Bold and in quotes: Original text of Baal HaSulam
Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
lowercase italics: emphasized words
Capitalized italics: transliteration from Hebrew
We are continuing to read the article From Within My Flesh Shall I See God by Baal HaSulam, from the book Pri Hacham: Articles, page 217, paragraph “However...” at the bottom of the page.
Until now we learned about the training in cultivating the soul, meaning, how the soul grows. We experienced many years of evolution and many incarnations in the past that we don’t know of. Kabbalists tell us that we evolve from life to life and reincarnate, and in that we improve in our awareness, in sensation, somewhat in our inner evolution. And finally, in one of the incarnations, we suddenly awaken with a question, “From where did I receive my life?” The question, “From where did I receive my life?” indicates the root that is above life and a deficiency that suddenly awakens in me to connect to this root. When a person begins to develop himself and connect to his root, it’s called "cultivating, developing his soul." There are many phases to the evolution of the soul.
What is the evolution of the soul? It is the connection to that same root above this world from which we were seemingly given life. And the return to the root is when I begin to discover for myself the entire world, as in the one that is above my five senses from which I get all the forces, all of the actions, all the discernments; everything that happens to me. I slowly discover it and this revelation comes according to my Kelim (vessels), according to my awareness, according to my evolution, my understanding and sensation; in general it is called "according to the attainment ."
In this attainment of the root there are three phases, which we read of here on page 217. Those are called in the wisdom of Kabbalah, either " Katnut Aleph (first smallness)", " Katnut Bet (second smallness) ", and" Gadlut (adulthood)" or " Ibur, Yenika, Mochin (conception, sucking, braininess)." It doesn’t matter what we call them, but there are three phases in the complete attainment of the soul.
What is the meaning of complete attainment of the soul? Does it belong to me or not? It is mine, but I don’t feel it. That’s the meaning of not attaining. When I begin to feel the eternal part—the Upper part in me—more and more, this is called "acquiring it." Because before that even though it was in me, I didn’t feel it; I wasn’t alive with it, didn't acquire it; I didn’t attain it.
Now, we are learning together how we gradually discover our soul. The soul is called "a part of God from Above." We discover it from our present state, as it is written: "they are like hay-eating beasts." Thus, the appearance of the soul from my own present state is called, "From within myflesh shall I see God." The part of God from above is the soul, so how from my own flesh, my own present state, do I slowly discover the state called “God—Soul,” and how do I identify, transcend and exist in a dimension of souls? Of course, I’m still in my body, and continue living like everybody else, but I also develop an eternal part, where I identify with eternity, with spirituality. I’m unlimited; I'm above life, while at the same time, living my regular life.
Let’s continue from the paragraph “However...”
However, the primary growth is through good deeds, which depend on the attainment of the wisdom of Truth.
That's really what Baal HaSulam explains to us throughout, that only through the evolution of the wisdom of Kabbalah, with respect to everyone and respect to humanity, can we acquire this eternal part in us and to develop it. It is in us now, but in every single one of us it is either as an unawakened point or it is awakened, but only as a small point. One who suddenly has an interest in that, like those who are listening or watching us, it is a sign that there’s a beginning of the appearance of the soul. We will not be given more than that point from Above. Everything else we will have to cultivate by ourselves. We must search for ways to cultivate it, through whatever means, and actually develop it. Meaning, discover this part in us de facto.
Baal HaSulam says the primary way to discover and develop it is through "good deeds." What are good deeds? We still don’t know. But where do we get these good deeds? "They depend on the attainment of the wisdom of Truth." First of all, we have to learn the wisdom of Truth. That must be Kabbalah; that’s probably its name, but what does it mean to study? I don’t know. Afterwards, we learn that there’s a part called "attainment." It’s not just studying; it’s attaining the wisdom of Truth. Through attaining the wisdom of Truth, to the extent that we attain it, we increase our soul. There are conditions here without which it is impossible.
Both the knowledge and the good deeds depend on the attainment of the wisdom of Truth and both come as one for the above reason.
This means that during the time a person studies, the study itself works on him. That is, provided that one is really studying the wisdom of Truth and not something that seems to be so. We already talked about how he might be reading a book called “Kabbalah,” but this book was not written by genuine Kabbalists. There are many such people who have no genuine connection to Kabbalah, who were not awarded with the revelation of spirituality (the true revelation). They just imagine it, and they write and write and write.
