Good Environment – 08.25.11
Posted on August 25th, 2011
Today we are finding ourselves in a special state where we are discovering that we won’t survive unless we attain the force of unity. But at the same time, we have to discern: Why do we need this force?
Is it in order to make our lives more comfortable on the level of this world, so instead of the evil force that rules over us, we would arm ourselves with the force of goodness and achieve balance on our current level? Or do we want to rise high to the force of bestowal so it would rule over us and reveal the greatness of that bestowal in and of itself?
Perhaps we aspire to the force of bestowal in order to simply use it to balance the force of reception and peacefully live in this world. In that case, we want to use the force of bestowal to help the force of egoism, which is called bestowal for the sake of reception. Or, do we want to attain reception for the sake of bestowal?
This is the question: Do we want the quality of bestowal to rule, or the egoistic quality? Therein lies our entire freedom of choice. This is described in the prayer called “the prayer of 18 blessings”—which mercy do I ask for?
Do I want to rise to the level of bestowal and give pleasure to the Creator, attain faith above reason, use all of my desires for the sake of bestowal, and even to receive for its sake so my entire desire would work for bestowal? Or do I talk only about life in this world and want to make it better?
This makes all the difference: Will I exist on the animate level or the human one? The difference between them is one of quality. On the animate level we perceive our life as the life of the body and feel this world the way we do today: our body and the surrounding world with everything taking place in it.
We live for the sake of this body’s existence, each person for himself. That is why we are willing to balance our lives with the force of bestowal in order to attain a more pleasant, comfortable, and peaceful existence. Or, do we rise to the human degree and obtain an eternal existence, above the world of matter?
Matter ends lower down, on the levels of still, vegetative, and animate. In our world there is no other degree, no human level. A human is a degree that includes the mind and the heart, meaning desire and thought, analysis.
This is what grows from our mind and heart, but not the bodily ones. Informational genes (Reshimot), data from the breaking, unite together: all of the hearts, all of the desires unite into one heart, like one man, and all of our intentions, meaning thoughts and the mind, unite as well. This unity creates the image of man—a certain virtual being that does not exist in matter, that does not consists of electrons and molecules that unite into a body.
We create it ourselves, uniting all of our thoughts and desires. That is how we start to exist on a higher level, called the human degree (Adam), which means “similar” (Domeh) to the Creator. Then all of our desires and intentions begin to operate as a spiritual vessel, with a desire inside and a screen above the desire.
This is the meaning of being human, or “prehuman” (Adam Kadmon), the man of the world of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. But our body is not called human. We call it human because we anticipate the future, expecting it to bring us to the state when we will become human.
This is what the prayer is about: to help us unite our hearts together, meaning our desires, thoughts, and intentions, so we would compile the complete image of man out of them, of an independent individual.
[52560]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/11, Shamati
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Question: In light of the wave of protests in Israel, what does the “Mutual Guarantee” movement recommend that the government do as the first step in the right direction?
Answer: Even before we analyze the situation, draw conclusions, and make any decisions, we have to make sure that people become aware of the following facts: We live in the global world, in conditions of integral interconnection, and in order to achieve fair distribution, we must raise the “umbrella” of mutual guarantee and become one family, sitting at a round table.
If this foundation is not initially paved by the media and other channels, we will face a crushing defeat. We will fail as a nation, a country, and a society. If the government does not understand that and does not want to hear such obvious things, it only demonstrates its shortsightedness.
Today, we have an opportunity to raise people’s awareness without severing their link with the government. And that is something anyone in a position of authority would be interested in. Indeed, candidates from the ruling parties want to be re-elected by receiving support from the people who will unite around them in general social consent.
This is especially important in a country like Israel, which is constantly under pressure and cannot afford disagreement.
[52447]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/11, “Arvut“
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In The News: “Hamburg. Police in this northern German city said Sunday they used water cannon to disperse rampaging youths who set garbage bins ablaze and tried to break into a bank after an annual street party.
“A Hamburg police spokeswoman said officers turned water jets on vandals late Saturday and early Sunday after they were attacked with bottles, rocks and fireworks…
“The violence came at the end of the Schanzenfest, an annual street festival in a traditional hotbed of leftist activism in Germany’s wealthiest city that has undergone rapid gentrification in the last decade…
“Police mobilized 2,100 officers, many brought in from other regions, to keep the peace after recurrent problems linked to the event.
“The photos show not a single banner, but the participants left inscriptions on the walls of the buildings that remind of the recent riots in the UK and sound like “London is everywhere.”
My Comment: As the world has become global, integral connection that appears between us is manifested in our egoism in its characteristic forms of violence and unrest.
This trend will grow because the world is becoming more interconnected with each passing day; we are back to “Babylon” when we were one small humanity in one place, but today, under the influence of the Upper force of nature, the Creator, we instinctively desire to unite around the Earth, the globe, globally, by all means of connection, integrally.
And if we do not correct our nature, we will blow up the Earth. We have no choice but to do what Abraham suggested to the Babylonians during his time—to rise above the egoism that emerged in them, towards mutual guarantee, to love towards the other as to oneself.
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Currently, a new governance is being revealed in the world—a “circular” one. But that doesn’t mean that the “straight” governance disappears. We need to understand how we can use the straight line to fill the circles, meaning how to combine the individual with the society and what relationship to build between them.
“I” need to remain. I am one who governs and makes the decisions, understands, attains, and aspires “straight” to a certain goal, but I do all this for the sake of (circular) bestowal, love, by cancelling myself.
It is an apparent contradiction, as it is written, “He who wishes to live kills himself,” or like the Creator commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac while promising that the entire posterity will stem from him. We don’t understand how this could be, but this is how the circular governance is revealed from the other side. And because of that we find ourselves in such complicated states—broken and unclear. However, by beginning to check, scrutinize, and get confused by them, in so doing, we draw closer to spirituality!
Indeed, the spiritual world comprises these two forms. Up until now we have existed in only one form—the straight one. I press, and others press back on me—and so we all live by the law of “might makes right.” And even if we see opposite relationships, such as that between a mother and a child, they too are governed by nature via the straight line.
But the circular governance is being revealed only in our days, which is why we feel so helpless. In order to advance, we need to understand it at least a little bit. And for that, we need qualities like love and faith above reason, which transcend the straight governance.
They are measured and filled through working in the straight line, but the qualities themselves exist above the desire to enjoy. And when we achieve the desire to bestow, which clothes inside the desire to enjoy via a screen, we remain in the straight line but nonetheless make ourselves similar to the “circle.”
The circle is the Creator quality, while the straight line is the creature’s quality. But since we work in the straight line with faith above reason and wish to be similar to the circle, we fill the circles. The Creator as if abandoned this place and gave us the freedom to act. And we don’t return Him to this place with our demand; instead, we begin to work in there as He did when He was there. This means we fulfill the circular sphere through the straight line.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/22/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.
The Right Conduct at the Assembly of Friends
The beginning of the assembly should be about the praise of the society. Each and everyone must try to provide reasons and explanations to their merit and importance, until the importance of the society is clarified.
Then each should state his mind about the actions we can take so that each and everyone will be able to acquire the love of friends. In other words, what each person can do to acquire love in his heart for each and everyone in the society.
And once stage two is completed, stage three concerns carrying out the friends’ decisions about what should be done.
– The Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “The Agenda of the Assembly”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled),” “The Ascent of the Prayer,” Item 132, Lesson 7
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 86, Lesson 42
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Daily Audio Version-MP3
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