Local Meeting

"The Freedom"

This week we continue on both the "Tens Course" and reading from Baal HaSulam's clarifications around the freedom of choice in "The Freedom" article.

As we've mentioned before, 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). This week we read about choosing the right environtment.

In the local meeting, 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 extra clips from Rav Dr. Michael Laitman as important clarifications of the article.

In addition, we will do a workshop or two on the topic of the "Tens Course".

First, a quick recap of last week.

The Four Factors

• According to Baal HaSulam, reality is divided into four factors.
• These factors differ in how they influence a person.
• Each person is affected by their ‘source’ (‘the first matter’, foundation) and how it develops.
• A person cannot determine anything about their source or its development.
• The source is the the primary, unchangeable substance: the desire to receive.

Second Factor

• The way the source develops by itself — preserving the basic species through all changes.
• These two factors (source and its self-development) operate independently.
• They precede the person, define his existence, and from them he is created.

Third & Fourth Factors

• Third factor: Influence of the internal environment — factors that connect with the source and add new qualities.
• Fourth factor: Influence of external foreign elements — like neighbors and the surrounding society.

Free Choice

• According to Baal HaSulam, man does not have free choice.
• If he did, his situation would be even worse.
• In the article “The Freedom,” the point of free choice is clarified step by step.
• Understanding where free choice exists lets one manage physical and spiritual life properly.

The Next Step

• We will continue clarifying the four factors:
  • Two internal: the foundation and its development.
  • Two external: the environment and its development.
• Through this, the state itself will become clear.
• We will identify where the narrow crack is — the small action that lets us live freely.

"The Freedom"

Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam

Hereditary Possessions

The cause of the first reason is the source, which is its first substance. Man is created existence-from-existence, meaning from the minds of its progenitors. Thus, to a certain extent, he is like a replication from book to book. This means that almost all the matters that were accepted and attained in the fathers and forefathers are replicated here, as well.

But the difference is that they are in an abstract form, like the sowed wheat that is not fit for sowing until it has rotted and shed its former shape. So is the case with the drop of sperm from which man is born: There is nothing in it of its forefathers’ shapes, only abstract force.

For the same ideas that were concepts in his forefathers have turned into mere tendencies in him, called “instincts” or “habits,” without even knowing why one does what he does. Indeed, they are hidden forces he had inherited from his ancestors in a way that not only do the material possessions come to us by inheritance from our ancestors, but the spiritual possessions and all the concepts that our fathers engaged in also come to us by inheritance from generation to generation.

From here come the manifold tendencies that we find in people, such as a tendency to believe or to criticize, a tendency to settle for material life or desiring only spiritual, moral wholeness, despising a worthless life, stingy, yielding, insolent, or shy.

All these pictures that appear in people are not their own property, which they have acquired, but mere inheritance that had been given to them by their ancestors. It is known that there is a special place in the human brain where these hereditaments reside. It is called “the elongated brain,” or “subconscious,” and all the tendencies appear there.

But because the concepts of our ancestors, acquired through their experiences, have become mere tendencies in us, they are considered the same as the sowed wheat, which has taken off its former shape and has remained bare, having only potential forces fit of receiving new forms. In our matter, these tendencies will robe the forms of concepts. This is considered the first matter, and this is the primary factor, called “source.” In it reside all the forces of the unique tendencies he had inherited from his progenitors, which are defined as “ancestral heritage.”

Bear in mind that some of these tendencies come in a negative form, meaning the opposite of the ones that were in the ancestors. This is why they said, “All that is concealed in the father’s heart emerges openly in the son.”

The reason for this is that the source takes off its former shape in order to take on a new form. Hence, it is close to losing the shapes of the concepts of the ancestors, like the wheat that rots in the ground loses the shape that existed in the wheat. However, it still depends on the other three factors, as I have written above.

Open Discussion

What's your impression so far?

How can we benefit from studying together?

Influence of the Environment

The second reason is an unchanging, direct conduct of cause and effect, related to the source’s own attribute. Meaning, as we have clarified with the wheat that rots in the ground, the environment in which the source rests, such as soil, minerals, and rain, air, and the sun affect the sowing by a long chain of cause and effect in a long and gradual process, state by state, until it ripens.

And that source retakes its former shape, the shape of wheat, but differing in quality and quantity. In their general aspect, they remain completely unchanged; hence, no grain or oats will grow from it. But in their particular aspect, they change in quantity, as from one stalk emerge a dozen or two dozen stalks, and in quality, as they are better or worse than the former shape of the wheat.

It is the same here: Man, as a “source,” is placed in an environment, meaning in the society. He is necessarily affected by it, as the wheat from its environment, for the source is but a raw form. Thus, through the constant contact with the environment and the society, he is gradually impressed by them through a chain of consecutive states, one by one, as cause and effect.

At that time, the tendencies included in his source change and take on the form of concepts. For example, if one inherits from his ancestors a tendency to stinginess, as he grows he builds for himself concepts and ideas that conclude decisively that it is good for a person to be stingy. Thus, although his father was generous, he might inherit from him the negative tendency—to be stingy—for the absence is just as much inheritance as the presence.

Or, if one inherits from one’s ancestors a tendency to be open-minded, he builds for himself concepts and draws from them conclusions that it is good for a person to be open-minded. But where does one find those sentences and reasoning? He takes all this from the environment unconsciously, for they impart upon him their views and likings in the form of gradual cause and effect.

Hence, man regards them as his own possession, which he acquired through his free thought. But here, too, as with the wheat, there is one unchanging part of the source, which is that in the end, the tendencies he had inherited remain as they were in his forefathers. This is called “the second factor.”

Clips

Concerning Love of Friends

1) The need for love of friends.

2) What is the reason I chose specifically these friends, and why have the friends chosen me?

3) Should each of the friends disclose his love for the society, or is it enough to feel love in one’s heart and practice love of friends in concealment, and thus not need to openly show what is in his heart?

It is known that being humble is a great thing. But we can also say the opposite—that one must disclose the love in his heart towards the friends, since by revealing it he evokes his friends’ hearts toward the friends so they, too, would feel that each of them is practicing love of friends. The benefit from that is that in this manner, one gains strength to practice love of friends more forcefully, since every person’s force of love is integrated in each other’s.

It turns out that where a person has one measure of strength to practice love of friends, if the group consists of ten members, then he is integrated with ten forces who understand the need, that it is necessary to engage in love of friends. However, if each of them does not show the society that he is practicing love of friends, then one lacks the force of the group.

This is so because it is very hard to judge one’s friend favorably. Each one thinks that he is righteous and that only he engages in love of friends. In that state, one has very little strength to practice love of others. Thus, this work, specifically, should be public and not concealed.

But one must always remind oneself of the purpose of the society. Otherwise, the body tends to blur the goal, since the body always cares for its own benefit. We must remember that the society was established solely on the basis of achieving love of others, and that this would be the springboard for the love of God.

This is achieved specifically by saying that one needs a society to be able to give to one’s friend without any reward. In other words, he does not need a society so the society would give him assistance and gifts, which would make the body’s vessels of reception content. Such a society is built on self-love and prompts only the development of his vessels of reception, as now he sees an opportunity to gain more possessions by his friend assisting him to obtain corporeal possessions.

Instead, we must remember that the society was established on the basis of love of others, so each member would receive from the group the love of others and hatred of himself. And seeing that his friend is straining to annul his self and to love others would cause everyone to be integrated in their friends’ intentions.

Thus, if the society is made of ten members, for example, each will have ten forces practicing self-annulment, hatred of self, and love of others. Otherwise, one remains with but a single force of love of others, since he does not see that the friends are practicing it, since the friends are practicing love of others in concealment. Moreover, the friends make him lose his strength of desire to walk the path of loving others. In that state, he learns from their actions and falls into the dominion of self-love.

4) Should everyone know his friend’s needs, specifically for each friend, so he would know how he can satisfy them, or is it enough to practice love of friends in general?

Workshop questions

1) Why is the realization of the purpose of creation expressed in the love of friends?

2) "Love is still something that is given to the heart, and the heart disagrees with it by nature" - so what can we do to love our friends? In what way is our mutual help expressed in the ten / in the group, from one to the other, so that together we all reach love of friends?

See You Next Week