Entries in the 'Daily Kabbalah Lesson' Category

From Multiplicity To Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam: “600,000 Souls”: It is said that there are 600,000 souls, and each soul divides into several sparks. We must understand how it is possible for the spiritual to divide, since initially, only one soul was created, the soul of Adam HaRishon.

On one hand, a person sees a picture of a broken and divided world, and on the other hand, it is clear to him that he is the one who is broken and divided inside and this is why he sees the world this way. It says that by the correction, a person tilts himself and the whole world to merit. When I reach my private Gmar Tikkun (end of correction), I should see the whole world as corrected. Now when I look into myself I see that the world is corrupt; this is how my flaws depict it for me. But when I correct myself I tilt myself and the whole world to merit because I and the world I see are the same. The world is the essence of my vessels.

And what about other people? Do they exist or not? Will they also reach Gmar Tikkun? Or does Gmar Tikkun depend only on me and others only assist me along the way? Could it be fair to everyone? Could it be that the others don’t exist and that I am facing my shattered vessel that is depicted to me as egoistic people who oppose me? Does it mean that I only have to attach them to me?

In short, where do the general and the particular meet here? Could it be that it is really my vessel before me and there is nothing else in the world but one soul in which the Light, the Creator, has to be revealed?

This means that if I penetrate more deeply into my soul, I will discover this vessel—in uniting all its parts, in mutual spiritual cooperation with the Creator. The imaginary picture of the world with billions of people will disappear and by the connection of everyone into one soul I will see that there is none else besides Him.

Until then I will perceive the world as divided into independent parts, into many separated souls.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/12, Baal HaSulam “600,000 Souls”

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Preparing For Dawn From The Evening

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe need to try to turn every lesson of ours into a workshop. In the beginning we describe the central point of the connection between us, of the entire world group, and from within the feeling of this center, this connection, we listen to the lesson, and clarify all the questions. We exist within this unity. From within it, together we raise the prayer of MAN, and all of us together attain the answer of MAD, the Light. This bonds and brings us to the state of revelation.

Everything depends on the preparation, from the search for the common point shared by us all, the Shechina (Divinity). Thus the preparation for the lesson is the most important thing.

According to the order of spiritual work, the day begins in the evening. A person completes the “day” he went through, exits his work, and enters into the bestowal of the upper that begins to change his Kelim (desires), Reshimot (informational genes). And a person needs to prepare himself for this, connect to the property of Bina, bestowal, leaving less of his feelings and mind, acting as if half-asleep.

Thus he prepares himself to changes that occur within his desires, Kelim, that are disclosed specifically in the darkness. In the evening, everything becomes mixed: the good and the bad, the light and the darkness, bestowal and reception. Everything becomes identically gray and undifferentiated. But the person deposits himself in the hands of the upper one and “goes to sleep.” This means that he understands that he needs to completely annul himself now, like a fetus in his mother’s womb, which is called, “secretly sits in the upper.”

Then, despite everything, he can continue and awaken at “midnight”, since he received new Kelim and desires. From the beginning of the evening, he executes corrections, and after the completion of the stage where he doesn’t rule in self-control, he then receives new desires and begins to awaken at the coming of “dawn”. And then comes the new connection, which is called the morning prayer (Schema Kriyat), it produces Light. In this way he begins his new day, new revelation, a new advancement with fresh forces.

It is specifically in this way that we need to prepare ourselves to the morning lesson.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/12

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The Meeting Was Set In The Center Of The Group

The Meeting Was Set In The Center Of The GroupQuestion: How is it possible to hold on to the same feeling of unity that was born among us during the workshop?

Answer: We should always look for what the term “center of the group” means, whether it is a kind of feeling, an understanding, a vessel, or the revelation of the Creator. This question shouldn’t wane; it is as if this tempting and attractive point is playing with us, hiding and then revealing itself to us. In response to this courting, you are constantly burning with desire and chasing this point, like a person in love.

We should constantly clarify the feeling of unity that was born by penetrating into it deeper and deeper, investing into more mind and feeling, the forces of connection, and revealing different details. The connection that we attain is varied and includes many particularities, elements, and parameters. Therefore, it constantly disappears and reveals itself.

