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

Daily Morning Lesson: September 13, 2025

Part 1: Recorded lesson - Nov 18, 2021

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma

Reader: Dear friends, in the first part of the lesson, we will watch a recorded lesson from the 18th of November, 2021. Baal HaSulam, Shamati 64, “From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma.” Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 64, “From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma.”

Reader: Hello, we are reading from the writings of Baal HaSulam, page 578 in the Hebrew book, the articles of Shamati, Shamati 64, “From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma.” You can find the study material, click on the study material button on the top menu. You can send questions on our website and in the Arvut system, and selected questions will be asked during the lesson.

M. Laitman: I remember what Rabash would sometimes like to say, that as much as one may think that the matter of Lishma, for her sake, is great, he still doesn't appreciate enough the value of Lo Lishma, not for her sake. Lo Lishma, not for her sake, is a degree before Lishma, before for her sake, but it's still not a simple degree, not an easy one. And we first have to think how we reach this one. So let's see, those two degrees, how from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma. Lo Lishma, not for her sake, means he wants to reach, to achieve Lishma, but he hasn't. He makes efforts for it, to reach it. In that case it is called Lo Lishma, not for her sake, meaning a person is already making an effort to come to spiritual qualities, but he hasn't completed his quota, he hasn't received the answer for everything he does, so his work is called work in Lo Lishma, and his goal is called Lishma, for her sake, that this is what he wants to achieve. So how do we come from Lo Lishma to Lishma? Go ahead.

Reading: (03:06) 64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma

I heard on VaYechi, Tevet 14, December 27, 1947

“From Lo Lishma [not for Her sake] we come to Lishma [for Her sake].” If we pay close attention, we can say that the period of Lo Lishma is the more important time, since it is easier to unite the act with the Creator.

This is so because in Lishma one says that he did this good deed because he is serving the Creator in wholeness, and all his actions are for the sake of the Creator. It follows that he is the owner of the act.

However, when one works Lo Lishma, one does not do the good deed for the sake of the Creator. Thus, he cannot come to Him with a complaint that he deserves a reward. Thus, for him the Creator does not become indebted.

Hence, why did he do that good deed? Only because the Creator provided him an opportunity that this SAM would compel him and force him to do it.

For example, if people come to one’s house, and he is ashamed to sit idly, he takes a book and learns Torah. Thus, for whom is he learning Torah? It is not because of the commandment of the Creator, to be pleasing in the eyes of the Creator, but for the guests who came into his domain, to be pleasing in the eyes of man. Thus, how then can one seek reward from the Creator for this Torah in which he engaged for the guests?

It follows that for him, the Creator did not become indebted, and instead, he can charge the guests, that they would pay him a reward, meaning respect him for learning Torah. However, one cannot obligate the Creator in any way.

When one performs self-examination and says that in the end I am engaging in the Torah, and he tosses off the cause, meaning the guests, and says that now he is working only for the sake of the Creator, then one should immediately say that everything is conducted from above. It means that the Creator wanted to grant him engagement in the Torah, but he is not worthy of receiving an element of truth. For this reason, the Creator gives him a false cause, and through this cause he engages in the Torah.

It follows that the Creator is the operator, and not the person. Then, moreover, he should praise the Creator that even in a state of lowliness that he is in, the Creator does not leave him and gives him strength, meaning fuel to want to engage in words of Torah.

You find that if he pays attention to this act, he notices that the Creator is the operator, as in “He alone does and will do all the deeds.” Yet, one does not put any action in the good deed. Although the person does that Mitzva [commandment], he does not do it for a Mitzva, but for another cause (man), and the cause extended from the separation.

The truth is that the Creator is the cause and the reason that compels him. But the Creator is robed in him in another clothing, and not in a clothing of a Mitzva, but for another fear or another love. It follows that during the Lo Lishma, it is easier to attribute the good deed and say that the Creator is the doer of the good deed, and not man.

This is simple, since one does not want to do the thing for a Mitzva, but for another cause. However, in Lishma, one knows about oneself that he is working because of the Mitzva, meaning that he himself was the cause, meaning because of a Mitzva, and not because the Creator placed the idea and the desire to make the Mitzva in his heart, but he himself chose it. But the truth is that it was all done by the Creator, but private Providence cannot be attained prior to attaining the matter of reward and punishment.

