4.  Wealth

“The High Priest has to be monetarily more stable than other Cohens.” (“Let There Be Light,” “Leviticus,” “Emor”).

Correcting our Kelim (vessels) and receiving the Light of Hochma means that we are “wealthy.”

Money (“Kesef” – derives from the word “Kisuf” – covering) indicates a screen (Masach). Cohens use the money to satisfy other people’s needs, to help them and to connect with them.

Financially, the high priest has to be much “better off” than the other Cohens, i.e., he has to have a big “screen” (Kesef, Kisuf – the money) so that he uses the money as a “safety umbrella” to cover his people. The high priest possesses the power that can absorb all desires, properties, and hopes of his people, makes them more dignified, brings them to the next spiritual level, and correctly orients them towards the Upper Light so that the latter benefits them, not hurts.

Each next level includes all previous steps. The lower steps are similar to the corresponding points of the next step. That’s why a Cohen has to have a screen that covers all of them.
[153524]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/14/14

Related Material:
The High Priest’s Qualities, Part 2
The High Priest’s Qualities, Part 1
Forefather Of All Cohens In The World

Filed under: Spiritual Work, Torah - No Comments →

Question: How can a person stop himself from condemning the Creator?

Answer: A person cannot stop himself from doing so. We are not in control, at best we can request. By requesting, we operate the Light that Reforms, but we don’t perform the actual action. Only the Light can perform the correction.

The Light of the “world of Infinity” that appears at my request by fulfilling my desire to improve—to get closer, to adapt myself to the Creator—performs the necessary actions. Only the request is mine, and it must be only in order to bestow so that I will be attracted only to bestowal and that my accounts are only according to that.

I don’t take my feelings into account. It makes no difference if it feels good or bad, and I only see to what extent I can justify the Creator. This is the only thing that hurts me. My pain is not related to my corporeal body but to my attitude toward it. Will I be able to justify the Creator on top of my feelings in my corporeal body and to be adhered to Him until I love Him, or not?

In the meantime, my living flesh is cut seven times a day, but I prefer the point of adhesion in its posterior. Then, its face is revealed, which is indeed a great pleasure, but absolutely not in my old, egoistic vessels and not in the same Light of pleasure that I thought about and expected.
[135401]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The Double Mistake Of The Puppet
Grateful Clay In The Good Hands Of The Sculptor
Investigating The Source Of All Reality

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: What is the meaning of preparing myself for continuous emptiness and the feeling of this filling?

Answer: There is the correction of the vessels and the filling of the vessels. Everything takes place inside a person and I have to prepare my vessel in order to receive everything as good and nothing more is needed.

I receive everything that I have from Above, from the Creator, from there is none else besides Him, and therefore I have to yearn for feeling good only from the fact that I receive from Him. This is called the purification of the vessels, the level of Bina, Hafetz Hesed. My desire to receive is corrected to such an extent that it doesn’t demand anything for itself except for the feeling of connection with the Creator, which is what fills it completely.

I don’t care about any state that may come, ranging from the best to the worst, all the terrible emptiness and different extreme states, since I am above my vessel with a Masach (screen) and the Ohr Hozer (Returning Light).

If I am adhered to the fact that everything comes from the Creator, I fully accept every state with my complete mind and to the depth of my heart, in all my accounts, desires, intentions, and feelings. This is called the level of absolute bestowal, Hafetz Hesed, the first essential correction of the desire to receive, after which it is possible to reach bestowal unto the Creator. This is a kind of cleansing from my ego.

If the state comes from the Creator and I am in a world that is totally managed by the upper force, I don’t care about what I feel in my desire to receive. If it was sent by the upper force, it must be good, and therefore I am calm.

I don’t feel that I am a hypocrite and I don’t pressure myself, but actually feel that I am truly in a state of correction. Anything can take place in my mind and heart, but I only want to be adhered to one point, to the thought that it comes from the Creator.

Therefore, I am in actual bestowal in Hafetz Hesed, on top of all the events that can possibly come along, be it wars, troubles, fears, anxieties, conflicts, eruptions, the worst possible events and the best ones, I know that it comes from the Creator and this thought is enough to cover all the feelings in my desire to receive.

A very strong Reforming Light that comes from above is necessary for such a correction, the Light of Hochma that affects my desire to receive and raises it to the vessel of Bina. But in the meantime it illuminates in a concealed manner, in the form of the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light).
[135404]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
“Evil” Doesn’t Look Good…
Deficiency And Fulfillment
Don’t Listen To The Ego’s Whining

Filed under: Body and Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Spiritual Work, The Creator - No Comments →

The integration between the two forces, reception and bestowal, is the foundation of creation. Modern science is approaching this phenomenon, but still is not ready to feel it. The scientists are approaching some threshold after which they will discover that time, space, and movement don’t exist, that there is no life and death, and that matter doesn’t exist, not even fundamental particles. Rather, all of these are found in our sensations.

What does exist? How do we acquire the senses for the new dimension?

Scientists already have reached the conclusion that there is no life and death, rather everything is derived from some kind of internal sensation. So, who are we? Does my body truly exist, or does it only seem that way to me? The concept of “existence” disappears; for whom does it exist? Recent scientific articles indicate that they reach that it is purely internal contemplation.

Question: Suppose that Kabbalists have a goal that many people might see as transient, but is still a goal. The goal of the scientists is simply to discover something, and what else?

Answer: The same goal exists for us and for the scientists. We want to discover the purpose of life! What difference does it make if we call it Creator, nature, or anything else? I want to discover the truth, but I am not ready to do this because I discover it in regard to myself; and, if I change, it also changes. This is to say that it is no longer the truth, it is no longer absolute, and if we are talking about the absolute, I cannot attain it. I am not prepared to feel and understand it because I am not ready for this. I must change myself beforehand. However, how can I change regarding the same space in which I will discover the truth?

This is truly a theory of relativity, but not that of Einstein. Rather, it is more modern. After all, we now find ourselves on the threshold of crossing the barrier into the realization of a new space. It is possible to call this a space because it is felt within us, similar to our space. However, it is up to each of us to check as to whether we have felt the truth. This is obligatory. We can examine this only on condition that we go outside ourselves and calibrate ourselves relative to something eternal and whole. How do we do this? It is exactly here that science stops and fails. So, the scientists will ultimately begin to hear us. They will have a great yearning to advance, together with the great disappointment that they cannot advance because of the barrier that they are not ready to cross. They will understand that on the other side of the barrier is found something that they are not ready to perceive because they have no other senses, and where are these senses found? How are they acquired? How do we change in order to acquire them?

When a state like this is created, they will be ready to listen to and understand us. They will have all the preconditions of yearning, a tremendous attraction to advancement, the recognition of their powerlessness, and the feeling that we are talking about something that arises on the same standard as their sensation.

What is science? It is a yearning to discover the Creator. Scientists aspire to discover the Creator, but they call Him nature. We also call Him nature, but for them, nature is only the laws that operate in this world, and we are saying that nature is much broader. We offer the investigation of the laws of the next world.

When people become the subject of investigation, their values are changed. This is even though we don’t think this way because we have become used to thinking that we are unchanging. For example, in a mathematical formula, one factor is a constant, and the rest of the factors change, and that is how we solve the equation. After that, we begin to change this factor and don’t change the others, and so on.

That is how it is with us as well. We think that we don’t need to change ourselves and are exploring a changing nature. However, when we reach a barrier, a blind alley, we begin to hear and understand something as researchers. However, if we begin to change ourselves, could it be that we also discover that we cause a change? When we begin to be changed, we acquire new senses.

The scientists say that perception is subjective. If emotion is subjective, let’s change the subject, and then we will see other worlds.
[135285]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/10/13

Related Material:
A Universal Foundation For All Sciences
A Profound Change Of Our Perspective
An Era Of Small Ideals

Filed under: Inner Work, Perception, Science, Spiritual Work, Spirituality, The Creator, Torah - No Comments →

Question: You said that the strength of luck leads us into the next world. What future world do you have in mind?

Answer: The future world means that I exit my body. In other words, I rise above my ego. The ego is all my desires, thoughts, inclinations and all my selfish awareness that is called my body, not my flesh, which is considered to be an animal.

I must rise above all these desires and thoughts, and instead of seeking to absorb everything internally, I have the desire to give to my neighbor.

This means that the soul leaves the body, I feel the future world and I find a new desire to bestow, to love, and unite. All this is called the second body in which I enter and act on the basis of these new desires. So I move further and further until I reach full correction.

The future world means a world to come, my next state, which I achieve as a result of work on myself and my attitude towards others. I exchange this world for the future world by exchanging love for myself for love of my neighbor. This means I reach the next world from this world and enter the Garden of Eden.

Question: Why is it called the Garden of Eden?

Answer: Because I’m starting to feel that I am beyond all limits, because there are no boundaries in bestowing to others. I am in an expanse that fully belongs to me.

Question: What does it mean to bestow on to everyone?

Answer: To bestow means to do good out of love for everyone.

Question: Why is it if a person wants to do good to all then one is in the Garden of Eden?

Answer: Because the Garden of Eden is called the place where you can do whatever you want without any restrictions. After all, you want to give, and there are no boundaries on bestowal. And then you feel that everything is for the good of everyone, everything is for you and is full abundance.

In other words, the future of the world is called the land of Israel (Eretz Isra-El), the desire fully directed at the Creator.  The Creator is a comprehensive force of bestowal and love, which includes all of creation, including us. You have to unravel it according to the similarities of properties with Him. Therefore, you are called Isra-El because you want to achieve the same state, the same values of the Creator.
[154333]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/8/15

Related Material:
We Can See Our Future World Today
Good Luck Creates Fate
The Connection Between Our Fate And The Stars

Filed under: Body and Soul, Inner Work, Love, My Similarity to the Creator, Spiritual Work, Spirituality - No Comments →

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 23:01 – 23:2:  And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: The Lord’s appointed [holy days] that you shall designate as holy occasions. These are My appointed [holy days]. 

Holy convocation at different levels, this is the holidays.

Before you come together, people are seriously engaged in a spiritual work, trying to unite. This period is called the distance between the holidays. A parish of the unified masses to a new higher degree of unity among themselves epitomizes a holiday.

The Torah describes what sacrifices were made and what level of egoism over which people had to ascend in order to create a particular style of sacred assembly, which is called the Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot, etc.

Question: From a spiritual point of view, towards what point does the chain of events lead a person?

Answer: Towards reaching complete perfection. Of all the holidays, there are two most obscure: Shavuot and Purim. It would seem, especially the holiday of Shavuot (the receiving of the Torah), which lasts only one day and during which they only read very small portions to pray and they eat dairy foods. Receiving the Torah is an enormous celebration! What could be more important than that?  The custom to eat dairy food that day comes from the fact that it symbolizes the property to give, to distribute the property of the Torah.

We treat Purim as some children’s holiday. These are the two most hidden holidays because they have to be reached by very serious internal efforts. As a rule, the higher, deeper, and  spiritually stronger some states are, so they are more discreet, hidden, and humble .

Comment: We always talk a lot about the holiday of Passover, the exodus from Egypt, but this is only the beginning.

Answer: This is the beginning of all spiritual states. And besides, this is the beginning of the year, the beginning of the month, and the beginning of any calculation in spiritual work.
[154327]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/28/14

Related Material:
Kabbalistic Holidays
In The Cycle Of The Holidays
A Happy Union With Nature’s Holiday

Filed under: Holidays, Inner Work, Spiritual Work, Spirituality, Torah - No Comments →

     3. Physical Strength (Vigor)

Conducting consecrations in the Temple required lots of exertions. For example, during the hardest day of Yom Kippur “The Day of Atonement,” (Judgment Day) Cohens had to fast.

Aaron was incredibly strong. During the initiation of Levites, Aaron lifted each one of them and shook them back and forth, up and down.

One day, he lifted twenty thousand men. Aaron’s vigor was exceptional; all the Cohanim were known for their strength.” (“Let There Be Light,” “Leviticus,” “Emor”)

“Lifting Levites” means to elevate a desire to its next level, to give the desire both the right and left lines and then put them down so that they have to figure out how to climb the steps on their own.

The Upper Bina that is symbolized by the Cohens (priests) possesses a very interesting quality that sits so deep inside the property of bestowal that nobody knows how to rise to it, how to approach it. It is as if a hand stretches from above and elevates one to its level.

This is exactly what the Cohens had to do during Yom Kippur because at this time all five egoistic desires are already “rejected” and people become “empty,” i.e., ready to surrender to everything that is essential for them.

As people are ready to “die,” i.e., complete self-correction at a certain stage that is symbolized by white clothes that the Cohens had to wear on the “Day of Atonement.” In this case, the upper can do anything with the lower that had annulled itself.

For Levites, the Cohen is the upper step. He brings them up. They merge with the Cohens by nullifying themselves. After they’ve been through this state, they return back so that they independently request the power of bestowal and love to raise them back to the level they descended from, regardless of the egoism that came back to them after Yom Kippur is over.

Question: Who is a Levite?

Answer: A Levite personifies a link of connection with the people, the lower part of Bina. Through them, the Cohens contact Israel.

A Cohen is the upper governing step that is connected to the Creator; whereas, Levites are “tangled” both with Cohens and the people of Israel.
[153419]
From KabTV’s “The Mysteries of the Eternal Book” 5/14/14

Related Material:
The High Priest’s Qualities, Part 1
Forefather Of All Cohens In The World
The Most Stubborn And Most Purposeful

Filed under: Spiritual Work, Torah - No Comments →

“In order to become a high priest, a Cohen had to possess five qualities.

What qualities should a Cohen possess to carry out the duties of the First Priest?

1. Wisdom is the first and foremost property.

By conducting services in the Temple, the First Priest represented the entire nation. For this purpose, he had to be the great in the Torah.” (“Let There Be Light,” “Leviticus,” “Emor”).

“To be the great in the Torah,” means to use the Upper Light to correct egoism. When one receives the Light of Hochma (Wisdom) not for one’s own sake, but for the sake of other souls, one is called “wise.”

2. Pleasant appearance.

Even though external looks are not a significant quality, still out of respect to the Creator and the Temple it was required that the First Priest had to be good-looking.” (“Let There Be Light,” “Leviticus,” “Emor”).

“Good looking,” means that one’s external properties are directed to the benefit of others.

From the spiritual point of view, a man is considered “handsome” when he illuminates the Light. It is not the body that matters, but the properties that are of real importance.  Kabbalah describes the properties of both corrected and corrupt desires and the degrees of their correction.
[153416]
From KabTV’s “Mysteries of the Eternal Book,” 5/20/14

Related Material:
A Woman Is A Cup Of Blessing
The Nation Of Cohens
Forefather Of All Cohens In The World

Filed under: Spiritual Work, Torah - No Comments →

Spirituality works digitally (discretely), with individual boxes, drives (impulses): start-stop, start-stop. It cannot be otherwise if we must reach decisions.

The system itself is integral, analog, the beginning and the end are always equal: Everything is found at rest and in balance, and the Light of Infinity fills everything.

But if we are talking about me after the shattering and the process of correction, then I am cutting through layer after layer of desire to work with them. So my advancement is digital, in boxes, in discrete actions and pieces, as it is said, “One penny and another accumulate into a great sum” (Baba Batra 9b). But the final account is round and analog.

 So the calculation is integral, we make a connection from zero to 600,000 souls, but in the end an integral sum emerges from zero to 600,000, equal to Ein Sof. Through mutual integration we reach a state where the sum of the isolated observations becomes infinite through the participation of the “stony heart” that completes all the corrections in a circle.

We are only ready to do defined and limited corrections and never attain Infinity, never perceiving what Infinity is. But in the end a unique Light is discovered, “Zivug de Aka’a Rav Pa’alim uMekabtziel,” (Samuel II 23:20): “Tears that fall into the great sea” and in this manner we complete all the parts of Malchut that were lacking for a complete circle.
[135407]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The System Will Not Manage Without Me
Analog (Upper) And Discrete (Lower) Systems Of Connection
It Is Impossible To Know The World Only By Its Pieces

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

The Torah, “Leviticus” 21:13 – 21:14: He shall marry a woman in her virgin state. A widow, a divorcee, a woman who is desecrated or a prostitute he shall not marry [any] of these. Only a virgin of his people may he take as a wife.

The male and the female parts of the desire on every level should be clearly connected in order to consolidate their connection and to be properly incorporated into one spiritual vessel.

The female part is a desire to receive and the male part is a desire to bestow. Therefore on the level of the Cohen (priest), which is the level of upper purity, it is essential for the female part to be subordinate only to him, which means that it is totally purified of its inner and external ego. This means that she is a virgin and ready to be his wife.

“He shall marry a woman in her virgin state,” means that he should use the desire on his level only.
[154109]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/28/14

Related Material:
A Woman Is A Cup Of Blessing
Spiritual Correction
The Clothing Of The High Priest

Filed under: Spiritual Work, Torah - No Comments →