The Ones Who Enter Are Subject To Seven Tests

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday, the wisdom of Kabbalah is available to everybody: Please come in, the door is open! Still there is an invisible barrier (Machsom) that does not allow everybody to come in. When we advance and approach the entrance, it pushes us away.

We are almost there! And yet it repels us again. Sometimes we come closer to it and all of a sudden forget where we were heading. We turn aside and suddenly get distracted by something else.

It means that everybody who wants to enter should go through seven tests. One has to go through all the egoistic desires and rise above them so that one stops relying on oneself any more. This is the form that allows one to enter.

In other words, the door is always open if one withstands the tests. Our generation is the worst among all previous generations. It is said “the face of the generation is like a dog’s grin.” We don’t respect anything anymore. Compared to us, people who lived at the time of destruction of the Temple were very delicate and decent. They passionately aspired to spirituality.

Rabash shared that in the beginning of the 20th century, he happened to see the last of the real Hassidic Jews from Kotzk. At the end of the 19th century, if any young man from a small Russian or Polish Jewish town was offered studying and attaining the Creator, no one would think twice before quitting his prior lifestyle and would devote himself to this goal with no hesitation.

The revelation of Kabbalah came in parallel to the revelation of desires that fell to their lowest degree. The evil manifested itself in the most terrible way and we are unable to correct it because our pride, mutual hatred, and envy have reached their ultimate level. That’s why our generation is the one the wisdom of Kabbalah was exposed very widely to. Our desires are ready to go through “seven tests” and enter the gates of true wisdom. However, the warning of seven tests has always existed.

These tests are not checking the fineness of our desires, but their depth. Maturity of a desire is a condition for its disclosure. That’s why the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealing itself only now instead of emerging several hundred years ago. It is explained by the requirement to wait until the desires descend to the very bottom material Malchut.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Towards A World Of Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus” (Ki Tissa), 34:1-34:3: And the Lord said to Moses: “Hew for yourself two stone tablets like the first ones. And I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be prepared for the morning, and in the morning you shall ascend Mount Sinai and stand before Me there on the top of the mountain. No one shall ascend with you, neither shall anyone be seen anywhere on the mountain, neither shall the sheep and the cattle graze facing that mountain.”

All the attributes except for the attribute of Moses in a person cannot come close to the attribute of absolute love and bestowal called the Creator. Only these attributes in a person can receive the Torah.

The tablets are the passing of the attribute from an upper level to a lower level. The passing of the tablets symbolizes the state of the flow of the Light, of information, power, the information between the two Partzufim. In other words a tablet is a charge of upper energy, upper information and knowledge, and mainly a charge of the spiritual attribute. So Moses prepares the tablets and the Creator brings them to life.

The first tablets were broken on the 9th of Av, and now we speak about the second tablets that appear on the day of judgement (Yom Kippur). All the events take place on Mt. Sinai, which means in a state of ascent above the ego, above hatred. After all, feeling repulsion from others, feeling that others are opposite from us, is our main attribute. We don’t have to call it hatred, of course, because it is divided and it changes, but the hatred remains. On the whole, everything stems from this attribute.

Our world is total hatred and the spiritual world is love, and there is nothing else but that! So when we ascend above hatred, we reach love.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/16/13

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Learning To Realize Our Exclusivity

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom Baal HaSulam’s articles “The Giving of the Torah” and “Arvut (The Mutual Guarantee)” and other sources including Rav Kook’s writings, we clearly see that those who aspire to merge with the Creator without pulling the entire world cannot achieve correction.

We need to realize that hiding from the world, taking care of ourselves, and studying for ourselves are very comfortable for our egoism, but it does not help. Until we realize this, nothing happens.

Don’t complain that the world is not receptive and does not want to listen. Those are just excuses to justify our laziness and discomfort in this material plane. When it comes to the Upper Force that organizes the entire reality and creates all internal and external conditions for us, we need to decide once and for all and confirm each day that by not observing this particular requirement, we do not deal with spiritual advancement.

Because it means that we are not engaged in building the spiritual system. In this case, we would be replaced by others or the Creator will send us terrible disasters and problems and we will still have to return to Him against our will. This should be very important to us.

Some people complain that they have been studying for 10-15 years now, but they still have not reached the attainment yet. They have to better understand the system we are in. If we act correctly inside the system, then we advance towards its true goal: the revelation of the force of bestowal, connection, merging with the Creator, and the ability not to demand anything for ourselves, i.e., spiritual attainment. Our advancement is possible only if we act this way.

If someone behaves differently, then one should not be in the group and be unnecessary ballast in the common boat. It’s better to just walk away, at least then you would know what you are doing, instead of coming every few years with complaints: “Why haven’t I reached the revelation yet?

