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

Daily Morning Lesson: May 23, 2026.

Part 1: Rabash. What is He That Did Not Toil On the Eve of Shabbat, What Will He Eat On Shabbat in the Work. Article 7. (1989)

Original lesson March 2003

Reader: Dear friends, in the first part of the lesson we will study Rav's lesson from March 2003. It's based on an article, "What Is “He Who Did Not Toil on the Eve of Shabbat, What Will He Eat on Shabbat” in the Work?" which you can find in the Rabash writings. We will read the article together. We have 30 minutes to do so, please.

Reading: (00:39) What Is “He Who Did Not Toil on the Eve of Shabbat, What Will He Eat on Shabbat” in the Work? Article No. 7, 1989

Our sages said (Avoda Zara 3), “They said to Him, ‘Lord of the world, give us in advance and we will do it’ (give us the Torah now and we will observe it). The Creator said to them: ‘Fools, he who toiled on the eve of Shabbat [Sabbath] will eat on Shabbat. He who did not toil on the eve of Shabbat, from where will he eat on Shabbat?’”

We should understand this in the work: 1) What is the “toil on the eve of Shabbat”? 2) What is “Shabbat” in the work? 3) Why must we toil in order to obtain the quality of “Shabbat”?

It is known that Shabbat is called “the conclusion of the making of heaven and earth.” That is, the purpose of the creation of heaven and earth was for Shabbat. In other words, the revelation of His desire to do good to His creations, when it is revealed to all, is called “Shabbat.” It follows that He “Shabbat [rested/ceased] from all His work” because there is great work to reveal to all that His guidance is in the form of good and doing good.

At that time, there is no more work to do in the quality of weekdays, since work means turning Hol [unholy/weekday] into Kodesh [holy]. Kedusha [holiness] means Kodesh, when he separates himself from any vessel of reception and does all this work with the aim to bestow, as it is written, “You will be holy, for I am holy.” This means that as the Creator is the giver, the creatures, too, should achieve equivalence of form.

In corporeality, we see that a person works only for sustenance. Sustenance means foods on which the body nourishes. This means that the foods are what he gives to the body, both corporeal life, called eating, drinking, and so forth, and spiritual nourishment, called honor, knowledge, power, governance, etc.

In order to acquire these nourishments, a person must toil. Otherwise, he will not get it. This means that the nourishments one yearns to receive in return for his work are like a meal, and the toil is like the preparation for the meal. Clearly, one who is unfit to toil does not receive corporeal nourishments or emotional nourishments. In other words, if someone wants to be given something, the giver will not give unless the conditions that the giver requires are met.

For this reason, in Kedusha, called “in order to bestow,” man was created with a will to receive for himself, but the Giver demands that he will work for Him, regarded as “All your works will be for the sake of heaven.” Otherwise, if the Giver gives to the receiver into vessels of self-love, everything will go to the Sitra Achra [other side], who robs the abundance from the Kedusha. Kedusha means that what he does is for the sake of the Creator. If the intention is for himself, it is called “disparity of form,” and it is the opposite of Kedusha.

However, since it is against nature, both in mind and in heart, it is called “labor,” and this is the preparation for the meal. In other words, the fact that a person must aim to benefit the Creator and not himself in order to obtain the Kli [vessel] called “in order to bestow” is great labor and toil. This is called the “preparation for the meal,” and the “meal” is called “Shabbat.”

It follows that the work is considered “weekdays,” when we must toil in order to remove the secularity in man’s heart, and place Kedusha there instead. Kedusha means Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, and “secular” means separation from the Creator. All the work is to place over the will to receive the intention to bestow. At that time, a person adheres to the Creator, as was said, “You will be holy for I the Lord am holy.” For this, he obtains Kelim [vessels] that can receive what the Creator wants to give: the delight and pleasure called “the meal.” This is the Shabbat meal, and this is the meaning of “He who did not toil on the eve of Shabbat [before Shabbat], what will he eat on Shabbat?”

Baal HaSulam gave an allegory about working for the sake of the Creator and not working in order to obtain self-benefit, but to do everything for the sake of the Creator, or all the abundance will go to the Klipot. This is brought in the book A Sage’s Fruit (Part 1, p 158): “A great, benevolent king, who did not need any work to be done for him, wished only to delight his countryfolk. He sent out a decree to all the people in the country, none excluded, and dedicated a place in his palace for that purpose.

“He stipulated explicitly that it is forbidden to work outside the designated place, and their reward was with them in the place where they worked, where he prepared for them lush meals. When the work began, they thought that the king had prepared overseers to examine their work so as to know who worked for him and who did not. Yet, the king hid, and there was no supervision. But they did not know about the wondrous invention: He placed a sort of foul powder in the delicacies and confections, and as an antidote, he placed a healing powder in the workplace.

