Rav Michael Laitman, Bnei Baruch, Israel
August 29, 2005
Bold and in quotes: Original text of Baal HaSulam
Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
lowercase italics: emphasized words
Capitalized italics: transliteration from Hebrew
Today we are continuing the article ‘The Freedom’. We’re going to finish it. We are at its one before last part. It’s called ‘Two Creations: Man; and A Living Soul’. We started it and we’ll repeat it.
Two Creations: A) Man B) A Living Soul
So, within man there are these two creations. It isn’t that there are only two creations in the entire reality, a living soul and a man, but that within man that’s what there is.
"From the above we can clearly understand the verse: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living (Chaya) soul (Nefesh).”
For here we find two creations:
A) Man by himself,
B) The living soul by itself.
And the verse says when man was first created as dust of the ground, that is, a collection of particles in which resides the essence of man, meaning his “will to receive”. That will to receive is present, as we have clarified, in every particle of reality, of which emanated the four types: still, vegetative, animate and speaking. In that aspect man has no edge over any other part of creation, as the verse says: “dust of the ground”."
In other words, that part in us that we call “dust of the ground” is just as in any other animal, and there is no advantage to man over them. In that we are all equal. And we can see that our body with everything in it is as written “dust of the ground”, a simple will to receive that is no different than any other animal.
"But we have seen that this force, called the Will to Receive, cannot exist without dressing and acting in a desired object, an action called Life. And according to that, we find that before man has arrived at the human forms of reception of pleasure, which differ from those of other animals, he is deemed a lifeless, dead person."
In other words, we’re not talking about the body, the substance, the composition of materials in us, that we have to revive in order for it to become living flesh. We are talking about a person being a living flesh already, like an animal, and still if we look at him this way, we say it isn’t a person. What else is he missing above the existence of his body, for him to become “man”? What is that additional part?
"And according to that, we find that before man has arrived at the human forms of reception of pleasure, which differ from those of other animals, he is deemed a lifeless, dead person. That is because his will to receive has no place in which to dress and expose its actions, which are the manifestations of life."
The will to receive in animals and beasts is a simple will; a desire for food, sex, family, the pack and for anything else that belongs to the body and that develops these desires. With people it’s the same. If people were living in jungles without any human environment, they would want only these same things. They are physical things; not human things.
Human desires evolve only through society. The desires for wealth, honor, domination, and then desires for knowledge, already depend on man’s development within society. And within society, that has to do with the human, because people have to correct themselves at the points of connection with the rest of the souls in the system of Adam HaRishon. But when we’re talking about a single soul and how it is, regardless of its connection with other souls, it’s got only desires like an animal: food, sex, and family or a pack.
"And it says: "and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life", which is the general form of reception that is suitable for man. The words "breath of" in Hebrew take the meaning of 'value', and the origin of the word 'breath' is understood from the verse: "The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life" (Job 33,4). The word soul (Neshama) has the same syntax structure as the words 'missing' (Nifkad), accused (Ne'esham) and so on.
And the meaning of the words – "and breathed into his nostrils" is that he inserted into himself a soul (Neshama) and an appreciation of life, which is the sum total of the forms that are worthy of reception into his Will to Receive. Then, that force, the will to receive, which was wrapped in his particles has found a place to dress in a shape and act, meaning in those forms of reception that he attained from the Lord, and that action is called Life, as we’ve said."
Again.
"And it says: "and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life", which is the general form of reception that is suitable for man. The words "breath of" in Hebrew take the meaning of 'value', and the origin of the word 'breath' is understood from the verse: "The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life" (Job 33,4). The word soul (Neshama) has the same syntax structure as the words 'missing' (Nifkad), accused (Ne'esham) and so on.
And the meaning of the words – "and breathed into his nostrils" is that he inserted into himself a soul (Neshama) and an appreciation of life, which is the sum total of the forms that are worthy of reception into his Will to Receive."
Meaning, now we are talking about forms of the will to receive from which man comes above the beast, what we call intentions; in order to receive, in order to bestow, it doesn’t matter, but it already has to do with the human species. And these intentions can only be relating to those surrounding him, to the environment, to strangers. Intentions are either toward the environment, or towards the Creator, it doesn’t matter; whatever is outside of a person.
"Then, that force, the will to receive, which was wrapped in his particles has found a place to dress in a shape and act, meaning in those forms of reception that he attained from the Lord, and that action is called Life, as we’ve said."
So then, if a person wants to acquire these forms from the Creator over his will to receive, he receives life – life as a human, not as a beast.
Question:
What is the connection between these two degrees, one being particles that join with the will to receive and the other already having a certain reference to…?
Well, you can explain it in several ways, in order to not be confused. We have physical pleasures, and those are food, sex, and say, family. Right? Family for animals is different, it doesn’t matter. All of these are physical pleasures; right? A person, who lived alone without society, would also need only that. Afterwards, there’s the social needs, which are money, honor and domination, let’s say. And above that, there is knowledge. Knowledge [drawing].
They say that these pleasures, up to this level, are physical pleasures, and are existent in accordance with how the body draws them to it. Later on, there is also influence of higher degrees. Society influences the family, the sex, the food and so on. But they nonetheless awaken in a person by nature and that is why they are actually natural. Natural [drawing]. They are in us the way they are, and they are not the first thing we need to correct, for they come to us by nature; to some more and to others less, like different strokes for different folks. No one says which kitchen or which flavor you should like.
Now all the forms that one takes, where does one take these forms from? The forms come from Adam HaRishon here, where we were united all together. Here we are in a way that we are not connected together and the differences between us are in money, honor and power. Meaning, by being detached and separated from one another, from the state of hating each other, the state of “baseless hatred”, we have to come to love.
So obviously the whole correction pertains to social desires. That is why the forms that we acquire from the Creator – which forms are those? The forms we acquire from Him are forms of bestowal – reciprocal bestowal, bestowal upon one another. That’s what our whole schooling is about and that is our entire Tikkun (lit. correction).
This correction should actually come over the desires for wealth, honor and domination; meaning, controlling all three of them. We learn these forms from the Creator, and as much as we can resemble ourselves to them, in that we come to the human degree, from the words ‘I will be like the Most High’, like the Creator – that’s it. That’s what he says.
Question:
If there’s no hatred yet, should one regret it?
You should never regret not having something bad, but if the truth doesn’t appear, it’s a sign you haven’t made enough effort to come closer to the truth. The more you want to advance toward the goal [drawing], the more you feel how far away you are from it.
And if one does not feel that he hates the others, that he’s repelled by them, then he’s still not in a situation where he’s ready to work on it and that’s why he’s not shown that. He shouldn’t be happy when it appears but if it is being revealed to him, that should be a sign that he has the ability to correct it.
"And the verse says: “and man became a living soul”. That is to say that since the will to receive has begun to act by the measures of those forms of reception, life had instantly been revealed in it and it “became a living soul”. However, prior to the attainment of those forms of reception, although the force of the Will to Receive had been imprinted in him, it is still regarded a lifeless body, because there is no place for the action to come to be.
And as we’ve seen above, although the essence of man is only the Will to Receive, it is still taken as half of a whole, because it must be dressed in a reality that comes its way. For that reason, the will to receive and the image of its possession are actually one and the same, for otherwise it would not have the right to exist even for a moment.
Therefore, when the machine of the body is at its peak, that is, until his middle-age, his “ego” stands upright in all the height that’s been imprinted in him at birth. Because of that he feels in himself a large amount of the will to receive, meaning he wants to attain wealth and honor and anything that comes his way. That is because of the perfection of man’s “ego”, which attracts shapes of structures and concepts that it dresses in and sustains itself through them."
In truth, it can all be brought down to one term: honor, the sensation of self. The honor is me, yes? Why do I need money? Why do I need domination? Why do I even need knowledge? Why do I need anything? In order to sustain myself; where I exist. And according to our nature, the self exists only vis-à-vis others.
How do I measure myself? I only measure myself as compared to others. The lower the other is and the higher I am above others, the greater is the sense of my vitality; my honor potency. And then, money, power and knowledge, all fall into that. Life is felt in accordance with self dignity, self weight. It is a natural thing that appears from the perspective of the will to receive.
From the perspective of the will to bestow it appears in the opposite way, such that instead of being above everyone you become everybody’s servant. In that, you feel your dignity and your uniqueness. When you nourish everyone, serve everyone and care for everyone, in that you are special.
There is Klipa and Kedusha in that too, one opposite the other, and it is then that it is revealed, where the intention is; whether it is the correct intention or not. But the essence of man is honor.
Question:
Can we say that spirituality is just a different modus operandi in the desires for money, honor and knowledge, or is it a separate independent desire? In other words, is it a proper and corrected attitude?
Spirituality or corporeality, right now I’m talking about the sensation of self. We measure spirituality or corporeality with respect to the sensation of self, but the self remains. The self is the matter and how you use it in order to bestow or in order to receive, is already a form; forms. But the self grows constantly.
The only question is how we direct it, like with reins on a horse. But the uniqueness remains. On the contrary, when a person grows he grows in his ego. But it’s a corrected ego with the correct form. He should come to be as unique as the Creator with his whole, great will to receive.
There’s an inner contradiction here. For us, it is impossible to reconcile. I am unique in the world, standing vis-à-vis the Creator, being just like Him. See the kind of power, impudence and firmness, we’re talking about! But it is all in order to bestow, in the form of bestowal. And that erases everything. That turns everything upside-down.
Question:
What is money, power, knowledge? Are they expressions of the self?
Yes, money, power and knowledge are expressions of the self, because honor is closer to the ego, to the self, to one’s sensation of uniqueness.
Question:
So the corrected self that operates in order to bestow is still expressed through these three channels?
No, no. Money, power and knowledge connect to the honor but that honor is in its uniqueness of standing vis-à-vis the Creator. Working in order to bestow with money or domination…we are not talking about these human degrees, we’re talking about spirituality, namely, the forces of the soul.
"But, when half his life is through, begin the days of the descent, which by definition are his dying days."
We’re talking about an ordinary person here. How the body gains more power, wanting to acquire the entire world and eventually quiets down and withdraws.
"That is because a person does not die in an instant, just as he was not brought to life in an instant. Rather his candle, being his “ego”, withers and dies bit by bit, and along with it die the images and the possessions that he wants to receive."
He doesn’t explain why it is like that but that this is what we see, that that’s how it is in our world with a regular person. Say he’s past his fifty’s, he begins to settle down, becomes more relaxed and his vitality, meaning his ego, begins to gradually require less and less until he agrees for it to completely disappear. A person dies because he actually agrees to die.
"For now he begins to let go of many of the possessions he had dreamed of in his youth, and he lets go of his greatest possessions, according to his progressing years, until in his old days, when the shadow of death sheds over him, a person finds himself in ‘times of no appeal’. That is because his will to receive, which is his “ego” withers and dies and all that is left is a minute spark, hidden from the eye, meaning that is not dressed in any asset."
Meaning, he’s alive not because he wants to live but because his body on the animate level still exists.
"Therefore there is no appeal and hope in those days for any kind of reception."
He writes well doesn’t he? Like a novelist.
Question:
Can we describe the process of evolution in the same way? That which is happening nowadays?
No. In evolution we have a constant growth of the will to receive from the simple forms of still, vegetative, animate and speaking, that evolve through physical desires, social desires, the point in the heart, and so on. There is no descent there.
Humanity has to reach the general Gmar Tikkun, the end of correction. And when following the individual corrections, humanity reaches the general Gmar Tikkun, in that accretion of the general Gmar Tikkun, this world seemingly disappears from their attainments. But as long as there’s anyone who is still in this world, connected to my soul in the system of Adam HaRishon, I still recognize myself in this world too, through him.
But only when the general Gmar Tikkun, the general end of correction comes, this picture, these low Kelim (lit. vessels) then disappear, they are no longer incorporated with the others and this imaginary world then disappears in its entirety from the attainment of all creatures, and then the Ein Sof (lit. Infinity) is revealed.
You might say this - I don’t know if I’m right or not, but I would say this. [drawing] Here, below this world, we have about 7 billion people, never mind how many, and they all rise to the degree of Gmar Tikkun; all 7 billion of them are now at the degree of Gmar Tikkun, the sensation of Gmar Tikkun, and of this world, feeling this whole path they have gone through.
All of them are in it, because one of them, some guy named Moishe, still hasn’t risen. What about him? Well, he’s waiting; he’s the last one. Now this Moishe ascends and while he ascends everyone is still ascending along with him in the levels of ascension, because there is an inclusion among all of us, all across.
