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

Daily Morning Lesson: October 13, 2025 

Part 1:

Recorded lesson - Oct 19, 2019

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 243. Examining the Shade on the Night of Hosha’ana Rabbah

Reader: Hello, in the first part of the lesson, we'll learn from a lesson on October 19, 2019, the article from Shamati, article 243, “Examining the Shade on the Night of Hosha’ana Rabbah,” Shamati  243. 

Reader: We'll be having a special lesson, nightly lesson, on the subject of Hosha’ana Rabbah. We will read an article.

M. Laitman: At the end of all these holidays, we're coming to build the Kli. When we discovered how broken the Kli is, and to what extent it has to be corrected, it's a matter of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and then the matter of Sukkot, and then we want to examine how much our Kli is whole. A whole Kli means it has the light of Hassadim, ready to receive the light of Hochma. That's why we are reaching a very special state called Hosha’ana Rabbah. We're going to read a few articles, some materials by Baal HaSulam about Hosha’ana Rabbah and other excerpts about this special state that man crosses on his spiritual path. This is certainly not about a certain day of the year. It's an internal state, that at a certain point it will happen for every person who walks on the path. So let's see how close we are or distant from this state, and then what we should do, what this whole state obligates us to do. Please.

Reader: From the writings of Shamati, the article “Examining the Shade on the Night of Hosha’ana Rabbah.” 

Reading: (03:04) Shamati 243. Examining the Shade on the Night of Hosha’ana Rabbah

Adar Aleph, 24, March 1, 1943, Tel-Aviv

Concerning the shade. On the night of Hosha’ana Rabbah [the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles], it is a custom that each one examines himself to see if he has a shadow, and then he is certain that he will have abundance (Shaar HaKavanot (Gate of Intentions), Sukkot Commentaries, 6-7). The shade implies clothing, the clothing in which the light dresses.

There is no light without clothing, since there is no light without a Kli [vessel]. According to the measure of the clothes, the lights increase and multiply. When one loses the clothing, the light that belongs to that clothing is proportionally absent from him.

This is the meaning of truth and faith. Truth is called “light,” and faith is called “Kli.” This is the meaning of “the Creator and His Shechina [Divinity],” and the meaning of “Let us make man in our image,” and “Surely man walks by the image.” Man’s walk depends on the Tzelem [image], meaning on faith. And this is why on Hosha’ana Rabbah, one should see if his faith is complete.

But why do we call the worlds above Tzelem? After all, above, there is no weight to faith. However, what appears to us as dryness is a great light above, except that we call that name “above” because it appears to us as a shade, and we name what is above after the lower one.

Bina is called “faith,” which is the light of the Ozen [ear], meaning hearing. Hochma [wisdom] is called “seeing,” which is a light that comes into the vessels of reception, considered eyes. 

M. Laitman: It's basically a simple thing, right? We have the will to receive. The will to receive remains the will to receive. Only if we want to adapt it to the revelation of the Creator within us, then we need to direct this will to receive in order to bestow, so it will be in equivalence of form with the Creator, with the fulfillment. And the correction is made when the will to receive will become in equivalence of form with the fulfillment by the light of faith, the light of Bina. So we have the will to receive. It has to be corrected by the light of Bina, meaning with an intention in order to bestow, and then it is ready to receive within it the light of Hochma, called the revelation of the Creator to the created beings. And then we come to Simchat Torah, when the light of Hochma appears within the light of Hassadim, and these two lights illuminate and complement each other. So, before you reach this holiday, you should first examine, is our Kli whole? And this is why we examine the shade. Is the faith, meaning the quality of bestowal, the restriction, Masach [screen] and the reflected light within our Kli, are they ready to receive the light of Hochma? Is this clear? 

M. Laitman (Source Text/Commentary): (07:19) Baal HaSulam, article 243, Examining the Shade on the Night of Hosha’ana Rabbah.

