The Creator initially creates a perfect being. However, in order for it to realize and feel where it is, it first needs to live through various sensations and impressions in order to learn, sense, and examine the state created by the Creator and see that it is perfect for itself.

Hence, the state itself doesn’t change. The Creator is good and does only good, but in this perfect condition, we undergo multiple tests and assessments that aid us in understanding and feeling more correctly the depth of all the good that the Creator prepared for us.

This defines the entire process we undergo, all our experiences at the intermediate stages of this path to awareness. It is not our state itself which changes, but rather our perception, the revelation of this perfection. We start to understand more and more where we are and what is happening to us, until we learn what our authentic state is.

When our real state becomes revealed to us, it is regarded as spiritual birth. Later on, we go through 125 rungs of becoming conscious of it. When the impressions of this path accumulate and gather in us mentally and emotionally, we will finally realize the state we were in from the beginning, with only one difference: We have transformed ourselves, our perceptions, and have become able to feel this perfection.

On this path, we undergo two stages. First of all, we attain that we are unable to experience this benevolent state, and that is why we call it evil. In reality, there is no evil, no egoism, and nothing which would be against the Creator. The only problem is my inability to recognize and sense the Creator, the Light, so I call it evil.

My egoism involves the same very properties in my feelings and mind which do not allow me to perceive goodness present in my state. I constantly want to come to adherence with the Creator, but I can’t due to my undeveloped feelings and thoughts which are precisely what I call evil, the ego.

This first stage, where I get to know my evil and rise above it, is regarded as the transformation “to bestow in order to bestow,” the degree of Bina. It is my evil that aids me in ascending.

When I finally rise above it, I begin to transform evil into good, that is, to “receive in order to bestow,” at which point I employ my ego in its reverse form, relative to the one that had previously unfolded in me. This means that I have risen over the “angel of death,” freed myself from it, and am now learning absolute love, the degree of Keter (Crown).

Thus, the stages of my development are the levels of revelation. First, I reveal my evil, or the properties that don’t let me feel love, and then I use it correctly. Hence, I am always grateful for the fact that it’s not evil, but a mere revelation of lack of feelings and understanding in my mind and heart, which does not allow me to attain good in its perfection.

Evil just helps me see where I lack receptivity, oneness, and similarity to the Light. Therefore, I always view the unfolding of evil as discovering an ailment, a symptom, which shows where I need to be reformed in order to ascend along all the 125 rungs and reach the state of perfection.
[37927]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/2011 on Evil

Related Material:
Get To Know Yourself /Get To Know The Creator
Rid Yourself Of Everything Animate
Don’t Be Afraid, We’re With You

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Perception - No Comments →

Filed under: Laitman Unplugged, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →

Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “Light of Purim”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Education, Kabbalah for the Nation, Lectures - No Comments →

The 613 Mitzvot (commandments) and the building of the Tabernacle signify the correction of the 613 desires in man. In order to construct the correct, reformed connection with the others, we must connect with them through 613 channels, similar to the vessels that connect all the organs in our body.

We need to correct these desires by having changed their egoistic intention to use others for self-gratification to the desire to bestow. Thereby, we will achieve a state where we will be interconnected by a global, integral connection as it exists in Nature and as our current world demands us to do.

Imagine that from each person, 613 desires expand like tentacles, stretching toward all the others. All of the desires intertwine and create a binding grid between us. In addition, each desire contains five levels of coarseness: 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. All of this interweaves and tangles into one big, thick layer permeated by an enormous amount of the various types of ties.

This collective desire consisting of all our desires is regarded as Shechina (Divinity), the Tabernacle (“Mishkan” or dwelling place), the Temple, the receptacle, our integral vessel of bestowal, Knesset Israel (Assembly of desires for the Creator).

