Birth

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

BIRTH
“And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month.”
And then the “earth appears,” meaning you draw to yourself
the first egoistic desires, the lightest and most superficial,
which are mountains. “In the tenth month, on the first day
of the month, were the tops of the mountains are seen.”
(Here they are, after the nine months of intrauterine
development, with the embryo’s birth on the first day of the
tenth month.)
“And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah
opened the window of the ark which he had made. And he
sent forth a raven, and it went forth to and fro, until the
waters were dried up from off the earth. And he sent forth
a dove… But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot,
and she returned unto him to the ark.”
What’s happening here? Think back to what you did the
moment you were disconnected from the material world,
having returned to it afterward with a specific program of
correction. You took the light egoistic desires, known as


“raven” and “dove,” which were corrected in the ark, and
used them to “feel the earth” (the desire). In so doing, you
seemingly asked yourself, “Will the ego suck me in again?”
Why does this happen at the end of forty days, and what
is the “window” that is made? Forty is the quality of the
Creator, the quality of absolute bestowal, the quality of a
mother. What you are doing here is making a “tiny window”
in it. You are introducing a certain dissonance into this idyll
by adding a dash of egoism to it. This enables you to check
whether you can establish contact between your altruistic
and egoistic qualities (by sending forth a raven and then a
dove—qualities that have undergone correction in the ark).
Can there be contact between the two? Can you “disembark,”
or not quite yet?
As it turns out, the answer is “no,” since both birds return
to the ark.
“And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the
dove.” What are these seven days?
In Kabbalah, the number seven (7) symbolizes a small
but complete desire. A complete desire has both an
altruistic component (the right line), and an egoistic one
(the left line). By combining them we “beget” a certain
“golden mean,” in which two opposite halves come
together, forming one middle line: a single desire directed
upward, to the spiritual world.
This method ensures the integrity of the entire creature.
In other words, not a single force is wasted, not a single word
is redundant. Rather, it’s all about the correct application of
all the forces and processes that take place in man.
Our tiny desire can be likened to a newborn baby; it is
already outside its mother’s womb, “outside the ark.” This


“newborn” is that tiny spiritual desire of ours that begins to
explore the next degree of correction, called “nursing.” The
newborn still can’t walk, but it is already breathing the air
of the earth, demanding sustenance and “kicking its feet.”
This means that our desire to bestow can be given a tiny
dash of egoism, which it can deal with and correct.
We are embarking on a path of correction. Though this
desire is only an “infant” now, it will grow into “the leader
of the new generation,” meaning he will lead your other, yet
uncorrected desires to correction, to the Creator.
“And the dove came in to him [to Noah] at eventide; and
lo in her mouth an olive-leaf freshly plucked; so Noah knew
that the waters were abated from off the earth.” This means
that you can now get to work. It’s time to go ashore and start
working with the ego, carefully at first, to ensure it doesn’t
ruin the young and fragile altruistic blossoms…
What is the freshly plucked olive leaf in the dove’s mouth?
An olive leaf symbolizes the Light of life, which can only be
received in an altruistic desire.
The Noah inside you receives a report: “You can
deal with (correct) the little egoistic desires, for you
have been sufficiently washed over with water (Light of
Mercy). As evidence of this, you are shown this olive leaf
(luminescence).”
It’s not yet olive oil, which symbolizes the complete Light
of Life, nor is it olives, but merely an olive leaf (not light, but
luminescence). However, it’s enough to begin correcting the
small egoistic desires.
“And God spoke unto Noah, saying, ‘Go forth… and be
fruitful and multiply upon the earth.’” You have overcome
this phase of correction called the “ark.” You have endured


and matured through it; you have essentially been born
anew, so now you can be certain that there will not be any
more floods. This is the blessing that the Creator gave to
“Noah and his sons,” the corrected altruistic desires: “Be
fruitful and multiply upon the earth.”
You have passed through this state, and now altruism
(the quality of the Creator) joins with egoism (the quality
of the creature). Finally you are “setting foot on the earth”
and embarking on the blessed path of the correction of
the ego. One way or another, everyone must traverse this
path! And until the end of correction of the entire ego (the
return to the Garden of Eden), your advancement will be
aimed only upward.
There is a saying in Kabbalah: “In the spiritual you always
rise and never fall.” Indeed, you must know that all the
ascents and descents you will feel on your spiritual path lead
only up the spiritual ladder. Even if it appears that you’ve
stumbled in the darkness or that the night has dragged on
too long (“night” refers to states of spiritual descent when
the light is absent), know that it is actually helping you on
your spiritual path. The only thing required of you is to grab
onto everything that you used to “build the ark,” and you
will feel the arrival of the morning (the ascent).
Why are there such descents? It’s because the Creator’s
quality of bestowal within us has grown strong enough to
handle another portion of the ego, which is immediately
supplied for correction. The work must not stop. We must
undergo complete purification.
This is why there are times when you feel the descents
and hear questions from the ego, which you then correct. It
continues to assault you with the same old questions: “Why


do you need all this? Leave it alone and focus on important
things, like making money!”
The ego’s questions don’t change; they are very logical
and earthly, but you are not the same person anymore. You
have already gotten a taste of the spiritual state, and you
know that the night will invariably change into morning.
From this point on, your entire path, as described in the
book, is one of phases of correction of the ego, with the help
of the quality of the Creator.