Sailing Toward The Goal On The Waves Of The Zohar

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe flow of the actual story, which waves come at us and in what form is not so important. What is important is that I am always sailing on these waves with the intention of reaching the goal.

The actual story may be expressed in all kinds of forms; this does not matter. The important thing is for me to always stay above the narration of The Zohar and think only about what I want to attain through the reading. I want to attain the force of bestowal!

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/19/2010, The Zohar

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Kabbalah Moments: Make Use Of The Book

Be Your Own Observer

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have many different desires inside and each of them must go through correction in a specific order. Depending on the connection of desires inside the soul, a person reveals his connection with other people.

Therefore, we do not know the true reasons for the states we go through, but we have to understand that their order is predetermined. The only thing that depends on us is how to go through them: by way of Light or by way of suffering. In any case, without understanding why it is happening, we will have to accept the revelation of any state as a useful occurrence.

We don’t have any control over the things that are already happening. We have to accept the things that come to us with gratitude, correct them, and move on. We should never try to reject the next state because we thereby refuse to accept the means that are given to us for our advancement.

There are no states that do not facilitate advancement. Therefore, we shouldn’t torture ourselves with doubts: Is this a good state or a bad one? We shouldn’t give them any personal attitude. It’s best to look at the things happening to you “from aside,” as if you are an outside observer. I have to go through this state, and that means I act, go through it, and advance onwards. Everything is for the best (HaKol Le Tova)!

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/19/2010, The Zohar

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The Connection Between Group And Enterprise

Dr. Michael LaitmanEveryone thinks that the “enterprise” refers to the work we carry out during the day, whereas group work entails our mutual studying. However, this is incorrect. The “enterprise” is everything that pertains to releasing our materials, media, preparation for various events, and other physical and material work. If we are preparing food for the Saturday meal right now, this pertains to the enterprise. There is a head chef, the people responsible, and workers who execute everything, and it doesn’t matter whether they are volunteers or paid workers.

On the other hand, the group is a unification of ideas where each person annuls his egoism and is willing to unite with others in order to achieve a spiritual state. This is different from how we unite in order to publish a newspaper, a website, a TV program, and so on. All of these actions are group actions in character, but in order to produce a desired result everyone needs to be willing to unite in a pyramid where there is a boss and a subordinate, like in any enterprise. We have to do this in order to release a product.

It doesn’t matter whether people receive a salary or not, what hours they work, and whether they are preparing a meal at the center or shooting a TV program. Even though we initially made a voluntary decision to unite on equal grounds, nevertheless if you are a manager, you give me orders, and as a subordinate I am obliged to execute them.

In other words, as we approach any task, we make a voluntary commitment according to our abilities, and we also make a commitment to follow an order, to stay disciplined and abide by the hierarchy. Thus, on the inside we are all equal; we are a group in the form of a circle. But externally we have a relationship of manager and employee in the form of a pyramid. Nonetheless, everyone unites as one.

Unification at the enterprise is when we unite in order to realize the connection of friends in the framework of the enterprise. We maintain the hierarchy because we wish to maintain our unification. The desire to be in the group obliges me to follow the hierarchy and I bow my head and listen to the person who is appointed as my manager.

Let’s suppose that today I was sent to work in the kitchen and I carry out what I am ordered to do by the team leader. Although I may be smarter and more skilled, the friends decided that we would work according to a duty schedule. I come to my duty and there we are not friends. I need to inspire myself to work by receiving the fuel from the group, but I need to work in a way that is appropriate for an enterprise.

Even though a person might come to our center for just a few hours after his day job, for the duration of these few hours he becomes a worker for the enterprise the same as though he were getting paid for the work. That’s because he comes there in order to receive either spiritual or material advancement. He receives fulfillment and it doesn’t matter in what form! Yet, for some reason people separate one thing from the other and are surprised when someone demands something from them, People think, “Aren’t we friends in the group?” No! We are workers of the spiritual front! We are working for the Creator.

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The Beginning Of Practical Ascension

Dr. Michael LaitmanAt each Kabbalah Convention we accumulate a “covering” (screen), the force of mutual bestowal that we are ready to work with. A convention is like a large group. We gather people and unite them, and this makes us ready to carry out a mutual goal like a combat squad. However, if we get together just to sing and dance and then go our separate ways, then what’s the point? A convention has to be the place where we do mutual work!

Depending on the states we go through, we will decide how often we should hold these conventions. As we become more sensitive, we will understand when and where we should hold every subsequent convention, how big it should be, and whether it should be regional or worldwide.

Our entire life will be built upon these mutual ascents and descents and they will also determine all of the work done by our factory. Otherwise what are we living for if not for spiritual advancement? The faster we do all of this work, the faster we will reach the entrance to the spiritual world and start ascending up 125 spiritual levels.

For now we are only learning about how to make this ascent, but it is already very close. Once we go through several more exercises like this, we will be ready to work with the Lights and Kelim. It’s not because we are getting smarter and learning the theory, but because we are building a collective force that is a spiritual vessel.

Through these actions we reveal the common force of the group, its soul. With each convention we build it more and more and start to feel how the Light acts within it. That is how we pass the Machsom.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/19/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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The Spiritual Aiming Device

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe group is the matter in which I work. It is the place or laboratory where I implement all of my actions. It is, in fact, an aiming device that helps me stay directed at the goal. Otherwise, I would not be able to see it.

Suppose you needed to shoot a target from a cannon. How would you hit it if you couldn’t see it? What would help you aim at the exact point? You would need an outside observer who sees everything from the side, like a third force that aims you.

What is this third force in our case? The Creator is hidden from me and I am far from Him. That is why an observation tower or an aiming device called “the group” is built for me. If I unite with it and aim at the goal from within it, I will definitely hit the target.

I have to consider many conditions, such as “distance,” “wind,” and so forth. I can find all of this in the group. It is hard enough to hit a target in the material world, but even more so in the spiritual world where there is an infinite number of conditions of which I am unaware.

This whole system is concealed from me. Later I will realize that I am actually engaging a very complex and gigantic system, like a baby whose crying makes everyone around him run and keeps entire factories working to provide diapers and baby food for him.

We engage the environment in the same manner, unaware that we are doing so. My connection with the Creator broke, but by building a connection with the environment, I will “hit” Him without a doubt since He becomes revealed within that connection.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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A Guide To The Book of Zohar: The Formula Of The Universe

Dr. Michael LaitmanExcerpts from my upcoming book, A Guide to The Book of Zohar


A corrected desire acts in accordance with the formula, “Israel, the Creator, and the Torah are one.” Israel is me. More precisely, it is my internal desire to attain the Creator and become similar to Him (“Isra-El” in Hebrew means “straight to the Creator”). The Creator is the goal I am trying to attain. The Torah is a corrected mechanism of connection among the souls, of love among them.

In order to illustrate this, let’s have a look at a human organism. All of its parts interact correctly and help each other by being related, mutually responsible, and united. This is how the souls have to function. The system of their reciprocal bonding and love (complete interaction) is called the “Torah.”

It includes 613 (Taryag, six hundred and thirteen) correct connections between each soul and all other souls as well as among all souls in general (the latter type of connection, commandment, links all of them into one whole through love). If there is no connection between the souls through love and, on the contrary, if they are linked together through hatred, it means that the Torah is corrupt and hidden.

Souls that do not sense connection between them are defined as being in “exile” from the Torah and the Creator. They lack this property because they are disconnected from the correct type of link among them (the Torah) and from the Creator who fills the correct connection among them. It is similar to the difference between a healthy body and a sick organism that is deteriorating because its systems do not function properly.

Internal corrections that we make within our desire in order to transform it from corruptness into correctness are called “commandments.” This is why it is said that “love thy neighbor as thyself” is the main rule of the Torah since it includes the whole system of correct connections between the souls.

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Weekly Torah Portion – 08.19.10

The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Ki Tetze,” Selected Excerpts
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

A New Book In Czech

My book Basic Concepts in Kabbalah is being published in The Czech Republic.

Книга на чешском языке

The Collective Life Of Light And Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll of us are included as parts of a general system into the only state that there is: the World of Infinity. It exists as one body, similar to a live organism that consists of various internal sub-systems which transfer blood, lymph, or nervous signals. We all are interconnected at the level of the World of Infinity as one eternal organism which functions as a perfect machine similar to the Light that fills it. The desire and the Light work together in harmony.

As in any healthy body, processes of expansion-contraction take place, such as breathing, pulse and heart beat. Even though the desire to receive pleasure and the Light are contrary to each other, their oppositeness creates dynamics called “life.” All these changes produce the sensation of life.

If just the Light or only the desire existed, nothing would be felt at all. Creation senses its existence because the Light and the desire act in conjunction with each other, meaning in harmony. Sometimes the Light expands and sometimes the desire overtakes. All along, one completes the other.

Sometimes the Light is larger because the desire intentionally diminishes itself and lets the Light act. Other times the Light allows the desire to function. One is higher, and then the other, like swings. This is how we allow each other to ascend, soaring upward! This dynamic gives birth to life.

It works like this in the World of Infinity. However, our state is intentionally spoiled in an artificial way so that we see the "advantage of the Light while in the state of darkness." This lets us sense our oppositeness to the Light and allows us to make our own effort to correct ourselves. Only under this condition are we able to appreciate the Light.

If you were born perfect, you’d live “automatically” and would never reveal perfection to its deepest extent. That’s the reason why the restrictions and concealments, distancing and the breaking, took place, up to a point of a complete detachment of the creature from the Creator. And this corruptness exists only in our inner perception and nowhere else.

I sense myself being in some body (it’s a pure illusion) within some (imaginary) world only because I am unconscious. I exist in the World of Infinity but my unconsciousness produces various delusions of imaginary pictures. These ravings are called “this world.” It’s the last, the lowest, and the worst step out of all possible states.

Therefore, it is obvious that we have to apply effort and regain consciousness (sensation of perfection). Only after we achieve it will we realize its depth to the fullest.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/10, Shamati #34

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