Genuine Creation

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“: And yet, we understand that according to the Thought of Creation, there was no need to create anything more than that will to receive. This is because this new creation is sufficient for Him to fulfill the entire Thought of Creation, which He had thought to bestow upon us. But all the filling in the Thought of Creation, all the benefits He had planned to render us, stem directly from His essence (Atzmuto), and He has no reason to recreate them, since they are already extracted, existence from existence, to the great will to receive in the souls. Thus we evidently see that all the substance in the generated creation, from beginning to end, is only the “will to receive.”

Baal HaSulam emphasizes that there is Atzmuto, the original root, from which the action originates. The action of the Creator is the created being. But created beings do not originate from the Creator Himself; He creates them out of nothing. What comes from Him is the decision, but the “material” from which they are created, is produced out of nothing. This is the act of creation. The Creator did only this.

We are unable to understand and do this. We reveal every thought, every decision, everything in which the attitude of Atzmuto to creation is expressed. This is what we do not know at all. However, we discover His attitude toward us. This is called the “thought of creation.”

Question: Do we create anything new that was not in creation? Otherwise, how do we become similar to the Creator?

Answer: No. We become similar to Him by the properties, but not by creation. Being His created beings, we cannot create anything new. We accumulate, combine forces, so that the likeness of the Creator is formed in us. However, this cannot be called a “new creation” because we use the forces and “materials” that have been created. We do not create.

Question: But the revelation of the Creator, isn’t it creation?

Answer: No. The concept of “creation” (Beria - בריאה) means something external, extending beyond the limits of the existing (Bar - בר), “existence out of absence.” We already use the existing means and carry out correction, imitating creation. We reveal what already exists and thus return to the world of Infinity.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam