The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: August 1, 2025
Part 1: Recorded Lesson October 28, 2021. Baal HaSulam. Shamati #38. The Fear of God Is His Treasure.
Reader: Dear friends, in the first part of the lesson, we will watch a recorded lesson from October 29th, 2021, from Shamati 38, The Fear of God is His Treasure, Shamati 38, The Fear of God is His Treasure.
Reader: Hello, we are reading in the writings of Baal HaSulam, the articles of Shamati, we're in Shamati number 38, The Fear of God is His Treasure. You can find the study material at our site, as well as in the Arvut system, up on top where it says study materials. You can ask questions during the lesson, pertinent questions will be aired during the lesson.
M. Laitman: Yes, we're going over the same article as yesterday because it is very important, and let's hope that it will turn us so that we can relate correctly to what we feel on the path.
After a few years even when a person sees that he is not successful and he asks himself, why? Then he begins to hear about the fact that he needs to change his attitude to the Creator, that if there is none else besides Him, and one gets everything from Him, then if he has a business with the Creator, then how should he relate to the Creator? How should we actually relate to what he receives from the Creator? Because our whole attitude to the Creator, our influence or bestowal to the Creator is actually about how do we relate to whatever we get from Him. We are the receivers, and through our attitude to whatever we receive, how we receive by that, we express our attitude to the Creator. We have nothing to give. We have nothing to send to the Creator, but rather only our attitude to whatever we get from Him. And because our whole life, everything that we feel, it all comes from Him, there is none else besides Him, so all in all, how do I relate to whatever I feel in my world, whatever I feel in my life.
So this is why what we need to do is to see how do we relate to whatever we get from the Creator? And therefore, my action should be such that whatever I get from the Creator, I seemingly need to make a Tzimtzum [a restriction] over it, a check to stop it, to check, and to relate back to Him, right?
Just like we do it between ourselves, let's say, and to reach a state where I don't want to receive directly whatever comes to me, but only following the check, only following the feeling that I am standing opposite the Creator, and I am stopping the reception of whatever comes from Him, and I make the calculation and I want to enter a connection with the Creator in order to bestow contentment to Him by that, to make Him happy, to relate to Him correctly.
If we do such things it means that we are already organizing the Rosh of our soul, the Rosh of the Partzuf, where we make a restriction, that is, we do not allow the light, the Creator's attitude to bestow to us, and all the more so we don't draw anything from Him, but rather we want to stop that, and to arrange the relations between us.
This is considered that we have a restriction and a screen, and then we, by that, build such relations as they say: “I to my Beloved, and my Beloved to me.” By that, we build the Rosh of the Partzuf, a vessel, a Kli for whatever we get from the Creator.
So, he says the following, Baal HaSulam, “why is it considered that the fear of God is His treasure?” A treasure is what we want to get, and in order to receive it I have to come with a vessel, and the vessel is fear that I will be able to receive correctly.
So, he says the following:
Reading: “A treasure is a Kli [vessel] in which the possession is placed.”
Grain, for example, is placed in a barn, and precious things are placed in a more guarded place. Thus, anything 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 learned that there is no light without a Kli, and this applies even in corporeality.”
M. Laitman: That I need to be ready for whatever I'm going to receive. Hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch, all of our senses, they need to be arranged properly in order for me to perceive the world. And it's the same for me here, I want to receive, to capture whatever I get from the Creator, but I don't have the proper Kli, so I need to build it. So he says that the vessel that I need to prepare in order to receive what the Creator wants to give me, this vessel is called “fear.”
Reading: Yet, what is the Kli in spirituality, in which we can receive the spiritual abundance that the Creator wants to give, so that this vessel will match the light, what we get from Him? That is, as in corporeality, where the vessel 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.”
It's not appropriate in order to keep wine
“or that we took a lot of flour in barrels.”
Clearly, the flour will spoil in a barrel, it needs something, which is like a sack.
