Good Environment – 10.21.10
Posted on November 21st, 2010
Question: I feel that we can increase the speed and raise our unity to its true height without waiting for the next Convention. How can we do that?
Answer: We are not waiting for the next Convention. We must overcome all the gaps and distances right now. Every person must imagine the place inside of him where our desires unite, and inside them we will reveal the spiritual world, the Creator!
Our common effort to unite together through our desires, our points in the heart, and the demand for the Creator to be revealed between us and to unite us, will make it happen. We don’t have to wait for a Convention to make it happen!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
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Question: How can a person check if he is going by the path of the Light or the path of suffering? Is there some indicator?
Answer: You are advancing by the path of the Light if you are always choosing a better environment, meaning one that is more goal-oriented.
In this world I am surrounded by society, various groups, friends, and pleasures, and I have to choose: Which path will I take? At the end of the path there is a goal — the Creator, and whether I want it or not, I have to understand that this is nature which will win no matter what.
If I understand this, if I have “a part of divinity from Above” that is similar to the Creator, then instead of other social circles and pleasures, I must always choose the society that is connected to the spiritual goal.
It will enable me to reveal a desire for the Creator, which will be expressed in my connection with the environment. Then it will become the place where I reveal the Creator.
However, everything depends on what I want to reach at the end of the path. There are people who do not see the goal at the end of the path and therefore wander around life as if carried by the wind.
You have to check yourself to the degree of your understanding: What do you call the Creator, the right environment, and the goal? And you have to stay in the place where you think there is truth. If you have a spiritual spark, a point in the heart, then you will find the right environment for it and will not be able to calm down in any other place.
If you don’t have a point in the heart, then you will join this society thinking that you can receive something there, and later on you will leave. In this regard everything depends on luck rather than reason. Luck (Mazal) is Light which seeps (Nozel) from Above and pours into the point in the heart. If it comes, then you will advance.
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From the 4th part of the daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
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Question: What is it that really unites us? Is it faith in the One who is Good and Does Good, this ideal by itself?
Answer: We are united by the Light. None of our ideals and nothing we created will work. Only if we ask the Light to unite us, it will do it. It’s one simple action — yes or no. Only the Light does it!
We are only able to reach the right request, and even that is difficult. This is our only opportunity — to discern our state, to understand what is good and what is bad, to correctly prepare for the next level, a state of greater bestowal where we are more connected together, and to ask the Light to bring us the force of bestowal.
However, when we aspire to unite with one another, we mustn’t see our unity as the goal, but as a means in order to bestow to the Creator. Don’t forget about the Host! At the end of the day, if you always think about your correction and your uncorrected qualities, if you are immersed in this all day long, thinking, “I have to unite with my friends! Why aren’t we united?! Am I uncorrected or are they?” What are you doing this for? You forget about the goal and think only about half of the work! You scream and fuss about, but you are worrying only about the means. But what is it that you want?
We forget that through our unity we must attain bestowal to the Host. There is the Creator and we have to reach the state of bestowal to Him by performing actions so He will enjoy us. This is why we unite.
The end of the action lies in the initial thought. You must always open your path from its final point. That is how everything is planned. Figure out exactly what you want to receive at the end. Then start writing down what phases have to precede it and what you need, such as forces, money, knowledge, and equipment. However, we are screaming at the middle of the path as if it were everything.
This is very important because otherwise we won’t attain even half of the path. Why? It’s because we receive the Light from the final point, from the Creator. That is why I cannot put half of the path as a goal right now. I can only take a small measure of the work as the goal: I want to attain 10 grams of unity among us in order to give the Creator 10 grams of pleasure. Great! Then you have a full action: Rosh (the beginning), Toch (the middle), and Sof (the end). This works.
But if you say: I want to put forth all my energy in order to unite with the group! Then you won’t receive anything because this is just one half. That is why Baal HaSulam explains in his article that Israel (those who aspire to the Creator), the Torah (Light), and the Creator have to be present in every state. Otherwise you veer off the path and don’t move towards the goal. Therefore, the end of the action has to be present in the initial thought.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, The Zohar
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Question: In the book A Vision of Goodness, it is written: “And know that man has to study the four levels of PARDES: Pshat, Remez, Drush, Sod, and reincarnate until he fulfills them.” Do we really need to go through so many reincarnations until we learn the entire PARDES (the simple explanation, the allegory, the hint, and the secret), in order to reach the end of correction?
Answer: We need to reach “Pshat,” the simple explanation of the Torah. So far we have been studying “Sod,” the hidden, secret meaning. “Sod” means that I am studying, but I understand nothing; it is a secret to me.
When the secret becomes slightly clearer, it turns into “Remez” (a hint), then into “Drush” (the allegorical explanation, an allegory), and then into “Pshat” (a simple explanation). There are four worlds: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, and Atzilut. Right now I am studying the entrance into the World of Assiya; I still do not understand anything, and this means that I am studying the secret, “Sod.”
Once I transition from the World of Assiya into a higher world, the World of Yetzira, I will study “Drush.” In the World of Beria I will study “Remez,” and in the World of Atzilut “Pshat.”
“Pshat” is the greatest attainment, when there is no concealment at all, and everything is clear, open, simple, and obvious. All the Lights fill all the Kelim (vessels), I know and understand everything!
Every person needs to attain this in his or her soul, but on his own level, until his complete correction.
[26779]
From Lesson 3, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/9/10
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Question: How do we resume the aspiration for spirituality after the Convention?
Answer: At the Convention you felt an obstacle that is getting in your way – Pharaoh. This was the first time you encountered it and you understood what the ten plagues are: We want to achieve the connection with others, but we are being pushed back.
Now we need to understand that in response to the blow that we received, we must develop our own desire equal to the force of rejection. This only comes through unity with the friends while studying, where our study becomes an appeal for the unity of desires.
We already have a deficiency and impression from the collision with egoism (Pharaoh), the egoism that separates me from spirituality. It’s as if I literally hit a wall that’s between myself and the Upper World, and this wall is that potential negative force that has pushed me back.
I received a blow, but I have to discern that I am egoism, and if I am able to rise above this blow through faith above reason and develop an opposite force, then I will advance into this structure, into the wall. Then the next blow will come, and so on, and this is how I will pass the Machsom (the barrier that separates us from spirituality), which has five levels of depth (Aviut) or ten Sefirot, just like any phenomenon in spirituality.
We have already begun this attack, and every time it will become clearer to us what we need to attain and what we need to fight. Now I need to distinguish the disappointment, pain, the blow, and the rejection in me, and instead of relating it to me, relate it to the Pharaoh within me.
When I am united with the group, the blow does not hit me, I am above the rejection and disappointment. This helps me distinguish the “I” who strives towards the Creator and the Pharaoh (the “I” in me).
But what should I do with the disappointment and helplessness? Ask the Creator for help! I finally need Him now, but not before. Before we used to think that we can attain unity with the group, the mutual guarantee, and the revelation on our own.
We never accepted the Creator as the third main force which does the entire work. That is what it is called: the Creator’s work (Avodat Hashem). We only evoke it.
[26782]
From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Yearning” 11/15/10
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The Zohar, “Introduction of The Zohar,” Chapter “BeLaila De Kala (Night of the Bride),” Item 130: “The correction of Yesod is Brit Milah (circumcision). Hence, it is said that the existence of the covenant is called “the work of our hands,” for we separate the Orlah (foreskin) from Yesod through the work of our hands. But this only concerns the period up to the end of correction.”
Until the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun) we operate within the ten Sefirot of our soul. First of all, we must cut Malchut off, meaning to exclude from operation the desire that cannot be corrected. Moreover, we cut desires until Yesod, and we only work with those Kelim that lay above it, to the extent of our ability to incorporate them into Bina.
This is the “union of circumcision”: We deactivate the desires that cannot be used until Gmar Tikkun. They will only be corrected at the end of correction. But we can receive Light for the sake of bestowal in all the other Kelim (vessels) from Keter to Yesod.
…as it is said: “From my flesh I shall see the Creator.” Specifically “from my flesh,” because every time man signs the covenant of this union, he sees the Creator there.
“From my flesh” means from the receiving Kelim. The bestowing Kelim are located above, until the middle of Tifferet, and the receiving Kelim that are called “flesh” and “skin” are located under them.
It is only possible to see the Creator, that is the Light of Hochma (Wisdom), in the receiving Kelim, but only on the level of the “flesh” (Basar). We do not even touch the “skin.” In other words, we stop at the third stage (flesh, meat, or Behina Gimel), and we do not engage the fourth stage (skin, Behina Dalet).
