The Secret From Which Everything Begins

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Section 1: It is the opposite of the argument of the negligent in attaining the interior, who say to themselves: “We settle for attaining the Peshat. If we attain that, we will be content.” Their words can be compared to one who wishes to step on the fourth step without first stepping on the first three steps.

May God grant us the understanding of the simple meaning, the knowledge of which they attribute to themselves. After all,  on the way to it we must pass through the way of the Sod (secret), Drush (interpretation) and Remez (hint). And as long as we haven’t completed the previous steps, what simple meaning can there be? A person attains the Peshat on the fourth level of the corrected desire; how can that happen if we haven’t yet corrected the first, second, and third levels?

When I correct the first level of the desire to receive, I discover that the entire Torah is a big secret for me. And this is already an attainment. Until now I didn’t even know this, and now I understand my lack of knowledge. As a result of this, a connection is made between me and something that is hidden from me, but for now I cannot discover this secret. And after this the Drush appears, I already penetrate into things and see the connections between them, but still don’t understand the principles by which they operate.

After this I discover the Remez; I still don’t recognize the causes and the results, don’t get the exact purpose, but I can already see how the Creator operates and I can cooperate with Him. And only on the fourth level do I gradually attain His goal, and this is already adhesion. And then the Peshat is revealed to me because between me and the Creator there is no longer any concealing clothing, no screens, or partitions.

So if a person already studies Torah, he must relate to it with great seriousness. This is because it is called Kedusha (Sanctity) and Kedusha is bestowal. Am I advancing correctly towards bestowal through learning the Torah?

By learning the wisdom of Kabbalah I gradually discover that I am immersed in darkness, I don’t understand and don’t feel that something exists that is concealed from me, inaccessible to me. This feeling is the discovery of Sod, a very important feeling in the present stage. For this desire, the deficiency that dominates in me, will help me to reach Peshat.

And yet how is it possible to remain indifferent when I see that I don’t even have a drop of understanding? This is worse than death, for the dead don’t feel anything and I feel a spiritual deficiency. I am most unfortunate. So, as a result of studying, we discover darkness….

Question: How can this be? I thought that after we discover the Sod, we solve all the problems.

Answer: In this way I solve the biggest problem; I finally understand that all of my problems are derived from my attitude towards the Creator. In other words, it is up to me to build the right relationship.

Until now I didn’t know this. It seemed to me that it was about other causes and circumstances. And now, after I attain the Sod, I see that I have no connection with the Creator and that I depend only on Him. This is already not bad, for it is the truth. Finally I am locked in, connected to something true, real.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/14, Writhing of Baal HaSulam

Formula For A Happy Life

Question: What does Putin want from Israel?

Answer: It doesn’t matter what he wants. It is said: “The hearts of ministers and kings are in the Creator’s hands.” Do not think of politicians as an independent power. Not one of them understands exactly what is going on in the world, neither Putin, nor Obama, nor anybody else.

Unfortunately, the same can be said about the Israeli government. Everything is in the Creator’s hands, not Obama’s, Putin’s, or Netanyahu’s. Thank God! Otherwise, the world would have already collapsed.

The world needs to be balanced; it has to attain a state where people clearly see what the system of relations among them really looks like. Only when our relations will be revealed to us, will we learn how to correct them. Only unity can lead us to correction. Politics, economics, industry, all kinds of international trade liaisons are useless. The only thing that can really help is a new type of education that will lead humanity to global unity.

Until now, the world connected through trade, economy, military, and security,but now we see that the connecting threads are temporary; they come and go. The prior world was built on the foundation of egoism. Now, it vanishes.

Question: What kind of unity does Israel have to offer to the world?

Answer: Israel will have to offer unity among and inside the nations. It’s the kind of unity that emerges above our egos. Our selfishness will teach us to rise above it and unite.

Israel is obligated to transfer the methodology of unity to the world since there is no other force that can do it rather than us. If Israel fulfills its mission, it will be the major country in the world; it will govern over and bring benevolence to other nations. It will spread the methodology of correction, unity, and love.

