Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Therefore, we must understand that in every emergence in the world there are four factors where from the four of them together arises that emergence. They are called by the names:

A. The source;
B. The unchanging conduct of cause and effect, related to the source’s own attribute;
C. Its internal conduits of cause and effect, which change by contact with external forces;
D. The conducts of cause and effect of external things, which affect it from the outside.

The repeating influence of these four factors and their interaction with each other eventually results in a “product,” meaning a human being or any other kind of being. “There is nothing new under the sun.” Anything we observe has stripped off its former shape that grew up under the influence of the four above-mentioned factors.

Why is it so important to know about them? It’s because we won’t identify what we are dealing with without having an understanding of them. Who am I? What do I see? What influences me? I understand nothing about my thoughts, desires, or actions.

The simple question “what is it?” forces me to consider the four factors that created the object I am studying. Having studied them, I get to know the object, be it a phenomenon or a property, something active or subordinate, something spiritual or corporeal.… My original perception of reality is built in a way that things that do not undergo the four factors do not exist for me. I am unable to know them.

Whatever I see has already gone through a certain developmental process, and as a consequence, it’s revealed in me. By asking “what is it?”, I in fact question the origin of the object. Hence, there always are the four factors that lie between the source of the object and my perception of it. Without them, I am unable to recognize objects and phenomena. The question about the essence of any object is an inquiry about the difference between its prior stage when this phenomenon was not yet known to me and my current sensation of it.

In this case, can we call each prior stage “the source”? What is it? Does a primary (original) condition called a primary source exist?

In spirituality, at all times there is a beginning (a root) followed by the development by four stages and completion. This entity represents a standard “unit” in which the root stage is named “the source” that initiates the whole process.

It is an entity that has stripped off its former shape and taken on another form, different from the original. And that entity, which shed its previous form, is defined as “the source.” In it lies the potential destined to be revealed and determined at the end of the formation of that emergence. Therefore, it is clearly considered its primary cause.

The source contains potential force that further turns into an action and acquires a final shape at the last stage.

[63233]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/2011, “The Freedom”

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Only the force that I develop in front of myself to attract me to bestowal is a sign of spiritual advancement. Sometimes, we do not understand what is going on; why there is no advancement if so much effort has been applied. We are on this path for so many years, but still cannot finish the period of preparation. What else is required of us?

And we do not understand that we have been waiting all that time for some kind of force to come and push us instead of using our own actions to create the force that would attract us forward rather than pushing from behind. We take this motivation from the environment in order to move forward due to the greatness of the goal, bestowal.

This is all our work, the freedom of choice, annulling ourselves and raising the environment. Everything is in order to become inspired by the goal and elevate it. It is not enough that I attach myself to it. I need a very powerful force of attraction that can outweigh my ego and make me revolve around this goal day and night, to lose sleep over it.

If I manage to create such a large attractive force, then I will move forward.

This is the human level, opposite to all the previous steps. This is not a natural development that comes from nature and happens by itself. Sufferings will not help there; they will not propel me forward. Only my own efforts and concentration of forces, using all the advices of Kabbalists and all the means that will influence me and inspire the greatness of the goal, will help me move forward so that I rush towards it.

And the goal is bestowal to which I am going without any other calculations, goals, or rewards, nothing, but pure bestowal.
[64517]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, Shamati

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Baal Hasulam, “The Freedom”: “All their wisdom did not help them find a bridge on which to cross that wide and deep crevice that spreads between the spiritual entity and the corporeal atom. Thus, science has gained nothing from all these metaphysical methods.”

A person inherits his attributes from his parents. These attributes cannot be changed, but society influences them and gives them different forms. Eventually a person doesn’t express himself but rather expresses the external society.

The attributes can differ but what matters is the form they are given: a person can be a great gangster or a great scientist, can slaughter animals or slaughter people. The distance between a policeman and a thief is very small, and they both understand each other.

So society does whatever it wants with a person. Although there is the preliminary kernel in a person, the influencing factors do whatever they want with him. This is the way things are on the corporeal level, and so we don’t decide anything here.

However, on the spiritual level we have to discover the root of a person’s soul, the point in the heart, and to place it in an environment that will provide it with the reforming Light. We have to build a spiritual environment that will provide a person with this spiritual Light that will influence the point in his heart and open it.

A person, on his part has to lower himself in front of the right environment and to neutralize his ego in order to remove the egotistic covers from the point in the heart. He has to bring his point out and to connect it with the other points, so that it will really look like yearning for bestowal. Although their intention is still egoistic, they are attracted to mutual bestowal, to the force that resembles, at least to some extent, the reforming Light. This is the only way to draw it. This Light influences the egoistic forces in us that are trying to keep in contact, despite the hatred we feel.

So there is the preliminary point in the heart, the root of a person’s soul, and there is the reforming Light, the force that develops the root of the soul. All the egoistic conditions in a person and in the environment, meaning the group, were meant to develop the force of bestowal, the intention to reach bestowal as much as possible. It is for this reason that we see ourselves dressed in an egoistic shell, and we also see the group as repulsive. This allows us to bring out our point and to place it against the reforming Light. Otherwise, we would simply not be able to do it.

So the shell is called “helpmate.” It enables me to place my point under the Light.
[64569]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, Baal HaSulam “The Freedom”

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We already understand that free will isn’t a simple term. We are born with attributes we didn’t choose, to a family and conditions we didn’t choose, we get an education we didn’t choose…in short, we are raised and molded having no free will.

As a result, a person in this world is “cooked” by his parents, the environment, and society…so he has no freedom and we cannot demand anything from him; after all, he is a machine. It seems to him that he has his own thoughts, his own desires, his own deeds, but actually they are inevitable and he is compelled to act that way.

So, what is the point of creation? We are talking about a thought of nature, about the desire, the intention, the great wisdom. In fact, the Creator, or the Upper Force, by definition, has great wisdom, much more than all of the creation that is below Him.

When we study the world, we discover inconceivable wisdom in it. We only manage to “scratch” the surface and all our science is based on that. In fact, we haven’t started to discover the real forces, the real relationships, the real forms and connection that exist in this reality.

So why did the Creator create the world?—So that the created beings will follow a predetermined plan? After all, the beginning and end are already known, and everything is predetermined and we have no say and no free will. Our whole development is predetermined. And for the Creator the concept of time doesn’t exist.

So all this is useless. Can the created beings do anything independently, in some way or at some point?—Something for which it was worthwhile to create them, together with this whole reality?

The basic question is: Where is our free will for which the Creator created everything? The spiritual worlds, the innumerable forms and phenomena and the corporeal universe we live in—is all this only so that a person will perform some independent action at some brief moment in his life? The one moment that gives everything else a meaning.

At present this moment it is evasive, leaving us with a question we have no answer for. But if we find the point in which we can add one gram by ourselves, then all of reality will light up and you will discover its wonderful infinite filling….

So we have to find out where our free will is. If we check this logically, reality cannot exist without this option. After all, there would be no reason for the wise nature to create anything otherwise. In such a case, there would be no meaning for its actions.

We have to look for our freedom. Without it our life will remain programmed, planned, and we will continue to be managed like puppets on a string. We have to look for the point of free will and to realize it. This is man’s whole designation.

What is that freedom? Freedom from whom? From the Creator and His orders? Of course; as long as I am attached to Him, I am not me. He moves me. So I have to be free not from other people and not even from myself, but first and foremost from Him. The Creator has created a certain state in which I can be detached from Him, from His control. Then I will be free.

The question is: What do I do with this freedom? What new abilities do I acquire? With what thought, with what feeling, and with what action do I fill the void that is suddenly revealed for me?

We will talk about this some other time.
[64574]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/11, Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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The attributes of a person are divided into two main types: internal factors, which we inherit and are born with, and external factors, which we receive from education, the environment, mass media, and so on. Actually, these factors do not depend on the person, even though they in fact shape his personality and determine his fate. The question arises: How can one improve his life?

It’s here that we need to clarify the factor of the environment. The real environment is not just a combination of external influences, but it’s that same external influence that I created by myself for myself. In order to do this, I need to get into contact with certain external factors and build them correctly in relation to myself so that they’ll influence me in a special, selective way that yields certain results.

It’s in this way that I work independently. I initiate this plan by myself, utilizing the powers that I need, when I know my nature and theirs, and thanks to this, I influence myself. I don’t influence anything outside of me; rather, I use external factors so that they will influence me in a certain way. Thanks to this, I change and then feel myself in a world that changes for the better.

Thus I don’t turn into one of those “benefactors” who change nature and correct the world. On the contrary, I use external forces in order to correct myself and improve my life. One must take into consideration these points because we make mistakes in realizing them, or actually in approaching them.
[64230]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/2011, “The Freedom”

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We are born and develop in a human society with our inborn qualities and the qualities engrained in us by society: parents, kindergarten, school, the neighborhood, and so on. All the qualities we acquire over the course of our lives and all our actions determined by the initial, inner program—is not who we are.

There is nothing private or independent in it, nothing cultivated and determined by the actual person experiencing the situation. In the end, this refers to a combination of the inborn qualities developing in a person and external influences.

Everything rolls along as it should, with the exception of one moment, which we cannot fully understand. Man learns that he can choose an environment, which will develop him in a specific direction.

The first question to appear is: Why is this unusual? Why is this called free choice?

For example, if I want to learn music, I surround myself with musicians. Is my “I” present in this? Is this my free choice?

I make new acquaintances in my musical environment and advance through them. Do I realize my freedom of will this way?

I am told “no,” that I am being driven by a desire that originated in me. There is nothing “yours” here. Simply the first impulse has directed you to this environment, and that is it. This happens to everyone.

Where is the freedom of will then? It is clear that I become inspired by the desires of the environment; they ignite me; I fall under the environment’s influence and wish to grow as a musician. But none of this speaks of freedom.

True freedom manifests when I resist the environment, oppose what it represents, refuse to realize my desire in it—yet in desperation, I understand that it is the only place to realize it. I must connect to my friends to attain the goal, but I hate them at the same time; I am repulsed by them, and I do not wish to act through them. In the presence of these two poles my choice is born—in the free space between these two opposite extremes.

Possibly this only happens when I have a point in the heart, when the Creator is before me, and the evil inclination is against me. In this case the group is the area where I must realize myself.

If everything was to be put in place, then my free choice, the middle third of Tifferet, really lies in the group, the unity of friends, which help me rise to the Creator. But when a person simply lives in our world, he has no freedom of choice.

Beginning with this point and realizing our free choice every time, we ascend the steps of the spiritual ladder and acquire the structure called “Man” (Adam) until we build it in its full volume on the degree of Malchut of the world of Infinity at the end of correction.

All this is realized through choosing the best environment: Every time we submerge deeper into the group, become better connected to it—and thus we grow.
[64432]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/11, Baal HaSulam, The Freedom”

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The Creator brings us to the place where we can achieve the goal. All we need to do is perform a minor correction. It is as though I have this big car that is completely fine except for some tiny bolt. I just need to twist it one half-turn, and the engine will start, the car will start moving.

However, without this half-turn, nothing will happen. Maybe I just need to put in the safety lock into the electric chain, the spark igniter into the engine. That’s all that is required of me, nothing else! I don’t need to learn about the engine and the whole big car. I merely need to know precisely where to insert this spark igniter now.

The Creator brings me directly to that place and shows it to me. He attunes my feelings and mind precisely, illustrating to me how poorly I felt before and how well I will feel here. I sense all this inside me, in my desire.

And now, when I have the direction, I need to perform a choice. I can either just run away from a bad place to a good one, but this will not be according to my free choice; it will just be according to nature. Everyone, any animal or person, the smartest and the stupidest alike, would do the same and run away from a bad life toward a good life. After all, our matter is the desire to receive pleasure.

However, I must build my free choice above my nature. I need to rise above my sensation so that my movement will be for the sake of pleasing the Creator instead of acquiring a pleasant life. My freedom of will consists only in this point, in this work. I need to permeate within this point as deeply as possible and not let anything distract me so that as a result, I will clarify what my fate really means.
[63719]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: Thus, we are at the hands of these four factors, as clay in the hands of a potter.

We are surrounded by the influence from Above from all sides. The Creator rules over us in a very harsh and absolute manner as He controls all the channels, both internal and external, in our desires, thoughts, habits, and nature. We have nothing that is ours, and even the words I am saying now are arranged by Him.

So what is our free will? After all, we cannot attribute freedom to any object, action, thought, or the smallest particle of the desire to receive. The Creator created it, He influences it absolutely, so what can be free in it?

People have come up with theories about two authorities and polytheism, about which Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Peace.” It is hard to agree that there is only one authority that “covers” everything. If the Creator is unified, if there is none else besides Him, if everything depends on Him, then I am under His absolute control, and it is as if I don’t exist, but rather dissolve in Him. So it is preferable to have two authorities: a good one and a bad one. This is understandable; in between them there is room for me, and I can affect things.

Still, at some point I realize that behind everything that affects me there is one Source. It isn’t an image that we can picture, but a mind, a feeling, something unified. I only have to discover the reason why it affects me, what it wants from me? What I should become according to its influence?

By knowing what He wants from me, I will know Him. What for? Is it just to make an acquaintance or in order to fulfill His desire?

What was His intent in creating me? What does He want by managing me this way? If He only wants me to obey Him, then it’s better not to know anything, but to simply act according to the instructions I have received. But if He really wants me to attain, to reveal Him, then I have to do everything to attain this goal and not to act automatically.

So there is a lot of work a person has to do regarding the initial cause of everything. This is our only work: to constantly sharpen and “polish” our attitude to Him. Who is He? What does He want from me? Why did He make me react this way? I constantly climb the levels of my attitude and clarify what He wants to give me by putting demands to me. What He wants is that thanks to bestowal upon Him, I will understand Him.

I continue this chain and constantly raise the level of His demands to me. Thus I have to justify the evil just like the good since they both come from one source. I have to understand why He splits His bestowal into two—thanks to this I will be able to check myself, to adjust my course. For Him this duality doesn’t exist, but my reality is divided into bestowal and reception.

Eventually, we must constantly reveal the concept of Unified, and not more than that. If I paid attention to that, I would see that there is nothing else in my life. Even in the corporeal world everything comes down to this clarification that discovers unity and reveals the Creator.
[63986]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/2011, “The Freedom”

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A person is born with predetermined properties. He is not held responsible for them, whether they are good or bad—if there is anything good among them at all, apart from the point in the heart that is waiting to be awakened. It is said in the Torah: “Awakening of one’s heart is bad from the time of one’s youth.”

But in any event all the properties of a person are combined together and designed for his or her spiritual ascent. A person has only one thing to accomplish in this world: to rise from the animate degree to the speaking one. And thus, everything there is in him, including his internal spiritual point, as well as his external material qualities, all his parameters, everything that forms him is surely built this way to make him aspire toward the goal. Everything descends here from this goal, from this final point of the end of correction, and from this place everything rises back to the end of correction.

There definitely are no accidents. Everything is designed only for this lofty task. And for this reason, we should treat the evil the same way we treat the good, accepting all the things as the necessary components that connect together to form a perfect, internal state for us.

We inherit part of our properties from our father and mother, and we get another part of them through our upbringing. Then we add to all this the properties received from our environment, the habits that become our second nature, and so on. All these properties settle within us as if we were actually born with them.

Here we should realize that nothing happens by chance, as people in our world think. On the contrary, everything gets to us through the system that influences us gradually, according to the program that works in tune with the general scheme of systemic interactions.

Thus, it is not really important what particular factors formed me, whether they are my parents, fellow kindergarten and school students, my neighbors, radio and television, books, or something else. Essentially, the following thing happens to us: From the Creator we receive the point of desire created as existence from absence. Further on, this point is exposed to various influences of the Light, which Baal HaSulam divides by level into inherited properties, intrauterine factors, influence of the closest environment, the society’s influence, habits, and so on. All in all, they all come from the Creator, and this is how we should treat them.

This gives rise to a question: What has been placed upon me? I start understanding that everything in my life originates from a single and unique Source that clothes into various garments. In truth, these are not garments, I just see them as such. In reality, it is the same upper Light that has passed through various filters and is now drawing various images in my imagination. These images form the picture of the world for me, which includes the still, vegetative, and animate nature, as well as people. By means of this the Creator constantly “shakes” me, gives me no peace, pushing me further and further ahead.

So, when one gathers all these kinds of influences into one whole, while connecting them to the correct goal, then one deals with the Creator.
[63989]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/2011, “The Freedom”

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The Creator puts one’s hand on the good fate and says: “Take it!” He gives a person desire, awakens in him the question about the meaning of life and impressions, and arranges everything for him, bringing him to the place where he can realize himself, that is, to receive answers to his questions.

But the question is: Where is the person himself here? After all, everything is already predetermined by how I am structured, what kind of education I received, and how I was directed until this very moment. If I take a look back on my life, I will see that it was always turning somehow, like some kind of taut spring. And even though I don’t see clearly Who was turning it, nevertheless someone was arranging everything for me: gave me the question about the meaning of life, organized the group that I found, the books.

Everything is already organized from Above, and it’s as if they took me by the ear and brought me to the correct place. So where is my free choice here?

It turns out that free choice begins long after this. After you are brought to the group that is studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, you begin to study, receive impressions, and become overwhelmed with sensations, and it then seems to you that you finally found your place. But actually, you still don’t understand anything, and all of this is not yet what you need to reach.

The place of your free choice is that empty area, that white spot that you need to fill. It is ahead of you, and you still haven’t discovered it. In the meantime, you study and are thrown from state to state without any choice. When a bad state comes, you fall into depression, and when a good state comes, you are happy.

Sometimes you receive understanding because the desire to know everything appears in you; sometimes your feelings arise as the desire to feel awakens in you. And in this way you are taken through all kinds of states together with the group, with the environment. But in the meantime, the current carries you, without any free action of your own.

And thus it continues, until you reach the empty place that you need to recognize and on which you need to concentrate all your attention. This is so since it is specifically in it that you realize yourself. And if you don’t realize your free choice there, nothing will happen.

All that is in the hands of the Creator will definitely come true. But no one can do anything with that empty place without your correct cooperation. And this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah talks about!
[64694]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/2011, “Introduction to TES”

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