Preparation to the Lesson
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Lesson on the Topic: “Faith Above Reason”
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”
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Selected Highlights
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Question: How do we reach self-annulment?
Answer: We reach self-annulment when we realize its necessity, from the fact that I have been hearing about it for months. Each time I listen, I receive a little bit of the upper light.
As a result, I start to feel how it affects me, how certain changes occur in me like an internal click, a switch, and I suddenly realize that I truly cannot live without the group and I must annul myself.
I can feel either myself or the Creator. And how can I feel the Creator if I have no tool to change myself? So I am replacing myself with the group. And then in this group I begin to perceive the Creator.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Annulling before the Friends” Lesson 2
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Thus, each one should assemble with his friend and come to him to hear from him a word [about the work of the Creator], and how to find the Creator. He should annul before his friend, and his friend should do the same toward him, and so should everyone do.
Then, when the assembly is with this intention, then “More than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to nurse,” and the Creator approaches them and He is with them (Maor VaShemesh, “VaYechi”).
Now we are in a gathering of friends. We have to think all the time about how we are getting closer to each other, how we want only one thing: to begin to feel the revelation of the Creator in the connection between us, not in each of us, but in the connection between us. This is very important!
That is, I do not want to reveal the Creator in myself, this is egoism. Watch where the border between our animal world and the spiritual one runs! I want to reveal the Creator in the connection between us, as a quality of bestowal and love, my own toward all my friends.
I do not want the revelation of the Creator in order to see Him, to know, to understand, and to enjoy Him. These are egoistic qualities of a person. They should be avoided. Try to control yourself; try to rise above yourself.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1
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Question: If I see the friends as above me, then how can I pray for them?
Answer: In that case, you should pray to be with them. If you imagine them above yourself, then you should be in prayer to merge with them. By doing this, you raise the group above yourself and pull yourself up to them with your prayer. You don’t have any other option. And again you imagine them higher and still higher, and again you pull yourself up to their level by praying that you want to be with them. And so you constantly, constantly pull yourself up. Here is the lifting technique for you—absolutely simple, clear, and practical.
Question: When I want to see the virtues of my friends, and this includes prayer, does it also refer to “above reason”?
Answer: Yes. If I do not comprehend, but only ask and imagine, then this is higher than knowledge.
[292573]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Adhering to the Friends” Lesson 3
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Question: What should I do when my feelings regarding my friends suffocate me? Why do I feel the need to overcome them, but I cannot?
Answer: It is good that you feel that way. You are being shown who you are, what your nature is. And because you do not want to feel it, it seems to you that you are being suffocated. And that is correct because you do not want to get rid of your egoism yet.
What to do? Keep the thought that you must get rid of it and start with small changes in you in regard to your friends. Every day be aware of what you have managed to annul in relation to them that day—Rabash writes about it in his articles about connection in the group—and how you are progressing in this every day.
The articles of Rabash about the group should be re-read almost daily and gradually executed each time.
[292347]
From the International Convention “Rise Above Yourself” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1
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If I accept the environment I find myself in as given to me by the Creator, to lead me forward and to meet my main goal, desire, and aspiration to reveal the meaning of life, to reveal the Creator, then everything depends on how I make myself dependent on this environment.
Therefore, the most important thing for us is to try to annul ourselves in front of this environment. When I bow before them, agree with them, suppress my egoism, and put the environment above myself, I ascend to the Creator. The Creator is inside this environment, as He said: “I dwell among my people.”
[292420]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4
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Question: Should annulment be an internal action or can it have external expression?
Answer: Annulment must be internal. It can be that nobody knows about it. Although I must show also in action in front of my friends how ready I am to serve and help them. It is very important.
Such examples give us a basis for coming closer together.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Annulling before the Friends” Lesson 2
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Question: We usually talk about connection with the friends. What about connection with the teacher? Is there something different in it?
Answer: Connection with the teacher can only be to the extent that you follow his advice. Then he is your teacher, “rav” is from the word “great.” Then you are his disciples. Otherwise, you are listeners, students.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1
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Preparation to the Lesson
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Lesson on the Topic: “Faith Above Reason”
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 109
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Selected Highlights
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All actions supposedly performed for the sake of humanity are actually done for one’s own sake in order to show one’s righteousness, strength, and power. Thus a person works and claims that he is making efforts for the sake of humanity.
But if I really want to work for the sake of humanity, then I need the power of bestowal, the upper force. Therefore, if someone claims that he is ready to work only for the benefit of society, it is a lie. He just does not understand what he is talking about.
But humanity no longer has the strength to work for itself because we have reached such a limit where everyone has already completed their egoistic development. And now we need to develop by uniting.
We see that all of nature develops in a similar way. At first amoeba, the simplest organisms, developed until molecules combined into more complex systems. As a result, they formed more complex bodies that had feelings and a mind, and made a division of roles within their connection.
Humanity is beginning to feel that we do not have enough force for further existence. And when we try to egoistically receive these forces from nature, we cannot do it, and we give up in desperation. This is when the science of Kabbalah must be revealed.
All our development up to this point has been in order to reveal us as a complete zero, that is, that we do not have a single correct goal and strength to reach any truth. We must discover this truth of creation.
A person is not able to work for the sake of humanity because he needs to rise above himself for this. I do not have the ability to feel humanity.
I can feel my family because it is one of the basic desires, which are food, sex, and family; therefore, I am ready to work for it. But humanity and even a nation are almost indiscernible concepts for me. After all, I must egoistically feel that they are in me so that I can work for them. And if I do not have that feeling, then I do not want to make an effort.
Therefore, one additional component is needed here: for the sake of the Creator, above reason, that is, a connection with the upper force due to its revelation. And it is possible to reveal the upper force only through the similarity of properties. This “small” addition opens the entire spiritual world, the true reality, before us.
But we must build the Creator ourselves. He does not exist outside of us. We cannot reveal the Creator until we reach the form of creation. And the form of creation is the ten, the group. Therefore, first of all, we must try to include ourselves into each other.
There is no Creator without creation. There is a common upper force that fills the entire universe. And to the extent that we construct creation, the ten, we can reveal a part of this abstract upper force that fills all of reality on one hand and is not felt by anyone on the other. It is revealed only to those who build the right vessel, the Kli, for its revelation.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/22, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace“
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