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Article "What Does it Mean that the Creator Hates the Bodies in the Work" - Lesson 2

Shamati, Article 19
Lesson by Rav Michael Laitman, Bnei Baruch, Israel
July 19, 2006
Lecturer: Michael Laitman, PhD

Reader: Shamati, Article #19, Page 32: What Does it Mean that the Creator Hates the Bodies in the Work? paragraph “It follows…”

It follows that if the Creator gives room for work, these righteous are very happy. This is why they said, “first to the iniquity-count.” For them it is joyous to now have a place to work. It means that now they have become needy of the Creator and can now come into tight contact with the Creator, since one cannot come to the King’s Palace but for some purpose.

We learn that everything is incorporated in the Upper Light. In other words, in it are all the discernments that the vessel will ever find. This is why it all depends on the vessel. It depends on the desire in the vesselbecause it precisely reveals the Light according to its relation, correspondence and equivalence of form to this or that attribute of the Light.

Thus, people who yearn to reach the fulfillment of the Creator’s will (to discover Him, to discover all of His qualities, and His attitude toward the creatures) have an inclination and a yearning for those particular desires, i.e., all the desires through which they can discover the entire Light. This is why a person has no greater joy than feeling deficiencies, through which he can discover the attributes of the Light.

The general craving for these deficiencies i.e., for these vessels, for these means to discover the Light of Ein Sof (Infinity), is called a need without a need. In the beginning, a person doesn’t know what he will discover, what awaits him, or what is expected of him. But this general craving is in him as a Reshimo (reminiscence) which, as of yet, has no form. One has to develop it until it acquires, through the Surrounding Light, some shape, some special volume, within which a person will feel the attributes that he should now discover by himself as deficiencies, which correspond to the same attributes in the Upper Light that he will discover. Meaning, he has to develop within himself the same attributes of bestowal according to the desires that appear in him, within which he will discover the Upper Light (the Creator’s influence on him).

All of the egoistic forms, the desires within us, all of these desires are precisely in the same form as the Creator who wants us to discover His attitude, His giving. It’s like a hand in a glove. It’s the posterior of the Light—all of our desires. We only have to cultivate them, to develop them, first independently and then irrespective of any place or anyone.

Baal HaSulam explains how developed nations bring culture and laws to other nations. He speaks of how they destroy them, because everyone must develop freely, without oppression, without any pressures, and develop only through the awakening of society toward spiritual involvement. When a person, through this general awakening that he receives from the environment, develops his desires, brings them out of hiding and develops them, then precisely these desires to discover the Creator’s attitude toward him will become the vessel of his soul (his unique soul).

Within his desires he’ll discover how the Creator relates specifically toward him. Thus, disclosing these desires—the deficiencies that appear prior to the correction—already delight him, because he knows that they are the vessels by which he discovers the Light and reaches adhesion with Him.

This is the meaning of, “And ye shall take you.” It specifies you, because everything is in the hands of God except the fear of God. In other words, the Creator can give an abundance of Light because this is what He has, but the darkness, the place of dearth, this is not in His domain.

Since there is a rule that there is fear of God only from a place of dearth and a place of dearth is called “the will to receive,” it means that only then is there a place for labour. In what? In that it resists.

The body comes and asks, “What mean you by this service?” and one has nothing to answer to its question. Then one must accept the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven above reason as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load, without any arguments. Instead, He says and His will is done. This is called “You,” meaning this work belongs precisely to You, and not to me, meaning the work that your will to receive necessitates.

However, if the Creator gives one some luminescence from above, the will to receive surrenders and annuls like a candle before a torch. Then one has no labor anyhow.

It is not just labor that he doesn’t have. He then doesn’t feel all the nuances of the will to receive because the pleasure that comes suppresses the desire and the desire is “put out like a candle before a torch.” He feels pleasure instead of a desire. He doesn’t feel all the forms in the pleasure because it puts the desire out.

