Evening Zohar Lesson – 06.02.10

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Tetzaveh (Command),” Item 82
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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, Article: Which Degree Should One Achieve?”
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The Ladder Of Reshimot Leading Us To Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: Why, ever since we started studying The Zohar, do we experience so many ups and downs, and why are they so strong?

My Answer: We feel these fluctuations because we are now entering the process of healing. Each time when I feel an ascent or a descent, it signifies that I have realized one more Reshimo (a spiritual record).

I don’t know how many Reshimot I have. Yet, I have to go through all of them one by one; I can’t jump over or skip any of them. I have to realize all the Reshimot on my path, moving by the chain of Reshimot from this world to the World of Infinity. And the path to the World of Infinity is the path of my connecting with other souls into a single whole so as to discover the Creator there.

For this reason all the states that I’m going through signify my realizing the Reshimot. Hence, the faster one experiences the changes, the better. Most important is to continue.

Here we have to act above reason. We need to set an exact time for the studies, for spreading Kabbalah, the group work, and unification with the friends. We should remember the goal throughout the day, and remind ourselves about it with an alarm clock or a text message. We should use all the means possible to realize some more Reshimot, one after the other. This way, “A penny after a penny adds up to a big sum.”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/10, The Zohar

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The Healing Light Of The Zohar

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: From what part of the spiritual world does the Light of The Zohar come down to us?

My Answer: It comes from Rosh de Arich Anpin in the form of the Surrounding Light, for the Light of The Zohar is the Light of Infinity, the upper shining. This Light does not “come to us,” but rather shines upon us “from afar” and brings us back to the Source. It shines upon us through all the worlds that reduce it, and illuminates our desires that are opposite to it.

This is not the “direct” system of connection based on the screens and the Inner Light received, whereby the Light is revealed to the measure of one’s ability to bestow. Rather, since I don’t yet have the screen, the Light acts upon me from afar, and not to the measure to which I can receive for the sake of bestowal, but in the measure I can heal myself with its help.

Sometimes a person comes to a doctor who tells him: “What can I do? You need a very strong medicine, but your body won’t be able to endure it.” It happens with older people or with people who were seriously hurt. The cure exists but one’s body is too weak to take it; it can’t digest it. It may harm a person rather than help him.

The same applies in regard to the Surrounding Light, which acts upon me only to the extent to which it can heal me, that is, to the extent that I can endure it. This is because I receive the Light, the property of bestowal, as poison, as death to my egoism.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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The Talmud Offers The Most Detailed Plan Of Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: If only Kabbalah is necessary for the correction of the soul, why did the sages of the past create so many commentaries on the Torah, Mishna, and Talmud? How does this all help us?

My Answer: If, after several years of studying Kabbalah, you reach the correction for sake of bestowal (Lishma), you’ll be able to open the Talmud and delight in it. You’ll begin to understand all the laws described in it according to their inner essence, the science of Kabbalah. You’ll grasp what these great sages of the past wrote about.

At present, their language simply confuses you and conceals the world of the truth from you. Later, you’ll understand it all because you’ll reach the degree at which the sages wrote their commentaries. You’ll experience the same states that inspired them to write them. For you, these texts won’t be any different than the Kabbalistic articles.

Using words such as a “bull,” “donkey,” “cow,” “harm,” “Temple,” the “Great Assembly (Sanhedrin),” “fields,” and “property,” the sages expressed the process of the correction of the soul. The entire Torah speaks solely about the correction of the soul and its equivalence with the Creator; it is all names of the Creator.

When one commentator argues with another, this depicts the eternal argument between the left and the right lines, the measures of reception and bestowal, and clarifies how to combine them correctly. The Talmud explains the spiritual processes in the most precise details. Right now you are so tangled in them because you think that it’s talking about a thousand different opinions. Later, you’ll understand that this is not a thousand points of view, but a look at the same, single phenomenon that can be corrected from a thousand different angles.

These are not sages arguing between themselves, but the souls of the common system explaining to you how each quality is related to all the others, or, in other words, how each organ, an individual soul, is related to the work of the collective soul Adam.

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

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The Meaning Of "Command" In Spirituality

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: The chapter we’re reading in The Zohar is called "Command" (Tetzaveh). What does "command" mean in spirituality?

My Answer: This refers to the command that has been assigned to us. To join the work of the Creator, we first have to try to recognize our desire and the reason for our creation. We need to feel our state as being opposite to the Creator in order to become "creatures."

However, this isn’t enough. This is just the first recognition of one’s nature. After that, a person has to try to become similar to the Creator. Then, he’ll discover he’s incapable of doing so. When he nevertheless presses forward and strives to reach the next level of recognizing himself, he discovers that he has no desire to become similar to the Creator. Besides being opposite to the Creator and unable to become similar to Him, he doesn’t even want it.

Yet, while undergoing this process, each time a person raises the significance of the Creator, the importance of the goal, and sees his own state as low and insignificant, he continues to search until he finally realizes that there is a system of connection between the souls, and from it, he can receive additional strength. Then, he indeed will desire and be able to reveal all his opposition to the Creator, his lack of the desire, and the opportunity to become similar to Him. Along with it, he will feel a pressing need for correction, for attainment of bestowal for the Creator, which will exceed many times the one he could have reached by himself.

Then, equipped with this "heavy ammunition" which he obtained through the power of the group with the property of the mutual guarantee (within which the Creator exists as a guarantor and supports all this system), a person comes and appeals to Him. He now has something to appeal with. Before this, he couldn’t make a correct appeal.

This is the way a person reaches the influence of the Light that Reforms. He has realized his free choice and has come to the state in which the Creator grants him the strength. Then, within that Light, he begins to see what he needs to correct, as it is written, "In Your Light we will see the Light." A person begins to see the Creator’s command: to correct all his 613 uncorrected properties, one by one.

Now one understands how each property, force, and desire is corrupted, how it can be corrected, what he gains by this correction,and how he influences the entire common system.  Through the common system, the Creator is revealed. Thus, he gradually goes through the entire process of the Torah and commandments. He corrects all his desires by the intention to bestow for the sake of bestowal and even by the intention to receive for the sake of bestowal, which is not for the sake of pleasure, but rather, for the sake of the Upper One.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/31/10

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Awakening The Forces Of Good

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: I’m amazed at the profound changes that are taking place these days. Numerous new Kabbalistic groups are surfacing like mushrooms after a rain. How did we manage to bring forth such results through our inner work?

My Answer: It doesn’t depend only on us. You see how many new, serious people are joining us. This means the time has really come and the Creator is drawing people to Kabbalah. After all the twists along the spiral of evolution, they’ve finally arrived at the spiritual gene (the point in the heart), and the Surrounding Light has started working on them. We only need to help them arrange their own environment, group, and entire support system. When we start demanding the Light that Reforms all together, they won’t need the three to five years of preparation that Baal HaSulam wrote about. The correction will come quickly and easily.

Imagine the difference between a person waking from an unconscious state with all of his systems still asleep and not functioning and one waking with many parts and body systems already functioning with only the need to complete the processes. Today, it’s not only one organ that wants to wake up in the non-animate body, but many parts are being revived. So, it is understandable that now there is a greater possibility to regain consciousness. I’m sure that in the near future, we’ll see tremendous changes in the entire world.

The world is in a very dangerous state as the crisis still looms. What a horrible oil catastrophe it is taking place in the Gulf of Mexico. We don’t even realize yet its potential consequences. It’s impossible to stop this geyser of oil. Can you imagine what could happen? Right now, a sea of oil is pouring from deep within the earth leading to catastrophic pollution. It will impact not only Florida and America, but the entire world. They’re now considering a nuclear explosion to interrupt the oil passage, but they’re afraid that it may open in other places. We have released evil forces into the world.

Therefore, I hope that, with the help of all our Kabbalistic groups that are forming around the world and the individuals who are joining us, we’ll be able to awaken the forces of good in order to counter the exposed evil. We have to act and correct ourselves. Then, we will definitely succeed. We’ve received the power of the Torah, the Light that Reforms; everything depends on us now.

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

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What Does It Mean To Study And Engage In The Torah?

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: What does it mean to “engage in the authentic Torah”?

My Answer: As Baal HaSulam writes, to practice Kabbalah means to realize it in oneself, to experience it. The Light that corrects us is called the Torah. It is opposite to me and shines from afar onto my Reshimo (my spiritual, informational gene). I evolved in the previous generations according to the chain of Reshimot and arrived to a Reshimo called the “point in the heart.” It awakened under the influence of the Light, and gives me a feeling that there’s something higher than the life I’ve been leading in this body.

Study The Torah vs Engage In ItAll the work is done by the Light that Reforms. It’s the Light that awakens me. Initially, the Light developed me at the animate level. However, now the time has come for me to become human.

I, myself, am not able to act, so I appeal to the system of souls (a Kabbalistic group) and from it receive additional will and additional importance of the Creator, that is, I start feeling His importance and my own insignificance. The difference between one and the other creates additional desire called MAN (prayer). I raise this MAN upward. Basically, my work lies mainly in this. When I raise MAN, the desire to attain the Creator, to a magnitude 10 times greater than it was initially as my point in the heart, I have done my work.

However, this is not yet “studying the Torah”  or “engaging in the Torah.” So far, all this has been preparation. But now, the Light begins to illuminate me with greater power. This is now Surrounding Light – 2. It shines on me differently, in a straight line, and to the measure of my yearning.

The perception of the importance of the Creator is called Keter and one’s own insignificance is Malchut. This means I’m now acting in accordance with the goal of attaining the Creator by arranging my desires into one line. Its two outermost points are Keter and Malchut. The Creator and bestowal are above, and I and reception are below.

Now, the Light comes to me in another, direct form, and begins to collate my properties. It shows me what is more and less important within me by putting everything in order. That is, the Surrounding Light – 2 is well-ordered, and according to this order, it begins reforming me. This means that I’m now “studying Torah” since I’m studying what modifications the Surrounding Light is making within me.

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 – 06.02.10

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Tetzaveh (Command),” Item 62
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary,” Item 41
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 26
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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, Article Which Degree Should One Achieve?
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