Why Are People So Preoccupied With Sex?

Laitman_422A question I received: Why are people so preoccupied with sex?

My Answer: In the spiritual world, the soul is in the state of “Zivug” (coupling, merging) with the Light. This is the unity of two parts of creation, a male and female, which brings the greatest pleasure there is: filling the soul with the Light. A prototype of the spiritual merger in the material world is physical coupling. That’s why (attraction to the opposite sex) is considered a foundation, a root of all desires and pleasures of our world, and preoccupies us so much.

Sexual pleasure in our world beautifully demonstrates the difference between the spiritual and physical merging. A person (a man) thinks about sex all the time and envisages enormous pleasure that awaits him, but after the peak, the satisfaction immediately disappears. A chase after another pleasure begins again….

Why? It is because the Light and desire annul each other. In other words, by filling the desire, the Light neutralizes the sensation of pleasure, similarly to how plus and minus cancel out each other. The disappearance of both leads to double emptiness. That’s why it’s written, “Dying, a person does not receive even a half of the desired.”

Spiritual pleasure works within us differently. To be in the spiritual world means to have the intention (screen) – an ability to receive pleasure (Light) into a desire (vessel, Kli) in order to bring pleasure to the other (a friend, the Creator). That requires a person to acquire the property of the Creator, the property of love and bestowal. Then a person reaches the spiritual coupling, ceaseless merging, which continues and intensifies constantly, giving one the sensation of eternal life.

Essentially, somewhere deep inside, in the soul, we all unconsciously aspire to this particular merging, and are created for it.

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Don’t Hit The Computer, It’s Inanimate!

Laitman_508_4A question I received: What does it mean that the Creator gets angry? If we’re talking about invariable spiritual laws, why does The Zohar portray the Creator as one who possesses human qualities, such as anger, envy, etc?

My Answer: The Torah uses the language of man to tell us what we feel and attribute to the Creator. I often use a computer as an example of this. Why do we get angry at a computer when it is nothing but pieces of metal and plastic? It has no intelligence, but merely executes its programmed commands perfectly. All its actions are correct.

If you press the wrong key, or if you lack the knowledge of how the program functions, you can smash the keyboard in frustration all you want, but the computer will still respond with the same error every single time. A computer isn’t a person who can change its behavior. A computer is inanimate, and cannot change. Yet, again and again, you relate to it as you would to a person, questioning it in rage: “Why aren’t you doing what I want you to do?”

We attribute to a computer our own qualities, our personalities, wishing for it to change as we do. In truth, we are uncorrected and we change, while a computer is not uncorrected; hence, its behavior is unvarying and always correct.

The same rule applies to the Creator. We’re not talking about the Creator Himself, but about “Bo-Re” (“Come and See”), that is, our perception of the Creator. We discern and conceive the Creator in our desires (vessels of reception, Kelim). And that is why we ascribe to the Creator the same qualities and reactions characteristic of us.

It is therefore written that the Torah speaks the language of man. In order to explain to us our correct behavior and to help us change, we need to imagine that the Creator undergoes changes though in truth He does not. Perfection cannot change, otherwise it would not be perfection.

By ascribing to the Creator our qualities and regarding Him as though He changes His attitude toward us, we can see ourselves in two manifestations: One, the way I am as is, the way I appear from the side and two, in the changes I undergo either in a constant or transient world.

This perceptual duality which allows us to imagine as though something changes outside of us is a great gift from the Creator. Because of it we come to perceive a different dimension, to understand the spiritual world, to enter into its perception freely and independently.

Therefore, our perception that reality exists and changes outside of ourselves is a true salvation from the prison cell of our world (the sensation of spiritual claustrophobia). It is a fundamental point which grants the creature the opportunity to rise above its creation, to become human: Adam, similar to the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/10, The Zohar

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The Spiritual Meaning Of Tithing

Laitman_409A question I received: What is the spiritual meaning of tithing (Maaser)?

My Answer: The tithe is the separation of the tenth part of Malchut. The Torah instructs us to set aside the parts which instead of being used for the sake of bestowal directly can only be used through society. This calculation is performed only with regard to the Creator, for the sake of bestowal to Him.

The Torah describes many types of taxes, but all of them are based on one principle: Because I am unable to bestow with certain desires that I have within me and the Light that comes to me, I pass these desires to the general desire (Kli). In a common desire, through a society, I’m able to carry this out.

My Kli is partial, meaning that for the time being, the screen covers only a part of my desires, in which I’m ready to receive for the sake of bestowal. How can I correct the part in which I’m incapable of bestowing?

I receive the Light for that part and transfer the desire to receive pleasure along with the received Light to an outside Kli. Thereby I prepare it for correction. By not using Maaser today (the tenth part of Malchut, which cannot be corrected), I prepare this part for correction through society.

In the science of Kabbalah, we study our desires called “garments” and “house.” They become corrected by my first seeing them as external to me, and then transferring them to my internality.

The same applies to Maaser. I seemingly transfer it for external usage, but then it becomes my internality and returns to me with the desires I did not previously consider my own. For the time being, in my sensations, I cannot correct that part in order to use it, by receiving for the sake of bestowal.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/10, The Zohar

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