Evening Zohar Lesson – 04.07.10

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And The Lord Appeared),” Item 381
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Mutual Guarantee Is An Inner Intention

Laitman_0002 The Creator constantly confuses a person by placing obstacles before him all along his spiritual path. And it so happens that the joyful occurrences confuse us even more than the troubles. We suddenly uncover extraordinary opportunities, find success in business, have a chance to go on an exciting trip, and many other small temptations that come to us at every moment.

This causes us to start revealing that we don’t have any ability to control our state without the support of the environment, which is called “mutual guarantee.” If I don’t have global, universal support, with thousands of people all over the world also aspiring to reveal the Creator, despite all the obstacles which He deliberately places before us, then I cannot go through the “49 gates” – the obstacles that separate me from the Creator. And then I cannot reach the last, 50th gate, where I unite with Him. (40 designates the distance from Malchut to Bina, and 10 is my own structure. Together they add up to 50.)

If I am not connected to people who are doing the same thing, then it’s all over for me and I will never attain the goal. I will stretch this work out for several lifetimes, and unfortunately, this is what is happening to people.

Even conventional science is now revealing that human thoughts are interconnected and transferred miraculously from one end of the world to the other. Scientists explain this by saying that our very nature causes us to think in synchrony. However, we who study Kabbalah understand that we are simply connected to one another through our desires within one common net of souls. That is why my thoughts and desires are transferred to everyone else.

Moreover, if we aspire toward the spiritual goal, then with this thought we begin to actively influence everyone and it spreads all along the entire system. Mutual guarantee is this inner intention, rather than sending each other SMSs over the phone. Mutual guarantee is when I think about spirituality, I desire it, and I’m burning with the desire for others to think about the same goal as well. Then I am redeemed from the angel of death.

If others don’t think about this, then nothing will help me and I will never be able to make the right calculation. I will always be distracted by something else. I won’t have the basis, the connecting net that holds me inside like a mother holding a baby in her hands. Without this, it’s impossible to attain our goal.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/10, The Zohar

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In Spirituality, Everything Is The Other Way Around

Laitman_0003 Baal HaSulam, Beit Shaar HaKavanot (The Gatehouse of Intentions): “The Moon waned on the fourth day of creation, for in the beginning Zeir Anpin and Nukvah were as two great lights, standing on the same degree, back to back, and Nukvah had a full spiritual Partzuf of ten Sefirot of the reverse side. [This means Nukvah contained spiritual vessels. Why, then, did she lack lights?] When the Moon made a complaint, saying that two kings cannot use the same crown (Keter), she was told, ‘Go and diminish yourself!’ Thus, she returned to a point beneath Yesod of Zeir Anpin, where she dwelled prior.

Malchut (creation) thought that she could be the same as Zeir Anpin; however, she could not shine as he. She ascended to Bina in order to receive Light like Zeir Anpin, but was unable to. This was for the reason that Zeir Anpin possesses the quality of bestowal. His nature is the Light of Hassadim and He feels perfection even when there is no Light of Hochma. He shines with the Light of Hochma anytime he wishes so because he always has the Light of Hassadim.

However, Malchut does not have the Light of Hassadim and she feels her existence in the Light of Hochma as darkness. This constitutes the complaint made by creation (Kitrug Yareach): “I can ascend to the height of the very World of Infinity, but if I don’t have the Light of Hassadim, the Light of Bestowal, then the Light of Hochma won’t shine for me and I will only feel greater darkness.”

When do we reveal that we are in the dark? It’s precisely at the time when we are being elevated! When we are slightly elevated upward, it makes us feel that we lack the corrected desires, the Light of Hassadim. This is what we perceive as darkness.

We don’t feel darkness because we fall, but because we ascend; however, it’s because we ascend without the garment of the Light of Hassadim, the Light of love and bestowal. What we consider descent is actually the ascent, but one that is not corrected. Likewise, what seems to us as an ascent is really a descent, because we receive what we are given into the desires of reception. Thus, everything is the other way around in the spiritual world.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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“6,000 Years” Or How To Hasten Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: If there is no time in spirituality, then why is it written that correction occurs over a period of six thousand years?

