Bold and in quotes: Original text of Baal HaSulam
Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
lowercase italics: emphasized words
Capitalized italics: transliteration from Hebrew
Throughout this preface, Baal HaSulam depicts the boundaries that if we do not comply with, we will not see or understand what is written in the book of Zohar. This is because through these boundaries we design our Kelim in such a way that they can receive impressions of the Upper Light.
This problem arises because we are under concealment. We don't know how to "calibrate" our tools of perception, how to correct them, and precisely what it is we have to aim them to. If we don't know what we should aim them at, we will not receive any impressions from the Upper Light.
The fact that we learn that the Upper Light is in abstract form, does it not mean that whatever I do, I will always perceive something of it? No. The Upper Light is in an abstract form. In other words, it is ready to be perceived by me in one of 125 forms, or degrees. I can match myself to it, but it is not that it is readily available in any form that comes from me.
Why? Does that mean that I can create different forms than those found in the Upper Light? After all, if my Kli was built by the Light, it must mean that I cannot shape my Kli in any form that is not one of the forms that the Light had prepared in me and gave me.
This is incorrect. The Upper Light created the will to receive, and only that. This will to receive, the creature, must, wants, or is drawn to put on itself the form of the Giver. But the Light did not create the forms of bestowal over the Kli; rather, this is something that the creature must do, through its own quest. It must perceive the forms of the Creator, the Giver, and adapt them to itself.
Hence, Kabbalists advise us how we can find these forms, study them, and adopt them, meaning robe them over ourselves, over our will to receive. After that we can appear before the abstract Upper Light in forms that are adequate for it.
This is the reason that the definitions that Baal HaSulam provides us with in this text are so important. If the Kli is not adapted to the forms that exist in the Light, it will not be able to perceive any form that potentially exists in the Upper Light.
Yesterday, I saw a film called "What the Bleep Do We Know?". They've discovered something that they consider a great discovery: if a certain form does not exist within me in advance, I cannot perceive it on the outside.
As an example, they used the story about the Indians who stood on the ocean shore and looked at Columbus's armada arriving. They could not see the ships even though they were looking at them. The scientists said that the Indians could not see the ships because there was no model of something similar already existing in their minds. It doesn't have to be exactly this kind of a ship, it might be a different kind, but it has to be something that already exists and can serve as a Kli, a tool to perceive what is on the outside. If that inner Kli to perceive what is on the outside doesn't already exist within us, we will not perceive it.
In fact, we can say that this is still far from the truth, although they consider it a great discovery. Yet, if we follow this line, then we will have to say that the ship too doesn't exist on the outside. It exists only in the mind of the Indian, and his image of the ship, the model that he builds within him, is what actually builds the ship on the outside.
The truth is that there is no ship out there at all. There is no Columbus and there are no Spaniards running around there. When we look at these things, it appears to us as if we discover new things that are seemingly outside us, full of surprises. By surprises I mean things that we did not prepare in our minds in advance, so they appear to be on the outside.
As a matter of fact, all these surprises and amazing revelations and innovations are not really new things that we see. We only build a new model in our brain, and what we perceive is in fact its replica, its projection on the Upper Light, which makes it seem as if it exists on the outside.
In point of fact, all these things that appear to be happening on the outside, actually happen within us, but they still haven't reached it and don't speak of it this way. They only speak of our preparation, meaning that if a model pre-exists within us, we can perceive it on the outside.
There is a reason why Baal HaSulam is so meticulous in explaining the definitions that we have to prepare within us, that we must instill within us in order to perceive the words of the Zohar correctly, and not be led into illusions. Our problem is that in our world, which is all imaginary anyhow, who can check what I see and what I think I see? It is written, "We were as dreamers," meaning it all passes like a dream. Once we begin the real vision, we find that all these figures that appeared to us in this world inhabit a fictitious world. There is a reason why it is considered fictitious, because it is built this way in us.
