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

Daily Morning Lesson: June 25, 2025 

Hello friends, in the first part of the lesson, we will learn from Baal HaSulam’s article, Shamati 18, “What is the Day of the Lord and the Night of the Lord, in the Work?” You can find the article in the writings of Baal HaSulam, in Hebrew, it’s page 527. You can also find it in the Arvut system and in Sviva Tova. We will continue studying this article from a recorded lesson by Rav Laitman from the date October 9, 2021.

Part 1: Recorded lesson – Oct 9, 2021. Baal HaSulam, Shamati #16. What Is the Day of the Lord and the Night of the Lord in the Work?

M. Laitman: Our sages said about the verse, "Woe unto you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you need the day of the Lord? It is darkness and not light. There is an allegory about a rooster and a bat that were awaiting the light.” The rooster said to the bat, “I am waiting for the light since the light is mine but you, why do you need that it’s light? 

Because the bat doesn't feel the light with its eyes—it doesn't get the sun rays or the rays of light and feel the light, but the rooster is happy, it gets up and sings before the sun. 

The interpret is that since the bat has no eyes to see, what does it gain from the sunlight? On the contrary, to one who has no eyes sunlight only makes it darker. 

Because if we have no light from the outside then both the rooster and the bat are in the same situation: equal. But if light does come, then the rooster sees the light and the bat does not and there is a difference. Why does it happen that both await the light? 

We must understand the allegory meaning how the eyes are connected to looking in the light of the Creator which the text names the day of the Lord. They give an allegory in that regard about a bat, that one who has no eyes remains in the dark. We must also understand what is the day of the Lord and what is the night of the Lord and what is the difference between them. We discern the day of people by the sunrise but with the day of the Lord, in what do we discern it? 

What should change within us, in people, so we will feel that this was, for me, a day—now, it is a night for me or this was a night for me—now, it is a day for me. It is not a matter of these astronomical processes where the sun rises or the moon rises and the stars. What are the day and the night in our inner work, in our inner situations? 

The answer is, as the appearance of the Sun. In other words, when the sun shines on the ground, we call it day. When the sun does not shine, it is called darkness. It is the same with the Creator. A day is called revelation and darkness is called concealment of the face. This is called the day of the Lord and the night of the Lord. This means that the day of the Lord means that the guidance of which the Creator leads the world is clear. It is in the form of good and doing good. For example, when one prays his prayer is immediately answered and he receives what he has prayed for and one succeeds wherever he turns. 

This is what he calls the day of the Lord because it’s a good connection with the Creator and whatever he asks, the Creator does, from him to the Creator. 

Conversely, darkness, which is night, will mean concealment of the face of the Creator, meaning that the force that governs us is hidden. This brings one doubts in the guidance of good and doing good and foreign thoughts. In other words, the concealment of the guidance brings one all these foreign views and thoughts and this is called night and darkness. 

The fact that instead of seeing, agreeing with Providence—I see that it is opposite. This is what I call darkness and night, meaning the connection with the Creator—even if I don't see Him—but His activities toward me, I call it good and day and if I don't see the Creator’s actions towards me, it gives me foreign thoughts and actions that I don't understand, and this is what I call night, darkness and night. This is the definition of darkness. 

Now, we can interpret what is written, “woe unto you who desire the day of the Lord. Why do you need the day of the Lord? It is darkness and not light.” Why? Why is it written this way about what we yearn for? 

Those who await the day of the Lord, it means that they are waiting to be imparted faith above reason, those who are called roosters. That faith will be so strong as if they see with their eyes, with certainty, that they don't need to add anything else to themselves besides faith, that this is so, that the Creator is good who does good and everything is working properly, meaning the Creator watches over the world in a manner of good and doing good. In other words, they do not want to see how the Creator leads the world as the good who does good since seeing is contradictory to faith. In other words, faith is precisely where it is against reason. And when one does what is against one's reason, this is called faith above reason. 

In other words, the fact that we are not following what we see but what we are receiving above what we have before us, this is called going with faith above reason. 

You know, sometimes, there are such states between us too—even though I do something bad—I want people to see that I am good inside. That I want them to accept me as good, although my external actions seem to them as though I am bad. From our children, too, we want them to understand us. That, even though I am mad at my kids for what they did and I punish them and I even yell at them. I want them to feel in this, to feel my relation in this as opposite, that despite my relation to them, in this way, they will come to me and hug me and understand me correctly. That there are two lines here to Providence where, on the one hand, there is judgment, and even though it is right it is against the will to receive of a person. And, on the other hand, there is love but the love is concealed; it is revealed only on condition that there is an effort on the part of the receiver of the Providence. To the extent that he is willing to accept the love which is hidden in the pressure and the blows and the demands from the upper one. In this way, we begin to be in contact with the Creator. Such things happen in our world as well between us.

This means that they believe that the guidance of the Creator over the creatures is in a manner of good and doing good. While they do not see it with absolute certainty, they do not say to the Creator, we want to see the quality of good and doing good as seeing within reason. Rather, they want it to remain in them as faith above reason. 

I want to continue my relation to the Creator in this way or as a child toward a father, so let the relation toward me be bad—as I feel it—because it promotes me, it teaches me to constantly decipher the true relation of the Father or of the Creator as good. By this, I grow in understanding this behavior in two lines.

But they ask of the Creator to give them such strength that this faith will be so strong—that the Creator is good and doing good—so strong as if they see it within reason, that there will be no difference between faith and knowledge in the mind. This is what they—those who want to adhere to the Creator—refer to as the day of the Lord. In other words, if they feel it as knowledge, the light of the Creator called the upper abundance will go to the vessels of reception. 

If there is no difference between faith and knowledge. Then, I see—it is as if I see everything, it is all open before me. 

If they feel it as knowledge, then the light of the Creator called the upper abundance will go to the vessels of reception called vessels of separation. They do not want this since it will go to the will to receive which is the opposite of Kedusha [holiness] which is against the will to receive for one’s own sake. Instead, they want to adhere to the Creator and this can be only through equivalence of form. 

Therefore, they have no problem in feeling the Creator's relation in the opposite way. It actually helps them to compliment and to determine that, according to their nature, they see it as bad. And according to how they want to accept the Creator, it comes from His good relation toward them because, by this, He wants to promote us and educate us and elevate us to His level. To teach us to be human beings similar to The Creator. 

However, to achieve this, meaning in order for one to have a desire and craving to adhere to the Creator, since one is born with the nature of a will to receive only for one's own benefit, how is it possible to achieve something that is completely against nature? For this reason, one must make great efforts until he acquires a second nature which is a desire to bestow. When one is imparted the desire to bestow, he is qualified to receive the upper abundance and not blemish, since all the flaws come only through the will to receive for oneself. That is, even when doing something in order to bestow, deep inside, there is a thought that he will receive something for this act of bestowal that he is now performing. 

In other words, he wants to bestow but in order to receive something, a little bit. 

In a word, man is unable to do anything if he does not receive something in return for the act. 

It’s our nature, we have to receive some compensation, some satisfaction, a reaction, we have to. 

In other words, he must enjoy and any pleasure that one receives for one’s own benefit, that pleasure must cause him separation from the life of lives, from the Creator because of the separation. This stops one from adhering to the Creator since adhesion is measured by the equivalence of form, to the extent that one gives to the other. It is thus impossible to have pure bestowal without a mixture of reception from one's own powers.

Question (ITA 4): (17:35) Why is it important not to see within reason that the Creator is leading the world as the good who does good? Why does this separate us from the Creator?

M. Laitman: If you see Him—well you can't see the Creator because there He has no image; it is a force that operates in all of reality. As a result of this force, we feel in our world, meaning in our feeling, many forces. We can even build instruments to discover even more forces that operate around us. They are all phenomena that come from the power of the Creator, but the Creator is the causal force, what He does; and the forces we discover are only mechanical forces. It turns out that you want to attain, why, what is the reason that these forces operate on us? You have to rise above them, this is called, attainment of the Creator, the Cause of these forces. All of these forces come from Him, emerge from Him, but we perceive only the result of their influence on us ii the reason, we cannot discover, for now. The wisdom of Kabbalah reveals to us, meaning explains to us, more correctly, how we can reveal the forces in the manner of intention from the Creator’s perspective. How to understand the intention, the reason why He operates on us the way He does, that’s the question. We do not have the intellect, the feeling, to study, to research, what emerges from the Creator toward us. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us and this is why it is called, the wisdom of reception, Kabbalah, how to receive, to perceive, to understand, to feel what the Creator sends us. How He relates to us, what He gives us. It is not important for us which forces we are receiving; what is important for us is with what intentions, what thoughts, the Creator sends us these forces. In order to know these forces, to recognize, to begin to understand and study them, we need to rise above the good and bad that they do to us. Because, from the Creator, everything emanates as good. Afterwards, it divides into—from our perspective—into good and bad and into all kinds of other phenomena by which the Creator shakes us. Out of all of those shake-ups that the Creator gives us on all kinds of levels and forms, we have to relate to Him as the source. To accept, in advance, a priori, that He is good and doing good. This is how I want to see, to study Him, what He wants. He wants for the best, how can I know it? I can know it if I, too, relate to it as good. In other words, in that case, I have to rise from the level of the forces that operated on me and then I feel in them good and bad—I have to rise above them to the intentions of the Creator which are all good, for our benefit. To the extent that I can receive the Creator's relation, the good relation of the Creator as good, and the bad as good—equally, as good—this is called getting closer to Him. Rising more and more and more above myself toward the Creator because, for me, everything emanates as good. Afterwards, it divides in its influence on me into good influences and bad influences, ostensibly, bad influences—positive and negative. This is what I want to do: This ascent from feeling the forces to their intentions which are all good, according to my equivalence with these intentions. This ascent is called an ascent from reason, from feeling the actions themselves to faith above reason, to the Creator bestowing upon us from the level of Bina toward Malchut. This is how we approach Him, we begin to understand, truthfully, our forces.

Question (Latin 7): (23:33) Usually, there is a certain descent, despair at this time. How do I identify the force that the Creator is giving us? How can we be more above time with the ability to use the Creator's force in order to go through these times?

M. Laitman: I will tell you, you don't detect the forces of the Creator. Who are you, who are you, sir? You, too, are a force of the Creator. I have nothing to say, you just need to take everything you have in you and begin to relate to all of those things from a side. “From a side” is also not you but what the Creator gave you, but in the way that the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches you. Decipher everything you have—thoughts, desires, how, to what extent you think correctly or incorrectly. Or, if you’re thinking at all—maybe you should think about it, etc. By this, you are beginning to scrutinize what the Creator is doing in you and how you relate to what He does. Because everything you have—your worst thoughts, your worst desires, never mind—they all come from the Creator. 

Now, how do you relate to it, for now, right now? Tomorrow, it might change. It depends on how much you advance in your corporeal education, your spiritual education. So, start criticizing it, monitoring the operations of the Creator. Check your list, to what extent you agree with Him or disagree with Him, etc. In this, you have a lot of work, this is our main work: For a person to reveal, to do this internal scrutiny of who he is, which certainly comes from the Creator, and what he wants to have, what he wants to be. And in the gap between the two, he should ask for the corrections, that’s it. It is not complicated, we just need to ask; even if you don't know what to do and you can't read yourself more or less clearly, ask for that as well, for anything.

Question (Baltia 3): (27:07) How can I shift from work to a game, playing? How do we shift from working to playing?

M. Laitman: I don't think that besides the game that we have anything. From the very beginning, it is written that the Creator plays with the whale. What we need is only to know the rules of this game and use them, that’s it.

Question (Hungarian-Polish): (27:52) What correction do we need to do in order to feel the good that does good in the group?

