Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 140

Are the Disturbances, the Klipot, Greater Than the Desire for Spirituality, for Kedusha?

The desires within us are always balanced one against the other. Why? It is because the goal is to advance us. The closer we draw to the purpose of creation, that is, the closer we approach the Creator and are filled by Him, the more disturbances we are given, so that our path will be more efficient.

It is exactly like how a child who studies in a higher grade is not given problems meant for a lower grade. If they were to engage in lower-level problems, they would regress. They must be given a difficulty level that they are capable of, and even a bit more, so they will have to exert themselves and find a solution through their own strength, and thus grow into the next level beyond where they currently are. Otherwise, they would stagnate and remain at their current low level.

You can see this with people who, after completing their studies and beginning to work, spend their entire lives doing the same thing without advancing themselves further. For example, a person learns to calculate and draft buildings, and then spends their whole life only calculating and drafting. They remain on the same level and do not grow; they become still-like.

In contrast, there are those who constantly learn. How do they learn? They take on problems that are beyond their current ability and seek solutions. In fact, all learning is based on this principle: giving a person problems larger than their current capabilities so that they seek and discover solutions. Through this search, they grow and become scientists and researchers. The same applies to Kabbalah, which is a science like any other, and it follows the same principles.

Therefore, we are given the left line, the Klipot, the disturbances, at least according to the strength we possess from the right line, and even a little more. This is how we see that we are incapable; by experiencing failure, we come to recognize that we need to find a connection with the Creator. Ultimately the goal is not merely for us to overcome the left line and then move to the right, and again to overcome the left and move to the right. If that were the case, we would never leave our will to receive. The goal is that through the movement between right and left, we will acquire a new nature. Otherwise, we would remain as we are in this world.

A different nature can only be attained if we long to acquire the Creator’s nature. This means that we cannot solve the problem through our own strength; we must receive additional strength from the Creator. Therefore, we need to enter into the left side, the Klipa, time and again, recognize that we are incapable, experience failure, and then—at first unconsciously, and later consciously—turn to the upper force, the Godly power, and draw additional strength from there.

Our desire, longing, and brokenness are the vessels that receive additional strength from the right. We thus need the Klipot, for without them, we could not receive additional strength, additional qualities, from the right side.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 139

Chapter 14. The Desire for Spirituality

The Creator created the will to receive in accordance with His purpose “to do good to His creations,” to bring the will to receive to a state of perfection. For “doing good,” according to the Creator, means to do so perfectly, like Him. Anything less than perfection is not considered true goodness. Only the Creator is perfection.

In order to bring the created being to equivalence, to such perfection, it is necessary for the created being to want to become corrected, to change, and to bring the state that is opposite to perfection to ultimate perfection. Perfection is achieved only from its opposite, as “the advantage of light out of darkness,” as “there was evening and there was morning.” From a vessel that feels deficiency, the filling is sensed, and from a felt lack, delight is perceived. We cannot understand or attain anything except from its opposite.

The essence of delight, the essence of light, is the Creator. To attain and feel Him is only possible through having the opposite form. This means that the nature of the created being must be opposite to the nature of the Creator in order to enjoy the state of perfection, the degree of the Creator. Therefore, the breaking of the vessels takes place. Through the breaking of the vessels into the will to receive of the created being, which is “existence from absence,” qualities of the Creator (“existence from existence”) fall in. Therefore, we acquire desires for fulfillments, which necessarily come from the Creator.

The way to reach the purpose of creation begins from the lowest degree where we have basic bodily-animal desires for food, sex, and shelter, which are desires found also in animals. We long for them even when living alone. Next, we develop human-social desires for wealth, honor, and knowledge, which society instills. Only after we more or less know, recognize, and fulfill these desires, do we reach desires called “spiritual desires,” which neither body nor society can fulfill, only the Creator can.

There are thus three stages of the desire’s development. The development begins by fulfilling animal and human desires, known as “desires of this world.” We begin to talk about a human being only from the moment when spiritual desires awaken, desires that can only be filled with the upper light, with the Creator, with the sensation of the Creator. These are called “desires of the world to come,” the spiritual world.

We who develop a spiritual desire, where the desire for spirituality is conceived, work to develop and fulfill this desire against all other desires. We work on the point in the heart, the desire for spiritual fulfillment, against all other bodily and human desires. We labor against these opposites with all of our might, using the society, the study, and inner searching. We want to grow and nurture the point in the heart, the desire for spirituality, against all the other corporeal desires.

If we complete this work (and we do not know when that will be), we long only for spirituality, day and night, in a state described as “until it does not let me sleep,” and we only fulfill the other desires out of necessity for basic existence, not as luxuries. If all of these conditions are met, it is a sign that we have finished our work in this world, and then we are given a new degree: the level of work is raised. Instead of the general bodily desires in the heart, we are given desires called Klipot.

Opposite the point in the heart, instead of the expanded point, we are given the feeling of the Creator. Now, instead of a heart filled with animalistic and human desires and a small point with a vague longing for spirituality, we receive a new heart, a Klipa within which is Kedusha. The Klipot are various thoughts and desires against the Creator, against His unity, collectively called “Pharaoh.” Kedusha is the desire and yearning for the Creator, the soul. The relationship between Klipa and Kedusha is like the relationship between the heart and the point in the heart at the level of this world.

Thus, we continue our work. Our whole connection, life, and yearning becomes directed toward the Creator, while Pharaoh (the Klipot, the disturbances) constantly resist them. Yet, as it is written, “Pharaoh brought the children of Israel closer to their Father in Heaven.” It is precisely through these disturbances, through the Klipot, that we strengthen and magnify our connection, yearning, and desire for the Creator.

When we complete the work, the end of the work is called “the end of correction,” we enter a state where all our desires are completely corrected in accordance with perfection and Godliness, and we become fully filled with the upper light. These are the differences between the degrees of this world and the degrees of the next world, between the beastly soul and the Godly soul.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 138

Why Do Man and Woman Together Bear Male and Female Offspring, and Not Each Their Own Kind?

Man and woman together bear both male and female because each degree includes both aspects. Through their coupling, they produce the next degree. In the next degree, there is again a split between male and female, two opposing sides, “a help against Him,” until they find a correction where they cling together, and through their adhesion, they give birth to another degree, the next state. In every new state that we enter, we discover these two opposing elements of male and female, and begin to unite them.

We find within ourselves the discernments called “woman” (female desires). We correct these desires toward the goal, which is an act called “male.” “Male” refers to the Creator within us, the bestowing part. We make a coupling (Zivug) between the two, and thereby give birth to their next state. In the next state, we go through the same process. These are the inner reincarnations we undergo. We can sit in a lesson for just a few hours and go through thousands of reincarnations, from generation to generation, parents to children, and it all carries out within us.
From a Talk on the Article “If a Woman Inseminates,” 6/8/2002

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 137

What Is the Concept of “The World of Atzilut” in Our Work?

We perform various scrutinies regarding the purpose of creation and our relationship with the Creator. We try to integrate the many disturbances we encounter into “There is none else besides Him.” This is the work: against all kinds of disturbances sent by the Creator, we must return to the awareness that “There is none else besides Him.” Everything is sent from above so we will connect to the Creator.

However, from this work, we still see no benefit. We struggle to act, but cannot. We constantly battle internally, encounter various screams and blows, become disappointed and exhausted, and disturbances keep coming.

After we complete a certain portion of this work, an illumination comes from above. We receive help to connect to the idea of “There is none else besides Him” above all of our efforts. This is called the matter of “the world of Atzilut,” where there are no disturbances. “All judgments are removed from it.” The judgments descend from under us. Our heart and mind become clean, and for a few moments, we can adhere to “He and His Name are One.” This is called “Atzilut.”

This feeling spreads within us, and we realize ourselves through it with all of our prior efforts, after gathering all discernments into one, over all disturbances. It is not yet the end of correction, but it is a state toward it.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 136

What Is the Meaning of “Animal Food” and “Human Food”?

Each spiritual degree is nourished according to its stature. Animal food is vegetative. Human food is both vegetative and animate because the human belongs to the speaking degree. What distinguishes a human from an animal? Their degree. Baal HaSulam says that human food is processed from wheat, while animal food consists of raw grains and the wheat itself.

He explains this well in Sifra deTzniuta from The Zohar: A person comes to a city (“city” refers to the world of Atzilut) and sees that everyone there is eating various breads and pastries. He looks at the foods, and people offer him: “Taste.” He tastes and finds the foods very delicious. Then he asks, “What are these foods made from?” They answer: “From wheat.” And he is astonished: “I have never known foods like this, because my whole life, like an animal, I ate only raw wheat.”

The person reached the “city,” Atzilut, and saw that foods are sold and eaten there, but they are processed differently. They are called “human food.” Only a human can prepare such foods, by processing wheat with “water” and “flour,” which symbolize the discernments of Hassadim and Hochma.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 135

How Can We Direct Desires?

