Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 150

How Can One Be a Great Merchant Without a Passion for Money?

It might be that in our times, those who engage with financial matters must completely invest themselves into it. But it is possible. The difficulty of coping with spirituality versus corporeality exists until the barrier. Until the barrier, we are split. We can be either here or there, but not in both at once. We cannot connect the two.

When we cross the barrier, we view spirituality and corporeality not as opposites, but as one dressing upon the other. We see spirituality through the corporeal world, and then all corporeal actions assume a spiritual character and there is no contradiction between them. Corporeality no longer disturbs spirituality at all. On the contrary, the more we become involved in worldly matters, the more we see our own spiritual actions through them.

It might appear as if we are doing something materialistic and beastly from the outside, because the intention determines what was done, and intention is invisible. Therefore, this is called “the wisdom of the hidden.” Through the clothing of one within the other, we can make great corrections, and indeed, there is no contradiction between corporeality and spirituality.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 149

How Does the Fact that the ARI Was a Great Merchant Fit With the Principle of “Corporeality According to Necessity”?

Not only was the ARI a great merchant, but many other Kabbalists were also great property owners. How can this be reconciled? There is no contradiction. Correction takes place solely in the desire. We not only need to earn a living, but we need to engage for several hours a day in dealings of this world. That the ARI was a great merchant or that he earned a lot of.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 148

What Should We Do With the Clash of Desires, With the Inner Split Between Spirituality and the Corporeal World?

Baal HaSulam writes about this extensively in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.” He says that ultimately, we need to reach this state of conflicting desires, but we cannot command ourselves by decree: “From today onward, I will no longer desire!” We cannot tell ourselves to stop desiring money, honor, knowledge, sex, food, or various entertainments. The feeling of “not desiring” must come as a discernment of our inner state, as a result of our development.

If we study a lot, are active in the society, or invest in drawing closer to spirituality through other ways, we will eventually have our inner balance between corporeality and spirituality shift in favor of spirituality, and we will be preoccupied with corporeality only to the extent necessary for existence. Such a state is considered a situation where we engage with corporeality only according to necessity.

How can we check whether our engagement with corporeality is necessary or not? It is if we would genuinely be happy to rid ourselves of it as well. If we would truly be happy not to be involved in any of our worldly activities. “Activities” means all forms of fulfillment. When we no longer wish to be fulfilled by anything, not by food, sex, money, honor, or knowledge, but only maintain them because they are necessary for our survival in this world. Then it is not considered that we engage in them, but that they merely fill the measure of vitality they are obligated to maintain because the Creator made them that way. Only then can it be said that we are fully immersed in spirituality.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 147

What Desire Grows During the Preparation Period?

During the preparation period, we develop the desire for spirituality called “until it does not let me sleep.” Baal HaSulam writes that it is like a lustful person who so craves what they love that only this craving stands before their eyes, and they cannot forget it day or night. This is called complete Lo Lishma. And from this, one transitions to Lishma.

How do we make that transition? It is by “I labored and I found.” Why “I found”? This is because essentially we strive for our desire to be filled, but instead we receive a correction to bestow and receive a different kind of fulfillment. There is a kind of optical illusion here because we do not receive what we longed for. Only after we begin to receive the fulfillment do we see that this is what we truly yearned for, even without knowing it. That desire had taken on a different form within us.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 146

How Do We Receive Spiritual Fulfillment?

We can enjoy spirituality only in a desire that has an intention to bestow upon it. That is, there needs to be an addition, and this addition, the intention to bestow that comes to the desire, can only be received as a remedy from above, through study, through the surrounding light. This is what Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” that a desire, however great, must have the addition of intention.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 145

What Is the “Taste of Dust” in the Work?

We feel the taste of dust every time we are in the left line, which is opposite the right line. For example, we get up in the morning and immediately feel that we want money. But we need to get up and study, and we sense this as a taste of dust. It might be that this same desire for money expresses itself in wanting to run and earn a lot of money to attain luxuries and pleasures, and instead, we need to sit and study.

The meaning of “taste of dust” is that we do not see or feel any possibility of enjoying through the desire we had yesterday or through the desire that occasionally awakens in us. We do not feel that opposite this desire there is something illuminating, tempting us, that could delight us.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 144

Why Do We Feel No Taste in Spiritual Work?

If we were to spiritually progress according to the same pattern in corporeality, we would prefer spirituality because it is better for us, or immediately afterward we would prefer corporeality, because it is better. We would thus increase both within our will to receive.

However, if we have faith in those who have already attained spiritual fulfillment, who advise us that it is worthwhile for us too, and convince ourselves that in this world we can taste only fleeting pleasures anyway, and that it is better to yearn for spirituality, we join a group engaged in Kabbalah and begin to learn from them how to be fulfilled by spirituality instead of toiling in vain chasing the pleasures of this world. We perform brainwashing on ourselves and intensify our desire for spirituality.

Does this mean we think “in order to bestow”? No, we constantly imagine that spirituality will give us something, just as all pleasures give us something. This is called growing in Lo Lishma. How do we move from Lo Lishma to Lishma? It is with a special remedy (Segula), because we cannot think for the sake of the Creator by ourselves.

