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Question: Do I rob the group of the opportunity to unite around my problem and solve it if I have a certain problem and I feel ashamed to bring it to the group?
Answer: Shame is pride, ego, and perhaps even narcissism, but there is nothing we can do about it. It passes gradually.
Animals don’t feel shame. A cow standing in the field eating grass is not ashamed of anything. So why should a person feel ashamed of being a donkey standing in the field and doing what his body demands?
It isn’t by chance that it says: “Go to the craftsman who made me.” He gave me the desire to receive and I have to be ashamed that I had an opportunity to correct it and didn’t do so.
I am ashamed of the unfulfilled corrections, but I don’t need to be ashamed of the corrected and the corrupt natural forms since both belong to the Creator, while the human being in me is the middle part, the shell of Noga, the third middle part of Tifferet. This is the place where my freewill is. It’s there that I need to feel ashamed and to worry as to whether I have fulfilled myself correctly.
So I don’t understand people who cannot or who will not tell the friends in the group about what happens to them, especially when it can damage the whole group. We should be very careful here, since by delaying the advancement of the friends, by “saving” on their account, I delay myself much more.
It isn’t worth it. What have we got to hide? After all, everything comes from Above and we are not responsible for it. There is none else besides Him. We only have to unite more and to find the opportunity to correct the situation. There will be many more such states and they will end only at the end of correction.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Rabash, “The Matter of Suckling and Conception”: Therefore the first phase of God’s work is the phase of conception, Ibur, which means that a person annuls his self and enters the mother’s womb in a state of conception.
This means that he annuls the self love called Malchut, which is originally called the desire to receive in order to receive, and enters the phase of the vessels of bestowal that is called the phase of Bina.
A person restricts himself by the Light that Reforms and begins to work from a state of an embryo. All the fillings come as a result of our work against our ego. It is the effort of overcoming the troubles, the problems, and the confusions that we go through that is actually the filling of our spiritual vessel.
The Creator is good and benevolent. We have to work in order to become a human being, Adam, which means the one who resembles (Domeh – from the same root in Hebrew) the Creator. But we have to follow the Creator’s example in order to resemble Him, like a mother who tells her children: “You should be nice to one another; why do you keep quarrelling and fighting all the time?” This means that we have to follow mother and father’s example according to the way they treat us.
There is no one else we can take an example from but them. There are no good children to begin with and we can only follow the example of the grownups, of the parents. We have to treat one another in the same loving way they treat us. Then each of us will be called Adam, he who resembles the Creator. It’s very simple, and this is all we have to do.
If the Creator is good and benevolent to the wicked and to the good and treats everyone with absolute love, we should also reach the state in which we treat all the created beings with love. What about the attainment of the Creator, the attainment of the spiritual levels, the attainment of the upper worlds? All this is revealed among us.
We begin to work with the world, with people, starting from those who are close to us to those most distant, since the corrections is from the easiest to the most difficult. Then, the more we expand this circle, which means our vessel, and the more deeply we engage in these relations by overcoming an increasingly greater and crueler ego, we discover an increasingly more sublime work. Thus we advance through the phases of Aviut (thickness) of the root phase, phase one, two, three, and four and discover the Light of NRNHY.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/14
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How can we free ourselves of the impulse to pray for our own selves, asking for things egoistically, being unhappy with our past selves, and blaming ourselves for things in the past? After all, when we do this, we blame the Creator.
All the things that have happened to us in the past had to happen, the Creator made it happen. And this is why when we are unhappy with our past, we blame Him for putting us in those situations.
When we only concentrate on the group, this concentration helps us free ourselves of our incorrect attitude towards the past, the present, praying for ourselves, in our name, for our sake. This is the only way we can bring ourselves to have the right intention. And in this way, when we are inside this net, we stay close to the system and do not pull it in the opposite direction. When we concentrate on the prayer of many and constantly remain in this state, it saves us personally and helps the entire system move forward due to us.
How can we always have this aspiration, be in it as soon as we open our eyes in the morning? Just this! Otherwise, any thoughts of ours, any movements in our desires and mind will be negative and will distance us from the goal.
If we advance this way, we will certainly have descents and negative impulses, but only so we could fill them with a greater movement forward. In other words, if I will constantly advance by praying for others, by advancing them, then all the negative impulses will only be directed towards my further advancement and understanding of the direction in which I need to go and how I am to move.
