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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 38

What Is Supervision with Reason?

There is “mind” (Mocha) and “heart” (Liba). Mind involves constant, purposeful supervision aimed at a specific goal, and assessing our states and experiences. It is like a critical mechanism that lets us observe ourselves from the outside. For instance, we might be immobilized, unable to act or think, yet still be aware of our state. Alternatively, we might be confused, unable to think clearly, yet still observe and recognize our confusion. Such an ability to view ourselves from the outside helps us learn who and what we are. If we adopt the Creator’s qualities, we begin to see ourselves from the Creator’s perspective. Gradually, we start identifying with the traits we acquired from the Creator, and view our own uncorrected traits as “Pharaoh,” an external force within us.

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Why must the Creator hide from us? Why don’t we see the system of forces acting upon us? Why don’t we directly perceive the upper force in our world and our state and work with it openly as we do with the other forces of nature around us, those that influence us and that we in turn influence?

Why is it different with the Creator? After all, He affects us through all forces, and we somehow influence Him with our desires. Yet the source of everything that happens remains unknown, incomprehensible, and concealed from us.

This is done so that through all the forces that affect us and all the forces with which we can influence the Creator, we would come to reveal Him personally: His will, His perspective, His intention, and His attitude toward us.

For instance, if I interact with someone and do or say something that influences them, they begin to understand my attitude toward them, what I want from them, how I perceive them, and so forth. Similarly, I sense their influence on me and through this form an image of who they are.

Different people might act upon me in entirely similar ways but with varying combinations, and I would form completely different images of them. There are numerous nuances and possibilities here.

The same applies to the Creator, but on a far greater, broader, and richer scale. Through such interaction with the Creator, we begin to reveal Him.

Moreover, the Creator’s concealment is more complex and layered. With another person I can see them and engage in physical or virtual interaction. With the Creator, it is more complicated.

He is incomprehensible to me and for some reason remains hidden through everything that I perceive.

That is, my desires, intentions, thoughts, feelings, and everything that I perceive through them in the surrounding world are generated within me by the Creator. Essentially this means that “I” do not exist. There is only some “self” that senses what the Creator is doing to it and nothing more.

In other words, our connection, our relationship, is both vast (it encompasses everything I feel and this entire world) and hidden. I cannot see from where and why these things come to me. Thus the connection is multi-layered and consists of many layers of concealment.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”

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Question: If I feel the Creator as care and help at almost every step, does this mean that my group is in the right connection and correct work?

Answer: If you constantly feel the group’s support in both bad and good states, it means not that the group is good, but that your connection with the group is strong.

The group might be excellent, but the quality of your connection with it depends on you.

Connection with the Creator can be personal, but then it is very small, one-sided, and still only in its initial stages.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”

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Faith above reason is built precisely above reason, when I measure how much I managed to rise above my corporeal pragmatism to judge from the perspective of bestowal. This means to think about what I can give, what I can sacrifice, and what pleasure I can bring to my friends and through them to the Creator.

Faith above reason is a central theme in spiritual development because it determines the transition from the corporeal world to the spiritual one, from the lack of the feeling of the upper force to its revelation and perception of it.

We can pursue this for as long as necessary, just to step onto the degree of Lishma, to discover what is called the upper world. Therefore patience is required. Just like studying at a university with the knowledge that it takes five years to obtain a degree, so it takes five years.

The same applies to Kabbalah. We need to study for a long time until bestowal becomes a habit. But can this learning be completed much faster, externally? Yes, it is possible! If we strengthen our connection, we can greatly shorten our path and the time to enter Lishma precisely to the extent of our connection with one another.

Write this down, reflect on it, and recall it each time you hit a dead end. What should you do then? Strengthen the unity in the group, and the future will shine for you again.

From a state of despair, confusion, and helplessness, we have only one way out: connection, and from it we will see our next degree.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/24, “On the Verge of Lishma“

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Hanukkah explains how to achieve the correction of desires in which the higher power will be revealed. All that is in creation is the desire to bestow, called the Creator, and the desire to enjoy, called creation.

