Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

The Group Is My Voice

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is my dialogue with the Creator connected to a group?

Answer: Through the group I learn the language by which the Creator speaks to me. What I receive through the world is conveyed to me in the language of Kabbalah. Yet I am not ready to answer the Creator by myself because I am not ready to create the world and influence it.

The Creator creates the reality within me, in my brain and emotions, and so I feel the world and myself. This is how the Creator created reality and speaks to me.

So that I will be able to answer Him, I need a different language, my private language. The speech is created with the help of the five parts of the lungs, and five articulations of the mouth, tongue, palate, and throat. There are also different groups of sounds depending on the pronunciation: teeth, palate, throat, lips, and tongue.

The mechanism of speech is a very unique system. It is not by chance that the level of Adam (man) is called the “speaking.” Our brain and our mechanism of speech are tightly connected. Through the throat, the lungs, and the mouth, I convey to others, the thoughts that I have in my brain. And others are able to hear them. This means that there are two separate mechanisms: one for speech and the other, which is completely different, for hearing. These are very profound matters.

I receive the entire picture of reality from the Creator through my five senses, which are seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling, and I then answer Him. But how am I ready to answer Him if all of my senses work on the basis of receiving information? How should I react to His turning towards me?

I cannot do this by myself, but only by means of a unique Kli (vessel) that I have built for myself called integral desire. This obliges me to bend my ego and connect with the friends, which is completely against my nature.

Even so, I try to do this, and in this way, I build an additional sense through which I can converse with the Creator. This will become my spiritual mouth, and then the Creator will hear me. He speaks with me by way of the entire world within which I am found. And I speak with Him through the integral sense, which is the group. I have no other mechanism through which I can convey information to the Creator.

When I am within the group and connected to it, I activate my inner senses. They begin to activate not my physical senses, like seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching, but all of my desires and all of my thoughts. It follows that when I am included in a group, through it I fully activate all of myself and all of my inner aspirations.

Through the center of the group, I send my complete likeness to the Creator, just as He shows me a complete picture of the world and myself through the group in which are integrated all kinds of thoughts and various sensations. I speak with the Creator, “out loud.”

If I were to receive from the Creator the picture that I send to Him by way of the center of the group, I would see that this is also a picture of the world. Indeed this is my reaction to what He arranges for me in my life. The whole essence of the impressions and experiences of myself and the world, from all the experience that I have gathered, passes through the center of the group and is absorbed by the Creator.

That is how we begin to carry on a dialogue. The Creator turns to me in the form of the entire world, including the group and myself, and I turn to Him through the center of the group.
[134775]
From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 2

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How To Rise Above The Power Of Pain

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There are various levels of concealment. Why is it that we sometimes go through states that are so painful that we cannot think of anything besides the pain and thus detach from the Creator?

Answer: At times, the work can be done in the state of concealment; sometimes it is not so. It depends on the type of concealment. It so happens that every now and then, all one is going through is just physical pain. The Light impacts this person’s desire and demonstrates a lack of health and tremendous physical suffering.

According to the physical affliction, one remains at the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels. One does not, as yet, ascend to a speaking level. In other words, the Light illuminates to this person only the first three stages but doesn’t reach the fourth level, since the fourth phase is a human state; i.e., a state when a person has already established a connection with the Creator.

If the Light embraces only the first three levels, one feels pain and nothing else. However, if the Light illuminates one additional level (the speaking level), one starts understanding that the origin of one’s pain is the Creator. In other words, this person stays in concealment because he senses affliction instead of benevolence. And yet, to some extent one attains some degree of revelation because one realizes that the Creator is the origin of one’s suffering. It means that one can already deal with one’s troubles.

Everything depends on the Light. When the Light stops working, people turn into animals. When the Light shines, even a little on us, we become just slightly similar to human beings, to the people that we will become in the future. At least we establish some connection with the upper governance.

Are we able to control this state? It is possible only within the group; nothing else will help. If one is used to being a part of the group, then even if one becomes subjected to this kind of the Creator’s impact and even if one doesn’t feel anything except pain that in one’s eyes is not connected with Him in any way, with the help of one’s friends, one can quickly wake up and connect with the Creator.

If one is not a part of a group, one will inevitably fall under the power of pain and severe problems, nor will one be able to advance until the Upper Force takes pity on him. This natural developmental program continues working and continuously modifies the states we go through.
[134595]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/14, Writings of Rabash

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The Missing Element In The World Mosaic

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion:  Why is it said that the truth can be seen only from the opposite side, the darkness? Do we ever perceive anything except deceit?