This will determine the style and form of my movement. Then the Creator will be helping me: a little to the left, a little to the right, think about another, wish this and that, etc. If I am advancing correctly, I will definitely begin to feel His instructions.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/4/14, Workshop 5
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The Book of Zohar, Introduction, “The Second Commandment,” Item 198: It says, “Noah walked with God, as Noah had to be taken care of and supported, since he was supported by the great abundance that the Creator had bestowed upon him.”
Noah refers to conditional love. The more the Creator bestows upon him, the more dependent he feels on the Creator. Although Noah is aware of all the goodness that he receives from the Creator and feels grateful, it’s still a level of incomplete love.
It is already a spiritual attainment, since I receive from the Creator and I understand and know this. It says: “Noah walked with God,” which means that he understands and is aware of his state, but he cannot ascend above it and be free of the dependence of receiving it. He is aware of that, since the moment he receives something bad, his love diminishes.
A person cannot do anything by himself: The moment he receives a blow, he runs from the Creator, and when he receives something sweet, he comes near. But he cannot stop himself from making any other movement forward or backward. He is simply incapable of that since this is his body’s natural reaction. He cannot put his hand into the fire since he will immediately pull it back because of the pain. A person cannot make efforts that are beyond his nature.
Noah is the level of recognition of conditional love. A person who reaches this level reaches the level of Noah. We shouldn’t underestimate it since it’s a very high level. It says: “Noah walked with God.” Although Abraham did not need support, as it says, walk before me and be upright, since walk before me means without support, but before me, although you don’t know if I will follow you to support you. This is complete love, great love. Although I don’t give you anything, your love will still be complete, “to adhere to Me in your heart and soul.”
Abraham reached the level of Bina, faith, the force of bestowal. This means that he doesn’t depend on how much he receives or doesn’t receive. There is also the question of what will happen if he receives something negative? Will he continue to love the giver just as he did when he receives something good from Him? But at least his love doesn’t depend on the amount of goodness that he receives.
The Upper Light already affects a person in such a way that it sustains him on a level on which he values the Creator Himself, the attribute of love and bestowal, and not the benefit that he gets from it. This means that a person divides himself into two. The first part is the donkey in him (his matter) that enjoys more or less, or doesn’t enjoy at all. The other part is the human being in him, the level of his resemblance to the Creator that is determined by how much he values the sublime attributes, the Godliness, the love, the bestowal, something above his corporeal egoistic interests.
Abraham is already divided into these two parts and doesn’t depend on the amount of pleasure he receives. It doesn’t affect his appreciation of the Creator, his love of the attribute of love and bestowal, in any way.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
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“The Zohar was to be concealed in the future… until the last generation would come in the end of days, when it then would be revealed.”—Rabbi Isaiah HaLevi Horowitz, the Holy Shlah.
Many Kabbalists spoke about the nullification of the ban on studying the wisdom of Kabbalah: The great Kabbalist of the Middle Ages, Avraham Azulai, as well as the Ari and all the Kabbalists linked with him: the Ramak, the Ramchal, Rabbi Hayim Vital. The Ari was the Kabbalist who made a break with the entire process of the exile and ended it. And from him onward, the Era of the Messiah began.
But this was to be a complete period that would develop gradually according to the levels of 0-1-2-3, and in our day we are already entering into the last level 4, which belongs to the Era of the Messiah. Therefore the whole world is in fall, while Kabbalah is beginning to be revealed more and more.
Until the time of the Ari, The Book of Zohar was concealed. It was revealed a bit by Rabbi Moshe de Leon, but only through the Ari have we merited to see what is written in it. And therefore we count the Era of the Messiah from the days of the Ari onward.
“Messiah” means that through our work to draw (Limshoh) the Light that Reforms we can make an “Itaruta de Letata” (arousal from below), expressing our desire that will raise us on all the levels and will attract the Light to us that will correct the relationships between us. Then we will feel that we are no longer in this world; instead we have truly entered into a higher world. All this is clarified through the connection between us. If this connection is integrated, transforming correctly, then accordingly we begin to feel ourselves in the upper world and rise higher and higher through the 125 levels.
“And because in the future Israel will taste from the Tree of Life, which is this Book of Zohar, they will leave the exile with mercy.” The Book of Zohar, “Naso,” section 90.
