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

Daily Morning Lesson: November 11, 2026

Part 2: Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part Two. Inner Observation. Chapter 1. #45 

Reader: Dear friends. After a very special lesson we went through, we're approaching the “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” our important source to draw the reforming light. We heard during the lesson that there are many states on our spiritual path, that the Gemara describes as well, and the part we're studying is actually a clarification to a certain dispute, discussion in the Gemara, in the language of the Gemara, which relates to spiritual states, which also relates in its foundation to the four phases of direct light, what we call the first HaVaYaH. We will do a short recollection of where we are, because we know for some who are hearing this for the first time, it's a little hard to follow. Sometimes there are confusions with definitions; we want to straighten the line here so everything is understood, our definitions are clear, so we'll be able to enter the study together. What definitions do we hear? We heard definitions called as one “aims” and “intends” and “possible.” Does anyone know what we mean when we say "intending" and "is possible"? Who knows what's “intending?” Can anyone raise their hands? 

Student: “Aims” means that he means to enjoy with himself. 

Reader: He aims to receive some kind of pleasure, to come closer, to enjoy. Actually, the allegory that it comes from in the Gemara is coming closer to something that's pleasurable due to forbidden. And the sages are in this discussion about whether a person is capable of seeing it coercively because he has some environment he can't leave, for example, whether the discernment between him intending to receive, to enjoy the situation, or not intending to enjoy the situation. We have another discernment called "possible." Anyone know what that means, “it is possible or allowed?”

Student: That can he separate himself from the pleasure, come out of it, does he even have an opportunity not to receive the pleasure?

Reader: Correct. If he can run away from it, distance himself from the pleasure of some forbidden thing, does he actually have the ability to distance himself from that? So according to these two parameters, he explains to us here the phases, the four phases of direct light, and let's see this. We can see the drawing we have here. If we could present this on the screens. There we go.

Reader: So, we'll start from phase one. It started from the root. The root created a vessel for itself. So, we call that “phase one.” The question is, if phase one cannot receive pleasure, or if it yearns to receive pleasure? No. It's a result of phase one, of the root. It must receive the pleasure, just like a baby. We compare it to the still. It must receive. The question is if it yearns to receive? It doesn't. It doesn't even know what it is. That's why we say that she cannot separate itself from the pleasure, and also she doesn't intend to receive the pleasure.

But phase one became phase two. Because we know that phase two developed by now having the possibility. It means she can choose that she doesn't want to be connected to that pleasure, and chooses to distinguish herself from it. And also, it's interesting, we know that phase two, the Bina, does not want to enjoy the pleasure of the light of the Creator. This we see in phase two. This part we can maybe not look at yet, because what's important is first to understand this fundamentally.

And then we come to phase three. Yes? In phase three, Rav explains, it's as if it has no Rosh, it has no head. What does that mean? That her head is actually in phase two. Phase two, which later, in its end, we also learn this in this lesson, that there is what we call the initial matter, and then the end of every phase. At the end of her phase, she wants to draw the light of Hochma. The vessel cannot exist without the illumination of Hochma. She wants to draw that light. And phase three, which does not have a head, means the decision to extend the light of Hochma comes from the previous phase, from phase two. And therefore, phase three, just like in phase one, she cannot elude or just take herself away from receiving it. The decision about the filling was not received by her. The decision for the receiving was in phase two. And here in phase three, we also will expand on this, the whole explanation as to why it happens this way. She does intend to enjoy. She does have a yearning to receive. A yearning, on one hand, in phase three, there is a yearning to receive. On the other hand, phase three cannot distinguish herself from the pleasure. Whether she wants or not, she has pleasure. She's in an environment of pleasure, but she also has a yearning. 

Reader: Relative to that, then came phase four, that after phase three that received a bit, bestows a bit. So, phase four decides that she receives everything. So she herself took a decision that she is receiving, and she really yearns to receive the light. That's why it says that she can, she can separate from the pleasure, and she intends to receive it. That's why they say that it's a complete prohibition. So these are the four phases of direct light in the language of the Babylonian Talmud. That's how Baal HaSulam explains it. 

