Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #24 “He Will Save Them from the Hand of the Wicked”
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #23 “You Who Love the Lord, Hate Evil”
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 69
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Selected Highlights
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Question: Can Jews assimilate among other nations?
Answer: On one hand assimilation was necessary in order to pass the inner inclination of Jews to correction, to spiritual elevation on to others. It is said that they went into exile to come closer to the nations of the world.
However, this coming closer was carried out, not in order to dissolve into other nations and assimilate among them, but in order to connect with them. We do not know where the ten lost tribes are now and what is happening to them. Of the two remaining tribes, one part is going through assimilation and the other part, on the contrary, assimilates the rest into itself and attracts them to itself.
We see that for thousands of years, despite the eradication and persecution, these two mutual processes have been taking place. Recently, this has been going even more in the opposite direction; that is, it is not the Jews who are dissolving into other nations, but on the contrary, representatives of other nations come to the people of Israel and join them.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Expulsion” 12/11/09
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In all our primary sources, it is written that all of humanity should unite into one single collective image called Adam. Then we will rise and reach the level of the upper force, the Creator. We should exist in this state.
Our earthly state takes only a short period of our historical existence. No more than that.
If a person has a desire to understand the meaning of life, then it is impossible to hold him back. He sees that his existence, no matter how sublime and fulfilling it may be, ends. It is temporary, limited, which means that it initially costs nothing. He feels that the scope of his horizon is higher and wider than this life, and therefore, can no longer look at this small circle.
Those people who believe that they understand something and thereby limit their requests, show their inconsistency themselves. By the way, I would not say that opposition of Kabbalah prevails now. Of course, somewhere there are still smart men who say that, but in general, we have already outgrown it.
Former opponents of Kabbalah realized that it was impossible to talk about it publicly, and now they themselves teach Kabbalah and sell books. Today, in any religious store you can buy books on Kabbalah, and forty years ago I could not find them at all.
Comment: On one hand Jews must present the method of correction to the world, and on the other hand, today the nations of the world are more interested in Kabbalah.
My Response: If a person has an aspiration for the Creator, then it does not matter who he or she is. But, of course, there will be more non-Jews in this business. In terms of mass, it should be so, because everything goes along the pyramid.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Expulsion” 12/11/09
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Question: It has been said that the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches a person how to attain the upper goal. What is the way to do it?
Answer: The way to the Creator is the same for everyone, but each one has their own personal way. What does that mean? On one hand, the way to attain the Creator is an internal personal experience, which means that it is something that only you can experience. As Baal HaSulam says, “Your eyes will see and not a stranger.” The Creator is attained in a meticulous, personal manner. On the other hand, the Creator is attained in a good, open, mutual connection between us.
There is a certain paradox here. When we reveal the common connection between us, each of us discovers only his or her upper, single, individual root in this connection.
Then there is the next phase which is called the general correction. I cannot say anything about it since no Kabbalist has ever attained it, because the correction of all of humanity is necessary for that. When we all want to be corrected and each one attains his root, all the individual roots will connect into one huge root, and this will be the complete end of correction. Then we will all attain our source, the one, single unique Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 8/18/19
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Question: In our world, humanity invented glasses that allow one to see better. What are the glasses in spirituality?
Answer: There is such a term “Sagi Nahor,” which means that a blind person can see even more. What does it mean to really see? This is when a person sees not with his eyes, but with his inner sight.
Question: What instrument helps to focus your sight on the Creator, on the upper force?
Answer: Desire! Only desire. If all our desires from each of the five different degrees, together are directed to the Creator, then we will see Him.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 9/10/21
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The basis of our yearning for the Creator is called the “point in the heart.” I feel that this point is pulling me, but I do not know where and I do not know who is doing it either. Yet, I want to know what is the meaning of life, its purpose, where did I come from and where am I going, and why is this life given to a person?
These questions concern many people in childhood and adolescence, but then they disappear. After all, hormones begin to act, and the world confuses us with its illusory values that distract our attention from the right questions: What am I living for?
However, there are people who cannot extinguish the point in their heart that draws them to the connection with the Creator, and therefore they come to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Then they have a choice whether to act according to their own mind, according to what they see in this world, what is called the “rational” approach.
It is funny that we call this “rational.” Is it possible to call the way a person behaves on this earth, rational, deliberate? How is it possible to make a rational decision if we do not know our future, we cannot connect ourselves to it, in order to take a step forward toward the future that we see, understand, and control based on the analysis of the present and future state? Then we could call our behavior rational. But if we have no idea about the future, then we cannot talk about any rational action.
