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

Daily Morning Lesson: August 28, 2026

Part 2: Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Reader 1: Hello friends! Today we will begin to study The Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, the Rav's lessons from 2006 --T a very special series in which the Rav delves deep into The Preface and elaborates long lessons, not short ones, they're not short clips. And the framework will be that in the beginning we will read the text that we're going to study, in this case Item 1 in The Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Then we will watch the lesson together and write down questions and scrutinies, then we will have workshops and there will be time for questions and answers.

Reader 2: It will be a fascinating lesson. A little bit about ThePreface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. Baal HaSulam, as we know, wrote his whole life, but he focused mainly on two large compositions. One of them is The Study of the Ten Sefirot, which is a commentary on the writings of the ARI, mainly on The Tree of Life. But it tells us all the cascading of the world from Above downward, from beginning to end. It's about 2,000 pages in Hebrew, six volumes, and that was the first composition by Baal HaSulam.

Afterwards, and also during that, he wrote five introductions to prepare us for The Study of the Ten Sefirot, and also to study his main life's work, his main corpus, which is, The Sulam Commentary on the Book of Zohar. This commentary he wrote towards the end of his days, the last volume was actually published after his passing. So, he wrote five introductions: Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Introduction to the Book of Zohar, Foreword to the Book of Zohar, Preface to the Sulam Commentary, and Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. The Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah was written about six years after the publication of The Study of the Ten Sefirot, and it contains everything that is in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, but concisely and in a very orderly fashion: how the worlds cascade from the very beginning, from Ein Sof – today we will also study this term – until through the whole world of Adam Kadmon, how it was created, and how the worlds were created: Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, how Adam HaRishon was created inside them. The whole cascading from above downwards is in the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. That's what we will start studying today, and as we said, we'll start with clip Number One, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, the source excerpt.

Reader: Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item one, The four phases of direct light.

Reading: (03:31) Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

1) Rabbi Hanania Ben Akashia says, “The Creator wished to refine Israel; hence, He gave them plentiful Torah and Mitzvot [commandments], as was said, ‘The Lord desires for the sake of His righteousness, to extol and glorify the Torah’” (Makkot 23b). It is known that Zakkut [refinement/cleansing] derives from the [Hebrew] word Hizdakchut [refining]. It is as our sages said, “The commandments were only given to refine Israel with them” (Beresheet Rabbah, beginning of Portion 44). We must understand this refinement that we achieve through Torah and commandments, and what is the coarseness within us, which we must refine using Torah and commandments.

M. Laitman: (04:19) Well, first of all, we have to understand that where we study the Wisdom of Kabbalah, when we study the Wisdom of Kabbalah, it doesn't speak about this world, but about the souls. And it's not what appears to us in our five senses, that is corporeality. And so these definitions, we have to understand them, as Baal HaSulam explains in Histaklut Pnimit, in Inner Observation in TES, that in the wisdom of Kabbalah, everything is told to us in the language of the branches. Not in our regular spoken tongue, when we read a word, we hear a word, we immediately know what it's about. Behind the word, there is a certain object, or action, or force that we know from this world. No, because it speaks of the spiritual world, using only words from this world. The names are taken from this world and indicate, point to an object in the spiritual world, that is called, The language of the branches. And so, we have to interpret every word according to its spiritual nature: what stands behind each and every word, spiritually, what is the intention? And the more we know how to interpret correctly what's exactly behind each and every word, then we will, so to speak, attach ourselves more closely to spirituality. We will yearn to be deeper in the perception of – or in the actual spiritual state and not remain in the imaginary, false, corporeal state, thinking that Kabbalists speak about this world – no, they don't speak about this world, the corporeal world, at all. And so, as we study, we have to constantly be interpreting correctly, as much as we can, every word in the writings of the Kabbalists because they are referring only to objects, actions, which are spiritual only.

M. Laitman: (06:36) So, he says, Rabbi Hanania Ben Akashia, there was this great Kabbalist, and he said,

The Creator,

The general force, the Good Who does Good, who is always bestowing, giving.

The Creator wished to refine Israel.

We don't know what refine means. Well, to clean, to purify, in some sense. Israel are, as we know, Yashar-Kel, straight towards God, those who yearn to be like the Creator. According to their goal, they're called Yashar-Kel, Israel, those who yearn to be like the Creator. And so, the Creator, He gives refinement to such a person. He refines him. He wants that person to be pure, so what does He do? He makes them, deliberately, He makes them very impure, and in order to clean them, what does He do?

