January 15, 2025
September 13, 2013 at 6:00 am · Filed under Articles, Books
The Creator wished to make the body of Adam. This is how He worked: To fashion the hands and legs of Adam, the Creator gathered earth from all the corners of the world. For his torso, He took the earth of Babylon. To fashion Adam’s head, the most important part of the human body, He took the earth of Eretz Ysrael (The Land of Israel). The Creator put all the gathered earth atop MountMoriah, where the sacrificial altar shall be in the Temple. He mixed it with water taken from all the oceans of the world, and from the resulting clay He fashioned the body of man.
A Mixture of Receiving and Bestowing Forces
The Midrash isn’t speaking of how the biological human body was made, or about mixing clay and earth with water. Rather, it describes how man includes within him all of the world’s forces. Here is what is written, “To fashion the hands and legs of Adam, the Creator gathered earth from all the corners of the world.” This means that man contains the desires of the whole world. If he corrects them, he will thus correct the whole world.
“He mixed it with water taken from all the oceans of the world, and from the resulting clay he fashioned the body of man.” The “water” in man represents the force of bestowal, the quality of altruism, which animates everything, which is also collected from the whole world.
Thus, both the desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow exist in abundance in man. They are mixed and connected together in man’s every desire. We need only identify the force of bestowal and use it to correct the force of reception, so that bestowal will dominate reception. Then all our desires to enjoy, gathered within us from all the “nations” of the world, will be activated only by the quality of bestowal.
“To fashion the head of Adam, the most important part of the human body, He took the earth of Eretz Ysrael.”
The Creator made man’s “head” out of the “earth” of Israel, out of desires aimed at the Creator. Thus, all of man’s aspirations must be aimed at acquiring the Creator’s qualities. Israel comes from the words Yashar El, which translates as “straight” and to the Creator.
The Creator took the “earth” for man’s “torso” from Babylon, the degree that pertains to the quality of bestowal. It is no accident that Babylon was the setting for a great crisis known as “the Tower of Babel.” The Babylonians wanted to attain Godliness with the help of the forces of reception, and this is impossible. After the people dispersed and realized the futility of their aspirations, they reunited and achieved the degree of the Creator with the help of the forces of bestowal.
Between the Spiritual and the Material
Where was man created? He was created in a special place where the spiritual origin touches the corporeal one, at the point of contact between the two adjacent degrees.
The reality above “MountMoriah” is called the spiritual reality, whereas all that exists below is called “the material world.” The peak of Mount Moriah is a spiritual summit, the highest possible point in this world. It towers over all the material of this world, and the greatest spiritual forces assemble there. It is precisely where man—the “coordinator” between the material and the spiritual dimensions—was created.
“Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” We mustn’t forget that we’re always talking about what’s happening within. You have undergone the phases of development of the still, vegetative, and animate desires, and now you’re no longer fulfilled by all that pertains to them. Now you want another level—the spiritual one!
Seeing the Creator through the Point in the Heart
If you catch yourself thinking this way, it means the point in the heart has awakened within you and is drawing you to the Creator. If you don’t want this incarnation going to waste, follow your point and listen to your inner voice.
You begin to identify with the point in the heart that is drawing you to the Creator. You enjoy being in this state, and you want to acquire spiritual sensations. This is the meaning of “…and man became a living soul.” The human inside you has been born. If you follow this “human,” He will surely lead you into the “land that flows with milk and honey,” and there you will see the Creator.
What does it mean to “see the Creator”? He has many names, but the one that relates to us is Boreh. It consists of two words: Bo (come) and Re’eh (see). In other words, you will see the Creator; no one else can do it for you.
“What Are You Made Of? – According to the Midrash” 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 12, 2013 at 4:01 am · Filed under Articles, Books
The following text is taken from the Midrash on the creation of man: “When the Holy One, blessed be He, came to create Adam, the ministering angels formed themselves into groups and parties, some of them saying, ‘Let him be created,’ whilst others urged, ‘Let him not be created.’”
What is the meaning of this passage, which details the Creator’s “conversation” with the “angels”?
Doubts about Man’s Right to Exist
The Creator is the unified Law of Nature, the Law of Love and bestowal, present within us and all around us. We don’t perceive Him because we live by completely different laws, but the whole purpose of our lives is to reveal Him.
The “angels” are nature’s (the Creator’s) forces, which obey the Law and are unable to act or think independently.
The story symbolizes as the opposing forces begin to manifest, illustrating human nature, which is wholly egoistic and evil.
Imagine flicking on a flashlight in total darkness. As it illuminates your surroundings, you discover that you’ve been sitting in a cesspool all this time. At first, it may seem as if you would have been better to remain in the dark, but that is not the case. At least now you know the source of the stench, and why you’ve been so miserable. Our task is to clean up the cesspool, to rein in our egoism.
Man Is Born with a Destructive Nature
Man is born an egoist. From the very beginning, he is mired in imbalance and prefers falsehood to truth.
Precisely because man is an egoist, he will have the opportunity to realize this, and then to show mercy. Thanks to his good deeds, starting from the opposite end, he’ll be able to realize what is good, so that afterward he can acquire the quality of bestowal and correct himself.
Man is aggressive, delights in the misery of others, strives to harm others, and longs to hoard more than necessary for his existence. Although he evolved from the animate degree, while the animate degree is in harmony with Nature, man is not!
The lion and the cow take from their environment only what they need for their sustenance, but man does not. Nature dictates this behavior in animals, but not in man. There is not a single quality in man that he uses to achieve peace.
Man is born with a grotesque desire to rule and dominate the whole world to suit his needs, which is contrary to Nature’s quality of bestowal.
We see that the history of humankind is a procession of wars. If man were to grow cognizant of his essence, he would realize that all he thinks of is how to use others for his own benefit.
The whole progress of humankind throughout millennia amounts to the development of weapons of mass destruction. Man sought ways to rule, profit, and use his strengths by elevating himself over others.
Not one of his inclinations is directed toward achieving balance with his environment, which would allow him to give others their due. Instead, man strives to acquire and control everything that belongs to others.
Given the circumstances, man should not be created, for he is opposite to all of Nature.
Man Justifying His Own Creation through Struggle and Free Choice
However, when man uses his powers correctly and achieves correction, he becomes king over Nature and the world, the whole process becomes purposeful, and man becomes equal to the Creator.
The Creator says to the angels, “Nevertheless, I am for creating man, despite his flaws, because I see that through this process he will obtain a spiritual degree. That is what I need from him. He will correct himself. He will rid himself of his ego and come to Me. And when he does, it will be of his own accord, not as a slave to My Light. This is very important.”
Thus, the Creator doesn’t mind the initial state of Creation and all the states we go through. He already sees us in the final state, which is the reason for our existence.
The struggle described in the Midrash is ever-present within man. With every step, at every moment in life, man works to establish this balance, and thereby brings balance to the whole world. He cannot stand still, for every state compels him to act, and he chooses his path with each step. Every second, man must connect to the goal of Creation, scrutinizing why the Creator had chosen to make him, despite all the forces and qualities that opposed his creation. Indeed, the goal of man’s work lies in justifying his own creation.
“What Is the Meaning of the Angels’ Argument Over Whether Man Should or Shouldn’t Be Created?” 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 11, 2013 at 3:48 am · Filed under Articles, Books
By correcting one’s inherently egoistic qualities to bestowing ones with the help of the Screen, one attains more and more names of the Creator, becomes capable of seeing reality in an increasingly perfect way, gradually revealing its source.
Receiving the Anti-Egoistic Filter through the Right Request
The Screen is the force of resistance against egoistic desires. If you acquire this force, you are in perfect shape, headed straight for the Creator. Here I must add that you cannot build the screen by yourself. Rather, it must be obtained by persistently demanding it of the Creator, which is the Upper Degree. The Upper Degree in the spiritual world is the degree directly above your current degree. This degree is the Creator for you.
At each subsequent degree, you will know the Creator better, meaning you will be revealing more and more of His names until you reach the complete revelation of the Maker.
So, when do you acquire a screen? When the Upper Degree feels that you’re prepared to do anything to get it. The plea must come from the bottom of the heart: “Give me strength to bestow like You… Help me correct myself, I beg You.” If your plea is sincere, you will receive the screen
Gradual Self-Correction in the Creator’s Clinic
That is, you must “correct” the egoistic desire with the intention to bestow. Every day, it is as if you place your “I” in the Creator’s “clinic” and ask for the cure—the screen that will enable you to open your eyes and see the true picture of reality. In this clinic, you are given additional egoistic desires with which you must begin to work and feel, to check your attitude toward them, realize how powerful they are, and only then to ask for the screen—the force that can protect you from falling from this degree.
The goal is clear—to correct your ego, which is supplied to you in portions as you ascend upward and mature. Thus, you gradually move from degree to degree. Once you’ve dealt with one portion of egoism, you are given an opportunity to ascend, to draw closer to the next batch of egoistic desires. And then you begin to work with them, correcting your intention from egoistic to altruistic, so you can say, “I receive and in so doing I am giving You delight.” Every degree contains its own work, its own screen, a new name of the Creator.
“How to Attain the Names of the Creator” 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 10, 2013 at 7:51 am · Filed under Articles, Books
On the seventh day of Creation, after a step-by-step examination of one’s own egoistic qualities compared to the Creator’s bestowal, the person reaches the opportunity to bestow like the Creator.