This is an egoistic question: “Why don’t I have it?” But he doesn’t ask: “Why have I studied for so many years and still continue thinking about myself?” Instead, “Why haven’t I received something that I was waiting for so long?”

We should fulfill our duties. The Creator never compromises. We are talking about the whole of creation and the system requires our actions. In his works, Rabbi Kook writes that the state of the world requires us to act and that there is no room to escape. Correction is to realize our exclusivity.

We feel the desire to attain the Creator not because we are so special; rather, the Creator purposely awakens the desire in us so that we can do our job properly. Our duty is to fulfill our task correctly, not acting in our own way, but rather learning how to perform it.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/14

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 03.28.14

Preparation for the Lesson

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Shamati #69 “First Will Be the Correction of the World”

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Writings of Rabash Shlavei HaSulam,” “Come Unto Pharaoh – 2”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Article “Petah HaShaar

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 03.27.14

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
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The Millstones Of Providence

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (from Russian Bazaar): “This striking phenomenon was noted long ago: aging, dying nations are hostile towards Jews, but the countries that are booming welcome Jews. Some explain this pattern rationally: Jewish banks and capital are a powerful catalyst of economic and intellectual progress, others by Divine providence and the highest laws of metaphysics.

“Anyway, but this pattern continues throughout centuries, repeating again and again.

“The great conquerors of antiquity Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar made no secret of their sympathy for the Jews and contributed to their prosperity. Greedy and arrogant Greek Seleucids, leading their empire to collapse, persecuted and ruined the Jews and provoked the Maccabean revolt.

“The defeat of the Jewish revolts at the beginning of the first millennium coincided with the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire.

“The triumph of Christian Spain happened together with the apogee of the development of the Jewish community, and after the expulsion of the Jews, Spain ceases to be a great power.

“The Rise of Britain begins with the Cromwell’s invitation of Jews; the kingdom transforms into a leading country in Europe and the Mistress of the Seas. London’s betrayal of Jews before World War II marks the beginning of the collapse of the empire.

“By inviting the Jews, Polish King Casimir strengthened his state, turning it into one of the strongest in Europe. The policy of persecution of the Jews brought anarchy and the end to the state.

“Russia fully demonstrates this paradigm: the involvement of Jews in public life and the rejection of anti-Semitism lead the country to prosperity, and then attacks on Jews and discrimination lead to the decline and disintegration of the country.

“Today, Western Europe is a dying, degrading civilization. The fertility rate is 1.5, with a minimum of 2.1 children per woman. Educated and ambitious young people leave Europe for the USA, Canada, Australia; in 2013, 300,000 people, graduates of prestigious universities, young professionals and entrepreneurs left France. Specialists from Spain go to work in Latin America, Poland and even Morocco. The economic crisis has hit the Old World, and it is in ‘free fall.’

“Germany’s economy rests on a strong industrial basis of the last century and the reputation of German goods. Its hi-tech is behind the United States, the Far East, and Israel. Italy is a bankrupt country.

“Almost all Western European countries live on credit. Western Europe is still dominated by the extreme left ideologies.

“Europe is heading back to the feudal states – Catalonia in Spain, Scotland in Britain; Belgium will split into the rich Flanders and stagnating Wallonia. In Switzerland, there is fear that the Burgundian separatists want to take possession of the Swiss wealth, to occupy Geneva and Lausanne. Separatist sentiments are brewing in French Brittany.

“This is today’s Western Europe, degrading, pathetic, devoid of values and even a self-preservation instinct, a place where leftist professors, intellectuals and students go side by side with immigrants from Maghreb and Pakistan to support the ‘rights of the Palestinian people,’ boycott and collapse of their own states.

“So, paradoxically, the dying, tired of history Europe unites with its future conquerors against the Jews, demanding sanctions and boycott of the state, which also is a part of the European civilization. And thus, according to immutable laws of metaphysics, and thus it signs its own death warrant.

“The USA, Canada, Australia support Israel and seek to develop cooperation with it. Despite political differences with the current administration, the boycott campaign has not taken root in the USA, and the number of Americans sympathetic to Israel is increasing. Leading American companies and Intel chose Israel as the main center of the program ‘Research and experimental development’ (R & D). The USA accounts for about 40% of Israel’s exports (Germany only 7%). Some of these figures are sufficient to dispel fears of a catastrophe in the case of a boycott.

“Another trend is the third world countries – the economic giants of the Far East, India, Latin America. Here people are indifferent to the ‘Palestinian problem,’ but very interested in Israeli technology and cooperation with Israel.

“Israel has always been culturally oriented towards Europe and morally dependent on the Old World, in whatever poor condition the latter is. The opinion of Europeans still means much for Israelites, and cultural preferences and dependence are difficult to overcome.

“Israel will have to console itself with the fact that it has sympathies of Eastern Europe. In the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Baltic States, Israel retains the image of a strong and brave country, resisting the neighboring authoritarian regimes.

“Israel cannot be threatened by boycott and isolation – it has enough friends and partners. It only needs to be able to see them, instead of relying on a hostile crumbling civilization, forgetting about its history and bitter experience.”

My Comment: The world has yet to reveal the true picture of the development of Earth’s civilization, which runs through the Jews both visibly and in concealment (the ten lost tribes, etc.), and now it is coming to its logical conclusion: the implementation of the method of global unification, the rise to the next level, the entrance to a new reality.
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620 Nested Infinities

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean that everyone uses himself to fulfill the desire of the friend, of others?

Answer: I can connect to the friend if I know his desire. There is no other way I can connect to his desire to receive. I have to know what you want and make an effort to get it.

There is nothing but the desire to receive, and if I want to be connected to you, I have to fill you, and you should do the same for me. So no one can fill oneself on the corporeal level, yet each one can fill the other on a spiritual level.

In order to do so, I have to find out what you want. It turns out that I am the upper Partzuf with regard to you and you are the lower Partzuf. I take your desires from you, I am incorporated in them, and raise them upwards; thus, I become a conductor between you and the Creator. This is how I fill you.

Everyone does that for the other. Imagine billions of Partzufim, each inside the other in different discernments, each one asking for the filling of the other.

Thus the deficiencies and the fillings go from one to the other in a chain of levels until they reach the world of Infinity. Thus, we discover one general vessel where everyone is incorporated in everyone and connected into one desire like it was before the shattering.

But this one desire is complex because it contains the shattering, the distance, the ego, that doesn’t let us connect. This desire is complex because everyone is incorporated in everyone, and therefore its intensity grows by 620 times the simple, initial desire.

Everyone absorbs the deficiency of the other and is rewarded with filling it, thus we intensify ourselves. If I am connected to all the parts of the general soul and eventually have to raise a prayer for all of us, then the light of Infinity passes through me to everyone from the top down.

This is what happens with each of us. We connect and grow until infinity, and eventually we reach an incredible power. We call this growth 620 times, although it isn’t a number, but a qualitative concept.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/14

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Receiving In Order To Bestow

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhat is the intention in order to bestow? If I work with the desire of the other in order to fulfill it instead of fulfilling myself, this is called an intention in order to bestow to another. Working with the desire of the other is called yearning to fulfill him. And because this is not my desire, this is considered to be work with an intention. I consider this desire even higher and more precious than my desire, like in relation to my infant.

It is not important that the desire of the other is materialistic, but since he was originally a stranger to me, and my ego and hatred separated between us, therefore to leap above my ego and to fulfill the desire of the other is called working with an intention in order to bestow. I receive this fulfillment for him from above and convey it to him, meaning receiving in order to bestow.

Question: But all the time, when I finally check myself, I discover that I worked in order to benefit myself somehow!

Answer: So you are still in this world and not in the spiritual world. This is about the desire of the other that I truly absorb, putting it above my ego that rejects him. I ask the Upper Light to make your desire like my desire, and then I work on your desire as if it were my desire.

This means that I receive an opportunity from above to feel your desire “as my own.” But it isn’t mine, rather it is  “like mine,” meaning above my ego. We don’t understand this important distinction.

It follows that I work on your desire and fulfill it because I want to connect with you, and in this connection to give contentment to the Creator. This is because we give Him contentment through all of the connections of the parts of the shattered vessel.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/14

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What Unique Quality Are We Looking For?

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen we come to read The Zohar we must first understand why we are reading this Book. If it is for a miraculous solution (Segula), what miracle are we looking for? A “wonderful tool” is above my mind and helps me, but I don’t exactly know how. It helps me where I cannot help myself in any way. When a person despairs of his own powers and sees that nothing can help him attain what is important in life, he arrives at a true request, to an outcry. Then The Zohar can help him.

So we should clarify over and over again what the main goal is that we want to attain by reading The Zohar. Since The Zohar is only intended for reaching that one thing and not anything else. If we clarify what we want, meaning that The Book of Zohar will change us while reading it, then it will be the true study of the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/14, The Zohar

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A Broken Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar, “VaYechi (And Jacob Lived), Item 9: …To revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the depressed. “The heart of the depressed is Jacob” since below the degree, from the Achoraim (posterior), the prophecies and the blessings came down upon him in Egypt, and Egypt is considered Achoraim. This is why his heart is depressed.

Question: What is a broken heart in the spiritual work?

Answer: A broken heart is a desire with which I cannot do anything, but it stands before me like a barrier, an obstacle, that I cannot go through. If I don’t remove it, I will not reach anything and then “I would rather die than live.” It is a good state because then I need the Creator’s mercy.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/14, The Zohar

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