The Languages Of The Zohar, The Talmud, And The Torah – Laitman Unplugged
Posted on October 27th, 2013
Baal HaSulam, “One Commandment:” …it is possible for the smallest of prophets to succeed in his prophecy even more than the greatest prophet—concerning the above-mentioned speed—since he relies on revelations of prior prophets, who paved his way for him. Obviously, it also depends on the development of his listeners, since clear and concise words require a more developed generation so they can understand him. And if these two additions join one small degree, he can succeed far more than a great one.
The main thing is that the generation is able to accept our message. Here, time does its thing, until the time to act comes, and then precisely the small one can become a mediator, conveying down the spiritual idea.
After all, a great one, in his perfection, is like the lord who makes decisions at the highest level and not condescending to the “local” details. Many agents stand between him and an average person and yet this person needs specific help in his ordinary, everyday life.
That is why, in a sense, the small one is closer to people than the great one. It is because he can talk more simply and lead them to the degrees of attainment, explaining their work in detail.
The great one is far from the masses. Baal HaSulam writes in “The Prophecy of Baal HaSulam” that he asked to lower himself so as to be able to explain to people. For this, he went down to a lower degree and then passed the method down.
On the other hand, at the highest levels he would not have been able to write for us. There, attainment cannot be expressed in writing, in an understandable language. It is available only in the form of Gematria characters or by the words he wrote in his notebooks, the words that do not exist in our world. After all, the forces and laws, governing combinations of letters at their source under the Parsa of Bina do not function at the highest degrees, and therefore, it is necessary to descend below Chazeh of Partzuf AVI and proceed to new Zivugim there.
However, in any case, it is not about people but about the degrees and of course, either the small or the great one, descending to a lower degree, can bring us much more good—in any case, at this stage of the path.
So, for us, the one who is close to us is important but not the one who is far. If today, we met Baal HaSulam or someone from our forefathers—if, theoretically, we had come into contact with the soul, separated from us let’s say by a hundred degrees—we could have done nothing about it. We simply would have nothing to ask.
Our generation needs connection with a Kabbalist in a series of ascents, descents, and all sorts of states as we are imbued with the desires of the environment. Even our questions arise from our study. If he had not taught us, we would have had almost nothing to ask, in fact, as the whole world…
It turns out that the one who is close is important.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Baal HaSulam “One Commandment”: Earlier sages chose a private way for themselves and I chose a general way, since in my view, it better suits the Godly matter to be clothed in eternal letter-combinations that will never change. I wish to say that with physical success, they will not change in any place and in any time. For this reason my words are limited.
Because of the above reason, I was compelled to express spirituality in a general manner. Yet, instead, I chose to explain all the details and spiritual combinations down to very small details, which have no other source and origin other than this collective, that is, the purity of Kabbalah. And since I clarify the spiritual details without clothing in corporeal combinations, it will do much good to the development of attainment. And this wisdom is called “the wisdom of truth.”
Only after many twists and turns and revelations along the way, a person walking the path of truth begins to realize what changes Baal HaSulam has made to it. It seems that he just wrote new texts but in fact, we are talking about changes in the system itself.
In general, every Kabbalist makes changes in the system through his corrections, his additions. That means to “clarify” the system as a whole or in details, in one form or another. The essence is not to describe the spiritual world in some words or in a certain style. No, Baal HaSulam streamlined the system and added such components so that a person advancing along the path could use them, constantly receiving support, assistance, acceleration, and so moving on.
In this, the analysis and clarification is done both in details and as a whole and takes more distinct forms necessary to move toward the goal of creation at a higher rate in comparison with those which provided the system earlier, before Baal HaSulam contributed his efforts, his changes into it.
Each Kabbalist adds something, each of them produces systemic changes, and it is not related to just writing a book. In the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Baal HaSulam talks about the sages of Talmud who have carried out such corrections in the system, so that instead of asceticism, we could advance through efforts and studies. He himself has made such a correction, by which we can, instead of studying, be more engaged in actions between us: dissemination and unity.
The Light that Reforms depends more on the actions, called the “study of the Torah.” And to “study the Torah” means to learn actions of bestowal, to learn to make them in such a way so that the Light of Hochma would clothe in the Light of Hassadim and they become the “letters” of life. Thus a man is writing the book of Torah on the tablets of his heart and advances on the path.
We learn from the “Book of Life,” we live it, experience it in practice, and reveal its letters in the form of states that pass through our desires, vessels. And Baal HaSulam arranged everything so that going through our individual actions we gain knowledge of the system as a whole. We seem to look at the big screen with the general picture, in the corner of which there is a small fragment with a part of it. Similarly, a surgeon sees general data according to the patient’s conditions and, at the same time, on the small screen, a specific location of the ongoing operation.
Thus, moving individually, we are imbued with the same impressions of the total process.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”: …each lower world is an imprint of the world Above it. Hence, all the forms in the Higher World are meticulously copied, in both quantity and quality, to the lower world.
Thus, there is not an element of reality, or an occurrence of reality in a lower world, that you will not find its likeness in the world Above it, as identical as two drops in a pond. And they are called “Root and Branch.” That means that the item in the lower world is deemed a branch of its pattern, found in the Higher World, being the root of the lower element, as this is where that item in the lower world was imprinted and made to be.
Inanimate, vegetative, animate and speaking levels of this world (see diagram below, marked in yellow) represent the last link in the chain of the worlds. This material world is a branch. Above it, there is a world of roots (marked in red), which is, in fact, a branch of another world that is higher than it. So, both “lower” worlds (our realm and the next one) stem from one root that is above both of them (marked in green.)
Definitely, there are more worlds out there, but in this diagram we will show only three of them. However, the shapes and the elements of reality and all occurrences come unchanged and equal in every world, both in quantity and quality, since we deal with one reality that is divided into separate levels only in our perception.
Even though they are originated by our corporeal nature, still they have earned the right to be expressed by utterance through their branches, and arranged before our senses here in the tangible world. Kabbalists associate them with their roots.
The whole entirety of things and events descends to us through the chain of worlds, until it “dresses” into sensations that are interwoven with words and names, which, in their turn, are connected with the Upper Roots, to which this corporeal branch points because it is related to it, being its imprint, thus leading us to the origin, the Upper Light.
All phenomena descend through the chain of branches and roots. We name them by words and appellations that are linked to them on this plane and that are deeply inbuilt into our cognizance and senses.
When we hear the word “glass,” we know for sure what it signifies. The same applies to spiritual phenomenon. The fact that it doesn’t possess the material substance of a glass is irrelevant, nor is it important that it lacks the shape of a glass. It still preserves its essence since its core is permanent at all levels.
There is no other way to define a phenomenon or an event. The wisdom of Kabbalah uses precise language that is linked to permanent roots of the Higher nature. It is based on a perpetual, unchangeable system.
As we develop, in our eyes only the relationships between various parts of Kabbalah change, although the parts, per se, remain intact. This is the reason why Kabbalah is known as the “authentic wisdom”: Everything put in its language is always true. After all, we cannot change the order of the branches and roots or the relationships between them: The only change is in our perception.
And of course, the use of the language of branches entails a number of consequences. In particular, thanks to their books, Kabbalists can lead us to spiritual ascents and thanks to them, we can carry out various studies, etc.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/15/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
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We speak the language of emotions of feelings in our desire to receive, in the matter of creation. But if we could use the language of forces as does the wisdom of Kabbalah: in terms of Masachim (screens), Aviut (thickness), and the forces of attraction and rejection, that is, about how nature operates and not what we feel as a result of these forces operating on our matter, we would speak more concretely.
What is the “importance of the King” for example? It is a force that allows a person to perform certain actions in a certain direction; it is the force of attraction of the Creator, His greatness, importance, the power of faith, the force of bestowal or the force of receiving. And if we used this specific language, we wouldn’t philosophize and get confused.
Kabbalists explain that it is possible to speak about reality in four languages that correlate with the four levels of our matter because it is all only with regard to Kabbalists and their revelation. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the deepest language because it doesn’t speak about feelings but about forces.
Conditions such as the prohibition to add to or subtract from the work and the faith in the Creator’s greatness and importance translate into the language of vectors of forces, the relations between the forces and the way they interact. By connecting in different forms, they generate different phenomena.
But if we refer to our attainment, to our penetrating more deeply and using these forces, and not to our external study, then we have no choice. We cannot use these concepts automatically like in our world where we are on the same operating level as they are. In the spiritual world, we have to first start using these forces, and so we need a different language, the language of feeling, the language of working with them.
We need to rise to the level that the spiritual forces operate in our feelings in order to know how to use them. This wisdom is called the wisdom of Kabbalah, reception. When we begin to study the true reality as a set of operating forces, we discover that behind the two forces: the force of bestowal and the force of reception, there is actually only one force of the Creator, and that there is none else besides Him.
The Creator uses these two forces to lead the creation, and if we want to attain Him, Who is above that nature of receiving and bestowal, we have to acquire these two forces in the right combination, in the right balance, and thus attain Him. Then both the physics of the upper world, the wisdom of Kabbalah, which speaks about these forces, and we who attain these forces in the language of the Creator’s work, which means in the languages of emotions, are connected in us. By these two languages we expand our vessels of perception and are able to feel the true reality.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/13
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When I was Rabash’s student he could answer every question that I had but only to the extent that it was possible to reveal things. If you reveal more than a person can grasp you may harm him.
A teacher knows exactly what can be revealed and what must remain concealed, only to the extent that a person is loyal to you can you reveal something to him. This usually happens among relatives, with a son or with a son-in-law. This is interesting since they value your good name.
You cannot be more important to any other student than he is for himself. This is the essence of our nature! So you should conceal yourself from them so that they will feel that there is something they should overcome here.
What do our corporeal difficulties to get close indicate? If your followers are a son, a son-in-law, or a brother, they value you no matter what. So even if they descend to the corporeal level, they will guard your good name since it is also their name. A student, on the other hand, loses contact with you when he descends to the corporeal level and stops being your student.
It is not a person’s fault. This is how the connections between us are arranged naturally, and so you cannot give a student what you give a son, a son-in-law, or another relative.
This is very meaningful during the first phases. A student can be like a son to you only if he is spiritually connected to you. Otherwise, what other connections do you have with him? You try to bring him to the spiritual level, but the question is to what extent he can do so.
It is about interesting corporeal attributes and how they come in contact with spirituality, but in the meantime, through the simple ego. If we speak about a certain level of loyalty when it comes to a son or to any other relative, it exists to some extent since it is based on egoism. You may say some more to them and they will never use it against you. It is possible to reveal to them a bit more than to others on a minimal level.
But this stick has two ends. The student can grow to a level on which he treats the teacher as a father despite his inner resistance. Here an opposite attribute is created and the student can do more than a son. In order to do so, both have to work seriously.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/29/13
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Question: I feel a complete detachment from TES (Talmud Eser Sefirot.) I can neither understand nor sense it. When I read it, I feel really frustrated. Is there a way to handle this?
Answer: And rightly so. After all, you see that everything written there is unclear to you; it doesn’t “stick” to you.
When we study any science that belongs to this world, we read slowly, try to understand, listen, “digest” the same page or a part of it many times, and then we eventually comprehend it. We can draw it on paper, create a model, or see it somewhere, or ask others about something we don’t understand yet.
Those who know the answers will show us how it works; they will also bring examples: This is an atom, it has electrons and protons. This is an accelerator, it speeds atoms up, hits them, and they break away from their nuclei and bounce from side to side… . We don’t see this picture but we can imagine “bouncing” balls.
When we study spirituality, we just don’t understand a thing. Everything that pertains to spirituality happens in a totally different realm, on a dissimilar plane, in another dimension, in opposite properties and qualities.
All we have is our brain (an empty computer) and an egocentric “program” that has filled our brain since we were born. We observe everything through this prism. We are not able to read texts that are so different, nor do we understand what these texts tell us. This is because we are run by different types of software.
As an example, let’s take a regular computer with a “Windows” operating system. We try playing a different software on this computer, let’s say “Linux.” However, it doesn’t have software to do that, so the computer has “no clue” of what is going on with it. This attempt of ours creates a total mess in the computer, nothing else.
The same applies to us. We are internally programmed. Connections between our memory and logic cells already have been established. We read with our eyes, but internally we feel what we are reading. So we should have a program inside us that is “compatible” with the incoming information, as in a computer. Quite simply, there is nothing else to it.
So, the information that we scan with our eyes contains a different volume and “sits” in a different pool of cells; it isn’t on the same grid with the informational data and their relationships that are in me. We read the information that is based on bestowal, on “getting out of oneself.” However, it is totally different information; it isn’t in us. We don’t have an inner machine to comprehend it.
There are people who still love to read, to understand; they literally “chewing” the granite of science. We have a student who is this way; by the way, he is a very good friend of ours, although he is a big “nerd.” I always use him as an example of how strongly one can really seek knowledge.
I too was one of them. I thought that through learning, I would conquer everything and to the extent that I understood the material I was studying with my brain, I would reveal and attain Kabbalah as any other science of this world. As a result, I hit a wall and felt a tremendous repulsion to TES.
It took me several years to understand the sixth and the seventh portions of TES, the World of Nekudim. Starting with the eighth part and from there on, I didn’t comprehend a thing! In other words, it didn’t live in me because I didn’t have these elements inside of me.
There are people who study TES and are very happy about it because they don’t have an internal demand to reach attainment, meaning they have no point in the heart. And I do have a point in the heart and it requires that I feel things that I study. I have to sense and form them internally; it’s not enough for me to imagine them as a basic model, I have to feel the entire world that they describe to me.
If this world is not present inside us, we won’t understand anything at all. Therefore, one who gets frustrated and angry about not understanding, is a really good soul. However, no one will understand this material until one “upgrades” oneself, re-structures one’s internal “program,” and in addition to the software that runs him or her, is added another programming language called “a spiritual system.”
Then, everything will be just fine. To the degree of our internal spiritual advancement, we will realize what’s written in this book, because it will tell us about ourselves, our sensations, and the innermost vivid feelings and states that we go through. There is more revelation, stronger sensation, deeper understanding, insight,and connection with the universe and with other people who read TES when we begin disclosing Kelim, vessels, tools, that emerge in us.
So, please continue to be annoyed, not at TES, but at yourself. After all, if you’re angry, it means that you have already come to a stage when you are able to re-arrange yourself in order to “accommodate” this material; it signifies that this structure will soon become yours. You will feel these sensations inside yourself. You will be able to tell that these particular feelings are Aba ve Ima, the other ones are ZON, others are small (Katnut) or great (Gadlut) states, and some are the Surrounding or Inner Light. It all exists in you! It’s not external but internal because the entire world is inside us. You will start seeing that everybody who is around you is in fact inside you and you will expand yourself to the entire universe.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/13, Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman
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The Torah, “Exodus,” (Mishpatim), 23:2: You shall neither side with the mighty to do wrong—you shall not give perverse testimony in a dispute so as to pervert it in favor of the mighty…
Being on the side of the majority always “bribes” us. People feel powerful when they stay with the majority. It’s implanted in us by nature.
In this case, a person is “bribed” by a different approach: “I need this to disseminate Kabbalah, to correct the world, since the majority of people will listen to me and I will correct them. However, to begin with, I have to establish contact with them and somehow become similar to them.”
I support these things in my students because a teacher has to care about his disciples. Constantly they attempt to persuade me that this attitude is correct. I agree with them, but then I “back track” (trick them out of it) in order to teach them how to work correctly. The contact will happen by all means.
The majority has to “bow” to an individual. In spirituality, everything is delineated by individuality, not by the majority.
Question: In other words, you are not a fan of democracy?
Answer: There is no democracy whatsoever! The world is organized from “top to bottom,” from the leader to the masses. The masses have to follow the leader. The leader has to aspire to the Creator. The leader is the one who is under the Creator. We see where democracy leads us. I hope that people finally will understand that a rigid hierarchy of justice has to come into existence.
Laws that act in nature are called justice. It’s not something that we “invent” on our own, but rather something that we learn and receive from nature.
The entire hierarchy that was made by the Creator, the Upper Light, represents justice. If in our eyes it is not so, then it means that we have to alter our properties. When we manage to change ourselves, we’ll agree with this notion. When we agree, we’ll see that it’s true perfection.
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From Kab TV’s “Mysteries of the Eternal Book,” 6/24/13
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Baal HaSulam, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”: If there is any definition that can tell spiritual from corporeal, it belongs only to those who have attained a spiritual thing and felt it. These are the genuine Kabbalists; thus, it is the wisdom of Kabbalah that we need.
This material world is completely detached from spirituality. Kabbalists explain to us that our material world is simply an outcome of our imagination. After we wake up, we’ll see that we “were as dreamers.” This dream and our existence in it seems real; however, at its core it is imaginary and illusive.
But we are unable to make the distinction. There is a reality and there are five sensors through which we can investigate the reality. Our exploration of this realm is called “science,” a complex of dependable knowledge that we use as guidance. With the help of science, people produce medications, build houses, etc., thus make our lives better. The set of knowledge that we call “science” is very reliable, trustworthy, and tested. This explains why science makes us more confident and satisfies us.
However, we keep thinking about “life after death.” We don’t know what it is. Physically, one dies together with one’s body, and yet it’s not a secret that on top of it there is a certain part in us, a spiritual component. There are no solid proofs of this fact; moreover, the wisdom of Kabbalah states that there is no spiritual constituent in us whatsoever. The one who hasn’t attained spirituality stays at an “animate,” physical level for one’s entire life. It’s not an accident that Baal HaSulam once said that he didn’t care where his “sack of bones” would be buried. However, we do have a chance to alter our nature in a way that in addition to our “animal” existence we also disclose life in another dimension, a spiritual reality.
It is very straightforward: whatever one manages to attain is all one actually has. Fantasizing won’t help; nothing from this world can be related to spirituality. Spirituality exists independently and if we are not yet there, we just cannot deliberate on it. Therefore, scientists do not explore this topic since they don’t have relevant “tools” for it.
And yet, there is a special approach to life that is called “philosophy.” It speculates on topics that are impossible to explore using traditional scientific methods. As a result, philosophers come up with various opinions about the spiritual world as if they sense, understand, or have access to it. No doubt that it’s clearly a wrong, unscientific approach that has nothing to do with science or common sense. It’s all about fantasizing; so, it’s not an accident that nowadays the word “philosophy” became derogatory. Those who are detached from reality are called “philosophers.” And rightly so.
That’s why Baal HaSulam was strongly against the philosophical approach. Previously, when it was impossible to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah to the masses, philosophers could talk profusely about their views. Today, the wisdom of Kabbalah spreads out into the world, whereas philosophers continue to discuss things that they do not have any contact with, thus confusing people even more.
Baal HaSulam explains that philosophical constructions have no basis and that you can’t listen to philosophers since they mystify and puzzle themselves and others, thus depriving humanity of a chance to speed up their progress in attaining the goal of creation. After all, doesn’t the goal of creation come before and stay above all other things? If we don’t hurry up, if we let philosophers confuse us even more, we’ll be triggering additional afflictions. This is what concerned Baal HaSulam.
By the way, a curious question arises: How can sober, thinking people fantasize about something they haven’t yet attained, have no proofs of, and is something they have never tested or analyzed? This mystery of philosophy still has no answer.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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