The type of exertion the friends invest in this is crucial, no matter if they succeed or not. Thus we influence one another, and this is all our work.

But it isn’t just an aimless search in total darkness. We have to clarify in advance what we are looking for. If we cannot imagine what the center of the group is, it means that for the time being “Israel, the Creator, and the Torah” are not perceived as one point by us. This indicates that we don’t understand what the goal, the connection, and the mutual guarantee are—it is still impossible to perceive this on the part of the Light and on the part of the vessel. All these discernments do not intersect at one point for us yet. But that’s fine since we’ve nevertheless started the real work.

If the feeling of unity is attained, we should try not to lose it after the workshop is over. If everyone constantly thinks about it, no one will lose this feeling. Everyone will be under the influence of the general field that we have created, and they will not be able to free themselves of this thought even if they want to. Even if the external conditions around a person pull him aside, it won’t happen.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/2012, Talk about the Seminar

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Awakening The Dawn

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You are saying that the center of the group is Malchut of the world of Atzilut. Does it exist now, when we only study these things theoretically?

Answer: These things exist only when you attain them. Up until then, they stay in potential.

For example, you have a newborn son, and the potential for all the following generations that will come from him exists within him. They don’t exist yet, even in the drop of his semen, but they still are provided for by the program of a higher order. That is the “potential existence”: There is a program above us, a cause and effect order, and we can change nothing in it. Gradually, this potential is being realized.

Everything that happened with everyone up until now was transformed from potential into reality. Thus, good and evil are similarly conditioned by the upper program; it couldn’t be any other way. With regard to the past, we are all fatalists.

When it comes to the future, we can change it. We should not have faith in fate here. It is true that Reshimot (the informational genes) will certainly realize, and the Lights will certainly be opposite them, but I define their relationship through my efforts. If my desires are equivalent to the Lights, to that extent I change my sensation on this path, up to the opposite one, and then I move forward comfortably at a good rate. This is what is meant by “changing fate.”

Everything is determined by the rate of advancement. If you slow down the realization of the Reshimot, they cause very unpleasant sensations in you, as compared to the accelerated option. Even the most joyful tune sung slowly sounds like a mourning march and vice versa. By accelerating time, it is as if you convert your sensations from negative to positive.

The world today is going through the crisis for the same reason. It is as if people are shocked by what is happening and unable to make the necessary decisions. This is because the rate of development suddenly increased, but man has not adjusted yet.

I am not “round,” not integral. I cannot take into account numerous parameters simultaneously. Everywhere, something is happening, everything is interconnected, but I am still trying to go along the line laid out by my egoism. We cannot get along with the modern world because our rhythms do not coincide with each other.

Thus, the end of correction is predetermined; however, how I realize my development depends on me: whether it is through the path of suffering or the path of sensible, conscious advancement. The rate determines everything.

That is why it is said that Israel accelerates time. Realization of the same Reshimot could be accompanied by positive sensations or fatalities, wars, epidemics, and other misfortunes that will force us toward the next step. Everything depends on preparation, for lessons as well as for life.

As it is written, “I awaken the dawn, and the dawn does not awaken me.” We must desire the realization of new Reshimot since each of them is an opportunity to rise toward greater bestowal.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/2012, “Introduction to TES“

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 05.30.12

Preparation to the Lesson

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Shamati #61 “Round About Him It Stormeth Mightily“

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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpts “Beresheet (Genesis),” And the Lord God Commanded the Man,” Item 432, Lesson 108

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 1, Chapter 2, Item 4, Lesson 2

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“The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)“

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Only Forward And Not One Step Back

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is there a difference between making a covenant with the Creator and with a friend?

Answer: There is no difference, but with the Creator this is possible only on the condition that the covenant is authentic and eternal. However, with a friend this might just be a game for now. This is the entire difficulty, that in spirituality only a perfect desire is accepted, meaning one that is absolute and eternal and that you definitely won’t go back on.

If a person ascends to the next degree, this means that his demand or request for it was accepted as perfect, meaning that he really wants this.

