The Thought of Creation

Talk with a Journalist Sharon Atia

February 02, 2004

Question: It is written, “The Creator desired to praise and glorify the Torah for the sake of His truth.” What does this mean? Does fulfillment of commandments relate to spiritual work that the Creator entrusted to us, so that we do not feel humiliated when receiving pleasure? That is, so that we do not feel that we receive the Divine abundance without any effort on our part.

Let’s clarify this gradually, one thing after another. We’ll see how everything falls into place.

The Upper force wishes to create someone in order to please him. This thought itself originates from the nature of the Upper force, which is kindness. Why is it kind? Because it exemplifies a state called absolute, pure bestowal. The nature of pure bestowal is a desire to give pleasure. But because the Upper force has no object to please, the thought occurs to create someone with the purpose of pleasing him.

The Upper force that wishes just to please is in a perfect state that has no loss, and thus it is an ultimate state. The expression “to please someone” means to impart him or her with the status and a state equal to that of the Upper force. That is, the Upper power now plans to create someone in order to grant him Its status.

However, one can only give to someone if he is ready to receive whatever is being given to him, and only if he wants to receive it by his own volition. That is, it is necessary to create certain conditions which on one hand, creation would be free, and on the other hand, after analyzing a few possible states, it would nevertheless choose to become like the One who created him, and do it freely, independently from anything and without any pressure.

All external conditions are created for a single purpose, to present creation with an opportunity to choose between good and evil, to come closer to the status of the Creator, the Upper force, or, on the contrary, to push away from Him. So it is necessary to surround creation with an environment rich in all possibilities and nuances, and let creation learn independently. After it grows up and matures, let it make an independent decision to attain the state of the Creator.

Naturally, in such a case one can say that creation attains the ultimate status by its own choice, and really delights in it. In regards to the Creator, one can say that He brings creation to His Thought – "to bring pleasure to the creatures". This is why we suddenly discover ourselves in a certain reality called "this world", and feel all sorts of influences on us. Kabbalists explain to us that this is the Upper force compelling us towards some kind of Goal.

If we really want to attain freedom of will and come to the right decision of good and pleasure, we should start revealing what surrounds us. And what surrounds is the Thought of Creation, the special action of the only force that puts in motion everything around us, including us ourselves, to bring us to the right decisions, the right vision, and ultimately to the best possible degree and condition.

If one starts relating to reality, aspiring to reveal the Upper force behind everything, then gradually, in everything that surrounds him he starts seeing this thought act on him in all possible ways. This Thought governs all of reality and humankind bringing them to this heightened and great degree.

Question: But creation, people were unable to receive this endless pleasure.

We are talking about the creation of reality starting from the Upper force up until our world, until we were created. These are our roots. In Kabbalah, this approach is called "descent from above downwards". However, there is another part in our investigation of reality, which in Kabbalah is called "ascent of the souls from this world to the degree of the Upper force". Kabbalah investigates both of these parts: structure of this reality and ascent from below upwards. Creation of all the worlds is a theoretical study, while the second part, the ascent of the souls, is practical study.

In the process of study we start passing through these worlds in our sensations until we reach the ultimate, best state in which we feel eternity and perfection, even though we continue to exist in this world. We connect to this Upper force so much that we look at life, death, and all collisions of this world from Its level, and we see them as the means for bringing us towards even more beautiful states. Embracing the Upper world from within, we can change our condition on earth, direct our destiny and future which descend upon us from above directing us towards good.

Question: We talked about the Creator's desire to create good, and we also clarified that in order to accomplish this, He had to give birth to creation. Moreover, to create the creations and impart them with good, it is necessary to instill in them a desire to receive it. Well, say they received it. What's the problem?

There is no problem. A receiver of good has no problem with that. The problem is that we do not receive it. In order to acquire the good, we have to elevate and perceive the Upper worlds, starting (our journey) from this world. The measure to which we are able to ascend and perceive the Upper world is the measure to which we feel only the pleasure and not the suffering. For, in essence, all suffering that we experience in our present state is needed only to prepare us to ascend a bit higher and start sensing the Upper world.

We must understand that there are two worlds: this world and the Upper world. Being immersed only in this world, we will always feel bad. Moreover, as time goes on, we will feel worse and worse. The reason is that these bad sensations are sent to us on purpose, to "push us" upwards.

To the measure that we start feeling the Upper world in addition to this world, we start perceiving good, pleasure, perfection, eternity, - all sorts of pleasant experiences. We are capable of reaching the sensation of eternal and perfect life, but until we acquire this sensation, we will always see how the Divine Providence forces us towards it through suffering.

Question: Why didn't the Creator create us as existing in the best and highest degree at the very beginning?

There are two aspects. If He wants us to delight, we must crave this pleasure. This means that He has to create in us a yearning for Him, that is, we have to find ourselves at the other end of reality, absolutely disconnected from this pleasure, feeling a terrible lack of fulfillment and darkness, at the bottom of an abyss.

On one hand, the Creator had to impart in us a desire to delight. Without it, He would not manage to create us. If He simply raised us to His degree, we would not be able to delight, without first feeling the need for pleasure. On the other hand, if the Creator, after giving us an immense desire to delight, immediately brought us to this degree, we would "burn" from shame. While sensing pleasure we would simultaneously feel that it did not result from our equivalence of form with the Giver. In other words, I am a receiver, and He is a Giver. I would feel that I receive it for free, and instead of feeling pleasure I would experience dreadful suffering.

And then another question arises: why didn't the Creator make it so that when I receive, I do not feel suffering?

Not feeling suffering means not feeling Him, His states, that is the state of the Giver. But how can we delight in such high degree?! How can we reach the status of the Giver, without experiencing His essence in relation to the essence of receiver?

And this is why we have no choice but to reach this state through our own effort. This is the purpose of the surrounding reality. With the help of the science of Kabbalah, we should find out how to climb from one degree to the other with the goal of correcting ourselves to correspond to the Giver.

We exist at a point opposite to Him, therefore we are receivers and He is the Giver. Gradually, we can come closer to Him, i.e. become increasingly similar to Him, by turning into givers like Him. What do we give? To whom do we give, if there is only Him and us? Who can we give to?

Here, we should remember that we do have Someone to bestow to….. Him. We can bestow to Him! Why? It is because He has a desire to bestow to us! We can play with His desire to bestow, as a child plays with its mother.

If we receive only under the condition that He feels pleasure by giving to us, then our reception will be considered bestowal, we will turn into givers, and He will receive from us. As a result, we will really acquire His form.

Question: What about the Torah and commandments?

We are created with 613 desires for delight. If in each of these desires we receive pleasure so as to bring pleasure to the Creator, as a result, we bring Him pleasure in any of our desires. This is how one fulfills the commandments. Meanwhile, the pleasure we receive by bestowing to Him is called the Torah.

We fulfill the commandments that we are bound to fulfill, or correct our desire using an intention for the sake of the Creator, gradually, by moving from an easy commandment, or a small desire with the intention to bestow to a stronger desire to bestow.

It follows that we have to correct only 613 desires, that is, to ascend 613 degrees from our state, called "this world" to the ultimate state. The status of the Creator is called the Upper world, the World of Infinity, or Gmar Tikkun (Final Correction). Why "Gmar Tikkun"? Because by this, we correct all of our desires.

Question: Are these desires recorded somewhere?

Of course!

Question: Where are they recorded?

This is also in the Torah. If you open the Torah, you will see there are 613 commandments. There is a book by RAMBAM "613 Commandments", divided into two parts. The first – commandments "Aseh"(lit. Do) – positive, and the second – "Al Taaseh" (lit. Do not do) – negative. Each commandment is described there.

Question: So it follows that by doing nothing one fulfill negative commandments?

They still have to be fulfilled. That is, regardless if a desire to do something arises in you, you nevertheless do not carry it out.

It can be explained in the following way: there are passive desires. You leave them as unused. These are the forbidden desires ("Al Taaseh"). There are also active desires which you receive in order to bring pleasure to the Creator. These desires belong to positive commandments ("Aseh"). Of course, here we are talking about a relationship to the Creator that stems from a desire, not from a deed performed with one's feet and hands.

Question: For example if it is written "Do not kill!", while I feel a beasty desire to kill somebody so as to feel superior to it. And if I subdue this desire, does it mean that I have fulfilled the commandment? What if I prevented someone else from killing?

No. We examine all these desires only in relation to the Creator. Now, we will be unable to understand their spiritual meaning. These desires are turned towards the Creator, to delight Him. All of these 613 desires reveal themselves the moment one starts adhering himself to the Creator, the Upper world. Then the Creator reveals Himself as bestowing fulfillment to all of his 613 desires and granting him 613 delights.

Then one either does not allow himself to receive these pleasures that are called "Do not steal, Do not kill, Do not desire," and so on. Or, one can receive delight in his other desires with the intention to please the Creator. However, all of these desires relate to our connection to the Creator, when this connection is clear, desire, pleasure, and so on get revealed. We are referring to commandments that we supposedly have to fulfill in our world with our feet and hands. Fulfillment of all these commandments comes from a desire, from within the heart that opens up for the Creator, when He reveals Himself to a human being.

First, one has to study the science of Kabbalah which brings us to the revelation of the Creator. Attaining this, one starts corrections called fulfillment of commandments.