Question: In the “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” Baal HaSulam describes the four stages of the development of the desire. We understand that desire is the basis of man. How did the Creator create it in four stages?

Answer: The fact is that initially, there was a source of light. Light is defined as the force of pleasure from everything that the Creator wants to fill the world with.

The force of light generates desire because the main and only quality of the light is the desire to fill, saturate, and delight the future creation. The Creator’s desire is to bestow, to love, to fill. In general, this is what comes from the Creator, and this determines His relation to creation.

The Creator’s intention to create and fill the creation is called “the first stage of creation”—the Creator’s attitude to the future creation. It is considered to be the first light that comes from the Creator.

Then this degree begins to create a desire within itself, the desire to receive from the Creator. All that comes from Him is the desire to receive. This desire to receive, which almost simultaneously comes from the Creator and is filled with light, is called the first stage of the development of the world, the universe.

Then the desire develops further under the influence of the light that fills it and begins to express itself in a certain way, meaning, to perceive from the light not only the filling, but also the qualities of the light to fill, animate, and love, all that is positive that the Creator or the upper light carries. Thus, from the first stage arises the second.

The second stage, first reacts to the fact that the Creator created it in the desire to receive and enjoy. But the light that works in it transmits its qualities to it—the qualities of bestowal, love, and fulfillment.

Therefore, the second degree, which is formed from the first, is absolutely opposite to it. It does not want to receive, but wants to give just like the Creator.

If the first degree, that is, the desire to receive, and the light that fills it are called Hochma, then the second degree, which is absolutely opposite to it, is called Bina and does not want to receive the light. It would like to give in the same way, but what can it give? Therefore, the second degree, in principle, remains empty except for the fact that it is filled with a sense of existence emanating from the Creator, in the sense that by wanting to bestow, it is still somewhat similar to the Creator.

Then comes the development of the first and second stages. Closing in on each other, they build the third stage, which is called Tifferet or Zeir Anpin.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 7/16/23

Related Material:
Phases of Development of the Will to Receive
The Structure Of The Universe, Part 3
The Structure Of The Universe, Part 2

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