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

Daily Morning Lesson: June 18, 2025 

Part 1 Recorded Lesson October 4, 2021. Baal HaSulam, Shamati 11, Joy with Trembling 12: The Essence of Man’s Work

Reader: Hello friends. In the first part we will watch Rav Laitman about the article Shamati 11, “Joy with Trembling”. You can find it in Sviva Tova and the Arvut system. You can also ask questions, selected questions will be asked during the lesson. 

Reading: Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 11. Joy with Trembling Twice

I heard in 1948.

Joy is considered love, which is existence. This is similar to one who builds for himself a house without making any holes in the walls. You find that he cannot enter the house, as there is no hollow place in the walls of the house by which to enter the house. Therefore, a hollow space must be made through which he will enter the house.

Therefore, where there is love, there should also be fear, as fear is the hollow. In other words, one must awaken the fear that one might not be able to aim to bestow.

It follows that when there are both, there is wholeness. Otherwise, each wants to revoke the other. For this reason, we must try to have both of them in the same place.

This is the meaning of the need for love and fear. Love is called existence, whereas fear is called a deficiency and a hollow. Only with the two of them together is there wholeness. This is called “two legs,” where precisely when one has two legs can one walk. 

Rav’s Introduction: This means that one time we are in wholeness one time in deficiency. And we can advance either in one or the other, and only when we stand in between the two of them, then we can attain both fear and love together – both the deficiency and the fulfillment. But usually, we are in one of the two, either in love or in fear; otherwise, we cannot advance and when we advance one completes the other. One time my love pushes me to increase the fear and by increasing the fear – by making it greater – I can reach greater love. This way one helps the other, it is like having two legs to walk with, one leg that works pushes the other leg forward not itself, this is how we walk. Therefore, we achieve the goal and in spirituality it is very conspicuous that the love and fear complete one another. Well, let’s hear a few questions and then, maybe we’ll read it again, because this is something very subtle.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (05:44) Why is he introducing joy here because in the first sentence he says that joy is considered love, I can be joyful for myself, also; what does it have to do with love? So why is he connecting joy with love and what does it mean to exist?

M. Laitman: Joy is out of good deeds, joy out of the fact that I have achieved the ability to bestow contentment through the created beings to the Creator. This is why it is joy from that I get joy; as much as I bestow through the created beings, I reach the Creator. Because He exists inside the created beings in their depth; the way He builds the whole of creation from above. How he created the created beings the same way, I can bestow through the created beings reaching the Creator. Therefore, my joy is in that as much as I am promoting the created beings, thinking about them, I am bringing them the attainment of the Creator. As much as I am in this action, I can reach joy, this is called the good deed. A good deed means the deed that advances the created being to correction and attachment with the Creator. This is why this action then causing joy and a great correction.

Question (ITA 4): (08:12) What can we do in order to increase the fear?

M. Laitman: Fear I can increase by understanding that I am one of the created beings and I have a great work to do. And I have to do it, and this is what I have to do, and nobody else in the whole world, in the whole reality. Among all the created beings among all the souls cannot do this work instead of me – to do my part – and I do have to do my part. And I do have to do it, by me bestowing, influencing all of the souls from my side, from my behalf. Advancing them to the Creator, this is actually my work to give Him contentment. And, accordingly, I feel how much the Creator wants to bring contentment to all created beings. When I am incorporated in this, when I cause this, by this I achieve the true state, the true joy, and this is actually the sign of correction.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:16) Why is it written that otherwise each blames the other, wants to cancel the other? What does it mean that otherwise each wants to revoke the other?

M. Laitman: The advancement can come only from the correct combination of two opposite forces, just like we walk on two legs, so we also advance in spirituality – joy and fear. That, seemingly, the two of them are opposite to each other, they cancel each other. However, we reach a state where they complete each other: As he says that on one hand, I need to build a house and, in the house, I do not need anything besides the walls and the roof. But they say it is not enough, you also need a door to enter, you need windows so we can have light and air. This is impossible to build anything that is complete without a deficiency, a hollow. There has to be an entrance, there has to be holes, openings. And it is the same for us with what we build, we cannot build something that is whole, even though we are seemingly attracted to this. But very quickly we realize that it cannot be light without darkness, we cannot have joy without sorrow inside of it. We cannot have love without the hatred, discovering the opposite forms. Nothing can be whole in reality except for the Creator; but for the created beings, we are in a state where we have to complete, to compliment these two things – both the joy and the deficiency in such a way that both of them will support each other.

