Fundamentals Of Kabbalah – 02.03.13
Posted on February 3rd, 2013
A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah
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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah
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Question: How can I understand which corrections I go through from day to day? I don’t understand at all what is happening with me.
Answer: The understanding arrives as a result of clarifying my Kelim (vessels, desires). And the Light is what purifies, corrects, and fills my Kli, not you yourself. Our work is to be inspired to pull this Light upon us. Except for that there is nothing else, and this is the entire Torah, “The Reforming Light.”
You don’t know, don’t understand, and don’t feel the spiritual world. Simply some kind of unknown longing leads you, but you really don’t know exactly what it leads to. This is the correct and good state that even exists on higher spiritual levels.
We only need to imagine the optimal conditions: In what state, what situation, in what way will I enter into the maximum influence of the Light? It is as if I go on the roof in order to sunbathe a little. After all I wouldn’t sit in the shade, but I would put the chair directly in the sun and turn towards it, in order to place myself constantly under its rays. I constantly adjust myself to catch the maximum rays of the sun.
Similarly, we need to clarify the conditions under which we will be able to pull the maximum Light that Reforms. And we need not just to place ourselves under its influence, but to pull it to ourselves. After all, here everything depends on how strongly I want the Light to come and affect me.
And one needs to think about this all day: How can I hold myself in the correct thought and desire; what needs to control my heart and mind in order to invite the influence of the Light? Under what conditions does the Light influence me in the greatest way? How should I turn my heart and mind in order to position myself under the influence of the Light?
As a result of that, all the rest will come. Even without reading the letters of Baal HaSulam, you discover what is written there. The matter is not in learning a few pages of text and acquiring knowledge. But we need to read these texts because during the time of studies we direct ourselves to greater influence of the Light. For example, the reading of Kabbalistic texts is one of the conditions of the correct intention towards the Light. But we don’t read them just for understanding, but with the thought to pull towards us the influence of the Light. This is the whole issue. Thus, it is said, “Not the wise one learns.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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We are used to traditional literature. Books can be entertaining about adventure, science fiction, etc. In general, when opening a book, I want to draw some information or impressions from it.
However, Kabbalistic books act very differently. In Kabbalah a book is a means, the connecting element, the adapter, with which I can connect to the author. That is how I should see the works of Kabbalists: They help me connect to an immense spiritual system flooded with the Light of Infinity, filled with the Creator.
This system consists of souls, that is, from the corrected desires of the greatest spirits that by great efforts achieved similarity with the Creator, and they hold His revelation in their vessels, in their desires. Moreover, some of them formed a thin “pipe” to me, a channel through which I can connect with them and receive inspiration, news, correction, everything that makes me belong to this system.
Thus, reading a Kabbalistic books is quite different from reading all other literature. That is why these books in general are called “studying” (the Torah) because they contain the Light (Ohr) that Reforms. They contain a special power, and I can get it if I wait for change, if I want to become like the authors.
If I look just for knowledge in these books and treat them like any other books, then I disdain the efforts of Kabbalists and thus lose a lot. Of course, in general this approach brings no good to either me or anyone else.
Thus, it is very important to connect to the heritage of Kabbalists, to use the opportunity to unite that they gave me. Here, the intention decides everything. If my “animal” mind sees various kinds of wisdom in their books to improve something in our world, then it is a completely worthless approach called “the potion of death.” Nothing is worse than this attitude.
And if we connect, if we read these books only in order to see the “elixir of life” inside, we open ourselves so we are ready to receive what they intended to give us. There are no tricks and excuses: all that the upper gives us for the better. Thus I advance, as they say, “believing the wise.”
It is not simple, but it imperative. My intention determines the difference between the “elixir of life” and the “potion of death,” between the “bat” living in the dark, and the “rooster” praising the dawn. If I do not keep the correct approach, I can stay in the same place, or even worse, fall backward. Even if I have dedicated a whole life to this, if there were an error in the main thing, then life will pass in vain, and even worse, it can throw me into the forces of impurity (Klipot), cleansing from which can take a few more cycles.
That is why people must constantly check themselves on the spiritual path.
Question: What can I do with my “material” mind and my feeling to connect to this “adapter,” a Kabbalistic book?