We learn only from genuine sources, such as The Book of Zohar, the writings of the Ari and the writings of Baal HaSulam, because they are the most beneficial for attaining the wisdom of Truth. In addition to the study itself, which is from original sources, there should be a special attitude within the studies which should be only in order to cultivate the soul. Then the study operates on a person accordingly and then, as Baal HaSulam says, both the study and the attainment of the wisdom of Truth come as one. So it depends on the intention during the study. Of course, it also depends on the quantity of the study, meaning, the study in quantity and in quality. That’s what Baal HaSulam explains to us in the beginning of the Introduction toTalmud Eser Sefirot.
Question: Who determines who’s a genuine Kabbalist and who’s not? Do we have a way of assessing this?
No, we have no ruler. Again, I’m telling you what my teacher, my Rabbi, told me. When I asked him, he said, "Go search; maybe you’ll find someone more suitable." That’s the real answer. Because, why would you ask someone? What are you, an idiot? So he would tell you, “yes” or “no" and according to that you will proceed in life? If you are wrong, then you, yourself are wrong. Not that someone who told you something was wrong and misled you. I asked him and got an answer. If you really want an answer go and discover the Kelim, the understandings and everything needed to get an answer on your own. That will be your answer, for yourself. Let’s say Rabbi Shimon comes right now. How do I know it's Rabbi Shimon?
We once read in the Igrot (letters) of Baal HaSulam that a demon appeared instead of King Solomon. No one knew about it. You have to understand the story, its true meaning. Why do I need to rely on anyone? Look how many seemingly great people you have in the world and it seems just the opposite in the spiritual world. I must not rely on anyone’s opinion. Even asking anyone is stupid.
Things that belong to the soul must appear within the individual himself. He has to be certain that this is his place, this is where he is studying, and he has to examine it, not just leave the question alone. He should constantly examine it and see if it’s right. But according to Baal HaSulam, once he’s decided for himself that this is the place, that’s his group, that’s where he's studying, that’s the method, then he must delve in and dedicate himself to this environment. If he doesn’t get strength from the environment, he will not progress. There must be a time of inquiry and then a time for work.
Regrettably, we see that this is not quite so, but it is unresolved in many people and this ruins the path. Once you decide that this is your place and if you have made up your mind that you’re going to connect to the place, then you are shown that this place is not yours. You are shown how despicable and bad the group is. You doubt that the teacher understands and doubt his importance. Then that creates a problem. That’s why there has to be a time to decide and then you go above reason whatever happens. If that happens, that’s good. Otherwise it ruins everything afterwards. We’ll work with what we can.
However, the primary growth is through doing good deeds, which depend on the attainment of the wisdom of Truth. Both knowledge and the good actions depend on the attainment of the wisdom of Truth, and both come as one for the above reason. This is the meaning of “if you do not know etc, go out. Go out and see.”
Therefore each complete soul attains all souls from Adam ha Rishon until Gmar Tikkun.
It bonds with them. [Rav is drawing] We’re talking about the system called Adam ha Rishon (The First Man) and each soul in this system must connect to all the other souls and provide them with what it can provide. By providing for them it becomes their Rosh (head). Meaning, it receives from the Creator the Light of Life and provides it to everyone by, first of all, acquiring deficiencies from them and later on by giving them life, livelihood.
Everyone acquires the whole Kli of Adam ha Rishon, and then all the Light of Adam ha Rishon that passes through. This is called "attaining all the souls from Adam ha Rishon to Gmar Tikkun." What does that mean from Adam ha Rishon to Gmar Tikkun? (It means that he also attains) all the filling that exist in the creature. Meaning, everyone, being built in a special way and having a special task with respect to this structure, actually becomes like Adam ha Rishon. That’s the uniqueness.
Like a person attains his relatives and neighbors and according to the best of his knowledge he watches, stands guard with them or bonds with them, and it is not surprising that will he attain all the souls because spirituality is not dependant upon time and space, and there is no death there.
Question: Can you explain what the soul gives to others?
