Question: Is Kabbalah a method of the revelation of the Creator or the correction of man?

Answer: When a person comes to Kabbalah, he thinks that he will be able to reach the upper world by accumulating knowledge and acquiring power in the group. However, as years pass by, he begins to realize that everything depends only on how much he himself will change, and not those around him. Only then does he begin to study Kabbalah correctly.

That is, on one side, Kabbalah is the method of revelation of the Creator to man in this world, and on the other, it is a method of changing oneself to become like the Creator who reveals Himself to a person to the extent that the latter becomes similar to Him.
[29426]

Related Material:
Perfection Doesn’t Yield
Breakthrough

Filed under: Q&A, Spirituality - 1 Comment →

The rule of “educate your child according to his way” does not at all imply permissiveness. On the contrary, it is a very strict approach.

“According to his way” means in accordance with the child’s inclination. If a child has a talent for math, put him into a math school and force him to study using all means possible. And if someone has a talent for dancing, let him take ballet classes and do it seriously. “According to his way” does not mean “whatever the child pleases.” If not, where is “educate your child?”

Children should be given only positive examples. After all, we are born with the egoistic nature, as it is said by the Creator: “I created the evil inclination.” No good inclination was created against it, but rather, only the reforming Light which can be attracted by Kabbalah studies.

Hence, when we show a person something bad and say that it is not good to behave this way, he does not agree: “It’s bad, but I want it!” He does not connect the words with actions: He says that it is bad, but does it.

For this reason, it is not advisable to give children negative examples along with positive ones so that they could choose. They will never choose good. They will follow their nature and always be attracted to bad examples and actions in spite of numerous sermons. On the contrary, by seeing only positive examples and discussing them in various formats, we gradually transition to good. Habit becomes a second nature.

What can be considered a positive example? A person sets an example by being strongly connected to the group, inspiring his friends, and acting together with them.

Children should know how to evaluate themselves with respect to the group and their own actions. For this, they need to be given a scale of achievements since otherwise a child does not know how to assess his acts. Bestowing to the group has to have an external form which could be used as a measuring instrument.
[29217]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/10, Talk on Education

Related Material:
Let The Upper Light Be Your Teacher
Upbringing In The Spiritual World
The Basis Of Correct Development

Filed under: Children, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Education - No Comments →

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

An Opportunity for Redemption

The redemption of Israel [realization of the aspiration to the Creator] and the rise of Israel [fulfillment with the Light] depend on the study of The Zohar and the internality of the Torah. And vise versa, all the destruction and the decline of the Children of Israel are because they have abandoned the internality of the Torah. They have degraded its merit and made it seemingly redundant [and since the nations are subconsciously expecting it from us, if we we do not supply them with the means of attaining the upper world, they deem Israel unnecessary in this world].
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 69
[28090]

Related Material:
Kabbalists About Kabbalah Today, Part 9
Kabbalists About Kabbalah Today, Part 8
Kabbalists About Kabbalah Today, Part 7

Filed under: Kabbalistic Sources - 1 Comment →

Question: You say that there is the Light of Infinity outside of us. What does it mean, “outside of us”?

Answer: “Outside of us” means “outside” the point of our desire within which I perceive this world, myself, and everybody else. Besides this point, there is nothing since the Creator created only a single point. Everything that we perceive (the worlds and what fills them) is the sensation of that point itself.

There is only one tiny, black point against the white Light of Infinity.
[29409]
From the Introductory Lecture Series, “Perception of Reality” 11/23/10

Related Material:
I Don’t Want Anything But The Light
A Game With Yourself

Filed under: Perception, Q&A - No Comments →

If, instead of focusing on each child individually (who he is and what he does), we shift emphasis specifically on children’s connection with each other and on their connection with adults, and if in the process of education we facilitate a person’s connection with his or her environment, then he will evolve correctly internally as well.

Indeed, all of our inner qualities, inclinations, and genes are not subject to correction. They are given to us only to be in contact with other people.

This entire system was created completely opposite to its current state. We were merged into one common desire to such a degree that none of us was noticeable or perceived at all. Only after the breaking of this system did we divide into “me,” “you,” and “him.”

Therefore, our personalities do not demand any correction. They will disappear as we create correct ties and become incorporated into each other.

Only these connections or absence thereof define how a person is viewed by the society and how correctly he works and realizes himself in it.
[29373]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/10, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
Educate Your Child According To His Way
Our Main Trump Card

Filed under: Children, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Education - No Comments →

Question: During the lesson, we are constantly trying to build the same plea, which makes it less acute. How can I renew it every day and plea as if for the first time?

Answer: This is the key, and if you succeed, you don’t need anything else. But I don’t know how to help here for this is exactly what is described by “Whatever is in your power, do it!”

No work is more important than preparation to the lesson. Dissemination and everything else you do in this world, everything must revolve around one point: to build an inner plea during the lesson, the anticipation of the Light that will descend and reform us.

This must become our obsessive thought, an internal ache, a feeling that without it I will die, and it will be even more frightening than to die in the corporeal world! It is impossible to arrive at such powerful desire on your own; a person needs the group, support, and collective inspiration. We need to feel despair which accumulates over the years of effort….

It is the most profound point around which everything revolves. If you reach it, you will succeed in everything. There is nothing more; this is the point where you connect with the Creator. Through it, from below upward, the prayer, MAN, is raised. His response, MAD, arrives through it from Above downward, for now as the Surrounding Light.

This need, the aching point, must stand out clearly and conspicuously as the most meaningful need. We need to constantly care for it and think how to enhance it, how to come to the studies with a broken heart so we may bond together during the lesson.

The rest is not important; what you know and what you’ve done does not matter at all. The final outcome of your entire life and all your effort is contained only here, in this point. If you come to it, you will attain everything; if not, nothing else is worthwhile.

Nothing else is taken into account but this point for only it is called the "human" within me. It determines whether I do exist or not.
[29053]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

Related Material:
The Game Of Bestowal
The Spirit Of The Group
Help Me Today And I’ll Help You Tomorrow

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: I don’t understand how the Kelim (vessels) of GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) broke. They are Kelim of bestowal, and there is no restriction on bestowal, is there?

Answer: There is no such thing as bestowing desires (vessels, Kelim). A vessel can only receive. The Creator created the will to receive pleasure.

The created being can bestow only if it receives the property of love from the Light. Only then does the created being have a screen, the ability to feel the desire of its beloved within, and fill it with Light because it accepted the other’s desire as its own, just as it is written: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

A vessel is a created being, and it acts only one way: It can only receive and has nothing to give. The Kelim of Galgalta ve Eynaim are also the will to receive pleasure (desire) and when they lose their screen (intention to bestow), they receive Light for self-gratification and break.

There is only desire and the Light, one or the other. The desire to receive is all that the creature is made of, but if it has an anti-egoistic screen, then the property received from the Light holds it up, like a magnet holds a piece of metal. In this case, the creature remains in bestowal. But as soon as the Light disappears, this desire immediately becomes egoistic due to its nature. Nothing can be done about it.

Any one of us can be placed in such conditions that will force us to abandon a civilized, refined lifestyle and return to our “primitive state.” It all depends on corrections. As soon as the corrections are gone, the egoistic desire is completely exposed, uncovered. If the corrections are added, we “appear” like desires to bestow.

Therefore, Kelim of Galgalta ve Eynaim receive just like the AHP. The only difference is that the former ones are more illuminated and not as coarse as the latter; hence, they can undergo a correction that will make them look like “bestowal.” But as soon as the Light and the screen disappear, they immediately turn into receiving Kelim just like all the others.

They are easier to reform, but they require correction nonetheless. The created being is nothing more than the will to receive pleasure (desire).
[29056]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/7/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

Related Material:
Do I Exist Or Not?
The Order Of Correction

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →