Motherly Care

947Comment: According to Kabbalah, it is very important to be no higher than others in a group.

My Response: You must feel superior to others only in what you can bestow to your friends. A small one cannot bestow to a big one. You should feel able to give them a feeling of mutual guarantee, that you vouch for them, that you have the strength, the power, and the ability to take full responsibility for their egoism and quench it to the end, over the edge.

It is like a mother who gives such a feeling to her baby; otherwise, the baby will start to worry, cry, get nervous, and feel some kind of lack. This is exactly what children in an orphanage lack; they feel with their skin that there is no one who will always provide them with everything.

In fact a baby does not need much, 50 grams of milk is enough, for example. It only needs the feeling that his mother, who fully covers all his needs, is nearby.

This is the same womb (the place he was before) now in a slightly larger form. Now the world has become larger and the child has begun to feel more in it. But this world should treat him the same way as before when he was in his mother’s womb.

This is how we should grow and gradually receive such a state from the whole world. Imagine how the whole world should treat me, and how I will treat it that way. This is the state Kabbalah calls for.
Birth is an even greater feeling of mutual guarantee, mutual bestowal, and mutual love.

The ideal state is when we develop only in this direction, when this maternal womb develops to the size of infinity and includes everything that we see and feel in our world and in all the worlds. After all, this is the property of Bina; this is the upper mother, it is what is called mother nature.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Motherly Care” 12/31/12

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“Can Kabbalah be understood without knowing Hebrew?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: “Can Kabbalah be understood without knowing Hebrew?“

It is possible to understand Kabbalah in any language. Moreover, it is desirable to study Kabbalah in one’s native language. However, at the same time, there are a number of Kabbalistic terms in Hebrew that one should learn in order to advance in the study.

For example, the Hebrew word “Partzuf” literally translates to “face,” but in the wisdom of Kabbalah, it holds a completely different meaning, and no term can properly express its spiritual meaning other than the word “Partzuf.” It is a similar situation with several other words. If you think of “Partzuf” as “face” and other words like “Rosh” as “head” and “Raglaim” as “legs,” i.e., the everyday Hebrew uses of those terms, then you will become completely confused and will miss the point completely.

These words and several others are the terminology of the soul, and we gradually come to perceive them as such the more we advance in the method of Kabbalah.

I thus think it makes no sense to translate these words. Likewise, in several of the world’s professions, many words remain in their original language. For instance, Latin is used in medicine, Italian is used in music, and all kinds of expressions in German and English are used in international technical languages.

Based on KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Language of Kabbalah” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 23, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael laitman.

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 5/12/23

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — From Lo Lishma [Not for Her Sake], We Come to Lishma [for Her Sake]

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 46

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Selected Highlights

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 5/11/23

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The Creator Turns His Face Back When He Runs Away

527.03The work that a person has to do in this life is called from Lo Lishma to come to Lishma, that is, to rise to bestowal from the beastly state, which is called Lo Lishma.

However, Lo Lishma is also a high degree in comparison to the life of an ordinary person in this world who does not understand where he is, what he lives for, and for whom life is determined only by the demands of his body.

But at some point, development brings a person to a state called Lo Lishma. This is a very important period, which is actually even more significant than our idea of the state of Lishma.

In the state of Lo Lishma we do not yet reveal the Creator and we do not feel our connection with Him or our mutual bestowal. Yet this connection already exists, only it is not face to face, but rather it is from the opposite side. It is written about this that the Creator is like a gazelle that turns its face back when it flees. It is exactly in this position that we feel ourselves in Lo Lishma.

Sometimes it seems to us that we are close to the Creator and sometimes that we are far away. In this way we gradually begin to feel changes in His attitude toward us, and this causes great changes in us. This is how the Creator teaches us to be in contact with Him in all kinds of states and actions, and brings us closer to Him.

Although the Creator seems to be running away all the time, sometimes He looks back and invites us to follow Him. And He does it again and again until a correct and constant attitude is built within us from all His actions. After all, there is nothing static in spirituality; spirituality changes every moment. If something does not change, then it is not spirituality but corporeality.

Spirituality always brings changes in our relationship with the Creator. We should try to follow Him and react to all the changes we receive from Him, and so we will come from Lo Lishma to Lishma. Lo Lishma is a very important state, and it is necessary to know how to use it in order to then enter into Lishma.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/23, “From Lo Lishma (Not for Her Sake), We Come to Lishma (For Her Sake)”

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“All The Letters Came Before Him”

276.02When the Creator wished to create the world, all the letters came before Him, from last to first (Zohar for All, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” “The Letters of Rav Hamnuna Saba,” item 23).

Question: Why do the letters come to Him in reverse order, starting with the last letter in the alphabet “Tav” and so on to the letter “Aleph“?

Answer: It is because we are talking about letters as vessels and about the light that creates them in reverse order. The light moves from above downward, and the letters rise from below upward. In this way, the light is connected with the desires that it creates.

Therefore, the letters approach the Creator in reverse order and allegorically ask Him to create a world with their qualities. It all starts with the last letter.

Question: Does it mean that, for example, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who wrote The Book of Zohar, revealed how the light created his desires in him? Have people attained what we are studying now?

Answer: Of course. Kabbalists have revealed this, attained it, formalized it, and passed it on to us.

Comment: This is not like the Big Bang theory that seems to have happened billions of years ago, but no one saw it so it is all theory.

My Response: No, here we are dealing with the passing of the heritage of Kabbalists’ attainments from generation to generation.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 4/23/23

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Up to Your Ears in a Donkey

701The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about the soul, about the closest and most innate thing for everyone. It explains what to do with this internal structure, how you can develop it, and begin to feel it. After all, your “I” is hidden somewhere very deep within you, and you do not feel it at all. You exist in your animalistic body, which lives for some period of time and dies.

Imagine that your dog, pig, or donkey lives next to you. And you are kind of inside them. Your thoughts are in this donkey, your desires are in it, your motives are in it, everything is in it, in this donkey that stands next to you. And you yourself do not exist. You are near it, but you do not exist. Absolutely everything that is in you is in him.

This is how we exist in our world, without even imagining that we have to get out of it, break away a little, and find ourselves existing separately from the donkey standing next to us. Let him stand, let him live, and let us give him the most necessary things. It needs nothing but water and a bag of grain. Give it good grain and it will be content with that.

Everything else is the soul. But we do not even touch it, we do not tear ourselves away from our donkey.

Question: Do I still somehow associate myself with this donkey?

Answer: All the time. You live in it. Apart from that, you do not have a single thought of “Who am I?” This is what you do not have—disconnection from the donkey! You are up to your ears in the donkey!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Head over heels inside the donkey!” 2/2/11

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Egoism Versus Spiritual Forces

431.05Question: Why were Jews previously forced to live in shtetls in Europe or driven into ghettos? Why were they treated in this way?

Answer: Because if you feel that I am the bearer of spiritual values and I prevent you from proclaiming yourself the bearer of these values, you must destroy me.

You must constantly show yourself, your children, and everyone else that I am low, insignificant, and worthless: “Look what the Creator allows me to do with him because the truth is with me!” This is a purely egotistic attitude toward one’s ideological opponent.

What did Europe do? Entire Jewish cities were slaughtered and burned there. When I was in England, they showed me the places where all the Jews were herded into synagogues and burned alive.

Anti-Semites are not aware of their actions. They are subconsciously driven by the source of our egoism, which is actually spiritual. They cannot agree that there is a representative of spiritual forces in the world. Anti-Semitism has no rational roots.

Anti-Semites can justify their actions in any way, but in the end, this source is suspended in the upper world. It comes from the opposition of Jacob and Esau. There is no getting away from this, and it will be so until the end of the correction. This will escalate further in future confrontations between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism until Kabbalah takes over.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Laitman’s Teacher” 1/23/11

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Two Levels of Perception

232.08Comment: In our world, we always identify a person through their appearance. I see someone and activate my inner perception of him. It turns out that identifying one by his physical appearance is, in fact, incorrect.

My Response: Of course. Until we begin to feel a higher level, a person for us represents the parameters we can feel, that is, his appearance along with his character and qualities. This is all corporeal. The next level is when we begin to feel his soul.

Question: Do you mean the feeling of his soul in the material world?

Answer: There is no soul in the material world. The material world is a dimension where everything is arranged according to the principle of receiving. While the soul is a quality of bestowal. Therefore, it cannot be felt in the material world.

Question: But you say when we gain spiritual perception, this world does not disappear. So while in this world, you can also perceive another world?

Answer: Yes, you feel another dimension. But they do not overlap because they work on different properties, like radio frequencies.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Organ Transplant” 1/9/11

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Imitating a Kabbalist

165Comment: When one of the students quotes you, it sounds ridiculous because it is obvious that the person is not at that level. But when you speak, it is completely different.

My Response: It is because there is inner attainment and energy in my words since I am talking about what I feel at the moment and bring it down to the level of the person I am talking to and I pass it to him.

Question: When a person quotes you, but he is not at that level, does it give him something?

Answer: Of course. By constantly repeating me, he somehow adjoins me, and I, in turn, to the upper one. In this way, he connects to the spiritual ladder from the world of infinity and up to it like a small child who tries to become like an older one and thus grows. Contradictions, however, will not give a person any growth.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Imitating Laitman” 2/22/11

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