How can a person perceive the desire? In order for a person to know what he wants he must first try it, since by doing so it leaves a pleasurable perception or taste inside of him. The pleasure was sensed and now it’s gone, at which point the person aspires towards it. This is what the real Kli must consist of. Meaning, the light has filled it in the past, and the Kli has tasted the entire force of the sensation of pleasure from the light’s presence. Then the light disappeared and now the Kli passionately longs to feel the taste of the light once again.
Now we will look at the way in which the soul is constructed and the reason why we need to work with it. The soul is the only thing created. Through its five filters, the soul receives the visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile sensations inside of itself. The support behind these five sense organs is similar to a computer program. It translates that which is located outside into a language that we can understand, namely: pleasure and pain. We perceive whether something is good or bad in the most central point of our soul.
If the computer is running on a natural program then its program is designed to satisfy the egoistic intake of good and bad. However, if it is running on the altruistic program then the notions of good and bad are not evaluated relative to itself; rather they are evaluated relative to what is outside of it, and this is the light or the Creator.
Now we see that there are two programming possibilities for the soul’s evaluations and choices: a) egoistically, for its own sake, or b) altruistically, for the sake of the Creator. After all, besides the Creator and the creation, or the light/pleasure and the desire/vessel, nothing else exists in the universe.
In the natural process, a person is born with the egoistic program. Therefore, on the “backboard” of our consciousness or brain, a reverse image is imprinted or projected egoistically. This image is called “our world”.
We do not perceive anything other than the light. However, if the light goes through the egoistic processing, then it manifests in us as “our world”. Our egoistic desire performs its processing, adding obstacles by selecting everything good and discarding everything bad. This is the organism’s self-preservation program, and if we did not have it then our picture of the world would be a totally different one. Without it, the picture would become imprinted on the front side of the soul and it would show a person everything that exists on the outside in an objective way, rather than what is on the inside, subjectively and with a benefit for itself. That which is on the outside is called “the light” or “the Creator”.
In order to reprogram the computer from the egoistic to the altruistic program, there exists the Science of Kabbalah, which helps us to receive the external image that exists genuinely, without the egoistic coating. We will be able to feel the genuine universe that is outside of us. This state is called “unification with the light”, when there are no obstacles between the soul and the light.
This is slightly reminiscent of what people feel when they are in the state of clinical death and they have become partially separated from the egoistic body (or the animal organism). They see the light ahead of them and they aspire towards it, but they are unable to reach the light because they have not yet ridden themselves of the spiritual egoism. Since a person can only rid himself of it together with the animal egoism of the body, thus all of the work takes place over the course of one life or several lives in the egoistic body.
We can rid ourselves of spiritual egoism very easily if we know what obstacles egoism adds to our internal computer. All information enters through five filters, called the “five parts of Malchut”, or “five parts of egoism’s governance”. These five channels process all information from outside, converting it to information that suits egoism by separating what is good for the egoism from what is bad. All signals pass through a specific width of filters (Aviut), which is different in every person.
The more reincarnations our soul goes through, the bigger its Aviut becomes. Meaning, the person becomes coarser, more goal-oriented, and more ready for correction. On the other hand, those who are less egoistically developed do not need very much, as they are satisfied by little. Hence, a big egoist is ready for correction because he feels a greater necessity to fill himself with the light.
How does the need to correct the computer program arise? It arises due to the Aviut’s development in a person to it maximum size. This happens over many reincarnations or lives in our world. Not only man’s life but animals, plants, and inanimate nature as well. All of nature, except man, ascends together with him and depends on man’s state.
Once a person’s Aviut has developed to its maximum size, it causes a maximum difference between the light and the image he perceives. This results in an inner switch turning on, giving a person the feeling that he can no longer fulfill himself with anything now or in the future.
When this signal takes place, a person stops looking for something inside of himself or on the “backboard” of his soul, and instead he aspires to perceive the outside. He turns to various philosophies and methodologies, until he finally comes to Kabbalah. This is specifically where he is able to find what he has been looking-for for so long.
Kabbalah is the methodology that changes those filters. It does not remove them, but only rebuilds or retunes them from the egoistic intention to receive pleasures into the altruistic intention to give pleasure. More precisely, the altruistic intention is to receive pleasure for the sake of bestowal, since everything is relative to the Creator. Meaning, we have nothing to give to Him except to receive pleasure for His sake.
This way, the same filters can be used to receive, but only for the sake of the light or the Creator. Then, the information entering from the outside will not be distorted in any way. Rather, it will appear to us in just the way it exists in reality, or on the outside. When this happens, the entire program of creation comes to an end, since the program now allows us to exist without any obstacles for our “ego”. That is, to exist, perceive and live in the genuine universe. All the pleasures of our world, which humanity has perceived and will perceive in the future, are only a 1/600,000th piece of the pleasure contained in the smallest possible light (Nefesh).
Even a single corrected soul, fully receiving the entire light without limit, is located in front of all of the souls. It observes everything until the information or pleasure enters into all of the other souls.
The Aviut is placed in a person at his soul’s first descent or incarnation into this world. However, Kabbalah is able to develop it dozens of percent, shortening his number of lives or descents into this world. That is, it is able to accelerate the process of a person’s ripening for the assimilation of the spiritual realm.
Human suffering is the external expression of what is missing. Suffering does not disappear, but Kabbalah replaces the animal suffering with the spiritual. This is the suffering due to the lack of the spiritual perception. This qualitative change in suffering leads to the rebuilding of the internal Kli or the rebuilding of the soul. Corresponding to the aspiration, the perception of the light develops. The result: what naturally would have occurred to us over the course of several generations, now occurs in several years.
You may ask: “why is it sometimes impossible to ask and formulate a question?” It happens because a person does not feel what we are talking about inside him. If it has not become revealed in him yet then he does not respond to what he is hearing.
The structure of the soul is the following: The light that emanates from the Creator creates the desire to take pleasure in it. This desire is called Malchut. Before Malchut, the light passes through nine stages as it changes, until it finally becomes suitable to create Malchut. The nine stages the light goes through are called Keter, Chochma, Bina, Chesed, Gvura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod and Yesod. Then it builds the final stage, which is called Malchut. The six stages from Hesed until Yesod are called Zeir Anpin.
In total there are ten Sefirot, that is: nine levels of the light plus one Malchut, which is the desire to receive. Malchut is the soul or the real creation, which feels that it wants to receive and to take pleasure in the light. Malchut begins to receive the light and, along with the light, it receives the light’s properties. Even in our world, we know that any influence on us creates our own reflection inside of us. The same thing happens in Malchut when it receives the light from the nine upper Sefirot.
We see that a single egoistic structure, Malchut, has acquired nine more additional altruistic attributes of the light in itself, by receiving the light from the nine Sefirot of the light. The external information of the light does not become distorted as it passes through the nine altruistic attributes of Malchut, since there are no egoistic barriers. This light only becomes slightly smaller. It decreases in order for the soul to become optimally filled by it and also to prevent it from becoming overfilled, which would cause suffering as well.
However, there is one more part in Malchut that has received altruistic attributes from the light and has become equivalent to it in its desire to bestow, which is not the tenth part. Further, there is one more additional part in Malchut that is completely unable to perceive the light’s attribute, and therefore cannot change. This part is called “Lev a-Even” or “the stone heart (see the drawing).
Our work consists in leaving this part of Malchut behind, which is called our “I”; to stop working with it because it will always remain egoistic, until the end of correction and the arrival of the Mashiach. Therefore, it is necessary to perform a restriction (Tzimtzum Alef) on this part of Malchut; That is, not to use it in any way.
Malchut, or the tenth Sefira, is that part of Malchut that received the light’s attributes and was able to feel the attributes of the light that had filled it. Therefore, it is able to change – it has to gradually transform and to begin to act in the same way as the light. In order to effectively drive the light’s attributes into the Malchut, the action called “Shvira” is performed, meaning the breaking or the blow. As a consequence of this action, the attributes of the first nine Sefirot penetrate into Malchut.
But it is insufficient only to understand that the light’s attributes and those of Malchut are opposite to each other. The Malchut has to act the same way as the light does; it needs to become equivalent to the nine Sefirot. However, how can it do this if the light does not enter inside of it at all? To achieve this goal, the breaking (Shvirat) of the Kelim takes place, or the breaking of the desires. This is done by way of the “blow of the light”, which goes through all nine Sefirot and enters Malchut. Now, Malchut is mixed and intertwined with all of the other nine Sefirot. This is called “Shvirat HaKelim” or the sinful downfall.
After the Shvirat Kelim took place, four kinds of desires were formed. These are: a) the purely altruistic desires that were present in the first nine Sefirot, b) the altruistic desires that have become mixed with the egoistic desires, c) the egoistic desires that have become mixed with the altruistic, and d) the purely egoistic desires. This way, two kinds of desires, the purely altruistic and the purely egoistic, having fallen during the Shvirat Kelim and having mixed with each other, have now turned into two more kinds of mixed desires.
Only now does it finally become possible to create a soul in which Malchut is corrected in the same way as the first nine Sefirot are. This is because any egoistic desire now contains a spark of altruism. With this, a special kind of a force is needed, namely the force of correction. This force causes each altruistic spark to become the prevailing part of the desire, capable of correcting the whole egoistic desire.
How does this happen? We take the corresponding book on Kabbalah, written by a Kabbalist who has already corrected himself in correspondence with the light. When a person reads this kind of a book, what takes place is the transmission of the instructions about how to build the inner Kli inside of oneself, in correspondence with the light. By reading the lines in the book, even without understanding what we have read, we nevertheless attract the surrounding light to ourselves, which gradually cleanses and corrects our desires.
Studying under the clear direction of a teacher-Kabbalist, while in a group of people who want to reach the goal of creation or equivalence to the Creator, is bound to be effective!
Studying Kabbalah also explains the order in which the parts of our soul will become corrected, if we direct our desire correspondingly to the corrected desires of the Kabbalist who wrote the book.
As a person corrects himself, he gradually begins to feel that his desires are broken. He learns to differentiate them, sort them out according to the quality and quantity, combine them in a specific order, and gather them. This path is a long one, but it is special and interesting. A person begins to elucidate new attributes in himself, perceiving that he is the creation and becoming aware of his connection to the Creator and to the other parts of the universe. What takes place is the understanding of how our whole external system is constructed and how the upper governance works.
The Creator’s goal for us is to first begin having control over ourselves and then over the whole world, therefore replacing the Creator. In our world we chase after particular manifestations of the light, such as the pleasure we get from knowledge, power, sex, food and children.
When the light comes and fills us completely and boundlessly, it is immediately perceived as complete perfection and pleasure. There are no desires left in a person. The process of becoming filled by the light is gradual, and it is called “Sulam” or ‘ladder’. Baal HaSulam wrote about this, and it is called so in honor of the system of spiritual ascent which he worked out called “ Sulam” in his commentaries “Sulam” on the book of “Zohar”.
