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Entries in the 'Torah' Category

The Morning Lesson: According To The Call Of The Heart Or A Time Table?

Posted on November 4th, 2012

It says that the temple was destroyed because the children of Israel didn’t bless the Torah first. They studied the Torah without a blessing. What does that mean?

There are blessings in the Siddur, for example: “Blessed are You Lord, the giver of the Torah.” But what is the Torah? It is a means for correcting the evil inclination. It says: “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice.”

How is it possible to bless the Torah? Only if there is such a deficiency when my initial inclination is revealed as evil. I feel that my desires are evil; I have to correct them, I can’t bear them. This is called the revelation of the true evil, when I cannot agree to it, when I have to get rid of it, to get it out of me as something that is very harmful.

Then I discover the means that can get these evil desires out of me, a special instrument that is called the Torah. It turns out that there is a special method for studying, a special book, special conditions, and all this is called the Torah. It isn’t the title of the book that says “Torah,” not the number of people, and not the place of study, but simply the fact that in answer to all my actions there comes a special force that changes the force that is inside me. It is because the desire to receive is actually the force by which I identify the evil and I want it to become good, as it says: “Since the Light in it reforms.”

So I determine that my desire to receive is the evil inclination and decide that I must make it good. What is “good?” It can only be the opposite of my current desire; there are no other options. Thus the concept of the Torah symbolizes my efforts, the group I work in, the books I study from, the teacher who teaches me this method. On the whole they are the ones who summon that force from Above that corrects me. “From Above,” since the force of correction is higher than me and stronger than the current force. Thus I acquire it and heal myself from the evil, which becomes good.

But if I study without this preparation, the Torah becomes the “potion of death” for me. In this case, I reach self-fulfillment by a long and difficult path. Along this path the Light also operates on me, but from its posterior and not in the desire that dresses and not in the desire that is dressed. I reach the recognition that I don’t discover evil the way I should, I don’t recognize the poison in it. This, of course, also leads me in the right direction, but along a long indirect path of sufferings.

So if a person is not in the direction of recognizing the evil, he is in “exile.” And when he recognizes the need to correct the evil in him, which means the desire to receive, he feels that he is under the domination of Pharaoh. The deeper this feeling is, the more he wants to get rid of the evil, which means to get out of “exile.” Then he uses the Torah correctly in order to draw the Light that changes the desire in him, which enables him to use the desire not for his own good but for the good of others. Thus the Light reforms him and changes him to the good.

As long as we don’t want to exit our desire to receive and enter the desire to bestow, from evil to the good, it isn’t considered exile. We don’t even feel that it is exile. Only the need for a means to turn the desire to receive into a desire to bestow indicates that we are ready to leave the exile. The exodus itself is that we begin to use the Torah correctly.

This is what we have to aim at while reading The Book of Zohar: Do we open it with the right deficiency? If not, then we don’t bless this action, but simply follow a timetable. This is a wrong and undesirable approach. We have to think about it the whole day before the lesson, to add the discernments that stem from different states, from the desire to receive that dominates us, into one picture. We want to ascend above it towards the friends, towards the Creator.

Then we will have something to bless in the morning lesson since we want to receive “the water of life” from the study, the healing force, and this means that we are truly studying the Torah.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/01/12, The Zohar

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Kabbalah Study, Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

The Letters Of The Torah Are Born From Descent

Posted on November 4th, 2012

Question: How can we attain such a strong desire for spirituality that will reject all the other bodily desires?

Answer: There are “613” desires in each of us, which we have to aim at the greatness and importance of bestowal, love, connection, and mutual guarantee according to our understanding. Everything that is external to my own interests, external to the interests of my skin, should become more important to me than my bodily egoistic desires.

If a person divides his external and internal desires this way and aims himself outward from his body, it is enough for the time being. We should constantly check ourselves and try to remain in the same line of thought.

Eventually a habit becomes second nature, and by the efforts that I make, the Light comes to me. Then I make some more efforts, and some more Light comes. I begin to build myself from these moments because “there is no correction for a person except to direct all the present moments and the future ones so that they will be dedicated and served for His great name” (Baal HaSulam, letter 18) a bit more each time. It is from such exits (Yetziot in Hebrew) (from “Zion”) that the Torah comes out, as it is says: “It is from Zion that the Torah shall come.”

After all, when I feel that I have exited the right intention, I feel a deficiency to return, and then I demand the Light that Reforms, called the Torah. So it turns out that it is from Zion, from such exits, that the Torah is born: not from the ascents, but rather from the descents, from the exits from the right intention.

Thus I constantly add one “letter” after another, until the whole book of the Torah goes through me.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/12, Writings of Rabash

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Love, Mutual Guarantee, Q&A, Torah - No Comments →

Forced By The Stick Or By Choice?

Posted on November 1st, 2012

It says that the Creator created the evil inclination, but actually the point is that I have to discover my inclination by myself, discover that that my initial desire is evil and opposite from the Creator.

It isn’t that easy. Even if the Creator gives and I receive, what’s so bad about that? The point is not the desire; it stays the same, neither good nor bad. I determine evil by myself, by attaining it.

A person reaches the giving of the Torah when he needs correction, when he discovers within his desire an evil intention: for himself and against others, which means against other people and against the Creator. This is what he calls evil. It requires serious preparation in order to feel such shame when you feel “I would rather die than live.”

We imagine the giving of the Torah as a necessity, as compelling as the mountain of hatred looming over us that leaves us no choice. But a person has to feel a need since there is no coercion in spirituality. So how can this problem be solved? On the one hand, the Creator “pushes me to the wall,” and on the other hand, I need to feel a deficiency.

In fact, what the Creator dictates is only a condition, and if I fulfill it, I receive the Torah, which means the method of correction, but I have to stabilize this condition by myself and to agree to it: “If I don’t accept it, then I would rather die than live.” This is the preparation required of a person.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/12, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, My Similarity to the Creator, Torah - No Comments →

Weekly Torah Portion – 10.31.12

Posted on October 31st, 2012

The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion, “Ha-Shavua” Selected Excerpts

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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion, “Hayei Sarah” Selected Excerpts

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Filed under: Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

The Great Assembly At The Foot Of The Mountain

Posted on October 29th, 2012

From The Light of the Sun by Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Halevi: The main attainment of the Torah is by unity, as it says: “And Israel camped there before the mountain, as one man with one heart, and there the giving was stopped and each tribe corrected and added his Ha-Va-Ya-H.

And they said we shall hear and we shall do in great passion from the bottom of their hearts and they raised Mei Nukvin and they revealed Maim Dekurin, that the Creator descended to give them the Torah and they were rewarded with attainment of the Torah.

The attainment of the Torah means the attainment of the plan of all of creation, its goal, the attainment of the whole path of correction that is attained by unity. This is because we have to correct the shattering and as a result, in addition to the correction of the shattering, we reach attainment. This means that by our exertion we add to our understanding, to the recognition of the state that we are in. We open all the spiritual worlds for ourselves from one level to another until the world of Ein Sof (Infinity).

But before we reach this attainment, we don’t feel any difference between our world and the world of Ein Sof. Infinity is attained only by unity, and the unity is built on two lines—the right and the left, love and hate—one in contrast to the other.

Therefore it says: “And Israel camped there before the mountain” (Jethro, 19, 20), they stood before the hatred they discovered after they had always been in the right line, enthusiastic about spirituality, striving for unity, and eager to connect. It was then that they discovered the left line that stood before them like a high mountain not letting them connect.

Then they needed the Torah, the Light that Reforms, and then they discovered the middle line, the Torah, the Creator that is revealed and helps connect the two lines together. Thanks to their prayer, they received an answer from Above. The Creator descended and gave them the Torah and so they were awarded with the attainment of the Torah.

So we must constantly follow the right line, in pure bestowal, in Hafetz Hesed, and then in contrast to it, the left line is revealed: different failures, disappointments, weaknesses, criticism, Din. It’s good that all this is revealed since by that we eventually realize that there is no other choice and that we have to follow the right line.

We see that there’s nothing we can enjoy in the left line and that these are vessels of receiving that demand filling and there is no filling! So all that is left, despite everything, is to ascend above all this; when we attain a full measure, a full measure of the revelation of the right and the left lines, the gathering before Mt. Sinai is revealed, the middle line, and then the Light that connects the two line comes to us. This is called “the Creator makes peace in Heaven and He will bring peace unto us.” The middle line comes and decides between the first two lines by bringing us to peace and wholeness.

The Torah is attained by unity, if we constantly yearn for it as it says, “and Israel camped before the mountain, as one man with one heart.” No matter how hard they tried to connect, they discovered the opposite: detachment, hatred, and rejection. “And there their impurity was stopped and each tribe corrected the combination of its Ha – Va – Ya – H,” which means that in each of us and among all of us there are many internal problems and conflicts that require correction.

“And they said, ‘We shall do and we shall hear!’” which means that they are ready to go above their reason, above the feeling of any criticism, since there is no other choice, since we have seen that we can’t connect in our egoistic vessels. “And they raised Mei Nukvin (MAN) and in contrast Maim Dekurin were revealed, and the Creator descended to give them the Torah and they were rewarded with the attainment of the Torah.” Let’s hope that we will be rewarded with the receiving of the Torah since the Creator gives it every day.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/12