Reader: So, of course, now in the lesson we will just go over these phases, try to feel the special difference between them, prepare questions. First of all, of course, it's very much worthwhile to follow the text and Rav's words in the book “Study of Ten Sefirot.” So we are all invited to open “Study of Ten Sefirot,” Volume 1, part 2. We're in the Inner Observation. We're on items, we'll start with item 45. Let's move to our lesson, please. 

Reader: The “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” part 2, item 45. 

Reading: The light of Hochma is sufficient and she did not need to intensify to draw the light of Hassadim.

Reading: (07:35) 45. We might ask, “But when Malchut of Keter became phase one in the Sefira Hochma, she had the same possibility not to take on that new form of the will to receive. Thus, why is phase one regarded as impossible?” Indeed, there is a big difference here: Malchut of Keter could not emanate the emanated being without it having a will to receive. Conversely, Malchut of Hochma, who is the emanated being ‎itself, could settle for her own will to receive, without an awakening with a desire to bestow, which is phase two, and drawing light of Hassadim, since the light of Haya is quite sufficient for the emanated being, and it does not need any addition. 

M. Laitman: (08:37) I would like to add here something that may help you. We're only talking about the point which comes existence from absence. This point develops by the light. The light enters into this point, her qualities. This is called “nine Sefirot.” And from this point, a bigger point was made. Then he enters into her again; maybe we should write it this way: ten Sefirot or nine Sefirot, and this point becomes even bigger, and more, and it becomes greater, and more, and she becomes truly... This is what we see. This is Malchut, we'll call it phase four. Here, it's phase three, phase two, phase one. This is what we study in the four phases of direct light. The light operates on these nine Sefirot, and each time this point, from the influence of the light, takes on another form of development, more development, more development, meaning altogether, the Malchut of each phase, where each phase in its end, as we call it, is that point that received into herself more influences of the light. That's how we study this here as well. He's talking about the four phases of direct light, about the four phases of the desire. Intends, doesn't intend, wants to elude it, and can't elude it. It's all as a consequence of the influence of the light upon this desire, this matter, the initial primordial matter in us. And here, just from this simple picture, we can bring forth many results. First of all, what was made in the matter is as a result of the influence of the light. If we want the matter to change, we need to bring light to it. Never can the matter do anything with itself. It can also, by the light, see itself and scrutinize itself. Meaning, I am in a certain state. This state is the influence of the light that was on me. And I am that state. If I want to critique myself, or to examine myself, to know about myself, not within, but about myself, then I have to bring here some light from the outside, an addition of illumination. For then I will be able, under the influence of the light on one hand, and the influence of the light from the other side, to distinguish between these two influences, and between these two lights, determine something about myself. 

M. Laitman: (12:28) Meaning, there cannot be an action in spirituality, defining a state, anything, or any result, certainly, if it's not by there being an action of the light. Either the light does this according to the plan of creation from above down, or a person causes this out of some ability of his to cause this. Where there's a point in the heart, let's say, in a person, and then the group, and through the group there's the addition of desire, and by the addition of desire there's MAN, where he raises the request, and then the addition of light arrives. And then from this we begin to understand and recognize something beyond one's beastly existence, meaning necessities, that a person advances by nature, and then he advances on his own. So what I'm trying to say is that when we learn here about intends, doesn't intend, can run away from it, or to distinguish himself from it or not, from this, we need to understand this all depends on the influences, the bestowal of the light upon the desire, and therefore the four phases of the desire are direct consequences of the extent in which the light influences the desire. Look, it influences one time, and we have only a desire to see that it doesn't understand anything yet. It's not even considered a forbidden. It doesn't intend, and not that he wants, nothing. Phase two, already, there's a difference. Phase three, more. Phase four is completely free. Intends to enjoy, can't escape it, and doesn't do this or that. A desire which is against what was before. And it's a wonder what happened here. The light which influenced the desire, or actually it's light, it's the bestower. When it operated upon the desire, it led the desire to be more receiving. Do you see what's happening here? As if the light, its qualities are all to give. Specifically through the bestowal upon the desire, it develops the desire to receive more, because the desire cannot distinguish within the light the qualities of the light. It discerns in the light its pleasantness, and then its desires inflate. It doesn't receive from the light its quality. That's a very interesting action, actually, because within, well, I just wanted to show that the difference between all these stations, so to speak, and altogether from all the desires, is very simple in a few number of actions where the light influenced the desire. Let's say we have from that point, we have many desires; how can we grade these desires? This is a desire, let's say, a desire number 1,020. This is desire number 1,040. Why? Because the light operated upon this 1,040 times, and upon this, the light impacted it 1,020 times. The number of actions, one after the other, that the light operates in such a way, in this discrete, numeric, digital way, we can define and determine what's happening with the desire. The desire is a consequence of a number of actions of the light, like doses of light, like photons, where it enters into this desire and determines.

