Kabbalah Moments: Prayer
Posted on February 6th, 2011
Question: How can we tell whether we are working correctly? After all, sometimes the reward seems pleasant and sometimes unpleasant. So how can we tell?
Answer: You shouldn’t judge it by a sweet or bitter taste, but by the scale of “true versus false.” Only then can a person understand whether or not he advances.
You might suggest: “Then let’s make bitterness a criterion. The more bitter it is, the closer I am to spirituality.”
But where is this written? Why does it have to be precisely this way? On the contrary, it’s only in order to make an analysis that you should ascend above the bitter and sweet taste to truth and falsehood in order to discern them and merge with the truth. However, when merging with it, you have to attain the state where truth and sweetness will be one. You have to raise sweetness to truth so that “the darkness will shine as Light,” so the bitter will become sweet.
Then everything will unite in the truth. It is written that truth will be cast onto the ground and will grow through from the ground. In other words, the truth will grow through inside of you and it will already contain all the other details of perception: bitterness, sweetness, and falsehood.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/11, Writings of Rabash
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Question: Can we say that now, after the convention in Berlin, we are united?
Answer: We have reached a new state in our unity. I am happy about what took place in Berlin and after that in Paris. We have reached unity, cohesion. For the first time we discovered many friends in Europe who already understand the path and feel the development. I was really pleasantly surprised by some events.
Ahead of us we have an April convention in New Jersey. Let’s hope that we will come to a new degree of unity in the United States as well. Thus, by uniting during the conventions we will accumulate the necessary force for the revelation of the Creator to the creature.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/2011, “When the Creator Loves Man”
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Question: The motto of the Berlin Convention was “Harmony.” What does a Kabbalist imply under the term “harmony”?
Answer: When speaking about harmony, a Kabbalist implies complete similarity to the upper degree: the supreme energy, information, the so-called Light that surrounds us, with which we have to come into full contact and in which we have to dissolve. But at the same time, our “self” doesn’t disappear. On the contrary, our “self” and the Light completely merge into one whole. This harmony is our goal.
All of humanity descended from the degree regarded as the “world of Infinity” or harmony, where everything was as one whole. Gradually, coming down along the five worlds of Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, we reached our most opposite state: “our world”. Obviously, there is no harmony here. This is the world of chaos and darkness.
We ended up here, in this state, and over the course of many thousands of years, our entire history, we have been evolving at the animate level. But today, we are beginning our ascent to the first degree of our spiritual evolution.
All of this global mess that exists in the world, all this chaos that we are now beginning to experience, this mutual hate amidst our total interdependence, emerges in us from our first spiritual degree. By now we must all be interconnected with one another at this level in 1/125th degree of our complete oneness.
This degree is already illuminating us from afar, and this is why the corporeal world seems to us so frightening, divided, antagonizing, residing in absolute hatred, and totally incapable of getting together to find a way to get along. As usual, the heads of the governments come to Davos and then somewhere else to only realize nothing is up to them. And nothing will be! No way! No treaties will help! Humanity will face a state when it either destroys itself or unifies. The question is how?
This particular question: “But how?” will arise. And then they, too, will realize that there is no other chance but to employ the method of unification that was revealed as early as ancient Babylon for this very reason. That is when people will turn to Kabbalah indeed.
But first, they have to face this most horrific question. It arises either in those who had internally matured for this and come to us individually or in the entire world after it has come “to a dead end.” So, this sensation of chaos, darkness, and lack of harmony arises as a state opposite to that higher evolutionary degree that we must reach, where we are illuminated by harmony, oneness, and integral existence.
Today we are already experiencing both of these states. Hence, in this transitional state our world is moving toward the first spiritual degree. To break through is the most difficult stage.
If we, our world Kabbalistic group, hundreds of thousands of people, will gradually, from convention to convention, create such tension and bond between us; if we undergo all of the states of desperation and still demand oneness from within; if we, even the smallest part of humanity, manage to realize it, it will be the life saver for the entire humanity. And the harmony they will feel coming from us will draw the whole human race to us like a magnet. That’s what we must achieve.