M. Laitman: Only connection between us, in order to reach connection with the Creator, that’s it.

Question (KabU 3): (28:27) In the text of Shamati, he’s writing, the sages say about the verse, “Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord.” It’s strange because it seems, that is a good news because the day of the Lord detects the quality of Bina. So, why do they say, “woe to you”?

M. Laitman: They want to say that people who long to reveal the Creator expect the day of the Creator, the revelation of the Creator. In order to reveal the Creator, it is possible only to the extent that I build within me, assemble within me a quality similar to the Creator. Then, from these qualities similar to the Creator, I can understand and feel Him. I have to build within me a model where I give form to the Creator. This is why it is called, come and see, that’s why I built it within me, a Partzuf, ten Sefirot. Where I, in these ten Sefirot called, my soul, I can build, I can feel Him, envision Him so that this image that I establish me. Accordingly, I beginning to get into dialogue with Him, there is something in me that I can depict as the Creator. It is not the true Creator that we can't actually know who He is, what He is, to attain Him. But at least to the extent of what we build in our soul, it gives us an opportunity to cling to Him and to solve all the problems with Him to see where we need to advance until we come to adhesion with Him in all of the qualities, desires, thoughts, in complete accord. That’s how we do it.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:23) Is faith above reason the reason of the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:41) How can the Creator have an intention if He is the will to bestow? What is the intention?

M. Laitman: The intention of the Creator is to benefit the created beings.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:53) Is the intention of the Creator constant?

M. Laitman: Yes, there are no changes in the Creator. From the beginning to the end of creation, there is no change. And there are no actions, in fact, there is only one action that He doesn't move from. And that is bestowing to the created beings in the optimal way.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:33) In the article, it says, they asked the Creator to give force, that faith will be so strong as if they see it within reason, that there won't be a gap between the faith and knowing in their mind. What is that state that there is no difference between them?

M. Laitman: That if I would identify the actions of the Creator in my will to receive in full, that would be like how I now want to identify them but in my will, to bestow, and then faith becomes like reason, then I don't need the reason. I want to be in faith, I want to not receive anything but to be in this understanding that the Creator is the Bestower who is good that does good.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:32) The rooster and the bat work in the darkness. Is it right that the difference is that the rooster is in contact with the Creator and working in faith above reason, and the bat is working in the ego?

M. Laitman: I cannot say about the rooster and the bat, I am not a veterinarian, and I don't know how they think. I only know one thing: That if we don't see the intentions of the Creator, and His actions are not seen as good and beautiful to us. yet we do wish to see them as good and beautiful even though it is against our nature, our will to receive. By this we are bonded with the purpose of creation and not the actions. It is like a child who, let's say, his father is hitting him, and he still realizes that otherwise, his father can't educate him because his evil inclination is so evil that it can't be influenced any other way. And then the child agrees with his father even though the body suffers, but his soul agrees, and in it he actually aimed at the father. This is what Rabash used to say by pointing at himself saying, let it suffer. He would say that in some incidents in life. That is something we should not forget. We, each time, consciously or unconsciously want to move towards bodily indulgence, we always look for this indulgence.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:59) What kind of suffering does a Kabbalist have? Does he never suffer?

M. Laitman: The Kabbalists suffer just like all people suffer, and in addition to that, he suffers from not being able to only suffer spiritually. His will to receive brings him corporeal suffering each time as well, and he has to decipher it, raise it to a spiritual level. Well, if he has students, then he has the sorrow of growing pains, that’s obvious, and that’s it. But most importantly for a Kabbalist is that he suffers from wanting to push all people of the world to correction. And he is not feeling that it works out, that he is successful in that. The Creator expects it, and he is unsuccessful, and it's really so, it is a very great sorrow. You see how the world keeps going round, every day what is happening, and the Kabbalist is involved in all the news. He hears a little bit of what's going on, he sees all the crises and all the problems ahead, and knows how it can all be somewhat stopped, mitigated. Yet it doesn't depend on him, it depends on the extent to which ordinary people change their attitude towards the world. For a Kabbalist, it's much worse, he sees, let's say, some volcanic eruption is coming and covering a city or that other blows of nature are coming in different ways, states. And he can't do anything about it, nothing; imagine that you'll see, God forbid, that something is going to happen soon to your kid. And you can't do anything about it unless you will awaken the other people to think about that nothing will happen to your kid. This way you can save the situation. So, a Kabbalist in such states that are much worse than an ordinary person. Okay, let's go back to the article, we have another part of it.