Every soul, let’s say that this is me and that’s you, is incorporated in every other soul and in Moishe. So, say we’re all at the level of Gmar Tikkun and now he reaches Gmar Tikkun. When he reaches Gmar Tikkun all of the worlds disappear. All of this disappears and then we immediately feel that (Indicating the Gmar Tikkun level in the drawing).
As long as he is on his way, we are all with him in our sensation [of this world] by his inclusion with us. And of course this world doesn’t disappear for him either until he completes his correction because all of the Kelim are incorporated in one another. So if the tenth Kli hasn’t yet completed his 100% [correction], being still in 99%, then 1% of this world also remains. But again, this is only in potentials, so let’s hope we reach it de facto.
Question:
The question was a little different. Say, if we look at a person and let’s say in the past he was only fighting for survival and then for power and domination, etc., but today people are deteriorating. They are killing themselves, there’s no vitality, like an old man with nothing to live for.
Well, you’re right, but an old person has really nothing to live for and he really dies. But this whole process, we are currently going through, where people don’t feel a taste for life and are beginning to ask “what is the meaning of our lives?”, is just like the one Baal HaSulam writes about in “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” and it serves as an opening, as an inlet to spirituality in that people in this world, on this plane, in human and bodily pleasures and even in knowledge, they truly do not find an answer, they don’t find a reason to live and then the true goal appears to them, the eternal goal, besides which there is nothing.
It’s hard, it’s far, it isn’t clear, but something is revealed. But it should appear out of despair. If it doesn’t appear out of deep desperation a person will not have the right discernment that he is willing to go toward it, because the goal is actually pretty far and is not easily attained. For that, you really have to be in a situation where you are convinced that this world cannot satisfy you. And that is what we are discovering today and will continue to discover more and more. Everyday there are new discoveries and they are accumulating.
Question:
Baal HaSulam depicts a picture that the mind can perceive and agree with but it still isn’t at such a level where…
He doesn’t write it like a Kabbalist here, you see, he’s just writing like a regular person, a sociologist perhaps, a person who writes about life. We see that in life, what he is writing about is the ego. We see that it’s like that. So what’s the question?
Question:
The question is: How can one acquire the intelligence that will motivate him, motivate his desire to operate, given that the picture is known in advance? Everyone knows that they can’t expect…
But a person cannot do anything against it. An old man can’t be young. His life force, his entire force of vitality withers away and he doesn’t want it anymore. He wants to sustain himself with less pain, making his life easier because it’s hard for him and that’s it. He doesn’t want anything else until, you know, he wants to move less and that’s it, he ends his life. It’s a natural progress of the will to receive. So, what is it that you want?
Question:
My question was about a person who’s already been introduced to the Wisdom of Kabbalah?
That’s different. A person who has been introduced to the Wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t die like that other person. He doesn’t “die in bed” as we refer to it, he doesn’t calm down. He’s got an additional desire. He’s got a desire that is now evolving and burning, a desire that is above the physical desires, and that desire sustains him. So he lives in that desire, in his soul as much as his body sustains him, as much as he has to go through in this life according to the Upper Program.
Afterwards he’s detached from the connection with humanity on that level, through the body, but that’s not our calculation.
But it’s impossible for a Kabbalist to be in situations where he agrees to die and there’s nothing more for him to do, how is it possible? Has he reached Gmar Tikkun? Has humanity reached Gmar Tikkun? How can he agree to stop the work?
The desire is renewed all the time. In corporeality the desire is not renewed; from the middle of his years, past the age of 40, 40 for Bina. And when he finishes 40 and enters his 50s, that’s it, he can say whatever he wants, but that’s it. It’s not the same vitality anymore; he is now beginning to retreat.
And if desires are renewed in him, that can only happen in spirituality. You might say we see old men pursuing wealth and honors. It’s a silly race; an unconscious one. It’s just confusion by life because there is a Higher Providence that says that “The hearts of ministers and kings are in the hands of the Lord.” It is deliberate from above, it isn’t a prototype.
There are scientists like that, that in their seventies, they’re still burning with desire for what they do, they want to discover things, but that’s the exception. It’s because the Higher Providence wants to do something in the world through them. But we follow the majority and in general, that’s how it is.
The force of life that is constantly renewed in a Kabbalist makes him unable to relax. Why die if there are still new desires? That desire pushes you onward all the time. I saw these old men, the students of Baal HaSulam. Were they tired of anything? They were stronger than me. That’s the way it is. And they’ve gone through a lot of pain and hardships in life.
