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Shamati #56 “Torah Is Called Indication“
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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parashat, “Beresheet (Genesis),” Item 289
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 2, Item 5
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence“
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Baal HaSulam, Letter 57: I haven’t revealed this truth to you so you would not weaken and give up on the mercy. And although you don’t see anything, for even when the measure of labor is complete, it is the time of prayer. But until then, believe in our sages: “I did not labor and found, do not believe.”
When the measure is full, your prayer will be complete, and the Creator will grant generously, as our sages instructed us, “I labored and found, believe,” for one is unfit for a prayer prior to it, and the Creator hears a prayer.
Our desire is able to achieve everything it desires. The only question is whether it wants this. This is the state that we should bring it to, having developed it to a complete perfect desire, because only this desire works in spirituality.
In the material world, it is possible to pretend, to play some games as if we want to because this world is false. In this world, everything happens within the desire itself, instead of being clarified in the confrontation between the two desires: the desire to receive and the desire to bestow. And if everything is taking place within the same desire, then we are free to fantasize anything we want. After all, in essence, it does not change anything.
All the creation is evaluated only in the area of the interaction between the two desires: receiving and bestowal, the created being and the Creator. And there, in any moment, in any state, in every part of the desires, only one true desire acts, that is, the desire that has reached its fourth and final stage “Behina Dalet.”
So, if you have not been rewarded the correction of your desire to enjoy bestowal this means that you have not reached the last, fourth stage of the desire and you should work more. It is all determined by whether you ask with the true prayer, that is, have reached the fourth state or not.
And this depends on your efforts; you are obliged to “All that is in your power, that do.” That is why we need to check whether we carry out all the advices of Kabbalists and work according to this. And if not, of course you will get nothing. Strict laws act here. In the spiritual world, there is a full HaVaYaH (complete desire). If you have not reached the full HaVaYaH, the fourth stage of desire, then this trigger does not work; you do not attract the Light that Reforms that will change you from egoism to bestowal. It is possible to rise to the next level and achieve revelation only with the help of the Light.
The revelation of the Creator is the revelation of the desire to enjoy in a person that turns into bestowal. This is what is called the revelation of the Creator, because the Creator is the property of bestowal that is manifested in the person when he wants to bestow.
But do you truly want that? It cannot be that you have made every effort imposed on you and it did not happen. According to the law, it has to happen! Therefore, even if you cry out, you need to check whom you are addressing. It is as if the Creator does not hear your cry because it is a law that cannot be transgressed. All these cries are only to awaken yourself, force you to work, to make efforts, and eventually to complete the measure assigned to you.
Baal HaSulam says that you need to know about it in advance so as not to despair and to not give up. Until the very last moment, even the moment before you complete the entire measure of your efforts, you will not know that you have come to the finish. That is why it is called a find; you will obtain the force of bestowal, which you did not know about. Even then, on each next degree, you find something completely new.
Therefore, it is said, “I labored and found!” But this find is a result of all the labors is revealed according to the strict law, which cannot be transgressed.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/11/13
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Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: If he were to leave the good environment he had chosen and fall into a harmful environment, in a city where there is no Torah, not only would his former concepts be compromised, but all the other forces hidden in his source, which he had not yet revealed in action, would remain concealed. This is because they would not be subject to the right environment that would be able to activate them.
And as we have clarified above, only in the matter of the choice of environment is man’s reign over himself measured, and for this he should receive either reward or punishment. And so our sages warned, “Make for yourself a Rav, and buy for yourself a friend.
A person has only a Reshimo (spiritual gene), a spiritual seed. But if we don’t plant it in the ground, if we don’t put it in the right environment, it will not develop. So Kabbalists first and foremost always took care of the environment, so that there would be at least two people, as it says, “the minority of many is two,” which means a student and his teacher. If there are several students then a group of friends is formed in which everyone works equally.
So first we should make sure that the environment is right: that everyone is equal, that everyone annuls himself before the others, and that there are no other external goals, only the goal of connection in order for the Creator to be revealed between us. The goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the purpose of creation, is the revelation of the Creator to the created beings, as the good and the benevolent, and His desire to delight the created beings.
So our advancement depends on how much we worry about the right and real environment. In a big environment such as ours that manages many different projects, there are several societies and the same people are in different relationships with one another.
We have to make sure that all the forms of external relations are only for external dissemination and external work. The main thing is that in our united inner group everyone is equal, everyone nullifies himself before the others, lowers his head before one goal, and increases its importance. There is nothing more important than this, our general unity and connection as one man in one heart.
