Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

This Moment Was Created By A Higher Power

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll the difficulties in our life are derived from not organizing support for ourselves that reminds us that, in each and every moment, we are given a situation that a higher power arranges for us. And every situation like this is a condition where we must discover that it is coming from the Creator in order to discover Him.

We must relate to every moment in our lives as coming from the Creator and understand that these are all different forms of concealment that are given to us, so that through our efforts, we will try to get out of them.

The higher power arranges every moment in life for us, and at every moment we ask for only one thing: to discover the Creator in order to adhere to Him under every condition, whether it is, bestowal or reception, in order to bestow under a Tzimtzum (restriction) no matter what.

In fact, our work is divided into several parts. The first and main part is organizing all kinds of support for myself so as to not ever forget from where everything comes. By myself, I will never be able to clarify that everything comes from the Creator.

To discover the Creator there must be a group, for the Creator is a collective power that is revealed among us. Therefore, there must be a network of connections between us, and being in it, I will not be able to forget that I get every condition from the higher power, and that from the start, there exists some kind of small illumination in our system.

And then the group corrects me to such a state that I feel a certain illumination within our connection that comes from Above. Further development of this state brings me more and more deeply into it, and there within this depth, I understand that I must discover the Creator in this state, through a request.

This request is our shared request and is composed of several friends with whom I am connected, and through them, we are concerned that this system will begin to live and reveal within it the inner power that created and shaped it from the start and is then revealed according to our request. The main thing is to go back as quickly as possible at each and every moment to an “awareness” that this moment was placed before us by a higher power.
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From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/2014

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Where Is It Better To Go: To A Convention Or To A Concert?

Dr. Michael LaitmanA Question about the One for All and All for One Convention in Paris:

Question: What is the difference between a gathering of people for a Kabbalistic convention and a musical concert?

Answer: Every gathering is nice in and of itself, but I prefer to be among people with whom I can gain the most.

If I go to a concert, I will pass the time pleasantly. If I go to sit in a restaurant with relatives and coworkers, it will also be pleasant and good for me.

I spend much more time at a convention, almost three days. But I can gain immeasurably more there, which is part of the next world. I can gain something that is not found in our world, something much higher, eternal, that cannot even be compared to anything that is found here!

Therefore, it is necessary to consider this well. A concert, this is good. A restaurant, this is also not bad, but a convention can give the possibility of receiving something that I will not get in any other way. So think: is it worthwhile to miss an opportunity like this?

I don’t attract anyone by force, but I think that for everyone it is worthwhile to take account of what they benefit by coming to the convention. A person receives and gains eternity, which is an immense and complete world. He should consider whether it is worthwhile to come for this.

This doesn’t keep him from sitting with friends in a restaurant or going to a concert. But if he allocates time in his life both for this and for that, what is left of life for him? This life must end; there is no doubt about this. So he should consider what is left for him in this life. What does he gain by being alive and existing in the form of some protein matter in this world for a number of years? Does he gain something that is beyond this life or not?
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/14, Writings of Rabash

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It Is Impossible To Build A Spiritual Partzuf Without Uniting The People

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is the task of uniting the people connected to building our spiritual Partzuf?

Answer: First of all, we arrange a small part, all who belong to the spiritual Israel: all of our friends throughout the world, all the groups. If we yearn to connect between us, we are building the spiritual Partzuf, but this Partzuf is very small. This is only Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE).

So that GE will have power, we must connect the AHP to us. In GE, there is the Aviut (thickness) of 0-1-2-3-4. Also, in the Light of Hassadim, there is its NRNHY. So, we are compelled to organize external dissemination. It is written about this that people will take the children of Israel on their shoulders and will bring them to Jerusalem to build the Temple. As it is written, “And the peoples shall take them, and bring them to their place; and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Creator” (Isaiah 14:2), as well as, “…and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.” (Isaiah 49:22).

In this form, we rise to the height of the Temple. However, when we begin to build it, the nations of the world, who brought us there, will enter and be integrated into this building of the true spiritual Partzuf that is built from ten Sefirot into the Malchut of the world of Infinity.

We cannot build our spiritual Partzuf without the people of Israel and without the entire world. But first of all, we need to connect the people of Israel as AHP to our GE.