We cannot direct our desires except by examining whether a particular desire is beneficial toward our goal. If we have no goal beyond simply fulfilling the desire, then we are like animals: when commanded to crave grass, they eat grass; when commanded to rest, they lie down; they drink water according to command, and so on. In this animalistic state, we merely carry out whatever desire arises within us, period. We possess no other inner program aside from instinctively executing desires. Thus, we are called “inanimate,” “vegetative,” or “animate.” In the “speaking” or “human” degree, we have a goal, an additional program that connects us to our “host” through the processes happening within.

RABASH explains that there is something called “the sustenance of existence,” which exists in the inanimate, vegetative, and animate. It concerns how each being lives: how it has a will to receive, how it sustains itself, and what it desires for its own survival. But beyond this, there is a purpose: to bring this existence to a special state. The wisdom of Kabbalah does not deal with the sustenance of existence, with how everyone was given a desire and how we maintain ourselves like animals. It deals solely with the ways to reach the purpose, the additional inner program implanted within creation.

Thus, two programs were instilled within us, which create a split personality. We do not know which program to follow that will be better for us. The first program demands we protect our animalistic self, while the second demands we reach the goal. Then, we bounce between desires: we want money, then we want honor, then we want honor again, then we want the Creator, then we want the Creator again, then we want the purpose, and we scrutinize whether to act or not to act, constantly moving between a blend of drives. This is all because we possess two programs. As Kabbalah explains: when there is a host and there is also food on the table, the two contradict each other.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 134

How Does the Desire Change?

We should not engage in trying to change the desire, because it is not in our hands to do so. A person cannot change desires. Our preparation is to discern that a desire to change desire is no good, that the created being cannot change anything. Desires were created by the Creator.

We cannot change our desires by ourselves, nor even shift from one thought to another or from one desire to another, within them. This takes place only from above, through changes in the light.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 133

How Does the Desire Change?

We should not engage in trying to change the desire, because it is not in our hands to do so. A person cannot change desires. Our preparation is to discern that a desire to change desire is no good, that the created being cannot change anything. Desires were created by the Creator. We cannot change our desires by ourselves, nor even shift from one thought to another or from one desire to another, within them. This takes place only from above, through changes in the light.

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Is Prayer a Means?

Prayer is not merely a means. We refine our desire to make it better, to make it function, and to assume another form through prayer. What is prayer? It is a deficiency within the desire, a request for the desire to change.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 131

How Are the States of Male and Female Felt Before the Barrier?

The myriad spiritual discernments RABASH writes about exist within us as a copy. Even before the barrier, we can imagine various spiritual states. True, they exist only in imagination, but we already experience certain subtle sensations. We do not yet have full feelings, and what we imagine is inaccurate, but there is some shadow of truth.

In other words, within the point in the heart, there is already some volume, a space for each concept, sensation, and for the relationships between them. There is a certain distance, a kind of hollow, between every definition inside the point in the heart. We can sense that something belongs to the right side, and something else to the left side. One thing feels a bit closer, another more distant. We have an inner sensation corresponding to these, though not yet a real feeling, only a slight sensitivity, as if we can “smell” the real thing. Due to the breaking of the vessels, there are sparks left within, which allow some form of sensing.

How can we feel something through the sparks? If we work with the point in the heart, we attract various surrounding lights around ourselves. The light that comes during the study is not uniform; it carries many possibilities according to the vessel. It is simple light (Ohr Pashut), not inner light (Ohr Pnimi) or surrounding light (Ohr Makif) in the full sense, but a subtle illumination that constantly surrounds us. Depending on how we work with the point in the heart, how we develop it and make discernments within it, the surrounding light acts differently on these discernments time after time.

Even though this light is not yet like the clear inner light NRNHY (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida), which is distinctly tied to specific degrees like Hassadim, Hochma, and so on, it nonetheless contains nuances and shades. Therefore, it not only develops sensitivity within the point in the heart, but it also causes it to swell, and prepares it for the growth of future organs, like a seed cell. We can have a certain sensitivity that within this seed cell are tiny points, minuscule seeds, from which the future body of the soul will develop. Even before the barrier, we can have such sensitivities.

Of course, it is still just a seed, a drop. We must therefore prepare ourselves toward this drop, wishing for it to develop organs and different parts and relations toward the Creator. The organs—“hand,” “foot,” “liver,” “head,” etc.—represent different relationships arising from our various desires toward the Creator. We wish for it to be so, but do not yet find those desires and discernments within us, yet we still search for them and seek how we can relate to the Creator through them.

When we complete this search, this effort (when exactly is in the hands of the Creator), only then does the Creator give His response: He revives the seed, and it begins to develop. In other words, we must do half the work through our own efforts, and after dedicating all of our effort and completing our share, which is called “filling our measure,” we then receive from above.

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