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

Daily Morning Lesson: October 16, 2025 

Part 2: Live Lesson with Rav 

Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 4

Reader: Hello, we're going to read from the Study of the Ten Sefirot, we're going to start reading part 4 today, “The Ten Sefirot of Akudim,” chapter 1.

Reading: (00:14) Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 4 - Twice

PART FOUR

The Ten Sefirot of Akudim, containing six chapters

Chapter One

Explains the Rosh and Guf of Adam Kadmon down to the Tabur. There is still no actual vessel in the ten Sefirot of Rosh, and in the ten Sefirot of the Guf there is one vessel called Keter. The Ten Sefirot in this vessel are discerned by their distance from phase four. Since they are in a single vessel, they are called Akudim [bound]. Contains eleven issues:

1. We do not have the strength to study prior to the world of Atzilut. 

1. You already know that we have no strength to study prior to the emanation of the ten Sefirot, or imagine any image and shape whatsoever (1). However, to simplify matters we do need to speak allegorically (2). Therefore, even if we speak of a picture that is up there, it is only to simplify matters.  

M. Laitman: Yes, that's what we see. Before this place he's talking of, it's impossible for us to be able to study and reveal anything, because there's no reality of a vessel yet. We can learn only if there's a Kli and light, and both bestow upon one another. Only from that place onwards, we can learn. 

Reader: Let's go to Inner Light for number one. 

Reading: (03:23) Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 4

Inner Light

1. Because all these phases we discern in the worlds stem and emerge from the world of Atzilut downward, meaning from the world where ten Sefirot and the correction of the lines have already appeared as Hesed, judgment and mercy.

However, above the world of Atzilut, meaning before the ten Sefirot appear, we have no grasp there, sufficient to discern any similarity and disparity of form between one Sefira and another. That is because attainment begins from the clothing of the ten Sefirot in ten vessels, meaning from the world of Atzilut downward.

That is why the ARI writes, “we have no strength to study prior to the emanation of the ten Sefirot, or imagine any image and shape whatsoever.” It is so because prior to the emanation of the ten Sefirot that appeared in the world of Atzilut, the ten Sefirot were regarded as light without a vessel suitable for it, and it is known that we have no attainment in the light without a vessel. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Reader: Let's continue to number two, which explains the words to simplify matters we should speak through an allegory. 

Reading: (05:10) Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 4

2. It means that from the world of Atzilut downward we can hint at the discernments in the spiritual upper roots above, as an allegory and metaphors taken from the reality or from the conducts of this world. All the details of the created beings and their modes of conduct in this world cascade and are extended from the upper worlds. It is just like the relation between the seal and its imprint, where all the details in the seal are copied and transferred to its imprint, none are missing.

Our sages wrote, “There is not a single blade of grass below that does not have an appointed angel above that strikes it and tells it, ‘Grow!’” (Beresheet Rabbah, Portion 10, omissions from Part 1, item 1). This tells us that there is not even a tiny detail in this world that does not have a root in the upper world. This root operates on it in all its forms and inclinations, in everything it does here before us in this world.

Thus, the sages have devised a special language to convey their attainment of the upper worlds orally and in text from generation to generation: They take the branches in this world, and with them, explain the reality of the upper worlds which relate to these branches.

The above relations of root and branch begin only from the world of Atzilut downward, meaning after revealing the complete ten Sefirot, and not at all before that. It is therefore obvious that it is impossible to imply the existence of the upper worlds using the corporeal branches, as these branches do not have a direct relation to them, qualifying them to explain these concepts.

The ARI writes there that here, too, he is speaking allegorically only to appease the ear. In other words, it is to give us some grasp, so as to show us the roots of the world of Atzilut. Thus, we must first understand the branch as it relates to its root in Atzilut, and then we can relate this root to its earlier root in the worlds that precede Atzilut. 

Question (Kyiv 1): (09:03) It's written that we can't speak of anything. Once the ten Sefirot were revealed, Baal HaSulam explains that it only happens in the world of Atzilut. And we study that the revelation of the Ten Sefirot in Adam Kadmon… So, why does the revelation of the Ten Sefirot only start in Atzilut? 

M. Laitman: Because prior to that, there is no such concept of the worlds. These are only roots. There is no distancing between them in the beginning there. That's why we don't engage with what happens above the world of Atzilut. 

Student: So, how can Kabbalists even describe it? Because we learn a lot in TES of the descriptions of the world of Adam Kadmon. So, how can they even describe it? 

