Kabbalah as a Science Series

Comparative Analysis of Kabbalah and Philosophy

Continuation
Lesson of June 22, 2004

Force that is Equal in the Spiritual and the Material

All the names that we give to objects and phenomena based on the material picture of this world are utterly made-up because they rest upon our sensual perception. We perceive objects, forces, actions, thoughts, and feelings in our sense organs, and according to our perception we give them names, so naturally our names are subjective, inaccurate, and limited.

As we delve more deeply into the fundamental nature of things with the help of science or practice, these names can change. This means that they are not absolute. If we had different sense organs, we would perceive the world differently. Consequently, we would give other names to objects, and, quite possibly, would feel different objects, forces and actions.

On the other hand, any definition that we give while denying its connection with matter is also far-fetched. We should only take into consideration the concrete reality until science reaches it perfect form.

What other alternative do we have in our today's situation? We feel ourselves and the surrounding reality which we give names to, only according to what we perceive. Although our understanding of ourselves and the world convinces us of our biases, shows that our perception is not absolute, and that our names are temporary and inaccurate, there is no other way.

Hence Baal HaSulam says: only when we have fully developed to the level of perfection to perceive reality in its true, eternal, constant, and unchanging form, will our names and definitions become absolute.

In other words, we see all the material actions that we perceive and feel in connection with the person who performs them, and understand that the person consists of matter in the same way as the performed actions. Otherwise, our attainment would not be possible.

We do not attain forces per se, i.e. spirituality. We have mentioned that the spiritual constitutes forces that is not clothed in anything. We do not attain forces, only their actions, and the result of these actions, and we give them names. Until we have reached the level of these forces, these garments will keep naturally changing, and we will not be able to define or perceive anything absolute.

Lights and Vessels

Since Kabbalah is a true science, it seeks a real attainment of the universe, when no difficult question can refute a hard fact. What does "no difficult question" mean? It does not mean that someone is asking something. Real attainment is when the filling, the sensation of Light is clear in the deepest, most corrected, and complete Kli.

The extent of filling in the Kli is defined as the "answer." In Part 11 of "Talmud of Ten Sefirot" we study what "Milluy" (filling) means. "Filling" is not what really fills the Kli, but rather something that determines the screen's magnitude.

We say that the spiritual is a force. Depending on the level and conditions that we analyze, this form may have both spiritual and material manifestations. The Kli is the power of desire; the Kli's filling is the power of the screen. We can speak about the essence and the cause, but never about its consequence.

If I talk about what fulfills me, I cannot speak about the quality and quantity of the filling because my description will be inaccurate and subjective. This is something that is impossible to express. Yet, if I speak about my screen's magnitude, which determines the filling, this will be absolutely accurate and correct because I mean the primary cause. This is always the case in Kabbalah.

Thus, filling is the screen's magnitude (this is what fills the Kli). A Zivug de Haka'a takes place, the Light comes, and the screen pushes it away. It measures the Light, interacts with it, lets it inside the Kli, and only then does it feel it as fulfillment.

The Upper Light is absolutely motionless, and constantly stands before the screen. Everything that will happen after the emergence of the screen will be a natural use of its force, or property. Therefore, we call the screen (i.e., its parameters: Reshimo de Aviut, Reshimo de Hitlabshut) "filling."

"An answer to a question" is the filling of the Kli. A "question" means the empty, unrealized Reshimot, and their filling is the screen, or its property. Attainment, the answer to the question, and knowledge, constitute constant research and study of the screen, which appears on the Reshimot that spontaneously emerge within us. Spontaneity means that their emergence does not depend on us. They rise within us all the time in the course of our development.

A Reshimo appears within me and I acquire a screen on it. All I need is to create this screen. If I do that, I receive fulfillment. The next Reshimo comes followed by the next screen, and so on.

All the Reshimot appear in a cause-and-effect sequence. Each Reshimo comes from a deeper level than the previous one, and therefore each subsequent screen constitutes a greater filling than the preceding one, both in quality and in quantity. That is what distinguishes one spiritual level from another.