“Rather, there is a conduct that the container of wine is barrels and jars, and the container of the flour is sacks and not barrels, etc.”
M. Laitman: That is, any kind of abundance requires a special vessel, both in order to discover the abundance and also in order to keep it.
Reading: “Thus, there is a question, What is the spiritual vessel?”
M. Laitman: For the corporeal one, in corporeality, we see that any kind of abundance has a special vessel that is suitable for it.
“So there is a question. What is the spiritual vessel such that with these, from these vessels, we can make a big treasure of the upper abundance?”
The Creator wants to give us, maybe, many things. I don't even know what. I cannot see in advance wine, flour, what am I getting from Him? So that I will be able to make for it the proper vessels for His light, for His abundance. Rather, what can we do? How can we build each time, according to His attitude to us, appropriate vessels? If they will be inappropriate, we will be in darkness, as we are now. So we need to develop a vessel, a desire, a perception, understanding, feeling, so that whatever comes from Him, it will be exactly suitable from our side to receive His relation to us. So this is what he says:
Reading: “Thus, there is a question, What is the spiritual vessel, the Kli, so that from these vessels, we can make a big treasure of the upper abundance?”
And he continues:
“There is a rule that more than the calf wishes to eat, the cow wants to feed.”
M. Laitman: That is, the Creator wants to give us the light of Ein Sof, infinite light, and He created in us an infinite desire. However, to match our desire to the light, this is something that we have to do on our own, because precisely according to that match, the congruence, we achieve the pleasure, the depth that is in the Creator's gift.
Reading: “So there is a rule that more than the calf wishes to eat, the cow wishes to feed. This is because the Creator's wish is to do good to His created beings, and the reason for the restriction, we must believe, is that it is for our own good.”
M. Laitman: The restriction is for our own good. The fact that we don't see and we don't feel, but rather to the extent that we will position the vessels correctly towards the light, then we will get it, we will feel it.
Reading: “And the reason must be that we do not have the right vessels where the abundance can be, like the corporeal vessels,”
M. Laitman: We talked about sacks versus jars, which need to be appropriate for the thing that is placed there
Reading:“which must be right for what is placed there. Hence, we must say that if we add the vessels, there will be something by which to hold the added abundance.”
M. Laitman: Meaning, as much as we have vessels and as much as they are perfected, to that extent, we will receive inside of them. That should be clear. So first of all, what are the vessels? Maybe, it's many vessels, just like we have in our world, many vessels for all kinds of fillings, and how will we improve them? And what kind of abundance can we receive in them? So first of all, in corporeality, I know in advance what is the filling, what is the abundance that needs to be revealed, and accordingly I build the vessel. Sacks, jars, barrels, all kinds of boxes, etc. So, how do I do that in spirituality, if I don't know what I'm about to receive? How do I prepare something for the Creator, so that I can say, I have a vessel. Do you have any pleasure that should be revealed? Please go ahead and reveal it. But am I certain that what I present to Him is the appropriate vessel for what He is about to reveal to me.
Reading: “The answer to this is that in His treasury, meaning in His great treasury, the Creator has only the treasure of fear of heaven.”
M. Laitman: That is, all in all, what he has is the treasure of fear of heaven. This means that this is the most important thing that we now need to scrutinize. What is the fear of heaven?
Reading: “Yet, we should interpret what is fear? It is the vessel, and the treasure is made of this vessel, the place where we hold it, and all the important things are placed in it.”
