Question: Why do health problems appear with us all the time, in the family, etc.?

Answer: We don’t know why we are sick because we don’t see the entire system of creation. Someone does something in one place and for that someone in another place “takes it on the head” because we are a single integral system. So I cannot tell you how to act when someone is sick.

We need only to advance towards an inclusive unity. Only this alone! As Baal HaSulam writes, love of friends is ready to cover all of our problems.
[127579]

Related Material:
Your Personal Problem Is Everyone’s Problem
Solving Problems By The Right Intention
Life Without Illness

Filed under: Conventions, Group Work, Health, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The main thing is not to forget the most important thing: We have to attribute all the discernments, all the questions, and all the excuses only to the connection with the group. Everything else belongs to the corporeal world. I may think of sublime things, but it makes no difference since it has nothing to do with spirituality. Only one thing belongs to spirituality: my connection with the group, which is called the form of the embryo. This is the only thing that belongs to spirituality and it’s the only thing that takes on a form of in order to bestow, and nothing but that!

Therefore, I ask, listen, and think about some of the questions in the workshop, but there should only be one discernment in my thoughts: my current connection with the group, its style, and its manner. This is called a form, and it’s the most important thing for me at the moment. The only thing I care about at any given moment is my connection with the group by which the form of my spiritual Partzuf, its height, etc. is determined.

No matter what we discuss, this is the only thing I think about. This connection is more important than anything else, like the placenta or the umbilical cord are for the embryo and nothing but it. This means being constantly part of the source, as a result of which the stabilizing force and the delaying force are valued only with regard to this one discernment with regard to my connection with the group. We mustn’t forget that since otherwise it’s as if you are hanging in the air engaging in abstract philosophy instead of with specific clarifications.
[127684]
From the Unity Workshop 2/18/2014

Related Material:
You Cannot Advance Without The Environment
Umbilical Cord For Connection To The Upper One
Floating Together Above The Water

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, Unity - No Comments →

Question: You said we are lacking a few million people to connect with us. But what exactly are we missing: their shortcomings or our own efforts to create a spiritual womb and fetus?

Answer: The question is why do we want to be born and become mature in the spiritual world? Why do we want to resemble the Creator? The Creator is the bestower, the lover, the bringer of life! In what way could we be like Him? Where and to whom can we express our bestowal?

In what way do we prove that we want to be like Him? It’s only in our relationship with the external community. This is because we don’t have a deficiency that we can raise to the Creator if we don’t work with the external community. Through work with the friends, we can only attain a state of Bina, Hafetz Hesed. We have seemingly created some kind of engine, but it’s not clear what else to do with it, to what kind of use do we put it?

There is no work for this engine and so we remain without movement on the still level. We corrected our group, we silenced the engine, and with this everything is done. It’s even impossible to finish the correction of our group if from the start we don’t prepare for whom we are going to use it. Likewise, we must also be in dissemination because otherwise it’s impossible to be like the Creator. We must be like the Creator towards the wider public.
[127353]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The Actual Task
Building The Upper World Brick By Brick
An External Ring Made Of Several Million

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: We always try to understand that everything comes from Above, and this begs the question: To what extent do you need to accept the conditions that are given to you, and to what extent do you need to try to rise above them and adhere to the group regardless of the circumstances? In other words, when do you need to accept the conditions that you have, and when do you rise above them in connection to the group?

Answer: First and foremost, one should cling to the Source of all of these conditions. As for whether any effort needs to be exerted in this or not, it depends on the circumstances. What difference does it make? The important thing is to constantly be glued to the Source.

I might like it or I might not, this varies, although it is not important. I grab Him and shout, “You are mine!” and that is it. And then you need to separate from yourself whatever your egoism is feeling at the time, whatever I feel by addressing Him, that is, to go in faith above reason. But the most important thing is to seize Him and not let go.

Often, we are given circumstances where even if we do not wish to, we are still required to accept them with our minds. How do we act in such cases?

If my friends or certain life circumstances are telling me that everything that is happening to me right now comes from the Creator, then however unpleasant this may be for me, since I am unable to agree with it right now because it completely churns me, I nevertheless need to accept Him as the source of all that is happening. Moreover, as a good and kind source, one that is necessary for me so that I would work with it and bring myself to a state when all the time, to whatever extent possible, I remain with Him.

Do I perceive it as an obstacle? – Yes.

Is this obstacle for my own benefit? – Yes.

Is it pleasant or unpleasant? – Unpleasant.

Still, I have to gradually come to a state where this obstacle will fade away. This requires a lot of patience and a lot of work, and then everything will turn into sweetness.
[127546]
From a lesson in Russian, 2/10/2014

Related Material:
How To Never Be Detached From The Creator
A Failed Exam
“Seek The Lord Where He Is”

Filed under: Conventions, Dissemination, Spiritual Work, Zohar - No Comments →

The Book of Zohar is a guide for us, and that is why it was hidden for two thousand years, waiting for all of humanity to reach a crisis that requires a mandatory correction.

