Audio Version Of The Blog – 01.26.14

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Morning Awakening

Dr. Michael Laitman“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Article, “Torah and Prayer,” Section 183: And in the morning, when he rises from his bed, he should bless his Master, walk into His home and bow before His hall with great fear. And then he should pray his prayer… .

It is clear that this is not talking about the physical body awakening from sleep. Morning is a state when a new spirit reaches a person from integration in a group, from studying, workshops, and connection with others. He has no other way of receiving spiritual strength except through the environment. If he tries to go deeper into the group and be integrated with the friends, he can draw powers from there.

And this group can be small from the start. That is, they don’t need to have revealed any spiritual forces, but this is unimportant. If a person knows how to enter and be integrated with them, he will receive power for advancement, as in the well-known example of Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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According To The Advice Of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Dr. Michael Laitman“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Article, “Torah and Prayer,” Section 183: Hence, one must not enter the house of assembly unless he has first consulted with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for our whole prayer is to complement what is still missing in Divinity, after the corrections that have been made in it thus far. Thus, first we must know and extend all the corrections that have already been corrected in the Holy Divinity, and then we will know what still needs to be added to them.

Typically, the question is raised: What is the difference between Malchut de Atzilut, Malchut de Ein Sof and Malchut of the Completion of Correction, which is called Shechina? In principle there is no difference between these terms. The mutual integration of the souls in one another actually transform into a single whole and stand one-on-one with the Creator, it is the same spiritual creature that is called Shechina, Malchut. If we are talking about connection, correction, then everything is summed up in one concept.

How must I “take counsel with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”? If I don’t arrange myself according to the “3 lines,” then I am not ready, to either raise my prayer or to receive an answer to it. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the “right line,” the “left line,” and the “middle line,” which I must arrange within me. This will mean I am “facing the pillar.”

There is a general rule that it is necessary to pray before the pillar. Certainly this doesn’t mean a marble pillar. A “pillar” symbolizes the “middle line.” We must bring ourselves to this state because without this there is nothing to do. Otherwise we cannot bestow to the higher system because we are not in the same frequency with it, meaning, we are not oriented in the direction in which it’s possible to bestow.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/14, The Zohar

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A Window To Heaven

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 3, Chapter 1, Item 6: Thus the Masach (screen) that reaches the upper as a result of the incorporation of the lower in it is called a window, since there are no Dinim in it, but only a reason for illumination, like a window.

The lower enters the upper and awakens it and demands to receive the Light from the uppermost, thus creating a window in the upper. I demand the upper to convey the Light for me, and it is as if I make a hole in it that way.

The upper level works like an electric amplifier with a great resistance at the entrance. It is very important that I don’t affect the amplifier and don’t bring myself into it but only operate it by my action. I don’t connect my system to its system, but only give my signal to its signal.

A Window To Heaven

Thus, the amplifier should have a very high impedance at the entrance. In the past, amplifiers were made of diode lamps with strong resistance and not with transistors. Then, you could be sure that you are not affecting the system in any way or making any changes in the system, except for operating it.

This is how the spiritual levels are made. However, we must overcome this great resistance. Our work is to overcome the desire to receive this way in order to annul the resistance and to insert only my bestowal into it. Technology allows us to do that by connecting semi-conductors. In the spiritual work, I need the Light of Hassadim in order to annul the resistance.

The Light of Hassadim symbolizes my yearning for pure bestowal without connecting the whole system to the upper system. I only want to insert my net bestowal into the upper, and so I immediately annul all the limits and make a “window” in it through which I reach the uppermost.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/14, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Sacrifice

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur world seems very confusing to us even though it is designed to direct and bring us by the shortest, nicest, and most comfortable way toward discovery of the Creator. However, because we are egoists, opposite to the characteristics of the Creator, we are forced to be in confusion all the time, discovering and clarifying the confusion and the opposition, resolving it, transforming it into the right state, and thus taking a step forward.

This is like a children’s game when a child is blindfolded, turned around so that he will be confused, and then directed in the right direction and leave him. With his eyes covered, he must find the required goal. That is how it happens with us at every moment in life where we don’t know and don’t understand what is happening. We are confused.

It is clear that it is impossible to make the right decision with our intellect. And even if we decide to act in opposition to Him, this also won’t help because, in spite of it all, we receive every decision according to our ego: “for” or “against.”

But, we have no possibility of finding the right decision within our ego, and therefore, the only thing that is left for us is to go with our eyes shut, and someone will direct us. That is, I close my eyes and don’t want to go forward in any direction according to my choice and evaluation. I need for someone to give me the direction, so I need the environment and the teacher. It is the only way possible to advance.

It turns out that my spiritual advancement is one hundred percent in the hands of the environment. The environment is the teacher, the friends, and the Light that Reforms that does all the corrections after I give myself into the hands of the group and the teacher.

In the end, I must connect with the friends so much that I see the Shechina (holy divinity) in them, that the Creator dwells in them. If I go out of myself and dissolve within the society, then suddenly I see that this is not a society as it seemed to me before. Rather, this is the sacred Shechina. In other words, by going out of myself, I discover that the entire world is, in sum, the revelation of the Creator who dwells within all of His creatures. This is what the person discovers the moment that he is ready to shut his eyes and go with faith above reason.

Therefore, if I am ready to give myself over to a friend and I try to do this, with this I acquire the friend and reach a connection, and this action itself is called a donation (Truma), “contribution of the Creator.” I do that in order to awaken and elevate the characteristic of bestowal and place it at the head of my advancement, above the intellect and feelings and all of my decisions that the desire to receive always wants to present to me as rational things. Here, everything is going above the egoistic logic.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/14

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This Irredeemable World

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Yakov I. Gilinsky, Doctor of Law, professor, legal scholar, criminologist): “Unmotivated fear, apocalyptic predictions, depression are the most common psychiatric diagnoses today. There is a feeling as if we were flying in a plane without a crew to the airport that has not yet been designed.

“The best representatives of Homo Sapiens have always strived to present and implement the project of ideal society. But the hopes for a brighter future were not realized. The ever growing scale of violence spawned series of dystopia.

“Humanity is heading towards self-destruction. Violence accompanied humanity throughout its history. It is an element of social life and is characterised by totality (domestic, social, criminal, political, economic, religious, sports, educational, violence).

“Over time, violence becomes systemic; it permeates all spheres of society, including cultural, educational, violence of economy, criminal violence. Violence is incorporated into the system. Humanity is fundamentally and irredeemably committed to suicide (nuclear, biological, technological, environmental…).

My Comment: When we realize the absolute hopelessness of our condition, we can come to an understanding of the solution proposed by Kabbalah—yes, a bright future, not by our hands, but by the highest power of nature.
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Speak To The Wise-Hearted

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus,” 28:3: And you shall speak to all the wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, and they shall make Aaron’s garments to sanctify him, [so] that he serve Me [as a Kohen].

And you shall speak to all the wise-hearted means that you should choose from all your desires those that on the one hand have a greater energy of ego that matches the Light of Hochma, that are already filled with wisdom, that is, corrected. You must collect them inside you and turn them into one large  common, expansive, serious inner desire, but which is already corrected and full of Light. When you collect all of this, then the “garments to sanctify him [so] that he serve Me [as a Kohen]” appear.

This is how a spiritual image is formed: It is egoistic internally, separated into many egoistic levels, and accordingly, there are the garments. They have the same names as in our world: trousers, belt, coat, rain coat.

The Torah tells us what the clothes should be made of: yarns of gold, wool, and scarlet interwoven, etc. It’s about which external desires operate in order to bestow but which contain the ego of which such a correct desire can be made.
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From Kab TV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/19/13

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Engrave The Names Of The Children Of Israel On Stone

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus,” 28:9-28:12: And you shall take two onyx stones and engrave upon them the names of the sons of Israel. Six of their names on one stone and the names of the remaining six on the second stone, according to their births. [Similar to] the work of an engraver of gems, [similar to] the engravings of a seal, you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel; you shall make them enclosed in gold settings. And you shall put the two stones upon the shoulder straps of the ephod as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel, and Aaron shall carry their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders as a remembrance.

Stone (Even) symbolizes the heart of stone (Lev HaEven), the coarsest most egoistic properties. The names have to be drawn and represented on them. Names are the embodiment of a person’s efforts, of his work. When a person performs a certain spiritual work, he is called by a name that matches the height and the character of this work. In other words, a vessel the Light enters creates a full name. A form, a person’s style of work is expressed by a certain name: Moses, Aaron, Itamar, etc., which make up the essence of the spiritual work of one soul or another.

On one hand, names cannot be arbitrary. On the other hand, the essence of each name can change.

And you shall take two onyx stones, and engrave upon them the names of the sons of Israel means the state when the leaders of the twelve tribes reach this kind of work, that even their names, which means their resemblance to the Creator, reach the deepest egoistic desire, the stone, the state of the still nature, and ascends from the lowest state up to the level of Aaron’s shoulders.

“Shoulders” means HBD-HGT-NHY. When a hand is lifted, its uppermost part is on the level of the shoulder. This refers to the part that receives the calculations from the head. The head belongs to Aaron, and these are all his intentions, the whole spiritual work.

It’s as if the sons and all the other tribes are on his shoulders. This is how the system of connections between the different parts of this huge system called the general soul is described allegorically.
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From Kab TV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/19/13

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A Person’s Clothes Are His Inner Expression

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus,” 28:2: You shall make holy garments for your brother Aaron, for honor and glory.

Clothing (Levush) symbolizes the correction that has to be made on a person’s desires. If I have egoistic desires, distinct desires that are strong or even the weakest desires, we have to clothe them all, which means to clothe them with the intention for the sake of others, for the Creator.

The clearer, more aggressive, and more serious a desire is, the greater corrections it should undergo, which means “garments of splendor.” Thus the uncorrected correction, Aaron, is the worst.

It says: “When Israel falls, it falls lower than any nation in the world, and when they ascend, they ascend all the way to Heaven.” The reason is that it is possible with a giant egoistic desire in its revised form to do anything all the way to the Creator’s level. Then everyone will be impressed by their splendor because it’s impossible to compare the correction any ordinary nation has to make, with the ordinary desires people have.

Thus Moses and then the sons of Aaron and then the other priests are the clearest, most disgusting egoistic desires there may be if they are not corrected. So we see humanity’s attitude towards the Jews, and in the corrected states it will be the opposite. So the nations of the world are waiting for the Jews to acquire clothing, to ascend and to start working in order to bestow with all our special attributes.

Thus the “clothing of Aaron” is no simple concept. What actually distinguishes people in our world? It’s their clothes. It can be clothes, a house, whatever surrounds a person, whatever indicates his level, his state, has ascent above others, or his descent. This means that it’s an expression of status, of a person’s state.

Question: It appears that modern fashion has very powerful roots?

Answer: Of course, it stems from the same nature. The ego uses this means for its ascent.

In the spiritual world, clothes emphasize a person’s inner ascent above the world; the level of one’s bestowal, love and self annulment. To the extent that you annul yourself, you also ascend. In our world however it’s the opposite, it’s to the extent that you decorate yourself in front of the mirror like a monkey.

This will continue until we understand that clothes are a person’s inner expression. The fact that we wear fashionable clothes is not a correction but the opposite, a distortion.

After the sin of the tree of knowledge, the Creator told Adam that he needs to put on clothes, which means that he has to correct his ego so that it will help him overcome himself and reach love and bestowal. The Torah says that the Creator sewed these clothes for them, which means that he gave them the Upper Light by which the Returning Light, which means the intention of in order to bestow, was dressed in the ego.
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From Kab TV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/19/13

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 01.26.14

Preparation to the Lesson

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Workshop

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts

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Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Congress”

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