The
transcript
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transcribed
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edited
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simultaneous
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Daily
Morning
Lesson:
August
5,
2026
Part 2: Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 1. Inner Light. #3
Reader: Hello, friends! We had, now, a very powerful lesson, we heard from Rabash how much we need to increase more and more the desire to receive that we received to begin with. Our initial desire is not enough, hence we are constantly collecting more and more desires until we come to this point, excessive desire, like he writes there, because only with it we can make corrections and reach the purpose of creation. And then we heard the Rav's explanations of how we do this, and how the light corrects us. And now we have 50 minutes to draw this light so it will correct us and bring us closer to the realization of the purpose of creation, which we read about in the first part.
Reader 2: Now, we're going to continue with Item 3 in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, part one. Item three, by theory, is only two and a half lines, but Baal HaSulam's explanations, and on top of them the Rav's explanations, are very long. Every word has to have a definition, almost. It's true experience, the Rav gives a new explanation, one that we haven't heard before. Now, each one can take this pencil and take down bullet points of what we heard, what we learned, and prepare questions. And let's watch the lesson.
Reading: (02:09) Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 1. ARI #3
The restriction of the light around the middle point
Again, Item 3, the words of the ARI:
The restriction of the light around the middle point.
Then Ein Sof restricted Himself in the middle point in Him, in the very middle, restricted that light and moved away to the sides around the middle point.
“Inner Light,” item 40, relates to the words Ein Sof restricted Himself.
Reading: (03:04) Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 1. Inner Light. #40 Inner Light
40. Ein Sof restricted Himself: You already know the meaning of He and His name are one, that although there is disparity of form with respect to the will to receive incorporated in Ein Sof, that still does not create any difference between it and the upper light. Rather, they are in simple unity. Still, that disparity of form has become the reason and the cause for the creation of the worlds, “to bring the perfection of His deeds, names and appellations to light,” as the ARI says here. The creation of the worlds and their cascading down to this world, created and innovated the possibility to give room for work in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] not in order to receive, but only to bestow contentment upon the Maker. Then, the souls are able to invert the form of the will to receive in them, which separates them from the Emanator, into the form of the will to bestow, meaning to receive from the Emanator in order to bestow contentment upon Him, as this is what He wants, as I have written below in Item 90. This is the equivalence of form with the Emanator, called adhesion and unification. It is so because then they have already been stripped of the form of the will to receive, and acquired the form of the will to bestow, which is the form of the Emanator Himself. You already know that equivalence of form makes the spirituals into one. For this reason, at that time, the worlds return to their previous state.
This is the meaning of the ARI’s words, “When it rose upon His simple will to create, etc.” “Rose” means that He ascended in refinement and adhesion by diminishing and restricting the measure of the will to receive imprinted in him in order to equalize his form with the upper light. The will to receive in Ein Sof, called Malchut of Ein Sof, or “His Name,” did not have any deficiency for adhesion with the upper light because of its disparity of form. However, it embellished itself in order to equalize its form with the upper light and depart from that great will to receive called “phase four” in it, so as to adhere more strongly to the upper light. This is because proximity of form makes adhesion, which is expressed in the word “rose,” meaning that Malchut of Ein Sof, being the simple will, rose and adhered to the upper light, meaning diminished her will to receive.
This is the meaning of the words of the ARI, “Then Ein Sof restricted Himself.” It has already been explained (Item 6 above) that the entire measure of abundance and light, and the level of the emanated being are measured by the amount of the will to receive in it. Thus, after the above Malchut of Ein Sof restricted herself and diminished her will to receive, the light and the abundance departed due to the diminution of the desire. This is the meaning of the restriction, where the ascent of the desire caused the departure of the light and abundance from there.
M. Laitman: (07:04) Can the created being do anything with his will to receive? Can I not want, or want? What does it mean that I perform a restriction? The middle point diminished its desire, what am I, like the Creator, that I'm holding this point in my hands, this desire, and I do whatever I feel like doing with this point, am I in control over it? The light that sustains it, that created it and shines over it, sustains it, maintains it — He has the ability to change it. How can it be, then, that this point suddenly changes its desire? The desire arose, the desire descended rather, in that point, there arose an addition, an increase in its self-awareness, recognizing the state. That's why the previous desire now feels, appears disqualified, flawed. And that's why they say she diminished — didn't do anything, except the current desire compared to the previous desire is referred to as having arisen to adhesion, it wants an addition, more. And that's why the previous desire is no longer considered a good desire, a good state. And such an attitude to the previous desire is called that, it's restricted. You can't restrict the desire unless you do it using another desire – a greater desire, a more important desire – so that the important one will swallow into it the unimportant one. And only then the created being can exist in a new desire, compared to which the previous desire will be called restricted or non-existent, concealed, and so on and so forth. But there's no other way to work with the desires because we're not owners of the desires. We can only develop new desires and through them, all desires will seemingly disappear and get restricted, that's it.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (09:55) Let's say in our world a desire changes, so the second one doesn't exist already?
