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

Daily Morning Lesson: August 15, 2025

Part 3: Baal HaSulam. Study of the Ten Sefirot. Vol. 1, Part 1, Chapter One. #3

Reader: We will be reading from the study of the Ten Sefirot, Volume 1, Part 1, Chapter 1, Item 3. 

Reading: (00:48) Baal HaSulam. Study of the Ten Sefirot. Vol. 1, Part 1, #3

The restriction of the light around the middle point

Then Ein Sof restricted Himself (40) in the middle point in Him (50), in the very middle, restricted that light, and moved away (60) to the sides around the middle point (70).

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.

Question (Moscow): (06:31) In what way does Malchut of Ein Sof feel the desire to create worlds and to make the created beings? 

M. Laitman: She's impressed by some thought; all of that happens in herself, inside herself. And she doesn't need to take it from some faraway place; it all happens inside of her. And the light opens her up, works on her, opens the desire, fills up the desire, and we learn about these ramifications. 

Student: But here's something interesting happens: Where Malchut is impressed by the Creator, by the Keter. So where does shame come from? 

M. Laitman: She still did not connect with the Creator – there's still a gap between her and the Creator – because the Creator is only bestowing and she's only receiving, and she cannot do anything about it. 

Student: But Malchut of Ein Sof feels the thought of creation, that it needs to create worlds?

M. Laitman: No, now he's going to describe all of that. She feels the Creator is hidden, on the one hand; on the other hand, he becomes revealed in bestowing and fulfilling. And that everything stems from him, from his thoughts, and therefore the difference between them is felt. 

Question (Kyiv 1): (08:59) Yes, the ARI writes about the restriction here, and how the light restricts itself. And then Baal HaSulam explains to us how the created being develops. And he writes that the light restricted itself to give the will a place to develop, room to develop, if I understand. And we learned that the light was restricted due to the shame, so why did the restriction happen? 

M. Laitman: We will have to learn that, in truth, the reason for the concealment of the light is indeed to give freedom of action, from the one hand for the created being. To not push him from above, on the one hand. On the other hand, it’s for the created being to be able according to a decision to on His behalf to get closer to the Creator.

Question (Unity 2): (10:13) In our group, there's great importance placed on the greatness of the Creator, and this is my question: In this practical work, bestowing contentment upon the Creator. Do we need to look for a shared lack, a common lack that the Creator can fill? Does it give the Creator contentment when He can bestow? Do you recommend that we engage in that, in the group? 

M. Laitman: Not only I recommend, there's nothing else to engage in – specifically, that is what you should engage in. In that way we can connect between us, so as to discover another opportunity to receive from the Creator, so as to give Him contentment in the way He works towards us. 

Student: And this search for the common lack, that will announce before the group and then the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Florida): (11:18) It says that the Malchut of himself embellished itself in order to equalize its form with the upper light. What does Baal HaSulam mean by the word, embellish? 

M. Laitman: Meaning, she chooses the form; meaning she chooses what form she can receive so that she can more fully be filled with the light of Ein Sof, which is expressed in the beginning of creation. 

Question (Women Turkiye 8): (13:16) In item 2, the ARI talks about bringing his actions to perfection and his names and appellations. How can we come to that exalted state? 

M. Laitman: That's what we're learning. 

Question (KabU 2): (13:39) How can we come to feel the Creator's, or try to feel the Creator's perfect attitude towards us when we read TES? 

M. Laitman: That will come to us gradually; that all comes to us gradually. 

Question (Turkiye 1): (14:19) What does it mean to equalize in form with the upper light? 

M. Laitman: You will learn that – this is actually what all that we learn sums up to that.

Question (Women MAK 43): (14:48) If, in Ein Sof there is disparity of form between the light and the vessel doesn't act, but it exists in potential in the Fourth Phase. Can we say that the restriction is not the creation of the difference. But a certain initial sign of disparity of form. And that disparity of form is in potential before that? 

M. Laitman: Yes, that's correct. 

Question (Women KabU 2): (15:17) In Chapter 1.3, Baal HaSulam says the restriction of the light around the point. Is that the same as the Malchut restricting itself? 

M. Laitman: That's something we're yet to scrutinize, we need to discern these matters. 

Question (Women MAK): (15:55) What is the difference between the reality before the restriction and after the end of correction? 

M. Laitman: The difference is that reality comes to be expressed. 

Question (Hungarian and Polish): (16:19) I see only the middle point, that is the will to receive, is in disparity of form. So, ARI writes, the light moved away to the four phases, also called sides. I feel only the will to receive must be restricted. The will to receive in us must be conquered, it's solving in the friends. So, there must be light in the other three Behinot, the other three sides around the middle point. It departed from the three phases, too. Can you explain it to us, please, this part? 

