• Jacob’s Ladder
• Love
• Seven Years
• Reward

Jacob’s Ladder

Jacob’s ladder is the middle line by which one should walk; it is the golden path. This is the line in which one connects all of one’s elements, the good and the bad.

In fact, nothing is bad. If a person knows how to use the bad correctly, one turns it into good and helpful. This is why Jacob’s ladder is our desires, which are initially the evil inclination, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination.” However, if we connect them to “I have created for it the Torah as a spice,” their combination creates the middle line.

On the one hand, we constantly correct worse and worse desires, since “one who is greater than his friend, his desire is greater than him.” ^[3] The more we advance, the more we discover how evil we are. A greater force comes to us, the force of the light that we discover, which we must expose and with which we correct ourselves. When the two connect in the degrees, we grow “richer,” both from the desire and from the light that corrects the desire.

Thus, the sum total of one’s soul grows (in the connection between them), and in it, the Creator increasingly appears. This is how we achieve attainment in the middle line, until we actually reach Beit El

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• Barrenness
• Pregnancy
• Birth
• The Right of the Blessing
• Selling the Birthright
• Lentil Stew

Barrenness

Barrenness is inability to give birth to the next degree. It is possible to give birth only through the right combination between the ego and the intention to bestow upon others.

Pregnancy

Pregnancy is a state where I am ready to give birth to the next degree. It includes nine months of conception, as well as other things, which comprise into nine Sefirot of Ohr Yashar (Direct Light) and Malchut, where in the tenth we deliver.

Birth

Birth is admission into a new degree, new bestowal. It is the ability to connect with everyone on a new level. Accordingly, we receive the revelation of Godliness on the next level.

The Right of the Blessing

Having the right means being cleansed. The more I can work with my ego in order to bestow, the more cleansed I am. My ego may be thicker, but I overcome it and become purer. Thus, one develops opposite the other.

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• Years
• The Cave of Machpelah
• Burial Site
• Marriage
• And Isaac Brought Her into the Tent

Years

The words, Shanim (years) or Shanah (year), come from the word Shoneh (repeating) when we repeat the corrections but on a higher level. There is a ladder of 125 rungs. There are five worlds, with five Partzufim (faces) in each world, and five Sefirot in each Partzuf. 5x5x5 are the 125 rungs, or degrees where we need to repeat the corrections, each time on a more advanced step. This is how we go from stage to stage, from degree to degree, until the end of all the corrections, where we are included in the world of Ein Sof (infinity), in Dvekut (adhesion) with the upper force and in complete similarity with it.

The Cave of Machpelah

The Cave of Machpelah is the great Tikkun (correction) of Malchut that is included in Bina. This is how it can correct itself in equivalence of form with Bina. Malchut is the will to receive, and Bina is the desire to bestow. When Malchut and Bina equalize with one another, then we have inserted the force of Bina throughout the earth, the desire, down to the state called a “cave.”

Burial Site

A burial site is a place where we bury our ego. We do not bury the will to receive, but only the intention to receive, the qualities that work in our favor, and against others. When I bury qualities that make me feel good, such as the desire to exploit, defeat, or see others as inferior, it is a burial of the will to receive. Thus, we do not bury the desire, but only its egotistical form that manifests in us.

Marriage

Marriage is a state where I can repeatedly take various egotistical qualities from my will to receive, correct them, and thus cover them. This is the meaning of the wedding ceremony, with the Huppah (wedding canopy) being the Masach (screen). The Zohar explains it very clearly in the essay, “The Night of the Bride.”

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• Angel
• Laughter
• Sodom and Gomorrah
• Not Looking Back
• A Pillar of Salt
• Expulsion
• Tying
• And Behold, Three Men

Angel

An angel is a force of Nature, such as gravity or electromagnetism. An angel is one of our soul’s forces. The forces of our soul contain right, left, and middle, Gabriel, Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and so on.

Laughter

Laughter is connection to a higher degree where we still cannot connect to it through our cognizance and understanding. We laugh at opposites, when we have no time to scrutinize the matter at that moment.

Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah are desires expressing an attitude toward others called “let mine be mine; let yours be yours.” It is an attitude that is not connecting, hence, when the next degree arrives—the beginning of my connection with others—I cannot work with them and must leave them, while committing to take the desires that belong to me out of there, meaning Lot. In the next degree, the upper light comes and begins to tend to me, to my soul, inverting these desires, which I will later use for further degrees.

Not Looking Back

It seems quite simple to not look back. Let bygones be bygones; what happened was meant to happen because “there is none else besides Him” (Deuteronomy, 4:35), “I am the first, and I am the last” (Isaiah, 44:6). The previous moment was not up to me, and should have happened as it did. What happened, happened; we must not regret it; we must look only forward.

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• Go Forth
• Canaan
• Hunger
• Sister
• Maidservant and Woman
• Fertility, Birth
• Covenant

Go Forth

Go forth from your desire, regardless of how fine it may seem to you. You must come to a new state, a new degree. Each time, “Go forth” indicates that you will constantly be on the way, going upward.

Canaan

Canaan is the land of Israel when it is still not fully corrected.

Hunger

Hunger means I cannot satisfy my will to receive, if I am as an Egyptian, or that I cannot satisfy my desire to bestow, if I am as a Jew, seeking unification with the Creator.

Sister

There are several names that we use to refer to the will to receive. Among them are “sister,” “wife,” and “servant.” The word, “Sister,” refers to the will to receive you can use with filling of Hochma (wisdom), as it is written, “Say unto wisdom, ‘You are my sister’” (Proverbs, 7:4).

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