Entries in the 'Talmud Eser Sefirot' Category

The Universal Language Of The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How should we attune ourselves while we read the books that reveal the “physics” of the spiritual world: Beit Shaar HaKavanot (The Gates Of Intention) or TES (The Study of The Ten Sefirot)?

Answer: My primary task is to make myself similar to the Creator, to ascend to Him. Therefore, I need to repeat His actions and attitudes: If the Creator treats the group as “Good that does Good,” this means I should treat it with the same kind of goodness.

This is why I first need to take care of my attitude towards the friends, which is given to me as work so that we will become one whole in unity and love. If I achieve this state, I begin to treat them like the Creator does, and to this extent I begin to feel the Creator. After all, we become close with Him according to the law of equivalence of form, and we feel each other. In this manner, I reach adhesion with Him. This is the only thing we should think about.

And it’s enough to just look into a book and listen, as long as it is a genuine, true primary source. You might not even know the language, that’s irrelevant; you won’t understand anything anyway.

You only need to remember that now you are receiving the medicine that should heal you! It should reveal an additional sense in you, and then you will feel the spiritual world and understand without words since the sensation cannot be expressed in words. No words are necessary in order to feel. Words are needed only in order to tell someone else about it, but within the sensation itself, there are no words.

And one should wait for a spiritual sensation to open up within him without any words. This is what the real science of Kabbalah is: It helps you reach this perception!
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Your Soul On The Way To Bina

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Despite the fact that you so meticulously keep trying to explain to us the mechanics of the spiritual worlds described in Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of Ten Sefirot), I still don’t understand anything.

Answer: I cannot be meticulous because there are too many details in it, which you are unable to remember. A person can remember what he feels and not some mechanical data. Even the latter he has to translate into impressions and only then he may remember them. Although memory seems to be part of the mind, it is the sensory experiences that are preserved in the memory cells.

Suppose I am entering some information into the computer now;  this data is the outcome of my sensory experiences since my substance is based on feelings. It perceives good and bad in multitude of forms. When I enter this information into the memory, I give my impression a definition; otherwise, it won’t be recorded.

I have to assign a specific place for this in my memory, give it a title and definition, similar to how we specify the complete passage through many “slashes” when we are dealing with a link on an Internet page. In the same manner, the “address” in our memory is formed. And even though this memory is “mechanical,” it still records impressions. If I begin to remember an event from the distant past, I suddenly experience my forgotten feelings and remember a scent, a sound, and so forth.

Therefore, if we have never felt the spiritual world, we cannot remember information about it. That is why Baal HaSulam was so angry when he met “Kabbalists from Jerusalem” who were practicing mechanical memorization of  Kabbalah theory and thought that it was enough to succeed. This is not our way. We try to study Talmud Eser Sefirot, but do not evaluate our spiritual advancement by how much knowledge we obtain. We measure it by how much we can feel!

What can you possibly know if you don’t feel the words, as it is written: “Taste how wonderful the Creator is”? Does a person know what these words mean? Has he ever felt what they signify? If not, then his knowledge is worthless. We are studying in order to draw the Light that Reforms! Our desire, as described in The Book of Zohar and Talmud Eser Sefirot, gives us an opportunity to connect with the material.

But we don’t understand what it means that Zeir Anpin is falling asleep or is ascending with MAN to Bina; for us, they are merely words for now. Hence, for now, the entire Kabbalah is an empty science, but it gives us the foundation for a desire, preparation, and the cause for revelation. I wish to know it since everything in the text is talking about me and what is happening within my soul!

Who is ascending from Malchut to Zeir Anpin and Bina? My soul ascends, receives fulfillment there, and returns back down! All these actions are occurring in me right this instant, but I don’t feel it. I wish to finally feel what are they like? Why do I suddenly have such eagerness? This is because your spiritual gene, your  Reshimo, has woken up.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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It’s The Same Ten Sefirot Everywhere

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are studying the book Talmud Eser Sefirot, which comprises six volumes and over 2000 pages, and all the time, we are studying only about the ten Sefirot. We’re doing this in order to read about them over and over, then forget all about them, then to read about them once again, and to forget them again. Every time we study, we study the same ten Sefirot, but in a new form because our qualities are constantly changing, while the ten Sefirot remain the same.

Therefore, every time we sit down to study, we do so incorrectly. And afterward we always have to forget what we studied.

The spiritual law of the soul’s correction states that Nukva returns to the state of “virginity” each time. Then Nukva grows, becomes small, and then becomes an adult and unites with Zeir Anpin. She then completes this state and returns to the state of “virginity” in order to start growing all over again to reach a new state of unity.

In this way, we go through every phase or every level, which includes the same ten Sefirot. Afterward, everything becomes erased and on the following level we once again study the same ten Sefirot, but with a deeper understanding and sensation and in greater connection.

That is how one level becomes replaced by the next. New relationships are added, but we’re always talking about the unity of Malchut with the first nine Sefirot.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/15/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Kabbalists On Kabbalists, Part 24

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Main Kabbalistic Sources: Baal HaSulam’s Commentaries on the works of the ARI and The Book of Zohar

This is what I have troubled to do in this interpretation, to explain the ten Sefirot as the Godly sage the Ari had instructed us, in their spiritual purity, devoid of any tangible [bodily, egoistic] terms. Thus, any beginner may approach the wisdom without falling into any materialization and mistake [that would distance him away from the revelation of the Creator]. With the understanding of these ten Sefirot [ten major concepts], one will also come to examine and know how to [correctly] comprehend the other issues in this wisdom.
Baal HaSulam, Talmud Eser Sefirot, preceding Part One

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The Zohar Is The Most Powerful Thing In The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Zohar influences one’s soul more than anything else in the world. This doesn’t mean that we should discard all other books and study only it, but its effect is more powerful than anything else.

Talmud Eser Sefirot and Tree of Life are good for forming oneself. In addition, later on, when a person is already on the spiritual levels, they can serve as instructions for making inner actions.

When you feel ascents and descents, entrances and exits of Lights the way you might feel it physically, since your desire or spiritual vessel is ready for reception and bestowal, for the entrance and exit of the Light, then you can work with Talmud Eser Sefirot and Tree of Life by actually making the actions they describe.

On the other hand, when you work with The Zohar, you do so through an intermediary – the Surrounding Light. This composition develops the vessel of the soul in general, rather than according to the verse, “A person’s soul teaches him.” The latter is when you can take Talmud Eser Sefirot and carry out the actions in practice.

There is a time of preparation for the future level, and that is what The Zohar is mostly intended for. Besides this, there is a time for actualizing the levels, which is done with the help of Talmud Eser Sefirot.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/10, The Zohar

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The Breaking Is Part Of Correction!

Dr. Michael LaitmanI received a letter from someone who is complaining that he doesn’t understand anything in the lesson on the Talmud Eser Sefirot. He is outraged at the fact that we suddenly “skipped over” to the middle of the text, to Part 7 in order to study about the breaking of the Kelim (which is a custom Kabbalists observe before the 9th of Av, the day the Temple was destroyed), instead of talking about correction. And generally speaking, he heard that the Talmud Eser Sefirot is intended for people who already have spiritual attainment and that Kabbalists wrote these texts only for each other.

And indeed, Baal HaSulam does say in Item 154 of Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot that Kabbalists write these texts for those who already have spiritual attainment and who understand what the text talks about. Otherwise you will not understand a word of it. If you do not feel the text inside you and experience it as actions taking place within, you won’t understand a word.

It is only possible to understand it with the heart, the desire in which all of this takes place. But if a person still doesn’t have the desire that is able to perform actions of bestowal, then obviously he does not understand a word of what is written.

Nevertheless, Baal HaSulam created Talmud Eser Sefirot in order for it to work as a remedy, on the condition that we desire to attain the state where we will feel it within us, when “man’s soul will teach him.” It is impossible to study the spiritual world theoretically, with your mind. Kabbalists can only advise us on how to ascend to it. When the student does, he reveals the Upper World for himself, and his soul teaches him. Only when a person attains this level does he begin to feel and understand what is being discussed!

It is impossible to study without feeling because man lives by feeling inside desire. We have to study what happens inside our desire in order to feel it inside. Then we will read the book and it will explain to us what we are feeling. It will also teach us how to discern a multitude of shades of feeling inside us.

The science of Kabbalah is the science of knowing yourself. Therefore, it is natural that at first a person does not understand anything. You have to try to attain the sensation! We do not study in order to memorize the text by heart or to understand it theoretically. Our only goal is to attract the Light that Reforms.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Reveal The Zohar Within Yourself

ConnectingThroughtheWorlds_thumb.jpgThe Zohar, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 37: He taught him every profound and sublime secret in the Song of Songs and adjured him to not use any verse in it, so the Creator will not destroy the world because of him, since He has no desire for people to use it because of the great sanctity in it. Afterwards, Rabbi Akiva went out sobbing and his eyes were shedding water. He said, “Woe my teacher, woe my teacher, the world will be orphaned without you.” The rest of the sages entered and asked him, and he replied with words of Torah.

We can continue reading The Zohar for hours on end, but the question is: Do we have the right intention? The text itself might seem very difficult and closed to us, or it might seem simple. Regardless, we are always talking about inner qualities where Moses, Rabbi Akiva, Abraham, Esau, and good and evil forces are all inside a person. This is the manner in which The Zohar describes the phases of our spiritual path.

I don’t understand what is written here, and I don’t even want to know it. I want to feel it, to attain this state so as to experience it for myself, to live it. I don’t want to understand it through my mind, but through my inner qualities. I want my inner qualities to change so I will identify with the states that The Zohar describes.

It is talking about things that are inside of me, but are concealed from me. I am being told about what is taking place within me, and I want to feel it. All of these qualities and states, all of these “scenes,” all 125 degrees exist in every person right now because there is no time in spirituality. I want to reveal the degree about which I am reading in The Zohar, and I am entitled to this because that degree is mine. I want to change so as to experience this state.

This is called “to attain what one studies,” as Baal HaSulam says in Item 155 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.” He writes, “…through the yearning and the great desire to know what they are learning, they awaken upon themselves the Lights that surround their souls.” Here “to know” means to unite, as it is written, “And Adam knew Eve.”

I want to unite with this state, to live it. I don’t need anything else but this. Everything else inside me is bad, and I don’t care if I don’t understand or feel anything. I only want to “open” this text through my sensations, rather than through my mind. I want to experience it.

When Will Our Prayers Be Answered?

The Soul Is the Property of Bestowal, and Until We Develop It, We Remain Animals Any concepts that exist in the world are divided into the degrees of HaVaYaH, according to the four stages of direct Light – in any quality, influence, definition, and in any division. This separation can be spread onto all of reality:

· The stages 0-1-2-3-4 “Shoresh-Aleph-Bet-Gimel-Dalet,
· HaVaYaH “the tip of the letter Yod-Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey,”
· Sefirot “Keter-Hochma-Bina-Zeir Anpin-Malchut,”
· Senses “vision-hearing-smell-taste-touch,”
· Partzufim “Galgalta-AB-SAG-MA-BON,”
· The worlds “Adam Kadmon-Atzilut-Beria-Yetzira-Assiya,”
· The Lights “Yechida-Haya-Neshama-Ruach-Nefesh,”
· The four natural elements “fire-air-water-earth”….

Our prayer should always be generalized: a prayer of the society, for the society, a prayer of many. It should contain all the levels, all the degrees, a full HaVaYaH. If a person merely screams about something, this is not a prayer. His request should contain his understanding and sensation, the past, the present, and the future. If he makes an appeal in precisely this manner, then his prayer will truly be mature and ripe, and it will be awarded a reply.

Baal HaSulam’s book Beit Shaar HaKavanot represents this precise, general approach, a global view of creation and all of reality. Instead of discerning small, individual details, it explains how to unify them. Talmud Eser Sefirot is an analysis, where the common whole  is broken up into parts, and Beit Shaar HaKavanot is a synthesis, where the parts unite into one whole.

Sensible And Sensitive Intentions

prince.jpg A question I received: If The Zohar and the Talmud Eser Sefirot describe the same system and both of them are attained not through the mind, then why are questions acceptable regarding the Talmud Eser Sefirot, but not for The Zohar?

My Answer: The Zohar is mainly intended for building intentions. I have to read and perceive it as a remedy (Segula). It is written in such a way that a person, himself, gradually reveals its inner logic, the relations between things, and explanations. After all, he constantly returns to the same thing within it. It’s always talking about the three lines (right line, left line, and middle line) and nothing else.

Therefore, our attitude toward The Zohar should have a singular focus, the desire that I want it to influence me. The Light of Infinity comes to me through this grid, this stencil, and builds within my matter (simple desire) a system similar to itself, meaning the system of the spiritual worlds.

In the Talmud Eser Sefirot and in The Zohar, I have the same intention, to receive the Light that Reforms; however, in the Talmud Eser Sefirot, I attach more reason, while in The Zohar I strive for more feelings. It is as though one intention is sensible and the other one is sensitive. This is how these two great books work. However, I have to demand from both of them only the Light which will transform and correct me.

Learn To Perceive The Upper World Through The Study Of Talmud Eser Sefirot

Connecting Through the WorldsFor beginners, the most important thing to learn in the science of Kabbalah is the structure of the Upper Worlds, according to the book Talmud Eser Sefirot and the article “Preface to the Science of Kabbalah.” The result of your study should be that you actually start to feel the text, similar to a musician that reads the notes and hears a melody within. Just as he feels the sounds within, that is how we have to feel the spiritual actions. And eventually, we will feel them more powerfully and more real than this world.

The smallest spiritual degree is felt a billion times more vividly and powerfully than this entire world. Our entire world, the whole universe, and our lives throughout all time periods are incorporated in the spiritual world like a small point.

When you read a Kabbalah book, it is like reading an encoded letter. If you know what it says, you can change your destiny and your entire life. That is how you should feel during Part 2 of the Daily Lesson, while studying Talmud Eser Sefirot.

It doesn’t matter that while reading it, you don’t feel or sense anything. What’s important is your yearning to feel the text within you. So, the only thing you lack is the desire! If you obtain the needed desire, then it will enable you to enter the spiritual world. You will begin to feel the spiritual world within that desire.

In the meantime, we are in an unconscious state relative to the spiritual perception. We’re like an unconscious person that doesn’t perceive the world around him. And what do we lack in order to reveal the Upper World? Only the aspiration for it!
(From the first lesson at the North American Congress in Buffalo)