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July 2011
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The Fire Of Hell

Posted on July 11th, 2011

The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” Item 443: The judgment of the punishments of Hell is to sentence the wicked there. Why are they sentenced in the judgment of Hell? Hell is a fire that burns days and nights, like the wicked, who warm themselves in the fire of the evil inclination to violate the words of Torah. With each warming that they warm themselves in the evil inclination, the fire of Hell burns in them.

Hell is the stages of the revelation of egoism as evil, when a person feels himself as a receiver, and the fire of shame burns him. This fire urges us to correct ourselves.

Moreover, in this state of Hell, a person has everything except the property of bestowal, and that is why he suffers. I have all the abundance, fulfillment for my egoism, but I do not wish them. I want to be in bestowal because this makes me close to the Creator. I do not want to be a receiver! This is what Hell is.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/2011, The Zohar

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A New Book: The Development Of Man From 0 To 20

Posted on July 11th, 2011

My new book The Development of Man From 0 to 20 has been published in Russian. The book is a part of “The Method of Integral Education” series and is based on my conversations with child psychologists.

From the annotation to the book: “Children are our future. They will be the masters in the world of tomorrow, and we will not be able to change anything, but today their development largely depends on us.

The book The Development of Man from 0 to 20 traces the growth of a human being, beginning with prenatal development and concluding with the age of 20, the moment of entry into adulthood. The book demonstrates an unusual and very interesting approach to questions of education and the perception of the surrounding world.

It is about the laws of nature, which we must respect, whether we like it or not, in order not to harm ourselves. It all depends on how well we know these laws and their consequences.”

The book is currently being translated into English.
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Leave The Bones To The Dogs

Posted on July 11th, 2011

The Zohar, Chapter “Truma (Donation),” Item 487: There is an allegory about a king who made a meal for his household. As long as they do his will, they eat at the meal with the king and give the part of the bones for the dogs to chew on. When his household do not do the king’s will, he gives the entire meal to the dogs and the bones to his household.

Question: What is this food that everyone eats at the king’s table?

Answer: “Food” means that you receive pleasure from bestowing. And you have to receive these pleasures also for the sake of bestowal.

This is talking about an attitude, a sensation, actions in desires. The “dogs” inside of me are sitting beneath the “table” inside of me where I feel the “tastes of the king.”

What are the “tastes of the king”? What is “the king’s table”? These are all the pleasures that become revealed from bestowal, which the king desires to bestow. He enjoys by giving. And he wishes for you to also enjoy giving to others.

Then, if you bestow and enjoy it, the whole question is: What is giving you pleasure? Are you enjoying the fact that you are similar to the king? Are you enjoying this because He receives pleasure from your equivalence to Him? Or are you enjoying it because you have gotten your hands on some pleasure? If so, then you immediately transform from a person who sits at the table across from a king into a dog who chews bones under the table.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/11, The Zohar

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Our Oversight

Posted on July 11th, 2011

By restricting myself in order to take care of the neighbor, I won’t be secretly worrying about my own well-being in the slightest. I simply won’t think about myself. This is the correction that the Light performs in me. This is the meaning of rising above the desire, performing the First Restriction, and acquiring the quality of bestowal. All of this is the results of the Light’s influence.

My care for the neighbor is in no way connected to any material details. I continue eating, drinking, and providing all of my necessities. It’s all about my desire, my inner attitude to the action.

For example, say I really want to help a sick person, I want to feed him and give him drink, but the doctors don’t permit him anything besides a little piece of bread and a cup of tea. Thus, even though I would like to give him a rich, exquisite dish and I have the opportunity to do that, I am limited.

It turns out that everything is about the intention. We do not build relationships and mutual guarantee between us on an artificial basis. And that’s why it seems to us that it is impossible to attain bestowal and unity, that it is impossible to give up concern for oneself, not worrying even about one’s vital necessities, and think only about the neighbor. They are supplied for me by others so I would simply provide for myself. By their guarantee, they take care of my material needs, as well as taking total, 100% care of my spiritual success.

All of this has to be built correctly. Who are the friends? They are receiving desires that are corrected by the Light that reforms. Nothing here is done by our own efforts. Efforts have to be made in order to attract the Light, which will come and correct us. It’s funny to think that we would act for the sake of bestowal of our own accord. Can a person really jump above his own head?

Our problem is that we do not aim at the Light in all of our actions. We think that the action itself will bring the result: that we will hug and will start loving the neighbor. But that won’t happen. We have to hug with the intention that by virtue of this, the Light will come and fuse us together in the inner embrace. Everything is carried out by means of the Light that reforms. We forget about the most important component, about the only force that operates in reality.

It seems to us that it is very difficult and unrealistic to connect mutual guarantee, unity, adhesion, the neighbor, bestowal, and vital necessity into one so they would become a single vessel for revealing absolute bestowal, meaning the revelation of the Creator to creation. And the only reason for it is that we do not evoke the Force that will build this state for us. We mistakenly expect to create it ourselves.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/11, Matan Torah

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It’s Not A Game, But Signs Along The Path

Posted on July 11th, 2011

Question: Why do I see the Creator as divided into so many different forces? Is it so I could relate Him to my different desires and qualities and perceive Him?

Answer: This is correct. When my ego, the desire to receive pleasure, imagines itself to be above the Creator, it begins to imagine idols instead of Him. Basically, it imagines some other forces, not the Creator exactly.

I see the imprint of my uncorrected egoistic desire as “other gods.” When I am not in the state of bestowal regarding a certain desire, when I fail to act in a corrected form, then the form in which my desire paints the Creator to me is called “idols.”

This is the difference between the ten impure Sefirot (Klipa) and the ten Sefirot of sanctity (bestowal). When I, looking through them from my corrupted Malchut, imagine Keter to be corrupted, this is called “other gods,” idols. And the way I see Keter when I look at it from the corrected Malchut is called the Creator.

The Creator corresponds to the spiritual degree at which I am able to connect with Him and reveal Him. But it is that same upper force, albeit relative to my degree. This is why “idols” are corrupted forms in which I imagine the single upper force, according to the way my ego paints it within my faults.

For this reason, if a person relates to the forms of these “idols” correctly, they will turn into road signs for him. He will understand that nothing is created in vain, and he will be able to advance specifically due to these forms. As it is written, Pharaoh brings us closer to the Creator.

I draw closer to the truth specifically by moving from one fake idol to another! Regardless of how unpleasant and opposite to the true state it is, we can work specifically with this oppositeness. This is because we do not yet have a connection with bestowal, “sanctity.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/2011, Shamati #15

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The World Where “There Is None Else Besides Him”

Posted on July 11th, 2011

A human being is created in such a condition that it seems to him as if other people exist and a huge world surrounds him. But all this is his inner desires which he has not yet been able to join together to see that there is only he alone, standing before the Creator.

One should attribute all the distortions, disturbances, extraneous thoughts and desires, and seemingly “random” incidents happening to him not to their numerous and imaginary sources and reasons, which still appear to him because of the imperfection of his work, but only to the Creator.

This is what the internal work consist of. After all, everything that a person does not attribute to the Creator, but rather ascribes to other forces, such as other people, all sorts of reasons, fate, and even to himself, all of this is called “idols” (foreign gods). Thus, it turns out that he considers himself dependent on something other than the Creator, as if there is some other force that can be a source of influence on him, either good or evil.

We must realize the principle of “there is none else besides Him” above all the obstacles intentionally leading us astray so that we learn to tune ourselves to the single force, one source. This work consists of several seemingly different types and stages:

To clarify the uniqueness of the Source, whether other sources exist or it is the only one;
To clarify the nature of the Source, whether it is kind or evil;
To clarify our relationship with the Source: Is it “for oneself” or “for the sake of bestowal.”

A person performs the work related to the Source with his personal spiritual vessel, desire, by uniting with all the others, and then he feels himself as the only creature. He also unites all the forces acting on him, all the various sources into one Source. In other words, there are several types of work, depending on how those two, a human being and the Creator, connect.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/2011, Shamati #15

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The Entire Universe Is On A Single Axis

Posted on July 11th, 2011

Question: Spirituality is based on bestowal. On what basis do we build our work while we are in “the period of preparation” for entry into the spiritual world?

Answer: There is an instruction: “Hear, O Israel!” That is, a person should direct himself at “The Creator is the only force above us, the Creator is One” (“the Lord is our God, the Lord is One”— the words of the prayer).

Suppose, I tell myself: “Hear, the Creator is the upper force above you, He is one.” This determines my direction that will take me to the Source, to revelation, adhesion, and unity. This is the foundation upon which our work is built, the axis along which I have to move. Now, I need to attach to this axis all the available means that I have to realize this principle.

The Creator and I are at the opposite ends of one line. And I get closer to Him by the means available to me: connecting “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator” into one whole.

The Torah is all that you can imagine; all that exists except the initial desire of the creature, as it is said: “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice.” And I have to connect all this in one direction.

I lack closeness to the Creator; my goal is adhesion with Him. I do not know exactly what it means in terms of desires, thoughts, decisions, and the conclusion of this entire path. But I, the goal, and the means for achieving it exist, and I have to organize and use all that correctly. As to the destination, the result, it is one! Everything is included in this concept of the single One.

Along the path, we obtain different forms of the mind, thought, decision making, and action—absolutely everything is changed within a person. The Light makes a revolution in him or her and creates a new human being.

Now we cannot imagine what it is. But in each state, at each stage, you should strive to do what you are able to and must do now, at this level. And then it will turn out that everything acts in one direction. This includes your search and especially your struggle with the obstacles, when you try hard to discern them and see that your egoism works here, knocking you off your path, from the thought that “There is none else besides Him.”

You have to check all the time with special attention: Whether I am in peace and agreement with the one upper force in everything I do? Is the entire universe divided now in my thoughts and feelings in two or even three parts, as if there are the Creator, the rest of creation along with various reasons, and me?

Somebody annoys me, puts all sorts of obstacles, and causes problems—this means that I do not connect this whole world with the Creator and I recognize idols, “other gods.” Indeed, how could there be any other reasons for my states if there is one force acting in the universe?

I need to verify how I react to all these reasons, to each person, enemy or friend, and to each problem: Do I perceive them as existing separately or do I combine all of them and see behind them the Creator who performs all this farce, so that by connecting all this together and attributing all to Him, I reach the principle of “there is none else besides Him”?

This is a serious work, and if a person is sensitive and analyzes his states carefully, he advances correctly and rapidly.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/2011, Shamati #15

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Kabbalists On The Nature Of Man And The Nature Of The Creator, Part 19

Posted on July 11th, 2011

Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Remoteness from the Creator is the Reason for All Suffering

When all human beings agree to free themselves of their will to receive and have no other desire but to bestow upon their friends, all worries and jeopardy in the world would cease to exist. And we would all be assured of a whole and wholesome life since each of us would have a whole world caring for us, ready to fulfill our needs.

Yet, while each of us is only in egoism, it is the source of all the worries, suffering, wars, maladies, and pain.
– Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 19
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