They give us the attainment of the Creator in a complete manner, what we call, love covers all crimes. In all the work, what we actually do is we complete one another; this is how the advancement happens, just like walking on two legs. And again, I am saying again, one leg cannot advance itself unless we jump on one leg, but rather, one leg advances the other leg. Like when I stand on my left leg, the next thing, I do in the meantime I am advancing my right leg forward. And when I stand on my right leg, I’m advancing my left leg forward and this is how it is in spirituality. 

There cannot be love without fear, there cannot be wholeness without deficiency inside of it. Only little children think that this is possible, but we who already have some experience from life, we see that this is impossible. And to begin with, we should accept it, as the wisdom of Kabbalah says, it teaches us – the whole wisdom of Kabbalah – how to use the two lines in order to reach the third line. This is the entire wisdom of Kabbalah, and the third line is called, the soul that we build through the right combination between two opposite forces. To give and to receive, when the two meet together, by that we build the form that results, which is called, the soul, Neshama. And with that we have only a single point. However, it is possible to build it only by taking our broken vessels, and out of them we build the complete thing. And complete, always, includes inside of it, both the wholeness. And the deficiency and the wholeness cannot be without the deficiency, and the deficiency cannot be without the wholeness.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:39) Why is there love and fear and not love and hate, for example? Why is there emphasis on the two that are not really opposite?

M. Laitman: These are two lines which are complete to some extent, that if we want to advance ourselves to the sublime goal, then we have no choice. We need to see how we build the love and in order to build it, we have to realize that inside it there has to be fear. And fear includes also hatred and rejection, actually this is the main thing we need to have: If the Creator is the good force, than He had to create, opposite to Him, the evil inclination – the bad force. So that only in the combination of the two forces – and it does not mean that one cancels the other. The Creator actually created the opposite force, and through the combination of both of them, we can advance. 

And we also need to see that with us, how it is actually revealed in practice. Many times, we feel rejection hatred even like the students of Rabbi Shimon who wanted to kill each other. When you reach those high degrees, how can that be? When you reach those high degrees, you are supposed to be completely in love. But, no, there cannot be love without hatred inside. This is what we need to understand and learn and accept this with full understanding, and maybe then also the states between us will improve. That we will understand each and every one and will accept each other, in such a way that inside love you also have hatred. The hatred should bring us, if we use it correctly, should bring us to love. And then in the right combination between darkness and light, we reach the correct state. It cannot be that you have only one without the other, it does not exist. From the good side and also from the bad side, it will not persist, there is no such thing. The general force of nature was built on the both of them, on two, and this is why we see that there is war and the great hatred and in the end, it ends. And there’s love seemingly, absolutely pure love; but it ends up breaking. Rather, the whole wisdom is in that we combine the two of them together and we can see in a mature, correct way, these two opposite forces, how much they are not opposite. But instead, they are actually complimenting each other so that you cannot have one without the other. 

As he explains, that one who builds a house has to think about the openings, meaning the deficiencies in the walls of the house because without that, air or light cannot come in and he cannot enter or exit the house. Seemingly, he's building deficiencies in this complete wall. But without that it is impossible because we are not the Creator in whom there is nothing negative, it is only positive in the way that it happens, exists, we cannot understand it. For the created beings, they already have to be built from the negative side, and constantly add to themselves, the positive side. Then they can be incorporated from both; the correct in incorporation between the deficiency and the wholeness is called, Neshama the soul.

Student: How do we build these spaces, in these hollows in the Ten? We have to have to create the feeling of love or do we have to worry about the deficiencies as well?

M. Laitman: No, we don't have to concern with the deficiency, and this was done, deliberately. Why do we not awaken the deficiencies? Because we to begin with we come from the shattering from the general total deficiency. And from there, we discover each time the shattering, the deficiencies and we have to think only about the connection. However, we should understand this is how we need to raise ourselves from the shattering to connection, from shattering to correction. And when we build this correctly, we reach states which are called, the middle line – when we use correctly both the deficiency and the wholeness. So that the true wholeness includes both of them, this is called, love covers all crimes; and the crimes have to be there. This is why we see how much our ordinary education in this world is not good. And so, you see how many people divorce, distant from each other: They love and then they hate, why? Because none teaches them how to build the correct relations. So that both the hatred and love should complement each other, and when I discover negative things in the one that I love, it is in order for me to be able to complete them with love. And this way, we will never reach a state where we truly hate each other then we want to part. We will want to complete each other instead so that the love covers all crimes. And this is what we call true wholeness.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:53) Is there a stage in the spiritual work where we don’t need fear anymore; and when does the egoistic fear disappear?

