Lesson Preparation
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Lesson on the Topic “Israel’s Duty Toward Humanity,” Part 1
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 11
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Lesson on the Topic “Israel’s Duty Toward Humanity,” Part 2
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
The entire universe is like concentric circles, starting with the innermost one in which there are people who have received an awakening toward adhesion with the Creator. They understand that it is necessary to connect with each other because only within the common desire, within our connection, can the Creator be revealed; therefore, everything is built on connection.
First, people with the “point in the heart” come to this connection, people yearning for the revelation of the upper force that manifests in the connection. Then there are many more outer circles, layers. Our group is in the very center; it has received a great gift from above: the desire to come closer to the Creator. It is our responsibility to carry out this action and to bring the other circles closer to Him.
The innermost circle must correct itself by annulling its egoism; the other circles do not need to change their nature. Everything depends on the innermost circle, on its feeling its obligation to fulfill its role, the desire given to it for the purpose of creation. Only it has received such a desire, not the others, and therefore, it is obliged to fulfill its mission.
We cannot make claims against other people, other circles, because each circle acts according to the desire awakened in it. So we are obliged to realize our inner desire to attain the Creator, as well as help the more external circles that do not have such a deficiency and link them with the purpose of the whole creation.
These two movements, one directed inwardly and the other one outwardly, are to be carried out at the two upcoming conventions: the convention in the desert and the big convention in Tel Aviv. These two actions depend on each other because our connection must be built with the aim of bringing all of humanity to connection with the Creator.
Therefore, work on internal connection is only a preparation, a result of which we then go out to connect with the entire world, with all people. We do not seek to infect them with our desire. We simply want to show to every circle in Israel and in the world how we act and to awaken them a little. Each circle will act according to the desire awakening in it.
It does not matter that this desire is aimed indirectly at adhesion with the Creator and to achieving equivalence of form with Him. Nevertheless, the Creator awakens crisis in the world, which is felt differently by each circle. Our task is to explain to all the circles how it is possible to rise above the general global crisis according to the special personal desire awakening in each circle.1
Every person, to some extent, should belong to the general motion toward the Creator, and not only those who are studying the wisdom of Kabbalah according to their inner desire. It is enough that people who have no such inner desire will feel the crisis and realize that it is caused by the lack of connection between us and with the upper force. This awareness is already enough to include them in the overall process.
Each circle is obliged, to the extent of its desire, to participate in the connection of all humanity and its connection with the upper force. The task of each and every circle is to realize its natural desire in life and aim it to the connection with other circles and the upper force that controls everyone.
The inner circle performs this task in intention, the outer circle in action, each one according to its desire. Even those who protest and resist also participate in the overall process by doing so, performing certain work, without which it is impossible to achieve the goal. After all, by their resistance, they help to accurately determine the direction to the target.2
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”
1 Minute 1:10
2 Minute 12:30
Related Material:
Work In Concentric Circles
Why Were The Worlds Created Before The Soul?
A Ladder To A Summit Filled Abundantly
Lesson Preparation
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Writings of Rabash, “Concerning Above Reason” (1986)
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 7
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Lesson on the Topic “Hanukkah”
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
The Arvut (mutual guarantee) is a special connection, the correct connection between broken desires in one man with one heart. It turns out as not just one person, but as if one, as if in one desire. A deep difference remains inside between one and another, the polar oppositeness and hatred do not disappear, but are covered with love. We are building a bridge of love laid over the abyss of hatred. Hatred, combined with love, gives us an understanding and sense of what is called the Creator: a special state, a unique quality, that arises from a combination of incompatible opposites.
Out of the two extremes that deny one another, a force not from this world is born, the light that reforms, which builds a connection between us that lets us understand what the Creator is. As a result of the confrontation of the two forces, love and hate, and their union, a middle line arises, called the Creator.1
The Arvut is the sensation of the shared network we are in. At first, it seems to us that there is no connection between us. But this general system gradually emerges: spiritual steps and worlds. Although we do not feel it now, it exists, and we want to reveal it. As long as I am included in this general system, I can use it and feel confident.
First, I must make an effort to bring the light and unite our ten in a spiritual Partzuf. The light unites us into one creation, into Malchut. Before that, we are not a creation because Malchut is ten points connected together ready to work together. Only together can they meet the Creator.
The general network is the common soul of Adam HaRishon; we are all parts of it. Each person is a particle in this common desire. In fact, we are all connected by mutual guarantee, merged into one soul, filled with the Creator.
Scientists, biologists, say that there is a universal connection in nature: all plants are connected to each other by an invisible underground network, all fish in the ocean and all birds feel each other. We begin to reveal that the world acts as a single system in which we are located and unconsciously comply with its laws. We need to join it consciously, by our own choice, intentionally participating in its control. For this, we are given special human qualities: imagination, thought, desire, and sensitivity.
This whole system is broken, completely mixed up, and it is revealed to us at its lowest level called “this world.” We need to begin to disassemble and connect this system together, thus, we will reach the level of the Creator, and build Him.2
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/8/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
1 Minute 0:18
2 Minute 14:00
Related Material:
Arvut: The Law Of The Common Soul
Spiritual Not Material Arvut
The History Of Humanity – The Development Of The Mutual Guarantee (Arvut) – Part 3
Faith above reason is a spiritual concept, which means that a person prefers to be in bestowal instead of reception, that is, to bestow to the Creator instead of serving one’s own egoism. This is a calculation for the benefit of the Creator and not for one’s own benefit. The entire wisdom of Kabbalah is built on the principle of faith above reason, the principle of bestowal. Bestowal is built above reception and that is why it is called faith above reason.1
Faith above reason grows through my choice to prefer bestowal over reception. The greatness of reception is imprinted in me, it is my nature. I know and feel how important it is to receive for myself—this is my entire “I.” Yet, I must find a way to cut off, to detach, my “I” from myself and attach it to the Creator in order to think about Him instead of myself and to receive pleasure from these thoughts.
I feel good when I think about the Creator because I feel that I am moving in the right direction. However, is the goal to do good to myself or is bestowal to the Creator most important? Through such exercises, I advance, gradually distancing from my I and shifting all my thoughts to the Creator.
It even becomes unimportant to me whether I feel good or bad; I do not want to think about it. After all, if I run away to the Creator to hide from evil, then it is my egoism. But to strive for Him and to ignore the good is also incorrect. I want to restrict myself and no matter whether I feel empty or fulfilled in any state, I want to adhere to the Creator so that all my thoughts and desires would be only about Him and all my actions would be directed at Him. This will be genuine bestowal to the Creator above reason, above impressions in my mind and heart; it means I have acquired faith above reason.2
If we really feel the need to turn to the Creator, we will start working on our connection. The Creator is the goal that obligates us to unite. Otherwise, why do we need to connect? Egoism, on the contrary, pushes us away from each other and says that it is better to keep our distance. We will agree to connect only out of hopelessness when we are compelled to turn to the Creator. It is as if the entire ten is locked in a tight cage and we are forced to search for the means to cry to the Creator.
This is how we need to see our state in this life without waiting for the Creator to push us into it by suffering. Let us imagine this state, discuss it between us: what are we lacking in order to turn to the Creator together, to raise a prayer, MAN? How can we connect with each other in order to feel this connection as a single point common for all of us? What should we feel in this point, what desire, what ache for the Creator is called a prayer? How can we reach such a request? Let us decide and compile such a program.3
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/19, The Work in Faith Above Reason
1 Minute 1:05
2 minute 4:40
3 Minute 32:20
Related Material:
Our Role In Faith Above Reason
Going By Faith Above Reason
Progress In “Faith Above Reason”
Questions from World Kli
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
The uniqueness of our time is in the fact that the wisdom of Kabbalah is beginning to be a part of the life of general society; it is beginning to show itself as a special path toward the common correction of humanity. Therefore, it has something to say about the world, and it intervenes in different areas of our lives. These are not times when a person reads a Kabbalistic book without connecting his studies with this world. It had nothing to do with politics, economics, history, geography, ecology, or the society in which one lived.
Kabbalah was a special wisdom, not related to this world, but seemingly speaking about angels in heaven, that is, about the upper forces, with the help of which a person could develop new sensory organs and attain the Creator and the upper worlds personally without connecting with anyone else. Kabbalists studied in secret, without leaving their corner. The wisdom was hidden, and a person hid himself and his studies.
This continued for thousands of years until the time of the Ari when the revelation of Kabbalah began, but still in a very slow and modest way. Although there were Kabbalists such as Baal Shem Tov, who began mass education of Kabbalah and opened many learning centers. This movement later received the name “Hassidism” and began to spread among the people of Israel.
However, in our time, the wisdom of Kabbalah already goes beyond the people of Israel and begins to spread widely throughout the world. The fact is that the development of the world has reached a point after which only the wisdom of Kabbalah can explain what is happening. The integrated world requires general connection and the transformation of humanity into a single nation.
The crisis, which we feel everywhere around the world, indicates that the problem is not in ecology, economy, or technology, but in humanity itself. These problems indicate that there is no unity between us like in all the other parts of nature. Through our connection we will cause unity in nature; therefore, nature calls us to correct ourselves and thus correct the separation between the forces of nature at all its levels in order to bring it to balance and harmony.
Only the wisdom of Kabbalah is capable of this. Only it can explain that the world is a single closed system, and give humanity a method of connecting with the upper force.
It is difficult for a person to accept this method because of its novelty. There are no previous analogues; it is not confirmed by history. Never before have we spoke about the fact that by connecting people it is possible to influence nature, its forces, the crisis, the climate. Yet, it is necessary to listen to what the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches, otherwise nature will convince us by force, revealing an increasing imbalance in itself. This will be the path of suffering, not the path of light.
We are in a historic period that obliges us to mutual guarantee, to connection, and to love our neighbor as ourselves as the fundamental law of all nature and of all worlds. Our egoism rejects connection, and so every day we must again bring ourselves to it, in new conditions, overcoming the resistance of the increased egoistic desire and the mind that is unable to think in the direction of bestowal. We must artificially return again and again to the discovery of new laws of nature.
Crisis grips us every day more and more, locking humanity as if in a cage on a small planet and leaving us no freedom of choice other than to think about our common destiny in which we all depend on each other. Every day this dependence grows on decisions made elsewhere, between all countries and all nations.
The world is becoming smaller and tighter. Therefore, our influence on each other is increasing. With such rigid dependence, the best thing is good cooperation, mutual guarantee. Every day we should aim our direction to the purpose of creation, make it the purpose of our life, and try to attract as many people as possible to it who understand this connection is necessary, and our nature is opposite to it.
In fact, our nature, by its resistance to connection, helps us rise more purposefully to it. Egoism is help against itself, which helps us realize our condition because we are much more sensitive to forces of separation than to the forces of connection. Therefore, it is necessary to strive for the method of correction to be renewed every day in each of us and all of us together.1
From 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/19, “The Conditions for Raising Oneself Above One’s Circle”
1 Minute 0:25
Related Material:
Kabbalah: Benefit Or Detriment?
Kabbalah And Torah
The Importance Of Disseminating The Wisdom Of Kabbalah To The World
To shift from feeling the reality of this world into the upper reality, called the future world, means to shift from reason to faith above reason, from receiving to bestowing. Although, it is impossible to explain anything here with words, just as it is to explain the existence of different sounds or music to a deaf person. But there are exercises with which we awaken the light that reforms that grants us the power of bestowal. We then gradually begin to think of coexisting with this force of bestowal, instead of the force of reception. This is possible.
When we try to unite, that is, to annul the personal egoistic desire in favor of the general desire to bestow to the group, our foundations begin to gradually change. Thus, we come to faith above reason, to a spiritual approach that lets us feel, understand, make decisions, and perform actions that begin and end not within our desire to enjoy but above it, that is, in the spiritual world.1
When we lose our taste for the work, we get angry and start blaming fate, the Creator, the science of Kabbalah, the teacher. We do not realize that it is exactly the loss of taste in the study and in the group that is the invitation to the spiritual degree where one works not for the sake of the animate, material, or egoistic reward, but for giving pleasure to the Creator.
Gradually, step by step, we get used to this work. The main thing is to realize that the loss of taste in the work or a positive attitude comes from above, from the Creator, directly to a person in order to tear him away from egoism and give him a certain freedom from egoistic pleasures, let him feel independent from his personal interests.
I feel myself suspended between heaven and earth because no pleasure appeals to me, I have no strength and do not see the point in advancing, life offers no fulfillment. This is huge help from the Creator who is tearing a person away from one’s egoistic intention, from this whole world.
Then, all that is left is to work without fuel, without egoistic motivation, only for the greatness of the Creator: to attend lessons, events, and to live in general. I try to exchange previous pleasures that carried the promise of egoistic reward for a new state where I do not want to envision future reward, but only to strive for adhesion with the Creator at every moment.
The feeling that I am doing something for the Creator right now gives me fuel for work, and in that moment I live. The very next moment, I must apply efforts all over again, and again, at every moment. This is how I will advance: the Creator will help disconnect me, cleanse me from my desire to enjoy, and then I will be able to work for His pleasure. This is what I will live for.
These moments, the states when we feel that we have no strength to go on living or acting, when the world gets dull and plunges into darkness with no promise of hope or fulfillment, are tremendous help from the Creator. This is how He tears us away from our reality, from this world, and gives us the opportunity to work for Him.
If the Creator does not disconnect us from the pleasures and fulfillments of this world, we would have no chance of reaching the spiritual degree. We would forever remain in slavery to the Pharaoh who would regularly pay us, and we would obediently work for this reward. Such is our life in egoism.
Thus, the separation from egoism—when we feel emptiness, powerlessness, hopelessness, lost—all these states make it possible to shift from reason to faith above reason, to the level of bestowal, when I decide that I will do everything for the sake of heaven, for the joy of the Creator.
We must perform these exercises that the Creator has prepared for us over and over again and be grateful to Him that we are finally rising from this world into the spiritual world, that we are now on the border line. We have to accelerate and increase such actions so that each of them would be a leap forward; it all depends on our connection to the environment, to the ten.2
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/2/19, The Work in Faith Above Reason
1 Minute 0:20
2 Minute 7:35
Related Material:
Discord In The Ten: An Invitation From The Creator
Accept The Creator’s Invitation
An Invitation To Ascend
Lesson Preparation
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Lesson on the Topic “Prayer”
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 22
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
How does one rise from a devastated state to the greatness of the Creator, to faith above reason? In truth, a person is incapable of rising from a state of genuine devastation because this is the opening of a new space that was empty during the breaking of Adam HaRishon that we need to correct and fill with the light of connection. Therefore, we have no forces and means for this. Within this world, there are no forces capable of filling this spiritual vacuum, and we have no spiritual means.
Even if we were already in the spiritual world, on spiritual degrees, we could not correct this empty space being revealed to us. This happens every time because new desires are revealed that we did not have previously. With each step, stronger broken desires manifest; therefore all our previous experience does not help.
So we are in this world, in a material, physical group that we must use in order to rise from one level to another. Now we understand why this reality is needed. When I fall, I remain empty without any support in the past and no hope for the future, without any chance to go from step to step, because the level is broken and it is impossible to understand and see anything in it. The only thing that can be done is to join the group and start work anew: to unite with the friends, try to get involved with them as much as possible, drawing the reforming light, and the Creator will finish this work for me.
Therefore, until we complete all the corrections, we cannot free ourselves from this world. This system must exist. Indeed, when a new empty space is revealed, meaning the next broken Reshimo in the chain, I have no other way but to join the group and get new forces from our connection for the ascent. And so it is every time.1
It is said: “What the mind does not do, time does.” And time is a sequence of actions, impressions that I need to undergo in order to understand that I have nothing but a group. On the other hand, I have a group, how wonderful!
To the extent that I am falling now, I begin to appreciate the group. And this is not a fall, but a new, uncorrected degree. If I join the group and fall into the arms of my friends, they will save me. Therefore, the material state, meaning connection, the center of the tens, is so important for entering the spiritual ladder. If I don’t imagine this whole system, I don’t feel where the center of the ten is located, the group and me inside it, if I don’t form such a model of connection, then I will be unable to get a single broken Reshimo. After all, one can only rise from it through a connection with the ten. The model of ten should begin to live in me, each time clearing up more and more. Therefore, the reality of this world we are in is so important.2
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/30/19, “The Work in Faith Above Reason”
1 Minute 1:00
2 Minute 6:00
Related Material:
Why Does This World Exist?
Why Do I Feel Emptiness In This World?
Don’t Give Up This World
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
