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 in the book Shamati, Article #68, Man’s Connection to the Sefirot.
Prior to the sin of Adam ha Rishon:
His Guf (body) was from Bina de Malchut de Malchut de Assiya;
And he had NRN from Beria and NRN from Atzilut.
After he sinned:
His Guf fell into the discernment of the serpent’s skin, which is the Klipa (shell) of Behina Dalet, called “the dust of this world.” Clothed within it is the inner Guf of the Noga Shell, which is half good and half bad. And all the good deeds that he does are only with this Guf of Noga. And through engaging in Torah and Mitzvot, he brings this Guf back to being entirely good, and the Guf of the serpent’s skin is departed from him. And then he is awarded NRN of Kedusha, according to his actions.
We learn in the wisdom of Kabbalah that the whole substance of creation is the will to receive. Therefore, the entire science about creation, how that substance behaves, how it changes, how it reaches its purpose, the final form, is called “the wisdom of Kabbalah” from the word “to receive.” The sages of Kabbalah determined that the science about the substance of creation would be called “Kabbalah” according to the functionality of the substance itself, everything that had been created, which is only the will to receive. We are only talking about the desire, and not about the body, which we think is a body since that’s how it appears to our senses and desires. Rather, we talk only about our desires.
The structure of reality is man. Prior to man there is nothing. We learn that there are Olamot (worlds), Sefirot and Partzufim, and many systems in them. This is all with respect to the attaining individual. Without the individual, these worlds don’t exist. However, man does exist, meaning that same creature that the Creator created “existence from absence,” the creature that evolved in the sensation of itself and determining itself, that does exist.
The only reality that exists within what was created is man. And this man, this structure of desires, goes through the process. We are only speaking with respect to that. In the beginning it is like zero, like the Shoresh (root) and then it evolves into desires. It becomes restricted, expands, feels that it exists in Galgalta ve Eynaim ( GE), in vessels of bestowal, as if he doesn’t have vessels of reception and then he adds them and goes through a process called “sin,” “the breaking,” and reaches a special state called “ Olam ha Zeh” (this world).
All this refers only with respect to that same creature. Only from within that creature, within its desires can we discover anything that Kabbalists talk about it, because Kabbalists too are from that structure of Adam ha Rishon (the first man).
We are only speaking with respect to the creature. Baal HaSulam says that Adam ha Rishon was born, i.e., felt itself for the first time (in the first point of sensation) at the degree of Bina de Binade Malchutde Assiya. This means that it had the minimal level of livelihood of Kedusha (Sanctity) and there it exists.
And when it was broken it received an addition in its sensation of the desires; the desires grew thicker. They acquired Aviut (coarseness/thickness) called “the serpent.” And also within that serpent, within those desires, (the intention) is only to receive. In that the desires are opposite from the Light, from the Creator.
There is an internal point, you might call it “the point in the heart” or the Noga shell from where a person develops, through Torah and Mitzvot (Precepts/Commandments), meaning through the Light that Reforms. He develops from this Nogashell, according to his choice to go in paths of bestowal: in the group, in dissemination and in everything that we are told to correct ourselves referring to “loving our neighbors.” He thus corrects himself, the desires that appear in him, until he is erected for eternity.
And these desires that connected to him during the breaking, the ones that he is able to connect to the Noga shell, he afterwards connects at the revival of the dead. And those that he is not able to connect remain like the three impure Klipot (shells).
Man’s NRN Connection to the Sefirot:
The essence of man’s NRN is from Behinat Malchut of the three Sefirot, Bina and ZON in each of the worlds from ABYA. If he is awarded the NRN of Nefesh, he receives from the three Behinot Malchut de Bina and ZON de Assiya. If he is awarded NRN de Ruach, he receives from the three Behinot Malchut de Bina and ZON de Yetzira. And if he is awarded NRN de Neshama, he receives from the three Behinot Malchut de Bina and ZON de Beria. And if he is awarded NRN de Haya, he receives from the three Behinot Malchut de Bina and ZON de Atzilut.
How is one connected to the Light? There is a structure of man and there is the Light before him. Why do we say that there are worlds through which a person receives the Light; that these worldsare the systems that seemingly stand between him and the Light? These systems are internal systems in a person, in the structure of the desires. To the extent that a person is not able to work with these desires to the true and final depth, those desires, in themselves, the part of them that he cannot use, behave with respect to him like a system of concealment ( Alma). That’s why it’s called “a system of Olamot (worlds).”
If a person purifies his body (body meaning all of the person’s desires) and corrects all of these desires to be pure, meaning in order to bestow, then to the extent that he purifies his desires the Olamot
disappear. The concealments disappear. And the same Lights that were in concealment, in the vessels of the person himself, in his uncorrected desires (those Lights that had disappeared), now appear in the sweetened, corrected Kelim.
It turns out that we are always in the structure of man and the whole Light is within us, but it is concealed within our corrupted desires. And to the extent that we correct our desires the Lights appear in them until we reach our own structure of the World Ein Sof (Infinity). Then, there are no limitations, no Olamot and everything disappears. There is only one Kli and one Light. And “His name is One.”
The system of uncorrected desires is called the “system of the Worlds ( Olamot).” And because is an uncorrected system, we picture these desires as being outside. Because that is our perception of reality: this way it is easier and that’s how it appears to us, that there is something that separates between us and the Creator.
We don’t feel the corrupted desires as being within us. We will have to correct that. They awaken and come to our sensation and awareness only according to how much we can tolerate and correct them. And the rest, those that for now cannot be corrected appear to us like concealments between us and the Upper Light.
That means that all the worlds are within man. They are felt as external because the opposing, corrupted desires are also called “external” since the person hasn’t taken them as internal and corrected them.
And this is what our sages said, that man thinks only from within the thoughts of his heart, that the whole body is considered “heart.”
The whole body, meaning all the desires, are called “man’s heart,” or “the stony heart” or the “point in the heart,” “the pure heart;” everything is called “heart”—desires. We learn that to the extent that a person wants to use the desires, to correct them, then slowly next to the desires (to the extent that he wants to use them correctly), the mind is built, the system of the Mocha (marrow/mind/brain) which is next to the Liba (heart). And then he has two systems.
But the system of the Mocha awakens, or is depicted in the person only on condition that he has intentions to use the desires in order to bestow. Then to the extent that he yearns somehow, with whatever desires, to use them in order to bestow and begins to seek ways and means how to do that, then next to his heart there appears a system of how to reach “in order to bestow,” that he acquires, that he builds.
This is called “the system of Mocha.” It’s not our desires that we are born with, meaning that we feel because they are us, and not the intellect that is built next to them to use these desires somehow by fulfilling them. That’s not considered the Mocha and Liba (mind and soul) we refer to in Kabbalah books. This Mocha and Liba are like a baby, like a person, where this is only a preparation from this point onward. From this state onward he will begin to grow in the spiritual discernments.
In spiritual discernments means that he wants to use his desires only in bestowal, first with respect to others and from that with respect to the Creator. If he doesn’t use these desires this way from the love of man to the love of the Creator, and doesn’t use the wisdom of Kabbalah to obtain this kind of work with his desires, then how he uses the desires he is born with isn’t considered that he is living and existing.
This is because everything that is aimed inside these desires themselves and not outwardly to the friend, to the Creator, is not considered reality. He lives within himself, locked in himself. And this life is without changing the desires for bestowal, hence they are not called “life” and it’s not even counted as any kind of process in spirituality. This is why when we say man, body, all of these definitions are all with respect to bestowal.
And even though man consists of four discernments of still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, they are all registered in the heart.
We know that there exists nothing but desire. And the reason we think something besides desires exists is that that’s how it appears within the desires. The Light depicts within the desires all kinds of pictures, impressions. These impressions are the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking in this world, meaning the desires that are aimed inwardly to receive (what is natural to receive, not spiritual). And also in the desires that he aims in order to bestow there are degrees, all kinds of pictures of their possible uses that are depicted in them, which are called “still, vegetative, animated, speaking.”
In other words, everything that we feel, we feel in forms that appear that way in our desires and there is nothing besides what exists in our desires. When I say “me” and “my desires,” that too is an illusion because all in all, other than desires (other than the one desire that was divided with respect to me to many individual desires) there is nothing... That’s all there is.
Everything else is fulfillments which fill the desires in all kinds of measures. And according to these measures within the desires that fill the desires, there are impressions, pictures, different sensations of Light and darkness, meaning, fulfillment and absence of it. And these impressions, the desires, feel themselves as being in some reality. Reality is actually called “the Light that fills desires.” This is reality.
But when the Light fills the desires partially then within the desires appear all kinds of forms of fulfillment, measures of fulfillment. And these measures of fulfillment are according to the desires, to the depth of the desires. The desires are at the level of degrees Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet (Root, one, two, three and four) and accordingly to what appears in them is either Godliness or still, vegetative, animated, and speaking according to their degree.
And then it seems to us that there are animals, and beasts, and women, and plants, and all kinds of inanimate bulks, but they are all internal impressions within the desire. We see movies about man, what's within him, within his mind, heart and maybe in his stomach. We are shown all kinds of processes that happen, how the heart works with the blood in there, how the blood flows and everything.
This is like the whole universe, everything we picture to ourselves is all within us, in our desires, depicted in this partial fulfillment as still, vegetative, animated, and speaking, meaning of degrees within our desires. And besides our desires there is nothing to talk about. Baal HaSulam warns about it very seriously in The Preface to the Book of Zohar.
Since after the sin, the Guf of Adam ha Rishon fell into the serpent’s skin, which is the Klipa of Behina Dalet, called “the dust of this world,” hence, when he calculates, all his thoughts are of his heart, meaning his Guf from the Behina of the serpent’s skin.
And when he prevails through his engagement in Torah and Mitzvot—the only remedy—if he aims to bestow contentment upon his Maker, the Torah and Mitzvot purify his body.
This means that we begin to feel ourselves at the small degree called “the serpent’s skin,” the degree called “this world.” That’s how this degree, these desires with the Lights in them, is depicted in us. That’s how this picture of “this world” is formed in us within our perception. That’s what it’s called.
I feel the still, vegetative, animated, and speaking within myself and with respect to them. And if I want to exit that reality, then I have to change these desires. There is no other possibility to perceive differently. It is up to me to change the perception of reality and it can only be changed through the Light. And for this purpose we were given the wisdom of Kabbalah as the only means to change the desire.
The Light is in complete rest. It fills our desires entirely without any limitations. There are no restrictions on it. All the restrictions and all the limitations are on the desire. Although we say that the middle point restricted the Light, the Light cannot be restricted. We cannot work on the Light. We only say it this way.
We work on our desires and to the extent that we want to progress toward the Light, it shines on us from afar. It’s called “the Surrounding Light that Reforms.” And when we make sufficient effort for it to affect us and correct us (in bringing us to the congruence with it from within our desires), then when we’ve given sufficient effort there is equivalence of form and we feel in our desires the appearance of the Light. But it was there before; it just wasn’t felt because we didn’t have the ability to perceive it according to the law of equivalence of form. We didn’t feel it; we were in contrast with it. We felt opposite from the Light.
The changes are only within the desire and only by the desire wanting to change. It’s not the Light that changes itself and it’s not the Light that affects the desire beyond what the desire wants. And that’s the meaning of no coercion in spirituality. There is no coercion from the perspective of the Light, no forcing. It is in complete rest and all the changes are only in the Kelim.
And when he prevails through his engagement in Torah and Mitzvot—the only remedy—if he aims to bestow contentment upon his Maker, the Torah and Mitzvot purify his body.
Mitzvot (precepts/commandments)are all the actions that a person can do to resemble the Light as a giver and his efforts, called “the labor,” bring him to congruence. The Light that shines within the Kelim shines only according to the effort, to the exertion, according to the desire in the Kli. Therefore even if a person hasn’t reached equivalence of form with the Light but if he tries to resemble it in bestowal, then the Light already shines on him to some extent, as we say, “from afar.” “From afar” means within some desire even without correction, like some kind of inclination, not within the actual desires where there is a correction of bestowal.
This kind of influence of the Light on the desire that is according to the orientation, according to bestowal, to the effort in the previous degree to be in congruence with the Light on a higher degree (on the higher realm or state). These efforts are called “labor, “game,” “laughter.” And through them one promotes oneself.
This means that the serpent’s skin departs from him.
With his efforts to be separated from the serpent’s skin, meaning from desires only for himself, he becomes separated from them. Meaning, only one’s effort does that.
And here we should not forget that each person is a part of the system, the one great desire that the Creator created and, for the purpose of correction, split it into many parts that seem isolated, detached from the others. And precisely in that detachment, when we begin to work on it, overcome it, we then begin to understand the depth of the serpent’s skin and how to get rid of it, and to reach the Klipat Noga, and from that to erecting the corrected body.
So we have to understand that when a person works in correcting himself, his correction is with respect to the other parts of the system, to restore the system to its correct form. All the desires in the one big desire that the Creator created, the Taryag (613 numeric value) general desires were divided first into 600,000 and then into billions of other particular desires, and each of them also incorporates Taryag desires because the whole and the particular are equal. So, when each person wants to bring back his small Taryag, private desires into the main Taryag desires, meaning he wants to be integrated in the collective, to devote himself to the collective, to the whole system of Adam ha Rishon, then by that he performs his correction.
And along the way he should take into account that all the other parts perform their own corrections according to him and there is a reciprocal influence here. That’s why it says, “he depends on the world and the world depends on his actions.”
