The Power Of Our Weakness

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do I reach the Creator more quickly with my prayer without judging Him?

Answer: The Creator does not care if you judge Him or not. Neither does it matter whether you bless or condemn Him. What is important to Him is that you don’t forget Him. You don’t forget that the Creator exists, that He is Good Who does Good, and that He is the cause of all events of your life.

Therefore, no matter what you are receiving at the moment it is for the best. And not only that, but it also propels you toward the goal. Even if the experience is dreadful, you receive it with the understanding that it is necessary so that from this point you can aim at the goal.

How do I aim myself at the goal? I connect to the group. How do I bond with the group? I do it by performing various actions. What will come out of it? I will receive stronger desires from the group. Yet, it is here where I will realize that I am worth nothing and won’t be able to progress.

The powerful desire received from the group will seem to have caused an opposite response. How can that be? Let’s take a twenty-man military troop, for instance. In this case, everyone receives support from all, and the team, empowered by the strength of twenty, goes into combat.

But in a group of Kabbalists, it is quite different. Instead of multiplying their strength by the strength of the friends and plunging into attack, I feel twenty times weaker while the goal becomes twenty times more profound in my eyes.

We think that we will get stronger having entered the group. In truth, we feel weakened, but at the same time absorb the importance of the goal from the friends. Now I look at the goal as if I am hypnotized, but…clearly see no chance to achieve it.

This is exactly how it is, contrary to what takes place in our world. The group has to support me by demonstrating to me that it is a desirable state. I must come to it, and the Creator “will not knock me off my feet” and “will not beat me cold,” leaving me “dead in the battle field.”

In its time, the scouts sent to the land of Israel got stuck in this kind of trap. All transgressions of the people of Israel (or those who are striving for the Creator) described in the Torah were committed solely because of the people’s inability to evaluate (comprehend) the impressions of themselves, the group, the Creator, and the path to the goal that emerge in them.

Despite the exhaustion, the goal is exalted and profound in our eyes. Now the time has finally come when due to this exhaustion, we have the right to cry out: “Where is the Light? You promised it to us!” The Creator loves when we demand from Him, which is described as, “My sons have defeated Me.” Then, we will receive strength.

In this way, along with weakness and importance of the goal, the group must pass confidence in our success to everyone.
[25873]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/10, ““What is the Foundation that Sanctity is Built Upon”

Spice Up Your Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why do we start spiritual work in the Torah and commandments with the egoistic intention of Lo Lishma (not for Her Name)?

Answer: Our matter is the evil inclination. It is described as “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice.” It turns out that the evil inclination is coated in some kind of seasoning, as if in some cream. The Torah carries the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) that “tiles” our matter and returns it to the Source. In other words, the Torah is the Light that corrects the intention and re-directs it from aiming at the personal benefit to the benefit of others.

The “evil inclination” is the desire aimed at evil, meaning personal benefit. The Light arrives and turns in into the “good inclination” or desire aimed at the good, the benefit of others.

Thus, the Torah becomes a “spice” since it adds just a “dab” and spices the will to receive with the correct intention. Previously, you were employing it to harm, and now you are using it to do good. As to the commandments, they are actions through which you realize the goal so as to make your desire similar to the Creator.

There is a chain of actions that follow one after the other in small doses, unfolding within you. You carry them out so that in the end, all your desires were aimed at bestowal. Thereby you do, indeed, perform the “commandments” or the Creator’s orders (your internal corrections).
[25876]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/10, ““What is the Foundation that Sanctity is Built Upon”

Night As Day

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “What Is the Foundation that Sanctity Is Built Upon”:  When building a building in corporeality, we see that anyone who wants to build a building must first dig the foundations, and on the foundation he builds the building. The digging of the foundation into the ground should be according to the height of the building. The foundation is not dug at once. Rather, each day the foundation is built so that it will be deeper, and then one can build a higher building….

And since his whole construction is built on above reason, the digging is sealed again, meaning that his need disappears again and he has nothing to ask; that is, he has no need for the Creator to bring him closer. Thus, he must start digging again, meaning to work in order to find a deficiency, so he will have a basis upon which to ask the Creator to build his building.

Question: Does a person build a new world every day?

Answer: He does it with each moment. As a matter of fact, “day” is any opportunity used for advancement. If such opportunities arise only when the person feels illuminated, then he has the day and the night. However, the Psalms say: “The day is yours, and the night is yours.” Let the night also feel like the day to us, the place where we can work and advance.

In the darkness, a sensation of no light and no desire, when a person is tangled and keeps stumbling over obstacles within himself, he has to understand that he is receiving new desires at the moment, desires that he hadn’t worked with before. They too must be tied to the goal.

This means that we have to welcome the events with joy: I must be really strong if the Surrounding Light evokes in me deeper layers of desires that I can place in the foundation of my building. Having completed this foundation, I will reach the first spiritual degree.

Hence, I must strive to see all instants of my life as “days.” And it does not matter what sensations I am experiencing, bitter or sweet. If I always aspire to the truth, I will see everything as day.
[25892]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/10, ““What is the Foundation that Sanctity is Built Upon”

Where Is The Key To Unlock The “Bank”?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We have decided that at the upcoming Convention we are going for “all-or-nothing.” Where is that “bank” we are going to storm, and, most importantly, where is the key to unlock it?

Answer: The “bank” is in the heavens. But it can be reached. It is the property of Bina, bestowal. And the key to it lies in the unity between us. In our unification, we will discover the true treasure, which is not a safe but an attribute with the help of which all treasuries of the world can be unlocked!

We will unlock the “bank” on one condition: that we will unify among us. In our oneness, it will be revealed at once. This is the wonder of spirituality: The Light starts illuminating as soon as we reach the first degree of equivalence to it.
[25898]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, “Exile and Redemption”

Just One Step From Love To Hatred

Dr. Michael LaitmanDon’t try to make an animal out of a person and to lock the spiritual world into a mechanical scheme. It is a world full of adventures and uncertainties that are revealed along the way, and you suddenly see that it was not like you thought, and maybe even quite the opposite.

When the connection between phenomena is revealed on a more inner level, you perform a complete “upgrade” (new installation) on your whole “program.” You see that you can now use new instruments (Kelim), new connections. Obviously, the foundation – the Creator, the creature, the process of development with the help of the Surrounding Light, the desires of Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) and AHP, and greater unification of souls – remains unchanged. However, specific phenomena could be completely opposite.

Suddenly I reveal completely new connections in the same desire for bestowal, at a greater depth (Aviut or coarseness). I didn’t think that my enemy on the present degree would turn out to be my dear friend on a higher degree. But on a higher degree I hug Haman because this complete criminal becomes a holy individual. How can it be that on a lower degree he is my greatest enemy to whom I cannot come closer, and on a higher degree I merge with him?

 If two Kabbalists are on these degrees, although both degrees are spiritual, they will not agree with each other! How can you love my enemy? Then you and I cannot be friends!

For a person who achieves the final connection (Gmar Tikkun), Haman, Hitler, Ahmaninejad, and all other misanthropes are forces of holiness. You hated them on the previous degrees, and on a higher degree you reconcile with them.

The whole problem is that we are unable to connect two opposites with our limited minds. How can an electron be a wave and a particle at the same time, and how can a particle be in different places simultaneously? Even more so we fail to understand how above this, in the spiritual world, everything consists of two opposites that exist together: the angel of death and the angel of holiness, the Creator and Pharaoh.

We cannot understand this with our corporeal minds, and we wish to hear which of these two opposite answers is correct, while actually they both are true. And the spiritual world, the Creator, is revealed precisely at the unification of opposites.
[25915]
From the 3rd  part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/10, Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot

We Are Equal

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why don’t I feel the same degree of enthusiasm and spiritual charge with everyone?

Answer: There’s no question that I feel everyone differently. This depends on how close or far they seem to me in my current egoistic perception. I don’t even notice some of them; others I like to a certain degree; and others yet I reject.

In this regard, the key is my personality or mood, as well as various details, cases, and events I have heard about, witnessed or felt. Yet, this doesn’t matter. In truth, on the spiritual path we constantly experience an increasing feeling that we are all equal and that there is no difference between white, black, red, yellow, attractive, and ugly. Nationality, language, personality, and all other external attributes disappear since they are a sign of limited perception within the properties of our world. No matter how a person was raised and what he was taught, it is all a mere external cocoon. Coming in touch with another’s desire, I find a spiritual spark in it and its place in the integral system of souls. Then I experience him just like a part of my own body.

And then my attitude changes; all of us become equal. It’s similar to how a mother loves all of her children, paying attention to each of them to the degree it is needed. All of us are parts of the complete system, and in completeness, no detail can be more important than the others.
[26024]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/10, Writings of Rabash

A New Creator Every Day

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If a Kabbalist sees the real, spiritual world, how can he experience any doubts or even mistakes?

Answer: The spiritual world is not inserted into the lifeless scheme that is revealed in a ready form before you. The original spiritual data (Reshimot) manifest within you, and you build your attitude that is full of bestowal to those that surround you: the group and the Creator. The right attitude forms the Upper World within you.

Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised that a Kabbalist in the spiritual world can experience doubts, theories, and hypotheses, like a scientist in our world. After all, it is precisely due to the unclarities and their elucidation that we develop.

I am always doubtful, and I already know from experience that I understand better today what occurred yesterday when I may have erred. Overall, any degree is attained only from the degree above it because it is born from and controlled by the higher degree. Every day one understands the Creator better, as it is said by one great Kabbalist: “Every day I have a new Creator!”
[25918]
From the 3rd  part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/10, Beit Sha’ar HaKavanot

Reanimation Service For The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is “internal circulation”?

Answer: Internal circulation means that in our circle, we, those who aspire to know the Creator, are in a powerful bond. And since we are also intertwined with other souls within the integral system of Adam, our strong bond begins reanimating them.

If in an organism there are some ill areas but the main systems are healthy and function well, then, thanks to these healthy systems, the body heals the problematic spots. Similarly, the Light that is revealed in us thanks to our unity “spills out” onto the rest, onto all those people who would not be able to receive it on their own, and they start feeling that such force exists and brings salvation.

For the time being, they are concerned only with the corporeal problems, but the latter are increasing so fast that humanity cannot find the solution to ecological catastrophes, terror, drug abuse, depression, or divorce. All these problems are caused by nature, the Creator, and a person will not find any solution to them at the level of the corporeal world. Humanity will keep declining until it realizes that this degradation cannot be stopped.

After all, nature must bring us to realization of our evil, as it is written: “I created the evil inclination, and I gave the Torah (Kabbalah) as the method to correct it.” And if I don’t see my evil, I have nothing to correct and don’t need Kabbalah as the means of correction.

Therefore, everyone who asks himself such questions will instinctively find us. We have completed such great preparation that there is every opportunity to circulate Kabbalah externally.
[25944]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/4/10, “Exile and Redemption”

One Desire With Two Intentions

Dr. Michael Laitman“And the children struggled together within her” (Genesis, 25:22). This refers to intentions. The Creator created the desire to enjoy and no changes have occurred within it whatsoever.

In order to help us become independent, however, the desire to enjoy has been concealed from us. It becomes revealed within us (although we feel that it happens in front of us) to the extent that we are able to cope with it.

To “cope with a desire” means to replace Esau, an egoistic intention that originates from the wrong environment, with Jacob, an altruistic intention that is produced inside the right environment. Choosing the correct environment is the only choice. The desire itself remains intact.

In order to correct, let’s say, 10 ounces of egoistic desire that emerges within me, I use all sorts of remedies that are given to me from Above. I transition from the wrong environment to the right one and thus expose myself to the influence of the group, the books, and the teacher until they turn into the Creator for me. In other words, I see the Upper Force behind them and start to understand that there is no one beside the Creator.

Due to the environment and my ability to see the Creator through it, I am able to modify my intention. Previously, I received and bestowed for the sake of receiving, but now I am able to apply a restriction (Tzimtzum) to my intention, which means that I can also apply it to the desire that “acts under” this intention. With the Light’s help, I begin to bestow for the sake of bestowal, and later on I am able to receive for the sake of bestowal.

Each desire has two intentions: to receive for its own sake or to bestow to the friends. This is the reason for the fight, and the decisive role in it is given to the environment. How does Esau or Jacob wake up within me? Are my intentions for the sake of receiving or for the sake of bestowal? Both of them fight over one desire inside one person, “they struggle within him.”
[25547]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/1o, “And the Children Racketed Within Her”

Kabbalists About Studying Kabbalah, Part 8

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Concerning the Obligation of Each Person to Study the Wisdom of Kabbalah

Imagine, for example, that some historic book were to be found today that depicts the last generations ten thousand years from now, for as you and we feel, the lessons of the torments and slaughtering will certainly [involuntarily] suffice to reform  [correct] them into good comportments [transition from egoism to genuine altruism].

And these people, before them are good comportments that serve them to provide sustenance and complacency, or at least to guarantee a daily life of peace and quiet [not to mention the achievement of eternal life and perfection]. Undoubtedly, if some sage were to provide us with this book of the wisdom of statesmanship and the conducts of the [egoistic] individual, our leaders would seek out every counsel to arrange life accordingly, and there would “No outcry in our streets.” Corruption and the terrible slayings would cease, and everything would come peacefully to its place.

Now, distinguished readers, this book lies here before you in a closet. It states explicitly all the wisdom of statesmanship and the behavior of private and public life that will exist at the end of days. … [Kabbalistic] books and you will find all the good comportment that will appear and the end of days, and from them [these books], you will find the good lesson by which to arrange mundane matters today, as well. We can examine past history and by that correct the future history.
– Baal HaSulam, Writings of The Last Generation
[24681]