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

Daily Morning Lesson: June 17, 2025 

Part 1: Baal HaSulam - Joy with Trembling

Reader: Hello Friends,we're going to start our article Shamati 11, Shamati, “joy with Trembling”. You can find the study materials in the Arvut system and the study materials button on the site. You can ask questions, selective questions about what we asked during the lesson.

Reader: (01:06) Joy with Trembling Shamati 11 - Twice.

I heard in 1948

Joy is considered love, which is existence. This is similar to one who builds for himself a house without making any holes in the walls. You find that he cannot enter the house, as there is no hollow place in the walls of the house by which to enter the house. Therefore, a hollow space must be made through which he will enter the house.

Therefore, where there is love, there should also be fear, as fear is the hollow. In other words, one must awaken the fear that one might not be able to aim to bestow.

It follows that when there are both, there is wholeness. Otherwise, each wants to revoke the other. For this reason, we must try to have both of them in the same place.

This is the meaning of the need for love and fear. Love is called existence, whereas fear is called a deficiency and a hollow. Only with the two of them together is there wholeness. This is called “two legs,” where precisely when one has two legs can one walk.

M. Laitman Introduction: (04:31) This means that one time we are in wholeness, one time in deficiency, and we can advance either in one or the other, and only when we stand in between the two of them, then we can attain both fear and love together - the deficiency and the fulfillment. Usually, we are in one of the two - either in love or in fear. Otherwise, we cannot advance, and when we advance one completes the other - one time my love pushes me to increase the fear and by increasing the fear, making it greater, I can reach greater love. This way one helps the other, it is like having two legs to walk with, one leg that works pushes the other leg forward of itself, this is how we walk. Therefore, we achieve the goal, and in spirituality it is very conspicuous that the love and fear complete one another.

Question (Holland 1): (06:20) Why is he introducing joy here because in the first sentence he says that joy is considered love. I can be joyful for myself also, what does it have to do with love? So why is he connecting joy with love, and what does it mean to exist?

M. Laitman: Joy is out of good deeds, joy out of the fact that I have achieved the ability to bestow upon contentment through the created beings to the Creator. This is why it is joy, from this I get joy. As much as I bestow through the created beings, I reach the Creator because He all-in-all exists inside the created beings, in their depth. The way that He builds the whole of creation from above, He created the created beings the same way. If I can bestow through the created beings I can reaching Him. Therefore, my joy is in that as much as I am promoting the created beings, thinking about them I am bringing them the attainment of the Creator. As much as I am in this action, I reach joy, this is called the good deed, that it means the deed that advances the created being to correction and attachment with the Creator. This is why this action causes joy and a great correction.

Question (ITA 4): (08:45) What can we do in order to increase the fear?

M. Laitman: Fear I can increase by understanding that I am one of the created beings and I have a great work to do and I have to do it, and this is what I have to do and no one else in the whole world in the whole reality among all the created beings, among all the souls, no one else can do it instead of me doing my part. And I do have to do it, by me bestowing, influencing all of the souls on my side, on my behalf, advancing them to the Creator. This is actually my work, to give Him contentment, and accordingly I feel how much He wants to bring contentment to all created beings. When I am incorporated in that, when I cause that, by this I achieve the true state, the true joy, and this is actually the sign of correction.

Question (Moscow 4): (10:48) Why is it written that otherwise each blames the other one to cancel the other? What does it mean that otherwise each wants to revoke the other?

M. Laitman: The advancement can come only from the correct combination of two opposite forces, just like when we walk on two legs so we also advance in spirituality in a similar way through joy and fear that seemingly the two of them are opposite to each other, they cancel each other, but we reach a state where they complete each other. As he says that on one hand, I need to build a house and, in the house, I do not need anything besides the walls and the roof But they say - no, it is not enough. You also need a door in order to enter, you also need windows so we can have light and air. This is impossible to build anything which is complete without a deficiency, a hollow. There has to be an entrance, there has to be holes, openings. It is the same for us with what we build, we cannot build something that is  whole, even though we are seemingly drawn to it. Very quickly we realize that it cannot be light without darkness, we cannot have joy without sorrow inside of it, we cannot have love without us discovering the opposite forms. Nothing can be whole in reality except for the Creator. But for the created beings, we are in a state where we have to complete these two things, both the joy and the deficiency in a such way that both of them will support each other, and they give us the attainment of the Creator in a complete manner. What we call, “love covers all crimes”, in all the work we actually do is we complete one another. This is how the advancement occurs, just like walking on two legs and I am saying again, one leg cannot advance itself unless we are jumping on one leg, but rather one leg advances the other leg. When I stand, let’s say, on my left leg the next thing, I do in the meantime I am advancing my right leg forward and when I stand on my right leg, I am advancing my left leg. And this is how it is in spirituality also. There cannot be love without fear, there cannot be wholeness without deficiency inside of it. Only little children think that this is possible but we who already have some experience from life, we see that this is impossible, and to begin with, we should accept it as the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches. The whole wisdom of Kabbalah is actually teaches us how to use the two lines to reach the third line. This actually is the entire wisdom of Kabbalah and the third line is called the soul that we build through the right combination between two forces: to give and to receive. When the two of them meet together, by that we build that form, that result, which is called the soul (Neshama), and with in that we have only a single point. However, it is possible to build it only by taking our broken vessels and out of them we build the complete thing. And complete always includes inside of it, both the wholeness and the deficiency. The wholeness cannot be without the deficiency and the deficiency cannot be without the wholeness.