M. Laitman: The selfish fear, of course, it gradually transitions and it takes on a form of a different fear, the of whether I can truly be able order to bestow. Am I concerned about the general Kli? If I am talking about bestowing contentment to the Creator, then I cannot bestow by myself. Only in the beginning can the person think so that what am I what will happen to me. Until, through the connection with the group, which influences the person with reforming light, and it truly reforms him. And then he begins to be concerned about the entire vessel, the collective. Because through the connection of the 10 or even more than the Ten, even more, the whole world he can give contentment to the Creator and otherwise he is. If he thinks only about himself then he is still in the beginning of the path in the Klipa, shells. And this is okay this is how we advance just like little children this is how they advance also. However later on when we become grown-ups, then we can already take care of ourselves and attend to ourselves. And this is how it is also in spirituality: When we grow, we begin to feel that indeed bestowal it is something that is important. And we have no chance to reach bestowal on our own but only to the extent that I push the others toward connection to the Creator. But I myself cannot give contentment to the Creator because it will always be egoistic, that is the opposite of bestowal. However, gradually, through the reforming light we get a new mind, a different emotion, so that all in all this I start to realize that all my work should be only in that, I advance the Ten, at least my Ten to the Creator. And by that, I give Him contentment and this is considered that I am performing a commandment that I perform a correct spiritual action.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:06) How can we direct the work of the Ten to feel fear from not being able to be in bestow, in love?

M. Laitman: We are not talking about the whole Ten, we are talking about the person; in the meantime, that the person should to try to check himself, if his attitude to the Creator passes through the group, that Ten. And that if he wants to bestow to the Creator, he has to understand that this can be only with the condition that he is concerned about advancing the whole group to the Creator. Seemingly he is serving the Creator, like this, like on a tray. He is serving the Ten, the group, the world to Him from his side, as much as he can advance them to the Creator. This is actually his spiritual work, and by that he is giving contentment to the Creator.

Question (Kyiv 1): (27:45) He writes in the article this is where there is a place for love you also engage in fear. What does it mean how to work with fear?

M. Laitman: There are a few matters here – not a few even, but many – when I am in the inclination toward love, I also have to check myself all the time whether I am in this. And it is impossible to check something except to something that is outside of it, the measurement can only be from the opposite of that phenomenon. And to build each and every phenomenon, we can do it upon the opposite phenomenon: Let’s say, how can I increase the love by discovering the rejection, distancing, the hatred – in all kinds of different manners – and to that I add the quality of love and this is how I advance, and it is impossible in any other way. And so, our work is always on two legs, this is why the article is called, Joy with Trembling; that is, we advance together with love and with fear. And when one who knows how to combine these two forces, these two qualities together, he actually advances. And this has to be for us as a law, and if we don’t forget about it, then we can never reach the extreme states – the positive or the negative. But we will use both of them in a way that we keep moving forward.

Student: In the Ten, we are concerned about love increasing all the time. What is the trembling?

M. Laitman: I cannot advance unless I monitor the love and the connection between us and as much as I am able to increase this connection, how much it is working inside of me in a form that is less egoistic and so on. The criticism monitoring the connection has to be there so the connection, seemingly, is positive but we also need the negative. We see this everywhere in the world today in all kinds of places where we want to advance by building two groups, or two factories, so that they have a competition, a struggle between them. A struggle o who is better and who is more successful. By this we can reach the good and correct and complete result and it is the same, here.

Question (Tel Aviv 1): (31:25) We march between black and white and in the end, we come to the gray, which contains everything and is this the contact with the Creator?

M. Laitman: This is a lie, you seemingly didn’t hear what I’m saying. We don’t reach the gray or none of it. Rather even on the left when I am in criticism I am in a directed criticism. That I am doing it in order to increase the right, and it is not that from the black and white we end up with gray, there is no such thing. I am sorry that you are speaking like this. Think, read, and listen to what we have talked about now and if you have any questions, then turn to me.

