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Michael Laitman, PhD

The Structure of the Soul

Conditions for the Soul’s Development

A person in our world cannot exist without having some basic knowledge about the structure of this world, how it affects him, and what the laws of the inanimate, vegetative, animated, and human levels of nature are. Undoubtedly, the more a person comprehends the world around him, the easier and safer it is for him to exist in it.

No one would argue that if fate threw a modern urban person into a desert, he, unfamiliar with desert conditions, would simply perish. That is, in order to exist in any environment, it is necessary to know how this environment functions, what its laws and attributes are, and what is conducive, or harmful and dangerous to life.

Moreover, for the least painful existence in society, a person has to know what lies in the heart of another, understand those who surround him. Without this ability, he cannot be a full-fledged member of the society.

If we placed a primitive man among us who did not know the laws of our society, its problems, the thoughts of the surrounding people and their relationships with each other, would he be able to exist?

Thus, a person who lacks these two kinds of knowledge – about nature and about society – is unable to exist in our world.

Just as a person in our world cannot exist without knowledge of our world, a person’s soul cannot exist in the spiritual world, having not acquired certain knowledge of its laws and nature.

This knowledge must include understanding of the structure and functioning of the spiritual worlds, Partzufim and Sefirot, as well as their interactions called Zivugim” and their consequences and actions.

However, in order to gain knowledge of the spiritual world, one is required to have a soul. Only then it becomes important to him to understand the nature of the spiritual world, for this is what gives one's soul the ability to exist in it.

What Does It Mean To Have a Soul?

The soul is a spiritual organ that is gradually born in a person who exists in our world.

The birth of the soul signifies a gradual emergence of sensation of the spiritual forces that affect him, new altruistic desires, and the emergence of a minimal sensation of the Creator.

This way, along with the person’s physiological body that leads a physiological life, emerges a spiritual body that lives in the spiritual world.

Just as without knowing the laws of nature and society we would not be able to physically exist in this world, our soul or spiritual body cannot exist in the spiritual world without the comprehension of the nature of the spiritual world.

And vice-versa: a person who does not posses the spiritual knowledge will not acquire a soul. And it is because he would instantly harm it. Therefore, the Upper governance limits his perception.

Only a person who is able to act spiritually being fully aware and familiar with the functioning of the spiritual environment revealed to him, will acquire the perception of the spiritual world.

Thus, a person who has not acquired spiritual knowledge will not acquire a soul. And he who has acquired a soul develops in the spiritual world like a newborn.

The Soul’s Development

Since everything in creation is structured according to a single principle - the five stages of development - the birth of the spiritual body (called the “soul”) in a person is equivalent to the birth of our physiological body.

We differentiate three stages in the birth and development of our body, and they are the consequence of the three stages of development that the soul (our spiritual body or our egoistic desire to receive pleasure) undergoes. The original or starting state is the absolutely egoistic desire to receive pleasure, meaning the state when we want to receive that which we perceive to be pleasure. In the final state, we alter the objects of our pleasure.

The first stage – birth and emergence into the world. At this stage, we lack knowledge and strength, and a person receives everything necessary for his existence from his father and mother, and he exists due to their strength and care.

Correspondingly, the spiritual birth (or entrance into the spiritual world) occurs after a person has realized that egoism is evil, meaning that he has rejected his own egoism and has acquired the initial desire to give himself over to the will of the Upper, in order for Him to correct and create a creature equivalent to Himself.

The realization of evil is the full understanding of the fact that you lack any desires for the spiritual, or for that which is beyond the bounds of the body’s benefit.

Once this realization has occurred, birth takes place. The Upper light gives a person strength or the forces to completely reconstruct his nature, to suppress it and not to use his own desires. That is, to create a screen over them, or to accept the conditions of the First Restriction.

This state is called “conception” and “birth of the spiritual desire - Kli”: despite the fact that increasingly greater desires are emerging in a person as a result of his revelation of immense spiritual pleasures, nevertheless, the person prefers to remain in the state of an embryo.

This corrected desire is called “the first small state” (Katnut Alef).

A soul that has been acquired by an adult living in our world is called “newborn.”

During the soul’s birth and at the beginning of his perception of it, a person does not yet have any spiritual knowledge and he is not aware of what is happening in the spiritual world. This is equivalent to the way a newborn baby does not realize where he is. The reason for this is that the person has only “Aviut Alef,” or the screen to withstand only the tiniest part of his egoism.

On his own, he is unable to move or to perform any spiritual actions, in the same way that a baby cannot perform any conscious physical actions.

After a person has been spiritually born and he is in this state, how can he exist in the spiritual? Only on account of his parents - the same way as in our world.

What does this mean? In spite of all of the interfering forces and circumstances, a person should attach himself to a higher Partzuf and, with all his efforts, try to avoid becoming separated from it in spite of all the egoistic obstacles that tempt him with their pleasures or reasonable deductions.

That is, a person receives various obstacles, thoughts and temptations that oppose his spiritual advancement. He falls down many times (in the spiritual sense), makes mistakes and falls into animal pleasures, as if he is the weakest-willed person in the world.

The reason for this is that the Upper is showing him who he really is, how insignificant and weak his spiritual desires are and how strong his egoistic nature is.

If a person “glues” himself to the Upper Partzuf despite all of this, then he grows, because he overcomes the obstacles that are in his way.

The same aforementioned Upper force purposefully sends these obstacles to him, and He does it in such a way that the lower does not feel the purposefulness. The Upper sends the lower various obstacles to his spiritual advancement in order for the lower to become convinced in his own inability to do anything and to cry to Him for help.

When this happens the Upper helps him. He does not need abasement and pleas. Simply, when the lower has realized his own weakness, he creates within himself the condition for receiving help or light from the Upper.

If a person does not realize that on his own he is unable to overcome the conquering egoism, the urge for pleasures and the desire to understand everything rather than to act in spite of knowledge – this means that he does not have a Kli or the ability to receive help.

This is equivalent to the condition necessary for a person to receive knowledge from another person: a person is able to receive knowledge from another person only if he is convinced that the other person knows more than he does.

Therefore, the Upper needs to show the lower that he is nothing. This necessity stems from the necessity to develop His newborn baby – the soul – from the egoistic desire.

However, when a person perceives his own total insignificance and weakness, he wants to leave the spiritual path, because his inner voice convinces him that he does not have the strength for it. And how can he possibly attain such a high goal without strength?

Only the strength or force of the Upper Partzuf is able to help a person remain in this state. That is, his AVI” or “father and mother,” meaning the strength/force of the parents who are above him.

This state - the baby’s growth under the influence of the Upper - is called “Katnut Alef” or “the first small state.”

