The Language of Branches: How Kabbalah Describes the Inner Spiritual Reality

Are All the Stories of the Torah Within a Person?

In Kabbalah, do we study only spiritual degrees? When we read about Israel, Abraham, the Land of Israel, the people of Israel, Egypt, the Jordan, Jerusalem, or the Temple, are all these things taking place within a person?

Are they inner spiritual discernments, meaning inner qualities, states, and forms of connection? And if so, what should we understand about the fact that these people, places, and events also exist in our corporeal, physical world?

To answer these questions, we must first understand what Kabbalah studies and why Kabbalists use the names of objects, people, and places from this world to describe spirituality.

The Soul Contains All Spiritual Discernments

Kabbalah studies the soul.

Within the soul are many different parts, qualities, desires, and levels of development. These are divided into four degrees:

1. Still
2. Vegetative
3. Animate
4. Speaking

These names do not refer primarily to physical stones, plants, animals, or human beings. They describe different degrees of desire within the soul.

The speaking degree within the general soul of Adam HaRishon is called "Adam." Other spiritual forces and qualities are described by names such as animals, angels, souls, and spirits. All these terms refer to discernments within the soul.

A "discernment" is an inner distinction or recognition. It is something a person begins to identify within the desire, such as a particular quality, intention, relationship, force, or spiritual state.

Confusion begins when the names of these inner parts of the soul are understood only as the names of objects and events in the physical world.

Why Spirituality Has No Names

In spirituality itself, there are no names.

The various spiritual parts and states could theoretically be identified by numbers, like Gematria. However, Kabbalists would then have to establish an enormous system of numbers, agreeing on a unique number for every part, quality, action, and state of the soul.

Instead, Kabbalists who attain both the spiritual world and its results in this world use the names of the corporeal branches to describe their spiritual roots.

A "root" is the spiritual cause, force, or origin.

A "branch" is the corporeal result or expression of that spiritual root in this world.

This physical world was formed as a result of the spiritual system. Therefore, every object, force, and phenomenon in this world has a corresponding root in spirituality.

Kabbalists take the name of the branch in this world and use it to indicate its spiritual root. This method of expression is called "the language of branches."

Adam HaRishon: The General Soul

There is one created being, created by the Creator. This created being is called Adam HaRishon, the First Man, or the general soul.

Adam HaRishon divides into 600,000 main parts. These parts divide again into millions and billions of additional parts. Each divided part is called a particular soul, or an individual part of the general soul.

Every particular soul is structured according to the same pattern as the general soul. It also contains many internal parts, qualities, desires, and degrees.

Between the spiritual state of the soul and the perception called "this world" lie the worlds of BYA:

1. Beria
2. Yetzira
3. Assiya

The distance between the spiritual root and this world is described as six thousand years. In this context, "years" do not refer only to chronological time. They also indicate spiritual degrees or stages of development. There are 2000 degrees associated with each of the three worlds, making a total of 6000 degrees.

The Descent of the Soul and the Point in the Heart

A particular soul descends from its place in Adam HaRishon to the state called "this world."

It then passes through many reincarnations and stages of development. During these stages, a person is primarily driven by corporeal pleasures and desires.

Eventually, a new desire begins to awaken. This awakening is called the "point in the heart."

The point in the heart is the initial spiritual lack, need, or yearning. A person does not yet know what spirituality is, but begins to feel that ordinary corporeal fulfillment is no longer sufficient. Something deeper is missing.

From that moment, the person begins to desire spiritual pleasure or spiritual attainment, even without understanding exactly what is being sought.

It is said that through the proper use of the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person can reach the barrier within three to five years.

The "barrier," also called the Machsom, is the boundary between the ordinary egoistic perception of this world and the beginning of spiritual perception.

After crossing this boundary, a person must continue ascending through the spiritual degrees until reaching the end of correction.

Returning to the Corrected State

The "end of correction," or Gmar Tikkun, is the state in which the soul returns to its corrected spiritual condition.

However, the purpose is not simply to return unconsciously to the state from which the soul descended. The person must traverse the path consciously, through personal participation, attainment, and correction.

