Why Don’t I Sense The Spiritual World?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is possible to follow a commandment only if you initially hated someone but then managed to correct this with the help of the Light that Reforms, the Light which can be attracted only through the study of Kabbalah in the group (in the right environment) by attaining a state of “mutual guarantee.” In this case it is considered that one “performed a commandment” and maybe not just one but all of them, and thus reached a personal “final correction.”

However, for that, we have to follow certain conditions: perform actions that lead us toward unity in the correct environment and get impressed by the environment rather than do something that occurs to us. Each time, I strive to choose a better environment that can transfer to me its values and to implement them as if they are my own.

In other words, I cancel myself in relation to the opinion of others and strive to be “included” in them, meaning into the system of spiritual principles that they follow, rather than in them as ordinary people. If I manage to do so, we act as one, follow our common direction, and implement the same principle. This principle will turn into our prayer (MAN, Mayin Nukvin or Female Waters) to which we will receive a response (MAD, Mayin Duchin or Male Waters), the Light of correction, and will establish a contact with the spiritual world.

This contact will be founded on our unity; no one can attain spirituality on his or her own. Spirituality exists only within the connection, in the Creator, the force that connects our souls.

Therefore, I cannot grab “a piece of spirituality” from the group, leave them behind, and go home with it. I remain within this unity and increase my input into it even more. This is where I reveal spirituality. If I think about myself and, therefore, separate myself from others for a fraction of a moment, I return to the sensations of this material world which is what I feel now.

Why don’t I feel anything at the moment? It is because I am not bonded with others. As soon as I connect with others, I begin to sense spirituality, whereas when I disconnect from others, I sense corporeality.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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There Are Candles But No Light To Light Them Up

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and its Essence”: It is written, “For the commandment is a candle, and the teaching is light.” As one who has candles but no light to light them sits in the dark, one who has Mitzvot but no Torah sits in the dark. This is because the Torah is Light, by which the darkness in the body is illuminated and lit up.

There are people who perform many actions. They think that their deeds are correct, meaning they bring them closer to a great spiritual reward. Unfortunately, it is not true.

A person summarizes his life and thinks that he did a lot of good things, fulfilled many desires of the Creator (commandments), studied the Torah, learned by heart quite a number of sacred texts, and followed all the requirements. However, he suddenly begins to realize that he didn’t achieve anything since “a Mitzva (precept or commandment) without an aim is like a body without a soul.”

The physical actions he performed during his life did not bring any positive result. Life passed, and the person’s efforts and suffering occurred worthlessly. He will have to come back into this reality again, will be re-born, and will start all over from the cradle hoping that during this next reincarnation he will succeed much more.

This is how the same souls advance over and over again, from generation to generation, from life to life, until they arrive to their correct realization. After all, the purpose of life is not fulfilling physical actions, but rather in correcting our nature.

A commandment represents the correction of egoistic desire by the intention to bestow. This definition has to encourage us to evaluate whether we managed to correct at least one desire of ours and re-establish connection with other people.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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The Gene Of Separation And Connection

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do I know whether I am learning altruistically (Lishma, for Her Name) or egoistically (Lo Lishma, not for Her Name)?

Answer: It all depends on the goal that I am trying to achieve. If my goal is to annul myself before the group so I may receive from it the correct spiritual gene (Reshimo) and realize it, then this studying is correct.

With my point in the heart, I come into the group and become its part. In that case, the group plants in my “point in the heart” its own Reshimo. I didn’t have the kind of Reshimo that the group possesses. This Reshimo is new for me, from the previous connection and separation (breaking). If I agree with the opinion of the environment and place myself under its influence, I accept this Reshimo as primary. It becomes mine, and I raise it in the request to have it corrected.

It turns out that I act through my connection with the group and wish for this connection to come true. In other words, I correct the breaking of the collective soul and with my action draw the Upper Light since the breaking responds only to it. On my part, I raise the correct request (MAN, Mayin Nukvin or Female Waters) and receive the corresponding Light, the Light of correction (MAD, Mayin Duchin or Male Waters).

Therefore, if I act in the group and annul myself before the importance of the spiritual goal and connection that the group demonstrates to me, it means I advance correctly. No other criteria exist. I may know everything that is written in the books perfectly and work hard in the group and in Kabbalah circulation, but my spiritual advancement depends solely on the conscious correction of the connection between us. There is nothing else for us to do in this world.

Everything is evaluated only according to whether or not some movement toward unity occurred. There are people who have been studying Kabbalah for decades but don’t even think about unification. But if that is the case, a person should not be scorned; it simply means that he hasn’t ripened yet. Either way, he is advancing in some way, and it is better than doing nothing.

Yet, until a person has started to realize this point in the heart, he hasn’t stepped onto the spiritual path.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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Kabbalists About The Concealed Torah And The Revealed Torah, Part 6

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Studying the Concealed Torah Is Preferable to the Revealed Torah

It is easier to draw the light in the Torah [the only Light that can correct us] while practicing and laboring in the wisdom of truth than in laboring in the literal Torah. The reason is very simple: The wisdom of the revealed is clothed in external, corporeal clothes, such as stealing, plundering, torts, etc. For this reason, it is difficult and heavy for any person [who reads these “material” stories] to aim his mind and heart to the Creator [essential condition] while studying, so as to draw the [Upper, correcting] Light in the Torah.

It is even more so for a person for whom the study in the Talmud itself is heavy and arduous. How can he remember the Creator during the study, since the scrutiny [described in the Talmud] concerns corporeal matters, and cannot come in him simultaneously with the intention for the Creator?

Therefore, he [Chaim Vital] advises him to practice the wisdom of Kabbalah [instead of studying the Talmud], as this wisdom is entirely clothed in the names of the Creator. Then he will certainly be able to easily aim his mind and heart to the Creator during the study [of Kabbalah], even if he is the slowest learner. This is so because the study of the issues of the wisdom and the Creator are one and the same, and this is very simple. [This is why the study of the internal essence of the Torah, the wisdom of Kabbalah, is the only possible way for masses to reach correction and to reach the purpose of creation.]
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 22
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Am I Not Too Old For All This?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I am worried. We just read about the state at Mount Sinai and different types of concern. Soon, I will turn 60. You once said that people’s age in the story of the giving of the Torah was from 20 to 60 and emphasized these numbers. Does it mean that I am going to be thrown off the train?

Answer: It isn’t up to us when we will awaken to spirituality, to the awareness of the importance of Arvut (mutual responsibility or guarantee), to worrying about our spiritual state and about switching from caring about ourselves to caring about others, about the Creator. All these spiritual degrees are concealed and depend on the development of many souls. We cannot say yet why everything occurs the way it does.

Next to you sit twenty year olds. Later, you will discover that according to the root of your soul, your current state is the optimal state for your spiritual development. The fact that right now you are concerned about going in the right direction and about the purpose of this world means that it is the most beneficial state for you and it cannot be otherwise. Now, everything depends on you, on how you will realize the calling from Above by exercising your freedom of will.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “What is Mutual Concern” 10/13/10

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Should I Love Others Or Care For Them?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the difference between “love others as I love myself” and “care for others as I care for myself”?

Answer: “To care for another as I care for myself” is the level of concern and caring, while “love thy neighbor as thyself” is fulfillment. When I am at the level of the former, it is regarded as “bestowal for the sake of bestowal,” when I have nothing to give.

When we ascend the degrees of spiritual correction, then from a period of preparation, we transition to the period of fear (worry or concern) in which a person learns to care for the others. He can’t fulfill them yet and only worries about them. A space, a desire to care, gets created. Then, the degrees of love follow, and then it is already clear how to fulfill others.

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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “What is Mutual Concern” 10/13/10

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A Concern That Speaks Of Completeness

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why do we see concern or worry as something negative? Should it rather be viewed as the opposite of indifference?

Answer: A concern can be either positive or negative. I experience it as a negative sensation because it troubles and worries me. But what if I am concerned about good things, about how to bestow to others? There are concerns about our personal needs, and there is concern about the Light. Isn’t the Creator constantly concerned about His creations?

We need to attain the property of Bina and from it, the degree of Keter. In this property, a person is constantly concerned about the souls for it is written, “more than the calf wants to eat, the cow wants to feed.” And this is the level of Bina (Elokim [God]), meaning the suffering of Shechina (Divinity) in its worry about the souls.

However, this concern speaks of completeness, not a flaw. When I worry about others, I remain in a perfect state of existence. The spiritual world teems with mutual concerns, but this type of worrying is for the well-being of all. This kind of worry is sweet, it is like my guarantee to the others.

The difference between the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of nature is defined by the type of concern they experience, what worries them exactly? The state of concern is an important, central point of attention. The Creator also worries about the created beings.

A person is practically rid of corporeal concerns at the first spiritual level. When you don’t worry about your own needs but switch to concern for the needs of others, you don’t see it as something negative. Therefore, such a person is regarded as righteous since he justifies this entire process and feels comfortable with such concerns.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “What is Mutual Concern” 10/13/10

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Equilibrium Is Set Above

Dr. Michael LaitmanAt the still, vegetative, and animate levels, nature is an integral system whose parts have no free will in observing its laws. Man, however, is given free will: He can either act in harmony with nature or against it.

Today, as the egoistic development of civilization is running its course, we’re beginning to recognize the deficiency of the egoistic approach which brings us to self-destruction. Our ego has grown so much that we are destroying the system of equilibrium on Earth while, in fact, it is we, the highest degree of development, who must establish this equilibrium.

By restoring balance with nature, we will create the conditions for the correct behavior of all its other parts. For that we will need to become like one man, to achieve a state of mutual love and care. This is why the notion of “love thy neighbor as thyself” lies at the very foundation of humanity’s systems of values. We realize that in order to co-exist in a global world, this condition is necessary, today all the more so.

This is the reason the science of Kabbalah is being revealed today. For thousands of years it has been awaiting its hour so as to present our generation with the opportunity to rise to the degree of bestowal.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/10, “He Who Strengthens His Heart”

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Egoism And Arvut

Dr. Michael LaitmanBecause of its nature, egoism doesn’t feel rewarded by sacrificing something for the sake of others. We are unable to imagine that by doing so, we will feel good. I may imagine that I will profit from the mutual guarantee, but I don’t see the need to annul myself before the others.

This is the mistake that the communists made: They wanted to use the law of Arvut (mutual responsibility or guarantee), but without the Creator, the force that implements this guarantee and unification. Everyone rises above himself, loses egoism, and annuls himself, but then, the energy to do work disappears.

Therefore, in order to ascend and unite, we have to attach the force of the Creator to ourselves from the very beginning. After all, no one but He will establish a connection between us because this connection manifests above egoism.

The Creator created laws that He implements. We can act solely from the consideration that He is the third participant who determines the final result and is present in every action. This outcome is always in His favor, and you always annul yourself in relation to Him. Then, the third component that you usually don’t think about takes the central position: He is the First, the Last, and the Defining One.

At that point, my goal changes: I want to aspire for this partner and do anything for Him. The system is for Him; I am for Him; the friend is for Him. This is how we ascend to the level of complete bestowal since the Creator is the property of bestowal that we attain between ourselves.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, “The Arvut”

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