Entries in the 'Daily Kabbalah Lesson' Category

What Is Working With Intention?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we help others with our intention?

Answer: Nothing can help a person other than a prayer for him. It is said, “A prisoner cannot release himself from prison.” One cannot help oneself in spiritual attainment in any way; one can only help oneself in corporeality. And in spirituality, only others can help me.

Everything that I want to attain in spirituality, from zero to infinity, is possible only on condition that others will want to give this to me, will help me to get this, and will fulfill me. How can I make them help me? They will help me if I will make efforts to help them.

So we must think only about being included in the desires of the other and the correction of the other. Only in this way can I obligate the system to take care of me, and this desire will no longer be an egoistic desire.

I must gather and collect the desires from everyone because this work is called Yesod. My vessel is the desires of the other that I intend to fulfill, and I perceive them as closer than my own desires. I work on the desires, but because they initially seemed foreign to me, those of the other, they are called intentions.

What is the difference between intention and desire? The desire belongs to me; within me I feel a desire for me to enjoy myself. I don’t feel the desire of the other and so work on the desire of the other is called intention. It turns out that I am always working on intentions! This means that if I reduce my desire, penetrate the desire of the other, and work with his desire by placing his desire above my desire, it means that I am working with intentions.

In this manner I am building the head (Rosh) of the spiritual Partzuf. Instead of my desire, I take the desire of the other and work with it like my desire. And this is called working with an intention.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/14

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Agreement To Be Loyal In Our Thoughts

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we hold on to the feeling of the morning lesson all day long? I leave the lesson and shortly afterward I notice that I am a completely different person. Why can’t I keep relating to everything that happens in the morning lesson?

Answer: The first reason is the lack of connection between you. The group lacks the general force that unites everyone and can provide support and the right infrastructure for everyone.

A person who leaves the group and engages in his business has to feel that he is connected to the group by a cord. He has to feel that the friends think about him and that he thinks about them because they have committed to support him and he has committed to support them. This is the beginning of the connection in the group, a union that later turns into mutual guarantee, and we have to make sure that it is so.

Why can’t you feel that you are in the group all day long? It is like wearing certain clothes before going out. You should dress in the group and go out! You have to do it, because without it you have no chance of succeeding. If you don’t dress in the group, the day will go by idly.

Let’s sign an agreement between us, and you will sign it and think about us. Let’s see how it will compel you. If you stop thinking about us, you will be causing great harm to yourself and to us, so you will be afraid, fearful, and worried as to how you can hold on to these thoughts. It is easy to tie one’s hands and feet, but how can you tie your thoughts to the group so that they will stick to the group?

How can I control my thoughts? After all, it is clear that you will forget! How can I make this thought obsessive? How can I keep myself from becoming someone else the moment I leave the group and go into the outside world?

There is no way you can remain connected to the group if the group doesn’t provide you with the power to do so. So you must come to the group and say: “Friends, I am ready to do anything that you ask, I am ready to pay you, to serve you, just help me not forget about you please!” Start asking for this!I promise you that the day you begin to worry about the friends, you will feel that you enter the group.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Managing Correct Separation

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is bad about separation if there are clear general rules about cooperation between the separate parts, just as in the human body every body part has its own clear role?

Answer: There is nothing bad about separation except that we need to correct it. Here is the question that arises: What am I correcting it for? It’s necessary that the importance of this activity be determined by the right goal.

This means that I am not doing this so that I will feel good; rather, I rise to another level of decision making. My brain, intellect, and emotion, everything that is me will not belong to me personally but will belong to all. Every time that I rise to a higher level, I pass from an individualistic approach of determining my state, to a collective view, to a point of view that is for the benefit of all, like the head of a group who is concerned for the good of all of its members.

After that, the group is revealed to me with an even greater ego, with even greater mutual rejection than this, as if there is a collective descent, a fall. And so again I must raise myself to an even higher level of head of the group and again connect them together.

All of the work is to be a head that manages and corrects the entire separation; as it is said: “The world was created for me.”
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/14

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No More Theatrical Performances

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: At the time of Mordecai and Esther was the highest Zivug, which corresponds to the end of correction. What needs to be done in order to achieve this same state again?

Answer: We must live through all the material actions that have spiritual roots.

There were the all these events:ancient Babylon, Egyptian slavery, wandering in the desert, entering the land of Israel, erecting of the First Temple and its further destruction, Babylonian exile, constructing of the Second Temple, its devastation and exile—all these events took place for a reason. Now, we are approaching the very end.

The Purim events took place during the Babylonian exile. Since the destruction of the First Temple, we lost the Light of Mochin de Haya that was included in our Reshimo. This light was dormant and it was impossible to awaken it. It awakens only as a result of the action called Purim, only under its influence.

Due to the fact that the Jews won the Purim war, they were able to reveal the Upper Root. Now, we have to repeat this action on a worldwide scale. If not for the necessity to correct the entire world, we would build a Temple in the land of Israel out of our desire called Isra-el (Yashar-Kel – directly to the Creator.) We are talking only about spirituality, not materiality. At the time of final correction, the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels will be included in one spiritual degree.

Besides the people of Israel, there are nations of the world, and they are unable to directly connect with spirituality. That’s why the people of Israel were exiled and had to spread among them. During the last exile we mixed with the most distanced nations of the world. As to close nations, we mingled with them during prior exiles. The major connection happened between Persians and our people during the Babylonian exile.

Queen Esther is a real historical personage. Her son, Koresh, helped to build the Second Temple. He gave money to the Jews and brought them back to the land of Israel. He also helped to rebuild the entire country and invested a lot into its resurrection.

All these events should be revealed to the world as branches that originate from spiritual roots. Today, we reached the epoch of complete deliverance. That’s why there never will be a new Queen Esther, Ahasuerus, Haman—all these were material characters who participated in a theatrical performance. At this time, only spiritual forces that are yet to be discerned are acting.

These spiritual forces are detached from materiality, that’s why it is incorrect to state that modern Iranians are the same ancient Babylonians that were our enemies at some point. Not at all! We have to take a broader view. Anywhere in the world is the land of Israel, Babylon, Egypt, etc. We must not look at the map but at human nature. Today, we are in the state of the last exile that deals only with spirituality because at this time the world has become global, as one family.

Everything is just about one desire. We should split this overall desire into inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels. We have to filter these levels so that each time we regard things according to our current step, without connecting it to corporeality. There is no materiality. Everything is determined by the desire.

That’s why Purim, Mordecai, Esther, and Ahasuerus are only about spiritual paths. Spiritual forces are the only thing we should consider in this corporeal world.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/14, Writings of Rabash

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True Wisdom About The Basics Of Creation

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom Baal HaSulam’s article “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 4: From that you can deduce about the wisdom of truth, which contains all the secular teachings within it, which are its “seven little maids.” This is the entirety of the human species and the purpose for which all the worlds were created, as it is written, “If My covenant be not with day and night, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth.”

This is what has sustained us thus far, to maintain the armies and the wall around the wisdom of truth, so no stranger or foreigner would break in and put it in their vessels to go and trade it in the market, as with the secular sages. This was so because all who entered have already been tested by seven tests until it was certain beyond any concern and suspicion.

The science that explains the fundamentals of creation is inside a person. It explains how one can change oneself so that one understands the creation in its authentic form called the world of Infinity.

When one senses the creation, one meets with its source, the Creator, the Upper Force. One feels that one was “created from nothing” and exists only to attain the Upper Force.

The science of Kabbalah is fundamental, as it is about the nature of the Creator and the nature creation and how the creation can attain the Creator. The creation senses this world under the condition that its perception are almost completely reduced. Instead of ten Sefirot (Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin and Malchut), the creation possesses only five material senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Working with these five organs of sensation, the creation learns the laws of this world and names them “material sciences,” which reveal themselves through the egoistic desire.

Our reality given to us in the form of intellectual perceptions and sensations of this world exists only to serve as a basis that allows us to reach the Creator. Attainment of the Creator is the goal of the creation. The creation must reach the Creator, i.e. reveal Him and attain His level and His properties. Scientists presumed that it is not worth revealing the secrets of science to small egoists so that they wouldn’t make them the objects of trade on the market; however, Kabbalists never prohibited spreading their knowledge. On the contrary, they disseminated the fundamentals of the wisdom to the nations of the world.

