Audio Version Of The Blog – 12/5/24
Posted on December 5th, 2024
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 17
What Preparation Is Required for the Reception of the Torah?
The preparation for the reception of the Torah involves overcoming the many doubts that arise in us. We each have our own doubts, despairs, helplessness, indifference, a decline in the importance of attaining Godliness, and so on. We thus require substantial and varied efforts to overcome such doubts. We need to surround ourselves with supportive resources: a society, books, daily routines, and family. Doing so takes a long time and all such endeavors constitute preparation for the reception of the Torah. Ultimately, the main goal is to overcome the doubts and uncertainties that confront us.
Many people come to learn, but as soon as they face some difficulties or even a slight decrease in the desire that they initially received, which was meant to be strengthened from below by the effort they put in, they lose interest in learning. Then they resist the study and leave. Such people lack a deep enough need to feel that it is “better to die than to live.” In other words, they can still find sufficient satisfaction in various worldly pleasures: money, honor, knowledge, sex, food, and sports. However, this is also part of the preparation—there is no other way.
Spirituality is wholeness. What is wholeness? It requires a whole desire. If a person’s desire is well aligned with receiving the Torah, with the revelation of light and Godliness, then we receive the Torah. If not, we are still incomplete in our preparations.
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Question: We are trying to conceal our desire to receive in order to connect with our friends in the ten. How can we achieve revelation in our work with the help of the screen?
Answer: I want to receive the upper light on my egoism, which, by elevating me above the ego, will help me connect with my friends and, from our connection, turn to the Creator.
The essence of the screen is that with its help I work with my egoism and transform it into the quality of bestowal in order to connect with my friends and with the Creator. In response, the Creator gives us the strength to accomplish this.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot”
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Question: Are mutual incorporation and unity the same property?
Answer: They are the same property.
Question: Will the world reach a state where the desire to be mutually incorporated awakens in it?
Answer: It must, of course. The whole development of the world is moving toward compelling us to come closer.
We influence humanity with our desire to rise above our own qualities because we see how these qualities jeopardize the attainment of the ultimate goal.
Question: Will people be happy when they feel that mutual incorporation brings them the joy of life?
Answer: The connection between us ensures exactly this; it grants us ease and a sense of elevation.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/24, Writings of Rabash “Abraham Arose”
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Question: What does “he should take a wife specifically from his family” mean in spirituality?
Answer: It refers to the connection between souls—closer and more distant ones. Our forefathers and foremothers were, in a sense, relatives. This is written about in the Torah.
From a spiritual perspective, a “wife” represents a person’s connection with the Creator, which helps them reveal the upper.
Question: Am I correct in understanding that we must have a desire to receive for the sake of bestowal? Is that what “from his family” means?
Answer: Yes, any reception must be for the sake of bestowal. It develops from our soul.
Help your friends with what they need, and you will see that in doing so, your own desire to receive for yourself will fade.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/24, Writings of Rabash “The Discernment of ‘In Everything’”
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Question: What is joy for the sake of the Creator?
Answer: We need to imagine what the Creator wants from us and what states He expects, then we can tell whether or not we give Him pleasure with our states.
We can feel our attitude toward the Creator, His attitude toward us, and at the same time advance.
We keep asking Him not to forget us and to include us in His work.
When we turn to the Creator, we should have joy from striving to connect with Him; this feeling fills us.
Every time, we should bless Him for the opportunity to feel even a little spirituality, a little of ourselves and others, and distinguish between approaching the Creator or moving away from Him. This is very important for us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/20/24, Writings of Rabash “Serve the Creator with Joy”
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Question: We have love for the Creator. How can we put it into practice? How can we search for what each friend is lacking in order to understand how I can fulfill them?
Answer: Ask, demand. The Creator will explain to you. He will show you what needs to be done so that you can fulfill Him.
Question: What does a lack of spirituality in the ten mean? How can it be felt?
Answer: It means that the ten is not working on raising the greatness of spirituality within themselves.
Question: On one hand we want free choice, but on the other hand we come to “there is none else besides Him.” Should the prayer be the same in both states?
Answer: No, the prayer can be anything, any words, any feelings. It does not matter.
Question: When can we press the Creator more: during an ascent or in the feeling of a descent?
Answer: In the feeling of a descent.
Question: When you feel the suffering of the nations of the world, the only consolation and joy is that everything comes from the Creator. But this sounds somewhat egoistic since I know there is none else besides Him, while the nations of the world do not know this. How can I convey this feeling to them?
Answer: Convey it in any way possible: write articles, compose songs, sing. Do whatever you can to help them realize this.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/20/24, Writings of Rabash “Serve the Creator with Joy”
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Question: How can we work correctly with the desire to receive in order to fight the evil inclination in the best possible way?
Answer: We must pray and ask the Creator to give us a desire to receive that we can use for the sake of giving to Him. That is, everything that comes from the Creator, we accept, receive, and bless Him for what He has done for us.
Question: What should we do with the sadness that comes when one does not receive fulfillment for all his desires?
Answer: This means he is incorrectly connected with his friends and the Creator.
The correct connection is wanting to receive from the Creator only with the intention to bestowal. And the more he receives, the higher he raises his receiving Kli, and the more he gives.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/24, Writings of Rabash “The Discernment of ‘In Everything’”
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Question: There is a parable about a sage who used to carry water in two pots, one of which was cracked. Every day he brought the cracked pot home filled only halfway with water. One day, the pot itself said: “I am sorry that I cannot fulfill my task completely.” The sage replied: “You fulfill it completely. Thanks to you, I water the flowers that grow along the path on your side of the road.”
On one hand, there is a crack in us. It is our egoism that you keep talking about all the time. On the other hand, it turns out that this crack is necessary, that it gives something, waters something. What does it water? What can my egoism water?
Answer: It can water our egoistic desires. If they do not exist, then we will not be able to correct them. We will not be able to act, to exist. We were born with these egoistic desires, we live with them, and who knows when we will get rid of them.
Question: But are they necessary?
Answer: They are necessary.
Question: Here the pot itself said at the end that it did not fulfill its function. It said to the sage: “You carry me, but I am cracked.” What does the understanding that it is cracked mean for the pot itself? What does the realization that we are egoists give us? What does the fact that we are such cracked pots give a person?
Answer: It depends on the stage. But in principle, it causes bitterness and regret that you cannot escape from this realization anywhere.
Question: Does it mean that our realization that we are cracked is not very good?
Answer: No, this realization is good, but what next? Then we need to somehow influence the Creator so that He corrects our egoism. And this, unfortunately, is very difficult.
Question: Can there be a stage when we realize that we are egoists and stop there?
Answer: That is where we stop, yes.
Question: Is that wrong?
Answer: Of course it is wrong.
Question: What is more important for a person: to fix his “cracks” or to learn to use them?
Answer: You should use what you can use correctly, and what you cannot use correctly—ask for its correction.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/12/24
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Comment: I read seven tips that someone gave for a person to have an easier life.
“The ability to wait is the best thing one can master.”
My Response: If it is not about spiritual work, then yes; however, if it is about spiritual work, then no. When it comes to spiritual work, one has to constantly move forward.
Comment: “The first step is only the beginning.” It means that once you make the first step you are already halfway to victory.
My Response: The first step is not half the way to the victory, but it is still an entrance. Whether it is the beginning of the victory will become clear from the rest of the steps.
Comment: “If it is difficult, means you are advancing.”
My Response: I do not think that difficulty is a sign that we are moving forward correctly. No.
The evidence that we are moving forward is our ability to summarize all problems, information, and opposites into one whole. They all complement each other and add up in an absolute precise way into one single perfect picture in our root that we are moving toward.
Comment: “Break the chains that constrict your thoughts and you will break the chains that constrict your body.” At times we are standing still because of the thoughts that prevent us from moving forward. We have to remove the negative thoughts that slow us down and instill fear in us.
My Response: We move through both negative and the positive thoughts together. Both of them are necessary. It is like a wheel where some part is moving forward and some part is moving backward relative to the center of the wheel.
Comment: “Calmness is a condition for success.” When we are calm we are capable of doing much more than when we are possessed by emotions.
My Response: No. All of Kabbalah is based on opposites, on the combination of opposites. We have to be calm in complete endless movement. There is no other way. We cannot be calm and rely on the will of a flow of life that we will end up wherever it carries us.
These are Eastern methodologies. They do not include the left line and therefore I cannot equate them with Kabbalah or give any comment.
Comment: “Judgment is darkness for a person.” We should never insult and lower the individuality of a person in any way. The only thing we can do is to condemn him for his actions, but not the person himself.
My Response: We should not condemn anyone. Absolutely no one! We have to correct ourselves. When you correct yourself, you correct the world in a way that there will be no one who would condemn you.
Comment: “Belief in one’s rightness is a limitation.”
My Response: Belief in one’s rightness has a place only when it is based on the absolute upper knowledge, not by you, but by the masses. When you are moving together with the masses and reveal the Creator in connection between you, then you find the true rightness. An individual person cannot have any correctness.
In order to have some overall orientation in life, it is necessary to have nine more friends together with you. In this way, in a ten, like in a laboratory, you will be able to create a mini-system, a mini- society, where you can clearly project the entire nature, entire humanity, and all the worlds between yourselves.
You would create such a magic balloon from your ten desires and intentions and would see all universes, all worlds, all their inhabitants, and the Creator in it like in the mini-image, in the mini-model. Then by working on this model you would clearly understand who you are and where you are going.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/25/19
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