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Passing The Wisdom From A Teacher To A Disciple

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Letter 43”: And the sages said: “the reverence for your teacher is like the reverence for Heaven.” And this is why Rizhner was proud that he had attained the highest level of all the sages in his generation, since he had acquired the faith of the sages more than anyone in his generation

And we should understand that faith isn’t the question, since even six-year-old children can acquire it, but it is his feeling of the greatness and the awe his soul felt by the wisdom of the sages, that part of His wisdom renders superfluous to those who revere Him.

Passing on the wisdom refers to the passing of the Light of Hochma and not to external wisdom. Therefore, it depends on the connection between the spiritual Partzufim. An upper Partzuf gives birth to a lower Partzuf from its “chest” downwards, like GE gives birth to AB. First GE gives birth to the internal Partzuf of AB and then the external Partzuf of AB stems from it, which comes after Galgalta, by being dressed on it from the outside, from its “chest” downwards. This is the order of the Partzufim.

Passing on the Light is impossible without such a connection between the spiritual Partzufim, without the lower being adhered to the upper one in some way. The place of adhesion is where the upper and the lower connect into one whole. Then the lower can receive from the upper and the upper can pass something on to it. If there is no such place of adhesion, of connection between them, then the lower cannot be born and cannot receive the Light from the upper.

After the shattering, we find ourselves in this world and we develop as a result of the Reshimot (reminiscences) that are evoked in a certain order, from the lighter ones to the heavier ones. Here we already have to work from the bottom up and to acquire a stronger Masach (screen) over our ego each time in order to adhere to the upper one.

We also receive the Masach from the upper by the Light that Reforms. The order of the degrees never changes; it only seems to us that it doesn’t exist since we don’t feel it. Actually we are all connected, since the shattering is only revealed with regards to a person himself, according to his attainment and his feeling.

So the whole system is revealed to us according to the order the Reshimot are evoked from the bottom up. We only have to add our labor to attain adhesion with the Creator. This adhesion is attained through the group, a teacher, and all the means that we have including the studying. Thus we receive the Light that Reforms and through the studying and the connection with the group and the teacher we reach adhesion with the Creator; that’s the way it works.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/12, Lesson About the Greatness of the Rav

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There Is No Adhesion With The Creator Without Respect For The Teacher And The Group

Dr. Michael LaitmanReligious schools instill an attitude of respect in children towards the teacher and spiritual leaders from early childhood. This tradition comes from spiritual principles. But since mostly secular people come to Kabbalah, it is very difficult for them to change their attitude towards teachers, which they have become accustomed to in school and college.

We are not used to attributing a higher degree to the teacher who gives us spiritual attainment. We think that a teacher recites things written in books and sometimes provides more detailed explanations.

It is incomprehensible and unnatural that in the Kabbalistic approach you receive spirituality through the teacher. But in Kabbalah, adhesion with the teacher precedes adhesion with the Creator. It is impossible to attain greater trepidation in relation to the Creator, than the kind that you feel in relation to your spiritual teacher and the group. This is the way a person builds himself; this is why the entire world has been given to him.

But you need to work on it; otherwise, you will not attain the goal. Lack of respect for the teacher is a modern problem, which shows us how much we still need to correct ourselves. This is not a coincidence, but an enormous addition of egoism, which needs to be corrected.

This additional egoism is additional distance, which separates us from the Creator, and it shows through the fact that we don’t respect the group or the teacher and thus distance ourselves from the Creator.

When I was a student, what helped me correct my attitude was that I was always imagining the higher system where we all exist, but which is concealed from us. And in this system, every one who is lower is absolutely attached to his upper. The actual system did not break; the breaking only took place in our perception. Our entire work consists of bringing ourselves to the point where we are able to perceive and reveal the actual system.

And once the spiritual system becomes revealed, the connections between all its parts will also be revealed to us. The ladder of spiritual degrees does not change, and when one soul becomes revealed first, and another one is revealed after it, this order remains forever. And this is why we will always receive through the great spiritual fathers, Kabbalists, who have lived before us and completed their corrections. We will always receive through Baal HaSulam and Rabash.