We should not deceive ourselves otherwise. That is the reality. We each think only of our own benefit, and beautiful, elevated words do not change that. We are built in such a way where we think only about ourselves. Not only do we think, but we are truly programmed and structured so that our whole body, brain, hormones, discernments, every cell, and everything at all levels, from mechanical movements to biological ones, move solely in the direction of self-benefit. This is ingrained in our nature. We can say “in order to bestow,” but we will act only for our own benefit.

Therefore, only through a special remedy do we move from Lo Lishma to Lishma. The remedy was given to us by the Kabbalists in their books, and because we are engaged in what the Kabbalists wrote, and they wrote about the spiritual world, we are truly engaged in the concept of the giving of the Torah. The giving of the Torah is the means from above through which we can prepare ourselves to cross the barrier to the spiritual world.

That is, the constant growth of our desire is only one part of the picture. Our desire grows from desires for animalistic pleasures, to money, to honor, to knowledge, and finally to Godliness. But as we approach Godliness, there is a special addition: not only does one desire replace another, but the desire for Godliness needs to acquire an additional form called “in order to bestow.”

It does not matter whether a desire is positive or negative. All kinds of desires grow continuously, from the lowest state to the highest that is revealed in us. If, for instance, our soul has one ton of desire, we are shown only a part of it at a time, one gram, five grams, another ten grams, another twenty grams. It is as if each time a slightly wider opening is made in our box of desires, and we feel more and more desires.

The desires already exist within us. They are simply revealed slowly, and each time they appear as stronger and greater desires. We grow from below upward, from this world up to the end of correction, in the absolute measure of desire. However, besides this, if we want to grow beyond the specific plane called “this world,” the desire must be directed not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of the Creator.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 143

What Is the Difference Between the Size of the Desire and the Coarseness of the Desire?

Size and coarseness are the same thing. Both grow. Therefore, it is written, “Whoever is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than his,” or that after the ruin of the Temple, the taste of intimacy remained for those who serve the Creator. Intimacy is the foundation of all pleasures. That is, those who serve the Creator are those who work on themselves to increase their desire for the Creator, and accordingly, their other desires also grow. They constantly grow against each other until the end of correction. Also, failures are always given to us according to our ability to correct them.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 142

Is the Point in the Heart the Coarsest Desire?

The point in the heart is not the coarsest desire. The new spiritual desire is higher than worldly desires because it leads us to study Kabbalah. It causes us to awaken from our sleep, to leave our warm bed, and to care less about worldly, earthly matters. What does this mean? It means that the desire for spirituality is greater than the other desires, but only at the moment when it is given from above.

Later on, we are given free choice, and from that point, we must begin to examine our desires and prefer the spiritual desire over the others. This means we must grow the point in the heart over the desires of the heart. But then the bodily and worldly desires start to rise again. Fatigue and frustrations return, both in the point in the heart and in the heart itself; they oppose each other, and we start running back and forth between them.

Thus, some people leave the framework of study for a month or two, a year or two, and then return. Some experience many different states even in a single day, which is called “the catapult.” We are thrown into the turmoil of bodily and human desires, then flung back into spirituality, again and again. And through this, we grow. It is not like we grew throughout human history, through previous reincarnations, where the goal was merely to expand desires for this world. Instead, now we grow a desire for the next world in opposition to desires for this world. In other words, now we grow a desire for the Creator in opposition to desires for physical pleasures, money, honor, and intellectual pursuits.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 141

Is the Desire for Spirituality, the Point in the Heart, the Greatest Desire?

Yes, the desire for spirituality is the greatest desire for us who begin to develop, even someone who lived 5,000 years ago, or 1,000 years ago, it does not matter when. All of humanity is in a state of development. What is development? It means that desires grow and expand.

For example, 50 years ago, it was hard to find a variety of goods at the grocery store. You could buy bread, milk, and maybe one type of yogurt. Today, you walk into a supermarket and an enormous range of products is spread before your eyes, in every color, flavor, and size, with low-fat and high-fat options, and local and imported products. Such variety never existed before. This gives us an idea of what development means.

Desires constantly grow, and they also divide into countless detailed categories, more than one could ever imagine, which provide many nuances. Today, we can distinguish among 50 types of food and know exactly which one we want. It is almost madness, but that is how it is. Look at how many distinctions can be made even within a single category of food, and it is the same with every aspect of life.

Why does this happen? It is because the will to receive is constantly in a process of development, demanding greater and more diverse fulfillment. According to this growing need, we receive new thoughts and ideas about how to satisfy ourselves with a variety of items. Suddenly, we realize that there is a new “socket” or gap in our desire that can be filled with another flavor, another item.

Therefore, we develop until all the beastly or animalistic desires, more or less, become familiar and understood. Then, a new desire becomes introduced: the desire for spirituality. This desire is called the “point in the heart,” and it is positioned against the animalistic desires. Now, they start to develop against each other. At this point, we begin to feel a split. We feel like a pendulum swinging between these two forces without understanding where it will lead or how it is happening.

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