Bold and in quotes: Original text of Baal HaSulam
Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
lowercase italics: emphasized words
Capitalized italics: transliteration from Hebrew
We are reading from the book Shamati, article 20, The Matter of Lishma.
In order for a person to obtain Lishma one needs an awakening from above, because it is an illumination from above. And, it is not for the human mind to understand. But he that tastes knows. It is said, "Taste and see that the Lord is good."
This extends from the act that we learn about in the wisdom of Kabbalah, how from Behina Aleph (the first phase) of the four phases of the Direct Light, Behina Bet (the second phase) was created. Behina Aleph is a will to receive which was created by the act of the Light on a point of existence from absence.
There was a point of existence from absence, which is the essence of creation on which the Light operated, and from that point the will to receive came out. This will to receive began to feel that it was filled with pleasure, with Light. The first vessel is Behina Aleph and the starting point is Behina Shoresh (the root), the act of the Light on the desire. Behina Aleph felt at its end the Emanator working on it.
In other words, it felt discernment called "the Giver" in the Light that was expanding within it. By sensing the Giver, it wanted to become like it too (i.e. a giver). This attribute is called Behina Bet, which we feel as Lishma, giving. Several conditions are needed for the will to receive in Behina Aleph (which consists of the desire to receive, of pleasure and the sensation of the Giver) for Behina Bet, which would want to bestow, to stem from it. The will to bestow that comes from the creature is called "Lishma."
That’s why Baal Hasulam says, "We need an awakening from Above." We need the influence of the Light, a special influence of the Upper One, to appear before the will to receive, before a person, so that he would change his nature from the will to receive, as in Behina Aleph, to the will to bestow, as in Behina Bet.
It is not within the power of the creature itself to make this change but rather, it is the Light that causes the change. The creature must first have some conditions prepared for the Light to influence, but the act happens through the Light. This change from Behina Aleph to Behina Bet is so fundamental (Behina Aleph is a will to receive and Behina Bet is a will to bestow), that it’s impossible to understand it, as he says. It is not within the capability of the human mind to understand how it happens and what this attribute Behina Bet is, because we work from our own nature, and here one's nature is replaced with the completely opposite form. That’s why it is said, "Taste and see." Meaning, before you taste you can’t see what the situation is. You cannot understand what that state is from the outside, before you reach it.
Because of that, upon accepting the burden of the kingdom of heaven one needs for it to be in utter completeness, meaning only to bestow and not at all to receive. [Meaning, to want to be in that state.] And if a person sees that his organs do not agree with that idea, he has no other counsel except for prayer, to pour his heart to the Lord to help him make his body consent to enslaving itself to the Creator.
In the end, what we need is to discover a deficiency for this state of Lishma. We are in the form of a will to receive. The Light that will come and change us is actually the only salvation in our situation and what we have to do is raise MAN. That is what we have to do first, the prayer, the Mitzvot, the good deeds, the deficiencies.
The will to receive that we have at birth is not enough. We need to have a desire to receive the Light that reforms, which we call the "Surrounding Light." This is why it all depends on our MAN, on our deficiency to bring the Surrounding Light upon us. How can we receive it? There is a prayer before a prayer, so that if a person doesn’t have the strength, the plea, the deficiency to change himself from Lo Lishma, from the will to receive, to Lishma, in order to have the attribute of bestowal, he needs to pray for that as well. It’s called "the first MAN," "the prayer before the prayer." In any case, a person must seek where he would acquire the desire for change.
And do not say that if Lishma is a gift from above, then what good is one’ssurmounting and efforts and all the remedies and corrections that one performs in order to come to Lishma if it depends on the Lord? Our sages said to that regard, "You are not free to rid yourself of it." Rather, one must offer the awakening from below, and that is the prayer. There cannot be a genuine prayer if he does not know in advance that without prayer it cannot be attained.
We know that from Above downwards the Light comes first and builds the Kelim (vessels). From the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) to our world the Light creates the Kli and comes down to this world where the Kli is in complete concealment. From this state it begins to ascend with free choice, because it’s in concealment. In the entire ascent from below upwards to the previous state the Kli precedes the Light.
Downwards, the Light precedes the Kli and the Light operates, whereas upwards, it’s as if the Kli operates. What does it mean that it operates? Of course the Light operates, but the Kli invites it. A deficiency is needed before the filling, otherwise one won’t feel the filling. Otherwise, a person will not realize himself. Thus, without raising MAN, without requesting it, no action ever happens. We must seek how to equip ourselves with a deficiency for spirituality in darkness, in tastelessness, in insecurity and in everything that comes from concealment.
How do we realize ourselves during concealment in such a way that the Kli, the deficiency, would appear sufficiently so that the Light would come and correct it to the next degree? Our ascent is in degrees. We have to have MAN, the suffering in the present degree, and the desire to be in the next degree. In other words, the MAN must be in the creature to such an extent, in such force, that the Upper Light from the next degree will work on the creature and raise it. The gap in between these two states must be felt as great suffering by the creature. We learned in other articles that it’s impossible for a person to leave the present state, unless that state seems intolerable and he’s ready for the next state, which seems like salvation to him. That’s the only condition for him to leave his present state and the gap between the states serves as fuel for this.
In moving from the will to receive, which is called Lo Lishma, to a state of Lishma, a person must picture to what extent Lo Lishma, the present egoistic state, is intolerable and loathsome and what a salvation it is to be in Lishma, the will to bestow. If he feels it as the most necessary thing that he must have occur, then the Light from the state of Lishma called "the Light of Messiah" will shine on him and will pull him to the next degree.
Therefore, the acts and the remedies that he performs in order to obtain Lishma, create the corrected vessels to want to receive Lishma. Then, after all the deeds and the remedies, can he pray in earnest.
We learned from other sources of the other deeds that one can do. One of these is the study, for during the study he extends the Light that Reforms. As Baal HaSulam explains to us in the Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot, Item 155, that’s the first condition. Before the study, there must be work in the group. Working in the group a person wants to realize a model which he pictures as the spiritual model in his attitude to others, to friends. He wants to build a model of Adam ha Rishon, the pattern of relationships that he imagines exist between himself and the Creator as it is called, "from the love of man to the love of God."
If he tries to do that, he begins to understand to what extent he can and to what extent he wants or doesn’t want to be in it. Now, he feels sorrow. On one hand the influence of the society brings him the greatness of the goal and doesn’t let him escape. On the other hand, it shows him to what extent he’s not in it. Then, because he doesn’t have a choice, he’s in a bind where he can’t remain in the present state he’s in. He doesn't want the first degree but he cannot reach the next degree without it. He understands the overall MAN and that he must do something, and finally cries for help. Thus, his MAN becomes more and more clarified and he receives an awakening from Above, the Light that Reforms, and he passes through.
Because he has seen that, all his deeds brought him no benefit. Only then can he pray an honest prayer from the bottom of his heart, and the Creator hears his prayer and gives him the gift of Lishma.
What does it mean that his actions bring him nothing? The whole world does all kinds of things. Are these actions beneficial to create MAN? By actions we mean his work in the group and in the study, with the intention to change his situation. Baal HaSulam describes the work in the group in the articles of Matan Torah, Arvut and the Speech for the Completion of the Zohar and the work during the study in the Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot, as effort during the study in quantity and quality. If one does this, he is awarded an awakening from Above.
We should also know that by attaining Lishma, one puts the evil inclination to death, because the evil inclination is called receiving for himself, whereas by attaining the aim to bestow, one cancels the thought of his own good. And the death of the evil inclination means that one no longer uses one’s vessels of reception for himself, and since they are no longer operative, they are considered dead.
What does it mean that he should know? He really should know that he’s going to cancel his ego. Without it there cannot be a creation of true MAN. He must know, meaning he pictures correctly what it means to lose the will to receive, the ego, and not live according to the previous corporeal principles. If a person cannot know, see and understand it correctly, then his MAN still isn’t true. He should also know that by acquiring Lishma he gets rid of the will to receive, he stops thinking and working according to the egoistic program.