Question (French): (32:43) It seems that there is a contradiction between today's article and yesterday's article. Yesterday, we said that one cannot be happy and feel bad, it's either one or the other. And today, he speaks about both states together, that there can be both fear and gladness – love and hatred – so there seems to be a contradiction here?

M. Laitman: Look, when you meet a girl, let's say – let's say you are still young – if you want to reach the correct good state, then you need to know the negative things. You need to discover them, specifically in your desire, in order to strengthen the love. Not in order to move away from the girl, but in order to know all of these things in the right way because this is how man was created – this is how people were created. Such that inside each one of them, there are many negative things in the character, in the habits, the conducts, in each and everything. The negative things, meaning that it is negative in your eyes; however, if you see that you need to truly connect with that person, then you gradually need to discover in him all kinds of things that are not according to your spirit. But by this, specifically, your attitude to her strengthens. So that you accept these things in the right way, this is how you can then continue to get to know that person – not only a woman, but in general – and to keep going together. 

And this is what we learn from the wisdom of Kabbalah that we cannot attain the wholeness unless we add to the Creator’s good force, the bad force, the opposite of Him. Since He created the evil inclination because we have two opposite things here. And we, at the end of our development, we gradually need to combine the two of them together. One will serve as the coarseness in the Partzuf of the soul and the other one will fill that soul. And this is how we need to work and this is what he is talking about, here: If we want to build the house, the soul, then we need to be ready for it. That we will discover many deficiencies, hatreds, rejections, until the want to kill on another, so much so even, and once in a while. But it is not that this will work on us such that we will run away from the work. We understand that in such a way that a person who is healthy, who is grown up with great desires, this is how he is built, and there is nothing we can do about it. Love covers all crimes so we have the crimes and love covers them, but we feel those crimes – that is what I don’t like in the other one and I accept it also.

Student: When we are on the right line, we feel good and on the left line, we feel bad. Why can't we feel both together?

M. Laitman: In the end, we truly have to feel both together but we cannot reveal only one of them but only one opposite the other. And then the two combine together on the middle line, this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah basically teaches us: How to combine both of them love and hate together. And then it is called complete love. We will talk about it because this is basically the whole method but we need to learn how to do it.

Question (Tel Aviv 4): (39:39) In the beginning of the article, he says that one makes a hollow place in the walls of the house. Then he writes that one has to awaken fear, what is the difference between making a hollow place which he makes by himself and awakening the fear? It sounds as though he’s awakening something that he has no control of?

M. Laitman: Take it from our work, we need not to build the house, we need to build the connection between us and the Creator. In order to build the connection, we need both coarseness and refinement; and precisely in this way, we build it. To begin with, he says this, if one builds a house and doesn’t create a deficiency in the walls of the house, he doesn’t get a house, he gets this brick, cube. We, who want to build, also have to worry about revealing deficiencies, so when we connect in the group and we walk along the way that we started together, we reveal deficiencies to one another. All kinds of criticism awakens in our egos against the friends; it rejects as we don’t want it. We have to understand that these are precisely those deficiencies we have to take into consideration; and not as he writes in a different article, it’s not like I see a deficiency in the friend, I see these deficiencies in me. Then, I have to basically be happy that I have such friends and relationships with them, where I discover my own deficiencies, and over these deficiencies, I can come to a state where I compliment them. This is how I advance.

Student: It sounds as though these are two different degrees. Usually, when we criticize, we criticize what is bad, what’s wrong, we don’t criticize what’s good?

M. Laitman: I have to criticize what is not good in my own eyes, please add, in my own eyes. Then, on top of that, I have to do another criticism: To what extent am I complementing the criticism I had with my own eyes, with my ego, to what extent am I complimenting it with the force of bestowal, the force of Bina? Then, I elevate myself from Malchut to Bina when I compliment it. And when I understand that what I see in the other is only an imagination, it’s imaginary, it’s an illusion, where in fact I am seeing my own flaws, not the friend’s flaws. In this way, I advance when I ask for correction, to see the friend correctly and the correction is in the crimes, meaning revealing the coarseness. It remains and the complementation remains as well, and then, I already have the form of the Partzuf, the coarseness, and the refinement. Then, with it I can go on to the next degree, and so on and so forth. We will learn these things bit by bit; we will gradually open it up.

