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

Daily Morning Lesson: September 17, 2025 

Part 1: Recorded lesson – Nov 25, 2021

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 72. Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light

Reader: Hello friends, in the first part of the lesson, we're going to watch a lesson from 25th of November 2021 from Shamati Article 72, Confidence is the Clothing for the Light. Again, Shamati Article 72, Confidence is the Clothing for the Light. 

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Reader: Shamati, Article Number 72, Confidence is the Clothing for the Light. You can find this study material in the Arvut system and on the site. There, you can ask questions too; selected questions will be asked during the lesson. 

M. Laitman (Source Text/ Commentary): (03:12) We will read Article 72 from the Book of Shamati, Confidence is the Clothing for the Light. I will say a few words about it: What is confidence? A person, to the extent that he's adhered in the Creator through the group, he feels himself in a vessel inside this envelope that gives him a framework. Aims his sight and his discernment on the correct source – the source of everything – and this feeling that he is organized inside his seeming reflected light is called, confidence. This is something we need to develop from the correct relationship to the friends. Through them, we relate to the Creator, then the light shines on us. And it gives us the feeling of clothing to all our thoughts and desires and it is called, the light of confidence. We'll read it slowly and interpret further. It says:

Confidence is the clothing for the light called life. 

The light is called life but it can appear in a clothing called confidence. 

There is a rule that there is no light without a Kli, 

A vessel. There is a filling which is the light of life and its vessel that has to be clothed, has to be limited in a certain way, appear before a person in a special way, and the vessel determines all of that. 

There's no light without a vessel. 

Rather, the light and the vessel must match one another. The light cannot clothe if it's not suitable for the vessel. 

It follows that the light called the light of life cannot clothe but must dress in some vessel. 

Without it, it cannot be revealed or called the light of life, light of livelihood, of fulfillment, past, present, future, everything a person feels, that exists. 

The vessel where the light of life is clothed is usually called confidence. It means that he sees that he can do every difficult thing. 

He has such a feeling that whatever is before me, I am capable of entering in contact with it. What does it mean to do? To annul myself, to do that and overcome myself, to do that as well. Meaning, all the things that have to do with myself, in order to approach the Creator – greater adhesion – it's all in my ability to do it, I'm capable. It's not that I'm a hero. It's not me and the might of my hand, actually do this. But I ask, connection, contact with the Creator and this contact provides him the feeling of confidence. Like a little one, a child that is holding the hand of the grown-up, he feels confidence. 

Thus, the light is felt and recognized in the vessel of confidence and because of this, one's life is measured by the measure of confidence that appears there. 

The light, in its entirety, appears in quantity and in quality, in all its modes, shapes and forms, only according to the clothing of confidence. 

Because the confidence in it, accordingly, he can measure his vitality and degree. We have to understand that in addition to the light of confidence that becomes clothing for the upper light, you don't need anything. 

(08:27) For this reason, one can see in oneself that as long as his level of vitality is high,

he appreciates his life, he has contact with the Creator through the Ten, 

then confidence shines on every single thing, 

each and everything from above 

and he sees nothing that can obstruct him with what he wants what he sees, what he thinks is capable or not capable, 

There's no question, the confidence gives him that feeling that, yes, you can do it. 

This is because the light of life which is a force from above shines for him. 

There are no forces in a man to actually let him determine anything; rather, if he comes to a point of contact with the Creator through the Ten. He receives from above a helping force by which he feels confidence, he feels he has a vessel, and he feels, yes, the ability to feel himself standing, capable. Meaning, 

He can work with superhuman powers since the upper light is not limited like corporeal forces which are all limited. However, when the light of life departs from him, 

Meaning the light of confidence, 

It is considered that he has descended from his previous level of vitality, then he becomes clever and inquisitive. 

The upper light is in absolute rest, we are all in it; rather, this clothing, the confidence, if that departs, accordingly a person stops feeling the upper light in which we all reside. Then, he is left with a special form of livelihood, liveliness, which is corporeal life, and according to his corporeal intellect, he becomes clear, inquisitive, clever, and inquisitive. And,

He begins to calculate the profitability of everything 

According to the vessels, the corporeal vessels that remain, the egoistic vessels, 

if it is worthwhile to do it or not, 

According to his vessel, according to his small ego 

And he becomes temperate and not lively and sizzling as before. 

He began to, when he wanted to bestow, which equivalence, to feel like he is giving contentment to the Creator, as before he began to decline in his level of vitality. 

However, one does not have the wisdom to say that all this cleverness and wit that now has been rewarded with thinking about everything are because he had lost the spirit of life that he had then. 

Again, when it disappears, it disappears. Whatever he is left with, that’s what he is using to think and to feel.

(12:23) Instead, he thinks that now he has become smart as before he lost the sight of light of life, rather he was reckless and careless. 

He was reckless and careless compared to before. Before, he would work with the vessel of faith that shines to him from above, from the Creator, the force of bestowal from the Creator and that is what used to lift him. Now, he can lift himself only according to his intellect, so he thinks that he is clever and what does he base it on? Not as before he lost the light of life, rather, then, he was reckless and careless, that is how it is called. 

However, he should know that all the wisdom he has now acquired came to him because he has lost the spirit of life, the upper life that he had had before, the light of life that the Creator gave him. 

He would use that to measure all the acts with this light, more or less, meaning the clothing that he had would shine and give a person a feeling of his state, his degree. Again,

But now, during the descent and the decline, the evil inclination has the power to come to him with all the just arguments, 

And a person thinks those are justified intellectual arguments. 

The advice for this, 

How to deal with this, the attack of the Sitra Achra, the other side, our ego, we don't quite identify as the ego, 

The advice for that is that one should say that now, I cannot speak to my body and argue with it. Rather, you should say, “now I'm dead and I'm awaiting the revival of the dead.” 

Meaning, if he lost the feeling of the spirit of vitality, the feeling of confidence, the upper illumination. You should not make any decisions, do anything because whatever you do, you'll do with the force of the Sitra Achra, the other side. What to do then? 

You must begin to work above reason. Meaning, say to his body, “everything you say is true and I have nothing rational to answer you. 

You're speaking correctly, according to the healthy intellect, the science, everything. 

However, I hope that I will begin to work anew, 

From zero. 

Now, I'm taking upon myself Torah and Mitzvot, commandments, 

and various options for how to rise in the degrees of bestowal. 

Now I'm becoming a proselyte,

Meaning I begin to enter in order to bestow. 

Our sages said, a proselyte who has converted is like a newborn baby. 

Meaning, a person that starts a new degree is considered a baby who doesn't know it or anything, everything is new. 

Now, I await the salvation of the Creator and He will certainly help me, 

The Creator, 

And I will come once more into the path of holiness, meaning a vessel of bestowal, a vessel of faith, a vessel of confidence. When I have power and holiness, I will have what to answer you, my ego but, in the meantime, I must go above reason for I am still without the mind of holiness. 

To the extent that I acquire it, I can be in the mind of holiness but I should always try to increase this force of holiness meaning faith above reason. 

Hence, you can win with your intellect and there is nothing I can do but believe in our sages who said, 

Even though it goes against my intellect and my feeling, the way He presented it to me, that's what he says to his ego, his evil inclination, 

That I need to keep Torah and Mitzvot with faith above reason. I must certainly believe that the power of faith, 

Bestowal, that I'm doing even though I don't see any benefit from it, any reason for it, nevertheless, 

I will be helped from above. As our sages said, He who comes to purify is aided. 

Question (Moscow 4): (18:32) Why is confidence called a vessel, it's confusing. The feeling is that confidence is the opposite, it's a kind of filling.?

M. Laitman: That's exactly the vessel. What we receive from the Creator is called, a vessel; later, we receive a filling which is called, a light. Everything comes from the Creator. From us, it's only effort, typically unsuccessful effort, until we raise our hands and we cry, help. 

