The Inner Work To Reach The Final Goal

The Goal of Creation

The purpose of creation is to do good to His creations. To do good to His creations cannot be less than the degree of the Creator. The Creator cannot perform an act, execute an act, that is less than His degree, than His level.

Therefore, the act can only be one: if He makes something outside of Himself, it must still be an act of the same quality as Him. And therefore, when He created a created being, He created it exactly in adhesion, in wholeness, in eternity, equal to His own degree.

Recognizing the Perfect State

In order for the created being to reach this sensation, to understand who he is, what he is, where he is, to whom he belongs, and to whom he is equal, the created being must recognize this state in its entirety.

To recognize it, he must do so from within his own nature. That is, from the opposite, from existence from absence. Otherwise, he will have no recognition of his state.

Therefore, he must go through all the stages that are opposite to wholeness, eternity, and adhesion. He must go through them both in action and in recognition, both in deed and in thought.

He must see how they work upon his matter and recognize them first from the side of existence from absence, and afterward from the side of existence from existence.

What Is the Recognition of Evil?

Then, in the difference between his sensation in existence from existence and existence from absence, that is, between the side of the Creator and the side of the created being, he will make discernments.

He will come to the recognition of evil.

What exactly is the recognition of evil? It is not that something is bad for him, but that it is bad to be in a state that is less than the Creator.

Then he will see that wholeness can only be in the state where existence from absence returns to existence from existence.

The Limitations of the Will to Receive

What does this mean?

Within the will to receive, there cannot be any wholeness. The will to receive is closed within itself. Within itself it feels, and within itself it attains. Therefore, it is limited both in quality and in quantity.

Why We Are Content with Little

The Rav writes here about being "content with little."

This means that whenever a person attains something, what he has attained is enough for him. He does not want to expand it, because expanding the boundary means that he must now suffer from what he lacks.

After he suffers from what he lacks, he goes to attain it.

If they were to tell a person, "Now we are filling everything you want, and you will never need anything more. This is enough, and everything is good," he would agree.

We see this in ourselves.

Every new lack that we attain comes through a push from above, through society, through the books, and through guidance from above. Each time, we receive an additional will to receive.

Why We Would Not Advance by Ourselves

By ourselves, we would never leave the degree of the animal, because it is painful.

For what purpose would we leave it?

If we could remain in a state of satiation, it would not matter what kind of state it was. We would remain with the minimal animal fulfillments: food, coupling, warmth, tranquility, and rest.

We did not have within our own power, against our nature, the possibility of leaving this state and agreeing to suffer.

The will to receive would not allow us to exit and suffer. It would constantly preserve and freeze the existing state.

Providence Pushes Us Toward Wholeness

But Upper Providence pushes us toward the purpose of creation, toward becoming great and whole.

Therefore, more and more will to receive rolls upon us from above. We must fill it, and thus we run each time toward new goals.

Exiting the Will to Receive

To truly reach the state of infinite perfection is impossible within the will to receive, unless a person exits it and goes outside of it.

We must exit our shell and live not in order to receive, but in order to bestow, with an intention directed outside of ourselves.

Then there will never be any limitation, neither in the greatness of the vessel nor in the reception of abundance.

Love of Others as a Means

Love of others, as the Rav also writes in this article, is not the goal. It is a means of reaching the goal.

Through love of others, we learn to what extent we are opposite from the rule of exiting the will to receive.

The best place to learn this is in relation to those around us, within our environment.

Learning Through the Environment

The exercises we are given to perform toward others in this world hasten our development.

Through them, we increasingly recognize, both in the mind and in the heart, the extent to which we are limited.

Eventually, we come to a state where we demand advancement in the correct desire: to feel reality outside of ourselves and to live in what is outside of us.

Our desires and intentions should be outside of us, so that we never live only within ourselves.

Expanding Beyond the "I"

The sensation of the self should remain only as the basic point from which a person exits in order to live in and feel what exists outside of him.

Only in this way does he begin to distance himself from his central point, from his "I," and expand the space of his perception until he reaches the greatness of infinity.

Faith and Knowledge

There are many details in this article. It passes through many subjects.

It discusses faith above reason, below reason, and within reason. We can also observe these forms in our world.

The whole world lives in faith, including within religion.

Why is it called faith?

"Faith" is the force that obligates me to act.

What I feel, what I understand, and what I have accepted as a fact is called "knowledge." If I act according to it, and it gives me the strength to act, this is called "faith within knowledge."

This is how we normally act.

Faith Within Reason

It does not matter whether my knowledge is based on the foolishness of someone else who tells me about things that are not true.

If I accept these things within my knowledge, and they are absorbed into my knowledge, then for me they become facts. I act according to them.

