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 beginning to read the articles of Shamati. Those are very special articles. Baal HaSulam didn’t really write them. Rabash wrote them down while hearing them from the mouth of Baal HaSulam. The articles were not written, but said.
We have to understand that the entire work of a person, to reach equivalence of form, Dvekut (adhesion), connection with the Creator, is actually the topic of these articles. There is no other purpose in the whole of reality but this purpose. Through a person, the whole reality, all the worlds, and everything in them, rises and is included into the Creator.
In this work, a person should understand that within him, he contains the whole reality: all the creatures, all the worlds, everything is incorporated within one person. Each and every one of us should picture it this way – as me being that person. I am the one who has the choice, the one who acts, and the one who works opposite to the Creator, for the time being – opposite to Him. It is me who must do the job of reaching equivalence of form, a connection, Dvekut with the Creator. This is what all these articles are about.
It is written that “there is none else beside Him.”
What does “it’s written” mean? “It’s written” means that the Kabbalists, those who attained, didn’t know anything before because “the judge has only what his eyes see.” We are speaking only out of clear attainment of what a person feels, only out of that sensation, only out of our own Kelim, because we, if we can say that, believe only them – what is in them.
It’s not faith in the way people usually think of it. Actually “faith” in Kabbalah means “attainment,” the attainment of the Creator, because faith is the force of Bina and the Creator is the force of bestowal. Therefore, to the extent that there is a force of bestowal in a person, to that extent he feels the Creator, the Giver. Hence, the important thing is to obtain faith.
But at our level, before we attain it, the word “faith” has another depiction, an unreal one: that I should accept things that others say as facts. If I accept them as facts, then I too should reach the level where they become facts to me.
Say, it is written, “there is none else beside Him.” Meaning that some people did attain it and they tell me that this is the case. They are setting a goal for me that I should aspire to. Therefore it is correct and I take it as a goal.
To the extent that I understand that “there is none else beside Him” in my present state, to this extent, I accept it. If I only use it as a fact, and it is already my fact, then it stops me from evolving. That’s the difference between common faith and faith in the sages, which is what the Kabbalists, those who want to reach the purpose of Creation, accept as the goal. People who reached it, set it before them, and helped them to obtain it.
We will try to interpret it as simple as possible for the beginners who are reading of these articles for the first time. Let’s hope that we’ll succeed.
It is written that “there is none else beside Him,”...
What does “there is none else beside Him” mean?
This means that there is no other power in the world with the ability to do anything against Him.
Why is it defined that there is no other force opposite to the Creator or against Him? Because we are built opposite to the Creator, we attain Him from the opposite states – corresponding or opposite states. It seems opposite from the final state where He exists alone, the state that we are incorporated in Him, but other than that state, nothing else exists.
From the state we are in now, until we attain the last and final state, we are in an opposite state. It seems to us that we exist with free choice, with our strengths, decisions, and freedom of action. It seems to us that people, the world, nature, and more forces – Upper forces, or it does not matter what kind, all kinds of forces can make decisions, act, and influence us.
All these forces will later come together into a single force, and that will be the Creator. He said first “there is none else beside Him.” But right now it appears differently to me, as if there is me, and many more around me, who act, decide and influence me.
And what man sees, namely, that there are things in the world, which deny the household of above...
This means that one sees many forces in the world, not just one. He does not feel the Creator, he does not understand Him, he can’t see Him, and he can’t unite all these forces from the Creator.
…is because He wills it so.
The Creator deliberately plays with a person in such a way that from all sides, through all kinds of incidences, He operates on a person to confuse him as if there are many incidents, many forces, and many reasons that can influence a person.
Why does He do it? Why does He create this confusion?
And it is deemed a correction…
It’s to correct a person. Meaning, we should always remember that everything that happens to us when we are confused, while erring and going through many unpleasant states, happens to us in order to reach the right scrutiny. If we don’t experience them we will not have the right tools to come to the sensation of His unity – the goal. All of the actions we experience have one purpose: to discover the unity, to be integrated in Him.
If we don’t experience any of these incidents we will not have a complete Kli to reach Dvekut. That is why we have to accept every single state as a worthy, proper, desirable, and necessary one. We need to relate to it, as much as we can with understanding, love, and the right attitude, the desirable one – the one we have to experience and be integrated in for the general correction.
[This correction is called] … the left rejects and the right adducts...
This means the Creator relates to us from both sides, so to speak, from the positive and the negative; that’s how it seems to us. It appears as though there is a good force and a bad force, bringing us closer or rejecting us, and it seems to us as reality. Our whole reality is very clearly divided into opposite forces, if we pay attention to both parts: right/left, male/female, negative/positive, light/darkness, etc. In every incident, we have one thing and its opposite. It stems from the Upper Force, the Creator, who created the creature in existence from absence, and that’s all there is – these two. From that it turns out that the creature is affected by two forces: the left, which is called rejecting and the right, which is felt as adducting.
...meaning that which the left [don’t err in saying] rejects is considered correction.
It’s also an adduction and it brings you closer, but it’s in such a way that you have to determine that it is such and understand the need to mirror it and relate to it correctly. Then you will see that there is no right and left, just one force that tends to you and pulls you forward.
This means that there are things in the world, which from the beginning...
There were things that the Creator deliberately created opposite to a person, opposite from the goal.
In order to divert a person from the right way, [Why?] and they reject him from holiness.
If there were only one force operating on a person, we wouldn’t discern anything because we are opposite from the Creator. One time we only feel ourselves, and the next time we feel the Creator and the gap between us. This is how we equalize and balance. Only by being in two opposite states can we build our selves in between them.
Later on, we will study about the three lines and how we progress by stepping on the middle line, which is built by us, through our efforts and through our scrutiny with the two lines. These two forces – adduction/rejection, right/left, this is where we build our understanding, the awareness which we didn’t previously have.
We can compare it to a person who was born and grew up alone in the world: no one taught him, pulled him, pushed him, and he remained a savage. But when he is under all kinds of influences, tutoring, and education, he builds himself. Meaning, we build within us a person, out of these two forces that operate on us.
Only when these two forces operate, will we progress and have to use them correctly. A person evolves by combining these two forces and the right attitude toward them. This is what the whole wisdom of Kabbalah is meant for: how these two lines (right-adduct, and left-reject) should be joined in a person in such a way that a man, a human, will grow from out of it.
Because of the left line, it seems to a person that he’s rejected from Holiness. He does not feel the benefit because he feels rejected and he grows thicker. The world is not friendly to him and suddenly all kinds of forces obstruct him and others. Suddenly he has enemies and feels all kinds of interferences around him from Above.
And the benefit from these rejections [A person must resolve this.] is that through them a person receives a need and a complete desire for God to help him...
This means that there’s only one reason for all of the problems that we run into: to reveal to us the necessity for God’s help. If a person doesn’t come to this conclusion, but instead, he errs and begins to work against these problems by himself, thinking that he should remove them or push them out of the way, then, it is considered that he doesn’t believe that “there is none else beside Him.” He does not believe that the Creator deliberately set this up for him so that through these obstructions a person will come to understand that it all comes from Him and ask the Creator to remove them.
Why ask the Creator? If I remember that it’s the Creator who placed them before me, and I go against them, choosing to fight them anyway, it is like the king’s son who received the shield and the sword. Do you remember this from the letters of Baal HaSulam? He fights as if he were facing real obstructions, instead of obstructions that were created by his father. It’s the wrong attitude, he doesn’t understand that he should relate to them only in order to unite these obstructions with his father and himself, so that they will be the link in teaching him what he needs in order to see the Creator and connect to Him.
Hence, the attitude should not be against the obstructions, but rather against those thoughts that obstruct me from reaching unity, from uniting all these situations, all these circumstances into one. All the obstructions have but one goal: to come to a state where only the Creator operates before me, opposite to me, in order for me to discover that it’s only Him, but not just that it’s only Him, but that nothing will help me except turning to Him. Turning to Him isn’t about crying for help the same way the world is crying. We see that over thousands of years none of them have been given any help from Above – life didn’t get any better. Yelling is not the state we should reach.
...since he sees that otherwise he is lost.
A person should feel that without God’s help he’s lost. Lost doesn’t mean that he’s suffering and that these obstructions are now killing him or destroying him. It means that he’s lost from reaching unity; that these obstructions are so great that alone he cannot unite "me," these obstructions, and the Creator as one. They are so confusing and obstructive, that I cannot unite everything together; I need the Creator’s help. He is the force that arranges this unity and not me.
This means that all my effort should end with the conclusion that I’m a total loser, a failure, and only the Creator can make this unification. Meaning, The Creator, "me," and these obstructions exist – everything comes from Him. It is arranged by Him and in "me" there is nothing but the resolution that the Creator can unite all of us: the Creator, "me," and these obstructions.
Other than that decision, everything else – my character, the reasons, the forces, the obstructions – everything is arranged by Him. This decision is what emerges in me as an independent thing that I have reached, out of my efforts that I have engendered. This decision is the important one.
It’s not “Creator help me, take away these obstructions because I’m feeling bad, and help me discover You behind these obstructions.” This is normally what a person wants in the beginning. But after all of these efforts, he should come to a simple resolution that everything comes from Him, including me. I want everything to unite in the end – all those forces, reasons, and influences from within, as well as, from outside of me. The whole world and me will unite into one point: the revelation of the force, the one root to everything that I’m now feeling.
Along this way a person feels that…
Not only does he not progress in his work [It means that he feels lost that he cannot reach unification.] but he sees that he regresses [He distances and becomes confused even more, and in general, forgets about the principle that there is only One acting force], and he lacks the strength to observe Torah and Mitzvoth even if not for Her name.
This means that he forgets his livelihood, his strength, the force that leads and corrects him is called “Torah” and the corrections of all the thoughts and desires in him in order to unite them to the Creator is called “making Mitzvot.” He is (unable to act) either for the Creator, or for himself, and cannot unite these benefits, Him and “me.” He falls into such confusion because of these obstructions that he forgets about the One who controls him. Because of this, he’s left to scrutinize, precisely from the most difficult obstructions, the most problematic ones.
That only by genuinely overcoming [What does “genuinely overcoming” means?] all the obstacles above reason [meaning in opposition to all of the calculations that he sees.]...
All of these calculations are results of different obstructions, meaning different forces that as if work around him and if he wants to go against them, to do something against them. That’s within his reason: “He influences, he obstructs, this is so; I, me, myself” and so on. Transcending these calculations (by understanding) that there’s only one force that operates, and it operates clearly and openly is called “going above reason.”
[Hence only by doing this] …can he observe Torah and Mitzvot [in a true form].
This means through the Light, called Torah, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created for it the Torah as a spice” because the Light in it reforms a person.
Why? Our desire is egoistic. This is our nature. Since we are built as a result of the breaking of 620 desires and in each and every desire, the Upper Force appears to us as a force against a desire. Meaning, we feel the influence of the Creator theoretically, as 620 forces that operate on “me.” These 620 forces are disconnected. I discover each force within my tiny broken desire, which is not connected to all the other desires. That’s how my soul is broken and contains 620 parts – 620 desires.
Hence it seems to me that there are 620 sources of influence on me. How do I unite them? If I unite all these desires in one direction, discovering in them the one source that influences me, to this extent, I also reach equivalence with that source because it is possible to unite my desires only on the condition that I unite them together in bestowal.
Then he reaches the decision that no one can help him to observe Torah and Mitzvot, but the Creator Himself. Meaning, to correct his desires, which is called “keeping Mitzvot” through the Upper Light, the Upper Force, the One, unique and unified that will come and correct each and every desire in order to unite with all the other desires.
But he doesn’t always have the strength to overcome above reason [to ask for it to happen]...
If this doesn’t exist on the part of man, and if he doesn’t awaken and ask, or is unaware and doesn’t admit the need to correct himself so that the whole world will seem corrected to him, then…
…he’s forced to deviate from the way...from the way of the Creator...
If he doesn’t have an understanding and a connection between what he is made of – different forces, different desires, through which he sees the Creator as a scattered force that influences him from many directions, (if he thinks) that he corrects himself not through Torah and Mitzvot, but, seemingly, through his own strength, then he comes to a state where he completely leaves the right attitude needed to progress. And this is called “being forced to deviate from the way of the Creator even not for Her name.”
And he, who always feels that the shattered is greater than the whole…
“The whole,” meaning that one stands in the middle line, a line called “the line of Ein Sof,” that brings a person from this world, through all the worlds to the Dvekut – endless Dvekut.
“The shattered” means that he breaks from this line in different directions, where he doesn’t work to unite with all the forces of the Creator, and doesn't believe that everything comes from Him. Instead, one begins to tend to life's obstructions by himself. This is what humanity has been dealing with for thousands of years. That’s the difference between the method of Abraham, who discovered that everything in life happens only in order to unite it with the Creator.
This is what we have to progress to in our lives, instead of tending to forces and apparent reasons why we’re in this imaginary reality. We should not continue to develop technology, culture, and education, etc., just to move on in life, trying to work against all kinds of forces that come from a variety of sources and seem to work against us in different situations for all kinds of reasons…
That was the argument between Abraham and the residents of Ur of the Chaldees; this is why he left. They developed the belief that a person arranges his own life. Abraham said, “No, there is only one force that arranges our lives and we have to work on unity; we have to work on discovering Him in all situations.”
They couldn’t accept this method because as the will to receive grew, it started showing them more than one force, it showed them many forces. They started to bow to many reasons and many forces while Abraham passed this phase and discovered that there is only one force that operates in the world.
That’s the difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and everything else that exists in the world, it doesn’t matter if it’s religions, others beliefs, or man’s work in life, it’s all the same. Everything works only to distract a person from the unity, which has to be obtained de facto.
In order to bring a person out of his broken big, opposite egoistic desire to the goal, he must come to a state of despair since he is unable to unite these forces around him. He begins to feel…
…that there are a lot more descents that ascents.
For him, this is as if descent and ascent. He is completely confused by the descent, and the ascent too, it is something incomplete to him. During the ascent he perhaps remembers that there’s a Creator, but it seems to him that he can create the unity himself, and that he is able to do something on his own, that he is able to make an effort to reach the goal.
These efforts that he makes will eventually show him that only the Creator can do this. That he should turn to the Creator, to raise MAN, to build his MAN. Only this will help him in these states. But for the time being, a person…
…does not see an end to these predicaments…
He sees that there is no end to this. He despairs in his strength, effort and understanding. He is unable to see his own effort and even if he succeeds, he is unable to see that these apparent successes promote him.
…he’ll forever remain outside of Holiness...
He is unable to correctly interpret what Holiness is. For now, coming closer to the Creator appears to him in all kinds of different ways. Holiness is interpreted through his corrupted vessels and his egoistic desires, as a higher force, an understanding of bestowal and attainment, in scrutiny and perception. It seems to him that this is Holiness. In this too, he needs to go though failures in order to understand exactly what Holiness means. The real Holiness, if one is able to reach this, if he has a true desire for this. It is called “MAN.”
...for he sees that it is difficult for him to observe even as little as a jot, unless through overcoming above reason…
This means above one's own nature. These are very high discernments, when a person understands that he cannot make any correct effort or attain anything with his own strength.
...but he is not always able to overcome. And what shall be the end of it all?
This means that through all the incidents, each time, while trying to discover unity and determining that he is unable, though various angles, methods and incidents, he discovers what he wants. He has different pictures of what he wants every time, and he is unable to reach it.
Then [as a result of this] he reaches a decision…
Since our broken desires, with respect to the One Upper Force, appear as many forces that come from all kinds of disconnected directions, when he rejects of all these manifestations, then he comes to the state of deciding. Meaning, a decision comes out of the final scrutiny of a person. He must scrutinize everything, it is impossible to come to a resolution if there is anything left to scrutinize. That's why our work is accelerating the revelation, the scrutiny. And what is the decision that he reaches?
…that no one can help him, but God Himself.
It means that there is only one force that can bring a person out of this state, and there has to be a huge desire to come out of it, in order to not forget about it, or fall asleep and somehow leave it. There has to be a great desire to progress despite the obstructions and the despair about one's progress in order to enter this new state.
These are two completely opposite sensations. One sensation is that I feel despair about my own strength; and the other sensation is that I have to reach it. Normally, one crushes the other. If we scrutinize in an ordinary way for a person in this world, this is how it happens. But if a person progresses correctly, it doesn’t happen. Why? Because he receives the attraction to it from Above and the despair comes from himself. These two forces appear to come from two sources, and therefore one doesn’t extinguish the other.
In us desires die out, we despair, leave them and eventually die. This is the reason that our body dies, because everything comes from one source. Nature is egoistic and that’s it. As much as I want to receive and use this source, this force, I live. When I despair, I die. The will to receive stops desiring and no longer finds any livelihood for itself.
Why is spirituality eternal? Because it is nourished by two sources; two contradicting things exist in it. That’s how it is with respect to us, but not with respect to the Creator. For us, it is “existence from existence” – the point of Light, and “existence of absence” – this is me. If desperation comes from only one source, then it doesn’t extinguish the other source. I feel despair within myself, but if I’m feeling despair correctly, then I am able to increase the other point from that – the source of Light. That is why my despair doesn’t kill me, doesn't put me in the grave.
On the contrary, it increases my desire and my resolution that the Creator can, and is able to do this. This is why a person should test and see that he’s progressing correctly, making sure that his despair doesn’t extinguish his forces for progress. If his despair simply drains the strength out of him, then it’s a sign that he’s inside the will to receive only. He didn’t work correctly; these two lines do not operate on him, the right and left. He didn’t arrange his connection with the other force correctly – the force of bestowal.
You need two forces: one opposite the other: a feeling of hopelessness with one's own strength and the need, readiness, conviction that the Creator indeed is able to do this, that I can force Him to do it. Meaning, the despair is one force, and a desire for the Creator is another force. These are the two big forces that should be there. Despair is not a weakness; it is interpreted in us as a revelation of the true state of who I am, what I’m capable of. It’s very important.
This causes him to make a heartfelt demand...
This is called “a real demand,” when these two forces – one's despair and the discovery that only the Creator can do it – both operate equally. The despair is very strong and it doesn’t appear as a loss of strength; it appears as a decision in knowledge and scrutiny, the awareness that I with my own strength cannot do it. So what can be done? Correspondingly, it appears that the Creator can do it. I discover that there’s another force operating here that is able. And now I operate that desire, which is now doubled from the previous one.
We can picture it for the time being in our egoistic understanding, as me constantly wanting to work with my own strength, and then I discover that someone can do it, but will not until I ask him. I approach him with a demand, with cruelty, with assertiveness, and I compel him and I pressure him, and I get mad at him; I double the appeal.
[He has a real demand of the Creator] to open his eyes and heart, to bring him nearer to eternal adhesion with God.
We can’t talk about the nature of this demand, but it has to be in full concentration of all the desires and forces that a person is in at that moment. His whole life, all his efforts, all his decisions and discernments are now all concentrated in this plea, in this cry, in this demand. And then it happens.
It follows then, that all the rejections he had experienced…
It seemed to him in all kinds of ways that the Creator was rejecting him. He felt that others were obstructing him throughout his life, that he was unable, stupid, forgetful and so on – all kinds of reasons, and the Creator was there with them – now he is discovering that all…
…had come from the Creator.
That means that the rejections he experienced were not because he was at fault [and thus faced obstructions] …
This is the way we need to unite everything in our life, and not because I’m to blame. I’m at fault because He created me this way.
…for not having the ability to overcome [No one can overcome. Now he discovers this by himself], but because rejections are for those who...
If the Creator created a person in order to bring to Dvekut (adhesion), then because the Creator wants this, a person really desires closeness with the Creator, for the Creator gave him this desire.
And in order for such a person not to be satisfied with only a little [leave everything half way], namely, not to remain as a little child [insufficiently evolved or in the middle of the way] without knowledge [Knowledge means Hochma, Bina, and Da'at (the attainment of Godliness). In order to draw him closer], he receives help from above [How does the Creator help a person?] so that he will not be able to say that Thank God, he observes Torah and performs good deeds and what else could he ask for?
He doesn’t have the Torah, he doesn’t have Mitzvot, and he’s unable to do any good deeds, meaning that nothing comes and makes any changes in him. Until he turns to the source, this does not happen.
It seems to us while sitting down with the book to study, I’m aiming for the Surrounding Light to operate on me and influence me during the study in order to rise and progress. What could be more egoistic than this demand? “We are together with the group; we can reach it, we can obtain the goals, we can be great, we’ll be strong, we, we, we” It’s even more egoistic.
And you can’t avoid picturing these thoughts or objectives. But gradually, it should come to a sense of despair and the understanding that here you should discover unity that all the desires, thoughts and prayers within us are not our own, and the One Who operates, discloses, discovers, and pulls us – is all one force.
First of all, a person discovers, “I have the Torah and Mitzvot, I have everything, I am not lacking a thing.” He feels that he’s in an ascent; he interprets it as an ascent. But then comes what appears to be a descent. This is when the Creator begins to show him all kinds of obstructions. A person begins to feel, “Oi vey, what did I fall into? Why is the Creator doing this to me, or why do I deserve this? I was in such a great state.”
Actually he was in a very egoistic state. Now he gets help from Above to shake him up and remove some of his egoism, and he begins to complain about why this was done to him.
And only if that person has a true desire [which, of course, the Creator planted in him from the start], he will receive help from Above. And he is constantly shown how his faults in his present state [after the ascents, when he feels as good strong and successful]; that is, he is sent thoughts and views, which work against his efforts. This is in order for him to see that he is not one with the Lord.
He discovers only one thing in his ascent. When you feel an ascent right now, do you feel the Creator, or is it your pride and your ego? One is shown what he’s missing and that’s the state of ascent, so he will then begin to feel himself as opposite to the Creator. This is so that he will discover the unity, the true ascent.
As much as he overcomes, he always sees how he’s found in a position farther from Holiness…
Meaning that all his successes bring him to a state where particularly from success he realizes that he doesn't see the Creator in seemingly good states. He begins to see how the Creator arranges everything for him.
[And how far he is] from Holiness than others, [Meaning that when he looks at others, to him it feels like they] feel one with the Lord.
That’s how it seems to a person, but in reality it’s not the truth to those other people. We look at the whole world and everyone seems relatively okay, quiet. We are the only ones that seem to have doubts and problems; we’re frustrated and we thrust from one state to another. The rest have some sort of perception and they easily progress, they live nicely.
But he, on the other hand, always has his complaints and demands, and he cannot justify the behavior of the Creator, how He behaves toward him. And it pains him that he is not one with the Lord…
You see how Baal HaSulam describes the progress of a person, what ascents and descents, what kind of scrutiny he’s in, how he progresses from scrutiny to scrutiny. First it's me, then maybe it's someone else, next maybe the Creator, and finally, maybe everything is from Him. These are my decisions, these come from Him and what should I obtain from all of that, etc, etc?
(Baal HaSulam tells) how a person, through this spiral, through these ups and downs, constantly continues to progress, and ascends in his scrutinizing, realizing that there has to be the Upper Force, his attitude towards It, how the Upper Force unites everything and how it all comes from Him. It positively comes from Him, and it’s just me who interprets it negatively, etc.
Then he comes to a state in his sensations where he questions why he doesn't feel that the Creator is always operating on him as “Good and Benevolent.” Meaning, since it comes from Him in both the positive and negative, then why am I not feeling it? Why then do I have two sensations in me? I always want to be in a positive sensation, feeling that “There is none else beside Him,” feeling a single source of goodness.
It pains him that he is not one with the Lord, until he comes to feel that he has no part in holiness whatsoever. [Meaning he cannot unite everything into one force – the good force.]
Although he is occasionally awakened from Above, which momentarily revives him…
The Creator doesn't show him the true states according to good sensations which he interprets as ascents, but rather he interprets ascents according to the correct discernment of Dvekut.
But soon after he falls into an abyss.
If the Light sustains him, he scrutinizes everything correctly, and if the Light leaves him, he falls into his own nature.
However, this is what causes him to come to realize that only God can help him [in what?] and really draw him closer.
***
This is the basic article about all of man's work. That's why I put it in the book first. I received it when I began to drive the Rebe, while I was still studying with Hillel Gelbshtein. I came to Rabash in February, well, a short while after Pessach, between Pessach and Shavuot. I remember that we were driving to a doctor once in Tel Aviv. It was before he went into the hospital because of his ear. He told me, “I'll give you something” and he gave me this notebook Shamati and I immediately photocopied it. Well, he probably thought that I would photocopy it, since I had no choice, if I had to give it back to him.
This article was the first article there. I could hardly understand much from it, except for the idea of unity. Generally, it is clear globally, that we have to reveal this. In various ways it operates on us in order to reveal it in different incidents, and in what process of development – this is revealed later on, from one's experience.