Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 66, “The Giving of the Torah”:The issue of the giving of the Torah that occurred on Mount Sinai does not mean that the Torah was given once and then the giving was stopped. Rather, there is no absence in spirituality, since spirituality is an eternal matter, unending. But since, from the perspective of the giver, we are unfit to receive the Torah, we say that the cessation is by the Upper One.

Once in the history of humanity, a baby was born whom his parents called Adam. Why did they call him Adam? They didn’t know why, it was determined by the upper Providence.

The baby grew and matured and probably started asking about the meaning of life. “Why and for what am I living?” Then at about the age of 37, the Creator was revealed to Adam and he began to teach people, and thus  he laid the foundation for a chain of events the Torah describes, all the generations until Abraham and the phases of development that followed.

On the whole, we study the history, geography, and spiritual essence together. So what should we believe? Or more accurately, how should we imagine these events? Do they take place both in spirituality and in corporeality? For example, is the transition of Abraham’s group from Babylon to the Land of Canaan identical to an inner ascent? Was it accompanied by the recognition of evil and goodness, by unity?

For example, if I strongly unite with the friends, I leave Babylon, and if I unite more strongly with them, I enter the Land of Canaan. If I descend the levels of unity, I find myself in Egypt. If I unite in a different manner I move from Hebron to Beer Sheba….

It turns out that everything is measured according to the intensity of our unity. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about: It isn’t about this world at all; I don’t look at it except inside, knowing that inside me all the details of my perception depend on the level of unity or separation from the friends.

At the same time, however, Kabbalists say that there must also be a corporeal “branch” that is parallel to what happens in the spiritual “root.” The “root” must touch the “branch” once—in its first revelation. After all, this revelation comes from the top down, and so everything that the Torah describes was fulfilled to a certain extent in our world too.

We know that the First and Second Temples, the story of Purim that is described in the Book of Esther, the wars of the people of Israel, and the exiles actually occurred. The graves of Joseph, Rebecca, the Cave of Machpelah and other holy places still exist. In other words, the spiritual levels were actually revealed in the people that lived in those times in our world.

First the descending process takes place from the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) until the actual “bottom”—as we say, from one end to the other. Then we have to fulfill the potential we have acquired on the levels of the “forefathers” during the destruction of the Temple and during the exile.

Today we are in such a state of darkness that we don’t even know what exile actually refers to. If we take the current crisis into account, many feel that perhaps they have been exiled from the land of wealth, respect, and other earthly pleasures. We have descended so low, to such depths where darkness conceals the actual essence of the exile from the spiritual world, from the attribute of love and bestowal. For us bestowal is the opposite—an undesirable attribute.

Now we have to start the ascent and it has to be an inner ascent. Of course, it will affect the corporeal world too, but no external actions are required of us. It is spirituality that determines what form we will have, individually and collectively, what kind of humanity there will be, and what kind of world.

The giving of the Torah before Mt. Sinai took place both on a spiritual and on a corporeal level. The issue of the giving of the Torah that occurred on Mount Sinai does not mean that the Torah was given once and then the giving was stopped. Rather, there is no absence in spirituality.

It isn’t the same in corporeality: There is nothing holy about Mt. Sinai and neither orthodox people nor non-religious people are attracted to it. On the other hand spirituality is an eternal matter, unending. But since, from the perspective of the giver, we are unfit to receive the Torah, we don’t reach the right level and we say that the cessation is by the Upper One.

In reality, the cessation is not on our part. The spiritual ladder still exists, and all its conditions are kept; spirituality is eternal and so if you reach a certain state you receive the Torah.

Rise higher and you will be in the desert, then in the land of Israel, etc. These are the levels of the spiritual ascent.

I cannot say how our world will change according to this ascent, but it will undoubtedly change. After all, a “branch” operates according to the “root.” If we change the root by our ascent and our participation in it, it will certainly affect the world differently and then the world will change.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/13, Shamati #66

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