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Michael Laitman, PhD

Chapter 3.16 - The World of Correction

Several things unfold after the breaking in the world of Nekudim:

The difference between the refining of the Partzuf by the beating (Bitush) of the Inner and Surrounding Lights and the refining of the Lights invoked by the breaking of the vessels, is that after the breaking, the vessels must be corrected. Only then can new Zivugim (couplings for production of new Partzufim or reception of Light) be carried out for the purpose of producing new Partzufim and filling them with Light.

The Rosh of the world of Nekudim intended to receive the entire Light of the purpose of Creation in order to bestow. By filling the Sof of Galgalta, it would attain the complete filling of Malchut de Ein Sof. Therefore, when the broken vessels are corrected, all the vessels of reception will be corrected for bestowal, and the end of correction will be accomplished.

But that would still not correct the entire Malchut de Ein Sof, but only a part of it – Behinot Shoresh, Aleph, Bet and Gimel. Behina Dalet, which is in fact, the only creature, would not be affected. Behinot Shoresh, Aleph, Bet and Gimel, come from its mixture with the Upper Nine, or the Creator’s influence on Malchut, whereas a "creature" is a will to receive that is entirely separated from the Creator and stands on its own.

Only Behina Dalet in Behina Dalet is a will to receive in order to receive that feels independent. Hence, she is the only one who needs to restrict her will to receive. After the restriction, the Partzufim and the worlds intend to fill the desires of the root, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree desires in Behina Dalet, but not Behina Dalet of Dalet.

But if what needs to be corrected is Behina Dalet in Dalet and not Behinot Shoresh, Aleph, Bet and Gimel, then why do these desires take Lights? These desires are not the creature’s, but are properties and forces of the Creator.

The Creator uses those Lights to guide and lead the creature, the Behina Dalet of Dalet. These forces fill all the spiritual worlds, except for man’s soul.

Behina Dalet itself, which is man’s soul, can’t actually correct itself so as to receive in order to bestow. The entire correction of the creature occurs by examining one's own attributes vs. those of the Creator, and preferring those of the Creator. One doesn’t use one's own attribute, such as the stony heart, but only the Upper Nine, the Rapach Behinot. One sorts and raises them after the breaking for the purpose of unification with the Creator.

All the Zivugim performed after the First Restrictions are performed on those desires. These Zivugim produce the Partzufim, the worlds and everything in them, and expand downward. The five worlds with the five Partzufim in each world become the ladder from the Creator (the Giver) to the creature (the receiver). The degrees are measurements of equivalence of desires between the creature and the Creator.

The emanation of the Partzufim and the worlds from Above downward builds the degrees, which are like covers over the Light of Ein Sof. Each Partzuf covers the Light and hides it from its lower Partzufim to the extent that it receives in order to bestow.

We can compare the Partzufim and the worlds to the layers of an onion: round, contained in one another and the deeper the layer, the more the Light is covered. Thus, at the bottom of the ladder, in the middle point in the onion, there is the point of darkness.

For the creature to have free will and want to equalize with the Creator, clinging to Him of free choice, and to rise from its original state to that of the Creator, the creature must be born in the point of darkness.

The possibility of correcting one's desire must also be created, but because of the creature’s weakness, the correction becomes a gradual process. This is what the ladder was prepared for–the five worlds with five Partzufim in each world and five Sefirot in each Partzuf make up a ladder of 125 degrees from the preliminary state of the creature, to its final completion. Thus the worlds have two functions:

A. To gradually hide the Light of Ein Sof. This is done by the descent of the worlds from Above downward. That is why the degrees of concealment are called "worlds" (Heb: Olamot, from the word, Ha'alama–concealment).

B. To provide the souls (creatures) with corrections with which they can climb the degrees of the worlds from below upward. Each degree they acquire is a Partzuf that was created during the descent from Above downward. In order to rise in the spiritual degrees, the creature must be helped by the degree it wants to attain. When the creature receives that help, it uses that force to attain a screen and rise to that degree. When the creature rises to that degree it is given the name of that degree.

This teaches us that all the worlds, with everything in them, are but a ladder that the Creator had prepared for man’s ascent. When man climbs these degrees the worlds rise with him, because all the worlds and everything in them are inside man. Thus, aside from the attaining creature, the only thing that exists is the Creator.

Around us, there is only the simple Light in a state of complete rest. That means that the intent of the Creator is unchanging, but that in all His Acts, H intends just one thing–to benefit man. But man can feel the Creator only to the extent that he equalizes his attributes with those of the Creator's attribute of bestowal.

If man’s attributes (desires, intentions) are completely opposite to those of the Creator, then he has no sensation of the Creator whatsoever. This state is called “This world.” If one can change even one attribute to having some measure of equivalence with the Creator’s attribute of bestowal, it will be considered that man has risen from “This World” to the “Spiritual World.” This is considered stepping on the first rung in the ladder that leads to closeness with the Creator.

All changes occur inside us, in our vessels of reception, and depend on the measure of the correction of the screen. Besides us, there is only the unchanging Upper Light. By obtaining some of the Upper Light, one attains and feels a part of the Creator, naming the Creator according to that feeling–Merciful, Gracious, Glorious etc.

The Torah is a documentation of what one who attains spirituality feels, meaning what a person who comes nearer the Creator feels. The entire Torah is comprised of appellations of the Creator. One who attains the Torah attains a portion of the collective Light.

The degrees of the attainment are called by the names of the Sefirot (the Partzufim or the worlds) or by the names of the Lights that one receives (NRNHY).

Besides man, there is only the Creator. Hence, what we all feel, want, and think, comes from the Creator. Everything we always feel is only the Creator.

When the creature climbs from the lowest point (this world) toward the Creator, until it attains complete equivalence of form with Him (the end of correction), it will go through 620 degrees, also called the 613 Mitzvot of the Torah, and the seven Mitzvot of our sages. A Zivug (mating) with the Upper Light in the screen is called a Mitzva.

The Light that the creature obtains inside his vessel is called "Inner Light," or the Light of Taamim, or Torah. That is why Kabbalists always say, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

The creature, Behina Dalet of Dalet, corrects its will to receive in order to be able to bestow. The correction is not of the desire itself, but in the way it is used–it must be done with the intention to give. That correction, the setting up of the intention to bestow, is done with small bits of the desire of the creature, from the smallest to the greatest, but not on all of the desires at once.

Thus, the creature rises from one degree to the next in the ladder of degrees. The worlds are in fact the degrees by which man climbs from below upward.

The correction of the will to receive in order to bestow is a very hard one to make because it goes against the very nature of the creature. Hence, the Creator has divided the way into 613 smaller degrees. He also split the creature into 600,000 small parts called “souls.” When the souls come together they are referred to as “The Collective Soul,” or the “First Man.”

However, the correction of the desire begins even before that, in an even lower state called “Our World.” In this state there is no sensation of a Creator whatsoever, or of spirituality. In this state, there is not even the sensation of a need to recognize the Creator. We are all born in that degree. It is comprised solely of desires for pleasures that we can feel in our five physical senses.

The world is led by the orders of the Creator. We call this leadership, "Nature." In it, the will to receive pleasure in every degree (still, vegetative, animate and speaking), necessarily determines our every reaction. The law is that every creature always chooses the greater pleasure and escapes pain.

In every generation there are people whom the Creator plants a "Point’ in the Hearts," a desire to feel the Creator. Such a person begins to seek satisfaction for this new need, not knowing that it is a need for the Creator, which can only be satisfied by the Upper Light.

The Partzufim that emerge after the breaking are called the “World of Correction.” Everything that happens must be and is necessary for the evolution of the creature, so that he will be able to attain the perfection of the acts of the Creator, and delight in what the Creator had prepared for him.

Hence, the breaking of the World of Nekudim, also called the “breaking of the Worlds,” and the breaking of the First Man, also called “the breaking of the Souls” were both premeditated. In the breaking of the World of Nekudim, the vessels of reception were mixed with the vessels of bestowal in such a way that each of them contained all 320 parts of the desire inside it. In consequence, the vessels of reception will be corrected by being contained in vessels of bestowal, and each desire will now consist of NRNHY of Lights instead of just the Light of Nefesh that was there previously.

Without the mixture caused by the breaking, the vessels of reception would have no way of receiving Light, but would always be separated from the Light by the Parsa. Now, however, after the breaking, they can be brought up to Atzilut (by a process called AHP de Aliah, raising the AHP) and filled there.

The breaking of the world of Nekudim is also called “the breaking of the worlds,” because Malchut de Ein Sof consists of five parts, four of which produce the worlds and everything in them as they evolve from above downward. They comprise the entire Creation, except for man, who was born from Behina Dalet of Dalet, from the last part of Malchut, the actual will to receive. This independent part that was completely detached from the Creator’s desire to bestow.

Hence, it is only man that is the goal and the purpose of Creation. Besides man, the rest of Creation is not independent. It belongs to the Creator because it is He Who determines its behavior and actions, just as the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking behave in our world.

Man’s desire isn’t fundamentally different from that of animals. Only a person who shows a desire for the Creator, a part of the desire of the first man, is called “man.” A person, who does not show that desire has nothing to correct, and doesn’t feel the need to come closer to the Creator.

The entire reality is divided in this world into the four parts of Creation, which are still, vegetative, animate and speaking, ranked by the intensity of the will to receive, and hence by the ability to harm or benefit.

A person in this world must go through four phases of development: still, vegetative, animate and speaking. Each phase increases and develops man's will to receive, until the Creator finally creates a "Point in the Heart," a desire to attain the goal.

Therefore, humanity has been under Nature’s press for thousands of years, developing the will to receive from the still degree to that of the speaking, in the evolution of the generations as we know it.

From generation to generation, each and every soul in humanity goes through four phases of development of the will to receive:

  1. Populace – the “still” in the human species. Through desire they develop the degree of “Rich.”

  2. The Rich – the “vegetative” in the human species. Through the inclination for honors (government) they develop to the degree of “heroes.”

  3. Heroes - the “animate” in the human species. Through the inclination for knowledge they develop to the degree of “educated.”

  4. The Educated – the “speaking” degree in man. In the “speaking” degree in man, the desire is unlimited by space and time. One becomes jealous of past events, of previous generations, of things one does not need simply because others have them. Because these people want what they see in others, they can increase their will to receive indefinitely, and thus become worthy of attaining the purpose of Creation.

  5. If the Creator "plants" the "Point in the Heart," man begins the search for the Creator and the root of his soul. The order of correction from below upward is as follows: To receive in order to receive in our world, to bestow in order to receive in our world, to bestow in order to bestow in the worlds of BYA, and to receive in order to bestow in the world of Atzilut. The entire system of Creation is corrected by the world of Atzilut. Hence, the world of Atzilut is also called the World of Correction.

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