Entries in the 'Kabbalah Study' Category

Phases of Development of the Will to Receive

548.02Comment: In The Study of the Ten Sefirot Baal HaSulam explains how creation, our desire, was created according to the four phases of direct light. We study it as the anatomy of the creation of desire.

The first phase is called the first expansion or Hochma. The second phase is the first intensification or Bina. The third phase is the second expansion or Zeir Anpin. The fourth phase is the second intensification or Malchut.

Malchut is the creation itself. Baal HaSulam points out that expansion is male and intensification is female.

My Response: The four phases of direct light is a very serious topic. The Creator created the will to receive. The light, that is, the Creator, influences it, and under the influence of the light, an emanation occurs, the development of the will to receive in four phases. Two phases are the influence of the light (the Creator) on the desire, and two phases are the reaction of the desire to the light of the Creator.

As a result, it turns out that under the influence of the bestowing and loving Creator who wants to fill creation, the creation expands its desires, reveals Him, is filled with His influence on itself, and then, in accordance with this filling, feels changes in itself.

Therefore, there is a phase of being filled with the Creator and a change in desire, again filling with the Creator, and again changing the desire. That is, two phases of filling, two phases of reaction.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 9/4/22

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Sun, Moon, and Earth

746.01Question: What are the Moon and the Sun in relation to our perception? From the point of view of Kabbalah, what is the Earth in relation to these two objects?

Answer: The Earth is the receiving part. It receives the light of the Sun; it rotates around its axis and each time exposes its other side to the Sun. The Earth is between the Sun and the Moon and therefore obscures the Moon from the Sun. This determines the phase of the Moon.

Since everything is arranged in such a way that the Moon revolves around the Earth with a certain periodicity, we have a lunar calendar. The Earth, as it rotates around its axis, creates an earthly, circadian calendar, and as it rotates together with the Moon around the Sun, it creates an annual calendar.

In addition, the rotation of the entire solar system creates special periods that are marked in the Jewish calendar (29 years and so on).

From the point of view of Kabbalah, the Sun represents Zeir Anpin, the Earth represents Malchut, and the Moon shows the degree of connection between them. The measure in which the Earth has a screen can be seen in the phases of the Moon. The extent to which the Earth can protect the Moon from sunlight shows us the size of the screen.

We see this in the phases of the Moon in reverse because I do not see myself except for my reflection. The waxing moon means that my screen starts to grow and it grows until the full moon and then begins to decrease. Therefore, of the four stages of development, two are growing and two are decreasing and then there is a new period. This is exactly what happens in the development of the spiritual instrument, the Kli (vessel).
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Sun, Moon, Earth” 5/26/13

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Two Types of Light

632.3The light of Hochma is regarded as the emanated being’s self and vitality. The light of Hassadim is only regarded as light for corrections, for the completion of the emanated being (Baal Hasulam, Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, Chapter 1).

Question: How does a person experience these two lights?

Answer: Initially, a person does not feel the light of Hochma in any way. In our world, when one wants to enjoy something, a person feels only a micro dose of this light. One feels the light of Hassadim only to the extent that one has a will to bestow, to bring pleasure to others. Practically, both lights are initially concealed from us and we must develop ourselves in such a way that we begin to feel them.

Usually one becomes familiar with them through the help of the method of correcting a person, the method of Kabbalah. To the extent that we study in a group, want to come closer to our friends, want to bestow to them like the Creator, and practice the quality of bestowal as much as possible, we start to feel the light of the Creator’s bestowal entering into us.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 9/4/22

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Will We Leave Our Footprints on the Dusty Paths of Distant Planets?

547.05There have only been about a half dozen genuinely important events in the four-billion-year saga of life on Earth: single-celled life, multi-celled life, the differentiation into plants and animals, the movement of animals from water to land, and the advent of mammals and consciousness.

The next big step should be the idea of interplanetary life—an unprecedented journey that will dramatically change and enrich us (Elon Musk).

My Response: I absolutely disagree with this. What will it give us?! Why should the previous stages of development lead us to this last one? Will we fly from star to star? Moreover, we are in such an energetic and physical condition that these flights will cost us hundreds of years! Why do we need to fly? From one meadow to another?

Question: He considers interplanetary development to be the next big step. What do you think is the next big step?

Answer: The next big step will be to reveal the meaning of life. Why did it ever appear out of nothing, and why did the steps he spoke about then begin to develop from it?

Question: Does the person then come to the question “What am I living for?”