And if you continue this path and once merit spiritual attainment, you will receive it through me. This is the way the spiritual ladder is.

We need to work on this, otherwise a connection will not appear between us. It is written: “Make yourself a Rav (‘Rav’ means big) and buy yourself a friend, and justify every person,” and all this is preparation for the adhesion with the Creator. Naturally, the teacher does not need the compliments that a student needs. But the student needs to prepare himself for the revelation of the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/12, Lesson About the Greatness of the Rav

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The Property Of The Creator Is Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll our training is to create the vessels, desires, in ourselves in which we can obtain Infinity, the unlimited revelation of the Creator. So we need to stay in the desire to bestow, in such desires that are not limited by anything, and thus it is possible to reveal the Creator in them.

Love cannot be revealed in a limited state. We do not know what true love is, but that does not make the property contrary to any restriction, boundaries, or limits.

That is why, the preparation of the desire to reveal the Creator is to acquire the property of bestowal. And there is one more condition: We must be able not only to feel the Creator, but also to understand Him! To do this, we need to have an unlimited vessel. That is why our bestowal should be manifested in two ways: in feelings and in the mind.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/12

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A Choice Through Free Will

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You said that a good, strong group can solve any problem inside of it. If death is threatening a man, we unite, we do not give this person up, and something works out for us. However, what can be done if a man is threatened by a spiritual death due to breaking away from the group?

Answer: Here, it is his freewill. You can come to him, talk to him, convince him, and shake him up, in general.

You have the right to do it since you used to be friends with him. Nevertheless, he must give you some kind of a possibility for this, for the sake of the past.

However, if you see that it is useless, leave him be. Time will do its job, perhaps not even in this lifetime, but he will return the next time and complete it.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Lesson 7

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“Poverty Is Returning To Europe”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The Telegraph): “‘Poverty is returning to Europe,” Jan Zijderveld, the head of Unilever’s European business told the Financial Times Deutschland in an interview

“’If a consumer in Spain only spends €17 when they go shopping, then I’m not going to be able to sell them washing powder for half of their budget.’

“Unilever has already started to change the way it sells some of its products. In Spain, the company sells Surf detergent in packages for as few as five washes, while in Greece, it now offers mashed potatoes and mayonnaise in small packages, and has created a low-cost brand for basic goods such as tea and olive oil.

“’In Indonesia, we sell individual packs of shampoo 2 to 3 cents and still make decent money,’ said Mr Zijderveld. ‘We know how to do that, but in Europe we have forgotten in the years before the crisis.’

My Comment: This is how the crisis will destroy unnecessary production and leave us within the limits of reasonable consumption. Also, the unemployed will force society and the government to find them a useful activity: integral education.
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Let My Aspirations Come True

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I elucidate my egoism in spirituality if I am not there yet?

Answer: You clarify your spiritual properties even though you are not there yet based on your connection with your friends since you are trying to overcome your egoism and be associated with them through mutual guarantee. One’s aspiration toward the group in which everyone works together and tries to connect is similar to the states and desires that we will experience in the upper world.

I aspire to it as a child who pretends to be an adult. This is how he learns. The same applies to us when we start a new job. We use various models to educate ourselves and, thus, gradually acquire the skills that we need to fulfill the job.

It works the same way in regard to our spiritual work. I don’t know what the upper Light is, nor do I know what the next, higher state will be for me. The upper reality is outside of us and we don’t see how to approach it; however, only for this purpose was this world was created; the common (general) desire was split into billions of parts, allowing us to work with them, collect them back together, and learn how to adjust ourselves in a way that will eventually let us recognize that, on one hand, we are unable to collect the broken pieces together on our own, and, on the other hand, we are eager to accomplish it.

Then, we realize that not only are we unwilling to work on it, but, in general, we are totally unable to. But, at the same time, while continuing to act and make efforts, we begin sensing a huge desire to make it somehow come true.

