Baal HaSulam's Introduction to Zohar Reader

Note that at a time when all of humanity would unanimously agree to annul and destroy their selfish desire to receive, leaving them with only a desire to give to others, all worries and hazards would be removed from the world. Each person would live a secure, healthy, and perfect life, as the entire world would provide and supply all of his needs. Yet, at a time when each person has a selfish desire to receive, that is the source for unavoidable suffering, wars, and corruption, which weaken our bodies by causing illness and pain.

It follows that all of the suffering in our world is designed to motivate us to destroy the evil husk of the body and to acquire the perfect form of the desire to give. That matches what we said above: the path of suffering can lead us to the desired form.

Know that interpersonal mitzvot [bein adam leḥavero] take priority over mitzvot between man and God [bein adam laMakom], because causing benefit to one’s fellow leads him to cause benefit to God.

OUR ESSENCE Given all of the above, the first inquiry is also answered. We asked: What is our essence? The answer is that our essence is identical to that of the essences of all the particulars in the world, which is none other than the desire to receive (as discussed in chapter 7). Yet, this [desire to receive] is not the way that we imagine it in the second stage, in which it is the selfish desire to receive. Instead, it [the desire to receive] is in the way that things are in the first stage, within the Ein Sof. That is, it [the desire to receive] has its eternal form, in which it receives in order to give satisfaction to the Creator (see chapter 13).

Though we have not arrived yet at the third stage, and we have still not had enough time to develop, this does not detract from our essence. That is because the third stage follows inevitably from the first stage, and [to paraphrase a talmudic principle,] “a debt that stands to be collected is [considered] as if it were already collected.” Not having had enough time to develop is only a problem if there is a doubt about whether the process will fully develop to perfection in the time available.

And since we have no doubt about that at all, [since developing from stage one, to two, to three is inevitable], it is as if we have already achieved the third stage. The body that was given to us for now, with its problematic form, does not damage our essence, since it [the body] and everything it acquires will be completely eliminated together with the source of impurity. And “anything that will inevitably be burnt is [considered] as if it is already burnt” (Menaḥot 102b) and as if it had never existed.

However, this is not true of the soul enclothed in that body. The essence [of the soul] is the desire not to receive, but to give, which has flowed to us from the system of the four sacred worlds of ABYA (see chapter 11). It will exist eternally. For the form of this desire to give is equal in form to the Life-Force of the Living, and it is therefore not temporary. This shall be discussed more fully in chapter 32 and on.

Do not pay attention to those philosophers who claim that the essence of the soul is intellectual substance, that it [the soul] is actualized only through the knowledge that it acquires, that it [the soul] grows from knowledge, and knowledge is all of its being. [According to this theory,] the eternity of the soul after death depends entirely on the extent to which the soul has acquired knowledge, and in the absence of knowledge, nothing is left [of the soul] to remain. This is not the Torah’s view, and the heart rejects this opinion. Anyone who has ever acquired knowledge knows that it is an external acquisition, not the essence of the one who acquires it.

Rather, as explained, all of the substance of the new creation – whether the substance out of which is made spiritual things or the substance out of which is made physical things – is nothing other than the desire to receive. (We have said that the soul is made up entirely of a desire to give. Yet, that is only due to the repairs that occur when the reflected light is enclothed [in the soul. That light] is received from the upper worlds, from where it comes.

I explain the matter of enclothing in my Petiḥa Leḥokhmat HaKabbala in chapters 14–16, 19. Still, the essence of the soul remains a desire to receive. See the sources there to understand.) For the thing that distinguishes one example of a thing from another is not its substance, but its will.

For the will in every essence produces needs, and those needs produce thoughts and knowledge to the same degree [as the needs]. Then, the creature can [go out and] acquire what it requires to fill its needs.

People’s desires differ from one another. Similarly, their needs, thoughts, and education differ. For example, there are those who desire to receive only animal desires, and their needs, thoughts, and education are designed to fill those animal wants. Though they use their intellect and knowledge like a human, still, “the slave is like the master.”