“By this, supervision happened by itself. Those who loved him kept the king’s commandments meticulously, as well as worked precisely in the designated place, and thereby inhaled the healing powder. When mealtime came, the taste of the confections was such that they had never before tasted. Naturally, they praised the king.

“But the lowly ones, who did not understand the king’s merit, for which they should love him, once they saw that there was no supervision, they did not observe the king’s commandments properly. When mealtime came and they tasted the confections, their mouths filled with a foul taste due to the abovementioned powder, and they cursed and vilified the king.”

Accordingly, it is impossible to feel the delight and pleasure found in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] because of the Tzimtzum [restriction] and judgment that were set up, so it is impossible to feel any light in vessels of reception. In vessels of reception there are only darkness and death, due to the disparity of form between the light and the Kli [vessel]. Therefore, when we want to feel taste in Torah and Mitzvot with vessels of reception, there is no taste there. In vessels of reception we can only feel taste in corporeal pleasures, where the sweetness is revealed when a person obtains the corporeal pleasures.

This was done on purpose, so that creation would exist, so there would be something to enjoy even before a person obtains vessels of bestowal, which are called “Kelim for unification with the Creator,” meaning that a person does not become removed from the Creator when receiving the pleasures. And in order to have something from which man receives vitality and pleasure, we learned that because of the breaking of the vessels, a thin illumination shines, a tiny illumination of Kedusha that shines within the Klipot [shells/peels], on which all of the corporeal pleasures feed.

Therefore, in corporeal pleasures, a person can have pleasure and high spirits. But as for feeling real pleasures, which is the primary intention in the desire to do good to His creations, there, there is the powder of concealment, and hiding, and darkness and bitterness, and there is no flavor in Torah and Mitzvot. That is, the hiding and concealment are the bitter powder that is placed there by the correction of the Tzimtzum.

He placed the healing powder in the labor in Torah and Mitzvot. That is, you find the healing powder precisely in labor in Torah and Mitzvot. And why specifically in the labor, and mere engagement in Torah and Mitzvot is not enough to receive the healing powder to cure a person from the bitter powder in the meal? To understand this, we must first know what is the powder that heals the bitter powder that the Creator placed in the meal, and what is the labor in Torah and Mitzvot by which we can find a place to obtain the healing powder.

It is known that the main labor is when we work against reason. That is, when a person does not know why he must work and he must work against his reason. This is very difficult, and it is called “labor in Torah and Mitzvot.” However, we should understand why a person must work in Torah and Mitzvot against reason, which is very difficult and not every person is capable of this, and why we cannot work in Torah and Mitzvot within reason, something that everyone can do.

The thing is that we must know what is above reason, which is called “labor,” that we must labor in engagement in Torah and Mitzvot. The point is that man was created with a desire to receive for himself. Since there was a correction on this will to receive so there would not be disparity of form upon the reception of the abundance but that even during the reception of the abundance he will remain in Dvekut, called “equivalence of form,” hence, a Tzimtzum and restriction were made.

This means that when a person wants to receive the delight and pleasure in vessels of reception, he sees no light at all, but only darkness, called “a space devoid of light.” However, one must fashion for himself vessels of bestowal, regarded as “as He is merciful, so you are merciful.”

How can we obtain these Kelim? It is done by labor in Torah and Mitzvot, when we engage in Torah and Mitzvot in order to obtain vessels of bestowal. This means that a person does not want to receive any reward for his work in Torah and Mitzvot, but his reward and payment will be that he will have the strength to do everything for the sake of the Creator and not for his own sake.

This means that if a person observes Torah and Mitzvot in order to receive reward, to obtain delight and pleasure for his own sake, this is called “observing Torah and Mitzvot within reason.” That is, the body does not object to this, since to the extent that he believes he will receive from this pleasure for his own sake, this is called “within reason.”

Maimonides says about this quality, “When teaching little ones, women, and uneducated people, they are taught to work only out of fear and in order to receive reward. Until they gain knowledge and acquire much wisdom, they are taught that secret little-by-little” (Hilchot Teshuva, p 60b).

From the words of Maimonides, we see that there are two aspects to observing Torah and Mitzvot: 1) For one’s own sake, which is in order to receive reward and not work above reason. To the extent that he believes in reward and punishment, since he takes everything for his own benefit, this work is called “the work of uneducated people,” which is within reason. In the work, this is not considered labor (although the general public does regard this as labor).

2) Labor in Torah and Mitzvot. That is, he engages in Torah and Mitzvot not in order to receive any reward for this. Rather, he works completely for the sake of the Creator. This is against reason, since reason obligates that the person will work for his own sake. Therefore, when he says he is observing Torah and Mitzvot in order to thereby receive power to work only for the sake of the Creator and not for his own sake, the body begins to resist with all its might, and yells, “What?‼ Are you crazy??? Are you trying to revoke yourself before the Creator? You tell me, what will you get out of it??”

This aspect is considered “great labor” because he must fight against his own body, when justice and common sense side with the body, as this is its nature. It follows that this is called “labor,” since it is above reason and the body does not agree to work for the sake of the Creator.