Answer: It is necessary to cancel yourself before the group and the teacher; this is the tool that lets you connect to the author. By annulling oneself before the group and the teacher who oversees it, a person seemingly connects to the “jack” and establishes connection with the Kabbalist who wrote the book. The group plays the role of the “adapter” between them.
In general, the concept of “group” represents a link between the Creator and humanity.
[99122]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/13, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“
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Question: I don’t understand how a person can despair of his own powers and cry out if I simply feel tired of everything and throw it all aside when things get tough? Where should I stop and feel despair?
Answer: We don’t know in advance where we should stop. If the outcry is planned, then it isn’t a cry of despair. A cry of despair has to come from inside you without any prior planning as one sees that he has no other choice. If you feel confused and are too tired and don’t know which way to go, it is an indication that you don’t feel that the goal is important.
Now the goal doesn’t seem important to you, and you don’t understand why you are making such efforts. Once you were full of energy and chased different pleasures and wasted your powers. What nonsense does a person do during his lifetime and all just to feel some fleeting pleasure? Sometimes you lie on the couch and don’t want to get up since there is nothing to get up for, and sometimes you get up and run, losing your head, ready to do anything.
It all depends on how important you feel the goal is, which is the main thing we should attain. The importance of the goal is the importance of bestowal, the importance of actions that are far from self-interest, which I cannot perform since I am not motivated to and have no fuel to perform them. How can I do something in which there is nothing for me? My body cannot move in such a case. Our whole world works only on the energy of the desire to receive, that receives a filling, pleasure, reward. But if I don’t see a reward, I cannot do anything.
Thus the Creator gets close to me and takes away my last powers to do anything. The attribute of bestowal comes close to me, and I don’t feel that I am motivated to do something, I actually cannot move.
Fortunately the attribute of bestowal doesn’t dress in the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature; otherwise, all the electrons, all the molecules, all the protein matter would stop and my body would freeze and become motionless; it would die, and disappear. Luckily the attribute of bestowal gradually comes closer and is dressed only in the “speaking” level in me.
But the moment it gets close to my shattered egoistic desire, I immediately feel that I am losing my energy, the fuel, the power, the motivation. So what can I do? The Creator’s getting closer at this point is meant to deprive me of the egoistic motivation and to force me, having no choice, to turn to the group. From it I will receive the impression as to the importance of connection, advancement, the greatness and the importance of the goal. I will be able to work by using the group’s fuel.
All this is necessary in order to help me adhere to the group and start bestowing upon it. By such actions I am incorporated in the group and I receive its values. I want to be with everyone because I respect them and see them as my group. They help me and they seem great and important. A person submits to the environment and has to make special efforts to be incorporated in it.
To the extent that I am incorporated in the environment, I receive a unique quality. It is a special chance that doesn’t exist in any method except the wisdom of Kabbalah. A miracle happens, a special power that influences me as a result of my preparation, and it corrects the shattered vessels in me.
These shattered vessels symbolize my readiness for correction. The Light that operates and influences them corrects them. This is called a healing action, like it says: “a remedy for one’s flesh.” Then I really begin to respect and to value bestowal, I suddenly discover in me respect and appreciation for this attribute and want it to be dressed in me. I want to annul myself and to connect with others. Suddenly I have such thoughts and desires that are not typical of my nature at all. But now I suddenly feel such an unnatural yearning and I understand that it is a result of the influence of the Light on me. So we advance.
Without a group, there is no way to receive the Light that Reforms, since it comes from the upper system, through the teacher, through the group, through the books until it reaches a person. There has to be a chain.
The group is not in the spiritual world yet or may be partly in it. The teacher is in contact with the souls of the Kabbalists that preceded him, with his teachers, and a person connects to the group through the books, dissemination, and working together, and thus connects to the goal by ensuring himself a connection with the source of the Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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On its own, what is the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah? Everything seems simple; people that want to study come and there is an expert that teaches. He sits and he talks, and whoever wants to hear comes and listens. There are many places like this in the world where people are studying all kinds of things.
But when a man comes to the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah, quickly he reveals that the students need to be connected to each other. So, ok good, there are even quite a few examples of this. People connect in frames of a group; it could be a class or a group, etc.
It is only that here, we tell them, ”You need to connect between yourselves in love.”
Already this looks like mysticism. Something similar to it exists in the wisdoms of the East and also religion is preaching about connection between people, “Love your friend as yourself.”
Later, the quality of this connection is spoken about. So it becomes understood that the issue is not only in studying and all the other things that accompany it, but the main thing is the connection.
How could it be? I came to study some kind of wisdom. I’m willing to do it together with others; I’m willing to join them in order that the connection between us will be in accord with the study. But no, I’m being told another thing, “You need to connect with them to such a measure that you will stop feeling your existence, only they will exist for you.” This I do not understand, but they demand this from me in order to understand the material, which on its own is not important in the meantime.
In this matter, a reversal of 180 degrees awaits me: Before the material of the study was important to me, I wanted to know something new, to receive wisdom, and now it is clear that the material is not important at all, rather the connection is. I hadn’t even thought about something like that.
So what has to be done? How can one understand that everything is attained in connection, that we will never understand the sources if we don’t begin to connect, because the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks only about the manners of connection and not about anything else?
We stumble on this problem. And that’s why the Rabash began his articles from this: love of friends, the purpose of society, the order of the gathering of friends, etc. Without this, we simply have nowhere to go, but we dismiss what doesn’t fit our desire and public opinion.
Even though it is hard for me to receive the importance of the love of friends, I need to convince myself that I am here only for one goal, to connect with the friends in such a way as to annul myself before them, to lose self-existence and to exist only in such a measure that I can bestow to them, only according to their desire.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/13, Writings of Rabash, “Love of Friends”
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Question: It is said that it is not the smart one who learns in Kabbalah. Then, why do you always ask whether we understand anything we learn in The Study of the Ten Sefirot? Isn’t The Book of Zohar enough for those who only have to feel? Can smart people really study?
Answer: Interestingly, spiritual advancement doesn’t depend on the knowledge we accumulate. This is clear and certain. The point is that apprehension and comprehension, knowing, comes when I put effort into unity, into the desire to connect with our neighbors, and getting outside ourselves, when we convince ourselves that the visible picture around us is in fact my world, part of my soul, and my enemies and adversaries are the most useful and closest to me.
In turns out that the opposite is true. On one hand, our advancement depends on it.
But on the other hand, we see that the Ari started to explain Kabbalah as if it were science in the contemporary meaning of the word. It was the Ari who opened the era of correction to us; it starts with him. In the 16th century, he added a scientific nature to Kabbalah; he started to present materials in a scientific way and for the first time ever he accurately described the structure of spiritual worlds, Partzufim, Sefirot, Lights, vessels, laws, degrees, etc.
After the Ari, several Kabbalists wrote such books, then, Baal HaSulam appeared and continued the same trend; based on the Ari’s books, he wrote The Study of the Ten Sefirot. It is a full tutorial with precise definitions and responses to numerous questions. In addition, he wrote a commentary to The Book of Zohar using scientific terminology.
Why do we need this? Maybe, it’s indeed enough to read the Torah with all those stories of exiting Babylon and Egypt and other events of ancient history? Yet, it is obvious that we have no clue about what exactly is described in them. When materials are presented in a scientific way, it becomes very clear to us that we are dealing with the process of approaching the Creator; whereas, when reading the Torah, we simply cannot locate our place in all these stories, nor can we sense the need for our internal changes or determine the means to do so.
This way of presenting materials was very good for the period when people were seeking the Creator through affliction. We should keep in mind that in the era of the Torah, the Prophets and Holy Scriptures, the Creator could be attained as a result of pretty simple efforts, as it is said: “Eat bread and salt, drink water, sleep on the ground, suffer, and engage in the Torah.” If one read the source, the Tanakh, following the above conditions, wanting to come to the Creator through the reading, one attained Him.
But then the egoistic desire “jumped” to the next level, and from this stage on, the former method of revealing the Creator became impossible. That’s why Kabbalists started to search for a different form of presenting materials—in the form of Mishnah and Talmud. These books speak of the same things that are described in the Tanakh, but this time in the context of laws. Things that the Torah explains in the form of morality were framed in the Talmud as a rigid structure: We take and give; if we take something, we owe the same thing back, thus, we either go through afflictions or are entitled to a reward.
In principle, the wisdom of Kabbalah talks about the laws of interconnection between the vessels and the Lights. The power of the Light of Infinity (Ein Sof – ES) is unchanging, although there are five spiritual steps. At the first stage, the Light goes through without any filters (directly) and is called Yechida. At the second level, the Light goes through a specific “filter” that lowers it to the level of Haya. At the third step, two filters lessen the Light to the level of Neshama, and so on and so forth until it reaches the level of the Light of Nefesh.
When we go deeper inside, we start “playing with numbers,” with technical specifications. If one wants to talk about spiritual steps, he has to explain in detail what state he is talking about, what level, what desires, what screens, what Light. One has to use numbers that show me what he is talking about.
Vague definitions do not work. The same applies to modern day technologies; it requires ever greater accuracy in measurements settings. So, whether we like it or not, the scientific language of Kabbalah is closer to us, although we still cannot tell what’s behind it.
Let’s say, yesterday you were in one state, and today in another.
-“What is the difference between these states?” I ask.
-“Yesterday I felt a little better, although not quite well.”
– “I don’t understand. Give me more details, exact figures and more precise characteristics, the encoding that I can translate inside myself and feel the same. Give me the exact data instead of vague impressions.”
We have to unite with the general system, but how? How can we unite if there is no channel of connection that works at the ultimate frequency and that provides an ideal exchange of information?
Consequently, we have to become experts and know our “TV sets” properly, then we begin understanding the entire system. The system is ours. It is us!
The question is: What are the methods of acquiring this knowledge?
The way of achieving it is to nullify our personal understanding. This is called “faith above reason.”
Question: The school teacher told me that one plus one is two. I believe him, but then start checking it out. Do we apply the same method here?
Answer: No. In Kabbalah, a person acquires new properties and “weighs” everything on a new “scale”; we have to use a different type of intellect than previously. By changing internally, we transition to another sphere, into a different space, a new dimension; we have to use a spiritual arithmetic. Now, one measures and compares everything by its quality, rather than quantity; one plus one does not always equal two. It is an opposite world with a totally different “system of calculation.”
We begin acting in a completely different plane of reality that is still hidden from us. Why is it hidden? It is because it doesn’t correspond to our current sensations or intellect. It makes it impossible to apply conventional mathematics to the spiritual world.
It means that the one who is prone to changing one’s own properties is able to study, as opposed to the one who is smart and clever. As a result, our modified qualities “dress” into a new type of intellect. A person changes his desire and receives the “revelation” into it. This is an intellect of a higher level.
One shouldn’t be “smart.” On the contrary, a person has to cancel his current understanding and go against it in order to receive a new type of consciousness. One has to be smart enough to cancel one’s present understanding.
How do we do that? We have to understand only one thing: We need to depend on the correct environment and over and over again continue receiving its integral mind instead of having a mind of our own.
In this world, this approach looks totally unacceptable, whereas in spirituality, everything is exactly as it is described above: We unite with our very special group. The Creator brought us here and told us: “Unite with your friends.” We neutralize our mind and sensations and start uniting. How possibly can we agree to this? It is so hard to bow our heads and “loose ourselves” in the group.
We are brought to this state from Above, although we are still concerned whether we are capable of self-annulment. That is the question. Do we accept the destiny that is offered to us by the Creator? Do we run away from it? Do we continue using our energy in spite of everything that goes on with us and manage to put our mind aside?
Kabbalah is a difficult labor. It’s an exertion that influences our nerves, habits, and desires. It has nothing to do with the amount of knowledge.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot
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We have to respect the feeling of confusion, darkness, blurriness, and powerlessness. It says “respect the sons of the poor since the Torah will come from them.” It is these poor who have nothing, who feel a growing emptiness in their hearts and minds, who are unable to concentrate and find their way around in these states, who are thus preparing their vessels in which they will receive the Torah, the Light that reveals to them all the spiritual discernments.
So the main thing is to get used to studying in darkness and in the light. This is symbolized in the Kabbalists’ tradition of beginning their studies at midnight. This is what Kabbalists did throughout the ages, and even King David used to get up at midnight in order to “awaken the dawn.” It is because at midnight the Zivug (coupling) of the upper Aba and Ima begins in order to awaken the vessels to receive the Light.
If a person wants to attain the Light, the state is called “day.” He has to try and awaken the vessels to receive the Light in their lowest and darkest state, when he is “asleep” and doesn’t feel himself.
We don’t notice these discernments yet, but we will soon learn how to discern them in order to see everything in the darkness and in the light, and to know how to use every state in the clearest and most conscious manner. The main point now, after the ascent we attained in the convention, is not to leave the work in such times, which are not really understood, are not pleasant, and which do not fill us.
Such times come along so that we will face them, and despite the heavy feeling in our egoistic desires, which don’t understand the darkness, we will remain in connection and rise, and thus build the vessels for the next ascent.
[98499]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/13
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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 141:I am found nowhere but in the Torah. Therefore, keep the Torah and look for Me there, and the Light in it will reform you and you will find Me,” as it is written, “Those that seek Me shall find Me.”
This is what we try to do, striving to connect as one man in one heart, attaining mutual guarantee and “love your neighbor as yourself” by showing our readiness for such a connection during the study. And then in each moment, we reveal how much we are incapable of this, and then again we try, despite everything, to think about unity and connection.
We hope that our study and connection will help us reveal the Creator in order to bring Him pleasure. This becomes the prayer during the study, an action of correction, and it draws us nearer to the goal. If the friends try to connect in the right way, raise their points in the heart above their ego, free from its control, and connect them, which takes place during the lesson, which tells about such states, then in this we attract the Reforming Light. And this is actually our exertion.
There will always be disturbances, more and more. Therefore, we need to strengthen each other, and precisely then, when the despair comes and big obstacles appear in the path, a person is helpless before them, doesn’t know what to do, wants to escape, gets tired and falls, falls asleep or the opposite, becomes angry and cannot bear this state. But precisely these states are the most beneficial for adding one more drop of work, another ounce of effort, by which we attract the Light on us.
One who does not despair and give up is the one who succeeds. Here neither wisdom nor force will help, only patience. Time will do it.
“Time” symbolizes numerous efforts that a person does in each moment, even the smallest ones. These efforts accumulate, connect, and in the end, bring a solution.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/13, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”
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Question: During the Arava convention our group received a huge new level. Now we have to cling to it and keep it, and this requires repulsions. But on the other hand, according to the example that Baal HaSulam brings, in order to jump on the table you need to jump above it. So what is the next point “above the table” that we should focus our efforts on?
Answer: This week everyone will go home and we will return to our daily routine. For me, personally, the daily routine is the main thing; the conventions are a result of that routine. Day after day, we will work on ourselves increasingly more strongly, opening what we attained now and getting ready for the new revelation. This is all our work.
The convention itself is not work. We made such great preparations and so we succeeded. Part of that success was the women’s convention. In addition to that, collecting money for our new home and uniting around this problem created a surprisingly powerful force. Of course, we mustn’t forget the congresses in Kharkov and Novosibirsk.
Eventually we see that we have matured. The world is advancing faster downhill while we are rising accordingly. Here we have to keep clear frameworks: attend the daily lessons, read my blog selectively, participate in the workshops, and disseminate.
The main thing is self-examination and self-report: a person must constantly check oneself and one’s connection with the group.
In this context, during the lessons and the workshops, we are expecting new states and increasingly deeper issues. Today during the lesson and the workshop we will already continue what we have started during the Arava convention.
In this type of work, we fill the vessel drop by drop, until we “leap” to the next level, and thus over and over again. Don’t neglect these daily additions that are accumulating “penny by penny.” There is no other way. By that we discover many vessels, desires, internally. Even if it seems that nothing happens, the outcome of these efforts will, in fact, be discovered later on.
It is the same with a child who has to go through different states in the human environment. If he doesn’t have such an environment during the first years of his life, then nothing will help afterward: No matter how much you invest in him, he will never be a human being. The different examples of Mowgli–children prove that. How could that be? The thing is that he did not develop his desires in time.
We are also dealing with things that are essential on the current level of our development, and so we have to dedicate the time to study and to internal changes by trying to value every moment in this work.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/13, Shamati #26
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