M. Laitman: What does it mean that it doesn't exist?
Student: I was hungry, now I want to go to a movie. I'm not thinking about it, it doesn't exist for me right now.
M. Laitman: But there's no absence, the desire is a spiritual thing, there's no absence in spirituality. Meaning, it's not that it doesn't exist, it exists, but now it received fulfillment, satisfaction. And then the deficiency in it seemingly got filled, and seemingly disappeared, right? It doesn't show itself.
Student: How in spirituality can two desires exist? How can such a thing be? Where he also wants to receive, and he also has a greater force of restriction than the desire to receive?
M. Laitman: The force of restriction is not the force of restriction, in and of itself. The force of restriction cannot be there unless the created being receives a force with which it can restrict itself. The restriction is an action, where if I have something greater, a greater desire than what I had before, then the previous desire is restricted, this is the meaning of, I restricted it. If now I determine that there is shame, unpleasantness, or a certain special goal of adhesion. And my state, according to that, appears to me as flawed, as despicable. Then my desire, my old desire, compared to this new desire, is restricted, it stops working.
I don't take the desire and restrict it, it's not like a bag that I open and I close, I'm not the owner of that, I'm not the master of it. We can work on desires with the help of other desires on which we do have a choice to develop and to come to, so that these new desires will rule over the previous desires. It's not me, because the light and existence out of absence now activates the desires and takes them out of the zero state and then does anything I feel like doing. It's only through additional deficiency, additional desire, yearning. I can seemingly take the previous desire and restrict it, suppress it, bring it to a state where it will not be felt in me as a deficiency. All that I do is – through the means of the light, I can bring myself to other states, from desire to desire, from desire to desire, that's it. But I cannot work on the desire, on the previous desire, itself; these new desires, this new awareness, to some extent, it restricts or grows the previous desires. The light, only the light influences the desire.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:44) But then, it turns out that we have something that's concealed, and it's all the desires that are kind of their previous, and they're kind of fighting?
M. Laitman: Beautiful, child, beautiful, you come to the end of correction with all the desires, all of them, everything! And you receive fulfillment in all those desires, yes, otherwise, how can it be? A desire will get canceled along the way, you lost it along the way, how can it be, you will miss it? All the desires, all the yearnings, all the nonsense even, everything you thought about and you dreamt of, they all acquire the form of bestowal and get filled. There's nothing that was created that's redundant, everyone receives fulfillment, completion.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:45) Where does the new desire of the vessel know how to rise up towards the light? What does it mean, new?
M. Laitman: In us, it's through the environment, there, it's from above down, by the revelation of the shame, revelation of the Giver.
Question (from around the country and from Berlin): (15:05) What's the meaning of the concept of, His name? What's the concept of His name, His names and appellations?
M. Laitman: Well, we learned about this in the other parts of The Study of the Ten Sefirot and in general, Shmo, His name, is a vessel, they should turn to my lesson from Friday morning – I don't know how you call it in the archive. Really, last Friday, two days ago, I gave a general talk, there, I talked about the names. A lesson in the Kabbalah LaAm Center, a lesson in the Kabbalah LaAm Center, so Shmo, His name, means a desire that acquires a form similar to the light. It acquires this form, this template, mold, a form, just like the light. It changes in four phases of direct light, the light changes it and makes all kinds of shapes and forms in it. All those shapes and forms connect in the final form called phase four. And this phase four that begins to feel the light in it, it starts naming the light, how it feels it.
So, the first time it feels that, it says, it's Ein Sof, no ending. Why? Because that's how I, with my vessel, call it. Meaning, the vessel itself is Ein Sof, that's why it feels the fulfillment in the form of Ein Sof. So, the vessel names the light, that's why the vessel is called Shmo, His name. Whose name? The one who feels it, man himself doesn't name himself. If I would be alone in the world, I would never name myself, only by the name Adam, according to my role and my purpose, to resemble the Creator — Ledamut. Adam resembles the upper one but because there are other people, then we start naming each and every one. So the name is not relative to me, my name is relative to the others so they would know how to address me, how to discuss me between them, point at me, and I need that name. Therefore, although the vessel is called Shmo, His name, but whose name? Of the impression of the light, from the light that's in him, the name of the one that is in it. How is this name made? According to the qualities of the vessel, the degree of equivalence of form because I cannot make any discernments in the light. It's simple, how do I say, merciful and graceful, all those qualities, right? It's according to the development of the vessel in those qualities. And it can then ascribe to the light such qualities. Meaning, the names in the light are in fact the names of the vessel. This is, as it's written, And the name of the Creator will be on you.
Reader: Inner Light, Item 50. Relates to the words, In the middle point in Him, in the very middle.
Reading: (19:13) Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 1. Inner Light. #50
50. In the middle point in Him, in the very middle: It is perplexing, for since there is neither Rosh nor Sof there, how is there a middle? Moreover, are we dealing with a corporeal matter here, which takes up space? The thing is that it has already been explained that there is necessarily a will to receive in Ein Sof, too. However, it is a simple desire, without a discernment of degrees of small and great, since the will to receive there is not regarded as disparity of form that makes any separation. Consequently, it is in no way inferior to the upper light. You should know that the upper light must expand through four degrees before it reveals that will to receive in the emanated being in its fullest and permanent measure. The reason for the necessity of the four degrees is that that will to receive is immediately incorporated in the expansion of light from the root, and by that it is discerned that the light has departed from the Emanator and acquired its own name, meaning expansion from the Emanator. As long as this disparity of form of the will to receive was not incorporated in it, it was still regarded as the Emanator and not as expansion that departed and went out from the Emanator, since a difference in spirituality is depicted only through disparity of form (see Item 6 and Inner Observation).
However, as much as this desire became disclosed by the force of the emanated being, it still was not permanent in the emanated being, meaning that the emanated being must yearn to receive the abundance before it is considered that the will to receive was revealed by the force of the emanated being itself. This yearning can be only when it does not have the abundance, for only then is it possible to yearn for it, in a way that the will to receive will be revealed in it through its own strength. It is then that the vessels of reception are completed permanently. You should also know that any expansion of light from the Emanator must consist of a will to bestow, just as it consists of a will to receive. Otherwise, the Emanator and the emanated being would have been in oppositeness of form, which is complete separation, since the oppositeness of form would depart them from one another as the east is far from the west. Thus, each light that expands from the Emanator must consist of a will to bestow, as well, so that the emanated being will have closeness of form between the Emanator and the emanated being. When the will to bestow is revealed in the emanated being, a great light is extended to him from the Emanator, related to the awakening of that desire. This light is referred to as light of Hassadim in every place.
However, the first expansion from the Emanator, in which the will to receive is incorporated, is always referred to as “light of Hochma,” or “light of the self.” You should remember these two kinds of lights very well. Know that the second light, which is light of Hassadim, is much lower than the first light, which is light of Hochma, since it is extended by the intensification and the awakening of the emanated being by his own force, it he wants to equalize its form with the Emanator, for which reason, it grows stronger and awakens toward the will to bestow. Conversely, the first expansion, which is light of Hochma, is extended directly from the Emanator, and the emanated being has no part in its extension. For this reason, it is much higher than it. For this reason, the light of Hochma is regarded as the emanated being’s self and vitality. The light of Hassadim is only regarded as light for corrections, for the completion of the emanated being.
M. Laitman: Well, we'll continue tomorrow and explain it, and let's go to the next part.
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Student: Yes, we were rewarded with a very special explanation of what is a restriction. There, he wrote, it restricted itself, and how much would I explain about the word restriction? The created being is not in control of its desire, it's not his desire, he's given the desire from Above. By himself, he cannot do anything with it, except for acquiring another desire, or that desire is more important, is higher. And then it can cover the previous desire that is now less important. I think anyone can make a list of desires that he once had, and are now less important. A desire to be with friends, a desire to be in the lesson, to draw the light. These are our greatest desires now, to bestow contentment to our Maker. We acquire, seemingly, new desires from this environment, from society, from the Rav, from the books, and they cover our smaller desires we had. Even though our desires continue to grow, they become bigger, and our world also grows bigger, compared to how it was before.