Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 178

Can Criticism in the Group Weaken in the Same Way as Slander?

No. There should be criticism, but it must be objective and constructive, such that, as a result, people gather to discuss a problem and ways to improve and correct it. Without criticism and without seeing the evil, it is impossible to progress.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 177

Is Speaking Slander About the Creator Worse Than Condemning Him?

Without a doubt. We condemn the Creator when it is how we feel, due to our lack of correction, and it is our natural reaction. If we are dissatisfied with our life, it is considered that we condemn the Creator, but we should not discuss it. The worse we feel, the more we say that the Creator is bad. However, we say this out of our suffering, and then gradually we correct this feeling, see the evil came to us for a certain purpose, and attain the correct attitude to Him.

However, if we hear slander about the Creator from the outside, we add negativity to ourselves from the outside. The purpose of the group is to unite and gather a good attitude to the Creator, an attraction to Him, a desire for Him, from one another so that we will increase our desire. Let us hope that we never hear slander about the Creator or about the goal from our friends. Doing so means receiving a bad influence from the outside. A single bad rumor can spoil much work that was already done. Therefore, this is a very important matter.

For this reason, there is even concern about seeing a person who became weaker and shows contempt in a group. This does not refer to someone who became weaker due to tiredness from heavy effort that they invested in the work. Such a person sleeps a lot, and it is evident that they are drained because they are in constant effort day and night, and they have no time or energy and collapse from exhaustion. Such a case evokes respect, because it is clear that they truly work with all of their strength. However, if we simply begin to show contempt toward the group, we might be capable of exerting effort, but do not want to and even justify ourselves. Then, it becomes difficult for the society to tolerate us. We might be a decent and intelligent person, but our behavior interferes greatly. It becomes a bad example even without a single word being spoken.

Slander is not necessarily speech itself. It is anything that arouses contempt for the goal in another person that weakens them. Speech also means something we read or see, not only something we hear.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 176

Is There Slander Toward a Friend?

Slander is when a friend repeatedly says things such as, “One must dedicate one’s whole life to this. Maybe twenty years will pass before I begin to feel or attain something. Who can do this? Who would choose such a difficult path?” That friend is dripping poison into you. He discourages you. When you hear his words, that question will keep echoing in your ears throughout the entire path, and you will no longer be able to get rid of it. You will have to constantly deal with it. Therefore, we must not listen to such words.

When a friend speaks slander it weakens us, diverts us from the path and from the goal, and introduces unnecessary and destructive thoughts. Slander works against us. Perhaps the path will take twenty years, but in the end I will arrive. If I become discouraged in advance, I will only waste a few more lifetimes and will eventually return to the same point. Therefore, we must not listen to such speech. Moreover, if there is such a spirit within the society, it must be removed immediately, without hesitation about whether or not it is worthwhile. We should simply “vomit out” that person from the society. A person who tends to speak such things in a society could bring about its complete destruction.

One person can cause great harm because he takes advantage of the nature of the listeners, which makes the work of destruction easier for him. That is the essence of slander.

If he were acting against the corporeal nature, he could not cause such great destruction. We have already seen how much effort is required to balance the good and evil forces within us. This means that we need to develop a discernment regarding what we see or hear, and what we allow into ourselves. We need to know when to open our eyes and ears and when to close them. If we hear something bad or weakening about us, it is very important to leave that place immediately.

We do not know how deep the influence might be. We think, “I will overcome it. I will strengthen myself even more.” Such thoughts are useless. These bad words will remain within us and return to us in various situations when we will not be so strong. There are situations in which, when necessary, we are given slander from within, but that is something else. Listening to slander that comes from outside is our own choice, and we must distance ourselves from it. Therefore, it is established that we need to constantly speak about the greatness of the goal and continually express love and all the good actions that people supposedly do for one another within the group.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 175

Do We Need to Say “Blessed Be the Creator” All the Time Against Slander?

No, we should not say “Blessed be the Creator” all the time. We should say “Blessed be the Creator” after we have examined ourselves, dealt with that slander, and know where it comes from, from our own vessels. When we recognize the cause of the slander and delve deeply into it, we feel how much it opposes the goal and how it interferes with our attaining it. Then, we can truly say: “This slanderous speech is bad for me because it is bad for the Creator.”

By this we already unite with the Creator against that speech, and then we can ask the Creator to correct it. Before we unite with the Creator against the evil, we cannot ask Him to correct it.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 174

What Is Slander?

Slander is directed only against the Creator. It does not refer to two people speaking badly about a third person. In truth, slander is directed only at the Creator because we have no relationship with anything other than the Creator. Anything that interferes with us relating correctly to the Creator, that is, the inner and outer voice within us that might weaken or corrupt our attitude toward the Creator, is called “slander.”

In fact, all disturbances can be considered slander because they all, whether external or internal, speak within us against the Creator’s uniqueness, against “the Good who does good.”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 173

What Happens on the Degrees Before the Degree of the Creator?

All the degrees prior to the degree of the Creator are degrees of equivalence of form, which gradually lead us to complete equivalence. We have 620 desires, and we need to equalize the use of each and every desire with the way the Creator uses His desires. We align each desire so that it will be in order to bestow, which means that our use of the desire becomes identical to the Creator’s use of desires.

The Creator created this desire by means of a specific light that shines corresponding to that desire. If 620 lights emerge from the Creator, then each light creates a particular desire to receive in us. We correct this desire to “in order to bestow,” and then the vessel becomes like the light. That same desire becomes similar to that specific light because it bestows back according to the same action.

Therefore, we have 620 such vessels that bestow back to the Creator, just as the Creator, through 620 lights, bestows into those vessels. Consequently two systems are formed in which the actions of bestowal are identical, referred to as “the created being becomes exactly like the Creator.”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 172

What Is the Meaning of “The Good and Delight That the Creator Wished to Bestow Upon His Created Beings”?

This refers to the level of the Creator. There is no good and delight other than the Creator Himself, that is, His state and degree. This is what the Creator wanted the created being to reach. Anything less than this cannot be called “to do good to His created beings.” Anything less would simply be mercy toward the created being. This is because “the Good” is the Creator Himself, whom we call “the Good who does good,” and He wants us to arrive at that goodness.

We need to reach the state of the Creator, which is certainly more than merely to receive from Him or to feel Him. It means actually reaching His state.

This is what is meant by equivalence of form, which is called “adhesion” (Dvekut). “By Your actions we know You” means that we recognize His actions, become equal to them, and by doing so, we exist on the same level, on the same degree. When we complete this state, it is not that we receive from Him, but we become like Zeir Anpin and Nukva (ZON), which exist in an unceasing coupling (Zivug de lo Pasik) at equal stature, and then there is no deficiency of the created being relative to the degree of the Creator. This is called “the Good who does good.”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 171

What Is the Grace of Kedusha?

The grace of Kedusha, as its name suggests, is simply a “grace of Kedusha.” It is a kind of attraction to something pleasant and good. It is not a desire because there is no deficiency in the grace of Kedusha. The feeling is more like, “This is nice for me.” There is no natural necessity in it, but instead an attraction, a sense of “I like this,” “There is beauty in it.”

“Grace” is the precise word. It is remarkable how the Kabbalists gave an exact name to every phenomenon. They felt it down to its roots and then dressed it into the accurate word.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 170

Does All Spirituality Grow from the Small Spark?

All spirituality grows from this calculation, from that small spark. Through study, the spark receives the grace of Kedusha, and then we develop and nurture it. Initially, we certainly have no understanding of what spirituality is and no real desire for spirituality. Rather, from what enters us through the grace of holiness—called Lishma—we begin to want to be in order to bestow. This attitude begins to form within us, which is truly something miraculous: within the will to receive, sparks of bestowal begin to emerge.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 169

How Can We Not Want to Receive Something If We Never Received It in the First Place?

Since spirituality is concealed, we seemingly want it, but in reality, we mainly want to get rid of our suffering. We are given various kinds of suffering in our state in this world, and we need to escape from the suffering. Then it appears to us that we are attracted to spirituality because we truly want it. However, in truth, we cannot want it before we have seen and felt it. Even the charm of the unknown that we imagine for ourselves is not spirituality. Spirituality is in order to bestow, not what we imagine it to be. Time after time, a different character and picture of spirituality becomes clarified for us, and as we progress, the form of spirituality constantly changes for us.

Therefore, we cannot want spirituality as it truly is because it is opposite to us. We get pushed to spirituality because it seems like it will solve our problems. Then the small will to receive that we have for spirituality, which is essentially simple curiosity, we gradually develop through study, by hearing from the environment, from the society: “It is worthwhile,” “It is important,” “It is great.” This attracts us, and we obligate ourselves to study, work, and perform actions that will help us. This study and these actions help us attract the surrounding light.

When we attract the surrounding light, we receive a grace of Kedusha that we never had before. Even though it seemed that we so greatly desired spirituality, the grace of Kedusha that we receive is entirely different. Grace of Kedusha means that we begin to agree with the fact that we must reach “in order to bestow.” This is a very strange and unnatural phenomenon, where within the general Lo Lishma (“not for Her sake”) there begins to appear a little Lishma (“for Her sake”). In other words, we want to do the work so that both we and the Creator will have something. Of course, if nothing were to be gained from it for ourselves, we would not do the work, but a certain intention already appears that it will also be for the Creator.

This state is called “Lo Lishma that leads to Lishma.” The transition already appears there, similar to the shattering of the vessels, where in the vessel, in Malchut, there is a spark from Bina through which Malchut can later receive correction.

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