Lesson Preparation
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 117
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Lesson on the Topic “Tishaa BeAv (Ninth of Av)”
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Since the times of the Ari, the time of correction has come and the method of correction, Kabbalah, was revealed. Hence if we reject it even today, not recognizing the need to unite, this is the true destruction in us. The real holocaust is not the one that happened in the past, but the one that is happening!
The 9th of Av is revelation of egoism in each of us. Now the time has come to correct it. This is exactly why the breaking happened. By correcting the breaking between us, we attain revelation of the quality of bestowal and unite with the Creator. We must mourn our failures to unite.
We must mourn not over the destruction of the Temple 2,000 years ago, but over the Temple we have not built in our hearts. This is mourning and a holocaust every day! We carry out its destruction today too, as written, “Each day that the Temple is not resurrected is as if it is destroyed anew.”
The 17th of Tamuz is the breaking of the tablets, the 9th of Av is the destruction of the 1st and 2nd Temples, exile of the nation, and birth of the Messiah. All of this is preparation for the 3rd Temple—complete redemption from egoism, unification and revelation of the Creator’s upper light.
Mourning the destruction of the Temple means mourning the lack of yearning for unity, which is called sanctity. It is because requests for oneself elicit separation from the Creator. And only requests for everyone’s unity elevate the world, Israel, as well as the one who asks.
(Rabash, “Destruction of Sanctity”)
“The Temple served all the nations of the world. Otherwise it would not have stood even for one hour. And although the nations are against Israel, the Temple, the world’s perfection for all the nations, was destroyed not at the hands of the nations of the world, but precisely by reciprocal hatred among the nation of Israel.”
(Maaral Mi Prag. Hidushei Igrot. “Gitin” 55:2)
We mustn’t fear that the states we undergo are harmful—on the contrary, these are phases of the soul’s healing. We feel improvement, rehabilitation, sensations become more intense, our eyes “open,” and our strength is magnified—the descent, the soul’s illness passes.
Baal HaSulam: If something seems bad or harmful to us, this testifies to that element still going through a transition phase, in the process of its development and its awareness by us. Hence we have no right to decide that it is bad and to neglect it.
The Creator isn’t hiding in the system—on the contrary, He planted His reason inside it, the sensation of Him inside every part. By putting this puzzle together, we not only get the corrected picture and begin living in that wonderful world, we also attain the general law of the system, love and unity!
From Twitter, 7/21/19
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There is nothing but the prayer. We are created from the desire to enjoy and all we can do is organize in groups and learn to awaken the reforming Light, which will light up and give us a feeling that our state is inferior. So we reveal that we are under the governance of egoism, we gradually come to the realization of evil and from the bottom of our hearts, we ask the Creator for correction.
At first, we do not know who the Creator is and how to ask Him. But the desire to enjoy works as help against itself, directing us toward the Creator. We are beginning to better imagine the upper force from the awareness of the opposite property, and thus we come to prayer.
We must realize our evil, become acquainted with the upper force, and be ready to turn this evil into good. The Creator is able to do so and awaits our prayer. It all depends on our true request.1
The path to the spiritual world consists of two stages. First, a person makes all possible efforts in the group, he studies, disseminates, and goes through all sorts of states, accelerating time. This continues until he reaches complete despair and realizes that nothing will help him, but at the same time, he reveals the opportunity to turn to the Creator.
He feels greater connection with the Creator. Beforehand, he did not associate himself with the Creator at all and did not think that there is a force that controls him. There was no connection between the states he passed through and the upper force. Suddenly, he discovers that there is this connection—there is someone who directs and conducts him through different states. So he forms the prayer.2
There are problems that I am afraid to admit even to myself. There are those that I hesitate to disclose to my ten. But imagine that we are one body—not material, but spiritual. This means that everything except the beastly body, which has already died, is common for all of us. So what can we hide from one another in our spiritual work?
If I hate a friend and disagree with him, then I definitely have to confess it to everyone. After all, it cuts me off from development. Even more so, I prevent my friends from advancing.
The whole ten has to be like one body with regard to spirituality, and corporeality does not matter at all, as if the body has already died and decomposed in the ground. It is only our spiritual connection that is important, as much as we can imagine it today, and it will grow as we rise step by step.
