Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Lesson 7

On the Subject of Similarity

Our subject is our existence in a world, not knowing how it behaves and what our role is in it. The world is such, because we lack the sensation of the power which is driving everything. As we’ve said before, if we would feel the Creator we wouldn’t be lacking anything – we would know who we are, where we came from and where we are supposed to go, what is happening to us now, what will happen in a minute or in a few years. Reality in general would seem to us entirely different, we would be able to act correctly.

We would know the entire reality, feel it, and act correctly in a natural way. A person always does what is good for him or her, according to his or her nature, his or her desire to receive. Suppose that as I stand here my back would hurt. I would not have to think about it too much, my body will naturally find a better posture or some support, it would behave according to its nature.

If we would sense the Creator in that same simple, natural way, we would behave according to His nature, the nature of bestowal, as opposed to by the force of overcoming, of having to work, sweat, and make calculations.

Rabbi Baruch Ashlag writes about what he heard from Baal HaSulam in article four of ‘Shamati’ – “it is necessary to know that the reason for the heaviness felt when a person desires to work on annulling himself toward the Creator, and not worry about his own benefit…,” this is our correction, which we need to go through in order to come out of our nature, the desire to receive, into the desire to bestow. “A person comes to a state where it seems that the entire world remains standing in its place, and only he is absent from this world from now on, and he leaves his family and his friends for the sake of annulling himself toward the Creator”…”

“But when he begins to feel the existence of the Creator, immediately his soul desires to annul and to connect to its root and become included in it as a candle in front of a flame, with no mind or judgment, but it comes to him naturally, as a candle is annulled in front of a flame.”

So the correction we have to make is such that it would bring us to the spiritual nature, where we would have no problem, where we would need no effort. What will we then attain?

“The main work of a person is to come to the sensation of the existence of the Creator, to feel the Creator’s existence – “that his Holiness fills the land,” that the Creator acts in all components, upon all causes, from our root to our end. “And this will be the entire work of a person, so that all of the effort that he gives to the work will be for that purpose” to sense the Creator, “and nothing else.” When a person attains the sensation of the Creator, then this sensation of divinity gives the person a different existence, a sensation of eternity, wholeness, right action, of entering a world that is all good, living the next world at the present.

How can we get to sense the Creator? Baal HaSulam writes this in the introduction to TES which is a very unique and difficult article. It can be studied for ten, fifteen years and it includes many hidden things that we may not be able to see.

Baal HaSulam writes: “You can see that in our world we only lack the revelation of the upper management, since if we had that revelation, all of the comers to this world would be completely righteous and would adhere to Him with complete love, since it would certainly be a great honor for each of them to befriend and to love Him, Blessed Be Him, with all of their heart and soul, to adhere to Him always, without stopping for even a moment.”

Meaning that if we would feel the divine power, the force of the Creator, the power of management, the upper force, we would certainly be in His single authority, and all of our actions would have been in accordance with the spiritual nature, just like now all of our actions are in accordance with the corporeal nature, without us noticing or supervising them.

How is it achieved? “But because it is not so…” we do not sense the Creator, but we need to attain this sensation, without this sensation we will not be able to do anything right, all of our actions will always be incorrect and we will get more and more into trouble. This is what happens to us all the time. Until we get to the revelation of divinity, of the upper power, so as to know what to do correctly, we act according to our nature, which is always wrong.

Meaning that I, in an unconscious way, constantly get myself into greater and greater trouble. We see how it happens with all of humanity, how it constantly gets into worse and worse situations.

This is what Baal HaSulam writes: “but because it is not so” the Creator is not revealed, “and the supervision of reward and punishment is hidden from us,” the supervision of the Creator is such, that even when we do incorrect actions we can not see it, we are in the dark, whatever we do is to our disadvantage.

He explains – “and when we observe carefully His supervision as it comes to the sensation of people, we find four types of them, each one receiving his own unique supervision in a manner that there exist four types of attainment of His supervision.” This means that a person who begins the path from zero, who receives some awakening from above, goes through four stages until the Creator is revealed in him or her, until he or she truly reaches a state where he or she does only good deeds and receives eternal, good and whole life.

What are the four stages? “These are four stages of attainment of the divine supervision, which are actually just two – concealment of face and revelation of face. But they are divided into four, since there are two degrees of supervision in concealment of face, that are single concealment and double concealment, and two degrees of supervision in revelation of face that are supervision through reward and punishment and attainment of eternity, as will be clarified for us later.” The main issue for us is to reach revelation of face.

Drawing Nr 1

In this world there are two levels – double concealment and single concealment. In the next world there is the level of attainment of reward and punishment, and the level of eternal attainment. In total there are four steps.

How do we go through these steps? There are two levels of concealment of face. There is concealment up to the barrier and there is revelation above the concealment. It is either singe or double concealment, and two degrees of revelation of face – reward and punishment and eternal attainment.

What is concealment of face? “When we observe we will realize what the meaning of ‘the face of the Creator, Blessed be Him’ is. The writings say that the face is like when a person sees the face of a friend and recognizes the friend immediately.”

He writes that the face of the Creator is good things that we feel coming from Him and His ‘back side’ is when we feel bad things coming from Him.

“Therefore, when the Creator, Blessed Be Him, benefits His creatures, which He created with His kind hand, it is considered that His face is revealed to His creatures.”

So the way we exist in this world, is constructed of two states – either the Creator reveals Himself to some extent or He conceals Himself.

Each one of my states depends only on this revelation or concealment, whether I want it or not. I am just a desire to receive, and when I get more or less Light it is similar to the way I breathe, I awaken a little more or less. This sensation, the difference between the more and the less gives me the sensation of life. If the upper Light would be at rest I would stop feeling myself. It is just like the breath, which must not be stopped.

The Light is always changing. Through its changes Reshimot are revealed in me, and out of the revelations of the Reshimot I constantly change states. The different states mean that the Light increases and decreases constantly. It gives me a sensation of existence, of life, that is how I feel my reality. If the Light doesn’t change the desire to receive simply disappears. The desire to receive can only feel the changes that it goes through, and those changes are always in relation to each other, relative to each other in the intensity of the Light that appears to me. It turns out that I always am either at the face or at the back side of the Light, of the Creator, towards me. This is what Baal HaSulam says. From the combination of the face and the back side, my sensations are constructed, my feeling of existence.

Baal HaSulam says: “indeed when the Creator treats His creatures in the opposite way” meaning the opposite of good, “while they receive sufferings and pains in His world, Blessed Be He, it is considered as the ‘back side’ of Him, since His face, meaning His attribute of complete goodness, is entirely concealed from them, and since such action is not fit for Him, Blessed Be He, it is like the one who sees his friend from behind, and may doubt and think that his friend may be someone else.”

The concealment, when the Light doesn’t get to me but seems to be distant from me, causes me loss of sensation. It means that if I sensed the Creator in some state, and then He withdrew from me onto a second state, this withdrawal, distancing, feels to me as concealment. I do not feel that He is leaving or distancing, I feel that He disappears. That is the state of the “back side,” when the Creator distances.

Drawing Nr 2

If a person performs actions that cause the Creator to distance Himself, the person enters a state called concealment. The Creator was closer and then distanced from the person. The person stopped sensing Him to the same extent that the person pushed Him, rejected Him from him or her self.

“And then great strengthening of faith in Him is needed, in order to be vigilant and avoid thoughts of transgression since it is difficult to know Him from the back side” - in such a state where a person feels the back side. When the Creator is concealed, the distance, the difference between the two states causes in a person the sensation of freedom, of being in a state where there is no supervision upon him or her. In that state the person has to fill him or her self with what we call faith.

Drawing Nr 3

What is faith? The Creator withdrew, the sensation of His presence disappeared. Now I need to attain Him on my own – that would be called that I acquired faith. Meaning that I now have to draw Him back closer to me. The space that the Creator clears for me by His concealment is the extent to which I can later feel faith, feel Him, grasp Him. Once I grasp Him this process repeats itself.

How does the concealment happen? The Creator withdrew, distanced. As I now advance towards Him, this difference that I acquire is called “the Creator in me.” In such a way I acquire, I enter into a new territory of myself, and take His attributes from Him, inserting Him into me.

This means that a person enters into the territory of the Creator. The Creator veils Himself, moves away, disappears from me. I then advance through faith, through wanting to bring Him closer. I take His space, and then in that space that I acquire He is in me. In this way I keep advancing further and further from the first point until I grasp Him completely. Each time He hides, I move forward, until I acquire the properties of the Creator in my entire soul.

Drawing Nr 4

The preparation for this situation was done at the First Restriction. In the First Restriction Malchut of the endless was filled with all the light, and then it performed the restriction, the light withdrew, and a vacant place was formed for the corrections.

What does “a vacant place” mean? The Creator was inside, filling the entire reality. He dominated all of Malchut’s properties. Now that the Light withdrew, there formed a place that is vacant of light, of the presence of the creator, in which the created being can determine that it desires and demands the presence of the Creator, to be filled by Him.

This is exactly what happens. Gradually the Creator conceals Himself, escapes from us, and we run after Him and attain Him.

When does this happen? It starts from the first moment that a person begins to study Kabbalah. A person comes, starts to study, feels a sort of elevation, awakening, enters a fine feeling that there is something gleaming ahead. The person is held in this feeling for a few months and then he or she starts to feel that spirituality is becoming more and more remote from him or her, nothing seems to attract the person any more, there is no more inner motivation, awakening, to continue forward. This is the beginning of the concealment. And here is where we need to add our own effort, to advance into that space that was created when the concealment took place. All of our work is specifically in this, that where we do not sense the Creator, when we are not aware of Him, we need to look for how we can fill this space with His sensation.

If we enter the span of the Creator, and His desire is to bestow upon His creatures, where do we receive anything from Him, what happens with us, what do we get out of it?

The concealment is just that, He vacates his section of supervision. The levels of concealment and revelation are actually one and the same area that He fills. So what happens is that initially He controls the soul entirely, and later on He moves away. When He moves away we have to make up for His control with our control.

Drawing Nr 5

A hundred and twenty five steps we go up the spiritual worlds. These steps are the very same space that He clears for us in order for us to control ourselves, and we step in and control in His place.

How do we do it, how do we climb up from level to level?

The Creator controlled everything, and now He withdrew and made a space for me. How do I now take His place and take control just as He did previously? In order to do that I need to know His ways. It is written as “Know thy father’s God and work for Him.” I now need His revelation. But not the type of revelation in which he controls me as it was before, now I need a different kind of revelation. I need a revelation that would teach me, by knowing Him, how to take control over that creation, the desire to receive, in His place. We must not forget that the desire to receive that is in us is not actually us. The Creator created a desire to receive, but it is not me. I am not the desire to receive; I am the one who desires to control this creation. The desire to receive is a kind of animal, which is either under the Creator’s control or under my control, the created being.

Drawing Nr 6

That is why, when I observe the desire to receive in its entirety, I relate to it as something foreign. What is a desire to receive? It is called “the left line” within me. What is a desire to bestow? It is the “right line” – the way the Creator would behave. I combine the desire to bestow that I acquire from the Creator with desire to receive that I take from the left line. My “I” is the middle line.

Who is the middle line? When I desire to gain control myself, with the power of the right over the power of the left, then I elevate. I now need to turn to the Creator with a special request. I want His revelation, but not as before when He controlled the desire to receive. I now need His revelation in order to learn how to control the desire. I need to study His ways of management, how He supervised and controlled that space that He evacuated for me.

The first correction, the first step in my elevation, is that I completely separate myself from the desire to receive. This is called performing the First Restriction on myself.

I acquire the force of the First Restriction, the power of restriction. The desire to receive ceases to have control over me. I can be completely free of it. What does it mean? It means that my “I” begins to be unrelated to nature, to the nature that the Creator created. My “I” now becomes like the Creator, outside of the desire to receive. I am outside of the desire to receive as well.

We have learned that Shabat (the Sabbath) relates to the end of correction, to reaching the end of the path. We sing on Friday night the song “Come in peace angels of peace.” Rabbi Baruch Ashlag wrote an explanation about this, that there are two angels that bring a person to the Shabat, to the end of correction – a good angel and a bad angel, right and left. The right angel is the attributes of the Creator; the left angel is the properties of the created being. In between is the person. The person is taken by the hands and guided along the path.

Before I can separate myself from both the control of the Creator and of the desire to receive on me, I need to perform a restriction on myself, to cross the barrier. After that this space becomes vacant.

