Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

600,000 Is The Height Of The Final Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does the amount of men necessarily have to reach 600,000 in order for them to come to connection, like the number of men at Mt. Sinai when they received the Torah?

Answer: It isn’t about quantity. It says that there were 600,000 men at the foot of Mt Sinai and around them, women and children, a total of three million people. The number 600,000, however, doesn’t stand for quantity, but rather for the intention to reach Gmar Tikkun (the final correction).

Six is the number of Sefirot in Zeir Anpin, VAK. 1000 stands for Hochma (Wisdom), and 600,000 stands for the height of Arich Anpin.

If all the shattered souls discover that they want to reach mutual guarantee together, they express their request in a cry that they raise to Malchut, to the Sechina. This demand rises from Malchut to Zeir Anpin, in which there are six Sefirot (VAK), and in each one there are ten Sefirot. Because of the desire of the lower one, the six Sefirot of Zeir Anpin rise to a level that is 600,000 times greater than the original one.

It means that the souls want to reach a connection that corresponds to Arich Anpin, the end of correction. They themselves don’t know what the meaning of this connection is, but they want it. So they are considered to be 600,000, and this refers to their desire, not quantity. In spirituality the intensity of the desire is taken into account, and not its quantity.

It can even be two people, after all, it says that two people is a minimal group. And where are all the women, men, and the cattle they took from Egypt, all the vessels they took from Egypt? It is all inside a person!

Each person should feel as if he came out of Egypt and is standing at the foot of Mt. Sinai. But where are all these 600,000 people? How can I count them? They are all inside you.

The Torah tells us about what actually happens inside a person, and not about the number of people that took part in some historical event. It talks only about our inner changes.

On the other hand, there is a law according to which every spiritual root has to expand all the way down and touch its corporeal branch at least once. So there probably were 600,000 men at the foot of Mt. Sinai.

I feel the inner meaning of this concept, and so I can only imagine how it was revealed externally. But you shouldn’t worry that what existed in the past still obliges us today. Once there were the First and Second Temples, the Egyptian exile, but you don’t plan on going back to Egypt, do you?…

Don’t think that there actually have to be 600,000 people at our big convention in December. In spirituality, quality is much more important than quantity, although quantity is also important because today the whole world has to start the process of correction. But don’t think that we have to bring 600,000 people together, not to speak of three million.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Let The Light Reveal Itself And Illuminate The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are standing at the threshold of a very important event: We will ascend and even leap up. We have all the conditions for that.

It truly is a unique state we have been given from Above. It’s not an event that is planned, organized, and thought out for a long time, and then it finally arrives. Rather, there is an “awakening from below” (Itaruta de-Letata) and an “awakening from Above” (Itaruta de-Leila), when an opportunity comes from Above, and the main thing is not to miss that moment!

And that is why we did everything so unexpectedly, and it’s good that our friends from around the world understand that. I truly feel it is a mercy from Above shown to us so that both at the December convention and afterwards, we are prepared to fulfill what has been placed upon us in order to correct the world. That is why such opportunities open to us.

We are very excited. You asked how to maintain the excitement, but it will come from all the friends that will join us here; we will all be excited. And you will be even more excited when you begin to catch these drops of mercy trickling from Above.

Out of this entire state, we have to receive a great deal of strength that will make us ready for the correction of the world. This coming year is truly an extremely decisive and fateful year. Let’s hope that together we’ll actually lead the world out of the deep precipice of the ego in which it finds itself and elevate it to the degree of Bina. Then, we will merit to ascend as well.

Among us are friends who have been with us for many years, and they still maintain that same hope. It’s because they await the collective awakening, the collective realization. It is like a couple with no children, who all the time maintain hope that they will finally have children. So now we are reaching a situation when we will finally be able to carry it out!

I am certain this convention will turn out nicely and well, and we will feel great excitement. And most important is to carry this on to the big convention in December and to reach a great force of connecting there. Connecting is up to us, and what will fill the connection is up to the Creator.

So, let’s hope that we will reach such a big force, such a pressure of connection between us, that the upper Light will truly be revealed to us, at least in its first measure. And then we’ll be able to illuminate the entire world, which is called “to become a light upon the nations,” to all those who still don’t understand or feel much. And then this will draw them near, will attract them. Accordingly, we’ll carry out the order of the Creator and bond with Him. To Life!
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From the talk during the meal before the Convention at the Arava Desert, 11/18/2011

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Just Don’t Interfere!

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Creator awakens us, and He carries everything out, and surely no one in the world can do anything on their own. It is all the upper Light being revealed more and more within us; His force is what acts. We only need to correspond to Him as much as possible, to approach Him, and to make certain inner movements for Him to be revealed within us. This is the most important aspiration.

In truth, a person has to do one thing—just not to interfere. He has to be like a “woman” (that is called the force of a woman), to be the vessel in the hands of the Creator. So let’s hope we will use our male force to overcome ourselves so as to become like “women.”
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From the talk during the meal before the Convention at the Arava Desert, 11/18/2011

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The Creator’s Loudspeaker

Dr. Michael LaitmanYou don’t know the extent to which we are all governed from Above. The teacher here is like a loudspeaker, a part of the upper system, which passes knowledge to you, and not more than that. You don’t thank the speakers for telling you nice things, do you? That’s how you should relate to the teacher. You should respect the device through which you receive a broadcast from Above, but that’s it.

I want to caution you because that is the difference between blind worship and the truth. I feel more than others the extent to which I’m governed from Above, and nothing that I have is my own. I’m being absolutely sincere: I really only fulfill the commands from Above. Man’s sole work is to be governed. And the greater he is, the more he is governed. It is called to be the “slave of God,” which is the degree of Moses.

After all, do not forget that we should try to be sensitive to what the Creator is telling us, telling within us. And we should proceed accordingly. I feel it is drawing near. And then we will ascend to the degree of Bina; we will be able to hear what He is saying, which is already the degree of Bina. And later we will gain “vision.”

So let’s try not to be dependent on the teacher for he is limited and transient. Rather, let us all become a vessel (Kli), which, upon uniting, will be able to see and react to what the Creator says to it. That is most important. That hearing, that feeling, is called “life.”
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From the talk during the meal before the Convention at the Arava Desert, 11/18/2011

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A Sacred Place That Opens The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe’ll be together for 24 hours, and those are long hours if you add the power of thought, of intent into it. We can achieve a great deal during this time—we’ll try to do that.

We’ll also think of the future so that we could carry out such actions regularly. Of course, it shouldn’t become a habit or routine, and we need to work on this each time. But truly, this place opens the soul. Thank you for preparing this beautiful, sacred place for us.
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From the talk during the meal before the Convention at the Arava Desert, 11/18/2011

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The Sculptor Of One’s Own Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur attitude toward the ultimate goal, the desired state, is influenced by two factors. The first one is a sense of the greatness and importance of the Creator, the property of bestowal. The second one is the greatness and importance of the creature who is able to achieve this property. From these two factors, disturbances come, which we feel on the path of achieving the goal.

Sometimes, my egoistic desire says: “Who is this Creator that I should listen to Him,” showing me that there is no value in this goal, the property of bestowal. Thus, it helps me gain a foothold on the path because I will be able to demand the Light to help me and influence me. After all, all development at the human degree happens because of our request to the Light to affect us.

Thus, we build our own spiritual form. Indeed, all the previous forms: the still, vegetative, and animate do not belong to the spiritual human. These forces called angels, spirits, and devils are designed to help us. As in the physical world around us, there are forces of nature that ensure our existence. Similarly, in the spiritual world, there are forces that help our soul exist.

The first disturbance is directed against the greatness of the Creator, against his property of bestowal, and the second one is directed against my form of bestowal. Sometimes, it seems to me that the Creator is not important, but at other times, it seems to me that I am not.

To belittle the Creator is the task of Pharaoh who depicts Him for us as worthless and shouts: “I will rule myself! Why should I listen to him?” Thus, Pharaoh diminishes the greatness of the goal, the greatness of adhesion in the eyes of man.

There is work against the other disturbances when it seems to me that the Creator is great and important, but I can do nothing. The Creator is the righteous one, and I am a sinner. At this time, Pharaoh is leaving the stage, and his place is taken by other rulers living outside Egypt who go to war against man.

There are also the higher forces, angels in the hands of the Creator, like Pharaoh. However, they talk about the greatness of the goal and at the same time, about the person’s weakness. They are like the scouts who were sent to check the land of Israel and came back saying that the goal is great, the land is beautiful, and incredible fruits grow there, but who are you to conquer it? Come to your senses, this is not for you!

A person begins to eat himself up because these forces show him how low and insignificant he is and how many crimes he has committed. Then, he either sinks into his past and starts digging in it, or he remains in the present and loses all his strength, unable to move a finger. He cannot force himself to come to the group and participate in some way. That is how these disturbances work.

We should understand that these limitations mold out of us the human form, a giver. It is like a statue where one master takes a piece of marble and carves a sculpture out of it, and the other cuts everything unnecessary out of this piece until the desired form remains.

Likewise, we should look from both sides. From one side, we should look at the complete form, and from the other, we should learn what is missing. Sometimes, we should work with the Inner Light and at other times, with the Surrounding Light, or with the inner and external desires. Thus, a person “carves” himself, his form that is similar to the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/2011, Writings of Rabash

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An Ocean Of Drops

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee) (abridged version): Arvut is like two people in a boat, when one of them begins to drill a hole in the boat they will both drown together, that prevents the observers of the Torah from even beginning to fully keep the measure of “Love thy friend as thyself,” which is the ladder for reaching Dvekut (adhesion) with Him, and so they shall both drown together!

Mutual guarantee is more than being responsible for others. The spiritual vessel is a common vessel. With the Surrounding Light, the Light that Reforms, the Creator awakens a certain amount of Reshimot (informational genes) and brings them to the first level of unity called “this world.” This is how the Reshimot see their reality: When they begin to draw closer, they appear to each other in the form of the friends.

Eventually we have to unite, and so we have to care for everyone. We don’t sign any strict contracts made by lawyers, and we don’t keep anyone by force, but we try to support every one by thoughts and desires.

As far as the spiritual vessel is concerned, we have to understand that it is common. It doesn’t belong to anyone, but is between us, in our unity. It isn’t strings stretched between us, although this is how we depict our mutual connection. Actually there is no separate you and me in spirituality. We are all like drops of water that merge into one big drop, and the previous state disappears without any trace.

From this example we can understand how different two adjacent levels are in their intensity. If a hundred friends on the first level, including me, unite into one drop, then on the next level the drop becomes me. The same thing happens to everyone: Each of us grows one hundred times bigger compared to the previous level. We begin to connect again in mutual guarantee, and then on the next level we grow ten thousand times bigger compared to the first level, and so on until we make up the whole Partzuf of Zeir Anpin.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Preparation To Begin Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanWritings of Rabash, “There is no Holiness Higher than the Creator”: Most important is to reach the degree of the spiritual embryo. As in corporeality, at the time that a woman becomes pregnant, it is definite that she will also give birth. But all of the worries are that the woman needs to become pregnant. It is like this in the spiritual work. The most difficult for us is to enter the state of the spiritual embryo, that is, to receive into our desire to enjoy another desire called the desire to bestow.

When man merits to become the spiritual embryo, that is, the desire to bestow enters into the desire to receive, this means that the Creator confines one form within the other form. And it is a great innovation, an actual miracle, because it is against our nature. And only the Creator can change nature; it is not in the hands of man.

And this is indeed a great innovation for a person who discovers these changes within himself. As a person goes through these stages in spiritual work, the upper force builds in him different forms and forms within forms. As a result, when a person discovers the forms that awaken in him, he builds himself.

The upper force operates, and we are the results of its action, the Creator’s work. Our work is to try to discover His work, that is, the new forms that are created within us.

A “form” is an intention for the sake of bestowal. And afterwards, an additional form appears: the desire to receive, which adopts the form of bestowal and receives for the sake of bestowal. From the connection and inclusion between the different forms, one by one, we attain the Creator, as it is said: “By Your actions we will know You.”

All of these changes happen to our substance, and we attain them. After all, our substance is desire, thus we feel the changes that it goes through: good or bad, in relation to us or to others. In this way a person builds his responses to the forms he goes through.

The more that he raises himself above his feeling in order to be an observer who doesn’t depend upon his feelings, the faster he discovers the inner nature of this action, with no connection to the substance. This is the meaning of “faith above reason.”

If he only searches for the new forms and opens himself towards them without preventing it, but rises above his feelings and wants to discover the forms of bestowal, then he becomes the Creator’s partner in this work. And then the person begins to move with the Creator and makes exactly the same movements.

He even precedes the Creator and prepares himself in advance for all the changes that are about to happen to him each moment. This preparation accelerates his advancement and causes him to happily receive each form that comes to him, pleasant or unpleasant. Indeed, he already raised himself above his egoistic feelings and desires and now identifies only with the forms of bestowal.

This is called attaining the Masach (screen), the force of overcoming the unpleasant feelings within one’s egotistic desires.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

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We Are Not Together – We Are Absolutely One

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen a person already exists in a reality where “there is none else besides Him,” he must connect everything that is awakened as a disturbance with the concept of “one.” Then he will begin to see that he has really entered the spiritual world and included himself in bestowal, Bina, above himself. He, she, I, or anyone else no longer exist. Everything is merely one concept.

This “one” is neither the Creator nor the creature, but the only reality that exists, where everything connects into one. I can no longer say that he and I, and a connection between us exist. This is why we need to direct all our efforts, our purpose, and our true life toward the revelation of this only reality, the one soul.

When a person constantly tries to raise himself to this level of reasoning and feeling, the perception of his “I” in all his hopes and aspirations, and all his inner desires, he goes through a certain number of exercises, until he sees that everything he has outside of this “one” is only summoned to help him, to push him to connect with this “one,” and establish his place there.

It is written about it: “Habit becomes a second nature.” Thanks to habit, man begins to feel that he exists in another reality, and he makes decisions, reasons, and wishes in accordance with it. The higher reality where he includes himself determines and dictates everything to him.

His body and his entire corporeal life begin to connect to this One. In the end, he sees that there is nothing getting in his way. On the contrary, everything is helping him enter the true reality.

The entire world we perceive, everything connects and merges with this One whole. Then, we really discover that there is only one soul in the universe. The so-called “600,000 souls” are the yet uncorrected parts of one’s soul that one is not able to connect to the common concept for now. But later they too connect to him to strengthen and support this One single concept.
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From Lesson 1, Israel Arvut Convention, 11/11/2011

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Consolidating The Nucleus Of Global Connection

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How should we prepare for the convention in the Arava desert, in order to arrive there with the right demand?

Answer: We know that the correction of the world happens in stages. The men have to perform the correction first, those who feel the true desire to connect and understand that mutual guarantee can only be in the connection between us. The women join this more passively.

So we are going to a place where we will have no disturbances from foreign thoughts and desires. There we will try to lead an attack aimed at the connection between us. I recommend that only the men will assemble in all our centers because if all the men in the world try to connect now, it will be the right preparation for the December convention.

Then we will move on to the next stage of preparation. By December, we will acquire more forces in order to add the men who can’t participate in the spiritual work with us now, and the women too.

Now we are consolidating the nucleus, and in December we will unite the external circles. The purpose of the December convention is for the part of humanity that takes part in the convention together with us to become an internal force that awakens the others towards connection and mutual guarantee.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)

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