The Meaning of Conception and Birth
-Rav Yehuda Ashlag
- Rules
General and Particular
They are not called “body,” but a rather “simple matter of flesh and blood in its still (inanimate) form,” completely amorphous. It is so because anything that is called by the name, “form,” is regarded as a spiritual force and is not a body.
This gives us a law by which all bodies are equal. However, as Earth is a single body that cannot be divided into many—for we do not find any change of form in it from one part to another—the still cannot be divided into many elements.
Also, all the power of multiplication in the world is a wonderful, spiritual force. For this reason, anything that is general is suitable and praiseworthy, for it comes from the spiritual force, and anything that is particular is contemptible and lowly. This designates the difference between a selfish person and one who is dedicated to one’s nation.
There is no doubt that the merit of the collective is defined by its power of multiplicity, for if we have decided that the power of multiplicity is a spiritual and important matter, then if the multiplicity is greater, he is more important.
It follows that one who is dedicated to one’s nation is more important than one who is dedicated to one’s town, and one who is dedicated to the world is more important than one who is dedicated to one’s nation. This is the first concept.
Birth in Spirituality
Therefore, as there is birth for an individual, in relation to the construction of the bodies, there is birth for the collective. This is done by the renewal of the spiritual force, meaning the development of the concepts is birth for the collective, for in the spiritual, disparity of form divides the worlds from one another. This birth means arriving at the world of correction (“Olam ha Tikun”).
MAN IS LOST WTHOUT CONNECTING WITH THE LIGHT OF BINAH (SHARING)
Thus far, the root of this correction has not been revealed, as this requires that man (Adam) will be included with the higher Behinot, above Behina Dalet, so as to be able to perform good deeds of sharing. And had Adam departed the state of the Partzufim of Atika Kadisha, he would have been completely in a state of empty space. This is because then the whole of Behina Dalet, which should be the root of Adam’s Guf, would have been below Atika Kadisha’s *Raglaim (feet), in the form of empty and dark space, as it would be of opposite form from the Upper Light. Thus, it would be considered separated and dead.
Had Adam been created from that, he would not have been able to correct his actions whatsoever, since there would be no sparks of bestowal in him at all. He would be deemed a beast that has nothing of the form of altruism, and whose life is only for himself. This would be like the wicked who are immersed in the lust of self-reception, “and even the grace that they do, they do for themselves.” It is said about them, “the wicked—during their lives are called ‘dead,’” since they are in oppositeness of form from the Life of Lives.
58) This is the meaning of our sages’ words: “In the beginning, He contemplated creating the world with the quality of Din (judgment). He saw that the world does not exist and preceded the quality of Rachamim (mercy), and associated it with the quality of Din” (Beresheet Rabba, 12). This means that every “first” and “next” in spirituality refers to cause and consequence.
|||-Rav Yehuda Ashlag – “Tzimtzum Bet, Called Tzimtzum Netzach-Hod-Yesod of Atika Kadisha“
We must understand that the qualities we are in were not given to us to make peace between us. But to reach the spiritual level, what is called “the love of others for the love of God”, for the love of the Creator. And if the people want to make only the bonds of love between them, then they come.
We only need to invite the discovery, that we will look at what we are really wrong, and to learn how exactly we are wrong. Then accordingly, [we must] change.
|||-Rav Michael Laitman – Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Feb 6, 2007, on “Kabbalah for the Nation“, – Love
Initially, the Kabbalists enciphered their knowledge of the spiritual world as letters, whose outlines reflected the interrelationships of spiritual forces. In other words, each spiritual degree is characterized by a unique interrelationship of spiritual forces. By assigning each spiritual property with a particular symbol, one can depict the interrelationship, as well as the general product of the union of spiritual forces of each degree, i.e., its essence.
Thus, Kabbalists created the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The Zohar pays much attention to analyzing the connection between the letters, which helps a student to synthesize his knowledge and find new ways of discovering spiritual forces and their actions within.
Special Zohar Passage
Ki Tisa (“When you elevate“)
(12) “Ornaments by the Mount Horeb”
120. Blessed are the righteous, who know the secrets of the Torah, cleave to the Torah, and fulfill the passage which says, “And you shall meditate therein day and night” (Yehoshua 1:8). And for its sake they shall merit the life of the World to Come, as it is written: “for He is your life and the length of your days” (Devarim 30:20).
|~Reflections from “Dargot HaSulam,” item #236- ‘The Whole Earth is Full of His Glory‘ by Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag
The expansion of the upper light is clothed in the whole of reality and is called “the sustainer of reality.” It appears in all the dresses that exist in the world, meaning in every corporeal thing before us. Everything is the light of the Creator, whether in dresses of Torah, meaning the letters of the Torah, or in the letters of the prayer, or in mundane things. The only difference is in the receiver, namely those who feel.
There are people who feel that the light of the Creator is dressed only in Torah and prayer. There are people who feel the light of the Creator also in combinations of letters of mundane things, and there are those who do not feel even in combinations of letters of Torah and prayer that it is the light of the Creator in the manner of “Who fills the whole of reality.”
However, since there was a Tzimtzum [restriction], which is concealment, they do not feel that everything is the expanding light of the Creator.
That is, the measure that the creatures can attain, meaning the light that spreads into the sensation of the created beings, and besides the Creator wanting the lower ones to attain, it is certainly called “there is no thought or perception of Him whatsoever.”
However, a person must believe in the Tzimtzum, meaning that it is only a concealment for man’s benefit, while in truth, “The whole earth is full of His glory,” and there is no reality in the world besides Godliness, and all the concealment is only in one’s sensations.
Before one is fit to attain the truth, he must believe that the truth is not as he knows or feels, but that it is as it is written, “They have eyes and they will not see; they have ears and they will not hear.” This is only because of the correction, in order for man to achieve his wholeness, for he feels only himself and not another reality.
Hence, if one returns his heart to try to walk in faith above the intellect, by this he qualifies it and establishes it so as to achieve the revelation of the face, as is presented in The Zohar, that the Shechina [Divinity] said to Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, “There is no place to hide from you,” meaning that in all the concealments that he felt, he believed that here was the light of the Creator. This qualified him until he achieved the revelation of the face of His light.
This is the meaning of the measure of the faith that pulls one out of every lowliness and concealment if a person strengthens himself in this and asks the Creator to reveal Himself.
This is the meaning of what Baal HaSulam said, “Run my Beloved until she pleases,” meaning that before one is fit to reveal His light, we ask of Him, “Run my Beloved,” meaning that He will not reveal Himself to the created beings because the concealment is only the correction of creation.
Hence, one must brace oneself and pray for those two:
- To be worthy of the revelation of the light of the Creator.
- That the Creator will give him the power to grow stronger in faith above reason, for, by this, he merges Kelim [vessels] that are fit for the revelation of the face, as in “The Lord will light up His face for you and will give you peace,” as it is written, “I will hear what God will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people and unto His followers and let them not turn back to folly.”