Four Worlds
Act of Correction
Although the analysis and action takes place in the person’s thoughts, he is obliged to reveal the Creator up to the level of the world of Assiya – to arouse the bond with Him through practical corrective actions.
We have no other method of research except for the creation of intention. Only intentions act and correct creation in the spiritual world. Intention is action (Kavana ze Ma’aseh). However, for this intention to be true and complete in its entire depth, a person has to delve deeply into all of its stages, realizing it in action in all the worlds down to Assiya.
When we do something in the world of Assiya, what does this “do” mean? If, being in the world of Assiya, we create our intention (not with our arms and legs), then this intention of ours is called action. How does it differ from the intention in a higher world? If we create such intention in conditions called the world of Assiya, we realize the same intention as in the world of Atzilut or Beria, or Yetzira, but at a very low, deeper level.
This can be compared with the entry of the Light inside the Kli, when we start working with Keter and then with Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut. In our work we reach increasingly lower desires, and at the same time the increasingly greater Lights of NaRaNHaY enter into this Kli.
The lower the world in which the person works with his intentions (although these intentions may be small and still detached from spirituality), the more powerful Light he arouses in the Upper Worlds. If he aspires even slightly to liken these intentions to spiritual (regardless of whether he does it correctly or not), then by his attempts to do something in the lower world he generates very intense Light.
Imagine the vertical structure of the Kli from up to down: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut. If we change something in Malchut, at the same time the Light of Yechida enters into Keter. Therefore, we cannot evaluate our actions in this world by the consequence that manifests in this same world. If we trigger infinitesimal changes in our world, tremendous changes take place in the Upper Worlds at the same time.
Hence, Baal HaSulam writes that although the analysis and action takes place in the person’s thoughts, he is obliged to reveal the Creator up to the level of the world of Assiya through practical corrective actions (also in thoughts) and to arouse the bond with Him.
“Practical” also implies thoughts; this is not the physical action performed with arms and legs. No one should think that Kabbalah writes about something that must be done with arms and legs. We in no way affect the worlds, ourselves or anything else by our physical actions.
The world of Assiya is a state, when a person being at the lowest level of his desire, performs actions on the desire and not just mechanical movements of the biological body.
Three Covenants
There exist three covenants: of eyes, tongue and the Brith.
It is said that an action can be complete and true only if it is performed in thoughts, in speech and in action (Machshava, Dibur, and Ma’aseh).
What is the meaning of “three covenants: of eyes, tongue and the Brith”? They can otherwise be called HaBaD, HaGaT, NHY or three degrees of Aviut: Shoresh, Aleph, and Bet (0, 1, and 2). In other words, we need to work with zero, first, and second levels of desire because this is in our power. However, we are unable to work with the third and fourth levels of desire until the Gmar Tikkun; they are included in the second level. Therefore, we speak only about three levels which a person has to attain: HaBaD, HaGaT, and NHY.
The work with the screen at levels zero, one and two of desire is called three covenants: “eyes”, “tongue”, and the “Brith”.
Every upper part (Galgalta ve Eynaim) of every lower Partzuf is dressed in the lower part (AHP) of the upper Partzuf. This means that the spiritual is only attained by our “eyes” and “mouth” and our union with the Upper World occurs only in these two covenants (we can include ourselves in the upper Partzuf with the Aviut 0 and 1).
This is why all the forms descend to us from the upper Partzuf to the lower one through eyes and tongue. The knowledge is passed from a Teacher to his disciple, both in writing and orally. We share and receive the knowledge with the help of our eyes and express it by our mouth. The same happens in the spiritual: the knowledge passes through “eyes” and “tongue,” and the connection (“Brith”) is based on the complete merging of two Partzufim.
All the worlds were created only for implementing these three covenants for the method of Kabbalah: in writing – with the help of our eyes, orally – with the help of our mouth (tongue); and secretly – by the Brith.
“Secret” implementation means the attainment of the state following the so-called “resurrection of the dead,” when egoistical desires completely turn into altruistic (“Lekabel al menat Lehashpia,” reception for the sake of bestowal). Such states are called secret because they exist above our nature.