The higher the level of the development of the desire: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, the more developed the creation is and the more it differs from the Creator.

It turns out that the further away the light and darkness are from each other, the greater the opportunity the creation has to distinguish them, to discern the advantage of light from darkness, and thus advance.

Sometimes the creation has to go through very unpleasant states: enormous light, thick darkness, and endless differences between them. All this throws the creation in different directions, but there is no way out; it is necessary to go through such polar states in order to develop.

Therefore, the Creator gives us the feeling of darkness from the concealment of light. And we feel ourselves in complete darkness, uncertainty, despair, fear, and anxiety under the threat of war. These states can manifest themselves physically, or they can be purely internal experiences. A person is obliged to go through these unpleasant states and immerse himself in them for some time until he decides that he needs to get out of them.

And most importantly, why get out of them? At first, the reason is only to feel better and not suffer, which is a natural, corporeal reaction. Or he thinks that it is not proper for a person to be in such a low state. Or maybe he is even able to find another reason for getting out of the darkness: the desire to please the Creator and responsibility to his friends.

Depending on this reason, his feelings change when leaving a black line. Maybe he considers the state good not because it is pleasant, but because he understood where good is and where evil is. Or maybe he is simply glad that he felt good, confidence, and calmness returned. Everything depends on how much a person sank into the darkness and accordingly how high he was able to rise to the light. This is exactly what we see in the state called Hanukkah. After all, it is not achieved in one go, but at each stage there is a mini-Hanukkah. Each time there is darkness and war, enemies attack our desire to reach the Creator, merging, and unity. At first, this desire in a person is very small, and he feels discomfort, darkness, uncertainty, and fear, as if the whole world is rising up against him. But little by little, thanks to study, overcoming, and efforts to achieve the goal, he finds a “jug of oil” among complete ruins. Although his heart, that is, the Temple, is broken, he finds a point in the heart, a small jug of oil and can light it. He understands that this salvation came from the Creator, and he rises, purifies and sanctifies himself.

And so until the next time… Each time the darkness is blacker, the fear is stronger, the world is destroyed more and more thoroughly, and it is unclear how it can ever be fixed.

But when I overcome this fall despite everything: I come to lessons, meetings of friends, and workshops, then time does its job, and after a certain amount of effort, I deserve to come out of the darkness again. So each time I win a little more and more in this great “Maccabean war.”

Each time the difference between light and darkness increases and brings a feeling of helplessness, fear, despair, and even physical discomfort and illness. And in accordance with this, I find out that all this comes from the Creator who is good and does good, and there is no other way than to increase the gap between darkness and light until this difference turns into a spiritual vessel.

This is not done in one go. One must go through many states so that the difference between descents and ascents increases significantly. Each time I will define anew what a descent is and what an ascent is, darkness and light, until these definitions become more qualitative. Then I will acquire a spiritual vessel, understanding that both darkness and light are necessary, these two opposites opposite each other.

I will be ready to hold these two opposites and will not allow myself to be thrown from one to the other like a small child who sometimes cries and sometimes laughs. I will begin to control both states by canceling myself. This is called being a spiritual embryo, when no matter what states I go through, I decide that I need them.

And even if next time I again fall into darkness, into a descent, and will not be able to control myself, because each time I fall lower and lower. But I already know that this is how it should be and, understanding the general process, I thank the Creator and justify him. This is how we advance.

Hanukkah exists in every state that we go through on the path to achieving the property of bestowal, Bina. When we succeed in bringing our Malchut to Bina for the first time, this signifies the beginning of spiritual development, the embryo. And the completion of this process of building bestowing desires (Galgalta Einaim) is called the full, real holiday of Hanukkah.

This is not just a stop (Hanu-Ko) on the way, but a revolution in work, starting from the state of Hanukkah and further. After all, there can be no stops in spirituality. But we change the method of work, and after that we begin to work with the desire to enjoy, using it for the sake of bestowal, approaching the holiday of Purim.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/17, “Hanukkah according to Kabbalah”

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