypt did not perceive Your wonders ... and were rebellious at sea, in the Red Sea.” I interpreted that the value of a gift is as the value of the giver. They were the first to blemish it when they “did not perceive Your wonders,” but merely “wonders.” Thus, the gist is missing from the book, which caused them to turn back at the time of the reception of the Torah, saying, “You speak with us and we will hear.” Although the Torah does not attribute them sin in the matter, for it is said, “I wish this heart of theirs was to fear Me all the days,” it is because the sin preceded the giving of the Torah and was not written in the Torah, and it is known that the Torah engages in the path of correction and not in the path of sins.
You asked me, “What should I do with it?” I replied that you should exert and give many thanks for the benefit, for it is natural that when the giver sees that the receiver is not grateful, his future giving wanes.
You replied to me that the thanks for His blessings does not appear in the words of a corporeal mouth, but through exertion and broadening the heart in the benefit of the merit of unification, by which the enemies are stopped on the right and on the left, that this is called “gratitude for His blessings,” and not the words of a corporeal mouth.
But come and see how lovely is faithful water from the never-ending fountain, of which it was said, “Let them be satisfied and delighted by Your goodness.” The satiation does not cancel the pleasure because he has perceived “Your wonders,” and not wonders and tokens, as to whom will he answer? Even he himself does not need it, and he never said to them or to the like of them, “Give Me, offer a bribe for Me from your strength.” Their father has come to loathe going with his flock’s dog for inferior guarding, “and if the helper stumbles, he that is helped shall fall,” and “The Almighty, whom we cannot find, is excellent in power.”
It all came upon him since the time he forgot the quality of “sublime and exalted, very, very high,” and began to engage by measuring of flesh and blood, and from there to measuring the trees, and also wishing to build himself on calculations. He was calculating calculations of others, but it is already written, “And you have found.”
Ravnai said, “Until it comes into his hand. This means that he does not purchase just by seeing; this is the simpleton’s phrasing: ‘He does not buy until he holds it in his hand.’” Therefore, the Tanna teaches of two gates, one in finding, and one in negotiating, to understand and to instruct until he actually holds it in his hand.
It seems that at the end of days he will discover ... our sages: “When he sees from whom he took the coins?” They explain that he took from two people (which implies another thing that will be revealed at the end of days), from one—voluntarily—and from another—involuntarily, and we did not know with whom it was voluntary, and with whom, involuntary. This is the meaning of the verse, “What shall we do to our sister on the day when she is spoken for?” She will appear and be seen at the end of days, for we will wait for the days of the Messiah.
Let us return to our topic, which is primarily to learn more about the Giver of the gift, His greatness, His value, and then he will be rewarded with true Dvekut [adhesion] and will obtain the flavors of Torah, for there is no other remedy in our world but that.
I shall recite a fine and pleasant poem about it, which brings joy to a true heart, and which is tried and tested in ten trials.
My drop, my drop, you are so fine, all the expanses of my life,
All my mornings, all my evenings.
The face of the curtain, you raise the cover, in the expanses of my futures,
All my mourning, all my comfort.
The wasteland, the multitudes shall carry you with branches that I added,
All my ruin, all my filling.
You pierce my heart, and your full reward is in my hand, from all the banners of my love, all my gold, all my merchandise.
A good guest, what does he say? “All the troubles that the landlord has troubled himself, he has troubled himself only for me,” according to the verse, “One must say, ‘The world was created for me.’” So it is, that as the world was created for him, all the elements in his reality were also created for him.
One element—because of the unification—the general and the particular are equal to it, and everything that all the people in the world will attain at the end of correction, complete individuals attain in every generation. This is why each one finds the elements of his organs in the Torah, for because it is generally set up for the whole collective, it is also generally set up for an individual. Moreover, in the collective, there is not more than there is in an individual, and this is a true and complete measure in great scrutiny.
This is why it is written, “With her love you will ravish always,” and “You shall contemplate it day and night,” and “The Torah, the Creator, and Israel are one.” It is a measure completely adapted, for everything is one, and the spiritual cannot be divided into parts. One must sanctify and purify himself in mind and heart, and when you bless with the blessings of the Torah as before, you will attain the distinguished verse, “See now that I am I, and there is no other God with Me.”
I ask that for your benefit and delight, do send me frequent information of your situation in the Torah, for it will save much time. Know that prolonging the time of correction diminishes the value of the correction, and anything spiritual improves and ascends when it takes less time. If you knew, as I know, that prolonging the stay on the paths of light is harmful, you would certainly be quicker in your work.
Although I neither wish nor am permitted to study for you, it is permitted and a great Mitzva [commandment] to delight and perfume those loved ones that you find in the field that the Lord has blessed. Our whole engagement in life is only to raise the Shechina from the dust, to delight her, sing before her with all our might, always praise the Creator with your mouth with what is permitted, and especially where we know that you will certainly succeed. For this reason, I urgently need information from you, and we shall be satiated with love together, to uproot the thorns, and we shall see the high rose soon in our days, Amen, may it be so.
Yehuda
M. Laitman: We see how from one aspect, one perspective, Baal HaSulam writes and opens up the explanation towards the student and yet how he conceals and gives the student room to add. That's it, so, questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:35) What does it mean that when He is desired, when the Creator is desired, no created being can resist it? What does it mean to serve the Creator and then the created beings cannot resist Him?
M. Laitman: That only nullifying himself is sufficient for the created being to be close and even adhered to the Creator.
Student: It says here, and he will rise and the day of His anger, the day of His coming, the day He will come and check and see that the day of His wrath corrupts the day that He comes. Is he talking about the preparation that we have to do daily and receive the Torah?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: What does it mean to prepare ourselves daily, that we have to be on the scales?
M. Laitman: This means seeing every day as new, that's what it says. That that's what a person has to see, that every day as new. That yesterday there was nothing, everything starts today.
Student: Another small question. What does it mean to pour, to throw pure water?
M. Laitman: Well, that means to purify, to purify something.
Student: I feel like Baal HaSulam speaks of the opportunities that we get and many times we miss them. Is this the intention of Baal HaSulam to tell us that we're not always taking opportunities with both hands?
M. Laitman: Well, that is certainly the case but to what extent he turns to us, that I can't say. He's talking about people, he's talking to people who advanced and felt in his response what he's talking about.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:23) He writes, send me frequent information of your situation in the Torah, for it will save much time. What does it mean, how does it save much time? What does it mean?
M. Laitman: To the extent that the student will give them correct responses that are to the point, then through exchanging letters this way Baal HaSulam could scrutinize higher matters.
Student: So, saving the time is the connection with the student, that's what he refers to?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And he continues and writes, know that prolonging the time of correction diminishes the value of the correction, and anything spiritual improves and ascends when it takes less time. If you knew, as I know, that prolonging the stay on the path of light is harmful, you would certainly be quicker in your work. He's talking about acceleration of times, hastening times??
M. Laitman: That, too.
Student: The question is in the usual state of affairs we try to maximize our efforts whether it be in the Tens and the morning lessons. Should we always also walk around with this thought of am I really doing the maximum, am I really accelerating, hastening the time?
M. Laitman: Well, that's desirable, yes.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:23) I want to ask about the drop of unification, that all the instances of this world are a result of this drop of unification. What is this drop of unification?
M. Laitman: The drop of unification is the drop where the created being connects to the Creator, that the created being gives the prayer, the Kli, and the Creator gives the fulfillment.
Student: How does this thing called the drop of unification cause everything that's happening in the world?
M. Laitman: Because it does include everything, you have MAN and MAD.
Student: But all the people in the world are not in the drop of unification.
M. Laitman: All right, but we're talking about those who are, those who know how to raise MAN in such a way that he receives MAD and it becomes one drop.
Student: And those who know how to raise MAN, they cause all the instances in the world?
M. Laitman: No, here we're talking about a single individual. That if he raises MAN, he makes room for the Creator to bestow to him the MAD.
Student: This ability to start raising MAN, where do you acquire it? When does a person truly begin to raise MAN?
M. Laitman: From yearning, from man's yearning, when he wants by that to awaken the Creator to bestow to him.
Student: Wanted to ask you, he writes further down, that each and every one of the people in the world would chop off the hands and legs seven times a day for a single moment in their entire life of tasting such a savor. So, how can it be that all the people in the world would be in such a tendency if they never tasted it?
M. Laitman: Okay, they can achieve that, they can, because specifically from this connection with the Creator, they all come, all of them.
Student: Is the connection with the Creator a magnet to all, in the end?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: But until a person awakens to it, how can he be, he can't be in those things.
M. Laitman: Alright, he can be in those things to the extent that he doesn't feel it, unconsciously.
Student: So, when he writes that they would chop off their hands and legs, who is he talking about?
M. Laitman: If they would have attained what they miss, what they're missing, then they would, literally, be able to do these things to themselves just to wake up.
Student: So, why is it so concealed?
M. Laitman: It's not concealed, it still has not become revealed, there's a difference between not being revealed and being concealed. So, it hasn't ripened yet.
Student: Also, with regard to those on the path, the ability to truly reveal it to him, this way or that. It's not something that happens, directly.
M. Laitman: Anything that hasn't yet become revealed is, well, it's not apparent.
Student: Last question, how to come close to such feelings?
M. Laitman: Only through connection, connection with the friends and then with the Creator; there's nothing else here.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:25) He writes, in order to find the Giver of the gift, His value. What does it mean to learn about the Giver of the gift?
M. Laitman: That he will get closer to the Creator and be willing and ready to raise MAD from it.
Student: When you say to approach Him correctly, what does it mean to approach the Creator, correctly?
M. Laitman: To approach, correctly, means that he has already reached a state where his MAD is reaching his Maker.
Student: Is the feeling of MAD, of the answer from the Creator, only through the friends and the Ten, can we say such a thing? Or, ultimately, each Ten and its work, and we see it in society in general?
M. Laitman: In the society, no?
Student: In our society, in general.
M. Laitman No, here it's not in a general way. Here, he's talking specifically to a person.
Student: Also, my specific work, my personal work with the friends, so, I'm asking if the MAD that I get from the Creator. Is it coming through the connection with the friends in our daily work?
M. Laitman: It's through your connection with the friends but you exist in a form that you're tied to the Creator.
Student: The deficiency that you always want to just ask Him, you just want to be in that connection. It's new every day, I'm feeling when I wake up, I wish to ask Him on behalf of everyone. The power, the special power so we can acquire more and more of His nature, that's what I'm feeling. Each time He's giving us, it's hard for me to express it, I'm so moved by it. Each time it's more, if you don't ask, you feel disconnected through this connection.
M. Laitman: Alright, yes, it's all correct.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:40) He says that looking for the first time, you don't conquer and attain but, rather, in order to attain you have to hold it by the hand. It's the process between looking and holding by the hand, it's a process that causes a person to climb the degrees of man, to march forward on the path of correction?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Is to hold something by the hand to attain, embrace, and embrace in a kiss?
M. Laitman: You might include that as well.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:24) Baal HaSulam writes, you should increase gratitude for His blessings because by nature if you're not giving gratitude, it's natural that the giver sees that the receiver is not grateful, his future giving wanes. And He replied to me that the thanks for His blessings does not appear in the words of a corporeal mouth but through exertion and broadening the heart in the benefit of the merit of unification. Which means, what?
M. Laitman: That it doesn't need to be discussed like the student writes; the main thing is it’s something in the heart.
Student: It's not like the person needs to feel that the Creator truly advanced him and he feels grateful inside his heart.
M. Laitman: No, the fact that he feels, there's no question about that. The question now is whether he now needs to also develop a language according to his feelings and also say it with his mouth.
Student: It says the broadening of the heart.
M. Laitman: The broadening of the heart, yes.
Student: It's like giving me a room in the heart for the friends. What was that request?
M. Laitman: I don't know what he's asking, you should ask and get the answers.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:12) He writes that many have erred. What was the error? Because they were certain their hearts were awake, what was the error?
M. Laitman: I don't know. He says there that one shouldn't be certain that his heart is awake.
Student: And he feels that his heart is awake, could it be a lie?
M. Laitman: Could be false, could be true, yes?
Student: So, he should not be certain, that's a mistake?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: Another thing, specifically by these terrible things we come to attain, and only there the Creator is cleave to him and he can inspire them with a drop of unification. What is that strange pride that departs only after all the terrible terrors? What is that thing?