Student: The fear, is this a force that comes from above? It’s not something that a person can awaken, but rather?

M. Laitman: We can awaken anything, the only question is where it comes from, and that’s always from above.

Question (Turkey 4): (44:05) Is the fear of what is revealed on the left line?

M. Laitman: The fear that is revealed, I can’t say it’s on the left line in each one, it depends on what degree the person is in. A fear might be revealed from just a person – who is afraid of advancing, he doesn’t know what will happen to him – there are all kinds, it can be psychological states on one hand. On the other hand, again, if we are working through the society to promote the society to the Creator, here I am truly, how should I put it, protecting myself from my mistakes. I don’t think I can go wrong because, if I am concerned about the society advancing towards the society so He will enjoy it, it would be more and more cohesive, consolidated, then that’s my whole work. From this I will learn the right and the left, and how we advance, what’s important is that, when I discover something negative, the first thing I do, I understand that I revealed the bad in me and in no one else. The other towards me is as perfect, complete, as the Creator – I am talking about the spiritual inner work of a person. In this way, I already begin to correct myself.

Question (Latin 1): (46:40) This part in the text, where he says that one should awaken the fear of maybe he might not be able to bestow. How can this part be the opposite of love? It seems like this is a desirable state on our path, that we want to achieve. It’s not clear, Rav, can you help me?

M. Laitman: If you don’t reveal something negative, then you have no opportunity to overcome the negative and come to the positive; this is called, love will cover all the crimes. In other words, if I want to come to wholeness, I have to reveal bad things and be happy about them, just as when I reveal good things. Because out of the two reality is made, consists of, that’s the way it is. And there is no preference between the negative and the positive because you can’t have one without the other. He explains it to us, you can’t eat something, unless you add some pepper, salt, and other such things, because without those spices the food is really unfit for eating, inedible. Animals eat it like that, but we don’t, and it stems because we’re a higher spiritual root. What are you trying to say?

Reader: (48:47) I am just saying this is in Shamati 34, this is what he writes about these things.

M. Laitman: Okay, read it.

Reader: It's not ready, yet maybe we should prepare it, then?

Question (ITA 1): (49:17) This fear, is fear out of the bad, or fear that I am not succeeding in being in adhesion with the Creator?

M. Laitman: Correct, you’re right.

Question (Latin 7): (49:43) When I connect with my friends, do I build some deficiency together with them or do I build the connection without a deficiency? Is that the same thing? When I am connected with the friends, I complete their deficiency or do we build the deficiency together?

M. Laitman: No, it depends entirely on you, entirely on you.

Question (Almaty 2): (50:40) To the extent that we study, the more we study, I realize that we keep attaining, and a person has all kinds of expectations and hopes. And there’s a certain moment where a person feels, I attained something, I achieved something. But following, sometimes, disappointment comes. I realize these are simply means for growth, for development. Through the degrees, you realize this disappointment has a role. How do we combine both love and disappointment from our expectations correctly, in a beneficial way?

M. Laitman: Ascents and descents are always our way and we have to try to accustom ourselves – to be in both ascents and descents in a way that promotes us; and the mood itself doesn’t influence us. Rabash would point to himself and say, let it suffer. Meaning he would separate himself from his body, the body felt some bad mood or some kind of disappointment or what not. But he, himself, the part of him that yearned for the Creator, was above it and then he divided himself into two, and said about the part that was disappointed, let it suffer. Try to accustom yourself to this.

Question (W INFO): (52:34) What is spiritual fear?

M. Laitman: Spiritual fear is very simple; it is when I am afraid that I am not going to be able to bestow contentment upon the Creator. How do I bestow contentment upon the Creator? By advancing my Ten toward Him, toward the Creator, that’s it. If I try to do it, it is something internal, in the mind and heart. If I think about it, if I worry about it, if I push it towards the Creator, this basically is my spiritual work. By this I am certainly giving Him contentment.

Question (Hebrew 10): (53:44) According to what we learn now, it seems as though the attitude is really wrong, why is that? Because when a person is afraid of losing the joy he achieved, so?

M. Laitman: That’s the ego, the lack of adhesion in bestowal. If I am in bestowal, I am above my physical feelings; and I yearn only to be in my spiritual disposition.

