Selfishness

There is no such thing as motion from one world to the other in spiritual "space". There are only inner states, which enable us to perceive our inner envelope. It is the Creator that we perceive but this perception is clouded by screens representing the different manifestations of our selfishness. The perception of the Creator, creation and space, as obstacles are suppressed, is progressively revealed but we are not aware of it. The portions of selfishness that we remove correspond to the levels of the spiritual ladder or "worlds" we ascend. Worlds are nothing more than degrees of perception that we have of the Creator.

Selfishness, which separates our perception from true knowledge, can only be found in man. This is not the case with the Creator because perfection and openness define his relation to man. The absence of the Creator is only felt by a man who dissimulates the worlds from himself, as if he were hiding behind the veils of his own selfishness.
The removal of selfishness does not occur all at once. In the beginning, the Creator grants man periods of time corresponding to lives in this world as an opportunity to elevate himself spiritually. Man is master of the whole process. During each of his consecutive lives, man must remove a certain part of his selfish nature and draw himself closer to the Creator. Man will repeat a new life as long as he does not correct himself. Correction means that his desires termed "body" in Kabbalah will no longer form a barrier between him and the Creator. When this occurs man's attributes will bond him with the Creator regardless of the world in which man finds himself.
The abandonment of one's selfish envelope is called "terrestrial death" leading to rebirth in our world. The corrected parts of the soul's selfishness merge and a kind of "redistribution" takes place. This is because all souls are but one creation and all envelopes are but pure selfishness. The correction of the original soul was made possible by splitting into parts the one and only creation, Adam's soul. These parts are individual souls and it is easier to correct each fragment than to correct the whole.
This explains why souls move from one world to another during their correction. When the correction is completed, all individualized souls will be once again brought together within the primordial desire. The primordial soul will receive all of the Creator's light revealing his perfection .
There is, ultimately, only the endless world, the world of perfect bonding with the Creator. Outside that world, all that man perceives is nothing but fragments of the infinite perfection, the endless world.
One fragment of the endless world is called "Adam Kadmon", the following one « Atzilut » then "Briah" then "Yetzira" and "Assiah". The smallest fragment of the endless world corresponds to our world. In other words, the endless world as we see it with our senses contracts to reach the size of our world. When our perception broadens we can call this world, for example, the world of Briah and so on. It all depends on the scope of our perception.
The subject of our studies is only man. Besides man and his sensations there is only the endless world The Malchut of the endless world must go through numerous corrections. Nothing is created in vain.
The Baal HaSulam quotes the example of a small insect in the jungle, spending all his life to find food and whose existence is totally unknown. Even this insect and all his parts are very important for the fulfillment of ultimate consummation.
Nothing is created in vain by the Creator, and all events occur in harmony with the goal we are nearing. As far as we are concerned this process takes place whether we want it or not, whether we understand it or totally ignore it. Everything progresses towards the fulfillment of correction as planned by the Creator, towards His complete revelation to all creatures in this world.
The various parts of Malchut of the endless world differ in the intensity of their desires. They correspond in our world to the parts of the natural kingdom- mineral, vegetal, animal, human. Similarly mankind is composed of many types of peoples.
Why, then, do we study man so closely and not in the spiritual correction, say, what stones, for example, need to accomplish? Haven't they been placed in our world to reach the purpose of Creation?
Man is set apart. The correction of nature depends on human correction. By working on himself, man "animates" nature to help it reach the state of full correction.
Man himself however has not received the Torah of our world in the same way: the peoples of the world have received 7 commandments, the Jews 613. These commandments are also observed different ways depending on the number of corrections a soul must carry out when coming to this world. Being born to the nation or the Jews does not grant any specific privileges. The Jews have more corrections to perform, the others less.