Audio Version Of The Blog – 08.28.13

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Believing In The Creator’s Greatness

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it means to believe in the Creator’s greatness? Is believing an instrument like the instrument a scientists uses for an experiment following the advice of another scientist?

Answer: In our world the term “believing” has become banal: “I believe,” “I am a believer,” etc. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the term “to believe” has a totally different meaning. Believing means feeling.

Everything the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about is about two forces: receiving and bestowal, which means a desire and Light (its filling). What is more, the filling also shapes the desire and changes its form as we study in the four phases of the Direct Light.

Why is one of the forces called Light and not pleasure? Because the Light influences the phases according to which the vessel develops, and it isn’t always felt as pleasure. But everything is done by the Light. Therefore, there is no such term as “believing.”

What does it means that I believe in something? Does it refer to something that I don’t understand, that is tasteless and unfelt? No. We always speak from the perspective of the vessel (the desire), from the perspective of what it feels.

The main thing is feeling the greatness of the force that has created me and which manages me, feeling that it is good and that it bestows. We call this feeling believing.

We also call the attributes of bestowal and love believing, since by feeling the force that has created me, I feel the attributes of bestowal and love inside me. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to feel this force, since it is felt only to the extent that I am equal in form; to the extent that I have a certain attribute, I feel this attribute external to me, although there is no such thing as external to me and everything is always felt inside me.

We must understand that whatever we feel is because we are identical to that feeling and are actually made of that attribute. On the whole, we feel ourselves! The question is how we can change ourselves so that we will begin to feel ourselves differently, that we will feel that we are spiritual.

Believing in the Creator’s greatness means feeling the superiority and the greatness of the force that has created everything and that fills everything.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/13, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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If The Activity Slows Down…

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we demand the power to ascend from the Creator the moment the activity of the group of ten slows down?

Answer: It happens that together we go through a state of descent and feel that our activity slows down, we feel powerless, a descent in our yearning, and a certain emptiness. What is more, if the emptiness is mutual, it influences us even more strongly than if I were by myself.

When I am alone and I am in a state of descent, I may feel bad when I look at others since I am at a lower state than they are, or it my impress me and I may make an effort to be on the same level they are on since I understand that I have no choice. But when the group of ten goes through a general descent, it is very difficult.

This happens very rarely, but it happens. We also see it during the lessons. Last week for example, there was this state of emptiness and it was a very difficult blurry feeling.

What can we do to exit such a state? There are several options.

The first option is to hope for help from the other groups of ten; we are not alone; we are many.

The second option is for everyone to lower their heads. If such a big wave comes along, we all have to lower our heads and this wave will pass over us. Then we will float on top of the water again, we will begin to breathe the air again and gradually come out of this state. Sometimes we have to act this way.

Sometimes we have to resist, which means not to wait for the influence of another group of ten and not to lower our heads submissively (although it is also a big problem to lower yourself before the Creator), but to act against Him. If you can gather and demand this from the Creator, then it is great. Cry out, demand, curse, do everything you can, but resist somehow.

If you can’t do anything at all; if you were active before and everything was fine and now it is as if you have all received a blow on the head and cannot exit this state in any way, at least follow this state, study it and see to what extent you are merely “rags,” and that the whole group of ten is worthless.

A bit of Light was taken from you and you are already in such a state. This means that we are under the total control of the Light and this is also something that we should feel.
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Form the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/13, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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He Who Doesn’t Ask For Himself Receives Twice As Much

Dr. Michael LaitmanSpirituality begins from restriction. Restriction means that a person doesn’t ask for anything for himself. His desire is closed before his own pleasure and he uses it only in order to bestow. If he can bestow, he uses it, and if he can’t, then he doesn’t use it. It is as if there is a switch in him, a trigger that works only in one direction.

It is like a computer that can be in a state of 0 or of 1 and nothing but that. If there is no one he can bestow upon, it is a state of 0, and if there is someone he can bestow upon, it is 1. This means that I open myself, accept the deficiencies of the other, and convey them to the Creator. This is how Malchut that wants to resemble Bina works. It restricts its own desire, and locks it for using for its own sake, but thanks to that, it can feel the deficiencies of others. This is called “make your desire His desire,” but with regards to the created beings.

By acquiring the desires of others, I convey them to the Creator like a prayer, MAN, and get a response according to the rule: “The first born receives twice as much,” for himself and for the lower. I don’t need anything for myself, but I receive twice as much since my desire has changed and now I include in it the deficiency of the other. Thus I fill the two of us.

I fill my desire to bestow and not the desire to receive! When I convey a desire to bestow to another, I first convey the Light that Reforms to him, and then incorporate him in me, which means that I add him to myself like to the AHP of the upper. When he is ready to annul himself before me, I convey to him the force that allows him to build his own vessel and to receive the filling for himself.

It turns out that our work with the public is divided into many phases. First we have to work among us in order to acquire the desire to bestow upon the public. It should not be a desire to bestow for the sake of self-pleasure but truly in order to bestow. I work with my desire to receive only in order to bestow.

Thus we awaken the public, and they are impressed by the fact that they can fulfill their egoistic desires. But thanks to the connection with us and the mutual incorporation, they receive the force of correction and correct their desires. Then we can raise a double prayer, MAN, and receive a double response: for ourselves and for those we asked for, and thus we fill our collective vessels of receiving.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/21/13

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Herding Behavior Affects Your Judgment Online

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from ScienceDaily): A new study co-authored by an MIT professor suggests that many people are, in fact, heavily influenced by the positive opinions other people express online – but are much less swayed by negative opinions posted in the same venues. Certain topics, including politics, see much more of this “herding” effect than others. …

“This herding behavior happens systematically on positive signals of quality and ratings,’ says Sinan Aral, an associate professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and one of three authors of the study. …

“’People are more skeptical of negative social influence,’ Aral says. ‘They’re more likely to ‘correct’ a negative vote and give it a positive vote.’

“While this phenomenon of social positivity sounds pleasant enough on the surface, Aral warns that there are pitfalls to it, such as the manipulation of online ratings by some political operatives, marketers or anyone who stands to profit by creating an exaggerated appearance of popularity. …

“In turn, Aral suggests, we should be as analytical as possible when it comes to harnessing collective judgments.

“’We have to be careful about the design and analysis of systems that try to aggregate the wisdom of crowds,’ Aral says.”

My Comment: So, even though the wisdom of crowds is closer to the truth, but in an egoistic space, no one can be sure that this option is not used by selfish individualists, and we should not trust this indicator on the Internet until we correct egoism and get rid of cheaters.
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Spiritual Miscarriage

Dr. Michael LaitmanTorah, “Exodus,” Mishpatim (Laws), 21:22: “And should men quarrel and hit a pregnant woman, and she miscarries but there is no fatality, he shall surely be punished, when the woman’s husband makes demands of him, and he shall give (restitution) according to the judges’ (orders).”

It refers to two contradictory forces that struggle with each other in a man to the extent that their fight kills the fetus of his next stage.

If this happens, they are obligated to replenish the loss they have caused, but it should not be of a material or physical nature, which is common in this corporeal world, but rather should replenish the state that was lost and elevate it to the same level as before the damage.

By the way, this is a routine problem that constantly happens at transitional stages between levels since there is always a possibility for these forces to collide, thus creating a chance of a miscarriage.

This is why it is said that a woman does not die and can still give birth.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/20/13

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Ping Pong With The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Could you please outline in a couple of words the scheme of our relationships with the Creator.

Answer: The Creator is a source of pleasure. He created us as pleasure-seeking entities. However, His task is to teach us not to pursue bliss per se (since in this case we just turn into thoughtless animals, robots), but rather to teach us to love Him, the One who grants us delight, instead of being attracted to pleasures directly.

What does He have to do in order to achieve this goal? He has to gradually show us, which does not give us pleasure, so that we can build our direct relationship to Him, rather than aspire to the delights that He gives us.

This is a game: more pleasure – less pleasure, and in response to our response: our attitude to the bliss that comes out of the Creator or to the Creator Himself.
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Ordinary People With Endless Possibilities

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: After I have already annulled myself in front of my friends, what else should I do?

Answer: By nullifying oneself, one becomes as a drop of semen that enters a uterus and attaches to its lining. Then, the spiritual fetus has to grow. It starts receiving blood (desires associated with the inanimate level) that adds more material substance to it. Later, this inanimate material will to turn into a vegetative substance, then it will develop into animate and speaking levels.

Ordinary People With Endless Possibilities
All of a sudden, one feels hatred toward the upper and thus one has to work on it in order to nullify oneself again. Because of this self-annulling, one shapes oneself similar to the upper, since one becomes receptive of everything that the upper gives him. It’s said that “a fetus in its mother’s waters sees the entire world from one end to another. A candle is lit above his head (the Light of Keter) and he is taught the whole Torah.” The Light hits all of his 620 desires and corrects them by adding the intention to bestow to them.

All of the above happens as a result of self-annulling. There is nothing else we should do, nothing but this: Our advancement starts with self-annulling. Each new step of ours is just a new level of self-annihilation. One rescinds oneself and the upper starts working on him as his mother’s uterus. Same as in regular life, a fetus conforms to its mother. It’s as if it doesn’t yet exist, nor does it understand or feel a thing; All the fetus does is totally annul itself. Later, we start nullifying ourselves at higher levels, Ruach, HGT.

Then, a period of “feeding” (nourishment) begins; it’s about self-annulment that is even bigger than the previous stage. The upper demonstrates to us that He acts and that some of His actions are recognized by our egoism as incorrect and even terrible. Look at what the Creator does to the world, what affliction He causes in people! All our problems are originated by Him.

When corrupt desires wake up in us, we feel them as a manifestation of the Creator’s horrible attitude to creation. It means that real egoistic powers (Klipot) rebel in us. We have to “disregard” ourselves and accept these situations by going with faith above reason and regard them as the best circumstances that could have happened to us.

We receive energy for self-negation from our friends, from our “ten.” There is no other place for spiritual revelation; we exist only in this group. The power comes from the Creator to us only through this group of people. Before, we were all equal, but now we see our friends as very big ones. We were the ones who made them look big, whereas they in fact remain the same, but due to our self-nullification, we start receiving nourishment through them as a fetus from his mother.

We can receive the entire world of infinity through them, since as we speak we are in it, but we don’t see or feel this endless Light only because of our corrupt properties. So, if we continue working correctly, we can receive everything through our “tens” to the degree of our self-nullification. This process doesn’t depend on our friends at all. Their task is just to stay ready to do the same thing to at least some extent, this will already be enough so that through them we will achieve the state of the world of infinity.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/13, Writings of Rabash

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Can We Abide Without Affliction?

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: But because of the descent of human nature to the lowest degree, which is the self-love that unrestrictedly rules over all of humanity, there was no way to negotiate with them and persuade them to agree to take upon themselves, even as an empty promise, to exit their narrow world, into the wide spaces of the love of others. The exception was the Israeli nation because they were enslaved in the savage kingdom of Egypt four hundred years in horrible torments.

These torments were caused by the attempts made by the sons of Israel to rise above their egoism (both individual and collective) in order to achieve the state of love among them. Would Babylonians really follow Abraham if he had told them exactly what they would undergo if they joined his group? Nevertheless, gradually, out of hopelessness, we come to a state at which all we aspire to is bestowal. We strive to give, although it’s irrational and illogical. We simply feel like giving and that’s it, since we are under the Light’s influence. This desire is so huge that we cannot run away from it. We look at our friends and each of them looks close, dear, and beloved. Afterward, it’s the entire world that we regard similarly.

Question: Still… Will I get rid of afflictions on my way?

Answer: By all means you will, but it will happen when your desires and plans will exactly coincide with the Creator’s wishes and ideas. So far, they are opposite to the Creator’s, so what can you expect? We all are in a state of a constant confrontation with Him.

At the same time, it doesn’t mean that we have to surrender and simply wait for the time when we enter spirituality. Even now, way in advance, we can make a decision from now on to view the world from the Creator’s point of view, from the angle of the property of bestowal. If we act this way and get used to this approach the world will suddenly change into a benevolent place in our eyes.

Moreover, after we manage to get rid of the obstacles, we will regard this world as the world of infinity. Today, we see it generally as a corrupt and dreadful place, but that’s how we currently regard infinity. This is the way we envision infinity… At the same time, we don’t want the Creator to change us, but rather the “picture” drawn in our imagination. Then again, it’s the Upper Light! It doesn’t change! Only our internal properties are subject to modification.

Let’s go back to affliction: They won’t go away immediately since we are not “jumping” into infinity by making one huge and powerful leap. Instead, we climb the stairs that sometimes are associated with quite unpleasant material conditions. However, at the other level there is a different type of calculations that are interlinked with the general system, not only with us personally.

We see that even the righteous people suffer, for example Rabbi Akiva. However, in fact, we cannot take the place of those who are already in bestowal.

When we watch their sufferings from aside, we don’t understand their internal world and their vision. Baal HaSulam writes about this in his article “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/13, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 08.28.13

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of  Baal HaSulam,Igrot,” Letter 47

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The Book of Zohar — Introduction

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 6, Item, Part 15

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Writings of Baal HaSulam The Peace

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