If we are to rise from the imaginary world to the real world, to the real perception, then we must prepare ourselves within for the real models. At the end of the day, whatever we perceive, it'll be according to our inner makeup. It'll be according to the way we build these models within us; it is not that we find things that actually exist on the outside. There is nothing to discover, nothing to reveal except the abstract Upper Light. Only the power of the Upper Light that operates on us along with our preparation reveals the new images within us.
Item thirteen: We've talked about how there is Matter, Form in Matter, Abstract Form, and Essence.
"13. In the first category, which is Matter, we have full perception, meaning in these manifestations of operations that manifest from each essence. This is because they quite sufficiently explain to us the essence that dwells in the substance."
Essence is something that I can never perceive, regardless of my degree. It is hidden from me; my tools of perception, of sensation, cannot perceive the essence. Moreover, I cannot even imagine what is the essence. What I do perceive is the actions of the essence through the matter.
"...in such a way that we do not suffer at all from the lack of attainment in the essence itself." I have such an absence of perception in it, that I haven't even a desire to perceive it.
"We do not miss it just as we do not miss a sixth finger on our hand."
For example: If, at one point, I had six fingers, and I worked with the six fingers, now that I have five fingers, I'd feel how much I miss it; the Kli would be missing something. But if I've never had anything like it, I cannot imagine what benefit I will derive from it, and therefore, I would never want to have it. So because we've never perceived the essence, we also don't have the desire to perceive it.
"The attainment of the matter, meaning the manifestation of the operations of the essence (in the Matter) is quite sufficient for our every need and every conception." If we perceive the Matter, we are tranquil, satisfied, we have no problems beyond it, and are not drawn to a greater depth.
"...both to attain our own being, as well as to attain the entire being outside us." Well, so how did Kabbalists realize that there is an essence? If he says we don't miss it, then in what Kli do we perceive the existence of this essence? Let's leave it open for now; item fourteen.
"14. The second category, which is the Form clothed in Matter, is a satisfactory and clear attainment too."
If I have some craving, I can use that craving to perceive the Form Clothed in Matter. I am in what we call "figurative perception." These pertain to the characteristics, the properties, and everything that exists on the Matter. The Matter in itself is the will to receive; and the Form is the manners that it can adopt, with regard to size, depth, integration in other forms etc..
The will to receive in and of itself contains five degrees of Aviut. When incorporated with the aim to bestow, it can adopt different forms, until it acquires the form of the Creator. It begins from the opposite, from the level of the Sitra Achra (lit other side), and ends at the level of the Creator.
In order to acquire this figurative perception, one has to go through every single one of these forms, without missing any. He says that we have "a satisfactory and clear attainment" in it, meaning we have to obtain it in the full measure of the requirements of our Kelim.
"This is because we acquire it (that perception) through practical and real experiments that we find in the comportment of any matter. All our higher, completely reliable perception, stems from this discernment."
Relying on it for certain, means that we are certain that these are our Kelim, that our desire in it is an authentic desire, meaning stemming from the fact that we once had that form in the Kli, and now we don't. When we obtain it, we obtain according to the same pattern that is left from before. This is a literally empiric perception, "completely reliable perception."
"15. The third category is the Abstract Form. It means that once the form has been revealed once, clothed in some matter, our imagination can abstract it from any matter altogether, and perceive it apart from any Matter.
"Such as that are the virtues and the good attributes that appear in moral books, where we speak of the properties truth and falsehood, anger and strength etc. when they are abstracted from any matter."
This is not the first time that he speaks against moralism. He always goes against it because it is completely against the method of Kabbalah. It is an upbringing that extinguishes one's freedom, because it (moralism) speaks in terms of abstract forms.
"We ascribe them merit or demerit even when they are abstract." This, in fact, is the problem, because moralism says things like "truth is good," "lie is bad," etc., abstract, philosophical forms.
"Know, that this third manner is unacceptable to the prudent erudite. It is impossible to rely on it one hundred percent, because being sentenced while not clothed in matter, they might be mistaken in them."
