Kabbalah Moments: How To Receive

Evening Zohar Lesson 05.31.10

Rav Baruch Ashlag, According to “Which Keeping of Torah and Mitzvot Purifies the Heart
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Tetzaveh (Command),” Item 15
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The Basic Principle Of Spiritual Advancement

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person cannot acquire a spiritual vessel, the desire to receive the property of bestowal from Above without annulling himself before the group. Without this, he will study but to no avail. Moreover, if he puts himself above others, then his study will become “the potion of death” and turn him into a “bat in the night.” Conversely, if a person puts himself below the friends, then his study will make him a “rooster greeting the dawn.”

Therefore, everything depends solely on one’s attitude to the group and the friends. Furthermore, it’s not what one does outwardly; most important is what is happening inside one’s heart. Namely:

1) To what extent he feels (still egoistically) that without the friends he will not achieve the goal;

2) How much he works in order to see them as greater. In reality, it is very difficult and one should at least understand that the Creator has chosen these friends for him.

Until one starts relating to the others like to his own family, who are important and necessary for him, the Light will not affect him positively.

I ascend the first step if I perceive everyone as “1” and myself as “0”; that in relation to them, I am proportionately  “0.1,” meaning that I perceive myself as 10 times lesser than them. But at the second step, egoism brings me the “burdening of the heart,” and I will have to perceive them 100 times more important than me; and at the third step, 1,000 times. Otherwise, I won’t be able to ask the Light that Reforms to affect me. Every time I wish to ascend, I must first descend even deeper. Thus, every time one feels a greater gap between himself and the society (10, 100, and 1,000 times more).

This advancement is impossible without the support of the environment and the common objective burning passionately in everyone. By this, everyone gains motivation, inspiration, importance of spirituality, as well as the understanding that this is the only worthy occupation in life.

We begin with the love of friends which helps us draw the Surrounding Light, which corrects us and gives us a genuine love of others, whereby we come to love of the Creator. Therefore, this principle applies throughout our whole spiritual ascent, in every action, from start to finish along the path.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/10, Article, “According to What is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend’”

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Justifying The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: What does it mean to justify the Creator? How does this process manifest inside a person?

My Answer: One justifies the Creator, all of creation, the entire process of development, and the Upper Governance when one goes through all 125 degrees behind which the Creator conceals Himself. When a person takes the concealment upon himself, he nullifies the Creator’s concealments and sees that the concealment was there for his own good, in order for him to build his own screen.

By virtue of working above the concealment, a person acquires revelation, understanding, sensation, and knowledge. Thus, he rises from the animate level to the human one. A person conceals himself so that the Creator does not need to conceal Himself. It is written, “Because Moses hid his face, he merited the revelation of the Creator’s face.”

The Creator can only be seen in the Reflected Light. When you conceal your will to receive pleasure, you perform a restriction on it, and thus create the Reflected Light. Then, in the Reflected Light you reveal the Direct Light.

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 1 – 1920

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Attaining The Secrets Of Above and Below

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 324: Happy are the righteous, for the Creator teaches them profound secrets of above and below, and it is all for the Torah, since anyone who engages in the Torah is crowned in the crowns of His Holy Name. This is so because the Torah is the Holy Name and one who engages in it is registered and crowned in the Holy Name, and then he knows the hidden ways and deep secrets of above and below, and he never fears.

There is no other way to connect with the Creator, with the true Upper reality (which we want to reveal, enter, and exist in), but with the help of the Light. It can shine upon us only if we cultivate the desire for it.

We can only develop this desire with the help of the group. A person only has a point in the heart, and in order to attract the Light that Reforms, he needs additional strength, which he can receive only from the group. The desire one receives from the group already has the intention to bestow, and with this force, he will have a connection with the Upper Light. In order to acquire a connection with his group, a person must lower himself before it and raise the importance of the goal.

In other words, he needs to work against his own desire to receive pleasure, against his ego. Therefore, when a person works with the group, he can appeal to the Light that Reforms so it will grant him a connection with the properties of bestowal, with the spiritual world.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/10, The Zohar

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The Mind Cannot Comprehend The Zohar

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: Sometimes The Zohar text is written so clearly that it seems to address me and talk about me directly.

My Answer: You should be clever and realize that even though a portion of the text appears to be clear, you actually don’t comprehend it any more than you do an unclear part. Comprehension at this point doesn’t matter. In your current state, you don’t understand anything.

If, by chance, it seems that you can put these words together and prescribe a certain meaning to  them, it’s a problem that you are confused. It has nothing to do with the intention of the authors of The Zohar. They write about properties and acts which you have no connection to yet. Not a single word there talks about a person in this world or the actions that he or she performs here.

Cast away your mind as soon possible and as far away as possible. This is the biggest favor you can do for yourself.

Question (continued): Sometimes The Zohar talks about something incomprehensible, and it makes it easier for me to focus on the intention.

My Answer: Your going deeper into the intention does not depend on the text being or not being clear to you. It bears absolutely no relation to how much you understand the text.

Suppose that now I simply listen to the text, without knowing any Hebrew or  having any translation. Then I only think about when this medicine will affect and cure me. That’s all. That is all you need.

Say I come to see a doctor and he tells me to take a certain medicine. He mentions a long name in Latin that reflects its chemical composition. Do I really need to know how this medicine works, what its composition is, and why it is called a certain way? Do I need to know these things in order to believe that it will help me and I will be healed?

I only have to understand what the doctor says in terms of how to take the medicine, and nothing more. All other information will only harm me. I will think I’m smart and start acting as if I really know about these things.  But, it is a doctor, and not you, who is given the right to treat you. You don’t have to treat yourself. The instruction says: “If you are sick, go to a doctor (Nitan La Rofe Lerapot).”

Does the intention depend on how much you understand the text? There is no connection between them whatsoever.

From the 1st Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/10, The Zohar

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The Direct Path To Attain Bestowal, Love, And The Spiritual World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe instruction says that first one has to study the Torah, Mishnah, and Talmud, and only then embark on the Kabbalah studies. This is correct provided one already deserves to study at the level of Lishma, that is, if one has corrected himself completely.

However, one first needs to reach the correction of his soul. We exist for this purpose, and herein lies our entire work. The Torah (the Light of Correction) is given to us specifically to this end, as it is said: “I created egoism and gave the Torah for its correction.”

The order of correction is as follows: First, you need to reach the level of “Lishma” (attain the property of bestowal and love, enter into the spiritual world) in the shortest and most effective manner. Then, you are free to study the entire Torah, since the soul that you have acquired will teach you itself. Nobody will be able to tell you what to do. You will see, understand, and attain everything yourself.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/10, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 05.31.10

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 428
While reading the Zohar we should think of how it corrects us, uniting us into one general soul. If we will influence one another, then we’ll want to sense this soul.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Tetzaveh (Command),” Item 1
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary,” Item 36
To unite means to abandon something of my own and let in something foreign.  When I have something of yours in me, and vise versa, then we are as one whole.
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 19
Each person is capable of achieving spiritual correction because it depends upon his desire, not his inborn qualities.
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Rav Baruch Ashlag, According to “Which Keeping of Torah and Mitzvot Purifies the Heart
Awakening of the point in the heart is a start of one’s independent development. From here on, a person will advance only by consciously choosing his environment.
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Opening The Zohar – 05.30.10

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “The Donkey Driver,” Item 97
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The "Dirty" Filters That Obscure Our View Of Reality

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe exist in a system called the only creation, Soul, or Adam. This system was created by the Creator. We are connected within it by permanent ties like the organs are in a body. Our mutual connection is filled with the life of this system: Light. The system is called the World of Infinity because everything in it is boundless and perfect.

In the World of Infinity, all of its parts are bound by love and filled with Infinite Light. However, the Creator covers this infinite world with reductive filters, one after another, as if spoiling everything. It is similar to drawing a beautiful picture and then placing a dirty, plastic film over it which mars the view of the picture. Then, with additional, successive layers, through 125 layers of plastic wrap, the original picture looks even dirtier. These are the 125 layers of reducing the properties of bestowal and love that connect us in the system of the World of Infinity.

We are located in the outermost layer and don’t perceive the preceding ones at all. Thus, within our layer, the system of connection is completely ruined. Instead of feeling love that binds us in the World of Infinity, we hate each other, don’t perceive our mutual connection, and are separated, divided, and broken. From this lowest state, the Creator wishes to bring us back to the very first, which is illuminated and good, so that through all these layers, filters, and worlds (“world” in Hebrew is Olam, concealment) we return to Infinity.

Therefore, the Creator calls and awakens us. Previously, He developed us through egoism so that we could understand and feel more, and manage our lives better. However, when we reach a certain maturity, the Creator begins to advance us qualitatively. It isn’t enough for us to evolve by increasing our egoism anymore. Now we have to become similar to the Creator in our attributes, to receive an equivalent type and form of desire, and not just cultivating it as during our previous history. This is why our current state of development is so special.

By making an effort to align ourselves with the innermost layer, by becoming strongly connected to each other, we draw the Light of the Creator, which shines on us from afar as the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif). We become corrected in it in order for love and bestowal to reign among us.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/10, Shamati #16

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