We were created as one system of the collective soul and are all interdependent. However, the upper Light leads this collective vessel to a shattering, and afterward these shattered pieces fall lower and lower, split more and more, and become increasingly distant from each other.

And when they reach the bottom, they begin to awaken, from the depths of the fall. The same Light that forced them to fall begins to awaken them and pull them back up.

That ascent is comprised of several stages and takes place primarily at the degrees of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, where the vessel operates unconsciously, being completely enslaved to the Light. However, at the human degree, we must reveal our own yearning.

The desire exists in everybody and is created by the Light “from absence,” as a reverse imprint of the Light. And the yearning is what we should develop within us by ourselves. That yearning is the true “creature” which becomes awakened and adds its intentions, efforts, and love by himself.

All this doesn’t come as a direct response to the Light’s influence; rather, it is the result of the vessel’s own seeking. Surely, the Light operates here, albeit in a concealed manner, yet there is the necessary addition here from the side of the vessel that has developed to the last, fourth, stage. That addition is its own yearning and love.

For us, it is expressed in our work against the egoistic desire revealed in us when we want to unite. We don’t feel our ego’s resistance in anything, other than with regard to bonding in the group, to annulling ourselves before its force in order to attain the quality of the general bestowal that will dwell within us, which is called the revelation of the Creator.

If a person directs himself in this way, which is called “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one,” in that effort, he reveals the resistance of his ego to correction. However, he should continue by all means and still try to reveal within himself at least some willingness to unite.

It’s similar to a sailboat that can’t sail directly against the wind. Yet there are special sails that assist its sailing in a zigzag manner, in the form of a rising and falling curve, and that’s how it advances—toward the wind.

This is how a person should behave as well when a person discovers that he is incapable of going against his ego, which is hindering his bonding with the group in order to annul himself before it and reveal the quality of general bestowal in it. However, he is capable of doing it in all sorts of indirect, auxiliary means.

These auxiliary means are called the environment a person builds so that it influences him. The environment will become the sail that will lead him in a zigzag manner toward the wind—and that is how he will advance!
[55284]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/21/2011, Shamati #232

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