In Disagreement With Oneself

Dr. Michael LaitmanDesire is the creature’s substance, the place where we feel alive and reveal the reality within and around us. The Light works with desire and develops it according to its program. At first, the Light develops desire directly in order to shape it. Then, inside the created desire, the fourth phase of the world of Infinity, the Light begins to create the conditions for its correction.

After all, this desire is still raw material. It does not feel, understand, or have freedom of will. It only operates according to the orders of the Light, which control it. This way the Light creates different forms of desire called worlds or concealments. The Light reveals and conceals itself a little, and the desire goes through changes, until it absorbs all qualities of the Light.

The further the Light distances the desire from itself, the more I begin to feel who and what I am, even though the desire does not yet have any freedom or independent development. Everything happens because of the Light. The desire, being an innate substance, acts according to set laws, and it does not have any choice in its reactions. A desire, a natural material that acts in accordance with established laws, has no choice but to respond.

In this way, development reaches a special structure called “man” who receives the choice either to act within his reason or above it. “Within reason” is an action that corresponds with the Light’s action—the matter’s natural reaction. But it is possible to achieve a reaction above your desire, which does not conform to the natural laws of nature—it is possible to create an ability to react in a way that is opposite to the reaction to the Light’s orders.

This opposite reaction is called “man” namely because it is similar to the Light. After all, when he follows the Light’s orders inside his desire, he is called a created being. However, when he doesn’t follow the Light’s orders but wishes to rise above the level of matter, to rise to the degree of the Light and become like it, then he must have an opposite reaction. In accordance with this reaction, he is called “man” or Adam, which means “similar” (Domeh) to the Light.

Thus, matter receives the name of “man” and its new development begins there. It has a variety of forms imprinted on it by the Light during the period of natural growth. However, now, this desire begins to work on its own. It strives to become like the Light. In other words, it constantly strives to have a different reaction to what the Light awakens within it.

The Light awakens reactions within him that are opposite to the Light’s behavior, but man must accept this game and, above it, become like the Light. This is referred to as work by “faith above reason.”

This work can have different forms. The Light sometimes reveals or conceals itself. Sometimes, it awakens bigger or smaller desires in man. Through these influences, it keeps awakening new reactions in matter. This way, matter learns through its reactions. It studies itself and the Light, which is an example for it. Gradually, it becomes closer to the Light in its qualities, until it completely merges with it.

It is clear that on this path, the desire collects understanding and sensations of itself and the Light. It learns the Light’s program and learns the Creator’s attitude toward the creature by the way the Light treats it. And to the contrary, it learns to overcome its own nature and become like the Light. In this way, desire’s substance gradually attains the degree of the Creator.
[61005]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/2011, Writings of Rabash

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