About Rabash And The Spiritual Meaning Of Death And Revival

In all life situations, your behavior should be determined only by the spiritual goalWhile I was by Rabash’s side, I was always surprised at how short and formal the burial ceremonies were. A person has to perform the ritual: come to the cemetery, say a few words over the grave, and leave. And he has to come back once a year, not more.

In the corporeal sense, this ritual is somber, but in the spiritual sense, it is joyful! We are actually holding a ritual that a person should be happy about. He should rejoice about getting rid of his “body,” about the fact that his egoistic desire has died and the desire to bestow and love, called the “soul,” has ascended to a new level. It rose from the earthly level, reception, to the “heavens” – bestowal!

When you return once a year to your buried desire, you check whether there is anything more you can take from it in order to correct it and ascend even higher. After all, the ascent can only take place by way of correction, by turning egoism to bestowal.

After that comes the “revival of the dead,” when we correct all our desires and nothing remains in the “grave.” The dead (desires) will then be revived and the burial rituals will no longer be performed.

Rabash was a person who acted as no Kabbalist had before. He accepted secular students into his group, which was located in the midst of the Jewish Orthodox populace in the city of Bnei Brak. And he taught these students the science of Kabbalah. In those times, this was a real revolution. He went against his family, the people close to him, and the social opinion of the entire Orthodox community.

Despite everything, he dared to do this, and he made a breakthrough. He started writing articles and giving lessons for beginners, including secular people. He did everything possible to spread the Teaching.

The most important thing he left behind is his articles and his spirit. Everything we have today, our entire foundation was laid by him. I always feel that I continue none else but his work. That is why I feel the inner forces to continue. The way we study, explain and formulate things, all comes from him. I hope to continue to transmit everything I have, including Rabash’s spirit, which I received from him, to you.

This person is essentially a bridge, an intermediate link connecting all the great Kabbalists of the past, from Abraham to Baal HaSulam, to us. Through his spirit, he passed the science of Kabbalah on to us. We are living inside his Kli, and he supports us.

We have to thank the Creator for giving us this soul, which continues to include us within and develops us even today. Any spirituality we attain is in virtue of his help, his force that acts among us. This is why we are called, “Bnei Baruch” – the Sons of Baruch. Let us hope that we truly will become the sons of Baruch Ashlag, the Rabash.
(From my talk at Rabash’s grave this morning, 09.23.2009)

Stuck In The Earthly Axis Of Time

bestowal1A question I received: How can we begin to perceive the true reality?

My Answer: The reality we see only seems objective to us. It appears to be independent of our perception, or of our life and death. We assume that the world we observe is constant, that it exists outside of us and independent of us. We think that it doesn’t get influenced by whether we exist or not.

We reason about it this way: ten billion years before the Earth was formed and man appeared on it, there was the Big Bang – the point that brought our world into existence. That is when time and space emerged. We construct our story upon the axis of time, which we think existed before man sensed it and could talk about it.

We discuss history in the same way.  We say that once upon a time, there was Ancient Babylon, the exodus from Egypt, and all the other events of the past. Today, we can speak about the past and say that some time ago, there lived a man named Baal HaSulam, who wrote books for us which we are reading today.

But in fact, we only reason this way because we are still on the level of the “inanimate spiritual being.” As long as we are on this level, we can’t imagine that everything exists only inside our bodily organs of perception, or senses. As long as a person hasn’t acquired the sensation of spiritual time, he is stuck in the earthly axis of time, and he will think, speak and write accordingly.

However, spiritual time is defined as a sequence of actions, and it begins from the moment one starts to perceive that he is inside a network of forces, the system of Nature (the Creator). There, everything is determined by the measure of your interaction with this network.

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Climbing Up The Degrees Of The Worlds

how-can-singularity-be-transformed-without-changingA question I received: Why does the science of Kabbalah devote so much attention to the structure of the spiritual worlds?

