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

Daily Morning Lesson: June 7, 2025

Part 2: Recorded lesson - May 11, 2006. Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. #5-9

Reader: So, we will continue to watch this lesson tomorrow, about the same Shamati article. Now we will move on to “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”. In Hebrew, it is page 162 in writings of Baal HaSulam. We will study from the lesson 106, May 11. We are reading from item 5.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (00:29) When he speaks about Bina there are places where he wrote that Bina is the light of Hochma. So what does he mean that it’s lacking? What does he mean by that?

M. Laitman: Bina is the essence of Hochma, that's what's written. You cannot perform actions of Hesed, Hassadim, mercy if you aren't, do not base them on the Hochma. According to what are you Hesed [mercy]? What do you have to give if you have Hochma in you? Then you say, “I don't want the Hochma”. Then we see that you are in Hassadim [mercy]. "I don't need anything in the world", says the one who delights in mercy. Do you know what it means in the world where there is everything, and you say, “I don't want anything?” If I have everything that there is in the world, and above that, I say, “I don't want anything. Take it away from me.” This means that I desire mercy. Buy if I don't have anything, how can I be delighted in mercy? Although we have another example about the one who delights in mercy and lives in the forest. They ask of him, “Give me your shirt”. It can help the king's daughter. The sages told her that if she will put on the shirt of one who delights in mercy, then she will heal from her illness. It's an intimation to Malchut, that through this correction she can heal. What does it means that she's the king's daughter? The king is Keter. The king's daughter is Malchut that she's very severely ill. If she will attain the clothing of Hafetz Hesed [delighted in mercy], she can heal. That's what's behind the story. So, delighted in mercy, one says, “I'd be glad to give you my shirt, but I don't have any shirt. I don't have a clothing”. Because he doesn't feel that it's his clothing. I don't have it. It's me. If this daughter of the king will truly want to receive it as a clothing and she will come with her work, through her exertion then she will be able to discover its possible to receive what's in him inside of him as her own clothing and by this to heal and continue to work, meaning reach adhesion. So, what did I want to say? That Bina is the essence of Hochma. Inside of her there is Hochma, the will to receive from phase one and it puts on itself an external form of bestowal. It cannot be any other way. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (03:39) We say that four phases of direct light exist in everything in reality. What does it mean? 

M. Laitman: Four phases of direct light exist in everything in reality. What does it mean, reality? There is one reality. There is another reality, our reality, which is called the imaginary reality. It's not real, it's not related to the source. It seems to us that it exists. It just seems to us, we imagine it. So, in that, are there four phases, four desires? No. No. There is no connection with the light. We don't discover that. The reality that we're talking about, or that Kabbalists speak about, is a reality that starts from the spiritual desires with respect to the Creator. There, yes, if it is with respect to the Creator, He exists in the beginning and I'm at the end, and through reflected light, I'm in the beginning and He's at the end. So, we're talking about desires that are desires towards Him, meaning already on the ladder of degrees. Whereas here, in this world, when some desire comes to me, it's good to say that it is connected to the Creator, that He invites this desire in me, and accordingly I need to respond to it. This is called the work of preparation. It's like children are given a simulation of something, some games, so that they will play, break it, do something. They learn that way. But it's not that in that there are truly four phases, and the light operates inside until it reaches my desire. Now, you might ask, so nevertheless, if I feel that it exists with respect to me, then nevertheless, it does exist in some way. It exists in a way that is called the imaginary reality. So, does it exist or not? Yes, it exists in my imagination, and later on, while this imagination exists, it exists. What is this imagination? What is this vessel of imagination? The vessels of imaginations are called the five senses, but these are just senses, right? It's like Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin and Malchut. Is there substance there? Yes, there is substance that it wants to enjoy. Does it exist or is it imaginary? No, it is a substance that does exist in my imagination. Does it belong to the Creator or not? Does it come as a result of Him? No, if it is a result of Him, that's already the ladder of degrees. So, do we exist on the ladder of degrees now or not? No. So, this reality belongs to the Creator? He created it or not? No, it is as a copy, a projection. We exist as a projection of the last degree of spirituality. In spirituality, it does not exist. Why? As the Creator starts creation from the light, from His self, and He relates from that degree, which we do not attain, to the whole of creation, from above downwards. Likewise, we emerged from the whole creation, from the bottom-most degree which is disconnected from the whole creation in our self, right? Just as Himself is from above and everything comes from Him. Likewise, we exist in ourselves here, down below, and from us, from that state, we can enter creation, the ladder of degrees. The Creator is above the ladder of degrees and we are below the ladder of degrees. He does not depend on these degrees and we do not depend on them. We're not connected to them.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (08:25) It says that phase three wanted to resemble the Creator, then why does she take just a little bit of Hochma and not half-and-half Hochma and Hassdim? If she wants to resemble the Creator... 

M. Laitman: To resemble means that I resemble Him. 

Student: So, then why just a little bit of Hochma and mostly Hassidim? 

M. Laitman: No, it's just called “a little bit”. It comes back to the same will to receive as phase one. See what he says, reader, please. You exist in the imaginary reality... 

Reader: Item six? 

M. Laitman: No, he wants you to find it in item three where it says that the will to receive in phase three is like phase one. Does it appear here or not? 

Reader: So we'll read again about phase three. 

Reading: (09:18) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah #5

Next follows phase three, since once the light in the emanated being has diminished into light of Hassadim without any Hochma, and it is known that light of Hochma is the essence of the emanated being, hence, at the end of phase two, it awakened and drew into it a measure of light of Hochma to shine within its light of Hassadim. This awakening re-extended a certain measure of the will to receive, which forms a new vessel called phase three, or Tifferet. And the light in it is called “light of Hassadim in illumination of Hochma,” since the majority of this light is light of Hassadim, and its lesser part is light of Hochma. 

M. Laitman: Okay? And the fact that in the vessel the majority is the light of Hassidim and there's a little bit of Hochma doesn't mean that it takes a little bit of the vessel of Hochma. It takes all of it. Like that. This entire desire that existed in phase one comes back in phase three. 

Student:  So what does it mean?

M. Laitman: A little bit means relatively in phase three. In phase three there is the entire light of Hasadim from phase two that draws the entire light of Hochma from phase one. But because phase two determines it wants to do it for the sake of bestow, this is why it is considered that phase one is small in it. The majority is light of Hasadim and there's a little bit of light of Hochma.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (11:02) What does it mean, the main liveliness of the emanated being? He took that to have some fuel, something. What's so special about this phase? 

M. Laitman: What's special about this phase is that the emanated being understands that the light of Hochma is the light of life within it. And in order to bestow something it has to enjoy. Do you understand that or not? 

Student: Yes. 

M. Laitman: If you want to give, to do something good for your mother, you take what she prepared for you, you eat it.Let's say, you receive it, and you show her what pleasure you have. By that you give her pleasure, right? When the created being does such a thing, he feels what pleasure he awakens in the Creator. Because he's doing it out of the fact that prior to that he equalized his form to the Creator in phase two. Then he understands what does it mean to bestow. “Through Your actions we know You”. But how can he perform an act of giving to the Creator? By enjoying, so that the Creator will enjoy. He begins to feel what is the Creator's status. You have no possibility to come out of yourself and clothe in Him. You have the possibility to perform the same actions seemingly like Him. But you must enjoy. This is what I'm trying to say. You must enjoy. Without you enjoying you will not give Him pleasure. And without you intending to give Him pleasure, if you will enjoy, then it would be a Klipah, a shell. So, first there has to be Bina, and later on we call that at first we acquire above reason, and then we enter into reason. 

Student: What seems to be here is that, to begin with, this process had to happen inevitably. 

M. Laitman: All of these processes are mandatory, inevitable. Everything comes as a result of light. It operates inside of the vessel, in a form of one-to-one, there is nothing here on the way that comes out of some unexpected decision. There is no such thing in spirituality, in general, in creation. How can you say that there is something that does not exist in the light, that expands from His self? Such a thing cannot exist. From where would it exist? From where would it come? Is there some other kind of space from which some qualities can come? If there is a source from which emerges creation, from which it comes out, then that's it. That determines everything. No, something new is done. What new thing? From where? How can it be new, that did not exist before? Where something earlier shaped it, did not shape it? That cannot be, there is no logic in that. 

Student: It's hard to grasp the independence of the created being at all. 

M. Laitman: There is no independence to the created being, there is nothing difficult in grasping it, there is no independence, there is no question about it.

Student: Once there is no independence, then there is no created being, then it's not something separated from… So how do we look at that? 

M. Laitman: That's right, we look at it very nicely, that now we have an illusion of independence, we need to get rid of that. The created being has an illusion of independence. 

