Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2013-03-15_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’15.3.13′]

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

A person’s success depends upon the environment that he manages to organize for himself. To this extent he gradually begins to change his concept: what day and night are, light and darkness. He now begins to see that what he previously considered to be the light—his success relative to others, the filling of his egoistic desires of pride—now seems like total darkness, as a terrible state from which he must escape in order to think about bestowal upon others, about the friend’s success, and about bestowal upon the Creator.

This is actually what becomes the light and day for a person now, instead of the light and day he felt previously in his own success. To the extent that he can annul and restrict himself forcefully, he encounters great resistance on the part of his body, and the more he sees the importance of the other and of the Creator, the more he advances. Eventually, he fills the measure of his exertion and receives enough Light that Reforms so that the Masach (screen) can be born in him. Then a resisting force toward the desire to receive begins to operate in him, and, thanks to the equivalence of form with the Light that he has attained, he is rewarded with the first revelation.

Our work is to find the right criteria for checking: Where is day and where is night, where is darkness and where is the Light? According to these values, I have to judge: Is it for my own benefit or for the Creator? If I begin to understand that it’s totally opposite from my previous criteria, it’s a sign that I am already on the right track. If I begin to have an inner struggle with which principle to assess the state, it’s a sign that I am already advancing.

If I pray that my scale of values, the measuring system of the light and darkness, day and night, be changed so that I will be able to see them spiritually, then it’s an even more advanced state. When I adhere to bestowal with all my might and try to see every state from this perspective, then I am ready to detach myself from the desire to receive. If I constantly ask for this to happen, and if I constantly feel that the Creator is sending me interruptions in order to strengthen my request, then I am already close to it, in order to actually work in Lishma (for its sake).

So what was previously darkness turns to light and what was light for myself turns to darkness, and I actually run from it. Everything turns to the opposite state: day and night. What had been the darkness of the night before turns into the bright light of the day.
[102520]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/13, Shamati #16

Related Material:
Together We Shall Turn The Night Into Day!
The Day Of The Lord And The Night Of The Lord
Day Will Follow Night

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Inner Work, Perception - 1 Comment →

When rising to Bina, a person (Malchut) annuls himself above all the egoism that is revealed in him. Ibur (gestation) is a terrible state for the desire to receive. Imagine that you returned to the womb: There can’t a more terrible state for you; you have no air, no light, and no freedom to move. You are squeezed into a narrow confinement, like in a vise gripping all your senses, so that you can’t move internally in your consciousness or externally.

Entering the spiritual womb is a terrible feeling, spiritual claustrophobia…but you prefer this state, because if you are in it, in Bina, in the attribute of bestowal, then you don’t need anything! You accept the dark solitary confinement as the good promised land, as heaven. The condition for entering spiritual Ibur is to change your appreciation of Malchut to Bina and to begin to value the attribute of bestowal.
[102661]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Related Material:
Protected By The Mother’s Safe Shield
There Is No Safer Place Than A Mother’s Arms
Between Minus Infinity And Plus Infinity

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

Question: We had an exercise yesterday in which we tried to relate to everything as a “dialog with the Creator.” After all, He is the one who is sending us all these states and we have to respond to them correctly. How can we “grow stronger” in implementing this approach without settling for a couple of attempts a day? How can we deepen this insight so that it will run through our whole life?

Answer: A person cannot always evoke himself by himself. He needs an external “stimulus.” The best external stimulus is the group. This is why we speak about mutual guarantee.

In the framework of mutual guarantee it’s not enough to guard the other so that he won’t make a hole in the boat; it isn’t enough to guard the other so that he won’t have evil thoughts; in addition to that, we have to make sure that he has good thoughts. If we all keep the mutual connection and the common yearning for the goal, no one will have evil thoughts but only good thoughts.

Then, of course the evil thoughts will begin to awaken at a very rapid pace, but they will immediately fall onto the right ground: It will be clear to a person that it’s an interruption, “help against,” that is meant to evoke him and to tighten the connection with the friends and through them with the Creator. Then everyone will be able to easily process even millions of similar thoughts a day, and within a few days he will fulfill the whole level of this world.

