Laitman.com

Do Not Lose The Point Of Adhesion

admin_bb — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:46:19 +0000

Had we been corrected in the World of Infinity, all the influences from Above (from the worst to the best of them as felt in our desire to receive pleasure or our matter) would not change our attitude toward the Creator in the least. This is because our desire would be under the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph), under the screen, in bestowal, or the Reflected Light.

Then, we would use all the states that we go through, from enormous fulfillment up to total emptiness, with the sole purpose of justifying the Creator, of glorifying, honoring, and thanking Him. This is because in these various states ranging from emptiness to fulfillment, He gives us an opportunity to determine our attitude toward Him as something that is independent from what we receive from Him, without any connection with our desire to receive pleasure or our sensation in it.

As a result, we would only thank Him for the opportunity to rise above our desire, our nature, in faith (bestowal) above reason (fulfillment), in “bestowing in order to bestow” (Galgalta ve Eynaim or GE) and in “receiving in order to bestow” (GE plus AHP – Awzen, Hotem, Peh). This way, we would accept all states for a single purpose: to use them in order to feel Infinity in each state.

That is, we would have a completely corrected intention regardless of the measure of fulfillment and sensation in the desire, from absolute void and tremendous suffering to complete fulfillment which shifts entire attention from the Creator to one’s self. If we corrected ourselves to such a degree, we would be in the World of Infinity.

We determine our rung on the spiritual ladder in relation to complete correction, the World of Infinity. We do so according to our ability to justify the states He gives us, to exist above the sensation that we feel in our desire, to hold the intention, and be in connection with Him, the Giver, in order to become similar to Him based on any sensations.

The Creator gave us a point of adhesion with Him. However, to counterbalance it, He also created in us the desire to receive pleasure, and He is constantly increasing it. This desire annuls the point of adhesion. Yet, we have to use the desire that pushes us away from adhesion and to increase the connection with the Creator precisely with its help. This is how we advance.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/10, “And Jacob Went Out”

We Are Infinities Joined In A Circle

admin_bb — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:35:31 +0000

Question: If a person doesn’t exist apart from others, then why do each of us have a sensation that reality is created for him and that the Creator relates to him personally?

Answer: This is a degree of exclusiveness that each of us possesses. It comes to us from the Creator and constitutes our roots that make us different from each other. It obligates each of us to implement our uniqueness, as it is true that “the world is created for me.” This is what every person has to enunciate and validate to himself. However, it should not be done at the “expense” of others, but rather for the sake of others.

I am the one who corrects this world; other people are only parts of me. This fact obligates me to treat others as though they depend on me. I have to unite with them through the power of my love, and I am the one who defines it.

When my point connects with their points, I become their “head,” meaning the head of a body that is called the “common soul.” It’s me who is making decisions, creating connections, and filling them with the Creator’s Light because for them I represent the source or the Creator. There is somebody else, and it’s you. You are the one who does the same thing in connecting other people (including me) to you. You, too, become a head of our universal body, but it’s a different body because, in your case, it is identified by your proper attitude to others.

Thus, each of us is a unique personality and doesn’t encumber others, but rather complements them. You sense the Creator’s personal attitude, but He can relate to you only through the group. Similarly, you relate to Him only through the group.

The Creator is that which is revealed in the connection between us. The Upper Light settles specifically within the desires of bestowal and the connection between all souls. When all properties of bestowal unite, the vessel for the revelation of the Creator (a network of bestowal) divulges itself.

The desire itself underwent the First Restriction (Tzimzum Aleph) and stoped receiving. Receiving is possible only through the bonds that connect all desires at a place where a screen and the Reflected Light are present.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, “What is the Matter of My Making A Pact in the Work”

Kabbalah Channel: It’s Natural To Be Like Nature

admin_bb — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:16:47 +0000

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A One Man Show

admin_bb — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:59:07 +0000

Question: Does every person need to experience all of the states described in The Zohar?

Answer: It is written, “Every man has to write the Torah.” This means that a person gradually needs to reveal all of his or her qualities or desires in their initial egoistic form and, to the extent of their revelation, correct them by changing the intention from “for myself” to “for the sake of others or the Creator.” Thereby a person builds a new vessel that has a screen and Ohr Hochma and fills it.