The Self-Scrutiny during the First Six Days of Creation
All of man’s work, the reason for his existence, amounts to acquiring the qualities of the Creator, which are the qualities of bestowal. Man corrects himself through these qualities, and in the process of the correction he ascends along the spiritual ladder toward infinity and perfection, growing closer and closer to the Creator.
What were we doing over the course of the previous six days, the six degrees of correction? We were looking at our egoistic desires through the prism of the quality of bestowal. At every degree we compared ourselves to the Creator and saw that we still had a lot of work to do. In so doing, we seemingly delved into our “I.”
Working Towards Similarity with the Creator
A Kabbalist is someone who is connected to the spiritual world, who feels this connection very clearly.
His objective is to build himself similar to the Creator. He thinks of only one thing: “What can I do to make our communication pleasurable for Him, how do I change my egoistic desire into a desire to bestow? On this degree He is so pure and bestowing. I want to be like Him, and I know that He wants this, too. I cannot achieve this directly because in His Light I am exposed as a true egoist. I understand that this is my nature, so can I circumvent it?”
Following these thoughts, a person seemingly tells the Creator: “You were the One who created me this way, to receive pleasure, so what can I do to receive yet bestow at the same time? For in this lies the true, eternal pleasure for which You have created me, and not for the fleeting egoistic one. What can I do to delight You, like a son who wishes his father to be happy?”
Becoming Similar to the Creator by Changing the Intention
The answer lies in the question itself: To receive so as to give joy. How? By changing the intention. Instead of the typical self-serving intention, I need to form an intention whereby my actions delight the Creator. This is possible only if, at a particular degree you start to “see” Him. That is, you clearly feel the magnificence of the quality of bestowal, and the utter baseness and barrenness of the ego. If the Creator heeds your pleas and grants you this revelation, you will be able to change your intention.
You will desire to be in bestowal, realizing that there is no greater joy for the Creator than this. If that happens, it means that you have built a “screen.”
“What Is the Meaning of ‘the Seventh Day of Creation’ 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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August 25, 2013 at 3:56 am · Filed under Articles, Books
Man bears tremendous responsibility over what happens in the world. Because he doesn’t yet understand it—living a life driven by animalistic desires—he is hardly to blame. When this realization comes, however, the real work for which he was created will begin.
By correcting your egoistic desires (the still, vegetative and animate), you also correct the entire universe.
Man as a “Chip off the Old Block”
For instance, let’s assume there is a rock, and let’s call it “the Creator.” This rock comprises a certain percentage of slate, a certain percentage of lime, a certain percentage of gold, and some other minerals. If the rock were shattered, what would be the percentage of the composing elements in each piece? It would be the exact same percentage as in the complete rock. Because each piece is part of the whole, its composition is identical to the entire piece. This is why geologists need only break off a piece of a rock to learn its contents.
Every one of us is a shard from this “rock,” the Creator. We are all comprised of the same qualities of love and bestowal that exist in Him, except we have broken off from Him. What was the cause of this rupture? Egoism—a quality that’s completely opposite to the Creator.
Building the Desire to Become Like the Creator
How do we return to Him? The moment we understand that we are opposite from Him, and wish to return to the Creator, we will immediately embark on the path back to Him. The main objective on the spiritual path is to build the desire for it. However, we must experience this desire thoroughly, to the very end, until it hurts, until we scream with pain!
Desire is the basis for all things in the world, and determines absolutely everything. Your objective is to adhere to the Creator. If you have the desire to do so, you’ll begin to escape the slavery of self-love and you’ll immediately feel changes in your environment. There will no longer be a need to hold conferences on ecology, or green/peace rallies, worry about endangered species, and so on. Humankind will understand that the buck stops with us. We must rise above the ego and begin the journey to the Creator.
This is the message of all the books written by Kabbalists. And the moment we rise above our egos, everything will change. We will finally understand another universal truth: The Creator created us in His image and likeness, and we have never left this state.
What does “in His image and likeness” mean? It means that the Creator (the quality of bestowal) created the world, which operates under the law of bestowal. Having been made in the Creator’s image and likeness, we live in this world and the world exists in us. But it only exists in us to the extent that we observe the law of that world, the law of bestowal.
Aspiring for the Truth by Looking into the Mirror
Man sees the world through his inner qualities. If we are corrupt, the world appears to us as such. If we are pure, so the world appears to us.
All the problems we see in Nature simply mirror what’s happening within us. The impending ecological catastrophe, contamination of rivers and seas, extinction of species, and extreme weather events are all reflections of us, the egoistic essence that has enslaved us. The whole world is within us, waiting for us to realize that we are responsible for everything that happens in it, and complete our correction.
We’ve been living a lie, but now we wish to grasp the truth.
“How to Change the World” 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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