Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 19

What Is Correct to Seek: Recognition of Evil or the Feeling of the Creator’s Greatness?

The most correct course of action in order to progress is to attach, cling, and bond with the upper force, the Creator, as Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) writes in his article “There Is None Else Besides Him.” He also writes that half an hour each day should be spent in self-reflection, not looking up, but looking within. Also, even when looking within, we should check what we have sensed, examined, and seen in the Creator.

A routine inward focus on ourselves is called “a complete descent to the level of this world.” It brings about despair, not progress. We are where our thoughts are. Who are we? Our thoughts. If our thoughts are focused on materialism, we are in materialism. If we are focused on Godliness, we are in Godliness. That is what we call “ascents and descents.”

It is thus beneficial to be as attentive as possible to Godliness. As Kabbalist Baruch Shalom Ashlag (RABASH) writes, the group should work to elevate Godliness constantly and focus on how to raise the Creator’s greatness. We should not think about ourselves but about the greatness of the Creator. Why? It is because we become inspired by what we receive from above.

Certainly, we should not neglect the inner goal and the desire for self-recognition of evil, but we should not linger in the negative for too long as it causes despair, which is unhelpful. Only connection with the Creator is helpful. By continually punishing ourselves for being bad, we actually distance ourselves from correction by punishing the Creator. Thus, expressions of joy, awakening, and elevation of spirit are signs that we are moving in the correct direction. Conversely, sadness, weakness, self-punishment, and guilt are signs of stagnation, not progress.

This is the general approach to advancing in the direction of Godliness. If there is a healthy spirit of struggle and overcoming in the group, everyone will abandon their doubts with more ease and speed. Doubts arise constantly and must constantly be set aside. It might seem endless, but there is an end, which comes after several years of effort. The time required is shortening. In earlier times, it took twenty or thirty years to reach Godliness, but as time presses on, more developed souls enter the world and the pace of progress accelerates so that today it is possible to reach Godliness in just a few years.

From a Talk on the Article “What Is Preparation for the Reception of the Torah?” 5/16/2002

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 18

What Is the Difference Between the Reception of the Torah and the Exodus from Egypt?

The Exodus from Egypt is the preparation of the vessels. We take vessels from Egypt, and opposite the point in the heart, we start perceiving the evil within us. “The children of Israel groaned from the labor.” The entire process we undergo culminates in freedom from Pharaoh’s control, i.e., from the control of such vessels and desires. We thereby become ready to confront the doubts, which is considered reaching Mount Sinai.

Without the Exodus from Egypt, it is impossible to speak of receiving the Torah. We need to have the vessels from Egypt, and then we can leave Egypt and reach Mount Sinai with those vessels. Moreover, even as we receive the Torah at Mount Sinai, when the point of Keter—Moses—receives the Torah, the point of Malchut forms an idol, which symbolizes the people waiting at the foot of the mountain seized by doubts about the spiritual work, unable to overcome them, ultimately creating an idol.

It is quite complicated. The process of receiving the Torah is a very long journey, and further corrections are needed afterward. It is due to the Torah arriving in two stages, one following the other:

• The first stage: correction of the vessels.
• The second stage: filling of the vessels.

The process thus does not end with leaving Egypt and the reception of the Torah. When we receive the Torah, we only start refining our vessels. We begin to correct them during the forty years in the desert until we reach the Land of Israel. Before reaching the final correction, there are still many challenges to face, and their purpose is to develop a sense of the true, eternal, and perfect state that is already within us.

In essence, this entire process is a way of opening our vessels so that we can increasingly feel our place. The process only affects the vessels of perception within us. Nothing external changes, only our perception.

It is astonishing how the reception of Godliness is ultimately an inner discovery and revelation; we find out where we truly are and what is within. We can liken it to someone unconscious who gradually wakes up to know where they are. Nothing changes externally, only our awareness and feeling.

The stages of the vessels’ sensitivity in us, which are stages of awareness and awakening, are called the “Exodus from Egypt,” “Mount Sinai,” “Reception of the Torah,” and other names. They are stages that we undergo on our spiritual journey. The change only plays out within us, in our inner vessels. On the outside, nothing changes. We are the ones who change.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 17

What Preparation Is Required for the Reception of the Torah?

The preparation for the reception of the Torah involves overcoming the many doubts that arise in us. We each have our own doubts, despairs, helplessness, indifference, a decline in the importance of attaining Godliness, and so on. We thus require substantial and varied efforts to overcome such doubts. We need to surround ourselves with supportive resources: a society, books, daily routines, and family. Doing so takes a long time and all such endeavors constitute preparation for the reception of the Torah. Ultimately, the main goal is to overcome the doubts and uncertainties that confront us.