The revelation of the broken Kli means that a person clothes into a certain type of a sinner as described in the Torah. With the consequent correction of this state, he clothes into a righteous man from the Torah. A person has to assume these images and forms time after time, alternating between clothing into a sinner and a righteous man, both of which are presented to him by the Torah.

It is like an imprint of models that already exist in you. It is as if you were walking in darkness with a projector and alternate between shedding light onto a sinner that has clothed in you and a righteous man on the opposite end. In this way, you go from image to image every time. You must go through all of them! This is because the entire Torah consists of states that you experience, beginning with Adam: the first revelation of evil in you and the first contact with the Creator.

Man begins with experiencing the sensation of his egoism in contradiction to the Creator. The entire Torah only speaks about these consecutive clothings into different roles that you play like in theater and according to a script given to you. You clothe into different figures, but you are the only one playing this multitude of roles.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, The Zohar

Kabbalists On Kabbalists, Part 20

admin_bb — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:28:07 +0000

Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Main Kabbalistic Sources: The Works of the ARI

Rav Isaac Luria troubled and provided us the fullest measure. He did wondrously more than his predecessors, and if I had a tongue that praises, I would praise that day when his wisdom appeared almost as the day when the Torah [methodology of correction] was given to Israel [those who are willing to correct themselves spiritually].

There are not enough words to measure his holy work in our favor. The doors of attainment were locked and bolted, and he came and opened them for us. …

You find a thirty-eight-year-old who subdued with his wisdom all his predecessors through the Genius and through all times. All the elders of the land, the gallant shepherds, friends and disciples of the Godly sage, the RAMAK, stood before him as disciples before the Rav.

All the sages of the generations following them to this day, none missing, have abandoned all the books and compositions that precede him, the Kabbalah of the RAMAK, the Kabbalah of The First and the Kabbalah of The Genius [those who lived and worked prior to ARI], blessed be the memory of them all. They have attached their spiritual life entirely and solely to his Holy Wisdom.
- Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Daily Kabbalah Lessons – 09.07.10

bb_editor — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:00:10 +0000

Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “Matter of Enika ve Ibur (Suckling and Conception)”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived in the Land of Egypt),” Item 210

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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 62
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My Spiritual Stimulator – 09.06.19

admin_bb — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:27:34 +0000

Spiritual Stimulator: Questions of the Day

A Descent Is A Joy

admin_bb — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 19:23:48 +0000

Question: How should I react once I find myself in a state of descent?

Answer: I have to relate to it as a call from Above and ask myself: “Who sent it to me? What for?” A new state has been revealed to me. As Baal HaSulam writes: “I rejoice in the revelation of the wicked,” meaning the “new” egoistic qualities that are being exposed in me. Surely, they were hiding within me always. But now, as I grew stronger, they become apparent so that I rise above them and, despite of them, stay connected with the Creator as in a state of ascent.

This is an unpleasant feeling in an empty desire. However, one can instantly rejoice in the revelation of this desire because with its help he will undoubtedly and quickly discover a stronger connection with the group and the Creator. Hence, upon feeling a descent, one should immediately connect with the group and start performing all possible actions in order to turn the descent into the force of unification.

A descent is the discovery of a sharper precision in our connection, where I’m not yet connected with the group, yet have to do it now. I was under the impression that I was bound to the group by a “thick robe.” But now I see that this robe is comprised of hundreds of tiny threads by which I am not connected with the group at all.

And so I ascend, sharpening and strengthening my connection with the group more and more. This is why I welcome such a revelation for it occurs on the basis of my previous state.

You will soon sense that a descent is a joy. Everything depends on how one relates to it: as merely a state or as the means for achieving the goal.

Work brings joy. A true professional is happy to come across the problems in his work. It gives him an opportunity to apply his professionalism, find a solution, create something new, and demonstrate his skill.

Why do all creative personalities need “inspiration”? Why are they constantly searching? Why do they feel confused and lost until their creation is born? It could be a person of any profession, even a plumber, but if he is a master, he feels his trade.

