Widen Your Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe never reveal true reality; everything happens in our desires. The Creator created the desire which essentially is the entire material of creation. We feel whatever is happening within it.

Sensations in the desire divide into internal and external, in other words, perception of oneself and the environment. In turn, these segments of perception also divide into a multitude of layers, degrees, parts, and forms.

However, all of this is inside the desire that was created by the Creator. We are not able to imagine anything that exists outside of this desire even hypothetically. There is no other “place” that exists somewhere outside; the entire “space” is confined within the desire.

And this is why everything we perceive depends upon the changes in the desire. All of Kabbalah speaks about the nature of the created desire, the changes it can acquire, and the things it will feel in accordance with these changes. The formula is simple: You enter certain changes into the initial desire and receive a certain sensation in it as a consequence.

The general spectrum consists of a multitude of shades. Different impulses can be revealed at the same time in one desire; we perceive different events, actions in every private desire. Man’s desire divides into 613 parts where he experiences all the different impressions and reactions. And all of them add up to form his image of the world.

The parts of the receiving desire that pertain to the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels shape the contours of reality for us. We can keep opening the desire wider and wider as we keep revealing new parts in it, and then our common world expands.
[35587]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/2011, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Valuing The Means As Highly As The Goal
A Lily Among Thorns
Blunting The Illusion Of The Breaking

There Is No Forgiveness In Spirituality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does the following mean (“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Sixth Commandment,” Item 221): “…for none other has permission to pardon him [man] except Him”? How can a law either be or not be merciful?

Answer: In Kabbalah, mercy is the quality of bestowal (Hassadim); it is not the forgiveness of sins like in our world. There is no forgiveness in the spiritual system. This is a system of very precise laws.

And when I do something sinful, I primarily need to know what I did, why I did it, and how. I must understand that the Creator has fixed this sin up for me for it to become revealed, and now it helps me to see how I can ascend.

Essentially, there are no sins; there is only the revelation of evil which was previously concealed and now becomes revealed. This is why mercy in The Zohar usually refers to an attainment of the force of bestowal.
[35594]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
You Cannot Replace A Diamond With A Formula
The Great Property of Bina
Are Your Prepared For The Flood?

You Cannot Replace A Diamond With A Formula

Dr. Michael Laitman“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Seventh Commandment,” Item 225: In the Merkava [chariot/structure] of the throne, the face of a lion is on the right and the face of the ox is on the left. The ox is called “a whole [Tam] ox” since in the Merkava of the throne there is an inscription of the covenant.

Question: Is it possible to create a dictionary of spiritual terms appropriate for our level, which would explain the different words from The Zohar, like “ox,” “structure” “(Merkava),” “lion,” “serpent,” and so on? This would help to replace the words that remind us of physical images with spiritual forces according to their definition while reading. Is this a correct approach to studying The Zohar?

Answer: Everything depends upon the way we agree to speak between us. When we have a common perception, we speak according to this sensation. When we do not perceive the events in the same way but understand them (a lower level than perception), we, let us say, speak using scientific terms and formulas.

This excerpt of The Zohar uses words like “ox,” “donkey,” “throne,” and so on. If we were to replace them with forces, we would need to specify the kind of force it is, from which Sefira or property it comes. While here, one word is used to refer to the same force, for example, “ox” or “whole ox.” This language is more concise because it relies on your understanding to what it refers.

This only refers to the Lights and Kelim (desires) because we have nothing else about which to speak. How can I convey to you the connection of the Lights and Kelim in a specific form? Should I draw it for you in a graph? Play a tune? Give you a formula? Describe the image of this world that results from their connection? How can I explain to you the exact spiritual state, the combination of the Light and the Kli, about which I am speaking?

This is why Kabbalists have found four languages to describe the upper system of governance of our world: the language of Tanach, Hagaddot (Legends), Kabbalah, and Halachot (Talmud), and they use them to convey their attainments to us. These languages are mixed in The Zohar.

The Zohar itself is mainly written with the language of the Talmud (Midrash), even though it also uses a little of the language of the Tanach or the Legends, and Baal HaSulam adds the language of Kabbalah to it. And when they are parallel, you can more or less keep the correct direction of thought.

But how can languages help you if you do not have spiritual attainment and you do not perceive to what the text is referring? Nothing can help you! You only need to think about receiving more influence in order to begin to perceive.

It works the same way in our world: You can tell me anything you want, but if I have never experienced it, whatever you are telling me is dead to me, or in the best case scenario, I might be able to imagine it through an analogy to something with which I am already familiar.

But if I do not know anything about the spiritual world, there are no tales that can help me. For this reason, our entire study comes down to striving to perceive these spiritual notions, to want our eyes to open.
[35591]

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
Hearing The Melody Of The Spiritual World
Acquiring A Spiritual Dictionary
What Words Cannot Convey

The First Kabbalah Book In Macedonia

The First Kabbalah Book In MacedoniaThanks to the efforts of our Macedonian friends, the leading publishing house in the country published Kabbalah Revealed in Macedonian. It is the first Kabbalah book in Macedonia. It was presented at one of the largest book fairs “Club Matica,” which was attended by the President and the Minister of Culture of Macedonia.

The new book is very popular among a wide circle of readers.
[35572]

Why Kabbalah Was Kept So Secret

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why did Kabbalists keep the wisdom of Kabbalah secret for so many years if someone who isn’t ready for it can’t use it?

Answer: The science of Kabbalah was open to anyone who wanted to study it until the ruin of the Temple. The destruction of the Temple was the destruction of the spiritual sensation in the people of Israel.

Just as it is dangerous to reveal regular science to egoists who lack the correct vision of the world and its purpose since disclosing the knowledge would arm them with weapons that can hurt them and others, similarly, people who fell from the spiritual degree of brotherly love into the unfounded hatred were banned from studying the science of Kabbalah. After all, they could have used it incorrectly and become confused.

They were unable to use it once they fell into the egoistic desire which was beginning to develop. They first had to become entangled in the desires of this world, to plunge into the darkness, to mingle with the desires of all the peoples; in fact, this was the purpose of the nation of Israel going into exile.

How would it have been possible to give people the wisdom of Kabbalah at that time; it would have been contrary to the purpose. The people fell from the spiritual degree and lost that knowledge precisely in order to live on the same level as all the other nations. Up until the end of the Middle Ages, the people of Israel and all other nations led a very simple and primitive life. It was a time for their mutual inclusion.

But despite the fact that the people of Israel lost their spiritual degree, the high, inner spirit persisted in them, and there were many sages (Kabbalists) and people who understood the purpose of creation.  It wasn’t like today’s state of complete lack of understanding of the purpose of existence.

This decline happened in the past 100-150 years, but before that, there wasn’t a person among the people of Israel who didn’t know what he was living for. That allowed them to endure all the years of exile and preserve themselves despite all the persecution, inquisition, and pogroms. After all, it wasn’t just blind faith: They felt and knew that there was a purpose.

However, the wisdom of Kabbalah had to be kept secret from the people of Israel precisely because they had to mix with the desires of other nations and to complete the period of exile. That was the reason why Kabbalists concealed it, alienated the people from it, and intimidated them so as not to confuse them and to give them time to correct what needed to be corrected.

This was the form in which they were performing the correction at that time. After all, we can’t see the inner development that was going on inside. For billions of years, all matter has been evolving unconsciously, but we can’t grasp the process in its entirety with our limited mind. If we maintain this view of reality, we can’t justify anything in it. If we want to understand anything, we first need to reveal the entire picture.
[35537]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Related Material:
The Future Society Amidst The Ancient World
Religious Resistance To Kabbalah
Why Was There A Prohibition On Kabbalah Before?