Everyone starts studies hoping to attain the spiritual world with the mind, like philosophers. However, a person gradually realizes that theoretical knowledge does not help, but rather stops him. It confuses him because he expects to achieve something by it.

We all have to go through this confusion, a stage of development, in which we try to understand the Creator through the mind; yet, we begin to grasp that neither the mind nor even feelings are intended for spiritual perception, that is, the true perception of reality. To do this, we need new sense organs.

Therefore, that part of desires and thoughts, the heart and mind, that was engaged in philosophical research is now freed from this occupation and can be dedicated to action. That is, a person really wants to change his desires and is willing to undergo surgery to have the stony heart cut out, turning it into the complete opposite.

He is ready to give himself to it, to have any changes made in him to the faith and devotion of the soul. He gives his soul to be changed qualitatively, and not in the mind. It is called that he becomes a hero, exits the nations of the world, and joins Israel.
[117196]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/13, The Book of Zohar – Introduction

Related Material:
Working Or Philosophizing?
The Klipa Stretches Time For Us
Don’t Rely On The Mind

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work, Zohar - No Comments →

It says in The Zohar: “There is none like you among all the sages of the nations of the world.” This is talking about a person’s inner discernments. Cohen (a priest), Levi, and Israel are called Jews since they are attracted to unity (which has the same root in Hebrew). Scientists or philosophers have the human desire to achieve the same, but it is purely theoretical without any aspirations for changing and correction themselves.

This work is only in the mind and not in the heart. But we need to correct the heart, which means a person’s desires. Philosophers, on the other hand, want to do the same thing but in their mind, and therefore get confused and engage in “idolatry,” creating all kinds of fantasies in their mind.

All the properties except for Israel (those that aim Yashar El, straight to the Creator) are called the nations of the world since they are not attracted to adhesion with the Creator in order to delight Him. The nations of the world are divided into seventy nations and Israel is divided into 12 tribes and to many other parts, which means that the division is infinite. At the same time, each of us is incorporated in everyone else. This happens as a result of the shattering of the vessels, as a preparation for us.

So when we read in The Book of Zohar about some philosopher or a righteous we have to regard them about properties within us. The whole Torah is written about one person who includes the whole world inside him. The question is whether that person is created as someone who can attain the Creator by the inner vessels that were given to him: his desire to receive and the wisdom of the mind.

Of course not! The expansion of our vessels by which we attain the Creator and not philosophize about Him, like the sages of the nations of the world do, is done only by the upper force that provides us with a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light. This is a totally different expansion of the vessels compared to those we can expand by wisdom.

If a person studies something logically, he acquires wisdom, a mind, and general knowledge. But his vessels of perception for attaining the Godly system, the upper operating system, are not expanded by it. He doesn’t learn about the forces that operate him; he doesn’t study the Creator. After all, the Creator can be grasped only through the acquisition of His attributes. If a person doesn’t change his properties, then he is still one who receives under the domination of his desire to receive and the mind that serves the desire to receive, trying to fill it.

This is how we operate in this world and there is nothing we can do about it. Unless we receive help from above that expands our vessels of perception and provides us with new vessels of bestowal, we will not attain the Creator. We will have no idea what Godliness or the spiritual world is.
[117146]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/13, The Book of Zohar — Introduction

Related Material:
The Torah Tells About My Path
The Tabernacle Is The Place Of Our Spiritual Life
Defining The Terms Is Key To The Study Of Kabbalah

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work, Zohar - No Comments →

If a person is looking for a way to connect himself to the King, to appear before Him, he is sent this opportunity. We are honored to carry out such dissemination to the broad masses that we find the need to make contact with the Creator, feeling our dependence on Him.

The whole world feels dependent on something that is not clear. Every day there is a growing sense of helplessness and uncertainty of what will happen tomorrow. But we have chosen spiritual development as the goal of our life and deserve the opportunity to perform material actions toward this. This work brings us to the conclusion about our own powerlessness in relation to the goal.

We understand that we need the Creator, His help. We lack motivation, the importance of the goal, persistence, and stability in advancement toward it, and ask why we do this and who needs it. All this forces us to seek connection with the Creator, to ask for help, and to connect all our success with Him.

The more efforts we make, the more precious the goal in which we have invested so much becomes and the more we need the Creator. And he who does not want to invest a lot of effort does not appreciate the goal much, and therefore does not need the Creator much. It turns out that the physical contribution to dissemination, to the work with the public, is the means that brings us closer to the Creator because due to it, we increasingly feel our dependence on Him.

