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Hi Carlos,
There are 4 levels in nature: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking (human). Within each level, there are 4 sub levels: the still of the still, the vegetative of the still, the animate of the still, the speaking of the still, etc. Humanity as a whole is currently found on the speaking sub-degree of the animate level. Meaning we have not yet reached the true speaking degree, which is a spiritual degree.
As such, we don’t yet have the 613 desires that Kabbalah is talking about. Those desires begin on a higher level than our current animalistic level. This is similar to how a single cell in a body only has some basic desires. But when that cell is part of a greater body, it reveals there higher desires which are impossible for the individual cell to have: desires for money, honor, power, etc. Same with us, until we integrate with the general body of Adam HaRishon, we don’t reveal or understand these 613 desires of the speaking level.
Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2008/12/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-613-desires/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Carlos,
600,000 is less of a quantitative number and more of a qualitative number. It represents the strength of the spiritual desire after it’s been fully corrected. So essentially all of humanity is included in this number.
Check out this blog post to see how this number is derived: https://laitman.com/2010/09/love-and-hatred-of-600000-souls/
Albert @ KabU
Hi Carlos,
The number 125 comes from the structure of the upper worlds. This structure is just a division of the spiritual desire that we need to correct into sefirot, partzufim, and worlds.
The most basic division of the desire is 1 Sefira. 5 Sefirot compose 1 partzuf. 5 Partzufim compose 1 world. There are 5 worlds in total. So 5 worlds each with 5 partzufim each with 5 sefirot equals 125 (5x5x5) steps on the spiritual ladder, or in other words corrections that need to be performed on the desire.
In the book Kabbalah for the Student, there’s an article called Foreword to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah (http://www.kabbalah.info/eng/content/view/full/64187) which lists these 125 steps in the language of sefirot/partzufim/olamot(worlds). For now, these are just technical terms for us, but in the future lessons we’ll dive deeper into these things and learn how to feel and experience them.
In simpler words, the 125 steps represents the difference between us and the Creator. The Creator is a desire to bestow and we are the desire to receive. Adapting our desire to receive to work in order to bestow takes 125 steps. So to the extent that we correct our nature, make it similar to the Creator’s nature, to that extent we’re “climbing” this ladder.
In other words, ascending or descending this ladder is not a physical action, but rather depends on how much we’re similar to the Creator’s quality of bestowal (ascending) or less similar to it and more egoistic (descending).
All of this operates according to the law of equivalence of form. Check out this blog post from Rav Laitman for more details: https://laitman.com/2013/04/everything-is-attained-by-the-equivalence-of-form/
As for us, we’re not yet on any spiritual degree, we’re still in the preparation period prior to the spiritual ladder. But once we start to do real spiritual work, we can measure our progress in our attitude towards other points in the hearts. That I’ll feel how my attitude towards them changes, from complete indifference, all the way until I feel them as pieces of my soul. We’ll learn more about this in the more advanced lessons.
Albert @ KabU
Hi Maria, great questions!
On the one hand, in the four phases of direct light, the Creator evokes a desire to bestow in the created being. On the other hand, in the following phases of worlds this desire becomes concealed. World (olam in Hebrew) comes from the word concealment (haalama in Hebrew). Meaning that each world represents a certain level of concealment of this desire. Why concealment? Because if we simply had a desire, we would carry it out, like robots carrying out their inner scrip. Meaning that we would lose our free will. So this desire becomes more and more concealed in order to give us room to reach it ourselves.
The four phases of direct light (and root phase) preceded the creation of the worlds. This is essentially the blueprint of reality that repeats itself on all the different levels of reality, including in the 5 worlds that follow it, and the 5 partzufim that compose each world, and the 5 sefirot that compose each partzuf, etc. Check out the chart in the back of Kabbalah for the Student for more examples: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZMKAG9VpJehF4anqSBT-RcG4ZqJf6B09/view?usp=sharing
And this article by Rav Laitman for an in depth explanation: Foreword to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah.
Albert @ KabU
