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

Daily Lesson (Morning) March 16, 2025.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Shamati 58. Joy Is a “Reflection” of Good Deeds

Reader: Hello, we are reading from the writings of Baal HaSulam . This is an article from Shamati, article 58,“Joy is a Reflection of Good Deeds.” The study material can be found in the study materials tab in the Arvut system. You can also find it in kabbalahmedia.info, and you can send questions during the lesson. Shamati 58, from Baal HaSulam.

Reading: (00:32) Joy Is a Reflection of Good Deeds

Joy is a “reflection” of good deeds. If the deeds are of Kedusha [holiness], hence joy appears. However, we must know that there is also a discernment of a Klipa [shell]. In order to know if it is Kedusha, the scrutiny is in the reason. In Kedusha, there is reason, and in the Sitra Achra [other side] there is no reason, since another god is sterile and does not bear fruit. Hence, when gladness comes to a person, he should delve in words of Torah in order to discover the mind of the Torah.

We must also know that gladness is discerned as upper illumination that appears by MAN, which is good deeds. The Creator sentences one where one is. In other words, if one takes upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven for eternity, there is an immediate upper illumination on this, which is considered eternity, too.

Even if one evidently sees that he will soon fall from his degree, He still sentences one where one is. It means that if a person has now made up his mind to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven for eternity, it is considered wholeness.

However, if he takes upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven and does not want that state to remain in him forever, this thing and this deed is not considered wholeness, and naturally, the upper light cannot come and rest on it. This is because it is whole and eternal, and is not about to change. With a person, however, even if he wants, the state one is in will not be forever.  

M. Laitman: Questions?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (04:40) How does a person take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven for eternity?

M. Laitman: He wants to have a vessel, eternal. In that vessel the connection with the Creator will be revealed so it will be eternal then. 

Student: What is this moment that a person takes upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven for eternity? 

M. Laitman: These are moments when he discovers his adhesion under the Creator's control and wants it to remain this way forever. 

Student: What is the burden of the kingdom of heaven? 

M. Laitman: That he wants to be under the Creator's control forever.

Student: And he writes that the Creator judges the person, sentences the person where one is. So if he wants that, he is awarded with it. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: At the same time, he can also fall from his state.

M. Laitman: Of course.

Student: How does it work together? 

M. Laitman: Because it all depends on the person. From the perspective of the Creator, there is no prevention, so to speak. But just as a person wants, accordingly the Creator accepts it and decides.

Student: On the one hand, everything depends on man, as if he governs creation, he decides, he's awarded. On the other hand, the Creator runs everything. 

M. Laitman: There are states that we determine.

Student: So then, what does a person determine that actually activates the Creator?

M. Laitman: If he wants to belong to the upper governance, then he determines.

Student: Another question. He writes here that if the actions are of Kedusha, then by that joy appears, but there's also a Klipa. And to know if it's Kedusha or not, the scrutiny is in the reason, that there's reason in Kedusha. Why do we work in Kedusha through reason and not faith above reason? 

M. Laitman: In Kedusha, in holiness, we operate above our nature, and this is called above reason. Whereas in all other states, we operate according to our reason, to our opinion, according to what, we also use our intellect. This is how we accept it.

Student: Can you explain the first three lines where he says that in Kedusha there is reason and the scrutiny is in reason?

M. Laitman: Joy is a reflection of good deeds. If the deeds are of Kedusha, holiness, hence joy appears. However, we must know that there is also a discernment of a Klipa, shell. In order to know if it is Kedusha, the scrutiny is in the reason. In Kedusha, there is reason, and in the Sitra Achra, on the other side, there is no reason since another god is sterile and does not bear fruit. Hence, when gladness comes to a person, he should delve in words of Torah in order to discover the mind of the Torah. What's written here that's not clear?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:56) When joy comes to him, he should browse the words of Torah so that the mind of Torah will appear to him. What does it mean to delve in the words of Torah in order to discover the mind of the Torah? What's missing for him there? 

M. Laitman: He wants to know what the Torah means by speaking this way or that way. And this is already the upper mind, the higher mind. And a person asks, demands, expects, that it will come to him as well, that he will understand, acquire the upper mind, and will know what the Torah determines, speaks about. 

Student: Gladness is an emotion that fills the person, and then he lacks nothing. Here, Baal HaSalam gives some advice or instruction. Don't settle for the gladness, look for the mind of the Torah.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Is it because he lacks that, or he does what Baal HaSalam says? 