Everyone worries about everyone else. Everyone is connected in one mission, in one common goal. I feel that I have to think about the goal for the sake of the others. I want everyone to yearn for it; I can’t leave the connection with the goal and with the Creator since if I do, I would betray my friends and would turn into a criminal, a cheat, a thief, who steals the spiritual world from others and who nullifies their exertion along the spiritual path. What’s more, I steal from the Creator; I deprive Him of pleasure since I hold the group back and don’t allow Him to give the friends what they yearn for. I am the one responsible for that.

This is what everyone should think. After all, there is no “little bit” in spirituality: If someone doesn’t work to the fullest, everyone suffers. So think carefully about what you do and about what worries you during the day.

Other than that, there are times when you admit, “Now I can’t think about the friends. I have to rest, take a nap, or be distracted by something else at least mentally.” These breaks are external to the adhesion to the group and the Creator and later you will not feel a need for them.

But in the meantime they are necessary, and so at a certain point you say to yourself, “I will take a break and rest from everyone.” You may fall into an “animal” state for half an hour or an hour, but you decide for how long; you decide not to think about what’s important for a while. Then you will feel the “foreign” thoughts about spirituality…
[102520]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
The Strongest Weapon
We Need Fuel For Our Boat
A Play Without Extras

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Mutual Guarantee - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 18: And we must not ponder the state of other beings in the world but man, since man is the center of Creation, as will be written below (item 39). And all other creatures do not have any value of their own but to the extent that they help man achieve his perfection. Hence, they rise and fall with him without any consideration of themselves.

All the creatures on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature have no value of their own; they cannot correct themselves, and so they ascend and descend together with man. This means that man discovers that the whole universe, including all the flora and fauna on earth, are in man without any expectation for themselves, just as corporeal body contains all the previous stages of nature.

So to the extent that I correct my desire on the speaking level, all the desires of the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature are included in this correction. I actually feel that they are included in me, regardless of their external existence. After all, I have been through these desires and so they have also have been corrected and some of them have disappeared.

The dinosaurs disappeared millions of years ago and are extinct, and today different species of plants and animals are also disappearing, but scientists are discovering many new species that we didn’t know about before. This is all a projection of what is happening with our desires, so we shouldn’t panic that the human race may also become extinct. Several desires in us have simply been corrected and have been exhausted, have ended the cycle of their role and have disappeared. There is no need for them anymore, and so they “return to dust.”
[102480]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
Nature Does Not Tolerate Imbalance
There Are Many Surprises Up Ahead
Learn To Live In Balance With Nature

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Evolution - No Comments →

In the News (from The Christian Science Monitor): “A stunning report by a US digital-security company accuses China’s military of conducting more than 100 cyberattacks on American corporate and government computers. If accurate, the report by the firm Mandiant only adds to the urgency to develop international norms in cyberwar and cyberespionage.

“Each new tool of aggression requires its own rules of war. Cyberwarfare should be no different. Without a code of ethics for conflict in the digital universe, nations could eventually bring down each other’s water supplies, electric grids, military defenses, and vital institutions. And key values, such as privacy and a right to intellectual property, could also be lost.

“Global rules now restrict the use of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. They also help safeguard civilians and prisoners of war. What the Mandiant report shows is that the world may be losing the struggle to come up with rules for cyberspace behavior.”

My Comment: The problem is not in the desire to adopt new rules for new weapons of war, but that the enemy can easily disguise himself and strike without exposing himself to retaliatory attacks. So, a lack of complete control, as in the case of nuclear weapons, is the cause of the ongoing cyberwar.

The solution lies in the unity of all the systems into one, when everyone attacking the enemy will bring a blow to himself at the same time. Either we ourselves will create this system or nature will bring us to this system of mutual dependence in which there will no other choice but to establish such ties or perish.
[102792]

Related Material:
The Financial Crisis In Arms Sales
No War!
US-European Banks Bring World To Brink Of War

Filed under: Crisis, Internet, News, Unity, World - No Comments →

So the people rested on the seventh day. And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna; and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. (The Torah, Exodus, “BeShalach,” 16:30 – 16:31)

Saturday (the Sabbath) is a special state when, for the last six days (states), we correct our egoistic desire and approach its realization in the corrected form. In total, there are five levels of egoism that we have to correct. On the sixth day, their mutual blending, mixing, and combination into a single whole takes place. And then, we receive the Light on this corrected united desire. This light is Saturday.

But I don’t correct my egoistic properties myself; the Light corrects them. There is a Light that comes to correct in me the properties of the first day, then of the second, third, fourth, and fifth. On the sixth day, a special Light descends that unites all this together, and the result is a single common altruistic desire, the common property of bestowal, in which I receive fulfillment on the seventh day. That is, over the six days purification of the vessel takes place in which the Light can enter afterward. This Light, filling the pure vessel, is the representation of the seventh day.

Question: Why is it given a taste called “manna”?

Answer: Because it always moves under our constant yearning upward to receive the Light of correction and then the Light of fulfillment.

Question: Why is it said that it tastes “like wafers made with honey”?

Answer: This is a somewhat unclear allegory. It doesn’t mean honey, but rather, egoism sweetened by correction that starts to work on bestowal and that represents this meal. But sometimes, it’s referred to as a “bull” sometimes as to a “whale” (Leviathan), etc. We are talking about the spiritual roots that appear in our world in this way.
[102657]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

Related Material:
Eternal Sabbath
The “Awakening From Above” On The Sabbath
Saturday As The Result Of Corrections

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Rabbi Akiva tells us about that, “All is in deposit.” This means that everything that God had placed in Creation and given to people, He did not give to them licentiously, but secured Himself with collateral. And should you wonder what collateral He was given?

He responds to that by saying: “and a fortress spreads over all of life.” This means that the Creator has cleverly devised a wonderful fortress and spread it over all of humanity, so no one will escape. All the living must be caught in that fortress and necessarily accept His work, until they attain their sublime goal. This is the collateral by which the Creator secured Himself, to guarantee that no harm would come to the deed of Creation.

“All is in deposit” means that whether I want to or not, I will have to pay my “debt” to the Creator. I was given life not because I asked for it and without my consent, and still I have to pay the debt. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t ask for it. If I received life, I have to pay for it, and I can only pay by attaining the goal of creation.

We see that the sufferings we have been through throughout history are gradually becoming more “spiritual” and “virtual,” and detached from reality. Today many people don’t want to live although they have everything. Once a person was happy if he had half a kilo of bread a day and was satisfied with that, but about fifty years ago the “shopping” era began. Today it is coming to an end and not because of a shortage of money but because people lack the desire to shop. This is the problem—the desire is changing. Even if you offer a person a million dollars, it will not spur him like before; he doesn’t want anything anymore.

This is the natural inclination of our evolution that brings us to ask about the meaning of life. So what is left of life if not food, shopping, and recreation? There is nothing else that we can enjoy. It isn’t by chance that football and all sorts of distractions other are being promoted so much these days. This is the policy: to provide people with “tranquilizers” and other nonsense to give them something to fill their inner emptiness with. Otherwise, they would express their rage in the streets instead of in the stadiums.

A person who feels empty asks himself more and more: “Why was I given a life that I didn’t ask for, why am I being forced to do something that I don’t want to?” Why? He feels as if his hands and feet are chained.

This is why we need integral education today. Thanks to it people will understand that everyone is connected and that we depend on one another and that by using this integral connection correctly, we will be able to solve all our problems.

Good relations are generally the key to our success in every aspect. We could have machines replace physical work in every field and provide everything we need. But we don’t want that since it isn’t clear what a person would enjoy then. Even now, most people already have everything they could imagine except for a deficiency. A person is absolutely full, so what’s next? He can either kill himself or start killing others otherwise he won’t feel any pleasure.

We enjoy only when pleasure fills a deficiency. But the pleasure immediately neutralizes itself. So how can we prevent this? We have to constantly renew the desire.

This is exactly what the world leaders tried to achieve by building a modern economy and inserting new desires into people and satisfying them. But this is impossible, since our corporeal desire is changing in quality and eventually doesn’t want anything on the previous level. To chase our own tail in order to buy a new washing machine and a new television every year and to change the wall paper…? How much longer can we take that? A person suddenly discovers that his desires are gone.

Thus a whole philosophy of evolution has come to an end. It wasn’t just a way of making money but a way of making people happy. At the top people thought about getting richer providing all the basic necessities and keeping them in a close circuit so that people would buy light bulbs that burn out after a short while, printers with an integrated chip that stops working after a while, and other low quality products. They continued to supply incentives so that people will feel it is worthwhile to work, to live, and to buy. They continued to renew the deficiencies since without a deficiency that receives pleasure, there is no feeling of happiness.

They were right about that. It was indeed a time of prosperity in the West. The Americans saw that their new philosophy justified itself and everyone followed them happily. But in the meantime the desire grew, not only in quantity but also in quality, so a person doesn’t need all that anymore. He doesn’t see any point in investing his whole life in that. In the past people bought things without any advertising, but today more than half the cost of a product is due to advertising costs. On the other hand, in countries that are more economically developed, depression, suicide, and drug abuse are becoming more prevalent.

So where are we headed? A person cannot go on living without feeling happy, excitement, and the “ecstasy” that is felt when the deficiency meets the pleasure. But they immediately neutralize one another if there is no Masach (screen) between them. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is about, the wisdom of how to receive correctly, since without a Masach, a person discovers only darkness.

If the decision makers were a bit wiser, they would accept that. But in the meantime, we are in the middle of the process, so in any case there is no other choice. The deficiency has to be in contact with the pleasure, but only if it doesn’t stop. Otherwise, it isn’t worth it. We are ready to renew only our animal deficiencies over and over again, but anything that is beyond that is questionable. So what we see on almost every TV channel today is mainly cooking programs or sex, because people are so narrow minded…

We hope that we will manage to explain the need for a Masach between the deficiency and the pleasure. Then the infinite pleasure will give us a feeling of eternal life.
[102338]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/13, “The Peace”

Related Material:
The Era Of Understanding
Why Do Our Desires Lag Behind Life?
What Are We Being “Fed”?

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Evolution, Mutual Guarantee, Unity - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: …although we see the bodies changing from generation to generation, this is only the case with the bodies. But the souls, which are the essence of the body’s self, do not vanish, to be replaced, but move from body to body, from generation to generation.

“The body” stands for a desire to receive. If the intention to bestow is present in it, then according to the law of the similarity of properties, the Light dresses into it. The Light’s tiniest elementary particle (the initial level of the soul) is called “Nefesh.” In general, the Light that dresses in a corrected desire belongs to a different level of the soul and is called “Neshama.” We will never completely reveal the highest Lights such as Haya and Yechida until we reach the end of correction.

In fact, the vessel and the Light are all that there is. It also happens that the Light cannot emerge in the vessel; therefore, it slightly “illuminates” the vessel so that it can stay alive. It also happens that the vessel becomes similar to the Light by acquiring the correct intention. The desire to receive and the Light by definition are antagonistic since the Light is constantly bestowing. However, if on top of the desire to receive there is the intention to bestow (meaning “faith above reason” or the “reflected Light”) then the receiving desire becomes somewhat similar to the Light and thus it may be filled with the Light because there is a connection between them. The Light that descends to the desire to receive is called “Nefesh,” “Ruach,” or “Neshama.”

The wisdom of Kabbalah talks about the corrected “body” of the desire to receive. On the other hand, there is no soul in our present desire whatsoever, not even at the level of “Nefesh.” We are not talking about physical bodies here, since bodies are a part of this “illusionary” world.

Books written by Kabbalists are not medical manuals, nor are they written as anatomy textbooks. They talk about spirituality and the soul. The “soul” is a particle of the Creator, meaning of the desire to fulfill and please. It’s the Light that dresses into a corrected desire to receive. It has nothing to do with our current desires that “nourish” this world and belong to the “animate” level. Not at all! It’s about our desire toward the Creator that belongs to the “speaking” level.

Where do we find these desires? They can be found only in the group of friends, never in our physical sensations. This explains why we should “skip” physiology and everything that pertains to the body. Kabbalah doesn’t talk about these things. It explores the desires that emerge in us when we seek the Creator, whether those are “good” bestowing desires or “bad” ones when we “steal” from Him.

These relationships are described very well in the example of the guest and the Host. When I sit at the table that is full of delicacies, it’s not about what is in front of me, but rather who the Host is. The rest refers to the “animate” level and should be left behind the scenes. The thing is that I am sitting across from the Host! How do I relate to Him? How does He relate to me? What is going on between us? This is the wisdom of Kabbalah, and it’s all about spirituality.
[102245]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/13, “The Peace”

Related Material:
A Vessel For The Soul
Many Reincarnations In One Body
The Question That Everyone Is Concerned About

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, My Similarity to the Creator, Spirituality - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson

Shamati #38 “The Fear of God Is His Treasure“

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 1, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Lesson 9

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace,” Lesson 11

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