Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 207

What Is the Ladder of Degrees?

The ladder of degrees is the measure of equivalence between the created being and the Creator. What does it mean that a person is at degree 123? It means that 123 degrees separate the qualities of the Creator from the person’s qualities. What does it mean that a person is at the highest spiritual degree? This signifies that there is no difference between the qualities.

In spirituality, in the spiritual ladder, there are 125 degrees: five worlds, with five Partzufim in each world, and five Sefirot in each Partzuf. In practice, this can be divided into many more, but in Kabbalah it is divided according to need. In total, there are five worlds: Adam Kadmon (AK), Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. However, the worlds of BYA (Beria, Yetzira, Assiya) are divided more precisely into six thousand years, into six thousand degrees.

As we ascend the degrees, each and every degree in the ladder blocks a greater light that is above it. That is, if we exist as a soul at a certain degree, all the degrees above them conceal and diminish the light of Infinity in relation to them. When we want to ascend a degree, we must cancel the screen that conceals it and turn it into a receiving screen, essentially moving from concealment to revelation, from the concealed Torah to the revealed Torah.

For Kabbalists, this is understood differently. People generally think they study the revealed Torah and that Kabbalah is the concealed Torah. However, according to the Kabbalistic view, as the Vilna Gaon wrote, at each degree one moves from the concealed Torah, when the higher degree is hidden, to the revealed Torah, when it is revealed. This is how we come increasingly closer to revelation time and again.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 206
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 205
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 204

Filed under: Talks about the Steps of the Ladder | Add Comment →