Audio Version Of The Blog – 10/16/22
Posted on October 16th, 2022
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Sukkot is considered gladness, considered “rejoicing Gevurot,” which is repentance from love, when sins become for him as merits (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 97 “Waste of Barn and Winery”).
Sukkot symbolizes the end of the spiritual path when all the overcoming, resistance, all the problems we encountered on the path now lead us to repentance from love. All crimes turn to merit. All egoistic desires with all their transgressions will be corrected and will turn into commandments and merits.
This is what the holiday symbolizes. It appears that we really took the “waste of barn and winery” and raised it over our heads.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/22, “Sukkot“
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Moses had several roles, but his main task was to bring the concept of faith and the method of connecting to the Creator to the people of Israel. Therefore there is no other person or rather no quality or task that is more important than Moses. This is called the Torah of Moses with the help of which we reach the purpose of our creation.
The problem is that we do not understand what faith is because it is not what people think. Faith is a force that draws a person to the Creator from below upward.
Therefore, without faith, even the slightest advancement, even one step toward the purpose of creation is impossible.
Faith is a force that raises us from the below upward, from the desire to receive pleasure to the quality of bestowal. Faith is the force of the Creator.
We should not underestimate the word “faith,” as if it is something minor. After all, it is the force of the Creator that a person acquires.
Faith is a higher concept than knowledge because faith is boundless; it has no limitations that can hold it. After all, faith is bestowal, the force of the Creator, which no one can stop. It is not limited by the Kelim of the one who has faith, but only by those Kelim that he acquired outside of himself. And outside of himself is infinity, the Creator, and people, and he himself is like a point.
It turns out that the quality of faith is unlimited. This is why we must reach faith in order to feel ourselves in the same state as the Creator. It is impossible to imagine in any other way what spirituality, bestowal, love, and exiting oneself is. It is like going into outer space beyond the limits of gravity where all the vastness of the universe opens before you.
This is how the entire creation is revealed before us, and only the measure of faith that you have acquired limits the sphere of your attainment. Therefore the quality of faith is the most exalted quality. It allows us to begin to feel ourselves somewhat like the Creator.
It happens that faith contradicts knowledge, but Kabbalah teaches that all our knowledge is perceived within faith. To the extent that we can rise above egoistic desires, we learn the desires of bestowal and what kind of fulfillment can be inside them, as well as who gave us the desires of reception, the desires of bestowal, the screen, and the reflected light.
Therefore the study of Kabbalah and acquiring faith does not limit a person, but on the contrary opens him up.
It is impossible to transfer faith from one to another or demonstrate it. One can only advise what to do to rise to a higher degree of faith. This is a quality that is revealed only within one who has acquired faith since faith can only be reached above the reason of a person.
To the extent that he himself makes efforts and rises above his egoistic desires, he acquires vessels to attain faith. This is how he builds the Creator within himself, and therefore he is called man, Adam, similar to the Creator, specifically through the force of faith.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/22,”Ushpizin Moses—Sefirat Netzah“
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The holiday of Sukkot symbolizes the beginning of the construction of the soul. The soul begins with the quality of the Creator, the quality of Abraham, which is called Hesed, bestowal, an open heart, where everything is directed toward love for the created beings and toward their benefit.
But of course in this form it is impossible to reach the purpose of creation because in the quality of Abraham there still is no quality of creation, no will to receive, which must be present in all this process. After all, it was for this desire that this process was conceived.
We need to correct ourselves because the thought of creation is to bring a person to the degree of the Creator, to adhesion and equivalence with Him. The quality of Abraham is not enough for that; we need to connect to it the matter of creation, to the will to receive.
The quality of Abraham, Hesed, fills the entire space created by the Creator. There the Creator wants to see all created beings connected with each other in love and unity together with Him. But so far there is no creation. Creation appears only after the birth of Isaac, the will to receive, which connects to the quality of bestowal of Abraham.
