The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: March 20, 2026
Part 1: Recorded lesson – What is the Preparation on the Eve of Shabbat, in the Work.
Original lesson date: Mar 26, 2003
Reader: (00:05) Good morning, friends. In the first part of the lesson, we will study today a lesson of the Rav's from March 26, 2003. It's based on the article, What is the Preparation on the Eve of Shabbat, in the Work.
You can find it in the Rabash writings in the first volume. We will read it together in the Ten. We have 30 minutes for this; tens who finished reading before the time is up, you can do a workshop on the main points of the article. And let's enter the article together!
(00:51) Rabash, What Is the Preparation on the Eve of Shabbat, in the Work?
Article No. 25, 1988
Our sages said, in the future, the Creator brings a book of Torah and places it in His bosom.
He says to those who engaged in it, come take your reward. Promptly, idol worshippers gather and come. The Creator says to them, in what did you engage? The Creator said to them, all that you did, you did for yourselves.
They say to Him, Master of the world, give us in advance and we will do. The Creator says to them, fools, he who toils on the eve of Shabbat, of the Sabbath, eats on Shabbat. He who did not toil on the eve of Shabbat, from where will he eat on Shabbat?
There are many explanations in the literal, but in the work, what is the toil on the eve of Shabbat, from which to have what to eat on Shabbat? We see that Shabbat is called a gift and not tzedakah, or charity.
As our sages said, to know that the Lord sanctify you, the Creator said to Moses, Moses, I have a good gift in my treasury. Its name is Shabbat. I want to give it to Israel. Go tell them.
The Gemara brings evidence from here that one who gives a gift to his friend should notify him. There are two things to understand here.
One, what is the reason that he should notify when giving a gift? Whereas concerning tzedakah, or charity, we learn the opposite, that tzedakah should be in concealment. As it is written, giving in concealment subdues anger. Two, why is the Shabbat called a gift, whereas faith is called tzedakah, or charity? As it is written, and he believed in the Lord and considered to Him as righteousness and not a gift.
We should understand what is a gift and what is tzedakah in the work. Normally one gives charity out of pity and not out of love. As our sages said, one does not check with nourishments.
It is so because charity is not given out of love when we should check if we should really give the tzedakah or not. In tzedakah, the pity determines whether or not to give. And since one who says he has no food, meaning nothing with which to sustain himself, evokes pity.
They said there, we do not check with nourishments to see if he is an honest person or a crook. This is what he said there, Rav Yehuda says, we check clothes and do not check with nourishments. Rashi interprets clothes as he came naked and said, cover me.
Then he is examined to see if he is not a crook, since clothing does not evoke any pity, because a person can live without clothes, but he cannot live without food.
As we say, who chooses his people with love. This means that the Creator chooses His people, Israel. But the question is, what is Israel? It is taking upon oneself faith. This is called Israel. And all the preparation is the labor to become Israel.
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Reader: (30:53) Now we will connect to the lesson with the Rav from March 26, 2003.
M. Laitman: From Volume 5, The Rungs of the Ladder, belonging to the first verse in the foreign work portion: What Is the Preparation for the Eve of Shabbat in the Work? The eve of Shabbat is called, the entire period a person comes to in his work to spirituality, and then through all the stages of his ascent in spirituality. And the degrees of equivalence of form to the Creator, as he comes to the final correction of his soul and it is really truly adapted and similar to the form of the Creator. This entire path is considered, the eve of Shabbat; meaning from the moment a person receives what we call a point in the heart, a notice from above, receives a drive to spirituality, feels the question, What is the meaning of my life? in a real manner in which it truly comes from the source of life. And that the answer is only, Taste and see for the Lord is good, then he enters a period called, the eve of Shabbat. Until he enters the Shabbat, meaning that is a state of the final correction, rest, the world of worlds; where all the worlds, all the concealments disappear and there is rest. Rest, the meaning is that he is no longer working with the correction of the desire to receive but, rather, is completely capable to already work in bestowal and in order to bestow—that state is called, Shabbat.
