Like A Bundle of Reeds, Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour, Michael Laitman, Ph.D.

Chapter 3: Corrections Through the Ages
The Evolution of the Correction Method

Now, All Together

The latest stage in the evolution of the correction method began in the early 1900s and is only now picking up pace. Because we are part of that stage, it is the one that holds the greatest meaning to us.

As discussed in the Introduction, when Abraham first discovered that one force governs and leads the world, he began to spread his knowledge. His aim was to circulate it to all the people, none excluded. However, Nimrod, king of Babylon, prevented him from achieving his objective, and Abraham had to leave, finally arriving at the land of Canaan, which he turned into Israel (after the desire to reach Yashar El, straight for the Creator).

That objective has not changed throughout the centuries. “Noah was created to correct the world in the state that it was at that time …and they [his contemporaries] will also receive correction from him,” writes Ramchal.[i] Also, in his commentary on the Torah, the Ramchal writes, “Moses wished to complete the correction of the world at that time. This is why he took the mixed multitude, as he thought that thus would be the correction of the world that will be done at the end of correction … However, he did not succeed because of the corruptions that occurred along the way.”[ii]

After the ruin of the Second Temple, Kabbalists chose to hide the wisdom from everyone, Jews and non-Jews alike, until the time of the ARI, when they began to feel that the time was ripe to reveal it to all. At that point, they began to teach and circulate the wisdom in a manner that grew more direct and explicit with each generation.

By the start of the 20^th century, all inhibitions were off, and Kabbalists openly called for spreading the wisdom and teaching it to all the nations. Rav Kook expressed this mindset very clearly in one of his letters: “I have agreed to disclose all the secrets of the world, since it is time to do unto the Creator, as it is required at this time. Greater and better than I have suffered nationwide slander for such matters, as their pure spirits pressured them for the sake of correcting the generation to speak new words and to reveal the concealed, to which the intellect of the masses was not accustomed.”[iii]

During World War I, Rav Kook felt compelled to outline the connection he saw between the world’s troubles and the rekindling of the spiritual force of Israel through unity. In his book, Orot (Lights), he wrote, “The construction of the world, which is currently crumpled by the dreadful storms of a blood-filled sword, requires the construction of the Israeli nation. The construction of the nation and the revealing of its spirit are one and the same, and it is one with the construction of the world, which is crumpling in anticipation for a force full of unity and sublimity, and all that is in the soul of the Assembly of Israel.”[iv]

His contemporary, Baal HaSulam, wrote profusely, and often blatantly, about the need to disclose the wisdom of Kabbalah to everyone, especially today. In his essay, “Messiah’s Shofar,” he wrote, “Know that this is what it means that the children of Israel are redeemed only after the wisdom of the hidden is revealed to a great extent, as it is written in The Zohar, ‘With this composition, the children of Israel are redeemed from exile.’

“…In my assessment, we are in a generation that is standing at the very threshold of redemption, if we only know how to spread the wisdom of the hidden to the masses.

“…There is another reason for it: We have accepted that there is a precondition for the redemption—that all the nations of the world will acknowledge Israel’s law [of bestowal], as it is written, ‘And the land shall be full of the knowledge.’ It is as in the example of the exodus from Egypt, where there was a precondition that Pharaoh, too, would acknowledge the true God and His laws, and would allow them to leave.

“…You must understand from where the nations of the world would come by such a notion and desire. Know that it is through the dissemination of the true wisdom, so they will evidently see the true God and the true law [of bestowal]. And the dissemination of the wisdom in the masses is called ‘a Shofar [a clarion, or a festive ram’s horn].’ Like the Shofar, whose voice travels a great distance, the echo of the wisdom will spread throughout the world.”[v]

Indeed, the legacy of those spiritual titans has been fulfilled, and today any person who wishes it can study “the wisdom of the hidden” regardless of religion, age, or gender, as it is no longer hidden. As Abraham envisioned, our global Babylon can now study the fundamental law of life that creates it and sustains it, and there are no limitations whatsoever.

But if everything is all right, why is there so much wrong with the world? Why are so many people still suffering, and why does the number of people in plight seem to be growing? If life’s fundamental law can be known to all, how come so few know it, especially now that we are at a loss as to how to handle the multiple crises engulfing human society? If that law is the Creator, and can therefore fix everything, why is everyone not rushing to learn it?

To answer these questions we need to understand the routes by which the wisdom spreads, and specifically the role of the Jewish people in the spreading of Kabbalah, and what it means to be a light to the nations. Accordingly, the next chapter will discuss the role of the Jewish people through the eyes of Kabbalah.

[i] Rav Moshe Chaim Lozzatto (Ramchal), Adir BaMarom [The Mighty One On High], “Explanation of Daniel’s Dream” (Warsaw, 1885).

[ii] Rav Moshe Chaim Lozzatto (Ramchal), The Commentary of Ramchal on the Torah, BaMidbar [Numbers].

[iii] Rav Yitzhak HaCohen Kook (the Raiah), Letters the Raiah vol. 2, 34.

[iv] Rav Yitzhak HaCohen Kook (the Raiah), Orot [Lights], 16.

[v] Rav Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), The Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Messiah’s Shofar” (Ashlag Research Institute, Israel, 2009), 457.

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To date various publishing houses have published 288 of our books about Kabbalah and integral education in 30 languages: English, Russian, Hebrew, Spanish, German, Portuguese French, Turkish, Croatian, Finnish, Italian, Latvian, Bulgarian, Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Check, Georgian, Hungarian, Estonian, Korean, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovenian, Swedish, Thai, and Ukrainian.

A full list of titles can be found here.
[154576]

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Like A Bundle of Reeds, Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour, Michael Laitman, Ph.D.

Chapter 3: Corrections Through the Ages
The Evolution of the Correction Method

Permission to Engage

Alongside the growing predominance of Lurianic Kabbalah, a gradual emergence from secrecy began as more and more Kabbalists felt the time was ripe to disclose the method by which the world would achieve its final correction.

In his book, Light of the Sun, Kabbalist Rabbi Abraham Azulai wrote, “The prohibition from Above to refrain from open study of the wisdom of truth [Kabbalah] was for a limited period, until the end of 1490. Thereafter, it is considered the last generation, in which the prohibition was lifted and permission has been granted to engage in The Book of Zohar. And since the year 1540, it has been a great Mitzva (commandment, good deed, correction) for the masses to study, old and young. And since the Messiah is bound to come as a result, and for no other reason, it is inappropriate to be negligent.”[i]

Although the ARI permitted no one but Chaim Vital to study his teachings, the latter wrote profusely about the importance of studying Kabbalah. “Woe unto the people from the affront of the Torah. They do not engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah, which honors the Torah, for they prolong the exile and all the afflictions that are about to come to the world,” he wrote in his introduction to Tree of Life.[ii]

In the centuries that followed, numerous rabbis, Kabbalists, and scholars stated that the study of Kabbalah was vital for our redemption, and even for the survival of our nation. In the mid-18^th century, The Vilna Gaon (GRA), wrote explicitly, “Redemption depends on the study of Kabbalah.”[iii]

In the early 19^th century, Kabbalists began to proclaim that even children should study Kabbalah, explicitly revoking the prohibition to study before the age of forty. The Rabbi of Komarno wrote, “If my people heeded me in this generation, when heresy prevails, they would delve in the study of The Book of Zohar and the Tikkunim [Corrections], contemplating them with nine-year-old infants.”[iv]

In the early 1900s, Rav Isaac HaCohen Kook, who later became the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, openly called for the study of Kabbalah, as well as for the return of the Jews to the land of Israel. In Orot (Lights), he wrote, “The secrets of Torah bring the redemption; they bring Israel back to its land.”[v]

On numerous occasions, Rav Kook wrote quite blatantly that every Jew must study Kabbalah, though he rarely used the explicit term and usually referred to it by its known epithets, “the wisdom of truth,” “the wisdom of the hidden,” “the internality of the Torah,” or “the secrets of Torah.” In his words, “Before us is an obligation to expand and establish the engagement in the inner side of the Torah, in all its spiritual issues, which, in its broader sense, includes the broad wisdom of Israel, whose apex is the knowledge of God in truth, according to the depth of the secrets of Torah. These days, it requires elucidation, scrutiny, and explanation, to make it ever clearer and ever more expansive among our entire nation.”[vi]

[i] Abraham Ben Mordechai Azulai, Introduction to the book, Ohr HaChama (Light of the Sun), 81.

[ii] Rav Chaim Vital, The Writings of the Ari, Tree of Life, Part One, “Rav Chaim Vital’s Introduction,” 11-12

[iii] The Vilna Gaon (GRA), Even Shlemah (A Perfect and Just Weight), Chapter 11, Item 3

[iv] Rav Yitzhak Yehuda Yehiel of Komarno, Notzer Hesed [Keeping Mercy], Chapter 4, Teaching 20

[v] Rav Yitzhak HaCohen Kook (the Raiah), Orot [Lights], 95.

[vi] Rav Yitzhak HaCohen Kook (the Raiah), Otzrot HaRaiah [Treasures of the Raiah], 2, 317

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Like A Bundle of Reeds, Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour, Michael Laitman, Ph.D.

Chapter 3: Corrections Through the Ages
The Evolution of the Correction Method

A New Era, A New Approach

The Kabbalists kept their studies secret. In secret chambers they developed a correction method that would be suitable for everyone, whenever needed. In small groups, sometimes alone, they studied and attained, but kept what they had learned and wrote mostly to themselves.

But one day in the 16^th century, a young man by the name of Isaac Luria came to the Kabbalist town of Safed in Northern Israel. His arrival marked the start of a new era in the evolution of the correction method. Through his prime student, Chaim Vital, Isaac Luria—known today as the Holy ARI—detailed a completely new approach to the wisdom of Kabbalah. His seemingly technical explanations of the structure of the spiritual system, and his systematic, precise descriptions gradually became the prevailing study method among Kabbalists.

The ARI’s prime disciple, Rabbi Chaim Vital, diligently wrote what his teacher had dictated. After the passing of Rabbi Vital, his son began to publish those writings, the most notable of which are Tree of Life and Eight Gates. In time, those compositions became the foundation of today’s predominant method of Kabbalah study, the Lurianic Kabbalah, named after Isaac Luria, the ARI.

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Like A Bundle of Reeds, Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour, Michael Laitman, Ph.D.

Chapter 3: Corrections Through the Ages
The Evolution of the Correction Method

 The Great Fall, and the Seeds of Redemption

The exile after the ruin of the Second Temple stemmed from unfounded hatred, but it also served a twofold purpose. The first was that the exile was an incentive to further develop the correction method. Since Moses’ Torah no longer sufficed to maintain the nation’s spiritual level, it was time to adapt the method to the current condition of the people—being in exile, and more egotistic than during Moses’ time. The second purpose of the exile was for Israel to mingle with other nations, to spread the “spiritual gene” throughout the world, and thus enable the correction of the whole of humanity, as Abraham initially intended.

Around the time of the ruin of the Second Temple, two seminal corpuses were composed. One was the Mishnah, and the other was The Book of Zohar. The former, along with the Bible, became the foundation of virtually all Jewish wisdom from that day on. The latter, on the other hand, was concealed soon after its writing, and remained hidden for more than a thousand years, until it appeared in the hands of Rabbi Moses de Leon.

The authors of the Mishnah, the Gemarah, and the rest of the writings of our sages provided the exiled people of Israel with guidance on both the spiritual and the physical levels. While the writings narrate spiritual states, they can just as readily be perceived as physical commandments.

Because the laws that our sages instructed originated from spiritual laws, they were applicable in physical life, just as Israel had applied them prior to the ruin of the Temple. In this way, Jews maintained some level of connection with the spiritual level of the past, albeit without the actual attainment of the source and origin of the laws.

Rabbi Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl wrote in regard to Israel’s disconnect from the spiritual level and loss of attainment of the Creator: “The reason for the exile is the ruin of the Temple in general and in particular. Israel have [become] so corrupted that they caused the expulsion of the Shechina [Divinity] from the general Temple. The particular [personal] Temple is within their hearts … and through the departure from the particular Temple [Divinity] … [they] departed from the general Temple and the exile arrived.”[i]

In the same spirit, Jonathan Ben Natan Netah Eibshitz wrote, “In the First Temple, Divinity did not move from the Temple because the exile was for a short time. But in the second ruin, which is for a prolonged period of time, the Shechina [Divinity] departed altogether.”[ii]

And while the majority of Jews focused on maintaining a connection with spirituality on the level instructed to them by the sages of the Mishnah and the Gemarah, there have always been those exceptional few who simply could not settle for blind observance of commandments. The questions that drove Abraham to discover the Creator were burning within them; their points in the heart had not been quenched, and they were driven to the deepest of all studies, the wisdom of Kabbalah.

[i] Rabbi Menahem Nahum of Chernobyl, Maor Eynaim [Light of the Eyes], Beresheet [Genesis].

