In Spiritual Life there is a Law: "The Majority Follows the Individual"
Because the entire world is created as a pyramid, there are few people with great egoism. This was done on purpose, to balance all forces (if not by quantity, then by quality).
There should not be too many strong people. Let us for example take a group of ten people. Suppose, the strength of each individuals equals 100kg. Their cumulative strength will amount to 1 ton. However, if other people whose individual strength equals 1kg get together, there should be 1000 of them so that their cumulative strength will match that of the first group.
The pyramid is built according to this principle. What does it mean? At any level within the pyramid the height (the corrected level of desire) multiplied by its width (number of souls with such level of desire) constitute the degree of spiritual magnitude. Consequently, quality counterbalances quantity.
If we take two levels in the pyramid, for example, near the top and almost at the bottom, we will then see that there are very few extremely strong people near the top and a very large number of weak people near the bottom. This way the principle of power equality is preserved.
If this principle is preserved, how should the society at a certain level of the pyramid or the society that consists of all levels (i.e., the entire humankind) behave?
Obviously, different laws rule at different levels depending on the prevalence of quality over quantity. Two laws that control our daily life originate from it.
Those who are limited by the perception of our world have to observe the law of the majority's dominance because in this case people are at a low level and the majority determines this level. Even the few enlightened individuals who attained the spiritual level are obliged to follow the majority in the issues of this world.
In contrast to that, in spirituality the law obliges the masses to follow the individual and everyone should pursue his personal ideal.
If we analyze a society consisting of various levels, is there a law that determines the conduct of both the majority and the minority?
If we speak about the laws and rules of our everyday life, then everyone has to follow the majority, aspire to achieve its level.
If we speak about spiritual life (and most people are well below that level), then the majority has to follow the minority.
In any generation individuals are more developed than the masses. If the society that began to develop according to nature's laws realizes the necessity to be saved from sufferings, it must submit to an individual and follow his instructions.
This is because an individual is more developed and has gone through many stages. Armed with extensive experience, he can give the society many good recommendations.
Thus, whatever refers to the spiritual development, the majority's right turns into its duty to follow an individual, i.e. a highly-evolved personality. Such advanced and educated people make up an insignificant part of society; hence the minority determines all achievements and breakthroughs in the spiritual sphere.
The society should be aware of the fact that its salvation is not in the hands of the ruling majority, but rests with the enlightened individuals. From this it follows that the society must carefully preserve such people's ideas.
Question: If we follow the majority in our everyday life, then how will we achieve the spiritual?
We follow the majority only in questions of everyday life. If you wish to advance spiritually, you have to follow an individual.
I simultaneously exist on two planes: earthly and spiritual. In earthly life I am obliged to follow the majority. In everyday life I cannot say that certain spiritual laws must be observed. They concern only people who develop spiritually.
The person who lives in his egoistical desire cannot live by spiritual laws and in spiritual conditions. Hence, in his desires he establishes a condition called ''this world.'' I exist in this world with him and I have to observe the same laws that he observes. If he wishes me to lead him to the spiritual world, he is obliged to submit to my will.
An ordinary person lives by the laws of this world. They exist for him and he understands them. The Kabbalist in this world also has to observe the laws that are dictated by ordinary people. However, if these people want to enter the spiritual realm, they have to follow the Kabbalist's instruction. He should guide them in accordance with spiritual laws.
Consequently, if being at the spiritual level, I live in this world and observe its laws, this enables me to be in contact the masses and gradually draw them nearer to me.
On the other hand, since we exist at the same level of desire (live in the same world), I can make such corrections within them of which they do not even suspect. Outwardly, I observe their laws, and this enables me to elevate them to my level.
When we cooperate with one another at the lowest level, we begin to see that love for our neighbor is all that we lack.
Question: What rule should I follow when I have to decide when to go to sleep?