(33:30) This period of the eve of Shabbat is divided into two parts: One part which corrects his vessels in, to bestow in order to bestow. Even before that, certainly he is in the preparation stages prior to the barrier in double concealment, regular concealment. Crosses the barrier, corrects his vessels of Galgalta Eynaim – of to bestow in order to bestow – and then acquires the force of Bina, called the force of faith. And this force enables him to be in the spiritual plane. This force is given to a person without any preparation on his behalf. Only as it is written, Charity is given to whoever stretches out his hand. He's not examined whether he does need or doesn't need, is he really poor? Is it really nourishments for him or extras? Meaning, if a person asks and he is unconscious of his state, he doesn't even so much needs but he asks and cries like children cry, that cries for every nonsense, but asks. That is already considered a request and he's given. Meaning, the force of correction and to bestow in order to bestow is given to whoever demands. And the way one judges himself to the extent in which he needs even though his crying is not really crying for spirituality, and it's still in the desire to receive for himself. He's still not quite really understanding what it is to bestow and doesn't even think about it being to bestow, but rather depicts to himself all kinds of pictures of spirituality that need to fill his vessels and his egoistic desires, it's not important. Nevertheless, it is accepted above and, somewhat, he is given the charity.
When a poor one knocks on the door, you open the door – they don't look at the poor person, they see a hand that is stretched out and something needs to be given into the hand. Also, it's given to everyone, meaning he's not examined who he is, what he is, and whether he toiled for this a lot or less but, rather, it's not even important. He can sit on the street corner and not do any work and it seems like he's free of all the problems and toils, but when you see that he stretches out his hand, we give him. The order here comes from two sides, both from the side of the receiver and from the side of the giver, we don't yet see the receiver and we don't yet see the giver. Nevertheless, this thing comes, somewhat, since there's a request on behalf of a person. The Creator is concealed and gives him. A person is still concealed from himself; he doesn't yet know what his requests are. But that's also enough and he's given and this is how we advance in our preparation stage. And then, we come to greater necessity to be in the spiritual world meaning to equip ourselves with vessels of bestowal. Then our request, our demand – our spread out hand – our request will be more deterministic, and we certainly demand the charity. It will be a more aimed charity, we, precisely, understand, more and more, what, precisely, we need. According to the necessity we receive, certainly, more and more, real, tangible help that corrects us and gives us actual necessity; where a person feels with all his desires that, certainly, spirituality is necessity for him, that's the only thing he spreads out his hand for. Besides that, no matter what he feels as poor and has nothing, anything, but the necessary thing for him to live is spirituality. Then he is given this charity meaning faith, the force in order to bestow, the force of Bina, and he enters spirituality and begins to develop there in the quality of Bina, in bestowing in order to bestow.
(39:26) Then, from acquiring the quality of Bina, to bestow, he begins to think – that's the difference between the upper three of Bina and the lower seven of Bina. Just as we learned in the second phase of the four phases of direct light. First, it's a desire to bestow in her GAR and then in her ZAT, in the second part of Phase two, she begins to think, but how to bestow in order to bestow? I need to receive. Similarly, in a person, there's development from charity to gift. Whereas he begins to think really how to bestow, how to give, how to realize the force of Bina that he received as charity. And, here, the problem is already that he needs to labor according to a precise examination in his vessels because in the gift, he didn't make any calculation for the vessels, he just demanded necessities – he spread out his hand and received. The gift does not come according to the crying; the gift is given to one who is loved. Meaning one must disclose the love, discover the love, and then one whose love is revealed obligates him to give gifts in return to one who loves him. Also, that he needs to love him so there is mutual work here: to reveal the Creator's attitude to the created being and the created being's attitude towards the Creator. The gift is already called, Torah, meaning the light that reforms the vessels, corrects the vessels of reception so that they will be in order to bestow. If the charity was always in concealment, not knowing who the receiver and who the giver is, then with a gift, specifically, we need to discover who the receiver is and who the giver is, meaning we reveal the knowledge, the inner light, the light of Hochma that clothes within the vessels in receiving in order to bestow. That's already the work in Torah and in commandments in Torah and Mitzvot, meaning in receiving in order to bestow according to the exertion.
