A Guide To Desires

Dr. Michael Laitman with StudentsUsing the example of the article “The Night of the Bride,” we can somewhat understand how The Book of Zohar was written. Its authors were attaining Malchut as a whole while uncovering fragments of various parts in it, such as the desire to enjoy in order to receive (angel Dumah), the part working under the Second Restriction (Tzimtzum Bet).

The male part of Malchut is regarded as “King David” and the female part as “Bat Sheba.” Kabbalists were uncovering the Light that Reforms Malchut which can feel divided into two parts and work only in one of them. These two parts of Malchut are “MI” (מי) and “ELEH” (אלה). We are constantly working on their correct combination, and by doing so, become similar to Bina and the name of Elokim (אלה-ים) that consists of them both.

Seeing our roots in the World of Atzilut and their correct performance, the authors of The Zohar discover the appellations or the numeric symbols (Gematria) of these parts. Afterward, they colorfully describe them to us and explain that once in history, when the spiritual root descends and clothes in the corporeal world, we undergo the same states.

However, only the effects manifest in this world, while Kabbalists tell us specifically about the roots to which we have to become equivalent. Therefore, while reading The Book of Zohar, we must visualize the properties, forces, and actions that they discovered at the Upper degrees and not characters and events of this world.

How do we get to see spiritual acts after all? To do this, only one condition has to be met: We must develop qualities similar to theirs. We wish to unite and uncover between us the attributes of this mutual bonding and fill with the Light of Yod-Kei (י”ה) the part of the desire that will unfold in every person.

Then, we will understand and feel how to sort our desires and separate David’s part which we can work with from the part that we cannot work with. However, we will attach the corrected female part, Bat Sheba, to David.

Everyone will find these parts within himself in order to unite with the others and correct the collective Malchut where, in accordance with correction, the Creator gets revealed. All worlds manifest between the souls in the place where the restriction and lessening of the Light occurred.

When we yearn for oneness, the concealment disappears, and we find the forms of communication that The Book of Zohar describes until we reach unlimited interconnection, the World of Infinity.
[27177]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride)”

Related Material:
The Windows Of Your House

Face-to-Face With The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before“: Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before, meaning the revelation and concealment of the face of the Creator, for indeed “His kingdom ruleth over all,” and everything will return to its root because there is no place vacant of him. But the difference is in present tense or future tense, because he who connects the two worlds, discovers in the present His clothing: that everything that is done is a clothing for the revelation of divinity.

All events, from the beginning to the end, are sent by You and are aimed solely to open my eyes and bring me back to the Source. And there is no place where You don’t rule so that I may say that I acted on my own or someone else stood for or against me.

Everything is permeated by the Light of Infinity, the Creator; therefore, there is no act, thought, or step that would not be completely controlled by Him. And all of it has only one purpose: to get us to attain Him so that we come closer to Him, know Him, cling to Him, and accept His governance.

We need to become like Him and walk with Him further, agreeing with all His actions and copying all His moves to such an extent that we would be able to predict what He is going to do and wish to do it before He does. It turns out that it is my desire to make it so, and He is the one who does it after me!

A person reaches such subtle understanding and perception of all this system that is being revealed to him that he completely unifies with the Creator. I anticipate what the Creator wishes me to do, and like a small child who pulls the grownup by the hand, so do I move the creature toward perfection.

Clearly, in this case we annul time. There is no more past, present, or future, and we ascend to the state where everything takes place at once and simultaneously. The future gives way to the present.

And this is deemed present tense, meaning that now too he comes out in royal clothes [also in Malchut’s clothing] and evidently shows that the rider is not subordinate to the horse. But although it seemingly appears that the horse leads the rider, the truth is that the horse is provoked to any movement, only by the sensation of the bridle and headstall of the rider. And that is called the construction of the stature of divinity, and it is also called face-to-face.
[27114]
From Lesson 7, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/11/10

Related Material:
A Force Field Of Love And Goodness

Machsom Is A Psychological Barrier

Dr. Michael LaitmanSpiritual fulfillment cannot be obtained directly, like a young child grabbing at a toy. In this form we only obtain life in our world.

At this very moment all of us are present in the World of Infinity (an unbounded reality), but because our method of existence is based on “grabbing,” that is, receiving and fulfilling ourselves egoistically, all we are able to receive from the infinite world is a tiny spark of the Light called “a thin candle” (Ner Dakik), which is limited to sensations of this world. We are incapable of perceiving more while receiving egoistically.

Egoistic fulfillment available to us in this world bears the shape of a faint illumination. It is intentionally given to us so that from this moment on, from this degree and further, we begin to develop using a different method: receiving into the vessel outside of ourselves and thus becoming a willing participant, similar, suitable, and equal to the Creator!

Only a tiny part of the vessel (desire) that we sense as “this world” is being filled. To directly receive more than this is impossible! The rest of our desires can only be filled through our similarity with the Creator, through our having the intention “in order to bestow.”

This is why the Creator separated our sensations into two parts: this world and the Upper world, placing a barrier between them called “Machsom.” This barrier (Machsom) has a psychological origin since while being underneath it (in this world), we are only capable of receiving internally, for our own sake. We would get much more, but it seems to us as if “other people” are strangers or outsiders.

We could have all of this under the condition that we overcome this psychological problem of perception, which makes everything seem “foreign” to us. We have to start considering everything there is to be “our own,” get closer to it, and begin sensing that things outside us are in fact our own. In return, we will receive all the worlds: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon and at the end, the World of Infinity.

The biggest problem is to start perceiving those desires that seem “not our own” as “our own.” Afterward, whatever we receive into them will comprise our spiritual world.

For that, all we have to do is to attract the Upper Light that will show us our connectedness and demonstrate that all of us constitute one body. Then, the Upper Light will work as an eye-opener, and eventually we will perceive spirituality.

We will arrive at the clarification, and there won’t be any resistance left in us since we will see everything around as our own parts that belong to us as organs of one body. We never existed apart! It only appears to us that we are split, but, in fact, only our bodies are detached.

If we look deeper, we’ll see a system of our interconnectedness. Everything is done by the Upper Light!
[27120]
From Lesson 7, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/11/10

Related Material:
A Force Field Of Love And Goodness

The Windows Of Your House

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “Make Them Happy with a Complete Building”: If a person wishes to erect a house for the Creator, he builds a perfect structure, for the Creator is perfect. …And the Creator will give them joy, the Light of faith, so they may complete their work.

Our foundation, the matter we are made of is Malchut, the will to receive pleasure (desire). We have to use it as construction material for everything because we don’t have any other. If we receive power from our egoism, we build “structures” similar to the Tower of Babel or the cities of Pithom and Ramses. The buildings come out tall and beautiful, but in the end, they don’t please us because we find them empty.

That is how humanity has been constructing itself for centuries until today, when in the final stage of humanity’s historical development, we have come to realize that everything we have built doesn’t make us happy any longer. Yes, we have erected so much, but all of it is empty and lacks content and true fulfillment. Surrounded by our creations, we feel more desperate than ever before.

Hence, it turns out that we cannot bring joy to ourselves and our loved ones as we don’t take pleasure in our construction work any longer. Only a perfect house will bring us joy, when our home, our Kli, will be filled with the Light. How do we fill it? How do we illuminate our matter from within?

The house must let the Light illuminate it. We build it from the will to feel pleasure, but it has to be home to sanctity, a Temple. Sanctity is Bina, the Light, bestowal; and the house is the Kli, the vessel. The vessel must be fit for the Light to come to it, meaning that it needs to have the intention to bestow.

How do I accomplish that? To bring light into a house, we cut windows in it. “Windows” are cavities, empty desires. In the walls of our matter, we make holes of desires similar to Bina, bestowal, openness, and the Light can come into us. Hence, walls and windows must match each other precisely so that our house built from the will to receive pleasure would be “equipped” with the intention to bestow. And then, it will be filled with the Light.

If we wish to feel and bring joy while building our house, we must design it so that its form will match the property of Bina. We include the attribute of mercy into judgment, meaning that we make the openings in the walls to let the Light come in through them.

These niches look as flaws to us at first. Rabash gave the following example: A father brings his son to the tailor to get a suit made for him, and the son sees how the tailor starts cutting a roll of expensive fabric with scissors. He feels that the fabric is ruined, but the father explains: “It’s alright; he will make you a suit that will fit well on you.”

In other words, this fabric at the moment is nothing but material that will acquire a shape that will fit you. But the child doesn’t understand. In his opinion, the cuts and the holes in the fabric look like damage. In reality, thanks to this “damage,” we will later give the right shape to it, and the Light will dress in it. Keeping that in mind, we are willing to be patient and even thank the Master for what He is doing!

In our daily work, we discover such new “flaws.” And from them, as from the bricks, we erect a structure, including the walls and the openings for the Light to come through.

When Bina makes a hole in the wall, Malchut feels that the house is damaged. But in truth, it is the opposite approach, a totally new attribute, which isn’t designed to fortify Malchut. Having realized that including mercy into judgment creates equivalence to the Creator in us, we will see the benefit of refusing to hear Malchut’s complaints. When Bina rules over it, all of the house walls can become windows, or acquire the property of Bina.

Such house will be filled with the Light top to bottom. Its material, Malchut, will be purified by Bina’s attribute completely, and there will be no more hollows in it. Without disturbing one another, Malchut and Bina will act as one whole.
[27015]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “Make them Happy with a Complete Building”

Related Material:
I Choose But I Do Not Rule