The second stage – growth and acquisition of the necessary knowledge and reason that enable the person to avoid everything harmful to the body by generally taking care of himself with his own strength, as well as the father’s and mother’s strength.

What does “growth” mean in the spiritual? Does it mean to become fatter or taller, as in our world? Yes: “fatter” with regard to the light Hassadim means to increase one’s desire to bestow. “Taller” with regard to the light Hochma means that a person acquires an immense ability to receive light for the sake of the Creator.

A person acquires knowledge by receiving the light Hochma. However, he is able to receive this light (Hochma) only when it is clothed into the light Hassadim, meaning into the intention “for the sake of the Creator” or the altruistic intentions.

This way, the light Hochma is able to enter into the altruistic desires, and this is the light that gives us knowledge about how to withstand the impure forces.

What does it mean when we say “impure forces?” We think that our desires are given to us for our benefit, because having desires enables us to receive and perceive pleasures.

Therefore, we think that all the things that “sparkle” and attract us with their pleasures are good for us. And generally, we think that “pleasure” and “good for us” are the same thing.

In reality, however, a person attains the realization (or awareness) of evil when he understands that “egoistic pleasure” and “evil” are the same thing.

In the worlds BYA, the spiritual impure forces tell a person about the great spiritual pleasures he will receive if he follows his desires (that is, the desires given to him by the impure forces as if they were his own.)

If a person is able to realize or see the evil for himself in this, then this realization already becomes a part of the next – higher – state.

On every step of his spiritual path from the bottom up, a person must go through all of the following stages: he must see that the Ego is evil and, for this reason, he must gain the ability to withstand it; he must admit his own weakness or inability to do anything independently; and he must want to turn to the Upper for help.

A person is able to go through these stages only with the help of the Upper light’s illumination or glow on him. The light that comes from the Creator allows the person to perceive that egoism is evil, that he himself is insignificant and that the Upper is the savior.

When a person goes through these states, he feels how his parents (or the Upper Partzuf) watch over him and take care of him. They safeguard him, provide him with everything necessary from all sides and show him what is good and what is bad.

Gradually, the lower realizes that everything he perceives – both good and bad – comes from his parents. He is now able to accomplish certain things on his own, by remembering what his parents have taught him. Gradually, as he acquires more spiritual strength and knowledge, he grows even more.

Spiritual growth consists of at least two stages: whenever a person is able to do something for the Creator, he must do it on his own. Whenever he is unable to – he must ask the Upper for it.

On his current level, a person is able to do everything on his own. However, in order to achieve a higher level he must ask the Creator for everything. This is how he grows.

This stage - growing on account of the Upper and attaining the spiritual nature - is called “Katnut Bet”, or “the second small state.”

The third stageGadlut (the large state). This is the adult state. The knowledge a person has acquired gives him the strength to exist independently, and this is equivalent to an adult in our world.

He depends on society and the people around him, but no longer on his parents. He himself possesses the light Hochma, and he is able to perform a Zivug, give birth, as well as raise and fill with light another lower Partzuf – his son.

He now has his own experience and reason that allow him to exist independently. In addition he is able to pass this experience on to another person.

The spiritual object (a soul) goes through the same spiritual processes as a person of this world does, or through processes that correspond to the ones a person in our world goes through.

The difference is only the material: whether it is egoistic or altruistic. However, it is precisely this difference that makes all spiritual events completely incomprehensible to us. The reason for this is that we completely lack any understanding of the altruistic nature.

Every person’s soul repeatedly incarnates or returns into this world (or clothes into the body of this world). This reincarnation continues until the soul has fully attained the entire Kabbalistic knowledge; because without this knowledge, the soul cannot grow and receive everything the Creator has designed to give it.

The reason the soul is obligated to attain the Science of Kabbalah is not that the knowledge itself enlarges the soul. Rather, the soul must attain this science because of the nature of the soul: without having knowledge - Ohr Hochma (the light Hochma) – the soul is not capable of achieving the level or height for which it was created by the Creator.

Thus a person’s soul does not grow by acquiring knowledge. Rather a person’s soul has an inner attribute that does not allow a person to make himself grow with his own two hands before he has assimilated the entire spiritual nature and acquired all the necessary spiritual knowledge.

The soul’s growth completely depends on the degree of knowledge it acquires.

If the soul could grow without receiving the Upper light or knowledge of the Creator, then it would harm itself.

It would acquire increasingly greater desires without knowing how to use them correctly. This is equivalent to a person in our world: if a 20-year-old person’s level of intellectual development still remains on the level of a one-year-old child, then he can do horrible things. This would be strength without reason, and it is dangerous for the person and for the people around him.

This can never occur in the spiritual. A person acquires the ability to perform spiritual actions only to the degree he is corrected, or to the degree of spiritual knowledge he has received.

A person’s age is determined by the degree of his reception of spiritual light. Therefore a person who has not developed spiritually lives and dies physically without having begun to live spiritually.

There exist bodies that have not given birth to souls and that have not achieved the creation of a spiritual Kli. Therefore our world is full of two-legged bodies; but unfortunately there are very few souls in them.

The amount of light that enters the soul determines the Partzuf’s height.

It can exist in a laying-down position, as a newborn: his legs, arms, torso and head are all located on the same level. The head does not have any advantage over the legs: all the spiritual body parts or all desires have only one minimal screen and, correspondingly, a minimal light.

Therefore, the head does not differ from the legs. It is equivalent to a baby or a sleeping person, meaning that the mind is not manifested.

In Kabbalah, a horizontal position means that there is only Ohr Hassadim (the light Hassadim) and there is no Ohr Hochma (light Hochma), which enters the Partzuf correspondingly to the screen. The initial stage of spiritual development begins with the “lying–down” position, as a newborn baby.

The second stage is when he is already sitting, but the legs do not yet have the strength to hold him up.

The extensions, or the ends of the desires to receive pleasure have not yet been corrected; they do not yet have a screen and they cannot create boundaries or restrictions on their own reception of big light.

In the spiritual state of “lying down,” all 10 Sefirot of a person’s soul are evaluated as having a single light, or one minimal screen. A newborn baby does not have knowledge and therefore he does not, and should not, have the strength to move around.

Only the light Hochma gives the soul (Partzuf) spiritual strength. Most of its development does not occur by receiving light from its parents without its own efforts; but rather development takes place as a result of the Partzuf’s own good deeds or actions.

“Good deeds” – means to receive light with the help of the screen, in opposition to one’s own egoism. One’s ability to do this depends on one’s attainment of Kabbalah. That is, the main factor of growth is the function of good deeds, and they depend on the assimilation of Kabbalah, or the reception of knowledge from the upper Partzuf.

Each soul’s knowledge allows it to attain all the other souls: beginning with their initial state called “the soul of Adam” and ending with the final correction of all the souls.