Letters and Dots
Bestowal manifests through letters and dots. The eye perceives no more than the letters and dots that a person’s heart can comprehend. A mouth only perceives letters.
These articles take into account both levels, material and spiritual. We know that eyes, ears, and other physical sense organs are completely controlled by our desire. Otherwise, we all would hear and perceive our world in the same way.
I can attune myself so that I will see and hear certain things and will fail to see and hear others. If I attune myself differently, I can perceive the things that I can see and hear in a totally different way.
Everything depends on desire. All our senses are activated only by our desire: the eye catches what we wish to see and the same goes for the other senses as well. Hence, Baal HaSulam says that we perceive everything only with our inner desire.
This kind of perception is referred to as “heart”, because knowledge is received through 32 channels of bestowal (the Gematria (numerical value) of 32 designates the Hebrew word “Lev” - heart), 22 letters and 10 dots that constitute the basic forms of the world, filled with wisdom and life.
22 letters constitute the Creator’s 22 properties with regard to us. We know that the first nine letters (from Aleph to Tet) correspond to the properties of Bina, the following nine letters (from Yud to Tzadik) correspond to the properties of Zeir Anpin, and the last four letters correspond to the properties of Malchut, which received them from the previous Sefirot. The last letters are four because Malchut has four degrees of the Aviut.
Thus, in all there exist 22 letters, meaning 22 spiritual properties, whereas the dots of Malchut included in these Sefirot complement these 22 spiritual properties up to 32 combinations of Malchut with the first nine Sefirot. All in all, there are 32 channels, 32 lines (streamlets) along which the Upper Light descends down to us.
The name HaVaYaH includes in itself every form of writing and speech. This is because the structure of letters consists of lines and dots, where every dot is a contraction and every line is an expansion.
All that we can perceive within ourselves, in our desire consists of the Light expanding in different directions and contraction, i.e., of various properties and their combinations. Certain expansion and contraction in each property creates in us a combination of sensations called our world.
If we take 22 letters, meaning 22 variants of the descending abundance, include in them 10 Malchuyot (pl. of Malchut), and make various restrictions provided by the Reshimot, then with the help of these vectors we ultimately form the picture of the world. This picture will be similar to that which is projected on the screen. On the screen it consists of light and shadow, whereas we perceive it inside, in our desire, as good and bad, as pleasure and suffering.
If I perceive this picture outside of my desire, I already perceive it not in the sensations of pleasure and suffering, but with regard to the external properties through which I receive sensations. In other words, I do not receive the picture that is imprinted on my desire.
If I knew this, it would be good: I would directly relate to my desire; I would know where the truth is. Yet, I obtain the picture that is imprinted from my desire in the form that is opposite to these 32 properties – the combination of “I” against the world. That is to say, I see not what really comes to me; I see an imprint of my own properties on the Light, which comes to me through 32 channels.
As a result, the picture of the world turns out to be incorrect. This is good because it compels me to change. I perceive the world’s distortion to the extent of my own distortion.
Question: What is the difference between the Creator’s 9 properties in the Partzuf and 22 properties of the sublime abundance?
9 properties are the first 9 Sefirot which Malchut receives from ZAT de Bina.
Where do the Kelim de Kabbalah begin in the Partzuf? They begin from ZAT de Bina. There are Keter, Hochma, Bina, ZA, and Malchut. The souls exist below Malchut and are sustained by it. What Light can Malchut pass to them? That which comes from ZAT de Bina. Keter, Hochma, and GAR de Bina do not relate to the souls yet. ZAT de Bina (or AHP de Bina) is already the part of Bina, which serves the souls.
So ZAT de Bina constitutes the 9 first Sefirot (letters from Aleph to Tet), Zeir Anpin is 9 more Sefirot or 9 letters (from Yud to Tzadik), and Malchut is 4 last letters: Kuf, Reish, Shin, and Tav. In all, we have 9 + 9 + 4 = 22 letters.
Drawing Nr 1
Usually, they also mention 5 letters that are used in the end of words. They are called MaNTZePaCH. In all, there are 27 letters, but the 5 terminal letters do not take part in this process because they are on the Parsa. Consequently, there are 22 letters plus 10 Malchuyot, 10 dots inside Malchut. In all, there are 32 paths of the Upper Light’s descent. They all have different properties, shades, and the souls perceive them as 32 different forms of fulfillment, of descending influence.
Much is written about this in the Book of Zohar, although the language of narrative is used there and not the language of Kabbalah.
The article that we are studying is not written in the form of an article. These are the notes that Baal HaSulam made for himself as material for some prospective article or which he wanted to compile into some general work of which we know nothing.
I have a photocopy of the original manuscript of his notes; they even are written in different places. Here these notes are compiled into the article “Four Worlds,” but in reality this is no article at all. Baal HaSulam did not make this artificial compilation of paragraphs.
We study the articles written by Baal HaSulam in the book “Matan Torah.” There are also the articles “Freedom of Will,” “The Essence of the Science of Kabbalah” and several more articles from the book “Pri Hacham” (“Fruit of Wisdom”).
Question: How can we correct our desires with the help of hearing, sight, and speech if all desires descend to us from above?
The notions “hearing,” “sight,” and “speech” imply the correction with intention at the levels 0, 1, and 2 of the screen’s Aviut. Nothing can be corrected by physical actions, hearing, and speech.
We should correct our desire; transform our will to receive into the will to bestow. That is all our correction. The material of creation is the will to receive pleasure. Our work is to make it into an instrument of bestowal for pleasing the Creator.
We should not pay attention to the words that point to objects and actions in this world. This is totally wrong and it only confuses us. Ruchaniut (spirituality) is something that has no material form, volume, color, or sound. It means only forces. Forces of desire. Because all nature’s forces are the forces of desire; we just cannot see it so far.
There exist forces of gravitation, repulsion, and others: electrical, mechanical, magnetic, etc. These are manifestations of desire. We can neither see them, nor feel that everything originates in the inner desire, but, in principle, it is rather easy to imagine.
Therefore, if you wish to understand what Baal HaSulam writes about and what Kabbalah says, you should imagine a world of forces and desires, without bodies. No eyes, no actions, no mouth and no ears – only desires. The spiritual world is the interaction between desires, forces, and vectors.
Remember how a digital vector image is built: as a result, we obtain a general picture consisting of some images. In reality, nothing of this exists; it merely seems to us. Actually, these are various combinations of different vectors and forces. Nothing else exists in nature.
In this way one can express any picture on any level, any perception and phenomenon because everything basically consists of desires and forces. These desires/forces are called matter in Kabbalah. A force constitutes matter.
Baal HaSulam tells us about it very simply. He says that a force is matter just like everything else. Why does he make such a statement? Because we can transform every object that seems to exist physically in our world into a state, when it will drop out of our sight and turn into imperceptible forces. Does it disappear or not? It disappears with regard to us, yet in reality it simply exists in a different form.
The same goes for the spiritual. The spiritual is something that exists in the form of forces and desires.
Therefore, when Baal HaSulam writes that correction is possible only with the help of “actions,” “tongue,” “ear,” and “eye” he does not mean our eyes, ears or actions. We already understand that with the help of such instruments we can do nothing in the spiritual world. They in no way indicate human desires. These names imply man’s inner desire with this or that Aviut.
Question: You said that small changes in our world led to great changes in the Upper Worlds. Apparently, it should be the other way round: the closer one gets to the source, the lesser disturbances should lead to greater changes in something that is most remote from the source (in accordance with the principle of an amplifier)?
Wherein lies the paradox? You say, “The closer I get to the Creator, the more I can influence, do, and act. Can I do anything in our world? However hard I may bustle, what can I influence?”
We say that microscopical spiritual actions in our world cause great changes in the Upper World. If my work moves something by a millimeter in our world, the same work will require to move tons by miles. This is because the construction remains. How can it possibly be any different? If you exist under the load of so many systems from up to down, under the weight of your egoistical desire, then even your slightest correction triggers enormous raising of MAN, up to the world of Infinity.