M. Laitman: That is, how do we build the vessel from our desire, the Creator's desire, from whatever we have, how do we build such a vessel in which we can be with our feeling, with our understanding, and to feel and to understand the Creator? There is nothing else in reality, so this is what we need to discover. So, Baal HaSulam said
Reading: “that fear is, this vessel is called fear, as it is written about Moses, that the reward for, and Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look, was that he was rewarded with the image of the Lord as he behold”
M. Laitman: Which means that Moses, who was the closest person to the Creator ever, what he did is he hid himself. He didn't want to come closer to the Creator with his ordinary desires, but rather he hid himself, and specifically because he hid himself, he was able to get closer to the Creator, precisely through something and its opposite. As it says, he was afraid to look, meaning he was afraid to see the Creator directly. 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 and to be in equivalence of form with the Creator, that he will not be able to understand, to feel the Creator in the right way. That is, like a baby, it can learn only one thing, how to receive and receive, and this is its instinct that is working inside of it, but later on we gradually teach it how to receive things, because we are asking, because it wants to delight us in some proper, correct way, meaning for it to rise above the animate level, just to receive whatever it is given, to participation, a mutual interconnection, that as we give it, it also notices it and it participates with us, it receives from us, it gives us back in return a smile, a thank you or something.
Reading: So, fear, he says, “refers to one's fear of the great pleasure that is there, in the reception of the abundance from the Creator, of whatever He wants to give us, that we will not be able to receive it and bestow back to Him.”
M. Laitman: We won't be able to give Him thanks.
Reading: “And the reward for this, for having had fear, is that thus he has made for himself a vessel in which to receive the upper abundance.”
M. Laitman: That is, what did Moses make the vessel from? Because he was afraid to receive directly from the Creator what he wanted to give, and then he stopped it, and he says, no, no, I don't want to receive like that. He hid himself, he shut his eyes, I don't want to see these things, right? And then through this action, which is considered that he made a restriction, so after that, following the act of restriction, he developed a new attitude, the source of the upper light, so that he will be able to relate to it equally, that he is doing it in order to bestow, just like the upper light the Creator wants to bestow and then it is considered that he is with the Creator in equivalence of form, and if he positions himself in such a way towards the Creator, so that he stops himself and he makes a condition that he is willing to receive only on the condition that by that he is bestowing to the Creator. That is, he is holding himself, even though he very much wants to receive, he is holding himself and he develops his attitude to the Creator so that it will be only for His benefit, just like the Creator does everything for the benefit of men.
And then to the extent that he reaches a mutual connection, which is called, I to my Beloved and I my Beloved to Me, then in such a way he begins to discover the Creator's attitude to him because he develops accordingly his attitude to the Creator. And besides the Creator, we have nothing in the whole of reality. There is None Else Besides Him.
Therefore this is how we need to discover, to reveal our relations, that is to try to stop our reception, that I don't want to feel, even though I very much do want to, but I don't want to feel anything directly. Rather only in a form that I develop my attitude back to the Creator. This is considered to make a restriction, and a screen, and reflected light, before the construction of the Partzuf of the soul. So, we need to explain what is a fear, that a fear is a treasure in which we put all of the important things. So Baal HaSulam said that this is fear, as it is said about Moses, reading again:
Reading: “Our sages said, “The reward for ‘And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look,’”
M. Laitman: He didn't want to do it, to receive directly in his egoistic vessels whatever comes from the Creator. In reward for that
Reading: “was to be rewarded with ‘the image of the Lord does he behold.’”
M. Laitman: If instead of the gift itself he started to discover the giver of the gift.
Reading: “Fear refers to one's fear of the great pleasure that is there, that he may not be able to receive it in order to bestow. The reward for this, for having had fear, is that thus he has made for himself a Kli in which to receive the upper abundance.”
M. Laitman: This is what he did, that is, he doesn't want, even though he does want, but he doesn't allow himself to receive anything from the Creator, but only through rejection, only according to the equivalence, only according to… as we learned, that there is a restriction screen and reflected light, and only following these calculations, I want to receive something from Him, even though I very much want to, but I work above my desire. If we will do such exercises, and especially when it's in the Tens, each one will feel that he has such possibilities to stop whatever I want to receive, and to make a calculation that I am willing to receive only on the condition that this will be a mutual action, that if the Creator will want, I will receive, and as much as He wants, I will receive, and not more. I, for myself, do not want to receive, but only in order to be in equivalence of form with Him, in equality, I can receive one gram, so then I will do it, but not more. And in this way we will advance.