(42:18) After, in all of one's desires, it is revealed through the correction of charity and through the work in Torah and commandments, we reveal the reception in order to bestow in all the vessels. Meaning all the vessels are already corrected, and receive that form of relation to the Creator like the way the Creator relates to them. Then a person enters into a state called, Shabbat, rest. Where there is no longer charity nor a gift, rather, one big gift as it is written, I have but one gift and its name is Shabbat. This is certainly the feeling of mutual love there is between the Creator and the created being where the relation, the connection between them is where one gives the gift to the other, the bestowal from all the desires, from all the heart, as we say. In all this work, we see that there is a connection between the Creator and the created being when we want to discover the connection. So, the connection comes through giving, and the measure of giving is included of two values – from the value of what is given and the value of who we are giving to. Just like the value of the reception is dependent on the value of what we are receiving and who we are receiving from. I can receive a very small thing, some truly – something that's worth a penny but I'm receiving it from a person that I appreciate very, very much and it's not a penny worth – but rather, the penny multiplied by the value I have for the appreciation of this person; and that's equal to the measure I give of reception for this and, also, the measure of giving will be as such.
Hence, we see that the attitude, the connection which comes by giving and reception is actually not dependent on the measure of reception and giving, itself; but rather, the measure of the giver and the receiver and it's in this that all our work is, actually. Whereas we develop our vessels in the correction of the faith, we actually need in all our corrections that we perform on the desire to receive, to raise the value of the Creator above the value of the vessel of reception. Then, according to this, the contact in concealment will be considered to us the most important of all the fillings in the desire to receive, that's the actual correction.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:57) How do we shift from the first stage in which the request of a person is kind of initial to the second stage where you said he's asking, like, for necessity?
M. Laitman: The advancement is always through labor. A person who comes, at first, to study discovers that there is a certain answer here to the question in him. He wants to succeed more, feels himself empty somewhat, not successful. He's lacking meaning in life, confused, does not find a direction worthwhile to exist or advance for. Meaning with all kinds of unclarified questions: what am I for and who am I, and all kinds of such questions he comes with and is incorporated in the group of beginners. This is what is called, Giving charity to anyone who stretches out his hand. Even if his questions are not scrutinized – he doesn't even know where he is for the first half a year, he learns – he doesn't even know why he's learning. What are we doing here, what is this, what is Kabbalah? He doesn't get anything even afterwards until he gets the spiritual idea. He gets such periods of confusion, disorientation, that he's kind of hung. Throughout this period, a person is given to the extent that he is willing to receive this charity. He's not required for deliberate, directed labor. Knowing about the elements of what he does, clear relation, that it's clear to him who is before him. No, just like that but, still, when he receives, time after time, the charity, and sustains himself with necessities, and he also doesn't quite know how to ask, he doesn't quite know what he's receiving. When I reach out, stretch my hand and ask, give me, I don't know exactly what he is giving. Whatever he gives, I take and somehow use it in order to advance.
In other words, the question is not scrutinized. The reception is unclear, what am I receiving and how do I go forward with it? This is how we advance. Now, how do we shift from that stage to the stage where we begin to ask more clearly? I would say that before the barrier nothing is clear, compared to what happens afterwards. Of course, a person afterwards, acquires knowledge, he has experience, he recognizes – but with respect to the Creator, when he stretches out his hand in his request – he doesn't have any clarity and any plea that truly comes out of knowledge, out of awareness of what he did, there's still no light by which he can see his vessel. Even after he crosses the barrier, his whole advancement is on account through the upper one until he corrects the vessels of bestowal, until he acquires a degree of Bina. There are no scrutinized vessels of reception but he's incorporated in the upper one, he asks and receives only through the power of the Tzedakah, the charity. Nevertheless, things are clearer, the degrees he passes after the barrier until he rises to Malchut of Atzilut through the worlds, right? Assiya, Yetzira and Beria, just to Malchut of Atzilut, so he scrutinizes his Galgalta Eynaim, meaning the request for correction, to sustain himself, meaning to receive the light of Hassadim in vessels of bestowal. He scrutinizes them over his vessels of reception, it's already a more clarified request, his necessity becomes clearer and clearer to him each time. And when he stretches out his hand, he understands a little more each time what he is doing, what form of bestowal he wants to receive, that the forces of bestowal is really his necessity and, by this, he sustains his soul. Only when he rises to Malchut of Atzilut and is incorporated there, he begins to correct his vessels of reception and then we are already talking about a gift, not about charity. What does it mean, a gift? That he's receiving something that fills his vessels of reception. He begins to discover, to reveal the vessels of reception, in order to bestow. Our whole path, all our stages from the first moment when a person somehow belongs to the path, to the final stage when he is incorporated in Shabbat, this whole path is a path of recognition of the situation—the state where he is. Actually, he is in Ein Sof but he has to recognize it, to reveal that state for himself. That revelation is through the correction of the vessels, when he opens his senses more and more and really knows well, better and better, what connection with the Creator he is in. The stages are stages where each of them is like a reason for a higher stage.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (55:21) This state of crossing the barrier—I'm talking before it – it's a state of a feeling that I simply want more spirituality or is it actually a state where the Creator is revealed somewhat to a certain degree in my feeling and I feel His desire to really give me and from that I already want?