We call rational steps when we rely on our egoism, which does not see what will happen in the next moment. Sometimes we even see that we are harming ourselves, but we cannot stop. We discover today in all human activity that we are doing everything wrong, destroying the Earth and our lives, moving toward wars and troubles, and at the same time, we cannot stop ourselves.
We are even worse than animals, because they do not do that. The animal will stop immediately if it senses danger. A person, however, cannot stop. After all, egoism is stronger than us, it is given from above and tells us what to do. And we obediently follow its orders, instead of the instructions of our animalistic instinct of self-preservation.
This is why we are destroying the planet, destroying the world, jeopardizing our future. This is called that we act on the basis of false “rationality” and according to reason. As if there is any reason in this crazy egoistic race.
To act “above reason” means that we accept the will of the Creator and His approach and begin to act according to it. This means that we appreciate the acts of bestowing above the acts of reception, that is, Bina governs Malchut, and not vice versa when Malchut, the will to receive, suppresses the qualities of Bina, the inclination to bestow.
If we organize a group that elevates and appreciates the quality of bestowal more than egoistic qualities, then we want to exist with the force of Bina, bestowal, which is above reason, above the egoistic will to receive.
To the extent that we elevate the level of Bina above the level of Malchut so that the will to bestow is higher and more respected for us than our will to receive, we build the exaltedness of the Creator. The Creator, the degree of Bina, becomes greater in our eyes than the degree of Malchut.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/21, Baal HaSulam, Shamati #14 “What Is the Exaltedness of the Creator?”
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My new article on Linkedin “Social Frustration in Israel”
Over the past several years, we have been exposed to an accelerating avalanche of corruption that is baffling and disturbing. This is especially true now, that corruption is exposed in institutions tasked with preventing the very crime they are committing: criminal corruption. High-ranking police officers, judges, members of the Knesset (Israeli parliament), ministers, prime ministers, and even the president, all have been convicted in serious offenses, from fraud and embezzlement to rape.
If there is any good about this awful list, it is the exposure of the truth. Now we know that we cannot trust anyone since human nature is inherently corrupt. The only way to prevent corruption is to change the crooked human nature for the better. The other option is anarchy.
But corruption isn’t the only cause for social frustration in Israel. If, previously, we hoped that time would heal the many social ruptures in Israeli society, we now know it will not happen. Secular vs. orthodox, Jews vs. Muslims, Ashkenazi vs. Sephardi, Tel-Aviv vs. the rest of the country, and the list goes on and on. It feels like the country is disintegrating from within.
The problem is not that we have veered off from the right track; it is that we were never on it. From the very beginning, we did not aim to realize the purpose of establishing a Jewish state. We treated the motto “Love your neighbor as yourself” as a naive principle that no one can, or is even expected to live out. We forgot that we were exiled from here precisely because we shunned this principle, and that our sages have been telling us for centuries that we will not succeed here, or anywhere, unless we reestablish care and mutual responsibility among us.
Now, as people are becoming increasingly and irrevocably connected, without concern for others, everything collapses. We, the people of Israel, who were entrusted with modelling the implementation of the principle of love of others and mutual responsibility, had to strive to realize this motto in our sovereign country from day one. Since we did not have this principle in mind, we have been in social relapse from the very beginning.
Now our corruption is manifest, but at least we know who we are and can decide to change it. And with the world realizing that we have failed it, it is beginning to pressure us in order to either change us, or get rid of the country and the nation that failed it.
In the meantime, the social frustration in Israel has amassed to levels that can erupt in destructive violence. To avoid disaster and prevent the looming social collapse, we must start working on our very nature.
It is not a political issue and goes deeper than any social dogma. It concerns changing the motivation for our actions from purely self-serving to a balanced approach that also sees the needs of the collective.
It is not a question of kindness; it is a question of survival. We simply cannot afford to be so selfish anymore. Unless we take other people into account, unless we learn to care about what they need and want, and strive to sympathize with them despite our inherent alienation, we have no future here in Israel, and perhaps no future anywhere.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What’s your secret to a happy life?“
My secret to a happy life is to be in balance with nature, to feel that I pose no interference to nature and to other people, and to try and be an organic part of the world so that people receive positive examples from me on how to interact with each other and with the world.
Based on “Meetings with Kabbalah” on July 29, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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