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Work With Groups Of Ten: A Permanent Threshold Of Comprehension

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the group of ten is not sufficiently connected, how is it possible to add more connection to it?

Answer: There will be more connection in a group of ten if I use it in order to nullify myself.

In general I need to use the entire world for this. For the world was created for me: the friends, the group of ten, all of humanity, all that is happening, the entire picture that is comprehended in my consciousness, which is divided into still, vegetative, animate, and human. All of my comprehension of reality is designed for me so that I will transform my comprehension of reality into one force, into the Creator, into there is none else besides Him.

Now all of my comprehension of reality is divided in my eyes into four phases of still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, and into billions of parts, only because my desire to receive was shattered. Specifically, this shattering disintegrated the world into separate parts and thereby conceals the single force. The most useful means that makes it possible for me to comprehend this force is the group.

The group should unite and make certain steps to provide everyone the opportunity to feel such a unity, what connection is. The more that people connect, we rise from level to level. Each one of the levels we first comprehend is a scattered, fragmented, broken form, and after this we bring it to the concept of a single whole.

That is how I finish the current level and can rise to the next level in which I again receive additional ego, additional desire to receive. And then I again see a confused picture of the world, which is chaotic and shattered from one end of the world to the other and again; I need to collect and gather its parts, attributing them to one force according to the principles of “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one,” “There is none else besides Him,” “The Good who does good.”

And this is how we always advance, step after step. And in order to make this entire process easier on myself, I am found in a small group, in a group of ten. For in our group there are several hundred people and it is impossible to be connected in it with everyone; it is as if you want to be connected to the whole world. The person doesn’t comprehend more than ten real “images”; that is how we are constructed. It is no accident that in several primitive languages there is a count to ten and after that comes the comprehensive definition of “many.”

But essentially this is not primitive, but rather the result of our understanding. In fact, all that is more than ten, even if it is fifteen and even if it is a million, it makes no difference to me, because this is beyond the limits of my comprehension. For example, if we pour into a cup more than it can contain, it doesn’t matter how much more. Even if we spill a few drops or a few cubic meters, it is the same thing.

Therefore we divide our society into group of ten in which it will be easy for a person to be included in its environment, to devote himself to the friends, to prepare himself for a state where he will be devoted to the entire world, which is to say, to be devoted to the higher power, to the Creator. About this it is said, “I sit among my people”; that is how we prepare our Kelim; this is how it is expressed from their side.

But this doesn’t say at all that I intend to be closed within my group of ten, to be isolated within it and to ignore the rest. An approach like this is already  Klipa – a shell. For if I was a simple egoist before, now I want to derive benefit with my desire to receive from connection with the others, from my devotion to them. Specifically in this way do the forces “suck” juices from bestowal. In this case it is said, “The dispersion of the wicked, this is good for them and good for the world. It is good for them so that they will not be in Klipa and it is good for the world because they will not come to the whole world with their method.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/20/13, Talk About the Groups of Ten

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Judges And Princes

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus,” 22:27: “You shall not curse a judge, neither shall you curse a prince among your people.”

A person who is in an internal state of freewill has a right line and a left line, one opposite the other, and he has to connect the two without annulling the left line in any way, since the left line is judgment (Din), while the right line is mercy, (Hesed).

A person has to understand that the judge and everyone who deals with restrictions do so for his own good and for his advancement. Therefore he should accept every judgment, understanding that this is how he should behave and advance.

At the same time, he should have no critical thoughts and not think that the judgment is unjust. The judge is always right. This is probably because in the past judges were not as corrupt as they are today.

A prince is the Creator’s governor: It is the force that is revealed and moves you forward and which is the greatest force in your current state so that you will under no circumstances think that it isn’t the Creator’s representative who manages you inside you. It is always the Creator who is concealed this way (in this case in the image of Moses). So each time you should imagine that you are alone with him.

Question: So why do the people curse Moses all the time?

Answer: The Torah speaks about how a person corrects his ego and how in the process of correction there are constant descents, ascents, disagreements, and curses. So the story of the Torah seems very boring.