We continually renew our covenant, as if making it anew. But if a person rises to a certain degree of the covenant, then he cannot fall from it anymore. When it seems to me that I fall, this means that I am receiving more difficult conditions to preserve the covenant, like a renewed contract. And I am a loss as to where to get the forces to continue that contract.

The Creator constantly makes the conditions harsher, while we have to adapt to this renewed contract on new conditions. However, if a person uses the group, the studies, and dissemination correctly, then he also finds additional desires and forces, he values the new state as a higher one, and therefore overcomes the difficulties.

We have to view everything happening in life from this point of view. All of the worst and stupidest situations come to us for one purpose: to teach us something and move us forward.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/12, Writings of Rabash

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Focusing On The World Of Truth

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How should one use the workshop in order to see the world through the prism of the group?

Answer: It will happen when you create a point of connection. This means that the force that is created between us will reach such an intensity that it will not let us disconnect from it. I will constantly want to be within it. I will understand that only from there can I judge everything within the light of truth and not be mistaken.

Only what I see through the shared focus of the group, the central point of the circle, constitutes the real world. In this way, I can judge and never be incorrect in my judgment.

All of this will be revealed to a person. Thus, he will not want to leave this connection, but will constantly aspire only to strengthen this same point of our unity. In this way, we begin to ascend the levels.

To the extent that we join together and intensify our connection, both quantitatively and qualitatively, we rise higher and higher on the spiritual ladder until we discover the Creator and the connection between us in the form of Partzufim and Sefirot. Then, we begin to see how everything that is described in the sources takes place between us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions” 

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Straight Through Two Points To Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom the article “Concerning the Love of Friends,” by Rabash: And so it turns out that if one has love of friends and the attribute of love, the law is that one should want to see the virtue of his friend and not his shortcoming.

So it turns out that if he sees any shortcoming in his friend, it is a sign that it isn’t a shortcoming in his friend but in himself. This means that he has damaged the love of friends and so he sees shortcomings in his friend.

Therefore, he needs to see not that his friend corrects himself, but that he himself needs correction. And when he corrects himself, he will only see the virtue of his friend and not his shortcoming.

It says: “The Lord made an honest man, and they looked from many accounts.” (Ecclesiastes 7; 29). If we perceive the world according to our attributes, thoughts, and desires, we will not be able to get rid of the endless claims and will not be able to reach an agreement, a common denominator. There are egoistic accounts constantly going on in our mind, which do not let us rest and make us run around unnecessarily.

Aiming towards the truth begins from the point in which we feel that we are in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), meaning in “there is none else besides Him.” And if I see anything else, it means that my attributes are not adapted to Ein Sof.

There is concealment from Above, the diminishing of the Light according to the 125 degrees. Therefore, I am not in the Light of Ein Sof but on some level of its concealment considering the next higher level as Ein Sof, because I cannot perceive it in my desires. If I perceive such a difference between the ideal and the possible, I understand that instead of the world of Ein Sof, I see this world before me in which there is both good and evil, but this is merely an imprint of myself on the background of the white Light. It turns out that there is nothing to correct but myself, and this is the second point that determines my direction.

This means that I am in the world of Ein Sof and I only need to correct my perception, as it says: “One judges according to his own flaws.”

In order to help us attain correction, there was a very serious preparation called the shattering of the vessels. Because of that, each of us feels that he is detached from others, as if they exist without any connection to him and are strangers to him. This is why we feel that the world is full of details: the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking, each of which has its own way of existence, its own fate and purpose, and I am just one of them.

But if I want to attain the world of Ein Sof, I must connect everything to myself, which means to correct my perception to such an extent that I will be able to see that everything is actually in my hands. Everything depends on me, and I have to tilt the whole world to the scale of merit. If I correct myself, I will see that I have corrected everyone.

The world is depicted to me as full of different attributes and differences, but this is because I haven’t attained inside me the agreement and the connection of all my attributes, desires, and thoughts.

Therefore, we see such a big, wide, and complicated world, so looking from the side will help us connect all the matching details inside me, because everything I see on the outside is actually inside me. I perceive everything through my different egoistic thoughts and desires, and so I see so many components in the world. But if I unite all these attributes inside me, then all the attributes will merge in harmony into one whole, as one integral global world, as one system. We all have to reach such a perception of the world.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/12, Writings of Rabash

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The Union Of Plus And Minus

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should I do if during the seminar I’m thinking a lot about unity, but it’s difficult for me to feel it?

Answer: Our work is happening between the feelings and the mind, in the middle line. One needs to keep to this middle line in one’s thoughts, desires, intentions, and relationships, in everything. A one-way bias in any direction is not acceptable. Since all of this is being revealed in creation opposite to the Creator, it must be revealed in the middle line.

The whole of the nature exists only thanks to the fact that it is in some medium, the intermediate states between the absolute plus and minus, in a balance between extreme states.

However, on the human level, balance is not reached by averaging, like it is on the still, vegetative, or animate levels, but by the means that the minus and the plus are uniting together! The left and the right lines do not balance themselves out in the middle, but are united at the center, and that is why this middle line turns out to be on a higher level than their simple sum. This is the difference between the middle line in our world and in the spiritual.

It needs to be understood that all of these concepts, which we are studying on ourselves, will arrive at a balance and will provide the right approach for us towards the solution of any kind of problems.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

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Giving And Receiving

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In what way is the giving of the Torah different from the receiving of the Torah with regard to the holiday of Shavuot (Pentecost)?

Answer: The Torah was given from Above, and the question is whether we receive it below. Therefore the holiday of Shavuot is called the “holiday of the giving of the Torah,” meaning that if you went through the early stages of the preparation, then you are given the opportunity and you are given the Torah which you should receive under certain conditions.

According to the way it’s described, we see that it isn’t enough just to reach Mt. Sinai; we also have to discover that it’s the mountain of hatred. This means that we return from the “right line” to the “left line.” Why do we need it after the escape from Egypt when I have already detached myself from the ego? But the Torah isn’t given just like that, I have to evoke the “Egypt” in me again, my evil inclination, while standing before this mountain and connect it with the Creator, with the Light that can correct me.

Then, by standing against the Light, I see the conditions that are revealed in my ego, I see what relations I have to establish between them, so that “the darkness will shine like Light,” so that the ego will resemble the Light by fully dressing in bestowal.

In order to do that a person undoubtedly needs many external forces of bestowal because I don’t have these forces and never will have them. So where can I find them? I am ready to connect with all the friends under conditions of mutual guarantee, and this enables me to connect with the general power of bestowal, meaning the upper Light, with the Creator. Thus the main condition is revealed: If we receive it, we will advance towards the Light, towards life, and if not, “here will be your burial place.” This is the condition of mutual guarantee; I annul myself only in order to connect.

If I accept this means, meaning mutual guarantee, the goal of creation, which is mutual correction of all the vessels of bestowal until adhesion into one whole according to the principle of “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are One,” then I accept the method, the instruction, called the “Torah.” Then I enter the desert and start correcting myself. Each time new parts of Egypt, of the “left line,” are revealed to me; each time I find sins, mistakes, and evil inside me and correct them by rising to the level of Bina.

When I rise to this level after “forty years in the desert,” I will be worthy of working with the desire to receive in receiving in order to bestow. This is already the work in the Land of Israel, meaning in the desire that is aimed directly at the Creator (Yashar El). By fulfilling these corrections, I build the Temple, a special vessel into which I draw the Reforming Light and the Light of fulfillment. Thus I reach my Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction).

Then new vessels, which do not belong to Israel, are immediately evoked. Where do they come from? The point is that I didn’t take into account all the vessels because I selected and corrected only part of them in order to include Malchut in Bina, and not more than that. Now when the desires of Malchut itself are evoked, I see that my Temple is in the Land of Israel, meaning in Malchut that has joined Bina. But this isn’t enough. We have to reach the state in which the Land of Israel will spread all over the world, to bring Malchut back from the level of Bina to its place.

Thus the third Temple will be built from the desires of the whole world that will go through complete correction. Therefore it’s clear that all our history was only a preparation for the final correction, which we are fulfilling today.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/12, Writings of Rabash

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