Why Abraham?

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 5: We must first understand why the Torah was given specifically to the Israeli nation and not to all the peoples of the world equally. Is there, God forbid, nationalism involved here?

As we know, the Torah itself gives a negative answer to this question. It explains that Abraham, the forefather of the people of Israel, was a high priest in Ancient Babylon, among people who were far from knowing the reality of the Creator. He revealed the Kabbalistic methodology as if by chance, although obviously, he was already quite developed internally.

There were ten generations from Adam, the first man who revealed the spiritual world, until Noah and then another ten generations before Abraham. In fact, we are talking about the inner development of the points in the heart, the first of which was Adam. It is possible to imagine this process as concentric circles, radiating from the center outwards. The twentieth round of the development of desire is represented by Abraham.

Thus, Abraham already had a background, the internal preparatory base that was created initially from the degree of Adam. Abraham’s level was very high. While Adam revealed the Creator with a small receiving desire, Abraham revealed Him above the big egoistic desire that arose in Babylon. On one hand, he had the necessary base, and on the other, the burdening of the heart. As usual, one is consistent with the other.

As a result, Abraham was able to understand and develop the Kabbalistic methodology, while Adam, with a small vessel and a small Light which had not grown yet, could not develop, disclose, explain, and carry it to people.

Baal HaSulam explains the order of global development which is divided into three phases of two thousand years each: HBD (Hochma, Bina, Daat), HGT (Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet), and NHY (Netzah, Hod, Yesod). Although the clean vessels of the first Kabbalists are close to the Light, it’s impossible to reveal the method without big, fierce desires that demand greater Lights for their revelation in richness of detail.

Essentially, it’s clear to us that to reveal the method to a certain depth, one needs big desires, big egoism, against which big Light is revealed. Only then will we have the opportunity to present new things so they are understood.

That is why Abraham became the founder of the method of correction. It could not be described properly before him because there was nothing to correct yet. The conditions in Babylon became the basis. The point in the heart awakened in Abraham and in thousands of his students, and they headed to the land of Canaan, to the desire intended for correction, so that it could become the land of Israel in the future.

Babylon is a corrupted desire which reveals the part that can be corrected. Working on this part makes it the land of Canaan. Over time, the egoistic desire appears in it, and it turns into Egypt, then into the desert, and finally, into the land of Israel.

Related Material:
Who Are You, Abraham?
The Order Of Correction
Falling Asleep In The Enemy’s Grip

One Comment

  1. This is very good! My understanding is that the souls of the clean vessels/Adam/first Kabbalists understood Kabbalah more directly. Later on, over the years, the collective soul developed to what was Babylon or more egoistic desires. Abraham was able to use the methodology because his soul was of his ancestors/Adam/first Kabbalists and because of the growing contrast in the souls of Babylon. This is why we know things by their opposite. Like hot because of cold. We can know good because of bad. Abraham was able to see the correction because of the desires opposite to the Creator. The souls that went to Canaan with the corrected desires are Israel. And this is what Israel is today, those who share the upper light and inner correction as a whole. The three phases HBD, HGT, and NHY are humanities soul as a whole developing this correction over thousands of years. And our individual souls going through the inner corrections are a reflection of this on a smaller scale. Just like fractals are a smaller copy of a larger one, we are smaller copies of the larger copy of humanities collective soul.

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