It is just like in the First Restriction, where the Light filled the entire space, the entire reality. Then the Light withdrew, and there remained a space for the corrections. The issue of the First Restriction is that I perform a restriction, creating space within me for my corrections. Then I, with my own will, take power from the right and from the left and fill the entire empty space with my own control. I begin to control it instead of the Creator.

I work with both the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, with Bina and Malchut. I combine the power of Malchut and the power of Bina and I gradually fill the space with them, until the entire space in my soul is filled. To the extent that I fill the space I become the ruler of creation, in place of the Creator.

Who is the creation? The entire creation is my soul. There is nothing else besides it. That is what I begin to rule instead of Him.

So since the Creator is concealed to begin with, how does a person stop feeling the Creator?

We are talking about our state either beyond the barrier, or below the barrier. Below the barrier we have no sensation of the Creator. The withdrawal is of the surrounding light. Before the barrier the Light arrives only down to the barrier. From the barrier and down there is only surrounding light. The Direct Light that descends through all of the Partzufim and worlds does not reach under the barrier, where I am. It only illuminates from afar. If I am at level one for example, then in order to evacuate a place for me to advance, the surrounding light only reaches one or two levels above me. Then, I feel that something withdrew from me, I feel down, depressed, powerless, everyone understands this, you have felt it already.

Drawing Nr 7

Before crossing the barrier the work is different, it does not involve the three lines. If there was a light illuminating in empty space, and it withdraws, I need to fill that space.

I have attributes of the Creator, I have attributes of the created being, I construct a middle line. How do I erect the middle line? I am always situated below the left line, in the Shells. We are situated in the Shells. Not the Shells themselves but below them. The Shells are a very high spiritual entity.

In order to place myself in the middle, between left and right, I need to perform a First Restriction on myself. I need to become differentiated from the desire to receive. Once I differentiate myself from it, I stand in between the two, the properties of the Creator and the properties of the created being, and I construct a middle line from them. This is above the barrier.

My work below the barrier is completely different. I do not have the properties of the Creator or the properties of the created being. I do not understand it, although the same principal applies – I may have been elevated before, and now I am in despair.

So how do I attain, get closer to the barrier? By withdrawing, the surrounding light cleared the way for me. That is how it should be understood. The Baal Shem Tov gave a good example for this, saying that it is like a mother teaching her child to walk. She moves away and the child cries, but has no choice but to walk towards her. She move further away and the child follows once again.

In the same exact way we need to work here. If the surrounding light withdrew and we are not able to make the leap ourselves then we have no choice, it will not move us forward. We will just sit and wait; this is called “a fool sitting with his hands crossed, eating his own flesh.” We will just sit there until the suffering from it being distant will accumulate and increase to such an extent that it will push us ahead out of having no choice. We will eventually have to do something. If ten blows don’t move me, then twenty blows will. That’s how it is, this is the only accounting done.

How do I save myself from the blows? I can save some blows if I imagine for myself how spirituality is worthwhile, how the surrounding light which withdrew is great. What I need to do is increase the importance of the Creator through books, through Rav, through the group. I have to use these three sources, there is no other choice.

As I obtain the attributes of the Creator from reading and listening, from the books and the society, I have to ignore my desire to receive and work in the middle line. Our work passes through the middle line before the barrier. After the barrier the work is in three lines.

What is faith?

Faith is power from above that helps me advance. Instead of clearly sensing the Creator, his supervision, I need to only receive from Him the power to supervise in His place.

How do we get the power to supervise in His place? For example, if I am a child and I behave very badly at home, I run around and break things, if I would know that mother is at home I would stop myself, I would be afraid of her. If mother is out of the house I am free to do whatever I want.

So where would I take power to behave nicely from? Mother told me to be a good kid, and I want to be good but I can’t, I have no power to control myself. Where can I get such power?

This is actually us. We hear that there is a possibility to behave differently. But how can we do it? We can’t, it is not in our nature. We think that children can – they can’t. We may punish them to take the pressure off ourselves, but it is not possible to do.

How can I receive power from mother, her brains, in order to be good? It would be to my benefit. That is what we are looking for, as we come here with the question – what is the point of my life? Out of feeling bad, this is the action that we are being taught, what and how to do in order to make it better, to feel good.

When mother leaves home and I stay alone I do not know what to do. I am about to explode and mess the house again. A moment before I do it I think to myself, what am I doing? What am I lacking? I need to have the power of mother in the house. Where would I get this power of “mother” to be by me or in me? I am either under my own nature’s control, or I have to acquire a different nature.

How can I acquire this new property? Where can I get it? This is what happens to us when the Creator withdraws. He shows us some advancement, some awakening, and then it all disappears, collapses. It is called “breath”, the expulsion of air. It is called spiritual breathing, inhaling and exhaling. Two actions – there is an expansion and a contraction, where the Creator contracts and gives me the possibility of gaining control on myself instead of Him.

From where will I take this power? I have no choice but to ask Him, that when He withdraws, he would still give me some powers to behave as if He is still here.

What does this “as if” give me? It gives me His attributes, so that they reside in me. I don’t need anything but this, this power that He gives me to control the entire creation, the entire world in His place with understanding, in the same space that He clears for me only, that small house. I am not allowed to go wild in the real toy shop, but only in the house. This power is called faith.

So faith is those attributes of the Creator that I receive. It is as if He is revealed, although He is actually concealed in order to give me the possibility of filling His place. So faith is the power that I receive from the Creator as a result of sensing Him.

In order for me to acquire faith the Creator has to reveal Himself.

How does He reveal Himself? We learn that within is Behinat Shoresh, and following it outwards is Behina Alef, Behina Bet of the four Behinot of Direct Light. I drew how they are developed:

Drawing Nr 8

Initially there is just Behinat Shoresh. The second state is Behina Alef, and the third is Behina Bet. Once these three states exist, then Behina Gimel and Dalet form. By the Creator evacuating the space for me, I acquire His properties from Him.

What does it mean that I acquire His properties from Him? We see that the Light builds the vessel – Behina Alef, then fills it – Behina Bet, and so the vessel desires to become similar to the Light.

Drawing Nr 9

So as the Light appears for us, it may appear in different ways. It may cause me to have greater desire to receive, or it could cause me to desire to bestow. It may make me want to perform a restriction or feel that it is distancing from me. Everything depends on the appearance of the Light, on how many levels it goes through in me. That is how it breathes, it works on me, and accordingly everything changes in me.

Now that I know that I am lacking His properties, it is that which I need to ask for, not His presence. I need to ask that He would appear, but not in the form that gives me pleasure like in Behina Alef, where He filled my lack, but I ask Him to appear in a way similar to Behina Bet. When I acquire the power to be in Behina Bet, I receive from Him both His properties and power to control the creation, meaning the desire to receive that was revealed because He withdrew from me. This is how we work.

Not our entire path is built in such a way that the Creator withdraws and we feel that He disappeared. As I said, before the barrier there is a part called double concealment and a part called regular concealment. Above the barrier the work is in three lines, work on Galgalta VeEinayim, work on AHP de Aliya, which is the supervision of reward and punishment, and eternal supervision.

Drawing Nr 10

The entire path consists of the Creator clearing out a space for the created being to gain control in His place of its soul, its desire to receive.

What kind of preparation is there for the Creator to evacuate the space for the created being?

The preparation for this process of the created being’s participation in creation, of it becoming similar to the Creator, begins with the first Restriction. Following the four Behinot of Direct Light, through which the Creator created the world of infinity, everything was done, and then the Creator evacuated the space. The First Restriction is already the first evacuation, as the ARI writes – “and then there formed an empty space where created and emanated beings can exist.”

The Creator is concealed from the sensation of the created being. Since all is in the sensation of the created being, then where can the Creator disappear to? What other place is there?

There are four Behinot of Direct Light, where Behina Dalet is the only one which senses itself as a receiver, as the one enjoying the reception. In Behina Dalet there are also five levels, those same levels that preceded it are also in it. The concealment is within these levels. It is like a person who can be at different levels of consciousness – unconscious, half conscious, etc.

Is it possible to say that in double concealment there is no connection at all between the Creator and the created being?

No. Double concealment means that the person knows that the Creator is concealed from him or her. If someone just walks down the street without any sensation of anything acting on him or her, anything outside of the person that controls him or her, then it is not considered to be concealment at all. The word, the definition itself, concealment, indicates that I feel that something is concealed.

Why is it double concealment? Double indicates the quality of the concealment. It is a concealment that evokes in me a negative feeling about the Creator. Meaning that I know that there is a Creator, that He is supervising me, He exists, but I feel bad because of Him. This is called double concealment – He conceals Himself and He also conceals His benevolent supervision. Is seems to me that both He is not present, as well as that His supervision is opposite of what it truly is. It is felt as bad instead of as good.

Regular concealment is like when we feel attracted to spirituality sometimes, when it feels really good, we feel that someone is there, calling us, we have a relationship with someone who causes things to evolve in our favor. That is called regular concealment, in which He is concealed but His supervision of me is a purposeful supervision to bestow on me. Although I may not feel so good right now, I see that overall the supervision is good. The concealment is only of Him, and not of His supervision, a single concealment.

The attainment of reward and punishment and the eternal attainment are both on different layers of the desire to receive. The attainment depends on whether a person is working on vessels of bestowal only or on vessels of reception as well.

Does a person who performs a restriction separate him or her self from the desire to receive?

A person who performs a restriction enters Ibur (conception). The person becomes as a fetus, and begins to develop a screen on Aviut de Shoresh, to separate him or her self from the desire to receive. This is considered as crossing the barrier. If a person performs a restriction on all of the desires to receive of this world, including all bestial and human desires, what is called “the heart of man”, and prefers spiritual development over all of these desires, it is not because the person wants it. It is the effect of the upper light on the person as a result of the person’s efforts, which include the group, books and Rav. When the person restricts all of these pleasures it is considered that he or she crossed the barrier.

Are there any signs indicating to a person when it is time to perform a restriction?

We can always perform an action as a result of powers that we accumulate in us. If light comes from above, like in the four Behinot of Direct Light, that gives me the ability to observe my desire to receive down below and the desire to bestow, the attributes of the Light up above, then as a result this relationship between the desire to receive and to bestow is called performing the restriction.

It means that my behavior, my attitude to nature is only determined by the Light that reaches me. I do not have to do any other action, the presence of the Light, its sensation already puts me in a state called restriction. Just as when mother is at home, the child doesn’t have to think about being a good kid, the mother’s presence obligates the child to behave, the child is afraid of the mother.

In the same way the presence of the Light elevates us above matter and holds us. The Light then withdraws and we fall, having to search for another force that will enable us to hold ourselves in the elevated state instead of the Creator doing it. This force is called faith, and is received from Him. But it is received not in the form in which it comes in Behinat Shoresh, but in the way that it comes from Behina Bet. I want this force to be my own, inside of me. It is similar to a child asking his mother to stay at home because he knows that if she leaves he will do bad things and be punished. The child can say something else to his mother – “you can leave, but let me keep your power, your presence with me, so that I would be afraid even when you are not here, as if you are still here”. This power is called the power of faith.

Is there a link between the two levels of concealment under the barrier, between this world and our world?

What is under the barrier divides into many levels. What does it mean? It is the way a person feels him or her self, in what world he or she is, this world or our world. Regular or double concealment, that is all. The person determines where he or she is towards the Light, towards the Creator.

“This world” is a discernment used by Kabbalists, indicating that a person already feels that he or she is under the control of the desire to receive, that the Creator is concealed, whether under single or double concealment.

When someone is completely devoid of these sensations, just as a normal person on the street, with no relation at all to the upper power, it is defined as “our world.”

Is there some clear knowing after the barrier?

After crossing the barrier you have clear knowledge of where you are, what the forces acting on you are, what the division of forces is. At every level there is heaven and hell, shells and holiness. In the middle line you sense the upper one. Like in a womb, someone is taking care of you, you are like a fetus. You have to neutralize yourself in relation to the upper and through that constantly grow. You feel that you can work with some of your desires but you need the support of the upper, like a small child.

The levels from the barrier and on divide into Ibur (conception), Yenika (suction), and Mochin (mindedness). Ibur and Yenika are forces of bestowal, Galgalta VeEinayim. Galgalta is the stage of conception and Einayim is the step of suction. It is a connection to the Creator like a fetus or a small baby. Later is the time of greatness - of mindedness, of being in accordance with all of the Creator’s actions on the soul.

Eventually a person has to get to a state in which the Creator is virtually concealed, while the person rules the entire reality.

Can we say that GE and AHP de Aliya exist in every level?

At each and every level there are GE and AHP de Aliya. Each level is a world in itself.

If one moves from double concealment to single concealment, is it possible to still go back down to double concealment?

It is possible. These states keep alternating. At the beginning of the path we receive a gift from above and then we are in regular concealment, knowing that there is a Creator who is supervising and acting, and that I am moving towards Him.

Later on it begins to blur and we fall to double concealment. That is why it is written that one should never believe in oneself, until the day of one’s death, until the death of one’s desire to receive that controls, until passing the barrier. The more we advance towards the barrier the greater the concealment and the darkness become.

So why do we draw the double concealment before the single concealment? Perhaps we should draw it the opposite way? It is because in order for there to be greater darkness there has to be greater light. That is why it is darker before the barrier; there is more “back side” of the light.

Our feeling of the darkness is because the light is working more powerfully, and awakens in us even lower desires, more selfishness, more distancing from spirituality. It is because the light acts on us with more intensity, and it is considered that we are closer to the barrier, not according to how we feel, but according to the true reality.

Is there more darkness after the barrier?

After the barrier the technique is different. The Creator does not create darkness any more, but the created being begins to created darkness on its own. The created being determines the distance of the Creator in order to be in His place, taking control. Like a child, who is growing, the created being wants to do some work on its own, to be a grown up. It is different.

Once we cross the barrier, do we receive a desire to bestow or do we acquire an intention to bestow?

A desire to bestow is the same as an intention to bestow. There is no difference between them. Desire to bestow is the Creator, the desire to give. So it is a desire to receive with an intention to bestow.

What actions should a person perform once he or she is above the barrier?

Above the barrier a person advances not by reading books, but by a direct connection with spiritual forces, the person is “taught by his or her soul.” I can not say that someone who crossed the barrier doesn’t need books or a Rabbi; the person may then see how these things direct him or her.

Just like a child who sees in this world all sorts of forces, opportunities, mother, father, educators, they all direct me how to deal with life and go in the right path. I see the world, I see what is in front of me, I learn from them what to do until I stop needing them and can act on my own.

Initially, we get an example. Our advancement is in such a way that the Creator withdraws somewhere, and leaves behind impressions, Reshimot, that are an example, an instruction book of what you need to do, how you should behave in this place that has been evacuated. It is like arriving to a new location where you have never been before, and opening a book with instructions of what to do.

A person can never know how to behave until he or she reaches the specific level above the barrier. When a person arrives to a certain place, he or she always finds there the back side of the upper, the NHY of the upper. The NHY of the upper gives the person an impression of how to behave, according to which the person acquires vessels necessary for continuing. This is what we lack, what is concealed, and so in our state we feel that we have no example of what we should do.

Are we now acting according to the Reshimot that are revealed in us?

We are acting according to them, although these Reshimot are just data according to which I determine my state. They constitute the eyes, the ears, the lens through which I now grasp what occurs around me. My current Reshimot give me the initial conditions of how I perceive my surrounding reality.

But what I actually do with this perception is not determined by the Reshimot, it is already a choice. This is where choice begins. It is the way I process the Reshimot, which depends only on my impression from my society, it is not rooted in me.

When we are in concealment we do not sense the Creator or the fact that He distanced. What do we have to do? We are not required to address Him, we can not make any unnatural efforts, it is impossible.

We act the way we learn in this wisdom. We learn that there are two forces acting in creation, the desire to receive and the desire to bestow. The relation between them determines what happens here. More desire to bestow – more acts of holiness. More desire to receive – more acts of the Shells. There is nothing in between, only these two things.

When people come to us they suddenly get confused, thinking that it is possible to do something outside of the balance of forces in us. I have to make sure that these two forces will act in me within the relation that I choose.

I need to know what is acting on me now, how I am behaving, how I am reacting, what my desire is and what I decide. Everything depends on my decision of whether more forces of bestowal will act on me or more forces of reception. This decision of under which’s control I would be is the only thing in me, my choice.

