Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 118

Is Prayer a Request for the Strength to Work?

Prayer means that we ask only when we have no other choice. We turn to the Creator only when we have no alternative. Gradually, we begin to recall the Creator’s existence, and even this remembrance is something the Creator does. He makes it seem as if we remember Him on our own. In truth, we would never think about the Creator by ourselves.

The will to receive is structured such that it is entirely closed within itself. It is a closed system. The Creator introduces a tiny, imperceptible ray of light, and suddenly we think: “Oh, the Creator exists!” We feel as though we remembered Him on our own, without any help.

But in reality, it was the Creator who reminded us of His existence and let us turn to Him. This process happens repeatedly, and its entire purpose is to strengthen the connection with Him. Through this process, we build our inner spiritual system. It is how we acquire the Creator’s qualities and become similar to Him.

However, before this can happen, before we can recognize what is opposite to the Creator, before we can understand our “self,” the Creator needs to place us in unpleasant situations that are the exact opposite of the state we are about to attain.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 117

How Can We Gain Strength for the Work from a State of Helplessness?

How can we who realize that we lack true knowledge, who feel powerless and incapable of acquiring anything from what we read, who see that the door to spirituality is closed before us, how can we find strength to move forward if this work is placed upon us alone and not upon someone else? Where can we draw the strength for the work?

There are two completely different states that we tend to connect as one. The first is a state in which we are completely insignificant and beastly, with no spiritual strength at all. We do not understand anything about the spiritual world nor even about this world. We have no idea what will happen to us or to the world in the next moment. We have no concept of how everything is structured and operates. The more we open our eyes, the more we feel like a small child playing with pebbles on the shore of a vast ocean, just as Newton described his scientific work.

And this is a correct feeling. To some extent, this is what it means to sense the immense forces of nature. This is our reality. We cannot grasp this concept through our own strength.

This state described above is actually a springboard to an active state. Active in what way? In that we can demand strength and we can ask for corrections to be made within us. The previous state is meant to show us that, at our current level, this is truly our reality.

How can we ascend from this? We forget that we truly lack these forces. Why did the Creator make it so that at every step we get stuck and realize that we are nothing? It is so that from this helplessness, we will remember that the Creator exists. We then turn to the Creator, and He arranges everything for us in a way that lets us move forward, to understand, to act, and so on.

Why did the Creator make it this way? It is because this entire process is a means for us to connect to the Creator. It is intended so that we will surrender, so that we will feel a need for the Creator, and through this need, we will acquire the Creator’s attributes.

Ultimately the Creator wants us to become eternal and perfect like Him.

Each time, the Creator shows us weakness, helplessness, despair, ignorance, and a lack of grasp on reality—the exact opposite of His state—so that we will desire to turn to Him and receive the opposite of what we feel. “The opposite of what we feel” means receiving something from the Creator, His qualities and level.

Thus, through contrast, we arrive at a more complete state each time. The deeper we sink into feeling what is bad, the greater the good we can attain in contrast.
This is how all the spiritual levels are built.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 116

How Is the Concept of “a Vessel of Bestowal” Possible, Both a Vessel and a Bestower?

Indeed, there is something strange about the concept of a vessel of bestowal, a will to receive for the sake of bestowal. Since the Kabbalists lacked linguistic tools to express spiritual states, they used various simplified and condensed formulations. Had they not done so, they would have had to write entire books just to describe states such as Ibur (embryonic state), Katnut (smallness), Rosh (head), Toch (inner part), and so on, and even that would not have been enough. Therefore, they developed a language that would let them express spiritual states.

How does this language work? Through a kind of pre-agreed “password,” information is conveyed. This password carries extensive details about the subject matter and the intent of the author. If the reader is on the same spiritual level as the author, they share a common conceptual framework, and the meaning of the password is immediately clear to them.

For example, someone who does not know the meaning of the word “Rosh” (head) in Hebrew will have no idea what to do upon hearing it. We must be familiar with the word to understand its meaning.

However, mere familiarity with the word is not enough to grasp its full context. We must also understand the intent behind the term.

The language of Kabbalah is like a coded language where only those who recognize its codes can comprehend the meaning hidden behind the words. That is, in order to read Kabbalistic texts, we must know what the Kabbalists mean by their terms. They write to one another much like spies communicating in coded messages with no one but themselves able to understand what they were writing.

Why is it necessary to read Kabbalistic books? Baal HaSulam writes in “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” (item 155) that when we long to understand the inner content of the words, without deceiving ourselves by forming imaginary, physical representations of them (as people often do when reading the Torah as if it were a historical narrative), and without interpreting the text in a corporeal, materialistic way, but instead deeply yearn to grasp the true, inner meaning of the words, we draw upon ourselves the surrounding light (Ohr Makif) from the state the text describes.

However, if instead of delving into the deeper layers of what the Kabbalists write, we imagine pictures from this world, then both the narrative and the imagery remain within the framework of this world. In such a case, we do not draw any illumination from above and remain stagnant, unable to progress.

This is the essential difference between the method of Kabbalah and any other approach to studying the Torah. In Kabbalah, we seek to draw the surrounding light upon ourselves. We strive to understand the inner meaning. This is called studying the inner aspect of the Torah, that is, learning precisely what it is conveying in its coded language.

Then, as we repeatedly attract the surrounding light during our study, we gradually advance until we enter the spiritual world.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 115

Is an Embryo Male or Female?

In our corporeal world, an embryo can be either male or female. In spirituality, a person goes through various states: still, vegetative, animate, speaking, angelic, and resembling the Creator. Each of these states contains thousands of stages.

This means that every soul undergoes development, first as Nekeva and then as Zachar, and again Nekeva and then Zachar. However, in our world, these alternating states take on a fixed physical form, either male or female, because, relative to spirituality, our world is still, meaning it does not change.

Thus, every stage in spirituality, every action, every quality, everything that exists and constantly changes there, assumes a fixed and unchanging form in our world, as it happens with an embryo.

Beyond this, there is also variation in the types of souls. It depends on which part of Adam HaRishon the desire originates from. The soul is an individual desire within the general soul called Adam HaRishon, and its nature depends on which part of this spiritual body it comes from.

Within the body of Adam HaRishon, there are numerous distinctions, right side, left side, above, below, above the chest, below the chest, and so on.

Likewise, cells within the human body differ from one another. Each cell contains something unique, functions and behaves differently, and connects with other cells in various ways that are characteristic of it.

This is also true in spirituality. Souls interconnect in the same way. Our physical cells are merely a result, a copy, a physical manifestation of what takes place in spirituality.

From this, we can understand how vastly different we are from one another, yet at the same time, how we are all interconnected as parts of a single body.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 114

What in the State of Ibur (Impregnation) Is Called “Male” and “Female”?

“Male” (Zachar) and “female” (Nekeva) in the embryo are states. They represent vessels of bestowal and vessels of reception, where bestowing in order to bestow and receiving in order to bestow correspond to different levels of correction.

If we work with vessels of reception, this is a deficiency called “female” (Nekeva). Conversely, when these deficiencies are corrected, they are called “male” (Zachar).

The word “Nekeva” comes from “Nekev” (hole), meaning a deficiency, an empty place that still requires correction. Zachar, on the other hand, represents the opposite, bestowal. These terms describe corrected or uncorrected states within the same person, within the same soul, present at every spiritual level.

The soul, in relation to the Creator, is always female relative to the male, because all corrections come from Him. There is the raising of MAN as a request for the correction of desires and the raising of MAN for the fulfillment of desires. In both cases, the Creator acts as the male aspect, and the soul acts as the Nukva (female) toward Him, the receiver.

In Kabbalah, this is described as ZON of Atzilut, Zeir Anpin and Nukva of the world of Atzilut. Zeir Anpin of Atzilut is called the Creator—the bestower, the giver, the corrector, the fulfiller. Malchut of Atzilut, Nukva of Atzilut, is the collective of all souls. All deficiencies exist within her, and each of us is an individual will, a personal part of her.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 113

Can We Determine What Desires We Are in During the Stage of Preparation?

During the stage of preparation, we cannot determine what desires we are in. We do not know where reception or bestowal are. We do not know or understand exactly what we are working on.

The key to correct work during the preparation stage is to attribute everything to the upper one. This is because the lowest spiritual state that we enter and are included in, after crossing the barrier (Machsom), is called “embryo” (Ubar). It is a state where we annul ourselves before the upper one and let the upper one act on us as it wills. This is called attributing everything to the upper one and recognizing the greatness of the Creator, that He is the one acting and that He does everything within and around us.

This is the truth, yet we must exercise it because we cannot fully attribute everything to the upper one. It repeatedly slips away from us, and we must return to this truth again and again, wash our minds with it, and convince ourselves that it is indeed the case. But we simply cannot do it on our own because only by seeing the Creator, by experiencing this reality firsthand, can we be convinced.

The will to receive is very pragmatic. “Show me and that’s it.” “Let me taste it.” Why do the sources write that “Taste and see that the Lord is good”? Why is tasting necessary? Why is seeing not enough? It is because only by tasting do we receive a clear sensory picture of what we have experienced, just as young children and infants experience objects and perceive them through their sense of taste. This is the most reliable sense. That is why infants do not settle for just seeing, but they put everything in their mouths to taste.

Similarly, until we taste the Creator as inner light (Ohr Pnimi), we have no clear knowledge of what He is. That is why we cannot attain true knowledge before the barrier is opened for us, before light enters our vessels.

We must long for the first spiritual state that is closest to us. If we desire all the opportunities given to us from above, if we exhaust all of our possibilities, then we truly enter that state because we have made all the necessary effort.

When does effort come to an end? We do not know this in advance. It depends on the structure of each individual soul. What is the sign that the work is complete? It is when the heavens open. Until then, we must simply continue to act.

The entire Torah, for beginners as well as for those who will later ascend the steps to the end of correction, is contained in the first article of Shamati entitled “There Is None Else Besides Him.” Beyond the barrier, the work assumes a different form. However, the task is always, in every state, to reach the feeling that “There is none else besides Him” regardless of what happens and no matter what will happen.

We must overcome resistance and reach this feeling without disconnecting from the reality of this world. It is unwise to live in an isolated place. We need to live in the whole of reality, through which all kinds of disturbances influence us, engage with us, and through them find “There is none else besides Him.”

If we complete this work, we have finished our work in this world and will encounter other, spiritual disturbances. Through these, we continue to progress, drawing closer and closer to fully realizing “There is none else besides Him.”

What does “There is none else besides Him” mean? It is the absolute knowledge that, in the end, the Creator, ourselves, and the entire path we have traversed—the actions, the disturbances, the uncorrected and corrected desires—are one.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 112

Chapter 12. On My Bed at Night

What does “And through the Torah, the person was created” mean? Human (Adam) comes from the expression Adameh leElyon (“I will be like the upper one”), and it is written: “You are called Adam, but the nations of the world are not called Adam.” This means that if the will to receive undergoes a correction called “for the sake of bestowal,” the corrected part is called “human.” How is this done? It is done through the Torah. How is it done through the Torah? We are given various opportunities to perform different actions in this world, and through our successes and failures, our will to receive develops.

After the development of the beastly desires for food, sex, and family, and the development of social desires for wealth, honor, and knowledge, we reach the development of the spiritual will. The development of the spiritual will is not a further expansion of desire. Rather it is the desire’s direction toward the Creator, and accordingly, its growth. If before the development of the point in the heart, which is this new desire for spirituality, we work on developing our desire, usually unconsciously, without knowing why or how, impulses and cravings surface within us, we simply run after them and fulfill them. Such work is not even considered a single line, and certainly not two or three lines. But the spiritual desire can only be developed, expanded, and corrected in the form of lines.

“Lines” mean that the small desire is not simply inflated into an ever-greater one without direction, which would make its form a circle, but it is straightened so that it aims at a specific goal and that it is intended for a specific use. The desire is aimed not at the person themselves, who is the central point within the circles, but at the Creator, outward from the central point to the source of light.

Therefore, in the spiritual desire’s development, there are several forces, conditions, and states that influence it so that the process of the desire’s correction does not follow the laws of other desires. It operates in a very complex and precise way, so that the desire grows only according to the degree of its correction toward proper use, toward the Creator. Suppose, for example, someone is inspired with the desire to build a house, a desire that is already connected to spirituality. They need to relate every detail of the construction process, the planning, the ordering of materials, the actual building, the selection of workers, and even themselves, to the purpose of creation. They must constantly remember that this house is meant for a use related to the purpose of creation.

That person becomes so immersed in the work that they forget the direction, the meaning behind each and every action. Then the work seemingly stops and various disturbances begin to arise. These disturbances are not real obstacles, but signals, signs, that they have forgotten something very important: the intention, the reason for each action. Since spiritual progress happens step by step, sometimes we get stuck at a certain stage stubbornly trying to find a solution on our own, insisting on continuing construction at all costs. But we see that we cannot move forward until we remember that the problem is that we forgot the intention.

This means that instead of moving from the left line to the right line, we thought that we could complete the work by our own strength alone. Then we remember the right line, the Creator, alignment with Him. That is, we remember that we must be connected to Him with all of our heart and soul while performing the action. Only then can we progress again until we forget once more, and the cycle repeats.

In all of our work in this world, we constantly forget the goal. We forget that the goal is not to work according to the way that we think in this world, but the work itself is an effort to remain connected to the one who gave us the work, and to use it as a means to hold onto the thought and, most importantly, as a means to increase the intention. The work itself is merely a tool only to the extent that it is meant to build and develop the intention. We think we are building a house, as if the house itself is what matters. But in reality, we are supposed to build a structure of intention rather than a structure of bricks.

Since we are made of both material and spirit, intention, we are given material tasks so that we can construct a spiritual structure alongside the physical one. It is true that we cannot build a purely spiritual structure, even though, ultimately, that is the only structure we truly need. This means that we must establish only the intention, the screen (Masach), and the reflected light (Ohr Hozer), while the will to receive, the “bricks,” will always be available to use properly, according to the intention of bestowal.

This is how we build a house, and this is how we build ourselves into a human (Adam). How? Through the 248 organs and 365 tendons, which are 613 components or desires within us, which we must construct. We want to use these desires as much as the corresponding spiritual form allows. We need to arrange our desires according to bestowing intentions so that these two aspects—the use of all desires, on one hand, and the alignment of those desires with the intention to bestow, on the other—are in harmony and work together.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 111

How Does the Transition from Anger at the Creator to Recognizing His Importance Take Place?

If we are angry, then we are in a big desire to receive, deeply immersed in ourselves and our needs. Why are we angry? It is because something contradicts our desire. We want to do things one way, but the Creator wants them done differently and does not let us achieve our desire.

How do we come to recognize the importance of the Creator from within this anger? The will to receive, when not paired with the will to bestow, only considers its own benefit. The moment it encounters someone stronger opposing its will, it immediately submits to them because it sees that this is to its advantage. It even begins to love the other because they are stronger, even though they are against them. They begin to depend on them.

In our world, whether we like it or not, the strong one is always right. What does “in our world” mean? It means in the will to receive. From within the will to receive, in order to shift from valuing oneself to valuing the Creator, we simply need to recognize that the Creator is stronger than us, and this cannot be changed. From the very nature of the will to receive arises the realization that “the Creator is great,” “the Creator is good,” and so on. From there, we start to reach states that teach us how to bestow.

What does it mean, “to bestow”? It means granting us the independence to say, “I want to bestow, and not because the Creator is stronger than me,” as if to stand up to Him.

At this stage, we have free choice. Only when we have the ability to do whatever we want, do we truly begin to examine whether we wish to act according to our natural inclinations or if we want to resemble the Creator. The will to receive is satisfied as soon as it sees that the Creator is everything, that He is just and great. Then it has no problem accepting that the Creator is all there is and that He is right. Since we are entirely a will to receive, we surrender immediately.

Even though this realization might provoke rebellion, it is our nature, and there is no point in resisting it. This is why we are taught through suffering. The will to receive respects power, follows it, and always finds justification for itself. Baal HaSulam calls this “the power of the fist.” This is how the will to receive operates.

If the will to receive seeks fulfillment, and fulfillment is all that matters to it, then it has no other considerations. It calls “good” whatever provides it with fulfillment, regardless of the means by which it attains it, whether or not they are appropriate. The concepts of appropriate or inappropriate do not belong to the will to receive itself or to fulfillment. Instead, they belong to the system of Kedusha, which has introduced to receive various discernments of bestowal into the will.

In practice, the will to receive cares about nothing other than being filled. It does not care who fills it, whether the Creator or Pharaoh, as long as it receives and is satisfied. Therefore, as long as we are in the Klipa, the Klipa nurtures us, which is called “protecting us.” It nurtures us by continuously giving us more and more fulfillment.

How, then, do we arrive at true reception? It is by becoming disillusioned with the many false fueling stations. We try to fill ourselves with money, honor, sex, and food, and when we see that they cannot be truly satisfied, we turn to the Creator, hoping that perhaps spirituality will fill us. This is what the will to receive seeks, to be filled at all costs.

That is why it does not matter whether people “want” or “do not want” spirituality. The key is to show them that Kabbalah contains fulfillment, and then they will desire it. This can be clearly seen in the behavior of biological cells or in the mating behavior of animals.

How does a herd choose its leader? Solely based on strength. It becomes evident that everything in nature is arranged in such a way as to lead us to the truth. All of these conditions are embedded in our very nature, in the will to receive, in its inversion of form. They develop directly into failure, suffering, and ultimately, submission.
From a Talk on the Article “The Whole of the Torah Is One Holy Name,” 6/6/2002

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 110

Does a Person Who Crosses the Barrier “Build a House” from Intentions?

Beyond the barrier, building a house is no longer an action but an intention. However, we cannot build the intention to bestow without first constructing it upon the opposite intention. Otherwise, we make no scrutiny. The structure of Kedusha (holiness, bestowal) is built in opposition to the Klipa (shell, impurity). The place of destruction is where the Temple is built, not elsewhere, and not before destruction took place.

Destruction precedes construction. All destruction and shattering, including the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, took place before us, even before we were created. This is because we begin from the level of souls, and souls exist below the world of Atzilut.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 109

Does a Person Who Is Already in Spirituality Still Forget the Creator?

Even in spirituality, at every level, we must work through several opposing states, within two lines that deny each other’s existence. However, this is where the real work begins, when we experience our true emotions and pass through them, when our feelings are no longer vague or unclear. Beyond the barrier (Machsom), the states become very vivid.

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