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

Daily Morning Lesson: August 30, 2025 

Part 1: Recorded lesson - Nov 10, 2021

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 56. Torah Is Called Indication

Reader: In the first part of the lesson, we will learn from a lesson from November 10th, 2021. Baal HaSulam, Shamati 56, “Torah is Called Indication.”

Reader: Hello, we are reading in the writings of Baal HaSulam, the articles of Shamati, article number 56, “Torah is Called Indication.” The study material is on the site. And in the Arvut system, you should click the study material button in the upper menu. You can also ask questions on the site. Selected questions relevant to the topic will be asked during the lesson. 

M. Laitman: (00:54) Yes, this article, Shamati 56, Torah is Called Indication, it's one of the fundamental ones, about one of the foundations of the wisdom of Kabbalah, because it tells us about the main principle that we have in the wisdom of Kabbalah compared to all kinds of other engagements in this world. That one that engages in the Torah of the public versus the Torah of the individual, one who studies public wisdom teachings, he studies all kinds of wisdom teachings, and he counts, he measures his advancement according to the number of pages that he studied, according to how many rules he knows, and also according to how much he is being appreciated, that is, in vessels that you can measure in this world. Whereas the Torah of the individual, which is the wisdom of Kabbalah, is measured according to how the person himself measured, and not what others can see in him, can feel in him, or know about him. So then he feels himself each time as much as he is actually distancing, as much as he is more loathsome, corrupt, and truly an egoist. How much he is immersed in concern for himself, in feeling himself, and therefore one who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater. He feels his desire as more and more lowly, loathsome, and he feels himself as weaker, unable to cope with his desire and overcome himself. This is why it says that the reason of the Torah is opposite to the reason of the landlords. The view of the Torah is opposite to the view of the landlords. The view of the Torah is as much as a person distances from himself, and the view of the landlords is as much as he feels his possession, accumulates possession more and more, and there is oppositeness there. This is why this article explains to us precisely, of course in a way that is beautiful, it's nice, certainly nicer than me, what is the difference between the wisdom of the individual, which is the wisdom of Kabbalah, and the wisdom of the public, which is all kinds of other teachings and faiths, where there is a lot of different parts. Well, let's see what he writes. And go ahead and ask, so that we will be able to scrutinize it sufficiently. Go ahead, please. 

Reading: (04:32) 56. Torah Is Called Indication

I heard on BeShalach 1, February 2, 1941

Torah is called “indication,” from the words “shot through.”* It means that when one engages in the Torah, he feels his remoteness to the extent of his exertion. 

M. Laitman: That is, to the extent that he is coming closer, actually, and he studies more and he understands more and he feels more in his feeling, he feels that he's actually moving away, that he's becoming worse, that he understands less, etc.

Reading: (05:11) 56. Torah Is Called Indication

In other words, he is shown the truth, meaning he is shown his measure of faith, which is the whole basis of the truth.

The basis of observing Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] is on one’s measure of faith, since then it appears to him that his whole basis is built only on the upbringing he received. This is because the upbringing is sufficient for him to keep Torah and Mitzvot in all its intricacies and details, and everything that comes through upbringing is called “faith within reason.”

Even though this is against one’s mind, meaning reason necessitates that according to one’s addition in the Torah, so one should feel closer to the Creator. However, the Torah always shows him more of the truth. When he searches for the truth, the Torah brings him closer to the truth and he sees his measure of faith in the Creator.

This is so that he would be able to ask for mercy and pray for the Creator to bring him genuinely closer to Him, which means that he will be awarded faith in the Creator. Then he will be able to give praise and gratitude to the Creator for having been granted being brought closer to Him.

However, when he does not see the measure of his remoteness and thinks that he is constantly adding, you find that he builds all the buildings on a rickety basis, and he has no place to pray for the Creator to bring him closer to Him. It follows that he has no place for exertion to be imparted whole faith, since one exerts only for that which one needs.

Hence, as long as one is not worthy of seeing the truth, it is the opposite. The more one adds in Torah and Mitzvot, one adds in the measure of his wholeness and does not see any deficit in himself. Therefore, he has no place to exert and pray to be granted faith in the Creator in truth, because when he feels corruption, you should say correction.

However, when he engages in Torah and Mitzvot in truth, the Torah shows him the truth, because the Torah has that power to show one’s true state of faith (and this is the meaning of “make it known”).

When one engages in the Torah and sees the truth, meaning his measure of remoteness from spirituality, and sees that he is such a lowly being that there is not a worse person than him on earth, then the Sitra Achra [other side] comes to one with a different argument: In fact, his body is really very ugly, and it is true that there is not an uglier person in the world than him.