M. Laitman: It's not that it's differentiated, it's the result of the first state. We're learning at the moment the consequences or the results of one from the other, which are called the Four Phases. And these phases are already included in the upper light. And when the upper light fills the Kli, the desire, in an obligatory manner obligates the vessel to grow, to open itself and bestow in return to the light. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:12) It's written here in the beginning of item 40 that through the beginning of the worlds, then the expansion down to this world, there was renewed here this opportunity for Torah and Mitzvot. It was not in order to receive, but only in order to bestow contentment to one's Maker. And then the souls are able to invert the form of the will to receive in them, which separates them from the animator into the form of the will to bestow. And the question is: What is that change in this point, where there's this possibility to bestow to the Creator that we want the will to bestow? 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: What is that possibility that has been created here, that point? 

M. Laitman: That we are in connection with the upper light and it is going through us and bestowing and influencing us. And obliging us to replace our will to receive gradually to the desire to bestow, like in Him. 

Student: He writes that it brings us to adhesion and connection.

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: So that adhesion, what is the difference between the connection that we wish to increasingly reach equivalence of form and reaching adhesion? What is the difference between them? 

M. Laitman: Adhesion is the equivalence of form. That is the light and the will to receive, to the will to receive. Yes, it receives the light and by it changes to a desire to bestow.

Student: Unification is that I want to be increasingly more similar to Him?

M. Laitman: Yes, soon we will learn that. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:31) Now that we're starting to study TES, I see that you're answering very concisely, laconically to the text because Baal HaSulam gives there everything. The question is, how should we ask during the study of the TES? And what should we ask? And when should we not ask, when should we seek the answers inside the sources? 

M. Laitman: That slowly, slowly will be understood to us – between us and what exactly the author, the ARI asks and how he answers us. We will learn all of that throughout the study. 

Reader: What should we ask, we students, what should we ask? What's correct for us to ask during the study of Talmud, as we wrote? 

M. Laitman: We read words of Baal HaSulam and he actually is passing to us the ARI. How the ARI feels what the upper light operates in him – in his will to receive. And as we learn these things, we need to try to see what happens with the created being. Why he does certain actions, what there is and what changes in him from it? This actually leads us to the purpose.

Reader: What questions do you expect from us students during the study of the Ten Sefirot? 

M. Laitman: Study for the time being what's written because that's the great Kabbalist, Baal HaSulam, who feels what's happening in creation and he's telling us about this from the aspect of the ARI. And that's how we learn and gradually enter into the actions and states as they emerge from one another. And how each exalted state determines the lower states, and that is what we need to understand. 

Student: What do you get excited by during the study of the Ten Sefirot? 

M. Laitman: You're asking me like some journalist: What am I impressed by? I'm impressed by the Light that extends in me from learning and trying to be in the same form like the vessel that we're learning about. And thus, we advance towards that state.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (24:41) How does Malchut relinquish infinite fulfillment if she doesn't know what the feeling of adhesion with the Creator is? 

M. Laitman: We will learn that she feels that there is a great difference between her desire and the desire of the upper light, and that they are truly contradicted to one another. And in this, as she is gradually incorporated with the influence of the Creator, then, she, too, by that becomes, in her desire, similar to the upper light. Meaning she also wants to bestow – the Light compels her to bestow, to want to bestow.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:54) He writes that after, Ein Sof, restricted that Light. So, then the matter of the restriction was that it caused the restriction around himself. If the Tzimtzum caused the departure of the Light and the abundance, how can we deal with that loss? 

M. Laitman: This happens to her as she is going along the way because she feels how her desire to receive is opposite to the desire of the Creator to bestow in a complete extreme manner. And in this absoluteness of their oppositeness, she decides that she must change herself; and that's why she performs a restriction.

Question (Kyiv 3): (27:12) I am now with my friends at a lesson trying to understand what is written, here. These processes that are written about, where are they in relation to me? 

M. Laitman: They all need to be implemented in us and gradually we will be able to discover that in this way we develop. 

Student: In order to start discovering that, at the current moment here, there is a computer here in front of me, I've never seen it before. And they're telling me about this state. It's as if it's in the air, in the vacuum, I don't know anything about it, and they're telling me about it, that's one thing. And the other thing, in that it is before me I can see it, I can dismantle it. That's already a completely different form of study, so how can we start feeling what is written here? 

M. Laitman: Gradually, during our study, you'll start to feel the movement of the Creator, or of the Light towards you. And what stems from you, the desire, the change in the desire. And the dependency of the Light which comes from the Creator in your desires – all of that we will feel as changes in us.

Student: In order to start feeling that, what should I start considering within myself? Or during the time of connection with friends, what should I consider within myself? 

