Entries in the 'Collective Soul' Category

A Demand For The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf a person feels a yearning to become Human and uses it correctly, he is called “Israel” which means “straight toward the Creator” (Yashar-El). He wants to aim all of his activity and all the circumstances he encounters in a way that connects them to the Creator. Then, in every situation and at every moment in life he wants to be under the influence of the Light that Reforms.

By building these things for himself the right way, a person discovers that he is standing in front of the Light, the Creator, and his entire work lies only in aspiring to the demand that is aimed at this correcting force. After all, looking at the big picture, only the two of them exist in the whole world.

In that case a person correctly builds his environment as well. The friends are parts of his soul, belonging to the same desire. To the degree he attaches them to himself, the Light comes and corrects that unity, replacing its form of reception with the form of mutual bestowal. Then all of the creatures surrounding a person become parts of him and everything fuses into one whole by means of the Light.

That is how we come to the study, to the use of the Kabbalistic method, and attain the goal of creation. By trying to take the right direction before the study and at other times, a person determines the speed of his advancement.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/11, Writings of Rabash

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Where Is The “Group Of Abraham” Today?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe nation of Israel is a collective definition of people whose ancestors inhabited ancient Babylon and received awakening to “the work of the Creator,” to reaching adhesion with Him. Abraham chose such people and organized them into his group. We are joining the same group consisting of people who exist in our world as well as the souls that don’t have material bodies.

In essence, it’s the very same group, the same souls, connecting to each other to reveal the spiritual world, the Creator, to achieve similarity with Him, and to bring Him contentment. All of these souls together are called the group of Abraham.

Part of these souls has fallen from the spiritual degree and is completely lost; nobody knows where they are. It’s said that 22 million people have been discovered in Pakistan, who, allegedly, once belonged to the people of Israel. It’s impossible to know now, and it’s not that important. We are thinking not in terms of “headcount,” but in relation to the souls, desires.

As to desire, those who are aspiring to attain the spiritual world today as well as those who have attained it in all the generations, together, are considered to be part of the group of Abraham. Besides, those who were once at the spiritual degree and then fell from it, forsaking “the work of the Creator,” are now in a “dormant” state, waiting to re-attain what they have lost. They, too, belong to this group.

It turns out that “Israel” (Yashar-Kel or straight to the Creator “) is a rather numerous group since a lot of people “passed through” it over the past generations. That group needs to constantly strengthen itself. We are all working to attain spirituality while still in this world, and we are joined by all the souls from the upper world, from another dimension, which are assisting us, working together with us in a unified system to pass the Light into the common soul of Adam HaRishon.

By doing so, we are awakening all the souls that have fallen from the spiritual world during the destruction of the First and Second Temples; we are helping them to come back. After all, they have become entangled in other desires and souls, which is called “being in exile.” In addition, we are awakening souls that have never been awakened before.

We are not working alone, but together with the souls of the Patriarchs, of Abraham, of the group from ancient Babylon! It’s an immense system.

But even if the system connects to itself all the souls, all the people in the world, and if all the souls in the spiritual world pass the Light to correct their desires, all that will only be a thin line in the world of Infinity, Nefesh de Nefesh. That’s how enormous Malchut of the world of Infinity is.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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I Dwell Inside My Nation

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen preparing for the lesson, I have to imagine that I am going to a meeting with the Creator in order to come closer to Him and to enter His field of vision. That’s because I come to the group, the place where the Creator becomes revealed. He will not become revealed outside of the group.

It is written about this in Scripture, “I dwell in the midst of My people.” To the extent of the group’s height and force, meaning the quantity and quality of its efforts, I will be able to enjoy the Light that I receive through it.

The group is the Shechina, Malchut of the world of Infinity. The group is my ark, my motherly womb, and my soul in the true sense. That’s because it is the collection of all the desires that I lack in order to correct them and attain correction.

Therefore I have to imagine that Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one, that I am one whole, one Kli together with the group, as one man with one heart in which mutual guarantee reigns. This Kli attains the single Light.

Whether there is one Light or several Lights depends on how closely welded together we are. If we are welded, then the Light influences us, and its might increases in accordance with our unity, which also grows stronger. Then we reach correction.

What does the correction amount to? It amounts to unity itself. As soon as we attain unity, the Light comes, correcting and filling us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/11, Writings of Rabash

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Life In The Web Of The Universe

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhile reading The Zohar, you mustn’t forget that it talks solely about relationships between us. The wicked and the righteous, a Saturday eve and weekdays, night and day, the still, vegetative, and animate nature, man, a Temple, a field and a tree, all these words describe only the types of relationships between souls, their connection at the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels.

They speak of nothing else beside this because nothing else exists. Within this connection, in the types of it, we experience the world. Combinations of forces tying the souls together draw the pictures of our world on a screen for us. Thus, we perceive reality.

Kabbalistic books describe only the connections between us since there is nothing else to write about. There is nothing else, and the worlds are descriptions of the levels of connection between souls.

There is a formless desire to feel pleasure, and what is described are the stages of its transformation in order to connect with others. By unifying with others, making efforts, and drawing the Light that reforms, discerns, and fulfills, the created being reveals the web of connections between all parts of one integral soul, Malchut of Infinity. That is what we are reading about.

Kabbalists do not perceive anything more. The created being experiences the reality detached from connection with others and calls it “this world,” or it feels ties with others in the forces of bestowal that give it life, and in that case, the upper world becomes revealed to it.

The upper world is relationships with others and all that I find in them. What do I find? It’s the property of bestowal. This is regarded as “to bestow in order to bestow.” Relationships of this type are described as “Do not do to others what you hate.” Later on, these relationships become stronger, and we feel love in them, which is regarded as “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The relationships of bestowal conducted by the principle of “Do not do to others what you hate” are regarded as the Second Temple, the level of Bina, Mochin de Neshama. The relationships of “Love your neighbor as yourself” are the First Temple, the level of Mochin de Haya.

Everything speaks solely of ties between people. All of the words that we can use, the entire reality that we can reveal, everything is still nothing more than the connection between people.

The lack of connection in which we are presently living appears as this world to us. My vision, my perception in the egoistic net between all, in its minimal degree, is regarded as “this world.” Consequently, I reveal the real, powerful, egoistic connection between us all as the left line, a Klipa (shell, impure force).

However, we don’t have another perception or understanding, another reality and existence, except in the connection between us, no matter whether it’s good or bad. The Book of Zohar speaks solely about the types of this connection.

What else can Kabbalists write about? There is nothing else in reality. Everything that seems to me as the still, vegetative, animate, and human realms, various objects, acts, thoughts, decisions, buildings, furniture, and vehicles, all that we can imagine is human relationships in their correct or incorrect form.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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The World Is Awaiting Your Verdict

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I keep trying to unify the world if I see an enormous amount of weapons and preparation for war in it?

Answer: We need to do what is up to us. The world has reached a threatening state and is rapidly moving toward undesirable events, but regardless, it still remains divided into groups, and no one is willing to yield their interests, even in the face of an imminent threat of explosion.

Every country defends itself and conducts a policy of protectionism, trying to separate from all the others. This tendency leads to war. After all, no one wants to unify with the others and take their interests into account. It is similar to children’s games where little proud egoists come into conflict, except that each of them holds a deadly weapon in their hands.

We need to accept this as conditions placed on the collective soul that needs to be reformed and try to instill the correction of all these phenomena. We ought to perceive everything we see in the world as a testament to our lack of effort.

All other people are deprived of free will and the ability to comprehend what is going on. How, then, can they correct anything? They are managed from Above. We need to make it so that on the scale of the world, the cup of mercy may outweigh the cup of guilt. This choice is in no one’s hands but ours.

All other people are blameless, and the states they are going through are merely the consequences of our actions. Their distancing from each other shows us how rapidly the flaws instilled in nature unfold in comparison to how quickly we make corrections on our part. We are lagging so far behind!

Those who are given free will and are shown to what degree the world keeps shifting toward the cup of guilt must be aware of what they are doing. It is written, “One should always consider oneself half sinful and half righteous,” and “if one performs a good dead, he sentences himself and the whole world to a scale of merit.”

So, where are they, our “good deeds”? It looks like we are able to do much more than we do. If you see that the world is experiencing greater problems, it points directly at you, all of us, telling us that we haven’t achieved that unification, dissemination, oneness, self-annulment, and guarantee that we were supposed to achieve. Let’s hope that we will wake up, as well as all our friends around the world.

We must think it over really well since the condition of the world is very threatening, and everything depends on us. I appeal to all who are listening and join us around the world. It is only we, our thought of oneness, who are capable of correcting the world and not letting this dangerous state grow to such an extent that it may enter confrontation and collapse.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Prayer Is Judgment Over Yourself

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we go about the “internal dissemination" and what should we do throughout the day to achieve it?

Answer: Correction happens by virtue of an action called “prayer,” which is the revelation of the true desire that demands fulfillment. This work is called “praying,” which translates as “judging yourself” or discerning your inner essence: Who am I, what do I want, do I have the right desires or not, and when will my deeds be similar to the deeds of the forefathers, meaning when will my desires be similar to the ones that Kabbalists described in the prayer book?

This is not simple at all. The prayer book was created by Kabbalists, the sages of the Great Assembly who were on the highest spiritual level. They left the prayer book for us so it would serve as an example of what we have to attain in our demands.

Prayer can only be for unity, and this is called “the prayer of society” or “the prayer of many.” There is nothing else for us to pray for because all the negative events and all problems in general that are revealed in the world come from lack of unity. That’s because unity is the Creator; it is His quality. That is why this is the only thing we should think about.

Unification regards all the people in the world, both men and women. In the end everyone must unite together in one global system, the common soul of Adam HaRishon. When I study, judge, think, ask, and answer, in reality I decide just one thing: Will I bring this entire system to unity? After all, through unity we correct everything.

Besides this force during the study and the desire for this to happen, there are no other means to bring about correction. Everything else only brings more corruption. There is either one thing or the other, and nothing in the middle. All of our actions either bring correction or harm. Even if you spent one moment sitting there and not doing anything, the time went by. You wasted it and did not use it for correction, and that means you brought about destruction!

Therefore, this desire for universal unity must always be alive in us. It is our “inner dissemination.”
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/11, “Introduction to the book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Replacing An Inclination

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Humanity can be divided into three parts: some are unaware of the process that leads them toward the revelation of the Creator; others participate in this process, are aware of their evil, and are using the method of correction; and the third group are those who have already undergone correction. What is the role of and the relationship between these parts in the program of creation?

Answer: All of them are together in an integral system. Regarding those who have already undergone correction, the system is open to them, and now they are assisting with the correction of others, with full understanding and awareness of what needs to be done.

Others are making the effort to become reformed. That includes us, our friends around the world, as well as the souls which are not clothed in bodies since “clothing” into a body is determined by the needs of spiritual work. Thus, we transform ourselves with the help of the upper souls and by bestowing to the lower ones, those who haven’t awakened yet.

This entire picture looks this way only to us. In truth, we can’t say that the system is one third corrected, one third in rehabilitation, and one third dead. It is fully alive. We, however, are discussing a degree in which a person awakens to consciousness and becomes aware of where he is and what is happening with him. Regarding the Creator, everything remains in a state of perfection, and only the souls must become fully aware of it.

This means that they must reveal all their evil, meaning the will to enjoy regarded as the evil inclination, cleanse it of this evil, and keep the desire pure. Then, instead of evil, instead of this egoistic intention, the Light will give them an additional intention to bestow, which is regarded as “good.” Thus the evil inclination will be replaced by the good inclination.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The Formula Of Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The Book of Zohar talks about the inner states of my soul. But I don’t understand: What state do I have to imagine?

Answer: You have to imagine the state of gradual unification among everyone, the unification of all of us together. This is your soul. It’s when you try to unite everyone into one whole. If I make efforts to this end, this is my soul. If someone else does it, then it’s his soul.

Each of us is like a cell in a body that is trying to attach the whole organism to it. By doing so you acquire the entire body or desire and it is called your soul.

