Question: In “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” Baal HaSulam writes that in our world the receiving desire materializes in its entire, adequate, desired form. What is it desired for?

Answer: For correction. Otherwise why would it need to descend down the ladder of the spiritual worlds? Moreover, on the lowest level it went through life cycles over and over again until taking on the adequate form in our time. Even in our world the development happens “according to schedule,” and now in the 21st century we are starting our ascent back up. Our current state is the desired, adequate form.

This point was instilled in us from the beginning of creation and we had to reach it. Now is exactly the beginning of man’s or creation’s birth. Until now there was no creation. There was just desire, which developed according to a set program in order to reach a specific state where a point of freedom emerges, the point of our independence.

Question: We are talking about a fully formed egoistic desire, but the “desired form” sounds like a positive thing.

Answer: Of course, this is a positive state. That is exactly how the Torah defines the deadly egoistic desire that has accumulated its full might. This is where creation begins because now it can form, express, and sense itself.

As long as a person doesn’t feel that he is evil, completely opposite to the Creator, as long as he doesn’t realize the entire horror of being in this position, he won’t be able to work on himself. Therefore, in the boundaries of the process of correction, this is a good state because it leads to the formation of a human being.

However, if you suppose that “goodness” is when you feel good, fine, go ahead and feel good. But this is purposeless. In a goal-oriented state a person feels his opposition to the Creator, and this is exactly what motivates him to act.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/11, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: In “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” Baal HaSulam writes that the desire for pleasure, which formed in its final form, is in “this world.” What is “this world?”

Answer: It’s precisely what is written there: the state of the “receiving desire which has formed in its final form.” In reality there are two things in existence: Light and desire. Everything else are just names for these forces.

When the receiving desire undergoes changes, it finally reaches the lowest state called “this world.” This is a spiritual notion, which is why we differentiate between it and “our world,” in which we exist for now on the animate level. Only a person who feels that he is at the last stage, in the final form of the egoistic desire, determines his location as “this world.” This can already be called spiritual attainment in some sense because a person is aware of where he is according to the spiritual coordinates. But a “person from the street” does not live in “this world” yet, but still in his own world.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/11, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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If the Creator wishes to be the Creator, He needs the creature. This created being, which exists separately from the Creator and feels independent of Him, receives from and responds to the Creator, and it is considered as though it is giving back. In other words, these two have to have a certain relationship, feelings, thoughts, and interaction.

There has to be two! Therefore, it’s necessary to create a being separate of the Creator, meaning that its nature should be the will to receive pleasure—the only thing it lacks to be the creature. That is, it has to feel alive, existing, and receiving. Then, by using this desire to receive, it can become like the giver and respond to the Creator’s love in the right way.

Thus, except for the will to receive pleasure, the creature must also possess a “steering wheel” in order to turn this desire and change its direction from 100% of receiving for its own sake to 100% of receiving for the Creator’s sake. And in the rest of this interval between them, there will be various combinations between these two extremes: one part to the Creator, and the other to me.

This is what defines the entire ladder of spiritual rungs. I start with 100% for myself and gradually turn the “wheel” 180 degrees to 100% of bestowal to the Creator or other people. It doesn’t matter to whom because it’s all about how I use myself.

“I” is my desire, whereas the “steer” is my intention, meaning for the sake of whom I exert. This is what determines my state. And now the only question is at which point of this circle I am. We start at the zero point (0) and finish with the final correction (Gmar Tikkun), the state of absolute love and bestowal.

So, according to the plan of creation “to delight the creatures,” the Creator creates the necessary desire. Additionally, He gives the creature conditions which allow it to control the desire and turn itself in the direction it chooses—if I wish to “drive” to the higher rungs, on the 125 degree ladder, from the zero point of “this world” to the world of Infinity. This is how the plan of creation works.

In order to keep “driving,” I need to see the road ahead of me. I have to know what is necessary to keep driving and how to obtain “fuel.” I should know how to steer the wheel, change direction, and stay out of trouble on this path. I have to clarify for myself all of these criteria and check whether I am following them or not, if I can change and control them.

Then, I will gradually begin to see in all of these “road traffic” conditions that I am losing sight of myself ever more. I can keep driving only if I am willing for the new form to clothe in me all the time, the one that is ever closer and more similar to the Creator. Phase after phase, point after point of this trip, when I have covered another distance and advanced a bit more, I get internally transformed, and the image of the Creator clothes in me ever more. This means that I am “driving” and getting closer to Him.

Consequently, we need to make our desire to enjoy ready for such transformations, to assume such forms of the upper one. This implies the restriction of the will to receive and annulment of one’s egoistic intention, until it starts to obtain the forms of bestowal, the Creator’s forms, getting closer to Him ever more.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Writings of Rabash, “Who Causes the Prayer”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter, “Mishpatim,” “Neshikin (Kisses),” Item 555, Lesson 20
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Vol. 1, Part 1 “Histaklut Pnimit,” Lesson 18
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Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 1, Lesson 2
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We ask, “Why did the Creator make us so dark and egoistic, and not otherwise?” As if we understood how anything is possible otherwise…. Nevertheless, if this question arises in us, that means it has a place. Every question that arises in a person, even one that seems like the most stupid or accidental one, means that there is an inner reason for it. That is how a person is built: He asks this question and has to receive an answer or fulfillment to it.

