Audio Version Of The Blog – 11/14/22
Posted on November 14th, 2022
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My new article on Linkedin “The Meaning of the Hebrew Alphabet and the Prisoner from Siberia Who Suddenly Knew Hebrew”
Many years ago, not long after I had begun to study the wisdom of Kabbalah with my teacher, RABASH (Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag), I received a letter from a man who was imprisoned in a penitentiary facility in Siberia. Back then, in the Soviet Union, those prisons were known as ruthless places where many did not survive. I do not know how the letter came to me, but its author wrote in eloquent, poetic Hebrew about his ordeals at the prison. He described hunger, cold, and inhumane conditions. However, what struck me most was that the man had no Jewish upbringing and had never been exposed to Hebrew; the language simply “landed on him.”
I asked RABASH how it was possible for someone who was not Jewish and never learned Hebrew to suddenly know the language so intimately. RABASH explained that extreme suffering can sometimes do that. When the suffering becomes too great and too long to bear, sometimes the ego becomes so broken that it seems to disappear completely. At that point, a person begins to connect with the whole of reality.
The Hebrew alphabet, explains The Book of Zohar in the essay about letters, consists of dots and lines that connect with one another. Each combination of dots and lines creates a different letter, which together form words, sentences, and the entire language. These dots and lines that form the letters represent interactions between the giving force and the receiving force of reality. Together, these forces form all of reality, the part we perceive and the part we still do not perceive.
When one’s ego is removed, the veil that hides from us the part created by the giving force is lifted, and we begin to see the full picture of reality. At that time, the way to express it through dots and lines may sometimes appear. This is why the prisoner from Siberia suddenly knew Hebrew. It did not actually “land on him”; it became revealed because the suffering had vanquished his ego and thereby removed the veil that hid it.
After explaining this, RABASH added that we do not need to suffer in order to reveal the hidden part of reality. The wisdom of Kabbalah reveals that part without any suffering, but simply by learning with a group of people who also wish to reveal the hidden part. As they study and work on their connections, they begin to grasp the meaning of the Hebrew letters. This is part of what Kabbalah defines as “spiritual attainment.”
Years later, the prisoner got out and came to live in Israel. His suffering had ended, but so did his enlightenment. In the absence of torment, his ego had reawakened and veiled once more the hidden part of reality.
Today, we can all reveal the full picture of reality. All we need is to study Kabbalah with like-minded people. Today we can study in almost any language we choose, and the material is available online. We do not need to suffer in order to reveal the secrets of reality or the meaning of the Hebrew alphabet; all we need is to want it.
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We should understand this question of our sages, who asked about it: “If the purpose of the creation of the worlds was to delight His creatures, why did He create this corporeal, turbid, and tormented world? Without it, He could certainly delight the souls as much as He wanted, so why did He bring the soul into such a murky and filthy body?” (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Chapter 1, Inner Observation, Item 6).
The Creator placed the soul in such a murky and filthy body precisely so that we, proceeding from our original disgusting state, would begin to attain His perfection, eternity, and qualities.
Then Baal HaSulam goes even deeper: One who eats that which is not one’s own is afraid to look upon one’s face. This means that we can attain the Creator only to the extent of our similarity to Him. To the extent that we acquire the qualities of bestowal, love, and connection, we will be able to attain Him.
Question: What does shame have to do with it?
Answer: Shame is a feeling of the manifestation of our separation from the Creator. He placed us in this world so that we could reach His perfection from this lowest, filthiest state and stop feeling shame.
Comment: In principle, it is logical. This also exists in our world.
My Response: Yes, it is absolutely logical. The only thing is how to reach this.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 10/30/22
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We do not yet fully understand how important it is to open your heart to love for the friends. After all, through it we come to love for the Creator, and this is not possible in any other way. It repels us and seems very strange and unfamiliar, but in essence this is the manifestation of the evil inclination created by the Creator in order to help us come closer to His qualities.
It turns out that when I force my way into the heart of a friend, I break through to the Creator. The heart of a friend is that temple, the place where I meet the Creator. So far we do not feel it, and it takes a long time to reach this awareness. Actually, all the egoism contained in me protests against my connection with a friend because this is the place of my connection with the Creator.
The heart of a friend turns into the house of the Creator for me. If I manage to penetrate the heart of a friend, it means that I am entering the temple where the Creator is located. It was I who built this holy building and thus came closer to the Creator.
Therefore, the most important thing is to break your egoism and force your way into the hearts of the friends. I really hope that we will feel this more and more until this inner feeling settles in the very depths of our heart, and in this way we will all be worthy to connect into one person with one heart.
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From a Conversation at a Meal, 10/28/22
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Question: We say that there is no human body in the spiritual world. Therefore, a person cannot speak. How does the exchange of information happen there?
Answer: In spiritual communication, information is exchanged through the transmission of intentions and feelings, but not necessarily verbally. This can be done without opening your mouth or showing facial expressions. It is just that a person wants to influence someone without any external expressions. And it works.
Question: In the spiritual world there are such concepts as “conversation,” “speech,” and “silence.” You can communicate with the Creator in silence or you can talk. What is the difference?
Answer: Sometimes we had such lessons with my teacher Rabash when 15 – 20 students gathered and he suddenly said, “Let’s be quiet today.” Everyone closed their mouths, and the ones who wanted to closed their eyes, and we were silent.
Usually this silence lasted one and a half to two hours. And it was not hard since internally you were kind of talking to everyone. Sometimes it broke out inside of you with a great intensity of passion, but externally everyone sat in silence.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/23/22
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Question: In our world, if I want to take an example from someone, then I see him in front of me and take an example.
Those who have attained the Creator write that the qualities of the Creator are bestowal and love. But I cannot look at Him and take an example. Why is this concealed?
Answer: This is not concealed; you just do not have these qualities. This is why you conceal the Creator from yourself.
Question: It is written: “From Your actions I will know You.” But where can I see His actions?
Answer: You cannot see the actions of the Creator because you do not have these qualities. This is done on purpose so that you can reveal them from the opposite as we always say: the difference between darkness and light, sweet and sour, and so on. That is, in the opposition of qualities we attain Him.
Comment: You still have to somehow believe that this is so.
My Response: Not believe, but understand it logically. If the Creator wants us to reveal Him, He is obliged to create qualities in us that are initially opposite to Him.
Comment: Yes, this is logical and understandable. It is just really difficult that there is no example.
My Response: This is a completely different matter. There are examples, but in the form that, as Kabbalah explains, we must begin to change. Then we will attain and reveal examples.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 10/16/22
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Comment: Suppose a person lives like a worm inside an apple. And suddenly something awakened in him.
My Response: Where did something awaken from? Only proceeding from the fact that he lives within his environment, and what awakens in him arises only from connection with the environment.
How can you better use the environment is your self-development program: use your internal and external capabilities for more fulfillment and more comfort. This is how it is today and how it has been for billions of years of the universe’s development.
We do not imagine that we can exist in a different paradigm, and Kabbalah is slowly taking us out of the old one. It says: If you act in such and such a way, you will attract to yourself that force that is outside egoism, it will begin to change you inside your egoism, and emanate onto you.
There will be such radiation, such an influence from outside, that you will begin to develop inside this apple and move toward the exit from it, that is, toward the exit from your egoistic nature.
Gradually, to the extent that you will change, you will begin to feel that there is another paradigm, outside of this apple. But changes will take place only to the extent that you perform certain actions that cause this external force. Only it can do it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Evolution of Creation” 10/5/13
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Question: As a Kabbalist, besides the material mind, you have an additional part. Is it specifically based on that, that you are in the understanding, as you say, of the animate minds of people?
Answer: Obviously. After all, I also exist in them.
Question: And how can you juxtapose these two completely opposite phenomena?
Answer: My body functions in this world, through it I understand people. That is why I exist in it.
The body is an adapter of my inner higher “I” to this world. The body means my mind, heart, feelings, understanding, accumulated information, and everything else. It is all an adaptation to this world, to what I am saying now, doing something, and so on. And besides that, I also have another level, a higher mind. Everyone has to have it. Nature will lead us to this.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Mind of the Next Dimension” 9/7/13
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Does everything have an origin?“
Everything comes from nature, which is a quality that functions solely in a direction of bestowal and love. Those who discovered nature as a force of bestowal and love also called it “the Creator.”
We are created in an opposite form to the Creator. While the Creator is a quality of bestowal and love, we are made of a quality to receive for self-benefit alone. We thus perceive everything through a filter of whether and how we will self-benefit. This egoistic filter that makes us constantly calculate self-benefit over benefiting others and nature, which is the Creator’s quality, is the cause of our every misfortune and pain.
Therefore, in order to discover the force that resides in our origin, the Creator, we need its help to invert our intention from being constantly self-directed to being aimed at the benefit of others and nature, i.e. a direction similar to the quality of the Creator—one of bestowal and love.
Our desire to receive for self-benefit alone was given to us from the Creator because He wants us to receive absolutely everything, but on condition that we relate to the Creator in everything we receive, i.e. to intend toward others and to the Creator as the Creator intends toward us. Once we reach such an inversion of our intention—from reception to bestowal—we then enter into equivalence of form with the Creator and discover the final purpose for which we were all created: an existence of eternity and perfection through the intention to bestow and love, upon our innate desires to receive.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Preparation to the Lesson
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Lesson on the Topic “Faith Above Reason”
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Selected Highlights
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
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