Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Thou Hast Hemmed Me in Behind and Before,” The Power of Speech, Lesson 5
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 149
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 1, Part 3, Chapter 5, Item 4, Lesson 13
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All the events are revealed to a person because of his incomplete perception because of his uncorrected sensations. The world is depicted as incomplete according to a person’s perception and understanding. But we should understand that this imperfection is not in the external world, but in ourselves.
The current global crisis doesn’t develop around us but only in our perception. But the moment we correct ourselves, all the external problems will disappear. It is because the world doesn’t exist in itself, but only in our feelings; it is within us. As soon as we correct our attributes, all the disasters and the problems, the storms and the crises immediately disappear. None of this exists; the upper Light simply fills all of reality…
The difference between truth and lie is only within a person. First by clarifying all the blows that hit him, he should understand that there is a purpose and a reason for them, as it says: ” I am the first,” which means the reason, and “I am the last,” which means the purpose. These blows come so that a person could correct himself and realize that his perception of reality is false.
It operates like a “helpmate.” Since if this evil remained in a person, he would never reveal it. But since the evil is revealed on the outside, it is as if it is against him, and so a person can discern it. Our ego magnifies this evil many times by enabling us to see it in others in its most prominent form.
We look at our evil as if through a magnifying glass and see it 620 times larger. This helps us reveal it and it is called a “helpmate.”
I reveal this evil in others, but I understand that it is the opposite and that it is inside me, and thus I can correct myself. A person has to constantly check himself and whether he has the right perception: He must immediately turn all the evil that he sees on the outside, see it in himself, and correct it.
So when I identify with what is outside myself, I perceive this attribute as good for me. I accept it and am in it by correcting myself. Thanks to it, I can check myself with regards to the group, with regards to others, with regards to the Creator.
It turns out that the perception of the external reality helps me find the evil in me in my internal reflection, and to understand that it isn’t the world that is destroyed, but that it is me who is ruined, since this is how my evil is revealed. It is by correcting myself that I correct the whole world. This is called “judging myself and the whole world to a scale of merit.”
Let’s hope that we will be able to understand and to digest this, to perceive this picture and to convey this correct and healthy approach to the whole world, to all the people. Then, by the correction of man, we can heal all the problems. The first difficulty is to change my approach and instead of correcting the world, we should understand that we should correct ourselves.
According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the whole world we see around us is a reflection of our internal attributes, just like a mirror. But in order to keep it simple, we should explain that a person should correct himself first so that he can later correct the world. This is because a corrupt person builds a corrupt world and a corrected person can build a corrected world.
[84700]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/2/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Question: Why are we engaged in dissemination as if we want to correct the world if we need to correct only ourselves?
Answer: You see other people around you who seemingly have their own power and are strangers to you. But this is the way your split perception is revealed to you, the difference between you and the corrected soul.
The corrected soul feels that there is no external world and it’s all in your heart. And as long as you can’t feel this way, it’s the sign of a fault within you. So, you need to take care of others and convince them. You need to approach them to the extent that they seem external to you.
You treat them like strangers whom you should attract to correction. And if you do it properly, then you train yourself internally. Supposedly by reaching out to people and correcting them, you really correct yourself inside, and due to that they are changing!
Do you think that you go out into the world and give lectures to others? In fact, you give the lecture to yourself. You think you are trying to change them? It’s you who persuades yourself to change!
You can’t approach yourself directly and make a correction in yourself. You have no power. By seeing flaws in others, the force of egoism helps you correct them. You have to correct yourself in such a deceptive form.
[84689]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/2/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Striving forward towards the goal of creation, we discover destruction inside of ourselves. Conversely, those who do not strive forward do not discover destruction inside of themselves. In exactly the same way, one can reveal the malfunctions in an automobile only if one starts the car and tries to move it. Otherwise, everything seems to be in order. I have not yet found any problems inside of me, and I attribute evil to something else.
That is why only the one who strives towards the goal reveals destruction, only the one who strives towards unity of the group discovers how far away he is from that. Movement towards the good and striving for wellbeing brings us a bad feeling, the realization of evil.
What for? So that on the next level I would cry out asking for help, raise the MAN (prayer). And then I will receive changes, the qualities of bestowal. That is where movement occurs and not in anything else. One must check oneself in this.
So, I have been applying efforts, I was uniting with the group, and I wanted to be together with the friends in order to come out into the spiritual world, to arrive at bestowal, to the Creator. And what did I receive as an answer? The realization of evil: how much I do not want to go to the Creator, do not want to be in the group. I discover my true state; the truth comes out into the light.
If I put down my hands now, then I will miss the opportunity that this revelation presents. The Creator said: “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” It means that now I am starting from the evil inclination, and up until now I carried out work in order to reveal it.
First of all, in order to reveal the evil, I must be connected to the group, the study, the Creator, and other means. As a consequence, the evil inclination has been revealed to me. Afterward, I address an appeal (MAN) for the Torah, spice, for the Light that Reforms concealed inside of it.
