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New Jersey Convention – “Completing The Circle” Preparation For Lesson 3

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Lesson 3: There Is None Else Besides Him

1. …The Creator’s desired goal for the Creation He had created is to bestow upon His creatures, so they would know His truthfulness and greatness, and receive all the delight and pleasure He had prepared for them
—Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” #39

2. 116) … all that there is in the world is from the Creator, that He alone did, does, and will do all the deeds in the world. He knows in advance all that will unfold in the end, as it is written, “Declaring the end from the beginning.” And He watches and does things in the beginning in order to repeat them and to do them perfectly after some time.
—”Lech Lecha [Go Forth]”

3. Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before, meaning the revelation and concealment of the face of the Creator. This is because indeed, “His kingdom ruleth over all,” and everything will return to its root because there is no place vacant of him. But the difference is in present tense or future tense, because who connects the two worlds, discovers His clothing in the present: everything that is done is a clothing for the revelation of divinity… through the will of the dresser, for that is precisely His wish.
Writings of Baal Hasulam, “Thou Hast Hemmed Me in Behind and Before”

4. We know that “the whole earth is filled with his glory” and so should every man believe; however, the Creator made a concealment so that one cannot see it, to give place for choice, where there is faith – to believe that “The Creator fills the whole earth and is involved with the whole earth.” After a person engages in Torah and Mitzvot and keeps the commandment of choice, then the Creator reveals himself to him so that he sees that the Creator rules the world.

It follows that one makes him king, to rule over him, which means that one feels the Creator, that He is the ruler of the whole world, and this is called that one makes the Creator king over him. Until one reaches this feeling, the kingship of the Creator is in concealment. About this we say, “On that day the Creator will be One and His Name One,” meaning that the glory of His kingdom will be disclosed to us. This is the entire correction that we should be doing in this world, and by this we continue all the best in the world, where all the bestowals above continue by working in Torah and Mitzvot, with the intention to continue His Kingdom over us.
Writings of Rabash, Vol 2, Letter No. 76

5. The purpose of the soul when it comes in the body is to attain returning to its root and to cleave unto Him, while clothed in the body, as it is written, “To love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to cleave unto Him.” You see that the matter ends in “to cleave unto Him,” meaning as it was prior to clothing in the body.

However, great preparation is required – which is to walk in all His ways. Yet, who knows the ways of the Creator? Indeed, this is the meaning of “Torah, that has 613 ways.” He who walks by them will finally be purified until his body will no longer be an iron partition between him and his Maker, as it is written, “And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh.” Then he shall cleave to his Maker just as he was before the clothing of the soul in the body.

It turns out, that there are three aspects: 1. Israel, is he who strains himself to return to his root; 2. The Creator, which is the root one longs for; 3. The 613 ways of the Torah, by which one purifies one’s soul and body. This is the spice, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created for it the Torah as a spice.”

However, these three are actually one and the same. In the end, any servant of the Creator attains them as single, united and unified. They only appear to be divided into three because of one’s incompleteness in the work of God.
—Baal HaSulam, Igrot, “Letter 17”

6. The essence of one’s work is only to come to the sensation of the existence of the Creator, meaning to feel the existence of the Creator, that “the whole earth is full of His glory.” This will be one’s entire work, meaning all the vigor that he puts into the work will be only to achieve that, and not for any other things.
One should not be misled into having to acquire anything. Rather, there is only one thing a person needs, namely faith in the Creator. He should not think of anything, meaning that the only reward that he wants for his work should be to be rewarded with faith in the Creator.
—Baal HaSulam, Shamati  #4, ”What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work”

7. Even if we see that there are two parts to the Torah: The first—Mitzvot between man and God, and the second—Mitzvot between man and man, they are both one and the same thing. This means that the actual purpose of them and the desired goal are one, namely Lishma.It makes no difference if one works for one’s friend or for the Creator…  Thus, when one completes one’s work in love and bestowal for one’s fellow person and comes to the highest point, one also completes one’s love and bestowal for the Creator. In that state there is no difference between the two, for anything that is outside one’s body, meaning one’s self-interest, is judged equally—either to bestow upon one’s friend or bestow contentment upon one’s Maker.
—Baal Hasulam, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

8. May we be granted with His Light and follow in the ways of the Creator and serve Him not in order to be rewarded, but to give contentment to the Creator and raise Divinity from the dust. May we be granted adhesion with the Creator and the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures.
—Baal Hasulam, Shamati #3, “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”

Related Material:
New Jersey Convention – “Completing The Circle” Preparation For Lesson 1
New Jersey Convention – “Completing The Circle” Preparation For Lesson 2

What Is A High Priest?

Laitman_043The Torah, “Leviticus” 21:10: “And the Cohen that who is elevated above his brothers, upon whose head the anointment oil has been poured or who has been inaugurated to wear the garments he shall not leave his head unshorn or rend his garments.

The human body (613 parts) embodies his 613 desires. They all must be covered with a Masach (Screen) and Ohr Hozer (Returning Light), symbolized by clothing in our world.

The Sa’arot (hair), from the word “Sa’ar (storm)” is the awakening of the person, his advancement towards a goal. On every level they can be counted in a particular way. The Peyot (sidelocks), which descend from the sides, represent the Light that descends from the head, drips onto the beard down onto the body.

The priest had a complete wardrobe. Besides the usual clothes, he was dressed in special cloth pants and a sash, a beautifully embroidered shirt with bells on the hems and a hat. Such attire fit the Masach, the characteristic of bestowal, the intention, that should be created above one’s desires.

And he shall not come upon any dead bodies; he shall not defile himself for his father or his mother. (Leviticus 21:11)

“Dead” is a desire that is left without an intention into which the Light cannot enter. And the priest must protect himself and not come in contact with anything that has a negative intention.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/21/14

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Why Is The Wisdom Of Kabbalah Important?

laitman_584_03Question: I still don’t understand why the wisdom of Kabbalah is so important to you.

Answer: If we exist in the closed system of nature, our desires and our thoughts are also part of this system and they influence it. And their influence can be much more important than our physical actions.

Just our physical actions are visible to everyone and so we give them importance because we see their outcomes and can scrutinize and examine them. But the mental and emotional effects we can’t scrutinize and examine. However, our internal influence is studied and used in labs and by intelligence services all over the world.

If all of our thoughts and desires stem from the mind and the heart that are connected directly to the general system of nature, then:

  • What arises in us naturally that is beyond our control can be omitted from our study since it is information about thoughts and feelings that flow through us.
  • Information that we cannot perceive is nothing but control signals that we must know and learn to manage correctly. Thus, we introduce our corrections in nature because otherwise we unconsciously harm the whole system and ourselves by our uncorrected thoughts and feelings.

This is the reason that this information is the most important study for mankind, but we must control and acquire it and teach it to every child and grownup.
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The Call Of The Soul For The Promised Land

laitman_740_01The Torah, “Ezekiel” 36:24: For I will take you from among the nations and gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you to your land.

From a historic perspective, the Jews gathered on their land under the pressure and oppression of the nations of the world.

At the same time, they had to break away from their religion because it called for sitting and expecting the Messiah that would redeem them of their sufferings as the prophet Ezekiel says.

The religious Jews were in no hurry to return to their land from exile while waiting for and expecting the Messiah. Only those who broke away from religion realized that they could build their state only in the land of Israel.

I remember myself as a Zionist. I lived in Russia at the time, and I had a specific goal: to come to Israel and to live there. I should say that Zionism awakened in me the great and deep question about the meaning of life for a while, but when I came here, I began to feel the need for the next level of my development: what for, why, and how.

Thus, the question reappeared and kept troubling me until it became, “What is the meaning of my existence? Now that I am among my people building my state, what’s next?” At the same time, I always have felt I am a Zionist.

The word “Zionist” stems from the word “Zion,” which refers to the place where the spiritual root and its corporeal branch connect. In this place, we must recreate the nation of Israel, which means the group (which also can consist of several million people) that lives according to Abraham’s laws.

Question: We know that there is no time and place in spirituality, and here you suddenly say that Israel is a piece of land that is holy in a certain sense and has certain spiritual attributes.

Answer: Yes, these are attributes that are above time. The connection of the Jewish nation to its land is described in many Kabbalistic writings. This is the reason that we need to return to this land and not to Uganda.

Question: Why do some people feel a very strong attraction to this land and others don’t feel it at all?

Answer: It depends on the root of one’s soul. When I left Russia, in Vienna we were offered the choice of any state we wished to emigrate to. Of a train full of Jews, only two families, mine and another family, went to Israel; all the others dispersed in Europe and in America.

It is an urge that stems from the spiritual root that brings people to Israel. Today, it is revealed in many people, and humanity is beginning to feel that it needs connection and unity.

People don’t understand why they are attracted to it. They feel warmth and that there is something here! And even if having arrived here, they subsequently feel they will feel good in this land.

Question: Are these people descendants of the ten lost tribes?

Answer: No, these are totally different people who are not Jewish by origin but who feel that the idea of unity is close to their hearts, and all of humanity gradually is getting closer to this.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/23/15

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Convention In New Jersey “Completing The Circle,” Day One – 07.24.15

Convention in New Jersey “Day One,” “A Prayer Before a Prayer” 

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Convention in New Jersey “Day One,” Lesson 1 

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Convention in New Jersey “Day One,” “The 10 as a Spiritual Kli,” Lesson 2 

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Convention in New Jersey “Day One,” “Arvut,” Lesson 3 

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