| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Shamati #115 “Still, Vegetative, Animate and Speaking“
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, “Ki Tetze,” Item 29, Lesson 3
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 10, Item 64, Lesson 29
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 36, Lesson 21
| [media 9] | [media 10] |
To be a Tzadik (righteous) means to justify the Creator in all circumstances. A person is given every state to help him to want to go outside of his skin to such an extent that darkness thickens around him, and this is a very great help that the Creator sends someone ready to be a Tzadik.
A person is placed in situations that are unacceptable to his ego so that he will be ready to come out of himself. It is clear to us that the spiritual world is above this physical world. Therefore, everything physical must die, but this is not about the usual death of all humans, but rather, that a person, himself, will agree that all of his worldly values will die. And thereby, he acquires the next level: spiritual life.
He exits his body, being released from all self-interest in what will happen to him, above all the situations into which the Creator puts him. He concurs with these circumstances, accepting them happily as builders of his new, spiritual level, for they raise him above his physical conditions, take him out of the limits of his skin and, particularly, make it possible for him to ask for adherence with the Creator from within the darkness. The only inclination this person will have is to give the Creator contentment while he, himself, is found in the dark.
In this, he sees his salvation, his departure from exile. Outside of his skin, he feels true life because he can satisfy the Creator without any consideration of self. Thus, he defeats the darkness, the suffering, the fear, the anxiety, and the shame that he feels, which were revealed intentionally to indicate to him his corporeal limitations and to help him rise above himself.
[104427]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/4/13, Shamati #36
Related Material:
And Then Comes Dawn
How Can We Justify The Unjustifiable?
“A Thousand Times The Righteous Will Fall And Rise Again”
Writings of Rabash, Volume 1, Essay 30: “What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends”: For this reason, it makes no difference if the friend is slandering him and must certainly hate him. Instead, a person who wishes to acquire love of others, that person needs the correction of loving the other.
Therefore, when a person makes the effort and judges him to a scale of merit, it is a Segula [remedy/power/virtue], where by the toil that a person makes, which is called “an awakening from below,” he is given strength from above to be able to love all the friends without exception.
A person doesn’t ask for the friends to love him. Instead, he asks for the power to love the friends even though he feels coldness, rejection, and hatred from their side. He only needs a power that makes it possible for him to love—above all failures and problems that he discovers on all sides.
It is written: “They have eyes and see not,” and everyone rejects according to his own flaws. The Creator arranges all the conditions, and indeed, everyone except me has already reached the end of correction. It means that I must correct myself, and only to that the degree will the true picture appear before me time after time. Even now the true picture appears before me, but only according to the degree of my corruption. After that, when I partially correct myself, I will see something else.
The entire world will be transformed before my eyes. After all, the world doesn’t depend on anyone or anything other than my vessels (desires). The world itself is the abstract, formless Light, and it is me in particular who imparts certain forms to it.
Hence, if I see a bad relationship from a friend, I need to make the right request. Indeed, I feel a lack of something, and this “something” is in the hands of the Creator who is good and benevolent and ready to give me the desired. And all the conditions are arranged so that I will ask correctly.
This is so even when I still don’t have a true desire to love the friend who hates me, I feel that I depend on him in my relationship toward him. So, I ask to see the reason, to see the truth.
Everyone needs to reach a request like this by himself. If I don’t work on changing my relationship in regard to the friends, then in general, what am I doing? Whom do I want to change: them or myself?
One needs to answer this question inside and make the decision. Whoever changes himself “serves the Creator,” and he truly realizes the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah. And whoever wants to correct others and not himself should join the government and other organizations.
In the wisdom of Kabbalah I cannot demand another relationship toward myself. The goal of people who have gathered here is to correct themselves. Accordingly, this is how we relate to the friends: We understand that all of us together are moving toward correction, toward love, supporting each other and helping each other to change, until we truly begin to love.
[104443]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/13, Writings of Rabash
Related Material:
What To Look For In The Assembly Of Friends
Loving A Friend More Than One’s Own Son
About the Value of Love for Friends
We may be starting a special process in which the group is now taking on such a form that we finally can feel not our personal individual states, but the general states that we are going through. We will begin to go through them together, and this is called being the people of Israel in Egypt, when one blow follows another, and then we rise above them together.
The ten plagues of Egypt don’t take place far away from us, where Pharaoh is, so that we can observe them from a distance and rejoice. These blows take place inside us, and our personal Pharaoh experiences them! So, we have been awarded to advance toward the final state of the group as one nation.
Whoever doesn’t feel the darkness yet should be worried since it means that he doesn’t work enough on the connection with the group and that he still lacks the inner work. He subconsciously may be escaping the problem, keeping his distance, instead of touching the truth a little. A person’s defensive force is operating here, scaring a person and preventing him from entering the group and clarifying things.
If he has no desire to “leap out of his body,” it means that he was not awarded with the Creator’s pressure that squeezes him like a cherry so that the pit will pop out. How else can one jump into the waves of the Red Sea? Only in this way, under pressure, like on a cherry. Can you imagine what great pressure that is?
If the spiritual world is above the corporeal world, which means above life and death, then I should feel that I am ready for this transition! This body, this life with everything in it, isn’t worth anything compared to the world into which I am moving.
The shell that prevents us from advancing can be broken only by the force of love and mutual concern, only by the general work together with everyone. If you don’t feel the general concern for the society, for the community, for the whole, global Bnei Baruch community, for the whole world, you will not be able to be involved in this process.
Part of the group already may be going through it while you are standing on the side as it is passing you by, and you don’t hear, see, or feel it. Instinctively, you ignore the difficulties and guard yourself, thus keeping yourself at a distance.
We must be involved in everything that the group, the community, and the global Bnei Baruch society deals with, and be sensitive and on the alert as to all the worries and the changes that everyone experiences. Whoever is not actively involved in this general process are called “women,” “children,” “slaves,” and “sheep and goats.” These categories determine all the types of people in our global group who somehow are connected to us, but only externally.
So, accordingly, only “600,000 souls” receive the Torah.
[104378]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/5/13, Shamati #61
Related Material:
The Group Is the Inner Contact Between Souls
Do Everything Together
Where Everything Is Dark And Confusing
Question: Each of us has already filled his personal measure of exertion, and if we only connect for the one small collective blow, we will breakthrough. What does this collective blow mean? Do I have to clarify the general state of the whole group instead of my personal clarifications?
Answer: A blow is not a mental clarification, but an effort in our heart in order to be incorporated in one another, in order to connect and to devote myself to society so that I can draw the Light that Reforms for the friends; this is what every individual should do for everyone.
It turns out that we build one common heart and mind between us that is similar to the Creator. The force of bestowal, the Light, appears according to the equivalence of form. This whole collective zone that is full of Light is called the general soul because the Light that fills the vessel is called a soul or the revelation of the Creator.
This pattern continues the whole way. There are 125 degrees of my ego: from the 1st to the 125th degree; I discover them one by one, restrict each one on the level of the first restriction, then the Masach, a state of smallness, and then a state of greatness, while being incorporated in everyone. This is all our work.
Thus, by rising higher above my ego, I build 125 degrees of ascent, the entrance into the general collective heart, into everyone. Then it becomes the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) for me, that is, full of the Light of Ein Sof. Where do I discover it? In the connection with all the friends which all of humanity later joins. Behind each of us there are many other millions of people who join us and connect through us, who are incorporated in the general collective force that we have formed.
[103934]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
Related Material:
So The Group Will Absorb Everything
A System Of Spiritual Measurement: The Group
A Conscious Movement Towards The Creator
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Writings of Rabash, “Igrot,” Letter 56
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, “Ki Tetze,” Item 21, Lesson 2
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 3, Part 10, Lesson 28
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Lesson 20
| [media 9] | [media 10] |
On April 8, 2013, Israel marks the Holocaust Remembrance Day and the Day of Heroism of European Jews. Talking about this, we first need to clarify the big picture, as it is described by the wisdom of Kabbalah, which studies the descent of the general vessel from Infinity and its revelation in our world. Having been broken into parts, this vessel went through additional shattering here and then began to develop in the opposite direction. Essentially, this last stage aimed at correction began in Babylon.
In fact, we can start counting from Adam, but we are talking not about personal advancement, but about collective advancement. It became possible when the part worthy of correction emerged in the general vessel and, as it is always happens in such cases, took the responsibility for itself and for all the other parts. This is the law stemming from the structure of the integral, “analog” system, closed and completely dependent on its original ten Sefirot.
So, Abraham created the first group in the Ancient Babylon, and it became responsible for the correction of the general vessel. Abraham carried out a different kind of correction with the rest of Babylonians, and that later gave birth to various religions and beliefs. And the more effectively this group used its unity for the benefit of all the other parts, the further it developed.
This group, which in the future became named the people of Israel. It carried out correction by being connected with other souls, with other nations that lived in the land of Canaan—if we use corporeal terms to define the spiritual relationships in the general vessel. Then, there was the Egyptian exile, and after exiting it, the followers of Abraham began to correct themselves practically, reached the height of the First Temple, fell from that level into the Babylonian exile, returned and built the degree of the Second Temple, and then fell for millennia until our times.
Thus, the group of Abraham is responsible for the process of correction of the world. The program of this development consists of two parts, specifying the path of the group and the path of humanity. Moreover, the development of the group depends on the development of the world. The group doesn’t exist for itself, it is inseparable from the general community, and that is why the corrections that it carries out could suffice it, but not the world. As a consequence, throughout history, the nation of Israel has been falling, suffering, and experiencing distress. [Read more →]
Question: How do we work together in a group that surrenders itself to the upper?
Answer: For this, each one bows his head to each of the friends. With the help of the shattering of the Kelim you have been given the opportunity to work with the friends as with the Creator. You cannot see and attain this with your uncorrected desires; therefore, you work with the group.
The further you are from the upper Light, the further you are also from the friends. This builds the right state in you, a “shared field” where you can “play” and train with them. Your attitude to them is precisely your attitude to the Creator, but here you see results, you work together with them on changes of state, both in you and in the friends.
The Creator is absolute, and within the group there is reciprocity, the changes there prepare you much better for an encounter with Him. For you have two desires in you—a desire to receive and a desire to bestow—that appear before your ego and the ego of the friends; and through this you acquire a complete Kli ready to face the Creator.
The truth of the matter is that everything is prepared through divine wisdom, which supplies you with everything necessary in the form of the group for the entire path.
Suppose that you need to rise from level 120 to level 121. There, you find yourself in concealment also, and even further concealment, in absolute darkness, where there is no memory of the Creator, and inexplicable thoughts and feelings overwhelm you… so how do we rise from this terrible darkness to the next level? We do this only with the help of the group, as did the students of Rabbi Shimon. And you again discover that all the relationships between the friends are precisely adjusted for shaping this new level.
Question: So what can the group do to submit itself and to rise to the next level?
Answer: The group doesn’t need to submit itself; rather every member needs to submit himself to the concept of connection and unity. And then all of us together build a backing for revealing the Creator, a place for His residence, the Shechinah.
Question: But doesn’t there have to be a shared surrender when we pass through different states?
Answer: You feel what it is to be together, in one “sheaf” (omer). The main thing is to nullify, in other words, to submit yourself, with all your strength to build a connection between the friends. You humble your pride about the connection and are concerned only that everyone in the group, including the women and children, will be connected; that they will relate to each other with love, with understanding, without a single complaint against another. The Creator gives us a place for efforts, and we simply must build a connection among us. And if not, then there will be no continuation for this…
[104383]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/5/13, Writings of Rabash
Related Material:
The Creator Is Hidden, But The Group Is Open
Through The Group To The Creator
The Role Of The Group Is To Discover The Creator
Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 14: I once interpreted the saying of our sages, “He whose Torah is his trade.” The measure of his faith is apparent in his practice of Torah because the letters of the word, Umanuto (his trade), are the same (in Hebrew) as the letters of the word, Emunato (his faith).
It is like a person who trusts his friend and lends him money. He may trust him with a pound, and if he asks for two pounds he will refuse to lend to him. He might also trust him with one hundred pounds, but not more. Also, he might trust him enough to lend him half his property, but not all his property. Finally, he may trust him with all his property without a hint of fear. This last faith is considered “whole faith,” and the previous forms are considered “incomplete faith.” Rather it is partial faith, whether more or less.”
Question: If I trust someone with all my property, it must be someone I know very well who is reliable and someone I trust. Here, on the contrary, we are talking about the Creator who is completely concealed from me. How can I trust Him?
Answer: What is more, according to the example, it is the person who sees the Creator as the greatest deceiver. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be any problems.
Question: Where does a person find the power to rise above his reason when the Creator is depicted to him as a great deceiver?
Answer: It is only from the Light that Reforms. It is because we have nothing, but a point of self-discernment that also was created by the Light. We still don’t understand that we have nothing. All our discernments are corporeal and it is impossible to clarify anything spiritual with them.
So, what’s left? It is a point in the heart, a small inclination to rise above the ego, and the external society, a picture of the external group that reflects the Creator’s image and with which I must cooperate, just like with the Creator. This is all that I have: a point in the heart and the group.
Additionally, there is some upper force to which I can turn if I try to be incorporated with the friends. By annulling myself, I want the force of bestowal that resides in them to reside in me too, but not because I want to be saved from the blows and the troubles. No, it is because, by these blows, I have something to give to the friends. Even if I suffer, I can add something; I can give them my devotion.
Question: How can I keep, and not annul, my inner resistance to the upper’s desire?
Answer: I cannot advise you here. The Light guides you, and its guidance focuses you on your inner development. On the way, a person begins to see and feel how the system is built and how its parts are connected. He discovers it internally.
[104224]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/13, Writings of Rabash
Related Material:
Looking At The End Result
Don’t Judge What Is Yet to Ripen
Penetrate Inside Creator’s World
“…His religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural Law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.
Albert Einstein, “The World as I See It”
Question: Often times physicists are required to frame the results of their research in the language of formulas. However, the perfection and harmony of the phenomena they research cannot be confined to formulas. They manifest in sensations that come from Nature and are much more important than any dry numbers.
Answer: There is a physical law that can be defined as follows: “The tension of the field is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the objects.” This law covers various phenomena irrespective of what kinds of power fields to which they belong. Those who happen to understand this law also can feel it. Using our terminology, we would say that with each step we receive two times more Light.
Everything depends on the observer. Knowing (perceiving) is not a part of the formula, but rather, the formula unveils inside our sensations. We live through it and feel its impact on us. If we really know what this formula means, we sense the powers that act in accordance with it.
This also applies in spirituality. Thus, by adding the language of Kabbalah to the texts of The Book of Zohar, Baal HaSulam enhanced our sensations. We cannot see yet how this combination influences us exactly, but at the same time, we know that it allows the Light to impact us effectively and therefore lead us forward.
[103877]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/29/13, The Zohar
Related Material:
Harmony Of Facts And Figures
Hearing The Melody Of The Spiritual World
You Cannot Replace A Diamond With A Formula
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
