Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson
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Preface to the Sulam Commentary of The Zohar
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Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”, Lesson #6
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 37, 1927
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A question I received: How is it possible to justify all the things that happen in this world?
My Answer: Let’s say we are in Malchut of the World of Assiya, and there’s a higher degree – Yesod of the World of Assiya. (See Baal HaSulam’s article, “Preface to the Book of Zohar.”) So, everything that happens in this world comes to us from that Upper Degree.
To ascend to that degree means to become equal to it, to unite with it, to annul yourself before it, to love it and become like it. But how can you unite with something you hate? You can’t! In other words, the condition of ascending to the higher, adjacent degree is agreeing to everything that happens on your degree (in your world), because you receive everything from the Upper Degree.
Our task is to annul our ego and adhere to the Upper One completely. You should have only one inner discord or one source of pain – that there are still uncorrected desires (Klipot) standing in your way, not letting you attain the complete correction of the world. They should be the only target of your hate, and you should feel love for everything else.
In addition, the hate towards the Klipot should be directed precisely and be based on the understanding that it’s the left line, which comes to you from the Creator. You have to wish to correct the Klipot, but not to annihilate them.
In summary, the prerequisite of adhesion (ascension, unity) with Him is to completely conform to the Upper One.
A question I received: In our world, if I want to obtain information I need for performing an action, I can choose from a variety of TV channels, radio stations and books. Why then can’t I receive information from the spiritual world in order to know how to act? After all, I’m completely controlled from Above anyway.
My Answer: The problem exists only from your perspective and not from the perspective of the Upper Level. The entire problem is that you don’t feel how you are controlled from Above. You don’t feel the strings that are pulling you like a puppet.
It is impossible to feel the Upper Level and Its governance over you until you develop the appropriate sense with which to perceive It. The Upper Level is inside you, and that’s why you don’t feel It. You have to try to connect with your external environment as if it is you. This is why we are in a state where we have the sensation of other people, those who are alien and foreign to us. It’s in order for us to try and connect with them as if they are a part of us.
If you use the right environment (the group – see Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Freedom”) in order to create an inner quality that can perceive your neighbor as yourself (meaning, someone close to you because they have the same goal – to reach the Creator), then through that same quality, you will also feel the Upper World, the Creator as well as His governance over you and the whole world. You will be able to feel the strings that cause you to move.
The Upper Level is not somewhere high above you. The Upper Level is your next level, “you + 1.” Today this level is the Creator relative to you, but tomorrow it will be you, and then the Creator will be an even higher level.
A question I received: Is there a difference between Hebrew and other languages in the world?
My Answer: Baal HaSulam writes that Hebrew is the language of the Light and Aramaic is the language of the vessel of reception (the Kli). These two languages correspond to the front and back side, respectively. They are the main languages in Kabbalah because the geometrical shape of their letters portrays the connection between the Light and the desires (Kelim).
But these are just basic languages because they emerged in the very beginning of the division of Babylon and humanity’s separation from each other. The letters mark the properties of the corrected souls (the vessels, Kelim). The horizontal lines correspond to the spreading of the Light of Hassidim, and the vertical lines of the letters correspond to spreading of the Light of Hochma.
Other languages emerged from the ever-growing egoistic separation between people from the time of ancient Babylon, when egoism was revealed in flashes in the basic human civilization. These languages are not artificial, since people invented them from within their own nature. However, they arose far from the Source, from the breaking that happened in Babylon. That is why Kabbalists did not give us any explanations of the letters of these “secondary” languages, and did not describe which property and connection each letter portrays between the Light and the Kli.
In both Hebrew and Aramaic, each letter is a model, a symbol, and a recording of the connection between the Light and the Kli. It is a connection of the properties of Bina and Malchut: nine letters of ZAT of Bina, nine letters of Zeir Anpin, four letters of Malchut and the five final letters (Mantzepach), as well as the shape corresponding to their properties.
Therefore, a person studying the science of Kabbalah has to know the elements of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In fact, their geometrical shape conveys the spiritual properties of Malchut and the extent of its remoteness from Bina.
The letter itself is a recording of a spiritual state. A person should attain the properties of all the letters (meaning, the connections between the properties of reception – Malchut and bestowal – Bina) and “write them down” in his heart (his desire) in the correct order. He will then receive the whole text of the Torah, as it is written, “Record it in your heart!”
A question I received: Why are there so many words in our world while there are none in the spiritual world?
My Answer: In our world, egoism separates us from each other and forces us to develop all kinds of egoistic connections above all the differences between us. That’s how languages are created.
Language is a program that gives us the ability to connect. It is much like the software program in a computer supplying the language that makes it possible to create connections between different parts of the operating system and memory. The computer by itself is an empty shell with a bunch of microchips, but the installed program describes how all the microchips and systems interact. Language is very much the same in that it’s just a program of connection between us.