M. Laitman: A person lacks that, but first joy is revealed, which is an illumination from above, and then in this joy, in that state, the mind of the Torah is revealed as well. 

Student: So, the joy reveals a deficiency for a higher reason? 

M. Laitman: Joy leads to, let's say, a deficiency, a deficiency to know.

Student: And if it is the joy of Sitra Achra, like he says, then there's no deficiency, it just fills the person, and then he's put off.  

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:16) How is it possible that a person will take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven for eternity, and the Creator lets him exist in dirty vessels?

M. Laitman: A person wants to exist forever. This is what he feels, that he wants to achieve this. The fact that the Creator doesn't give him this is a sign that he demands of a person to clean his vessels.

Student: But he imagines this state, that a person went through a process and is ready to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven for eternity, meaning that most important to him is the adhesion with the Creator and connection with the Creator, and the Creator still lets him exist in dirty vessels. He writes that he knows he's going to fall from his degree. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, how can that be that he is allowed to exist that way? 

M. Laitman: It's probably that the Creator sees that a person can add more to his prayer, and then through the prayer, and more advanced deficiency, he will discover more of his eternal state. 

Student: According to what does a person feel wholeness in every state the Creator sends? 

M. Laitman: According to what is determined. According to… it's revealed to a person, his real desire is revealed to him. Is he ready for it, for adhesion with the Creator or not? And accordingly, he adds prayer by himself.

Student: The desire to be with the Creator in adhesion, in connection, is something that needs to always intensify or is there a final state to it? 

M. Laitman: No, it's not a final state. We have to constantly see to it that we come to a feeling of satiation.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:26) What does it mean to take upon yourself the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven?

M. Laitman: It is that I want to be sensitive to what comes to me from Providence, and I want to accept these commands and live accordingly with heart and soul.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:10) Where do you get the strength and desire to ask for the Kingdom of Heaven? Is it something that comes to a person? He somehow wants to ask for the Kingdom of Heaven? Is it the environment, the Creator? 

M. Laitman: The person gets it from the Creator, of course. He is the place where all the laws of creation exist.  

Student: And then what is man's work if the Creator gives him a desire?

M. Laitman: The person must sort out the things he receives and see, is he receiving from the Creator truly what the Creator wants to reveal to him? That's the way it is. That if he sees that what he receives from the Creator is the maximum he can receive, but if he sees that he has more room to receive from the Creator, then he opens himself more and asks for more.

Student: And this sorting comes from man's own strength? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:39) One is sentenced where one is. What does it mean where one is?

M. Laitman: That he comes to that state out of, out of his inner state, out of what he wanted, what he asked for, and this is what he wanted to achieve. 

Student: So when he's sentenced, it means in every moment, in every state the person is in, in that moment he is sentenced? 

M. Laitman: No, it's not every moment, but usually it's really something extended, prolonged in the relationship with the Creator.

Student: Now, how does a person come to a state where he wants to accept the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven for eternity? Because first, in his awareness, at least to me, I'm not always willing to give up everything. There's always this boundary where you're not willing to give up, and there's also things unconsciously in my subconscious that I'm not even aware of what I don't want, how much I don't want. How do you get to that point where you say, I'm willing to give up everything in a truthful way?

M. Laitman: What you feel, what is revealed to you, in this you calculate.

Student: So it's a feeling that you need to build. It doesn't just come to a person.

M. Laitman: It comes gradually, yes.

Student: We know that the action leaves an impression. An action with your hands and legs, I, let's say, I'm not yet ripe to say that I want to accept it internally, but I can do something with my hands and legs. Can an action like that also lead a person to a point where he's willing to accept it in wholeness? 

M. Laitman: They say that what a person wants, a person expresses it through all kinds of actions, and movements, and deeds. So, as we see the external form of the friend, we see what happens to him, so it's the same here.

Student: So if we, in the Ten, a person works with his hands and legs and in his intentions, he still can't say I want to give up everything, but he's working, working to help the friends, strengthen them. Does it bring him closer to this state that he's talking about here, that he's actually willing to take it upon himself? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:04) He writes in the second paragraph, we also need to know that gladness is discerned as upper illumination that appears by MAN, which is good deeds. Why specifically MAN is good deeds? 

M. Laitman: MAN is that force that a person, by which a person wants to be connected to the Creator. 

Student: But we do many things. We do meals, Ten meetings, we go wild in many directions trying things, so there's many actions. Why only MAN is good deeds? The rest is not good deeds? 