The Creator created one collective soul called Adam, which broke into 600,000 parts, each of which consists of four desires. A person’s task consists in correcting not only himself, but also his part in the collective soul. Each soul must correct its relation to all of the 600,000 souls, for this is how it corrects itself; since every other soul, in turn, consists of 600,000 parts, and the nine first Sefirot enter into each one of them.
The souls are able to become corrected only through the bodies, and the bodies become corrected in the group by way of various mechanical actions, directed at the achievement of a single goal. There are two such mechanical actions: a) studying, and b) doing common work for the sake of the soul’s spiritual correction.
A person does not have the ability to correct his desires, since the light created them. It is only necessary to change the direction in which these desires act, or, to what end does he want to fulfill these desires. If I temporarily do not fulfill one of my desires, then it will come back to me later in a more distorted form.
We need to work on how to correctly use this desire. We cannot starve or torture ourselves, or run away from something. What needs to be corrected is the intention with which we use our desires. If we do this, then we will see that all of our desires are necessary for us in order to reach our goal. This is why they say that the person who is more egoistic has big desires. Another thing said is that since the fall of the Temple, only Kabbalists still have a taste for the earthly pleasures.
According to the thought of creation, we have to come to the state where we can live and exist according to the spiritual laws. All of the misfortunes that occur for each of us, as well as all disasters and catastrophes, take place in order to bring every person and humanity as a whole, to carry out the spiritual commandments during their life in this world. This is what Baal HaSulam writes.
Kabbalah is the instruction for the Creator to become revealed to the creatures living in this world. Kabbalah does not write about what will happen to us after death, but rather what should happen to us during our life in this world. Kabbalah talks only about what a person in this world needs; what he must achieve in order to avoid living his life in vain, only to involuntarily come back again and complete whatever was not finished before. Therefore, Kabbalah is the most indispensable and practical science in the world.
It is impossible for us to run away. Life itself obligates us to perform this completion, and as a result of all our suffering, come to full correction or Gmar Tikkun. What is “Gmar Tikkun”? The world will continue to exist; everything will continue to take place just as before: the same universe, the same stars, birds and trees.
Only man’s awareness will change in the way he perceives the environment, because man himself will change. Nothing else changes, continuing to act by the laws of nature, according to the directions it receives from the Creator. It is man who transforms from an animal to a real man.
Kabbalah explains how to achieve this completion. It is achieved by studying in a specific group, according to the right books, and under the supervision of an authentic Rav or teacher. In addition, Kabbalah teaches that the more a student begins to understand what to do, the more he perfects himself, the group, and the lessons. Baal HaSulam writes about this, and also depicts for us a picture of how the corrected world should appear.
The first thing that we study is the expansion of all of the worlds, Partzufim and Sefirot, starting from the highest point and descending downwards. The second stage consists of ascending the spiritual levels. In order to correct himself, a person must ascend along the spiritual levels that have been prepared for him, beginning with the lowermost point and ascending upwards, while continuing to live in this world. There are a total of 125 levels we have to go through on the path of ascent into the spiritual world. They are the total number of levels separating us from the Creator, meaning, there are 125 levels of the attainment of the Creator.
Right now I act according to my understanding of my egoistic nature. Something is good for me, and something else is bad. I learn from my environment and act accordingly. The more I adapt to my environment the more comfortable I feel in it. Further, while in my nature, it seems as if my environment changes as the people around me change their opinions as to what the world should look like.
Each generation is characterized by the souls in it, differing from the previous and following generations. We can see the degree to which two contiguous generations, such as our parents and our children, differ from ourselves.
The souls descend into our world in each generation, and from one generation to the next they accumulate their experience. In connection to this, the souls’ desires become greater than the souls’ desires of the previous and earlier generations. Therefore, every new generation aspires for new discoveries, assisting in humanity’s development.
When a person begins to study the spiritual world, he is being pushed to change his environment and the world to greater resemblance to the Creator. In the last stage of this change, the world becomes completely equivalent to the Creator. This generation is called “the last generation”. Not because everything will perish, but simply as a consequence of this generation’s perfection, no further correction is necessary.
Kabbalah does not talk about development after Gmar Tikkun, because this relates to the secrets of the Torah. It speaks only about how to bring a generation to the level of “the last generation”. The entire Torah talks only about how to go through the 125 levels of the Creator’s attainment.
On one hand, a person’s environment serves him in realizing the spiritual laws, enabling him to change the environment. On the other hand, by changing the environment, there are opportunities to change himself. Further, to the extent a person changes the environment, then the changes in that person are by a force equal to the number of members of the given society.
In short, our group is the place of correction and, simultaneously, the source for correction of each person who is in it. Even if someone in the group is still weak and is unable to do anything in it, nevertheless, he receives the force for his correction from the group in advance.
Therefore, each person has to build the correct environment for himself, in order to derive strength for spiritual correction and to ascend after a fall. Alternatively, in a group unable to give the strength for correction yet, many people are in the state of depression, or bad mood with the absence of the strength to advance. These states sometimes occur within a wholesome environment as well, but they do not endure.
Each level is built in the following way: “on the right” is the altruistic force of the Creator; “on the left” is the egoistic force of the desire that He created; in the middle between them is man, that is, he perceives himself this way. A person has to take the correct amount or necessary proportion from the right and left forces, and use them to ascend to the next level. Obviously, the right and left, just like other terms, are approximate, but we simply do not have any other way to refer to the attributes of the upper world.
A person continues this process until the 125th level. These 125 levels are divided into 5 worlds. Each world contains 25 levels. The lowermost spiritual world, called the world of Assiya, is located above our world. What t hen follows the world of Yetzira, then the worlds of Beria, Atzilut and Adam Kadmon. Our world is beneath the lowest level of the world of Assiya, and is separated from it by the Machsom (a barrier).
These right and left lines mutually help a person overcome all of the difficulties involved in passing from one level to the next. However, when a person initially begins to work against his egoism, the desire and strength to ascend emerge while he is present in the right side (the forces of the Creator). This is the first stage. Being on the right side in the initial state does not depend on the person, but rather on the Creator.
In the second stage, a person passes into the left side and adds egoism to himself. His mood here is totally opposite to his mood on the right side. He experiences a bad mood, depression, and weakness, and nothing seems worthwhile to him.
Being in the left side is necessary in order to feel our own egoism, and the amount of time a person spends there depends on the person himself. He can diminish the amount of time he is present there to a minimum. All of the bad that a person experiences depends on the amount of time he spends in the left line. If a person understands that his current bad state is happening with the goal of furthering his advancement, then he will no longer evaluate this state as bad, but rather as good. He will perceive suffering a necessity and consequently, good.
In this way, the perception and understanding of good and bad change. The group or environment can help in correcting these perceptions. A person can derive spiritual strength from the group while not yet in the spiritual world. All of the creatures are the single body of Adam and are separated by their bodies/desires due to the uncorrected desires.
When egoism becomes annihilated, we are able to receive information from the other souls and to feel them, since each person is willing to do something for another. It is necessary to build a group with one single goal. The group has to be a single whole, with one spirit inside. It is necessary to ensure the state of the group is always on one level, with each person always ready to help another. Each person must become integrated into the other and into everyone as a whole. The degree each will be able to lower his “I” relative to the others and the group as a whole, is the extent of how much more he will receive from each person and the group as a whole. A small person is able to receive from a big one. For this to happen, one needs only consider another person as being above himself.
The group must maintain the state where the most important factor is the exaltation of the Creator. This goal must determine every action. Then each person will be able to receive a spiritual charge from the group, and the downfalls will be unnoticeable. Each level of the souls builds its own environment for itself, that is, an environment that corresponds to it. Everything depends on the souls’ internal level. The environment must be built according to different laws in each world.
The group is built according to the principle of flexibility and the ability to change easily. It is even appropriate if the group constantly changes; this means it is advancing. Life, work and family in this world, as well as the animal life in the physical body, will change in the future according to the spirituality of members in the group. This is specifically what the Creator demands from us.
Our body will be in this world, while the soul is in the spiritual world. The more spiritual actions the soul performs, the more our body will follow the spiritual laws in the material world. That is, at the end of development, family relationships and those between group members must be built according to the upper laws of the world of Atzilut.
Adam HaRishon was created specifically in this way. His body/desire consists of the desires of the nine Sefirot, but Malhut is the part called “Lev HaEven” (i.e. stony heart), meaning, the part of Malhut that was not able to absorb the attributes of the first nine Sefirot or the Creator’s attributes.
Thus, he was forbidden to arouse this tenth desire in himself, or to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as all of the evil is contained in this part. Therefore, if he breaks this rule, then that evil enters the world, intermixing with the other parts or the first nine Sefirot.
Nevertheless, Adam sinned, hoping to receive the light of the nine Sefirot into Malchut for the sake of the Creator. But since Malchut is unable to undertake the altruistic intention, Adam received for his own sake, causing the soul to break into 600,000 separate parts. These parts do not feel they were once a single whole soul and do not feel each other.
Each part of the general soul is the desire to receive pleasure. Each part is called “I” and needs to be corrected by elevating 125 levels up. That is, there is a need each time to correct a 1/125th particle inside of each of the 600,000 souls/desires. Every time each particle goes through the right side and then the left, it then becomes included into the middle line; taking the force of the Creator or the desire to bestow from the right line, and acquiring the desire to receive from the left line, their sum emerges in the middle line, resulting in a desire to receive for the sake of bestowal.
We are only given the forces that allow us to counteract the egoism of the left side from above, that is, to correct the necessary egoistic part in order to receive for the sake of bestowal. A person is given only what he is able to bear. If a person did not receive a force from above then he would not be given a bad state.
If a member of the group wants to advance spiritually, he continually needs an opportunity to receive both spirituality and egoism from the group. Therefore, these two attributes must coincide together in the group. Being in the group means to be connected with it, in the inner sense.
A person who comes to Kabbalah is very egoistic, autonomous and independent from others. He needs time until he begins to wish for the Creator and understand the importance of the goal of creation. Only then will he be able to lower himself in relation to the group, in order to give to it and to receive from it.
In the beginning, a person may not have the desire to do anything for the group, but the common goal must obligate him to do this. If each person understands that there is nothing more important than the goal of creation, then it will be easy for him to be useful to the group in many ways.
However, if the pleasures of this world are still worth more than the goal to a person and he cannot separate himself from those pleasures, then his time has not arrived yet and there is no place in the group for him. His soul is not ready to undertake the spiritual laws. When a person has gone through all pleasures of the world, he is then given a push towards the spiritual. In order for this to occur, he does not necessarily have to be in all circumstances of this world and then reject them by discovering their insignificance. Rather, he achieves this by receiving from above the necessary grounds for the insignificance of the earthly search for pleasure.
Today, spirituality attracts us with a greater pleasure compared to the material world. Therefore, we want it, and this is not a lie. Our entire world lives on and is supported by the tiny spark of the spiritual light that has broken through the Machsom and has penetrated into our world. Now imagine the spiritual world, which in its entirety is nothing but the light that is many billion times greater than the spark of pleasure of our world. What pleasures exist there!
