Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 251

Chapter 22. Kabbalah Before the Barrier

There is a great difference between the work of the general public and the work of the individual. It is the difference between heaven and earth. A beast has no purpose of creation; it does not ascend anywhere, and just as it was born, it dies, with its role amounting to serving man. This is the degree of the beast. The whole world is on this degree, not even on the degree of Lo Lishma. Certainly, on this degree too there are several changes, states, and degrees, and accordingly, in the animal world there are also countless species and ways of life, from tiny lice to large animals, and they are all copies of the qualities and forms that exist in a person who is on the animate degree.

Lo Lishma is on the beastly degree, and so is most of humanity, including those who relate to life out of a self-aimed intention. What determines the difference between the beastly degree and the human degree is a screen (Masach). There is the self-aimed intention, which is called “fear of this world,” “fear of the next world,” and “fear of reward and punishment,” and there is the intention outside of us, which is fear concerning how much and in what way we will be able to bestow upon the Creator. The latter is fear that is not self-aimed, but outwardly directed. Outside of us there is only “None else besides Him,” and then we are born from the beastly degree into the human degree.

They say that the main thing is studying Lishma, but the problem is that we do not know what Lishma is. Our measure of Lishma is our measure of unity with the Creator that we reach through a screen. We then certainly study Lishma.

Only the goal of Lishma or Lo Lishma brings about the importance of the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is because, if we do not attract the upper light during the study, which we attain through the study of Kabbalah, we cannot rise from the degree of Lo Lishma to the degree of Lishma, acquire a screen, and become a human instead of a beast. There is no other means to do so.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 250
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 249
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 248

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