Lessons From Achziv Convention – 09.02.11
Posted on September 2nd, 2011
Question: 70 years ago Baal HaSulam warned people that the Holocaust was coming, but no one listened. Today we also warn of dire developments and the possibility of a world war. Why don’t we draw a clear parallel to the words of Baal HaSulam as proof that we are right?
Answer: The very quality of the human ego is such that it cannot see this scenario. People are simply unable to discern it.
And yet the present situation is different from that of the last century. 70 years ago Baal HaSulam studied with 5-6 of his regular students, but today there are many thousands that study his materials, which at the time he couldn’t take outside of the group. People the world over are beginning to accept this message and identify with it. Naturally, each to his own measure, but still.
There’s nothing you can do; these are the laws of evolution. If you could see the entire magnitude of Malchut that needs correction, you wouldn’t have these questions.
Imagine that you’re sailing from Europe to America without a map, and even when you’re only a few miles from land, you still can’t see it; you think that you are lost in the very heart of the ocean. Your field of vision is limited to the horizon, and you see only water until the very last moment when the edge of the continent appears over it.
The first to see it will be the person that sits at the highest point, provided there is someone on your ship who has climbed higher and sees further. “Land!” he’ll shout. But you won’t see it yet. Will you believe him?
[52960]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/2011, “The Nation”
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Turning Above with an appeal (raising MAN) is an action we do not feel. It is a consequence of many actions, deeds, hours of study, work on dissemination, uniting with the group, and internal analysis. All of this accumulates more and more until we reach a state where this cup overflows.
That is the reason why a person does not know when it will happen. He is putting in the effort, training, trying to prepare himself, and finally, he comes to execute this action as a result of all the great, provisional preparation. Then, he can say something about it.
However, in reality, this action is accumulated outside of himself, and it actually is not him preparing and finally executing the action. That is why it is said: “Each penny is accumulated into a big account.” Then, this common, large account activates in the upper one, forcing it to take action. All of the actions obey the law of equivalence of form, and that is why it happens when the appeal of the lower one begins to correspond to what the upper one is ready to do to him.
MAN is a prayer, an appeal, a desire, with which I turn to Above, and this is the only thing that I am capable of doing. When I call to Above with an appeal, I do not know whether it is correct or not. I do not know whether I have or have not done it because a prayer is called “the work in the heart,” and that is why we do not feel how we raise the prayer, the sparks left behind after the breaking (Reshimot).
We do not know what is really going on in the depths of our heart, and we only feel the consequence when we receive the answer to our prayer. The answer is felt in the heart. It expands and begins to perceive new phenomena from a different dimension, which is something that a person has never felt, understood, or known before.
The heart widens as a person comes out of himself and incorporates more and more into his circle. First, his circle includes a part of the world and then, the entire world, all of the upper worlds, and the spiritual steps.
[52428]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/2011, Shamati #81
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Dear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.
We Have Neither Attainment Nor Perception of any Matter
We have no perception whatsoever in the essence of the person in himself, without the matter. This is because our five senses and our imaginations offer us only manifestations of the actions of the essence, but not of the essence itself.
For example, the sense of sight offers us only shadows of the visible essence as they are formed opposite the light.
Similarly, the sense of hearing is but a force of striking of some essence on the air. And the air that is rejected by it strikes the drum in our ear, and we hear that there is some essence in our proximity.
The sense of smell is but air that emerges from the essence and strikes our nerves of scent, and we smell. Also, the sense of taste is a result of the contact of some essence with our nerves of taste.
Thus, all that these four senses offer us are manifestations of the operations that stem from some essence, and nothing of the essence itself.
Even the sense of touch, the strongest of the senses, separating hot from cold, and solid from soft, all these are but manifestations of operations within the essence; they are but incidents of the essence. This is so because the hot can be chilled; the cold can be heated; the solid can be turned to liquid through chemical operations, and the liquid into air, meaning only gas, where any discernment in our five senses has been expired. Yet, the essence still exists in it, since you can turn the air into liquid once more, and the liquid into solid.