We can develop this feeling of our dependence on the upper force in the group at the workshops. And if we are lazy in this, the Creator will have to add some problems, suffering. Suddenly, there are enemies, ill-wishers, and we will feel more dependent on the Creator.

It is here where the cut between the path of suffering and the path of the Light lies. If we try to cling to the Creator when life is good, we advance by the path of the Light. And if we forget and are a little bit lazy, then we immediately see how we become less successful and have more and more enemies. The Creator corrects us in this way, as if aiming a missile at the target, correcting its trajectory right and left, and returning it to the right course. Thus, we have to keep moving in order to reach the goal. The entire process will be revealed in this work.

It is good that every time we come to a company, prison, school, organize lectures, workshops, and round tables, we feel tired and lacking any force, any motivation. And then we have the need to turn to the Creator again! Thus, we are constantly being renewed. This forces us to be renewed. And those who do not do this do not feel the need to turn to the Creator; there is no reason for it.

Thus we raise a prayer for help, MAN, because we see that the Creator must be at the beginning of all our actions. And just in order to please Him, I go on every mission. In every action I need to see myself performing this mission and the people I meet as the representatives of the Creator. The Creator sent them to me so that through contact with these people I reveal the Creator in practice, between us, in the connection of broken vessels.

In the end, we must come to the state when we cancel our ego; it remains below and we connect above it, as it is said: “Love covers all transgressions.” We reach the love for the Creator through the love for the created beings; one is the Light and the other is the vessel. Thus we will advance.

It is said: “He who sits at home is not like the one standing in front of the King.” If we are ready to go out of our home and to stand before the King, then go out to disseminate. And then every second we have the opportunity to contact the Creator and the need, the necessity for this contact, because otherwise we cannot make any effort.

We just need to understand that our weakness is a special angel who takes away our power to force us to turn to the Creator. There is no forgetfulness; all these are the special forces specifically working with us. Nothing happens by chance just like that. There is no accident!
[117150]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/13

Related Material:
For The Sake Of The Ultimate Goal
Formula Of Action: Creator – World – Creator
The “Good Signs” On The Way

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The goal of creation is to delight the created beings by the revelation of the Creator to them. The revelation is according to the equivalence of form. The created beings have to attain the revelation of the Creator in their understanding, feeling, and their perception to the full depth of the upper system from an opposite state as the advantage of the Light from the darkness.

Thus, we have to start our work from the lowest most worthless isolated state that is so dark that we don’t even feel this darkness and our confusion. We simply live like animals that have fallen on a certain planet in space, crawling like cockroaches who are trying to manage as well as possible in the time span that was allocated for our existence.

But there are people who were given a special desire from above that calls them to ascend above this life and try to separate the daily life, that we are all part of, from the spiritual life, to divide our life into two parts. Then they determine that the basic necessities are enough for corporeal life and they want to devote everything else to the eternal spiritual life above the corporeal surface, to another level of existence.

With the help of special books, an environment, a teacher, and a group, we try to raise the importance of spiritual life and its advantage compared to the corporeal life. According to our nature and the environment that we live in, which forces us to be like everyone else, we will always be attracted to corporeal values since this is how the environment we live in influences us, whether we like it or not, since this attitude is in the air.

We, however, have to be under the influence of a special environment that will impress us and bring us to a state in which we will feel as if we are standing before a King whom we want to discover and resemble, and to force Him to be in contact with us, and us to be in contact with Him. This is all our work.
[117108]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/13

Related Material:
Being Impressed By The Creator’s Greatness
A Check For SelflessDevotion
Aspire To Sense The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot“

The Book of Zohar — Introduction

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 9 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “One Commandment” 

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: The text of The Book of Zohar, which we read in class, describes plenty of states. How can we sort them out?

Answer: You don’t need to sort them out; there is no need to memorize anything. If while reading you are a little bit connected, tuned in to the right frequency, that is enough. Think only about the Reforming Light that comes from the center of the group so that you could bring pleasure to the Creator. This is all you need to know.

Question: And yet, how do the states appear on the way? Are they generated by my desire, a vessel?

Answer: No. I create nothing; I only see that every second, as a guest, I have the most effective opportunity to please the Host. I continually aspire to this, “keeping my nose to the wind,” and looking for this opportunity: How can I implement it in intention, thought, and action?

In that case, it is just the chances used by me. I myself cannot figure out all the options because every time I see a new world before me faced with new conditions. Nothing is repeated and we know nothing in advance. Our path is endless changes, ongoing surprises. The ten Sefirot are the same, but each time they come up with new Reshimot.

