Entries in the 'My Similarity to the Creator' Category

Actions On The Homefront Prepare The Weapon For The Attack In The Desert

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The Creator is providing the perfect conditions lately for us to express our good attitude towards Him in the two coming conventions: the women’s convention One Global Woman and the men’s convention A Flame in the Desert. How should we prepare in order to fulfill the opportunity we were given successfully?

Answer: It is very important to respect the women’s convention and not look down at it, arrogantly. This is because it is a spiritual action and not a corporeal one. It is a very meaningful action in spirituality, which is no less important than the men’s convention. I see them as totally equal and I really hope that the general deficiency that the women will attain and stabilize in this convention will influence us and strongly operate on us, the men. We will reach the convention in the desert ready and equipped with this great, good, and correct deficiency with yearning for connection, and we will be able to reveal and put together the first part of the corrected soul from all these parts.

Every person has his weak and strong points. But spirituality is a perfect system, and so everyone making a revelation fills all the others. We fill one another mutually. I hope that this will really be realized. If we take serious steps towards connection, we will succeed.

The first part of the corrected soul is the goal of the two coming conventions in order to reach the revelation of the Creator to the created being, in order to bring Him contentment, to reveal the first level of the 125 spiritual levels.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/13, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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A Vessel For The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanAccording to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the “body” of the Partzuf is called a desire to receive in order to bestow, and the “soul” is the Light that fills it. In order to acquire a soul, we are building a connection between us, which means that we make a desire to bestow from the desire to receive. In order to do that, we connect with the group above the ego, give up the desire to receive, and turn it into the opposite use; thereby the desire to receive works in order to bestow.

The switch from the ego to bestowal is done by the Creator, I obligate Him to do so by my work in the group, in the environment, like it says: “My sons have defeated me.” He operates on me and then my desire to receive can work in bestowal.

Accordingly, I now treat the friends this way and we establish the connection among us by building forms of bestowal from the thickness of the desire to receive, which turns it into the purity of the desire to bestow.

The desire to receive is divided into five layers of “thickness,” from the root phase to phase four, and there is also a “spiritual embryo” in it, a point in the heart (•) that constantly evokes me, “shakes” me. In order to fulfill the “point in the heart,” I enter the group and summon upon myself the Light that Reforms, the Surrounding Light. First it performs “the first restriction” in me, according to which I cannot take my desire to receive into account. Then I can even work with my desire to receive in order to bestow, not in thickness but in purity, which is also divided into five levels. Accordingly I acquire five Lights: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida, from the bottom up NRNHY.

Thus my desire to bestow is formed by the desire to receive that was in me before. This desire to bestow is called “a vessel for the soul.” Why for the soul? Because up to this level we receive the Light regularly, by using the thickness of the root, the first, and the second phases (NRN), while the Lights of Haya and Yechida cannot receive the Light regularly and so they reach us only as an illumination (HY).

So the vessel of the soul is the purity of the desire to bestow, and the Light that fills it is called the Light of Neshama (the soul). On the whole, it is my soul that gradually turns my entire ego to its side, to purity. This means that the desire to receive doesn’t disappear, but we only change our use of it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/13, “Body and Soul”

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Don’t Let The Friend Deviate From The Path

Dr. Michael LaitmanDuring our studies of the wisdom of Kabbalah, we shouldn’t pay attention to how much we understand in the books of Kabbalah. The Sefirot, Olamot (worlds), and Partzufim aren’t important because we still haven’t attained the spiritual worlds and don’t know what is going on there. We are just juggling words.

However, the work in the group is first and foremost; the connection between us leads to the correct studies in which we, like children, want to rise to the next level. Some kind of mutual desire for the next level attracts the upper Light onto us, the force that develops us.

It develops us to the same extent that we yearn to be above. That is the only law of nature. Thus, we need to operate within this law and not forget that we unite and connect in order to discover within us the connection between us and the upper world, the Creator, in at least at the initial, minimal manifestation.

The great students of Rashbi, before they began to describe their feelings and the discoveries in The Book of the Zohar, felt such a great hatred between them that they were even prepared to burn each other. This means that they were at such a high level of attainment where the left line, their ego, manifested in such a terrible way. We need to grow a lot in order to reach this.

Thus, before us there lie many more great trials, and if we aren’t ready for them in the correct manner, then we simply will leave this way. Some of our friends have already left the way, and more are likely to drop out. Thus, we must always remind each other that we are involved with the Creator who gives us all kinds of states and determines all the relationships between us, along with the hatred, and if we ask, also the love.

