Entries in the 'Daily Kabbalah Lesson' Category

A Smart Child Playing Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe only creation is the desire that appears “from absence” by virtue of the Light and gradually reaches its condition. At the beginning it simply wants to enjoy, but later it starts to understand that it is completely under the rule of this desire.

This is how desire grows gradually until it realizes its full opposition to the Light. The first time, it happens during the 4th phase of the expansion of the Direct Light, in the state called Malchut of the world of Infinity.

The creature cannot sustain this condition and restricts itself. This forces it to establish a new relationship with the Creator. It feels obliged to become like Him and strives to do this, until all its attempts bring to their mutual penetration into each other, which is called “the breaking of the desires.”

It seems to us that the breaking is something negative. But in reality it is the other way around. Because of this, the creature understands its full inability to be like the Creator.

In order to become a giver and be similar to the Creator in the state of breaking, it lacks only efforts. Later, it will be able to reach bestowal and rise from a much worse state. However, firstly, it has to experience the realization of evil, prayer, work, good deeds, and until it has all these, it will not be able to become equal to the Creator and to be like Him.

Until the creature has obtained the spiritual vessel, that is, has obtained the understanding and sensation,feeling its own effort and the realization of desire, it is impossible to say that the creature is similar to the Creator. The little one cannot be a giver. He can do something small, play with his toys. But if he really wants to become like an adult, he has to develop a variety of sensations in himself.

Thus, after all the spiritual and historical development given to us as a preparation from Above, we discover that two desires are co-existing within us: our own and an additional desire. A human within us starts with this. One’s own, natural desire pulls a person towards the pleasures that he sees in front in him. The additional desire pulls him to special, spiritual kinds of pleasure; however, he cannot feel anything besides pleasure.

We see in a person of our world his material, physical body. It is not about it, but about the desire drawing him in two directions. One is directed to what is revealed to a person in his or her five sense organs. The other is called “the point in the heart,” and it’s still unclear to a person to where this desire is drawing him and whether it is worth using it.

From the moment these two desires are manifested in a person, he is called a human. Because of these two states, he can become similar to the Creator (Edome), that is, to be called a human (Adam from the Hebrew word “Domeh” or similar). One needs only to find out about the means, to learn how to use these two desires awakened in him or her.

One desire is old and is called an “old and foolish king,” the other one is new and growing like a “smart child.” If one wants to deal with them correctly, this is possible only with the help of the upper force. Thus, he cannot advance on his own and needs a mentor.

Everything is given from Above: People are led to the right place to study; all the necessary conditions are created for them so that they can accept this guidance and use it. Everything is given from Above except for the effort that we have to add ourselves! These efforts build a human.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/2011, Shamati #161

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Advancing In Fear Of Death

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can people who don’t feel any desire for spirituality associate themselves with our message of unity?

Answer: Yes, they can. There is plenty of serious content that talks about the necessity to unite. Thinking people do understand that egoism is destroying the human race, while humanity is selfishly destroying the Earth, and that is why we must switch from egoism to unity and rise to altruism. Only then will we learn to get along with each other and save our planet, the only home we have. After all, we can’t move to another “apartment.” Many world authors describe this picture with clarity and precision.

The issue is how to make this transition. It’s evident that humanity is on the verge of war and faces a gloomy future the insatiable ego is pushing it to. The solution is also obvious: be “good children,” “befriend one another,” restrict consumption, and learn to distribute resources properly. But how do we make it from point A to point B if human nature is the desire to enjoy? How do we reform it? How do we turn it into bestowal?

It is one thing when we talk about basic instincts such as maternal love. But people don’t usually feel this way; love rises only when trouble comes, out of necessity. Hence, we need to try to open their eyes so they may see how serious the situation is and to show them one specific condition: The world will escape demise only by way of unity and mutual participation. Then, left without a choice, they will agree to it.