Hence, difficulties or special circumstances that arise are an asset which we can’t live without. We don’t understand or appreciate the extent to which the revelation of deficiencies within us exposes the Light.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/10, “And Jacob Went Out”

Kabbalah For Beginners “Rosh Hashanah” – 09.06.10

bb_editor — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 14:00:53 +0000

Kabbalah TV Channel 66’s Kabbalah for Beginners, “Rosh Hashanah”
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Raising The Whole World

admin_bb — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:47:21 +0000

The purpose of everything that we feel in our reality, be it positive or negative, is to form us along the spiritual ladder. There is nothing that would be created for any other purpose or that existed by itself. Everything in this world – thousands of surrounding objects, actions, or forces – exists for a single purpose: my spiritual development. I incorporate, consciously or not, all that surrounds me into myself and hence ascend.

Indeed, if everything came from the World of Infinity down to the level of our world where it seemingly exists without being connected into a single whole, then how could objects and actions of our world not be bonded by a single purpose from which they descended down to us? How can there be anything in our world that has not come to it from the World of Infinity? And if it did descend from the World of Infinity, it means that it originated in unity that existed there and afterward, by descending down, took the form of the breaking, distancing, and isolation.

Hence, by climbing the spiritual ladder a person has to raise the entire reality, all of “This World,” along with himself. It is said that by ascending spiritually, a person elevates (corrects) the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature along with himself.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/10, “And Jacob Went Out”

The General And The Particular

admin_bb — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:12:02 +0000

Question: How do you reconcile the notion of Private Providence and one’s individual prayer with the notion of general spiritual laws that every person must comply with?

Answer: You will not understand this until you stop separating yourself from the general system. The “particular” is a type of connection between you and the system of souls, which stems from your state. Meanwhile, the “general” is the basic condition of the group.

A person can never receive anything for himself. Indeed, on his own he has no capacity in which to receive spirituality. A person’s individual spiritual capacity exists outside of him. It is in the desires of others that he is able to attach to himself with the help of the Upper Light, like a mother who lives within her child’s desires.

Aside from the desires of others, every one of us has only a “point,” their individual root. What can you do with a point? Only connect it to all the other parts of its soul: the desires of others.

This matter of connecting yourself to the general Kli is what we call Private Providence. The notion of “myself” as an individual (a point) does not exist in reality! This point feels itself only with respect to the environment, whether egoistically (our world) or altruistically (the spiritual world). Without the environment it cannot feel anything, even itself.

Therefore, our development relates exclusively to the environment, and our freedom of will lies only in choosing a better environment. After all, my environment today will be me tomorrow.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, “What is the Matter of My Making A Pact in the Work”

125 Steps Of Oneness

admin_bb — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:38:43 +0000

How can we unite with each other? It is possible only if a person with his desire exists in the friend and the friend within him. Everyone has to absorb the desire of the other and work with it, and in doing so, they connect. Since their desire is aimed at the same goal, through their mutual work they create a common force of aspiration to go forth. This force guarantees their progress and is called Arvut (mutual guarantee).

Connecting occurs when I take part of your desire and experience it as my own, and all my desires serve to fulfill it. Moreover, since your desire is to reach the goal, it turns out that I lead you to it while you lead me. Thus, our desires unite in the common goal. Hence, it is written: “Make your desire as His, and He will make His as yours.”

This is a criterion to verify the extent of our connectedness. The distance between us amounts to 125 degrees (steps), 125 parts of my egoistic desire. But gradually, correcting it through the actions “for your sake,” I come closer to you in my work for bestowal.

That is what is called “love the other as you love yourself.” In other words, I employ your desire to annul mine before it and in so doing, I correct my desire. My desire remains but because I have gone such a distance to reach you, I have made my desire bestowing. Nothing has changed; I’ve only added the intention. And the distance between us disappeared for I annihilated it with my intention!

And what does this “other” want? He wants to attain adhesion with the Creator, just like you do. So, there is only one thing you need to help him with: to become one with the Creator (together with you). This single intention connects us all as one.

Hence we say that we are all in one boat, and it goes in one direction. The closer I come to you, the closer I come to the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/10, Shamati #50

Unification Of The Souls = Equivalence To The Creator

admin_bb — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:51:39 +0000

We need to feel our opposition to the Light and bring ourselves to its state. If we don’t draw the Light to ourselves, we feel suffering since it feels bitter to sense that we are opposite to the Creator. Therefore, in order to give us an opportunity to develop properly, we are brought into a system called a “Kabbalistic group.” Instead of existing in a vacuum and not knowing how to develop in the attempts to become similar to the Creator, I find myself in a group.

I can work on uniting with the group, with others who aspire to the same goal as me. Instead of focusing on something invisible, being in a void, and not knowing where the suffering comes from or what’s going on, I work on unification. And our connection solves all the problems!

How can unification of the souls substitute for similarity to the Creator? Originally, in the World of Infinity we were one soul of Adam. Later, we broke into many parts, individual souls, and instead of the World of Infinity we began to feel our (broken) world. Through the breaking, the Light created qualities in us that are opposite to it, and the soul became opposite to the Light.

However, if we correct the breaking together and reunite, our action lends itself to the revelation of the Light, becoming like it. Instead of equalizing ourselves to the Light which is concealed, we equalize ourselves to the desires which we feel and understand. It seems to us as though we are being summoned, like good children, to unite and annul our egoism. But by doing so we reveal the Light in the unification of our desires because this is where the Light concealed itself: inside the broken Kelim.

It turns out that the opportunity to work in the group is the most practical and real application of Kabbalah. We perform actions that are available to us while, in essence, we reveal the Light that is situated beyond the breaking. In this manner we clarify our contrast to the Light, become equal to it, and unite. The Light and the vessel merge into one whole, and we return to the World of Infinity.

We reveal 620 states or degrees that separate us from each other and from the Light. By doing so we discover that we are opposite to the Light to the extent of 620 degrees and thereby understand the Light of Infinity 620 times better. We thus reveal the common soul and the entire Light that fills it: the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/10, Shamati #50

Kabbalists On Kabbalists, Part 19

admin_bb — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:01:40 +0000

Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Main Kabbalistic Sources: The Works of the ARI

And the same words that were said about the Rashbi should be said about the ARI himself—that his predecessors [even though they knew more than the ARI] were not given permission from Above to disclose the interpretations of the wisdom, and that he was given this permission. And also, this does not distinguish any greatness or smallness at all, since it is possible that the virtue of his formers was much greater than the Ari’s, but they were not given permission for it at all. For this reason, they refrained from writing commentaries that relate to the actual wisdom, but settled for brief intimations that were not in any way linked to one another.

For this reason, since the books of the Ari appeared in the world, all who study the wisdom of Kabbalah have left their hands from all the books of the Ramak, and all the first and the great ones [Kabbalists] that preceded the ARI, as it is known among those who engage in this wisdom. They have attached their spiritual lives solely to the writings of the ARI in a way that the essential books, considered proper interpretations of this wisdom, are only The Book of Zohar, the Tikkunim [Tikkunei Zohar] and following them, the books of the ARI.

[Since Baal HaSulam wrote complete commentaries to The Book of Zohar and the ARI’s books, our generation studies both sources through his works.]
- Baal HaSulam, “Disclosing a Portion, Covering Two”

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 09.06.10

bb_editor — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 05:34:11 +0000

Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “And Jacob Went Out”
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Shamati #42 “What is the Acronym Elul (1) in the Work States“
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All The Wicked And The Righteous Are Within Me

admin_bb — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:25:28 +0000

The Zohar, Chapter "VeYechi (And Jacob Lived)," Item 193: In regards to the rest of the wicked of the world, it does not say, “And the thing which he did was evil in the eyes of the Lord,” but here it is written, “And Er, the firstborn of Judah, was wicked.” What he did was wicked in the eyes of the Creator because it is written, “And he spilled it on the ground.”

The ladder of the spiritual degrees by which we ascend from our world to the World of Infinity consists of 125 degrees (states), which themselves are divided into a multitude of different states. Each state consists of a vessel and the Light in it.

Hence, based on what’s written in the Torah, if I am at the degree of "Er," I perform an action called "he spilled it on the ground." And if I’m at the degree of Jacob, then, according to this degree, I form the three lines.

Therefore, when we read The Zohar we need to realize that in a given state a person enacts an image called Moses or Aaron, Abraham or Pharaoh, Bilam or Balak and performs actions inherent in each of them. These images refer to a person’s inner states which he has to undergo, receiving an impression from his "evil inclination" and the Light that Reforms. The sum total of these images and acquired forms is later accumulated into a general image of similarity to the Creator.

All the righteous and the wicked unite in it with all the voids (vessels) coming from the states of the wicked and all the corrections and fillings with bestowal from the states of the righteous. And thereby a person rises in Infinity.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, The Zohar

Kabbalah Moments: Private Providence

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My Spiritual Stimulator – 09.04.10

admin_bb — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:11:46 +0000

Spiritual Stimulator: Questions of the Day

The Main Witness

admin_bb — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 12:47:01 +0000

There are two states in the advancement toward the spiritual goal. The first state is when a person has the sensation, the force, and the support of the group and the Creator. A person feels the importance of the property of bestowal, and this pushes him to draw closer to the Creator.

He has the sensation and the desire; the Creator shows him that it’s worthwhile to work on the spiritual goal. A person feels that there is a reward, meaning that he does not depend on faith: the property of bestowal within him. The sensation rouses love of friends and of the Creator.

In such a state, a person makes a covenant about love of friends and the Creator forever, for the future. What is this covenant with? It can’t be the Creator because in a state of descent, when one will distance himself from the Creator, he won’t feel His closeness, and the Creator won’t bind him.

That’s why the covenant has to be made with the group that can be felt in a state of descent as well. Through the group, we reach the agreement with the Creator: To always go by the path of bestowal to the Creator and the group. The group is a guarantee of the covenant. By making a covenant the entire group pledges to support each other and always hold the intention to bestow. They receive the Creator’s help to the extent of their connection.

The second state comes after some time, when the state of excitement and connection is replaced by indifference, inability to feel any importance of the goal, the Creator, or the reward for a good attitude toward the friends and the Creator. A person is unable to think about love, connection, and bestowal.

A) If a person does not receive support from the group, he falls, thinking that the Creator is unimportant and that there is no fulfillment or reward. He might leave the path altogether.

B) If the connection with the group awakens and attracts him, he is unable to drop everything and remembers the covenant that he has made. In a state of descent, the importance of bestowal vanishes since the reward disappears. And here a mutual guarantee, covenant, and connection with the group have to come to one’s aid.

In this way, a person returns to the covenant, to the state of goodness, love, and connection. He remembers that he has to go by faith above reason, above his current state of indifference as though the sensation that once gave him strength does exist and is even stronger!

In this way, a person wants to go by “faith above reason” (bestowal over reward). He then understands that he can receive strength from the Creator. And this brings him to a prayer.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, “What is the Matter of My Making A Pact in the Work”

Kabbalah Channel: Can Music Change People?

admin_bb — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:33:56 +0000

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Concealment Is For Our Own Good

admin_bb — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 11:09:05 +0000

We are under the 125 degrees or worlds or concealments. This concealment is beneficial for us since it prevents us from seeing how insignificant we are compared to the perfect state of Infinity. Instead, we can only observe our inability to become similar to a higher spiritual degree.

Nonetheless, in order to advance in correcting ourselves we have to sense affliction. If we undergo correction while being in the group, then we disclose our suffering like a child playing a game. The child wants to accomplish something, he doesn’t succeed, but he nevertheless does his best and keeps trying to master a challenging toy.

Through your efforts, pain, and inability to act you discover your oppositeness to the Light one degree at a time. You must work against the Light since otherwise, you will not feel any difference between you and the Light; you won’t sense the Creator thanks to the sum total of these dissimilarities.