Question (Israel): (17:03) What is the action of drawing the light in practice? What should a person do in order to draw the light?

M. Laitman: In order to draw the light, a person needs to understand where he is, what he needs it for. What is to draw the light? That I want an addition of pleasure right now. That's also seemingly I'm drawing the light. Right now I want to enjoy something. So I draw the light into my desire, only I don't identify that there's a desire here and that there's a pleasure here. That's, “I want water.” But it's actually also the same act of drawing. So there's the area within all the big desire that was created, where you can draw the light through these simple actions that we know from our lives. We're allowed to do that for the sake of existence.

Meaning, there's the big desire that was made as a result of all of these desires. When the big desire was created, in this big desire, there's a certain area that is called “this world,” and in this area, I can draw the light and fill myself, and this gives me existence, sustenance. It could be vulnerable, not good, because each time I get a little bit and then it disappears, and then more, it disappears. But somewhat, for some time, I enjoy, I'm impressed, and this gives me the ability to, like a yo-yo, you know, a little more and a little more and a little more. It's like that's my whole life, until I start to ask, “Is this what my whole life is about?” And then I break out to an area where you cannot draw the light. There I really need to identify with it. Well, let's continue. This will come

Reader: We're continuing in item 46, the headline.

Reader: Zeir Anpin is regarded as impossible because he lacked the light of Hochma.

Reading: (19:53) 46. Phase three, which is Zeir Anpin, is regarded as impossible and intending. It is impossible because after phase two awakened and drew the light of Hassadim, it thereby caused a detainment on the light of Hochma in the emanated being. The will to bestow is opposite from phase one, which is a will to receive, where there is light of Hochma. Since the light of Hochma is the essential vitality of the Partzuf, that light is called ‎Haya [alive/life]. For this reason, Malchut of Bina drew illumination of the light of Hochma once again into her light of Hassadim, and when Malchut of Bina drew and created that new form, she emerged from being phase two, and became phase three, called Zeir Anpin (Part Two, Inner Observation, Item 30). 

M. Laitman: Meaning, in what way is phase three different to phase two? That at the end of phase two, when she thought she wanted to bestow, then discovered, "So how do I bestow? By what can I bestow?” And extended within her an addition of the desire to receive, whereas in using the desire to receive, it is clear to her that an act of bestowal is made, the influence of pleasure to the Creator, to the bestower. And then we extend the light of Hochma within the light of Hassadim, and this light of Hochma, as much as we extend it, is the measure of pleasure that we actually bestow upon the Emanator. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (21:58) He explains why Zeir Anpin is considered “impossible?”

M. Laitman: Zeir Anpin is a consequence of Bina. It has no Rosh, no head. It's altogether a decisive result from Bina. It was born from her without performing an action of choice on its own, of what it wants to be. And that's why the way Bina decided in her ZAT, which is the Rosh of Zeir Anpin, that's how it is. And therefore they define the state on its own. Zeir Anpin is really a very special state of the created being, a created being that was born from the quality of bestowal, and his intentions are of bestowal, but in necessity. Therefore in Malchut, he uses those intentions which are necessary in order to draw by these intentions additional pleasure for himself.

There's no great light or small one. There's no small intention or big intention. Altogether in spirituality, there is no great or small, only relative to one who attains. What's the difference between Malchut and Zeir Anpin? We say, Zeir Anpin is small, “Zeir” means tiny. It's not small, but that's how it is capable of revealing or discovering his action, his intention. Bina is bestowal. And then she feels, she wants to bestow, but what is she capable of bestowing? Nothing. So I use the desire of the Hochma, reception. I will take this reception from Hochma, and with my bestowal, together, we'll extend this action. And then this begets Zeir Anpin, which is reception and bestowal, together. This is bestowal to the Creator, purely net bestowal. Why do we say that it's Zeir, it's small? Because Bina makes the decision about this. It's not yet aware in its vessel that he is the giver, that he is the one that does.

M. Laitman: (25:12) Malchut, later, with the screen, what does she do? The same desire like in Zeir Anpin. If it could, Zeir Anpin would immediately take his vessel of reception and bestowal, and to bestow, just like here, these two conditions. But from its choice, it would be the final correction. We don't need any more than that. Meaning it all depends only on the awareness, the consciousness of the created being. I can be in the Ein Sof, and feel like just this world people feel. So, Zeir Anpin, that is already in its given state, which Bina gave birth to it in such a way, can seize itself, “Yes, I receive in order to bestow. Why? That's how I am.” That's why it's called “Zeir Anpin”, [a small face].  It's lacking labor and exertion to bring him now to self-awareness that he would do an action, the same action we do in the final correction, Gmar Tikkun, the final correction. Same action, only after this whole round that we shall decide and we will do this.

How do we do this? Zeir Anpin, when it did such a thing, now what does it do? Also, that bestowal it received from Bina helps it now to understand what the pleasure that can be from the bestower might be. And then he makes it into Malchut, where in Malchut there's its reception, and also the bestowal that comes to it is also becoming his reception. He wants to receive. We're missing words for the time being, but they're starting to come.

We say, Zeir Anpin recognized something in the bestower, in the Keter. It gets to know that the Keter is the bestower, that in this bestower there's pleasure. And then he wants this pleasure. The main thing that happens here is this inversion between the bestowal in Bina and the reception in Malchut, these intentions. In what in Malchut is the desire to receive greater than Zeir Anpin? The additional desire in Malchut was made from Bina, hence from the bestowal in Bina. That's why Bina is called the first Hey, and Malchut is called the lower Hey.

Whereas the created being can now explain the quality of bestowal and things he is aware of, that he knows, that he feels. It's like, "I don't know what you're talking there about all kinds of your fantasies. How much does it cost? How much does this give forth pleasure? Now I understand how much." Now he understands. And this is interpreted correctly for him. It's as if he understood, received, revealed the quality of the Creator in his language. Well, I didn't get to explain what I wanted, but I thought that maybe, well, gradually we'll advance. Let's continue.

Reader: We are in 47, the headline.

Reader: Zeir Anpin is regarded as intending because it had a yearning for Hochma.

Reading: (29:56) 47. We should discern two things in this extension, which is phase three: The first is “impossible,” meaning she has no other choice since the light of Haya was absent in the emanated being. The second is “intending,” for here, there is yearning for the illumination of Hochma that she extended, because she drew it when she was empty from it because phase two was covering the light of Hochma and there was only light of Hassadim in her, without Hochma. For this reason, her Malchut, which drew the illumination of Hochma, drew it as a yearning that is called intending. Hence, the phase of Zeir Anpin is called impossible and intending.‎ 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:59) You said that independence is revealed in Malchut, right?

M. Laitman: Independence is not revealed already in Malchut. In its end, in the result of the Malchut. In every Sefira we learn about its phase itself and what she's made of and what's the result of it. I'm incorporated in a certain state; first of all, I don't feel, I feel it, I'm incorporated from it, get to know its reasons, connect the reasons with my feeling from the state itself, in me develop all these aspects of the feeling and understanding of what state I'm in, and then a consequence, a result from this comes, meaning ready for the next phase, for the next discernment. So when we say Malchut becomes independent, that is already a result of Malchut, where she reached the restriction, and there too we need to understand what is independent.

In its development, after all the worlds and changes that take place in her, and as she is between good and evil, between the systems of good and bad, where a person must arrange himself in such a way that he will always see himself as half owing, half rewarded, and that's if he made one Mitzva, he can tip the scale for the whole world and vice versa. And then we see, after all this development, we come to a state where we're at this, the tip there, between this and that, which is the middle third of Tifferet, the Klipa of Noga, and where we can perform a free action. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (33:14) But if only in the end there's independence. So how can we even speak of the intention before there's independence? So where is the intention?

