Preparation for the Lesson
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” Letter 17
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Lesson on the Topic: “European Convention,” Lesson #4
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Why do we understand the world in which we are living? It is because we feel it. If we started to feel it in a different way, it would be understood as something else felt inside ourselves.
In other words, the feeling must be prior to understanding. It is impossible to understand the reality we don’t feel. This doesn’t happen. Sometimes, it is possible to understand something in our world according to our imagination because we have models of feeling particular objects inside, and it is possible to imagine them in some form. But this is a problem.
Are we ready to imagine, let’s say, the taste of grapes with benzene? Which is to say, as long as we haven’t tangibly experienced something, Kelim (vessels) are not created in us since Kelim are desires, feelings, and before this, our brain has nothing to work with.
So, our problem with the Creator is that He is the only force, and we have the opportunity in our world to feel ourselves separate from Him, and this is the greatest thing that He ever did. He created something as if it exists outside of Him (existence from absence), and specifically from this nonexistence it is possible to begin to attain the Creator.
But it is impossible to understand Him with the intellect because He is characteristics, manners, and activities that are completely incomprehensible to us. Levels of approaching the Creator are according to the degree of equivalence with Him. The biggest problem of our getting closer is that with every step of our approach to the Creator, we must understand more and more—feel, know, and grasp inside of us—that all of our movements within our desires, thoughts, drives and plans, whatever they may be when we direct ourselves directly toward Him, and even any opposing activities when we want to twist and lie to ourselves, in all of this the Creator precedes us.
It makes no difference how we perceive ourselves, in whatever desires, thoughts or actions, we always discover Him first and, after that, ourselves. And where am I? It becomes clear that the “self” of each one of us is specifically in understanding the fact that the Creator is everywhere and one must adhere with Him at this point. So, the self gradually, in parts, in some point, will adhere with the Creator until reaching full equivalence with Him. This form is called Adam (Man).
However, for us, it is difficult to imagine this because everything must happen within our desires, and this will be realized only when we begin to move within our inner analysis toward the discovery of the Creator in everything inside of us and around us, according to the principle of “There is none else besides Him.”
What I am thinking now, this is His thought. Is my reaction to this thought also my reaction or His reaction? In what way can our thoughts be equivalent? In what way can I see the difference between Him and me? If I don’t agree with the thought that is aroused in me, it means that this disagreement comes from Him, and here it begins to become clear where my form still is not like His.
This is a very interesting analysis. In the beginning, it is tiresome. After that, it begins to be interesting. After all, this is a constant inner game that, in fact, adds to our life and gives it inner meaning, inner energy, a source of movement. If a person begins to search for the Creator in all of his drives, feelings and thoughts—even in movements that are unconscious and instinctive reactions—it means that he is searching for the way in which he is different from the Creator.
In the still, vegetative, and animate nature, the Creator manifests instinctively. Everything happens there according to particular laws. There are no problems, and all of the laws of nature are carried out precisely.
So we cannot have any complaints against animals, not can there be any complaints of animals against each other. Everything is in a particular balance: who eats whom and who exists at the expense of whom. Everything is defined from the start. Everything must exist this way. There is a precise and instinctive transmission of nature here. The Creator acts in them naturally and is not expressed in any form.
It is the same thing in regard to people in whom the Creator does not want to be revealed. He works instinctively. We see that all of the great politicians, economists, and in part also the scientists (there are those who already are conscious of their difference), not to mention the common people, all of them exist instinctively. The Creator is not revealed in regard to them.
In what way is He revealed to us? First, He compels us to search for the reason for our existence—meaning, to begin searching for Him—and brings us to a feeling as to where and in what way we are beginning to grow above our animate level. If I am involved in this now, I am trying to understand in what place in me, in my thoughts and feelings, I can grasp the Creator, where He constantly challenges me, manages me from within. This thought is related to the level of Adam. I want to rise above instinctive behavior and consciously recognize the management of the Creator, conscious from my point of view. This is precisely the way we must go.
Here, we gradually begin to detach from Him and connect with Him consciously, which is to say that previously I was under the instinctive management of the Creator: Everything that I did, all of my previous life specifically had to be like that. Everything is attributed to Him!
