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The upper Light is eternal and constant. Rest is a consequence of His creation that He wanted to create. Thus, everything that is not the Light represents a garment that is put one on top of another and covers the Light that is inside of them.
Each covering, from first to last, is called the desire to receive, except for the internal Light that is the desire to bestow, the Creator.
This is why we are talking about multiple stages, worlds, Partzufim, Sefirot, and so on, although all of them are only the garments of the Light. Each cover is like a screen that simply receives a certain type of impression from the Light, within which it’s possible to differentiate between things that come directly from the properties of the Light and things that are originated by the coverings.
So, the same thing can be explained from the side of desires,vessels, and from the side of the Light: relative to an action and an intention. The Light at the zero phase (Shoresh de Shoresh) decided to create something that is opposite to it, something that would want to receive from it, enjoy it, and consume it. It is called the creation, the act of birth.
Everything that evolves in this world originates from the authentic impulse that is the desire of the Light in correlation with the desire to receive, that is, the desire to create something that would take advantage of the Light and be delighted by it. The Creator has built in such a desire in the very root of the creation, to create in order to bestow good.
This instinct is in the depths of our desires, otherwise we would not be able to have children and care for them. Although in the end, it is distorted by our selfish desires and takes a completely different egoistic form.
The so-called four phases of the Direct Light are the garments on the upper Light, which develop from it by the chain of cause and effect and thus conceal it more and more. If the Light decided to create and created something opposite to it, then now this opposition develops more and more: starting with the zero stage, where everything was permitted, and to stage four, which prohibited all egoistic pleasure.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/12, Talmud Eser Sefirot
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The Jewish people must show the world an example of unity, especially today when the crisis exacerbates, when threats and violence grow, protest movements inflate, unemployment, poverty and discrimination expand, and radical fascist and extremist organizations emerge.
We see that a new period has begun and that it is very dangerous for the wellbeing of humanity. As a result, we must realize that this is the time, the place, and the state when the Jewish people must demonstrate correct interconnection.
This nation is an internal part of the world. It expresses the aspiration of humanity toward attaining the unity that we need so much today. We see that the contemporary crisis is caused by a lack of unity among people and countries at all levels.
General egoism, the left line, has grown so tremendously that it threatens to destroy the entire structure of humanity. The world is becoming very small, and it’s torn apart by disagreements.
Only a special nation has the right line. If this nation rises and strengthens, it will transition to the middle line and thus, will point the entire world in this direction. So, here is the way out of the world crisis and a method to ascend above torments and problems in education, culture, economics, trade, and other spheres of life.
Question: These phrases, “special people” and “internal part of the world,” evoke the impression of some elite and privileged state. What, in fact, does this stand for?
Answer: It depends on how we look at it. If I am obligated to bring the method of correction to the world and serve as an example of correction, then it’s my duty. In this case, the entire world becomes very important to me since I am the one who is supposed to raise it, attend to it, and serve as “the light for the nations.”
“Special people” are a servant for the world, similar to the Cohens (Kohens, kohanim) serving the people of Israel. They really must demonstrate to others their distinctiveness by correcting themselves within the middle line, educating others, and setting correct examples.
In fact, the eyes of all the nations of the world are turned to the people of Israel. By blaming them for all existing problems, they basically confirm that this nation is the most important part of the world. They admit that this nation is so important that fifteen million Jews around the world are able to destroy seven billion people. How is that possible? And, yet, this is their claim.
If we refer to history and the Torah, it becomes clear that the people of Israel really represent a special part of the world. All they must do is to realize what their “uniqueness” is about, rather than ask others to regard them as a regular nation. No, it’s not “regular.” It is very special, as it is said in the Torah and other sources.
All of history is the evidence of this. It is obvious from the way Jewish people behave in various parts of the world. Everywhere, they play primary roles.
It’s not a secret that this nation possesses special properties, although the Jewish nation serves the world today and doesn’t even suspect what its predestination is. If you were to ask a regular Jew about this issue, he couldn’t understand exactly what you mean, and yet, the people of Israel must serve the world and transfer the “methodology of love,” that is, the method of achieving unity.
Today, while we all are in a state of internal crisis, the lack of love is especially obvious. On one hand, the world becomes much more interlaced and cannot subsist without tense liaisons that expand and strengthen every single day. On the other hand, the nature of our connection is fully egoistic.
General progress pushes us to unite even more. We have no authority over it. This is how our development goes. There is nothing we can do about it.
History, itself, is leading us into a situation where we are bound to a “small village,” although it is of a global and integral nature. At the same time, our personal, individual egoism has reached such a degree that we are becoming torn apart and strive to be detached even more.
Eventually, these two antagonistic forces might explode the Earth and all of humanity by unleashing catastrophic wars, detonating modern weapons. Now, the people of Israel must understand what, in fact, its distinctiveness is, and realize its purpose and role in the world today. If we don’t do that, the natural, historic process will compel us to, but in very unpleasant forms.
[81956]
From a Conversation on 6/5/12
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Animals have an instinctive connection with nature, and their perception of it occurs through the channels of their inner connection with nature. These channels are not available to man, are not understood, and not discovered by him.
When, in their development, people began to rise gradually from the animate to human level, they lost the channels of inner, natural, animal connection with nature, but the gradual loss of this information forced them to develop other connections not just to compensate for the past sensations, but to acquire new, more qualitative knowledge.
They were not driven by hunger. In reality, their development advanced to a deeper relationship with nature that gave them enough food, and they had much more free time to become tied with nature not through animal instinct, but on a deeper level.
Even those weapons that they invented, they invented them precisely to delve more deeply into nature. For example, they invented the bow and arrow. What for? To strike animals better, but what they used in the past was sufficient. The fact is that for such a device as the bow and arrow when a man is aiming and shooting, the main thing is not to aim and shoot, but, when he aims, he directs himself into the future, to the feeling of when he is sure that he hits the target.
That is why he doesn’t need to even shoot. He has worked himself into such a state that he has united with the target and, thus increased his sensitivity of nature so that the bow becomes a means for refining, for making himself sensitive in order to feel the future, whether or not he hits the target.
He reaches a state where he knows exactly that he will hit the target. That is, he achieves a connection with the target; he connects with the future state. He uses the bow to practice to attain the future in the present even without taking action. He doesn’t need to shoot.
The same thing happens in all other activities. Eastern martial arts, ritual dances, and wrestling were based on the principle of not touching the enemy, but controlling his future. You connect with the future. That is, the enemy is in front of you as a representation of your evil, and you practice your evil on him, feeling that you are with him, fighting your evil as if it were the enemy, and he does just the same.
These activities were regarded as noble, high, divine and sacred because through them, human development went in the opposite direction, to his struggle with his “I,” his ego, to ascend above himself. That is what martial arts, the bow and arrow, dances, ancient rituals gave him. This encouraged a person to work on himself and, most importantly, to rise to the future to experience it through earthly actions.
In reality, actions don’t matter. What matters is concentration, orientation toward the future. The same thing is above space and above time. The same practice is done to overcome distances and to feel motion, which is not necessary, but passes from movements like in dances, like in various ritual movements. All this passes into the inner action, to outplay oneself, one’s egoism, to connect with others, to see the enemy like one’s “I” that is against you.
Thus, people rose from the animate level and developed further. That is, it was not what we believe today that his development was to obtain more food and better settle. This is what our materialism tells us, but human development was directed toward the degree of “Human.” That is why we find evidence of the past everywhere: signs and monuments that we cannot solve because they were directed by the inner, spiritual ties with nature.
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Once, on the eve of the Sabbath, ARI told his students, “Let’s go to Jerusalem. I know where the ashes of the red cow are hidden. Let’s pour them on us and purify ourselves from evil, and build the Temple since I see that this hour is the end of exile.”
One said, “How can we get to Jerusalem if it’s more than 30 parsaot away?” The others added, “We are ready to go, but, first, we want to notify our wives so that they won’t worry about us.”
Then, the Rav exclaimed, “From the time of the Rashbi (the author of The Book of Zohar) until today, there was no other time so suitable to correct the world (from egoism), but we lost this chance!”
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Question: When using the integral method, we will reveal positive relationships between us and special states: kindness, intimacy, the meaning of life, and a sense of the next level of our development. However, we know that interaction among people causes various forms of conflict and aggressive behavior, such as quarrels, arguments, and so forth.
Answer: Our entire society is built on comparisons, and we must find a common denominator. You have your own ideas, goals, thoughts, tastes, and culture. We each have our own habits. Let’s figure out what we have in common.
Of these two circles, we’ll find one common segment, but large areas still will stay detached. This is my personal territory, there is yours, and we never will understand each other while we hold onto them.
For example, a variety of people from the same society share one culture that is in fact, quite different for its higher and lower segments, for educated people and common people. We see that there is a huge difference in their considerations, attitudes to life, inner codes, relationships within families, among neighbors, work ethics, and so on.
So, it will be very hard for us to arrive at a unified conclusion here. People change just like the society we live in constantly changes. That’s why we always will encounter problems.
Integral upbringing is built on the foundation that we must rise above ourselves. We cross out everything we were used to before today. Not only should we cross out everything we previously had, such as when spouses who decide to start with a clean slate to start a new chapter in their lives, but we also must realize that we have to continue rising above our mundane properties. In other words, our egoistic desire, which represents our internal essence, isn’t involved in the connections between us.
So, it does not matter what inborn qualities we have, nor does what we had been receiving from the environment for 20 to 50 years of our lives, wherever we currently are, or whatever “viruses” we have. It doesn’t mean a thing!
We want to rise to the next level, to the place where we connect with each other and where differences and similarities are not important at all. Let’s say that we sit in a circle and discuss something. We should care less about our personal interests, as if we don’t have them at all.
The only thing that we should have in common is the search of a communal basis that will become the foundation for a totally different type of society, an innovative paradigm, a different dimension in which none of us exists separately, where we represent one common system within which it’s impossible to identify ourselves as “I” since it will be integral and analog. We pursue this state from the very beginning.
That’s why, no matter who comes to the discussion table—nor it is relevant if the tables are small or big enough to encircle the entire Earth and accommodate seven billion people—all of us must search for commonalities that will lead us to our next state, to the main, crucial point from which we will continue growing.
Then, earthly things that we have been accumulating for thousands of years—things that we are comprised of, the society we live in, or anything else that causes contradictions among us—won’t interest us anymore and will just fall down. We must take a new step and cut ourselves off from the place where we are now.
It’s impossible to have five people who are “for” something and one who is against it. That means we will become involved in criticism. There is nothing to criticize! Everything we have dealt with so far is now in a state of crisis and is not suitable for further use. That’s why we simply “wash our hands” and become born anew.
Question: Modern people are built in a way that if they are given only positive information…
Answer: It’s not positive! This is a search, an affliction, an internal tension, and mutual scrutiny, but all of the above should be done only for the sake of the next integral level that we must reach.
I cannot take my current principles, views, criteria, and values with me there because the next realm is totally different. It’s a matrix into which we all are mutually included and where we are completely interconnected with each other. It’s the n-dimension, a space in which I lose the notion of myself. It’s impossible to have my opinion or your outlook there. First, we must reach the connection among us, and then we’ll decide what to do next.
Differences among us still will remain, but they will come from a new level, from the next state. Each of us will be adding much more to become included in the integral mechanism. It still will move forward, but none of this will happen if we continue using our prior egoistic habits and properties. We shouldn’t take them with us.
The animal developmental state is over, and a new step named “A Man” (Adam) will soon begin. It will orient us only toward unification and integration. By no means will it have an egoistic nature as it did in the past, but rather it will be built on the basis of integration, and each of us simply will lose themselves in a collective mechanism.
[82573]
From a Talk on Integral Upbringing 5/28/12
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We see that the world lacks unity. The common market can serve as a bright example of this. Europeans strove to create unity, but they overlooked that it should be supported by the desire and goodwill to connect among people, countries, and nations.
It’s not enough to establish financial, industrial, and commercial liaisons. Things don’t work without human input. Today, in order to make any business profitable, we must maintain good relationships with employees, spend weekends together with them and their families, open kindergartens, and so forth. Many things lack a human element.
However, the architects of Europe didn’t take into consideration the human factor. They didn’t include integral upbringing in their program. They haven’t taught people to unite and become one entity, instead of simply joining a common market. That’s why their projects have failed.
In Israel, we must consider such things. Correction should be provided through the mass media. I spoke about this fact at the Arosa forum six years ago. We must engage radio, television, the press, the Internet, and educational programs and courses at the workplace and in schools. We must build an environment that will remind people about the necessity to unite in order to survive.
It’s not about being polite to each other, like adults asking small children to stop fighting. We are facing a very difficult choice: Either we go down the path of discord or we choose the path of unity. Taking into consideration the tools of destruction we have at our disposal, it’s extremely dangerous to choose the first option.
Question: What hardships will the people of Israel face if it won’t aspire to unity?
Answer: The Prophets predicted very unpleasant things. The people of Israel will implement their predetermination anyhow, even if it will require tremendous pressure and predicaments.
It is said that potential affliction is not limited by the next world war. As it is written in the Holy Scriptures, “The hands of merciful women have boiled their own children. They have been for food to them.” Terrible commentaries are given in this respect. All of them are meant to obligate the people of Israel to fulfill their mission to correct the world.
The people of Israel must realize that no one else in the world has the authority, except them, nor does anyone else have a chance to achieve this task. The explanations that are given to other nations are needed only to make them comprehend the role of the people of Israel and then compel the people of Israel to act in good faith, thus avoiding catastrophes by pushing them to begin doing their work.
Because our correction bears a common and reciprocal nature, the people of Israel must elucidate and disseminate the knowledge of it and implement the method of integral upbringing, which explains how to unite and where to start the process. We conduct our activities in Israel to demonstrate that it is possible and to initiate this practice.
Everywhere we go, we try to organize roundtable discussions and create an atmosphere of collaboration. This applies not only to the Jews but to everyone who lives here. All our neighbors and the entire world must understand that it is possible.
The purpose of the people of Israel is inextricably linked with the correction of the world. As it is written, “And you shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” meaning that the sparks of bestowal and love should pour onto all nations through the sons of Israel. If this nation doesn’t choose to act accordingly and doesn’t transmit the Light to the entire world, it will be deprived of its role on the world stage, and thus will turn into an unnecessary part.
The principle, “love thy neighbor as thyself,” is the basis for the Jewish people. It has been preserved since Abraham first formulated it. However, those are not only beautiful words, but a real methodology of attaining unity that allows the stirring of the love of other nations and, consequently, uniting so that everyone becomes as “one man with one heart.”
The method is quite simple. Egoism (the left line) is rapidly developing within us, yet we must come to the middle line. For that, we sit down at a roundtable, or without it, in groups of ten people and begin talking about unity and solidarity. At the same time, each of us diminishes their left line (ego) and enhances the part that is oriented toward love and connection with others. As a result, the left line lowers, whereas the right line moves up.
Then, while we are applying efforts to unite, we see that it is possible because of the power of love (the right line) that rules among us. If we happen to unite, we resolve the problems that are caused by our egoism, that is, in our left line. As it happens, it’s not that complicated to combine them together, and out of this combination, we can grow the middle line.
Now, we understand that the sons of Israel went through exile and not by accident; they needed to acquire their ego. It amplifies the value of love that they possessed at the times of the Temple.
In Hebrew, the Temple stands for “the House of Sanctity,” that is, a general spiritual vessel where mutual bestowal and reciprocal love dwells. In ancient times, the Jewish people attained it to a certain extent, but, essentially, they must reach the level of the Third Temple. Today, we must return to love by going above the egoism that was acquired in exile and exalt it above the left line to the level that is called “the Third Temple.”
[82491]
From a Conversation on 6/5/12
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Question: What does a person obtain when he attains spirituality?
Answer: He obtains qualitatively new knowledge because now his revelation is part of him. In our world, I discover these or those external phenomena. For example, if I am a chemist, I observe, examine, and describe a chemical process.
In the science of Kabbalah, I reveal the upper world and am myself in the picture that opens to me. I am identical to my discovery; I have the same qualities that are there in the reality that I discover. Of course, at the same time, I see all the stages that I have passed, both spiritual and material. They remain in me, and I can descend to any of them to establish contact with others.
In general however, spiritual development is a precise attainment. I don’t just get to know or understand something. Knowing and attaining are not the same thing. Attainment means that I turn into the state that I have reached, not just becoming acquainted with a new degree, but become it.
[94683]
From the 4th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/12, “Kabbalah and Philosophy”
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In the News (from Utro.ru): “The EU responds to record-high unemployment, budget deficit and public debt with a record number of summits and minister meetings (several times a month).
“However, the results of these activities are woefully modest: neither budget nor bank union has been created; the Union budgets (for the current and next year, as well as long-term) were not accepted, etc. … The summit on the EU’s 2014-2020 budget that began in Brussels was interrupted after a couple of hours. While all this debate is going on, time passes.”
My Comment: The fall continues and the end is not in sight. The only question is when will the EU officials begin to be afraid of losing their seats and savings so that they will be forced to listen to the need for social change? As long as they have an opportunity to quietly settle in any part of the world, they will continue this game …
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Question: The Kabbalists, without difference, declare the principle of “love the other as yourself” as the most important thing. They all join in this. So where does the division in the Jewish state come from?
Answer: Because of the exile, because of the separation from the spiritual force, from the consciousness of spirituality, from the spiritual force. The people simply forgot the main thing, and this was done on purpose: as if part of the pipeline through which he used to receive spiritual nourishment was cut from him.
A person simply doesn’t feel that another, complete world exists, and that there are forces that direct him. He was left only with those channels that direct him in a corporeal way, and now he only exists in this world, seeing that the situation with others is identical to his. And all the rest of the threads that connect are disabled. From all of the systems, there remains only the operating system of the lower level of this world, which from a spiritual view is not considered as existing. Actually, it simply it not there.
And now we need to unite our spiritual sparks, our points in the heart that don’t belong to this world, in order to create from them a new spiritual reality. This is what we have been entrusted with. It isn’t just to get close to each other, like sheep in a herd. That wouldn’t give us anything. We are speaking here only about the sparks that we need to raise and unite.
So you need to think and worry only about the longing of the friends for the Creator, about sparks that are in each one of them. When we connect them together into one whole, then we will have enough force in order to reveal the Creator. That is what all our work is about.
[94583]
From the 4th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/12, “Exile and Redemption”
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