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

Daily Morning Lesson: July 5, 2025 

Part 1: Recorded lesson - Oct 15, 2021. Baal HaSulam, Shamati #20. Lishma [for Her sake] 

Reader: Dear friends, in the 1st part of the lesson we learn from the lesson with Rav Laitman from October 15, 2021, it is Shamati article 20, The matter of Lishma [for Her sake]

Reader: Hello, we are reading in the writings of Baal HaSulam, we are reading in the Shamati article number 20, Lishma [for Her sake]. You can find the study materials on our site or on Arvut system you can click on the tab button “study materials”. You can ask questions both on our site and live, questions that are pregnant to the lesson materials will be asked during the lesson. 

Rav’s Introduction: We are continuing with the same primary topic, actually this is why we exist in this world, in order to reach from the state of the will to receive in which we were born, and we develop and we reach a state where we feel how much it is pressuring us and how much we suffer from it. And then some part of the people they are given an opportunity to rise above the nature of this world, which is called the ego or the will to receive for oneself, to a different level, so that it will be the will to bestow. Which is the nature of the upper force, the quality of the Creator. Eventually those who have this desire, this drive to reach the will to bestow, the form of bestowal, the form of the Creator, they need to implement, to actualize this inclination which they have that the Creator gave them. The other people, they will already do, make this ascent following them. As we learned that we also have a great will to receive, but inside of it, there is a tiny point that is yearning to reach Lishma, for Her sake, the point in the heart is what we call it, and also we should understand to that extent that we yearn for the Creator,  that we become that point, that special point that is yearning to reach the Creator, and it determines the fate of the entire heart, meaning this whole great desire of humanity. This is why we need both to care for how to give contentment to the Creator and also how to save the whole of humanity from that egoistic, terrible state in which it exists, and therefore is suffering more and more from one day to the next. Our work and our purpose in this world where we exist right now, where we were born and where we feel and discover the state that we are in, is to rise from it, from that terrible egoistic state to the upper world whose nature is the opposite nature, the opposite quality, the altruistic nature of bestowal and giving instead of reception and hatred. How do we do it? By shifting from the desire to Recieve for himself, by each one to receive only to a desire to bestow to others, each one to everyone. And by that, we attain the Creator's nature. This transition is called transitioning from Lo Lishma, not for Her sake, to Lishma, for Her sake. This is what it is called, our state where we exist… not everyone, I am talking about those who long to reach Lishma. So, the state they are in beforehand is called Lo Lishma, not for Her sake. They are not yet in Lishma, so Lo Lishma. What does that mean? People who do not yearn for the Creator, they don't know, they don’t understand that they have to replace their disposition from the will to receive to the will to bestow, from hatred to love of everyone, that they only need to change themselves and not anyone else, and everything that everyone feels in his world, he is feeling himself. This is why what we need to do is make a transition from Lo Lishma, where we are not yet in bestowal and love for others and for the Creator, to Lishma, so that we will reach love to others and to the Creator. This is only for those people who receive a drive for it and that they are drawn to it; it's not for all the people in the world. They will do this work in a simple way. They will be elevated specifically as a result of our efforts to the degree of Lishma, which they deserve.

That state where we exist where we feel this world in our egoistic desire, is called this world, and we get it in our uncorrected desires, the way we were born, and how we develop. When we want to get to an altruistic desire, Lishma, to love of others, to feeling others,  to be concerned for others instead of concern for ourselves, and this is called bestowal, then it is considered that we are beginning to feel the upper world and the Creator. This is actually our work, you know that. I've repeated it and went over it a little bit before this article that we have today, which is called Lishma, for Her sake.

Reading: (08:40) Baal HaSulam, Shamati #20. Lishma [for Her sake]

Concerning Lishma [for Her sake]. In order for a person to obtain Lishma, one needs an awakening from above, as it is an illumination from above and it is not for the human mind to understand. Rather, he who tastes, knows. It is said about this, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” 

M. Laitman: This is why there are many people who study the wisdom of Kabbalah, they study the text, and it is a true study. However, they don't hear that you need to reach Lishma. They say these things, but they don't understand what is the essence of these words. Until bit by bit over many years, they start to understand that here it refers to an inner change within the person. That the person shouldn't observe or perceive the environment, the world, in his vessels of reception, but rather he will perceive them in his vessels of bestowal. It turns out that we have to replace our vessels, and then the world and everything will change. And until we replace our vessels from reception to bestowal we won’t feel a different world. We won't feel ourselves in a different reality.

Reading: (10:31) Baal HaSulam, Shamati #20. Lishma [for Her sake]

Because of this, upon assuming the burden of the kingdom of heaven, 

M. Laitman: Meaning that he does agree with the goal of reaching in order to bestow, Lishma, and he takes it upon himself that this will be his goal.

Reading: Baal HaSulam, Shamati #20. Lishma [for Her sake]

…one needs it to be in utter completeness, meaning only to bestow and not at all to receive. If a person sees that the organs do not agree with this view, he has no other choice but prayer—to pour out his heart to the Creator to help him make his body consent to enslaving itself to the Creator. 

M. Laitman: This means that we truly begin seriously to see the goal that we have to reach. Everyone in the world needs to reach it, everyone who exists in the world should reach Lishma. The question is if we go as the avant-garde, as a commando unit, and we're breaking through to Lishma, and then we see that all the generations of the Kabbalists are there in Lishma, all the souls that have already corrected themselves, and we join them. Then there is the other part, which are the people who did not receive the revelation of the point in the heart that pushes them to the Creator, to reach Lishma, bestowal, they are in it passively. They live in this world according to the thoughts and desires that nature, Providence, the Creator, awakens in them each and every moment, and they just perform actions completely without any free choice. And this is why we need to understand that our free choice is unique. There is only one choice: we either exist as the servants of Pharaoh, as slaves of the will to receive, or we reach in order to bestow, and then we are servants of the Creator. But in order to be in service of the Creator I need it to be an choice each time, in an effort, that each time I reject servitude of my ego, and I want to be a servant of the Creator.

Question (Kiev 1): (13:53) Does Lishma happen in a moment or does it happen gradually?

M. Laitman: Lishma means in order to bestow, to be above the in order to receive. There's a lot written about that, by the way. This is the nature of the spiritual world, the quality of the Creator, the will to bestow, the form of bestowal, etc. Lishma refers to the will to receive, which is essentially the person who rises above his will to receive, and he starts to work above the will to receive. Constantly, seemingly he wants to cover his will to receive with the intention to bestow. The will to receive remains as it is and actually it shows itself each time that it is greater and greater than before. However, it is all in order for the person to be able to cover it with a desire to bestow, with the intention to bestow. To use the will to receive in order to bestow. This is actually our work. We need to be alert to the fact that we exist in the will to receive, and it changes each and every time, and it even grows. Accordingly, we need to be concerned about how do I resist it, how do I cover it with the intention to use it above it, or even use it, use it in order to bestow. If I use the will to receive so as to bestow above it, it's considered that I'm on the degree of Bina. I still have the coarseness of Shoresh, Aleph or Bet, meaning zero, one, or two, from Malchut to Bina. If I'm able to use the will to receive that awakens in me in the degrees of Gimel and Dalet, the degrees of 3 and 4, then I can use it in the opposite form, even to receive in order to bestow. This is already great work, and it is very special. This is what we try to do.

Question (Almaty 1): (17:28) Is there a benefit in us connecting with the Kabbalists through the Ten, like we connect to the Creator and ask for the help from the Kabbalists?

M. Laitman: We need to ask for help in all possible forms. It's not only that we rise above our ego and we continue our corrections, but we also elevate them by us turning to these high souls and asking for corrections. By that, we are also bringing them into our system, and each and every corrected part in the general system of Adam HaRishon, as much as it is corrected, is happy to take part in the following corrections, so it has great joy when you turn to it. This is considered to make the souls of the righteous happy, and this is what we need to do. Later on we will learn about how to connect with them. This also pertains to the Ibur, the impregnation, of the souls of the righteous. Yes, we do need to do this.

Question (Hungarian-Polish): (19:10) In the introduction, and just now in the last paragraph, you spoke about the passive part of the soul, which will push us to achieve Lishma. How is this happening? Is it something that we feel inside, the push of the passive souls? Is it something that comes from above? How does this work?

M. Laitman: We can't talk about that now because we don't feel these things. And what doesn't enter our senses, we don’t want to talk about and philosophize about it, because this will simply be an opening for great confusion. Kabbalists only talk about what is revealed for sure, for certain, in their vessels. The time will come when you will have a connection with the high souls, there are actually those clothed in bodies and those that are not clothed in bodies of this world. You will get to know everything. Gradually, bit by bit, we'll talk about the whole of creation. Gradually, to the extent that you're able to receive it and not to be mistaken.

Question (PT 20): (20:44) Maybe I have a certain example to give, that maybe a certain desire awakens, and how do I use it, even the smallest possible one, to Lishma. How do I invert it to the benefit of the friends?

M. Laitman: As much as you are capable, use all of your desires for the benefit of the friends, and this will be on the way to Lishma. That is all.

Question (PT 19): (21:21) The question is whether Rabash meant that when a person should pour his heart to the Creator, is it every person in the Ten, or all the Ten together? 

M. Laitman: Both this and that.

Reading: (21:47) Baal HaSulam, Shamati #20. Lishma [for Her sake]

Do not say that if Lishma [for Her sake] is a gift from above, what good is one’s overcoming and efforts, and all the remedies and corrections that he does in order to achieve Lishma, if it depends on the Creator? Our sages said about it, “You are not free to rid yourself of it.” Rather, one must give the awakening from below, and this is considered “prayer.” 

M. Laitman: Is it clear that against the will to receive that the Creator created, which is the entire nature of the whole of creation, the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking I cannot do anything. I don't have the vessels, the means, I have no possibilities to reach my will to receive and to change it, to diminish it, increase it, or move it from state to state. It just seems to me that this is possible, but it is impossible. It's considered replacing a cow with a donkey. I want to work with the will to receive by myself, and it seems to me that I am changing the will to receive. Instead of one, it's a second one, then another one that I'm overcoming, and I'm doing it. It is impossible to do anything. Therefore, all of our actions are only by us turning to the Creator, and He gives us the mind and the power to perform the right actions. And without Him, we can do whatever people say, but these are not corrections. Everything that I am capable of doing with my mind and my heart is not considered that I am performing a correction, because the corrections can be done only by the upper light.

And therefore, without turning to the Creator for Him to help, for Him to teach, for Him to do, I do not achieve anything. I do not advance with my individual correction, or general one, or in the Ten, or even more general one, in humanity. Therefore, what we need to not forget, first of all, is that all the corrections that I want I must first turn to the Creator. It's unrelated to all kinds of things that we determine in the Ten, in our lives mechanically. We have to keep these things in the relations between us, in the relations between people. It’s unrelated to that.  Those things, yes, we have to keep them also with our own forces in the relations between us, but true corrections to advance towards bestowal, towards true connection, we can do it only by turning to the Creator. In the end, following all the efforts that we try to perform, all actions of connection, bestowal, only one thing is left for us: to turn to the Creator for Him to help us, to teach us, and for Him to give us the strength, the mind, and the understanding of how to perform acts of connection. This is actually the only action we need to do following the shattering of the general soul of Adam HaRishon.

Question (Toronto 2): (26:13) Baal HaSulam says here in the second paragraph, “if a person sees that the organs do not agree with his view, he has no other choice but prayer, and one must be given awakening from below. But if the organs do not agree, then it applies that you can't even do the prayer, you can't even give the awakening. It's  like a function that approaches an axis but never reaches the axis. So, it seems that you can never… the ego will never let you give this prayer. How does this work?

M. Laitman: That is true, but nevertheless, if we try together to carry out that appeal to the Creator, it does come out of us, and it does reach him. Because in our appeal there is the matter of envy, lust, and honor, the matter of competition, the matter of well, all kinds of things. Meaning, the will to receive is also mixed in our prayer. So, we can do it. Even though we are one hundred percent the will to receive, a small will to receive, however, through the negative connection between us that exists between us, we are able to reach a state where nevertheless we do want to turn to the Creator and to get help from Him.

Envy, lust, and honor, they are measured from one person towards another person, right? Envy, lust, honor from one person to another person. Because if I wouldn't feel the others, if I wouldn't have these three elements, these three inclinations: envy, lust, and honor, I wouldn't even feel them. Because I exist in the human society, which is egoistic and broken, so towards all of those who are in the society I have an egoistic perspective. I look at them through envy, lust, and honor. So then, when we want to connect and overcome these things, we feel how much we are not capable of it, and we run away from it. If over that too, over the connection we see this as necessary in order to achieve the honor, to feel the envy and the lust, then it turns out that specifically those negative inclinations help us. This is how we can turn to the Creator and demand and ask of him for our advancement. Advancement even towards bestowal. Even toward bestowal.

Student: So it seems that at that point of despair that even the ego is asking, the ego is actually emitting this prayer. Is that correct?

M. Laitman: Yes. We will learn about these things. In the meantime, let's advance according to the article. But you're right, you should ask more.

Question (Moscow 7): (30:46) What does the prayer need to be so that it will become an awakening from below?

M. Laitman: The prayer if we want to awaken the upper force so it will bestow to us, it has to resemble the upper force to some extent. Meaning, it has to be on the same wavelength in the same frequency as the upper force. The upper force works in bestowal, so our prayers should also to some extent before bestowal, to an extent at least. Then to that extent, we are obligating the Creator, the upper force to hear us and to respond.

Question (ITA 1): (31:38) Lishma do we obtain against the fight of the ego with suffering or with the discovery of joy that grows time by time?

M. Laitman: No, no, no, it's not about the joy, we should also have joy, but it's a result of the fact that I am certain that I am advancing on the right path. However, we are advancing above our ego. We are asking to have the strength to rise above our egoistic inclination, and only in such a way that I want to rise above my ego, and to acquire all kinds of forms of bestowal in the group. Of course, in the meantime it is only in the group or in our entire vessel, the world vessel of Bnei Baruch. In such a form, I am rewarded with receiving forces from above so that I can incorporate in the vessels of bestowal, meaning in the soul, Neshama. The soul means the will to bestow and then in such a way I already begin to feel and understand what is happening. What is going on in the true reality, not in our limited domain, which was deliberately created by the Creator in a particular form of a desire in order to receive. Then we exist in it as if in a bubble. But rather that we try to come out of it to the broad world, the world of bestowal, the true world. Like this worm, right, that has to come out of this bitter radish and this is how we need to understand what is our reality relative to the true reality.

Question (Zafon 2): (34:15) What is an action of true correction in the work?

M. Laitman: True correction is a prayer, as he says. A prayer. However, we need to understand what kind of inclinations we have for the prayer. Preparations for the prayer, a correct request, because only it actually advances us towards the Creator, toward the general force of bestowal.

Question (Merkaz 1): (34:56) By what do we merit an illumination from above?

M. Laitman: Through the merit or through the force of annulment toward the upper force. As much as I am willing to annul myself, to concede myself relative to the force, to the general force of bestowal that exists in the whole of the surrounding reality.

Question (PT 35): (35:35) What is it to feel the world in vessels of bestowal?

M. Laitman: It is considered to feel it as it is, according to our degree of equivalence of form. With this true world, the world of truth. For that, we also need to first of all to acquire this quality of bestowal. To the extent that we have vessels that are like the spiritual world, so we will feel the spiritual world to a certain extent.

Question (Woman Internet): (36:48) How to receive the flavor of Lishma in the Ten?

M. Laitman: When we try to be closer and closer to each other, at the beginning out of lack of choice and later on more and more with the understanding that we must reach connection. Otherwise, we won't feel anything besides whatever each one perceives, each one of us through his own perception of reality in an isolated, discreet manner, uniquely. Then we don't feel anything except for ourselves. A person, when a person instead of the true reality he feels, sees, and attains whatever is inside of him, in his vessel of reception, in his will to receive, and this is considered that he is attaining this world, which is the opposite, which is false, it is untrue. Therefore, what we need is only to realize that without connection between us, we're not capable of feeling the upper world. That's one thing. Second, to reach a connection between us, we're not capable of doing it on our own, ever. Third, to reach the connection between us we can do it only through the upper force because it is the force of bestowing and connection. To the extent that it projects to us its power, to that extent we will advance towards such a connection where inside this connection we will start to feel the spiritual world, the Creator. These actually are the actions that we have to carry out, actions of connection between us, and only according to the degree of connection in them, we will feel the spiritual world. The fact that we don't want it, it actually comes to us as help so that we will start to feel what it is that we are lacking, what is hindering us. Then in order to invert this resistance, this opposition specifically to coming closer to spirituality, then we have to pray. To ask of the Creator that He will invert our force of reception, rejection, envy, lust, honor, everything we have. All of our inclinations to move away from others, that He will invert it to the opposite, to nearing. He is capable of it. This is what we need to ask for.