Question (Almaty 1): (09:46) What does it mean that the Creator clothes in the Mitzvah and not in other robes or garments?

M. Laitman: We are in a reality that both we and reality are governed by one force, except we don't feel it. That's the whole problem. Or it's not a problem, on the contrary, we don't feel it. It doesn't obligate us and doesn't give us anything. There are such people, parts of desires, who are in the overall desire that the Creator created, who do get some sort of relation, connection to the operating force in the operated being. And in them, the question awakens, who am I with respect to that operating force? And then they come to the question of Lishma, for her sake, and Lo Lishma, not for her sake. And this is what Rabash is talking about here.

Question (ITA 4): (11:19) What's the meaning of the Creator gives an individual more fear or more love?

M. Laitman: The Creator is teaching us how to relate above our thoughts and desires and feelings, but only according to spiritual discernments, to be above our minds and hearts, our intellect and feeling. And gradually He changes our intellect and feelings every time, so that we will be able to rise above them and not be in a scrutiny of good and bad within our will to receive, but within the will to bestow, out of learning and searching how to resemble the Creator. This is basically what happens. Okay?

Student: In the end of the article, it says that private providence cannot be attained before attaining the matter of reward and punishment. Can you explain that?

M. Laitman: Providence of reward and punishment? We'll see it in the article. The way he says that everything is done by the Creator. We will learn it. We will talk about it.

Question (Baltia 1): (13:14) If you can explain, please, what it says that, in other words, the Creator wanted to reward him with the Torah to give him a true cause. He's not worthy of receiving the truth, so the Creator generates a false reason for him to engage in Torah.

M. Laitman: Yes. If a person cannot work with the intention that is above his desire, the egoistic desire, then the Creator gives him scrutinies in his egoistic desire, meaning that what he does, people will like it, and this is what will push him to learn Torah. As it says that if guests come over to his house, then he pretends to having sat and learned that he's got books, and that this is what he was engaged in. So, who obligated him? Not the Creator, not the Torah, but people so that respect and shame that are in their hands, they obligate him, they force him to act, to make scrutinies. That's what it means.

Question (ITA 3): (15:01) Two questions from the Ten. It says in the text about guests, that he works in the Torah because of the guests. Does he refer to the friends in the Ten as the guests or something else?

M. Laitman: It can also be the Ten, that he feels them as strangers, because their opinion compels him to do this or that action.

Student: Another thing, what is SAM? We don't know what it speaks of, these words, SAM.

M. Laitman: SAM is a foreign egoistic force, alien force. The potion of life, the potion of death, it is a foreign force.

Question (Kiev 1): (16:13) There's an interesting condition at the end of the article. He says that Lishma is when I have to choose the action myself. Not the Creator does it, but I myself choose it. What is that condition?

M. Laitman: It means that it's not the Creator who obligates me, but I want to obligate myself to perform an act of bestowal, commandment, love. And we say that there's None Else Besides Him. The Creator does everything. But here a person puts on himself the restriction, not the restriction the way we spoke about the will to receive. But he restricts, saying, I don't want to be obligated by the Creator to do anything. I want to be independent, and we have to fight for this independence. Because the Creator wants to do everything instead of the person, we come to a state where this is what we feel. And then we become like little children who want to do it themselves. But in them, nature pushes them, and we want to grow by ourselves and do it this way. This goes into the category, “my sons defeated me.”

Student: It turns out if I receive an awakening naturally from the outside, then it has to go necessarily, not Lishma. I have to stop myself and try to do it myself?

M. Laitman: You have to keep working with it, and of course in every place where you get the first awakening, it's an awakening from the Creator. But it doesn't matter to you. It's as if you are born. The state is engendered for you. But afterwards, as you grow, you have to try to grow as much as possible into an independent form.

Student: In the beginning, in your opening words, you said that Lo Lishma is only when a person wants to reach Lishma. But he hasn't reached it yet. Also from the article, it says that a person has to study in parallel, both in Lo Lishma and in Lishma, and hold both in focus. How is it possible?