If for now you are only taking a part of the body and connecting to it only to a specific measure, then you have a partial soul. This means that you are on the path, on the ladder of the degrees.

But when you come to the conclusion of the path and attain the end of the ladder, the highest degree, Malchut of Infinity, there everything merges into one without any boundaries and with no end. However, each of us imagines the same Malchut of Infinity from his personal point of view because every person has his own root of the soul. Therefore, not one person becomes nullified when this happens. No one cancels their independence.

The only thing we have to discern while reading The Book of Zohar are the forms of connection among us. Each separate cell has just a desire. This is the entire wisdom of Kabbalah—it is the connection between desires because that is how they create unification, the entire might of Malchut.

For example, a computer does not contain anything besides a plus and a minus. But billions of connections between them form all of its might and abilities. Likewise, the entire work of our brain is based on countless connections between a plus and a minus, the will to enjoy and the will to bestow. They can unite to a greater or lesser extent, to a different degree, or not unite at all. There is nothing besides this. Yet out of the enormous accumulation of all the possible parts, consisting of different variations of connection or its absence between a plus and a minus, you get tremendous wisdom and truly Divine might.

Therefore, this is exactly what we are discerning, the forms of connection between these tiny parts or souls.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/11, The Zohar

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The Yoke Of Heaven

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does “the yoke of the heavenly kingdom” mean in the spiritual work?

Answer: It means that I take the “heavens,” Bina, the quality of bestowal upon myself so it will rule over Malchut, the quality of reception. Malchut is broken. It shattered into billions of parts, and my work lies in taking one part after another and attaching it to the others.

It can be stated differently: I am a part of Malchut and I have to attach all the other parts of it to myself. How do we do this? For now we connect these parts in our small group, which are the parts we have to correct according to the program of the spiritual work. For now I have to be with the friends as one man with one heart in this way in order to correct the breaking in a small segment of Malchut, in the group, in my environment.

Then I have to bestow to the world, meaning to all the other parts of Malchut, so they would also unite with the group. That is how I correct all of Malchut.

In essence, I have to correct the world, telling myself that all of it was created for me. That is how I incline myself and the whole world to justification. By correcting my part, I “inject” my ascent, my awakening, my Light into all the broken, disconnected souls. Then they also awaken and each of them in turn aspires to unity with others.

So it turns out that a person brings spiritual life to everyone, becoming “righteous’ or “the foundation of the world.” After all, he gives everyone the force of the Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/11, Writings of Rabash

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A Flying Jump

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe work in a “binary,” discrete form, by way of individual impulses: yes or no, connection or no connection, ascent or descent, right or left. In this way, little by little, we add one step after the other, and all of this finally forms into one integral whole.

When it is necessary to calculate the area of a certain complex shape, scientists use an integral equation: They fill this complex form with squares that can be measured and make them smaller and smaller, and in the end, they sum it all up.

On one hand, the connecting grid that works between the souls within which we reside is discrete, with individual impulses and actions. But in the end, as a result of our attainment, when we penetrate it deeper and deeper, it gets transformed into an integral network. In other words, there is such an enormous amount of ties and actions, which depend on each other so much, that we get infinity.

It isn’t just a sum at the rung where I accumulate all these properties and actions, but it is also their “summarizing” component that has another essence, from a higher spiritual degree. Conversely, from the discrete form we are moving toward the integral one. The “integral form,” the sum of these discrete forms is the Creator, One, as it is written: “He and His Name are one.” We are approaching this integral form discretely, yet by accumulating a little more with each time, by adding our little “bricks,” we connect to the One.

We, ourselves, can never reach this One. We do everything we can at our current degree, accumulate the necessary sum of efforts, and reach the degree equal to “10 Sefirot.” And finally, the leap to the next degree occurs.

But I cannot leap on my own; the upper force gives me a lift. This force is the “summing up factor,” the One. And then, instead of “10,” I reach 1 (One), like a calculator which after 10 of my clicks jumps to the next digit.

This is how we keep accumulating all our corrections until the force of “Rav Paalim u-Mekabtziel” arrives, and Gmar Tikkun (the final correction) occurs!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2011, "The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah"

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