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 reading from the book Shamati, Article 145: What is, Who Will Give Wisdom to the Wise Specifically.
"Will give Wisdom to the Wise." He asked, "But he should have said, '"Will give wisdom to the fools?'"
And he said, "It is known that there is no coercion in spirituality." Rather, everyone is given according to his own will. The reason is that since spirituality is the source of life and pleasure. So how can there be coercion in a good thing?
Spirituality is a desire to bestow. Corporeality is a desire to receive. Within that [domain] there are many states and levels. We are talking about corporeality which appears in our world at the lowest degree of the will to receive. Since the purpose of creation is to reach bestowal, we need to come to the realization of this necessity through effort and a decision made by the creature. From the perspective of the Creator (the Upper One), there has to be some conditions within it that will help the creature make the choice.
Within the choice there are also many questions. How, and based on what do we choose? How does the creature progress? Within this choice, is there really freedom to choose if we are in one state of reality and we have to choose the other state? Is that considered freedom of choice if the creature doesn’t really do anything, but only chooses and the act comes entirely from the perspective of the Light—the Creator?
But after we examine and see that the choice is in reaching bestowal, Baal HaSulam says "will give wisdom to the wise." Those that choose to be wise are called wise even though they still haven’t attained it. And then there’s a question: How do we become wise? By choosing wisdom that we haven’t attained yet.
Hence, if we see that we engage in Torah and Mitzvot coercively, we have to overcome the body, since it does not agree. This is because it doesn’t feel pleasure in this work. [Meaning if we want to perform acts of bestowal and these acts are against our desire, we don’t do them voluntarily and with excitement.] The reason must be that he doesn’t feel the spirituality in them, as it is written, that spirituality is the source of life and pleasure. As it is written in the Holy Zohar, "Where there is labor, there is Sitra Achra (evil inclination)."
This is the reason that only wise can be given wisdom, since fools have no need for wisdom. Only the wise can be given wisdom because of their nature. This means, that one who is wise loves wisdom, and this is his only wish. And following the rule, "there are no preventions before a desire," he makes every effort to obtain wisdom. Hence, at last he will be awarded wisdom. Therefore, one who loves wisdom can be called "wise," after his end. [Because other than the desire, you don’t need anything else; everything else comes from Above. If you’re asking for bestowal, you’re certain to get it.]
But it is written of fools, "A fool hath no delight in understanding." The verse, "will give wisdom to the wise" comes to tell us that one who loves wisdom will not be impressed by not having obtained wisdom despite the great efforts he has made. Rather, he will continue with his work and he will certainly achieve wisdom, since he loves wisdom. This is why they say, "Go by this path and you are certain to succeed."
Perhaps there are questions like, what does it have to do with wisdom? If we’re talking about bestowal, we’re talking about Hassadim (mercy). But Hassadim is not a sign of bestowal. Hassadim is only the correction of the Kli (vessel). Bestowal, in and of itself, is wisdom.
First of all we have to attain the quality of bestowal, which is called "the expansion of the Light of Mercy" in a Kli that wants to receive it. That Light of Mercy is sufficient for the Kli in order for it not to want anything more. After we have that correction inside the Kli, then we begin to think, "So how do I bestow?"
Subsequently we’re talking about bestowal itself, which is the Light of Wisdom that expands inside the Light of Mercy in the corrected Kli. Moreover this pleasure that the Kli receives, the Ohr Hochma (Light of Wisdom), is the bestowal upon the Giver. Accordingly this is why we’re talking about wisdom as an act of bestowal, and not about mercy.
There is the correction of creation and the purpose of creation. The correction of creation is Hassadim and the purpose of creation is Hochma (wisdom).
However we must understand what one can do by nature, "a wild ass's colt is born a man." Whence will he take a desire to crave wisdom? For this we are given the advice to work by way of "that fulfill His word" and the adornment, "hearkening unto the voice of His word."
There are means and actions by which a person eventually reaches it, so that the Light comes to him from Above and makes the correction within him. When he transcends his will to receive for himself and settles for Hassadim and is happy with the Hassidim, then he is willing to receive the Ohr Hochma for the purpose of giving to the Giver.
What this means is "to do His words" so as "to hearken unto His words." What is that action?
This means that one does things to obtain the thing which one wants. Hence, here, when he has no desire for wisdom, it means that the thing he lacks is the desire for wisdom. For this reason he begins to exert and take actions to obtain the desire for wisdom, as this is the only thing that he needs.
When a person has pleasures within his own nature he is immersed in small and large pleasures of this world that are confusing him. If the point in the heart rises, he tries (as much as he feels a drive for it), to obtain fulfillment for this point. Moreover when he begins to acquire the corrections; he puts his will to receive to death. A desire to receive for the Creator awakens and rises within him and on top of this desire he acquires corrections of bestowal.
Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) that we build at the degree of reward and punishment is in a person's attitude toward the Creator and not with respect to pleasures in this world. Those pleasures vanish and what remains is only the relationship between him with respect to the Creator.
When he puts his will to receive to death and acquires GE, he doesn’t have any need for reception. He is then seemingly detached from his vessels of reception without any desire for wisdom. He then needs to engage in the revival of the dead, which is to revive each and every desire totally unfelt in him as belonging to him, as being in him and use it as AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh) as vessels of reception. This is why Baal HaSulam says:
The order is that one should exert in Torah and the work, even though he has no desire for it. This is called "labor." This means, when one does things even though he has no desire for what he does. This is as our sages said, "Whatsoever thy hand attaineth to do by thy strength, that do."
This has to do with a state of wanting to transcend this world to the degree of reward and punishment and from that degree to the degree of love. In every degree that he leaves, he determines the will to receive that he had and acquires a new quality, a new will to receive, for an entirely new topic. Thereby he receives a corrupted form of the will to receive, and he has to correct it.
For instance, when he rises to reward and punishment, he begins to receive all kinds of corrupted desires and a corrupted attitude toward the Creator. He has to work on it, justify this Providence, and this guidance of the Creator with respect to himself in the past, in the present and in the future. All of that comes on top of many kinds of desires that awaken within him.
However, they entirely awaken with respect to the Creator because it works against the Klipot (shells). God has made them one against the other, because when a person elevates himself through Assiya, Yetzira, Beria to Atzilut, he acquires GE.
Now that he has acquired the degree of reward and punishment, once again new desires awaken in him. Which desires? These are desires that belong to the public. He integrates into himself the needs of the public, the desires that the public have with respect to the Creator: the egoistic desires, Klipot. And he should work on them to justify the Creator’s attitude toward them with love. That's how he rises to the degree of love.
Thus he awakens his will to receive and works with it in order to add to himself all of these desires of all the souls. Then he is awarded the public’s comfort, because he is comforting them, filling them with what they want to be filled with in the corrected form. It is because he discovers their corrected form by himself, and by that he justifies the Creator.
Consequently it turns out that every time a person rises from state to state, from one degree to another he has new Kelim. Namely desires and corrections over these new desires and new Lights; everything is new.
And by the virtue of exerting, a desire and craving for the wisdom will be made within him.
And then the verse "will give wisdom to the wise" will become true for him, and he will be rewarded with "hearkening unto the voice of His word." Thus, that which was previously by way of doing, an act without a will, he has been awarded a desire for it.
This means that through much effort, "whatsoever thy hand attaineth to do by thy strength that do," he comes to a point where a desire for bestowal is made in him and then he works with it. This desire doesn’t come all at once and doesn’t appear all at once, but many desires appear one by one until they appear fully as a corrected Kli.
Therefore, if we want to know who loves wisdom, we need to look at those who strain for wisdom, even though they haven’t been rewarded with being among those who love wisdom. The reason is that through the effort they will be awarded with being among those who love wisdom.
Again those who love wisdom means, those who love bestowal,because wisdom is an act of bestowal. Hassidim, is only the act of correction, it’s not the deed.
And afterwards, they have a desire for wisdom, they will be awarded wisdom. Thus, the desire for the wisdom is the Kli and the wisdom is the Light. This is the meaning of "there is no coercion in spirituality."
The Light of Wisdom, means the Light of Life. Wisdom is not perceived by us as an intellectual concept, but as the actual life, the essence of life, to the extent that without it, one is considered dead. Hence, we can say that for this reason wisdom is called Haya (alive).
All-in-all, Hassadim is called satisfaction of the Kelim (vessels) without the livelihood in them. It’s like a person who is healthy and is ready for all kinds of actions, to live and to exist, but doesn’t operate actively. Can we say that he has livelihood in him that he is enjoying life, and that he is doing something? No.
