Entries in the 'Daily Kabbalah Lesson' Category

From the Toy Reward to the Real One

938.03The correct work for bestowal, without expecting reward, means to think only about the friends and through them about the Creator, to want to help them in their spiritual work.

It is necessary to keep this intention all the time, that is, to connect more and more and to try to raise this burden together for the sake of the Creator. Then we will see how each time we do it better and better despite the fact that the burden is getting heavier.

The friends are in my heart because I want to connect with them in order to receive strength from them and pass to them all the strength that I have for the sake of our main common goal of raising and elevating the Creator above us.

Here we have to make a choice in order to wish for a true spiritual reward. After all, by nature, we get a desire for egoistic fulfillment, like children dreaming of a toy car instead of a real car.

Then we get smarter, and we already begin to neglect the toy reward, but we do not grow up to the real one yet. After all, to do this you need to connect with your friends and try to build this “real car” in your mind and heart together with them. This is how spiritual work begins.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/23/23, “Concerning Bestowal”

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Questions about Spiritual Work—20

281.02Question: The Creator completely controls us, but we do not permit ourselves to agree with this good governance. It is as if we are telling Him that I will fulfill everything that comes from You, but only to the extent that I agree. How can we agree here and now with the good governance of the Creator without thinking and analyzing, but going by faith above reason?

Answer: We need to gradually create a desire in us that will lead us to the recognition that the Creator is good and He leads us to absolute goodness. This will gradually work out when we overcome all our disturbances.

Question: What is this temple of holiness that we have to build? What is it built of?

Answer: It is built from our good relationship between us and the correct attitude to the Creator.

Question: Our task is to act. But if we do not have an intention yet, can the number of actions in spirituality turn into a quality, an intention?

Answer: Of course it can. We must begin with the mechanical actions of coming closer to each other. In these actions, we will gradually discover completely different sensations and will come closer together and closer to the upper force. So, keep acting.

Question: It is written that only the Kli performs the action. Why is the spreading of light not considered an action of the Creator?

Answer: Because it depends on our Kelim (Vessels): we cause the spreading of light, that is, the revelation of the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/15/23, “Rosh Hashana”

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Yom Kippur—The Day of Judgement of Ourselves

232.1Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) and the days preceding it are the time of repentance, atonement of sins, requests, and prayers. A person must make a judgment of how this year went for him, what he did this year, and how close he got to the upper force, to the form that he was supposed to take according to the Creator’s program.

Of course, here we reveal how opposite we are to what we should be. The Creator deliberately shows us this difference so that we see it and condemn ourselves, and then ask and demand our correction from Him, which will allow us to get closer to Him. This is the meaning of the month of Elul, which means “I am to my Beloved, and the Beloved to me.”

The light awakens a person from above and leads him to such calculation. A person himself would not be able to awaken and begin to judge himself in a new way. A person checks himself, how he was acting during the year, and how much he has changed during this year, how close he has come to the Creator.

During this special time, we must try to become more sensitive to our connection with the friends and the way we are directed together toward the purpose of creation, and awaken ourselves and others to draw closer to the Creator and His nature of bestowal, love, and unity, and to judge ourselves to what extent we succeeded in this. When we feel how far we are from this, then we should pray and ask the Creator for help.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/18/23, “Yom Kippur – The Day of Atonement”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 10/3/23

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #25, “Things that Come from the Heart”

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Selected Highlights

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Two Souls Opening for Us the Door to the Creator

115It is difficult to overestimate the greatness of Baal HaSulam and Rabash because these are people who help us and do their best to raise us from the lowest degree, that is, from this world, to the spiritual degree of the upper world. Apart from them, there are no other people who would care that we rise from the level of death to the level of life, realize why we live, and thanks to what we exist.

They introduce the Creator to us and teach us how to open the door to Him and come closer to Him. Therefore, Rabash and Baal HaSulam are not even two people, but two upper, special spiritual forces that take care of us, and therefore are closer to us than all other created beings.

Reading the lines written by Rabash in honor of his holy father, Baal HaSulam, we will try to connect to them with all our heart and soul and understand that we are granted a connection with these special souls.

Kabbalists are the system of connection in the common soul of Adam HaRishon, which has already been corrected. A person who corrects himself joins this system and, together with all Kabbalists, builds a network that raises all other souls: picks them up, and helps them rise closer and closer to the Creator.

