Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 12/19/19
Posted on December 19th, 2019 at 7:00 am
Lesson Preparation
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 4
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Lesson Preparation
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 4
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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/18/19
Do you know the spiritual meaning of the Miracle of Hanukkah and all the Hanukkah symbols? Find out what the Maccabees, the greeks, candle, oil, wick and dreidel symbolize in the infographic.
Learn everything about the spiritual meaning of Hanukkah
Shamati, 35, “Concerning the Vitality of Kedusha”: …there is a rule that from Above they give giving, and take, they do not take (all that is given from Above is not received in return, but stays below). Hence, if one extends something from Above and then blemishes it, it remains below, but not with man. Instead, it falls to the sea of the Sitra Achra.
I drew the light and cannot hold on to it. In the first instant, I reached equivalence of form with the light and it revealed itself in my desire. But in the very next moment, the new uncorrected informational record (Reshimo) was revealed in me, which needs to be adapted again for the new light. However, I did not do it and therefore, the previous light departs from within me. In fact, the light remains, but I stop feeling it because my desire was renewed.
From the illumination I received, I must learn how to continue next time: to prepare desires, the foundation, strength, mutual guarantee, and security in order to draw the light for the sake of bestowal. Each time my participation should increase.1
In every moment that follows, a new Reshimo is revealed that does not fit the previous state. A stronger desire is revealed and greater lights are revealed against it, and I need to bring this desire in equivalence with the light by making a stronger effort. Yet, I did not do that, I was not ready, and therefore, I lose the illumination from the previous state.
Initially, the system is built in such a way that I am never ready to receive the light immediately. After all, my vessel is broken; therefore, the broken desire is revealed, and the light against it, which I obviously cannot receive at that moment. It is written about it, “There is no righteous in the land that does good and hasn’t sinned.” After each transgression the correction is revealed, the commandment, because “one does not perform a Mitzva unless he has failed in it.”
First, there is always revelation of shattering, so we go: descent and ascent. Without the fall, the ascent is impossible, the correct use of the will to receive, because desire reveals the sensation of the fall.2
The desire becomes suitable for work only once it receives impressions from the qualities of the light. This happened during the shattering. The shattering happens because the light enters the desires; the boundary between the will to receive and the will to bestow is broken and these desires mix with each other.
Inside the created being the qualities of the light and qualities of the vessel mix with each other. Thus, as a result of the shattering, the created being acquires qualities of the Creator, although it feels corrupted, shattered. However, this unpleasant sensation comes precisely from the feeling of its oppositeness to the Creator, that is, because the Creator is in the created being and is revealed in it.
This is their meeting, contact, and revelation. Therefore, only after the shattering and onward is it possible to talk about the real created being standing against the Creator. The created being can ignore the Creator and want to rule by itself: the impure force (Sitra Achra) is our true nature that feels its oppositeness to the Creator.
This is an advanced state because inside the created being there already is the connection with the Creator and recognition of its own oppositeness. The created being knows the Creator and it knows itself, insisting “I shall rule!” From this point onward correction is possible, but not before that. This happened during the destruction of the Second Temple and the subsequent exile; therefore, only now, today, are we ready for the correction, but not earlier.3
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 35, “Concerning the Vitality of Kedusha“
1 Minute 29:35
2 Minute 32:00
3 Minute 41:20
Related Material:
When The Light Meets The Reshimot
Answers To Your Questions, Part 174
Cursory Thoughts On Shamati, “What Is The Difference Between A Shade of Kedusha And A Shade Of Sitra Achra”
The Times of Israel published my new article “How to Eliminate Anti-Semitism in the United States”
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The way to eliminate anti-Semitism in the United States is the same as how to solve anti-Semitism anywhere in the world: to raise awareness of the root cause of anti-Semitism in order to invert hatred into love.
Kabbalistic sources explain both such a cause and solution to anti-Semitism. It is because Kabbalists perceive developmental processes unfolding in our world, and can both warn people of oncoming threats, as well as offer a remedy to prevent such threats from materializing.
For instance, Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), the most renowned Kabbalist of the 20th Century, tried convincing European Jews in the 1930s to leave Europe because he foresaw the oncoming disaster. Both following his example, as well as taking heed to the alerting recent rise in anti-Semitism worldwide, I also feel the need to communicate the message about the root cause of anti-Semitism and its solution both to Jews and non-Jews, and I extensively write and speak on the topic with the hope that, at the very least, a future mass tragedy can be prevented.
In relation to the United States, I have lectured to Jewish communities in the United States at various intervals over the last 20 years. During the 2000s, I was laughed at when I mentioned that anti-Semitism was going to become a growing issue in America. Now, in the 2010s, after anti-Semitism’s immense exponential growth, both in the amounts of anti-Semitic crimes and threats, as well as in anti-Semitic sentiment, I am saying that the all signs are pointing to the next Holocaust emerging in America.
However, as much as I write and speak about this topic, I see little response to this message from the Jewish people. It is written about us, that we are a stiff-necked people, i.e., we have a tough skin that makes it very hard to penetrate such awareness into our perception.
In any case, in order to prevent a future dystopian scenario for the Jewish people in the United States, as well as elsewhere, the message is the same for all Jews: we need to unite, according to the tenet “love your friend as yourself,” in order to become “a light unto the nations,” i.e., a conduit that passes the positive unifying force dwelling in nature to the world. If the message doesn’t become accepted through education, explanation and promotion, then anti-Semitic blows and suffering will rise, “softening our stiff necks,” undesirably increasing our ability to absorb such a message.
That is the state we first reached some 3,800 years ago in ancient Babylon, under Abraham’s guidance, which granted us the name, “the people of Israel” (“Israel” from the words, “Yashar Kel,” which means “straight to God” [“God” being the same as “Nature” according to Kabbalah, i.e., a positive force that connects all elements of reality]). Also, according to the same unifying tendency, we were later named “Jews,” from the word for “unity” (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]).
Today, we are reaching new global proportions of anti-Semitism that the world has never seen, since today’s world is more globally-integrated than ever before. Due to anti-Semitism emerging as a natural phenomenon in non-Jews, toward a subconscious expectation for the Jews to pioneer a process toward more positive human connection, then we can expect a future where everyone other than a few Jews will be anti-Semitic.
Therefore, we Jews first and foremost need to show everyone how unity above the growing hostile divisions in society is not only a possibility, but that there is a method of connection to guide our every step of the way. By implementing such a method on ourselves, we send positive unifying ripples throughout humanity’s consciousness, and invite an opposite attitude from anti-Semitism upon ourselves in return. In other words, by witnessing increasing positive connection, and subsequent rises in happiness, support and confidence in society at large, the general attitude toward a unified Jewish people would become favorable and encouraging.
However, if the Jewish people will continue rejecting, ignoring or remaining unaware of the message of the need to unite, then instead of seeing unity form in society’s mainstream, we can expect unity to form more and more in society’s fringes, i.e., as Nazi and fascist unity. Such unity is dangerous, since it is built on uniting around the hatred of the other, and it becomes the infrastructure that can lead to the manifestation of horrific events, as exemplified by the Holocaust.
Therefore, I hope that Jews in general, and especially American Jews, will start noticing that the ball is in our court, and that we need to play the game well: to prioritize our unity in order to spread unity onward. If we do so, we will experience a better general state in America and around the world. However, if we fail to realize what the wisdom of Kabbalah is saying on this pressing issue, then the state will become much worse.
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Question: There are many personal growth techniques nowadays that say: “Take responsibility, set goals and act, strive, work!” A person on our path often faces the fact that the Creator inserts sticks in his wheels. How can one act properly in order to do what is necessary on the material level and not deviate from one’s spiritual path?
Answer: First of all, it is necessary to understand the Creator’s plan. The plan is to bring a person to an absolutely free state. So that no pressure from the Creator is directed against a person, only for a person. If a person perceives this correctly, then he finds the correct contact with the Creator.
Then you just need to implement this practice. You will gradually understand that exactly this practice makes you free, raising you above your egoism. It raises you to the quality of bestowal, and this quality makes you free.
