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 in the book Shamati, Article # 97 ,Waste of Barn and Winery.
Goren (barn) means diminution of good deeds, when a person feels primarily Gronot (Hebrew: throats; sounds like Ger’onot—deficiencies) with the Creator. Hence, he lessens the good deeds. And afterwards he comes to a state of Yekev (winery), which is the meaning of “And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord.”
Sukkot is considered gladness, considered “rejoicing Gevurot,” which is repentance out of love, when sins become as merits for him, and even the barn and winery are admitted into Kedusha (Sanctity). This is the meaning of Sukkot’s primary discernment being Isaac, but that everyone is included in him (and Passover is considered love, which is right). This is the meaning of “Abraham begot Isaac.”
The Torah tells us about the three lines, the work of the soul within all levels. Actually, it only talks about one action—how the Lights fill the Kelim (vessels). Or from the perspective of the Kelim it is called, “how the Kelim attain the Holy names.” The goal is for the Light (that was dedicated to the Kelim), to clothe them according to the equivalence of form on the part of the Kelim. So the Kelim will not be filled with Lights, rather they will want to receive the quality of the Light. This is called, “the creature reaching equivalence of form with the Creator,” which is endless.
Just as from the perspective of the Creator, the Light was consecrated to be received in the Kli (vessel) without any limitation, in the same way the Kli reaches the equivalence of form with the Light and receives that Light without any limitation. From the perspective of the Creator, it is called Ein Sof (Infinity), limitless. From the perspective of the creature, it is called an unbounded state after the correction.
However, before the Kli, the soul, its filling, which is the Light, reach that state that is dedicated to the goal of creation, there are different states of corrections and fulfillments. To the extent that the Kli adapts itself each time to the Light, and attains the quality of the Light, the Kli is considered to have attained some Holy name, meaning a manner of bestowal, which is called sanctity. The quality of bestowal, the quality of Bina is called holy.
They are called holy names because as the Kli attains, it changes itself. It acquires intention, and becomes completely like the Light. Then it is filled with the same measure of Light, which the Creator wanted to fill it with from the very beginning. However, the Light that the Kli is now filled with is only a test; it is a sign that the Kli has reached that quality, that state. Then the Kli is considered equal, similar to the Light.
Within these actions, we are integrated along the way to the end of our correction and to the end of our fulfillment. From the beginning, to enable us to make these actions freely, so that it will be called, “that we made them,” the Light and the Kli hang down from Ein Sof where the Creator dedicated the Light and the Kli to creation, to reality. This is down to a state where the Kli is in the smallest desire to receive for itself. Is detached from the Creator, from the Light, and is in final remoteness. In this form the Kli is called the corporeal body and the Light within it is very small. It is within that Kli only to sustain it, because the Kli’s intention is only for itself. That state of the Kli and the Light is called, “this world.”
Of course, this does not refer to the state of the biological body that feels its life, its vitality, like the animals, the animate. However, we are talking about the desire that feels itself, that knows itself, that is receiving entirely for itself, which is its vitality. What enlivens it must be some fulfillment that comes to it from Above.
That minimal sensation of the self to receive for itself and to be dependent on the filling that comes from Above, that minimal sensation, in Kabbalah is called, “this world.” When a person evolves from unconsciousness to that sensation, that awareness, it is said “that he was born in this world.” From then onward, he begins to evolve.
In his evolvement, he is within the Kli that receives the Light from all kinds of states between the Light and the Kli. Moreover, it happens that he emerges even into pre-birth states where he feels himself as merely alive, a body that lives in this world. Within that too, there is a degree when one admits that he is like a body living in this world. Sometimes he does not even feel and does not think about it, he just exists, because the body has all kinds of desires, Reshimot (reminiscences), or impulses and he only realizes them at the animate level.
But if he receives the education that requires him to execute some special actions, he does them as well, because of his upbringing by others which compel him to perform certain actions, without questioning how to do them. Alternatively, he does not receive this upbringing, but he begins to take an interest and read in books which spiritual actions his soul should perform at anytime. Then he determines that he will now establish them in his physical body and in his physical desires, despite that his physical desires only desire to receive. He is like a child who is playing with games that are unreal, but is playing with them nonetheless.
Perhaps, in these actions he is already in states of Lo Lishma, (not for Her name), where he aims to reach Lishma, (for Her name). Perhaps, in these actions he only performs actions within his body without adding any intentions in the desire. However, in our world we are allowed to perform actions that are called, “building a Sukkah,” (Tabernacle), and keeping some actions that are called, “Mitzvot,” (commandments), of the festivals and holidays. Actually, these are customs corresponding to the spiritual Mitzvot.
