Question from Facebook: Who was the author of The Book of Zohar, Rabbi Shimon or a group of authors, his ten companions? I don’t understand how it would be possible to write together.

Answer: Rabbi Shimon could not have written this book alone because he had to first transmit this book through his students.

First, they all discussed it among themselves, each one expressing his admiration for it and his impressions. They didn’t complement each other; instead they integrated and collected them into one single opinion by rising above themselves. As a result of this, the highest attainment came out, The Book of Zohar.

By uniting among themselves, they were elevated to the next level where they apparently became a single author, a single person.

Question: But in the sources it is said that Rabbi Shimon spoke and Rabbi Aba recorded…?

Answer: It is necessary to understand what is meant by “recorded.” This is not talking about physical recording. Instead, they attained a state in which the white Light was written on a black background, meaning inside of them.

This was a collective effort of a generalized person that included all of them, when all of them were one. Therefore, a power is hidden in The Book of Zohar. Moreover, specifically because of this fact, it is necessary to read it together and not alone.

If we read The Book of Zohar individually, there is no benefit to it. To do this, we must gather ten people (a Minyan), connect into a single whole, and by reading the text together, to a particular degree, everyone begins to feel what the authors of The Book of Zohar felt.

Question: Do you penetrate The Book of Zohar or does The Book of Zohar penetrate you?

Answer: The Book of Zohar is the Light that surrounds us. Therefore, to the same degree that the readers connect together, they make it possible for the Light to enter into the shared integration between them and to format it. The feeling from the book comes from this.

This is also said about the Torah, that it is “white letters written on a black background,” meaning, that it is the Light, which is written on the desires.
[201975]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/25/16

Related Material:
Ascending Rungs Of The Ladder By The Light Of Zohar
By Reading The Book Of Zohar, We Change Destiny
New Life #728 – The Book Of Zohar And The Power Of Good

Filed under: Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

The Torah, Deuteronomy 16:20: Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may live and possess the land the Lord, your God, is giving you.

The order to pursue justice is given before entering the land of Israel because only with the help of justice can you reach the state when you ascend to the level of the “Land of Israel.”

It is written: “… that you may live and inherit the land…” since this is life. According to Kabbalah, corporeal existence is not considered life.

Life is the manifestation of the qualities of the Creator in a person; otherwise, this person is called a dead body, meaning existing on the animalistic level, without a spiritual spark inside.
The meaning of life is to reach the level of the Creator. That is why to pursue justice means to pursue the Creator.
[199839]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/24/16

Related Material:
“And Come And Possess The Land…”
A Quick Revelation Of A Lie Leads To The Truth
Preparation For A Prayer

Filed under: Spiritual Work, Torah - No Comments →

Torah, Deuteronomy 22:02-03: But if your brother is not near you, or if you do not know him, you shall bring it into your house, and it shall be with you until your brother seeks it out, whereupon you shall return it to him.

So shall you do with his donkey, and so shall you do with his garment, and so shall you do with any lost article of your brother which he has lost and you have found. You shall not ignore [it].

“Your brother” and all his possessions, including animals, symbolize desires that need to be corrected. You can use his animals, only not to kill them: You can feed, milk, and work with them in the field but only until you are asked to return them back.

The fact is that the desires developing in you sometimes cannot be corrected at your current level, and at a lower egoistic level you can do it precisely because you are using them temporarily.

Imagine that you have to perform a certain task, but you are too lazy. However, when you see that it is not yours, you are thrilled, you have a desire, an opportunity to fulfill it, and you take it upon yourself namely because it is not yours and relates to another. It frees you from the pressure that you feel when you are obliged to do something.

That is, you carry out the correction on a secondary level, as if performing it for another, thereby making it much easier. Moreover, you have no right not to use this opportunity. Hence it is written: “Do not ignore it.”
[204037]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/28/16

Related Material:
If Your Brother Is Sold To You
Sale And Redemption
Brotherly Connection

Filed under: Inner Work, Torah - No Comments →

New Life 827 – Jewish Clothing And Appearance
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What do the Peyot (side curls) and beard of a religious man symbolize, what does the border that the Tzitzit (fringes) symbolize, and who is spiritually defined as a “Jew”?

The origin for all the customs connected to Jewish appearance and clothing is a higher spiritual source. All Jewish customs are only external symbols indicating internal corrections that every man and woman must implement. The formula for correction is movement from love of people to love of the Creator.
[202309]
From KabTV’s “New Life 827 – Jewish Clothing And Appearance,” 2/9/17

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Israel, Nations of the World, New Life - No Comments →

Preparation for the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic, “Preparation for Pesach,” Part 1

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 15, Item 1

Lesson on the Topic, “Preparation for Pesach,” Part 2

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

Question: How should a woman study the wisdom of Kabbalah correctly?

Answer: Spiritual and corporeal concepts of the male and female parts differ profoundly from each other.

A soul is a person’s yearning for love and bestowal above his egoism.

Thus, we cannot say that a man in our world is the part that bestows and a woman is the part that receives. There cannot be a distinction here because, in our world, both are egoists.

But whoever acquires the attribute of bestowal and love of others is called the male part in the spiritual sense, the one who bestows, and whoever is still in the egoistic desire to enjoy, to be filled, is called the female part.

Therefore, we are all women from a spiritual perspective. Those who transcend to the spiritual world, through what we call the Machsom (barrier), will be called men. Above the Machsom, everyone is a man. There, everyone has a female part, a desire, and a male part, a Masach, an intention, because you cannot have one without the other.

If I read a Kabbalistic book, and something is written about men and women, then it must be specifically imagined that a woman and a man mean the property of receiving or the quality of bestowal—in any of the people, regardless of gender.

As for our world, the physiological attributes are different, and we have a big problem with that.

It comes down to the fact that in our world, a woman differs from a man in her corporeal egoistic attributes. And so her entrance into Kabbalah is special, not like in men.

She should achieve the same state as a man, but move to this in a different way, providing great help to men, fulfilling her role as the one who continues the generation, takes care of the family and the home. A man should be the provider.  He must study, and a woman is responsible for the home. That is her work.

I am explaining how humanity was created, and there is nothing we can do about it. We cannot swap a man and woman, or destroy gender. No matter how developed we are, the male and the female natures differ externally in our world and we must take that into account.

We have different thoughts, different worldviews, different feelings, and different needs in the family. This is the reason that we must act accordingly, and not imagine that we are living above our world in a state where there is no distinction between the genders.
[203538]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/4/16

Related Material:
Men And Women Are The Outcome Of Spiritual Roots
The Nature Of Men And Women
A Man And A Woman – Mutual Completion

Filed under: Man and Woman, Women's Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: I sometimes think that it might be better not to know about the wisdom of Kabbalah, but there is no way I can forget. Why are we given such states that are so bitter?

Answer: So you will decide each time and determine again and again whether you need the wisdom of Kabbalah or not. You may feel that you don’t need it, and then you could live your life peacefully. Then we will meet again some other time.

A person needs to check himself again and again, many times during his lifetime. The wisdom of Kabbalah only offers itself, but you have to pay with your efforts, with your serious exertion, so that a sensor of the upper world will be created in you.

The main efforts are in establishing a group through which you will be able to summon the Surrounding Light unto yourself in which you will begin to feel the Creator. You will actually discover the whole creation in the connection between you and others.

Question: Do I have to feel that I will not be able to hold on by myself?

Answer: Not by yourself, only with others. Then you and the others become one whole, which is called a soul or a man (Adam) who is filled with the Creator. This is what you should reach, and it is yours, eternal and whole.

Question: So how can I avoid the bitterness or is it an inevitable phase?