Concerning the shade. On the night of Hosha’ana Rabbah [the seventh day of the Feast of the Tabernacles], it is a custom that each one examines himself to see if he has a shadow, and then he is certain that he will have abundance. That's what it says in Shaar HaKavanot. The shade implies clothing, the clothing in which the light dresses. Meaning shade means the light of Hassadim, in which the light of Hochma clothes. There is no light without clothing, since there is no light without a Kli, without a vessel. According to the measure of the clothes, the lights increase and multiply. The upper light is in complete rest, it's infinite. It all depends on the dressing, on our ability to discover this infinite light. So when we do discover, we discover it in different measures, according to the extent that we are able to organize the clothing. When one loses the clothing, this person, the light that belongs to that clothing is proportionally absent from him. Is this clear up to here? Don't be shy. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:08) So spiritually speaking, what's regarded as efforts on our behalf, it's only after we discover the evil inclination, right? That's the only thing that counts?

M. Laitman: The light of Hassadim is our ability to rise above our own ego, our egoistic desire, and this is manifested by the extent that the group, the Creator are more important to a person than himself. That's the force of bestowal that he discovers, and accordingly, he has the reflected light, the Ohr Hozer,  in which the direct light clothes. 

Student: It seems that the mind can barely tie the light of Hassadim and the shade. Why the shade, necessarily? 

M. Laitman: Oh, that's because we conceal our own ego, our egoistic desire, we're hiding it by the light of Hassadim, and that's why, as the measure of the shade, as the concealment of the cover of the will to receive, to that extent we can receive the light of Hochma in it. 

Student: So the shade isn't something personal? It's not my personal attainment, rather it's an outcome of the connection in the group? 

M. Laitman: Yes. It's expressed in the connection, in the group, in bestowal, in rising above the will to receive of a person. Yes, what we learn. All in all, we call it a Masach, a screen. In the wisdom of Kabbalah we're not talking about emotions of the human. We're talking about technical terms. To the extent that you have restrictions, Tzimtzum, Masach, Ohr Hozer, to the extent that there's the rejection forces appear within a person that resist the reception of the light of Hochma in a direct manner, because it will cause a shattering in the light and in the Kli. And that's why you should first correct the Kli. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:58) So in the language of the heart, so to speak, whenever I take the lack of the other, the friend, it's as if I take that as clothing on myself. What's the clothing? 

M. Laitman: Clothing? 

Student: Yes. 

M. Laitman: Clothing of the light of Hassadim is to the extent that the other, meaning the friend, the group, the world, are more important for me than I am for myself. To that extent I can examine how much light of Hassadim I have, how much ability I have to receive the light of Hochma in order to bestow. 

Student: So, each time I cloth the importance of the friend on myself or when I acquire the friend’s lack, that’s the clothing that I put on? 

M. Laitman: It's not enough, but you start there. Is the friend's deficiency more important than my deficiency? Yes? Accordingly, the Kli is built. 

Student: And there are many types of clothing? All of the rules of the Rabash turn into clothing that we wear? 

M. Laitman: Yes. All in all, all these clothings are called Tzimtzum, Masach, and Ohr Hozer - restriction, screen, and reflected light. According to the measure of these clothings, I have the ability to receive the light of Hochma. Clothing is the new Kli. When the will to receive becomes in order to receive, it's banned from being a vessel of reception. And when I correct it to in order to bestow, meaning there is something more important outside of it than itself, then it turns out that it's all about the measure, the size of my ability to receive the light. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:06) What's the difference between the judgment of Yom Kippur and the judgment of Hosha’ana Rabbah? 

M. Laitman: The judgment of Yom Kippur is when we have to examine our vessels. We see how much these vessels demand corrections. That's all done in Gevurot, in restrictions, in torments. We are not allowed to use the vessel at all, because there the corruptions are being revealed. That's why we have five things you're not to do on Yom Kippur. It's five kinds of lights: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida. And correspondingly, on Yom Kippur, we're forbidden to drink, to eat, to wear leather clothes, et cetera. And after the corrections we perform during the days that follow Yom Kippur, including Sukkot, when we correct, correct, correct our clothings, then we reach examination of these clothings on the night of Hosha’ana Rabbah. And then we examine the shade, meaning the screen we have over the vessel; and as a result of that, having a Masach allows us to receive the Torah, which is Simchat Torah, the happiness of the Torah. The upper light clothes in the will to receive, that's already corrected in this shade, meaning in the intention to bestow. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:16) It's very clear that, let's say, that you have a Tzimtzum, Ohr Hozer, so you make the Masach, Ohr Hozer. This Ohr Hassadim forms the clothing, yes? So that's according to, let's say, our direction of giving to the friends. How can it become, let's say, a vessel of reception when it's a giving action? 

M. Laitman: It's not yet an action of giving. When I examine my clothing, it's only a clothing. Only after I start receiving  the light of Hochma in order to bestow, then the light of Hochma that clothes in the light of Chasidim brings us the scrutiny, the feeling of the clothing, the feeling of the Gadlut, the greatness of the clothing. Because according to the clothing, we can reveal the upper light. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:34) In the article, he discusses the contrast between the light of Hassadim and the light of Hochma for there to be joy in the reception of the Torah. Is that some measure of the light of Hassadim, of the integration between us? Is that some measure of that kind? 

M. Laitman: Yes, of course, according to the measure of the connection between us. And to the extent that every person prefers connection to the friends or the others’ desire above his, by that he has the force to reject, the force of the Masach. By that he starts to be a receptacle, an owner of a vessel that may receive the light within this rejection. And that's what we mean when we say that the NRNHY, the lights of Neshama, clothes in the light of Hassadim, and that's how it fills itself. 

Student: It's called the holiday. So is that a very special measure? Does it require special efforts or special conditions to be met in order to achieve that joy? 

M. Laitman: Of course. The matter of the holiday, the festival, the good days, in general, every day has its own measure. It's a degree, a special one, a part of the ascent of the soul in the ladder of the degrees. So this night of the Hosha’ana Rabbah is important because of the examination of the screen, the Masach, and the next day, we already have this nice article in the Zohar, the next day you already come to the Huppah [the canopy]. 

Student: So, we as world Kli, how close are we to this holiday? 

M. Laitman: There is an individual state for each one on his own, and that depends on the person, depends on his individual work. There is the general state of the Kli. We haven't yet reached this general state. Let's hope that we're on the way to be one Kli, one system. Then we will be considered ten Sefirot, ten whole Sefirot, and then we will all integrate within these ten Sefirot: men, women, smaller ones, children, grown-ups. Meaning, these are different kinds of desires that we can integrate with, together, and that's already the matter of the final correction. But in the meantime, until the final correction, each one or the smaller parts of the Kli are being corrected. That's why in the meantime we're talking about individual states. But in these individual states, the things that are called individual or personal, as I'm talking about myself, or him, or about you - I'm talking about the Kli. The Kli is always ten Sefirot, meaning no matter what, we must be connected to Tens, and to the extent that a certain Ten will succeed in connecting while annulling itself towards others within the Ten, as much as the friends will be connected, as much as they will rise above the personal ego of each and every one in the connection between them, accordingly, we will see this Ten already entering the reception of the light of Hochma in order to bestow, so that the light of Hochma will clothe on the light of Hassadim. That's called acquiring their soul. This action includes all the corrections, there's nothing else besides that. We should connect, and connection can only be a result of mutual concessions, when each one regards the others higher than himself in the Ten, and to the extent that they annul to each other, the general Ten, then the upper light dwells upon them. That's a light that corrects them, it's called the light of Hassadim. And then they decide according to the extent of the light of Hassadim, meaning the extent of the shade they acquire, how much they have the light of Hochma, an ability to receive the light of Hochma in order to bestow. Things we learn in Preface and TES, when you perform a Zivug de Hakaa and you receive in order to bestow, and that's how the Light of Hochma clothes on the light of Hassadim. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:03) When you speak of the shade, is that the light that the righteous ones receive through the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Yes. Correct. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:31) He writes that the shade is the clothing, and in the clothing the light dresses.

M. Laitman: The shade is the clothing, meaning the light of Hassadim, in which the light of Hochma clothes. So what's the question? 

Student: What does this principle come to teach us? What can we take from this principle for our work, that the light clothes on the shade? 

M. Laitman: First, we have to build the shade, meaning we have to conceal our will to receive from the pleasure, and to form a partition between the will to receive and the pleasure, a restriction, and after the restriction, to have a Masach, a screen. When performing a restriction is not such a problem, let's suppose, I stop doing something, I quit smoking. I remember, they tricked me, the friends forced me, so I quit smoking. You know this already. So, I did it. However, once we perform the restriction, we need to start receiving the pleasure in order to bestow. And here I have to examine how much I cannot simply perform a restriction, rather receive the pleasures that previously I would abstain myself from, how do I bring them back? But when I receive them, it's not because I want to enjoy them, it's because I want to give pleasure to the host. It's just like we're sitting at the table of the host, so I really want to receive everything that is on the table in front of me, but I won't take anything, that's a restriction. Later, I do open myself up to receive in order to bestow, meaning here there is a very special kind of work, that not only do I not enjoy myself, rather I enjoy, I enjoy them and it's because I give Him pleasure. This action is not yet known to us, it's unknown for us. We can just imagine how complicated it is and how concealed it is. So, these tests over the ability to receive this way in order to bestow, we do them on the night of Hosha’ana Rabbah. 

Student: So, if you want to come closer to that state where the shade is the clothing for the light, what should we pay attention to specifically in our situation, what's the main thing? 

M. Laitman: Examining the shade, examining the shade where the Kli, the will to receive, it should be completely covered with the intention in order to bestow. The extent of the restriction, but restriction is not enough -  the extent of the cover, that's what we would like to know. How much ability do we have to receive in order to bestow? Because simply restriction is, well, okay, but it's not yet a Kli that is worth using, worthy of using, being used.

Student: And we know that all of the work is between us, in the relationships between us and so on. 

M. Laitman: If you wish to shift it to a practical language, to the extent that I rise above myself, and I'm with my thoughts, with my desires, and I'm heading towards the direction of the host or the friends, the group, the Ten, to that extent, I have a Masach, I have a shade. Meaning, what is this shade? I cover my will to receive. What am I doing? Very simple, if I prefer the group over my desire, like with the host, it’s the same thing.

Student: (29:51) In what way do I prefer the group over my own desire? Or how do I examine? How do I check? 

M. Laitman: You can check it in a very simple way. Who's more important for you? Either me or the group? 

Student: Towards what? The attainment of …

M. Laitman: Towards any pleasure you can imagine. Everything. With respect to everything. Respect to your life. With respect to everything. Your will to receive, starting from zero till one hundred percent has to be covered. That you don't use in order to receive, meaning, for the sake of myself.

Student: And this is the expression of the importance that I'm now passing to the group? 

M. Laitman: The importance is the expression. Who is more important, myself or the Ten? 

Student: Who's more important? Meaning, where do I prefer for the fulfillment to be received? What do you mean by “Who's more important?” 

M. Laitman: Who's more important? Don't you understand? If you have scales, for example. So who's more important? That's how you should weigh it. And that's all. Now, of course, we, ourselves, are incapable of achieving such things. I can't give the friends even one gram. I can't prefer them to me in any way. It's all done by the reforming light. Meaning, that I'm always in prayer, request. The Creator arranges for me the importance of the group, the importance of Him. He makes them more than my importance, my own importance. It's called changing nature, meaning, making them more important. And then I can think about the Ten, rather than myself, or the Creator, rather than myself. The correction comes from above. We only need to take all sorts of actions in order to awaken that correction. But we don't have the ability to make any correction at all. People usually think: “But it's difficult. It's hard.” It's not that it's hard, it's impossible. It's impossible, but it's not a problem, because the upper light does it. That's why it's written, “Go to the craftsman who made me.” He made me, He will make the corrections. No problem. We just need to know how to approach this whole thing correctly. And then it's not difficult. Truly, it's not difficult. The difficulty is in the scrutiny. After conducting proper scrutiny, you turn to the Creator. And then He acts. It's called “He who makes peace in the heavens, He will make peace upon us.” Our work is called the work of the Lord, meaning that the Lord, the Creator, does the work. 

Student: So it turns out that the scrutiny is when I discover that the group is not more important than myself. 

M. Laitman: Of course it's not more important. 

Student: Is there anyone more important than myself? 

