Entries in the 'Free Will' Category

Haman And His Family

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The holiday of Purim symbolizes the opposition of two forces: Mordechai and Haman. Then why are we commanded to get so drunk on this day that we can’t tell the difference between Haman and Mordechai?

Answer: This happens after the analysis where you use all of the Kelim, when everything is already clear to the utmost. You have hung Haman and his ten sons on a tree, or in other words, on the tail of the letter Kuf (ק). No more illumination comes beneath the Tabur in order to give life to the impure forces (Klipot). There are no Klipot since you have destroyed all the egoistic intentions.

Previously intentions for the sake of reception, Klipa were below. Klipa lives by virtue of the illumination from above. Above the Tabur are the letters or qualities of Kuf (ק), Reish (ר) , Shin (ש), and Tav (ת). Previously the tip of Tav also descended down, but its “leg was cut off” and now only Kuf descends beneath the Tabur. This means that the Lights descend down, giving life to the Klipa.

This is necessary because the Klipa helps us. It has to exist in order to give us the opportunity of free choice, to place us between good and evil.

Here, below, are Haman and his “family”—all of the egoistic qualities that have joined him. It is important to remember that this is talking precisely about intentions for the sake of reception, rather than about desires. After all, desire is just matter.

After that, from Yesod of Zeir Anpin to Nukva comes the illumination of Mordechai. It comes as a result of the ascent of a plea (MAN) from the souls of Israel, which are below, under the rule of Haman. Then they are all able to ascend upwards with the help of the illumination called Purim—the illumination of Mordechai.

In that case only Haman with his family remain below. After that the leg of the letter Kuf is annulled so the Klipot would no longer receive an illumination, or in other words, Haman is hung on the tree. Then the Klipot inside each of us die because they no longer realize or feel the opportunity to steal or to attain anything.

That is where it all ends. All the egoistic intentions disappear due to not having a footing and everything shifts above the Parsa, into the intention for the sake of bestowal, into the approaching end of correction. Now all of your Kelim are covered by the altruistic intention and you fill them with the Light of Hochma without any restrictions. That is because you have created great, perfect screens which free you from the necessity to make calculations.

The entire matter of Haman, who is under the power of the egoistic desire, has shifted to the altruistic intention. Stated differently, all the desires that were below have ascended upwards. They divided into two groups of 248 and 365 desires, and now even the lowers ones are above because you have cut off the egoistic intentions from them. Thus, nothing remains below.

And since there is nothing below, holiness (Kedusha) expands from Raglin until Sium, until the Mount of Olives.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Between The Creator And Pharaoh

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn nature there is no freedom that has appeared from nothing. Nature is a system of laws and nothing in it can stand beyond the law.

We are being controlled by two forces: reception and bestowal. Freedom is when we are able to supplement the action of one force with that of the other and, standing between them, comprehend the reality that has unified them both within.

I always have to choose which influence to put myself under, under control of which force to be. It has to be one or the other: the force of bestowal or that of reception.

Moreover, in order to gain autonomy, I don’t want to be dominated by either of them. On one hand, Pharaoh tells me: “Who is the Creator to me that I must listen to Him?” But on the other, I have to preserve Pharaoh in tact, even if keeping myself at a distance. I flee from him so I may obtain the second force as well. Before, I was the Pharaoh’s slave, and now I become the slave of the Creator.

All of this is done so that in the end, we can reach the middle point between them. It is regarded as the middle third of Tifferet, Klipat Noga (Noga shell). This is the place where the scales which hold good and evil come into balance. I stand in the middle and neither the Creator nor Pharaoh controls me: I rule over both of them. This state is described as “My sons have defeated Me.”

This is a subtle balance that a person must build at every spiritual degree. We align two forces, two lines, the right and the left, judgment and mercy, and thereby advance in the middle line.

Thus, my work lies in finding both Pharaoh’s force, the evil inclination, and the Creator’s force, the good inclination, in the present “animate,” “blind” state. I place them before each other since the Creator says: “Come onto Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart.” When the evil force increases, the Creator can also grow in my eyes and show Himself behind Pharaoh. Then they will both unfold equally in my point in the heart, and this point will receive freedom, the power over both forces.

That’s what I need to accomplish. In this point of mine, between the good and evil inclinations, in the middle third of Tifferet, I find my freedom at last. And this is my real Self. From the points that emerge at each spiritual degree, I construct the middle line, the line of the human within, until I reach Infinity.

In the world of Infinity, we create our autonomous state which is 620 times more powerful thanks to the fact that we use both these forces in full. This is the correct method for utilizing the forces of the Creator and Pharaoh that rule in nature. And man is able to accomplish this.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/17/2011 on The Principles of Global Education

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620 Bridges From Me To You

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe entire freedom of choice that each of us has, with each of us being a piece of the multi-dimensional “Lego” of creation, lies in revealing our total connection with everyone else to the extent we can tolerate it. Each person connects with all the others with his upper part (Galgalta Eynaim) and his lower part (AHP), and only a point remains of himself in which he wishes to realize his loyalty to those who are above or below him.

We have to go through this realization of our state gradually, by degrees of the desire that awakens in us until experiencing its entire depth (Aviut) in all of its forms. Thus, we continuously reveal the opportunity of a new, more multi-faceted connection with the upper ones and the lower ones.

The empty space that continuously becomes revealed to us in the connection with the upper or the lower ones is the desire that we have to correct. The desire always consists of 620 parts, and therefore, their correction is called “carrying out 620 commandments” with the help of the Light that reforms, which is called Torah.

That is why it is written that every day a person must carry out “620 commandments” by virtue of studying the “Torah.” That means he studies how to use these 620 desires for the sake of bestowal in order to unite entirely with all the parts of creation that are higher or lower in relation to him.

That is how we attain our state: We are in it from the beginning, but we reveal it for ourselves gradually. We receive the force to do this from the environment, meaning from those “Lego pieces” with which we are connected —from the upper parts of our soul, whose AHPs connect with our Galgalta Eynaims, or from the lower parts, with whose Galgalta Eynaims we connect through our AHP.

The Creator always gives us the opportunity to find the forces to advance in this “multi-dimensional” unity. It is always possible to find an empty space in which the Torah will be revealed, the Light and 620 desires that we can correct, and through them, connect with one another. That is how this entire system is arranged.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Emptiness Is Our Construction Site

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: The collective and the individual are one and the same. And the individual is not harmed because of his enslavement to the collective, since the freedom of the collective and the freedom of the individual are one and the same, too. And as they share the good, they also share the freedom.

This becomes revealed gradually, from negation, from a negative. It becomes revealed in darkness, without forcing people to become corrected, or in other words, only in the form of suffering in order to enable us to understand, realize, and agree out of our own free choice with what we have to do and how we should accept the laws of nature.

We shouldn’t accept them instinctively or due to having no other way to act, the way it is done on the still, vegetative, and animate levels, but rather by agreement and desire. We have to desire it to such a degree that even if we weren’t pressed by suffering, we would still aspire to it.

That is why the suffering becomes revealed to us. It brings us to an empty place where we begin the search and this way, from within this darkness we build the divine system ourselves. Finding myself in a vacuum, I find threads and interconnections, building blocks of the future construction, and begin to arrange them on their right places.

I build a building and in the process of this construction I feel Nature by my side which already exists. But it’s as if I form its system myself, expressing it in bestowal, in darkness.

That is how I create and acquire the entire system of the universe. And then I understand the entire reality to the last detail, I understand and feel the force that created it, and I join the Creator until reaching total perfection.

However, I perceive the process of construction as suffering. I am pressured in order to make me start thinking: How can I fill the emptiness, what should the structure of the system be like? I have to search for the form of every linkage joint in it. Kabbalists write to us about the intention for the sake of bestowal and we say smart things at the lesson about the right approach to life, but we do not know how to actualize all of this. Even if you memorize all the texts by heart, this won’t help you.

Only by attracting the Light that reforms do I become a bit wiser in my corrected qualities and understand how to build the system. I am its material and therefore I begin to treat others correctly. This is my construction. This way, I correct myself and build the system.

Therefore, now and in the future we will only receive negative impulses, meaning suffering. Nothing can be given to us besides suffering because otherwise we would be deprived of the opportunity to gather the system on our own.

And that means that by disseminating the science of Kabbalah and explaining these things to the world, we will be able to reduce the extent of the suffering and the time required to “digest” its influence on us. No matter what, regardless of how much a person listens and how much knowledge he obtains, this will never deprive him of the opportunity to personally participate in building the system.

We have to gather all the parts of the world of infinity into one, and we have to do so ourselves. You cannot just simply shout, “Give me perfection!” You have to know what exactly is necessary for that, and what exactly do you want according to your level. On various phases of the path you scream differently—but you scream to be given the forces.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/15/11

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Spiritual Freedom Of An Individual

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is a rule: “For social life, take after the collective, in spiritual life, take after the individual.” For example, I enter a group. Does this group represent the majority for me? Do I have to listen to my friends? I see three hundred men before me—this is a force.

If they demand something from me on the corporeal level, that’s one thing, but what if they are dictating their terms on the spiritual level? Do they understand more than I do? Are they, taken together, smarter than I am? How should I behave in regard to them? Do I have the right to influence the group? After all, if they are the majority, then I have to lower my head and accept their opinion.

On the other hand, we are talking about spiritual life and therefore, one must follow an individual as opposed to the majority. Am I that individual?

These aren’t simple questions and they are relevant to every group. In the corporeal sense, everything is pretty clear when it comes to the majority. However, even there we see many movements, parties, governments, and mafia. There is no common opinion in the world.

It’s actually quite simple for us. I establish a separation between the spiritual and the corporeal life, and then my corporeal existence is narrowed down to the vital necessities. I should be content with that.

I ensure a normal life for myself: home, work, family, bank, social security, health insurance, vacation, pension, and so on. This is where I follow the majority and do what’s considered the norm. Here my obligations toward society end. In our world I’m set. This is how I realize the concept of “follow the majority,” which refers to obligatory social conditions.

Besides this, all of my attention and strength are directed at my spiritual development. In my spiritual life, I work with the group. Rabash writes that one must lower himself completely before the group. I lower myself before a spiritual society as I do with the majority.

Where is my freedom then? After all, I have to follow my own opinion when it comes to spirituality.

In reality that’s exactly what I do because I determine the degree of my connection to the group. No one is taking this freedom away from me. This is the meaning of the law of “follow the individual.” Each one of us is an individual and decides freely to be a part of the  group. There are no laws obliging us to do this and no external pressure. We apply the same principal in our dissemination of Kabbalah: Whoever wants it takes it, and who ever doesn’t is free to say no.

And so your freedom consists of you lowering yourself before the society without there being any pressure to do so. In the corporeal world, the society obligates you, but in the spiritual one, no one does, including the Creator. You must mature and come to this decision on your own.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/2011, “The Freedom”

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The Soul’s Laser Beam Projector

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I cannot aspire to bestowal since I don’t have the slightest idea what it is. What is bestowal?

Answer: Any spiritual property such as bestowal and love is revealed from the state opposite to it since we don’t know what it is. Actually, if I knew what bestowal is, I would already possess this property.

But I do not possess it. So how can I acquire it? I can do it only by performing mechanical actions: I influence the group, while the group acts upon me. And all these actions have no relation to spirituality, which is the reason we perceive ourselves as presently living in this world.

It is an imaginary reality that contains some desires and even corporeal bodies in it, meaning that they are not, in fact, desires, but rather something that doesn’t possess free will. The spiritual world, however, is full of desires, aspirations, and forces, such as love, hate, and lust, which are manifestations of man’s will. And without this manifestation of will, there isn’t a world; it doesn’t exit.

It is similar to a laser image: I turn on the laser, and the picture appears in the air. If I don’t turn it on, there won’t be one. This is how we perceive the spiritual world as well. As to the material world, it exists even without my expression of will. In this reality, I pass through life cycles, and it transforms me without my being aware of it; it asks for no participation on my part.

Therefore, this reality seems to me so “material.” All changes in it occur without my conscious participation, my strive for bestowal; they simply unfold naturally under the impact of the upper force that pushes everything to evolve.

But when in this corporeal world I reach a state when I want to take an active part in my development, the question about the meaning of life arises in me. And from this moment on, I start seeking the answer.

Yet, it is all so that I start activating the spiritual reality. At the instant I become ready for it, I will discover the part of reality that was activated by me. It is what you can regard as your first spiritual degree.

Hence, all our actions must begin with corporeality, with the idea that I force myself to influence the environment and the environment influences me in all possible forms by using all available forces and capacities, as it is written: “All that you can do, do!”, meaning grab any opportunity, no matter what it may be.

After all, if you perform all these actions in the material form, that is, without the correct conscious participation, you still awaken this reality. This is the way it is built.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/11 on Prayer

Man Can Attain The Creator’s Mind

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen the created being starts to clarify what free will is, he sees that if the property of bestowal in him is above the property of receiving, then the former leads him to the truth and freedom! Thereby, the created being chooses bestowal since he understands that only bestowal carries completeness and independence from one’s desires, meaning the absolute truth that is above the Creator as well as the creature.

Man achieves such an exalted state. After all, both the Creator and the creature reside in their corresponding properties: those of the Creator and the creature. But man has to make a choice that is independent of both these properties.

It looks like the force of the Creator and the force of Creation stand against each other, whereas man performs a unique act regarded as a “prayer.” He makes a choice that lies above both of these forces. Thereby, his new desire (Kli) is produced in which the property of receiving and the property of bestowal, or the attribute of the Creator and the attribute of the creature, unify as one above these properties.

This is how man receives a unique result: He finds the Creator’s Keter. It is not the Creator’s acts by which man himself is made, but rather His thoughts, the plan that precedes creation. This is an outcome of the middle line that rises above the first two: the right and the left, the properties of the Creator and those of the created being, which reach man in action. But in the middle line, man rises above the beginning of Creation.

Herein unfolds a new opportunity given to the created being: to rise above all existing forces and properties. Indeed, all forces, properties, desires, information genes, everything that exists in the universe and is revealed to us—the matter of reception, the force of bestowal—are only the instruments to bring the creature to more exalted notions preceding the act of Creation.

Hence, in every state where the creature needs to make a correct choice, it feels totally helpless relative to the point that precedes its entire birth. It needs to discern the vessels and the Lights, the desire to receive pleasure that it possesses and the desire to bestow, while the choice lies above both of them.

The prayer is born when the created being realizes that in the state that he has reached as a result of all of his discernments, he does not and cannot have any chance to rise above these equally valuable options and make a decision. Here the Creator has the final say!

We think we need the Creator only to defeat the force of egoism with our own force of bestowal, to dethrone Pharaoh. But there is more to this than a simple confrontation of desires when man stands between the two forces: the Creator and Pharaoh. The essence is not in clarifying who is more powerful and thus will win, but rather in unifying both of these forces as one in the middle line and ascending over them.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/11 on Prayer

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A Unique Copyright

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe see that discussions on education taking place around the world leave us helpless. Nobody knows what to do about it. Everyone raises their hands. And this is why we need to grow stronger and emphasize this topic, highlighting its importance in our eyes, showing that we have a position and an understanding, a method that comes from Nature itself.

On one hand, we can prove that all our principles come from Nature. But on the other, we deliberately build on this foundation, wishing for every individual and for society as a whole to reach a certain correspondence with nature and become Human, similar to the Creator.

If we openly, seriously, and boldly demonstrate this to everyone, nobody will be able to resist it. After all, this is the place of our only free choice, and this is why humanity is so confused and lost in this area. The Creator left it to us. We are able to make everything else work one way or the other, with one exception: We do not know how to give people Light in their lives so that they can find their optimal place in it. To do this nowadays, we need to know the entire system and understand what the upper force demands of us.

We expect that the method of education will open the doors for us to different mass media channels and Internet portals, and that the governments, the UN, and UNESCO will finally hear us. And the process is already rolling since no one can steal this “copyright” from us even if they were to repeat it word for word. This is because they lack a method to realize childhood and adult education, a method that applies to all the people around the world, the method that everyone can use because in practice, human education goes straight from the upper Light to the human soul.

This is why we have joined the International Year of Youth announced by the UN. Let us hope for this to advance us and spread the method of correction around the world with the help of our groups and mentors. The method of Kabbalah can definitely be referred to as an educational method, the method of shaping a Human.
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From Lesson 3, Metzoke Dragot Convention 2/25/2011

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Creation Swimming In An Ocean Of Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere are only two forces in the universe: the force of bestowal—the Creator, and the force of reception—creation. They begin from the state one opposite the other where the force of the Creator is infinite, like an ocean of Light that is at eternal rest. And the force of creation begins with a small point inside this Light of Infinity.

The Creator’s aim is to raise this point so it will become as big as the Light and equal to it in every way both in size and quality. This will mean that the good and generous Creator has carried out his good and benevolent action—the action of bestowal.

Therefore, the Creator gives creation all of the qualities that are present in the desire to receive pleasure, in opposition to what is present in the Creator, in the desire to bestow, so creation would independently decide and freely choose the state of the Creator, bestowal, as the highest and most desirable quality compared to everything that is present in creation. Even if it received the opportunity to acquire infinite fulfillment for its own sake, it would prefer to remain empty just to be closer to the quality of bestowal.

On this path creation has to go through an enormous amount of discernments, but they can all be divided into two parts: quantitative understanding and qualitative understanding. All the work of creation lies in realizing its evil. It has to understand how bad its egoistic quality of reception is compared to the Creator’s quality of bestowal.

And the reason it is bad is not because it causes creation to suffer. In that case creation would choose bestowal egoistically. Yet these discernments of good and evil should not depend on the desires of creation itself, meaning it cannot choose something that it would be able to enjoy naturally.

The choice has to be made from a point that is independent of your own desires so you would prefer bestowal for the sake of this quality because it is the most exalted one. And it shouldn’t happen because you plan to receive some kind of fulfillment or benefit from it.

Therefore, on this path creation always starts by asking, “Who is the Creator so I would listen to His voice?” And “What will I receive for all of this work?” That is, it reveals all of its desire, the entire vessel (Kli) and its size as well as quality, attains itself, and demands natural fulfillment according to its egoistic qualities.

Then it works by analyzing its desires from within, and reaches the understanding that it is completely limited and aspires only toward its own pleasure, which is therefore false. Under these conditions, it cannot objectively value the truth.

And when it tries to reach the truth in order not to depend on its own desires, to “hang” between the sky and the earth, it sees itself as “half sinner and half righteous” like on the scale of justice. From here on, creation already starts working on its own free choice.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/11 on Prayer

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