It gives other souls what they want. In other words, an individual soul, first of all, makes corrections. First of all, it discovers itself, then corrects itself. [Rav drawing] When it corrects itself it is called "self correction." By correcting itself it acquires the attribute of love towards others because that’s the correction—the force of bestowal—and then it connects itself to other souls. This is called, "being incorporated with the suffering of the people" (by the way, the self correction is called "reward and punishment"). It acquires deficiency through the connecting to other souls, their deficiency, and then their correction, and then their filling.
Question (cont): What is the meaning of a deficiency?
All of these things are expressed in us as ascent on the ladder of degrees. I’m in this world. I begin to ascend. First, I acquire the deficiency, which is in double concealment and single concealment. I elevate to the degree of reward and punishment, where I correct myself, and then I make a correction of love, that is already in respect to others.
Question (cont): What is it to acquire a deficiency?
To acquire a deficiency is to suffer from the other’s suffering. Not that it seems to me that he’s suffering, but that I really feel the other’s suffering and the way he suffers. I feel in his suffering, not only how he suffers (perhaps he’s suffering because he wants something that has nothing to do with correction) but I feel in his suffering, how I should really correct his suffering. This means not give him what he wants, what he thinks he wants, but to give him what he really needs to discover his soul, so he will discover his soul.
Let’s say a child wants something that will harm him, but suffers anyway. You have to give him something so he doesn’t harm himself, to bring him to the right development. There’s the acquisition of his deficiency on top of myTikkun (correction).
Body and Soul
Each body is short of days and quick to anger because it lives through incarnation of seven years of hunger and seven years of satiation.
This means there are levels: each and every body, each and every desire. A body is a desire. [Rav is drawing] We have a Kli (vessel) and Ohr (Light), it can also be called a "body and the life in it"; it’s the same thing, we just use different words. For the body to reach correction in every single situation, it has to, first of all, experience a sensation that it needs something, otherwise it will be immobile. This is the acquiring of the deficiency. The revealing of the deficiency comes from suffering, through the discovery of the suffering. This is called "the appearance of the seven years of hunger." Afterwards, once he’s discovered the need, he comes to the correction, and then instead of pain he feels pleasure. These are the seven years of satiation.
It is a mandatory law that the years of famine make the years of satiation be forgotten. Then the body reincarnates in between them, like stones that are grinded by water. Then there’s another problem that he thinks that his friends are in a good state.
Actually we discover that the seven good years and seven bad years is a concept. It is not seven years. It is one period after another period. We see that at times we feel bad, and that at other times we feel good. Then we feel bad and good again, and so on and so forth. And through all kinds of influences, good and bad, we begin to become sensitive.
We see the bad and good sensations in all kinds of ways. We see them as something hot and cold, stressful and easy. It doesn’t matter what: noisy or quiet, this or that attitude, something good, something bad, or difficult or not, etc. Through these contradicting influences, we discover more and more Kelim in ourselves. At one time we think these are ascents or descents, and we start to somehow rate them from within our egoistic desire. Then we start correcting these evaluations with understanding. At one time these influences may come to us emotionally, at another time in our intellect, etc.
Evolution has to be experienced by us through contradicting influences in all kinds of ways. A person who is under all kinds of influences should understand and should agree that the higher the frequency of the influences on him (making him feel that that he’s confused, that he goes through this and through that), the quicker he goes through the changes, and the faster he will reach the correct discernments and correction. We shouldn’t be afraid and angry that things change all the time. Be happy about it. Things are very purposeful. They appear afterwards as actually being correct and good for evolution. We should somehow agree to it because that’s our nature. Otherwise we do not evolve.
This extends from the fact that the soul at its rudiment is ground between the good inclination and the bad inclination, and incarnates between them. Sometimes it feels easier through the Makif (surrounding) of the good inclination; sometimes troubles are added to it from the Makif of the evil inclination.
Fundamentally, of course, all the influences come from the Light and from the Kli. They come from a little disclosure of the depth of the will to receive in us—our ego—or at another time, more of a disclosure of the influence of the Light on us. And from the collision between them, we begin to see, to feel, to understand the things. We don’t distinguish between the good inclination, and the bad inclination. We should grade all these things as good or bad. An inclination is a desire and if a desire makes me feel good or makes me feel bad, depends on how I check it.
