Entries in the 'My Similarity to the Creator' Category

Like Dough In A Baker’s Hands

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe constantly go through opposite states since basically there is a desire to receive with all its egoistic attitude, understanding, and feeling. The Creator’s desire, however, is a desire to bestow, and it is opposite from our desire.

We don’t know what this opposite attribute means for us; we don’t know it. We only feel how it operates on us even if we don’t know what it is and who it is. We still have to clarify this. This is why this world was created in which instead of the Creator we are surrounded by different forms and creatures that seemingly influence us instead of Him.

We have to show understanding towards them; that it isn’t them who operate on us, but rather the upper force who is behind all of that turning to us through different people or through different events in life. I have to accept these actions and these influences as essential, in order to mold me, like dough, and to create the right form that is ready to be baked.

If I accept these things and try to find the powers to cope with the Creator’s work on me, I begin to know Him through this work, and His hands that hug me like dough.

Thus I go through two phases: First I agree and am ready that He should perform all the necessary work on me. I feel the strong pressure of His hands on me, like on a piece of dough, until He molds me correctly, in the form of bestowal, the level of Bina, to bestow in order to bestow.”

I am ready for anything, as long as the Creator shapes me in this from. It is very hard for me, since as He works on me, He applies strong pressure. Then I want to go on, even to the state of to receive in order to bestow, in order to ascend and to rise like yeast. This means that the desire to receive itself already participates in this motion and yearns for the form that the Creator shapes him into. Thus we attain an equivalence of form with the Creator. To bestow in order to bestow is called “Matzah,” and to receive in order to bestow is called “Hametz” (leavened food), the real bread that in its corrected form joins the Creator’s form that is imprinted in the created being.

But first all our work is to accept all the forms that come to us that imprint the attribute of bestowal in us and to accept them as desirable. In order to do that, we should use the help of the environment as much as we can and all the means that were given to us in order to prepare ourselves for the receiving the Creator’s bestowal, His work on a person.

It may seem to a person that he does that, but if he doesn’t use the external support that is meant especially for that, then it is only an illusion that he is advancing towards accepting the upper forms, but in fact, he is not ready yet to become a spiritual embryo.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/13, Shamati #15

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Eternal Sabbath

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the “eternal Sabbath,” about which it is said that everything will be on the seventh day?

Answer: The “eternal Sabbath” represents complete adhesion of the Creator and the created being. This is a feeling of complete correction.

“Eternal rest” means that you have nothing to fight but that you have much work in constant positive yearning for the Creator. This yearning is not a result of lack, but due to the revelation of greater perfection.

We have no idea how this is possible. How can I move forward, not using the left leg at all? It is as if a middle leg appears, and you just walk forward in the revelation of the Creator.

That is, you go towards Him not because you correct yourself and move towards Him, but because He is revealed more and more, and you enter Him more and more. This is the system.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

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How Can We Justify The Unjustifiable?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we justify the Creator if we see great suffering like with people who are terminally ill?

Answer: It is impossible to justify it now because we don’t want to lie or pretend to persuade ourselves or to comfort others. There are different psychological methods of influencing a person that enable him to change his point of view with regard to tragic events in his life. But Kabbalists say that real change is possible only if the Light that Reforms influences a person and changes his state.

The current state is the level a person is on. So he will look at what is happening differently, will feel and understand things differently according to a new level, which he attains thanks to the Light that Reforms. In this case, the change is not because those around him have confused him and convinced him. After all, they are deceiving him and not letting him see the truth, as if giving him a sedative. They are trying to show him that everything is fine, and by that they lie to him and block the path to the truth for him.

We have a different method; we don’t calm, but only support a person so that he will discover his ego. We help him discover his ego and deal with it.

A person can deal with every state he faces in two ways: One is to somehow blur the problem and confuse himself, which is turning to religion, different beliefs, and mysticism. This is what everyone in our world does.

But a person can do the opposite: open your eyes and desire wider and start working in order to draw the Light that Reforms so that it will correct you. Then from this new level, a person sees the correct picture.

How do I draw this Light? By justifying whatever happens, and that it all comes from one source, “There is none else beside Him.” I want to discover the upper force, and nothing other than that.

It isn’t that I simply accept what happens like a submissive believer, but I want to discover the upper. I understand that all my feelings are clarions from the Creator who wants the created beings to discover Him and to discover that “There is none else besides Him” and that He is “Good and benevolent.”
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/08/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Upper Abundance

Dr. Michael LaitmanAnd the children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating (The Torah, Exodus, “BeShalach,” 16:17 – 16:18).

We are speaking about how much effort every person can make.

Let’s say I am overweight and asthmatic; I have a bad heart; could I do much stooping over and collecting? While the other, young and agile, can gather a whole bag.

There is no such thing in spirituality! Everything happens according to the conditions you are in. You are evaluated by the specific, individual efforts you make according to your capacity to work.

Manna is the upper abundance that fills a person in accordance with his preparation. To the extent that I am ready to give, I open myself to reception. This is how it works.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

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Rejecting The Present You

Dr. Michael LaitmanAnd Moses said unto them: “Let no man leave of it till the morning.” Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and rotted; and Moses was wroth with them (The Torah, Exodus, BeShalach, 16:19 – 16:20).

This speaks about lack of faith. If you stock up for tomorrow, you are no longer in the world of the Creator, but are in your own world. This is a constant struggle that should accompany a person in relation to everything: to view the past, present, and future in relation to himself and others and to assess everything that happens to a person—this “I” and my attitude towards everything—where do I become free from my “self?”

Man is a person’s aspiration for the property of bestowal. This entails a very serious transition: from denial, to restriction, to rising above himself, and it includes a variety of other conditions. Try to draw your portrait on the floor and start stomping on it; this is what you want to remove yourself from, to move away from the present you. Feel yourself in these states.

Comment: But there is another attitude, like in the joke: A man is sitting on the roof of a house, surrounded by flood; a boat passes by with people offering to rescue him, but he answers, “No, the Creator will save me.” A helicopter flies above him, “We’ll save you,” “No,” he says, “The Creator will save me.” So, he drowned.

Answer: This is a terrible pride, “The Creator will save me.” That is, a person does not identify himself with the world, does not understand that the Creator is in everything: in the boat, in the helicopter—everywhere. He does not connect this with the Creator, but divides the world into various intermediaries, thoughts, and forces. This happens due to the failure to feel the Creator as unity.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/13

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You Have All The Cards In Your Hands

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn every spiritual state on the spiritual levels, there is the Inner Light and the Surrounding Light. But in our state, as long as we do not attain restriction and a Masach (screen), we can be assisted only by the Surrounding Light.

The force of the Surrounding Light depends on how much we value it, on our appreciation of the upper, of the next level, which means the Creator. But we cannot value Him. We were only given a couple of means by which we can develop an inner feeling of the greatness of the upper. The upper for us is the group, the teacher, and the books, meaning the study that tells us about the spiritual world and the Creator hidden behind all these means.

We begin to value the upper who is external to us by using all these means: the group, the teacher, the books, and the intention of attaining equivalence of form with the Creator in order to bring Him contentment. Although we don’t feel it for the time being, even if we just talk about it trying to feel it from time to time, we raise the greatness of the upper in us by that. Then at a certain point He becomes so important that He allows us to feel His presence next to us.

It’s because everything that is external to a person is the Holy Shechina, the Godly presence. But everything depends on how much we value Him. All the other rules of behavior in the group as to how we should speak, what to demand of it, and how to treat it, stem from this condition, from the need to value the upper.

Accordingly, the Surrounding Light shines upon a person. It is the real upper Light, but in the meantime it operates on the lower as the Light that Reforms, which means that it brings about changes in us by gradually bringing us closer to bestowal. Then finally it will give us the “restriction” and the Masach, which means the ability to work spiritually.

Then we will begin to understand where we are and what is happening to us, but at the same time, we have to work in faith above reason and value the upper despite all the problems the upper sends us and all the reasons for an opposite attitude. This is our work that is based on our great appreciation of the upper until we adhere to the posterior of the upper as if it were His face. Then we will see that it was never His posterior, but that He has always turned His face full of light to us. Thus we leave exile and reach redemption.

At first it was as if you were unconscious, but then you begin to feel that you are in exile, so, step by step, you begin to get closer to redemption and finally you leave exile and come into the Light. These are the levels of ascent according to your appreciation of the upper, and later your adhesion to Him.

We have all the means, all the roads are open, and everything depends on us. There is nothing else that we need. The Creator has given us every possible opportunity and everything else is up to the person. We will not be forgiven and there are no concessions from Above if we don’t do our work, since otherwise we will not build our spiritual vessels.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/13

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The Language Of Communicating With The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Peace,” Clarification of the Phrase from the Mishnah: “Everything Is in Deposit, and a Fortress Spreads Over All of Life”: All is in deposit, and a fortress spreads over all of life. The store is open and the shopkeeper sells by deferred payment; the book is open and the hand writes. And all who wish to borrow may come and borrow, and the collectors return regularly, day-by-day, and collect from a person knowingly and unknowingly. And they have what to rely on, and the judgment is true, and all is ready for the feast.

Question: Does the phrase “and the judgment is true,” refer to the trial of the soul?

Answer: Of course. We come closer by the attributes of Din (judgment) and mercy, by feeling “bitterness” and “sweetness.” They teach and develop us so that we will be able to feel the Creator. He is the one who shows us the attitude of “bitterness” or “sweetness,” which means that He speaks the “language” that we can understand. In the same manner, parents have to explain things to a child in different ways, whether they are pleasant or not.

Although it isn’t about the actual “language” of pleasure and sufferings, it is thanks to them that I reach an inner adhesion between the two parts that are seemingly standing behind me.

There is something in the Creator, and He wants to create something similar in the created being. Then He creates in Himself and in the created being a communication system that is His “language,” that uses terms of receiving and bestowal.

All this is so that we will somehow work out the inner mutual connection between our initial parts. They cannot connect without a special “adaptor,” without a “language” of pleasures and sufferings, “bitterness” and “sweetness,” truth and lie, bestowal and receiving.


Then, there, there is no more receiving or bestowal, but rather something that is deeper and more internal that we cannot describe in words.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/13, ”The Peace”

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Adhesion Is The Unity Of Two

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 13: This is so because in His Eternalness, past, present, and future are as one… On the contrary, that equivalence of form, destined to be revealed at the end of correction, appeared instantly in the Infinite.

About this it says, “First think, then act.” The final form already exists and what is more, there is no other form but it. What we go through is the process of recognition of that final form, from our nature to the Creator’s nature. Thus, gradually, the distance between us turns into the attainment of the Creator above the created being.

By that we gain twice: On the one hand, we remain created beings, and on the other hand, we reach the same status as the Creator. It’s because we cannot be created beings if we don’t have our attributes, but at the same time, we acquire the Creator’s attribute and reach His wholeness.

Question: In what way do the Creator and the created being differ in this wholeness?

Answer: Their adhesion is an equivalence of form. On the whole, adhesion includes two sides that are adhered according to their intentions and are separate according to the “matter” of the created being. The “matter” of the created being has to be different from the Creator so as to enable the created being to feel that he is independent.

Thus, the feeling of adhesion itself indicates the initial difference, because in order to feel it, we have to feel its deficiency. So the created being has to go through a development process and to gather all the Reshimot (spiritual genes) of all the states and then reach adhesion.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/13, ”Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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The Uncompromising Upper Kindness

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is the Creator so uncompromising with the created being by setting tough, immutable laws for him? Why can’t He be more merciful, like a father with his son?

Answer: A child can never justify his father’s toughness. He cannot understand the father with his childish mind and see the future results and the benefit that his father’s education will bring him. The child wants to play from morning to night, to eat only sweets, and to watch TV. He cannot justify the parents’ constant demands and so he listens to them reluctantly since he feels his dependence on them and not because he justifies them.

In spirituality everything is much more complicated since we don’t feel to what extent the upper Providence treats us gently. In a child’s world, his oppositeness is not an indication of what he is about to become; if a child is obedient and does his homework and cleans up the messes he makes, the parents cannot come complaining to him since there is nothing more they can demand from him.

In the spiritual world, however, it is different: There you are always a criminal, since you arrive there with shattered vessels to begin with. You are treated kindly and are taught the method of correction; a group is organized for you, just like a kindergarten with a caretaker and with different toys. This is huge help from Above and mercy; all your sins are forgiven and you are given support in every way, just so that you will be able to reach correction and understanding to some extent.

In our world, we understand “education” as coercion directed at the child. But in the spiritual world, coercion is impossible. I can see that a student doesn’t change for years, repeating the same mistakes, falling into the same pits, and I cannot say a thing. I was the same way and it lasts throughout the entire path.

This is our path and there is nothing we can do. Unless a person determines the lesson, the method, his Torah by himself, he will not be able to advance. There cannot be coercion here, only recognition.

Therefore, we cannot complain that we are under the dominance of a cruel father despite all the terrible events of our history. We cannot justify them but later we will see that all the actions of the upper Providence stemmed from love. Although we cannot justify this in our current state, since we are too far from that, when we discover the truth, we will see what great correction it brought about.

“He has given a law that cannot be broken,” means that there is one law. There is a Light and a vessel which are opposite from each other, and this is the law. Later, when they are incorporated in one another, the law of evolution appears by this incorporation, called the law of equivalence of form. It all stems from one thought as one law.

Eventually I have to reach a state in which I want to keep this law by my own will, by myself, as if there is no one else, as if there is no Creator. When I become like the same creator looking at his creation determining the law according to which it should exist, it will mean that I have reached an equivalence of form with the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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King Аhasuerus’s Wives

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does “the first wife of King Аhasuerus imply?

Answer: His first wife Vashti symbolizes an egoistic desire that we have to get rid of.

Egoistic desires that we are unable to transform into the property of bestowal are called “unfaithful wives.” “Faithful wives” signify desires that are used to seek the Creator.

What happens to the king’s wives who are unfaithful to him? They are executed, murdered, beheaded, since they tend to receive for their own sake.

That’s why all “unfaithful” desires must be killed; only the desires that “transmit” the Light of Hochma for the sake of fulfilling others should remain alive.

The King’s faithful wife personifies a huge desire through which she nourishes the entire nation, meaning. all human properties.

Question: Who are the eunuchs in the King’s palace?

Answer: “Eunuchs” stand for desires that support the properties of bestowal and receiving. These desires do not directly participate in the processes of giving and receiving; all they do is assist them. These desires are called “eunuchs.”
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From the Virtual Lesson, 2/24/13

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