Bold and in quotes: Original text of Baal HaSulam
Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
lowercase italics: emphasized words
Capitalized italics: transliteration from Hebrew
Question: Where is inside?
It is inside the soul, inside your “I.” That is where it’s sitting, somewhere between the bellybutton and the heart or maybe in the stomach [Rav is laughing]. This is where you feel your attitude towards others.
It’s the same kind of excitement that you feel in close relationships between people. What is the difference? It is the attitude towards others. You are given a very clear opportunity to examine whether or not you love others by the way you treat them. Is the goal important to you? Are you ready to renounce your egoism for it? Yes or no? Everything is placed in front of you.
A person shouldn’t complain about anything. Everyone has a group of some sort, some kind of a connection, books of some sort, prepared conditions and other benefits. Suddenly I get the desire to write a book in Russian, and as a result you have a book. Suddenly a Turkish translator comes to us at a time when we are in need of translations into Turkish. Suddenly a Spanish guy appears, and so on. This isn’t coincidence. It means that preparation for dissemination is taking place ahead of time, in countries where there is going to appear a demand from particular souls. Everything is prepared ahead of time, from above.
Question: We are talking about the fact that my group is here right now, and I have to feel the spiritual Kli. How do I make correct contact with others? Is it with the points in the heart of friends, with their souls? Or should I perceive them in some other way?
You are real theorists if you ask how contact can be made: “with their hearts, their souls, and their points in the heart.” Can you determine this or drag it out of them? This is simply my treatment towards a person who embodies more than “a person.” I’m looking at him sitting in front of me, wearing a nice shirt. Who is there to look at?
I look at a person’s desire, at his aspiration towards the Creator. In this respect he is a person and someone who’s close to the commandment “love thy neighbor.” How is he close? He is close to me in his aspiration towards the Creator, because it is also my aspiration.
That is why, for me, I can feel close to someone from Mexico, yet my next-door neighbor can be far removed. I simply have nothing in common with him. Have you seen my neighbors? Who can be loved more, our student from Mexico, or my neighbor, who is ready to eat me alive for studying Kabbalah?
This is what we have to make contact with because in this respect they are indeed close to you. How else? Let's say that you are having difficulty relating to the point in the heart, to the quality that pulls him upward, where you and he connect. Have a drink and a bite to eat with him, and then you’ll find this point. But, if not, then have another drink. I’m not joking. All of this is helpful.
Question: Where is a friend if everything exists inside of a person?
You are getting mixed up again. By saying that everything exists inside of a person I mean that the whole world is perceived within. Where are all the friends and all the people? Are they separated from the Kli? Am I simply imagining the entire construction of Adam? Am I Adam, or am I just a part of him? If I’m only a part of him, then how do I perceive him as a whole, as this entire construction? I’m not a Kli opposite to the Creator; rather, I’m another one together with the rest.
The sensation of the existence of others besides your own was created in us purposefully. Some time ago I was alone, I was Adam. All of this was my spiritual body with its various organs and desires. In order for me to become like the Creator, one part separated. And now there is I, and every thing else seems to me as if it isn’t I.
I don’t feel the entire humanity as my own organism, as my own self. I need to establish a connection with it. When I do, then I’ll be sure that this is all one organism, one indivisible “I.” Then everyone will imagine that he’s Adam and that we all connect. And this doesn’t get in the way of each one of us imagining simultaneously that they’re the one and only, like a creation before the Creator.
We study from top to bottom, that in the beginning there existed only one general construction. Then it broke apart in order to give each part or each particular soul the opportunity to imagine that it has to merge with the others in a way where it would absorb them and consume their love within itself. What does this mean? It means take their desires as your own and fulfill them through your “I.” Then you consume others and you become one Adam: this indivisible construction. And the same goes for all the others. And there occurs a multiple layering of corrected “I.” That is why when we return to the world of Infinity, we don’t return to the same state of the world of Infinity, but we reach a state that is 613 times more powerful.
Question: If the world is a sensation within me, then accordingly each friend is only a part of my sensation. Does the correction consist only of changing my attitude towards my own parts of my own sensation? What should a person do during the lesson? Should he simply demand from an unknown source for his attitude towards his own parts to be corrected?
You are a theorist. These friends are already parts of my soul. What does that mean? Do I feel them as my immediate parts, as integral parts of my soul? Do I feel certain that I’m merged with them and that I’m in one mutual desire with them? Do I feel that we complete each other and that there is no difference between us? Do I feel them as I do myself? Do I love them as I do myself? Does such a state already exist?
Question (cont'd): I want to understand. We’ve talked about having to attract the Upper Light for correction. How is it tied to the correct perception of reality?
I consider this “I” to be the only uncorrected part in the general soul. All the others are corrected. But aren’t they my parts? Yes they are. Are they corrected? Yes they are, and why? Because you feel “I”!
Question: Why does my egoism always tries to find some sort of an excuse, some verification and confirmation of the fact that something is happening? I understand that I can’t see any confirmation and that I can’t compare myself to the Light because I don’t see it. But why do I want this? Why does my body constantly demand it?
We don’t perceive any quality directly and by itself. Take for example the electric current: something moves through the wires, attracts through the electromagnet, pushes it away, heats it up, and this is what we measure and call the electric current. We don’t know what electric current is. Electrons— this is how the manifestation of certain forces appears to us. To us, in this moment!
We don’t know the essence of things at all and we can’t know it. We can only know the similarity, our reaction to them, and what they bring out in us. The Light evokes some qualities, some feelings in me. For example, all of a sudden I hear something and I say: “how awful!” Why? Some information or influence caused such a shock in me. Is it by itself? No, it is in relation to me.
I’m reading some Kabalistic works and I’m in delight, I’m touched almost to tears. My child is near me and he has no idea what is going on. On the other side a cat is sleeping and it couldn’t care less even if I scream, unless it feels bothered and moves an ear, but that’s all.
This is to say that there aren’t any properties on the outside. We always characterize everything in relation to us. And this is not because we are especially sensitive. When it comes to a devise, for example, or any occurrence in physics or elsewhere, we don’t fixate the occurrence itself but only its influence upon something that we can locate.
So it is with us. This is why we try, in so many ways, to understand on the one hand and try to push away with the other.
Question: What is the prime cause in the change of sensations in a person? What launches this mechanism in a person?
A Kli created in the world of Infinity called Malchut descended into our world through Tzim Tzum, through the world of Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira and Assiya. On the way from the world of Infinity to our world it passed five worlds with five Partzufim, five Sefirot, 125 levels. In reality it can be divided into many sub-levels. When it descends from each level, from top to bottom, it collects Reshimot. The Reshimot collects in a way where it becomes a spiral within us that begins to develop in our world from the bottom to the top.
From the spiritual world a spark forced its way into our world. Matter began to form and then it began to develop. First, the still matter developed. When it cooled, the vegetative and animal matter developed. Now we have the still, vegetative, animal, and from here the human emerges.
A human begins to develop. Human history begins to develop. Then Adam appears and he begins to feel within him the aspiration towards the Upper. That is, his Reshimo is already combined in such a way where it’s no longer still, vegetative and animal nature within the person but a “human” within a human. Here the point in the heart appears.
This is the kind of Reshimo that pulls him upward and here he begins his ascent. What determines the ascent? It is determined by the stages by which he descended and these stages are constantly being born within us.
If we realize this stage correctly then we receive similarity to the Light. If we don’t realize it then we feel dissimilarity to the Light or suffering. This is because the Light constitutes pleasure and the absence of it constitutes suffering. If it’s a small absence of Light in a small egoism, then isn’t so bad. However, if it’s a tremendous absence of Light, then it’s sensed as a strong.
The Reshimot determine the information, which collected within us through out the descending process.
Question: Do I receive the Light and the importance of the goal from the group to the extent of my desire for everyone in the group to be corrected as well as my attempt to unite them into one Kli of Adam ha Rishon?
A person’s inter-relation with the group is fully built on his contribution to the group. Otherwise it would be coercion. They will either have a positive or a negative effect on me. They will either beat me or love me. If it wouldn’t be in the degree of my attitude or my aspiration towards them, then it would be coercion. And there can be no coercion in spirituality because we wouldn’t be able to build our own selves.
