January 15, 2025
September 20, 2013 at 6:00 am · Filed under Articles, Books
Learning to Perceive Reality
During the correction process one gradually learns to sense this world and the Upper World, and their interaction at the same time. Information descends from the Upper World into ours and manifests as matter. We see physical objects, plants, animals, birds, insects, and people. But if we possess spiritual vision in addition to the corporeal one, we can also sense the forces that govern matter.
It is precisely this perception of reality that everyone must achieve: to sense the Creator behind everything that exists and transpires. We needn’t believe it blindly, but actually see and sense it. This is what the Torah teaches us.
Preparing the Independent, Free Willed Creature
The Creator created the creature from the quality of egoism, which is opposite to Him. He filled the creature with the Light, and then emptied it, thereby lowering it to the state called “our world.”
In return, the creature ascends back along the spiritual degrees, thereby meriting pleasures far greater than what it had before its descent into this world.
A question arises: to reach equivalence with its Maker, why did the creature need to experience the worst possible state?
The fact is that the creature must have the strength and freedom to act freely in between two opposite qualities: its own ego and the Creator, to freely choose its own path and independently follow it.
To provide man with these choices means the Creator must a) completely distance the creature from Himself, b) give the creature the ability to develop and attain the Universe, and c) allow the creature freedom of choice.
The Creator provides the creature with these conditions gradually. The creature that senses the Creator, and is therefore filled with the Light, is not autonomous. Rather, it is fully controlled by the Light, which dictates its own terms and imparts to it its qualities.
To create a fully autonomous and independent creature, the Creator must distance Himself from it completely. In other words, by freeing itself from the Light, the creature achieves independence in its actions.
The Torah: Instruction Manual to Repair the Soul
From the very first pages, this is exactly what the Torah speaks of: how to repair this unusable tool – our soul – and return to the Creator as a result. Like an instruction manual, it explains how one can ascend to the most supernal and perfect state, while still living in this world.
As was already mentioned, during the correction one exists between two worlds – the Upper and the lower. In the process of correction the soul acquires the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience for the correction. More importantly, one develops new sensations, new spiritual qualities. Thus, by achieving complete correction of the soul, one acquires the qualities that allow for existence in all the Upper Worlds – in eternity, serenity, and perfection.
Baal HaSulam, the Instructor of Our Generation
In order to pave the path for our generation the greatest Kabbalist of the modern age, Baal HaSulam, pleaded with the Creator to allow him to descend from the world of true perceptions to a lower degree, so he could communicate the way to the spiritual dimension using letters, words, and earthly emotions. When his request was granted, he penned the main Kabbalistic works for our generation, which we can use to enter the spiritual realm. His works are like a map without which you will surely lose your way in the labyrinth of corporeal life, lose hope, grow weary and pass away without ever learning the true purpose of your existence. Like a father responding to the suffering of his children, Baal HaSulam picks us up and carries us to the Light.
Just as one cannot exist in our world without understanding it, the soul cannot exist in the spiritual world after the body passes without acquiring knowledge about it beforehand. Therefore, all the achievements in the science of Kabbalah not only guarantee us a comfortable existence in this world, but also the opportunity to exist in the world to come.
“What Is Independence and Free Will According to the Torah?” is based on the book, The Secrets of the Eternal Book: The Meaning of the Stories of the Pentateuch by Semion Vinokur.
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September 18, 2013 at 6:00 am · Filed under Articles, Books
After Adam’s sin comes the exile, all the way down to our world. “By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Breaking as a Preparation for the Future Return
Why did the Creator conceive and execute this “operation” of breaking an exalted spiritual desire into many pieces, which fell into our world and clothed themselves in bodies? They forgot all about the fairytale garden and don’t perceive the spiritual world whatsoever. They feel no influence of the spiritual Light, but are occupied with themselves, catering to their petty corporeal desires, clashing their egos in wars, discord, and hatred. Indeed, what was the reason for breaking this great, unified soul of Adam?
The breaking allowed the most important thing to happen: the sparks of bestowal, the altruistic desires of Man (Adam) fell into the kingdom of egoism and saturated it with the “spirit of bestowal.” A “recording” was made in our egoism that there is such a great thing as a spiritual connection with the Creator, which is unbelievable joy that’s difficult to express in words.
It is precisely this feeling that will come into play later. It will remain dormant in our egos, waiting for an opportunity that will certainly come, for everything develops exclusively by the Creator’s design. Then, these sparks of spiritual experience, latent and biding their time, will illuminate the kingdom of egoism, and a path will appear in the total darkness. Like a seeing man leading the blind on a path, so will these sparks lead the egoistic desires toward the Light, toward correction.
The Time of Return Has Arrived
That time has come. Humanity realizes it has reached a dead end, that it cannot progress to a good life. We already feel the harm inherent in egoism, and we blame it for all the deadly sins: “…for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” We perceive it as dust from which nothing grows but war, depression, terrorism, and an endless string of suffering. This sensation signifies that the Creator is calling us to Him. He has “shone” His Light on us, and in it we saw ourselves as we really are – a sight so terrifying that we began to seek a way out of our selves. This is called “a prayer.”
It is precisely in this situation that the sparks of the soul of the first man awaken in us. They exist in everyone. Soon we will all feel them and realize we are parts of the one soul, one organism, and we’ll wish to return “Home,” living in unity with all the other souls, for without it we won’t survive.
Predetermined Path towards Perfection
Obviously, the act of the breaking was preordained. Otherwise, the “kingdom of darkness” would reign within us forever, and we would never awaken to feel the spiritual world as we crawl on the ground and consume dust like serpents.
Indeed, it is the Creator who has brought us to this state of futility, for there is no other force in the world – no demons, no devils, no witches – there is only the Creator. To compel us to independently ascend to His level, He has placed us in this situation.
Moreover, on our way back to Him we will need to undergo trials.
These trials are prepared for our benefit, for by overcoming them we form a single desire – to return to our previous state of our own volition, and live in accordance with the law of unity and love.
“Why Did Adam Sin in the Garden of Eden? What Is Today’s Outcome of Adam’s Sin?” is based on the book, The Secrets of the Eternal Book: The Meaning of the Stories of the Pentateuch by Semion Vinokur.
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September 17, 2013 at 5:55 am · Filed under Articles, Books
And the serpent said unto the woman: ‘You shall not surely die; for God knows that in the day you eat thereof, your eyes shall open, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil.’”
What Is the Serpent and Why Does the Serpent Appear?
The “serpent” is your egoistic desire, your nature.
You would be right to ask, “What is the reason that the serpent (our ego) revealed itself?” Why didn’t it just go on living in the Garden of Eden, as any other living creature, without leading man to sin?
The answer is that man would then remain on the level of an angel, “infertile,” while the goal is for him to become human! This is why the serpent (ego) reveals itself. It is precisely what man needs to rise from the level of the Garden of Eden to the Creator’s level, and of his own volition.
Why, then, Does the Serpent Go through Eve?
Eve is that concealed ego that already exists in Adam (the desire to bestow). Eve is the bridge that links Adam to the real, powerful ego (man’s nature, as ego can only be connected through ego). So when the time comes to execute this connection, the serpent appears before Eve: “And he said unto the woman: ‘Indeed, God has said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden.’’”
Because Eve is the egoistic part of Adam (the quality of bestowal), she resists the serpent because she wishes to keep Adam pure, an angel, so she can stay with him in the Garden.
Becoming Human by the Serpent’s Advice
However, according to the Creator’s plan, Adam must become truly human, and grow from the state of Katnut (infancy) he is in, to the state of Gadlut (adulthood). He will achieve this after finally demonstrating his ego to the full extent, but using it exclusively to benefit others, for the sake of the Creator.
This is why the true ego insists: “And the serpent said unto the woman: ‘Ye shall not surely die; for God knows that in the day you eat thereof, your eyes shall open, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil.’”
In other words, our “serpent” insists that this is the only way to actualize a true act of bestowal toward the Creator. That is, carrying out a true act of bestowal toward the Creator involves attaching the whole egoism, and achieving the goal of Creation, namely equivalence with the Creator, all in one go. (The serpent didn’t lie. He was speaking from the end goal when this will happen one way or the other. He had only the best intentions.)