From this moment on, I want to feel His activity in all of my feelings, my desires, in whatever happens inside of me and, after that, decide if I agree with this action, how I can adhere with Him, but consciously.
In the beginning, I must feel that He—this is He, and I—this is I, and that He is doing something within me. Do I agree with His desires and thoughts with heart and mind, to what He is doing with me? If not, I must connect with Him and adhere to Him above my desire and thoughts. This is very great work. Here, I begin to separate myself from the Creator (this is called “analysis of the state”) and after that, make a correction, connecting myself to Him (this is called “correction and adhesion”).
The distance between Him and me is determined by my ego that I am beginning to discover within me, and the more that I work on myself, the more my ego grows from minus to an immense plus or from instinctive behavior to an awareness that He is the one who is acting this way, but I still agree with Him and move back toward Him. This proceeds conically, and we must connect these two systems within the middle line.
Through the understanding that without the ego we could not differentiate ourselves from Him, become an independent, created being, we give great contentment to the Creator. Only then do we begin to understand what existence from absence is, and from there we connect ourselves to “existence from existence.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/14
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Preparation for the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash “Rungs of the Ladder,” “What Is the Foundation on Which Kedusha (Holiness) Is Built”
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Writings of Rabash “Rungs of the Ladder,” “Which Degree Should One Achieve So He Will Not Have to Reincarnate?”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts, Chapter “Divinity,” “When the Son Does Not Do the Will of His Father, His Mother Has Permission to Strike Him”
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 94
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Lesson on the Topic: “Preparing for the Convention”
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Congress in Guadalajara “One Heart for All”
Question: What do we have to correct first: ourselves or the environment?
Answer: It is a very complex question. I cannot correct myself without the environment, and I cannot correct the environment until I correct myself. And to the extent that I correct myself, I see that the environment is already corrected and I only need to be correcting myself, and this is what each of us feels.
In essence, we are in a perfect reality that has no flaws. Only inside of us there is a sensation that we feel bad, that we are flawed and divided. But when we reveal the true reality, environment, and world, then we discover an upper world instead of this one. And then we see that aside from our perception of reality, nothing else had to be corrected.
It turns out that I existed in a perfect reality all along, and it was only in my uncorrected perception that it appeared broken because I myself was broken. My properties were corrupted, and thus I judged everything according to my own flaws.
Therefore a person should understand that only he alone is corrupted and everyone else is corrected. But he can correct himself only if he connects to everyone else in the right way through teaching everyone how to unite correctly.
All other people outside him are broken parts of his own soul. Therefore, the work of our correction goes in two directions: from oneself outward and back.
And indeed, there is no vice in any person or in humanity as a whole. Only the connections between us are corrupted and only there should we focus our efforts: on the correction not of the human being himself, but of his relationship with others. If we achieve a good connection in some group, then we reveal an upper world in it and see everything in the correct form.
A person should correct his attitude to the friends and through it show them an example of how he loves them. There is no need for anything other than this example. If you succeed in this, then you will see how much you advance forward.
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From the Convention In Guadalajara “One Heart For All,” “Day One” 7/17/15, “Preparatory Lesson”
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Question: What do you mean by the term “group”? Are these the people who are around us all the time: family and friends?
Answer: A group is an association of people who have one goal, one purpose. They eliminate all kinds of misunderstandings between them and act like a single fist, all of whose fingers are different but connected together into a single unified force.
In addition to this, our group must possess a particular characteristic. If they have a common goal, then they gather together to create a force for attaining this goal. This force can only give Light, and we can only get the Light needed for advancement with the help of Arvut (mutual guarantee).
This means that when I take the desires of someone else and want to correct and fulfill them, then I am like the Light, it shines within me and I am included in a group as a source of Light even though I am getting it from a higher power station because I want to give fulfillment to others.
If all of us act like this, then we become connected through mutual Arvut and advance towards a common goal. On every level of our growing spiritual advancement we get more Light, which connects us more tightly and we advance forward. This is what is called a group.
