The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.
Daily Lesson June 12, 2025.
Part 2: Recorded lesson - May 11, 2006. Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. #16
Reader: Dear friends, we will now watch another recorded lesson from the 16th of May 2006, from the Preface to The Wisdom of Kabbalah, item 16, which you can find on kabbalahmedia.info as well. And let's continue.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (00:07) Who's the Creator? The Creator is my next degree. It's me or my next degree.
M. Laitman: This is, if I'm talking about my gradual development, then I always imagine my next state as the Creator. I can't imagine more than that, the exalted, the good, the bestowing, the strong. It's something that's above me. When I work on myself, I receive help and support. Then I advance toward that state, and I identify with it, and I cleave to it. I resemble Him, equate myself to Him. When I do that, I become like Him. I reach adhesion with Him. Where all of my qualities are like His qualities. Then I discover in it an even higher degree, a new Creator, even higher. That's how it is.
Student: If so, then what does it mean to bestow contentment?
M. Laitman: To bestow contentment to the Creator, it means that this higher degree that created me is called my Creator. I wish to bestow to it because by that I feel that I give Him pleasure. It's all in my attitude, my connection, my understanding, my perception. It's all that I imagine to myself. Is it what He's feeling as well? When I reach Him, I reach adhesion and connection, I feel that yes, we are like two lovers. We have to understand that we are acting out of our feelings and emotions. We are a desire to receive pleasure of the created being. Existence out of absence, and all of our calculations are on that desire. But when you discover things, they don't appear so small, because our whole lives are like that. Right now we're talking about it, it seems like it's one plus one and that's it. No, there's eternity and wholeness inside our feeling. Outside of our feeling, we can never say anything. Even though Kabbalists hint at more and more states outside of it, something, we can't imagine it. What is outside of it? Outside of feeling, outside what's in the desire that was created. We only speak. “From your actions we shall know you.”
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:06) Can you explain the mechanics of the transformation of the will by the light? How does the will change, suddenly takes on a different intention, becoming bestowing?
M. Laitman: We've explained it more than once in four phases of direct light. The bestower, He is revealed in what? He is revealed inside the will to receive. The desire begins to feel. It begins to feel something. A feeling. What does it feel? Fulfillment. And that's phase one, the first discernment. From that, something that fills him. From that, he feels that there is something or someone that fills him. That's a root aspect. In truth, all these attainments are from below, from the Kabbalists that have reached it. But for now, it's enough. The desire feels pleasure inside. And this desire and pleasure are intertwined. Why? Because the pleasure created the desire. And nothing needs to change here. You have a desire. Existence out of absence. You have pleasure that is felt inside the desire. That's what the desire feels, and that is the state. And everything should have stopped there. What else do you need? We're done. And all of creation is done. This pleasure is called Creator, or light. This created being is called desire, or vessel. And that is it. You don't need anything more than that. However, in this way, the vessel, the created being, is receiving. And the Creator is bestowing. The Creator is number one, the upper one. The created being is number two, the lower one. And the created being depends on the Creator. That is not considered doing good. That is not considered that the Creator is publicizing, revealing the wholeness of his actions and his appellations. It's not wholeness. You've created someone according to your desire, he has everything that you wanted, your desire, and you do all those things. Although you do them, you fill him, you created a deficiency and you fill it. You created a deficiency in such a way that this deficiency has never felt a deficiency. It was filled by pleasure immediately. It was created by pleasure. Meaning, there wasn't a single moment in the Creator being's life that he was suffering from emptiness, from not being full. There's nothing short of wholeness in your actions. You created a desire using pleasure, and you give this desire pleasure. But that desire, number two, the one that's operated, activated. And you're the upper one, the operator, the activator. And that's lowliness on the part of the Creator although the lower one doesn't feel it. And it's not the wholeness of his actions. If he's whole and complete, then in this action of his, the only action, he must do something that's like Him. Less than that is not relevant here. There cannot be something whole or something that's not whole taking place in it. Therefore, in this influence of the light, there's another influence. The essence of the bestower where the Creator gives to this will to receive inside the pleasure also the message of “who am I? I am the giver, I am the bestower.” So, corresponding to that at the end of the first aspect, we begin to see the second aspect. It wants to resemble the Creator. The vessel now of the second phase, it wants to give. Why? The influence inside the pleasure is like the host who gives the refreshments, the food to the guests from the bottom of his heart, but because he's in that action. If He wasn't there, if He was not present, I wouldn't feel any shame. The Creator is concealed, I'm not feeling any shame, the whole world is mine. The moment it was revealed, I surrender, like a host next to the table. He's present, He leaves the room, I can take something from the table. He's back in the room, I'm feeling ashamed. He works on me very directly. So, I begin to feel the host, and this feeling of the host compared to the pleasure is higher, it's bigger, because He's the first, and then came the thought of creation to do good. And so, the feeling of His influence or bestowal is stronger than the feeling of my hunger, and then I stop wanting to enjoy the light, and I want to be like the host. Why? How can the will to receive want to be like the host? He feels greater pleasure in it, that's it. Because the will to receive cannot feel anything but pleasure. So, he makes a calculation to enjoy the refreshments or the food, or to be more like the host. He says, “I want to be like the host,” that's it. You can say, but this is called bestowing in order to receive. Okay, just say it like that for the time being. But the calculations are his inner calculations, and in this way, the light bestows, because there are two qualities in the light: the quality of the giver, and the pleasure itself. These two qualities in the will to receive they bring the will to receive a dual attitude for the refreshments and for the host. From within my desire, I distinguish these two sources, and according to the relationship between them, I develop. The beast feels only the refreshments, the table. The dog, the cat, right, it might be afraid of his master, who knows he might get a beating from him. It was taught but not because of his attitude toward the host. Honor, respect, feeling of his exaltedness, superiority, importance, preference no. That's what we see with animals and beasts, or people who lack this connection, so there's no shame. They take everything from this world, and that's a natural calculation. Meaning, as long as we can't see the host, we won't be able to make any calculations except for the beastly one. Only the beastly calculation. Okay, let's advance.
Reader: Now we will watch another part, another lesson on the” Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”, from May 16, 2006. May 16, 2006.
Reading: (13:02) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Five Phases in the Screen #17.
17) Thus far, we have clarified the three foundations in the wisdom. The first is the light and the vessel, where the light is a direct extension of His self, and the vessel is the will to receive, which is necessarily included in that light, where according to the measure of that desire, it emerged from the Emanator and became an emanated being. Also, this will to receive is considered the Malchut discerned in the upper light. This is why it is called Malchut, by way of “He and His name are One,” as “His name” in Gematria is desire [in Hebrew].
M. Laitman: Meaning, the light is revealed only with the help of the vessel. To the extent the vessel can reveal it, it's revealed. Because the desire in the light that was revealed to be a vessel for the created being in full, the light develops this until the created being can receive it in full. So, it turns out that we have two opposites that depend on one another: the light and the vessel. And in this way, they cascade down from above, down, and then from below up, the whole entire path, until the vessel becomes worthy of revealing all the discernments in the light. And in the thought of creation, in the very beginning, this thought was that only according to the vessel, the light is revealed. The light itself, without a vessel is called Atzmuto, His self, we can't call it any other way. Meaning, the light is a phenomenon that's revealed by the vessel.
The second matter is the clarification of the ten Sefirot and four worlds ABYA, which are four degrees one below the other. The will to receive must cascade through them until it is completed—vessel and content.
M. Laitman: Meaning, there cannot be the completion of the vessel, the complete will to receive ready for whichever role, which role to reveal the light, to extract the wholeness of the actions of the light. Before, there's also a cascading from above, down, and everything that's needed to prepare the vessel for work. The work is to reveal the wholeness of the actions of the light. In what is this revelation? In the wholeness of the vessel.
The third matter is the restriction and the screen placed on this vessel of reception, which is phase four, in return for which new vessels of reception were made in the ten Sefirot, called reflected light. Understand and memorize these three foundations and their reasons, as they had been clarified to you, since without them there is no understanding of even a single word in this wisdom.
M. Laitman: Why does he write about this third matter in the end? Because the second matter is the cascading of the worlds from above, down, to prepare the vessel qualified for its role. And then he says that the screen that is made on the vessel of reception, because then in the work from below up, specifically by the work of the lower one, we reveal the matter of the screen and reflected light, which is a new vessel. So there's no new vessels in the cascading down from above, downward. It's only preparation. It's the relationships that can be between the lights and the vessels. And then the lights are arranged from above down, and then we have the work of restriction and screens. And that's why it's the third matter in the correct order. Then we have the fourth phase that's revealed over which we create a restriction, and above the work in the fourth phase, which is work above reason, we build a vessel that wasn't there before, called reflected light.
18) Now we shall explain the five phases in the screen by which the levels change during the coupling by striking performed with the upper light.
M. Laitman: Because the light to receive is made of five phases necessarily, and without these five phases, discernments about the light, the will to receive doesn't feel itself as a receiver, doesn't feel like it's receiving pleasure, doesn't feel like it's receiving pleasure from someone. He lacks these three discernments which come. The fifth discernment in him called fourth phase, Daled. If I don't have the will to receive the four phases of development from the root, then it's not called the will to receive. Therefore it's obligated. In every will to receive we're discussing that we need to have these five degrees of development, five discernments about the upper light, and then it's called the desire. Before that, it's not called the desire.
First, we must thoroughly understand that even though phase four was banned from being a vessel of reception for the ten Sefirot…
M. Laitman: Meaning, fourth phase, the will to receive that receives according to his own decisions, his own desire, that's stopped during the restriction. Baal HaSulam gives a definition for the restriction, that he detains, he withholds his desire even though he yearns for it greatly.
Reading: Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Five Phases in the Screen #18. …after the restriction, and the reflected light that rises from the screen through the coupling by striking became the vessel of reception in its stead,
M. Laitman: Meaning that desire that's in the vessel, through the intention to bestow, it becomes a different vessel of reception, opposite than the previous one. And that is the vessel that is qualified to serve. Meaning we use the same desires we had before, and the screen and the reflected light. These three components create, build a new vessel. And only in it, after the first restriction, they decided they can receive the abundance in it, and there will never be another condition.
Reading: Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Five Phases in the Screen #18. …
…it must still accompany the reflected light with its power of reception.
M. Laitman: The coarseness, the will to receive.
Reading: Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Five Phases in the Screen #18.
Had it not been for that, the reflected light would have been unfit to be a vessel of reception.
M. Laitman: Because in what can you give if not with the pleasure that is felt in the will to receive? That pleasure the created being receives from the Creator. He gives it as a pleasure to the Creator because there is mutual love between them, which is called reflected light.
Reading: (20:57) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Five Phases in the Screen #18.
You should also understand this from the allegory in Item 15. We demonstrated there that the power to reject and decline the meal became the vessel of reception instead of the hunger and appetite. This is because hunger and appetite, the usual vessels of reception, were banned from being vessels of reception in this case due to the shame and disgrace of receiving a gift from one’s friend. Only the powers of rejection and refusal have become vessels of reception in their stead, as through the rejection and refusal, reception has been inverted into bestowal…
M. Laitman: When he rejects, repels his own will to receive, his own ego, he doesn't repel the host. He repels, he rejects the will to receive in order to receive, and he can restrict it and reject it from using it in order to receive, then he delivers what's revealed in that will to receive to the host. This is the meaning of in order to bestow.
Reading: Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Five Phases in the Screen #18.
… and through them he achieved vessels of reception suitable to receive one’s friend’s meal.
M. Laitman: Meaning, the host now doesn't feel any effort, any war, any struggle, and decisions that are taking place supposedly in the created being. This entire work is inside the created being. Not to reject the host, not to disparage the host; rather, everything is done inside the lower one with the pleasures, with the will to receive, with His decisions and His intentions.
Reading: (22:58) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Five Phases in the Screen #18.
Yet, it cannot be said that he no longer needs the usual vessels of reception, namely the hunger and the appetite…
M. Laitman: To the pleasure that comes from the Creator, comes from the Host. Because that is the only connection that exists between them for the time being. What the Host wishes to give to as a pleasure to the created being. For the time being this is the only connection. So, the created being has to reach a state where he feels all the flavors and he feels a hunger for them since a person in this world doesn't have a desire for those pleasures that come from the Host. This is the meaning of a person who has to go through the system of Klipot, of shells, and be enslaved to them until 13 years, as he writes. 13 is simply an appellation, like a nickname, until he acquires from them great desires for the pleasures that come from the Creator, not pleasures of this world. And then when he's incorporated with the Klipot, the shells, he's got this, he's got a lot of work to do on them, with restrictions, and corrections, and intentions to bestow.
Reading: Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Five Phases in the Screen #18.
… as it is clear that without appetite for eating, he will not be able to satisfy his friend’s wish and bring him contentment…
M. Laitman: Meaning such desires have to develop in a person specifically for lacks that come from the Creator. Meaning a person has to be incorporated of all the shells.
Reading: Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Five Phases in the Screen #18.
…by eating at his place. But the thing is that the hunger and appetite, which were banned in their usual form, have now been transformed by the forces of rejection and refusal into a new form—reception in order to bestow.
M. Laitman: After he was incorporated with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who brought him closer to repentance, and so on and so forth, then he came out to freedom. Meaning to work with all the vessels that he took from Egypt in order to bestow.
Reading: Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Five Phases in the Screen #18.
By this, the disgrace has been inverted into honor.
M. Laitman: He's coming out of slavery into freedom. To be called a son.
Reading: (25:40) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Five Phases in the Screen #18.
It turns out that the usual vessels of reception are still as active as ever but have acquired a new form.
M. Laitman: From the beginning, he didn't have any vessels of the upper light. That's why there's a system of Klipot, of shells, and when a person goes through this system of shells, he's incorporated or included out of desires in order to receive from the Creator, and he has to incorporate with all those desires and later begin to work with them. Then you can say that he got a new form. From in order to receive to in order to bestow. And there's only a correction of the intention here, but we're not speaking of desires of this world, because in them, you can't feel the giver. There's no relationship between the giver and the receiver here. Rather, we speak of desires that appear as revealing the connection between man and the Creator.
Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:47) So, a vessel is to receive pleasure from the Creator, because it comes from the Creator, so you are like Him?
M. Laitman: Otherwise, it's not a vessel. What is a vessel? We are in an imaginary world. It doesn't mean that we're dead but shells that correspond to holiness, because we are below the line of holiness and shell. Certainly, that's why our state is not considered spiritual. Klippa is spirituality already. In order to receive, but spirituality nonetheless. And with us, in order to receive things, simple things that are not, and in order to receive such simple things that are not considered spiritual pleasures, therefore we don't need to work. We need to work always above them, and how to arise from within them to spiritual pleasure. As Baal HaSulam writes, that he has to yearn for the Creator as the greatest one with the greatest desire, the greatest lust, and then he deserves to enter spirituality.
Reading: (28:11) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Five Phases in the Screen #18.
You will also conclude, concerning our matter, that it is true that phase four has been banned from being a vessel for reception of the ten Sefirot because of its coarseness, meaning the disparity of form from the Giver, which separates from the Giver. Yet, through establishing the screen in phase four, which strikes the upper light and repels it, her previous, faulty form, has been transformed and acquired a new form, called reflected light, like the transformation of the form of reception into a form of bestowal…
M. Laitman: Meaning, from the beginning, a very severe decision was made in the created being about creating a restriction, and by that to separate himself and the Creator. And this thing the ARI writes is the most severe thing you can do. But later, after the restriction, he makes the correction that the restriction helps him do to be unaffected by the upper one, and to make corrections, we have new vessels of reception, and Kabbalah reception becomes as bestowal, and in that, you have a mutual connection between them. So if it's just a restriction, certainly there's no good solution in it, but on the contrary, a person looks down at what the Creator gives him. Rabash said many times, either you live life in this world, or you live life in the spiritual world. Meaning, one of these two, because someone who simply enjoys this life, he is grateful to the Creator in his heart. We drove past a soccer field one time, and Rabash said, you have to respect this place because people are having a good time, they receive pleasure, imagine, you have to seemingly respect this place because there's pleasure for humans, why? Because unwittingly, they bless the Creator for the pleasure they receive there, the restriction is seemingly a restriction, a limit, where a person doesn't want to receive any pleasure. If it is for the sake of the correction that comes afterwards, it's justified, if it's not for the sake of correction, then a person will enter a state of extreme, being overly righteous, and like it or not, he curses the Creator in his heart, because he's a will to receive. And if he restricts himself, the will to receive doesn't receive pleasures, and then inside of him, even without his feeling, he curses the Creator. He doesn't give thanks, and he's called an evil one. He charges the source of his life, that's why he says that a new form came to be here, that through the restriction, the screen came in the fourth phase, and it reforms him, meaning the screen and this entire new form.
Reader: We'll continue to the next part of the lesson, studying with the fans, and before that, we'll sing a song.
Song: (31:58)