Therefore, harmony that Kabbalah discusses is a state where all people are unified as one whole, one collective image regarded as “Adam”: the collective desire, the integral soul, within which the higher degree, our eternal, perfect state, is revealed. And this can be done. It is all up to us.
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From Lesson 1 Berlin Convention 1/29/2011
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.
What Is a Prayer?
The essence of the [spiritual] work [on correction of the intention, the attitude toward the Creator] is the choice, meaning “Therefore choose life,” which is Dvekut (adhesion), which is Lishma (for Her name). By that, one is rewarded with adhering to the Life of Lives.
When there is open Providence, there is no room for choice. Hence, the Upper One [upper Partzuf] elevated Malchut, which is Midat ha Din (quality of judgment), to [its] Eynaim (eyes), which caused a concealment [in it with regard to the lower one], meaning that the lower one sees that the Upper One is deficient, that there is no Gadlut (greatness) in the Upper One. At that time, the qualities of the Upper One are laid down in the lower one, meaning they are lacking. It follows that those Kelim [of the Upper One] have equality with [the desires, properties of] the lower one: As there is no vitality in the lower one, [it seems to the lower one that] there is no vitality in the Upper qualities, meaning that the Torah and Mitzvot are tasteless, lifeless.
And [it is done purposefully by the Upper One because] then there is room for choice [the lower one has an opportunity to choose since he becomes independent from the Upper One], meaning that the lower one [should examine his sensations and thoughts and come to a conclusion that this state is given to him purposefully so that he wouldn’t follow his sensations, but rather increase the greatness of the Upper One through the group and rise above his sensations] should say that all of this concealment that he feels is because the Upper One [purposefully] restricted Himself for the sake of the lower one [for his sake]. This is called, “Israel that have been exiled, Divinity is with them,” meaning he declares the flavor that he tastes, and it is not his fault that he feels no flavor of liveliness, but in his view, there truly is no vitality in the Upper One.
And if one overcomes [goes by faith above reason and strengthens his connection with the Creator above any negative sensations] and says that he finds a bitter taste in these nourishments [fulfillment or emptiness in the desire] only because he does not have the proper Kelim (vessels) [intentions] to receive the abundance [to correctly comprehend and sense the Creator’s actions toward him], as his Kelim are to receive and not to bestow [he evaluates the Creator by the fulfillment he receives and not the goal], and regrets that [because of this] the Upper One had to hide Himself, thus enabling the lower one [him] to [involuntary] slander, this is considered that the lower one is raising MAN [pleading with the Upper One to help him not to relate to the Upper One badly regardless of any sensations in the desire].
By that [thanks to the lower one’s MAN], the Upper One raises His AHP—and ascent means that the Upper One can show the lower one the praise and delight in the Kelim of AHP, which the Upper One can disclose. Thus, with respect to the lower one, it is found that he raises the GE of the lower one [gives the lower one strength to feel pleasure and attainment along with the screen, to appreciate these fulfillments in the heart and the mind only for the sake of an even greater adhesion with the Upper One] by the lower one himself seeing the merit of the Upper One. It follows that the lower one rises along with the AHP of the Upper One. [The Upper One gives the lower one both fulfillments and sensations of emptiness and the opportunity to be or not to be above them.]
– Rabash, Steps of the Ladder, “Association of Mercy with Judgment”
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Question: How do you envision a Kabbalistic school?
Answer: Humanity has to reveal that upbringing has to be based on allowing a person to understand that he exists in a common, integral, global system and that he has to treat the world based on its laws. If he doesn’t take them into consideration, then he will not be able to succeed in anything, even in the simplest things.
We have developed all of the existing systems and all of the natural sciences based on our egoistic nature. But now we have to develop a different kind of science, the science of the new world— the science of Kabbalah. This is because the more we reveal the mutual connection among all parts of the world, the more this will require us to have a new attitude to it.
No one will be able to follow the previous calculations: not in physics, nor in chemistry, nor in construction. And that is because the laws will become integral and this will be evident in everything!
We observe nature, but we have no idea how it will behave. We don’t have an ability to find out what will happen because we ourselves are not integral. For now we are still able to make some kind of forecasts using our previous premises, but very soon we won’t be able to anymore. That’s because we are unable to properly treat the altruistic (integral, analog) system based on our egoistic (numeric, singular) system.
These are completely different systems, having a different analysis, decision making, and control, similar to systems that work on alternating or direct current. They cannot work on both simultaneously.
Therefore, we will have to renew all of our sciences that were created by our egoistic qualities in the individual perspective of the world, and upgrade them according to the new forces of the single system that are being revealed in the world. This will affect absolutely all areas of our activity. Otherwise we won’t know how to do anything in our world! The world will start behaving according to the Upper System which descends or becomes revealed inside of our system, from within this world.
Therefore, unless we give children knowledge about this new system, they won’t be able to understand the new approach to all the natural sciences! All sciences talk about connections and interactions among forces and qualities in nature, and these will start being expressed as ever more corrected and interdependent. As such, they can only be understood by someone who will be on their level through the inner organization of his thoughts and desires.
I suppose that the process of learning will take place in the whole world over the Internet. All the different kinds of discussions and interactions among children will take place in order to teach them how to live in society, and this will happen in groups.
I think that school as it exists today where children come to class to listen to the teacher, will gradually die out. More and more attention will be devoted to unity among the children. And they will be taught special subjects by means of the Internet.
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From the talk about education on 2/4/11
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On the path, we frequently err. We think that there are some other forces besides the Creator, which can help us. We suddenly immerse ourselves in our occupation or hobbies again. Having lost faith in spiritual advancement, we start relying on ourselves and the others in our circle.
We are surrounded by many obstacles that carry us away: a little religiousness, a little mysticism, and some other ways to jazz up our existence. But all of this is temporary. In the end of such quests (which could be quite lengthy), a person still finds himself in the same place. He realizes that he is faced with a wall here and that he definitely must reveal the Creator no matter what. And the problem is not in the fact that he doesn’t want it.
The upper state a person has to be brought to is a special one. I must rise above egoism not so that I may feel good. In that case, I simply choose from two states the better one, which means that I act based on the old egoistic principle. A person is expected to wish for something else.
Baal HaSulam describes it in the article “There Is None Else Besides Him”: If a person has committed a sin, he must certainly regret it and be sorry for having committed it. But here, too, we should place the pain and sorrow in the right order: Where does he place the cause of the sin for that is the point that should be regretted.
Then, one should be remorseful and say: “I committed that sin because the Creator hurled me down from holiness to a place of filth….”
The same is true for the state of ascent: A person should clearly realize that it occurs solely because the Light is elevating him at the moment.
Spiritual ascent occurs in two stages. At the first stage, a person feels completely dependent on the upper governing force. The second stage is when he realizes that everything that governs him both on the outside and on the inside is the very same force. Both good and bad are still it. There is neither reward nor punishment. And naturally, there is nothing ahead since everything is programmed and he is a mere implementing instrument in the hands of the Light.
Later on, the point in the heart awakens in a person, with the help of which he is brought to the environment. The correct environment is comprised of the teacher, the Kabbalistic texts, and the group. By making an effort to work with them based on the old rules, a person still cannot receive anything spiritual since he connects with them through his egoism.
Why do we need all these stages? And there are many more inner, much more sublime degrees on top of that. All of them are designated to demonstrate to a person that there has to be another solution: to act not so that you may feel good in your egoism, but so that you bond with the environment foreign to you, with the force that seems as external to you: the Creator.
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From Lesson 4 Berlin Convention 1/29/2011
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Question: What is the significance of the group in forming the desire that can reveal the Tabernacle?
Answer: A person does not have any desires aimed at the Creator! I cannot independently aspire to the Creator. This cannot be! The Creator is among the particular souls, among the particular desires of society. “I dwell among My people.” These are not just pretty words. The Creator is the net of connection between us and that is where I have to look for Him.
If I look for a desire that I have to correct, then I have to aspire toward you, see how much I hate and repel you, how much I don’t care about you, and then I reveal the evil, the evil desire—how much I don’t accept you. I see the breaking: the souls between which the connection is destroyed.
If I reveal this with the help of the teacher, books, and environment, if I regret the fact that I am not connected with others “as one man with one heart,” in mutual guarantee and total unity, then this regret is called MAN: a prayer or request. I ask for “Mey Nukvin”: the female waters, the force of Bina, bestowal, unification. Then the MAN ascends into Malchut, from Malchut through Zeir Anpin into Bina, and into the world of Infinity.
It’s impossible for me to correct something and to sacrifice something of my own unless it is aimed toward the neighbor, toward the environment in which I exist. That is where realization takes place. That is where the place of our work is. That is why the place for the Tabernacle and the Temple, the Menorah, and the table, the way they are placed in relation to one another, in what form, at what height and width, are all indications of our common Kli that is called the soul. Besides this Kli there is nothing! The soul is the combination of our desires, and the right depiction of these desires, particular souls, is called the courtyard, the Tabernacle, the Tent. All of this is common to all of us and exists among us or inside of us.
Question: Do the forms of the Tabernacle change depending on the level that the soul is on? Will different people in the group see different forms of it?
Answer: They will see it more or less clearly, with a different degree of resolution and clarity, like viewing with glasses or without. Every person will see it slightly differently, according to his level, his form, and the special qualities of the soul, but at the same time everyone will see the same thing and will be able to talk about the same thing.
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From the lesson on the weekly Torah portion on 2/4/11
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The program of creation gets carried out in us under the influence of two opposite forces. On one hand, we have been advancing by way of egoistic development so far. On the other, at a certain moment, an additional force unfolds within us: the “point in the heart,” a desire to aim at equivalence with the Creator. This desire, albeit unconscious and confusing for now (why, what for, how?), begins to push us forth.
With time, it will emerge in all people. Based on what is happening in the world today, the process will go very quickly. After all, we don’t have that much time left: 229 years until six thousand years expire. It isn’t a long time when history is concerned.
The wisdom of Kabbalah states that there is no need for these centuries either. When the point in the heart begins to emerge in humanity, even in small part of it, literally a few years is enough to correct and complete everything, to reach the final stage of integral correction.
In that case, our whole world will rise to the next level in terms of its internal fulfillment. Nothing will happen to it; we will simply ascend in our sensations, perceptions, and in what will get revealed to us. In our life, we will rise to the higher dimension where we will feel truly infinite and complete.
Nowadays, the points in people’s hearts are “hatching” progressively fast. A person gets more familiar with this new sensation and aspiration and feels as if being drawn to or rejected from something. In beginners, this manifests as good or bad sensations: I feel good or I feel bad.
One falls into depression, after which something gets better in life, some purpose surfaces, and some light glimmers ahead. And then everything is crushed again, followed by the re-appearance of the Light, step by step.
Baal HaSulam describes this in the article "There Is None Else Besides Him": And the benefit from the rejections is that through them a person receives a need and a complete desire for the Creator to help him since he sees that otherwise he is lost.
In other words, the Creator is wearing us down. He, step by step, over a long period of time, for as long as necessary, keeps “terrorizing” us: a little better, a little worse, and so over and over again. Sometimes, we think that it can’t be better, and another time that it can’t be worse. Then we start getting used to one and the other and begin to realize that it is all transient. But is there an end to it, or is it an endless process? Frequencies change, so what?
And this is where free will steps in, the freedom to move forth. I cannot force my own advancement. I will be going in circles, shifting from foot to foot, state to state, better to worse, worse to better, and so on. I will be able to move on only if I increase my desires and impressions thanks to the environment. My point remains a point. I will never be able to enhance it myself. It will not “expand” and turn into a vessel comprised of the ten Sefirot, in which I will feel the spiritual world.
It will remain a point until I start connecting with others, with those around me. I must keep doing it. Therefore, when a point in a person’s heart gets formed, after a while, he or she is brought into a group. But even in the group, a person does not immediately comprehend what is happening with him and what he should do. What he must do, however, is build a connection with others.
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From Lesson 4 Berlin Convention 1/29/2011
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