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

Daily Morning Lesson: June 28, 2025 

Part 1: Recorded lesson - Oct 11, 2021. Baal HaSulam, Shamati #19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?

Reader: Hello, dear friends, in the first part of the lesson we will learn from a recorded lesson with Rav Laitman, this is from October 11, 2021. This is on Shamati, Article 19, ‘What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?’ You can find the material in the Study Materials tab in the Arvut System. 

M. Laitman: The fact that Kabbalists tell us that the Creator hates the bodies, the will to receive, this gives us some direction in our thought and our attitude to our nature. How much we need to reach hatred to the will to receive as it is always pulling us to in order to receive and by that it separates us from the purpose of life, from the Creator and it brings us down by that from the ability to rise to the degree of the Creator, and to fall to animate degree. Not to rise from the corporeal world to the spiritual world. And therefore, we need to hate it. And how much do we need to and in what manners we need to hate it, this is what this article speaks about. It's a very long article, usually the articles of Shamati are about a page or a page and a half or two pages, but this article is a lot longer. It actually spans five pages, and therefore, we need perhaps to even divide it into several parts and to study it in this way. But indeed, it's a very fundamental article, and it includes many discernments. We will get into it with our head as much as we can, and whenever you get tired, we will stop for the time being until tomorrow, and in that way, we will try to flow along with it. So, please. Shamati number 19, What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?

Reading: (03:01) Baal HaSulam, Shamati #19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?

The Zohar says that the Creator hates the bodies. He said that we should interpret it as referring to the will to receive, called Guf [body]. The Creator created His world for His glory, as it is written, “Every one who is called by My Name, for My glory, I have created him, formed him, and also I made him.”

Therefore, this contradicts the body’s argument that everything is for it, meaning only for its own benefit, while the Creator says the opposite, that everything should be for the sake of the Creator. This is why our sages said that the Creator said, “he and I cannot dwell in the same abode.”

It follows that the primary separator from being in Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator is the will to receive. This is apparent when evil comes, meaning the will to receive for oneself comes and asks, “Why do you want to work for the sake of the Creator?” We think that it speaks as people do, that it wants to understand with its intellect. Yet, this is not the truth, since it does not ask for whom one is working. This is certainly a rational argument, as this argument awakens in a reasonable person.

Instead, the argument of the wicked is a bodily question. That is, it asks, “What is this work?” In other words, What will you profit for the exertion you are making? It means that it asks, “If you are not working for your own benefit, what will the body, called ‘the will to receive for oneself,’ get out of it?”

Since this is a bodily argument, the only reply is a bodily reply, which is “He blunted its teeth, and had he not been there, he would not have been redeemed.” Why? Because the will to receive for oneself has no redemption even at the time of redemption, since redemption will be when all the profits enter the vessels of bestowal and not the vessels of reception.

The will to receive for oneself must always remain in deficit, since satisfying the will to receive is actual death. The reason is, as said above, that creation was primarily for His glory (and this is an answer to what is written, that His wish is to do good to His creations and not for Himself).

The interpretation will be that the essence of creation is to reveal to all that the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations. This is specifically when one says that he was born to honor the Creator. At that time, in these vessels, the purpose of creation appears, which is to do good to His creations.

For this reason, one must always examine oneself, the purpose of one’s work, meaning if the Creator receives contentment in every act that one performs, because he wants equivalence of form with the Creator. This is called “All your actions will be for the sake of the Creator,” meaning that one wants the Creator to enjoy everything he does, as it is written, “to bring contentment to his Maker.” 

Also, one needs to conduct oneself with the will to receive and say to it, “I have already decided that I do not want to receive any pleasure because you want to enjoy, since with your desire I am forced to be separated from the Creator, for disparity of form causes separation and distance from the Creator.”

Question (Hebrew 10): (08:22) He writes that the will to receive for oneself should always remain in deficit, deficient, because satisfying the will to receive is actual death. Why, if the will to receive receives what it wants, why is it death?

M. Laitman: Because it separates one from the life of life, from the Creator. This is why it is considered death. Life and death simply mean, well, separation is death and connection is life, because then, according to the connection, the person becomes similar to the Creator and he is filled with that same fulfillment, the same essence of life as the Creator. So, this is called life. 

Question (Kyiv): (09:11) Afterwards, he writes that the will to receive, you have to say to it, I don't want to receive anything for it. Toward what should you behave this way? 

M. Laitman: Actually, we are talking about the intention. That I, in my whole life, in my whole existence, intend to perform even the slightest action, the most corporeal one only, with the intention that it will bring me closer to the Creator, because the Creator did everything for His sake. This means that we need to see in each and every action, in thought, in desire, or in some mechanical action, that we're doing it only in order to get closer to the Creator. That is all. And this is why, before any action in thought, or action with our hands, or whatever it is, we need to think about whether through this action that I am now about to perform, in some way - am I coming closer to the Creator, or not? If I'm coming closer to the Creator, it's called a Mitzva [commandment], because man's commandment is to reach adhesion with the Creator. And if I'm doing some work that I could have done in order to come closer to the Creator without an intention, then I'm moving away, and that is called a transgression. And therefore, our whole life is an opportunity to perform a Mitzva, or a transgression. To come closer to the Creator, or to move away from Him.

Student: If the Creator gives such a desire permanently, meaning He constantly stimulates you, provokes you in some desire. What does that mean? That He demands of you to scrutinize his intention? 

M. Laitman: Yes, of course. Of course, our whole work is only to add the right intention to whatever is occasioned to us.

Question (Tel Aviv 3): (11:58) What does the Creator enjoy? A person's corrected vessels, or a person who arranges the vessels?

M. Laitman: What does the Creator enjoy? The intention. The Creator doesn't need our deeds. He doesn't need any actions and corrections, as it may appear to us, but only intentions. Are we aiming to come closer to Him, or not? That is all. Well, let's continue. 

Reading: (12:42) Baal HaSulam, Shamati #19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?

One’s hope should be that since he cannot break free from the power of the will to receive, he is therefore in perpetual ascents and descents. Hence, he awaits the Creator, to be rewarded with the Creator opening his eyes, and to have the strength to overcome and work only for the sake of the Creator. It is as it is written, “One have I asked of the Lord; her will I seek.” “Her” means the Shechina [Divinity]. And one asks “that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” The house of the Lord is the Shechina, divinity.

M. Laitman: That is, the revelation of the Creator to the created being is called Shechina, and He then hopes that through all kinds of actions that He performs, He will reach the fact that the Creator will be revealed to Him. According to man's preparation, of course, how much that person prepares his vessels so that there the Creator can be revealed. 

Reading: (14:02) Baal HaSulam, Shamati #19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work? (twice)

And now we can understand what our sages said about the verse, “And you shall take for you on the first day,” the first to count the iniquities. We must understand why is there joy if there is room for a count of iniquities here. He said that we must know that there is a matter of importance in the labor when there is contact between the individual and the Creator. 

It means that one feels that he needs the Creator, since in the state of labor he sees that no one in the world can save him from the state he is in, except for the Creator. Then he sees that there is none else besides him who can save him from the state he is in, and from which he cannot escape. 

Reading: (16:14) Baal HaSulam, Shamati #19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?

This is called having close contact with the Creator. If one knows how to appreciate that contact, meaning that one should believe that then he is adhered to the Creator, meaning that all his thought is of the Creator, meaning that He will help him, for otherwise he sees that he is lost.

Conversely, one who is rewarded with private Providence and sees that the Creator does everything, as it is written, “He alone does and will do all the deeds,” naturally has nothing to add, and in any case, he has no room for prayer for the Creator’s help, since he sees that even without his prayer the Creator still does everything.

Hence, at that time one has no place to be able to do good deeds since he sees that without him, too, everything is done by the Creator. Thus, one has no need for the Creator to help him do anything. In that state, he has no contact with the Creator, to need Him to the extent that he is lost if the Creator does not help him. 

M. Laitman: Do you still have questions? Questions yet? Good. So I guess this is flowing. Let's continue. 

Reading: (18:00) Baal HaSulam, Shamati #19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?

It follows that he does not have the contact that he had with the Creator during the labor. He said that it is like a person who is hanging between life and death, and asks of his friend to save him from death. How does he ask his friend? He certainly tries to ask his friend to have mercy on him and save him from death with every power at his disposal. He certainly never forgets to pray to his friend, since he sees that otherwise he will lose his life.

However, one who asks of his friend for luxuries, which are not so necessary, the pleading person is not so attached to his friend to give him what he asks for to the point that his mind will not be distracted from asking. You find that with things that are not related to life-saving, the pleading person is not so adhered to the giver.

Thus, when one feels that he should ask the Creator to save him from death, meaning from the state of “The wicked in their lives are called ‘dead,’” the contact between the person and the Creator is close contact. For this reason, for the righteous, a place of work is to need the Creator’s help. Otherwise, he is lost. This is what the righteous crave: a place to work so they will have close contact with the Creator. 

Question (Moscow 4): (20:28) What sins are we talking about here? 

M. Laitman: That the person does not aim himself so as to come closer to the Creator. This is considered a transgression.

Question (ITA 4): (20:51) What is the salvation of the Creator? 

