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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 10, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 6, Lesson 31
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Topic of Lesson: “Israeli Nation” (Independence Day in Israel), Lesson 2
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Baal HaSulam, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part One, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 12: Now you can see how Ohr Ein Sof departed from His Atzmut, in which we cannot utter any word, and became defined by the name Ohr Ein Sof. It is because of this above discernment, that in that Ohr there is the will to receive incorporated in it from His Atzmut.
The Light is “something from nothing.” The desire to receive was created in this Light. The desire that gradually is filled by the Light begins to feel the Light and is impressed by it. Although the Light is first and started the whole process and is the one who bestows, we speak about the developing desire and about how it changes under the influence of the Light. Time and time again, it feels the Light in different forms, and, on the whole, it is about how the Light is revealed in the desire. The two are incorporated in all the states they go through. Eventually, all of creation—all of reality, everything that we can even speak about—is only there in the connection between them. There is nothing other than these two elements.
This means that there is nothing to be confused about. We always should take into account a simple formation: a Light and a desire. The Light constantly operates on the desire in order to bestow upon it, and the desire develops gradually by going through different phases.
There are no regressions and no leaps on this path, only a sequence of states that are created within the desire by the constant influence of the Light that is good and benevolent. As a result, the desire develops toward an increasingly greater filling, and must feel and go through different phases, thus revealing the one who bestows.
The stages of this process are called degrees, worlds, Sefirot, and Partzufim, and they relate to the general development of the desire by the Light. Eventually, the desire begins to feel itself. It feels who fills it, who is taking care of it, and how it can respond to that.
This process is inevitable of course. The desire cannot determine how it will develop exactly and in what order, but at a certain point it can determine how to respond to this developmental process; how to receive the different manner of its development with love, which he first feels as pleasant, then as not so pleasant, and later as even terrible; and to identify with the Light.
Then, the desire leaves its own boundaries, transcends its nature initially created by the Light at the first point of existence, and reaches the opposite point. Instead of being a desire, it is as if it totally becomes the Light, acquiring from the Light all the intensity of its bestowal.
So, the two are opposite one another, and the Light constantly develops the desire. Later, at a certain point, the desire can determine its relationship with the Light by itself. This whole process is compulsory, but the desire can change its attitude to what is happening, to the force that operates inside it.
[104832]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot
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Question: A person who begins to study the integral method goes through difficult states since his ego receives blows. If these states are necessary, why does it happen this way?
Answer: You cannot leave the ego or leave Pharaoh if you don’t feel the blows. This is why we say that Pharaoh brings the children of Israel closer to the exodus from Egypt, as it is written: “Pharaoh has brought the sons of Israel closer to our Father in Heaven.” They feel the blows on their ego and understand that they cannot stay in it and cannot leave it, and, so they feel helpless, saying, “So, what can we do?” Then, I feel another blow and another, and I realize that I need the Creator since only He can take me out of there by holding my hand.
Then, they connect to the Creator and advance, if they don’t leave the integral education and understand that it is all done, first of all, for them and not in order to educate anyone.
When I receive blows and shake inside not knowing where to run, only the group can help me. If it wraps me and warms me, I will not fear the blows. I immediately begin to understand that I need to adhere to the group. I need mutual guarantee. I need the Creator, and, then I discover everything automatically. One little “ouch,” a little prick, and I already understand everything. However, this is only if you are around friends, including the women.
The men begin to understand that they need the women’s support, and, especially stability. Women contribute to softening things.
[104724]
From the Virtual Lesson 4/7/13
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Question: The method of the integral education is one of the ways to convey the wisdom of Kabbalah. However, most people who study the wisdom of Kabbalah don’t understand how it is related to the wisdom. For them the two exist separately: the inner work and the method of the integral education.
Answer: But don’t we engage in the method of the integral education between us? After all, in order to reveal the upper world we fulfill it on ourselves, we hold workshops, conventions, friends’ meetings, we hug and dance together, study the articles of Rabash about the society and about the work in the group.