The Eve in man thinks that he really will be able to deal with his ego. He feels confident and doesn’t doubt for a second that he will not stumble off the spiritual path.
Revealing the Egoistic Self through Eating from the Tree
This Bible story describes what happens when Eve (the egoistic desire that’s not connected to the spiritual, to Adam) joins forces with the serpent (the primordial, earthly egoism) and heeds his words: “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise…”
In other words, you thought this action would bring you to the goal, that it was “good for food,” just as the serpent claimed. That is when the strongest egoistic desire enters you – your Adam, your most ardent desire to attain the spiritual state. This causes the “breaking of your Adam,” the pure spiritual desire, and this is “the fall of man” (Adam).
“…she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” You were certain you’d prevail, that you would do it for the sake of advancing spiritually. That was your sincere intention. The Adam in you “eats,” meaning attaches to himself egoism he has never used before. Naturally, he did not prevail; he began to use the pleasure for himself.
Indeed, they discovered the Light of Love, the Creator’s Light that surrounded them all that time. “And the eyes of them both were opened,” but then they also saw each other in that Light, and realized that they were absolutely opposite to Him.
They understood that they were egoists and couldn’t be like Him, having felt their corruption, their disparity from the Creator on the one hand, and their individuality, uniqueness and ability to achieve correction on the other hand. You could say this was the first manifestation of man’s “I.” Until that moment, he existed in the general Light, fully devout to the Creator, when suddenly his “eyes were opened”: There is my “I,” there is my ego.
“What Does the Serpent Mean in the Bible Story of the Garden of Eden?” is based on the book, The Secrets of the Eternal Book: The Meaning of the Stories of the Pentateuch by Semion Vinokur.
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September 16, 2013 at 5:36 am · Filed under Articles, Books
“And the Lord God said: ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help made against him.’”
Man Needs a Woman to Become an Independent Creature
It is not good for man, who was created in God’s image and likeness, to have only the Creator’s power and nothing of man himself (meaning his egoistic nature). That is, it is not good that he is stifled by the Light, and has no free will. Bit by bit, his nature must be awakened, his ego revealed to the extent that he can control it. Thus, his ego would stand “behind him.” That is to say, the ego could be utilized, but would remain under his control.
The “woman in us” is the embodiment of this controlled ego.
He resides in the Creator’s Garden of Eden and is completely under the authority of the Light. Man exists in a kind of narcotic state, but he must ultimately become free, for the Creator’s objective was to make a creature equal to Him, rather than a slave to the Light. It follows that sooner or later, man must begin to activate his ego and correct it.
The “Rib,” the Place Where Opposites Connect
“He took one of his ribs, and closed up the place with flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, He made a woman, and brought her unto the man.”
A rib is a “place” in the chest where the altruistic desire in us connects to the egoistic desire.
In each of our desires is a vulnerable, but absolutely essential “place.” It is the moment of doubt and struggle, when the temptation arises to take for yourself, even though you’ve already decided to “start a new life” and be exclusively in bestowal. This is the material from which “your inner woman” is made, and it exists in every one of us. This material is that very common quality that exists between the desire to bestow and the desire to receive.
The male desire within you strives to receive spiritual pleasure by bestowing upon others, upon the Creator. It waits for the moment when man declares, “I will take only the bare essentials for myself, and gladly bestow everything else to the Creator.”
The female desire within you strives to receive spiritual pleasure, but for its own delight, realizing that this pleasure is the greatest in existence. This common point is called “receiving pleasure,” and the only difference is who you are fulfilling with this action: yourself or others.
If the desire to receive spiritual pleasure for self (female desire) is not controlled by the male desire to bestow, it becomes man’s demise (in the spiritual sense).
Reaching Eternity through “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”
Try to understand that what you see and feel is imaginary. In fact, besides you, there is only the Creator. “For the Creator’s sake” and “for others’ sake” are the exact same thing. Until you reach the state of the end of correction, this illusion that others exist will persist. But then you will see that there are no “others”; there is only “me and the Creator.”
Advancement can be infinite, as your soul has no limitation with respect to capacity, for through the soul you connect to others. The soul is the communicator with other souls. One can connect all of humanity to himself – to feel, think and understand in their stead. You need only “exit” yourself and “enter” them.
This is the essence of the Biblical principle, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” What is our true egoism? It is when you love yourself egoistically, willing to disregard the whole world just to grab something for yourself. If you can exit yourself and give up all your possessions, you will begin to feel other people and become eternal.
Taking off the Clothing in Order to Reach Our Origin
To summarize, the manifestation of an egoistic quality in Adam, which he had never felt before, is the birth of a “woman,” the additional, external form called “Eve.” Adam and Eve are the same flesh, in that they create between them a combination that has a right to exist independently.
Our nature is egoistic and must be corrected. The connection to the earth is the “woman” to which “man” attaches, becoming one flesh with her, meaning drawing to himself egoistic desires, but not yet exposing them. Neither the man nor the woman have yet discovered themselves: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.”
The term “naked” alludes to the absence of “clothes” – that is, egoistic desires that coat man, clothes-like, concealing his true, primordial yearning for the spiritual world.
By donning these “clothes” – newer and newer egoistic desires – man distances himself from the Creator, although the spiritual basis always remains in him. He simply needs to begin to remove these layers and always strive for the root – the Creator who created us all. This is exactly what we are now doing.
“What Is Man and Woman 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.
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September 15, 2013 at 12:02 am · Filed under Articles, Books
“And the Lord God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.”
One-on-One with the Creator in the Garden of Eden
What is a “garden?” It is man’s qualities, which, utilized correctly, will provide him with the opportunity to reach the spiritual world. This “garden” was “planted” for the sole purpose of leading us to life’s goal. The garden is “planted” within us by the Creator, which means that we cannot attribute any of our qualities to ourselves.
Try to imagine that the people around you, the entire universe, are all your qualities projected into your consciousness. It only appears to us that something exists on the outside. In fact, as we correct ourselves, we begin to perceive that all of these are our own qualities, which exist within us. People, animals, plants, planets, the entire world, and the entire universe—everything exists within us.
The moment we attain this, we are left one-on-one with the Creator, and we understand that nothing exists but we and the Creator.
In Between the Trees of the Garden
“And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
So what is the meaning of, “the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”?
The “tree of life” is the higher part of your soul, the quality of bestowal that draws you. It is that innermost quality that’s close to the Creator, which is why it is written to be “in the midst of the garden,” at the center of all your qualities.
The “tree of knowledge of good and evil” is the lower part of your soul, the quality of reception, your egoistic component.
Here is where the issue of good and evil comes into play. It depends on how you utilize your ego, and this is called the “intention.”
Nourished by the River of Bestowal
“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden.”
What is this river that flows out of Eden to water the garden?
The “river” is the Upper Light, nourishing your quality of bestowal from within, imparting confidence that you can exist without desiring anything for yourself.
How can you claim that you don’t want anything for yourself? You can if you have the opportunity to possess everything.
It is the sensation of security and serenity that is provided by the river (Upper Light) that waters everything.
Avoiding Death by Not Eating from the Tree
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying: ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.’”
You currently exist in an exalted state, for you have finally attained the “human” in you.
All your desires at this stage are in euphoria from attaining the spiritual world. You feel good in this Light, and you wish to continue living and breathing only in this way.
At this moment, it is as if you forget that inside you lurks the ego, that you’re surrounded by egoistic, worldly desires for money, fame, power and knowledge.
Presently, you exist in this “garden” with your qualities of bestowal. Therefore, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat.”
However, if you use your egoistic qualities, “…but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat,” the Light will instantly vanish and you will find yourself disconnected from the Creator, the universal Law of Life, from bestowal.
Connecting to the Creator is life; disconnecting from Him is death.
Erecting a Screen to Protect from Temptation
When a “human” is born inside you, you mustn’t rouse the full extent of your ego.
Because you still cannot correct it, you mustn’t use it.
That is, the “human in you” must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, as that would harm him.
It is as if you say to yourself, “No, I will not receive! I won’t be able to resist and instead will take for myself, and all will fall into my egoism. But I want to learn to bestow, like You. So what can I do? I have only one option: I won’t receive anything. I don’t want to take for myself. I want nothing! And so I’m erecting a screen on everything.”
“What Is the Tree of Life, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Garden of Eden 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.
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