Entries in the 'Torah' Category

The Anthem Of Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the spiritual meaning of the connection between a man and a woman if it doesn’t take place at night?

Answer: The actions of unity and connection should take place at night after midnight, another part in the second half of the Sabbath, etc. These are different times that are suitable for the spiritual contact that requires the combination of several preconditions.

First there have to be two who are under a certain impression of the Upper Light, since none of them has the Light that can correct and connect them. They don’t yearn for that by themselves but ask the Light for that, the Light that connects the first nine Sefirot (the male part) with Malchut (the female part) in such a way as to create a common attribute and an action of bestowal. First the Light of correction descends to them and creates the right combination between them, and then the Light that they receive in order to bestow.

This is their spiritual action, the anthem of love! If we look at the different activities that take place inside our body, we will be able to see the exact replica of the spiritual actions. The only thing is that in our body it is all fulfilled automatically without freewill without a search or any impressions.

Three types of connection (on Sabbath, on holidays or on weekdays) are fulfilled according to the spiritual state of the general system and the levels of a person’s soul. In our world, which is parallel to spirituality, we can also observe the dependency on the type of actions and on a person’s state.

Question: Are these three types of connection called a prayer?

Answer: A prayer precedes the correction of each of these components. There is the prayer of the lower female part to the male part and through it to the Creator. There is the prayer of the male part which includes the desire of the female part, which the male part conveys to the Creator, and there is also what is received from the Creator. These are the three levels (lower, middle and upper) and the work between the levels.

This means that the upper should always have the opportunity to convey the prayer to the uppermost, to receive an answer from it, and to convey it to the lower. These parts always change places.

If I convey the Light to someone now, I am considered a male part and the receiving part is considered a female part. If the one who receives conveys the Light in his turn to someone else, he is considered the male part and the lower part is considered the female part, and so on.

There is no fixed gender in spirituality like in our world. It changes according to who you are in contact with, either with the upper or the lower. Every part that bestows is considered male.

We are Malchut, the Shechina. Our role is to gather all the parts of Malchut, to connect them into one woman, and to receive the Light from the Creator, who is considered the male part, Zeir Anpin.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/5/14

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A Combination Of Light And Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” (Metzora) 15:16: A man from whom there is a discharge of semen, shall immerse all his flesh in water, and he shall remain unclean until evening.

Question: What does it mean? After all, the flow of seed is meant for fertilization and birth.

Answer: In this case, a man doesn’t use his seed to fertilize a woman, which means that Zeir Anpin and Malchut don’t connect, and so the desire is used incorrectly.

A desire that is ready to be used in order to receive the Light in order to bestow is called a woman. If he and she work in order to bestow, a third element is created between them called a baby, which is their next level.

However, if she is not ready for that—if she is impure for example or if she is not intended to be a woman—it means that his seed is spilled on the ground. This means that it is a desire that is not ready at all and is, therefore, impure.

The spiritual system is very rigid. Your lower level is always below you, but when Light comes out of you to the lower level and it is not ready to be in contact with you for some reason, then it is your corruption since you haven’t defined the flaw, haven’t prepared, and haven’t discovered the flow as an upper level with regard to the lower.

Therefore, you must be purified by being bathed in the Light of Bina by connecting to the upper level. A man is Zeir Anpin, and the highest level is Bina. Zeir Anpin must be purified by the Light of Bina (the Light of Hassadim, bestowal), and he cannot work on that same day with the Light that illuminates now.

In addition, we distinguish between the different times of day and different days in the contact between a man and a woman: the weekdays, Sabbath, the beginning of a month, and so forth. It is an interesting dependency that is made of very rigid laws that determine when it is possible to work with the Light by conveying it from the top down.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/5/14

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Partial Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” (Metzora), 15:1-15:3: And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, if any man has a discharge from his flesh, his discharge is unclean. And this shall be [the nature of] his uncleanness due to his discharge: [if] his flesh runs with his discharge, or [if] his flesh is plugged up by his discharge, that is his uncleanness.”

The fact is that before we reach the end of correction, we complete the correction of even one desire. In the integral system, there are five layers of desires that are fixed in turns: stages zero, one, two, three, and four. Each of them is incorporated into the others. That’s why it’s impossible to completely fix one desire while all others remain uncorrected.