Besides the fact that Kabbalists have left us their articles, they are still all between us and participate in our work. It is said that Kabbalists have no rest either in this world or in the future world because they help us until the very end of correction. After all, all souls are connected, tied up together, and help each other. Even if we do not feel it, like babies who do not understand who cares for them and how, nonetheless this is how it happens.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/23, “Baal Hasulam Memorial Day”

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“1,000s of People Open Their Hearts into One Giant Heart” (Times of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “1,000s of People Open Their Hearts into One Giant Heart”
We are currently in the midst of our World Kabbalah Convention taking place with over 2,000 participants from over 30 countries in Petah Tikva, Israel, and with thousands more virtual participants all over the world.

The theme of the convention is opening our hearts. How can we open our hearts as wide as possible to everyone? To open our hearts as wide as possible to everyone, we must recognize that such a gathering as this one takes place within each of our hearts.

At the convention, we focus on directing ourselves to unite our hearts into one, and by doing so come closer to the Creator, the upper force of love and bestowal that reveals itself where our hearts unite. If our goal is to reveal the Creator, then that is the way to do it.

Therefore, those who seek to discover and attain the Creator have no alternative. Humanity, in the end, must traverse a path marked by suffering, challenges, thoughts and desires until we reach a state where the barriers within our hearts dissolve, and we unite as one heart. That is the ultimate objective.

Consequently, humanity progresses from year to year and from day to day, encountering a variety of challenges until it realizes that the only way forward is to combat the egoistic nature that constantly seeks to separate us from each other. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we learn how the Creator maintains such a state of separation between people in order to give room for our efforts to bridge the divide, and by doing so, we can amplify our connection to the Creator and experience His presence much more profoundly.

Therefore, initially, we observe that each person is primarily focused on their egoistic desires, and there is no choice but to strive for closeness and connection among each other, uniting in a common desire. This is what we refer to as “one heart,” the goal that Kabbalist Baruch Ashlag (the Rabash) wrote to us about.

I remember that after a few years studying with Rabash, I conducted Kabbalah introductory lectures in various locations in Tel Aviv, and several new students came as a result. I invited these students to a gathering, toward which, on one of my daily walks in the park with Rabash, I had asked him, “What should we discuss with them?”

He asked for some aluminum foil from a cigarette pack I had. I gave it to him.

He then proceeded to write his very first article titled “Purpose of Society – 1” with the words: “We have gathered here to establish a society for all who wish to follow the path and method of Baal HaSulam, the way by which to climb the degrees of man and not remain as a beast…”

It has been nearly 40 years since that day, but there is no change to the topic. Although many have heard of it, the process and method of correction remain the same as elucidated by ancient Kabbalists even thousands of years ago.

Thousands of people right now are making special efforts to come together as one, to connect their individual hearts into one collective heart. That heart is made up of many different parts, and their connection creates a vessel for the revelation of the Creator, which is one for everyone. In other words, all we need in order to reveal the Creator is for everyone to open their hearts to everyone, that everyone has a place in each one’s heart, then by doing so, we open our collective heart. That is what this convention is all about.
[318511]

Based on Lesson 1 from the World Kabbalah Convention on September 30, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Close the Eyes and Open the Heart

938.01Question: When I participated in workshops online, it seemed that everything was simple, I closed my eyes and opened my heart. At physical meetings, however, I realized that if I do not close my eyes, I will not be able to open my heart. How can I close my eyes?

Answer: We must try to see our friends (men, women) not with our eyes, but only with our feelings in how much they are aiming together with you to the Creator. In this, you will connect with them, between them, and with the Creator.

Question: What else helps to close my eyes, besides shame?

Answer: The feeling of happiness that you are in the correct direction.
[318188]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/23, “Rosh HaShana“

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 10/2/23

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Selected Highlights

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Know Yourself and Your Friends

165Question: How can we determine that criticism from a friend comes from love?

Answer: If you want to connect with your friend, then you must first set a goal, and then all other actions will obey this goal. The purpose of criticism is for us to know ourselves and our friends, and to rise above all disagreements with the Creator.

Question: When I am constantly criticized in the corporeal world, is it correct to leave such an environment?

Answer: Yes, it is worth moving away from them a little. In general, there can be no criticism in the right group. We must accept our friends like a child in a family who is accepted the way he is, and that’s it.
[318092]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/23, “To Criticize Oneself”

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The Difference between Self-Criticism and Self-Chastising

559Question: How do we distinguish between correct self-criticism and self-chastising?

Answer: We should always be in a good mood, even if we fail completely in the connection between us and the Creator.

We still need to be in a good mood because we are somehow connected with Him and thus we are getting closer to Him. Therefore we should be in a good mood pretty much always. We are on the path to the Creator.
[318056]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/23, “To Criticize Oneself”

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