In the article "Matan Torah" (“The Revelation of Godliness”), Baal HaSulam writes that bestowal manifests itself through actions that are directed from one person to another and from a person to the Creator. Both of these actions are aimed at one goal: to attain partial similarity (through the 125 steps of the worlds) and then complete similarity with the Creator (the World of Infinity, a state of unity with the Creator). When a person acts for the sake of bestowal rather than for his own sake, he doesn’t feel the difference between giving to another person or to the Creator because anything beyond his own body is perceived as foreign.

What does it mean “to work for the sake of the Creator?” How do I imagine Him? I unite with my friends (people with whom I share the same goal), and for this purpose I rise above my egoism. Within this union, I begin sensing a more internal desire defined as “the Creator.” Through the group (Circuit 1), I influence Him (Circuit 2). In turn, both react to me. The Group and the Creator comprise two models of “strangers” or "others" that are present within me, both of which I can differentiate. I work with both models for the sake of bestowal and rise beyond my ego.

This is where the circle is completed. There are no “others,” I just imagined them within my ego (my desire to receive pleasure). I rise above my egoism and attain a state called “The Other – 1,” and then I rise even higher into a state that is called “The Other – 2.” Everything happens within me. The saying, “From love of the created beings to love of the Creator” refers to two steps of correcting my egoistic desires.

By “giving to the other” I want to be similar to the Creator, that is, to merge with Him. Everything is within me: In one case my desire is called “group,” “surroundings,” “humanity,” and “souls,” and in the other, on a deeper level, it is called “the Creator.” However, all of it happens within my corrected desire for bestowal. I am involved in two layers of relationships. It’s just harder for me to “give” to the Creator than to my fellow friends.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/5/10, Article “Matan Torah”

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