However, carrying out this transition requires that every moment, in every detail, every tiny particle, each crumb of bread and droplet of water, a person will clearly feel: If I don’t share it with others, I am dead. It should permeate every feeling, action, and choice. This is the way it ought to be.

And the reason for it is one: In his or her egoistic desire that is constantly looking to be pleased, a person feels that he will drop dead if he succumbs to egoism. If the situation is a bit different and death is not instant, he’ll steal. Such is the nature of man. We can’t ask of man what is beyond his power, above his nature.

So it seems that everyone should fear this? It is impossible. In “Introduction to TES” Baal HaSulam writes that in the ancient times, Kabbalists resorted to asceticism, as it is written: “Live on bread and water, sleep on the ground, and labor in the Torah. If you do so, you will be a lucky man.” It follows that even on the path of such sufferings you need the power of the Torah. Otherwise, you must constantly feel misfortunes hanging over you: Either unite or perish.

This is why Kabbalists explain that while undergoing such painful states, a person should “labor in the Torah.” After all, you still have to draw the Light that Reforms. If not, there is no life, and there is no choice. Any hero in this world can be easily fooled. We live by egoistic sensations, and anyone can be made to respond in any way you wish them to. After all, man is the will to receive, not a hero.

Therefore, it is up to us to provide the solution for them. People will think they found it on their own, while in reality, it will be coming from us. And the faster we advance, the easier it will be for us to prevent them from being fooled.

We have to rely on logic and explain that we employ the inner force of nature, the power of unity, the life-giving force that breathes life into everything there is. All our definitions must be brought a bit closer to people so that they don’t start thinking that we are talking about some supernatural force working beyond the nature of things. No, it underlies nature itself and stands by to assist us.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/2011, “Preface of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Bringing People A Little Closer To The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The global crisis has already announced itself publicly. When will the public start asking questions about what’s going on? When will the storm come?

Answer: This depends on us. We have to do our best to disseminate the method of our correction. Our message is simple, and we can offer it to the governments of the countries that are already in trouble.

The key problem is what to do with the sky-rocketing egoism. A human being has a normal, earthly desire to be provided with all that is necessary for his existence. He needs food, family, and the other things he can’t do without. Besides that, his egoistic desire aimed at receiving more keeps growing. It is so inherent in every one of us that we can’t even define what a basic necessity is.

Will a person be satisfied if he receives his daily bread, so to speak? No, he will not. What do we do with egoism then? What can we fill the black hole with?

The answer to this is as follows: Egoism grew so that we can transform it into spiritual desire, a spiritual vessel filled with attainment, bestowal, love, and finally with the upper Light. How is it done? How do we make a transition from a society of receivers, insatiable in its quest for material wealth, to a society of minimal consumption, grounded on basic needs?

If we don’t, the world will not be able to exist due to our rapidly depleting the planet’s natural resources. Consumerism will not be able to satisfy our egoism anymore. The people of the world won’t be able to shop store to store, filling their carts “to the gills.” The feast is over, and from now on, everyone gets only what he or she needs.

How then do people get fulfilled? We have to send all these millions to school. They will receive all the necessary goods in exchange for their studying. Otherwise, they are not entitled to even that much. And indeed, why should they be? Trouble is trouble, and everyone is in it. The government provides them with basic necessities, everyone continues to live where they do, stability is preserved, and at the same time, everybody starts studying.

What do they study exactly? They study the laws of life in the integral system. In reality, they are the laws of the group, but Kabbalah is not mentioned during the lessons. The subject is systems and mechanisms pertaining to a unified society. Getting all that they need, at least during the class, people hear and study the facts proving that we don’t have another way to survive but through unity.

You are dealing with “savages” coming to learn, who wish only to make money and get certain benefit. But gradually, they begin to understand there is no other option, that we have entered a new system, and that the world will develop differently now. Consumerism is finished; this type of society is dying out. It didn’t live that long anyway, at maximum for a hundred years, from the end of the 19th century through the 70s-90s of the 20th century. And even during this time there have been crises, including the Great Depression of the 30s.