Let's try to perform these actions, each one of us, let's talk about it in the Tens, let's talk about it in the lesson, this is already practical Kabbalah, which we can start to perform. That's it. We can also talk about it with each other. It's not too bad. Nothing can be spoiled by that. Nevertheless, we are already under the care of the Upper One, and He will manage our development in such a way. I'm reading it again.
Reading: “Yet we should interpret what is fear. It is the Kli, and the treasure is made of this Kli”
M. Laitman: a treasure, a place where we can keep it
Reading: “and all the important things are placed in it.”
M. Laitman: Baal HaSulam said that this is fear, the Kli is fear, that I'm afraid, as it is written about Moses, the reward for, and Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look, that Moses shot himself and he said, I don't want anything, even though he very much wanted, but I will not receive. So through this action, he was rewarded with discovering the Creator, not the Creator that wants to give to him, but rather the Creator Himself, not what He wants to give him, but the Creator Himself, the One who is giving him.
Reading: “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”
M. Laitman: Specifically out of the fear, by stopping and saying, no, no, I want to work in a different style. I want to give this to you, my attitude, equally to how you relate to me, or at least to some extent. But first of all, I make a restriction, a concealment, I don't want it.
Reading:“into which he will be able to receive the upper abundance.”
M. Laitman: So this is the vessel we need to make.
Reading: “This is man's work, and besides that, we attribute everything to the Creator.”
M. Laitman: That is, besides that work of restriction that I do, and I say that I don't want to receive, and it's only for you. So I reject it. I don't need anything. That's our first work. That's it. This is man's work, and besides that, we attribute everything to the Creator.That whatever we're able to do above that, beyond that, later on, the Creator will keep adding, and He will bring us to higher states.
Reading: “Yet, it is not so with fear,”
M. Laitman: There has to be fear upon the person. The person should be afraid. He should reach a state where he's afraid of receiving directly from the Creator, because this will throw him off immediately to the other side of creation. He becomes the receiver, and the Creator is the bestower, and then there is no connection between them, and there is an infinite distance between them.
Reading: “because the meaning of fear is not to receive. And whatever the Creator gives, He gives only to be received. And this is the meaning of ‘Everything is in the hands of heaven except the fear of heaven.’”
M. Laitman: That is, everything comes from the Creator, abundance in all kinds of different forms, etc., and the person should say, No. No? I want to be in connection with You. I'm not severing the connection with You, with the Creator. However, whatever You want to give me, I don't want to receive it directly. I want to build a relationship here. It's not enough for me to just receive. By receiving, I become the opposite. I fly away from You, outside. I distance from You to the other end of creation. I want, with whatever You give me, to first build my attitude to You such that whatever You give me, it will help me to be in adhesion with You, in the same state as You. First of all, like a baby that is developing on the hands of the mother, and then bigger and bigger. As it says, “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God.” This is what I want. I prefer that instead of the corporeal development that You can arrange for me.
Reading: “This is the Kli that we need”
M. Laitman: That is, what Kli? This attitude to the Creator, that I stop. His attitude to me, I actually stop my will to receive, that I want to discover Him, to see Him, to feel, to understand. First of all, I want to manage my desires, my inclinations towards the revelation of the Creator. I want to manage them by myself.
Reading: “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.’”
M. Laitman: But if we receive without any calculation regarding the Creator, then we cannot receive other than what all people feel in this world, meaning a very small illumination that is sustaining us on the beastly level.
