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

Daily Morning Lesson: September 7, 2025

Part 1: Recorded lesson - Recorded lesson - Nov 15, 2021

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 59. Concerning the Staff and the Serpent

Reader: Hello, in the first part, we will learn from a lesson from November 16, 2021. The article is Shamati 59, concerning the staff and the serpent. It's in the Arvut System and in the writings of Baal HaSulam.

Shamati 59, “Concerning the Staff and the Serpent.”

Reader: Hello, we are reading from the Shamati articles, article 59, “Concerning the Staff and the Serpent.” You can find the article on kabbalahmedia.info, or you can find it in the Study Materials tab in the Arvut System.

You can also send questions, relevant questions may be aired. Rav, please.

M. Laitman: (00:53) From all the Kabbalistic writings, I would divide them into several groupings. The most important one is those that take us all along the way, from the beginning of our work in which we can't yet differentiate between states, degrees, relations. They're not quite understood yet, just like children who don't yet understand to the extent in which adults understand where they are, what they're doing, until we come to states that are much more important, more mature, and so on. The main thing for us are those rules by which we can advance all along the way, and they actually don't change. Certainly, there's a difference in the way we use them, but the principles are constant principles, and especially when it has to do with our times, our period, where we need to locate ourselves and find that we are in the exile that we are in, and how we need to organize ourselves between us so it will help us, and we will be able to emerge from the exile. Exile from Kedusha, from in order to bestow, from being in contact with the Creator, from love thy friend as thyself, from all those manners that we learn about spirituality. Therefore, what happens to us is that we need to see these principles in each and every state that we're in, especially now, because in the state that we don't know where we exactly are, where we need to find out where we are, what belongs to spirituality and what not, and how we work in a beneficial way in order to go out of corporeality and enter spirituality, and to replace our attitude towards everything we feel, everything that awakens in our vessels, sight, hearing, mostly.

So it's important for us to sort these discernments and to know how to use them correctly. Especially, we need to see just like he writes from the beginning of the article, that there is no more than two states: either the Klipa or the Kedusha. Usually, we are in a state of what we call between heaven and earth, not this and not that, and that's not a good state. It's a sign that we are not working correctly, we're negligible in the work between us, in the connections between us and the group. We can't draw the upper force by this, the reforming light, and this is why we waste our time, days pass, and the results are not quite felt. And this is all out of our negligence, just like Rabash and Baal HaSulam write for us, our negligence in love of friends. That only out of us with force be drawn to one another against our desire. We overcome it and are drawn together towards connection, together, in participating together. And to that extent, we invite the reforming light. And the Creator certainly each time depicts for us a new state, that we're distant, that we're not connected, besides the fact that He shattered the one vessel, Adam HaRishon to many pieces.

Besides that, He awakens in us the gap between all the parts, disconnection, so that we will nevertheless develop a sensitivity for our state, for the lack of connection, and how we can progress towards connection. Therefore, we need to see these states, the matter of the staff and the serpent, and how we connect by this rule, and to constantly try to see that there's no more other than the Klippa and the Kedushah, and the fact that we're in the middle, and we don't know where we are. It's a sign that we don't know where we are. We're not on the path, and not in connection, and not under the upper influence. So, let's start to read, and we will try to awaken more questions, more scrutinies. And this article, just like I said, there are articles that talk about our personal states, the pinpoint states along the way. It is a general article that follows us all along the way. There are only so many of these kinds of articles, and therefore, it's worthwhile for us to take our time with it, and maybe something will remain for our path. Please

Reading: (08:44) Shamati 59. Concerning the Staff and the Serpent

I heard on Adar 13, February 23, 1948

“And Moses answered and said: ‘But, they will not believe me,’” etc. “And the Lord said to him, ‘What is it in your hand?’ And he said, ‘A staff.’ And He said, ‘Cast it on the ground…’ and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it” (Exodus 4).

We should interpret that there are not more than two degrees, either Kedusha [holiness] or Sitra Achra [other side]. There is no intermediary state, but the same staff itself becomes a serpent if thrown to the ground.

In order to understand this, we will first bring the words of our sages, that He had instill His Shechina [Divinity] on trees and rocks. Trees and rocks are called things of inferior importance, and specifically in this manner He placed His Shechina. This is the meaning of the question, “What is it in your hand?”

A “hand” means attainment, from the words, “If a hand attains.” A “staff” means that all his attainments are built on the discernment of inferior importance, which is faith above reason.

(Faith is regarded as having inferior importance, and as lowliness. One appreciates things that clothe within reason. However, if one’s mind does not attain it, but it rather opposes one’s mind, then one should say that faith is of superior importance to one’s mind, it follows that at that time he lowers his mind and says that what he understands within reason, that he resists the path of the Creator, faith is more important than his own mind. This is because all the concepts that contradict the path of the Creator are worthless concepts.

Rather, “They have eyes but they will see not, they have ears but they will hear not.” It means that he annuls everything he hears and sees. This is called “going above reason.” And thus it seems to a person as lowness and Katnut [smallness/infancy].

However, with the Creator, faith is not considered lowliness, since man, who has no other choice but to take the path of faith, considers faith as lowliness. However, the Creator could have placed His Shechina on something other than trees and rocks.

Yet, He chose this way, called faith, specifically. He must have chosen it because it is better and more successful. You find that for Him faith is not regarded as being of inferior importance. On the contrary, specifically this path has many merits, but it appears lowly in the eyes of the creatures.)

If the staff is thrown to the ground and one wants to work with a higher discernment, meaning within reason, degrading the above reason, and this work seems low, one’s Torah and work immediately become a serpent. This is the meaning of the primordial serpent.

M. Laitman: But it's clear to us that without the serpent, we cannot advance, because we need to make sure we don't fall to the serpent each time but to raise ourselves to the staff, which is actually the same discernment, only with the difference of how we relate to it; either below in importance or above in importance. And if I want to advance, I need to always uplift that which is lower in importance than me, in my intellect, in my feeling, and to move forward with that, and not let it fall each time more and more, so it will be high and respectable in my eyes. That's how I reach a state of faith above reason. And if I don't watch over this but rather throw myself to habits, corporeal habits, to my intellect, to my corporeal intellect and feeling. Then I fall below, and although I don't realize this because there's concealment in such states, but I am already in a state of the serpent.

Question (Baltia 2): (15:16) It says in the beginning there that Moses says, they will not believe me. Who are they who will not believe?

M. Laitman: All the thoughts and desires of a person.

Question (ITA 4): (15:44) Why does Moses escape from what he sees, that the staff becomes the serpent?

M. Laitman: Moses is afraid of the serpent and where does he run to? He runs to the Creator, where he hopes to find advice on how to run away, how to be saved from the serpent. But if you grab the serpent either by the tail or by the head, we will see what that means, what's the difference later, then we begin to work with it in the right way. Without the serpent we cannot advance. Human beings cannot be just in the quality of bestowal or the quality of reception. We have to be included of both.

And between these two discernments, the Klipa, the Kedusha, no matter how you call them, then we can see ourselves existing in a manner that we can discern, differentiate, talk, scrutinize, analyze from good and bad, forward, backwards, towards each and everything. Otherwise, we won't be able to move in our developments anywhere.

We will remain a drop of semen. But if we want to develop from it, the development must be by different forces. This is why, always ahead of us, there's either the staff or the serpent, and not one of them but one against the other.

Student: A few days ago, you talked about the connection that exists between thieves, which very impressed me, that they can reach their goal because they're loyal to each other. And that's why they have an accord with the Creator. How is it that we can't even connect like thieves? How can we not suffer disturbances even for a moment? How can we do this between us?

M. Laitman: And you didn't understand. I'm sorry, but you didn't understand the matter. First of all, like thieves we can take from them just one principle. Which is that they understand that you cannot achieve a goal without a strong connection. Only that.

But it's not that the connection between them is in order to bestow, and not that their purpose or their goal is a holy one. But rather, the Kabbalists, when they give us this example, they just want to explain to us a certain side of this connection between thieves, that they have a certain devotion towards one another because they know that otherwise they're lost. They disappear. They're lost. They will be caught, they will be killed if they won't be connected between them in the strongest possible way. That's how we need to see it. We won't reach the goal. We won't succeed because the goal is also attained in the connection between us, where we build this connection.

This is what the Creator is saying, “You made Me.” What is “You made Me?” You built the network of connections between you such that I can be revealed there. That's called that you made me. And it can't be any other way. Just like there's no created being without the Creator, but it's the Creator that is truly the first, and then there's no Creator without the creature where the creature builds such a net of connection between the parts, the separated contradicted parts in which he reveals the Creator in all kinds of qualities. Connections between all the creatures, positive ones, negative ones together, like this and like that in all kinds of ways, until it's revealed that this is the quality of the Creator. This is the Creator- That's called “You made Me.”

Student: What I meant was exactly what you just said about the thieves. The question is just…

M. Laitman: Then we can be together with you in a crew of thieves together. A band of thieves.

Student: How can we always be in every moment without getting confused about what's written in Shamati 59? How can we do it?

M. Laitman: We can't, and it's not good if it will happen, because between one state and another, to another state, another state, there is always a disconnection. Specifically thanks to these disconnections, these cessations, each time we come to a new state, a new discernment. That's why it's written “There's no righteous in the land that has done good but hasn't sinned prior to that” because those sins, those stops, those breaks are obligatory. We will talk about that.

Question (Holland 1): (22:47) The article says that the staff is fit in working in faith about staff, and what exactly is this stuff in the work of the Ten? So, how do you use this stuff? What is this stuff in the hand, and how do we use this staff in the Ten? It says, staff is faith above reason, but how do you interpret the using of the staff? Maybe you can…

M. Laitman: We need from our connection, from our group that we want to establish as the vehicle, or the ship with which we are traveling towards the goal. So we need to take care of the connection that is correct, that it's right. And the force of progress just like in a vehicle where our engine- where we constantly are working non-stop upon the connection between us even more and even more, correctly.

Let's put it this way- Kabbalists also explain to us that it's similar to a Manner, it's a place that they…a textile place where they do, they put these strings and those strings, and they put them together and make a cloth, one into the other, and embroider them into one piece of cloth.

Each time we need to combine our work at any given moment anew, and through this, we advance. A loom. Altogether, the wisdom of Kabbalah explains to us that there are all kinds of work. There's like we squeeze the grapes for wine, or the way we squeeze the olives to make olive oil, and this is how these things that certainly… only the work in everything is the common work. In agreement, in understanding that each is against the other, like when you make the cloth in a loom, there are those movements, there are strings that go this direction, there are movements this way and that way, or when you're squeezing the grapes for wine, it's forcefully, and pressured, the way you stomp on them with your feet. There are many things here that are not so easy to accept with our minds, but we need to see that through them, we will advance.

Student: So, let's say we're holding this stuff in our hands. So, what is this hand then in our group? What is holding it? What is holding this stuff?

M. Laitman: Good question. We need to try to constantly be in a connection in the group, such that the connection between us and the group will be our common hand. We are creating this character, this Moses that is going ahead. He doesn't exist, but rather only if we want to move forward, then we establish this character from all of the group, this image. And the advancement that we want to advance with, this is something we need to aim the Moses in us that will go forward, ahead of us. Why? Because that's what he's meant for. He's not, he wasn't born in a regular way like we read in the story from Egypt. Why does the Torah tell us such stories? What is the importance of such a thing? But rather he was born and found later in the Nile, and Pharaoh's daughter, who is called Batya, educated him. And then he came out as the Prince of Egypt and that's how he grew up. Meaning, he came out completely from, even though being born from a father and a mother that are Jews. Yehudi, Jews, means one that's yearning for unification, for seeking the Creator. But he was educated in Pharaoh's home. Meaning, despite the fact that his point is from Bina, but he himself was educated fully in Malchut, with the king of Egypt, with Pharaoh. And then he has those two qualities, and this is why he, from the very beginning of his adulthood, and his maturity, and the rest of his life, he was included of those two qualities and could lead anyone who wants to come out of Egypt after him.

Student: Is it the purpose in our group, let's say, to keep on holding, let's say, this staff? Is it, do we need a force to keep on holding it? And if we hold it, what does it mean if we keep on holding it all the time? So, there is also a force, let's say, that we want to throw it. So, should we throw it, or should we keep on holding it? What does it mean to keep hold of it, of this staff?

M. Laitman: Yes, certainly we must hold on to the staff, and each must awaken the force of Moses, which is at the head of all the qualities of people and leads us to the connection in the Ten. And in the connection in the Ten, we build this image of our common Moses to us all, that each is connected to this, and together we build this, both the individual and the general are equal here, there is such a rule, there is a law about the general and the individual being similar. And by this, each needs to depict to himself this picture, and also all of us together establish him before us, meaning we need to establish before us the image of Moses, meaning the character that pulls us from here to the purpose of creation, to the end of correction, to the Creator, to adhesion, and when we establish him together, stabilize him together, we go together there. Otherwise, we won't be able to come out of our nature, from the Egypt in us, and we won't be able to attain anything.

Question (French ): (31:54) Can you explain how, what does it mean to achieve a middle line in the Ten instead of being between two states?

M. Laitman: The middle line is the correct combination in our work between the right line and the left line. It's where you hold the stick and make it a staff each time, it's where you locate exactly what is lower in importance and against that what is higher in importance; that's our work. So if you, well in the group it's simple, it's simpler, if you place the importance of the connection, not just the group, but the importance of the connection between the friends, if you place that before you with your eyes shut, where that's the only thing that's important for you, if you try to do that, then please, this is how you can advance, and not err, and move forward. And your work is through the desert. It's an unseeded land, and scorpions, and snakes, and whatnot is there, and you go, and it's with certainty that you will succeed, only under the condition that you're going with the staff in the hand, where you're holding it up, you're not throwing it down but rather lifting it up, meaning you're nullifying all the in order to receive in you, all the reason in you, and you go above reason. And what appears to you as lowliness and smallness, you raise it upwards. That is difficult work every given moment that we need to do, because every single moment the records are changed in us, and we need to locate them correctly, to arrange our relationship towards them in a correct way.

Student: If there's two opposites in the ten, is it because some of the friends are trying to throw the staff and others are picking it up?

M. Laitman: Yes, of course. Each of us needs to work on this all together according to what you try to work together, and one will help his friend. Accordingly, you will hold on to the staff. And there needs to be the image of the staff, the image of Moses that is before the ten.

Question (ITA 1): (35:43) You say that they're advancing with the staff in their hand, they're not managing to see new things in them, and to feel new things in this spiritual world. Do we need to open these senses or not?

M. Laitman: Correct, but how do I shut off this sense of Kabbalah, a reception, where I don't see anything more, and open the sense of bestowal, where I see the spiritual world, specifically where we're told about this, that the whole matter is how to receive the revelation of the concealed world that will be revealed. And it's not revealed in our intellect or in our feelings, because it's all in an egoistic way. Rather, only when we rise above it.

Question (Turkiye 5): (36:48) Concerning the first paragraph of the article, can you explain why did the Lord tell Moses to cast the staff on the ground even though the staff is Kedusha?

M. Laitman: The staff is not yet holy. We need to differentiate the two parts. Meaning, to differentiate two forms of use of the staff. We either throw it down, and it becomes the serpent, or we raise it up, and it becomes the staff that leads to success. Everything depends on a person. The staff itself has no value; it has no special thing. It just symbolizes for us the attitude of a person towards life, towards the connection in the group, and the goal. That's why if we raise the group and the goal to a place that we're led, to a place that's above us, above our ego, above our animalistic self, then it becomes the staff. The staff itself, we need inside of us to stabilize it so that the form of our connection, our attitude towards the connection between us, this will be called the staff.

Student: What does it mean to cast the staff on the ground? What does it mean?

M. Laitman: That I'm not going with it above reason, but rather within reason.

Question (USA Northeast): (39:15) You mentioned a minute or so ago about the cessations in the work. What is the value of actually working for the friends, or doing some type of dissemination, or reading during those periods? It really feels like during that time that you have nothing, you want to do nothing. And so, what is the value of actually pushing forward and making some type of action in the state like that?

M. Laitman: The fact that we have no clear signs for how to advance, that's a good thing. And we should be trying to connect between us as much as possible, and in such a way, we'll find the path. Spirituality is not there, it's not out there, there's no Creator, there's no spirituality without human beings, there's no Creator without a creature. We establish it, and we mustn't think that if I won't make it, won't design it, then it will come to me. It won't come. What will come is just some different forms of stings and troubles. But it's not that we're going to be able to discover anything that exists. If we don't establish and design it, then it's not going to happen. So, in our connection, we should envision to ourselves what is the spiritual world. Let's build it. And then as we build it, then we feel that the Creator is already there, the Creator becomes revealed, but it's to the extent that we build the spiritual envelope.

Question (Piter 3): (42:00) Official question, but why does Moses hold on to the staff of his brother Aaron?

M. Laitman: Yes, that's right, there's a division between them, we'll learn that later. It's the degree of Bina, there's the upper part of Bina and the lower part of Bina, GAR and ZAT of Bina. We're going to have to learn how and why they need to work together. The top part of Bina is just like the Keter, and the lower part of Bina has Hochma, and then in Bina, we have these two parts, and therefore, Bina can be the connector, the intermediate part between Keter and Malchut. And therefore, there's also seemingly two characters here, Moses and Aaron. We'll learn about it, you asked correctly,

Question (Kyiv ): (43:17) We gathered with our Ten for this, and what does it mean that we now raise this staff between us?

M. Laitman: You each came to the lesson after sleeping, let's say you're all disorganized internally, you don't have that exact tendency towards spirituality right now, you have to figure it all out, and sort it out, and awaken from the animal level to the human level. The human level, Adam, is similar to the Creator, and so we have to awaken all of the spiritual discernments, and arrange them in the Ten so they get the required intensity. And thus, we advance. That's what we need to do before the lesson.

Student: You say that we are usually working, and there's some kind of neutral state, not here and not there, and you said that that's not good. So how to express clearly that we're working now with the staff so that it will be truly expressed in the Ten?

M. Laitman: This becomes revealed to the extent that you want to bestow to the friends, and then together with all of them, go towards the goal. Only with such a feeling, such an intention, you are truly in a group, and you're going forward with the staff in your hand. First of all, the staff has to put us together in the Ten. And then we'll see that the Ten is the staff, and thus we'll advance.

Question (Kyiv ): (45:28) It's written that a person needs to nullify everything he sees and hears, and this way he diminishes his reason before faith. How, from what you see and hear, do you choose what you need to…

M. Laitman: This is called that I try, in all of my scrutiny, to prefer the force of bestowal over that of reception. Or, in other words, faith above reason.

Student: And relating directly to the fact that we're working between us in the Ten, and we have senses between us that we're noticing?

M. Laitman: If we connect each and everyone's bestowal to each other, then we emerge into a single Kli, and we are worthy of rising to a higher degree.

Question (Africa 1): (47:06) Can you say that the serpent is the recognition of evil in the work between us, and if so, how to connect it to the work with the staff in order to reach love of friends?

M. Laitman: That's true that the serpent is the recognition of evil between us, and there's a great work in detecting it. And to work on it, we only need to go against it by connecting to each other in love. Love, understanding, coming closer, something. Then we grab hold of it, and we don't kill it, we don't destroy it, we just try to grab hold of it. And it actually accompanies us throughout our entire path. And it's not one serpent, it's many serpents. Like you may have heard in the Torah that there's many other meetings with the serpents. And Moses made the image of the snake from copper. There's that. I believe it was from copper. And so, the serpent is required until the end of the path. And at the end of the path, it becomes holy, because in its role, it helped us reach the goal. And it always played that role in front of us as either a serpent or...

Reader: In the next part, we will learn from a lesson from October 22, 2006, from Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah.

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