Entries in the 'Prayer and Intention' Category

All Work Must Finish With A Prayer

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe most important task in this world is for a person to be constantly ready for prayer. This is the only action that can make a difference. We make efforts physically, mentally, in thought, and in desire, but in fact we needed all these thousands of actions for thousands of years only so that at the end of the matter we would reach the right prayer, cry, desire. When we can accept our desire in the right form, then we will succeed in attracting the higher power to us that does everything.

Only the Light acts and only we with a “point in the heart” are prepared to arouse the Light to action. Basically, all the rest cannot do this, only to the most minimal degree by way of “in its time” (Isaiah 60:22) and to the degree that we are integrated with them, yet no more than this. About this it is written that the “nations of the world” have no link with the higher power, with the Creator. The general desire for pleasure, according to its structure, cannot connect directly with the Creator, except only through those who have the spiritual spark.

Therefore, at those times and in those conditions where we cannot arise correctly for the world, we distance ourselves and the whole world from the Creator. Through the evil powers that rise, by means of the feeling of distance and recognition of evil, in spite of it all we advance, yet not in a desirable way.

Only we who have a “point in the heart” are ready to pray. All the rest do this either out of habit implanted from childhood or with simply egoistic motives. And the prayer of a simple egoist is better since the person screams about his pain. All dissatisfaction is already a prayer and a cry to the Creator, even if the person doesn’t think about Him. This is already some kind of turning upward. These turnings have been gathered for thousands of years from the screams of billions of people, and eventually collectively awaken them and the Upper Light.

Yet even though the Upper Light reaches them through us, the general structure is not changed. Even if we are not ready to work with the Light correctly, it is there and exists. And so it reaches us and bumps into us like a wall because we are found in exile and cannot think about the nations of the world.

In a form like this, we are far from the Creator because we are not raising the prayer to Him, and we are also distant from the nations of the world because we have not conveyed their prayer upwards. It follows that we are at a double loss. We need to consider this! The problems and troubles will not cease as long as the people of Israel have not realized their real task, until it will be the higher level for the nations of the world in order to convey the double prayer, theirs and that of the entire world, to the higher level.

We are supposed to make practical applications for our work with the general public, meaning, those who are not ready to awaken to connection with the Creator and are therefore called the “nations of the world.” As much as this work with people will be perfected, skillful, professional, it will not bring the right results and will not bear fruit if it doesn’t end with a prayer.

All our invested efforts, each one separately and all together, are imperative solely and only so that we will reach prayer. From the start we went out to operate because the Creator sent us (“I am first”) so that as a result of our action we would reach the double prayer after we absorb the desires of the people and thereby arouse our desire. Then we can ask to make us a part of the conduit only for their sake so we will be able to take care of people. After all, the Creator created us with a “point in the heart.”

Following work like this with the general public, we reach the lifting of prayer, that is, the work entrusted to Israel. Here there already exist the three components required for spiritual action: the lower level – the public, the upper level – us; and the highest level – the Creator. In this way we work together.

If we think about this before and after the action, and are prepared to link it to this state, then our action will be blessed and successful. About this it is written: “The firstborn… give him a double share” (Deuteronomy 21:17), for himself and for the younger brother.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/22/13

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What Shall I Bring To The Creator?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Man’s nature is such that he doesn’t wish to recognize his inner evil. Only when cornered does a person feel forced to admit the need for correction. What is this evil that hides within me?

Answer: Unfounded hatred; it destroyed Rabbi Akiva’s disciples. There is no other evil. Everything else is evil from the view of my ego. Only unfounded hatred represents the very evil that resists the good: loving others as we love ourselves. This is the only criterion that I measure myself and my corruption by. All other “vices” are not viewed as flaws by the Creator. They are not considered a good cause to appeal to Him. He expects an authentic plea. The entire system of correction is designed for the broken Kelim, or the desires that are unable to unify.

Question: So, we must constantly feel this evil and not sugarcoat or hide it from ourselves, correct?

Answer: From Psalms: “I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:3). Otherwise, what will I point out to the Creator? What will I require Him to correct? It is really very simple. I wish to participate in the life of the group; I am attracted to it, and at the same time I see that I am unable to do so. This is exactly what we experienced during a Kabbalah congress. Having gathered together, we immediately realized that we don’t want to and cannot unite. This is what is called discovering one’s own evil. It is great! Now we must keep this evil as our target and demand to be reformed.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/10, Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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How The Soul Grows

Dr. Michael LaitmanSpiritual development is in feelings because the material of creation is the desire to enjoy. And we can use the mind only on condition that it helps us to correct desire. Otherwise, it can hurt us.

Therefore, it’s said that “there is none wiser than the experienced.” That is, first you need to go through all kinds of feelings and impressions in your desire to enjoy and then from this you obtain wisdom. We cannot work in the mind with what we have not experienced in our desire, that’s called philosophy, which has no real basis. After all, everything is based on the material of desire.

States are changing every second because, if a state does not change, then time is not moving. Any state changes due to the fact that first we cancel ourselves before the influence of the Light. All the work is done by the Light: The Light is primary. It creates a desire, affects, and changes it. We are only required to accept the action of the Light, let it enter, we express our consent, a request, a prayer, to persuade it to do its work.

It all depends on our state: whether we demand like babies or ask like adults. There are many types of relationships between the Light and a person, or rather, the desire for the Light, asking the Light to influence it and make some action on it.

Why is it necessary that the desire turns to the Light and asks it to act? Because through this, the desire understands what the Light is going to do and agrees with this. It acquires intelligence, the head, and makes itself similar to the Light. It cannot perform the action itself; the action relates to the work of the Creator, but because of this, the desire grows until it becomes equal to the Light. My task is to draw the Light on all the actions that I want done to me, and the Light performs everything.

Every request like this begins from self-annulment: I want that a change to be made in me, but don’t know exactly what. After all, this will be a new state, I cannot recognize it or see in advance. It’s impossible to talk about something that I have not yet reached, so I need self-annulment, and I ask the upper one to make this action on me to save me.

I don’t know what He will do and into what He will turn me, what I will become in a moment. Even if the head and the body change, that is, the thought and action, everything, so that I would not recognize my former self as I was a second ago, to such an extent that I would become an entirely new creation. I don’t care what I will become, it’s most important for me to give myself to the Light so that it would perform its action.

I have to be ready for this and wish more than anything else to want to cut myself off from all of the past so that nothing is left from the past, and I would not see a single old property in myself and even that there would be no transition between the past, present, and future. Only then it means that I am ready for the impact of the Light on me.

It should not come from the desire to escape from the previous state. I am asking to be changed not because I feel bad. I don’t ask to be saved from problems as that would be a selfish request instead of the advancement to the next spiritual level. I ask one thing: Help me become like the Light, to become somewhat similar to it, to become a giver for someone.

All that I can clarify is only in the group with respect to the friends, to humanity. Thus I am preparing myself for the true prayer. I am looking for it because I don’t know what this feeling should be. So, I search, work, study, disseminate, do everything I can. You have to be sensitive to what you are given to advance toward the burst of the true prayer, which leads to the answer to it from above.

Thus I come to self-annulment, the feeling of joy, solidarity, loyalty to the Light, which is called the devotion of the soul. I know that everything it will do to me will be correct. And it is not because I want to run away from troubles and I have no other choice, but on the contrary, I am fine and have no shortage in anything. I lack only one thing: handing myself to the Light and becoming included in the quality of bestowal so that it would rule over me and allow me not to think about myself but to be loyal to that one property.

This is called the correct prayer, the request for the first action of the Light, which is the beginning of the spiritual embryo. After that, a person begins to feel his connection with the Light to the extent that he feels like a drop of spiritual seed that must cancel itself inside the property of bestowal.

This starts a long process of spiritual growth of the embryo that passes in constant self-annulment relative to the Light, which every time passes more properties of bestowal to the embryo. The entire spiritual path, the entire ladder, birth, suckling, and maturity, is the acquisition of additional properties of bestowal over the previous state. Thus the soul grows.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/13

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I Am Dreaming Of Becoming A Slave Of Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is said: “The Cup of blessing should be filled to the brim.” In order to make the Light work on me, I have to ask the Light to do so from out of all my desires that it has to correct.

I don’t know what kind of desire this is and about what part of myself I ask, but it must be the full measure. I don’t know how it happens and whether I am going in the right direction to find the necessary desires. I just have to constantly work to give myself to the thoughts, desires, and actions of bestowal as much as possible, and to be included in the group until I come to the right cry organized for me by the Creator.

The true prayer is already a consequence of the influence of the Light. After all, we ourselves do nothing, but preparation. The prayer itself is the result of many preliminary steps and preparation, the prayer before the prayer.

The Light gradually affects us by small illuminations in the dark, in the states of helplessness and powerlessness until our despair reaches the limit when the person is ready to do anything to become a slave of bestowal, which will rule over him and fill his entire mind and heart.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/13

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To Ask Forgiveness For The Effort I Didn’t Give

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “Shlavei HaSulam,” 1985-1986, Article 36, “What is Preparation for Forgiveness”: When the person comes to ask the Creator to forgive him for his error against him and a defect in his respect for the Creator, blessed be He, the person needs to think thoughts about what his error was regarding the Creator.

I ask forgiveness not for the defects with which I was born, that are found from the start in my nature. I don’t relate to them (Genesis 8:21) “…for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth… .” I don’t relate to the evil inclination itself, rather only to my effort: Could I have already risen above my evil inclination to build “screens” and to acquire the relationship of bestowal, love, and connection above the evil inclination? Could I have acted according to the principle, “Love covers over all transgressions,” (Proverbs 10:12)?

Specifically if I have been negligent in this effort, I need to express remorse and to ask for forgiveness, and I need to cry about this. The “sorrow of the Shechina” is not that She prepared for us the shattered state, the defect, but in that we don’t try to lift Her from the dust according to the conditions with which it is possible for us to do this.

The Light that Reforms arrives according to my effort. If it doesn’t arrive with connection to it, it shows me the general shattering that was made by the Creator. In contrast to this, when the Light that Reforms arrives according to the effort that I make or don’t make, it reveals to me only my part, the effort that I didn’t give and could have given.

It is not necessary to be sorry about my being born not to be successful in something—for example, not being physically strong, not wise enough, or without a good memory and skill for learning; there is no need to complain about this. If they didn’t give me something, this is a sign that I don’t need this. If I don’t have particular skills and I have difficulty because of this, it’s obvious I have to work in these conditions throughout my life.

My personality traits don’t attest to my being good or bad. It could be that I was born lazy, a spendthrift, overbearing, and so on. Essentially the fact that I was born with these characteristics is already a sign that I don’t need to relate to this. It is not up to me to correct them. It is up to me to correct only my participation in what they reveal to me beyond my nature. If there, beyond it, I am lazy, then I need to make a sacrifice about this laziness, and regarding this lack of participation, I need to cry on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). I ask for forgiveness not for my bad characteristics with which I was born but about what I truly could have corrected when I received the opportunity from Heaven and I didn’t actualize it.

Therefore, whoever doesn’t make an effort, he does not reveal evil found in him. And someone who does make an effort discovers that he is evil—and this is only to the degree that he could have made a correction and didn’t correct it.

We are not responsible for correcting all that the spiritual systems have damaged before us. This is damage to the general system. Rather we correct what is imposed upon us, then the entire system will be corrected. You see, it was damaged since a component entered into it that is called Adam. Therefore when we correct the participation of the person in the system, we correct everything.

Question: How is regret linked to relationships between the friends?

Answer: As is written, Yom Kippur does not correct the errors of the person related to his friend. I must be sorry about what I apparently caused and at the same time remember that this was also done by the Creator. This way or another I am not sorry that I discovered that I am evil. I am sorry about feeling that the gap between me and the Creator is still found in me. And so I correct it.

And this says that even in the discovery of the evil, I must feel joy.

Question: There is no one who hasn’t done something bad to another person, even unintentionally. How can I atone for this? How do I ask for forgiveness?

Answer: A person does this through reaching connection. This is his compensation. There is no need to and no deed that can atone for what I did. All the evil that I did caused separation. All the good that I can do: This is only to cause unity. The forms and ways of evil and good are not important; the main thing is specifically unity or separation. If you do it this way, you will not err.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/13/13, Writings of Rabash

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Discovery Of Evil – No Reason To Lament

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It is written that prayer is said to begin with gratitude. Is there any gratitude in the prayers of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement)?

Answer: First of all, the prayers on Yom Kippur are linked to the prayers of Rosh Hashanah that are designed to exalt “crown” of the Creator as king of the world. With this we elevate the goal, bestowal, love, it is a great attribute that we must attain. It manages the entire world, dwells everywhere, and controls everything.

The Creator means the characteristic of bestowal and love. He has no other image so He is clothed in the Kelim, and so we get to know Him, get to know the force that acts in creation. We respect, appreciate, and exalt this property above all.

This is the meaning of Rosh Hashanah; we celebrate the “head” (Rosh in Hebrew), which is the characteristic of bestowal. It is the most important, runs everything, attracts us, and we want to reach it, to be like it, and to be integrated within it.

Whereas Yom Kippur shows us how we are still far from this. We examine, discover, the defects and see that in the meantime we lack corrections so that we will acquire the characteristic of complete and full bestowal. We regret this when we uncover and prepare our flaws for work.

After that come the days of correction and on Purim we finish it.

Question: This is saying that on Yom Kippur there is only regret that we are not yet corrected?

Answer: And this is a great joy. In fact, I am not sorry but joyful. The shattered Kelim are revealed to me and now I can fix them. That’s right: My regret, the repentance, and the “forgiveness” are linked to joy, since I have finally discovered the evil in me and now am totally trembling with desire to correct it. I am happy that I have discovered this and I am grateful for this.

Try to read the prayers on Yom Kippur with happiness instead of crying and you will discover something completely different in this.

How is it possible to cry when we are found next to the Creator? You see that now if you are sorry, you are attesting that the Creator is the one who caused the sorrow, and this means even that the Creator is not the Good Who does good? In fact, there is no such thing. The Creator reveals the shattering to you so that you will be happy and will correct the flaw. With this you will be able to resemble Him yourself. And on the contrary, if He had created you like Him without your independent participation you would simply be “stuck” to Him like duct tape.

But no, He now gives you the opportunity to identify the differences, prepares the state for you that seemingly says, “In these characteristics you are different from Me. Carry out the work and you will be like Me.” How could it be that you would cry; for He has related to you this way and has given you the opportunity to be like Him?

On the contrary, you are happy: “Indeed, we have erred and betrayed. Indeed, I am guilty, I am a thief, I am a liar…”, and you have pleasure from what you have discovered. You are happy that He created you opposite Him and that this opposition shows you how it is possible to be like Him and to merit adhesion.

This says: “To serve the Creator” is the work of the Creator. So how is this linked to crying? You see with this you bring Him contentment. You are thankful that He is the one who has placed everything in front of you and you are grateful that He created you the opposite.

Essentially, it is as if you are “kissing the stick”, the whip that strikes you; and in this way you neutralize the evil inclination. Now it is no longer bad, since thanks to your change in attitude, it becomes good.

Question: This is to say, we are happy that we discover that we are opposite the Creator?

Answer: No, we are happy because by means of this He gives us the opportunity to be equivalent to Him. I thank Him for the preparation that I have done, for His mercy towards me both in the past and in the future. All that He does, including the shattering and the terrible disasters through which we have passed, the essence of all this is complete kindness. This is exactly what we discover. Everything depends on my outlook on life; that is precisely what we must change.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/13/13, Writings of Rabash

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The Hearts Are Drawn After The Actions

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar—Introduction, “Rejoicing in Holidays and Not Giving to the Poor”: This is the meaning of Truth’s complaint about the creation of man, saying that he is all lies… However, Hesed said, “Let him be created because he does mercy,” since the mercies that he does, which is necessarily an act that is scrutinized as bestowal, through it, he is gradually corrected until he can engage in all the Mitzvot in order to bestow.

The attribute of truth speaks about the matter of the desire that is totally egoistic (in order to receive) and which cannot think about anything else but receiving for itself. So why was it created? After all, it isn’t worthy of anything. This is how a person sees himself in the mirror of truth.

But the attribute of Hesed is responsible for the fact that a person can change. This is because the matter of the desire can perform actions of Hesed (mercy).

But how is that possible? After all, the desire to receive is in a total lie and only wants to benefit for its own sake. It is true, all its intentions are for its own good, but the actions can be aimed at in order to bestow. Then, despite this internal split, despite the gap between the thoughts and the actions, the actions with the inaccurate intentions at the moment can change the desire.

I use the actions of bestowal in order to reach the attribute of bestowal. Although I don’t want to reach bestowal and I only seem to be yearning for it, if I try to do so as much as I can by connecting to the friends, the teacher, and the Creator, then together with this lie on part of the attribute of truth, these actions will bring me to correction.

I cannot evoke the Surrounding Light by my egoistic intention, but the action itself is in order to bestow and I am aware of that. So I evoke the Light that Reforms and it influences me to the extent that I seemingly want to exit my egoistic intention of in order to receive and acquire an altruistic intention of in order to bestow.

It is true that I cannot and don’t want to bestow, but my actions are aimed correctly, and that is enough. A correct action together with the wrong intention evokes the Light that corrects the intention.

It is because I am made of a desire and an intention (a thought). I cannot control my intention, since I always want for myself. Sometimes it seems that I really want the good of others, but then it turns out that it’s all a fixed game and that I simply lie to myself since I don’t understand myself. My intentions are wicked, wrong or evil (by mistake or even intentionally). This is a result of the shattering of the vessels and there is nothing we can do about it.

But I can perform actions in the group, in dissemination, and in spreading integral education. If these actions are arranged correctly so that I can fulfill them, I have to ask the group for the power to come to the lessons and to the teacher in order to gradually acquire wisdom and turn to the public in order to convey my message to them so that they will accept my opinion. I arrange my actions as if I bestow as much as possible. This is enough in order to evoke the Surrounding Light, which in response begins to change my intention.

This is because my actions are correct and only my intention is corrupt. Now it’s also added to my actions by the Surrounding Light that operates. Thus “the hearts are drawn after the actions,” until the intention matches that action.

We are different from everyone else only by our intention by which we draw the Light that Reforms. If we don’t do that, we will not succeed and things will even get worse. We will go through a new round that will eventually also bring us to the good but by the path of suffering.

Performing good actions is not a problem. I can give out presents only because there is an angel with a stick standing behind me, and if I stop for a moment, I immediately receive a blow. It turns out that the action itself is fine, but the intention is sometimes concealed even from me. So the only thing I need is to evoke the Surrounding Light by my efforts. I try to add the right intention regarding the friends, the teacher, the study, and the public since it’s these efforts that evoke the Light that Reforms.

The matter of the desire doesn’t change, the actions don’t change; the only thing that changes is the intention. The whole creation is intended only for establishing the right intention and to gradually connect it to our actions.

The actions have to match the intention. First I don’t want to receive anything since I don’t have the right intention, and then I can already receive something thanks to the Masach (screen) and the Returning Light. I can already bestow in return, and then I operate the desires, my vessels of receiving.

This means that our work can be in avoiding receiving or in receiving in order to show that we understand what the Creator’s love towards us is and we want to thank Him for that and to repay with the same attitude. The main thing is that the intention determines the quality of the action.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/13, The Zohar

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Summing Up The Year

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur current material level doesn’t let us naturally care about our friends as if they were our newly born children or our beloved. This means that we don’t have this attitude to the Creator either. Even when we think about Him, we only envision Him as a source of our own fulfillment. And yet, it is directly opposite to what we all have to arrive to.

In other words, there is an obvious problem: We realize that we don’t have correct desires or thoughts and that all our concerns are for our own sake—totally egoistic. We have to work a lot in order to begin needing the Creator’s presence, His power, and to ask Him for assistance in establishing connection with the group. Together with our friends, we have to demand the presence of the Creator inside us. This will allow us to connect.

Where can we acquire this need? To really start needing these things, we should appeal to the entire world, since we feel that it’s the place to which we can apply our energy.

Not everybody agrees with it. Some people doubt whether they should correct others or not: “We don’t owe them anything!” They just don’t understand why it is so essential. We should clearly understand that without turning to the entire world, we would not be able to self-correct.

When we realize and accept the world’s desire to be corrected, we won’t have any other choice but to refer to the group and the Creator. The world’s increasing pressure on us is in fact very good!  We go out to the world and want to help them. Then in return, people begin addressing us. Thus, we all move correctly and truly along the path of the Light and “accelerate time” (achishena.)

If we don’t appeal to the world on time, if we are late, the world will start pressing on us even more viciously. We will lose the chance to absorb the world’s desires since we fail to approach the nations of the world and unite with them. All we do is try to avoid them.

This explains why our appeal to the world is indispensable so that we can address our groups and the Creator and acquire this need. Accordingly, we can refer to the Creator and demand that He corrects us so that our changes can be further transferred to others through us. As elder brothers, we will get twice as much from it, and thus we will advance.

Otherwise our prayer will be always wrong. Even if we address the general public, our prayer will be Lo Lishma, i.e., not for the sake of the Creator, not about genuine bestowal. Everything we do so far corresponds to our current level. We wish we had a higher state; that’s why we want to advance to spirituality, supposedly to bestowal, but at the same time we want to feel good.

It is called Lo Lishma, but the Light impacts us and corrects us. All we need is to organize our work, in other words, to address the general public, our groups, and the Creator. Our prayer has to be collective and our ultimate objective should be to please the Creator. For that, we have to bring all our broken vessels to Him.

This is why in our state and in our time, called by Baal HaSulam, “A Time to Act,” in the month of Elul, right before the New Year, that is,. during our preparation to ascend to the next stage, in the course of the month that summarizes the entire year, we finally grasp what a correct request should be.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/13, Shamati #122

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Awakening A New Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhat changes when the upper level connects with the lower level? New bodies, spiritual Partzufim, that we actually give birth to appear. This birth is only possible by the Upper Light, of course, but it happens in response to our deficiency.

Every time we want to adhere to the upper, we force the lower level to adhere to the AHP of the upper and to give birth to a new form, a common Partzuf, for the upper and the lower levels. This Partzuf is called Neshama and we are actually those who give birth to it. The matter of creation exists, but we add our demand, our deficiency, to it.

The action is performed from above and the deficiency for the action comes from below, and as a result, a new entity is born that did not previously exist. There is only one thing in this new entity, the desire of the lower to adhere more strongly to the upper, each time a bit more and then another bit. This is called “many pennies add up to a big account.”

This renovation doesn’t stem from the spiritual ladder that descends from the top down and not from the ordinary Partzufim, but from our awakening, which each time leads to wholeness, which means to adhesion, to absorption, and to mutual incorporation.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/08/13, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Looking At The World And Empathizing With The Suffering

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “Love of the Other”: I am looking at a tiny point, called the love of the other, and reflect on what I can do to delight all the others?

And looking at the people I see suffering, illness and everyone’s personal pain, and general misery of the whole society, that is, wars between nations. But besides a prayer, I have nothing to give them, and it’s called “empathy with the suffering of society.”

Love of people and love of the Creator are one and the same thing since it is located outside the body, outside a person’s selfish interests, and thus he does not feel any difference between them. That is why people are given the commandment to love one’s neighbor. After all, if I can check myself at all times and in all states, that is, in all the changes of my desires, then I will quickly understand whether I have it or not, and every second I can correct myself to quickly attain love of the other, which is practically the same as the love of the Creator.

I look at people and think of what I can do for them. They ask for food, family wellbeing, money, power, and knowledge: I have nothing that could fulfill those desires. And if I did, then, do I have to do it, is this the right way? Is this world given to us in order to correct and improve it on the physical level, organizing society to achieve material prosperity in the usual ways? We see that everyone tries to do this without success, so why would I suddenly be more successful than others?

But the only thing we have to do is to understand that “there is none else besides the Creator.” There is only one force that acts in the world. What we need to do is only to request from Him, to ask, to convince Him that we really want Him to intervene and to perform the work of the Creator. All the changes, all the corrections, are entrusted to Him, and our task is just to ask, to raise a prayer, MAN.

Therefore, when we are working for dissemination and meet with different people, from young children to those that have grown old, we need to understand that we do not bring them any material goods of this world. Although we organize all sorts of activities and clubs, it is only the external, related phenomena, and if it were possible to do without them, we would have done without them.

We need to organize this material framework only to create a practical basis on which the work of the Creator is realized. But everything else, the action itself, happens only through a prayer, a request, in response to which the Upper Light that Reforms begins to work and fills the desire.

We cannot understand how reality changes. Either it changes from one’s material actions, correcting something in the world, or the Light comes and changes our inner properties, and we can see that the world has changed and become better.

All the actions are realized only by the power of prayer and through the help of the Creator, His work, changes, coming from above to below. We still have to accompany this by our material actions, but then we will see the Light of the Creator, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made” and earth.
[116388]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/13

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