Lesson Preparation
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Title “The Hizdakchut of the Masach to the Emanation of the Partzuf,” Item 30
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Lesson on the Topic “Building The Future Society”
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The Creator constantly hides the truth from me, showing me various scenes that make me forget about Him. Therefore, the Creator disappears and I see myself and this world, but each time I need to forcefully bring back my reality to the truth. Above everything that He does, I need to return everything to the corrected form and determine that every state, my own and the world’s, is organized by the Creator.
The Creator confuses me as though He did not do it all. I am obliged to return Him to the head of everything. The illusory world, the imaginary self, it is the Creator who creates this illusion. What’s best for me is to determine that the Creator governs everything that happens. This is called good. I am happy to elevate Him as the King not because it gives me positive sensations, but because I succeed in making Him the ruler.
The truth is that the Creator governs over everything, and it is unimportant to me how I perceive it in my sensations as pleasant or unpleasant states.1
If a person wishes to know who he is, where he came from, and why he lives, the answers to all the essential questions, then that already is the beginning of the human degree. An animal does not ask why it is alive. There are also many people who don’t want to think about this since “the less you know, the better you sleep.”
A person wishes to succeed in this life: to learn, acquire a profession, and so on. However, if he must know why this life is given to us, what its purpose is, why the human being is created, he will be unable to find the answer in this life, no matter how much he searches. He can turn to biologists, zoologists, physicists, and no one will be able to answer him.
Scientists know how matter works. Yet, why the matter exists is unknown to them because the answer is above, on the next degree above the matter, in what preceded its creation. If I am bothered by that question, then I must solve it because it is ruining my life. Why should I study this life if I do not understand what it is for?
Finally I realize the need to develop myself to a new level of perceiving reality. If I could penetrate into the depth of reality, I would reveal its cause or root. Then, I find the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is clear that it is the Creator behind the scenes who leads me, reveals Himself, hinting which way to go.2
After one makes such an effort, the Creator is revealed. There are strict laws here: as soon as the extent of effort in terms of quantity and quality is reached, we reveal the higher root according to how much we invested. The more effort, the greater the revelation. From the side of the upper, there is no concealment; the concealment comes from our insufficient effort.3
If the upper providence was revealed, all the inhabitants of this world would automatically become completely righteous. The effort is the pledge whereby one does not act automatically and truly becomes equal to the Creator, not thinking about himself but only about bestowal.
This new Kli exists in the ten, in the ten Sefirot. Then we understand that we have no other opportunity to turn to the Creator, come closer to Him, think of Him, and direct our efforts toward Him. We need to reformat ourselves, adjusting to the Creator so that we connect and establish contact. That is possible only by forcefully inserting ourselves into the ten and through it reach equivalence with the Creator.
That is, all our effort should be for inclusion in the group with no reserves. By inserting ourselves in the ten, we find that the whole world exists there, billions of people, the whole universe, and the spiritual worlds. Our world is a tiny grain of sand compared to what exists in the ten. There we find our soul.4
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/3/19, Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot”
1 Minute 10:50
2 Minute 19:28
3 Minute 25:47
4 Minute 29:10
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Subjugation means to agree with everything that comes from above and constantly to try to identify that there is no one else besides the Creator. We will then see that the Creator is good and does good; this is already the next stage. We need two corrections in order to proceed to the stage of a spiritual embryo.
The basis of all internal work is in the ten: in its construction and sensation and in the connection of the friends in the ten. We do not work with the Creator individually, personally. It would be an even greater and more serious mistake than remaining disconnected from the Creator if I were to use the ten in an egoistic manner without thinking about its connection and hoping to establish connection with the Creator by bypassing it.
However, if I understand that my connection with the Creator and His connection with me passes only through the ten, then we connect into one whole; me, the ten, and the upper force are like Israel, the Torah, and the Creator, which are one.1
To be in Lo Lishma, from which we come to Lishma, means that at any place, in any state, and in everything that you think, see, and feel, you try to locate the Creator as a source of everything that is happening. This is also called Lo Lishma because it gives a person a good feeling, comfort, and joy from the fact that he depends on the Creator and not on enemies, haters, or blind chance.
Everything that comes to a person from the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature and from people is an influence of the Creator and no one else. Therefore, a person is happy that he is under the correct governance that seeks to bring him to final correction. He constantly holds onto the Creator like a baby clinging to his mother.
To the extent that he is able, at every moment, not to let go of the Creator as the cause of everything that happens, he feels good. This state is called “Lo Lishma” because there is still one’s own interest in it—it helps a person feel good.
Yet, if a person wants to be connected with the Creator without any personal benefit, regardless of his pleasant or unpleasant feelings, then he wants to move to the state of Lishma. In this state, he raises the greatness of the Creator so much that he stops thinking about himself at all. It does not matter to Him how he feels, the main thing is to decide that the Creator is the source of all reality and by this to bring Him contentment, without any regard for himself. This means from Lo Lishma to come to Lishma.2
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/19, Surrender (Subjugation)
1 Minute 1:40
2 Minute 7:00
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Lesson Preparation
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,”
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Lesson on the Topic “Building The Future Society”
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Subjugation is the main spiritual action until the very end of correction, the basis of all spiritual work. The more we look for opportunities to subjugate ourselves, the faster the speed of our spiritual advancement. We should not wait for the opportunity to subjugate our egoism to come up by itself and crown the Creator as the one who builds the entire universe, controls all reality, and sends us all the states, from the best to the worst ones.
I myself seek out the opportunity to subjugate myself: “I awaken the dawn and the dawn does not awaken me.” Therefore, we need to prepare ourselves to be in subjugation, accepting everything by faith above reason, as coming from the Creator. No matter what happens, this is an exercise, a game the Creator plays with me. There is none else besides the Creator who places all sorts of obstacles in front of me, which I must accept not as obstacles on the way, but as an opportunity to connect with Him.
All these obstacles, my mistakes and transgressions, turn into Mitzvot when I decide that there is none else besides the Creator and that everything is done by Him. The transgression is being under the power of a disturbance and not seeing anything besides it. After all, there is no doubt that the disturbance is sent by the Creator by virtue of His absolute love, not to weaken me, but for my advancement.
Usually, after a great success after a congress, we feel a vague state and fatigue. But fatigue does not exist in spirituality, there is only a lack of fuel that we need to fill up as a result of the growing desire.
First, the Creator sends small disturbances, burdening of the heart, misunderstanding, confusion, and fatigue. Then come more serious problems that cannot be resolved by one sentence: “There is none else besides Him,” but require a whole process of work. It is no longer “two plus two” but a more complex formula. No matter what happens, we move on the path of subjugation, wanting to crown the Creator to rule over everything that happens so that He is the sole ruler, one source, and reason beside which there is nothing. This is our constant work.
If at some moment I do not see that the Creator rules in my whole world, it means I have come out of sanctity and no longer belong to the spiritual system. Therefore, I must immediately return to the state “There is none else besides Him” and get strengthened by attracting the whole group to this.1
If in the ten, we fall into the state of the sons of Jacob, the brothers who do not want to unite, then we feel hunger in the land of Israel because of the inability to advance in spirituality—a lack of spiritual fulfillment. Therefore, we have to start working with our desire to enjoy: descend into Egypt, into slavery to Pharaoh.2
The preparatory work begins with Abraham, Isaac, and ends at Jacob, in the middle line, where the unity of the sons of Jacob, his followers, takes place, where the formation of a group is already taking place. At first, this group does not want to unite, but it is forced to subjugate by famine, the feeling of lack of results from all their attempts to work with their desire to enjoy that divides them.
They have no choice but to descend into Egypt, into slavery to Pharaoh. The work in the Egyptian slavery is work on unification during the seven years of satiation and seven years of famine. They come to the realization that they will never be able to unite without revealing the Creator, they need help from above.
Therefore, they receive the Torah and unite “as one man with one heart” in Arvut (mutual guarantee). This group continues to unite, each time revealing an increasingly strong desire to enjoy between them and subjugating themselves more and more. Acquiring the steps of subjugation ends upon completing all the work in the desert, which allows them to achieve the right connection and build the Temple. The Temple is a spiritual vessel, a group, within which the Creator is able to dwell and reveal Himself to everyone to the extent of similarity of properties.
This is the path of spiritual development, the path of Torah. We must pass such states by faith above reason, in subjugation, in order to get to the Temple.3
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/19, Lesson on the Topic “Surrender (Subjugation)”
1 Minute 0:20
2 Minute 30:29
3 Minute 39:23
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Throughout the day, you need to pursue only one thought: “There is none else besides the Creator, the Good who does good”; come back to it all the time and try to hold on to it so as not to lose a pleasant feeling. If we feel bad, if something goes wrong in our life, this is a sign that the Creator has disappeared from our sight.
If I have any kind of trouble: feel bad or have a bad mood, this is only because the Creator has no presence in my life. If I connect all my states with Him, I must feel great, I must feel comfort, the light of hope, a connection with the true, eternal reality. All this is due to the fact that I remember the Creator.
However, the Creator can play with us by sending us unpleasant feelings so that we can start looking for and justifying Him. He knows in advance that we will be able to justify Him, which is why He gives us such exercises.1
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/19, Surrender (Subjugation)
1 Minute 55:30
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Lesson Preparation
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Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 31, “Concerning Yenika [Nursing] and Ibur [Impregnation]” (1986)
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Letter 19 (1927)
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Lesson on the Topic “Building The Future Society”
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Readiness to rise above the material, to come to terms with it, is a prerequisite for entering the spiritual world, the first spiritual state called conception (Ibur). Of course, every spiritual state begins from corporeal darkness, the complete loss of the previous state and subjugation to it.
The group should help with overcoming this disturbance because the group is in a spiritual state, it cancels the former corporeal state, which therefore appears dark, black. It is help from above that we see it this way and are forced to connect with the friends to make efforts at a higher, spiritual level. In this way, we reach the first connection between us and, to the same extent, contact with the upper force.
If we try to unite in one heart, then we unite with the Creator into one whole. The first contact with the Creator is called spiritual conception (Ibur), the beginning of spiritual life.1
Spiritual conception (Ibur) is also built on subjugation, but even more rigid when I completely nullify myself before the upper one in everything without taking my feelings and opinions into account. Simple subjugation does not demand solidarity with the upper governance from me, only lowering before it.
In the state of the embryo (Ubar), I myself want the upper one to take control of me and I am ready to accept any of His leadership. I want the mind and heart of the upper one, His understanding, awareness, and attitude to life to get inside me, fill my desires, and reformat me again. I lose all my previous settings; what remains of me is only the material and my entire program comes from the upper one. This is not just subjugation, it is its next stage.2
Spiritual conception (Ibur) is subjugation at a higher level, complete devotion of the soul. I pass myself to the upper one and am honored to begin to develop inside him as an embryo (Ubar).3
The spiritual embryo is complete self-annulment before the upper one, before the power of bestowal, Bina, and readiness to accept everything that He will do to me, whatever may happen.
Subjugation is acceptance of the state that has already been revealed and for which calculations can be made with sensations known to me. Embryo (Ubar) is complete self-annulment, when I nullify myself in advance and agree with the unknown, with everything that will happen in the future; that is, I advance with faith. The power of Bina helps me to nullify myself before the upper one in this way.4
The work of the Creator begins with the fact that I completely nullify myself and ask the upper one to start working on me. Due to this self-annulment, subjugation, humbling before the property of bestowal, changes begin to occur in me, desires of bestowal are formed, that is, a drop of spiritual seed begins to develop.
Preliminary readiness for such a state is already built in us since it existed before the shattering and left a record (Reshimo). There is no coincidence here, all the stages are strictly determined step by step, and everyone will return to one’s root.
It is only in corporeal life that we can feel lost. In spirituality, all states are set to the last detail and change by absolute laws according to the information records left during the descent of the soul from top to bottom. We must go back to the root through the same steps.
Therefore, we can be certain that there can be no accident or error here, and we will surely pass all the spiritual stages: the stages of conception, the small state, maturation.
Everything is already planned, all we are required to do is only to help every action with our preliminary desire, our demand.
We do nothing by ourselves—everything is done by the light, this is the work of the Creator. We only need to understand how to invest our “half-shekel” so that the Creator will complete the rest of the work. I do what depends on me and the Creator completes, each time in the same way, step by step. Therefore, it is impossible to get completely lost; it all depends on how clean and faithfully we try to go.5
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/19, Ibur (Conception)”
1 Minute 0:20
2 Minute 13:35
3 Minute 37:30
4 Minute 45:59
5 Minute 41:30
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Lesson Preparation
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Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 31, “Concerning Yenika [Nursing] and Ibur [Impregnation]” (1986)
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Lesson on the Topic “Building The Future Society”
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As a result of the descent of the worlds, our desire to enjoy is getting increasingly remote from the Creator, passing through restrictions, filters, splits, and various concealments along this path. Having reached this world, the desire to enjoy finds itself behind five worlds (Olamot)—concealments (Alamot), that is, in the worst condition.
This world, which is mentioned in Kabbalistic books, is the lowest of all possible spiritual states, and our corporeal world is even lower.
The desire to enjoy descends the steps of all the worlds and reaches a state in which it materializes, turns into matter; it loses all connection with the upper worlds. Therefore, it does not matter in which material, animal body a person who wants to attain the spiritual world exists. His arm or leg can be amputated or an organ from another person absolutely remote from spirituality can be transplanted in him, but this would have no effect on his spiritual attainment.
One might wonder how you can lose your right hand if, according to spiritual laws, it relates to bestowal and you always have to start from the right side. However, our body is a simple animal, absolutely unrelated to spiritual attainment. Of course, it has its own important function because it is given to us so that we can begin our spiritual development by expressing our own desire to attain the Creator.
Love cannot be forced. Otherwise, it would not be called love but “calculation.” Therefore, the Creator could not create us with a ready desire to love Him. That is why we were forced to descend to this world completely detached from the spiritual system and to begin the way back from this point.
Existing in an animal body now in our own world, isolated from all spiritual worlds and from the Creator, we must begin to develop our own desire to love the Creator as He loves us. If a person has a point in the heart that awakens him to this, then he can feel that someone is calling him and begin his journey back to the Creator.1
The ten is the basis of the universe’s structure, as a cell of the organism that is the source of life. We do not understand that by entering the ten we open the gates to the upper world. Then, we see that our present state is imaginary, existing only in order to provide us with the opportunity to enter spirituality on our own, by our own choice. We must want to develop and become equal to the Creator by ourselves. All previous corporeal life will lose its meaning.
Everything produced by our hands, feet, and mouth, actually does not exist. We live in an imaginary world. Our real life begins only in the ten and beyond, and this is what remains with us forever. So, let’s decide whether we want it or not.2
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/19, Baal HaSulam ,“Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 1
1 Minute 2:00:25
2 Minute 2:24:19
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Daily Audio Version-MP3
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