Fundamentals Of Kabbalah – 12.23.12
Posted on December 23rd, 2012
A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah “Congress, Work Group”
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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah “Congress, Work Group”
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Rabash, “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend 1”: If a person is very tired and goes to sleep at around 11 pm, if he is awakened at 3 am, of course he will say that he has no energy to get up to study because he is very tired. And if he feels a little weak or has a slight temperature, the body will certainly have no power to rise at the time he is accustomed to rising.
But if a person is very tired, feeling sick, and goes to sleep at midnight, but is awakened at 1 am and is told, “There is a fire in the yard; it’s about to come into your room. Quick, get up and you’ll save your life in return for the effort you are making,” he will not make any excuses about being tired, mindless, or sick. Rather, even if he is very sick, he will make every effort to save his life. Evidently, because he will obtain an important thing, the body has the energy to do what it can to get what he wants.
Therefore, while working on “Make for yourself a rav,” a person believes that it is, “For they are our lives and the length of our days.” To the extent that he feels that this is his life, the body has enough strength to overcome all the obstacles, as written in the allegory. For this reason, in all of man’s works, in studying or in praying, he should focus all his work on obtaining the greatness and importance of the rav. Much work and many prayers should be made on that alone.
In the words of The Zohar, this is called “Raising Divinity from the dust”
…It follows that all we lack is, “Make for yourself a rav, to sense the greatness of the Creator. Then, everyone will be able to achieve the goal, which is to adhere to Him.”
We see how in our groups around the world there are sometimes many people who arrive at the lesson and sometimes very few. It is hard to judge them, since it says: “Do not judge a friend until you are in his place.” But no matter what the hardships are, the reason for being absent from a lesson is still the same—the lack of feeling its importance.
The feeling of importance depends on the group and not on the person himself. We see different groups on the screen during the lesson: Kiev, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and many other groups. Sometimes we see that the place is full of people, but usually there are just a few. The reason for all that is the lack of feeling the importance of the goal, which we don’t develop in us. From Above, the feeling of the importance is intentionally lowered, so that a person will need the group and feel that he depends on the environment that should increase the feeling of importance. To the extent that he adheres to the group, the importance of the goal increases in him, and he is attracted to the group and advances.
But if he doesn’t feel the importance of the group and doesn’t adhere to it, then accordingly he doesn’t feel the importance of the goal. Therefore, he will not be able to advance and eventually will leave.
It all depends only on feeling the importance of the goal: to what extent a person yearns for it, studies, and demands the awareness of this importance during the study. It serves him as the fuel necessary for his advancement.
Our main concern should be that we lack the feeling of the importance of the goal, the fuel, the Creator’s greatness, that it should be enough for our advancement, so that I won’t stop thinking about Him, and will constantly worry that the feeling of importance will draw me to the center of the group in which I will find the entrance to the spiritual world.
“Rav” (big, great) is the Creator. “Make yourself a Rav” means to raise the Creator above all the other values a person has, so that nothing compares to it. According to such priorities, a person will determine his daily schedule and his attitude to everything.
“Buy yourself a friend” is required in order to increase the importance of the Rav. Therefore, you should buy yourself friends; pay them by your attitude, by your efforts, by serving them, so that they will help you acknowledge the greatness of the Rav, the greatness of the Creator.
Then during the study, we will have the right prayer for the one thing that we need—the Creator’s greatness. Everything is focused only around this greatness: the prayer, the illumination, and the love. Only the environment can help us by that, if a person evokes it by himself.
[95863]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/19/12
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Baal HaSulam, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”: Likewise, all the fixed pictures that we know and use to define materials are inconsistent and do not exist in their own right. Rather, they only dress and undress forms under the influence of conditions such as heat or cold.
During the lesson we think about the force that “draws” the material that actually doesn’t exist. If, while we are reading, we are together, we constantly think about the united group and want to discover the general force among us, then we discover a whole world and live in it in a much clearer, more emotional, and more intensive way than our current life.