M. Laitman: We will advance and see, we will advance and see. We will try to put those things together, because we're constantly in both, in this, not in that, etc. That's the game until the end of correction, when we shift ourselves more and more towards Lishma.

Question (Merkaz 1): (20:03) If we are in Lishma, why should there be a thought that everything you do is by our own hands and not the Creator's?

M. Laitman: I don't hear the question. Repeat.

Student: Do you hear me?

M. Laitman: Well, we can hear you, except we don't hear a question.

Student: The question is, if we are already in Lishma, why should there be a thought that everything we do is by our own doing and not from the Creator?

M. Laitman: Because we want to attribute everything in order to bestow, to relate it all in order to bestow. Above our will to receive with a restriction and a screen and a reflected light. This is why we relate it all to ourselves. And then we have the question about it. How do we relate everything to the Creator? So I can relate the operation to the Creator on condition that, say, I am the impregnation, Ibur. So, my whole work is to cancel my ego and come to a state where the Creator runs me, governs me, manages me, in all my thoughts and desires and actions completely. And then the more I annul myself and the Creator is felt in me more and more as the one who manages me in all my cells and thoughts and desires, it is regarded that by this I grow like a spiritual embryo, like a small Adam, who is similar to the Creator. He does it, but along with my participation, of course. So here we have a problem all the time. How can we cancel ourselves more? How can we be in more sympathy, similarity with the Creator, yet remain independent all the time?

Student: So specifically when we are in the state you described, then the thought comes up that it's arguing.

M. Laitman: Then we have the problem that he talks about here. If we do it and come to Lishma, then we relate the work to ourselves and the result to the Creator. And if I say that, no, in this I did nothing, but the Creator did everything, so where is me here? So it turns out that I have to be in Lishma as in Lo Lishma. You understand? It turns out that we come to a state where if I don't do anything, the Creator will finish for me, He will do totally everything. And by this, we become even more dear to the Creator. In both the beginning of the action, the end of the action, and we are not owners of the action, we are not owners of the result of the work, we have complete annulment before the Creator. We will get deeper into it, now I'll read the article again.

Question (MAK 16): (23:18) How can a prayer before a prayer? Is there a prayer before a prayer, and like that, is there an action that precedes Lishma?

M. Laitman: Yes. All in all, we have to understand here that what we do is something very special, but it's an operation that anyone can understand. We want to rise above the force that is in us, which is the will to receive, and relate ourselves to our root, which is in all of reality, at the center of reality, at the center of the universe, which is the desire to bestow, the one force that comes to us from nature. So how do we progress and annul before this force, this higher force, while being, while remaining like it, ourselves. So then, we position ourselves opposite from it, facing it. And how, in this way, do we maintain our independence? Because the upper force does want us to position ourselves in this way. I still don't have enough words. Soon, we'll have them.

Question (MAK 3): (25:04) The result of doing each Mitzva is the transition from Lo Lishma to Lishma?

M. Laitman: Well, basically, yes. Basically, yes. This is the goal of each Mitzva, each commandment, of each operation that I manage to do in order to bestow. By this, I don't do anything in reality except correcting my own relation, my own attitude. But by this, the world, as a projection of my relation to it, becomes different.

Question (ITA 1): (26:01) The state of Lishma, do we need to ask for it in prayer, or do we need to bring it on forcefully and coerce it on the Creator?

M. Laitman: Both. We need to accept it as is, as it is, above reason. We need to come to the Creator and demand of Him to create in us this state, yes. There is a prayer here for absorption of the message, carrying out of the message, and the result of the message. And the whole message is Lishma, absolute bestowal.

Question (Moscow 1): (27:09) If the work is a gift, I couldn't understand.

M. Laitman: Each time it comes through foreign thoughts, different thoughts, all kinds of actions, disturbances of all kinds, where we nevertheless try and try and try to relate these things to the Creator, to the Ten. I have to bow before it, annul myself. So gradually we come to a state where these concepts of Lo Lishma and Lishma permeate us. We begin to understand, to settle them. This is for Lo Lishma, this is for Lishma. Receiving in order to bestow, not receiving reward, etc. We begin to flow with it, to bring them closer to us.