The main thing is that the group must take upon itself the commitment to remind each friend before the lesson about what to concentrate on. What was discovered today in our relations concerning one another? Apathy? That’s good, and tomorrow it can be that we will reach such a state where we will begin to feel rejection for each other. This means that we understand that everything comes from the Creator, that purposefully He reveals our ego and the intellect within us! Just a small person is given small opportunities so that he won’t deviate from his path.

If people, leave the group anyway, it’s a sign that it didn’t work enough, that we didn’t explain to others the method of advancing in two lines: “We must advance in spite of the growing ego. In the end, we will rise together with it and transform, on the one hand, from being completely opposite to the Creator according to our developing ego, and on the other hand, to receive His same attributes.”

This means that there will be seemingly two states within us: one that is opposite to the Creator and the second that is similar to the Creator, and together they will stand facing each other, to be more precise, one under the other. Below, there will be the vessel, the Kli, that is completely under Tzimtzum Aleph (the first restriction), and above it, we will build the second vessel, Kli, the attribute of bestowal, and in this way, we will work with it.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

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“Banging Your Head Against The Wall” Or Starting To Think?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to ask of the Creator? Where is this Creator? How can I ask for something from Him, if I know nothing about Him?

Answer: You should look for Him! Everyone should imagine Him in his heart, or perhaps in his imagination, although Kabbalists don’t deal with imagination.

The Creator is called the general force of nature. Why do we say that we turn to Him? This is really very confusing. But there is a force that I can discover according to my desire. In our corporeal life I also discover different phenomena according to my desire. If I had no desire, I wouldn’t see, I wouldn’t breathe. For everything, there is first a desire and then you experience, discover, hear, and understand it, open your eyes more, and make a breakthrough. It is all according to the desire.

It is the same here. The spiritual world is merely a connection that is concealed from us for the time being. In it we discover our life that is independent of the body; the body is dead, while we continue to live in this connection. This is called a “soul“. Now we have to discover it. Our body doesn’t interfere. If we annul it—which means that we live in it because we are alive, without giving it any special attention, without glorifying it, using it as is, feeding it, letting it drink, washing it and putting it to sleep, and taking care of it as we take care of an animal and not more than that—and invest everything else in discovering the soul, then we will discover it.

A soul is the connection between everyone. In order to discover it, you have a point, a beginning of a soul. If this point is missing, there is nothing we can talk about, you are free, go deal with your body, enjoy life. But if you have a point in the heart, the beginning of a soul that evokes you, that doesn’t let you rest, then you come to a Kabbalistic group and you are told how to start revealing your soul, your connection with others. It isn’t a connection between humans, between their bodies, but a connection between individual desires in which there is a point, a beginning of the soul.

Imagine that there is a concealed network among a million members of our global group (although there are many more). This is what we have to discover. The moment I discover the 1/125th part of this connection, I am already on the first level of the spiritual world and in that network, I discover the spiritual world, my self, eternity above time, motion, and place, the whole spiritual dimension, and the source of all this that is called “the Creator.” This is what we are attracted to.

There are people who have already discovered spirituality, written about it, and told us accurately and in great detail how to fulfill this revelation gradually, and what we should do. All this is called “Torah“, the book of instruction. It doesn’t speak about any physical actions or movements with our body; we can leave it alone. It is only about how we can develop our sensitivity through the connection with others, toward the upper force, and then you will attain eternity.

Question: I am sitting here with the text of The Zohar, trying to feel something else that is here as a result of our collective efforts, but I can’t. I continue, and I fail over and over again. You are saying: “Ask the Creator!” but I know nothing about Him, I have nothing to hold on to!

Answer: My advice is that if you have hit your head against the wall a thousand times, then perhaps something has “moved” in your head as a result and you can think a bit more deeply about the Creator: “Who is hiding there? Who is standing in my way? Who has put this wall before me?” You are not just hitting your head against the wall anymore, but you are adding thought to it. A person grows wiser as a result of the blows, right? This is what I expect of you.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/13, The Zohar

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The Beginning Of All Beginnings

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe content of Kabbalistic books can be divided into two parts.

One of them describes our work in feelings between us and explains how through it to reach the Creator Who is not somewhere on the side but between us.