M. Laitman (reading with commentary): (40:04) Therefore, for one to have the powers of bestowal, we need a second nature, so one will have the strength to achieve equivalence of form. In other words, the Creator is the giver and does not receive anything, for He lacks nothing. So, we should be in such state. Meaning that what He gives is not because of a lack, that if He has no one to give to, He feels it as a lack. Rather, we must perceive it is like a game. Why is it like a game? 

That is, it is not that when He wants to give, it is something that He needs. Instead, this is all like a game. It’s all in order to advance us.

It is as our sages said regarding the queen: She asked, “What does the Creator do after He has created the world?” The answer was, “He sits and plays with a whale.” As it is written, “This whale You have created to play with.” The matter of the whale refers to Dvekut and connection. Meaning that the purpose is the Creator’s connection with the created beings. 

And it’s a matter of a game not a matter of a desire and a need. Meaning that the Creator Himself has no desire or need for creation, but in order to reveal Himself to the created beings. 

The difference between a game and a desire is that everything that comes in the desire is a necessity. If one does not obtain one’s desire, he is deficient. But with games, even if one does not obtain the thing, it is not considered a lack, as they say, “It is not so bad that I did not get what I planned, because it is not so important.” This is so because the desire he had for it was only a game and not serious. It follows, that the whole purpose is for one’s work to be entirely in bestowal, and he will not have any desire or craving to receive pleasure for his work. This is a high degree, as it is what happens in the Creator. And this is called “the day of the Lord.” The day of the Lord is called “wholeness.”

Meaning, complete bestowal on behalf of the created being towards everything, this is called ‘The Day of the Lord.’ Then accordingly, he begins to see all of reality as if filled with light of bestowal from the Creator. So, according to the bestowal of the lower one, he attains bestowal of the upper one.

When one acquires the second nature, the desire to bestow that the Creator gives him after the first nature, the will to receive, now he receives the desire to bestow, and then one is qualified to serve the Creator in completeness. This is called “the day of the Lord.”

That the darkness shines as light – there is only one day. There is no night. This is the conclusion of all the corrections.

Thus, one who has not been rewarded with the second nature, to be able to serve the Creator in the manner of bestowal, and waits to be rewarded with this, meaning with bestowal, meaning he has already exerted and did what he could to obtain that force, he is considered to be awaiting the day of the Lord, that is, to have equivalence of form with the Creator. When the day of the Lord comes, he is elated. He is happy that he has emerged from the control of the will to receive for himself, which separated him from the Creator. Now he clings to the Creator and considers it as having risen to the top. However, one whose work is only self-reception, as long as he thinks he has some reward for his work, he is happy. When he sees that the will to receive will not receive any reward for his work, he becomes sad and idle. Sometimes he comes to doubt the beginning. What is that state of doubting the beginning? That it’s a shame I studied so many years and did so many things, and didn't succeed in other things in life perhaps, this is called doubting the beginning. There are such states.

Thus, moreover, the day of the Lord is attaining the power to bestow. If one were to be told, “This will be your profit from engaging in Torah and Mitzvot,” he would say, “I consider it darkness, and not light,” since this knowledge brings one to darkness.

Meaning the people who attain ‘the day of the Lord,’ they attain the true eternity and wholeness in creation, and they keep it for eternity, because our soul is eternal. And those who don’t, then, there will be corrections. Everything has to be corrected, so another life cycle, another something else, we will learn that. Ultimately, we all come to the final state of ‘the good that does good’ to the bad ones and the good ones, even those who don’t want.