This is regarded as engaging in Torah and Mitzvot as labor. That is, by his engagement in Torah and Mitzvot, he wants to be rewarded with the quality of bestowal, which can be obtained precisely by learning in the form of labor—when he engages in Torah and Mitzvot with the intention that our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice, because the light in it reforms him.”

This means that he sees that he has no love for the Creator, but rather self-love. He cannot do a single movement for the sake of the Creator because the body objects to it. Each time he overcomes, yet he is not progressing. Rather, it is to the contrary: After all his labor to overcome, he sees that he is regressing rather than progressing.

This labor gives him room to pray that the Creator will help him. It follows that each time he sees he is regressing, he is actually progressing in his prayer because as he sees it, he is far from the goal, and can therefore pray more wholeheartedly because he sees the place of danger.

This means that he is afraid that the bad might overcome him and make him think he should escape the campaign. That is, the body makes him think that this work was given to people with strong characters and not for the general public. Although now he has taken upon himself to walk on the path of truth, meaning for the sake of the Creator and not for his own sake, but since he is not succeeding and is regressing, he is afraid that the bad will overcome him and make him think within reason that the body is right, as he sees the reality, that he does not doubt what the body tells him, that this work is for a chosen few.

Hence, this makes him pray to the Creator from the bottom of the heart to save him from this danger of having to escape the campaign. He says, “Lord of the world, please help me now while I still have the strength to pray to You, since I don’t know what will happen later; there may be no one to ask You for help.”

For this reason, he says, “Lord of the world, help me while the soul is still within me, since I’m afraid that I might die later and decline to a place of separation,” which is despair, and there is no faith in the Creator there, not even a tiny measure, so as to make it possible to pray to the Creator.

A person who falls into a place of despair no longer asks for any help. As long as one has confidence that he will emerge from his state, he still works, as in, “Everything that is in the power of your hand to do, that do.”

It follows that the labor, the fact that he wants to work in bestowal, causes him labor. This, in turn, causes him to pray that the Creator will help him, and to believe in the sages, who said, “He who comes to purify is aided.”

It follows that the healing powder is found in the labor. That is, his labor in Torah and Mitzvot in order to achieve Lishma [for Her sake], the Lishma that he later obtains causes him to have the ability to enjoy the meal, called “delight and pleasure.” Since he already has vessels of bestowal, which remove the concealment and hiding that are on the meal, that concealment pushes away anyone who wants to taste the food, and he says about the meal that it tastes bitter.

By this we can interpret what our sages said, “Fools, he who toiled on the eve of Shabbat will eat on Shabbat.” We asked, What is the “Shabbat meal” in the work? We should interpret as our sages said, that while creating Adam HaRishon, the Creator said, “What is this like? It is like a king who has a tower filled with abundance but no guests.” The meal is called “a tower filled with abundance.”

This is called the “Shabbat meal.” This is after the completion of the work, which is obtainment of the vessels of bestowal, which is all the labor during the weekdays [Hebrew: also, “secular days”]. The week [secular] days are called “six days of action,” which is the making of Kelim that are capable of receiving the general meal for the whole of Israel. This will be at the end of correction, which our sages called “Israel,” as they said, that the creation of the world was for Israel, as it is written, “In the beginning [God] created, and there is no beginning but Israel,” as it is written, “the beginning of Israel.” In other words, the tower filled with abundance is for the whole collective.

Individually, the meal is when a person corrects his actions and comes into a state of “Israel,” called Yashar-El [straight to the Creator]. This means that all his actions are for the sake of the Creator, called El [God]. At that time he is rewarded with the “meal” individually. At the end of correction, all the individuals will come with Kelim that are suitable to receive the meal, as the Creator said, “He who toiled on the eve of Shabbat will eat on Shabbat,” as mentioned in the allegory about the healing powder. In other words, through labor in Torah and Mitzvot, there, in the labor, they will find the cure that revokes the Tzimtzum and concealment lying over the meal.

Accordingly, we should interpret what was presented in Masechet Shabbat (p 119): “The emperor said to Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah, ‘Why has the Shabbat dish such a fragrant scent?’ ‘We have a certain spice,’ said he, ‘called Shabbat, which we put into it, and that gives it a fragrant scent.’ He asked, ‘Give us some of it.’ And he replied, ‘To him who observes the Shabbat, it is beneficial, and to him who does not observe the Shabbat, it is of no use.’”

Although the literal meaning concerns he who observes Shabbat, but in the work, we should interpret “observing Shabbat” through the words, “And his father kept the matter.” That is, he sits and waits and says, “When will I be able to obtain the Kelim that can receive the Shabbat meal, whose scent is fragrant, since the Shabbat meal is called “delight and pleasure clothed in the 613 Mitzvot in the form of 613 deposits.”