Student: So, not to be afraid to lose what you have?

M. Laitman: You cannot not be afraid; you have to correct those things and then you won’t be afraid. You can’t just decide it; you have to bring in the power of correction.

Question (PT 2): (54:36) If a person, who is an egoistic will to receive begins to feel fear, a desire to bestow, a lack for bestowal, why is that in contrast to love? It is something new that is in a different direction, isn’t it?

M. Laitman: Perhaps it is, but we are talking about a different manner when he discovers negative things in one that he loves. I can give an example from our life, that when we get to know each other more and more. We have to be ready to discover all kinds of negative things, and then we have to know that love will cover all crimes. If the goal is what is important, then I have to rise above all those things along the way that surface, I have to rise above them in order to come to our common goal.

Student: If the Ten is now criticizing its advancement, what should we criticize, we always have this question: What should we criticize, what should we not criticize in the Ten?

M. Laitman: We, first and foremost, criticize the most important thing: Am I, this is what each person has to ask himself, am I concerned about promoting the Ten to the Creator? That’s it, am I pushing all of them together to the Creator? This is basically our work in the Ten, this is spiritual work; afterwards, there are additions to this but later they will come on top of this.

Student: Can the Ten check how much is advancing? Or is it only individual criticism?

M. Laitman: No, you still cannot measure it but there will be a time when you will begin to measure it according to the levels of coarseness, and refinement, and the screen, and all kinds of things; you will have it.

Student: You tell us more than once, check out what you’re missing as a Ten and raise it to the Creator, direct to the Creator as a common deficiency? How do we scrutinize in the Ten what we are missing in the right way?

M. Laitman: We are not talking about this, right now, we are talking about how much each is concerned that he can push the Ten to the Creator, only this, do not mix them.

Question (Latin 3): (58:05) They say my spiritual work is always going forward, but we have states where we might feel that we’re progressing but it’s incorrect. What do you recommend to us so we can truly perform a Mitzvah? What do you recommend we truly help our Ten advance, spirituality?

M. Laitman: This is what we have been talking about for the last hour. And I have to be concerned about how I promote the Ten to the Creator so the Creator accepts and tend to them. This is number one; number two, in this work, I see myself only as the operator, as the one who promotes them and I myself do not count. The more I engage in this, the more I come into the work of bestowal. You have no other expression of work of bestowal from the person to the Creator, except when he presents the Creator with the Ten, so the Creator can bestow upon them. And the Creator gets pleasure from bestowing upon the Ten and the Ten gets pleasure from advancing toward the Creator. And the person has the pleasure of bringing them closer to each other while he, himself, does not think of himself, he does not take himself into consideration except as the operator.

Question (PT 31): (01:00:13) What does a person lose if he is not aiming in order to bestow? What should he be afraid of, what is he missing out?

M. Laitman: A person who is not afraid if he is in the aim to bestow or not, it means he is not promoting the group or humanity to the Creator, and this is what the Creator wants. This is the meaning of bestowing upon Him, if he’s doesn’t do it, then he’s not doing it, so he is living outside of spirituality. Spirituality means we are directing and bringing ourselves back to the system of Adam HaRishon. Each and every soul should be concerned about bringing the system back to adhesion with the Creator. When we are talking about a person in the Ten, each and every one has to try to carry out our operations toward the Creator. This is basically man's work.

Student: If we don't carry out actions to the Creator, does the loss also reach the corporeal level?

M. Laitman: Yes, that is clear, but it is a result that doesn't happen immediately, or in tandem, in parallel; we don't really care about that.

Question (PT 27): (01:02:01) What are actions that the friends do to push each other to the Creator? Are there physical actions?

M. Laitman: He helps them in any way that he can to connect among them, and be directed toward the Creator. I have nothing more to say.

Question (Ashdod 10): (01:02:33) We advance by walking with true love and fear. What does it mean to take a leap in spirituality?

M. Laitman: I don't know, there are such things along the way, but they are out of our hands.

Question (PT 32): (01:02:54) There are different kinds of fear, spiritual fear. s there ways to turn physical fear to correct fear, the one we’re talking about?

M. Laitman: Yes, we have to delve into it and to understand where it comes from, and why. And then fear to acquire its correct spiritual characteristic.

Question (Zafon 2): (01:03:27) What is the degree called, love, in the work between us?