This is no fantasy. Evoke these forces. Now you are looking at the friends sleepily, and they look at you in the same way. So evoke these forces together and you will understand that there are worlds between you and that everything depends on your closeness and unity in your mind and your feelings, in your yearning and your inclination, in the desire to feel your inner essence together. Suddenly you will see how the abstract force turns into something real and concrete.
Previously you only paid attention to “coarse” corporeal forces: heat, cold, pressure, etc. But there are much finer and stronger forces in a person than the ones that operate even in the micro-world, on a subatomic level. These fine forces reveal the real material to you. When you enter this field, you discover that it is the beginning and the end of everything, that all of creation is there with its plan. Here, however, there is nothing but the false, artificial, external drawing that is meant to confuse you and to focus you on the correction by false incentives without taking your freewill from you and so as not to turn you into a robot.
This realization should focus us on the main thing, on developing the forces that are between us. They are the strongest “weapon” against evil, against all our problems. Even in our imaginary world subatomic forces are much stronger than the ordinary forces of the macro world. A lot of energy is required in order to cause a collision between the particles in the collider. We, however, enter the field of our personal forces that operate between the friends. This is such great intensity that cannot be measured by using the means we have in this world.
It is a real force. We only have to reach it and to learn how to manage it, since it will not be revealed without an intention to bestow, for the good of others.
Question: Does this mean that there are forces in me that enable me to discover a new reality? How can I find them?
Answer: Start acting, exert yourself, fix the connection with the friends, annul yourself, and by that allow them to connect to you. Start evoking them so that they will impress you with the greatness of the goal. We should make such efforts every day, every moment, because the desire to receive is constantly renewed and constantly demands us to renew our relationships, the whole Ha-Va-Ya-H. This is all our work.
If you evoke and arrange the forces that connect you with the friends as correctly as possible, the force of bestowal and the force of receiving, you will discover that the relationships between you are much more important than the corporeal world.
It will come, since you study and you are expecting the Light that Reforms, and it will influence you. Suddenly you will discover that the relationships between you are the most important thing, and then you will begin to discover a new spiritual material, which is much more real and concrete than what surrounds you today. It will be so powerful, heavy, and real that the temporary, imaginary picture of this world will dissolve on its background.
[95768]
From the 4th Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/18/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”
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Question: Yesterday a friend who had left the group some time ago suddenly called me and said that he wanted to return. How does such a warm deficiency suddenly awaken in a person? How can we evoke those who have left?
Answer: Can anyone avoid the correction of his soul? Anyone who was with us at some point and left will eventually return. You can see that I am not keeping anyone, not even for a moment. If someone wants to go, then let him go; I wish him all the best. I can say that about anyone, without any regrets, since this is his destiny.
We have to advance according to the laws that we see in nature and which Kabbalists explain to us. These are nature’s laws and there is nothing artificial about them, Kabbalists tell us about man’s psychology and how to use it correctly in order to advance and to reach the top, to rise to our inner psychology, to an inner connection, to enter the world that is behind elementary particles, photons, atoms, all matter.
We have to penetrate this field where the force that sustains all of reality is concealed. All this happens according to exact laws, and there is nothing accidental here.
We have to advance towards this, and as a result of our advancement, a more powerful force field will appear around us. Then it will begin to influence the people who were with us and have left, and also people who have not reached us yet. Their charge, their spark, their “point in the heart,” their spiritual potential is still weak, and so they studied a little and left or haven’t reached us at all yet, but are still on hold.
They are close to us, but our field isn’t strong enough in order to draw them. Our force field is still weak and they are weak in their charge. But when our field grows and becomes stronger, it will draw them inward. Then we will suddenly see how the door opens, and they walk in.
It will undoubtedly happen. It all depends only on our advancement; we don’t have to perform any external actions with regard to them. It all depends solely on us, and we have to perform the correction that is our duty.
