Preparation to the Lesson
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Shamati #2 “Divinity in Exile”
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 143
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 7,” Item 1
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
Writings of Rabash, “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy’ in the Work”
| [media 9] | [media 10] |
Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2012-07-28_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’28.7.12′]
Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 46: Malchut is the coarsest cover, hiding the Light of Ein Sof. The Light it passes from Him to the receivers is only a small portion, related to the purification of the still body of man.
The Light is filtered, and it weakens on its way to the desire, and the level, the intensity, and the strength of the connection that it carries, depends on it. When it goes through Malchut, it can purify the desire only on the level of the still nature.
A person who receives the Light from Malchut totally annuls himself. He cannot perform independent actions and totally annuls himself, thus enabling the Light to operate on him. If the Light comes through Zeir Anpin, it purifies it on the level of the vegetative, and, in addition to annulling himself, it enables him to move for the first time.
Later, the Light that comes through Bina raises the desire to the animate level. Now, it can operate by itself, give birth to new levels, and resemble the Creator. Finally, when a person receives the Light of Hochma, there is no limit to what he can do with his desire and with his nature, with his inner potential.
So, it all depends on the level from which the Light that Reforms comes. We must be under that level and to resemble it somehow.
Question: In what way is the vegetative level different from the animate level?
Answer: First, measure the growth from the beginning or in other words, compare it to the level of the still nature. Inanimate nature cannot move on its own. It is totally annulled by the Light and is in absolute rest.
On the other hand, on the vegetative level, the desire that has grown can take on more advanced forms and to change, but this still has to be attained, and so the level of inanimate nature develops as it resists changes.
The desire to receive changes, but a person keeps himself, his structure, and attributes. Thus, he acquires a basis that is created of all the four phases on which he stands by not annulling his desire, but rather by leaving it under the Masach (screen) and the restriction.
Then, from his level of the still nature, a person can build the next three levels: the vegetative, the animate, and the speaking. Everything stems from the level of the still nature. Therefore, on the level of the still nature, a person goes through all the phases only in the form of the still nature. Then, on every level, there are the particular levels of the still nature, and they are all be the result of the Keter of the still nature that is stabilized from the start.
As for the level of the vegetative, it can generate independent movements under the influence of the Light. In other words, if at first I could only admire different delicacies, covering my mouth with my hand, which means covering the desire with a Masach, now I already can taste a bit in order to bestow.
Then, there is the level of the animate that already can give birth to new forms. It can move and extract waste materials and organize in groups, but only according to its nature. It doesn’t take an example from the Creator yet and acts like a baby in which the level of the animate is expressed for the time being.
This is the difference: The level of the vegetative cannot move independently, it doesn’t give birth to anything new, and only responds to the influence of the upper Light. At this point, a person gradually begins to work with his desire to receive, which means that he doesn’t just restrict it, but uses it to bestow in order to bestow. On the other hand, the animate level is ready to receive in order to bestow.
The level of the speaking already takes an example from the Creator, and this is different from all the rest. The whole point is to resemble the Creator.
[83932]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
Related Material:
Growing On The Creator’s Supplements
It’s Hard Being Human…
HaVaYaH: The Phases Of Growth Of The Mind And Heart
Question: How can we give the same importance to the congress in Kharkov as we did to the congress in the north of Israel?
Answer: First of all you’ll have the opportunity to ask any questions during the congress and receive answers.
Secondly, a congress is a great action in unity, and in this unity between us, we reveal the upper world. Therefore, all our aspiration is aimed toward correcting the broken Kelim (vessels) and revealing their unity. The upper world is the world of unity.
When a few thousand people gather at a congress it creates a great force. Even if these people aren’t totally ready but there are many of them, then quantity multiplied by quality still creates this great force. I personally give it a great regard. This action really has a serious effect on people.
Therefore, we should try to encourage as many people as possible to find a way to come. Who knows when we’ll be able to organize another congress? After all, times are not getting any better.
[83902]
Fundamentals of Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/2012
Related Material:
Real Unity
The convention In Crakov: The Next Degree
Convention: Unity Of Knowledge And Feeling
Question: If we say that the books that we publish should actually be of assistance in the transition to the next level, then what should be the nature, for example, of economic and other articles?
Answer: While we might find it difficult without the help of experts to give some exact, next steps for further development and to explain how integrality in the world can immediately influence the solutions for the economic, financial, industrial, organizational, commercial, international, problems, etc., at least we can show the general lines of the message of nature and the need to search for solutions to these problems through connection and unity.
Then, if not today, then shortly, experts will see that everything is really integrated and resolvable specifically in this way. And this undoubtedly will happen. We can prescribe the solution for all individual problems of humanity that stand in front of the simple man and also for the entire international society. We will be able to gradually do this. As a result, the practical means to address the general crisis of the entire civilization will emerge.
Question: Is it possible to say that the main idea of each article should be the transition through our unity from a linear society to an inclusive, circular one?
Answer: Yes, since if one looks from perspective of the wisdom of Kabbalah, then we enter a system that is “circular,” to a system of correction that is not the linear, human ego, but a system which includes others and by that creates together with them a society. Through the neutralizing of his ego, by ascending above it, a person begins to connect to others and to create, together with them, one complete whole. Any movement should be directed specifically at this.
[83824]
From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 5/31/12
Related Material:
A Practical Guide For The Integral Method
A Guide To Solving Problems
Disseminators Of Integral Ideas
We attain the Creator, which means that we reach the attribute of bestowal, the revelation of the spiritual world, only if we acquire two discernments:
It’s very hard to reach that, since we act against our nature. Therefore a person advances on two legs, step by step, between two lines: left right, left right…from his part a person should try to start from the right line and fall to the left. But from Above, he is always given the left line, darkness first. On every level, by the darkness and the Light the “letters of the work” are registered in a person, the relations that are drawn between the types of darkness and the Light, the attributes of receiving and bestowal in different manners.
The letters are different on every level. Each time the darkness and the Light are depicted to him in different attributes according to different criteria. Accordingly the letters also take on different forms. This is why each time a person has a new Torah, a new Creator, a new world, everything is new and he is also new.
Thus a person grows by his consistency that indicates how much patience he has, and thereby he advances and comes closer to the right forms of the great deficiency that are aimed at true bestowal. Here we see the principle of “I have labored and I found,” meaning a person is looking for the Creator’s face, the greatness of the attribute of bestowal. Connecting to the attribute of bestowal, the force of bestowal summons in him the feeling of belonging, warmth, up to the actual feeling of love. Since to love the Creator is to love bestowal, to love the attribute of love itself, it begins to fill a person and enables him to dwell in it.
We have to go through great changes in our nature by detaching ourselves from our old values, from the previous understanding of what exertion means and what the goal is, who the Creator is and what the Torah is. Each time we re-evaluate the great desire that is required of us and the suffering that we experience. The values naturally change in the transition from one state to another, and a person constantly changes and becomes another, a new person.
Therefore it says in the Torah, “Abraham is an old man.” “An old man” is someone who has acquired knowledge, who has been through and “plowed” the whole path. A person acquires the attribute of bestowal gradually, the mind and the understanding of how to work with it, the feeling, the loyalty, the self-sacrifice, and how to identify with the Creator. Thus he attains the level of “an old man” which means his point of adhesion with the Creator. Then the attribute of bestowal fills him, and he feels love and appreciation towards it.
[83846]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam
Related Material:
The Unbearable Burden Of Absolute Love
The Mechanics Of Ascension
The Black Hole Of Egoism
Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2012-07-27_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’27.7.12′]
As it is written, “Confidence is the clothing for the Light.” The desire to receive is the basis for everything, but the desire itself is worthless if the Light doesn’t operate on it.
The greatest righteous one who attains many spiritual levels falls if the Light stops illuminating him, and he returns to his animal state. He even becomes worse than everyone else, although this is a good state since this is a great state but with a minus and the opposite from Holiness.
As long as the Light illuminates, there is confidence, and, if the Light stops shining, there is no confidence. Everything depends only on the Light that illuminates a person. To this extent he has the power to rise and to say something.
When the Light disappears, a person loses even his memory as happened to the Baal Shem Tov who couldn’t remember the letters of the alphabet. A person cannot understand in which world he is and whether there is an upper world or a Creator.
This means that everything depends on the intensity of the Light that comes to us and illuminates our matter, our desire. Therefore, as it is written, “There is none wiser than he who is experienced,” and “I labored and found.”
However, all this work, the exertion and the overcoming, all are aimed only at one action: to hasten the influence of the Light upon us. After all, it all depends on it while we are trying to prepare so that the Light will not disappear. Even if it should disappear, eventually all the difficult states will be in our favor, but we must do everything in our power to be close to it, to adhere to it, and to resemble it.
The way already has been paved in advance, and it is in our power to hasten the development and advancement along this way. The hastening depends on how much we all want to fulfill the new form, the next level, so that it will be fulfilled in us. This is actually where all the exertion is focused.
Confidence is an illumination from Above, and, if it stops, we have no confidence, no feeling, and no understanding. As it is written in the Book of Psalms by King David, “But when you hid your face, I was struck with terror.” We must achieve such a connection among us, which will oblige the Light to constantly be among us.
Together, by our collective efforts and with the help of the Light, we can create such an attribute of bestowal, of love and connection, among us that the Light will never cease to illuminate us. This is called confidence, mutual guarantee.
Thus, we attain the state in which the upper constantly illuminates us. Although each of us will rise and descend, and sway in different directions because of the multiplicity of mutual actions that take place in each one and in everyone together, we attain stability. Not only do we not fall, but on the contrary, we only keep on rising upward.
Our descents also become ascents since we are all connected in one collective fund. Thus, we achieve confidence, and there is no other way to achieve it.
[83928]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/12, Shamati #72
Related Material:
Unshakeable Confidence Is One For All
I, My Environment, And The Light
Real Confidence Comes From The Light
Question: While you were away last week, the world group had some active interactions. For the first time, we truly felt that we depend on one another. How can we hold onto that moment now and not fall back into passivity?
Answer: We must not recall the situation we experienced. The past is burnt. We must not look back like Lot’s wife. What belongs to the past is gone, and we don’t go through what we went through, not in our feelings and not in our thoughts.
Even if you think that you are leaving something special behind, it makes no difference. You must keep away from the best state just as from the worst state.
Under no circumstances should you try to recall it in your thoughts, desires, or your words, and do not try to reconstruct anything. Empty yourself completely of everything that was. Even if you felt good, now, you will feel even better. We must start every day anew and turn over a new leaf.
No one is disturbing you, not me and not the friends, no matter what they feel. The state of things in the outer world also has nothing to do with it. You must enter a new state, a new phase of connection without any burdens, as if you don’t know anything, as it is written, “Each day they shall seem new to you.” We must not compare the current state with what was before. Start everything anew, and only thus will you reach a new structure.
Even if you have succeeded, now it is as if nothing happened. Don’t be afraid to lose it. By being afraid to lose something, you are expressing a contemptible form of receiving. Everything that you have attained and everything that you have felt, doesn’t exist now, and it shouldn’t exist. Otherwise, you care only about your feelings.
The main thing is to detach yourself from the past. Without it, you will not advance forward. You are advancing toward bestowal, and this means burning all the bridges.
[83926]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
Related Material:
Every Moment Hides Infinite Perfection
Born Again On Every New Degree
Stop Thinking about the Past!
The Writings of Rabash, Volume II, Letter 8: And once I have acquired this above-mentioned clothing, sparks of love promptly begin to shine within me. The heart begins to long to unite with my friends, and it seems to me that my eyes see my friends, my ears hear their voices, my mouth speaks to them, the hands embrace, the feet dance in a circle, in love and joy together with them, and I transcend my corporeal boundaries. I forget the vast distance between my friends and me, and the outstretched land for many miles will not stand between us.
It is as though my friends are standing right within my heart and see all that is happening there, and I become ashamed of my petty acts against my friends. Then, I simply exit the corporeal vessels, and it seems to me that there is no reality in the world except my friends and I. After that, even the “I” is cancelled and is immersed, mingled in my friends, until I stand and declare that there is no reality in the world—only the friends.
Of course, it is impossible to achieve such a state by my own simple efforts. Only the upper Light can bring us to this state as it operates on us for a long time until it evokes in us the collective desire. Then, we all are incorporated in one network, and then each one feels the society.
Each one will see that this is the center of his life, and this is where he receives the force of vitality and its impression. In this mutual connection, he gradually discovers the Creator’s form since by mutual bestowal, the friends stabilize a field from which, like in matter that develops and discovers, the Creator’s from is depicted and revealed.
Thus, when we attain a collective desire, the corporeal conditions cease to exist. The desire is the only matter from which, by mutual bestowal, we begin to stabilize and to sculpt the Creator’s image by revealing it to everyone. A person sees that outside this general network there is nothing but the friends.
This is why we are in this state in such a world, and through the actions and through the corporeal states, we can attain the spiritual world. Otherwise, we couldn’t do anything.
It can only be this way, through corporeal actions and the Surrounding Light that raises us to spiritual actions, but the impression comes from the general connection between everyone. I believe that it is already among us to some extent.
[83923]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/12
Related Material:
Enter The System Of Bestowal
Give Love
Love Of Friends Is Our Common Treasure
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
