Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

Under The Blazing Sun

Laitman_512_02Rabash, writes in the Torah, there are three modes. On the one hand, the Torah is called a resource that helps specifically as a resource for the strength of the person, and after that comes the Light that Reforms that corrects a person, and the Light that fills his corrected Kelim. That is how he completes the level.

However, until the completion of correction, this struggle continues. Written in the words of the prophets is the terrible war of Gog and Magog that happens in the last stage of correction, and this doesn’t just affect the physical world, but the same thing happens in spiritual work. Physical wars become a projection of spiritual processes and observations.

To the degree that one advances, the closer one comes to the Creator; a person is thrown into a burning fire of states as if he is approaching the sun. So, he is thrown much more strongly from ascents to descents. In this way, he exhausts his strength.

He must understand that all of this is done to help him leave the depths of his ego, from sinking deeper and deeper and more strongly into it, in order to move on to “for the sake of bestowal,” to the sacred, to spirituality, to greater and greater bestowal and love.

The gap between these two poles, between the descents and the ascents, grows more and more. Until a person hasn’t completely drowned in the sea of his evil forces, he cannot scream and ask for his correction.

So, the Torah exhausts a person’s power. If he is not illuminated by Light, but is under the control of egoistic forces, Klipot, his desire to receive, then he cannot do anything. Our mind only serves our feelings and is not prepared to help us.

So, a person must prepare himself for states like these from the start to the degree possible, as far as he is capable. However, in any case, he will fall and get up again, fall and get up.

The group must supply him with the right environment so that through it, he immediately will begin to ascend in that he draws energy like from batteries. Throughout the entire time of ascent, he charges the battery so that when needed he can use it.

That is how it is necessary to relate to an environment. For this purpose, the Shevirat HaKelim (shattering of the vessels) was made for we apparently cannot get along without an external battery like this. We invest our energy in it, accumulate our investment, the effort, and after that, it is possible to use it. It is impossible to advance without a battery of energy like this.

This is the guarantee of our mutual love “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Guarantee is not something that someone else needs. Rather, we need it ourselves. This is because we cannot get out of the descents if we don’t rise all the time in levels of mutual participation and connection.

So, these descents are necessary to teach us how to behave correctly so that we won’t flee and shatter into fragments. I understand that there are descents where it is impossible to get out of bed, where you feel physically dead. Everyone goes through states like these and stays alive. There is nothing to be concerned about or to fear.

However, ultimately it is necessary to understand, organize together, and struggle with them. We are standing before a mountain of thoughts, Mount Sinai (hatred) that you cannot ascend without mutual guarantee.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/14, Writing of Rabash

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The Nakedness Of Thy Father

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” (Acharei Mot), 18:7: The nakedness of thy father, and the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness.

“The nakedness of thy father and the nakedness of thy mother shalt thou not uncover,” refers to the prohibition of receiving the direct Light from the spiritual system of AVI (Aba ve Ima – Father and Mother). The Light that constantly descends from above is only in clothing that matches it.

In our world, for example, I can transmit a certain frequency over a great distance, but in empty space, my transmission only can spread out a distance of a kilometer or so.

If I wish to transmit sound to a distance of five hundred kilometers, or in space, I must increase the ordinary frequency by dressing it in a higher frequency. When one frequency rides on another, I perform modulation, and then the signal is transmitted smoothly.

In other words, the frequency of sound rides on the greater frequency of my generator. Thus, I thus transmit the sound. At the same time, the form of my sound is on a high frequency, and the transmitter that transmits it through a filter removes it, thus leaving only the voice frequency that enters the loudspeaker, through which the sound is heard.

Thus, the sound from the transmitter to the receiver is on high frequency and undergoes modulation and filtering. This is fulfilled according to the model of the passage of the Upper Light. The physical laws in our world are a result of the attributes of the Upper Light. If we wish to transmit something a great distance, we always transmit it through some environment or by riding a higher frequency.

It is the same in the spiritual world. If there is a signal from below, it must be dressed in some other Light, another frequency. The clothing is the Light of Hassadim, the Light of Hesed, the Light of bestowal that must come from the source to the receiver. The receiver must have the opposite attribute in order to receive this attribute and to separate the inner attribute of bestowal from the actual receiving.