It turns out that I choose nothing and happily accept every state as an opportunity to perform bestowal. Everything is useful, ascents and descents, the right and the left lines, any interactions and connections, on this undulating path. No matter what changes it prepares for me, it’s better because they allow me to figure out how true my intentions are, whether I can maintain and even strengthen adhesion on any peak and valley, in any turn.

My work in fact is very simple: to grab like a “bulldog” and not let go. Hold the intention only on being “focused” on the Host, constantly adapting your environment, your states, to this. And even if I am experiencing ups and downs, I use these “bumps” to hold on even stronger.
[117112]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/17/13, The Zohar

Related Material:
Making A “Heavenly Firmament” Above Us
What the Words of “The Zohar” Reveal
An Objective Appraiser

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work, Torah - No Comments →

Question: Sometimes we feel totally down. Is it possible with the help of our mutual guarantee to always keep us from falling below a certain threshold?

Answer: We can help one another in some way, but still it depends on the state of a person. I may read some article and be impressed to tears and a cat resting next to me will be dozing or looking at me without any understanding of what is happening to me. In a similar way we go through the same states: one time as a crying human being and another as a cat without any understanding.

We have to justify all these states and accept them as necessary ones. The only question is our attitude toward them and how we use them. Therefore, one can experience any descents. We only have to use every way to prepare ourselves for them in order to not fall into a completely dead state. We still have to manage to carry on at least in something and at the same time try to come out from this fall. We have to build a safety belt that will not allow us to fall below a certain level.
[117105]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/13/13, Shamati #33 “The Lots on Yom Kippurim and Haman”

Related Material:
Everyone’s Salary Is Transferred To The Group’s Account
Not Personal Shortcomings But Material For Work
Don’t Stay In The Descent For More Than A Moment

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: During presentations of our methodology, how can our friends respond to tough questions or allegations: “You are communists; you are making waves”?

Answer: The unity of society is not necessarily communism in the form that was presented in the Soviet Union. On the other hand, much of what was at the basis (not the implementation) of the Soviet Union were good ideas and wonderful goals. But they fell into the hands of lowly officials, and with this everything fell to either Stalin or to the bureaucracy, or to the destroyers or enemies of the people.

But in principle, the concept was correct. The fact is that entire idea was not properly implemented, and although much was said about education, the work of education itself was not carried out.

So when the party leaders, all of the elite, the millions who were found in control, didn’t set an example, then certainly nothing worked. In an identical manner we command children: We don’t want to do something ourselves, but we demand it of them. But the children understand that while we demand this, we lie and play about it, so they won’t do anything, and if they do, it is only for the sake of appearing they do and not really correcting themselves.

The same thing happened in Russia. But nevertheless, we just have to show that the solidarity and unity were not for Russia; everything remained just talk. And most importantly, nothing was realized there through the upper force.

By the “Upper force” we mean the power of unity between people. If tens, hundreds, thousands of people, all the people, as is written in the Torah, were to unite, then we would create or naturally discover within us this great and singular power; and it would correct everything. For all that happens with us in our world, personally and all together, on all levels, is all a lack of conformity with the unified power of nature.

Nature approaches us and shows us its integrality, unity, and interdependence. And we, on the contrary, run away from this, separate, detach, move away, hide behind our computers, and don’t want to know anything. As a results, we have to understand that nature will push and squeeze us until we agree to this.
[116616]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/13, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

Related Material:
Wonderful And Destructive Urges
At My Command, According To My Desire
For The Sake Of The Ultimate Goal

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Sukkot symbolizes joy. It is a wonderful, pleasant, light, and simple holiday that people really love. The truth is that it requires preparation in advance, but still, it is very joyful. Why is that?

First, after all the clarifications after the receiving of the Torah in Shavuot, after the 9^th of Av when we saw how shattered we are—as it symbolizes the shattering of the Tablets of the Ten Commandments—it also symbolized the partition of the tablets. Then we reach the recognition of evil in the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the new year), and we make a decision that we must be corrected. And then comes the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), which in Kabbalistic terms is described as the embrace of the right and the left line, as the revelation of the properties of the court, Dinim (judgment) and Hassadim (mercy), the sweetening.

Finally, there comes the festival of Sukkot, which stands for special corrections when I already can raise all my desires to bestowal. The Sukkah symbolizes this entire process. It is all very simple. I use my simplest desires in the form of branches and leaves for building a temporary home. They are worthless, but it is through using them that I build my temporary home, a Sukkah, that provides a shade over my head. The Schach (the covering of the Sukkah) is made of worthless materials that can be found everywhere.

After establishing this temporary state, I rejoice in it. Thus, it symbolizes the spiritual vessel in which I receive the Light. The Schach symbolizes the Masach (screen) since I don’t want to receive the Light directly, and the shade must be much greater than the Light, “Its shade is greater than its Light.”

I am happy since I have managed to build a Masach above me which enables me to conceal the upper abundance and remain in the shade. I, on the other hand—with the help of the Light that Reforms, of course—can hide from the pleasures in the spiritual vessel.

This process continues and I correct myself more and more in my vessels as they develop. I stay in the Sukkah with them, which means that I can open them and use them thanks to the Schach.

Then, I reach Simchat Torah (Joy of the Torah). The Torah is the Light that Reforms that I received on Shavuot. I use this force to correct my vessels and now I come out of the Sukkah. In other words, I already have an unlimited Masach and I don’t need to worry about the Schach (canopy) anymore.

Coming out of the Sukkah (“hut”) symbolizes that now I am free to roam around all of reality all over the world. There is no need for a Masach over my head anymore since it is inside me now. I now sit in my vessel corrected.
[117045]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/18/13, Lesson on the Topic: ”Sukkot”

Related Material:
“I Sat Down Under His Shadow With Great Delight…”
Come Out Of Your Reliable Home And Dwell In A Booth
Joy Is A Sign of Bestowal

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Rabash, Letter 36: Sukkot resolves all the questions even the most difficult ones and bad since we know that Sukkah stands for the shade of faith that should prevail over the sunlight, that is over knowledge. “Its shade should be more than its Light.” However, we should make great efforts to receive the shade and to say that it is the shade of Holiness since this whole shade comes from Heaven and not from the Sitra Achra (the other side) and it was given so that a person would have a place to accept faith.

What is important is that the force of the group is opposite to our ego. If it isn’t so, a person falls and sinks deeply into his ego, into his thoughts, and has no hope to succeed.

One must constantly hold onto the right thoughts, to keep himself above, in the right awakening, holding onto the right force in the right direction, sustaining himself. This is possible only with the force of the group and its ceaseless help. There is no other way. We must take care of that.

After all, most of the time, we still are absorbed in ourselves. However, if I don’t disrespect my friends and they have a strong affect on me, I wake up and transcend myself.

This is a real problem. I can build a shade only if I am strongly impressed by the environment and consider it more important and stronger than my own nature. This is an inevitable struggle and I must constantly be concerned as to who is going to win this struggle. I have to see myself as a battlefield in which there is constant fighting between the shell and holiness.

How can I promise myself that from now on the group will impress me more than any of my egoistic claims, attributes, desires, or thoughts? How can I be under its strong and faithful impression all the time? My future is secure only if I succeed in doing so.

So, the more we work on the connection between us, the greater chances we have to succeed.

Question: What helps us win this struggle other than simple luck? After all, I constantly see that I definitely am losing this battle.

Answer: You will always lose. You can only win on one condition: if you make sure that the friends do not succumb to their nature. My influence on them should be stronger than their nature which pulls them downward. So I influence them by inspiration, impression, and the importance of the goal.

A mother also constantly thinks of her children no matter where she is and what she does. In order to do so, we must work on mutual guarantee. We are all in the same boat, and we all will drown if someone drills a hole in it.

It is all in our hands, and only we can fulfill this. There may be blows that will help us understand that we are really in the same boat.

Question: I constantly feel that I am absorbed in myself and not in the group. How can I shatter the illusion that I operate by myself?

Answer: You must keep on trying. Worrying about yourself won’t help, of course. However, by that, you at least will see that it doesn’t help and that there should be mutual concern for the friends. We need one, big, common vessel that includes all our friends in Israel and abroad and, of course, to make more efforts.

There will be different disturbances along the way but they will be revealed as help against you, and then you will begin to think twice about how to be and what to do.

Eventually, you should understand that, if you don’t want to connect, you will be sent more disturbances that can tear you to pieces, throw you in different directions, and put you into different problems. The only thing you should do on top of all these interruptions is to connect. This is the answer to all the future, external disturbances that will come so that we will reach the right connection.

Question: However, waiting for the disturbances is the path of suffering.

Answer: If you overcome them both on the corporeal level and on the spiritual level, then it is fine.
[117042]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/18/13, Lesson on the Topic: “Sukkot”

Related Material:
The Group Makes You A Hero
The Power To Stand Against The Whole World’s Opinion
How To Win In The Struggle With Yourself?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work - 1 Comment →