There are many such stigmas and accepted ideas in the world. The world follows them and accepts them as correct, as facts, and as truth.

Faith Below Reason

There is also faith below reason.

In this case, I do not know whether what I am being told is true. These are not facts that I have personally verified, but I accept them as a condition.

Usually, this happens through education.

I do not go and check what I am told. I do not subject it to criticism, but fulfill it below criticism. As people say, it is "below all criticism."

This means that I do not operate my senses or my reason. I do not examine anything.

Whatever I decide to accept below reason enters me as a fact. It is absorbed in me in this form, and I act accordingly.

Accepting Without Self-Criticism

This is what we usually call "fanaticism."

These are things that are accepted without self-criticism.

They may be things that are impossible to verify, or things that we decide in advance to accept in a certain way, no matter what happens.

This can also be connected with the opinion of society.

However it happens, a large part of humanity's decisions is made in this way.

How Humanity Uses Reason

Both below reason and within reason are used by all humanity.

There is always a certain mixture. Some things are accepted in one way and some in another.

In the end, all humanity uses these two approaches to life.

The question is: What information do I receive from outside, and how do I act according to it?

I act either below reason or within reason.

There is no person who does not contain both approaches. The difference is in the relationship between these two discernments within the person.

What Does "Above Reason" Mean?

Then there are those who speak about what is called "above reason."

This is something that is not truly understood. It is something above our nature and above the intellect.

Suppose I stand in a bank and ask for one thousand dollars. The cashier counts the money, and I see that he has counted only nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars.

What should I do?

Below Reason and Within Reason

I can close my eyes, refuse to see what he counted, accept the money, and leave. This is called "below reason," because it is without criticism.

Or I can look and see that he has given me nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars. Then I act according to what I see, according to the principle that "the judge has only what his eyes see."

I may agree or disagree, but I know that I have received nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars. This is within reason.

Receiving Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine as a Thousand

It could also be that I see that I have received nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars, but I do not merely decide, "Fine, let it be as though it were one thousand."

It is not that I forgive the missing dollar or complete the lack from somewhere else.

Rather, I receive the nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars as one thousand dollars, one hundred percent, because I subdue my reason before the reason of the one who gives to me, before the reason of the cashier.

This is very great work.

For this, I must exit myself, concede my own reason, and accept his reason.

This is not simple. It cannot be accomplished through some inner trick.

This is called going "above reason."

Knowing the Mind of the Giver

Perhaps it sounds easy, but it is impossible to do without preparation.

For this, we need to know the mind of the giver and the giver himself. We need to adhere to him, so that I have more faith in him than I have in my own reason.

For this, I need many supporting systems, much knowledge, work, and effort. All of these must precede the decision that it is possible to go above reason.

This is true even when we are speaking about only one dollar of difference between his reason and my reason.

When Almost Everything Is Missing

Suppose the situation is reversed.

The giver gives me one dollar and says, "You received one thousand dollars." Now nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars are missing. Perhaps everything is missing.

Still, I must behave as though I have received one thousand dollars.

But this cannot be a performance in which I merely agree outwardly and pretend. I must complete this lack within my reason.

It must become a fact in my feeling, in my mind, and in my heart that I received the full one thousand dollars.

Above Reason Is Not Imagination

I need a fulfillment that will satisfy me in place of the corporeal facts and sensations.

This cannot be an imaginary fulfillment.

These things cannot be reached unless a person attains genuine spiritual attainment and spiritual sensation. These fill the person and give him the ability to relate to reality in this way.

It is not a decision that from now on he will behave differently. It is not a game that he plays with himself.

A Gradual Inner Development

It is impossible simply to concede one's perception.

Therefore, these are actions that we gradually begin to understand.

Until we come to carry them out, it takes time.

A person might think that he is capable of performing an act above reason. But gradually, we see that these things depend on exiting the person's body and going outside our ordinary awareness.

The Complete Path of Inner Work

Here we went through a nearly complete overview of the inner work required to reach the purpose of creation. The created being begins within the limited will to receive, gradually recognizes the insufficiency of remaining enclosed within himself, and develops a need to rise toward the Creator's quality. Through the additional desires awakened form above, the influence of the environment, and practical work in the ten, a person learns to exit the narrow perception of the "I" and to feel reality outside himself. Along this path, he learns to distinguish between acting below reason, within reason, and above reason. Faith above reason is not blind acceptance, self-deception, or imagination, but the result of acquiring a genuine connection with the Giver, until the Creator's reason becomes more important and more certain than one's own. In this way, all the stages of development, including the revelation of lack, limitation, and opposition, become necessary steps toward true bestowal, adhesion, and the unlimited perception intended in the purpose of creation.