Question: What is the law of the system of Arvut (mutual guarantee)?

Answer: The law of this system is absolute reciprocity. This is how it is described in the Torah: “As one man with one heart.” This means that the one desire in the entire system, mutual bestowal, is realized in the adhesion with the Creator. The law is defined by the word “one,” as in “unity.”

It could be said that unity of “one” cannot be a law. But the definition of “one” contains many different properties connected with each other above hatred and rejection by relations of love and bestowal. This is the internal formula of the system: Qualities opposite in their nature are connected above this opposition by the law of equivalence of form.

This is the way our body and any integrated system are constructed. In order for such a system to exist, it must be built from the different forms and opposite parts over which there operates a universal law: existence for the sake of one unified purpose.
[24087]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, "The Arvut"

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Free And Compulsory Participation
Laitman.com Post: Responsibility Is Always Personal
Laitman.com Post: How Will You Color Your World?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Love, Mutual Guarantee, Q&A - No Comments →

The Book of Zohar influences us with the Light that’s concealed inside it. If we desire to use that Light for our correction, then the only place needing to be corrected is the connection between us.

Therefore, each of us should try to imagine where exactly he needs to make corrections. However, we don’t even fully feel yet that our relationships are founded on unfounded hatred and repulsion instead of brotherly love.

This quality must transform back to love, and the power of The Book of Zohar is able to accomplish this. Then, inside the renewed connection between us, we will reveal the entire Upper World.
[23931]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Spiritual Contactor
Laitman.com Post: About Love And Hate
Laitman.com Post: I Am My Beloved’s And My Beloved Is Mine

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Love, Zohar - No Comments →

There are two sequential corrections: 1. Return through fear and 2. Return through love. On the first phase I work against my egoism, building my attitude to the neighbor above it. No matter how great my egoism is and what pleasures are revealed in it, I am always above it.

My attitude to the neighbor is measured by my ability to ascend over a certain degree of egoism. That is why this correction is called “return through fear.” I ascend up the ladder by which my soul descended and thus I return to the World of Infinity. It happens through fear or awe because my egoistic desire rages inside me and knocks me off the path, while I build up my ascent in fear, worry, and opposition to it.

On the second phase, the return through love, my egoism no longer resists it. I don’t fight fears of falling into it, but on the contrary, I acquire the desires of my neighbor as if they were my own. This work also takes place above the desires, but they are the desires of others which I perceive as my own.

For example, you used to hate others, but now you discover that they are even closer to you than your very self, like your children for whose sake you would be willing to give up your entire life. You once again discern that it is your egoism speaking inside you, although it is now aimed at others. That’s because they are you, and even more than that.

Thus, the process of correction always takes place above the desire for pleasure. The discernment happens only with regard to the types of the desire: yours or “others.” We always work by way of faith (bestowal) above knowledge (reception).
[22804]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, “The Righteous Feels Good and the Righteous Feels Bad”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Single Commandment
Laitman.com Post: Fear Is The First Step Toward Love
Laitman.com Post: The Force of Bina Dwells Among Us

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Love - No Comments →

The Creator conceals Himself from us; if not, we would never step out of our egoism. We would feel proud of our connection with Him purely egoistically. This is why He gave us this world in His place.

He says: “Learn to love them, and it will indicate that you love Me!” And then we will become one, you and I, and we will enjoy each other! And know that I am giving you this game so you may see great means of advancement in these relationships with other people, which you and I cannot have!

After all, I am eternal and I am perfect: You cannot come to me with one attitude today and another tomorrow. I am the law of absolute bestowal, and today you are inadequate for it. Hence, you have no chance to approach Me, and we can’t be together!

But, in the meantime, play with this world. I arranged it so as to make you believe that people and you yourself change. I am giving you friends who aspire to the same goal and desire to come to me. It may be a game, but they are able to evoke in you the yearning for Me. You will play with them, and they play with you, and if you organize them so that they would seek Me, it will indicate that you yourself are on the path that leads to Me.

Start correcting your connection with the others and attain love for them, and you will suddenly realize that it is the same as to love the Creator. I myself cannot play with you as you are today. But I have set up the whole world for you at your level! Everything is designed just for that!”

If I perceive the world as such, then this entire world transforms into the means of reaching the Creator for me! Otherwise, no matter what my attitude to the world is, it will be getting worse. It will still try to awaken me to aim myself at the Creator.

However, instead of being my friend and walking to the Creator with me, he will act against me. After all, he will have to reveal to me to what extent I lack connection with the Creator and don’t wish to use this world accordingly.

Life will keep beating me to shake me up and say: “What on earth are you doing? Start using me correctly!” Hence, we see that all attempts to correct this world at the corporeal level make it even worse.
[22843]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Whole World Is Created To Help Me
Laitman.com Post: The Rules Of “The Game”
Laitman.com Post: Why All Of Mankind?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Love - 1 Comment →

Question: What does it mean to “love your neighbor as yourself"? What do I actually have to do?

Answer: Loving your neighbor as yourself means that our entire world (the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, as well as humanity) and our entire universe become an integral part of you, "as one man with one heart." You connect everything to yourself and perceive it as your "self." Otherwise, you don’t exist!

Our egoism separates us, but above it we must receive a force from Above, the desire and ability to feel every person as myself and even more than that. I have to feel that this is all me. However, this "me" is not an egoistic feeling because the hatred between us remains and even grows. I unite with others precisely above this hatred, and in that case they are called my "neighbors," or the people close to me.

A "neighbor" is a person whom I hate, but at the same time I "love him as myself." "Love will cover all sins" means that the previous hatred remains, but love is added above it.

In our world everything is driven by one egoistic desire, whether in reception or bestowal. In the spiritual world, however, we find ourselves between two opposite forces: bestowal and reception. Egoism grows, but the quality of bestowal emerges parallel to it. These two qualities enable me to reach the sensation that I am standing before a mountain of hatred (Mount Sinai, which comes from the word Sinah – hatred). However, prior to that I have to go through "Egypt" – the slavery of egoism, the Pharaoh. I have to come to hate it and then run away from it, searching for the force to correct it.

When I stand at the foot of the mountain of hatred toward my neighbor, I have to say whether I really am ready to unite with others, to love them above my hatred, and to become as one man with one heart. If I have gone through all the blows and plagues of egoism (Pharaoh) and I feel that I have suffered sufficiently, then I agree to it! That’s because I hate my egoism even more than I hate my neighbor.

I agree, thinking that this will enable me to reveal the Creator. Eventually, however, I understand that love and bestowal to my neighbor is what fulfills me. I no longer demand anything but this. This action in itself fulfills me, and that is how I become equal to the Creator.
[22460]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/3/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Essence Of Correction
Laitman.com Post: How Can You Love Others?
Kabbalah Insights: "Love Of Fish"

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Love, Torah - No Comments →

Question: If the entire Torah (Kabbalah) talks only about love for others, then why should we correct ourselves? Isn’t it enough to simply have a good attitude toward each other? Why do we have to worry about anything else?

Answer: We exist at the lowest, animate level; we simply live and die (“animal” means a “living, animate” creature). Our task, however, is to ascend to the level of man, to become “similar” to the Creator.

But how do I ascend 125 spiritual degrees to reach this state? To this end, there is a special hidden force: the Torah, the Light. If it affects us, we evolve and ascend from the animate level that we currently perceive as hate for others to the human degree of love for others, which is equivalent to love for the Creator.

The initial (1st) and the final (125th) spiritual states have already been established; I am clear about what I am at this moment and what I must become. Hence, there is no point in thinking about the conditions that are given to me at this moment or about my nature. Nothing is up to me, and all of it has already been recorded within the root of my soul. I must simply concentrate on how to advance and correct myself.

I need to focus less on the states themselves, whether it’s scolding myself or feeling good, since an instant is more than enough for this after which I have to immediately aspire upward. We cannot correct ourselves with “polite behavior” or “good manners.” Even at the smallest degree, we correct ourselves only with “love” since otherwise, it’s not a correction regarded as “commandment.”

Hence, it is said that the main rule of the Torah and all its commandments is love, and each correction to any part of the will to receive is a small attainment of this love. There is nothing but love and hate: the broken desire to receive selfishly and the corrected one to bestow.
[22065]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Mathematics Of Love And Hate
Laitman.com Post: Upwards Through The Steps Of Correction
Kabbalah Insights: “Love Of Fish”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Love - No Comments →

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHcdel3L9I8]

Filed under: Love, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The wisdom of Kabbalah is not learned by way of the mind. The Light affects us, and Kabbalah gradually creates within us the sensation of the picture of the Creator’s acts. From this picture, we gradually absorb the wisdom of Kabbalah and our spiritual, internal world.

We disclose within ourselves the new reality that cannot be understood by the earthly (corporeal) mind. In the beginning, the will to receive was created, followed by the development of the mind needed to attain what was desired. Therefore, if we don’t yet possess the vessels (desires) of bestowal, we don’t have the mind to comprehend Kabbalistic texts either.

All recommendations of the Kabbalists are designated solely to prepare and induce within oneself the switching of properties from reception to bestowal. Moreover, according to our desires, we will begin to feel. From feelings, we will begin to understand.

The entire wisdom of Kabbalah is aimed at getting to know the Creator. If I focus on the goal of simply understanding the text, I cut myself off from the ability to feel spiritual attainment. That is because I start working with the corporeal mind which becomes the most important for me.

This puts an obstacle in my path to the revelation of the Creator. My corporeal mind blocks my ability to break through the picture of spiritual properties. This is why Baal HaSulam felt very angry when he met with the “Kabbalists” of Jerusalem who mechanically memorized the text of The Zohar.
[21588]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Book About You
Laitman.com Post: The Mind Is Useless Unless It Relies On Feelings

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Love - 2 Comments →

Question: What motivates me to keep the covenant I made with the Creator?

Answer: Nothing does! Suppose I fell in love with a girl. A month later I don’t want her anymore. What should I do? People tell me, “You have to stay with her for life.” But why should I? It would be a lie, not the desire of my heart. If I hate her now, how will I be able to live all my life with her? How, then, do we commit to marriage? We realize that we won’t be able to live with the same feeling of infatuation forever and it will be a lie.

Marriage has an Upper Root: the union of the Creator and the created being, founded on attainment of the Higher Goal, not corporeal love. Love is defined as mutual support and assistance toward achieving this goal.

If I understand this principle, I can rise above my desire to receive pleasure and walk my path of life by way of bestowal. I don’t sign a promise saying that I will love bestowal all my life; this is impossible and therefore we can’t even talk about that. Rather, I sign the promise saying that I will always treat the Creator as Great, and I wish to attain Him by way of making a covenant with Him. That is why it is written: “Husband and wife, and the Creator between them.” Otherwise, there won’t be a marriage.

It is the Host who matters to me, not His table full of delicious treats that stands between us. The “treats” serve as the first contact between us, until I am able to build a higher connection with the Host in order to attain that higher connection. In other words, the covenant we make with the Host does not happen at the level of love between us, or because He provides “treats” for me, as in the case with a young man and a young woman who marry because of the animate love between them. On the contrary, we value each other because the connection between us allows us to reach the Upper Root, the exalted spiritual goal.

Now, a question arises: How can one remain focused on this exalted goal? That is why we need the group. It is the place where you have a guarantee, and it can give you the force of faith which will always serve as your “fuel.” You can’t achieve this on your own. Even the Creator won’t hold you up if you don’t make the effort.
[21431]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/17/10, “A Transgression Does Not Put Out A Mitzva”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Covenant Of Friends
Laitman.com Post: What Is The Covenant With The Creator?
Laitman.com Post: “Grace Is Deceitful And Beauty Is Vain”
Laitman.com Post: Cutting Off The Past In Order To Enter The Future

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Family, Love - 1 Comment →

Sometimes the language of The Zohar appears to be very odd, but in fact the story behind it is extremely simple. There is my “neighbor” and “myself.” There is a distance between us that is divided into five parts. The most remote part is felt as “this world.” If I connect with my neighbor completely and attain total unity with him, I will sense the “World of Infinity.”

My drawing closer to my neighbor occurs in five steps: I ascend into the worlds of Assiya, then Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, and Adam Kadmon. Five worlds with 25 steps in each make up 125 steps of us drawing closer together. Before starting this process, while I am still in this world, I have to fully realize that I am separated from my neighbor (the realization of evil).

I perceive myself and the world around me in the connection between me and my "neighbor." The Zohar speaks exclusively about what is happening between us: The still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels of nature described in The Zohar, in fact, represent my desires of the still vegetative, animate, and speaking levels in relation to my neighbor (other souls).

The entire Torah speaks only about the ways of building the connection between me and my “neighbor.” It is what is called the “method of correction.”

The Torah is the Light concealed in the text, and I can derive it to the measure that I desire to unite with the other. The moment I connect with the other, I reveal the Upper World within this connection and exist in spirituality to the extent of this connection.
[21379]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/17/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: There Are Five Worlds Between Us
Laitman.com Post: What Is The "Torah"?
Laitman.com Post: The System Of The Universe

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Love, Zohar - 1 Comment →