All of Life Is Preparation

What is not preparation?

Our entire life is preparation. All our development is preparation, and the whole of creation is preparing for its final state, the end of correction.

Every day should be regarded as preparation for the next degree. We may attain a certain state for a moment, but immediately afterward, we enter the preparation for the state that follows it. Apart from those brief moments in which we attain the result of our previous preparation, our life is spent preparing.

This is not an abnormal or undesirable condition. It is the natural order of development.

Preparation is not merely the time we spend waiting for an attainment. It is the process through which the need, the desire, and the vessel for that attainment are built within us.

The Long Preparation of Humanity

All of humanity passes through countless discernments and stages of development.

Creation developed through the still, vegetative, and animate degrees. Then, from the animate degree, the human degree began to emerge. Compared with the rest of nature, humanity made an extraordinary leap through the development of the ego.

This development began hundreds of thousands of years ago, but it was itself only a preparation. Billions of years of development preceded it.

As the human ego continued to grow, it prepared humanity for increasingly complex forms of life. The ego pushed us toward economic, financial, commercial, scientific, and technological development. For thousands of years, human society developed through the constant expansion of egoistic desire.

All of this was preparation.

When Egoistic Development Reaches Its Limit

Eventually, the development of the ego begins to reach its conclusion. The ego exhausts the possibilities available within its own nature.

Humanity gradually discovers that further egoistic development does not bring fulfillment. Economic growth, technological progress, knowledge, and social competition may continue outwardly, but they no longer provide a clear direction or a satisfying purpose.

Already in the time of Marx, and later in the writings of Baal HaSulam, we find the recognition that humanity was approaching the end of a particular form of development. Baal HaSulam wrote about the necessity of entering a new generation, one founded on principles different from those of egoistic competition.

This does not mean that the ego disappears. Rather, it means that the ego can no longer serve as the force that leads humanity toward its next degree.

The next stage of development must take place above the ego.

This is preparation for a truly revolutionary state, in which life is no longer organized only around personal profit, but around connection, mutual responsibility, and the benefit of the whole.

From Human Development to Spiritual Development

The same pattern appears in the spiritual development of an individual.

We pass through many forms of development until we begin to feel that we must rise above ourselves. A person gradually discovers that development within the ordinary desire to receive cannot answer the deeper question awakening within.

This is what brings a person to the wisdom of Kabbalah.

After a period of preparation, a qualitative leap becomes possible. It is similar to an airplane that spends a long time moving along the ground before it can take off. The preparation takes place on one level, but its purpose is to bring the person into an entirely different form of existence.

The moment of ascent may seem sudden, but it is made possible by everything that preceded it.

Preparation Clarifies the Next Degree

Preparation is extremely important because, within it, we clarify the states that will later be revealed in the next degree.

The spiritual degrees are already prepared. In every degree, the corrected form of the person already exists in connection with the others and in adhesion with the Creator.

We do not need to create the spiritual degree itself. We need to prepare the lack for it.

Once the appropriate lack has been formed, we can ascend to the degree that is already prepared for us.

The preparation, therefore, is not an external condition for entering spirituality. It is not something that another person can complete in our place. No one can prepare the vessel for us, because the preparation itself builds the vessel through which we will perceive and receive the spiritual state.

Preparation Builds the Kli

Preparation is the development of the kli, the vessel.

The vessel is not simply a desire to receive something pleasant. It is a specific need, directed toward a particular spiritual quality and formed through many discernments.

Through preparation, I gradually acquire the form in which I can receive what has already been prepared for me.

The preparation therefore becomes the main thing.

We gather lacks, questions, efforts, disappointments, aspirations, and impressions. We connect them together until they form a complete need for the next degree.

These preparations eventually become the vessel through which we attain the corrected state in which we are already included at the end of correction.

Learning to Value the Preparation

We usually do not want preparation. We disregard it because we are focused on the expected result.

We want to feel, understand, attain, and receive. We want the revelation itself, while the preparation appears to be a delay that stands between us and the desired state.