So our work is mainly the inner spiritual work. We have to disseminate our materials all over the world in our free time, and for this work we have our Kabalistic factory. This is the external work, but 90% of all our work should be dedicated to our inner work. All our forces and our attention should be aimed at our inner advancement.
We do the external dissemination outside the global group for our advancement, since we depend on the extended society.
[95748]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/12, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”
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There cannot be love without hate. After all, love comes precisely as the correction for hate. It isn’t an innate part of us, but we have to build it by ourselves. This is where the command of “love thy friend as thyself” comes from: From the love of the created beings we move on to the love of the Creator. The Creator is the general, sum of all the forms of love.
But first I discover the matter of my egoistic desire, my “Mt. Sinai“, my mountain of “hatred,” the shattered vessel to its dark depth. This is called the “illumination of Malchut,” and it is really frightening.
Then I have to correct this hatred, and only by that do I reach love.
There is no independent love; there are no independent vessels of bestowal. There is the Light that Reforms that I draw in order to correct myself. I don’t leave the hate, I still feel and acknowledge it, it is kept, and above it instead of the “mountain of hate,” I build a “mountain of love.”
This is how the vessel is built; below there is thickness and above a Masach and the Returning Light (RL), which means adhesion. In the upper part I form my attitude to the Creator, all my intentions, and then I cover my hate with the Light of Hassadim below. Then comes the Light of Hochma and fills the vessel.
Question: Does that mean that I have to come to the lesson charged with rejection, and aversion in order to overcome it? What deficiency, what feeling of a flaw, should I bring with me?
Answer: Don’t look for hate. You should not come with a flaw, but with love. There is only one goal and what comes along the way is not our business. If hatred is revealed—let it be revealed, and if not—then it isn’t. I have to be attracted to one thing only, and if in the process I discover in me an inability, lack of understanding, lack of knowledge, etc., it means that that’s the way it should be.
I want to be clever, and on the way I discover that I am still stupid. But I am yearning for something that is totally different. So despite everything, I need to focus on the final goal.
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From the 4th Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”
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Baal HaSulam, “The Peace,” First Method: Nature
This method is an ancient one. Since they did not find a way and an outlet to bring these two conspicuous opposites closer, they came to assume that the Creator, who created all these, who watches mightily over His reality lest any of it be cancelled, is mindless and senseless.
Hence, although He watches over the existence of reality with wondrous wisdom, yet He Himself is mindless, and does all that senselessly. If there had been any reason and feeling in Him, He would certainly not leave such malfunctions in the provision of reality without pity and compassion for the tormented. For this reason, they named Him “Nature,” meaning a mindless, heartless supervisor. And for that reason, they believe that there is no one to be angry at, to pray to, or to justify oneself to.
This is an ancient concept, approach, although we see it as a new attainment of materialism. The simplest way is to see the world as it is, and this was actually the initial approach of humanity. Religions, beliefs, and philosophical approaches came along much later, when man developed internally, became more complex, and began to invent different myths. In the beginning people simply saw nature and lived in it like animals who also don’t believe in anything. This is how we should actually relate to nature, as it says, “a judge only has what his eyes can see.”
The following approaches stemmed from the disagreement with what happens in nature; people invented them as different excuses, and so they are all false. In fact, we see facts that are independent of our attitude towards them. But man invents different excuses in order to sweeten life or to enjoy false hopes.
A healthy attitude to life is in the scientific approach. We see the effect of unchangeable exact laws everywhere, the activity of systems and the periodicity of natural elements. If I see that that’s the way things are, then it is so, and don’t offer me different lies. I see the truth and any addition to it is individual and cannot be counted on. It is in these additions that beliefs are created, while nature is revealed in facts as it actually is.
The wisdom of Kabbalah continues this approach, telling us about the principles of the perception of reality. We see this world before us, and, except for that it, says that there is a whole area called “the upper world,” which is not imaginary, but which can be studied scientifically. Thus the wisdom of Kabbalah continues conventional science and conducts research beyond the boundaries of conventional science.