This is equivalent to the way a person attains the entire world: he attains humanity’s nature, mentality, habits and everything around him. Based on this knowledge, he safeguards himself from harm that may come from nature and people around him, and he connects with and grows closer to people who assist in his growth.

It should not be surprising that a single soul is able to attain all the souls. The same thing applies to a person in our world: if he is wise, he is able to attain the nature of all humanity by attaining himself because every part of creation includes the elements of all its other parts.

A person does not have a single attribute that other people do not also have. Every person has all of humanity’s attributes, even if he has them to the minimal degree.

Every person is slightly a murderer, slightly a rapist, a womanizer, a scientist, a fool, a pious man, an atheist, etc. Everything is contained in each person!

When a person works to spiritually perfect himself, he begins to perceive all of these attributes in himself and, as he perceives each of them to be egoistic, he gradually realizes their evil for himself.

When the perception of this evil reaches the maximum and unbearable threshold, a person voluntarily rejects this attribute as one that is harmful. This way, step by step, he corrects himself.

A person perceives another person’s attributes to be natural only if he has discovered and felt them inside of himself. That is, if he has become aware of their presence inside of himself.

How often do we see people who possess negative attributes, yet they do not even suspect this fact and do not perceive it within themselves. At the same time they cannot tolerate these attributes in other people.

With the help of studying Kabbalah, a person begins to attain who he really is and therefore he gains the ability to tolerate others and to forgive them, because he realizes that he possesses the same things as they do.

Why does he become tolerant of others? Because he perceives that they are not capable of getting rid of their negative attributes. He begins to love others to the degree that he realizes his own insignificance, because he sees himself in them.

Since all parts of creation consist of all the other parts (after all we are separated only by egoistic intentions, while our souls comprise one single spiritual body called “the soul of Adam”), when a person corrects himself he corrects the whole world. This applies to each one of us.

Body and Soul

Every body (in Kabbalah, a body does not refer to the physical body, but rather a person’s desires) is full of impatience and anger, because it undergoes phases of accumulating lack and hunger, which alternate with phases of feeling pleasure. These mutually alternating states or times bring about the body’s ability to perceive the smallest and greatest pleasures, as well as the desires to receive those pleasures.

Descents – Towards the Light

Pleasure enters a person and becomes perceived by him only in the place where he had previously perceived the desire to receive this pleasure. Hunger is a necessary condition for the perception of pleasure.

Moreover, as soon as pleasure becomes constant, meaning it does not change and alternate with the perception of hunger or arousal for it, then it immediately ceases to be perceived as pleasure. Constant alternation is necessary, or the shift between fulfillment and its absence.

Coming from the state of pleasure, knowledge, and awareness, a person perceives spiritual descent. It is precisely these oscillations of states that cause a person to have the perception of hunger for pleasure. Consequently, these alterations cause the next phase – the reception of pleasure or knowledge – called “reception of the Torah.”

When light or pleasure leaves the Sefira or Kli, a memory of it remains, meaning the desire for the pleasure that is no longer there. It is precisely these Reshimo or memories of the previous light that are the real Kli – the desire to receive the next light.

Therefore, the Reshimo from the light that exists is the vessel - Kli.

- The light that enters the Partzuf is called Taamim or taste.

- The light that leaves the Partzuf is called Nekudot or disappearance.

- The memories of the taste are called Tagin, and they give an additional perception of the previous pleasure.

- The memories of the Nekudot are called Otiyot or letters. They are the Kelim/ vessels for receiving the light in the future, because it is precisely they that have the desire to receive, since they do not perceive the light that fulfills but rather the light that is leaving.

Therefore, the perception of the light that is leaving or loss is impossible without a spiritual descent, and this is a necessary condition for spiritual growth.

Thus, the fulfillment by the light-pleasure, the light’s exit, the emergence of the Reshimo -memory; all of these are necessary conditions or stages for the emergence of the aspiration for previous pleasure.

When pleasure emerges for the first time, it becomes perceived as unconscious pleasure. However, when it has already been perceived and then it leaves, creating a desire for itself; by being desired in advance, it becomes perceived completely differently.

The alteration of fulfillment and emptying has the effect of the light “hitting” the Kli. At first it performs a Zivug, meaning the light says to the Kli: “Accept me,” and the screen answers: “I do not want to. I can accept it only for the sake of the Creator” – and accepts it.

However, as soon as the screen accepts a portion of the light, the light that remains outside hits it from the side: “Accept more.” The Kli is unable to take more light for the sake of the Creator, and it decides to become empty altogether.

However, then the light again “presses” and asks the empty Kli to accept a small portion of light. In this way, light hits the screen and creates new perceptions, new Kelim, or new possibilities for future reception of the light.

Light Creates the Desire

The body undergoes various incarnations or circulations, or states of hunger and fulfillment. However the law of nature is such that the states of hunger cross out the states of fulfillment and pleasure.

The spiritual body constantly undergoes these circulations. This can be compared to a pebble that acquires smoothness by being washed by the ocean’s waves, as if it acquires the water’s softness as the water externally transforms the rock and makes it resemble itself. This is how the light performs work on the Kli and makes it suitable for receiving the light. The light gives the Kli its own attributes.

However besides the fact that unpleasant sensations and memories completely cross out the pleasant ones, leaving nothing of the latter as if they never even existed, there is one more additional attribute of egoism: it thinks that others have what it does not have, or that others have more of what it has. The Kli acquires a feeling of envy and the perception that another person’s state is better than its own.

This comes from the fact that the soul itself is neutral and it is located between two forces called “angels,” or between two systems – pure and impure forces, or the good and evil origin.

They rub the soul between themselves, as if throwing it to each other between the palms of the hands one after the other. This is how a person feels during his spiritual development.

Sometimes he is thrown to his positive thoughts, actions and desires, and then he suddenly falls under the influence of negative thoughts and aspirations. And nothing can be done about any of this.

Firstly a person must try to investigate himself and understand what forces are exerting an influence on him right now. Then based on this understanding, the person should make a decision.

Spiritual Ascent

A person who ascends the spiritual levels attains his own Kelim, which have remained in him on every level of the chain of his soul’s descent from the world of Infinity into our world; on every level along which his soul descended into our world.

He ascends and begins to perceive new desires. According to them, he begins to ask for help. However if he has not corrected the previous Kli, the consequent one will not become revealed in him. He will not perceive it and he will have nothing to ask for.

As we have already said, the Creator (or nature in our world) does not give strength to a baby in order for him to avoid harming himself as a result of the absence of reason.

A person’s spiritual ascent consists in him gathering all Kelim within himself that have remained on upper levels. Then, as he ascends, the person fills them (Kelim) with light and attaches them to his soul. This is the complete soul, or Kelim that are filled by the light.

Since everything is apprehended in comparison with its opposite, without having apprehended the spiritual world we are not capable of apprehending our world! Both of these worlds are nothing more than our subjective states, and we apprehend them simultaneously.

We perceive only our own suffering, but never other persons’. We do not see another person’s suffering because it is “inside.” However, we see another person’s pleasures because they are “outside.” Therefore we become filled with a feeling of envy.

This is envy of the light that has entered another person. However thanks to the fact that the Creator has created the feeling of envy in us, that same light has entered me as well and formed a Kli – desire within me.

I want the same pleasure as the person whom I envy feels. I acquire my own personal desire for that pleasure. Therefore as all of a person’s other attributes (including the “worst” ones), the feeling of envy is necessary for spiritual advancement.

Attainment in the Material and Spiritual

There is no difference between the body and soul. Their difference is only the fact that the body is influenced by the surrounding nature, and the inner body (soul) is influenced by its own nature. The soul, however, changes only as a result and to the degree of its work, or the degree of combining the material and spiritual within itself.

Everything that happens to our soul and body comes from that same Source – the Creator, Who manifests himself through material or spiritual nature.

People who do not perceive the spiritual and who perceive only our world assert, “There is no Creator. Everything is nature.” Those who receive a soul or the upper light feel differently: everything comes from the Creator and, as it passes through the upper worlds, it descends down to us.

A person receives pleasure either from the material nature, meaning the final level of all of creation, or from the highest level. Depending on what level a person receives from, he is called either simply a person of our world, or a Kabbalist. This is because Kabbalah is the science of receiving the upper light (from the verb Lekabel” – to receive).

The nature that surrounds us is attained even without the necessary attainment of its laws, or the essence of what is taking place.

We can live in this world without understanding what is taking place in nature, in society and in our world, without knowing the past and the future and without knowing what is happening to us and above us, as well as where humanity is going. Existence under the influence of the surrounding universe is unconscious or animal existence. However in the spiritual world it is impossible to understand one’s state without having the understanding of its cause and consequence.

Spiritual attainment is ideal, meaning it is complete and perfect on every one of its stages. Therefore a person is able to receive his future state to the degree he attains the initial causes of spiritual nature.

As a person ascends, first of all he attains the levels along which his soul descended from up down. That is, he attains his own empty Kli that is already located on a given level, since it has remained there during the soul’s ascent from up down.

Now, however, as he ascends from down up, a person himself attains or creates the Kli or desire. He corrects it, adds a screen to it and fills it with light.

On every step of the ladder – from us until the Creator – there is an empty vessel that awaits each person. As a person ascends, he fills it with light. While doing this, he attains his past or the descent from up down, together with his growth beginning with the moment of birth until the level he has currently reached.

We have to reach the highest possible level, where the soul unifies with all other souls in the world of Infinity, thus attaining our Source – the Creator – and becoming filled with His light. In this way the end and the beginning of our path meet.

Kabbalah – a Practical Knowledge

Kabbalah is not a theoretical science. It is the most practical knowledge, because its object is the very person. That which a person studies in Kabbalah he then perceives on himself rather than on some removed object.

Therefore a Kabbalist undergoes within himself (or in his perceptions) all the states of attaining his genuine egoism or his nature. That is, he has to live and feel each of his own egoistic desires for pleasure.

In addition he has to feel each desire in himself to such a degree that he will feel hate for it, and such a degree of hate that it will enable him to completely reject this desire in the future.

Only in this case, a person gradually liberates himself of his egoistic desire: for the animal pleasures, for wealth, for power and for knowledge. He must feel that desires for these pleasures bring him pain and loss and that they harm him. Only having perceived their evil, a person willingly rejects them and becomes free.

However it is necessary to remember that everything was created only for our spiritual advancement and for the purpose of attaining the goal of creation. “The Creator created everything only for Himself, or for the attainment of His own goal. In addition, He did not create anything in vain.”

Concealment Attracts

A person is created in such a way that he desires to know that which is concealed, to be more precise, that which he perceives to exist but that is concealed from him. The reason for this is that we do not perceive in any way what is genuinely concealed.

If the Creator wants to attract a person to something, He slightly reveals it. That is, he shows that there is something concealed here, and this arouses a desire in a person to reveal it to himself. In addition something that is half-concealed attracts us more than what is revealed.

Interest in the half-concealed gives us strength to reveal it. When we reveal it, again it becomes necessary to search for the half-concealed. There is no satisfaction in the revealed.

The half-concealed consists simultaneously of the Kli – the perception of lack – and pleasure. It consists of both the Kli and the light, and therefore it gives a greater sensation of pleasure than a Kli that is fully filled by pleasure, or when there is no more lacking.

The full sensation of pleasure is not pleasure because there is no lack. The Kli is wholly filled by pleasure and does not perceive desire.

In order to perceive pleasure there must be interruptions in the perception. Only then we are able to understand the entire magnificence of pleasure.

Why did Malchut of the world of Infinity create the first restriction? After all, it was in the state of full union with the Creator, in the state of seemingly complete perfection.

It performed this restriction because it did not have another way out: if it constantly received the light, if it would have become wholly filled by the light then it would have ceased to perceive it as pleasure.

Therefore it performed the first restriction and now it receives everything for the sake of the Creator. At every moment it has an opportunity to check its relationship to the Creator: “Am I able to do something for the Creator right now?” A renewal constantly takes place and pleasure is constantly perceived. The reason for this is that there cannot be any limitation in bestowal or the desire to give to another.

Initially the Creator created this possibility of restricting the reception of the light within Malchut, in order for creation to be able to constantly receive pleasure.

Gmar Tikkun This is when a person has completely corrected himself, and all possibilities to do something “for the sake of the Creator” are within his complete control. Gmar Tikkun is complete peace and complete rest, since there is a complete opportunity to take pleasure in doing things for the Creator. It is rest from egoism and pure altruistic pleasure. To give to the Creator – this is not work, this is the very pleasure.

The action of the screen is rejecting the light. Does our work consist in accepting light? No, this is not work. Work is creation of the screen, rather than the Zivug we can then perform for the sake of the Creator.

Work Everything that is done for the sake of the Creator is not considered work. Work is actions against the impure forces, Klipot or our egoistic desire. It is removing them farther away from us.

Everything occurring under Parsa, inside of the worlds BYA, is called “the weekdays”. There, on those levels, the correction of desires takes place; then, their ascent into the world of Atzilut.

Ascent does not occur mechanically. If a person has altered his desires in correspondence to the attributes of the world of Atzilut, this means that he has ascended to the world of Atzilut. The world of Atzilut is located above Parsa. A person can receive light for the sake of the Creator only while being in that world.