Many people come to learn, but as soon as they face some difficulties or even a slight decrease in the desire that they initially received, which was meant to be strengthened from below by the effort they put in, they lose interest in learning. Then they resist the study and leave. Such people lack a deep enough need to feel that it is “better to die than to live.” In other words, they can still find sufficient satisfaction in various worldly pleasures: money, honor, knowledge, sex, food, and sports. However, this is also part of the preparation—there is no other way.

Spirituality is wholeness. What is wholeness? It requires a whole desire. If a person’s desire is well aligned with receiving the Torah, with the revelation of light and Godliness, then we receive the Torah. If not, we are still incomplete in our preparations.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 16

What Is “Back” or “Behind”?

When the Creator reveals His actions as if they are not in humanity’s favor, it is considered a descent. All doubts come to a person indirectly from the Creator. Just as with Moses, who asked to see the Creator’s face, the Creator responds, “I will show you only My ‘back,’ for it is impossible to see My face.” This means that revelation always happens indirectly, through the “back,” or through vessels.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 15

Why Is it Written That the Creator “Descends” to Mount Sinai?

For the Creator, “Mount Sinai” signifies a descent. The term “Creator” itself implies descent, from the word that means “outside of the level.” The Creator is also called a “groom,” derived from the word for “landing” or “descending.” The myriad titles given to the Creator are based on His appearance before humanity, which is defined as a descent.

The Creator’s descent to Mount Sinai also has many interpretations, both in the literal sense and in Kabbalah. Essentially, it is unbefitting for the Creator to appear to humanity as a harmful force, but He does so in both positive and negative ways together in order to create correct discernments in humanity and to form a vessel. The vessel itself is formed from both the light and the lack of light.

It is impossible for only a lack or only a fulfillment to appear. A true lack always includes a Reshimo (record), some fulfillment, a small illumination. Thus, the Creator needs to reveal Himself to humanity in both forms, through suffering and fulfillment. These actions are essentially a descent on His part. The Creator’s name (“Boreh” in Hebrew) can also be divided into two words: “come” (“Bo“) and “see” (“Reh“). This all describes the descent of Godliness.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 14

What Is the Reception of the Torah?

The reception of the Torah is to stand at the foot of the mountain and receive the Creator who resides at its summit. The mountain itself symbolizes all the doubts that come to us. If we can overcome these doubts and all the questions that the Creator intentionally places between Himself and the person, then this mountain will become the vessel for receiving the Torah.

The Torah is received solely within these doubts, within feelings of despair. On one side is the Creator, who intentionally sets these challenges against us and for our sake. On the other side is us at the foot of the mountain, viewing all the doubts above us, with the Creator above them.

The reception of the Torah happens only after we succeed in forming a vessel from all these doubts. Then, within this vessel, comes the revelation of Godliness. We discover that the Creator is at the summit of all such doubts. Only when the Creator resides above the doubts that come to us do we reach the revelation of Godliness, the acquisition of the force of bestowal and the revelation of eternity and perfection.

We ourselves rise a level, not only the point in the heart, but “Moses” ascends Mount Sinai solely by means of these doubts, through his “people” who sanctify and prepare him, and then he fully receives the Torah. This relates to the topic of the holiday of Shavuot.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 13

How Do We Suddenly Realize that We Have an Evil Inclination?

The phrase “the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” means that from the outset we have only one nature: the desire to receive for the sake of receiving. The desire to receive is not nature. It is matter. That is, it is neither good nor evil but merely a desire to enjoy. Divisions into good and evil depend on what exactly we want to enjoy.

The intention to enjoy for oneself is called “evil.” Why should a desire to enjoy be considered evil? It is because the Creator designed a system where the desire to receive for the sake of receiving causes suffering. It takes several years, however, to learn that the desire to receive for its own sake leads to suffering. Generally, it takes thousands of years for the soul to become consciously aware that the desire to receive for oneself is harmful.

In the incarnation where we receive the point in the heart, we start fearing our own thoughts, which constantly act out of self-interest. We sense that such thoughts bring trouble, yet we are clueless as to how we can escape them. How can we stop a thought that naturally operates beyond our control? We see this desire within us and try to uproot it, and in such a way, we realize that “the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” In the wisdom of Kabbalah, this is referred to as a person’s encounter with the serpent.

Only after we observe ourselves from the perspective of the point in the heart, question who we are, and realize that we cannot confront our own desire to receive for the sake of receiving (since our entire being is absorbed in this desire, i.e., we were born to suffer and have only the thought that critiques and analyzes ourselves as support—do we turn to the Creator to release us from this affliction.

This is the correction. We can then understand how complex the situation is. A long time passes before we discover that “the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” However, when we reach this realization, we become willing to impose a restriction on ourselves, the result of which is called “prayer.” The feeling in our heart of wanting to free ourselves from ourselves, which we cannot achieve, leads to this restriction. After the restriction, we live a different life.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 12

When the Soul Descends to This World, When Does the “Point in the Heart” Awaken?

Only after the soul has passed through the four levels (and the division is always into four) does it reach the fifth level, that of Keter, which encompasses all the others. Then the soul encounters a new desire: the “point in the heart.” After undergoing a process of refinement through many incarnations, we acquire this desire, the “point in the heart,” which connects us to spirituality because it belongs to the spiritual world, not to us people.

Since this desire comes from above, from the spiritual world, nothing in this world can develop it. Only the light that shines upon it during the study of Kabbalah can do so. If we develop this desire by reading books that describe the spiritual reality that are written from a spiritual source by a Kabbalist of the spiritual world, then the light reaches that spark within us, the point in the heart, which causes the spark to come alive, expand, and develop. Without the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is impossible to nurture and develop this spark.

From the moment we receive the point in the heart, everything depends on us. In our previous incarnations, our animalistic desire developed and the entire world opened before us. The world and society provided fuel and challenges to develop the desire to receive. Once the point in the heart awakens, nothing in this world can stimulate us to develop it, and we find ourselves needing to seek out the appropriate company and books that will nurture it.

It is the task of Kabbalists, especially now, to provide each person whose point in the heart has awakened with books and resources for advancement. This is the purpose of disseminating written materials from the upper world. Without doing so, we have no means by which to develop spiritually. Indeed, many people suffer in this world because they lack such resources. Why do they suffer? It is because these resources have not reached them. Why have they not reached them? Everything has a reason, but ultimately, this is the role of those who engage in Kabbalah.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 11

Chapter 2. The Encounter Between Man and the Serpent

Man goes through many reincarnations. Each time, his soul is dressed in an additional desire to receive. This process is called “being dressed in a body.” The soul repeatedly undergoes these kinds of states, which are known as “reincarnations,” and thereby increasingly enhances its desire to receive in various forms through garments of power, wealth, honor, and knowledge. These garments are unnecessary for the soul. They are but desires for enjoyment. The question is, what is the source of this enjoyment?

Since the soul is dressed in a body, it seems to perceive that the light comes from these different garments—power, control, money, honor, and knowledge. The light assumes a particular form and reaches the soul that is dressed in a specific desire. The soul, now dressed in material desires, encounters the light which is also dressed in physical forms within these garments. In other words, we find ourselves in “this world.”

If both the soul and the light are dressed in physical garments, it is called “materialism.” If we remove our desires from all garments—from desires for enjoyment that are coverings such as honor, wealth, knowledge, sex, and so on—and even strip the pleasure itself of its covering, it is called “spirituality.”

The soul’s readiness to be naked, without a body or shell, and also the exposure of the pleasure requires progress through and growth within the four levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking of this world. It includes the experience of all bodily desires and pleasures: raising a family, eating and resting, and especially the desire for sex. Afterward, it must advance through all of the social pleasures: wealth, honor, control, and knowledge.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 10

What Does RABASH Mean by “There Are People Who Do Not Know There is a King in the World”?

In this world, there are people who have yet to be given development toward the Creator. Why? It is because, within each person is a soul that extends from a different part of Adam HaRishon, the collective soul. Some parts need to develop now, whereas some were meant to develop 3,000 years ago, and others will only develop in another 200 years. We have no control over the timing of development. It is thus not worth questioning or debating it. The plan of development is beyond our understanding as it was created before we were born, before we separated from the collective soul. A person’s role is simply to do the work, not to complete it. It means that we must, in every moment, do whatever we can.

Therefore, all stages of development exist in every moment of humanity’s history. This is how it has always been and will continue to be. We need to act with understanding according to these stages. Some people are ready for spiritual progress and depend on the method of Kabbalah, while others still lack such preparation, so they respond differently to Kabbalah. Others are entirely unable to understand this concept and will always dress it in various physical forms. This, too, is a stage that exists, and such people should be left alone. We can learn such an approach from the example of Abraham and his father Terah. Terah was an idol worshiper, while Abraham worshiped the Creator.
From a Talk on the Article “What Is Half a Shekel in the Work – 1,” 5/15/2002

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