Entries in the 'Daily Kabbalah Lesson' Category

An Integral From Zero Until Infinity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The material reality is described by Einstein’s famous formula in the theory of relativity: E=mc2, which relates mass to speed. Is there an analogous formula in the spiritual world relating the will to receive to the will to bestow?

Answer: I don’t think Einstein’s formula can be applied to the spiritual reality because it talks about the limited nature of our material world, about what we can maximally extract from matter with all its manifestations (mass, speed, and energy).

Any formula indicates a limitation, but spirituality is not limited by anything. In spirituality we attain the maximum limit that is described by the formula: “He and His name are one.”

That is to say, we connect the entire will to enjoy with the entire force of the Light together with all the corrections, and we attain such unity among them that everything unites into one whole. The result is Infinity.

This is the maximum realization in spirituality. The material formula of the theory of relativity is about the boundaries of time, motion, space, energy, mass, and speed, but in the spiritual world these boundaries do not exist! That’s because you connect to the Upper Force, the Creator, and you become infinite like Him, without any boundaries!

In spirituality there is no formula because any formula compares conditions on one side to conditions on the other side, assessing how they can be in balance on account of one another. Energy cannot be greater than mass multiplied by the speed squared. But in spirituality that is not so! By completing opposites, we attain infinity. It’s as if we take the integral sum of all the forces of the universe, from zero until infinity.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, “Body and Soul”

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Preparing For The Lesson Once Again

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Light builds our connection and we will reveal the Creator only inside it. We have to aspire to this not for our own good, but only in order to give Him pleasure. Once we attain love for the Creator, we will reveal His love for us. All of our study is intended to reveal or awaken our love for the Creator.

Obviously, right now we do not feel the slightest need for this. We remember about the Upper Force’s existence only when we feel bad. It is our nature to act only when we lack something, desiring to complete and fill ourselves.

We don’t feel any need for the Creator and moreover for loving Him. But if we try to artificially aspire to the Creator by means of working in the group, we gradually elicit the influence of the Light upon us that brings us special qualities, ones of love and bestowal.

This quality can be directed only toward the Creator because He is the only one in existence besides us. However, in order to reach Him we have been placed in a special state called “this world.” Here, with the help of our family and friends, we can make efforts and practice to acquire love for the appropriate environment. Then we will go from love for the creatures to the degree of love for the Creator.

That is how we come out of egoism, shifting from self love to love for the neighbor, and through our family and friends, we acquire love for the Creator.

Then we reveal the true nature of the “means” we have used. It turns out that the Creator Himself divided our reality in this way so we would have the opportunity to come to Him by means of these “exercises.” In reality there is nothing besides myself, incorporating all of reality and the Creator who is above it.

So let us build the intention to receive the Light that Reforms from our mutual study in order to reveal love between us and our love to the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/24/10, The Zohar

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A Spiritual Virus

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Messiah’s Horn”: …the children of Israel are redeemed only after the wisdom of the hidden is revealed to a great extent, as it is written in The Zohar, “With this composition, the children of Israel are redeemed from exile.”

Until the wisdom of Kabbalah has spread all over the world, Israel (“Isra” – “directly,” “El” – Creator), meaning those who aspire for the Creator, will not be able to reveal the Light that Reforms, which must pass through them to all humanity. The world has to be ready to receive the wisdom; otherwise Israel will remain enslaved to their egoistic nature.

The Zohar was revealed in order to accelerate the development of the entire world. But what is so special about this Book? Why does it affect the world so much?

The truth is that we do not live in this corporeal world, it just appears this way to us on our internal “screens.” The world is one; reality is one.

Thus, when The Book of Zohar, a spiritual source, is revealed on the corporeal level, it influences and affects us. Existing among all the souls, this source accelerates our progress and spreads like a virus. It penetrates every desire, every reaction, and begins to change them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “Messiah’s Horn”

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A New Neighbor

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar speaks of how Zeir Anpin and Malchut unite, how everything becomes one. This makes it clear that we all have to aim at the final action: bestowal to the Creator.

It is hard to imagine something outside of our current desires. However, the Light gradually impregnates us with this necessity. Suddenly I feel that I am drawn to the Creator. I don’t know why, but all of a sudden I want to think about Him and bestowal to Him.

It is like an unknown neighbor shows up, one that I never cared about before, and now occupies all my thoughts. A relation toward him is awakening within me, and we are becoming connected. Again and again I am reminded of him.

Where did it come from? It came as a result of my studies and the influence of the environment. Either on its own or artificially, a thought about the final, even if distant state visits us. This is how the intention to bestow to the Creator is born, an intention that we try to realize on the spiritual degrees.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/10, “Hakdama, BeLaila De Kala (The Night of the Bride)”

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All Rise for The Incoming Light

All Rise For The Incoming Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Light corrects the Kli (vessel) very simply: It comes and settles in it. And the Kli immediately gets “tamed.”

We are managed by the Lights as we speak. We can be clever or foolish, kind or cruel, and all of this is done by the Light. It affects everyone each instant in accordance with its program. We all reside in the ocean of Light; its waves lift us up and throw us down, mixing us together.

Therefore, getting to know the Creator, the Light, the property of bestowal, our mutual connection, is all one and the same. The arrival of the Light is our correction. When it comes, you become “sentenced” to it and are unable to (and don’t wish to) act otherwise. You realize that you are ruled by the Light that dictates all your actions.

This is what your connection with the Creator is. It is in you, and you feel how He works in all your desires, governing you. So, you comply with Him.

Then, beside the points that have joined your Partzuf, you will discover new points and will start asking the Light to help you unify with them. In this manner, a series of corrections continues, always at your request.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “All Who Suffer for the Public”

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"The Place" Where The Creator And I Meet

Dr. Michael Laitman with StudentsQuestion: Where may the prayer for our unity and correction come from? How do I start asking for it?

Answer: We cry and beg for correction, but it is a pretense and falsehood. We, ourselves, don’t even realize that it is just lip service.

However, if I am working in the group and allow it to influence me, thereby exercising my only free choice, then it passes to me its enthusiasm and motivates me toward spirituality. At that point, it isn’t a lie since I am inspired by the friends. Even though I tried to connect to the group artificially, when they worked on me, I started to take it seriously.

This is how I am made: I am a particle in the collective system which has been functioning this way since the beginning of creation. That is why I cannot escape being affected by the environment, try as I might.

However, in this case, it was my wish to be influenced by the friends, and I made an effort to achieve it. If I now turn to the Creator with the desire received from the group, I will immediately receive an answer to it, a response. After all, this desire has a unique nature: the will to unite.

When I try to unite with them on my own or cry to the Creator to get this wish granted, it is a false demand. It isn’t regarded as a true prayer (MAN or Mayin Nukvin, Female Waters), but a lie. Although it is also beneficial, I will eventually see that it doesn’t work.

However, when I turn to the group, exalting it and reducing my own importance, and receive from it a new desire, a request that I further raise to the Creator, this is called MAN. As a result, there will be an answer from Above called MAD (Mayin Duchrin, Male Waters), which will truly connect me with the group, and there, inside it, I will find the Creator.

Inasmuch as I contribute myself to the group upon my own request, to that measure, the Creator will be revealed to me. However, no altruistic desire or action can come directly from me.

The group stands between me and the Creator, and we meet inside it. I raise my prayer to the Creator through the group. In response, He channels the answer to me through the group, with the help of which I may now rise to the group and find the Creator in it.

Between the Creator and me, there has to be the group. That’s why it is called the “place” and so is the Creator because there, He and I meet.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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You Have Nothing To Come To The Creator Alone

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen we talk about “commandments,” we are referring to the desires that connect me with other people. There are 613 (TARYAG) such desires, and I have to correct them with the help of the Light that Reforms (called “the Torah”).

If I don’t work on establishing the connection with my neighbor, then I have nothing to correct. If a person is alone, then he has nothing to come to the Creator with, only a spiritual spark and animalistic desires which do not require correction.

If you want to correct yourself, then you have to “show” the Creator the place of breakage, yet you do not have it. One person cannot experience the breaking; it requires at least two for this. Therefore, all of the 613 desires which we correct with the Light that Reforms is the correction of our broken connection with the others.

The Light that used to fill the connection between us and sustain us has disappeared. Now we have to attract it back and return it to its place. When the Light returns, it will correct the place of our connection first, and then it will fill it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Where Lawlessness Rules

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, Article 298: “Inclusion of the Attributes of Mercy and Judgment”: During a descent, while being overtaken by the desire for pleasure, a person does not have a choice. When, however, the desire to bestow governs him, he does not need to choose. Thus, his only freedom is in deciding what will rule over him: the property of judgment or the property of mercy.

A soul is comprised of ten Sefirot. From Keter to the upper third of Tifferet, it is ruled by Bina, the desire to bestow, and from the lower third of Tifferet by Malchut, the desire to receive. Only in the middle, in the middle third of Tifferet, there rules “lawlessness”: This place is subject neither to bestowal nor reception.

Indeed, sometimes a person cannot decide which direction to take: His thoughts and desires are not inclined toward either side. This is the place of choice. Meanwhile, we are usually distracted and do not think about something specific. But time and life continue to pass by.

How then do I use my being free from the two forces that manage me from Above? To do so, I need to pick an environment, in which case it is up to me who will rule me when I am in the neutral state.

I am awakened by the calling of the point in the heart and led to the group. Now, I have to establish a correct connection between them so that the group would affect me and I the group. As a result, I will fill my free states with the power of the group that I have chosen.

Completing, filling myself with the power of the group, I acquire a Kli (vessel) into which I later receive the Light. I lower my head before the group and in return receive two things from it: 1. Huge desire of all the friends’ points in the heart, 2. A screen (Masach) or awareness of the importance to work for the sake of bestowal. Then, through the group, I draw the Light that Reforms, the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif), that does indeed correct me.

The potential to choose is always ours. The more systematically we will use the available means such as the teacher, texts, group, studies, and dissemination of Kabbalah, the more opportunities to choose will emerge.

As a result, we will be unifying the properties of judgment and mercy by ourselves, in accord with our own free will, combining the forces of Bina and Malchut, the right and the left lines. We will start governing ourselves, and the place of the choice will become the middle line for us.

By drawing as much as possible from Bina and Malchut so we may link them into one whole, we will attain spiritual life and begin to climb the spiritual ladder.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “Inclusion of the Attributes of Mercy and Judgment”

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One Instant Between Now And Eternity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When do we reach the maximum capacity of our intention to be one?

Answer: Right now, I am sitting at the lesson and trying to think about our unity so that the Light hidden in The Book of Zohar would come and unify us, allowing me to feel that we are all bound together. As soon as I feel connected with all the others and sense the network holding us all in it, I immediately reveal the spiritual world.

Once I feel the bond between us, I experience spirituality in this oneness. This is called “the exodus from Egypt.” We don’t need anything else! And it is so close.

However, I am unable to remain in this intention and inspiration longer than an instant. Why? It is because the others are not thinking about it. I need the support of my environment. But the environment thinks about whatever they want: one about his grandmother he will be seeing soon, another about problems at work, a third wants to sleep, and so on. Each is with their problems and nobody thinks about the connection.

Therefore, I can only decide at this very moment to think about our oneness, care for it, and demand the “miraculous remedy” (Segula) so that I will be able to see that we are all bound together and reside in the property of bestowal. I wish that the common quality of bestowal would rule over me. However, beyond making this decision, there is nothing I can do since I don’t receive support from the environment. What else can I do?

What is missing here is the common effort and responsibility of the friends before each other, with each person trying their best to stay in this intention. This mutual obligation is regarded as “the guarantee.” And if we think solely about how to find oneness between us, the Light will descend and do it.

We are unable to unite on our own. But we can think in order to make it happen. Yet, if we are unable to think about it, then we do not influence one another with the greatness and importance of the goal.

This point is all we need to be working on and nothing else. We don’t have anything except it. Everything is right here before us, so very close… And then we will discover eternity, perfection, and the entire spiritual world, but only on the condition that we decide to care for each other and not forget about this intention.

We only need to unite! Let the Light connect us, and the Creator will be revealed in our oneness! We will bestow to Him, and He to us.

Everything takes place in our connection. There we will experience the spiritual world, the Creator, and Infinity.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, The Zohar

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Cling To The Source

Dr. Michael LaitmanContact with the teacher and the group provides an opportunity to discern my relationship with the Creator each time. With the group, you work directly, but when it comes to the teacher, you must exalt the importance of his words and his message in your eyes. Otherwise, you won’t be able to stay on course. What matters here is not only theoretical analysis, but also practical realization, which, so far, has been “lagging behind.”

Besides, a student must be cautioned against despising the group and the teacher. In fact, it undoubtedly prevents him from an opportunity to advance and throws him years back. I feel very sad when I witness such cases.

Despising others is natural in itself, but when a person doesn’t resist it, it is a big problem. Herein lies an opportunity for self-analysis since the measure of contempt for the teacher and the group is the degree of one’s contempt for the Creator. The only difference is that in the case of the Creator, it is concealed.

If a person doesn’t fight his contemptuous attitude and doesn’t overcome it, he is “bounced” back to such an extent that it is sad to see him here at all. In truth, he thinks that he is advancing, although without the group, he would realize sooner that he has strayed off the path. Then, he would be able to recognize what is happening and recover the course.

Contempt is the worst that may occur. I feel sorry for those who are taken off course by it.

We are interconnected in such way that all the abundance reaches you only through me. This is the structure of the spiritual world: I receive from my teacher, and you receive from me.

We must not allow ourselves to despise the source. On the contrary, we should cling to it tighter with all our heart and soul. I am saying this solely because we will not reach what we desire otherwise. In this, mutual work and growing unity are needed.

This will become increasingly evident. In the past years, we were not knitted together so strongly and didn’t realize that we have to bond in souls. However, our present conditions force us to do it more. As expected, issues, hardships, coldness, and arrogance will arise. We have to work on and rise above this “matter.”

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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “All Who Suffer for the Public”

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