But the more a person advances, the more their attitude toward preparation changes.

A person can measure their advancement according to how much they value the preparation, how willing they are to remain within it, how deeply they understand its necessity, and how much they begin to agree with it.

Eventually, a person may even begin to love the preparation.

During the preparation itself, they begin to receive a taste of the coming revelation. The aspiration toward the spiritual state becomes more important than the pleasure expected from attaining it.

When Aspiration Becomes Adhesion

In truth, the difference between preparation and the reception of the reward depends on a person's attitude.

As long as I regard preparation as something I must endure in order to receive a future reward, the preparation and the reward appear to be two separate states.

But when I agree to remain in the aspiration itself, without demanding anything for myself, the aspiration for adhesion begins to become adhesion.

The longing for the Creator is no longer merely a means of reaching Him. It becomes the place of connection itself.

These are matters that must be learned through experience. They cannot be understood fully through explanation alone. Nevertheless, we should begin by giving the preparation attention, respect, and importance.

We should honor the process through which the Creator builds the vessel within us.

Remaining in the State Given by the Creator

A person becomes suited for spiritual revelation when they are willing to remain in the state they have been given.

This does not mean that a person should artificially delay their advancement or force themselves to remain in a particular condition. It means that they do not demand a different state for their own benefit.

The Creator gives the present state, and the person agrees to work within it.

They aspire to the quality of mercy. And if they ask to advance, it is not in order to escape the current state or to receive greater pleasure. It is in order to acquire an even greater lack to bestow and to bring contentment to the Creator.

This requires a fundamental change in our psychological attitude toward the process.

We stop attributing the preparation to ourselves. We begin to attribute it to the Creator.

Even our aspiration toward Him is not regarded as our personal possession. We wish to direct that aspiration toward His purpose, so that He may be revealed to the created beings and receive contentment from their correction and connection.

Light, Vessel, and the Need for Preparation

Rabash explains that in everything we can discern two components: light and vessel.

The vessel is the outer form in which the pleasure is clothed, while the light is the inner pleasure contained within it.

He writes in "What Is the Order in the Blotting Out of Amalek":

"It is known that in every thing we discern two discernments, which are light and vessel. And even in corporeal matters we discern in every thing an inner and an outer, where the outer is called vessel and the inner is called the light.

"Let us take for example, when a person aspires for bread or for meat and fish, and the like, the person does not aspire for the vessel, that is, the outer, what appears to our eyes, but the person aspires for the inner, what is not seen to the eye, that is, for the taste that is in the bread or in the meat and fish, and the like.

"And even more than this, we see that in order to enjoy the pleasure clothed in the vessel, the person needs a preparation. According to the measure of his preparation, in that measure he can enjoy the light of the pleasure clothed in the vessel, which is considered the outer.

"It is not the same when a person goes to drink water when he is thirsty, as the time when a person drinks water and he is not thirsty. This is because the vessel of reception of the pleasure is measured according to the measure of the aspiration for the pleasure.

"Therefore we see that when a person wants to enjoy drinks, he eats beforehand sharp and salty things, in order to arouse in him an aspiration for drinking. And so it is in all things, that without aspiration one cannot enjoy anything.

"This stems from the beginning of creation, as it is learned, that the purpose of creation, which is His desire to do good to His creatures, He created a desire to receive pleasure and delight. And before the fourth discernment is revealed, which is the aspiration, it is not yet considered a vessel that would be fit to receive the light and the delight."

The pleasure may already be present, but without the need for it, there is no vessel capable of receiving it.

A thirsty person experiences water differently from a person who drinks without thirst. The water may be the same, but the vessel is different.

The measure of the enjoyment depends on the measure of the aspiration.

The Lack Determines the Value

This principle applies directly to spiritual development.

Preparation develops the need for the spiritual quality itself. Through the preparation, we begin to value what we are approaching.

Without a genuine lack, even if a spiritual state could be revealed, we would not be able to recognize, appreciate, or receive it correctly.

The value is not found only in the thing that is received. It is formed within the person through the desire for that thing.

Therefore, the spiritual vessel is measured according to the aspiration.

The stronger and more precise the aspiration becomes, the more the person can distinguish and receive the spiritual light clothed within the corrected state.

From the First Encounter to a True Spiritual Lack

We can see this in the process we undergo after first encountering the wisdom of Kabbalah.

It is impossible to compare the lack with which a person initially enters the Bnei Baruch group to the lack that develops later.

In the beginning, a person has certain ideas about Kabbalah, the Creator, creation, spirituality, and themselves. But these ideas are still based on corporeal values and expectations.

As the person advances, all these concepts begin to change.

These changes are great, and they are not always pleasant. Usually, they require us to bend ourselves, examine our assumptions, think deeply, and agree with principles that our ego does not want to accept.

This is why preparation takes time.

The person is not simply gathering knowledge. They are being brought through an inner transformation in which an entirely new need is formed.

Why the First Spiritual Degree Is So Difficult

The preparation for the first spiritual degree is especially demanding.

A person must pass from corporeality to spirituality. This is not merely a transition between two similar states. It is a change in the foundation through which reality is perceived.

The person must complete a certain corporeal preparation and acquire the beginning of a spiritual vessel. This requires time, effort, repeated discernments, and the influence of the environment.

Later, when a person ascends from the first spiritual degree to the second, and from the second to the third, the changes continue within the same spiritual system.

These changes are certainly profound and essential, but they are not like the first transition from corporeality to spirituality.

The first spiritual lack is special because there was previously no trace of it within the person. The person begins from a desire that is not only different from spirituality, but opposite to it.

At first, we do not even understand the nature of this oppositeness.

For this reason, the first spiritual transition is called a miracle. It is a true inner revolution. Later ascents take place according to the laws of the spiritual ladder and are therefore regarded as proceeding through the way of nature.

Preparation as the Main Work

Preparation can be revealed in many different forms.

It may appear as confusion, longing, resistance, repeated effort, dissatisfaction, questions, connection with the friends, study, or the discovery that previous values no longer satisfy us.

In every form, preparation remains the main work of spiritual advancement.

The result does not appear separately from the preparation. The result is the completed form of the vessel that was built throughout the preparation.

Therefore, we should not measure our progress only by what we understand, what we feel, or what we believe we have attained.

We should examine what kind of need is being formed within us.

Advancement Is a Change of Values

Preparation is especially expressed in the exchange of values.

What did I value yesterday, and what do I value today?

Perhaps yesterday I could not recognize the importance of connection, bestowal, the group, the sources, the teacher, or adhesion with the Creator. Today, however, something that once seemed distant or abstract may have become important and necessary.

Through this change, I can begin to measure my advancement.

Spiritual progress is not measured primarily by strength, persistence, external activity, or knowledge. It is measured by the change taking place within the scale of values.

Do I look at reality with different eyes?

Do I now consider something important that I previously ignored?

Has connection become more valuable than personal success?

Has the aspiration to bestow become more important than the pleasure I expect to receive?

To the extent that the person's inner values change, the vessel changes.

The Preparation Is Already Part of the Attainment

Preparation is not the empty space before spiritual life begins.

It is spiritual development itself.

Through preparation, the Creator builds within us the ability to recognize, value, and receive the next degree. The aspiration is deepened, the lack is clarified, and the vessel is given its correct form.

Eventually, a person discovers that the preparation was never separate from the goal.

The desire for adhesion, when it is no longer directed toward personal reward, already contains the beginning of adhesion.

The vessel, the need, and the value of the spiritual state are built together.

For this reason, our work is not to escape the preparation, but to enter it consciously, respect it, and use every state to develop a more precise lack for connection, bestowal, and contentment to the Creator.

The next degree is already prepared.

What remains is to prepare the vessel that can receive it.