My behavior in this world has two forms - individual and social. I should not cross social framework where my contact with society is necessary. However, I disregard social standards in whatever concerns spiritual matters. Moreover, a person is created in such a way that he differs from the society in many of his actions.
Let's recall the main levels of creation's development. For example, all rocks have more or less the same structure. Some plants sway and some do not. Many of them bloom and shed leaves at the same time. Every animal already moves individually because animals are more developed. However, they still have certain periods for mating and migrating, so, as we see, they too have similar properties.
A person can exist without any contact with society. He can conceive children at any time of year; he moves independently of others and follows his inner rules and laws more than those of the society. His submission to social laws is not instinctive as in animals; it is based on his choice.
Thus, we see that this pyramid exists in inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human nature. If we speak about this pyramid at the spiritual level, the system remains the same. This does not contradict the general law: the more evolved an individual is, the greater his degree of freedom becomes.
Question: If reality is divided in this way, where is the boundary?
I make no difference between myself and the rest of the world in all t hat concerns my participation in the society's life. I am obliged to work, pay taxes, give birth to children, and take an active part in everything that goes on around me. The masses dictate me their laws and I have to submit to them. At the same time, they have to submit to my (spiritual) laws. Thus, we will have a point of contact and this is the ideal situation.
Question: What if the spiritual leader determined the earthly laws?
It would be totally wrong for a spiritual leader to spread spiritual laws in our world. This will be coercion with regard to the masses that have not yet reached this level in their development. It is prohibited to do that.
The only thing such a person can do is to begin teaching others gradually and gently. If people accept his knowledge, they will start changing their laws and ascend spiritually. However, no one has a right to introduce a spiritual law in our world.
Adam Rishon wanted to coerce himself, as if saying: "Since I cannot receive for the sake of bestowal in my Kelim of AHP, I will receive for the sake of bestowal anyway!" You know what happened after that. It is impossible to work on fulfilling the spiritual law with uncorrected Kelim. The spiritual law is bestowal (Ashpa'a). Unless the Kli is corrected, there is nothing you can do with it. This leads to even greater breaking.
Question: Why are the laws established by Kabbalists not considered coercion?
The Kabbalist named Moshe (Moses) taught spirituality to people after they agreed to accept the condition "Na'aseh ve Nishmah" ("We shall do and we shall hear"). In other words, every one of them was ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of others to receive Arvut (mutual guarantee) and start ascending above his egoism. Moses instructed them how to observe spiritual laws (i.e., to correct their egoism). That was his mission. Gradually 3 million people (600000 men) went through this correction.
What is the difference between the male and female parts? The extent of their participation is different. The male part is obliged to receive for the sake of bestowal, and the female part has to assist passively. These are the Kelim that cannot be corrected, hence they just help. In any case, we should work with women and children as Moses did.
Spiritual laws are made in such a way that they must be observed at all levels, from the highest to the lowest. At the lowest level animals, plants, and rocks in our world have to receive the Ashpa'a (man's influence). Man has to reach the highest level - the Creator. That is what Moses taught his people, his Kabbalistic group.
Can we say that he coerced them? They arrived at the state of "Naaseh ve Nishmah" ("We shall do and we shall hear"), i.e., at the realization that they had to rise above their egoism or else it would be their end. Therefore, every of them consciously accepted this condition. After that, they only needed to be taught how to carry out these spiritual corrections.
That is what Moses was doing for forty years of the so-called wandering in the desert (of their uncorrected desires). They fought with their desires (inner enemies), and when it was necessary, they fought with their outer enemies too. They were roaming from place to place erecting their tents and moving on after a while.
Why were they wandering for so many years? The place is not that big anyway. They tended herds of goats and sheep. Moses helped them to organize a regular life with framework of laws at the most primitive level. That was one of his duties. Otherwise it was impossible to create special conditions for adults' correction and for children's education.
Everyone is born an egoist. When a baby appears from the womb of its mother, it is like a small animal. When the child reaches the age of three his parents start teaching it. It learned fast because of the environment.
