Be Your Own Prosecutor and Judge

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen the question about the purpose of life (the point in the heart) arises in a person, Kabbalah turns to him or her and says: “If you change your attitude to the Light, you will reveal the system of 125 degrees of the Light, of the property of bestowal.” The transformations you will have to undergo relative to the Light are regarded as “Mishpatim” (laws). The states you are passing through are called life cycles (Gilgulim). The property you reside in at each of the states is called a soul. In other words, we are talking about the incarnation of the soul.

The weekly chapter “Mishpatim” (laws, judicial rulings) was written in a very comprehensive manner. It demonstrates to us all of the cycles that we have to go through over the course of 125 spiritual degrees to the end of correction, by advancing from the states the most distant from the Creator to the most exalted degrees that are closest to Him. Therefore, it is titled “Mishpatim (Laws),” where you must be your own prosecutor and judge, and no one else!

The Torah appeals to you: “Appoint judges and officers in all your gates.” At each gate leading to the Creator, you have to conduct a trial and rule upon a verdict to know who and what you are, how you sort your desires, with which of them you advance, and which you put aside for now.

We don’t work with “Ha Lev ha Even,” our “stony heart”; neither do we work with the “slave.” A slave must only assist, must only be present during the evolution but make no decisions; there is a master over him, the “Rosh” (head), and the former cancels himself before the master and advances thereby.

Everything is within a person who is a small world. That is why there have to be a maid and a mistress, a slave and a master, a widow, a wealthy, and a poor, all of whom are desires of our souls, and all of which unfold simultaneously. You don’t move on from one level to another, transferring from the state called “slave” to the state “master,” “Cohen (priest),” and so on. At each new step, you are comprised of all desires at once, each of which is in a certain condition. “A person is a small world” means that in each state, you contain everything there is.

I do not evaluate and verify my desires with the book: “This desire isn’t quite good; I have to fix it. But this one needs enhancing, so let me ‘tune it up.’” Rather, I analyze each desire relative to the Light.

I have to draw the Light on the right so that it would affect my desires. It is written: “In Your Light we will see the Light.” Under the influence of the Light, I examine myself and demand for the Light to return and reform me. And when I see that all corrections are complete, meaning the trial is over and I merit fulfillment, then the Light returns for the third time.

With the first coming of Light, I get to know my evil.
With the second coming of the Light, I get reformed.
With the third coming of the Light, I become fulfilled.

Thus, when we transition from one state to the next, we undergo three sub-states after which we complete correction of one degree and move on to the next. It means that I completed my Gilgul (incarnation, life cycle), my work with a set of desires that get revealed to me at a certain spiritual degree.
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From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 1/26/2011

The Light Of The Upper Worlds And Our Life In This World

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen studying spiritual properties and structures, we discover very peculiar groupings, combinations, and characteristics of these forces. They group among themselves. Each force and property groups with others by Sefirot and Partzufim.

A Partzuf is a system that spreads its influence downward on our corresponding projection here, in this world. And the Partzufim link together into complete, more global mergers called the worlds. Thus, in the upper world, there are worlds, Partzufim, and Sefirot.

Sefirot are the smallest enterprises, associations. A Partzuf is a more global one. And a world is a bigger, global merger. The worlds comprise a single upper world. And all of this in order to channel the unique Upper Light, the Light of the Creator, to us, those who reside here at the bottom, in our world.

Hence, while studying Kabbalah, we can envision what is the best way for us to get organized in order to build our society, our family, home, education, relationships between husband and wife, men and women in general, the nations and the world correctly.

What can we do to correspond and to be adequate to our roots? In the degree that we are equivalent to them, we will feel more comfortable in our world. And if we achieve some general correspondence to the upper world, the upper Partzuf (albeit not with entire humanity, but a certain group or association, for now), then we will start sensing the upper world and ourselves as one whole. It is regarded as our ascent to the upper world.

Since there is only one force that influences us, it impacts practically the entire world at the same time. Therefore, the closer all the components of our world are and the more harmoniously they interact with each other, the closer are we going to be to this integral force. This is the general rule.
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From Lesson 5 Berlin Convention 1/29/2011

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is Kabbalah different from psychology which also teaches people how to connect with each other?

Answer: In its practical study, psychology is correct and is included within Kabbalah. The wisdom of Kabbalah contains all the knowledge about the nature of this world. It talks about everything that is happening from the beginning to the end of creation, and for this reason includes in itself all of the sciences of this world. It is just that Kabbalah does not describe them in detail because it does not set such an objective for itself.

Psychology, as practical observation of certain types of behavior in our world, has been correct until today. But today its ability to hold the line is questionable since we are entering a completely new global world. A global system is starting to act upon us, which does not consider each separate individual or his personal relationship with another, but accesses everybody in connection to all others and all others in connection with each and everyone.

We do not know how to approach the world in this way. We have no science which could explain such an approach to us.

We couldn’t develop a science about the behavior of analog, global systems and about the laws of existence of all of their components because we ourselves were different inside. A person can only develop the forms which are present inside him, inside his nature.

But if I do not feel my connection to others, I will not be able to develop a science about it. This is the whole problem! And now we are entering a world we know nothing about. Absolutely nothing! And we will not find out anything about it until we organically feel connected to everyone.

So it turns out that now only Kabbalists are able to develop a science for us about this ordinary, earthly reality which is now being revealed to us, and no one else. Everyone else will seem to be completely helpless and will not know what to do with all of the problems and catastrophes coming up. No specialist will be able to offer anything: neither a psychologist, a physicist, a mathematician, nor a biologist.

We will suddenly begin to realize that our current science in its entirety will slowly cease to work in this new state. This is because a new, integral network of forces is acting upon us, which take into account the general connection of everyone with all.

Do you understand the difficult situation we find ourselves in? That is why we need to circulate the science of Kabbalah as fast as possible so that people realize what lies ahead. If there will just be a small urge forward, a minimal amount of agreement and understanding, at least some knowledge and desire to understand, this will change the whole picture and make life easier for the world.

And now, a typhoon is approaching Australia, and what can people do? Only cry. They are trying to fortify their houses, to hammer some more nails into the walls, but will that really help against the raging elements?
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/2011, “The Study of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.09.11

Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What Is A Man and What Is A Beast in the Work”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “Torah and Prayer,”  Item 190, Lesson 3
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 76, Lesson 42
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” “The Language of the Kabbalists Is the Language of Branches,”  Lesson 8
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The Spiritual World Is Born Between Us

Dr. Michael LaitmanMany things have appeared and disappeared from this world as technology developed and replaced them with more perfect things. However, now a different process is starting and soon all of these cars and planes will disappear from our sensation and will lose all importance.

Only forces operate in the world: Direct Light and Reflected Light, together with the will to enjoy. And this entire picture somehow appears to us on the screen in the reverse part of the brain.

That is why people’s workplaces are shifting to the computer keyboard. One might ask: What can they possibly produce on it—clothing or a house? They create some kind of artificial values: respect, power, scientific knowledge, and other things that are detached from bodily needs (food, sex, family). This is how we create a connection between people, and these efforts are now being expressed in matter. The only thing of importance is to produce Reflected Light, and if we can create it by playing with a computer keyboard, then that’s enough!

The form of reality in which we live depends on us. If I start to see everything in the Reflected Light, then I will connect the root with the branch and will see spiritual roots in the world that appears before me. Then I will begin giving more importance to these spiritual roots than their material branches. This will happen to such an extent that the material branches will gradually disappear from my perception completely because I will activate my spiritual sensations more and more.

In the material world I use only what I need to support the life of my body, and I won’t need anything more than that. That is how this world will become increasingly more transparent. However, this does not depend on every person separately, but on the common correction of the world by virtue of all the souls.

If our souls unite, they create the spiritual world between them! They will have a shared perception of the Upper World and will feel the reality that is above this material reality, a billion times more powerful than it. Even the first spiritual level is infinitely greater and more powerful than our world.

If we start feeling it, then it eclipses our world to us. Even now there are many details in the world that we don’t notice. The desire to enjoy does not disappear to any place, but when all of humanity begins building the common system of bestowal among everyone, meaning the place for the spiritual world, then we will begin living in it and making it important!

We will raise the lower, material dimension to the spiritual level. That is to say, I start viewing the material world as part of the spiritual world because I see the forces operating behind everything and do not notice any matter as I did before. In relation to me the world turns into forces, and that means that the world of Assiya and all the other worlds ascend until the very world of Infinity.

However, this does not work in relation to a separate person, but in relation to all humanity that is starting to unite together into one common soul.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/11, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Running Away While Staying Put

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We know from experience that there are ascents and descents on the spiritual path. What can help me avoid running away from the “battlefield”?

Answer: “Running away” does not mean falling off the face of the earth. Instead, you continue to sit at the lessons, you are friendly and good-natured toward your friends, you carry out all the rules of the group, take part in the duties, and pay Maaser, but in essence you have escaped to another place a long time ago with your thoughts and feelings. Or maybe the habit of being in the group has become second nature for you. This is running away.

You are in the right place physically, yet we don’t assess things by bodies, but by desires and intentions, which may have withdrawn far, far away a long time ago. And that means you are not here. In other words, you do not apply your mind and feeling, desires and thoughts during the study in order to merit the Light that Reforms. So it turns out that you have escaped.

You sit here for several years wearing out your pants, and later you ask, “So where’s my reward?” That means your egoistic notions about reward have not changed one bit.

Therefore, a person has to check: Is he escaping or not? This work has to be done ceaselessly, every moment. As Baal HaSulam writes in Item 18 of the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” it’s important not to get distracted from the most important thing: the Light that Reforms, which is concealed in the Torah.

First and foremost, this has to be done during the study. Even if a person has prepared, he might be running away from the goal in his thoughts at the lesson. If you kept the intention for five minutes and then lost it, then all three hours were wasted.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/11, Writings of Rabash

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An Intervention Into The Upper Realm

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have finally matured to the human level and have become free. That is why our perception of reality will transform from a purely material one to an increasingly more spiritual one.

All of our machinery, workstations, and factories will become less material and more “transparent.” Even today half of the people are already working at a computer keyboard. But what could they possibly be producing there?

It’s clear what can be produced by working in the field, at a conveyor-belt, or by mining oil and coal. But what can you create by striking the computer keys? Soon the whole world will sit by computer screens. So will we be able to change the world through them?

In reality, this is how we create new matter, one that’s more spiritual. We will no longer need cars or planes because everything will shift to this virtual form. In reality it doesn’t matter one bit in what form we imagine everything. The most important thing is our effort, the Reflected Light we produce.

The Creator continuously moves upward, farther and farther away to give us the opportunity to expand our intervention into the upper realm with our Reflected Light. This is the kind of movement upwards we have begun from today onwards.

In reality, the entire difference is only man’s perception, his sensation of himself. In the past he was forced to work by the egoistic desire to enjoy, but now his effort lies in preferring the Reflected Light and bestowal over reception. This is called the human level.

In any case, one way or another, every person will work. The only question is: Will he do it unwillingly or by his own desire? All of human history until today was also spiritual work, albeit unconscious. That is how the Creator or nature had obligated us to work.

But now He no longer desires our slave labor. He wants us to become the same as He by ascending above our nature and playing with it ourselves the way He once played with us. You have to look at yourself from above and do the same thing to yourself that the Creator used to do. That is how you become equal to Him.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/11, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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A Miraculous Transformation Of The Zohar

Dr. Michael Laitman“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Rejoicing in Holidays and Not Giving to the Poor,” Item 176: Then the angels of the upper one said before Him, “Lord of the world, Here is so and so, who ate and was full and could do mercy to the poor, but gave them nothing.” In other words, even the high angels, Hesed and Tzedakah, and all those who agreed to creation, began to slander it….

The Zohar speaks of the reality which we do not perceive. And if a person does perceive it, it is forbidden for him to pull into it the familiar images, pictures, details of perception, interpretations, and clarifications of this world.

Right now I’m reading the text of The Zohar. The correct interpretation of it is unclear, incomprehensible for me; hence, I don’t understand a thing. I am not at all present in that world. If you can sense what The Zohar talks about, in its reality, it means that you understand it, otherwise not.

I don’t know what the words “do mercy,” “alms,” “the poor,” or “angels” mean. I don’t know anything! There are a multitude of notions here, and I’m not familiar with any of them.

So what do I want? I want the Light that Reforms! And nothing else! First and foremost I desire correction! When my vision and hearing will be corrected, I will find out what is being described. And then The Zohar will turn into an instructions manual for me, like the entire Torah (in Hebrew, it means “Oraa,” instruction). For the time being, we read The Zohar only as a Segula (miraculous property).

And if instead of the words “do mercy” written here I think of charity, it’s forgery. There is no greater mistake than pulling the upper world down to the level of the lower world.

Does The Zohar talk about any charitable actions in this world? Surely not! It describes the intentions, actions in the intention for the sake of bestowal that for now we are incapable of. Unless the Light comes and endows me with this ability, I won’t find out what The Zohar talks about.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/2011, “Introduction of the Book of Zohar”

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You Broke It, So Now Fix It

Dr. Michael Laitman“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “Rejoicing in Holidays and Not Giving to the Poor,” Item 175: It was said that on holidays, the Creator comes to see His broken Kelim. This is because on good days, when one keeps the Mitzvot of the joy of a good day, due to all the abundance that the Creator gives him, the Creator goes to see His broken Kelim, by which man is given an opportunity to engage in Mitzvot in Lo Lishma [not only for the sake of bestowal, but also for personal profit so as to reach complete bestowal].

In this article The Zohar talks about us having to use our properties in any situation in order to elevate it to adhesion. You have to assemble a correct structure out of everything at your disposal and to identify your broken Kelim (vessels) as well as your corrected state, to the extent that you can imagine them correctly inside the group. Whether a state is corrected or corrupted depends on your attitude toward the group: the current one and the desired one.

My current attitude toward the group is as follows: I’m an egoist and want everyone to be exclusively at my service. This is a current state. And the desired one is when I see myself as serving the group, friends, reaching adhesion with them, and incorporating myself into them.

The discrepancy between these degrees is the place of my work. When, after all my efforts, I realize that I am unable to accomplish anything, I cry out, scream, ask the Creator, the Upper Force, the Upper Light that created all this reality, to correct its act. He did it, whereas I revealed what He has created. And now I demand correction.

Then the correction occurs. In what? It is in that I sense myself in adhesion with the environment, the group. Then, in this adhesion I also reveal my connection with the Creator, with the force that has corrupted and then, due to my plea, corrected the state and for this reason dwells with me in it.

And if on the contrary, I do not utilize my faculties, properties, conditions, and everything that becomes disclosed to me correctly, it means that I am negligent of everything that the Creator has prepared for me. And then there comes the time described as: “The Creator comes to see His broken Kelim,” which He has broken purposefully, in order to give us the opportunity to discover our independence.

If I do not perform these corrections in what becomes revealed to me, I as though come into a “fight” with Him, and He teaches me what I have to do in an undesirable way. This is how we educate a child who does not want to listen.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/2011, “Introduction of the Book of Zohar”

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Introductory Lecture “The Proper Environment For Education” – 02.08.11

Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “The Proper Environment for Education”
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