In the News (from Slon): “The world is becoming more connected – 35% of goods cross borders, compared with 20% in 1990; more than a third of financial investments are international transactions; 20% of the Internet traffic is international; total trade is 36% of the global GDP (but it is still below 52% in the pre-crisis 2007). Russia was ranked 9^th out of 131 countries in the ranking of connectedness with the world economy.” 

My Comment: All reports show how everything is interconnected, although in fact, our interconnection is much greater because connections between people, cultures, and the mixing of populations are not considered.

Nature programmed further development of humankind in growing unity, and we cannot avoid this program. The more we resist it, the more we will be forced to obey it through more suffering. The laws of nature are inevitable.

In previous stages of development (evolution), nature developed matter from still to vegetative to animate. We also belong to the animate part of nature because we developed unconsciously. But on the next degree of “the speaking human being” (Adam – from the word “domeh,” similar to nature, the Creator), we have to rise consciously, attracting the force of nature on our own accord.

In this way we become equal to it, as partners, rather than those who instinctively follow its orders from within. The wisdom of Kabbalah talks of how to rise to the next stage of development. That is why it was hidden until our time, waiting for the end of our instinctive  (unconscious ) development.
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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Section 43: When man is born, he immediately has a Nefesh of Kedusha (Holiness). But not an actual Nefesh, but the posterior of it, its last discernment, which due to its smallness, is called a “point.”

It is about that moment when the Adam (person) is born in us, something that resembles the Creator. One should not take into account the physical objects of this world composed of atoms and molecules. They are imaginary. In fact, everything found below the desire to bestow doesn’t exist and is only portrayed within our imagination in the meantime.

We are talking only about spiritual observations. In reality, only the desire to bestow exists, bestowal for the sake of bestowal or reception for the sake of bestowal. And the desire to receive in the form that we know it today simply doesn’t exist.

Accordingly, Baal HaSulam is telling us about the birth of an observation called “bestowal.” It’s when a person acquires the first minimal spiritual consciousness, the point of Nefesh (soul), the beginning of a new characteristic, higher in our eyes, found above what happens within the desire to receive.

It dresses in man’s heart, in one’s will to receive, which is found primarily in one’s heart.

All of a person’s desire, his “heart,” is now found under a “Tzimtzum (restriction).” And so here, this point of Nefesh de Kedusha, the point in the heart is discovered within him.

Know this rule: That all that applies to the whole of reality, applies to each world and even in the smallest particles that can be found in that world. This is the attribute of an integral, analog system: Every part within it includes all the rest. Therefore it is said that a person is a small world.

One way or another, everything is composed of ten Sefirot, the difference is only in the “resolution of the screen,” the sensitivity, the clarity of perception, the ability to distinguish the separate parts and all the details associated with them. Ten Sefirot are always found in every fragment of reality, in every tiny speck of it. Even an atom of our world, if we examine it deeply, becomes clear that it’s like the entire universe.

Hence, even in a single item of the speaking level, meaning even in one person, there are also the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, which are the four parts of his will to receive, where the point from the Nefesh of Kedusha is dressed.

They exist everywhere, even though they have not been discovered yet, for we are found in Olam Ein Sof. But Baal HaSulam is speaking here about the discovery of its first “point.”
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1.30/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: If the Creator lacks any desire to receive, why did He create us?

Answer: The Creator delights in us. He does have the desire, although not the receiving one.

Let’s call His desire a “force,” and everything will fall into places. We always associate any desire with ourselves: It’s always “I” who wants something. While we regard the notion of “force” as completely neutral: It is something that has potential to act.  In this case, it is not just a force but the desire to bestow, a force that wants to perform an act of bestowal.

Baal HaSulam writes in his article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” that the Creator is absolute good. How did he come to this conclusion? Regrettably, other people have never witnessed anything like that. Sometimes, we experience positive sensations, but it’s usually because the amount of negative sensations goes down. Something we call the “good” is only a way to escape the evil. We wish we could use “absolute good” the way we want….

HaSulam continues “… it is utterly impossible that He would ever cause any sorrow to any person.” The Creator is Good that does only Good. This fact contradicts our sensations. If we admit that the upper force exists and yet we often feel bad, it means that the reason for our negative situations must be the upper force. Can we really accuse anybody around us of being the source of our bad feelings?

Why then does Baal HaSulam describe the Creator’s absolute benevolence as the initial axiom that doesn’t originate from anything else? He writes: “…our common sense clearly shows that the basis for any evil-doing in the world stems only from the will to receive. That means that the eagerness to benefit ourselves makes us harm our fellow persons, due to our will to receive self-gratification.”

In other words, we realize our desire to receive not only in order to benefit ourselves, but also to harm others, and preferably do it in one shot. It is called “theft”: A person steals from the other to benefit himself, and it is called a double profit. If for any reason we are unable to steal from the other, then we at least “give a present” to oneself. Otherwise we are unable to satisfy our needs. We desperately need it; this urge is instilled in us. It’s similar to how a child is driven by a rampant impulse that makes him run, jump, break things, etc. Our egoistic desire is eager to fulfill itself by harming others.

Baal HaSulam continues: “Thus, if no being would find contentment in favoring itself, no being would ever harm another.” So, the desire to receive is the cause for all the evil in the world. Because it is totally in the Creator’s hands, we don’t have the slightest chance to do something with ourselves without His assistance.

“And if we sometimes find some being that harms another, without any will to receive self-gratification, it does that only because of an old habit that originated in the will to receive, which now rids it of the need to find a new reason.” Let me reiterate: A cycle of repeated actions that were originated by a desire that used to “burn” in us automatically continues these actions. Pure “mechanics” becomes our second nature even though it is not accompanied by any intentions or thoughts, nor it is driven by actual necessity. Deficiency no longer exists, but in the meantime we acquired a desire that grew on the basis on “mechanical body movements,” and now we need them.

As a result, even if there is no need to steal, a person continues to steal. Why? What for? One has no idea, it’s a habit.… This is exactly what happened with Shura Balaganov, a character from “The Little Golden Calf”: Right after Shura received a big sum of money as a present, he was arrested for pick-pocketing. He simply couldn’t resist stealing since it had become part of his nature.

Frankly, we don’t even realize that we are “stealing”; that is, we perform actions that are not beneficial to us anymore. At some point in the future, each one of us will “catch” oneself and notice how many mechanical actions one makes during a day. Quite often, there is no chance to stop these actions since our habits are extremely durable.

“And because we realize that the Creator is, in and of Himself, complete and needs no one to help Him to completion, since He precedes everything, it is therefore clear that He does not have any will to receive.” The One who precedes everything cannot have any desire to receive whatsoever. He is primordial and original. Who can He receive from? “And because He has no will to receive, He is fundamentally devoid of a desire to harm anyone; it is as simple as that.”

The Creator is not at all the desire to receive or the need for self-gratification. He is perfect. The question is: Can the Perfect One also be the absolute good with external actions addressed to the creation that He made?

Baal HaSulam defines this aspect as “basic,” meaning not subject to any analysis and beyond the initial agreement; it’s the attribute of the precursor of everything. So, “…it is completely agreeable to our mind as the first concept, that He possesses a desire to bestow goodness upon others, meaning to His creatures.”

Let’s return to the current, actual picture of the reality in which we don’t see anything like that. Our world is full of affliction; it’s as if our universe works tirelessly to “swell” desperation, and yet Baal HaSulam explains that everything is quite opposite.

The fact of the matter is that we lack objectivity and common sense; we are bound by our current primitive egoistic intellect and are unable to conduct a “pure” investigation. For years, even I could not agree with many Kabbalistic postulates.

Only after we become corrected, we start thinking differently, by using our widened mind. Then everything takes its place, but not because of habit or a forced consent; rather, it is based on a true, logical, rational, uncompromising analysis. New vessels-desires open within you, and on their basis, you state the facts.
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From the 4th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Baal HaSulam, “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”: … the secrets of the Torah are revealed only to those who fear His Name, who keep His Glory with their hearts and souls…

Even though we tend to feel “reverence,” we must realize that trepidation is a law that we are talking about here. The Book of Zohar writes that fear of the Lord is the first condition, the first correction that precedes the next step, love. If one doesn’t yet feel trepidation or has not yet acquired the vessels of bestowal, the level of Bina, one cannot attain the Creator.

That’s why it is said that the secrets of the Torah are revealed only to those who fear Him. The vessels have to be corrected so that the Light can dress in them due to the equivalence of their properties. We are not talking about ethical teachings here, but about a firm conformity to the law. A “mystery” is something that is revealed to one who fears the Creator, i.e. to those who rise in their self-correction to the level of Bina. Only they happen to reveal things that were previously hidden from them.

It is said in Midrash Rabbah: “Everybody who fears Me and follows the directions of the Torah has the whole Torah and the entire wisdom in his heart.” A simple condition applies here: similarity of properties between the vessel and the Light.

Question: This excerpt is about those who “fear His Name, who keep His Glory with their hearts and souls…” Is it the same thing?

Answer: No. “Fear” means that one has a screen and the reflected Light at a level of Bina, whereas “keeping His Glory” is at a higher level. The Torah contains the words of Moshe (Shemot, 33:18): “Show me Your Glory.” This is a level of Hochma, a perfect faith, vessels that receive for the sake of bestowal.

On the other hand, we bestow through vessels/desires that tremble in front of the Creator, thus we initiate our “acquaintance with the Creator,” yet a passive one – same as in this world where we live without knowing much about it with the exception of things that provide our sustenance.  In spirituality it is quite similar; an analogue situation precedes the next step – the revelation of the Creator that lets us penetrate in His laws, His nature. How do we do this? For that, we have to receive the Light of Hochma; it becomes possible only if we keep and reveal His Glory. His Glory is in fact the Light of Hochma.

That’s why it is said: “Show me Your Glory.” It’s about seeing and knowing.

Question: What does it mean “to fear the Creator”? What do we have to be afraid of?

Answer: The one who experiences trepidation in front of the Creator is afraid that he won’t be able to please Him maximally. We should not worry about ourselves, our families, or about this world, but just about Him. If we keep His Glory, that is, reveal the Light of Hochma, it’s even better. However, for that we have to use not only the vessels of bestowal but also the ones of receiving.

As to trepidation, let’s say you love and respect somebody very much. It means that you constantly think of what you can do for those you love and how to please them.

Question: What pleases the Creator?

Answer: If you constantly think about this, you’ll find the answer. He needs your concern. If you really are eager to know what exactly He likes because you want to please Him, it’s already the Reflected Light. The Creator will reveal Himself and will show you what you are supposed to do on one condition: that you enjoy taking care of Him and are happy having the opportunity to please Him.

In this case He interacts with you and you both give pleasure to each other. By doing so, you feel love.

Question: Who exactly do we want to please? Who is the Creator?

Answer: You should be careful and never materialize these notions. “The Creator” (Bo-Re) is the property of bestowal that reveals Himself in us according to the principle “Come and See” (Bo-Re). We “play” and “have fun” with Him and He enjoys our “company.” We should not treat this property as a personality, but rather as the Upper Root.

Question: What do I have to imagine before this reveals in me?

Answer: There are certain details of perception that are inbuilt in us and let us see the upper reality. Gradually, we transition from love of the creations to loving the Creator. This level is gradually formed and built in us.

The answers to fundamental questions are hidden: Why does this step appear above our current nature? Why is it contrary to our egoistic desires? Why are creations built this way? Why is it so arranged that in the creation’s search of the Creator has to be “above reason” and go against its desires? …

In any case, now, we do not have any idea of who the Creator is, nor should we “draw” Him in one form or another.

Question: How should I relate to the upper force at this time?

Answer: You have to relate to it through your friends and your teacher. In this case, you won’t make mistakes.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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When studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, we need to understand that we are on the animate level; as it is written: “All are like animals.” The still, vegetative, and animate levels exist in us. And the level of human level that we need to build within us is a degree of similarity to the Creator.

So far I do not know who the Creator is since I lack properties similar to Him through which I would be able to recognize Him and imagine who He is. This is why I am still considered to be on the animate level. After all, how do I differ from an animal? I am just slightly more egoistically developed. And the “human” level means “similar to the Creator” (“man” – “Adam” comes from the word “similar” – “Adameh”).

The Creator is the quality of bestow, the force of bestowal, while I am an absolute receiver. This is why I have nothing from Him except for a tiny “spark from above” that is enrooted in every man from birth. When it awakens, one begins to feel a strange uneasiness, a desire for something higher than the animate level.

And then I come to a group where people study Kabbalah and I begin to hear that there is a possibility to become human, like the Creator.

This is a very drastic change that we can make in ourselves. Imagine the difference between an animal and a human in our world. A man’s life is so much more difficult than the life of an animal, say a cat! In addition to the common animal needs like food, sleep, and sex, man also has desires for education, culture, and comprehensive development. The cat does not know any of these things.

But in order for us to develop something similar to the Creator, we need reason, sensations, and strengths that we do not have. After all, the difference between an animal and a human in our world is no more than a small difference in the development of two egoistic beings.

While the Creator and I are two opposite forms, and I do not have the slightest idea of what else I need in order to become like Him. I cannot even imagine what it is like to be like Him, to rise above time, movement, space, and our entire reality.

It turns out that we need to acquire certain strengths, understanding, reason, and experience that we do not yet have. So far I exist like an animal. But there is a “spark from above” in me and I can develop it so that I will suddenly discover all these different properties, reason, and sensations in it, which already belong to the level of the Creator to the level of man (Adam) in me. This spark is developed with the help of the Upper Light.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 8-10-10

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The created being must become equal to the Creator in properties and ascend to His level, so that both of them stand at the level of eternity and perfection. To achieve this, the Creator gives the creature a broken state, similar to how we give a child an unassembled construction set, like LEGOs, so that while assembling them, the child reaches the level of the creator of the game.

Our story begins in the world of Infinity, where the Creator created us as one soul, one desire. Then, He broke it, and we have to bring this broken will to receive, which egoistically pushes away from its own parts, to the common desire, the equivalence to the Creator.

The Creator Himself is Bestowal. On the one hand, He created the will to receive opposite to Himself; but on the other, He allows it an opportunity to attain the quality of bestowal. Then, it will become a desire to receive in order to bestow, and the creature, thereby, will become exactly similar to the Creator.

The creature has to attain this correction, the intention for bestowal, itself, and then it will understand the entire creation. For this reason, from the world of Infinity, from the state of perfection and equivalence to the Creator, we have descended into our world. This can be compared with a picture that has been divided into individual pieces of a puzzle that are mixed up and totally displaced, which is opposite to the original state. That’s how we find ourselves in the lowest point, our world.

In Infinity, the desire was common for all, consistent in all its parts, and acted as one whole. Now, the system is broken into myriad fragments that are all entangled, immersed in darkness, don’t understand what is going on, and reject each other. This is the description of us in this world.

From this state, we must rise again and attain the perfection of Infinity, assemble our “construction set” so that all souls are reunified into one. This work is called “the work for the Creator”; after all, by doing so, we become equal to Him—-a global, integral force of nature.

We undergo step-by-step egoistic evolution in our world until we reach the stage of the development of the human within us. At that point, nature begins pressuring us to get us to start uniting and assembling the “puzzle.” There comes the time of conscious participation in the process of preparing our ascent back to Infinity.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/10, Shamati #161

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The Creator wants the created beings to understand and to attain Him correctly. He chose the language of “pleasure” or “sufferings” to which we respond. The Creator created the desire to receive so that will feel this language.

The Creator “pricks” the created being, and he cries, “Ouch!” He spills a drop of sweet syrup on him and the created being is impressed, “Ah!” And so our whole life goes by between the “ouch” and the “ah.” He speaks to us by using this language: A drop of sweetness, a drop of bitterness, and different combinations of the two lead to endless nuances and various shades.

Thus the Creator develops the desire from a primitive desire to a more sophisticated, versatile desire by feeding it gradually: a spoonful of sweetness and a spoonful that is a bit more bitter, so one tastes all the different flavors.

This variety (TANTA) is born in my desire to receive, according to the way I begin to respond and to feel the Creator’s bestowal. He constantly influences me, either by pleasures or by deficiencies, by bitterness or by sweetness.

I don’t know why the Creator has chosen this bittersweet language to communicate with His created being. I only know that if I perceive all this bitterness and sweetness, if I feel them in all my desire to receive, then by that I will learn to understand the Creator. I will be able to understand not the actual bitterness and sweetness and how they are felt in my desire, but I will discover Him, the one who has chosen this language in order to communicate with me.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/08/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: What is a typical fear of the Creator and how do we attain it?

Answer: Fear is the main thing. At the moment we have nothing but it. Even the love that we will feel later is based on fear at that moment. This can be fear for my life, the fear of wasting my life purposelessly, meaninglessly, and of ending it without any positive result. Such fear brings people to the wisdom of Kabbalah, and it is called “fear of this world and fear of the next world.”

Fear stems from the fact that we begin to think of what is external to ourselves and not about ourselves, and we can establish that fear only with the right environment. Because otherwise I may get confused and not understand whether I worry about how to delight the Creator and whether I am advancing towards it or not. But this is already fear regarding the action whose result is external to me: not in my pocket, not in my soul or my spirit, not in this world or in the next world, but rather somewhere external to me already, which means that it’s already connected to the act of bestowal.

In that case, I cannot be sure that my assessment is correct, and so I don’t exist in this world as one person but as surrounded by such an illusion that gives me the feeling that there are many other creatures: the still, vegetative, animate nature, and people. I have to accept all of them as parts of my soul. Unless I reach the fear that I worry about them more than I worry about myself, it means that I haven’t restricted my ego and I didn’t think about a certain action that resembles the Creator.

So we should first weigh, measure, and arrange our relations with the environment in our work. Only through the environment do we fulfill our freewill. The Creator is also in the environment. If I display the right attitude towards society, towards the friends, wider vessels open up for me as if I move to a more internal dimension, and there I reveal the connection with the Creator. One is inside the other (like hollow nesting dolls). This means that the connection with the Creator is revealed in the group. It’s impossible to discover Him any other way. Eventually I have to see how the whole world joins the mutual guarantee since it all belongs to me, it’s all mine.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/01/13, Shamati #38 “The Fear of God Is His Treasure”

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Question: What is the Reflected Light? How can the Light come from below, upward?

Answer: Talmud Eser Sefirot, part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 19: A new Ohr was generated by the above encounter and Haka’a. Like sunlight on a mirror, meaning on a glass that is painted on the other side, the rays of the sun cannot pass through the mirror because of the paint on the other side. Consequently, the sun rays return backward and produce solar light.

In much the same way, when the Ohr Elyon meets the force of the Tzimtzum in Behina Dalet, called Masach, this Masach turns it back to its Shoresh. However, in this case, there is no issue of concealment. On the contrary, the return of the Ohr Elyon from Behina Dalet upwards is regarded as a new and special Ohr. It mounts the Ohr Elyon, clothes it and holds it within. Because of that, it is regarded as a Kli that receives the Ohr Elyon.

The Reflected Light is my desire to respond to the one who created me. It is as if there is a doll made from clay that suddenly begins to sense that someone is sculpting her. This creator of her gave her such sensations that she could feel him, his kind hands that are sculpting her.

The feelings that fulfill her inside make her want to respond to him with gratefulness, through the touch of his fingers, through his gentle attitude. This light gratefulness is the Reflected Light.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Straight to the Creator

Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: Rabbi Elazar, son of Rashbi (Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai), clarifies this concept of Arvut even further. It is not enough for him that all of Israel be responsible for one another, but the whole world is included in that Arvut (Mutual Guarantee). Indeed, there is no dispute here, for everyone admits that to begin with, it is enough to start with one nation for the observance of the Torah for the beginning of the correction of the world. It was impossible to begin with all the nations at once, as they said that the Creator went with the Torah to every nation and tongue, and they did not want to receive it. In other words, they were immersed in the filth of self-love up to their necks, some with adultery, some with robbery and murder and so on, until it was impossible to conceive, in those days, to even ask if they agreed to retire from self-love.

Therefore, the Creator did not find a nation or a tongue qualified to receive the Torah, except for the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose ancestral merit reflected upon them, as our sages said, “The Patriarchs observed the whole Torah even before it was given.” This means that because of the exaltedness of their souls, they had the ability to attain all the ways of the Creator with respect to the spirituality of the Torah, which stems from their Dvekut, without first needing the ladder of the practical part of the Torah, which they had no possibility of observing at all, as written in “Matan Torah,” Item 16.
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