The bestowal that descends from the system of Father and from the system of Mother (the Light of Hochma and the Light of Hassadim) is always dressed in such clothing. When they descend, we can connect them only in blocks that are similar to one another. Therefore, there is the restriction of “the nakedness of thy father…shalt thou not uncover,” which means that it is forbidden to uncover the Light of Hochma that is not dressed in the Light of Hassadim.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/19/14

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A Small Spider In A Large Web Of Connections

laitman_929Rabash, the article, “Purpose of Society (1984, 1.2)”: Since man is created with a Kli called “self-love,” where one does not see that an act will yield self-benefit, one has no motivation to make even a tiny movement. And without annulling self-love, it is impossible to achieve Dvekut (adhesion) with the Creator, meaning equivalence of form.

So they give us a society, for if its influence on me is stronger than the personal demands of my ego, I am ready to change under the influence of my environment. Suppose I want to rest, to travel, to have a good time; yet on the other hand I am in a society that pressures me and compels me to be involved with something else. Under its pressure I will certainly carry out what it requires from me, but unwillingly.

Can the society influence me so that I will want to carry out its requirements, and further that this will be from my own pressure and with great internal readiness? Suppose that it shows me that if I work according to its instructions, it will respect and elevate me, show respect and the like.

In this case I begin to leave my desire for fun, for rest, for sleep, and I run to work just to earn the right attitude of the society towards me. This means that the society can play with a person.

In human nature is inherently such a condition that society can bring a person to suicide or can elevate him to the pinnacle of glory. Everything depends upon the environment. A person has no weight himself. The attitude of the environment towards him is his sole and only determinant.

So we can take advantage of the possibility that an individual can be influenced by society and we can gather a group that will influence us so that we will carry out every action for the benefit of others. And with its help, we can bring ourselves to a state in which an external force, the Light that Reforms, will also influence us. Yet it works only through the environment. Since the right society can awaken us to the right actions, it is possible to awaken Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light) on ourselves through that society.

I adhere naturally to a society with the right desires for bestowal, love of others, etc. My ego says: “Do you want them to respect you? You must yearn for this.” I begin to yearn, and simultaneously through this I also attract some kind of natural force found in the society called Ohr Makif. Under its influence I begin to be changed. So everything depends upon how I situate myself regarding my environment.

If my environment is capable of awakening me correctly and acts subtly regarding my ego, it can really play with me. I am ready for this, I want it! This is because my ego is my enemy and I want to do something about it.

The society starts to play with my ego and awakens great desires for altruistic actions in me. And simultaneously it lowers the Ohr Makif onto me through them. That is how my mutual connection with the right group solves all of the problems of my correction through “equivalence of form” with the higher power.

So that the right attitudes will be created between me and society, it is necessary to stand under defined conditions that have been determined by the Kabbalists, like maintaining attitudes of equality between friends, integration with one another, greater preference for the desires of a friend over my personal desires, etc.

If I act according to these conditions, I gradually enter into its system of connection and am found in it like a small node within its network, and all the rest of the right nodes around me are my society. That is how we help each other and complement everyone’s problems, learning to cooperate correctly with the general system until we begin to feel like a whole group.

The group suddenly begins to feel that it is found in a general system of connection that is acting on it. The discovery of the power of the general system is the discovery of the Creator within us, within the group. A person is not capable of feeling this alone. He lacks the appropriate senses for this.

When I find myself like a small spider in a large web, then through connection with others, I feel the space that surrounds me, I feel the Creator. This is only on condition that I have the right connection with the friends.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/2014, Writings of Rabash

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Games Of The Creator

Laitman_514_04Question: There can be these states where we are so integrated into the group, come to lessons, and keep the connection with the friends, as if everything was within us and there was no external force, no Creator. The question arises, whether this force exists on the outside or do we build it on our own?

Answer: The Creator plays with us. He gives you, like small children, the opportunity to be shown to what extent you are, as if, independent, understanding, clever, and brave.

You need to stop yourselves in time. There can’t be any forward advancement, only if He pulls you, carries you on His wings, pulls you forward, or pushes you from behind.

We have no motor! The motor isn’t within us, and the fuel is from Him. We don’t have any! It is done on purpose to later show us how far we have come.

We need to balance everything and not complain that we have nothing. We are nobody and have nothing, i.e., we are like a rag underfoot or a pile of broken mechanisms. No. It needs to be in the middle, somewhere in between the two.

At each moment of our existence we need to feel the necessity for the upper force: the need to recognize good and evil, the need to differentiate between them, the need for the correct choice for the direction of forward movement.