Answer: You must feel bitterness along the spiritual way, otherwise you will not feel the sweetness.
[204064]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/20/16

Related Material:
Conscious Love For A Bitter Fruit
Through Kabbalah, It Is Possible To Suffer With Understanding And Love
We Came To The King’s City All Together

Filed under: Spiritual Work - No Comments →

In the News (The Guardian): “Jonathan Safran Foer: ‘Technology Is Diminishing Us’

“Most of our communication technologies began as substitutes for an impossible activity. We couldn’t always see one another face to face, so the telephone made it possible to keep in touch at a distance. One is not always home, so the answering machine made a message possible without the person being near their phone. Online communication originated as a substitute for telephonic communication, which was considered, for whatever reasons, too burdensome or inconvenient. And then texting, which facilitated yet faster and more mobile messaging. These inventions were not created to be improvements on face-to-face communication, but a declension of acceptable, if diminished, substitutes for it.

“But then a funny thing happened: we began to prefer the diminished substitutes. It’s easier to make a phone call than to make the effort to see someone in person. Leaving a message on someone’s machine is easier than having a phone conversation – you can say what you need to say without a response; it’s easier to check in without becoming entangled. So we began calling when we knew no one would pick up. Shooting off an email is easier still, because one can further hide behind the absence of vocal inflection, and of course there’s no chance of accidentally catching someone. With texting, the expectation for articulateness is further reduced, and another shell is offered to hide in. Each step ‘forward’ has made it easier – just a little – to avoid the emotional work of being present, to convey information rather than humanity.

“The problem with accepting – with preferring – diminished substitutes is that, over time, we too become diminished substitutes. People who become used to saying little become used to feeling little. Or just feeling what’s been designed and sold to us to feel.”

Question: Where do you think modern technology, artificial intelligence etc., is leading mankind?

Answer: To the recognition that we have to give all that up and start working from heart to heart, to actually give up everything that is not related to the feeling in the heart. Everything else will reach its peak and then disappear. We will not need to connect through long lines and web networks, the highest technologies in space or in new cities, nothing.

We will not even need TV with giant screens and thousands of channels. No one will want to clog his head with all that. We see that young people are gradually turning their backs to that. It will take a few more years and we will also get rid of all the phones.

Comment: Futurologists say the exact opposite. They believe that an interstellar communication will be developed…

Answer: Nonsense. Nothing will happen.

Question: Are you saying that all this will disappear and man will want to feel warm affection again?

Answer: Today, for example, a car is a means of getting from one place to another, not the goal itself. Imagine that you had a spaceship and ten stars, and that your mother-in-law lived on one star and another relative or a friend lived on another, and you could get away from them all, get your own little planet and live there peacefully.

But we already realize that all these things lead to nothing. A person has to fill himself, and he cannot find a filling in all that, so we keep chasing different fillings and eventually see that although we have the means for that, it doesn’t justify itself. A person feels more and more empty.

Comment: It turns out that our whole life and future developments are merely a race actually a race after fillings…

Answer: Of course! See how writers depict futuristic pictures: we are moving from one place to another at such great speed, where to? From one empty end to another empty end, but at least they are writing best sellers.

Question: Jonathan Foer says that we are drawing away from the hearts. He actually fears that. Do people feel this fear as a result of progress?

Answer: No, they feel that because there is no way out. If humanity does not discover the reason and the goal of the creation, it will sink into drugs and sleeping pills.

Question: Why do we go through such a long way? Why do we need all these technologies?

Answer: Because we have to recognize the evil part of our nature. If we don’t get to fully know it, we will not be able to correct it.
[204016]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/1/17

Related Material:
The Latest Generation Of Gadgets
Exposing The Hearts
Generation Z—The Correcting Generation

Filed under: Egoism, News - No Comments →

Question: In the past, did people feel “we” but not their “I”?

Answer: That is what was happening in ancient Babylon before the crisis and what was called the confusion of languages (building the Tower of Babel). But it was not because people were connected and united but because their egoism was very small, on the level zero.

The ancient societies in which everything was shared, lived under a primitive communist regime.

With the growth of the ego, five systems (configurations) of rule gradually appeared until capitalism. Now the time has come for socialism, and after that the time of communism will arrive.
[202991]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/30/16

Related Material:
The New Babel
Overcoming The Individualistic Barrier
The Financial Tower Of Babel: Roots Of Crisis

Filed under: Ancient Babylon, Egoism - No Comments →