Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

A World Structured At My Request

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe upper worlds are showing us a model, and we must become similar to it. Our connection between us is the quality we are able to achieve in order to correspond to the Light. When a person connects with others, with his bestowal, he builds out of himself a spiritual Partzuf from the ten Sefirot.

Bestowal cannot exist in any form other than the ten Sefirot. When it assumes the right form, it manifests as a spiritual Partzuf whose height we can measure according to the rungs of the spiritual ladder in the upper worlds.

It turns out that we can measure the height of a soul, meaning the connections of separate desires, and understand the power we attain through it in relation to the entire common soul. In the end, the desire created by the Creator remains, but it acquires the form of the Sefirot, the sources of the illumination that reach me from all the worlds through which the simple Light of the world of Infinity passes.

The Creator places the system of worlds in front of me, and it serves as a source of Light that is always ready to influence me, that is ready to affect my desire if I have prepared it for use. The Light is in a state of absolute rest, and the way it will affect me only depends on my desire. There are no changes in the Light. All the changes take place only in my desire, which I am able to change as I work on the connection in the group.

After all, the connection of a group is the actual desire that awakens the Light, forcing it to shine and return us to bestowal, a connection with one another. There is no other desire but the one that exists inside the group and is directed toward unity. Only this kind of desire can attract the Light because they have the same nature. None of the other desires are subject to correction; they are egoistic.

The only desire that counts is the desire to unite with a friend, with the group. When a person really rises above his corporeal body and wishes to connect above it, “in his head,” placing this aspiration for connection above all his private goals, only to this degree does the Light reach a person across all the Sefirot and correct his desire, connecting his private desire to the common one.

This way, we correct the shattering and reveal the vessel of our soul and the Light that fills it in our connection. Then a person sees that worlds do not exist on their own, outside of man. All of this exists only in potential and is realized only in practice when we want to connect. Then, to the extent of the power, height, and nature of this connection, we reveal the upper Light that is always ready for it. This means that the system of the worlds is being revealed to us.

This system of worlds does not exist without our appeal. It is entirely in the world of Infinity, in the Thought of Creation to please the created beings. Only at the exact moment when there appears a desire that demands to be corrected for the purpose of connection does the system of concealment begin to operate in relation to this desire, suiting it exactly according to its height and nature. The Light influences the desire from this system and reforms it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/2011, Shamati #68

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Drunk With The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur entire work consists of attaining similarity with the qualities of the Light. In relation to us, the Light divides into 613 Lights (Taryag) and builds 613 desires in us. However, in the end, it is one desire and the Light.

Our work consists of lending the will to enjoy the same form as the Light’s desire to bestow. Naturally, we cannot turn the desire to receive pleasure into the desire to bestow. First of all, the desire to receive pleasure stays, but we reveal its form: We distinguish the desire to receive pleasure from water, bread, and so forth. All these things are forms where it wishes to receive fulfillment.

For example, the fulfillment experienced in a certain form of desire is called “bread.” The fulfillment experienced in another form of desire is called “water.” The fulfillment experienced in other forms of desire are called “meat,” “fish,” “sweets,” “sour,” “bitter,” and so on. Everything depends on the forms of the desire to receive pleasure. It is the same with everything, even technology, frequencies, and light spectrums. All these things are forms of the desire to receive pleasure. Material is desire, and everything is determined by the form it assumes.

We must give proper forms to our desire to receive pleasure. This does not mean that it would be more proper to desire “meat” when I desire “bread.” The proper form is the way I wish to receive the fulfillment called “bread,” “meat,” and so on. It is the way I distinguish that it’s still forbidden for me to use these desires due to a variety of reasons since I will not be able to bestow in this form and be similar to the Light.

There are two components here. The first is the desire to receive pleasure, which assumes a certain form because otherwise, it is no more than shapeless material, as it is written: “Everything comes from the dust.” This dust must assume a certain form because it has no taste on its own. And I must taste the flavor in the desire to receive pleasure. My pleasure depends on the greatness of the desire and the variety of forms in which it can receive pleasure, such as food, sex, family, money, respect, power, and knowledge, according to the scale of values accepted in our world.

Moreover, there is an additional, special form that robes into this matter: the intention either “in order to receive” or “in order to bestow.” This is referred to as the Creator’s work. In this form, there is a difference between the creature and the Creator.

Not every person can detect this inner difference. As a rule, people only distinguish the regular form that their desire to receive pleasure assumes: what and how much they want in comparison to others. Their entire analysis ends there. In other words, they do not speak of the quality of the desire in relation to the Creator.

In order to have a spiritual, vivid perception with respect to the Creator, man must have another special element in his desire, where he will distinguish whether it is close or far from bestowal, closer to truth or falsehood. This element awakens in him in the form of the so called point in the heart and does not allow him to simply agree with the forms that are only convenient for the desire to receive pleasure.

He must develop his own attitude toward the Light that shines at him from afar in such a way that he neither knows it nor understands it. However, this Light awakens the need in man to attain similarity in qualities with it.

Then, a person gradually rises above his desire to receive pleasure in all its different forms and begins to care about the intention in which he exists, whether it is for the sake of reception or bestowal, and he tests himself in relation to this form. The Light keeps awakening him and brings him to the group, through which it influences him. In other words, the Light affects him through the desires (Kelim).

In the end, a person finds himself in such an uncomfortable, bad state that he either tries and escapes the influence of the Light that Reforms, the Surrounding Light, refusing to accept new forms since it always happens under pressure, as if he were being molded like clay;  or he understands and agrees that he must accept the new form out of hopelessness, as a result of studies and the influence of the group.

Then, he works in the group, demanding new forms for his desire from the Light. At first, he expects the Light to bring him good things, wishing to derive from the new forms of Light some benefit for his substance, the desire to receive pleasure. This is called “bestowal for the sake of reception.”

Gradually, through a desperate desire to achieve what he wants and the influence of the Surrounding Light that affects him through the group, he reaches a state where he no longer cares about any conditions. This is called working without conditions when the only thing that matters to him is to accept the form of Light, the forms of bestowal.

He is not able to understand precisely what is happening to him and why he is experiencing these states, but the nature of forms that go through him makes him agree and begin to wish for this to happen. He begins to receive power above his reason, as if he were drunk with the Light. He truly wishes to accept new forms and most importantly, to know that advancement toward the Light is guaranteed for him. He guarantees it himself by participating in the group.

When he prepares correctly, being in a group, trying to cancel himself before it, and accepting the Light that Reforms through this common vessel without any conditions, but only wishing to cancel himself so that the Light would influence him, then the two kinds of efforts that he makes during the study and work in the group bring him success.

Otherwise, he finds himself in a state about which it is written: “A fool sits with folded hands and eats his own flesh.” He can “devour” himself for a decade without advancing.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/2011, The Zohar

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Pay Attention And Repeat After Me!

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen I rise above my egoism and begin caring about others, I don’t erase my previous desire to receive, nor do I rid myself of it and move blindly to the desire to bestow and start to enjoy bestowal like a joyful mother feeding her baby. If a mother treated someone else’s baby like hers and showed the same love (though this is not natural), then she would acquire another nature: the desire to bestow above her desire to receive. In the difference between these two levels, we discover the depth of our vessel (desire) and its four phases by which we attain creation.

This is how our “formal education” develops, and we have to arrange ourselves to await the arrival of new forms of bestowal. No matter how unexpected and surprising, they should arrive as soon as possible. The readiness to accept these new forms comes only on condition that a person practices it in a group.

The group is controlled from Above, and if we put ourselves into its hands, it properly prepares us to accept all forms of bestowal from the Light that Reforms. Our task is to prepare ourselves and enable the upper Light to do its job. In this we are its partners. On one hand, everything here depends on us because without preparation the Light will not operate as it is at complete rest. Our preparation provides us with the ability to sense the influence of the Light.

But in actuality, we only discover our vessel and reveal the Light, previously hidden, in a new form. This means that we prepare the forms, but they are realized and felt by us in the measure that they are similar to the upper Light.

There are “613” different Lights in the upper Light, as well as all the rungs and the entire plan of creation from the beginning to the end. The vessel develops from the point of “absence,” going all the way: first down and then back again from below upwards. At a certain point of development, when the created being realizes itself, it becomes the Creator’s partner in creating the forms resembling the Light.

All our spiritual education is a formal education, learning forms within forms. The desire searches for its forms that resemble the Light, and if it finds them, it reaches adhesion with the Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Work In The Barren Desert

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe work begins with the question: “What is the meaning of our life?” This point already contains the desire to attain the goal of creation, whose meaning is adhesion with the Creator. This is the final point.

We have no idea what this adhesion means, what kind of understanding and sensation it brings. But it is written that we have to cleave to His qualities. There are qualities of the Creator, which He gradually reveals to us, and we have to bring ourselves to similarity with them.

All of the Creator’s qualities are essentially just the single quality of bestowal, “absolute good.” This is the quality that a person has to adopt, “good that does good.” To the extent the Creator reveals His goodness to him, this is what a person should become like.

This goodness becomes expressed in relation to the neighbor, in order to allow us to attain true bestowal and not to bestow for our own sakes, egoistically. Therefore, we have to go through a rather lengthy preliminary path, advancing gradually, step by step along the chain of cause and effect states.

We begin from the state that is diametrically opposite to the Creator and we move with the help of the upper force, with the help of the Light that unnoticeably acts within us. This is called the Surrounding Light, the concealed illumination that returns us to its source.

By attracting this illumination to us, we correct ourselves and advance. And it can only be attracted by equivalence of form. Just as the Creator conceals Himself from us for now, allowing us to perform the correction and attain the true quality of bestowal, so we have to agree to work in concealment. In that case, we can aspire to His quality of bestowal rather than the pleasant fulfillment it gives us.

Yet the final correction, the goal of creation is to delight the creatures, where delighting is above our egoistic quality of reception.

Therefore, this work takes place in the “desert,” on barren land, meaning we do not feel any pleasant results from our efforts. This was done deliberately, so a person would look for possibilities to work without a reward, above reward. One must agree with this and desire only this because one aspires to the truth, to the quality of bestowal, rather than trying to attain a pleasant sensation this way.

This entire preparation is called the preliminary correction, before entering the Land of Israel. First we receive the force of correction, the quality of faith and bestowal, which is called “40 years of wandering in the desert.” And after that, we begin working with the desire to enjoy itself, and even this desire works in the direction of bestowal. This is called working in the Land of Israel.

Work on correcting our desire and raising the quality of bestowal above the will to enjoy is called work in the desert, the preparation phase. It is described by the commandment, “Do not do to another what you yourself hate.” This is work with the bestowing desires (Galgalta ve Eynaim), the small state (Katnut).

But work in the Land of Israel is already work with the actual desires: not above them, but directly inside of them. This is called “work in three lines.” This work is done with the actual receiving desire, which is called AHP, in the great or adult state of the soul (Gadlut).

When working with the receiving desire for the sake of bestowal, on its four levels, we reveal the names of the Creator. That is, we are already able to express qualities inside of us that are equal to His quality and to impress His name inside of us. The desire begins behaving like the Light, and that’s how a person attains similarity, unification, and adhesion with the upper Light until he goes through all the levels of the soul’s maturation and attains total equivalence and absolute adhesion, which is the goal of creation.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Our Problem Is Not The Economy

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: As Baal HaSulam writes in his article “Mutual Guarantee,” I have to take care of all the needs of another as take care of my own. I cannot satisfy even my own needs. How can I deal with someone else’s?

Answer: Starting to really care about each other, we naturally let go of “excesses.” After all, if I aspire to bestow to the other, how much do I need for myself? I need just enough to be able to act for bestowal. Basic necessities are enough for me, while I have an inexhaustible source of energy. The Light, not its tiny spark, supports me, and thus all kinds of problems vanish.

The Light provides everything in the corrected system. We think about how to build new relationships, how to calculate everyone’s needs, how to heal the agonizing economy, and so on. And in reality, we first of all need correction. According to Baal HaSulam, a new society should consist mostly of corrected people.

If you are in such a society, if you hold this course, if the upper Light raises you from one degree to another, then you know how to arrange everything. Moreover, everything is arranged by itself. You will not have to carry the world on your shoulders: The upper Light will do everything necessary. It is doing this even now, only without your knowledge, against you. There is no other force but the Light. Just open the door, and everything will be settled.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/13/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarante)”

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A Preprogrammed Mistake

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How did the breaking in the world of Nekudim occur? How could such a mistake happen?

Answer: The fact of the matter is that in the opposition between the Light and desire, there is an element that appeared “from absence.” This is why it is not able to take into consideration everything that can be found in “existence from existence,” that is, the Light.

I look at the Light and it seems to me that I do everything like Him. I am like a small child who takes a plastic hammer and pounds, copying his father. He does not understand what the father is doing, and he thinks he is doing exactly the same thing. He does not feel that his actions are not real! It is because in his state of smallness and little mind, these actions are absolutely equal to his father’s.

And when a calculation in the desires is performed in the world of Nekudim, certain data, which they are yet unable to perceive, disappears from it. And then the breaking helps them uncover the difference between the desired and the actual, as they discover their mistake and the reason for the breaking.

They suddenly see that “Lev Ha Even (the stony heart),” desires that we did not take into consideration, were also present there. I did not even know that something like this exists in me! And now I reveal these desires and am able to correct myself.

The breaking is not ruin, but correction, the revelation of concealed desires. And for this reason, as we ascend the spiritual ladder from below upward, we constantly reveal desires that are broken even more, as it is written: “The higher the person, the bigger his egoism.”