M. Laitman: Do what happens inside of you, no more than that. 

Student: Some want to follow these states, is that something good or bad? Do we deserve the pleasure, do we not get the pleasure? 

M. Laitman: You'll feel all that, with time the Light will operate upon you as well, and we will all change. 

Reader: Maybe we can continue reading, and then we'll go to more questions? 

M. Laitman: No, now we first need to solve the questions, and then we will read and continue onwards.

Question (Latin 1): (29:56) It's written that Malchut became restricted in order to come to equivalence of form with the Creator, what does it mean? What is this Kishut, this adornment? What does it mean that Malchut adorned herself? 

M. Laitman: She adorned herself, meaning that she replaced her initial form, her desire to receive, to something in order to be closer to, in order to be closer to the desire to bestow. That's called, an adornment, the decoration.

Question (Darom 1): (30:44) Is it worthwhile for you to explain to us whether there is a difference between shame and adornment? 

M. Laitman: Shame is the feeling that Malchut feels, and the influence of the bestowal of the upper light upon her – that she is different to it, that she is opposite it. And adornment is where she searches for how to simulate herself, make herself like the upper light. And by Him filling her, she feels also that feeling of being opposite to Him.

Question (Women ITA): (31:54) When the light becomes restricted, so the yearning of ours in order to come closer to the Creator increases. The question is, does this restriction help us change our form and rise above the shame? 

M. Laitman: No, we will learn what the restriction does, it's not exactly.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (32:58) Ein Sof restricted himself, and it turns out that the reason is that it arose upon his simple will to create. What are these words, it arose upon his simple will to emanate the worlds? 

M. Laitman: That that desire which awakens the upper light to emerge from the Creator and reach the created being. That upper light has, from that change in him now has the desire to create within the desire that receives the light, other qualities, other stages of development. 

Student: That is the place where the desire can rise? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women Heb 1): (34:37) The restriction is the one action that we can equalize in form with the Creator? 

M. Laitman: For the time being, yes; in the continuation, it will depend on the extent of how much and how the created being receives. In that, there will be the equivalence.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (35:26) Did the Light restrict itself or did Malchut restrict, herself? 

M. Laitman: The Light restricted itself, certainly as a result of Malchut restricting herself. 

Student: Malchut is what did the action previously? 

M. Laitman: At the moment, yes. 

Question (Czechoslovak 4): (35:55) What is the difference between the Creator and the Emanator? 

M. Laitman: BoReh is the upper force that we cannot talk about in such a way. But His actions we learn and feel, and according to his actions, we are operated. 

Question (Women Spa): (37:34) I understand that the question is understood, what is the difference between the space that the Creator creates, and the space that is created in the end of Malchut? Is it two different spaces? 

M. Laitman: No, it is one space that goes through all kinds of forms. It's talking about the desire to receive that in certain forms is revealed to the created beings. 

Question (Women PT 8): (38:17) He writes in Item 40 at the beginning that the meaning of the secret is he is in his name is one. If we speak about the upper light, we're speaking about his name, and in the end we're speaking about Ein Sof. But there's a difference between it and the upper life in any case. And then they equalize in form with the world, meaning that the will to receive corrects itself with the equivalence of form. What does it mean, the secret of He and His name is One? 

M. Laitman: That we will learn, that's the same point that we will have to go around a lot.

Question (Women PT 23): (39:29) What does it mean to try to be in the same form as the vessel that we learn about?

M. Laitman:: That our deficiency, we want it to be as close as possible to the Creator. 

Question (Women Turkiye 7): (39:58) Why did we choose to study TES now? And how should we approach it in the most accurate way possible? 

M. Laitman: We are studying TES because the time has come for us to start to also change our desire in accordance with the study. 

Question (Moscow 1): (40:32) The act of restriction, is it connected to restriction and the desire to bestow? 

M. Laitman: Yes, the act of the restriction is the act of restricting the will to receive. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:02) Firstly, Baal HaSulam, who writes the study of the TES, the form of the study, as you said earlier. Do we need, as it is said, to bring it out into practice through his writings, to learn how to do that in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: I don't know, it has nothing to do with what we're learning now. 

Student: I'll say where it comes from: It says that since Malchut of the Ten Sefirot restricted herself and diminished her will to receive, so then the light departed. So, this diminution of desire, where does that come from, that it's written about here? 

M. Laitman: Malchut restricted herself, meaning she diminished her desire to receive. And in accordance with the change in the desire to receive, the light departed.

Student: That's it. What's the reason for her restricting her will to receive? What brought her to that, in which there's a restriction upon the will to receive? 

M. Laitman: Because she saw that she is in this disparity of desire, the oppositeness of desire to receive, she's operating upon the upper Light. 

Student: The reason is the Creator that diminished the desire? 

M. Laitman: Yes, the reason is this is how she sees it happening in the upper; and therefore, she diminished her desire to receive. 

Student: The person is included in this story of what Baal HaSulam writes here? 

M. Laitman: A person is included in this because he did feel about creation, and he wrote about it, and we're learning it. And we too need to go over it and have it go over us. We need to carry that out. 

Student: That's exactly what I asked you in the beginning, does it come out in practice, in Ten Sefirot? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women Europe): (43:21) How is it possible to understand the state where the desire to receive of ours and the upper Light turn into becoming one? 

M. Laitman: The Light bestows upon the desire to receive and obliges it to come to that form, like the Light itself. And the desire to receive changes by the upper Light filling it, and eventually, after many actions, it comes to that same state in which it is similar to the Light that fills it. And that is actually the purpose of their actions, where the Light operates upon the desire to receive, and eventually brings it to what we call, Dvekut, adhesion, equivalence of form, in order to bestow. Just like the nature of the Light itself.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:52) In the place where he restricted, there is protected the desire for equivalence of form. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: The whole foundation of correction is against the reason for the restriction?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: The whole essence is raw relationships. 

M. Laitman: We'll learn that.

Question (Women Latin 24): (45:50) Does the restriction of the Light give us more strength from below upward in order to feel and ask the Creator? 

M. Laitman: Yes, we will learn it, it's not for now. 

Question (Women KabU 13): (46:13) We learned, we discovered the law of equivalence of form in our connection in the Ten. How do we use the work in a way where we understand? For example, fear. It's a feeling that everyone understands. I understood, I understood. 

M. Laitman: Simply sit and learn and you'll understand. 

Question (Women Turkiye 8): (47:09) After the restriction, the person feels the yearning for the Light that became restricted. And he receives pleasure from that yearning even though it's restricted. So, the question is, is that state what brings us closer to bestowal? 

M. Laitman: We will learn it. 

Question (W Rehovot 1): (47:35) What is the meaning of restriction in our developmental path in the Ten? What is the meaning of restriction? 

M. Laitman: We need to restrict our desire so it will not be a desire to receive but rather for it to be as similar as possible to the desire to bestow. And to restrict, we could say about any form of relation or attitude that the created being to the Creator in which the created being wants to be more closer to the Creator. Then he needs to perform this through the form of restriction. 

Student:  We perform the restriction or does the Creator perform the restriction? Do we raise a desire to the Creator for Him to make the restriction? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women PT 38): (48:37) What does it mean that He and His name are One, that there was no difference between them? If it's a desire to receive and it's the Light, how can it be that there was no difference between them? What is that simple unification? 

Reader: It's written he and his name are one and it's said that there's no difference between them. So how can there be no difference between them if one is the Light and one is the desire to receive?

M. Laitman:  Between the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, it could be that there's no difference under the condition that the intention for the desire to receive and the intention in the desire to bestow is the same intention, let's say.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:07) Yesterday, we read together and a friend had a question: What is the will to receive made of, from what material? 

M. Laitman: What is the will to receive made of? It's a desire, simply desire. 

Student: But what's it created out of, what's its material? 

M. Laitman: That we learned, that it was created from a point which is different from the upper light. And this point develops and reaches dimensions like the upper Light itself, covers it, and is truly there against him.

Student: All that takes place in Ein Sof? 

M. Laitman: This is not at Ein Sof, this is after the Ein Sof. 

Reader: We will continue, we're in item 50, the small item 50, that scrutinizes the words.

Reading: (51:24) Baal HaSulam. Study of the Ten Sefirot. Vol. 1, Part 1, #3

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.

Now you will understand the four phases and degrees that must be in every emanated being. First, the light expands from the Emanator as light of Hochma, containing only the “will to receive.” This is phase one. Then, the will to bestow intensifies in that light, and it draws light of Hassadim. This intensification is regarded as phase two. Then this light of Hassadim makes a great expansion, whose meaning will be explained below, and this is phase three. After the above three phases fully emerge, the force of the will to receive incorporated in the first expansion reawakens and draws light of Hochma once more. This completes the permanent will to receive in the Partzuf, which is revealed as yearning, meaning when there was no light of Hochma in the Partzuf, but light of Hassadim, after phase three, when the emanated being could yearn for light of Hochma. It is this yearning that determines the will to receive in him, and completes his vessels of reception, which was not so in the first expansion. For this reason, the vessels of reception are completed only in this phase four, also called the “second intensification.”

Once phase four was completed in Ein Sof, the restriction occurred in her, meaning the departure of the will to receive from phase four, causing the departure of the light of Ein Sof from there. 

Reader: I see that we finished the lesson. So, we'll continue tomorrow.