The entire development happens according to the four stages of HaVaYaH that arise from the combination of two qualities, the desire to receive pleasure and the desire to bestow, which begin to connect with one another. At first, the desire to receive prevails. Then, the desire to bestow does. Afterwards, they work together, and everything culminates with the final degree of Malchut which wishes to rule over everyone with its egoistic desire.

For this reason, when the Light influences the desire, it causes it to develop according to the four stages until the stage of Dalet (Four). This is the law of spiritual physics. This results in development according to the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels. Man, himself, also develops according to the same four levels: the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels within.

This is why we need to enter a state every time, to be in it, and feel its faults. We “stew” on a certain degree of development until we understand its deficiencies and begin to search for the new degree. All of this happens according to the law of the four stages of development, according to which every current degree always contains the opposite side of the next degree which attracts us.

This is why we initially enjoy every new attained state, but then we begin to feel that this state is our “exile.” It begins to feel bad and insufficient. This way, we lack the “vegetative” life on the “still” level, the “animate” life on the vegetative level, and the “human” life on the animate level. However, what do we lack on the human level? We lack the Creator!

We go through these four stages in this way, which are referred to as the four exiles. Every time that we feel that we are in exile, we want to come out of this state. Every time that we are no longer capable of remaining in a certain state because the sensation of lack becomes intolerable, we go to a new state, and this transition is called “redemption.”

In summary, there are four exiles and four redemptions. As of today, we have been through four exiles and three redemptions over the course of the history of mankind, and we are on the threshold of the fourth and last liberation.

In our current state, we have everything except the Creator, the sensation of and connection with Him so that we can feel His quality: bestowal and love of others. When a person specifically lacks this, it means that he has reached the final fourth stage, the sensation of lack of the revelation of the Creator.

There is no greater lack; this is the final lack. This is the lack we need to reach with our efforts, exercises, and mutual work. Man must verify whether this is really what he is missing. If not, he has not yet come close to liberation. However, if he has a strong environment that is entitled to come out of exile toward redemption, it is possible that they might carry him out of exile as they exit as they would carry an elder, a woman, or a child.

The first to come out are men (Gvarim), those who are able to overcome (Midgabrim). They pull everyone else along; they help and guide in some way. The others just need to be ready to join them, not to resist, to have a desire to come out even being weak and lacking the necessary strength to unite. However, they must not be against it.

In other words, we need to reach a state where we will specifically feel the lack of the quality of bestowal and love, unity, the mutual guarantee. This state precedes spiritual birth.
[41019]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/2011, “This Is for Judah”

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