Our world is egoistic since all of us are born with a selfish nature. We have to implement a special methodology, a formula, that allows us to connect beyond the egoism that burns in every individual, each country, and among nations.

The people of Israel possess the methodology. The Jewish people used it three and a half thousand years ago. They still retain “records,” the internal data of the state of unity they have been through.

At some point, the Jewish people managed to implement unity. They constituted a single unity whose major value was connectedness. The Jewish people lived in unity for about fifteen hundred years, starting with Abraham until the destruction of the Temple.

Thousands of years ago, we fell from this height, from the state of unity that connected us above our egoism. Inside every person there is an ego, but there also is a force that helps us rise above it, beyond a constantly growing and renewing personal and overall egoism.

All of us make efforts to rise above our egoism and connect with each other beyond it. Should we succeed, we will reveal a new reality called the Upper world.
The common state we are trying to build together is called Adam (Man). Inside Adam, we will disclose a new spirit called the soul, the Upper Light, or the Creator. The world advances towards the state for which it was created.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/6/15

One Law Of Love For The Whole World

Question: Why would we start fighting with and killing each other if every country will be able to produce everything it needs and no longer needs foreign lands and workers?

Answer: Why do you fight with your wife? Usually it’s because of some silly thing that has no significance. Countries will fight with each other the same way, because our egoism, the hatred that lives within a person, will not allow us to live in peace and friendship.

A person is built with an evil and egoistic nature. Therefore, we will see that although we no longer depend on each other on one hand, we will want to destroy each other nonetheless. And the only solution is to unite above all the personality differences, so that “love covers all transgressions.”

Question: So what will happen to 2,000 nations, which the world will be divided into?

Answer: All these 2,000 nations will accept one law that will force us to unite above all national differences. And only a special education will make this possible because it will raise people above our egoism.

Question: How will a person living in one of these 2,000 countries feel?

Answer: A person will feel that there are two parts in him. One part is his natural evil inclination, the blazing egoism inside him, which he despises. And in the other part, he wishes to be above the egoism, above his instinctive egoistic tendencies, and above them to unite with others.

In this manner we will achieve a peaceful, happy, and prosperous life. We will feel that we are in the “Garden of Eden,” where an infernal fire blazes underneath the earth. One cannot be without the other.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/6/15

The Way I Am Is The Way I See Others

Question: Society in Israel today is very divided and full of hatred. It is split into many communities and factions according to a thousand different factors, and each one hates the others. You say that the holiday of Lag BaOmer is the turning point from hatred to unity between people?

Answer: Love is inseparable from unification. It is impossible to unite without love and it is impossible to love without uniting. Unity is an expression of love.

The counting of days of Omer is the correction from hatred to love. We came out of Egypt, revealed the kind of egoism that dwells in us, and we are beginning to correct it. This correction consists of 49 stages—the 49 days of counting the Omer, during which we fix our relationships with everyone else, starting with the easiest and progressing to more and more complex ones.

The 33^rd day of Omer is the so-called “Lag BaOmer”—it is a milestone, and when we reach it we can be certain that we will correct all of our hatred, regardless of its power. When we reach this day, we receive such strength that allows us to correct everything else.

Hatred is corrected only with the force of the Light. With every day of the Omer comes a new portion of Light, a total of 49 portions, like an infusion. The Light is the force that is hidden in nature. Now we feel only a force of evil, egoism. In the whole word that surrounds us: the inanimate, vegetative, animals, people, and in ourselves we see only the force of receiving, consuming, and self-love.

The fact is that I am an egoist, and therefore I reveal only the egoistic part in every person, animal, and any creature, according to the principle of “one judges according to his own flaws.” The way I am is how I see others.

Thus, we feel that all of nature is a force of evil, egoism, which forces us to think only about ourselves and receive pleasure from the suffering of others. However, there is another force in nature: in addition to a minus, there is also a plus, a positive force. However, this force is hidden and we don’t feel it.

We have to extract this positive force from nature so that it can correct us and balance the evil force in us.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/30/15

Who Determines The Appearance Of The World?

