Metzoke Dragot Congress – 02.24.11
Posted on February 24th, 2011
The upcoming Convention at the Dead Sea is intended to give the world the method of correction, meaning the necessity to prefer internality over externality. Baal HaSulam writes that this is the lever and our principle in disseminating the science of Kabbalah
If we first and foremost disseminate the importance of the internality over the externality among us, then this will overflow to the whole world, and the whole world will also start listening and preferring internality over externality. Then we will be able to elevate the things that bring us closer to the Creator even more, unite them, and reach the correction of the world.
I think that we are close to this and are advancing well. So let’s connect the highest point, which is Bnei Baruch, with the lowest point on earth–the Dead Sea!
[36249]
From the lecture in “Kabbalah L’Am” Hall on 2/22/11
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Question: How is it possible not to worry about our material lives, including work and family? What should we do if the bare necessities force us to pay more attention to this than the group? How can we focus all our attention only on the point of free choice?
Answer: We live in this world where a person has to get married, work, and be a full fledged citizen. We perceive the external conditions as lawful because this world was not created precisely in this way by accident, being detached from the process we have to go through. Everything descended from the spiritual world and surrounds us out of necessity.
All of the twists and turns that humanity undergoes as a whole and each person individually have to take place precisely in this way, no matter the form in which they are expressed. There are no accidents. That is why a person has to live a normal life and take care of all the necessities as is commonly accepted in his society.
What does “commonly accepted” mean? A person has to take care of the things that are vitally necessary and ensure a normal existence for himself. He has to have a family, a home, children, a pension fund, go on vacation, and so on. The morning hours have been allotted to us for studying Kabbalah, although we “steal” them from rest or sleep. In addition, we have to devote an hour or hour and a half to Kabbalah before going to sleep, provided that a person has the opportunity to do so.
That is how our world is built. By nature a man spends less time taking care of the household than a woman and that is why he has to make up for it by studying Kabbalah. That is what the Kabbalists of the past did as well. Rabash worked as a simple blue-collar worker, laying roads or doing construction work, yet he would get up two or three hours before everyone to study. In the evening after work, when everyone rested, he also sat and studied.
Therefore, we shouldn’t leave behind all of our material worries. It’s just that we have to give the appropriate meaning to everything. Some people scorn this life and want to fly up high above it like little angels, thinking, “The only thing I care about now is my soul.” Well, that is an incorrect approach because the “soul” is your desire for pleasure which has been corrected by the intention to bestow to your neighbor. But until then, you do not have a soul. This has to be clearly understood.
First discern your corrupted egoistic desire and try to correct at least a part of it. Then you will acquire a soul. This can only be done with the help of the environment as well as normal, commonly accepted participation in all the worries of regular life.
The science of Kabbalah talks about the correction of the world, the correction of all people because it has a very realistic attitude to every person and his life, and to human society as a whole—in a word, to everything. Kabbalah sees this world as a result of the spiritual world. It is precisely in the conditions we find here that we have to undergo the correction.
We do not shut ourselves off from life in the slightest, the way it is done in some other methods. Leaving the world, going off to a monastery, a cell, or sitting in a lotus position in a faraway mountain—none of this is in accord with our method because a person has to be involved in regular human life.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/11, Writings of Rabash
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The study of Kabbalah holds a special quality. The Light, meaning the force of correction contained in Kabbalistic books, brings a person back to the source.
The Light is the inner essence of the method, and that is why the science of Kabbalah is called the inner part of the Torah. When we study it, we awaken the inner Light concealed in the study, in the group, and in our interconnection. This force really builds the connection between us, bringing desirable changes to every person. As a result, the intention of bestowal comes to replace the egoistic intention above all of one’s desires.
Together with the group, a person constantly thinks about the state he is in during the preparation to the study, and during the study itself he demands changes by means of the Light that Reforms. This is all he needs. Only this kind of preparation touches on his free choice, the only free action in his life in this world and on the entire ladder of the spiritual degrees.
Therefore, it is best to focus on this as much as possible, talk about this with yourself as much as possible, and thus discern all of the details so they become clearer and more heartfelt. That is how they will finally enable us to detach from words and shift to feelings and inner understanding. Then all of this will live inside of us as an extremely important foundation of being, the only thing we should care for. Everything else will come along of its own accord.
Then I will see that my entire life and the entire life of the world revolve around this axis in order to bring everyone to this decisive moment—each person in conformity with the root of his soul, more or less powerfully. The Creator’s goal is to bring every person to this point.
No matter what I received at birth or what I have attained thus far, this was given to me from Above. However, now, being in the group, I have to elevate the importance of the goal—bestowal and unity with the Creator. This is done by means of studying in the right environment where I demand the Light, the “miraculous quality.” If a person does not stop thinking about this, then he realizes his life as efficiently as possible.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/11, Writings of Rabash
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If we don’t cultivate in ourselves a sensitivity to good and evil, we won’t know how to employ them in the right way. Everything depends on the subtlety of perception.
Moreover, it is important how we determine what is good and what is bad since, usually, whatever is good for a person’s egoism he considers as good, while whatever harms it as evil. So, what is the reference point by which to define good and evil? Is it in relation to me, the society, or the Creator? What are “good” and “evil” anyway?
Today, we find ourselves facing a big problem. For our entire history, we have been doing what is best for ourselves, taking the liberty of distributing crude oil and gas, polluting our habitat, and not worrying about anything up until we got a chance to watch in horror at what we have done. However, there is no going back. Scientists say that the fate of the globe is decided: We have passed the point of no return and can’t restore its ruined well-being.
So, what we used to see as good has turned into bad. Had we been more sensible in the past and able to see things in the right way, we wouldn’t have done what we did. At this point, our ability to make decisions greatly depends on our feelings. After all, desire is the primary force, and the mind develops next to it in order to actualize what the desire wants. Intelligence grows solely in order to help achieve what is desired.
I think about what I wish to achieve, and the more I wish, the more I think about it. In accordance with that, my mind develops in my attempts to obtain what I desire. Therefore, next to a big desire, there is always a big mind, while next to a small desire, there is a small mind. This is the way we are made. This development also takes place in the living cells as well as inside the entire person.
Hence, as we develop a greater inner sensitivity to good and evil, our mind will grow along with it to the same degree, and we will get wiser. The only question is what criteria do we use in order to determine when we are dealing with good and when with evil?
[35697]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/2011, “The Freedom”
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Not only do we have an opportunity to gain free will, but we simply must. No one will be able to avoid it since all the forces of nature are pushing and pulling us toward it. You and all the others, any person in the world, everybody, will have to realize their free will in some way.
Two paths lay before us: the path of the Light (the path of Kabbalah) and the path of suffering. The choice needs to be made every instant. Don’t assume that once you found yourself at a crossroad and chose to turn right or left, you will keep following that road.
I moved one meter ahead on some road, and now, I am facing a choice again, standing at the crossroad once more. I made my pick, took a step on this road, and I find myself at yet another intersection where I have to choose again. At each step, I am given the freedom to make a choice, and the same two paths open before me.
I must keep choosing between them every moment, from state to state, at each new point along which I advance by building from them a line, a path to my final correction, Gmar Tikkun.
At each new point, I have to decide in what direction I will move, and since a point is a circle, I chose from all 360 degrees. However, essentially, all these directions unify in two possible options: the path of Light or the path of pain.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/2011, Writings of Rabash
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Question: How can I reveal the root of my soul faster?
Answer: When a person connects to the group, he attracts the influence of the Light upon himself. It exposes to him his opposition to this connection, his distance from others, his disregard, hate, and repulsion from them.
What does the root of a soul mean? It is my place in the system of the common desire which was created by the Creator. I can reveal it only on condition that I am fully connected with the rest of the souls since only then do I understand my role in the common organism.
Therefore, our correction consists of awakening the Light which will connect us with the entire system. Then even a feeling of repulsion from unification helps to reveal our place.
The process of discernment of my place with regard to other souls is gradual and lengthy since a person reveals his true place and role in the common system only after he reaches attainment and becomes included in everyone. Then the power of bestowal in him begins to shape the form of receiving, meaning that bestowal becomes greater than receiving, which occurs because the Light has sufficiently affected him.
Thus, you should agree to receive the property of bestowal and let the Light act!
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/2011, Writings of Rabash
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