Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.21.10

The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “BeHaalotcha (When You Mount the Candles),” Item 95
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Rabash, Article 12, 1988
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The Serpent Is The Angel of Help

Laitman_2009-11-19_9494 The Zohar, Chapter “Tazria (When A Woman Delivers),” Item 95: This is when the sinner gives strength to the Sitra Achra (evil inclination) to extend from the left, from above downwards [meaning egoistically], as did Cain. Then the serpent, called “sin,” which crouches at the door of Malchut, discloses the first point, which is hidden in Malchut, and all the lights depart from the root of the soul of the sinful person…

A person starts his correction from the lowest critical point when the serpent and Malchut, which is unable to receive any Light, are revealed. This serpent has a very important mission. This is why “the sin crouches at our door” is written in a good rather than in a bad sense.

The Creator prepared a serpent to help us enter the spiritual world. The serpent causes us to make the most basic revelation: that we are unable to receive the Light inside our egoistic desires. Don’t even try; you will be beating your head against a brick wall and will never succeed. Leave your egoistic desires because you won’t be able to do anything with them. You have to rise above them in order to “leap” above this world. This is what the serpent is explaining to a person.

The serpent comes like an angel sent to us by the Creator in order to push us towards correction. Yet, we should be grateful to the serpent for its help.

This snake comes as medication; indeed, it is not a coincidence that the snake is a symbol of medicine and poison is the basis of all medications. The Creator guides us using bites from the two serpents until we suddenly feel the nature which is above our own. We then understand that we have to rise above both of these serpents, thereby finding the One who governs them.

We Have All The Conditions For Revelation

A question I received: What does it mean to annul oneself at the Zohar Convention so the Upper Light will become revealed to us?

My Answer: It means that I annul my egoism in relation to the common desire to be together, and I do this with the purpose of revealing the Upper Force – the force of bestowal and mutual love within us. It is the common force of nature, the Creator (Bore), meaning, “come and see.” More precisely, it means, come to the annulment of your ego at the inanimate level of holiness, and then you will see and feel the Light which fulfills you. This is possible to do!

It is enough to simply want to connect, even with no true intention to bestow yet. One should want to rise above his ego in order to connect with others and reveal the Creator. This requires a connection according to the method of Kabbalah, rather than simply an egoistic unity among people.

Then the Upper Light will connect us and fulfill us. That is the meaning of the verse, “Israel, Torah, and the Creator unite as one.” “Israel” means everyone who wants to annul his ego for the sake of connecting with others. This is possible to do with the force of the Light which is called “Torah” for the sake of revealing the Upper Force, which is called “the Creator.” We have all the conditions for that!

It is impossible to do it alone, but it’s easy to do it together.

A Mutual Guarantee

A question I received: What advice can you give us now before such a meaningful event as the Zohar Convention so that all of our thoughts and intentions will be as one thin ray of Light, concentrated on the same thing?

My Answer: We should be scared to death that one person will lose the intention and drill a hole in the collective boat.

Everyone should be concerned about this – we need a mutual guarantee.

How To Become A Spiritual Embryo

above A spiritual embryo completely cancels itself before the Upper One and depends on Him in every aspect. In fact, canceling oneself is what constitutes one’s independence. This is the inanimate level of sanctity – bestowal and love for one’s neighbor above one’s egoism.

This should constitute our inner work at the Zohar Convention 2010. If each person cancels himself in relationship to the others, then certainly we will be able to reveal the degree of a spiritual embryo. Nobody can resist the influence of such a large group of people. If you enter the environment that has such a great power, then it’s very easy for you to cancel yourself – you only need a small desire and readiness. And accordingly, we’ll be able to reach a state, a spiritual reality where the Upper Force fills the world.

This is not fantasy, mysticism, or meditation; it is a true sensation, a certain level of unity that is reached when each person rejects his egoism in relationship to others. Each person will rise to the inanimate level of sanctity and feel what this state, filled with the Light of Nefesh of the World of Assiya, means.

A person is capable of putting in the effort to reach this state, but it is possible that he will fall again. Maybe he is already able to remain in the spiritual world, but this depends on whether or not he continues to exert himself after the Congress. If a person is motivated to remain in a state of rejecting his egoism in relationship to the others, then he can keep this level and begin to ascend from it regardless of what is happening with the others. It is unrealistic for a person to do this alone, but it’s easy to do it together!

The Surrounding Light Is The Glue That Makes Us “Stick” Together

correct What is the Light that Reforms? In what way does it reform us and how? Imagine the common soul as a circle consisting of broken pieces that are unconnected. We have to restore this connection in order to feel eternal life within the common soul.

Imagine that a sculptor has made a statue of a person and then broke it into pieces. Instead of a whole statue, there is now a pile of broken pieces. These pieces are living souls that desire to assemble back together into a whole statue, but they just can’t manage to “stick” to each other. When they attempt to unite, they discover giant forces of repulsion among them.

They are trying to come closer to each other and to recreate the statue of a person who is similar to the Creator, but they aren’t able to do it. And that’s because they don’t have the glue that will make them stick together.

After numerous attempts to come closer and stick together, the parts become convinced that they are unable to connect together on their own, yet only unity will save them. They then realize that only the Upper Force, the force that created the statue in the first place, and the force that deliberately broke it, will be able to glue these parts back together into a single whole.

However, it will do so only when the parts request it. This request is called asking for the Light that Reforms.

If we desire to unite and ask for help in doing this, then we are asking the Creator to be the force that will unite us like glue. This is how we return to the initial form of the statue – the common soul of Adam HaRishon.

The Whole World Is Sick Or Healthy Together With Me

sickorhealthy In relation to me all the other souls are in the corrected state. I have to recognize that I am the only uncorrected element in the whole universe. However, if they are all corrected and I am not, then doesn’t it mean that I am the only one who needs to correct myself? No, it doesn’t, and the reason is because my lack of correction is inside of me, since we all belong to one system.

If I am a sick organ in the body, then the whole body suffers because I do not carry out my work. Suppose I am a very important part of the body – say the kidneys, where my role is to cleanse everything there is in the body, but I am not functioning. Then the whole body cannot exist because this part is included in all the others and must serve them, providing its part of the common work. Without it, all the other parts are unable to function correctly either.

Therefore, it doesn’t matter if the whole rest of the body is healthy; I still make it sick to the extent that I am uncorrected. I have to realize that I am the only one who is uncorrected, and this ruins the whole body. Without me, they would all be perfectly healthy.

Therefore, my work is to connect with everyone and to see how flawed they are because of me. This is the meaning of the verse, “Every person judges others to the extent of his own flaws.” Then I will desire to correct myself and to elevate everyone along with me to the height of the final, corrected state.

Everything Depends On Me At The Zohar Convention 2010

zoharconvent A question I received: You said that everything depends on the person. What depends on me, and only me alone, at the Zohar Convention 2010 that starts tomorrow?

My Answer: The science of Kabbalah teaches that all of reality is inside a person, and there is nothing in reality besides a person. Everything I imagine as existing outside of me, such as the group, the Creator, and all of reality, is all actually inside of me. Everything is depicted inside me, and only seems external to me, distant, or even opposite.

Our goal is to return to the correct, true state, to reveal the true reality and the One who fills and sustains it. Within this reality we have to attain unity, in order to reveal the One who gives rise to this reality, the One who governs it.

If this is the case, then everything is inside me and everything depends on me. What is the Convention, different gatherings, groups, and all our actions? It’s a demonstration of my own forces where the Creator gives me an opportunity to unite them.

No matter who attends, it means that I have received a special opportunity to unite precisely with these forces or qualities inside me. They are close to correction, to the state in which I can correct my connection with them.

Nothing depends on them. I am the only one who controls this entire system or scheme. What happens depends only on me, and no one else. If I am not in this state of awareness, it means I am on a lower level, in which case I’m worried about things that depend not just on me, but also on others.

I start to worry about wanting them to think and desire the same way as I do, so we will find a connection between us, so from the connection or the lack thereof, or even from our repulsion from one another, we would ask for correction, like at the state beneath Mount Sinai. It is written, “Either you will unite as one man with one heart, or this will become your burial ground.”

This is exactly the state we are in now. We must only desire to unite, since on our own we are incapable of any action, good or bad. All the actions are performed from Above, as it is written, “There is not a blade of grass below that does not have an angel above striking it and ordering it to grow.”

All the changes come from Above. We must only demand correction. The most important thing is our worry about the common unity, since inside it we will reveal the quality of universal bestowal and will feel the Creator. The science of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to the creatures in this world – and this really can happen to us.

Access To The Spiritual Control Panel

A question I received: Why was The Book of Zohar always treated with respect, and why did it unite people around itself?

My Answer: We exist in an infinite reality where we are all connected to each other. The Book of Zohar is not just a book that any person can pick up from a shelf and begin to read. It is an instrument which allows us to influence the spiritual system, as through we press buttons, and the system reacts. We activate it without even understanding what we are doing; we receive access to a very sensitive sphere.

This is not a book, but a whole system. When we read it and connect to it, we activate ourselves in relation to the system and the system in turn relates to us. We need to understand this and to realize what a great responsibility and special opportunity this is.

Let’s hope that we’ll succeed in activating this system to the extent that it depends on us as small souls that activate it, so it will influence us and reveal unity to us. This unity exists now as well, but we want The Zohar to reveal it – to lift the first, external layer of our egoism and reveal our unity on the smallest, first spiritual degree. This in itself will already be a revelation. So let’s study this book with the expectation for this to happen!

Becoming Worthy Of Spiritual Birth

A Question Is the Sensation of an Empty Desire A question I received: At the upcoming Zohar Convention 2010, if we succeed in canceling our egoistic desires with respect to the common desire, will we be able to reach the first degree and be born into the spiritual world?

My Answer: Yes, this is possible for all the participants of the Convention, even those who come there almost by chance and who have not studied with us for a few months or years. They too can merit the revelation of spirituality along with everyone else. People who wish to come out of their egoism and unite as one man with one heart around Mount Sinai (the mountain of hatred) realize that they are controlled by their egoistic nature – hatred toward others and love for themselves.

Reaching love for one another is a task as difficult as rising to the top of this high mountain of hatred. However, if they desire this, they will attain it. What do you think was so special about the people who came out of Egypt: men, women, the elderly, children, and the whole countless multitude of different tribes that joined them? The 600,000 men who received the Torah are just a fifth of the total number of people who stood around the mountain; they represent just one of five degrees: Shoresh, Alef, Bet, Gimel, Dalet. If we achieve unity in this one degree, the smallest desire of the zero level, and 600,000 people out of three million unite, this is sufficient.

When we receive the means called the Torah, we begin to move ahead with its help. We are able to work on our egoism and ascend through it. This is called “work in the desert,” where we will be able to raise MAN and carry out all the necessary actions. The most important thing is to go through the spiritual birth. also referred to as the “exodus from Egypt.” I believe that we are quite capable of achieving this if we so desire. We have all the conditions and opportunities that are necessary for this.

Everything is open for us from Above. I am completely serious when I say this. Those who join this action and who desire to be with us in heart and soul can merit spiritual revelation, correction, and an exit from exile.