Commandments And Traditions

Question: Does Kabbalah obligate one to follow the Jewish rituals?

Answer: When one studies the wisdom of Kabbalah, even being the most secular person who has never followed any traditions, he begins to feel that all of these rituals are given with the purpose of reminding about the connection with the upper force. Therefore, some people begin to follow these traditions, although there is no obligation.

Question: For example, what is the meaning of blessings for bread and for wine in the beginning of the first Shabbat meal?

Answer: It is impossible to explain these actions without the wisdom of Kabbalah. Only Kabbalah explains what the seventh day of the week, Shabbat, means. It corresponds to the seventh millennium, that is, the end of correction.

We hope that we will come to a state when the entire world will be corrected and will continue its existence in the absolute general love for the other in greater degree than for himself. Then, the upper force will be revealed between us in the corrected connection and will dwell between everyone.

Without the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is impossible to understand what the Torah is talking about.

Question: Why do we add salt to the bread during the blessing at the beginning of the Shabbat meal?

Answer: It is very simple to understand for someone who studies Kabbalah. However, it is impossible to explain it without using the Kabbalistic terms. Bread symbolizes the Light of Mercy, Hassadim, Bina, whereas salt is Malchut. This way, a connection appears between Bina and Malchut, as it is written, “You shall offer salt on all your sacrifices,” as a sign of the union.

One must study this. It is impossible to explain it in a few words. If you want to understand the inner meaning of any tradition, it is possible only through the wisdom of Kabbalah. All traditions, laws, and commandments in Judaism come from Kabbalah and exist only because of this wisdom. It explains their true meaning and fills them with the inner sense.
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From the Radio Program on 103FM, 2/28/16

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Question: Why don’t we eat Chametz on Pesach (Passover)?

Answer: Because Chametz symbolizes the connection between flour and water. Flour symbolizes the attribute of the egoistic desire and water symbolizes the attribute of the altruistic desire.

Therefore, on Passover we are at final stage of the domination of the ego and we begin to feel that egoism controls us in everything since we lack the attribute of Hassadim, the attribute of Hesed, the attribute of the water, which is what the Matzah symbolizes.

Matzah is the connection between flour and water. They are mixed for a very precise period of time, for 18 minutes, so that the flour will not begin to rise. If they are mixed too long, we have to constantly knead the dough without stopping…

This process symbolizes our work with egoism, the process in which we have to keep working with it, giving it new forms over and over again, moving to altruism. And then it is possible.

But in principle, it is impossible to work with the Chametz for more than 18 minutes, which means that the connection has to be minimal, just as it appears in our egoism. What is altruism? That we want to show good intentions toward someone so the ego will benefit from it? The Matzah symbolizes the lack of water, the lack of Hassadim, the lack of Hesed, in our egoistic attitude, and so it is called the “bread of poverty,” which means the poverty of a wide heart, in the openness between people.

It is customary to eat Matzah on Passover eve because it is on this night that we reveal to what extent we don’t have the attribute of love and bestowal among us, the attribute of Bina, or the attribute of Hesed. We are ready for anything as long as we can exit this egoistic state, and so we eat Matzah on the night of our liberation from egoism.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/13/16

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Question: What is the correction of the 613 desires and does it refer to the 613 Mitzvot (commandments) in the Torah? Can you explain what corrected desire number 35 refers to, the one about preparing the special oil for anointing the great priest and the king?

Answer: The great priest and the king are not human beings but a special spiritual level. When you ascend to this level, the structure of a king or a great priest will be formed in you and you will be able to perform an action called drawing of the Light of Hochma.

The Light of Hochma is the oil and the Light of Hassadim is the water. By using the oil (the Light of Hochma), you can make a special “solution,” i.e., a special system for correction, elevation, and proximity in order to ascend to the level of the king or the great priest. These are all our internal attributes that we have to arrange and to correct.

Thus, any Mitzva is the correction of our internal desires, but on different levels. Man is a small world and everything exists inside him. This means that only I exist and you are all inside me, in my consciousness, in my feeling. It seems to me that you are external to me, but in fact you are inside me.

Question: What does it mean to find the priest inside me?

Answer: A priest is a desire on the level of Keter, the highest desire in a person that works in absolute bestowal without any egoistic impurities. But a person must prepare himself for this. One of the acts of preparation is Mitzvah number 35. When a person ascends the spiritual levels, regardless of whether he was born a Jew or not, a Cohen or a Levi, he has to undergo all these levels and attributes.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/24/16

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New Life 697 – Laws Of Niddah And Purity
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

We move from one phase to the next when correcting our ego and this is the reason that there is also a special cycle in nature. In this cycle there is the moon, the sun, and the earth, which are branches stemming from spiritual roots, from upper forces.

Once we were one soul and then we were shattered to pieces. Our correction is to connect with love. Every egoistic desire to receive that has not been corrected yet is called a woman, and a corrected desire is called a man, stemming from the Hebrew word to overcome. Different customs in our world are merely a replica of the spiritual states that we have to undergo in the correction of the ego.

Every monthly cycle symbolizes new egoistic desires that come up and demand their correction to bestowal. We count seven clean days after the monthly period, and then the desires are ready to couple with the Upper Light. In spirituality the blood during the monthly period symbolizes the revelation of the Dinim (judgments), which are difficult egoistic desires.

The impure blood and bathing in the Mikva symbolize the receiving of the Light of Hassadim after which it is possible to receive the Light of Hochma, the semen. A man’s soul that has developed from the semen develops in the womb and its nature is a desire to receive. One can receive only if he becomes a conductor, like a pipe, for others. If the Light identifies that a person is clogged, it doesn’t go through him.

The correction is to open one’s self with love. The corrected desire that opened itself for the Light to flow unto others is called a corrected woman in the coupling. Everyone is considered a woman first, and thanks to overcoming the ego, they become men. The seven clean days symbolize the corrected Lights, which are the forces to bestow and to love. The groom the bride is intended to couple with is the general force of love that fills all of reality. At the end, all the cycles and corrections reach the great coupling of the end of correction.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 697 – Laws Of Niddah And Purity,” 3/1/16

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The problem of the world is that a correct connection between people doesn’t exist. A correct connection is a system in which all the parts are found in mutual relationships between them and in harmony, where all are concerned about the welfare of the entire system and nobody is concerned about his own welfare. In a situation like this, the system is perfect.

When people attain a connection like this between them, they begin to feel nature and not themselves. The nature that they begin to feel is called the “Creator” because they discover its mind, program, and purpose.

Beginning from Abraham, people began to attain the harmony of nature in the connection between them, they discovered the Creator. The students of Abraham behaved according to the general laws of the world, to the extent that they discovered the Creator. This behavior came to be expressed in daily activities and in the relationship with the environment, and it was derived naturally and directly from their sensations. The activities that the members of the group of Abraham implemented seemed like they were only mechanical actions to someone who didn’t belong to this group and didn’t feel nature and the system of connection between people.

A harmonious mutual connection between people is called “love,” so it is said: “I created the evil inclination, I created the Torah as a spice.” The intention of the word “Torah” is the power of the Creator that is designed to correct the relationships between us, the relationships of egoistic mutual rejection. Involvement with the correction of the egoistic nature of a person is called keeping the Torah, and learning the Torah is called learning the possibilities for correcting the ego.

The general Mitzvah (commandment) of the Creator is correction of the ego to the level of “and you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). When a person mechanically performs the associated activities without correcting himself, his ego, this is called maintaining the customs. Since the days when the people of Israel fell from the level of “and you shall love your friend as yourself” to the level of “unfounded hatred,” they have been found in a state of maintaining the customs.

In their internal essence, the people of Israel are a group of people who are found in mutual Arvut (guarantee), yearning to be “as one person with one heart,” and filled with mutual love.
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New Life 691 – Intention And Fulfillment Of A Mitzvah (Commandment)
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

A person is a desire for enjoyment for his own benefit; this is called “ego.” When we act for our own benefit, we only feel this world, but if we change direction, from drawing into ourselves to going outside toward others, we perceive a new reality called the “upper world.”

The transition from the intention for one’s own benefit to the intention for the benefit of others reveals the soul of man; it is written that, “A Mitzvah without intention is like a body without a soul” (Don Isaac Abravanel, Nahalat Avot, commentary on Masechet Avot 2:13).

The Mitzvot were given for the correction of the heart, and the correction is actually carried out in a group. The correction is to connect as one person with one heart, and the entire world should proceed forward toward this. The intention that should attach to any deed is love, and the “Light that Reforms” is the force that connects between ten people who want to connect as one.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 691 – Intention And Fulfillment Of A Mitzvah (Commandment),” 2/11/16

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New Life 690 – The Meaning Of Putting On Tefillin
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

The physical act of putting on Tefillin is just a symbol of spiritual communication with the higher power. The Tefillin symbolize the correction that we must make in heart and mind to communicate with the higher power.The general egoistic desire is divided into 613 desires that we must correct with love for others. Thought only serves desire; so we must correct the desire.

The contents of the Tefillin are four Parshiot (sections) that correspond to the name HaVaYaH, and through this we are asking the upper force to help us love others.

Putting Tefillin on in the morning expresses a desire to receive the power to correct ourselves throughout the day.

Putting on Tefillin doesn’t correct in itself; rather, the correction depends on a person’s intentions and actions. And that is how it is with all the physical Mitzvot (commandments); they only come as a reminder that it is necessary to carry out internal acts of correction.

The Jewish people attain the spiritual world, and they perform the Mitzvot of Tefillin according to branch and root: “And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand” (Deuteronomy 6:8)—the left hand symbolizes the ego that must be corrected, “and they shall be for frontlets between thine eyes” (Deuteronomy 6:8)—when a person corrects his heart and mind he resembles the Creator. This is to say, the Tefillin symbolize all the Mitzvot, the correction of heart and mind thanks to which the person discovers the higher reality.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 690 – The Meaning Of Putting On Tefillin,” 2/11/16

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Question: What is the Kabbalistic meaning of the Mitzvah of being wrapped in Tzitzit (fringes) and putting on Tefillin (phylacteries)?

Answer: It is an allegorical description of those corrections of our egoism that we must go through. All of the Mitzvot, although they may seem to be disconnected from reality, worthless, useless and empty, are concerned only with correcting our egoistic nature to becoming altruistic.

Don’t think that the Tefillin are just boxes, that the Tallit (prayer shawl) is a cloth covering and that the Tzitzit are strings. These are all physical reminders, allegories, for particular spiritual characteristics. Actually we are commanded to make a correction on our desires called “Tallit,” “Tefillin,” and “Tzitzit,” and all the Mitzvot were given to us to correct the heart. The “heart” is our general egoistic desire. If we correct ourselves like this, then we will be keeping all the Mitzvot in their true form!

Question: Why is the prayer “Shema Yisrael” (Deuteronomy 6:4) inserted in the boxes of both the head and the arm that are called “Tefillin”?

Answer: This is because the Tefillin symbolize the spiritual implementation of the highest Mitzvah, which is adhesion with the Creator, meaning creating a desire that will be exactly like the Creator, and this is realized through correction of the ego on a very high level, called the “head of the world of Atzilut.” The egoistic desire of the person is built from five levels: Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, and Dalet, and when he corrects them, then the “Kutzo shel Yod” (tip of the letter “Yod”) is gradually revealed to him, after it the letter “Yod” itself, then the letter “Hey,” then the “Vav” and finally the final “Hey”; he has received the four letter name of the Creator, which cannot be erased, cannot be washed away, and cannot be destroyed, because it is the foundation of creation, formed in Olam Ein Sof (the world of Infinity), even before the creation of our world through what are called the four Behinot (phases) of the Ohr Yashar (Direct Light).

We are implementing a correction when we need to resemble all four phases fully. This is our role. So the Mitzvot of Tefillin are so unique and high! All the Mitzvot belong to the world of Atzilut, which is derived from the word, “Etzlo” (close to Him), that is where the Creator Himself exists. So the box on the head represents one part of the Head of Arich Anpin, a block of the world of Atzilut, and the box on the arm symbolizes the second part of the Head of Arich Anpin.

The Tefillin of the arm symbolize the descent of the Ohr Hassadim (Light of Mercy), Bina, from the “head” to the “body,” which helps the body to be corrected. So the Tefillin of the arm are put on the weaker arm, the left arm. But we don’t need to dedicate that much thought to this, but simply to correct our egoistic desires in our overall connection with others. With this the entire Torah and all of the corrections will be realized.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 25/1/16

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New Life 682 – What Is Kashrut?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

The issue of Kashrut is a major issue in Judaism, and the nation was built on it. What is Kashrut and why is it a good thing? The natural system operates on us through 613 forces and we are made of 613 forces that have to be compatible with the forces of nature. Performing a Mitzva (commandment) means a reconciliation between me and the forces that operate on me, and a person who performs a Mitzva is called a “Kosher” person.

The dietary laws of Kashrut are determined by upper roots, not according to the Turkish or British law. Every upper root has a branch in our world, taking a lamb and a pig, for example, there are such animals and there are also such internal attributes in a person. To split the hoof and to ruminate means to differentiate between right and left, between receiving and bestowal and not being filled directly.

The upper world is the upper system of nature and we have to be kosher, which means to be compatible and in harmony with it. When we feel how nature operates on us we call it “God,” and we can have a channel of communication with Him, a dialog. The clash with the forces of nature that operate on us leads to problems in life, while being adapted to them allows us to live in harmony, but since the destruction of the Temple, we have lost the adaptation and the connection with the upper system and are left with only external actions and signs. Other nations also have laws as to what is allowed and what is forbidden to eat, but not according to spiritual roots like in Judaism.

A person who corrects his desires according to the upper system begins to feel it and becomes a kosher person.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 682 — What Is Kashruth?” 1/26/16

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The Torah, “Numbers,” 15:37 – 15:41: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them that they shall make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations, and they shall affix a thread of sky blue [wool] on the fringe of each corner. This shall be fringes for you, and when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord to perform them, and you shall not wander after your hearts and after your eyes after which you are going astray. So that you shall remember and perform all My commandments and you shall be holy to your God. I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt to be your God; I am the Lord, your God.

There have to be special fringes that are tied in a special way in all the four corners of every garment and every piece of clothing. These fringes symbolize the four parts of the spiritual vessel: Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut, which should all be corrected and added. This means that they are studied and absorbed by the help of 613 commandments, 613 desires a person has, so that he will always be aware of their correction.

A person covers himself with these clothes only during the day and it is called a “prayer shawl” because when he is in the Creator’s Light he has to constantly remember how to be adapted to the Light, to constantly yearn for it, and resemble it, but not at night.

The blanket with which we cover ourselves has to have fringes in its corners that have to be tied. If they are not tied, they have to be cut with scissors into one small end so that it can be rounded. All the corners of the rectangle (Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut) where the Parsa goes through from Malchut to Bina, symbolize the spiritual vessel that has to be fully adapted to the Creator’s attributes, which means to be totally corrected in all its 613 desires.

A person has to constantly see them before him as the place for his correction. Therefore the knots on his clothes remind him that he has to constantly be subordinate to them so that he will look at these fringes each time and think about his 613 desires. On the level of our world these are only physical actions, of course, while in the spiritual world they symbolize that a person is corrected. Being under the prayer shawl refers to a spiritual person.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/13/15

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