Retirement Is Not An Option

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“: This environment will help him obtain the greatness of his rav through love of friends who appreciate the rav.

Question: How does the love of friends help attain the greatness of the rav?

Answer: The term “rav” includes the Creator, and in general everything that helps a person rise to the next level. The friends are those who help a person not in rising to the next level, but rather in the recognition of the greatness of that level. A person doesn’t see himself on the next level, but with the help of the group and thanks to the influence of the friends, he begins to imagine the greatness of the next level.

We use the “fuel” of the group, although no one has attained the highest level yet. The general spirit and general atmosphere are enough because it is our nature: A person appreciates what his environment values and considers it to be important. It’s according to this principle that we grow.

Question: So why should I love the friends, isn’t it enough to simply appreciate them?

Answer: Love of friends is already the fulfillment. And the first step I should take is accepting the path and the goal, and agree to accept the system and the idea of the upper force to which we connect and attain. Then how can I raise these values above myself? Through the support of the environment that will help me feel the greatness of the goal.

The “environment” is the Kabbalah books, the friends, and the teacher. Together they lead me to the Creator. This means that all these factors must constantly be important to me, above my self-importance. Only then will I be able to advance.

Question: But still, in ordinary life the environment influences us even if we don’t think positively about it…

Answer: True, whether we like it or not, the environment influences us by using our ego, our desire to receive which is always ready to enjoy. It is simply shown different types of pleasure; it perceives them like bait and swallows them.

On the other hand, I am not attracted to the goals that the group presents. On the contrary, because of them I have to give up things and to aspire to receive pleasure from bestowal, which I don’t really understand. I don’t understand it to such an extent that I even feel repulsed by it. The whole way is made of concessions, of self-annulment, of annulment before the group, although nothing in me is attracted to anything like that.

So it turns out that I don’t like the group and teacher’s message about the Creator. There has to be mutual work on the part of the individual and on the part of the group. The friends have to work together so that everyone will feel that these things are obligatory and desirable, so that every person will see how essential and important he or she is and that the general enthusiasm will flood his consciousness and his soul.

If we don’t create a kind of “brainwash” here, we will simply not be able to advance. External impressions will not help us here and neither will nice words or the friends’ actions. Internally, a person will still reject the idea of bestowal if it isn’t reinforced by the group’s serious attitude where everyone is ready to invest in it and to spur one another on.

People who hold on to their externality spin around the goal, around the system for decades. Some of them become Hassidim, some become involved in dry studying, and others deal with dissemination, but they don’t implement the method in the correct efficient way.

All this happens when the environment is not strong enough to sweep a person towards the goal. After all, by that we fight our nature, our desire to receive, which we have to neutralize and to even draw towards bestowal. This is extremely difficult, but this is the key. If we succeed, we will break through to the upper dimension, and if not, then as we say “we will retire”…
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/13, A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

Related Material:
Listening To And Hearing The Teacher
Moving Forward Fueled By The Group
Keeping The Environment Up High

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