He gives them plentiful Torah and commandments.

And we know, according to the interpretation, what Torah and commandments means: Torah is the upper force, which influences the person, bestows upon him in order to correct him so that he becomes like the Creator, bestowing like the Creator. That force, which comes to the person, is called the light of the Torah.

I have created the evil inclination.

If a person has the evil inclination, if he has an ego, what he has or doesn't have, I suppose it's the person himself discovering that he has ego, dirt, corruption, and he wants himself to clean it. Then he asks, he wants to be clean. And accordingly, the upper force comes to him.

I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice,

Meaning he demands the Torah, the upper force, that will correct him. And if he has nothing to correct, then the upper light doesn't come to him. He doesn't have Torah. Which is to say that the Torah always shines at the dirt, the corruption that a person discovers within him, that evil is his disparity of form with the Creator. He's always, He wants to bestow, then the person discovers that he himself is an egoist, he's bad, he doesn't want to be like that, he yearns to be not like that. And then from above, he receives the force of correction called the Torah; and only in that case is he dealing with the Torah. And then when that force comes from above to correct him, to purify him, to qualify him, then that operation of correction is called a commandment. And because we have 613 desires with the intention to receive, to begin with, correcting them to in order to bestow, the same desires remain, just the intention changes. For that, we need to perform 613 corrections called, 613 commandments.

Student: (09:58) There's like a process with Torah, commandments, stages in 125 degrees, the soul of Adam HaRishon. Why is it so, why did the Creator not just become realized immediately once the desire emerged?

M. Laitman: The Creator created evil, that's why it's called Beria, from the word Bar, outside, outside of Him; other than evil, He created nothing. It's the will to receive, it was corrupted, yes, which was shattered along the way. It parts from the Creator, due to disparity of form, and after many concealments—it's not immediately that man was created in this world. After many preparations, preparations from the side of bad, so that everything is ready in the person so that he will be ready and able to make his way back by himself. And by looking for the path, finding the power, assembling himself in spirituality, through that, he learns to be like the Creator.

These actions certainly appear to us as being related to time, space, and motion, slow and gradual. But if you look at time as a sequence of operations, one after the other, cause and effect, that's how it was from above. Spiritual time is cause and effect, cause and consequence. For us, in our situation, time isn't cause and consequence, because we don't utilize cause and consequence in that manner. If we respond to a cause immediately with our own reaction, then we would emerge, come out of the boundaries of corporeal time, which seems to flow without our participation. And into a state where we create time, we make time; time is an inner feeling, inner sensation within the person. If I'm under the influence, the control of the shells, then they pull, they extend time from a single point they create months and years because they control me, they govern me, and they don't allow me to respond, correctly.

However, had I risen above the shells with faith above reason, then time would shrink into a single point, and everything would depend only on cause and consequence, cause and consequence. We don't know what this perception of cause and consequence is like, where you don't have corporeal time as a concept, something flowing outside of me, right? It's flowing all around me, and I'm somewhere inside, so how to feel that? Either put the corporeal body to death, or put the body of the shell, of the Klipa, to death.

Student: (13:46) What is the coarseness that we need to correct and refine?

M. Laitman: What do we need to correct in spirituality? In spirituality, we need to correct our intentions in order to receive, which are aimed towards the Creator. If we are in this world, then we have no issue. In this world, we're not considered evil or anything, we're as beasts in this world, that's what is said. I have a heart: the point in the heart awakens in me, and by doing what Kabbalists recommend, I emerge to the spiritual space. I'm in the spiritual space, above the Machsom, above the barrier. And here, I have Beriah, Yetzira, Assiya of Klipa, of the shell. And here, Beriah, Yetzira, Assiya of the Kedusha, of holiness. And I need, when I receive coarseness from one side, I need to receive power, force from the other side, from the right side. And then to build myself up as a vessel with coarseness and a Masach, screen; from the Aviut comes the vessel, and from the light comes the Masach, the screen. And then I work in order to bestow by way of three lines, what needs to be corrected? The shell, the Klipa. By what means? Holiness. In this world, do we have anything to correct? No, there's nothing to correct, these are desires which aren't aimed towards the Creator. What does the shell, the Klipa, want? It wants to exploit the Creator, to use Him, to fulfill itself, to satisfy, itself.

