In “What Are the Four Developmental Stages of the Primordial Desire in Creation?” we discussed the emergence of the desire to receive in Stage One, and the desire to give in Stage Two, as offshoots of the primordial desire to give in the Root. We also showed how because of its desire to give, the desire to receive was reactivated in Stage Three and maximized in Stage Four. Maximizing the desire to receive caused it to want not merely to enjoy, but to actually become like its progenitor—the Root Stage—and even to have the status of the Root Stage’s primacy. The subsequent realization that this was not (yet) possible induced a sense of inherent inferiority in Stage Four, which induced a restriction—elimination of any sensation of pleasure (light).

Also, because Stage Four’s real desire is for the Root’s primacy, it does not settle for the unbounded pleasure received in Stage One. Instead, it wishes to obtain the nature of the Root, the Thought of Creation, and consequently the Root’s primacy.

Thus, the elimination of pleasure in Stage Four is neither a result of its inability to receive, nor a consequence of the Root’s inability to give. The Root gives incessantly, but the desire to receive does not want to receive something as degrading as charity (as described by Ashlag in “The Giving of the Torah”). for this reason, because Stage Four wishes to acquire the giver’s thought and become like its Creator, its restriction is an offshoot of its decision to not receive unless with the intention to bestow, as this reciprocates the Creator’s desire to bestow.

The Structure of a Partzuf

To achieve that, Stage Four builds a three-part mechanism, called Partzuf (face), to determine if it should receive light, and if so, how much, with the aim to bestow at any given moment opportunity. The top section of the Partzuf is called Rosh (Head). Its task is to determine how much of the abundance (light) is to be received by the desire to receive. The desire to receive itself constitutes the bottom part of the Partzuf, which is called Guf (Body).

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In “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Baal HaSulam divides the onset of Creation into five stages and one restriction, but we can cluster them into three groups. Think of the first two groups as a car and the fuel for its engine, and imagine that the third group is the driver.

The first group contains only Stage Zero, the Root. This is the desire to give, the energy that creates and sustains the car called “Creation.”

The second group—Stages One and Two—builds a “platform” for evolution. This is the car itself. In a sense, the platform that the two stages have built resembles what Richard Dawkins described in The Selfish Gene as “The primeval soup,” the oceanic substrate that contained the ingredients for life’s inception.

The third group—Stages Three and Four—is “the driver.” Its role is to start the engine of evolution—the interaction between the desires. As we will explain below and in the next chapter, the restriction is the wheel with which creation is driven toward its purpose: discovering the Thought of Creation.

Stages Zero and One

In Kabbalistic terms, the existence of a desire to bestow without a desire to receive is called “the Root Stage” or “Stage Zero.” The Root Stage is immediately followed by its mandatory offshoot—“Stage One”—the desire to receive, which is permeated with the abundance given to it by the Root, the desire to bestow.

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The Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education Center is happy to announce the start of a new EC semester beginning tonight, on Wednesday, March 19. 

Whether you wish to share the wisdom of Kabbalah with friends or family, or you wish to review what you have already studied, the upcoming semester will have something for everyone as EC instructors cover the following topics and many more in this course:

• Introduction to Kabbalah
• Where Did You Come From? Where Are You Now? Where Are You Headed?
• Who Are You? What Is Reality?
• Where Do Your Thoughts & Desires Come From? How Can You Use Them Optimally?
• The Language of Kabbalah: Roots and Branches
• How to Make World Peace A Reality
• Do You Have Free Will?
• How to Discover the One Force Acting on You
• Creation & Evolution Explained: From Before The Big Bang to the Future, Final State of Existence

Go Here to Sign Up for the Course »

The course is free of charge and all students have access to the following:

• 10 weeks of study (2 classes per week),
• Live interaction with instructors during lessons where students can ask questions,
• Free, optional access to a web-based community where students can post questions that will be answered by instructors and moderators,
• Free PDF versions of all course materials,
• A lesson archive where all lessons are posted if you miss a live class or wish to review.

Go Here to Sign Up for the Course »

Most importantly, this course and the whole of the wisdom of Kabbalah is there for anyone who has asked the question “What is the meaning of life?” and been unable to find an answer. We look forward to exploring this wisdom with anyone who is still asking this question. Just sign up for the course, and we’ll look forward to seeing you tonight (Wednesday, March 19).

Go Here to Sign Up for the Course »

Image at top: A screenshot of the Kabbalah Education Center’s Virtual Classroom page where the classes will be broadcast live. 

Two Essential Desires Every Truth Seeker Needs to Find

The importance of Abraham’s discovery lies not so much in its scientific or conceptual innovation, although for his time both were absolutely radical. Rather, the primary significance of his discovery lies in its social aspect.

Indeed, Abraham’s motivation for asking the questions about life’s meaning and purpose, which eventually led to his discovery, was as much social as it was intellectual. He noticed that his townspeople were becoming increasingly alienated. For a long time, Babylonians nurtured a prosperous society that allowed multiple belief systems and teachings to coexist in harmony. But in Abraham’s time, people were growing intolerant, conceited, and alienated from each other, and Abraham wondered why.

Through his questions and observation of Nature, he realized that the world that appears to our senses is but a superficial blanket that covers a complex and magnificent interaction of forces. When these forces interweave in a certain way, they induce a certain type of physical or emotional reality to appear, such as birth, death, war, peace, and all the states in between.

This interaction exists not only on a large scale, as between countries, but in every element of life, from the subatomic to the interstellar, and from the very personal to the international.

Abraham’s thought process in discovering these forces is evident in his questions, which to him were, as Neil Postman put it in The End of Education, “the principal intellectual instruments available to human beings.” In Maimonides’ writings, Abraham asked, “How was it possible for this wheel [of reality] to always turn without a driver? Who is turning it, for it cannot turn itself?”

Thus, through repeated pondering and observation, Abraham came to realize what really makes the world go around, and like all great truths, it was as simple as can be: desires, two desires, to be exact. One is a desire to give and the other, to receive. The interaction between those desires is what makes the world go around; it is the wheel that drives all things and the force that creates all phenomena. In Kabbalistic terminology, the desire to give is referred to as “His [the Creator’s] desire to do good to His creations,” and the desire to receive is described as “the desire and craving to receive delight and pleasure.” for short, Kabbalists refer to them as “desire to bestow” and “desire to receive.”

This simple realization is what Abraham was trying to convey to his fellow Babylonians, but Nimrod tried to prevent him from doing so by trying to kill him. And when he failed to do so, he sent him away.

The Secret Rules Abraham Discovered of Preventing Potential Destruction

Alas, deporting Abraham did not restore the Babylonian spirit of camaraderie and union. Eventually, “The Lord [Creator, meaning Nature] confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Gen, 11:9).

This did not happen to the Babylonians because some vengeful and powerful old man called “The Lord” was holding a grudge against them. It happened to them because the desires that Abraham discovered possess a certain direction of evolution. There is no random interaction here, but a set of rules that unfold by a rigid cause-and-effect order.

When Abraham discovered these rules, he realized his local folk were headed in the wrong direction, which could only lead them to eventual destruction, so he tried his best to warn them. Read the rest of this entry »

Starting Wednesday, March 19, the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education Center will begin a brand new Free Kabbalah Course curriculum of 20 lessons that will transform your life in 10 weeks. 

Lessons will take place live every Wednesday and Sunday at 8:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (NY Time), and will be available for download from the EC archive after the lessons. You are welcome to attend the video lessons, ask questions and get them answered live by the instructors, and join a worldwide community of thousands of spiritual seekers looking to make sense of life.

Current You + 20 Lessons, 10 Weeks, 8 Topics = New You that You Just Can’t Imagine Right Now

This semester will pilot a new curriculum of 20 lessons divided into the following 8 topic sections, in order to provide a more comprehensive introductory experience into the wisdom and method of Kabbalah:

1. Fundamentals of the Wisdom of Kabbalah
2. Comprehending Reality
3. The Language of Kabbalah
4. Free Choice
5. Worlds and Souls
6. The Evolution of the Desires
7. The Spiritual Work of a Person
8. Methodology of the Study of Kabbalah

More details about this new curriculum will be posted soon, but for the time being, here are the details about what you will learn in the first lesson coming up on Wednesday, March 19, at 8:00 PM EDT (NY Time):

Lesson 1: Introduction to Kabbalah

• Concepts you will learn in this lesson:
  • What is Kabbalah?
  • What is the goal of Kabbalah?
  • Who is Kabbalah for?
  • Why and how is Kabbalah a science?
  • What is not Kabbalah? Dispelling common myths about Kabbalah
• Terms you will learn in this lesson:
  • What is the Creator?
  • What is the creation?
  • What is Light?
  • What is a Kli (vessel)?
  • What is the will to receive?

…and most importantly, you will learn how all these concepts and terms relate to every aspect, desire, thought, problem, pleasure and pain in yours and everyones lives.

We look forward to seeing you together with 1,000s of spiritual seekers and curious individuals from around the world at the first lesson this Wednesday, March 19! Click the banner to sign up for the course if you haven’t yet…