In reality, all of that is good. Since if we were to judge it from the point of view of bestowal, then the revelation of the evil is the essence of the good. But when will I attain revelation?
And then, the next state comes to me; I receive the answer of the One above to my appeal—MAD. This answer can be so great, that I will attain group connection and a vessel in which I will reveal the Light. Then the Light and the vessel will become bestowal, which I have attained after numerous similar actions.
This way, on the one hand, receiving, the evil inclination is always characteristic of me, but on the other hand, I get the force of bestowal, the Light.
[84186]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/29/12, Writings of Rabash
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Question: If we have to build a new relationship that is higher than pleasure, does that mean that we cease to enjoy?
Answer: It all depends on what I enjoy. We have to demand pleasure; we shouldn’t look for sufferings. On the contrary, we should enjoy but from connection, adhesion, brotherly love, the love of the Creator. No one says we have to weep.
Our vessel is a desire to enjoy that constantly demands and checks itself to see whether it has received a filling or not. I work with a “screen and Returning Light” when I restrict my desire. But I cannot suffer from this restriction since it would not be wholeness; it would not be the right state. If you suffer because of a certain action you have performed, it isn’t a whole action. It isn’t a spiritual action.
It may eventually bring you to spiritual actions by the recognition of evil, thanks to which you will understand that you have to change. But you should know that it isn’t right. A spiritual action should be preformed joyfully. There is no pain in any movement or in any spiritual step, since otherwise it isn’t wholeness. I know that I have performed a spiritual action if I perform an act of bestowal and I enjoy the fact that I bestow. It is like a mother who gives to her child and enjoys it even more than the child himself. There must be pleasure in every action since the Creator wants to bring pleasure to the created beings.
Then we begin to discover that in these actions of bestowal there is 620 times greater pleasure. This is the reason that so many people in history tortured themselves just to feel the Creator and reached nothing. What could they feel if they brought afflictions upon themselves? It is not the right way.
On the contrary, it is your human ego that promises you that you can approach the Creator this way. This is why there are traditional fasts and restrictions in different religions. After all, the religions were created thanks to the ego, after the destruction of the second Temple and the disappearance of spirituality. People were left in the dark and for ages they perceived spirituality from the point of view of the ego, of the desire to enjoy.
The ego understands only the impure corporeal pleasure. This means that the action that is opposite from it is suffering. So whoever tortures and restricts himself more, sitting in the same position all day, meditating and living on a bowl of rice is apparently righteous.
But in the spiritual sense it is just the opposite; the goal is to bring pleasure to the created beings. So if you want to follow this goal in every action that you make, you must reach pleasure—but only from bestowal. This is the hard part. After all, how can I enjoy bestowal if I am opposite to it? So the Light that Reforms comes and reforms me.
It is very simple; we should just constantly hold on to this principle. There is no room for afflictions and suffering; on the contrary, if we aspire for connection from the start, we should feel that by that we reach life and pleasure. This is why mutual guarantee is so important because it lets each one feel how important the goal is, the high spirit, which is like a breath of fresh air.
It turns out that the pleasure is not only permitted, but it is obligatory! Pleasure is a sign of advancement. There is no prohibition to enjoy; the whole idea is the way you enjoy. Now I enjoy that fact that I receive on the account of others and harm others, dominate someone, oppress him and feel above him: I receive a great reward, domination, an understanding. I have to turn this pleasure in the opposite direction: as I would treat the one I love—like my own child or someone that is close to me.
If I treat a stranger this way, it will open up a field of study for me—a place where I can see whether I really change or not, whether I receive pleasure by helping others. Others may still be strangers and distant from me, but I correct myself and thus bestow upon others and enjoy this bestowal.
If I don’t enjoy it is not considered a spiritual action. The intensity of the action is measured not according to how much to give another, but according to how much I enjoy it in my desires. This is exactly how we advance. It is a very important point in which all the clarifications take place.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/29/12, Shamati #2
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Question: Not many are attracted to the wisdom of Kabbalah today. Should we expect the awakening of new points in the heart according to our dissemination?
Answer: I don’t have an accurate answer for this question. I don’t want to say anything that Kabbalists didn’t write about. But you should understand that there is a hero in quantity and there is a hero in quality. It says: “You are the fewest of all the people.” So in the future there will also be few people, like the members of our groups all over the world and also “fans,” outer circles, that are not aimed at the wisdom of Kabbalah directly, but who listen to and support us and feel close to us.
We are very few, but strong and powerful in height, in understanding, in recognition, in our connection with Godliness. Through us, like through lightning, the forces will flow down to earth, the recommendations, the plans and events for the general public. Then when they will have no choice or perhaps because they may believe us, people will get used to our message.
If there is one sighted person who is leading a group of blind people, Baal HaSulam says they can follow him and be sure they will reach the goal. I don’t think anything will seriously change in this scenario.
We give lectures and hold roundtables, open courses, but not in order to bring people closer, not in order to draw them to our lines. On the contrary, we should work in their “territory,” and convey the general, “popular” method of correction to them and not our special method. Masachim (screens), Lights, vessels, Partzufim, restrictions, all this isn’t for them. People only need to know about the general connection that would ease the corporeal life.
This is our message to the public. We shouldn’t “inject” Kabbalah and the high material into them. We should speak to people at eye level, at the “pulse of his heart,” about what worries him: the education of his children, his daily troubles, etc.
We should emphasize and evoke his deficiency a little and show him that we can calm him and fill him by our method.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/1/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
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From the letter by Baal HaSulam (No. 8): We see from the ages ago and up until today, how many people have poisoned their lives with all kinds of suffering and self-torture, and all for the sake of finding some kind of meaning in the service to the Creator, or to come to know the ruler of the world! And all of them have squandered their life in vain, and they left this world as they came, not having achieved anything, and why did the Creator not answered all of their prayers? Why did He pride Himself in front of them? Why, really, did He not move towards them? And it is in that He is called “The most proud of all proud ones”.
In the human race, lives a bitter delusion that compels them to go along the wrong paths in the search for the highest force for the reasons for their bad lives. This search is not correct because we need to search not in the midst of evil, but to clarify where the source of the good is and to strive toward Him, toward reaching similarity with Him, instead of waiting in your current state and demanding from Him to improve your life at the same place, where you are now.
That is why Baal HaSulam writes in his letter that: We see from the ages ago and up until today, how many people have poisoned their lives with all kinds of suffering and self-torture, and all for the sake of finding some kind of meaning in the service to the Creator. But what service is this to the Creator if man suffers and is tormented and at the same time is also searching in this for some kind of a higher meaning? This was not the goal.
In such an approach, there are several distorted conceptions, and therefore all who followed it have squandered their life in vain. One tried to make it better for himself in his place, changing nothing. Another one searched for how to control the Creator in the use for his own benefit. The third one counted on getting closer to the Creator by the means of suffering and to receive a reward for the fact that he suffered. And it is even written that: “Suffering softens egoism, as salt does meat.” From this, fasting and prayers have derived, having passed into all religions.
And all of them have squandered their life in vain, and they left this world as they came because that was not the correct approach. The Creator does not want our suffering. He does not need anything from us besides the attainment of His greatness and mergence with Him, meaning, to attain the same height.
All of our actions, besides the ones aimed at reaching similarity with the Creator, are completely useless and will not lead to anything. And even more so, do not assume that suffering is a part of the path to the Creator. If man suffers, it is a sign that he is disconnected from the Creator and not simply distanced from Him, but he is also moving away in the opposite direction.
While the “drop of unity”, a point of merging is only reached by the means of man constantly striving towards similarity to the Creator, as it is said: “From the love of the people, to the love of the Creator”. All other paths, however, are not the right ones.
Baal HaSulam writes about that with great pain, being sorry that it happens this way throughout the whole of the human history up until today. But what can be done? Taking the chance, we need to try to explain to everyone about what the truth is.
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From the Preparation to the Lesson 7/29/12
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“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 63, Lesson 25
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Question: Why is it that even now, when the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed, that there is a danger that the externality will control the internality?
Answer: Everything is revealed on the background of the growing ego and this is also where the danger is; how will we end the correction: in order to receive or in order to bestow? Which path will we follow, the path of the Torah or the path of suffering? It is because the positive force grows opposite the negative one.
So there aren’t fewer problems with the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is because we are less able to hear anything and because there is an increasing hardening of the heart. It isn’t by chance that the last blows before the exodus from Egypt were so hard.
Question: But is it possible to distort the idea itself in our times?
Answer: A person wants to contradict things automatically and unless he feels that, on the one hand, he has no choice and, on the other hand, he can save himself by this method, he will not accept it. So he has to be approached very gently and the truth has to be wrapped in such wrappings that will not evoke any resistance in people.
It isn’t a matter of “inverted propaganda,” but human nature, the ego that is a “helpmate.” The Creator is there as the “Pharaoh” who doesn’t want to hear anything and causes different interruptions so that you will correct yourself that way, learn how to rise, and understand the wisdom of Kabbalah more deeply in order to overcome the obstacles more powerfully and discover the truth until you begin to teach others. It is all part of the process of correction. It cannot be a short and easy path.
No matter how many more enemies and adversaries there will be, we need to understand that it is a result of the system. How will the heart of Pharaoh be revealed? Only by tenacity and cruelty. It may seem that one or two blows are enough; why do we need all the plagues of Egypt all the way to the “death of the firstborn?” But Pharaoh doesn’t give in; even the escape is in the dark.
So we have to be gentle and explain again and again and help people face their ego. No matter what they may say about us, there is no other way. Just as we cannot choose the character of our children, we have to take care of them lovingly, no matter what. The child may go wild and not listen, he may be too naughty, but what can you do? After all, it is my child, he was born, and I have an internal connection with him that cannot be broken.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/2/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
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Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Letter 2”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 148
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 1, Part 3, Chapter 5, Item 1, Lesson 12
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“Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Lesson 24
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