Holiness, sanctity. Okay, so this here is the intention to receive from the Creator, right? And here, it's the intention in order to bestow to the Creator, that's the difference. And there's nothing more to this, so that's what needs to be changed. For us in this world, under the Machsom, under the barrier, there's no connection to the Creator at all, He's concealed. If He's concealed, I have nothing to do with Him, no need, no desire, nothing. I, I want, I in this world, what do I have? I have the group – how to call it? There's the group, and there's the Me, self, and I want to use the group in order to receive; this is called Klipa, shell. Or, I want to use it in order to bestow, and that's called Kedusha, holiness. If I change, transform myself to the extent that I can, to that extent I transcend corporeality, go above the Machsom and enter spirituality. And that, in effect, is the action by which I rise, that's why, Love your friend as yourself, is called the great rule of the Torah, the great law of the Torah. That said, these aren't actions directly aimed towards the Creator, I don't see Him. He is, as we say, concealed, hidden within the group, behind the group. I dwell within my people. Let’s continue.

Reader: We're continuing.

Reading: (17:50) Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Since we have already discussed it in my book Panim uMasbirot, and in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, I shall briefly reiterate that the thought of creation was to delight the created beings in accord with His abundant generosity. For this reason, a great desire and craving to receive His abundance was imprinted in the souls.

M. Laitman: Meaning, as we learn in the four phases of direct light, and as we will soon read in the continuation of The Preface, but we want to explain these words, of course. Otherwise, it will all be abstruse. So we have the light, the upper light, which builds the created being, the vessel, the Kli, and as there is the will to receive, the will to bestow rather, here in this light in the vessel, we ultimately have the will to receive. This will to receive evolves, develops, reaches certain dimensions, but the light must be equal to the vessel. Because if the Creator is perfect and whole, He wants the created being to fully enjoy Him, no more and no less. The created being can't immediately reach that level of enjoying everything that the Creator wants him to enjoy – we'll soon learn why. And so, the created being has to develop its desire for that joy by himself. And so there is preparation for development, but the Creator did from the beginning everything He could for the created being, so that it will be able to receive at the greatest degree.

Reading: (19:40) Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

This is so because the will to receive is the vessel for the measure of pleasure in the abundance, since the measure and strength of the will to receive the abundance precisely corresponds to the measure of pleasure and delight in the abundance.

M. Laitman: Meaning that we cannot measure the abundance, yes, we cannot measure it, never, as it is unto itself. We can only measure it to the extent that it fills the vessel, then we can talk about it, and only then. We have a vessel and however much we have inside it, we can talk about that. What's not inside it, we can't talk about, we don't know. Or we could talk about the abundance, using the lacks in the vessel even if the vessel isn't full yet, but nevertheless, feeling it, we can only feel it within the vessel. Meaning the sensation of the abundance can be either – it can be positive if there is fulfillment, or it could be negative if there is no fulfillment, no filling. Which is to say that we don't examine the abundance, we examine the vessel to see if it's full or empty. And like that, that way we have something we can talk about.

It's like in our world, I don't know what exists outside of my ear. Now, to my ear comes some wave, I don't know what that is, it pressures my eardrum, yes? The eardrum reacts in some manner, it wants to come back to equilibrium, to balance. That's how all my Kelim, vessels, my tools, let's say, instruments are built; they want to come back to balance, perfect balance, and so it pressures back in order to reach that equilibrium. Now, my response, this force I use to rebalance my eardrum, then I check. I have this moment number one, moment two, moment three, and so on, I check that, and according to that I create some, manufacture some wave, right? Then this presses on my nerve endings, and that sends a signal to my brain. The brain then compares it with my memories, and then it brings to me a sensation called a sound. You now hear music, there's something you know of it, you don't know, whatever the case may be.

