We Move Closer and Farther Away From Kabbalah Like Charges In A Magnetic Field

chargesA question I received: What is the difference between faith above reason, which is necessary for studying Kabbalah, and the religious faith?

My Answer: If a person has a point in the heart, it lets him feel who can be his teacher. He can tell who really has spiritual attainment and the understanding of life’s inner meaning. He senses who really knows the meaning of life, as well as the purpose for which this world is developing, the goal it has to reach; and who simply memorized a lot of quotes. A person begins to differentiate who is in the spiritual world and who isn’t. He feels this with his point in the heart, which looks for a place where it can receive fulfillment.

A person may also get confused for a time and end up in the wrong place. However, he will quickly realize this and run away. It is also possible that a person will begin to study Kabbalah, but after a while he’ll begin to shy away from it. This is similar to a charge in a magnetic field that occupies a position of equilibrium between different forces. That is how people draw closer to Kabbalah or further away.

Everything is determined by the state of balance between the forces of the point in the heart and the place of study, as though by the center of a force field of bestowal. And in fact, everything is determined by a person’s free choice: a person decides everything himself.

This is why I never try to convince anyone of anything. I don’t persuade anyone or try to prove that I am right. Rather, to the extent that one’s point in the heart is revealed, to the extent that a person aspires toward bestowal (even if this aspiration is hidden from him), that is the extent of the person’s readiness to draw closer and put in effort. A person has to make his own decision about whose advice he should listen to: Kabbalists or the people on the street.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, on Rabash’s article, “A person is like a tree in the field”)

A Person Is Like A Tree In The Field

beesIt is written, “A person is like a tree in the field.” A tree can be planted in a field that is blessed by the Creator, where it will be watered by rain and warmed by the sun whenever it needs. Or the tree – the person – can be planted in infertile, dry land, where the person will not be able to grow. Or, even if he  grows, he is like a wild tree that does not bear fruit.

When it comes to spiritual development, a person determines his own place. His attitude to the books, the teacher, and the friends is able to change the soil and the sun, the moisture conditions, and all the other conditions needed for his growth.

A person starts by receiving a “point in the heart” – a spiritual seed, and he must then decide where to plant it and how to absorb the force from the environment needed to grow his seed into a tree. If he chooses the right environment, he will be able to demand from it the force of bestowal – “rain.” This force will allow him to grow from the material world upward. His intentions of bestowal will sprout“from the soil up.”

We have to care for our “tree,” which means that we must choose desires that can be corrected, and then organize them properly so they will grow and shape us into the right form – one that’s similar to the Creator. This is all of our work.

So, on one hand, it appears as if the tree grows on its own. However, starting from the time it is a seed, there are many actions that depend on us. The tree cannot grow independent of us, but only in virtue of our desire.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

Why Do Kabbalists Make Their Articles So Long-Winded?

longwindedA regular person sees himself and this world, comprised of inanimate matter, vegetation, animals, and people. However, Kabbalists see a transparent reality. Through our world, they see the Upper World and the entire thickness of the desire, where the Thought of Creation becomes realized. They then describe what is happening there to us, revealing a certain part of it.

This is why we find it so difficult to grasp their language and the examples they use, which seem so removed from our lives, and to figure out what their hints are saying. We’d prefer to hear a clear, brief explanation.

However, the reason they write this way is because what we need isn’t clear instructions, but the Light of Correction that is concealed in their books. Therefore, we should just accept what they write with complete trust, and believe that this is precisely the best way for us to receive the Light of Correction. It’s true that if they wanted to, they could have summed up the meaning of the whole article in one sentence or a paragraph. But then it would lack the force of correction.

Therefore, while reading these articles, which are full of complicated quotes and long-winded discourse (as it seems to us), we should focus only on how the Light of Correction is affecting us at that moment.

It doesn’t matter whether I understand what I am reading or not, or whether I feel it or not. No matter what, I am anticipating the Light! The most important thing is for the “medicine” to work.
(From Part 1 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, on Rabash’s article, “A person is like a tree in a field”)

Moments From The Daily Lesson: When Darkness Reveals

The UN Secretary General Calls For Action To Prevent Futher Melting Of Polar Ice

Laitman_41In the News (from AlertNet):From Polar ice rim, Ban issues call for urgent action on climate change” – Standing on rapidly melting polar ice, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appealed to the world for urgent measures to be taken to combat climate change to protect the planet for future generations.

Witnessing the impacts of climate change on icebergs and glaciers first-hand, he said that he was informed by scientists that global warming is altering the Arctic faster than any other area. “We must stop this from further happening, “the Secretary-General stressed. “Unless we fight climate change, unless we stop this trend, we’ll have devastating consequences for humanity.” “We do not have any time to lose, “Mr. Ban underscored.

My Comment: Countries will not be able to come to any agreement. The Creator won’t allow it, since it might calm them down. By giving us blows,  He forces us to recognize the cause of the crises – interpersonal egoism, and He will force us to accept the method of correction – Kabbalah.

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The Revelation Of Opposites Is The Springboard For Spiritual Ascent

authorEverything new in the world is born out of the sensation of an internal conflict, a contradiction of two opposites inside a single object. This sensation is unbearable, which is why it drives us to resolve the conflict. A person is unable to tolerate two opposites together.

This stems from the state before the First Restriction, when the creature senses that it receives from the Creator and is opposite to Him. This is why we cannot bear the sensation of discovering two opposites together.

Humanity is about to reveal this, and when it does, it will be in utter shock: on the one hand, we are connected to each other, and on the other hand, we hate each other. We will then be forced to solve the problem.

Therefore, the revelation of opposites is a necessary starting point for change. It is like a trampoline that facilitates the jump, because this sensation pressures us so powerfully that we simply have no other option but to break out of this state.

Hence, the faster these opposite forces are revealed in society – our inner hate for one another along with the necessity to unite and love, the way nature inherently does, the faster humanity will be compelled to solve this problem. Indeed, this duality is the reason for all the crises we are experiencing today. That is how we will reveal “the advantage of the Light from the darkness.”
(From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

The Journey From Nothingness To Perfection

rootsOn the spiritual degrees, the difference between opposites is much less bearable than in our world. After all, everything comes from the initial state, where the Creator, who is Good and Does Good, created egoism – the desire to receive pleasure, which is opposite to Him.

The Creator is inside this desire, which he manages. The desire to receive and the desire to bestow are outcomes of a single force, the Creator. We are incapable of withstanding the manifestation of these opposite desires from a single source until we reach Final Correction.

But when we do, we will see that these two opposites can be together, because then, in that point which was created as “something from nothing,” the material from which it was created – the absence of the Creator – becomes annihilated. This point then becomes completely bestowing, like Him.

This is why the existence of opposites is the reason for all of creation’s development until its final correction.
(From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

5 Minutes Of Light From The Daily Lesson: 3 Lines Of Progress

Desires Know No Distance

connectA question I received: There are thousands of people all over the world studying together with us through television and internet. They can watch the lessons and buy Kabbalah books. But what should they do if they don’t have a physical group nearby that they can join in order to receive the necessary forces?

My Answer: What difference does it make where a person is located when he listens to the lesson – in front of a TV screen, or in the lesson hall where I teach live? A person is located wherever his desire is. That’s why I feel thousands of people and their desires next to me, but someone else could be sitting right by my side and I won’t even feel him.

It makes no difference what part of the world a person is in. The distance may even be helping him. I feel how the people who get together in different parts of the planet are contributing an enormous force by participating in the Daily Kabbalah Lesson.

This happens because every person’s individual force is multiplied by the distance and the weakness he feels due to being far away from us, due to not feeling a direct influence. This adds up to a tremendous force.

So, no matter what corner of the world our friends are located, they are truly very close to us.
(From Part 3 of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)

Persistence Is The Guarantee For Success

currentsWe advance under the influence of two opposite forces: bestowal (the Creator’s force) and reception (man’s force). It’s impossible to have a situation where only one force is present, similar to how in our world you can’t have one pole without the other.

Thus, each of us is influenced by these two forces at every moment in life. In addition, these forces are balanced so as to create a condition of freedom for us – the freedom to advance toward spirituality, toward the quality of bestowal.

This is why we are always in a “fracture zone,” if you will. One moment you’re excited, full of energy and movement, and the next moment you fall so low that you have no energy to move. The system of governance conceals the things that impede our development and creates various inner states for us, which depict the surrounding world. But all of this is in order for each of us to realize his free choice.

A person’s task is to do everything that’s in his power in every situation. Even if he thinks, “I’m good for nothing, and I’m definitely not fit for doing spiritual work. It’s intended for great people who have a lot of energy and talent.” Well, that’s just not true! It’s not the strong people who merit to reveal the Upper World, but the people who keep treading the path toward it! The souls that end up reaching the greatest heights are those that start their ascent from the very depth of egoism.

If a person has any opportunity to advance, then even if it’s purely egoistic, and even if he’s imagining all kinds of enticing rewards for his egoism – this is still a good thing! This is similar to how a donkey does work with its eyes tied by a cloth and a sac of grain dangling in front of its nose. This makes him walk around in circles and turn the wheels that turn the grain (an animal’s food), into flour (a human’s food). This is how an animal grows into a human being.

So, don’t pay too much attention to the conditions you are given, whether external or internal. All the states that we go through, regardless of how silly or useless they seem to us, are always the most useful for our advancement. We only have to try and do everything we can, like a baby that never gives up and is always tireless and enthusiastic. If we remain just as persistent, then we will definitely succeed!
(From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson)