Audio Version Of The Blog – 2/14/21

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There Is No Room For Downtime Between Ascents And Descents

41.01The ascents and descents give us a sense of life. If there were no change in life, then it would not be life but death. The pandemic has driven us into paralysis and we are forced to lead a sleepy life, locked inside our homes.

Apparently, this will help us find out new forms of life, these ups and downs, not on the stock exchange and in the everyday squabbles that fill our lives, but ups and downs of a different type.

And so we find ourselves in quarantine so that we feel that changes in life can be of a different degree, and they are called life. We will begin to appreciate the descents without which ascents are impossible.

From the very beginning of creation the Creator arranged one big fall for us through the shattering of the common soul. And we must raise this vessel by our own efforts and restore it to its former state. But by adding our participation, our search, our emptiness, our prayer, our request, our difficulty to unite, we increase the initial ascent by 620 times.

Before the shattering of the soul of Adam HaRishon, our existence was unconscious. Only now, due to all the preparation, we begin to feel the ascents and descents, and we ourselves try to rise after each fall: from the inanimate level to the vegetative, animate, and human. Finally, we began to feel what it means to be human, what I live for, how far or close my state is to human life.

So, in the descents and ascents we gradually discover the essence of life, its purpose, the meaning of our existence, we develop sensory organs, find out what it means to be dead and alive, in a descent or an ascent.

One cannot be without the other. Everything begins with the fall. The Creator shatters the vessel to make preparations for all our future states. He established that everything begins with night, with separation, with a sense of detachment from the Creator, the goal, the friends. Only from this state can we begin to pick up our pieces to come to a big, final ascent.

The ascent is not possible if there has not been a descent before it. The ascent is about figuring out the descent and wanting to rise above it. That is why the Creator arranges for us to fall, so that we have something to rise above, to turn separation into unity, hatred into love.

From this, we can understand what the rise and fall really are, not according to our egoism, but in relation to conditions of complete connection that we need to achieve.

The number of descents and ascents, their frequency, depth, maximum speed, and amplitude determine our progress toward the end of correction. Everyone is assigned a finite number of ascents and descents in his particular Kli for him to join the common soul, as well as for each ten and for all of us together.

The power of the ascents and descents and the speed at which they change is taken into account. Don’t stretch the ascents and descents out for a long time. There is no time in spirituality; one moment is enough for each state. As soon as it is revealed, it should immediately be replaced by the next state.

Let us increase the intensity of the work on our connection so that there is no room for downtime between descents and ascents and even between ascents and descents. The main thing is to quickly clarify the state and its benefits for the next step.

We must try to treat both the ups and downs constructively, as data from above. They are already prepared by the upper force, and we are obliged to go through them all. Only their frequency depends on us.

It all depends on our preparation. If we associate the ups and downs, not with our own feelings, but with the general process of correcting humanity and the Creator as our goal, then every moment becomes a good and correct step on this path. And all I have to do is push forward even more to get closer to the final goal. Then all ascents and descents will come together, and I will feel these two states as one whole: “The darkness will shine as light.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/21, “Ascents and Descents” (Preparation for the Convention 2021)

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Love Yourself

235Question: You keep repeating the same phrase: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and you say that this is the way to live. But if I hate myself, what should I do about it? Don’t you need to first love yourself and then your neighbor? Or is there something I do not understand?”

Answer: You are right. This is exactly what this phrase really says. You are actually on the right path to understanding the meaning of this great phrase. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” that is, you must love yourself and your neighbor as yourself.

You exist in this world. What does it mean to love yourself? Make it so that you feel good in this world, warm, safe, and calm. How to do it?

How would you do it for a loved one, as a loving person? Imagine yourself in place of everyone else around you Then you will see that the entire world is really just you.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/7/21

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Prophets Are Among Us

226It is believed that prophecy has disappeared in our world. But why? Maybe there are such people among us, but we do not know them. They quietly live next to us, but we do not even suspect that they are prophets.

A prophet is a person who has a connection with the Creator. He either hears the Creator or sees Him. These are two types of spiritual connection because there are no tactile sensations in spirituality. Hearing is the level of the light of Hasadim, vision is the level of the light of Hochma.

In our world there may be such people; they just do not open up to others. But, as they say, one cannot be a prophet in his own homeland. This time has passed. Today we must all rise to this level and become prophets.

The great Kabbalist Ramchal in his book The Creator’s Way writes that everyone must rise to the prophetic level. We live in this generation. This time is not so far away and obscure.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar,” Part 5

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Fix Yourself And Fix The World

961.1Question: What is the correction of the egoistic nature of man?

Answer: To the extent that I correct myself, I see only goodness in the world.

Question: Suppose a couple of million people died of hunger now. Does a Kabbalist not see all this or does he see it differently?

Answer: He feels all this and feels that he is to blame for it because he has not yet corrected all these properties in himself.

Question: And if he has corrected them, does he see this phenomenon as positive?

Answer: No. He realizes that all this is still not corrected because he cannot completely correct the entire universe. However, he corrects a part of it.

Question: But he has no complaints against anyone? He takes all claims upon himself because he understands that something hasn’t been completed yet?

Answer: Only to yourself. Fix yourself, and you will fix the world.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 5/13/19

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What Is Death From The Point Of View Of Kabbalah?

712.03Question: What is death from the point of view Kabbalah? Is it the end of life or the beginning of something new?

Answer: The death of the beastly body has no relevance to your true life, which, of course, does not begin or end with this. You simply begin to feel yourself in another state. So, you should not think about death and worry. It is better if we think about how we will continue our existence.

Question: But is desire itself somehow connected to the fear of death?

Answer: No. In fact, the desire to live is an eternal and absolute desire. It is the desire to connect with the source of life, with the Creator, and to exist in connection with Him.

And our beastly state, which we call “life,” is all in all a small condition for our existence in order to begin to feel something higher, the next level.

Question: Is there a record of eternity in man?

Answer: Certainly, there is a record of the eternal state. Without it we would not yearn for it.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 12/15/19

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Desires Called Erev Rav (Mixed Multitude)

622.01Question: How can I fight the desires called Erev Rav (the mixed multitude)?

Answer: Each time a person begins to analyze his actions, he sees what he needs to fight with and where the condition called Erev Rav is located in him.

This is most visible in the group, in the ten, when we try to connect with each other. Connecting and striving to love your neighbor as yourself is the most important thing.

Here for sure you are literally faced head-on with the condition that the main thing is to connect in intention. If you pursue it all the time, you definitely move from the simple degree of Israel, or even before that, to the degree of Erev Rav, and from the degree of Erev Rav to the degree of a Kabbalist.

Question: Does it mean that the desires called Erev Rav are saying: “Perform actions, this is the main thing. And your intentions are for your own sake”?

Answer: No. They do not think that they are doing it for themselves. They think that the intention automatically follows the action. In other words, if a person does some bestowing actions, then it follows that his intentions are the same. He no longer has to control and check whether they are altruistic. He gave to another, it means he is an altruist.

Therefore, if he cannot scrutinize that he did it for himself, and in the end our egoism does everything only for itself; otherwise, it does not have the energy to do anything, then this is not determined by him.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/22/19

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 2/14/21

Preparation to the Lesson

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Lesson on the Topic of “Faith in the Sages as the Means for Faith Above Reason” 

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Selected Highlights

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