Question: Is the principle of canceling the work with the will to receive itself expressed in one's corporeal life too, or is it just in the desires?
From the outside, one can’t see that a person has cancelled his will to receive. It might be the opposite, because those who watch from the outside see with their own eyes. We can’t see the intentions or the goals another person places before him and by which he behaves. We don’t know. There are a few people here who are already in Lishma and you don’t understand them, you don’t know them. You can’t even see them, because in your corporeal eyes they seem the same. We can see a person who stops eating because he thinks of others and who cries about social injustice, but that’s an egoistic expression of a person’s attributes. There is nothing of Lishma, of true bestowal in it.
We can’t see that according to our attributes, according to our intellect, we can’t discern it. Also, a person who is in bestowal upon others and who is in the powers of the Creator doesn’t bring food or prepare medicine for everyone, etc. He acts on the same level as the Creator does, and on that level he understands that he can benefit the other. The more one gives to another on the physical level, the less benefit there is in that.
We see that all the actions in this world on the corporeal level, where we want to bestow upon each other are not beneficial, because the solution is at the level where the powers that operate this world are. These forces come down from Above and our world is just the world of action, the implementation of these forces.
If we change the forces from Above, which come down and do everything here, then something will change here. But here we can’t do anything with the results. One can only confuse people, so they don’t feel the results from Above in the right way, as bringing them to correction, to the recognition of evil. All the beautiful things in our world that beautiful people of all sorts, who seemingly want to benefit humanity do, actually block people’s eyes from seeing how opposite we are from nature, from the Upper Force, how egoistic we are with each other. They want to cloak it so that it’s not seen. By that they distance the recognition of evil and the correction even farther.
Thus, a person who is awarded Lishma doesn’t operate the way they do. Certainly, he suffers with the others’ suffering, he feels that suffering, wants to rise, and understands that the gap between the degrees of Lishma and Lo Lishma is huge. In Lishma, every one is in Dvekut (adhesion) and in a good state, "the good reward for the righteous...," but he doesn't do for them more than what is necessary. The animal should live, the body has to exist but not any more than that. Everything else should still be done only at the spiritual level. To raise them, to give them a chance to understand that they have to rise, and that only Above, at the spiritual level, is there life.
All the suffering that we experience at the corporeal level called the recognition of evil, is so that we understand that these are calls from Above, the awakening that we receive from the posterior of the Light so that we stop suffering and start understanding that we have to ascend. That’s what the Light tells us. But when the effect of the Light on us is negative in order to awaken us, some may try and diminish it and make it vanish somehow. By making others feel better it is as if they say "Never mind if we suffer longer." By that, they only stretch the time, the corruption and don’t accomplish anything positive.
That’s why anything that’s against the recognition of evil comes from the ego, so we don’t deal with it at all. A person who moves to Lishma has a different understanding of how to help humanity. He is incorporated in all the other souls, works through them to awaken them, so that they understand that they are in the worst possible state and the solution is to ascend, and not to search in that state for tricks to make it sweeter. We are in a state where we are like sick people who have to be cured. To be sick and to keep receiving painkillers is no solution. The sickness only spreads, then you can’t find a cure for it anymore and you are in a very bad state.
If one considers what one receives for his work under the sun, one will find that it is not so difficult to subordinate himself to the Creator. That is because of two reasons:
One must strain oneself in this world anyhow, whether he likes it or not.
If he works for the Creator, the work itself produces pleasure.
It is as the Magid (sayer) from Duvna says regarding the verse, "Thou has not called upon me oh Jacob, neither has thou worried thyself about me oh Israel." Meaning, that he who works for the Creator exerts no effort. On the contrary, one is content and high-spirited.
