Happy New Beginning, Happy New Year!

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll our corporeal properties are related to the animate level of existence, but we have to build a human within ourselves, which means to become “similar to the Creator” (Adam) and exist in bestowal. Bestowal, however, can be realized only in the group, in love of friends, in order to attain the Creator. Through our relationships, we create a desire similar to the Creator: the place where the Creator is revealed.

Hence, all the personal qualities and capacities that are embodied by our corporeal form don’t have any relation to spirituality. In regard to spirituality, I work solely with the point in the heart and should disregard the rest of my “earthly” properties. I cannot succeed in my quest for the Creator through them for they are secondary, and I strive to work “above them,” always preferring bestowal to reception, “faith above reason.”

The essence is the point in the heart. I must connect it with the others, with the friends. So, now I have to make the correct decision and determine that I want to reach success not in the material world, but in the unity of the points in the heart. It is the place where the Creator will be revealed as soon as it becomes similar to the Creator in the very least.

I have to constantly ponder this question. Only this determines how successful my spiritual advancement is.

Hence, this point is regarded as the Beginning of Change (Rosh Hashanah). It is the decision which should always signify a new beginning.

As a matter of fact, the line of trajectory we are moving by consists of multiple points. A spiritual path is a sequence of dots, and each of them has a “nip,” a “gap” in motion between the previous and the following points. Thus they create a single spiritual trajectory line.

In order to continue moving along with the others, in the same direction, in each point of the trajectory, I have to be totally opposite to the previous and the future states of existence. Only then can we adhere to this line of trajectory.

Therefore, in each point, at each moment of my life, I must make up my mind for the Beginning of Change within me.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/10, “Rosh Hashanah”

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Standing Between Good And Evil

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Zohar, Chapter “VeYechi (And Jacob Lived),” Item 244: For the next world, it is written, “For as the days of a tree shall be the days of My people.” “As the days of the tree” means the tree of life.” At the same time, it is written, “Death shall be swallowed up forever,” for there are no changes and no death in the tree of life.

This passage talks about the situation when a person is at the threshold of making a decision, a choice between good and evil, in Klipat Noga. All this system derives from the following: On one hand, the Creator forbids Adam to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, but on the other, He sends Adam a “woman” who tempts him to sin by tasting the forbidden fruit.

The two opposites co-exist. As for us, we shouldn’t get confused and feel the split in our perception. Rather, we have to realize that the very disagreements present in each state where the Creator is shown as two-faced and having two different attitudes to us are designated to place us in a predicament where we won’t be able to discern what to do and will be forced to need Him.

This is what is called Klipat Noga, the point of our freedom. This freedom appears at this specific point, where two attitudes of the Creator, good and bad (as it were), come together and make it impossible to tell them apart and remove their conflict, other than by appealing to Him for help.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/10, The Zohar

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Kabbalah Insights: The Butterfly Effect

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv-68pVsc5Y]

Light Through The Cracks In The Wall

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Upper One exposes to us its lower part, Malchut, as a black void, promising nothing good. The “Upper World” (the spiritual world) is presented to us so unattractive on purpose. Meanwhile, in “this world” that we feel in the Keter of the lower one, we find at least some pleasure.

I exist in such state that even this world doesn’t attract me, and the state of the Upper One seems to be even worse. Actually, I am not even filled in my egoistic, receiving desires, but the Upper One loads some more on me by suggesting: “You wanted to be in bestowal!” I don’t have anything, and yet the Upper One is telling me: “Come on, share what you have with the others!”

Hence, I can accept what the Upper One suggests solely without thinking, without any conditions, and not through my own efforts. I can do it only by the force of the Light, without making any plans and having hopes to fill my egoism and receive some benefit in “this world.”

Most important for a person is to reach the state of bestowal. And then, he will have everything, but only after he rejects it! He will receive fulfillment (satisfaction), yet not through reception, but through bestowal.

This is how we should view the month of Elul before the beginning of the New Year, the start of one’s spiritual journey. ELUL, as an acronym, means “I am for my Beloved, and my Beloved is for me.” The Upper One hands down these hopeless conditions to me so that with their help I may break free from my egoistic state. In fact, if He promised me something good, I would never be able to tear away from my egoism, as I am chained to it by pleasure.

It is written: “The Creator places man’s hand on a good fate” by submerging his life into darkness and void but, on the other hand, reveals to man a tiny beam of Light to show the way out of the dark. This beam of Light is not an egoistic, material gain. The Creator provides me with the help on my spiritual path: He brings me to a Kabbalistic group, where I can exercise my free will and choose the correct environment.

The Light “illuminates” a bit, meaning that it gives me a sensation that bestowal in particular is the Light. It makes me feel that the Light is ascent above my egoism when it doesn’t matter whether it’s filled or empty since what counts is Whom I’m connected with.

The Creator lets me know the following: You suffer in the corporeal state, so don’t seek material fulfillment. Rather, being in this state, look upward: Think about what other life may exist, in other values, in bestowal, in another dimension (of happiness).

This means that a beam of Light is shining onto me through the cracks in the wall that separates me from the Upper World, the world of peace (rest from my egoism and worry about filling it) and perfection (aspiration to bestowal and love).

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/10, Shamati #42

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A New Year: A New Step On The Spiritual Ladder

Dr. Michael LaitmanSpiritual ascent occurs when we transition from receiving for one’s self to bestowing to others. It is regarded as acting by “faith above reason,” meaning “preferring bestowal to reception” and receiving pleasure from bestowal. I have to feel inspiration and joy from rising above my egoism, when I don’t look at what I can gain in it. But I need the force of the Light in order to make such a change within!

This is called “I am for the Beloved, and my Beloved is for me,” when we begin a conversation with the Creator and understand each other. I comprehend why the Creator made my life empty and gave me an opportunity to drift into a group so I may discern what bestowal is. He illuminates me a bit, as if telling me: “Choose this!” in order to help me take the first step. But its realization of it is up to me.

Malchut of the Upper One (the property of bestowal) is presented to my egoism as Keter (Rosh, the head), dark and hollow. But if I decide that my Keter (aspiration) is to adhere to it with my will to bestow, then Malchut of the Upper One doesn’t look as hollow to me, and I cling to it as to the Upper spiritual degree.

This is the beginning of a new path. The beginning is regarded as a New Year (Rosh Hashanah, the head of the beginning) that arrives after the month of Elul (acronym for “I am for the Beloved, and my Beloved is for me”).

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/10, Shamati #42

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 09.08.10

Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “Letter 67”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived in the Land of Egypt),” Item 218
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 115
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Rabash, Dargot Sulam, “Rosh Hashanah”
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