On Free Will

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

ON FREE WILL
From the above we’ve learned that one gradually learns to
sense this world and the Upper World, and their interaction
at the same time. Information descends from the Upper
World into ours and manifests as matter. We see physical
objects, plants, animals, birds, insects, and people. But if we
possess spiritual vision in addition to the corporeal one, we
can also sense the forces that govern matter.
It is precisely this perception of reality that everyone must
achieve: to sense the Creator behind everything that exists
and transpires. We needn’t believe it blindly, but actually
see and sense it. This is what the book teaches us.
Our reaction to the forces that descend from above
as information ascends to the Upper World, where our
future is decided, whether it materializes in a good result
or a bad one.
Being at the highest spiritual degree, the Creator created
the creature from the quality of egoism, which is opposite to
Him. He filled the creature with the Light, and then emptied
it, thereby lowering it to the state called “our world.”
In return, the creature ascends back along the spiritual
degrees, thereby meriting pleasures far greater than what it
had before its descent into this world.
A question arises: to reach equivalence with its Maker,
why did the creature need to experience the worst possible
state? Couldn’t it be avoided?
The fact is that the creature must have the strength and
freedom to act freely in between two opposite qualities: its
own ego and the Creator, to freely choose its own path and
independently follow it.


To provide man with these choices means the Creator
must a) completely distance the creature from Himself,
b) give the creature the ability to develop and attain the
Universe, and c) allow the creature freedom of choice.
The Creator provides the creature with these conditions
gradually. The creature that senses the Creator, and is
therefore filled with the Light, is not autonomous. Rather, it
is fully controlled by the Light, which dictates its own terms
and imparts to it its qualities.
To create a fully autonomous and independent creature,
the Creator must distance Himself from it completely. In
other words, by freeing itself from the Light, the creature
achieves independence in its actions. The act whereby the
Light is extracted is called Tzimtzum (restriction).
Imagine having a flawed tool that you need to work with.
Naturally, the first thing you must do is fix it and make it
serviceable before you can use it.
From the very first pages, this is exactly what the Bible
speaks of: how to repair this unusable tool—our soul—and
return to the Creator as a result. Like an instruction manual,
it explains how one can ascend to the most supernal and
perfect state, while still living in this world.
As was already mentioned, during the correction one
exists between two worlds—the Upper and the lower. In
the process of correction the soul acquires the necessary
skills, knowledge, and experience for the correction. More
importantly, one develops new sensations, new spiritual
qualities. Thus, by achieving complete correction of the
soul, one acquires the qualities that allow for existence in
all the Upper Worlds—in eternity, serenity, and perfection.
This is how we come to the end of correction.


This state is not described anywhere for the simple
reason that it cannot be expressed in words. Only those
who go through all the preliminary states and reach the
end of correction attain it. Beyond the end of correction lie
uncharted territories that hold the so-called “secrets of the
Torah” (Maase Merkava and Maase Beresheet).
There are only isolated hints at them in The Book of Zohar
and other Kabbalistic texts. However, those spiritual spheres
cannot be described because our language, our letters, and
our notions are all taken from the world of correction.
We cannot sense anything that exists above the system
of correction. Therefore, we cannot express them in our
human language, which is confined to our coordinates,
notions and perceptions.
This is why the greatest Kabbalist of the modern age, Baal
HaSulam, pleaded with the Creator to allow him to descend
from the world of true perceptions to a lower degree, so
he could communicate the way to the spiritual dimension
using letters, words, and earthly emotions. When his request
was granted, he penned the main Kabbalistic works for our
generation, which we can use to enter the spiritual realm.
His works are like a map without which you will surely lose
your way in the labyrinth of corporeal life, lose hope, grow
weary and pass away without ever learning the true purpose
of your existence. Like a father responding to the suffering
of his children, Baal HaSulam picks us up and carries us to
the Light.
Just as one cannot exist in our world without
understanding it, the soul cannot exist in the spiritual world
after the body passes without acquiring knowledge about it
beforehand. Therefore, all the achievements in the science
of Kabbalah not only guarantee us a comfortable existence


in this world, but also the opportunity to exist in the world
to come.