My Answer: Baal HaSulam explains the meaning of “6,000 years” in “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar,” “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” as well as other articles. “6,000 years” are the VAK of Zeir Anpin, which need to be realized in relation to Malchut.

When Malchut, the seventh Sefira, reveals all these six qualities, called “6,000 years,” inside itself, it is called the “seventh day,” “Sabbath,” or the “seventh millennium.” Only then Malchut becomes filled for the sake of bestowal.

Therefore, these qualities are called “6,000 years.” Year (Shana) comes from the word “to change” (Shone). We need to experience these degrees one after the other. On one hand, we’re not talking about years in our world. On the other, if we don’t hasten time, then in accordance with the connection of root and branch, the perception of time in our world will comply with its root and the process of correction will actually end in six thousand years.

However, we can change the length and the essence of six thousand years; we can shorten and compress them. Nevertheless, they’ll be called “6,000 years” because we do not cut off degrees, yet according to corporeal time, it will be less.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/10, The Zohar

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Inheritance Of The Land Of Israel

Dr. Michael Laitman“The people of Israel will not return to their land until they are completely united.” The people of Israel are a group that Abraham once organized by selecting them from among the Babylonians. He wanted to correct the whole world but managed to gather just a few thousand people in this group.

However, the Torah does not speak about historical events, rather about internal states through which a person passes. The property of Abraham within us takes a part of our desires and leads them to a partial correction, and then to a shattering (a fall of the Temple, or descent from the spiritual level to exile).

Exiles are required in order for desires that have been in spirituality (Israel), to mix with the rest of desires that did not go through spiritual ascent and shattering (called “nations of the world”). After mixing together and becoming included in one another, all of them are prepared for corrections. In other words, everyone now has a part that has been in spirituality, and a part that hasn’t.

Those who went through the ascent and shattering must be the first to undergo corrections because they contain Reshimot (data about previous states). After this others will awaken. Everyone must come to understand that the “Israel” within, meaning the desires aspiring to the Creator, will not attain their land (Eretz) or corrected “desire (Ratzon) “straight to the Creator” (Isra-El), in which the Creator becomes revealed, until they all unite to become “as one man with one heart.”

This is the requirement Kabbalists tell us about. We must implement it in a small part of the soul inside each of us, as well as in a big part of the soul among all Kabbalah groups in the world, and in yet an even bigger part of the soul, which includes all of humanity. Thus, this necessary requirement begins to be realized starting from a very material level.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/10, “Inheritance of the Land”

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Independence-From-Egoism Day

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: If a person concludes that there’s no need for Kabbalah since he has a good job, a family, and everything is fine in this life, then how will that person reach spirituality?

My Answer: It means that the time hasn’t come yet. We disseminate the knowledge of Kabbalah for everyone, and anyone who needs it will use it. However, in order to aspire to spirituality, corporeal suffering is completely unnecessary. A person reveals spirituality only under the condition that it is the only thing one lacks.

The words “exile” and “freedom” differ only with the letter “Aleph,” which means “Ruler of the world;” a person only lacks the Creator and doesn’t take anything else into account. One could have endless possibilities in this world, but this has nothing to do with the desire to reveal the Creator. For example, I never had any material problems, yet the need to reveal spirituality gnawed away at me as though I had nothing at all in this life.

It’s written that Jews in Egypt built great cities of Pithom and Raamses. They had everything necessary on the material level, but they possessed nothing with which to revive their souls. Therefore, they cried out from that work since they couldn’t achieve spirituality.

Hence, the instrument for spiritual revelation is only the need to reveal the Creator so that a person would be governed by the quality of bestowal. If all that one lacks is bestowing to everyone, then such a person is ready for spiritual redemption. Redemption is when one is able to not think about himself, and to give to everyone else.

We’re approaching the Independence Day holiday in Israel and we need to know this. After all, we can only be independent from our egoism. A “free nation in its land” is freedom from our egoistic desire, which will be governed by the quality of bestowal. Only then we’ll be free.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/10, “Inheritance of the Land”

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“Hear O Israel!” (“Shema Israel!”)

Dr. Michael Laitman“The day” is not “sunshine,” rather it is the revelation of the spiritual Light to a person. Revelation can happen several times per month, once in a lifetime or at every given second.

Each time revelation is complete and perfect. That’s why a person has to say: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). When a person pronounces these words it means that he attained “the One,” and revealed the Single and the Only Force of Nature.

“Listen” stands for the level of Bina (hearing, ear), “Isra-El” means someone who is heading “straight to the Creator;” Malchut rising to Zeir Anpin (ZA) and then ascending, together with ZA, to Bina is “The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” In other words, everything merges into Bina and becomes One Whole.

The souls that connect within Malchut bond with ZA and unite with Bina; all of them are included into one word “Oneness.” The word “Oneness” summarizes the whole process of correction redeemed by a person when he reaches a state called “He and His revelation are One” (Hu Ve Shmo Ehad.) This explains why the prayer “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one” became a sign of redemption and fulfillment.

This is how we are supposed to announce that we reached a new state at each level we go through, every “day.”  To “speak” means not only to attain, but also be able to express our attainment.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/10, The Zohar

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Cultural Inventions Of Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanA question I received: My friends sent me a video clip, “The Western Wall,” that was presented on a Christian video club site. There are sequences including footage of you that was shot at Baal HaSulam’s tomb. Could you please comment on this?

My Answer: Our archives contain movies that were shot during our trips to great Kabbalistic sites in 1999 including Safed and the Idra Raba cave. The titles of the movies are, The Nights of Kabbalah and We, Bnei Baruch. I have no idea where the creators of the video clip in question got the footage.

We’re well-known; many people study our concepts and materials. I’ve already mentioned in this blog that people write dissertations about us in universities all over the world (for example, at Cairo University). Also, in the United States, I’ve lectured at many universities, and there are quite a few people who study our activities. We have a large educational organization in the Midwest, in  St. Louis, that accommodates many Protestant and Catholic students. We’re open to everyone.

By all means, one can continue observing his own religion and stick to his or her traditions, but, in order to correct our egoism and advance spiritually, we have to study Kabbalah. Imagine that two things are excluded from each religion: 1) teachings about “afterlife” and 2) rules of controlling our destiny (which, by the way, have nothing to do with any religion). Without these two major elements, any religion simply turns into a set of routine traditions and becomes a sort of a “weekend get-together club.” There is nothing else to it.

“Afterlife” is revealed to a person through our current reality by attracting the Light while studying Kabbalah. It’s possible to control our destiny only by attracting Ohr Makif (the Surrounding Light) and by using The Book of Zohar, each and every one of us, for our personal benefit.

Kabbalists aren’t against any religion, but intend to treat them rather as cultural inventions of humankind and not more than that. If we stick to this approach, spiritual exploitation and religious dictatorship will cease to exist and humankind will attain enlightenment.

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.07.10

Preparation to the Lesson, Shamati #77 “One Learns From One’s Soul
Humanity can no longer develop without a spiritual goal. It will advance only if it takes an upward course.
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYaera (And the Lord Appeared),” Item 367
Guarantee is a constant inner unrest and worry for others, without whose help, I can’t save myself from a deadly threat.
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Beit Shaar HaKavanot, Item 60, Lesson 20
The Worlds BYA Conceal the Upper Light and on the other hand they reveal it by means of engagements.
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Article, “Exile and Redemption,” Lesson 1

 In the spiritual system each part is connected to all the others; therefore, by correction itself it corrects others.
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