We do the same thing, but for us there is an additional part that unifies our connection, the general connection to the system that is called the “Ten Sefirot” or a “soul.” There is a certain hierarchy in this system of the forces that influence us. How can we activate them? By connection.
Ordinary people will simply fulfill the integral method, and while they do that they will correct themselves and all of nature not knowing how it works.
We (like a brain) also have to understand the principle of the connection and to actively participate in this system, trying to organize one network among us, to minimize ourselves, to accept the group as higher than we are, to support one another and to be in mutual guarantee.
We fulfill everything that Rabash says in his articles in the relations between us, but beyond that we also study how this structure is created among us.
Suppose we are ten people sitting here, and there are “Ten Sefirot,” the connection among us. We study how they begin to work among us and how we work on them mutually, how to act exactly, what is going on right now, how to rise from the “circles,” Zeir Anpin, Aba and Ima, Arich Anpin, Atzilut, etc. that spread from us into the actual center, to the state of whole connection.
They are all in the network between us and we study about all of them when we study TES. There is nothing but these “Ten Sefirot.” Even now we feel them, on a minimal level that is called “our world.” The moment we begin to connect we will begin to feel the upper state of the connection and there in the connection between us the force that determines and that sustains everything is revealed—the Creator.
So I don’t see any difference between the spiritual method and the method of the integral education. We are simply like computer experts for example: We know the software and understand what its mechanical parts are.
When you call your mother, for example, you press the cell phone button and your mom receives the call and tells you something in response. After all, you don’t know what is happening inside: Everything is coded in pulses and the pulses are transferred to another place where you mom deciphers them (although she is not aware of them herself).
So we, the experts who know this whole system, know how to get people used to it, how to teach them to use this instrument as all of humanity. After all, 99% of the people don’t know anything; they live automatically.
In order to rise to a good normal level of life today we need to start raising all the 99% of humanity. This is what we have to do. So like experts we study everything thoroughly and then bring people to courses and explain to them how to use this instrument, which means this world, so that the changes in it will take place in a good way.
So there is no difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and integral education except for those who aspire to attaining the system and who actively participate in it and reach the wisdom of Kabbalah. Those who will follow them will use it simply through workshops. They will gradually understand as things will be explained to them to what extent it influences them for the better and also the whole world, their families, their profits, the prices in the stores, etc. They will use it like all the other people.
An ordinary person earns money and then buys food and then rests at home in order to go out again to earn his living, to buy food and to rest… It is the same here, he doesn’t know the mechanism of the system, he knows the limited angle that we have to present to him.
[104646]
From the Virtual Lesson 4/7/13
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Rabash, Shlavey HaSulam, “What Is If They Swallowed the Bitter Herbs and It Didn’t Come Out, in the Work”:
So a person who begins to follow this path and who wants his actions to be for the sake of Heaven, discovers the truth that the more he performs actions with the intention of in order to bestow, and also that he is distant from it, which means that there is a special merit in this work, that the truth is being revealed to him from Above, and that a person is far from any actions of bestowal.
Our advancement is based only on the different revelations that are unpleasant for our ego, for our desire to receive. Every time it turns out that if we are immersed in our ego, we cannot advance spiritually.
I am immersed in my ego, and the Light comes from Above and emphasizes the level of ego I am on. As a result I feel a big minus (-) that reflects the depth (H) of my desire. To the extent that I feel bad, I have to discern what I have to do in that very bad feeling. I can be grateful for the evil since by that I discover to what extent I am opposite from spirituality and bestowal. The evil is revealed in my ego, in my desire to receive in order to receive, and if this desire disappears, I will not even know that I am immersed in evil. The depth of the bad feeling is the index of truth for me; it is the right sign.
So from this state I ask for adhesion; I want to be above this, above the border of Egypt, above my ego, above the Machsom (barrier). Here I begin to build the Returning Light (RL) and implement the first restriction on the whole lower part (Tzimtzum Aleph – TA).
Thus, through the stages of Ibur (gestation), Yenika (suckling), and Mochin (mind), I transfer all the “shattered vessels” from the bottom upward.
We already begin to feel that this is practical work that can be performed. But we shouldn’t forget that it is done by the Light that Reforms (the Surrounding Light – Ohr Makif – OM), and that we can summon it only by the connection between us.
Let’s hope that the state we are creating will remain in each one as a clear pattern. The perception of the world, my attitude to everyone, my feelings, everything that I want to understand and to feel has to go through this pattern. Then we will be able to solve all the problems that come from the Creator, from the Light, correctly by responding correctly and supporting Him, and allowing Him to reveal the right actions.
Question: How can we actually thank the Creator for all the bad states?
Answer: It is true that lying won’t help us here; you cannot cry and honestly kiss the stick that beats you. But if you feel that the stick is beating your evil inclination, if you don’t want to identify with it but with the good inclination, then you already see the differences in a certain inclination to the Creator.
It is only thanks to the Surrounding Light that we feel that we are bad. Fifty years ago everyone still thought that a bright future and prosperity lie ahead. Then the global trend of decline became apparent and we began to sink into the dark. A person with a point in the heart (•) also begins to enter evil, the darkness that comes to him by the Light that Reforms. But at the same time the Light illuminates the point in the heart so that the evil pulls a person downward while the point rises higher and higher upward.
So we need the following inner division:
1. A point in the heart,
2. The evil in us.
Only then will I discover whom I identify with.
Question: How do you get rid of disturbing thoughts about a reward, about a gift that the Creator will give me for my work?
Answer: You will have to constantly cope with these thoughts in order to ascend without asking for anything and only identifying with the point in the heart time and time again. This “ping pong” game continues until the Light that Reforms comes through the connection in the group and takes you to the next level.
There, a stronger Light will come and will again reveal the outcomes of the shattering in you. It is because we used to be connected once and then the Creator who created the connection between us shattered it. Now we have to participate in the correction, to wake up and to summon Him. Then the Light comes and does all the work.
[104549]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/13, Writings of Rabash
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Question: There are several levels of desire in a person. How do you sort them out?
Answer: Generally speaking, we measure things according to the Lights that enter the vessels when I overcome my ego. After all, I don’t want to be in contact with others at all. I don’t even want to see them, but I overcome myself and receive, “buy” the other’s desire, just like the upper does with the lower in order to draw MAN upon them (a request for correction) and to receive MAD (a response to this request) and to pass it on to them. Thus I develop, by playing the role of the upper for others.
Question: And how does that happen? In our world a cow doesn’t become a human being and leaves don’t grow out of rocks…
Answer: Imagine a person’s life: He graduates from school and goes to university, becomes an engineer, and then a scientist, and finally has everyone’s recognition. If we look at his body, however, the opposite happens, since he becomes exhausted with time: Once he had lots of hair and now he is bald; once he was potent and healthy and now he is ill.
We don’t see what was added on the human level since he has received that from others. In our world, it’s impossible to see that since here we are all the same in our physical form, and the human being in us is our inner level.
In order to rise to it you have to connect to others, to the friends, against your will, in resistance. In order to do that, I have to rise above my ego and to start acting for the benefit of others. Then I begin to feel the other and can receive his desires. Thus we establish the connection of the upper and the lower, and I can develop and pass him the Light, fulfillment.
[104755]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
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Baal HaSulam, “The Secret of Gestation is Birth”: And this is the sign that a creature is worthy of the Light of life, since he has the power to at least perform a contraction for some reason, since then the Light of life appears and performs the expansion and the first movement of life is created. Therefore this movement does not stop and the creature becomes alive and moving.
This first movement is called a soul, which means the spirit of life one breathes, as it says: “And He will pass into his nostrils the breath of life.”
But the level of still nature, the vegetative and the animate do not have the power to perform an inner contraction in any way. Therefore, the Light of life cannot be dressed in them and lead to an expansion.
He gave a law that cannot be broken, that without the contractions and the expansion the vessel will not be able to expand beyond its limits. Therefore the still level of nature, the vegetative and the animate are doomed to eternal death.
The speaking is indeed totally capable of life, but he is born dead, since he needs a cause and a factor to operate on it, and to bring about the first contraction at least, which is caused by the cold air that comes from the Torah and good deeds.
Humanity is divided into levels: the still, the vegetative, the animate, and the speaking, according to the roots of the souls in Malchut of Ein Sof (Infinity), according the four levels of the depth of their desire from the first phase to the fourth. Only if the fourth and last phase awakens in a person, is it a sign that he can engage in spiritual work actively and independently.
Other people who have a desire on the level of the still nature, the vegetative, and the animate, cannot be awakened to work independently. They are carried by the current according to their level.
The level of the speaking in a person is called the point in the heart. But even if a person is already born with a point in the heart and after his previous lives is already prepared for spiritual work, it doesn’t mean that he can be awakened by himself yet. He needs some external factor that will force him to contract as a result of pressures, despair, and different unpleasant events that make a person feel that he is under pressure and threats. These pressures force him to think about how he can transcend his nature.
So a group of Kabbalists goes through different unpleasant states. The people who have already been prepared are incorporated in the group and want to advance. They don’t run away from the problems and don’t just watch things from the side but actively participate in the group’s life. They feel a cold wind as a result of the unpleasant events and the fears that force them to contract.
Wind is not a still state. It takes a person out of the level of the still nature he is on, to the vegetative level. The wind itself is air, but its source is Bina, the soul that fills it. Thus a person tastes what air is for the first time, what the feeling on the level of Ruach is.
This unpleasant event forces the cold wind into a person, which makes him contract. But by overcoming the contraction he expands himself, which means that he performs the opposite action. He wants to receive the cold air without freezing and contracting with fear, but rather expanding in Hassadim and bestowal. In order to do that he has to rise above this state by the force of bestowal in adhesion with the Creator and then for the first time he can perform a spiritual breath. The wind has been put into him by force, and he already exhales it and is ready for the new action.
After several such actions that could be called the plagues of Egypt, a person begins to “breathe” independently. He may even be ready to “contract” by himself, which is called “I awaken the dawn and it isn’t the dawn that awakens me.” This means that he doesn’t wait for an external reason, but begins to breathe on his own. Thus he becomes a living soul (Nefesh Haya).
[104770]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/13
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Our will to receive is divided into four levels: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. They are very different in their ability to analyze. At the bottom of the still level, a person still doesn’t understand what he is doing. After that, when he rises to higher planes of this level, he already understands, feels, and agrees that all of his work needs to be built upon nullification of the self. So, he tries somehow to perceive that the Creator is acting within him and to identify with Him with heart and soul.
This is not a simple level if we are speaking about a person who yearns to realize this state. Even though I have not yet reached a feeling, understanding, and perception of spirituality, still I want it. I want to feel how the Creator activates and controls me in every cell, in every desire, in every thought. I want to feel myself “clothed” in Him, and, of course, not to feel any resistance to this, only full agreement to this “servitude.”
This is what we attain in the “embryonic” state, and from here development continues.
On the other hand, on the level of the vegetative, I already actively reach the feeling of identification with the Creator. I go through a period of lack of desire, opposition, and dependence on time, movement, and location, the kind of fulfillment. I must bring myself to agreement, and this agreement is always against my nature. Thus, I build myself so that in the end I will be able to be human, and along the way I pass through the appropriate, small, immature stages.
The speaking level is completely different from the previous levels. Here, I am ready by myself to increase my desire through the others, not as before when I only acted personally. I was by myself within my nature and only developed this more and more. Now, I begin to grow beyond those levels that I received from nature. At all times, I have the possibilities of receiving, acquiring desires and deficiencies from the outside, and transforming them from an egoistic intention to an altruistic intention. This is the human level.
Therefore, we don’t see this level in our world because it is different than the previous animate level and is not found within the body. My body leads a beastly existence, but, if I work and acquire social desires from the environment and fulfill them through bestowal, then, thanks to them, I grow and thus become like the Creator. This ability to attract the deficiencies of the other, in fact, makes it possible for me to transform them into bestowal in the spiritual world, and in the physical world, we exchange our petty desires, which only bring problems, destruction, and crisis.