But how do we enter the spiritual world? We know in order to achieve this we have to change our egoistic essence from the desire to receive into the desire to give. However, we do not understand what this is, and there are not enough words to explain this concept. We do not have the convolutions in our brain necessary to understand this because our brain works within the system of egoism.
Kabbalah teaches us that in order to feel pleasure it is sufficient to only change the direction of the desire rather than the desire itself. The pleasure will correspond to how much the desire’s goal-orientedness will change. Here we are talking about a purely psychological concept; a person still receives pleasure, but the important thing is for what or for whom he will be receiving it.
A question emerges: where is the knob that we need to turn in order to achieve this?
It is located at the boundary between the egoism of our world and the altruism of the spiritual world, and is called the “Machsom”. This means I am already willing to do anything to pass into the spiritual world with my perceptions. The group is necessary for a person to reach this state, as well as constancy with regard to studying. The group is necessary in order to develop the desire to receive the spiritual into the necessary size. Then an inner click occurs… and a person begins to receive the spiritual force and spiritual awareness from above.
There exist five worlds between the Creator and our world. They are called: Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira and Assiya. Beneath the world of Assiya there is the Machsom, and our world is below it. Our goal while still located in our world is for our soul to attain the level of the world of Ein Sof, meaning, to attain complete unification with the Creator. That is, when our soul is clothes the body of this world, to change the attributes of egoism into the attributes of the Creator on each spiritual level until our entire egoism is replaced by altruism. When that occurs, our soul’s attributes will become fully equivalent to the Creator’s attribute.
In our world, the following two egoistic attributes are enacted: “to receive for the sake of reception” and “to bestow for the sake of reception”. The spiritual worlds are built on the following attribute: “to bestow for the sake of bestowal” or “to receive for the sake of bestowal”. The first task of a person who wants to pass into “the world to come” is to restrict the use of his desires, or to perform Tzimtzum Alef. This means to stop working with egoism or with the egoistic desires.
We are not able to change our “desire to receive” because this is the only thing created by the Creator. However, it is possible and also necessary, to change the intention in the desire from “to receive for one’s own sake” into the intention “to receive for the sake of the Creator”. Hence, we can see that the action does not change outwardly; rather it is only the intention that changes.
Therefore the methodology of changing the intention (something that no one can see and that is hidden from everyone) is called the secret Science of Kabbalah. It is the methodology of how to receive by changing the intention. The important thing is what I am thinking when I perform any given action, and what goal I am pursuing when I act. All 125 levels are degrees of gradual correction of the soul’s intention, from receiving for one’s own sake to receiving for the sake of the Creator.
The five worlds are levels of the desire to receive, beginning with the weakest desire (Keter) and ending with the strongest (Malchut). These are built starting at the top (the Creator) and descend downwards to creation. As the light comes from the Creator and passes through the worlds, it becomes weaker and therefore suitable for being perceived by the weaker altruistic desires. When the soul receives the light of correction from above, it begins to change the intention “for its own sake” into the intention “to receive for the sake of the Creator”, or “to bestow”.
The soul reaches the Machsom line only if it performs the Tzimtzum Alef on all the desires it perceives in that state, that is, when it totally refuses to work with egoism. However, it is not yet able to receive anything for the Creator’s sake.
When the soul corrects its intention to bestow on the level of Keter, it enters the world of Assiya located above the Machsom. That is, when it is able to counteract the weakest possible egoism by not receiving anything and nullifying itself in the light of the upper. If the soul is able to counteract its egoism in the light of Hochma, it ascends to the level of the world of Yetzira.
The soul continues this way by increasing its ability to work against greater egoistic forces each time, ascending to the next (higher) spiritual level, until reaching the world of Ein Sof. The soul acquires its essence as a spiritual substance only after crossing the Machsom and ascending further.
In the spiritual world a person is dealing with pure naked desires that are not clothed in various appearances of our world. A Kabbalist who is in the spiritual ceases to investigate our world because he correctly perceives it as the natural result of the branch from the spiritual root. For him, it is more interesting to see the cause, or the beginning root, rather than the consequence, located on an incomparably lower level than the root, from which all desires and causes originate.
A person who ascends, thereby changes all earthly desires into the desire for the Creator. At first he wants to possess the Creator egoistically, in just the same way he previously wanted to receive everything in our world. As it is said: a person wants the Creator so much that this passion does not allow him to fall asleep!
Gradually, a small light called Ohr Makif, which constantly surrounds a person, begins to shine for him, whereby he reaches a request for the spiritual with the help of this light, using a desire stronger than all other desires. Finally, with the help of the same light, a person passes the Machsom and receives the intention of bestowal.
Only the Upper light of the Creator is able to raise a person in this way; to provide the answer to all his human efforts for the spiritual, to bring him to the state where desire for the spiritual is so great that it does not let him fall asleep and suppresses all other desires.
All souls go through the same stages during their path, but each soul’s assignment in this world is different. Also different is the speed with which different souls to go through the same path.
Every thought, every desire and every movement a person makes in our world, regardless of the person, is given to him with one single goal: to ascend and to come closer to the spiritual. However, the majority of people go through this advancement in a natural way on the unconscious human, animal, vegetative and still levels.
Everything is predetermined and pre-programmed by the goal of creation. A person’s free choice consists of whether he agrees with everything that happens to him, whether he begins to understand the goal towards which everything is directed, and whether he himself wants to be an active participant in all of the events happening to him.
All thoughts and desires in the world of Ein Sof pass through a person. However, a person “picks up” only thoughts corresponding to his level. On today’s level, a person is able to not think about new discoveries. However, when he increases the level of his knowledge and concepts, he suddenly begins to dream of something complex. This means that he is meant to feel and perceive a more complex realm of perception.
The realm of a person’s activity is constructed in this way, or his picture of the perception of the world in which he lives. If a person develops further, even deeper thoughts come to him with a different connection between things. Everything depends on a person’s level of development, because this determines his bounds of perception or the part of the world of Infinity a person perceives.
There is no other way to develop the desire for the spiritual, to evoke Ohr Makif, to personally take part in fulfilling the goal of creation, and to shorten the natural path of achieving this goal, other than studying in a group under the direction of a teacher. Only the light that begins to shine can help change the egoistic properties (being the only obstacle on the spiritual path) into altruistic properties.
Ohr Makif changes our desire to receive into the desire to bestow and takes us past the Machsom. We say that we do not want anything from the material world and that we want only the spiritual. If we knew that going through the Machsom means changing the intention with regard to who and what we think and worry about, we would run away.
To continue, we now enter the territory above the Machsom where we encounter an ocean of light. This is the light of the Creator, which shines on us to the degree that our exaltation of the Creator is greater than our egoistic desire. This gives us the opportunity to gradually acquire the property of the light itself, or to bestow.
The most important thing is to pass the Machsom. A soul that has received the light knows the entire path after passing it, because the light teaches it. There already exists an unraveled map and instruction for each subsequent step and every action. These are the instructions that Kabbalists have described for us in their books.
Every bad thought is opposite to the Creator’s good thought, but how can we change a bad thought into a good one? First, we have to understand that the thought is bad; to realize its evil in order to then come to the decision of correcting it. We can see this evil only in the Creator’s light or in His greatness. However, if light does not shine for a person, then he is blind and exists in the dark, under the Machsom where light does not penetrate. A person exists in this world and believes that all his thoughts are good.
When a person becomes illuminated by the light of the Upper or surrounding light called “Ohr Makif”, he begins to see his own entire essence. This is called “the realization of evil”. Without this illumination by the light, a person tries to justify himself and he is always correct in his own eyes. However, the realization of his own ego in the illumination of the light pushes a person to turn to the Creator for help. Moreover, thanks to the illumination, a person already sees the source of the illumination and he precisely knows to Whom he has to turn.
If the person’s plea is genuine, the Creator alters his nature. However, the desire to receive does not change; the only thing that changes is the intention from “receiving for his own sake” into “receiving for the Creator”, which corresponds to bestowal. This is how the gradual change of a person’s attributes into the Creator’s attributes takes place on each of the 125 levels.
Each level includes several processes:
the realization of evil: how much worse than the Creator one is in the left line;
what help one should receive from the Creator from His right line;
the combination of the right and left lines: how much can one receive from the right line, that is, to pass into the middle line.
As a result of these actions, another part of a person’s desire becomes equivalent to the Creator, enabling him to pass to the next level. This continues on each level, until all of a person’s attributes become equal to the Creator’s attribute.
A person’s desires determine his action. It is impossible to perform actions without desires! For example, tomorrow morning I have to wake up early, therefore I am going to sleep early today. Am I doing this against my desire? No! No one in this world is able to perform actions without the desire and without fulfilling this desire with pleasure. The desire is the energy or moving force that gives a person the opportunity to do something.
Sometimes it seems to us that we are doing something against our desire. This is not the case. We simply perform a calculation, that it is beneficial to do something even if opposing the desire. If beneficial to a person, he undertakes various unpleasant and undesired actions.
By choosing, a person is able to bring another desire closer, to create it and to realize it. Not a single one of us would be able to move even a finger without receiving the moving force for this or bringing another desire closer.
A person who does something good for another person thinks that this is really the case and that he truly does this action unselfishly. However, if he enters the whole depth of his thoughts he will see that he does everything with just one goal: to do something good for himself only, and everything else is his own lie.
If in addition a person studies Kabbalah, he is able to see how all of this works; that each is an absolute egoist and does not think of anyone other than himself, not even his own children. Simply, in the current stage the entire system of thoughts is faulty, and it seems impossible to a person to do something for another’s sake.
It is only possible to give to someone when receiving something in return, or benefiting in some way. One should not be ashamed of this fact. This is our nature. We either receive for self-gratification, or give in order to benefit from it in some way. This is no one’s fault. The only thing we need to do is aspire towards changing our attributes to the Creator’s attributes.
Kabbalah teaches people to accept a person just the way he was created. We cannot hate someone for this or get angry because we see these attributes in him. Nevertheless, it is difficult to communicate with the external world and to have the patience to observe the petty egoism of someone you may encounter. However, each person is created the way he should be. We should only try to help each other to change the attributes we have been given into the altruistic attributes.
What is suffering? It is everything that opposes our desire. As the Talmud says, if a person puts his hand in his pocket and takes out one coin, but he wanted another one, then he experiences suffering. Suffering is everything in life that does not correspond to our desire. We perceive suffering whenever we are in a bad mood, sick, or when we do not want to do something.
However, everything being done is happening for our good. One way or another, everything that happens advances us towards reaching the goal of creation. Except, in our distorted perceptions, good seems bad and sweet seems bitter.
In reality, it is possible to feel what is good only after passing the Machsom. Right now, however, everything is perceived as suffering. This happens due to the lack of fulfillment by the light. After all, light remains outside as long as our desires have not received the altruistic intention.
While a person is not getting closer to the spiritual, the will to receive is the angel of life for him. However, by studying Kabbalah and attracting the surrounding light to himself, the person gradually sees how much his will to receive for himself is an obstacle to changing his egoistic nature into altruism. He sees that this is a real enemy of advancing forward, and his desires become the angel of death instead of the angel of life.