On the other hand, we are given precise Kabbalistic texts, such as The Introduction to the Science of Kabbalah, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, and The Book of Zohar, which are absolutely incomprehensible to us. These books talk about the degree to which we must ascend and the actions that we should perform, so by having united and received the property of bestowal, we begin to feel the upper world in this property.

That is why, based on the articles and advice of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, we must carry out actions of unity between ourselves, and while reading the textbooks about the spiritual worlds, we draw the upper Light to ourselves.

In other words, one part of the primary sources is educational, forming our correct connections up to the point that inside them we feel the quality of bestowal, the Creator.

The second part is dedicated to pursuing the goal of unity between us, during studies, to the extent the upper Light, upper forces, properties, degrees, worlds and Lights are revealed between us.

We should strive to that as a child who longs to become an adult is driven by his egoistic nature. It keeps putting pressure on him, teaching him how to grow, and he tirelessly engages in this. Therefore, in our spiritual growth, we must try to be like children, and with the same energy, just as hard, playing all the time to go to the next level, to become adults, to explore this world of adults and adult relationships.

To do this, on one hand, we need to annul ourselves before the friends, and on the other hand, to be above them, to work on unity within the group, to seek every opportunity to add to it, deepen, broaden, and concentrate it so that in everyone one big spark gathers and lights between us. We should not be afraid that we “rub” against each other like nuts in a sack because this friction also produces sparks. If we know why we do this, we will succeed.

Most importantly, we should constantly be aware of the need to unite and adhere to the Creator and fear nothing. As soon as the group or individual people forget why they are here, they immediately turn from a Kabbalistic group to a “bunch of mockers.”

As it said in the Psalms: “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.” With these words, King David begins the world renowned Psalms, the book of man’s pleas and appeals to the Creator. They are accepted all over the world as the outpouring of the human heart. That is the most important thing! This is the beginning of all beginnings!

We know that groups have many conditions and problems, but they all converge in one point—the realization of the law “love your neighbor as yourself” because it is the law of the Creator. When egoism corrects itself to love, one becomes similar to the Creator.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

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At The Forefront Of The Spiritual Attack

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur correction depends on our receiving a new attire called Masach (screen), or an intention, because we were created from the matter of the desire to receive, which is totally opposite from the Creator. This enables us to use our desire to receive in order to bestow in the same way that the Creator treats us since adhesion is possible only according to the equivalence of form.

So, all our work is first to discover how opposite we are from the Creator and then, according to our sorrow because of this oppositeness, to ask for correction, equivalence of form. This is, in fact, all we must do.

So, why must we go through such a long path. Isn’t it possible to ask the Creator to make us whole, right away? In fact, the Creator has created everything whole. We are in the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), identifying with Him, equal to Him, and in absolute adhesion with the Creator, and only our recognition of this state is missing. This recognition determines our independence.

Adhesion was created by the Creator, but on our part, we only have to be like a drop of semen that is adhered to the mother’s womb but hasn’t developed into a human being yet. It doesn’t feel its “self” yet. It doesn’t feel that it exists as an independent being. In order to discover its self-existence, this drop of semen must draw away from the Creator in its feeling of independent existence to the distance in which they were strongly adhered.

On the one hand, from the perspective of the nature of this drop, it will draw further and further away from the Creator according to the size of its desire until the entire desire contracts into a point, into a zero, into “nothing,” and totally disappears. However, on the other hand, the way back will be revealed to us: the need to overcome this great distance because of the differences in our nature and to attain equivalence of form.

When we reach equality and connection above the distance between us, we attain the Creator’s form and understand and feel Him, His plan, and this entire program. This is why, on one hand, we become independent, and on the other hand, we adhere to Him according to our own desire and freewill.

Thus, we discover all of creation. In this process, it becomes increasingly clearer to us. It is impossible to do that all at once since the heart must understand this process and not only the cold mind.

The revelation is possible only where there is concealment. The darker it is, the more the Light that arrives can illuminate all its dark caves, all the opposite forms of the darkness. Then, as a result of the connection of all the direct and inverse forms, the recognition is born, the attainment, as it is written, “The advantage of the Light is knowable only from the darkness.”

Our world is built in the exact same way. If a person doesn’t understand a certain phenomenon, he may pass by it and not even notice it. In order to discover a new, natural phenomenon, a person must study a lot and be in the vanguard, at the forefront of the scientific discoveries. He must know everything that is revealed to us and then suddenly see what is beyond the boundaries of the attainable, which means to discover something new. In order to do that, he needs to attain and recognize all the vessels that he has attained so far.