Evidently, the five senses do not reveal to us any essence at all, but only incidents and manifestations of operations from the essence. It is known that what we cannot sense, we cannot imagine; and what we cannot imagine, will never appear in our thoughts, and we have no way to perceive it.
– Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Book of Zohar,” Item 12
[51666]
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The entire work occurs above concealment. If everything is revealed, what else is to be done? Concealment allows me to be independent and to establish my work and position myself.
For the time being, a child is not as knowledgeable as we are and does not understand what we do. But it is this lack of knowledge in particular that enables him to eventually rise higher and become smarter than us. It helps him to receive from us our knowledge and besides, to add something from himself.
If a child knew everything we do at once, he would not grow up. Hence, an animal born with all natural instincts fully masters its natural program in a few days and does not develop any further.
We evolve due to concealment, due to us not having anything. Gradually, by way of numerous clarifications, I build my personality: new, different from all others, and beyond predecessors. And if nothing was concealed, there would be nothing to add. Concealment allows us to rise to the full height and comprehend.
If I received everything ready made, I would not know what’s happening. But by building each detail and connecting all of them together by myself, I assemble Malchut of the world of Infinity, based on my individuality, on my point of the soul—I get to know creation from end to end.
[53320]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/2011, Shamati #101
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Opinion (George Soros, financier): “A comprehensive solution to the euro crisis must have three major components: reform and recapitalisation of the banking system; a eurobond regime; and an exit mechanism.”
My Comment: I wish the plan was accepted! Then, they would discover that it does not work. Under other circumstances, Soros, perhaps, would be right, but not in our time, when the old economic laws are no longer active. In the integral and global world, nothing works but actions directed to the benefit of society.
[53240]
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Opinion: (Paul Krugman, professor of Economics, the Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics): “Has market turmoil left you feeling afraid? Well, it should. Clearly, the economic crisis that began in 2008 is by no means over.
“But there’s another emotion you should feel: anger. For what we’re seeing now is what happens when influential people exploit a crisis rather than try to solve it.
“For the fact is that right now the economy desperately needs a short-run fix. …When millions of willing and able workers are unemployed, and economic potential is going to waste to the tune of almost $1 trillion a year, you want policy makers who work on a fast recovery, not people who lecture you on the need for long-run fiscal sustainability.
“Unfortunately, giving lectures on long-run fiscal sustainability is a fashionable Washington pastime.…
“What would a real response to our problems involve? First of all, it would involve more, not less, government spending for the time being — with mass unemployment and incredibly low borrowing costs, we should be rebuilding our schools, our roads, our water systems and more. It would involve aggressive moves to reduce household debt via mortgage forgiveness and refinancing. And it would involve an all-out effort by the Federal Reserve to get the economy moving, with the deliberate goal of generating higher inflation to help alleviate debt problems.”
My Comment: Of course, something must be done, but no action will succeed unless it is aimed at uniting us into an integral society. On the contrary, this will expose our desperate situation even more in order to show us more clearly and painfully where society should be heading, until we understand that this direction should be only towards the similarity with global, unified nature.
[53244]
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Question: Is the wave of protests in Israel due to the role of the nation of Israel, or will all nations come to this eventually?
Answer: The same problems will have to be solved in the entire world. On the corporeal level people will be obliged to provide mutual guarantee that will ensure social justice. Then the nations will be able to introduce a just distribution as they see it.
And it doesn’t matter how much you give to everyone. What is important is the final sensation: We are all together and we are fine. I am satisfied with what others have received and I am among them.
Regardless of which societies and countries we are talking about, the key is that everyone feels satisfied. And this is not a matter of money, but precisely of the final sensation.
In the interim phase, we have to provide to those who lack food and basic necessities. We need to raise the needy above the poverty line—there is no need to even discuss it. They receive the necessary supplement and together we move on to discussing our current problems. When a person has nothing to eat, there is nothing to talk with him about, while the rest depends on the sensation.
[52453]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/2011, Talk on Arvut and Social Justice
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