M. Laitman: Love is, there are love on several sides; we also learned from the articles of Shamati and we have to attain it. Love from the good side, from the bad side, absolute love, complete love, everlasting love. There are all kinds of degrees in love and let's hope that we will reach it. The steps, general steps toward love is what we are now learning: It is when I am concerned that my small society will advance toward the Creator and for the Creator to want to accept it.

Question (MAK 6): (01:04:33) According to what Rabash says, let it suffer, it's very easy to check to see if the ego is suffering. How can I determine if my happiness is from my ego or from bestowal?

M. Laitman: That’s also difficult to understand whether it is egoistic or not. In love, who am I loving, myself or the other? So, love for the other has to go through hatred to the other. When I rise above the hatred to the other, I then come to love, real love – the one that the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks of. Because we can't love the Creator, it is a force of bestowal; if it bestows upon me that is a different story. But it is impossible to love the force of bestowal, it is darkness for me and not light, as it is written in the Zohar: Why do you need spiritual light? It is darkness and not light. This is why we need to prepare ourselves in qualities of bestowal in advance. And then, we will be able to advance towards the revelation of the Creator; otherwise, it will seem to us like something terrible because it is the opposite of our qualities. We will advance toward it a little bit.

Question (Tel Aviv 3): (01:06:51) Should a person develop fear toward the Creator or also toward the created beings?

M. Laitman: No, only toward the Creator, and out of this he relates to the created beings.

Question (Kyiv 1): (01:07:17) What does it mean when you say that he was able to distinguish his individual self from the ego, from the body?

M. Laitman: This I cannot tell you, try to reach these things. He was in the force of bestowal, he would say about the force of reception that appeared in him, he would say about it, let it suffer; and also, his physical body, let it suffer. That's the way it is.

Question (PT 3): (01:07:59) How do apply, correctly, love cover all crimes towards all kinds of external commitments that a person has towards the Ten: To get there, to take part, etc., to show up. What should we cover with love and what should we demand from the friend?

M. Laitman: Not demand from others, alone, but for the group to agree to uphold the necessary conditions without which we don't advance. Without which we don’t come closer to spirituality. And therefore, here we do need to – maybe I didn't understand the question.

Student: How not to be confused with the principle that love covers all crimes with respect to external actions and commitments, in terms of framework and participation? That each one should also express himself toward the Ten in this way. Not to say, love will cover all crimes, and to say I cover these things as well.

M. Laitman: You really do need to cover with love; I didn’t understand.

Student: That’s exactly the question, many times it's unclear what I should say to the friend, you didn’t participate in the lesson summary or show up for the lesson, you were not here or there. The Ten should say this, not me, I understand that. The Ten should say this and demand from him, or where should we just cover it with love?

M. Laitman: Basically, I have to accept anything the friend does in the right framework of the group as a good thing, a good and correct thing. You mean that love will cover all crimes, what do you mean?

Student: Okay, but what if he doesn’t participate, correctly?

M. Laitman: We have rules that we need to follow in the Ten.

Student: What does it mean to cover all crimes in situations when a friend doesn't participate?

M. Laitman: No, if he's not a friend if he doesn't participate; a friend is someone who continues to be drawn to correction with us, and we feel criticism on each other. So, on this criticism, we cover with love, but if he's not participating, then he's not a friend. The word, friend, Haver, comes from the word Chibur, connection; if a friend doesn't come to connection with others, it is as if he's not in the Ten. What is there to talk about?

Student: We have such friends in every Ten, so how do we work with this?

M. Laitman: This is why our Tens are like that – our Tens are lame.

Student: What does it mean, love covers all crimes in such states?

M. Laitman: In such states, you don't cover it with love; if a person doesn't participate, how can I love him if he is not my friend? I can’t connect with him, we're talking only about different manners, when we don’t feel manners of behavior of friends because they are different from us.

Question (ITA 3): (01:11:54) What I see in the world, it seems to be advancing much faster than our advancement in the Ten. Each day it seems that the world is distancing from the purpose of creation, so can we use that in order to awaken fear between us?

M. Laitman: Yes, I think I talk about this a lot. We need to see how people in the world are falling from day-to-day and how much they need correction. How they, themselves, are talking about the changes that have to be made, but they don't know how or what. And we have to give them more and more information about what is happening in the world and why it’s happening in the world. There is only one reason: Everything we see in reality, in all of humanity, is a projection of ourselves from within us. This is what we learned about the perception of reality. Therefore, the world will not change for the better until we start correcting ourselves to be better. The deterioration will accelerate more and more until there is no escape or a chance to succeed unless we start changing man. We only need to help people understand that the correction of the world depends upon the correction of man. That's a big problem.

Question (W INFO): (01:15:58) How does the fear determine the quality of the prayer?

M. Laitman: Fear determines the quality of the prayer because the prayer contains both the positive and the negative, the deficiency and the filling. To the extent that we scrutinize the two states, left and right, accordingly, we can activate them in a prayer and accordingly receive an answer. Our prayers should include precisely, the lack and the gratitude. We complement ourselves by this.

Reading: (01:15:48) Baal HaSulam. Shamati, 12. The Essence of Man’s Work 3x

I heard during a meal on the 2nd day of Rosh Hashanah, October 5, 1948

The essence of man’s work should be how to come to feel taste in bestowing contentment to one’s Maker, since all that one does for oneself removes him from the Creator due to the disparity of form. Conversely, if one acts in order to benefit the Creator, even if it is the smallest act, it is still considered a Mitzva [commandment]. 

Therefore, one’s primary exertion should be to acquire the strength to feel taste in bestowing, which is through lessening the force that feels taste in self-reception. Then one slowly acquires the taste in bestowing. 

Question (ITA 4): (01:19:17) A long time, now, I'm trying to work with this force that pushes me to receive for myself. And I really want to use this force in order to give others, so what can I do in order to lessen the force of first state of self-reception and exchange it in taste for bestowal?

M. Laitman: What are you doing this for?

Student: I guess this force is stronger than me and I want to use it for the good of others and not for myself.

M. Laitman: Okay, well. If you are trying to attain through an action a certain result you have to scrutinize if this action is happening, properly. Let's see again.

Rav reads: The essence of man's work should be how to come to feel taste in bestowing contentment to one's maker. Why? Since all that one does for oneself removes him from Creator due to the disparity of form. Conversely, if one acts to benefit the Creator, even if it is the smallest act, it is still considered a Mitzva, a commandment. 

Meaning whatever brings us closer to the Creator is considered a Mitzva. Whatever removes us from the Creator is called a transgression. Because our goal is to reach adhesion. 

Therefore, one's primary exertion should be to acquire the strength to feel the taste in bestowing, which is through lessening the force that feels taste in self-reception. Then one slowly acquires the taste in bestowing. 

This means a person should try to diminish the pleasure of reception. How can he? He's incapable. And as much as he advances, he becomes more and more he's drawn to the force of reception. He's drawn to the pleasures because anyone who's greater than his friend his inclination is greater. He only has to try along with being drawn to that, to also be above it. That's it, it's not that these flavors will be gone, or that he won't wish for these flavors, for the pleasures. No, of course he'll want them more and more, but he knows where it comes from; and then he may face it. All the scrutinies are in the head and then in the heart, then he advances to the ability to diminish it in the will to receive. And he attains more and more taste in the will to bestow, and again it's not by talking to oneself. Try to bestow to the Creator through the group, and you'll start receiving the light that reforms, and this is what's going to change you. That's all, we have no other work besides that. Let's do it first in the Ten. 

Question (Moscow 6): (01:23:49) How do I check myself in this, that I'm really performing acts of bestowal and not falling again? 

M. Laitman: As if you're doing it for the sake of the Ten, of the group, you can see it practically; there are no thoughts here, it's actions. Make an effort to connect them more, to help them more, in a more effective way, to learn, to take part. Try to do that, and then you'll see how much your work is correct. You'll start getting the right response from above, as a result of that. Meaning, in your emotions, in your thoughts, and even in your strength, you'll start getting a response.

Student: There needs to be here an agreement of the entire Ten, is that the criteria?

M. Laitman: No, if you want to bestow to the society, it's certainly not against their desire. It has to be in the same direction of the connection of the Ten.

Question (USA Northeast): (01:25:19) My question is, working with these desires that you just describe as ones that one would like to use for himself. If a person chooses to work with these desires in the correct intention, is this the same as, he who comes to purify is added? Does this begin to purify the desire, itself?

M. Laitman: Yes.