Although different events are described they are all very similar and according to the same pattern, the heroes of each story actually go through the same situations. They try to do something but they don’t succeed, and there are arguments, problems, and certain explosions, then there is the punishment, and then everything subsides and we proceed to the next event, and then everything repeats itself. The whole Torah is about these specific states.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/27/13

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Ants Under The Load Of Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanCreation is basically a desire to receive, a created being, “something from nothing,” which means zero, nothing, absolutely naught. The only case an action can be attributed to the desire to receive is if the desire operates thanks to the force of the Light, the force of bestowal that it receives from the Creator.

Until then it remains “from nothing,” which means that nothing comes from it. But if it receives power from the Light and operates thanks to this power it becomes “something.” Therefore, it is called “something from nothing.” But it’s only this kind of work that turns the desire into “something” and without which it is “nothing.”

It’s a concept. Not only doesn’t the desire exist, but there is nothing we can speak about since it cannot respond or act in any way on its own. Something can be conveyed through it, but in itself it is “nothing.”

So “something from nothing” is “something” in the “nothing.” If something of the Creator is revealed in the matter of the zero desire, then it’s already “something from nothing.” From this point a human being can already develop. Its origin from “nothing” is the most important addition, since in itself, out of its personal choice, with the help of the power it received from the Creator, from the spark of the point in the heart, it received something from the mind and the heart and has turned the “nothing” into “something.”

So how does the created being, which is “nothing,” receive the point of “something” from the Creator? We don’t know that. Later when we ascend the spiritual levels, we attain it.

There are people who feel the beginning of “something” in their “nothing” and want to fulfill this spark. It’s fulfilled through the connection with the other sparks, which is possible only by overcoming the ego that separates them. The matter of the egoistic desire to enjoy is between them, meaning rejection, and by overcoming it, they connect into one big spark that has to reach a certain size in order to resemble the Light, resemble the “something.”

This means that there is also “something” in us and that it’s in exile, in the captivity of the power of the shells (Klipot). Our freewill, the action that can free the spark to work, is helping one another’s desire to rise above the envy, above the gap between us. It doesn’t happen by itself, but by studying, by a guide and by the work in the group. We don’t understand the mechanism of the events, but we go through them and this already creates a slight illumination. It stems from the corporeal actions, since we have no intentions yet, but we still act together in different areas, and this connection draws the Surrounding Light on the level of Nefesh.

So we begin to fulfill our spark, the point in the heart, by simple mechanical work. Later, however, when we end this work, we begin a more clarified type of work since we already perform a certain role with regard to the group, are incorporated in the connection more consciously, and understand why and for what reason.

Now I have to make a decision as to how to continue, what steps to take and which to avoid. First I simply merged and now there are serious actions that I have to account for: How and for what purpose do I connect with the friends? Why should I overcome my ego? What should I pay for the connection and what should I do with the connection?

If I acquire the power of the connection, the force of bestowal, I don’t use it for my own benefit. I connect with the group in order to melt into them to receive the force of bestowal from the friends above my annulment, and now I am like an ant, carrying this force for others. Later I return to the group and take a new load from the friends, a new load of bestowal, and once more pass it on to others.

This means being a link, and this is where my free will is. This is the only thing I can choose; I remain an ant and don’t demand anything else. Just give me the power to carry out this work, to annul myself before the group and before the external public.

Why do I do that? I do it because I bring the Creator contentment this way, because I bring the message and the method of getting close to Him to the group and to people on the outside. I take their deficiencies, am incorporated in the group, and with it I raise a “prayer of many,” for the people on the outside.

There is nothing we can pray for in the group since we are in a state of Hafetz Hesed. The Creator wants them and not us. He has inserted a spark into us and now we can pray in a group so that He will give us the power to work with the wider public in order to bring Him contentment.

I return to the group over and over again with the external desires, raise a prayer, receive the force of bestowal, and pass it on to the public. This is my work, and while I perform it, I clarify the vessels or raise them above the Parsa, form the worlds of BYA to the world of Atzilut. Thus time and time again, I fulfill my free will with regard to every new discernment.

So at the unity evening in Gaash we feel the need for the connection between us; we build up the intention to have the power to go out to the wider public in order to take care of them and to serve them. By that we bring them a little of what brings the Creator contentment. In order to do that we need the power and this is why we connect.
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From the Preparation of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/13

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There Is No Happiness In Facebook-Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from the University of Michigan): “Facebook use predicts declines in subjective well-being instead of enhancing it, a University of Michigan study shows. …

“’On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection,’ says U-M social psychologist Ethan Kross, lead author of the article and a faculty associate at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR). ‘But rather than enhance well-being, we found that Facebook use predicts the opposite result – it undermines it.’ …

“The study found that the more people used Facebook during one time period, the worse they subsequently felt. The authors also asked people to rate their level of life satisfaction at the start and end of the study. They found that the more participants used Facebook over the two-week study period, the more their life satisfaction levels declined over time.

“Importantly, the researchers found no evidence that interacting directly with other people via phone or face-to-face negatively influenced well-being. Instead, they found that direct interactions with other people led people to feel better over time.”

My Comment: The whole process of our development aims at bringing us to full disillusionment and an understanding of the need for unity: It is impossible to communicate in the old and the new way in order to direct us to the new kind of connection and interaction—spiritual (bestowal and love).
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All Who Feel The Sorrows Of The Public Merit Consolation

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe practical realization of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is to say the revelation of the Creator to the creatures in this world, begins from our generation and on. Now we together with all of humanity discover a Kli, a desire, for the completion of correction thanks to the global crisis and our dissemination work in Israel and in the entire world. Even if we receive the smallest shortcomings from people, thanks to the connection between their shortcomings and our shortcomings, we can elevate all this together to the spiritual world.

People want material, simple things, but their desires are arranged such that it is impossible to correct them without the help of the Light that Reforms. This is the form of the present crisis; every deficiency, regardless of its kind,  is revealed to be shattered, egoistic, and without solution on the plane of this world.

It requires Light for its correction because it is derived from the mutual inclusion between everyone and requires the right connections in various directions among people and with the still, vegetative, animate nature. All this must be connected together and be mutually completed with each other, and only then will correction take place.

Therefore it is clear that the crisis cannot be corrected through human efforts. Rather, when we accept the deficiencies from people and elevate them, we carry out Divine work, serving as a conduit between the Creator and the creatures and become what is called a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” In this form for the first time in history we have the opportunity to build a complete collective Kli, a pinhole, a Kli for containing the Light, through taking the deficiencies from the AHP, connecting them with the desires to bestow of GE and in combination with prayer (MAN), raising them to the Light of Ein Sof (Ohr Ein Sof).

It is said that “all who sorrow with the public merit to the consolation of the public.” Which is to say, someone who takes the sorrow and the needs of the public and elevates them, he is the first to merit to the Light that Reforms, which passes through him to those people for whom he is concerned.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/14/13

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Don’t Judge The End According To The Beginning

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam Article, “A Handmaid That Is Heir to Her Mistress”: “Opposite them are illuminations that can only act instantaneously. Hence, when they appear here in their worldly branches and are given control, not only do they not correct, they ruin. Our sages call it “unripe,” as it is written concerning the Tree of Knowledge and Adam HaRishon, that they ate unripe fruit. This means that it is truly a dainty delight, destined to delight man, but in the future, not at present, as it is still growing and developing. This is why they compared it to an unripe fruit…”

The correction of the Kelim (vessels) is carried out according to particular stages and we don’t define them but our behavior in the states through which we pass.

The entire world was created for the good of the person who works, which is to say, who grows spiritually. In other words, if a person wants to attain spirituality, he accepts all stages of his life with thanks, blesses the bad and the good to the same degree, in that the bad is like the good.

Everything comes from the Creator and I only need to realize all of my states in the most useful way. If I act correctly, then the next state will seem easier to me, that is, closer to realization from my side and more understandable because I have prepared myself.

A question can be asked here: Is the next state truly revealed as easier or do I become wiser by following my right action today so that this next stage will seem easier in my eyes? Does the Creator present an easier challenge for me or has my preparation done its work? What exactly has changed?

The truth is that one depends on the other and we have no possibility of establishing the advantage of one of the factors in regard to the other. Indeed, no matter how much the person rises, in spite of it, all the evil inclination will always remain suspended above him. And as much as he hasn’t prepared himself, apparently it will be necessary to undergo greater corrections.

That is how we advance, and in truth in most circumstances not much intelligence is required of us. We only need to accept the action that appears before us as correct and combine with it the necessary intention.

We don’t have the ability to make an exact determination of what the reason is that this state or another happens at this moment. It is also linked to future development and many details that are found within the general system. And therefore, “simplicity” is the best approach here, the right relationship in regard to every action.

Therefore, every time this state or another appears before me, I must accept it as being the best for me. It comes from the Creator who is good and does good and there is none else besides Him, and in this state I must act so that specifically within it, as a result of my effort, I will discover the Creator as the good who does good and that there is none else besides Him.

If I begin to correct my relationship and through the present state change it to an opposite relationship and bestowal, then I discover “There is none else besides Him” and the “Good who does good.” As much as a state may at first be bad and harmful, in the end it is said to be expressed in a form in which the Creator can enter.

We must always remember that the beginning and the end can be opposite each other, as Baal HaSulam explains in his article, “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator.”

Suppose that in my eyes today everyone is a thief and a criminal, everyone hates me and fights with me, everything is black and terrible, I live in a nightmare and only lose in everything in addition to my previous losses, errors, and all the opportunities that I missed in life. I simply eat myself up about His sending me a state like this. And as long as I have not corrected it, it will continue to devour me.

Everything is such that I will correct myself and will see “There is none else besides Him” and that He is “the Good who does good.” Consequently all the bad transforms to being most useful and the best so much so that the “angel of death,” the Pharaoh, the worst enemy, becomes a “holy angel,” the highest good.

Imagine the worst people and the most terrible states in your life. So if you have not yet discovered the opposite in them, this says that you have not yet succeeded in correcting the past and you have not at least transformed the unintentional transgressions to merits, not to mention the intentional transgressions.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/15/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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A Person As A Research Instrument

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll the Holy writings, the Bible, the Talmud, and the Mishna, only speak about one thing: How we can understand our nature and how by trying to gradually advance towards the Creator, we can discover Him by resembling Him and becoming equal to Him.

We can discover all the physical laws in our world only by being equal to them. We invent instruments by which we imitate nature and then we discover it. At the same time, I don’t change, I change the instrument.

Here, however I change myself as the instrument, I am the instrument itself studying what inside of me is opposite from the Creator. If these are actually my desires and tendencies, I begin to understand what needs to be changed inside me. But I cannot change myself by myself.

All my work is to see how deep the gap between the Creator and me is, and I should turn this gap into a request each time, into a demand, a prayer. Then, if this struggle is actually true, which means that I want the force, the Upper Light to correct me, I receive a response from it by feeling such changes in me.

The spiritual work is the study of the problem of my oppositeness from the Creator and my getting closer to a prayer, a request. The moment I demand and ask that a certain attribute be really changed in me, this request is real and the attribute will change. It is because the Light is constant and only waits for the right, clear, and accurate desire for it on my part.

There is nothing but that! In our world everything comes down to the fact that we should create a society that settles for the basic necessities of life only, while all our work should be focused on self corrections. Then we will rise to the level of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/24/13

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Between Two Opposite Qualities

Dr. Michael LaitmanEvery law of the Torah is like looking for a frequency, like in a radio, which we use to tune ourselves with ever-greater precision. We constantly increase our sensitivity to the Creator and thus get closer to Him.

We have a point in the heart in our ego, which is the Godly part from above. I constantly develop this point by studying, by working in the group and in the right environment, and accordingly my ego also grows in order to show me its oppositeness from my point in the heart. These two opposite, contradictory attributes constantly grow in me.

Of course, I worry only about the positive, about increasing the point in the heart in which I feel the Creator, who He is, and what His attributes are; however, the egoistic quality constantly grows opposite to it in order to balance it. I find a delta between these two attributes, the difference between the Creator and me, and I work on it in order to hate my egoistic “I,” which is opposite to the Creator’s attribute to such an extent that the right demand for correction will burst out of me, then the Light of correction arrives.

It actually corrects my ego, connects it to the point in the heart, which also swells. Then the middle line is formed in me, the connection of the two points.

There is no state along the spiritual path where I can sit down and remain in the same state while the clock is ticking; this doesn’t exist, meaning I am the one who is constantly moving. This is why I must follow the right line immediately. But how should I do it? Thus, the left line that comes from the Creator constantly grows, and thanks to it I have to yearn for the right line. The Creator disrupts my balance to the left side while I yearn for the right line in relation to that.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/24/13

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 08.23.13

Preparation to the Lesson

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction

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Talmud Eser Sefirot Vol. 1, Part 1

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Writings of Baal HaSulamMessiah’s Horn

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