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“Under Its Shadow I Delighted To Sit”

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, Shamati #8: “What Is the Difference between a Shade of Kedusha and a Shade of Sitra Achra“: It is written “Under its shadow I delighted to sit, and its fruit was sweet to my palate.” In other words, one says that all the concealments and the afflictions one feels are because the Creator has sent him these situations so that one would have a place to work above reason.

When one has the strength to say that, that is, that the Creator causes him all that, it is to one’s benefit. This means that through that one can come to work in order to bestow and not for oneself. At that time one comes to realize, meaning believes that the Creator enjoys specifically this work, which is built entirely on above reason.

It follows that one does not pray to the Creator that the shadows will flee from the world. Rather, one says, “I see that the Creator wants me to serve Him in this manner, entirely above reason.” Thus, in everything that one does, one says, “Of course the Creator enjoys this work, so why should I care if I work in a state of concealment of the face?”

Because one wants to work in order to bestow, meaning that the Creator will enjoy, he has no abasement from this work, meaning a sensation that he is in a state of concealment of the Face, that the Creator does not enjoy this work. Instead, one agrees to the leadership of the Creator, meaning however the Creator wants one to feel the existence of the Creator during the work, one agrees wholeheartedly. This is so because one does not consider what can please him, but considers what can please the Creator. Thus, this shade brings him life.

Faith above reason means to perceive everything that happens to you as sent by the Creator, the one unified force, besides which there is nothing else, good that does good, in spite of the fact that you feel differently. All our work is to realize that we do not do anything ourselves, nor do we want to do anything, not externally or internally, not with our hands, legs, or the tools of this world, not with our inner desires or thoughts, but instead we agree with everything that we have at this moment. And then this moment will be called the end of the correction.

And until we have reached this sensations that we are in the best state, under the control of the good force that brings good both to the sinners and righteous ones, until then shadows will remain in the world. The Creator will bring us to such states that we will want to change them. First, we’ll want to change the world, then we’ll want to change ourselves. But in the end, we understand that our work is quite the opposite—to change our attitude towards the perception of the upper management, the Lord of the world, so that we long for his shadow.

Everything that we receive becomes desirable although it comes in an unpleasant form because this is a shadow, concealment. But we work on ourselves in faith above reason so that these fruits become sweet to us. This is our entire correction.

It all starts from perceiving everything that happens as coming from the Creator, and not just in words, but to feel like this inside. We need to ask the Creator not to be revealed, but just for the ability to realize that everything comes from Him. Then a person will be pleased to work in faith above reason and will accept all the bad states as the best ones, the unpleasant as pleasant, until the moment when they all become sweet to him.

This would mean that he has reached faith. And nothing changes in the world, only the perfect management of the Creator is revealed to a person. That alone makes this world a higher, perfect world.

It turns out that no external changes are necessary, no external work is required, not with hands and feet, not the way we imagine spiritual work. Everything eventually boils down to the same state—a person’s contact with the hidden management. He wants to keep this contact all the time and requires no changes in anything; he wants to remain in concealment.

First, he asked for revelation, but now he wants to remain in concealment. All his desire, all the energy with which we was seeking revelation, he turns to the contrary, to prevent this from happening. After all, revelation can erase all his selfless aspiration, his entire relationship with the Creator, and can deprive him from working above reason. That is why he wants to preserve this distance in which he felt sorrow, so that he’ll constantly be connected with the Creator above it.
[113293]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/29/13

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Hovering Instead Of Heaviness And Darkness

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I move to the right line if the ego resists it?

Answer: The right line doesn’t exist without resistance. How can a person be on a spiritual line if it isn’t in resistance to the ego? A spiritual state is always against the ego, in resistance to it, and in constant inner tension, constant overcoming.

But if you convey this inner tension through the group, it turns into sweetness, lightness, and hovering instead of heaviness and darkness.
[113153]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/13, Shamati #59 “About the Rod and the Serpent”

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The Fate Of The Friend Depends Upon The Group

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does the influence of the surrounding forces on us depend upon the code of the Reshimot?

Answer: The influence of the forces surrounding us is dependent upon many factors.

The most essential factor is that when you are already in the group it basically determines what happens to you.

Not one person in spiritual development is there on a personal path because all of us are like gears linked to each other, and therefore, there is no thought that I have some kind of unique path, or what happens to me depends only on me; this depends upon everyone.

From this we must understand what kind of power there is in a group, what kind of power exists in our unity, how much each one of us can influence the fate of the friends.
[113262]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/13, Shamati #59 “About the Rod and the Serpent”

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The Condition For Spiritual Advancement

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is the Torah that stands for the collective sum of all of us different from the Creator that stands for the general connection? These two concepts seem the same to me.

Answer: In one of his letters Baal HaSulam says that we have to advance according to the rule of “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator.” What’s more, in every state, the first has to be equal to the second and to the third. It’s only under this condition that a person can advance correctly.

1=2=3, this is the condition for the spiritual advancement.

The Condition For Spiritual Advancement
The first term “Israel,” Yashar -El (straight to the Creator) is every friend who yearns for the Creator. The second term is already the group, working in unity. The third term is the revelation of the Creator in our unity.
[113070]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/13, “Faith Above Reason”

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Using Billions To Combat Unemployment

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from EUobserver): “Seventeen EU leaders meeting in Berlin on Wednesday (3 July) pledged an extra 2 billion Euro for a youth employment scheme that so far was pegged at 6 billion Euro.

“The Berlin gathering was a ‘three-in-one’ summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the concluding press conference, as it also included labour ministers, heads of employment agencies and the representatives of big EU-based companies – the European Roundtable of Industrialists. …

“Merkel said the purpose of the gathering was to look at concrete examples of what works when governments – who have the sole responsibility for social and labour policies – try to reduce their youth unemployment rates. …

“But for a few hundred young trade unionists from Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland, Poland and France, yet another high-level meeting is not making much difference for the 5.6 million unemployed youngsters in Europe.

“’Europe’s youngsters need more than Merkel’s hot air,’ one banner read at the protest staged outside the chancellery on Wednesday.

“Another told leaders to invest in young people, not banks, a reference to the bailed-out banks in Spain, that have now put thousands of people out in the streets because they have no jobs and cannot pay their mortgages.”

My Comments: Funds and credits are created according to the possibility to be “appropriated” by their own people. But today, it does not deceive anybody; no one even hopes that there is a solution to unemployment. Most likely, all the comments are like jokes. It depends only on the pressure of people when the elite understands its hopeless situation and will listen to the method of integral education as the means of solving ALL problems.
[113136]

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Faith Against Reason

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we actually advance in “faith above reason?”

Answer: Although we got to know that we were advancing during the convention, we also received another great addition. Now we not only believe in the teacher and in our correct advancement, but we also understand that in addition to that now we have to advance in greater “faith above reason.” This means that thanks to the message we received, we can advance in greater faith now.

If we advance correctly we will encounter greater problems as the ego will pull us more strongly backward and we will still have to advance above it and against it. “Faith above reason” means faith against reason.

How can we advance against reason? When we advance in spirituality, every level annuls the previous level according to the spiritual law of “negating the negative.” Each time we grow, we become wiser and more clever and our knowledge on the next level is opposite from the knowledge on the previous level.

Every Partzuf is made of ten Sefirot, from Keter to Malchut. Malchut of the upper becomes Keter of the lower, which means that it changes its attributes to the opposite attributes. However, when we ascend, Keter of the lower becomes Malchut of the upper, and thus also becomes the opposite.

Faith Against Reason
Malchut is the attribute of receiving and Keter is the attribute of bestowal. So each time we ascend, we need to turn the receiving into bestowal, to “faith above reason.” When you ascend to the next ten levels, since your Keter has become Malchut, it’s as if you negate all your previous knowledge and all the ten Sefirot you had on the previous level become the opposite and are incorrect in the next state.

It’s like speaking to a child who sees things from his level, while you see it totally differently. The reasons and the actions are different, although you see the same outcome.

“Faith above reason” is faith against reason. It always negates the previous reason and you should advance against it, which means above it. I have the previous knowledge and still I advance according to faith.

When Rabash explained to me what “faith above reason” is he gave me the following example: Suppose a friend has borrowed a thousand dollars from another friend and wants to give back the money. When he gives him back the money, it turns out that there is one dollar less in the envelope. He asks whether the friend has returned all the money and his friend tells him that he did. Does he begin to think who is right now? No. If the friend says that it’s a thousand dollars, I accept it as a thousand dollars. This means that I don’t believe what I see, since now I have my friend’s eyes instead of my own eyes. I don’t believe my feelings and what I know; I advance in “faith above reason.”

What my friend tells me means the external vessels, the external attributes are more important to me, and I accept it as more accurate information that is clearer and more correct than mine. So if the group decides something, I immediately accept it and although it’s clear to me that there is less than a thousand dollars here, I accept it as a thousand. It’s a substitute for me. On the whole this seems totally illogical and unrealistic, and it is indeed so.

Baal HaSulam says that certain people may seem wicked and others righteous according to their attributes and then we see them in the opposite manner, certain people seem rich and others poor and then we see them oppositely, certain people seem clever and others foolish and then the opposite. Everything depends on us. In the spiritual world we change the picture completely by changing our attributes. The bodies and the connections between them are revealed in a totally different manner.

So “faith above reason” is the means by which we advance and ascend the spiritual ladder. We cannot do it otherwise! ”Faith above reason” is faith opposite from what we knew previously. If we don’t have faith against what we knew before, we would never rise from one Partzuf (state) to the second, the third, and so on. This is how the transition takes place.

If we were given the message and felt that we are on the right track during the last convention and that our teacher guides us correctly, although we didn’t really believe that, we have a problem now. So where is our faith? How can we close our eyes and disregard what we know? If we don’t, we will advance egoistically. For the first time we are given a real chance to conquer our next level in an attack “above reason.”
[112963]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/13, “Faith Above Reason”

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A Warm Up Meal

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Peace”: …when all the trouble and toil and anguish that befall us through time will seem like a host who greatly troubles himself to prepare a great feast for the invited guests. And he compares the anticipated goal that must finally be revealed to a feast, whose guests attend with great delight. This is why he says, “and the judgment is true, and all is ready for the feast.”

So, there is a meal and the guests should be invited. The guests should have a healthy appetite, which means they should be hungry and have a deficiency that is big enough to match the desire of the host. He has prepared everything for them, but the problem is that the guests cannot be indifferent to the meal but should really want this filling. Their desire should be revealed in them independently, according to their freewill.

We know how unpleasant it can be to be hungry if there is no meal in sight. However, we shouldn’t see it in advance since, if we see it, by that we diminish our appetite and we would reach the table without the appropriate preparation, without a real yearning, which is the most important thing.

Therefore, the lower must do something in order to prepare for the meal. It is about a very thorough and “cunning” preparation. It isn’t the host who awakens the guest, but rather the guest himself who prepares all the necessary deficiencies in order to taste with gusto all the delicacies that the host has prepared for him. What is more, he should eat only for the sake of the host and not for his own sake.

We mustn’t use our appetite naturally. We mustn’t be filled by pleasures that our ego is used to. We first must go through an entire series of gradual corrections, until the guest rises to the same level as the host. There, it isn’t about a meal anymore. It isn’t in first place anymore; it disappears. Their spirit is above the meal and independent of the food that is served.

The created being must go through a series of gradual changes in his deficiency. First, he yearned for minor material pleasures only for his own sake, totally detached from the host. During the first phase, there was a need for the simplest pattern of pleasure and suffering in order to get started and experience this feeling.

Later, however, the clarification is directed at a higher level and not just in order to receive the refreshments from the host who serves it. Our relationship becomes more personal and new questions come up above the account of give and take, and new layers are revealed.

It is only the guest who develops, of course, until he feels that he must simply return the host a favor since otherwise, he will burn with shame.

Later, it turns out that the problem is not to nullify the shame at all, but that it is rather very good that I feel it since, thanks to it, I can feel my bestowal upon the host and enjoy it much more that any of the food that is on the table. No matter how much there is, it is only on the level of Nefesh, and the chance to bring the host contentment is already on the level of Ruach.

Later, I receive the refreshments from him, but only for his sake, and this is already the level of Neshama.

However, I still feel the outcome in me, while true bestowal has to be unconditional, pure, and without any demand for a reward. I simply want to bestow, to rise above any outcome of the efforts I have made. I have been through the whole way, and now I don’t even want to know that my bestowal reaches the Creator. The main thing is that He will feel good, and it does not matter if He doesn’t know from whom He receives this goodness, whether it is from me or from others. This is the level of the Light of Haya.

Thus, we attain it independent of the accounts between the guest and the host at the table with the refreshments. This is the Light of Yechida.

By ascending the levels of bestowal, a person attains the Creator.

In this process only the guest changes and the deficiency that he acquires becomes his own genuine deficiency. He must be detached from the host in order to find himself with a new deficiency each time despite the revelation of the Creator.

Our problem is to keep the point of detachment, the “something from nothing.” The guest relies on it more and more, and emphasizes it more and more, since without this point, he has no right to exist.

The meal and all the Lights and the vessels that are related to Him remain only until the end of correction when we reveal the host and are in adhesion with Him.
[112572]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Different Systems, One Model

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We are now disseminating integral education. Basically, this is actually the wisdom of Kabbalah that has been adapted for use with the masses. I would like to know the relationship in percentages, how much should be invested in internal dissemination and how much in external dissemination?

Answer: Usually scientists investigating the different effects and phenomena of nature, put everything in formulas and graphs depicting the dependencies.  Then, based on this, they begin to examine the appropriate materials, and after experimentation they translate everything into practical technological processes required for life.

Before technological development reaches the store shelves it goes through a long process. In the beginning scientists are involved with formulas, graphs, physics, mathematical calculations, and apparatus. And then you will see the devices packaged in boxes in stores. Every housewife can buy, let’s say, a microwave, put it in the kitchen, plug it in, and heat up rolls.

Can you imagine the path of development from the study of microwaves and their impact on various objects, etc. to the housewife warming up pie for her family! Even though she is not familiar with the principle of how the device works, this doesn’t interest her. She only knows that it is necessary to set a particular temperature, a particular time, and then she will get warm pie. This is also physics and its utilization.

That is how it is with the wisdom of Kabbalah. It explains the structure of the world, the forces that influence us. But according to the level of the person, he could learn it as advanced physics, namely the inner nature of things, or as a practical application on himself.

We investigate the wisdom of Kabbalah in its pure form, with the help of graphs, formulas, and a large volume of complex texts. You yourselves know how many years it can be studied, but not be fully explored. But in practice, it only explains the interaction between two forces—the positive and the negative—as they are correlated and integrated in the bond between them, the resulting environment that is formed between them, how we can change so it is comfortable and beneficial for a person so that these forces can be used more effectively. But the problem is, in order to use these forces correctly, a person must be corrected.

Apparently we don’t use the cooperation between these two forces (the positive and the negative) on the level of our internal characteristics, but on the egoistic level, we try to enslave not only all of nature, but the family, the nation, all of humanity and the entire earth, and make of them whatever may come to mind.

And this becomes possible for us to a certain extent but not more because nature doesn’t allow this. That is, it isn’t possible for us to manage the same two forces on the next level. This level is revealed to us only to the degree that our form becomes equal to these two forces. Rather it is only if the person begins to change his nature that he can then use these forces and manage them.

Our world is a space in which we exist with our egoistic nature, because that is how we were born and developed, and within this framework we can use the positive and negative force in an allowable range.

The next levels are 125 levels of opposition between these two forces. These are not just levels of strength or ability, rather they are new qualitative levels, from which, due to the connection between them, completely new life forms are created. We are not prepared to penetrate into this, since it is possible to understand these levels above us only to the degree that we become equalized with them.

Currently, all of humanity has entered into the latest crisis because it has already evolved to a level for which it must change and rise from the lowest level to the next level. We are beginning to feel this now.

The transition to the next stage involves a change in our nature from egoistic to altruistic. And here a problem is aroused. We are learning how to change our nature based upon the fact that we ourselves are attracted to this. But most people are not attracted to anything, so nature and the crisis will force them to be involved with this.

They will not be occupied in it as we are. We learn the method itself, the structure, the cooperation between the two forces, the energy field between them, the Lights, the mingling between the forces. All of this can be translated into the language of pure physics or the language of emotion because everything goes through the person or into other forms of expression. We are familiar with this from our sources.

And the common man, who is not pulled forward like us, must nevertheless rise to the next level, for life will push him through suffering; he will not have to do this. He is like the housewife who uses the microwave. We only need to show him, to teach him, what to press and everything will be all right.

And it is necessary to think about this. Therefore it is up to us to rewrite this method in the most simple and accessible form, for our physical and our spiritual future depends on this. Which is to say, if we want to reach discovery of the next level, the next stage, even the next dimension (although this sounds mystical, we are not mystics), then it is up to us to adapt the method to ourselves and rewrite it in a simple form for others.

If we take a textbook about the laws of Newton on the university level, we see that these formulas are quite complicated, but in school we learn them as short and abstract formulas: mass, velocity, acceleration, free fall, and so on. Exactly like this we must rewrite all of our complex laws, the integral relationships in their simplest form. This is a very serious problem and we must take care of it.

We learn about the relationship between the two forces according to the relationships between a man and a woman in a family or parents with children or other relationships on the physical level or in the connection between two systems: positive and negative in the form of Abba ve Ima or ZON or Arik Anpin and Atik. Even though the names change, the principle remains the same, a linkage between plus and minus. Depending on the strength of the relationship between them, the height of the system to which they give birth is established.

Through conversations about “A New Life” or discussions of other subjects, my interior is not changed at all, since for me it is the same diagram. This is exactly how it is at the time of the lesson, during the three hours we jump from subject to subject; however, I don’t get exhausted at all, I could teach another ten hours. You would get tired, but I wouldn’t because for me there is one model.
[111120]
From the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13, Lesson 3

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True Judgment

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Peace”: “Now that we have learned all the above, we can understand an unclear phrase in “Masechet Avot” (Chapter 3, Item 16). It reads as follows: “He (Rabbi Akiva) would say, ‘All is in deposit, and a fortress spreads over all of life. The store is open and the shopkeeper sells by deferred payment, the book is open and the hand writes. And all who wish to borrow may come and borrow, and the collectors return regularly, day-by-day, and collect from a person knowingly and unknowingly. And they have what to rely on, and the judgment is true, and all is ready for the feast.’”

Question: What is “true judgment?”

Answer: Judgment is according to the relations of the Lights and the vessels. There is a law that although the Light (+) and the vessel (-) are opposite from one another and there is a huge gap between them that is divided into 125 degrees, the vessel still has to move with its attributes towards the Light through all these levels. This is the first principle—equivalence of form.

We were given 6000 years in which we can go by two paths in order to reach equivalence of form.

In addition, humanity is divided into two groups:

  • Israel (GE) – that yearn to reach the Creator by themselves.
  • The nations of the world (AHP) who were not given this yearning.

Thus there are rules that are not determined by us. In this world, we don’t choose anything; all our desires are managed from above. The Light comes and evokes a certain deficiency in the desire and leaves us no choice but to try to fulfill it. Why? We are not asked.

The desire comes first and the mind and the different accounts are the outcome. They are the means that allow us to escape the sufferings since a deficiency that is not fulfilled and sufferings are actually the same thing. Only later do we acquire deficiencies that are felt as pleasures thanks to the yearning for love.

This development can be compared with the roller that is moving on us from behind and forces us to run forward. This is the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) of the first type (OM I), general, shining on everyone, protecting and advancing everyone in a mandatory way. We think that the world is ruled by politicians, the elite, etc., but in fact, as it is written, “The hearts of ministers and king’s are in the hands of the Creator.”

But in addition, there is the Surrounding Light of the second type (OM II). This is our Light; it applies to those who have the point in the heart (•). It affects us, moves us forward, makes us get up to study at 3 in the morning in order to change ourselves, to help humanity, etc.

True Judgment
The law operates here too since we were not asked whether we wanted to be awakened or not. In The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 4, Baal HaSulam says: “The Creator Himself puts one’s hand on the good fate.”

Which means that He brings a person to choose the environment and says: “‘Choose for yourself a good part in My land.’ He places him on the good part and tells him: ‘Choose this for yourself.’”

You will strengthen the Surrounding Light by incorporating in the group. This is already the very personal Light that a person can provoke by himself thus creating the beginning of his connection with the Creator.

So when I make great efforts in the group, I begin to establish the relationship with Him only in the group, since it cannot be done outside the group. Only here can I connect with the source of the Light. This means that it isn’t about the Light or the changes that it evokes, not even about the group, and certainly not about me. The only important thing is that it ties me to the source, to the Creator. Everything else is just the means.

And so if I build a chain, I do all that is required: I evoke the Light, incorporate in the group, and annul myself before the friends. The most important thing is to constantly develop and to strengthen my connection with the source of the Light. Thus I work with the private Surrounding Light according to the private arrangement that is in accordance with the group and the general global development.

Question: Does that mean that I have to totally justify the judgment and understand that it is right?

Answer: There is no judgment from above. The Creator brings you to the group and tells you “Choose for yourself.” In other words, grow stronger in it, work with the friends, and continue to advance.

He “places your hand on the good part,” so do you choose it or not? If you don’t, then to the same extent that you ignore your role, you immediately summon trouble upon yourself. Not only is your personal incompleteness taken into account here, but also the negative outcome that will affect everyone. All this returns to you like a boomerang and begins to pressure you. So it isn’t the Creator who sends us all the problems. Only love stems from Him. You discover this later.

So why did you feel so bad? Because you didn’t fulfill your role towards yourself and towards others and so you felt the outcome of your failures. Because of your lack of understanding, you thought that it stems from Him, but in fact it is you who caused your own troubles by yourself. When you eventually see that, you don’t have any complaints to the Creator.
[111061]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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