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/10, “Hakdama, Laila de Kale (The Night of the Bride)”
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The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to correct the desire that represents the entire matter of creation to a degree that we start sensing the Force that permeates the universe: the Creator (the Light). There is nothing except this Force and desire.
Revelation happens in accordance with the law of equivalence of form: Desire feels the power of the Light to the extent of its correspondence to it. Full revelation of the Light is the program and the purpose of creation. It means that we have to correct ourselves to a degree of complete equivalence with the property of the Light: bestowal.
For that purpose the whole system of worlds was created; it helps us to change our desire and make it similar to the Light. This world is where the first steps are made; later, we rise into the Worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, and Beria. Nine lower Sefirot of Malchut of the World of Atzilut is where the broken souls “dwell.”
Keter, the upper Sefira of Malchut, is above the Parsa, in World of Atzilut, where bestowal is in effect. The property of reception acts below the Parsa.
Malchut receives the forces from Zeir Anpin. For us, Zeir Anpin is the Upper One, the giver; we receive everything from him. In its turn, Zeir Anpin is connected with the higher Partzuf of the World of Atzilut, Abba ve Ima (AVI), a part of which is Yeshsut. Below, there is the Partzuf of Arich Anpin (AA), which receives the Light from Infinity (Ein Sof) and passes it down the chain to Malchut.
The major issue for us is how we (the broken souls that live in the Worlds of BYA) rise to Malchut de Atzilut. By including ourselves in it, we begin to take part in the process of correction. The World of Atzilut corrects broken desires that bear egoistic intentions.
The desire to receive is unchangeable; it is matter which cannot be altered. But desire can be used in two different ways: It can either be filled from the inside by receiving, or it can be utilized for bestowal. In the second case, the desire will receive for the sake of bestowal. It is possible only as an outcome of love and union with others.
The Book of Zohar helps us mostly at the first stage of our rising to the World of Atzilut. The sequence of actions is as follows:
1. We raise our request to get corrected (MAN).
2. The answer (MAD) returns back to us in the form of the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) that empowers us.
3. We rise upward to Malchut de Atzilut.
4. Malchut delivers our request to Zeir Anpin.
5. Zeir Anpin gives Malchut powers and corrects the souls.
Thus, all we do is work with the Light. Our work is intended to attain union among us in order to correct our desire by applying intention to bestow to it. This becomes possible only as a result of the Light’s influence.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/10, “Hakdama, Laila de Kale (The Night of the Bride)”
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Question: What is better: reading the original Hebrew text during a lesson without understanding it or reading a translated text?
Answer: This is a big question. In general, the Kabbalistic lexicon is so limited that students gradually become accustomed to it. We are talking about approximately a couple of hundred words that allow you to understand the Hebrew text. We see it in Moscow group which reads original texts in Hebrew.
I don’t think that in the future any person who pursues the goal will study Kabbalah in any other language. It is very hard. We haven’t learned the Hebrew letters yet and haven’t started studying their external or internal meaning.
Knowledge of the Kabbalistic language is extremely helpful. I am sure that you already know half the major terms in Hebrew, and can assert that you won’t be able to abide without understanding the original text.
Yes, it is not simple. We are talking about an unusual language that is very different from Latin. But there is nothing we can do about it, the Light descends to us from right to left, that’s why in Hebrew the direction of writing is the same.
Besides, we write the letters from right to left and from top to bottom, according to the direction of the Lights of Hassadim (Mercy) and Hochma (Wisdom). All letters consist of these elements. Their shape is defined by various combinations of the Upper Forces.
All linguistic rules and grammar also have a spiritual foundation. They are built on interaction of Bina and Malchut. There are no rules in Hebrew that are invented by human beings.
Since Adam’s birth 5772 years ago to this day, nothing has changed in the language, neither written nor verbal. If you met a person who lived thousands of years ago in Egypt or Babylon, you would understand each other with ease. Everything depends on the Upper root which is unchangeable. Laws of interactions between Bina and Malchut are eternal, and that’s why the language doesn’t undergo any changes.
Other languages transform according to the mentality and ethics of the people speaking them. A thousand years ago your ancestors used language that you would hardly recognize today. Spelling and the external form of the letters themselves also change with time.
However, Hebrew is not a human language but a projection of the Upper Forces and their combinations. Even though it is not convenient for contemporary people to use Hebrew, we have no choice. Kabbalists cannot convey Kabbalistic knowledge any other way.
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From he 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
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