As Baal HaSulam explained, one needs to go forward correctly exactly in the middle line. This means that without any connection to the next level, to the upper line, to a higher category, you are not able to do anything.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day One” 9/19/14, Lesson 2

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Problems That Stem From An Excess Of Intelligence

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe difference between a person and a cat is that a cat doesn’t make mistakes because it is connected to nature, with the force that moves it called nature or the Creator. This is the power of the overall system that manages the cat and shows it how to behave at each and every moment.

So a cat never makes a mistake. It doesn’t even think about what it is doing; it only acts and that’s it. It is constantly managed by the system, and so every one of its jumps are precisely calculated. A cat acts like a perfect machine.

A person, unlike a cat, is not a perfect machine. On the contrary, he doesn’t know how to act and constantly makes mistakes. Even though he has received additional senses and intelligence in comparison to other animals, he is not managed by nature.

This is called his freedom of choice, which determines how he uses his human emotion and intelligence. And if he doesn’t take the entire general system into account, he always activates his intelligence incorrectly and harms himself. After all, his ego causes him to err.

If we intentionally don’t learn how to use our intelligence correctly, we always harm ourselves. The proof for this is in the entire history of the human race that has gone on for thousands of years, yet development isn’t good and beautiful anywhere. It is accompanied by wars and problems, searches and disappointments, and failure is followed by failure. We try to do things for the best, but things only become worse.

The time has come to say, “Enough!, We are tired of all of these failures, the hatred, the problems in the family.” One by one, families fall apart, since in our development, we have reached the recognition of evil.

This is no longer just the miserable life that we lived before when nature pushed us to development through blows. In our time we have reached a level of intelligence and feelings by which we can see we have been developing by suffering that is only increasing. We are talking about a third world war. So, are we unable to stop it?

Modern man no longer wants anything from life except drugs or antidepressants. He doesn’t want to start a family and bring children into the world. He doesn’t want to take any responsibility. In this situation, we come to the month of Elul, to repentance. But this means that the solution to this bad situation is already illuminating us and redemption is near. We are ready to stop this flawed development, this negative trend. We have had enough suffering!

This is the sum total of the month of Elul, our decision to develop in a new form from now on. It means that we decide to reach balance with nature, to approach the higher power through establishing new rules of behavior based upon, “and you shall love your friend as yourself.” In this way, we reach balance with nature and become like the higher power.

Human society must reach full mutual support so that by itself, it will control that additional intelligence and feeling that has raised us above the level of the animal, prevented us from balance with nature and took us outside of the realm of its control. This means that we must arrange our reason and feeling through connection, unity, and love between us.

In this way we complete ourselves on the level of Adam (man) and make the entire system homogeneous, integral, connected, united, and completely mutually dependent, like everything else in nature. This is called love.

We don’t understand what love is. Love is to be in partnership, in the right connection with all the rest of the parts of nature. You feel them and do what they need and they feel you and do what you need, like a healthy body in which all of the organs are in a mutual connection such as this.

The understanding that we must reach such a connection is called the month of Elul, repentance.

Question: So what is it necessary to think in a time like the month of Elul, in order to change life into a better life?

Answer: In our world, only the good connection between people is missing. There is full abundance, but everyone suffers because of their intolerable character. We must correct this, and we have the opportunity to do so.

If we direct ourselves towards correction, it would be a wonderful result of the self-criticism that we do in the month of Elul. So we truly advance according to its name: Elul, meaning,  “Ani LeDodi VeDodi Li” – “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine,”(“Song of Songs” 6:3).
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From KabTV’s“ A New Life” 9/14/14

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Short Stories: From Adam To Noah

Dr. Michael LaitmanAdam was the first to attain the system of creation and he discovered that the ultimate goal of human evolution is the attainment of the upper state, the ascent to the level of the Creator, which all the future generations should reach.

Thus, he immediately began to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah by establishing three groups of students called his sons.

They were not corporeal sons, but spiritual ones who were on a lower level than their teacher and who learned from him how to ascend to the next level. Therefore, the terms, “father” and “son,” in the Torah refer to two levels. There are no blood relations between them, but only a spiritual continuation.

After Adam, there were three lines that stemmed from his students: Shem, Ham and Japheth. The line that stemmed from Shem developed, and the two other lines turned out to be dead ends. But they too were necessary in order to express, highlight, and stabilize the middle line.

Thus, a glorious chain of Kabbalists and their schools developed for many years from Adam until the time of ancient Babylon: ten generations of Kabbalists until Noah and ten generations following him.

Every generation symbolizes its certain phase in the revelation of an increasingly stronger connection with the Creator and the recognition of the network of forces that manage our world.

In Noah’s times, the clarification and the purification of the system of knowing the Creator and getting closer to Him continued, and it is described in the story of Noah’s Ark.

After all of Noah’s students ascended to the level of unity in the attribute of bestowal and equivalence to the Creator by managing to connect the parts of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature inside them in one capsule (the ark), they managed to overcome the level called the “flood.” Instead of drowning, they absorbed all the attributes of the water, the attributes of life, the attribute of bestowal.

The shattering that occurred in them was the beginning of a new world. Noah symbolizes this turning point when people who study Kabbalah acquire the attribute of bestowal, which is metaphorically presented by the water. Having experienced an internal revolution, they begin to use this point correctly and continue its development.
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From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/15/14

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The Prohibition Of Incest

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” (Acharei Mot), 18:6: None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness. I am the LORD.

There is a clear separation into the male and female parts in the spiritual system that descends from Above: the Light of Hassadim (mother) and the Light of Hochma (father).

The Light of Hochma descends through the father and the Light of Hassadim descends through the mother. They can intersect in the form of children but only in a certain combination and not randomly.

The combination can be when a certain amount of the Light of Hochma enters the Light of Hassadim, which it can contain. This means that the attribute of bestowal has to be in the amount that it can contain the Light of Hochma: pleasure in order to bestow, a filling for the sake of dissemination.

It is because every action has to be for love, for bestowal, and for the correction of others according to the rule of “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Everything is directed towards bestowal since a person’s soul is external to him.

Actions that are directed towards my own benefit and which exceed the measure necessary for my existence are invalid, not kosher, and immediately destroy the souls. Thus a person has to advance within certain limits, understanding that he can only reach a certain limit and no more. How can he be shown this in advance? There is a spiritual system that descends from Above in order to enable him to properly focus only on bestowal and to advance properly as he understands the limits of the options that he has, and to determine them independently and use them freely.

It has to teach us and show us the options we have. When we teach a child, we show him what is allowed and what is forbidden, what is good and what is bad. First we show a child something and then we want him not only to perform what we show him, but to also make a half-step forward. Similarly, the spiritual system should teach a person skills by which he can advance independently. Thus the system of Adam (human being) has to develop independently.

In our world we develop only by blows and punishments. We see that humanity is constantly mistaken and that we cannot act properly because we grow in our ego. Such mistakes are impossible in the spiritual world.

In order to protect a person in his spiritual growth, a system of self-learning has to be created in him, not the type that we generally create from the top down, but rather from the bottom up when a person still doesn’t know what to do. This is only possible in the spiritual world, thanks to its attributes.

The word forbidden in the Torah means impossible. The prohibition of incest among relatives means that it is impossible to create part of the soul in this combination, since every action that we make is a consistent correction of another part of the soul.

It is impossible to correct a certain part by this action because a vessel that is not fit for correction is formed in that way. The Light descends from above in two lines. One is a piece called father and the other is a piece called mother and they can be combined only on certain levels.

The combination should be between signals that are absolutely disconnected that descend from a single part of the system. In other words, the attribute of bestowal and the attribute of receiving have to renew constantly in the totally new parts of the soul. Getting closer identically, which stems from one upper source, is impossible.

Question: Is there an example for that in our world?

Answer: Of course. Anything that exists in the spiritual world, in the form of roots, is revealed in our world in the form of their derivatives. Thus, there is the prohibition of incest between a father and a daughter, a mother and a son, etc.

These derivatives exist in our world and they lead to negative outcomes. The psychological and mental problems caused by the marriage of relatives of European monarchs and their offspring are well known.

Incest is only possible on the animal level, but the offspring of animals are totally detached from their mother and the biological, genetic connection with the parents disappears. Several years later they can easily come in contact with one another, not realizing that they are relatives.

This is impossible in a human being since he is connected to the Upper Light, while animals are on a lower level.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/19/14

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Atonement, The First Step To Correction

Laitman_036It is customary to read the Selichot (atonement) in the Siddur before Rosh HaShana and to ask for forgiveness for all the mistakes and sins that we committed in the previous year. A person usually asks for forgiveness if he has done something wrong to someone, not in order to correct evil. But the Selichot are the revelation of the recognition of evil that was caused intentionally or unintentionally by us.

We all know that even in court asking for forgiveness or an apology from one side to the other is taken into account. Sometimes the court decides that the offender should apologize to the offended and if he forgives the offender the sentence is mitigated.