M. Laitman: MAN means you want to be adhered to the Creator. And for this reason, out of all your actions, out of all your thoughts, your states, the upper force filters it and takes out of it only your work towards adhesion. 

Student: So, we could say that everything, any action we do, doesn't matter what, ultimately should lead us to MAN? 

M. Laitman: No, no, of course not. It's also not… it's incorrect and not nice to think this way. Good deeds means a person wants to come to the good, to be good and doing good, in some way like the Creator. And therefore, he ultimately bursts out and asks the Creator to help him come to that.

Student: So basically, if we made an action that was good, that was nice, but it didn't lead me to this kind of prayer, we can say that I missed something in this action?

M. Laitman: Of course. It's like you missed it, you missed something, but you really… You didn't find what you wanted.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:09) Rav, in the beginning of the article, Baal HaSulam says that joy is a reflection of good deeds. If it's deeds of Kedusha, then accordingly appears joy. Then he starts talking about reason. He says that there is reason, and you need reason. What is reason? 

M. Laitman: Reason is the middle line, Hochma, Bina, Daat. 

Student: But still, what is it in practice? What is the Daat composed of, the reason? I have reason, and I heard once from you that the man is a result of his environment. So what is my reason made of? What is reason? Where do I get any reason with regards to anything?

M. Laitman: Reason, also Daat, it means both reason, and opinion, and knowledge in a person. It's what is created in a person, an internal connection with the Creator. And then he, in this line, in his inner connection with the Creator, he begins to turn to the Creator, and in this way, through such actions, he comes closer and closer to the Creator. Closer to the Creator and to wanting that reason, and to build himself as we say, to be above reason. 

Student: So, another thing I heard from you is that one is where one's thoughts are, and thoughts and reason is something that is built through my environment. So, I'm completely powerless towards anything, I'm just an outcome of my reality.

M. Laitman: Well, that's the question. How can we continue existing this way? And then we come to a state where we ask for the reason of the upper one to appear in us, to be revealed in us. 

Student: So, this request needs to come from the environment, from the society, because if through that I receive reason in connection with the upper one…  

M. Laitman: Yes, through which you receive, and when you are in this already, as a result, then you ask. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:16) The first paragraph speaks about the result after the action, and there's a discernment between Klipa and Kedusha, and the advice is to delve in words of Torah. What is this advice of delving in the words of Torah to discover the mind of Torah.

M. Laitman: Meaning, to be incorporated in all kinds of actions that can fill you with a view of Torah. 

Student: Isn't it the action itself? 

M. Laitman: No, the act is the means. The result of the act is that you become filled with the view of Torah. 

Student: So what is this delving? I check if got to a state of incorporation with this society as a result of the action?

M. Laitman: Could be, yes.

Student: And if I don’t delve in this way, is that Klipa? 

M. Laitman: Then you're not advancing to the internality of the Torah. And then you need to perhaps get a different awakening. And then the Creator gives you different states.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:59) Following, also the name of the article is, Joy Is A Reflection of Good Deeds, meaning that you can see that joy is an outcome. I'll ask a kind of question where, why are there people who are born happier and some less? It's a kind of a, that kind of question.

M. Laitman: I don't know. I don't ask. What does it matter if someone is born this way or that way? It's already regarded as the Creator's game with each and every person.

Student: I'll tell you why I ask, because we learn that, well, we're like in a laboratory where I absorb examples from the friends. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: When I see a friend joyful, and I'm told here that joy is a reflection of good deeds, then I take an example that the friend is working correctly, he's on the right track, it's a good example. So, is it correct that joy is an example?

M. Laitman: No. 

Student: So what does it mean, a friend who shows me joy and greatness? 

M. Laitman: That he probably has a good mood, but from where, why, how? This needs to be scrutinized.

Student: Is it important to show joyfulness, to set an example of joyfulness?

M. Laitman: Yes. If a person learns Torah and shows that he's happy with it, that's a good example. 

Student: We learn that a man wants to be in an equivalence of form with the Creator from nature. He wants to stay in the qualities of the Creator, and rest, and that the Creator has and so forth. Every person also wants to be joyful. So does the Creator have joy, does He have that kind of quality? 

M. Laitman: Ask, ask, and you'll get an answer.

Question (Merkaz 1): (33:58) What is it about joy that without it you cannot advance in the work? 

M. Laitman: Joy is agreement. It's a result of agreement, the person's agreement with the Creator. 

Question (Women Ukraine 2): (34:20) Where does the joy come from, and how do you get it naturally as a result?

