Local Meeting

"The Freedom"

In this week's article, we read from Baal HaSulam's clarifications around the freedom of choice.

As mentioned earlier, Baal HaSulam wrote extensively in order to assist students attain the purpose of creation - reaching equivalence of form with the qualities of the Creator (love and bestowal) - without straying from the path.

First we will read some excerpts from the article and then try to understand what is going on in the text, followed by another reading and discussions on the topics together.

We also have an extra clip from Rav Dr. Michael Laitman as an important clarification of the article.

"The Freedom"

Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam

“‘Harut [engraved] on the tablets’; do not pronounce it Harut, but rather Herut [freedom], to show that they were liberated from the angel of death.”

[Shemot Rabbah 41]

These words need to be clarified, for how is the matter of acceptance of the Torah related to one’s liberation from death? Furthermore, once they have attained an eternal body that cannot die through the acceptance of the Torah, how did they lose it again? Can the eternal become absent?

Freedom of Will

To understand the sublime concept, “freedom from the angel of death,” we must first understand the concept of freedom as it is normally understood by all of humanity.

It is a general view that freedom is deemed a natural law, which applies to all of life. Thus, we see that animals that fall into captivity die when we rob them of their freedom. This is a true testimony that Providence does not accept the enslavement of any creature. It is with good reason that humanity has been struggling for the past several hundred years to obtain a certain measure of freedom of the individual.

Yet, this concept, expressed in that word, “freedom,” remains unclear, and if we delve into the meaning of that word, there will be almost nothing left, for before you seek the freedom of the individual, you must assume that any individual, in and of himself, has that quality called “freedom,” meaning that one can act according to one’s choice of one’s own free will.

Open Discussion

How do we relate to the potentially confusing terms in the article?

Pleasure and Pain

However, when we examine the acts of an individual, we will find them compulsory. He is compelled to do them and has no freedom of choice. In a sense, he is like a stew cooking on a stove; it has no choice but to cook, since Providence has harnessed life with two chains: pleasure and pain.

The living creatures have no freedom of choice—to choose pain or reject pleasure. And man’s advantage over animals is that man can aim at a remote goal, meaning agree to a certain amount of current pain, out of choice of future benefit or pleasure to be attained after some time.

But in fact, there is no more than a seemingly commercial calculation here, where the future benefit or pleasure seems preferable and advantageous to the agony they are suffering from the pain they have agreed to assume presently. There is only a matter of deduction here—where they deduct the pain and suffering from the anticipated pleasure, and there remains some surplus.

Thus, only the pleasure is extended. And so it sometimes happens that we are tormented because the pleasure we received is not the surplus we had hoped for compared to the agony we suffered. Hence, we are in deficit, just as are merchants.

Open Discussion

In your understanding, what's the difference between man and animals in the freedom of choice?

And when all is said and done, there is no difference here between man and animal. And if this is the case, there is no free choice whatsoever, but a pulling force drawing them toward any passing pleasure and rejecting them from painful circumstances. And Providence leads them to every place it chooses by means of these two forces without asking their opinion in the matter.

Moreover, even determining the type of pleasure and benefit are entirely out of one’s own free choice, but follows the will of others, as they want, and not he. For example: I sit, I dress, I speak, and I eat. I do all these not because I want to sit that way, or talk that way, or dress that way, or eat that way, but because others want me to sit, dress, talk, and eat that way. It all follows the desire and fancy of society, and not my own free will.

Furthermore, in most cases, I do all these against my will. For I would be more comfortable behaving simply, without any burden. But I am chained with iron shackles, in all my movements, to the fancies and manners of others, which make up the society.

Open Discussion

"So tell me, where is my freedom of will?"

So tell me, where is my freedom of will? On the other hand, if we assume that the will has no freedom, and we are all like machines operating and creating through external forces, which force them to act this way, it means that we are all incarcerated in the prison of Providence, which, using these two chains, pleasure and pain, pushes and pulls us to its will, to where it sees fit.

It turns out that there is no such thing as selfishness in the world, since no one here is free or stands in his own right. I am not the owner of the act and I am not the doer because I want to do. Rather, it is because I am worked upon against my will and without my awareness. Thus, reward and punishment become extinct.

And it is quite odd not only for the religious, who believe in His Providence and can rely on Him and trust that He aims only for the best in this conduct. It is even stranger for those who believe in nature, since according to the above-said, we are all incarcerated by the chains of blind nature, with no awareness or accountability. And we, the chosen species, with reason and knowledge, have become a toy in the hands of the blind nature, which leads us astray, and who knows where?

Clips

Workshop questions
(chosen based on flow of the meeting)

Where does the article lead you?

How would you describe the motivations in studying?

According to what we learned in the article, how can we enhance our desire for equivalnce of form with the Creator?

Where do we find our responsibility for spiritual development?

See You Next Week