People who strive to go “straight to the Creator” (Yashar El) and desire to reveal Him bring all their desires together (Knesset or assembly) and build the collective desire where the Creator is revealed. This is the work to construct the Temple, the “house” of the vessel which you have built from your desires so that Divinity would unfold in it, meaning the spiritual property of love and bestowal, or the Creator.

In addition, you receive what initially had been prepared for you and all of us: the Light that fills this collective desire. So, it is regarded as the deposit, a guarantee (Pkudin, deposits, from the word Pikadon, recommendations, commandments, Mitzvot). You sacrifice (Makriv) your desire by nullifying your egoism and, thereby, bring yourself closer (Mekarev) to the Creator’s revelation.
[37853]
From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Chapter 3/3/2011

Related Material:
The Tabernacle Is The Place Of Our Spiritual Life
Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 37
A Guide Into The Depths Of The Soul

Filed under: Spirituality, Torah - No Comments →

There is a rule: “For social life, take after the collective, in spiritual life, take after the individual.” For example, I enter a group. Does this group represent the majority for me? Do I have to listen to my friends? I see three hundred men before me—this is a force.

If they demand something from me on the corporeal level, that’s one thing, but what if they are dictating their terms on the spiritual level? Do they understand more than I do? Are they, taken together, smarter than I am? How should I behave in regard to them? Do I have the right to influence the group? After all, if they are the majority, then I have to lower my head and accept their opinion.

On the other hand, we are talking about spiritual life and therefore, one must follow an individual as opposed to the majority. Am I that individual?

These aren’t simple questions and they are relevant to every group. In the corporeal sense, everything is pretty clear when it comes to the majority. However, even there we see many movements, parties, governments, and mafia. There is no common opinion in the world.

It’s actually quite simple for us. I establish a separation between the spiritual and the corporeal life, and then my corporeal existence is narrowed down to the vital necessities. I should be content with that.

I ensure a normal life for myself: home, work, family, bank, social security, health insurance, vacation, pension, and so on. This is where I follow the majority and do what’s considered the norm. Here my obligations toward society end. In our world I’m set. This is how I realize the concept of “follow the majority,” which refers to obligatory social conditions.

Besides this, all of my attention and strength are directed at my spiritual development. In my spiritual life, I work with the group. Rabash writes that one must lower himself completely before the group. I lower myself before a spiritual society as I do with the majority.

Where is my freedom then? After all, I have to follow my own opinion when it comes to spirituality.

In reality that’s exactly what I do because I determine the degree of my connection to the group. No one is taking this freedom away from me. This is the meaning of the law of “follow the individual.” Each one of us is an individual and decides freely to be a part of the  group. There are no laws obliging us to do this and no external pressure. We apply the same principal in our dissemination of Kabbalah: Whoever wants it takes it, and who ever doesn’t is free to say no.

And so your freedom consists of you lowering yourself before the society without there being any pressure to do so. In the corporeal world, the society obligates you, but in the spiritual one, no one does, including the Creator. You must mature and come to this decision on your own.
[37809]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/2011, “The Freedom”

Related Material:
How I Educate Myself
How To Use Your Freedom
Imaginary Freedom – Laitman Unplugged

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Inner Work, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: I cannot aspire to bestowal since I don’t have the slightest idea what it is. What is bestowal?

Answer: Any spiritual property such as bestowal and love is revealed from the state opposite to it since we don’t know what it is. Actually, if I knew what bestowal is, I would already possess this property.

But I do not possess it. So how can I acquire it? I can do it only by performing mechanical actions: I influence the group, while the group acts upon me. And all these actions have no relation to spirituality, which is the reason we perceive ourselves as presently living in this world.

It is an imaginary reality that contains some desires and even corporeal bodies in it, meaning that they are not, in fact, desires, but rather something that doesn’t possess free will. The spiritual world, however, is full of desires, aspirations, and forces, such as love, hate, and lust, which are manifestations of man’s will. And without this manifestation of will, there isn’t a world; it doesn’t exit.

It is similar to a laser image: I turn on the laser, and the picture appears in the air. If I don’t turn it on, there won’t be one. This is how we perceive the spiritual world as well. As to the material world, it exists even without my expression of will. In this reality, I pass through life cycles, and it transforms me without my being aware of it; it asks for no participation on my part.

Therefore, this reality seems to me so “material.” All changes in it occur without my conscious participation, my strive for bestowal; they simply unfold naturally under the impact of the upper force that pushes everything to evolve.

But when in this corporeal world I reach a state when I want to take an active part in my development, the question about the meaning of life arises in me. And from this moment on, I start seeking the answer.

Yet, it is all so that I start activating the spiritual reality. At the instant I become ready for it, I will discover the part of reality that was activated by me. It is what you can regard as your first spiritual degree.

Hence, all our actions must begin with corporeality, with the idea that I force myself to influence the environment and the environment influences me in all possible forms by using all available forces and capacities, as it is written: “All that you can do, do!”, meaning grab any opportunity, no matter what it may be.

After all, if you perform all these actions in the material form, that is, without the correct conscious participation, you still awaken this reality. This is the way it is built.
[37662]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/11 on Prayer

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - 2 Comments →

When the created being starts to clarify what free will is, he sees that if the property of bestowal in him is above the property of receiving, then the former leads him to the truth and freedom! Thereby, the created being chooses bestowal since he understands that only bestowal carries completeness and independence from one’s desires, meaning the absolute truth that is above the Creator as well as the creature.

Man achieves such an exalted state. After all, both the Creator and the creature reside in their corresponding properties: those of the Creator and the creature. But man has to make a choice that is independent of both these properties.

It looks like the force of the Creator and the force of Creation stand against each other, whereas man performs a unique act regarded as a “prayer.” He makes a choice that lies above both of these forces. Thereby, his new desire (Kli) is produced in which the property of receiving and the property of bestowal, or the attribute of the Creator and the attribute of the creature, unify as one above these properties.

This is how man receives a unique result: He finds the Creator’s Keter. It is not the Creator’s acts by which man himself is made, but rather His thoughts, the plan that precedes creation. This is an outcome of the middle line that rises above the first two: the right and the left, the properties of the Creator and those of the created being, which reach man in action. But in the middle line, man rises above the beginning of Creation.

Herein unfolds a new opportunity given to the created being: to rise above all existing forces and properties. Indeed, all forces, properties, desires, information genes, everything that exists in the universe and is revealed to us—the matter of reception, the force of bestowal—are only the instruments to bring the creature to more exalted notions preceding the act of Creation.

Hence, in every state where the creature needs to make a correct choice, it feels totally helpless relative to the point that precedes its entire birth. It needs to discern the vessels and the Lights, the desire to receive pleasure that it possesses and the desire to bestow, while the choice lies above both of them.

The prayer is born when the created being realizes that in the state that he has reached as a result of all of his discernments, he does not and cannot have any chance to rise above these equally valuable options and make a decision. Here the Creator has the final say!

We think we need the Creator only to defeat the force of egoism with our own force of bestowal, to dethrone Pharaoh. But there is more to this than a simple confrontation of desires when man stands between the two forces: the Creator and Pharaoh. The essence is not in clarifying who is more powerful and thus will win, but rather in unifying both of these forces as one in the middle line and ascending over them.
[37672]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/11 on Prayer

Related Material:
The Soul’s Laser Beam Projector
Bring On The Dawn
Ascending To The Root Of Creation

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention - No Comments →

Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam, “The Matter of Incorporation of the Quality of Judgment with the Quality of Mercy”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “Ekev (Because),” “Ten Things to Do in a Meal,” Item 53, Lesson 5
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar — Selections, Chapter “Yitro (Jethro),” “You Will Behold the Secret of Secrets,” Item 176, Lesson 1
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 9, Item 8, Lesson 8
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Topic: Globalization — We Live in an Integral World, Lesson 2
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →