Entries in the 'Kabbalistic Sources' Category

Kabbalists On Spiritual Work In The Group, Part 16

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Right Conduct at the Assembly of Friends

We should know that “Two is the least plural.” This means that if two friends sit together and contemplate how to enhance the importance of the Creator, they already have the strength to receive enhancement of the greatness of the Creator.
– The Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “The Agenda of the Assembly

One can obtain the desire to bestow only by annulling one’s egoism in the group, and from love of friends, one can reach love of the Creator, meaning wanting to give contentment to the Creator. It turns out that only in this does one obtain a need and understanding that bestowing is important and necessary, and this comes to him through love of friends.
– The Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “Love of Friends
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Kabbalists On Spiritual Work In The Group, Part 15

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Writers’ Envy Increases Wisdom

A person has qualities that his parents bequeathed to their children, and he has qualities that he acquired from the society, which come to him only through bonding with the society and the envy that he feels toward the friends when he sees that they have better qualities than his own….

Thus, through the society, he gains new qualities that he adopts by seeing that they are at a higher degree than his, and he is envious of them.
– Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “Concerning Above Reason

“Counters’ envy increases wisdom” because when one looks at the friends as being at a high level, both in thoughts and in actions, it is natural that one must raise his degree to a higher level. …Thus, now he has new qualities that society has procreated in him.
– Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “Concerning Above Reason”
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Kabbalists On Spiritual Work In The Group, Part 14

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Principles of Spiritual Work in the Group

He who thinks that he is deceiving his friend, is really deceiving the Creator, since besides man there is only the Creator. This is because it is the essence of creation that man is called “creature” only with respect to himself. The Creator wants man to feel that he is a separated reality from Him; but except for that, it is all “the whole earth is full of His glory.”

Hence, when lying to one’s friend, one is lying to the Creator; and when saddening one’s friend, one is saddening the Creator.
– Baal HaSulam, Shamati (I Heard), Article no. 67, “Depart from Evil”
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Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Principles of Spiritual Work in the Group

The benefit of the society is that it can introduce a different atmosphere in which one can bestow.
– The Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “Concerning the Importance of Friends”

It turns out that each and every one must be attentive and think how he can help his friend raise his spirit because regarding the mood, anyone can find a needy place in one’s friend, which he can fill.
– The Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, "They Helped Every One His Friends"
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Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Principles of Spiritual Work in the Group

There should be careful watch in the society, disallowing frivolity among them, since frivolity ruins everything.
– The Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “Purpose of Society (2)”

Only one’s friend can uplift one’s spirit, turn around one’s bad mood so that one begins to acquire confidence and wealth once more in life and feels that the goal is now near him.
– The Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “They Helped Every One His Friend”

To be integrated in one another, each person should annul himself before the others. This is done by each seeing the friends’ merits and not their faults. But one who thinks that he is a little higher than the friends can no longer unite with them.
– The Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “Purpose of Society (2)”
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Rise Above All Differences

Dr. Michael LaitmanRather than existing in this tiny part of reality, when a person wishes to break through to its second part, the eternal and perfect part, then he has several means to do it: teacher, group, and books. The teacher explains that such an opportunity exists. He explains that it can be realized with the help of a group where everyone strives toward the perception of the true, perfect reality, and with the books that speak of the same perfect reality.

When we try to be together, it’s as though every person comes out of himself, out of his ego, because he must feel that he exists in the others. Then, when he tries to be above himself, in the others, connected with them, and he reads about the perception of reality in bestowal, this is the way he makes himself similar to the future state, as if he were already there.

To the extent of his aspiration, he evokes the second force from there that exists in reality, the force of bestowal, besides the small force of reception given to him from nature. Then, the force of bestowal comes and makes the changes in him.

A person can perceive these changes as an additional force of reception that comes to him, instead of the force of bestowal that changes him, and this type of perception is also correct. However, besides that, he attains the same force of bestowal. In this way, man advances, sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left, but driven by the same force of bestowal.

He must attain this force of bestowal together with the force of reception. These two forces begin to be revealed to man as two lines, the right and the left. Then, man advances, sometimes in a state of descent and sometimes in a state of ascent. He does not know yet what descent and ascent are exactly, and so far, he identifies them by his current sensations.

However, as time goes by, he begins to feel that he needs to use these two lines by being between them. In this way, he takes control of them and begins to combine them in the middle line.

Essentially, our entire work consists of studying together, wishing to connect with one another in our hearts, and aspiring toward unity above all the disagreements and differences because all of these things only concern our animate existence, which stays here in this world. We want to connect together in our desires, our points in the heart, above these things.

