Audio Version Of The Blog – 11/30/24
Posted on November 30th, 2024
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 12
When the Soul Descends to This World, When Does the “Point in the Heart” Awaken?
Only after the soul has passed through the four levels (and the division is always into four) does it reach the fifth level, that of Keter, which encompasses all the others. Then the soul encounters a new desire: the “point in the heart.” After undergoing a process of refinement through many incarnations, we acquire this desire, the “point in the heart,” which connects us to spirituality because it belongs to the spiritual world, not to us people.
Since this desire comes from above, from the spiritual world, nothing in this world can develop it. Only the light that shines upon it during the study of Kabbalah can do so. If we develop this desire by reading books that describe the spiritual reality that are written from a spiritual source by a Kabbalist of the spiritual world, then the light reaches that spark within us, the point in the heart, which causes the spark to come alive, expand, and develop. Without the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is impossible to nurture and develop this spark.
From the moment we receive the point in the heart, everything depends on us. In our previous incarnations, our animalistic desire developed and the entire world opened before us. The world and society provided fuel and challenges to develop the desire to receive. Once the point in the heart awakens, nothing in this world can stimulate us to develop it, and we find ourselves needing to seek out the appropriate company and books that will nurture it.
It is the task of Kabbalists, especially now, to provide each person whose point in the heart has awakened with books and resources for advancement. This is the purpose of disseminating written materials from the upper world. Without doing so, we have no means by which to develop spiritually. Indeed, many people suffer in this world because they lack such resources. Why do they suffer? It is because these resources have not reached them. Why have they not reached them? Everything has a reason, but ultimately, this is the role of those who engage in Kabbalah.
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Question: We need to reach a state where all the pleasures we experience are directed for the sake of the Creator. How can we cultivate this state within ourselves?
Answer: We cannot achieve this on our own. However, if we gradually direct ourselves toward this goal and relate our actions to the Creator so that He may accept them, then corresponding sensations, desires, and intentions accumulate within us. As a result, when we have gathered enough strength in our intentions, we are granted the quality of Lishma (for the sake of the Creator).
I was created as an egoist, and my primary concern is to fulfill my own egoism. But if I rise above my egoistic desires and prioritize only my friends and the Creator, it turns out that I am working for their sake. This constitutes the transition from “for my own sake” to “for the sake of the Creator.”
Question: But in order to transition to “for the sake of the Creator,” should there be a filter “the Creator and friends” before each of my desires and only then reception?
Answer: Yes, absolutely. First, there must be an intention: for what, for whom, and for whose sake am I performing this action?
Question: So does the intention of Lishma inherently contain the power to scrutinize and separate what is for the Creator and what is not, what I can receive and what I cannot? In other words, is it a calculation?
Answer: Yes, it is a calculation. Moreover, it is a calculation within feelings, knowledge, and sensations where you can precisely identify the state you are in in relation to Lishma.
[337104]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam Shamati 20 “Lishma [for Her sake]”
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Question: Suppose a person faces a choice. The first option is that they absolutely cannot work without receiving a reward; the second option is that their true work can only be done without any reward.
At this point, fear arises as they have no different nature to choose the second option. Where can they find the strength to choose the second option?
Answer: They receive this strength from above, from the Creator, only from Him.
You must raise your desires together with the friends and strengthen them between you. Then turn to the Creator through the friends and to the friends through the Creator. As a result, the desire to work without any reward will arise within you.
Question: When we act in the ten, we make an effort again and again, but no result is visible. What else can we base our knowledge on to overcome disturbances?
Answer: On connection! And from the point of your connection, turn to the Creator. Through this, you will begin to understand what He desires.
[337061]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/24, Writings of Rabash “The Act Is What Decides”
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Question: When we start working in the ten, we encounter blows. How should we work with this?
Answer: Even one person moving forward receives a pushback that throws him backward and all the more so if we are engaged in drawing closer in the ten. It is like a shot from a gun when the bullet flies forward and the gun recoils. This is how it always should be according to the law of conservation of energy.