Answer: Yes. The further we develop, the more we want to know about our root, about our source. This is what interests us. This is the search for the meaning of life, because everything is encompassed in our root.

Today when we do something, we develop the forces and the data that are in our source.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/30/22

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We Have Nothing to Hide

555We need to properly prepare dissemination among the people.

I hope that big changes will begin to take place in the people in the near future. An individual will become more independent of himself and will be able to hear that he has a real purpose that religion calls “love your neighbor.”

It actually this that it consists of and not only the performance of all kinds of inert rituals. I’m not against them, because they do keep people, but at the same time holds them back. That shouldn’t be the case.

Rituals gather people into some kind of framework and for thousands of years they have been forming and supporting them. Everyone in our world has them and it is impossible without them because in this way egoism gets satisfaction from being like an animal in a stall.

But when people are reborn, the higher management, the Creator, shows them that we should behave differently. Moreover, this is clearly shown through all the problems since the beginning of the 20th century: the Holocaust, the formation of the Jewish state, the opportunity to organize ourselves in a different way, to really start building a third temple in the heart, and then to engage in world correction, as billions of people subconsciously expect from us.

We have to be open. We have nothing to hide. Over the years of the existence of Bnei Baruch from the 90s to our time, we have created a huge media space: books, videos, and audios in all languages. Please come and take it because all our sources are open. You just have to go in and work with them.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call, Evolution of Bnei Baruch“ 4/24/13

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How Can We Feel the Benevolence of the Creator?

222Comment: It is said that the Creator is good that does good. This is what Kabbalists have attained. They do not know who He is in relation to other created beings. His actions are determined in this way only in relation to us.

My Response: Kabbalists, who have already revealed the Creator, characterize Him as good that does good. But they are Kabbalists. There are people who begin to explore this, of course, and still do not feel anything; they gradually come to this state from the opposite side.

Comment: We can say that with regard to the ultimate purpose of bringing creation to the level of the Creator, He is good that does good. But there are different situations on the way.

My Response: Yes, there are different states on the way that are opposite and sometimes unpleasant. After all, creation must change in order to feel in its changes who the Creator is, on one hand, and on the other hand, to feel Him in all His changes and metamorphoses. So, all this is explored in Kabbalah and represents its main part.

Question: Can we say that the Creator is concealed and that is why we cannot feel Him as good that does good?

Answer: Yes. If we want to feel Him, no problem—change yourself from an evil being to a good one, and to the extent of similarity to the Creator when you become as good as He is, you will feel Him. Equivalence of form is the basic law of Kabbalah.

Comment: Of course, it is hard to justify all this when we look at the world.

My Response: It is impossible! You can justify it only to the extent that you acquire the quality of bestowal. Then in this form you will gradually see that the Creator is benevolent.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 9/4/22

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How to Understand the Original Sources

209Comment: It happens that after a lesson on the The Study Of The Ten Sefirot a student would say: “I have been sitting in a lesson on TES for two hours and I do not feel anything, although I try very hard.”

My Response: You cannot do anything. He may sit for two more hours or two more years. It is not going to go away that easily. Until the property of bestowal appears in him, he will not feel TES.

Comment: When we started to study The Zohar, there was a feeling that an unusual thing was being revealed to us. At least people thought so.

My Response: Because they thought that now all sorts of miracles would be revealed to them, the heavens would open, something theatrical and divine would happen.

But it turned out that The Zohar speaks of what a person who opens himself understands. After all, a person himself needs to open up for this. If this does not happen, The Zohar remains a hidden book. That is why it is said to be a secret. And how to open it? Open yourself up, and then you will see that to the extent that this happens, it opens up in you.

Comment: But people felt it as some kind of internal vibration.

My Response: It is just some “childish” excitement. That is all. Pure human impression.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Proper Application of Effort“ 4/20/13

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A Special Place Called Our World

232.08Ein Sof then restricted Himself in His middle point, in the very middle, restricted that light, and drifted to the sides around that middle point (Baal HaSulam, Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol 1, Part 1, Chapter 1).

In order to give the creation an opportunity to exist in its original state, the Creator had to create a place. And He created it.

What does a place mean? This is the quality in which the creation exists that was created by Him in the will to receive, opposite to the Creator, in the desire to think only about itself and to enjoy only what it feels. That is, a place is a will to receive, a desire to feel oneself in the best possible way.

Question: It is written that before that the Creator filled the entire space. When He restricted Himself, a place called the will to receive remained, which does not feel the Creator… correct?

Answer: Yes, the Creator restricted Himself to a certain area where He does not reveal His qualities. There, a space was created empty from His influence in which a quality opposite to the Creator appeared—the will to receive, to enjoy, to think only about oneself. This is creation.

Question: In this place, can we say there is no equivalence of qualities of the Creator and the creation, and as a result of this, the light disappears; in other words, is there no pleasure from bestowal in this place? Is this why we receive pleasure only from reception there?

Answer: Yes. This is a special place called our world.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 9/4/22

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The True State of the Creator and Creation

962.2You should know that separation in spirituality occurs only by means of disparity of form. …

Just as corporeal entities connect and separate through proximity and remoteness, so spiritual entities connect and separate according to their difference and equivalence of form. The disparity of form separates them from one another, and the equivalence of form brings them together. Remember that for it is the key element to this wisdom (Baal HaSulam, Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, Chapter 1).

Question: What forms are we talking about?

Answer: We are talking about the qualities of the Creator. They are absolute bestowal, love, and closeness to His creations.

The qualities of creation are opposite to them. The creations are created as if in the imprint of the Creator within the quality of absolute egoism: self-love, caring only about oneself and about no one and nothing else, in no way and in nothing.

This oppositeness of the Creator and the creation, on the one hand, allows the creation to exist. Although this looks opposite, negative, and different from the Creator, it is precisely how creation exists.

In other words, if we can say so, the Creator had no other possibility to create the creation other than to make it the opposite of Himself.

The creation has no other opportunity to manifest itself in relation to the Creator, except in similarity to Him. It is because, based on the absolute oppositeness to the Creator, the only thing that remains for the creation and what it really needs is to come to similarity with the Creator. These are the true states of the Creator and creation.

The Creator is unchangeable, absolute in all His actions. His quality is only absolute bestowal and love. He has no egoistic desires, and therefore, it is impossible to influence Him in any way in order to change Him.

Whereas creation is absolutely egoistic, it exists only in the will to receive, to do everything with benefit only for itself. This is the only way it acts. This is how the Creator created it.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 9/4/22

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The Effect of Similarity to Nature

571.03Question: Do I understand correctly that integral education is the creation of a network that can later absorb the upper light coming through other people?

Answer: Of course! Certainly. If an equivalence to nature arises in you, then you already have replenishment from above, and the whole huge integral nature acts in unison with you and holds you.

You begin to feel it, breathe together with it, and receive thoughts and feelings from it. When you work in unison with it, you feel that this is the way to do it, while that way isn’t worth doing; here you need to increase, and here you need to reduce something. In general, you begin to feel what nature requires of us.

We explain this to society in the words of our world and they do not need to know that it comes from the hidden laws of the physical world. What difference does it make to an ordinary person who uses electronic devices how they work? Does he understand something about this? He presses certain buttons, and that’s it! Today, a child is happy to work with mobile phones or with any device at all. And what does he know at the same time?!

We don’t know what an electric current is or about the interaction of fields and so on. But we know how to use it. We have learned: “That is this way! And this is that way.” Good. And so it goes. That is, we know what relates to what we use. And we don’t know anything about this nature; it flies somewhere to an otherworldly, foreign region.

To date there are certain studies and effects that are based on knowledge of Einstein’s theory of relativity. And so what if we don’t clearly understand how it works above the speed of light or at the speed of light?! In our world, everything is under the speed of light. Above the speed of light is the next world, the next degree.

Therefore it is enough for a simple person to know that by uniting we arouse in ourselves a common force, the wisdom of the crowd, together with nature. This is provable, and that’s enough for us. It works, and that’s it! This is considered a law of physics.

And we do not understand the inner force of the law at all or its basis. We study only the consequences. A certain mass is attracted by the Earth with a certain force; we calculate the formula and everything is ready! And we use it. This is called our knowledge.

No matter how much we explore our knowledge, it is always limited, always in matter. In other words, we always study only the consequences of some effects that are not felt by themselves. We feel only the effects, but not the force itself, for instance, electric current, magnetic waves, or the gravitational field.

Therefore, people need to know only one rule. When a crowd gathers and becomes organized, certain effects arise in it, the effect of increased wisdom, increased impressionability, increased strength, and increased mental ability to predict, see, and feel. At the same time mutual assistance increases the potential strength of this group, and so on. In this way we raise ourselves to the next degree.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call, Conductors of Spiritual Information” 5/18/13

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