The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: June 9, 2025
Part 1: Recorded lesson - Sep 24, 2021 Baal HaSulam. Shamati 5. Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?
Reader: Hello friends, we going to learn today from a lesson from September 2021 from the writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati Number 5, Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?
Reading: (00:52) From this one can come to clear awareness that he has no other choice but to pour out his heart to the Creator to help him so the body will agree to enslave itself to the Creator unconditionally.
M. Laitman: The body, means desires that don't want to be connected to the Creator, because all of man is a desire that divides into a part that has an inclination towards the Creator and a part that does not have one.
Reading: (01:29) as he sees that he cannot persuade his body to annul itself completely. It turns out that precisely when one sees that there is no hope that his body will agree to work for the Creator by itself, one’s prayer can be from the bottom of the heart, and then his prayer is accepted.
M. Laitman: As much as we try to add our different desires to our request – to the prayer – we come to a state where our prayer is received, meaning the Creator helps with the prayer.
Reading: (02:20) We must know that by attaining Lishma, one puts the evil inclination to death. The evil inclination is the will to receive, and acquiring the desire to bestow cancels the will to receive from being able to do anything. This is considered putting it to death. Since it has been removed from its office, and it has nothing more to do since it is no longer in use, when it is revoked from its function. This is considered putting it to death.
M. Laitman: Each and every desire in use is called. alive. When we don't use it, that moment is called, dead.
Reading: (03:14) When one contemplates, What he has in his work which he works under the sun, one sees that it is not so difficult to enslave oneself to His Name for two reasons:
Anyhow, meaning, whether willingly or unwillingly, one must exert in this world, and what has one left from all the efforts he has made?
M. Laitman: What does a person have? He just lives in this world, he serves his beast as long as it’s alive, then it dies, and nothing happened. He lived for someone who eventually dies, meaning from the very beginning he can see that all of life is pointless, nothing good ever comes out of it.
Reading: (04:15) 2. However, if a person works Lishma, he receives pleasure during the work, too.
M. Laitman: Not only in the end we have the attainment of creation, the attainment of the Creator, Ein Sof, Infinity, when we rise above from all of the worlds. But also doing the work, when we come to, in order to bestow. To the extent that we are in intention to bestow to the Creator, we receive pleasure from that.
Reading: (05:04) According to the proverb of the Sayer of Dubna, who spoke about the verse, You did not call Me, Jacob, for you labored about Me, Israel, he said that it is like a rich man who departed the train and had a small bag. He placed it where all the merchants place their baggage, and the porters take the baggage and bring them to the hotel where the merchants stay. The porter thought that clearly the merchant would take a small bag by himself, and there is no need for a porter for this, so he took a big package.
The merchant wanted to pay him a small fee, as he usually pays, but the porter did not want to take it. He said, I put a big bag into the hotel depository, which exhausted me, and I barely carried your bag, and you want to pay me so little for it?
The lesson is that when one comes and says that he exerted extensively in observing Torah and Mitzvot, the Creator tells him, You did not call Me, Jacob. In other words, it is not My baggage that you took. Rather, this baggage belongs to someone else. Since you say that you had much effort in Torah and Mitzvot, you must have had a different landlord for whom you worked. So go to him to pay you.
This is the meaning of, for you labored about Me, Israel.
M. Laitman: Meaning, if we truly work in order to bestow for the Creator, you receive a light from Him, such an illumination that stops us from feeling any difficulty. On the contrary, we feel uplifted, we receive a spiritual force. So, the corporeal force is not felt as work, as effort. Accordingly, we can check and see, are we in a state of spiritual upliftment or corporeal burdening?
Question (Kyiv 1): (07:58) The fact that we connect the points that you drew and we’re connecting together, that’s not yet called Lishma? Is there another addition here that’s needed?
M. Laitman: According to the drawing here, we want to connect all of our dots together and aim them at the Creator. But those are still efforts on our behalf. Of course, the upper light works on us, it works on us all the time, it’s in absolute rest. We have nothing, only with our efforts. Then, the upper light when we try to connect together, from this connection we pray. It’s called prayer in the public, or prayer of many, where although there are many of us, but we wish to be as one - we pray to the Creator, and this is our work. We only raise our request up to the upper force.
Student: He writes here, where we read, so that the package won't be felt as heavy for us in our work, how to do it so it will be for the sake of the Creator?