Answer: All we see is the deficiency that has to be filled with our correct attitude to the Creator. In this context, the truth is a revelation of an empty space that has to be filled with our love of the Creator and our correct attitude to the absence of revelation.

The Creator discloses a fragment of the entire picture to us, and we have to figure out what form of bestowal we are supposed to discover in the piece of the puzzle we are given. We can do it through work in the group, dissemination, and the states we go through.

We can only guess what particular shape we have to choose to fill the empty space in the puzzle. We have to make a decision when we see a cloud above and the earth below the empty space or the grass and a small part of a tree on either side. So I imagine what’s in the middle of the puzzle , i.e., what form of bestowal it is. If we work with our deficiencies in this manner, we will eventually find out what’s missing.

The process of working with the deficiencies described above is called “a revelation.” The Creator shows us the place of the deficiency; He unveils and illuminates it for us. That’s why we begin sensing the deficiency. The Creator influences our will to receive by the Light of Hassadim (mercy). Our will to receive rejects the Light of Mercy. However, the lack of a desire “impresses” the will to receive and it manifests in various forms.

This is the way a negative picture is built in us. Our task is to flip it and transform it into a correct and positive form.

We can only guess what particular form of bestowal is missing in the world and in our relationships with others. In fact, the overall bestowal that dresses in this world is the Creator. We can only imagine what this form is, but we are unable to fill the empty spaces without the Creator, and therefore we need His assistance.

Thus, a need to disclose the Giver’s shape appears in us. We want the world in this missing fragment of the puzzle to be corrected, reaching the state of mutual bestowal. This is how we gradually complete the puzzle.
[134537]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/14, Writings of Rabash

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A Chain That Leads From Malchut To Bina

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How should we form our prayer? Should we start from a request to help the upper more, the fathers, the group, and mention myself only at the end?

Answer: This is exactly how we should form our prayer and we have to learn that. But at the moment, you can turn to the Creator any way you like, as long as it comes from the center of the group. We will gradually format our collective appeal correctly.

A prayer is not a simple appeal. You will have to place yourself in an increasingly more accurate manner that is established by several steps. Each appeal is a whole chain of adaptors, of connections, which at one end connects to you, then processes your request several times and makes it adaptable to the upper level.

It is a whole system. A prayer isn’t just words, but the order of two vessels (since a letter is a vessel), which on the one hand, are adaptable to you, and, on the other hand, to the Creator. You have to build this chain, starting from ZAT of Bina that takes care of you, until Malchut, in which you are incorporated when you rise from the system of the worlds of the shell.

In order to do that, you have to use the 22 letters of the (Hebrew) alphabet correctly and the five final letters “MNTZPCH”, so that your prayer in the form of the spiritual vessels, which means that is made of the letters that are correctly arranged, will attain the Creator (God), ZAT of Bina.

We don’t know how to do that, but we gradually form our prayer by our experience. Kabbalists who lived during the time of the Temple prepared the Siddur (book of prayers) for us. The time of the Temple was the time that the Holy vessels existed, in which Malchut and Bina were connected, which is called the house of Holiness, the Temple. A house is Malchut and a Temple is Bina.

The great Kabbalists of that time made up the great Knesset (assembly), which means that they were connected into one vessel and were on a level of greatness, in great spiritual attainment. They are the ones who wrote the Siddur for us.

We will attain these prayers some day, but Kabbalists wrote them for us in advance. If we express them, whether we understand them or not, thinking in this direction, we still advance. If we read the prayers correctly, which means that we perceive these appeals in a spiritual manner, we can see great things in them.

Kabbalists express their appeals in two ways: one through words, which means in a sequence of letters, and the other in the form of symbols, simply letters with a filling. The form of every letter is a whole HaVaYaH, which means ten Sefirot, with a special Reshimo (spiritual gene), in a special state, and this is why they wrote the prayers.

My work is how to adhere more to the group, to the Rav, to the books, to dissemination, to everything that is relevant to the Light. There are no other means, but these are enough.
[133677]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/04/14, Writing of Rabash

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A Sign Of Pain

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When the Light illuminates us, it is easy to be disengaged from our ego and look at it from the side. But what can I do if things are bad for me and I am entirely within my ego?

Answer: If things are bad for me within my ego, why don’t I use this to help me to get away from it?

Question: But it hurts!

Answer: It hurts because you are stuck in this feeling. Why can’t you disengage and leave it so that you can look at it from the side?

This is the whole difference between the path of Torah and the path of suffering. If I don’t prepare myself, I become stuck with a bad feeling. But if I have prepared myself, then the bad feeling helps me to disengage and get away from this bad feeling and adhere more to the group.

This is the dividing point between the two ways. Everything depends on preparation. Then I accept bad things as good, as gifts, and I bless them.

I don’t need to artificially bless the bad as well as the good . Rather, both the bad and the good help me to run forward. It is as if I am sick and feel pain; this helps me to turn to a doctor immediately and show him exactly where it hurts.

We suspect that I am sick, but we cannot determine where the painful area is. So the pain shows me the problem area, so I am happy about the pain. I go to the doctor and show him where it hurts me and then he heals me.

So I see a sign of advancement, of healing in the pain. Without it I would not be able to advance. I don’t feel the pain itself, except as an indicator of correction and advancement; and I am happy about this!

This pain is felt completely differently, since it is not felt as pain and suffering, but as a sign. It is all the subtlety of a psychological perception in the mind. Try to relate to it in this way and you will see that there are no pains, but instead, there is a traffic light that turns red.

Everything depends on my relationship to this traffic light. Sometimes I am angry at it and am ready to kill it, and sometimes I perceive this in a relaxed manner, only as a sign. I even want this pain to come me, “I awaken the dawn.” To me, signs of malfunction are desirable because then I advance through them.

My work is how to adhere more to the group, to the Rav, to the books, to dissemination, and to everything that is relevant to the Light. There are no other means, but these are enough.
[134483]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/04/14, Writing of Rabash

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With Faith In Merit

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should our intention be when we read The Book of Zohar?

Answer: When we study different sources, we discuss our desires, problems, successes, and failures. Now we begin to read The Book of Zohar in order to discover all our deficiencies: those that we feel and those that we don’t feel, the conscious and the unconscious, the exposed and the forgotten. We want to correct all that.

What is correction? We don’t really understand others and are quite confused. Where is the correction supposed to come from? We don’t know and it is concealed from us. Therefore it is called merit.

We simply ask for correction and that’s it! When this happens we will see what it means. But we can already ask, like a baby whose mother understands when he cries and gives him what he wants or needs; although he cannot express his request by even one word, she understands what he needs by his voice.

It is the same with animals. On the whole, on every level, the lower level doesn’t know and cannot understand the upper level. The request of the lower isn’t realistic and is of course, incorrect with regard to the upper. But the difference between the levels compensates for this flaw and corrects it.

So it makes no difference if our request isn’t clear and isn’t expressed correctly. It is still accepted. There will always be a gap between the upper and the lower who cannot ask for what the upper has. If we had the desires of the upper, we would already be in His place.

I have my own desires and I only need to ask in order to receive. The request of the lower from the upper is compatible with the abilities of the lower, and the response of the upper is compatible with the abilities of the upper. The difference between them is called merit.

It is impossible to feel the influence of the merit directly. A person performs many actions: he works in the group, in dissemination, in the kitchen, prepares the room for the lesson, and it is clear to him that he invests his own powers here. But when he simply sits and listens to what is read, it seems that nothing happens.

Here we need faith in the sages, according to which there is no stronger source of Light than The Book of Zohar. We don’t see and don’t feel it, but it’s real. We simply have to keep on reading it, even half an hour a day, and it works. Let the Light operate in you.

We only see the outcomes in our desires, but we don’t know how the Light works. It is like electricity that we don’t actually know, but if we connect different appliances to it: an engine, a lamp, or a measuring device, we will see that electricity is flowing in the network. But it is invisible in and of itself, and we discover it only by its actions. Therefore, it is called the force that operates in the created being who is managed by this force.
[134746]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/02/14, The Book of Zohar

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Puzzle “Adam HaRishon”

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe system of Adam HaRishon (First Man) consisted of one desire which later was broken and divided into 600,000 pieces, like a puzzle. All of these parts are now separated by various obstacles in that they do not feel their connection and do not want to be connected. They hate and repel one another. We can see this from people’s behavior in this world.

We have to correct this disconnection and become connected. First we study our breakage, and after that we study the opposite, connection. We begin to get to know the Creator and His actions from comparing these two actions.  This is called “knowing the Creator through His actions.” As a result of our study, we elevate ourselves to the level of the Creator. We understand the thought of the creation, its purpose, and everything from the beginning to the end. We elevate ourselves higher than the creation.

The entire creation, everything that has happened to it and will happen, exists within this square, this puzzle. If we know how to match the parts of this puzzle, how to connect them together, we come to know everything about the creation and the Creator who created it. All we have to do is to put this puzzle together.
[134848]
From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 3

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All Of Us Are Equal, Like Children To Their Mother

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen we come to a convention, we find ourselves in the company of people who are strangers whom we have never seen before. We don’t feel and don’t understand each other, but this is not important. If I know that I must connect with others in order to connect to the Creator, then I can enter any group.

It doesn’t concern me who is sitting there, from what country they come, or even what language they speak. The main thing for me is to participate emotionally and internally in this circle.

It is not important to me if we are speaking the same language and we know each other well, if we are close friends or seeing each other for the first time. This doesn’t change anything. The main thing is to rise above our ego and to want to be integrated into their circle in order to attain unity and through it, to let the Creator hear what we want.

So the rules of conduct in a group or at the time of a workshop are as follows:

  1. Nobody thinks about himself. There is no me!
  2. Everyone must feel that the rest of the friends are greater than himself (I < 9). In everything, the friends are higher than I am and I disappear in them as the smallest.
  3. Connection above all of our particular, personal characteristics is the Kli (vessel) in which the Creator is discovered. For the Creator (Bore) is “Come and See” (Bo Re); this means that we reach this state and find the Creator there. So our Kli is equal to the Creator. To the degree of the intensity of the Kli, its power (Bo), I can discover the Creator (Re). There is no measurement of the Creator. We don’t know His true measurements. But we discover Him according to how much we have prepared our Kli (Bo): to this degree we see Him (Re).
  4. At the time of the workshop nobody disagrees with the opinion of another. There are no questions: Each one only adds (10 = 1 + 1 + 1 …). What is important is the pluses and not the ones. The one whose turn is next only adds to the previous one, and nobody argues.

Even if I haven’t succeeded in rising above my critical attitude and it seems to me that someone else said something wrong, I must immediately correct myself. If I hear that a friend said something wrong, this means that I am not okay.

So everyone only adds and adds to what was said by the others. Someone can give some kind of conjecture, I continue, and then comes the next one in turn. So we constantly add. There are no great or small in our connection, all are equal.

It doesn’t matter what kind of seniority one has in a group, young or old, or more or less understanding. Among all of our physical characteristics in this world there is nothing that can violate our equality. In the spiritual world, all of us are equal, like children to their mother.
[134844]
From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day Two 5/10/14, Lesson 2

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Connection For The Sake Of Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanOne must not think that our connection only makes it possible to pass the time pleasantly, or even think that this is an unnecessary burden.

We know that the first one was created by a vessel filled with one Light. However, in such a form, the creature (1) doesn’t feel what fills it (2) it feels itself and its life, but not the source of life, meaning it exists only on the level of the still.


So that the creature will reach a state where it perceives the higher power that created it and become like it, eternal and whole, it needs to receive the same characteristic, the same nature as the higher power.

How is it possible to do this? The higher power is absolute bestowal, and the lower power, the creature, is the power of reception. It follows that it is necessary to raise the creature that is only made up of a desire to receive, “created as something from nothing” and who doesn’t think about anything besides being filled, to the level of the higher power, the nature of the Creator.

So the creature was shattered into a multitude of fragments, let’s say seven billion people, as much as there are in all of humanity. And they are all distant and separated from each other due to the egoistic power found in them. This ego is opposite to the power of Light, meaning that it is equal to the minus of the power. Rejection between us is the opposite of the Creator. So if all of us connect together, the Creator is discovered in our characteristics that have transformed to become like Him.

So the Creator (Bore) is called, “come and see” (Bo Re), meaning, come to such a state within which you will see Him in your corrected feelings and characteristics.

So we were born after the shattering of the soul, which is explained as the transgression of the first man with the Tree of Knowledge. And all of our correction is through the transformation of hatred to love. Hatred is our power of separation (Delta). If we turn it into the opposite emotion, we discover that we are on the level of the Creator.

This is an eternal and perfect level that we must attain, and we reach this only through actual connection.
[134688]
From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day One 5/9/14, Lesson 1

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Where Does The Sixth Sense Exist?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where does the sixth sense exist? Is it also within me?

Answer: The sixth sense does not exist within us, but in the center of the group. A group is called an assembly of people who are ready to renounce their egoism for the sake of uniting with one another in the center of the group and there reveal the common sensation and common mind.

This common sensation and mind revealed in the center of the group is called a spiritual vessel where the Creator is manifested. This is our spiritual level, the upper non-corporeal life.

Even when the body dies, we will not feel as dead because we have found life within the common upper system.
[134755]
From the Convention In France “One For All And All For One,” Day One 5/09/14, Lesson 1

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