Entries in the 'Kabbalah Study' Category

What Does The Wisdom Of Kabbalah Suggest?

laitman_245_09Question: Does the wisdom of Kabbalah suggest that we increase the egoism inside us so that eventually we will understand that it is futile?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah does not suggest that we engage in increasing our egoism. It only suggests how we can resemble the Creator.

This means that if my nature is a desire to receive for my own sake, I will be able to receive only with the intention of in order to bestow unto others. If I don’t have this intention, I will not receive anything.

I can, therefore, maximize my resemblance to the Creator according to my intention to bestow unto others. If I don’t have this intention, it means that I don’t do anything.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/26/17

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How Should One Read The Sources?

laitman_216_01Question: What kind of intention does one need to read Kabbalistic sources if I read them alone, for example, at home or traveling on a train?

Answer: Understandably, it is preferable to study the sources together with others, but many times people read them alone.

However, the intention must always be one: on the basis of the written source, I want to receive knowledge about the correct interconnections of all of humanity into a single system.

According to the degree of our unity, we will become more compatible with the same higher, unique management system that manages all of the still, vegetative, and animate nature and humanity. We aspire to unite because through the connection between us we form a model within us of a higher, unique, and perfected nature.

The model that we feel within us will give us knowledge, power, and possibilities for us to feel that we are in a perfected world. We can change everything around us, including ourselves and society, and we will feel the higher eternal and perfect system. We transform ourselves to be like that system.

Therefore, when there is no possibility for a person to read or study together with others, he does it alone, but with the same intention.
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From the talk at a videoconference with the Learning Center students, 5/21/17

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How To Have Time

laitman_939_02Question: Everyone has already noticed for some time how time flies very quickly. I would like to know what our priorities should be in our learning and advancement.

Answer: Indeed, time flies very quickly. But we can develop even faster, not materially as in our world, but spiritually, if we are, like little children,  obey what the Kabbalists say without any criticism. It all depends on us.

Gather together in a group, try to achieve unity and mutual concern among yourselves, which is how you will have one and only one desire for spirituality. Connect within this desire and dissolve within it. And then through the point that is found on the other side of the ego, you will feel the upper world, the higher power. This is what you must discover.

Unity between us the opportunity to “penetrate” through the boundary between our world and the spiritual world. Forward movement is only through the unity between us. Realization is always internal, in an emotional connection between us.
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From the talk at a videoconference with the Learning Center students, 5/21/17

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Earth Can Be Heaven

Laitman_715Question: Stephen Hawking continues to popularize himself. Now, he proposes to build colonies on the Moon and Mars where we would need to resettle as a result of climate change on Earth or the fall of a meteorite.

What do you think about these statements? Are we going somewhere?

Answer: I did not expect such a stretch of imagination from such a serious scientist who is the head of Newton’s department.

Of course, it is good to build laboratories on the Moon or on Mars to “saddle” some kind of a comet or a meteorite. The fact that he calls for resettlement elsewhere is no good at all. People do not know how much they are connected with the Earth.

We are connected with the Earth with all of our properties! We change even when we move from place to place on Earth. Facial features, character… everything changes. Compare, for example, the Jews who lived in Russia in the European part and those who lived in Central Asia. This is the power of the Earth! It is said that changing place changes fate and luck.

I believe that scientists do that to get good funding, create laboratories, and learn more about the universe. It is good. In fact, I do not think that someone thinks about moving somewhere else seriously.

If there is no life on Earth, will it be in another place? Here, we have excellent conditions, but we have already polluted the Earth so badly that we do not want to live on it anymore. And what will happen in another place? Is this how we will deal with all celestial bodies?

Comment: Once, you said that the garbage orbiting in space will be the monument to humanity.

Answer: And it is already so. If someone watched us from outer space, they would understand that they shouldn’t do business with us just by looking at the rubbish. They would say, “Look what they did to the nearest space!”

Question: I want to ask you as a Kabbalist: how can we master the Earth so that there will be no desire to move anywhere else?

Answer: People who have polluted the Earth must correct themselves. After all, the Earth can be heaven.

Question: So, will there be enough space and the ecology will be better?

Answer: This is not about that. The fact is that according to the parameters of inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, the Earth is an ideal place for us because we grew and developed on it.

But when man on the Earth began to develop egoistically, he began to oppose himself to nature and the Earth, and as a result, systematically and consistently spoiled the environment. And here, we must correct ourselves.

Therefore, we need to take care of our own development along with financing scientific development.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 6/28/17

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What A Name Is

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is a name?

Answer: A name is an indicator of a specific characteristic or action.

The combination of letters symbolizes in what manner the name is created in creation.

Suppose that I have a desire that takes shape under the influence of a particular Light.

There is a special structure in this desire, a collection of forces and characteristics. Together they form a name.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/5/17

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Varieties Of The Desire To Receive

Laitman_631_2Question: How does the transition to the characteristics of the spiritual world happen?

Answer: The transfer of the properties happens through the extension of the Light by way of the desire. From the upper (Keter), through Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut.

Question: Hochma and Malchut are both a desire to receive; what is the difference between them?

Answer: Hochma is a desire to receive that is created by Keter in the necessary order, as within a child and a beast, while Malchut is a desire of a person who can manage it.

Question: Is it possible to say that this is an independent desire?

Answer: No, the desire is not independent, its reactions are independent.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/5/17

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Why Is Zeir Anpin Made Of Six Parts?

laitman_548_03-jpgQuestion: Why is Zeir Anpin (ZA) made of six parts if it is supposed to be made of ten parts?

Answer: ZA is made of six parts because Keter, Hochma, and Bina precede it and it is born from Bina. When ZA is born, it lacks the first three Sefirot: Keter, Hochma, and Bina.

Therefore, it contains only six parts: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. Then comes Malchut. This means that there are the first three Sefirot in the Partzuf, six Sefirot, and one more, which all together makes ten Sefirot.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/5/17

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The Ten Sefirot – The Foundation Of The Creation

laitman_548_02-jpgBaal HaSulam, “Preface to The Book of Zohar,” 2): First, you must know that all that is said in The Book of Zohar, and even in its legends, is denominations of the ten Sefirot, called KHB (Keter, Hochma, Bina), HGT (Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet), NHYM (Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Malchut), and their permutations. Just as the twenty-two letters of the spoken language, whose permutations suffice to uncover every object and every concept, the concepts, and permutations of concepts, in the ten Sefirot suffice to disclose all the wisdom in the book of Heaven. …

Question: What are the ten Sefirot?

Answer: The foundation of the universe is Light, not visible light, but a special energy that spreads, emanates, creates, fills, and changes everything. In its primordial state, it is called Keter (crown).

Spreading downward from above, the Light creates a point: a desire that begins to grow under its influence.

From the zero state, where the point represents simply a property of the Light, it changes to the first state and begins to sense what it desires. This first expansion of desire is called Hochma.

In the second stage, the desire, under the influence of the Light, is transformed into its opposite property—the property of Bina. It also desires, but only to give.

The desire begins to perceive the properties of the Light (bestowal), and becomes similar to it, like a child relative to an adult when he perceives the adult’s qualities, habits, and views.

The third stage is Bina’s desire to be similar to Keter. Since Keter created the property of Hochma, Bina also generates the next property, Zeir Anpin (ZA), which in Aramaic means small face. Small because it does not come from Keter but from similarity to it.

Then the desire acquires the aspiration to receive more: the entire enormous Light that comes from the zero stage. This is the fourth stage or Malchut from the word “kingdom”—the kingdom of desire.

In addition to these four parts that exist in nature, nothing else was created. The whole universe, the planets, the inner parts of man, our psychology, the mind, any system, whatever we name consists of these parts and their hierarchy.

