Q: You said on one occasion: “The spiritual ascent is a long and rough road. You need to be born anew at every single degree, until you resemble the Creator in your every trait.”
As I understand it, to be born is to feel a new attribute of the Creator. If the soul feels a new attribute and situation, does the old one still count?
A: Every new degree is born on the basis of the past. You might say that on the basis of negating a past situation, the need for a new situation is born, because the old one has exhausted itself.
There is a passage from the Keter (will to bestow) of the lower Partzuf to the Malchut (will to receive) of the upper Partzuf. That passage means birth: the appearance of a new attribute of reception that has now been acquired again. Thus, the birth we speak of is a birth of a new desire.
The life expectancy of that desire is the time it takes to correct it. Immediately after that, a new (higher) situation (desire) is born.