Shamati #127, “The Difference Between Kernel, Essence, and Added Abundance”
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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “One’s Greatness Depends on the Measure of One’s Faith in the Future”
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Preparation for the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “One’s Greatness Depends on the Measure of One’s Faith in the Future”
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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”
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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Section 61, 63: The answer is that the world, during the six thousand years of its existence, is like one Partzuf divided into three thirds: Rosh (head), Toch (interior), Sof (end), meaning, HBD (Hochma, Bina, Daat), HGT (Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet), NHY (Netzach, Hod, Yesod). This is what our sages wrote, ‘Two millennia of Tohu (chaos), two millennia of Torah, and two millennia of the days of the Messiah” (Sanhedrin 97a)….Hence, only after the completion of these lowly souls can the Highest Lights manifest, and not before.
There is a general rule that is called the “inverse relation between Lights and vessels” (Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Section 24), so that the vessels that fell to a greater depth were higher before the Shevira (breaking).
Which means that even though we are in a state of breaking, in the lowest state, through our correction we can add very great power to the general Kli, and as a result of this, a great Light will be revealed.
The first generations excelled in realization and their desire to receive was relatively refined, so the Light of Hochma was not revealed that much. This was not the same method and not the same Light that we discover within our Kelim. And on the other hand, according to the inverse arrangement of Lights and Kelim, the Light of Hochma will be revealed within the Kelim of HBD, while we belong to the Kelim of NHY.
And at the end of correction all of the Light and every Kli will be a single circle.
Question: Why are the 6,000 spiritual levels described as 6,000 years? It seems that the Creator created the creature and gave it an ultimatum, to finish the correction in the specified period and not beyond it.
Answer: A system of worlds exists, ABYA (Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya). In this system, the world of Atzilut is the world of correction and doesn’t belong to the broken Kelim, but was created to correct them. The worlds of BYA are the place, the environment, the state, in which the broken Kelim, the broken souls exist.
In reality only one soul exists, the soul of Adam HaRishon (the First Man). This soul was divided or broken into a multitude of parts that fell according to their spiritual level into the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya and must be rediscovered. According to the intensity of the breaking, these parts are divided into three groups: HBD, HGT, and NHY.
They are revealed according to a particular order: Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, from light to heavy. The parts that belong to the worlds of Beria and Yetzira and the upper two thirds of the world of Assiya are revealed according to the program of creation. After all, in the present stage, the Kelim are still not divided according to the right line and the left line in such a form that they can activate their freedom of choice.
And only in the Kelim of the bottom part of NHY, meaning beginning from our generation, which is called the last generation, is there a possibility of developing more rapidly and efficiently than the program of creation. Previously the program of creation determined the connection and the relative rates between the Lights and Kelim according to an awakening from above, which is truly considered to be 6,000 years. And now the new method is discovered.
This is because creation is not just a product with characteristics that are given to it initially, devoid of any potential for development of new things so it is not clear why it exists. And specifically we who want to realize the program of creation by ourselves with our own powers, justify the Creator, confirming that it was not just created without any benefit; it is not just automatic. The benefit is that creation makes it possible for a person to search and find possibilities of joining the process according to his freedom of choice to hasten the correction and advance creation through elevating MAN. And then all of creation belongs to a person, the whole world belongs to him.
And so, the time of development is shortened, not because there is a need for this, but rather, this is a sign of how much the person himself yearns to finish and correct creation. Why? Because in the corrected Kli it is possible to give great contentment to the Creator.
What this means is that from now on we are ready to dedicate our time so that all of our actions will be in order to bestow, and through this we attract the whole world towards correction.
Question: Why is this process still connected to physical time?
Answer: In your perception you make a division between spirituality and physicality. But in fact, physicality is what is called an intention for the sake of reception and spirituality is an intention for the sake of bestowal. How can one be without the other?
Everything comes from above, and the spiritual root determines the physical branch. The physical branch includes the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate, everything that we see, all the desires that are not ready to determine any change regarding the Creator independently. This includes the nature of Adam, which is not a person in our world, rather an Adam (Man) who is ready to resemble the Creator. Only people like these belong to the level of Adam, bestowing and not receiving.
It is the same thing regarding time. There are times that belong to the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate, and there is a special time for those who belong to the level of Adam, those who ascend above their nature. They feel their time, their state, their level, to the same degree that they correct themselves. For them time is not determined by the clock and not by dates on the calendar. The dial on the clock simply vanishes from your feeling if you reach your individual end of correction.
And so we are living at the end of the 6,000 years, and our period is unique in that we have the possibility of freedom of choice. We are working not only for ourselves but for all six millennia. After all, those who formed the ladder of spiritual levels depend on us. And if we attract the smallest Lights, they are revealed above as the greatest Lights.
This is correct even though it is difficult for us to appreciate our work because we don’t see its results.
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From the 3d part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “They Helped Every One His Friend”
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Baal HaSulam, “Fruits of Wisdom,” “He who Shares the Public’s Grief”: “A person is measured to the extent that he measures,” that is, according to the size of the vessels, according to the container and its interior part. The same deficiency will always be full, no more no less.
Therefore, God’s servant who doesn’t share the public’s grief, but only feels his own private deficiency has a container for the abundance that isn’t big enough, and therefore will not be able to receive the general revelation of Godliness in the secret of the public’s consolation, because he has not prepared a vessel to receive this general phase but only his private phase.
But if he shares the public’s grief and feels the troubles of the general as his own private trouble, he is rewarded with seeing the complete phase of the revelation of the Shechina, meaning the consolation of all of Israel, because his deficiency is a general deficiency and therefore the abundance of holiness is also general.
You should thus understand the meaning of “the righteous have no rest,” which means that because the abundance is blessed according to the level of deficiency and the longings of the righteous, to the same extent, no more no less, they always make efforts to deepen and to expand their vessel because the one who bestows has no measure, only the one who receives. Thus, their only goal in life is to grow stronger and to yearn to make in them a vessel and thus cause contentment in expanding the borders of holiness.
The vessel of receiving is limited and the vessel of bestowal is unlimited. It all depends on a person. To the extent that he tries to expand his vessel of bestowal, he receives help from above. If he is really interested in correction and uses all the means he has, he can always increase the vessel, which means increasing his deficiency for bestowal. The Light that Reforms operates on him according to these efforts and corrects his vessel, prepares it, and then fills it. Therefore it is said “the righteous have no rest, neither in this world nor in the next world,” which means neither on the current level nor on the next level, and they will always be able to advance.
The key and the basis for advancement is to share the public’s grief, which means that the additional deficiencies and the need for bestowal can only be acquired from the environment. There is no other place; the environment is the only place where one can draw from it unlimitedly and advance as a result.
We can thus immediately assess how a person sees this advancement in the spiritual life. Today it already refers to everyone, both men and women. It depends if a person isolates himself and thinks that he will advance only thanks to his studies, or whether he participates in dissemination and in community life, connecting to the group with all his might. If he doesn’t do that, he cannot accumulate a deficiency for bestowal, of course, reach a prayer, and receive a readymade vessel. The Light is in abundance, and it will therefore immediately fill the vessel the moment it is ready.
Baal HaSulam wrote: “A person is measured to the extent that he measures.” After all, a person can only measure the extent that he yearns to be in the vessels of bestowal and to be filled with Light. Everything depends only on him, on the preparation of his vessel. Sharing the public’s grief is the key for the revelation of the Creator.
In his article “The Giving of the Torah,” Baal HaSulam wrote that when the children of Israel were in Egypt they became one nation that suffered the enslavement and the hard labor together the moment they began to mutually share their grief. Pharaoh brought the children of Israel closer to the Creator and enforced increasingly greater afflictions upon them, and as a result, forced them to connect.They realized that only thanks to the connection between them could they be saved and come out of Egypt. This is how a person receives the right deficiency.
It turns out that we have unlimited opportunities to advance because the whole world already needs correction. We will always have a chance to influence the public and to engage in dissemination more and more without limits; we will receive the deficiencies from people and advance before them each time in order to be their teachers and to serve them. This is how we will advance towards increasingly greater vessels of bestowal.
All the grief should be aimed at only one thing: how to absorb additional deficiencies from the close environment or from an increasingly wider environment, until the whole world is included in my vessel. This is the purpose of the shattering, which means the keeping of the commandments. Only building a deficiency for bestowal fulfills everything.
Nowadays we see that the whole world, including us, is already arranged for the revelation of the deficiency for mutual bestowal. This is how we build the place for the revelation of the Creator in order to cause Him contentment. All this will happen before our very eyes.
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From the Preparation for the Convention 2/25/14
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Question: Why does Baal HaSulam write that a person must give contentment to his Creator? Does each one have his own Creator?
Answer: Sometimes, we only say “Creator,” sometimes “your Creator,” and sometimes we say the plural, “Creators.” That is how the lower level perceives the higher. There are a multitude of higher Partzufim (Israel Saba ve Tvuna, Abba ve Ima), a multitude of forces that take care of the Tachtonim (Lower Ones). But all of them have one intention and one goal.
The person doesn’t turn to an abstract upper force but to that level to which he is directly connected now. So he can call these higher levels by the name, Creators.
The Creator has no defined image. It is forbidden in any way or manner to describe Him as something static that exists outside of us. There is no such thing, even though it is very difficult for a person to accept this. However, this is a problem that exists only in our uncorrected perception.
It is up to us to see ourselves as a property of reception. Who am I? I am this quality of reception, and the Creator is the quality of bestowal. There is nothing more than these two properties, and I want to become like the quality of bestowal.
A property is something abstract that has no physical image. The property receives a form only when it dresses in something concrete. So, the best way to protect oneself from making a mistake is to refrain from describing the upper force as some kind of permanent form or image. This is very important for clarification and the right attitude.
After all, what is the Elyon (Upper One)? This is something that is above that now fills me. A filling of reception is wanting only to receive everything, to feel good, to be healthy, to know, to understand, to attain, to control in some way. All of this belongs to the property of reception that is directed entirely toward self-benefit.
But there is an opposite property above me, meaning that I attribute it to spirituality and value it. It is above me and I want to attain it. If this higher property would clothe me, I would stop being concerned about myself, acting only for my personal benefit. But what would I think then? Would I think about anything? What kind of form will my property of bestowal have? How will it fill me instead of the property of reception that fills me now?
Therefore, we attain a Kli, the reason, the preparation for the property of bestowal, a place in which it must be clothed. To do this, we must prepare Arvut (Mutual Guarantee), the attitude toward your neighbor in which bestowal is clothed.
This is very practical, and it is up to us to try to bring them into our sensations. If everyone thinks about this, if there is general agreement, general thought, if we are ready to pay attention to this for a long time and not just a few minutes from time to time, then we will be strongly influenced by each other in the best way and we precisely clarify this attitude toward the Creator. This is our only work: to try to more clearly imagine His property and focus on the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/14, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman
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