That intellect is therefore an animal-like intellect, since it is enslaved to the animal desires. There are also those whose desire focuses on human wants, such as honor or power over others – wants that animals do not have. Such people will focus their needs, thoughts, and education on those [human] desires to the extent possible. Those whose desire to receive is linked to intellectual understanding will focus their needs, thoughts, and education on fulfilling that desire to the maximum extent.

For the most part, people possess all three kinds of desires to different extents. But the admixture of those different needs differs from person to person. This explains the differences between individuals. People differ from one another physically in ways that are parallel to the way they differ from one another spiritually.

The spiritual souls of people have only a desire to grant satisfaction to their Creator, and this comes from the power of the reflected light that they receive from the upper worlds from which they [the souls] come. This desire [to grant satisfaction to the Creator] is the very essence of the soul. It follows that when the soul becomes enclothed in the body, it [the soul] births within the person the needs, thoughts, and education needed to fully grant that satisfaction to its Creator proportional to its [the soul’s] desire.

[On the other hand,] the essence of the body is a selfish desire to receive. All of its experiences and everything it acquires fill this defective desire to receive, which was initially created only to be destroyed and eliminated from the world in order to reach the perfect third stage and the end of the repair. That is why [the body] – along with all of its acquisitions – is lowly, mortal, and temporary, like a passing shadow, which leaves nothing after it.

In contrast, the essence of the soul is a desire to give, and all of its experiences and everything it acquires fill this desire to give. It remains eternally in first stage and in the future third stage. It is, therefore, immortal and permanent. It and everything it acquires are eternal, living forever. They are not at all affected by the non-being of the body’s death. On the contrary, the absence of the defective body’s form [after death] greatly strengthens the soul, allowing it to ascend to the heights of the Garden of Eden.

Thus, it is clear that the eternality of the soul does not at all depend on the knowledge that the soul acquires, as the philosophers had suggested. Rather, the soul’s eternality is in its very essence – its essential desire to give. Knowledge that the soul acquires is its reward, not its essence.

RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD This also answers the fifth inquiry. We explained that the body is defective, to the point that a soul cannot reach its complete purity until the body has decomposed. If so, why is the body resurrected? Moreover, the Sages say that the dead will be resurrected with their blemishes, so that others will not say that they are different people.

The plan of creation itself provides an answer, based on an understanding of the first stage. We had said that the plan [of creation] is to bring pleasure to creatures. It follows, therefore, that God certainly created a great and extreme desire to receive all of the positive influence that is present in the plan of creation. The great pleasure and the desire to receive are linked to one another (above, chapters 6–7).

We explained there that this great desire to receive is in fact all that God needed to create. Nothing else was necessary to accomplish the goal of creation, given that it is in the nature of the perfect actor [to act efficiently and] to do no unnecessary actions. As we say in the Shir HaYiḥud for Friday: “In all of Your labor, You forgot nothing; You left nothing out and added nothing extra.”

We also stated above (chapters 10–11) that the exaggerated desire to receive was removed entirely from the system of sanctity and placed in the system of the worlds of impurity, from which emerge [several things]: the bodies, what those bodies need to live, and anything that they acquire in this world. After a man reaches the age of thirteen, involvement in Torah and mitzvot help him acquire a sanctified soul, which is nourished from the system of holy worlds, in proportion to the sanctified soul that the person has achieved.

We also said above (chapter 14) that no repair occurs to the body – that is, to the exaggerated desire to receive – during the six thousand years [of this world’s existence] that are meant for the service of Torah and mitzvot. Whatever repairs a person achieves through that service affect only the soul, which rises along the upward path of sanctity and purity. That expands the desire to give that appears with the soul.

For this reason, the body will eventually be buried and decompose, since it was not repaired at all. But it [the body] will not remain in that state [of decomposition], for if the exaggerated desire to receive would be annihilated from the world, the plan of creation would not be fulfilled. That is because [the plan of creation] involves [creatures] receiving all of the great pleasures that God planned to bequeath to them.

