January 15, 2025
April 13, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Know the Law of Giving Like Abraham
When desires evolve in Nature, they create increasingly complex structures. Each new level rises to a higher degree of desire to receive when creatures of the current level join to form an aggregate of collaborators. By so doing, the creatures of the current (and presently highest) level create a system to which they can yield their self-interests, which provides them with sustainability and adherence to Nature’s law of giving. When this happens in humans, we, too, start from the smallest structure—a single person—and work our way toward increasingly complex societies. The only difference is that we must create these social structures that adhere to the law of giving by ourselves.
Abraham’s family was actually the first group to create that system, and then harness its members into a system whose parts were united by dedication to their host system. As Maimonides narrates, this initial system grew into a group. Yet, only in Egypt—when their number sufficed—did the system grow into a nation. When Moses brought Israel out of Egypt, the family of 70 that had gone into Egypt now consisted of several millions (there are many views on precisely how many came out of Egypt, but the common figures are between 2 and 6 million men, women, and children, excluding the mixed multitude).
Who Else Wants to Conquer Hatred?
Clearly, Moses’ job was far more challenging than Abraham’s. He could not gather the entire nation in his tent, as did Abraham with his family and few disciples, and teach them the laws of life. Instead, he gave them what we refer to as the Five Books of Moses, known in Hebrew as the Torah, which means both “Law” (of bestowal) and “Light.” In his books, Moses provided depictions of all the states that one experiences on the way to becoming like the Creator.
The first part of the way to emulating the Creator was to exit Egypt, venture into the Sinai Wilderness, and stand at the foot of Mount Sinai. According to ancient sources, the name, “Sinai,” comes from the Hebrew word, Sinaa (hatred). In other words, Moses gathered the people at the foot of Mount Sinai—the mountain of hatred.
To interpret the mountain-of-hatred allegory, Moses’ teachings showed the people how hateful they were towards each other, how remote they were from the law of bestowal. To reconnect with the law of bestowal, or the Creator, they united, as described by 11th century commentator and Kabbalist, Rashi, “As one man in one heart.”
Baal HaSulam elaborates on this process in his essay, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” where he explains that in return for their pledge to care for each other, Moses’ people were given the Torah. They attained the law of bestowal and obtained the light, the altruistic nature of the Creator. In Baal HaSulam’s words, “once the whole nation unanimously agreed and said, ‘We shall do and we shall hear,’ …only then did they become worthy of receiving the Torah, and not before.”
The First Mass Discovery of the Creator
Now we can see how important Moses’ mission was, and why free choice is a prerequisite to accomplishing it. The leaders of Abraham’s group were all family and were naturally united. But Moses had to unite a nation. To achieve that, the entire nation had to agree on a path. By making a free choice to unite, despite the evident egoism (allegorically described as “standing at the foot of Mount Sinai”), a nation was admitted into the law of giving. This was the first time in humanity’s history that people en masse attained the quality of the Creator, and from this point forward, choosing unity in the face of growing egoism will be the only way to achieve the Creator.
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April 3, 2014 at 7:54 am · Filed under Articles, Books
In ancient Mesopotamia, in the face of growing egoism Abraham developed a practical method of balancing this unique human trait. In truth, Abraham’s method was very simple: in the face of heightened egoism, unite and thus discover the quality of bestowal—the Creator. Every element in nature behaves in this way.
- Atoms: The initial levels of desire to receive require very limited organization and form small systems where each element dedicates itself to its host system. We call these elementary systems, “atoms.”
- Molecules: The more evolved levels of desires place atoms within systems we call “molecules.”
- Cells: As the desire evolves further, these systems organize within even bigger systems called “cells.”
- Multicellular Creatures: These group into multicellular creatures, finally leading to the creation of plants, animals, and humans.
In all of this, there is only one principle: the desire to receive in all the elements wishes to receive, and the only way to create balance and sustainability in the system is to unite under a higher-level system. This is what Abraham’s method sought to consciously emulate.
The desire to receive in humans becomes egoism because of our sense of uniqueness. Hence, the antidote to egoism is the exact same cure applied by Nature—the construction of a system to which all parts will contribute and yield their self-interests. In return, the system will guarantee the well-being and sustainability of its elements. Scientists today wish to discover the conditions that existed in the early universe by recreating those conditions on a miniature scale in facilities such as the CERN Hadron Collider in Switzerland. Similarly, by imitating Nature’s “natural” conduct, we will discover its law of bestowal.
Gain the Greatest Delight & Ultimate Goal Out of Life by Not Making the Same Mistake that Was Made in Babel
In truth, the modus operandi is really quite simple: If you think like a giver and act like a giver, we have to at least consider the possibility that you have a small amount of giving in your nature, to paraphrase Douglas Adam’s celebrated quote from Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency.
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April 2, 2014 at 6:22 am · Filed under Articles, Books
The Pyramid of Desires
The top of the pyramid is also the part that governs it,
and hence the part that has free choice in how to do it,
and the responsibility to do it right.
Mesopotamia, the Cradle of Civilization, was also the birthplace of Abraham, the harbinger of Kabbalah. The conflict between Abraham and Nimrod, ruler of Babylon, stands for much more than a conflict between a ruler and a defiant subject. It is a conflict of perceptions. To Nimrod, reality is a “federation” of forces that he must please, serve, and appease by sacrifice. To Abraham, there is only one force, and worshiping it means living by its law—the law of giving, as simple and as straightforward as that. Considering this contrast of views, it is no wonder that Nimrod had to either destroy Abraham or expel him.
But Abraham’s departure from Babylon did not quiet the polis. The trends that had prompted Abraham’s search for life’s secret continued to intensify and to spread through the bustling city, fueled by the same forces that power the process of evolution. Yet, in Babylon, these trends began to manifest a conduct that is uniquely human—egoism.
Baal HaSulam explains that egoism is a natural trait for humans. He declares that it is human nature, and that Kabbalah offers a way to turn its evident detrimental consequences into positive ones. In “Peace in the World,” he writes, “In simple words we shall say, that the nature of each and every person is to exploit the lives of all other people in the world for his own benefit. And all that he gives to another is only out of necessity; and even then there is exploitation of others in it, but it is done cunningly, so that his neighbor will not notice it and concede willingly.”
The Need to Learn How to Govern & Nurture the Pyramid of Desires
But before we delve into the solution that Kabbalah offers to human egoism, we need to understand how the desire to receive, initially created by the desire to give—the Creator—has become egoism. “The reason for it,” continues Ashlag, “is that … man’s soul [desire] extends from the Creator, who is one and unique. … Hence, man, too … feels that all the people in the world should be under his governance,” just as the whole of nature is governed by the law of bestowal, the Creator.
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March 31, 2014 at 9:59 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
What Is the Difference between Humans and Animals?
The corporeal parallel to Stage Four in the Four Developmental Stages of the Primordial Desire in Creation (i.e. the natural evolution of the desire to receive) are human beings. Humans appeared through a natural process of evolution. The genus Homo (humanoid ape) first appeared approximately 2.5 million years ago, and evolved as all other species do, by natural selection. As with animals, hominids that were healthier and stronger survived, and those that were less so perished.
Yet, hominids, and primarily the latest evolution of the species, Homo sapiens, invested far more energy and time on social relations than any other species. Albeit many species, such as dolphins, chimpanzees, and wolves, cultivate intricate social relations, social structures in human societies are dynamic and evolutionary by nature.
In that regard, Baal HaSulam wrote in the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” that unlike animals, humans have the ability to sympathize with another’s pains and joys, and animals do not. In declaring this, Baal HaSulam was not referring to empathy as is often exhibited by animals between mother and offspring, and even among unrelated specimens of a species. Instead, here he speaks of an entirely new mechanism of the desire to receive: evolution through envy.
In item 38 of the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Ashlag explains the difference between desires in humans and in animals, and how envy increases our desires: “The will to receive in the animate, which lacks the sensation of others, can only generate needs and desires to the extent that they are imprinted in that creature alone.”
In other words, if an animal knows that eating is good, it may want to help another animal obtain food, as well. “But man,” continues Ashlag, “who can feel others, becomes needy of everything that others have, as well, and is thus filled with envy to acquire everything that others have.”
Indeed, the appearance of Homo sapiens marked what appears to be a shift in the direction of evolution. Homo sapiens, it seems, were focusing not on developing a stronger, more adapt and agile physique, but on developing their intellect, and even more surprising, self-expression. Thus, we see how Homo sapiens are the earthly representation of Stage Four in the desire to receive—the desire to become omnipotent and omniscient.
Do You Adhere to the Rule of Survival – Yielding Self-Interest to the Interest of the System?
Ashlag’s words quoted above mark a turning point not just in the history of human evolution, but in the evolution of the universe, as well. The (uniquely human) evolution-by-envy has shifted the very direction of evolution. Until the emergence of human ego, creatures evolved successfully if their internal organs cooperated, following the principle of relinquishing self-interest in favor of the system’s interest, and leaving the system to care for their well-being.
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March 29, 2014 at 6:00 am · Filed under Articles, Books
The first living organisms were primitive cells, known as “prokaryotes.” As with minerals in the inanimate phase, prokaryotes grew more complex.
The vegetative phase in the evolution of life corresponds to Stage Two of the four developmental stages of the primordial desire in creation. The difference between Stage One and Stage Two is that Stage One is passive—receiving what Nature gives it—while Stage Two reacts to it, wishing to give back. Similarly, plants respond to their environment and interact with it. Their product, oxygen, is the gift of the flora to our world and is such a vital element of life that without it, evolution as we know it would not be possible.
In his “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Ashlag explains that the vegetative level of the desire to receive, as manifested in plants, exhibits a more intense desire to receive. This is why the structures it creates are more complex and have a more noticeable impact on their environment.
Also, unlike minerals, plants are individual specimens with their own reproduction, feeding, and even migration mechanisms. Yet, like minerals, all plants behave similarly—accurately adhering to the program installed within them by the Creator. They open their petals (if they have them) at the same time in the morning, close them at the same time in the evening, and follow almost exactly the same procedure as do the other specimens in their species.
Thus, compliant with the law of yielding self-interest described in the previous section, cells continued to evolve, producing increasingly intricate and complex structures. At first, they congregated in large colonies of single cells. Then, gradually, they began to realize that they could benefit from ascribing different roles to different groups of cells. Some cells became “hunters,” providing food for the entire colony, other cells became guards, others still became cleaners, and each group contributed its best to the community.
In The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Baal HaSulam provides a detailed examination of the internal structure of the Partzuf we discussed earlier, and explains about such systems as the digestive system, the reproduction system, hands, legs, etc.
However, Baal HaSulam describes all these elements as interactions between desires to bestow and desires to receive. These are not physical objects of any kind, although how they behave serves as a “prototype” for the behavior of similar systems in our world. In Kabbalah, a prototype is called “root” and all its offshoots are called “branches.”
Beyond the obvious advantage of size that colonies have over single cells, returning to the topic of evolution, cells in colonies have another edge over single cells: they can focus on a single task and thus perfect their performance, increasing their contribution to the colony and relying on their fellow cells in the colony to provide for their other needs.
Single cells, on the other hand, had to perform all the necessities of sustenance by themselves. This heightened efficiency meant that colonies spent less energy to produce the same amount of food, warmth, protection and any other necessity. Thus, yielding their self-interests, cells began to differentiate.
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