Entries in the 'Daily Kabbalah Lesson' Category

Where Am I Sailing To?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What can be done if the group doesn’t want to work in groups of five? How do we continue to study? Should we drift along with the group? Then where am I sailing to?

Answer: It is a very good state when people see how much they reject each other, how much they are not prepared to sit together and discuss something. They can be in the same room, watching the screen and listening to a lesson, but all the rest is terribly difficult for them! This is the revelation of evil and even the recognition of evil: you understand that, if you don’t approach each other, you will remain without spirituality.

What is to be done? Try to carry out activities that gradually lead to a common denominator, a shared conversation, something specific. It is difficult because we see the immense ego and unfounded hatred revealed in us.

It is desirable, as much as possible, to invite someone else as a facilitator for a workshop, as an organizer of games who will gather everyone and start to connect between them. In this case, you will need to communicate somehow, do something. Then, you will begin to understand each other. It is desirable for this to be a stranger, a guest from another group who nevertheless can connect you.
[131946]

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.11.14

Preparation for the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “Dargot HaSulam,” Article 923

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Parashat,” “BeShalach“

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Writings of the Rabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 14

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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” “Lishma ve she Lo Lishma“

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Redemption Under Cover Of Darkness

Dr. Michael LaitmanDeparture from exile happens in complete darkness. Towards the redemption, the darkness becomes greater and greater so that there won’t be any grasping by the great egoistic desires that are discovered while passing through the 49 gates of Tuma’a, where the cruelty of the desire to receive, the ego, increases more and more.

Along with this, it is necessary to close the sources of bestowal, the Light, more and more, until we reach a point in which the power of Tuma’a will not be left with any possibility of grasping Kedusha (Holiness).

It cannot be that Keudsha will shine at all for those in the 49 gates of Tuma’a. They find themselves in the worst state that can be, and precisely within this state, from this critical point, there is a birth, which is called redemption.

All of the darkness that is felt by them is derived from the work of Israel who yearn for bestowal and are ready to bestow, even though they receive nothing in return. But they feel these things as beneficial to them; when the streams of Light are closed and sealed and conditions become more and more difficult, then those who are attracted to the goal accept this as help.

Due to all of the limitations and pressures, they have the opportunity of reaching more bestowal, more Hafetz Hesed. I have nothing, and I don’t need it! This helps me. For the limitation that comes from Above places me in Hafetz Hesed. And then I don’t want anything other than to be directed towards bestowal.

It follows that those 49 gates of Tuma’a stabilize me for bestowal. What would happen if this hadn’t happened and I had received more Light, revelation, understanding, as I require now? I would not be able to become Hafetz Hesed. With this great Light, with understanding and awareness, I would not want to leave Egypt. It would be very difficult to do this, if at all. I simply don’t have such power.

So I advance specifically under the forces of pressure, in the dark. The increasing darkness becomes a sign that I can be further stabilized and then direct myself towards bestowal.
[132108]
From the 4th part of the
Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/14, Writings of the Ari

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If There Are No Requests, There Are No Changes

Laitman_049_01Our work must concentrate on prayer to make our request as correct and precise as possible, in the maximal way that we are prepared to get from our condition. At every moment we need to try to locate the right request according to its direction, intensity and character. This is the most important thing.

If we examine ourselves, we will see that we are not asking the Creator. And even if we ask, we are asking for ourselves, regretting our personal condition. And this is certainly the manifestation of the greatest ego.

Ordinary people in this world who are not involved with studying Kabbalah are in better condition than we are. After all, they don’t demand that the Creator should change, improve, or correct what He did to them, disagreeing with Him. They simply accept everything as it is, since they are separated from the Creator. At least they don’t come to Him with demands and claims, asking where is their deserved reward. A demand like this is completely opposite to the right prayer.

It is possible to arrange such a change in us so that we will ask correctly only by working in a group. A person by himself cannot hold himself in this process. If he is alone, he will fall into his ego again; he will begin to attribute everything to and demand for himself. He doesn’t have the means to format himself and arrange his appeal to the Creator correctly. This is possible only through common prayer.

It’s worthwhile for us to see all of these concepts very clearly. If we don’t get any changes on the way, this is a sign that we are not asking for them. All spiritual advancement is realized only through the prior discovery of a deficiency, a request.
[131987]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/14, Writings of Rabash

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The Components Of A Correct Prayer

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion:  What should the group do in order to achieve turning towards the Creator correctly?

Answer:  The group must influence each one of its members and provide all the required conditions for revealing the MAN (prayer) in each and every one. This means it’s necessary to clarify:

  • What is the Creator?  Who is the Creator?
  • Exactly how do I turn to Him; with which request? This means that there must be a prayer of many, for the many.
  • How exactly should one ask within a very narrow range? If I want to turn to the Creator, I need to do this in an extremely narrow gap according to the form of the request.

First, I need to prepare myself for turning to someone with very high qualities. My fear is not a beastly fear regarding Him but from reverence of His spiritual elevation.

My prayer must pass through the group, for which I ask like a father would for his beloved children. Due to this, I become similar to the Creator, bringing myself to His characteristics through equivalence of form and attaining adhesion with Him.