M. Laitman: The salvation from the Creator is that a person feels that he is coming closer to the Creator, even though he doesn't discover Him yet in his sense of reception, in order to bestow that correction does not yet exist in a person, so the Creator is still concealed. However, he understands Him more and more, even though along with that he may have also more questions about the Creator's behavior with him. But nevertheless, he does arrange his life, his existence towards the Creator, more and more. As much as there is nearing between them, distancing between them, understanding, feeling - all of that the person positions before him as that field that exists between him and the Creator, and this is where he is, this is where he lives.

Question (Haifa 1): (22:06) What is regarded as labor that the Creator appreciates, regards? 

M. Laitman: When a person scrutinizes, by what can he get closer to the Creator? And he asks to come closer.

Question (PT 18): (22:33) In what states can a person feel that he does not need the Creator?

M. Laitman: When he does not need the Creator? If it's in holiness, then there is no such thing. The more we advance in spirituality, the more one discovers that his life, his existence, both in the egoistic direction and also in the direction of bestowal, depend entirely on the Creator. And when he doesn't feel that he depends on the Creator, it's only if the Creator conceals Himself, and the person doesn't feel the source of life, the purpose of life, and this is why he doesn't need Him, but rather he is under the control of various foreign forces that exist in reality.

Student: Because normally every person, even if he doesn't really believe, he will always turn to the Creator, he always feels like he needs Him.

M. Laitman: Yes, but the question is, what is he turning with? If he is turning to Him not according to the plan of creation, then he is actually moving away. Then he enters all kinds of concealments, spiritual ones and corporeal ones, whereas if from all of his states he only wants to get closer to the Creator, that for him is the most important, then he turns in the right way.

Student: But a person doesn't quite know if he is getting closer or farther from the Creator. He's got some deficiencies, some pain, he immediately turns to the Creator - help me, give me - he doesn't know what he needs, he knows there is someone, Creator of the world to whom he is turning. 

M. Laitman: Yes, but we see how much from that, the person gets no benefit.

Question (Holland 1): (24:48) What does it mean in the article that one asks the friends to be saved from death and not ask the Creator? Why should I ask the friends?

M. Laitman: Well, he gives that as a possibility. That's one thing. Second, when a person feels himself as uncertain, not sure, there are cases where he turns to the friends, not to the Creator. He feels them altogether closer than the Creator. The Creator, who knows what he is, where he is, etc. But the friends, they exist right here before me. I have a common language with them. And in the end, we see that in all the systems of our lives, we turn to people, to those around us, and this is how we get some support. 

Question (PT 17): (26:02) Why does he write that at the time of private providence, the Creator does everything? And then he has less contact than during the labor.

M. Laitman: This is something we need to scrutinize yet. 

Question (PT19): (26:30) He says the wicked in their lives are cold head. And then the contact between the person and the Creator is a tight contact, and it gives him a place of work. What does it mean a place of work? Am I asking the Creator for a place of work? 

M. Laitman: The person who wants to give contentment to the Creator, he is always trying to find a place of work, a place of exertion, so that he can exert. And specifically, out of the person trying to get closer to the Creator, by that he causes contentment to the Creator. Not in him already reaching some state, but rather in longing that he is in the disposition for it. This is what causes pleasure. 

Student: But how does he come to a point where he can invert a place of work? What is this concept of a place of work?

M. Laitman: He doesn't long to complete the work. He longs to make an effort that causes contentment to the Creator. This is why it says: “It's not upon you to finish the work.”

Question (PT 25): (27:58) It's written here that he needs to come to a state where he feels that only the Creator can help him, and he should turn only to Him. So what is the point of having friends that I can turn to? Is this an incomplete state? 

M. Laitman: This is one of the states along the way, but eventually you reach a decision, an agreement, that you need to turn to the Creator together. It's good to turn to the friends. This brings you to connection, so that you understand more and more how much you depend on the Creator. And especially that you turn to him together. As much as we connect to that same source, we do reach Him.

Question (PT 29): (29:03) It's written that he sees even without his praying, the Creator still does everything. How come? We learn that without prayer, the Creator does not act? 

M. Laitman: No, that the Creator actually performs all the deeds, and also that they all bring us forward to the purpose of creation. He does it all. However, he's doing it through the way of suffering, this is how we feel it. So, it's not that He's waiting for us to do certain things. Well, on the other hand, He is waiting, but really, because that is desirable in His eyes. However, actually, this entire process nevertheless happens either on the left or on the right, either on the way of Torah or on the way of suffering, and therefore we need to realize that if we want to advance in a good way in the eyes of the Lord and the eyes of men, so both sides will feel good, then we need to do the effort that is up to us. And if we don't do it, then the Creator will promote us through the path of suffering. All in all, He'll reveal how much we are under the control of the evil, the bad, and out of the attainment of the bad, the recognition of evil, the feeling of the evil, we will reach the good. Or we, ourselves, will do it. The whole, the entire point is how much the importance of the Creator is more important for us than our will to receive. To ask of Him, to turn to Him, or to wait until the will to receive will sting us, and then we will have to reach a correction. Who is the one who is forcing us to do the correction? The will to receive that is embittering our life, or the will to bestow that we want to bestow contentment to the Creator? 

