What is “corrected egoism”? It is a state where you feel bliss from bestowing pleasure upon the people around you, and not from using them for your own pleasure. This bliss can only be felt in such a state, which is characteristic of the spiritual world.

Egoistic and Altruistic Perception

What do you see in our world? All kinds of objects, plants, and bodies. How do you relate to them? You love them if they bring you pleasant sensations, and you hate them if they don’t bring you any pleasure. In other words, your attitude toward them is completely egoistic.

What happens when you correct your egoism, or even when you merely begin the process of its step-by-step correction? You suddenly begin to notice things you hadn’t noticed before. Through this imaginary world, you begin to see the real world, one that has always existed around you, a world that is full of Light, Love, and mutual bestowal, the Creator’s world, the so-called “world to come.”

You have never seen it. It was concealed from you by your own ego.

Our Next State, the “World to Come”

Your world and “the world to come” have nothing in common whatsoever, as they exist by different laws. Many people carry the false notion that “the world to come” is a place they go to after death.

Not so. “To come” means it is your next state, which you must attain not after death, but in your lifetime, here and now. The moment you adapt yourself to “the world to come,” you acquire the ability to see it.

It is as if you exit yourself, leave your egoistic body, and open yourself up to a new world, a world with only one law—the Law of Bestowal. And you aspire toward that world because the lives of its inhabitants are founded on mutual love. Thus, instead of perceiving only our world with its bodies and objects, you begin to perceive the force that governs it, to the extent that you grow more similar to this force. By aspiring to bestow, you realize that this force is the absolute good. This force is the Creator.

This is how you come to perceive the pure, genuine Light, just as it stems from the Creator. It is as if you come out to meet the Light before it enters and fills you. This, the Creator’s Light, is not yet weakened by your egoistic filters. It is still pure, and you are given the opportunity to feel it. The very fact that you are capable of detecting it is happiness in its own right. This is called, “to hear the Creator’s call.”

A Great Ego and a “Tiny Candle” as Tools for Answering the Creator’s Call

The pure Light trickles into our world through the thick wall of egoism that screens it. It enters here with the sole purpose of maintaining life in our world. This Light “hides” within all the objects of our world, dressed in all kinds of garments.

A small spark of this Light that you had felt as your point in the heart. It is what Kabbalists call “a tiny candle.”

The very fact that you have a desire (and a great one at that) to attain the depth of what is happening to you speaks of one thing and one thing only (no offense intended): that you are a big egoist, much bigger than everybody else. Whereas others are satisfied with this world, you demand nothing less than the spiritual one! You will not rest until you reveal it with the help of this “tiny candle”, and that is precisely what the Creator wants from you.

“What Is Corrected Egoism?” is based on the book, The Secrets of the Eternal Book: The Meaning of the Stories of the Pentateuch by Semion Vinokur.

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The Heaven and the Earth

“Heaven” means the quality of bestowal. When acquired, the creature becomes filled with the Light of Mercy—the pleasure of being similar to the Creator.

“Heaven” means the Creator’s spark within you, a tiny grain of completely selfless bestowal and love that you discover within. It is precisely this quality of “heaven” that prompts the feeling of unease, compelling you to search insistently for something that doesn’t exist in this world.

“Earth” is all of your egoistic desires. This entire world is built on them.

And between these two polar opposites—“the heaven and the earth”—is your soul. Its state is unstable, as though hung on a string.

Subject to these two forces, in times of ascent the soul draws nearer to the heaven, to bestowal, to the Creator, and you feel like you’re soaring as joy overcomes you. In times of descent, the soul falls to the ground, to the desires of the body, to egoism, and you are imbued with worldly concerns, calculations, fear for the future, and a total lack of faith.

The Correction of the Soul: Cultivating “Heaven” Over “Earth”

The correction process is the same. You find your “golden mean,” that is, you utilize your innate egoistic desire by transforming it into an altruistic one, in order to climb up the spiritual ladder to the Creator, ultimately acquiring His quality of bestowal.

It can further be said that correction constitutes the very understanding that the quality of bestowal exists, that it must be acquired, and that you must work with your egoism—“earth”—to achieve this goal.

You must constantly cultivate the “heaven” within yourself. We have plenty of “earth.” Being born egoists, our entire lives are filled with “earth.” However, we have only a tiny spark of “heaven,” and this spark must be kindled.

Spiritual Life through the Light of Mercy

So how does spiritual life begin on earth? Or, to use the language of Kabbalah, how do I use my egoistic desires (earth) to grow the first sprouts of bestowal within me? How do I break through my egoism and move toward the Creator?

This is done with the help of a special Light that He sends us. Two types of Light emanate from the Creator: “The Light of Life” and “The Light of Mercy.” This is precisely how the creature perceives them.

By using the quality of the Light of Mercy, which is called “water,” you acquire the ability to bestow.

You must “cleanse” yourself by reading the books composed by those who have already attained the spiritual worlds, writing to us from their heights. In so doing, you draw the emanation of the Upper Light that these books contain.

Herein lies your spiritual work. The very process of reading is already helpful, but if you approach it with the desire to change, to be like the Light, to cleanse yourself of the ego, the Light influences you to a much greater degree. It is precisely this influence of the Light that separates the works of Kabbalists from all the other texts in our world.

That is when “life appears on the earth,” meaning you begin to clearly sense the first, tender sprouts of spiritual desires. These desires haven’t yet taken a complete hold of you. Rather, your state is like that of a baby who hasn’t yet learned to walk, but can already use his feet to kick. Better yet, you are like those first blossoms—unable to move, but which are drawn toward the sun.

“What Is the Heaven & the Earth in the Bible?” is based on the book, The Secrets of the Eternal Book: The Meaning of the Stories of the Pentateuch by Semion Vinokur.

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