The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: June 30, 2025
Part 1: Recorded lesson – Oct 12, 2021. Baal HaSulam, Shamati #19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?
Reader: Dear friends, in the first part of the lesson we will learn from a lesson by Rav Laitman from October 12th, 2021, based on the “Shamati”, article 19, ‘What is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?’. You can find the study materials in the Arvut system and in Sviva Tova, also in the writings of Baal HaSulam; in Hebrew it's page Number 532, beginning with “Since there is a rule.”
___________________________________
Reader: Hello, We are learning the articles of “Shamati,” Article 19, ‘What is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?’. We are in the middle of the article. You can find the study material on our sites, in the Arvut system and the material icon in the icon in the upper menu. There you can also send questions and selected questions that are relevant to the topic will be asked here.
M. Laitman: This article is very unique even though it seems relatively easy but there are such points and segues, transitions between these points where he provides a lot of discernment. We usually skip over that, and we don't really sense – or really get into it – we just kind of skip over it. So, we should repeat this article again and again, maybe we will do that afterwards. But for now, let’s continue and if there are questions then go ahead. There are many points here that don't awaken right away in a person, but according to his experience on the path, as much as he can see it. Because it speaks in words that we are kind of used to. But still, you want to pay attention to each word that he says here, because each word represents a state that we go through.
Reading: (03:07) Baal HaSulam. Shamati 19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?
Since there is a rule that there is fear of heaven only from a place of lack, and a place of lack is called “the will to receive,” it means that only then is there a place for labor. In what? In that it resists.
The body comes and asks, “What is the work?” and one has nothing to answer to its question. Then one must assume the burden of the kingdom of heaven above reason as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load without any arguments. Rather, He said and His will was done. This is called “for you,” meaning this work belongs precisely to you, and not to Me, meaning the work that your will to receive requires.
M. Laitman: Meaning, we have to reach a state where we feel that there is great resistance of our will to receive. That even to make a step, an action, one thought, one deed, towards bestowal. Then, we can see how we are in a state where we are powerless, we are reluctant, we are held captive by our ego, our will to receive, that does not let us move whether it is in thought, desire, or action, and that is a problem. That our will to receive forces us to do the deeds and actions that it desires, and we begin to better and better understand in our mind that if we had a desire to bestow, it would force us to do other actions and think other thoughts. But, bit by bit, we discover with all the efforts we make how much we are not capable of that. Then, we could be in a state where we would like to have some thoughts and make some actions and calculations of bestowal, but we can’t. We immediately, or after some struggle, we surrender and flow with the current of the will to receive.
Reading: (06:11) Baal HaSulam. Shamati 19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?
However, if the Creator gives one some illumination from above, the will to receive surrenders and annuls like a candle before a torch. Then one has no labor anyhow, since he no longer needs to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven coercively as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load, as it is written, “You who love the Lord, hate evil.”
M. Laitman: If the Creator gives love, gives a hug, gives connection, closeness to a person, to that extent he begins to first hate the evil. The hatred towards the evil pushes him away from the evil, he can’t touch it and that is how he advances. We have to see here that we have to achieve love of the Creator because it detaches us from the evil, it is a power. The power of love towards the Creator attracts us towards Him and takes us out of the evil.
Reading: (07:35) Baal HaSulam. Shamati 19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?
This means that the love of the Creator extends only from the place of evil.
M. Laitman: That is very important – the love of the Creator extends from the place of evil. Meaning only if we feel the evil, the hatred towards the ego, how much I can't get out of it and it's always holding me captive, and this way I develop hatred towards it. To that extent, I begin to feel that I have love towards the Creator, at least some relation to the Creator, it gradually builds up and shapes up in a person all the way towards love, urgency, necessity, to the point that I am better off dead, I have to reach Him. Then, to that extent arises hatred towards the will to receive that prevents me from uniting with the Creator and that's how we advance.
Reading: (08:57) Baal HaSulam. Shamati 19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?
In other words, to the extent that one has hatred for evil, meaning that he sees how the will to receive obstructs him from achieving the completeness of the goal, to that extent he needs to be imparted the love of the Creator.
M. Laitman: At first, in the beginning of the path, a person agrees with what is happening, he thinks that these are states he has to go through, and he surrenders. Just like he has ascents, he also has descents, just like he has attraction towards bestowal and the group. Then, there is also some cessation of it, he doesn't understand that these things don't just happen by themselves like waves in the ocean, but that they happen in order for him to relate to that correctly. So, he has to develop this relation towards the state of detachment, to feel the evil in that. Not the evil in that he feels bad, but he feels bad because he is distant from the Creator, distant from bestowal, from connection. Then, correspondingly he begins to develop gradually a preparation for Tzimtzum, Masach, and Ohr Hozer (restriction, screen, and reflected light), he begins to build the basis for the spiritual Partzuf in him.
Reading: (10:54) Baal HaSulam. Shamati 19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?
In other words, to the extent that one has hatred for evil, meaning that he sees how the will to receive obstructs him from achieving the completeness of the goal, to that extent he needs to be imparted the love of the Creator.
M. Laitman: So, on the condition that he wants to reach the goal, the wholeness of the goal of connection and bestowal, I want to achieve connection in order to engage in bestowal, in order to be similar to the Creator.
Reading: (11:41) Baal HaSulam. Shamati 19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?
If one does not feel that he has evil, he cannot be granted the love of the Creator since he has no need for it, as he already has satisfaction in the work.
M. Laitman: Only hatred towards the evil. We need to discover that we disagree with the will to receive, every time I feel it within me, I get a negative sensation, a negative attitude to it, I can't stand it. Yet, when I see it in others, I become relatively more patient because I know from myself how the ego, the will to receive, rules the person. It makes me more capable of withstanding and forgiving what happened in the others; and on the contrary, what happens in me, I can't stand, I can't look at this will to receive that attracts me in all of my deeds, it pulls me in its direction. I become more and more meticulous in examining what is the reason for each and every state that I am in.
Reading: (13:33) Baal HaSulam. Shamati 19. What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work?
As we have said, one must not be angry when he has work with the will to receive, that it obstructs him in the work. One would certainly be more satisfied if the will to receive were absent from the body, meaning that it would not bring its questions to a person, obstructing him in the work of observing Torah and Mitzvot [commandments].
Question (USA Northeast): (14:12) That anger that one begins to feel for the will to receive for self, is there any way to use that force in order to want to pray more to the Creator? Like he feels, there is more energy in it or power in it. Is there any way to turn that into raising more of a prayer, a demand, to the Creator?
M. Laitman: Yes, but it is more effective if you actively want to come closer to the group and express your desire there to get closer to the Creator because, Within my people do I dwell, the Creator is hidden in the group. Therefore, you can't do some individual personal work here. If you want to reach Him, you will have to rise above your ego which separates you from others and specifically make actions towards connection.
Student: So, you're saying that a person could do that, but it would still be aimed through the center of the Ten?
M. Laitman: Yes, the more we want to advance towards the Creator, we have to understand that the concept of the Creator resides in the group. That spirit that exists among the friends will later appear to me, becomes revealed to me as the Creator. Also now, it constitutes the shape of the Creator to me, but it is BoReh, Come and See, to the extent I can detect it, I can see it. Let's say, I see that the friends are indifferent to each other, this is the shape of the Creator that I am attaining. If I see them coming closer to each other in different ways, in that I come closer to the concept of the Creator and so on. So, the Creator is, Come and See, and He becomes revealed to the extent that we discover Him in our connection.
Question (Moscow 7): (17:01) In the first paragraph we read, Baal HaSulam says that everything comes from the deficiency. He says that it is our effort to build it; in the second paragraph, he says that only when the Creator gives an illumination from above, the will to receive surrenders. So, I want to understand.
M. Laitman: The Creator, we need to make efforts according to the conditions that the Creator gives, whether it is in my mind or my heart. How I need to detect it, how I need to aim myself, there's also some work of the mind here. And there’s emotional work. How much I want to bring my senses closer to this in order to detect this kind of state, the kind of connection between us in the Ten, how I reveal Him from that state where He hides among everyone, and that is how we advance –the work here is in both the mind and the heart. How we see this force in creation, in the still, vegetative, animate, speaking, in all of reality, and in all the worlds, that He governs everything. And we are now getting closer to Him in order to identify Him. How do we identify Him? Specifically, at the level of connecting with the friends where we can make many actions that are so-called spiritual, there are characteristics of spirituality – to get closer to each other, awaken each other, inspire each other, bring gifts to each other, in studying together, having a meal together and so on. Meaning, we can make some corporal actions here, that express our tendency to connect. But why? Always with the intention that between us we want to reveal the Creator, meaning that, The field that the Lord has blessed, that attitude that grows all the way to love.
Student: And the hatred for the evil, the hatred for the will to receive, at the end, do I get it as a result of my work, as a result of my deficiency? Or is it a result of the Creator giving an illumination from above?
M. Laitman: It doesn't matter. It comes to me as if, whether it comes as a result of my actions, or because the Creator shines on me and lets me see new states, it is the same thing. It just seems to me – sometimes it seems like this, the other times it seems like that. But certainly, to the extent that I participate with the study and the group, to the extent that I am scrutinizing this, accordingly I advance.
Question (KabU 3): (20:54) Is it not possible to cooperate with our ego instead of hating it in order to love the Creator?
M. Laitman: At least not at this stage, in this stage we have to reach the hatred. Because our desire to receive is in an egoistic state, it appears to us in full control where we don't separate between us and this egoistic desire. It resides in me, it governs me to the point that I think that me and it are the same thing – the ego lives in me, and it is inseparable. So how can I peel it off, extract it, remove it so that I feel myself not under its governance, that’s step number one. We achieve that by hatred towards our ego, the will to receive remains, but not in the intention to receive. Then, in such a way, we do the first part of the spiritual work, but after we have done that and we came to a state where my ego doesn't control me. I reach a state and this is already the degree of Bina, where I have the force of bestowal. The force of bestowal you also need to attain that, so that force of bestowal will rule all of my desires once the ego left there, it is no longer in order to receive. Then, comes the will to bestow, the quality of bestowal and with that quality of bestowal I advance further and further until I begin to work with it in order to bestow. Which means that I once again pull into myself the will to receive, but I already use it with the intention to bestow. This is the second part of the path, from Malchut to Bina and from Bina to Keter.
Question (Kyiv 1): (24:10) Love of the Creator, we have this very subtle direction. What is this type of relationship in the Ten that is called love of the Creator?
M. Laitman: We can't understand this in the meantime what love of the Creator means, because none of us loves anyone besides ourselves. This is embedded deeply within us, in our core, very strongly. So, we can only hope that the upper light will come and explain these things to us. And to each one personally, what self-love really means, what the ego is, what levels of it exist within us, and how we gradually get rid of it. After some years, a person begins to discover that he is capable of beginning to extract these egoistic shapes out of himself. It is always accompanied by fear: What will happen to me, what will happen when I remain empty? How will I exist, because one always has the feeling and understanding that there are some forces, he knows and understands what to do about the. And suddenly he begins to feel like some baby, he doesn't know anything, he just throws his hands and legs around, he lies where he is put down. And he has no correct instinct like a baby, when it is born it only has one instinct – to suck, and through that he is nourished, and he can grow. By using the new world only to grow, he thus grows and sees more and more discernments. The same thing with us, when we want to get rid of our will to receive, we don't know in what way we are going to do that. First of all, we have to discover that we are all fully driven by the will to receive and then gradually, as we come to know the will to receive little by little to its great intensity, we then go from one Tzimtzum [restriction] to the next, and even to the will to bestow.
Student: How do we create this basis?
M. Laitman: That is what I just discussed, that is what Kabbalists write about. By discovering that only the will to receive takes advantage of us and governs us. And we try to follow it, like he is walking ahead of you and showing you what is good and what is best. And you are like a detective, let’s say, you are following it, and you are examining what does he want to bring me to, where is he leading me? You begin to see this will to receive not as your friend, it can take you to some various dangerous places. So, you are looking at where it is directing you, and you need to begin to minimize his actions in some areas, in some cases you shut them down completely, you don't want to follow it at all and so on. That is the work with our will to receive.
Question (ITA 4): (29:40) What does it mean to be patient with respect to what my ego shows me regarding my friends?
M. Laitman: To be patient, first of all, it's throughout many degrees. First, not to leave the process, I am in a Ten and even though I want to run away. I am disgusted, I hate everything there; they all seem as liars to me, as if they love each other and I feel, in myself, that they are just lying. Sometimes I think, okay, everyone judges through his own flaws. I'm not really seeing them, I'm seeing and hearing myself, and so on.’ But the most important is: anything but leave. I have to wait, sometimes it takes a few years until a person begins to feel such shocks in his mind and heart and he begins to see himself in the world in a new way, each time a bit more and a bit more. This work is a result of the extent of connection, of incorporation with the group.
Student: Yesterday, you answered a friend that all we need is to add to the actions is the intention. The act comes from the Creator, but the intention is ours. Or does that also come from the Creator?
M. Laitman: The intention, too, comes from the Creator, it all comes from Him. The will to receive, the intention to receive, the Klipot [the shells], it all comes from Him. But we need to sort them out and decide from all these things with what do we want to be left with, what we agree and disagree with and want to move away from? There is nothing that does not come from the Creator; He gives us possibilities to do what we want with everything. He wants us to have free choice and to choose on our own what kind of creatures we need to be.
Question (Salt Lake City): (32:59) It says, we have to accept the actions of the Creator without any doubt. But if we have no questions, how will we understand it?
M. Laitman: I don't understand what you're talking about, how can we have no doubts? I always have a force that resists my will to receive doing actions of bestowal. On one hand, I don't want to do actions of bestowal, connection, or getting closer, I don't want that. On the other hand, I have to do it, I am obligated at least on a corporeal level. And therefore, I need to make some effort. Physical effort can be done, that might not be such a problem. But spiritual, emotional effort does not depend on us that much. I can convince myself to some degree and change my attitude, we could call that psychological. But in the true form to change my relation to something is doable only by the upper light. It is all in the Creator's hands that’s why there has to be prayer, here. Through the Ten, together with them, I turn to the Creator and I ask Him for a change.
Student: He relates to Baal HaSulam’s writing that, we have to accept the burden of the kingdom of heaven above reason as an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load without any arguments.
M. Laitman: Because if you're going to argue, you are going to argue with your egoistic will to receive. What other forces do you have? We are in a certain state and before us is an opportunity to go towards bestowal. But I am in the force of reception which tells me that it's not worthwhile to stay where I am and so on. What to do? Usually, people spend a lot of time struggling, they don't choose; they are struggling between this and that, and they live through states of inner doubts. This state doesn't lead to anything, this is why there has to be a decision. Either I prefer to remain in my ego, and I am aware of that and I decide to remain in that. I know, I am in this world and I am like all other animals and I let the will to receive manage me the way that it wants. I don't criticize it, rather I agree with it and take myself down to a beastly level, many do this. Especially it is done in conjunction with various methods – religious methods, philosophical methods, psychological methods, and thus they mitigate their corporeal lives. Or I decide that I have no choice, in each and every moment in this argument between the will to receive and the will to bestow I have to go in the direction of bestowal. Then I have to go into the group, into the Creator, and try to lose myself in them, and advance.
Question (Kyiv 3): (37:49) Is discovering your evil and hating it always the same?
M. Laitman: If I opened up my evil in a correct way, complete way I reached a hated state. A state of the recognition of evil, where I recognize how my evil disturbs and prevents me from the purpose of life, that I just live for no reason. I am not taking advantage of the opportunity that I was given to achieve adhesion with the Creator. This is called, recognition of evil.
Student: Is it possible to hate your ego enough to love the Creator today and not in 40 years?
M. Laitman: Sure, you can, if you get closer to the group and incorporate with them and with what the Kabbalists write, then you can, it is all up to you. Still, it is not going to happen overnight, even though you want it and you want this to happen overnight, so that perhaps this will happen in a few years.
Question (Moscow 4): (39:34) You said that if I discover and reveal the bad and I annul myself before everyone in the Ten, this is something that calms me down. What should I do?
M. Laitman: You should go forward and you will discover it yourself. I can't answer questions about every step you will discover along the way.
Question (Moscow 6): (40:14) What is the difference between my ego and the friend’s ego? Should I hate my ego that I see in others?
M. Laitman: You're not seeing your ego in others the way it is in others. You are in a state where you are facing a screen, like a television screen, like the monitor, like you are seeing us now. And on that monitor you are seeing yourself, yourself, in all kinds of ways, forms; and it seems to you like they are forms of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, in the world. That is the difference between the form of the world and the form of yourself. In other words, you are seeing your own projection on all parts of Adam HaRishon and you have to come to similarity with them.
Student: I should hate this projection, if I discover the ego?
M. Laitman: If now you look at it the way we just said, then no, you just need to see that this projection, meaning the friends, and discover that they are loved. You will see them as close to you.