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

Daily Lesson (Morning) February 10, 2025.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam, Shamati 38. “The Fear of God Is His Treasure”

Reader: Hello. We're reading in the writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 38, “The Fear of God is His Treasure.” You can find study materials on our website, Sviva Tova and the Arvut.

Reading: (00:22) Baal HaSulam, Shamati 38. “The Fear of God Is His Treasure”

A treasure is a Kli [vessel] in which the possession is placed. Grain, for example, is placed in the barn, and precious things are placed in a more guarded place. Thus, everything that is received is called by its correlation to the light, and the Kli must be able to receive the things. It is as we learn that there is no light without a Kli, and this applies even in corporeality.

Yet, what is the Kli in spirituality, in which we can receive the spiritual abundance that the Creator wants to give, which will match the light? That is, as in corporeality, where the Kli needs a correlation with the object that is placed in it.

For example, we cannot say that we have treasures of wine, which we poured in new sacks to keep the wine from turning sour, or that we took a lot of flour in barrels. Instead, there is a conduct that the container of wine is barrels and jars, and the container for the flour is sacks and not barrels, etc.

Thus, there is a question, What is the spiritual vessel, the Kelim [vessels] from which we can make a big treasure of the upper abundance?

There is a rule that the cow wants to feed more than the calf wants to eat. This is because His wish is to do good to His creations, and the reason for the Tzimtzum [restriction], we must believe, is for our own good. And the reason must be that we do not have the right Kelim where the abundance can be, like the corporeal Kelim, which must be right for what is placed there. Hence, we must say that if we add the Kelim, there will be something to hold the added abundance.

The answer to this is that, in His treasury, the Creator has only the treasure of fear of heaven (Berachot 33).

Yet, we should interpret what is fear: It is the Kli, and the treasure is made of this Kli, and all the important things are placed in it. He said that fear is as it is written about Moses: Our sages said (Berachot, p 7), “The reward for ‘And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look,’ was to be rewarded with ‘the image of the Lord does he behold.’”

Fear refers to one’s fear of the great pleasure that is there, that he will not be able to receive it in order to bestow. The reward for this, for having had fear, is that thus he had made for himself a Kli in which to receive the upper abundance. This is man’s work, and besides that, we attribute everything to the Creator.

Yet, it is not so with fear, because the meaning of fear is not to receive. And what the Creator gives, He gives only to receive, and this is the meaning of “Everything is in the hands of heaven except the fear of heaven.”

This is the Kli that we need. Otherwise, we will be considered fools, as our sages said, “Who is a fool? He who loses what he is given.” This means that the Sitra Achra [other side] will take the abundance from us if we cannot aim in order to bestow, because then it goes to the vessels of reception, which is the Sitra Achra and Tuma’a [impurity].

This is the meaning of “And you shall observe the commandments.” Observing means fear. Although the nature of the light is that it keeps itself, meaning that the light leaves before one wants to receive the light into the vessels of reception, yet one must do it by himself, as much as he can, as our sages said, “You will keep yourselves a little from below, and I will keep you a lot from above.”

The reason we attribute fear to people, as our sages said, “Everything is in the hands of heaven but the fear of heaven,” is because He can give everything but fear. This is because what the Creator gives is more love, not fear.

Acquiring fear is through the Segula [power/remedy] of Torah and Mitzvot. It means that when one engages in Torah and Mitzvot with the intention to be rewarded with bringing contentment to one’s Maker, that aim that rests on the acts of Mitzvot and the study of Torah brings one to attain it. Otherwise, one might remain—although he observes Torah and Mitzvot in every item and detail—he will still remain merely in the degree of still of Kedusha [holiness].

It follows that one should always remember the reason that obligates him to engage in Torah and Mitzvot. This is the meaning of what our sages meant by “that your Kedusha will be for My Name.” It means that I will be your cause, meaning that all your work is in wanting to delight Me, meaning that all your actions will be in order to bestow.

Our sages said (Berachot 20), “Everything there is in keeping, there is in remembering.” This means that all those who engage in observing Torah and Mitzvot with the aim to achieve “remembering,” by way of “When I remember Him, He does not let me sleep.” It follows, that the keeping is primarily in order to be awarded remembering.

