You Should Not Make An Idol

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “One Commandment”: By accustoming oneself to serving people, one benefits others and not oneself. Thus, one becomes gradually fit to keep the Mitzvot of the Creator with the required condition—benefitting the Creator and not oneself.

I cannot perceive, I can’t understand, I don’t get this principle. I understand that I should “work for the created beings,” to connect to humanity. After all, we are all here together and it’s only as a result of the shattering that the tear between me and others was created and I feel detached from them. This means that I have to overcome to correct the shattering and to connect to them.

But what does that have to do with the Creator? Perhaps He is somewhere on the outside and I can reach Him through humanity? Or perhaps I discover that He is in the unity with others in the group among us and that He even fills this whole space.

Still, it’s hard to focus on the group for the sake of the Creator, what does that mean? It’s a very vague demand, I understand that I have to correct my mutual relations with other people, but how can I also establish a relationship with others in addition to that? Our problem is that we don’t depict the right picture, and the confusion continues in our imagination for a long time.

The Creator is the absolute, the finite, the whole, the attribute of bestowal. The connection between me and the group is the vessel for receiving the attribute of bestowal. We want to attain love and connection between us. We want the world to become round, global, and integral but for the sake of the Creator, which means that the attribute of bestowal will connect to us, so it will dwell among us and dominate us.

Therefore, we mustn’t attribute any personality or image to the Creator, since it’s called “idolatry,” and it leads us off track in a totally different direction. The word “Creator” is made of the Hebrew words “Bo-Re,” (come and see); if you enter a group and reach connection, then thanks to the friends you discover the attribute of bestowal that is called Creator.

Therefore, it says that “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one,” which means that I, together with the friends (or with humanity) reach the Creator. In other words, I and the friends are called Malchut or Shechina, and we discover Zeir Anpin that is revealed in Malchut, according to the connection that was attained in it.

This is where the meaning of the formula “working for the created beings for the sake of the Creator” stems from. We mustn’t imagine that the Creator is someone or something; the Creator is not a personality or a phenomenon, but an attribute that is revealed in us. If I depict something else it means that I engage in idolatry and that I make an idol or an image. If we constantly hold on to this principle, there will be no problems.

After all, we want to establish a system that will include all the vessels and the Lights, this is Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity) in which we are united, connected as the Light is revealed in the vessel. We were created there in phase one, in phase two we correct our attitude (and nothing else! only our attitude), in phase three we perceive and understand the world we are in.

There is no image external to us for which we have to work and which we have to reach; we only imagine the intentions and the calculations in this schematic way: First (1) we create a vessel, and then (2) to the extent that we can connect according to the law of equivalence of form we discover the Creator in this vessel, according to the principle of “come and see.” But the place remains the same place, the same desire, the same Malchut, that remains unchanged.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/25/13

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