Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 29

When Does a Person Agree to Let Society Influence Them?

We agree to let the group influence us out of necessity when we lose hope in our own strength. Baal HaSulam writes in his “Letter No. 57” that “there is no happier situation in man’s world than when he finds himself despaired with his own strength, i.e., he has already labored and done all that he could possibly imagine he could do, but found no remedy.” Only then are we eligible for true prayer, from the depths of our heart.

Initially, we resist external influence, as our nature does not let us consent to others having control over us. We turn to the group out of necessity, like a seriously ill person who goes to the hospital, lies down, and lets the doctors treat them, do whatever is necessary, sedate them, open their body, and do as they will.

Only the recognition of our inability brings agreement. Before that we will resist because our “self” was created as independent, feeling itself unique in the world. And if we are indeed the only ones in our world, with nothing else, how could we possibly yield to others?

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 28

What if Someone Is Desperate and Unwilling to Accept Help?

If someone is desperate and unwilling to accept help, then nothing can be done. It is possible to bind them, but only if such consent was agreed upon beforehand, and then they are treated like a patient tied to a bed. It might be necessary to bind them and wait until the times change from above, which is something beyond the person’s or group’s control. Although they might have distanced themselves from the group and isolated themselves, there is an upper mechanism that will alter the situation. The group should treat such a person accordingly and wait for them to accept help.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 27

What Causes a Person to Escape the Struggle?

There are many reasons, but ultimately, they all come down to one: a lack of sufficient support from the environment. Baal HaSulam states that such a person has not exercised their free choice to surround themselves with supportive people, books, or study. Regardless of the physical environment they are in, even near a great teacher, they might still escape, depending on how much they connect with those who support them.

The “environment” is not the place that we are in, nor is it merely the company of a group of good and strong people who influence us. It is whether we want and allow ourselves to be influenced. The rule is that there is no coercion in spirituality. No one can change under compulsion from the outside. We change and are influenced according to our desire, and not by coercion. “No coercion” is not merely a prohibition that we need to observe. It is impossible to force anything even if no prohibition were in place. That is, even if we want to be forced and ask our friends to force us, and even if we receive blows to force us, even then, we cannot be forced. The person himself is the only one who can compel his own change.

All change can take place only with the person’s consent, willingness, and free choice. We will change when we open a way for the light to enter. Outside, there is the light of Ein Sof (infinity); it can be a large group, a great teacher, a society, even the “holy society” of Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, but the degree to which we open ourselves up to it determines the extent of influence that the society can have on us. If we fail to make such an opening, then we can be sitting among friends, and they can be talking and making actions with a fire burning between them, but it will have absolutely no effect on us. We will remain cool and indifferent, can drink another cup of coffee, sit with them a little longer, and that will be it. Despite all good intentions, the friends will be unable to influence us.

Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes in his “Speech for the Conclusion of The Zohar” that everything depends on how much a student serves his teacher. It refers to the extent in which we serve the group, as this degree of dedication opens the door for the teacher or the group to influence us in return. This is called “free choice.” Free choice is the extent to which we let a positive environment influence us. We should engage in self-reflection and examine how genuinely we relate to our environment in order to receive strength from it. The extent of our progress depends on the strength we are willing to receive from the group.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 26

When Do the Middle and Outer Desires Reveal Themselves?

The relationship between the middle and outer desires, and how we relate to these two desires, is key. Sometimes the middle desire is revealed, and then we clearly see who we are. This happens, say, during a descent, at a moment when we suddenly look at ourselves and what we see shocks us. At that point, the middle desires surface. The outer desires are exposed during an ascent when the upper light acts upon us and we see who we would like to be, seemingly detached from the middle desire.

If we can evaluate both desires together, we can reflect on them and consider where they stand in relation to these two types of desires or assess their attitude toward them from a detached state.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 25

What Layer of the Heart Is the “Self” of a Person In?

The “self” does not reside on the external level, as on this level we only guess what we want to become. By looking inward, deep into our heart, we see what we genuinely want to become. Therefore, the external desire stems from engaging with books and authors. The books tell us that we have a very deep inner desire, a desire that we do not feel. In this inner desire is the “stony heart” or “there is none else besides Him”—the front and back of the same hidden aspect that is beyond our reach. In this inner desire lies the true “self,” which is present at both the beginning and end of correction. However, we cannot access it, neither in feeling nor knowledge. We can only reach the middle and outer desires.

Thus, what determines our level is our approach to the gap between the middle desire, which is the real desire at the level we are on, and the outer desire, the level we aspire to reach. The outer desire constantly changes as we imagine a different level to which we aspire each time. Eventually, however, the outer desire should yearn to be a copy of the Creator, so that we wish to resemble Him. This desire comes from books and authors.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 24

How Can We Sharpen Our Sensitivity to the Layers of the Heart?

In any field or subject, we can develop increasing sensitivity through contemplation, immersion, and habituation. In Shamati article number 7, “What Is, “A Habit Becomes a Second Nature,” in the Work?” Baal HaSulam states that we can feel anything that exists in reality exclusively via habit.

We can start sensing previously unfelt phenomena by exerting and working in them. What is exertion and work? It is that very prayer. Then, we develop this sensory system, delve deeper, and feel it. Other than working on this desire to receive, there is no other way.

In spirituality, there is only one solution: work on this desire through the upper light via a plea to the Creator, who responds to the plea and provides for this desire. The process is straightforward: appeal upward and receive a response from above. There is nothing more to it.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 23

How Can We Reach the Creator from a Middle Prayer?

The middle prayer is called “recognition of evil.” It expresses the extent to which we see our heart’s qualities. The external prayer is our ideal vision of ourselves, even if we do not fully agree with it. Yet, according to the middle prayer, we agree or deceive ourselves into wanting to be as we envision.

If we dwell in our heart, we can gradually see the connection between all such elements, discern where the Creator arranges them, and thus know how we can relate to the Creator.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 22

Is it Possible That an Intellectual or Physical Action Could Lead to a True Inner Desire?

We are unaware of our heart’s deepest desire and do not feel it. We sense a middle desire, which usually manifests as a desire for various things we are ashamed of. We also feel an outer desire, from which arises our plea to the Creator, in which we as if ask for the strength to bestow and to be brought us to the states described in Kabbalistic books.

But why focus on the outer desire, which is merely flattery and falsehood compared to the middle desire, which seeks only earthly and material pleasures? It is because even in this falsehood where we know that our heart seeks materiality, yet it still deceives us that it is crying and asking for spirituality and the ability to bestow, this is still considered a prayer. This prayer is based on “faith in the sages,” where we believe the words of the author even though we do not fully understand them, and this faith holds effect. Why? It is because this is a person’s only true free choice.

What is an external prayer? It is what we would ostensibly like to become. We believe that we want to love our friends, to be united with them in desire, in an embracing unity, and so on. If we look at this “ostensibly” from a different perspective, slowly, we start realizing that we want to receive it for ourselves, even if it is not our innermost, true desire.

Our inner heart was created by the Creator, but we want to absorb, receive, and somewhat agree with the external, artificial, and false desire. We wish it would be so. Here lies our free choice in our future inner self, in the way we would like to see ourselves. Although this desire is currently artificial and false, it is treated as a real desire from above. The inner, animalistic heart and even deeper, unconscious desires belong to the Creator. The person is completely disconnected from them, and has no control over them.

Therefore, even while considering the external, flattering, and hypocritical desire, we receive a correction from above, which advances us to the correct image and form. The Creator always responds from above, reflecting the gap between our concept of the good that we wish to become and the true goodness meant to sprout within us. This is the gap between the external prayer as expressed and its falsehood as revealed in our heart.

As we gain awareness of the gap between the middle and outer prayers, between who we truly are and who we wish to be, we can better understand the Creator’s response, accept it as a correction, and align with it.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 21

How Much Does Our Work Depend on Going in the Right Direction?

We need to understand what the purpose of creation is, what the Creator wants from us, and what our heart’s desire is, which is called “recognition of evil.” We examine and learn how far and how different our “self” is from what it needs to be in our current state, not how it should ideally be in its root at the completion of correction, but right now.

We should always improve relative to our current state and not compare ourselves to other people’s states or a different stage of development from our own. Just as a five-year-old is regarded as a five-year-old and not as a ten-year-old, it would be disheartening if that child suffered from growth delay and required the support of various treatments and corrections.

At every moment, we have all the data needed to discover, examine, see, and understand how we should be and whether we are moving in the right direction. It depends solely on our effort and labor. There is no corruption from above; all corruption exists within a person, and we are granted permission to discover and heal it.

However, we need the reforming light to come and illuminate our way. It is a light that reveals our nature and clarifies the extent to which we are tarnished by various thoughts, impulses, and desires. We draw this light by studying Kabbalistic texts. Therefore, it is all in our hands; only studying can help us see the gap between our current “self” and our ideal “self.”

Moreover, an overly-strong desire to immediately see the extent of the deviation between identities will not help, as transgressions, mistakes, and feelings of distance, disparity, and separation from the correct state all gradually accumulate and surface. They are specifically where we feel the revelation. Therefore, such information gathering requires a long time. We develop this ability to perceive over years, depending on the quantity and quality of our effort.

The mechanism will always be prayer and correction on the prayer, on the desire in the heart. Whenever we feel our presence in the world, at every moment, we essentially discover the gap between who we are, what is in our heart, and who we are meant to be. At the end of the day, the pressures or pleasures that the world provides are forces of correction that act on us.

For a corrected person, the worlds disappear. All the worlds exist within the person. They are a mechanism, a system, that constantly surrounds and corrects us. They guide us closer and closer to the goal. The more we approach the goal, the purer the worlds become. They become purified from the world of Assiya to the worlds of Yetzira, Beria, and Atzilut, until they disappear and become replaced by simple light.

In a person who has reached the goal, there are no worlds. There is no longer a mechanism of worlds between the simple light and the person; instead, the person becomes attuned to the simple light.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 20

Chapter 3. Correction With a Gentle Guiding Touch: The Inner, Middle, and Outer Desire

It is not our role to judge ourselves as strong or weak, brave or cowardly, wise or foolish. We need to exert ourselves to the best of our ability in the developmental process according to our inclinations and inner nature.

It is written, “The prayer of every mouth.” This means that the Creator hears every person’s prayer. In other words, it does not matter who we are or what we feel; we each, with our own feelings, and even deeper, in our heart, pray to the Creator. This deficiency influences our attitude to the Creator and the Creator’s attitude toward us.

In the heart, there is an upper and outer layer through which we feel our desires, and through which we can direct them to the Creator. For instance, we might want to appeal to the Creator with a specific desire that belongs to spiritual work, which is directed at the purpose of creation. Such a desire, albeit external and artificial since we have awakened it, is received above. However, to the extent that it is external for us, it is also external above.

If we delve deeper and examine our innermost desire, by assessing what our heart truly wants, we might discover that our heart does not long for the object of our prayer. We might find that we actually desire rest or some small pleasure instead of treading the path toward the purpose of creation and aiming at lofty matters. Such a feeling is also part of the prayer. The more we expose our innermost desire, the more it is received above.

In the heart, there is an even deeper inner desire that is beyond the level of our awareness and sensation. It is entirely hidden from us. But because it is the innermost, truest, and deepest desire, it is fully received above with its entire power and strength. When a response to this prayer, this hidden desire, comes from above, it is rarely understood.

Everyone exists at every moment in a state that results from the feeling in their heart, which stems from their prayer. However, we do not know how to connect the inner, middle, and outer prayers of the heart with the Creator’s response, as we are unaware of our heart’s deepest desire.

If we were aware of this desire and felt it, even from our current state, based on our present qualities and feelings, we would understand the extent to which we diverge from what we should feel in order to progress toward the purpose of creation. If we felt this deviation, we would know what specific correction needs to be made from above, and we would then understand the spiritual states the Creator sends us to receive through which we become corrected. However, for now, such states are concealed from us.

Nevertheless, at all times and in every state, we raise a prayer, MAN, and receive MAD in return. In other words, what rises from our heart is received above in the general system, which also contains the mechanism that operates on us personally. The response returns to us, which is essentially a correction of direction. It is our next spiritual state, which is aligned with our soul’s root and the purpose we need to reach.

Before we engage in spirituality, we lack the understanding and feeling that this mechanism operates in such a way. However, when we enter spirituality, we start seeing it clearly, and begin working closely with MAN and MAD. We form a reciprocal relationship with the Creator, which connects us to Him and which dictates our every action and our life’s course. This is called “half a shekel.” Half of the work is given by the person and half by the Creator.

Baal HaSulam provides an example of farmers in the Negev who are entirely unaware of the prayer they raise. Nonetheless, their request for rain is received above, and they receive the response below. Every layer of our heart—the inner, middle, and outer—rises upward, and it becomes felt and received by the mechanism responsible for bringing every created being to its correction and root. Accordingly, we correct the heart, which is our desire through various external conditions that continuously correct our direction toward the purpose of creation.

The more the inner desire is directed precisely at the purpose of creation, the more delicate the correction of the direction will be. That is, it will be a small and soft correction, felt as a gentle, guiding touch, like a mother tenderly supporting her child while it is learning to walk. The greater the deviation between the heart’s content and the feeling in our current state toward the purpose of creation, the more significant the correction will be and the more painful the effort to bridge the gap between the present and the desired state. We then feel the force that guides us to goodness in a more severe way, because the environmental conditions we are placed in become more challenging.

This mechanism of MAN and MAD from souls toward Malchut of Atzilut and the returning influence on the souls is a simple mechanism that we study in the book The Study of the Ten Sefirot.

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