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 Will to Receive—Existence from Absence.

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 workshops on the topic of the "Tens Course".

"The Freedom"

Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam

The Will to Receive—Existence from Absence

To move a step forward in a scientific manner here, all we need is the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is because all the teachings in the world are included in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Concerning spiritual lights and vessels (in the commentary on Tree of Life, Branch 1), we learn that the primary innovation, from the perspective of creation, which He has created existence from absence, applies to one and only aspect, defined as the “will to receive.” All other matters in the whole of creation are not innovations at all; they are not existence from absence but existence from existence. This means that they extend directly from His essence, as the light extends from the sun. There, too, there is nothing new, since what is found in the core of the sun extends outwards.

However, the will to receive is complete novelty. Prior to creation such a thing did not exist in reality since He has no quality of will to receive at all, as He precedes everything… so from whom would He receive?

For this reason, this will to receive, which He extracted as existence from absence, is complete novelty. But everything else is not considered an innovation that could be called “creation.” Hence, all the vessels and the bodies, from spiritual worlds and from physical worlds, are deemed spiritual or corporeal substance whose nature is to want to receive.

Two Forces in the Will to Receive: An Attracting Force and a Rejecting Force

You need to discern further that we distinguish two forces in that force called “will to receive”:

A. The attracting force.

B. The rejecting force.

The reason is that each body, or vessel, defined as the will to receive, is indeed limited, meaning how much it will receive and the quality it will receive. Therefore, all the quantity and quality that are outside one’s boundaries appear to be against one’s nature; hence, he rejects them. Thus, that “will to receive,” although it is deemed an attracting force, it is compelled to become a rejecting force, as well.

One Law for All the Worlds

Although the wisdom of Kabbalah mentions nothing of our corporeal world, there is still only one law for all the worlds (as written in the article, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” section “The Law of Root and Branch”). Thus, all the corporeal entities in our world, that is, everything within that space, be it still, vegetative, animate, a spiritual object or a corporeal object, if we want to distinguish the unique self of each of them, how they differ from one another, even in the smallest particle, it amounts to no more than that “desire to receive.” This is its entire particular form, from the perspective of the generated creation, limiting it in quantity and quality. As a result, there is an attracting force and a rejecting force in it.

Yet, anything that exists in it besides these two forces is regarded as the bounty from His essence. That bounty is equal for all creatures and presents no innovation with respect to creation as it extends existence from existence.

Also, it cannot be ascribed to any particular unit, but only to things that are common to all parts of creation, small or large. Each of them receives from that bounty according to the limit of its will to receive, and this limit defines each individual and unit.

Thus, I have evidently—from a purely scientific perspective—proven the self (ego) of every individual in a scientific, completely criticism-proof method, even according to the system of the fanatic, automatic materialists. From now on, we have no need for those lame methods dipped in metaphysics.

And of course, it makes no difference whether this force of the will to receive is a result and a fruit of the material that had produced it through chemistry, or the material is a result and a fruit of that force. This is because we know that the main thing is that only this force, imprinted in every being and atom of the “will to receive,” within its boundaries, is the unit by which it is separated and distinguished from its environment. This applies to both a single atom or a group of atoms, called a “body.”

All other discernments in which there is more than that force are not related in any way to that particle or group of particles, with respect to itself, but only with respect to the whole, which is the bounty extended to them from the Creator, which is common to all parts of creation together, without distinction of specific created bodies.

Now we will understand the matter of the freedom of the individual, according to the definition of the first factor, which we called the “source,” where all previous generations, which are the fathers and forefathers of that individual, have imprinted their nature. As we have clarified, the meaning of the word “individual” is but the boundaries of the will to receive, imprinted in its group of molecules.

Thus you see that all the tendencies he has inherited from his ancestors are indeed no more than boundaries of his will to receive, either related to the attracting force in him, or to the rejecting force in him, which appear before us as tendencies to stinginess or generosity, a tendency to mingle with people or to be a hermit, and so on.

Because of this, they really are his self (ego), fighting for its existence. Thus, if we eradicate even a single tendency from that individual, we are regarded as cutting off an actual organ from his essence. It is also considered a genuine loss for all creation, since there is no other like it, nor will there ever be someone like him in the whole world.

After we have thoroughly clarified the just right of the individual according to the natural laws, let us turn and see just how practical it is, without compromising the theory of ethics and statesmanship. And most important: how this right is applied by our holy Torah.

Open Discussion

What's your impression of Baal HaSulam's emphasis on the scientific method?

What is your understanding of the concept of the "will to receive" being "existence from absence"?

How can the "will to receive" be both "an attracting force" and "a rejecting force" according to the text we just read?

Clips

The Principles of Connection in the Ten

Workshop questions

1) Share what makes our environment special to you.

2) Choose one principle from those we discussed in class, that resonates with you personally. 

3) Based on what we've learnt, in what way can someone "buy a friend"? And what actions can friends take that might "buy" them support in reaching their goal?

4) What can you do this week to increase the importance of the spiritual goal in our eyes?

See You Next Week