If we are seriously and diligently involved with The Book of Zohar, then certainly we will leave the exile with mercy. And if not, then it will happen as it is written: “I will place over you a king like Haman and against your will he will return you to reform.” In other words, we have a possibility of going out of exile in a good way, by the way of Torah, through the Light that Reforms, which is uniquely designed for correction of the evil inclination. If we know how to be involved with The Book of Zohar correctly, then we will summon the Light that Reforms onto ourselves and we will leave the exile, meaning the causeless hatred and the temporary feeling of a miserable existence in this world. Everything will be changed according to the connection between us.
We can make the same change through the way of suffering, which is truly a very difficult and long way. But through the Light that we summon, we advance on a very short, easy and pleasant way.
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From the World Zohar Week “World Zohar Convention,” Day One 2/04/14, Lesson 1
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The Torah, “Exodus,” 32:30-32: And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people: “Ye have sinned a great sin; and now I will go up unto the LORD, peradventure I shall make atonement for your sin.” And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said: “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them a god of gold. Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin–; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written.”
Question: It turns out that Moses gives up the ascent to the upper world. But how can one give up eternity?
Answer: When a person is on the level of Moses, on the level of the attribute of bestowal, the level itself dictates what he does. Being in this attribute, a person cannot see himself, his own existence, and the fulfillment of his form in any other way. If there is no fulfillment, he doesn’t exist either, since unless it is fulfilled, the attribute of Moses leads to nothing. It’s similar to the state in which Baal HaSulam requested to be lowered from his spiritual height so that he would be able to express in his writings whatever people need in order to fulfill the correction.
So when Moses asks the Creator to blot him out of the Book of Life, there is no resistance, no rebellion against the Creator, since it’s a person’s inner attribute. We shouldn’t imagine Moses as a person standing before the Creator. Everything that the Torah speaks about is inside us and we have to perceive it correctly and not imagine scenes from Hollywood movies. A person who feels the attribute of Moses internally cannot answer any other way since it obliges him. We always assume who we are and which attributes exist in us and manage us.
Any study that brings the Light, that brings us to unite, is fulfilled in order to disseminate and to bestow. Everything is in order to bestow. A person exists only for others, and only so that they will exist. Such absolute detachment is an indication of the attribute of Bina.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/11/13
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Question: Why in the past did Kabbalists intentionally conceal their engagement in the wisdom of Kabbalah and in the inner part of the Torah?
Answer: The point is that the time of the mixing of the desires, of the attributes of bestowal and receiving, had not ended yet, and so there was no one to whom to reveal this knowledge. The egoistic and the altruistic attributes started to mix after the destruction of the Temple. This process had to be a full cycle of about two thousand years, but because of great tragedies such as the Holocaust, times were shortened.
When the mixing was completed, the rebuilding of the whole world began by discovering its globalization, and humanity began to feel it. This has never happened before.
Globalization is revealed in nature and not in humanity. We are used to saying that humanity is mutually connected, but it’s connected only by nature that manages us globally. We exist in nature like a small ball in a great sphere, and this sphere operates and affects us integrally, while we hardly feel the globalization and have no need for it; the ego has no need for it. It cannot work with it in any way.
When the mixing of all the vessels was completed and the rebuilding of the world has begun, the whole structure came together, and now we begin to feel our inner resistance to the sphere that surrounds us. This sphere grows day by day and if it were internally connected on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, now it’s on the level of the speaking, and we begin to resist it as we go through the post-industrial egoistic evolution.
As long as the scientific technological evolution of humanity continued, it was in our benefit, but since the middle of the 20th century, we have begun not only to satiate ourselves but to over-satiate ourselves and what is more, we do so in a most inefficient way. After all, no one gains anything by it. Even if someone has made a billion dollars, it’s registered in his bank and is tossed around the world as a redundant burden, while a person has wasted billions of tons of natural resources and has unbalanced himself in order to obtain this billion.
The general crisis began in the middle of the last century, which means the oppositeness of humanity from the world around it, from the system of Providence, and it is now that we have to approach our correction seriously. Now we are only starting to lay the foundations of the practical use of the Torah as the method of correction in our world.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/11/13
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The Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 32:33-32:35: And the Lord said to Moses: “Whoever has sinned against Me, him I will erase from My book. And now go, lead the people to [the place] of which I have spoken to you. Behold My angel will go before you. But on the day I make an accounting [of sins upon them], I will bring their sin to account against them.” Then the Lord struck the people with a plague, because they had made the calf that Aaron had made.
This is a new correction. The Upper Light reveals which of the levels of our ego are closer and which are further away as it descends unto all our egoistic levels. Then they are sorted out: Some sink downwards to the level of death and others rise higher upwards, etc. It becomes clear that it’s a step forward and also what we should advance to and how to do it.
Starting from this clarification, from the understanding of what a person is made of with regard to the Creator, when all the five levels are clearly arranged in him, he focuses on the attribute of bestowal according to them. After all, he doesn’t see the attribute of bestowal; he doesn’t see the Creator. But they are inside him in a state and in the correlation between them that they show him this direction and he can advance. It’s only by the internal information, by his inner feelings, by focusing on what is closer to the Creator than what is inside him, that he turns in the right direction and moves on.
A person focuses himself internally to the attribute that slightly illuminates a bit. By the mutual cooperation of his inner attributes with this illumination, when he establishes them according to his distance, he focuses himself on the direction he should turn to, on where and what the pure attribute of bestowal actually is.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/11/13
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Writings of Rabash, “What Is The Cup of Blessing Must Be Full in the Work”: There is a difference between speaking and mute in the work. Since speaking is the state of revelation, meaning that one has already attained the state of suckling in spirituality, and he already feels that he is suckling from Kedusha (Divinity). And the state of suckling points to Hassadim (Mercy), because Hesed is the state of bestowal, since when one merits the vessels of bestowal, meaning when all his actions are for the sake of Heaven and he no longer cares for himself, it is called that he merited the state of Hessed (bestowal).
However, gestation precedes it, meaning that the upper one corrects him. In the meantime a person doesn’t participate in his own correction. He only annuls himself and the upper one does all the work. But every time a person annuls himself differently with regards to new discernments. He encounters new problems, troubles, yet he annuls himself, lowers his head and accepts everything.
And this is when one is like an unborn in his mother’s womb, where the unborn annuls before his mother, and he has no opinion of his own. Rather, as the sages said, “The unborn within his mother eats what his mother eats” and he has no existence of his own, to ask any questions, or do anything on his own, and that means that he is mute and that he has no mouth to ask any questions.
A person makes himself mute, he as though doesn’t exist inside the upper one at all so as not to disturb the upper one and not to be a foreign force in it. If the embryo is a foreign body inside the mother, her body will immediately resist it and reject the embryo as something hostile. But this is the wonder of nature since the exact opposite happens and the mother’s whole body begins to work for the benefit of the embryo instead of rejecting him. This happens because in nature the corporeal embryo also annuls himself when it develops in the womb.
…and that means that he is mute and that he has no mouth to ask any questions. That is, he shuts his mouth and doesn’t argue, he annuls himself, accepting everything. He has many questions and feels resentment, but he concedes and doesn’t argue.
And this is the time for one to walk with his eyes shut, above reason, to believe in the wisdom of the sages and advance to the end. It is impossible to explain this in other words since in the meantime a person doesn’t understand anything in spirituality. Therefore, it is said simply that he has to annul himself all the way and believe in the faith of the sages, which means to count on them all the way. No matter what I feel inside my heart and what doubts go through my head, I annul myself before the upper Providence.
This is called gestation, meaning that he has no mouth to speak. It is the state of Malchut, which is the smallest and most restricted, and is called Ibur, which comes from the words transgression and judgments (Dinim), as implied in the words “The Creator judged me for your sake (because of you).”
And the matter of transgression and judgment (Din) must be explained. Because for the reason that one must walk with his eyes shut, above reason, the body opposes it, and for that reason one must continuously overcome it, and this is called transgression, wrath and trouble, because it is such a difficult work to always walk in a state of annulment before the upper one, and let the upper one do whatever He wills with him.
A person is ready to annul himself in any way possible. He cannot help the upper one like on the levels of suckling and greatness. But he is ready to totally annul himself before the upper one and to give Him his body and soul to be corrected. And this is called Ibur (gestation), which is the smallest possible restriction, the very first degree of spiritual existence. We shouldn’t despair, together we will reach it!
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From Preparation to the Daily Morning Lesson 2/11/2014
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