Thus, one’s desire to remember the Creator is the cause for observing Torah and Mitzvot. This is so because it follows that the reason and the cause to observe the Torah and Mitzvot is the Creator, as without it one cannot adhere to the Creator, since “He and I cannot dwell in the same abode” due to the disparity of form.

The reason that the reward and punishment are not revealed, and we must only believe in reward and punishment, is because the Creator wants everyone to work for Him, and not for themselves. This is discerned as disparity of form from the Creator. If the reward and punishment were revealed, one would work because of self-love, so the Creator would love him, or because of self-hate, for fear that the Creator would hate him. It follows that the reason for the work is only the person, not the Creator, and the Creator wants that He will be the compelling reason.

It turns out that fear is precisely when one recognizes one’s lowliness and says that his serving the King, meaning that one’s wish to bestow upon Him is considered a great privilege, and it is more valuable to him than he can say. It is according to the rule that with an important person, what is given to him is considered receiving from him.

To the extent that one feels one’s lowliness, to that extent he can begin to appreciate the greatness of the Creator, and the desire to serve Him will awaken in him. However, if one is proud, the Creator says, “He and I cannot dwell in the same abode.”

This is the meaning of “A fool, a wicked one, and a rude one go together.” The reason is that since one has no fear, meaning he cannot lower himself before the Creator and say that it is a great honor for him to be able to serve Him without any reward, he cannot receive any wisdom from the Creator, and he remains a fool, and he who is a fool is wicked, as our sages said, “One does not sin unless the spirit of folly entered him.”

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:01) We read now at the end of the second column: “If one is proud, the Creator says, he and I cannot dwell in the same abode”. So, what does a person who has pride do in order to advance, nevertheless?

M. Laitman: We need to take care of the pride, so a person at least won't be, won't feel prideful for being in pride. To check to what extent pride controls him.

Student: He also writes a little bit about that, that if one works because of hatred for himself, he means that he's afraid that the Creator would hate him. Is this the reason because of which people hate themselves? That they're afraid that the Creator would hate them?

M. Laitman: They fear the Creator, and precisely because of that, they want to erase the love that awakens from them.

Student: In the middle of the first column, it says: “If you keep yourself a little from below, I will keep you a lot from above”. What does it mean to keep ourselves?

M. Laitman: They give you examples from above. As much as you can see yourself belonging to in order to receive and not in order to bestow. And accordingly, you determine how much the Creator will watch over you.

Student: In the beginning of the article, he speaks about vessels and kinds of vessels, and the correlation between the vessel and the light. How do we prepare the right vessels?

M. Laitman: By preparing the light: What is that force that we want to grow? And not that we will disrespect and disparage.

Student: Meaning, the connection between us in the Ten, according to everything we study. This is what you would call not to slight the light?

M. Laitman: Well, you could say.

Student: Maybe I’ll ask you, what does it mean not to slight the light?

M. Laitman: That any and every act of bestowal will be for us – the created beings – as a great deed. And it's worthwhile to publicize it, to serve it, to appreciate it. Like that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:37) It says: “It turns out that fear is precisely when one recognizes one's lowliness”. Why is fear precisely when one recognizes one's lowliness?

M. Laitman: When a person recognizes his loneliness, it turns out that he doesn't ascribe the evil to himself. Rather he ascribes it to the upper force. The Creator is showing him his state, a certain state. And a person, according to his feeling, arranges himself correctly toward what he is shown. It turns out that a person has to reach a state where he will be together with the Creator and recognize his true state.

Student: If I'm quite certain that I'm a thief, this is how the will to receive is. I mean, it's quite clear that if you will be able to receive something big, clearly it will want it for itself. So, how from that point can I build some place, some attitude, which is not towards stealing? Where can I begin to build this place of importance, the place where the will to receive won't break through and steal? Where it won't be able to touch it?

M. Laitman: We need to work on dividing the area, let's say. What are the matters of “in order to bestow” and what are the matters of “in order to receive”? And the boundary between the two will be constantly guarded and scrutinized.

Student: Does the person make this boundary? Or is it a force that is given from above?

M. Laitman: No, from all the information a person gets, all the data, all the elements, he has to construct this boundary by himself.

Student: Through resistance from below? Through an effort from below?

M. Laitman: With help from below?

Student: Through effort?

