In the initial four stages of desire, Stage Three is special in the sense that it is the first time Creation initiates: it “decides” to receive (though just a little) in order to bestow. Thus, when Stage Three of the desire appeared in humanity, people and societies began to initiate changes in virtually every realm of life. New notions appeared and old ones reappeared, and all prospered under the wings of the Renaissance. Religion, science, technology, art, economy, politics (domestic and foreign), philosophy, and every other realm of life was scrutinized and modified, if not revolutionized.
The humane concepts behind the Magna Carta and the Habeas Corpus were being adopted throughout Europe and the United States, although they were often arbitrarily discarded in the face of financial and political interests such as colonialism and slavery. The 1689 “English Bill of Rights” or “Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown,” further promoted the idea that every person is entitled to certain basic freedoms, including political freedom and freedom of speech. Put differently, the Bill of Rights allowed for expression of freedom of thought!
From the Kabbalistic perspective, these changes came about because the newly emerged desire of Stage Three calls for active reception of pleasure. Hence, people became more active in their search to better their lives and their aspiration for self-expression and self-determination as individuals. To realize their dreams, people began to develop new technologies, liberate politics from the shackles of feudalism, and establish the basis for modern economy.
In global politics, the stronger and wealthier countries began a fervid search for new lands in what is now known as the “Age of Discovery.” Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, and Giovanni da Verrazano were only some of the many explorers who discovered new lands for their countries. These explorers not only discovered new lands and mapped them, but also paved the way for new trade routes, albeit for the most part this “trade” was really enslavement of indigenous peoples and exploitation of resources. But the result of the Age of Discovery was a new worldview and distant civilizations acknowledging each other’s existence.
As part of the new worldviews prompted by the Renaissance, the Catholic Church came under attack by Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, and others who wished to liberalize Christianity and adapt it to their views. Liberalism and humanism flourished in the spirit of the Renaissance and strove to truly free man’s thought for the first time since the golden age of Greek philosophy. Indeed, all through Europe it seemed as though the human spirit was awakening.
Supporting the new worldview were the revolutionary discoveries of Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei that the Earth revolves around the sun, rather than the reverse, as was believed until their discoveries were made known. And when Francis Bacon established what became “the scientific method,” which is still practiced today, you could safely declare that the “scientific revolution” was in full force. Institutions for promoting science, such as The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, or simply, The Royal Society, substantiated science’s hold on people’s minds and imaginations, just as their hearts were moved by such cultural giants as Leonardo da Vinci, William Shakespeare, and Claudio Monteverdi.
Today, people often cite an exponential increase in the pace of changes. Essays such as Kip P. Nygren’s “Emerging Technologies and Exponential Change: Implications for Army Transformation,” published 2002 in Questia Online Library [109], books such as Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions (G. Tyler Miller and Scott Spoolman) [110], or the eye-opening You Tube video, “We are living in exponential times” [111] are only three of numerous attempts to describe how fast our world is changing. But if you take into account the fundamental shift that occurred with the emergence of Stage Three in the evolution of desires, it is evident that the exponential growth has its roots deep in the concepts and innovations that first emerged during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.
In Chapters 3 and 5, we mentioned Item 38 in Ashlag’s “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” where he writes, “The will to receive in the animate… can only generate needs and desires to the extent that they are imprinted in that creature alone.” [112] The animate level that Ashlag mentions corresponds to Stage Three in the initial four stages, which manifests a heightened level of desire to receive, compared to Stage Two. At this level, the desire to receive “decides” to receive, as opposed to the automatic reception and rejection in Stages One and Two. In that sense, it is more autonomous than its predecessors. As a result, its corporeal manifestation—animals—is more active and autonomous than its preceding degree in the pyramid—plants. In much the same way, when the desire to receive in humans reached Stage Three, it prompted an increase in activity and aspiration for individual autonomy.
The beginning of the new era was promising. The zeitgeist, at least among the more fortunate in society, was one of liberation of minds and bodies, with such social upheavals as the Enlightenment, the Bill of Rights (first, the English and later the American version), Humanism, Reformation, and the Edicts of Nantes. With the added thriving of philosophy and science, it seemed as though soon everyone could enjoy the fruits of progress.
Yet, since at the bottom of all these encouraging shifts was the desire to receive pleasure in its broken, self-centered form (and to an even greater extent than ever before), Kabbalists responded to this outburst as a call for action. Kabbalists sensed that with the new possibilities that technology and science offered, as well as the heightened desire for self-expression, a new method of correction was required.
Thus, they began to declare that it was time to come out and show the world the long-hidden wisdom of The Zohar. Without it, they proclaimed, the world would not see a positive conclusion at the end of the new era. In the words of The Vilna Gaon (GRA), which numerous Kabbalists echoed, “Redemption [from egoism] depends on the study of Kabbalah.” [113]