M. Laitman: Joy is obtained through states that match what the Creator sends us. And then we get from this equivalence, we get joy. 

Question (Women MAK 43): (35:00) How will we learn to feel the joy not as a result of getting fulfillment but as an expression of connection that always exists?

M. Laitman: It depends on what we want to receive. She should see, according to the questions in her, that there are more serious questions, more internal ones, more emotional ones. 

Student: How can we support each other so that even in a moment of sorrow, the attention would stay not on the deficiency but on the goal? 

M. Laitman: If we want to see from a friend questions that pertain to the goal, then let's see, let's see. 

Question (Women Ukraine 2): (36:23) It is said that the Creator sentences the person where one is. What does it mean? 

M. Laitman: That the Creator sentences a person to the extent that he receives qualities from the upper force and the extent to which, as a result of it, he awakens by himself. 

Question (Women Bogota):. (37:10) What does it mean to take upon yourself the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven from a desire that it will remain for eternity? How do I carry out this state forever?

M. Laitman: Through the desire. It's not like now you can turn on a switch or something. But through the desire, you remember it more and more, and want to belong to it, and you activate this kind of a prayer until you begin to understand from where it comes to you. 

Question (Women Europe): (37:56) Is faith in the Creator a kind of a good deed? Is faith in the Creator an action of good deed? We talked about good deeds in the article.

M. Laitman: Yes. How can it be? That's the question that is also our final purpose, our final goal, for adhesion with the Creator to be because of our equivalence with Him. 

Question (Women PT 6): (38:44) With regards to the evening we're going to have today, we have a Purim event in Petah Tikva, and a thousand people will come, and the world Kli will be connected. What should we achieve in such an event? What should we direct the heart towards? How to not just be happy, and what to pray to? 

M. Laitman: It's an event that belongs to the festival of Pesach.

Reader: Purim today, it's for Purim. 

M. Laitman: Oh, Purim, sorry. Yes, Purim. Well, so, what's the question? Of course, we need to connect one with the other, the holiday of Purim with today's state. Yes, to understand ourselves, to bring ourselves into such a state where it exists between us. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:09) So, following that, tonight we expect to have great joy and great upliftment. What to do in the moment of upliftment and joy? 

M. Laitman: We need to be glad and erupt. 

Student: And how can say, our Ten, go into the Kingdom of Heaven in eternity, to take advantage of it for that? 

M. Laitman: If you are connected among you, and out of the connection of the hearts you want to raise your desire up and connect with the Creator, in the Creator, then perhaps in this occasion, you will attain all the good in creation, all that the Creator intended for, when He created in us, in our hearts that need.

Student: And this scrutiny of the reason, let's say, the day after we need to do this scrutiny, or to take the books and start looking for depth? When does this scrutiny happen, if the reason is of Kedusha or not? 

M. Laitman: Beforehand. Why do we need to search for these qualities the day after, and awaken them, and use them? 

Student: So how do you recommend us to prepare during the day towards the evening? 

M. Laitman: Each one should ask himself, with whom am I coming, with what am I coming to the meeting, what do I want to see in the friends? And with what they come in order to connect with me? Etcetera.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:51) When there's a gathering like today, typically there's joy that awakens when the friends gather. So, how to not fall to frivolity and to really just turn this joy to an upper illumination?

M. Laitman: Spirit of folly, and lack of seriousness, it's also not simple. To awaken to folly, to mischief, we have to be freed from all the thoughts and desires and even actions that are not, that don't direct us toward the purpose of creation in the Creator. But let's tonight, in our gathering, let's discover that we want to be as one man with one heart, and in this inner point, reveal the Creator.

Student: When friends gather, even if it's not a big gathering, just a few friends in the Ten or just any friends, naturally there are some, you know, like just day-to-day kind of conversation, small talk, you know, a joke, hello, hello, like a standard kind of small talk between people. How to not fall even in these instances?

M. Laitman: If a person is in his desires, in his troubles, meaning he has a goal, a desire for some state to come to it, and at the same time he sees that, he sees how much is still not there, that awakens a person correctly.

Student: I'm going back to what he writes. When joy comes to a person he should delve in words of Torah in order to discover the mind of the Torah. What is the mind of the Torah? 

M. Laitman: The mind of the Torah, it is that it becomes revealed to him how much on the one hand, he does belong to the upper force, and how much he still hasn't found the goal. And then, out of these two pieces of data, he comes to the implementation. 