Instead, if we want to really discover the Creator’s attitude toward a person, then we need to first, make the desire independent so that it's not quenched by the Light, by the pleasure, by the fulfillment, but on the contrary, the desire will reveal all the modes in it. And in this way it will discover the Light and amplify the Light several times more than the Light would have shone had the desire not done this work. Meaning, it is man’s work to develop the desire without submitting to the pleasures, to the Light, and afterwards to receive the pleasures in order to bestow upon the Creator, because that’s what the Creator wants.

Then, one’s desire is not quenched by the pleasure that fills it. Through the pleasure that one feels (he feels all the ways in which the Creator wants to please him), he can please the Creator right back. Now there is a relationship of partners between them, as opposed to when a person is extinguished within the pleasure, and he is not seen. By that, of course, one cannot bring any contentment to the Creator, because he is entirely invisible in the Light by his effort, by his independence.

In other words, all the concealment and distance that we are in to begin with (when we discover ourselves from below upward) were designed this way, with respect to us, so that we would be able to defend our independence, our will to receive. We make of it an independent structure, which does not submit to pleasures, but keeps the Thought of Creation independently on an equal level with the Creator.

Question: What does it mean that the desire is quenched?

The desire is quenched because the pleasure is from the Upper One, and He created that desire. That desire has nothing more in its essence except to receive pleasure within. When it receives pleasure within it, it vanishes. It becomes invisible, unfelt as independent. This is so because it surrenders before the pleasure. It exists only in order to be filled with pleasure.

We are talking about desires and pleasure that stand one against the other in complete correspondence. If the pleasure fills the desire, then no space, deficiency, remains in that desire. Thus the desire disappears because it is entirely filled with pleasure. If that’s the case, it has no independence. It doesn't have its own existence. This way, the created being is not a created being. It’s just a substance, which the Creator created and canceled through the same pleasure, which created the substance.

Take for example an embryo. What’s the embryonic degree? It’s when the creature defends itself, rejecting all the pleasures that come to it in order to be independent as much as it can. Its measure of independence is that it is willing to be canceled in the pleasure, but not with respect to the pleasure, but with respect to the Thought of Creation within the pleasure. It wants Dvekut (adhesion) not pleasure.

Thus this is why it’s already called Ibur (conception) when there is something to it. It doesn’t work with its desires yet. It can’t as of yet be equal in any way to them (to the Light, to the Creator), but at least it can discern itself as independent with respect to the pleasures that appear opposite to his desire. This is what it does. It determines its own independence.

That’s why all the Taryag (613 numeric value) desires appear in him in their fullest depth during what is called the nine months of Leida (birth). That process is so that while standing opposite to the pleasure, he would determine (corresponding to each desire, and corresponding to the depth of the desire) that he does not use this desire to fill the desire itself, but uses it for Dvekut. By that he determines his own borders.

To begin with, he’s just a drop, completely amorphous. The desires appear in him, each desire in its own form and he determines that he doesn’t use any of the desires to fill himself, but rejects the pleasures. By that he determines his own form. It’s the form that is called the fetus,” the Taryag desires which determine their boundaries with respect to the Light and say: “Up to here and that’s it. I'm not going to receive. Don’t come in.”

By that the creature determines the boundary of its own independent form. It’s just a boundary. He isn't working with the desires yet. That’s after the birth. But at least it determines the boundary. That’s the meaning of “fetus.”

Question (cont.): A desire awakens in a person. Each desire, it’s essence is to realized. If he says “I don’t receive pleasure,” the desire grows. What do you do so it doesn’t receive pleasure?

In order not to receive pleasure, the desire must stand facing the pleasure and say, “I do not want to enjoy.” A desire can’t say “I don’t want to enjoy,” because it’s a desire, but it can say “I don’t want to enjoy this pleasure, because I have a higher and greater principle called, “the Thought of Creation.” I want to cling to the Giver not to the pleasure.” That’s all.