M. Laitman: (22:40) Ultimately, I don't even bring into me something that exists without, I just measure my response, my reaction to something outside of me. Many things can exist outside of me, but the way I decipher them, that depends on my own vessel, only. Meaning I only feel the vessel, the Kli, the instrument, and not that external wave, it doesn't enter me. I can even stimulate the nerve here, and then feel all sorts of phenomena within me as though I'm listening to music. You know, there are people who hear all sorts of noises in their ears, which don't exist, these are issues of the brain, there's nothing outside. Sometimes we hear, Oh, someone is telling me something. I look, there's no one there, there's no one there; I'm not crazy, it came to me from my memory, something. Without evoking something from my memory, something from my memory comes to me; it's as though I hear some sound, some voice outside of me. That's the extent to which we're completely sealed and closed within our own vessel, that's the way I perceive everything. There is some kind of imagination, projection, that things are happening outside of us. In truth, nothing is happening outside of us, all the phenomena which we perceive as being outside of us: voice, everything through the five senses, coming through the five senses, it's all inner phenomena, all of it. And why did we discuss this? Everything exists within the vessel, and if we correct the vessel, fix it, we feel differently. Outcomes, results, states within the vessels, within the vessel, are called the worlds, Olamot, degrees of ascent, descent, and spiritual, corporeal, everything we speak of, everything we have words for, or even don't have words for—just sensations—what was, what will be, it doesn't matter. It all takes place only within our vessel. And that's why a person should look within and make sure to find this vessel and to improve it, no more.

And this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks of, there is nothing more to be concerned about. And so from here emerge, emerges philosophy, and perceptions of the world, and what to worry about. So don't, don't worry about the world, don't care about the world. Don't think that you should now change something in the world, fix something in the world. No, it won't work, it won't change in the way you want, you can only corrupt it, why? Because you are corrupting your perception. You are straying from the truth. Start working, changing your own perceptions, and then you will see the world corrected, changing, because your world is a projection coming from your inner senses, inner sensations, only.

Student: (26:03) You said the same, but if everything is inside me, then why is it so important to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah?

M. Laitman: We live in a reality which is shown to me, seen by me in my current state, my current state where I am. Yes. And I work according to that, according to what I feel, what I perceive. I now exist in the world, me and others and humanity, instead of me and the souls. There are people who see, I, and humanity, and simultaneously they see, I, and the souls and the system between, I, and humanity, not politics, and trade, and barter, and all those systems. Rather, it's, I and all the souls in the system of Adam HaRishon, and these two don't conflict. The person has his corporeal senses as well as his spiritual senses. If he dies, the body dies, he has no corporeal senses anymore, doesn't matter, he still has his spiritual senses, those remain. If I relate to these two perceptions as one, then for me there's no difference; I approach the rest of the souls and I bestow upon them the best I can to in some way promote them towards correction. I can relate to those souls as though they exist outside of me, I can relate to them as though they're parts of me, which only appear to me outside. Because I'm not yet corrected. And so, my dissemination is not dissemination. It's not that I disseminate, that I give something to others. By this I correct myself, my own attitude towards who? Towards the Creator. And who are the others? The others aren't others – they appear to me as being outside of me only because I'm not corrected – they are parts of me. So it's not dissemination then towards externality, it becomes the inner correction of my own vessel, my inner vessel. Guys, this way we'll never advance. Not about dissemination, about what's written here.

Student: (28:51) About the diagram, it seems like the memory is the first thing that operates, and accordingly we start searching. Could you explain what's with the memory? And then we try to compare it to something? This matter of memory really makes me busy in this.

M. Laitman: Irrelevant to the matter.

Student: Everything belongs to reality?

M. Laitman: I said, if you have a question about what's written here, then ask. If you don't, then no. Please continue.

Reader: We're continuing with,

Reading: (29:25) Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

And they are so connected that they are indivisible, except in what they relate to: The pleasure is related to the abundance, and the great desire to receive the abundance is related to the receiving created being.

M. Laitman: Meaning, they're bound together, the Creator created the created being such that there's a connection between them still, in a way that is, they're indivisible. But if we can speak of something that exists, we can say that there is a light, and that light created the vessel. But they're bound together in such a way where you can't perceive a difference. Meaning, there's a difference only in the source, which came first and which came second.

Reading: (30:25) Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

These two necessarily extend from the Creator. However, they should be divided in the above-mentioned manner: The abundance comes from His self, extending existence from existence, and the will to receive included there is the root of the created beings. This means that it is the root of initiation, that is, emergence, existence from absence, since there is certainly no form of will to receive in His self.

