We continue studying item 13 of “The Introduction to the Book of Zohar”. The Baal HaSulam wrote several introductions to the Zohar: “The Introduction to the Zohar”, “The Foreword to the Zohar” and “The Introduction to the Commentary on the Zohar”.
“The Foreword to the Zohar” is the most profound and summarizing of all. It touches upon the general system of creation, penetrates its depths. “The Introduction to the Commentary on the Zohar” describes the mechanics of the spiritual ascent. “The Introduction to the Zohar” expounds the peculiarities of the book and explains how it should be approached
Let us have a closer look at the most important of these introductions in order better to understand the scope and power of the universe. We also need it to prepare ourselves for the actual reading of the Zohar.
13. However, we must still understand: if the will to receive (i.e., egoism, a desire to receive for its own sake) is so bad and corrupt, how could it be planned and stem from the Thought of Creation in the Infinity and Perfection of the Creator Himself, whose wholeness is unspeakable?
That is, how can there be a root to all that happens to us and in us within the Creator, the root of the imperfection we are in?
The thing is that when the thought of creation had only just begun, everything had also ended. This is because unlike us, the Kli needs no actions. All the souls and their future states immediately emerged in their completeness and utter perfection (in their final, best, ultimate state). They appeared exactly as the Creator had conceived them. Only at the end of correction will the souls achieve this exalted state (from the Creator’s perspective it already exists. He is already merged with us in the final, perfect state). After our will to receive is completely corrected and becomes “pure” bestowal (with the intention for the sake of the Creator), it (the will to receive) attains complete equivalence of properties with the Creator.
With regard to the Creator, we have existed in this final state from the moment of our conception. He sees us in this perfect state and appeals to us from it. If we consider those, we will better comprehend His attitude to the creation, to us. We will also know how we should appeal to Him.
The Creator’s attitude to us can be compared to the way a mother treats her child. While knowing that her child can be in various states, her love for it is complete. On the other hand, the child is bound to experience the “developmental diseases” and finally achieve complete equivalence of form and correction.
Why does creation go through this transformation with regard to the Creator?
Because the past, present, and future exist as a single whole in the Creator’s infinity.
Time does not exist relative to the Creator, because there is no difference between an action and its consequence. They all unite into one.
The same applies to people. While entering the Upper World, a human thought becomes an act, and time contracts to the point of non-existence. As man ascends the spiritual levels, time begins to disappear. In the realm of his sensations, where man is equal with the Creator, he exists beyond time.
By making his properties similar to the Creator, the person begins to feel that his desires, actions, and his ultimate state are the same. There is no chain of cause and effect. It exists only where something needs to be corrected. Where it is already corrected it ceases to exist, time stops and everything freezes in a state of perfection.
Hence, there was no corrupt will to receive (regarding the Creator) separated from His Infinity, and vice-versa, the equivalence of attributes that is destined to appear at the end of correction appeared immediately in His eternity(with the thought of creation ).
This is what our sages meant when they said, “even before the world was created (the Hebrew word “Olam” (world), comes from the word “Ha’alama” (concealment). This word refers to a descent from the level of infinite perfection), He and His Name (the Creator, His Light and all the creatures) exist in the “only perfect state”, because there was no separation of the will to receive in the souls, but rather they were merged with the Creator in their attributes (they were completely identical). That state is described in the words “He and His Name are One.”
“He” designates the Creator; “His Name” means a vessel (Kli), the creatures that were created in their perfect, eternal, final state.
When we speak of imperfections, impure forces, suffering and the various states we are to go through from the Thought of creation to its end (from the first state, through the second and into the third one), we should understand that the transition from the first to the third state exists only for us. For the Creator they all merge into one. To the extent of our correction, the corrected part also merges with this one perfect and infinite state.
14. From here stem the three states of the souls:
The first state is in the world of Infinity, in the Thought of creation, where the souls already have the future form of the end of correction.
The second state is called the period of 6,000 years. With the help of two systems(the pure, altruistic system and the egoistical, impure system), the souls divide into body and soul (meaning the light called “soul” (Neshama) and the body (Guf) known as a vessel (Kli), which is an egoistical uncorrected desire). We were then given the work in the Torah and Commandments in order to turn the will to receive into the will to bestow. (This work is performed through corrective actions under the influence of the Upper Light; by drawing the Light upon ourselves, we turn the egoistical intention of our desires into to the altruistic ones).
We do not change the desires themselves. They were created in us. Only the intention to use them selfishly is considered the “will to receive.” The intent to use them for the Creator is called the “will to bestow.”
Hence, we exist between the pure and impure systems of forces. We can receive forces for correction from the right side, while the left side constantly adds corrupt desires. Thus, we attain our correction.
The corrupt desires that come from the left side, from the impure forces (Klipot), are not completely alien to me. Those are my own corrupt desires that are always at my left side, while the lights that correlate to them and correct them are on my right. I ought to take the next desire that corresponds in size to my ability to correct from my left. I then take from the right the appropriate Light to correct that desire (i.e., its egoistical intention). Thus, I create within myself a corrected desire with the intention for the sake of the Creator. This will be defined as my “middle line”.
Neither the right nor the left lines are my own. They were given to me from Above by the Creator. They were both created by Him. I only connect them by taking the impure force from the left and correct it using the pure force from the right. Only this singular act is mine. This means that neither the egoistic desires from my left nor the Light that comes from the right are mine. So what is mine? Mine is the action!
What does it mean, “my action?” If the Light affects the desire and consequently corrects it, then it is the action of the Light and not my own. I am only the character that performs it. It is more accurate to say that what depends on me is to wish that my egoistical desires collide with the Upper Light from the right, and be corrected with its help.
It can also be expressed in another manner (as we read in § 155 of “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”). While studying, we have the only opportunity actually to perform a correction in its pure form, in action. During our studies, we concentrate on our desire to be exposed to the influence of the Surrounding Light that would correct and elevate us to the level we read about. At that particular moment, we expose our egoistic desires to the Upper Correcting Light.
Souls may be in two states. The first one relates to the world of Infinity, to the Thought of creation. The second one relates to the relative period of 6,000 years (though it can take less time). During that time, we correct ourselves. This means that under the influence of the Light we gradually correct all of our 620 egoistical desires.
“Gradually” means a consecutive ascent of the 6,000 levels. The entire way can also be divided into 125 levels. It does not really matter how we divide it. What is important is that we must go through all of them. The order in which we progress is as preordained as our actions.
The only thing that is not preordained is our desire for it to happen. Without our desire there will be no correction; the right and the left lines will neither come into contact nor interact. That can happen only if we want it to. This desire is called “Aliyat MAN” (raising of MAN), i.e., raising our desire. It appears the moment we want it.
This desire is exactly what we should reach during our studies. As we study, we should only think that this correction will come to each and every one of us. We ought to long for the tremendous Upper Light to descend upon all of us. There are many of us; we have a large group all over the world. We go through many different states and live in different conditions. With our combined effort, we can draw a very intensive Upper Light that would correct us; we should only want it.
It all depends on the intensity of our desire. If it reaches its maximum (it is really in our power), we will be corrected and achieve the first spiritual level.
While we are in this state (of 6000 years), only the souls are corrected, but not the bodies. This means that we must relinquish all the desires to receive for ourselves called the attributes of the body, and remain only with the desire to bestow known as a spiritual desire.
Plainly speaking, we do not correct the body itself during the six thousand years. This means that we are unable to correct “Lev HaEven” (heart of stone), our original egoism. We can only do it by ascending to the higher-level called “AHP de Aliya”.
Even the souls of the righteous cannot be in the Garden of Eden (a specific level in the world of Atzilut) after death (when one’s egoism dies), but only after their bodies rot in the ground.
We have talked about the meaning of the “bodies rotting in the ground”. We know that it constitutes a complete revocation of our egoism (we perform Tzimtzum). Egoism becomes completely detached from us and we only work with the properties we receive from Above - GE (desires of bestowal).
All of our Kelim de Kabbalah (vessels of reception) are restricted. By refraining from using them, we seemingly bury them in the ground to rot. What does this “rotting” mean? It is as though we examine each of those desires and acquire Kelim de Ashpa’a, GE (vessels of bestowal). Abstaining from the use of these desires is called “decomposition” of these desires. We will discuss it later.
After the acquisition of all the altruistic desires (GE), we begin to raise the previously rejected AHP. Such a return of the AHP to the corrected level by retrieving it from the state we put it in is called “resurrection of the dead”. We raise the “dead” desires that we did not want to use, revive them with their flaws, thus correcting our egoistical AHP. That is the meaning of the dead that have completely rotted rising from their graves. This way the vessels of the AHP join with the vessels of GE.
One should by no means imagine that this happens with our physical bodies in the material world. We can burn or bury the physical body, perform implants and do whatever else we want with it. We are not talking about this body; it has nothing to do with spiritual terms, and the soul is completely disconnected from it.
The third state is the end of correction of the souls after the “resurrection of the dead. (When the GE are already acquired, and the AHP are corrected and connected with it, this means that the vessel (Kli), all the ten Sefirot, the 620 completely corrected desires, are complete), when all the bodies (egoistical desires) are corrected. In that state, reception for one’s self (original), which is the property of the body, is overturned and adopts the form of pure giving, thus becoming worthy of receiving all the bounty, pleasure and delight that is in the thought of creation.
This means that before the Kli has corrected all the Light that comes to it, it is felt as darkness because of the dissimilarity of properties. And vice versa, to the extent that we acquire equivalence of form with the Light, with the Creator, we begin to feel Him. We feel this Light in its true form, as a Giver of perfection, infinity, love, and goodness. It all depends on how similar we can be to the Light that comes from Above.
Therefore, our today’s world will begin to expand and to be filled with the Upper World to the extent of our similarity to the Light. This world will be gradually “disappearing” from our sensations. The more we correct ourselves, the clearer we will see the laws that exist around us in the Upper World. This is how we will feel the universe.
At the same time, souls merit complete merging with the Creator through equivalence of properties with Him. That is because they do not take pleasure in their own will to receive, but rather in the desire to give to the Creator (they become equal to Him). Consequently, He enjoys when they receive pleasure, because they also receive pleasure from Him.
The souls rise to the level called the “Thought of creation”. They become equal with the Creator, and they are granted the sensation of unbound infinity. It is said: “The thought of creation is to delight the creatures.” They feel endlessness in each of their feelings, pleasures, and attainments, timeless and flawless existence.
Many states follow the correction of the vessels. We are just talking about achieving a state when our Kelim (desires) are corrected. Once we are corrected, the Creator begins to elevate us to His own level and higher. We cannot even speak about these states; there are no words in our language to describe them. We can only discuss something that precedes the end of correction, when everything enters the state we refer to as Infinity (Ein Sof).
We are unable to understand what follows, because what we feel, understand and attain, what we can absorb and analyze, can only exist because it consists of opposites: black and white, pain and pleasure, or any kind of limit. It is only in the transition between two opposite states that we can feel. We use the opposites to create symbols, express our inner feelings as letters, black symbols against a white background.
As we enter the world of Infinity (Ein Sof), where there are neither opposite attributes, nor contrasting sensations of good and evil, our language becomes useless. Consequently, we can read nothing about those states, because Kabbalists have no means to convey them to us.
It is therefore said: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” It can only be verified by tasting, by drawing Inner Light called flavors (Ta’amim). There is no other way.
Kabbalah is a purely applied science. By using its methods on themselves, Kabbalists achieve correction. Unlike those who study it theoretically and therefore can never understand what these books have to say, Kabbalists receive their attainments within themselves and understand what it is all about.
For the sake of brevity, we shall refer to the three states of the soul as states one, two, and three. You should remember them well.
The Baal HaSulam uses these names quite frequently, referring to them as the first, second and third states. The first one is the Thought, the second is the 6,000-year period of correction, and the third is the final state.
15. By looking at these three states, we find that they necessitate one another. If one of them did not exist (even a tiny detail in any of them – action, cause and effect), the others would disappear as well.
These above three states are interwoven, support one another, and exist simultaneously in the present. We should perceive them as initially created, existing relative to us. It depends only on our desire to be included in this or that state and be in it.
This desire is called “Aliyat MAN” (raising of MAN). It is the sending out of a prayer and depends only on how much we perceive the greatness of the Upper One as well as the lowness of our own condition.
For example, unless the third state, in which the property of reception turns into the property of bestowal, existed, the first state would not have been able to exist in the world of Infinity (in the primary thought). Perfection in the first state could only manifest, because it already exists in the third state in the future. Because of the Creator’s eternity, the third state exists as present, and the perfection of the third state is seemingly copied onto the first one (this way, the first state becomes as ideal as the third one). Hence, the third state necessitates the existence of the first one.
In other words, if the Creator had not created the perfect state, the first state would also have been unable to exist regarding Him.
Unless something existed in the second state, where occurs all our work in correction (during 6,000 years), in reaching spiritual levels, then how could the third state come to pass (with regard to us)? In this way, the second state determines the existence of the third one.
It is not enough for something to exist in the Creator, because it exists in Him even without us. He is in a perfect and eternal state. However, for us to feel that we are in the third state, we should go through the second one.
It is the same with the first state in the world of Infinity, where the perfection of the third state exists. It definitely necessitates the existence of the third state, i.e., the second and third states should manifest in complete perfection. Thus, the first state necessitates the emergence of two opposite systems in the second state. This brings forth the body (egoistical desire in the second state), enabling us to correct it with the help of the impure forces (and attain the third state that would ensure perfection in the first one ).
This leads us to the conclusion about the necessity of the impure forces. We cannot attain the third state unless we fall under the influence of impure forces and receive the material with which we can work and correct ourselves.
Had there been no system of impure worlds, we would neither have had the will to receive (the enormous egoistical desire that matches the Creator’s desire to bestow ), nor could we have corrected it and achieve the third state, for “man cannot correct that which is absent in him”.
The system of impure forces is necessary as storage of all the corrupted desires. We extract and correct them one by one, and ascend the ladder from the first state to the third one, getting closer to the Creator.
Thus, we need not ask how the impure system emerged from the first state (which is perfect and eternal, because Malchut in the world of Infinity performed the first restriction [Tzimtzum Aleph] and, having no other desires, was merged with the Creator). These impure forces appeared so that we would be able to correct them, and consequently attain the third state.
The gap between the first and the third states makes the impure system necessary. It is expressed in our falling to the full depth of the impure forces and subsequently ascending and correcting them in accordance with the first state. This becomes the third state, because we have now acquired the impure forces and corrected them.
Therefore, the difference between the first and the third states lies in the correction of the impure forces and not merely in the reception of additional forces, desires, and possibilities.
Malchut of the world of Infinity is but a point in the Light. In order to fill the entire Infinity, the greater, outer circle, Malchut should acquire impure desires that match the size of that circle. Malchut itself is just a point in the circle that is surrounded by impure forces. It first acquires and then corrects them, so they become pure forces of Malchut. Thus, it fills up the entire circle, acquires the upper nine Sefirot and the point turns to Partzuf, the Kli the size of Infinity.
The first state, Malchut, is just a point merged with the Creator. It is perfect, albeit only a point. Malchut in the third state is a huge circle. You might say that it is 620 times bigger than the first point. In truth, it is impossible to measure just how much greater the circle becomes with these 620 desires after it connects them to itself and uses them for the sake of bestowal. This is the actual difference between the first and the third states.
16. But the above words should not lead us to the conclusion that we have no freedom of choice because we are compelled to come to the third state, being that it is rooted in the first one.
It appears that if the first, second, and third states exist, one might ask where my freedom of choice is? Are we just marionettes “tramping” from the first state to the third without any say in the matter? No! We do have freedom of choice. Then, how is it expressed?
The fact is that the Creator has prepared two paths for us in state two.
This means that there are two ways for us to proceed from the first state to the third one: a short way and a long way.
1. The Path of Torah and Commandments
A Commandment (Mitzva) is an act intended to correct a desire. When we correct a certain egoistic desire, the act of correction itself is the Mitzva. In other words, the act of correction is what the Creator commanded: to correct the egoistical use of a desire to the altruistic one.
The Light does it. The Light is the “Torah” (from the Hebrew word “Ohr” - light). There exist many types of light, such as the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), the Light of Hochma (Wisdom), Light of AB SAG, the descending, ascending, and surrounding Light, and the NaRaNHaY. However, the Torah is the general Light that descends from Above.
We learned that correction is made by way of Torah and Mitzvot (actions influenced by the Light). This way is called the path of Torah, or the path of Light.
2. The Path of Suffering
Suffering refines the body and eventually compels us to turn our (egoistical) will to receive into the will to bestow and merge with the Creator. Our sages said, “If you repent (i.e., if you follow the Path of Torah), then it is fine, but if not, I will place over you a ruthless king, and he will make you repent” (allusion to the Pharaoh).
In other words, terrible sufferings will compel us in spite of everything to understand that we should only progress spiritually. Mere development of technology, ethics, or any other field will eventually degrade us more and more, with each passing generation.
It is written: “By good or by evil. If you merit, I will hasten it (I will lead you to the third state); if you do not, then by pain and sufferings.” It means that by observing Torah and Commandments, we hasten our correction and do not need the harsh agony and the prolonged time to compel us to correct ourselves(with the help of the Light, through Torah and Commandments). If not by way of Torah and Commandments, our correction will in any case be completed through the path of suffering; it will be forced upon us. The path of suffering entails the punishment of the souls in Hell.
What in fact is “Hell”? In a word, Hell is the feeling of absolute lowness, smallness, and baseness of the egoistical attributes compared to the Upper Light and perfection. It is the difference between the Upper One and me. This is the contrast between the egoistical sensations and the sublime altruistic ones. Hell is a terrible, endless abyss that is felt between these two states.
Be that as it may, the End of Correction (i.e., state three) is a must for all and is preordained by the first state. Our choice is only between the Path of Suffering and the Path of Torah and Commandments.
Thus, we have made clear how the three states of the souls are connected to one another and necessitate each other’s existence.
It is not quite correct to say that there are only two paths, namely the path of Torah and the path of suffering. In fact, it is impossible to be corrected through the path of suffering. Only the Light corrects. We learn in the four phases of the Straight Light: The Light begets the will to receive, i.e., Behina Aleph, and then it awakens the will to bestow in Behina Aleph, which forms Behina Bet. Afterwards, the Light continues acting in the desire to bestow of Behina Bet and creates Behina Gimel, then Behina Dalet and so on.
The Light affects the Reshimot in all the worlds. It elevates and lowers, corrects and develops. It is therefore impossible to be corrected by suffering. The only thing that can be achieved through pain is the realization of the necessity of correction. We can either suffer or quickly awaken (before the most terrible calamities befall us), and with the help of studies and a group expose ourselves to the influence of the Surrounding Light.
We must regain our sight before we plunge into real anguish, because eventually we will still have to return to the starting point. We should both grow smarter and do what we must, or wait until sufferings compel us to do the same. There is no other way. Therefore, our freedom of choice is in becoming smarter and taking advantage of the opportunity provided.
This is the only choice we have. We need quickly to realize what we should do. In that case, our journey will be peaceful, comfortable, and quiet. We will know and look forward to everything that awaits us. Thus, we will constantly attain better and better things, feel pleasant feelings, and attract the Surrounding Light upon ourselves.
The alternative is to stubbornly stay put and wait until terrible pain forces us to climb the same steps towards our already existing third state.
We normally err in our interpretation of the concept of free will. We perceive it as an ability to do something freely. However, nothing is free! We are given a desire to work with, and we can do it either the right way or the wrong way.
My desires are pre-instilled in me. I can work with them exactly as they are within me, in their corrupt way. This means that I do not inspect them in view of the purpose of creation without first checking what I should do with them, what the Creator wants of me. I simply follow them. This situation is regarded as living in this world. In other words, I choose a slow and painful road.
However, there is another way. I can examine my desires, compare them with the future, with my corrected state, know what form they must eventually take, and try to draw the Surrounding Light. This light will correct them and equalize them with the Creator so that I will begin to feel Him.
This is the difference between a senseless existence in the desires of this world below the Machsom, and an existence in contact with the Upper World, in aspiration to it, in matching my desires with those of the Upper World. That is the manifestation of our free will.
17. From all the above, we understand the third inquiry: when we examine ourselves, we find that we are as corrupt and as despicable as can be…
There is no need to explain to every person what he really is. The meaning of not knowing one's self entirely is that he must still go through a period of recognition of evil (my individual evil). Then he will see that all of his desires and intentions are only for his own benefit, that he is ready to give up everything to satisfy even the most inconsequential desires that he does not care at all about what happens around him. This is the meaning of baseness, opposition to the Creator.
When we examine ourselves, we find that we are as corrupt and as despicable as can be. However, when we look at the Creator, we must be similar to Him, for there is no one higher than He, as is becoming of the Creator who created us. That is because the nature of the Perfect One is to perform perfect acts.
How could something imperfect create something perfect, and vice versa, how could something imperfect be emanated by something perfect? That is impossible, for if the Creator is perfect, and He creates something imperfect, it means that this imperfection existed in Him to begin with.
Now we can understand that our body with all of its insignificant egoistical desires is not our real body (it is what we are given from the impure system). Our real body, eternal and perfect (corrected), already exists in the third state.
The impure thoughts and desires that we receive from the left line (our so-called “impure body), are only given for us to correct. While climbing by means of our corrected desires, as if on the rungs of a ladder, we ascend to the third state. That is where we receive our complete form, in reception for the sake of bestowal. All of the 620 impure desires given to us must be turned into a perfect and pure body.
Thus, state one (in which Malchut is merely a point) necessitates our reception of a corrupt and loathsome shell (Klipa, the will to receive), of the egoistical desire. State two separates us from the Creator, (we do not feel it, because it covers all our feelings) so as to correct it and allow us to receive our eternal body in state three. We need not angrily protest it (such a loathsome body) because our work cannot be done except in a body as transitory and as wasteful as ours (in these detestable and egoistical desires)...
We need something to work with. Unless we had these desires, what would we have to correct? We need somehow to comprehend the acts of the Creator. Why do we need this metamorphosis? Why do we have to go through all these phases of correction? Could we not have been spared this forced correction? We really could, but then we would remain a point, a mere fetus inside the Creator.
When we examine the 620 desires that are opposite to the Creator, correct them, and make them similar to Him, we become equal with the Creator. That is because He created those 620 desires by His will to bestow. When we correct them, we become similar to His bestowal, we acquire the necessary properties, intention, power, and knowledge. We learn what happens inside the Creator Himself and become equal with Him.
Therefore, it is impossible to receive those 620 desires corrected in advance. If that were the case, we would not be able to adopt them in us without turning them from negative to positive, until they become similar to the Creator.
Thus we are already in a perfect state, in correspondence with the perfect Creator who has made us in the second state (it does not matter that the second state is low, because it is not our own). Since our body is going to die, and since it is here only for the time necessary for the reception of its eternal form, it can cause us no harm.
The Creator gave us a loathsome, base, and egoistical body by dropping us into infinitesimal negativity. He did this so that we might have a way to ascend. For that reason, these properties were created artificially. They are, in fact, a backward reflection of His attributes, allowing us to make them similar to the Creator.
If we invert them from reception to bestowal, the past intentions die, rot, and disappear, making room for the intentions to bestow to emerge in their place. Hence, this body is only here for the time necessary for its cancellation and reception of our eternal form.
18. That resolves our fifth inquiry, which was – how could it be that from the Eternal (like the Creator) transitory, wasteful actions would be extended (concrete, discrete and of limited size)?
How can something transitory, limited, low, and flawed, stem from something eternal? We do not fully understand these questions because we do not feel any kind of eternity. That is how opposite it is to our condition.
However, the difficulty still stands. We will understand what the Baal HaSulam is saying only when eternity begins to shine on us from Above. It will happen slowly as we begin to attain the Surrounding Light that creates the complete and perfect universe around us and creates this picture in our mind’s eye. Only then will we begin to understand this contradiction, how this flawless eternity and perfection, without even a trace of limitation, contrast, or opposites, in which all the points are perfect and eternal and continuous, can come from a source where states and actions are passing, transient and low.
We see that we are indeed in a state worthy of His eternity, meaning that even now we are eternal and perfect beings.
The only thing that obstructs us from feeling this eternity is the shell that wraps us, this being our egoistical impure intention. We are like a magnetic field that reflects everything we project outwardly. When we stop turning inwardly and can turn the current from inside out, we will instantly feel the eternity and perfection we are actually in. We must only neutralize the shell.
And our eternity necessitates that the egoistical shell of the body will have been given to us only for a transitory, wasteful work (in order to turn it to altruism and increase it from being a point to being a circle, meaning the level of the Creator), for if it had remained eternal, we would have remained separated from the Life of Lives for all eternity.
As we have said in item 13, this form of our body, which is the will to receive for ourselves alone (with the intention for our own sake), is not at all present in the thought of creation, for there we are formed as state three (to begin with), but rather appears (to us) only in the second state (so that we acquire it by ourselves in the third state).
It should not appear as a paradox, or something unnatural. We are in fact in the third state, and only exist in the second one with our subjective feelings, in order to correct them to correspond to the real situation.
We must not ponder (there is no question) over the state of other beings in the world (they are inconsequential for us), since man is the center of creation.
We think that humankind cannot be the center of creation, because we are lost, even on this planet. We exist on a thin layer of the planet, sitting on a vibrating, steaming, and erupting volcano. We are in a vast universe, dependent on some negligible star called “Sun”.
If we measure ourselves with respect to the nature of the still or the vegetative, which are so abundant, it will seem that we are a tiny insignificant minority. You can also say the same thing with regard to animate nature, which is thousands of times greater than we in numbers are.
If we exist on this planet as animals, completely disconnected and detached from the Upper World, without accepting upon ourselves the purpose of creation, we naturally become tiny fractions in space and in this world. If we begin to acquire the attributes of the Upper World, we will become lords of the universe. During the ascent to the Upper World, we begin to absorb it into ourselves, to the point of Infinity.
It turns out that without connection with the Upper World we are insignificant. In fact, this is our actual strength. To the extent that we acquire these Upper Forces, being the Light that controls, creates, sustains and fills everything, and come to own that Light, we will rise higher than all of nature.
We must not ponder over other beings in the world, since man (a person who attains the Upper World) is the center of creation. All other creations (still, vegetative, and animate) do not have their own value, but only as much as they are useful in bringing humanity to completeness. Thus, they ascend and descend with man without any regard for himself. They all depend on us, on how much we draw them to ourselves for the purpose of our ascent.
When one begins to ascend in spirituality, one finds a wondrous interdependency where one’s every inner trait is not one’s own, but rather a reflection of an external nature. My animate nature contains the entire nature around me. My vegetative degree is more internal, meaning it is a higher reflection of the entire vegetative nature. My still desires are a higher reflection of the entire universe, of the entire inanimate nature around me.
Once I discover this dependency, I begin to use nature through perception of it, consequently understanding its language and sensations. That is the reason Kabbalists are said to understand the language of the birds and the animals, and feel and understand everything around them. It is metaphorically described as man containing everything within.
After that, while ascending to the Upper Worlds, we discover the entire surrounding nature within us, in our new attributes. Our inner vessels, our perception of the surrounding world, become incomplete. As a result, we are separated and severed from our surroundings.
The absence of the screen, which produced the second restriction, created a division of internal worlds and external worlds. The parts of the Partzuf were created from the innermost to the outermost.
Immediately after the conclusive and collective screen is created, everything will unite into one structure of ten Sefirot, and our entire world will be contained in each and every one of us. Then we shall all unite into a single soul, and become Adam, the only Adam (Adam HaRishon), containing everything within.
Therefore, we need not ask about the rest of nature, for it depends on us alone. We now discover how badly we influence it. As we spiritually correct ourselves, we will discover fantastic changes for the better in our surrounding nature. We will not need any genetic engineering to be able to provide for ourselves. Nature will independently create in us everything we need.