Hanukkah Is The Holiday Of Light Inside Us

It All Comes Back to You When a person correctly arranges the three qualities inside him called “candle,” “oil” and “wick,” he reaches a state called Hanukah, which comes from the words “Hanu Ko” – “stop here.” He thus reaches a short breather in the middle of the path.

 

The “oil” is our matter, the will to enjoy, the contents of the vessel or Kli. It is unable to light up on its own using the Light we attract from outside. It can only light up with the help of a wick. The wick has to be immersed in the oil, but a part of it has to reach outside, because the wick symbolizes the screen that we build outside our egoistic desire (outside the oil).

The only part of the egoistic desire that is able to shine (to be in contact with the Upper Light) is the part we are able to include inside the screen. Stated differently, only the oil that has saturated the wick can be lit up. This can only happen under the condition that the oil does not just permeate the wick, but also rises above the level of the rest of the oil (egoism), rising towards Bina – the Light, bestowal. Only then will it be able to shine!

The Light emanates from the upper end of the wick, the place where the wick comes outside and loses contact with the oil, egoism. The Reflected Light is the fire that ascends from below upwards, there attaining Keter of the ten Sefirot of the Reflected Light. At that point there is hardly any connection between the Reflected Light and the force of the desire to receive, egoism, which provides the power for the burning to take place. The oil ascends upwards along the wick, and that is the only place where contact is achieved, or equivalence of form between the oil in the wick and the Light. They can only shine together. The Light cannot manifest until it connects with the wick and the oil inside it.

By imagining a burning candle, we can understand the inner work of a person on the spiritual path and what we have to do in order for our soul to attain equivalence with the Light, the Creator. The desire does not disappear; rather, it must be entirely attached to the screen, the wick. From it we create the middle line inside us, to the degree we are able to bring the oil (desire) inside the wick.

The screen can include only a small part of the desire. The wick symbolizes this shaft, the thin line that is the measure of similarity between our desire and the Light. The screen, or the middle line, is built from these two forces – the oil and the wick, the right and the left lines. The right line is bestowal and Light, and the left line is reception, the oil. The middle line, which we create from the two Upper Qualities of reception and bestowal, is called the soul.

5 Minutes Of Light From The Daily Lesson: A Scientific Approach With New Tools

The Daily Lesson – 12.13.09

Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash, Letter #43
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“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 67, Lesson 28
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“The Character of Kabbalah,” Lesson 6
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What Is So Special About Studying The Book Of Zohar?

Spiritual Time and Movement The study of The Book of Zohar requires general efforts in the desire and the thought (the heart and the mind) in order to unite everything we studied before in the science of Kabbalah about creation, the group and the world, the Creator, the perception of reality, the direct and indirect influence and governance from Above, the singularity of the governing force and its goal, and many other components.

Obviously, when a person starts to study this book, he cannot unite all of these things into one right away. Yet he has to try to do it. The descriptions in The Book of Zohar facilitate this and compel us to do it. By focusing all the possible descriptions of the only forces in nature – the desire and the Light – it’s as if we pass through a needle’s eye, through our point in the heart, the point of our efforts, and after passing this pressure we enter the boundless, Light-filled world of the Creator.

Therefore, it is impossible to start reading The Zohar immediately. A preparation is necessary in order for a person’s heart and soul to absorb everything the science of Kabbalah speaks of, all of its demands, opinions, and outlook on life and the world. All of this must form one’s heart and come together into a specific feeling that Kabbalah has toward the world. Then one will be able to correctly perceive everything that The Zohar tells him.

The Book Of Zohar Evening Lesson – 12.12.09

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Noah,” Item 293
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The Miracle Of Hanukkah

soul A miracle is a connection that I don’t understand between an action and a result; it is when my action suddenly causes a completely unlikely but great result. This is the meaning of the verse, “I labored and found.” We have to make efforts during the studies and try to find everything that is being discussed inside us. But what we find will be completely unexpected, even though we talk about it and wait for it to happen. When we receive it,  we will be shocked at how unable we were to correctly imagine this finding! That is why we call it a miracle.

What is the vessel of oil that I have to light up? It refers to qualities that I have to find inside myself. The oil is my will to enjoy. I have to understand how to light it, how to create a new wick in it using my efforts so the wick would come to the outside. The wick is my opposition to using my desire directly, to receive for my own sake; I want to use it in an equivalent manner as the Light. That is why I bring a wick out of the desire which includes a bit of my will to receive, but only as much as I am able to make similar to the Light and to cancel my egoism. I am ready to use it up for the sake of others.

For now I am only willing to bestow a thin, small wick. And I constantly have to check to make sure that I am not doing this for my own sake. I constantly think that I attained this, but it turns out that I did not. This happens over and over again because I constantly reveal new egoistic desires within me. That is how I gradually discern all of them until I finally create a wick inside me – a thin line (Kav Dak) of my desires, spanning from me to the Creator. The upper extreme or quality of this wick is similar to the Light, and that’s why it lights up. The darkness then shines as Light.

If I can imagine this state within me, within my desires and qualities, that means I am already in it. This signifies the arrival of Hanukkah, the holiday of Light. A small candle ignites in me, and inside my enormous egoistic desire, there is a tiny part where bestowal lights up.

This part of the desire longs to enjoy together with the Light that is able to shine in it, and it is called my soul. It is very small for now, but as I continue to correct my huge desire, I gradually turn all of it to Light.

All of our spiritual work lies in finding all of these qualities inside us.

Establishing The Connection With Our Spritual “I”

Laitman_2009-07-30_2156_usThe notions used in the science of Kabbalah differ from anything we are accustomed to in our ordinary life. In Kabbalah, “the Creator” is a force of bestowal, the universal force of Nature. We exist in Nature, in the Creator, and we have to ask Nature for help to rise above our own “knowledge,” above the quality of reception.

A person wants to receive for his own sake and to fulfill himself with everything that seems attractive. At a certain stage however, he starts analyzing himself and then sees that his never-ending strategy for self-fulfillment is futile. He grows tired of the pursuit, feels that it’s fake and that it leads nowhere. He realizes that there is something higher out there than constant thoughts of how to fulfill oneself and being enslaved to these thoughts.

A person then comes to a place where he demands that the Creator replace this quality so he can start living above his nature and above his body, which controls him and forces him to receive. He begins to set other goals and seek new horizons, since he now desires contact with the Upper Force, the force of bestowal.

He wants his inner emptiness to be filled by that Force, to receive the answers to his questions from that reliable, eternal and perfect Source. He needs to feel that he is doing things that are truly worthwhile. One realizes that prior to this realization, he  was mistaken and was thrown around from one desire to another. But now he desires the authentic knowledge about life and about the world in which he lives.

However, he still lives in a body, not in the soul, and one’s “animalistic” mind thinks only about the bodily needs. In order to receive an answer from the Creator, one needs to open up a new desire above the body, above one’s “animal.”

One has to reach a higher dimension and establish a connection between his spiritual “I” and the Creator – the eternal Force that governs him and everyone around.

Attaining The Sensation Of Eternal Life Through Bestowal

Laitman_2009-11_8781 A question I received: Will the receiving force disappear when we come to final correction?

My Answer: If it disappeared, then creation would disappear as well. Is receiving really a bad thing? Kabbalah (receiving in Hebrew) is the science of how to properly use the force of reception.

Everything began from the Light that is the quality of bestowal or the giving force that created creation, the will to receive, or receiving force. In reality there are only these two forces, and this is why creation always has to receive or strive to receive. The will to receive is a necessary and enduring force. Otherwise, how can I possibly give? It is possible only if I learn how to properly receive; then I will be able to acquire the force of bestowal.

The One that purely gives is the Creator. I am the one who receives. The receiver can thoughtlessly swallow up everything that is  given to him, in which case he will find himself in an intolerable situation. In this case, anything a person receives will only leave him feeling more and more drained. It is  because delight is opposite to one’s desire and it neutralizes the desire. The next moment after I have filled myself, I feel empty. Why is this so? It is because delight is felt only during its brief encounter with the desire, which vanishes once it’s full. For example, I was hungry and anticipated a treat, but now that I am full, I can’t even look at food.

It follows that egoism kills itself and gives way to despair. Whatever I do, nothing remains. What else can I think of in this world to delight myself? How many different foods, movies, cars, or jets do I need? At some point, it all stops satiating me.

This is why the world has come to a crisis. The crisis is due to all of us having forgotten how to use our desire to enjoy, and therefore not being able to employ it as before. The world is at a dead end. So what should we do?  This is when a new desire called the “point in the heart” emerges in man. It says, “It is possible to enter a different dimension of pleasure. Let’s try it.”

This is how one comes to the science of Kabbalah. It teaches a person to give by means of the desire to be delighted. How does this happen? Only through love for others. Love towards others will be revealed in everyone, and people will suddenly feel that this love gives them fulfillment that does not vanish, is always there, and always increases.

When you begin to wish to give, you will sense that you are being fulfilled, and this never-ending fulfillment will be a sensation of eternal life.

My New Blog In Portuguese

The Portuguese version of my blog, entitled “Cabalá e o Significado da Vida” (Kabbalah and the Meaning of Life) is now being published online:

blog-na-portugalskom_w

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: New Kabbalah Blog In Portuguese
Kabbalah Website in Portuguese


Lesson On The Book Of Zohar – 12.11.09

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Noah,” Item 233
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