A person keeps them because either he was taught to and he became accustomed to keeping them, or because he attains a realization that there is some state in it that is greater in spiritual Kelim and in spiritual Lights. Then he keeps them because they are the sign of spiritual states or he keeps them and adds the intention to them. Now he does them in his biological body and in his desire, which is still uncorrected. However, he aims and hopes that at some point he will come to correction and he will keep those things in their true form.
In the actions that he performs, there is intimation to his state and from the spiritual state. The intimation is in the sense that he now exists in order to receive with values that are important to him. For him the values of bestowal are as waste.
The threshing floor is the place where he can receive the Light of Hassadim (mercy), bread and winery as the place to receive the Light of Hochma (wisdom), wine. The threshing floor is bestowal in order to bestow, and the winery, is reception in order to bestow. If he has the intention and relates to the waste of the threshing floor and winery with understanding of them, as vessels of bestowal, then already his corporeal actions, through his desire to reach spiritual actions, also join the correction process. Then the customs become sacred customs. Why? It is because they produce sanctity and bestowal. That is why, for a person who wants to use all of those customs, they symbolize for him the process of correction.
This is what we see in this case of the festival of Tabernacles. This is where from the waste of the threshing floor and winery one begins to elevate this waste above his head. He goes under it and begins to appreciate it and recognize it as something sacred and great. He is willing to sit under their shade, under the Masach (the screen). To turn these actions, discernments and qualities of bestowal that are as waste for him, into the highest importance above his reason, above his head this is the sign that he is building a Sukkah from them.
Then, when he can correct himself in this way, he will come to the state of correction of the vessels of bestowal and the vessel of reception. In the correction of the vessels of the bestowal, the mistakes become corrected to merits and in the correction of the vessels of reception. The sins too are corrected into merits. And that brings him to complete correction.
This is because the father and son issue is cause and consequence, reason and result. Had there not been a discernment of Abraham first, which is the right, there could not have been the discernment of Isaac, which is the left. Rather, the left is integrated in the right, as in, “For Thou art our Father.”
Abraham said, “will be destroyed over the Sanctity of Your Name.” And Jacob also said that it means that the sins will be destroyed over the Sanctity of Your Name. And if it remains so, then there is a breach in the middle. In other words, the sins that were in the whole of Israel are like a breach in the Kedusha (Sanctity).
Isaac, however, said, “half over me and half over you,” meaning the part of the sins and the part of the Mitzvot, that is, that both will enter Kedusha. And this can be through repentance out of love, when sins become as merits to him. In that state there is a breach, as it is written, “with no breach and no… outcry,” but all is corrected for Kedusha.
The correction happens first, by a person restricting the use of his vessels of reception. His intentions are entirely toward attaining bestowal, yet he sees that within his vessels he cannot use them because they all have intentions to receive. However, he does not control his desires unless he can only transcend them. Namely, the importance of the goal, the importance of bestowal, and the attaining of bestowal acts within him in such a manner that he transcends the use of desires to receive Because one contradicts the other and he is detached from his desires.
However, in that he still has not corrected anything, he has not even acquired the quality of bestowal. He just seemingly wants to have it. Then he begins to cling to the Upper One, meaning he seeks as much as possible, to acquire the quality of bestowal. He begins to discover that even as to the quality of bestowal, the bestower must also have a will to receive. It is impossible to be just the bestower. The bestower without the substance of creation, without that desire—is the Creator. A person, to understand what the bestower is and to be the bestower, has to be within his desires as that is his entire being.
Then his attitude toward his desires begins to change and to the extent that they can join the intention to bestow, he adds them. In that case, he does not understand how it is possible to work with reception in the form of bestowal. He acquires the quality of bestowal, to bestow in order to bestow, the quality of Bina, in which he is completely detached from acts of reception. At that stage, he is unable to understand that you can also receive and thus bestow. It is a later stage; it is veritably the revival of the dead. Previously, it did not seem like these desires could ever perform an act of bestowal, called, “life.” He had determined that indeed they are dead.
Once he has corrected his attitude toward bestowal and clung to it without any obstruction from his desire, then he begins to realize, and only then, the very special ability that makes it possible for him to receive and thus bestow upon the Giver a great pleasure. In receiving in order to bestow, there are also many great degrees. As we learn, the first kind of Gadlut (adulthood), and the second kind of Gadlut is where he is integrated in the Bestower, and in all kinds of ways he bestows on Him, gives Him his Kelim and then he goes back down to his place
His vessels that only join the intention to bestow in order to bestow, are one-half of the Kelim. This means that he uses the Aviut (thickness) only by adding it to the intention to bestow. That is one part. The other part in the Kelim is when he uses them with their Aviut, to enjoy in them and to add that pleasure to bestowal.
It means that in bestowal, in order to bestow he adds to the act of bestowal, not his own pleasure, but his Aviut only. He does not enjoy within his natural Kelim and does not add that pleasure to bestowal; only the Kelim use that, not the fillings. Whereas, in receiving in order to bestow, he uses his fillings also to bestow.
There is a very big difference, because in bestowal, in order to bestow there are not any natural pleasures the Creator dedicated to creation, or the creature that he uses. He is attached to the quality of bestowal in self-restriction above his Kelim and fulfillments. Whereas, in receiving in order to bestow, he opens his Kelim. He opens them not only in his desire to receive, he opens them also in those attainments and understandings that he can bestow on the Creator, to feel the pleasure that he brings to Him, and bestows on Him so that also the Bestower will have that pleasure.
This is the meaning of our sages’ words: “Greater are the dung and mules of Isaac than Abimelech’s money and gold.” Dung is something inferior, worthless, meaning that they consider the servitude of him as dung. And afterwards arrives a state of separation. Because he does not appreciate his work, he falls into separation. And this is called “the dung and mules of Isaac.” And since Isaac corrected everything in the form of repentance out of love, and his sins became as merits, the profits that had come to him through his dung and mules are greater than “Abimelech’s money and gold.”
His Kesef (money) means Kisufim (longing) to the Creator; and Zahav (gold) means Ze Hav (give this), concerning the craving for the Torah, meaning to achieve the Torah. And since Isaac corrected everything, meaning achieved repentance out of love, the sins, too, were considered merits for him. And then he is very rich in any case, since in keeping Mitzvot there is not more than 613 Mitzvot, but sins and transgressions are endless. Hence, Isaac became rich, as it is written, “and he have found a hundred gates.”
Why? Because, if we are only talking about the way of reception of the Lights in the Kelim, then of course, in order to receive, he enjoys for himself. How much can he do in that? However the possibilities of how much he can blemish, how much he is capable of bestowing and how much he does not bestow in his attitude to the Creator, are numerous here. Because he begins to consider himself not with respect to how much he wins or loses, but with respect to how much he uses the Creator to gain.
He adds to himself the Creator’s attitude toward him, which is already a Klipa (shell). He exploits the Creator’s love for his own good. That is why he enlarges his Kelim a lot more than they were to begin with. When he uses that, he becomes as big as the Creator, because as the Creator’s bestowal is upon him, so he becomes big. He is big in his Kelim first as Klipa and then he corrects those Kelim and turns them into sanctity.
It means that a person doesn’t use that Kli, which was given to him at birth, namely that will to receive that is as “existence from absence,” which evolved in the four phases of Direct Light to the measure of Ein Sof. There he was like the Kli of Keter with the Light of Nefesh. Rather he must evolve through that Kli of HaVaYaH, the primary and basic Kli, to the Kli of the Creator.
By placing himself, either to enjoy the greatness of the Creator or to bestow upon the greatness of the Creator, he expands his Kli. According to what Kabbalists say, [he expands it] 620 times more: from the Light of Nefesh [to] Light of NRNHY (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya and Yechida), from the Kli that is only the Kli of Nefesh to the Kli for the Light of Yechida, which is 620 times more. That is what they call it.
All of that is only because of the Emanator, the Creator, the Giver. Therefore, Klipa means that a person adds to himself the Creator’s Kli to exploit that Kli, meaning the greatness of the Creator, the love of the Creator, and the Creator’s desire to bestow upon him in order to receive. Moreover, it is the opposite when he corrects himself. There he acquires that Kli of the Creator, which becomes his Kli of bestowal, a Kli in which he is the bestower.
The Kli that he acquired from the Creator as a Klipa (as his own desire to receive), he corrected it and filled it with the intention to bestow and with the Light in which he feels the pleasures that he wants to bestow on the Creator. Within the Kli that he acquired (which became the Kli of Adam, his Partzuf (face), his Guf (body)), the desire with intention to receive was made first, then to bestow in order to bestow, and then to receive in order to bestow. It means that within the body, the Partzuf, a person feels himself and the Creator and the Light and the mutual bestowal between them.
Question: So when he keeps the 613 Mitzvot, before that is it not with respect to the Creator, only the sins allow him to acquire a Kli with respect to the Creator?
He keeps them. What does it mean he keeps them? He sees that all of the desires if they are directed to the Creator, they all get a characteristic that is only for himself. Because he cannot acquire the desires in any other way and then he scrutinizes them. The desires that appear in a person, from the breaking, appear broken. According to the efforts, the desires awaken and the person scrutinizes them and first comes to the recognition of evil in those desires. These desires are with respect to the Creator, through the broken Kelim.
What does it mean through the broken Kelim? He wants to add his own soul to Malchut de Atzilut, which is called divinity, collective soul. All of humanity, all of the souls that you can describe as a Kli, is Malchut de Atzilut. We know that to the extent that the person adds himself to the collective, with respect to the collective, he finds his connection with the Creator.
This is what we call, in our terms, “a soul.” The one that wants to be corrected and is found broken in the worlds BYA(Beria, Yetzira and Assiya), is integrated in Malchut de Atzilut, which is called Divinity, or all the souls. Alternatively, let us call it Adam ha Rishon (the First Man), to the extent that it appears to that person who wants to correct himself. His intentions are that being integrated in that system is to add to that system or: “I am integrated in the system of souls in Malchut to join Zeir Anpin, which is the Creator.”
First, we acquire the Kelim, meaning we discover the broken Kelim to receive, the Klipa, which we relate to as a Klipa, and discover them as that. We determine that they are that, and then out of detesting them and hating them we begin the correction. However, that loathing, and the hate, the removal of ourselves from them, cutting them off, (there are several kinds of corrections) and then qualifying them with several kinds of qualifications, depends on the size and level of corrections. As they were corrupted so they are corrected, that is how we make them qualified (Kosher).
It turns out that he must acquire the Kelim in the state of Klipa and feel them fully, because by that, he acquires the intentions to receive, since they are those that are important. Not just the desires, but also the extent to which he wants to exploit the Creator through this desire. That is what is important to him—his attitude to the Creator, to have something to correct. He acquires these Kelim in the state of Klipa.
When he does the actions accordingly, he actually changes the intentions from receiving to bestowal. This in corporeality as well, in what appears to him in order to receive, and even in his corporeal body, not in a body that is some desire, but in the physiological body. In the group, also, where he sees that state as me and Malchut and Zeir Anpin, a soul and the collective soul, and the Light, the Creator, the Emanator that appears in them.
However, he has to be first in the Klipa. His stay in the Klipa is called being under the domination of the inclination. Why? Because it creates the bestowal for him in an opposite form or correct form later. At least, he acquires a negative or positive respect to the Creator. “He is great, so I can receive from Him; He is great, so I want to be like Him, I want to bestow on Him.” However, without that attitude he has nothing to work with.
That is why, “He who is greater than his friend, his inclination to receive is greater than his.” He contains crueler and greater desires. You see that without Pharaoh you cannot get out of Egypt. What would you go out with if not with these Kelim of the Egyptians?
Question: Baal HaSulam says, “…there is not more than 613 Mitzvot, but sins and transgressions are endless.” So, what you explained now are sins and transgressions?
You can interpret it in several ways. I am just adding what I understand. I do not know what else Baal HaSulam means exactly, given the difference between my zero levels compared to his state.
Yet you can say that in the acts of bestowal there is a limit, for the clear states become discerned and defined by a person as degrees of the worlds. It is clear to him that he is about to acquire the states of Dvekut (adhesion) in them. Whereas, when he performs actions not according to the defined forms of bestowal, say 125 degrees, but acts according to his will to receive, within his broken will to receive there is infinity of integrations after the breaking, between using all kinds of desires and the intention to receive.
They do not quite come one as against the other. There is one sole act of sanctity as against thousands of acts in order to receive and attempts to receive in this way. Moreover, it is like that in the next degree—thousands of actions. It is similar to having said to a child or to a person, “Stop doing it this way.” He tries and maybe does it this way or says, “I will go this way and that way and round and round.”
Why are we so preoccupied for years? However, when we finally come to a state, the state is one and is defined. We cannot do it immediately, yet it is one. On one spiritual degree, I work to reach it and to actualize it. It could be five years or ten years, yet it is one simple act. It is there that the one Holy name appears; the one state of bestowal, permanent, defined as a degree and that is it. As against it, I rounded in millions of states and turns.
It's because in my scrutiny on that one principle, one action, I had to clarify whether I could not do it by myself, or rather the Creator had to do it on me. Here, I need to come to a state where I test myself in all possible ways so that in the end, my ego, my 'I,' would feel itself compelled to surrender. I do not know how many do the actions number.
It's as though a person should reach Ein Sof every time, in that quality that now awakens in him, even though he doesn’t transcend in degrees of the worlds. He is ascending in degrees of recognition of evil and the nothingness of his own means.
Hence, Isaac became rich, as it is written, “and he have found a hundred gates.” This means that he had one hundred percent in Kedusha, without any waste, since the waste, too, was corrected in him.
This is why the thatch of the Sukkah is made of waste of barn and winery. (And you can say what our sages said, that Moses became rich from waste). Hence, Sukkot is named primarily after Isaac, who is the rejoicing Gevurot, and Sukkot is named after Moses, too.
There is no greater state than when everything that seems as waste in the previous degrees, is elevated by a person to the highest level of importance and he builds out of it his own sanctity.