The breaking was final because they bet everything, the entire Light of Infinity, intending to correct it in all the desires. And this is why the entire depth of desire was revealed.

It is no accident that Partzuf Atik is created according to the conditions of Tzimtzum Aleph (the First Restriction). In Atik and even in Arich Anpin, there are a multitude of such systems (“Kruma de Ovira,” dividers in the brain, and “Mocha Stima,” the concealed mind, and so on), with Malchut of the world of Infinity present in them, with the entire Light of Infinity standing against it.

These two forces, “existence from existence” (Yesh Mi Yesh) and “existence from absence” (Yesh Mi Ain), are present in the head (Rosh) of the world of Atzilut. And the fragments of the breaking are under them. And then they analyze one in relation to the other according to an upside-down triangle: Above, on one side, there is the entire Light of Infinity, the entire infinite desire is on the other side, and the breaking is below. The order and the degrees of correction become clarified in this head, by comparing these three components: the Creator, the creature, and the actual difference between them.

Gmar Tikkun, the completely corrected state, is inside Arich Anpin. But on the outside, it is covered with special Partzufim called “hair,” which conceal it from the lower ones. The word “hair” (Searot) comes from the word “storm” (Seara), a restriction. It is because every time it restrains its desire and manifests in some weak form in order to appear before the lower one and give it an opportunity to correct itself.

The correction of the lower one is to become like the upper one. When a mother plays with her child, she pretends to be little and thus gives him an example of how he should relate to her. This way she raises him higher and higher.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/7/2011, TES

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Nobody, But Us

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” (an abridged version): Rabbi Elazar said that the whole world is included in mutual guarantee, but first, only Israel (those who have an aspiration for it) begins the correction of the world… (while others, due to a big ego) do not agree to exit self-love.

The first ones who are willing to be corrected are those who, besides egoism and usual troubles of this world, also have a special calling, spark that beckons forward. They take the direction straight to the Creator (Yashar-El) and therefore are called “Israel.”

The 99% of humanity develop only under the pressure of suffering from behind. This circle is called the “nations of the world.” And there is also an inner circle, which besides suffering, also has an aspiration to move forward. These people are called “Israel.” Of course, those who have both the pressure from behind and are also pulled forward come to the realization of mutual guarantee sooner. However, the entire world will have to enter the framework of mutual guarantee eventually.

 

The “nations of the world” also have parts that will connect with “Israel,” by suddenly discovering a spiritual calling or the point in the heart. But others will not enter inside. So one way or the other, the central group must correct itself, becoming a home for those who are attached to it and who support it from outside.

The conclusion is simple: It is our duty to realize correction. Everything is entrusted to us: to correct ourselves and the world. There is nothing to add.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/2011, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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“Fuel” Out Of This World

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf we wish to attain The Book of Zohar, we must think about how we attain it. We connect our desires directed towards the goal into one big desire and strive to turn it from a receiving desire into a bestowing one.

Even though this desire is for a higher degree, for the attainment of the meaning and purpose of life, it’s still an egoistic, uncorrected desire that strives to receive for itself much more than regular people. And that’s why this desire is the evil inclination, and not the good one.

While the entire world exists in corporeal desires on the animate level, we exist at the origin of the desire that pertains to the human level, meaning the desire to attain spirituality, the Creator, something above this world. But I want it for myself. I don’t care about the entire world, nothing concerns me, I disregard everyone else even more. And other people also notice that I don’t pay attention to anyone or anything; I only care about attaining something exalted. It turns out that in this way I became an even bigger egoist.

On one hand, it’s true that “every person, bigger than his friend, has greater egoism.” But in the end, I am not yet on the next degree together with my extreme desire that already pertains to the next degree; rather, according to the nature of the desire, its essence, I exist in a state opposite to it. It’s because my desire is directed towards “one’s own sake” and does not correspond at all to the next degree.

All my previous degrees (on the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels, where I advanced throughout my life over the course of all my reincarnations) were built on the basis of the constant development of the desire to receive pleasure, and it’s due to it that I kept attaining things, advancing linearly and forward. But now I must change the actual nature of the desire.

I can no longer directly use the desire that arises in me and attain what I want. On the contrary, when a desire comes to me, I must reverse its intention, what I am using it for, and then I attain the desired.

This correction of the use of desire really confuses me. I don’t really know how to use it because correction is not in my hands. It introduces a certain foreign factor into my life, my perception of desire, its realization, and a certain compensation. This factor is the Light that Reforms since I am not capable of changing the desire on my own to make it work for the benefit of someone else.

After all, in my ego I feel that this goodness is not inside me, so what do I need all this for and why? This does not give me strength. I suddenly feel weak, disappointed, and desperate; I’m not able to do anything unless it’s for me. So where can I get the moving force, the “fuel”?

I need to find “fuel” that will also be someone else’s. In other words, a “machine” that works for the sake of bestowal needs a different kind of “fuel” than a “machine” that works for itself. A desire, that works “for its own sake” constantly advances me towards the goal, it sees the future goal and it rushes forward. And here it’s the other way around: If I move another millimeter closer to the goal, I’ll feel even emptier in my desire to receive pleasure. So how can I advance?

This is why there are special actions here called “the Light that Reforms,” which I need in order to feel the importance of bestowal so that bestowal will fulfill me and give me the same fulfillment as reception used to give. How is this possible? It’s opposite to everything I have in this life….

I don’t see that this can be realized as all of nature exists because it wants to attain something, get itself fulfilled. But here I am required to transfer fulfillment towards others, without receiving anything in return, instead of fulfilling myself. But if I acquire love for them, it will be as if I was fulfilling myself, my desire is to express my love for them. In other words, there should be something out of this world here. And this is really the way things are—the quality of bestowal is really out of this world.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/2011, The Zohar

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Dr. Michael LaitmanTo see the spiritual system we are now entering (and the entire world will have to enter in the end), we have to reveal a certain “crazy” desire in the connection between us—we must suddenly wish to bestow to one another, as if having lost our minds: “I feel good when I work and the other receives.” In our world, this would be a sign of madness, of the inability to think, feel, perceive, and act correctly.

This is why the upper Light must influence us and bring us this state. This state is different, very strange, and completely separated from us. It is not in our power to attain it, and we do not feel any reasonable need for it that would awaken this desire in us.

Initially we receive a tiny spark, a small aspiration towards this state of bestowal and not more than that. We must attain everything else by starting to convince each other of the greatness of bestowal. From an external point of view, this work is truly unreal, irrational, and impossible to agree with.

So imagine how disappointed we must become in our egoism, how desperate we must be to wish to free ourselves of it, to exit it. It causes us so much suffering that it is better for us to run away from it, even to a state like this. Imagine the suffering humanity must go through in order to wish to bestow, to rise above everything, and to stop thinking about themselves!

In other words, we first must feel that our life is eternal. You cannot free yourself of it and end this entire “detrimental business,” this enormous despair. You have to feel that your state is eternal, that you really have nowhere to run. This is called to “experience eternity.”

And if so, you find yourself in a state when you feel that life is many times worse than death. Then, to counterbalance all these horrible states and suffering within the ego, you will agree to experience the goodness, the freedom in exiting the evil that causes it.

If we weigh the suffering we have to experience in our desires because of the ego that gives us the sensation of this life, we will understand that this really is a horrible suffering that does not exist in our world. We suffer because the Light comes closer and closer and displays itself as unified, while we see ourselves as distanced from one another and spread around the world.

It is the distance between the two things—the lack of correspondence, inequality, and imbalance between us and the Light, which shines to us as whole while we are opposite to it, broken, and imperfect—it is this gap, this abyss, between us and the Light that awakens all the disasters and suffering in us.

Kabbalists write a lot about the horrible times that may await us in the future, like the “merciful women boiled and ate their own children,” and so on. It is necessary to understand that only Kabbalah can turn this torment of suffering from hatred into a yearning for love. And then we will be able to begin to add reason to our sensations—to stop advancing only under the influence of suffering, which would gradually make us smarter since suffering softens the body, the desire, just like “blows soften the flesh.”

On the contrary, we can precede the blow with a medicine, that is, begin to awaken the Light that Reforms on our own. Then it will shine for us and correct our mind and feelings, and we will begin to understand more and prevent blows. So let us try to think about this when we read The Zohar.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/2011, The Zohar

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Only A Fool Gnaws At Himself

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Light that Reforms reacts even to the smallest effort and aspiration of a person. However, it does not react to the one who suffers and gnaws at himself as it is said: “A fool sits with his hands folded and eats himself up.” In this case, the Surrounding Light does not shine. You have to aspire to rise to the next degree at least to some extent as the Light acts according to this desire. This way you “switch on” this Light.

However, if you don’t have the desire to rise, there is nothing that the Light can clothe in. It shines, but there is no ground under it to work on. You constantly have to present it with a desire that you want to correct—to slightly open it. Then you will have something to capture the Light with, which always exists.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/2011, Writings of Rabash

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