Audio Version Of The Blog – 1/6/25
Posted on January 6th, 2025
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 40
What Helps Us Control Emotion with Reason?
Only fear can help with this, nothing else. Such fear might arise from the possibility of losing the goal, but ultimately, it is the lack of meaning in life. The question of “What is the purpose of life?” compels us to activate our intellect over our emotions. Those who feel life as empty and devoid of pleasure turn to the intellect in order to improve their state.
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 38
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 37
Question: If prayer is not words but letters from the heart, why do we always compose a prayer at congresses?
What gives us a set of correct words? Does it mean that words are a consequence of our efforts?
Answer: At congresses we have exercises where we compose a prayer. What is this done for? We want the people in the tens to connect among themselves, to express their yearning for spirituality, relationships, and aspirations in two or three phrases.
That is, the words themselves do not matter. If people unite in these phrases and want to turn to the Creator and achieve something, then it does not matter what the words themselves say. This is where the inner urge of their hearts to unite with each other is at work.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”
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An appeal to the Creator must include an understanding of who we are today, what we represent, how we should ask, and what we should ask for. This is because our request is part of the realization of what we must do and what we must achieve.
The nature of the appeal depends on the level we are currently on. The higher the level we are on or aspire to reach, the greater our desire must be. This desire should be clearer, more conscious, and accordingly, we will receive a response.
It is said: “The Creator is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” This means that it is not enough to call upon the Creator in any manner; our request must include an understanding of our current state and the next one, the present and the future.
These states may be separated by only a short span of time. We simply refer to them as “today” and “tomorrow” because each state is described as a day. The difference lies in the fact that the desire to exit the current state and enter the next one must become an urgent plea from a person—a yearning to rise above oneself, above one’s current state, and reach the next, greater equivalence to the Creator. This means a greater degree of selflessness, a greater distancing from one’s ego, from one’s initial nature.
Each subsequent state represents greater separation from oneself, an acceptance of a different form of life—in thoughts and desires, in mind and heart.
Ultimately, all this manifests in an appeal to the Creator, which is called “prayer.” It is not simply a request to “make things better for me,” but a plea from the heart, even without words or proper phrases, formed in the heart as a necessary and true appeal.
This is how we must prepare for the congress, as, being together, our appeals to the Creator combine into one, whether we realize it or not. All the requests of all the people in the world ultimately reside within the Creator and merge into an appeal to Him.
However, if people remain at the degree of animal, they do not evoke any special reaction in the Creator, nor do they unite among themselves.
Our efforts combine only to the extent of purposeful action when we desire to influence the Creator.
This means uniting in our intentions, actions, thoughts, and desires, rising above our current state—each one above their own—and as if drawing within ourselves the image of the next state.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”
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There are only two forces at work in the universe. The egoistic one is the one in which we exist now. It is artificial and imaginary, and in fact it does not exist because it is only a reflection of the Creator’s property, “There is none else besides Him.”
In order to determine that there is none else besides Him, there is something opposite, since creation is made in such a way that it can attain light only from darkness, good from bad, and so on. Otherwise we would not be able to feel a single effect, action, or property.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “Turning to the Creator”
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The work with Tens comes from Rabbi Shimon. According to Kabbalah, it began with Abraham, but nevertheless it received its main incarnation starting with the Ari when Kabbalah became a real practical science.
Rabash described it in great detail. Other Kabbalists had written about this before him. The Torah states everywhere that there must be unity between people, because only in unity can we bring together the broken soul of Adam.
Even two people are enough to begin to perceive spiritual states, because opposite you there must be another egoist like you, with the same goal as yours.
Our work is based only on finding a form of connection between ourselves that is convenient for us, similar to the Creator, and can begin to open up between us, and we will feel His approach in this.
The closer we get to each other in the Ten, the more we rise above selfishness and build a sandwich on two floors: hate at the bottom and love above it, or indifference at the bottom and at least some kind of connection at the top. And in this sandwich between the egoistic property and the property of bestowal, we reveal the Creator as the source of both properties.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Is None Else Besides Him”
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Comment: Well-known coach and business consultant Erik Bertrand Larssen developed a methodology based on his military experience and wrote about it in his book called Hell Week: Seven Days to Be Your Best Self.
Larssen believes there are three models of highly effective cultures: the military, business, and sports. The military teaches us to push beyond our limits to discover we are capable of more. Athletes demonstrate how to set and pursue goals systematically. Sports also teaches us that victory is not achieved under the spotlight on the final stretch but through daily, painstaking training.
However, in your view, the mind merely serves the desires.
My Response: We should not go against desires. A person cannot truly change them. What I can do is split my desire into smaller parts: one becomes two, two become four, and so on. There will be a chain reaction. The only real option is to prioritize one desire over another, higher one. And that depends on the society around me.
Therefore, if I am in a group that values higher desires over my personal ones, I can easily let go of my bad desires and adopt their good ones.
Military, sports, and business, all involve self-coercion. But I do not want to coerce myself. I am weak. Why should I subject myself to such extreme states? The body does not like that.
Question: There are different approaches. What is the key to the Kabbalistic method in order to say: “Guys, you are looking in the wrong place”?
Answer: The key or secret lies entirely in the environment around you. Nothing else! If I join the right environment, and this environment knows how to motivate and influence me, tempting me with hints and exercises like with a child, it can shape me however it wants.
Kabbalah, first of all, calls for building a correct society where everyone can progress further.
Question: Can you name a few principles that such a society follows that others could take as a model?
Answer: A Kabbalistic society is very simple. It is built on the principle of gradually bringing people closer together by rising above their small, narrow, personal egos.
Members engage in specific exercises called workshops where they discuss these ideas and attempt to connect and open up to each other. This path involves rising above the natural egoism of a person despite his inherent tendencies.
A person begins to feel like they are entering a kind of elevator, lifting him beyond our nature. It is as if they detach from the Earth and enter a “cosmic elevator” that rises higher and higher, beyond our universe into an entirely different, anti-egoistic universe. In this realm, everything is based on the qualities of bestowal and love, as opposed to the qualities of reception and hatred inherent to our nature.
This gradual transformation occurs under the constant and increasingly changing influence of society.
This model is lifelong and spans all lifetimes because it elevates a person beyond life and death.
A person begins to perceive, see, and feel this! He rises above our egoistic nature and therefore transcends the level of biological life and death. He no longer identifies with his physical body, but starts perceiving himself as an energetic entity called the soul.
I am speaking about a methodology that allows a person to rise above himself and transform into something eternally existing and non-egoistic. It enables him to become acquainted with the Creator, reveal the upper world, and break free from the confines of the small, narrow space in which we exist.
If someone has not just idle curiosity, but a deep, inner yearning, it is possible to work with him.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/10/18
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By His almightiness, the Creator devised a tactic by which a perceptible reality would appear to the lower ones.
It is called “darkness,” as in “and creates darkness” [from the word “creates” (Boreh).]
The term “Creator” (Boreh) is derived from the words “Bo” (come) and “Reh” (see). That means Come and see darkness, and from it, you will begin to understand who you are and what exists besides the Creator. That which exists beyond the Creator is what you will come to be.
In other words, the absence of light and our faint grasp of it, which we perceive as darkness, is the real reason for the perception of the light. This is the meaning of “As the advantage of the light from within the darkness.” That is, all of our perception of the light comes from within the darkness (Baal HaSulam, “Ohr HaBahir”).
The Creator encompasses everything; after all, “There is none else besides Him.” To attain Him, the most important thing for us is the feeling of darkness, its analysis, and its perception.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”
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In our time, spreading Kabbalistic knowledge has become the greatest and most important condition. The Creator is waiting for the correction of the entire Kli, absolutely all of it.
And only to the extent that you strive to give to others, to draw others closer, can you say that you are working for bestowal. All your other actions, aside from dissemination, are still egoistic, no matter how you look at it.
We engage in dissemination solely to tell people that they must unite.
For the people, unity means a better, safer, more pleasant life. But for us, unity means bringing the shattered parts of the common Kli closer to the Creator. To the extent of mechanical unity, the upper light impacts them and thus helps them unite even more.
For the people, this does not matter. What matters to them is that it guarantees their good future. That is what we need to convey to the world. Today, the world desperately needs unity! The global world is completely divided and fractured. It is a terrible state!
I will tell you only one thing: you are currently underestimating this, but the descents, ascents, and the time each of them takes all depend only on the intensity of our outreach to the public, the masses.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”
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Question: How can one learn to deal with strong emotions like anger, hatred, and aggression? Should these emotions be expressed outwardly, or should one learn to restrain them? Where is the line for overcoming them?
Answer: If you are not in a specific environment that influences you and where people set the right examples for each other, you will not be able to move forward.
If you are alone, you will always be falling and rising, but it will hardly be real progress. That happens only to make you realize the necessity of achieving connection between us.
Rabash and all other Kabbalists write that without efforts toward unity, no spiritual work is possible. It is realized only through ever-deepening connection between us. Only in this way.
Question: But what if both my husband and I are in a group, yet I still cannot cope with these emotions?
Answer: I understand that you cannot cope, and that is how it should be. It will always be this way! Evil will always exceed good so you ask for the correction of evil; otherwise, you would become complacent.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”
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