Zeir Anpin, in its turn, consists of six parts. Thus, the entire creation represents ten parts, or ten Sefirot. Sefira, from the word “luminous,” is a luminescence of a certain property. Each Sefira is a whole system of interacting forces.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/5/17

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Generations X, Y, and Z, Part 3

laitman_229Question: How does external influence affect the character of a generation and shape it?

Answer: Human egoism is like clay or dough from which a society can mold anything.

Question: Doesn’t the character of a generation depend on its egoism?

Answer: Egoism only determines how pliable this material is. Once, it is molded from clay, then sculpted from marble, and later, even more complex materials are used for construction. Today, mostly plastic is used.

The distinction is all in the material, and what to build and how is determined by the generation. But, the material itself, suitable for construction, comes from within, from the developing desire to enjoy.

Question: The older generation created all the innovations that had not existed before in the world, and the next generations enter a world in which everything is as it is. Is that perhaps why the younger generation is not very impressed with material values?

Answer: Young people are not impressed with material values, and they have nothing to add to the world of material things. It would seem, what will they do? But, this is just like after Newton’s physics where everything was already known. Einstein suddenly came and opened new dimensions.

The same is true here. We built all kinds of devices, but the next generation has the opportunity to create new programs for them, to get inside the matter, inside the genome, into the source of life, inside the brain and above it. They still have a lot of work.

As a student, I worked in the field of medical cybernetics at an institute engaged in the study of blood and the brain. But, this is nothing compared to modern instruments and research facilities. The research went far into the interior: inside the cell, inside the brain, the psychology of man, and beyond the boundaries of the mind. It breaks through and beyond the borders of human life.

These studies still refer to the material, but they are approaching the border of the spiritual world, and we are gradually losing touch with matter. This information is from the border zone and over the matter.

The egoism of modern man is more developed and complex. It is destined to perceive the deepest mysteries of life. And for him, they seem quite natural and ordinary. A person is no longer impressed with the tools that fall into his hands, but he is looking for what can be achieved with their help.

The baby boomer generation built a material base, the equipment. The next generation created a program for it. The youngest generation will now use all of this.

Question: And what will the new generation have to do? Where are we going?

Answer: I think that the next generation will enter the reality that we will reveal at the expense of all of our previous development, and they will live in it. They should reveal the spiritual world. The challenge of the next generation is to move from computers and the study of matter to its forces. Deeper inside the material, through it, we reach the forces that govern it, and there we will continue our research.

Question: What will young people be impressed with in a decade?

Answer: It seems to me, with nothing. The younger the generation, the more difficult it is to be touched by something. Their egoism is so subtle that it is not impressed by anything tangible in this world. They need to uncover higher sources of influence on themselves and, perhaps, they will impress them. The usual fulfillments—food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge—are no longer important to the modern generation.

It is clear that it is necessary to satisfy the essential needs of the body, but beyond the necessary, a young man will want to be in the world of the managing program, in the world of forces, above the material, where matter comes into play in the large computer of creation called the “spiritual world.”
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/18/17

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Letters And Sefirot

laitman_923Question: Why do the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet begin from the level of Bina?

Answer: Bina operates until its middle under the influence of Keter, and from its middle onward it wants to resemble Keter, so it develops everything by itself.

It receives the attributes to bestow from Keter and in order to implement them and to resemble Keter, it begins to bestow unto the lower, just like Keter.

Because nine Sefirot descend from Keter, the first nine letters develop from Bina, (nine Sefirot the last part of Bina).

The next nine Sefirot belong to Zeir Anpin.

The last four letters, Kof, Resh, Shin, and Taf belong to Malchut. All together there are 22 letters, 22 forms of bestowal of the upper force unto Malchut.

In Malchut there are five additional letters. These are special letters of the 22 letters which create their final forms in Malchut. All together there are 27 letters of the alphabet.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/5/17

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