There is a phenomenon that after many years of studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person suddenly discovers that he has lost all the desire for spirituality, all motivation, the entire urge that he had before, and he does not know where to get strength from. He does not even have the strength to ask the Creator to give him strength to yearn for spirituality.
And besides, he should take care of having the power to overcome his desire to receive pleasure and use it for the sake of bestowal. Therefore, the work proceeds in two stages that alternate with each other.
Sometimes I fight my desire to receive pleasure in order to overcome it and perform actions of bestowal. And sometimes I fight for the very desire for spirituality because it disappears, I become as if dead in relation to the spiritual, and I do not want to either ask or receive help.
We have to work on both of these states, and this is called digging the wells of Isaac. Inside the desire to receive pleasure, which is called earth, wells must be dug, symbols of the feeling of lack, the desire to achieve spirituality after which these wells will be filled with water, the waters of the Torah, the light of Hassadim.
I am digging a well because I want to acquire the desire for spirituality, the desire to attain the Creator and merge with Him, the need for bestowal. There is a simple land before me, and I want to turn it into a spiritual field. Therefore, I perform actions within the egoistic desire, I want to unearth it and open the voids in it in order to reach heaven, the spiritual world, from this earth. This is the work of Isaac.
I dig my desire to receive pleasure in order to understand how to use it for actions of bestowal, for love of friends, and through them love, for the Creator. I want to extract from this desire the desire for bestowal, love, unity. We have no other material than this, and it must be brought to correction.
First, I dig a hole in my will to enjoy, the desire to work with my desire for the sake of bestowal. And then this hole is filled with water and becomes a well, which allows me to work properly with the earth, with a common desire.
If we want to build a house, then first we need to dig a hole for the foundation. And the same thing happens in spirituality; you need to dig in the ground, that is, in the heart, and clean out all the dust from there. It means to extract all egoistic intentions from your desires. And then you can start building in this place, that is, add intention to the desire for the sake of bestowal and erect a building. When the heart remains empty without any filling, then the time for building comes.
Man must from his desire for his own sake extract intention. The Creator deliberately placed egoistic intentions into our desire, as if driving construction piles. And we need to pull them out and fill the remaining holes with water to make a well. We will get fertile land and can build on it.
The desire remains the desire to receive pleasure, and our job is to replace the egoistic intention in it with bestowal. If there is an intention for the sake of bestowal, then one can already use the desire and construct buildings from it, the steps of bestowal, our forms similar to the Creator.
It is possible to separate the egoistic intention from the desire only through the group, uniting with friends. Alone, it is impossible to change the intention or even come close to it.
We unite and dig our common desire together, like building a house on stilts together, the wells are dug, filled with concrete, and a house is erected on these columns.
We find that all our intentions are egoistic, for our own sake. And so we want to dig them out of the ground, out of our desires, and put intentions in their place for the sake of bestowal.
There are many stories In the Torah related to wells. It tells of how Abraham opened wells in the desert near Beer Sheva, then about the wells of Isaac. The meeting with the future bride also takes place at the well. The hero drives away villains from the well, removes a heavy stone from it, and gives water to everyone.
This symbolizes a person who, due to acquired intentions for the sake of bestowal, can move a stone (heart of stone) that clogs the well, and then everyone can enjoy the water in the well.
So, the Torah speaks about working in one line and in three lines, about different spiritual levels, but this always happens by a well filled with water.
A well filled with water, that is, with the light of Hassadim, turns into a well with living water. The light of Hassadim can give strength to the earth and grow crops.
To dig a well means to receive the intention for the sake of bestowal within a corrupted desire, which is simply called earth. We need to find a place where the well should be. Feel the lack and start digging the ground until this groove in the ground begins to fill with water, the properties of Bina, that is, with our aspirations to work not for ourselves but for the sake of bestowal.
When the intention for giving fills this whole hole within the desire to enjoy, then we can use this water to irrigate the earth and revive crops, to water animals—donkeys, camels, or people—and gradually come to corrections. Digging wells is the beginning of spiritual work.
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From the Daily Kabbalah 11/21/20, weekly chapter “Toldot“
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