Student: But the matter of being separated from the Creator, that as if is the definition of the created being. So if it is separated, it's not… 

M. Laitman: Oh, wait a minute, it's not… The created being feels he's separated, we're not talking with respect to the Creator, but with respect to the created being, from his attainment. Item six. 

Reader: Item six.

Reading: (15:43) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah #6

These four above discernments are the ten Sefirot discerned in each emanated being and each created being, both in the whole, which are the four worlds, and even in the smallest element in reality. Phase one is called Hochma or “the world of Atzilut.” Phase two is called Bina or “the world of Beria.” Phase three is called Tifferet or “the world of Yetzira,” and phase four is called Malchut or “the world of Assiya.”

M. Laitman: This means that we truly need to understand this matter in the simplest form. The light created the vessel, that's phase one. The light is also the root, Shoresh, that exists here. Certainly inside this root there is the will to receive, as existence from absence, and there is no more than phase one. No more, but rather everything that happens later is that phase one responded to its earlier state and became phase two. Phase two responded to its state and became phase three. That responded to its state and became phase four. That's it. And in phase four everything ends. The light went through all of these phases and reached the end. What does it mean, the end? That phase four is all that the light can extract from the created being. It's the conclusion of everything. Therefore, the whole of reality includes only this system, which in itself, in order to discover itself, is subdivided later on internally to all kinds of different parts. So, who is divided? This is phase four, the last one. Or all of the other phases? In truth, it is phase four. It, later on, is subdivided into Shoresh, Alef, Bet, Gimel, Dalet - root, 0, 1, 2, 3. Root, 0, 1, 2, 3 are the qualities before it, they are called the first nine, and eight in itself is called Malchut. And then in this phase four, there is a state called Ein Sof, and then there is the restriction, first restriction, and then Massach, the screen, and then there is the shattering, and later on the end of correction. Well, let's read on and we will see. 

Reading: (19:30) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah #6

Let us explain the four phases applied in each soul. When the soul extends from Ein Sof and comes into the world of Atzilut, it is phase one of the soul. There, it is still not discerned by that name since the name Neshama [soul] implies that there is some difference between it and the Emanator, and that through that difference, it departed Ein Sof and has been revealed as its own authority. 

M. Laitman: He doesn't tell us what Neshama, soul, is. He doesn't say anything about it. He says those four phases apply in the entire system from above downwards, and those four phases also exist in every created being, in every part that we may want to talk about, because you can only talk about phase four, which is the final one, which is the desire. Before that, these are not desires. We call it the earlier three phases, the previous three phases. What are these three previous phases? It means that they come before phase four. We don't even talk about them. We just say the earlier phases, meaning we have the root phase, and what's between the root phase and phase four, and then we have phase four. So, between the root and phase four, it's the connection between them. 

Reading: (21:23) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah #6

But as long as it does not have a form of a vessel, there is nothing to distinguish it from His self, to merit its own name.

You already know that phase one of the vessel is not considered a vessel at all and is entirely annulled in the light. This is the meaning of what is said about the world of Atzilut that it is complete Godliness, as in “He, His life, and His self are one.” Even the souls of all other living beings, while traversing the world of Atzilut, are regarded as still adhered to His self. 

M. Laitman: This means that the souls descend from Ein Sof, which corresponds to the Shoresh, root. Ein Sof, Adam Kadmon, here we have Adam Kadmon, AK. Then Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya. 

Reader: Item seven. 

Reading: (22:37) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah #7

This above-mentioned phase two rules in the world of Beria—the vessel of the desire to bestow. Hence, when the soul cascades into the world of Beria and achieves the vessel that is there, it is regarded as Neshama. This means that it has already separated from His self and merits its own name—Neshama. Yet, this is a very refined and fine vessel, as it is in equivalence of form with the Emanator. For this reason, it is regarded as complete spirituality. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Reader: Item eight. 

Reading: (23:25) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah #8

The above-mentioned phase three rules in the world of Yetzira, containing a little bit of the form of the will to receive. Hence, when the soul cascades into the world of Yetzira and achieves that vessel, it emerges from the spirituality of the Neshama and is then called Ruach. This is because here its vessel is already mixed with some coarseness, meaning the little bit of will to receive that is in it. Yet, it is still considered spiritual because this measure of coarseness is insufficient to completely separate it from His self and merit the name “body,” which stands in its own right. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Reading: (24:16) Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah #9

Phase four rules in the world of Assiya, which is the complete vessel of the great will to receive. Hence, it obtains a completely separated and distinguished body from His self, which stands in its own right.