Question: What is love of the Creator?

Answer: Love is an opportunity to fill someone else’s deficiency (vessel) using my own vessels. In our world we love because it gives us pleasure: delicious and familiar food, people that please us, my children to whom I am naturally attached. We call this love.

But spiritual love is not when I fill my vessels by someone or something, but when I fill the vessels of others. This is the exact opposite of what we are used to thinking about the concept of love. The spiritual world is opposite from the corporeal world. If I worry about someone else’s vessels and want to fill them the way he wants them filled, it means that I love that person.

As long as we love each other and everything is fine, we make a covenant with the Creator in order to sustain this relationship, even if everything changes because of different external reasons. No matter what happens—I want to keep the same force of love and connection between us.

The question is how can this be done if I suddenly discover that the Creator is responsible for all my troubles? My faithful and beloved partner suddenly stops looking at me and causes me all kinds of troubles and problems. He betrays me in every way and does everything against me and becomes my chief enemy. So how can I maintain the good attitude towards Him under such conditions?

But the adhesion to the Creator means that I have gone through different states and have reached a state in which I receive nothing from Him, nothing but the feeling of darkness. But above all that I build a relationship of love, bestowal, and connection despite the problems and the sufferings that He causes my ego. In such a case it can be called adhesion.

The vessels in which I attain adhesion have to be restricted and concealed. Above them there is my Masach (screen) and Returning Light, and there is adhesion in the vessels of bestowal.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/12, Shamati #76

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Question: How can we make a covenant among friends?

Answer: A covenant among friends is possible only if there is an upper party ensuring its preservation. A covenant can be kept only when we all connect with the upper force, which provides the union.

There is no chance that we will be able to keep this covenant by ourselves, but if we connect, we can demand this from the Creator—if we do it for Him.

The result is that “Israel,” the people who yearn for the Creator, the Light that Reforms, the Torah, and the Creator are joined together, and then the Creator keeps the covenant according to our request.

When darkness, separation, and conflicts come, this covenant is revealed and exists among us. But as long as everything is fine, it is impossible to test it. The test is only when we feel bad.

When we feel good, we don’t need any covenant; as long as there is the Light, it connects all the parts. The difficult part is to do so when the Light disappears, to keep these parts together then. This is called a covenant.

But how can you draw the Light in a time of darkness? It is impossible. But we want to reach a state in which even when we don’t feel the Light in our receiving vessels, we will feel the Light in our Masach (screen) and the Returning Light—a fulfillment in the vessels of bestowal instead of an egoistic fulfillment.

Today, I am a loyal slave of my desire to receive, and I want to serve in order to fill someone else in the same way. This will be a pleasure for me. This means that I want to make a covenant.

The covenant is tested only in the dark, when I get no fulfillment but I still want to keep the same good relations that I had before. Instead of my egoistic pleasure, I want to restrict my ego: a Masach and the Returning Light.

This is called a covenant; it is a state in which I don’t work for myself anymore but rather in order to bestow. This means that I keep the same attitude not only when I feel good, but when I feel bad too. When the good state returns, I don’t want to be confused and be enslaved by the desire to receive over and over again, and so I make a covenant for that purpose.

I want to feel pleasure in the vessels of bestowal; I want to restrict my desire to receive and work with the pleasure by building a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light above this restriction. I turn to the friend with this Returning Light and connect with him. This is called a covenant.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/12, Shamati #76

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Question: Should we include the issue of the perception of reality in the basic course of integral education?

Answer: I wouldn’t teach this topic in the first course because it is a very complex issue. It should be taught very carefully, so that it wouldn’t seem like mysticism, new age or like all the other philosophies, or like some sublime ideas.

The material in teaching the perception of reality should be based on serious scientific research, that show that first and foremost, it is science, it is physics, and that it stems from studying this world and not from some ancient sources and made-up conclusions. This means that we are not talking about something that simply seems that way to us, but that is based on scientific data. Then we can already put together a certain picture of our world perception, of our feelings, our impressions, the processing of this internal information, how we communicate with the world, what the mechanism called “I am—a man” means, and what I do see.

I repeat, not every person can perceive this correctly. I fear that this issue may turn into an obstacle and that it may evoke rejection or may lead to numbness, as a result of which a person will detach himself and afterward will not perceive or understand you any more because you would not be speaking on the same level from which you spoke about the explanations of the problems in life that were presented coherently. In this case, it is impossible to bring the explanation down to the level of a person’s ordinary perception.

This issue should be part of the teachers’ training and then again not in the sense that they should teach this material, but only for their general development.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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Preparation to the Lesson

Rav Yehuda Ashlag “Messiah’s Shofar”

Workshop: What Do We Bring to the 99% in the Round Tables?

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Question: Should we teach the issue of “a healthy lifestyle” in the basic course of integral education?

Answer: Actually many articles have been published lately on this topic that present statistics showing how diseases and health problems will diminish if we keep the correct relations among us.

Of course there will also be fewer murders, rapes, acts of violence, and other types of social tensions, and accordingly, it will be reflected in the overall health of people and of society.

But there is another reason for this: A person simply becomes more balanced.

All of our problems stem from internal imbalance; if we balance the relations among us and all the systems begin to function harmoniously, all the diseases will disappear.

Theoretically, it is clear even from the data presented by integral systems theories, a person shouldn’t hurt at all.

He simply needs to be healthy and relaxed, as if about to fall asleep, and die, even without feeling this transition, meaning all should go be very easy and simple so that the analog, integral goes through this change where the human level gradually descends to the animate level, and from the animate level to the vegetative level, and then gradually wanes. If you descend these levels gradually, you don’t feel that you are dead, but it is as if you gradually fall asleep, and then you are gone, and that’s it.

There is a lot of good statistical material on the issue of health, and so it is a good idea to include it in our lectures.

On the whole, all the problems that exist in society today, we should show statistically and graphically, using videos so people will actually discover: “Wow, this is where we live! Wow, what a problem!” Not everyone else understands and has faced it; yet at the same time, together with the problem, we must immediately provide the solution for it.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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Question: Should we examine the issue of life and death and the solution to this question in the basic course of integral education?

Answer: I think it is possible because we are speaking about a person’s desire.

We should rate these desires from the level of the inanimate, the vegetative, and the animate up to the level of “Human.” We should explain that every desire takes over the others and thus suppresses them: The higher a desire is, the more real, intense, and dominating it is over the lower desires.

It is very hard to explain what the “human in me” means right from the start. It is above my animal level, above my corporeal life. If I feel that I am human, when I don’t think about the body but rather am filled by some idea, I actually don’t feel my body—it is as if I am floating above myself.

If I descend to the animal level, like an ordinary person in this world, I feel the body. But in any case, while being in my animal body, I don’t feel pain when I cut my hair or my nails because it is at the vegetative level.

If I descend to the vegetative level, I don’t feel the inanimate level, where there are no nerves and so on.

Thus, we can speak about the development from the bottom up and about a person’s descent from the top down by explaining how he gradually leaves this life.

We can explain and show a person that if he is in this social, integral body that constantly supports him, he will not feel even a minute of suffering, not in this life and not when this life is over.

A person who is connected with others constantly becomes healthier by being connected to the system that is full of mutual connection with others, and so even if something happens to him, there is an energetic compensation on the account of others. Thus, society operates as a healthy body. If a thorn enters a person’s body, for example, the whole body begins to work against it, by pushing it out, by treating the infected area, etc. The same thing happens with a person in society—the society immediately feels all the person’s internal problems and provides him with the necessary energy, and he is healed.
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From a Talk on Integral Upbringing 5/22/2012 

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Question: Should the basic course of integral upbringing include the subject of the crisis and methods of overcoming it?

Answer: I think that this topic should also be included in the basic course because man exists in a field of information, under the influence of the media that brainwashes him and fills him with all kinds of nonsense, and they say it is possible to get rid of the crisis, to somehow to overcome it and the like.

We must give a person a strong, scientific, social, and mainly psychological foundation, so that he will certainly know and understand that is it possible to overcome the crisis only through our similarity with nature, only if we create an integral, “round” society—a society of reasonable consumption, mutual understanding, balancing people with each other, etc. This is possible only under the influence of the environment.

We need to tell a person all the theories for the solution of the crisis and show a way, through scientific opinions, that none of them can work since they are invented by our egoistic mind that wants to divert us from the truth.

I would say that the majority of these theories are designed to ensure profiting from the continuation of their development, to allow them to sit back and dig in to their own concerns. After all, we see that from the beginning they are not leading anywhere.

Therefore, the topic “Methods of Overcoming the Crisis” must necessarily be included in the basic course of integral upbringing.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/22/12

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” item 4: Hence, those who claim that because of our lowliness and nothingness it is not fitting for Him to watch over us, and therefore, He has left us, do nothing but display their ignorance. Try to imagine, if you were to meet some man who would create creatures, precisely so they would suffer and agonize their whole lives as we do, and not only that, but cast them behind his back, not wanting even to look after them, to help them a little. How contemptible and low you would regard him! Can such a thing be thought of Him?

We are very limited in our feelings and cognitive abilities, in our self-perception, and in perceiving what is above us such as the laws of time and place. So of course we cannot accurately understand and establish the right attitude to life and to the Creator.

It isn’t by chance that it says: “Don’t show a fool a job that is half done.” Seeing only a small part of reality, can we determine the general picture? Even in our lives there are different states. Most cannot even imagine in advance that one state will pass and will turn into the opposite state. So if we speak about what is concealed from us, is it possible to come to any conclusions?

I believe, however that it doesn’t stop us. Kabbalists want to save us hard labor, blows, and the prolonging of time, so they tell us from the beginning that the Creator is good and benevolent and that He is in a state of absolute rest. After all perfection is not subject to change; on the contrary, all the changes take place in us. They will occur one way or the other, but we can determine the form they will take.

You can assess the changes egoistically by measuring how much pleasure they bring you and you can also assess them differently, according to how close they bring you to the One who bestows—to what extent you’ve managed to resemble Him. If you assess the changes according to how much you receive, you will suffer until you learn to assess the states you are in and life itself by other values, according to your closeness to the Creator and your similarity to Him. According to this calculation, the degrees of your ascent as a man (Adam) that resembles (Domeh) the Creator will be built. This in fact is the whole point.

So there is a beginning, the process itself, and an end. The events occur and you have no say, and you don’t determine how you will change either. You only have to determine your feeling: How do you accept the inevitable changes? This is the only thing that depends on you.

People who accept their development as desirable are called “righteous.” Those who resist this development and don’t want it are called “wicked.” Accordingly, we feel good or bad: The feeling of life, our development, reality, everything depends on how you aim or “calibrate” yourself to perceive what is happening. Of course, whatever has to happen will happen, but depending on your internal calibration called correction, you can feel the full range of emotions from minus Ein Sof (Infinity) to plus Ein Sof. Everything depends on the degree of your agreement with what is happening.

It is by that, that the wisdom of Kabbalah helps us. If a person agrees with the changes and the corrections, if he wants to be corrected and to accept all the new steps as desirable, if he even wants to hasten these states so that they will pass as fast as possible and is ready to accept whatever the future brings “above reason”, above all the calculations, since he is already in a state of faith and bestowal, then it doesn’t matter what actually happens at the moment. In this case a person hastens the development, feels it as special, sublime, and wonderful, and this is desirable in the eyes of the Creator.

Everyone should reach this form of development, and until then, we won’t advance since we cannot advance in a bad way. A person can simply stand still, receiving new troubles and sufferings each time on the present level, until he agrees to change himself and to establish the right attitude towards his development. So on every level a person either prepares oneself in advance to the changes or accepts every change as a blow, which cause him to change under the pressure of different forces. In any case, the changes are necessary, and so consciously or under a shower of blows, a person will be compelled to accept the development as a wonderful and desirable thing.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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You can find many allegorical examples that illustrate the process of the spiritual closeness. For example, a clock with a pendulum that moves from side to side reflects that a person does half the work and the Creator does the other half.

A person is only required to prepare a deficiency—this is his free will—to prepare a deficiency with the help of the environment. The Creator is revealed according to the environment since the Light is constant and doesn’t change. If a person prepares a deficiency in the size of the first ten Sefirot in which he can reveal the upper Light in the new level, the Light is revealed.

So a person is always preparing a new deficiency and then the new level of the upper Light is revealed.

We should remember that the Light is in a state of absolute rest; it is eternal and unchanging. The Creator on His part always maintains the covenant with a person and doesn’t change its terms. A person must constantly renew the covenant.

Each time he shifts with his pendulum and makes a step forward and by that is rewarded with the revelation of the Creator, closer proximity to Him. By every such attempt, he should come out with the right impression so that all his work, on the level he now finds himself, between two ascents or two descents, will be for the benefit of the King. This means that his work should be in one direction “above reason” with one intention of valuing the attribute of bestowal above the attribute of receiving. Thus a person gets closer to the Creator.

Regarding this it says: “on all your sacrifices you shall sacrifice salt.” A sacrifice symbolizes closeness to the King, and by constantly keeping the covenant between you and renewing it, you are rewarded with a revelation.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/17/12, Shamati #76

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