I remember Hillel who taught me when I first came to the Rebbe, he had terrible diabetes. He had to go with the catheter all the time. He had to take all kinds of pills and injections all the time. I once came into his house and saw all the pills he was taking. There was a bowl of pills just like a bowl of fruit in other people’s houses. It was horrible.
He would come, his body didn’t let him walk, but his inside was burning. His mouth was dry from the sugar, his eyes were tearing all the time, also from the sugar, and he felt terrible. But he came to the lessons. And the minute the lesson started he was well! That’s it!
That’s how they all were, because a person lives on desires. The body too lives on desires – everything is a desire. Our body is clothing. You can bring a person to such despair that he’ll die. You can revive the dead just by awakening in them the spirit of life. Nothing depends on the body itself. With the thought, with the desire, you can heal and you can die.
"Thus we have proven that the will to receive, along with the image of the object that is expected to be received, are really one and the same. And their revelation is equal, their stature is equal and so is the length of their days. However, there is a significant distinction here, in the form of yielding at the time of the decline of life. For that yielding is not a result of satiation, as with a person who declines additional food servings..."
In other words, he hasn’t really reached Gmar Tikkun, in corporeal life or in spiritual life. It’s not that he gives up because he doesn’t have anything more to do. But…
But (it is because) of despair.
And that is what happens to us on our spiritual path. If you despair in spirituality, it’s also considered “dying” and that’s it.
"That is to say that when the "ego" begins to die, during the time of decline, he feels his own weakness and approaching death. Therefore he lets go and gives up on the dreams and hopes of his youth.
Observe carefully the yielding due to satiation, which causes no grief and cannot be called "partial death", but as an operator who is done operating. Indeed the relinquishment caused by despair is full of pain and sorrow, and therefore can be called "partial death"."
You understand, right? That’s what happens to us in this world.
"Freedom from the Angel of Death"
So how do we avoid dying? Hmmm…nice, isn’t it?
"And now, after all that we have learned, we find a way to understand the words of our sages in their true meaning when they said: "Carved (Harut) on the stones". Do not pronounce it "carved" (Harut), but rather "freedom" (Herut), for they've been freed from the angel of death. For it has been said – in the articles: The Revelation of Godliness (Matan Torah) and the Arvut (the Bond) – that prior to the reception of the Torah, they had taken it upon themselves to terminate any private property to the extent that is expressed in the words "a Kingdom of Priests" (Mamlechet Cohanim), and they had taken upon themselves the purpose of creation, to cleave unto Him in equal form, that as He bestows and does not receive, so will they bestow and not receive, which is the last degree of adhesion, expressed in the words Holy Nation, as it says at the end of the article The Arvut."
Right. We learnt that if a person annuls his will to receive, this annulment is expressed in two ways: ”and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests” and “and (you shall be to me) a holy nation”. You can compare those two to the saying: ”Anything that you hate do not do to your friend”, meaning, don’t harm another, restrict your ego, so to speak. And then, “Love thy friend as thyself”. In other words, besides that, go on to do good to your friend. Beyond hatred, there’s like a neutral place, Bina, and then go on to receiving in order to bestow, or bestowing; meaning, the form of bestowal upon your fellow person.
"And I have already brought you to realize that the essence of man, meaning his selfness, defined as the will to receive, is only half, and cannot exist but through its dressing in some image of an asset or a hope for an asset. For only then our matter is complete, and can be called the Essence of man.
It turns out, that the Sons of Israel, when they attained complete adhesion on that holy occasion, their vessels of reception had been completely emptied of all worldly assets, and were cleaved to Him with equal form. That means that they did not have any desire for possessing anything for themselves, but only to the extent that they could bestow contentment, that their Maker would delight in them."
In other words, this was the actual situation in spirituality [drawing] with the group of souls, the sum of the souls, called Yisrael, “Yashar-El (lit. Straight to God)”, like the Creator, Adam HaRishon, actually. And of course there are souls here that are not apparent called “The souls of the nations of the world”, which are the AHP. Those are actually the most important souls, toward which the entire Light of Wisdom is directed, but what appeared at first were only vessels of bestowal, and these vessels of bestowal were in a state of love for one another, as a sum total of all the souls in one Kli, as one.