This means that asking for forgiveness is already a correction since a person admits that he has caused harm. Although he has not corrected it yet, he already commits himself to correcting it. Asking for forgiveness is the first step of the correction, so we have to value it and to take it into account.

We say Selichot at the end of the year, at the end of a cycle, at the end of a spiritual level. We complete the spiritual level in a good state since the Torah always speaks about an ascent but at the same time we reach destruction. At the end of the year there is the Ninth of Av together with all the troubles associated with it: the destruction of the First and the Second Temples and more. Then there is the time of the Selichot in which we discover the outcomes of the shattering and realize how shattered, lowly, and loathsome we are, and then we ask for forgiveness.

Interestingly, the month in which we cry and ask for forgiveness brokenheartedly because of the recognition of evil is called “Elul,” which is the Hebrew acronym for “I am my beloved and my beloved is mine.”

But if I realize that I am evil, it is the Creator’s fault because He created my evil inclination. So why should I ask His forgiveness for that.

It turns out that the desired outcome of our work, of the new level we have acquired, is the revelation of the evil inclination in us. We discover the evil in us and attribute it to ourselves, realizing that it is inside us and we want to get rid of it. Otherwise, it isn’t called the recognition of evil.

If a person feels the evil in his ego (his desire to receive) he immediately wants to get rid of it. If I regret my actions I thus commit myself to getting rid of the attributes in me, but, in the meantime, I don’t know how to do that. In the meantime, I cannot do it since I lack the power and the understanding to do so. But I realize that it is bad, which means that I determine my state.

It is about the connection between us because the whole correction begins with that. This means that all the evil is revealed in contrast to the unity, which we don’t want, reject, and try to escape in every way we can.  This is the whole evil; this is our evil inclination.

Of course, the evil inclination was given to us from Above by the Creator. We don’t cry over the fact that it is part of us but over the fact that we don’t want to get rid of it! We cry because we identify with the ego and are ready to stay in it forever! We don’t regret the evil but the fact that we agree to live in it.

We should direct all our complaints to the Creator, “go to the craftsman who made me.” And what is my own sin? Is it my fault that I haven’t worked enough with the means that He gave me in order to be free of this sin? This is what I cry about, about my helplessness and about my reluctance to be free of my ego.

We cry about our inability to get out of our ego and ask the Creator to help us, realizing our weakness with regard to the evil inclination that is revealed.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9.7.14, The Zohar

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How Do We Unite In A Mixed Ten?

laitman_940Question: In small groups, tens often include beginners and veterans. They speak different languages, have different levels of understanding. How can they unite in such a diverse ten? What should be used as a foundation?

Answer: I do not see any problem. Look to the root, since inside a group, a newcomer and a veteran are absolutely the same.

It is like in the example with Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma who saw in his students an ideal group even though they were clueless beginners, understanding nothing. The difference between them was as between heaven and earth. But he saw their inner essence, how much they are connected with each other in the spiritual world.

If we would look at our friends like this, then there is no difference if one came to the group a few months ago, and another was in it for five years. We need to distance ourselves a little from external characteristics.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/14, Writings of Rabash

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A Request For A Solution

laitman_938_03Question: When in a large group, a group of ten helps the friends care for one another and support each other in their studies and dissemination, but on the other hand, it somewhat replaces one’s attitude towards the group and creates a certain egoistic formation within the group. There is even competition between the tens. How can we solve this dualism in a large group?

Answer: This is a very good state but we have not yet fully experienced it, so it is hard to answer this question. Maybe we need to organize ourselves in a whole new way and create a different kind of connection between us.

It is easier to interact in a small group. But what can we do in a large group where, presumably, one hundred people divide into ten groups? There needs to be a connection between them as well.

When it comes to a common system, being in one common net, “One’s as good as none.” Only the ten is a Minyan.

Minyan translates as “count” from Hebrew (from the word Mune). In other words, the count begins with a ten.

In the spiritual system, a ten is a unit, one knot that contains ten people. But they are not a knot but a Minyan until they unite as one man with one heart. Minyan is a single unit, ten together as one.

Tens must connect with one another as a hierarchy: initially, ten people connect as one and on the next level ten groups connect as a single group, etc.

This has never before existed in the world. And so we must advance little by little as we learn by experience. And we will be given an example from above.

And so the question remains. I want everyone to feel that this is an open question and that we do not know what to do, because this makes it a sort of a request for a solution.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/14, Writing of Rabash

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