Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.21.13
Posted on July 21st, 2013
Lesson on the Topic “Faith Above Reason”
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Shamati #59 “About the Rod and the Serpent“
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Lesson on the Topic “Faith Above Reason”
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Shamati #59 “About the Rod and the Serpent“
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Baal HaSulam, Article “A Sage’s Fruit”: The Zohar compares this to two people who were on a boat when and one of them began to drill underneath himself. His friend rebuked him, “Why are you drilling?” And the fool answered him,”What business is it of yours, I am under me, not you?” Truly, one person can ruin everything.
In the physical world, in a case like this all of us will drown, and what happens in spirituality?
And this is the secret of the prayer of many, it is forbidden for an individual to leave the collective. And it is forbidden for him to ask only for himself, about himself, even if it is to give satisfaction to his Maker, rather he must ask only for the entire collective.
First it is necessary to reach love of others. And from this state one will reach love of the Creator. Which is to say, first of all we must connect and only then can we go on to the next step. There can be no spiritual action if it doesn’t come from connection.
Spirituality doesn’t exist by itself rather we build it from our Kelim, vessels, we form a picture of the spiritual world on a background of white Light. Certainly we are not allowed to portray just what comes to us, we are limited by the picture that potentially exists already within the Light.
We need to gradually adapt ourselves to the Light, approaching it by the 125 levels that we construct. It’s specifically we who build these states within our Kelim. And therefore we don’t have anything to build without connection. And someone who is not directed toward this goal is not directed towards a spiritual action. Every other action besides this brings us to “another way,” the way of “Beito,” to the way of suffering, to the long and difficult way that is designed to return us to the recognition of the need for connection.
[111925]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/05/13, Writings of Rabash
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The main thing is not to move from this point: “Today, we have gathered here.” Today is the moment when we need to work on not losing what we achieved before, but only on expanding. This is exactly the situation that has arisen now, after the convention. We need to care about continuing and adding to our gains, instead of waiting until we are thrown down once again and who knows when we will be able to rise again.
Our whole world group of Bnei Baruch must keep itself at least at the same level. We want to preserve what we have achieved, and if you are not able to stay at the same height, then you are not in the desires of bestowal even in the slightest degree.
We must by all means stay in the achieved state and not fall. Descent should be in the realization of the fact that it’s necessary to add to the previous ascent; it’s not enough for us! We must rise to a new ascent. And if we descend, we will never ascend to the King’s palace.
It’s necessary to distinguish every ascent that is in greater bestowal, which is added drop by drop: every time a little bit more bestowal, connection, and the feeling of unity. And after we reach this addition in bestowal, we get a descent based on the feeling of the opportunity to rise even higher. That is, we ourselves awaken the dawn and thus advance.
All the descents that we received to date threw us down from the achieved level, causing us to fall down. They were incorrect, not spiritual descents. The spiritual descent should occur in relation to the previous values. If in the past we somehow imagined bestowal, now we see that bestowal is much more. So, the state that we have achieved seems to us as a descent.
Of course, this is possible only with the support of the group. Let’s say, I have won $1,000 and am very happy. And then I suddenly see that someone else has won $2,000, and then I feel no longer in ascent but in descent. Similarly, we need to treat what we have achieved: Everyone should see in his environment that it’s possible to attain more, even greater bestowal! There should not be any descent; there is always an opportunity to add.
[112390]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/13, Writings of Rabash
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Question: We experienced great joy from the unity that was attained among the friends during the St. Petersburg convention and the mirror conventions. Now the thought of losing it is scary. How can we hold on to this unity?
Answer: The fear of losing the feeling of unity that was attained is a very good thing, even if it’s an egoistic fear. It guards a person.
There is no fixed state in spirituality and there are constant changes, just like in a living body where there are continuous processes going on. So the question is how we can advance. In order to preserve the previous state, we have to constantly advance, which means to constantly make additional efforts. It’s essential, even in order to preserve the previous state. If we want to rise above the previous state, we have to add a doubly squared effort.
[112360]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/13, The Zohar
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Question: Everything that you say after the convention is already perceived in a totally different manner, as a new attainment. But on the other hand, there is the fear of losing it, since it takes great power to hold on to what we have attained and it can only come as a result of our unity. How can we increase the mutual support among us?
