The Accelerating Human

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur spiritual work is called “the Creator’s work.” But why is that if we are the ones who have to carry it out? This work is difficult, confusing, and demands great efforts. We devote so much time and effort to it, in fact giving away our entire lives…. Yet it is called “the Creator’s work” because in doing our work we take Him or Nature as an example.

Everything moves forward and returns to its root, including the still, vegetative, and animate levels. However, these levels develop by the program inherent in them. It is impossible to change that program, nor is it necessary. Besides, there is no one who could change it because these levels do not have freedom of choice. They are devoid of understanding and the perception of what happens to them and who governs them.

But onwards, beyond these levels, the human being develops. This is not just a creature on two legs, but a being that is able to take the law of development into his own hands and realize it independently. This is the “human” degree (Adam). In order to fulfill his purpose, he must take the Creator as an example, and not wait for the Creator to develop him like is done with the still, vegetative, and animate levels. A human is someone who wants to develop on his own, at an accelerated rate.

That is why he observes the Creator’s work: What does He do to creation? Where is He leading it? What does he want to make out of us? We want to develop on our own, faster.

Baal HaSulam illustrates this with the following example: A person does not wait for a chick to develop from an egg that’s warmed by a chicken, but establishes the mass production of eggs in the necessary quality and quantity in order to satisfy his needs. He does not ask the chicken about what it is able or unable to do, but builds incubators that provide him with chicks according to the rate of development he has taken into his own hands.

The same thing is true for the spiritual path. If a person does not want to sit and wait for the “developmental press” to push him toward the goal, then he discerns the goal and the means of attaining it in order to take those means into his own hands. He also builds an “incubator” or “greenhouse” inside of which he can place himself in order to be under the influence of laws that accelerate his development.

By searching for similarity to the Creator, a person learns how the Creator works on him, and accordingly builds an environment for himself, a “greenhouse,” in order to accelerate the process of his development so the same forces of development would operate in his hands. This is already “the path of Torah,” the path of Light, which is the developmental force. Accordingly, a person then needs Light that is more powerful than the one he receives during the natural course of development.

On the spiritual path we are called “the Creator’s workers” because we take Him as an example and realize this example on ourselves. We build a special environment, a “greenhouse” that enables us to absorb a greater force of development and tolerate its influence in order to develop ourselves.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/11, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Under A Press Or In The Incubator?
Valuing The Means As Highly As The Goal
To Stand Before The Creator And Become Like Him

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