We have these examples in many of Baal HaSulam's articles and we see in this world that if a person loves another person, for him to make an effort for the other person, to express love, is not considered difficult, an effort, or painful. On the contrary, it’s a pleasure. The more a person exerts for the one he loves, the more he feels in this effort love and pleasure. Like a mother does for a child, when she does good things for him and enjoys it. Her actions towards him aren’t considered work or effort, she sees it as pleasure. What we need is only to create the right relationship among us, between the soul and the Creator, and then the whole work in order to bestow will be felt in us as pleasure that expands, which is called "taste and see that the Lord is good."
Question: What’s the difference between pleasure in Lo Lishma and pleasure in Lishma?
It’s difficult to explain the difference between pleasure in Lishma and pleasure in Lo Lishma. The pleasure in Lo Lishma is one that fills the person who feels himself as alone, unique, as above all. He is filled in comparison to the deficiency outside of himself, or outside of others, outside of the need he had before, compared to something. The ego cannot measure itself with respect to itself. This pleasure immediately demands renewal, because it vanishes, it is quenched, because it cancels the deficiency. When it is put out it needs to be developed more and more. It brings pleasure and feels joy only at the expense of being more than others because by that it feels itself filled. He feels bad and they feel bad as well, but they feel worse than him and that gives him something more than they have.
The evolution of the desire brings one to a place where he finds his fulfillment on top of the ruins of the society. That’s the egoistic calculation. It is a result of the breaking of the Kelim of Adam ha Rishon. The altruistic calculation is the opposite. Here the filling is felt in Kelim that are outside of him. It’s the exact opposite. It is not what one feels compared to others, but how others feel what is received from him. This of course is possible only when he loves them and to the extent that he loves them.
Love means that one is willing to serve others and in that he sees the task of his existence, like a cell in a body. A body has the strength to exist when each cell thinks of what it can do for the whole body and for the existence of the whole body. These are different calculations and the results are different.
The program by which one works in his thoughts and calculations is called "a different heart" or "a different mind." Because one has different desires, he has different calculations and a different intellect. His perception of reality is not that he perceives reality as inside himself. He perceives reality only in his Kli and interprets everything subconsciously, as what is good for him and what is not. Everything he sees, feels, and hears is felt only with respect to himself as something that is either for him or against him. There might be a thousand other things in the world, but he doesn’t feel them if his will to receive doesn’t feel how they are arranged with respect to himself, for better or worse. He doesn’t feel it, he doesn’t have the sensitivity for it.
Since behind the eyes there is the intellect, which is like a sensor, it feels only what is beneficial and what is bad, and if it doesn’t feel them as good or bad, it can’t feel them. That’s the only way it is tuned. It turns out that it’s a perception of the world, a perception of reality, and his sensation works only according to that.
Once one pictures what I've just said correctly, he switches to the opposite. He begins to be programmed to feel what is beneficial to others and not at all to oneself. How, with what does he feel the other, in what way does he give to him? Now, he feels and identifies things around him that are completely different, which he didn’t identify before, and what he did identify before vanishes. This is called "I saw an opposite world."
But he who does not work for the Creator, but for other purposes, cannot complain to the Creator for not giving him livelihood in the work, since he worked for another cause. One can only complain to the one he works for, and demand of him to give him vitality and pleasure in the work. It is said about such people: "Anyone that trusts them shall be like them that maketh them."
What is Baal HaSulam saying here? He says something very simple: if you really do ask for bestowal, you can turn to the Creator. In other words, if a person has a deficiency, not a Kli or a will to receive, but if he developed the deficiency for Lishma through society and through what is called "the books and the study," only that desire awakens the Upper Light to influence him. As Baal HaSulam says, "Only for the one he works, can he complain to." Above there is the Giver, the Creator. If you want to receive this giving force and to be specifically like Him, it is considered that you’re turning to Him. If you want MAN, this is called "a prayer for the reception of a Masach."
If one asks for a thousand other things, he does not turn to Him, he does not turn upward, but rather to his own ego. There is no one to turn to. Outside of him, there is only the Upper Force, which is the Giver, only with that should he turn to Him. He has no other attribute. He doesn’t do anything else. He built the will to receive as in Behina Aleph in all kinds of ways and can now give the additional force that He has, the appearance of Himself which awakens in the will to receive the will to bestow. He can only appear as a host and that’s it. When the Host appears next to pleasures, next to the food, it awakens shame in a person, then one changes, he wants to be like Him, he calculates things with respect to Him.
That’s the only thing one can turn to, that’s the only thing he can expect, as Baal HaSulam explained to us in the Introduction toTalmud Eser Sefirot, "What do you expect in the day of the Lord?" What is "the day of the Lord?" Are you a rooster or a bat? Which one do you want? Do you want fulfillment or do you want strength of bestowal? This is why when we cry these empty cries, "Fill me, give me, why am I suffering?" there is no prayer and no answer from Above. We can see that for thousands of years nothing changes, nothing will change. These are natural laws, they can’t change. They can change only on the condition that the prayer is to receive the Masach.
Do not be surprised that when one takes upon oneself the burden of the kingdom of heaven, meaning when he wants to work only to bestow to the Creator, that he still feels no vitality at all. This vitality would compel one to accept the burden of the Kingdom of heaven, and one should accept it coercively, against his better judgment. Meaning, the body should not agree to this enslavement, for why does the Creator not shower him with vitality and delight?
Baal HaSulam explains to us how we can reach the real MAN where we have a deficiency, a true deficiency. He says that when a person begins to cry, to just pray, he turns to the Creator since he knows that the Creator hears every prayer. Then how can it be that one prays and does not get any response to his prayer? Baal HaSulam says that it doesn’t work this way. Of course, He doesn’t hear, because He can only hear if one demands the Masach, if one demands Lishma. How does one reach Lishma? Now, Baal HaSulam asks, if one only cries and the Creator doesn’t answer, what’s missing in one's cry so that he would get some response?
In fact, this is a great correction.
That the Creator doesn’t answer just any cries.
If it were not for that, the will to receive would have agreed to this work and he would never have been able to attain Lishma.
One cries, cries, and cries, and doesn’t get any response in return. Meaning, if one makes some efforts in the egoistic work, he doesn’t attain anything.
Rather, he would always work for his own good, to satisfy his own desires.
If one received the response for one's egoistic cries, he would constantly chase this work, cry and ask and work somehow egoistically, and get a response to it. Why do we constantly fall into greater and greater emptiness in our actions in this world? It is so that we come to a point when we finally decide that egoistic actions cannot fill us.
It is as people say, that the thief himself cries, "Catch the thief," and then you cannot tell who the real thief is in order to catch him and reclaim the theft.
But when the thief (meaning the will to receive) does not find the work of accepting the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven tasteful…
In other words, one doesn’t receive any taste in his work in giving to others. A person sees that if he gives to others, it is a loss, that he does not get anything, does not gain anything by giving or relating to another or caring about another. He feels as if he cuts off a piece of himself and throws it away. How can one do that? It’s terrifying to do that. How can that be done? It is precisely this realization that brings a person to the truth. If one could give something to another and by that receive pleasure, then, he would give in order to receive and would constantly run after this as "a thief is running to catch the thief." Then, he’d be in the illusion that he works correctly, because he receives a positive result.
All of our actions should eventually bring us to the resolution that there is only one thing that we cannotdo, but we have no choice since we have to reach it. One has to reach a situation where he cuts pieces off himself, really cuts off his own flesh and gives to others. On one hand he must do this as if this was real life, and on the other hand, he can’t. The minute he can cut off his own flesh and give to others, sacrifice, above his reason, with devotion, that will be called " Lishma" and that will give him another life. This other life that he expects to have is not an egoistic one where he’ll just be breathing easily, but one where he will feel that he has sufficient strength to do only that and nothing more. Not to get something in return.
Because the body accustoms itself to work against its own desire, it can begin to work with the single purpose of bringing contentment to the Maker.
One’s intention should be only for the Lord, as it says, "Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." Thus, when first he served the Lord he did not sense any pleasure in the work. Rather it was done by coercion.
But he chooses to do it by coercion in order to try and see that he can’t, and so that society would awaken him to it and give him above his own nature the importance of something he can’t see as important and would awaken him to things in which there is no pleasure at all and which are totally unattractive. And in the books he wants to have some illumination and some strength to see that he has to cut off himself but he can’t be in that, but he has to in the end. When he does this coercively, against his nature then …
Now, that one has accustomed oneself to work in order to bestow…
It’s a habit. Why is it a habit to be in order to bestow? How can one go from one nature to another out of habit? Because he’s accustomed himself coercively to be in it, as alertly as he can be, to the reception of this attribute of Lishma. Then, it comes according to the principle of "I labored and found."
It is because there are two degrees and one must give sufficient efforts at the bottom, which we call MAN. This potential, or as Baal HaSulam in Letters calls it "the Sea," is the necessary amount where many pennies create a pound, (as Rabash always used to say), until the strength to be in the next degree will be sufficient to draw the Surrounding Lights that Reform. Working coercively is called "a habit."
Now, that one has accustomed oneself to work in order to bestow, one merits delight in the Lord. The work itself renders one with pleasure and vitality, and this is considered that the pleasure is aimed at the Creator.
He receives from Above the strength that gives him an ability to give in order to bestow, and when he feels his livelihood in bestowal, then he receives from Above additional strength to work in reception in order to bestow. Then, he performs Zivug de Hakaa with the Upper Force and begins to receive. This reception is as bestowal, as the next phase, "then shall thou delight thyself in the Creator," because the pleasure that he receives is received in order to bestow. This is called "Then shall thou delight thyself in the Creator," for his pleasure is for the Creator specifically.
Question: Does a person receive strength to turn to the Creator because of the sensation of unbearable shame?
No, a person cannot receive the strength to turn to the Creator because of the shame. There are phases and there’re moments when that happens too, but normally, that’s not the case. Because in order to have a sensation of shame you have to have the appearance of the Creator and that can only be if the Creator awakens a situation of that sort in a person or after great efforts, when a person has already developed a special relationship. A person can reach that state by himself, but to reach shame you need great preparations.
Baal HaSulam writes about it in Inner Reflections, Part One of Talmud Eser Sefirot. That shame is prepared only for the highest souls that are already working in Lishma in the worlds, who are performing corrections, who can use shame as a force, as a means. But for us, if the Creator appeared to us and we were ashamed, then because of the egoistic shame we’d do everything. Just like when one can’t receive something from the refreshments if the host appears as a host, and he feels that he is receiving and the shame doesn’t let him receive. Is that a correction? It’s not a correction. The host appears to him and appears next to the food this way.
By that a person doesn’t build this status. It’s not he who did it, it just appears this way before him and he necessarily reacts this way by not being able to receive anything. What kind of a correction is this? It’s not a correction. A beast doesn’t have it, what it sees it eats, it doesn't matter if the host is next to it or not. It doesn’t have the sensation of the host. It doesn’t care whether he is there or not, but a person does have that sensation. We must calculate in this regard as well. There are people that are more educated or less educated, more courteous or less, but these are all calculations, egotistic calculations.
Question: What does it mean "coercive progress?" Shouldn’t it be through the importance of the goal and greatness of it?
Coercively means against one's egoistic desire, so of course, it’s coercive. Non-coercively means that one's egoistic desire agrees. If it agrees then, of course, he progresses to its fulfillment. Progress toward spirituality can only be through coercion, by coercing one's own ego. One can ask, "How can I do that if this is my whole nature? How can I force anything on it? How can I go against it? That’s me! That’s the whole of me!" Theoretically one can say, "Yes, the Light comes and affects me, I want it, I don’t want it." One can create all these depictions and pictures. How does one go against himself?
