The Spiritual Root
Q: Do we influence our position in the spiritual world? Is this the goal of the Correction?
A: In our spiritual root, in Malchut of the world, Ein Sof, we exist in an eternal, completely corrected situation, which does not change. We have to come to that state by ourselves, through our desire and our consciousness that the root is the single most perfect and desirable situation for us.
We have no influence over the root itself, because the inferior can never influence or change the superior. On the contrary, the inferior is completely dependent on the superior.
How was the connection between the Upper Worlds and the souls formed there? Malchut in the world Ein Sof (our root) was blended with the first nine Sefirot (attributes of the Creator). The Light grew dimmer and finally vanished, and the worlds were created. That part of Malchut, which is included in the worlds, is called “Malchut of the Worlds.”
At the same time, the first nine Sefirot influenced Malchut. They were mixed in it, and in this way the soul of the first man was created. Thus was contact between the worlds and the souls formed, based on those nine Sefirot.
Q: Does creation belong solely to the Creator? Can man have any effect on it?
A: Man has free choice. He comes to a situation where he can freely do anything he wants, but still choose the way of the Creator. This happens when, during man’s evolution, he completely agrees with, and recognizes, that the Creator and His actions are perfection. In this way, man resembles the Creator, is equal with Him, and is completely corrected as He is.
Q: I understand that creatures should come to adhesion with the Creator. But that situation is eternal and exists from the very beginning, and time is but a corporeal term. So what has actually changed?
A: Adhesion with the Creator did exist in the world Ein Sof, but at the expense of the Creator, who created that situation by Himself. In order for the creature to attain the same situation, he must exert his own efforts, out of his own free will. For that, he needs to disconnect entirely from the Creator, the Light, and to stop feeling Him so as not to be under His influence.
Only then, only out of free choice, will man gradually correct himself through developing the screen, thus attaining equivalence of form with the Creator, to the point of Ein Sof, meaning the absolute equivalence with the Creator.
Q: I understand that, just as two hairs cannot grow from the same root, so two objects in this world cannot stem from the same spiritual root. Each creation has its own spiritual root. But I thought that everything came from the same root – Keter?
A: You are right, everything does come from the Creator and then descends to the world of Atzilut, where the system of the management and the correction of the soul of the First Man (meaning our souls) is formed.
The three lower worlds to Atzilut (Beria, Yetzira, Assiya) were created in its image. These worlds are a diminished, yet accurate image of the world of Atzilut. Our world was created much like those worlds.
Everything that exists in any of the four worlds descends from the world of Atzilut. By the same path, the soul rises from our world to Atzilut. We attain the world of Atzilut by replacing our attributes, which are called “our world,” with attributes called “the world of Atzilut.” This is our goal in this world, and everyone must follow it.
The degree, the attributes, the place to which we all must rise, is called “our root.” The present degree is the place where we are at the given moment, the place where our “I” is, which is called a “branch.” Each root has its own branch.