The Book of Zohar. Chapter “Raising a Prayer” – 1

The Book of ZoharThe Book of Zohar. Chapter “Raising a Prayer” – 1

The Zohar speaks about the prayer which every person offers his Creator. This inner action of man constitutes his greatest and most valuable work in making efforts for the Creator’s sake.

We can change only under the influence of the Creator’s Light, by receiving His properties from Him. Hence our only task is to cultivate a desire to change. As soon as this true desire appears within man, the Creator will immediately give him the strength needed for its realization. So the problem is not how to realize a prayer; it is, rather, how to attain it, how to formulate one’s request for the strength to become like the Creator!

A prayer is a sensation, a desire in one’s heart. A person is not completely aware of it and cannot describe it, for the sensation in one’s heart is not subject to any control and conscious correction – it cannot be “created” by one’s own will.

One who observes the Commandments because he has faith in reward and punishment believes in the Creator, His Torah, and His governance, but simply uses it for his own benefit. By observing the Commandments with such an intention and remaining in it all of his life, he does not grow spiritually. And one who does not grow in our world is called “still” (inanimate), since we divide all of nature into the following levels: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking (human). Therefore, such people are regarded as spiritually still (Domem de Kedusha), but they are already “spiritually” still, as opposed to those who observe mechanically, by force of habit.

In Kabbalah, the word “body” implies desire. A desire or a body can be egoistic or spiritual (altruistic). The gradual passing of the egoistic body and its replacement with the altruistic one is called one’s “spiritual birth.”

Man’s spiritual growth is designated by an increasingly growing intention to observe the Commandments only because such is the Creator’s desire. Man observes it only for His sake, completely selflessly, as if no reward of any kind will ever be given to him in return, not even in the form of his own self-content. It is as though the Creator does not know who fulfills His desire, as though man himself is uncertain of whether or not he observes the Commandments. Yet, he does it anyway, for such is the Creator’s will.

An essential part of our spiritual ascent is a special process that requires that, on discovering a greater evil within us, we ask the Creator to grant us the strength to overcome that evil. We then receive strength in the form of a greater spiritual Light. This continues until we actually reach the original level and size of our souls. At that point, our egoism is completely corrected and filled with Light.

When we are distracted by outside thoughts, we feel that thoughts obstruct us from ascertaining the spiritual, because our strength and minds are wasted on extraneous concerns, while our hearts become filled with petty desires. At times like this, we lose faith in the fact that only Kabbalah contains the true life.

Once we overcome this condition, we come out of our state and move into the Light, receiving a Higher Light that helps us ascend further. In this manner, our extraneous thoughts work to help us in our spiritual advancement. We can overcome obstacles only with the help of the Creator, since man can only work on something if he perceives some personal benefit in the task.

However, our bodies, hearts and intellects do not understand what benefits can result from altruism. Therefore, as soon as we try to make even the slightest altruistic move, we lose all strength of the mind, heart and body. We are left with nothing else but to turn to the Creator and ask Him for help. In this way, unwillingly and without any free choice, we advance toward the Creator until we merge with Him completely.

The lower half of the Higher spiritual object is found within the Upper half of the lower spiritual object (GE de Elyion are within AHP de Tachton). In the lower object, the screen is found in the eye area (Masach ve Nikvey Eynayim). This is known as “spiritual blindness,” (Stimat Eynayim) because in such a state even the Higher object has only one half – GE. Hence, it turns out that the screen of the lower spiritual object conceals part of the Higher spiritual object.

The Higher spiritual object drops its screen to the lower one, and it then reveals itself to the lower object, which in turn begins to view the Higher object as the Higher one views itself. As a result, the lower object receives the state of fullness (Gadlut). The lower object then sees that the Higher one is in a “great” state, and realizes that the Higher object’s prior concealment and apparent manifestation as the “small” state (Katnut) was done exclusively for the benefit of the lower one. In this way, the lower object could become aware of the importance of the Higher one.

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Article on The Zohar – “Raising a Prayer”

Join Us In St. Louis to Reveal a New Level of Unity

St. Louis RetreatDear friends!
The Creator is setting a special task before us today:

1. To unite all of us into one, integral desire for Him.
2. To reveal the goal of creation to the world.

He is inviting us to be the chosen people, His representatives in correcting the world.  We must set an example of the correct society to the world so that He can reveal Himself inside this society.

All of the symptoms of the global crisis clearly show humanity that it’s necessary to unite, and we are the ones who need to present the method of correction to humanity! To the extent that we fulfill this mission, we will attain adhesion with the Creator.

I hope that you understand what kind of exceptional chance each one of you has been given. Let’s not squander it. Let’s get together in one desire for spiritual ascent – upwards, and enlightenment of the world – outwards.

I believe that each and every one of you is unique and I can’t wait to meet you in St. Louis, where we will be provided with the opportunity to reach a new level of unity.

Kabbalah’s Model of a New World

Kabbalah's Model of a New WorldA question I received: The objective of every government is to lull people’s consciousness. That way people will not fall under influence of any kind of extremism. This is why the mass media has to stupefy or brainwash the masses. Clearly, man’s inner resources are not being used in this case, since they become dormant.

In the modern systematic crisis (whose essence can only be seen by Kabbalists), the government is even more eager to lull the people, since it doesn’t know what to do and even admits that it’s helpless! What solution do you propose?

My Answer: Kabbalah offers the only solution that can awaken people to action, without the danger of breaking the fragile balance of forces within the civilization that still manages to hold the world back from complete destruction and chaos.

The most general stages of realizing the solution are the following:
1. The “background mode” of the mass media should be used to give people a subconscious understanding that everyone is connected with everyone and that humanity is a unified whole. In addition, people should be made to understand what is “good” and and what is “bad” – that altruism, recognition that all people are interdependent, and the corresponding actions are good, while egoism and petty pursuit of self benefit are bad, both for the individual and for humanity as a whole.

2. Once this will enter the public consciousness, we will begin motivating people to become conscious and start making altruistic actions. At first the motive will be to solve the obvious, simple, corporeal problems, in order for everyone to see the benefits of the new way of thinking.

3. Even during stages 1 and 2, it is necessary to introduce into the streams of information, thoughts about the existence of a single force, the final goal of universe:

a) At first this should be done in a complex manner, accessible only to the people who think;
b) When the active stage begins, this should be done through simple information that’s clear to the masses, making it obvious that this is the most appealing worldview for every person.

This will give us the opportunity to unite all of humanity in a single impulse to solve our common problem, and at the same time – in the process of solving the problem – the separated souls will combine to create a single system of humanity.

What is special about this proposition? Kabbalah is the only basis with the ability to create an ideological system that satisfies two mutually exclusive criteria:
a) The system must be so powerful that people’s consciousness will not grow disillusioned of it and reject it;
b) The system must stimulate the masses to transform their consciousness.

All the other ideological models satisfy just one of these requirements:
a) Either the system works well to stimulate people’s consciousness, but does not endure (for example, revolutions);
b) Or the system brainwashes people’s consciousness, but by doing so deprives them of the active, creative force that can change the world (for example, religion).

In addition, after going through a specific period of inner changes, man discards the boundaries of the proposed model and from then on, the path of his consciousness becomes unpredictable. Still, Kabbalah helps people build the model of a new world that’s guaranteed to work with all the changes, enabling an individual’s consciousness to develop without any limitations over the course of his entire life.

This is because Kabbalah uses a physical principle that was unknown before it: when the parts of a system are correctly unified, the system gains energy overall. In other words, without altering our material resources (food, water, oil, and so on), we can solve all our problems simply by unifying people altruistically rather than egoistically (see the example of the Wolf, Goat and Cabbage).

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