Audio Version Of The Blog – 09.03.15
Posted on September 3rd, 2015
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Convention in Romania “Realizing the Connection,” Preparatory Lesson
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Question: What is a punishment in spirituality?
Answer: There is no actual punishment in the wisdom of Kabbalah because we don’t deal with a human being who seems to get tired of something, angry, or regret something, but only with the system of providence. If we don’t perform a certain role, the system operates in an alternative manner and takes care of us accordingly.
If I drive my car in fourth gear and something suddenly breaks, I change to third gear. Now the engine works much harder and I drive more slowly and feel less comfortable, but I still keep driving. Then another part breaks and I switch to another state, which means that everything depends on our participation. The greater it is, the faster we advance, of course, in greater comfort, above time, overcoming everything by small efforts on our part, along the path of goodness and not the path of sufferings.
Therefore it isn’t about any punishments, although we use this term in everyday language. There are no punishments in our world either. If you behave properly, you advance along this path; if you don’t, you are corrected. We call this correction punishment. It isn’t a punishment but a correction.
As for the system of correction. it is absolutely unemotional. We only attribute human qualities to it, like the good and the benevolent.
I can also say that when I play the piano, for example, I regard it emotionally as if it is my partner or a friend. A person applies his feelings to objects he works with no matter what he engages in, like a computer, for example, although it is just a piece of metal. This is also how we relate to the Creator, although it is an unemotional system, as it is written: “He has given a law that cannot be broken.” The Creator is the law of nature!
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/15/15
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Question: Why does the Creator afflict pain unto the righteous, and how can I justify Him?
Answer: It is so the righteous can justify Him. You “harness the cart before the horses.” However, the truth is that the Creator afflicts pain unto the righteous so that they will have a chance to bless and justify Him. How can they justify Him without the pain, on what grounds?
An independent person must be opposite to the Creator internally and similar to Him externally. This means that you must be made of two opposite forces, two opposite forms, two opposite attributes.
It is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” This refers to the Light in it, since the Light in it reforms it. The evil inclination, the matter of the desire to receive, remains the way it is, and we must dress the intention of in order to bestow above it. Thus, we reform it with the help of the Light and change it to the good and right form.
When we work that way, we first curse the Creator on every level and disagree with Him. This is the reason that the level of Ibur (Conception) is called “rage and wrath.” Then we reach the blessing and the justification of the Creator, until we reach self-sacrifice.
My self-sacrifice, however, is not a result of pleasure the way it is in our world when I am ready to totally sacrifice myself if it is worth it. In that case, I don’t connect to the Creator but to the pleasure that stems from Him, and, if it stops, my ego will not allow me to connect to Him anymore. We totally depend on the pleasure in this world, whereas, in spirituality, we add another dimension, another level, and reach adhesion with the Creator and not with the pleasure and the benefits that stem from Him.
Now, I begin to value my status as the one who bestows and gives. The Creator doesn’t give to me. I don’t need His bestowal. I don’t want to receive it. I don’t want to adhere to Him because of this goodness. I don’t want to be addicted to it. I want to respect the attribute of bestowal, which has no form or image. I yearn for it.
As a result, I must be made of two forms, of an internal form that is the desire to receive and the external form that is the intention of in order to bestow. Otherwise, I cannot be adhered to Him since “For our heart will rejoice in Him” and not in the Lights that stem from Him, which only confuse and bribe me, and which I must resist.
The Lights are measured from above and awaken me—which means my ego—so that I will be turned on and become addicted to the pleasure that drives me crazy and dominates my mind and my heart. Eventually, I am left with only one point that doesn’t attract me to pleasures that come from the Light, and, at that point, I can keep myself constantly outside of the pleasure, refuse the tempting offers. Not that! Not to be addicted to the pleasure!
The temptations make our head spin, and the body is confused by the excitement. Here, we need to prepare the mutual guarantee between us since, without it, I cannot be independent. The pleasure comes in order to cover the shame and to make me independent. Baal HaSulam speaks about it in the Talmud Eser Sefirot, “Histaklut Pnimit,” part 1 item 7:
… They said that there is a great flaw in free gifts, namely the shame that encounters every receiver of a free gift. To mend this, the Creator has prepared this world, where there is work and labor, so as to be rewarded in the next world for their labor and work.
But that excuse is very strange. It is like a person who says to his friend, “Work with me for just a minute, and in return I will give you every pleasure and treasure in the world for the rest of your life. There is indeed no greater free gift than that, because the reward is incomparable with the work. The work is in this transient, worthless world compared to the reward and the pleasure in the eternal world.
What value is there to the passing world compared to the eternal world? It is even more so with regards to the quality of the labor, which is worthless compared to the quality of the reward.
Our sages said: “The Creator is destined to inherit each and every righteous person 310 worlds, etc.” We cannot say that some of the reward is given in return for their work, and the rest is a free gift, for then what good would that do? The blemish of shame would still remain! Indeed, their words are not to be taken literally, for there is a profound meaning in their words.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/14, The Book of Zohar
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Question: I always hear that the Creator is good that does good, but in the meantime I don’t feel this. So how can I be happy?
Answer: We are used to being happy when we feel that we have gained. If the ego gains at every moment, if it is comfortable, good, warm, and pleasant for me, money drips into my account, “One penny and another penny accumulate into a great sum” (Baba Batra 9b) and I enjoy. Thank God everything is okay, soon I will take a vacation, sail on a luxury liner, on Shabbat my favorite soccer team is playing; there is something to enjoy in life!
This is what we call “pleasure,” but this is joy now or in the future within the desire to receive. That is how we live. If I don’t feel joy in the present or in the future, I am ready to die. A person is not able to exist without joy, if not now, then at least from hope for joy in the future. Otherwise, “it is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:3).
Now the question is asked, how can we be happy in a situation where we really want spiritual revelation but don’t have it? If at the moment we don’t have it, then everything depends on hope for the future; am I confident that ultimately I will have it? It is clear that in the present I don’t have anything! “A judge only has what his eyes see” (Sanhedrin 6b), and I see that I have not yet discovered the spiritual world, don’t understand and don’t feel it.
But am I sure that I will discover it? If I am in a group and the group radiates confidence to me that we are going towards revelation and we will reach it, then I will be happy! The friends give me the confidence that we will succeed. Without this, I won’t succeed in advancing; rather, I will simply sleep all day so I won’t suffer, because at the moment I have no joy and also don’t expect it in the future. It is impossible to die, and what is left is just to sleep, at least not feel anything.
This is exactly what happens to a person. This is natural; there is nothing to do about it. The question is how do we deal with this? How is it possible to stimulate the environment so that it will influence us and we will be happy and full of energy? For this it is up to us to appreciate the friends and to be connected with them. And in addition to this, we must awaken the Light that Reforms together so that it will stimulate us all the time and provide excitement. And then I will not only be excited by the words of the people, but I will receive illumination from above through them.
This illumination is called “faith.” Faith is power that I invest without getting anything in return. It seems that this is impossible, but the Light will influence me and will give me the possibility of doing it. This is called, “faith above reason.” According to my nature, I am not ready to bestow without receiving anything in exchange! But if the Light will give me a characteristic like this, then I can. And then my happiness will not be connected to fulfillment within my Kelim. As it is said: “Who is rich? It is the one who is happy with his lot” (Pirkei Avot 4:1).
And what is his lot? He doesn’t have anything! But he is happy. Maybe he is crazy or stupid? No, he is truly the richest and happiest person! The rich don’t feel happy because they are pursuing even greater wealth all the time, and they are not “the one who is happy with his lot.” This is called feeling rich and happy. He doesn’t need anything more; imagine what a wonderful feeling this is. Even billionaires don’t feel this way because they want more and more money. They are the poorest people of all! If an ordinary person doesn’t have a thousand dollars, they don’t have millions, billions. So which of us is poorer, who needs more? It means that everything depends on the environment and the illumination of the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light).
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/14, Writhing of Baal HaSulam
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Question: How should we translate the suffering of the community from the physical level to the spiritual level, meaning to see in everything a lack of Light?
Answer: This happens by itself, for you are found in your own state and the community is found in its state. When you hear them, you perceive this differently anyway, for “all who condemn do so with their own defect” (Kiddushin 70b). So you will understand and feel these problems within your perception and Kelim. You have nothing to fear from identifying with their physical needs.
Even though their pain and complaints are justified, natural, and compulsory, you still feel them according to your understanding and on your level.
Question: Does this mean that I will constantly translate their complaints differently according to my changing states?
Answer: Your state will be changed along with them. You will suddenly begin to condemn the Creator for what He is doing to them; you will discover that you lack the ability to justify Him. Dissemination gives us a wide field of work; it revives and invites many changes in us.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/14
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Question: How do we turn to people in Israel with our message in such a way that it will not antagonize them?
Answer: It is necessary to give a rational explanation and not present everything all at once, but gradually. Baal HaSulam explains the picture to us in a concrete and clear manner, in a very scientific way, in that he understands all of the troubles that are still liable to appear if the people will not change their direction. And we need to adapt this message for the wider public and explain to people that only through connection between us will we reach anything good.
Success in such areas as education, security, interactions between people and more is assured only by our own powers. The nation is not ready to do this; it is incapable of it. It cannot create a “Ministry of Love” that will resolve all problems between us. No nation is involved in anything similar. It always belongs to the citizens, to the people.
And on the other hand, in ancient times, before the destruction of the Temple, the highest political establishment of the people of Israel was specifically the “Ministry of Love.” All the other ministries were under it. There were taxes, education, and security, but all the other areas and ministries occupied lower levels of the national pyramid. And the “Minister of Love” was the High Priest.
Today, in order to transform the pyramid that has been created and bring it to the state that it must be requires painstaking work among the people.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Preparation for the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “The Importance of a Prayer of Many”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Good and Evil,” “Day to Day Pours Forth Speech, and Night to Night Reveals Knowledge”
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 125
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 66
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