Question: The ten days between the Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is the period of repentance, or more literally, return (Teshuva). What is this action?

Answer: We are talking about returning to bestowal, to the state that preceded the breaking of the vessels. Bestowal means that I calculate my every action not in my desire but in the desire of the other. It is said about this: “Make your desire as His desire.” That’s what it means to love, to bestow, to try to neutralize one’s own desire, to become included in the desire of the other, to take his desire as if I am he and to try to fulfill it.

What exactly does the other person want? He wants to make money, to succeed in life, to get rid of someone, to use someone else, etc. Of course, I do not help him in this. No, being in the property of bestowal to some extent, I “integrate” in the other; I feel his properties and want to correct them. So, I have to make sure that he is corrected like me. I have to ask for him.

And I ask for correction for him; I want to carry his bestowal in everything. I accept his properties, intentions, desires, especially the bad ones, and correct them: I ask for correction for him. He is unable to ask himself, unable to understand that this is wrong, unable to “see the baby,” i.e., to look to the future. And I become the “head” for him.

That is why the letters of the word Israel (ישראל) make up the expression the “head for me” (LiRosh – לי ראש). I am doing spiritual work for the other, instead of him, I raise MAN—a request for correction—like the first-born and raise him to our common parent Partzuf Aba ve Ima. And from there, I get twice for myself to move into adulthood (Gadlut), which will allow me to form the genuine property of bestowal upon the other. And based on this property, I will start to bestow.

That’s what the action that we are talking about is. All this is also included in the correction on Rosh HaShanah. The New Year is in essence the peak, the result of the completed degree and ascent to the next one.
[116179]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/13, Lesson on the Topic: Rosh HaShanah

Related Material:
Getting Ready For The New Year
Man’s Birthday
Celebrating The New Level

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

Today, a special condition has developed in the world caused by the fact that the spiritual and the material are converging. And to the extent that our actions are consistent with the current stage, we influence our own destiny.

Over the past two thousand years, this has not happened. The period of exile of the people of Israel lasted until now, which it had to pass through by suffering. Baal HaSulam says that a premature exit from the Egyptian exile after two hundred and ten years, instead of four hundred, became the root of all subsequent exiles.

Either way, you need to go through all the stages of the path. The breaking itself, the destruction of the Temple, defines this situation, where you are not the master but the dependent who is to experience everything through whatever comes to him.

And the people of Israel have experienced, lived through, these two thousand years until it came to their end. Today, a new, opposite stage, a new birth begins. The crisis (in Hebrew: Mashber) is birth. And so it is the time to rise to our feet.

The first time in two thousand years, our current actions, both material and spiritual, based on physical strength and the power of intention, determine our destiny. And it is determined in two ways: either carrying out the development in its time or speeding it up, one of the two. It was not like that previously, this “fork” appeared just now.

That’s why the world manifests its “round,” interconnected nature, and we discover that we are broken at the level of humanity, the people of Israel, everyone and all people. This period began with the first wave of Aliyah, the return to the land of Israel about 130 years ago, which was a sign of the new times. And now we have to get to work, knowing that the fate of the world is directly related to our efforts on the path of corrections.

And so today, during the Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShanah), when the attributes of judgment (Dinim) take effect, we have nothing to fear. If I am afraid that I will be exposed as an egoist, I have to understand that I finally have the opportunity to repay. I can carry out corrections, can ask for forgiveness, not just beat myself on the chest and shout nice words, but really wish to get rid of bad qualities.
[116183]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/13. Shamati #122

Related Material:
A New Year, A New Beginning
A Weak Point Becomes A Point Of Freedom
The Festive Calendar Of Ascent And Connection

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Israel, Nations of the World - 1 Comment →

How can you verify that we are advancing correctly? It is clear that a person is too fond of himself and always evaluates himself in terms of his egoism subconsciously. We are not able to verify the correctness of our path objectively.

The only opportunity for us to change is by acquiring a situation like the guest and the Host, by feeling a special treatment from the Host which transforms us from enjoying the fulfillment to beginning to enjoy the One who gives the fulfillment. That is, we rise above the desire and the Light that fills it, which are directly connected to each other in the natural, physical form and move on to the level of the relationship between the guest and the Host.

The guest is not the desire to enjoy itself, but a new property built inside of it which is familiar with the Host, understands Him, and feels His attitude. There is a desire and fulfillment, and above them, their mutual relationships are suddenly revealed. That is, the “2^nd floor” is built between the Creator, not His actions, but the Creator Himself and the created being, where the image of the Creator is formed.

Then a conflict breaks out on the 1^st floor between the vessel and the Light and the relationship between the Creator and the created being on the 2^nd floor. Therefore, the created being feels an inner contradiction. Every time my desire changes, my attitude towards pleasure changes. I am starting to see it in a new way, and according to this I have to choose the correct goal.

So, I am given the first starting point. If I want to establish a relationship between myself and the Creator on the 2^nd floor and not on the first, then I should please Him as much as He attempts to please me. The reason for my creation is His love for me, the desire to bring me pleasure. And how can I do the same thing for Him in return?

I need to explore this, to try to find out how I can please Him during my life: What He wants, what He seeks, what will make Him feel good. It is hard to figure out because if I do something to bring pleasure to the Creator and feel it, then I will receive more pleasure than I can bear. I would be so corrupted by selfish pleasure that I would never be able to get out of it, to rise above it to the 2^nd floor .

Therefore, beginning with the first man, Adam HaRishon, we are provided with help in this world. Kabbalists tell us that in order to reveal the relationship between the human being and the Creator, I need the correct environment in which I can perform such actions that will bring Him pleasure. After all, the environment is desire and pleasure independent and unrelated to me. I do not feel it. And if I can fill a foreign environment that is outside me: the still, vegetative, animate, and human, then I will bring pleasure to the Creator. It is a very simple principle.

The only problem is that I cannot bring pleasure to someone else because I only think about myself. That is my nature. But no matter what, I have to try. And if I want to bring the other person joy for the sake of delighting the Creator, the entire process has to be on the 2^nd floor because it does not depend on my own enjoyment.
[116017]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/13

Related Material:
A Little Bit Of Goodness With The Right Intention
Looking At The World From The 2nd Floor
The Specifics Of Our Generation

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

Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: Because the purpose is undoubtedly built over all the laws of nature, none excluded, just as the clever worker would not add or subtract even a hairsbreadth of the necessary actions to attain the goal, he who alters even a single law harms and damages the purposeful aim that the Creator has set, and will therefore be punished by nature. Hence, we, too, creatures of the Creator must not pity him because he is desecrating the laws of nature and defiles the purpose of the Creator.

We live within a complex of forces of the laws of nature. From the world of infinity each being smaller than the previous one, they close the spiritual space in order to construct this world in its center, the place in which a person has free choice and from which he can begin the way toward his correction.

If we don’t abide by these laws that are active within the “spiritual worlds,” the Sefirot,  Partzufim—then, how can we rise to the level of the Creator? The ascent is possible only through keeping the Mitzvot or, in other words, through keeping the laws of nature. These are the same thing.

This is not talking about the physical laws of nature here: cutting down trees and drying up rivers, pollution, and destruction of the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate. Rather, the main thing is that we need to begin to be in balance with the spiritual nature, with the bestowal and love coming toward us.

In the past, until we reached a stage of correction of the self, we had no ability to destroy nature. Until the nineteenth century and even until the twentieth century, we used it without causing damage, without violating the ecology. However, after that, the Creator approached the world in order to show us that the world is global, that everything among all the levels of nature is linked with the level of Adam (man), and now, first of all, it is up to the person to correct himself.

The solution is not in limiting or reducing the utilization of the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate. Rather, this is speaking about the correction of the person on his level. By means of this, he corrects the relationship with all the rest and even between everything and the Creator. That is how we rise “from love for thy neighbor to love for the Creator.”

Certainly, there exist many laws linked to the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate, yet our service to the Creator is to resemble the Creator, for otherwise, if we don’t correct our speaking level and our relationship toward the Creator, we will not know how we need to relate to nature. Here, we must correct our ego. We cannot dictate for people the laws of conduct for every given state and arrange clear guidelines for all events. It is impossible to dictate to every person how it is up to him to behave from morning to night in order to build the right relationships with the nature of the still, vegetative and animate, with the environment.

It is only if the person will correct himself with the characteristic of bestowal, with “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” To this degree, he also will correct his link with the nature around him. Then, all the levels in nature will be included with him and will be corrected through him.

By themselves, they are not prepared to be corrected. There are a multitude of malfunctions, and as of today, we don’t know what the forms of their correct functioning are. However, then we will see that they are functioning differently. Even on the level of the still, we will see natural characteristics that we haven’t seen until now.

So, first of all, the person needs to correct himself and not the stones, the plants, and the animals. The goal of creation is to resemble the Creator, and we have something with which to practice: the relationships between us. Specifically for this, there was the shattering, the Babylonian exile, and population growth to seven billion human beings. Precisely in this way, we will correct the damage.
[116096]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Violating the Law of Spiritual Balance
The Planet Of The Sleeping People
Not Knowing The Laws Of Nature Does Not Exempt Us From Mutual Guarantee

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

As we know, it all depends on the environment and the environment of humanity as a whole is nature: still, vegetative, and animate. It is in its environment that we live and, perhaps without noticing it, are in a very clear and strict dependence on it.

Nature supplies us with all the necessities of life. Due to it, we breathe, drink, eat, and live. We are a part of it, I would say, the most sensible and sensitive part. It is enough for at least one parameter to go beyond its natural range and then we do not know what to do.

In short, we are highly dependent and the problem is that if the laws of nature are followed instinctively on the still, vegetative, and animate levels because of their identity with it, the human being who developed has found himself beyond these levels in transition from the animate stage to truly human.

This situation is very dangerous. On the one hand, the same laws of the still, vegetative, and animate nature act on the human, but on the other hand, the laws of human nature relating to the degrees of similarity to the Creator begin to affect him. As a result, people experience the effect of the Creator getting closer to humankind.

If a person does not balance these influences every time, then they are perceived as very unpleasant, adding up to the path of suffering, paved by the action of the laws of nature, which, leaving no choice, push us to equilibrium whether we want it or not.

Although the still, vegetative, and animate nature is included in the human degree—although it rises and falls with it—the Creator, the Upper Light, the higher, round, integral, global world, the one and unified, constantly is getting closer to the human being, and this presence is felt by us in the form of a complex of modern problems.

After all, we discover our own nature and every time it does not get along with our surroundings. As before, we live in still, vegetative, and animate nature, but we can no longer cope with it because we have not yet understood the aspect of human nature, the degree of the Creator, the property of bestowal, of love. We do not associate ourselves with bestowal and love, with globality, with general interconnection. We do not want this, and as a consequence, we suffer more and more.

Thus, Baal HaSulam writes in the article, “The Peace,” about the necessity of a careful attitude toward the laws of nature. Of course, he primarily means the nature of the fourth stage, the human degree. However, we can study it on the basis of the previous levels: still, vegetative, and animate.
[116020]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Understanding The Laws Of Nature
Not Knowing The Laws Of Nature Does Not Exempt Us From Mutual Guarantee
It’s Impossible To Get Far On Bare Enthusiasm

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

Question: How can we unite our groups of ten more tightly during the preparation for the convention?

Answer: I don’t think that we have to split into groups of ten during the preparation for the convention. We have to unite and to forget about the groups of ten during the preparation. This means that we should work in the groups of ten only when we have workshops but not the rest of the time.

When I read such questions, I fear that a strong connection in the groups of ten will divide you into groups of ten and not let you see others as your best and closest friends.

We have split into groups of ten only because it is easier to communicate more closely with one another in these groups and to feel the others more personally. But on the whole, we also have to be close to ourselves and to the friends all over the world.

If we could include all the friends around the world in these groups of ten, we would do so. I would sit with Germans, French, and South Americans today and with Australians and North Americans tomorrow, etc.

I don’t think that we should unite more tightly in the group of ten, and if this is the case, we should constantly change them. Otherwise the result is egoistic unity: “I have grown used to them, we understand one another well.” What do we need this for? Moving forward is based on overcoming the general lack of understanding from which you are trying to escape.
[116081]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/13, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

Related Material:
Refocusing The Work In The Group Of Ten
The Whole Convention Is One Group Of Ten
Success Is Determined By Preparation

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

Question: What is the “Creator?” I feel the force of the group revives me and connection with the teacher as the force vitalizing me, but I do not feel the Creator.

Answer: The Creator is the force that animates everything, thanks to which we exist. There is some force in nature that moves everything. Why do electrons spin in the atom? There is a driving force that is hidden even more than all these tiny elementary particles that make up the entire world. This force is the cause of your life.

Matter itself cannot act. It has no force however great a person may seem. Once they thought that a royal person had something special: blue blood, exceptional qualities. That is, some sort of sanctity was attributed to him, but it’s just an animal body of the same flesh and blood. It is possible that the body has a special spirit, but it is not given as a birthright. Everything is attained only through efforts.

Thus, we are not referring to matter itself, to some image. This world has nothing that would have the power to correct the world, to keep it in the correct form. A very deep inner force acts in this world that is beyond all matter, beyond the electrons and the smallest elementary particles. This is the force to which we turn.

We will feel it when we have a vessel for this, but if we did not aim at this initially, all our actions would be futile. We must think about it to the best of our understanding, our feeling, and these efforts eventually will lead us to the feeling of the Creator; none of my explanations will help.

I explain just for you to make efforts to not forget that you need the Creator and cannot perform any action without Him. Let’s suppose that you are going to give a lecture, a workshop, and you want to succeed. People want to use this workshop to lower their taxes and scream about how bad they feel. You can stay with them only on the first floor, but you can go up to the second floor, which means intention, connection to the higher force that especially arranged everything, and it puts pressure on us, calling us to draw attention to it and come closer to it, to rise to the next level of development.

Then, you will be connected with a group practically and not just be inspired to give a nice lecture. It no longer would be empty calls to unity as the communists did. After all, Stalin also called the people to unite, and Hitler did that as well. They both were socialists. However, we must understand that we are not talking about unity as such but about creating the space for the revelation of the Creator!

This should be our sole and original intent. Otherwise, we will not succeed. We will continue a few more years that will teach us failures like in Russia, Cuba, the Kibbutzim, and all other places where they tried to achieve such unity. All these attempts ended in breakdown for one reason only: They were not made for the sake of the Creator. They were not successful only because of this.

That is why I keep repeating that bringing pleasure to the Creator is the cause of all of our actions and their result, and we should not forget about that in the middle. Only then will we succeed, and then we will see that all the previous failed attempts in all the other places were the preparation for our success. We will succeed due to failures because they prepared the ground for us.
[115940]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/13

Related Material:
Everything Begins From The Group
Let’s Turn Every Action Into A Sacrifice
Looking At The World From The 2nd Floor

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

Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Meanings of Conception and Birth,” Lesson 12

The Book of Zohar — Introduction, “The Commandments of the Torah,” Item 191, Lesson 69

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 3, Part 9

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace”

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

In order to reach the next degree, which is called the “New Year,” we need to be ready for the new property of bestowal. And it comes when a person equalizes black and white, being above the screen, above the egoistic desires.

Nothing prevents him from giving to the other, nothing matters—he does not set any conditions, just to be able to give, and this is always possible.

Therefore, once a person reaches the state when he only wants to bestow and is able to bestow, then he has corrected and prepared himself for the next degree, for the New Year.

All the preparations for the New Year mean the willingness to work in the dark and the Light completely equally in all the desires and thoughts that are revealed today in our mind and heart. And when we finish this degree and can bestow above all the darkness, since this bestowal does not apply to us, to our feelings, we come to the perfect prayer.

My only desire is to bring pleasure to the Creator, that is the most important thing to me. This means that I establish the Creator to reign over all the earth (Eretz), over my entire desire (Ratzon). Above all my desires for my own benefit, whatever they may be, there is the Creator Who is most important to me.

This means that I make Him reign over all my desires, and no matter what happens inside them, I do not care. The main thing for me is to increase and raise the Creator. This symbolizes the holiday of the beginning of the New Year and its prayers: the King to whom we address our prayers.

Before the holiday, throughout the previous month Elul, we need to prepare ourselves so that we come to the beginning of the year. Otherwise, there is no beginning of the year; there is no time in the spiritual world. Today, we celebrate the beginning of the new year. This holiday came down to us as a branch of the spiritual root. But if we rise by this branch back to the root, we can celebrate the new year any time: any moment, any day that will become the beginning of a new degree for us.

In total, there are 70 degrees (HGT NHYM of Zeir Anpin), and we have to ascend them all. Malchut must adhere to this ladder. A new year begins at every step, so a person’s life is estimated at 70 years.
[116167]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/13, Shamati #122

Related Material:
Celebrating The New Level
The Privilege To Love
We Need A New Beginning!

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

Question: In fact, we need only to correct our egoism that prevents connection. Then, why do we develop the entire methodology of integral education? What else can we talk about besides separation and unity?

Answer: Indeed, nothing else exists. However, when you begin to go deeper, when you enter, it is found that there lies the entire higher wisdom. It is inherent in the desire to receive and in the desire to bestow.

After all, all our actions converge in this dualism. There is only the “plus” and the “minus,” two opposing forces. However, look at what they produce by interacting with each other in this world: all the sciences, including physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, astronomy, medicine, psychology, and so forth. Everything is built on the interaction of two opposites, the entire world, the universe with its set of laws and myriad details.

In spirituality, we add to this the screen and the Reflected Light. The response from the minus, the material that wants to be like the plus—that is, the Light—and then something absolutely new emerges. It is not just the relationship between the plus and minus, but their relationship between each other. The minus begins to relate to the plus completely differently. It rises above itself, its knowledge, its mind, and acts opposite to its own nature in the likeness of the plus. The created being learns from the Creator what to do, and it does this.

Much more complex laws are manifested here, which we study. This is great, truly boundless wisdom. It grows seemingly from nothing, from two opposites, one of which only wants to be like the other. It would seem, let it become like the other. However, you open the door slightly, and, behind it, you will discover the ocean without end.
[116089]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Between Plus And Minus
The Creator Is Known By His Actions
The Power Of Women And Men: A Condition For Spiritual Ascent

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