A very egoistic perception of the world is typical in humanity, according to which we think that the world revolves according to the way that we manage it. That is what governments, powerful people, the rich, and the successful think. Even the simplest person thinks that his entire life is the result of what he does.

Everyone blames someone for anything that happens, and all of us think that we are the masters in this world. We acknowledge that the nature of humanity is evil and egoistic, but what can be done if we are like that? That is how we are and that is how we live and run the world. Certainly we could manage it better, not with such barbarity, but more thoughtfully and humanely. But nothing can be done about our being like that.

We construct all kinds of systems and try to be involved in this world as much as possible. We agree that it is imperfect, but that is how it is. People suppose that the world is the result of our management, our behavior, the connection between us, culture, education, politics, economics, commerce, etc.

All of this determines how the world appears. We hope that through our actions we can improve our lives somehow, and we cannot accept that the picture of the world that we perceive and see is not at all the result of our activities.

But the Creator, the Higher Power, draws this picture for us at each and every moment according to the Reshimot (spiritual genes). And a picture of the world is portrayed within us according to these Reshimot, and we cannot influence it in any way, but only determine the right attitude towards this picture, meaning an awareness that it comes to us entirely from the Creator. This applies to the past, the present, and the future. The Creator arranges our perception according to such a timeline.

What is important is not how we relate to the world, but how we relate to the Creator! The moment that we turn our attention toward the director, the origin, the Creator of the world, we immediately acquire the right perspective. And then it becomes clear that the whole world is concealed, evasive, a temporary image that is drawn within our mind with all of its nations, countries, and the entire terrible mess that is happening on the face of our small planet and within each and every individual person.

This picture becomes clearer to us at every moment in all kinds of different forms, in all of the various international and private quarrels, all of the different types of internal and external problems. All this is only so that when faced by all these troubles, we learn to justify the Creator, the source. All of these forms are clarified within our ego, within the desire to receive, which is the opposite of the Creator. And so we see our inner malfunctioning and perceive it as an external reality.

So we don’t need to regret the difficult situations that we went through in the past or that we are going through now in the present and to lose all hope for a good future. Rather we need to rise up and adhere to our root, which is only good that does good. And everything that we feel in this reality, ourselves, and this world is intended only so that above all of this we connect with the absolute good source and abandon our desire to receive in which we feel such a distorted and inferior picture of this world.
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From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/14

The Immense Potential Of The “Speaking”

From an article by Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”: Section 3: Let me explain the matter. We distinguish four divisions in the speaking species, arranged in gradations one atop the other. Those are the masses, the strong, the wealthy, and the sagacious. They are equal to the four degrees in the whole of reality, called:
a. Still,
b. Vegetative,
c. Animate,
d. “peaking.

…Atop them is the speaking, consisting of an emotional force and an intellectual force together. For this reason, its power is unlimited by time and space in attracting what is good for it and rejecting what is harmful, like the animate.

This is so because of its science, which is a spiritual matter, unlimited by time and place. One can teach others wherever they are in the whole of reality, and in the past and the future throughout the generations.

It follows that the value of one person from the speaking equalizes with the value of all the forces in the vegetative and the animate in the whole of reality at that time, and in all the past generations. This is so because its power encompasses them and contains them within its own self, along with all their forces.

After the desire to receive was created, it began to develop not quantitatively, as if its weight was one kilogram and it developed into ten kilograms. In no place in nature is quantitative development considered to be development. If a child were to grow, increasing only his weight, he would be called mentally undeveloped.

This means that we always associate development with a new quality. First of all there is the gathering of wisdom, the recognition of evil, inquiries and observations. And if we require more power for this, then we get it accordingly.

Apparently, only qualitative changes are considered to be developmental in nature. Quantitative development is not considered. What would the benefit be from adding one more, a million more or even a billion more of the same? But it is important that an addition changes the quality, like a change in the number of electrons, protons, and additional particles within the atom, and accordingly there is development.

The atoms connect into molecules; the molecules become more and more complex and connect into cells. The nucleus of the cell appears within the center of the cell and is ready to manage the processes within the cell. The cells gain the possibility of connecting, specializing in different activities. This is not talking about the number of cells here, but about their quality. Different types of cells begin to be formed from stem cells from which the human body is built.