Saturday is the state of the world of Atzilut. While a person is still unable to receive this light (meaning he is only correcting his Kelim for now) he is located in the worlds BYA or in the state called “work” or “the weekdays.”

Therefore the final state (Gmar Tikkun) is a state when you already have all the screens and you are able to receive the endless light-pleasure.

You gradually check yourself and all your actions – whether they are taking place for the sake of the Creator. And you delight in the infinitely renewing and endless pleasure. Here you constantly add to previous Partzufim that remain. Therefore you perceive yourself ascending.

There is no ascent. You add a new state or a new Partzuf to your previous state. At first you had one Partzuf – a small one. Then, inside of it a middle one is born. Then a big one is born within the previous one. A whole train of Partzufim stretches behind you. You add to it, and this addition is infinite.

Complete rest. This state is called “Menuhat Olamim” or eternal rest. This state is perceived within fully corrected desires.

Within egoistic desires when everything is filled to the brim, emptiness begins to be perceived – there is no happiness in life. The countries with the greatest prevalence of suicides are specifically the ones that have the highest level of life.

The more opportunities a person has, the easier he can receive what he wants right away, and the faster he loses the pleasure from what he receives.

This occurs because there is no concealment or inaccessibility. Therefore the taste and the pleasure are lost. The Creator’s force is expressed precisely in the fact that He throws us in the direction that is opposite to Him. Then He gradually reveals Himself to us, and we begin to yearn for Him.

From the person’s point of view, the main work is to discover the Creator’s concealment, the perception of being removed from Him, the perception of the necessity to find a person’s root and the perception of the surrounding light. As soon as we achieve this, we reveal forces within ourselves that pull us toward the Creator.

The Revelation of the Creator’s Actions is Within Their Concealment

If I want to “directly catch” the spiritual without performing specific corrections of my attributes, I will not be able to do this. I must perform corrections that correspond to the spiritual. I will be able to perceive the spiritual to the degree of my equivalence to it.

The Creator does not conceal Himself from us. Rather His laws conceal our egoism from Him.

As soon as we willingly undertake the prohibition of the first restriction – “not to receive into egoistic desires” – the Creator immediately becomes revealed to us. This can be compared to a dialogue between two participants. One of them conceals himself when the other wants to perceive Him directly.

As soon as the second one willingly accepts the First one’s concealment by altering his attributes, the First one becomes revealed.

The Creator is not concealed from us. He compels us to change our attributes to such a degree that will enable us to perceive Him. By concealing Himself He shows us the paths to reveal Him.

When a person voluntarily or willingly accepts the laws of concealment – the concealment of the spiritual from his egoism – immediately the spiritual Kelim that form become filled with the Creator’s light, His perception and revelation.

Bestowing Kelim can be built only by suppressing egoism, or building a screen that rejects the light. We create a desire- Kli within ourselves that is equivalent to the Creator.

There are two sides of the same concealment: when we conceal our egoistic Kelim and when we conceal ourselves from receiving pleasure from the Creator. However, in principle they are the same thing: egoism and direct pleasure are two interconnected things.

The light and Kli are connected with each other. It is impossible to perceive the light without desire. And when there is desire, it is present because the person foresees a possible pleasure in the future, or the light around him.

Within our perceptions either I perceive desire and I work against it, or I perceive pleasure and I work against pleasure.

Our entire work in spite of knowledge, the material, all egoistic obstacles, society’s laws and norms – all of this ultimately unifies into work against ourselves.

To counterbalance this, we must have faith in the fact that all of our obstacles and everything was created by the Creator; faith in the fact that the Creator is concealed and that only in this state I am able to reveal Him by transforming all “obstacles” into my aides.

As soon as the Creator shows that He is concealed, we begin to aspire toward Him.

People around us do not yet perceive the Creator. They exist in an unconscious state, because they have not yet reached their lowest point.

They are still located within the Creator as a fetus inside a mother, and they act automatically, meaning only under the influence of nature He created.

When a person begins to understand how much he is removed from the Creator, this is the starting point from which his spiritual development begins. Beginning with this state a person acquires the opportunity to move towards the Creator.

The only thing we have to do is to slightly perceive the Creator, even if this will not be done in an apparent way. This immediately gives us immense strength or forces, because we are created with the desire to feel pleasure. The Creator’s light is a huge Source of pleasure, and we begin to yearn for it.

When we throw a rock up into the air, we do not feel the force of gravity. It immediately slows down the rock’s movement and halts the rock at the highest point of its flight. However, the force itself manifests in a concealed form, or in the fact that it slows the movement upwards.

In this way, the force of the Creator is manifested in our descent from up down.

However, these forces become apparently manifested or expressed in the person himself and in his movement from down up, when he perceives the Creator and naturally aspires towards Him. This occurs in the same way as the force of gravity does, when it has already halted the rock’s movement upwards and the rock flies down under its pull.

The Creator built creation by way of descent from Him to us, by concealing Himself more and more as a rock that was thrown upwards and that moves farther and farther away from the earth.

Moreover it is more difficult for the Creator to conceal Himself and not to give than to give, because it is against His desires and attributes to do this. This is equivalent to the way parents in our world suffer most when they are not able to give something to their child.

A rock flying upwards goes through its path until a specific point, where it halts. This point is the place where our spiritual birth takes place.

We begin to reveal who we are, where we are from, and who our spiritual parents are (before this we were not aware of anything). Then an inner force of attraction towards the Creator emerges in us. This attraction emerges automatically.

What does the Creator do over the course of 6000 years? He conceals Himself and shows us various degrees of his concealment. Spiritual desires to reveal Him become born in us.

During the 7th millennium the Creator ends His concealment. As soon as He does this, perfection arrives and we become a part of the Creator.

Attaining the Spiritual

Any spiritual attainment consists of two necessary attributes: 1 – it must never, not to any degree, be the product of one’s imagination. Rather, it must be genuine. 2 – it should not cause even the slightest doubt, in the same way a person’s own existence does not arouse any doubts in him.

The very name “spiritual” refers to the fact that it is equivalent to the spirit, something that is like the air around us: it is something that exists, but is impossible to grasp and it does not have any concrete form.

Despite this everyone knows what air is, and no one doubts its existence, because every person knows that his life depends on air.

A person immediately dies when there is lack of air. This is precisely the reason why the presence of air is so apparent and above any doubts.

Now let us try to understand the spiritual based on the material. We are able to do this because our inner awareness and mind are equivalent to our inner body called the “animal soul”, which is life and the source of the perception of its absence.

The inner part of the mind is called the “intelligent soul.” A person is also able to perceive its lack inside of it.

The reason for perceiving presence and lacking simultaneously from the same source is the following. Creation perceives itself to be an independent creation only to the degree it feels absence within the perception of life and the life force.

Creatures that lack the perception of their existence also lack the perception of the intelligent soul and its inner part. Therefore they perceive lack only to the degree necessary for their bodily existence. Not more than this.

The degree of life in creation is always measured only to the degree that one feels the perception of spiritual lack or the lack of spiritual life.

After all, if creation did not feel lack, then it would not be able to fulfill itself with everything necessary to support its existence and it would perish.

A person’s spiritual health and spiritual growth completely depend on the degree he perceives their lack. The same occurs with our animal body: every person who is physically healthier feels a greater appetite and therefore eats more, thus increasing his strength.

The Need to Attain the Creator

All fault or lack a person’s intelligent soul perceives can be summed up as one reason or one desire: the desire to perceive the Creator, or the perception of the lack of perceiving the Creator.

If a person acquires the desire to perceive the Creator, he thus removes all clothing from his previous pleasures, such as status, power, wealth etc., and he aspires only for the Creator.

A person’s desires become “doubled”: he desires both this world and the future world. A person begins to act not for the sake of reward in the future world after he leaves this or our world, in the way people who believe in reward in this or the future world carry out the Commandments. Rather he does it in order to perceive the Creator in this world and during this life.

This desire emerges in him because in the very nature of the intelligent soul the aspiration to apprehend one’s Creator was placed originally.

The presence of this desire in a person comes from perceiving himself as one who exists. Therefore he always strives to attain or apprehend that which is “above him.”

All of a person’s aspirations to apprehend himself and all that surrounds him come from this inner desire that is concealed in him to apprehend his Parent or his origin.

Although a person’s intelligent soul is constantly chasing after all phenomenon that are concealed from it and desires to reveal everything above and below it as well as what is within the hearts of others around it, nevertheless all of these aspirations are partial in comparison to the only genuine human aspiration – towards our Source.

We can also see this from the following example. If no one existed in the world other than man, for example, if man was created alone, he would not have any aspiration other than the aspiration to find his source.

The reason for this is that the aspiration to attain the Creator is the result of a special kind of perception of the absence of the Only One Who Brings Life.

All other desires lead to the complete clarification of this genuine desire, which is concealed from the person himself despite the fact that it is his most important desire.

Even if man was created as the only creation, he would continue to aspire toward perceiving the Creator and he would simply not have other desires.

Our body demands the satisfaction of our animal desires, but society gives us our human desires.

Unconscious Work

To the degree a person begins to perceive Ohr Makif or the Creator that surrounds Him, he begins to aspire towards Him.

By perceiving Ohr Makif (surrounding light), a person begins to perceive that he is the creation. All events in our world take place with only one goal – to bring man to the state of perceiving the Creator.

This is the reason for everything that happens, both as a whole or what happens to all nations, as well as in particular or to each one of us. However this becomes revealed to the degree of a person’s correction, and it becomes revealed to no one except himself.

For example, drivers of public transportation carry out difficult work for the sake of society because they want to help everything with all their strength, in order for everyone to feel good and for everyone to be able to travel to any place they want to, in order for every passenger, in his turn, to bestow to others after he has arrived to the place of his destination. That is, to bestow to others from the bottom of his heart and to serve others with his entire desire.

The whole world is busy only with this: to bestow and to do good for each other.

However as long as a person is not capable of understanding and perceiving the entire goodness of this kind of work, he is being deceived from above: the Creator shows him that he can earn many egoistic pleasures in exchange for his service for the good of others.

The person takes this bait, deceiving himself that he is working for money, status, power or animal pleasures. This way the whole world is unconsciously working for the Creator.

The Whole World – are Unwilling Righteous Men

Unconsciously, the whole world is carrying out spiritual actions. However, in order to perceive and to see them – it is necessary to agree with them. Otherwise if a person who is not yet corrected sees his genuine actions, he will not be able to continue doing them.

Therefore only to the degree of our correction, the genuine picture of the world becomes revealed to each one of us called “the spiritual world and the Creator Who governs everything!”

The size of the spiritual vessel - Kli is determined by the size of its desire to unify with the Creator.

The size of the egoistic Kli is determined by a person’s desire for pleasure: the size of aspiration and the kind of pleasure towards which he has a desire (see “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”).

The bigger a person is, the greater his egoistic desires are. Animals and bugs have small desires. Big people have big desires.

People who are developing spiritually have even greater desires, but already in an abstract form. These are not desires for pleasures clothed into an image of our world (power or money). Rather it is the desire to perceive the Creator.

A person does not have to correct any previous attributes in himself. He does not have to go into himself, think about what he should correct, how bad he is and therefore so far away from the Creator.

All of this will gradually come to him on its own to the degree of his need for correction. A person should transfer all his thoughts to the Creator. He should think about himself maximum half an hour a day, as Baal HaSulam writes.

A person is located where his thoughts are. Therefore by thinking about the Creator, a person thus separates from his nature.

The remainder of the time he should think about the Creator’s creation and His ways. In this case, he will develop the need to perceive the Creator within himself to an even greater degree.

To the degree a person is able to replace the aspiration to think about himself with the aspiration to think about the Creator, he becomes corrected.

This state is called “Ibur” or conception. In this state a person wants to think only about his upper level; he is unified with it and crosses himself out completely. His intrauterine development and spiritual birth begin.

How to See the Creator?

How can we see the Creator? How can we imagine something that is not our nature and that cannot be perceived inside of our organs of perception? After all our imagination is the product of our consciousness, and our consciousness is limited by the boundaries of our nature.

We are created according to a specific standard, and we cannot conceive of anything outside of its boundaries. If the Creator is invisible and imperceptible within our egoistic senses, how can we nevertheless attain Him? How can we conceive of Him?

Moreover even when we correct our nature to its opposite or altruistic nature, where is the assurance in the fact that we are attaining the Creator in our new altruistic perceptions?

What does it mean to attain the Creator or Light? What does it mean to perceive Light?

We perceive only our reactions to it. Is this the perception of the Creator? While doing this we simultaneously perceive ourselves; we reveal ourselves; and through ourselves, we reveal something that supposedly influences us from the outside.

Within our perceptions we are exactly equivalent to our measuring instruments, which do not register the external process itself, but rather its influence on the instrument.

Moreover: this is not even the influence on the instrument, but the instrument’s reaction to the external influence. There can be various influences, but if they cause the same reaction, there is no way we can differentiate one influence from another.

Why Should We Attain the Creator?

This is a purely philosophical question: what is the boundary of attainment? Naturally, we cannot even think that there exists a material incarnation of the Creator. This is the greatest prohibition in our teaching: to imagine the Creator in the images of our world.

The Creator is bodiless, He does not have any volume and he is outside of the bounds of time, space and our perceptions.

Therefore, to worship any concrete forces is to worship idols, meaning partial forces of the Creator.