Such an environment needed to be created: the child's friends, teachers, etc. had to be an integral part of that environment. The framework established by Moses for the people ideally fitted the conditions in which they had to live and develop.
Moses elevated them to the level of Bina. Just think what an enormous task this Kabbalist accomplished - everyone attained the Light of Mochin de Haya! Of course, that was at the level of their egoism (their Kelim were not very coarse), but that was a great achievement.
Question: If spiritual laws are not coercion, why should we observe them in everyday life?
Based on the spiritual laws that everyone was willing to observe in order to merge with the Creator, Moses instructed them how they should correct themselves spiritually. Simultaneously, the same laws had to be observed at the earthly level, within the framework of their daily life. Naturally, the masses followed him in accordance with the law, "the majority should follow an individual".
A question arises: "What kind of spiritual life they were leading, if he had to teach them to tend sheep and goats?" This was spiritual life for them because they lived in the perception of spiritual forces that stand behind every action and object of what we call "our world."
It seems to us that this world exists in and of itself. They perceived this world as an external picture ruled by spiritual forces. Moses taught them what corrections they had to make and how they could reach the Creator with the help of their inner properties.
Naturally, they had to follow their leader in everyday life because every movement or action was looked upon through the prism of spiritual forces. When he told them that they had to pay taxes, fight, cultivate the land, etc., this was naturally based on their spiritual level. Everyone understood what had to be done and did it.
This was not coercion; this was a recommendation, advice, instruction as to how they could correct themselves and rise to the higher level. Why do we think that whatever happens in this world is coercion?
Who passes today's laws that oblige you to pay taxes and serve in the armed forces? Don't you do that in order to ascend spiritually?
Everyone had to follow Moses because everyone was at the spiritual level. There was no ordinary level; everything was spiritual, hence, they were obliged to follow the individual. You compare our life with what Moses dictated to his people, but who are our leaders today?
Question: What could a Kabbalist change within the framework of our world, if he were in power?
If a Kabbalist became a leader of a nation or humankind, he would change nothing in this world but education. Interference in other affairs is coercion. In the process of correct education, people would be modifying their laws.
We have no right to forcibly introduce any laws. Being obliged to observe the existing laws, we feel pain, blows, suffering, and thanks to that correct ourselves. That is why these laws exist in our world today.
Any great or simply judicious person understands that these laws are natural and nothing can be changed. Neither Hitler nor Stalin could do anything with them. They are simply objective laws of society.
They exist because otherwise people will not come to their correction. Hence, nothing should be changed but education. Moses educated his people, taught them how to live.
Question: The law of the majority's supremacy is in force in the material world. Why doesn't the law of the minority's rule work in the spiritual?
The majority does not follow the minority in the spiritual because it does not aspire to spirituality. We speak about desire. You forget the main principle - everything should originate from desire.
Whom should a nation (or the entire world) follow if it aspires for the spiritual? In this case it has to follow an individual in everything that concerns spiritual life. In all things that refer to this world the masses create their own laws.
Afterword
Accumulating experience, mankind gradually comes to the conclusion that, in spite of all its efforts to change the course of history and develop society, life gets its own way, and everything happens according to a scenario that does not depend on us. So are we doomed by fate?
The study of the universe by using the Kabbalistic method reveals that man's essence consists of three parts:
The first - animal - part, which is expressed in bodily desires for food, sex, family, home, present in all people regardless of their environment;
The second - human - part, expressed in desires for wealth, honor (fame, power), knowledge, in which we are dependent on the society;
The third - spiritual - part, which creates in us an aspiration for the Upper world (it appears out of a sensation of death, emptiness in life, ignorance of the source of existence) is called "a point in the heart."
This point does not necessarily have to be present in the heart. A clear aspiration for something spiritual originates in the realization of an end. Unless we thought about death, we would not have aspired for something above this life. Animals die too, but they do not know about it. The difference lies in the question of death and what follows it.
