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Midrash Sefer, “After the Death of,” “The Holy Work on Yom Kippur”: At the time of the Second Temple most of the great priests would die within a year after Yom Kippur.
In order to be worthy of entering the Holy of Holies, the great priest had to purify himself first by detaching himself from all the corporeal desires.
Most of the great priests who served at the Temple bought their position by bribery. They could never attain the spiritual level that was required in order to enter the Holy of Holies and so the encounter with the Godly revelation that took place there was deadly for them.
The descent that took place during the time of the Second Temple is what we call the shattering of the vessels.
The presence of the Upper Light, of the attribute of love and bestowal, came in contact with the attribute of receiving for one’s egoistic self (although there cannot be any contact) and then the destruction occurred. The Light disappeared and the desire that wanted the Light, wanted it egoistically (even subconsciously), couldn’t face it and the great priest would die. They used to pull him out of the Holy of Holies with a rope that was tied to his foot since others were forbidden to enter the Holy of Holies.
But he didn’t care, as long as he could taste that sweetness for a moment. A person cannot resist the pleasure of the Light because without it his life is worthless! He opens his mouth and receives the drop of poison, which is in fact, a drop of Light. But for him, for the egoist, it is a drop of poison and he dies.
This also happens to us in our world when a person sacrifices his life for a drop of pleasure. Even if he dies, he just wants to feel the pleasure. This is how we are made, with a heart and a brain, pleasure and a mind. If the pleasure is greater than the mind, the mind doesn’t work and a person simply loses his sanity.
Therefore, the great priest couldn’t restrain himself from attaining the pleasure and so he died. If he had bought his position for money and did not attain through his own exertion, it means that he lacked a Masach (screen), the instrument for receiving the Light in order to bestow. If he had exerted himself instead of paying for his position, he would have performed his spiritual work and would have ascended to that level and connected to the Upper Light.
Now, after the destruction of the Second Temple, when we had fallen all the way down to our world, there can only be one way upward. If you are not worthy of ascending to the next level, you will not attain it.
However, during the time of the First and Second Temples, it was possible for a person to touch the Light since the descent occurred from the top down. In our case, on the other hand, during the ascent from the bottom up, it is forbidden to ascend to the upper level unless we are ready for it.
Therefore today the wisdom of Kabbalah can be revealed to anyone. In any case, people will not know anything until they reach spiritual attainment.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/12/14
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The Midrash, “Acharei Mot “After the Death Of”: On the night before Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), If the High Priest was a sage, he would expound, and if not, the disciples of the sages would expound before him. If he was familiar with the reading of the Holy Writ, he would read; if not they would read before him. They would read before him from the Books of Job and Ezra, and Chronicles. Zechariah ben Kebutal said: Many times I read before him out of the Book of Daniel. When the High Priest seemed to be about to fall asleep, the young priests would snap their middle fingers before him and say to him: “My lord High Priest, stand up and drive sleep away by walking on the pavement.” They would divert him until the time came for the slaughtering of the daily morning offering. [Mishna Yoma I.1-7]
It is about a person’s personal desires that constantly must be awake since their common attribute, the state of the High Priest (Great Cohen), depends on the right connection between them into one system.
When they attain that, their collective attribute called the High Priest is ready for new action, and a spiritual state called morning appears. We already have spoken about the fact that there is a person’s external state and his internal state (the Holy of Holies), which he builds out of his desires.
This means that all these volumes that are seemingly a person’s inner parts—the person himself, his external attires, his environment—are all of our desires that come together in a certain manner and make up the picture that is described in Midrash Raba: the Temple, the priests (Cohanim) that help the High Priest, the Holy of Holies, the forks and spoons, his clothes, the entrance of the High Priest (Great Cohen) into the Holy of Holies, his work in the Temple and all the rest.
All of this is the collection of a person’s attributes in such a picture.
However, we are not talking about the picture that Kabbalists depict for us but about what we must do internally so that this picture will be created in us. It is like a computer and its screen, for example, on which I see the external picture.
In this case, I am the computer. I must find out which attributes must be in me, which connections, so that I will create inside me a picture like the one on the computer screen. They will be my attributes and not a display of strange attributes.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/12/14
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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 46: The verse says (Deuteronomy 31:17-31:18), “And My fury will rage against them on that day, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will befall them, and they will say on that day, ‘Is it not because our God is no longer among us, that these evils have befallen us?’ And I will hide My face…”
The troubles conceal the Creator, the source, from a person, which means that the Creator is concealed from him. This is how the desire to receive is made. The more troubles he feels and the more he suffers, the less he feels the Creator, until He is no longer visible. After all, the Creator is the source of goodness, and the troubles conceal the Creator from a person.
When you regard these words, you will find that in the beginning it states, “Then My fury will rage… …and hide My face,” meaning one concealment. Afterwards, it states, “and many evils and troubles will befall them… …And I will hide My face…,” meaning double concealment. We must understand what “double concealment” is.
This is a very subtle remark: that a person first feels a single concealment and only afterward reaches the double concealment. If I have no recognition or feeling of the Creator in any way, I cannot say that He is concealed. So, first, there is a single concealment, and only then when more understandings and troubles accumulate, do I reach a double concealment.
However, the Creator doesn’t disappear in a double concealment either. The Creator disappears only when you live in feeling the corporeal body. However, if I am a human being, Adam, which means that I resemble the Creator in some way, I am always in a state of concealment, either single or double. The difference between them is the amount of evil that I feel when I develop my sensitivity to the Creator.
Thus, the level of evil that is revealed to me determines whether I am in a single or a double concealment. This refers to a person who understands who the Creator is, the good that does good.
The Creator’s goodness is not in filling my desires to receive with pleasure but in bringing me to the goal of creation and teaching me properly. Therefore, I am ready for the afflictions as long as I advance in the vessels of bestowal so that I will resemble Him and accept the whole process.
I am increasingly more closely adhered to the Creator, which means that He becomes the good and the benevolent. His goodness is revealed in the equivalence of my ideology to His: the idea, the goal, and the means of attaining it. I determine that He is good that does good as a result of what He teaches me at any given moment in every way.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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If a person has no connection with the Creator, it is not called concealment. Concealment means that I know the qualities and character of the Creator, perhaps not one hundred percent, but to a particular degree. And I know that this is now concealed from me.
Suppose I know that my friend is in the same room as me and I can recognize him by particular features; so I say he is concealed now. This means that concealment is a kind of revelation. This is because I know that it is specifically he who is concealed. It is not that I have a complete lack of knowledge and detachment.
Concealment is a kind of attainment. This is similar to an expert who checks all the components. Suddenly he discovers that there is a lack of information somewhere that still needs to be discovered. Some unique facet of the phenomenon remains concealed. But everything else is revealed to him.
There cannot be concealment without there being revelation. If you don’t recognize a friend, don’t recognize his face, his voice, how can you say that he is concealed? When you say that someone is concealed, this means you know who he is. This is very important. In other words, concealment is an inseparable part of revelation and something essential for discovery.
Through concealment I awaken myself to what I need to discover, through what means, exactly what is concealed from me and why. In other words I develop Kelim in me for a sudden discovery. When I design and accumulate within me the right deficiency, then the discovery comes.
So then I see that this concealment was in me; through feeling this concealment, the Creator arouses me to discover Him. I don’t need to light a lamp in a room to see the friend. I only need to discover my inner Kelim, and then I will sense him on a more internal and profound level than if I were to turn on a light and just see.
The Creator actually awakens me through the concealment. In this way He says to me: “Yearn for Me a little more strongly, discover an even greater yearning for Me, then you will feel Me! Discard the lamp and the light that comes from it, begin to feel Me inside, my desire, my heart. We don’t need the previous light, instead we will have a new Light of mutual feeling between us.”
Now do you understand what the Creator is trying to attain through concealment? He awakens a stratum of more internal feelings in you.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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“Midrash Sefer,” “Acharei Mot” (After the Death of): “At the time of the Second Temple the same sad sight repeated every year on the eve of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Before they left, the sages called out: “Admirable great priest, we are the messengers of the Supreme Court, and you are our representative and His. We beg you, the one who lives in this house, not to change the order of the procedure that we have taught you in any way!”
A person’s private desires are ready to gather and to present their sum, their collective desire, as a desire for unity with the Creator.
The entrance of the general collective desire to a place called the Holy of Holies in a state called the Great Cohen (Priest) takes place on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).
When a person includes all three of these states, which correlate with the spiritual concept of a world, a year, and a soul (Olam, Shanah, and Nefesh), the complete gathering of all the corrected desires takes place and contact with the Creator takes place: the revelation of the Creator to a person. This is the state that each of us should attain.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/12/14
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Question: What do the “parting” with Babylon and construction of the Second Temple mean?
Answer: These notions stand for building positive bridges between the two remaining tribes in accordance with the principle “Don’t do to others what you don’t wish for yourself.” It is a spiritual level that existed for several hundreds of years until it collapsed.
Question: In other words, Abraham’s message guides us upwards, but the path we pursue is full of “bumps” that often lead us downward, is that true?
Answer: The path is not easy. After the initial spiritual ascent, they fell to Egypt. From there, they rose to the level of the First Temple, and then they fell to Babylon. Afterward, they rose slightly to the level of the Second Temple, and later they descended to internal destruction. In other words, they even lost the level of “not doing to others what they didn’t wish for themselves.” They just were not able to continue implementing this principle any longer since their growing egoism broke the remnants of their prior love.
So, by the beginning of the first century of our era, love completely disappeared.
Comment: They even started fighting and killing each other.
Answer: These things were happening at the time of the First Temple. After it collapsed, diverse segments, such as captains, merchants, dignitaries, administrators, etc., appeared among the people. They exhibited enormous egoism, even though they were at high levels.
It’s quite different from building relationships at lower levels, such as in little villages or among those who own one cow or a sheep or a horse. To survive, they had to lend their cattle to each other.
However, when you and I have billions, and others also have as much as we do, wars and battles are inevitable. Each one possesses their own army and holds on to their interests. This is why problems arise.
Question: So, falling from the spiritual level leads us deep down to the manifestation of the evil. Is that right?
Answer: Yes, it’s true. On the other hand, it is a natural phenomenon. These issues happen in all countries that are going through the phase of decline. The modern world faces the same threat: Russians, Europeans, and wealthy Americans will soon create their own armies and fight each other.
For the Jews, these periods usually end up very sadly, since at the time of spiritual collapse, conquerors show up and destroy the temples.
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From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 9/3/14
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From the book The Essential Secret of the Jews, M. Brushtein
The Postulates Of The Theory of Integrality
We complicate our life ourselves, deprive it from confidence, bring fear and limitations into it.
For life to emerge, there must be an incredible coincidence of the unique circumstances.
The internal program pushes us to develop and forces us to learn about the surrounding world.
The human being will face the stage of denial of his nature.
“What is the meaning of life?” – is the question that concerns people today.
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Weisman, “Midrash Sefer,” “After the death of,” “Holy Work on Yom Kippur”: For Yom Kippur you should prepare a person in advance, who should take the goat that is meant for Azazel to the desert, and throw it off a cliff there. The Creator has promised that by this holy work the sins of the whole congregation of Israel would be forgiven.
The one who took the goat to the desert would usually die by the end of the year and so this mission was given to person who was doomed to die that year…
The great priest couldn’t leave the inner yard until then and continue the holy work until the goat was in the desert…
In those days when the Jewish nation was a nation of righteous, they knew about the arrival of the goat to the desert when the red string that was tied to the Holy of Holies turned white.
A person who is a messenger of the whole congregation, which means of all of his desires, discovers inside him such desires that cannot be corrected and kills them.
He throws the goat (his uncorrected desires) from the cliff, according to his feelings, according to his assessments, and according to his scale and dies since he cannot correct them and thus he ascends even higher.
Such attributes called the animal in us are chosen in each of us. The uncorrected person and the uncorrected goat can complement one another. The state of the animal in us is thus corrected when we throw it from the cliff and shatter these desires.
Thanks to this state, the human being in us dies. The uncorrected part in us has to die during that year. Its death is what is good for us, our reward. When the state is called the animal in us dies, we ascend. This is a great joy, a feeling of correction and freedom from such egoistic desires, which we could not get rid of earlier.
It is said that they knew about the arrival of the goat to the desert when the red string tied to the Holy of Holies turned white. This means that now all the attributes of Din (judgment) turn to attributes of Hesed (mercy), which means that the sins of the nation are forgiven and it is freed of the uncorrected desires.
It is because the whole nation sends the goat to the desert and so all their desires on the animal level are thrown and shattered. Thus, instead of the Lord’s judgment, the nation receives the Lord’s blessing.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/12/14
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