Reading: “This means that the Sitra Achra [other side], will take the abundance from us
M. Laitman: Our will to receive, will extract everything from us, except for whatever it leaves us with, just the feeling of the corporeal existence, if we cannot aim in order to bestow. So then we feel ourselves that we exist in this world to the lowest possible degree that exists in reality. It exists only in order for us to rise from it to the true spiritual degrees. Because then it goes to the vessels of reception, if we don't receive it correctly in order to bestow. Those vessels are the Sitra Achra and Tumaa [impurity], meaning they distance us entirely from the upper light, from the Creator.
Reading: “This is the meaning of ‘And you shall observe the commandments.’
M. Laitman: Commandments are all of the actions that we need to perform in order to get closer to the Creator correctly, so that it will not throw us out, but rather to the opposite, it will pull us forward and it will reveal to us forces of bestowal, forces of adhesion, because the meaning of keeping, as it says, you should keep or observe the Mitzvot, is fear. That to the extent that I, as it says about Moses, that I am afraid that I might be receiving for myself, I don't want that, but rather I specifically want to develop from the Creator's attitude to me, a suitable form towards Him, to be to some extent like Him. And in such a form I start to get to know Him, to be in a dialogue with Him, and I'm not thrown outside of Him, but rather more and more I get closer to Him so as to understand Him and feel Him
Reading: “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.”
M. Laitman: The light departs even before that, so it won't help me if I do want to receive the light. It will depart. I need to prepare the vessel in such a way that the light will not depart, but rather it will fill my vessel, and my vessel needs to be suitable for the light, just like, let's say, a sack for flour, and a receptacle, let's say a bucket for water, etc. Yet, one must do it by himself as much as he can. That is certainly what I try to do, to make an appropriate vessel for the light, for what I'm about to receive from the Creator. The Creator does that. I just want, I just have to, I'm just obligated to ask of Him that He will build this vessel for me, because He can do it. Why? From where do I know what I'm going to receive? From where do I know that is what kind of vessel I need to build in advance before I ever tasted it and checked it, and accordingly I can presume to myself, what is it suitable for.
We can see how it is in our world. First of all, we develop inside of the mother, then outside of the mother when she's taking care of us and she's giving us whatever is good for us and we by nature just receive whatever she gives us and in that we have no choice. And only after that we gradually grow in such a way that this we don't want, this we love, this we don't love, this is like this, this is like that; and through all kinds of these forms of scrutinies in relation to the world, we build for ourselves an environment from which we are nourished to the extent that we see it and we enter reciprocity with it, and it's the same here. This is why he says:
Reading: “yet one must do it by himself, such scrutiny, as much as he can as our sages said, ‘You will keep yourselves a little from below as much as you are able to keep yourselves from below and I will keep you a lot from above.’
M. Laitman: So, in what can we keep ourselves and guard ourselves? In the right contact with the Creator, as much as we are able to. In what? In saying that we don't want to receive anything unless it will bring us contact with the Creator. If it will bring us to in order to bestow, I want Him to enjoy. And then out of that, I will also enjoy that I'm performing this action and the result of the action will be not directly what He brings me, but rather through my action, through what we call, Ohr Hozer [reflected light], that I reject whatever He's giving me and only after I check and I enter identification with Him - “I to my beloved, and my beloved to me,” then to that extent I receive from Him. And we don't need to do a lot, but just this intention a little bit and all the rest, the true intention and the power and the screen and all of those things, this is all done from above. We don't need to be concerned about that. It's just like we develop in the trusted hands of the mother. “
The reason we attribute fear to people, as it says that the fear is the vessel for the revelation of the Creator, as our sages said, ‘Everything is in the hands of heaven but the fear of heaven.’”
This the Creator does not have. As much as we may wait for that illumination, nevertheless we will have to develop by ourselves, everyone, the entire world, all of the souls, all of the souls. So why are we obligated to do that, to reach fear of heaven on our own? It is because He can give everything, the Creator, but fear.
“This is because what the Creator gives is He adds love, not fear.”