Question:
How do we reconcile the issue of private property? On the one hand Baal HaSulam writes in many places that even in the future society we shouldn’t cancel private property, and that the Levites had sheep and livestock etc. But on the other hand, he says that here, in the state of the Revelation at Mount Sinai, there was supposedly no private property, so how do we reconcile it? What is this about, this issue of private property?
Private property has to be, because from it, a person operates like an individual unit, to be a giver to the world. How could I not have private property, given that when I operate through my Kli - let’s say I’m an organ in a body here [drawing] - I am in adhesion with the Creator - this [drawing] depicts Him as being outside of me - and then from me, I give to everyone else?
So how could I not have private property? When I use all my Kelim and I stand up for myself and defend my own, I can stand against everyone. This is what’s called "Being opposite one another on the same level”; not to relinquish one desire in favor of another.
In ZON de Atzilut, Zeir Anpin and Malchut are standing one against the other on the same level. This one gives and that one receives. What could possibly be more contrasting than that? So you’re saying: how can they both coincide? It is because the Kli is comprised of a Masach (lit. screen) and Ohr Hozer (lit. Returning Light); it isn’t a will to receive. How could the Kli relinquish its selfness if that is where its entire power to bestow lies?
And since their will to receive had dressed in an image of that object, it has dressed and bonded with it to a complete oneness.
Meaning, each one relinquished, but increased his will to receive to such a degree that he relinquished it, and when he relinquishes it, this egoistic desire becomes that force of unification, the opposite, because the person makes an effort to connect against it. So instead of being a pulling force it becomes a bonding force.
It’s the same force, it doesn’t grow. There is no opposite force. The ego itself changes through the intention. The individual does not acquire the same force as the Creator. He can not be a Giver; ever. The Creator is the Giver. The person turns his own force of reception, his force of attraction, into giving.
"Therefore certainly they have become freed from the angel of death, for death is necessarily an aspect of absence and negation of the existence of a certain object. But only while there is a spark that wants to exist for its own pleasure, can it be said that that spark does not exist but is absent and dead.
Whereas if there is no such spark in a person, if all the sparks of his essence are dressed in bestowal of contentment to their Maker, then it is neither absent nor dead. For even when the body nullifies, it only nullifies from the aspect of reception for self gratification, in which the will to receive is dressed, and has no right to exist but through it.
However, when he aims for the purpose of creation, and God takes pleasure in him, that His will (to receive) is done, man’s essence then dresses in His contentment and he attains total immortality, as Him. It turns out that now he has attained freedom from the angel of death. As the Midrash says: "Freedom from the angel of death". And in the Mishnah: ‘Carved (Harut) on the stones". Do not pronounce it "carved" (Harut), but rather "freedom" (Herut), for there is no free man, but he who studies the Torah."
In other words, we cannot acquire eternal life [drawing] except through equivalence of form with this eternity, which is bestowal, because reception always ends, just as we are given our life. Until the age of 40 we are at some ascent, still having hopes from our childhood to have something. And then we begin to decline, to agree that we cannot receive anything anymore, in our will to receive.
This might be the reason why Baal HaSulam says that we mustn’t study Kabbalah until we’re 40, I don’t know, until the person despairs, until he sees that there’s nothing for him to look forward to except the decline toward death, I don’t know, it’s just my guess. But if a person begins with a new ego, a spiritual ego, new desires, a desire to give, given that the desire is what matters, then he never reaches satiation, because even at Gmar Tikkun he doesn’t have rest.
As it is said, ‘There is no rest for the righteous either in this world or in the next’ because in Gmar Tikkun, the evolution continues in the degrees of the 8th, 9th, and 10th millennia and so on, of which we have no knowledge. The Kabbalists don’t talk about it, but there is still more work for us. The will to receive never ends and the forms and attributes of bestowal are always renewed.
Any questions?
Question:
What is this term “The Lord blessed be He” that Baal HaSulam uses all the time?
Ok. More questions...
Question:
Can’t there be a situation where a person after 40, who doesn’t have a point in the heart, would still have desires, driving him to new situations, never to be satiated? We find many people at 40, who suddenly go through some crisis and go on to a new path, so to speak.
Which new path?
Question:
I don’t know, crisis at 40, crisis at 50, people start a new career, start a new business or go to some new place…
Right, but that’s already an escape. It’s already an escape. These people change their direction because they have despaired from what they wanted to reach. For lack of a better option, they just close the “shutters” [indicating the eyes], think of a different goal and live for that goal.
I had a neighbor, when I lived next door to the Rebbe in the city of Bnei-Brak. He had a post office box at the central bus station. He wouldn’t receive anything at home; only at that box. One day I asked him, what it was all about, and he said: "Otherwise I won’t have a reason to go out of the house. I go out of the house, I go to the central bus station [which is an hour’s drive by bus], I get my mail and I get back home."
It gives him a purpose in life. You have a reason for going out of the house, for doing something. But that’s already when you understand that this will not fulfill your genuine Kelim; the genuine Kelim that you wanted to acquire as a child. As a child you wanted to attain eternity, but here it’s already a false goal – I have to do something with my life, fulfill it, I have to forget.
So I do it, I throw myself into this delusion, into this game and I play. That isn’t real anymore. Perhaps he forgets and for him it’s as if it’s real, he tricks himself, but it’s already a lie. But as a child what you think and what you want to attain, that’s something that will remain forever. It’s like you live and you don’t die. You see?
The middle age is it. The essence of it is that a person knows he’s going to die. He realizes that he isn’t eternal and that there are no everlasting possessions. But here, if the point in the heart is then renewed, or even prior to that, you are then connected to eternity like a little child and then you really live. Well, you are old; I’m not talking about you [in jest].
Question: So, what’s the difference between a person who already has the awareness that nothing in this world would fulfill him, who is in some sort of acceptance, and a person who has the point in the heart? If that person has that awareness that there is no point to life and that everything is going to end, why is that not considered to be the question about the meaning of life? What is the difference between them?
Because he has no answer; there’s nothing in him that is connected to the answer. The point in the heart shines for you from a place where there is an answer, a place filled with lights. This point “tells” you that there’s a place where you can attain an eternal life, wholeness and perfection, once you reach it. That’s what a person wants out of life here in this world up until he reaches middle-age. Afterwards he sees that it isn’t like that and he falls into a crisis.
When the point in the heart is awakened in a person, connecting him to eternity, this person becomes just like a child that wants his life, thinking that it is all in front of him and eternal. Even in his 40’s, 50’s, 60’s or 70’s, this person remains connected to eternity and there’s no crisis; none. He’s constantly on an adventure; continuously evolving. Why don’t you recommend it to psychologists and sociologists as a cure for mid-life crisis?
Question: We have just completed the article: “Freedom of Will”…
Yes, just reading through it. Yes, we read it.
Question: Baal HaSulam talked about many things and it has been quite a while since we started it, could you [please] summarize it for us?
It’s a short summary: A person has nothing else to do in his life apart from attaining the eternal life; the "Freedom from the Angel of Death", as he summarizes it. That can only be done by using correctly the four elements within us, by arranging them correctly so that we can have free choice, wherever we might find a crack between those elements where the free choice is found, and realize that opportunity, understanding that there is no other choice.
There is either life or death before us, either eternity and perfection or a useless life to begin with. And we should picture it correctly so as to have enough strength to annul ourselves before the society. And from the society we should get the Arvut. From the society we should get powers. And from the society we should get the recognition of the goal and its greatness as well as the lowness and helplessness of this world.
We should arrange our value system, our hierarchy of values in such a way, that it would constantly give us the powers to invest in society and to get back from it many times more, in order to reach the soul of Adam HaRishon, connected to everyone “As one man and one heart”. At which time the Light of the Torah, this general Light will expand in us and fulfill us; a state called reaching the eternal, spiritual life, the state of Gmar Tikkun.
That too is not the end of this path. The Kabbalists tell us that afterwards there’s more and more and more. If a person is ecstatic about eternity, perfection and wholeness, he’s never tired. Normally we think, “Oh no, there’s more and more there too!” We just don’t want to hear about “more and more” because for us “more and more” means...
Not true. Because if you are in bestowal, you have fulfillments and prosperity before you and you experience no difficulties, for you become limitless. That’s what the Wisdom of Kabbalah offers us, and through the correct use of the freedom that we have, the opportunity for freedom, we can reach that.
It’s a very important article indeed. Let’s hope that the words of Baal HaSulam will live in us and bring us to it.
With that we have concluded the article “The Freedom” and there is still much more to learn.