Student: [no translation]

M. Laitman: No, no, no, no, no. Before the restriction, we cannot rise from Lo Lishma to Lishma. Of course not.

Student: Meaning, when we receive an answer for our actions, we already receive a bit of Lishma?

M. Laitman: Right. We cannot emerge from in order to receive from Lo Lishma and come to Lishma, to in order to bestow, to the intention to bestow, unless by annulling ourselves before the Ten. The upper light influences us, and in this way we rise to the level of Lishma.

Question (PT 19): (29:31) Kabbalists write that the Creator enjoys the state of Lo Lishma more than the state of Lishma. Then why should we reach the state of Lishma? We have to be in maximum bestowal.

M. Laitman: He's telling you what is special about the state of Lo Lishma. In a state of Lo Lishma, not for her sake, you're not obligating the Creator, you're not kind of manipulating the Creator, so to speak. The Creator doesn't become indebted to you. We'll talk about it. We'll get back to it. I want to answer in the first round. I want to answer the questions, and then we will get back to the article.

Question (Brazil 2): (30:30) It seems like if everything is in the desire, the recognition to see who I'm receiving it from, and then to even… how am I going to serve the Creator? I mean, I would, this, I'll have to be in a constant prayer if that's the case. So how to manage doing this correctly with the Ten?

M. Laitman: Annul before the Ten, that's enough for you. Just annul, but you have to know how to annul. Meaning, how we come to a state where our annulment before the Ten covers everything. It's like annulment before the Creator. The same 125 degrees where we have to annul ourselves before the Creator, passively and then actively, because the degrees from Malchut to Bina are passive annulment, and from Bina to Keter, it is active annulment. So in those two stages of our path, in the 125 degrees, we do only one thing, annulment before the group in which we discover the upper one, and by this we rise from degree to degree. And along the way, we come to recognize the Lo Lishma, we rise to Lishma, reach Lishma in order to bestow, and then even Lishma in order to receive. Where even the reception, when we receive all the pleasures we’ll be in order to bestow. This is our work.

Question (PT 31): (32:40) The Ten is asking, what does it mean to reveal Lo Lishma in the Ten?

M. Laitman: Revealing Lo Lishmain the Ten is when we are aware that we are working in order to receive reward. And in order to discover the Creator, and we want it and need it, and we even though we talk about high degrees where we want to bestow, it's still all for us, the same as reception. I'm talking about the will to bestow that I want to achieve, but within me I decipher it as something great in the will to receive. What can you do? That's the way I am for now as much as you may explain to a person and talk to him, he will still, because his vessels are like that. They are all for reception. So even if he talks about giving, and the giving within him takes on a transformation, a manner of reception, as if he’s receiving. Okay?

Student: Yesterday, the Ten did a common act. Now, we're all veteran students, and we strove to be in the right intention, but how do we measure that the act was in the right intention in retrospect?

M. Laitman: We will read the article again and you will see. We measure it with respect to the guests, as he says, that he is studying for the guests who came to him. With respect to this, we measure it.

Question (W Toronto 1): (35:09) Is Lishma a permanent state?

M. Laitman: Never. Every time you fall and rise and demand reinforcement, go on.

Question (W MAK 36): (35:22) Is the work in Lishma an expression of fear from the Creator?

M. Laitman: Work in Lishma is?

Student: An expression of fear.

M. Laitman: An expression of fear? Well basically yes, yes.

Question (W Latin 20): (35:46) It's not clear who are the guests, are they friends in the Ten or as it says in the article?

M. Laitman: Just people from the outside, just people from the outside, before whom he wants to present himself as a righteous.

Student: So that's the reason the Creator gives us to be interested in the study.

M. Laitman: Yes, because of his shame, because of the ego, we come to a state that the ego forces us to do things as if we are in Lishma. But in truth, we are in Lo Lishma. But gradually we discover how these actions are not in the right direction, not toward the upper force, that I am not aiming for the upper force, but I'm aiming for the evil inclination for the will to receive.

Question (W Florida): (36:51) It says a person does not do any action, put any action in the good deed. What does it mean to invest in a good deed?

