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 Short Stories: The Schools Of Kabbalah

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom the time when a small part of the Babylonians joined Abraham and began to work together on unity between them, the starting point of the Jewish people began.

Although it was not yet a formed people, the group of Abraham’s disciples, who were Kabbalists, received from him the method of unity with the purpose of revealing the Creator and began to move forward.

From a Kabbalistic point of view, moving forward is not the story of their moving from Babylon to the land of Canaan, the descent into Egypt and return to the land of Israel, but the growth of their egoism and their constant ascent above it. Indeed, the ideology they agreed with in ancient Babylon continued to work in them.

In the process of the growth of egoism, the people gradually began to change and became more sophisticated, both egoistically and altruistically. Their unity underwent various metamorphoses, and took different forms.

Therefore, the school of Abraham transforms into the school Isaac, then into the school of Jacob, then Joseph, and, finally into the school of Moses. All of them represent a variety of movements of the people to an ever increasing revelation of ego and the rising above it.

The the school of Isaac represents the people’s desire to break away from its egoism and rise firmly above it. This is the sacrifice of Isaac, when a person is ready to slaughter his egoism. Indeed, at first he thinks that this is the only way to maintain his movement forward.

Then the school of Jacob is then formed, which believes that one should not kill egoism, but balance it with the property of mercy, represented by Jacob. After all, when mercy begins to correctly use the property of Isaac (the ruthlessness of judgment), then it turns into the property of Israel, which means straight to the Creator.

This is a serious movement forward, in which both the egoistic and altruistic forces are coming together, with egoism remaining at the bottom and altruism rising above it. Thus, by rising and falling synchronously, they move together. This is the way people grow, composing the two parts of nature within themselves, and in the correct symbiosis between them, they reveal the Creator.

The spiritual movement of Israel gradually leads the people into Egypt. The development in Egypt means that the people’s egoism rose even more, to the level of Pharaoh, and they were required to rise above it.

Pharaoh represents egoism, which one simply cannot rise above and use. It is necessary to be pulled out if it quickly, to correct it in small portions, transforming it into altruism.

The people of Israel, having finding themselves in Egyptian captivity, i.e., in an extremely egoistic state, discovered that they could not follow the ideology of Abraham. A new leader, whose name was Moses, appeared among them. He was able to organize them so that they understood that progress must be based on detachment from egoism. That meant they had to escape from Egyptian captivity, the captivity of egoism, and slowly begin to correct its parts.

While in Egypt, under the pressure of a huge ego, the people were in the same confrontation as in ancient Babylon. Moses understood that it was necessary to make another effort, to get out of Egypt and go to the land of Canaan, as Abraham’s group once came from Babylon.

The land of Canaan symbolizes the spiritual state that gives people the opportunity to internally unite among themselves, to rise above egoism and move away from it, i.e., to leave Egypt, go into the Sinai desert and head for the land of Israel.

This is the essence of the school of Moses, the direct follower of Abraham. In the history of spiritual development, there is no brighter personality than Moses. After all, the group of Abraham came from Babylon after rising above the manifested egoism and that was enough, but now its followers, while escaping from Egypt, must not only rise above a huge ego, but also gradually correct it.
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From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/22/14

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The Only Ritual Of The Kabbalist

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Are there rituals in the Wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: In the wisdom of Kabbalah there are no rituals! It is not involved with anything connected to the material world nor to a person’s physical body.

The wisdom of Kabbalah consists of a person’s inner work, which is directed towards connection and unity with others and through this correction, discovery of the Creator. There are no external actions in this, but assisting to each other toward successful spiritual work. This is work in a group, work in a group of ten (called a Minyan), gatherings of friends, shared meals, etc., in other words, all kinds of external activities that can help us to get closer to each other are welcome.

Here it is possible to immediately see the difference between a Kabbalistic group of ten and a Minyan of people who are gathered in a synagogue who are not moving towards closeness, but simply come to pray. They have no shared task to create a single whole between them and discover the Creator among them.

Whereas for us, connection in a Minyan, a group of ten, is a spiritual activity where we try to connect ourselves into a single whole, the image of one unit called Adam (Man), so our only image elevated above the ego and connecting everyone among them is built upon the characteristic of bestowal and resembling the Creator.

From this unity between us, from the common heart, we raise our request to the Creator so that He will be revealed in our unified desire, our unified heart. This is called a Kabbalistic prayer, a Kabbalistic Minyan, a group and a ritual.
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From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/22/14

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The Mutation And Correction Of Mutual Human Relations

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, Leviticus, 18:23: And thou shalt not lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith; neither shall any woman stand before a beast, to lie down thereto; it is perversion.

A connection with a beast means the connection with the animal parts in me. But, in combination with spiritual desires, there can’t be a balance between the animal parts and the part of man who is be able to allow work for the sake of bestowal.

Animal parts should be used only in the form of food or clothing that is prepared from fur, leather or the like.

In spirituality these things are not specifically interpreted since everything is understood in the attributes of the Light of bestowal, Hassidim (Mercy) and Light of reception, Hochma (Wisdom). Thus we constantly need to remember that the desire to receive changes and transforms itself into the desire to bestow since besides that there is nothing else.

The Torah, Leviticus 18:24: Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out from before you.

The origin of incorrect relationships between men began in Egypt. They were very popular in Greece and Ancient Rome and became an actual cult.

From a spiritual viewpoint, this is the result of the shattering of the spiritual object “Adam” and the continuing, mutual penetration of all its parts into one another, when the attributes of unity enter the attributes that oppose them completely and create all kinds of possible mutations.

It turns out that attributes that are completely unsuitable for each other are together. This phenomena also exist on the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels, but is most pronounced on the level of man and that is where it specifically is corrected.

All of the prohibitions on such a union are specified only in the Torah and apply only to those that correct the attribute of the human in oneself, the attribute of the soul. In all the other beliefs, these prohibitions do not exist, and on the contrary, they raised this combination and union, and changed it into cults, black magic, sadomasochism, etc.

What causes this so-called self-destruction, when a person sees himself as nothing or imagines himself an animal? This is the result of the influence of Light on the broken parts and the corrected parts of the soul. Thus it seems that in these operations, which are called spiritual acts, there is something sublime and uplifting.

In other words, prior to that, the nations in us were similar to the Egyptian people, and we must not conform to that. But it pertains only to those who advance in the study of Torah.

Question: So why does everyone read the Torah?

Answer: The Torah was given in order to prepare all the nations for the future general correction.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/19/14

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Short Stories: The Evolution Of Abraham’s Group—Joseph

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe essence of the Kabbalistic method is working properly with the growing ego by using the altruistic right line, and at the same time ascending the levels of the spiritual worlds. Thus the next phase of spiritual evolution is the revelation of the giant ego inside us.

The question is where will the great ego that can raise us all the way to the Creator’s level come from?

If it appeared in the first stages of the spiritual formation, we couldn’t work with it and would subconsciously escape from our level. Therefore, sinking into the ego and its internal growth is gradual. Such a gradual nearing to the ego, which is eventually revealed in all its huge dark emptiness and in the force that swallows everything, is described in the story about Joseph and his brothers.

At first, the small and non-harmful ego of the brothers who envied Joseph grew to huge disputes called Egypt. Egypt (Mitzraim) stems from the Hebrew word “Mits Rah – bad juice that means the concentration of evil.

On the one hand, it didn’t seem so bad, but on the other hand, they encountered a problem: If they didn’t come close to evil and accumulate it inside them and seem to quiet down the disputes they had, they wouldn’t be able to go on. Therefore it says in the Torah that there was famine in the Land of Israel.

So what could they do if without the ego there was no way they could advance in spirituality? This is how they began to feel the need for a growing ego and its correct fulfillment. Thus they sank into Egypt, which was in their benefit since it nourished and awakened them.

Moreover, their father Jacob entered the same state as he understood that this is the middle line without which it is impossible to advance and that they needed a great ego in order to later work on it. The building up of the ego is called the seven years of satiety.

During those years the ego seems very attractive because it doesn’t show that it is against the spiritual path. Life in the captivity of the ego seemed sweet, good, and sensible and they became its slaves.

During this time Israel develops, grows and multiplies, which means that the method of the correct use of the ego and its right guidance during the first seven years is very fruitful. It is because the ego, as part of the female nature, is first submissive suggesting: “use me and advance.”

But having absorbed the ego to the fullest during the first seven good years, its absorption came to an end. Seven years is a complete level HGT NHYM, the seven good years are replaced by the seven bad years (of hunger).

They begin to recognize the evil in the ego. All the profit they seemingly made before is actually total emptiness. The recognition of evil is also during seven years since these are the same levels of HGT NHYM. In each of them they have to recognize that it constantly leads to negative outcomes.

Towards the end of the seven bad years, they reach the last attribute, the most egoistic one, Malchut. Here they already have to undergo serious blows, the ten plagues of Egypt, in order to give up the previous use of the ego.
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From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/15/14

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What Is A Prayer In Kabbalah?

Dr. Michael LaitmanA real Kabbalist realizes that he is under the domination of the ego and only one inner point inside him, the so-called the point in the heart, is free of the egoistic influence and can connect him to the Creator.

If he exerts himself and connects his point in the heart with the Creator, he receives the force that raises him above his ego and he begins to gradually correct the ego by using it for the sake of altruism.

All our work in spiritual correction is to ask the Creator for the powers to correct the ego. Therefore it plays such a positive role here, by awakening in us the need for the Creator.

When we turn to the Creator we receive from Him the power needed for correction and in the corrected ego we feel a relative connection with the Creator. It isn’t contact at one specific point but a wider and stronger unity. Then an even greater ego appears, a thicker ego, and once again we ask the Creator to give us the powers to correct it.

This means that the ego that is constantly being revealed wakens us to connect to the Creator and is therefore called help against. Our constant appeal to the Creator asking for the correction of the ego is called a prayer.
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From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/22/14

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 11.06.14

Workshop

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