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

Daily Morning Lesson: August 7, 2025 

Part 1: Recorded lesson - October 30, 2021

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 40. What Is the Measure of Faith in the Rav?

Reader: Hello, friends. Now we'll read the article Shamati, number 40, “What Is the Measure of Faith in the Rav?”. It's in the writings of Baal HaSulam. Again, Shamati, article #40, “What Is the Measure of Faith in the Rav?”. And afterwards we'll watch a lesson on it by Rav Laitman. 

Reading: (00:29) Shamati 40. What Is the Measure of Faith in the Rav?

I heard in 1943

It is known that there is a right path and a left path. Right comes from the words “to the right,” referring to the verse, “And he believed in the Lord.” The Targum says, “To the right, when the rav says to the disciple to take the right path.”

Right is normally called “wholeness,” and left, “incompleteness,” that corrections are missing there. In that state the disciple must believe the words of his rav, who tells him to walk in the right line, called “wholeness.”

And what is the “wholeness” by which the disciple should walk? It is that one should depict to oneself as if he has already been rewarded with whole faith in the Creator, and already feels in his organs that the Creator leads the whole world in the form of “The Good Who Does Good,” meaning that the whole world receives only good from Him.

Yet, when one looks at oneself, he sees that he is poor and indigent. In addition, when he observes the world, he sees that the entire world is tormented, each according to his degree.

One should say about that, “They have eyes but they see not.” “They” means that as long as one is in multiple authorities, called “they,” they do not see the truth. What are the multiple authorities? As long as one has two desires, even though he believes that the entire world belongs to the Creator, but something belongs to man, too.

But in truth, one must annul one’s authority before the authority of the Creator and say that one does not want to live for oneself, and the only reason that he wants to exist is in order to bring contentment to the Creator. Thus, by this one annuls his own authority completely, and then he is in the singular authority, the authority of the Creator. Only then can he see the truth, how the Creator leads the world by the quality of good and doing good.

As long as he is in multiple authorities, meaning when he still has two desires in both mind and heart, he is unable to see the truth. Instead, he must go above reason and say, “they have eyes,” but they do not see the truth.

It follows that when one regards oneself and wants to know if he is now in a time of descent or a time of ascent, he cannot know that, too. That is, he thinks that he is in a state of descent, and that, too, is incorrect, since he might be in a state of ascent now, meaning seeing his true state, how far he is from the holy work. Thus, he has now come closer to the truth.

And it might be to the contrary, that now he feels that one is in a state of elation, when in fact he is now controlled by receiving for himself, called “a descent.”

Only one who is already in the singular authority can discern and know the truth. Hence, one must trust the opinion of his rav and believe what his rav tells him. It means that one should go as his rav told him to do.

And although he sees many arguments and many teachings that do not go hand in hand with the opinion of his rav, he should nevertheless trust the opinion of his rav and say that what he understands and what he sees in other books that do not coincide with his rav’s opinion, he should say that as long as he is in multiple authorities, he cannot understand the truth, and he cannot see what is written in other books, the truth that they say.

It is known that when one is still not rewarded, his Torah becomes to him a potion of death. And why does it say, “Not rewarded, his Torah becomes to him a potion of death”? This is because all the teachings that one learns or hears will not bring him any benefit to make one able to be imparted with life, which is Dvekut [adhesion] with the Life of Lives. On the contrary, one is constantly drawn farther from the Life of Lives, since all that he does is only for the needs of the body, called “receiving for oneself,” and this is considered separation.

This means that through his actions he becomes more separated from the Life of Lives, and this is called “the potion of death,” since it brings him death and not life. It means that one becomes ever farther from bestowal, called “equivalence of form with the Creator,” by way of “As He is merciful, so are you merciful.”

We must also know that when one is engaged in the right, the time is right to extend upper abundance, because “the blessed adheres to the Blessed.” In other words, since one is in a state of completeness, called “blessed,” in that respect one presently has equivalence of form, since the sign of completeness is if one is in gladness. Otherwise, there is no completeness.

It is as our sages said, “The Shechina [Divinity] is present only out of gladness of a Mitzva [commandment].” The meaning is that the reason that brings him joy is the Mitzva, meaning the fact that the rav had commanded him to take the right line.

It follows that he keeps the commandment of the rav, that he was allotted a special time to walk on the right and a special time to walk on the left. Left contradicts the right, since left means when one calculates for oneself and begins to examine what he has already acquired in the work of the Creator, and he sees that he is poor and indigent. Thus, how can he be in wholeness?

Still, one goes above reason because of the commandment of the rav. It follows that all his wholeness was built on above reason, and this is called “faith.” This is the meaning of “In every place where I mention My Name, I will come to you and bless you.” “In every place” means although he is still not worthy of a blessing, nonetheless, I gave My blessing because you make a place, meaning a place of gladness, in which the upper light can be.

Reader: Now we will go to learn from a lesson of Rav Laitman from this article from the date of October 30th, 2021.

Question (PT 12): (10:47) When is a person called a student, considered a student?

M. Laitman: When he hears that the teacher is telling him to go on the right. Otherwise, you can't hold on to the path. Our method is very sharp, very rigid. It's aiming us precisely towards the Creator. And if a person doesn't want to follow it in justifying the Creator and everything He is doing with him, he doesn't come to the teacher or something. Rather, if you have problems, turn to the Creator and try to build your line of development on that until you see in your life that everything is the good who does good and there is None Else Besides Him. If you wish to advance in this way, you will succeed. And if you go a different way, you won't be able to do anything because the Creator has more means to organize you in such a way that you will simply be back here for another incarnation. And that's how it's going to keep rolling and rolling. It's a shame, it's a pity to lose an incarnation, to miss an incarnation. 

Reader: If you want, we have the short letter by Rabash, "The Order of the Work”, from Baal HaSulam.

M. Laitman: Did I ask for it? 

Reader: The main thing is to follow the right line. Okay, let's read it. Okay, so "The Order of the Work, from Baal HaSulam."

M. Laitman: Could you show it on the screen for us? 

Reading: (13:07) RABASH, Article No. 46 (1990), "The Order of the Work, from Baal HaSulam" - Twice

The heart of the work is to walk on the right line, meaning wholeness. That is, whatever grip we have on spirituality, we should be happy that the Creator has given us a thought and desire to do something in spirituality.

We should also walk on the left line. But for this, half an hour a day is enough, meaning to calculate how much he prefers the love of the Creator over self-love. To the extent that he sees the deficiencies, he will pray that the Creator will truly bring him closer, for specifically on two lines can one advance. 

Reader: I see they don't have the captions yet, so we can read it later again. 

M. Laitman: Yes, they should connect it to us. Read it again. 

Reader: So again, the order of "The Order of the Work, from Baal HaSulam." 

Question (Women Moscow 5): (15:38) We have a request for you. Can we renew the topic of ascents and descents in the perspective of looking at the truth? If we understand correctly, the ability to see the truth is the one that's defining whether it's ascent or descent.

M. Laitman: First of all, joy, it doesn't need to be just joy, but the joy from good deeds. If I do something in the direction of connection, and I have joy from it, then it's true joy. True gladness, otherwise it could be gladness on the other side. We have to see how the Creator created everything one against the other. There are two systems, and we need to see ourselves in the middle, and how I always turn to the right. That's it. And how do we make the decision? By wanting to bring everything to connection in the Ten. Whatever it may be. That's the main thing that's the safest and closest thing to us.

Question (Women Moscow 8): (17:16) The text is understandable. What I don't understand is why is the Torah becoming the drug of death? Did I understand correctly? Is the connection with Rav's advice is the only channel with connection with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Not always. The Torah can be the potion of life and the potion of death. How can it be that the Torah, the upper light that shines to us from Ein Sof down to our world, to our state, can become the potion of death? It depends on how we use it. If we pass it through the Ten, it will be fine. If not, I'm not certain. It's possible that a person has different attainments and feelings, and he speaks nicely, and he understands, but in truth, we shouldn't learn from him because he has the potion of death in him. We're going to learn it, but we have to just walk with our eyes shut towards connection in the group and discover the Creator there in order to bestow to him through the friends. And that's it. The principle is the same. We have women here. Let's finish with the women.

Question (Women Moscow): (19:05) When you told us that the Rabash showed you the book of the articles of Shamati and prohibited you from advertising it to others and explained that others don't have a left line. My question is, I can't work in holiness twenty three and a half hours. It's the other way around, twenty three and a half hours I'm in the left line and maybe half an hour in holiness. Wholeness. I can't see wholeness if it doesn't exist. What to do? 

M. Laitman: Slowly, slowly, slowly. The important thing is not to count hours, but to come closer to the friends. To come closer to the friends. So, as much as possible to be as a result closer to the Creator. That's it. Without any measurements. To be close to the friends, so together to be close to the Creator. 

Question (Women Moscow 18): (20:22) How to distinguish between happiness or joyfulness from egoistic pleasure or pleasure from the path? 

M. Laitman: We've got an article like that. One God became fruitless. Where's that article? That's exactly the answer she's asking.

Question (Women Moscow 20): (21:05) There's an expression that says if there's no bread, there's no Torah. So what does it mean to be a poor indigenous? 

M. Laitman: A person feels he's got nothing. No garments, no clothing. Meaning he's naked and also has nothing to eat. Meaning no inner life. He's got nothing. Neither from this nor from that. 

Question (Women PT 100): (21:45) We constantly say that we have to work against the ego with force. And here in the article it says the two states are from the Creator and if he is blessed, you are blessed. Is there an option to work versus the ego with compassion or it can mislead us? 

M. Laitman: No, only one thing to blunt his teeth, punch him in the teeth.

Question (Women MAK 17): (22:28) Is the prayer that is not gratitude for a connection but prayer for the fact that the group is on the left line. Can we pray like this in the Ten? Can we gather a few Tens together to pray that the group is in descent? 

M. Laitman: Yes, you can as long as you connect in each one from his heart. Her heart will raise a request to the Creator. You don't have to agree on each and every word that you're asking. Just like people who pray, nobody knows exactly what's in his heart. We'd rather try it. Try to aim in general your heart towards connection with the Creator. 

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (23:44) To build the shadow of Kedusha is to build the right intention? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Latin 1): (24:11) How can we help one another in the Ten to walk more in the right line, all of us together? 

M. Laitman: According to the example each one provides to the other. Only such examples, even without words.

Question (Women Latin 12): (24:45) When we receive, when we're working in the authorities of the… in the multiple authorities, should we work with fear, with Ear-ah [fear] to keep the Mitzvot [the commandments] and rise above reason? 

M. Laitman: Yes, correct. 

Question (Women ITA 8): (25:23) I think I understand that we need to believe and with faith to see reality. So how can we see everything as Good That Does Good, if we feel ourselves far away from the Creator? 

M. Laitman: This is not important. Of course, I still feel distant from the Creator. According to my feelings, I'm not in the Good Who Does Good. Nevertheless, I have to try and come closer to it. And according to how much I'm able to make myself into those things, I construct out of myself a vessel for receiving this state from the Creator. Because as He is merciful, I'm merciful, as He is graceful, I'm graceful. And as it's written, I have to make myself into something that is willing to have the same.. have the form that the Creator gives when He fills this form, this shape. 

Question (Women PT 5): (26:51) Does it make sense that there's a gap between the time Rav says things to the time that we develop a vessel to hear the things, meaning sometimes Rav says something in one of the programs. It takes us weeks or years to digest what Rav says. Can we shorten the times? 

M. Laitman: Yes, to the extent to which you get closer to one another. But certainly, this is correct, that after you hear, after a few months or even years, even years, you'll hear it. I today hear many things that I heard from Rabash 30 years ago, and today I understand them. I'm starting to hear.  That's how it is. 

Question (Women MAK 25): (28:05) How to define correctly whether we are in ascent and getting closer to the truth or in descent and under the authority of the desire to receive to myself? What signs can we see to define it so we won't get further away from the truth? And if you can explain what is truth in spirituality, like it's written in the article.

M. Laitman: What's happening and will happen is all defined by as much as you want to connect and to go above your egoistic feelings towards connection. That's what we need to do. That's the main thing. I understand that it's difficult and no one wants to do so. And everyone really just wants to get along alone and to reject everyone and to arrange for oneself their own spiritual life. But it won't happen. It won't happen. That won't happen. It'll only happen when everyone annuls towards one another and towards the Creator. That's it. Sooner or later, you will have to try and build such a form of connection. To try and build such a form of connection.

Reader: Yes, previously, in the article, “What is the Difference Between the Shade of Kedusha and the Shade of Sitra Achra?” It’s a short passage. It's long, not the entire article. It's from Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 8, “What is the Difference Between the Shade of Kedusha and the Shade of Sitra Achra?”

Reading: (30:04) Shamati 8. What Is the Difference between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra?

The shade of Klipa [shell] is called “Another god is sterile and does not bear fruit.” In Kedusha [holiness], however, it is called “Under its shadow I coveted to sit, and its fruit was sweet to my palate.” In other words, he says that all the concealments and afflictions he feels are because the Creator has sent him these states so he would have a place for work above reason. 

Question (Women PT 6): (31:01) What does it mean to be in holiness, in all our work, to erase the deficiency and turn to the Creator? If a person is in holiness, how does he progress? 

M. Laitman: Since he wants to see himself as living in None Else Besides Him, and in truth there's nothing but the Creator, and the Creator is arranging the whole world for him as good, and all he asks is to not talk bad about the Upper Providence. And therefore he's just asking for his corrections so that he won't speak any bad words to the Creator. And that it's clear that only the Creator does these things, and if he feels bad in any way, it's a sign that the person himself is corrupting and cursing the Upper Providence. 

Question (Women MAK Israel 1): (32:21) When I get closer to the truth, then I receive bigger disappointment, desperation. It's, of course, a result of my ego. But how, in that state, not to bring damage to the Ten, to the friends? 

M. Laitman: It's safest and most successful if we pray for the friends. That will create a certainty that, first of all, I will be rewarded by this as well, and them too, and then we will come to a state in which each will help the other. Because eventually no one can help himself. It's written about this, “One cannot save himself from imprisonment.” Only his friends can do so.

Question (Zafon 2): (33:54) How do we turn our spiritual work into something practical and not something amorphic? 

M. Laitman: That all depends on you only. If you write in front of you, and you remind yourself each time what you need to do according to the article that we learned, then you already have spiritual, practical work and not amorphic. 

Question (Karmiel): (34:25) If I understood correctly, a person in an ascent, when he feels just how far he is from the path of truth, how do we shorten the gap in the path of truth? 

M. Laitman: That's not important to me whether I'm close or far. What's important for me is what that awakens me. Whether I can from those states, awaken, respond, pray, request. And then, it could be that by me feeling myself as low and losing everything and emptying, but from that I have a closeness to the Creator. The Creator specifically loves those people that reveal themselves as poor, as rebels, as criminals, etc. So, don't worry about your state here. In every single state, try to build from yourself, as much as possible, a state that is inclined towards the Creator as much as possible. That's the main thing. 

Question (Krasnoyarsk): (35:59) A few years ago, I asked regarding Rabash. When did Rav justify you?

M. Laitman: I'll answer you in a few years from now. Altogether, why are you asking me? If you can ask Rabash, go to him and ask him. I'm telling you, if you have questions to people above me, then why are you asking me? Go to him and ask him. 

Student: I'm just asking if you justify the Rabash.

M. Laitman: I'm not holding you here. I won't tell you. Do that alone, and leave me alone with this. That's enough. 

Question (Hadera 1): (37:09) A number of times I've heard from you that when a person rises to the spiritual world, his mind and heart corporeally are changed to his spiritual ones. And here in the article, he says that if a person is still in the sensations of mind and heart, that's called the authority of the many. 

M. Laitman: I don't hear a question. 

Student: My question is in the contradiction. It's written, if a person is in sensations mind and heart, he's in the authority of the many. Meaning not in spirituality? 

M. Laitman: Why? Mind and heart could be spiritual, or mind and heart could be corporeal. 

Student: It doesn't say spiritual or corporeal here. It just says if you're in mind and heart, that's the authority of the many. Not in the text of the article, I think. 

M. Laitman: Well, then what are you asking? 

Student: So there are spiritual mind and heart, and they're different? From what I understand in the article? 

M. Laitman: No, no. You didn't understand it correctly. You'll have to read it again. Read it, and prepare a question according to what's written. It could be that there's room to add a few words so it'll be clearer. 

Question (MAK 20): (39:02) How to work in the left line in order not to harm myself and the Ten? Or is that not possible in half an hour? 

M. Laitman: That's nice. You need to try and be all the time on the right, to constantly be in connection, and then from this connection, if you're in that all the time, then you will see the extent in which you can add to this connection also the left line by which specifically your connection will grow. That's it, then you'll understand why we need the left, that the left, if you use it correctly, it intensifies, it amplifies the right. 

Question (PT 19): (39:57) How important is it to act and to be in upliftment towards the friends, despite the opposite sensation? 

M. Laitman: We must do this in order to strengthen the friends, and then we will see how this work specifically strengthens and raises us up. It only seems to us that we need to help the friends and that we're helping them. That's not correct. There's no friends here or anything. There's me and the Creator, and what appears to me as these people, these qualities, that they are outside of me, that's how it appears to me, because my ego disperses all these parts of my vessel, so that I will be able to overcome the distance and arrange them together. And then I will see that it's all me, and there's nothing but me and the Creator. And then also I disappear - and only the Creator. 

Question (USA SF): (41:12) He writes, still one goes above reason because of the commandment of the Rav. Why is it important that the basis of our work in wholeness will specifically be because of the commandment of the Rav? 

M. Laitman: Where would you receive additional guidance, if not from the book? It's called the book, author, story. If not what we learn. I, altogether, am just alerting you, awakening you to see a few words here, a few words there, the connection between the words. But eventually we learn from the text, and from it you need to try to find all the foundations, all the bases. And if not today, write it down, and maybe you'll come back to it two or three months down the road. It's not happening all at once. 

Question (Volga): (42:37) When Baal HaSulam says to be twenty three and a half hours in the right line, and half an hour in the left line, I understand that, like, in words, simply. Or is he talking qualitatively? 

M. Laitman: I see, according to what he says, that most of the time we need to be on the right line, in connection, and in development of love, in every possible way, in a positive way. And from that, since we're connecting between us, and we yearn to connect to the Creator, and completely, completely a part of that, after we've done all those things, and we don't even have a desire to search for something negative, we are obligated to nevertheless be half an hour, relatively, towards what we were, yes? Also in scrutiny, in the critique of those lacks that we have in the connection between us. There's nothing we can do about that. We need to be in that as well. 

Question (Asia): (44:12) In the second to last paragraph, he talks about the time of making calculations for oneself. He begins to look at what he already acquired in the work of the Creator. That's the definition of left line? What I received from the Creator? What calculations I make? 

M. Laitman: Left is mostly considered in order to receive the concern for oneself. Yes, that's the left. 

Question (Kyiv): (44:47) Regarding the article, in one place he writes, the Creator controls the world, as the aspect of the good that does good, and that's called to see the truth. In another place he writes, to see the truth means how much I am far from the work of sanctity. 

M. Laitman: This is part of that.

 

Student: So what does it mean not to see that the Creator controls the world and the Good that Does Good? 

M. Laitman: I want to see it that way, as if I have a device that I calibrate in a way that I want to see the Creator as He arranges the world in such a way. As if I'm installing in me a certain device to be able to see that. Okay? 

Student: But if that's... I mean, the impression is that we can't really determine this way or that. 

M. Laitman: Yes, that's clear that not, you're right. But if I nevertheless try more and more to come closer to the friends and through them to the Creator, then more and more I receive the tools, the vessels, for the feeling and for my mind. And that's how I gradually start with them to feel and understand more who the Creator is. What could it be? What is this monstrosity that I need to somehow locate? He's boundless and nameless, and there's no distances there, and other than that, there's nothing but Him.

But somehow I need to start to feel Him. Yes? So, of course, we're going through many states here. But nevertheless, we come to a state in which we know Him. We know that we're in Him, like in a womb, and then when we're born, and there's the time of suckling, Yanika, and smallness, Katnut, and Gadlut. These are very special states in which everything, according to the form of connection, the measure of connection, the power of connection, the manner of connection, defines in what degree we're in relative to the Creator. Do you understand? This is something that we seemingly define or decide upon. 

Student: In my sensation, when I'm in a descent, and I feel bad, it looks like it's the final state. In synergy, that's the truth. But in the opposite, when I'm in an ascent, and he says here, that appears to be the final state, and that's the truth. Meaning, in every state, we may be… Does it help to remember the opposite state to bring us closer to the truth? 

M. Laitman: If you can still remember the state that's against it, then it's still not yet a state that's for. You need to come to a point where in every possible way, you're incorporated in one state in such a way that there is no other state. And then when you move to the second state, you'll fully discover those two states, one against the other, the Creator has created it. 

Reader: Friends, in the next part of the lesson, we'll go to a study from the lesson of Rav Laitman, the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, item 78, “The Katnut and Gadlut Initiated in the World of Nekudim.”