She tells him this so he will despair, since she is afraid that he will notice and come to correct his state. For this reason, she agrees to what one says, that he is an ugly person, and lets him understand that if he had been born with higher skills and better qualities, he could have overcome his evil and corrected it, and he would have been able to achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator.

The answer to this should be that what she tells him is brought in Masechet Taanit (p 20), that Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, came from a fenced tower from the house of his teacher. He was riding his donkey and strolling along the riverbank feeling great joy. And his mind was crude, as he had been studying much Torah.

A person who was very ugly came by his way. He told him, “Hello rabbi,” but he did not reply. He told him, “Vain, how ugly is that man, are all your townspeople as ugly as you?” He replied, “I do not know, but go and tell the craftsman who made me, ‘How ugly is this vessel that you have made.’” Because he knew that he had sinned, he descended from the donkey.

According to the above, we can see that since he learned much Torah, through it he was granted seeing the truth about the distance between himself and the Creator, meaning the measure of his nearness and the measure of his remoteness. This is the meaning of his mind being crude, meaning that he saw the complete form of one who is proud, which is his will to receive, and then he could see the truth that it was he himself who was very ugly. How did he see the truth? By learning much Torah.

Thus, how will he be able to adhere to Him, since he is such an ugly person? This is why he asked if all the people were as ugly as him or was he the only ugly one and the rest of the people in the world were not ugly.

What was the answer? “I don’t know.” It means that they do not feel and therefore do not know. And why do they not feel? It is for the simple reason that they were not rewarded with seeing the truth, since they lack Torah, so the Torah will show them the truth.

To that Elijah replied to him, “Go to the craftsman who made me.” Because he saw that he came to a state from which he could not ascend, Elijah appeared and told him, “Go to the craftsman who made me.” In other words, since the Creator created you so ugly, He must have known that with these Kelim [vessels] it is possible to achieve the goal. So do not worry, go forward and succeed.

M. Laitman: Well, for the time being we have no questions, right? Yes. Oh, we do. Okay, let's start. And later on we'll repeat the article once again.

Question (Almaty 1): (14:04) What does it mean that a person measures his true state in nearing the Creator through faith in the Creator? 

M. Laitman: As much as he yearns to reach adhesion, equivalence with the Creator, according to that he measures his true state. Because indeed, the true state we have no way to measure it. Everything exists inside of us, relative to us. If one studies and he constantly feels how he is always farther from the Creator, then he should realize that the Creator is showing him the truth, and this is why he, according to that truth he’s advancing. That is, he’s advancing according to the truth, not according to the distance.

Question (Belarus): (15:17) Here in the article, it seems like a person sees his ugliness in others, and then he says, go to the craftsman who made me. So how do we not calm myself in this state and constantly move toward the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Well, the fact that I see myself as higher than others, this shows me the degree of my lowness, how much I am inside of my ego. And therefore, if I explain this to myself correctly, how do I see the world, people, the friends, if I am proud that I am above them, then this shows how far I am, how far I am. And then I have no choice but only to pray that the Creator will help me to come closer to them and come closer to Him and see the truth, not the truth of how far I am, but rather the truth that through  actions, through my inner corrections, I can come closer through the friends to the Creator. 

Question (Moscow 7): (16:59) How do I distinguish if it's even possible, if I am closer to the Creator because of a great effort of a person in the group, from moving away from the group because it's the opposite, I didn't exert enough in the group? 

M. Laitman: But usually a person who doesn't invest in his advancement, his true advancement, he doesn't feel that he's far away. The Torah doesn't show him the truth. The Torah shows one the truth only to the extent that he invests in his correct advancement, that is, he wants to be closer to the friends, closer to the Creator. He wants to reach bestowal, then the Torah shows him how much he's not in that. But if he doesn't invest a lot, then the Torah seemingly puts him to sleep, everything is okay, you can continue like that, or to the contrary, it evokes even more pride in him and the ego, and he feels himself as successful. Look at all the people who do not study the wisdom of Kabbalah, but rather they belong to all kinds of religions. They keep all kinds of actions, whatever every method demands, and they feel themselves as whole. They have no problem. From day to day, one keeps on adding, whereas one who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah, he has two states. In one state, he sees himself, how much he is on a more loathsome, despicable, on a lower degree than the others, because the Creator reveals to him each time a greater degree of his ego, because he's able to advance. On the other hand, this is how he feels himself.

Question (KabU 3): (19:49) What is Elijah and the text? Is that the reason? 

M. Laitman: Elijah is the degree of revelation, a special level of revelation, it's called the revelation of Elijah. 

Question (Kyiv 1): (20:24) This revealing of lack of correction, what's the criteria for this revealing? What does it mean that I'm revealing within me that I'm so ugly and terrible? 

M. Laitman: Each time, as I advance, I find myself to be a greater egoist, more corrupted. My desire that exists inside of me, my foundation is revealed in me more and more. This is why I therefore feel myself as worse and worse, because according to the ordinary human mind, the more I advance, I should be better, I should understand more, feel more, I should be higher. And here, I feel myself the opposite each time. A descent, a fall is revealed, darkness, night, and only later on through my work, if I do work correctly, then I discover gradually a special illumination that elevates me and it brings me the feeling of the morning, the day. 

Student: But it always includes the possibility of correction?

M. Laitman: Well, of course, you become worse and worse. However, each time you perform the right actions, and mostly it's in the social connection, then out of that you reach a state where all of that dark, black, confused state becomes clarified. A special light comes, an illumination, and you feel more, you understand more where you were. The darkness becomes light.

Question (PT 30): (22:39) According to what he writes, it comes to a state where I'm the worst in the world, I'm the ugliest on earth. If I compare myself only to the group, their friends are stronger than I, but there are friends who are less frequent than I am in the morning lesson, they're less active in dissemination, so they are uglier, they are worse than me, so I'm in the middle somewhere.

M. Laitman: No, it's not according to that, it's not according to those corporeal discernments, that they are doing less dissemination or things like that, that you can measure yourself. No. Rather, we measure them according to their devotion to connection in the group and connection with the Creator, how much they're drawn to it, how much they know how to overcome all the different states, and how much they support the friends in the Ten, how they're truly holding them, pushing them up, so that they will rise, that is, to the extent that they care for the Arvut in the ten. According to that, we measure the greatness of the friends. According to the degree of Arvut, or as Baal HaSulam writes in the Arvut article.

Question (PT 31): (24:14) My friend is asking, if I say go to the craftsman who made me, it's as if I'm shifting the responsibility to the Creator, how will this approach bring me the recognition of evil? 

M. Laitman: I'm not passing the responsibility to the Creator, the responsibility depends on me, because in my appeal I determine how I will advance, but I determine that I can advance only through the help of the Creator, only by me getting help from above. Therefore it's not that I just throw away the responsibility for myself. If I will not turn up, then who knows when the Creator will awaken me through all kinds of sufferings and blows, etc. But if I will turn to Him, then certainly inside my appeal, I already start to get help.

Question (PT 2): (25:21) What is the advice if the recognition of evil grows over time, but the prayer and concern for the friends for the Creator to give them contentment doesn't grow to the same extent as the recognition of evil? 

M. Laitman: Well, this is a sign that a person is still not sufficiently immersed in the friends. He still is not tied, connected to the help of the Creator, that he's expecting help from above.

Question (Holland 1): (26:10) It's still not clear, also this is an article which appears in its formats really between the person and the Creator, through Torah, through feeling his vessel. If a person has this impression, that he understands that the Creator gives this to a person through Torah, this ugliness, this feeling that it's actually, and this feeling of remoteness, that it's actually for him to come closer, how can he use this for the benefit of the Ten? How can he connect this impression with the friends?

M. Laitman: Look, we forget that our vessel, our body, Guf, our soul, is a structure which is a structure that incorporates ten parts, ten parts. And in those ten parts we have the Keter, which is like the Creator, and we have Malchut, which is as the created being, and all of the others, the other eight parts, they are on the way from Keter to Malchut, as the Sefirot of Ohr Yashar, direct light, and from Malchut to Keter as the Sefirot of Ohr Hozer, reflected light, the bestowal from the Creator downward, and the bestowal from the created being upward. There cannot be any bestowal from Malchut to Keter that is not through all of these other Sefirot, through incorporation with all of them. Because otherwise, if we are not incorporated with everyone, then we are not building before us the concept of the Creator, because, as it says, you have made me.

Because there is no Creator. Where did you see Him, where did you find Him? He doesn't exist. And also, as Baal HaSulam writes, that you are not allowed to reach out and touch Him, because there is no such thing. This is something that is above our attainment, above our nature, above our feelings, but rather it is possible for us. It became possible for us through the cascading of the desires and bestowal from above, from the Creator, the way that He arranges those desires so that out of their incorporation, out of their breaking and the correction of the relations between them, by us arranging all of these things together. Specifically by that, we build this concept of the Creator with respect to me, with respect to us, before us, out of a state where He does not exist but in such a way we can build Him. And this is why all of these descents from Ein Sof down to us it is a preparation, so that we from below upward will build the Creator. We will build Him according to our correct attitude towards Him and then we will have a connection between man's ego, through his relations in the Ten, to the Creator. And the other way around Bestowal from the Creator, through the Ten, to the person and in the connection between us, where each one has a different lane towards the Creator and there's also a lane from the Creator to him when we connect in such an integration, such a connection, between us we build a complete vessel. Ten Sefirot of direct light, and ten Sefirot of reflected light, and couplings by strikings, all of these interconnections. 

Everything that we learn about the spiritual Partzuf, and in the Partzufim, when they connect together, eventually this gives us a sphere, a complete form in which we feel Israel. Israel means each one who is aimed to the Creator, the Torah, the connection between us, and the Creator. As we become incorporated as one, in a single system which is as a sphere, it's all round. This is what we need to do. And it’s done specifically when a person discovers, reveals his exertion upon all of those problems that the Creator awakens in him, because the Creator awakens in us, but by that, by this addition of light coming from Him, He awakens in us a feeling of corruptions, another corruption, another corruption, another corruption, and by this He shows us how much we can connect to Him more and more and more.

Therefore, the most important thing is that we need to realize each and every moment in our life that I have a possibility to connect even more between us, and in the connection between us this is how we reach the form of the sphere, wholeness. Then it turns out that each one connects through all kinds of events, incidents that appear between us in the Ten, until we establish the image of the Creator. 

Question (Moscow 1): (33:27) Meeting the friend in truth is something that you need for life. Is it only after the restriction? 

M. Laitman:  No, it's along the way. If we constantly try to remind ourselves that our connection to the Creator is through the Ten, and not in any other way, then a little bit more, and a little bit more, this is how we establish our connection with the Creator through the Ten. And we start to feel that we, all of us, exist in me, the group, and the Creator, or the Creator, the group, and me, from below up and from above down. 

Student: But after the restriction, does some other need appear? 

M. Laitman: Well, that's already the work, that's already on the path. The most important thing is the principle, and according to that principle, we should already work. There are numerous details here, but they all follow the principle of Israel, the Light, and the Creator are one. Meaning, the person who yearns who is called Yashar El, Israel, the light or the Torah. Meaning, all of the lights that we want to sort between us to scrutinize and the Creator to constantly be in me through the group. And Through the group whatever I feel is what I get from the Creator through the group.

Question (Volga): (35:27) In the text, I didn't really understand one place. Once I discovered that I'm the weakest link in our mutual responsibility, he writes it, then comes the Sitra Achra, the other side, and agrees that I'm the worst. But they give me an excuse, sort of, that if I were born with different qualities, I would succeed. I don't understand the essence of this excuse. How can it stop me if I have already discovered that I'm the worst? 

M. Laitman: Well, this is what you feel. That I am not successful, but if I were born with better qualities with a greater inner strength then certainly I would be able to overcome everything and I would constantly take part in the group, in the study, in dissemination, in whatever is required, day and night, as much as possible. Besides the things that I necessarily have to keep, like work, home, such things, a little bit and that's it. This is what a person thinks. He doesn't realize that those weaknesses that are being revealed to him are in order for him to connect more, so that he will be able to reach the Creator, so that nevertheless he will be able to digest his situation and turn to the Creator with a request. This is what is required of us. But the request has to be organized, arranged correctly. Correctly means through the Ten, with an effort to put together the structure of the Ten as correctly as possible, by coming closer between us. We don't know what the right structure is. How do I know where I am in the Ten, where is each and every friend? And in general, we don't have a Ten, we only have five, let's say, or it even says that the minimum of many is two. So, I don't know, but rather my effort to reach such relations between me and the friends that are similar to the Creator, those are the degrees of bestowal. So those relations gradually build between us a connection which is as a right Ten, a correct Ten, meaning ten complete Sefirot, which are called the Partzuf of the soul. A Partzuf is a form, the form of the soul. 

Question (Latin 4): (38:34) A question from a friend from Venezuela. What do we have to do if sometimes we feel more hatred towards people from the world instead of people in the Ten? How should we cope with it?

M. Laitman: I don't think we should deal with it. We should exert all our efforts in the connection between us, because this is what's important for us in our spiritual advancement, and all of our relationships with the world will be.

Reader: In the next part of the lesson, we will study, we will study the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah.” The lesson is from August 22, 2006