Lessons From The Rome Convention – 05.21.11

Rome Convention, Lesson 1
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Rome Convention, Lesson 2
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Prayer: A Means Of Changing Oneself

Dr. Michael LaitmanA constant dialogue or requests to the Creator are good because it’s impossible to address Him artificially as in the words of prayers read from books. A person begins to understand that if he doesn’t feel these words, it’s not considered an address. The Creator will not hear it in this way; it’s necessary to turn to Him deciphering the words in relation to oneself, closer to one’s heart.

Then, instead of reading a prayer from a prayer book full of words that mean nothing to him: “for oneself,” “for bestowal,” “above reason,” “the Torah and precepts,” “good deeds,” “the Holy and Blessed One” (the same terms and quotes that Kabbalists use), a person starts to interpret them into a more sensory language. He does this even without words, in one’s inner sensations, and thereby really approaches the prayer, the request.

What help should one ask from the Creator? It’s to help us turn to Him with a request! This request will become a spiritual vessel, the “place” of the revelation of the Creator.

At each stage, one should check himself as to whether he addresses the Creator in his own words rather than repeating standard expressions from a book. Otherwise, it means that one doesn’t understand to whom he turns, how, for what, and that one is still detached from the address itself.

The ability to make a request is a great help that allows the person to change and correct himself. A request to the Creator should be viewed as a device which can change a person. The search for an answer to one’s request is not important; what counts is the requests themselves because they build a person.

Then, the person starts to understand that he is in front of the unchanging, constant upper Light. And his request is what is changing him all the time, creating his increasingly closer similarity to the simple, abstract upper Light. The person will be revealing his own image inside his requests. The image will correspond more and more to the upper Light, the level of the Creator. That is, a person attains the forms of the Creator inside of his request to Him and thereby advances.

Hence, it’s written: “God grant that he prayed all day long!” All the work is based upon the request and prayer.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, Writings of Rabash

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There, Behind The Words

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhile reading The Zohar, we should keep trying to see forms of the connection between us instead of the words. Essentially, it is the only thing that the words describe since there isn’t anything besides Malchut which ties all souls within it. This is the connection we are supposed to see behind the words of The Zohar.

In that case, all images that appear in our imagination, all the sensations we experience below Malchut, below this connection, are regarded as either the dividing worlds (BYA de Pruda), the concealments, or our own world that exists solely in our imagination. And everything above Malchut de Atzilut, meaning the forms of our mutual connection, exist from Malchut of Atzilut through Malchut of Infinity, and all are revealed in Malchut.

Hence, this is the only picture we should be seeing behind the words, trying to recognize what form, type, and expression of our mutual connection The Zohar is describing at a certain moment. After all, Kabbalists, the authors of The Book of Zohar, see nothing but that as well.
[43279]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/2011, The Zohar

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