‘Kabbalah On-Air’ Series
Introduction to the Science of Kabbalah, Lecture No. 2,
Delivered by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD
September 11, 2005
I welcome all participants of today’s talk about the science of Kabbalah.
In the previous lesson, we briefly examined what this science represents and what it studies. We spoke about the fact that there exists the Upper World, i.e., the World of Infinity, then 125 levels of five worlds that are called AdamKadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya and our world. We said that every world consists of five parts called Partzufim (singular – Partzuf). Every Partzuf in turn consists of five Sefirot. In total, there are five worlds, five Partzufim and five Sefirot, which adds up to 125 levels of spiritual descent or ascent.
Creation descends from the World of Infinity to our world by way of gradual descent; that is, by way of gradual coarsening of its attributes. In the World of Infinity, creation is absolutely altruistic. This altruism is completely different from how we conceive of it in our world. We will gradually clarify what the attribute of the World of Infinity--the spiritual attribute or absolute altruism--is. The descent along 125 levels of the five worlds gradually continues, until it reaches the level called “Machsom.” After the Machsom, absolute egoism begins.
Drawing No. 1
Our world is absolute egoism. Even things that seem altruistic to us (certain actions, thoughts and attributes) are all absolutely egoistic. Simply, we cannot compare our world to anything else, and this is why we think that altruism is to think about others and do good for someone else. However, in reality this is nevertheless egoism.
In principle, scientists who study the structure of our world (such as the cell or the still, vegetative, animate and speaking levels of nature) also agree with this. Everything is built on absolute egoism. This is the law of our world. The laws of the spiritual world are absolutely altruistic.
Altruistic creation descends to our world from the World of Infinity along 125 levels of the five worlds by way of gradual coarsening, and in our world it transforms into a little man, with whom we are all familiar. All of his attributes are opposite or reverse to the Creator’s attributes.
Today we will study the fundamental world, the World of Infinity, from which everything descends to us.
How is the first world created? Everything begins with the Upper force, with the Creator. We know only one thing about the Creator: that He desires to delight us because His attribute is absolute kindness. The attribute of the Upper force is absolute kindness and it is called “the Creator” or “bestowal.” That is, the attribute of absolute kindness, absolute bestowal, and the Creator – are all the same thing.
It is better to focus on this attribute, because hearing the word “the Creator” you may imagine that there exists someone who governs and manipulates something and who has a certain image. In reality, this is only a force - the attribute of absolute bestowal. There are certain forces in our world that we reveal to the extent we interact with them (for example, electrostatic forces and forces of gravity). Similarly, the most general force that includes all others is called “the Creator,” and this is the force of absolute bestowal.
Desiring to bestow, this force, desire, or thought creates creation, which desires to receive. This force’s influence or its bestowal is called Keter (crown). Since the Creator desires to give, therefore He creates the will to receive. This is the first attribute that the Creator creates, and it is fundamental. This is matter of creation: the will to receive. That is, all of us, everything that happens to us and in us, anything we do, think and create, no matter how we may change ourselves or how the Creator may change us with His influence, all this happens to the matter called “the will to receive” or “the will to enjoy.”
Drawing No. 2
The stages which the matter of creation undergoes during its development are called “the phases of direct light,” or of direct influence of the Creator. As we already know, the light, bestowal, the Creator, and absolute kindness – are all the same thing.
Kabbalah is a science that talks about the interaction between two forces: the will to receive and the will to bestow.
We call the will to receive or the matter of creation, “Kli” (vessel or capacity). This is why I draw it in the form of a cup. The capacity of this Kli, the will to receive, is equal to the Creator’s will to bestow. This phase of the Kli’s formation is called Hochma.
What happens next? The Kli is completely filled by light and it perceives pleasure. Inside of this pleasure, it begins to perceive the nature of the Giver, the nature of the Creator. That is, the Creator illuminates pleasure on us, and inside of it he places the perception of His very Self. Therefore as a result of feeling pleasure, the Kli begins to perceive the One Who Gives, the source it receives pleasure from, or the origin of its pleasure. That is, two feelings emerge in the Kli: the sensation of pleasure and, inside of it, the sensation of the Giver. There is pleasure, there is the will to receive, and there is a sensation of the Giver.
Drawing No. 3
The sensation of the Giver is secondary or supplementary, and it causes the following action. Without this sensation, the Kli or this small vessel would have been filled by the light or pleasure and remained in this form. Picture yourself in its place. I desire to enjoy; I receive what I want, and I am content with this. My entire desire is completely fulfilled by pleasure that corresponds to the desire in quantity and quality. However, since I receive one more influence – the sensation of the Giver – this begins to evoke additional inner movements in me. What kind of inner movements?
I begin to perceive who “the Giver” is. This is the Upper one. This Upper one is above me, that is, He is better, higher and of higher quality than me. Therefore the following desire emerges in the Kli or vessel: to become similar to the Upper, because it is clear that the state of the Giver is preferable to the state of the receiver.
That is, in the first phase (the phase of the Kli’s conception), the will to enjoy emerged and it was filled by light. The opposite desire—the will to bestow—emerged in the second phase. This was done by the light, which brought the sensation of the Giver along with itself. Since the Giver is more perfect, unlimited, and not dependent on whether anyone gives to Him or not, a yearning to be similar to the more perfect one emerges in the will to enjoy. That is, egoism pushes itself to a higher level, to greater independence, to greater perfection. The second phase, called Bina, is opposite to the first one. The first phase is absolute reception, and the second phase is the will to bestow.
Drawing No. 4
We can observe something similar even in our world, in our coarse egoistic attributes. For example, I come to someone’s house as a guest and I receive something from the host (delicious food, care, etc.). Through that which I receive from him, I begin to feel his attitude toward me. Later, I begin to perceive his attribute of bestowal and I begin to envy him, I begin to desire to be the same as him and to give at least something. The desire to neutralize my feeling of reception emerges in me. Something similar to this occurs in our roots. These roots are very far away from us; we do not feel them at all. Having passed through 125 levels of descent, we only faintly resemble them.
Thus, in the first stage, the vessel or creation desires to receive pleasure. In the second stage, it desires to bestow. However, it has nothing to give. By desiring to bestow, it begins to perceive pleasure from being similar to the Giver. As a result, just by desiring to be as the Giver, it starts to fancy the immense pleasures promised by the Giver’s state. But how and what can it bestow? For now it only desires, and it has nothing to bestow other than the desire. However, it begins to perceive the Giver thanks to the equivalence of form. Equivalence brings forth understanding of the Creator, and the Kli begins to feel the Creator’s attitude toward it. It comes to understand the love and kindness that the Upper force bears toward it, and reveals the Creator’s love.
Drawing No. 5
And then creation begins to understand that the Creator’s will to bestow can be realized only if it (the creation) will want to accept. It reasons in the following way: “If I accept because the Creator desires that I do, if I do it in order to bring Him contentment, then my action will be equivalent to bestowal. Meaning, of course I am an egoist, I am the will to receive just as before; but if I receive with the intention to bestow, then I will be equivalent to the Creator. It is because my nature is to receive and I cannot do anything else. However, using intention I will change my nature from reception to bestowal.”
For example, I may be a guest at the home of a person who greatly loves me, who has prepared to receive me into his home, and who desires that I taste the feast he has prepared. If I do this for his sake, then I will not feel that I am a receiver. Rather, I will feel that I am doing him a favor, pleasing or delighting him.
That is, the intention which creation has acquired cardinally alters the purpose of its action, changing it from reception to bestowal. Even though here it receives just as in the first phase, nevertheless this is already the third phase. It is called ZeirAnpin in Aramaic, a very ancient language that was spoken in ancient Babylon, where the science of Kabbalah originated. “Zeir” means “small” and “Anpin” means “face,” meaning the reception of the light of Hochma. That is, “ZeirAnpin” means “small reception.” Why is it small? Creation receives, but its entire reception relates to bestowal because it receives as much as it is able to bestow.
Drawing No. 6
When creation reaches the third phase, complete equivalence to the Creator, it begins to perceive infinite (endless) perfection. It reaches the state of the One who gives, is absolutely good, unlimited in every way, and not dependent on anything. Creation is permeated by this state and begins to feel an immense desire to delight from it.
The Kli now has a desire not just to receive the pleasure that comes from the Giver, but also to acquire His status. In other words, it now has a desire to selfishly enjoy everything that the Giver has: to receive both the coming light and the Creator’s status. It wants to enjoy absolutely everything for its own sake.
Thus, two kinds of pleasure come to the Kli, which is what it desires. The first desire, the will to receive light, was created by the Creator, by light itself, by its descent from up down. The second desire is the desire to enjoy the Host, meaning a desire for the Host to serve me, to become equivalent to Him not for the sake of bestowing to Him, but rather for the sake of self-gratification. The second desire was born from within the creation itself as a result of the four phases of direct light passing through it.
The final and fourth phase is called Malchut, from the word Melech, meaning king, kingdom, power, force. An absolutely new desire is born from the original creation that was created by the Creator. The fourth phase is a desire that emerges from within creation on its own.
Drawing No. 7
Creation feels that the will to enjoy or receive is its nature, that it was created this way. In contrast, the desire to delight from the Creator, from the Upper, from His status, from what He is (“I want the Host to serve me”) is born as a result of the previous phases.
The first phase is the following: I come to the Host, I see delicious food, it is for me and I accept it. Next I begin to feel that I accept the treat from the One who gives. The Host comes into the picture next to the treats and this evokes the second phase in me. That is, I begin to feel that there is a Host next to me. I no longer want to simply receive. The Host’s presence stirs up conflicting feelings in me. On one hand, I want to receive the treats. On the other hand, I feel uncomfortable because I am a receiver and He is a Giver. His presence diminishes my pleasure. It interferes with my feeling of pleasure so much that I even begin to understand that it is more advantageous to be like Him, to be giving, than to be like me. Therefore, once I wish to be similar to Him, I cease to enjoy. This is the second phase.
How can I neutralize myself relative to the Host? What if I receive pleasures and simultaneously do Him a favor by realizing His desire? The simultaneous use of the first and second attributes (reception and bestowal) gives rise to the third phase in me. I can feel pleasure and please the Host.
Drawing No. 8
However, at the same time I feel that nevertheless, He is perfect and I am limited. I do not want to derive pleasure from receiving for His sake in order to imitate His attitude toward me. Rather, I receive because I am obligated to receive. I was created to be this way. I receive because He loves me, and I can return His love in this way. That is, I do not compensate anything. Rather, I want to enjoy the way He does. Just as He is absolutely perfect, I too desire to be the same. This brings forth the fourth phase.
The fourth phase is my “I.” It is my “I” because it formed in me on the basis of the interaction between the “treat” and the “Host”, or with what exists in nature. There is nothing else in nature. There is the Creator, who gives pleasures and who manifests Himself as a Giver in the attribute of bestowal. These two attributes give birth to creation, which undergoes the four phases and comes to a decision that it desires to be in the Creator’s place, in order to enjoy His state. This last stage is called Malchut or Kli. This is the true creature.
Drawing No. 9
All previous phases are intermediary.
- In the first phase, light gives birth to the Kli.
- In the second phase, the Kli no longer receives, but rather it bestows.
- In the third phase, the Kli receives and bestows, compensating the reception.
- In the fourth phase, the Kli does not desire to compensate anything, but it wants to receive; to receive generally everything the Creator has, everything that emanates from the phase zero. This desire is born in the Kli independently, as a result of self-analysis, and therefore the fourth phase is called “the creature.”
The previous phases simply built this last, fourth phase.
When this finished desire is completely filled, it is filled both by the Creator’s state and by what comes from Him. It is filled by everything that is in stage zero and characterizes the Creator. All of this is now present inside the desire. Such a state of absolute and complete pleasure, fulfillment by everything that can possibly come from the Creator, the state of boundless reception – is called the World of Infinity.
“World” is a state. Any state of creation can be called a world. It is called “infinity” because the desires that were born as a result of the entire transformation (the four phases) are completely filled by pleasure that comes from the Creator, the Creator’s attributes, and unlimited perfection.
Any existing desire is completely fulfilled. We are not talking about quantity, a thousand Kilograms or a certain amount of Kilometers; rather, we are talking about quality. Any desires that emerge are completely filled by the desired.
This state of creation is called “the World of Infinity.” This is what the Creator had created and what is called “the creature.”
Drawing No. 10
Everything we discuss from now on will apply to this fourth state, to creation. This fourth state, the World of Infinity that is completely filled by the light, will be divided into parts – the worlds and creatures. Nothing was created besides the World of Infinity. Everything that exists, exists in it. Nothing exists outside of it.
You can imagine the following: there exists the World of Infinity. When creation begins to perceive it as being dimmer, it is called the World of AdamKadmon (AK); even dimmer – the World of Atzilut, then the World of Beria, the World of Yetzira, and the World of Assiya. When, all that creation can perceive while sensing the Infinity is a small point – this is called “our world.”
That is, gradual coarsening of the perception of the World of Infinity is called “the worlds.” World, Olam, comes from the word “Alama” or concealment. World is not revelation, but it is the opposite, concealment. Concealment of the World of Infinity on one level is called the World of AdamKadmon, concealment of the World of Infinity on two levels is called the World of Atzilut, on three levels – the World of Beria, on four – the World of Yetzira, and on five – the World of Assiya. The full concealment of the World of Infinity – is our world.
Drawing No. 11
We are not talking about distances or amounts. Rather, we are talking about sensations, about the clarity or authenticity of sensations. Our state of complete concealment is equivalent to a person who has lost consciousness. Later he will have to regain consciousness, to realize that he exists, and attain where he exists.