A World Of Adventures You Can Step Into

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe key to reading The Book of Zohar is intention since while reading it we draw the greatest Light, if we know how to do it. Of all Kabbalistic writings, none contains a greater Light than The Book of Zohar. That is why this book gained such great fame and popularity over the course of history, and why it was hidden and underwent many fateful events.

It is becoming revealed only today because it is the source of the Light that Reforms. Therefore, it doesn’t matter what exactly we read in The Book of Zohar at the moment because we do not understand a word of it correctly anyway. Yet, we aspire to penetrate through the image that is being described, to feel it rather than to understand it since we cannot comprehend it in our corporeal mind.

We strive to step into it, to unveil it. It is written by Kabbalists who attained the spiritual world and are sharing with us what they found there, just like an adventure novel that tells a story about travelers exploring new islands and continents. In a similar manner, Kabbalists tell us about the spiritual world. They describe what internal instruments they use to reveal spirituality, while also letting us know what they see and feel. In other words, they tell us about the actions they perform and what they find as a result.

On our part, we look, read, and listen to it although we do not understand any of it. Nevertheless, we are motivated to experience these states and live in them. As children, when we felt excited while reading adventure books, we experienced what the protagonists did in our imagination. On the other hand, in our case we actually enter the spiritual world and are able to feel it even more than how we perceive ourselves in this world. As a matter of fact, our present perception of this world is extremely distorted and blurred compared to what else is out there.

In spirituality, there is incredible clarity and transparency, which is impossible to imagine now, along with the deepest understanding of all the events and forces that stand behind us, including the causes, effects, and the source of all that occurs. This is what we should aspire to while reading The Book of Zohar. We should stop feeling like “old men” and instead feel like children who are absorbed in a book of exciting adventures.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/11, The Zohar

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He Who Makes Peace In The Upper World Will Make Peace Upon Us

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the spiritual system operates by the principle of “the lower one awakens the upper one,” does our transformation depend on the desires of the new generation, our children?

Answer: We depend on everybody and must pass our knowledge of the wisdom of Kabbalah (or at least some of it, as much as we ourselves understand) to everyone. Our current state obligates the entire world to awaken the upper Partzuf, the system of the upper governance.

We are witnessing how the world is haunted by global disasters, and everybody feels helpless not knowing what the next day will bring. All of this is due to the fact that we must begin studying what the upper system wants us to do and how we can motivate it correctly instead of just screaming about it and trying to get even with one another, or demanding the impossible from nature.

We are approaching a state when the upper governance will demand from all of humanity a conscious response, when all of us together will appeal to this force of nature, the Upper Force, in full understanding what action is required of us and what plea must come from us.

Obviously, we are unable to achieve anything on our own. But “He who makes peace in the Upper World will make peace upon us.” The Upper One can bring us to perfection and peace here, between us. We have to at least ask for it first. And only afterwards, from this collective “Lo Lishma” (not for Her name) of all humanity, we will come to “Lishma (for Her Name).”
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/2011, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Teenage Rebellion Is The Leap Into Spirituality

Dr. Michael LaitmanAdolescence is a very important, decisive point. This is the time when the results of upbringing have to manifest. Its entire success depends upon the previous years, from six to eleven, as problems begin past this age: the influence of hormones and inner struggles.

We need to make sure ahead of time that by this point the child will already have a method and a proper environment with which to help him overcome this critical period and use this exploding egoism as a catalyst to ascend over it. And then we will immediately have a mature spiritual person.

Children can easily cross the Machsom at that age. They are ready for anything! They have this desperate decisiveness. Adults are not able to tolerate the same kind of suffering as adolescents whose fire is still burning. Adolescents can do miracles with it.

It is not an accident that nature has planted this period in the process of our development. Our entire hope in raising a spiritual person from a child falls specifically between the ages of six-seven to fourteen-fifteen years.

After that it is almost impossible to do anything, it becomes very difficult. They have entered “life.” And you are now referring to a person surrounded with different life problems: age, sex, work, army, and who only thinks about the opposite sex and material success. All these screens will no longer let him hear you.

We need to begin telling them about Kabbalah from early childhood so it turns into a habit which “becomes a second nature.” That is, we need to do it before they dive into “adult life.” And then children will go through teenage rebellion, but they will use it correctly!

The Creator is purposefully provoking us towards this egoistic rebellion so that we will rise over it. When we rise above this egoism, it’s as if we were ascending the mountain of hatred, Mount Sinai (“Sina” means hatred), and we receive a spiritual degree.

We need to take advantage of this opportunity that nature gives us. It would be so helpful for my desires to burn and explode today as they did some time ago in my childhood. And if at the same time we are there near the children, properly directing them and showing them how to work with this, they can quickly turn into great Kabbalists. I hope that we will achieve this.

If we fail to use this opportunity given to us by nature, it will be very difficult to catch up. This is why it is written that raising a child is the same as writing on a blank sheet of paper, and this is completely different from writing on paper full of notes, trying to erase what others have written.

This is why education needs to start at the earliest possible age. Otherwise, instead of growing like a human, children grow like animals because they are only taught to search for fulfillment for their bodies, their egoism. Kabbalah defines this as raising an animal, the desire to receive pleasure.

Only the proper combination of two forces, reception and bestowal, is called human. So let us decide who we want to raise and begin preparing children for coming of age from the earliest age (at least from six to seven). This way, we will be able to draw the most benefit from all these years.

I am convinced that with proper preparation, a child can enter the spiritual world and rise to the mount of hatred that is suddenly erected in him under the influence of these incredibly powerful inner impulses of adolescence. All the emotions of a grown person who searches for spirituality are nothing comparing to this burning. This is what all of us really lack….
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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A Construction Plan “HaVaYaH”

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”: … any spiritual quality equalizes with the corporeal quality like two drops in a pond. Thus, the relationships are of the utmost affinity and there is no separation between them, except in the substance: the spiritual consists of a spiritual substance and the corporeal consists of a corporeal substance.

If your matter works “to bestow,” it is spiritual and you experience spiritual phenomena; while if it is “for self gratification,” it is corporeal. All matter is contained within you since there is nothing outside of man.

There is a void, a “zero,” and inside it, a certain creature. And if this creature has an egoistic intention “for the self,” it perceives itself in a reality experienced within as “this world.” If a person has an intention to bestow, then the entire reality he feels, including himself, is regarded as spiritual. Outside of this person, there is nothing else that exists independently. Everything is present solely within man: either in his egoistic desires or the desire to bestow.

There is no “place” or reality that exists on its own. There is only a Law that has no definite image and is regarded as HaVaYaH (the Creator’s name). If we are corporeal, meaning that we wish to receive for ourselves, then we experience this Law as material bodies living in the corporeal world. And if we are in bestowal, we experience this Law as spiritual worlds and ourselves as souls.

As one so the other, both exist solely within a person, while in reality, both of these concepts are imagined. But we don’t regard spiritual forms as fictitious and illusory since all of them eventually get collected and put together as if folding up into a singular coil. They accumulate in the process of our advancement to finally bring us to the very initial form HaVaYaH that has existed forever, if only potentially.

It existed as a construction plan for a future house, while we have actualized this HaVaYaH as a result of our personal work. We as though created ourselves and the entire creation according to this plan, and the Creator within. We have unveiled the Creator within ourselves, so where has He been until now? We don’t know that; it was Atzmuto, His unattainable Essence, which doesn’t clothe in anything.

We have prepared a place for Him and a specific expression by our actualization of His HaVaYaH in our own will to receive (desire). Hence, everything exists only within a person rather than outside of him since there is neither a place, nor reality, nothing.

A person studying Kabbalah understands where he is, what imaginary reality he is experiencing, how to step out of it to the correct perception, and how to bring this correct perception to the absolutely authentic, perfect form.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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To Grow From A Zero

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You said that in order to build ourselves we have to use two forces: reception and bestowal. What if instead of two forces, I have only one, the force of reception?

Answer: You have both of these forces except that you don’t wish to use the second one! We start ascending from below, from “zero” of bestowal, until we have covered 125 spiritual degrees and acquire absolute bestowal. But “zero” of bestowal doesn’t mean you don’t have it; you simply don’t employ this force you possess.

We can’t say that something doesn’t exist in the universe; this force doesn’t register only in you, in your perception. And the confirmation of the fact that it does exist is that it can unfold in you in the next instant, only to disappear yet again. This is regarded as a “zero.” In reality, however, it doesn’t exist; it can be so solely in man’s perception.

You have free will to evoke the force of bestowal from this zero. In order to do so you are given an environment comprised of the teacher, group, and the books. Start utilizing it to work on your zero of bestowal and it will be a zero no more.

After all, you can evoke the force of bestowal only when you relate to someone else who also desires to experience it. So start building such relations; don’t get locked in your own self! What other way is there to unveil bestowal?

The force of reception is concentrated within one person, but it takes two to keep the force of bestowal so that it can work in between the two. Therein lies the major difference between the egoistic and altruistic choices: In your ego, you are alone, but to bestow, you need the right environment. Otherwise, where will you actualize it? Where will you find this force and confirm that you indeed possess it?

Therefore, as soon a spiritual spark awakens in a person and calls for development of the soul, he or she is immediately brought to a group and instructed: “Choose it!” This is where the real free will is exercised: in choosing the correct environment.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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What Hasn’t Been Attained Cannot Be Named

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is it possible to find one’s bearings in the upper world without knowing all these terms that The Zohar is using? Does knowing the upper world depend on understanding the terms?

Answer: It doesn’t matter in which language a person is reading The Zohar at the moment: a totally unfamiliar one, the language of branches, or any other. All these languages are not for us just yet. I don’t know what is being described.

If I am not familiar with some phenomenon, object, type of fulfillment, forces, spiritual states, or outcomes, and if I haven’t attained the spiritual state itself, you can describe it to me in thousands of words—it will not help me. What do these names and words matter to me then if I haven’t attained them?

Why then do Kabbalists write all these texts for us? They do so in order for us to not focus on the words themselves, but rather to strive to attain these spiritual states. Without attainment, none of these words has value. You may play with them as you please: It’s as if you toss them into a box, mix them up, and put them together however you wish.

If we don’t attain, all these texts are merely a Segula (a miraculous remedy) provided that you employ them as such. If not, you only entangle yourself. Therefore, we look at The Zohar’s text only inasmuch as we are able to think about its “miraculous property” during the reading. That is the key.

The Zohar does have chapters which are very difficult to focus on. I read about various faces and facial features, or palm lines, all of which really confuse me. But this is also good since I exert more effort in order to recognize spiritual properties behind these words.

Therefore, we must see in the text of The Zohar only its “miraculous force.” And the more entangled we get with it, the stronger it should encourage us to cleave to this “miraculous force” and demand the Light that Reforms so it will bring us attainment. After all, “Anything we do not attain, we do not define by a name and a word.” We won’t understand a word, and no name will ring a bell.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Yitro (Jethro)”

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