M. Laitman: Before the barrier, what is revealed in a person? Whatever it is that is revealed, it is still, nevertheless, not revelation, it's not revelation. You don't have desires that you can measure, accurately; the revelation of the Creator is not revelation. It is some sort of a projection, some sort of knowledge that you think it is like that. It is not a revelation where you are certain where you see the reasons and the results and it is clear like day that is eternal but will reveal at a higher and higher level, meaning greater depth. You don't have that before the end, and each time your previous knowledge can disappear and instead confusion will come and they will contradict each other and you don't find the connection between them. Once it seems to you like this, another time like that. Before the barrier, nothing is certain, that's why it's called, concealment.
Student: From what feeling does he move from this world to the next world? From which kind of deficiency?
M. Laitman: Oh, so what kind of necessity should there be in a person which is regarded as being ready with a vessel to receive the degree above the barrier, right?
Student: Yes
M. Laitman: A simple—how do we say each time? What do we need in order to receive the next degree? To receive the next degree, we need a desire. Nothing is missing. A person below the barrier needs to have a desire to be at a degree above the barrier. Is it possible? It is said it's not possible 100% but 99%—it is possible.
Student: What's in this deficiency?
M. Laitman: A degree above the barrier, I want Him, I want the Creator, I want Him 100% and this whole world is not worth it for me, it's worthless. This desire is the greatest, it suppresses all the other desires. A desire for the Creator, now, a desire for the Creator, how do I scrutinize it, what is that desire? That desire should be for the most part that I want for His sake; I love Him, I am lovesick. And in that desire, there's also my benefit, that I will be happy because of it, that I will be—I feel good because I love Him, it's called, Lo Lishma, not for His sake so in the end, the desire is egoistic. If I don't have that kind of thread of pulling for myself some benefit from the relation of love, I won't be able to relate to Him just like that, that I love Him without any connection to me, that it's cut off only towards Him and nothing to me. I have to have a tiny tube that gives me something from it, but it should be a very small tube compared to my relation to Him, this is the state from which you are ready to jump into spirituality.
Student: Do I want Him to fill me or do I want to be connected with him?
M. Laitman: A person you love, what do you want to do to feel a connection with him – hat do you want? It's unclear before the barrier, it's unclear, but you're locked on him, only on him.
Student: Do you know what is for him?
M. Laitman: I don't know what is.
Student: Why do you want him?
M. Laitman: You want him.
Student: Just like that?
M. Laitman: It's not just like that, it's called, an appeal for a surrounding, it's still not clear. Afterwards, too, when degrees of concealment begin when the concealment gradually disappears and the connection with the Creator becomes more and more revealed. There, too, there are all kinds of connection, kinds of revelation; it's not like you immediately see everything. And there are also ascents and descents, building the vessel, the reception of the labor, reception of the lights.
Student: What is where, also at this stage, actually from this first point that a person was given to begin this path. What he needs to do is actually to discover that he's already in the final correction. Okay, and spirituality?
M. Laitman: Theoretically, it's like that. We are in the world of Ein Sof, the world of infinity, that's the only state that really exists, that the Creator fashioned, established. We are, let's say, in the endless filling and in order to give us the ability, through free choice, to reach that state of Ein Sof, the concealment took place in the first restriction and the construction of the worlds. So, you have a gradual decline, the building of the degrees up to the final disconnection, sort of, right? So now, you can build that state of Ein Sof, return to it, or reveal it, reveal yourself in it gradually. To the extent that you determine that that state is the only one that is desirable, that's it. So, reality doesn't change, it changes towards your senses – they are in concealment and you gradually remove that concealment through your labor. Now, the labor before the barrier is a labor of only wanting revelation? In order to receive, it doesn't matter, you want it, you want Him. The work after the barrier is that you no longer go for revelation but you are willing to reveal Ein Sof to the extent that you can hide it, you can conceal it and not be under its influence. The Creator is revealed to you, and you say, Stop, I'm putting a restriction on You, I'm putting a concealment on You. I'm willing to see you, to reveal you to the extent that it doesn't control me. That I don't receive in order to receive, that I remain independent. So you build the concealment on yourself, and in this way, you reveal Ein Sof. And then you have a problem of really dealing with the revelation of the Creator, you have to constantly restrain yourself from swallowing, from losing your mind. To do everything according to the calculation, to keep yourself in constant tension, and to reveal Him only on condition that enables you to be independent. That you are revealing Him, that you are allowing Him to be revealed, so to speak.
Student: How, in a certain given state, in the stage of preparation before the barrier, does a person strengthen his desire for this revelation that's there, the state of the final correction, without entering an illusion?
M. Laitman: Before the barrier, everything is an illusion, it's as if we are asleep, that's it. We were as dreamers, there’s nothing we can do, that's our work, just like that, like babies, even less than an embryo – you understand what it is? Even less than an embryo, that's the kind of our work.
Student: But there's all kinds of illusions, how do we come to a state where the correct illusion – at least the conscious illusion, that I recognize that it's an illusion, and I don't surrender to the illusion?
M. Laitman: How do I recognize it's an illusion and don't surrender to the illusion? And how do I scrutinize it, and then this illusion is no longer an illusion? These questions are irrelevant before the barrier. In Russian, I give this example from a story about a man who was a wagon driver, he had a horse and carriage. So, he had a horse and a carriage, and he had to take all kinds of merchandise, just like trucks do, today. In Yiddish, it's called, Balagula, owner of a carriage. So, he was working, he had a family, he had a home and kids and everything. And then the children got sick and died, only he and the wife remained. And the wife died, and got sick and died, the house, the horse also fell, and he gradually deteriorated and died, too. But for a very long time, he suffered, terribly, even before that, he lived. So he came to the next world, and this Jew who did everything beautifully, correctly, and suffered so much in life. So, they judged him in this upper courthouse – what to give him, what kind of compensation, what does he want? According to his vessels, what does he want? So he's given a good horse, a good carriage; the wife and the kids come back to him, a good home, and he feels that he's alive. He's alive, and everything is beautiful, he's working, he's got work, everything is blooming, it's beautiful.
Now the question is, when he receives this gift, does he distinguish between receiving it as an illusion or not as an illusion, I'm asking you? Or maybe he's dreaming, he doesn’t distinguish, so how can you distinguish?
Student: I'm asking something else, I'm asking what's the difference between a person in the street and a person who started and made a hundred steps towards the second before the barrier? What's the difference in his consciousness?
M. Laitman: What is the difference between a person who is the first second after he started working on himself? He came to the first lecture, first second in the first lecture, and the first second after the barrier. So, the first second when he started the preparation, and the last second in the preparation period, right, what's the difference? The difference is in what he prepared: In the last stage, before he crosses the barrier, he has a feeling that he is lovesick – the necessity for spirituality – but he doesn't interpret what spirituality is. He doesn't quite know, this is called, a dream. It's unclear but he knows it's good, except he doesn't, he cannot tell whether it's a dream or not. You will reach it and then you'll explain it to me better. There's no end to it.
Reader: (01:09:04) We will share our impressions from the lesson and what from it we are taking to implement in the Ten. Then, let's go to the next part, but sing a song first.
Song: (01:15:18)