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The Ten Sefirot – The Foundation Of The Creation

laitman_548_02-jpgBaal HaSulam, “Preface to The Book of Zohar,” 2): First, you must know that all that is said in The Book of Zohar, and even in its legends, is denominations of the ten Sefirot, called KHB (Keter, Hochma, Bina), HGT (Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet), NHYM (Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Malchut), and their permutations. Just as the twenty-two letters of the spoken language, whose permutations suffice to uncover every object and every concept, the concepts, and permutations of concepts, in the ten Sefirot suffice to disclose all the wisdom in the book of Heaven. …

Question: What are the ten Sefirot?

Answer: The foundation of the universe is Light, not visible light, but a special energy that spreads, emanates, creates, fills, and changes everything. In its primordial state, it is called Keter (crown).

Spreading downward from above, the Light creates a point: a desire that begins to grow under its influence.

From the zero state, where the point represents simply a property of the Light, it changes to the first state and begins to sense what it desires. This first expansion of desire is called Hochma.

In the second stage, the desire, under the influence of the Light, is transformed into its opposite property—the property of Bina. It also desires, but only to give.

The desire begins to perceive the properties of the Light (bestowal), and becomes similar to it, like a child relative to an adult when he perceives the adult’s qualities, habits, and views.

The third stage is Bina’s desire to be similar to Keter. Since Keter created the property of Hochma, Bina also generates the next property, Zeir Anpin (ZA), which in Aramaic means small face. Small because it does not come from Keter but from similarity to it.

Then the desire acquires the aspiration to receive more: the entire enormous Light that comes from the zero stage. This is the fourth stage or Malchut from the word “kingdom”—the kingdom of desire.

In addition to these four parts that exist in nature, nothing else was created. The whole universe, the planets, the inner parts of man, our psychology, the mind, any system, whatever we name consists of these parts and their hierarchy.

Zeir Anpin, in its turn, consists of six parts. Thus, the entire creation represents ten parts, or ten Sefirot. Sefira, from the word “luminous,” is a luminescence of a certain property. Each Sefira is a whole system of interacting forces.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/5/17

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The Work Of The Correction Of The World, Part 1

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There are a lot of different ideas of how the world should be corrected. Everything comes down to this being a very important and exalted goal. Religious people expect the Messiah to come and for all the people to become religious.

“Green” people understand the correction of the world as improved ecology. The British National Committee on Environmental Protection recently published a report that lists 50 most urgent measures to “save the world.”

Here are a few of them: radically improve electricity consumption, introduce worldwide use of solar energy, and raise public awareness to reduce the waste of energy. All these measures are from the side of the Greens.

What does the correction of the world mean from the standpoint of a Kabbalist?

Answer: Kabbalah is a very extensive science that touches on the foundations of the world and extends through the whole depth of nature. Therefore, before talking about the correction of the world, we need to find out what in it is spoiled.

Everyone has their own opinion of what needs to be fixed because their major concern is for their own life. If you ask an old person versus a young one, a man versus a woman, married or single, everyone will give you a different answer.

So first we need to gain insight, whether the world is actually imperfect, and exactly how. Is this imperfection dependent on a person or not? And if it is, it follows that it is the person that needs to change, and not the world.

According to the science of Kabbalah, the world is so bad because it was corrupt from the beginning. Everyone is familiar with the story of Adam and Eve who lived in the Garden of Eden; everything was perfect until they violated the prohibition and sinned by eating the apple of the Tree of Knowledge. After that, the snake, or our egoism, started ruling the world. Since then, we began wishing evil to one another, and evidently remain this way to this day.

Apparently, the world would have been much better off if not for the sin of Adam. If people were kinder to each other, then surely our world, our society, would have been better.

If you look at the quality of the whole of nature: inanimate, vegetative, and animate, even there you will see that one consumes the other and lives at the expense of it. So it comes down to it also being in need of correction. There is no species that exists on its own; it is always at the expense of others. Especially man who always builds his own wellbeing to another’s detriment.

It follows that in order to correct the world, we need to correct general nature. And Kabbalah states that if the human nature is corrected, then the entire world would be corrected—everything will unite into one cohesive system, and even wolves and sheep will leave peacefully side by side, and a small child will lead them, as written by the prophets.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/13/17

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“So That You Will Be A Holy People”

laitman_746_03Torah, Deuteronomy 26:18 – 26:19: And the Lord has selected you this day to be His treasured people, as He spoke to you, and so that you shall observe all His commandments, and to make you supreme, above all the nations that He made, [so that you will have] praise, a [distinguished] name and glory; and so that you will be a holy people to the Lord, your God, as He spoke.

“To make you supreme, above all the nations,” means to elevate within yourself the quality that is called Yehudi (from the word “Yihud” – adhesion, connection with the Creator) above all your other desires that are called the nations.

We see this in history. The people of Israel never, even in the best years when they had strength, engaged in any conquests.

Only in ancient times, did King David have to protect Israel from enemies. Then, the so-called “Kibush David” was carried out—the conquest of the territories from the Nile to the Euphrates—in order to keep all the tribes that inhabited them under control because otherwise these tribes were constantly raiding Israel.

Therefore, when the Torah speaks about the people who are chosen, praised, and great, it is referring to the work to annul yourself. Then, you elevate the part of Israel within yourself that is directed to the Creator above all the rest of your egoistic parts. This is only about the inner state of a person.

In addition, it is about serving the world in order to be, as it is written in the Torah, the Light or, in other words, an example for all the nations of the world.

The same applies to the Temple. It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7). After all, from ancient times, not only Jews went there, but absolutely everyone. A person could go there from any place, from anywhere, in order to pray, to ask something, or to participate in the classes. This is how many non-Jewish scholars appeared among us.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/9/16

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Fate Of The High Souls

laitman_938_01Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Building the Future Society”: There is an allegory about friends who were lost in the desert, hungry and thirsty. One of them had found a settlement filled abundantly with every delight. He remembered his poor brothers, but he had already drawn far off from them and did not know their place. What did he do? He began to shout out loud and blow the horn; perhaps his poor hungry friends would hear his voice, approach and come to that abundant settlement filled with every delight.

Question: How do we build such a path so people will feel that it leads to this “settlement filled with every delight”?

Answer: This transition is very difficult and far from popular. The fact is that not many people can move to the new state with their mind, powers, thoughts, and spiritual work.

“With their mind” means with the help of study and practical application of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Only a small fraction of people can do this. All the others will come to the same state precisely because of the influence of the group. The masses won’t have a choice; they will feel miserable, useless, and jobless.

And their suffering will become more internal rather than external. If once a person had no clothes and food, today he doesn’t have internal fulfillment, and this is much worse than hunger or cold. We see how people suffer from depression.

Therefore, the most important thing for us is to assemble a group of people that really can master the new stage of development, and then they will be able to pull the rest of humanity after them.

Comment: It is written that he “began to shout out loud and blow the horn; perhaps his poor hungry friends would hear his voice.”

My Comment: It doesn’t mean that he addressed the broad masses; they can’t hear the spiritual appeal.

They will be able to hear his cry if they feel miserable and hungry; otherwise, they will continue to play with their “toys,” especially since governments are interested in filling their lives with them.

Therefore, the spiritual appeal is directed to a few, and the rest will browse the Internet filled with entertainment and services created especially for them. It is possible to control the masses through the Internet without problems. They will give them free computers, only to keep everyone in an inter-tension.

Question: Is it only in order for them to not feel hunger and start to shout?

Answer: They won’t be able to. After all, the manifestation of hunger for the next state, for the meaning of life, is a fate of the high souls.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 5/15/17

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How To See The Creator Through This World

laitman_423_02Question: “It is written, ‘there is none else besides Him.’ This means that there is no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him.” This is how the very first article in the book Shamati (I Heard) begins. What is it talking about?

Answer: It seems to us that there are many forces and sources of different actions, thoughts, and desires in our world, and everything that happens is a consequence of thousands of different reasons. But in fact, there is only one reason, one force, one thought, one desire, which affects us all in every possible way.

And we need all these sources, which appear to us from all sides and affect us, to return to the Creator because we see that everything comes from Him. When I begin to relate all the influences to one upper force, I begin to know it through its influence on me, through all these means.

It turns out that it is due to these means, returning everything to the Creator, I study Him and I find out why He influences me in different forms, why these forms evoke all sorts of reactions in me, and how I can connect everything with the upper force.

It turns out that I have three components: one source, thousands of means that affect me, and me. Through all these means, directing them to the Creator, I study Him and reveal the upper force.

So there is the upper force, the whole vast world, and me. The Creator affects this world, and as a result, all kinds of forces—that seem to me to be disconnected from each other and to be pursuing different goals—start acting on me from this world. But I cut myself off from this picture and say: “This is not true! I send all these effects back to the one force they actually come from.”

This action, through which one force is divided into thousands of different paths of influence, gives me the opportunity to connect them and reach the upper desire, the understanding of the upper thought, the program of creation, its direction, and my role.

I understand how the whole world is constructed and why it exists in such a form, how the upper force clothes in reality, and how I can relate this whole world to the Creator. There is nothing besides this, that is, nothing besides the Creator.

Question: Where does the spiritual world begin in all this process?

Answer: In all its diversity, this world turns into the spiritual world for me if I send everything back through it and turn it into my appeal to the Creator. When I am directed only to Him, by using all the means through which the Creator addresses me, I see Him.

And then I see one force that awakens me through the students, family, police, illnesses, government, news, relatives, friends, enemies, and tax audits—through everything that exists in a person’s life.

I find out that in everything I am governed by the upper force, but at the same time, I can react and recognize that the government comes, not from 30 to 40 sources, but from one reason which stands behind everything.

If I constantly work to direct my attitude to the Creator through all these means, I begin to understand how He built them, why He created everything, and why He awakens me in this way, which means that I attain and reveal Him. I reveal the clothing of the upper force in all possible means used by Him to influence me. The Creator clothes in my world.

Question: How can a Kabbalistic book help me achieve such a correct view?

Answer: When reading a book, I imagine that I receive influence from the upper force through it. The book describes the actions of the Creator, that is, I relate everything to Him, which is called: “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one.” There are three components: the first, Israel is me, the second, the Torah is the whole world through which I want to achieve the Creator, and the third is the Creator. And all these three components are one since everything must be attributed to the same source.
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From the Virtual Lesson “The Time Of Kabbalah,” 6/13/17

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Hebrew And Aramaic

laitman_562_02Question: Why was The Book of Zohar written in Aramaic?

Answer: Aramaic is parallel to Hebrew. These are the two most ancient languages in the world, which also have the same alphabet. When we describe and present the attributes of the Light, they are described in Hebrew, and when we describe and present the attributes of the vessel (the desire) they are described in Aramaic.

The two languages complement each other because when we study the spiritual world, the desire and the Light are two completely different, opposite categories, distant from each other. Therefore, we usually use these two languages in order to indicate these differences, and this is how they have always been revealed.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/5/17

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 7/14/17

Preparation for the Lesson

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Lesson on the Topic: “The Period of ‘Between the Straits'”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption,” “The Difference Between a Secular Ideal and a Religious Ideal”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “One Commandment,” “The Part of the Torah Concerning Relations Between Man and Man”

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