Reluctantly, Toward Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhy is the created being made egoistic? Why does man always think about himself? Why didn’t nature make us feel and love each other as our own children who are even more dear to us than we ourselves? Why didn’t we receive such properties? Why do we, like the infamous cuckoo birds, drop our eggs into somebody else’s nest?

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that it is done so intentionally, that there is nothing accidental in our unwillingness to hold another person dear. On the contrary, we view the other person as appalling, alien, and foreign. It is written: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” but what kind of neighbor is he? He is not a neighbor; he is the most distant and hateful person to me! It would be great if there were just a few of them left in this world to service my needs, and the rest can go to hell, drop dead. It would make our life even easier, wouldn’t it? That’s how we are all made.

So, Kabbalah explains that this mutual hatred is given to us intentionally so that above it, we would aim at unity, bonded by ties of love. “Love” means that we feel the other, sense his needs before our own, and serve to fulfill them the best we can.

The force of rejection remains between us in the form of hate, as some sort of resistor, a resistance element placed between the points of a microchip. But we, despite this resistance between us, are paving the way above it and pass on it with our desire, our “electricity,” the yearning to be together. And that’s when we find the energy in this resistance: the energy of love and personal participation.

We will emit this energy; we will get familiar with and conscious of it by attaining the entire force of nature, its parts, and its timeless harmony. In such a state, we will be living not as individuals, each in their own little element, but between these elements, growing on and rising above this resistance. Mutual hate and love, together, will build a net of relations between us that will be a degree higher than those today.

Right now, we live in a state of resentment among ourselves, as separate, disconnected, and broken apart elements. On the other hand, as we rise, we create unity, solidarity, oneness between us, and we start to experience this network as a new, higher dimension, where we begin to live now. This is what we call eternal life. This is, in fact, the upper life: a timeless, perfect existence that lies above the present one, limited by death and, essentially, killing us day by day.

This is why we need egoistic resistance on one hand and its correction by love on the other. This is where we need to specifically unite the two opposing properties within ourselves. And yet, love prevails over hate and allows us to ascend spiritually so we may break free from this world upward, into perfection and eternity.
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From the Virtual Lesson, Fundamentals of Kabbalah Series 5/15/2011

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Bestowal: To Live In The Other

Dr. Michael LaitmanKabbalists explain that we have to live according to the law of bestowal not for the sake of society or ourselves, but for the sake of the Creator. What does this mean? “For the sake of the Creator” is a formula, definition, which means that bestowal must be absolute.

We have to give not simply for the sake of survival, not just to live our life comfortably and egoistically. This bestowal is for self-interest: “We have no choice, so let’s re-educate ourselves to become good, kind, compassionate, and responsive.” This egoistic correction is not sufficient because it stems from the need to survive.

“For the sake of the Creator” means that you live according to bestowal even if nature doesn’t compel you to achieve harmony and cooperation with other members of society for the sake of survival. Nature may not require you to bestow and receive in the conditions regarded as a complete connection with others, meaning to receive the necessities and to give maximally, which is called “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” This slogan should not be for the survival of society, for the victory of socialism throughout the world, or for any party. It should be “for the sake of the Creator.”

“For the sake of the Creator” means that my bestowal should be absolute, not for the sake of something earthly. I have to reach a state where the property of bestowal in me replaces the property of reception, my egoism, completely. I shift into a completely different part of the world, into another dimension. I begin to think, feel, perceive only in terms of the property of bestowal rather than reception.

It’s possible to compare this state with a mother who doesn’t feel that she is cold or hot, it’s dark or light; she feels that only relative to her baby. She exists in him, inside: whether he’s cold or hot, in the dark or light, in pain or comfort, and the like. She feels everything inside of him rather than inside herself. This “beastly” love is present in our world as an example: Thanks to it in particular we can truly develop and continue to exist.

It’s a necessary condition of life in spirituality. We endure our life on Earth, constrained by space, time, and motion. The illusion of life in egoism exists only here. In fact, the true life in its eternal, perfect flow exists in the absolutely opposite property: that of bestowal.

Similarly, a mother lives in her son, feeling and fulfilling him instead of herself. All her sensations are in him, everything is for him, and she herself is only for his fulfillment. Essentially, this state is called “to receive the necessities and to give maximally” but not for herself, in order to survive thereby, but for his sake, for the sake of her beloved child.
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From the Virtual Lesson, Fundamentals of Kabbalah Series 5/15/2011

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Like An Embryo In The Mother’s Womb

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How are the 613 desires and 613 Mitzvot (commandments) connected? How can I correct these desires if I don’t know what they are and am totally stuck in my ego?

Answer: I have a certain point, similar to a drop of semen a human development starts with. I must attach to this point the entire mass of my soul, which will result in its developing based on the information instilled in this point.

Similarly, a drop of semen contains the entire information about a new human being: That he or she will grow and weigh, let’s say, 200 lbs, be 7 feet tall, be brilliant, exalted, and so on. We don’t know any of this, but all human characteristics, his path in the material and spiritual world, all of this is contained in the drop of that semen. We simply need to infuse it with a certain force. This force is provided by the mother.

We study that in the spiritual world there is also a mother: Bina. From there we receive the force to develop spiritually. Inside this spiritual mother, there is a place regarded as the “womb” or AHP, where our “droplet” ascends to. This is what we call MAN. The drop gets accepted by Bina and begins to grow.

This spiritual mother is the group. We had previously mentioned that a person has to enter the group and cleave to it, cling to the “wall of the womb.” Thereby, he starts receiving from it the force of development for its point.

The group itself doesn’t add anything to us; it exists to allow us to receive the upper Light through it, something regarded as blood (Hebrew “Dam” comes from the word “Domem” or “still”). In other words, we are still being developed at the still level, with Aviut Shoresh (the coarseness of desire of the root level).

In our point, there are 613 desires. They all evolve, but we don’t know how it occurs.

Like An Embryo In The Mother’s Womb1

Besides, we don’t know what desires are developing now and which of them will be unfolding later. This process can be demonstrated as a diagram that looks like an ultrasound scan: All desires, from 0 to 613, develop in various degrees: some more, others less.

Like An Embryo In The Mother’s Womb2Each of us has 613 desires but in their various combinations. Let’s say desire “20” is developed in me greater than in someone else, while desire “40” less so. They are the same 613 desires which differ in their might and exist in different combinations and proportions between themselves. And when the group becomes a channel through which the upper Light influences all these desires, the Light is regarded as blood and nurtures them, even though I have no idea how.

Like An Embryo In The Mother’s Womb3I don’t know or understand it, just like an embryo in the mother’s womb doesn’t comprehend the process of its development and doesn’t think or ask about it. It is fostered by the nature’s force. This is why this is the development at the still level: without understanding, feeling, and attainment.

What then is the development of 613 desires? When I cancel myself before the group in order to cleave to it, be one with it, so that it would impact me, it means that I am performing the acts of annulment of 613 desires. I am clueless of what it is. All of it together is my ego that I cancel relative to the group. Then I am influenced by the upper Light and advance.

In other words, my action of nullifying myself before the group in order to receive new desires, thoughts, and a scale of values is regarded as carrying out of the 613 commandments. Each action is called a “day.” Thus it is written that every day, a person must perform 613 commandments. And it is so until a person has completed all his or her corrections. This concerns both men and women.
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From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 05.23.11

Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Lesson 1
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