Every day, two people in the ten should be responsible for our spiritual state and awaken the rest.3
“Love will cover all transgressions.” It turns out that if there are no transgressions, then there is no love, there is only beastly connection. Love, that is, the spiritual connection, begins when sins are revealed. Every day, one has to hate his friends and cover this hate with love, remembering that there is none else beside the Creator, who is the root cause of all phenomena.
We do not need to look for who is right and wrong: there is hatred and we have to find how to cover it with love. Then, you will see that there is no way you can do it! But if the whole ten asks for help from above, then love will cover all transgressions. Love comes only from the Creator.
Alone without the friends, I cannot turn to the Creator—only together with them. He will then definitely answer us: not me, but the whole ten. He deliberately ignites disputes between us and in a few minutes will kindle it somewhere else.
We should unite around the problem the Creator revealed and thank Him for it. After all, it is obvious that this hatred has always existed and has been revealed only because we became mature enough to ask the Creator for salvation. The revelation of hatred is evidence of progress.
We need to unite all together and perceive this hatred as an invitation from the Creator to turn to Him, giving Him the opportunity to answer our prayer. After several such conscious appeals, we will feel the triangle inside: me – the Creator – the group, or the Creator – the group – me.
If hatred is not revealed, then we are not worthy of advancement. That being said, we do not awaken the hatred; on the contrary, we must strive to unite as much as possible, and then we will feel that the Creator causes the rejection in us.
We do not aspire to reveal the evil, but only the good. The evil we get from above, just like the correction. We always reach for the good.4
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/19, Prayer
1 Minute 0:20
2 Minute 37:15
3 Minute 52:40
4 Minute 56:50
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The Plan Of Creation—To Bring Enjoyment To Creation
Question: What is the purpose of creation?
Answer: The purpose of creation is of utmost importance. It precedes everything created to where we are now.
The purpose of creation is to bring enjoyment to the creation. In order to accomplish this, creation has to have a desire to enjoy. Therefore, first there has to be a lack in creation, a sensation of what creation wants. The main quality of the matter of creation is the sensation that it lacks something. This is called “the desire to receive pleasure.”
This desire should develop gradually because creation will be able to determine what is desirable and undesirable for itself, at what stages, in what form, etc., only if the desire develops in a gradual manner. In other words, creation cannot be created immediately. One can quickly build a machine that will perform a certain function, but in order for creation to be independent, for it to become similar to its Creator, for it to enjoy, the desire has to go through certain stages of development.
Question: It turns out that even the Creator cannot create a creation at once, without any stages of development?
Answer: The answer is no. If creation wouldn’t go through a gradual process of development, then it would not be a creation. It would be like a robot, similar to the inanimate, vegetative and animal levels of nature that automatically carry out their programming without any freewill and independent participation on their behalf.
To create a human being is to develop the desire to a point of independence, bringing it to an awareness who it is, what it is, who controls it, and why and how it has been created specifically the way it has. On one hand, this desire has to have qualities opposite to the Creator, and on the other hand, it has to have the opportunity to achieve the Creator’s properties. This is how creation can eventually reach perfection. Therefore, everything begins with the Creator’s influence on creation.
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From KabTV’s “Basics of Kabbalah,” 11/27/18
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New Life 268 – Building A True Social Security Net
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel
When we are in crisis and feel weak and distressed, we need social security that offers real human warmth and concern. Today, we are in a rapid deterioration of helplessness and insecurity. The elderly seek out social services due to their desire for human connection, but do not find it. Human development is focusing more on good social relationships. We need volunteers with a hearty attitude toward others to build a social system based on mutual guarantee. This is what really reduces anxiety and prevents disease. Human love and connection is the life force that revives, heals, and enlivens everything.
From KabTV’s “New Life 268 – Building A True Social Security Net,” 12/12/13
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Lesson Preparation
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 112
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Lesson on the Topic “Tishaa BeAv (Ninth of Av)”
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
The entire universe is a lack of fulfillment, the desire to enjoy, to grow, and to fulfill oneself. This desire works instinctively in the whole creation: in inanimate matter, plants, animals, and human beings, and therefore, they are searching, craving, and fighting with each other for survival. This is every created being’s tendency.
The Creator is approaching the created being and it starts feeling some kind of discomfort, without understanding where it comes from. The created being does not know what exactly it is lacking, but it starts to search for fulfillment. The Creator initiates the approach by coming closer to the created being, and the created being suffers from it, wants to eliminate this suffering, and therefore, seeks fulfillment. This is what happens in everyday life.
However, there are people who are able to advance to the goal by the way of accelerating time (Achishena). They themselves take the process of their development into their own hands, gradually awakening a sense of deficiency in themselves. After many ascents and descents, moving farther or closer to the Creator, they realize exactly what to do. Their life then becomes more purpose-driven. They understand what is going on and how to act, how to become the Creator’s partners.
The Creator no longer advances them instinctively like all other created beings that do not understand what they are doing but simply react in a predetermined way to the Creator’s influence according to the instinct inherent in them. We see this behavior in all of nature. Although a person is assembled with more complexity than others, there is nothing special in him that makes him an independent creature. The Creator, the force of nature, acts in everything.
If people aspire to find out what goal they should reach and through what means, they can accelerate their development, awakening in themselves on their own a desire to sense the lack and its fulfillment. With the help of these two forces, they can walk, like on two legs, and significantly accelerate their path.
They understand where they are going and with whom they are dealing, and therefore, the path becomes clearer, more emotional, and conscious for them. They discover the forces acting upon them and understand the system in which they exist, that is, they reveal the upper world. It all depends on our attitude to the states we undergo and to the forces governing us.1
You can wait until you feel the suffering or you can search for the deficiency even before you start feeling it. If I want to eliminate the problem that has already been revealed, it is a natural reaction. The true deficiency is not the one that is revealed by itself but the one I awaken by myself, wanting to discover it in me. This means that I myself awaken the darkness that precedes the dawn.2
Evil can have many forms. Maybe I am in a bad mood, and this is evil. Or I have become disillusioned with the spiritual path and do not understand what I am wasting my life on—this is also evil. The Creator does not reveal Himself to me, the friends do not help me and forget about me—also evil. Then I discover that all the evil is within me. But the Creator created me this way.
A person decides by him or herself what to consider as evil. You should be very sensitive to what kinds of evil you feel; after all, advancement is precisely in this: how many types of evil I can distinguish and start to examine.
Either I reveal the evil by myself or the Creator reveals it to me. It is important what is considered as evil. If the Creator, the force of bestowal and love, comes closer to me, an egoist, I feel bad. After all, this force is opposite to me and its nearing brings me suffering.
The Creator is not revealed to my will to receive as the force of love. This love is above my egoism, above reason, and if the Creator openly approached us now, it would be very unpleasant for us. The force of bestowal would be revealed, which we absolutely do not belong to. To ask for this force to fill me completely is worse than death for my egoism. Therefore, we are ready to accept any state, but not the force of bestowal.
We should ask for unity, connection with others, and pray for the common Kli, not for its fulfillment. If our connection is revealed, we will be able to tolerate the force of bestowal within it.3
Perhaps I am afraid that I will reveal to what extent I am opposite to the will to bestow. Therefore, I subconsciously, instinctively protect myself, not letting myself come closer to it. I find some kind of external orbit that lets me keep the balance: I participate somewhat in the group, but I do not really join it, I do not go beyond my abilities.
Here the question arises: can the group push me, pull me close, so I would feel that there is no way out and that I must ask for strength from the friends to help me become included in the group above my nature. This is what it means to awaken the pre-dawn darkness: despite the darkness, rejection, fear, unwillingness, and confusion, to go toward connection and move forward.4
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/11/19, Prayer
1 Minute 0:20
2 Minute 24:30
3 Minute 38:15
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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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Question: Is it possible to cultivate a desire for spirituality without going through a state of emptying and filling?
Answer: No, it is impossible. The fact is that once we were all one—one soul (Adam). Then this soul was broken into many small parts—billions of points of private souls. However, since there was contact between them, there was a connection; these contacts stopped working.
What is the difference between a dead person and a living one? The fact that in a living person there is a constant connection, the renewal of connections, but in the dead this no longer happens. Therefore, our condition is called “spiritually dead.”
What do we need to do? Connect. It is in the process of connection that we will acquire more and more of our general state, our common soul.
We must completely restore our original connection, which existed before the so-called “sin,” before the breaking of the common soul.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/20/19
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