That’s why there is a group which substitutes the Creators’ Light for me. Only to the degree to which I have MAN or demand towards the group; “help, I want, I’m ready” - only to this degree I receive Light from the group. I receive strength from them to the degree of my demand.
I can receive strength from any group if I want it badly enough. They can be newcomers without any knowledge; they can be anything. If their aspiration towards the goal is general or even if it’s still unconscious, it doesn’t matter. If they have some kind of desire, if there are some sorts of points in their hearts, they can serve as an absolute source of strength for me. This is because all the rest depends only on the way I treat them. Through them I pull out the Light from the World of Infinity.
On the other hand, you may be able to express more of various Hochmot, or wisdom, from The Talmud Esser Sefirot through the groups that are more advanced; however, spiritual advancement is possible even more with a beginner group. This is because they simply want, like a child. And the attitude towards them is as it is towards the utmost, because right now the Creator is speaking in them directly, without their various wisdoms and philosophies. The attitude towards them is as it is towards a group from which you can receive strength. This can be much greater than in an advanced group.
I wouldn’t say that studying at Bnei Baruch Israel is any better for spiritual advancement than studying in some group located in a different part of the world. For me, it definitely isn’t so. However, in order to clarify various refinements of spiritual work and to further express and describe, a group of those who know it all, so to speak, is needed. As usual, it is the reverse correlation of the Light and the Kli. This is how it manifests.
Question: Can something that’s happening now be understood as the revelation of new Reshimo?
What does this mean? Reshimot are like genes, which are revealed within us. They are revealed and that’s all. Their revelation doesn’t depend on us, only the pace with which they’re revealed depends on us. This is because the chain of this Reshimo within me has to be realized. And so it becomes realized; the first Reshimo, then the second, third, forth and so on.
A Reshimo appears. Right now it reveals itself within me. For example there was the first, second, third and now the fourth Reshimo. This Reshimo has to be realized within me right now. How does it become realized? It is realized in the fact that I feel a new egoistic desire within. Why? This is because this Reshimo used to be within Adam. It originated from Adam and all of his parts once being completely connected among each other in mutual love. Then they broke. That is, they totally disconnected from one another, and now, this is being revealed in me. That is, with each following Reshimo I feel the gap more and more between all the others and myself. This is the only thing that needs to be corrected.
As soon as the Reshimo appears I feel it. And instead of correcting it I somehow conceal it within me; I don’t want to work with it for correction. Nevertheless, this means that I reacted to it. There appears a next Reshimo with a greater sensation of egoism within me, with a greater desire, a greater disgust and a greater repulsion towards others. If I don’t realize it correctly, then the next Reshimo appears.
It isn’t important how we realize the Reshimo: either positively or negatively, either I satisfy my egoism by means of using others or I begin to correct my attitude towards others. One way or another I have to realize it. I’m forced by the desire that is within me right now. It dictates to me and I can’t do anything. It’s only up to me, up to my freedom of will, whether to realize it positively or negatively. That is all.
Depending upon whether you realized it positively or negatively the next Reshimo comes up. If I realized it negatively then the next Reshimo is going to be even more negative and based on my egoistic actions it’s going to be more difficult for me to correct myself from an even greater egoistic level. If I corrected this Reshimo positively then even though the next Reshimo is egoistically more negative, I already know from my experience that it can be realized positively; therefore it becomes easier for me.
This is the difference between the path of Light and the path of suffering. What can help here? A choice or the freedom of will can help. How to realize it positively or negatively depends only on how I attune myself to the group.
Question: If I raise MAN towards the group, towards the Creator and it’s really MAN, then where do I receive the answer if the vessel of Arvut doesn’t yet exist?
The answer is always received into the feeling you raise. This is because MAN is a Kli, a desire. It’s within this desire that you receive an answer.
Question: In order to correct the 613 desires, does a certain amount of egoism have to be realized? I mean a child, when does it grow up?
No, for a child we don’t know. None of us can tell ahead of time. If such an impulse occurs in him, a point in the heart, then immediately give him the opportunity to properly realize it. Such is the law in our time of revealing the Kabbalah for everyone. We don’t have any right to philosophize in any way: should or shouldn’t, to early or not?
On the contrary, if a question regarding the meaning of life such as why or how arises in children and if this knowledge appeals to them then give them this knowledge.
Question: When can I tell myself that I’ve realized a Reshimo correctly? Does it mean I sensed it, singled it out somehow or gave it an evaluation? What do I do with it?
You are a thinker. “How do I realize it?” Reshimo is mypresent egoistic desire, which appears in me towards everyone: the world, my self, the group, and the Creator. “I have to do something.” This is a very lengthy path, which will lead you to philosophy but not to action. Think it through be conscious of it and decide to participate in the process.
My advice is to constantly work within the group on achieving total mutual understanding regarding the goal, on the connection within the group, on the importance of the goal, and on the necessity to feel others as ones own self despite what Reshimo appear. Then the Reshimo that appear in you will be realized in the same direction. You won’t worry about “how can I wiggle out of it or how can I change them within me.” Maintain a consistent correct attitude towards the group, directed by you and therefore properly aimed. Keep on working within the group, in dissemination projects, and everything else. Ultimately the constant aspiration towards the Creator, like a powerful stream will constantly absorb the arising Reshimo and realize them in accordance with how you’ve prepared yourself before hand.
If certain state arises in you such as “what should I do with the group” and you only begin to think about it at the moment it arises then you won’t be prepared. You should be prepared ahead of time, as if this is a normal and constant aspiration. Then the Reshimot will enter into this stream.
Question: According to the first scheme you drew, should the revelation of the world of Infinity be understood as spiritual degree of advancement? Can the world of Infinity be perceived as the material world, as the universe? Can all the electrons, protons and neutrons be viewed as the action of the Light or the clothing of the Lights upon one another?
I’ll answer simply; nothing exists besides the world of Infinity. The sensation within the creation on all the stages of its degradation of the digression of the world of Infinity is called the worlds. Why the worlds? It is a relative concealment of the world of Infinity. Relative concealment is the spiritual worlds and complete concealment is our world. What is concealed? The world of Infinity is concealed.
What does this mean? What does this say? This says that structurally, our world, the intermediate worlds and the world of Infinity are the same. The difference is in the connection between the elements. In the world of Infinity there is a complete connection between all the elements, between all the desires of this one desire created by the Creator, or the Light. However, on each of the following levels there appears a gap in the connection between all the elements on 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%. And then our world appears in which there is no connection whatsoever between the elements of creation. What sustains it? It’s sustained by life giving force, by a dot, by a spark, which gives life to our world. And for this reason our world looks the way it does.
We can’t even imagine the state when the elements of nature are in balance. Even in our state it isn’t in balance: one consumes another, exist at others expense, etc. In the spiritual world this isn’t the picture of the realization of desires even on the unconscious still, animal or vegetative level. However, the structure of the worlds is identical. Only the connections between the elements differ in each of the worlds and they determine the measure, the height of the world or the height or the depth of the concealment. The word “ Olam” meaning “world” comes from the word “concealment.”
Question: Is it possible for a person to advance spiritually if he has no understanding in studying, if he doesn’t understand the Reshimo and Behinot, however, he’s actively participating in group work, in dissemination and his soul aches for the group?
It is said “All will know me from small to great.” Do you really think that all the people in the world have the brains to understand all this or the desire to go deeply into it? Ninety percent of people can’t even hear about it. I often hear “all this is so…just tell me what to do.”
First of all, under no circumstances should a person be laughed at, since we are all created different. If you suggest to me that I study musical theory or something else instead of Kabbalah, my response would be the same, because to each his own. These qualities are given to us and we don’t choose them. As a result of our integration within the general soul, all of ones individuality disappears in regard to him lacking something. This is because he absorbs from everyone and becomes integrally whole. That’s why everyone has to be treated in accordance to his or her natural predisposition. That’s why there exists such a law: “ Haneh Naar Slpi Darko” meaning “educate a child according to his path.” For this reason if a person doesn’t want to or is unable to, he shouldn’t.
In order to love there need not be a lot of brains. All the other intricacies are from the sly one, from the egoism, which always needs to be talked into things. Suppose ones own egoism doesn’t need talking into, and he comes straight to the group and simply says “guys, I agree”, then you might complain and say: “But we study every day for three hours. How can you allow this? What is he going to do?” We have guys in Bnei Baruchwho don’t study for three hours a day. They simply can’t and they said so from the start. When it comes to building or breaking, however, they’re okay, so they build or break. He is present at the lessons for a half an hour a day and he listens while he is there. The intention for being there is what is important, and this is absolutely enough for his advancement.
We shouldn’t coerce people because everyone is different. If this is freedom of will, just explain everything to him, revealing all the opportunities. Then he may choose with his free desire just how to realize himself.
Question: When a person begins to study, to disseminate or be on duty, he has to make an effort. As a result he reveals a desire for it and it becomes a habit. He then no longer has to put in the effort because he begins to receive pleasure from it. Is there a benefit from studying when one doesn’t apply effort?
Well, begin studying two hours earlier [laughter in the audience.] It’s been long since it has taken effort for me to wake up at two, two thirty in the morning. I usually wake up an hour minimum before the lesson. I read, write something and then go to the lesson in the group prepared, having worked on myself. This is necessary for me to do, so that the lesson isn’t in vain for me personally.
It has to do with habit as well. A habit is good and bad. What is a habit as one of our qualities? It is said: “ Ergel Naase Teva Sheini” meaning “a habit becomes second nature.” That is, through constant effort a person cultivates within himself certain automatic skills, which later don’t require effort. Moreover, it takes effort for him to not observe them. Just like various habitual instincts. At first I didn’t like smoking. I looked at the adults smoking and thought I will too. I was disgusted and yet I smoked. Later I couldn’t give up the habit. The habit becomes second nature, which later on you can’t give up. It then takes no effort to smoke, it takes effort not to.
What do you do with all of this? No need to do anything. Simply study according to the group’s charter along with your friends and everything else. Don’t worry, because what becomes a habit doesn’t take away from you any freedom of will. Your constantly growing new egoism will make its own demands and no habit will help there. There will be times when you won’t be able to get up to go study even though it seems to be effortless at other times.
It's not beneficial to think about what is going to descend upon you, or what will arise, either, for they are generally the same thing. We should proceed as in the saying: “ Ki Shor le Ol ve Hamor le Masa” meaning “like a donkey under a load and like an ox under a yoke.” Just put yourself there and move forward. All the rest of the Reshimot and circumstances around and within you that become revealed are none of your business. You simply don’t know the general movement: everything depends on the general organism of the entire Adam.
Imagine that you’re a cell in the body and you start thinking about the body: “there’s the heart, the lungs, something beating, something moving and something contracting.” How can you think about this and pay attention to this? Your objective is to work on the connection with all the rest of the cells by trying to provide them with everything that depends upon you. When you begin to achieve this, you begin to understand and feel them because you begin to adapt their desires as your own for the sake of fulfilling them. In this you occupy the entire organism; you consume it entirely with your bestowal. Only then will you know it. It will never become known through the mind but only through practice.
Question: In this example there is a parable once again about a porter who was carrying the wrong suitcase. How can one know if he’s carrying the right suitcase?
If a person is working in the group, studying, disseminating and he finds it difficult, then it means that, for the time being, he’s carrying a suitcase that’s not his. However, he has to carry this suitcase and serve “this great wise man” that allowed him to help. That is, he still has to walk this path. Only in this way will he discover that he’s mistaken. That’s why the suitcase still has to be carried.
Question: When we’re talking about everything that there is in Kabbalah, we’re basically talking about the methodology of our existence here. When a person appeared here, did he have some sort of a mission?
Every person has his or her own mission in our world. This mission doesn’t depend on us and it doesn’t depend on the person until a Reshimo of the point in the heart appears in him.