The same rules operate in the wisdom of Kabbalah. People who are ready to be in the dark in order to attain spirituality draw upon themselves the Light into the darkness, and then, in the gap between them, they begin to discover the spiritual attainment and the equivalence to the Creator and the adhesion to Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Checkpoints Throughout The 125 Degrees

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 133: It is rather like a king who wished to select for himself the most loyal of his subjects in the country and bring them in to work inside his palace. What did he do? He issued a decree that anyone who wished, young or old, would come to his palace to engage in the work inside his palace.

However, he appointed many of his servants to guard the palace gate and all the roads leading to it, and ordered them to cunningly deflect all those nearing his palace and divert them from the way that leads to the palace…

And only the heroes among them, whose patience endured, defeated the guards and opened the gate. And they were instantly awarded seeing the King’s face, who appointed each of them in his right place.

The guards are appointed in order to guard a person. He mustn’t come near the King’s palace and pass the place where the guards stand, unless he establishes an inner guard.

The Creator has many policemen and they are on each of the 125 degrees, preventing a person from coming nearer. They show you that you are allowed to rise only to a specific level, and you are not allowed to pass above that for the time being. It is because they see that you are not ready for the upper level yet. This is what happens each time.

The guards make sure that a person will not advance any further (although it is impossible, since there are rigid laws of conformity in the spiritual world). The guards reveal deficiencies to a person—a place for self-checking. They evoke him and don’t let him relax in his current state by bringing him all kinds of troubles.

They guard the person; the Light and the Creator don’t need to be guarded because it is impossible to harm them if you are not worthy of seeing them. It is all done according to the equivalence of form; if I am not suitable for a higher level, I don’t recognize it.

What does it mean that I cannot advance? Do I see that the road before me is blocked? If I haven’t corrected myself yet on the previous level, I cannot advance and climb the mountain a few meters further, but the guards help me and point me at the problematic point. They are there in order to protect me, to hasten me, to bring me closer, and to help me reach the necessary discernments. Everything is in a person’s favor and for his correction.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Are You Worthy Of Living Among Corrected People?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do the guards guard me?

Answer: Let’s imagine a corrected world. A policeman, a guard, a teacher, and several other people come to you and start telling you what is wrong with you, and you are surprised and don’t agree with them.

But they say: “You are judging according to old standards. It is true that a month ago there were different conditions, and so then we didn’t have any complaints against you. But now we see that your behavior is undesirable. If you go on behaving like this and don’t correct yourself, then gradually your behavior will turn from undesirable behavior to intolerable.”

“You must correct your attitude towards the environment. Everyone suffers since they cannot advance because of you. You are delaying the general correction and do not allow everyone else to reach a good life! They are ready to do everything, but you don’t respond, so what can you do? You have to subdue yourself before the environment, to connect to it, to be correctly integrated with the others, and thus reach the end of correction. We speak for everyone, they have told us to talk to you and to tell you what is wrong with you.”

This is how a police car or a public representative comes to you and tells you all this, they worry that you may go on living like you have been living so far and that you may not advance. After all, the demands, the Reshimot (spiritual genes) are constantly renewed, revealing a new world, but you see it like you did before, and for you nothing changes. This means that you are on the “animate” level, and with regard to the spiritual world you are even on the level of “still nature.” You simply float with the currents of life wherever they take you, and this is wrong.

On the advanced levels, the guards and the policemen come to you and point out the fine details and special conditions that you have to pay attention to, but cannot identify. Then they tell you that you have to go down to that level. There is no place for you in this “neighborhood,” and there is no time to wait. You have to leave the city and move to the suburbs, to a neighborhood of thieves, and live among criminals.

You resent this, “How can this be!” But they tell you that you are not worthy of living among good, corrected people who are open to one another, since you don’t behave like them. You thought that you were worthy! But the guards tell you that they have checked and seen that you are not… there is nothing they can do.

At that moment you resent this and are angry at everyone, but later you look at things objectively and agree that it is really so, and that you are not worthy of living in this place with your wife and kids.

I must constantly adapt myself to an increasingly more advanced generation and even set an example for others. This is what Baal HaSulam says in his article “The Last Generation.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Seeing Revealed Mercies

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “What is Thou Shall Not Add and Thou Shall Not Detract, in the Work”: The matter of “right” means to the right.

This means that a person should believe above reason and depict to himself as if he has already been awarded with God’s faith, feeling it in his body, seeing and feeling that the Creator rules the whole world and is totally good and benevolent. And although when he sees things within reason, he sees the opposite, in any case he has to work above reason and he should feel as if he already feels it in his body, that that’s the way things actually are, that the Creator rules the world as the good and the benevolent.

And he feels that he has the power to say to the Creator, “You have chosen us of all the nations, You have loved us and wanted us,” since he already has something to be grateful for with regard to the Creator. And according to the importance of spirituality that he feels, he arranges the Creator’s praise.

After a person already feels the importance of spirituality, which is called, “a person should always arrange the Creator’s praise,” then it is time for him to move to the left line and check how he really feels the importance of the King within reason, and whether he is really ready to work only for the Creator’s benefit.

And when within reason he sees he has no strength for this, and that the importance of spirituality is only above reason for him, this calculation can generate a deficiency for him, pain and sorrow since he is in a state of absolute lowliness, and he can then pray a true prayer from the bottom of his heart, for what he lacks.

A person should imagine two points: to what extent he is “within reason” and “above reason.” Then he will really want to rise “above reason” and draw himself to the upper level and come to a prayer. Thus he can advance.

A person should examine his current state and rise above it in “faith above reason,” in order to see that the Creator, the ruler, is good and benevolent in everything a person has. He examines himself in every way and justifies the Creator “above reason.”

Then he checks whether “within reason” he is also ready to reach the same conclusion and sees that it isn’t so, since his reason is based on what his eyes see. Then a prayer grows in the gap between what he sees “within reason” and “above reason.”

But this is true if a person feels happy. The right prayer in spirituality is made of opposite discernments. On the one hand, I should be happy since I am in contact with the Creator and I have someone to turn to. I am sure that He will help me and that He is good and benevolent and everything is fine!

I never ask the Creator to improve my situation, but I ask Him to change my perception of my situation. It is because now I see that I am in a sea of absolute love and that there is nothing else besides that. But because I am not corrected I see something else. We have never left the world of Ein Sof (Infinity), but we have to determine the right attitude towards it.

Each time new details are revealed to me, I have to change my attitude, which means my intention. This is why I pray to the Creator to correct me, to allow me to see Him as revealed mercies. It is a very important moment. I shouldn’t ask the Creator to correct my state, as if I ask the Creator to correct His actions, but rather to correct me so that I will see His creation as it actually is, which means only in a positive way.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/13

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You Become Patient To The Degree That You Are Patient

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: On the one hand, we need the perpetual internal burning, and on the other hand, we need patience. How do we combine these two things?

Answer: You become patient to the degree that you are patient. It is impossible to acquire this attribute any other way. I went through different times next to my teacher Rabash, and sometimes I was simply burning with impatience, but eventually, it isn’t that I got used to things since there is not habit in spirituality, but I simply received the recognition of my state.

This is the approach of “submission,” which is absolutely essential. If the Creator is good and benevolent for the good and for the wicked and according to His perception we are already at the end of correction, then everything that happens is only with regard to me, in my feelings. If everything depends only on desire, on my vessels, then it means that my whole correction is in accepting the upper Providence correctly, my current state.

If my state changes and becomes like my state at the end of correction, will I see a different world? Will I see the same faces around me? Didn’t Baal HaSulam, who was at the end of correction, see the same world that we do, with all the atrocities in it? But he perceived the world as absolute good and at the same time he dressed in our desires and felt how we perceive the world differently.

Being patient means that you understand that the world is already corrected, that everything is corrected, but there are still levels of correction that those who see a need for them have to correct. Eventually, you will receive this understanding. It is impossible to skip levels and reach it directly. You can help yourself only by trying to stabilize the environment for yourself, and that’s all.

You cannot have any complaints against the Creator since from the start He has created everything in a finite correct form, at the end of correction. But the created being has to develop the vessels in him so that he can attain and acknowledge all this goodness. It is impossible to give it as a gift, since by that the created being will not feel this infinite state.

In order to do that a person has to go through the state of the “recognition of evil” since you can arrive at the recognition of goodness only through that state. This means that there must be darkness first, concealment, the “recognition of the evil” of this state. This isn’t bad because your ego suffers as a result, but because there is no connection with others in it, there is no bestowal.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/13, “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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