Audio Version Of The Blog – 05.06.14
Posted on May 6th, 2014
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The people of Israel are a group of people who severed a connection with Babylon because they received and experienced a unique desire directed towards attaining the Creator. As a result of that, they received this method of attainment from Abraham based upon the “mercy of Abraham,” on the principle, “and you shall love your friend as yourself.”
It is written about this, “There is none else besides Him.” The Creator is the only force that works in reality. In order to discover this, it is necessary to connect and reach equivalence of form with this force. And this is discovered in us specifically through love of others just as one loves oneself. We gradually acquire love, and so the higher power is also gradually discovered.
The means that makes it possible for us to discover the higher force through connection is called Kabbalah. By definition, the wisdom of Kabbalah is a method for revealing the Creator to the creature in this world. He is discovered to the degree that one takes on equivalence with His characteristics: bestowal and love. What characterizes Him must also characterize the creature.
So people who feel an inner drive towards this, who have awakened Reshimot (spiritual genes) like these within them, hear the message of Abraham in Babylon. Maimonides writes about this in his book, Mishna Torah – The Laws of Idol Worship: When he was forty years old Abraham recognized his Creator and began to stand and loudly proclaim to all of the people to let them know that there is one God for the whole world and it is fitting to serve Him. And he went and proclaimed and gathered people from city to city and from kingdom to kingdom, in that Babylon, until thousands and myriads were gathered to him, and they were the people of the House of Abraham. And this great principle was planted in their hearts and books were written about it, and this went and grew in the children of Jacob and in those who accompanied them and a nation was made in the world which knows the Creator.
This is talking about a unique people that has maintained its uniqueness to this day. Indeed, their ancestors received spiritual awakening even during the time of Babylon and with the help of Abraham molded the concept of the “people of Israel.” In fact, this was a group of people who were connected in order to attain the Creator through special unique relationships between them.
Of course, of all of humanity, of all modern Babylon, there is a special account particularly with the people of Israel. So this group is found in such bad, unpleasant, stressful circumstances. Unconsciously, everyone demands for it to maintain its obligation. Along with this, the Jews don’t understand what is wanted from them, and the nations of the world themselves don’t understand what they want from this group.
This is expressed in anti-semitism, the well-known phenomenon throughout our entire history. And to the degree that we can bring ourselves and the world closer to correction and to adherence to the goal of creation, then the waves of hatred, meaning the forces that want to awaken us to our role, lessen.
And with the opposite, meaning to the degree that we cannot recognize it, are not ready, are stubborn, and don’t want to carry out our role, then these forces are strengthened and influence us in a particular way. And so someone who looks at the world in the right way can understand that this attitude towards the Jewish people, and in general towards the entire condition of the world, including the environment, the economy, health and so on, and the general state of the Kli (vessel) that must reach adherence with the Creator depends solely and only on that group that must show the world how to reach adherence with the Creator.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/02/14, Chosen Topics on: Mission of the People of Israel
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Baal HaSulam, “The Inheritance of the Land:” Our sages said that Israel cannot be redeemed unless they are all one bundle.
Redemption is when there are vessels that are a desire to receive. First they are revealed in us with an egoistic intention of in order to receive and we correct their intention into an altruistic one in order to bestow. Then the Light, the Creator’s presence, is revealed in our vessels according to our correction. Thus we feel the upper force inside us, the new upper reality, the upper world.
This correction is gradual, starting from the shattered egoistic vessels. First we can perform actions in this world only, not yet in our desires, but only physically. We connect within a group, come to study together, and perform different actions together. Although our actions totally lack the right intention in the heart, they are still beneficial, and evoke an illumination from a distance, which influences us more and more.
Thus we gradually advance, our actions become more and more focused, and the connection between us becomes more clarified until we acquire the complete vessel that is great in its measure and in its quality. Inside it we reveal the connection between us with the intention of in order to bestow among us and unto the Creator. This revelation is called redemption.
All the created beings resemble one another in that and each one simply acts according to his level, according to his dependence on the tree of life. On the whole, since the general soul of the first man was divided into many souls, its parts are in each of them. Being on his level, in his place, a person begins to feel how involved he is in the evolution of this life and of this world.
Some parts awoke in the time of ancient Babel, and only they are called Israel. Now other parts are reaching this mission. Some of them reached the group in the same way ten years ago, others five years ago, and some only yesterday or today. Eventually everyone with come together and be incorporated in one another and there will be no differences; anyone who joins us becomes a part of us.
All the souls who haven’t joined the process of correction by connection are called Gentiles according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Goy, which means “a nation” in Hebrew. People who yearn for holiness, which means for mutual bestowal, are called a holy nation of Israel, which means Yashar-El (straight to the Creator).
It is said that “Israel cannot be redeemed unless they are all one bundle.” They will clearly have no spiritual power unless we connect. A spiritual vessel is connection., and the stronger it is in quality and quantity, the more compatible we are with the Upper Force.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/01/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Question: How can it be that some individuals study for many years, participate in a group and in dissemination, and, apparently until now, they have no desire, and they need to strengthen it?
Answer: Sometimes ten years are required for a person to understand that there is no choice and that it is necessary to connect with others. However, these are not years that are wasted. Everything is taken into account, for we don’t know and don’t understand the level of the still.
According to our universe, we see how much time it took to stabilize it, billions of years. This means that this is a very concealed process that moves very slowly and gradually, but we must pass through these levels.
The level of Nefesh is our foundation, and it must reach completion so that after it the level of Ruach will begin. Ruach indicates that we already have independent movement, whereas Nefesh cannot move by itself. A person comes and goes to lessons and workshops, listens, but doesn’t hear, yet continues. Many years go by.
This is the level of the still. Within it, he still can’t do anything, for he is on the level of the still! So what? I wait patiently because I see that he is changing in spite of it all. This is so, even though in the meantime, he is not growing towards the Light, like a plant that begins to come out of the ground.
In the meantime, he is only soil that passes through all kinds of states of contraction and expansion, but he cannot carry out any activity on his own. Everything is done according to external conditions.
We need to organize ourselves like this and provide everyone with maximal influence. However, if a person flees from this, there is nothing to be done. It won’t take him ten years, but rather a number of incarnations.
[133978]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Question: You said that we must stabilize internally the desire for the gift that the Creator wants to give us. Isn’t this an egoistic desire?
Answer: It is a very nice prayer. I want that all my desires will not be attracted to different unimportant matters but that they will be focused on what the Creator wants to give us.
It doesn’t matter whether it is an egoistic request or not. The Creator wants to give me a present, but He only can give it to me if I really want it. However, I don’t have the desire for it.
The Creator has created me the way I am on purpose so that I will ask Him to create a deficiency in me for His gift. It is because we connect by my request, and thus I reach adhesion with Him, begin to understand Him, turn to Him, and ask Him to help me.
“How can I help you?” It is as if He begins to speak to me and to clarify what I really need. He begins to play with me. I check things, “No, this isn’t right; I need one less and the other more.” The Creator is revealed a little in His posterior, and I begin to understand a little of what I need, and what I don’t, in order to reach the right vessel.
Thus, I get to know Him, connect to Him, and begin to converse with Him. We become partners. I cannot operate by myself in the process of the correction of creation, which means in preparing the vessel for receiving the gift. I need the Creator because I actually don’t know anything.
The gift is concealed at the moment and the Creator plays around with me so I gradually get to know Him. I don’t get to know the Creator Himself because I never will be able to feel Him. However, I learn and attain Him through my connection with the friends as I look for a way to connect to them.
We go out to disseminate, hold workshops or a convention, connect with the outside world, and this is all considered as the clarification of the vessel for receiving the Creator’s gift. Everything is aimed at that.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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The Torah, “Leviticus,” 2:2: Then, the Cohen shall make the reminder to [go up in] smoke on the altar; [it is] a fire offering [with] a pleasing fragrance to the Lord.
There are actions in the spiritual work in which parts of the offering that are meant to be burnt are separated from it. This matches the part of our desire that cannot be corrected and which seemingly rises in the air and is kept there.
There are limits indicating that we cannot fully correct our ego, but only a certain part of it. The rest is kept until the end of correction.
The point is that our correction can be included only in the circle we are in. But where are all the generations that preceded us and those that are yet to come? Where is the whole world as we know it today? We don’t include it in our correction now because we cannot correct it spiritually or physically.
All this remains and to the extent that humanity will approach the correction; our uncorrected parts will gradually begin to participate in it. But in the meantime they are separated this way and we can only operate in a small circle, in a group.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/27/13
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A meal is one of the central points of the contact between us. It is an inseparable part of our human culture. Ancient traditions of communal meals distinguishes us from animals.
A meal is an action that is natural for our bodies. Babies are attached to their mothers by an umbilical cord through which they receive sustenance. When adults sit at the table and eat together, it is a sign of mutual trust and connection among them.
Our meals are very specific because we are in that state of connectedness. However, our meals are not Kabbalistic as of yet; rather, they are in between what we would like to achieve and what we are capable of achieving.
During the meals, we don’t “hint” at the internal work of our friends; instead, we fulfill others by asking questions, giving answers, singing songs, saying L’chaims. In other words, we fill others and don’t let them be themselves.
Anybody who attends our common meals should be focused internally and very little on the others. There should be a purely internal communication among us.
Question: What is the spiritual root of meals?
Answer: The spiritual root of meals is receiving of the Light of Hochma. The Kli (vessel) has to be ready for the quality of Hesed (bestowal). Only under the condition that the vessel receives the Light of Hassadim can it experience spiritual hunger. It happens because the vessel acquires a chance to receive the Light of Hochma, but it doesn’t descend to it. This is a prerequisite of the clarification and revelation of the Light of Hochma. At this point, absorption (consumption) of the Light occurs and Taamim (tastes) appear.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/14, Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman
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The Torah, “Leviticus” (VaYikra), 2:1: And when any one bringeth a meal-offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon.
“Bread” and “bread-offering gifts” represent human food. One of the most important parts of The Book of Zohar (“Safrah de Tzniyutah” – “The Book of the Modest” or “The Hidden Book”) speaks about this issue.
The word “book” stands for the revelation. “The Hidden Book” denotes a disclosed mystery.
Long before Charles Darwin, the Ari’s Book of Zohar explained that the developmental process consistently unfolds from inanimate, vegetative, and animate, and steps to the speaking level. It’s true that in the course of evolution humans originated from monkeys.
More than anything else, humans differ from animals because of the food they consume. This fact is described in the Torah. Wheat grains are suitable for animals, for example, donkeys. We associate our ego with a donkey that carries a heavy load.
If we want to rise above our animate level, we shouldn’t eat grains. We have to clean the shells off on a threshing floor and blow the husk in the wind. This action symbolizes what happens to our desires in spirituality.
Then, pure grains should be ground on millstones; the flour that we receive has to be mixed with water. After that, we should add salt and various ingredients to the dough and then bake it. No animal is capable of doing it; it is feasible only for a human being. After all these steps are complete, our major food, bread, is ready for us.
All of these actions symbolize a transition from egoistic desires to altruistic. We “grind” our egoism, make flour out of it and then dissolve it in the water.
Water is the property of bestowal and mercy (Bina). “Grains” denote the will to receive (egoism.) We grind grains, add water to them, and bake the bread, i.e., turn our egoistic qualities that are associated with the animate level into altruistic desires. We do it with the help of the properties of Bina. Only after we do all of this, we transition to the human level.
In other words, those who eat bread have already attained the speaking level. It is the level of our desire that must be sacrificed.
In fact, it is not a sacrifice at all! Rather, it is about getting closer to the property of the Creator, the attribute of absolute bestowal and love. The word “kurban” (victim) derives from the word “karov” (getting closer.)
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/27/13
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Question: What role do psychological tests determining the similarity of partners play with regard to love? We, indeed, have particular feelings toward one another which are different from an intellectual examination of someone with whom it is worthwhile for me to start a business. How do we integrate emotion with intellect?
Answer: This is already the second stage. First of all, intuitively, we always try to follow our feelings, and only after this, do we activate the intellect. However, emotions can change in a moment.
A first acquaintance is enough for me not to reject a potential partner. His external appearance, behavior, and manners must cause at least neutral feelings in me, and even attract me a bit. Indeed, a family that must exist together for many years cannot be based upon egoistic sexual attraction.
Comment: However, it is not enough for me that a woman doesn’t just repulse me. I want to find the most attractive woman in the world in every sense: beautiful, sensitive, wise, and sexy. It is a dream that I have looked for all my life!
Answer: Love doesn’t depend upon the external form. It is enough that the external appearance of the partner will not seem repulsive and will be somewhat pleasing to you. You need to be ready to eat out of her hands! You must feel pleasure from touching her, from her concern.
There must be some magic with her. This is not a maddening attraction where you lose your head because of her, rather simply pleasure from physical, intellectual, and emotional contact. You must have pleasure from this and nothing more!
This is not yet love. Love comes later as a result of developing all these connections. Love is a habit of attributing the pleasure that I get with the partner. So, I begin to love.
Here is a possible example: If I take a dog that begins to live by my side, and I feed him, take care of him, and am concerned for him, he will begin to love me. However, what is the difference between a person and a dog? It is known that people who adopt foreign children and begin to take care of them eventually love them no less and even more than they would loved them if they were their biological children. You see that they invest much more effort in these children because they are afraid that they might not love their adopting parents.
The same thing happens in relationships between couples. If we invest effort in one another and know how to develop this shared investment, the emotion that is created from it is called love. This means that love is my attitude towards the person next to me, where it is pleasant to feel him next to me all the time.
I love his friendship, his relationship to me, and his contact. I need to be connected with him. In fact, this is called love, and it is not connected to sexual attraction at all. This is talking about an inner feeling where I miss feeling this person near me.
Often, partners complain about the difficulties in building intimate relations. However, intimate relations are not built upon sexual connection. After a need for contact with another person is awakened in me, I feel pleasure from his being near me. Above this, we build completely different sexual relationships.
These relationships are a wonderful addition to an even deeper connection between us, and then we truly can enjoy one another. I don’t use my partner, her body, but it is truly pleasant for me to feel that she enjoys me and my enjoyment of her.
This is the entire range of connections between us on different levels, and so the emotion from an intimate connection is absolutely different, for it is much deeper and intense. Specifically because I bestow to another, waves of love and union come to me. This is just as it is written in Psalms, Song of Songs 6:3: “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.”
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From the program “A New Life” 6/09/2013
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