So, we are involved with dissemination. We simply have no choice because if we don’t disseminate, we ourselves will not grow. We are not talking about growth such that people will join us and be like us as a result of our dissemination efforts. Instead, thanks to serving the people, our GE will grow towards the higher goal.

Question: What will people get from our dissemination?

Answer: If people support us, they will receive Ohr Makif  (Surrounding Light) through us and even a little more than this. Everything depends upon how much they are connected to us. It is even possible to receive inner illumination. Without a doubt, a strong feeling of support, security, and protection will appear.

There is no difference in the Light, whether it is Hochma or Hassadim. Everything depends only on those who receive the Light. If people nullify themselves and connect to us, then they reach the first level, the still, and begin to feel the spiritual power in it.

Question: What else do we require from people besides aligning with us and giving support?

Answer: We need to provide education to the people, not just once, for us to explain what we are doing, and then enlist their support. We must involve everyone in a systematic process of education. Thanks to this, we will grow.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/14, Writings of Rabash

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Work Without Intention Is Also Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is not right to think that there is no benefit from our study and dissemination if we still don’t have the right intention. These actions also advance us. A person’s action cannot be completely without intention. He must see the desired goal before him; this gives him fuel without which he could not advance.

If we act in order to receive, then we have fuel for this, but for the sake of bestowal, we cannot even move. So in the first stage we carry out actions of Lo Lishma with the same egoistic intention that we have, and these actions are useful and help us to advance. In the meantime, we are connected by an inseparable connection with our ego; the upper Light doesn’t make any separation between us.

Since we are in a shattered state, through our actions, we can still attract and summon from above the Parsa, from the world of Atzilut, the Light that Reforms that reaches us through the center of the group, influencing and advancing us. In work like this it seems to a person that he doesn’t advance and doesn’t carry out the right actions. But even though he sees that all the fruits of his work are left with Pharaoh, this is how it has to be, for the advancement in Egypt towards redemption is service under the domination of Pharaoh.

Our ego dominates us and takes all of our energy away from us. And sometimes it gives us energy, but after that, it takes all of the results of our toil. But there’s nothing to do if we are in its servitude; this is the Egyptian exile.

I must not think that the actions that are done under the control of the ego are useless and don’t bring anything. The person must overcome (Itgabrut) this, like a real man (Gever), in order to advance in spite of it all.

The children of Israel had to enter Egypt in order to take Kelim, desires to receive, out from this servitude. If there is no desire, even if it’s destructive, there is nothing to correct and there is nowhere to discover the higher power because the Light corresponds to the Kli.

So it’s necessary to respect the work in Lo Lishma, which is given to us now in the period of the Egyptian exile, and to see that we acquire Kelim precisely through it. We need to look at all this in a balanced way and, on one hand, to respect Pharaoh. As it is said when Jacob entered Egypt, he blessed the Pharaoh, for specifically with the help of Pharaoh we raise from the level of Jacob to the level of Israel through the additional Aviut of the desire that Egypt added. So do not think that it is useless to work without intention, meaning without a true intention to bestow.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/16/14, Writings of Rabash

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Our World – A Station On The Way

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How am I helping in the correction of a person if I explain Abraham’s idea to him?

Answer: Three thousand five hundred years ago all of humanity lived in Babylon. Some of the people understood that it was impossible to continue living as they had been. The crisis that developed obligated them to look for an answer to why and for what purpose they were living.

Their entire lives were destroyed and they became greatly confused. The Babylon of those times was a great empire with around three million inhabitants. Some of them, close to five thousand people, understood that some kind of process exists in nature, a particular formula for the development of matter.

Within matter there is a developmental force that drives and passes it through all of the levels of development and ultimately brings it to the level of the next existence.

Our entire world is a way station. We arrive here, carry out our work, and go on. Some of the Babylonians discovered this and understood that it is possible to make a transition from here to another level of human existence along with the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, which combine together into the level of Adam (Human).

We are talking about desires. We only see desires and only act within them. All of the matter in creation is a desire to receive, including the still, vegetative, animate, and even the essence of Adam. They understood that they must change the method of working with matter, bringing it in line with the higher power that manages it, meaning with the nature within which we are found.

We can be controlled directly by nature, and we can avoid this and want to be like the source of nature. This is the entire difference.

I can be activated egoistically by some source, which is the Creator. If I exist in this form, then I feel the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate existence, and I lack the level of Adam.

The level of Adam is when I erase everything that I receive from the Creator and become like Him. This is an absolutely different level of existence. This is not the still, vegetative, and animate, but the fourth level, the level of Adam.

The important principle is that I can constantly receive from the Creator, being activated by Him, and this is the first form of existence. But there can also be a second form of existence where I don’t just want to exist according to the commands of the Creator that activate my ego. In this case, I don’t call Him the “Creator” instead I call Him, “Pharaoh,” the Achoraim (posterior) of the Creator. I want to resemble the Creator and be like Him. To do this I cancel His control, I don’t agree to His activation. This is a true revolution in people’s minds. Some of the Babylonians came to this discovery and accepted this approach. They saw that life was pushing them towards this. The Creator gradually obligated them, sending them problems, a crisis, and bad feelings.

Today, we are again as if in Babylon; life is very bad. And the problem is that we are like the ancient Babylonians who did not know the Creator. Even then, only a small group learned that apparently this action of nature was deliberate and its origin was in the higher power. Today we must learn to understand this in ourselves and then teach the whole world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/14, Talk About Dissemination: Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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Searching For The Brothers

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom Rabash, Article “Love of Friends”: “And the man asked him, saying: ‘What are you seeking?’” meaning, “How can I help you?” “And he said: ‘I seek my brethren.’” By being together with my brothers, that is, by being in a group where there is love of friends, I will be able to mount the trail that leads to the house of God.

“And the man said: ‘They are departed hence.’” And Rashi interpreted that they had departed themselves from the brotherhood, meaning they do not want to bond with you. This, in the end, caused Israel’s exile in Egypt. And to be redeemed from Egypt, we must take it upon ourselves to enter a group that wants to be in love of friends, and by that we will be rewarded with exodus from Egypt and the reception of the Torah.

We need to understand everything written in the Torah in its authentic, spiritual sense. It’s not important what happened with its actual characters since bodies are of no significance. The matter of the creation is a desire that was deliberately broken into many pieces. We have to find by what forces, programs, demands, impacts, adjustments, and actions it is possible to connect all the pieces back into one desire.

We need to look only at our desires and search for how connect them together. Everyone wants something different because otherwise we would be united in one desire. But because we are different, we can only connect above the desires in intention by mutual support.

We have to sense our friends’ desires, needs, expectations, and goals and help them attain their objectives to the best of our ability. We should help our friends implement their desires; this is the only way unity can be achieved.

Although none of us is like the other and each is quite different, but all of us strive to help the other. And so we suddenly, we see that by rising above our desires with the intention to help one another, we connect. Unity does not take place in desires; it happens in the intention. Thus, we build a new vessel of intention that is above our desires. It is like the head (Rosh) of a Partzuf.

When we realize that this work is not in the corporeal bodies or inside our desires, but solely in the intentions, then we begin to feel the need for friends. That’s why the following is written in the Torah about Joseph: “‘I seek my brethren.” In this case, they become vital for us.

If our aspiration is correct, we are granted unity. Previously, we never thought we could attain unity, nor had we ever strived for it until the property named “Yosef” manifested in us. This property collects (Osef) all our intentions. At this time, we are acting with the help of this force called Yosef (Joseph) that acts between us.

We elevate Joseph above everything else; we extend it beyond our egoism and let it govern our nature; in other words, his reign is put over us by appointing him Pharaoh’s (the desire to receive) first assistant. The will to receive is our nature, and Joseph stands above it controlling this desire and reigns over all of this desire, all of Egypt.

At this point, we are able to work correctly with our desire to receive pleasure. This period is called the seven years of satiation. This is the full measure that can possibly reveal our unity under Joseph’s leadership.

After that, a higher step called Jacob descends to Egypt (i.e. enters the will to receive) because it starts acquiring a structure that connects all the brothers, all kinds of desires, together. This is how a vessel called Joseph is built above the desires.

Since we continue workings with the will to receive at the higher levels, seven years of hunger arrive, the poor cities Pitom and Ramses are constructed. It becomes clear to us that it’s impossible to attain unity within an incomplete desire. And then comes the period of famine, the inability to use the will to receive to feed it without keeping it under the screen, under the governance of the power of bestowal.