After all, the great desire to receive and the great pleasure received are proportional to one another, and any diminishment of the desire to receive will diminish the pleasure of receiving.

We already stated that the first stage leads inevitably to the third stage; everything in the plan of the initial stage of creation will be fulfilled. Nothing [that was present in the initial plan of creation] shall be omitted [in the third stage] (see chapter 15). Therefore, the first stage necessitates resurrection of deceased bodies. That is to say, the exaggerated desire to receive, which had been destroyed and had decomposed in the second stage, must return to life anew. It will be greater and more significant [when resurrected], with no limits at all. [The resurrected bodies] must even contain their flaws. That way, they can begin their service anew, in order to transform the exaggerated desire to receive, so that it will become an equally sized desire to give.

We have then doubled our benefit. First, we have a place to receive all of the goodness, the pleasure, and the softness in the plan of creation, since we have already had a body [in the second stage] with an exaggerated desire to receive, which leads [in the third stage] to pleasures that are proportional [to the earlier desire to receive], as discussed. Second, our receiving in this manner is only for the purpose of giving satisfaction to our Creator. Hence, this type of receiving is considered complete giving (see chapter 11). This will also equate the forms. That [equation of forms] means binding with God, which is the form of the third stage. Hence, the first stage absolutely requires resurrection of the dead.

Resurrection could occur only toward the end of the process of repair, that is to say, at the end of the second stage. [Resurrection can only happen] once we have become worthy of negating our exaggerated desire to receive, and once we have received the desire to give, and after we became worthy of all of the lofty levels of the soul – which are referred to as the Nefesh, Ruaḥ, Neshama, Ḥaya, and Yeḥida [NaRaNḤaY].

Then, due to our service in negating the desire to receive, we will have reached the greatest stage of perfection. Only then will it be possible to replace the body – with its exaggerated desire to receive – and we will not be damaged due to [the body’s] ways of separating us from our bond with God. On the contrary! We will overcome it [the body] and we will give it the form of giving, as discussed.

The same is true of any personal bad trait of which we want to rid ourselves. At first, we must remove it from ourselves extremely and completely, such that none of it remains. Only later can we accept some of that trait again, directing it toward the middle path. As long as it has not [first] been completely removed from us, we cannot direct it to the proper middle path.

This is the meaning of statement of the Sages that in the future, the dead will be resurrected with their blemishes, which will then be healed. As discussed, this means that people will be resurrected with the same body [they once had], including the exaggerated and unrestricted desire to receive. The expression “including their blemishes” refers to the ways in which the body is formed by the system of the worlds of impurity, prior to being purified somewhat through Torah and mitzvot. Only then [after the body is resurrected in an impure state, “with its blemishes,”] will it be healed. Then it will achieve the equation of the forms.

The Sages also said that the reason [for resurrection with blemishes] is so that others will not say that it is another person. This means that people should not say that the [resurrected] person is in a form other than what was part of the plan of creation. For the plan of creation included an exaggerated desire to receive, designed to receive all of the good in the plan of creation. But in the meantime, the body consists of husks and must be purified. In the end, it must be the same body, for if [that resurrected body] included anything less [than the original body], it would actually be a completely different body that is unworthy of all of the good in the plan of creation that had been present in the first stage. Understand this well.

OUR PURPOSE These explanations offer an opportunity to answer inquiry number two. What is our task in the great chain of being, of which we are only a small piece during our short lives?

Know that our service during the seventy years of our lives is to be divided into four stages: First, to acquire the exaggerated and limitless desire to receive, with all of its defectiveness, from the impure system of the four worlds of ABYA. For if we did not possess this defective desire to receive, we could not repair it at all, since a person cannot repair what he does not contain.

