Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.
Concerning the Obligation of Each Person to Study the Wisdom of Kabbalah
The whole part of the revealed Torah [known to the masses] is but a preparation to become worthy and merit attaining the concealed part. It is the concealed part that is the very wholeness [methodology] and the purpose for which man is created.
Hence, clearly, if a part of the concealed part is missing, although one may keep the Torah and observe its commandments in the revealed part, he will still have to reincarnate to this world and receive what he should receive, namely the concealed part, by way of 613 deposits. Only in that is the soul completed, the way the Creator had predetermined for it.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, From the Mouth of a Sage”
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Question: How should we work with the quality of Esau (the egoistic desire) so it won’t awaken during the Convention?
Answer: It won’t awaken, you can be sure about that. We are coming to the Convention prepared, “warmed up,” having the understanding that we are gathering in order to unite.
We are leaving all problems, doubts, and opposition at home because we know that we are unable to overcome our egoism, Esau, directly. The only way we should act is by going around, according to the method of Jacob, which comes from the word Akev – to go around.
This means that it is useless to fight your nature head on. We have to come out of it, ascend above it, and acquire a new nature of bestowal. Then, with its help, gradually and in parts, we must gradually use egoism for the sake of bestowal. Our egoism is a special force existing inside us that we have to take into account. However, we shouldn’t fight against it, but only worry about unity and mutual guarantee, constantly increasing the right line, the force of Jacob, the force of bestowal.
Then we will reveal the Creator and will be able to oppose Esau. However, this doesn’t mean that we will be fighting him. For now we are correcting ourselves by strengthening the line called Jacob inside us – bestowal and mutual unity. The Esau that is in us receives blows from the whole process and starts to understand that he should also unite with Jacob.
Therefore, there won’t be any threats or wars. He will desire to interact with the right line himself since he will see that the opportunities at his disposal do not enable him to be fulfilled. He lacks Jacob, bestowal, in order to advance in life.
That is why we should think only about attaining unity and consolidation. All the other problems will be corrected by becoming attached to the right line and strengthening it even more.
[26221]
From the “Weekly Torah Portion” show on 11/5/10
Question: What do we lack before the Convention?
Answer: I don’t think we lack anything! I heard that you “sold everything and decided to put everything at stake.” So what else is there? Now, when everything you have is in your hands, you must only decide where you are placing it. Everything depends on you.
This is the choice we have to make. For a start, take part in the preparation that is infinitely important. Don’t see or hear anything unrelated, don’t think about anything but the goal. We are leaving everything behind and going “va-banque.”
In spirituality, just like in corporeality, a child asks for something, and the adults have to give him what he desires. This is what happens with animals and with people. This is the natural order of things in nature.
We shouldn’t be too smart. We have to be ourselves and that’s enough. Don’t try to jump out of yourself, trying to fine-tune your desire until it is crystal clear. Rather, we have to unite in the place we are in and ask for help in a childish way.
The Creator doesn’t need anything besides simple readiness. He will teach us everything else in a wonderful way, step by step, caringly, gently, and lovingly. Only simple things are required of us, without any special wisdom. We just have to desire, and that’s enough.
Let us hope that in the hours we have left before the Convention we will warm the hearts so as to correctly welcome the guests and attain what we desire. After that we will begin doing completely different kind of work. We will see a new picture of reality, and behind it the Creator. Then it will become clear that all parts of the picture are governed by a single Force, the all enveloping Nature.
This Force is a common field that permeates and fills everyone. We are inside an inseparable net and it moves every person in every regard, down to the final detail. Then we will work in a different way, trying to join this Force and pour into the dynamic development, the harmony, the range, the flow that is called unity. On this path a person’s soul teaches him.
In any case, we are moving in the right direction and are already standing at the threshold. I really hope that this time we will be successful. I also feel this by the desires of the hearts. Even those who have joined us in the last year or two are also ready. It’s amazing how quickly a person grows in our time.
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From the lesson on Shamati on 11/5/10
There is a wonderful opportunity opening up before us. We see from one Convention to the next that none of them is anything like the others. Today we have reached a special state and we are given special help from Above.
From the moment the group formed, we have systematically observed how the Creator advances and safeguards it. Day by day, year by year, we attain greater achievements. Could we really succeed on our own on such a grand, global scale, not knowing any steps we take ahead of time?
Throughout all of history no one has done “what we are doing.” To date no one has yet taken on the corrections that “we are trying to make.” Indeed, we are receiving so much help from Above that I never cease being surprised: How did we merit such wonderful treatment?
We are given the opportunity to carry out enormous spiritual corrections, and even in the material sense to hold truly colossal meetings and conventions that are attended by thousands of people, to translate our own TV channels, to disseminate through the mass media, and to develop educational programs in different languages.
The Creator is preparing us. Everything we have attained thus far was from Him. And now He is helping us to prepare for the Convention that “we are hosting” in order to reveal Him. Let us hope that we will be worthy of it and He will cease being concealed and will become revealed to us.
[26227]
From the lesson on Shamati on 11/5/10
Question: I suddenly found out that most of my friends will be attending the Convention in the city of Dnepropetrovsk. And I am staying in my local city together with two beginners. How many people have to get together in order to create the interesting situation that you describe with such optimism?
Answer: Two.
Question cont’d: Does quantity matter?
Answer: Quality is more important.
Question cont’d: Of course, we will make every effort we can to be connected with the central Convention in Israel. After a discussion with my friends, we all liked the following idea: by focusing our thoughts on one thing simultaneously (having agreed on it ahead of time), we want to cause some external, physical event that is not connected to us in any way. In other words – a miracle.
The purpose of this miracle is to be sure that we really are thinking about the same thing simultaneously, and obviously, to give more power to our union. Do you have any advice about this? Maybe there already exist ways to do this? What external effect should we choose so it won’t collide with the will to receive too harshly?
My firm advice: Get together, follow our Convention, repeat everything just like we do it, think together and eat together with us, as if you are among us in every way, with your body and soul (or rather, as if you are without a body), but most importantly, be together with us in your thoughts.
That is the only way you will increase your desire with the help of others and will receive an answer from Ohr Makif. Other exercises, such as meditation, are psychology and training in the plane of our world, and it won’t bring you to any place higher than that. Good luck!
[26260]
Question: At the Convention how can we overcome the psychological barriers barring us from unity?
Answer: The Convention is not just a small or large group, but unity that is bound by the common force. It’s possible to win by quantity or by quality. After reaching a certain quantitative level, the mass becomes the determining factor. No matter how weak the people are and how little they understand, and even if they don’t really agree with each other, if they unite, then every person is influenced by the mass. He feels the force that comes from quantity, and it becomes the quality that influences him.
When I am among 7000 people who are inspired by the goal, I am connected with them because we are together in the common system of souls. Therefore, regardless of my desire, they influence me.
Unity among a great number of people at the Convention creates pressure that begins to work of its own accord. By becoming included into this unity, a person is under the power of society and therefore he does not have to work on lowering himself in relation to the environment. He simply unites with everyone in one desire. Even if this desire is not completely clear to him, the common goal unites him with other people and makes up for the disagreements, conflicts, and lack of understanding.
That is how quantity operates, absorbing all the problems of unity. Then, depending on the force of our unity, we will feel the Upper Light. It is contained inside the connection between us; that is the only place where we have to reveal it. The unified Kli exists on all levels with all the Lights fulfilling the desire as a ready-made ladder. Therefore, everything depends only on whether I am included in this degree or not. If I am ready to unite with the force of a particular degree, then I become included in it as if entering through a gate, and thus I feel the spiritual world: the common unity, the Light that fills everyone, the Creator. To the degree I gain awareness, I see the world from end to end, seeing the World of Infinity on the first degree out of 125 degrees.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/10, Writings of Rabash
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