He has nothing besides love, only to add and add and add love. And as much as we are in contrast to that, we feel sorrow and suffering and problems, but to the extent that we develop the love, the correct attitude to connection, here we are already in equivalence of form with Him. He adds fear and this can be done through observing the commandments of Torah and Mitzvot, meaning through the actions.
The actions that we invite the upper light, which performs bestowal upon us. So, the actions that we want to do in coming closer to the Creator, according to what the Kabbalists define, they're called Mitzvot, since these are commandments from the Kabbalists for us to do this, and what we receive for it, we call light or Torah. Torah is also from the word Ohr [light], meaning the lights that come to us gradually and teach us, and change us, and adapt us to the upper light, which is the Creator. So, we can acquire fear through the virtue of Torah and Mitzvot. Meaning it's not just our fear, this is a spiritual concept, what fear is, but this has to do with giving, and receiving, and having the right relationship, the right attitude between us and the Creator.
Reading: “Hence, when a person engages in Torah and Mitzvot, with the intention to bring contentment to his Maker,”
M. Laitman: meaning to the Creator, this intention, which rides upon the acts of the commandments and the study of Torah, which lead a person to merit it.
Reading: “Otherwise, a person can remain, even though he observes Torah and Mitzvot in every item and detail, he will still remain merely in the degree of still of holiness.”
M. Laitman: The degree of still of holiness is considered that one who engages in corporeal actions in a very meticulous manner but doesn't think of reaching equivalence of form with the Creator through this Meaning, he has no connection with the receiving of the light in order to bestow, with the correction of his measures, and inverting himself from vessels of reception to vessels of bestowal. That's why he's only meticulous with the corporeal actions, and therefore he is called the degree of still of Kedusha. The degree of still, because he doesn't develop. The next degree is already vegetative, which is a spiritual degree. But rather, if he is a person in this world, and does all kinds of actions that are written in the books, and tries to do them as good as possible, then this is considered that, and he doesn't want to reach anything except for this, he has no engagement in corrections of his inner measures or values, and only keeps himself in observing them physically, that's considered that he is in as still of holiness. That is, he's in equivalence of some form with the Creator, but in such a way that he cannot grow anything beyond that. Like the still, like the earth.
“It follows that one should always remember the reason that obligates him to engage in Torah and Mitzvot. This is the meaning of what the sages meant, where it says that your Kedusha, that your holiness,’ will be for My name.”
m. Laitman: That's all he says. That if you want to be sanctified, to ascend, to reach something, you need to aim it towards Me.
Reading: “And the meaning is that I will be your cause, which is the meaning that all your work is in wanting to delight Me. Meaning that all your actions will be in order to bestow.”
M. Laitman: Just as I do this for you, that's how you, to the extent in which you can do it towards Me, learn from Me, then as much as you will be more similar to Me, you will be called Adam through that. And that's how you will grow. Adam is called one who is Dome, who resembles, who is similar to the Creator.
Reading: “As our sages said, ‘Everything there is in keeping, there is in remembering.’ Where all those who engage in observing Torah and Mitzvot,”
Meaning to aim all that they will have in order to aim it all back towards the Creator as much as they can, through this, they will enter mutually with Him, “I for my Beloved, and my Beloved for me,” and then in such a way they will advance and advance in adapting themselves towards Him.
Reading: “So, by that, they reach remembering, by way of, ‘When I remember Him, He does not let me sleep.’”
M. Laitman: Meaning, to the extent in which they will constantly be connected to the Creator, and it won't let them have the possibility of forgetting or disconnecting from Him.
Reading:“It follows that the primary matter of keeping is in order to be awarded with remembering.”
M. Laitman: Where I don't leave the tendency towards the Creator, the beginning of the feeling to the Creator, even though it's just a little bit of a feeling, but I don't leave that for a moment, where it's constantly with me.
Reading:“It follows that one who desires to remember the Creator is the cause of observing Torah and Mitzvot.”
Since I then have to do all kinds of actions in order to constantly remain in contact with Him, to discover what He wants for me and what I, in return, want for Him.
“This is so because it follows that the reason and the cause to observe the Torah and Mitzvot, meaning my relations with the Creator is the Creator and not my ego, as without it, one cannot adhere to the Creator, since He and I cannot dwell in the same abode due to the matter of disparity of form. Meaning only in such a way where we feel that we are in a common inclination towards one another, with an extension from one to the other in a way that that which He wants to give me, I'm drawn to wanting to give to Him, and each of us thinks of the other, to that extent we can begin to meet in the middle. And the reason that the reward and punishment in our work, in our advancement, are not revealed, we don't feel that immediately when we do something good, we receive something good, and if we did something and it's not good, then we receive a sign that it's not good. There is no such thing. And we must only believe in reward and punishment. Why is it concealed? It's because the Creator wants everyone to work for Him and not for themselves. If I were to reveal that it's good and this is bad, then I would discover in my desires, my egotistical desires, that it would be something that binds me even more to do something that is good for me, and to distance myself from something that makes me feel bad. And we need to rise above our egos. Therefore, these direct relations with the Creator are concealed. They're concealed. This is discerned as disparity of form from the Creator. If we have it, then we are concealed. It's concealed from us. And if the reward and punishment were to be revealed, one would work because of self-love, so the Creator would love him. Or because of self-hate, meaning for fear that the Creator would punish him. It follows that the reason for the work is only the person, and not the Creator. And the Creator wants that He will be the compelling reason for it to be disconnected from our ego, above it. And it turns out that fear is precisely when one recognizes one's lowliness and says that the fact that he is serving the King, meaning that one's wish is to bestow upon him, upon the Creator, will be considered a great privilege. Meaning that this is a really great thing that he has merited to have a desire to bestow to the Creator. And it is more valuable to him than he could say how this, the privilege of this use of this service.
It's according to the rule that with an important person, what is given to him is considered as if he was receiving from him. That's from the example of a bride and a groom. If he's important, it's not that he's giving her a ring, but rather, on the contrary, she gives to him, and he seemingly goes down to her and is willing to receive from her, and by that, sanctifies her. And certainly, to the extent that one feels lowliness of a person, the way he feels himself, to this extent, he can begin to appreciate the greatness of the Creator. Meaning, in a place where we discover our lowliness, that is where we begin to reveal the greatness of the Creator. And therefore, we read about all these great ones, the extent in which they say that they become lower and lower, simpler, feeling themselves weaker, because they discover the extent in which they, towards the Creator, are in a degree that is lower and lower, actually. So, it's considered as if he received from him, and certainly, according to one's lowliness of a person, the way he feels himself, that's the emphasis of how he feels himself, to that extent, he can begin to appreciate the greatness of the Creator. And it's written that to the extent in which one makes himself lowly, that's how you can discover how He is great, and in him will awaken a desire to serve Him, to do something for the Creator. And it won't be difficult, but rather it will be as a prize, as a reward that the Creator gives him the possibility to serve. This is already the work in receiving in order to bestow. Whereas if a person is proud, then the Creator says, he and I cannot dwell in the same abode, as to the extent in which one has ego, we are distant from the Creator. This is the meaning of a fool, a wicked one, and a rude one go together. And the reason is that since one has no fear, meaning that he cannot lower himself or bestow. Why not? Because he cannot lower himself before the Creator and to say that it's a great honor for him to be able to serve Him, to serve the Creator without any reward. And then he cannot receive any wisdom, any Hochma from the Creator if he remains a fool and cannot do that. And one who is a fool is wicked, as our Sages said, one does not sin unless the spirit of folly entered him. Meaning, we need to try here to do all kinds of actions that will bring us some form of closening to the Creator according to equivalence of form. And equivalence of form begins by us lowering ourselves.
Reader: Friend, we will now move on to “The Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah.”