We learned that even if one does something, if he makes an effort that seems to him as against his desire, it’s still for the desire, but he doesn’t see it either. Perhaps he lies to himself or maybe he is confused, because all the grace that he does, he does it for himself. He can’t get out of his own desires. What does it mean to force it? Forcing it means that he does something which indirectly brings him to the recognition of evil in the group, in the study, in everything that he can picture as a model of bonded and connected souls in Adam ha Rishon, correctly, on a higher degree than his present one.
If he can somehow picture these things and from there, according to the effort tries to be in it, and if society helps him transcend in the desire, this is called "working against a desire" or "coercion," but working directly against the ego is impossible.
That’s why we were given the method, the wisdom of Kabbalah. One does not learn how to be smarter. One learns which actions he should perform so as to change his nature. Without the method itself, without the instructions he wouldn’t be able to do that. Since he is in the ego, thinking accordingly, seeing accordingly, feeling accordingly, he can only evolve accordingly onward. He is the same beast, but the beast doesn’t evolve and he does evolve but only according to what’s in him.
When a point in the heart appears in him, a desire that doesn’t exist in the beast then accordingly, he is called "the beginning of a person." Only those who have this spark are considered the beginning of man. Next to it a person needs an instruction manual of how to work with it, because this park comes from another nature, which is absent in him. If he didn’t have that instruction manual, he wouldn’t know what to do, he would be divided. "What’s good for me? What’s bad for me? What about me? What’s the meaning of my life?" He wouldn’t achieve anything.
That’s why we need to have Kabbalists in this world that would develop the method, who would tell us more clearly what to do. Who is "us?" Those in whom the spark awakens and to whom working according to their books is coercive, meaning that one acquires a second nature against one's previous nature.
Question: Is society’s task to make it easier?
Society’s task is primarily only to increase the importance of the goal, and to show a person to what extent he is not in it and can’t be in it, but both these influences on a person should be equal. There is a society that can tell one, "You are worthless, we’re all nobodies, egoists" and such, this is entirely self pity, helplessness and nothing more. Of course, this is not a good state, it’s called "his wisdom is greater than his actions." But society must care about the greatness of the goal along with the recognition of evil of our state, which should come first. "There is a goal, it’s for everyone, and it’s attainable if we want it, if we go together, if we build the group as a model of attaining the goal, if the goal appears within a group that’s connected correctly."
A person, and all of humanity, has to have greatness for it and there is the Upper Force in that. If one worries about that twenty-three and a half hours a day, as Baal HaSulam writes in his Letters,and only half an hour a day he falls into the recognition of evil, "Who am I? What am I?" etc. Then, according to this correct ratio of negative and positive, one is in the recognition of evil, and obtains the fuel to move forward.
The tension is then the right tension, it is not fifty-fifty. Just see how influenced we are by what’s missing in our Kelim, asking "Who am I? What am I?" I have to work against it twenty-three and a half hours a day on the greatness of Creator, because one is revealed and one is concealed. It’s revealed that I have nothing, but the fact that He is great is concealed. Concealed meaning it’s in another nature, I don’t feel its importance, so I have to get it from the books and the society.
If they give it to me twenty-three and a half hours a day compared to the one half hour a day, this is called being internally balanced, so that from this I will turn to the Creator. If spirituality is more important, one will not have enough repelling force. Because the deficiency is the repelling force, and the greatness of spirituality is the attracting force. A person needs these two forces: repelling, attracting and he in between. The importance of the goal pulls him forward, the recognition of evil of “Who I am? What am I?” should push him from behind.
These two forces must function, and these two forces are provided by one's society. Without it he can’t position them correctly. We need the books to tell us how we can build a society, how we can picture it correctly. All the books in Kabbalah are so that a person will correctly picture his present state and his next state and to show him the gap between these two states, which is called MAN.
The wisdom of Kabbalah is a method, a practical one, to set in a person the natural forces through the influence of society and books, these last being unnatural influences. They are not natural because society is like a model, a spiritual model, which one can seemingly picture in this world. The same goes for the books. They illuminate for a person something that is not from this world. It turns out that they recreate in him some potential, which is aimed at spirituality.