"Take for example one with an idealistic moralism, meaning one who is not religious." This pertains to someone who is so fanatic as to even exclude himself from religion. "Because of his or her intensive engagement in the merit of the abstract form of truth, that person might decide that even if the entire world is lost, he or she will not utter a deliberate lie, even when it would save people from death."
"This is not the rule of Torah, as there is nothing that stands before life-saving" ( Yoma 82). Indeed, if one had learned the forms of truth and falsehood when they are clothed in matter, they would have been comprehended only with respect to being beneficial or detrimental to the matter."
Thus, one would relate to these discernments, good, bad, etc. only in this manner, meaning only to benefit Matter. In other words, any judgment with Abstract Form is forbidden. A Form is accepted by us as good only to the extent that its Form in Matter is good for our development. Likewise, a Form in Matter is bad to the extent that it is detrimental for our development. We weigh it with respect to Matter, in a purposeful manner.
"In other words, after the many ordeals that the world has been through, having seen the multitude of ruin and damage that deceitful people have caused with their lies, and the great benefits that truthful people have brought by keeping themselves to saying only words of truth, they have come to agree that there is no greater merit than the attribute of truth, and no greater fault than the attribute of falsehood.
"If the idealist had understood that, he would certainly have agreed to the rule of Torah. He would have found that falsehood that saves even one person from death is far more important than the entire merit and praise of the abstract attribute of truth." Abstract means that it doesn't benefit the Matter.
"Thus, there is no certainty at all in those concepts of the third category, which are the abstract forms, much less with abstract forms that have never been clothed in any substance (ones that we have never seen clothed in Matter). Such concepts are nothing but a waste of time." Hence, the moralism that engages in ideals that are apart from Matter, is something that is completely wrong for our use. There is a reason that he says that anyone who engages in it, "is not religious," and the learned will understand.
Question: It looks like placing an obstacle before a blind person. Why are we given the possibility of confusion in such a thing?
Answer: It is not that we are given the possibility of confusion; the Creator has no interest in "playing" with you, although the whole creation is called a game, as it is written, "there is leviathan (whale), whom Thou hast formed to sport therein" (Psalms 104:26). This game is your own uncertainty.
Through all forms of study, you elicit from it the only ideal form. There is no other way for you to build yourself in similarity with the Creator. You have to experience all the situations in contrast to Him, in order to understand that of all 360 degrees, there is but one tiny hole through which you exit. The rest of your running around in this "balloon," in this world, all of it is worthless.
Why do we need to do it, if all we need is to get out through this tiny hole? Show it to me and I'll get out. It is as if there is a big balloon and a ring, and you have to thread the balloon through the ring and bring it out the other end. So where is the hole? Where do I need to do that?
The problem is that you build the Kli on the other end of the passage from forms that precisely correspond to those forms that you went over in the previous form, before you came out of this world. We learned in Talmud Eser Sefirot that only by making sins and mistakes in double and single concealments, you later on use them as tools. It is them that you correct and they are the very vessels in which you perceive Godliness, and the image of Godliness that you build over yourself.
How else is it possible to reach spirituality without experiencing all those mistakes and sins? What does it mean, spirituality? Your spirituality appears in precisely those sins and mistakes when you begin to turn them into the opposite, when you acquire them. There is no image to the Creator; it is something that you build within you, by experiencing everything within yourself.
This is the reason that you have to complete the 360 degrees of the circle, and only at the very end find the hole. In the end you take these cycles that you make inside this world with all its forms, you seemingly turn this balloon inside out, and this becomes Ein Sof (lit infinity). We have no other way.
If the Creator had an image outside of us, or if spirituality had an image outside of us, then you would be right; we would switch from our perception to His. But He has no image; it is something that you seemingly build from the images that your Matter experiences. All these forms together render the image of the Creator for you. It is called, "By Your acts we know You." There is no other way for us to "formulate" Him.
