Local Meeting

"The Freedom"

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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 will conclude the lessons on "The Freedom" article.

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".

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"The Freedom"

Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam

A Path of Torah and a Path of Suffering

Yet, our question about the regression, which had emerged from this law, is still not settled by these words. Indeed, this is our concern—to find ways to mend this. But Providence, for itself, does not lose because of this, for it has enveloped humankind in two ways—the “path of Torah,” and the “path of suffering”—in a way that guarantees humanity’s continuous development and progress toward the goal without any reservations (“The Peace,” “Everything Is in Deposit”). Indeed, obeying this law is a natural, necessary commitment.

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The Collective’s Right to Expropriate the Freedom of the Individual

We must ask further: Things are justified when matters revolve around issues between people. Then we can accept the law of “Taking after the collective,” through the obligation of Providence, which instructs us to always look after the well-being and happiness of the members. But the Torah obliges us to follow the law of “Taking after the collective” in disputes between man and the Creator, as well, although these matters seem completely unrelated to the existence of society.

Therefore, the question still stands: How can we justify that law, which obligates us to accept the views of the majority, which is, as we have said, undeveloped, and reject and annul the views of the developed, who are always a small minority?

As we have shown in the second tractate (“The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose,” “Conscious Development and Unconscious Development”), the Torah and the Mitzvot were given only to purify Israel, to develop in us the sense of recognition of evil imprinted in us at birth, which is generally defined as our self-love, and to come to the pure good defined as “love of others,” which is the one and only passage to the love of the Creator.

Accordingly, the Mitzvot between man and the Creator are considered tools that detach man from self-love, which is harmful for society. It is thus obvious that the topics of dispute regarding Mitzvot between man and the Creator relate to the problem of society’s sustainability. Thus, they, too, fall into the framework of “Taking after the collective.”

Now we can understand the conduct of discriminating between Halachah [Jewish law] and Agadah [legends]. This is because only in Halachot [plural for Halachah] does the law, “individual and collective, Halachah [law] as the collective” apply. It is not so in the Agadah, since matters of Agadah stand above matters that concern the existence of society, for they speak precisely of the matter of people’s conducts in matters concerning man and the Creator, in that part where the existence and physical happiness of society has no consequence.

Thus, there is no justification for the collective to annul the view of the individual and “every man will do that which was right in his own eyes.” But regarding Halachot that deal with observing the Mitzvot of the Torah, they all fall under the supervision of society since there cannot be any order except through the law, “Take after the collective.”

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Criticism Brings Success; Lack of Criticism Causes Decadence

We must further add that reality presents to our eyes extreme oppositeness between physical matters and concepts and ideas regarding the above topic, for the matter of social unity, which can be the source of every joy and success, applies particularly to bodies and bodily matters in people, and the separation between them is the source of every calamity and misfortune.

But with concepts and ideas, it is the complete opposite: Unity and lack of criticism are deemed the source of every failure and hindrance to all the progress and intellectual fertilization. This is because drawing the right conclusions depends particularly on increasing disagreements and separation between views. The more contradictions there are between views and the more criticism there is, the more the knowledge and wisdom increase, and matters become more suitable for examination and clarification.

The degeneration and failure of intelligence stem only from the lack of criticism and disagreement. Thus, evidently, the whole basis of physical success is the measure of unity of the society, and the basis for the success of intelligence and knowledge is the separation and disagreement among them.

It turns out that when humankind achieves its goal, with respect to the success of the bodies, by bringing them to the degree of complete love of others, all the bodies in the world will unite into a single body and a single heart, as written in the article, “The Peace.” Only then will all the happiness intended for humanity become revealed in all its glory. But against that, we must be watchful not to bring the views of people so close that disagreement and criticism among the wise and scholarly might be terminated, for the love of the body naturally brings with it proximity of views. And should criticism and disagreement vanish, all progress in concepts and ideas will cease, as well, and the source of knowledge in the world will dry out.

This is the proof of the obligation to caution with the freedom of the individual regarding concepts and ideas. For the whole development of the wisdom and knowledge is based on that freedom of the individual. Thus, we are cautioned to preserve it very carefully, in a manner that each and every form within us, which we call “individual,” that is, the particular force of a single person, generally named the “will to receive.”

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Ancestral Heritage

All the details of the pictures that this will to receive includes, which we have defined as the source, or the first reason, whose meaning includes all the tendencies and customs inherited from his ancestors, which we picture as a long chain of thousands of people who were alive once, and stand one atop of the other, each of them is an essential drop of his progenitors, and that drop brings each person all the spiritual possessions of his progenitors into his elongated brain, called “subconscious.” Thus, the individual before us has, in his subconscious, all the thousands of spiritual legacies from all the individuals represented in that chain, which are his progenitors and ancestors.

Thus, just as the face of each and every person differs, so their views differ. There are no two people on earth whose opinions are identical, because each person has a great and sublime possession bequeathed to him from his ancestors, and which others have no shred of them.

Therefore, all those possessions are considered the individual’s property, and society is cautioned to preserve its flavor and spirit so it does not become blurred by its environment. Rather, each individual should maintain the integrity of his inheritance. Then, the contradiction and oppositeness between them will remain forever, to forever secure the criticism and progress of the wisdom, which is all of humanity’s advantage and its true eternal desire.

After we have come to a certain measure of recognition of man’s selfishness, which we have determined as a force and a desire to receive, being the essential point of the bare being, it has also become thoroughly clear to us, from all sides, the original possession of each body, which we have defined as “ancestral heritage.” This pertains to all the potential tendencies and qualities that have come into his source by inheritance, which is the first substance of every person, meaning the initial seed of his forefathers.

Now we have found the door to resolving the intention of our sages in their words that by receiving the Torah, they were liberated from the angel of death. However, we still need further understanding regarding selfishness and the above-mentioned ancestral heritage.

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Freedom from the Angel of Death

Now, after all that we have learned, we find a way to truly understand the words of our sages when they said, “‘Harut [carved] on the stones,’ do not pronounce it Harut, but rather Herut [freedom], for they have been liberated from the angel of death.”

It has been explained in the articles, “Matan Torah” and “The Arvut,” that prior to the giving of the Torah, they had assumed the relinquishment of any private property to the extent expressed in the words, “a kingdom of priests,” and the purpose of the whole of creation—to adhere to Him in equivalence of form with Him: As He bestows and does not receive, they, too, will bestow and not receive. This is the last degree of Dvekut [adhesion], expressed in the words, “a holy nation,” as it is written at the end of the article, “The Arvut.”

I have already brought you to realize that man’s essence, meaning his selfishness, defined as the will to receive, is only half a thing, and can only exist when clothed in some image of a possession or hope for possession. Only then is our matter complete and can be called “man’s essence.”

Thus, when the children of Israel were rewarded with complete Dvekut on that holy occasion, their vessels of reception were completely emptied of any worldly possession and they were adhered to Him in equivalence of form. This means that they had no desire for any self-possession, but only to the extent that they could bestow contentment, so their Maker would delight in them.

And since their will to receive had clothed in an image of that object, it had clothed in it and bonded with it into complete oneness. Therefore, they were certainly liberated from the angel of death, for death is necessarily an absence and negation of the existence of something. But only while there is a spark that wishes to exist for its own pleasure is it possible to say about it that that spark does not exist because it has become absent and died.

However, if there is no such spark in man, but all the sparks of his selfness clothe in bestowal of contentment upon their Maker, then he neither becomes absent nor dies. For even when the body is annulled, it is only annulled with respect to self-reception, in which the will to receive is dressed and can only exist in it.

However, when he achieves the aim of creation and the Creator receives pleasure from him, since His will is done, man’s essence, which clothes in His contentment, is granted complete eternity, like Him. Thus, he has been rewarded with freedom from the angel of death. This is the meaning of the words of the Midrash (Midrash Rabbah, Shemot, 41): “Freedom from the angel of death.” And in the Mishna (Avot, Chapter 6): “Harut [carved] on the stones; do not pronounce it Harut, but rather Herut [freedom], for none are free, unless they engage in the study of Torah.”

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Open Discussion

Give example(s) that explain the path of suffering and the path of Torah?

From what you understood, how do you relate now to this principle of "taking after the collective"? And the principle of "Take after the Individual"?

Why is the individual important according to the text?

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Clips

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Tens Course - Lesson #9

Criticism as a Means for Spiritual Advancement

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Workshop questions

1) From what we've learnt, what can we do with criticism we might have for others or self-criticism?

2) How can we maintain our society as a cohesive and connected, without harming it, and when I feel that the bond can be improved, how can I correctly suggest ways to advance the society and the ten?

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See You Next Week!