Thus, people begin to study, while the government provides them with all they need, which is much less costly than creating new jobs. The latter is pointless since nobody will be buying what may be produced. Besides, the raw materials and energy are almost gone.

Thus, the most concise and cheap solution is to send people to school, regardless of where it may be: at home via the Internet, in theaters or auditoriums, or anywhere else. The key is to place everybody in an educational framework. In the meantime, studying is going to make one wiser and allow him to understand that he is entering a new world, where the previous laws do not work. Baal HaSulam writes it as well: We must all go to school and learn yet again how to live in the future.

Eventually, thanks to the studies, people will gain a new desire and start perceiving changes in it, until they come to understand that fulfillment can come from another, higher degree. The process will be gradual since we are dealing with a gigantic mass which is beginning to ripen. It will truly transform us as well.

As of today, we don’t have any other options. This is why no one can find anything. But just imagine how much Light these hundreds of millions can draw by merely listening to what they are taught. This is the solution that Baal HaSulam is pointing at, the solution that suggests itself to us logically since there aren’t any other means except for bringing people a little closer to the Light.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/2011, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.14.11

Shamati #4 “The Reason for the Heaviness”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Vessel Of Knowledge

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Peace”: The prophet conditions peace in the whole world with the filling of the whole world with the knowledge of God.

Thus, the solution to problems in the world is “the knowledge of the Creator.” Until the whole world, from the smallest to the greatest, according to their fully disclosed desires, is filled with the knowledge of the Creator, it will not reach perfection, peace, and contentment. Till then, there will always be forces that agitate, shake up, and push the world to be filled with the knowledge of the Creator, a state where the Creator fulfills His creation.

Our eyes can see how the unhappy patient writhes and squirms from the unbearable human  pains. After all, humanity has already thrown itself to the extreme right, as in Germany, or to the extreme left, as in Russia, but not only did they not ease the situation for themselves, they have worsened the malady and agony, and the voices rise up to the sky, as we all know.

What our mind suggests is not going to help at this point since we always deflect to the right or left. At times, we keep holding on to the middle line, but usually only while moving from one extreme to the other. Consequently, we end up in one trouble after another, and there is no way out until we know the Creator.

The “knowledge of the Creator” points at the correction of our desires so that they are fit to become the vessel for knowledge (Daat), meaning to become filled with the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) with the illumination of Hochma (Wisdom), as Sefirot Hochma (“wisdom”), Bina (“understanding”), and Daat (“knowledge”), HBD.

Question: How is the world going to get filled with the knowledge of the Creator?

Answer: People will start learning how to bestow to all, while existing with everyone together in a global, integral, and analog system, where we yield to each other, are bonded and integrated into each other, where mutual bestowal and even love rule.

Until we unify into this kind of system where everyone feels the collective desire of all and strives to fulfill and service it, like a cell in the body, we won’t come to perfection. Till then, misfortunes will keep increasing and pushing us toward this perfection.

This is what we call “the knowledge of the Creator”: Each of us becomes a vessel of knowledge. Zeir Anpin and Nukva ascend to Hochma and Bina and receive from them fulfillment, according to the desire they have raised. Hence, they are regarded as “the vessel of knowledge.” They reach the degree of “adulthood” and, together with the parental Partzuf of Aba ve Ima, transform into HBD.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/2011, “The Peace”

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Game Over

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We suggest that people should be sent to school to study the laws of the integral system of the world. Who will finance this kind of education and provide the masses with basic necessities at the same time?

Answer: Measure the output of modern industry’s production. Essentially, it doesn’t have much use and only ruins the world. We just keep wasting resources, while we don’t produce anything good and really useful. People exchange meaningless things, nothing more.

Industry was previously based on the rule of “money-commodity-money,” but today this model has lost the commodity element: We sell money for money. That is what our “trade” is: We pass paper to one another.