After acquiring and working with the small force of desire (Aviut), it becomes possible. When Aviut increases, i.e., a new king who never knew Joseph rises in Egypt, this work becomes impossible again since a bigger will to receive is revealed as a result of shattering. The property of Joseph vanishes, and a new stage called Moses appears, to continue the process of correction.

All is centered around collecting the fragments of desires back together. But inside them grows a force that is opposite to the will to receive, the intention to bestow, as assistance by the rule of contraries. Each time we decide what is more important for us, thus we advance to the point of realizing how essential the Higher Force that controls us is. Then, we rise above our desire to receive pleasure and gather at Mount Sinai.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/14

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You Could If You’re Lucky

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can a student who comes to the convention cross the Machsom?

Answer: We must believe that it could happen at any moment. This is called the coming of the Messiah: the Light will come and take us from below upwards. But I cannot promise anyone that this will specifically happen at this convention.

Although everything is possible; we are in our world under the complete control of the Upper Light; anything can happen. When his time comes depends upon the root of a person’s soul.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/14, Writings of Rabash

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The Best Time To Escape

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “The Need for an Action Below”: Thus in the exile in Egypt when Pharaoh bestowed his pleasures upon them, they were enslaved to Pharaoh and could not leave the exile. But when they performed an action, which means that they awoke to come out of exile since this action is considered a matter of free will, then the Creator broke his powers from Above, which means that He took the pleasures by which he enslaved the people of Israel. And when he had nothing to give, it means that the Creator broke his power and burned him in the river of DiNur (Light), which means that He removed all his powers to influence.

This is actually what happened to us after the Zohar convention. During the convention we received a payment and everything was fine. Many people came together and there was a great awakening and we enjoyed and felt pleasure in all our vessels. Then Pharaoh stopped paying us and our ego felt that it was empty.

That is the best time to escape, but instead we fall and lay down motionless. Time after time the desire to receive gives us a little pleasure and then takes everything away and we wither.  But gradually we begin to understand that we cannot depend on it anymore.

It is all a result of the influence of the Upper Light and not the result of our accumulative experience or time. The point here is that it isn’t a matter of time, but of an illumination from Above that operates on us and brings us to a new state. The Light shines and changes the vessel.

If we understand what we are doing as we remain without a payment of pleasure and agree to leave the state and to rise above it, we are ready to bless the state in which we don’t get any benefit, and we don’t depend on Pharaoh, on our ego. Thus we can leave him, break away a little, and draw away from him.

It is actually when you don’t get any pleasure that you should begin to pray, to ask, or bestow if you can. The group should impress you in these states. This is the best time to make an effort.

We mustn’t escape in a time of descent, as we usually do. A descent is an opportunity we are given by Pharaoh in order to escape from him. During this time he doesn’t hold us by his power, and doesn’t bribe us with pleasures. We have to be ready for such states, not sitting at home and watching our lives go by, but rather making efforts and exerting ourselves.

Where can we find the powers to do this? It is actually during the convention when we feel good that we have to get ready for the time when we will surely feel bad and when there will be no payment. This is called a treaty, a mutual guarantee.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/14, Writings of Rabash

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The First Acquaintance With Parts Of My Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If I come to the convention and I don’t know anyone there, will this help me in spiritual advancement?

Answer: You don’t have to know anyone. What will you recognize there: faces, the physical character of the person? None of that matters. What is important to me is that these people have an attraction and inclination towards developing their souls, and that is why they are coming. We will be involved with this development there.

I don’t think that it is necessary to be familiar with these people. It is even better not to be familiar with anyone so as not to pay attention to physical bodies. We need to rise above the bodies and above all materiality and concentrate only on desires for spirituality.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/14, Writings of Rabash

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An Encounter That Can Be Life-Changing

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestions about the One for All and All for One Convention in Paris: 

Question: Can an encounter with a Kabbalist change my life?

Answer: What can change your life is an encounter with the entire group that is gathered at a convention and your connection with it. I don’t want to promise you miracles. The wisdom of Kabbalah is a science that teaches a person how to change himself to be like the Creator.

This is something very serious and not simple. If you want to be involved with this, come to the convention, and if you don’t want it, there is no coercion in spirituality.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/14, Writings of Rabash

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