One studies according to one’s desire. This explains why Plato and Aristotle studied the basics of Kabbalah and then based on this knowledge; they initiated the development of earthly sciences. Kabbalists were never against dissemination of knowledge since it stimulated the world’s progress. It instigated a rapid revelation of malevolence, acknowledgement of the evil inclination, and the necessity to correct them, to ascend to the authentic wisdom, thus rising to the true state, the world of Infinity.

Conversely, the wisdom of Kabbalah could have stopped the egoistic development. That’s why Baal HaSulam wrote that premature revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah caused many problems and launched numerous mystical teachings. We haven’t fulfilled things we were supposed to, thus, we have to go through pain because Kabbalah was revealed prematurely. If we behaved differently, the program of creation could have been more favorable.

Even though an untimely revelation of Kabbalah brought troubles to the people of Israel, today we are at the doorstep of the final redemption. From now on, our correction and attainment of the true world depends only on us. Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah is open to everyone.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Ones Who Enter Are Subject To Seven Tests

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday, the wisdom of Kabbalah is available to everybody: Please come in, the door is open! Still there is an invisible barrier (Machsom) that does not allow everybody to come in. When we advance and approach the entrance, it pushes us away.

We are almost there! And yet it repels us again. Sometimes we come closer to it and all of a sudden forget where we were heading. We turn aside and suddenly get distracted by something else.

It means that everybody who wants to enter should go through seven tests. One has to go through all the egoistic desires and rise above them so that one stops relying on oneself any more. This is the form that allows one to enter.

In other words, the door is always open if one withstands the tests. Our generation is the worst among all previous generations. It is said “the face of the generation is like a dog’s grin.” We don’t respect anything anymore. Compared to us, people who lived at the time of destruction of the Temple were very delicate and decent. They passionately aspired to spirituality.

Rabash shared that in the beginning of the 20th century, he happened to see the last of the real Hassidic Jews from Kotzk. At the end of the 19th century, if any young man from a small Russian or Polish Jewish town was offered studying and attaining the Creator, no one would think twice before quitting his prior lifestyle and would devote himself to this goal with no hesitation.

The revelation of Kabbalah came in parallel to the revelation of desires that fell to their lowest degree. The evil manifested itself in the most terrible way and we are unable to correct it because our pride, mutual hatred, and envy have reached their ultimate level. That’s why our generation is the one the wisdom of Kabbalah was exposed very widely to. Our desires are ready to go through “seven tests” and enter the gates of true wisdom. However, the warning of seven tests has always existed.

These tests are not checking the fineness of our desires, but their depth. Maturity of a desire is a condition for its disclosure. That’s why the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealing itself only now instead of emerging several hundred years ago. It is explained by the requirement to wait until the desires descend to the very bottom material Malchut.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Learning To Realize Our Exclusivity

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom Baal HaSulam’s articles “The Giving of the Torah” and “Arvut (The Mutual Guarantee)” and other sources including Rav Kook’s writings, we clearly see that those who aspire to merge with the Creator without pulling the entire world cannot achieve correction.

We need to realize that hiding from the world, taking care of ourselves, and studying for ourselves are very comfortable for our egoism, but it does not help. Until we realize this, nothing happens.

Don’t complain that the world is not receptive and does not want to listen. Those are just excuses to justify our laziness and discomfort in this material plane. When it comes to the Upper Force that organizes the entire reality and creates all internal and external conditions for us, we need to decide once and for all and confirm each day that by not observing this particular requirement, we do not deal with spiritual advancement.

Because it means that we are not engaged in building the spiritual system. In this case, we would be replaced by others or the Creator will send us terrible disasters and problems and we will still have to return to Him against our will. This should be very important to us.

Some people complain that they have been studying for 10-15 years now, but they still have not reached the attainment yet. They have to better understand the system we are in. If we act correctly inside the system, then we advance towards its true goal: the revelation of the force of bestowal, connection, merging with the Creator, and the ability not to demand anything for ourselves, i.e., spiritual attainment. Our advancement is possible only if we act this way.

If someone behaves differently, then one should not be in the group and be unnecessary ballast in the common boat. It’s better to just walk away, at least then you would know what you are doing, instead of coming every few years with complaints: “Why haven’t I reached the revelation yet?

This is an egoistic question: “Why don’t I have it?” But he doesn’t ask: “Why have I studied for so many years and still continue thinking about myself?” Instead, “Why haven’t I received something that I was waiting for so long?”

We should fulfill our duties. The Creator never compromises. We are talking about the whole of creation and the system requires our actions. In his works, Rabbi Kook writes that the state of the world requires us to act and that there is no room to escape. Correction is to realize our exclusivity.

We feel the desire to attain the Creator not because we are so special; rather, the Creator purposely awakens the desire in us so that we can do our job properly. Our duty is to fulfill our task correctly, not acting in our own way, but rather learning how to perform it.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/14

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 03.28.14

Preparation for the Lesson

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Shamati #69 “First Will Be the Correction of the World”

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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” “Come Unto Pharaoh – 2”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Article “Petah HaShaar“

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620 Nested Infinities

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean that everyone uses himself to fulfill the desire of the friend, of others?

Answer: I can connect to the friend if I know his desire. There is no other way I can connect to his desire to receive. I have to know what you want and make an effort to get it.

There is nothing but the desire to receive, and if I want to be connected to you, I have to fill you, and you should do the same for me. So no one can fill oneself on the corporeal level, yet each one can fill the other on a spiritual level.

In order to do so, I have to find out what you want. It turns out that I am the upper Partzuf with regard to you and you are the lower Partzuf. I take your desires from you, I am incorporated in them, and raise them upwards; thus, I become a conductor between you and the Creator. This is how I fill you.

Everyone does that for the other. Imagine billions of Partzufim, each inside the other in different discernments, each one asking for the filling of the other.

Thus the deficiencies and the fillings go from one to the other in a chain of levels until they reach the world of Infinity. Thus, we discover one general vessel where everyone is incorporated in everyone and connected into one desire like it was before the shattering.

But this one desire is complex because it contains the shattering, the distance, the ego, that doesn’t let us connect. This desire is complex because everyone is incorporated in everyone, and therefore its intensity grows by 620 times the simple, initial desire.

Everyone absorbs the deficiency of the other and is rewarded with filling it, thus we intensify ourselves. If I am connected to all the parts of the general soul and eventually have to raise a prayer for all of us, then the light of Infinity passes through me to everyone from the top down.

This is what happens with each of us. We connect and grow until infinity, and eventually we reach an incredible power. We call this growth 620 times, although it isn’t a number, but a qualitative concept.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/14

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Receiving In Order To Bestow

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhat is the intention in order to bestow? If I work with the desire of the other in order to fulfill it instead of fulfilling myself, this is called an intention in order to bestow to another. Working with the desire of the other is called yearning to fulfill him. And because this is not my desire, this is considered to be work with an intention. I consider this desire even higher and more precious than my desire, like in relation to my infant.

It is not important that the desire of the other is materialistic, but since he was originally a stranger to me, and my ego and hatred separated between us, therefore to leap above my ego and to fulfill the desire of the other is called working with an intention in order to bestow. I receive this fulfillment for him from above and convey it to him, meaning receiving in order to bestow.

Question: But all the time, when I finally check myself, I discover that I worked in order to benefit myself somehow!

Answer: So you are still in this world and not in the spiritual world. This is about the desire of the other that I truly absorb, putting it above my ego that rejects him. I ask the Upper Light to make your desire like my desire, and then I work on your desire as if it were my desire.

This means that I receive an opportunity from above to feel your desire “as my own.” But it isn’t mine, rather it is  “like mine,” meaning above my ego. We don’t understand this important distinction.

It follows that I work on your desire and fulfill it because I want to connect with you, and in this connection to give contentment to the Creator. This is because we give Him contentment through all of the connections of the parts of the shattered vessel.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/14

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