The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.

Daily Morning Lesson: July 8, 2025 

Part 1: To be as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load - Selected excerpts from the sources, #3.

Reader: Hello friends, the topic of our lesson is “To go as an ox to the load and a donkey to the load”. We will be reading select excerpts from the articles from our sources. You will be able to ask questions live in Sviva Tova and Arvut system and find our materials there. “Going as an ox to the load and a donkey to the burden”, we are in excerpt number 3. 

Reading: (00:52) 3. RABASH, Article No. 37 (1991), "What Is the 'Torah' and What Is 'The Statute of the Torah,' in the Work?"

“Burden” means “coercion,” which is work above reason. This ox, on which the owner places the yoke so it will till the land, does not understand why it needs to work for the owner. Also, we cannot say that the ox works for him because he loves the owner since he lets it eat and drink. If this is because the owner has a kind heart, and this is why he gives the ox all its needs, the ox probably knows that if the owner could work with the ox without having to provide for its needs, he would certainly do so. But the owner knows that if he does not provide the ox with all its needs, the ox will not have the strength to work. Therefore, he gives everything to the ox so he can work with the ox, and not because he wants to delight the ox. In other words, he knows that if he does not give the ox everything that the ox needs in order to have the strength to work, the owner will not be able to yield crops and produce from the land. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:10) It's not clear. We just read this yesterday in the Ten. We were doing a preparation for the lesson, and we didn't understand what he's trying to say, what Rabash is trying to tell us here. Maybe if it could be explained. 

M. Laitman: We need to work in coercion and faith above reason. Like it or not, it's not even a question. Rather, we must do such actions, according to nature we have no desire for it. It's not worthwhile for us. It's called, this way, “ox to the burden, donkey to the load”. 

Student: If a person goes coercively to do something for the society and expects that in that action you will receive some remedy, is that still coercion or not? 

M. Laitman: Coercion, means going against a desire. If a person does something against his desire, then what he's doing, it means that he coerces himself, work in coercion.

Student: When he does this work should he expect for something to happen? 

M. Laitman: Certainly, otherwise, why is he doing it? The coercion points to his efforts. 

Student: What should he expect? 

M. Laitman: What to expect? That he will receive a reward in accordance with what he's investing.

Question (Kyiv): (06:03) The ox, when he works coercively, he works because of the pressure from the owner, meaning the owner is present in his life. How can we make our Ten such a compelling factor that will coerce us and obligate us to work like the owner. 

M. Laitman: For that, we have a number of actions we can do. First of all, to see how the friends give forces, how to awaken one another. How they maintain themselves on the path. In this way, gradually, we share with each other our impressions we have of something, nevertheless. And that's how we advance.

Student: Can we make it somehow that the Ten will become something that we see in the work, for it to become like some extension of the Creator? So the Creator will be revealed through it as the owner? 

M. Laitman: No. The Creator doesn't do it, and He won't do it. Because then it will be that we are working for the sake of the Creator, because we can feel Him.

Student: Isn't that the essence of our work, for us to work for the Creator? 

M. Laitman: The essence is in working for the sake of the Creator, but because we wish to give Him pleasure. 

Student: So the ox can come to a state where he works not coercively, but because he wants to delight his owner? 

M. Laitman: For this, we need to have several conditions, so this work will not be under the pressure of the Creator. So man will build his desire toward the Creator in the correct way, already to give pleasure to the Creator. And that he can be free while doing this. He needs to decide that for him the goal is to give pleasure to the Creator.  

Question (Turkiye 1): (09:17) How can our faith not become a burden to us? How can we make faith not be a burden for us any longer? Again, how to come to a state in which the faith of a person will no longer be a burden? That he already rose above that, that the faith becomes complete faith, whole faith. 

M. Laitman: That has to do with the person, the extent to which he wants to reach a state, even when he feels a pressure on himself. But the thing is that faith is not felt with him. It becomes like a burden, an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load. No, even if the host will not pressure him, will not give him anything, he nevertheless wants to work for the host.

Student: The continuation of the question is how to reach complete faith on the path. How does a person reach complete faith? 

M. Laitman: That he constantly thinks of it when he is asking, how can he be above any reward, any work that he has necessarily taken upon himself. Therefore that's what he's doing and he can't see in the meantime an end to this thing. In other words, he constantly feels that he has to do all the actions that will tie him to the Creator, tie him to the friends. So, our work is to reach the Creator with a heart full of prayer, so the Creator will help him and the friends, and they will connect. And from the connection between them, they'll connect to the Creator and reach what's required, meaning this mutual relationship between the Creator and the group. And that's it. That's how we advance.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:03) When we read this, so what would give forces is gratitude, and one of the strongest sensations in gratitude that you're thanking for what you see, but here there's gratitude beyond what you understand, beyond your sensation. Is there gratitude above reason or something like that we can connect to in order to get forces? 

M. Laitman: No, we want, we'll read about it in a minute, what it means as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load. There are several conditions here that we need to follow. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:04) What's the difference between a work a person does in coercion to get some future reward and “the donkey to the load and the ox to the burden?” 

M. Laitman: We'll talk about it. Try to think. 

Student: How does a person know, because there are a lot of actions you can do in coercion, how to know that the action I'm doing is something the landlord would want? 

M. Laitman: That's the main thing. This is first of all.

Student: How can I know that that's a desired action?

M. Laitman: According to what you feel in your relation with the Creator. 

Question (Qazaqstan-Kyrgyzstan): (15:05) Who is that ox that we're forcing to work for the Creator? 

M. Laitman: It's our heart. It's our heart, which wants to work only for itself. And in every act, in every action it does to see benefit only for itself.

Student: And the ground that the ox is processing, that's the egoistic heart?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Latin 2): (16:04) We have to come to the lesson. We get heaviness. We even reject the opportunity, but when we don't have an opportunity, then we feel hopeless and lost. Why is it? Is there such a difference? 

M. Laitman: I can't hear you clearly.

Reader: I'll repeat the question. Why, on one hand, is it difficult, and we feel heaviness in coming to the lesson? On the other hand, when there is no lesson, we feel lost, with a big deficiency that we're lacking the lesson.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Why, on one hand, does the body feel heaviness and not want to come to the lesson? On the other hand, if there is no lesson, you feel lost, and really a yearning for the lesson. 

M. Laitman: Because according to our will to receive, we would like to receive everything that we receive from the lesson, for example, without making an effort for it. And therefore, that's why we relate to it this way. We understand that during the lesson, we receive a lot of information, and powers, and insights. But at the same time, we don't want to labor for it. Let's scrutinize this. 

Reading: (18:05) 4. RABASH, Article No. 19 (1984), "You Stand Today, All of You"

Reader: A person should take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load, which are mind and heart. In other words, all of one’s work should be in order to bestow. Accordingly, if one works in order to bestow and does not wish for any reward in return—except to serve in the holy work without hoping to be given any addition to what he has—he has no wish even for additional work. In other words, receiving some knowledge that he is walking on the right path is certainly a just demand, and yet he relinquishes even that because he wishes to go with his eyes shut and believe in the Creator. And what he can, he does and he is content with his lot. 

M. Laitman: Beautiful words, really.

Question (Moscow 6): (20:05) How can we aim our heart towards bestowal? What is “the burden” in our work? 

M. Laitman: Put yourself in the shoes of the person that it talks about. That all the questions he has, he wants to raise to the Creator and get some sort of an answer. This is what he wants. Now the only question is, does he get what he wants or not? If not, what should he do? First, it is written, “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load,” meaning this is how we should relate to his spiritual work. If he achieves such a state of being as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load, then from the perspective of the person, on the part of the person, it will already be the right approach, attitude. And then the Creator will certainly give him the strength in order to bestow. And this is how he will continue. That's it. 

Question (MAK 11): (22:22) It's written in the excerpt that we should give the ox everything he needs, otherwise he won't be able to work. But if the ox is a reception, what could I give it from the spiritual work, so it won't receive for itself? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, but the Creator probably does know. I can't set conditions. Here it says that everything, all we need in order to begin to work for the sake of the Creator and bestow upon Him as much as possible, it is within our power to meet this condition. And from there on, it depends on the Creator.

Question (Woman Unity): (23:29) A desire that is created, that is made correctly, and work that is done correctly, should they bring the feeling of heaviness in the work? 

M. Laitman: In principle, there shouldn't be such a thing. We have to come to a situation where for us the whole work is a gift, and in this way we advance. 

Student: So, still there's a feeling of a burden that a person feels, or should he just feel easy, or should he still make efforts? 

M. Laitman: No, the sensation of heaviness indicates that you still haven't obtained the quality of bestowal. 

Question (KabU 12): (24:33) Can you tell us what it means to really take on the burden of the kingdom of heaven? And how is this different from just doing the work? 

M. Laitman: Now, we can only advance on condition that we accept it correctly, meaning that I connect with the Creator, and I want to be connected to Him, only in order to bestow contentment upon Him. And all my work with the ox is only in order to come to this.

Student: Does this mean feeding our will to receive so it doesn't make us leave the work? 

M. Laitman: Of course. Even before we advance forward toward the host, toward the Creator.

Question (Woman Rehovot 1): (26:24) It's written, since he wants to go with his eyes shut and believe in the Creator, and what he can do is be happy and content with his lot. What does it mean to go with his eyes closed and believe in the Creator and be content with his lot? 

M. Laitman: What is this definition, that we are with our eyes shut in the work, what does it give us? Is it that we want to see the result from the work? We don't want to see the result of the work, but just doing something because we want the Creator to enjoy it, that's enough for us. That's it. 

Student: What connection is made between the Creator and a person when he works as the ox to the load? What connection is weaved between them? 

M. Laitman: A beautiful connection the Creator gives to a person - harder conditions, and the reward for the work. And the person gives to the Creator all his heart and mind and knowledge in order to give contentment to the Creator. That's it. 

Question (Woman Heb 1): (28:07) If in the Ten we're lacking taste in the work and we become weaker, what will give the Ten forces to subdue themselves before the work and keep going? 

M. Laitman: Probably the greatness of the Creator. The sensation of the Creator is lacking. As great as the chief, the wise, the overseer over everything. This is what's missing.

Student: How to awaken it in the Ten when there are few friends that are willing to do it and a few friends that are less? 

M. Laitman: So, you need to make it so that in the Ten it is more or less equal in everyone. 

Student: Do we have to make a common decision? 

M. Laitman: A decision, and besides a decision, we have to create such relationships between us that through the relationships we'll come to a state where we need to come to such a state where we will all feel a more or less even relation to the work and a more or less even relation to the Creator and that we will be as one man with one heart. 

Student: How can we reach that in prayer? 

M. Laitman: We come to it mainly by prayer, correct. But the fact that we are initially unable to reach it, that is also true. But it's not a problem. We have to continue according to the counsels we see in every excerpt. We have some advice how we need to turn ourselves so as to receive, to take upon ourselves such relations, forces, intentions, so that all in all our relation, according to the direction of our thoughts, according to our desire, will be such that we will compel the Creator. Compel the Creator. 

Reading: (31:46) 5. RABASH, Article No. 37 (1991), "What Is the 'Torah' and What Is 'The Statute of the Torah,' in the Work?"

We already know the meaning of “the burden of the kingdom of heaven” and “the burden of Torah,” meaning to work with the body coercively, even if it disagrees with the work. It should all follow the example of the ox to the burden and the donkey to the load. However, it is a lot of work for a person to have the strength to overcome the body and work with the body coercively, as with an ox. From what source can one derive this strength? Our sages said about this, “The Creator said, ‘I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.’” That is, only through the Torah that a person engages in, even if Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], and he aims that he wants to engage in the Torah so as to thereby receive the light of the Torah, which will give him the strength to force the body when it disagrees with the work. 

M. Laitman: In other words, we must check to what extent we are connected among us and to the Creator, so that I am with the Creator, on par with the Creator. What He gives, I give. What He demands, I demand. And it's not because I want to run away from my duty. It is all in order for us to come to what is called equivalence of form. As He is merciful, you are merciful. As He is gracious, you are gracious. And this should really be the right manner of work. 

Question (ITA 3): (35:12) The heart remains cold. Why don't we have that safety net where we can trust the friends? And above everything, that the Ten will be able to nourish us and give us life from this net.

M. Laitman: We can't. We don't feel that we're connected, that we have any area between us that we're all responsible for. That's one thing. Second, we don't feel that, only through the friends if we connect to them correctly we can reach a state to be as one man with one heart. We still can't. Let's keep going. 

Reading: (36:28) 4. RABASH, Article No. 19 (1984), "You Stand Today, All of You"

Reader: A person should take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load, which are mind and heart. In other words, all of one’s work should be in order to bestow. Accordingly, if one works in order to bestow and does not wish for any reward in return—except to serve in the holy work without hoping to be given any addition to what he has—he has no wish even for additional work. In other words, receiving some knowledge that he is walking on the right path is certainly a just demand, and yet he relinquishes even that because he wishes to go with his eyes shut and believe in the Creator. And what he can, he does and he is content with his lot. 

Question (Moscow 1): (38:10) The addition to the work, that he doesn't want any addition, is that a necessary condition for prayer or is it a result of the prayer?

M. Laitman: I think that such a feeling awakens in a person which is a result of the right attitude towards the Creator, his work. A person's work towards the purpose of creation.

Question (Turkiye 7): (38:52) How to remain connected to the Torah every moment? How do we maintain such a connection? 

M. Laitman: You are saying this - how can I be connected to the Torah while not keeping the Torah or implementing it? We constantly need to be in the Torah, in a connection between us and with the Creator. With our relation towards the Creator and the Creator's relation to us. It all has to be our work, to strengthen it. So we constantly need to be thinking of it. Constantly.

Question (W Moscow 6): (40:12) When he wants to go with his eyes shut, what is possible for us right now?

M. Laitman: We have an ability to do everything He demands of us. Everything the Creator demands of us, we can and need to implement.

Question (PT 19): (40:49) There is a curious excerpt here. He says, by receiving some knowledge, he is walking on the right path. It is certainly a just demand, and yet he relinquishes even that, because he wishes to go with his eyes shut and believe in the Creator. And what he can, he does, and he is content. How does he get the strength to be in such a moment? It is not normal. 

M. Laitman: I guess it is possible for us to reach that.

Student: What brings him to it? 

M. Laitman: It's a different question already. 

Student: Yes, but from where is the strength to be in such annulment before the state?

M. Laitman: Let's keep going and we'll see.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:00) We understand that approaching the quality of bestowal, in order to approach it, we receive this gift called society, friends, the writings of the Kabbalists, the Rav. What is the addition of walking with our eyes shut in the work? 

M. Laitman: Meaning, that we can't take the path that we're developing in according to our mind, but to believe what the Kabbalists are writing and explaining to us and advising us to accept these conditions in the work and in this way to advance. 

Student: He writes in excerpt number three that in order to do this work of going above reason, we need to take upon ourselves some conditions that the Creator will give us some needs. What are the needs in the work that we need to give each other in the Ten so that each one has the strength to do this work?

M. Laitman: You're in a group. Somebody organized it. And then in the group, you need to work and to connect with one another. When you start determining the right connections, you'll see that there's more to add. And just like that, till you see that before you, there's only one thing, one purpose, which is to be connected to one another and to the group.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:12) He writes, he does not want any addition in the work. On the other hand, we know that there must always be a prayer in one's heart because without a prayer, he gets a discent. How to combine being content with little and at the same time having a strong prayer? 

M. Laitman: First, you have to discover that you have a prayer. You discover that you have a prayer, a prayer to come closer to the Creator, to feel Him, to give Him contentment from your deeds. And as a result from that, you'll see what else you're lacking. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:07) Why is it said that it's as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load? Because for anyone on the path, it's a gift. Why are we going in the direction of the greatness of the Creator? Why are we going in the direction of an ox? 

M. Laitman: I'm not asking about our teachers. I'm asking about our mind that doesn't understand them enough. That's it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (45:38) I wrote before that we have to be connected to the Creator evenly. What He demands, I demand. As He is merciful, so am I, et cetera. He demands from us. From whom do we demand? 

M. Laitman: Each one from the friends and all the friends from the Creator. 

Student: When we say, as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load, who are our ox and donkeys? 

M. Laitman: The mind and heart.

Student: Why should they agree to relinquish what they want? 

M. Laitman: If we're talking about our relation to the Creator, so we have a relation from the heart and from the mind. We have to direct the mind and heart towards the Creator. 

Student: And to demand of them what the Creator demands from us?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: The question is, how do we become equal to the Creator by that? How do we become equal to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: How do we become equal to the Creator? For now, in our mind and heart, we can check what we have. And obviously, it comes from the Creator, that through the heart and through the mind, we have two forms of work that we can relate to Him. 

Student: So, we identify that He's operating on us. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: But how can we serve Him? How can we be similar and act toward Him to be similar?

M. Laitman: That's still before us. That is still before us. Let's keep reading, and then you'll see that he's speaking about it.

Question (Holland): (47:55) In the excerpts, we spoke about the owner of the ox. And we know the very important and famous story that you told us about Rabash, that he was pointing at his body and he said, let it suffer. Could we say in this situation that Rabash was like the owner of the ox?

M. Laitman: I don't know. I said it then because it was right to say it. No more than that. 

Question (Almaty 1): (48:55) What is the burden of the kingdom of heaven? How can it be a burden if it's something holy, related to the Creator? 

M. Laitman: That's what the person feels, that he's under pressure. The Malchut of the kingdom of heaven, it presses on him, pressures him. 

Student: Is it the beginning of man's work? 

M. Laitman: I guess, but that's not important. Let's advance, and then we'll scrutinize it.

Question (Woman Heb 1): (50:14) When a person has to close his eyes with respect to what happens with him, what he feels, what he thinks, is it with this regard that his eyes should be shut?

M. Laitman: No, that's called that he limits himself to nothing. With the eyes shut in our work, is in order for us to advance, and not shut our eyes and not see the path. 

Student: So, basically he has a discernment of the opposite of the state he should be, and say his eyes should be open, and if they are closed in relation to the work, then he has to understand what is happening with him? 

M. Laitman: Let it be like that. 

Question (Hungarian-Polish): (51:14) What is the work of the heart and the work of the mind? What are the differences?

M. Laitman: We'll see. That's before us. In the meantime, he just told us a little bit that there's a different type of work, that we can divide it into mind and heart, and how we can discern in everything we have, what the work in the heart is, and what the work in the mind is, what can strengthen the mind, and so on. 

Question (Woman Argentina 1): (52:27) Today, in the meeting of the Ten, we felt a common deficiency, that we are broken and tired, and are really carrying a burden, a load. How can we lift ourselves up from this point, raise ourselves to a spiritual state? 

M. Laitman: Man will help his friend. We need, more and more, to hear the friends, and to see as much as they are successful, and in that, we learn from them. 

Question (Woman Spa): (53:40) After we do some thinking, and reach some awareness, should we ask the Creator to want to be in that state of ascent, but not out of faith, but through the intellect? Because the heart doesn't understand this feeling of compulsion, coercion.

M. Laitman: That's also good. Afterwards, you also understand that there's mind and heart in that.