Yesterday a person came to me and asked, “Are you suffering from smoking?’ I told him “I’m not suffering, I’m enjoying it.” He didn’t have anything to go on with. "But it’s unhealthy etc., etc.", "Yes, but I enjoy it." Or he could ask me about all kinds of deflections or about someone else. But I’m not suffering. A person has to come to a point where he realizes it is really bad for him with respect to some higher goal.
In order to do this we have to elevate awareness. I enjoy something and at the same time I discover that I’m doing myself harm by doing it at some level, in some other way, which I right now don’t feel. I feel good right now, but in another instance I can picture the harm to myself, some affliction, contrary to the sensation of pleasantness that I feel. Then in my imagination there’s already a picture of the harm contrary to this good present taste, so I change accordingly.
It all depends on the collision that creates in me the ability to compare between the pleasures and pains that do not appear to me at the same time. At a given time I discover either minus or plus, or either pleasure or pain. So how can I compare these things that are not aligned, and that have a time gap between them? That’s the problem.
[Rav drawing] Let’s say I discover a deficiency that has been caused by my smoking in another ten years, and compare the deficiency to the pleasure that appears to me right now. But how can I picture this? To see that they operate on me at the same time, the future harm—the future sorrow—will appear as opposing the present pleasure and will cancel the pleasure, just as it will be in the future. Whether I see myself standing in the future, already standing with this disclosed pain opposing the pleasure, or bringing this pain closer to me in the present, it’s all the same. It’s the same condition. I have to bring them together. We are made of a desire to enjoy; only by bringing the two states together do I change my function, my future, my goal. This is called "awareness." The whole world is in the same situation, in this problem. The problem is how to see the future, in its true way, as something that is harmful to me, but see it right now—not in the future—rather, to feel it as bad now.
If I bring the future closer now, this is called "the recognition of evil," when I recognize it. If it just appears to me in the future, it’s not the recognition of evil and accordingly I can’t make a decision. Meaning, if I decide out of this recognition of evil to stop using my inclination (which now appears to me as a bad inclination), that’s the determination that I make. Then it is a sign that I have reached correction. It’s a simple act.
Now, of course, there are many details here. How can I picture my future as bad in the present time? This is done especially through the environment. We see this through advertisement, media of all sorts, teachers, relatives, and friends. A person can be brainwashed and be sensitized to determine something entirely different with respect to his attitude toward good or bad points.
It happens especially through the environment; the environment can create huge differences in us. That’s why it says in The Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot that a person who chooses to progress spiritually—he wants to advance towards spirituality—so accordingly, he must picture spirituality as something good, as a plus, and everything else as minus.
If he has decided on it he must now look for an environment that can strengthen him on that same path. Why? Because it depicts his future state to such an extent, so strongly, boldly and as being so real as if it were in the present, and so in the present he determines what he needs to do in order to reach the future. But now, in the present, he should decide that the future is worth the effort. Now it is worthwhile to put my body through suffering because I right now picture the kind of pleasure that I will acquire through it.
A person decides everything in the present. That’s why "the wise is the one who sees the future," who brings it closer to himself, and can depend on it. Or, as we learned, those who are more evolved can wait ten years until he gains and then he really profits if he waits that long, compared to those who do something now and get their reward. Normally it’s a tiny reward.
What is this about? The more developed can see the future, can bring it closer to himself and suck strength from it. Right now, I can work for ten years to get what I want and feel it now, otherwise, I won’t have the fuel, the energy, to do the work. This is what we have to worry about. Once we decide on the right goal, we should increase it in our eyes, bring it closer to our eyes, to our senses, to our sensations in such a way that we now feel it as opposed to the situations and thus determine to progress in the right direction. Here society does all the work, from beginning to end.
Section: Obtaining Knowledge in Corporeality and Spirituality
There is nothing between the body and the soul. But one is extended from nature in itself, and the other incidents are extended to it through work. It is the nature, in any correlation from spirituality to corporeality.
If we talk about situations that we experience, then everything that we experience, including any impression that we consider spiritual, if they are not deliberately from us (even if they are spiritual states), they are not considered spiritual but natural. This includes some sensations, pictures of all sorts, some drawings that we can depict for ourselves or that appear in us. Spiritual is only what a person, by force, through his own effort, creates or designs so to speak, through free choice, only that.
The real spiritual is not even the inner states—spiritual states—in the soul. They are indeed states that seemingly do not belong to the will to receive, but to the will to bestow, to spiritual degrees. But we are speaking of the spiritual that a person acquires, the Thought of Creation, when he understands the Divine actions, identifies with and becomes similar to them.
There are spiritual and corporeal states that we divide according to the will to receive and the will to bestow. But in the spiritual world, too, there are such states that come from nature, and some that are obtained not by nature (not by the clothing of the will to receive in the will to bestow), but above nature that belong to thought, the Thought of Creation.
Here Baal HaSulam mainly relates "there is nothing between the body and the soul but one is extended from nature in itself, to the evolution of the Reshimot (reminiscences) in us" because we are basically at the evolution of our soul.
[Rav drawing] Let’s say with each and everyone, the soul came down to this world, meaning, lost the big Kli that it had, and instead of this Kli there was a chain of Reshimot that was made. It lost strength many times, and only the Reshimo was left of the strength. Say the soul descended to a certain state, so up until that point of its path, there are Reshimot and from that state down, forces. When it comes down completely, it’s like a force, a spiritual gene, where the Reshimot are the information. Now from the tiniest point, the point in the heart, this information, these Reshimot should evolve and return.
In these Reshimot we have Reshimot from Hitlabshut (clothing), Reshimot from Aviut (thickness). A person should realize all of these Reshimot. Reshimot Hitlabshut is on the right line, Reshimot de Aviut is on the left line, and a person should construct over them his own desire to reach Dvekut (adhesion), to reach the Thought of Creation. This is called "a person is built as a middle line." These two forms are actually like nature; when a person reaches above nature, that's (becoming) similar to the Creator.
The work in spirituality, in a spiritual state, is not that you must chase two forces. They appear in you and you have to put them together in such a way that the result of their combination will resemble the Thought of Creation, the Thought of the Creator. And that out of this combination of forces and actions, a Thought will be born.
It’s a little different because usually we first have a thought and then an action. But here it is different work. It is written, "from your actions we know you; from my flesh shall I see God."
Question: What are the Reshimot and the forces in this drawing?
The Reshimot are raw information. They awaken at every moment in a person, but if a person wants to realize them correctly, then he does many things until he comes to understand how to realize them. And then instead of the Reshimot he discovers the right forces that constitute the picture, the way powers or electric vectors create a picture on the computer screen.
Then, when you have this picture, the right integration between forces, the result of these forces is called "from your actions…"—from doing something similar to the Creator, i.e., an act of bestowal, through the correct combination of these forces—"…we will know You." He begins to understand like a little child copying a grown up, for example his father. He looks at his father, and he doesn’t know what his father is doing, but he just does it. It’s rooted in nature.
We, in spirituality, should do it by force, not naturally. We don’t have that desire to resemble the Upper One. We don’t know what the Upper One is. We have to find His actions, weather they are actions of an Upper One. It takes time to discover that the Upper One is love, that the Upper One is entirely giving, and we want to be like it; also in love, in giving. This is without planning. We don’t have a desire for it, we do this act by force, and by doing it by force we begin to discover the mind, i.e., the uniqueness, the sublimity of bestowal, of this whole thing. Then we go beyond the act to a higher level than itself. This is called "to exit being animate and to become speaking."
Question: I was asking about the right axis of the drawing. We drew that first we have the Kliand then a descent and first you wrote Reshimot and then forces?
No, I’m talking about a certain state, just a state, an incidental state of a soul on the way of descent.
[Rav drawing] There’s a part that went through the Reshimot, and a part that it didn’t go through, which are forces. It’s a soul that descends from the breaking. There is the breaking and then a fall; that’s what we learn. What is the benefit from it? The benefit is that we have inside all of these Reshimot from the descent and we have to realize them on the way back up to the origin of our soul. That’s it, (it's) in each and every one.
We have the same thing in the physical body. We learn that inside the body, within the genes, the chromosomes, in everything we have, within stem cells, we have all the information about our evolution. It is constructed, through this spiral shape. You know how many Reshimot there are?
They say that if all the Reshimot that exist in a person, just to sustain himself, are put one next to the other, that they will reach from one end to the other end of our solar system. So you have the sun and the planets, from one end to the other end, in one person; that’s how they would be. That’s billions and billions of kilometers. That’s the chain of Reshimot that exists in our biological body.
Every moment you have a sensation or understanding, 'yes' or 'no' in life, they constantly change. They sustain the whole body and all its composition and actions. It’s a tremendous thing, you can’t even digest it. If you spread them not (according to the composition), as they come simultaneously, but one after the other, it’s a huge thing.
The biological Reshimot within us, chemically, are like these parts in the DNA. Just imagine how tiny these particles are. In and of itself it’s one meter long, and there are billions like that. If you put these little ones together that’s how long they become. Meaning, these Reshimot are details in every phase and segment of creation, even of the biological body. In spirituality it is much, much more complex.
Every detail—as the general soul, within the souls, as general body, as an individual soul,—all of these details with respect to the individual and to the whole, and with respect to the force of the Masach (screen)and the Aviut, and all the information, everything is rooted in the Reshimot and comes down, and is within the point in our heart. Now you have a desire to awaken and reach some kind of spiritual goal. Just imagine, there, inside this desire, you have all the worlds, everything you went through from above to below. On the top is Ein Sof, (infinity) and at the bottom is the worst possible place. Everything is inside you.
Question: What is the correct realization of the Reshimot?
The correct realization of the Reshimot means that I realize the Reshimo not according to its exterior form, but according to its interior form. The Reshimo in itself is, for example, a desire that pops up in you that you want to feel good. Then a more interior Reshimo, which you are about to realize, asks how can this desire give you 'good'? What is 'good', really? Is it good in the eyes of the world or in my own eyes? Is it according to my present mind or according to the mind I’ll have ten years. If I want to go according to ten years from now will I have to start anew? Etc, etc. So the correct realization of the Reshimo means that you have to determine for yourself a goal that is as genuine as possible, so you will not regret it and half way through life start turning towards another goal.
How do you know now, the silly little one that you are, compared to who you’ll be in twenty years time? How do you know which goal is the right one? If you delve in the right Reshimo you’ll find the solution. That’s called "the right realization of the Reshimo." Within you, even though you are a child or a boy or whatever, you have the ability to discover the final goal in your Reshimot because only there are all the Reshimot realized in their final form. That’s why in every Reshimo you have a final form.
The spiritual is added to the corporeal in the sense that in the corporeal you attain reality even without attaining its incidents, just as a child attains things, even though he doesn’t know the reason for it.
Moreover, we don’t even know our own previous lives. What’s our history? What did I do? How many lives did I experience? I don’t know. I am standing right now, right here. I think it is here that my life began. No way, I have so many elements of this reality, of my presence here. With what kind of preparations, with what kind of intellect, with what kind of things in me did I come to the world? I don’t know. For me, they never existed. I calibrate myself, or nature puts me at zero. That is my starting point.
And also he will not chew on something that is harmful to him. But in spirituality no reality is attained before one knows its consequences and incidents. According to the knowledge of the incidents so is the attainments of its own Gadlut and the attaining of the spiritual reality in its surroundings.
What does it mean incidents that we attain in spirituality? These are forces that operate on us. [Rav drawing] These forces are operated through the Thought of Creation. I attain the Thought of Creation within these forces and begin to operate from this attainment. Then I build myself the mind of that same thought, the thought of man. I actually attain what operates me, and accordingly I operate myself.
Afterwards I discover that I don’t operate myself, but agree for that same Force to operate me. My agreement or disagreement is only at the level of consent. It’s not de facto. The problem is that either we do it by force or voluntarily. This is the whole thing.
Question: You drew the Thought of Creation as a plus and minus ?
I discover that it’s plus and minus. You’re right, I can say that there’s one Force here. But when it operates on me, when I have a Reshimo made of two pieces of information, then I feel plus and minus. I feel good on the one hand and bad on the other. (Then the question is) according to what? I feel good and bad at the degree of the level of forces, at the degree of bitter and sweet, true or false. That's already a different issue…
Question: That’s why it says the Makiffor the good and the Makiffor the bad inclination? Is that the reason?
Yes. The Makif is the future. By that I analyze these inclinations.