Student: To delve in words of Torah, does that mean to read our sources or it's a different action, delving in the words of Torah?

M. Laitman: Not necessarily. Of course, the sources. Of course, to listen to talks of Rabash. What else? And to be incorporated with the friends, so they will hold him, guard him, so when he comes to a meeting with them, he will truly see that he is coming to some sublime assembly. 

Student: During the joy, what action can he do? 

M. Laitman: Actions are things we want to do in our hearts, that I'm drawn to it.

Student: What can a person do in time of joy? What action does he have left to do? 

M. Laitman: Adhesion. Adhesion with the friends in order to discover in this, his point of connection with the Creator. 

Student: Adhesion is an action on behalf of a person, or a result?

M. Laitman: It's a result of an action.

Student: Okay, now again, he says when joy comes to a person, he should delve in words of Torah. Why during the state of joy he should delve in the Torah?

M. Laitman: It's because the state of joy, specifically the feeling of joy, if a person wants to be in it, it leads him to correct connection with the environment. And within it, a person begins to see how much joy is a condition, a requisite with which he is rewarded with connecting with friends.

Student: I'll ask differently. Why not, when a person is in a state of sorrow, then he needs to delve in words of Torah so they will elevate him? 

M. Laitman: He's not ready. If sadness comes to a person, then he can't be in a state where the upper light shines on him.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:56) He writes here about a situation where a person decides to take upon himself the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Now, there's to accept it for eternity and not for eternity, and that's considered wholeness or not, respectively. So, what is that state in the person that he's specifically accepting the kingdom of heaven for eternity or not? 

M. Laitman: He wants to be adhered to the upper force that will be in him, in the person, that upper force. And it's very important for him to feel that he is under His control, that the person is under the control of the upper force. And then he is willing to be cleansed of all the desires, thoughts, actions that are in him as long as the upper force makes of him whatever…makes something of him. 

Student: What is the eternity that a person decides that he's not going for eternity? That he's going for it partially. What does it mean? 

M. Laitman: That he doesn't want any other state other than now. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (52:40) In the same direction, eternity is above all the various states? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Or is it inclusive of all the states? 

M. Laitman: Above all the different states that he includes everyone. 

Student: So, how to remain in this desire to be above the states, where he's only under the Creator's rule?

M. Laitman: Prayer. 

Student: Most of the time I'm in a prayer, more than half of it, I'm in a dialogue with the will to receive. How to be in dialogue with the world to bestow to the Creator in my prayer? 

M. Laitman: You need to know, you need to know what controls you at that time. 

Student: But if I stop and think, it's clear that the Creator is in control of everything. But in my feelings, in my vessels, all day I'm like a little kid, thinking of all kinds of nonsense but not about the Good That Does Good. So how to emerge from myself to actually pray for the Creator and not for myself?

M. Laitman: Try, try to think this way.  

Reader: We have questions from the World Kli. 

M. Laitman: Ah, we have the World Kli, yes.  

Question (MAK 11): (55:22) Can there be joy in the Sitra Achra, and how to distinguish between that? 

M. Laitman: What did he ask? 

Student: Can there be joy in the Sitra Achra, the other side? 

M. Laitman: Of course. But all those things don't persist for long. And very quickly they show the emptiness in them. And in this way a person reverts, turns back to his root.

Question (Holland): (56:13) To continue these questions, when gladness comes to a person, he should delve in words of Torah. Instead, it's sort of a condition, this gladness, to be able to delve, let's say, into Torah. On the other side, it says at the beginning, joy is a reflection of good deeds, so it looks like a contradiction here.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Reader: The friend feels there's a contradiction here, that on the one hand joy is a reflection of good deeds, on the other hand, when joy comes to a person, he should engage in words of Torah. So, he's asking if there's no contradiction.

M. Laitman: I don't see any contradiction, no.

Student: You need, let's say, if there's joy, joy is a reflection of good deeds. That means if I work in Torah, that's good deeds. How can it be that when gladness comes to a person, then I can delve in Torah? Then it's a condition. And on the other, it's a cause. So, I don't understand. 

M. Laitman: I understand, and we'll come to it. We'll see this in our lives.  

Question (ITA 4): (58:05) If I decide in the state that I'm in to be under the rule of bestowal and not reception, does it mean that I bring contentment to the Creator, meaning agreement? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Reader: So, we can go to another article from Rabash, Volume 3. So, it's another article, also about joy but from another perspective.

M. Laitman: Let's go.

Reader: So, let's do a song and then right away to the next part.  

Song: (59:07)