This path is meant to be completed while the person is still living in this world, within a single incarnation, beginning from the awakening of the point in the heart.

If the correction is not completed, the soul continues its preparation through additional reincarnations. In every case, the accumulated preparation remains and contributes to the soul's future development.

Why Kabbalists Write Books

Kabbalists attain particular places, states, and degrees in the spiritual world. From those degrees, they write books for us.

When we read an authentic Kabbalistic book in this world, we can draw upon ourselves a spiritual force from the degree attained by the Kabbalist who wrote it.

This force is called the "Surrounding Light."

The Surrounding Light is the correcting influence that shines toward a person from a more advanced spiritual state. It is called "surrounding" because the person has not yet acquired the corrected vessel, meaning the desire and intention, in which the Light can be received internally.

The Upper Light does not enter an uncorrected desire directly. It therefore shines from outside the person's present attainment, awakening, developing, and gradually correcting the desire.

This is the essential reason Kabbalists write books. Their writings allow those who have not yet attained spirituality to establish a connection with the spiritual degrees described in the text.

Feeling Has No Language

What do Kabbalists write about?

They write about what they attain at the spiritual degree from which they are writing. Yet they cannot directly write the feeling itself because feeling has no language.

Suppose a person says, "I feel good." What does "good" mean?

A thousand words may still be insufficient to transmit the exact sensation. Another person will understand the description according to their own vessels, meaning according to their own desires, experiences, perceptions, and inner qualities.

A "vessel," or Kli, is the desire or capacity in which something can be felt, received, and attained.

Because each person interprets words through their own vessel, words cannot directly transfer a spiritual sensation from one person to another.

The question, therefore, is how Kabbalists can describe a spiritual state accurately enough for the reader to establish a connection with it and draw the Surrounding Light.

How the Language of Branches Works

Kabbalists take words from this world and attach them to the spiritual forces and states they attain.

For example, a Kabbalist may write the word "Temple."

To an ordinary reader, the Temple may mean a physical building in Jerusalem. For the Kabbalist, however, the word indicates a particular spiritual vessel, quality, or state associated with the degree of Bina.

The physical Temple is the branch. The spiritual quality is its root.

The word remains the same, but the meaning depends on the degree of the person who reads it.

If, during the study, a person sincerely wants to understand what the Temple means in spirituality, the word becomes a means of connection with its spiritual root.

The person does not merely imagine walking around a physical building in Jerusalem. Instead, the person asks inwardly:

"What is the spiritual Temple?"

"What quality does it represent?"

"What does this state mean within the soul?"

"What must be corrected or built within me so that I can feel it?"

To the extent that a person yearns to attain the spiritual meaning, the Surrounding Light shines from the spiritual degree called "Temple" and acts upon the person below the barrier.

This is why reading Kabbalistic books is not simple. The words appear familiar, but they point toward realities that are completely different from their ordinary corporeal meanings.

While reading correctly, a person draws a higher force that gradually corrects the desire.

Every Branch Has a Spiritual Root

Everything that exists in this world has descended from spirituality.

All the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking forms that we perceive here have spiritual roots.

In this world, we give names to things. We call something a tree, a chair, a person, an animal, a mountain, a river, or a house. There are countless species, objects, qualities, and phenomena.

Each of them has a root in spirituality.

The spiritual root itself has no verbal name. The name is taken from the corporeal branch and applied to the spiritual force that produces it.

Therefore, when Kabbalists use words such as "tree," "water," "house," "land," "Israel," "Egypt," or "Jerusalem," they are not primarily describing physical geography or material objects. They are indicating spiritual forces, desires, relationships, and degrees.

Spirituality Is a Revealed Desire and Fulfillment

Spirituality can be described as a revealed desire together with its revealed fulfillment.

When a person attains a spiritual state, words are no longer necessary in the same way they are necessary in this world. The person feels the desire, the intention, the connection, and the fulfillment directly.

In spirituality, connection takes place from desire to desire.

It is as though two people were connected through thought and desire without needing sounds to pass through the air, enter the ear, and be interpreted by the mind.

This can be compared to a kind of direct inner communication. The spiritual connection does not pass through external words. It takes place within the shared desire and intention.

Why We Need Words

We need words because we are not yet connected spiritually.

Each person is enclosed within an egoistic perception, concerned primarily with the self. This egoistic shell separates one person from another.

The "egoistic shell" means the self-directed intention that causes a person to experience everything according to personal benefit: "What will I receive? How will this serve me? What will I gain from it?"

As long as this intention separates us, we require an external system of communication. We speak, explain, interpret, and attempt to transmit our thoughts through words.

Language compensates for the lack of inner connection.

The Screen and Connection Above Egoism

Breaking the egoistic shell is called acquiring a "screen," or Masach.

The screen is not the destruction of the desire to receive. It is a new intention placed over the desire. It allows a person to relate to the desire not only for personal reception, but for bestowal, connection, and the benefit of others.

"Bestowal" means giving, influencing positively, or acting outside the calculation of personal benefit.

Through the screen, people can begin to connect above egoism.

This connection is called love, according to the rule "Love your neighbor as yourself."

In spirituality, love is not merely an emotion. It is the connection and inclusion of desires. The desire of the other becomes as important and as close to a person as one's own desire.

When this direct connection exists, words are no longer necessary.

Reading the Words or Seeking Their Roots

How can Kabbalists express in words something that exists beyond words?

They use the language of branches.

Kabbalists attain the spiritual roots through their connection with one another and with the Creator. We, however, are still branches that have not attained those roots.

To help us draw the Surrounding Light, Kabbalists describe spiritual reality using words from this world.

But if we read only the external words and imagine only their corporeal meanings, we remain with an imaginary picture.

Egypt remains merely a physical country. The Land of Israel remains merely a geographical territory. The Temple remains merely a building. The stories remain descriptions of external people and events.

This is called the literal meaning.

When the reader remains only within the literal picture, there is no conscious connection with the spiritual reality from which the correcting Light can come.

Correct study requires an inner direction. While reading words from this world, a person should yearn to rise toward the spiritual state that the words indicate.

The person seeks the inner qualities, connections, and intentions behind the words.

Through this yearning, the person invites the force that can raise them toward that state. This force is called the Surrounding Light.

Baal HaSulam discusses this principle at the beginning of "Inner Observation" in Part One of The Study of the Ten Sefirot.

Why Development Begins from Ein Sof

The spiritual system begins with the state called Ein Sof, or Infinity.

Ein Sof appears to be a state in which everything is already present. Therefore, we may ask: If everything exists in Ein Sof, how can any further development be necessary? Does this mean that something is incomplete?

In Ein Sof, one essential element is missing: the created being's independent intention to bestow.

The desire receives the Creator's abundance, but it has not yet independently acquired the Creator's intention and quality.

To acquire this intention, Malchut of Ein Sof passes through the entire cycle of descent and ascent.

It descends from Ein Sof through all the worlds until reaching this world. Through this descent, it acquires separation, independence, and the ability to act from itself.

It then begins to ascend.

During the ascent, the created being gradually acquires the intention to bestow. This intention cannot simply be imposed from above. It must be developed and chosen by the created being itself.

When Malchut returns to Ein Sof, it no longer exists only in annulment before the Creator. It stands as an independent created being that has consciously acquired equivalence with the Creator.

It reaches a degree at which it becomes like the Creator in its qualities and intention.

This is the purpose of creation, "to do good to His creations." The created being must become capable of receiving that goodness independently, consciously, and in equivalence of form with the Giver.

"Equivalence of form" means similarity of qualities and intention. The Creator bestows, and the created being gradually acquires an intention directed toward bestowal.

What It Means to Part from the Body

Spirituality is described as "bare desires."

"Bare" means without the external bodily form and without the egoistic covering that separates one desire from another.

To part from the body, in this spiritual sense, does not primarily mean physical death. It means casting off the egoistic intention that separates us.