Everything rises from you to the world of Infinity through a funnel-shaped pipe, through an upturned triangle. If you can ask here for just a little of the right force, this activates very powerful Lights in the Upper Worlds (in accordance with how great they are with regard to you). In this way you reveal all the worlds.
If you have entered into the Upper Worlds, the higher you are, the less you can affect the spiritual. This is referred to as the reverse relation between the Light and the Kli.
You may argue the point: “Well, this is wrong. If I am corrected and in a good state at some spiritual level at last, then I can perform powerful actions there!” That is true. You can perform powerful actions there, but this will attract Light, not correct you. You interact there with all the other Kelim (in their combination), where the souls provide the Aviut and you pass the Light.
This is a complete, self-contained and closed system, and the one below attracts most of the Light. You, as it were, supply this Light to him and help him from above to receive it. You interact as the souls that participate in one common cause.
Later on we will understand why we have been in the double and single concealments for so long. At this time, we have already been in the state of the Creator’s concealment for a few years and, in principle, we were supposed to get through to the Upper World. Where is our normal state above the Machsom after all, where we act with the help of spiritual instruments?
The fact is that we now generate a much more powerful influence in the worlds than we will be able to afterwards. This influence is utterly inestimable and we are obliged to continue using it until we have exhausted all our potential in it. This is called to fill up one’s “bag” (“Se’ah,” measure). Unless a person does that, he will have nothing to work with later because he will subsequently work with the Lights above that he now generates.
Being in the double or single concealment now, you commit practically all the possible mistakes which a person can commit in the state of concealment. You accumulate your mistakes and then start correcting them. You certainly need the mistakes, disillusionments, and attempts (both successful and unsuccessful) that you do in your work. Hence, we see how every minute we fall, rise, clamber, become disillusioned, and then rise again…
The person who works spiritually cannot have it any other way. Look at your friends, at the states through which people go! You may see them in the states of despair and disillusionment, etc. Why? This way we accumulate our Kelim. It is impossible to accumulate Kelim in the Creator’s double and single concealment in any other way. That is what these states exist for. They will continue until we have gone through them all a quick pace. The speed depends on our aspiration to the Goal.
If I enjoy sitting and grieving, then I will not come closer to the Goal. You can approach the Goal only if you aspire to it. At the same time, you are tossed from side to side faster and faster. This resembles driving a car on a bumpy road: the faster you go, the stronger jolts you will feel.
We feel the jolts if we move forward really fast. If we move slowly, we stop feeling them. We try to slow down automatically and, as a result, we move slowly, but more or less comfortably.
Those who are ready to suffer and get bumps move faster. They pay no attention to the received blows. They quickly accumulate a full measure of disillusionments and sufferings and cross the Machsom. Until a person has not realized the Creator’s double and single concealments, he cannot cross the Machsom.
Immediately above the Machsom the Upper Governance is revealed in the form of reward and punishment. By this the person corrects the Creator’s single concealment. After that follows the next level of love, where he corrects the Creator’s double concealment. We subsequently correct the Kelim (mistakes) that we have accumulated in the states of concealment, and this forms the vessel in which we reveal the Creator.
Therefore, we can shorten our present period of concealment only through our aspiration to the Goal. You should step on the gas. What will you come across on your way? Your car will be falling to pieces, you will be shaken on every bump, but you still have to step on it. That is all and unfortunately there is no other opportunity to do anything.
How can a person endure this? We come back to the same principle – a group’s help. You see others together with you and you feel better. They inspire you and you inspire them in return…
Question: The first nine Sefirot are above the Machsom and they also constitute a group. Does this mean that the group is concealed from us?
The first nine Sefirot are definitely above the Machsom. However, the group is not above the Machsom. The group is the model below the Machsom which I need to create in similarity to the AHP, the upper level.
The group is not above the Machsom; it consists of the same people as you. Why do you invent all sorts of ideals? If it were above the Machsom, I would not have to do anything, except including myself in it. Nevertheless, I have to build, influence, and criticize it. I constantly need to choose higher and higher states instead of it. Only after I have put my soul into it, I start receiving from it.
Question: All the worlds exist only with regard to me. If by performing a minimal spiritual action I generate enormous changes in both worlds, with regard to whom do I perform them?
Your question is formally correct. A world is what I perceive subjectively. If I influence something beyond me, do I change my subjectively perceived world or do I transform the world in which all the other souls exist?
If I change something, I always do it within myself. I only replace my desire with a more corrected one. In other words, I do not change my desires; I only change intentions on them. I alter the application of these desires, their magnitude of bestowal. So I can change only myself. At the same time, I naturally perceive the attitude of the Creator, of the world, and of the group differently.
Yet, by changing my desire I automatically include myself in other souls with which I am inseparably connected. By doing so, I cause them to change as well. If I, for example, changed my nature by 10% by taking part in some spiritual action, this means that these 10% (regardless of someone’s thoughts or desires) get automatically changed in the rest of the souls. Each soul starts receiving new desires, thoughts, and motives because, being included in all the other souls, I have changed.
Therefore, the state of the entire world depends on every person, and since I have changed, others begin to see their world differently; their desires change. Everyone consists of desires of the entire world, and when the combination of desires in a person changes, his outlook on reality changes as well.
I may be a Kabbalist in this world who attains the Creator or a student who aspires to become a Kabbalist, attain the Creator, and bestow like Him. I do my work by my automatic existence in this world and my inclusion in the other souls. I correct the world and other souls, rouse them, compel them to pay attention to the Purpose of creation, and to approach its realization.
Consequently, everyone begins to see things differently.
Question: How do I make changes in the worlds if I cannot feel them? With regard to what do I make them?
If I change my attitude toward the Creator and to some extent correct myself (it makes no difference what we call it), I simultaneously make changes in all the other desires. Combined with the Upper Light, they make changes in the worlds. What does the phrase “in the worlds” mean? The worlds do not exist by themselves; they are the filters through which the Upper Light manifests within the souls. The worlds exist within the souls. If desires conform more to the Upper Light, these filters grow thinner because there is no more need for such coarse filters.
If I have made 50% of corrections in all souls, then these filters, concealments, and worlds were automatically reduced by 50%. In other words, all the worlds with everything that exists in them have ascended half way to the world of Infinity.
You have nothing but the soul, the desire created by the Creator, and the inner program according to which this desire works. This inner program is called the worlds. The worlds do not exist around the soul; rather they are inside the soul. This is the formula by which the souls come into contact with the Light. This formula is incorporated into the souls.
Question: If I make corrective actions while being in the state of the double concealment and my corrective actions influence the worlds and all of us, then why don’t I feel it?
These actions influence me and all the other souls. It does not matter if I see this or not. What I introduce to the souls and worlds is intentionally concealed from me now. We exist within a common system; we are connected among ourselves. We influence one another and the Creator; we attract the Light – this is invariant.
The fact that this state is concealed from me at the moment does not change reality. What really happens does so regardless of the concealment. One does not affect the other. Why is this sensation concealed from me? This is because it would have prevented me from carrying out corrective actions; I would have started acting for my own sake, whereas now I can try to act for the sake of others and the Creator. The enjoyment from my actions is concealed from me; hence I can allegedly try using altruistic methods.
This is not important because the result of my actions is concealed only with regard to me. It is as if my eyes are shrouded. My influence occurs within the framework of the existing system. Whether the system is concealed or not in no way affects reality. Whether we want it or not, we are interconnected, and all we do is influence our own and other people’s desires because we all are included in one common desire. The extent of concealment or revelation exists only with regard to you: what you really do is concealed only from you so as not to hinder you.
Remember the example of a restaurant’s proprietor who works day and night while all the time thinks of making more money. In reality, it is concealed from him that he works to feed everyone. Yet, now he cannot work for the sake of bestowal, hence he allegedly labors for money. This is concealment.
This kind of concealment covers our entire life. However, regardless of it, we participate in the work of the system. The only thing we need to do is reveal our participation in it, so that we can willingly do what we actually do. Thus, all the worlds will be revealed. As much as each world hampered the Light previously, now it will reveal this Light within us.
Essence and Desires
Essence and desires indicate two kinds of Light: that which refers to the Source of influence, and that which refers to its recipient. This is the basis of the male and female essences, of the line and the Reshimo, the soul and the body, the Creator and Malchut, mercy and judgment. The work must be completed in their union.
The essence rules and is revealed in desire, in accordance with its awakening and readiness. The Light is revealed inside the Kli only to the extent of their similarity. The nature of an essence is discernible only in the desire that dresses it. We cannot speak about the Light outside of the Kli. We do not know what it is like and what properties it has. Only to the extent of desire’s attuning to “something,” and only if this “something” manifests within it, can we speak about it based on the form, style of the desire, which the Light reveals.
Let’s suppose that my desire turned pink (pink light manifested). Why do I say that the light is pink? My desire assumed such a property. The light does not have this property. I simply call the part of it that was manifested within me in accordance with the property of the Kli. The Light has no name at all. We attain the Kli which reveals it in such a way.
Something moves along a wire. I do not know what it is exactly, but the needle on the device that I built moves five points. I therefore say that something is influencing the device with a force that equals five points. Do I know what it is? Not at all. I have no idea about this force and where it is directed. The instrument that I made simply registers this influence in such a way. I call this influence in accordance with the disturbance it causes inside the instrument. I do not know what it really is and I never will. That is why we always name the Light by the name of the Kli in which it is manifested.
Desires enable the use of consciousness. Nothing is perceived by consciousness outside of the desire in which the essence is dressed.
“The nature of an essence is discernible only in the desire that dressed it. Desire enables the use of consciousness. Nothing is perceived by consciousness outside of the desire in which the essence is dressed.
We cannot possibly attain the Creator’s essence because all of our attainments refer to the corrected desire, in which the Creator’s essence is dressed.”
This is what Baal HaSulam says. All of our attainments refer not to the essence but to ourselves corrected in similarity to something. In other words, there exists a standard which I cannot comprehend, but I change myself in accordance with it. I attain my own form with regard to this standard and call it the Creator’s image. The form that my desire assumes is not the form that exists in the Creator: it is the attainment of the corrected desire in which the Creator’s essence is dressed.
“As in all our measurements, we measure not the essence itself, but its manifestation in the measuring device, its interaction with it. Hence, the vision of the Creator’s Governance means the true revelation of Him.”
It is said: “Mi Ma’asecha Yikarnucha.” I will know You by Your actions, by Your influence on me, and by my own actions with regard to You. I have no other way to know anything. However, we are made so that it is absolutely sufficient for us. We feel no lack of a higher attainment because the Light, which descends from the Creator, created us. It created us of itself; hence we have no desire to know more than the form of similarity that we assume.
One can say theoretically: “I want more.” Yet what more do you want? Such a desire cannot appear within our nature. This can be said only theoretically: “I wish to know the Atzmuto.” This is the question that is absolutely devoid of inner desire (Hissaron).
Question: To what am I trying to liken myself if the Creator manifests as my uncorrected state?
The Creator manifests within me as exact antithesis to my uncorrected state. I attain my realization of evil, my imperfection with regard to the Creator.
If I reveal something bad within myself, then a question arises: with regard to what or whom is it bad? Is it bad with regard to society, education or the Creator? The realization of evil is the attainment of the difference between me and the Creator.
Question: If spiritual work in our world yields greater results in all worlds than the work in the Upper world, why should we aspire to ascend and cross the Machsom?
Because the Purpose of creation lies in attaining the Creator, becoming similar to Him, and merging with Him. You may say: “I do not do anything in such a state.” In fact, you do because while rising up you elevate with you everything that you had before.
However, you are right essentially. The righteous who ascend spiritually before the Gmar Tikkun suffer because they lack what they had in the state of concealment. They regret it. You are right. This difference, this disproportion, continues existing up to the Final correction and only in that state will it be balanced.