When a person comes to realize the evil of his own egoism in comparison to the attributes of the light that he has perceived, a huge desire emerges to remove these chains at any cost. However, since one is unable to do this on his own, in despair he cries to the Creator for help. And he receives this help, if this is his only plea and it is authentic.
A person who wants to come closer to the spiritual has to be like everyone else: he has to work like everyone else and to have a family and children. The important thing is what he does in the two-three hours that are free from work and responsibilities at home. Does he spend them in front of the TV or in a restaurant, or does he put efforts into achieving the spiritual goal?
In either case, a person cannot talk about his spiritual work to anyone else; he has to thoroughly conceal what he feels with relation to the Creator. This is done in order not to damage another person’s spiritual path. Every person has a different path. Once reaching full correction, everything will become revealed since there will be no place for obstacles of egoistic jealousy.
When a person begins to study Kabbalah, it seems to him that he is moving backwards or standing in place. But in fact, this is a major sign that he is moving forward. The reason for this is that he evaluates his states in his not-yet-corrected perceptions.
Each consequent correction brings a student closer to acquiring the intention “for the sake of bestowal”. However, in order to do this, a person has to go through dozens of kinds of changes. He has to find out who he is and what exactly he wants, what the desire to receive means, what the material of creation is, and the meaning of “life” and “death”. A person comes to the conclusion that life means to feel the light, and death is the perception of the darkness, or the Creator’s absence from his perceptions. Before a person comes to the genuine understanding of what is good and what is bad, he first goes through many different states.
The Machsom is the barrier that blocks the light from entering our world. How is the Machsom different from the Masach (the screen)? The Masach is characterized by an attribute that is totally different than the Machsom. In front of the Machsom, there is the light in its entirety, and nothing conceals it. There, the person himself pushes the light away with the force of his desire to not receive the light for the sake of self-gratification.
The barrier-Machsom is outside of me and blocks all of the upper light from me. On the other hand, the Masach is something that a person places inside of himself by way of his inner realization and by his desire to not allow the light to enter him egoistically, but rather to accept it only for the sake of the Creator. When a person has the Masach, then the barrier is no longer necessary, because the person is able to oppose the light himself.
How is our path divided along the 125 levels?
We know that there are 125 levels of attainment between us and the world of Ein Sof. However, we only need to reach the world of Atzilut in order to become corrected, that is, we have to go through the worlds of Assiya, Yetzira and Beria. Each of them is counted as 2000 years, so there are 6000 years altogether. After that there is the correction above Tzimtzum Bet, or a correction in a different dimension called Tzimtzum Alef.
Our soul consists of five parts: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin (Z”A) and Malchut. They differ due to an increasingly greater desire to feel pleasure. They are divided into two parts: Galgalta ve Eynaim (Keter and Hochma) and AHP (Bina, Z’A and Malchut). In other words, Keter is called Gulgolet, Hochma is called Eynaim, Bina is called Ozen, ZA is called Hotem and Malchut is called Peh. The first part of the soul experiences pleasure from bestowing, and the second - from receiving. This is how every soul is constructed.
The only thing we have to correct is Galgalta ve Eynaim, or Kelim de-Ashpaa, meaning the bestowing desires. Our spiritual path begins when we ascend from our world. To ascend means to gradually correct GE. By ascending through the worlds of BYA to the world of Atzilut, we are affirming that our Kelim de-Ashpaa are corrected. We are not able to correct the Kelim de-Kabbalah or the AHP.
What are we able to do, in this case? We are able to gradually elevate our Kelim de-Kabbalah or AHP from the worlds of BYA into the world of Atzilut. This begins with elevating the least egoistic AHPs from the world of Beria, and then elevating the more egoistic AHPs from the world of Yetzira. This work concludes when the most egoistic Kelim from the world of Assiya have ascended. We do not correct the Kelim-desires themselves. Rather, we simply attach them to the Galgalta ve-Eynaim that corresponds to them, that is, we plug them into the bestowing desires.
Every time we ascend, we receive a specific additional amount of the light. Therefore, this action is called “ascent”. There are three ascents altogether. To be more precise, an ascent from three different places takes place: from the worlds of Beria, Yetzira and Assiya. The AHPs that ascend into the world of Atzilut are not the genuine desires to receive (Kelim de-Kabbalah), meaning, they are not a person’s “I” or the “Lev ha Even”. This is the part which a person cannot correct himself. The only thing that becomes corrected is a small part called “AHP de-Aliyah”. However, a person does not have to perform a huge correction. As soon as the above correction will be completed, the Creator Himself will correct the Lev ha Even.
In order for a person to know what he needs to correct, he has to see and feel what it is that needs to be corrected. This is the reason for the existence of the ascents that do not depend on a person, which are called “stimulation from above”. There are the Shabbaths, holidays and new months. This is given to a person only because he has already corrected his Kelim de-Ashpaa, that is, he does not want anything for himself and he is located in the world of Atzilut.
The first action or the first ascent will be the attachment of AHP de-Aliyah of the world of Beria. The second ascent takes place when the AHP of the world of Yetzira becomes attached. The third, with the attaching of AHP of the world of Assiya. When a person has ascended these three levels, then the correction of “Lev ha Even” takes place, and this is known as “Gmar Tikkun” or “the end of correction”.
There are two kinds of desires to feel pleasure. These are desires to feel pleasure from receiving, or from bestowing. The pleasure from bestowing is perceived in Kelim de-Ashpaa, and the pleasure from receiving is perceived in Kelim de-Kabbalah. Both of them are un-corrected in us. The easiest thing to correct is Kelim de-Ashpaa in such a way that I will give everything for the sake of the person to whom I am giving, rather than for my own pleasure. This is easier to correct because the action (bestowal) and the direction (for the sake of another person) have the same direction.
Kelim de-Kabbalah (AHP) allow a person to feel pleasure only when he receives. It is much more difficult to correct them. In order to correct them, a person has to give pleasure to another by receiving, and to receive only for this sake. To do this, a stronger connection with the Creator is necessary, because this correction passes through the very essence of the human “I”.
Therefore the AHP becomes corrected after G”E, and it becomes corrected gradually. In other words, it is not as difficult to ascend to the world of Atzilut with the corrected Kelim of G”E, as it is to attach the AHP afterwards. The reason for this is that the latter action is opposite to the intention.
All of the five worlds serve as barriers for the Creator’s light. The lower a world is, the more light it conceals. The worlds or barriers end at the Machsom, which positively conceals the light from our world, and only a small spark penetrates into it, which is necessary to support life in our world. This spark is called “Ner Dakik”. The Creator did this in order for us to be able to live without the Masach. The Masach is not necessary when there is no light but there is Ner Dakik.
This weak light or Ner Dakik is divided into a great multitude of parts. It “spins” the atoms, moves the molecules, and compels all of matter to exist, moving it towards development and giving life on all of the levels: the still, vegetative, animal and our level – the human level.
If, with the help of study, a teacher, and the group, a person nevertheless acquires a screen on his tiny egoism or on Aviut Shoresh, then this means that he is already able to withstand the smallest light, Nefesh, which is greater than Ner Dakik. That is, in this case a person is able to be in this light and not to receive it for his own sake. The Masach or screen is doing that which the Machsom did before. This is the passage from this world into the spiritual worlds, and the Machsom is no longer necessary. However, the Masach is blocking only the smallest light, Nefesh.
This is analogous to an example from our life. Suppose a person was brought up “not to steal”, and if we place $100 in front of him then he will not steal this money. However, if the amount of money that appears before him is greater than that which he was brought up “not to steal”, then he will not be able to withstand the temptation and his upbringing will be insufficient to prevent him from not stealing.
The same thing transpires in the spiritual. Wherever there is Ohr Nefesh, a person easily acts for the Creator's sake, easily perceives Him, has contact with the light and receives pleasure for the sake of bestowal. He is able to do this because he has a Masach for that level, which prevents him from receiving for his own sake. This state is called the world of Assiya.
After that, with the help of studying and additional efforts, a person then acquires a Masach on a stronger egoism or on Aviut Alef, and now he is already able to receive the light Ruach for the sake of bestowal. Correspondingly, in our previous example, a person has acquired the shield to “not steal” up to $1000, for example. In this case, a person can go from the world of Assiya into the world of Yetzira. Analogously, when a person acquires the Masach of Aviut Bet, then he is able to pass to the world of Beria.
This way, the barrier is eliminated during the passage from one world into the next. This means that a Masach becomes acquired in place of the barrier, which corresponds to the Aviut of the given world. The barrier goes inside of the person because he no longer needs it. A person becomes capable of carrying out the law of the given world on his own, that is, the law is simply not necessary for him because the person is above it, he is higher than the law, and he fulfills it or carries it out by way of his convictions.
Since our soul consists of five parts, we therefore have to acquire Masachs of five different levels and strengths, in accordance to the egoism’s weight:
-When a person acquires Masach with Aviut Shoresh, he crosses the Machsom and enters the spiritual level of the world of Assiya;
-Masach de-Aviut Alef gives a person the opportunity to ascend to the level of the world of Beria;
-Masach of Aviut Bet elevates a soul to the level of the world of Beria;
-Masach with Aviut Gimel elevates the soul’s level from the world of Beria to the world of Atzilut;
-and finally, Masah Dalet Aviut elevates a person (that is, it elevates a person’s soul, since a person is considered a soul in Kabbalah) to the world of Adam Kadmon.
After that, the soul ascends to the world of Ein Sof from the world of Adam Kadmon.
Since each world contains five Partzufim, and each Partzuf consists of five Sefirot, a person acquires a new level with every five Sefirot. For example, in the world of Assiya, the first five Sefirot allow a person to reach Malchut of the world of Assiya; the second five Sefirot elevate him to Z”A of the world of Assiya; five more elevate him to Bina of the world of Assiya, and the next five - to Hochma of the world of Assiya. The final five Sefirot allow the soul to reach Keter of the world of Assiya.
When the soul moves along the path, it gradually acquires Masach from Aviut de-Shoresh until Aviut de-Alef of the world of Yetzira. This continues each time, until the soul goes through all 125 levels by going through all of the worlds.
When a person is in the world of Assiya with Aviut de-Shoresh, it is considered that his soul is going through the process of conception (Ubar) in the mother's womb (Bina), and this period lasts for "nine months”. That is, the soul goes through the corresponding number of levels of development, called “intra-uteral”, which corresponds to the amount of time a woman is pregnant in our world.
The passage into Aviut Alef and, correspondingly, into the world of Yetzira, is called the birth of the soul, which corresponds to a person’s birth in our world. Presence in the world of Beria corresponds to growth and feeding over the course of two years, when the soul has to receive the light that gradually grows the Masach in it.