So, how does it work? We deal with the part of a desire that correctly relates to a desire that has already been corrected. It’s a continuous “start-and-stop” pulsation. First, one part of a desire is corrected, then there comes a part of another desire. Next, there comes a second part of the first desire, and so on and so forth…

It’s an integral system, which we approach step by step. In other words, we come close to integrality by using a differential method. Otherwise, nothing at all can be corrected. We are not integral by nature. We are split into squares, cubes, etc. However, in the end we will acquire the integral shape.

Thus, it’s unfeasible to fix even the tiniest desire before the entire system is corrected. That’s why a constant return to correcting the same desires at a higher level or with a new quality, happens in conjunction with the rest of the chain.

Comment: Previously, we discussed uncorrected parts in a human body, we spoke about a house. All of a sudden we again return to a human body…

Answer: It’s because when one climbs to the next step, one discovers new problems.

There are analogies to it in this world. For example, the more medical tools we invent, the more diseases we discover, although we looked quite healthy before we started to investigate our current condition using new methods of diagnosis. It’s similar to reading a medical encyclopedia. As soon as we start flipping its pages, we immediately come to the conclusion that it would be much better to lie down and die.

This is what the Torah describes: returning to your own self, but at a higher level.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/5/14

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Temporary Postponement

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” (Metzora), 14:37-14:41: And he shall look at the lesion. Now, [if] the lesion in the walls of the house consists of dark green or dark red sunken looking stains, appearing as if deeper than the wall, then the Cohen shall go out of the house to the entrance of the house, and he shall quarantine the house for seven days.

Then the Cohen shall return on the seventh day and look [at the house]. Now, [if] the lesion has spread in the walls of the house, the Cohen shall order that they remove the stones upon which the lesion is [found], and they shall cast them away outside the city, to an unclean place.

We can feel and trace things described above inside our desires. The entire world is given to us through our sensations and there is nothing besides desire.

That’s why the Torah says very clearly and explicitly that we feel things at higher levels as forces or as desires that are “materialized” in various shapes, colors, scents, etc. Still, they are only desires and nothing but desires.

The Torah, “Leviticus” (Metzora), 14:42-14:43, 14:45: And they shall take other stones and bring them instead of those stones. And he shall take other [mortar] dust, and plaster the house.  And if the lesion returns and erupts in the house, after he had removed the stones, and after the house had been scraped around and after it had been plastered, then the Cohen shall come and look [at it]. Now, [if] the lesion in the house has spread, it is malignant tzara’ath in the house; it is unclean. He shall demolish the house, its stones, its wood, and all the [mortar] dust of the house, and he shall take [them] outside the city, to an unclean place.

We, humans, are the ones who produce ulcers. We even manage to incorporate new, good qualities that are given to us into our egoism and spoil them.

First, one can work with an egoistic desire that is called “a house,” but when one regards it through the Upper Light, one understands that it’s impossible to work with this desire alone. This is why one destroys (postpones) it.

This desire is not being cancelled, but rather is taken “outside of the city” and “discharged.” It means that correction of this particular desire is deferred. After working with “the house,” one corrects “the yard,” and then the entire world. That’s why one way or the other, we still return to correcting deferred desires.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/5/14

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Desire On The “House” Level

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “VaYikra” 14:36-14:37: …and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house. And he shall look on the plague…

When a person examines his desire with the help of the Upper Light that makes all the defects prominent, he understands that he has a plague, and he sees how this is revealed in relation to others.

For this he must enter into some kind of society, connect with others, and try to make moves for their sake according to the principle, “And you shall love your friend.” Everything is revealed according to the surrounding society.

The general rule, the general law of the Torah is “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This means that all of the characteristics of the person are defined in relation to the camp, the tent, the city, and all of humanity, meaning in regard to others and the law, “And you shall love your neighbor.”

The characteristics of the person are the egoistic desires for the sake of reception. They are discovered according to how much he corrects them with full bestowal towards others. The correction of the desires is done from within outward.

The inner desires are the most refined. After them come the more external desires. And it could be the other way around: first the external desires are corrected, and after that the internal ones. It depends upon the style of the person’s work.

The external desires are divided into body, clothing, house, and yard. The work with the desires in the third phase that a person corrects in relation to others are called “house.”

In these desires, he sees that part of them adhere to the ego. When he is on the level of the “priest,” meaning the level of “Bina” (bestowal), he looks at the more external desires on the level of “house,” and when he sees the deficiencies in himself or in others, he can scrutinize them precisely.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/5/14

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To Be Based In The Spiritual World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe most important thing about our desires is to differentiate the pure from the impure, from the egoistic. There are egoistic desires that are possible to correct now, and there are those that are corrected at a later time, in the next stage, which are the higher ones, or those that aren’t in use and so are corrected at the end.