Suddenly, those huge, diverse, and often times opposite states of ours gather into one piece. They still contradict one another since on one hand, we must bring up our tremendous, salient egoism, and on the other hand, we must aspire to the Light, to bestowal.

These states still are opposite to and isolated from each other. The Light that connects them together creating a spiritual vessel (a desire and the screen), has not descended to them as of yet.

So far, there is no screen, nor is there any connection between the Light and the desire. They are standing apart from one another. This oppositeness is felt within our desire as something very intense and contradictory, but we still must aspire to make it happen. Then, it will happen.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/18/12, Lesson 5

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Don’t Identify Yourself With Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanEgoism is called “help against me” because if I imagine it against myself, it really helps me. But if I associate myself with it, then of course it is an enemy. It all depends on how we position ourselves in relation to egoism.

How do I not forget that only when I do not identify myself with it, but see it against me, egoism helps?

This can be achieved only through the environment. A person will never be able to hold himself in this state. He will always identify himself with the ego and fall into it, if the group, like a magnet, will not raise him above egoism. There are two forces: from the top—the force of the group, and from the bottom—the force of egoism.

If the group can pull my “I” out of this egoism and keep it outside, then I will feel egoism against me. If it cannot raise me, then I will fall back into egoism all the time, and I will not be able even to remember to see it outside myself.

Therefore, only the group can take care of this by means of its opinion, by mutual guarantee.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/17/12, Workshop 2

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The Creator Is Hidden, But The Group Is Open

Dr. Michael Laitman with studentsIn reality, “there is none else besides Him,” and the Creator would like to be revealed to the created being. However, if He revealed Himself, the created being would never be able to become independent. It would always “sell” itself to the Light and would not be able to separate itself from it.

That is why it is impossible to cancel oneself before the Creator, before the Light, because I am an absolute slave to pleasure. People know that themselves, and in this life, we are constantly controlled by the Light.

It is for this reason the Creator is hidden, but the group is open. So, we can begin to communicate with it and even rise above our egoism, which would be impossible with the Creator. And in everything else, it is all the same.

Except a human being, only the Creator exists: “There is none else besides Him.” Then, a person discovers that he does not exist either. There is only one upper force that fills everything. But this is after a person arrives at this on his own.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/17/12, Workshop 2

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Free Projection

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn spirituality there is a vessel that is made of two parts: GE and AHP. All the Kabbalistic books describe precisely these spiritual roots. The results are in our world: “the branches.” In other words, the action of the roots from the world of Atzilut create their replica here.

We can compare it to computerized graphics that are reflected on a screen so that they can be easily viewed. I see figures of people on the screen: Some of them are a projection from GE and some are from AHP. In spirituality, there is a force called “Abraham” which clarifies the vessels, the desires, into two types, and as a result, there are two groups in our world: Israel, which means straight to the Creator (Yashar-Kel) and the nations of the world.

Everything stems from the roots, which in the spiritual “computer” are processed by a special “addition” until the end of the program. We follow the process on the “screen” which is our world. Now according to the relations between these two groups, we can learn about their roots, or we can rise to the roots and learn about the branches.

Free Projection
But there is a gap (∆) between the projection on the screen and the “computerized source, and that is the fulfillment of our role. Inside the computer the absolute whole controls and the one who is in charge of the screen has freewill (choice) in fulfilling the goal. This option is concealed in the group called “Israel.”

Two correct claims regarding this problematic element stem from this, on the side of the nations of the world and on the side of the Creator who is behind the “sources.” It is Israel who should bring the world to correction and show everyone what is good and what is bad and should explain the plan of creation; in short, it owes everyone.

Israel can be proud of this obligation and this special work, the Creator’s work, or they can dump it as “irrelevant.” In any case, as we see from history, everything revolves around these people, fortunately or unfortunately for them, depending on how you look at it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/12, “A Handmaid That Is Heir to Her Mistress”

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