M. Laitman: No. That's how we're built. That's our nature. No one is more important than myself. It's the other way around, even. There's nothing in anyone which I can give anything. Nobody can give anything. If we're talking about the will to receive, that's truly operating within us. If it's a true calculation, then we're so egoistic that I can't give anything to anyone. Nothing. I'll tell you even more. Even if I have a hundred percent of everything that I want, and I have things that I don't even need, but the other one needs, another one needs them, I can't give that either. Because this will seem to me as a loss. And so, we are in a state where there's no fixing, no fixing us. But only in the group, gradually, as the lights work on us, we will receive these corrections. 

Student: (35:13) And what leads me to a scrutiny that brings me to the request? 

M. Laitman: The lights also, small illuminations. Because after the shattering, where we disconnected from each other, each small desire has a spark, a spark of holiness. If that spark awakens the person, if it shines, if it awakens the person with that vessel, then that person feels that he has some disposition towards spirituality, not connection necessarily, but to know the Creator, to discover the upper world. And then that person begins his search. The spark motivates the person, pushes him. What can you do? The person himself doesn't exist. It's just a will to receive in which there is a spark. And that will to receive begins to search how to find fulfillment, right? And so a person advances. He comes to a place where we study, he integrates there, and so on. 

Student: He should come to a request that he wishes the group to become more important to him than himself. I'm asking about the demand to which it starts from. Yes, I understand, nothing is more important than myself, and when I reach this same state, but I want the light to work on me and invert it, turn it upside down, this request.

M. Laitman: How to come to that?

Student: Yes.

M. Laitman: The request, it seems unnatural, supernatural, altruistic, but it's not true, because the request is egoistic. I am willing to be connected to the others to some extent. I'm ready to give to others, seemingly at least. There is egoistic profit in these actions. They will speak about me, they will hold me in high esteem. It's egoistic profit, and therefore it's not just give and take. Rather, there are many actions here which a person is willing to do, seemingly, seemingly willing to do for the benefit of others, but his calculations are only self-serving, ultimately. However, we have such means here which allow one to truly rise above his ego. These are envy, lust, honor. The main thing is envy. It motivates the person to perform all sorts of seemingly supernatural acts, above his ego. 

Student: And what's the test that I'm coming closer to the true demand for change? How can I examine myself every day or from time to time? What's changed? How do I examine and see that I'm coming closer to the true, correct, real request? 

M. Laitman: It's like the examination of the shade. It's simple. You need to check to what extent the Ten is more important than you. Is it more important than me or not? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. It's because we advance through degrees. So if today I'm willing to concede something to the Ten for the benefit of the Ten, tomorrow I may not be able to do this. My ego grows, and then I need to work on it even more, to draw the surrounding lights through the friends, to be impressed by what they say, and so forth. That's all of the work that Rabash details in his articles.

Student: That's the confusing part. I'm supposed to advance and to feel that the Ten is more important for me or I discover that I am more important for myself? What is considered advancement? What test shows that you're advancing towards the request to change? 

M. Laitman: Advancement, we can measure it when we have a greater will to receive, a bigger will to receive than yesterday. If yesterday I could give to the society, donate to them, let's say, ten kilos of effort or pleasure, today I can't. That's advancement. The will becomes greater. I become weaker. I need more of the reforming light. That's according to the Aviut, the coarseness, which grows from degree to degree. And if so, we can understand that the darkness becomes greater. But between darkness and darkness, we have light. We have the day. And the day also becomes greater than the darkness, shines as the light, and so on. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:57) Happiness in this holiday is, like Baal HaSulam writes, out of a revelation of the deficiencies I discover in me? That I wouldn't reveal without the connection between us, without the group, or the happiness stems from something else? What Baal HaSulam writes about the happiness? Where does it come from? 

M. Laitman: All of the holidays, all of those joys come from us discovering a lack. Without the lack, there is nothing that can be done. And then we fulfill that lack in the proper way - through prayers, requests. This is called raising MAN. We drew a light from above, which corrects us. And then, when the vessel is corrected, we receive with order to bestow an addition from the Creator, which is in accordance with the date or the holiday. We call it a holiday, or a good day, and so on.

Student: Can we say that this holiday is special? Because we're revealing a deficiency not within the Ten, among a few friends. It's something international. A broader deficiency, maybe European, or one of the world Kli, or is it too early to talk about it? 

M. Laitman: No. We always have a Ten. I have nothing more or less than a Ten. If I'm talking about a whole, a complete vessel, then the smallest vessel, or the whole of reality is a Ten. It's all a Ten. However, if I see many Tens, which are connecting together, joining together until they all reach the ten complete Sefirot of the end of correction, all of this is only the way I perceive it. But actually, I'm actually seeing just a Ten.

Student: So, if I understand correctly, what we discovered in the European Ten as a Hissaron during this week is only a result of the efforts we're making for each other in that Ten? 

M. Laitman: Because you worked, all of you, on the connection between you, you've discovered the connection, a certain connection. And in it, you discover the ability to begin to work with that connection opposite the Creator. It could be even in receiving in order to bestow, and it all depends on you. 

Student: (44:57) And if this is the case, I have another question. Collecting this whole big deficiency, the need, all the demands that arose from all the friends, the big list we got, this broad picture. Is there a kind of shade here? 

M. Laitman: No, no, there's nothing of the sort. You're all just expressing through one thousand and one stories, sentences, descriptions. You're only talking about the state of the shattered vessel, nothing else. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, it's expressed as just one sentence. In our world, you can create literature, theater, music, drawings, and paintings, whatever you can and want, in order to portray the desires of man, how much he suffers from not being fulfilled, how much he yearns to be fulfilled. That's the whole inner world of the man, right? All of culture, education, everything that we create and manufacture, it all just attests to how much we want to receive fulfillment and are unable to receive it. That's everything that a person has. What do people write about? What do they compose music about? What is it all about? Theater, literature, philosophy, psychology, everything that we make, it's all of it only about how much we yearn to fulfill our will to receive, our vessel. That's it. And what does the wisdom of Kabbalah say? That you need to erase it from egoistic utilization, and then to bring it to proper utilization whereby you will be able to fulfill it. And therefore, this wisdom is called the wisdom of Kabbalah. Kabbalah in Hebrew means receiving, the wisdom for being fulfilled. Otherwise, a man dies with not half of what he wanted to receive. That's how it's written. You see how life ends, right? Ask a person at the end of his life, what did you have? What happened with you? Whatever it was, well, nothing's left of it. It never attained any eternal degree, and he remains, or rather remained as a beast. And that's our life, unless we break through to the higher degree. 

Student: So, one thing is to collect the deficiencies from the friends, and there is a certain higher degree, which is a prayer. When we collect these deficiencies to a certain extent, then we raise a prayer out of the Ten. That's a kind of a solution?

M. Laitman: Let's say, let's say so. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:35) We, the common people, don't discover that they're egoistic. If you ask a person on the street, he'll tell you, I love giving, I love bestowing.

M. Laitman: Correct. 

Student: And maybe we are the same in the beginning of every degree. 

M. Laitman: Of course.

Student: What actions should we perform to discover the egoists in us, so we can perform the restriction? But before that, how do I hasten this revelation that I'm an egoist? 

M. Laitman: The Creator brings a person to a good fate, and He says, take this for yourself. How? What does He say? He says, be connected with nine friends. If you're connected to them, then you will begin to discover everything that you have within yourself, within your will to receive. So, nine people who are outside of you, you need to achieve a connection with them, and they will give you an indication, a clear indication of who you are, what you are, of the state you're in with respect to the Creator and the upper light. And you need to come to a state where these nine people are more important to you than yourself. Then it can be said that you have transcended yourself. And then your vessel will be in order to bestow. 

Student: This means that every time I discover about myself that I don't understand where my ego is, is it correct, or would it be correct to take the first twenty articles of Rabash and read them, and to start feeling where I'm not in? 

M. Laitman: Let's say, yes. 

Student: I'll be glad if there are other advice.

M. Laitman: No, no, the advice is to work together with the friends, not by yourself. All these twenty articles, keep working on them together with the friends.