Spiritual Root And Corporeal Branch

Question: How did the language of branches develop? Let’s say that a Kabbalist, upon investigating his egoism, discovered a “snake” in himself. Did he understand that the snake is a branch, while spiritual egoism is the root, and therefore called egoism a snake?

Answer: It is quite possible that the Kabbalist never saw a snake in his life. A person simply becomes aware of the state called a “snake.”

Question: Whenever we reveal the Creator on a particular level, do we also reveal a certain “snake” within us in correspondence to it?

Answer: The Creator has no image because it is just a property. A property can dress in matter, task it with certain actions, express itself through matter, but it has no image of its own.

Let’s say you hear the word “beauty.” You imagine a person, or an animal, or a plant in such a way that there is a property called “beauty” in it. You cannot imagine an abstract beauty; you will always portray it in some object.

Similarly, spiritual properties do not have any material vessels. But in order to depict or somehow convey them, you must express them through these vessels. Kabbalists understood that the spiritual property called a “snake” produces a corresponding property in our world. While they did not study botany, biology, or zoology, they wrote as if they were thoroughly familiar with the nature of different animals.

Remark: The Torah, however, describes all kinds of animals…

My Comment: Even those that are already extinct as well as those that have not developed yet and will only manifest themselves in the future. Everything comes from the attainment of the spiritual world, for every spiritual root must produce its counterpart in our world.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/3/18