[104758]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
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In the wisdom of Kabbalah, when we speak about “matter,” we mean desire. At a fundamental level, the desire is just an inanimate drive for self-preservation, the “laziest” of desires. It is satisfied with preserving its structure only, that nothing should hurt or help it. The main thing is to remain this way forever. This is the simplest desire, an eternal rejection of any development. Like the flow of water, the desire of the still is to aspire to a more stable existence, and the most stable one is below.
Problems begin only when desire develops, becomes “heavier” like elements at the end of Mendel’s Periodic Table. They are no longer stable and so are ready to “illuminate,” to emit radiation. There are times when they break down.
Generally, everything technical, all of our technology, is based on the still level. It is only recently that we have begun to enter into living cells with the help of biotechnology. Until now, we have been satisfied with the lowest level of matter, which happens to be very rich and great. This is not just rejecting something; rather, it is possible to utilize it in various ways.
For example, by connecting metals, we get wondrous results. Even semiconductors and components of electronic systems are the result of metal alloys due to adding or subtracting electrons, due to differences between the substances. In brief, only on the still level do we use a richer variety of forms, and some are not yet known to us, and with respect to the vegetative level, we are complete amateurs.
Question: Why specifically is there a potential of intense power in still matter? Nuclear explosions, stellar processes—do these seem like a yearning for rest?
Answer: The vegetative level absorbs substances from the environment and use it to develop, but the still level only wants to preserve itself. The ideal state for it is a stable environment in which it also is stable, and, on the contrary, environmental influence doesn’t develop it. Rather, it shatters, destroys and “kills” it. Plants absorb what is useful to them and emit what is damaging, and thus develop. Even if the still level emits or expels something, this is only so as to remain even more still. Radioactive substances ultimately stop radiating, even though this may take hundreds and thousands of years, because on the lower levels processes progress at the slowest rate. In any event, all this tends toward rest, emitting only what doesn’t help it maintain a static state.
So energy, which originates in nature, is derived from communication between the Light and the vessel or in other words, from a conflict between opposites. If we can create resistance between plus and minus, we get energy and utilize it. This is relevant to nuclear energy. We create it with the help of resistance, and if this resistance doesn’t exist, in contrast, we push opposites toward each other resulting in an explosion.
Incidentally, in an atomic explosion, first, there is activation of a regular explosion that brings two opposing parts together to the point that they begin to emit the energy of a nuclear explosion. Clearly, I am giving a primitive description of these processes for illustration only and not in detail.
Therefore, when there is a lack of resistance when opposites come together, this leads to a “short circuit” and destruction. In Kabbalah, this resistance is called a screen (Masach). When we have a screen, we get positive energy for spiritual work, and when we don’t have it, the Light enters the substance of desire and shatters it.
Question: Still, why is such intense energy released with a nuclear explosion on the still level of nature?
Answer: Indeed, this energy destroys the vegetative and the animate returning them to the still level. This happens because the level of the still is the fundamental level of development. Everything begins from that, and it is ready to destroy, returning everything to its source.
However, in any case, the primary source of energy is the Light, Kli (the desire), and the resistance between them.
On every level, we can utilize this energy only if we control the state. At the present time, we can control processes well only on the still level. As to the other levels, we still have not learned to use them because we still don’t know and aren’t connected to the source of life. We have in our hands only the plus and minus of the still level, and on the other levels we still need to be similar in form to the real life, meaning a screen with the Reflected Light.
Therefore, as of today, we don’t understand the deeper mechanisms that are characteristic of the vegetative and the animate world. It is true that we investigate various phenomena, yet we don’t touch the essence, the inner, vital force. It eludes us because it is developed in accordance with spirituality.
So, life is a unique phenomenon. All conditions are formed such that there is only one place in creation, like the point in the heart, where the silent level develops into the vegetative. All the components and factors from here to the infinite are connected together to awaken the development of the vegetative, animate, and speaking nature on Earth. In this sense, the Earth can be said to be found at the center of the entire universe.
[104750]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
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