Every degree consists of internal and external components, and the external part of the upper degree is connected to the inner part of the lower one. Thus, there is a connection between all the degrees, that is, one can ascend or descend from any level. Therefore, by preferring the internal to the external, that is, the maximum bestowal and the minimum reception, in both spirituality as well as in corporeality, a person expresses his desire to elevate the upper degree so it can rule over the lower. Every person in this top-down chain: Israel (those who serve the Creator and those who do not, the nations of the world within Israel) and the nations of the world can ascend the degrees because of their preference of the internal (upper) over the external (lower).

The inner part is the closest to spirituality because it refers to the upper degree, and if a person prefers it to the lower part, one ensures one’s ascent. Therefore, every person has the opportunity to choose the upper and by so doing, ascend above the current degree received from birth, from one’s natural properties. And there, once again, one chooses the internal and thus keeps ascending from the foot of the ladder where all the created beings exist to its very top.

No one is limited in anything: one begins according to the root of one’s soul and keeps working with it. Every person has an inner and outer part and is given free choice and equal opportunities to climb to the very top, to perform the greatest bestowal to the Creator.¹

To the measure of our rising above problems and concentrating on the Creator instead of focusing on them, we advance. Specifically, we have to decide what is more important: the upper part within us or the lower, the desire to enjoy or the intention to bestow. The importance of spiritual advancement, solidarity with the Creator and the purpose of creation, and involvement in the process of correction have to be so important to us that we simply stop feeling corporeal problems, we attribute no importance to them.

It all depends on what we prefer at every moment: our inner or our outer part, where do we want to be, what is more important for us? Our correct attitude toward the falling rockets [in Israel] will determine whether they will stop or not because they were designed to push us toward correct actions. We face the upper force, there is nothing else beside it, the good that does good. Right now, this force is sending us rockets, awakening us to change ourselves.

If we attain the right reaction with regard to the rockets, we will no longer think about the rockets but about our correction, and that is why the rockets will stop. But our goal was not to stop the rockets, but to reach adhesion with the upper force.²

Deciding that the external part is more important than the inner, we give power to the outer part to rise across the entire world. It turns out that the upper part considers the lower to be more important and neglects the upper. This is how the outer part of the world gains importance; that is, all the sinners of the world gain strength and opportunity to inflict damage on everyone else. Instead of calming them down and establishing order in the world, it pushes toward loving the other as yourself.

But if we chose the inner part within us over the outer, then by doing so, we establish that the inner part of the world, which concerns spirituality, influences the lower degrees and they begin to understand that spirituality is more important than corporeality. Everything is determined in the thought.

One must scrutinize on one’s own level so that one can choose the spiritual over the material. There is no other way to influence the world except by changing oneself on the inside, utterly raising the inner over the outer.³
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/19 Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“
1 Minute17:50
2 Minute 35:25
3 Minute 48:20

Related Material:
Internal and External, Part 3
Internal And External Parts Of The Soul
Each One Is Responsible For All, And All For One

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