Four Factors that Define Us

In his essay, The Freedom, written in 1933, Baal HaSulam explains that within each object and within each person are four factors that define them. To explain these factors, he uses the example of the growth of a wheat seed. This is an excellent example, as it is easy to follow its growth process and helps us to understand the whole concept.

1. The First Matter-Our Inherent Essence

The first matter is the inherent essence within every object. Although it may take different shapes, in itself, it never changes. For example, when wheat decays in the ground and its shape is completely lost, a new bud of wheat still grows from its inherent essence. The first factor, the essence, the bedrock, our genetic code, is within us from the very start. Hence, we are unable to change or affect it.

2. Unchangeable Qualities

The evolutionary laws of the essence never change, and from them stem the unchangeable qualities of each object. For example, a wheat seed will never produce any other kind of grain besides wheat; it will produce only the previous shape of wheat that it had lost.

These laws and the qualities deriving from them are predetermined by Nature. Each seed, each animal, and each person contains the evolutionary laws of the essence. This is the second factor that comprises us, and which we cannot affect.

3. Qualities that Can Be Changed By Affecting the Environment

While the seed remains the same kind of seed, its outer appearance changes according to the external environment. In other words, when affected by external elements and by defined rules, the "envelope" of the essence changes in its quality.

The influence of the external environment adds more elements to the essence, and together they produce a new quality of the same essence. These elements might be the sun, soil, fertilizers, moisture, and rain. They determine the difficulties the new wheat will meet in its growth, as well as its quantity and quality.