Suppose you are in a king’s palace, but you know nothing about it and therefore do not appreciate it. Then you start experiencing and researching it. You have to observe all the objects and states around and learn the entire range of connections and contradictions between them. By doing so, you achieve a state when you rule over the world, just as a king.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/10, Shamati #50

Kabbalists On Kabbalists, Part 18

admin_bb — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 09:42:50 +0000

Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Main Kabbalistic Sources: The Book Of Zohar

An exception is Rashbi and his generation, the authors of The Zohar, who were granted all 125 degrees in completeness, even though it was prior to the days of the Messiah [before our time]. It was said about him and his disciples: "A sage is preferable to a prophet." Hence, we often find in The Zohar that there will be none like the generation of Rashbi until the generation of the Messiah King [our generation]. This is why his composition made such a great impact in the world, since the secrets of the Torah in it occupy the level of all 125 degrees. [This is not because the world understands it, but rather because the Upper Force is in it.]

Hence, it is said in The Zohar that The Book of Zohar will be revealed only at the End of Days, the days of the Messiah. This is so because we have already said that if the degrees of the students are not at the full measure of the degree of the author, they will not understand his intimations, since they do not have a common attainment. [The need for The Book of Zohar arises at the End of Days of egoism’s development, when humanity begins to realize that its path is corrupt and wants to correct itself. This is because one can draw the force, the Light of Correction only when he reads The Zohar with the correct intention: to correct oneself.]

And since the degree of the authors of The Zohar is at the full level of the 125 degrees, they cannot be attained prior to the days of the Messiah. It follows that there will be no common attainment with the authors of The Zohar in the generations preceding the days of the Messiah. Hence, The Zohar could not be revealed in the generations before the generation of the Messiah. [Egoism was not developed enough.]
- Baal HaSulam, A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar

Desire, And The Light Will Come

admin_bb — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 08:30:31 +0000

The Book of Zohar is being revealed now because it is a source of strength which can carry out all the corrections and advance us. Just as a train or a car cannot move without electricity or gas, we cannot advance without The Book of Zohar which gives us energy, “fuel” for advancement.

In addition, The Zohar reveals to us where we are situated, who we are, where we are advancing, and for what purpose. It reveals the whole path to us. In essence, it is the Light that illuminates the whole space that surrounds us in order for us to see where we are. The Zohar is the Light that gives us an opportunity to feel in our minds and hearts who we are and what we represent, how we are arranged, how we sense, think, and make decisions. It is the Light that illuminates the goal to us so that we understand to where we are advancing, with what speed, what is happening, and what to do.

The Zohar is the Light that gives strength, the Light that corrects us, and the Light that advances us on the path. It does everything. However, we need to rouse this Light and it’s not easy. After we rouse it, there’s nothing more to do because it knows how to arrange and carry out everything. We merely need to rouse it.

We think that the science of Kabbalah demands some impossible effort from us. However, the entire work is actually in our hands. After all, the Light needs to come and influence us. This Light is called Surrounding Light since it cannot clothe a person directly, clearly, and openly. It does this indirectly and we only feel the results of its actions but not it itself.

Under what condition is the Light drawn? It is drawn according to law of equivalence of form or the law of equality: The Light comes to the extent that I desire to become similar to it. How do I perform this action in order to become similar to it? Something that is called the group has been placed before me, and initially I hate it. In the same manner that I am opposite to the Light, I am also opposite to this Kli (the spiritual vessel) called a “group.”

To the extent that I try to unite with the group, to enter it, the Light affects me to the same exact degree. I am situated below, “under the group,” and it is on top, “above the group.” It turns out that I work on uniting with the friends, and to the extent that we unite the Light influences and corrects us. It unites us and the Light (the Creator) is revealed in our unification.

If this is the case, then everything is in my hands. The Light waits for me to perform this effort. I cannot unite with others; I merely need to desire this and to exert effort. Then it will happen.

Therefore, before we read The Book of Zohar, the strongest source of Surrounding Light, I need to think about the fact that I must unite with others, thereby preparing the vessel (Kli) for the Light that will glue it together and be revealed in it. After all, the Light is revealed only in the unification, in the place of the former breaking.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/10, The Zohar

Visions Or The Spiritual World?

admin_bb — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:28:09 +0000

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 170: Upon the departure of one’s soul, all his kin and friends in the world of truth walk his soul and show her the place of Eden and the place of the punishment.

Question: People who have undergone clinical death speak of visions they experience, which in many ways are similar to what The Book of Zohar describes. However, these people don’t know the first thing about Kabbalah.

Answer: Understanding Kabbalah does not help a person see the spiritual world. The Upper World can only be felt in a corrected soul. Whether or not a person studies Kabbalistic books is irrelevant. The important thing is whether one wishes to correct himself.

We can look at clinical death experiences in two ways. On one hand, when a person falls into a critical state, it is a heavy blow to the physiological body, which is nothing more than the desire to enjoy. Our body only appears to us as something corporeal that takes up space, but in reality it is only the desire to enjoy a particular type of fulfillment.

If this desire feels emptiness or suffering, it naturally doesn’t want to feel the place (desire) in which it feels pain. It wants to reduce and restrict this place, to live less, to disconnect its senses, take drugs, and so forth. Any person feeling emotional or material suffering wants to restrict it, that is, restrict his perception of the world even to the extent as the desire to stop living.

But by feeling suffering and wanting to ascend, to escape this place that is full of darkness, pain, blows, wars, and diseases, meaning, to rise from the terrible suffering above this world, a person is essentially making a spiritual action. You don’t do it for the sake of bestowal or because you are drawn by spirituality, but because the suffering is pressuring you so much that it forces you out, like a pit popping out of a cherry when squeezed, and you are led upward.

This is the path of suffering, but it is not advancement because in this you do not draw closer to the goal. In fact, you don’t even know there is a goal; you’re simply running away like a beaten animal from the stick. But either way, you rise above your ego, the desire to enjoy. You want to nullify it, thinking: “I don’t want anything, just leave me alone!”

Suppose you stole a billion dollars and were caught and sentenced to life in prison. At that moment you desire only bread and water and to be back home. That’s it! Yet prior to that you wanted a billion dollars! The desire reduces itself, as though ascending by “faith above reason.” It is ready to be in bestowal, to reject and restrict itself so that it does not feel the suffering that punishment brings.

And that is when people begin to sense the truth; a connection with the Creator becomes revealed to them, at least to some degree. However, it passes very quickly, and people are unable to fully take in or retain this state because they lack their own permanent Kelim (spiritual vessels). And so the feeling passes.

In 99.9% of the cases, the sensation of something otherworldly relates only to people’s psychosomatic experiences. Since they live in suffering, confusion, emotional cloudiness, and faulty internal systems, it’s merely their imagination.

The purpose of creation is not for a person to feel the spiritual world in a state of clinical death. We have to feel spirituality in a state of total soundness and function in it like the researchers that have knowledge, understanding, sensation, and power. We have to come to be like the Creator.

From the 2ns part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/10, The Zohar

Building The State Of Kabbalah

admin_bb — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:04:25 +0000

A letter I received: We now witness the emergence of a new social structure of online communities. A virtual reality is being built which, for the time being, lacks any rules or ideology. I think that our method is most appropriate particularly for these online communities and not for the real world since the latter is terribly inertial and filled with a myriad of different ideologies. Meanwhile, in the virtual world, changes are taking place every few days rather than every few decades.

Surely, it is not a spiritual world, but it is no longer a material world either. It is a new playground for the human mind where it can play out different scenarios which could only be checked in the physical reality over decades or centuries.

In Israel, it is possible to work like in the old days, creating a physical infrastructure, and we see over the last few months that it works wonderfully. However, in all the other parts of the world, you won’t be allowed in anywhere. All spots have been taken both in the physical world as well as in its ideological structure. Changes will occur only under the influence of cataclysms.

While a “material” person will not even listen to you, a “spiritual” person will grasp the essence of Kabbalah immediately. A person that exists in these virtual worlds will tell you: “If your game is interesting, let’s play. Why not?” I see this as the only chance for us to change something in the external world.

My Comment: I agree with you about almost everything. We are trying to accomplish this with our Stimulator: to create a new social unification, the one and only State of Kabbalah in the world. The constitution is “love your neighbor” according to the law of the Upper Force of Nature. All the laws, rules of behavior, relationships, and decisions are based only on the laws of the nature of bestowal. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the article “The Last Generation.”

Teenagers perceive online communities as their family. They reject live communication in favor of virtual communication. Online communities are becoming strong psychological points of reference for users.