Entries in the 'Daily Kabbalah Lesson' Category

A System Without Defects

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Light and the Kli, opposed to each other in the world of Infinity, enter each other, build from their integration a system, and evolve downward so as to shape the conditions for our development here, at the bottom.

In the end, everything is derived from the way the Lights and the vessels mutual complete each other. The path that spreads out before me doesn’t leave room for useless questions: “Do I want to?” or “Am I ready?” This is just a style of speaking, our “slang.” In fact, everything is built in an ideal form, everything has been considered down to the last detail.

There is no need for resentment and anger. We are found within a system of the four phases of the Direct Light, spiritual worlds and levels, and we learn about its details, its mechanisms. All the necessary means and forces are available to me. I can use them provided that I am fulfilling my role. My role is to determine exactly what I must be doing now and realize it simply and clearly.

No great intelligence is required here. Everyone can do it because these are the most foolish, simple activities. Therefore, whoever is more “foolish,” less sophisticated, he is more successful.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Towards Love Above The Ego

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: This means that each and every one in Israel would take it upon himself to care and work for each member of the nation, and to satisfy all their every needs, no less than the measure imprinted in him to care for his own needs.

And once the whole nation unanimously agreed and said, “We shall do and we shall hear,” each member of Israel became responsible that nothing shall be missing from any other member of the nation. Only then did they become worthy of receiving the Torah, and not before. 

With this collective responsibility, each member of the nation was liberated from worrying about the needs of his own body and could keep the commandment, “Love thy friend as thyself” in the fullest measure, and give all that he had to any needy person, since he no longer cared for the existence of his own body, as he knew for certain that he was surrounded by six hundred thousand loyal lovers, who were standing ready to provide for him.

If we understand that to reach spirituality and receive all the good is possible only if we connect, then the Light that Reforms begins to influence us. It acts such that I stop being concerned for myself because everyone is concerned for me. The main thing here is to attune yourself correctly to summon the Light that we can direct towards each of us as if we had a torch.

My egoistic motives demand that I form a connection with others. When I connect with them, it seems as if I am letting go of myself and am concerned for them as I can’t attain what I want otherwise. This is exactly the way everyone acts, so by aspiring to discover the Creator, who is within the group, through the connection between us, in this way we attract the Light that Reforms.

A question can be raised here: Why does it arrive if we are still egoists? What are the higher laws of nature according to which it’s discovered? We all want to receive for ourselves: “Bring me this world. Bring me the next world.” It may seem that in either the Light, meaning pleasure, itself must reach us, or darkness, if there were some kind of valve that exists in spirituality, which realizes the necessary conditions for being altruistic.

But the idea is that we surrender ourselves to each other. We learn together, we carry out shared tasks together, and in spite of our ego, the Light does its work. But it arrives first not as pleasure, but as correction. Thus we are changed—thanks to work within the group we bow our heads before each other for selfish reasons.

With an approach like this there is no lack of agreement, it’s open and very honest. It’s possible to talk a lot about love of the other, but it’s necessary to judge according to the facts. We are dominated by the ego, but we accept a condition that obligates us to aspire for love. Why? It’s because we expect a reward.

In the future, the whole world will correct relationships between people, taking into the account the gain it will bring. Everyone will hope to benefit from relationships based on love, and at the same time the Light that Reforms will pass to them through us and not the darkness that would arrive if not for the use of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Likewise, a person, who already understands this and hasn’t learned enough yet, is not sufficiently included within the group, and ultimately will receive darkness instead of correction, and will flee. And the opposite, if someone were to give of himself one hundred percent, then he would never feel darkness and descent. Even though he might have additional difficulties on the way, he would work with everything in the right way and would be corrected by the Light.

In fact, as Baal HaSulam writes, that in the middle way, by way of the middle line, one experiences falls, deviations to the right and to the left, ascents, and descents. This is called “normal” progress; it’s not ideal, but not too terrible either.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Choosing Between Two Books

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf a person has a strong will to attribute everything to the benefit of the Creator, it is a good thing, and he can pray to fulfill this yearning. To want to use all his desire to receive in order to bestow means to be written in the book of the righteous.

However, if he has a strong will to use everything for his self-benefit, it isn’t so bad either since here, everything is clear, and a person can understand the desires he has. He can pray for his desire to receive asking to record him in the book of the wicked who are doomed to death, which means that he wants to annul his ego.

He chooses in which book he wants to be recorded. But if he wants both and finds it hard to decide which one to prefer, it is already a problem. He must try to be in this unclear state as little as possible. Wanting to work for the Creator but, at the same time, to take a little for himself is very dangerous. If a person doesn’t fight against this split state, he can remain in the undecided state for many years, unable to prefer one side over the other.

He may think that he has received a bit from one side and a bit from the other, and so it is okay to wait, and everything will be alright. This is the worst possible state.

It means that a person must try to determine his state with the help of his exertion in the group and the influence of the environment so that he will know that he is wicked and will want to destroy his ego, that is, will want to be recorded in the book of the wicked who are doomed to death. This is called the First Restriction.

Then, he will want to be sentenced to life, being able to work in order to bestow, which means that he will be recorded in the book of the righteous. There must be a very strong request for the intention of in order to bestow upon the Creator so that a person at least will see that he only worries about his self-benefit.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/13

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 05.06.13

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 19

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The Book of Zohar – Introduction

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 10

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee,” Lesson 9

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A Narrow Bridge Between The Worlds

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is no higher state than self-annulment, the annulment of the ego, of all our private thoughts and desires, of our previous attitude, of all our plans, goals, and expectations. It is a total annulment of my “Self,” as if I have never existed, don’t exist now, and will not exist in the future.

Everything that is in me, even the spark, the drop I have to be born from, also belongs to the upper one and not to me since it comes from Him. I have to annul myself to such an extent that this drop, from which I now begin to develop, will also be a drop of the Light that doesn’t belong to me either. It is hard to imagine, but in fact, entering spirituality is when a person totally neutralizes himself. Then the only thing that goes from the bottom up is the spark that he doesn’t attribute to himself either.

Hence the work on self-annulment is mandatory here. After the Machsom (barrier), we already begin to work with the desire to receive differently from the way we did below the Machsom, during the time of preparation. Thus a person begins to grow in the spiritual world, and he grows from one moment to the next by increasingly annulling himself. Above this annulment he works with his desire for the sake of others, which is more exalted than simple self-annulment. Here he demands full adhesion with the other and the ability to care for him out of love built above the hate.

It is the first spiritual state in which we transcend from one world to another, it’s total self-annulment done by the Light that Reforms.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/13, The Zohar 

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Umbilical Cord For Connection To The Upper One

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can it be that the group doesn’t give a person the support that he needs?

Answer: The group gives a person all the support that he needs according to how much he can feel it. The question is whether he is sensitive enough to feel this support. Perhaps, he is not connected to the group at all, what goes on it doesn’t concern him, and he lives his own life. He comes to the lesson, studies, and goes home. He may come to the lesson again after a couple of days when he doesn’t have anything more important to do. He doesn’t care about what happens in the group. He doesn’t develop the inner sensitivity to feel a response, an impression, an inspiration from them. He simply comes to the lessons occasionally. He never will receive anything from the group this way.

The group is a vessel, a means to adhere to the upper one, the place where the embryo adheres to the mother’s womb, the placenta through which a person adheres to the Creator. In the meantime, he is only in the form of an embryo, and the group is his whole world, like a mother’s womb. However, later, it receives the form of the entire world.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Complete Agreement, Right Up To Self-Sacrifice

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe main thing is to hold onto adhesion to the Creator. From this point, a person begins to see his entire life as a series of exercises that are meant to connect him more strongly to the Creator. All the shells operate as “help against him,” and all the events he goes through are essential since this is the way he can correct, according to the root of his soul, all the flaws of lack of adhesion.

So, a person blesses the evil just as he blesses the good and thus, advances. He understands that everything that happens are true gifts that come from Above, from the Creator who wants to bring a person closer to Him. So, instead of feeling angry or dissatisfied, he feels grateful as he uses everything as a means to adhere to the Creator.

If a person doesn’t take it this way, then he immediately begins to activate additional screens of concealment upon himself that force him to advance in the same direction, but in a much longer and more difficult way. In that case, he will have to be equipped with different sub-systems to help him react correctly to the interruptions that he felt initially and which he couldn’t immediately see as a means of adhesion. Now, he will have to go through several additional phases in order to be able to see that.

It is up to the environment whether he is ready to see that or not: the study, the group, his participation in duties, and the work with the friends. According to the conditions and the means he is given from Above, a person has to resolve the problem, that is, the obstacle that seems to come between him and the Creator, as if Pharaoh appears between them.

If a person prepares himself correctly through the environment, the study, and the support of the group, he can solve this problem correctly. It is because he can find the solution in the same place that he prepares himself together with the environment. However, if he doesn’t prepare this place, the obstacles draw him further away. He cannot hold on under the pressure of all the invitations he receive from Above to strengthen the connection, and so the opposite happens. The force that comes to awaken him is not felt as a clarion to adhere, but as an interruption.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Three-Day Test Of Loyalty

Dr. Michael LaitmanBeing in a state of Katnut (smallness) on a certain level is already considered having one foot on this next level. There will come a time when you will grow and be in a state of greatness. That is, you are already called by the name of that great level. There is a big difference between being a cub and a baby, a small human being.

In a state of smallness there is self-annulment and concession—you consciously limit yourself. In our world, a small child doesn’t know what vessels he will have when he grows up. In the meantime, he plays with toys, with a toy car. My little grandchild’s dream is to be a garbage truck driver since he sees this big nice truck that makes so much noise; he doesn’t know what his next level will be yet, or what he will want when he grows up.

In spirituality, when you are in a state of smallness you don’t know the level itself, but you already know your vessels since you have to perform a restriction on them. It’s because a state of smallness is part of the whole level, and you have to restrict your AHP. You don’t know what it means to be great on this level yet since you have not attained it, but you already imagine what it will be like; you understand its vessels, and this gives you the strength to perform a restriction and limit yourself.

You annul yourself before the upper one, which means that you are ready to give up everything you have now and to remain in “faith above reason,” in order to resemble the upper one in the future. You do it for the sake of the future! Here a connection is formed between the two levels: Being in a state of smallness, you dress your GE onto the AHP of the upper one. You want to be like the AHP of the upper one and so you restrict your own AHP, your vessels of reception, and for this you need a great power of overcoming.

A state of smallness is not just a childhood that is free of worries, when you don’t need to “break your head” over anything, but actually a state that demands great courage and overcoming. You have to feel whole in every state: You don’t use your AHP, but these vessels are familiar to you and you know where you are going. Otherwise your work wouldn’t be whole and you would not be able to annul yourself.

You see the upper one and you understand that it’s possible to adhere to Him now, like a child to a grown up, at first even just as a single point from which the adhesion begins. You give up everything you had. The Ibur (conception) begins from the three days of the assimilation of the semen; which symbolize your annulling yourself in all the three lines.

First, in the left line, you remain adhered to the upper one to the extent that your ego is revealed to you although you discover there that you don’t agree with it in any way! After having done that and having adhered to the upper one, things become more difficult: The Light comes and wants to fill you with all the pleasures and to give you the whole world from one end to the other. But you refuse to accept all that and want only to be in adhesion with the upper one! This is the right line.

Then comes the middle line, and so this whole time is called the “three days of the assimilation of the semen.” That is, you have both the attainment of the Creator and His recognition, everything that you want within Him. However, you don’t want to receive anything: neither the attainment nor the understanding. You only want adhesion with the upper one, and you desire not to receive any self-benefit from this adhesion, nothing at all, ever! This is called the third day of the assimilation of the semen, after which the embryo begins to develop.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/13, TES

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 05.05.13

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “Shlavei HaSulam,” Article 25

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The Book of Zohar – Introduction “The Rose,”  “Mirrors of the Sulam,” Item 4, Lesson 6

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee,” Lesson 8

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Annulling Myself For The First Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we know that we have attained the state of the spiritual Ibur (conception)?

Answer: I suggest that you do the following: In spite of everything that happens, try to awaken yourself with the help of the environment, keep the same daily schedule, annul yourself, and accept that all the problems come from Above in order to help you annul yourself before the upper force, through the group.

The sign of the correct self-annulment is joy. Don’t ask for anything else, only to remain in this state in order to advance by the annulment of the ego. This already means that I am in state of Ibur.

I don’t care what I get from it. The only thing I want and what is important for me is to remain as strongly adhered as possible—that is, in the lowest point of annulment, in the smallest state. And because I want to see and feel different spiritual phenomena, I still have to work on myself. In other words, I have to annul my ego to the zero level, and this is called adhesion with the upper one.

Then I increasingly annul myself beyond that point and adhere more strongly, although my ego awakens. Thus the nine months of pregnancy go by. The most difficult part is the first three days of the absorption of the semen. Most of the problems occur at this phase, both in spiritual life and in corporeal life.

Even problems like miscarriages, which occur in the more advanced stages of pregnancy, happen because of different malfunctions and defects that occurred in the first three days of the absorption of the semen.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/13, Writings of Rabash

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