Who Are These People? – Laitman Unplugged
Posted on January 12th, 2011
Our entire work comes down to a very thin line. We must advance only along this line since otherwise the smallest deviation will eventually lead us very far away from the goal.
This line is described by the formula, “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” The goal, meaning the Creator, must be our aim initially, from the first step. But what is the Creator as a goal?
This is pleasure from bestowing to Him. The more energy and efforts we have to make in order to please our beloved, the more we enjoy it. Pleasure from bestowal is evaluated by the efforts that you made in order to acquire the necessary pleasure and pass it on to your beloved.
This goal is called “bread of mercy” or “perfect faith.” In relation to it, we can asses the “Egyptians” in us and “Israel” in us. We discern our desire to reveal the Creator more and more accurately in order to give Him pleasure and to enjoy from that. That means we must acquire love for Him because without love it is impossible to enjoy giving to someone.
Therefore, I must discern the goal from the beginning, as well as its reason and the means to realize it according to the vessels and the Lights. How can I make it come true already now without making a mistake? What device can help me to aim?
What weapon should I use to shoot my bullet so it will precisely hit the goal, which I do not see? What kind of barrel does this cannon have? And what is the bullet like? Who am I, and what desire do I use to actualize this?
Thus, in the current state we necessarily end up with a certain device that can serve us as an exercise machine, an experimental stand, a set-up we can use to conduct full blown experiments. We won’t just be practicing to aim, but will know for sure that our efforts do reach the goal, even though it is inaccessible to our eyes.
This device is the group. A person places the final goal into the initial plan and relates to the friends, the group, and work in it as to the Creator. Placing the group in the Creator’s place, he calibrates himself on it, puts efforts into it, and has it before his eyes.
Then he can be sure that behind this set-up, behind this “firearm,” there is the goal, the Creator. This tendency, the intention, the attitude to the goal is what brings a person’s work to the Creator.
Therefore, we have all the opportunities for building a small or great human society so that by uniting through love for the neighbor as for ourselves, we will acquire love for the Creator.
[32491]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/11, Writings of Rabash
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Question: We learn that the process of correction is internal and must be separated from the external world. But on the other hand, we live in a unified reality and I feel how Kabbalah influences my day to day life. I am a lawyer by profession, and as such I often have to be sly with people, yet I feel that I can no longer keep lying to them! So what should I do?
Answer: Well, what can you do?…If I am a member of a mafia that continues to steal, then how can I remain in it if I’m no longer able to lie?
There are many professions like this. If you are in the system of the egoistic society, then it operates by these laws. That is why Kabbalists usually chose simple professions and did not even think of rising to higher offices.
I understand the difficulties that arise if a person already has this profession and it is difficult for him to alter his living standards. Yet you should try to arrange your life so you will operate within the bounds of justice, more or less, even if it isn’t spiritual justice, but the simple human kind. Be in a position where you won’t have to lie, steal, and harm people because, indeed, you will feel that you are no longer able to do this.
Spiritual progress changes a person so he can no longer tolerate lies on such a grand scale as is customary in business among regular egoists. This is a problem in many professions that are related to human relationships.
On one hand, the method of Kabbalah is aimed only at a person’s inner correction, his attitude to the friends in the group. Yet, he can no longer act unfairly in the external world either. He changes entirely because he is an integral individual. He cannot lie to people with a selfish goal in mind and bring harm upon them. This is a consequence of correction.
Otherwise, why should the world correct itself if everything will remain the same on the outside? In the end we have to attain corrected life on this earth. By attracting the Light that Reforms upon us, we will all begin to feel this way, and in fact, will feel much more so. We will not be able to lie or cause harm to each other.
It’s true that loving your neighbor means loving his aspiration to the Creator. But when you start to change, you will also change in relation to the whole world. That is how the Light influences us.
[32532]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”
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Question: How can I check whether my intention is really aimed at the Creator? What practical test does the science of Kabbalah have to offer?
Answer: Kabbalah offers something very simple: work in the group, which accelerates your personal development and provides you with a practice ground. Inside the group a person can find the place for the Creator’s revelation, the place to bestow to the Creator. Overall we attain the goal by way of mutual study and unification with friends.
At the same time, no matter what we do, it is important to ascertain that we do not suppress our egoism by trying to run away from bad sensations. After all, a person spends most of his time covering up his ego.
Inside us there is hatred, envy, lust, ambitions, and other attributes of interaction with others. Sometimes these desires are so small that a person does not even discern their evil. Yet, whenever I look at someone, I unconsciously or consciously make a calculation: how much better I am than him, how much I don’t accept him, how much power I have over him, how much I can use him, and so on.
I always have to feel higher than the neighbor in some way. Even if I don’t have anything to criticize, I am still higher.
Thus, if I don’t blur over my egoistic attitude, then at every second I reveal an opportunity to work. Overall my sensations are called "unfounded hatred." My nature dictates that I feel it toward every person. But can I immediately build a good attitude, love above it?
I hate every person for some reason and if I don’t conceal this from myself, then I can work ceaselessly until every situation turns into a means for coming closer to the Creator.
[31951]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/11, Writings of Rabash
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If the Creator wishes to bring us to similarity to Him, then how can He arouse in us the feeling of His greatness, the value of the property of bestowal, so that we would want to trade our state of existence for His? He does not have much choice, and we are forced to ascend in small steps while always making attempts to choose a more exalted degree over our present state.
Because of this, the Creator cannot reveal His love to us! In fact, if love were revealed, it would immediately ruin the entire ladder of spiritual degrees and everything that differentiates them.
A child is the head of a family and constantly demands from the parents, assuming they live for him. He is taking advantage of their love. If, however, he is in somebody else’s house, he acts totally differently: He won’t make demands as he would at home; he will be shy and afraid. But at home, he has no shame or fear.
Therefore, if the Creator disclosed His love to us, we, like spoiled children, would never be able to appreciate His greatness and ascend to Him. In this world, we are driven by the natural instinct that pushes us to grow and evolve. But in the spiritual world, this animate instinct doesn’t exist. We have to develop such desire on our own.
Moreover, if the Creator did reveal Himself as a Loving one, we would disregarded Him in everything. Hence, He must hide in order to give us an opportunity to evolve and appreciate His magnificence in the darkness. In the light, we wouldn’t be able to do so.
This is precisely what the impure forces (Klipot) complain about: They would like to discover the Creator before receiving the screen. In such case, we would have no chance to reach bestowal at all.
[31629]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/2011, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”
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We have to attain our nature, including all the transgressions and mistakes, because otherwise we won’t be able to ascend above them and attain the Pharaoh in us in order to understand how much he is in our way. It is through him that we want to come to serve the Creator.
What does it mean, “Let my people go”? Who lets me go? It says that Pharaoh even accompanies the nation of Israel during the exodus from Egypt. That is to say, we have to go through various discernments in order to be ready for the exodus, and then we come out! Pharaoh holds us back only until we acquire forces and become ready.
When we break through the barrier of the spiritual world and pass the Machsom, it means that we have a desire and force for it, but if we don’t have the desire yet, then we cannot pass it. Therefore, Pharaoh only helps us with his opposition!
That is how we ascend above all the obstacles, and by virtue of that, we acquire the force of bestowal, opposition to egoism, the firmness of the screen, desire. We increase our desire and aspiration to spirituality. All the “anti-forces,” all the disturbances and suffering are revealed only in order to strengthen us and teach us.
That is how we should view every state we are in, any thought or sensation that naturally comes to us, knowing that it is precisely the place for our work. We do not contain anything at all that can be left as is, uncorrected.
First we reveal the degree of Hafetz Hesed (desiring only bestowal), ascending above our egoistic thoughts and desires and admitting that they are transgressions and mistakes; we reveal that everything comes from the one upper force, bestowal. Then we acquire the bonds of love, performing actions of reception for the sake of bestowal, and through them we start to attain what is called love.
In the end we ascend to a state called Keter, which does not belong to matter or anything that originates beneath it. It contains only the primordial cause of what happens below. Everything that happens beneath Keter until Malchut itself is necessary only in order to give Malchut the opportunity to ascend back and become similar to Keter.
Therefore, in the end we establish the same attitude to the Creator as He has to us, above our matter and everything taking place in us. Then we do not retain any connection to everything we went through, experienced, decided, did, or revealed, not from His end nor from ours.
All of this becomes absolutely canceled and only His initial, fundamental attitude to us and ours to Him is revealed. That means that we reveal everything only inside Keter, in the Light of love, when we have absolutely no care about any action or gift, whether we receive for the sake of bestowal or bestow for the sake of bestowal. All the differences disappear and everything merges in the attainment of unity.
Matter and the form of reception cease to exist because they were initially created by the Creator only in order to enable us to attain that original, primordial point with which the Creator began creation.
[31640]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”
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Love covers all transgressions. It envelops them from the outside; it doesn’t annihilate them but creates a covering. The degree of transgression determines the degree of love. Otherwise, love has no form; its form is determined by hate.
What can we tell about happiness? Not much. On the other hand, in the drama of misfortune, we discover a numberless multitude of states and shades. There are novels, films, and music inspired by it.
This demonstrates that everything begins with the creation of the evil inclination: hate, misfortune, grief, and problems. We have to discover assorted forms of these states of existence so that, later, we may clothe them in love. And that will be the form of the Creator.
[26009]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/10, “Come onto Pharaoh-2”
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Question: If I do not fill my desire to enjoy or I fill it incompletely, I feel suffering. You said that in the desire to bestow, I also feel the deficiency of fulfillment, but this does not arouse suffering in me; rather, it gives a sensation of life. Why do I suffer in the desire to enjoy, but in the desire to bestow, I do not?
Answer: Suppose I love someone. I want to be together with him, to unite with him, to spend time with him since I love him, and everything that we love, we want to draw closer to us. But at the moment, he is far from me, and I only long for him. In any case, however, it is still a pleasant feeling, even though it is called the “suffering of love.” You love and you feel pleasure; love attracts you and fills you. But at the same time, you feel suffering because you have not yet realized your love; you have not yet united with the beloved.
In spirituality, bestowal means love since we give to those whom we love. If I love someone, want to fill him, and fill him, it is called bestowal. But since it’s based on love, bestowal is pleasure.
That is why in spirituality, in bestowal, even if you feel a lack of bestowal and, hence, a lack of fulfillment, which makes you suffer, this is the suffering of love. It is sweet as well since it derives from love and the connection with the beloved.
And since there are no restrictions on bestowal, it means that you will necessarily reach the opportunity to give to the beloved because it only depends on you. And that is why the suffering of love definitely comes to its realization.
[30698]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, “Perfection in Life”
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Question: How can suffering suddenly bring a person to bestowal?
Answer: Indeed, from a corporeal, "commonsense" point of view it’s impossible to attain bestowal in this way. If a person feels bad, then he only thinks about how to improve his situation, to try to fix the problem directly, to fill the void.
That’s how human psychology works: If I feel bad or something is missing, I turn to a doctor for medicine, try to make more money, steal something, or do anything to fill the void. But after all these attempts and a number of blows, I begin to ask: "When will it end?"
A person falls into despair, depression, or starts using drugs, all that only to somehow numb his pain because he sees that nothing he does can help him. So how is it possible to make the transition to bestowal? To that end we have preparations on the corporeal level as well as spiritual genes.
On the corporeal level a person starts thinking about giving because he sees that there’s no other choice. He is ready to give to others so that they will give to him as well, so we will all feel good; otherwise, we would just devour each other like wild beasts.
That’s a simple selfish calculation at the level of our world, and it’s possible specifically because we are not at the animate degree; rather, we possess dangerous weapons that enable each of us to destroy everyone. It eventually brings us to an inevitable conclusion that our salvation lies only in bestowal. Many understand that by now, and only a madman would wish for the next war.
But aside from the corporeal reason that makes us understand that giving may be useful, our Reshimot (spiritual genes, records) from the breaking are awakening within us, from the easiest ones to the increasingly coarse ones. They make us feel that we are moving in the wrong direction and bring disappointment in our development.
Those who are progressing under the pressure of corporeal and spiritual Reshimot begin to come closer. It turns out that Kabbalists who engage their own spiritual development and people leading a normal, corporeal life but are beginning to ask about life’s meaning are coming closer to each other. Although the latter have no point in the heart, they are nevertheless asking very similar questions.
The opinion of the masses is gradually approaching the opinion of Kabbalists. There’s still a wall that separates them, but ordinary people are coming closer and closer in search of an answer, although they are not yet asking how to correct themselves. There will be a time when they will come and ask: "What should we do?" And then you’ll have to be prepared to show them how to achieve perfection.
[30534]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/10, "The Peace"
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Question: Why didn’t the Creator arrange it so we would already now feel everyone as organs of our own body?
Answer: It’s because you have to reveal the form of bestowal from its opposite. From hatred, reception, and exploitation of your neighbor, you have to attain love and unity.
Imagine that you suddenly found out that your greatest enemy, whom you desired to crush and obliterate using every possible execution technique, is actually your own son who you did not know anything about, just like in a movie.
You don’t understand this now, but try to enter the group and imagine that you are tuning into the common desire. Don’t look at the faces, but look at the desire that everyone shares and delve inside it. Then through that desire, you will feel that you are surrounded by special souls and only you are looking at them from aside. Try to enter inside them and to cancel yourself completely.
Through this self-nullification you will begin to live! Stay in this thought at all times so it won’t leave your mind. Make the decision that from now on this is how you want to look at the world.
Try to stay in this sensation until tomorrow, constantly renewing it and bringing this picture back. Then at the next lesson you will be ready to bring it to life! You will imagine what takes place inside these desires, which are connected with each other: How Partzufim AB and SAG operate and what Rabbi Shimon is telling his friends. It all speaks only about this desire and the connection among its parts.
Desires that are pure or impure, corrected or not yet corrected; everything is inside one system that you are now revealing. You want to reveal life, the vital force in this system and yourself inside of it, as well as to understand how everything works. This is exactly what all the Kabbalistic books talk about and you want this to become revealed.
When the connection between all parts of the desire and the harmony in which they operate becomes revealed, this practical revelation of the correct, operating connection is called the revelation of the Creator. After that the Creator or this connection will continue being revealed more and more, which signifies ascent along the degrees of the worlds toward ever greater revelation of the Creator.
The Creator is called Bo-Reh, meaning "come and see" how the system works in mutual bestowal, how the Light operates inside the desires or Kelim.
[29653]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress"
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