M. Laitman: So there's His Self, and His Self – we don't know what that is because there no will to receive exists, yet. And that's why we can never discover His Self, because we can attain only from the vessel, which came as something from nothing. After His essence, Atzmuto in Hebrew, Atzmuto is the root of the light, and the light that emerges from Atzmuto, it emerges clothed within the vessel. If not for the vessel, the lack, which was created something from nothing, the light would never have emerged from Atzmuto, from His essence. There's no such thing as a light without a vessel. Light without a vessel, we don't know what that is. There's no such reality, so what was the reality that was without a created being? Atzmuto. That's very important, because afterwards we talk about the surrounding lights, returning light, direct light, reflected light, as if we're talking about lights outside of vessels. There's no such thing, if we can speak of something, then it's out of a feeling, a sensation that exists within us. It's not this wave, external wave, which, so to speak, is outside of us. How can I even say what this is? It's completely disconnected from myself. So I can only imagine to myself that I'm feeling, that I'm hearing something from without.

I have such a fantasy, such an imagination, and even science bears this out as being so; and the wisdom of Kabbalah says the same thing. That outside of us exists His Self, Atzmuto, what is that? We don't know, we just know that He is the source. However, His Self, this Atzmuto, which is perceived by us, is perceived within the vessel already. And it's only in us that we can say that it exists, meaning nothing exists outside of me. And this is very important, because then it indicates that one should focus completely on himself, on his own correction, and then his perception will improve, everything!

Reading: (33:44) Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Hence, it is considered that the above-mentioned will to receive is the whole substance of creation from beginning to end.

M. Laitman: Meaning, the will to receive, if we say that only from it do we feel only the phenomena within it we call the vessel, and the phenomena within it, we call light. Phenomena within it, we call Creator; phenomena within it, we call the created being, the world – various phenomena. Various phenomena within it; souls, living things, it doesn't matter, everything we feel, our entire cosmos. The inanimate, growing, living, speaking in our world and in the spiritual world: angels, seraphs, demons, it doesn't matter what. These are all phenomena within the will to receive, alone. The created being, it's a phenomena within the will to receive.

Student: (35:02) Is the will to receive that's included in the abundance the actual innovation, or what causes the innovation?

M. Laitman: He writes that this will to receive is an innovation. What causes the innovation? The Creator's desire to create the will to receive and to benefit it, to delight it. There are a thousand and one questions about this, but this is what they write as the first thing one should learn. Afterwards, we'll know more about this and we'll know how this concept, how to open it up to ourselves, it's truly difficult. Why, Who is He, why did He want to delight the created being? Does He have a lack then, does He not have a lack, does He need the created beings? No. Why is the created being to blame for wanting to enjoy everything? Why does it suffer, the poor thing, until it reaches that delight, why? Well, we have a thousand questions, some of which we answer, we explain in the Preface to the Book of Zohar, the Introduction to the Book of Zohar. But we can reach that understanding only to the extent that we actually actualize the purpose of creation.

Reading: (36:24) Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Thus, all the created beings, all their innumerable instances and conducts that have appeared and will appear, are but measures and various values of the will to receive. All that exists in those created beings, that is, all that is received in the will to receive imprinted in them, extends from His self, existence from existence. It is not at all a new creation, existence from absence, since it is not new at all. Rather, it extends from His Endlessness existence from existence.

M. Laitman: Very simple: everything that there is, everything we can say exists, which is revealed or not revealed to us, will be revealed in the future, and everything that happens to each and every individual, it's all a matter of substance. A substance, a matter, a matter which undergoes various changes, and within it there is a feeling called the light. That substance is called: the inanimate, vegetative, animate, speaking in various spiritual worlds, states. In this world as well, the inanimate, growing, living, speaking with the power that gives it life, that sustains it, that fulfills it. And that belongs to the light, and other than light and vessel, other than desire and fulfillment, there is nothing else.

And so, it's very simple, we don't need to get confused with the souls, spirits, whatever other things which may exist or not. It's all just this substance, this matter, which the light gives life to and sustains. What will be revealed, what won't be revealed, of course there is a difference but these revelations depend only on us, it's all within our vessels. By changing our vessels, transforming them, if we want, we can travel through time, because there is no time. Time, that's the different states that we go through. Let's conclude the lesson with that.

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Reader: Yes! So, first of all we want to say thank you to the Creator who gave us a lesson by the Rav. Let's start to process these things. A quick first workshop: What did we hear? What was it here that touched us?

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