In this case, a person places a certain inanimate spiritual force as the basis of creation or as his creator, or a robot called “angel” in Kabbalah. This is a messenger or an automatic executive.

But if the Creator is everything, then why can I not worship something He created? After all, this is He or His force.

The difference between the genuine relation to the Creator and the creation of material or spiritual idols is built precisely on the difference between altruism and egoism.

Since light comes from the very Creator, therefore the strongest and most genuine of a person’s desires is the desire to attain Him. The light creates the desire to receive and it increases to the degree of our closeness to the Creator.

There can never emerge a desire for something that does not exist in nature in any form. If a desire emerges, this means that there exists an object capable of fulfilling this desire. Therefore the light builds a Kli for itself, or the desire to take pleasure in it.

We have already said that on all levels of our development, the goal - attaining the Creator – is clothed into various forms: at first it comprises the animal desires, then it is the aspiration for power and rank, and then – aspiration for knowledge and finally – aspirations for the Creator’s perception.

Only these last desires are called “spiritual.” Aspirations for power, rank and knowledge are called “human,” and the bodily desires relate to our animal level. In this regard a person does not differ from an animal.

All of these desires are levels of aspiration for the Creator, because their gradual development brings all humanity to the desire to unify with the Creator.

Change of Aspirations

A person constantly changes his definition of truth and falseness:

Thus, on every specific level, the following level negates the previous one. This takes place until a person is able to accept altruism as the truth.

Only when a person can say with full assurance that the entire spiritual is the genuine truth, this moment becomes the moment of his spiritual conception.

A person’s entire inner development consists in his ability to feel where truth is and where falseness is. From the acuteness of this perception we are able to choose who we consider to be the Creator at the given moment. The Creator is our truth at every moment.

Falseness does not have the right to exist. A person is unable to behave in opposition to his definition of truth. Therefore, “Kabbalah has been given to man in order to develop his feeling of determining truth and falseness, or the perception of evil,” said Baal HaSulam.

This kind of development occurs according to the law of negation. The previous level dies when I feel that it is false for me.

It is impossible to take the next step and to liberate yourself from the past without negating it, or without realizing that it is completely evil for you.

When a person has not yet felt his past opinions, tastes, in short - desires - as the desires that bring evil, then they are still meaningful to him and he cannot part with them yet. He will part with them only when he begins to negate or hate them.

Rejection of the previous attribute as evil or falseness is the reason for parting with it.

Attaining the Truth

You can see on yourself that, having begun to study Kabbalah, you are no longer able to take any other science-like philosophy seriously. This is because the science of Kabbalah develops the finest perception of the analysis of truth in a person.

In order for a person to be able constantly to advance along the levels, he must perceive the level he is currently on (or his current inner state) as well as the higher level. That is, he must receive a perception from both the inner and the surrounding lights.

Precisely the differentiation of these two lights creates the understanding of truth and falseness in a person. It is not the case that the previous level is falseness. Rather, relative to the current state the previous state is no longer suitable. This is comparable to an adult’s perception of the world compared to a child’s perception of the world.

These are simply different levels of development and upbringing, but we cannot say that a child’s world is false.

This way, Malchut of the upper level becomes Keter of the lower.

Malchut is creation when it is on the upper level, but it becomes the creator of the lower level. Where does it acquire these attributes? After all it has only the desire to receive. From where does the attribute of bestowal emerge in it?

Here we may be able to understand that within egoism there also lays an authentically altruistic attribute of the Creator.

Therefore a person has the ability to determine what is truth and what is falseness. He can perceive the Creator and perceive himself in order to understand the huge contrast that exists between Malchut and Keter.

The most important thing in a person, during his entire path from down up, is to perceive within himself the ability to correctly evaluate truth and falseness on every stage. That is, to be able to negate what he has gone through, what is false, and rather to aspire towards the Supreme truth.

Although it seems to us that this depends on the mind, in reality this depends exclusively on the Creator.

The perception of truth and falseness is a purely sensory perception and it depends on the acuteness of the inner attainment of truth. It is only given from above.

The Ability to Apprehend the Creator Comes Only From the Creator

A person may have been created possessing the worst attributes and qualities. Suddenly, from above he receives the opportunity to reanalyze his views of truth and evil, and from this moment on he begins to move forward, as he already possesses the genuine perceptions.

The Creator brings a person to Himself by giving him the necessary feeling.

During every moment of his advancement, a person must remember that the Creator Himself is giving him the opportunity to apprehend the Creator. The Creator gives this to him by way of various surrounding influences.

That which a person’s inner voice tells him – if the person hears it and knows how to listen to it – is the main and most important thing in his work on himself. He should never listen to others, but only to himself.

In order to enter the spiritual world (in his perceptions), a person needs to go through many states, because the Creator reveals the entrance into the spiritual world to the person. However, He does this only when the person has a genuine prayer or plea.

In order to achieve the genuine desire for the spiritual state within his heart, which is called “prayer,” a person must go through a specific path.

In the beginning, he receives an immense desire for the spiritual and all of his thoughts are only about this. This happens to him because the Creator attracts the person to Him and sends His light, and the person unconsciously runs towards it because the light suppresses all other desires to such a degree that no desires other than the spiritual desires remain in him. This is the first stage of all the people who are searching.

After this occurs the stage of searching for how to carry out the desire given by the Creator. The person looks for lessons and books, and if he was meant to do it according to his predestination in the soul’s incarnation, he gradually comes to Kabbalah and begins to study it.

As a result of studying and interacting in the group, jealousy and shame become revealed in him. These are positive attributes because they increase his desire and add strength.

Over the course of his studies, the person evokes surrounding light on himself (see “Introduction to TES,” Item 155), which (in contrast to himself) causes the realization of egoism as evil within him, or as the obstacle to achieving the most important thing. To the degree of this realization, hate for egoism emerges.

The Realization of Egoism as Evil

From above, a person is periodically thrown into greater egoistic desires and he unwillingly carries them out, since egoism is controlling him at this time.

However, after completing these egoistic actions, a person is then given the realization of their baseness. He is punished so painfully by people around him, his friends, family, society, as well as moral and material losses, that he overflows with hatred for the egoism that is causing him unbearable suffering.

The gradual influence of the surrounding light brings a person to the perception of his own insignificance and spiritual weakness.

He works and interacts with the whole world, but meanwhile he becomes internally convinced that he will not achieve the desired goal on his own, and the need for the Creator’s help develops in him.

It is unusually difficult for egoism to agree with this, and therefore only circumstances bring a person to a dead-end, from which he begins to beg the Creator for help.

A correctly organized group greatly assists each of its members in their spiritual progress.

In the Kabbalistic group a person is forbidden to talk to others about his states. People study the material together and they discuss and study everything that is not related to each person’s personal states.

It is forbidden to impose your own desires and opinions onto others: today you feel good – you have a good evaluation of the spiritual and tomorrow you feel bad – you have a low evaluation of the spiritual. There are many states of this sort.

By talking about his states a person causes twofold harm: he harms himself by revealing what is in his heart and therefore giving others the ability to influence this. At the same time he harms his friend because he imposes his own opinion onto him, and thus deprives him of his freedom of will to analyze truth and falseness.

Therefore a person was created alone and he always remains alone: even though we know that the soul broke into 600,000 partial souls, nevertheless, each soul has its role in this world and it must go through its own correction. Of course, it mutually interacts with and influences the other souls, but only to correct its own part by way of the inner interaction.

In our world, on the other hand, interaction takes place on the physical level. By serving others materially or physically, a person advances spiritually.

The only thing that is not forbidden is to confer with the teacher and ask his advice. In principle, however, work and study consist in being in contact with the Creator.

A person should lower his head only before the Creator and fear only Him. The Creator’s point above, or the person’s embryo of a spiritual Kli – is this individual point. The group and Teacher are necessary only in order to achieve the union with the Creator.

Our mind is a purely auxiliary apparatus, intended to strengthen the acuteness of our differentiation between truth and falseness, or in order to see where there is Klipa and where there is the seed.

You can talk to the most intelligent of people who know the entire Torah by heart, but who are not able to separate spiritual truth from falseness because in order to do this a person must have the point in the heart or a special spiritual perception that has been given from the upper world.

Only a person who possesses it is able to determine where spiritual truth is with his inner sensation.

Faith (Bestowal) and Reason

The inner attribute (the person’s desires) does not have any relation to mind.

Mind does not interfere with spiritual attainment. A person may analyze everything with his mind at first, and then, after this kind of analysis, he may tell himself that he will not behave the way common sense tells him to, but rather he will behave according to his faith in what the books and the Teacher have told him.

If, having checked everything, a person follows faith above reason, he advances and ascends higher. He receives a greater perception of the spiritual, a bigger point in the heart, and, consequently, a bigger mind.

If he decides to go above reason even further, then he advances again. Reason is built on pure egoism; it knows and sees everything only within the limits of our world.

Our mind, which is built on pure egoism, only reveals seemingly greater and greater positive aspects of egoism and assures us and proves to us why we should listen to it.

The Creator, on the other hand, gives his part or a part of His light from above, with correspondence to what the person is trying to correct within himself.

Having tried all possible means of battling himself, a person then perceives himself to be in a totally hopeless state, or that he has no hope of achieving entrance into the spiritual world on his own. Only then does he submit to the necessity of turning to the Creator for help: finally, powerless, he throws his hands up and gives up because he is not capable of doing anything against his reason. He hands himself over to the Creator, as in a field of battle, in order for the Creator to fight with his egoism and in order for the Creator to nullify his “I.” This level is called Ubar” or fetus.

During the process of studying and reading books, a person constantly systematizes: he relates everything to one source – the Creator.

Or to two sources – the Creator and creation, which are two opposite forces.

Or to three sources – the Creator, egoism, and the person between them who perceives the two opposite forces, the altruistic and egoistic, the person between them being neutral.

We should try to constantly systematize all our perceptions. However, all misleading or confusing states a person goes through – both feelings and intellectual states – are necessary states of apprehending yourself.

Joy Is the Achievement Of the Goal

The only necessity during all of this is to be in constant joy. If a person physically forces himself to be in joy, he accelerates the process. What does it mean that a person is in joy?

This means that right now he is joyful about the fact that he is advancing spiritually and he justifies the Creator’s ways even if he does not realize their goal.

On the other hand, if he is crying during all of this, which happens to many beginners, by doing this he reproaches the Creator in his heart for His creation and for what the Creator is doing to him.

With all his heart and his entire feeling, he curses the Creator for what He is giving to him. That is, the spiritual path onto which the Creator is leading him against his desire.

Therefore, in spite of a person’s sensations, it is necessary to have a purely mechanical aspiration to be joyful. Egoism does not want to perceive any spiritual motions – or movements toward the annihilation of egoism – and it does not allow us to be joyful.

If a person feels bad, this means he is revealing egoism’s genuine relation to the Creator’s attainment. This means a person has already begun to perceive the truth. He must be thankful that this perception has become revealed to him.

If, however, instead of this he cries and complains, he is located inside of his egoism instead of exalting the spiritual point that has become revealed in him, or being happy about the egoistic suffering of his inner enemy.

A person is located in the place where his thoughts are.

If he always looks at his egoism, which does not contain anything, and he suffers from egoism’s concerns, if he is not able to separate himself from egoism, then he halts and does not fan the spark the Creator has given him.

“There are many thoughts within a person’s heart, but the Creator will save us from all of them…” – this was uttered by sages who were wise due to experiencing spiritual ascent. A person is not capable of understanding himself.

When a person is on a specific level or in a specific state, he is never capable of realizing what it is, or of objectively evaluating it and making a sound decision, because he is under the influence of that level.

Only in spite of his egoistic perceptions, if a person overcomes the pull of his body and pays no attention to its influence, he advances with faith in what the Teacher and books are telling him; only having passed that level and ascended to the following, he discovers that he was correct not to listen to his egoism.

Moreover, he must immediately realize that it was the Creator who helped him ascend from that state and helped him decide that he needs to go only along the path of faith above reason’s assertions – and he must thank Him for this.

The Point in the Heart

Initially, a person is absolutely egoistic. If the Creator places a spiritual point in his heart “Nekuda she ba Lev,” then thanks to this part of the Creator or this point in the heart the Creator has given to the person, specifically within this point the person begins to perceive various unearthly movements.

This point is the embryo of the future spiritual organ of the person’s perception, the spiritual Partzuf, or his spiritual body that grows from a point into a full vessel under the influence of the person’s efforts.

Without this point within him a person is unable to even hear about anything spiritual because it is opposite to him.

With correspondence to this spiritual point that has emerged in him, a person begins to aspire towards other objects and therefore completely alters his friends, connections and hobbies. This occurs to such a degree that he does not even find anything to talk about with people who are close to him because all his aspirations are towards something they lack.

In our world, in our generation, in our time, we have become fit for the Creator to place this point into many people, and therefore they are searching for the spiritual.

Why is this point called a part of the Creator from above? It is really the embryo of the future spiritual vessel. This is the Creator’s way of showing that the person must reach it.

A person is a purely egoistic creation, and the Creator shows him a tiny “piece” of altruism. A person must correct egoism into altruism according to the example that was given by the Creator.

He must use altruism together with egoistic desires. That is, he must add altruistic intentions to egoistic desires, or connect these two attributes within himself until the Creator’s attribute really becomes the person’s attribute.

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