He is not toying with us by confusing us; it is how we learn, through the opposite forms and then through the similar forms to Him. There is no way around it. This is why it is written, "For there is not a righteous man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." First there is the sin, then the correction; there is no other way. When books speak of one who never sinned, they refer to forms like Adam ha Rishon (lit. The First Man), forms that go from above downward, or angels, or just some figure of speech.
I've already said that Rabash once said to me, "You know I've been through all those things." I looked at him and thought, "What do you know? The son of Baal HaSulam? All you've been through is a Yeshiva (religious seminary) and then you started studying Kabbalah." But in fact, one who enters spirituality experiences things like being a thief, a robber, you experience everything, and in the worst possible form. It depends on what one must discover according to the root of one's soul. Moreover, "He who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater than him." So we must acquire figurative perception in all the forms that correspond to the image that we will, afterwards, build as the image of the Creator.
Does one go through it physically, or is it all in the mind?
When a great Kabbalist experiences all kinds of impulses, drives, and failings, does this happen physically or mentally? Of course it is all in the mind; it's all we talk about. This has nothing to do with the body.
Those who still experience these things physically only stretch their time, but the whole work is in the mind. This is why people who experience these things in the mind, first of all try to experience them as quickly as possible, and to study the principle and the rationale behind every form.
You never study the situation you are in. Rather, when you reach the next state and you scrutinize the previous, you study the descent from the elevated state. You can never learn during the descent.
This is why it is never good to delve into a state of descent while in it, because you must fall into it against yourself. You can't just decide, "Now I am going to steal (all these situations are called "stealing" because they are in order to receive) in order to learn the opposite forms of spirituality." If you want to study these descents voluntarily, you will not learn anything. In agreement you cannot learn, because agreement is not a descent.
Descent, by definition, means that it is against your will, when you determine that it is a descent against your will. When you are coerced to descend and strain to get away from it quickly, though you cannot get away from it by yourself, you ascend according to the extent that you did not want to descend, and exerted to get away from it quickly.
Now that you are elevated, you have the potential, the gap by which to examine and scrutinize the descent. Otherwise you have no tools to study the descent. We only learn these things through experiencing them by ourselves, as it says, "There is none wiser than he who is experienced."
"16. Now you have thoroughly studied these four categories, Matter, Form in Matter, Abstract Form, and Essence, in tangible things. It has been clarified that we have no perception whatsoever in the fourth category, being the essence."
Not only do we not have any perception of it, we never even encounter it. So how do Kabbalists know that it happens? Is it because there is Matter and something operates within the Matter, which makes him say that there is some essence operating behind the scenes? I don't know, we'll see.
"Also, the third category is a concept that might mislead, and only the first category, the Matter, and the second category, the Form Clothed in Matter, they alone are given to us in clear and sufficient attainment by the Upper Governance."
Why should the Creator mind giving me the Abstract Form and Essence too? Is it due to the principle of creation that Light builds the Kli? Does it stem from the principle that the Kli is existence from absence? Perhaps it stems from the principle that if I had clear attainment in the Abstract Form and Essence my freedom of choice would be limited? After all, I wouldn't be able to build the image of the Creator on me by myself, I would not be able to experience all those things myself, because I would see the Essence is clothed in everything and how it leads everything from beginning to end. In that case, the entire picture would have been clear to me and I would have been deprived of my freedom of choice and ability to learn by myself.
"Through them you can also comprehend the existence of the spiritual objects (the two forms we attain with certainty, and the two we don't), meaning in the Upper Worlds ABYA, since you haven't a tiny item in them (in your perception of spirituality) that is not divided by the four above categories."
Our Kli is a Kli, meaning there are no worlds and there is nothing outside the Kli. It is our Kli that perceives reality either in order to receive, which is called "this world," or in order to bestow, which is called "the Upper World."
"If, for example, you take a certain item in the world Beria, then there are Kelim there, which are of a red color. The Light of Beria travels through it to the children of Beria, and you find that the Kli in Beria, which is the color red, is considered Matter, or an object, meaning the first category.
