Bold and in quotes: Original text of Baal HaSulam
Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
lowercase italics: emphasized words
Capitalized italics: transliteration from Hebrew
In the article The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Baal HaSulam writes the following:
This wisdom is the order of the roots, which evolve by way of cause and effect according to absolute and predetermined laws, connecting and aiming towards one very prominent goal, which is named, ‘The revelation of His Divinity, Blessed Be He, to His creatures in this world.
It means that we are here in this world, and there are Upper roots that evolve down to this world, to us.
We in this world can reveal this root that reaches us and from it we can begin to elevate in order to attain Divinity. It means that this wisdom is not merely a theoretical or abstract wisdom, but it is a means, it is a tool, by which it is possible to climb up the ladder, up steps of attainments, until reaching the revelation of Divinity.
When is Divinity Revealed?
It is revealed to His created beings in this world. This means that we are here living our lives as we live today and at the same time we elevate in our internality, in our attainment, and reveal Divinity.
He puts it as follows: the influence of Divinity on this world is permanent and according to absolute laws. In our world these laws are the laws of nature. As we begin to go up the levels, we simply include all of these laws in our nature and we begin to reveal what is hidden beyond nature. You start to see the world as transparent. You pass with your vision and your sensation through everything that you see here and you begin to see what is happening beyond it—the connections between occurrences; what is affecting what; why I do what I do and what are the consequences of what I do; what feedback I receive from my action, from my thought.
They say that thought is the greatest power that man possesses, but we do not realize it and we don’t feel it. In short, I will know how I can affect the entire system here—the system of management and supervision—and I will know how it affects me in return. This teaches me how to live correctly, because if I know that anything in my life will cause me harm, then I won’t do it.
My desire to receive, my ego, my bodily force, won’t let me do anything that would damage me or hurt me; and there’s no other way to educate people. Thus, through all of this development, a person reaches a state of despair, just as the one humanity is in now. This is just the beginning; it will become worse. The only way is to open this management and supervision that exists here in the Upper Force.
When a person reveals and sees, that person definitely won’t fail. Once the person possesses it, once he or she knows the entire system that will give him or her all of the external wisdom, and he or she will already know how to use them for the benefit of the world. Our problem is that in our world we see only a fraction of the whole of reality, thus, the wisdom of Kabbalah is ultimately not some mysticism, but rather the most practical and essential thing for human beings. If we do not reveal it, we will suffer more and more.
Why? The Kabbalists explain for us that the whole of evolution that we went through was in order for us to eventually see, after all of our development, the extent to which our nature does not grant us the solution. We can’t live a peaceful life; we can’t just live a safe and normal life. We already realize it; we feel it. Meaning that we begin to seemingly reject this world; we want to elevate out of it, we want to rise above it. Then it is considered that we have a real need in us and that’s called “the point in the heart." We already possess this unique sixth sense that enables us to reveal the Upper System, the Upper World, and through it reach a peaceful life.
So what is this life?
This life is simple. It can be explained in a simple way.
Whatever we reveal in this world, we reveal through our five senses. We have five such inputs and what comes in through these five senses forms our sensation of the world—vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch—that is overall what we have. All of these stimuli simultaneously give us such an inner sensation that we call This World. What I see, hear, perceive with my senses, accumulates in me and gives me a sensation of the world.
The wisdom of Kabbalah enables us to develop in us an additional sense which is called “soul." With this sense, I reveal what exists above this world, above the barrier. In this sense I reveal all that is beyond this world.
Beyond this world there is a feeling and a knowing of how I exist; how I am in the state that precedes my birth, here in my body, and what happens to me after I leave this world and I leave my body. All of this becomes revealed to me and not only revealed but I actually feel it in a much more intense, powerful way than the way I sense this world. Then I start to identify with this large, spiritual world; I virtually live in it.
In this world, I just continue living in these small senses, but my sensation is that I am living in eternity, in wholeness, in a flow of life and energies beyond time and space. Thus, a person, as he or she reveals the wisdom—the revelation of His Divinity to His created beings in this world—this revelation of Divinity, of this Upper World, gives to a person the sensation of eternity. The person feels him or herself to be flowing without limits, without time, without difference between life and death. Between all of the events that may occur to the person, the person simply elevates above this world.
If it is such an important wisdom that everyone needs; if it is such an important wisdom that we eventually arrive to it and begin to live according to it and through it, then why was this wisdom revealed only now?
We have already learned that since we have still not given up on this world we have still not received a desire for this wisdom. Also today, it is still not understood what the desire for the Kabbalah is, the desire is very faint and small. Still only very few people are drawn to it.
But there is another question: Why then was the wisdom of Kabbalah revealed only to the nation of Israel? If it is something that belongs to everyone - everyone suffers, we are all created beings. Besides us, 99.9% of the world’s population, are the nations of the world, so why wasn’t the Torah given to them?
This is also explained by the wisdom of Kabbalah.
It explains that the universal soul which the Creator created is called “Adam ha Rishon" (the first Man). In Kabbalah we usually draw it not as a circle but as a Partzuf. It includes within it two parts - a part that is called Galgalta ve Eynaim and a part called AHP. GE are the vessels of bestowal and AHP are the vessels of reception.
Why does the soul include these two components?
