Getting to Know Your Imagination - 000 Author's Intro

Man’s power of imagination is, on one the hand, the baser part of man, but on the other hand, it is his loftiest power.

The lowliest aspect of man is the fact that he is created from the earth. The Maharal wrote that the earth, which means ‘adamah’ in Hebrew, is related to the word ‘medameh’, the imagination, and that is why using the imagination improperly causes a person to descend to an earthy level. The root of this is in the sin of Adam, for the Sforno and the Vilna Gaon explain that the Eitz HaDaas is the power of medameh\imagination. The result of the sin was “You are earth, and to earth you shall return” – the Eitz HaDaas\the ‘medameh\imagination caused man to plunge to descend into the earth\lowliness.

On the other hand, through using imagination in a proper way and through building it from its lower levels to its higher levels, one can come to ‘resemble’ the Creator. In terms of our soul, through developing the imagination one’s existence can be raised to a level of attachment to Hashem. This sefer is coming to explain with Hashem’s help of how we can purify the imagination and rectify it, and how we can reach a holy and perfected imagination.