Answer: We have been through many states lately, through many changes, and have experienced difficult situations. Although they are easily forgotten because of the support from group, the essence of these changes is very significant. Besides, we have made great preparations for the convention. It was simply a favor from above that we held the convention in Krasnoyarsk before the St. Petersburg convention and I wanted everyone to envy those who had attended it.
It actually happened. Everyone wanted to reach the same state of unity and because they felt sorry that they had not felt it, they took the preparation very seriously. This is why we have attained what we have attained. I don’t think that the mirror conventions were any different judging by what I saw on the screen and in the convention itself.
It was the first time I have seen people ending the convention happily as if they are not about to say goodbye. They didn’t have to hug everyone and cry as they used to do in the past. No one came complaining to me that it would be hard to go back home. I left and no one even noticed. It is a very good sign.
People felt that their lives are in the group, in the general connection, while I only come and awaken it from the outside. I explain how to build and organize it, but life itself is fulfilled inside the group. It isn’t I who makes the convention, but actually you by yourselves. You have become so independent and this is very important, and so you have experienced these new feelings and advanced to a new state.
[112357]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/13, The Zohar
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Question: How can I want connection with others so that I feel that this is truly something I require?
Answer: You will want to connect with others only on condition that you despair of attaining the goal alone. Exactly as in our world, when I must move a fifty kilogram block but I don’t have the strength to do this, but I have no choice, I must move it, and so I am forced to turn for help.
Therefore I go to someone and say: “Please, until now I thought that I didn’t need you. I agree that I was disrespectful to you. I am not trying to justify myself, but it was natural for my ego to behave like that. But now I need you, I have no choice. Therefore I come to you begging that you will become my friend and will help me to carry this load. And if you need something like this, then I could also help you!”
We begin all this from the ego. But after this, through egoistic efforts, we see that we require true reciprocal connection on a permanent basis. And if we persevere in our work through “groups of tens” and workshops, we begin to feel how from this permanent reciprocal connection something new is born. If we do not retreat and we overcome the coldness that appears from time to time, eventually we will discover that we can use this model of the connected groups of ten as a tool, as a means, as leverage.
This is the fundamental compulsory means; this is a “point in the heart” that includes everyone, from which we begin our spiritual line upwards if we relate to this in the right form. And then we require from the connection between us more and more qualitative results. Everything is born from connection only and all the rest, the teacher, the books, they only help this. But the main thing is the connection within which ascent is realized.
Therefore it is not necessary to wait for me to bring you spirituality on a platter. You will discover it only within your connection, within the group of ten. Therefore it is necessary to strive that this workshop will be sustained permanently without pausing even for a moment. For every condition that appears in my life, it is as if I am discussing it with the friends in this endless workshop. It is as if I am found in dialog, in discussion with them at every moment, and in this manner I clarify all the questions.
I have no other way out of any situation besides the center of the group of ten! For everything in life I relate only from this point of our connection, from our collective consciousness, in which all of us nullify each other, are linked with each other, and complete each other. Only in this way will there be realization of the correct and precise point that is my point in the heart that connects with all the rest. This is how I need to describe myself all the time.
And so through the friends I try to develop the importance of the goal, to be “ignited” by their enthusiasm. I appreciate them as great and am happy that I merited a connection with another ten greatest of the generation. I thank the Creator that he sent them to me so that I would surely be able to communicate with Him.
Indeed I still don’t feel the Creator, but I already have a connection with him through this group of ten (through this Minyan). Perhaps the connection is still not that good and it is still egoistic from my side and therefore I don’t hear the voice of the Creator in the earpiece, but this telephone already exists and it works. I speak into it and believe that the Creator hears me. Because I have prepared the Kli, this apparatus, we are connected together, have nullified ourselves; I appreciate and respect the friends and am sure that the Creator is the One who arranged this group for me, put my hand on the good lot and said, choose for yourself.
[111570]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/04/13, Writings of Rabash
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The intellect and emotion of the person constitute his “self,” and what is found above his intellect and emotion is the spiritual level, the spiritual Adam (man).
Humanity developed egoistically throughout history, during which our intellect and emotion grew, and we already have gotten used to this and accept it as correct. To us, this is evolution. We get more and more discernments within our emotions and intellect, more and more details about our world, and it seems to us that this is the way we advance.
Really, what else could there be? The better that our telescopes and microscopes are, the deeper we see. The more intense our radar becomes, the farther away we hear. Ultimately, we expand the range of our five senses and our intellect supports this process.
However, there is an evolution of an absolutely different kind about which the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks—development within other senses, with other characteristics that, to date, we don’t have—and we call these the force of bestowal. It seems to us that there is a force of bestowal even in our world, but here we would say that this is talking about intention. This is because, after we go deeper into every action, a person seemingly may go against his ego. We discover that altruism cannot be perceived, and ultimately everyone is acting only for self-benefit.
The characteristic of bestowal that is found above our reality cannot be attained through the usual means. Therefore, I don’t understand and don’t know what spirituality is at all, and in order to resolve this problem, I have a precise and very unique science that is conveyed to me through a hole that is “like a pinprick,” through a very small opening into the spiritual world. This is a small opening because I can’t take anything with me, except for my essential impression, the spiritual spark that is “a part of the divine above.” It is latent in me so I can pass through the crack (that we see with difficulty) between the two worlds.
There is a wall in front of me through which only the spark can pass, and all the rest is left behind. Furthermore, to communicate with the other people who meanwhile were left on the other side of the wall, I am forced to be “clothed” in the previous clothing, but I, myself, already have passed to the new world, and there is no connection between the worlds since they behave according to different methods, different principles. Here, the characteristic of reception dominates and there, the characteristic of bestowal.
For now, we have no possibility of understanding or discerning the principle of bestowal or its characteristics. In no way or manner are we prepared to approach it or imagine something close to its truth. All of our worldly efforts are designed only to confuse us, to calm or to dazzle the ear, and that’s all. In fact, the world of bestowal is a “reverse world” and its reversal is reflected in the essences of things and not in their form as in our world.
Indeed, we don’t acquire the spiritual world with the help of the intellect or the wisdoms. Rather, it’s the opposite. The wisdoms are very likely to hinder this matter, and in general all the efforts that the person produces for himself from an egoistic standpoint in this world—all the beliefs, methods, religions, means, coachings, and so forth—are useless. Throughout history, a multitude of efforts have been employed that haven’t helped anyone. On the contrary, we see that religions and faiths support the egoistic nature of our world more and more. Therefore, for a person found here, there is no chance of making a proper assessment and judgment in regard to the spiritual world. Even through chance or accident, no one is ready to reach the truth because our understanding and emotions are not found in contact with spirituality.
Therefore, we must make a clear distinction.
On the one hand, there are scientists who investigate nature within the five senses and reveal the results of their work to everyone, and, then, other scientists who are no less egoistic seriously examine these results through experiment to negate their colleagues, and while they debate each other, the truth is discovered within the five senses, about which, as it is written, “A judge has only what his eyes see.” We have no doubt regarding scientific facts. We rely on them one hundred percent. In the area of the five senses belonging to our world, science is unassailable. It establishes clear levels of reality: axioms, theorems, theories, estimates, approximations, predictions, assumptions, and more. It establishes clearly what is fact, proof, estimation, and result, and all these concepts are integrated into the various sciences of nature that investigate that nature in which we live.
However, due to our weakness, we cannot encompass the entirety of creation, all of nature. Therefore, we divide it into various fields: physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, and so forth. In the last centuries, a number of areas have intersected, integrated, and formed interdisciplinary sciences that recently have had a leading role and have brought significant results. The entire world has become integral and obligates us, specifically, to learn the connection between phenomena and not parts of the overall picture.
It is also up to us to understand that even studies like these are biased because we are investigating with the help of our senses as the means, our tools, and our intellect. Science is aware of this and acknowledges this as a limitation since the picture of our world depends on the level of our development, and on the next level, this will change. Absolute knowledge of nature in the framework of these methods is unattainable. The more that we penetrate into the atom, an entire universe is discovered and infinite layers of knowledge.
Lately, science is passing through many crises, encountering uncertainty and many contradictions. It is distressing to watch modern scientists because they are found in a forlorn state at the end of this present stage. Nature has become more and more “circular,” integral, and they still retain a natural, individualistic approach that typifies an egoistic person. Ultimately, they lose connection with nature and exhaust the linear study that fit with their egoistic linearity. As of today, a new, circular, global nature is revealed in our world, saturated with collective linkages, and they have no possibility of digesting this. That is, we cannot investigate this new nature because from the start, our senses are egoistic.
On the other hand, the spiritual world and the wisdom of Kabbalah are something else. If the Kabbalists hadn’t told us about their investigations, these would have remained outside of our interests. Humanity would not even have risen to the level of religions. There would not have been an elevation above the primitive properties of the winds, trees, stones, and so forth. Humans would have bowed down to the various parts of nature because they saw that nature is great, and this greatness obligated them as if they had to bribe it in order to be worthy of a good relationship, to drive off thunder and lightning, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods and so forth. We would have related to everything that is liable to be a source of threat exactly like this. However, humanity wouldn’t have advanced more and would not have even thought about concepts like “souls” and “the next world” that already belong to a completely different level of speculation.
Among the other areas of human involvement, there is an area called “philosophy.” This is not a science because it has no basis for investigation that makes possible experimental evaluation and the attainment of results that other people can check again in all their details, and, relying on these examinations, establish truths that will be accepted by everyone. Philosophy has no mechanism like this. It is the result of human intellect that thinks about various things, including science, life, and so forth. We have no possibility of checking their conclusions because they belong to something that is not clothed in substance. No laboratory will check a thesis formed in the human imagination based upon abstract speculations.
For a long time, philosophy was considered to be dealing with a high human level. Until the beginning of scientific development, it was much respected, so much so that until today, other scientific degrees all are linked to this. Everyone recognizes the PhD degree in many fields, which is to say, the Doctor of Philosophy. People thought that philosophy included all scientific studies and all of human wisdom.
However, in the last three or four hundred years, from the days of the Ari, from the beginning of the development of science, philosophy lost its status and descended from the stage. Science made it possible for us to examine the data and be sure of our success, whereas philosophy ultimately always is mistaken. It has just about nothing to say about the future, therefore, it is impossible to rely on it. Together with this, the ego of philosophers grew, as it did for all the rest of humanity, and they contradicted each other all the time, immersed in a big lie.
Philosophers always loved to investigate the wisdom of Kabbalah to the degree that they heard about it. Some of them even learned Hebrew and Aramaic in order to read the sources, and in spite of all this, the philosophers didn’t understand that in Kabbalah there is a principle of attainment. Without entering into the spiritual dimension with the appropriate senses—which is to say, with true tools of attainment like the scientists do in our world—we are not ready to investigate anything. This is because we simply don’t exist in the area that we are studying.
Rather, the philosophers look at the wisdom of Kabbalah according to their worldly intellect while they are on the other side of a wall, without passing to its second side through the “pinhole,” and it doesn’t bother them at all to discuss and argue about what is found beyond the wall and bring to light new speculative creations. This situation reached such a state that philosophers discussed Kabbalah without taking the trouble to learn from the books of the Kabbalists. They simply picked sections that they liked from various books.
The famous philosopher, Gershom Scholem—who, fifty years ago, was considered to be one of the fathers of modern philosophy in Israel and a great investigator of Kabbalah—in fact, never mentioned even a word about Baal HaSulam who lived and worked precisely during that period.
I understand this because this is speaking about investigation of a great deal of material in the wisdom of Kabbalah that is so deep that philosophy cannot match it. Therefore, he simply ignored this as if it didn’t exist.
How can a scientist relate to a subject that he studies like this? A true scientist is openly ready to erase all of his previous achievements if he sees that they are erroneous. The Rabash would erase what he recorded before from his writings, and write, “Incorrect.” After that, there would be a new version that eventually also would be erased and so on for a number of times. This is science, a scientific approach. This is respectable, for during development, there are no absolutes. The absolute is the completion of correction and the infinite world in which everything is connected together, and until then, there are always doubts.
It is said that what is garbage for the higher is food for the lower. This is to say that, when I rise, I erase the previous level, and it becomes “garbage” for me. It is no longer correct. It is forbidden to use it. Whoever is caught up in yesterday doesn’t reach tomorrow. Our advancement is through our ability to be detached from what seemed to us to be correct a moment ago. Otherwise, it is impossible. You see, we are passing through absolute changes of all of our ten Sefirot all the time. Our intellect and emotions are renewed all the time; they pass through an “upgrade.” Instead of the old that is erased, the new appears, and if the person guards himself from the upgrade and cannot rise “above reason,” he doesn’t advance.
So, as of today, we see that philosophy still exists, even though it certainly is found in a graveyard. The positions of the philosophers are very powerful and have been resistant to innovations for generations. Besides that, philosophy has adopted the wisdom of Kabbalah, and they teach it in Faculties of Philosophy. We must understand that philosophy steals everything that is in Kabbalah, and it is not even successful in this.
Inwardly, we are also philosophers, but we must ultimately bury the philosopher in us. In fact, no one has a moral right to discuss Kabbalah if he is not himself found in spiritual attainment. What can he say about an area with which he is completely unfamiliar? However, in spite of it all, people express their opinions and assessments without rising to the level about which they speak.
Therefore, in our world, we basically are required to understand that the spiritual level is found above us, and we have no contact with it. Therefore, we cannot say anything about it. First of all, it is up to us to be detached from the animate level and rise to the level of Adam, the spiritual level that is acquired only with the help of the Light that Reforms, through work in a group with the help of the method of Kabbalah. We must be detached all the time from the previous state and rise more and more. Otherwise, we also will be those philosophers.
[111302]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/01/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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There is the path of suffering and the path of Torah (the Light). The entire world is moving by the path of suffering, and we are moving by the path of Torah. However, in its turn, the path of Torah is also divided into the path of suffering and the path of Torah. If a person is not able to awaken the dawn himself and the dawn is compelled to awaken him, then he advances by the path of suffering. That is, he descends into the darkness of the night, exposing himself to blows, earthly and spiritual, and remains in this descent until he climbs out from there. In this case, this also is called the path of suffering, but nevertheless, it is suffering on the path of spiritual development rather than the usual earthly development.
In contrast, there is the path of Torah when a person moves due to taking the desires from the environment. On this path, there is also a division on the path of suffering and the path of Torah. Entering the path of Torah, a person needs to pass the four stages of internal HaVaYaH, after which he enters the clear, true path of the Light. There, we already are ascending straight up by the beam of the Light.
Until then, you need to go through many clarifications of what the path of Light is. It is said about this, that if you are worthy, your work will be done at the expense of others. This does not mean that you take advantage of them as is done in our world, but you really use the ready vessels that the Creator prepared for His revelation and placed them in your friends.
Now, on the eve of the convention in St. Petersburg or any other convention in the future, we need to understand that our spiritual tools are in others. Preparation determines everything because we want to advance by the path of Light (Achishena), ahead of blows that approach us from behind: earthly and spiritual problems, various descents and detachment, and loss of interest.
It is said about this path in the Torah—about the people who did not listen to Moses—that, all the time, there were disagreements, frictions, disputes, and clashes between them to such an extent that Moses tells the Creator, “Leave me alone. I’m tongue-tied and cannot talk to them. They don’t understand me! They will not believe me!”
Already, after coming out of Egypt, in the wilderness, they constantly had problems and arguments. Moses would be glad to be free of his mission, but, on the other hand, he constantly protects the people, that is, the friends. Moses is an example for every one of us, showing what one should be in relation to others: Take care, and tell them everything that you have in your heart to awaken others and to straighten their path.
This is the way everyone should behave in relation to others. On the one hand, you must be great relative to the group, the giver, giving them everything that you have—inspiration, joy, the greatness of the goal—like Moses, the leader of the people. On the other hand, there is no more modest a man than Moses. That is, you become the smallest from the highest. This is the example of the attitude toward the group that the Torah gives us.
If you have found yourself in this state, do not believe that it is possible to labor and not find. You must find the desire suitable for the revelation of the Creator. The desire is your duty and revelation will happen immediately. The Creator, the upper Light, is just waiting for your smallest equivalence of form with Him to become revealed in your vessel at once.
He is already within you. As it is said, “I am the Creator, I dwell in you and in all your sins.” He is already here. Just reveal His first manifestation, the first HaVaYaH!
[111144]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/13, Shamati #117
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