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The wisdom of Kabbalah consists of two parts: the concealed and the revealed.
“Concealed” means forbidden to reveal. And what is the point in revealing? Indeed, everything can be written in books, but what a person can get from them depends on the state he is in. Thus one of the parts of the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “concealed,” because it is revealed only after certain conditions are fulfilled as a person goes through the cleansing of his ego.
It is also called that way since the upper part of the world of Atzilut is inaccessible to us. Even if I learn about the smallest, initial level of the spiritual ascent and am still in the worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, Beria and only later enter the world of Atzilut, still, even the smallest level I am on, the first ten parts called “one level” (one level is made of ten Sefirot), already gives me an idea about all of creation, but in a minimal way, on a small scale. Then I rise and see, like on a map that I read on a larger scale, everything there is enlarged.
But being at the bottom, I cannot bring the concealed part, GAR of Atzilut, its upper part, close to me in any way, which means to depict it. I can imagine different lower levels more or less, and then too I am always wrong, since every upper level is a new attribute regarding a lower level. Still, I can somehow imagine it, but not the levels that are concealed or that are called secret. All the levels below them are called revealed and we can reach them all, anticipating in advance what revelations they will bring us.
The first Partzuf of the world of Atzilut is called Atik, from the Hebrew word “ne’etak” – “cut,” detached and cut off, from our attainment. The next Partzuf is called Zeir Anpin, and the upper part of its “head” is called Keter, or more accurately Kitra (in Aramaic), and this part is also concealed.
Everything that is below this part is gradually revealed to us: Kruma of Avira, Mocha of Avira, Mocha Stima. The structure of all these parts is very interesting, since it is from them, from the revealed part of the head of Arich Anpin, that the Providence descends into our world, that our fate descends.
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From a Virtual Lesson 11/25/12
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All of our life, history, and everything that we went through from the beginning of creation until now divides into two parts: exile and redemption. There is nothing else except for these two states:
The difference between exile (Galut – גלות) and redemption (Geula – גאולה) is the letter “Aleph” (א), which symbolizes the Creator, (Aluph – אלוף) Champion of the world. This is how all of our reality is divided, all the process of development. We certainly aren’t aware of this until suddenly we receive an awakening which allows us to stop the period of exile, the darkness, the feeling of this world, the intolerable and worst state, and to pass to a new period, a new level, a new state, that is called redemption. It’s for this that we study.
Since we exist in this world, we use the words to describe the upper world, the spiritual state. But together with this, it’s forbidden to forget that the contents and meanings of the words are different from their usual meanings. For example, Adam (man/human) belongs to the category of “Israel,” which isn’t according to one’s birth, but according to his spiritual longings.
“Religious,” from the spiritual meaning of the wisdom of Kabbalah, are the Sefirot of “Daat” (intellect/knowledge), “Tifferet” (Splendor) and “Yesod” (Foundation) which is the middle line. In other words, a person who already works with three lines and arrives, or at least longs to adhere to the Creator is called “religious.” And secular is one who is found under the control of the desire to receive. “Holiness” is the attribute of bestowal and love.
In this way, all our terms and definitions are characteristic of only one thing: identifying what force operates on a person in determining his intention in each action. Either it’s with the intention for the sake of bestowal, according to the principle of “love your friend as yourself,” which comes to “love of the Creator,” or the opposite, with the intention to receive for oneself. That is all the difference that exists between people.
A person who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah without the intention to attract the Light that Reforms has no chance to attract this Light in any other way. And without this Light he remains “secular,” meaning he exists with the intention to receive for himself. He is separated from the Creator and even from the Light that Reforms, which is also called the “Torah.” Thus, when we are reading the writings of the Kabbalists, we need to always understand and remember that they express solely spiritual terms.
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From the 4th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/12, “Exile and Redemption”
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