Excerpts 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.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Unification With The Group Leads Us To The Creator
Laitman.com Post: Is There A Connection Between Body And Soul?
Laitman.com Post: Our Work Is In Preparing The Desire

Filed under: Books, Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

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

Filed under: Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

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

Filed under: Books, Kabbalah Dissemination - No Comments →

All 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

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Connecting With The Light
Laitman.com Post: Life Beyond Time
Laitman.com Post: Stop Living In A Fantasy

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Perception - No Comments →

All books written by the Kabbalists can give me the Light that Reforms. The greatest force of Light descends on me when we read The Zohar; this is when the connection with the Light occurs.

However, the Light acts only if all of us together desire to attain mutual guarantee, unity, love, and become “as one man in one heart,” similar to the Creator. How well we understand is not important. If I am unable to unite, the Force will come from Above and do it.

As soon as I start feeling connected to all the others to the smallest degree, the spiritual world will be revealed to me in that connection. This occurs within us in the same way as a person who was unconscious starts coming back to consciousness and realizes where he truly is.

Concealment disappears, and I feel that this reality of which I wasn’t previously aware has always been and still is here. This depends solely on my desire to be connected with the rest of its parts. In the correct relationship between us, I find the true reality.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Easiest Path To spirituality
Laitman.com Post: The Whole Universe Is Between Us
Laitman.com Post: Unification With The Group Leads Us To The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Zohar - No Comments →

Dear Friends, please ask questions about passages from the great Kabbalists. I promise to answer them. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Who Is a Kabbalist?

The wisdom of truth is conditioned [in order to understand it] by all the teachings [therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah becomes revealed only after humanity reveals all the teachings of our world in general and attests to their limitation], and all the teachings are conditioned by it [humanity will learn the origins of all teachings precisely from discovering and mastering Kabbalah]. This is why we do not find a single genuine Kabbalist without comprehensive knowledge in all the teachings of the world [not because they studied them but] since they acquire them from the wisdom of truth itself, as they are included in it.
– Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalists On The Essence Of The Wisdom Of Kabbalah, Part 23
Laitman.com Post: If You Are Worried About Your Fate
Laitman.com Post: The Whole Wold Will Be Filled With The Knowledge Of The Creator

Filed under: Kabbalistic Sources - No Comments →

Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What is, the Shepherd of the People is the Entire People, at Work”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived in the Land of Egypt),” Item 81
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 45, Lesson 18
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 18, Lesson 16
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Unity Evening Lecture at Beer Sheva
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Lectures, Unity - No Comments →

Question: Why is reaching the purpose of creation such a complicated and multi-leveled process that involves descent, ascent, and the breaking?

Answer: It’s because it consists of two opposite elements: the Light and the desire (Kli), and the two build a connection based on their opposite nature. The developmental process derives from two conditions and dictates one law of evolution: Two forces opposing each other in the beginning must reach total equivalence in the end. The entire process inevitably results from these initial and final conditions. We cannot change anything about the process or act according to some other logic.

There are two strict conditions, one at the start and the other at the end:
Condition 1: There is infinite distance between them.
Condition 2: There is total adhesion between them.

Prior to this, one is solely giving and the other solely receiving. On one hand they are separated by an infinite abyss, and on the other hand there is a finite point where they merge and become one.

Now, try to come up with a formula where we can go from the first condition, total opposition, to the second one, total equivalence. In the World of Infinity there already exists a breaking of these two components as well as their union. Even though the Light and desire are present there, they are one and they complete one another. This oneness is sustained by the Upper Force of the Light.

In other words, the final condition is initially supported by the force of the Light, the Creator. This allows us to unfold the formula of how to make this transition from one state to the other. The potential conditions are set; now we have to implement them. Now all of reality unfolds step by step, scene after scene, before our eyes, where we are the creatures living in the World of Infinity. We never leave it.

In this one place (desire), created by the Creator, there is Light, desire, and the condition of their union, and all of this is taking place right now. Hence, we ourselves are regarded as the acts of the Creator, the products of His work: the creatures, creations, or masterpieces.

None of this can be changed. The initial and final conditions determine everything that will take place, including the breaking, according to the verse, “the final act is contained in the initial plan.”

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

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We Are Existence Of Absence
Laitman.com Post: Development Is Impossible Without Mistakes
Laitman.com Post: And The Land Will Unite With The Heavens

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Question: How does our desire to unite together more become expressed: in thought or in sensation?

Answer: The desire for greater unity is expressed by my desire to be in the common sensation where there is no distinction between “me” and “others,” and instead there is something that’s shared. However, I don’t know what it is. I don’t want to feel my “self”; I want to feel “us” where there is no division into “self” and “other.” This is a new reality that we produce.

On that higher level which we produce through our efforts, the desire is not divided (compared to our current level). It’s as if many drops of water come together into one great drop. Then there is no way to tell apart our previous state where each of us was separate.

It is impossible to express this accurately with our language, but it’s as if I lose myself. My “I” disappears. On the next level it turns into “we.” However, in relation to a higher level yet, our division gradually becomes revealed again.

After we attain the higher level where we merge together into one drop, new desires or new layers of egoism start being revealed in us. Where do they become revealed from? From the AHP of the Upper Level, which illuminates them. Then I begin to reveal that I am actually not connected with others, that I am alone and they are as well. This happens in our regular lives when you want to unite with someone with your entire heart and soul, but a moment later you already start to experience different calculations that divide you.

The same thing happens in spirituality, but there it happens because the Upper One starts to illuminate your flaws in this state. You thought that you had attained unity, but now you are being shown that it’s not true. You are once again divided from others by egoistic calculations and hatred, even though you thought that only love reigns among you.

The same thing happens in our world: We think that we always replace love with hatred and hatred with love, but that’s not true. The fact is that these are different levels. A greater ego is constantly revealed to us and therefore on every level evil always turns to good, and then good turns into evil, and that is how we advance.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Love And Hate Are Just One Step Apart
Laitman.com Post: Welcome To The World Of Bestowal
Laitman.com Post: Learn To See The Light In Bestowal

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Love, Unity, Zohar - 1 Comment →