So it is said that if you want to make the right decision, the one that comes from the desire to bestow, you have to get help from the group because you can never find support for the desire to bestow within yourself. Your desire to receive will always pull you, even if you think that you are advancing. If you do not get impressions from the society, your impressions of yourself will always be egoistic. Your body will never let you take any action towards spiritual advancement, it resists it.

So the choice of balance of forces in us is completely dependent on our environment. Baal HaSulam writes in his article “Free Choice” that the only choice is the choice of the environment and of how the environment acts on the person. That is a person’s choice, of what he or she wants to act on him or her.

How can I know, while under concealment, what to fill the concealment with? How do I verify that my efforts, my properties and sensations that I will acquire as a result of the concealment will really fill that space which the Creator filled before by illuminating for me? Am I not deluding myself?

If the society provides for me enough spiritual importance, importance of the Creator, in relation to my darkness, I get elevated by the society and in that way deal with the darkness. It means that in place of the darkness, in the evacuated space, I inserted properties of the Creator.

Where can I get these powers if I am in a fall?

A person simply cannot do it; it is known that a prisoner can not release himself from prison. When I am under the control of the desire to receive, in a fall, where can I get powers from? Only from society. The society is made of souls that are connected to me within the First Man. They constitute a part of my soul and so I receive through them because my vessel cannot grow except through its connection with the rest of the vessels. When I connect with the society I connect with the rest of my vessels and I work with them as if they are the First Nine and I am the Malchut. In such way I receive from them an impression of how to work with them and from that is made a general vessel. I need the society not for receiving powers but for constructing a common vessel. So in order to fill that space which the Creator left for me, I need to connect additional souls to me. It turns out to be the very same process.

We are still not attributing enough importance to the fact that I can only receive an elevation from people around me. The work in the group involves a few processes – I have to work on reducing myself in relation to the society because the small receives from the great, and so I also have to increase them, make them great in my eyes. I have to draw them closer to me so that they can give me more, influence me more. I need to invest in them, to acquire them, to share their sorrows, to “buy” their lacks, or the opposite, share the good with them, everything in order to be impressed more powerfully.

Eventually, all of these actions that form “love thy neighbor as thyself” are the condition for me to be able to acquire the force through which I can get the power to acquire faith. During the darkness I have no other possibility to acquire faith, the power to control in place of the Creator, but through society

And so, all the spiritual powers that I attain come from my environment. Where else would I get them? And indeed, initially there is nothing except our society. In our world, below the barrier we feel it as society, as people around us. Above the barrier I already understand, see, feel, connect with the souls. There is a different space, it seems different, and that is why it is not concealment any more but revelation. Then it is revealed that people and the relationships between them are actually relations within the general soul, the correction towards the general soul.

Do I have to bestow to the society?

We are not talking about bestowal to the society. Bestowal is the acquiring of the power of the Creator. The bestowal has to be back to the Creator and not to the society, because He is the bestower. What is revealed to me later on, that the entire world is bestowing to me, is actually felt as coming from Him.

Our goal to reach the end of correction in bestowal is not to people, because I eventually find out that we are all one single soul. When I reach the end of correction I am included with everyone and everyone is included with me. It is not that I bestow to them, what would that even mean? Who is “I”? There is no such thing as “me” or “the other.” We see bodies so we differentiate, but when we see the souls through the bodies then we connect at whatever level we can.

What is ‘an elevation’? When we elevate we see that even though it seems to us that we are divided into 600,000 parts, the more we advance we connect these parts into one soul. To the extent that we connect we also elevate, it is the same thing, the same process. So there is no more question of how to bestow to the entire world. What world? The entire world is me. I am the created being and besides me only the Creator exists. So we venture into mutual bestowal, me and Him. That is it.

Kabala Medya

Kabala Medya

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Excerpts from the Daily Kabbalah Lesson

Excerpts from the Daily Kabbalah Lesson

Excerpts from the Daily Kabbalah Lesson

Kabala MedyaTelif Hakkı © 2003-2026 Bnei Baruch – Kabbalah L’Am Association, Tüm Hakları Saklıdır

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Kabala Medya
Telif Hakkı © 2003-2026 Bnei Baruch – Kabbalah L’Am Association, Tüm Hakları Saklıdır