This is the third and final post in the cycle of development of the soul from the Kabbalistic perspective.

The third stage – Gadlut (the large state). This is the adult state. The knowledge a person has acquired gives him the strength to exist independently, and this is equivalent to an adult in our world.

He depends on society and the people around him, but no longer on his parents. He himself possesses the light Hochma, and he is able to perform a Zivug, give birth, as well as raise and fill with light another lower Partzuf – his son.

He now has his own experience and reason that allow him to exist independently. In addition he is able to pass this experience on to another person.

The spiritual object (a soul) goes through the same spiritual processes as a person of this world does, or through processes that correspond to the ones a person in our world goes through.

The difference is only the material: whether it is egoistic or altruistic. However, it is precisely this difference that makes all spiritual events completely incomprehensible to us. The reason for this is that we completely lack any understanding of the altruistic nature.

Every person’s soul repeatedly incarnates or returns into this world (or clothes into the body of this world). This reincarnation continues until the soul has fully attained the entire Kabbalistic knowledge; because without this knowledge, the soul cannot grow and receive everything the Creator has designed to give it.

The reason the soul is obligated to attain the Science of Kabbalah is not that the knowledge itself enlarges the soul. Rather, the soul must attain this science because of the nature of the soul: without having knowledge – Ohr Hochma (the light Hochma) – the soul is not capable of achieving the level or height for which it was created by the Creator.

Thus a person’s soul does not grow by acquiring knowledge. Rather a person’s soul has an inner attribute that does not allow a person to make himself grow with his own two hands before he has assimilated the entire spiritual nature and acquired all the necessary spiritual knowledge.

The soul’s growth completely depends on the degree of knowledge it acquires.

If the soul could grow without receiving the Upper light or knowledge of the Creator, then it would harm itself.

It would acquire increasingly greater desires without knowing how to use them correctly. This is equivalent to a person in our world: if a 20-year-old person’s level of intellectual development still remains on the level of a one-year-old child, then he can do horrible things. This would be strength without reason, and it is dangerous for the person and for the people around him.

This can never occur in the spiritual. A person acquires the ability to perform spiritual actions only to the degree he is corrected, or to the degree of spiritual knowledge he has received.

A person’s age is determined by the degree of his reception of spiritual light. Therefore a person who has not developed spiritually lives and dies physically without having begun to live spiritually.

There exist bodies that have not given birth to souls and that have not achieved the creation of a spiritual Kli. Therefore our world is full of two-legged bodies; but unfortunately there are very few souls in them.

The amount of light that enters the soul determines the Partzuf’s height.

It can exist in a laying-down position, as a newborn: his legs, arms, torso and head are all located on the same level. The head does not have any advantage over the legs: all the spiritual body parts or all desires have only one minimal screen and, correspondingly, a minimal light.

Therefore, the head does not differ from the legs. It is equivalent to a baby or a sleeping person, meaning that the mind is not manifested.

In Kabbalah, a horizontal position means that there is only Ohr Hassadim (the light Hassadim) and there is no Ohr Hochma (light Hochma), which enters the Partzuf correspondingly to the screen. The initial stage of spiritual development begins with the “lying–down” position, as a newborn baby.

The second stage is when he is already sitting, but the legs do not yet have the strength to hold him up.

The extensions, or the ends of the desires to receive pleasure have not yet been corrected; they do not yet have a screen and they cannot create boundaries or restrictions on their own reception of big light.

In the spiritual state of “lying down,” all 10 Sefirot of a person’s soul are evaluated as having a single light, or one minimal screen. A newborn baby does not have knowledge and therefore he does not, and should not, have the strength to move around.

Only the light Hochma gives the soul (Partzuf) spiritual strength. Most of its development does not occur by receiving light from its parents without its own efforts; but rather development takes place as a result of the Partzuf’s own good deeds or actions.

“Good deeds” – means to receive light with the help of the screen, in opposition to one’s own egoism. One’s ability to do this depends on one’s attainment of Kabbalah. That is, the main factor of growth is the function of good deeds, and they depend on the assimilation of Kabbalah, or the reception of knowledge from the upper Partzuf.

Each soul’s knowledge allows it to attain all the other souls: beginning with their initial state called “the soul of Adam” and ending with the final correction of all the souls.

This is equivalent to the way a person attains the entire world: he attains humanity’s nature, mentality, habits and everything around him. Based on this knowledge, he safeguards himself from harm that may come from nature and people around him, and he connects with and grows closer to people who assist in his growth.

It should not be surprising that a single soul is able to attain all the souls. The same thing applies to a person in our world: if he is wise, he is able to attain the nature of all humanity by attaining himself because every part of creation includes the elements of all its other parts.

A person does not have a single attribute that other people do not also have. Every person has all of humanity’s attributes, even if he has them to the minimal degree.

Every person is slightly a murderer, slightly a rapist, a womanizer, a scientist, a fool, a pious man, an atheist, etc. Everything is contained in each person!

When a person works to spiritually perfect himself, he begins to perceive all of these attributes in himself and, as he perceives each of them to be egoistic, he gradually realizes their evil for himself.

When the perception of this evil reaches the maximum and unbearable threshold, a person voluntarily rejects this attribute as one that is harmful. This way, step by step, he corrects himself.

A person perceives another person’s attributes to be natural only if he has discovered and felt them inside of himself. That is, if he has become aware of their presence inside of himself.

How often do we see people who possess negative attributes, yet they do not even suspect this fact and do not perceive it within themselves. At the same time they cannot tolerate these attributes in other people.

With the help of studying Kabbalah, a person begins to attain who he really is and therefore he gains the ability to tolerate others and to forgive them, because he realizes that he possesses the same things as they do.

Why does he become tolerant of others? Because he perceives that they are not capable of getting rid of their negative attributes. He begins to love others to the degree that he realizes his own insignificance, because he sees himself in them.

Since all parts of creation consist of all the other parts (after all we are separated only by egoistic intentions, while our souls comprise one single spiritual body called “the soul of Adam”), when a person corrects himself he corrects the whole world. This applies to each one of us.