Question (Moscow 6): (31:37) Blunting the ego's teeth, what does that mean? 

M. Laitman: That we, in advance, want, even before the ego opens up and it starts to pressure us, a priori, we reach a state where we can advance. Not to let it show its teeth, but rather, even before that, to manage it in such a way that it will do what's required.

Question (Tel Aviv 4): (32:29) Continuing on this question, if we answer the will to receive with a bodily answer, just as it asks a bodily question, then where do we become needy of the Creator here? 

M. Laitman: Well, nevertheless, it's not done, it doesn't happen directly that we reach contact with the Creator, but rather few, few questions and answers. We get confused in them, also we philosophize in them, until we reach the understanding of where it truly exists, this source of the question. 

Question (PT 6): (33:24) How can we adhere to the Creator during the routine, on a regular day, not in the state of life-threatening? 

M. Laitman: We should have no such state as routine. Routine is the worst state. It is a state of death, and it doesn't make the person advance from the left or from the right. So, this is the worst possible state. It is death. 

Student: So, how do we turn a routine state to a state that is like a life-threatening situation? 

M. Laitman: This all depends on the Ten, on the group, on the environment. As he explains this to us in the Arvut article - I, on my own, will always exist in my will to receive, and I will enter a state of slumber. But only, it's only my connection with the others, through envy, lust, and envy, and honor. As Baal HaSulam also writes, he writes about it in Shamati. That this is what brings a person out of this world, out of the corporeal world to the spiritual world. 

Student: What does it mean to have close contact with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: That I'm constantly searching for a connection with Him as much as possible, according to the equivalence of form, according to bestowal. I hear from the Kabbalists that He is only bestowing good to me, so how do I reach a state where I feel, instead of whatever I feel now, that it is coming to me from the Good who does good.

Question (MAK 3): (35:24) How do we check that a person is making the efforts and it's not the Creator who awakens his efforts? 

M. Laitman: I don't think it's possible to check it, but rather you can say in advance that everything is done by the Creator. 

Question (Unity 2): (35:51) Why does it feel like progress in spirituality weakens corporeality? 

M. Laitman: It's according to the way the person sees it, and this is also the inclination, his ego, this is what it tells him, but in truth it's irrelevant, it's a lie. This is how we see it, that if we invest time and effort in spirituality, in the study, in dissemination, in something - it seems to us that we are stealing from our corporeality, stealing from the family, but it is all, God forbid, it's completely incorrect, because all in all, we depend on a single force in corporeality and also in spirituality, and the Creator arranges everything for us. It cannot be that one who is engaging correctly in corporeal work and also in spiritual work, that he will receive some harm. 

Student: And if it is revealed the way it was revealed to me, does it mean that I am doing something incorrectly? 

M. Laitman: Well, maybe, but maybe you're not seeing it correctly for the time being.

Question (W Latin 11): (37:19) What is the meaning of, if he were not there, he would not have been redeemed? Can a good environment of the Ten bring redemption? 

M. Laitman: If he were there, he would not be redeemed, it means that if the questions and demands come only from the will to receive without a person's exertion, then certainly it's impossible to advance him, there's no way to have a grip on him. But rather, he must try to reach out his hand to the Creator or something, so that he can hold him and elevate him, otherwise, it's not going to happen.

Question (Moscow 8): (38:11) How can we separate the questions of the body from the thoughts of the holy Shechina [divinity]? 

M. Laitman: The questions of the body are corporeal questions, questions about corporeality, about what's comfortable, convenient, good, everything that we can discern as questions that relate to our life, our body. Whereas spiritual questions are about that, eventually through these questions, I am going to disconnect from my will to receive, from this life, in thought. We're not talking about doing it physically; I remain with my family and with my work and the children and everything that's required, I keep keeping it in the corporeal form without any change from how it was before, but rather all of the changes, I want them to occur only in my attitude to life and who is managing our lives.

Question (Moscow 18): (39:35) If the body, that is, the will to receive, is a means for the revelation of the Creator, then why does it say that the Creator hates the bodies? 

M. Laitman: The body is the will to receive. The will to receive isn't good and isn't bad.  It's just something that's given from the Creator, but there can be an intention on the will to receive, right? An intention to enjoy, which is called in order to receive, or the intention to give pleasure, to delight, which is in order to bestow. And on those two intentions above the will to receive, that's what we are discussing and what we want to separate, push away, to be sensitive to them, to what happens to us. 

Reader: Friends, we'll move on to the next part of the lesson, a lesson by Rav from June 7, 2006, the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, item 34 in the Hebrew book, its on page 170.