Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 186

What Is the Root of Hatred?

The root of hatred is the breaking of the screen; there is no unity, each one feels only their own will to receive, and we feel alienation toward a will to receive that is different from our own. There are many degrees. We love ourselves and care only about ourselves because our nature compels us to do so. As RABASH writes in an article: a wolf that devours a deer does not do harm to the deer; the wolf’s nature demands that it fill itself, and the Creator created it so that the deer is its fulfillment. The wolf eating the deer is a correction for both the wolf and the deer. To us it seems terrible, but it is not. It is nature.

He also continues and writes that there are animals that harm other animals, not because they need to, but out of an ancient habit that was necessary for survival in the past and now is no longer necessary. Therefore, even though the need for its actions is not understood, the ancient habit seems to exempt it from punishment because it is not to blame for having become accustomed in this way, since nature accustomed it to act in such a way. Here we are speaking only about the animal degree, the degree of the still, vegetative, and animate. Therefore, these degrees have neither good deeds nor transgressions, and they are not judged as good or evil according to their behavior. They only have nature.

Human beings are required to deal with their relationships. The question of what we need for survival and for the fulfillment of our basic needs is not asked. Usually the state ensures that each person has a secure piece of ground under their feet. The more corrected the society is, the more it cares for its members. Our self-examination begins at the degree above survival.

Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Last Generation” that at the end of correction, in the last generation, there will be a universal religion for all the nations. What will that religion be? It will be to not receive more than the least unsuccessful person receives from society. He calls this “religion.” The rest of the nations, he says, can maintain their religions, customs, and traditions, and will not interfere. This indicates Baal HaSulam’s attitude toward the entire animal degree. In other words, I make an account of what is necessary for me according to the last unsuccessful person, the one who truly receives less than everyone else. If I receive more than that person, then I receive luxuries. This is what Baal HaSulam says. This is the ideal, the religion of the last generation.

However, necessity has many degrees. There is a degree in which we relate only to ourselves and our needs, and there is a degree in which we already begin to take others into account.

What does it mean “to take others into account”? We have animal desires that animals also have: food, sex, shelter, family, which are all necessities. “Necessary” is what we do only for the needs of our body. When we already begin to look at what others have, it means we no longer consider only what our body needs, but we think about how we will appear in the eyes of others. Suddenly we need a five-story house, which means that we begin to calculate our needs, not according to our body, but according to the eyes of others.

RABASH recounts that in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 20^th century his family had one room. In the corner of the room there were mattresses, and at night each person would spread out a mattress and sleep on it. The wealthy parents of his daughter-in-law had two rooms. The entire family lived in one room, and they rented out the second room. This was normal and this was how everyone lived. Today, necessity is that each person has their own room, their own private corner.

When we begin to take society into account and to measure what they should receive from it according to what we see around us, this also affects essential needs such as food and a house. We choose our food and our house according to the variety offered in the supermarket and according to the houses that others build. These all turn from a basic bodily need into a need to have what our neighbors have. This is no longer a necessity but a relationship to the environment. When these needs are compared with what society consumes, they already receive another character and are no longer called necessities but luxuries belonging to human desires: money, honor, and knowledge. These are desires influenced by society, even though they are seemingly connected to the body. In fact, the body does not need them.

In human desires, desires that relate only to society, there is a thought about what we want to contribute to society, opposite to the thought about what we want to receive. However, we want to receive: do we want others not to have what we have, or that they will have it, and perhaps together we can make it good for everyone? In human desires, there is an entire spectrum of shades, from a good attitude toward others to hatred of others.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 185

What Should We Do If We Already Love Some of the Friends in the Group?

If we already love some of the friends in the group and we are still not at the end of correction, it is a sign that we are deceiving and lying to ourselves. It only seems to us that we love the friends, while in fact we are somehow evading it and calling it love.

Then we must invest more effort. From above we are shown that we are still not with the friends in the state of the end of correction and that we have not yet completely corrected our attitude toward them, which is called “the end of correction.”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 184

Is Slander Toward a Friend in a Society Engaged in Kabbalah the Same as Toward the Creator?

A society engaged in spiritual work aspires to act according to spiritual laws. The entire benefit of the society is that at the root, in the soul of Adam HaRishon, in the place where everyone exists at the highest spiritual degree, where all souls are connected together, we can draw strength and surrounding light. We must try to act from a state in which we are below that highest spiritual degree, as if we were already in that state, the higher one, as if we were already in it. This means that we long for it, and this is called “effort.” Effort means resembling a higher state.

If each member of the group tries to build their relationships with their friends as if they were already at the end of correction, this is called “applying effort.” To the extent that we all long for the corrected state of the end of correction to dwell among us, as it appears to us at the moment, then from that perfect state we will invite a surrounding light upon ourselves that will take care of us and correct us, and it will indeed draw us to the state of the end of correction. Therefore, we must behave in our environment according to “Love your neighbor as yourself” as much as possible.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 183

Chapter 18. The Root of Hatred

In this world it is customary that refraining from slander means that a person should not speak ill of their friend, that people should be good to one another, and that every person should examine themselves before saying something critical about another. Today, there are so many thick books on the subject that before people do something or approach someone, they first check the law books of slander to see how it is advisable to approach and how they can protect themselves through what is written. That is, people do not examine their hearts, but rather look at “what is written in the books” and act according to what is written. What is written is permitted, and what is not written is not.

In other words, importance is given to what a person utters with their mouth, while there is no discussion about what takes place in the heart. That belongs to the hidden teaching. For the general public, for the still level, this is indeed the accepted path and appropriate for its degree. However, “slander” is certainly not what we express with our mouth or even what we feel in our heart toward the environment, but only what we feel toward the Creator. What we feel toward the Creator is either slander or good speech.* The sole intention is with regard to the Creator.

Since the entire purpose is to reach adhesion with the Creator and the only way to do so is to improve my qualities so they will be in equivalence of form with Him, everything I do is always to compare myself to Him: where I am, where the Creator is, how much I understand who He is, what He is, how I can make this correction, reduce the gap between us, how much I value the situation as beneficial for progress that He builds around me and within me, and how much I understand His state.

The way a person feels this entire situation, even before they examine and criticize it, is essentially their attitude toward the world that the Creator has shaped for them, and if they are not satisfied with it, their attitude toward their life is called “slander.”

In the wisdom of Kabbalah we learn that our soul includes two parts:
GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) – vessels of bestowal, called “Israel.”
AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh) – vessels of reception, called “the nations of the world.”

The general correction is that until the end of correction it is impossible to use the vessels of reception, but only the AHP that ascend through their incorporation in the vessels of bestowal. The vessels of reception themselves are called “gentile,” and their incorporation in the vessels of bestowal is called a “convert.”

From this follows the correction that can be made to these two types of vessels:

The correction for Israel, for Galgalta ve Eynaim, is “Love your neighbor as yourself” (per Rabbi Akiva), because they can reach adhesion with the Creator. “Your neighbor” is the Creator.

The correction for the nations, for AHP, is a restriction called “What is hateful to you, do not do to your friend” (per Hillel), which means restrict your evil. This is because the vessels of reception in and of themselves cannot be corrected until the end of correction.

This is precisely the difference between Rabbi Akiva and Hillel, and this is the difference in the relationship between these two corrections. In Galgalta ve Eynaim, vessels of bestowal, it is permitted to use them, and in AHP, vessels of reception, it is forbidden to use them.

From this we can understand the “holy language” as a language spoken through vessels of bestowal, Hebrew, Panim (anterior), and the “language of translation” as that which is still not the holy language, but a language through which we prepare ourselves in AHP to later reach correction so that it will be like Galgalta ve Eynaim, the Achoraim (posterior) of the holy language. Therefore, Galgalta ve Eynaim speak in the holy language, and AHP speak in the language of translation. This is also why The Book of Zohar was written in the language of translation, in the Achoraim, because it is a book that still deals with corrections.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 182

Why Is Slander Called “A Help Against Him”?

In reality there is no such thing as something that is simply “against.” Therefore, in the Torah, the word for “against” (Neged) is always written with a prefix of “as” or “like” before it, (Keneged) in the sense of “one against another” (Zeh Keneged Zeh). What does the prefix “as” or “like” imply? It means something like or as if opposite to something else. One thing actually supports the other, and in order to clarify one thing, something appears opposite it.

Sometimes it seems to us, due to lack of understanding and the absence of a comprehensive view of what is before our eyes, that there is something that contradicts and destroys. Indeed, this might appear to happen, but even the worst occurrence has the purpose of serving as a support, a foundation, for the structure and the next degree.

Whether we receive Kedusha according to our equivalence of form with it, or according to our opposition of form to it, depends only on us.
From a Talk on the Article “What Is the Substance of Slander and Against Whom Is It?” – Part 1 6/12/2002

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 181

Why Is There No Forceful Means Against Slander?

There is indeed a forceful means against slander. It is possible to simply not listen. We cannot destroy slander, because we have insufficient strength to do so, since slander speaks from within nature. We can only ask the Creator to change our nature, and thus replace slander with speaking well of others. A person individually would never be able to do this on their own.

It is impossible to subdue slander in any other way, because it cannot be confronted on the human level, because on that level it is always right. On the surface it indeed appears as though we can attain money, honor, knowledge, security, and health through various accepted means. Moreover, when people try to attain these through conventional pathways, they see that it is impossible to solve problems through the intellect. Therefore, the intellect cannot solve anything, but we must reach this realization by ourselves through scrutiny.

With what do we make such a scrutiny? Precisely with this slander, but on condition that we channel it for our benefit. Then we see that its existence is meant to help us recognize the evil. In other words, slander must be under our control, and then we realize that slander is “a help against Him,” which is very good.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 180

Why Is There No Forceful Means Against Slander?

There is indeed a forceful means against slander. It is possible to simply not listen. We cannot destroy slander, because we have insufficient strength to do so, since slander speaks from within nature. We can only ask the Creator to change our nature, and thus replace slander with speaking well of others. A person individually would never be able to do this on their own.

It is impossible to subdue slander in any other way, because it cannot be confronted on the human level, because on that level it is always right. On the surface it indeed appears as though we can attain money, honor, knowledge, security, and health through various accepted means. Moreover, when people try to attain these through conventional pathways, they see that it is impossible to solve problems through the intellect. Therefore, the intellect cannot solve anything, but we must reach this realization by ourselves through scrutiny.

With what do we make such a scrutiny? Precisely with this slander, but on condition that we channel it for our benefit. Then we see that its existence is meant to help us recognize the evil. In other words, slander must be under our control, and then we realize that slander is “a help against Him,” which is very good.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 179

What Should We Do Against Slander?

It is written, “Blunt his teeth,” because there is no factual evidence that can stand against one who speaks slander. A person who speaks slander appears to be right. They speak about visible facts and rely on the ego and on the surrounding reality that they see. They base their words on their life in reality, on the present situation: “You are a weak person. You have a family. There are many pressures on you. You are tired from the struggles of life.” They will tell you a thousand and one things, and everything they say will be right and justified. The problem is that according to the current level on which they exist, they are right.

One who speaks slander is like a mother who says to her son out of concern: “You are sick. You are weak. You have children, a family. I feel sorry for you. Take care of your health. How can you not sleep at night?” They are all true points, and the list is endless. On that level she is saying correct and justified points, except for one point, that there is a spiritual goal. She does not speak from the point in the heart. She simply speaks from the heart, from human mind, while ignoring the upper mind.

The only recourse to stand against the slander that weakens one’s strength is, as it is written, “Blunt his teeth.”

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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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