The uncorrected desires are spoken about in the Torah as those, as it seems, that go through a person’s skin and are seen on his face.

This is how a cell works in the material world. Genetics has discovered that our body is a huge mechanism, which includes trillions of trillions of cells and each of them are constantly correcting themselves, and what they cannot correct, they push outside.

We are not interested in what the cell throws out, but in the process of correcting desires, because it is the most important thing. The body, in any case, will die. But if you correct some of your desires, then you remain to exist in them. This means that you already have some hold on a minimum existence in the spiritual world. Afterward it is possible to continue working. The main thing is to establish yourself there.

Comment: This means that the desire doesn’t disappear, but remains for the future.

Answer: In nature there isn’t really anything that has no use. If something is not useful for us at the moment, it is only because we are not able to correct it.

Question: Even what humanity produces, is that also necessary?

Answer: Yes. But the corporeal world is automatically connected to the correction. In accordance to our thoughts and desires, all of nature is corrected, including the inanimate level of nature.

Comment: The weekly passage “The Leper” specifically speaks about this, that not only a person and his body, but also his house can be infected with leprosy.

Answer: Under the concept of “house,” man’s desires are also included. The Torah doesn’t speak about anything except man. All desires are divided into five stages: body, clothing, house, yard, and the rest of the world. But we mainly speak about the first four stages, since the main thing is to correct these four parts.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/05/14

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Secret Work

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” (Metzora), 15:4-15:7: “Any bedding upon which the man with the discharge will lie, shall become unclean, and any object upon which he will sit, shall become unclean. And a man who touches his bedding, shall immerse his garments and immerse himself in water and he remain unclean until evening. And anyone who sits on an object, upon which the man with the discharge will sit, shall immerse his garments and immerse himself in water, and he shall remain unclean until evening. And anyone who touches the flesh of the man with a discharge, shall immerse his garments and immerse himself in water, and he shall remain unclean until evening.”

Any contact with the egoistic desires can lead to contagion of the corrected desires.

This speaks about a person who establishes an integral system of connection with others. Therefore, he has no right to begin doing anything without first clarifying his desires, since he may only suffer from that and eventually everything will break down. He will build it, but it will all collapse since there is an egoistic desire somewhere that will become active after being included in this whole schema.

It turns out that it is essential to discover my egoistic desire first. This is the essence of the Torah, which tells us how to draw the Upper Light in order to help us clarify the egoistic and the non-egoistic desires inside us; those that can already be corrected and those that are already corrected. Then they can be divided into three types: those that can be corrected, those that cannot be corrected, and those that are already corrected.

The Light should reveal these three levels inside me. There is nothing I can do with the revelation of the right desires, since they are ready. I have to simply suppress them so as not to allow them to connect with the egoistic desires, as it says that it is forbidden to sit in a certain place, to lie there, or to touch it.

Then it is essential to discover the desires that can be corrected and to start correcting them separately. The infected desires that cannot be corrected have to be isolated and only on the next levels, to the extent that I receive the powers of the next level, clarify them again and decide whether I can do anything with them.

It is a very serious study, an internal study: touching, incorporating inside me, exiting myself into the impure desires and vice versa, and drawing them to me in order to correct them. Therefore, it is called secret work since no one can see it on the outside.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/5/14

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Many Instructions, One Direction

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” (Metzora), 15:3: And this shall be [the nature of] his uncleanness due to his discharge: [if] his flesh runs with his discharge, or [if] his flesh is plugged up by his discharge, that is his uncleanness.

Question: How can we characterize the term “his discharge,” which means a raw desire that remains inside or which comes out?

Answer: The body’s secretions are desires on the level of the still nature. If they come out, they may also be pure, but if they remain inside it is impossible to work with them.

In that case you cannot separate the pure desires from the impure ones and so you cannot raise them and work with them in order to bestow, in the connection with others.

“His discharge” is the desires that cannot be corrected. What is more, they are on different levels of: solid, fluid, gas, etc. All the four attributes are mixed and are parallel to each other.

It is very important on which level and which attribute you correct, according to which Aviut (thickness), and according to who or what the correction is performed.

It can be our attitude to the land, the plants, the animals, or to man. It turns out that there are many instructions here, but one direction, and this is actually what you should work on now, although it always belongs to the immense multi-layer desire you are in.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/5/14

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Light Desires

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” (Metzora), 14:36:… After this, the Cohen shall come to look at the house.

A person who rises to the level of a Cohen (priest) and is able to correct his desires, no longer checks his body and his clothes since these desires already have been purified and he is in a corrected state in them, but the house is his external desires.

The more external a desire is, the easier it is to correct it. However, on the other hand, the easier it is to correct it, the more it stands out as an interruption.

Here there is an inverse relationship: It is easier to correct 1000 kilograms than 100 kilograms, and it is easier to correct 100 kilograms than 10 kilograms. So, on the whole, these values are interrelated.

This means that the light desires are everywhere, like bacteria, for example. There are so many that you need to protect yourself from them. There are such terrible desires inside you, like viruses, and you must correct them. It is a different kind of work, which is more internal. But there are fewer of these desires.

These are the bricks by which we later must build ourselves.

There are billions of different viruses and bacteria in our world that constantly attack us. They keep a general balance: homeostasis. It is impossible to live without them.

Of course, we can dismiss this, but, if we want to find meaning in life and understand who we are and what we are, we cannot do it without knowing a person’s inner attributes.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/5/14

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Spiritual Anatomy

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah “Leviticus” (Tazria-Metzora), 14:10, 14:14-14:17: And on the eighth day, he shall take two unblemished [male] lambs…

And the priest shall take of the blood of the guilt-offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleanses, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot.

And the priest shall take of the log of oil, and pour it into the palm of his own left hand.

And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand, and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger before HaShem.

And the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the guilt-offering.

This passage is about various types of correction. Priest (Cohen) is the highest quality of Bina. Blood (dam) from the word “domem” (inanimate) is the lowest property of a man.

Hands, feet, fingers, and ears signify the qualities with which one is supposed to work. For example, an ear stands for the property of Bina in a man. Fingers and toes symbolize ten Sefirot of Keter. The right arm and leg are the level of Hesed.

In other words, we come to a state when the Upper Light called Cohen starts correcting apparent, obvious properties in a person. The big finger of the right hand symbolizes Keter de Hesed. The big toe of the right foot denotes Keter de Malchut.

Anointing the tip of the left and right ears indicates the correction that is done with the help of blood and oil since the blood stands for “domem” (inanimate), whereas “oil” stands for Bina. Generally speaking, oil symbolizes the Light that comes from the Sefira Hochma. This is how correction happens.

In this world, there are two concepts: listening and hearing. Sometimes we say: “You don’t hear me.” What does hear mean? It means that there is a property in a man, but there is no implementation of this property. To listen and to hear are two different things. One can listen to sounds, but in order to hear them, one has to turn on one’s internal apparatus.

This is why when the inner apparatus that has the property of oil is turned on at the level of Hochma (the right ear), this property begins to perceive, feel, and attain the level at which it is positioned. In this case, one begins realizing and accepting the level that one is at. This is the point where one’s correction takes place.

Hands stand for the receiving vessels, whereas feet are the tools through which we give from what is repelled. The head is the entry point of everything that goes into our system and feet are the place through which everything goes out. This process is called circulation.

Usually, a lower system is originated from the feet since ten Sefirot of Malchut of the lower level have to grow up to Keter of the inferior Partzuf. This situation must be corrected, although there is actually nothing to correct since the remaining Sefirot will be altered by this action automatically.

Many religions have a ritual of feet ablution. It means that when one corrects, underneath him there will immediately emerge the next, inferior Partzuf, the lower system that is built of the ten Sefirot called ten toes.

Feet stand on the ground, i.e., they are positioned on the general desire. At this time, a viable object that can be further corrected and that is made of the general desire has to be shaped, meaning there is a need to form something concrete that requires correction. So, in order to self-correct, feet have to be clean.

Question: Why is there always something between the ground and the feet, for example., shoes?

Answer: There is a rule that one should never sit on the ground. One has to place something on the ground before sitting on it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sheet of paper or any other object.

The ground symbolizes a completely uncorrected, non-scrutinized desire that is a mixture of the good and the evil. In order to start analyzing it, one has to stay outside of this desire, to float above it. That’s why it is not permitted to sit on the ground without an interlayer placed between the person and the ground, there always has to be either a layer of clothes or something else there.

Question: Does this rule explain why in order to receive the crops from the land we should first plow it?

Answer: No, it is a totally different scheme. The ground has to be overturned in order to sow it. If the ground is not plowed, the forces that make grain grow, won’t be released.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/25/14

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