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 focus on The Freedom of the Individual.

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".

"The Freedom"

Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam

The Freedom of the Individual

Now we have come to a thorough and accurate understanding of the freedom of the individual. However, this relates only to the first factor, the source, which is the first substance of every person, meaning all the characteristics we inherit from our fathers and our forefathers and by which we differ from each other.

This is because even when thousands of people share the same environment in such a way that the other three factors affect all of them equally, you will still not find two people who share even one attribute. This is because each of them has his or her own unique source. This is like the source of the wheat: Although it changes a great deal by the three latter factors, it still retains the preliminary shape of wheat and will never take on the form of another species.

The General Shape of the Progenitor Is Never Lost

So it is that each “source” that had taken off the preliminary shape of the progenitor and had taken on a new shape as a result of the three factors that were added to it, and which change it significantly, the general shape of the progenitor still remains, and will never assume the shape of another person who resembles him, just as oat will never resemble wheat.

This is so because each and every source has its own long sequence of generations comprised of several hundred generations, and the source includes the conceptions of them all. However, they are not revealed in it in the same ways they appeared in the ancestors, that is, in the form of ideas, but only as abstract forms. Therefore, they exist in him in the form of abstract forces called “tendencies,” “nature,” and “instincts,” without knowing their reason or why he does what he does. Thus, there can never be two people with the same attribute.

The Necessity to Preserve the Freedom of the Individual

Know, that this is the one true possession of the individual that must not be harmed or altered. This is because the end of all these tendencies, which are included in the source, is to materialize and assume the form of concepts when that individual grows and becomes knowledgeable, as a result of the law of evolution, which controls that chain and prompts it ever forward, as explained in the article, “The Peace.” Also, we learn that each and every tendency is bound to turn into a sublime and immeasurably important concept.

Thus, anyone who eradicates a tendency from an individual and uproots it from him causes the loss of that sublime and wondrous concept, intended to emerge at the end of the chain, for that tendency will never again emerge in any other body. Accordingly, we must understand that when a particular tendency takes the form of a concept, it can no longer be distinguished as good or bad, as such distinctions are recognized only when they are still tendencies or immature concepts, and in no way are any of them recognized when they assume the shape of real concepts, as will be thoroughly explained in the following essays.

From the above-said, we learn what a terrible wrong inflict those nations that force their reign on minorities, depriving them of freedom without allowing them to lead their lives according to the tendencies they have inherited from their ancestors. They are regarded as no less than murderers.

Even those who do not believe in religion or in purposeful guidance can understand the necessity to preserve the freedom of the individual by watching nature’s systems, for we can see how all the nations that ever fell, throughout the generations, came to it only due to their oppression of minorities and individuals, which had therefore rebelled against them and ruined them. Hence, it is clear to all that peace cannot exist in the world unless we take into consideration the freedom of the individual. Without it, peace will not be sustainable and ruin will prevail.

Thus, we have clearly defined the essence of the individual with utmost accuracy, after the deduction of all that he takes from the public. But now we face a question: “Where, in the end, is the individual himself?” All we have said thus far concerning the individual is perceived as only the property of the individual, inherited from his ancestors. But where is the individual himself, the heir and the carrier of that property, who demands that we guard his property?

From all that has been said thus far, we have yet to find the point of “self” in man, which stands before us as an independent unit. And why do I need the first factor, which is a long chain of thousands of people, one after the other, from generation to generation, with which we set the image of the individual as an heir? And why do I need the other three factors, which are the thousands of people standing side by side in the same generation? In the end, each individual is but a public machine, ever ready to serve the public as it sees fit.

In other words, he has become subordinate to two types of public: From the perspective of the first factor, he has become subordinate to a large public from past generations, standing one after the other. From the perspective of the three other factors, he has become subordinate to his contemporary public.

This is indeed a universal question. For this reason, many oppose the above, natural method. Although they thoroughly know its validity, they choose instead metaphysical methods, dualism, or transcendentalism to depict for themselves some spiritual object and how it sits within the body, as man’s soul. That soul is what teaches and operates the body, and it is man’s essence and his “self.”

Perhaps these interpretations could ease the mind, but the problem is that they have no scientific solution as to how a spiritual object can have any contact with physical atoms in the body, to bring it into any kind of motion. All their wisdom and delving did not help them find a sufficient bridge to cross that wide and deep crevice between the spiritual entity and the corporeal atom. Hence, science has gained nothing from all these metaphysical methods.

Open Discussion

"Why do I need the other three factors, which are the thousands of people standing side by side in the same generation?"

What's your impression of Baal HaSulam's emphasis of individual uniqueness?

How did you understand "every tendency is bound to turn into a sublime and immeasurably important concept"?

After reading the above, how have you understood "the necessity to preserve the freedom of the individual"?

Clips

The Principles of Connection in the Ten

Workshop questions

1) Let's share our appreciation for finding a society that wants to reach the sublime goal of bestowal upon the Creator.

2) Do you feel the course is bringing you closer to the principles being taught and to the goal?

3) Why is the study framework an important aid in spiritual development?

See You Next Week