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“Your Clothing Did Not Wear Out Upon You”

laitman_741_02Torah, “Deuteronomy,” 8:4: Your clothing did not wear out upon you, nor did your foot swell these forty years.

Of course, here, we don’t mean the physiological health problems of people wandering in the desert. We are talking only about the desires of a person that he corrects on these levels.

Clothing is a screen that only a man can create and use. The lower desires don’t feel shame or need covering. Their coating is limited to fur, and a person must have a special cover that he himself creates.

The normal cover is made from animal skin. The skins are considered clothing, and in addition, tents can be constructed from them, for example, such as Bedouins erect for themselves. It means that this is the natural clothing and the natural home for a person.

There are clothes of a higher rank. It is wool of animal origin. Only this is considered real clothing, unlike all other materials.

Question: What is meant by “your clothing did not wear out upon you?”

Answer: It means that you constantly were adding screens on the desires that appear in you. Clothing is a screen for the body, for the desires.

“Nor did your foot swell” means that you definitely were mastering such desires that worked together with your head.

The foot symbolizes the end of the spiritual Partzuf, NHY (Netzah, Hod, Yesod). It is the biggest problem in the spiritual body because there are the biggest, deepest, lowest, and most material desires in it.

They are fulfilled only after they rise and become included in the body. When a person doesn’t stand but sits with his legs bent under him, then he receives fulfillment, or even when he lies and his head, body, and feet are on the same spiritual level.

In other words, “nor did your foot swell” means that all parts of a person worked in harmony, in unison.
[191976]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/27/16

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Desire Stems From The Creator

laitman_566_02A letter I received: “I have been listening to your lectures for quite a while, and I am impressed by your dedication.

“You are a wise and intelligent man who has seen a lot in life and who operates in order to attain the uppermost goal of creation, but I wonder what will happen if what you aspire for will not be revealed at the end. Where do you find the energy to believe in what you do?

“After all, it is an impossible mission, even with all of your great will when many have no patience or desire to reveal the Creator and live with Him forever and to make the world a perfect place. You seem to be the only person on this planet who can be a guarantor for all those who advance toward the Creator.

“I hope that, thanks to all of your efforts for the right to exist in the universe, you will be able to hear the Creator’s voice and receive His specific instructions for life not on this planet, but somewhere else.”

My Comment: There is no question in this letter, but I am publicizing it in order to say one thing only: Desire stems from the Creator, so I only thank Him for that.

In fact, you must pay for such a desire from the Creator, for the desire to reveal Him to the world and bring the world to Him, by your attitude to the Creator. This is what I am trying to do through my actions. Our pleasure stems from the Creator’s greatness in contrast to our shame, pride, and our feelings of worthlessness.
[192004]

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The Ritual Of The Golden Calf

Laitman_115_06Question: What does the wisdom of Kabbalah say about the ritual of the golden calf, an expression that today refers to worshipping material objects and money?

Answer: The golden calf symbolizes the immense egoistic desire the children of Israel came out of Egypt with, rose above temporarily, until they suddenly fell into it and began to build the golden calf out of their desires for wealth and for using others.

In other words, the golden calf symbolizes the mutual desire for bourgeois development that humanity sees as a goal, as a substitute for Godliness.

The more we advance toward the attribute of love and unity, the greater the danger of falling into the desire of the golden calf, every step of the way.

Therefore, there is a method of integral unity according to the wisdom of Kabbalah that enables us to ascend above this growing desire, since this is how we develop.
[190613]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/3/16

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Man Does Not Live By Bread Alone

laitman_276_01Question: What does it mean “manna, which you did not know, nor did your forefathers know”? (Torah, “Deuteronomy”, 8:3)

Answer: The forefathers didn’t have big egoistic desires. They didn’t pass through the state of the desert.
The forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are Keter, Hochma, and Bina. They had small, light desires and therefore they are called the holy fathers, since the quality of Bina (bestowal) was natural for those desires that were revealed at the time.

Therefore, we divide the entire history into fathers and sons. Fathers are HBD (Hochma, Bina, and Daat or Keter, Hochma, and Bina), meaning the head part of the Partzuf (spiritual body). Sons are HGT (Hesed, Gevura, and Tifferet). And the lowest part of the Partzuf, NHY, is us, meaning sons of the sons.

Comment: But the fathers still had pain, after all, Abraham asked, “And how will I conquer this land?”

Answer: Naturally, he was asking in advance because the head part feels and creates a foundation for the entire future correction until the final correction.

Question: How can we explain the phrase, “Man does not live by bread alone, but rather by, whatever comes forth from the mouth of the Lord does man live.”

Answer: There are qualities that are called pure Bina, the light of Hassadim, the light of bestowal, and this is bread. And there are qualities when inside the light of Hassadim that spreads the light of Hochma. And this is called complete bestowal, reception in order to bestow. Thus you use your egoistic Kelim (vessels) also for bestowal.

For this even bigger light is required from above that will illuminate and correct your egoistic desires to altruistic ones, which is above Bina, on the level of Hochma. Then you use that energy, that light, that comes directly from the Creator.

And it is said about this, “by whatever comes forth from the mouth of the Lord does man live.” This is double correction in two stages.

But there are all sorts of variations in the quality of Bina that represents bread.

For example, we don’t eat bread on Passover. Since the regular bread during mixing is in conjunction with water for more than eighteen minutes (meaning nine Sefirot of the direct light and nine Sefirot of the reflected light), it is considered to be in connection with Malchut and therefore we can’t use it because the connection with Malchut won’t allow us to exit Egypt.

Thus, the exodus from Egypt, meaning separation from Malchut, is symbolized by the unleavened bread called Matzah. This is one of the varieties of the quality of bestowal.

And after Passover begins the holiday of receiving the Torah, Shavuot, which is when we eat everything dairy because milk is a quality of bestowal. And it symbolizes the celebration of giving of the Torah.

All these actions are calculated in the head part of the Partzuf or soul. And after that comes the quality of sons, all those qualities that people of Israel passed under the leadership of Moses. We are at the end of development and are considered sons of the sons.
[191907]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/27/16

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A Kabbalist’s Attributes

laitman_222_0Question: Can a Kabbalist be annoyed and impatient with those around him at times?

Answer: If a person engages in the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah and wants to achieve something, he certainly feels tension and anger, has doubts, and different questions such as how he should act in the best possible way, and whether he should do his work one way or another. Although he is already included in the upper force, he has freedom of choice to use it in a better way, and so there is room for all the human feelings.

Question: As a Kabbalist are you ever insulted by anything?

Answer: No, what can I be insulted by? I can only be insulted by the upper force that takes everything upon itself.

Question: Is it typical of a Kabbalist to feel responsible?

Answer: A Kabbalist feels the greatest sense of responsibility because nothing forces him to work for the wellbeing of others except for a sense of responsibility and commitment that he has taken upon himself. The feeling of responsibility that he has is only with regard to the Creator and not anyone else. To the extent that a Kabbalist develops spiritually, he becomes increasingly less greedy. He teaches people how to discover the Creator in the right connection between them; he serves as a teacher for his students, an advisor, a mentor, and a coach until his students can advance independently. Then he feels that he doesn’t need anything and is only happy that they don’t need him anymore and that they can advance on their own.

Question: Does a Kabbalist have to be brave?

Answer: Everyone has to be brave and especially a Kabbalist. He has to clearly understand that he is in a conflict with the Creator who is revealed to him in different ways. A person undergoes such transformations that he needs to be persistent, stubborn, brave, and steadfast. A Kabbalist cannot be cowardly under any circumstances, but must be able to stick to his opinion when facing the Creator, when the Creator is testing him and trying to divert him from the right path by invoking in him different doubts, which thus strengthens him. This strengthening is attained thanks to a person’s very strong resistance.

Question: Is it typical of a Kabbalist to feel fear? What is he afraid of?

Answer: No, the fear disappears. A Kabbalist can only fear one thing: that he may not do what he has to do correctly.

Question: To what extent is a sense of humor important for a Kabbalist?

Answer: A sense of humor is very important in a Kabbalist’s work. I really appreciate humor and jokes and so did Rabash, my teacher, who used to listen to the jokes I told with great pleasure. Humor is a brilliant thought that comes to mind when a person encounters several awkward situations that contradict one another and knows how to connect them.

Question: Does a Kabbalist feel shame, and if so, of what?

Answer: A Kabbalist feels shame only if he doesn’t use an opportunity to attribute everything to the Creator; it isn’t shame of having been able to do something and not doing it because everything is fulfilled from Above, but it is shame of having had an opportunity to attribute what happened to the Creator and missing it. This is also arranged for him by the Creator so that he will attribute everything to Him.

Question: What would happen if I suddenly discovered that I did something 20 years ago that I feel ashamed of?

Answer: The past will be revealed to you as terrible transgressions and you have to understand that it was all done by the Creator, not by you. A person is not to blame for anything. Even the cruelest person didn’t do anything by himself. It is all arranged that way by the Creator on purpose.

Question: What is being noble for a Kabbalist?

Answer: Being noble is being committed, being responsible.

Question: Does a Kabbalist ever feel a sense of revenge or anger?

Answer: A sense of revenge is a correction. A person naturally feels angry when he cannot fulfill the corrections that depended on him, but the fact that he hasn’t corrected himself is intentionally arranged that way by the Creator. A Kabbalist is a person who is in an uncorrected state and each time rises from it to a more corrected state, and so he does have all these feelings.

Question: Is miserliness typical of a Kabbalist?

Answer: If you are referring to money, he can save money in order to spend it on dissemination.

Question: Can a Kabbalist be unfaithful?

Answer: He has a different set of values and so such things are not typical of him.

Question: Can he be jealous?

Answer: Jealousy is a positive attribute that motivates a person. We have to develop our feeling of envy of those who advance faster and further ahead along the spiritual way.
[191913]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/17/16

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New Life #353 – Past, Present, Future

New Life #353 – Past, Present, Future
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

On the one hand, how is it possible to conduct one’s life beyond the past, present, and future, and how can the connections between us help influence our future?

Summary

Feeling “only this moment” either means dying or learning to transcend the past, present, and future. It is possible to discover our developmental timeline, the program of creation, and to control life. This is a supreme pleasure!

One can try to train one’s mind to enjoy the “here and now,” and that’s it. But this is not the purpose of existence.

The purpose of human existence is to develop tools for managing its future like the present.

All of nature is connected, interdependent. The development of the human species is also in moving toward mutual connection. Someone who wants to enjoy maximally from now until the end of his days must build a good connection with everyone. If you hurt someone on the way to your personal enjoyment, this will come back to you. The world is round. If a person creates connections of friendship and mutual love with everyone, he assures himself of a good life.

On the way to a complete connection with others, you need to check your attitude toward them yesterday, in order to improve. Don’t eat yourself up about the past, just decide that from now on I want to correct the relationship. Through the wisdom of connection and special exercises, I begin to feel that others and I are one.

And when I begin to include all of reality within me, everything becomes me. I become unlimited.
From KabTV’s “New Life #353 – Past, Present, Future,” 4/17/14

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 08.29.16

Preparation for the Lesson

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Shamati #1, “There’s None Else Besides Him”

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 133

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace” 

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