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Fundamentals Of Kabbalah – 01.06.13

A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah

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Checkpoints Throughout The 125 Degrees

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 133: It is rather like a king who wished to select for himself the most loyal of his subjects in the country and bring them in to work inside his palace. What did he do? He issued a decree that anyone who wished, young or old, would come to his palace to engage in the work inside his palace.

However, he appointed many of his servants to guard the palace gate and all the roads leading to it, and ordered them to cunningly deflect all those nearing his palace and divert them from the way that leads to the palace…

And only the heroes among them, whose patience endured, defeated the guards and opened the gate. And they were instantly awarded seeing the King’s face, who appointed each of them in his right place.

The guards are appointed in order to guard a person. He mustn’t come near the King’s palace and pass the place where the guards stand, unless he establishes an inner guard.

The Creator has many policemen and they are on each of the 125 degrees, preventing a person from coming nearer. They show you that you are allowed to rise only to a specific level, and you are not allowed to pass above that for the time being. It is because they see that you are not ready for the upper level yet. This is what happens each time.

The guards make sure that a person will not advance any further (although it is impossible, since there are rigid laws of conformity in the spiritual world). The guards reveal deficiencies to a person—a place for self-checking. They evoke him and don’t let him relax in his current state by bringing him all kinds of troubles.

They guard the person; the Light and the Creator don’t need to be guarded because it is impossible to harm them if you are not worthy of seeing them. It is all done according to the equivalence of form; if I am not suitable for a higher level, I don’t recognize it.

What does it mean that I cannot advance? Do I see that the road before me is blocked? If I haven’t corrected myself yet on the previous level, I cannot advance and climb the mountain a few meters further, but the guards help me and point me at the problematic point. They are there in order to protect me, to hasten me, to bring me closer, and to help me reach the necessary discernments. Everything is in a person’s favor and for his correction.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Are You Worthy Of Living Among Corrected People?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do the guards guard me?

Answer: Let’s imagine a corrected world. A policeman, a guard, a teacher, and several other people come to you and start telling you what is wrong with you, and you are surprised and don’t agree with them.

But they say: “You are judging according to old standards. It is true that a month ago there were different conditions, and so then we didn’t have any complaints against you. But now we see that your behavior is undesirable. If you go on behaving like this and don’t correct yourself, then gradually your behavior will turn from undesirable behavior to intolerable.”

“You must correct your attitude towards the environment. Everyone suffers since they cannot advance because of you. You are delaying the general correction and do not allow everyone else to reach a good life! They are ready to do everything, but you don’t respond, so what can you do? You have to subdue yourself before the environment, to connect to it, to be correctly integrated with the others, and thus reach the end of correction. We speak for everyone, they have told us to talk to you and to tell you what is wrong with you.”

This is how a police car or a public representative comes to you and tells you all this, they worry that you may go on living like you have been living so far and that you may not advance. After all, the demands, the Reshimot (spiritual genes) are constantly renewed, revealing a new world, but you see it like you did before, and for you nothing changes. This means that you are on the “animate” level, and with regard to the spiritual world you are even on the level of “still nature.” You simply float with the currents of life wherever they take you, and this is wrong.

On the advanced levels, the guards and the policemen come to you and point out the fine details and special conditions that you have to pay attention to, but cannot identify. Then they tell you that you have to go down to that level. There is no place for you in this “neighborhood,” and there is no time to wait. You have to leave the city and move to the suburbs, to a neighborhood of thieves, and live among criminals.

You resent this, “How can this be!” But they tell you that you are not worthy of living among good, corrected people who are open to one another, since you don’t behave like them. You thought that you were worthy! But the guards tell you that they have checked and seen that you are not… there is nothing they can do.

At that moment you resent this and are angry at everyone, but later you look at things objectively and agree that it is really so, and that you are not worthy of living in this place with your wife and kids.

I must constantly adapt myself to an increasingly more advanced generation and even set an example for others. This is what Baal HaSulam says in his article “The Last Generation.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Seeing Revealed Mercies

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “What is Thou Shall Not Add and Thou Shall Not Detract, in the Work”: The matter of “right” means to the right.

This means that a person should believe above reason and depict to himself as if he has already been awarded with God’s faith, feeling it in his body, seeing and feeling that the Creator rules the whole world and is totally good and benevolent. And although when he sees things within reason, he sees the opposite, in any case he has to work above reason and he should feel as if he already feels it in his body, that that’s the way things actually are, that the Creator rules the world as the good and the benevolent.