"Even though it is a mere color, which is about an incident and a manifestation of an operation in the object, yet, we have already said that we have no attainment in the Essence itself, only in the manifestation of the operation from the Essence. We refer to that manifestation of operation as an object, or matter, or a body, or a Kli (see item 13)."
In other words, the Kli, or the creature, is a manifestation of the operations of the Light. Yet, how do we see that in ourselves? When we begin to examine ourselves from without, to observe ourselves from the side, we begin to learn who we are, what we are like when looking from without.
In this manner we slowly study ourselves from the side, as if through a third party. When we rise to spiritual degrees, we study the operations of the Light on us.
This is called "studying the work of the Creator." In fact, it is the Creator who works; we only observe and feel what it does to us. This is how we come to know the Creator. When we want to be in this act together with the Creator, when we agree with the Creator, it is called "justifying" the Creator, in other words, "righteous."
By justifying the Creator, we come to want to think the same thoughts as the Creator, regarding our Matter. In that state we begin to precede the operations of the Creator that we experience; we want to plan them together with the Creator. In other words, we acquire the same mind, or thoughts, as the Creator. The thoughts of the Creator are called, "the secrets of the Torah," and this is how we reach the overall thought of creation, "to do good to His creations."
Thus, when we discover operations of the Essence, we name them "an object, or matter, or a body, or a Kli."
"A Godly Light that travels and clothes through the red color is the form that is clothed in the object, meaning the second category. For this reason the Light itself seems red, indicating the clothing of its luminescence through the object, which is considered the body and the substance, meaning the red color.
"If you want to undress the Godly Light from the object, being the red color, and discuss it in and of itself, without clothing in an object (abstract Light), this already belongs to the third category, meaning the Form removed from the Matter, which might be subject to errors."
This is the Light when it is outside the Kli. We cannot discuss it. All we can discuss is the reaction of the Kli to the Light that clothes within it, in this case red. We do not speak of the Light, but of the impression of the Kli from the presence of the Light in it.
"For this reason it is strictly forbidden in studying the Upper Worlds (in abstract studying), and no genuine Kabbalist would engage in that, much less the authors of the Zohar." So we should not think that they do engage in it.
"It is even more so with the Essence of an element of creation, as we have no perception whatsoever even in the essence of the corporeal objects, all the more so in the spiritual objects.
"Thus you have four categories before you: A) The Kli of Beria, which is the red color, considered the object, or the substance of creation (or the Kli itself, the Guf (lit. body)); B) The clothing of the Godly Light in the Kli of Beria, which is the form in the Essence"; The Light is itself abstract, but its clothing in the Guf, in this Kli of Beria, is called Form clothed in Matter, and it is studied while clothed in Matter.
"C) The Godly Light itself (prior to clothing in the Kli of Beria), removed from the object of Beria (this is Abstract Form, and we do not engage in it); D) The essence of the item (about which we cannot say anything).
"Thus the first boundary has been thoroughly clarified, which is that there is not even a single word of the third and fourth categories in the entire Zohar, only from the first and second manners.
Thus, the Zohar engages in the Matter and Form clothed in Matter, and in the Abstract Form and Essence it does not! Meaning, there is not even a single word.
Again, Kabbalists write only about the most beneficial things, meaning about the clearest things in their attainment. This is all that you will read about in all their books. You might think that they write about Ohr Makif (lit. Surrounding Light), Igulim (lit. Circles), and all those things, as abstract forms, because they're not inside the Kli. Baal HaSulam too writes that they and other things too are outside the Kli.
But we must understand that this is incorrect. It is simply that the Light that is outside the Kli is attained within the Kli, and this is called "an exterior Kli." Whenever anything is said about the Light, it means that it is perceived in the Kelim. Otherwise, it would not have been mentioned in books of Kabbalah in even a single word.
This is how it works with all the terms. Although Kabbalists feel that there are Abstract Form and Essence, they do not write about them, because they cannot be certain of their perception and sensation in these two kinds of perception. Though it is a perception, it is an uncertain one, unclear, and this is why they do not write about it.