Question: It says that a person’s height is measured according to his responsibility, whether he is devoted only to his town or to his nation, or even to the entire world. What is meant by “devoted to his town, to his state, and to the world?”

Answer: Devotion means that we attribute all the parts of our soul that seem foreign to ourselves. We do this although they are detached from us by a great egoistic desire, by indifference, and by the desire to profit at the expense of others, to be more important than others, to avoid suffering by causing others pain.

If I turn my entire ego into a means to reach adhesion with others so that each one and all of them together will be more important to me than myself, it means that I am devoted to them like to my own kids and that I am ready to give them everything. I turn my ego, which separates me from others, into bestowal according to my height.

If I can relate this way only to those who are close to me or to neighbors that live in the same town I live in, it doesn’t mean that I am very high. However, it requires a great effort to perceive the entire world as my relatives. After all, these people are distant from me to begin with. There is a greater ego between us, a much greater quantity. So, it requires a much greater intensity, a greater height, in order to overcome the ego.

It seems that it is only about quantity, but quantity is related to quality. The concept of quantity doesn’t exist in spirituality, only quality. However, quality is made of quantity, just like computer software that thanks to the capacity of the memory can offer totally different options. The difference is actually in the quantity of memory cells that operate, but this quantity makes the qualitative difference. Thanks to this difference, I can understand, feel, and perceive more.

Thanks to this additional quantity, I begin to understand the Creator. The number of neurons in our brain and the connections between them determine our cognitive ability, which means that the quantity is related to the quality. Still, it isn’t as we imagine. We cannot calculate to what extent we must expand in width in order to reach something in height. These concepts are related, but we cannot work with this formula yet.

We don’t see the right formula since our perception isn’t integral; it isn’t analog. It is digital, discrete. Everything is segmented—1,2,3—while in spirituality, everything is according to a circular calculation and not a square calculation like in our world. This is why we cannot simply count quantity in width and height, and say how something should be.

All our exertion is quantitative as if it were possible to measure it in kilograms, but, later, it rises to Ein Sof (Infinity) and is incorporated in Malchut of Ein Sof, in our MAN, and in response we receive MAD. Thus, all our exertion returns to us in an analog, integral manner, and it isn’t digital anymore. Our constant connection with Ein Sof is added to this connection, and this disrupts our calculation.

However, it is thanks to the connection with Ein Sof, from which everything comes back to us, that we have a chance to bring our exertion into Ein Sof each time and to save it in the right box. Then, we heal the whole system by our personal exertion by even the smallest action! Our exertion doesn’t insert some small cube into the general structure, but melts in all of Ein Sof.

Then, when the bestowal from Ein Sof returns to us, it makes actual changes in us and raises us to the next level. Although we see our actions as digital and limited, when they reach Ein Sof and return to us, they build an analog, integral form in us that is similar to Ein Sof.
[113659]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/26/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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