[ii] Jonathan ben Natan Netah Eibshitz, Yaarot Devash [Honeycombs], Part 1, Treatise no. 13 (contd.).

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Like A Bundle of Reeds, Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour, Michael Laitman, Ph.D.

Chapter 3: Corrections Through the Ages
The Evolution of the Correction Method

Moses Says, “Unite!”

The solution came in the form of Moses’ Torah, but also with a new precondition for the execution of any correction from that time onward. To receive the Torah, writes the great commentator, RASHI, the people of Israel stood at the foot of Mount Sinai “as one man with one heart.”[i] That utter and complete oneness later evolved into one of Israel’s most prominent characteristics—mutual guarantee—the noble trait that distinguished Israel from all the nations of the time.

Upon their acceptance of the condition to be as one man with one heart, Israel received the Torah, the instruction, the code of law that would help them tame the ego. With it, they became a society whose every member—man, woman, and child—attained the Creator and lived by the law of mutual guarantee, in equivalence of form with the one God (or force) that Abraham had discovered. The Babylonian Talmud writes, “They checked from Dan to Beer Sheba and no ignoramus [uncorrected person] was found from Gevat to Antipris, and no boy or girl, man or woman was found who was not thoroughly versed in the laws of purity and impurity [corrections according to Moses’ law].”[ii]

With their newly acquired unity, Israel conquered Canaan—from the word Keniaa (surrender)[iii]—and turned it into the “Land of Israel”—a place where the desire for the Creator rules. The Temple that Israel established in the land represented their high level of attainment, where they continued to develop and implement Moses’ method.

And yet, as our sages write, “The evil inclination is born with man, and grows with him his whole life,”[iv] and “The inclination in a man’s heart is evil from his youth, and always grows in all the lusts.”[v] Still, Moses’ method of correction, the laws we call “the Torah,” remained intact through the first and second Temples, and even through the exile in Babel.

But as the spiritual decline of Israel continued, the people found it increasingly hard to hold on to their unity and connection with the Creator. As a result, the Second Temple was at a lower spiritual degree (level of connection, or equivalence of form with the Creator) than the first. Kabbalist Rabbi Behayei Ben Asher Even Halua explains, “Since the day when Divinity was present in Israel, upon the giving of the Torah, it did not move from Israel until the ruin of the First Temple. Since the ruin of the First Temple … it was not permanently present, as during the First Temple.”[vi]

Eventually, the level of egotism increased in the people of Israel to such an extent that it altogether detached them from each other and from the Creator. Indeed, it was the detachment from each other that caused their detachment from the Creator, from the perception of life’s fundamental force. This, in turn, resulted in the ruin of the Second Temple, and the last and longest exile.

In his book, Netzah Yisrael [The Might of Israel], Rabbi Yisrael Segal describes Israel’s fall from grace: “In the Second Temple there was a special virtue, that Israel were not divided in two; there was only unity among them. Therefore, the First Temple was ruined by transgressions that are Tuma’a [impurity], and the Lord does not dwell among them in the midst of their Tuma’a. But the Second Temple was ruined by unfounded hatred, which revokes their unity, which was their virtue in the Second Temple.”[vii]

Similarly, the great scholar and poet, Rabbi Abraham Ben Meir Ibn Ezra, wrote, “‘And you shall step on their high places,’ ‘And I will let you ride on the high places of the earth,’ and the reason is the unfounded hatred that was present in the Second Temple until it generated the exile over Israel.”[viii]

[i] Rabbi Shlomo Ben Yitzhak (RASHI), The RASHI Interpretation on the Torah, “On Exodus, 19:2.”

[ii] Babylonian Talmud, Masechet Sanhedrin, p 94b.

[iii] “It is called ‘The Land of Canaan’ because all who wish to dwell in it must be subjugated by suffering all his days” (Rav Chaim Vital (Rachu), The Book of Knowledge of Good, Bo [Come])

[iv] Midrash Tehilim [Psalms], Psalm no. 34.

[v] Rabbi Chaim Thirer, A Well of Living Waters, Toldot [Generations], Chapter 25 (contd.).

[vi] Rabbi Behayei Ben Asher Even Halua, Rabeinu Behayei about Beresheet [Genesis], 46:27.

[vii] Rabbi Yisrael Segal, Netzah Yisrael [The Might of Israel], Chapter 5.

[viii] Rabbi Abraham Ben Meir Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra about the Song of Songs, 7:3.

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Like A Bundle of Reeds, Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour, Michael Laitman, Ph.D.

Chapter 3: Corrections Through the Ages
The Evolution of the Correction Method

The (Not Necessarily) Evil Inclination

When our sages write about Yetzer HaRah (evil inclination), they refer to the way we use envy to hurt others or to benefit at their expense. But if we use the above-mentioned envy, lust, and honor properly, they become our very means of correction. This is why the Holy Shlah wrote, “The worst qualities are envy, hatred, avarice, lust, and so forth, which are the qualities of the evil inclination—the very ones with which he will serve the Creator.”[i]

And yet, inherently, we use those inclinations negatively, as it is written (Genesis, 8:21), “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Likewise, “There is no evil but the evil inclination,” wrote Shimon Ashkenazi,[ii] and centuries prior, Midrash Rabah established that “People are awash in evil inclination, as it is said, ‘For the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth.’”[iii]

Abraham discovered that of all creations, only people possess an evil inclination. This is why the great Ramchal wrote, “There is no other creation that can do harm like man. He can sin, and rebel, and the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth, which is not so with any other creature.”[iv]

Baal HaSulam writes that the evil inclination is the will to receive.[v] Yet, in previous chapters we said that the will to receive is the whole of Creation, and man constitutes the fourth, and most developed level of the will to receive. Why then is our will to receive the source of all evil?

The problem is that the will to receive on the speaking, human level is not static. It is constantly growing and constantly seeking more. In the words of our sages, “One does not leave the world with half of one’s wishes in one’s hand, for one who has one hundred desires two hundred; one who has two hundred desires four hundred.”[vi] Because we constantly seek more, we are always deficient. Likewise, the Holy Shlah says, “One who is not content is always lacking,”[vii] and is therefore constantly unhappy and dissatisfied. Looking at our consumer society, we can see that if we succumb to that element in our nature, we will be thrown into a “pleasure-hunt” that cannot end, but cannot make us happy, either.

Thus, Abraham realized that the evil inclination, the hatred and alienation that appeared among the Babylonians, was causing all the trouble among them, and that there was no hope that this ferment would wind down by itself. However, he also realized that having an intense will to receive was necessary for the completion of the purpose of Creation, for man to achieve Dvekut [adhesion, equivalence of form] with the Creator. In the words of Ramchal, completing the quote from above, “But on the other hand, when he [man] is corrected and complemented, he rises above all, and he deserves to adhere [cleave] to Him, and all other creations are dependent upon him.”[viii]

Therefore, instead of trying to annihilate the evil inclination, Abraham developed a method by which people could correct, or “tame” their inclinations, meaning their egos, and thus benefit from its growth. Once he devised the method, he began to share it with everyone, making no exceptions, as Maimonides testifies, “He began to call out to the whole world.”[ix]

As we mentioned in the Introduction, Maimonides wrote that Abraham “planted this tenet [that there is one God, one force in the world] in their hearts, composed books about it, and taught his son, Isaac.”

However, Abraham’s method was suitable only for his contemporaries. It could not, nor was it intended to be suitable for later generations. Because the evil inclination on the speaking level—the will to receive for ourselves, otherwise known as “egotism”—is ever growing and developing, by the time the people of Israel had grown into a nation and went out of Egypt, a new method of correction was required.

The three million or so who went out of Egypt were different from the seventy souls that had entered it two centuries earlier. In Egypt, Israel’s will to receive increased tremendously, and required a very explicit set of instructions in order to correct it.

[i] Rabbi Isaiah HaLevi Horowitz (The Holy Shlah), In Ten Utterances, “Sixth Utterance.”

[ii] Rabbi Shimon Ashkenazi, Yalkut Shimoni [The Shimoni Anthology], Micah, Chapter 7, continuation of intimation no. 556.

[iii] Midrash Rabah, Shemot [Exodus], Portion 30, Paragraph 17.

[iv] Ramchal (Rav Moshe Chaim Lozzatto), Daat Tevunot, 154, 165.

[v] Rav Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), The Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati [I Heard], Article no. 5, “Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below” (Ashlag Research Institute, Israel, 2009), 518.

[vi] Midrash Rabah, Kohelet [Ecclesiastes], Portion 1, Paragraph 34.

[vii] Rabbi Isaiah HaLevi Horowitz (The Holy Shlah), “Gate of Letters,” Item 60, “Satisfaction.”

[viii] Ramchal (Rav Moshe Chaim Lozzatto), Daat Tevunot, 154, 165.

[ix] Maimonides, Yad HaChazakah (The Mighty Hand), Part 1, “The Book of Science,” Chapter 1, Item 3.

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Like A Bundle of Reeds, Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour, Michael Laitman, Ph.D.

Chapter 3: Corrections Through the Ages
The Evolution of the Correction Method

In the previous chapter, we said that desires grow from still, to vegetative, to animate, to speaking. We said that this progression occurs both externally, in the overall nature, and internally, within us. We also said that only at the speaking level within us do we have free choice, but that to make choices that are beneficial to us, we must first learn how Nature operates at its root.

Finally, we said that Israel represents the desire to know the root, the Creator, the Maker of all there is, and that Abraham was the first to discover this root. He tried to teach his contemporaries, and today we Jews, the offspring of that desire, must carry on with Abraham’s vocation and complete his assignment.

What Abraham discovered was that the only problem with his countryfolk was their growing egos. They were growing too self-centered to maintain a sustainable society. They used to be of “One language and of one speech,” but due to their growing egos they became alienated and uncommunicative. They grew so indifferent to one another, so uncaring and preoccupied with self-extolling that, as mentioned in the previous chapter, “If a person fell and died [while building the tower of Babel] they would not mind him. But if a brick fell they would sit and cry and say, ‘When will another come up in its stead.’”[i]

Worse yet, Abraham discovered that the growing ego was not about to stop growing. It was an inherent trait in human nature, a distinct characteristic of the speaking level that the ego should constantly grow because it is fueled by envy of others. In his “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot (Shining and Welcoming Face),” Baal HaSulam writes, “The Creator instilled three inclinations in the masses [people], called ‘envy,’ ‘lust,’ and ‘honor.’ Due to them, the masses develop degree by degree to educe a face of a whole man.”[ii] In other words, envy is not evil in and of itself, and yet it has to be dealt with, corrected, and aimed in a constructive direction.

[i] Pirkey de Rabbi Eliezer [Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer], Chapter 24

[ii] Rav Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), The Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot [Shining and Welcoming Face]” (Ashlag Research Institute, Israel, 2009), 134.

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Like A Bundle of Reeds, Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour, Michael Laitman, Ph.D.

Chapter 2: I Want, Therefore I Am
Life as an Evolution of Desires

A Point in the Heart

This is the level that Rabbi Nathan Shapiro called, “the Godly speaking.” It is this desire that drives us to explore how this world runs, what makes it run the way it does, and why. It is this desire that we call “Israel,” Yashar El (straight to the Creator). In Abraham, that desire appeared as the craving to know “How it was possible for this wheel to always turn without a driver? Who is turning it, for it cannot turn itself?”[i]

Baal HaSulam named that desire to know the Creator, “the point in the heart.” In his “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” he explains that the heart can be viewed as the whole of one’s desires, and “the point in the heart” is the desire within us that aims toward the Creator.[ii] My teacher, Rav Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (the Rabash), the firstborn son of Baal HaSulam and his successor, explained that the “point in the heart” is the desire called “Israel.” In his words, “There is also Israel in a person … but it is called ‘a point in the heart.’”[iii]

Now we can see why Abraham was so determined to share what he had found. He knew that human desires were evolving, and he knew that the more they evolve, the more they will turn toward acquiring wealth, power, domination over others, and knowledge. It was clear to him that without acquiring the knowledge of the nature of human desires, people would not be able to manage themselves and their societies properly.

Once Nimrod succeeded in thwarting Abraham’s efforts to circulate his knowledge to the Babylonians, that wise man took those who followed him and went out of Babylon to spread his message outward. Indeed, Abraham’s legacy for us is that those who understand what he had taught should share the knowledge with whomever is willing to listen. In the words of The Book of Zohar, “Abraham dug that well [Beer Sheba]. He founded it because he had taught all the people in the world to serve the Creator. And once he dug it, it is emitting living waters that never cease.”[iv]

Today’s people of Israel are the descendants of Abraham’s students, people with points in their hearts, the point of Israel within them. And although that point is now buried under centuries of oblivion, it exists and awaits being rekindled. In the words of the Holy Shlah, “Israel are called the ‘Assembly of Israel,’ for although below they are parted from one another, still, above, at the root of their souls, they are one unity, and they are congregated, for they are the part of the Lord. The branches [the people of Israel] that wish to return to their roots must follow the example of their roots, meaning unite below as well. When separation is among them, they seemingly cause separation and severance above, see how far the matter extends. Therefore, the whole of the house of Israel must pursue peace and be one, in peace and wholeness, without a flaw, to resemble their Maker [be in equivalence of form with Him], for so is the name of the Lord, ‘Peace.’”[v]

Once Israel unite and thus correct themselves, they can fulfill their vocation and be “A light unto the nations” (Isaiah 42:6). In the words of Rabbi Naphtali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin (The NATZIV of Volojin), “The main reason why most of us live in exile is that the Lord disclosed to Abraham Our Father that his sons were made to be a light unto the nations, which is impossible unless they are scattered in the exile. So was Jacob, Our Father, when he came to Egypt, where the majority of the people were. By that, His name was made great, when they saw His providence over Jacob and his descendants.”[vi]

Speaking of the evolution of desires, the human race constitutes the fourth, and highest level of desire, the only one that allows for free choice. But to make the right choices, people need to know how everything works from its root. The Israeli people represent the desire to know the root, and it is therefore their responsibility to study the root, and pass their insights and perceptions on to the rest of humanity. Thus, everyone will know how to make their choices work in their benefit.

To obtain that knowledge, Abraham formed a study method that sages throughout the ages nurtured and developed. The next chapter will depict the evolution of that method which, since the writing of The Book of Zohar, has been referred to as “Kabbalah.”

[i] Maimonides, Yad HaChazakah (The Mighty Hand), Part 1, “The Book of Science,” Chapter 1, Item 1.

[ii] Rav Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), The Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” items 43-44 (Ashlag Research Institute, Israel, 2009), 444.

[iii] Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag (the Rabash), The Writings of Rabash, “On My Bed at Night” (Ashlag Research Institute, Israel, 2008), 129.

[iv] Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi), The Book of Zohar (with the Sulam [Ladder] Commentary by Baal HaSulam, New Zohar, Parashat Toldot, vol. 19, item 31 (Jerusalem), 8-9.

[v] Rabbi Isaiah HaLevi Horowitz (The Holy Shlah), Masechet Sukkah [Treatise, Sukkah], Chapter, “Torah, Light” (13).

[vi] Rabbi Naphtali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin (The NATZIV of Volojin), Haamek Davar [Delve Deep in the Matter] about Beresheet [Genesis], Chapter 47:28.

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Like A Bundle of Reeds, Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour, Michael Laitman, Ph.D.

Chapter 2: I Want, Therefore I Am
Life as an Evolution of Desires

Where We Are Free to Choose

As we just learned from Baal HaSulam, the difference between the speaking level of reality and the other three levels, both in their overall nature and within us, is that we are unlimited by time and place as far as choosing what to draw near us and what to repel. Put differently, in the whole of Nature, the human race is the only species that has freedom of choice. While all other creatures follow Nature’s dictates involuntarily, we can choose whether to follow them or not. Regrettably, as is evident from today’s global crises, when we choose to go against Nature’s dictates without full knowledge of the implications of our actions, we suffer harsh consequences for our mistakes.

And since internally we consist of the same four levels, the same rule applies within us, and only those desires and qualities within us that belong to the speaking level are those in which we have freedom of choice.

Within us, the basic, natural desires—for reproduction and continuation of the species, for shelter, and for provision—correspond to the first three levels of desires in Nature—still, vegetative, and animate. The fourth level, “speaking,” manifests within us in desires for wealth beyond our needs, power, fame, respect, and knowledge.

The fundamental difference between the three lower levels and the top one is that the lower three exist in every creature on earth. Every creature strives to secure the existence of its species and keep its offspring safe in a fitting shelter. Conversely, the fourth level of desires, which we will roughly define as “desires for wealth, honor, and knowledge,” are exclusively human.

Just as in their overall nature, the three lower levels function automatically, according to Nature’s dictates. The only faculty in which there is freedom of choice is the speaking level of desires. Therefore, we must first learn the works of our internal nature before we attempt to satisfy the desires of the higher level.

To be able to work with our fourth level of desires properly, we need to know what affects those desires and the purpose of their existence within us. In effect, it is another level of desires within us that “supersedes” all four levels, and which exists only in humans.

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