M. Laitman: The upper light, that we want to influence us, we can awaken it only through labor between us. To the extent to which we connect, we wish to connect, we want it to influence us, so we pray to it, we ask of it to bestow to us the upper light. This is called the reforming light, and it influences us and connects us into one desire, one vessel. From this one desire, when we connect as one, and the Creator is also as one. It’s called “one receives one”, and in this way we are willing to bestow to the Creator, and He is willing to bestow to us.
Student: If I depict such an exercise, like you explained, that we connect in such a point, how should we build it? How to aim ourselves together to that point?
M. Laitman: Try to connect the hearts. If we can't, ask the Creator and then expect that by our efforts and the Creator’s help, we will be able to connect our inner desires of our hearts, each and every one, and then certainly we will necessitate the Creator to work on us, and help us, fulfill us with His light. It all depends on this work between us.
Reading: (12:07) This means that he who works for the Creator has no labor, but on the contrary, pleasure and elation. But one who works for other goals cannot come to the Creator with complaints that the Creator does not give him vitality in the work, since he did not work for the Creator, for the Creator to pay for his work. Instead, one can complain to those people for whom he worked to give him pleasure and vitality.
And since there are many purposes in Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], one should demand of the goal for which he worked to give him the reward, namely pleasure and vitality. It is said about them, “They who make them shall be like them, everyone who trusts them.”
However, according to this, it is perplexing. After all, we see that even when one takes upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven without any other intention, he still does not feel any vitality, to say that this vitality compels him to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven.
M. Laitman: Meaning, we don't know, we can't say, that now I aim for the Creator, and immediately, I feel an awakening, an inspiration, it attracts me, it fulfills me, it opens my mind, it opens my heart, I feel confidence. There's no such thing. No. It is not an indication that if we are connected to the Creator correctly, between us and with the Creator, that by this, we immediately get a feeling, a special spiritual feeling.
Reading: (14:29) And the reason he does take upon himself the burden is only because of faith above reason.
M. Laitman: Meaning, I have no choice. I have to continue to accept the actions of bestowal which don't explain to me or show me or give me the feeling that I'm on the right path, that I am inspired. No, the Creator doesn't do that to me.
Reading: (14:55) In other words, he does it by way of coercive overcoming, unwillingly. Thus, we might ask, Why does one feel exertion in this work, with the body constantly seeking a time when it can be rid of this work, as one does not feel any vitality in the work? According to the above, when one works in humbleness, when his only goal is to work in order to bestow, why does the Creator not impart him taste and vitality in the work?
M. Laitman: Why don't we immediately feel that we’ve entered the right path? We’ve aimed ourselves at the right connection, we’ve done something toward the Creator, why don't we immediately get the correct feedback to aim ourselves correctly? The Creator doesn't do that. Why?
Reading: (16:05) The answer is that we must know that this matter is a great correction.
M. Laitman: Meaning, it's not by chance that the Creator hides from us whether we are on the right track or not, whether we did some correct action or not. We don't get an immediate response.
Reading: (16:27) Were it not for this, meaning if light and vitality had illuminated immediately when one began to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven, he would have vitality in the work. In other words, the will to receive, too, would have consented to this work.
In that state he would certainly agree because he wants to satisfy his desire, meaning he would work for his own benefit.
M. Laitman: Meaning, we would immediately say, “Oh, here, I did a correct spiritual action and I feel pleasure. Here, I didn’t do the correct spiritual action, I feel suffering”. Then, the problem is to be where there is pleasure instead of suffering, then how do I rise above my ego with faith above reason? That’s why there is no other choice but to take a few steps in the darkness, which means without a clear response of whether we are going in the right track or not.
Reading: (17:47) Had that been the case, it would never have been possible to achieve Lishma since he would be compelled to work for his own benefit, as he would feel greater pleasure in the work of the Creator than in corporeal desires. Thus, he would have to remain in Lo Lishma, since he would have had satisfaction in the work, and where there is satisfaction, one cannot do anything, as without profit, one cannot work. It follows that if one received satisfaction in this work of Lo Lishma, he would have to remain in that state.
This would be similar to what people say, that when there are people chasing a thief to catch him, the thief, too, runs and yells, “Catch the thief!” Then, it is impossible to recognize who is the real thief so as to catch him and take the theft out of his hand.
However, when the thief, meaning the will to receive, does not feel any flavor or vitality in the work of accepting the burden of the kingdom of heaven, in that state, if one works with faith above reason, coercively, and the body becomes accustomed to this work against the desire of his will to receive, then he has the means by which to come to work that will be with the purpose of bringing contentment to his Maker, since the primary requirement from a person is to come to Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator through his work, which is discerned as equivalence of form, where all his actions are in order to bestow.
This is as it is written, “Then shall you delight in the Lord.” The meaning of “Then” is that first, in the beginning of his work, he did not have pleasure. Instead, his work was coercive.
But afterward, when he has already accustomed himself to work in order to bestow and not examine himself—if he is feeling a good taste in the work—but believes that he is working to bring contentment to his Maker through his work, he should believe that the Creator accepts the work of the lower ones regardless of how and how much is the form of their work. In everything, the Creator examines the intention, and this brings contentment to the Creator. Then one is rewarded with “delight in the Lord.”
Even during the work of the Creator he will feel delight and pleasure since now he really does work for the Creator because the effort he made during the coercive work qualifies him to be able to truly work for the Creator. You find that then, too, the pleasure he receives relates to the Creator, meaning specifically for the Creator.
Question (Ashkelon 3): (21:58) How do we get feedback that we are advancing correctly?
M. Laitman: We don't receive any feedback, we go in order to bestow. In order to bestow, means I don't mind what I get in return, I don't look at it as proof for whether what I'm doing is right or not, I am going for bestowal. I have a group, and if I arrange myself towards the group and from the group towards the Creator, then I don't go wrong.
Question (Hebrew 10): (22:42) How do we reach a state, in a constant state, that we feel that bestowing will be as receiving. That we felt that we got something by bestowing?
M. Laitman: Say it again.
Student: How do we reach a state, a constant state, to feel that bestowing to the Creator will be as reception for us?
M. Laitman: You understand that if you have a child, a baby of yours, and as much as you give to him and he receives, you enjoy. So, you give him, or you use what you give to him to enjoy. Sometimes, we see this on a mother who is trying to push more and more to her kids, more than they need. She enjoys it, right? Perhaps she doesn't even take into account that they don’t really want it. She gives, and she enjoys, there are such dynamics as well. We need to understand that bestowal leads to pleasure, if you love the one that you bestow to, to the point that you implore him and beg him to receive. Like with little children or babies, we want them to receive, let's say, something we want to give to them. Why do we ask? Because by that we raise ourselves. It's not the matter of giving or receiving, it is the matter of intention: to whom do I give pleasure, myself, or the friend, or the Creator? The intention determines everything, not the action. Our world is a world of actions, different actions, but the desire is always egoistic. There's nothing to take into account here, in terms of the desire. It's always for the benefit of the person. Otherwise, he can't make any action. If we move to the spiritual world, it is the opposite. The actions are only in order to bestow to others. Any other thing, any other way, and we don't exist in the spiritual world.
Question (Brazil 2): (25:46) When we're going to work during the day, where even when I think of the friends, I should do something for them, does the intensity of these intentions change anything? Does it change this desire in any kind of way, does it influence the group?
M. Laitman: The actions in the group, all the more so the intentions in the group, they always make a step that pushes us forward, yes.
Question (Zafron 2): (26:36) What action in our eyes turns prayer into practical actions?
M. Laitman: I don't know exactly what you mean. The actions that we do, trying to connect between us, and see how much we are unsuccessful, and I see that it happens with people who would like to connect in the group but they are not successful, and they leave, they stop. But if we do not manage to connect, then we need to turn to the Creator, and that is what we do not do. Then we stop halfway, and we do not receive the assistance from above, the force that will connect us. Then, as a result of a connection between us, if we would then turn to the Creator again, then we would succeed for sure, right away. Our whole problem is that we are trying to be closer to each other as much as possible, but where is the test to see that we are actually not connected. We do not feel as a single heart, and then we need to turn to the Creator to do it. We did our part, we got as close as we could, and we did not succeed, and from that point of lack of success, we turn to You, the Creator - help us, do it. He needs to do it. We can't. But discovering that we cannot, that is impossible without making an effort. When we made an effort, and we haven't succeeded, and we turn to Him, and according to our request He makes the connection between us. That’s it.
Student: How to turn to Him correctly?
M. Laitman: How to turn to Him correctly? With all of your heart, from the common heart. Don't try to revolve around the Creator this way or the other. It’s not gonna not help. You just need to reach a state where you reach Him with an open heart. That is us. We tried, we've done. He knows it. What is important is that you yourself, tell it to yourself. So the prayer means to pray, means to the extent to which you examine yourself, judge yourself, to Lehitpalel [to pray], this a reflexive verb, a person does it towards himself. It is when one examines himself and presents that to the Creator. That is what it means. We present ourselves to the Creator and ask Him to correct us, to do something. We have nothing more to do. That is what we must do.