As it is written in the Sulam [commentary on The Zohar] (Part 1), “In each and every Mitzva, a special light is deposited. This is regarded as the Shabbat meal. We can receive this specifically after the work and labor, as it comes by observing the 613 Mitzvot as counsels, meaning tips how to achieve the quality of ‘The light in it reforms him.’”

For this reason, the meaning of “one who observes” is observing the 613 Mitzvot in the form of counsels how to achieve bestowal, for precisely in vessels of bestowal can we enjoy the Shabbat meal, for then the Tzimtzum and concealment have been removed from the delight and pleasure. This is like the above-said allegory about the healing powder: The powder found in observing the 613 Mitzvot as counsels heals the bitter powder that lies over the delight and pleasure. For this reason, if we do not obtain the vessels of bestowal, found in Torah and Mitzvot, through the labor, the concealment over the delight and pleasure remains.

By this we can interpret what our sages said (Avot 2:21), “You can trust your landlord to pay you for your work, and know that the reward of the righteous is given in the future.” This is perplexing, since we must work not in order to receive reward. Thus, why do they say, “know that the reward of the righteous is given in the future”? Accordingly, we should interpret that our sages explain to us what is the reward of the righteous in the future.

That is, all the labor they give in order to receive reward, we are told what is their reward. It is in the future, meaning that they will be rewarded with working only so that “all your works will be for the sake of heaven,” which is vessels of bestowal. For this, they give all the labor, in order to obtain “in the future” in different Kelim than the ones they have now, which are vessels of reception. In the future, they will be rewarded with vessels of bestowal, and this is the meaning of “The reward of the righteous is in the future.”   

Reader: We're going to move to a lesson with the Rav from 2003. 

M. Laitman: (32:10) We read an article from the Rungs of the Ladder titled, "What Is “He Who Did Not Toil on the Eve of Shabbat, What Will He Eat on Shabbat” in the Work?" The eve of Shabbat refers to the whole entire time of exile, because any moment, any incident we live without our awareness whether we're doing something and where we're moving or not all of it nevertheless, moves towards the purpose of creation, which is Shabbat. 

And in that process, there's a beginning and there's an end. The beginning is that we have a Kli, the soul of Adam HaRishon. It's called the created being, and the created being needs to be corrected and brought to equivalence of form with the Creator. To bring that Kli to equivalence of form with the Creator, we have to instill vessels of bestowal into the will to receive. 

This is done through the sin. The vessels of bestowal are unrelated to the created being. It's the quality of the Creator. This is called the aspect of Israel. When Israel mingles with vessels of reception called Nations or Gentiles, that means they go to exile among the nations of the world. And how are the vessels of reception, the Gentiles, become corrected by the vessels of bestowal called Israel by mingling with them, becoming intermingled and incorporated with each other. And then giving a correction to Israel, and from Israel, that correction then passes on to the nations. 

So to begin with, there's Israel that receives Torah, vessels of bestowal, with forces of bestowal. This means that Israel is called the beginning, and that's indeed the order. 

Then, Israel descends from their degree and comes to the degree of the nations of the world. Certainly, the Torah disappears from them as well, the light, the light that reforms, the light that fulfills the vessel. And what they have left is only the commandments taught by people. 

Meaning that they engage in Torah and Mitzvot that are corporeal only, which means without intention in order to bestow, only the corporeal act. And indeed, the truth is the people of Israel need to maintain the Torah and Mitzvot in a corporeal way, because it keeps it as a nation, as a framework. It's unrelated to spirituality. 

In the meantime, they mingle with the nations. Now, mingling doesn't just mean moving to all kinds of countries, but mingling means they go to the degree of the nations in terms of thought, appreciation, the goal. They learn from their deeds, the actions of the nations. They take their life goals. They adopt their life goals. And afterward, when the mingling reaches a full degree, complete degree, then the people of Israel have to awaken, and the nations to begin to help them do that. And then comes a correction through Israel to the nations.  Meaning the meal, the completion of the craft is for the entire world, starting with Israel. And then it appears that in truth, all the corrections are for the nations of the world, for the vessels of reception. 

M. Laitman: (37:05) Therefore, the entire time that the people of Israel received the Torah to begin with- before they fell from the spiritual degree, the time of the first temple and second temple, and came out to exile; so it was the people of Israel and the Torah with them. 

Then when the Torah disappeared, as Baal HaSulam writes in item one, introduction to TES, that there's a fear that the wisdom of Kabbalah in general, from the time of the destruction onwards. The iron wall has been made, and it may completely disappear from Israel, disappear from Israel. 

Meaning, that there won't be any way to achieve correction. Certainly not, but by horrible suffering and who knows what. When assimilation comes and the time comes to engage in Torah and Mitzvot for correction, which means the light that reforms, and then all the means called Torah and Mitzvot that correct the person, the soul of the person, then comes also this method to both Israel and the nations of the world. And they all begin to engage with it, because the correction through Israel must come to the nations. Meaning that they both have to ascend to the degree of the end of correction. 