Man is born in this world in order to reveal the Upper world during his life. Upon achieving this, he exists in both worlds simultaneously, and after the death of his body perceives the spiritual world to the same extent he did while living in the body. If he failed to reach the Upper world during his life (i.e., failed to correct his properties in order to feel the Creator in them), then his soul descends to this world again (his uncorrected desires manifest again) and dresses into a biological body for the fulfillment of this purpose.
The soul can reveal the Upper world only when it is clothed in the body. Man's existence in the body without feeling his soul is the initial condition for attaining freedom of will and independence from the Creator.
I exist in this world totally unconnected with the Creator. Now I wish to continue existing in the spiritual world without the connection with Him. What does it mean, "Without the connection"? I want to exist in bestowal regardless of Him. I give Him instead of receiving from Him. Naturally, I ask Him for correction and fulfillment in order to fulfill Him.
In other words, the attainment of freedom and independence from the Creator can come only from outside, from a state when "I am not acquainted with Him." In that case, I can make this acquaintance as an independent individual. I can face Him and dictate the conditions of our relations. It is said: "Nitzhu Li Banai" ("My sons defeated me"). Seeing our independence from Him, The Creator is as pleased as the parents whose child grows and becomes an independent from them.
From this it becomes clear that:
This entire world and our existence in it are designed only to help us discover the Upper world;
The first (animate) and the second (human) parts do not exist in us by themselves, their role is determined by how much they contribute to the realization of the third (spiritual) part, i.e. how they assist us in fulfilling our mission, which consists of the revelation of the spiritual realm while living in this world.
Man's actions are evaluated only to the extent of their connection with spiritual advancement, because it is the spiritual part that has to be transformed.
The first and second parts in us do not change by themselves. Nor do they depend on our desires. Realization of the third (spiritual) part determines their transformations.
Our actions related to the first and the second parts are not free, they are programmed by nature and make up a rigid frame of our structure. By choosing how to develop spiritually we determine our states in both the first and the second (animal and human) parts, and definitely in the third.
By declining to perform futile and senseless acts related to our animal and human desires, and concentrating all efforts on the revelation of the upper reality, man acquires the ability to control everything in this world (in both 1st and 2nd parts). In other words, the road to ruling over this world is attainable through the upper world, since all signals, all events descend from above until they take their final form in this world.
It does not matter in what conditions or in what times we live, what we do and what we become in this life. Nothing of it is important; these are mere shells on our inner desire, which we have to correct and fill with the creator.
Man elevates the entire world after him. The world gets filled with spiritual Light and abundance that man attracts by his spiritual actions.
Even in our world we feel the goodness in inanimate, vegetative and animate nature (i.e., in the desires that we perceive as the universe around us).
These are our desires that we perceive in this way and they also have to be corrected. The so-called outside nature of our world receives a completely different fulfillment when we correct ourselves. Hence, it is said that the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature rises together with man depending on his actions.
In other words, the path toward the control of this world lies through the Upper world. This is obvious because all the commands and events descend from the Upper realm and appear before us in their final form. Therefore, by renouncing the realization of desires through this world, the person relinquishes the futile attempts to change his destiny. The revelation of the Upper world designates man's inclusion into the general control over the universe.
This article demonstrates how pre-determined all man's actions and states in this world are; all but one, which determines everything else - the aspiration to the upper world, to its revelation, to mastering the laws of the Divine Providence. Only this aspiration determines man's destiny.
Question: How should I feel in order to aspire for the spiritual?
We can find the answer in the Torah. It says the following: "Either you accept this method of correction and spiritual ascent called Torah (correction manual), or this will be your end."
This refers to man who lived through the Egyptian exile, Pharaoh's blows, crossing the sea, and so on. That is to say, he went through many hardships and sufferings, analyzed and determined who he is and what his egoism is like.
After all that, he still feels the shock of which it is written: "The mountain hangs over them as the upturned bowl." A person feels in this state, either I accept the spiritual condition "Love thy neighbor as thyself" or I perish. This is not simply death, the end of life. Man's "I" ceases to exist. The need to cross the Machsom must lead man to this sensation.
This sensation, as everything else that is described in the Torah, is given as a strict condition by nature which drives us by sufferings towards the purpose of creation.
However, we can choose another way if we want to. The Torah says: "Either you accept this method of correction and spiritual ascent called Torah or this will be your end." It shows you two ways, two choices.
Before crossing the Machsom I have to realize that unless I accept these spiritual conditions, I am doomed. That is how I have to feel.
I can come to that under the influence of horrible sufferings, as if I hang on the edge of a precipice, or alternatively, through the Upper Light that shows me the difference between my own insignificance and the Creator's greatness that can be achieved.
I feel as if I am dying, but the feeling is surrounded by the Light and knowledge. I feel shocked, but this shock is different. It is quick and (one might even say) pleasant because at the same time I see my salvation. I see it all positively - that is the difference.
This is how certain feelings are described in the Torah. All levels are explained as sensations of what one has to go through and attain. Thus the desire to rise to the next level comes. However, you can pass through this in one of two ways: either by receiving twenty thousand blows, or by spending two hundred hours of studying with the right intention.
Question: How will the spiritual desire awaken in people, if it stems from the sensation of dying, incompleteness of life and uncertainty of its origin?
Your question can be rephrased this way: "Do we offer people something good or bad by disseminating the Kabbalistic knowledge?"
I remember bringing audio cassettes with the Baal HaSulam's music to my mother who lives in Canada. After awhile, in a telephone conversation she confessed: "The music you gave me is so beautiful, but it makes everyone who hears it cry. They feel good and cry."
The same happens with our material. Of course, a person who starts learning it does not become happier (by happiness I mean the mirth of our world). Rather, it gives a person new, deeper sensations.
It is written , "Mosif Da'at Mosif Machov" ("He, who accumulates wisdom, accumulates sorrow") and there is nothing we can do about it. This, however, shows that a person who begins studying sees his evil.
OThe Baal HaSulam explains in the Introduction to "The Study of Ten Sefirot" that a person has to understand that these troubles and sufferings are Kruzim (appeals from above) sent to urge him to advance faster to the Goal.
If, at the same time, we could receive pleasure and remain calm, we would not be able to advance because we choose (feel) only pleasure and suffering.
What is preferable for me in this state? Since pleasure stops me, suffering is preferable. If a person's attitude is correct, if he is in a good environment, then sufferings help him to advance faster.
Therefore, if the study of Kabbalah brings man unpleasant sensations, it should be seen as a natural and necessary path.
In some groups people say: "We already live in Nirvana and feel the world of Infinity. We feel good and we do not need Kabbalah. Our path is different, the path of enjoyment."
All right, go and enjoy life, but do not forget that you stop your advancement. How can someone move forward if he feels good? Naturally, this path is not simple, it is the path of correction. You advance correctly without falling into various fantasies and illusions that befuddle you like drugs.
Question: This knowledge was described by Kabbalists. Has anyone already felt it and knows how it works?
Naturally, here arises a question: "How do you know all that?" The only answer is: either I attained it or I pass the knowledge from those who did. There is no other way and no other proof.
How can one be sure that it is all true? There is no certainty until one attains it and sees that it is so. A compromise is possible. In the process of studying you will see how logical it is. The consequences of these laws exist in our world. Based on all of that you will gradually begin to believe and subconsciously feel that in some spheres of the universe, which you cannot yet feel, it all exists in a different form.
Nevertheless, the answer to your question should be formulated in the following way: it exists because there are people who attain and research the Upper reality. They tell us about it the way scientists describe our nature. In principle, there is no difference between the research of this and spiritual worlds, and only man has to change.