We exist in the physical world. It does not matter that we call this world spiritual; there are still clear laws of action and reaction in it. Therefore, any spiritual advancement will also cause rejection.
We must take this into account, and even if we feel some kind of rejection, we must still recognize it as a physical law. For this reason, we need to treat them as laws we study about the surrounding world.
The science of Kabbalah teaches us how we can understand the extent of our progress from the negative reactions we experience. This is an absolutely clear process that lies before the person, and it should be clear to him how to deal with it.
We study that the most important formula that we need to implement is called “love will cover all crimes.” The more love develops, the more hatred manifests, and we must cover one with the other. And this is always the case; in family life and in relationships between people, we must always understand that such law is in effect.
If people knew this, they could create the correct society, the correct family, the correct relationships. They would never quarrel, they would not fight; they would realize that everything is accompanied by plus and minus, minus and plus.
[337072]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/19, “Questions and Answers”
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Question: In 2013, we started working in tens. We exerted a lot of effort and resources to set the rules for building a ten and achieving the right intention. We have always tried to give this content to groups as a basis, but we failed.
Could now be a good opportunity to use these rules in the ten?
Answer: Indeed, we have common rules, but each time they are perceived differently because desires constantly change in us and, consequently, the combinations between us. That is, our common network of desires is changing. Therefore, the connection conditions seem different to us all the time. This is how it will continue.
Seeing they are changing—and they are deliberately eluding us—we must ask the Creator to unite us. At the same time, we do not rely on our common sense, knowledge, or understanding when we seemingly tighten bolts with our tools and simultaneously come to a connection between us. The fact that we cannot succeed in uniting ourselves is on purpose. Only the Creator does this.
In the end, before He does this, we must form a cry for His help, or we will not succeed!
To come to this cry, we must try our best to ensure our success and finally realize that nothing comes of it. That is when we will genuinely cry out, and everything will work out.
Generally, all you say is correct, but one element is missing—only the Creator unites us.
[336959]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/19, “Questions and Answers”
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Preparation to the Lesson
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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“
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2nd part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “Parashat Toldot“
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Selected Highlights
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 11
Chapter 2 The Encounter Between Man and the Serpent
Man goes through many reincarnations. Each time, his soul is dressed in an additional desire to receive. This process is called “being dressed in a body.” The soul repeatedly undergoes these kinds of states, which are known as “reincarnations,” and thereby increasingly enhances its desire to receive in various forms through garments of power, wealth, honor, and knowledge. These garments are unnecessary for the soul. They are but desires for enjoyment. The question is, what is the source of this enjoyment?
Since the soul is dressed in a body, it seems to perceive that the light comes from these different garments—power, control, money, honor, and knowledge. The light assumes a particular form and reaches the soul that is dressed in a specific desire. The soul, now dressed in material desires, encounters the light which is also dressed in physical forms within these garments. In other words, we find ourselves in “this world.”
If both the soul and the light are dressed in physical garments, it is called “materialism.” If we remove our desires from all garments—from desires for enjoyment that are coverings such as honor, wealth, knowledge, sex, and so on—and even strip the pleasure itself of its covering, it is called “spirituality.”
The soul’s readiness to be naked, without a body or shell, and also the exposure of the pleasure requires progress through and growth within the four levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking of this world. It includes the experience of all bodily desires and pleasures: raising a family, eating and resting, and especially the desire for sex. Afterward, it must advance through all of the social pleasures: wealth, honor, control, and knowledge.
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Comment: From the beginning of the lesson, a prayer was formed in the heart for all the friends to rise to Lishma in order to delight our teacher for the efforts he makes for us, and by this, to give contentment to the Creator.
My Response: Thank you very much! In principle, we have to do everything to support each other. This is the most important foundation of our unity.
We should desire to see all of us, men and women, regardless of where we are from or who we are, united in one desire so that this desire becomes the most important for us, and in it we unite and reach the state of mutual bestowal.
[337115]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam Shamati 20 “Lishma [for Her sake]”
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