What's interesting is that even throughout history, before our time, there were many Kabbalists who studied with groups of people from the nations. Ramchal studied with Gentiles. Abulafia studied with Gentiles. There were Kabbalists who publicly, deliberately studied with the nations. There was a very kind of prominent movement of such.

Because making the commandments in practice in our world, as done by religious Jews, that is forbidden for the Gentile. But the inner correction belongs to the Gentile, and they taught them. There's research on that. There's whole research on that. And there was even no, not just resistance, but there's a specific type of path, except they studied specifically the book of creation, all kinds of things like that. But essentially, yes, throughout history, with very great Kabbalists, because the inner correction belongs to both. The external correction, meaning only the action alone in this world, belongs to Israel.Any questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:41) It's written in the article that although it is against nature, both in the matter of mind and in the matter of heart, and that's called labor. What are those two aspects, heart and mind?

M. Laitman: Well, mind and heart in each and every degree you know- in every degree, the soul is ten Sefirot. Only a degree determines what these ten Sefirot are, how lofty their qualities are, or how corporeal, to the extent, to the level of the intention. 

So, in our degree, the Mocha and Liba are, let's say, our mind and heart, the emotion and the mind. Where something is unacceptable to the heart and to the mind, to your reason, as written here, right? Even though it is against nature, both in mind and heart, this is called labor. Meaning that neither the heart nor the mind agree with the action, and a person tries to do it. He can't, because if it's his mind and heart, what else does he have, with which he can do in any action? Other than mind and heart, I don't have anything more. 

Either the mind overpowers the heart or the other way around, and then I'm able to do something with the mind or with the heart, or let's say my heart doesn't want to, and I'll increase my mind, and with that stronger mind, I'll submit the heart, subdue the heart, or the other way around. Maybe my brain tells me it's not worthwhile, but the heart is on fire, so it doesn't listen to the mind, and just follows the emotion. We see that on ourselves. 

But if it's neither this nor that, then with what else can I do anything? 

So, precisely when neither the mind nor the heart agree with the action, then it might possibly be a spiritual action. Only then. 

Meaning, it's not an indication that the action is spiritual, but if it is a spiritual action, then certainly the mind and the heart do not agree, both of them. And then you've got nothing besides crying. From where are you crying? Not from your mind, not from your heart, because they belong to your beastliness, to your will to receive. But you cry from the point in the heart, at your mind and heart, which are incapable, and you turn to the Creator to help you, to give you the power to subdue the mind and the heart. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:36) That's in corporeality. In spirituality, does the point in the heart also have a heart and mind?

M. Laitman: In corporeality. Each and every person has that in corporeality. Look, let's say I see a guy loves a girl. We try to come to him and increase his mind, and we say, no, it's not worthwhile, there's someone better there for you, it's not really for you, it's not going to work. Right? Let's say, then we leave him, and he doesn't care. He's turned on, he throws his mind away, and he just wants to work with his heart again. 

So, that's how you have to convince people, right? And whatever it is, a diet, or some health, fitness, whatever it is. That's what we do in corporeality. 

If I want to achieve something big, like being some great scientist, then I must always increase the goal both in terms of my inspiration. My emotion, my mind do all kinds of calculations to make it worthwhile, you have to work on it. 

But spirituality, which is concealed and cannot bring me any benefit if it's true spirituality, meaning in order to bestow, so the mind doesn't give me any appreciation to it, and the heart certainly doesn't jump at it yet. So how will I do it? How will I move towards that? I've got nothing to do, can't go anywhere. I just have to scrutinize in my mind and heart that I have no attraction to it, and that I'm not capable of it at all. And along with it, the point in the heart will strengthen and cry to the Creator. If I don't strengthen the point in the heart alongside this situation, I just become despaired and I let it go, and I leave. 

This is the matter of, on the one hand, having an attraction forward, seeing that the heart and mind don't agree, and on the other hand, increasing the point in the heart. And only through the society I can get that, because I can't get it from any other place, only from outside, which is either the group or the Creator. That can give me strength, if I turn to that, and we usually don't do that. We try to find in spirituality all kinds of temptations, all kinds of worthiness. 

Meaning we falsify, distort spirituality, it's not spirituality, what we are imagining. True spirituality is something horrible, meaning that give me anything besides that, and I'll agree. Anything else. 

Meaning we're still far from seeing what spirituality is, and interpreting it as true bestowal. We somehow glue to spirituality all kinds of labels that indicate that there is some pleasure for us there, it's worthwhile for me. 

And in truth, it's because I think that I'll gain something — honor, power, especially honor and power. And then the heart and mind are certainly willing, and then we have no labor. There's no room for labor. The room for labor begins to be after the mind and heart don't want. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (47:20) He writes about spiritual nourishments that are called honor, knowledge, control, governance, etc. I never heard that honor and knowledge and control are spiritual nourishments.

