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

Daily Lesson June 5, 2025.

Part 2: Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. #3

Reader: So, friends, we're going to go to another lesson from May Ten, 2006, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, item 3, you can find it in the writings of Baal HaSulam, let's go.

Reading: (00:28) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. #3

The above-mentioned order of cascading, which brings the will to receive to its final form in this world, follows a sequence of four phases that exist in the four-letter-name [HaVaYaH (Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey)]. This is because the four letters, HaVaYaH in His name contain the whole of reality, without any exception.

M. Laitman: Who knows, and from where is this known? It's rooted in the thought of creation, the light which spreads, giving birth to the will. The light comes first, the will comes second. So, within the light exists the entire plan, and this plan builds, constructs the vessel in these forms, these forms of development: one, two, three, and four. The light in itself is the root, Shoresh in Hebrew, and these four degrees of development, in those we don't take the root into account, that's the light before the desire existed, the will. And it's called Yod, Hei, Vav, Hei, this name. And through this name, the light that fills the vessel will be revealed to us. Here, there's desire, desire which is ready to be delighted, to enjoy. Yes? And so, the process of the development of the vessel is concluded. Afterwards, comes Tzimtzum Aleph, the first restriction, and so on, as a response, as a reaction from below upwards, on behalf of the desire. But here, the desire is ready to be delighted, it's completed from above. And so, from the light, wherever it may be, wherever the light may be, there must be four phases, four stages, and the last stage in the development of the light will be the Kli, the vessel. Between light and vessel, there must be Yud-Hei Vav-Hei, the name of the Lord, the name HaVaYaH. Otherwise, the vessel will not feel desire, will not feel light, will not feel the source, and there will be no response. Without response, there is no created being. It all must exist, must happen only as the light operates upon the will. Here you have will, kind of primordial, raw will. And here you have the prepared will, prepared desire. That's what he says: the order, the above-mentioned order of cascading, which brings the will to receive to its final form in this world. He discusses the entirety of this cascade. Never mind. It follows a sequence of four phases that exist in the four-letter name, HaVaYaH. This is because the four letters HaVaYaH in his name contain the whole of reality. What does it mean, the whole of reality? The development of the will to its desired state, to its final state. Nothing else is required on behalf of the Creator. He doesn't need to do any more. Everything else is the response. Here also the response, the reaction. And everything else comes from the desire. If here, throughout this development, the light is the first, the light comes first, from here, from here on out, the will, the desire comes first, and here development through reaction takes place, restricting oneself, constructing the screens, resembling the Creator in Katnut, Gadlut, the shattering, the light, the vessel precedes the light, so to say. Of course, until it cascades down to this world, the light precedes. This is called this world. Until it completes all its development, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzirah, and this world is Assiya, until it all cascades, you could say that all this is HaVaYaH, the tip of the Yud, the Yud itself, and this is HaVaYaH, the complete HavayaH, from above, from above downwards. What does it mean? Through all that, creation is finalized from above, from the side of the Creator. The roots of HaVaYaH is actualized here, materializes as a desire, that's why he says, the above mentioned order of cascading, which brings the will to receive to its final form, in this world, specifically. And from below upwards, the ascent takes place, and here the vessel precedes the light. That's why it is said that the created being determines the degrees of development. Before the created being feels, before it all happens to it, and he decides upon whatever actions, although the actions, he doesn't perform them, the light does everything, but he wants the light to perform these actions on him. And by that, he walks along with the Creator, and before that decision, nothing happens. And this is called the vessel preceding the light. Continue.

Reading: (07:43) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. #3

In general, they are described in the ten Sefirot, Hochma, Bina, Tifferet, Malchut, and their root. They are ten Sefirot because the Sefira [sing. of Sefirot] Tifferet contains six internal Sefirot, called HGT NHY [Hesed–Gevura–Tifferet Netzah–Hod–Yesod], and the root is called Keter. Yet, in essence, they are called HB TM [Hochma-Bina Tifferet-Malchut].

These are four worlds called Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. The world of Assiya contains this world within it. Thus, there is not a creature in this world that is not initiated in Ein Sof, in the thought of creation to delight His creations.

M. Laitman: We speak of desires, when we speak of this world, HaOlam HaZeh, also desires, the last degree of Assiya, that's called HaOlam HaZeh, this world, and these are desires which are disconnected from the Creator, they lost contact with the source, their origin. We're not talking about the body. Sometimes it's not, our explanations aren't exactly precise. We say the spiritual world, then the Machsom, the barrier, then this world, and I draw a person, this is shorthand, you need to understand what the meaning of it is. As best you can, detach the self of each one of you from this corporeal body, the proteins, the desires, the human desires, that's what we're talking about. What desire are we talking about? Only desires which are aimed towards, directed towards the Creator, only those. And a person here, I'm just painting a little human, embodied, everything we have in the body, we don't talk about that, that is called the false, the imaginary world, and everything that can connect from the heart to the Creator, that's the only thing we talk about. Only these desires. Clear? Even the world of Assiya, this world, HaOlam HaZeh, we're talking about desires that exist within our hearts and are aimed towards the Creator. Desires which the body develops as bodily desires, or develops as human desires, that we do not discuss, that all belongs to the imaginary world. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:49) What are desires, or is there one? 

M. Laitman: These desires have to do with my existence in what we call the false, the imaginary world. They disappear later. These desires have to exist, they have to be HaOlam HaMedume, the imaginary world, simulated world, you could also say. These desires have to exist in us so that from them, we will begin to develop the point in the heart prior to entering the field, the workplace. You need to have some kind of existence from which you can determine, “I want to enter the field.”  What field? Where I work with my heart towards the Creator. So the stage before you begin working with your heart towards the Creator, that's called the imaginary world. That's where the whole of humanity is, in that state. The moment you begin to direct your heart towards the purpose of creation, and you feel that this is your self now, that's what's important, then everything else becomes more and more… it all becomes a means, something you step on, so as to jump higher, higher. But sometimes you fall back down to a state where you're only in these imaginary desires.  

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:33) So these means, those are really the spiritual desires, those means that once I ascend, once I... 

M. Laitman: You want to correct your heart, and the means for that correction is the force that comes from above, called Torah. The light in it reforms one.  

Reading: (13:01) Hence, it is innately comprised of light and vessel, meaning a certain measure of abundance with the will to receive that abundance.

M. Laitman: What does it mean there will be a renewed creation? Creation means the sensation of existence, my inner spiritual existence, even detached from the Creator. Even if I feel bad, good, I justify Him, I curse Him, it doesn't matter with respect to spirituality. Because I'm at the bottom of the ladder which extended from above downwards, but I'm still on the ladder, just at the bottom point, the lowest point. I have no connection with the Creator, I don't have the feeling of the good who does good, I don't feel that He exists, there's concealment over Him, there's concealment over the fact that He is the Good who does good, His providence is good, but I have some kind of relation to Him, and so it is called that I'm a creation, still a created being. However, if I disconnect from that feeling that I belong to Him, that I belong to the path even though I don't feel anything in those concepts, if I fall from that, it means I fall into my beast form, beastliness. And Baal HaSulam isn't shy about calling it that, beastliness. I'm disconnected from spirituality and thus become a beast in every respect, because in me there isn't a desire which connects me to the spiritual ladder. So, creation is called the will to receive with the light in it, which to some extent, even a little, ascribes itself to the ladder.

Reading: (15:16) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. #3

The measure of abundance extends existence from existence from His Self, and the will to receive the abundance is initiated existence from absence.

M. Laitman: Meaning, still in that HaVaYaH from above downwards, yes, whereas the desires that we see as our beastly desires, everyone seemed like beasts, as is written, corporeal, bodily, and human desires, they don't change, they don't belong to this HaVaYahH they are as they are. A person can climb the spiritual degrees, and he will still, still want everything that his body requires. Of course, all these things will take on a very minimal form, but he will need to use them, nonetheless, as necessity, bare necessity. 

Reading: (16:27) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. #3

But for that will to receive to acquire its final quality, it must cascade along with the abundance within it through the four worlds—Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya. This completes creation in light and vessel, called “body,” and the “light of life” within it. 

M. Laitman: Questions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:53) When he writes that the will to receive will come to its final quality, it means a certain scrutiny? 

M. Laitman: Its final form, completely disconnected from the source, to the point where you can call it disconnected, I don't know how else to put it. It still belongs to HaVaYaH, there's light and vessel there, vessel, Kli, meaning desire, and the light that gives life to the desire, and the light comes from the Creator, and the vessel is an outcome of the light. They cascaded down together, but they came to such a minute, tiny measure, that there is no feeling in the desire of where it comes from. And in the light, there is no feeling that it comes, that it belongs to the Creator, that's why it's called the body and the life in the body, but that feeling of body and the life of the body, that's the feeling of concealment. And therefore, it's said that it is in this HaVaYaH, but at the bottom.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:17) We say that in our world as well, we can see the quality of bestowal, let's say, in nature. So why... 

M. Laitman: Our world is a copy, a projection of the spiritual world, a copy. It's something else. There's special matters, special substance, desire, which doesn't belong to the desire of the Creator, the will of the Creator. That's why it's called the imaginary world. In it, it's like an imprint. An imprint from the spiritual world into this world. And nothing here changes, in essence. Of course, things change in humanity. In this process that humanity goes through, it advances the person. However, what advances us, it's not the development of matter, of the substance. Rather, it's that point which is under concealment. The point, the final point of the spiritual ladder coming from above downwards, it begins to develop from below upwards. And the development of that point causes the development of human society, human desires. But this is an external outcome. If not for the development towards the Creator from that inner desire, which is the end point of HaVaYaH, then no changes would happen in this world. Everyone would be as beasts. But only because within that beast, if you could say within, it's like asking where the soul is inside the biological body, right? There's no such thing. However, since there's a desire here which belongs to the development of the desire at the end of HaVaYaH, from the end of HaVaYaH, therefore, human desires also change. And human society, the society of those who seem as beasts, it also develops until that point is revealed, the point in the heart, as we call it. And all these desires, human desires, they're built like that to develop that point, to help it develop. That's their purpose. But it's not that they in themselves turn into vessels. The desires which develop in a person, although he corrects them with respect to other people in this world, these desires are spiritual. How to say it? He receives different desires, the money, the respect, knowledge, my attitude towards others who I belittle, or respect, or hate. These are human desires, our human desires. We don't need to correct those. Meaning, as soon as a person directs himself towards the Creator, desires which belong to HaVaYahH come, which are much deeper, much bigger, desires which turn spiritual because the Creator is in them. Do not think that the way you relate to your friend is the only thing you need to correct and by which you can reach the end of correction. No, absolutely not. Desires will awaken here which are called Klipot, shells, and those you will need to correct, and in them you will reach the end of correction. And the desires we have between us right now in humanity and between us in the group, those aren't shells, Klipot. Why? Because they're not directed towards the Creator. Therefore, those are not the desires that we truly correct in spirituality and by which we earn the spiritual vessel. It's just preparation.

Reading: (23:18) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. #4

4) The reason why the will to receive must cascade by the four above-mentioned discernments in ABYA [Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya] is that there is a great rule concerning the vessels: The expansion of the light and its departure make the vessel fit for its task. This means that as long as the vessel has not been separated from its light, it is included in the light and is annulled within it like a candle before a torch.

M. Laitman: Here we come to learn of the mutual qualities between the light and the vessel. Because the light is bestowal. I don't know what is light. It's a name, bestowal, Creator, purely positive. The first, the one who determines, determines. It turns out that the vessel that is born out of it, born and created, under the control of, or the dominion of, and in everything, the light is always the first and the one that determines. Don't forget about it anywhere. 

Reader: Dear friends, we'll now continue to a live lesson with Rav.

Song: (25:13)