But as long as we aren’t able to feel the answer inside of us, we will have to accept it as a hypothesis that “The advantage of the Light is attained only from darkness.” That is, the sensation of pleasure, the “taste” by which the Creator wanted to give pleasure to creation, can only be felt in us to the degree we have a desire or lack.

And it is impossible to hear about this lack from somewhere on the side. It has to be felt inside of you, as your own need for fulfillment. Then the pleasure will also be yours! You will feel it and enjoy it.

Therefore, this requires a special development of desires, the need to feel the Light in creation, and then the pleasure will dress inside of these desires. To the extent there was a desire, that is how the pleasure will be felt.

If the Creator exists, if He is good and carries goodness, filling everything with infinite Light, and His desire is to delight us boundlessly, it turns out that the only thing missing is our desire to receive all of that! All of the Creator’s abundance is already spilled all around us, but we are unable to feel it or to ask it to enter us.

We shout to Him, “Give it to me already! When will I receive it?” But we have to understand once and for all that we have nothing to ask for besides the desire. The Light is already there—as much as you want! The problem is only the desire, which has to be big and suitable for feeling that Light.

We have to somehow acquire, buy, or steal that desire, manage to receive it in some way, directly or in a roundabout way. It doesn’t matter how; we are obligated to attain it in any case! Without this desire, we won’t feel the Light!

It’s like there is an open book lying in front of me but I don’t have glasses, and therefore I can’t read it! Will I pray for someone to give me the book? No—I will ask for glasses! We only lack the “instrument of perception” (the Kli), meaning the “vessel” or desire.

Therefore, all the actions we are led through are not necessary in order to attract the Light. They are actions forming the desire for this Light in us.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/11, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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It is very hard for us to imagine how a created being that was made by the Light, existed in adhesion with it, and didn’t sense any deficiency caused by being opposite to it suddenly felt ashamed and didn’t agree to stay in this state, restricted itself, and expelled all the Light. What must the creature feel when it sees itself as totally distant from the Light and desires to be identical to it?

The state of adhesion and perfection, which the created being experienced while being in the world of Infinity before the restriction, later on makes it take this road back to Infinity through all the states (1-2-3). And despite the fact that on the part of the Light there are no changes and the Creator never separates Himself from the created being, doesn’t see any flaws or the need for correction in it, the creature itself can’t accept being different from the Creator in any degree.

This marvelous feeling compels the created being to undertake such dramatic steps: to restrict its desire, obtain a screen, undergo the entire process of distancing itself from the Creator, from the Light, and then return back to Him, having completed the full circle. This is how desire acts.

And how can it be that the Light which gives the created being a feeling of their oneness, unity, and the absence of differences between them at the same time evokes in the creature a peculiar type of shame that forces the latter to restrict itself and walk this entire long road away from the Creator?

This feeling of shame has something unique; it becomes a powerful engine that makes the created being withdraw from the Creator, hide itself from Him, just like one person hides from someone that he is ashamed of, to make all the necessary corrections later on. And it’s not so that he may feel proud of himself, but rather so that he could return to the Creator His love that the created being felt emanating from Him when it felt ashamed. These are very exalted notions.

So it follows that it’s worthwhile for the creature to make this horrific full circle, never stopping on this path, giving into nothing, although it could return back to the state of Infinity any time! And still, every new instant it decides again: “No, I am not going to succumb to this infinite pleasure unless I act consciously in it and can feel proud of and respect myself!” Obviously, it isn’t about egoistic pride; it’s about the creature wanting to give to the Creator the attitude that it revealed in relation to itself.

Essentially, in the world of Infinity, the Creator’s love doesn’t commit the creature to anything. The Creator treats it like a father who loves his son infinitely and is willing to bestow everything to him, without any reservation and implying no shame. And yet, the son, while having known the Creator’s love for him, realizes that he himself is unable to love. And it is the only thing that makes him feel ashamed: that he himself is unable to love unconditionally and give to the Creator the same kind of feeling from the point of darkness and separation.

Hence, the son makes a decision to accept from his Father darkness rather than Light and the most horrible blows. He pledges to keep loving Him no matter what, as if he is receiving only the most kindly, true Light of Infinity. The Father’s love is endless and absolute, and hence the son decides to love Him no less.

Therefore, he has no other chance of reaching this state except by walking the path of darkness, which is directly opposite to infinite fulfillment. It’s because above this entire darkness, he can reveal unconditional love.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Our will to enjoy is constantly changing and growing. There is an inner engine in it that keeps spinning and thereby unfolding our will to enjoy one layer after another.

If I am not in sync with this engine and don’t correct my will to receive so that it is filled with the Light, this desire unfolds darkness to me, and I feel worse. In the meantime, the engine continues to spin, whereas I, having not corrected my previous desire, am delayed and cannot correct my current state either. This makes my life much more disappointing and difficult. Day by day I am feeling more miserable.

Therefore, if a person understands that nothing is going to come from the Creator and it is the created being who is supposed to provide everything, if he realizes that nature has been arranged so as to reveal to us our entire will to receive and all we have to do is reach correction, only then does he view reality in the right way. It is all up to us. The ball is in our court.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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All we need is to develop the desire. I remember when I used to own a clinic, one of the workers used to bring Yemenite food with her. At first I couldn’t come near it since I simply did not understand what this was. That’s how different it tasted from anything I was used to. But with time, I started becoming familiar with this food and tasting it, and little by little, I developed an appetite for it.

It’s the same as how a baby is born into the world without having any tastes yet. Afterwards, depending on the customs and predilections of his society, he begins to get used to food and to acquire a taste for it. Without taste, without the desire to eat precisely some specific dish, we would not be able to enjoy it. Of course, it’s possible to eat so you don’t starve to death, but that’s not the same as pleasure. You can receive the pleasures of this world as a bare necessity, but anything beyond that is admissible only if you desire to enjoy—and that enjoyment has to come from bestowal.

Question: Baal HaSulam writes that this requires only a psychological shift. What is that?

Answer: We do not understand how it is possible to enjoy by loving and filling someone you love. “Someone you love” is not just my child, taking care of whom gives me pleasure naturally. Rather, we are talking about someone who’s a stranger, who is alien, distant, opposite, and even hateful to me. This is like food from a foreign country that nauseates me. So I deliberately start developing the taste for it, looking for an approach to it, for closeness and understanding. Gradually the corresponding desires are born inside of me and then I suddenly feel that I love this person.

A question arises: If I love him, then won’t my bestowal to him be egoistic? After all, I will be enjoying it.

That’s true, but my love does not revoke the hatred I felt before. That hatred remains with me constantly and even increases, just like it happened with the students of Rabbi Shimon who write in The Book of Zohar that at first they hate one another, but then they reach love. We continuously advance in two lines, elevating love above hatred, as it is written, “Love will cover all sins.”

Precisely the hatred and love together create the taste, the “juice,” the might of the pleasure. They are like two reigns. If you nullify hatred, then only a tiny material relish will remain with you from the entire height of pleasure, but if you rise above the hatred, covering it with the screen of love time after time, then you end up with a huge vessel that has a huge pleasure inside.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/11, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 14: Thus, we have thoroughly clarified that the worlds, the generation, the changes, and the number of degrees, and so on were said only with respect to the Kelim (vessels) that give to the souls, conceal, and measure for them so they can gradually receive from the Light of Ein Sof in them. But they do not affect the Light of Ein Sof itself in any way since no coverings affect the one who is covered, but only the other, who wishes to feel it and receive from it, as said in the allegory.

Baal HaSulam explains also in “Preface to The Book of Zohar” that the entire perception of reality occurs only relatively to the receiver, person, observer. Everything is relative; it all depends on a person’s properties, and according to them, he or she perceives everything as if existing outside of him or her.

Is there reality outside of man? We don’t know that. It’s known from the wisdom of Kabbalah that the simple Surrounding Light exists outside of us. We don’t have any possibility of sensing it from the outside. We are sensible creatures, meaning that we sense what is perceived inside of us. If I sense that something exists outside, I perceive it in all my senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch). However, I perceive it inside my sense organ, and if deprived of it, I don’t perceive what exists outside of me.

Our aggregate sense organ is called the “will to enjoy.” It’s divided into five parts, according to the levels of Aviut (thickness) of desire. These levels (Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet or 0,1,2,3,4 accordingly) can be called spiritual or earthly sense organs: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

That is, our desire consists of five parts or five forms of perception: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch as in our world. I perceive something that within me acquires the form of desire, vessel.

This is like “manna” that nourished the people of Israel in the desert. I take this “manna” and taste “barbecue”; the other tastes fish, the third salad, the fourth chicken or cereal. Each receives according to his desires. However, all this is called “manna.”

What is “manna”? It’s something from the sky that has no properties. Who perceives these properties? The receiver does. As soon as I absorb this “manna,” desiring to taste steak, I taste steak. I want tea and taste tea. I want saltier food, and the food becomes saltier instantly. I want it spicier, and it becomes spicier. It’s good, isn’t it? “Make your desire like His,” and then “He will make your desire like His.”

The upper Light existing outside us doesn’t have any form; it has only the desire to bestow. If you want to derive pleasure from it the correct way, He will give you this sensation at once, without problems. Therefore, everything depends on the creature. The form of reality depends on our desires, vessels of perception. That is why we have nobody to pray to, nobody to ask, nobody to turn to, but only to ourselves, to the extent of our corruptness and the ability to become a little bit more corrected.

We’ll feel better to the extent we correct ourselves. In essence, this is the entire process we experience.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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