Understand that there are 613 desires within us and they’re all egoistic. There is nothing we can do with this because we can’t understand what’s expected of us. We do, however, realize these desires in chasing after wealth, fame, power, knowledge and bodily pleasures. Basically these 613 desires are divided into five groups. So I begin to realize them and then what? What else can be asked of me?
There appeared 613 desires for pleasure. There is a phenomenon of the giver, the host. From this phenomenon of a host I have the point in the heart that reacts to it. When there is pleasure on one hand and the host on the other, then there’s a freedom of will, a choice of what’s preferable. In the sensations there’s “pleasure-suffering,” and in the mind there’s “truth-falsehood.”
The two types of blocks or two types of analysis then appear in me: where, and for the sake of what do I direct myself. And there I am in between them, using both the sensation and the mind. I consist of these two parameters and by using them properly I begin to build myself. If the point in the heart doesn’t appear here, then I don’t have the sensation of “truth–falsehood,” I only have the sensation of the egoism “pleasure-suffering.”
That’s why a person develops and while he doesn’t have the point in the heart under no circumstances should he be approached. It’s okay for him to simply know that Kabbalah exists. The time will come when the point in the heart will begin to work and he’ll subconsciously remember and will now need this book. But if this point in the heart doesn’t exist yet, then there’s no talking to him. He still has to develop within his animalistic or egoistic desires. That’s all. Why do I say animal? Know that this isn’t an insult. A person’s connection with the Creator is called a human. “Adam” from the word “similar” to the Creator. The point in the heart is the beginning of Adam, the beginning of a human.
Question: Where is the mission?
The mission is as such that by developing the point in the heart, one doesn’t develop the 613 desires but develops the point in the heart with the help of the 613 desires. A single small point in the heart is given and if you insert egoism into it then you elevate it. By inserting more and more of the 613 egoistic desires you blow it up to the level of Infinity, to the level of Infinite Kli. The point in the heart is the embryo of this spiritual Kli.
Question: Can the knowledge of this complete list help in the correction of the 613 desires? And where can it be read?
Please read out the list [laughter.] This won’t help because you begin to properly analyze, feel, perceive, collect and arrange these desires under the screen.
When the possibility of a screen emerges, you’ll begin to collect desires: “Which ones can I collect?” First of all, one has to make a Tzim Tzum on everything: nothing for oneself and everything only for bestowal. “With which desires can I work for bestowal? Which desires can I fulfill in others? What can I give from myself and what can’t I give at all? If only I could see, imagine or feel something of the spiritual, then I could give, but for now I can’t.” An inner bargaining process begins to transpire within a person and this is a very natural occurrence.
You may ask: “Which of them are okay and which are not?” This is such an individual matter that it can’t even be conveyed. Try to describe all of the desires that occurred for you yesterday. Can you imagine how much you have to write and rewrite if you knew them, if you could delve into them? This is why Kabbalists write them in a condensed form: “ Reshimo, Masach and Ohr.”
Musicians write about their inner feelings, only they describe them through instrumental sounds. They can’t describe the feelings invoked but they desire to invoke them in you. However, instead of describing feelings they play musical notes: “Push here, push there, and pinch here: depending upon which instrument.” What they have in mind is something that can’t be written because these are desires and fulfillments that are individual for everyone. There’s commonality, when we can all say something specific about certain music, that it invokes something similar in us, but no more than that.
So it is in Kabbalah: as we ascend through the levels, Reshimot and states are being described, but everyone will experience it individually because they have their own set of desires, inherent qualities, and Reshimot.
However we describe the general process, though, it is the same for everyone. The sages also describe the states in formulations, which allows you to play your own inner instrument and get the sensation. It is they who write the notes, which are the same for everybody. Kabbalah is a language of inner attunement for equalization with the Creator. That is it!
Question: How are spiritual actions classified?
Spiritual actions are classified by the degree of bestowal or the screen. The power of the screen or the size of the egoism, above which the screen is locate, converting it into altruism or receiving for the sake of bestowal. That is to say, it receives for the sake of fulfilling, or giving, others pleasure. This is precisely how the spiritual actions of the levels are classified. This is how everything in Kabbalah is expressed.