M. Laitman: As much as they can, that's what they're describing. It's all in a certain approximation there or closeness. As much as they can reveal it for themselves and be able to pass it along to others. We are not in their degree. That's how we study the wisdom of Kabbalah, from the root and its consequences.

Question (Turkiye 1): (11:06) How should the Ten build a vessel correctly in order to draw the light from the Study of the Ten Sefirot?

M. Laitman: We are studying it as a practical activity. We have to get closer, we have to join each other, we have to try to rise together. And in that way, we will attain the higher roots and more.

Question (MAK 11): (12:09) Baal HaSulam writes: “First we need to understand the branch in relation to the root, which is in the world of Atzilut.” So, how can we understand the branch in relation to the root? 

M. Laitman: It will be revealed to us gradually. It will be revealed to us gradually.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:47) Yesterday, we read the same chapter with Rabash. It was easier to pray for adhesion, just to adhere to Rabash. Today, we read the same thing. I can't find a prayer. What prayer can be beneficial? Yesterday, there was a feeling that it's easy, and today it's a bit difficult. 

M. Laitman: Don't you have any questions? 

Student: The question is how to aim the prayer. I can't pray now.

M. Laitman: Okay, well, so please, try to ask from yourself. What is not clear to you? And expect an answer. 

Question (PT 13): (13:54) What's the connection between root and branch? That he says that it strikes the lower one, is there an active connection between root and branch? 

M. Laitman: There's a connection that we need to discover, and it will be clear to us. What emerges from the root, and how that builds the branch. That's from above down. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:48) He says, the branches of this world are used to clarify the upper roots. On the other hand, he says, until we don't reveal complete ten Sefirot, we won't understand it. So I'm asking, what is our grasp in this whole process? What do we hold on to? 

M. Laitman: We're unique in... We're looking at this from what Baal HaSulam writes. And through these things, we ask. We enter more inwards into the text. And we are also... Well, as much as it operates on us, it activates us. It's not a precise thing. 

Student: I feel like there's more and more in the Ten, the friends in the Ten. It is in this common vessel that we are building that we discover all the things. Where do we truly grip onto this common effort and clothe in what we are talking about here?

M. Laitman: I think that by us wanting to connect between us, and in the connection between us specifically absorb, receive the text, and this influences that, and that's how it goes. 

Student: Meaning, we can take the reality that Baal HaSulam is talking about here and to try to put it into the work between us? 

M. Laitman: We need to yearn for that, to rise to that to the extent to which we understand, and gradually, these efforts are called our deficiencies, and they will influence us receiving from the upper one some special illumination, and that is how we will develop to the extent to which we will learn.

Question (Moscow): (17:46) To the extent to which I understood here, it's talking about how the true vessels are in Atzilut. But in that point, there's no disconnection from the Creator. We said that the whole system is there in order to give free choice, and specifically there is the real vessel, where there's free choice. So, what kind of free choice do you have in the world of Atzilut? 

M. Laitman: There is none in Atzilut yet. We're trying to collect all the actions that belong to the lower one here and to raise them to the upper one, so that that radiation, that bestowal that exists in the upper degree, will influence us, so that we will gradually be able to constantly reveal more and more higher forces that exist in the higher degrees.

Student: So, what is a true vessel, actually? What does that mean? What parameters does it have if it's not freedom of choice? 

M. Laitman: Freedom of choice is not a vessel yet. That's altogether a certain intention from below upwards. Freedom of choice is when the lower one, meaning people in our world, feel a certain bestowal upon them, and yearn, and long for their upper root, and aspire for it, to it.

Question (PT 19): (20:21) You mentioned earlier that we have to adhere to an upper root in our work. I have no idea what a root is. What is this term root that you're constantly mentioning? What does it mean that there's nothing in this world that doesn't have an upper root? So, what is this? 

M. Laitman: Anything that is in a higher degree than us - influences us, awakens us, manages us, it's called our root. 

Student: So what's our work in this story? What should I do to adhere to a root? I don't understand what's the connection between us and an upper root. He said that everything above is connected below. So, where am I in this picture? Where are we as a Ten in this picture? 

M. Laitman: That's something we need to discover.

Student: Is it a quality, the quality of bestowal? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So, if we connect to the root, that's a quality of bestowal? 

M. Laitman:  Yes. 

Student: And that becomes a root? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (French): (22:05) He says that we need to connect everything to the world of Atzilut. So, can we learn the roots even before the world of Atzilut? 

M. Laitman: Before the world of Atzilut, we will learn what's written. We will learn. Of course, there are higher up roots, to the extent in which they belong to us, we need to learn. 