This means that development is always qualitative. Baal HaSulam doesn’t talk about quantities either. There are four levels of development that exist in the world: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking; they are levels of development and are qualitative. The qualitative development is that the desire to receive begins to understand what it wants more and more.

And this is right, from where could it know what it wants? If I am a desire to receive, in order to know what my desire is, I must know what the Creator wants from me. I am not conscious of this on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate. And on the level of the speaking, I already begin to understand that my intellect is a copy of the intellect of the Creator who implanted it in me because it was specifically His desire that I would understand and think and would be conscious of Him in a form like this.

This is called development. Thanks to development like this, I can control myself and the various processes. But it is up to me to understand that all of the systems that are found in me, all of my intellect and emotion, all of the results of development are a gradual copying within me of the characteristics of the Creator. He leaves only one thing in me,freedom of choice within these systems, meaning to resemble Him or not!

That is how we developed according to these levels, shaping more and more complex systems on the levels of the still, vegetative, animate and speaking. And this makes it possible for us to approach the understanding of our nature more and more on the level of the speaking and control the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate. We add more and more desire to receive to ourselves, and together with this, we add to our ability to use it.

On the level of Adam this is no longer talking about a greater ability to use the desire to receive, but about the ability to understand the desire itself. The level of the Animate realizes itself maximally. The Adam is constructed differently from a qualitative aspect and for him the main thing is not to realize his desire, but the purpose for which he is doing this. The level of Adam (Man) begins specifically from it. Otherwise, we would be a continuation of the animate level. For an Adam, what is important is the reason he wants to realize himself.

Here begins the recognition of evil. We run after different goals that only cause trouble for us, until the Adam—by the way of Beito (in its time), by the way of suffering— reaches the question: What is the reason for living? This means that he searches for a suitable purpose to which it does not bother him to dedicate his life. The development of desire is done gradually and systematically and ultimately brings us to the right result.
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From the 3d part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

A Specific Replica Of The Creator In My Heart

Question: What inside me resembles the Creator exactly?

Answer: The Creator gives us a very small desire. It isn’t even considered a replica of the Creator because our world is simply a fleeting shadow. It is just like being allowed to smell a bowl of soup instead of being able to eat the soup.

It is practically nothing, but still this is where we start.

The Creator only gives us the stimulus, the awakening towards Him and that’s all. Everything we receive later in addition to the initial stimulus comes from the group and the teacher. Without the group and the teacher a person has no chance of reaching any contact with the Creator and of fulfilling the connection with Him properly. The group is his spiritual vessel and the teacher is the upper level, and then there is the Creator.

The Creator only gives you the initial awakening: He brings a person to the right environment and says, “Take it!” But in order to take it we need to connect to the group, to the teachers, and to the books, and through them to the Creator. Before that we only have a point in the heart, a spark that the Creator awakens in us that forces us to search for Him.

Everything else in us belongs to the level of the animate and is not a replica of the Creator’s attributes but simply a developed desire to enjoy. A human being is only the point that yearns for the Creator. This is the point of the desire to enjoy that is connected to Bina, to the desire to bestow.

If there is no such connection between the desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow, ifMalchut and Bina are not connected, the created being is not called a human being,Adam, who resembles the Creator. Such a connection can only be in phase four and actually not in all of phase four but only in its special part that is later clarified. Only the human level in our desire is designated to ascend towards the Creator.

Question: Why do we need the inanimate, vegetative, and the animate levels of nature in the first place?

Answer: The desire to enjoy has to develop through all these levels because otherwise it cannot be independent. On the first three levels there is the same desire to enjoy, but it operates itself according to the internal software embedded in it, while in phase four, the desire begins to ask “why do I have to operate this software?”

We need all the four phases for the desire to develop, since on the one hand, it has to totally disconnect from the Creator, and, on the other hand, it has to reach an equivalence of form with Him. Therefore, the Creator and the created being, which are the root phase and phase four, have to draw away from one another in all the other phases. An accurate calculation takes place on these levels as to which discernments are necessary for the created being in order to be opposite but at the same time similar to the Creator, in what exactly he is opposite from Him and in what way he is similar.

There must be an opposite part in the desire to enjoy that doesn’t change, but it has to be similar in his desire to bestow that is built above his desire to enjoy. These two forms exist in him simultaneously.
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From the 3d part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

The Foundation Of Independence Is Detachment From The Creator

The “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” is a very important introduction that Baal HaSulam wrote to prepare a person for studying from The Book of Zohar with the Sulam commentary.With its help, a person can approach The Book of Zohar to a particular degree while without the Sulam commentary The Book of Zohar is not understandable to us at all. The “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” includes within it the entire wisdom of Kabbalah relevant to the descent of the worlds from above to below and what the ARI revealed in his book, Etz HaChaim (The Tree of Life).

Abraham was the one who revealed the progression of the worlds, and, after him, Moses described it in the Torah, but in a concealed, encrypted form, and now we are learning to realize the progression of the worlds in practice. So, we must discover it in an understandable and appropriate way for realization and usage.

Because of this, Baal HaSulam explained all of the wisdom of Kabbalah from its beginning, from the source from which the thought of creation is derived and how the creation was created and materialized according to this thought. The Creator, the higher power of bestowal and love, creates outside of Himself something that is His opposite. If the Creator is the force of bestowal, He had to create the force of reception. But after the force of reception was created, it disappeared within the force of bestowal, meaning that it was managed by it one hundred percent. So it is as if the creature doesn’t exist, for substance is not what is important. Rather, what is important is whether it is independent from the Creator or not.

One could ask, how could it be independent? How is it possible to create something that later will be completely independent if it comes out of the Creator? After all, everything that the creature has is derived from the Creator, and it is impossible to sever this connection. It cannot be that there is anything new with a creature because everything that is new in him is also derived from the Creator. Nothing exists in the world other than the Creator.

So, how is it possible to bring the creature to independence? It is as if he were to negate and conceal the unity of the Creator in the world contrary to logic because if there is one source from which everything is derived and other than that nothing exists at all, how could it be that a creature would be independent at all so much so that he could be against his Creator and not artificially, but actually, according to his desire?

A very great profundity is concealed here that is not understood by us. We attain this independence only after we finish the entire correction. However, in the meantime, we need to learn all the stages according to which the Creator created the creature to make it possible for it to have freedom of choice.

Independence is detachment of the creature from the Creator. It is only when the creature has its own power, emotion, and intellect—everything that is required to be independent—and this is not merely to exist, but to determine his deeds on his own, independently, to rise to the level of the Creator. This process and its results seem impossible to us. So, the desire to receive that was created by the Creator as His opposite and is managed by Him must go through a progression of changes as a result of which he will acquire independence, the power to determine his independence according to his intellect and emotion.

For this, the desire for pleasure becomes detached from the Creator and connects to Him numerous times, which means that it goes through ascents and descents. Thanks to this, we begin to compare states and learn from them. In the beginning, we compare every descent and every ascent, and then we examine the ascents and descents in comparison to each other.

As a result of the experience that is gathered from the comparison between the ascents and descents and the examination of the future states in comparison to previous states, we develop our intellect and feelings. From the comparison between countless ascents and descents and the various connections between them, we build the sensations and intellect that are developed, and we construct the various stages between them.

Ultimately, the study of the Creator brings the creature to independence, for, as it is written, “By Your actions we know You.” The creature learns how the Creator behaves with him so that he builds himself in regard to the Creator according to this. Apparently, the foundation of independence is detachment from the Creator!

From the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”, item 4: Hence, when they are bound together, the will to receive is annulled in the Light within it, and can determine its form only once the Light has departed thence once. This is so because following the departure of the Light from it, it begins to crave it, and this craving properly determines and sets the shape of the will to receive.

Subsequently, when the Light dresses in it once more, it is regarded as two separate matters: Kli and Light, or Guf and Life. Observe closely, for this is most profound.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam