We still need to understand how the Surrounding Light builds our Kli and why it is called “Light” to begin with. But to understand all that, we must first understand the concept of Reshimot.
Recall that the spiritual worlds and the soul of Adam ha Rishon evolved in a certain order. In the worlds, it was Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. In Adam ha Rishon, the evolution was named after the kind of desire that emerged—still, vegetative, animate, speaking, and spiritual.
Just as we don’t forget our childhood, but rely on the past during our present experiences, each completed step in the evolutionary process is not lost, but is registered in our unconscious “spiritual memory.” In other words, within us lies the entire history of our spiritual evolution, from the time we were one with the Thought of Creation to this day. Going up the spiritual ladder simply means remembering the states we’ve already experienced.
These memories are aptly named Reshimot (records), and each Reshimo stands for a specific spiritual state. Because our spiritual evolution unfolded in a specific order, the Reshimot surface within us in just that order. In other words, our future states are already determined, and we are not creating anything new, just remembering and re-experiencing events that already happened to us. The one thing we can determine, which we will discuss at length in the following chapters, is how fast we can climb the ladder. The harder we work at climbing it, the faster these states will change and the faster we will spiritually progress.
Each Reshimo is completed when we have fully experienced it, and like a chain, when one Reshimo ends, the next Reshimo emerges. The Reshimo we are experiencing now (our present reality) is actually an offspring of the Reshimo that will appear next (my adjacent future state). But because we are going back up the ladder, the present Reshimo is attached to its original creator, its “parent Reshimo,” if you will, and awakens it. Thus, we should never expect to end our present state and rest, because when one state is over, it will necessarily lead to the next in line until we complete our correction. Then we will rest in a state of eternal bliss.
Our efforts to become altruistic (spiritual) bring us closer to our corrected state because the greater Light that we draw awakens the Reshimot more quickly. And since those Reshimot are records of higher spiritual experiences, the sensations they create in us are more spiritual, too.
When that happens, we begin to vaguely sense the connectedness, unity, and love that exist in that state, much like a distant, faint light. The more we try to reach it, the closer we come to it and the brighter it shines. Moreover, the stronger the Light, the stronger is our desire for it. Thus, the Light builds our Kli, our desire for spirituality.
Now we also see that the name, “Surrounding Light,” perfectly describes how we sense it. As long as we haven’t reached it, we see it as external, attracting us with its blinding promise of bliss.
Every time the Light builds a big enough Kli for us to step to the next level, the next Reshimo comes along and a new desire emerges in us. We don’t know why our desires change because they’re always parts of Reshimot from a higher degree than our current level, even when they don’t seem to be.
Just as our present Reshimo surfaced and brought us to our present state, the new desire that approaches comes from a new Reshimo, which will produce a new state. At the moment, we call that new Reshimo “our future.” However, in a little while, when that Reshimo has emerged in its fullest, it will be our present, just as our current Reshimo is our present. This is how we continue our climb up the ladder. It is a spiral of Reshimot and ascents that end at the purpose of Creation—the root of our souls, when we are equal and united with the Creator.