Then, the previous act of the Torah and Mitzvot, called “the Noga Shell,” considered the “inner Guf,” which was half good and half bad, has now become all good. This means that now he has achieved equivalence of form.
And then he is awarded the NRN of Kedusha, according to his deeds.
We say NRN ( Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama) of Kedusha even though the structure of a person is made of five parts, from the tip of the Yod (10th letter in the Hebrew alphabet) and the HaVaYaH (Lord) , which the Creator designed into a desire when He created existence from absence. Creation itself is only this act of eliciting the existence from absence. Desire opposite the Light, desire to fill itself, and feel itself filled with the Light in unity with the Light. That’s the only creation and that’s the only act called “creation.”
Everything else is evolution within that desire, which the Creator created, evolution from within the desire with respect to the desire. It is how it evolves within itself and ripens to understand itself. Through understanding and studying itself it comes to feel and to understand the One who created it, the One who fills it.
All the actions besides existence from absence are evolutionary acts within the desire through the same Light that created it. And as that desire evolves, it evolves in five degrees of evolution. The Creator determined that these five degrees of evolution are more than enough for this desire to know Light, its Creator.
And the whole correction is within the five degrees of the desire, the degrees of depth, the degrees of knowing and degree of grasping the Light. This is why we divide these degrees into five worlds: still, vegetative, animate, speaking, and Godliness. Everything that happens within this desire (divided into five degrees, which is the sensation of its reality) is divided into these five primary ones, which is the tip of Yod and HaVaYaH.
And when one corrects this comprehensive desire, then one discovers that he can only correct it just a little bit. The desire that developed from the point of “existence from absence” somehow holds on to the Light in degrees of attainment, in understanding, and perception of the Light. There it can correct itself in resembling the Light. And these degrees are called Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama.
The degrees where he does not feel the Light in order to match himself to it then he matches himself to the Light in the measure called “ Hitkalelut” (integration/incorporation/mixture/into). And in those desires where there is no perception of the Light in them, these discernments (these desires) cannot correct themselves according to the Light. They remain so and are called “the stony heart.”
This is why man’s correction is primarily in desires of Shoresh, Aleph, and Bet and incorporating Dalet and Gimel in them. That’s why the Lights that appear in his own recognition of reality are called NRN. The small Hayaand Yechida join from below upward, as we learn. This is an addition to the primary reality. Thus here Baal Hasulam does not take them into account. He says “NRN.”
That is, in the beginning he attains NRN de Nefesh from the world Assiya. Latterly, when he examines all the discernments that belong to the world Assiya, he is awarded NRN de Ruach of the world Yetzira, until he achieves NRN de Haya de Atzilut.
Thus, a different structure is made within his heart every time: where there was previously the inner Guf from the Noga Shell, which was half good and half bad, this Guf is now turned into all good, through the cleansing he had received from the Torah and Mitzvot.
Accordingly, when he had a body from the serpent’s skin, he had to think and calculate his thoughts only from within the thoughts in his heart. This means that all his thoughts were only about how to fulfill the desires to which the Klipa compels him. He had no counsel to think thoughts and aim intentions, only what sat within his heart, which was then in the form of the serpent’s skin, the worst Klipa.
Also, when he is rewarded through his engagement in Torah and Mitzvot, even in Lo Lishma (not for Her Name), when he asks and demands of the Creator to help him by engaging in Torah and Mitzvot in the form of “whatsoever thy hand attaineth to do by thy hand, that do,” and he awaits mercy from Above, that the Creator will thus help him achieve Lishma, that the whole reward that he is asking for his work is that he will be rewarded with working in order to bring contentment to his Maker, [If he does all that, this is called “ Lo Lishma” (Not For Her Name), and then….] as our sages said, “the Light in it reforms it.”
In that state the body of the serpent’s skin is purified, meaning that that body is separated from him, and he is awarded an entirely different structure—the structure of Nefesh de Assiya [de Kedusha] . He also adds further until he achieves a structure from Nefesh and Ruach de Bina and ZA and Malchut de Atzilut.
But even then one has no option to think other thoughts, but only according to what the structure of Kedusha dictates. This means that he has no room to think thoughts against his own structure, but he must think and act only with the intention to bring contentment to his Maker, as his structure of Kedusha necessitates.
A person always thinks according to his desires. He cannot think outside of his desires. According to the measure of correction in the desire so are the thoughts. Perhaps he doesn’t quite know himself, but he can scrutinize and check what his thoughts and desires are. But as Baal HaSulam says, “For the slave it is enough to be as his master.” And his master is the will to receive. And the slave is the system of thought because it was made only within the desires. It cannot be better or worse, but precisely according to the desires. This is why a person shouldn’t be impressed with his own thoughts. That’s how they exist next to the desire.
But if he wants his thoughts to change then he should do things to change his desires and then his thoughts will change. And our whole effort and labor should be aimed only toward desires. Thoughts, they will change accordingly by themselves.
Question: You say we don’t have to deal with the desires, but only with the intentions of the desires?
Desires, intentions—it’s all the same. Why do we say desires and not intentions? One cannot touch the desire itself. When I talk about a desire I mean intention: how I use the desire, how it is executed, for the sake of what, for whom? It can be either me or the Creator in reality.
There is nothing else. Desires remain desires; they are as fixed as the Light in them. It’s static, it’s unchanging thing. Only with respect to me it is disclosed, to a lesser or greater extent, depending on how you can work with them. The desires and the Lights are tied together. The ladder of the Olamot only shows us where we will be according to the size of the screen, what will appear in us more and what will be disclosed in us less.
However this picture is static; it’s constant. It is called Malchut de Ein Sof. There is nothing there. To the extent that Malchut de Ein Sof appears to you less, this means that you are in concealment, in the Olamot. And the more it appears, you seemingly ascend on the ladder in the Olamot. But this is a permanent state. The Light and Kli are tied together and there are no changes there. The change is only in the extent to which the situation will appear to you according to your intentions, only that.
So when we say that we work with desires, of course you are working with desires, but to what extent are you working with them? According to your intentions to bestow, to use them for bestowal.
That means that there are no changes in your Kelim, nor in your Lights, nor in the connection between them. The connection between them is the entire ladder of degrees; it’s constant. Rather, you determine what kind of Masach you’ll have and according to that Masach you move on that ladder of degrees: here, there. You determine where you are to the extent that you want to acquire the intention to bestow.
The intention to bestow is a general intention. You don’t have to worry about Taryag (613 numeric value) small desires, each and every desire. It’s a general intention for all of your desires, for what is called “all of your heart.” And then you determine by that your situation on the ladder.
Thus because the desires don’t change nor do the Lights, but only the intentions, we are not talking about intentions, but about how we use the desires. Of course, it depends only on the intention, the size of intention, or, in other words, the size of the Masach.
Question (cont'd): So where does division to all kinds of desires come from? If all that was created was one desire; where is that division into different depictions?
I talked about it. Only one desire was created, the desire to enjoy. When it begins to realize Who created it, Who fills it, the attitude of the Creator toward it, it begins to feel within this awareness all kinds of shades. These shades that it attains, it attains because its desire begins to be more complex. It incorporates all kinds of integrations, impressions.
Where does that come from? It comes from his having a desire to enjoy. Through pleasure it comprehends the desire to enjoy from the side of the One who created him. The desire itself, comprehends that so within the desire there is now an impression of itself: “I (1st impression) enjoy (2nd impression) from someone (3rd impression) who wants (4th impression) to give me pleasure (5th impression).” And here you have five impressions. And the last impression it begins to feel is the sensation of being completely opposite from the first, from the desire to enjoy. And that collision induces the Tzimtzum (restriction) and the subsequent evolvement.
So these five degrees of evolution within the desire to receive are enough so within them he would feel the need for a Masach, for equivalence of form. And that is all that’s needed. The Creator determined that’s all that’s needed.
You might say theoretically, “why not?” like kids. But we are not built for this “why not.” We’re built out of that. He determined that the minute the creature feels itself in deficiency to be like the Creator, then He will realize that desire. That’s all that’s needed to bring it to perfection, in order to realize the Thought of Creation to do good to it. This is so since the Creator is perfect. The sensation of oppositeness to Him in the creature as well as the desire in the creature are enough to shout, to acquire the Masach, to match himself to the Creator and to reach perfection. Therefore, these five degrees are enough.
A million words won’t help here. These are very simple things, but all this talk, this scrutiny is because of the absence of sensation in the one, united desire.
Question: We say that a person shouldn’t be all day in his desires, just half an hour a day. On the other hand, we should always examine them.
A person doesn’t have to examine his desires, he should cause the Light to work on him and change how he uses the desires. He shouldn’t be constantly holding the desires himself. He should be more in the Light, in the power that reforms, in wanting that, in picturing himself as a giver, in cultivating within himself the importance and the greatness of the Giver, and to be impressed by the uniqueness of the Creator. And then he will have enough strength to be submerged a little in his desires, maybe thirty minutes a day and that will be enough.