Abraham and Isaac are opposite to each other. What is received from their combination is still not enough to reach the purpose of creation and complete adhesion with the Creator, but it is still a huge step that brings us closer to this. This is mainly due to the sacrifice of Isaac, which is the main action performed with this quality, with the will to receive, to which the second day of Sukkot is dedicated.
The forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David are not people, but rather, they are the main spiritual qualities that exist in the system created by the Creator, qualities through which we can correct our souls.
Every person also must go through all these changes within himself. First he must completely nullify himself in relation to the quality of Hesed. Then he must awaken his critical attitude a little and allow the will to receive to be revealed. Then he begins to combine the quality of Abraham, Hesed, with the quality of Isaac, Gevura, through faith above reason.
This means that we use our will to receive only in order to establish control of the will to bestow over it. Only in this form do we allow ourselves to work with our egoism. When we correct it that way, the middle line will come out of this, namely Jacob.
How do we make the left line in the ten obey the right? Everyone bows their head and allows the others to be higher. We compete to see who can humble himself the most. The one who is lower than everyone wins the most and rises above all. This is a competition in using will to receive for bestowal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/4/20, “Sukkot“
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Jacob is the most important spiritual quality, and therefore he is called a forefather. Abraham symbolizes bestowal from the Creator and Isaac the revelation of the desire to receive in creation.
Jacob is a combination of two qualities bestowal and reception, the right line and the left, due to the inner work of a person. A person connects these two lines that come from above in order to become like the Creator.
Man, Adam, means “like” (Dome) to the Creator. Therefore, Jacob is the most important of these three because these are qualities that are revealed inside a person to the extent of his similarity to the Creator. And that is why the quality of Jacob is called Tiferet (splendor, beauty, honor), meaning, the qualities of the Creator revealed within creation.
It is through this work that a person becomes spiritual. We receive these two qualities from above: a good inclination and an evil inclination. A good inclination comes from the Creator, through Abraham. And the evil inclination that reveals itself in creation also comes from the Creator who created it. But the right combination of these two forces is realized thanks to human work, and we are obliged to do it.
The left and right lines do not extinguish each other; rather, they emphasize each other. If there is a right line, bestowal, then it is allowed to awaken the left line, reception. And it is due to the fact that the left line is opposite to the right that it increases it and highlights it.
Therefore, Jacob includes both lines and increases them. The miracle of proper spiritual work is that the opposite qualities stand out and increase even more, and each emphasizes the other.
It is due to the fact that against the force of bestowal there is the force of reception, and against the force of reception there is bestowal, each of them becomes more vivid and important. The quality of Jacob is called Tiferet (splendor) because it combines two opposites together.
When they combine in the correct form and increase each other in the middle line, it turns out in a person not as a simple sum of the right and left lines, but as a demonstration of each of its opposites and its exaltation.
In our world there is just darkness and just light. But if we mix darkness with light, we get a lot of different shapes that cannot be seen either in bright light or in darkness.
Our whole life is based precisely on the mixing of the left line and the right. If we want to reveal the Creator, we need the two forces bestowal and reception. By creating all possible combinations of one with the other in all forms, we will reveal the quality of the Creator relative to the quality of creation.
Abraham is the desire to bestow, Isaac is the desire to receive, and Jacob is the combination of one with the other, the desires of bestowal and reception together. Combining these two qualities begins to grow each other and emphasize one another. As a result, the right and left lines are revealed in Jacob 620 times larger than they existed before their connection in him.
It turns out that the correct combination of the force of reception and the force of bestowal allows us to imagine the force of bestowal against the background of reception 620 times more. It is due to the middle line that we increase the creation created by the Creator to the scale of the entire infinity light from a tiny Kli, one black dot, in an infinite white light. As it is said that “Darkness will shine like light.”
And then we reveal the Creator in our Kli and attain the whole light of Infinity there. But this Kli begins with a black dot, with a slight change in the light.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/20, “Sukkot Holiday”
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The days of the holiday of Sukkot symbolize the stages of building the spiritual vessel (Kli), that is, the soul, which includes seven Sefirot.
The three upper Sefirot of the ten: Keter, Hochma, and Bina come to us from above because these are qualities of the Creator that He wants to present to us. From these qualities, we already build a special quality inside of us based on the connections between us. Despite the fact that it exists inside the created beings, it is completely similar to the Creator and is pure bestowal.
The seven days of Sukkot are seven stages of building the complete Kli of our soul. It is when something that resembles the Creator is being built inside the matter of creation. This is the inner meaning of the holiday of Sukkot and in general our entire life and existence. Therefore, we need to study how to build our connection, our unity, from different, opposing forces.
The first day of Sukkot is associated with the first quality that comes to us from the Creator, which is called Abraham. This is the quality of the right line, correction up to the quality of mercy, that is, the desire for simple, unlimited bestowal.
The second day, the second quality, is Isaac, who walks in the left line, in overcoming, in working with the will to receive in order to bestow. This is a different quality, which is opposite to Abraham. A person overcomes his egoism and wants to make his will to receive similar to the quality of Abraham who is entirely in bestowal, and then from the right line he receives life, the force of mercy.
How can we build these degrees of Abraham, Isaac, and so on? We are trying to advance in our connection so that it grows stronger day by day. Then everyone feels what addition they have received from a stronger unity. In this form, we gradually reveal what the spiritual Sefirot and their mutual interconnection mean and what a spiritual Partzuf is, which appeared as a result of the correct combination of these forces called Sefirot.
In essence, the spiritual Partzuf is the intersection of the qualities of the Creator and the qualities of creation, of the will to receive and the will to bestow. From the two forces Keter and Malchut, in the gap between Keter and Malchut, all kinds of properties are born, all the forces and their connections with each other from which all the properties that exist in nature appear.
People want to know and understand nature and to feel what it is, but they are not yet able to do it. All of nature consists of forces of reception, forces of bestowal, and their combination with each other.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/22, “Ushpizin Isaac – Sefirat Gevura”
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On the first day of the Sukkot holiday, we receive a new addition to our Kelim: the clothing of the Sefira Hesed in us, which is called Ushpizin Abraham. We are gradually reviving the body of the common soul of Adam HaRishon, which was shattered. And first of all we collect a spiritual Partzuf that is ready to receive the light of Hesed.
Hesed is the highest quality that we receive from the head of the spiritual Partzuf (Sefirot Keter, Hochma, and Bina); therefore, it is clothed in us first. We feel that a new state has come and brought with it a new spirit and a new understanding. It is given as a gift; we just have to expect it, wish for it, and ask for it. If I want to give to a friend, then I become worthy of receiving a gift.
It is said that anyone who wants to get close to the Creator must first accept the quality of the right line, that is, the quality of faith.
A group that seeks to unite must first of all achieve the quality of Abraham, the quality of faith. When the attribute of mercy reigns in all desires, it means that Abraham has clothed in them.
It is said in The Book of Zohar: “There is no one in the world who can compare with the greatness of Abraham, who showed mercy to all creatures.” The bestowal made by Abraham was the greatest, and therefore he is called the father of the people, the first of the forefathers.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/22, “Ushpizin Avraham – Sefira Hesed“
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What do you think about quiet quitting?“
I think that employees are correct in demanding that they do exactly as their contract states, i.e. that our workplace buys a certain amount of time from us and we devote ourselves to our employers during this time, and also that our employers have no hold on us outside of that time.
In some places, people give their all at their workplace, and in other places, they say, “No, we’re not slaves. We’re willing to work for a certain amount of hours and get a certain amount of payment for it, and that’s it.” They want to feel that they live their own life, and it is a legitimate demand.
In general, I see quiet quitting as a positive development. We each need to think about the meaning and purpose of our lives, and who we live with. These are important concerns for people.