When we read The Zohar with this intention, the book speaks of our corrected states, about the way we reveal the quality of bestowal in the connection between us which is the same as the Creator, the Light, the spiritual world, the upper world. For this reason, every person must imagine this state when reading The Zohar.
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From the lesson on 8/12/11, The Zohar

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Kabbalists On Spiritual Work In The Group, Part 11

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Power of Bonding

However, by assembling a few people who agree that they have to achieve love of others, when they annul themselves before one another, they are all intermingled. Thus, in each person there accumulates a great force, according to the size of the society. And then they can execute the love of others in actual fact.
– The Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”

The greater the number of the collective, the more effective is the power of the collective. In other words, they produce a stronger atmosphere of greatness and importance of the Creator.
– The Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “The Agenda of the Assembly”

A person has a desire for spirituality within him, but his own desire is probably not big enough for him not to need to enhance it so he can work with it to obtain the spiritual goal. …This is done by bonding with people whom he sees that also have a need for spirituality. This way, in addition to the desire that he has from within, he receives a desire for spirituality that they beget in him, and then he acquires a great desire with which he can reach the goal.
– The Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “Mighty Rock of My Salvation”
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The Crisis Is Here For Our Own Good!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: At a time when governments are unable to govern, economists are unable to regulate, and nations are in disarray, both on their own and because of the manipulation coming from virtual networks, the world is facing a threatening lack of instability. What can bring this ship that’s out in a stormy sea back into balance?

Answer: Right now the global, integral, universal interdependence between everyone is being revealed in our world more and more clearly, and it’s happening in all areas and dimensions of human activity. This global interconnection is paralyzing all of our efforts to regulate anything by the outdated, forceful political, economic, and social methods.

The only way we know to control things is egoistically, within a discrete system, by considering the source of pressure, the object of pressure, and the goal. But the world has acquired an integral, analog form of universal, mutual dependence. This is the expression of the next level of development in humanity—the state of total interaction between parts of one organism. This is the evolutionary plan of our development by nature, the plan of evolution.

The appearance of the altruistic image of our next degree of development within our egoistic, individualistic society is bringing to light our opposition to that image. This is the essence of the crisis, our lack of correspondence to the next level.

We will have to assimilate our next state either by the path of suffering or through realization and purposeful efforts. Either way, we will have to study it and change ourselves to suit its demands for the same reason that creatures that were unable to adapt to new conditions and demands from nature went extinct. But nature has planned our ascent to this level—the attainment of harmony with nature. To accomplish that, we have to become integrally interconnected as one whole, as all of nature. In our language this demand means, “everyone loves everyone,” and “everyone is included in everyone.”

The way to carry out this demand from nature is by applying the method of our egoistic correction called “Kabbalah,” which comes from the word “to receive or acquire,” to acquire new, altruistic qualities.

Many thousands of years ago, in every generation there were separate individuals who acquired these qualities and felt the new level of humanity’s development. This is described in authentic Kabbalistic sources. We cannot understand them because they describe a different structure of interconnections among people, their relationships of love and bestowal, called the soul, their sensation of unity and commonality, which is called the upper world, the following dimension.

However, we can use their instructions to change ourselves, to make ourselves suitable to the new conditions, and thus to start feeling the next level of the world—its harmony, eternity, and perfection. Then we will be convinced that nature’s goal is perfect just like nature.
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Kabbalists On Spiritual Work In The Group, Part 10

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

The Power of Bonding

If one does not have any desire and craving for spirituality, if he is among people who have a desire for spirituality, if he likes these people, he, too, will become imbued with their desires, and…he will receive new aspirations and powers.
– Baal HaSulam, Shamati (I Heard), Article No. 99, “He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous”

The advice for one to be able to increase his strength in the rule, “Love thy friend,” is love of friends. If every one is nullified before his friend and mingles with him, they become one mass, where all the little parts that want the love of others unite in a collective force that consists of many parts. And when he has great strength, he can execute the love of others. And then he can achieve the love of the Creator.
– The Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”
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Kabbalists On Spiritual Work In The Group, Part 9

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

Unity of the Friends

The path of spiritual development is possible only by being in a group where there is love of friends and where everyone can help his friend to move forward specifically by this path.
The Rabash, Rabash—the Social Writings, “The Love of Friends

Awaken within you fear of chilling the love between us. …It is similar to how a person who receives a gift has to make an effort to ensure that the feeling of love towards the person who gave the gift does not fade over time, that it remains as strong as at the moment the gift was given.
– Baal HaSulam, A Sage’s Fruit, Vol. 1, “Letter no. 2”
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