Therefore, it is not enough to obtain the desire to receive that is inherent in the body of a newborn. We must spend no less than thirteen years to become a chariot to carry the husks of impurity, such that the husks shall rule over us and provide their light for us, since their light encourages the growth of the desire to receive. The husks expand the desire to receive, which grows. For example, a newborn wants only a small amount, but when the Other Side grants him that small amount, the desire to receive expands and he wants a large amount. When the Other Side grants him that large amount, the desire to receive expands further and wants even more. If a person does not overcome this through Torah and mitzvot, which help the person purify the desire to receive and transform it into a desire to give, the desire to receive will continue to expand over the person’s entire life, to the point that “a person dies with only half of what he desired” (Kohelet Rabba 1:13).

The Other Side and the husks have the task of expanding a person’s desire to receive, turning it into something exaggerated and boundless. This creates for a person all of the material he needs to work on and repair.

The second stage involves the years after thirteen. At that time, there is a “point” [nekuda] in the heart, and [that point] is the secret of the “back” [aḥorayim] of the sacred soul. That point is enclothed in the inborn desire to receive, but it only awakens after the age of thirteen (for the reasons discussed above). At that time, it [the point] begins to enter into the territory of the system of the worlds of sanctity, at least to the extent that the person is involved in Torah and mitzvot.

During that time, the primary task is to acquire and expand the spiritual desire to receive. From the moment of birth, the person desires to receive only materiality. Thus, even though he acquires the exaggerated desire to receive prior to thirteen years of age, the desire to receive had not yet grown completely, since the primary desire to receive involves spirituality. For example, prior to thirteen, the person desires to grab [lit. swallow] all of the revealed wealth and honor present in the material world, the temporary world that is like a passing cloud.

The same is not true of the exaggerated spiritual desire to receive, which motivates a person to grab and enjoy all of the goodness and the wealth of the eternal World to Come, which is a permanent and unending acquisition. Thus, the exaggerated desire to receive is not completed until [it develops] the desire to receive spiritually.

This [reality in the second stage] is explained in Tikkunei Zohar (Tikkunim Ḥadashim 97b), commenting on the verse, “The leech has two daughters: ‘Give’ and ‘Give.’” (Prov. 30:15). The word “leech” refers to gehinnom. The evildoers who are trapped there bark like a dog, saying, “Hav, hav – Give, give”: Give us the wealth of this world; give us the wealth of the World to Come.

Still, [this second stage] is a great deal more advanced than the first one. Not only does a person acquire an understanding of the true greatness of the desire to receive; not only is all of materiality available to [him in order to] perform the service [of God] that he requires; but this is also the stage at which he can acquire [the quality of doing divine service] for its own sake. [As the Talmud explains, Pesaḥim 50b,] “A person should always engage in Torah and mitzvot, even if [he does so] not for their own sake, as through [the performance of mitzvot] not for their own sake, one comes to perform them for their own sake.”

That is why this stage, after thirteen years of age, qualifies as holy. This is the secret of the “sacred maidservant who serves her master,” which is the secret of the sacred Shekhina [Divine Presence; also a term for the lowest Sefira]. The maidservant brings the person to the level of “for its own sake” and therefore makes the person worthy of the revelation of the Shekhina.

But a person must do everything possible to reach “for its own sake.” If he does not make the effort, if he does not reach the level of “for its own sake,” he can fall into the trap of the “impure maidservant,” who stands in opposition to the holy maidservant. The task of the [impure maidservant] is to confuse a person, such that the “not for its own sake” does not become “for its own sake.” That is what the verse in Proverbs means when it states, “The maidservant who displaces her mistress” (Prov. 30:23). For the [impure maidservant] will not allow the person to come close to the mistress, the holy Shekhina.

The final level within this stage is coming to love God greatly, comparable to a glutton who becomes infatuated with a material pleasure, such that thoughts of that pleasure stand before his eyes all day and all night. This is what the poet stated: “When I recall Him, I cannot sleep” (Seliḥot for the second day of the Ten Days of Teshuva). The verse also states: “Fulfilled desire is a Tree of Life” (Prov. 13:12). For the five levels of the soul [Nefesh, Ruaḥ, Neshama, Ḥaya, and Yeḥida, referred to by the abbreviation NaRaNḤaY] are the secret of the Tree of Life, which lasts for five hundred years. Each level is one hundred years. During this time, he can receive all five aspects of the soul. (The five levels will be explained shortly, regarding the third stage.)

The third stage is the service of Torah and mitzvot for its own sake – in order to give [benefit to his Creator], rather than to receive a reward. This service purifies the selfish person’s desire to receive and transforms it into a desire to give. To the extent that the desire to receive is purified, [the person] becomes worthy of and prepared to receive the five parts of the soul referred to as NaRaNḤaY (as discussed below, chapter 43).

The [five parts of the soul] want to give, but they cannot become enclothed in the body (see above, chapter 23) while the desire to receive controls the body, since the desire to receive stands in an oppositional relationship to the soul, or at least it [the desire to receive] is different in form [from that of the soul]. For the matters of enclothing and equation of the form work together (above, chapter 11).

When a person becomes worthy and he becomes only a desire to give, wanting nothing for himself, he has equated his form with the higher aspects of NaRaNḤaY. (The NaRaNḤaY extend from their source in the Ein Sof, from the situation of unity, through the sanctified worlds of ABYA.) They [NaRaNḤaY] will flow to him, and will be enclothed in him, one at a time.

The fourth stage is the service performed after the resurrection of the dead. The desire to receive, which will be completely eliminated through death and burial, is resurrected with the worst kind of exaggerated desire to receive. That is the secret of “the dead are destined to be resurrected with their blemishes” (above, chapter 28). People then transform it [the body] through receiving in the form of giving, as discussed at length. There are rare individuals who perform this service even while living in this world.

Part 3: The Worlds and Man We can now answer the sixth inquiry. The Sages state that all of the upper and lower worlds were created only for man. But this is surprising. Man is not even like a hairsbreadth when compared with all of the things we witness in this world. How much more so [is man insignificant] compared to all of the upper, spiritual worlds. Why would God bother creating all of these for man? Moreover, what does man need with all of these multiple and wondrous upper, spiritual worlds?

You must know that God’s satisfaction from benefiting His creatures is proportional to the extent that the creatures feel that God is the one giving to them and benefiting them. He is greatly delighted with them [the creatures], like a father who is delighted with his beloved son, to the extent that the son realizes how great and lofty his father is and [to the extent that] his father shows him all of the treasures he has prepared for his son.

As the verse states: “Is Ephraim not a precious son to me, a delightful child? Whenever I speak of him, I remember him all the more. Therefore, I long for him inwardly. I will show him great compassion, declares the Lord” (Jer. 31:19).

If you examine this verse carefully, you can understand and comprehend God’s great delight, as long as those perfected [creatures] are worthy of feeling and appreciating God’s greatness in all the ways that He prepared for them. [This is true to the extent that] they maintain a dear father-son relationship, much as a [human] father does with his own delightful son, as explained by this verse to all who understand it.

We need not expand on this. We need only know that it was worth creating all of the worlds, upper and lower (as will be explained), for the sake of the delight and satisfaction [that God has] from these perfected [creatures].

MAN – THE GOAL OF THE WORLDS In order to prepare His creatures to reach that lofty and elevated level, God wanted these actions to occur in four stages that follow one from the other, referred to as inanimate, plants, animals, and human [lit. speaker]. These are indeed four aspects of the desire to receive, and the upper worlds are divided into four parallel levels. Even though the ultimate goal is in the fourth level (human), it is not possible for [that goal] to appear immediately in the fourth level. It must first pass through the three previous levels, through which it is revealed and developed slowly, until it is perfected in the fourth level. (This is explained in my Talmud Eser Sefirot, Section 1, p. 5, s.v. vetaam.)