M. Laitman: Let's read the whole paragraph, the whole part. I don't know what you mean. Page 290, the last part. We see in corporeality that a person works only for sustenance, for a reward. What is corporeality? Corporeality means in order to receive. Spirituality means in order to bestow. 

We're always talking about the desire, not about being in a body, or I'm already dead, and I only have a soul. We're not talking about that. Corporeality and spirituality is the intention, in order to receive and in order to bestow. 

So, if I work for a reward, that means I'm in corporeality. Or if I'm in corporeality, that means I'm working for a reward. And reward means nourishment for the body, meaning that this is why it works, this is why it gives the fuel, my body, my will to receive, my corporeal will to receive. This means that the nourishment He gives the body, our corporeal life, eating and drinking and so forth, it's what He fulfills Himself with. It's not a matter of calories, it's a matter of pleasure.

 And there are spiritual nourishments, meaning spirituality, what I feel in corporeality as spiritual, like honor, power and knowledge and so forth. Meaning we have our life, the way we exist now, and in this life, we have corporeal nourishment. And that's the pleasures with which we fill the body corporeally. 

And then there's pleasures, which we call spiritual pleasures. But spiritual, let's call it human. It's culture and education and control  and honor and development, knowledge, something like that. You understand? What the pure beast doesn't have, but only the human has. 

Student: It's only grasped like that in our eyes, inside the desire to receive. 

M. Laitman: Yeah, we call it spirituality. How do you call a spiritual person? Like a philosopher, let's say. What do you call the sciences of the spirit in university? They study all kinds of, you know, the human studies. They call that spiritual, they refer to it like that, as in humanity.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:17) He speaks here of all kinds of exertions, all kinds of labors. Maybe you can describe what are the different levels of labor?

M. Laitman: Different levels of labor means in accordance with how much you are acknowledging spirituality that is ahead, before you. What AHP of the upper one are you facing, which is darkness, which is tastelessness. It's dark and just gray. And despite that, you want to adhere to that. 

You realize that your whole recognition of spirituality is through your will to receive. And what you feel as tasteless and a lack of attraction and all that is because your will to receive is unable to see the beauty and wholeness that exists in bestowal.

Student: I'm asking, but labor, when a person is sitting in his chair, it's not like some kind of effort that he can make some kind of effort here. 

M. Laitman: What is labor? A person who's sitting in his chair, is he doing labor? No, an athlete who's running, he's in labor. What are you trying to say?

Student: You know what I'm saying, like a person who enjoys during the study, then he's studying, let's say. 

M. Laitman: What does it matter what he's doing? And what do you call a study? I don't understand. Labor, he tells you, labor is on the condition that spirituality doesn't attract me, not in the mind and not in the heart. And from my point in the heart I turn to the Creator and cry for help. Building this movement, this array, reaching that state, that prayer is called labor. 

Student: Not by mind or not by heart. So the fuel after that I receive in mind and in heart?

M. Laitman: Do you receive later when you discover spirituality? Do you receive fuel in your mind and heart? 

Yes and no. Or, only this and or only that just like in our world. Usually there is feeling and there is intellect. And the feeling rules. A person usually feels it when he's in an ascent. So I kind of feel the fall. I'm kind of...I feel it's good, so I need to correct the feeling. If he doesn't have a feeling, then it's a problem. He needs, at least by the mind somehow to correct his situation and to say that his situation needs to be again a good feeling. Lead him to a good feeling again. 

Meaning when there is no emotion, a person wants to somehow correct and fulfill. That's already a true state. But it's not necessarily that both of them need to be together. In spirituality they come together. Because the screen and reflected light and reception of the light in that Kli, they all come as one. There, the mind and heart work as one. But that's not the case in our world.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (54:49) If my mind is clear that I'm not going to get anything from spirituality, and also in my feeling, then what still attracts the person? 

M. Laitman: If not the mind and not the feeling give me the justification to be in spirituality, what sustains me nevertheless? It's probably not the final disappointment yet. Rather, there's still more in this, besides that there is self-respect, honor, how I am towards myself and towards the group, towards the family, and so on. There are many supporters that hold a person as one of the herd- if you will, kind of inside of one's framework. 

But when a lack of feeling and mindfulness totally is lacking, then nothing helps. He cannot be impressed from anything, and also the society. No, he has no supporters. Here, only the preparation from the point in the heart, which one absorbs from the society can help. This against that. 

Because our vessel is the heart, which works with the senses and the mind, and if we don't develop the point of the heart we will have nothing to turn to the Creator with. That's why we're not really given to despair as we should. We're not ready yet. And the people of Israel have sighed from the work is a very high degree.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:02) What is the preparation?

