Question: How do I identify the spies inside me who force me to be critical about the group and the friends in the spiritual work?

Answer: If a person doesn’t divide himself into two parts: he and his feelings, he cannot identify the spies. He cannot distinguish that they are spies but thinks that they are friends who help him along the way.

The spies do indeed help a person, but they are help against. It is the Creator who sends them even when he hardens Pharaoh’s heart during the wandering in the desert and throughout our life. But if I don’t identify with the Creator, I cannot see that they are spies and will not see that they operate from the negative side.

The main thing is to attribute everything that happens to me to the upper source and to see that He is before me playing with me. I must understand how to respond to His game and how I can defeat Him thanks to the group and to everything we have learned and all the Kabbalists’ advice! As it says, “My sons have defeated me!”

I defeat the Creator. He gives me new exercises each time and I have to realize that it comes from Him and that there is nothing but the upper leadership, the good that does good.

When I wake up in the morning I have to say: “If I am not for me who is for me?” And in the evening: “There is none else besides Him.”

Comment: But these spies appear suddenly and divert me to different external thoughts!

Answer: Ask yourself why you are not ready to accept them as you should? Now when you are sitting in the lesson you are smart and can distinguish where the Creator and all His creations are. You realize that He is playing with you and thus teaches you like you teach a child and brings you closer to Him.

Now, it is absolutely clear to you that this is a fixed game with a predetermined end and you know that you cannot refuse to play. The only thing you are required to do, like a small child, is to understand that and to participate in it so that you would grow and become like the Creator, like your teacher.

But why don’t you accept every moment of your life that way? Why aren’t you ready for it? This is the only thing about which you have to ask; this is the only important thing: how to be constantly aware, perceive, maintain the right attitude towards everything that happens in order to understand the situation.

But why do you keep falling? You lack something so that you won’t fall. You lack adhesion with the Creator! So ask! If you are adhered to the Creator, at least a bit, you will accept every picture that opens up before you in a consecutive order as a game you are playing with the Creator. Then you will hear Him say: “Come to Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart,” and you will make one more step.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/14, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the difference between development with personal participation and development without personal participation?

Answer: In the course of development there were small and insignificant changes in different kinds of plants and animals, but we understand that a horse and a cow could not willingly change except as a result of the environment or certain genetic changes. On the other hand, we think that we develop according to our initiative developed from generation to generation by wisdom, science, and changes in social structure. Thanks to correct nutrition man became taller, the quality of his way of life improved. Even the results of our medical tests changed. And we assume that it is thanks to our efforts.

But we study that all matter is the desire to receive. It makes the maximum efforts to come closer to fulfillment, and in every situation distances itself from suffering in every place in the optimum form, according to the prospect it sees in the future.

Education and science influence it, but actually man chooses for himself the good and makes efforts to escape the bad. Therefore, we are totally managed from above by pleasure or suffering; we are between two reins without any freedom of choice, as if the person does not exist.

We progressed in this manner until today, although we are proud of our high achievements in culture, creativity, science, and construction. But all of these are still without the involvement of man himself. Man has always searched for the most benefit in the inner and exterior conditions that the Creator molded for him.

Therefore, man used to change and do things like a small child who plays with a game he received. However, in addition to this, man also developed the recognition of evil. In the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature he developed an instinctive form, similar to the level of animate, and at the level of man he searched for what is better for him or less good for him.

An animal does not think, it always knows what to do. It receives the recognition of the situation and the command at the same time. In man it’s not the case. Therefore, he must develop science in order to know how to behave in each moment in an optimal form. The process in which we developed is called “in its time” (Beito). And we were able to continue to develop, but we found ourselves facing big problems. No more instructions from above as to what to do, no more hints for instinctive solutions. Now, by ourselves, we need to correctly face the coming situations by “raising MAN (prayer) and good deeds.” This is why we need a new science that is opposed to our nature, because now we need to take this upon ourselves in addition to “the work of God.”

For that we need to receive “the Godly part from above.” If the Creator is not giving it to us, then we must demand Him to bring down the upper software and according to the software we will be able to progress. It means that we need the soul, the part that enables us to understand how to continue our existence in the new terms.

Whether it is “in its time” or “hastened” (Achishena) we will be obliged to acquire the new software, the new operation, the awareness, the solution, and the feelings. We will be obliged to be equipped with all the forces in order to continue from now on in an independent form and not an instinctive form. Therefore, this is the reason for the wisdom of Kabbalah being revealed and how it guides us. We must understand that we are in a new era.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Like A Bundle of Reeds, Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour, Michael Laitman, Ph.D.

Chapter 9: Plurally Speaking
Affecting Social Cohesion Through the Social Environment

Persecution and anti-Semitism, or in its more contemporary term, Judeophobia, have been the lot of our people for (at least) the past two millennia. And yet, as we have seen throughout the book, the hatred of Jews did not spring up out of thin air. It is rooted in the fundamental, though usually unconscious demand of every human being that the Jews must and will usher them into the attainment of life’s purpose: to receive boundless delight and pleasure.

Thus far we have discussed the goal and role of the Jewish nation, and the reason for our anguish throughout the ages. Henceforth we will discuss the principles we need to follow in order to achieve our goal, which coincides with the goal of humanity.

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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “But the More They Afflicted Them”

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Excerpt Items for Passover,” Item 274 

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 15 “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 55

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “This Is for Judah” 

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Writings of ARI, “Shaar HaKavanot,“ Pesach

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The Creator creates concealment and moves us gradually through His feeling so that we will understand what must exist instead of the concealment: what kind of image of the Creator must be discovered there, what kind of image of the bestower? This is a kind of game where it is up to us to fill in the missing pieces and guess what should be there to complete the full picture.

I seemingly fill in the crossword puzzle and put in the missing letters so that the word will appear. Yet it is not a word here but a particular image, a piece of the reality of bestowal. We must complete this picture ourselves.

So the stages of concealment come to us. And if instead of bad feelings and disagreement about the concealment we relate to it in the right way, then we perceive the concealment as our place of work. My task is to define the form of bestowal, the correct world, and the correct relationships that must exist in that place where, at the moment, I don’t see anything, have no senses or understanding, without any feeling or taste.

How would I complete this picture if instead of the Creator I were the bestower and had His properties? If a person creatively relates to the states of concealment like this, then through this he develops MAN in himself, a request that the Creator be revealed specifically in this form. It means to, “Make your desire like His desire.” (Pirkei Avot 2:4) In this way we develop and build in ourselves the image of the Creator (Bore), the “come and see” (Bo-Re) that is revealed in our desires.

So it is written, “My children have won” (Baba Metzia 59b); we become the partners of the Creator. Only a half-shekel is required from us, which is the prayer, MAN, the form of bestowal, the form of relationships between us and the Creator that we want to discover instead of concealment. If we more or less approximate the right form, it will be revealed.

And if we don’t approximate it, then corrections act on us from above that are designed to help us discover the form that is meant to be revealed within the concealment. The Creator carries out all kinds of small exercises on us, gives us clues, uses many means that He has in store, and ultimately brings us to discovery within the concealment of the proper form of revelation, and we ask for it.

We understand that the form of revelation is directed towards connection, good attitudes, and we seek now such a fragment be revealed instead of the concealment. It will be precisely the same missing piece of desire to resemble the Creator that now will begin to be revealed and bestow on us more and more. This is the way we work.

This is called, “Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory” (Exodus 33:18), that will make it possible to see only through a prepared desire that I direct precisely to this frequency, the same colors, the same form, in every sense in which it is possible to discover Him, in the ten characteristics, the ten Sefirot.

If our desire is ready and directed towards the ten Sefirot of the Creator, then He is revealed to us. The Upper Light appears within our inner characteristics because we asked Him to correct them. It follows that we ourselves have created the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/14, Writings of Rabash

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The Book of Zohar, “BaHar” (On Mount Sinai), item 85: …“And He said unto me, ‘You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’” “And He said unto me, ‘You are My servant” is the degree of slave, left line, Malchut. “Israel” is the degree of son, right line, ZA. When they are included as one, it is written, “In whom I will be glorified.”“

The two lines: the left, the level of the slave (Malchut), and the right, the level of the son (Israel), have to be united and glorified, which means to be revealed.

On the one hand, we have to totally submit and enslave ourselves to the upper leadership. We can say, of course, that now He governs us and that we are totally enslaved to Him and cannot do anything without Him, but this is the attribute of a bad slave.

The left line has to be loyal to its master by stating, “I want to be His slave. I want Him to govern me internally through the desires over which I have no control.” This is my freedom. My freedom is in choosing whether to remain under the domination of the Master or to leave Him. I choose His domination because I cannot feel any freer than when I am under His leadership.

Later, when I ascend higher, the level of the slave enters to the level of the son. The difference between the level of the salve and the level of the son is that I do everything my Father desires and not my Master. Now I want to carry out all His actions consciously, even if He doesn’t force me to do so. And, even if He didn’t know about it, here I work without connection to Him, and am like Him.

These two states have to be clearly felt by a person and then the third state appears between them, the middle line, when I am neither a slave nor the son. The middle line doesn’t exist in nature and is created and appears in the connection between the right and left lines, giving a person a feeling of complete freedom. It is like being in a vacuum, where the first condition of the slave doesn’t operate or have any impact on me, but neither does the second condition of the son.

I can totally disconnect myself from any connection with the Creator and be independent in all my actions, desires, and thoughts. Complete freedom!

This is what the thought of creation is all about, which is bringing a person to the feeling of freedom that leads to his choice of the state to be where the Creator exists and to yearn for Him. If I yearn for that myself by 10%, 15%, or 20%, I gradually turn myself into that exact image, the same replica, and to that extent I am called Adam, a human being.

I disconnect myself from the Creator in the middle line because otherwise I have no freewill. This isn’t an illusion of freedom. I need to feel that I am totally free. Moreover, this feeling comes against a cacophony of all kinds of egoistic desires, urges, and temptations. Pride, envy, the desire to do whatever he wants, and to be the master of the universe grow in a person.

Imagine that you are immersed in water and on the surface, instead of clear water, turbidity from the bottom suddenly rises, and it is all yours, the waves of your egoistic thoughts and desires. It is actually on this background that you begin to make a human being out of yourself.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/18/14

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In the News (from The Telegraph): “Computers can determine your personality better than friends, just by analysing the posts you have ‘liked’ on Facebook, a Cambridge University study has shown.

“Now researchers, by analysing self-reported personality scores for what are known as the ‘big five’ psychological traits – openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism- have created an algorithm which can accurately predict personalities simply based on Facebook interactions.

“And, surprisingly, it knows your character better than your close friends.

“The team found that their software was able to predict a study participant’s personality more accurately than a work colleague by analysing just 10 ‘Likes.’

“Given enough ‘Likes,’ the software matched people’s self-reported personality traits more closely than family members. …

“But the researchers share the concerns of those who fear a dystopian future in which our traits and habits become an ‘open book’ for computers to read.”

My Comment: Everything is simple in the human being because he is made of only one desire to be fulfilled (to fill himself, to enjoy). It is possible to create the image of this desire by several (test) “likes.” Then, all the other person’s actions could be accurately predicted.

Having created such an image we already know what the person’s responses will be when you address him. Now, you just need to write a program to control the person—because a completely controlled robot is in front of you!
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A new cycle of selling the land begins after the jubilee. I can sell it to someone for 10 years, to someone else for 20 years, and so on, until the year of the jubilee when the land once again becomes mine.

I cannot sell it anymore since this land cannot be someone else’s property until the jubilee year. A person feels that he is a stranger, a foreigner on the land and that the land isn’t his but  belongs to the Creator who was only renting it to him. The reason is that the land symbolizes our desire.

Question: What does that mean on a more internal level of understating? How can I sell my desire?

Answer: You can do whatever you want with it in order to get the right crop from it, but you should know that eventually you have to return the corrected desire to the Creator in the form of bestowal. The jubilee symbolizes complete compatibility with the Creator. The jubilee is common and shared by the whole nation. Everyone knows about it; you cannot cheat anyone, and there is no need to present any documents. This is the way the counting of the land has always been done: from one jubilee to the next and at which time everything goes back to the beginning.

Comment: This is felt as a very deep point and everything is very complicated. We, who exist in this dimension, find it hard to understand.

Answer: If you are connected to the Creator, the general force of nature, and you know that you are subordinate to Him, nothing is complicated or difficult.

Today, we begin to feel quite sharply that we are governed by nature and that we have no choice. We don’t control things and all our naive notions that we are the masters of nature and that we can take anything we want from it by force are gradually fading.

We are like small children who, without mom and dad, begin to realize that we have been left alone in a giant sandbox not knowing what to do next and that we have corrupted it to such an extent that playing in it is impossible. All the kids’ games are over; it is time to grow up.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/13/14

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The Torah, “Leviticus,” 25:14 – 25:15: And when you make a sale to your fellow Jew or make a purchase from the hand of your fellow Jew, you shall not wrong one another.

According to the number of years after the Jubilee, you shall purchase from your fellow Jew; according to the number of years of crops, he shall sell to you.

Question: It says “you shall not wrong one another…” What is the meaning of doing wrong?

Answer: A person first of all wrongs himself. If we could feel in every action that we make that everything is temporary and wouldn’t see our actions and our relations as an eternal component, realizing to what extent they are conditional and fragile, everything would be much easier and simpler.

But each time we cling to our desire, to our opinion, to our minor temporary mood, and believe that this is the main thing since this is what operates in me at a certain moment and fills me, and this is my small world.

But if at the same time I could include the whole world inside me, the greater sphere, and act accordingly, despite the fact that I am under the domination of my small desire, I would have a certain account with the upper level and then I could certainly feel and tune myself in a totally different manner.

A person has nothing of his own. My best state is when I don’t feel that my body is mine, not to speak of more external things.

I only have one internal point and I adore it. This means that I want to attach it to the Creator from my own personal place, to adhere to my land, to my small square that is the combination of all my internal attributes, the combination of the right and left lines.

It is my part, a tiny cell in the general body, and by connecting to it I return to my origin, to my place. This is the most perfect state, the end of all the corrections.

However, in order to do that I have to feel the whole general body. Only then can I find my place with regard to all the other points, all the other tiny squares like my own, that the image of the Creator is made of. It actually doesn’t exist, but we put this image together by gathering our corrected desires into an image, a form that has volume, and by adapting ourselves to one another.

If we could understand that this is the role and the goal of a person’s existence in our world, we would perform all our actions with a different intention. Therefore, on the one hand, all our actions would have a totally different weight, but on the other hand, we would focus them on attaining the spiritual state and they would lose their momentary significance and acquire eternal significance.

We would relinquish the minor momentary benefit for the sake of a greater eternal cause and behave in a totally different manner by using every moment not in order to quickly grab something but in order to make another step toward our eternal point of connection with the Creator.

Question: At the same time, concepts such as my home, my job, my territory, and “it is necessary to pass on to the children”… disappear…

Answer: There are laws for all that, the laws of the Torah, that explain every action that I make: how I should wash, dress, walk, and communicate with people and with animals, with everything and everyone.

It is because I have to be compatible not with what I want or what I imagine at the moment but with the perfect eternal state that I should reach. Although I don’t really know it at the moment and don’t see or understand it, this is the reason that I was given the instructions of the Torah, so that I could advance along the right path that was predetermined, even if I don’t understand things.

It is like flying in a plane according to what the instruments show and not seeing anything beyond that. I focus myself on the goal according to the instruments in contrast to what I feel in the current state, which means that we were given two states that guide a person: a temporary state and an eternal state, and they are regarded as the fulfillment of the laws of the Torah.

The problem is that I become totally devoted to the temporary state and believe that it is the main part. I sink into it with my head and get lost in it. It simply sucks me in.

In order to exit it I need special powers that come from above, which gradually pull me out a little and allow me to decide. I am in the middle, at the decision point: Do I return to the direction of the earth or advance towards heaven?
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/13/14

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