Entries in the 'Torah' Category

Isolation For The Good Of The Society

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does the “Thirteen Parts of the Correction of the Hair” mean in relation to the ego?

Answer: This is an external manifestation of desires that are given to be corrected. We correct them like all of the usual desires, but they reveal themselves as outward and external.

This means that according to the stimulation that is revealed on the skin, which is in contact with the hair, the head, and also the chin, it is understood what must be done with this person and in what manner he must be isolated from society. This is because he is currently not useful to the society because he is in a pathological state and becomes a source of cancer. Through his egoistic desire, he only infects society.

Isolating this person from society means not just physically keeping him at a distance, but isolating him from contact with others. He doesn’t need to be associated with anyone else in society in any way until he corrects himself separately. Time will usually do this when he is alone with the Creator.

Problems like these appear on higher levels and correct a person, as in the case of Moses when he hid his hand inside, took it out, and there was leprosy on it. He put his hand in again, took it out, and it was clean. This is a manifestation of a very deep, egoistic pathology.

Question: Suppose that in a group there are people who are in descent, they are sleeping in the lessons, and they don’t want to participate in events. Their time has not yet come; it is not allowed to touch them.

But there are people who are harmful and they begin to convey their philosophy. These people must be suspended for a time, which may even be permanent. Is this a state of leprosy that begins to gnaw at everyone and can even bring down the whole group?

Answer: Certainly, for the leper is a very strong person, very advanced, but he discovers problems like these within his ego that he must somehow conquer by himself so as not to influence the group. He does this by himself, since he is on the level of a priest and can isolate himself, but cannot heal.

Moreover, he doesn’t isolate himself physically. Rather, he is working on himself all the time so that he will not affect the group. This is called “expelling him from the camp” where he is warned not to influence the group detrimentally, and so he gradually heals himself of the leprosy.
[141133]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/20/14

Related Material:
Process Of Self-Scrutiny
Opening Pandora’s Box
Correcting The Last Level

The Way To A State Of Yom Kippur

Dr. Michael LaitmanM. Weisman, “Midrash Sefer,” “Acharei Mot,” “Holy Work on Yom Kippur”: May it be Your will, oh Lord, that this year will be blessed with lots of rain, sun, shade and dew; that this will be a year of mercy from Heaven, a blessed year, a year of abundance, of success in what we do, a year in which Your people, the nation of Israel will not be dependent on one another and will not dominate one another.

At first glance this prayer seems like a common prayer: Give me everything that I need, that my corporeal body needs, that the whole nation needs; let there be peace and abundance. But prayers that ask for our ego to feel comfortable don’t reach the Creator. Only prayers in which we raise our request for correction rise to Him, and this is what we mean in receiving all the benefits that are specified in this prayer. After all, the Light is spread over us and is ready to fill us completely. The cow wants to feed more than the calf wants to suckle and bursts with an abundance of milk.

But the point is that we are not ready to receive the abundant Light. So when we ask for one thing or another in the spiritual world, in the internal attribute, we refer to correction: “Give us the opportunity to build a Masach (screen) so that we will be able to receive the filling that comes by the Upper Lights for Your sake.”

Yom Kippur is not the revelation of to bestow in order to bestow, but of to receive in order to bestow.  The fulfillment of to bestow in order to bestow is symbolized by Chanukah and to receive in order to bestow is symbolized by Purim. In order to approach the state of Yom Kippur we have to keep all the conditions that we were given during the giving of the Torah, which means to clarify all of our 613 desires and to ascend to the level of the great priest.

This means to reveal inside us the lowest desires and to receive the highest Light on them and raise them to the level of the great priest when Malchut of Atzilut raises her desires to GAR of Atzilut, to Arich Anpin. This state is called Yom Kippur and it symbolizes the revelation of all the desires that will later be revealed and will receive their filling in Purim (Kippurim is the same as Purim).

This is an immense level; the great Upper Light begins to illuminate all our desires and shines in each one’s soul. We begin to understand what we have to do with it.

Such serious work is done under the influence of the Upper Light in a group, during the study that is focused properly by the teacher. This is the preparation for the spiritual level.

On the whole, we mustn’t picture a certain day, a Temple, a mountain, or Jerusalem. These are all a person’s internal attributes, which he should attain internally this way, reveal and dominate them, and ascend to the level of the great priest.

The main thing is that all these corrections lead to the point of unity. Therefore it is said: “… a year in which Your people, the nation of Israel, will not be dependent on one another and will not dominate one another.” It is in this point of unity that the connection with the Creator is felt. It is only by the attainment of unity that we will begin to feel “one reveals One.”
[144299]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/12/14

Related Material:
Complex Work
Yom Kippur: Sorrow Or Joy?
Repentance

Spiritual States Through The Images Of This World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Midrash Says: Chapter “Acharei Mot,” The Sanhedrin sent sages to the High Priest so that they instructed him about  the Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) service. They read passages from the Acharei Mot (After Death) to him that described Yom Kippur rituals and laws… 

What problem do we encounter when reading these lines? We imagine pictures that belong to this material world: We visualize the “Great Priest ” sitting on a throne, there are servants around him, and they wave fans and read about Yom Kippur laws and services to him.

The fact is that the very last level of the spiritual world was transformed into the imprint we experience as this material world. That’s why the explanation of the spiritual states is always done through the images of this realm.

Let’s interpret this story in a spiritual picture. It is not about people, but rather about the properties that are built in the core of the soul, in the center of the group. Later, they raise the value of the group to the extent that its heart becomes able to contact with the Creator.

Sages who came to the high priest represent the parts of the soul, the desires (Cohanim) that are corrected and then elevated from the central point in the heart called the Great Cohen to the Creator.
[143791]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/12/14

Related Material:
A Power That Flows From The Center Of The Group
A Search For The Center Of The Group
Through The Screen Of Our World

Preparation For The Day Of Atonement

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Midrash Says, Chapter “Acharei Mot,” Preparation for this most holy day of the year (Day of Atonement) always started a week prior to the holiday. During this time, the High Priest lived in the Temple, in a special chamber. During all seven days, he had to purify and prepare himself for the festive services.

Question: Why did the High Priest begin his preparation for the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) a whole week before the holiday? Did he have to purify himself and get ready to conduct the service?

Answer: The seven days symbolize seven levels during which one ascends to the upper part of the system: to GAR. Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut descend to us from Above. We have to rise from the bottom, from Malchut to the upper level of Hesed.

The Midrash Says, Chapter “Acharei Mot,” On the third and seventh days of the preparation, the High Priest was sprinkled with water in which the ashes of the red heifer (red cow) was dissolved in case he, unwittingly, turned to become unclean by touching a corpse (something impure).

The third day stands for Hesed, Gevurah, and Tifferet or the middle line. The seventh day means the same: Netzach, Hod, and Yesod—the middle line that transitions to Malchut.

Question: What is the “red cow” and its ashes?

Answer: In the material world, the cow is an herbivore, peaceful, kind animal that gives milk and meat. People do not realize that due to this animal humankind was able to free itself from a huge number of problems – concerns about food. Indeed, each cow is a “factory” for the production of food.

From a spiritual point of view, the cow represents the properties of the left and right lines (red and white) and their correct combination, when you can use them to correct the parts of your soul.

The cow means the property of Bina – the red property of judgment ​​(Dinim), which, rising up, becomes whiter and turns into the property of mercy (Rachamim).

Ash (Ofar) is the lowest property. When the former higher properties fall on the lowest, then they can be corrected. Therefore, the high priest was anointed with the water, in which the ashes of the red cow (Red Heifer) was dissolved.
[143786]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/12/14

Related Material:
Repentance
Yom Kippur: Sorrow Or Joy?
Introductory Lecture “Yom Kippur” – 09.14.10

Complex Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Midrash Says, Chapter “Acharei Mot,” On the eve of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) all sacrificial animals were presented to the High Priest and he remembered them to be able to recognize them when conducting the service.

All our animate desires are displayed to us; we analyze, identify, and recognize that we have to raise them to the level of the Holy of Holies, i.e,. to the level of complete bestowal.

The Midrash Says, Chapter “Acharei Moth,” In the morning, sages who instructed him departed and were substituted by experienced Cohanim [priests] who exercised the art of shifting incense from a spoon into the palm, which was one of the most complicated actions that the High Priest had to perform during the service in the Holy of Holies at Yom Kippur.

“Spoon” is the Kli (vessel) of an inanimate level. “Palm” is the Kli of a speaking level.

“Incense” symbolizes the Reflected Light (Ohr Hozer), something that we raise to the Creator. It is very difficult to raise incense (the Reflected Light) to the speaking level. We have to “turn on” a different pool of desires , the ones that we never experienced previously, and re-direct them towards bestowal, that is, to cut one’s egoism to the extent that previously seemed impossible. It is hard work.

In this world, minor internal actions often are the most complicated ones. Imagine that I give you a half-glass of water. How does this action happen in spirituality? I have to impose a restriction, a complete correction of all desires that I feel towards a glass of water, rise above it to Hafetz Hesed, to the first level of sanctity, and then correct them to the degree of the second step, the Holy of Holies, and only then I can give it to you.

This is the problem! In materiality, all these things are adjacent, whereas in spirituality, it involves dozens of years of hard work and hundreds of steps.

That’s why in this world we are in the state that “kind of” allows us to fulfill spiritual actions. If we were not able to perform them, we wouldn’t be alive at all. Only due to observing them can we exist.

As to the spiritual realm, unless our most internal desires become ready for bestowal, we won’t attain It.
[143793]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/12/14

Related Material:
Introductory Lecture “Yom Kippur” – 09.14.10
Yom Kippur And The Atonement In Every Soul
Yom Kippur: Sorrow Or Joy?

Yom Kippur: Sorrow Or Joy?

Dr. Michael LaitmanMidrash Sefer, “Acharei Mot”: Moses who was on a very high spiritual level was given a special state. The Creator told him: “You can enter the Holy of Holies any time you wish to speak to Me. Any time you enter and wish to hear My word, My voice will be heard between the cherubs and reach your ears.”

Moses was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies any time because he was on the middle line between the two cherubs, between the right and the left lines. The level of Moses is the level on which a person is continuously in the state of the Holy of Holies, in the state of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).

You can disagree: “Yom Kippur is a state of sorrow when a person cries about what he discovers inside him.” But did Moses constantly cry and ask for something? On the contrary, he was happy, since, in fact, Yom Kippur is actually a day of joy and not of weeping. People simply don’t understand the truth and so they cry and torment themselves the whole day.

In fact, if I advance and yearn to discover the negative attributes inside me which were initially created by the Creator, and ask Him: “Correct me so that I will be closer to You. This is how I want to delight You: by bestowal and comprehensive love…” then it is an ascent for me and an inspiration.

In this case, Yom Kippur becomes a day of joy instead of a day for tears, a state of continuous awe! This is a day of double holiness, of double bestowal, when not only my desires of bestowal, but also my desires of receiving, work in order to bestow. This is the level of Moses.

On the level of Aaron this state is attained only once a year, whereas on the level of Moses, it is continuous. Therefore, every person must reach the level of Moses.
[143783]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/12/14 

Related Material:
Introductory Lecture “Yom Kippur” – 09.14.10
Yom Kippur And The Atonement In Every Soul
The Day Of Atonement Is A Day Of Joy

The Scapegoat

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, Book of Leviticus, “Acharei Mot” 16:21-16:22: He (Aaron) is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness.

Letting a goat into the wilderness stands for releasing the desires that are as yet impossible to correct nor suitable for working with for the sake of bestowal. It’s the basis of the notion of a scapegoat.

The other goat, the one that is killed, symbolizes the egoistic desires of a person who is still at an animate level and who is in the process of rising to the speaking level. People use this animal as food, i.e., they implement their desires for the sake of bestowal

Laying both hands on the head of the live goat means controlling our thoughts that we as yet cannot refine nor use for the sake of others.

Question: What does send the goat away into the wilderness mean?

Answer: From the material point of view, the wilderness is the place where wild goats live and die naturally.

From the spiritual point of view, they signify the desires that we reject and that are considered dead. Killing them is beyond our power, only a desert can cope with this task because we ban ourselves from using these desires, i.e., we fill them with emptiness that eventually kills them. And then there is the resurrection of the dead i.e., the desires that are subject to correction are revived.

The Torah, Book of Leviticus, “Acharei Mot” 16:26: The man who releases the goat as a scapegoat must… This is speaking about a messenger who takes the goat far away into the desert and leaves him there. In other words, the one who has to let his most powerful and huge internal desires go. Only a priest (Kohen) can do it. If not a Kohen, then only a special envoy can cope with this task. The person who does it experiences huge internal tension.

The envoy then returns and washes himself, since he was connected with impure forces, with the desert. He has to internally purify himself. After he rejects all desires and thoughts that cannot be used correctly, that is, when he sends them to the desert, he has to clean himself. It happens under the influence of the Light of Hassadim that is represented by water.
[143132]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/06/14

Related Material:
Two Goats In The Spiritual Work
Let The Creator Be Revealed To Us
Sacrifices That Bring Us Closer To The Creator

Entering The Holy Of Holies

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Midrash, Chapter “Acharei Mot (After the Death Of)”: On the first day of the month of Nisan, after the death of Nadab and Abiyu, the Lord commanded Moses to warn the priests not to enter the Holy of Holies but only to perform one service or another.

Even Aaron who was the great priest was not allowed to enter the Holy of Holies except for Yom Kippur and only in order to perform his duty there.

The Holy of Holies is the vessel inside a person that is totally purified of the ego. Such a corrected, pure state can be attained only once a year and only when a person ascends to the level of the great priest.

Therefore, Aaron entered the Holy of Holies only once a year and no one else was allowed to enter, since they had not purified themselves as yet and had not attained the level of the great priest.

If we translate this to the language of Kabbalah, only a person who has desires that can reach the level of the great priest can enter the Holy of Holies.

Holiness is the attribute of bestowal that is made of two levels, Hassadim and Hochma. If you don’t want to use your egoistic desires, it is called Holiness. But if you want to use even your old egoistic desires in order to bestow, it is called the Holy of Holies. When you attain this level, you become the great priest.

All this is gradually revealed along the spiritual path. When I began to study the wisdom of Kabbalah with my teacher Rabash, I wrote down every word he said. I approached everything like a scientist and saw that he regarded it scornfully, “What difference does it make if I told you about something or not?”

He was right, because if you follow the spiritual path, you discover this anyway and see, hear, and know. After all, the basic property of the spiritual levels is that when each of them is revealed, you begin to see, hear, and understand what is going on inside it.
[143615]

Related Material:
Where Is The Door?
A Temple In A Person’s Heart
Preparing A Spiritual Vessel

Repentance

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Acharei Mot” (After the death of) refers to the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur); what is “redemption”?

Suppose a thief with a guilty conscience expresses his regret and says: “I admit that I have committed the crime. Okay, cut off my hands, I don’t know what to do.” This means that a person really feels that he is guilty of something and in order to solve the problem that tortures him he comes to confess.

This state can be revealed in spirituality at any moment not necessarily on Yom Kippur, which is celebrated in the month of September or the beginning of October every year. As a result of great internal work and self-searching a person looks into himself and sees what terrible frightening layers float up in his internal swamp.

He looks at it differently because in his daily life he always justifies himself and doesn’t see anything wrong with his actions. But now he looks at his internal attributes from an outer perspective, he sees that it is better to die than to try to justify himself.

This terrible state repeats itself in phases in people who want to ascend in their attainment to the levels of revealing the Creator. Each time they experience the recognition of evil, its full revelation, and then understand how to work with the ego, how to atone and correct it.

Why is this process called repentance? Because we can go back to the uncorrected desires along the time axis. We work with desires and not with actions, since the actions have already been done, revealed, and determined, like a photograph that is ready. We take all desires and attributes with which we performed the wrong actions and correct them. It is in them that we receive the new spiritual level.

It is impossible to ascend to any spiritual level without clarifying and revealing inside us the wild desires, without seeing what I went through in the wrong way, without seeing how many mistakes I have made and without being ready to burn with shame because of them. Gradually I begin to realize that I didn’t do them, but it was the Creator who intentionally tripped me, and I thank Him for that since by that He revealed the evil in me.

I ask for the the Light to influence this evil. The Light corrects my attributes and desires with which I have seemingly sinned, and I begin to work properly with my new corrected attributes. This is called repentance.

This means that I receive an answer to the question: “What have I done?” The reply is that the Creator intentionally arranged this for me so that I will go through all the states and appreciate the difference between my current state and the initial state that He created in me, as it says: “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” Now I ask  that the evil inclination be changed to the good inclination.

The potential difference between these two levels is the intensity of my new soul that has just been born. In it I reveal the Creator.

Yom Kippur ends when I reveal these attributes inside me without correcting them. Then I begin with what we call the left embrace, the right embrace and the beginning of my cooperation with the Light, which we call a spiritual coupling.

The Light begins to gradually improve me as it enters me and works on me by raising me to the level of Hanukah when I become dressed in Hafetz Hesed, i.e., I don’t want to work with my previous desires and attributes since I see that they are all harmful. I correct them from Hanukah until Purim so that the evil inclination will not remain neutral but will become good.

All the holidays mentioned above symbolize actions in a Kabbalist’s soul because he really corrects his desires and attributes and does it with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the method of drawing the Light. Thus the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the inner part of the Torah or the Torah of the Light, since only the upper energy called Light can change our attributes. It is said that at the end of correction all the holidays will gradually disappear except for Purim, which symbolizes the end of the correction of the soul that is filled with the Upper Light and the appearance of the Creator inside me.
[143610]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/12/14

Related Material:
Yom Kippur
A Joyful Giving Of The Torah Holiday
Returning To Bestowal

Yom Kippur

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, Book of Leviticus, “Acharei Mot” 16:29-31: And it shall be a statute for ever unto you: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and shall do no manner of work, the home born, or the stranger that sojourneth among you. For on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins shall ye be clean before the Lord. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls; it is a statute forever.

This refers to the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), an important event that occurs once a year. The word “year” (Shana) means a cycle.

Together with that, a man receives full correction of the desires on the present level. This means that in this cycle he completes all his accounts, which are that which he was able to correct. That which he was unable to correct, he sends far from him since he doesn’t want to use them.

This means that presently he is pure and constitutes in himself a certain spiritual structure. Therefore, in our world, people symbolically wear only white clothing.

It will happen again because we must repeat this cycle many times until Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction).
[143138]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/6/14

Related Material:
The Day Of Atonement
The Day Of Atonement Is A Day Of Joy
Introductory Lecture “Yom Kippur” – 09.14.10