That’s how Hassadim is. The correction of the Kelim doesn’t bring a person the result because if he has corrected himself, yet still doesn’t actually bestow, this is not considered working. He has not yet reached what he wanted and this is why he is considered not having a life or spirit of livelihood; he’s not alive.
Therefore as much as the degree of Hassadim seems high to us, without Malchut joining it, it’s dead. It’s merely on the spiritual way. It’s unnatural for our substance to be only at the degree of Hassadim. At this degreea person is detached from substance, from actions, and from the impressions within substance. This degree is as we talk about Chanukah; it is just a respite on the path.
Question: He’s using the word Segula (merit). Can you explain what that means?
Segula is when there is a law in the Upper system and it is unclear to a person how it works, because he still has not corrected his Kelim. Nevertheless when he uses these Kelim, as he has been told to and he operates the system, then he comes to a certain result. That’s called the "merit." In our lives too, there are many things in which we do not understand the connection between the cause and the effect.
Don’t think that the virtues or the merits that are written in the books talk about any kind of action detached from reality. The whole of reality is one law that is stretched over many particular laws, all of which are still integrated within that one law of bestowal. According to this law, all the vessels have to gradually connect according to a predetermined plan in the end.
However, when a person is in uncorrected Kelim, he doesn’t see the system. He can’t see that according to the law of equivalence of form that he’s not in equivalence of form and therefore, doesn’t see or feel the system itself. He is detached from it, within his will to receive. He’s like an organ that is cut off from the body and needs to be reconnected.
For the time being he doesn’t feel what’s happening with the body. So to reconnect, he is told that he has a merit or virtue, and that if he does all kinds of things that these actions will cause the whole body (the force of life in the body), to attach him back to the body. As a cut-off organ he is not able to stitch himself back to the body, or connect himself to the whole body again, but he will cause himself to be reconnected—the general force in the body will connect you.
For example, it’s as if a person has a flaw in his body, then the entire body begins to send substances and things that will clean the area and isolate it or cover it with a membrane. And they begin to work on it until they reconstruct it, or if that’s impossible, then they isolate that place from the rest of the body because of the defensive force and reject it.
Therefore we see that the act is not on the organ that was cut off or that was ripped apart, but it is the body that must correct it. Because a person still doesn’t have the force of bestowal with respect to the body, it’s not connected to other souls or to the Creator who is amongst them. He has to picture that there is a corrected system of souls, where the force of life is and the force of the Creator, but he himself is disconnected from there.
Thus he has to do all kinds of tricks and actions to picture himself as if he is seemingly already there, connected, corrected, and giving to everyone. And if he tries to do all kinds of tricks and actions, then he gets a desire for it. This is called "Many pennies make a pound."
How does it happen? It happens according to the principle "I labored and found." When a person tries to connect to spirituality, to bestowal, to the system of the souls, so if he is working in this particular direction, according to the principle "Whatsoever thy hand attaineth to do by thy strength that do," then through his effort he discovers that he is unable. This means his effort only shows him that he doesn’t belong to bonding, to bestowal, or to sanctity. That everything is a lie and he has no connection to it, no desire for it. It’s as if he’s rejected by the system and by the Creator. Namely, he’s shown the truth.
However when he's shown the truth, he tries to build this system around him so that it will support him and increase the importance of bonding, whereby he asks and prays, and does all kinds of actions. Then he comes to a state of "and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage," it is clear to him that he is incapable and it’s called the Amorite Klipa (shell). If a person stands against the wall and sees that the Creator is failing him and that He doesn’t want him, subsequently he genuinely cries. It’s called "I filled up his potion" and then he receives from Above the desire.
This is called the "merit," where he received the desire to connect through all kinds of tricks and actions. A person didn’t quite know how he was acting toward the Creator, or how he was constantly attaining and demanding Him, but "Whatsoever thy hand attaineth to do by thy strength that do," because he was cut off and he couldn’t act in any other way. Moreover when he has the desire to connect, he works out of that desire—he is connected.
This is called "I found." The difference between "laboring" and "finding" is called the "merit." Where the connection is unclear to a person, he was told that he’s in the system, even though he was cut out from it, but he didn’t know how it works and now he’s beginning to discover. Once he's "found," how the system really works the concealment is removed and the correction of reward and punishment begins—the exodus from Egypt.
But even a moment before the answer of the prayer, he doesn’t believe that it can happen. It becomes "as dark as in Egypt," and it’s the darkest possible state right before the dawn, prior to the Light—a new desire for bonding—that comes. That's the desire that comes from the side of a person himself.
Question: You talked about killing the desires and the transition between degrees.
By a person switching to spirituality, he puts his previous will to receive to death, and begins to acquire new desires called " Klipot." A Klipa is a will to receive pleasure from the Creator.
Previously, a person wanted to enjoy physical pleasures, money, honor, and knowledge in this world. Now, he switches to spirituality and he wants to enjoy the Creator. He has to work against these desires and on top of these desires, receive correction of Hassadim. The correction of Hassadim is not on the desires of this world because he already rose above them.
With his effort to reach bonding and spirituality, he already seemingly transcended above all the desires of this world as much as he could. He failed, he did all kinds of things, and now he has desires only toward the Creator. It is not that the desires for this world disappear. The correction is not in them. The correction is in his desires toward the Creator and his attitude toward Him.
Thus he now corrects his desires toward Him, to the Creator so as to be only in bestowal. In the degree of reward and punishment he does not want to be a receiver in these desires. The degree of love is when he begins to receive those desires that belong to the Creator in order to bestow. This is "the revival of the dead."
Question: So it follows that the transition between 'Hafetz Hesed' and ‘the revival of the dead,’ exists in every degree?
There are two degrees: reward and punishment, and love. In the degree of reward and punishment, a person only acquires a quality of bestowal, but he still doesn’t discover to whom he bestows. Therefore, how can he activate these desires? He discovers these desires only so that he can enjoy them, to receive like a child or like a person who is inside his ego. He just understands receiving. How can he enjoy? He discovers with respect to himself because he doesn’t even feel anything foreign.
So here, we’re talking about discovering such desires aimed toward Him, and he has to correct them, he acquires a correction over them. However, it’s not that he can use them in order to bestow. Afterwards, he discovers that he can use these desires in order to bestow. How? Not with his Kelim, but to the extent that he discovers other Kelim, souls outside of him. He begins to understand how he can use his own Kelim to serve them. Subsequently he elevates these desires that he canceled (the egoistic desires and his AHP). He connects the AHP—these external desires—and gives, as an Upper One toward a lower one.
This is a very high degree that comes. With respect to us, it says, "Whatsoever thy hand attaineth to do by thy strength that do." We labor and find. That’s our state.
What I do want to add is that a person doesn't loose pleasures for all kinds of things in this world, because the pleasures of this world drinking, eating and sleeping—all kinds of things—remain, since they don’t belong to spirituality. Spirituality is with respect to the Creator, with respect to the souls. This is why we shouldn’t think that a Kabbalist is one who doesn’t see anything in this world.
Question: Before the Machsom (barrier) , does a person feel how he passes from degree to degree; can we feel his progress? Is there a difference in a person’s sensation between a year or two hours before the barrier?
A person cannot know if he is an hour or two before the barrier. Moreover as much as he learns and reads, his sensation will be the opposite because the more he progresses the more he is confused. Perhaps it gets darker for him too. These are things that are constantly changing. On the one hand, you gain wisdom; on the other, when wisdom appears, darkness increases. Since the darkness we feel is the Light of Wisdom without the Light of Mercy, it appears both ways.
That’s why it’s called the "merit." There is no consistency here of cause and effect. It’s only about following instructions. And the important thing here is to receive the importance, the elation and excitement from the group, in the most artificial manner. Because our substance is like an ass, it doesn’t understand cleverness. Start jumping and see how your mood changes and you become happier. Why? Since it doesn’t understand your thoughts, it understands only actions.
This is why if a person disrespects his own thoughts and does things that are detached from his thoughts, "Whatsoever thy hand attaineth to do by thy strength, that do," these actions bring him new thoughts—good ones. This is why "we shall do and we shall hear." But it’s not that doing is just doing Mitzvot (commandments). Doing is the study and the work in the group and the dissemination. These are actually the actions that bring a person the awakening and elevation.
Question: You said that all the corporeal desires (for food and the like) are not connected to spirituality.
These desires belong to our body and our body doesn’t belong to spirituality—it’s a beast. These desires can’t change. How can they change? They’re not aimed toward the Creator. When we talk about a spiritual Kli, we talk about desires in which a person discover the Giver. Then his order is how he arranges these desires: pleasure and the Giver of the pleasure.
The desires that are the actual pleasure that come from the Giver are called "Klipa." The Klipa, opposite Kedusha, appears in the spiritual zone, so to speak. And a person doesn’t feel it right now; he doesn’t feel the Klipa opposite the Kedusha (sanctity), because he doesn’t feel the Giver. This is why a person, who is presently in egoistic physical desires, (money, honor, and knowledge), only needs to increase the importance of the point in the heart as compared to all the other desires in general.
He doesn’t need to work with the desires; he needs to work only on the importance of the point for spirituality and not aim to bestow each and every desire that he has such as for drink, food etc. He can’t do that, and he doesn't have to. This means that he can't play with the desires that presently appear in him but he can only increase the importance of spirituality, of bestowal, the connection with the Creator and justification of His guidance as benevolent. The less he thinks about all kinds of pleasures, such as food, drink, fame, and material possessions, the more he will compare them to the point in the heart, the greatness of the Creator, how to have a relationship with Him, and how to increase Him in his guidance, etc.
The more a person becomes detached from thinking about this world, (it does not matter if it’s in order to receive or to bestow), and not be engaged in it through thoughts, the more he progresses. I’m not talking about being detached from life because he has to be married, to work, and so on. However, the more he detached from being there in his desires, by that, he progresses.
He is in Egypt but he's not going to build the Land of Israel in Egypt because he has to escape from there. In the Land of Israel, he will have different desires and all kinds of problems will appear. He will spend in the desert forty years… But it’s something entirely different. A person has escaped Pharaoh already, he doesn't belong to him anymore.
When he works in this way, all kinds of desires appear in him: failures that are mistakes and sins. However, it’s not that he works directly for pleasures in this world, because a person is where his thoughts are and he has to transcend them.
Question: In a pleasure, I want to exist in the desires of others. What kind of desires are there other then the desire to bond and for contact?
The first place from which a person begins to act is from the point in the heart. If he locates it, the first thing he does is to distinguish (perform 'Havdala') what it is. What it pulls him to? He increased the importance of this small desire, atop all of his desires because he doesn’t sink in them and he doesn't connect to them but only wants to be above them with this point.
This point talks about detachment from the corporal and transcending. However, now he has to connect it to the system that, as he's been told, belongs to the spiritual system, which is bonding with others. If he merely works with this system with a point in the heart, then he will build around it all kinds of theories, religions and beliefs that humanity already has. Because he cannot, from within this point, know how to reach the purpose.
Then a method comes to a person that says the development of this point depends on the extent of the connection with the other souls. This is why he must begin to act also in corporeality this way and to find friends to study with, and to be similar in the way we are connected within spirituality. Kabbalah tells him to build this system which is a replication of spirituality. And a person has to really listen to the Kabbalists advice concerning that, because within himself he will never be able to discover the right actions. Alone, it is impossible to understand how we should be arranged.
Question: Why is it that the more we progress, there is more resistance from the outside?
What does resistance from the outside mean? Is it just family, relatives? Or 'the outside' refers to all the forces that are against spirituality? But in either case, this is a just question, because "He who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater then him."
Baal HaSulam describes it as a person that climbs a mountain to reach the King’s palace: the higher he climbs the crueler and tougher the guards become. And they forcefully reject him and fiercely push him back. Maybe he doesn't feel it in strength, but in all kinds of shrewdness, such as when a person suddenly becomes confused and detached and he finds himself being entirely disoriented with a lack of direction.
However, all of that is because he needs to add additional thicker Kelim to the path. Since the thicker the Kli, the more complex it is within. It is rudiment that the Aviut (coarseness) is felt not just in being a thicker, coarser desire, a stronger desires, but to the extent that it is more complex, and made of all kinds of negative tricks and confusions— Aviut is felt through all this.
Aviut doesn't just mean that you have a thick wall. Say, there was a wall between me and spirituality of ten centimeters and now, it is three meters thick. No, these three meters are not three meters because inside there you have a labyrinth (a maze) and a person can’t reach through it. It’s not simply a block on the way. That’s a picture of the Aviut.
Therefore, of course that’s why the confusion is greater. On the one hand, a person gets smarter, and has more experience but on the other hand, there is the confusion. It used to be hard to get out of bed, and now it’s even more difficult. It's not that it's more difficult, but that now a person is smarter and can give himself all kinds of excuses, and so on.
Question: Does the point in the heart always feel the connection with others?
The point in the heart doesn’t feel a connection with others. A person who wants spirituality doesn’t want connection with others or love of man; he has no inclination toward it because the point in the heart is formless at this point. He wants to escape into a certain spiritual realm. However, without correction that spiritual realm seems to a person like something corporeal. That is, he wants it in order to receive, whereby he’ll be happy there, he’ll be understood and he’ll be comfortable there. He can’t even picture what it is.
Everybody pictures spirituality somehow, without understanding what it is. A person simply has a drive toward something. That’s why a person should have the method of Kabbalah which teaches how to increase the point to have the first Kli of ten Sefirot. Subsequently from that, a person begins to slowly understand something about this method and progress further.
Nevertheless until he has the first tiniest Kli, he is in the dark because he doesn’t have anything with which to feel the Light or the discernments and this is why it is called "exile." Afterwards, he’s no longer in exile; he’s relatively in the right and the left—at work.
Consequently before a person crosses the barrier, he can’t understand anything about spiritual work and on the contrary he is more and more confused. Furthermore he doesn't have any other choice, other than listening to the instructions. That’s why you can see how previously the people could get something by being attached to a Rav, today the method is a little different.
This is because there are masses that are rising up and they want the attainment of spirituality. But the approach is through simple actions—to subjugate yourself, subdue yourself and accept the method. It is happening now with respect to the group, to the wisdom, to the method, also with respect to the guide. However, it just shows us how a person, who begins the way, is detached from the spiritual system, doesn’t understand it and must accept the councils as necessary.
Look what Baal HaSulam writes in the article Forthe Completion of the Zohar, and in several other places. By the way, this is something that it understood in other methods too! Once we met a Sufi guy in England. He said very simply, "If you want to understand my wisdom, you have to come here and serve me. Make my food, wash my floor, and be next to me like a servant but that’s not enough, then you have to love me." "If you want to get something from me? You have to reach love." He said it correctly. Because how do you get something from another? How do you bond with him? It's obvious!
Today these methods don’t work anymore because we are talking about a new era where masses have to reach spirituality. Accordingly this is why we are talking about work in the group and subjugation toward the group. Moreover it is without understanding and connection to the system in an open, healthy way, not with understanding but with subjugation. Subjugation is where you subjugate your thoughts and you work as if you have no intellect. You can’t connect to the system otherwise. And you’ll receive the wisdom from the system afterwards. That’s why all of our actions are to be impressed by society and to follow the values it contains.
Question: So, it turns out that the system became harder. In the past you had to love one person. Now, you have to love many people. It’s more difficult.
We just have to act from the reality we are in. Baal HaSulam wrote in his Letters, "Where did you see Kabbalists in this world?" This means, the connection and the attitude and the status disappeared and a new method came, which is a Rav (we call him a teacher, a guide) and books and a group. To the extent that you all come together and realize the method, as much as we understand it from the books, guided by the guide who explains because it’s heard to understand from the books what they mean, accordingly we progress.
Furthermore no other method will appear in our world. It existed before too, but there was conveyance from Rav to student from mouth to mouth that was accepted only among a chosen few. Even if the student was alone or in a group the emphasis was on the connection of reaching subjugation to the Rav. But in numbers like today, when you have dozens and thousands that are beginning to appear and to manifest their desire for spirituality, the emphasis is more on the social connections.
Baal HaSulam explains in the articles The Arvut, and The Revelation of Godliness, that it has to do more with the group, subjugation toward the group, and subjugation of the group toward the Creator. Rav becomes like a supporter an organizer of this status, situation.
As to whether it is easier or harder? It‘s much easier and more suitable for the kind of souls that come down to the world these days because the problem is if these souls were working opposite a Rav they would become Hassidim—just blind followers— not Kabbalists. It's not a problem to subjugate oneself and in that become a Hassid, a follower; it’s easy, it’s good. The will to receive enjoys it and feels confidence—like a promise. It’s a convenient state; it’s an embryonic state that you can’t get out of.
That’s the danger. It’s a real danger for the souls to remain this way. This is, actually, the way of the whole of the Hassidut, and I would say, even Judaism. Those who want to be Kabbalists must renounce it, disagree with this subjugation because they want to reach attainment, and understanding. And then they begin to work on themselves, to grow toward wisdom.
Hence, being in both is very hard work. We have to understand that the more we progress and the more new friends and new people come that the method in itself will become easier, more suitable for the souls. Therefore, don’t think it’s harder than before—it’s easier.
Перевод: Л. Дондыш