Question (Baltia 3): (16:15) Why is there love and fear and not love and hate? Why is there emphasis on the two that are not really opposite?

M. Laitman: These are two lines which are complete to some extent, that if we want to advance ourselves toward the sublime goal then we have no choice - we need to see how we build the love, that in order to build it we have to realize that inside it there has to be fear. Fear includes also hatred and rejection, actually this is the main thing we need to have. If the Creator is the good force, then He had to create, opposite to Him the evil inclination, the bad force. Only in the combination of the two forces, and it does not mean that one cancels the other, the Creator actually created the opposite force; and only through the combination of both of them we can advance. And we also need to see that with us, how it is actually revealed in practice. Many times we feel rejection, hatred, even like the students of Rabbi Shimon who wanted to kill each other. When you reach those high degrees how can that be? When you reach those high degrees, you are supposed to be completely in love, but no, there cannot be love out of hatred inside. This is what we need to understand and learn and accept this with full understanding, and maybe, then also the states between us will improve, that we will understand each and every one and will accept each other, everybody accepting the others in such a way that inside love you also have hatred. The hatred should bring us, if we use it correctly, to love. And in the right combination between darkness and light, we reach the correct state. It cannot be that you have only one without the other, it does not exist - from the good side and also from the bad side, it will not persist. There is no such thing, the general force of nature was built on both, on two. This is why we see that there is war and great hatred. In the end it ends, and there is love seemingly, that is absolutely pure love but it ends up breaking, rather the whole wisdom is in that we combine the two of them together and we can see in a mature, correct way these two opposite forces, how much they are not opposite but rather how they are actually compliment each other. You cannot have one without the other as he explains, that one who builds a house has to think about the openings, meaning the deficiencies in the walls of the house because without that, air or light cannot come in and he cannot enter or exit the house. Seemingly, he's building deficiencies in this complete wall, but without that it is impossible. Because we are not the Creator in whom there is nothing that is negative, it is only positive. In the way that it happens, exists, we cannot understand it. However, the created beings they already have to be built from the negative side and constantly add to themselves the positive side. Then they can be incorporated from both. The correct in incorporation between the deficiency and the wholeness is called Neshama [the soul].

Student: How do we build these spaces, in these hollows in the Ten, we have to have to create the feeling of love or do we have to worry about the deficiencies as well?

M. Laitman: No, we don't have to be concerned with the deficiency. This was learned deliberately, why do we not awaken the deficiencies because we to begin with we come from the shattering from the general total deficiency and from there we discover each time the shattering, the deficiencies and we have to think only about the connection however, we should understand this is how we need to raise ourselves from the shattering to correction, from shattering to correction. When we build this correctly, we reach states which are called the middle line, when we use correctly both the deficiency and the wholeness so that the true wholeness includes both of them. This is called love covers all crimes and the crimes have to be there and this is why we see how much our ordinary education in this world is not good and so you see how many people divorce and they get distant from each other. They love and then they hate. Why? Because no one teaches them how to build the correct relations so that both the hatred and love should complement each other. When I discover negative things in the one that I love, it is in order for me to be able to complete them with love and this way we will never reach a state where we truly hate each other then we want to part. We will want to complete each other instead so that the love covers all crimes and then this is what we call true wholeness.

Question (Women INFO): (23:34) Is there a stage in the spiritual work where we don’t need fear anymore and when does the egoistic fear disappear?

M. Laitman: The egoistic fear, of course, it gradually transitions and it takes on a form of a different fear, the fear of whether I truly will be able to bestow. Am I concerned about the general Kli? If I am talking about bestowing contentment to the Creator then I cannot bestow by myself. Only in the beginning can the person think so, in the beginning of his path he things: what am I? What will happen to me? Until through the connection with the group which influences him with reforming light, it truly reforms him, and then he begins to be concerned about the entire vessel, the collective because through the connection of the Ten or even more than the ten, even more, the whole world he can give contentment to the Creator, and otherwise, he is not. If he thinks only about himself in the meantime, then he is still in the beginning of the path, in the Klipa [the shell]. And this is okay, this is how we advance, just like little children - this is how they advance. However later on when we become grown-ups then we can already take care of ourselves and tend to ourselves, and this is how it is also in spirituality. When we grow, we begin to feel that indeed bestowal is something that is important, and we have no chance to reach bestowal  our own but only to the extent that I push the others to the goal toward connection to the Creator, but I myself cannot bestow contentment to the Creator because it will always be egoistic, that is the opposite of bestowal. However gradually through the reforming light we get a new mind, a different emotion, so that all in all these we begin to realize that all my work should be only in that, I advance the Ten, at least my Ten to the Creator and by that I give Him contentment and this is considered that I am performing a commandment that I perform a correct spiritual action.

Question (Latin 6): (26:45) How can we direct the work of the Ten so that we all together feel the fear from not being able to bestow, to be in love?

M. Laitman: We are not talking about the whole Ten, we are talking about the person. In the meantime, that the person should to try to check himself, whether his attitude to the Creator passes through the group, the Ten. That if he wants to bestow to the Creator, he should understand that this can be only on the condition that he is concerned about advancing the whole group to the Creator. Seemingly he is serving the Creator. By this, by serving the others like on a tray he is serving the Ten, the group, the world to him from his side as much as he can advance them to the Creator, this is actually his spiritual work and by that he is giving contentment.

Question (Kyiv 1): (28:20) He writes in the article this is where there is a place for love you also engage in fear. What does it mean? How to work with fear?

M. Laitman: There are a few matters here, not a few, but many. When I am in the inclination toward love I also have to check myself all the time whether I am in this and it is impossible to check something except to something that is outside of it. The measurement can only be from the opposite of that phenomenon, and to build each and every phenomenon we can do it upon the opposite phenomenon. For example, how can I increase the love? By discovering the rejection, distancing, the hatred in all kinds of different manners, and to that I add the quality of love and this is how I advance and it is impossible in any other way. Our work is always on two legs, this is why the article is called “Joy with trembling”, that is we advance together with love and with fear and when one who knows how to combine these two forces, these two qualities together, he actually advances. And this has to be for us as a law and if we forget about it then we can never reach the extreme states, the positive or the negative but we will use both of them in a way that we keep moving forward.

Student: In the Ten we are concerned about love increasing all the time, so what is the trembling?

M. Laitman: I cannot advance unless I monitor the love and the connection between us, and as much as I am able to increase this connection, how much it is working inside of me in a form that is less egoistic. The criticism, monitoring the connection has to be there, so the connection seemingly is positive but we also need the negative. We see this everywhere in the world today, let’s say, in the industry, in all kinds of places where we want to advance. So we advance by building two groups or two factories so that they have a competition, as a struggle between them, who is better and who is more successful? By this we can reach the good, correct and complete result; and it is the same here.

Question (Tel Aviv 1): (32:00) We march between black and white, and in the end, we come to the grey which contains everything and is this the point of the contact with the Creator?

M. Laitman: This is not correct, what you are saying. You seemingly did not hear what I am saying. We don’t reach the grey or none of it, rather even on the left, when I am in criticism I am in a directed criticism, that I am doing it in order to increase the right and it is not that from the black and white we end up with grey. There is no such thing. I am sorry that you are speaking like this. Think, read and listen again to what we have talked about now, and if you have any questions, then turn to me.

Question (French): (33:16) It seems that there is a contradiction between today's article and yesterday's article. Yesterday, we said that one cannot be happy and feel bad. It's either one or the other, but today he speaks about both states together, that there can be both fear and gladness, love and hatred. So, there seems to be a contradiction here?

M. Laitman: Look, when you meet a girl, let's say. Let's say, you are still young, if you want to reach the correct good state then you need to know the negative things, you need to discover them specifically in your desire in order to strengthen the love. Not in order to move away from the girl but in order to know all of these things in the right way because this is how man was created, this is how people were created. Inside each one of them there are many negative things in the character, in the habits, the conducts in everything. Negative, meaning that it is negative in your eyes. However, if you see that you need to truly connect with that person then you gradually need to discover in him all kinds of things that are not according to your spirit but by this specifically, your attitude to her strengthens and you accept these things in the right way. This is how you can then continue to get to know that person, not only a woman but in general and to keep going together and this is what we learn from the wisdom of Kabbalah. We cannot attain the wholeness unless we add to the Creator’s good force, the bad force, the opposite of Him. Since he created the evil inclination because we have two opposite things here and we, at the end of our development we gradually need to combine the two of them together. One will serve as the coarseness in the Partzuf of the soul, and the other one will fill that soul, and this is how we need to work and this is what he is talking about here. If we want to build the house, the soul then we need to be ready for it that we will discover many deficiencies, hatred, rejections until the want to kill one another, so much so even, and once in a while but, it is not that this will work on us such that we will run away from the work. We understand that in such a way a person who is healthy, who is grown-up with great desires, this is how he is built, and there is nothing we can do about it. Love covers all crimes, and we have the crimes and love covers them. But we feel those crimes, that is what I don’t like in the other one, and I accept it also.