Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Two Ways to Discover the Wholeness

Two forces press us to develop toward similarity of properties with the Creator:

1. The path of pain, which pushes us without our own choice;
2. The path of Kabbalah, when we incite its pulling us forward and are aware of the importance of bestowal. Correcting ourselves in order to bring contentment to our Maker expedites the path of correction, and we benefit twice:

A. We do not have to wait for the recognition of evil to push us toward correction. On the contrary, the work for the sake of the Creator develops within us a relative recognition of evil without suffering, but rather quickly and pleasantly so as to delight the Creator. We feel how much egoism impedes us from sensing pleasure from bestowal to the Creator.

B. We save time since it depends on the recognition of evil, which is up to us.
-Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
[47005]

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Two Ways to Discover the Wholeness

There are two ways to discover the completeness: the path of Torah and the path of pain.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Solution”

There are two authorities in the conduct of development:

• The authority of Heaven, the rule of natural law of development which transforms egoism into bestowal through suffering;
• The “authority of the earth,” the rule of people who have taken the laws of development under their own government, manage their correction, and can free themselves entirely from the long and painful path of natural development.

– Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”
[47005]

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Remoteness from the Creator is the Reason for All Suffering

If a person from Israel degrades the virtue of the internality of the Torah, which deals with the correction of the souls, with regard to the advantage of the externality of the Torah, which deals only with the mechanical observance of rituals, by that one degrades the children of Israel and enhances the Nations of the World over them, which will regard Israel as superfluous, as though the world has no need for them. Furthermore, one evokes the strengthening of the destructors of the world, which leads to pogroms and wars.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 69

The Light of love will not awaken in the world before Israel starts engaging in the Torah for the sake of correction and not reward. Thus, the length of the exile and afflictions depends on our decision to correct ourselves. Then the Light of love will immediately awaken, and we will be granted complete redemption [from egoism].
Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 36
[46753]

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Filed under: Israel, Kabbalistic Sources - 1 Comment →

Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Remoteness from the Creator is the Reason for All Suffering

When all human beings agree to free themselves of their will to receive and have no other desire but to bestow upon their friends, all worries and jeopardy in the world would cease to exist. And we would all be assured of a whole and wholesome life since each of us would have a whole world caring for us, ready to fulfill our needs.

Yet, while each of us is only in egoism, it is the source of all the worries, suffering, wars, maladies, and pain.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 19
[46751]

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Remoteness from the Creator is the Reason for All Suffering

The property of our uniqueness, of being the center of the world extends to us directly from the Creator, who is single in the world and the Root of all creations. But in the Creator this quality evokes love for all, while in us it connects with our narrow egoism and drives one to to use the entire world only for oneself. This is how the sensation of singularity becomes the source of all the ruins that were and will be in the world.
– Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

Pleasure and sublimity are measured by the extent of equivalence of form with the Creator. And pain and intolerance are measured by the extent of disparity of form from His qualities. Thus, egoism is loathsome and pains us, as its form is opposite from the Creator.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
[46749]

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Remoteness from the Creator is the Reason for All Suffering

The reason for our distance from the Creator and our ability to transgress His will is none other than the “lack of our understanding in His Providence over His creations.” We do not understand the Creator! It is the source of all the torment that we suffer and the mistakes that we fail in. Clearly, by removing that reason, we will instantly be rid of any sorrow and pain and be granted adhesion with Him.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 42

The basis of all evil is self-love called “egoism.” It is opposite in form from the Creator who hasn’t any will to receive for Himself, but only to bestow.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
[46743]

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Discrepancy between Man’s Nature and the Nature of the Creator

When one emerges out of the bosom of creation, one is in utter egoism, self-love, and his every movement is without a shred of bestowal upon others. Thus, then one is at the farthest distance from the Creator, the property of absolute altruism. Therefore, his situation is regarded as being at the lowest point of creation.
– Baal HaSulam, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah), Item 12

Although the will to receive is a mandatory law in the creature, it nonetheless completely separates it from the Emanator. There is disparity of form to the point of oppositeness between the creature and the Emanator, between the will to receive and the will to bestow.
– Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 13

Evil, in general, is nothing more than self-love called “egoism” since it is opposite in form from the Creator who hasn’t any will to receive for Himself, but only to bestow.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
[46636]

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Subject of the Purpose of Creation Is Man

And the most important thing in this whole diverse reality is the sensation given to the animals—that each of them feels its own existence. And the most important sensation is the noetic sensation, given to man alone, by which one also feels what is in one’s other—the pains and comforts. Hence, it is certain that if the Creator has a purpose in this Creation, its subject is man. It is said about him, “All of the Lord’s works are for him.”
– Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

The ability to sense others manifests only at the “speaking” level, after studying Kabbalah, when they invert their will to receive to a will to bestow and come to equivalence of form with the Creator. …By that they become qualified to receive the purpose of the Thought of Creation.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 39
[46594]

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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Subject of the Purpose of Creation Is Man

The value of one person from the speaking level equalizes with the value of all the forces in the still, vegetative, and animate levels.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 3

Man is the center of Creation. And all other creatures do not have any value of their own but to the extent that they help man achieve his perfection. Hence, they rise and fall with him without any consideration of themselves.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 18
[46503]

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 1, “Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words,” Question 43: What is separation?

Two degrees without any Hishtavut Tzura [equivalence of form] on any side are regarded as completely separated from one another.

Our desires are like two circles: They can coincide completely, superimposing on each other and thus becoming one circle. Or they can overlap and be partially one inside the other. Or they can come in contact with one another with one point, their common desire.

Total separation means that we don’t have a single common quality or desire. That is to say, the first is not similar to the second in any way and we do not attain any form of bestowal with one another that would allow us to be one inside the other.
If I don’t take a single desire from you in order to bestow to you, and you don’t take a single desire from me in order to bestow to me, then we do not touch each other and are completely separated.

If at least one desire to bestow to one another appears between us, then there is already contact between us. And if there are several desires like that, then we are already partially one inside the other: I am inside your desires and you are inside mine.

That is how we advance until you take my desires and I take all of yours, and through them we bestow to one another: I give everything to you and you – to me. This is called adhesion.

These definitions from Talmud Eser Sefirot are unusually important. Memorize them mechanically, because that is useful as well. Later, by perceiving them on the level of feelings and intellect, try to gradually unite the mind and the feeling.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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