All our development lies only in the development of our language, from the egoistic levels of still, vegetative, and animate to the “human” language of bestowal. That is all we do. All types of connections between us, such as culture, religion, education, trade, manufacturing, and all other types of connections created by society during humanity’s history, are reflective of the development of language, the connection between us.
Through language in its different forms, people are trying to egoistically compensate for the lack of altruistic connection between them, which disappeared after the breaking of the one Soul into a multitude of souls. All through our development, we have been aiming to create egoistic interconnections between us, in order to compensate for the lack of spiritual, altruistic connections.
Development of the Internet, mobile communications, trade and cultural exchange have brought us to global, egoistic connections. But the crisis caused by these connections is the crisis of incorrect connections between us, and that is why we now feel that there must be another type of connection, another language, which is one for all. That language is one of bestowal and revelation of the Creator between us.
Each person has his own egoism, his own language, so people must now reveal that the time in which we are now living is a time when all the world languages will transform into a single language of mutual bestowal.
(From the Daily Lesson on the article “The Essence of the Science of Kabbalah” 10.26.09)
Currently we wish to approach the Creator from below upwards in order to attain Him. However, when we disseminate, we move together with Him. Therefore, a person who does this is considered an equal partner of the Creator.
The Creator cannot carry out the dissemination instead of us or disclose Himself in our world. If the Creator was revealed in our world, we would automatically aspire for Him like for something incredibly valuable, great, and worthy. Then, we would never get rid of our egoism. Our egoism would be obsessed with the Creator to such an extent that we would go crazy wishing to receive His fulfillment. Therefore, He has to conceal Himself until we perform a restriction on ourselves and rise above our egoism.
When we do, we will be able to reveal Him in order to become similar and, at the same time, opposite to Him. If I make this shield or screen for myself that blocks me from Him, then the Creator can be revealed. There will still be a 100% concealment between us. The only question is: does He conceal Himself, or do I conceal my egoism from Him? To the extent that I form my own screen, the Creator can take the screen off of Himself. The dissemination of Kabbalah, the revelation of the Creator to the creation, is not something that goes against us. Rather, it is when we move together with Him and become His partners.
Then we will even be able to walk ahead of Him by disseminating the knowledge about how to reveal Him. We will then be His messengers, agents, and helpers – His hands. That’s how important our mission is to the Creator, let alone to all the people who are suffering like small, foolish children, without even understanding why they are suffering.
I always repeat that in order to succeed in the study of Kabbalah, we have to disseminate it. However, I feel that “dissemination” is not a good word because it makes me sound like a salesman or an insurance agent who is pushing his policies to everyone. When we talk about disseminating Kabbalah, it may sound as though we are trying to impose something on others.
Today the word “dissemination” is associated with commerce and dissemination of goods. Thus, when we speak about the dissemination of Kabbalah, those who are unfamiliar with the term think that it involves commerce or business, that we are selling something and making a profit. In other words, this word is very slippery.
But actually, our entire life constitutes dissemination, because the real meaning of this word is drawing closer to the Creator, spreading, expanding, revealing and attaining. All of creation begins with dissemination. That is to say, it starts out as a single point, where suddenly, out of nothingness, something that exists is born – Yesh Mi Ain (something out of nothing), and then it proceeds to disseminate through the four stages of Direct Light, producing all the worlds down to our world.
The last spiritual degree bursts into our world with a single, tiny spiritual charge. All the matter of our world, the whole universe, is born from this one spark in a process called the Big Bang, and then disseminates further. It develops in this manner until it forms our solar system, our terrestrial globe, and everything that exists here.
All of this pertains to the dissemination of the Creator onto the created beings in order to bring creation to equivalence with Him. This happens under the influence of the Light, His quality of bestowal. Indeed, any birth or development constitutes dissemination. In other words, the true, inner quality of dissemination is a partnership with the Creator. It means helping the Creator deliver and reveal His idea to the world by acting together with Him.
As a Kabbalah teacher, I am starting to “free up” more and more material from within myself, and the material is becoming denser and deeper than before. This is the call of the times to accelerate the correction. Whoever is able to “grab onto” our lessons and their new rhythm will be able to advance faster.
Today we have to bring to life everything that we talk about at the lessons. It’s not enough to just understand it. We have to implement it inside us every day, so the words said at the morning lesson will become our actions throughout the day.
The years we have spent studying did not go by in vain, and now we can do this practically, together with hundreds of thousands of people participating in the same process. If we do it together with all our friends and those who watch and listen to the lesson from all over the world, then it is possible.
In addition, every beginner can do this together with us by connecting to everyone and making whatever efforts he can. It’s similar to how children are born and then use everything that was created for them. That is how a person who’s new to the spiritual path can become part of the general movement together with us.
The most important thing is to develop a habit of constantly controlling one’s personal advancement and the general advancement.
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