M. Laitman: To exert in good deeds means to want in every action through the relation to the Ten to to transfer myself to a state where I totally disappear in my importance, that I have no importance and I measure my importance only according to that external force, external concept, or maybe through the group. And this is how I picture it to myself.

Question (W UK): (37:58) What does it mean to want to engage in Torah?

M. Laitman: To want to engage in words of Torah means to want to correct oneself each time, be closer to others, and together with them, to the Creator.

Question (W Latin 1): (38:19) What must be the discernments or in the Ten in order to go from Lo Lishma to Lishma?

M. Laitman: The actions are only through connection between us and from us to our center, where we discover the common force, which is called the Creator. We are the ones who build that force. We establish it. If we don't connect among us, there will be no Creator. To the extent that we connect among us, we suddenly begin to feel that we are generating this inner force of connection between us, and this will be the Creator. From the same point where we were once together, and then the breaking happened, and we split into all those pieces, thousands and thousands of pieces, we have to return to that same point. Except when we return through our own efforts, we discover our unity the inner force that we reveal as 620 times stronger than before. And that's basically the revelation of the Creator to the created being. Right now it's hidden, it's revealed only in order to sustain us, so we don't disappear all together. But in the future, at the end of correction, we will connect and summon it to appear, and we too will reach that state.

Question (W Moscow 18): (40:17) If I work for myself, then how to demand a reward? If it's for the sake of the Creator, why do I need a reward at all? It's not clear, what is the reward and if it exists.

M. Laitman: The reward is that I am creating the connection among everyone in order to please the Creator, and then the correction of the entire world is on me.

Question (W Moscow 8): (40:45) What's the difference in qualities of Lo Lishma and Lishma? When does one replace the other?

M. Laitman: To the extent that I discover, reveal, in order to receive, to that extent I can correct it, to in order to bestow.

Question (W PT 6): (41:10) What is the principle we take from the article for our practical spiritual work?

M. Laitman: That everyone are servants of the Creator. The only question is whether it is unwittingly, inadvertently, like the rest of the world, or consciously, the way we want to be. Because the Creator directs everyone through the will to receive. The wicked, the righteous, animals, birds, you name it. Everyone, He directs through the will to receive. Except we want to do the same thing He does, but of our own accord, through our own consciousness. This is why we're called Adam, Domeh, similar. We want to take from the Creator all the forces of government of reality, and govern it the way the Creator does it. By this we equalize with the Creator.

Question (W PT 14): (42:16) How to discern when the Creator is working and when it's man working?

M. Laitman: It's impossible that a person will operate, will work, because we don't have the power, don't have the understanding, we don't have anything. So it turns out that we ask, and the Creator does, because we are powerless. We don't know the plan. We don't even advance toward governing reality. All the governance, if you can put it this way, of reality, of our reality, is only when we know when to ask the Creator, and maybe, more or less, what to ask for. And by this we already come into a mutuality, into cooperation. But only the Creator has the power. He is the power, He is the brain, He is the source of everything. To the extent that we can sympathize with His plan, we become incorporated in Him, and even, to some extent become, we lead Him, so to speak. But the Creator does everything. Good. I'm happy about women's questions, they're on point. Thank you, and well done. We're going back to the article.

Reader: So we're going to read the article again, “From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma.”

M. Laitman: And you’ll mark your questions, and we'll go over the questions again.

Reading: (44:28) 64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma

I heard on VaYechi, Tevet 14, December 27, 1947

“From Lo Lishma [not for Her sake] we come to Lishma [for Her sake].” If we pay close attention, we can say that the period of Lo Lishma is the more important time, since it is easier to unite the act with the Creator.

This is so because in Lishma one says that he did this good deed because he is serving the Creator in wholeness, and all his actions are for the sake of the Creator. It follows that he is the owner of the act.

M. Laitman: This is Lo Lishma, but he is doing an act, a good act, from beginning to end, the entire act. It simply appears to him that he is doing it and he accompanies it and he wishes to correct the desired result. So what's happening here? He did not make any mistake in the act. He was successful. So why is it called Lo Lishma? Only because he does not discover the Creator is the operator. Let's move on, we'll see.

Reading: (46:00) 64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma

If we pay close attention, we can say that the period of Lo Lishma is the more important time, since it is easier to unite the act with the Creator.

This is so because in Lishma one says that he did this good deed because he is serving the Creator in wholeness, and all his actions are for the sake of the Creator. It follows that he is the owner of the act.

However, when one works Lo Lishma, one does not do the good deed for the sake of the Creator. Thus, he cannot come to Him with a complaint that he deserves a reward. Thus, for him the Creator does not become indebted.

Hence, why did he do that good deed? Only because the Creator provided him an opportunity that this SAM would compel him and force him to do it.

M. Laitman: SAM is the will to receive, simply the will to receive our ego. Meaning because the Creator summoned an opportunity and the will to receive would obligate him, would compel him to do it. But you hear what he's saying. Read that sentence again.

Reading: (47:54) 64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma Hence, why did he do that good deed? Only because the Creator provided him an opportunity.

M. Laitman: What kind of opportunity the Creator provided him with? The SAM, the will to receive.

Reading: (48:10) 64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma

that this SAM would compel him and force him to do it.

M. Laitman: It also comes from the Creator, but that's how it's done.

Reading: (48:26) 64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma

For example, if people come to one’s house, and he is ashamed to sit idly, he takes a book and learns Torah. Thus, for whom is he learning Torah? It is not because of the commandment of the Creator, to be pleasing in the eyes of the Creator, but for the guests who came into his domain, to be pleasing in the eyes of man. Thus, how then can one seek reward from the Creator for this Torah in which he engaged for the guests?

It follows that for him, the Creator did not become indebted, and instead, he can charge the guests, that they would pay him a reward, meaning respect him for learning Torah. However, one cannot obligate the Creator in any way.

M. Laitman: Meaning in this case, we see that Lo Lishma is better. It places a person in the state of truth and he does not demand any payment from the Creator, any reward. Rather, he sees that he does it because he feels shame towards people.

Reading: (50:11) 64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma

When one performs self-examination and says that in the end I am engaging in the Torah, and he tosses off the cause, meaning the guests, and says that now he is working only for the sake of the Creator, then one should immediately say that everything is conducted from above. It means that the Creator wanted to grant him engagement in the Torah, but he is not worthy of receiving an element of truth. For this reason, the Creator gives him a false cause, and through this cause he engages in the Torah.

M. Laitman: Meaning, he begins to turn to the Creator with all kinds of complaints and questions.

Reading: (51:14) 64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma

It follows that the Creator is the operator, and not the person. Then, moreover, he should praise the Creator that even in a state of lowliness that he is in, the Creator does not leave him and gives him strength, meaning fuel to want to engage in words of Torah.

M. Laitman: Meaning, he has a greater problem where he feels himself dependent on the Creator, and then to turn to Him, to obligate the Creator to give him payment, to obligate the Creator to help him or not. This is the problem here. Although we already read here and also elsewhere, that in truth we are all servants of the Creator. Rabash would say it, more than once. We are all workers of the Creator, meaning like it or not, consciously or unconsciously, wittingly or unwittingly, whether it’s through the will to receive or in order to bestow, in truth we are all in the quality of the Creator. That’s clear, that’s above everything. Together with that, there’s a question. If you give a person an awareness of his opposition from the Creator, like it or not, here it is seemingly free choice. You wish to be like him, go ahead. You don't want to resemble Him, it's your business. But in truth, everybody is working for the Creator, everybody’s under the force of the will to receive He created and under the force that the Creator wishes to shine to us.

Reading: (53:23) 64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma

It follows that the Creator is the operator, and not the person. Then, moreover, he should praise the Creator that even in a state of lowliness that he is in, the Creator does not leave him and gives him strength, meaning fuel to want to engage in words of Torah.

You find that if he pays attention to this act, he notices that the Creator is the operator, as in “He alone does and will do all the deeds.” Yet, one does not put any action in the good deed. Although the person does that Mitzva [commandment], he does not do it for a Mitzva, but for another cause (man), and the cause extended from the separation.

The truth is that the Creator is the cause.

M. Laitman: Everywhere, anywhere, even when we're drawn towards in order to receive and all kinds of actions for honor and power, the Creator is also the one who arranges it for us. And the truth is?

Reading: (54:25) 64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma

The truth is that the Creator is the cause and the reason that compels him. But the Creator is robed in him in another clothing, and not in a clothing of a Mitzva, but for another fear or another love. It follows that during the Lo Lishma, it is easier to attribute the good deed and say that the Creator is the doer of the good deed, and not man.

This is simple, since one does not want to do the thing for a Mitzva, but for another cause. However, in Lishma,

M. Laitman: Meaning we are willing to do all kinds of actions that seem to us that we profit from: money, and honor, control, power, anything. So through that a person is leading us, and this is called Lo Lishma, whereas in Lishma…

Reading: (55:44) 64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma

However, in Lishma, one knows about oneself that he is working because of the Mitzva, meaning that he himself was the cause, meaning because of a Mitzva, and not because the Creator placed the idea and the desire to make the Mitzva in his heart, but he himself chose it. But the truth is that it was all done by the Creator, but private Providence cannot be attained prior to attaining the matter of reward and punishment.

Question (Focus Group): (56:47) The Creator, it's confusing when you think that by the power of connection in the Ten, we don't understand anything. Can you explain it to the power of connection in the Ten, that we have to demand connection?

M. Laitman: Yes, already now you can say that where are you getting all the direction, the impulse to move forward? It's only from the center of the Ten, where the Creator, the upper force dwells in concealment. And the more you connect, the upper force will be closer to you until He begins to be revealed before you, and you'll feel that He fulfills you.

Question (Tel Aviv 3): (57:48) When a person works for others, tries to, where is the boundary where he should say that it will really be for the sake of others, and the Lishma will not blemish the cleanliness of his work?

M. Laitman: As much as he annuls. In truth, I can’t add words here that I don’t think will contribute much. As much as we can annul ourselves, annulment is the main thing, annulment towards the Ten. Try every day to feel that you are expanding more and more your annulment towards the Ten. And accordingly, you will feel how much it adds to you, intellect and feeling internally. Meaning you don't even have to think about it, you simply begin to understand. As it's written, the heart understands. The heart means what grows in the center of the Ten. We do not have any hearts, this is the stony heart that each and every one has, but when we connect something between us, the center of the Ten, by that we establish the heart of the Ten, which is called the heart of flesh.

Question (Volga): (59:30) What sounds strange as if in Lo Lishma we can't demand reward from the Creator, and in Lishma we can demand reward from the Creator, although we learn that Lishma is where there is no reward, it's pure bestowal, and we don't need anything. Can you explain it?

M. Laitman: Maybe ask again.

Student: In the article it says, seemingly that what is the difference between Lo Lishma and Lishma? In Lo Lishma we can't demand reward from the Creator, and in Lishma we seemingly have the opportunity to demand reward from the Creator, so it sounds strange. Because we learn that Lishma is bestowal, a place where there is no need for any reward, so it's a little strange.

M. Laitman: You have the possibility of demanding a reward when you're in Lishma, because you're doing everything for the sake of the Creator, whereas before that, in Lo Lishma - I'm sorry, not Lishma, but for your own sake, this is all how it appears. It's just a lie. Both are only in the one direction, the Creator. Everyone, all of humanity is only working in bestowal, but the struggle is only for Lishma. So if we're in Lo Lishma, then it's clear, we have nothing to demand, because we seemingly haven't done anything in giving, what do you mean that we cannot receive in return? I didn't do anything for the Creator, why should I demand? However, when I come to Lishma, and then I think I'm working for the sake of the Creator, there's a problem here. Do I demand payment or not? And here my payment should be only to increase my bestowal.

Question (Zafon 2): (01:02:04) Where is our real choice in the work of the Creator, in serving the Creator?

M. Laitman: Our choice to serve the Creator is in wanting to annul myself and annul in the friends, until I reach between them, amongst them, the feeling of the Creator. And this is our choice, and this is what he explains to us in the article, “The Freedom,” and all the other articles. The realization is when I'm annulling in the Ten, and I wish to be an embryo inside of them, and they for me, like a womb, like the degree of Bina, and I am like the Malchut, who wishes to incorporate in them. And this is what our entire work is all about.

Question (Holland 1): (01:03:10) Can you explain what's in the beginning of the article. It says that the period of Lo Lishma is the more important time. So what does it mean that it's the more important time, and then it continues, and since it's easier to unite. And also, why is it easier to unite with the Creator?

M. Laitman: Because it's clear to you that you are doing everything in order to receive, so how can you come to the Creator and demand any reward from Him? You got it? You can't. So already you're in a better state, whereas in Lishma, when you do it for the sake of the Creator, then automatically a demand comes up in you. I can ask from the Creator, and I can receive in return a certain reward, a compensation for Lishma. That's what he explains to us. We have to read the article a few more times and it'll be clear to you. He says it openly.

Student: What makes it easier than the work? If you're, let's say, I'm in Lo Lishma. What makes the work easier? Because if I'm in Lishma, then I'm already working for the Creator, so that's easier. So why is Lo Lishma easier?

M. Laitman: In Lishma, you are certainly doing it in order to… I'm sorry, in Lo Lishma, it's clear to you that you're doing it to yourself. You did not acquire the vessels of bestowal. In Lishma, you're already doing actions for the sake of the Creator in practice. So from here, it's clear to you that in Lo Lishma, you can work and the actions you're doing are for your sake. And in Lishma, when you're working, those are actions for someone, for the Creator, for the rest of humanity, for the group. Then you can come to them and demand. That's what ascents and descents are about. It's relative to the reward, the payment. And so you demand not an addition, I want to add, but rather there are states where you come and demand. You say, I did an action of bestowal, where is my promised reward?

Question (Bulgaria 1): (01:06:32) You mentioned earlier that there is active annulment and passive annulment. Can you give an example of that with respect to the Ten?

M. Laitman: I think these things are clear to us. What is annulment, passive and active annulment. Passive annulment is something we have on the degree of Ibur, conception. I annul myself more and more towards the Ten, and I'm willing to follow them with my eyes shut. This is like an embryo in his mother's womb where nature arranges for us, but he does not determine anything. Rather it says about it that an embryo in his mother's womb eats what his mother eats. She manages his entire growth and he cannot determine anything about it. When can he determine something? When he's born, when he physically comes out of her. This is like seemingly coming out of the control of the mother of the upper one, and then he can begin to develop along a new axis of development, and we see it in our life. Here we're talking about a personality, the development of a personality. He begins to do certain actions, to demand, to participate. We're the same in spirituality, and everything is relative to the Ten. First of all, let's take through the Ten, go through the period of Ibur, conception.

Question (Moscow 6): (01:08:40) A friend is asking, what does it mean to attain reward, to attain personal providence after reward and punishment?

M. Laitman: After attaining reward and punishment, we come to attaining eternal providence. Where there is no reward and there's no punishment, but the Creator is always Good Who Does Good to everyone, and that's His providence. But relative to us, it is on the ladder that comes down to us, and we are climbing more and more up the levels of the ladder until we attain it's true providence and absolute love. For the good, for the bad, there's no reward, there's no punishment, and everyone is equal and beloved.

Question (Nikolaev-Sochi): (01:09:58) What is the connection between Lishma and Lo Lishma and there’s None Else Besides Him, and if I’m not for me, who is for me?

M. Laitman: It's all connected, and you have to attain it by yourself. That's it. Everything you said is correct, and we have to put those things together.

Student: It's not very clear. It seems like in the article it explains that on one hand I do what I can for the Creator, but in the end I come to realize that there's None Else Besides Him. And this I attribute to Lishma, and the same goes for Lo Lishma, or is it still my work?

M. Laitman: Let me tell you, it's all your work, and everything is done by the Creator, and in the end you attain that there's None Else Besides Him. There are no words, no words to express those things. You simply have to more and more think about and arrange it inside of you, inside your heart, and with the friends. And then in this way you expand your perception, your reception, and then you begin to understand the space, the realm they're speaking of, where such forces and desires...

Song: (01:11:48)

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Spiritual states. Sukkot and Simchat Torah

Spiritual states. Sukkot and Simchat Torah

Spiritual states. Sukkot and Simchat Torah

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