The first stage of the desire to receive is called “inanimate.” This is the beginning of the revelation of the desire to receive in this physical world. It contains only the general potential for motion that is present in each kind of inanimate object. But we do not see actual motion in the particular [inanimate objects, but only in the species of inanimate objects]. For the desire to receive begets needs, and needs beget the motions necessary to fulfill the needs. And since the desire to receive is small [in inanimate objects], it [the desire to receive] dominates only the general category at once, but its domination over each individual instance is not recognizable.

Above that is the “plant” aspect, the second aspect of the desire to receive. It is a greater aspect than that of the inanimate, and the desire to receive dominates each and every individual [not just the species]. Each individual [plant] moves independently, as it spreads out near and far to follow the sun. Individual [plants] also have the need for food and drink, as well as the need to excrete. Still, they do not contain individual feelings.

Above that is the “animal” element, the third aspect of the desire to receive. It is almost completely present [in this stage], for the desire to receive begets unique feelings in each individual. This is the distinct life-force present in each individual, which makes one individual different from others. Still, they do not possess empathy for others, in that they have no ability to appreciate the suffering of another or enjoy the happiness of another.

Above that is the “human” element, which contains the fourth aspect of the desire to receive. That is the highest level of perfection, in that it includes an element of empathy.

I will explain precisely the difference between the third element of the desire to receive, present in animals, and the fourth element, present in humans. It is like the difference between one specific creature and all of the creatures as a whole. For the desire to receive present in animals lacks empathy, and it creates wants and needs only to the extent necessary for that particular creature. Humans are different in that they are capable of empathy. [A human] can feel when someone else lacks something, and he can become extremely jealous of that which another has. If a person has one hundred, he wants two hundred. His wants and needs grow to the point that he wants to grab the entire universe.

It has been made clear that God’s entire purpose in creating the universe is to give pleasure to His creatures. That is, they will recognize the truths of God and His greatness and will receive from Him all of the good and the pleasantness that He has prepared for them, as explained based on the verse, “Is Ephraim not a precious son to me?” Therefore, it is equally clear that inanimate objects cannot achieve this goal.

Neither can celestial bodies (no matter how brilliant and large), plants, or even animals. All of these lack empathy, even for creatures that are similar to themselves. How could they appreciate God’s gifts and His goodness? Only humans [can achieve the goal of creation], since they have the potential for empathy toward those who are similar to them – particularly after the service of Torah and mitzvot, which transforms the desire to receive into a desire to give, thereby equating their form with that of their Creator.

After that, they receive all of the levels prepared for them in the upper worlds of NaRaNḤaY, which prepares them to receive the goals embedded in the plan of creation. In short, man is the purpose of the creation of all the worlds.

I know that many philosophers disagree. They reject the idea that a lowly and insignificant human (in their eyes) is the center of the great and lofty creation. These philosophers are comparable to a worm growing inside a radish, believing that God’s world is bitter, dark, and small, like the radish into which the worm was born. As soon as it leaves the skin of the radish and glances outside of it, the shocked worm says: “I thought that the entire world was like the radish into which I was born, and now I see such a great, light, wondrous, and beautiful world.”

By analogy, think of those who are embedded in the husk of their inborn desire to receive. They never attempt to obtain the special “spices” of Torah and practical mitzvot, which are capable of breaking through the hard husk and transforming them into a desire to give satisfaction to the Creator. They are the ones who feel compelled to claim that humans are worthless and nothing – for that is what they truly are.

They cannot even consider the possibility that all of creation is for their sake. Were they dedicated to Torah and mitzvot in order to give satisfaction to their Creator with all of the proper purity, they would be able to break through the husk of the inborn desire to receive and replace it with a desire to give. Immediately, their eyes would be opened. They would see and appreciate themselves and all of the lofty levels of clear wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, which are soul-endingly beautiful and pleasant and which are prepared for them in the spiritual worlds.

Then they would themselves agree with the statement of the Sages: “A good guest, what does he say? How much effort did the host expend on my behalf” (Berakhot 58a).

THE WORLDS A question remains. In the end, why does man need these upper worlds that God has created for him?