It seems to us that the quality of bestowal, love, bestowal on one’s neighbor, and love for one’s neighbor somehow enslaves us, limits us, makes us think about others and work for others. No. This is actually not the case. In fact, meanwhile, we begin to receive the upper energy, the higher sensation, a way out of this world; therefore, it feels like freedom.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 11/17/19
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Absolute Freedom
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Basis of the Wisdom of Kabbalah
Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”: “This wisdom is no more and no less than a sequence of roots, which hang down by way of cause and consequence, by fixed, determined rules, interweaving to a single, exalted goal described as ‘the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures in this world.’”
The wisdom of Kabbalah says that being in our world we can, with the help of consistent study and discovery of the laws of nature, come to the attainment of the upper world, the upper force, the Creator. Moreover, we will reveal Him as an absolute, clear, upper law that connects together all parts of creation. By revealing the Creator, we will fully attain the entire creation because He includes everything.
Everything is inside of Him including us. It is just that on the way to attaining this oneness, this common force, the common system, we get confused in various small, private forces and connections. Yet, in general, we reveal only the Creator because there is none else besides Him.
This is also written, “There is none else besides Him.” This is the first condition of determining what the basis of the wisdom of Kabbalah is. That is, the wisdom of Kabbalah deals with the revelation of the Creator by a person in our world, who in one’s research goes through the entire chain of forces from oneself to the Creator and thus, gradually reveals Him.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 8/18/19
Related Material:
What Does The Wisdom Of Kabbalah Give Us?
The Definitions Of Kabbalah
Kabbalah Is The Method Of Revealing The Creator
Lesson Preparation
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 1
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 150
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Shofar of the Messiah”
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We, Jews, must show the world that we can unite over hostile divisions in society. By becoming an example of how to unite, we pass the positive unifying forces to humanity and engender a positive attitude toward us.
Today we’re reaching a new global scale of anti-Semitism, which is unprecedented, because the world is more globally integrated. #Antisemitism is becoming a natural phenomenon in non-Jews: they subconsciously expect the Jews to begin connecting people in a positive way.
About 3,800 years ago in ancient Babylon, Abraham gave us the name “the people of Israel” (“Isra-El” from the words “Yashar-El,” meaning “straight to the Creator”). We were later called #Jews – “Yehudi” from the word “unity, united.” [Yaarot Devash, Part 2]
In the 2010s, after a surge of #Antisemitism—anti-Semitic crimes and threats, along with anti-Semitic sentiments, all of the present signs point to the next Holocaust emerging in the United States. But I don’t see the #Jews having an adequate response to this message.
To prevent a future anti-utopian scenario for the Jewish people in the US and other countries, we must unite, according to the principle “love others as yourself,” and become the “light to the nations,” that is, a conductor transmitting the positive unifying force of nature into the world.
From Twitter, 12/17/19
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After such a powerful congress, we want to measure our ascents and descents according to new values. Previously the state depended only on me, on my good or bad feeling from which I concluded that I was in ascent or descent. But now I want to connect my states to the Creator: If I yearn for Him, it means I am in an ascent, and if I do not yearn for Him no matter how well my ordinary life is arranged, I consider this to be a descent.
We then move to a new state where ascents and descents are determined according to the direction: toward the Creator or toward ourselves. This is a big advancement because I can already analyze: am I thinking of the Creator or of myself? And if I yearn for the Creator, then why—to bring contentment to Him or to myself? Here begins a calculation through an additional discernment: me or the Creator, me or the friends?
On these scales, I give increasing weight to the side opposite to me: the group or the Creator, and use it to evaluate the ascent and descent. Ascents are when I think more about the good of the ten and the Creator and descents are the other way around: when they disappear from my horizon and I do not think about them but only about myself. These are clear cause-and-effect steps that should lead me to Lishma.
The main thing is to disconnect from myself a little and to start thinking in the direction of the Creator. I want to yearn for Him and bring Him contentment. And only if I place myself in the ten, will it bring Him contentment. Therefore, the ten gains new weight for me: it is not just ten people but Shechinah (Divinity), a place for the revelation of the Creator where I can bestow to Him. Everything is already directed toward the state of bestowal, Lishma.1
The Creator is dancing a tango with us: He comes closer, then steps back, and demands a response from me. After He illuminated me, then moved away and disappeared, I must come closer to the previous state. It is like breathing: exhaling and inhaling. So, the Creator teaches me that through actions in the group I will give Him a place where He can be revealed, where I invite Him, and demand revelation. When this place is opened, the Creator fills this place and again disappears, leaving it empty. And then I have to draw Him back again.
I need to add my passion, my aspiration, to this tango. Every time the Creator disappears, I must examine myself: What am I really yearning for? And I try to improve the quality of my aspiration for Him so that not my filling, but the one I yearn for, is important to me.2
We have nothing to give to the Creator except our connection. The Creator is perfect and needs nothing, feeling no lack. All we can offer Him is a vessel, a Kli, in which He can reveal Himself and enjoy fulfilling our desire. Therefore, each of us has the opportunity to bring contentment to the Creator by preparing the first nine Sefirot, the nine friends, for the revelation of the Creator in them.
Each of us becomes Malchut in relation to the rest and prepares them to be fulfilled by the Creator. One gives one’s desire and the Creator is revealed in the first nine Sefirot, in the friends. This is our work and this is all we can present to the Creator: a spiritual vessel.3
The desire for the Creator is developed through a long path, from our egoistic desire. I receive various blows and then I feel that they are rigged by the Creator to make me understand that everything comes from Him, both bad and good, any situation in life. Inside all life’s problems and “punishments,” the hand of the Creator is revealed.
At first, I felt only punishments, but because of that I felt pain, fear, despair, and shame. But suddenly, it turns out that the punishments come from the Creator, and this is a relief. After all, there is a justification and explanation for what is happening: this is how the Creator leads me to the final correction. It already sweetens the punishments.
I felt bad when punishments came, but from their sweetening, I feel good. It is impossible to get this pleasant feeling without prior suffering. Therefore, I agree: let there be fears, anxieties, confusion, only so that I receive mercy and sweetening. That is how we learn that the connection with the Creator justifies any condition.
This is how the yearning for the Creator is built because I see that love covers all crimes and I want to feel the Creator, to understand, to love. I feel good to be longing for Him—this is still an egoistic form. I feel good from the fact that I have thoughts about the Creator, that I strive for Him, because I know that the connection with Him gives sweetness. And not only because He sweetens the judgement I receive, but even without the threat of judgement, I want to think about Him. This is the second stage.
If I do not think about the Creator for even a moment, I feel bad. And if I do not feel bad about it, then I regret why is this so? Indeed, this means separation from the Creator. Here a person can check how terrible it feels to break away from the Creator even for a moment.
My definition of good and evil changes. Evil is when I do not think about the Creator and good is when I do. I still evaluate through the fact that I feel pleased or displeased, but the very thought of the Creator is already becoming a reward. I no longer need preliminary punishment in this world in order to wait for the Creator as my savior. It turns out that I am already moving from this world toward the Creator and saying that thinking about Him is a reward and not thinking is a punishment.
The Kli that the Creator can fill is the ten. Good is when the Creator is revealed to the whole ten as one: He unites all and is revealed to all. Let Him work, He loves this job! But He will not do anything until we demand Him to work. We are the masters who order the work of the Creator: we identify places where we are not connected and we demand from the Creator to connect us and fill us. This is the raising of MAN, the prayer.4
You must work by faith above reason, ignoring your feelings, “like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load.” Once upon a time, domestic animals, oxen and donkeys were free and lived their lives in nature, in their family, in the herd. Now their whole life is to fulfill the owner’s demand. They sold themselves for food and are ready to do all the work that the owner requires.
We also need to agree to do all the work at the Creator’s request “like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load.” And for what reward? For none, only the bare necessities to exist. I want nothing, only to exist, and why? To fulfill the master’s desire so that He loves me as his ox or donkey.
Why do owners feed and clean their animals? Because they work. So, I want the same and nothing more. I need to lower myself to the state of pure intention.5
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/19, Hardening of the Heart – An Invitation to Build a Yearning for the Creator”
1 Minute 4:50
2 Minute 27:50
3 Minute 31:56
4 Minute 51:50
5 Minute 1:24:15
Related Material:
“The Hardening Of The Heart—Opportunity For Ascent”
Constant Fulfillment In Yearning
The Main Thing: Yearning For The Goal
Daily Audio Version-MP3
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