The Heaven and the Earth
“Heaven” means the quality of bestowal. When acquired, the creature becomes filled with the Light of Mercy—the pleasure of being similar to the Creator.
“Heaven” means the Creator’s spark within you, a tiny grain of completely selfless bestowal and love that you discover within. It is precisely this quality of “heaven” that prompts the feeling of unease, compelling you to search insistently for something that doesn’t exist in this world.
“Earth” is all of your egoistic desires. This entire world is built on them.
And between these two polar opposites—“the heaven and the earth”—is your soul. Its state is unstable, as though hung on a string.
Subject to these two forces, in times of ascent the soul draws nearer to the heaven, to bestowal, to the Creator, and you feel like you’re soaring as joy overcomes you. In times of descent, the soul falls to the ground, to the desires of the body, to egoism, and you are imbued with worldly concerns, calculations, fear for the future, and a total lack of faith.
The Correction of the Soul: Cultivating “Heaven” Over “Earth”
The correction process is the same. You find your “golden mean,” that is, you utilize your innate egoistic desire by transforming it into an altruistic one, in order to climb up the spiritual ladder to the Creator, ultimately acquiring His quality of bestowal.
It can further be said that correction constitutes the very understanding that the quality of bestowal exists, that it must be acquired, and that you must work with your egoism—“earth”—to achieve this goal.
You must constantly cultivate the “heaven” within yourself. We have plenty of “earth.” Being born egoists, our entire lives are filled with “earth.” However, we have only a tiny spark of “heaven,” and this spark must be kindled.
Spiritual Life through the Light of Mercy
So how does spiritual life begin on earth? Or, to use the language of Kabbalah, how do I use my egoistic desires (earth) to grow the first sprouts of bestowal within me? How do I break through my egoism and move toward the Creator?
This is done with the help of a special Light that He sends us. Two types of Light emanate from the Creator: “The Light of Life” and “The Light of Mercy.” This is precisely how the creature perceives them.
By using the quality of the Light of Mercy, which is called “water,” you acquire the ability to bestow.
You must “cleanse” yourself by reading the books composed by those who have already attained the spiritual worlds, writing to us from their heights. In so doing, you draw the emanation of the Upper Light that these books contain.
Herein lies your spiritual work. The very process of reading is already helpful, but if you approach it with the desire to change, to be like the Light, to cleanse yourself of the ego, the Light influences you to a much greater degree. It is precisely this influence of the Light that separates the works of Kabbalists from all the other texts in our world.
That is when “life appears on the earth,” meaning you begin to clearly sense the first, tender sprouts of spiritual desires. These desires haven’t yet taken a complete hold of you. Rather, your state is like that of a baby who hasn’t yet learned to walk, but can already use his feet to kick. Better yet, you are like those first blossoms—unable to move, but which are drawn toward the sun.
“What Is the Heaven & the Earth in the Bible?” is based on the book, The Secrets of the Eternal Book: The Meaning of the Stories of the Pentateuch by Semion Vinokur.