M. Laitman: All of the disturbances that would disturb the person from being in complete adhesion with the Creator.
Reader: (58:39) He says that the greatest mistake is lack of gratitude for the Creator, not to see the greatness of the Giver.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: And he says that the Giver sees that the receiver does not give Him gratitude. He wanes from his givings next time; how not to miss it?
M. Laitman: That's man's inner work, man's inner work until the feeling of the heart, that's it.
Question (Spain): (59:31) It's written in the end that it's a great commandment to delight and perfume those loved ones that you find in the field that the Lord has blessed. What is the meaning of perfuming?
M. Laitman: I think this is talking about dissemination, as well, dissemination.
Question (MAK 17, Women PT38 and Women MAK 105): (01:00:05) Know that the length of the time of correction will decrease the value of correction. Can you explain that?
M. Laitman: We have to do each action as quickly as possible. To accumulate those actions in a compression, kind of, yes compression, one after the other.
Student: They ask, how can we check if we're doing this action?
M. Laitman: Not to be idle, simple.
Question (Women Kiev 7 and Women MAK 56): (00:01:01) It says, everything will be clarified in the thought, what does that mean?
M. Laitman: That we have to clarify all that comes to us and what we have to raise from us to the Creator, firstly, in thought.
Question (Women MAK 56): (01:01:29) How can we trust the Creator and not men regarding the connection with others? When will the Creator allow me to trust the other?
M. Laitman: How can I trust others? I don't know. The Creator, yes, because man is always under the control of the Creator. So, I'm certain only about the Creator.
Question (Women Turiye 5): (01:02:05) What are the conditions for opening the hole in the heart through which the drop of unification will enter?
M. Laitman: The conditions?
Student: What are the conditions for opening the hole in the heart through which the drop of unification will enter?
M. Laitman: That, I would say is working with the friends. The work with the friends, which is more than anything, helps the opening of the heart.
Question (PT38): (01:02:44) It feels like Baal HaSulam is expressing tremendous gratitude to the Creator. How can the Ten together come to a mutual gratitude to the Creator?
M. Laitman: They have to try. I have no more to add here.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:03:09) He writes here, at the end of the letter, the main thing is to learn about the Giver of the gift, His value, and then you will merit true adhesion and you will merit the flavors of Torah, and he writes it to a student that is very advanced. What is this action to learn about the Giver, can you expand on it?
M. Laitman: No. Well, let's say it's to know, to acknowledge the Giver of the gift.
Student: What do we have to?
M. Laitman: His actions, His qualities, His deeds, connections to everyone. To scrutinize exactly everything that you can about it.
Student: What do we have to do except for study? Is there something else we do besides inner work?
M. Laitman: He has to be connected to the friends and to try to be together with them in that connection with the Creator. So the friends are with you towards the Creator, and you are with them towards their Creator; everyone has their own Creator.
Student: I didn't understand what you just said.
M. Laitman: It doesn't matter. Well, each one feels or discovers the Creator in a different way. So, how your friends reveal the Creator, that's how you connect with them, and also attain the Creator through them.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:05:21) It says, we can see in time immemorial how people suffered all kinds of torments, and all to find some taste in the work of the Creator and to know who is the owner of the capital, and they have wasted their lives away and left the world as they came without finding any relief. Why did the Creator not answer all their prayers? Why was He so haughty over them, so unforgiving? I don't understand His answer to that. How can a person, let a person, how could the Creator let a person waste all his life and not even find Him? Why did He even bring him to this world?
M. Laitman That's not your calculation to make, do you understand? In the address to you, it does not say that you have to know all those things, rather it says what you have to do, what you have to scrutinize, what you owe to the Creator and not the other way around.
Student: How can we ensure we don't waste our lives like the way he writes here?
M. Laitman: That's beyond your connection to the Creator. That you have to ask Him here for a more specific, difficult, and tight connection.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:07:08) In a few places, he writes about the pride that prevents a person from reaching unification. What is this pride that you have to get rid of?
M. Laitman: That a person thinks that there is equality in him.
Student: It's as if a person is required to do actions, to learn, to connect. How can a person, without more forces coming from within him, strive to make some action?
M. Laitman: It doesn't say that he shouldn't have a strength of his own but it says in what direction it should be.
Student: He can say?
M. Laitman: He can say whatever he wants.
Student: So, he has pride, he won't reach connection?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Student: How do we get rid of this pride?
M. Laitman: Think about it, first of all. First of all, we think.
Student: Is there something we can do together to remove the pride?
M. Laitman: Learn from some friends that you think are more successful at that.
Student: There's another thing here, he talks a lot about the heart. Like he says, if you have a heart, you will understand it. What does that mean?
M. Laitman: If you can overcome your heart, all your desires and make a restriction over them. Which means that you're no longer thinking about yourself, and you're certain, then you can start working towards the Creator.
Student: There's a feeling that you have to understand with the mind but here he says you have to understand with the heart.
M. Laitman: The heart understands. This is what's accepted in Kabbalah.
Student: And the word understand, Le'avin, has something from the word of Bina, clothing?
M. Laitman: I don't want to add some words here that can confuse.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:09:47) He writes in one place about the dwellers of clay houses go through all those stairs, through all that totality, and pride which is removed from them, a door opens in the walls of their heart which is tightly sealed. Which means they have to be, they have to be preceded by tormenting and anxiety before they come closer to the Creator?
M. Laitman: No, it doesn't have to be, rather, your yearning needs to be. Do you accept that as suffering or not, that's your business.
Student: So, what he's talking about here is yearning. So, what are the terrors?
M. Laitman: That's how it appears to a person, not to everyone, and only at some times. More, yes?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:10:50) I heard Rav said that each one has his own Creator.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: That a person has to connect to each and every one and reveal their Creator.
M. Laitman: Well, I didn't put the emphasis on it, the way you do.
Student: Because if a person has his own Creator, why does he need to connect to discover the friend's Creator?
M. Laitman: You don't need that. I don't know, where do you see that it says that?
Student: I simply heard you say that.
M. Laitman: So, I'm saying, leave that aside, put it aside. That's not the main thing.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:11:42) I want to ask on the same topic. A person's individual work, private work, where he has to constantly rise above this world. And develop a great deal of yearning for the Creator and not waste time, and you always say the work is in the Ten, the work is with the friends and the connection is through that he can make it. It appears like there's a contradiction, here, and it's not entirely clear how can we strengthen one another. How can we touch this concept where you said that everything will be clarified in the thought, how can those scrutinizes be shared if they are, seemingly, individual things that each one has to develop by himself? How can we support one another? How is the working connection expressed here?
M. Laitman: The work in connection is expressed as I am connected to each and every one in the Ten and they are connected to me.
Student: This connection is, I work on this connection internally, or does it need to get an external expression as well?
M. Laitman: Could be yes and could be no. Does it have to be in corporeal actions showing everyone? I can't say. Sometimes yes, sometimes no, all according to the need of the progress of the general Kli.
Student: So, if we yearn correctly, the Creator will begin to understand how to do it the right way?
M. Laitman: Yes, yes.
Question (Ashkelon 2): (01:14:10) You opened the lesson with the words that Baal HaSulam uncovers and conceals, reveals and conceals.
M. Laitman: Okay, so next?
Student: I want to ask, when you have many students today who are teaching also.
M. Laitman: Yes?
Student: Should your students also work in this way toward their students?
M. Laitman: I don't know, I don't think so. I do not think so, they are still not working according to that law of revelation and concealment.
Student: What's the importance? Well, my question is why does Baal HaSulam do it this way? What does it teach us?
M. Laitman: All the great Kabbalists do that. That if they reveal something, so they reveal something but cover double of it.
Question (Tel Aviv 1): (01:15:25) In relation to creation, he writes, just like the meal is for the collective, it's also for an individual. And moreover, but there's no more in the collective than there is in the individual. And how do you come to this? You contemplate it day and night, and then you'll see that the light, and the Creator, and Israel are one, and they're completely connected. They're all one and spirituality is not divided into pieces and then he says, and when you bless in the blessings of the Torah, as in the beginning, you'll attain the great verse, for I am Him and there is no Lord but Me. What is this whole thing about there's no Creator with me?
M. Laitman: That except for Him, there is no Creator; There's None Else Besides Him.
Student: Because it sounds like he's saying there's no God with me. It's unclear. He specifically says, I am Him and?
M. Laitman: Well?
Student: What is that the meaning of that I and the Creator are one and there's no discernment between them because it can't be that there's no Creator with me. He's present in everything. So, is that, where is that?
M. Laitman: So, you're not listening to what I'm saying. No, Creator means that except for what I'm attaining now and is filling my vessel now, there is no other Creator, only one.
Student: Meaning there's no God beyond the degree of my attainment in my Kli.
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (ITA 1): (01:17:36) After we adhere to the Creator, do we still feel blows? What changes in our perception?
M. Laitman: After we're adhered to the Creator?
Student: Do we still feel blows after we adhere to the Creator? We still feel blows and what changes in our perception?
M. Laitman: There's a matter of feeling blows and receiving blows. So, after you adhere to the Creator, you don't feel any blows.
Question (PT6): (01:18:23) We can understand you and Rabash, but Baal HaSulam is very hard to understand and to connect to. Does it work out with what I am or do you have to work on this?
M. Laitman: Depends who, it depends who.
Question (Turkey 4): (01:18:53) How can we increase our trust and faith in the Creator when there's so much proud and negativity that are revealed all the time? Negative things that are being revealed constantly. So, how to increase the confidence and security in the Creator?
M. Laitman: I understand you, and each one, it seems that their ego is greater than any other friend but we need to keep going and pray and to be sure that the Creator will give you this gift. That you'll feel that you can rise above your ego. That the Creator will do that to you.
Question (Unity 3): (01:20:20) This letter, the main thing in the Ten is to thank the Creator in the heart and not with our mouth, like a good guest who says the whole world was created for me. Is that our nearness, our closeness?
M. Laitman: Yes.
Question (Kiev 1): (01:20:45) You talked about us raising MAN and receiving the answer of the Creator in the form of MAD. Can we know if our MAN was received or not and feel it somehow?
M. Laitman: Of course.
Student: How?
M. Laitman: According to the way the Creator is relating to me. Me for my beloved and my beloved for me.
Student: We operate in the center of our Ten, in the center of connection between us. How should we observe this relation of the Creator towards us through our prayer?
M. Laitman: Relate to Him as correct as you can. After that, start calculating, in the relationships between you, His answer.
Student: What precisely changes some degree of connection between us?
M. Laitman: Everything changes, everything.
Question (Latin 2): (01:22:21) If our work is to awaken the friends and they reject that help of ours or that our need to desire to awaken them. Should we analyze our intention whether it's correct and see that there's no?
M. Laitman: You have to try to continue this action, only try to do it in the most pleasant way to the friends, that's it. That you're ready for everything, but only to serve them so they won't reject you.
Question (Women Ukraine 2): (01:23:31) You said that each has his Creator. When we connect and attain the Creator of the friend, what happens to the Creator? Does he change?
M. Laitman: He unites all His form into one whole.
Student: How does that impact the relations we have with the Creator to continue?
M. Laitman: You adhere to Him even more.
Student: If we hold onto the connection, it happens; if we don't hold on to the connection, what happens?
M. Laitman: If you don't hold on to the connection, it's not good. You'll get there.
Question (Moscow 1): (01:24:38) I already don't demand the Creator to show me the correct form of the friend, but I'm simply willing to pray for him as much as needed, as much as possible. To what extent is this approach correct?
M. Laitman: That is the right approach.
Question (Beer Sheva): (01:25:11) Many questions from this letter, and one of the questions is as such, I will read the verse and ask the question. Meaning that the great powers were arranged just to see the voices that which the eye can see and the heart can contemplate and think. And until He comes to that measure, the Creator would move as one who operates without any terror upon this action. Because it felt like this action was not, and if so, throughout this whole threat, it was supposed to be settled in its revelation in its given time. My question is what does it mean to see the voices? Those are like two different degrees, isn't it? How, for each person that has not attained, can you attain this understanding?
M. Laitman: I can't say. It's attainment. That's the addition and the attainment that you don't only hear the voices, you also see the voices, that's it. It's like the difference between the ear and the eye.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:26:47) There's a sentence here where it's written that, the collective and the individual are equal, and all that they attain, in the end of correction altogether, are attained by the complete individuals in the average generation. Hence, each finds the details of his organs in the Torah. Can you explain?
M. Laitman: No.
Student: No?
M. Laitman: No.
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