Question (W MAK): (22:57) What are the ten Sefirot of the world of Atzilut? What do they contain? And why ten, and not nine, and not eleven? 

M. Laitman: That's a question that's being asked in the Study of Ten Sefirot. Why specifically ten, and not nine, or eleven? That we will learn. In essence, ten Sefirot is the number or quantity of transformations that need to go upon the will to receive, that was created to begin with, by the Creator in order to, from it, this creature will feel why this happens and in what manner. In what way the answer awakens in him? 

Student: What is a complete revelation of ten Sefirot of Atzilut? 

M. Laitman: The complete revelation of ten Sefirot, I don't know what that is, but to the extent in which we come closer to the root, our root, we become more and more similar to Him. More and more is revealed, and to the extent in which there's equivalence of form with that root, we discover those qualities of the spiritual world.

Student: What's a direct relation between roots and branches? 

M. Laitman: I can't explain that at the moment. We will scrutinize that gradually. We need certain materials to study for that, and gradually, it will appear and awaken in us.

Question (CzechSlovak 4): (25:48) How to tell the difference between death from the root or death from the branch. 

M. Laitman: We're not talking about that for the time being - that's not clear. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:15) Also about root and branch. He mentions that because their relations start only from the world of Atzilut, meaning from the revelation of the complete ten Sefirot, so I want to ask, after the convention, we discover dependency, the mutuality between the Tens and between all of us, something much deeper. Along with that, we say that everything comes from the root. So how do we search the relationships between us for all these terms, ten Sefirot, the roots, the world of Atzilut?

M. Laitman: What we reveal is, we reveal mutual bestowal of the individual vessels. Well, I think I... Therefore, what we discover thus far is the connection of the vessels by the lights. We need to labor, to exert, so that the relationship between the vessels and lights bestow upon us such, that it will influence such, that we will feel within us what relation there is between the vessels themselves and how the lights activate them. First to begin to understand upon us, on ourselves, these actions from above. What is happening? Why we're being activated in this way by the upper vessels? 

Student: Can we, maybe, say what are the lights and the vessels, and what are they in the connections between us?

M. Laitman: Yes, vessel and light, for the time being we relate the lights to a higher degree and the vessels to the lower degree that is activated or operated by the lights. And that's how we advance for the time being.

Question (PT 6): (30:03) Could there be a state that there's a root that has no branch in this world?

M. Laitman: I didn't understand. A root without a branch? No, there's no such thing. A branch without a root? Also not. Everything that we learn, we learn about a connection between the root and the branch. We can't always identify. Moreover, we can't always reveal by which actions a certain root emerges and with what unique branch. But that is what we actually learn.

Question (Kyiv 3): (31:21) It's written that attainment begins from the clothing of the ten Sefirot in the ten vessels. What's the connection between a Sefira and a vessel? 

M. Laitman: A Kli is a Sefira in which its root is revealed, and in such a manner it's filled with a certain light since she's receiving from what she's receiving from above. In a manner in which this transformation of the light occurs in her, and in such a way she bestows below. All of this is called a Sefira.

Student: What does it mean that there's a Sefira of Keter and a vessel of Keter? 

M. Laitman: A Sefira is what illuminates and Keter is a name that could be attributed to a Partzuf, a Sefira, a world. It's simply a name.

Reader: We're going to continue in item number two.

Reading: (32:54) Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 4 - Twice

The ten Sefirot of Atzilut are lights and vessels. In order to connect to their root above, we must speak in a gradual order from Rosh to Sof.

2. However, you should know that the ten Sefirot of Atzilut are two matters (3): The first is the expansion of spirituality, and the second is the vessels and organs, where the self expands. All this must have a root above, for these two phases, and therefore we need to speak of the order of degrees from Rosh to Sof.  

Reader: We're going to continue to the commentary of inner light for item three. 

Reading: (34:53) Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 4 

Inner Light

3. They are the matter of spiritual expansion, called NRNHY, and the matter of vessels and organs called KHB, HGT, NHYM, or five Partzufim: AA, AVI, and ZON in which the NRNHY clothe. Each of these matters is a separate study in itself, meaning its conducts of cascading and manifestation differ from the other.

Moreover, they are completely opposite from one another, from one end to the other, since in the vessels, the upper vessels appear first. Keter appears first, then Hochma, and finally Malchut. The lights are the opposite: in them the lower ones appear first, beginning with the appearance of Nefesh, then Ruach and finally Yechida. Also, they are opposite in all their appearances and phases.