Someone gives me, say, a Rolls Royce, something, a present that’ll drive me mad. It’ll be so pleasurable, precisely what I wanted. And I reject it. Why? I want to feel Him, the Giver, to be with Him. I am in a state where if I receive the present, I’ll be entirely submerged in the present. I prefer to feel the greatness of the Creator, the sensation of His greatness, His love and not that the pleasure from the present will quench the sensation of the Giver.

However, if the Creator gives one some luminescence from above, the will to receive surrenders and annuls like a candle before a torch. Then one has no labor anyhow since one no longer needs to take upon himself the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven coercively, as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load; as it is written, “ye that love the Lord, hate evil.”

It means that the love of God extends only from the place of evil. In other words, to the extent that one has hatred for the evil, meaning that one sees how the will to receive obstructs one from reaching the completeness of the goal, to that extent one needs to be imparted the love of God.

However, if one does not feel that one has evil, one cannot be granted the love of God. This is because he has no need for it, as he already has satisfaction in the work.

This means that “hatred” toward the will to receive is in the same measure as “love” for the Creator. One determines the other. One is the face, and the other is the back of the same inclination. It must be this way so that a person will determine his “self” in the Light that appears. Then the Lights can appear more and more.

To the extent that he hates the will to receive which works in this manner (when he receives without any calculation) and hates this beast which controls him, then to that extent he can block it, and can put a Masach (screen) on it, a limitation. And then he asks, demands to have the kind of strength to limit the pleasure in the fulfilling of the desire so that the Thought of Bestowal will not be controlled or covered up, and so that there is no thought of acquiring adhesion, specifically through this act. This is our entire work.

If one discovers it correctly, one sees that he cannot succeed without help from Above because all he has is the will to receive and nothing more. He stands naked, without defenses, against the pleasures. He begins to discover that within this state he is in, that he is weak against the pleasures that come to him and that they control him. He discovers that this state prevents him from being connected to the Giver of the pleasures, to the Creator who sends them.

Then he begins to hate this state and asks for help, for salvation, to receive strength from Above to defend himself, so that the will to receive and the pleasure will not be seen as one against the other but to create a condition among them. He will use them only to the extent that he can connect to the Host, through the desire and the pleasure. If he cries out about that, it’s a sign he is raising MAN.

We should more frequently picture the “I” as standing opposite the pleasures. The meaning of “I” is “my desires” standing opposite the pleasures, and the “I” is standing opposite the Host (meaning my thought with respect to my relation to the Host, my point in the heart with respect to the Host). This describes my heart with respect to the pleasures that appear in the Light— the point in the heart—compared to the Host who appears in the Light, as a gift. So when I now make the right scrutiny between bitter and sweet and true and false. This is where I determine my selfness.

Question: If I hate the pleasures, how can I love the one who gives them?

One hates the pleasures, because his nature is to directly receive them, to swallow them, to fill himself without any calculation. One begins to hate them, because they prevent him from being in touch with Him. If the pleasure extinguishes his attitude toward the Host, then he hates this pleasure. He can cry to the Host: “Don’t give me pleasures.” But that does not go toward the purpose of correction. One doesn’t progress by that.

A person should cry to Him saying “Help me receive them correctly, so that in the pleasure that will appear to me from the gift I will see how much You love me; so that the pleasure won’t extinguish your attitude toward me.” One has two parameters in the Light that appear from the Creator: the pleasure and His attitude, His love.

He doesn’t want the pleasure to extinguish the love, nor to control him desire, but he wants the pleasure to appear in his desire in such a way that he will not lose the Creator’s attitude toward him because of it. But on the contrary, he will feel the pleasures as a gift from Him and thus is able to return His love for me. Why? Because by wanting him to enjoy, He is giving him a present. He discovers His love by that. He wants Him to enjoy it. That’s it.

He discovers His need to please me and then accepts it in order to fulfill His need. By that, he discloses a deficiency in the Creator. He discloses the need on the condition that the pleasure being felt in the desire is discovered as a means (a means for the status, for the independent status of the creature), which is, from the beginning, incomprehensible. That’s why all the religions and methods are about suppressing the desire and ours is not. One should never ask to suppress his desires, but instead ask for defense over them, to use them like a key, like a plier, like a screwdriver, like a tool.