M. Laitman: The preparation is to strengthen the point in the heart. To the extent in which you're willing with your point of the heart not to let go of the Creator, nevertheless, no matter how much your heart will not feel good, nor in your feelings, nor in your mind. To the extent in which you receive importance for the Creator, whatever you feel, you'll be given accordingly more and more darkness of the darkness of Egypt.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (57:42) My connection with society must be active or can it be passive? Can I receive inspiration and strengthen the point in the heart or I have to be active in my connection with society? 

M. Laitman: Does a person need to be active in the society in order to be impressed by it? Yes? One is active. Where is the friend? He's not here. Okay, one is active. You see, sometimes it comes two or three times a week, makes noise, runs, and it's done. 

The second one, like you, words methodically, sits there for hours with the computer, all kinds of things, each according to their characteristics. We cannot measure. We have no possibility of measuring the activity of a person. The activity altogether is not in what we measure. What you have in nature, what the Creator implanted in your body according to that you can't measure a thing, because in that we are externally not equal, not similar to one another. But internally, this has no impact whatsoever. Internally, what influences is your demand towards the society. I give myself to the society in order to receive this reinforcement to my point in the heart, in the connection with the Creator. Because I cannot with this connection, I received this initial connection from Him, and all the rest I can only receive from the friends, from the society, as an addition to the point in the heart. And I don't have what to receive from.

So I come to them, and I bestow to them, and I demand from them, and I yell at them, and I invest in them. Also with my impressions towards them and subduing myself so that they will operate with me, so that I'll be impressed from them. 

Meaning it has nothing to do with how much you scream, and how much you go around and run, but rather it has to do with the labor you put forth, and with that, the intention that you give. This without that is impossible. It's written, “a commandment without the intention is like a body without a soul.” You can do many actions in this society, but if you don't join to it, the intention, that’s okay. Well, a good guy as they call him in the society, he's not spiritual, he's active. Yes, active. Yes, very nice. It's good. 

God forbid I'm not disparaging this, but because they come gradually, and the corrections arrive. One is measured only according to the intention. Spirituality is measured, even in our state, only by the intention. Spirituality is intentions only, and what do I want from my action? To the extent in which my desire and my goal go together. That's why you can sit and work silently with a computer and no one knows about it, and that's your character. You can't make noise there and make a lot of wind, but the investment is a great investment, and the demand is a great demand, in accordance with what you have, with the intention, and that's it, and that works.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:01:17) The society doesn't receive inspiration from it. 

M. Laitman: The society receives the impression. It knows how it receives, and it receives. But you need to talk about it a little. But you see, one screams all the time, non-stop, and you can't stop him from speaking, and the other one takes a few words after a few months. So our advancement depends on the intention, not on the activity. 

It's enough to sit silently and think, and you'll feel to what extent we're all beginning to burn. It moves through spirit, not...Words are very materialistic, very corporeal in nature. It operates in a very corporeal, physical plane, okay?

I don't understand you. Are you asking, where in the work with intentions is there Lo Lishma and Lishma? 

First of all, all the work is only with the intention, meaning, go out of the body, yes? Connects yourself to your intention, meaning, what I want, at least that. Think that at least that's the intention. In truth, intention is something even more than that. But let's say, what do I want? Yes? What result, and who should receive this result, yes? Measure these things, and say that that's your intention. The intention could be for my own benefit, even if I spin it as if it's not for myself, and yes? That's it. Or, for the benefit of the Creator. For the benefit of the Creator, I can say as much as I want to say, but what's to the benefit of the Creator, I don't know. 

And altogether, what thing gives benefit to the Creator? Where do I first feel Him? Where do I feel that it's better for Him, worse for Him? You know, how, what? Maybe in such a way, without any connection with me? If I think that I will get some kind of benefit from this, and that's the only reason I'm working, that's called Lo Lishma. Why is it then called Lo Lishma, not for her sake? It's just considered a regular egoist, yes? No. If I'm connected with some form of connection within thought with the Creator, with spirituality, and I think that He will have good for me, but I connect it with what will be good for myself as well, that's called Lo Lishma.

And if I entirely cut off all the results from myself, so that I won't have any benefit from this in any way, and I know to do this scrutiny in truth, and I'm willing to do this…that is I received forces from above, the force of faith, in which I can rise up my desire to receive above self-benefit, it needs to be a force that comes from above. I can't just like that do it, or want it- to do such a thing. It's simply impossible. We need to receive the force of Bina, yes? To connect to Bina, to do the first restriction, and then correct vessels of bestowal, and then I can say that I'm capable of working without any calculations for myself, that I have a compensation for my vessels of reception. 

This is after many degrees. Then it is considered that I am working in Lishma, Lishma meaning for the sake of the Torah, or Lishmo, like for the sake of the Creator, it doesn't matter. Rabash describes the concept of Torah and commandments in many ways. There's Torah and Mitzvot, Torah and commandments, where the Torah is called this parchment that we have there in the holy tabernacle there, where all the Torah is written on. And that's where we do the commandments on it, and man learns how to do all those movements, all kinds of verbal things that he has to say, and so on. This is called commandments or Mitzvot. This is what children from age three up are taught. From the age of 13 they're obliged to keep this, and this is called Torah and Mitzvot. This is called Torah and Mitzvot of the learned people, and what does this mean? What they were taught, that's what they do. They observe the Torah and the commandments of the Creator, or of the one who taught it to them? Of the one who taught it to them. The one who taught it to them gave them all kinds of actions, all kinds of habits. He put this into them as a second nature, and they do this. They do it as a habit. They feel not good if they don't do it. Prevent them from doing something, and it will be bad for them. They won't feel good. They'll feel bad. The habit becomes second nature.

M. Laitman: (01:07:24) I had a friend like that in the synagogue with Rabash, remember? He needed on the eve of the Sabbath, when we sing the song for the Sabbath, he had to scream it out, and to jump, and to do this, and to applaud like that. I once stopped him a little bit, and he said, no, I can't, I'll feel bad if I won't do it. From all my heart, he said, I'd feel bad if I didn't do this, I must do this. So I saw how this is simply a habit of sorts, that for him, that's his nourishment. He fills himself with it. This is called observing Torah and commandments of the learned people, who learned how to do so. And then, there's Torah and commandments where people, even not religious, want to observe something, you know, for the sake of themselves. 

Let's say I have today, in the morning, I have a trial with you in the courthouse, and before that, I go to the synagogue. Yes, I'll lay down a few bucks down there, I'll place the Tefillin on me, I'll kiss the book of Torah, and that will help me, yes? Then that's a completely different relationship to it. He's not just doing this out of habit, but rather, he really thinks that there's a spiritual force that will help him. He relates this as something living that can bring him benefit. And this is a different form of relation here. Not completely in the matter of habit. 

And take any secular person, put them through a little sufferings, you'll see all of a sudden, they'll start to think, maybe I should replace my Mezuzah, and the entering, or at least change my name, yes? Or all kinds of such things.

There is Torah and Mitzvot, when people begin to think that by this they can bring benefit to themselves in this world, truly. So they really exert themselves, invest themselves in Torah and commandments, or at least a lot of charity, they donate a lot. That's also an approach. Then there's an approach that he wants to work for the next world, so he donates here and invests, whether those who observe Torah and Mitzvot, corporeal ones, yes, but they have already a goal, the next world. Today it's fine, but after 120, you know I'll have my own place prepared there, you know. 

There are those who already begin to think that there is something that is completely, completely abstract, that doesn't belong to this world or to the next world. That is in order to completely change our dressing, to let go of our nature, all the thoughts, all the desires, even though it's good, never mind. When you come to the question, what is the meaning of my life? You come to it when I feel bad, and so what is the meaning of my life? So I run to the synagogue to perform all kinds of Torah and commandments, right? To give charity, et cetera, to feel good.

M. Laitman: (01:11:32) The question, what is the meaning of my life, is a very profound question. The question, what is the meaning of my life? If a person asks it seriously and he's asking about his will to receive, not that he feels bad in his will to receive, but even if he feels good in his will to receive, he wants to change it, he wants to come out of it. Because he feels, if he has a real point in the heart, that he must change his nature. He cannot be in it, he must be inverted. That's already something else. Then he needs Torah and commandments that are called reforming light, and certain actions accordingly. And then he understands that specifically these actions, which in themselves are actions that during the study he yearns for your nature to be inverted, and you already have a group where you can try to perform such actions as if you are already in the opposite nature. There's also in between, and I already jumped into a more advanced stage. 

When we talk about the point in the heart, we're speaking in general. That the point in the heart means that spirituality is more worthwhile than corporeality, that the Creator is greater than everything I have around. Meaning you work on, this world is good, but spirituality is better. It's impossible to really understand what it is. There has to be a miracle. Besides this, nothing will help. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (01:13:32) Can we make an adaptation, like a translation, between commandments in our regular language or commandments of reward and reception? Should we know what taste every commandment has?

M. Laitman: The commandments that Jews do in this world are intended to preserve them in the framework of the nation. The commandments that a person does in order to be a spiritual Jew, Jew from the word Yehud, unity with the Creator, these are completely different actions, they are actions on the will to receive, not on the body. 

Now I'm drinking tea, I have to say a blessing before it, that everything is done by His words. So I say blah, blah, blah, that's it. But if I really need to say this commandment, that everything is done by His words, it means I have to check all of my will to receive, and does it have the control of the Creator in it one hundred percent, yes? And I annul myself in my will to receive completely, and I let the Creator control it one hundred percent, and I seemingly don't control it. This is called everything is done by His word. And by this I become as Nefesh, from NRNHY, the smallest degree. This is the blessing of- everything is done by His word. Well, if a person can do this in practice, also it depends on at what level, at each degree you have that stage. Okay, where are our guys, the organizers? 

Song: (01:22:01)

Reader: Let's share impressions from the lesson. What from it are we taking for the work?