And he feels that he has the power to say to the Creator, “You have chosen us of all the nations, You have loved us and wanted us,” since he already has something to be grateful for with regard to the Creator. And according to the importance of spirituality that he feels, he arranges the Creator’s praise.

After a person already feels the importance of spirituality, which is called, “a person should always arrange the Creator’s praise,” then it is time for him to move to the left line and check how he really feels the importance of the King within reason, and whether he is really ready to work only for the Creator’s benefit.

And when within reason he sees he has no strength for this, and that the importance of spirituality is only above reason for him, this calculation can generate a deficiency for him, pain and sorrow since he is in a state of absolute lowliness, and he can then pray a true prayer from the bottom of his heart, for what he lacks.

A person should imagine two points: to what extent he is “within reason” and “above reason.” Then he will really want to rise “above reason” and draw himself to the upper level and come to a prayer. Thus he can advance.

A person should examine his current state and rise above it in “faith above reason,” in order to see that the Creator, the ruler, is good and benevolent in everything a person has. He examines himself in every way and justifies the Creator “above reason.”

Then he checks whether “within reason” he is also ready to reach the same conclusion and sees that it isn’t so, since his reason is based on what his eyes see. Then a prayer grows in the gap between what he sees “within reason” and “above reason.”

But this is true if a person feels happy. The right prayer in spirituality is made of opposite discernments. On the one hand, I should be happy since I am in contact with the Creator and I have someone to turn to. I am sure that He will help me and that He is good and benevolent and everything is fine!

I never ask the Creator to improve my situation, but I ask Him to change my perception of my situation. It is because now I see that I am in a sea of absolute love and that there is nothing else besides that. But because I am not corrected I see something else. We have never left the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), but we have to determine the right attitude towards it.

Each time new details are revealed to me, I have to change my attitude, which means my intention. This is why I pray to the Creator to correct me, to allow me to see Him as revealed mercies. It is a very important moment. I shouldn’t ask the Creator to correct my state, as if I ask the Creator to correct His actions, but rather to correct me so that I will see His creation as it actually is, which means only in a positive way.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/13

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Spiritual Union

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion from women: How can we effectively connect in internal work with the Creator through the men’s group without physical contact with it?

Answer: This happens automatically. When we reach the spiritual level, there is inclusion of the men’s part into the women’s part, and vice versa because everyone has both; there is no division in men and women.

That is why history mentions great women Kabbalists who were at the level of attainment, called prophecy. This is the level of GAR de Atzilut, a very high level, which was rarely achieved even by men. So, women are not less than men and are capable of spiritual attainment. The only thing that must be overcome are various external, earthly, small animal obstacles.
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From the Virtual Lesson 12/30/12

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Great Hopes

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do you expect from the women in their convention and from their mutual preparation with the men for the Arava Convention?

Answer: I expect a lot from the women because it is the principle part of our world group. The fact is that the women are much more modest than the men; they are very active, but they stay at the back, on the sidelines.

Women’s help is limitless, but all the fruits of their efforts they quietly give to the men. That is the nature of woman. One needs to note that in this they are certainly closer to bestowal than men are. Women do a lot, even though we don’t feel it. Thus I honor their work and am very happy about their cooperation and participation.

Besides that, in all of our worldwide groups, the number of women is not less than the men, and that is a huge force. Now, when humanity is beginning to gradually move to a new state that isn’t familiar to it, the women’s participation is especially important.

We need their desire, the yearnings, and their pressure on the men. We need to make them even more active so that they will pressure us, like a woman to her husband who is under her constant supervision. It is very important that a man feels that his wife values his spiritual work and follows after him, pushes him, understands what he is involved with, and controls him. It gives a man meaning and directs him.

We must feel this, and then we will be able to better advance forward. Thus, on the one hand, we must divide our work and part of our events to men and women. But on the other hand, we must encourage the woman’s part to connect, to unite, to work together, and give them every opportunity to share one huge powerful desire that will force us to realize it.
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From a Virtual Lesson 12/30/12

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Not Things But Experiences Brings Happiness

Dr. Michael LaitmanStudies (from ScienceDaily): “Consumers found that satisfaction with ‘experiential purchases’ – from massages to family vacations – starts high and increases over time. In contrast, spending money on material things feels good at first, but actually makes people less happy in the end, says Thomas Gilovich, Cornell University professor of psychology and Travis J. Carter, Cornell Ph.D.

“When it comes to material things, Gilovich and Carter found shoppers often second-guess their original buying decisions, comparing what they bought to other people’s purchases – or to better deals they missed.

“But buying experiences provides greater satisfaction as time goes on, in part because of selective memory and because a consumer’s experience is highly subjective, making it much harder to make negative comparisons. Consumers also find it easier to decide on experiences, spending money on the first option that meets a set of expectations rather than painstakingly comparing all options.”

My Comment: The desire to acquire things starts to cool down and is replaced by the desire to feel; business people should take it into account! But the desire to feel will begin to develop into the desire for higher feelings, and people will inevitably turn to Kabbalah.
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The Wonderful Attribute Of Mutual Guarantee

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Now the whole global group is anxiously preparing for the Arava Convention and there is a great emotional intensity in the air. A while ago, you advised us to try to rephrase the mutual guarantee declaration in one paragraph, so that it will touch the heart of every individual. What would you write in the declaration?

Answer: The meaning of mutual guarantee is that we must give each friend the feeling that he will automatically, naturally, having no choice, stop feeling the need to care about himself. By that we neutralize his ego. Therefore, the sources say that mutual guarantee is essential for spiritual advancement.

Clearly, the spiritual field is above our ego, and we have to be above it, in the attribute of bestowal. But we cannot imagine how it is possible to be in this attribute of bestowal. Time after time we encounter the same ego, but in different variations. It constantly surrounds us and does with us whatever it feels like, and we cannot get rid of it and rise above it.

This is intentional, so that we will be able to attain the attribute of bestowal only through connection and unity, since that’s the main thing. It isn’t the ascent above the ego, but the connection and unity between us that’s important. When we connect and in this connection influence the friends, they begin to lose their ego. We care about them like a mother who cares for her baby, and they feel fully confident and don’t think about themselves, feeling no worry. What is more, this bestowal that is focused on the friend automatically denies him of his ego and allows him to focus on the spiritual work. This is the power of mutual guarantee, its wonderful attribute.

So if we develop such mutual cooperation among us, by making each other feel mutual guarantee, people who receive this feeling from us will simply start “jumping” out of their ego, ascending in “faith above reason” and will immediately start feeling the upper world.

It is not up to a person, but rather to his environment, which we create by ourselves by mutual guarantee by totally focusing on filling one another until we reach this state in which each of us feels the collective support.

So mutual guarantee is the guiding, mutual cooperation among us that summons the absolute feeling of confidence and the natural exit from the ego.
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From the Virtual Lesson 12/30/12

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Guards That Live Inside Me

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Who are the “guards?” Are they some forces that throw a person backward if he isn’t ready for the next level?

Answer: A person should create such guards for himself. It is written: “Make yourself guards and policemen in all your gates.” If you are thrown without your knowing, then it isn’t guards and policemen. Guards and policemen are those a person is in contact with and uses to check himself.

Guards and policemen are a person’s internal clarifications as to whether he is suitable or not suitable and what else he has to correct internally in order to get closer to the goal. It is a perpetual movement: a step to the right, a step to the left, when the Gevurot and the Dinim increase on the next levels.

A person discovers all this himself and asks the court for an internal trial. He wants to know what else can be done in order to advance. He checks his attitude towards the environment; he wants the environment to help him, to act on his side. This depends on how strong his connection with the environment is.

All the 125 spiritual degrees are determined according to how strongly a person adheres to the environment. Now too, we see ourselves through the environment. If I didn’t feel anything outside myself, I wouldn’t feel that I exist. One individual cannot exist; he feels that he exists since he feels the difference between himself and the environment. This is also how the concept of life and death is determined.

The final corrected state means the absolute, inclusive connection between everyone and the return to one soul, without any distinction, in which the light of NRNHY is revealed equally for everyone, becomes infinite and limitless, identically for all the parts of the soul. This is why I always check myself with regard to the environment.

If I attain such a level in which I constantly check and assess myself according to the degree of my connection with the friends and see my advancement only in this, seeing this as the only measuring tool, it means that I am already at the beginning of the spiritual ladder.

Unless I discover these guards and policemen inside me and clarify all the conditions my level presents to me, meaning, until I discover what is considered good and regret that I haven’t reached it, I will not start looking for the means to fulfill these conditions that will eventually fulfill them: Until I go through all these stages, I will not make one step forward.

The guards and policemen become my spiritual vessels.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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