"Hevruta" - following Lesson #4
Perception of Reality
English Speakers - Meeting #4
Summary of last weeks
- Sunday noon: Live Course from Israel
- Tuesday Evening: Course in English
Nature
- Nature is an interconnected system
- Some of the laws are known, some are yet to be revealed
- Part of the system is revealed, and part is still concealed.
Characteristics of the will to receive
- Our desires are growing all the time.
- Desires are not under the control of the person.
- Desires are strongly influenced/controlled by the environment.
“The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
- The Thought of Creation and its purpose
- Coincidence or design — is there a guiding system behind reality?
- Introduction to authentic Kabbalah sources
Kabbalistic Glossary
- Point in the Heart – The desire to uncover spirituality, which arises within a person. In the Wisdom of Kabbalah, the "heart" represents all of a person’s corporeal desires, while the "point in the heart" signifies a new desire to reveal the purpose of life.
- Wisdom of Kabbalah – A method for revealing the Creator to the created in this world.
- Creator – From the Hebrew word Bo’Reh, meaning “come and see”; the general force of nature, the will to bestow.
- Kli (Hebrew: vessel) – A desire, creature, or the will to receive.
- World (Hebrew: Olam) – Derived from Ha’alama, meaning "concealment”.
Definition of the Wisdom of Kabbalah
“This wisdom is no more and no less than a sequence of roots that hang down by way of cause and consequence, following fixed, determined laws that interweave into a single, exalted goal described as “the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures in this world.””
- Baal HaSulam, The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah
The Three Axis Model
(3) The order of descent described above—by which the will to receive is brought to its final form in this world—unfolds according to the four phases contained in the four letters of the Name HaVaYaH. For the four letters of HaVaYaH in His Name include the whole of reality, leaving nothing whatsoever outside of them.
From the perspective of the general structure, they are explained through the ten Sefirot: Hochma, Bina, Tifferet, and Malchut, together with their root. These are the ten Sefirot, for the Sefira of Tifferet contains within it six Sefirot referred to as Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod. The root is called Keter. However, in their essence they are called Hochma, Bina, Tifferet, Malchut (HBTM). Remember this well.
They are also the four worlds known as Atzilut, Bria, Yetzira, Assiya, and the world of Assiya includes within it this world. Thus, there is not a single creature in this world that is not renewed from Ein Sof, blessed be He—that is, from the Thought of Creation, which is to delight His creatures, as explained above.
Necessarily, it is immediately comprised of Light and kli (vessel), meaning some measure of abundance together with a will to receive that abundance. The measure of abundance extends from His Essence—existence from existence—while the will to receive that abundance is renewed as existence from absence, as mentioned.
And in order for that will to receive to come to its final form, it must necessarily descend—together with the abundance within it—through the four worlds: Atzilut, Bria, Yetzira, Assiya. Only then is the creature completed as Light and vessel, called the body and the Light of life within it.
Perception of Reality - Summary
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The desire to receive is the internal software that manages our “perception of reality” mechanism. We see what we want to see. In order to perceive spiritual reality, we must change the software according to which we perceive reality, that is, the desire to receive.
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According to the law of “equivalence of form,” in order to perceive the spiritual reality, we must develop within the desire to receive sensitivity to spirituality, an intention to bestow, to give, a "Masach [screen]".
Quotes
1. "Take our sense of sight, for example: We see a wide world before us, wondrously filled. But in fact, we see all that only in our own interior. In other words, there is a sort of a photographic machine in our hindbrain, which portrays everything that appears to us and nothing outside of us.
- Baal HaSulam, Foreword to The Book of Zohar, Letter 34
2. "He has made for us there, in our brain, a kind of polished mirror that inverts everything seen there, so we will see it outside our brain, in front of our faces."
- Baal HaSulam, Foreword to The Book of Zohar, Letter 34
3. "Like a worm that was born inside a radish. It lives there and thinks that the world of the Creator is as bitter, dark, and small as the radish in which it was born. But as soon as it breaks the peel of the radish and peeps out, it says in bewilderment: ‘I thought the whole world was like the radish I was born in, and now I see a grand, beautiful, and wondrous world before me! So, too, are those who are immersed in the shell (Klipa) of the will to receive they were born with […]
[they] would try to break the Klipa (shell) of the will to receive in which they were born, and would assume the desire to bestow, their eyes would promptly open to see and attain for themselves all the degrees of wisdom, intelligence, and clear mind that have been prepared for them in the spiritual worlds."
- Baal Haslam. "Introduction to the Book of Zohar
4. "...It is written, “The whole earth is full of His glory,” as it is written in The Zohar, “There is no place vacant of Him.” Yet, we do not feel it for our lack of tools of sensation.
We can see that with a radio receiver, which receives all the signals in the world, the receiver does not create the sounds. Rather, the sound exists in the world, but before we had the receiving device, we did not detect the sounds although they did exist in reality.
Likewise, we can understand that “There is no place vacant of Him,” but we need a receiving device. That receiving device is called Dvekut [adhesion] and “equivalence of form,” which is a desire to bestow. When we have this machine, we will immediately feel that there is no place vacant of Him, but rather “The whole earth is full of His glory".”
- Rabash, 645. By Your Actions, We Know You
Questions for Introspection and Open Discussion
- What have we learnt about the perception of reality?
- What limits our perception of reality in this world?
- What intention is behind my actions?
- Is there an intention behind every deficiency?
NEXT LESSON TOPIC
Lesson 5 — Dec 07, 2025
Questions & Answers
- Bring questions on any of the topics learnt in past lessons
Extra Materials