As we have said, one must not be angry when he has work with the will to receive, that it obstructs him in the work. One would certainly be more satisfied if the will to receive had been absent from the body, meaning that it would not bring its questions to man, obstructing him in the work of keeping Torah and Mitzvot.

However, one should believe that the will to receive obstructing him in the work, this comes from above. One is given the force to discover the will to receive from above because there is room for work precisely when the will to receive awakens.

When one has a tight contact with the Creator to help one turn the will to receive into in order to bestow, one should believe that from that extends contentment to the Creator, from one’s praying to Him, to draw him near by Dvekut (lit. Adhesion). This is called “equivalence of form,” discerned as the annulment of the will to receive to be in order to bestow. The Creator says about that, “My sons defeated Me.” In other words, I have given you the will to receive and you ask of Me to give you a will to bestow instead.

This means the Creator is relating directly to a person when He brings him pleasures and in doing this nullifies a person, cancels him, i.e., cancels his independence. But from behind the scenes, through Achoraim (posterior/backside), He awakens a person to hate that status. Thus a person will ask of Him to become independent, above the desires and pleasures. This is called “My sons defeated me.” And He is happy about it, because by that a person becomes a son, meaning “understanding the Thought of Creation,” the process that he must really undergo to become a partner similar to the Creator.

When one gradually learns this process, the Thought of Creation, he becomes a son. When he grows to a complete Koma (level), a level similar to the Creator and also when he uses what the Creator sends him directly to build from within himself that same attitude, it is called “My sons defeated me”. That is precisely when one takes every means that he receives from behind the scenes (from the Creator) in order to clarify true and false instead of bitter and sweet.

Bitter and sweet work directly and true and false work latently. He takes the true and false and begins to use it to manage the bitter and sweet and thus erects himself as an independent Partzuf opposite the Creator. This is called “My sons defeated me.” “You are the sons of the Lord your God,” when he understands the process and the attitude and uses it creatively. It turns out that he erects himself through the understanding and acknowledgement of Providence.

Question: Most of us come here not because we feel pleasures. We say everything is great but we don’t want pleasure. We want to bestow. Most of us come here because we are in pain. So the way that it’s described here in the text is great, that everyone will have a good time, and then we'll say: “Yeah, we're happy, but we want the Creator.” However, it is for the opposite reasons that we come. We received a few big blows and then we started asking questions. How does that correspond with that?

That’s a good question, a correct one. Indeed, that’s how everyone comes, because we are made of the will to receive, a small one, a corporeal one, a human one which feels only pleasure and pain. You might say, but this will to receive feels envy, hate, shame. In any case, this is not just a will to receive since if he feels ashamed and he won't take. If a person is humiliated, he is willing to take upon himself all kinds of restrictions and pains.

Kabbalists explain to us that we still don’t feel the other nature yet. This is not bestowal. This is not a calculation with something higher than the will to receive. It’s the same will to receive but it chooses what to enjoy. Humiliation is the worst thing. One would prefer not to eat the whole day, than to be humiliated. In order to prevent shame with respect to something, one is willing to stop himself and in some way not use the will to receive, as long as he does not feel ashamed.

But it’s still a calculation of what is more and what is less. Say if I am starving to death, I don’t care if the food belongs to someone, I steal it and I don’t care whether or not I will be disgraced. The will to receive calculates what’s more and what’s less and in doing so the shame disappears, I take the food and that’s it. Just like a cat isn’t ashamed of taking something off the table. It has no shame. We drop to that level, the shame disappears and we take. These are all calculations in the same will to receive.

But within the will to receive there are direct pleasures and there is a calculation of money, some sensation of security in wealth, in honor, in shame, appreciation, environmental appreciation and in knowledge. By knowledge we mean, even when one wants to control others through his knowledge and understanding, through all kinds of indirect ways. Knowledge is not necessarily what pure science he wants to know, but he wants to know what is in his friend’s mind and heart and thus control him. It’s all a calculation and there is still no second nature nor an attitude toward the Creator. There is an attitude only towards what appears to me here and now.

Therefore, of course, one can be brought to Kabbalah only through pain. These might be feelings of guilt or some physical, corporeal pains, or social ones. One might go bankrupt or whatever. It doesn’t matter what, but he despairs from receiving pleasures directly—pleasure opposite the will to receive.

Then he asks: “what’s the meaning of my life?” When he begins asking about the meaning of his life then everybody asks about it. So either he gives up on life and settles for beer and television and just ends his life this way, or he says “What’s the meaning of my life” within which is felt the point in the heart—a deficiency for something outside of him—which is already a new development.

If that point exists (the contact with the Creator), although he doesn’t know that it’s a point of contact with the Creator, he feels a deficiency that doesn’t belong really to corporeality but to something that’s above it. In some people, this desire appears in them as knowledge. They want to know what’s up there, how this world is managed and behaves. They ask why it works this way. What stands behind matter? I remember that I felt this veryacutely. Some just feel that they are lost. They say, “I am lost in this life. I don’t know why, for whom, for what.”

The need for stability is what appears in general now in the world. This will probably be the way the world will need the spiritual basis, because they will discover that the corporeal basis doesn’t give them anything. There all kinds of people and some are not even aware of their situation, they can’t really scrutinize and analyze the kind of preparation that brings them to the wisdom of Kabbalah. They just ask” What’s the meaning of my life?” This is a very general question that he asks because he doesn’t know the answer. It’s pointless. That’s it.

Only afterwards does the point in the heart begin to appear to the extent that one works in the group and within the studies. Otherwise it doesn’t appear. Otherwise he might wander around for ten years without anything happening. If he really heeds the Kabbalist’s advice and understands the structure of Adam ha Rishon (the First Man), which is a connection to the other souls. By the connection with them he then discovers the attribute of bestowal, the Creator. That’s where he discovers it and nowhere else outside of the system.

If one begins to work seriously in this way and the group doesn’t let him escape (defends him, gives him importance of it), then he begins to discover his independent point here, his point in the heart, and thus progresses. But to begin with, this point is hidden and he doesn’t feel it. He only feels a lack and says that something is missing in his life. That’s it.

It takes great work to begin to discern within this desire an additional desire, which doesn’t belong to this world. It is the Reshimo of his first spiritual degree called “the point in the heart,” which he should now develop and realize. This is why if he is drawn to that state of Reshimo, to that higher degree and to another even higher degree, then he is already connected to others. When he is connected to others, it is called “he acquires a shield over this will to receive to be above the will to receive.” Normally, it is hard for us to connect, between “me,” “society,” “Creator.”

These articles are written in a personal way, according to the individual, i.e., as a person opposite to the Creator. Where is the society here? Where is everything? It’s all one’s inner feelings. We're unaware that we have to transfer these emotions, through society as if through a net, a filter. If one doesn’t filter these emotions between himself and the Creator through society, then he is not turning to Him. He might be turning to something completely opposite. He has no way of knowing. A person keeps his aim on the Creator only on the condition that he imagines and pictures to himself the Kli (vessel) in which He appears, which is the society or the collection of souls. They are close to him in their ideals, in their mission.

Here, in these articles it is not emphasized what we have to do. In every appeal and situation what we have to do is to approach the Creator from within the general Kli because the Creator isn’t disclosed in a single soul. He appears in a Kli, which is already a basis built of several souls. Thus it is a critical mass, a kind of critical desire, that in quality and quantity, has grown and ripened.

Question: What does it mean to take these emotions through society?

We have the Upper Light. In this Upper Light there is pleasure and the Giver of the pleasure, which comes to the Kli and the Masach (screen) on the Kli. This is the ideal and that’s how they should clothe each other.

If one doesn’t have a Masach and the Kli is broken, then it loses the connection between the souls in the Kli. It is the same thing, having no Masach or no connection between the parts. The Masach is not above the Kli. The Masach is like the glue among these souls that are here inside the Kli. If the Masach disappears, there is no glue between the souls and each of them feels itself and says, “I exist and the others don’t exist. Or maybe at most, they exist only to serve me.” So in this way there is no Kli.

It’s true that there is his egoistic desire here and he feels some kind of inclination toward the Creator. Let’s say it appears through the study, or the Surrounding Light, but when this inclination appears, if he just turns this inclination toward the Creator, it doesn’t go anywhere. Where can it go? It doesn’t have any form. This desire, this picture of the point is amorphous. Its shape, meaning the Kli—the place where the Creator can appear in it—can be formed only if it is connected to several others like it in the form of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” If he is connected to them this way, by “Loving thy neighbor as thyself,” then together they form a Kli which has a Masach.

The contact between us is the Masach. To the extent that one relates to his friends in bestowal, to that extent he relates to the Creator with giving. There is no difference between the Creator and the friend. They are both outside of me. As he feels his friend as himself, he also feels the Creator as himself. There is no difference with respect to the will to receive that has acquired a screen. For it to relate to the Creator or to a friend is the same thing. If he wants to direct himself toward the Creator, then he has no choice.

He has to aim him self toward the friends (aiming outward, outside himself). If he aims himself correctly toward the friends, through this filter that there is above him, then the correct attitude toward them is seemingly the correct attitude toward Him. Then he relates toward Him correctly. This correct aim will be called “ MAN.” If I didn’t build my attitude toward others, i.e., my friends, then I would just shout into space, not spiritual space but just, you know, “just cry in vain.” In order to aim to the Creator that same measure of bestowal, he has to be in it himself.

In the articles of Shamati, Baal HaSulam already intends, from the beginning, for this to be done since he aims these articles to those who already have a point, to those who already (to some extent) want to arrange themselves correctly, in any kind of way, towards the Creator.

He didn’t give these articles to anyone. He used them all the time and he read them to himself and gave them to me. That’s it. Only two or three of the articles were shown to the others in the group. Why? Because here, he is referring to people who already have a point in the heart, who understand how to turn to the Creator and to aim themselves correctly. Of course, it’s clear that it is done through society, otherwise it’s impossible. Otherwise what kind of Kli would they have? It is done through society and in examining exactly what is to be clarified with the Creator. It’s as if there is a double attitude here: “I” with respect to society, and then through the society “I” with respect toward the Creator, as if there are two phases.

Why two phases? If he only works against the will to receive, then he turns to society. Then, if he connects to them, it’s a sign that he is above the will to receive. If he turns again to society, to give to society, it’s a sign that he is exiting the Restriction and going above it, in bestowal. Now here is a question: why does he work in bestowal toward others?

Here, one already begins to carry out the law “from the love of man, to the love of God.” Here, one begins to use it as a Kli, because this becomes his Kli (the friends and all that). It becomes “I,” but not the same “I” that there was toward his friends before. If he connected to them, this is now all “I” with respect to the Creator. That’s the second phase already, and this is the second phase that he refers to in Shamati.

In Shamati, Baal HaSulam says that when he talks about the situation, a person is pretty much arranged in society and wants to scrutinize his attitude toward the Creator. He already has a Kli from within which he turns onwards. It’s as if he already has it. He should renew it from time to time in different ways.

This is what we scrutinize in the article Matan Torah and the Arvut. I highly recommend to add these articles; otherwise, these two works “toward the Creator” and “toward the society” seem to us as contradicting and not belonging to each other.

This is from within a person, only once he has connected himself to the friends—to the society. This is why it seems personal, but it is really personal if one connected himself to the general Kli (the friends). It doesn’t matter what degree they are in. It doesn’t matter who they are or what they are.

If they have some desire, if they help him a little, if they are in something together, that’s enough; he connected them to himself and all of this structure is called “I.” In this integral “I” structure, there is a number of friends in the group. That’s what Baal HaSulam is talking about.

Question: There is a question from the World Kli. If there is no physical environment that we share, can we be connected?

It doesn’t matter whether a person is with us during the broadcast now, through the Internet or through other means or perhaps in Australia, South America or Africa. We have groups in all the continents. If he is with us, then spirituality has no distances. A friend may sit next to us and we see his face and feel him physically, but we need to discover the inclination of all us toward the goal and with the same inclination to unite.

I don’t have to see the friend for that. On the contrary, the physical form can confuse a person. If a person is distant in location, then there is a reason that he is there. It could be for all kinds of reasons: maybe he was born there or maybe belongs there, it doesn’t matter why, but distance is not an obstacle. Even though, just like the Creator is concealed, so are we, but if he seeks contact with us and is in a distant place, it is a sign that he can build the connection with us in such a way that we will all be his Kli. There is nothing here to prevent him. If he has received the awakening and the Creator put His hand on his good fortune, then it’s all up to him.

Question: In the first article in Shamati, Baal HaSulam talks about two phases: first on seeing that all the obstructions come from one source and then on incorporating oneself into the society and caring for it. According to what you say, the order should be the opposite. First a person should check his attitude toward the general Kli and through it perhaps, to “there is none else besides Him?”

The paths a person finds himself on while in double concealment or in single concealment are unclear to him. Sometimes it comes from here, sometimes from there. The truth is, that every thought and act and study should begin from the first source. Meaning, first of all, we have to get a grip on the goal.

“Who is wise? He who sees the future.” According to what he eventually wants to reach is from where he should plan his moves. He knows that his goal is to reach Dvekut (adhesion) and he has already clarified that. He didn’t just wander in today from the street into this search. But he knows that he has to reach Dvekut. It’s unclear, he doesn’t see it this way, but let’s say this is so. Here we are talking about some intellectual scrutiny. So from that scrutiny, he begins to direct himself to this place where he is. This campaign of reaching Dvekut is called “equivalence of form.”

Who is he? He is his own little ego. How does he begin to aim his ego to not be exactly aimed at himself but the opposite? This ego is aimed only at him and he has to begin to aim it in the other way, going up. How can he do that? He has to aim it outside of himself. If it is outside of himself, then there is no difference whether it is the Creator or the group. The Creator is not behind the group. He appears as present in this Kli (the group). The group will become the Kli and the Creator will be inside the Kli.

If he begins to discern all this information correctly, all the constituents of the picture, then it becomes very simple. He has to correct his Kelim with respect to himself in order to be efficient and active in correcting others (seemingly others).

The whole world is “created to serve me and I to serve my Maker.” The more he connects them to himself, and the minute he would want to turn, through them, to the Creator, to discover Him in them, then he will see that they are all parts of his desire. They don’t count, they don’t stand in his way, but they seem opposite to him so that he will develop a desire to connect them, the Masach. The will to connect among the parts is the Masach.

It turns out that the work in the group and in Dvekut with the Creator is the same work. We learn from the breaking that there are no acts, nor were there any other acts besides the breaking. There was a state of Dvekut. Then we have to discover the separation where He was hidden. The AHP was restricted there. We have to disclose it.

We have to discover what’s missing in each and every desire of Dvekut in order to mix Bina and Malchut together (the attributes of Bina and Malchut). We break, and after the breaking we put it back together. The minute we put it back together, within that same force of putting it together, we discover the force of the Creator. This is why there is nowhere to run, except to build the Kli.

Baal HaSulam writes that it is impossible to engage in anything but only the correction of humanity. Now we can understand his inclination to participate in all kinds of socialistic activities, etc., because that’s the realization, the practical implementation of the spiritual correction. It’s not out there, somewhere. It is spiritual because it overrides our primary nature, our first nature, the egoistic one.

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