This inner connection in a group has to be the most important thing for us. All the other connections, whether according to our professions, to fulfilling different goals, individual jobs or tasks, are arranged according to another principle, like a company. But this external attitude has nothing to do with the group. The group is something that is based on spiritual rules alone, and we need to constantly take care of it.
There is a some external life without which we cannot exist in our corporeal bodies, and there is a sublime goal that is eternal and whole for which our soul exists. We have to worry about the internal group so that it should be clean and accurately built according to the principles Baal HaSulam, Rabash, and all the other Kabbalists through the ages wrote about.
It is very important not to confuse the two. We can stop or change the external engagements in a moment, but the main thing is to keep the inner structure of the environment in which everyone is equal and united. This is how we advance.
[120122]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/13
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When we go through a series of ascents and descents we wonder why we need all this. After all, it is said that we “add in Holiness and don’t subtract.” So actually this is a very logical question.
Our problem is that we don’t understand that evil doesn’t exist. In spirituality we check everything with regard to the Creator. There are 125 levels on our way to Him and the ascent to each of them begins when I receive additional egoism, which is gradually growing.
Suppose I am on level 1 before level 2, accordingly my ego has to grow and the state I am given is called “night.” It says in the Torah “And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” So everything begins from the evening.
First I need to get additional Aviut (thickness) and discover a new layer of desire in me. In fact this is precisely the level that I will ascend to and, which in the meantime, stands before me like a wall. So this new Aviut is called a descent.
But the descent is a decrease in the importance of the spiritual path in my eyes. This is how the Creator “hardens Pharaoh’s heart,” and at the same time says to me “Come to Pharaoh.” I only need to understand that all this is just in order to raise me.
Moreover, I have actually already risen, since “evening” is actually the revelation of the new corrupt vessels that belong to the next level. Now I only lack the correction that begins at “midnight.” Starting from the “evening” until “midnight,” a new desire to receive is revealed in me, then there is the correction of the vessels, and eventually I receive the Light, starting from dawn, the sunrise of a new day. So is this a descent?
Rabash gives us an example: If you are hungry and you are given a sack of wheat grain and you are angry since you cannot eat them, you are right. So use them correctly. Now you have something to prepare food from, a fulfillment.
On the other hand, if you receive ready-made food for your soul, you will not have the feeling, understanding, and adhesion. You will not understand what is essential and will not be able to develop.
So we constantly rise. There are no descents; everything depends only on our attitude towards what is happening. If you see a descent like an old wise man who is looking for new deficiencies on his own, in order to rise higher through them, to acquire wisdom, then “night” doesn’t seem as a descent to you. But in order to do that you need to have a group, a fixed daily schedule, and to use all the necessary means to support you along the way.
[120024]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/13, Shamati #26 “One’s Future Depends and Is Tied to Gratitude for the Past”
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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parashat, “Beresheet (Genesis),” Item 280
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 2, Item 4
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Question: What is the difference between cleaving to the teacher or cleaving to the group?
Answer: It is necessary to cleave to the group in order to cleave to the teacher in order to cleave to the Creator.
It does not mean that the student cannot ask the teacher questions, clarify, express doubts, and even make some claims. This should always be in the form that does not harm their connection, the student’s self-nullification. This is the main thing.
The problem is not that he will not have enough respect for the teacher, but the fact that he will lose his connection with him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/13, Shamati #25 “Things that Come from the Heart”
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Question: Everything depends on our request from the upper, but how can I be sure that the upper has what I am asking for and that He will want to give it to me if my request is right?
Answer: The right request is called MAN, a prayer. If you intend to ask for something that is very important to you, it isn’t enough just to ask for it. There are so many people like you asking for something. You need something to gain the upper being willing to help you, to win His sympathy. You have to know Him better and understand how to get closer to Him, and to check what He likes. This means that you have to perform different actions in order to please Him and to be near Him.
The request has to be so that your GE or the Reshimo (spiritual gene) that rises towards the upper has to be exactly according to His desire, to the AHP of the upper.
If you bring a sack of coins, you will not be able to receive milk in it. You need a vessel that is designed to receive the Light and that is perfectly suitable for it in quantity, quality, and in its purpose. The purpose is mainly what you need the Light for.
This “animal” is everyone’s mother and not only yours. If you come to it in the name of everyone else and want to receive from her, she will give you want you want, but not otherwise. But you don’t really feel, understand, or accept that. You don’t agree! You hope to be favored by her, and that’s the whole problem.
But mother is exploding with milk… and you only have to ask for everyone, otherwise you will not receive one drop. If you reach the right request, MAN, you promise to convey everything that you have received to humanity, which becomes your AHP and joins your GE. Since this is everyone’s mother, she cannot give less than that; that’s the way she is. She has to give 100% and you have to receive 100%, 100% of a desire to bestow against 100% of the vessel and a deficiency.
You have to be whole as to 100% of what you can give of your vessel, of your Reshimo. Since a “whole adheres to a whole.” If a baby makes one sound asking his mother for food, he requests 10 grams of milk in order to pass to everyone, and so he will receive his 10 grams. But first he has to promise that he does it for the benefit of everyone. If not, the request isn’t whole and we will not receive anything. This may cool a person down a bit and sound disappointing.
Question: But how can I promise that I will convey to everyone what I receive if I am a thief by nature? What if I suddenly steal some of it?
Answer: This is called “a prayer before a prayer.” Ask for a desire before the desire, that you will have a good desire, ask the upper to put the right prayer into your heart. You cannot reach that by yourself of course.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot
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As long as a person has not seriously begun to work, he doesn’t feel great opposition. But to the degree of advancement, and especially in the last stage when I approach the stage of the exodus from Egypt, then intense opposition from the egoistic Klipot begins, up to the 49 Gates of Impurity. It is impossible to exit Egypt unless the Klipot compel the person.
On the one hand, I feel a very great heaviness in even making one small step forward. And on the other hand, I see that if I do not make this step forward, then everything will disappear and I will lose everything. All of my effort will have been in vain, as if I hadn’t done anything.
Therefore we are obliged to strengthen the group, we are obliged to strengthen the mutual support and not fear any disturbances. For the 49 Gates of Impurity must be revealed in all of their intensity.
And there is no need to fear that the egoistic disturbances fall upon us and will weaken us. In other words, we must get up again and again. The problem is that we forget the reason for our descent and wonder why it is suddenly so bad for us, why don’t we wake up? Only yesterday I was all on fire, I worked in “high gear,” and today I woke up like a dumb animal—I don’t remember anything, don’t understand anything, and cannot think about anything. I feel tired and distracted, and don’t understand that I need to wake myself anew every day. And all the time there is another new clarification of new “Kelim” that I have not yet clarified.
And it could be that in the middle of the day suddenly some kind of unpleasant news arrives that simply stuns me. And were it not for the support of the friends and the group, I would fall. Alone it is impossible to hold onto something like this if the balance of forces tips in the direction of the bad. The group needs to nourish the person all the time with renewed excitement and awakening. It must become a source for the spirit of life.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/13, Writings of Rabash
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Question: The work in the group becomes tasteless without dissemination. But the moment we approach dissemination there are immediate conflicts and arguments. How can we disseminate and keep the unity in the group at the same time?
Answer: Of course we cannot live without dissemination. It’s like a family without kids. How much can you learn and study? Naturally there is a need for something fresh and new, some other news, like a couple that constantly engages in just themselves suddenly feels a need to have a child. So there has to be the right combination between studying and dissemination. We must never forget about the study!
The study changes according to what we engage in. Dissemination is the most important thing for our advancement, since we grow by transmitting the Light through us to the public. Otherwise we would remain in the state of Hafetz Hesed, when we actually don’t need anything. So it is dissemination that primarily determines our personal spiritual growth.
On the other hand, by engaging in dissemination, we also need to look for materials that will help us both theoretically and practically to expand and to deepen our dissemination. We have to locate the necessary materials and accordingly design our study.
According to our dissemination we study the material differently and find the parts that are relevant for our times, either from The Book of Zohar or from Talmud Eser Sefirot, when we choose certain articles by Baal HaSulam. This means that we actually choose the material that relates to dissemination and that helps us.
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From the Talk about Group and Dissemination 10/20/13
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If I accept the group as a means for my advancement, I should correlate my whole path to the group. I begin to see the revelation of the Creator in the group: that He presents to me what I see in my friends.
I have no opportunity to evaluate them objectively. Thus from now on I maintain the principle: “Each rejects according to his own flaws.”
This does not mean that I close my eyes to everything. Our relationship now simply exists in two planes. On one hand, I accept the friends above reason as the best, genuine, and perfect group. I see them as great, and I see myself as adhering to their environment. On the other hand, I perceive them according to my logic and see that we all need to change for the better in order to help the group. Both sides of my approach are built on a real foundation: Either I see myself as uncorrected, or I see all of them as uncorrected.
I understand that my outlook depends on my inner state, and thus I work on both levels: At times I bow my head before the greatness of the friends, and at times I advance equally with them in an aspiration to unity and a common ascent.
Meanwhile I know that I never see the real picture, since until the final correction, everything is relative, and I lack firm criteria.
[24658]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/10, Writings of Rabash
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