Kabbalah Insights – Cogwheels
Posted on May 18th, 2011
Question: How can the “evil inclination” exist if there is only the Creator and none else besides Him?
Answer: And who created this “evil inclination” if there is nothing else besides the Creator? The Creator made this evil. And it lives under the Creator’s thumb. The Creator controls it; He begot it; it is His son, as it is written: “I created the evil inclination.”
Question: But the Creator is good that does good, so how can evil derive from Him?
Answer: The good who does good created this “evil inclination,” as it is said: “The end result is in its initial thought.” In fact, if you decided to create someone else besides you, so that your creation could reach your level, and if you wanted to assist it with all your heart and soul, with all that you have, then you wouldn’t have a choice: You must create a vessel in it, a desire that will be exactly as your own in quantity, quality, understanding, attainment, and everything else, but with a reverse imprint. And that is exactly what the Creator did.
Therefore, the “evil inclination” is the entire creation; nothing else is required. We don’t understand it. We think that there are material objects, for example, a pencil. Why not? After all, you see that it exists. It has color, shape, and weight. But in spirituality it doesn’t exist. In spirituality, one exists only if he has an individual essence, something of his own, instead of existing only because someone created him or her.
Let’s say a pencil doesn’t exist in spirituality since there is no action coming from it, no desire to be similar to the Creator. Therefore, it doesn’t exist in the spiritual dimension. All that we see in our world doesn’t exist in spirituality. This world doesn’t exist because this world is a reality which doesn’t have any personal motion toward equivalence to the Creator, in any object or any desire.
For this reason, if we are to create a being, we must program in it an ability to move autonomously, independently. What kind of creature did the Creator create? It was the “evil inclination.” But does this “evil inclination” have its own ability to move? Is it really that independent and respectable? Yes, it is.
The evil inclination is the left line in spirituality, where it counters the Creator, understands Him, and desires to be opposite. That’s where it all begins. The evil inclination doesn’t start with my wanting to gobble up food or sleep.
After we undergo preparation in this world and cross the Machsom, then from one side, we receive the “evil inclination,” the left line, reception, and from the other, “the good inclination,” the right line, bestowal. And it’s our job to restore the middle line in between.
On the left side, there is the “evil inclination,” Pharaoh, who claims: “I rule!” and it is only after the Machsom. And right against it, there is the upper force, bestowal. As to us, we are in the middle line.
This is the very “evil inclination” created by the Creator, while all we have during our preparation in this world is a mere animate existence, neither good nor bad. It’s not what we are talking about. And hence, this world doesn’t exist; it is imaginary and has neither good nor bad in it.
The “good” and “evil” inclinations exist only in spirituality. They are the two angels, two forces, two servants. Whom do they serve? They serve man who is building himself, meaning his own desire, his “Self,” from both of them. That is what the Creator desires.
Hence, how can my “Self” be realized if I don’t have these two forces from which I will construct myself in the middle, between “pro” and “con,” by making my own choice? Therefore, the Creator intentionally created the “evil inclination” as a force that opposes Him. After all, bestowal, the “good inclination,” is the Creator Himself. Then, between these two forces, in the middle part of Tifferet, between its upper and lower thirds, there is space for man.
This is the only way you can build a free space or the point of free will. Freedom lies only between two strictly defined states that press on you from both directions, and you must choose between them.
The point of freedom, the point of choice, free choice, is the choice you make in the narrow, contracting space between the blades of the scissors. Imagine this: Two walls suddenly start moving and squeezing us in between them… This is what freedom is. And the higher you rise on the steps of the spiritual ladder, the narrower the space in between them gets and the harder they press on you. But it is from this very pressure, from the horrible tension between them, you find your expression of Self.
[42860]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, The Zohar
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Question: There many groups and communities in the world which pursue all kinds of goals. Does a connection without the points in the hearts help people rise above egoistic desire?
Answer: The point in the heart is a desire to reveal the root; it is a part of the Creator from Above. I have a black point, the need for something that I can’t even define. In this life, I lack a sensation, an understanding: What is this life for? Why does it exist? Where is it from? What is its purpose ? Who is controlling me?
I start having questions about the purpose of life. It’s as if from Above, there is a thread wired to me, a channel of forces and the upper management, and I wish to attain it, to know the reason to live. I ask questions which a regular person is scared to ask, embarrassed to raise.
These questions eventually merge into one: “What is the meaning of life?” Without answering it, I don’t see why I should live at all. I need to break the lock on this “jewelry box.” And if my question digs into the very essence, the source of life, it means that I do have the point in the heart.
A person with the point in the heart comes to the group that studies this specific question: “How do I find the purpose of life, its source? How do I uncover the upper governance and join it with all that I am?” A person cannot quit half way on this path for his desire is toward the very essence of creation, and nothing will stop him now. He is ready to face the Creator and doesn’t succumb to any limitations. No matter how hard others may try to hold him or her back, no matter what they may say, the person just doesn’t care.
Such people come to the wisdom of Kabbalah.
There is another kind as well, those who are still thinking. Their point in the heart has also woken up, but it is still “wrapped” in all sorts of covers. So, they are satisfied by mysticism, holistic practices, eastern philosophies, meditation, vegetarianism, naturalism, and so on. All of these trends start with the same question, and this is why they are so popular in our times. On the subconscious level, man feels that it’s time to transcend somewhat, it is time to change…
Thus, gradually, we do advance. We have to wait until people check these directions. In the meantime, their desire grows, so little by little, they will quit their quests and come to the source, to the method that can reveal it to them. Such is the path.
[42964]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, “The Freedom”
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Why does the unified force of nature, which we call the Creator who created us, develop us in such a peculiar way, by keeping us completely lost in our thoughts and desires? Why and for what purpose did He give us the deceitful illusion of this reality and continues to tangle us up so that we, like little children, keep running back and forth looking for pleasures, trying to grab more and more? What do we attain in all this mess?
Specifically by trying to recognize one causative force, one source, in this confusion, we make ourselves similar to this force. Out of 613 desires, 613 thoughts, and a numberless variety of predicaments, we build ourselves as one whole.
Therefore, the whole purpose of our spiritual work is to reach unity, mutual guarantee, become “as one man with one heart,” and unify into one desire, one spiritual vessel. We are doing it all in order to bring ourselves closer to adhesion with the single, unified force, the Creator, when all of us, as one whole, and the Creator merge together.
Baal HaSulam writes about it in his well-known article, “There Is None Else Besides Him:” It is written, “there is none else besides Him.” This means that there is no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him. And what man sees, that there are things in the world that deny the Higher Household, the reason is that this is His will [to show Himself to us in such split condition, as if there is He and the forces against Him].
Because of this, we are given an opportunity to gain power over and recreate ourselves, while overcoming the confusion that makes us doubt the one force, the Creator, and trying to constantly find only Him in the image presented to us. This is what our work entails.
[42433]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011
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The wisdom of Kabbalah is the physics of the integral world. What this integral world is all about, we don’t know. We attain only a tiny piece of it which we are able to perceive through the sensory organs of our physical world, similarly to all other animals.
On the other hand, unlike them, we have a more capable mind, greater desire, and hence we fit into the world a little bit better than regular beasts, while trying to take the most advantage of it. Yet, our sensory perception as based on our five sensory organs: vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch is much worse than theirs. They are quite better at sensing nature than we are.
Only our mind and ego are more advanced, and that is why we are greater than beasts and are more cruel and perverted. We can take advantage of this world that they are also aware of. However, in any case, we are able to perceive but a small part of reality.
The wisdom of Kabbalah explains to us our entire existence, the attainment of authentic reality. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the major difference between our limited perception of this tiny piece of reality and the ability to see a broader reality, as if to soar out of this narrow cage of our closed little world to the enormous and beautiful outer world, lies in knowing how not to make ourselves dependent on all kinds of changes, forces, and acts, but rather perceive one single force.
As soon as we start pulling this infinite number of forces, actions, chances, and thoughts, all of this surrounding mess, into one unified force more and more, it signifies that we are climbing the ladder of the worlds, until we reach the world of Infinity where there is, indeed, only one force and where all thoughts, desires, perceptions, predicaments, and actions, absolutely everything that was so confusing to me before, become unified. That’s when we attain that “there is none else besides Him,” this singular force, the Creator.
[42437]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011
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Question from Moscow: What does it mean to desire to unite? And what does unity feel like?
Answer: Apparently these questions are coming from our Moscow group in anticipation of the upcoming convention in Moscow. What does it mean to unite? Why? Why are we holding this convention? The question is correct.
Why should we unite? To be frank, this is impossible to explain. If a person has a Reshimo (informational gene) that remained in him from the unity he once experienced while being in the common desire, where he once revealed the Creator and then lost this sensation, and now this Reshimo is awakening again, then he desires to return to this state. “I want it!”
For example, some people like eating frogs. Well, what can you do…. I don’t have this desire, but to them it is a heavenly delight. That is exactly how the desire for spirituality emerges. It awakens—and that’s all. What can you do?… One person starts feeling a desire for frogs, and another—for spirituality. This desire awakens from the inside and it does not depend on us.
Why would someone start feeling a desire to eat frogs? It’s because he once tasted it and felt a pleasant taste, got used it, received the corresponding upbringing—and now he desires this.
But another person was in spirituality at some point and a Reshimo has remained in him, and now it awakens. That is why it is impossible to explain what unity feels like to people who don’t have a Reshimo from the spiritual state. But it is possible to show them that it’s worth it to unite with one another because that way we will come out of the general crisis, and therefore, it’s worth it for them to join those who are setting out to correct the world’s current state. After all, they will also benefit from this.
This is what we have to tell people. They don’t understand what spirituality means, or the Creator, adhesion, unity, the feeling of perfection, eternity, harmony with nature, the upper spheres…. This is meaningless to them so they will tell you, “Leave me alone! Just give me something in this life—peace, safety, good health. I don’t need anything else!” Every person speaks based on his desire.
When you are speaking to that kind of person, you have to show him that he also won’t be able to fulfill his desire unless he goes together with everyone toward unification because this is what the global, integral nature demands. We have evidence to rely on and ways to explain this to him. Therefore, you tell him that the world requires unity because this is what nature demands. You have to speak to a person on his level instead of telling him about the Creator and spirituality. Due to having no other way, he will also join in. But every person has to be addressed according to his or her desire.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/11/11, The Zohar
Even in the material world we don’t have any opportunity to become a nation living in our own country, on our own land unless we first correct ourselves spiritually. Only the forces descending from above build the material conditions for us here.
In general, we must try to understand to the best of our ability what the material world is. It is not a goal, but the smallest, most external means to start ascending. In this extremely flawed material reality that is lying on the lowest level, we must start carrying out the work of unification in order to enter the spiritual world.
After that we will turn to all the other nations and show them this work so they would also unite with each other. As a result, all of us, the whole world will become one single whole, one family, and will then ascend to its spiritual level. That is the only way we will realize our predestination, the purpose for which we exist.
We have to give everything its proper importance: our world compared to the spiritual world, the material nation of Israel compared to its spiritual analogue, the material state of Israel compared to the spiritual land of Israel. Every thing has to have its own place according to the final goal. Precisely this determines an object’s importance and the means to use it.
[42701]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/10/11, “Inheritance of the Land”
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Until we reach the force of unity in which we reside in the center of the sphere of all the worlds, in the world of Infinity, and from where we withdrew from each other and descended into our external world, the same very source, the Creator, affects us with good and evil and entangles us from every direction, as it is written: “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before.”
What does “behind and before” mean? Baal HaSulam explains that “You hem me in behind and before” means that it’s both when the Creator is revealed and concealed. After all, He is the only one who rules, and everybody will attain it. And then the notion of time and the feeling of past, present, and future will disappear. If there is only one force at work, nothing changes and everything is at absolute rest.
The attainment comes gradually, in correspondence with how we unify with this single force, the Creator. Besides, we don’t lose control of reality and turn into nothingness, but rather become like Him. We, together with Him, become the same exact magnificent, governing, singular force. And neither of us cancels the other: The Creator doesn’t nullify the created being, nor does the latter nullify the Creator. Moving forward and closer to Him, I don’t nullify myself. Instead, it is my ego that gets cancelled, while I rise like the Creator and come to adhesion with Him in all His perfection.
Then, I discover that I have been governed by this one force all the time, but it was simply hiding from me on purpose so that I would acquire it on my own and become as autonomous and magnificent as this singular force, the Creator. As I keep building myself in equivalence to Him, the Creator appears before me as an equal, magnificent partner and thereby we merge.
Every time when I gain autonomy, by transcending my ego in uniting with the group, I find the Creator within us, and thereby we unify together.
[42419]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011
The degrees of our connection, of how much tighter we bond with each other, are the spiritual ladder of rungs, the ladder of the worlds. We bond in the minimal degree, overcome the minimal thickness of our desire (Aviut Shoresh), and thereby attain the Creator only at the level of the Light of Nefesh.
When we unify in a greater degree, we attain Him as the Light of Ruach, followed by the Light of Neshama, Haya, and Yechida. Thus we pass forth from the world of Assiya to the world of Yetzira, followed by the worlds of Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, and finally reach the world of Infinity where our unity has no borders and everything is linked as one whole.
Until then, this unique force keeps working among us, confusing us, and nurturing us in all possible ways so that we would develop a need to unify among ourselves and merge with it. However, this force acts from “behind the scenes.” That’s how we play with children since we want them to “brainstorm” and use all their skill to do something independently. We know that only when a child exerts personal effort does he gain wisdom and understanding of life. In this, we are the same.
On the other hand, children have a tremendous natural yearning and desire to grow; they are always ready to act and learn about the world, while we are lazy and unable to make ourselves exert the necessary effort. And this is where the external force, the force of the group (and never the force of the Creator!) can do it, as it is written: “They helped everyone his friend.”
[42422]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011
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