The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Morning Lesson: April 2, 2026
Part 1: A lesson based on the articles of Rabash
Rabash. “What Is ‘the People’s Shepherd Is the Whole People’ in the Work?”
Original lesson date: May 02, 2002
Reader: Dear friends, in the first part, we will study a lesson of Rav from 2002. It's based on the article, "What is ‘the People's Shepherd Is the Whole People’ in the Work?" You can find it in the writings of Rabash in Hebrew, page 644. We'll read it together in the Ten. We have 20 minutes. Tens that finish ahead of time are invited to start the workshop on the main points of the article. "What is “the People's Shepherd Is the Whole People” in the Work?"
Reading: (00:43) What Is “the People’s Shepherd Is the Whole People” in the Work?
Article No. 13, 1988
It is written in The Zohar (Beshalach, Item 68): “‘And Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear; stand by and see the salvation of the Lord.’’ Rabbi Shimon said, ‘Happy are Israel that a shepherd such as Moses walks among them. It is written, ‘And He remembered the days of old, Moses is His people.’ ‘And He remembered the days of old’ is the Creator. ‘Moses is His people,’ since Moses was tantamount to the whole of Israel. We learn from this that the people’s shepherd is really the whole people. If he is rewarded, the whole of the people are righteous; and if he is not rewarded, the whole of the people are not rewarded and are punished because of him.’”
We should understand this in the work, where we learn everything in one body, meaning that both Moses and Israel are in the same body. We should also understand why if he is not rewarded, meaning the people’s shepherd, they are punished because of him. We learned that if the shepherd is righteous, the people are also righteous. But why should the people be punished because of him? What did they do that they are to blame for the fault of the shepherd?
It known that The Zohar calls Moses “the faithful shepherd.” Baal HaSulam interpreted that he was nourishing the people of Israel with faith. He said that man does not lack any power in order to be able to observe Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] in full, but only faith. To the extent that he has faith, to that extent he can exert in the work.
He says in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” (Item 14): “I once interpreted the saying of our sages, ‘He whose Torah is his trade.’ The measure of his faith is apparent in his practice of Torah because the letters of the word Umanuto [his trade] are the same [in Hebrew] as the letters of the word Emunato [his faith]. It is like a person who trusts his friend and lends him money. He may trust him with a pound, and if he asks for two pounds he will refuse to lend him. He may also trust him with all his property without a hint of fear. This last faith is considered ‘whole faith,’ and the previous forms are considered ‘incomplete faith.’ Rather it is partial faith.” Thus, we see that man lacks no power but only faith, and this is what gives man the power to work.
By this we can interpret what Rabbi Shimon said, “Happy are Israel that a faithful shepherd such as Moses walks among them.” It means that the people of Israel have within them faith, which is called “Moses, the faithful shepherd.” Then, since they have faith, they have the strength to engage in Torah and Mitzvot. In other words, within every person there is faith in the Creator, which is called “Moses, the faithful shepherd.” At that time the whole people are righteous, meaning that all of man’s organs, namely his thoughts and desires, which are called “organs,” and this is called “a people.”
This is the meaning of what is written, “‘And He remembered the days of old’ is the Creator. ‘Moses is His people,’ since Moses was tantamount to the whole of Israel.” We learn from this that “the people’s shepherd is really the whole people,” for the faith in man is the whole of man. That is, if he has the quality of Moses, which is called “faith,” then the whole people are righteous. This is why he says, “If he is rewarded, the whole people are righteous,” for “rewarded” means that his shepherd is faith, called Moses.
He says, “If he is not rewarded, the whole people are not rewarded and are punished because of him.” It is known that if there is a righteous, he protects the generation, and if there is no righteous, we can say that there is no one to save the generation. Yet, why are they punished because of him if he is not rewarded? Why is it the generation’s fault?
According to the rule that Baal HaSulam said, all the heaviness in the work of the Creator is only the lack of faith, since when a person is rewarded with complete faith, he yearns to annul before the Creator as a candle before a torch. Naturally, all his organs, meaning his thoughts and desires, follow what faith obligates him to do, they do it. This is why he says that if he is rewarded, all the organs are righteous, since thoughts and desires of the righteous extend from faith in the Creator.
Accordingly, it is obvious that if the people’s shepherd is not rewarded, meaning that his faith, which should be cleansed, meaning complete faith, yet he has only partial faith, as it is written (“Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 14), “the whole people are not rewarded.” This means that all his organs do things that are suitable for those without complete faith. “They are punished because of him,” meaning that it is not their fault that they have thoughts and desires unfit for one who has faith.
That is, if their shepherd had complete faith, the organs would listen to him and would have thoughts and desires of a righteous. This is why they suffer because of him, since he does not have complete faith. This is why such thoughts are born out of this shepherd.
Therefore, when a person wants to walk on the path of truth, he cannot say that he has worse qualities than others, and less intellect than others. That is, he cannot exempt himself from the work because he has a weak character or no talent. Instead, the only difficulty in the matter is the lack of faith. For this reason, a person should do all his work and all his actions in order to acquire faith in the Creator, for only this gives everything.
For this reason, when a person learns Torah or engages in Mitzvot, or when he prays, he should focus his thoughts on wanting reward for all his good deeds—that the Creator will give him complete faith. This is as it is written in the prayer of Rabbi Elimelech (“A Prayer before a Prayer”): “And do fix Your Faith in our hearts forever and ever, and let Your Faith be tied to our hearts as a stake that will not fall.” This is the meaning of “The people’s shepherd is really the whole people.”
In order to achieve complete faith, they said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” The reason is that since faith requires assistance from the Creator, and there is a rule, “There is no light without a Kli [vessel],” it means that it is impossible to fill up a place where there is no lack, which is called a need, namely a Kli, as he said, “there is no light without a Kli.”
In order to come to feel the need for faith, a person must first imagine what benefits he can derive through faith, and what he loses when he has only partial faith. First, he must depict to himself the purpose of creation, meaning for what purpose the Creator created creation. Then, he must believe in the sages, who said that the purpose of creation is to do good to His creations.
When a person begins to examine creation with his eyes, meaning which form of good and doing good he sees that the creatures are receiving from Him, the opposite view appears to man. He sees that the whole world suffers torments, and it is hard to find one person who can say that he feels and sees how His guidance is in the form of good and doing good.
In that state, when he sees a dark world, and he wants to believe that the Creator behaves with the world in Private Providence as good and doing good, he remains standing on this point, and all kinds of foreign thoughts come into his mind. Then, he must overcome above reason, that Providence is good and does good. At that time he receives a need for the Creator to give him the power of faith, so he will have the strength to go above reason and justify Providence.
Then he can understand the meaning of “Shechina [Divinity] in the dust,” since then he sees that where he should do something for the Creator and not for his own sake, the body promptly asks, “What is this work for you?” and does not want to give him strength to work. This is called “Shechina in the dust,” meaning that what he wants to do for the sake of the Shechina tastes to him like dust and he is powerless to overcome his thoughts and desires.
At that time a person realizes that all he lacks in order to have strength to work is that the Creator will give him the power of faith, as said above (in the prayer of Rabbi Elimelech), that we must pray, “And do fix Your Faith in our hearts forever and ever.” In that state, he comes to the realization that “If the Creator does not help him, he cannot overcome it.”
Now we can interpret what our sages said (Berachot 6b), “Any person in whom there is fear of heaven, his words are heard,” as it was said, “In the end, all is heard, fear God.” This is difficult to understand literally. After all, there were many prophets and righteous and great people, so why were their words not heard, but Israel remained in their state and would not listen to those who admonish? In the literal, there are probably many explanations to this.
However, in the work, where we learn the whole Torah in one body, we should interpret this verse. One who wants his body, meaning all the organs, which are the thoughts, desires, and actions, to be purely sacred, the advice for this, for the body to obey all his demands, is to obtain complete faith, which is called “fear of heaven.”
There are many degrees in fear, as it is said in The Zohar (“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Item 191), “Fear, which is the most important, is when one fears one’s Master because He is great and ruling, the essence and the root of all the worlds, and everything is considered nothing compared to Him.” Interpreting the words teaches us that there are three manners in fear of the Creator, only one of which is regarded as real fear: 1) He fears the Creator and observes His commandments so his sons may live, and he will be kept from bodily punishment or a punishment to his wealth. This is a fear of punishments in this world. 2) He fears punishments of Hell, as well.
Those two are not real fear, for he does not keep the fear because of the commandment of the Creator, but because of his own benefit. It follows that his own benefit is the root, and fear is a derived branch of his own benefit.
3) Fear, which is the most important, means that he fears the Creator because He is great and rules over everything. He is great because He is the root from which all the worlds expand.
It follows that the most important point about fear of heaven is to believe in the greatness of the Creator, for the greatness and importance of the Creator is the reason that obligates him to observe Torah and Mitzvot, and not for his own sake. It is as he says there, “And he will place his heart and desires in that place called ‘fear.’ He will cling to fear of the Creator willingly and eagerly, as is befitting and proper with the King’s commandment.”
When a person is rewarded with such faith, meaning that he feels in his heart the greatness of the Creator, the body and all the organs, meaning the desires, thoughts, and actions, annul before the King as a candle before a torch.
Reader: Now, we will move to a lesson from May 2, 2002.
M. Laitman: (20:48) "What is ‘the People's Shepherd Is the Whole People’ in the Work?" We are talking about what is happening inside of us, inside our soul, with words that usually we're talking, we used to talk about them, about our body, and then we end up with a picture that is very confused, and the words feel tasteless. Fear, spiritual fear, honor, all kinds of such words that don't truly have the correct meaning for a person who still sees the body, and he cannot see the soul through it. And therefore, if we speak only with words of Kabbalah, that does not speak about the biological body and its parts, and the emotions that people feel in this world. There's a will to receive, and the will to receive will always remain the will to receive. It can only establish its independence through the intention. If its intention is the natural one that comes from the light, that it is influenced by the pleasure, then its intention is to enjoy, and it works with the will to receive to enjoy. If it wants to be independent, it has only one possibility, to be similar to the Creator, with the opposite intention to receiving in order to enjoy. There are no other deeds, no other intentions, all in all. And therefore, when we speak about the will to receive, that we need to replace the intention from in order to receive to in order to bestow, then we speak about fear, anxiety, spiritual fear, all kinds of emotions that are seemingly unpleasant in this world, in us, in our bodies. They're felt as unpleasant feelings. In spirituality, it is interpreted in a different way. The fear is already a different kind of fear. How will I work with my will to receive in such a way that it will be afraid? I already relate to it as a third party, as if looking from the side. This is the vessel that I was given. How do I bring it to a state where it will be afraid to receive? It will be afraid of working with its intention of in order to receive, and it will want to work with the intention to bestow. This means that a person who wants to be independent, how and in what can he be independent? In relating to what he was given, to his vessel, in a way that he's independent of the vessel. He does not identify with his vessel and clings to it like a person in this world - it wants, this is what I want, it thinks, this is what I think. It does not distinguish between what he feels or what he thinks, and that this is not him, but this is what his vessel thinks and wants. There is the awareness, and there is what I feel and what I think. It's as if he comes out of himself and looks at himself from the side. This is how one's independence is measured. As much as he can see himself from the side, both in the good states and also in the bad states, he can monitor himself objectively and see how much he is capable or not capable of seeing himself from the side and not being influenced by whatever he's going through. And if, after all of these tests, he can truly only take into consideration the goal, and according to that, to truly determine each time his decision, his next step, then by that he becomes independent. And then he thinks about the body. I now want the body to be afraid, to be fearful, meaning that it will receive such and such a measure of fear, such and such a measure of love. So for him, all of these qualities, all of these means are now as forces that he wants, that his soul, his vessel, to acquire them in order to advance onwards.
M. Laitman: (26:15) And then these words are not interpreted in us in the bodies - that I am afraid or I love, but rather they are interpreted as qualities that he, with his awareness and with intellectual criticism, inspection, truly wants to add to himself. And he weighs it, he measures it each time, what is worthwhile for him to acquire, what is worthwhile for him to do. This means that our problem is simply to be independent of ourselves. This exiting from under the control of the body, to feel it as something that is alien, outside of me, is possible only for a person who receives from above the point in the heart. Because the point in the heart, when he receives this longing, this yearning for godliness, for the Creator, for the Upper One, this point is what is called a godly part from above. It is a point from the upper world. And then a person who is completely from this world, from the lower world, when he receives some point from the upper world, he already has this inner split. And then he can see himself, from that point, he can observe himself and then determine which behavior and which qualities he can add to himself in order to be in the upper nature. We can't just be independent. It is possible to exit the body and look at it from the side, only if we look at it from the point in the heart. If I exit the body and I look at it from the side in a psychological manner, then all in all, I do not exit the body. I am inspecting it from that same will to receive that I have, just the way that psychologists do it, or doctors, or people do it for all kinds of meditations, which does not come out of the realm of this world. It is just some kind of sophistication in using the will to receive in a way that is even more effective, more beneficial. So, how do I come out of my body to the point in the heart? My body is my heart. My heart is all of my desires, all of my passions, everything that I call myself, I. The point in the heart is the part of the godly soul. How do I identify, instead of my life, my heart, my desires, with that point that exists inside of the heart? For that, I have to acquire a correction, which is called here faith. This is what it is called. So, faith means some special force that gives me the possibility to be disconnected from the beastly desires of this world, desires for sex, family, food, rest, money, honor, knowledge, to be disconnected from them, and to belong only to the desire that exists in the upper world. In the upper world, beyond the barrier, only one desire exists. We yearn to be inside of the Creator, in adhesion with Him, connected to Him, to be like Him, to resemble Him, to bestow to Him. In short, to Him, with one word, a desire towards Him. So, faith means a force that I receive from above, certainly it's not from myself. I can't make some effort, and by that, to want the Creator instead of all of the pleasures of this world. But rather, through the efforts that a person makes in the society, in the group, in the study, with the intention to acquire this force of faith, light comes from above, it is called the light of Hassadim, and it, this light of Hassadim, gives the person the power to be disconnected. Meaning, disconnected from all the kinds of pleasures that exist in this world. That is, he feels through his body, through his beast, and instead of that, to yearn for godliness. This force is truly a force that gives independence, the force of the light of Hassadim, the force of Bina. This is why Bina is called freedom, freedom from the angel of death. That is, freedom of being connected with our body that lives and dies.
M. Laitman: (32:35) So, the most important thing we need in our study, now that we begin to learn, is to think about how can we acquire the power of faith. This is why it is written, a righteous shall live by his faith. Everything is measured by the power of faith according to the measure of the ability to disconnect from everything that is around you, to look at it in a way that is completely objective, from the side, and ascribe oneself to a desire that exists only in the upper world. If a person acquires this power above the desires that exist within him, then he immediately enters the feeling of the upper world, and then he already begins to receive, besides the light of Hassadim, besides the light of faith, also the light of understanding, the light of Hochma, the light of attainment. He begins to feel the Creator, the upper system, the spiritual mechanism, and see how it works on him and on all of the other souls, and also on our world, and all the elements that exist in our world, the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, and then he begins to feel and attain the upper guidance and management. To that extent, he already begins to be a partner of the Creator, and it is all thanks to the power of faith that he acquires. And then all the thoughts and desires that also exist in his body, through the power of faith he seemingly abstained from them and adhered to the yearning towards the Creator. Now he brings back all of these desires, all of these bodily forces, and they already stand at his disposal in order to also assist the advancement of the soul. This power of faith that he acquired is called Moses, the faithful shepherd, this is why it is written about him that he’s the faithful shepherd. His power is faith. And then all the desires of the person that he carries behind his force towards advancement to spirituality, it is considered that he is truly carrying, dragging all of his sheep, all of his people, all of the desires of the person towards the same process. This is what it says here in the title of this article, “what does it mean that the people's shepherd is the whole people.” And then the whole people, all of the desires of the person join the same process and assist his advancement. Are there any questions?
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (36:17) The fear, the fear of heaven, or some kind of true fear of heaven, or complete faith, if I understood correctly, is this beyond the barrier, is it beyond this world?
M. Laitman: Spiritual fear, he writes in the introduction of the book of Zohar, Rabbi Shimon, not the introduction to the book of Zohar written by Baal HaSulam, but the introduction of the book of Zohar itself, the first volume of the Zohar. There are articles, they are called Pkudin De'Oraita, Pkudin — commandments, the commandments of the Torah. Commandments, mean laws. The Torah is actually the collection of the spiritual laws, according to which — well, there is a spiritual world that behaves according to a set of laws. It has 620 laws. The person who corrects himself so that he can keep each and every law, it is considered that he's performing a Mitzva, a commandment. What is a Mitzva? My adaptation to the spiritual law that exists in reality. So Rabbi Shimon, in the first part of the Zohar, explains there the laws, the laws of reality called the laws of the Torah, the laws of the light. Torah means light. In Aramaic, it's called Pkudin, Pkudot in Hebrew, commandments, commands. And the first law is fear. Fear means, he explains there how fear can be interpreted as beastly fear or godly fear. At first, a person is afraid about his body, about his money, so this means he's afraid towards himself. He's directed, inverted, introvertly into the person, and later on, it's extrovertly, outside of himself towards the Creator. He begins to be afraid whether I am bestowing enough to the Creator, how can I do it, do I love Him or not? That is, he begins to come out of his vessel and he acquires an external vessel. An external vessel means to be concerned about an external thing, and then his vessel becomes unlimited. So Rabbi Shimon explains there that the first commandment, meaning the first degree that the person must acquire, because he's built out of the will to receive and he only cares about himself, so the first spiritual quality that he must acquire is fear. To go through all of these beastly fears, first of all, it's towards himself, later on, there is a godly fear towards the Creator. Am I giving Him? Do I love Him, etc. And then, in this fear, that's already a vessel, love is clothed. Love is the second commandment. Fear, in itself, we said, it’s light of Hassadim. It is a light, a state, a feeling where a person is disconnected from his will to receive. He is simply disconnected from whatever he has below the barrier, and by that, he begins to acquire the ability to feel what is above the barrier. And in this feeling, as much as he has a yearning, not for himself, but towards the Creator, with this feeling, he begins to feel the Creator. The feeling of the Creator, means the feeling of the upper world. Because what is the feeling of the worlds? World, Olamot, are from the word Ha'alamot, concealments. The measures of the feeling of the Creator are called worlds or measures. If I feel Him, all of Him, I reach a state where I feel all of Him, it is considered that the worlds disappear. And I reach a state called the world of Ein Sof. There is no limit, no limitation, no world. And before that, as if I climbed through the degrees of the worlds: Assyia, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, AK and Ein Sof. A person who has acquired this ability to feel spirituality, to care about spirituality and not corporeality, to be in his whole heart above the barrier and not below the barrier, then, other than being filled by light of Hassadim, he already receives the feeling of the Creator called light of Hochma. And then he has not just faith, but complete faith. As much as he has light of Hochma within light of Hassadim, he is considered more and more whole. The goal is that he will have light of faith as great as possible, so that within it, light of Hochma will be filled entirely as was in Ein Sof before the first restriction.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (42:29) Is the beastly fear, meaning that one is afraid about himself in this world, is afraid of punishments in the next world, or all kinds of such things, is this something that is beneficial for the path, or is it harmful towards the path? We say that there is the true fear of heaven, which is beyond the barrier. Now, when we are in this world, so we actually have fear that...
M. Laitman: A person who begins to study, depending on how much he invests in this study and in all kinds of means that should help him advance, ultimately he comes to states where he begins to have fear, to be afraid, more than an ordinary person, about all kinds of things. He’s beginning to be shown what is fear. An ordinary person living in this world has a much lower sensitivity level than a person who begins to study Kabbalah, meaning begins to learn how to truly build the vessel and receive in it the revelation of godliness, the revelation of the Creator. There has to be a much more refined vessel than what we have in this world. We call it the sixth sense, a sense that allows us to feel beyond the barrier. This is called screen and reflected light, which an ordinary person does not have; so that we will feel the world around us, but it will be called the hidden world, the upper world. Therefore, in our study, through our study, when we say study, we also mean the work in the group, the friends, everything, all of that is considered study. So, by our study, we go into very unpleasant states for our beast, for our body, to the level of trembling, and fear, and rejection, unpleasantness, shame, all kinds of things. And all those feelings are ultimately only characterizing our advancement towards what we call fear, which is the first commandment. Until a person really goes through all those fears - he has to go through, from the root of his soul, for each one it happens a bit differently, but the rules are the same rules for each soul — until he goes through that, there's really nothing to say about being worthy of entering spirituality. And these things demand the person to really work on himself, to know himself, all kinds of fear. That's truly what we can say in a word that is characteristic of progress.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:10) So, if a person goes through some kind of beastly fear, whether it's fear or maybe a desire for some reward of one kind or another, doesn't matter, is it holy? Is it good to say that it is somehow connected to the Creator, or should we say this is a connection that was built incorrectly and try to exit it?
M. Laitman: I don't want to go into the details here on this path, because we're talking about a state that takes typically years, several years. A person who advances needs to go through all kinds of fears, and anxieties, despairs. He goes through that through the first few years. Let's say, first year and a half, a year, until he just enters the study, he doesn't feel anything, but afterwards, he begins to feel these unpleasant sensations, and that also takes a few years. To the extent of the intensity that he invests in his advancement, it could be faster, or perhaps he drags it for a few years. This is all something that he interprets in many articles. But with regards to faith, what I wanted to say — all those things we go through are essentially felt for us as unpleasant, not good sensations. They're all in order to build the vessel of faith. They help us detach from the body, see it from aside. If I would enjoy the body so much, I would never be able to detach from it. Specifically when it suffers, I begin to see it from aside, as if wanting to replace it. It's like a sick person who wants to replace a part of his body, until feeling such despair that he can't get along with it, and he's thinking how to do that. Such thoughts come to a person, and that's what truly gives him the opportunity to be independent of the broken body.