The only commodities that still matter are related to the sphere of basic necessity. A person needs basic shelter and sustenance as well as a certainty that they won’t be gone today or tomorrow. The only thing they need to understand is that luxuries are cancelled. Instead, you will receive ideal fulfillment, but not the one you used to imagine. And we will teach you how to obtain it.

We help a person to understand that in the integral society, he or she will find perfect fulfillment in everything that exceeds basic necessity only by unifying with others. After all, they can no longer be fulfilled by all sorts of meaningless things found in this world.

Question: What will the economic paradigm supporting such a society be?

Answer: A very simple one since all modern industry, legislative agencies, and financial institutions are driven by illusion and trade nothing but useless paper. In the meantime, they are sustained by the natural resources that are being successfully drained.

Take them out of business and just give them food as it will be much less costly because in reality, they produce nothing instead of something, air instead of goods. Exchanging meaningless things leads only to waste. Except for a few staples we need, all the rest are merely toys for which we are willing to ruin the Earth.

The consumer society is a game we play:

“The TV said: Buy it.”
“So buy it.”

Wide-eyed, you run to the store and start up a chain that engages you in return. So we are building a heap that will eventually bury us.

For thousands of years humanity has developed grounded on the basic necessities. The majority lived without luxuries; even the clothes used to be passed down from generation to generation. However, a century old feast of the modern era has ruined the planet. Like it or not, we will have to put an end to it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/2011, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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What Desire Is Speaking In Me?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I clarify whose desire I am serving?

Answer: If you do not internalize the desire of the group intentionally and consciously, you undoubtedly live by the orders of alien desires. You follow the orders of fashion, the directives set by the media, and everything else that reaches you from the four corners of the world: “Go there, think this way, buy this,” and so forth.

Only one desire is your own: It is when you appeal to the group and want to receive the desire from your friends. In this case, you are the one who chooses their desire, and it leads you to the revelation of your soul.

Apart from this, you never have your own desire. Only the Creator has an authentic desire that has originated in itself and has never been in anybody else. Our desires always come from outside.

Therefore, my choice is in deciding what desire I give the right of voice: a vain trend or a particular desire of a particular group, which is aimed at a particular direction. I put forth my efforts in order to become permeated with this desire and to work according to it. This is my only choice. The desire itself is never mine originally: It is either brought by the winds of the world or acquired from the group, from the correct environment.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Offering The World A Solution

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Millions of people around the world desire to grow spiritually. But what about the rest?

Answer: Everybody is suffering; everybody feels bad. Look how unrest is growing around the world. Isn’t it obvious that we are on the verge of adversity? This process is accelerating at a remarkable speed. I recently received a letter from Spain where the regular folks are facing serious problems. Unemployment is sky rocketing.

This is how the Creator is pushing and turning everyone to face Him. Willing or not, people start asking: “What do we do? How to do we get out of hardships?” First, to avoid hardships is the key: If a person has nothing to eat and no money to pay the rent, if he or she lacks necessities, spiritual matters will hardly interest them. But you can show them what the solution is.

Read what the analysts write, search wherever you want: Today, nobody has any solutions to the problems the world is facing. At least that much is already evident. Those who are still in power as well as political commentators are fully aware that we have come to a dead end. Nobody has the courage to raise their hand and offer a solution of their own. It is too obvious how unrealistic and impractical anything they may offer is. In this type of situation, only we can speak out. And we must hurry to do so.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/2011, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Reshimot: Memories About The Future

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe purpose of creation is to become similar to the Creator. This is the meaning of the words “to do good to His creatures.” How can the creature become similar to the Creator? What does this similarity entail?

First of all, you should want this. How do you start wanting? You have to be opposite to the Creator and wish to become similar to Him. This is a desire: I do not have what I want, but I strongly desire to get what I do not have.

The Creator is good and does good to the bad and the good; He is love and bestowal, the property of Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod…. There are plenty of qualities that I do not understand, but I have the opportunity, the need, and the desire that corresponds to each of them, to want them.

The Creator has 613 properties of bestowal. I have (although I have not discovered that yet) 613 desires enabling me to want the same properties as the 613 properties or Lights of the Creator. I have to reach these desires; I want to become similar to the Creator in each of them. It is said about it: “As He is merciful, so you are merciful.”

However, to want that, I have to know what I am lacking. But how can I know what I do not have? To understand what it is to be a grown up, I have to become one. To understand how to be strong, rich, or wise, I have to know about that firsthand. Could I wish what is unknown to me?

In our world, a child wants to grow up instinctively, without knowing why, which is because nature obliges him to grow, bypassing his understanding. This development takes place on the animate level; however, in spirituality, I myself have to know why and for what I want. This is a real desire.

How can I start desiring similarity to the Creator? To do that, I have to attain the status of the Creator, to verify what it is, whether it is worth it or not, and then desire it. How can I attain the status of the Creator so that I want to become similar to Him?

For this purpose, the breaking of the vessels took place. Thanks to it, we strive to be similar to the Creator, more and more, and become like Him by means of His force. That is why the destruction of the First and the Second Temples were necessary, which the science of Kabbalah studies in the spiritual context of the breaking of the vessels. We are talking about the fall from the level of reception for the sake of bestowal (the First Temple) to the level of bestowal for the sake of bestowal (the Second Temple), and then to the level of reception for the sake of reception, into this world.

As a result, we have a record of all the states that we went through, starting with the level of the First Temple, from the height of love, and including the Second Temple, which is much lower than the First Temple, yet it is still great. All the impressions which were acquired on this path are ingrained in us and are called “Reshimot.”

When they awaken in me, I have to realize them. In other words, one Reshimo is not enough; through it, I have to imagine what it means to be a giver. To do this, I have the group and studying: In them, I realize my Reshimo and from it, to the extent of my strength, form a reality.

Relationships with the friends, with the environment, with the Light that Reforms become a “construction site.” I have “material,” meaning a desire as well as a Reshimo, and now I want to introduce this Reshimo into material so that it realizes itself there and gives it material form. Then, I need the force from Above, the force of the Light, that will help me and will carry this out.

Rabash writes about this in article No. 940 from the collection Dargot HaSulam (Rungs of the Ladder): “It is said on the destruction of the Temple: ‘Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” This means: Build me a Temple from your desire, build such a house which will become the house of holiness, of bestowal and love. If you have such a vessel of bestowal and love, “I may dwell among them,” meaning the upper Light will settle in it.

“We are talking about the point in the heart that should become the place of the Temple so that the Light of the Creator will dwell in it. That is why a person has to try to build his house of sanctity.” From all my desires that are originating from Infinity with the help of the Reshimot embedded in me during the breaking, I have to build the correct form, each time realizing my Reshimo from heavier material.

This will give me all the necessary details of perception because I always get the form opposite to the Creator. Thus, knowing my form, I am able to perceive His form opposite to mine and move forward.

In such a way, in our world a person already has forms corresponding and opposing the Creator. In this gap between the desired and the actual states, a person always has an opportunity to build his desire, knowing what he wants. It’s possible because once, before the breaking of the vessels, we existed in a perfect state from which the Reshimot were left in us.

This is the answer to the eternal question: “How can I become similar to the Creator? How do I know what this means?” We may wish this because of the records kept in us from the stages we went through.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The Need To Connect

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where does our connection lie in regard to the spiritual records, the Reshimot?

Answer: What I draw from the environment is a new desire with which I appeal to the Light. This desire is what we call the need to connect.

The stronger our bond is, the higher we rise on the ladder of the spiritual worlds, getting closer together, uniting, and linking with one another up to Infinity where everything is unified. There, we become one soul.

Everyone’s individual soul depends upon the degree of integral connection he or she has attained. For instance, I see just a small part of what surrounds me, and that is what defines my soul, while you have revealed something much greater beside you, and it probably includes me as well. Everyone works with his or her soul until every desire links into one soul.

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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

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