Question (ITA 3): (19:19) What is the meaning of being dead and I await the revival of the dead? What is the advice to work above reason in that state? 

M. Laitman: I think that anyone who is in our framework, where our goal is to bring a person to know the Creator – to know Him, to feel Him, for a person to feel the Creator, to work with Him, just like with a friend. That's why we need to raise the friends to the high degree like the Creator and we will begin  to feel that there are no friends, it's all the Creator who is simply clothed in them in order to guide us, direct us to come to know Him, the Creator. Accordingly, we need to get more and more into the company, connect between us, and try to implement what he's writing about, between us. Then, there will be no problem, there will be no choice, we will advance towards it. I'll tell you only one thing – I also heard it from Rabash – I was very difficult, it was not simple at all for me to accept this condition that I must be among the friends, to connect with them, to soften my heart, and all of this took many years. I would cry before the Rabash and I asked him, what to do with the heart? What to do with the intellect, with the mind? And he said to me, it's not your business, you need to ask, to cry, to try as much as you can, as long as you do it as much as you can. There may be a tiny bit above what you can, it gives you the feeling of helplessness, and cry, and so on and so forth. 

But more than that, eventually, the Creator will bring you to the goal. He's not going to conduct war forever and this way you shall advance. Specifically, those people who are capable of holding on to the path and to be connected to the method in this way. Those people succeed, they don't fall into knowledge, into knowing what's written there between the words in the study of the Ten Sefirot. They don't engage in various things that might bring them the opinion of the masses or to appeal to the masses. Rather, they advance according to Yashar El: The Light and the Creator are One. Meaning the important thing is to connect the students – the men and the women – to bigger entities and which, according to the necessary state, the Creator will be revealed. The main thing for us here, why am I saying those things? The main thing for us is to expect confidence; this is a special illumination that comes to us from above. And in it we begin to feel the appearance of the Creator. Confidence is the vessel for attaining the Creator. When we try to be in the feeling of confidence, in this mutual support between us. Accordingly, we advance towards the revelation of the Creator to the created being, which is the goal and purpose of the wisdom of Kabbalah. What else can we answer in terms of questions? 

Question (MAK 3): (24:55) What is the effectiveness for the way of faith above reason: To go with confidence or without confidence?

M. Laitman: Constantly look for confidence in the upper force through the group; and don't look for it, the feeling of confidence, in other groups, in other methods. Rather, the important thing is to turn to the Ten and to the Creator, consistently. And you will see how much it will help you advance, that's how it works. 

Question (Brazil 2): (26:06) In the Ten, between us, we have to build the vessel. How do we give each other confidence, how do we reach mutual responsibility in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: That's what we learned about in the article, The Arvut, Mutual Guarantee. You have an entire article. Arvut, mutual guarantee is a connection between the members of the group in order to tie them together into a single Partzuf, the Ten Sefirot since then they can reveal the Creator. To tie ourselves together, we don't know how to do it, let alone to what form we have to tie ourselves together, to what forces, we don't know. It's all done from above. On us is only to annul before those conditions, that's what the Kabbalists tell us about. By annulling ourselves, we receive treatment like a baby; nature obligates him to annul himself. According to the command of nature that works through him, he annuls himself towards the upper one. The upper ones – the grown-ups – take care of him. First, nature, the Creator, takes care of him directly when he's inside his mother. When he comes out, gradually he enters a state where he is accustomed to annul himself more and more before the environment. Indeed, if he would continue correctly without the intervention of the evil inclination, he would annul himself more and more in this way, gradually. But in order to give it the possibility to participate in it, in this free choice, then the evil inclination is involved here. Meaning it doesn't get annulled naturally but, rather, he needs to add to it a force of resistance from himself, towards himself. To the extent that he annuls himself, he enters under the control of the upper one. In this way, he may develop and then he becomes more confident that if he is next to the upper one, the upper one will take care of him. The upper one raises him and all of his confidence is at the expense of or on behalf of the connection with the upper one. We're the same, if we wish to evolve spiritually, we have to perform the same act towards the group. As he writes, Rabash and Baal HaSulam, that annulment towards the group is our most important act. We need to try and come to the complete annulment

Question (Kiev 1): (29:48) The confidence, it's not clear what stands behind this word, confidence in what and how is it a vessel for the light?

M. Laitman: Confidence, the feeling of confidence, when I'm confident about how the upper one is doing everything, we need to develop that from the very first spiritual degree, from the first degree. No more than annulling ourselves before the upper one, if you don't annul your animal, your beast towards the upper one, your corporeal ego, then the upper one cannot take care of you. It's just like in our life: if the child would not let the upper one take care of it, then the upper one is not capable of doing it. Let's say that this is how it is, but with us here it's a free choice. We're seemingly capable of stopping the work of the upper one on us by not letting him, not letting him take care of us. Of course, the upper one will then take care of us in a different way in order to show to us, to prove to us that we must receive the treatment of the upper one but it's a problem. Therefore, there has to be a society here, as he writes in the article, A Society, about the Society, the free choice – Freedom. And we need to try to help one another, to set an example to one another for how much we annul before the Ten. 

Student: Usually, in our world, there's this term of confidence in myself, self-confidence, but here we're talking about confidence in the upper one. What does that mean? 

M. Laitman: If I wish to reach the true confidence, I must perform any act of bestowal. The Creator demands of me according to my degree, as much as I'm capable of and by doing it, I begin to feel how connected I am with Him.

Student: Typically, in our lives, I have confidence when I hold on to something, someone greater, so we're not veering from the path so I will achieve my goal. What do we do when there are falls? When I become disappointed with the upper one, what is the confidence then?

M. Laitman: You have no other counsel but to believe what Kabbalists are saying, that you must annul toward the Ten and to find the contact in how you're holding on to spirituality. 

Student: The vessel of confidence, where is it created, in me or in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: In your connection with the Ten. Don't look for it intellectually, stop working with the intellect. The intellect is animalistic, it's corporeal, it's stopping you, keeping you in this world. It doesn't let you feel any spiritual phenomena. 

Question (Moscow 1): (34:12) Is it that same confidence that allows a person to go through the first restriction? Is it, you receive from there the confidence?

M. Laitman: Yes, in a sense, I need to reach a state where I see I have no choice but to annul myself toward the friends, the group. And in the group, then, I need to see that I have something to fall onto as a different kind of intellect – it’s not my individual, my personal intellect but a group intellect. It's still in order to receive. It's still corporeal but, nevertheless, through it, I come to a state where I begin to feel spiritual discernments. 

Question (PT 25): (35:08) How is confidence's illumination from above, how does it influence the ups and downs a person goes through? Does it help him? Does it influence him somehow?

M. Laitman: Exactly what determines the spiritual ascents and descents because it determines the level of the spiritual vessel. 

Student: The feeling of confidence, is this the ascent and descent? If I feel or don't feel confidence? 

M. Laitman: Yes, but in such a way that I'm happy that I have the ability to bestow, to be above doubts. It's not that I control them but, rather in spite of my doubts, I come to, this is called, a tower floating through the air. I'm happy that I don't have corporeal confidence but, rather, that I'm adhered to the upper one. 

Student: As a society, we support one another, we help each other through states but it is help where we feel that we can give it by ourselves. Where we try to help a person with some logic or common sense or this warm feeling. Does this help us attain illumination from above, of confidence?

M. Laitman: It doesn't interfere, on the contrary, the fact that we wish to help one another and all of us together wish to be in mutual help, mutual support – each should help his friend in anything and everything in every Ten. By that we're giving the Creator the opportunity to clothe in us instead of our tendency to help one another and then He appears in us; in this way, He appears before us.

Question (PT 31): (37:24) When the light of life departs and we forget everything we've achieved, meaning what's important in life. At that point when we remember it, what do we do? 

M. Laitman: When we fall from a spiritual degree to a corporeal degree and we begin to worry about – care about – corporeal life, this transition is typically quite felt. What to do, I'm not sure what to tell you, it says, whatever's in your power to do, you should do. It's again to adhere to the friends, to enter the lessons, to read the articles, that's what we have to do. It's extremely beneficial to organize lessons, to give lessons to newcomers. Everything that you're capable of doing to bestow, you should do.

Student: Do I pay for what I forgot? 

M. Laitman: I don't understand that?

Student: If I forgot what's important in life and then I suddenly remember it, it's as if a debt was created that I have to pay for. Or that I have to repay, or do I just move on? 

M. Laitman: It's the same, either to keep going or pay for the debt, it's the same. Deficiency appears because you fell, and now you can compensate it, simply to continue, continue. But don't be immersed in the past, don't torment yourself, hate yourself. Rather, accept these things as something that has to be. You will discover many such states where I, seemingly, seemingly, sorry for what you went through, what you didn't do, for the years that have passed without any benefit. There's no such thing, everything is in the hands of the upper force and everything is as it should be. Whatever moment had passed in whatever form, you have to let go and say, this was all planned in this way by There Is None Else Besides Him. 

Student: It describes confidence as a state where it shines on him, he can do anything, he's got superhuman forces. And then when he falls from it, he describes it as a state of having doubts. But it doesn't describe the sorrow that he feels because he lost the confidence and the ability to do those things.

M. Laitman: Maybe he doesn't feel sorrow, it depends what states he goes through. Don't determine anything, just look at what he writes and think only according to that. Don't take this entire package together. What he writes about, in that same sentence, try to focus on that and then you won't go wrong. Otherwise, you start putting together all the sentences according to your own understanding. And then what happens is that you're not studying Baal HaSulam but you want to teach Baal HaSulam what you think. 

Question (MAK 24): (41:43) What is the reason people leave life? Or it's like a descent to help us?

M. Laitman: It's true that, the same reason but only from what a person draws a state where the upper light disappears. This is why it is written that we increase in holiness and not decrease in holiness from the beginning of creation to the end of creation. The whole process we go through has to go; we have to go through it. We can only accelerate times but not states themselves. We might fall for a second, and that's enough. And we might be in it for several months and we still can't get out of it. Israel, it says, rush times; we can shorten the times but we can't change anything. Everything that we go through, we have to go through it according to our place in the system of Adam HaRishon. So, accept with patience and with consent in advance that whatever the Creator does is for the best. And all I have to do is participate in this, in the Ten with the Creator and as much as possible with an inclination or disposition for confidence because confidence is the clothing.

Question (Ashkelon 3): (43:32) What does it mean that you have to work without intellect, what are we working with exactly? 

M. Laitman: Without a corporeal intellect. 

Student: What's the difference between a corporeal intellect and spiritual intellect? 

M. Laitman: I can't tell you. The corporeal intellect, you could say, because you seemingly know it. It is the intellect that you know from the events in your life according to your feelings, your understandings and everything you went through. The spiritual intellect, you still don't have it; the spiritual intellect is already a clothing in a vessel of faith.

Student: I work several years with the Ten, I have a small degree of spiritual intellect? 

M. Laitman: No, no, because you didn't annul before the Ten so as to have a vessel, a spiritual vessel. 

Student: All that's left is to pray? 

M. Laitman: To pray – it is possible but besides that, you have to perform acts of annulment before the Ten. And to pray that it will work, this is the most difficult thing, to annul before the Ten. 

Question (Bulgaria 1): (45:26) What's the difference between the feeling of confidence and faith above reason? 

M. Laitman: Faith above reason is a state, the feeling of confidence is a feeling within that state.

Question (Tel Aviv 4): (46:04) More or less the same question, also, in the second state where the light departs from him, he also needs to work above reason. The light that clothes and the confidence also uses the vessel of above reason? 

M. Laitman: There's a vessel of confidence and a light of confidence, we have to know both. The vessel of confidence is our deficiency and the fact that we have to be attached to the operations of the Creator, to be immersed in it. And the light of confidence is what we receive as a result of our annulment. According to this approach, the greatest confidence is in the form of the embryo. It is completely annulled, completely vanishes before the upper one. Doesn't interfere with Him in any way and becomes exactly like the upper one and then the upper one begins to develop it. But by the upper one developing it, the corporeal embryo is under the control of the upper one. The spiritual embryo has to annul itself before the upper one, constantly more and more.

Student: Is this active annulment in the spiritual embryo?

M. Laitman: It is a constant annulment in the Ten, of course. 

Student: It's also under the control of the upper one, or? 

M. Laitman: It is under the control of the upper one to the extent that it annuls before Him. But from the point of, after the first three days, the three days of the absorption of the sperm. Then begins the work of the embryo, of course, it's gradual to the extent that he participates, at least, but in any case, then the work of the embryo begins. 

Question (Hadera 1): (48:24) Let's say a person received this state – the light of confidence came to him, he received a feeling of confidence. In this state, a person does things that he, later, falls as a result. What do you have to do in this state? The person feels the light arrived, what to do next?

M. Laitman: What do you mean, the light came, light arrived? 

Student: He feels the feeling of confidence described here in the article.

M. Laitman: Yes, and? 

Student: What does he need to do in his life? Because typically, he's making mistakes, he falls?

M. Laitman: If now, he feels that he has the light of life, light of confidence, then he can do many operations here. Acts of bestowal, of connection, of advancement. He should try, he should start learning something from the Torah or from The Study of the Ten Sefirot or The Book of Zohar in order to feel more. Go deeper, become more involved with upper operations. 

Student: What can he do in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: As usual, as usual. In the Ten, we don't have new demands. The same demand to increase connection in whatever manner appears.

Question (PT 30): (50:23) There's something that sounds a bit opposite: He says that if there is a light of life and confidence, then he's careless, reckless. But if there's no light and confidence, then he's clever and inquisitive. So, is it better to be without the light of life?

M. Laitman: Let's come to something practical. Read it several times, and then we'll think. What you're saying right now is very confused.

Question (Moscow 7): (51:03) We have to compare two types of confidence: The confidence of a campus student, and the confidence of a friend in the Ten. There's a fundamental difference between them. Can we measure these two vessels or should we just look at those feelings as a gift that we receive without any scrutiny? Or can we analyze this vessel? 

M. Laitman: No, we have no measurement, we can't do anything right now except annul before the upper one. In a corporeal form, it is the group, and in the spiritual form, it is the power of bestowal.

Question (Focus Group): (51:48) Can you please explain the process he's describing in the final two paragraphs from the advice for a person to say, now I am dead, and so on and so forth. What's the process of work here that he's proposing? 

Student reading: The advice for this is one should say that now I cannot speak to his body and argue with it; rather, he should say, now I'm dead, and I'm awaiting the revival of the dead. What is that? 

M. Laitman: Well, when a person feels that he fell from the spiritual degree – from the spiritual connection he had with the friends, and now he doesn't have it, so he criticizes them, and he's aware of it. And that's why he says, now I am dead, and what can I do? Just wait for the revival of the dead; it's already good because he knows his situation, and he understands where he is and what he should expect. 

Student: How does he come to this recognition that he can say, now I am dead, and it doesn't become clever and inquisitive? 

M. Laitman: But he's not working alone, he works with the friends on these states. He annuls before them, and then they operate on him, and likewise, everyone toward everyone, this is called group work. Why do I need friends? Why can't I advance alone? Because in shifting from state to state, I can't do it alone; also, every state that I check, I check it and measure it with respect to the friends. And when I come to know the Creator I also know Him in the vessel of the friends.

Student: The transition where he says, now I'm smart, and I'm waiting for the revival of the dead, how does that happen?

M. Laitman: If he were adhered before that to the society, he would feel that now he fell, and he has no connection to his spirituality. And now he can only pray that it will somehow come back because without it, he's dead. 

Student: And before, I think I heard you say, not to do any actions in that state. So, what shouldn't he do in that state?

M. Laitman: First of all, if it's a real fall, then there's nothing to talk about, there's no one to talk to. We just have to let a person in that case, we have to give him all kinds of examples, to somehow, if he can, as a result of it, know what situation he's in. He may not realize what state he's in, and in this way, we will push him forward. 

Student: What shouldn't he do in that state? Let's say he knows that I'm dead. What should I not do? 

M. Laitman: I need only to annul. Being dead, or an embryo, all those states, we don't control anything ourselves except for one small action which is annulment, that's it.

Question (Unity 3): (56:00) Is the confidence giving birth to joy from the Creator?

M. Laitman: Yes, correct. 

Okay, now we will ask our reader to read this article again, and then we will go over to the women. 

Reading: (56:27) Baal HaSulam. Shamati 72. Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light

I heard on Nisan 10, March 31, 1947

Confidence is the clothing for the light, called “life.” There is a rule that there is no light without a Kli [vessel]. It follows that the light, called “light of life,” cannot clothe but must dress in some Kli. The Kli where the light of life is clothed is usually called “confidence.” It means that he sees that he can do every difficult thing. 

M. Laitman: In other words, without confidence, what is called, the clothing, right, for the upper light, we will not feel the upper light. We will not feel its reality, its existence, and we will have a problem. Because we will be canceled, not understanding where we are. So, the main thing for us is to come to a state.

Reading cont.: (58:00) Baal HaSulam. Shamati 72. Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light

Thus, the light is felt and recognized in the Kli of confi­dence. Because of this, one’s life is measured by the measure of confidence that appears there. One can measure the magnitude of vitality in oneself according to the confidence in himself.

For this reason, one can see in oneself that as long as his level of vitality is high, the confidence shines on every single thing, and he sees nothing that can obstruct him with what he wants. This is because the light of life, which is a force from above, shines for him and he can work with superhuman powers since the upper light is not limited like corporeal forces.

However, when the light of life departs from him, which is considered that he has descended from his previous level of vitality, then he becomes clever and inquisitive. He begins to calculate the profitability of everything, is it worthwhile to do it or not. He becomes temperate and not lively and sizzling as before he began to decline in his level of vitality. 

M. Laitman: From this, we need to understand that the main thing for us, the most important thing for us is to work, to do. And it doesn't matter what state we're in. We could be in the most desperate state where we don't think that we could get anything out of it, reasonably thinking. Specifically in these states, we have to continue with all our might to perform acts of connection and bestowal between us and to the Creator as much as possible. Precisely, those states are the most effective, the best states for our advancement. 

Reading cont.: (01:00:30) Baal HaSulam. Shamati 72. Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light

However, one does not have the wisdom to say that all this cleverness and wit, that now he has been rewarded with thinking about everything, are because he’d lost the spirit of life he had then. Instead, he thinks that now he has become smart, not as before he’d lost the light of life. Rather, then he was reckless and careless.

M. Laitman: In other words, now he thinks that what he had before, this energy, this drive to do all kinds of things, that was confusion, some sort of folly. But now, he's become considerate, mature, understanding. So, he stops doing these things because they're useless. But in this way, he gradually declines, descends from his spiritual actions. And here you can really feel on the friends. and on ourselves, that we begin to descend in our activity. Descend from these spiritual states, when we begin to feel that it's quite useless, why rush? I'm already experienced; I'm not a little kid anymore. All those states that we go through are actually the opposite; it's because we've lost the spirit of life, the vitality.

Reading cont.: (01:02:21) Baal HaSulam. Shamati 72. Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light

However, he should know that all the wisdom he has now acquired came to him because he has lost the spirit of life that he had had before. Before, he measured all the acts with the light of life that the Creator gave him. But now that he is in decline, the evil inclination has the power to come to him with all their “just arguments.”

The advice for this is that one should say that now he cannot speak to his body and argue with it. Rather, he should say, “Now I am dead and I am awaiting the revival of the dead.” Then he must begin to work above reason, meaning say to his body, “Everything you say is true, and I have nothing rational to answer you. However, I hope that I will begin to work anew. Now I am taking upon myself Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], and now I am becoming a proselyte, and our sages said, ‘a proselyte who has converted is like a newborn baby.’ Now I await the salvation of the Creator; He will certainly help me and I will come once more into the path of holiness. When I have power in holiness, I will have what to answer you. But in the meantime, I must go above reason for I am still without the mind of holiness. Hence, you can win with your intellect, and there is nothing I can do but believe in our sages who said that I should keep Torah and Mitzvot with faith above reason. I must certainly believe that by the power of faith we will be helped from above, as our sages said, ‘He who comes to purify is aided.’”  

Question (W Toronto 3): (01:05:04) They say that the confidence is the clothing of the light. But why do we need confidence if we should go in faith above reason?

M. Laitman: There is a slight confusion here: Confidence, as clothing for the light, is a clothing on the light; faith above reason is the light itself, which is clothed in the confidence. Confidence is like annulment before the upper one – that I, when I position myself like an embryo in its mother's womb, and in this way I advance. And we must always, in every single state, begin the state from the Ibur, the impregnation, which is complete annulment, the first restriction. And then, more and more and more, up to the state I'm in, and in this way I build confidence.

Question (W Germany): (01:06:29) What does it mean that the light of confidence shines to him through the Ten? 

M. Laitman: We can't receive the light of confidence, which is the illumination from above, without annulling before the upper force from which we can receive the light of confidence; and therefore, we must first annul before the group. 

Question (W MAK 36): (01:07:06) What is light in spirituality, or the spirit of life? 

M. Laitman: In spirituality, light, or the spirit of life, is a result of my effort to adhere with the Creator through the group, the effort. I may not achieve anything yet, but according to my effort, I already begin to receive something as a result. 

Question (W Internet): (01:07:45) Can it be said that a person's intellect prevents from him the light of life?

M. Laitman: A person's intellect does not deny a person the light of life; it helps him—I'm looking at it from the positive side, not from the negative side. It helps him demand more of the light of life because the light of life is clothed in the vessel that also contains within it the intellect. We needn’t cancel the intellect, we should only annul the intellect that pertains to the will to receive; and also, not cancel it, but only rise above it, it is also help made against us. So, our whole work is mainly to constantly try to overcome, to rise above the corporeal mind and heart.

Question (W PT 38): (01:09:02) Does the light of life always the part without the creature noticing? 

M. Laitman: Yes, in order to bring us to a higher level, and this is why we need to be happy with the descent at least as much as with the ascent. Because a descent is a sign that I'm standing right before an ascent.

Question (W Latin 10): (01:09:38) If the light of life departs without the creature, the created being noticing, how can we become aware of the departure of the light? 

M. Laitman: A person doesn't feel when the upper light vanishes, he doesn't feel it. Only after some time does he begin to feel that he is down there, and that there's nothing he can do. He doesn't care, et cetera, in short. All the results from the descent, from the fall, he doesn't feel it at that moment when it happens, but only afterwards. 

Question (W Latin 20): (01:10:17) It says that he can work with superhuman powers by the light because the upper light is not limited as corporeal forces. What does that mean? 

M. Laitman: It means that indeed, the upper light is unlimited. But everything depends on our limitations that we put on the upper light. And to the extent that on one hand, the upper light is completely closed within our will to receive in order to receive. On the other hand, the more we add to this will to receive the aim to bestow, by this we move away the restriction and begin to work with superhuman powers. 

Reader: We will now move on to studying with friends, and before that, we'll sing a song.

Song: (01:11:19)