Based on the video “Quiet Quitting – A Kabbalist’s Response” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Medium published my new article “Tomorrow’s World Relationships”
A perfect match? A loving family? Happy children? The pressures of today’s world create a grim reality where successful and lasting relationships are something of a fantasy. We cannot rely on the experience of elders since they lived in a very different world, so we have to find how to create meaningful and sustainable partnerships today. The key word in this search is connectedness, or rather, interconnectedness.
Because the world is changing at an accelerating pace, it is pointless to compare today’s relationships to those of our parents, or even to relationships of people a decade or two older than us. Each year, the world becomes increasingly connected, and a crisis in one place quickly spreads to the rest of the world.
On the personal level, too, things today are very different from what they were a decade ago. We have moved from fast food to fast relationships, and brief has become our permanent state of being.
To cope with the growing uncertainty and find direction in the emerging chaos, we need to understand where we are going. We are headed toward total connectedness and interdependence. It is an irreversible process. The more connected we become, the more dependent on each other we become, as well. Soon, we will realize that anything that hurts others hurts me, too, and there is nothing I can do to break my ties with the world.
In order to cope successfully with our interconnected future, we must change the nature of our ties from abusive and oppressive to supportive and embracing. Since we already broadcast our thoughts, words, and actions to the entire world, we might as well broadcast positive thoughts, words, and actions, and help improve the world for ourselves and others.
In a world that is connected positively, the family is the basic unit of connection. A reality where humanity is a mass of isolated individuals is unsustainable because there will be no connections between people and society will disintegrate just as any organism disintegrates into the smallest elements when it dies.
Therefore, the family will be the basic unit where people cultivate positive connections. Since people are becoming increasingly individualistic, the family will be the place where people learn to embrace diversity rather than fight against people who hold different views. People will learn that just as our body exists thanks to different cells and organs working together for the sake of the body, different people who work together for the sake of the family enable the success of the family.
From the family unit, people will take their lessons to the community, from the community to the city, from the city to the state, to the country, and finally to the entire world. The key, therefore, to successful relationships in tomorrow’s world, lies not only in connections, but in connections between different people for a common goal, where the differences between them ensure their success and make their mutual dependence imperative, and even welcome.
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A Sukkah is a structure consisting of four walls and a special cover (Shach). Even three walls are enough because if there are the first three phases in the Kli, then the fourth phase Dalet is already being built inside them. The main thing is that there are three walls and a cover.
A Sukkah reflects the structure of the spiritual Kli, which is called Neshama, the soul. We need to build this soul out of our common desires in the group, and then we will reveal the inner light, the Creator, inside our correct connection.
A person builds a Sukkah on the ground, that is, on the basis of ready-made material because the ground is always under his feet. On it he already builds a Sukkah: four walls and a cover from the waste of barn and winery, that is, from the remains of the production of bread and wine, which is food for a person.
The structure of the Sukkah is similar to the way in which the qualities of a person are arranged if he wants to connect them and direct them to the Creator. Then he sees how his qualities are connected within him: Hochma, Bina, Daat, Hessed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod in order to form a structure within which he will begin to feel the Creator.
We do not attain the upper light itself or the Creator Himself, but only the impression in our desires from their fulfillment.
When these qualities combine in different forms, we begin to feel what is inside them, and thus reveal the Creator. Each Sefira begins to shine.
If we try to bring the desires between the friends in the ten closer in order to connect them with each other, then inside their connection we begin to see that this is not just our egoism, but desires capable of bestowal, unity, and love. These desires can be influenced by the upper force, that will create such forms and types of connections and qualities from them that were previously unknown to us.
We see what connection exists between our unity and the qualities that we can reveal between us in order to feel and attain the force that is above us, according to the equivalence of form.
The walls and the cover of the Sukkah are different desires connected with each other in every possible way. If we manage to build the walls of the Sukkah out of our desires, and everyone is ready to make of themselves a column or a foundation for a common structure, that is, our connection, then it is already possible to build a roof over them.
To be a column means to be a support for this structure, to support it with all your strength so that it stands and serves everyone. We are building our common home together so that not even one movement goes to someone’s personal benefit, but only for all of us together.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/9/22, “Sukkot“
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