M. Laitman: Through effort, okay.

Student: He writes here: “Because Moses hid his face, or he was afraid of looking, he was rewarded with, he saw the image of the Lord”. Why precisely one who hides the Creator is rewarded with seeing the Creator?

M. Laitman: He hides his vessels, those in which he is not yet capable of locating the Creator, inside those vessels or above them. And there he constructs the boundary of wholeness.

Student: Can we ask of the Creator that He will help us to sort these vessels? Or does the person himself have to do it? I'm trying to understand the boundary of Ira [spiritual fear]. Where is man's work and where does he turn into a request? Meaning, I can't do it, I can only do this far, now You need to do it. These vessels, does the person need to build them?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:46) This state of spiritual fear. What is the definition of spiritual fear? That he is afraid that he might not be able to give contentment, right?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: The question is what does it make the person do over his vessels. s it says here about Moses, what does fear activate in a person?

M. Laitman: Spiritual fear activates in a person, criticism, more than what belongs to his vessels.

Student: It enables him to work with his present vessels, this criticism? How does the criticism, seemingly, what does it build in his vessels, so that now they become vessels in which it is possible to bring the right light into? What now makes this vessel, what in the spiritual fear makes this vessel be the right vessel, now?

M. Laitman: The fact that a person knows how to use them and is more careful than before. And he, simply, sees that in these things it still requires scrutiny and the help of the Creator.

Student: That's it, if it's only in order to learn how unsuitable a vessel is, then I understand it. But that does not develop the right attitude, it doesn't develop an attitude of bestowal. It develops recognition of lowliness.

M. Laitman: That's correct but when he begins to work on it, he divides his attitude toward those vessels into several degrees, several levels, from things that are completely forbidden to things that are possible. And between the two, you have many possibilities.

Student: Now, what is it that he writes about one who does the keeping in order to reach remembering? What is this remembering?

M. Laitman: Remembering, when I remember Him, it doesn't let me sleep. Remembering is more than keeping, it comes from the person who develops this feeling. And it warns him that it's possible, he's advancing toward the border, the boundary between what's possible and what's prohibited.

Student: So, the keeping is more about scrutiny and the remembering is more about working actively towards bestowal. Can we say that?

M. Laitman: We'll see a little more.

Student: What is the relation with the keeping, or both with the keeping and the remembering? A person should ask the Creator to give him that?

M. Laitman: In principle, yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:20) He says that due to disparity of form, the person and the Creator cannot dwell in the same abode. You mentioned a boundary that we have to make between “in order to bestow” and “in order to receive”. What is this boundary?

M. Laitman: The boundary?

Student: The boundary that we need to build between “in order to receive” to “in order to bestow”. How do we build it, how do we keep it?

M. Laitman: Inside the desire. In my desire, I distinguish, precisely, where I am in order to receive, and where I am in order to bestow. And what am I distinguishing? These two forms, these forms of attitude: to in order to receive, to in order to bestow. And that's how I sort everything that is clarified before me.

Student: How can a person arrange himself together with his Ten and build this boundary? In his relation to the friends, in his relation to life?

M. Laitman: To the extent that they poke what's inside each one. And how much they remember, or feel, where they need to keep themselves above sanctity. The Creator shows them this boundary.

Student: Can we say that this is the fear, the spiritual fear, on the side of the lower one, the appreciation?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: The Creator gives the love, He gives love to the created being. So, on our side, we can offer fear. So, what is common? What does it mean love for the Creator, if all one can give is fear?

M. Laitman: Wherever a person maintains a boundary between bestowing and receiving for himself. To the extent that he cares about it, then it turns out that it helps him.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:05) What does it mean that fear should ride over the Torah and Mitzvot?

M. Laitman: That the main thing is to learn how to establish this fear. These are from the exercises we receive from the Torah.

Student: We, as created beings, when we change our attitude towards the Creator, only the fear corrects our attitude towards the Creator each time?

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: Why is it that only this vessel is called spiritual fear, every time? Let's say this morning I came here, I said: “Thank you very much” to the Creator, that I'm here even. That I can be here among the friends, that I felt that indeed, you don't always have these forces by yourself. Seemingly, you think that it's from yourself but the very fact that you're here among the friends, you're already grateful for that. So, what is this special attitude that the Creator lets us understand each time that it's not by our own forces, like he lets us understand each time in our own lowliness. It's not us, everything comes from the Creator. Why does he let us build this special attitude each time?

M. Laitman: Because in your feeling toward this attitude – toward this division – you're building precisely the boundary between sanctity and impurity.

Student: So, how do we keep it all the time? He says the most important is to keep it all the time. How do we keep the right, suitable, attitude that everything comes from the Creator?

M. Laitman: Whatever comes to you, try to keep it, to do it. And you'll see exactly how the boundary between sanctity and impurity is built.

Reader: This boundary is actually created between us?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: It's not between us, between the friends?

M. Laitman: No.

Student: So, where do I check this boundary? Where is it?

M. Laitman: Between us and the Creator.

Student: But the attitude they get from the Creator, actually, touches also the relations between us, between the friends. The Creator is always between us?

M. Laitman: Also, true.

Student: So, how do I constantly check these boundaries because these boundaries, I feel that, as we learn more than once. It's a very fine line, a very fine thread. How do we check that we don't fall from this boundary? We constantly remain in a framework of the correct attitude towards the Creator because pride, indeed, can take you to places where you think, wow, why do we even need the friends? Why do we even need the Creator? I can do everything by myself, everything is fine.

M. Laitman: We need only to move forward and try each time to keep what the Creator is telling us.

Student: Exactly, the Creator's voice, how do I hear His voice all the time? When He tells me I need to be careful, thus far, from here on, that's it. It's like the restriction: You can up to here, but I want to give you. Bbut you shouldn't receive more, you need to stop. That's the boundary that I feel that we have to check between us each time. Where is this boundary? How do I check it that I don't cross it?

M. Laitman: If you keep what the Creator gives you, you're building the boundary.

Student: Keep what I'm getting from the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:44) If everything is in the hands of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven. Who is teaching me how to act in fear?

M. Laitman: The Creator does everything. About that, we don't have any room to ask.

Student: He does everything, He also brings me to act in fear.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: How does He teach me to act in fear toward Him?

M. Laitman: Through all kinds of exercises.

Student: How can a person come to a state of remembering, as he writes? He remembers about the Creator all the time, that He is the reason for everything?

M. Laitman: That, too, is through exercises.

Student: I heard that a person needs to get to a state where together with the Creator, he recognizes his true state. Together with the Creator, he recognizes his true state. How, together with the Creator, I recognize my states, my lowly state. How do we get there, to be together with Him in the state and not to be alone in that scrutiny?

M. Laitman: Out of the fact that one wants, in any case, to keep the desire of the upper one. He becomes sensitive to all of the Creator's influences over him, over the person. And out of that, he builds an attitude that is similar to how the Creator relates to him.

Student: So, fear of Heaven, which is the only thing that exists in a person. That, too, the Creator does with a person?

M. Laitman: Especially that, the Creator helps the person build it.

Student: After this example of wine and jars, and flour, and sacks, what is the vessel of Lishma?

M. Laitman: It is a vessel that exists in a state of keeping fear.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:53) He says, He can give him everything except for fear. Because the Creator gives, He adds love and not fear.

M. Laitman Yes.

Student: Later, he says you have to acquire, to purchase, fear. Can you help us understand, what does it mean that He can give everything besides fear?

M. Laitman: Because fear awakens in a person out of the fact that he feels the gap between him and the Creator. This is why I don't know what to say. Out of the fact that he feels the gap between him and the Creator and he wants to bridge that. His work is already directed towards the goal of diminishing this gap very much, down to zero. And this is what helps him shift from some fear to the true fear. From fear of sin – or fear of punishment –to fear out of causing unpleasantness, even the smallest unpleasantness, to the Creator.

Student: So, why is it ascribed to the created being? They say that he acquires fear, that the Creator cannot give it to him.

M. Laitman: Yes, one acquires this fear through effort, labor.

Student: Effort in what? In the greatness of the Creator? What is the effort, what is the exertion that the fear is going to be the result of it?

M. Laitman: The exertion gives a person the possibility to add the force of keeping over the connection between him and the Creator.

Student: When a person ascribes this addition to himself, he says, I added it, not the Creator?

M. Laitman: He arranged it in such a way that it becomes the vessel of love. From a vessel of fear to a vessel of love.

Student: In order to turn it from fear to love, a person ascribes it to the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And that's why, first fear is from himself because he still thinks it's from himself?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:52) The fear, we can relate to the vessel, specifically. He says, what kind of fool loses what is given. We need to feel that the connection with us is going to the Klipot, to the Sitra Achra. We have to go through it to feel it. To feel that if we're losing it, we lose everything?

M. Laitman: There is all kinds.

Student: So, can you avoid it?

M. Laitman: To truly avoid it is impossible but the fear keeps us.

Student: To feel that we're losing all of the light, we have to fear that. If a person feels that he lost everything, then he can feel the fear that it will happen to him, again.

M. Laitman: Well, we will talk more about that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:02) You mentioned in the answer to the friend that we have to practice all kinds of exercises, and he writes, before I'm reading, I want to take the big Congress as an exercise. Friends from the world Kli will start coming here. We have gatherings all over the world. We have many places where you can receive pleasures, impressions, meals, the gathering, the study. Can we exercise it? So, “the fear refers to the great pleasure that is there and you will not be able to receive it, and you will not be able to receive it in order to bestow”. It's clear to me that the period of the Congress is filled with pleasures. And I'm afraid to enjoy it only in corporeality. So, there's room for work, right?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, how to approach this time, this period, and examine that I enter the gates of the Congress? What, then, do I restrict, what do I try not to receive? From what I could simply enjoy without being confused about it? Or I should enjoy everything with an attitude of not receiving because of the concern that I might receive it in corporeality?

M. Laitman: I cannot explain that, these are inner scrutinies of a person. And therefore, it is impossible to interpret this, each one to his friend.

Student: So, it's possible that for one person restrictions will be over the food, and for another person he's going to have to restrict the fact that he enjoys spending time with friends?

M. Laitman: We will see that the scrutinies are deeper.

Student: So, on our level, how to approach the Congress with fear, spiritual fear?

M. Laitman: That I come to the lesson every day on the condition that through this lesson, each time through the upcoming lesson that I'm going through. I want to see how in me – you might say, inside of me – an attitude is built, a great attitude, which is towards the benefit of the Creator and the benefit of the created beings. We will exercise that.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:43) Baal HaSulam wrote that the vessel of fear of Heaven comes from the revelation of pride. Where does the pride come from? It comes from below. I'm sorry, fear comes from below, but the pride comes from the Creator?

M. Laitman: Pride?

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: Pride comes from the will to receive. And what else?

Student: How do you come out of pride in order to build a vessel of fear?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:03) I can repeat the question. Baal HaSulam wrote that the vessel of fear of heaven comes from the revelation of pride.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, fear comes from below and pride comes from above?

M. Laitman: Well, it might be, yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (53:40) If a person does not aim in order to bestow, he doesn't have room to feel true pleasure. Is that correct?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, fear, spiritual fear, is to be afraid perhaps that we will not have vessels to fill with the love of the Creator. He won't be able to fill them. Is this part of the fear we should have?

M. Laitman: No. Along the way we have that as well, but it's not that this is the vessel that needs to be implemented.

Student: That's not important.

M. Laitman: No.

Question (World Kli): (54:24) A few friends are asking how to distinguish corporeal fear and spiritual fear.

M. Laitman: They exist in parallel areas, so that there is no contact between them.

Question (World Kli): (55:02) The friend writes that he performs a certain action, a certain Mitzva. So how can I tell if I'm doing it out of fear – regular fear – or spiritual fear?

M. Laitman: I don't know that, he needs to scrutinize it.

Student: Is there anything you can use to examine it, any special tests, to determine that I'm working this way?

M. Laitman: This becomes clear out of the scrutinies with the friends.

Question (Latin 8): (55:44) How is the spiritual fear expressed?

M. Laitman: Fear from the Creator is felt in a person as inner anxiety.

Student: How does it become an action?

M. Laitman: That depends on a person, already; how he clothes over it, his own discernment.

Question (Women Turkiye 12): (56:43) Fear and love, are they opposite? Can you feel both fear and love towards the Creator, simultaneously?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Question (Women MAK 43): (56:58) It says everything is in the hands of Heaven, of the Creator, except for the fear of Heaven. What does it mean that a person has to obtain fear that is not in the hands of Heaven?

M. Laitman: The person creates that, not the Creator.

Song: (57:52)

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