M. Laitman: You're right that speaking of intentions is possible only if they come from the created being independently. But that's already the end of the path. Before that, a person, knowing his intentions as goals, what he wants to attain. And those intentions are not his as well, it's from the desire to receive. I, according to my nature, am built such as a consequence of the shattering that all my actions are for my own benefit. That's called “intention.” This is not the intention that is spoken of in the wisdom of Kabbalah, where it's really… Meaning, when I arise above myself, it's called in faith above reason, and I receive the forces from above to govern me and control my nature in place of the Creator. Meaning, "I don't want You to manage me. I want in Your place to manage myself." This is the force of the true intention. But we need to get there. Meanwhile, we say, we talk about the simple instinctive desire, which is what we call it by the same name. That's what we mean. 

Reader: Malchut is regarded as “possible” because she could have settled for the Hochma in Zeir Anpin, and as “intending” ‎because she had a yearning. 

Reading: (35:32) 48. Phase four, which is Malchut, is regarded as possible and intending. It is “possible” because there is already illumination of Hochma in Zeir Anpin, meaning in phase three. Thus, Malchut of Zeir Anpin does not have to perform this intensification once more in order to draw light of Hochma to a greater extent than phase three. It is regarded as intending because this intensification, after the light of Hochma, created a yearning, meaning when she does not have light of Hochma, for then the yearning appears. 

M. Laitman: (36:20) Meaning, there's a possibility to not be in reception in Kabbalah, and in reception, intending to be in reception. Meaning, the reception remains from Zeir Anpin to Malchut, and also its bestowal that can be distinguished, that becomes reception. So, what is in reception and bestowal? That's the intention. That's the intention. It itself adds the intention to enjoy the situation it's in, and therefore she is called Gadlut, relative to Zeir Anpin, which is smallness or Gadlut. The same light, the same Kli, everything the same, only towards the receiver he developed within, and then his attitude to what he's in, that's the change between Zeir Anpin and Malchut.

Either I received what I was given, I enjoyed, everything's fine, I would receive in order to bestow, that's how it was done for me. I don't control here. When I start to control the situation and I do enjoy it, I myself want to enjoy it, then in Zeir Anpin this becomes Malchut. Meaning, the knowledge, the attitude towards that which is in the same state, changes the phase from Zeir Anpin to Malchut. That's how it is in our life. We're not aware of this. The extent to which we go through such states, everything is determined according to our attitude and how we name, how we call the situation, how we understand it, relate to it, that's a change in the phases that we go through, in the definitions. We're also now in the world of Ein Sof, only that according to the way I will feel it and interpret it to myself, according to that I will advance. And the truth is that the opposite of that is also correct. To the extent to which I can interpret it correctly, I will feel it and advance. Next. 

Reader: The difference between light of Hochma and illumination of Hochma. 

Reading: (38:59) 49. We might ask, “Since there is illumination of Hochma in phase three, which is why phase four is regarded as possible, how then does the yearning for light of Hochma appear in phase four?” You must understand that there is a big difference between illumination of Hochma and light of Hochma. Illumination of Hochma means that the self of the degree is light of Hassadim, but it receives illumination from the light of Hochma. Conversely, light of Hochma, the entire self of the light is Hochma, and not Hassadim at all. Illumination of Hochma is quite sufficient for the sustenance of the degree, as it is in phase three, which is Zeir Anpin. This is why Malchut of Zeir Anpin, which intensified her desire to draw light of Hochma, did not have to have it. Rather, there was a yearning in her for the self of the light of Hochma, which is much higher than the illumination of Hochma in phase three. With regard to the above-said light of Hochma, she is regarded as empty of that light. Hence, it is possible that a yearning for it will appear in her. 

M. Laitman: (40:32) What's he explaining? Only the desire to receive, the yearning, makes the difference between the illumination of Hochma and the light of Hochma. Meaning, the person determines in his desire what intensity of life, intensity of pleasures he will feel. It doesn't depend on the pleasures themselves but upon the person himself. Yes? Rabash would always give the example of what pleasures they felt during the depression, the great depression, or people that are in some concentration camp or some place, how they remember life now, yes? Those who are survivors of the Holocaust, yes? What pleasure there was in getting a piece of bread, half that bread was made out of dirt and all kinds of weed and grass and whatnot there. But the pleasure, because the desire was so great, the pleasure that they took out of it was wonderful. Given that bread today, even the most beautiful white bread and all that, there's no pleasure. Because it all depends on the vessel, there's no deficiency.

