Evening Zohar Lesson – 04.04.10

The Book of Zohar – Selection for Passover, Chapter “BeShalach,” Item 228
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In Search Of My Soul

Dr. Michael Laitman A question I received: What desires within me belong to the "stony heart" that will be corrected in the very end during the final correction?

My Answer: All desires which are discussed in the wisdom of Kabbalah, such as GE, AHP, and the stony heart, are our broken desires. We were once connected together through them, but this connection broke apart. These desires are not at all directed to the fulfillments of this world.

In fact, the broken desires which exist between us are actually the absence of connection between us, but we don’t feel them whatsoever. Do I really feel that I’m disconnected from you, that I miss this connection and it’s broken? Do I really regret that I hate you?

We don’t even sense the desires which require correction. For now there is nothing to correct since we don’t see what’s missing and broken. This is why none of us have desires belonging to the soul except for the single point in a heart (in those who already have it awakened). It becomes the beginning of our soul if we start discerning our connections requiring correction within it.

At the same time the ordinary human desires have no relation to our connection with other souls. This is why we don’t have a soul yet, but only material bodily desires which are not related to the soul.

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5 Minutes Of Light From The Daily Kabbalah Lesson: Growing Up

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.04.10

Preparation to the Lesson
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Preparation to the Lesson: The Book of Zohar – Selection for Passover, Chapter “VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled),” Item 426
The Light of Hochma is sensed as darkness or night. Daytime only comes to a person when he clothes the Light of Hochma into the Light of Hassadim.
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The Book of Zohar – Selection for Passover, Chapter “VaYikahel (And Moses Assembled),” Item 429
The extent of my readiness to help with the correction of the world determines the extent of what I’ll receive in order to pass it along.
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Shaar HaKavanot, Concerning Passover Exodus, Lesson 5
I do not exit from Egypt; I surrender to the Light, which leads me out of Egypt, elevating me three spiritual degrees higher.
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Writings of Rabash, Article 12, 1988, Shlavey HaSulam, “Shmot,”  Vol. 2, Page 20
A state of “concealment” is not one of fogginess or confusion; rather, it’s a clear understanding, a desire, an aspiration towards that which I’m so desperately lacking.
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All Of Humanity Is In Exile

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday humanity as a whole is very close to coming out of Egypt. More and more people feel the need to revise their life values and establish new priorities. Every person needs to perform his own calculation: What is he living for and why?

There are situations in our life when the battle for survival, for one’s existence, drowns out all these questions. After all, usually a question about the meaning of life arises when a person feels that he has achieved "everything" in this life, regardless of what level he is on. The question that then emerges in him is more elevated than his every day life.

We see that this question already engages large segments of humanity. It occurs unconsciously and it "chips away" at us from within. This is why there is dissemination of Kabbalah. It provides the explanation about what is happening in our era, why more and more people are suffering from depression, committing suicide, using drugs, getting divorced, and why the wave of terror is growing. It explains why the question regarding the meaning of life is arising and not leaving us, what is happening to our children, and why we can’t run from these questions even with a personal psychologist.

Humanity is unconsciously preparing itself for an ascent to a new era. Either through suffering or consciously, we aspire to connect into one spiritual vessel (Kli) as is instilled in nature, where we will perceive life as eternal and perfect.

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Are You Ready To Run?

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe work and prepare ourselves for an ascent to a spiritual degree, but we can only put in effort and nothing else. The action itself is carried out by the Light. A person has no strength to rise above himself. He cannot grab himself by the hair and drag himself out of the egoistic slump.

The result of our whole work is called "labored and found," for the Upper Light acts. The exodus from Egypt is carried out through "an awakening from Above," due to the revelation of a great Light, GAR de Hochma.

The Light is revealed, yet we have no clothing of Hassadim on it, and therefore we cannot perceive this Light. Thus it is called Egyptian darkness, night rather than day, and instead of rising by the spiritual degrees it occurs through a run, a leap. Pesach (Passover) comes from the word "skip" (Pesach).

This ascent occurs with a person as one impulse: outside of time, motion, space, and any human assessments. After all, everything is carried out by a force of influence from Above. Therefore, we need to be prepared for this exit.

It happens suddenly, in a hurry. A moment before a person is unable to imagine the state when he will be right before the exit from Egypt, and that it is just about to happen. It transpires in a completely unplanned manner. And in regard to the transition itself, it is written that when the Creator performs this with us, it is as though we are in a dream….

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All The First-born In The Land Of Egypt

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Zohar, Chapter “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” Item 118: A firstborn is considered Hochma, and “All the firstborn” indicates that even the higher and lower degrees were broken from their dominion… ” Item 119: “From the first-born of Pharaoh that sits upon his throne…even unto the first-born of the maid-servant…."

A firstborn is GAR, the head of the Partzuf, and it needs to subside in Egypt. Everything that was perceived in the desire to receive pleasure as a stable basis of life, which supposedly could be achieved egoistically, is now being destroyed: "From the firstborn of Pharaoh unto the firstborn of the maid servant and the firstborn of the cattle."

Egoism grows, the Light cannot fill it, and Egyptian darkness comes about. It seems to us that the attitude of the Upper Governance with regard to us changes, but in reality the Light exists in absolute rest while the desire to receive pleasure in us increases constantly. If we don’t correct it in time, we feel greater and greater darkness and suffering within it.
At the end of the Egyptian slavery our desire increases through a leap, and it is revealed with a new force on the next level. It is there that a person feels Egyptian darkness, the ten plagues, which is egoism revealed in all of its ten Sefirot, meaning in a complete desire displaying darkness and evil. The desire has grown, and we have stopped feeling even that minor illumination within it which we had experienced before.

The ceasing of the former Light in the new, great desire to receive pleasure is called the execution of all the firstborns in the dark night, "from the firstborn of Pharaoh unto the firstborn of the maid servant and the firstborn of the cattle." This means that the Light has been concealed and is no longer revealed.

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Beautiful Moment, Do Not Pass Away!

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Creator’s goal is to elevate us to His level. The desire to receive pleasure that was made by the Creator is a channel through which we sense our life. This is the only property that exists outside of Him.

For this reason we always experience a shortage of fulfillment. We constantly feel as if something is missing and we continually aspire to a new fulfillment. When the Light fills the desire to receive pleasure, it disappears immediately. The Light cancels the desire and thus the desire no longer feels fulfillment.

That’s why the life that we sense through the desire to receive pleasure seems temporary and transient. Each passing moment erases itself instead of staying and supplementing the following moment.

When the desire and the pleasure meet, they neutralize each other even if the pleasure is minimal. Our life is built of digital contacts and minimal meetings between the desire (Kli) and the Light that immediately disappears; this process happens throughout our whole life and ends with our death.

Let’s say, one has a certain number of desires (a “quota” for life) consisting of several million small portions of the desire to receive pleasure that reveal themselves one after another. Against each of them there is the Light that fills them. The moment they meet together, they disappear. When we utilize all the desires in our “life allowance quota,” our life ends.

If we manage to arrange for the Light and the desire to “catch” each other at the time of their “meeting” and make them “stay” together, we start sensing the Light caught in the desire as our eternal infinite life. The moment stops sliding away; it stays and elevates us above time. We stop the moment and by doing so manage to attain eternal existence!

This is “the patent” of spiritual eternity and perfection that we attain with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

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Spiritual Roots Of The Traditions Of This World

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: I always thought that BB was a non-religious organization and that it never forced secular people to follow religious traditions, but recently I heard that you are following Kashrut (Jewish dietary laws) during Passover. Please explain. Also, please give us your opinion on whether you suggest that everybody should follow the tradition.

My Answer: We are an educational organization and have nothing to do with religion of any kind. We are based strictly and exclusively on the principles of Kabbalah as they are stated in three authentic Kabbalistic sources:  The Zohar, the works of the Ari, and those of Baal HaSulam (Rabash). We follow their advice in everything. If you have any concerns, please ask us and insist that we show you our source of information.

Even though Bnei Baruch is not a religious organization and doesn’t follow any religious traditions (“commandments” – Mitzvot), we still are practicing the actions that in our world constitute the branches that stem from spiritual roots. On the surface it looks like we observe Judaic tradition, but in fact they originate from totally different intentions and aim at internal and external connection with their spiritual roots.

I strongly advise you to re-read the “Passover Story” and Ari’s commentary to it, The Gates of Intention (Shaar HaKavanot).  You will understand why by observing specific actions we become elevated over our egoism (see also Baal HaSulam’s article “This Is for Judah.”)

Abraham’s group started to follow “irrational” earthly rituals after they managed to produce spiritual actions within their corrected desires and clarified their bodily analogies. They perceived spiritual and earthly actions as one whole (the root and the branch or the cause and the consequence).

When we fell from the level of spiritual understanding of the commandments (destruction of the Second Temple), we continued to follow only our bodily traditions rather than spiritual and physical actions interlaced together. That’s when the religions of this world were initiated.

Today we have to attain the spiritual world and reveal the spiritual actions. This will transform our customary traditions into spiritual actions. Instead of performing forceful or mechanical actions we will act consciously and will clearly see the impact of our actions onto the Upper World. That is, the attainment comes first; it is followed by the actions that stem from it.

I wish you all to “exit Egypt” and to get correct intentions while you are at the festive dinner table!

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