He is the bestower, and I also want to bestow. We have a shared field in which we work for our bestowal. My investment in bestowal is the deficiency, a request to Him to bestow to others. And He is happy to bestow to them through my request, for my request opens the possibility of bestowal for Him. The whole world is in trouble, with problems, in crisis; so we can see what a vast field of work we have.
[131985]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/14, Writings of Rabash

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Give Contentment To The Creator With Every Word Of The Zohar

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar, Parshat “BeShlach,” section 134: The order of the emergence of the Lights in the three Nekudot of Holam, Shuruk, Hirik. That in the beginning Malchut rises to Bina, under her Hochmah, and then her Bina and TuM fall below her level to ZA.

And she is left with only two Sefirot, KH, and with two Lights, Ruach Nefesh. And it is considered that Bina is pierced, so that nothing is left in her but Ohr Nekeva, which illuminates from below to above. And so her Sefirot are called by the name pierced stones. And this is the point of Holam.

With each word that we read, we try not to forget what we want from our connection, we renew our request with every word.

Now we try to go one step forward, not only to seek a connection with every word, but we ask also for the success of the friends, we ask for them.

From the intention and request for connection, we pass to an intention and request for the sake of the friends. And now we have to add an intention here that we want to give contentment to the Creator with each and every word, to create a feeling, a relationship like this, a state, which will surely bring contentment to the Creator. In this way we arrange the Kli in which we give contentment to the Creator.

If the group intends to give contentment to the Creator, and I disappear in it, so the entire group gets the same value as the Creator. Only the group is the Kli, and the Creator is the Light that connects, corrects and fills the Kli. By being included in a group and praying for a connection that will bring contentment to the Creator, we already yearn to give Him joy.

And the main joy for the Creator is when we try to bring this connection to the whole world. For we are ourselves the Kelim designed only to realize and carry out this work, but delighting the Creator is possible only with the Kelim of the whole world. So we go out and try to connect them.

In The Zohar we read about actions that take place on high levels. Why do we think that this will help us? Because there are no other actions other than the act of connection, but on every level this happens in a more subtle, more detailed, more complex, and more intense form. But it is the same ten Sefirot with more and more bold acts of connection.

So no matter where we read, if our intention is right, meaning for correction, for connection, we read all in this way and will open all the channels of Light.
[131966]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/06/14, The Book of Zohar

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.10.14

Talk About Dissemination: Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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First Thank, Then Ask

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion:  What is each friend’s work to constantly hold everyone in a collective prayer (raising MAN)?

Answer:  Each and every one must discover within himself a deficiency regarding the group and disseminate this to others, in other words, to show love to your friends. And, besides this, we need to awaken all to a general concern for correcting the world, bringing everyone to form a single family.

We need to speak about this between us, disseminate this to the entire world, and provide confidence to every one that this is precisely what the Creator wants. Toward this form of humanity, as one family, we need to go forward and raise this as a prayer.

First of all, we need to praise and give thanks, to speak about the greatness of this mission and all of its components. And then we ask for the revelation of the Creator to the creatures, i.e., that everyone will feel the importance of bestowal. This is called the revelation of the Creator to the creatures.
[131982]
From the 1
st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/14, Writings of Rabash

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A Vessel With A Bottleneck

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion:  Why do those who follow the spiritual path experience the same problems like the rest of the world and have no answer for them?

Answer:  Why do you say that there is no answer? There is an explanation for every problem; our incongruity with the Light, which already should be revealed in us. This is where all problems stem from.

If your desire to receive is less corrected than it should be, the Light that has to appear in the desire to receive is felt as sufferings, problems, pain, and disasters.

The dissimilarity with the desire to receive on the levels of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature causes ecological crises: problems with vegetation, crop failure; diseases of animals, of people, and all of humanity.

Your desire to receive is to blame for all that because it hasn’t undergone the right correction yet. It makes no difference what the problem is, they all stem only from the lack of similarity of the vessel to the Light.

Suppose the desire should be 20% corrected by now, but it is only 2% corrected. So 18% is revealed in the form of the Light pressuring the vessel as the posterior of the Light, in the form of sufferings, troubles, and misery.

The word “troubles” (“Tsarot” in Hebrew) stems from the Hebrew word “narrow” (Tsar), and it refers to a narrow place, a bottleneck, because you don’t open your vessel. You don’t have enough Light of Hassadim to expand and to open the vessel, and so the Light is before it, pressuring it. You can feel this pressure as troubles, problems, diseases, and disasters.

We have to correct the problem on the same physical level that it appears, and at the same time ask for its correction from Above, from the Creator, this is operating on both planes. Baal HaSulam says that we should go to the doctor to get medicine and follow his or her instructions, but at the same time it should be clear to a person that it is all useless and depends only on the Creator, not on the doctor.
[131878]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/14, Writings of Rabash 

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Like A Clenched Fist

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is impossible to attract the Light that Reforms to oneself, rather everyone needs to do this for others. This is called praying for one’s friend. My particular work is to cause the Light to bestow to the entire group and unite us more strongly.

And then according to the degree of the effort to connect, the concentration of all of us together, we discover the Light with greater and greater intensity: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Chaya, Yechida. The power of concentration determines the spiritual levels: 125 levels of concentration, intensity of connection.

And if I won’t do this, who will? Then my part will remain empty. It impossible that I am not able to do this because there is a part that I must correct.
[131874]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/6/14, Writings of the Ari

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