Entries in the 'Daily Kabbalah Lesson' Category

Entry, Exit, And A Conduit In The Middle

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do I zero out this expansion of egoistic desires with which I am inflated and convey everything to the Creator?

Answer: It is necessary to go through this by way of the point of the Tzimtzum. Rabash writes that a person must make as many zeroes out of himself regarding the friend that he considers to be one and put these zeroes after him, and that is how he will grow: 10, 100 …

This is all of our work. But if he considers himself to be one and the others to be zero, with this he reduces himself: 0.1, 0.01, ….

Man is sent all kinds of signs of advancement and success, but he must attribute all of this to the Creator. He must feel himself as a conduit that transfers everything and in himself nothing is left. There is entry, exit, and in the middle there is just a conduit.

If the person makes a conduit of himself like this, this indicates that he is approaching the Creator.

Question: When I succeed in some activity, then I swell with pride, like an inflated balloon. And I look for a pin to make a hole in the balloon and bring a contribution to the group, spiritual benefit, to attain connection with the Creator, but I cannot find it.

Answer: You will not find this pin by yourself; you must ask! This is what is called making a sacrifice after success is attained, meaning that you approach the Creator after your success, in the face of this swelling with pride.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/14, Shamati #53 “A Matter of Limitation”

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It Is Impossible To Cry And Say Thank You

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar, Introduction to the Book of Zohar, Article “The Night of the Bride,” section 138: This stems from the fact that man cannot perceive obvious evil from the Creator, as this would greatly undermine the creatures’ perception of the great and perfect Creator, for the Perfect one cannot create evil.

Therefore, to the extent that man feels bad and evil, and denies the Divine Providence, a veil immediately falls over him, and the sensation of the Creator’s existence disappears. This is the worst punishment in the world!

Hence, the sensation of good and evil in the Creator’s governance gives us a feeling of reward and punishment. This is because he who exerts efforts not to lose faith in the Creator‘s existence and governance, even if he tastes evil in His governance, is rewarded with finding strength to not lose faith in the governance and good purpose of the Creator’s “evil” influence. But if he had not yet merited the opportunity to exert efforts in believing that the Creator pursues a definite purpose by sending him unpleasant sensations, he is punished with remoteness from faith in the Creator and the sensation of His existence.

From here it is clear where reward and punishment and concealment and revelation come from, what the conditions are for a person to merit to this, and how he builds himself when confronting a bad feeling, a feeling of suffering.

It is impossible to cry and say, “Thank you very much.” To the degree that you are not accommodated to the Light, you feel concealment and so condemn the Creator. It follows that we have no choice; if we want to approach the Creator and bless Him, we must reach revelation.

From concealment, whether we want it or not, we are always compelled to curse Him. So only the Kabbalists, who attain the correct intention and transform darkness into Light, bless the higher power. And to that extent, they are in adherence with Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/01/14, The Book of Zohar

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My Personal Correction Of The Whole World

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 71: And then, each and every one of us will be rewarded with intensifying his own internality, meaning the Israel within us, which is the needs of the soul over our own externality, which is the nations of the world within us, that is, the needs of the body.

That force will come to the whole of Israel, until the nations of the world within us recognize and acknowledge the merit of the great sages of Israel over them, and will listen to them and obey them.

Also, the internality of the nations of the world, the righteous of the nations of the world, will overpower and submit their externality, which are the destructors.

And the internality of the world, too, which are Israel, shall rise in all their merit and virtue over the externality of the world, which are the nations.

Then, all the nations of the world will recognize and acknowledge Israel’s merit over them.

From here it follows that everyone who yearns to discover the Creator and is called the internality of the world, Yashar-El (straight to the Creator), must know that even through his work within the group, he influences the external desires. If he goes out to the general public, then he discovers and receives an even greater imperative to connect with the inner part.

So even though it seems to us that our going out is required in order to connect the external public to us, essentially this is designed to strengthen the inner connection and unity. In this way, we attract more Light, which through the inner part of the group reaches the external public. But in fact we did it in order to connect with the Light. Here all the time is this mutual work.

It is said that “Someone who saves one soul of Israel is as if he saves the entire world,” since through the shattering, mutual integration of all in all is maintained, and in every person among the seven billion there is his own part and parts of all seven billion.

The truth is that this is not seven billion but many more, for this is about the integration of all the generations, all the incarnations of the souls who already finished their correction and those who have not yet begun their correction, of everyone totally. The mutual integration works above time, because this is talking about the structure of the soul.

So the person must say that the world was created for him, and he should be concerned about correction in this form. And this correction cannot be individual, rather it must be related to all according to the structure of the soul. So every moment one must act exactly according to this principle: “What am I thinking about, what is it that I yearn for? Is my yearning spiritual or completely egoistic if I don’t take into account the integral picture of the entire world?”

Here the work of scrutiny is very important, that in principle, the entire world is found in each one of us, and each one, in order to correct himself, must take into account the entire world. It is necessary for you to pay attention that the awakening that is given to you is not for yourself but in order to submerge yourself in the world, in all the others.

Through your doing the work with your influence on the entire world, in that, you aspire to bring the whole world to correction and to discover the Creator within it; you prepare your individual vessel for giving contentment to the Creator.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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School Instead Of Prison

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When we look at the problems that are ripping modern society apart, how is it possible to believe that there is any chance of reaching mutual Arvut (mutual guarantee)?

Answer: In society, what happens is what the Creator arranges for us from above, even the most negative things. Believe me, everything is sealed by the Creator Himself and not by any Prime Minister, President, head of the American Congress or the European Union. Everything, down to the last atom, is managed from Above.

Question: Even if there is a feeling that half of the nation should be in prison?

Answer: Not half of the nation, rather the entire nation. Half of the nation are thieves and the other half are to blame for the first half being thieves. So everyone should be in prison, including the police.

If all of us must be in mutual mutual guarantee, then each is responsible for the other. But because we don’t influence the others as is needed, they don’t receive enough influence. So what can be demanded from us?

Only on the condition that we influence others correctly and are concerned that our influence will succeed, can we rest assured that we will see the right response from the others. But if in the meantime, their response is incorrect, then our influence is incorrect.

So the Torah has a completely different approach to punishments in comparison to what is accepted in this world. The punishment must be correction, first and foremost through the environment.

Indeed, a person is a product of his environment. The legal system must be part of the educational system, but punishment must lead to correction. In contrast to this, our prisons are universities for training criminals.

Question: What does this mean: “After all, in your eyes all of Israel are guarantors for each other, both on the positive and negative side?”

Answer: This means that the influence of the environment completely determines human behavior, both positively and negatively. It follows that if the citizens of a nation behave inappropriately, this says that the nation is in a crisis of education. Other than education, nothing else is needed.

The only thing that a nation needs, besides the ministries of defense and health, is the ministry of education. And if the educational system is correct, then we don’t need the military or medicine.

If a nation were to function according to the laws of mutual Arvut, it would not need the military or the police—nothing. They would organize everything that is necessary for material existence for themselves, and they would direct everything else towards spiritual development.

Besides education, nothing is necessary. This stems from the law of mutual Arvut, which means that you are responsible for every resident of the nation and for his behavior as a person. And if he does something that is not good, this means that you have not influenced him positively, you have not given the feeling of love.

Indeed, if he were to feel the love of everyone, this would silence his evil inclination. He wouldn’t need anything and he would feel like a fetus in his mother’s womb, that he has everything: “A lamp is lit above his head, and he looks and sees from one end of the world to the other; and they teach him the entire Torah.”

This is truly an amazing state. Indeed, we are all connected in a single network and this is now being revealed more and more. If you think about the other and influence him, whatever your influence is, this is what will be in him. And as much as your good influence is lacking, you will see this according to his behavior.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/14, Writing of Baal HaSulam

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Five Hundred Billion Dollars To Advertise The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where can we get 500 billion dollars for advertising the method of connection?

Answer: We must discuss this question seriously and clarify how to do this. But it is clear that we don’t have a choice, and everyone in our group or in the world in general who wants to perceive the Creator, must be involved in advertising Him.

This is precisely what we are doing; we want to advertise the Creator. If we require 500 billion dollars for this, we must find it. We must advertise the Creator: His plan, His purpose, His goal.

Besides this, it is not written anywhere that we must convince people. We don’t need to convince anyone and it is also impossible. We only need to open up the Light that Reforms for them and it will return them to the good!

But you are thinking about how to be wiser and more eloquent to convince them through argument. There is no need for this at all! It is only necessary to open up this infusion with the Light so that it will begin to drip into them through a workshop or some additional activities. You will see how they will begin to wait for this.

Question: Am I interpreting this correctly, that the Light that Reforms is a feeling of warmth, love, and trust within the connection between us?

Answer: This is the Upper Light, everything is in it. We don’t know how it acts. We only know that it reforms. This is a higher force that influences the person in a manner that he doesn’t understand and which changes him.

We pay attention, sometimes we are also changed. A period of confusion comes in which I don’t understand and I feel that I am in a fog, in some kind of blurry state; and after that suddenly it begins to become clear to me and an understanding is revealed, a new feeling.

I work it, live in it for some time, and after that I am again confused and in a fog so that I can again rise to an even higher state, to understand and to feel even more and to connect things even more, to see how everything works. That is how the influence of the Light that Reforms is discovered.

Question: But we are talking about a science.

Answer: This is not an abstract theory; rather, this is a true science and wisdom of life that explains how it is necessary to live and through this, to rise higher and higher all the time.

Question: When I work as a guide for people and open the faucet with Light, do I have some kind of criterion according to which I can evaluate my success?

Answer: The criterion for success is that you begin to understand and feel more. You understand that a stronger connection with others is required for you. You see the realization of the goal of creation in the whole world and in the general public more and more.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/14, Writing of Baal HaSulam

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.06.14

Preparation for the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” “The Importance of A Prayer of Many”

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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 25

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Spiritual Not Material Arvut

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When we are talking with the general public about Arvut (Mutual Guarantee), do we mean material Arvut and not spiritual Arvut?

Answer: If you are talking about material Arvut, this is a political conversation. But if we are talking about spiritual Arvut, then this is about the spirit that dwells within the people through which we can change everything. We are talking about the power that is found in the center of the group, in the center of connection.

We are not calling for people to gather and bring order to government offices, to human society, to physical life, to the schools, to the police, and so forth. We are talking about discovering a unique higher force within our connection. This power is called the power of connection, the power of Arvut, and it can organize our entire lives.

If we want to correct and organize everything through our physical powers, we need to struggle with someone and organize a civil war within the nation. But we don’t want to struggle with anyone. We only want to institute education for the people. And when the people connect and unite through this education, through studying the wisdom of connection, then they will discover the power of connection that organizes everything.

We don’t rely on anyone, not on ourselves and not on our powers. We are far from all politics, because the Light that Reforms will correct everything.

Question: But people don’t feel this Light.

Answer: The Light doesn’t interest people; what matters to them is having a good life. The lack of Light brings them all their troubles, whereas through Arvut they attain the Light that Reforms that will remove all troubles.

There is a provider of Light of great intensity, but it is found ten feet from you; and so you barely feel the vitality that comes from this illumination. But through Arvut everyone gets the power of everyone. In this way, the provider of the Light approaches us and we begin to better feel ourselves.

We turn to the same source that makes the troubles for us and attract Him to us so that He will correct everything for us. This works in a very simple form.

It is necessary only to attract this source to us and people will feel good. They also will not ask where this good comes from. Suddenly they will feel that everything is okay at work, in relationships with neighbors, with their children, in the schools, and in their family. But they will understand that this is done thanks to the Arvut, because there is a deliberate action between the Light and the Kli vessel) and people will begin to discover this. This is practical Kabbalah.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We Can Realize This Today

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, Article, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: And once the whole nation unanimously agreed and said, “We shall do and we shall hear,” each member of Israel became responsible that nothing shall be missing from any other member of the nation. Only then did they become worthy of receiving the Torah, and not before.

“Exodus” 24:7 “We shall do and we shall hear” at Mount Sinai refers to accepting the guarantee. Only to the degree of revealing the vessel of the damaged desires that we agree to connect to help each friend to correct the desires and approach the goal of creation, reaching adherence with the Creator, do we attract the Light that Reforms. It corrects our vessels and we put them in the framework of mutual guarantee.

Meanwhile, all the rest of the desires that cannot enter into the framework of guarantee are left out. This means that a guarantee is the condition that we must reach on every new level.

In accord with the guarantee between us, time after time, we receive the Light that Reforms that corrects us, and then we discover the Creator, the Master, we carry out the action for the sake of bestowal, reach adherence, and continue onward. On each and every level there are the conditions for guarantee that must be maintained according to the level that is attained. And in that vessel that is called guarantee, we receive the Light that Reforms.

But how can I be a guarantor for someone if I don’t have any power; I am not found beyond time, I don’t see the past, the present, and the future, and I have no possibility of changing them? I cannot change my desires. So how can I be obligated to be a guarantor for someone?

The guarantee means that I am ready to join with you with all the available forces, but I must attract the Creator to this. Because who am I to be able to be a guarantor?

At the bank I sign a guarantee for a friend hoping that he will be able to pay it. In the worst case, if he cannot repay the loan, I will somehow pay it. While here, I am simply not able to cope. How can I be a guarantor for attaining connection, for attaining adherence, for attaining the spiritual goal? I must, in place of the Creator, sign guarantees like these, otherwise this is a lie!

How is it possible to demand something like this from me if even in this world I have difficulty understanding what is happening here? All the more so, I am not responsible for what is happening on spiritual levels. So we need a higher power within our guarantee.

I don’t attract more Light than what I need to be a guarantor for others. I ask for the help and cooperation of the Creator to help everyone. This is what we can realize today!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Fishnets Spread Out In The Sea

Dr. Michael LaitmanRav Kook’s Letters: Even the lowest person, when offered to do kindness with the whole world, which includes everything infinitely, will powerfully rejoice to do good.

All the laziness and the weakness is only a result of lack of faith in the greatness of the good that can be done to the whole universe when engaging in the Torah, the Mitzvot, the work and the purity of our measures. This is depicted by understanding the spiritual unity, which means knowing that the light of the soul of every individual is connected to the general soul of the whole existence.

Every person should say that the world was created for him. When a person does his work he generates a change in all the other souls. It is because we all belong to and are included in one mechanism, and when a person corrects his connection with the whole world, he brings the parts of his soul back to him and thus helps others connect.

It is like fishnet that was thrown into the sea during the shattering. As a result of the shattering, I am left with only a point in the heart, and my other parts dispersed in the water and remain external to me. I was born this way; it is a fact.  Now I need to take the fishnet out and to gather my lost parts and connect them back to me.

By working with the public, I connect my parts back to me on one hand, and on the other hand, I give each and everyone the spiritual force to start working with his own net. It seems that I speak to strangers but really it is me in different forms.

When I draw people to this idea, it turns out that I bring the parts of my soul closer to me. All of humanity are parts of my soul. But except for this, my part, each one has his own personality. By attracting my parts, I convey the spiritual force to them by which they can work in their own circle, with their own world.

It turns out that when I pull this net out of the water, I awaken all the parts of my soul that were connected to this net, and each one pulls out his own net and clarifies its content because everyone has his own world. Thus we understand that working with the public enables us to connect the parts of my soul; the quantity becomes quality and so each one advances toward implementing the establishment of the ten Sefirot of his own soul.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/14

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Every Change Rocks The Whole System

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen working on corrections we have to work in the opposite direction of the shattering and to understand that everything depends on our mutual incorporation. Therefore, the correction begins from having an inclination, a deficiency, a need, to unite for different reasons.

There is a purely pragmatic aspiration to unite in order to make a living from one another in the corporeal sense, and there is the commandment to connect in order to earn from one another spiritual advancement.

All the corrections are performed by mutual incorporation. So when we want to put the shattered vessel together again, we should make sure that a person feels that he is an inseparable part of the world. That is, he has to correct the whole world in order to correct himself.

This means that a person will not be able to correct himself unless he corrects his connection with the whole world, with all of humanity. Although it may seem impossible, we depend on one another in the correction to the same extent that we depend on one another in the shattering.

To the extent that I depended on everyone during the shattering, as is being revealed now, I also depend on everyone during the correction. So even if I only perform minor personal corrections that I manage to carry out, I thus touch every person in the world. It is because we are in an integral system in which there are no detached parts, but where everything is connected and everyone influences one another.

Of course, everyone operates according to his level and according to his Reshimot (spiritual genes), according to the depth of their fall during the shattering and after the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. But still, if we pull a certain thin wire at the end of the system, the whole system rocks and moves, and is accordingly invoked either for better or for worse.

That’s why it is said: “He who saves one soul of Israel, it’s as if he saved the entire world.” It’s because he who is called Israel (according to his yearning for the revelation of the Creator, the force of bestowal and love in the desires) corrects his attitude to the system he encounters at least to the first level of Nefesh, and by that he certainly influences the whole system.

For this reason it is said in The Book of Zohar that when Israel corrects themselves, the Upper Light that comes into their vessels pours outside and fills the whole world. This means that we don’t have to take care of the world, but it is enough to take care of those who can wake up.  Although we can go out to the public and hasten their development.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/14, Writings of Rabash

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