What is real attainment of the universe? It is when no difficult question can disprove a fact. In other words, it is when we have the Reshimot and acquire a screen on it.

This is referred to as an answer to a question. Our questions today indicate the emergence of unrealized Reshimot. Their realization means the acquisition of a screen for them. And what is the "acquisition of a screen"? This means establishing contact with the Creator above the Reshimot. This is the meaning of an answer to every question that arises in us. So, all of our questions appear as a result of the Creator's revelation within us. This is the only thing that the Kli does not understand in its fulfillment.

The universe consists of a vessel (desire) and Light (pleasure). The distinction between the Light and the Kli becomes apparent in the first creation that was separated from the Upper Force.

Before the manifestation of creation, the notions of Light and vessel do not exist. That is to say, there is no difference between the force that creates desire and the desire itself, and between the future fulfillment and the will to be filled. The emergence of this difference between the Creator's Light and the shell that dresses it (desire) marks the creation of the Kli (vessel). The first creation is more filled and more pure than all of its subsequent levels.

It receives fulfillment from the essence of the Upper Force, which desires to fill it with delight, from the attainment of the One who fills it. The delight is measured by the desire to receive it.

We cannot measure the Light itself, but rather the size of the Kli, which we graduate according to its similarity to the Creator. We consider it ideal when it is generated by the Creator's absolute love. Therefore, when I speak about the Light that fills me, I do not mean the Light itself, but my similarity to the Creator, my love for Him, the equivalence of our properties and attitudes. In this way I can measure the Light that fills me with my own Kli, my desire for the Creator.

Thus, when the Kli is equivalent to the Light, the degree of correction of the Kli constitutes both the quantitative and qualitative parameters of measuring the Light. All the measuring devices in our material world are based on the same principle. I do not measure the electric current that runs through wires; I measure the effort required for balancing its influence: attract, repel, compress, or apply some electromagnetic effort to neutralize it. So I always measure the Kli and not its filling.

This principle is expressed even more emphatically in Kabbalah. It defines the Light not as the fulfillment (in contrast to our world), but as the sensation of the Kli pertaining to its similarity to the Creator. This is what I consider the Light. What do I want? I want to be equal to Him, and the measure of my correction constitutes my filling or my delight. I start recognizing the Light not as something that fills me from above, but as my own newly acquired property. I define it as the Light fills me. Therefore, we can say that the Kli (vessel) is able to measure it.

Delight is measured in accordance with the desire to receive it. The more intensive the desire to receive is, the greater the delight of fulfillment becomes. Therefore, we distinguish two categories in the first creation ("will to receive"):

1. The receiver's essence - the will to receive, the body of creation, the basis of its essence, the vessel for the reception of delight. In other words, this is the initial will to receive pleasure.

2. The essence of the received delight - the Creator's light constantly flowing to the creation.

We single out these two categories in creation while remembering that the second one, the Light, is a subjective inner category that exclusively exists with regards to the Kli. We attain and define it only with the help of the Kli.

The entire universe and any of its parts always consists of two interconnected qualities, because the "desire to receive", essential in creation, was absent in the Upper Force's essence. Hence, it is called creation, something that does not exist in the Upper Force. The received abundance is certainly a part of the Upper Force's essence.

How do we attain this received abundance? If we recognize it as a part of the Upper Force's essence, we can define or feel it only to the extent of our similarity to it. Since the received abundance is certainly a part of the Upper Force's essence, an enormous distance exists between the newly created body and the received abundance that is similar to the Upper Force's essence.

There are a few definitions here that we need to clarify. How can we speak about the Upper Force's essence? By what manifestations can we judge it? How can we discuss the fulfillment that originates in the Upper Force's essence?

In order to enable the vessel (the creation) really to feel what fills it, the Creator had to make the essence of the creation opposite to Himself, and the essence of the fulfillment similar to Himself. Based on these initial conditions, one may say that there could not have been any other creation or result (not at the beginning or afterwards, not until the very end): the cause-and-effect chain could not have been different. Otherwise it would have been impossible to define the vessel and the Light that fills it.

Question: Can one say that the Light is the sensation of love?

There exists creation that feels something it receives. As it attains the worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, and Atzilut, creation realizes that it receives this something from Someone. Subsequently, it feels that this Someone is a great, kind, and loving Giver. It feels that the reason for the received abundance lies in love.

The gifts become greater and come more often. As they flow in, the greatness of the Giver begins to diminish. This is necessary to equalize Him with man, and to establish contact between them. Why does the number of gifts diminish the Giver's greatness? It draws Him closer to me.

I can resist this dwindling of the Creator's greatness and continue treating Him as the One Great and Indivisible Force, but the connection between us grows more intimate. This intimacy appears due to the display of the Creator's love toward me, rather than His other qualities: greatness and uniqueness.

Thus, the Creator's proximity to me does not diminish His status, but merely provides me with an opportunity to interact with Him. We become close only according to one category, one property, while the rest of them remain unattainable. If the Creator had lowered Himself to my level, I would accordingly have treated Him with disdain. As a result, the sensation of love appears within me. The question is: "Does this love constitute the filling of the Kli?"

At every stage, the Kli is filled with the sensation of the Creator. This is the attitude of the Kli toward the Creator, or the screen. It is different at every level, and depends on what the Kli considers as the most important thing in its attitude to the Creator.

The greatest fulfillment is the similarity to the Creator's essence, i.e., the attainment of love for Him. In its magnitude, it is similar to the Creator's initial love for created beings, which was the primary cause of creation. This is the last fulfillment that we attain.

The knowledge of the Creator is then added to it, as is written, "I will know Thee by Thy actions." This next, higher level is called merging - "Dvekut". It is the most exalted fulfillment and the purpose of our correction, our path. It is not only love, but also the attainment of the beloved One.

Question: What is love?

Love is the desire to fill the beloved and be filled with His love, to become like Him, to fulfill His desire with regard to me, and unite with Him in both desires and fillings, which is all the same. The state, when with the help of the screen, all the questions and properties of the Kli become completely filled with the Light so that all the differences between the Kli and the Light disappear, is defined as love. This state is completely unknown to us, and we cannot imagine what it is.

By separating the act of love from the fulfillment, we can give it the following definition: the act of love is an action of filling the desires of others as if they were your own. Out of His love for the created beings, the Creator creates these desires and fills them. The sensation of their final fulfillment determines His initial love.

How the Spiritual Can Beget the Material

At first glance, it is difficult to understand how the spiritual can produce and sustain the material. Yet, this difficulty appears only if we regard the spiritual as totally detached from the material. Nevertheless, if we take the opinion of the Kabbalists, who discover that any spiritual property is similar to the material one, it will be clear that the difference lies only in matter - spiritual or substantial. However, all the qualities of spiritual matter act in substance as well.

There are three erroneous assertions in the understanding of the connection between the spiritual and the material. The first states that the power of human thought is man's immortal soul, his essence. This theory had many adherents among philosophers, but sank into oblivion a long time ago. They assumed that our knowledge (all that we attain, learn, and acquire) is eternal and constitutes the basis of our soul.

According to Kabbalah, knowledge is the fulfillment of our artificial Kli, which we create alongside the soul (desire). Since we want something, we create a subsidiary system that helps us to satisfy our desire. This auxiliary system is called the mind.

The decline or growth of desires correspondingly leads to the decline or development of the mind. If the person is given more suffering, this compels him to develop a better system for avoiding pain.

However, desire is the essence of creation, the mind being just an auxiliary mechanism that exists beside it. Therefore, it is utterly incorrect to say that the power of intelligent thought in man is his soul, his essence.

The second erroneous view asserts that the body is an extension and result of the soul. In fact, our biological body is in no way connected with the soul. The body grows and dies and most of its organs can be transplanted. However, this has nothing to do with our soul nor does it affect it in any way. The soul undergoes its own changes. The body has no solid connection with the soul and in no way depends on it.

The third delusion maintains that spiritual substances are simple and not composite. We learn that the entire creation consists of a five-level Kli: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut. These levels are filled with the Lights called NaRaNHaY (abbr. of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida). This Kli, this single initial creation was then broken into thousands, millions, and billions of fragments.

That is to say, the spiritual essence is a composite and this is how it reveals itself to us. There is nothing we can say about the essence itself. We can only speak of how we attain, feel, research, and define it.

These erroneous assertions were eliminated by materialistic psychology. The modern person who wishes to attain the Upper governing force, can accomplish that by applying his efforts in the method of its attainment, the science of Kabbalah.

Baal HaSulam disdains philosophy. In fact, modern philosophers have already changed their attitude toward their science. They too admit that their attainment, perception, and reasoning are relative. Today's philosophy is very different from what it was before, when one needed to fight for various ideas. Kabbalah clearly shows philosophers that all of their conclusions are nothing but a figment of their unfounded fantasies and theoretical ideas.

Now that philosophers have become disillusioned with their science and realize its limitations, it has been replaced with materialistic psychology, i.e., the research of man's essence, properties, and limited perception in his five senses. Psychologists look for ways to change this perception, to measure and precisely characterize it in its relative and constant fillings.

Question: How do scientists take the ideas of Kabbalah?

Science has finally come to the conclusion that a person researches everything only within his Kli. Science admits that the researcher stands behind all devices, computers, calculations, and sensors. We can make a very complex mechanism the size of a galaxy, but who will analyze and assess the data obtained by it? This will be done by the person who made it, not by the mechanism itself. The person evaluates everything within himself, with regard to himself. He can evaluate nothing outside himself. Based on his essence, he builds all of these devices, these systems for himself, and adapts them to himself. Hence, all of our attainments are subjective.

The same may be said about the spiritual world. Our desire is divided into five parts. We can describe what we feel in these five parts, but we can say or understand nothing of what happens outside the Kli.

In "The Study of Ten Sefirot" Baal HaSulam mentions only 12 basic Lights that exist beyond the Kli. However, there are 12 thousand more categories of Light that can be named. All of these Lights that allegedly exist beyond the Kli are perceived inside it. It is impossible to feel anything outside the Kli, and therefore our impressions are simply divided into inner and outer impressions.

According to its qualities and degrees of correction, our Kli is a composite. Hence we feel such an enormous variety of details and impressions. As a result, we perceive the surrounding world as a composite, although in reality there is nothing around us, and it is merely our inner sensation.

We distinguish seven basic colors and sounds in the surrounding world. They in turn subdivide into many nuances. Our Kli is created in such a way that we divide general impression into many separate ones. Yet, nothing exists on the outside, and these always are inner impressions. They are divided into the inner and outer parts because our inner Kli, in the process of its correction, is divided into more internal and more external parts.

For example, how do we distinguish between the inner and outer Lights? We say that the Light which the Kli can accept inside after Zivug de Haka'a (fill itself from Peh to Tabur) is called the Inner Light. How can I feel it? I feel that someone with whom I merged with in the Rosh of the Partzuf fills me and I fill him, or we fill one another. This is felt in the Toch of the Partzuf, inside the Kli. The part in which we cannot fill each other yet, where we are not in contact, remains outside, beyond us. And where does one feel this "outside"? The Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) is perceived in regard to the Sof (end) of the Partzuf, because when we correct the Sof, we will receive this Light as inner light.

How can I feel anything beyond me? Let us look at the very first stage of the spreading Light. The Kli appears when it can feel the Light inside. This ability to feel the outside Light manifests when the Kli realizes that it wants to sense the Light differently, as something external, as bestowal. When the Kli wants to feel the outside Light in this way (which does not mean that it actually happens), its different attitude towards the Light makes it external. This happens both in our world and in the spiritual one.

Question: While changing, man in our world seemingly changes the world, he alters his own perception of it, and therefore one day the world may appear good, while on another day it may appear nasty. If we were able to change our senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, would we be changing the world around us?

We would feel it differently. The same happens in the Upper Worlds. However, in the spiritual realm, the Kli is in our power and it is constantly changing with the help of the screen. I really transform the worlds around me, or rather; I change my sensation of the Creator. Both this world and the spiritual one signify the sensation of the Giver (Creator). From this, it follows that what I feel depends only on me.

We ought to give the right definition to the word "world." A world is nothing but my impression of the fulfillment. Therefore, our work is to perceive the Giver as objectively as we can, without introducing any disturbances from ourselves.

Question: Can we speak of what existed in the Creator before the beginning of creation?

You are asking if it is right to say that desire or creation had existed in the Creator in its rudimentary form before creation appeared. This matter does not concern the Creator, but His attitude toward creation, i.e., the moment when the desire to create appeared in Him. We know nothing about what existed before this desire of His appeared. Quite possibly one can attain this information, but we have no way to analyze it. I can talk about it only to the extent of my attainment, but I do not know what He really is.

I have my Kli or my sensor in which I can attain something. I can speak about what my sensor picks, i.e., with regards to myself. What does "with regards to myself" mean? The Creator created us to perceive Him in a certain way, and that is precisely how we perceive Him. We are secondary. He created me with His desire in order to fill and delight me. This is the only way I can perceive Him.

At the same time, the Creator allows me to understand that He deliberately created me this way. The understanding that one is allegedly independent of the Creator appears because He wishes me to feel that I exist beyond Him and that I am free to think and to research. All of this is within His decision to create me and to activate my properties, thoughts, and desires.

In other words, everything comes directly from Him, even that which seems to oppose Him and His will. Hence, we cannot speak about what is not emanated from the Creator either as the Kli or as the Light.

You ask, "What is in Him?" I can speculate about this endlessly, but I have to know that this is all fruitless fantasy that is uncorroborated by any real sensations. That is why Kabbalah does not concern itself with this at all. It is simply pointless and unfounded.

Question: Our goal is to equalize our properties with the Creator. At the same time, we say that we have no way of knowing this property.

We wish to know the Creator's properties and attain Him because this is the purpose of our creation. If He is the Perfect Ultimate Absolute, then achieving that property is the most sublime delight man can know. This is exactly what the Creator desired for us, and we must reach that state as a result of all our changes and corrections.

Our goal is to make our properties similar to those of the Creator. What does this mean? The Creator is the desire to bestow delight upon us. He wishes to bestow upon us this exalted state. If we aspire to reach this state in order to please Him, we equalize our properties, status, and desires with His.

That is to say, we achieve the highest level that exists for us. Evidently, there is some higher level above it, but we can neither perceive, nor relate to it. This is because we were created by another level, which somehow correlates with us. That is all. We need to clearly distinguish these things. This makes the Kabbalistic and philosophical approaches so cardinally different. Kabbalah extends its research only up to the degree where we can have a tangible apprehension in our Kelim.

Question: Is the material connected with the spiritual?

What is matter? We were taught that matter is the objective reality given to us in our sensations. This is really so. One thing is not clear though: what is "objective reality"? The other part of the definition ("given to us in our sensations") is correct. What we feel now we define as the material. If we do not perceive something, we call it the spiritual. Yet, when we begin to perceive it, will we refer to it as the spiritual or the material?

Basically, Kabbalah does not wish to divide the universe into the spiritual and the material. It rather speaks about the conceivable and the unconceivable. What I attain now is called this world, my world, or my level. It consists of what I perceive in my sense organs. If I reach new levels of attainment, this will be called my revealed world. The part which I have not yet revealed, but (as Kabbalists explain) will have to reveal is called the concealed, secret world.

So what is matter? Baal HaSulam tells us that the spiritual forces also constitute matter. All matter can be transformed into other substances and forms. It can be turned into gas, dried, frozen, heated, melted, burned, and so on. In other words, as a result of some influence, each form can assume all the other forms that we perceive to a greater or lesser extent.

And where is matter? What is it in itself and how do we define it? We can only define it with regard to ourselves. By beginning to change our properties, we will see that everything is matter, including the Upper Forces. If, for example, we heat matter to a certain temperature, this entire universe will turn into gas. Would that still be matter? It will only be matter in regard to someone who can perceive it.

If I possessed other properties, I would perceive air, which I do not feel at the moment, as concrete. However, my properties are such that I perceive the matter that allegedly surrounds me as transparent. It does not block my movements. If I had different properties, would I then feel it as an obstacle? There are rays that pass through a concrete wall unhindered. At the same time, this wall is an obstruction for me or for other kinds of radiation.

What is a wall? This is a force which I perceive with regard to my own properties. There is one single force that exists which splits in our sensations into millions and billions of other individual forces. We perceive these forces with a certain degree of attainment, knowledge, and contact. Consequently, a great number of objects and actions different in quality and quantity appear around us and create our world.

Reality does not consist of our world and the spiritual world. That is the way we divide the Creator's one general force into such manifestations. We can talk about it for years, but the problem lies in our confusion: a person does not position himself correctly in regard to the Creator. His world outlook is wrong. Instead of thinking, "I am a Kli in regard to the Light which creates me and my inner sensations," man thinks, "I exist in a predetermined world that was created in advance." There is nothing like that.

We say that the world existed for millions of years before a human being appeared in it. Man has been developing for tens of thousands of years up to this moment, in which we are sitting and discussing how everything evolved and how it was perceived. Yet can we say that the world has evolved for millions of years before us? Who perceived it and how has it developed? Can we imagine something that is beyond our sense organs, beyond our perception? We are unable to do that. That is to say, we always assume that everything is the way we imagine it.

In reality, nothing has evolved. As a matter of fact, nothing exists. Everything in our sensations rolls along the axis of time (perception). We cannot perceive any allegedly existing historical past, other than within the framework of time, and that is the way it exists for us.

Nothing existed. We cannot imagine anything other than what exists in our present Kelim. That is the way we are created; hence we perceive everything in such a way. We will not be able to avoid these mistakes until we can look at everything from aside with the help of additional senses. As a result, everything will become balanced and you understand what relativity means.

Question: Were there dinosaurs? Their skeletons exist, don't they?

There are no dinosaurs and no skeletons. There is nothing except the manifestation of all this with regard to us because we cannot perceive anything beyond us. From the point of view of the absolutely objective observer, we cannot say that they exist, not in the present, not in the past, and not in the future.

Today's science already asserts that the result of an experiment depends on the observer. In other words, there is nothing objective. In the time of Isaac Newton it was believed that the universe existed independently, and that it would continue to exist even without the presence of people. Now we already can understand and no way is this a simple task; how precarious this statement is. According to whom will the universe exist, and who will register the fact of its existence?

Question: So is there connection between the spiritual and the material?

Baal HaSulam says that those who think that the material dresses the spiritual are wrong. This leads to the erroneous conclusion that one can influence the spiritual through the material with one's properties, desires, powers, thoughts, and physical actions. This is impossible! We have no means for that.

Such means appears under the influence of sublime energy, the Upper Light, and it is called the screen. Therefore, it is said, "Yagati ve Matzati," which means that I make efforts and deserve the screen as a gift. However, I do not create it within me by myself. The screen is an anti-egoistical force which enables me to affect the Creator's altruistic forces, to interact with them to the extent of my similarity to them. Otherwise, being in different dimensions, these forces do not feel each other.

The realization that the spiritual is not clothed in the material is necessary first of all to avoid the erroneous notion that with the help of some material actions we can do something spiritual. We can do nothing like that.

Giving charity, lighting candles, or performing some allegedly altruistic act does not affect the spiritual. Even our most exalted thoughts and noble deeds have no influence on the spiritual. They are only prerequisites aimed at receiving help from above, and cannot be considered an influence (at least not direct one).

I try to love you, unite with you to get closer to the Creator and this is a correct approach. All of these actions lead to the anticipated result, but they are not in direct connection with the result. I sort of make terms with you: "Do this if you wish to receive a gift from me." There exists a cause-and-effect connection, but it is interrupted. I cannot directly affect the spiritual forces by my actions. I have no means for that, no screen.

Therefore, we cannot say that the spiritual is clothed in the material. We say this for short and Baal HaSulam writes that every person has a soul. It shines within him and manifests its properties in our physical, earthly qualities. It is customary to say so, but in fact, it is merely an imprint, without any solid connection. Herein lies the gap between egoism and altruism. Nothing can be done about it; it is very difficult to imagine.

Question: What does the quality of impression depend on?

The quality of our impressions depends on the combination of all of our Kelim. However tiny they may be, our Kelim always break into five additional parts of perception, attainment, assessment. Hence, the entire spectrum of sensations and all our impressions are always combined, composite.

Question: Is the aspiration to the Creator the same as the desire to be filled with the sublime state?

No, this is not the same thing. The aspiration to the Creator means longing to be similar to Him. In the spiritual realm approximation occurs to the extent of similarity. In other words, I have to decipher the Creator, understand what He is, who He is. The Creator is the property of bestowal, the absolute property of Bina or Keter, devoid of any desire for one's self. To the extent that this quality grows within me, I get closer to Him and if it diminishes, I move away from Him. We should qualitatively weigh and assess everything that we say.

Question: What is a screen?

A screen is fulfillment. With what do I get filled? I get filled with my attitude toward the Creator. The Creator is filled with His attitude toward me, with love, and I need to reciprocate. When our sensations coincide, we merge with each other. As a result of this merging I feel His level. That is what we need to attain: a qualitatively new Kli.

Question: What is the correct assessment of my states?

Every measuring device that you use should be calibrated. How can we calibrate ourselves before we start defining our attitude toward something? To this end we have the first article in the book "Shamati." It is entitled "There Is None Else Beside Him." When we are attuned to such perception of reality, we can really feel it. There is no other way.

Everything else is perceived incorrectly and leads to erroneous conclusions. You immediately obtain a wrong result and in this way cut yourself off from the spiritual, from the Creator, and from the right direction. This does not happen at once in the material. If you forget about the Creator, about yourself, and about your current goal in a material action, you will not feel your mistake in the material world right away. You would feel it in the spiritual, but not in the material. Nevertheless, it is a mistake and it will lead you increasingly closer to the realization of evil.

That is to say, our calibration lies in directing ourselves to the final goal. Our every action in this world (in thoughts, in actions, and in desires) should focus on the only goal: to attain the ultimate state immediately, now. We should not break it into stages: now I am at a certain level, and soon I will work and achieve the next level. No "next" levels! My next level should be final and perfect. It should be absolute, not partial! Otherwise, this would mean that I control an incomplete Kli. Unless we attune ourselves in this way, we will not achieve much.

In our world, in our state the most correct tune-up is accomplished through humanity or through a group to the Creator. One cannot be correctly attuned to the Creator or have the right idea of what He is, if one does not go through "love for thy neighbor," through the desire to save people from suffering, which is sent by the Creator for this purpose, and through the realization of one's ability to change the world and one's perception for the better. Without this a person cannot be directed to the Creator. This is the calibration.

Question: What is the meaning of Arvut?

Arvut (mutual guarantee) means only one thing. Everything is done for the sake of merging with the Creator, for the sake of similarity to Him. All other actions, including "love for thy neighbor," are not considered a goal in itself. You may say, "Well, this is a purely egoistical attitude!" Yes, it is purely egoistical. That is your attitude, and you cannot have any other.