Because if it only included the vessels of reception (which are actually the entire substance of creation) then it would not be possible to correct it. In order to correct it you also need something external to it with which to correct it. That is why when the first man was created this structure was called the “collective soul.” It was created in such a way that it also included vessels of bestowal. These vessels of bestowal are called “Israel." And all these vessels of reception are called “Nations of the World."
These vessels of bestowal are within the structure of Adam ha Rishon but not for their own sake for they did not need existence or correction themselves.
This is what the scripture says,
…that the Creator turned with His Torah …
Meaning with the Light that corrects the vessels called "Torah."
… to the nations of the world and submitted it to them so that they would receive it.
But they could not receive it because they were opposite in form to the Torah. The Torah discusses bestowal and these vessels are vessels of reception. That is why later, He asked all of the seventy nations of the world, which are the ZAT—Zayin Tachtanot (seven lower ones)—each one of which includes ten, and that is why it is seventy. After He turned to all seventy nations, the scripture says, that He turned to the nation of Israel, and at His second proposal, He gave them the Torah. They agreed.
Why did they agree? Because they are vessels of bestowal and Torah is bestowal. There is equality of form between them and it suits them.
In truth, Israel doesn’t not need this world, and we can see that the nation of Israel is a very unique nation, very different from all the others. As much as we try to be like everyone, it just doesn’t work out because that is our nature. The rest of the nations hate us and we will soon see where it all comes from.
The role of the nation of Israel, once all of this structure of Adam ha Rushon descends to this world. In this world there are the nations of the world and there is the nation of Israel. The role of the nation of Israel plays out after all of the desires to receive have been revealed, and not until the desire for spirituality arrives, developing through the following stages: corporeal, bodily, money, honors, knowledge, spirituality.
After the entire world, and especially Israel, reaches the desire to receive spirituality and the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed. Then Israel, by drawing Light, called Torah, corrects itself. They perform a correction on themselves and then pass this correction on to the nations of the world as well. This is called to be a ‘Light to the Gentiles.’ Then both Israel and the nations of the world elevate above this world and reveal the Divinity. This knowledge of Divinity and the revelation of the Upper World and the revelation of Divinity is really for all the nations, as is written, "and they shall all know me from the smallest to the greatest." Meaning that eventually we all arrive; all of humanity achieves this.
When the Kabbalists reveal the Upper System, the Upper Power, they reveal that all that happens to us in this world happens only in order to bring us closer to the revelation of the Upper System.
Everything that happens in life, to a degree that a person begins to reveal the Upper World, starts to return a person through all incarnations, all events, and everything that person went through during dozens of incarnations in this world. They start to see how each and every detail in all of their lives that he or she lived, was in order to accumulate bit by bit desires, contemplations, experiences in this world in such a way that at some time, it would accumulate into a desire for spirituality. That is why this wisdom was revealed.
At the end of all the work, what happens to this world? Does it cease to exist?
This world never disappears. This world—it is interesting, it is a very nice question—this world is called "inanimate," it doesn’t change. Just as our senses do not change, as our body actually doesn’t change, as the inanimate, vegetative and animate in our world don’t change.
So does the world not change?
We can reach the highest possible level in spirituality and live here in our body. Due to the fact that a person starts to open up the Upper World and because the person invites into himself the Upper Illumination, the person begins to sense a little, to feel a little; how much greater the fulfillments are there, than those available in this world.
Whoever begins to deal with this starts to feel that there are other vessels, meaning much greater desires and enormous fulfillments compared what is available here in this world.
It’s very interesting and you’ve probably heard about this already, that we are here in this world in our vessels and they can never be filled. Because if we have a vessel, meaning a desire, and I want to fill it with pleasure, as soon as the pleasure begins to enter into the desire, it already erases it; it already reduces it. To the extent that I fill the desire, the desire disappears.
We know this from food; it’s very simple. I begin to eat and the hunger disappears and I feel less pleasure. So I need some other salty bite and then something spicy and then something else, and then I feel sorry because there is so much more that I cannot eat, and that’s how it is in all of the pleasures. I may work ten years to attain some pleasure I have been dreaming about, I attain it and the pleasure disappears. Where is the pleasure I wanted so much? It’s gone. Why? Because the pleasure and the vessel are opposite to each other and so one neutralizes the other.
If we acquire the spiritual vessel—a spiritual vessel is really the same desire, but there exists on it now, something called a “screen.”This screen turns the vessel into bestowal. It means that whatever I receive, I would receive only in order to bestow.
What does it give me? It seems to me as if all of the work is in vain. What is it that I receive in order to bestow?
If I begin to sense the Creator, who I bestow to (He has an immense vessel, infinitely larger than my vessel) and if I start to work on His vessel (how to fill His vessel and to receive pleasure from it) then all of the light flows through me to Him and then I constantly feel development and I am never filled. But in our world I need to fill myself and then wait until I become hungry again and then fill myself again and so on.
Here in spirituality I constantly evolve and fill myself, and every time the appetite, the hunger and the desire keep growing and I constantly become filled and I really burn; I keep growing and growing and growing without stopping for a minute to enjoy and the desire constantly gives me the possibility to attain more and more. Therefore, the way of receiving the light, the way of sensing this bounty is called “Eternal Life.”
I can talk about this for years, but eventually it turns out that man has no solution for all of his problems of his life. The only solutions are in the attainment of Divinity, as he says, “in the attainment of Divinity to His created beings in this world.”