And that's how we need to understand that the gap between the light of Hochma and the illumination of Hochma is only in the vessel itself, where there's no light without a vessel, and the light is in absolute rest, and only the vessels discover the lights according to the intensity of desire in them. Clear? Meaning, it all depends on our work upon our vessels. There's no point in turning to the Creator and to yell at Him for Him to change towards us. We need to yell, "Change us, correct us," raising MAN, so that the desire will be corrected, we'll feel differently in that same light of Ein Sof that fills all of reality. Item 50.

Reader: Phase four alone is regarded as a vessel of reception because she is the phase of possible and intending.

Reading: (43:03) 50. Thus we learn that not all the desires are regarded as vessels of reception, but only phase four. This is because the desire is not regarded as reception, except under the two conditions: possible and intending. This means that there should not be coercion for reception, and a ‎yearning to receive will appear in it. It is the opposite with phase three: Although there is a yearning to receive there, meaning intending, because the reception is compulsory, since it is its necessary vitality, ‎sustenance, it is not regarded as a vessel of reception. Conversely, although phase two does not have to receive, since there is no yearning there, she is not regarded as a vessel of reception. It is all the more so with phase one, who has neither, for she must receive her light, which is her vitality, and also, she has no yearning. Thus, it is certainly a completely faint desire. 

M. Laitman: (44:30) In truth, where can a vessel receive an augmentation or a diminution? There's always a question. The Creator makes Himself smaller, makes Himself greater. When He created the absence from existence, from zero, and then gave this existence from absence His bestowal, did He grow His bestowal more and more and more? No, He didn't increase His bestowal. He only has two channels He can bestow upon the vessel with: in giving it pleasure, and to give it the feel, the giver of the pleasure. And the combination between the two of them, those bestowals are absolute ones, there's no more or less in them. But the connection between them, the combination, the two makes four, this builds a different vessel, where the merging between the bestowal of the giver and the quality of the giver brings to a vessel that grows the desire to receive of his. And it's not the desire to receive grows as the desire itself. No. The desire in phase one and the desire in Malchut is the same desire. However, it grew by the feeling of the giver, through the intention that joined the desire. We have reception in Hochma and reception in Malchut. But the bestowal in Bina joined the reception in Malchut. By that, the desire in Malchut became great. And this addition brings to yearning. Not that the Creator here created a small desire, here a bigger desire, and here a bigger one. He doesn't add pleasures. The addition of pleasures comes by getting to know the giver. That's the result that we need, the summary we need to not forget. The size of the desire does not depend on the desire itself whatsoever.

The same point of existence from absence that He created, the whole result, the whole addition is through the recognition of who made this. That's why all of our work from our point, existence and absence in us, the point in the heart, is only through knowing the greatness of the giver, what we call the greatness of the Creator, which is what we have to take out of the group. The desire is the same. It doesn't change in any created being, in any part or altogether in reality. The difference between all the created beings is the measure of their awareness or closeness or distance from the giver only. That's what distinguishes between them and is different in them. Hence, all of our work is only on the relationship towards the Emanator, the way we relate to Him. And from here, from these four phases, we can learn everything from the four phases. Yod Hey Vav Hey, there is no more than that. That is the HaVaYaH and nothing but that. There is no more, there is nothing outside of it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:42) A friend from Beit Shemesh is asking, "Is the yearning for the light of Hochma, was that the reason for the shattering of the Malchut?" 

M. Laitman: No, the reason for the shattering is the opposite. As it's written in the Torah, then they kind of battled more towards bestowal, more they wanted to bring Him contentment. Adam and Eve reached this great coupling in purity and holiness. And what's written there, Baal HaSulam writes about this really beautifully, that this whole vessel that wanted to do an act of reception in order to bestowal, that's not reception, that's true bestowal. Hence that intention broke. Altogether, this inclination to give everything to the Creator, it suddenly shattered. We're not talking about the desires, but the intentions. That every single thing that was, each desire connected to one intention, and kind of like imagine yourself, you want so greatly to give to someone, and he gives you back, he breaks it, he shatters it.