Thus, if we do not thoroughly know the reasons for the matters, from their root, we will not be able to avoid confusion in this wisdom. The ARI wrote, “Therefore we need to speak of the order of degrees from Rosh to Sof.” It means that then we will thoroughly know the reasons for every single matter at its root. We will be able to understand and distinguish in each degree, the proper conducts and the orders in the vessels, and the proper conducts and the order in the lights, and we will not replace the terms of one with the other. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (37:40) To continue with the friend’s question, where you told him that sometimes we relate to the lights to a higher degree, but go to a lower degree. So, my question is, what is the reality in which vessels and lights are on the same degree, the upper and lower ones? What is that? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:04) Exactly. You told the friend earlier that for the time being, we relate the lights to a higher degree to vessels that are on a lower degree. What is it that they're both on the same degree, an upper and lower one? What is it? What is the reality in which vessels and lights are together? 

M. Laitman: The reality of lights and vessels together, it already happens in the system that we have lights and we have vessels, and the vessels are the Sefirot, which get organized according to their order, meaning according to their coarseness, and the lights in each and every Sefira. And this way, we start coming closer to studying the ten Sefirot, how they affect each other, what they have between them, and so on. 

Student: Our aspiration as we study should be to emerge from the equivalence of, or comparison between the upper and lower one to a certain kind of connection, equivalence, one degree? How does this impact us, this thing that's called the vessels and the lights are in the same degree? 

M. Laitman: They bestow to us, they affect us to reveal to each and every one the place that is destined for them, for now. And how a person can, by their personal effort, to ascend from one degree to a higher degree. And in this way, more and more. 

Question (H 10): (40:29) How is oppositeness of vessels and lights expressed? 

M. Laitman: We'll speak about that later. Between us now, it's still early.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (40:58) Between the root and branch are ten Sefirot spread out? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Phase four, when it corrects itself, does she feel in the boundaries of what she corrected, or some kind of more vast or expanded area? Meaning, a branch that rises to its root, can it only feel that specific root that drew it to it, or more than that? 

M. Laitman: No, because on the way to adhering to the root, it goes through all kinds of other branches, and that is incorporated in it. 

Question (W Spa): (42:28) In the “Inner Light”, item one, number two, he writes and explains describing the upper roots in the manner of allegory and imagination. In Kabbalah, in spirituality, there are other languages besides the language of branches?

M. Laitman: No. So in this way, that there's a connection between root and branch. In a private way or a general way, a precise explanation, you don't have that. We don't have any more means that we can connect all and every detail in the wisdom to one form, only by the language of the branches. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (43:44) In the heading it is written, we have no forces to be able to reach above the world of Atzilut. Can you explain it? 

M. Laitman: No. Our roots aren't above the world of Atzilut. That means that we don't have the forces.

Question (W Turkiye): (44:22) What are the roots precisely? And how can a branch that's very far.. How can we who are very far from these roots grasp this? 

M. Laitman: We can try to do those same actions that we're learning about, and we need to determine them in the roots, the spiritual roots, and by that to discover the system, the spiritual system. 

Reader: Item three.

Reading: (45:14) Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 4 - Twice

The lights of the Guf of AK from the Peh to the Tabur are called Akudim

3. It is written “And saw in a dream, and, behold, the he-goats which leaped upon the flock were Akudim [streaked], Nekudim [speckled], and Brudim [grizzled]. (4)” It is also written, “For I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.”

This verse implies all these phases that we discuss here. Laban is the upper whiteness that precedes all this Atzilut and makes all these phases, namely Akudim, Nekudim and Brudim, for the purpose of Atzilut that will emanate after them.

It is called by the name Yaakov [Jacob] and began with Akudim as they are the lights that come out from the Peh of Adam Kadmon. The manifestation of the HaVaYot of the vessels began in them, since the ten inner and surrounding lights are tied and connected together in a single vessel. For this reason, it is called Akudim [bound], from the words, “and bound Isaac,” meaning tied. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:47) He writes that the relationships between the root and branch begin only from the revelation of the ten Sefirot. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Does this happen in every small step, in every  individual system, also in every Partzuf and every world? 

M. Laitman: In the expansion of the light into the Sefirot, when the expansion finishes, starts a connection between the Sefirot and the lights, from below upward. And there are a lot of things in this, it's everything we're learning in the wisdom. 

Student: That's what begins to describe the relationship between the root and branch? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How does the discovery of the ten Sefirot  help us study what's above that? 

M. Laitman: Because we ourselves are incorporated in that. That's why through us, we will be able to discover, by this, we can raise ourselves as vessels more and more. 

Reader: We can continue. In “Inner Light”, we're in little item four that describes Akudim, Nekudim and Brudim.

Reading: (50:22) Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 4 - Twice

Inner Light

4. These are names of the first three worlds that cascaded down from one another until the ten Sefirot were emanated properly. It refers to ten lights, called: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida, clothed in ten vessels, called: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut.

In the beginning, only one vessel was emanated, called the vessel Malchut. All the other ten lights were clothed and tied to that single vessel. Thus, that first world is called the world of Akudim, from the words bound and tied, as we will discuss henceforth.

It is also called “one line,” or the world of Adam Kadmon. It is called one line because the light is clothed in but a single vessel, and it still does not have the three lines of governance called Hesed, Din [judgment], Rachamim [also mercy]. This vessel is called the quality of judgment, which is the vessel of Malchut.

However, afterwards there was the association with the quality of mercy. It means that Malchut, called the quality of judgment, was incorporated and associated with each and every Sefira of its previous nine Sefirot, called the qualities of mercy.

Through this association, a vessel was made in each and every Sefira, at which time the ten Sefirot were completed properly. Then the three lines of governance are formed in the ten Sefirot, called: Hesed, judgment, mercy.

Our sages wrote: “In the beginning it came upon the thought to create the world in the quality of judgment; He saw that the world does not exist, preceded the quality of mercy and associated it with the quality of judgment” (Beresheet Rabbah). This verse seems unbecoming; are His thoughts like the thought of flesh and blood, who first want to do this, but regret for some reason and do otherwise?

However, we have already explained (Part 1, explanation of the words “Before” and “After”), that “Before and After” in spirituality mean cause and consequence. The cause is called first, and the consequence that is extended from it is called “after.”

Our sages tell us that the first cause for the emanation of the worlds, called the “first world,” was emanated and emerged as only the vessel of Malchut, called the quality of judgment. However, “He saw that the world does not exist,” meaning it does not have that wholeness desired from the creation of the world, and so He “associated it with the quality of mercy.”

In other words, it therefore became the element that causes the association of the quality of mercy with judgment. As a result, ten Sefirot of lights and vessels, in the three lines, Hesed, judgment, mercy, emerged and were emanated. Our sages also implied that same matter in another place in different words (Avot 285): “The world was created in ten utterances. Could it not have been created with one utterance? But to avenge the wicked, who destroy the world that was created in ten utterances, and give a good reward to the righteous, who keep the world that was created in ten utterances.”

Ten utterances refer to the ten Sefirot. They ask: “Since the first world of Hesed had been created in a single utterance, meaning with a single vessel, the vessel of Malchut, why then did ten Sefirot cascade and emerge from it?” They answered: “To avenge the wicked, etc., and to give a good reward for the righteous, etc.”

In other words, the thought of creation to delight His created beings does not happen in another way, but by a conduct of reward and punishment, meaning the ten Sefirot, which is the governance in three lines, Hesed, judgment, mercy. Thus, the first world, where there was only the vessel of Malchut, had to cascade from state to state until the ten Sefirot were emanated, meaning the association of the quality of mercy with judgment. That, in turn, manifests the governance of reward and punishment that brings that benefit incorporated in the thought of creation.

The beginning of the above association occurred in the world of Akudim itself by the refinement of the coarseness in the screen. As a result, three Partzufim emerged and cascaded there, called Galgalta, AB, SAG. Even though they are all still regarded as Akudim, still the association gradually occurs in them.

Afterwards emerged, Partzuf BON of AK, called the world of Nekudim, where the three lines Hesed, judgment, mercy were emanated in the ten Sefirot of the first three, KHB, called Rosh. However, in the lower seven, the ten Sefirot still emerged in one line, and in that world was the matter of the breaking of the vessels.

This breaking of the vessels became the cause for the matter of the association of the quality of mercy with judgment to be completed as three lines Hesed, judgment, mercy and ten complete vessels also in the seven lower Sefirot HGT NHYM that are in the following world, called the world of Brudim and the world of correction, since the correction of the world, according to the thought of creation, begins specifically in that world and not before.

Now we have learned the difference between the three worlds, mentioned in the words of the ARI: the world of Akudim means that ten lights were bound and tied in a single vessel. However, in the world of Nekudim, in its upper three, KHB, there was already the association of the quality of mercy with judgment.

Only in the world of Brudim, called the world of Atzilut, was the association of the quality of mercy with judgment corrected completely, in the seven lower Sefirot as well. Thus, we have here a clothing of ten lights inside ten vessels, and from that world begins the distinction of ten Sefirot in actual fact.