My Answer: There are five worlds separating us from the World of Infinity – the world of complete perfection, where everything is revealed. The five worlds are like five concealments or filters, concealing the World of Infinity from us. The worlds are called Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira and Assiya. Our world exists below the World of Assiya and is entirely concealed from the Upper Worlds.

Each world is structured in exactly the same way as the World of Infinity, but each lower world is weaker, less clear and shines less than the one above it. Besides this, all the worlds are the same: they have all the same elements, the same number of elements and the same connections between them. So, everything that exists in each world, including our world, is similar.
Therefore, the still, vegetative, animate and human levels of nature that exist in our world are interconnected inside one common structure, and have the same interactions and relationships as the forces in the spiritual world. The only difference is that the qualities of the forces are different. Yet, the relationships between the elements are the same, and their order is the same as well.

We exist in total darkness and therefore we don’t see the equivalence between our world and the spiritual world. This is the reason why we perceive things in our world as flawed, entangled, messy, and unfair.

However, our world is a branch, and its root is the World of Assiya. The World of Assiya, in turn, is a branch, and its root is the World of Yetzira. This pattern continues until it reaches the root of everything – the World of Infinity. This is how everything is structured.

We exist in our world and we have no choice but to exist in a certain reality with our particular qualities. I have particular forces, qualities, mind and feelings that cause me to discern a picture called “this world.”

However, I can start changing my feelings and my mind through this picture. The Upper World is built by the same model, and it differs only by its qualities. It presents the same picture, but in a more vibrant manner. Therefore, while I in our world, right now, I can try to attain the higher perception, for the reason explained above: because the elements of the worlds and the relationships between them are the same. It’s just that the quality of the forces in the spiritual worlds is higher.

By studying the science of Kabbalah, I attract a force from above upon myself, as I try to attain the Upper World. This aspiration brings me the Light, which returns me to the Source. The Light is the force that changes my qualities, but It doesn’t have to change my inner elements or their structure.

The Light has to change only one thing: the quality of my most prominent attribute, egoism. Instead of my egoism, the Light gives me a little bit of the force of bestowal, which is a force higher than my own. That is how I “rise,” together with all that I see and feel, onto a higher level or dimension, and thus, I begin to perceive the spiritual world.

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In Memory Of Rabash

rabash-2_100_wpToday is the day of remembrance for my Teacher, Rav Baruch Shalom Levi Ashlag – Rabash. We are all nourished by what we received from him. He was the only person who understood Baal HaSulam, who continued his path, and who passed the method on to several of his students. The fact that we are able to advance using Baal HaSulam’s method, to see, hear, feel and understand what he wrote, is possible only thanks to Rabash.

Rabash used to write an article a week, and we have over 400 of his articles. In them, he provides explanation of the entire science of Kabbalah, including everything that regards a person’s inner work. Through these articles, he has given us an opportunity to enter the sensation of the spiritual world. He explained the entire method systematically, simply and accessibly, in a form that people could easily connect to.

The reason why he often quotes the Torah, Talmud and other Kabbalistic sources is in order to connect us to the original sources and to help us understand how their authors (Kabbalists) thought. This is how they conveyed their sensations to us.

There’s no doubt that if it weren’t for Rabash’s books, we would not be able to connect to the writings of Baal HaSulam. Without Rabash’s explanations, it would be impossible for us to “open” Baal HaSulam’s books.

I am grateful to the Upper Force for sending me such a great Teacher, through whom we have received Kabbalah. His life’s work was a spiritual breakthrough into a new level and the revelation of Kabbalah’s method to us.

Baal HaSulam also stated this method in his articles, but they remained concealed.  Rabash took his father’s materials and rewrote them in a form that the world could understand. He also transmitted it orally to his students.

Rabash was the first Kabbalist in the entire history of Kabbalah who began openly accepting students. After a year of studying with Rabash, I gave several lectures at Berg’s center. The lectures weren’t for the general public, but for the instructors. After those lectures,  all the instuctors left the Berg center, because they understood that what they were doing there was not Kabbalah at all, but rather just business.

I brought them to study with Rabash, along with an entire group of young, secular people. Altogether there were about forty people. Rabash was 77 years old at the time, and he had spent his entire life living in Bnei Brak – a Jewish Orthodox community, with an overabundance of prohibitions and restrictions. But despite everything, he was not afraid to accept all of these new, secular young men to be his students!

These people weren’t planning to return to religion; they came to him to study Kabbalah exclusively. That is how he started teaching Kabbalah to secular young men from Tel Aviv! This was the revolution he made, and it steered our world toward correction. This was a completely new phenomenon, such that the entire history of Kabbalah has never seen. It was the beginning of large-scale dissemination of the science of Kabbalah, as those forty students continued his path.

Rabash was a great revolutionary. He possessed a tremendous inner power that enabled him to do this, in defiance of his Hassidic community and his relatives.

Everything I have, I received from him. Our group, Bnei Baruch (the Sons of Baruch) is named after him. And I believe that we truly will merit becoming his spiritual heirs.

Let his memory in us be blessed!

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Expanding The Point In The Heart To Achieve The Force Of Bestowal

Laitman_2009-05-28_0076_wOur world does not pertain to the spiritual world; therefore, there is no need to correct it. While living in this world, I discover a point in my heart – the embryo of a spiritual desire. I need to extract it from the other desires, expand it, and correct it in a way that will make it possible to reveal the spiritual world within it.

Our world remains the same. Until the very end of a person’s spiritual correction, he should feel this reality without trying to correct it with his own strength. Why? Because it is impossible to do so! History has taught us this through every step of our development.

With this attitude towards our world, the science of Kabbalah differs from other sciences, spiritual and corporeal methodologies, belief systems, and religions. In other system, people direct their efforts within the plane of our world, which is not where they should. Our world will only change for the worse due to those actions, since it does not become truly corrected and more time passes by.

Yet if a point in the heart awakens in a person, by following the path of Kabbalah, he begins to widen his point in the heart until it encompasses the sphere where he perceives the Upper World, the Upper Dimension. He begins his ascent from this central point, acquiring a screen and the Reflected Light, which is the force of bestowal.

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Everything Is Absolutely Relative To My Perception

Changing the World Starts With Changing Our IntentionsA question I received: What does it mean “that which I do not attain, I do not call by a name?”

My Answer: Contrary to philosophy or our perception of the world, nothing exists on its own in the science of Kabbalah. Everything exists only in my perception and sensation, and this is the only thing I am allowed to speak of.

There is no Creator, no creation, no worlds. There is nothing that can be said to actually exist. I am the only one who senses that it exists, I am the one who thinks, I am the one who sees, and this is the only context in which I can speak of anything I perceive.

I perceive everything through my senses, and everything depends on my relation to it and its relativity to me. This is why we can only speak of that which a person reveals and attains. In Hebrew, the Creator is called “Bo-re” – “Come and See.”  There is no Creator without the creation.

The quality of bestowal is revealed within our Kelim in accordance to the similarity of its attributes with something external which we do not perceive. This we call the Creator, “Come and see what I see!”

I perceive Him in my senses, which have changed due to my evolving qualities, due to the changes taking place within me. I say: “The Creator is within me! Look at the form  I’ve taken!” This form is what I call the Creator.

I don’t point at Him directly; I only speak of His form which is engraved into my matter, and it is this form that I call the Creator. The matter (desire to receive pleasure) has changed its form into the desire to bestow.

This is why we evaluate and determine everything only in relation to our personal attainment and not, in relation to anything outside of us. All the worlds are my Kelim, my vessels of perception, and I only perceive them to be external to me.

I perceive myself inside of my internal desires, but I perceive the world in my external desires since my Kelim are divided into the internal and external. When they merge, I will have ten Sefirot of the soul, the world will disappear and everything will enter me.

At present, I sense everyone surrounding me as external because my Kli isn’t complete, it is shattered. If it was complete, I wouldn’t be able to discern anyone external to me. I would feel everything as the World of Infinity.

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