Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 69

Why Is It Necessary to Awaken the Evil Inclination in a Person?

Baal HaSulam describes this entire process in his “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”:

• In State 1, the Creator created Ein Sof, and through the five worlds of Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya (AK and ABYA), lowered the created being down to this world.
• In State 3, the created being returns, by its own efforts, to the level of Ein Sof.
• The entire process of the created being’s return to Ein Sof is called State 2.

What is the difference between State 1 and State 3? In Ein Sof, the created being completely and perfectly exists in the thought of creation to do good to His creations. The light and the vessel are united in an unchanging state—the one and only state that the Creator created, which is eternal and perfect. However, in this state, the created being is like a fetus in its mother’s womb, at the root degree of the desire’s coarseness (Aviut de Shoresh), where it only feels the light of Nefesh, a basic, minimal light. To attain adhesion with the Creator, the created being must undergo the construction of its vessel, as if it itself creates the desire to adhere to the Creator.

The created being lacks this deficiency, the desire to adhere to the Creator. To develop it, the created being needs to descend into a state opposite to Ein Sof and, through its own will, ascend back to Ein Sof with this deficiency, which is a process called “raising MAN.” This is done through prayer and good deeds. In other words, through corrections, the soul ascends to Ein Sof.

To accomplish this work, we need to possess two opposing forces, two “angels.” These two forces, which are the qualities of the light and the vessel, already exist in Ein Sof in perfection and adhesion. For them to become opposites, a spiritual action called “the breaking of the vessels” takes place. In this process, the screen (the connection between the vessel and the light) shatters. Since nothing connects them, we start feeling two separate forces within ourselves: the struggle between the good and the evil forces, the good inclination and the evil inclination. The good force is the spark of the Creator called a “part of Shechina [Divinity] from above.” The evil force is the stony heart, Amalek, and the three impure shells (Klipot).

We are in the middle, between these two forces, good and evil, as Klipat Noga, which is neither good nor evil. It depends on which force we align ourselves with—good or evil. Therefore, Klipat Noga is called “half good and half evil.”

How can we know where there is good and evil? Our path is always filled with descents and ascents, ascents and descents. First, we enter the left line, see that it is evil, and move to the right line, then again return to the left, and once more move to the right. In such a way, we move between these two forces and ascend until the end of correction.

It is impossible to ascend a step directly. We need to first fall to the left, see that it is evil, and then move to the right. Why can we not just move to the right from the beginning? It is because, by nature, we are initially drawn to the evil inclination, as it is written that “the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 68
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 67
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 66

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