There, the soul is still in the state of Katnut (Kelim G”E). On the other hand, passage into the world of Atzilut already symbolizes the beginning of the gradual Gadlut of the soul (the acquisition of Kelim AHP). This continues until 13 years (adulthood or Bar Mitzvah), when the soul becomes independent in the world of Atzilut. That is, it already has the Machsom that allows it to begin to receive for the sake of bestowal (or to attach Kelim de-Kabbalah with the help of AHP de-Aliya).
The world of Atzilut contains Zachar (Z”A) and Nekiva (Nukva). Relative to each other, they are in various positions, depending on the soul’s state (Katnut or Gadlut); various Zivugim transpire between them, and so on.
In the spiritual world, there is a notion called “Eretz” or earth. This is the place where you are located or where you are going. Eretz comes from the word “Ratzon” or desire. Our entire soul consists of one huge desire (Eretz), which contains various small desires (Artznot or Retzanot) as well as desires of the “nations of the world”, which are called other nations.
Eretz is closer to the Creator than the spiritual “other nations”, which are Ever ha Yarden (Jordan), Mitzraim (Egypt) and Suria (Syria). These are our neighbors and they want our earth, or Eretz Israel, because this is where the Creator is located, or this is the desire closest to Him.
All of correction must begin with us, or from the purer desires. On one hand, they are the closest to Eretz Israel; on the other hand, they are the farthest away from it, because there exists a reverse dependency between the light and the desires.
In order to return to the Creator, a person must be at his most egoistic state, that is, he has to feel that something is missing from his life. On one hand, he is an egoist according to his Kelim, meaning that he is far from the Creator according to his egoistic desires. On the other hand, when he alters his Kelim or intentions with the entire force of his desire to come closer to the Creator, then he is closest to Him.
When a person begins to study, he gradually learns to separate his desires into their various components according to the degree of their Aviut, and he begins to evaluate which of his desires he should begin working with and correct. In addition, when he works with his desires he also understands where he located, according to his internal spiritual map.
My teacher wrote down everything that he heard from his father. When I came to study with him and started asking difficult questions that bothered me, he would always avoid the answer, until finally one day he offered me his notes to read. Here I would be able to find what interests me and understand what I have to understand by rereading them when I am in different states. This would be enough to last me for my entire life, even when he is gone.
Our conversation took place in 1981, and he gave me his notebook. I made a copy of it and, for ten years, I read from the copy. In 1991, on the day before his death, he gave me the original. He said: “Read it. It’s for you”. He asked me to come earlier the next day. He knew what would happen before-hand, but I did not know. I arrived late, and when I arrived he was almost unconscious and he died as I watched.
The articles and notes that he gave me are very important and deep. Every time a person reads them he thinks that he understands something, but when he reads it again he sees how wrong his previous comprehension was, and he constantly continues to reveal newer and newer depths in it. How one comprehends that which he reads depends on what state he is in.
These articles were written from the highest point, or from the height of attainment. However, a person can read them while he is on any of the lower levels, including the level of our world. Every person is able to find his personal state in these articles, as well as what he needs to do in this state and what the author wants to say to the reader during this moment.
I recommend for everyone to read these articles; even a few lines a day is sufficient. My Rav used to open the notebook before he went to sleep for only a few seconds, and this was sufficient to allow the light to expand into the soul.
Right now you and I will read one of the deepest and most serious of Rav’s articles, which must become a desktop manual for anyone who wants to unify with the Creator. This article contains Baal HaSulam’s entire Torah, his entire approach to creation, and everything that a person should constantly hold inside of himself and perceive.
This is the first article in the book entitled “Shamati”, which I have published. It is called “There is None Else Beside Him”:
It is written that “there is none else beside Him”, meaning that there is no other power in the world with the ability to do anything against Him. And what man sees, namely, that there are things in the world, which deny the household of above, is because He wills it so.
And it is deemed a correction, called “the left rejects and the right adducts, meaning that that which the left rejects is considered correction. This means that there are things in the world, which from the beginning aim to divert a person from the right way, and they reject him from holiness.
And the benefit from these rejections is that through them a person receives a need and a complete desire for the Creator to help him, since he sees that otherwise he is lost. Not only does he not progress in his work, but he sees that he regresses, and he lacks the strength to observe Torah and Mitzvoth even if not for Lishma (lit. the sake of the Creator). That only by genuinely overcoming all the obstacles, above reason, he can observe Torah and Mitzvoth.
But he does not always have the strength to overcome above reason, that otherwise he is forced to deviate, God forbid, from the way of the Creator, and even from not for Lishma. And he, who always feels that the shattered is greater than the whole, meaning that there are a lot more descents than ascents, and he does not see an end to these predicaments, and he will forever remain outside of holiness, for he sees that it is difficult for him to observe even as little as a jot, unless through overcoming above reason, but he is not always able to overcome. And what shall be the end of it all?
The Creator is the only ruler of creation and it was He who created man with specific attributes and gave him all of the necessary strengths. He surrounds man with an environment that optimally helps him to advance towards the goal of creation. Nevertheless, we can see that despite this fact, the Creator Himself does not only not help man directly, but He also constantly confuses him with various problems, such as making him lose his job, have problems in his family, be afflicted by various illnesses, misfortunes, suffering and many more things.
This kind of a relationship with the Creator lasts for a long time, but a person has no other way to advance than to go through these states and thus to acquire the experience that will later give him the ability to receive perfection, eternity, infinity and unity with the Creator.
This period comes to an end when a person arrives at the decision that only the Creator can personally help him. This decision causes the genuine demand to be established in the person’s heart; a demand for the Creator to open his eyes and heart and to really bring him closer to eternal union with Him.
The Creator wants for man to acquire all of the worlds’ attributes by ascending to those worlds from our world and by replacing the Creator in each of the worlds. However, there is no possibility of doing this without the Creator’s help. A person is not able to do anything on his own. All suffering and misfortunes happen to us because our desires or attributes are opposite to the Creator’s attributes, that is, they are opposite to the light.
As a result of the opposition of attributes, everything that we see in our world does not exist in reality, but it is merely the projection of our attributes onto the light. We are seeing our own attributes. When the light comes from above, a person does not feel the light, but rather he feels his own negative attributes in the light. In order to feel the light itself, a person must rid himself of the egoism’s evil or of his obstacles.
When a person cries to the Creator for help, it suddenly becomes clear that: “all the rejections he had experienced had come from the Creator.
That means that the rejections he had experienced were not because he was at fault, for not having the ability to overcome, but because these rejections are for those who truly want to draw nearer to the Creator. And in order for such a person not to be satisfied with only a little, namely, not to remain as a little child without knowledge, he receives help from above so that he will not be able to say that Thank God, he observes Torah and performs good deeds and what else could he ask for?
And only if that person has a true desire, he will receive help from Above. And he is constantly shown his faults in his present state; that is, he is sent thoughts and views, which work against his efforts. This is in order for him to see that he is not one with the Creator. And as much as he overcomes, he always sees how he is found in a position farther from holiness than others, who feel one with the Creator.
But he, on the other hand, always has his complaints and demands, and he cannot justify the behavior of the Creator, and how He behaves toward him. And it pains him that he is not one with the Creator, until he comes to feel that he has no part in holiness whatsoever.
And although he is occasionally awakened from above, which momentarily revives him, but soon he falls into an abyss. However, this is what causes him to come to realize that only the Creator can help and really draw him closer.
A man must always try and cleave to the Creator, namely, that all his thoughts will be about Him. That is to say, that even if he is in the worst state, from which there cannot be a greater descent, he should not leave His domain, namely, think that there is another authority which prevents him from entering into holiness, and which has the power to either benefit or harm.
That is, he must not think that there is a matter of the power of the Other Side Sitra Achrah, which does not allow man to do good deeds and follow the Creator’s ways; but he should think that all is done by the Creator.”
The Creator gives a person painful blows in order to return him to the goal of creation. Usually, if a person feels good, then he delights in it and does not care whether the Creator exists or not. However, it is important for a person to be one with the Creator specifically when he is in a good state. This is why the Creator sends us blows - in order for people to be reminded of Him. When a person feels bad, then, one way or another, he begins to think about the Creator. However, all of the work consists in being with the Creator when you feel good.
You can see that Kabbalah talks about the most refined of the souls’ perceptions. People do not expect a blow. It comes unexpectedly, when a person is cut off from the Creator. Each one of us is under the personal governance of the Creator. This governance becomes expressed when we forget about Him. In order to remind us of Himself, He sends us special signals in the form of fate’s blows, and this is His way of saying that we must always direct our thoughts in the direction of the Creator. Nothing more is required.
“The Ba’al Shem Tov said, that he who says that there is another power in the world, namely shells, is in a state of “serving other gods”, that it is not necessarily the thought of heresy that is the sin, but if he thinks that there is another authority and force apart from the Creator, by that he is committing a sin. Furthermore, he who says that man has his own authority, meaning that he says that yesterday he himself did not want to follow the Creator’s ways, that too is considered to be committing the sin of heresy. Meaning that he does not believe that only the Creator leads the world.”
There is not one single thought that comes to our mind,, that does not come from the Creator. This was predetermined in the goal of creation, and we cannot change anything. In this case, who am “I”? “I” am the one who feels that which is happening up above. At first, we perceive all of this as confusion, and this is because the spiritual that is above is entering us or into the material.
However, gradually this begins to find its place in a person and it begins to work, and then we understand that things cannot be any other way. “Ascent” is when a person agrees with what the Creator is doing, and thus a person feels fulfillment, perfection and eternity; he separates from his body and relates only to the spiritual.
But when he has committed a sin, and he must certainly regret it and be sorry for having committed it, but here too we should place the pain and sorrow in the right order: where does he place the cause of the sin, that it is that point he should be sorry for.
And a man should then feel sorry and say: “I committed that sin because the Creator hurled me down from holiness to a place of filth, to the lavatory, where the filth is”. That is to say that the Creator gave him a desire and a craving to amuse himself and breathe air in a place of stench. (And you might say, as it says in the books, that sometimes a man incarnates in the body of a pig, that he receives a desire and craving to take livelihood from things he had already determined were litter, but now he again wants to revive himself in them).
And also when a man feels he’s in a state of ascent, and tastes some good flavor in the work, he must not say: “Now I am in a state where I understand that it is worthwhile to worship the Creator. Rather he should know that now the Creator has fancied him, and for that reason He draws him near, which is the reason why he tastes a good flavor in the work. And he should be careful never to leave the domain of holiness, and say that there is another operating force besides the Creator. (But this means that the matter of finding favor in the eyes of the Creator, or the opposite, does not depend on man himself, but everything depends on the Creator. And man, with his external mind, cannot comprehend why now the Creator likes him and after that He does not.)
And likewise when he regrets that the Creator does not draw him near, he should also be careful not to be sorry for himself, for having been distanced from the Creator, for by so doing he becomes a recipient for his own benefit, and he who receives is separated from the Creator. Rather he should regret the exile of the Divine Presence, meaning, for inflicting sorrow upon the Divine Presence.
The Creator sends only goodness to a person. However, when it passes through egoism it becomes perceived as bad, such as disease, stress and various life misfortunes. When a person feels bad, he is unable to thank the Creator at the same time. If a person knew and felt regret and sorrow for how bad the Creator feels from feeling the difference between the goodness He sends and the bad a person perceives, then the person would behave differently. Or, if the person was able to feel the Creator’s joy when the person himself feels good.
In other words: all of the thoughts, all of the actions, and everything that happens, must be directed at the Creator. This is the only way a person is able to exit out of his “I” or his body, and this signifies his entrance into the spiritual.
A person of our world does not have a soul. However, when he begins to desire the spiritual he acquires a “point in the heart” or an embryo of a soul that demands a person’s return to his spiritual root according to his nature. The soul yearns for the Creator and pulls the person along with it. The person does not know where he is being pulled because the Creator is still concealed from him. However, this point of the soul is pulling him somewhere, even though this is not yet the real soul.
When a person begins to work on himself, his point in the heart gradually increases. It becomes bigger and bigger, but it still remains black because a person perceives the darkness and the feeling that something is missing increases even more than before. When the point finally reaches a specific size that is sufficient for him, he acquires a Masach (screen) around this point, which is orientation towards bestowal. When this happens, the light is able to enter into this point, and it orders all of the desires into five parts according to the light’s attributes. These parts are Keter, Hochma, Bina, ZA and Malchut. Thus, a person acquires a soul.
The desire to receive changes from the smallest (Keter) to the biggest (Malchut). The desire to receive is smallest in Keter and Hochma, and this is why they are called the “bestowing desires”. This state in a person is called “small”.
If a person in our world has only animal desires, then he is a two-legged animal. The next state after this is when a “point in the heart” emerges in him, that is, an aspiration for the spiritual emerges in a person. It does not allow him to rest even though he does not know what it is. If a person continues to intensely study Kabbalah then he arrives at the third state and crosses the Machsom, thus acquiring the screen with Aviut de-Shoresh. This state is called “Galgalta with the light Nefesh”, and it emerges in a person to replace the black point.
This state is also called the “fetus” (Ubar). Equivalently to the earthly one, it does not want anything and it is located in the mother’s womb, or in the higher Partzuf that carefully raises it. After that, the fetus develops for nine months, that is, it has to go though nine particular Sefirot that are located within Sefira Maclhut, from Nefesh de-Nefesh (Keter de-Maclhut) until Yehida de-Nefesh (Malchut de-Malchut).
When it reaches the latter point, it is no longer Ubar. It becomes born and acquires Kli Hochma with the light Ruach (from Nefesh until Yehida) with Aviut Alef. This period is called “feeding” (Yenika) and lasts for two years or 24 months. At this point, the Partzuf reaches the state of “Katnut” (Galgalta ve-Einaim) and the full Aviut Alef. Yenika differs from Ubar, which did not desire anything because it received the light.
How does a baby receive milk for nourishment? When a mother’s menstruation ends, her blood is used to develop the fetus. During birth, the birth blood or the unclean blood comes out, and it can be corrected. This blood becomes the unclean desires, or the desires that do not have the intention for bestowal. In addition, there is another part of the blood that turns into milk after the birth. It ascends from Sefira Yesod, where the womb is located, to the breast (Haze) or to Sefira Tifferet of the Partzuf.
After our world has emerged, everything that happens in the spiritual world and all of the spiritual laws are naturally carried out in our world as well. By studying the spiritual Partzufim’s entire process of conception, development, birth, feeding, and growth into adulthood, we are able to understand precisely what is happening, and, most importantly, why this happens in our world.
After feeding follows the Partzuf of growth into adulthood. The Partzuf receives the light Hochma, or Gadlut (Mochin) into Kelim Bina AHP (Ozen, Hotem, Pe), Aviut Bet, Gimel, Dalet with the light Neshama, Haya and Yehida.
Each one of us should not do anything other than refrain from interfering with the Creator’s work with us, no matter what He is doing to us. The only thing we should do is avoid going beyond the boundaries of the Creators’ governance. If a person is able to make this kind of an effort, then he will be called Ubar in the spiritual. In the state of “Yenika” (feeding) a person already has the ability to ask for something, that is, he enters into a dialogue with the Creator. After two years of Yenika a person needs upbringing and he can already be given a small amount of Ohr Hochma, which begins with the light Neshama.
In the state of “Katnut” the entire system of the spiritual relations between the Creator and creation is built in just the same way as the relations between a mother and a baby in our world. All of the problems that emerge between the latter can be solved from the point of view of the equivalent state in the spiritual.
The Creator sends obstacles or problems to a person on purpose, in order for the person to begin to come closer to Him by making specific efforts. Without obstacles and problems in our lives, we would not have desires and would never be able to advance.
If Adam’s soul did not break, then it would have remained a single uncorrected soul, and it would have been very difficult for it to become corrected. Correction consists in connecting one part of the soul to another part. Only after this happens do they both connect to the Creator.
Work consists in correcting a person’s relation to the circumstances, or to that which he receives from the Creator. The result of this kind of work is unity with the Creator and the justification of all of the Creator’s actions.
Full unity with each other can be accomplished in a group of students. People begin with the smallest possible state and they build boundaries that are comfortable for egoists. That is, they create boundaries that are suitable for everyone who comes to the group, in order to enable mutual closeness and the achievement of a single goal.
No one should suffer from these boundaries; they should not become a prison or a cage. On the other hand, the boundaries constantly change for the better according to the inner state of the people who enter them, and they constantly help everyone reach the given goal. The tighter the connection within the group, the more reasons for the group to have a connection with the Creator will emerge in it.
When a person begins to advance in the spiritual, he loses the desire for it. To be more precise, more egoism is added to him, or more desire to receive, against which he is not able to withstand. In this case, nothing can be done, besides once again transforming the animal egoism into spiritual egoism with the help of studying and mutual work in the group.
A person has to analyze every thought that comes to him and to remember that it comes from the Creator. He has to sort it out and to check whether it is opposite to the goal towards which he aspires: will I go together with this thought or against it? Is the Creator calling me in this case by attracting me to Him, or does he want to awaken me by pushing me away? There is a difference in the two, but nevertheless, in both cases He wants to bring me closer to Him.
When we are in this world and we begin to study the spiritual world, we first learn to build our inner attitude according to the spiritual world, and then we gradually learn the external attitude. The Creator wants us to live in this world according to spiritual laws. The more a person is able to exit out of his “I” to the outside, the more he acquires the ability to feel the spiritual and to rid himself of his body, which is the cause of all his problems.
For example, by studying the world of Atzilut, we are able to use it as a model for how society should be constructed in our world. By doing this, we immediately become influenced by the spiritual forces. They protect us, take care of us, and direct us by giving each person the amount that he is able to perceive with his uncorrected Kelim.
These two worlds, our world and the spiritual, are parallel to each other. The spiritual forces and the light descend upon us from above. However, they are not able to clothe our world, because our world is opposite to spirituality due to its desire to receive for its own sake. Yet, if we build even a small society that is equivalent to the laws of the spiritual world, then all of the positive forces from above will be able to clothe the members of this society, elevating them to a height of the spiritual level from which these forces descend.
We are required to seriously prepare and to build the spiritual borders. This is the best thing a person can do for himself, his family, the people around him and the whole world. Gradually, the whole world will be able to feel something that is more exalted, if even a small society will be created in the world that lives by the spiritual-altruistic laws. We have to want this very much, and then we will receive help from above.
The Creator created the soul that has the desire to receive. The amount of these desires is 600,000. If the soul is divided into this many parts, then each one of them will be called a person’s soul. What is the difference between the parts? The difference is in the quantity and quality of the desires. I am created in such a way that I aspire for one kind of pleasure, while a different person aspires for another one. There are different desires and different pleasures, but the upper light is only one. The difference is only in our desires, which are different in every person.
It is impossible to substitute one desire for another. Therefore, the common soul contains all of the desires that were created by the Creator. Each desire is a specific kind of light, and every person separately perceives each pleasure in a unique way. Moreover, this person is not able to feel a different kind of pleasure.
Originally, we were created different from each other with regard to the kind of desire we have and the quantity of a desire. We should not complain to anyone or about anything, because this is what the Creator wanted. Therefore, every person has his own path and his own incarnations in this world, until we ultimately arrive at the final goal of creation.
Nevertheless, there is a common and unifying factor within all of us. This is the collective goal of creation: to correct the desire to receive for our own sake, which was created in us, into the desire to receive for the Creator’s sake. This will allow every person to unify into one with the Creator and to connect with the others within Him. And in doing so we acquire the eternal, infinite and huge collective soul, receiving the full and perfect pleasure within it.
The egoistic Kli in which we were created is very small, and the pleasure it is able to receive is limited in the quantity, duration and quality of the pleasure. We chase after something, and we suffer when we do not have it. We look for it, and as soon as we achieve it we lose interest in it. Next, there follows a new suffering and the chase for a new pleasure, and this continues until we finally end our life in this world without having fulfilled even a part of our desires.
If only there were no time difference between our desire and the pleasure we receive! Just imagine: I suddenly want something, and I receive it right away. This is called perfection. And of course, I am not talking about the attainment of a small animal pleasure, but rather about the attainment and perception of boundless pleasure that immediately fulfills any spiritual desire.
Every person, with his small egoistic desire, is able to change his intention into “for the sake of the Creator” and thus to increase and eternalize his desires, as well as the huge and boundless pleasure that he will receive in them. This pleasure is equal to the unified collective soul, and this means that it will become equal to the Creator.
Firstly, every soul has to become connected with all of the other souls. Then, each soul’s tiny desire will grow to become the size of the collective soul and it will receive accordingly. The famous communist motto that says: “from each person according to his ability and to each person according to his need”, comes from the spiritual and relates only to the spiritual.
The part, “To receive according to one’s need” – depends on a person’s spiritual level or his screen. The more a person wants to receive, the more desires he still needs to correct. His desire to receive for his own sake does not allow him to correctly receive according to his need, and it limits him even more. In addition, if he is not corrected yet, then he will not be able to bestow according to his ability.
Only by changing his intention from reception into bestowal, that is, by passing into the spiritual, does a person begin to correctly understand the meaning of the call to “bestow according to one’s ability and receive according to one’s need”. When a person understands this correctly then he decides once and for all to be completely fulfilled, and to be eternal and perfect.
When a person is in the spiritual, he learns to bestow more and more and to receive only the minimum he needs for life. When a person unifies with the Creator he becomes the same as Him, that is, he bestows everything without receiving anything for himself. However, this is precisely the reason why he becomes fulfilled by everything. Ultimately, bestowal becomes the reward, and this is the reason why that kind of life is eternal; the light does not have any interruptions and it is constantly inside of the Kli. After all, death is precisely when the light exits out of the Kli.
We begin with the state connected to the pleasures of this world, such as money, social status and family. That is, everything relating to the animal level and a small amount related to the human level. In this state it is impossible to sin or perform a commandment. We can only do so in the spiritual. If a person is ready to restrict the use of these desires or more precisely, ready to direct one's use of the desires for the sake of the spiritual, then we acquires the ability to enter the first level of the spiritual world. The light on this level is much greater than that of our world.
A person asks for a screen in order to withstand the animal pleasure and to receive it only for the sake of the Creator. When we receive the screen, we correct at the first level and proceed to the second. There we are given an even greater desire to receive and an equally greater light. By acquiring the Masach with a greater anti-egoistic force, a person also corrects the second level and ascends higher.
Let us consider the line corresponding to our world as “zero”. In this case the first increase of the desire to receive on the first spiritual level will be equivalent to “-1” and this corresponds to ascent. The distance between “-1” and “+1” is equivalent to the size or height of the Partzuf. Next, we receive the egoism “-2”. In order to overcome it we need the Masach “+2”. This is how ascent to the second level takes place. And so forth. The higher one ascends, the lower the fall in order to ascend even higher.
Malchut of the world of Infinity received light “for the sake of the Creator” in the world of Nekudim, and subsequently broke. The breaking of Kelim occurred, causing the intermixing of all the egoistic and altruistic Kelim. Sparks of the Creator’s altruistic attributes fell into each egoistic desire, and this enables the desire to become corrected attaching it to the spiritual.
The greater one's predestination is and the higher Kelim of the soul located within a person are, the greater descents and ascents are predestined for one. Therefore, we can never judge another by their actions, since we can never know what corrections they are undergoing at the time.
IImagine the earth as the egoistic level. We are located on it, with the sky above from which the light descends. If the light does not fall on us then we are unable to tear away from earth. Such are our attributes. However, if the light shines on us then, figuratively speaking, we tear away from earth towards the light. The light’s strength is equal to the height of the elevation or the height of a person’s soaring over the earth, meaning over our egoistic desire “to receive”. As soon as the light ceases to shine on us, we immediately fall down to earth as if we had never ascended. We do not possess any positive forces in order to ascend. It is only the Creator’s light which elevates us.
The higher the spiritual world is located the greater the distance between fall and ascent. In the world of Atzilut, the fall can nearly reach the level of our world. The great Kabbalist Rabbi Shimon, who was on the penultimate spiritual level, suddenly felt himself to be “the simple Shimon from the market”. That is, all of his knowledge, corrected attributes and attainment suddenly disappeared and he became equivalent to a simple and primitive fool. This is how the book of Zohar describes his state.
This happens to all of us, even when beginning our spiritual ascent. How can we return from a fall? We can plug into the group even without having the slightest desire, by performing actions automatically. Sometimes it is impossible to open a book and read, and at times the only way out may be to sleep, that is, to disconnect ourselves from everything and to let time do its work…
The most detrimental situation can occur when one is in the highest point of spirituality and begins to selfishly take pleasure in the good feeling of being there; safe, balanced, clear, pleasant, and eternal. It is precisely at this moment, and for this reason, one falls. During this state it is very important to continually realize it has been given to us in order to keep our thought and intention “for the sake of the Creator”. However, it is impossible to stay with it. The reason for this is that in order to advance further it is necessary to fall. Besides falling, there is no other way to acquire additional desires to receive which allow us to ascend once again.
The Partzuf is our inner moral state in relation to others, and is our level of development. It is impossible to attain the light without first acquiring the desire for it. It is also impossible to apprehend the good without the bad. For example, one can ascend for 15 units and then fall on the 16th, because the person has seen their true attributes in their worst form. By ascending we become illuminated by a great light and can see ourselves in comparison to the best attributes of the higher level.
All previous levels continue to live in us. A person is able to see the bad when on a high spiritual level. The greater the light that shines on a person the worse one sees their self in relation to the light. This rule applies until we arrive at the final level, or full correction.
Rabbi Baruch Ashlag writes in the letter to his friends and students (“Shamati. Igrot”, 2; the italics are the translated text):
According to the ARI and the Commentary to TES, it is said that during Shefirat HaKelim (breaking of the vessels) in the world of Nekudim, Melech Daat that existed at the level of Keter had fallen first out of all other Malachim. It is so because that which was initially coarser but had reached the highest level of correction by acquiring Masach, is regarded as the worst and thus falls lower than other Malachim at the moment of the breaking of vessels and loss of Masach.
This can be explained in the following way: people who are following the path of the Creator have a double desire to receive: they desire the material as well as the spiritual. Therefore, people who were close to Baal HaSulam possessed a Masach on their Aviut while they were close to him. However, now that he is no longer beside them because he has died, they no longer need to create a Masach. Their entire work consists in appearing to be “holy men” or “righteous men”. They are left with Aviut without Masach and they have lost everything they possessed before. The more a person enters the spiritual the more he should beware of these kinds of people and stay away from them. I wrote this in a concise way, because I do not want my thoughts to linger on them. It is known that a person is located in the place where his thoughts are.
In order to understand the aforesaid better I will provide a small example. It is known that there exists an intermediate state between any two levels. This intermediate state includes that which is common for both of the levels. For example, the middle state between the still and vegetative states is corals. Between the vegetative and animal levels there exists the so-called "Kelev Sade”. These are animals whose belly buttons are connected to the earth and feed from it. Between the animal and human levels there is the ape. What is the middle state between truth and falseness? What is the state that consists of both of these notions together?
Before I explain this I will add one more rule: it is easier to see a bigger thing than a smaller one. Therefore, the less falseness there is, the more difficult it is to see the truth. That is, to see the extent to which a person is mistaken when it seems to him that he is following the right path. There is a piece of truth in this, because a person does not yet see the entire falseness in order to see the truth in spite of it or because of it.
If you ask anyone on the street who has no connection to Kabbalah, they will tell you that they do nothing bad and are no different from anyone else. According to the minimal realization of evil one possesses, a person thinks that the path being followed is correct. However, when falsehood accumulates in us, then if desired, it is possible to acquire the opportunity to see our true state. When we see the complete falsehood, we understand that we have been following the wrong path entirely. It is then that we are able to ascend to the path of truth. When we come to realize that our current state is no longer endurable and that it is unbearable, we arrive at the final point of tolerating this evil. This is when we ask the Creator for help.
This point, meaning the point of truth that shows a person that he is following the path of falseness, is the middle or the connecting link between truth and falseness. It marks the end of the falseness, meaning that from this moment on a person begins the path of truth.
Now we will be able to understand what Baal HaSulam said: that before we arrive at “Lishma” (for the sake of the Creator) it is first necessary for “Lo Lishma” (for your own sake) to become as great as possible, and only then we can go on to “Lishma”. According to the above, we can say that “Lo Lishma” is the falseness and “Lishma” is the truth. When the falseness is still small, meaning that there are still very few good deeds, this means that “Lo Lishma” is still small and it does not allow a person to see the truth. In this state, it seems to a person that he is following the correct path of “Lishma”.
However, when a person studies the Torah and commandments day and night, he is already able to see the truth due to the fact that his entire falseness has collected into one great lie and it helps him understand the extent to which his path is false. In this case the person begins to correct his actions, knowing that all of his previous actions were “Lo Lishma”. This is precisely what the middle point is. It is the starting point for the passage to the truth, that is, to “Lishma”. And it was only yesterday that the person still considered his previous path to be directed towards “Lishma”. This is how a person’s state and his path become changed, in the case that a person’s egoism as well as his evaluation of it, increase.
The Creator is performing work on us in every circumstance we are in, regardless of a bad or good state. We do not have power to make decisions and do not decide anything. We can only organize the path of development, not change it. If we look at this path through the eyes of an egoist then we will be afraid. If, however, we see our egoism from the outside, realizing it as an evil that needs to be annihilated, then we will immediately want to remove it and replace it with altruism.
It seems that right now you and I are sitting here in the group, and someone out there is determining our fate for us. However, this is not the case. It is true that we do not determine anything. If we already understand this and we are ready to suffer through the next advancement, this means that we have slightly distanced ourselves from the animal state and we are ready for the spiritual state. In this case, we will receive it. However, if we do not yet have this kind of readiness, then we will not receive anything from above.
I strongly hope that we will be safeguarded by the upper forces. We can never know how to take the next step. We do not know what the soul is, what the Creator is, what our final goal is, and in which direction it lies. The same thing applies to our lives. We do not know how to act and what will happen tomorrow, no matter how much we may try to make our lives safe.
A person must perceive all obstacles placed before him as the signal for the next step. We have to know how to act in each particular case and how to get rid of the current difficult state. If a person is working in this direction, then he prepares himself for the next state. All bad things we encounter along our path, and all suffering and misfortunes that we overcome and that we perceive as an integral part of advancement, prepare us for the good.
The path forward consists of two components: the left side and the right side. The left side is the desires (Kelim) of the next level. They are manifested as various obstacles, problems and difficulties we must overcome, and we must endure in spite of them. This too is a step forward, but from the opposite side. The Creator sends us these states in order to enable us to take a step forward with their help.
If a person perceives absolutely everything that happens to him as good, then he immediately acquires a connection with the Creator. A person maintains this connection as long as he perceives all difficulties that come to him as an opportunity to advance and to justify everything, no matter how difficult it is.
The Creator created a desire that allows us to perceive everything surrounding us as either good or bad, depending on the fulfillment of our desire. If I suffer, this means that my desire to receive is not fulfilled. More correctly, if my desire is not fulfilled then I suffer. If I feel pleasure, then this is because my desire to receive is satisfied.
How can we separate ourselves from our dependency on the fulfillment of the desire to receive? How can we make things work in such a way that, during any state – regardless of whether our desire receives pleasure or not – we will not perceive emptiness (or lack of pleasure) as suffering?
This is possible only with the help of the intention or the orientation of the pleasure. The desire cannot be altered or corrected. It is an animal attribute; it is nature that was created by the Creator. If a person does not check whether his desire is directed at the goal of creation, and instead he acts according to what the desire itself is telling him, then he still relates to the animal level of development rather than the “human” level. As long as a person fulfills all his desires without checking his motivation or his goal of receiving fulfillment, he remains an animal. That is, he is located beneath the Machsom - in our world.
On the other hand, when a person begins to check and sort out his desires (for what sake is he fulfilling them, to what end does he receive pleasure and why) and to ask various questions about the reason for his pleasure, then he begins to be a person. He understands that there is a source of all of the pleasures and, if this is the case, then it is possible to demand of his nature to do something to achieve correction. Then, a person takes the desires that were created by the Creator and, with the help of the intention “for the sake of the Creator,” he fulfills those same desires, transforming them into a source of bestowal.
Why do we need bodily suffering? Does it disappear as we begin to perceive spiritual suffering, such as the perception of lack of love for the Creator? At the end of his life, Baal HaSulam endured severe suffering and people asked him why he did not rid himself of it. He replied that if a person knew how much he benefits from it, then, even if he could do so, he would not run away from suffering. Our soul needs everything that we experience and then this passes into the Kelim for receiving the light…
Does this mean that we have to ask for more diseases and blows on our heads, in order to then receive more light? No. A person has to perceive everything as a means to correct the Kelim of his soul that are not yet corrected.
Every suffering corresponds to the correction of a specific part of the soul. Sometimes the correction takes place due to the study of Kabbalah. Sometimes it occurs when people take care of the aged or children. Other times, various illnesses and suffering serve as correction. Along with suffering we receive various means that accelerate the correction, such as progress, medicine and mutual help.
In the spiritual, the intention is action. Our actions only alter our attitude towards the Creator’s actions and towards His governance. It is not by chance that a person’s spiritual work is called “Avodat ha Shem” or “the Creator’s work”, because it is precisely the Creator who does all of the work, and we only observe His work and justify it to the degree we are corrected. If our attitude is incorrect then we do not see anything. However, if a person is able to observe what is happening to him, without any connection with himself, he passes the Machsom. In the spiritual, the name “action” refers to the very orientation of the action.
If a person receives the ability to see with the suffering also the source of the suffering, then this person is beginning to have a connection with the Source. These people then become religious; they begin to believe in the Creator, to pray to Him and to thank Him. How can this be so? A person receives something bad, yet he blesses the Source?
This occurs because when a person reveals the Creator, he simultaneously receives the ability to justify Him. If we agree with the fact that the Creator exists, then we are able to justify Him. The levels of justifying the Creator, meaning the degree to which a person views the Creator’s actions as righteous, are called “the levels of the worlds”. I can only come as close to the Creator as how much I justify Him. The Creator adds a negative perception to the left or egoistic side, but a person is able to take forces from the right side in order to justify the left side. As a result, he ascends to a higher level.
According to nature, our body naturally works according to the principle “maximum pleasure with minimum efforts”. This principle is preserved on all levels. Without having awareness that we are doing so, we are constantly carrying out our desire to receive and feel delight. Naturally, our intention corresponds to our desire. We do not control whether this is good or bad, and we do not ask ourselves the question of why and what for do we carry out all of our desires. To carry out that which we desire is the basis of egoism.
Where is the boundary of attaching intentions to my actions? There is no boundary. If I ascend to the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) then I clothe my intention “for the sake of the Creator” on the tiniest action of this world. In this way, I come to reveal all of the Creator’s actions, from the biggest to the smallest. Increasingly lower desires constantly become revealed to a person, desires that he did not even suspect were there.
These desires become revealed to him because he has the ability to form the correct intention over them, and thus to correct his attitude or relation to them. If a person lacks the required intention, he remains an animal. The presence of an intention over a specific part of the desires transforms that part of an “animal in a person” into a “person in a person”. The more intentions of bestowal a person acquires, the bigger part of his desires becomes “a person” or “human”.
All of the levels from our world until the Creator are levels of increase of the intention “for the sake of the Creator”. A desire does not increase or decrease on its own. Simply, not all desires are immediately revealed to a person. Rather, they become revealed only to the degree of a person’s ability to form the correct intention over them.
The Creator knows what the person must correct right now. Reshimot are records of a person’s previous states, or states he was in prior to his soul’s clothing into the body. Gradually, one by one, the Reshimot become revealed or manifested in a person, and he must successively make efforts in order to create the intention “for the sake of the Creator” over them. The person himself should not think that he needs to correct something right now. Rather, he should pay attention to what he receives from above.
You asked me to comment on the first part of the “Introduction to the book of Zohar”. The book of “Zohar” contains this, but let us try to add explanations. (The italics are the translated text.)
In this introduction, I would like to clarify matters that are seemingly simple. Matters that everyone fumbles with, and which much ink has been spilled over in attempting to clarify. Yet we have not reached a concrete and sufficient knowledge of them. And here are the questions:
1) What is our essence? 2) What is our role in the long chain of reality, which we are but small links of? 3) When we examine ourselves, we find ourselves to be as corrupted and as low as can be; and when we examine the worker who has conceived us, we are compelled to be full of praise. Is it not necessary that from a perfect worker will come out only perfect works?
We are creations and He is the Creator. If He is so good and perfect, then how could He have created creatures so corrupted as us? If the Creator is absolutely perfect, then how could He have had such a bad thought? After all, the thought is equal to the action. And vice-versa. Does this mean that He Himself is this way? And what do we constantly receive from Him? It is impossible to correlate goodness and the manifestation of the creation’s results in our world, in any way.
4) Our mind tells us that He is utterly benevolent – beyond compare. How, then, did He create so many creatures that suffer and agonize all through their lives? Is it not the nature of the good to bestow, or at least not to harm so?
According to Kabbalah, there must first be a Kli or desire, and this means suffering. Then, there must be the desire’s fulfillment or pleasure. However, why should there first be suffering and blows, and then pleasure? Is this the way perfection is supposed to be?
5) How is it possible, that the infinite – with no beginning and no end – will extract from itself finite, mortal, transient creatures?
In order to clear all that up, we need to make some preliminary inquiries. And not, God forbid, where it is forbidden, meaning in His essence, of which we have no conception whatsoever and thus have no thought of Him. But where the inquiry is required, meaning an inquiry in His deeds, as the Torah tells us: "Know thou the God of thy father" and, as it says in the poem of unification, "By your actions we know you".
It is forbidden to investigate the Essence of the Creator. More correctly, our brain is not capable of attaining this, and this is why it is forbidden. In Kabbalah, “forbidden” means “unattainable”. Therefore, everything that is attainable is desirable for us to attain! We are not only able to, but we are obligated to investigate and correct all of the Creator’s actions, which He does to us. Correspondingly, we have to investigate and correct our attitude or relation to these actions.
Inquiry No. 1: How can we picture a new creation, meaning something new, that is not a part of Him?
How can we understand this: the fact that there is something that did not exist before? We learn that in the beginning there was the Creator. Then, with a single thought, He created the creation. What is creation? It is the desire to receive. The Creator is entirely “bestowal” and He does not contain the desire to receive. He created the desire to receive out of nothing. How can something be created out of nothing? How can something be created that was not present before in any form? For example, gas has existed before and we were not able to see it. Under pressure, gas transforms into a solid body, which can again be transformed into a gas by heating. However, creation did not exist before in any form at all, not even in any thought. Thought emerged later. How is this possible?
It is obvious to anyone of right mind that there is nothing that is not a part of Him…
If there is something that was not previously present in the Creator, then how can it be that He is perfect? Was He compelled to create something that would complete His thought? Even the most primitive mind is able to say that there is nothing that is not contained in the Creator.
Inquiry No. 2: If you say that from the aspect of His almightiness, He certainly can create existence from existence, meaning something new that is not in Him, there arises the question - what is that reality, that can be conceived, which has no place in Him and is completely new?
What is this thing the Creator needs so much, that He created it out of nothingness?
Inquiry No. 3: Deals with what Kabbalists have said, that a man's soul is a part of God, in such a way that there is no difference between Him and the soul, but that He is the "whole" and the soul is a "part". And they'd compared it to a rock carved off a mountain. There is no difference between the rock and the mountain, except that He is a "whole" and the rock is a "part". Thus we must ask: a stone carved from the mountain is separated from it by an ax made for that purpose, causing the separation of the "part" from the "whole".
But how can you picture that about Him, that He would separate a part from His essence to become separated from Him, meaning a soul, to the point that it can only be understood as part of His essence?
Inquiry No. 4: Since the chariot of the Evil Side and the shells are at the other end of His holiness, that nothing farther remote can be conceived, how can it be extracted and made from holiness, much less that it will sustain it?
There exist forces that are completely opposite to the Creator in their essence. They hate the Creator’s holiness and they are at war with it. How could the Creator have created such a terrible foe? And the most difficult thing to understand is the fact that, in addition, the Creator takes care of this foe and of his existence, and constantly gives him the light of life. This can not be apprehended by any mind. Such an eternal and perfect Creator creates something that is base, flawed, and absolutely opposite to perfection. This must mean that He needs it?
Inquiry No. 5: The matter of the rising of the dead: Since the body is so despicable, that immediately at birth it is doomed to perish and be buried. Furthermore, the Zohar said that before the body rots entirely, the soul cannot ascend to its place in Heaven, while there are still remnants of it. Therefore, why must it return and rise at the revival of the dead? Could the Creator not delight the souls without it? Even more bewildering is what our sages said, that the dead are destined to rise with their flaws, so that they will not be mistaken for another, and after that He will cure their flaws. We must understand why God would mind that they would not be mistaken for another, that for that he would recreate their flaw and then would have to cure it?
Inquiry No. 6: Regarding what our sages said, that man is the center of reality, that the upper worlds and this corporeal world, and everything in them, were not created but for him, and obliged man to believe that the world had been created for him. It is seemingly hard to grasp, that for this small human, who grasps no more than a wisp of this world's reality, much less of the upper worlds, whose height is immeasurable, that the Creator troubled Himself to create all this for him. And also, why would man want all that?
When and for what purpose will a person ever be able to utilize all of this unattainable grandeur? We do not know anything about our very selves, about our lives, about what is around us; not about the generations that preceded us and that will come after us. All of this is concealed from us and we continue to live as before. In addition, here we are obligated to attain, and knowledge about the whole universe awaits us…
In order to understand these questions and inquiries, the trick is to start by looking at the end, that is, at the purpose of creation. For nothing can be understood in the middle of the process, but only at its end. And it is clear that there is no act without purpose, for only the insane can be found to act purposelessly. I know that there are those who cast over their backs the burden of Torah and Mitzvot (commandments), saying the Creator has created reality, then left it alone; that because of the worthlessness of the creatures, it is not fitting for the exalted Creator to watch over their petty little ways. Indeed, without knowledge they have spoken, for it is not possible to comment on our nothingness and lowliness, before we decide that we have created ourselves with all our tarnished natures.
We really do not feel the hand of the Creator in our lives. He is concealed from us. He created us and seemingly has left us to the mercy of fate. Our entire problem lies in the fact that we are not able to see the end result of the thought of creation until we correct our Kelim. That is, until we replace our desire to receive with its opposite – the desire to bestow.
It is not sufficient for you to love the Creator and to desire to attain union with Him. You must also hate the evil within yourself and hate your own nature, which is the desire for self-gratification a person is unable to rid himself of. This realization of evil occurs when a person observes the state he is in, sees the entire evil that is in him, constantly suffers from it, understands how much he is losing, and sees that he is unable to get rid of it on his own.
At the same time, a person cannot accept the position he is in. He perceives all the losses that evil causes him and at the same time he sees the truth, or the fact that, on his own, he is unable to find forces inside himself that will allow him to get rid of the evil. The reason for this is that this attribute was introduced from the Creator’s side, by way of the forces of nature.
In order to exit out of our world into the spiritual world, a person needs to fulfill several conditions with regard to his perceptions. Firstly, a person has to feel that the state he is in is unbearable and unendurable. A person is able to do this when, even slightly, he feels what the spiritual is; when he feels that it is opposite to his own nature and that everything in the spiritual is good, that it is perpetual pleasure, peace, perfection and eternity. In addition, he must feel that it is the force pulling him towards itself.
On the other hand, here in this world there exists a second force. This force pushes you away from the state that is becoming more and more unbearable and hateful to you. When these two forces reach their maximum (meaning the attracting spiritual for