I think that we have already begun this action and have truly begun to feel that the foundation for our success is inherent in this. It used to be that some of the people understand this and some of them not as much. Now we “comb” everyone with a single comb, a single size, a single style. Now all of us have straightened the line, we know and understand the same thing. This is very important because everyone will now have an identical understanding of the material and the goal of the movement.
This was the biggest problem for everyone because there are many groups among us that are far from each other, and on the one hand, this created a great potential opportunity for advancement, but on the other hand, all the groups were on different levels and didn’t understand each other.
But now we are doing this for one single whole and have truly become one big group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/14, Writings of Rabash
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When we unite, our desires that are so different, opposite, and distant from each other merge into one single desire.
It turns out that on the one hand, we are completely distant, but on the other hand, we united and are therefore beginning to reveal the single force of nature.
This occurs precisely because we have huge egoism, but above it we are trying to come to unity.
The wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed only to those people who possess a special sensitivity, who simultaneously feel both their disconnection and their unity. In this way, it will gradually be revealed to everyone in the world.
It is such a joy to see how our Kabbalistic groups are springing up around the whole world. Many people are coming to study and want to learn about the method of connection. Year by year, humanity is growing more confused, losing its purpose, despairing like a small child who got lost, went astray, and now does not know where to go.
In the meantime, we are understanding more and more clearly what a unique method we have at our disposal. We only need to implement it on ourselves and offer it to all of humanity so that they too will unite and feel themselves at a higher level of existence because everyone will become one whole.
We still have a lot to learn about it. Do not forget that we learn this wisdom from nature, not only from books. We need to implement the connection between ourselves as a counterweight to the egoism that separates us. We are like research scientists, revealing this method empirically.
A Kabbalistic group is a laboratory where we conduct an experiment on our own selves, year after year, lesson after lesson, registering all the details of the process that we are undergoing.
Only in the past year or two have we gotten closer to the phase of direct implementation. Before that, we only studied the system: how it is connected in an ideal manner, that is to say, the system of the upper worlds.
In essence, the upper world and the lower world are in the same place. But when we are divided, we refer to our world as the material world. When we unite, then we feel a different reality, a harmonious one, connected by a single force.
All of nature becomes one organism, which is called the revelation of the Upper Force—the only force that manifests inside us, since it cannot be revealed somewhere externally, outside of the connection with us. This signifies the revelation of the Creator to His creatures in accordance with the condition of equivalence of form.
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From the Convention In Guadalajara “One Heart For All,” “Day One” 7/17/15, “Preparatory Lesson”
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You and I are living in a special time when the world is beginning to feel more and more united. The only problem is that these connections are negative rather than positive. Meanwhile, we feel our complete dependence on each other, which is beginning to worry and irritate everyone.
If the dependence is not a kind one, then such connection brings only problems, as it is written, “the unity of criminals is to their own and the whole world’s detriment.” If people do not correct themselves and their relationships, it is better for them to separate and keep their distance from each other.
All of this started in ancient Babylon where egoism developed to such an extent that people began to hate one another. Consequently, many languages arose. Egoism erupted for the first time and separated people. Before then, they all lived as one nation where everything was shared.
However, suddenly they felt disconnected and a belonging to different communities, families, and nationalities, and therefore they could not continue to live together. From then on. the science of Kabbalah appeared.
One sage named Abraham, who lived in Babylon, revealed that we cannot resist our connection. People definitely will be connected, and we will not succeed in distancing ourselves from each other. However, we should know how to unite correctly, regardless of the egoism that grows with every passing day. Thus, the science of Kabbalah appeared, and it is the method of good connection between people.
Kabbalah states that first we need to correct ourselves and our relationships with each other. Then, everything we do will be to our benefit.
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From the Convention In Guadalajara “One Heart For All,” “Day One” 7/17/15, “Preparatory Lesson”
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Everything that happens in the world happens solely in order for us to reveal the true world, in which we all exist. In essence, everything that is depicted outside of a person’s desire, when one sees inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, and other people—all of that is the Creator’s manifestation before the person. But a person does not feel this or understand what is wanted from him. Consequently we are going through a quite lengthy and painful process in history, just so that in the end we would ask ourselves the question about life’s meaning: what is all this for? Who benefits from all this? Who do I please? What secret lies hidden in our existence?
We see logic and meaning in every cell, in the oneness of nature, in the relationship of all its parts, but we find no logic in our own existence. A person, who is the “crown of creation,” is also the one who suffers the most of all created beings. We possess a developed mind and feelings, but yet we act like the biggest spenders and squander all our potential for mutual interactions.
Moreover, even when we realize this, we cannot do anything about it. Our wretchedness is amazing: a person knows when he does something stupid that will bring harm to him and others, but he is unable to change anything.
For example, a glutton cannot hold back from his favorite foods and loses control, all the while understanding perfectly well how horrible he will feel later. We face the same trouble with all types of pleasures, great and small.
Throughout history people have been asking themselves if there is any way out. Is it possible to enter a more mature, a more “solid” state? Is it possible to avoid being so miserable and lowly? We realize our lowliness and still we follow it, and today is always like the day before. We close our eyes and go with the flow…
Facing the Issue Head-On
At this point we definitely need to say a big thank you to Kabbalists. They suffered just like many others, but they succeeded. They were able to discover that this whole miserable life is meant to bring us to the key solution.
After all, it cannot be that our life would flow from birth to death in such an absurd existence. It cannot be that such wise nature would create a creature that is so developed and at the same time behaves in such a despicable manner. This discrepancy of our abilities and actions is too striking.
Moreover, nature itself pushes us into an abyss. Maybe I want to act differently and be a different person. If I planned on my own and programmed myself, I would act differently—certainly better than “destined” by nature or the Creator.
When we reach this realization or understanding, it indicates just one thing: the need to solve the question posed. Therein lies the source of understanding life, success in life, and success beyond the limits of its passing frames. It’s unlikely that it is limited to our “protein” existence for 60-70 years.
The Science That Leads Us Through Life
People who asked this question found that the world and the human beings here truly have an ultimate goal: to reveal the single force that sends us everything. It fully includes the whole universe and “plays” with it in order for us to truly wish to reveal it.
Meanwhile, all throughout history only some individuals learned about the opportunity to reveal the Creator. Nonetheless the number of people who ask the right question is growing. And these people are telling us that this is the only productive task of a person in this world from the moment he matures and realizes who he is.
As children, when we are 6-9 years old, we also asked the question about life’s essence and meaning. Maybe we didn’t ask adults, our parents, these questions, but they were there.
Starting from an early age, children need to receive an upbringing that explains how to exert constant effort to reveal the upper force, which influences us constantly, brings us life, and leads us through everything that occurs on the path.
Throughout history people made great efforts to reveal this force. They found a whole system of gradual acquaintance with it and called this method “the science of Kabbalah,” which literally means “the science of receiving.”
It explains how a person in our world can receive revelation of the force that influences him and demonstrates to him the whole picture of reality.
According to the words of Kabbalists, one needs to engage in this science particularly incessantly, and lead one’s whole life in it so that he attains the upper force in the time that is allotted to him. One needs to attain it to the point of encountering it in all its details.
Everything else in life should be used only to provide for the bare necessities—to the same extent that animals care for themselves. There is no point to exert more than necessary into the material existence—only as much as is needed to exist rationally.
This does not mean that we need to live in caves and wear animal skins. If we do not exceed the “survival bar” and dedicate all our effort to revealing the Creator, rising to His degree of eternity and perfection, then it goes without saying that we will not do silly things and pursue excesses of the material world. If we limit ourselves to simple existence, we will give all our strength to our true purpose.
[163609]
From the Convention in New Jersey “Completing the Circle,” Day One, 7/24/15, Lesson 1
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The whole science of Kabbalah is meant for us to reveal where we are in actuality. After all, we exist in a certain reality that is unfamiliar to us. That reality is hidden from us since we hide it with our own corrupted qualities.
In other words, the correction of our qualities and the revelation of true reality are one and the same. To the extent that we correct ourselves, true reality is revealed more and more, until we reveal the true state where we are in adhesion with the Creator.
This is why the main article, which we have to realize in practice, is Baal HaSulam’s article, “There is None Else Besides Him,” from the book Shamati:
It is written, “there is none else besides Him.” This means that there is no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him. And what man sees, that there are things in the world that deny the Higher Household, the reason is that this is His will.
Therefore, we see that we are opposite to the Creator, in a certain concealment that separates us from Him, and we need to remove this concealment. Everything that happens to us in this concealment is given to us on purpose as an exercise by the Creator in order to help us remove this concealment.
The removal of the concealment consists of our correcting ourselves in accordance to the Creator’s qualities, and due to this, the concealment fades. In other words, I take on the concealment, and then there is nothing that stands between me and the Creator. This is how I relate to the entire world.
Therefor, “world” in Hebrew “Olam,” comes from the word “Alama,” which means concealment since it conceals the Creator, and I must make it a means of revealing the Creator.
But how? I don’t know how to approach the world, too many factors influence me. I don’t know what to do inside of me so that these external influences would go away. I don’t know how to reveal the Creator through them.
In order to direct ourselves properly, we are given a ten—ten friends. If I work correctly with them, I learn through them, together with them, how to correct my attitude to them so that the connection between us becomes a circuit so that we become so connected that there is no distance between us.
Every time I try to unite with them strongly, I direct myself more and more to a willingness to reveal unity. The more I unite with the ten, the more my inner vessel (Kli)—perception, thoughts, intention, in the mind and the heart—becomes more and more appropriate to understand what the Creator is and what that special reality is. Out of darkness and lack of understanding and feeling, gradually, I begin to form Him.
The Creator has no form. I don’t know what it is, and it is a good thing that I don’t know. I cannot know since there is no Creator in relation to a creature. I need to create Him. I build Him from my relationships with the friends. That’s why it is written, “You created Me.” The Creator in Hebrew is “Bo-Re – Come and See.”
The most important thing for us is to realize that there is no Creator without a creature, and we build Him from a correct connection between us. If we can unite mutually with each other as one man with one heart in the given circumstances in such a way that there is no distance between us, we will reveal the first form of the Creator.
Then, the distance between us in the ten will increase suddenly, and we will feel distant from each other, hatred, disdain, and impatience. Again, we will need to work on this in order to annul this distance.
Rabash instructs us as to how to do this: everyone considers himself a zero in regard to the others. Everyone must be equal. Everyone, except me, are the greatest of the generation, and I am included in them as the lowest. I do everything for them and pray for them, since the prayer of many is the prayer for many, and only this prayer is accepted by the Creator.
If every member of the ten acts in this manner, we annul the distance between us once again, which is common for all. We unite again in one desire, one thought. I don’t feel myself or others. I feel us as something completely unified, as ten drops that flow together into one.
In this manner, we achieve a sensation called the revelation of the Creator on the second degree. As soon as we achieve this, immediately, we begin to draw further away from each other. Our egoistic desire suddenly will burst out from within, and we will hate each other with such mutual hatred as we never experienced before.
Thus, the attitude with which we work between us starts from a state called Mount Sinai, the mountain of hatred, and again we will learn how to annul this mountain, to rise over it to the next degree and remove the separation between us, thus revealing the Creator on the third degree, and so on, every time more and more.
Every time, we will feel that we are revealing a new world, a new reality. The reality that we thought was true earlier changes from our external to our inner reality.
This doesn’t mean that our world that we perceive in our five corporeal senses disappears. What disappears is its control or independence, and we begin to reveal that, truly, there is none else besides Him.
As we learn from the section on “Perception of Reality,” we begin to perceive all of reality that is outside of us more and more through our inner reality that we control and is part of us, although seemingly it exists outside.
Our entire work is called “There is none else besides Him” since we need to work only above the unity. We will talk about how to achieve trepidation, and through it, faith, and from faith, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and then “Love your Creator.” All of these are degrees of unification, revelation of oneness, revelation of the fact that there is none else besides Him.
We will need to go through this process in order to achieve revelation of the Creator at least on the first degree, and His revelation always occurs in the form of “There is none else besides Him,” nothing except this one governance that prevails in the world. We unite with Him as one, and there is no difference between the Creator and us. All of this leads to a unity that is called “a drop of unity.”
[163603]
From the Convention In New Jersey “Completing The Circle” 7/23/15, “Preparatory Lesson”
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