When I think only about myself, I draw everything toward myself. When another person thinks only about themselves, they draw everything toward themselves. These opposing self-directed intentions create distance and separation between us.

If the egoistic intention falls away, the separation falls away with it.

Then the desires can connect and become included in one another.

We do not yet understand what it truly means to be "one." The commandment "Love your friend as yourself" does not mean that I remain entirely separate while also treating the friend pleasantly.

It means that I join the friend's desire to my own to such an extent that the friend's desire becomes truly mine.

There Is No Distance in Spirituality

There is no physical distance in spirituality.

Spiritual distance is measured by difference of qualities, intentions, and desires. Spiritual closeness is measured by similarity, connection, and mutual inclusion.

The inner relationship a person has toward others and toward the Creator is what determines the person's spiritual state.

To the extent that a person connects with the upper force, the corporeal body becomes less dominant in perception. This does not necessarily mean that the body is no longer felt. Rather, it no longer disturbs or controls the person's identification.

The person gradually begins to identify with the soul rather than with the corporeal body.

Therefore, when the corporeal body ceases to function, the person does not experience this as the disappearance of the spiritual self, because the person's identification has already shifted toward the soul.

In such a connection, words are no longer required.

From Mouth to Ear and From Mouth to Mouth

In "A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar," two forms of learning are described: from mouth to ear and from mouth to mouth.

"From mouth to ear" refers to a relationship in which the teacher and the student are on two different degrees. The teacher speaks, and the student receives through words, explanations, and external forms of communication.

"From mouth to mouth" indicates a much deeper connection. It is a direct transmission without the same limitations and concealments.

At that degree of connection, words are no longer the essence of the transmission.

Baal HaSulam also writes in the final letter of Pri Chacham about a language for the upper ones and a language for the lower ones. That letter was written specifically in Aramaic.

These sources point toward different degrees of communication and connection between spiritual vessels.

Language Reveals Our Lack of Connection

Outside the perception of this world, souls do not need ordinary language.

Even in this world, when two people deeply feel and understand one another, they need fewer words. Their inner connection completes what language cannot express.

Language arises from a lack of inner connection. Because we do not directly feel one another's desires and intentions, we created an external means of communication.

Language is useful and necessary, but it also reveals our deficiency, our lack of direct inner connection.

The Initial Lack Brings a Person to Study

When a person reads a Kabbalistic book, the Surrounding Light gradually forms a vessel within them.

However, a person approaches the book because some vessel already exists in an initial form.

No one comes to spiritual study without a desire.

For example, a person who rises at four in the morning to attend a lesson already possesses a certain lack. Otherwise, why would the person leave the comfort of sleep to come and listen?

A "lack," or deficiency, is a desire, need, emptiness, or yearning that seeks fulfillment.

This lack was awakened from above. The person feels that remaining in bed will not provide the fulfillment being sought. The spiritual lack has become more powerful than the desire for sleep.

The body makes a calculation and brings the person to the lesson because it expects a fulfillment greater than the pleasure of remaining in bed.

The lack already exists, but the person still does not clearly understand its nature or what can truly fulfill it.

How the Surrounding Light Builds the Vessel

Through reading, listening, and attempting to imagine the spiritual state described by the Kabbalists, a person awakens the influence of the Surrounding Light.

The Light gradually builds a vessel suited to itself.

It gives the desire a new form so that the vessel can eventually receive and reveal the spiritual Light internally.

What is the form of the vessel?

It consists of:

1. Qualities
2. Intentions
3. Feelings
4. Thoughts
5. Attitudes toward others
6. Attitudes toward the Creator
7. Ways of relating to different states and events

The Light gradually arranges all these elements within the person.

A simple will to receive is only raw material. By itself, it is not yet called "human."

The will to receive can be compared to a piece of clay or plasticine. Through the action of the Light, it is gradually shaped, refined, and given a corrected form.

The final form built within the desire is called "human."

Thus, the purpose of Kabbalistic study is not merely to understand the words intellectually. It is to awaken the Light that shapes the desire, builds the vessel, and forms within us the spiritual human.