We are already in this period, which is described by Rabbi Kook, AGRA, and Baal HaSulam. In fact, it began with the holy Ari five hundred years ago already.

The great Kabbalist Abraham Azulai wrote that “I have found it written that all that has been decreed Above forbidding open involvement in the wisdom of truth [Kabbalah] was [only meant for] the limited time period until the year 5,250 (1490 C.E.). From then on is called the “Last Generation,” and what was forbidden is [now] allowed. And permission is granted to occupy ourselves in the [study of] Zohar. And from the year 5,300 (1540 C.E.) it is most desirable that the masses both those great and small [in Torah], should occupy themselves [in the study of Kabbalah], as it says in the Raya M’hemna [a section of the Zohar]. And because in this merit the Messiah King welwill come in the future—and not in any other merit—it is not proper to be discouraged [from the study of Kabbalah].”

Correction happens due to our study of The Book of Zohar even without understanding what is written there. But we realize that we need to unite, and the spiritual world will be revealed because of our unity. Indeed, there was a fall, that is, from the property of bestowal, mutual love, into hatred and mutual rejection. Now, we have to make the return journey from the bottom up, correction, unity; that is what is required from all of humankind.

In our time, we are already beginning to feel that the crisis is not economic and not even environmental, not in education and family. These are just small individual crises that naturally affect everyone and even extend to all of humanity in various forms. But the real crisis is integral and happens in relationships between people.

In other words, we must be united in one interconnected system, but we are not able to achieve this. In our world there is no force that can unite us. We will find this in relation to ourselves and all of humanity.

Studying The Book of Zohar is the means of revealing this force of unity and correction that allow getting rid of all the problems and starting to feel a completely new reality, to get a new perception. So, many years ago we began to work on the adaptation of this book, to make it accessible to everyone.

It is clear that we could not touch the text of The Zohar, written from a height of GAR of the world of Atzilut, the end of correction. But we have translated into Hebrew all the insertions made in Aramaic, deciphered abbreviations so that it is easy to read. That is, we made this book closer to the general reader as much as possible. Now, it is necessary just to know Hebrew to read it.

The more we study this book, the more we realize that it contains everything! All the thousands of generations that changed since the time of the writing of The Book of Zohar to the present day were nourished from this book like from a source with living water, each time drawing new strengths for correction, knowledge, clarification of all the degrees, the entire upper world.

Much is written about The Book of Zohar, and all of Kabbalah is based on this book. It does not matter when and who wrote a Kabbalistic book, the author’s basis has always been The Book of Zohar. As Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Eichenstein of Zidichov said, “The one who never saw the light of The Book of Zohar, never saw a light in his life.”

We must understand that this is not just a “book.” Kabbalists do not write words in a book but create between themselves an interconnected spiritual system and express it in writing. But the main work is spiritual, created from the connections that they built. All the parts were cut off from each by the breaking and scattered, and Kabbalists connect them together into a single integral system and describe their work, the types of connections, the whole process that occurred, and they got results.

First, they reveal the breaking, which is quite unpleasant because they are ready to burn each other; they feel hatred, darkness, fog, confusion, helplessness, hopelessness. Everyone sometimes experiences this feeling; it not possible without this, as it is said, “And there was evening, and there was morning, one day.” The advantage of the light is always revealed from the darkness. Then, they reveal a connection, that is, how it is possible to connect these things and join them together.

Kabbalists do these spiritual actions in practice and then describe them in books. A book is only the result, a written statement of the changes made in the spiritual system that was first revealed to them in a broken form, as well as the final result, that is, how they managed to connect it.

That is why, from generation to generation, as Kabbalists advance in their correction, Kabbalah also changes. A person from the next generation does not have to repeat the corrections done by the previous generations. Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah reaches him in a different form, and he himself is completely different. This happens with each succeeding generation.
[127075]
From the World Zohar Convention 2/5/14, Lesson 1

Related Material:
The Most Important Book For Humanity
Anyone Can Become A “Man Of Light”
The Power Of The Book Of Zohar

Filed under: Conventions, Dissemination, Spiritual Work, Zohar - 1 Comment →

He took [them] from their hand[s], fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it into a molten calf, upon which they said: “These are your gods, O Israel, who have brought you up from the land of Egypt!” (The Torah, “Exodus,” Ki Tisa,” 32:4)

Everything is forgotten! It seems that it was not the Creator who led the people of Israel out of Egypt, but rather an idol, the golden calf. It looks like people carried all of Egypt within a symbolic calf.

If one doesn’t advance in the property of bestowal and love of one’s neighbor and then ascends to a state of love to the Creator, if one doesn’t feel a constant appeal to advance accordingly, one will never “exit Egypt.” And yet, people are confident that they are already in the state of the final correction.

5. When Aaron saw [this], he built an altar in front of it, and Aaron proclaimed and said: “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.”

6. On the next day they arose early, offered up burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and they got up to make merry. (The Torah, “Exodus”, Ki Tisa,” 32:5 – 32:6)

A firm basis that lets us enjoy this material life and also rejoice in the future life finally appears in all human egoistic desires. We become totally confident that we have everything we need.

However, we have not found the most important thing: the Creator! Moses and the Creator disappear from our sensations, but we don’t sense the deficiency, nor do we feel a need for them. We are so fulfilled that we don’t have the slightest thought of the Creator. We feel great, are getting fatter, acquiring confidence, gaining seriousness, and concerned only with ourselves.

Aspiration to power, knowledge, and wealth create a stable and firm basis for us. All these things are the signs of the golden calf.
[126590]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/9/13

Related Material:
Ascend Above Reason
The Creation Of The Golden Calf
The Opposite Side Of The Characteristic Of Bestowal

Filed under: Spiritual Work, Torah - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson

Workshop

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 9, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 5

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 55 

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2014-02-19_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’19.2.14′]

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

Opinion (Anatoly Wasserman, writer, political consultant, scholar): “The concept of liberalism considers only dualistic relationships between individuals, not taking into account that further interactions affect each other.

“The desire to be limited by dualistic interactions is connected to the fact that the liberalistic concept is commercial. Production and trade are considered parts of a single process, but they constantly compete. You cannot sell what is not yet made, and it makes no sense to produce something that obviously will not be sold – from this point of view, the process is really unified.

“But in every confrontation, the position of sellers is stronger than manufacturers’ positions: $1- to the inventor, $10 – to the maker, $100 – to the seller. When the market is on the rise, the confrontation is small because there is something to share. But in bad times, sellers stifle manufactures to secure a greater prosperity for themselves.”

My Comment: It is necessary to eliminate the process of trade and to develop industry on a scale that allows equal distribution of essential products and services.
[127628]

Related Material:
How To Fill The Void?
Economists Need To Abandon The Usual Theories
“The Great Transformation – Shaping New Models”

Filed under: Crisis, Economy - No Comments →

All the worlds, the Partzufim, and the Sefirot are revealed in the connection between us. All this begins from a level of an embryo in which a person treats everyone as if he himself does not exist. It’s like the restriction, self-annulment. The ego is restricted as if it doesn’t exist and thus a person is incorporated in his environment like an embryo in his mother.

This doesn’t happen all at once since first a person has to go through the three days of the absorption of the semen. Self-annulment isn’t enough here since it’s only a way not to disturb the upper. However, in order to be incorporated in Him and to become an embryo who adheres to the wall of the womb, I have to go through the three days of the absorption of the semen. Although I restrict myself, I have to take the three forms of the ascent, the right line, the left line, and the middle line. I annul myself before them too and accept the domination of the upper.

The upper is the group for me. We don’t look for the upper somewhere up in Heaven but only in our environment. The environment can treat me well or badly, but it doesn’t matter. I am ready to annul myself before it with regard to everything that happens, as long as I am adhered to the group in faith above reason, and understand that this is my upper level. The Creator turns to me through the friends.

Thus the three days of the absorption of the semen go by and if I am ready to annul myself before the group, I continue to develop. This also requires self-annulment. The embryo constantly annuls itself, but by that I begin to feel the influence of the group. The friends may not feel what they give me, like the example of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma and his students, but I receive true spiritual discernments through the whole world, through everything that surrounds me.

After the first forty days, I reach the level of Bina. This period is called the forty days of the creation of the embryo since from that moment onward I begin to take on the form of the future human being. Bina draws the first form of the Creator for me. Thus, the period of the development of the spiritual embryo continues with all the fillings that he receives. The main thing is to constantly annul ourselves during this period. The more I annul myself on top of my ego, the more filling I receive. My filling is my inner struggle, overcoming my ego, which turns into the letters of the work.

My letters of the work, which means my filling, are added to the form of HaVaYaH. My desire begins to bend in order to accept the form of the future human being. Thus we begin our spiritual path.

I believe that the example of the mother who teaches her children to be good and to play nicely and follow the grownups’ example is a very good example. If we want to become the one who resembles the Creator, we have to follow His example. The Creator is good and benevolent, and I also have to prove that I am good to people. If I really yearn for that, I will discover an increasingly greater inner resistance on part of my nature to that, and by overcoming it, I will begin to reveal the Creator.

We learn about the Creator from our evil inclination and don’t receive any readymade form from Above. The form, the filling of the letters, is actually the letters! We build ourselves into the Creator by our desires, by our self-annulment and self-submission, and by yearning to resemble the Creator more and more above our ego, which wants the opposite.
[127360]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/14

Related Material:
A Good Boy Follows His Parents’ Example
The Three-Day Test Of Loyalty
Learn To Read The Creator According To The Letters

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →