Question: What does it mean to “love your neighbor as yourself"? What do I actually have to do?

Answer: Loving your neighbor as yourself means that our entire world (the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, as well as humanity) and our entire universe become an integral part of you, "as one man with one heart." You connect everything to yourself and perceive it as your "self." Otherwise, you don’t exist!

Our egoism separates us, but above it we must receive a force from Above, the desire and ability to feel every person as myself and even more than that. I have to feel that this is all me. However, this "me" is not an egoistic feeling because the hatred between us remains and even grows. I unite with others precisely above this hatred, and in that case they are called my "neighbors," or the people close to me.

A "neighbor" is a person whom I hate, but at the same time I "love him as myself." "Love will cover all sins" means that the previous hatred remains, but love is added above it.

In our world everything is driven by one egoistic desire, whether in reception or bestowal. In the spiritual world, however, we find ourselves between two opposite forces: bestowal and reception. Egoism grows, but the quality of bestowal emerges parallel to it. These two qualities enable me to reach the sensation that I am standing before a mountain of hatred (Mount Sinai, which comes from the word Sinah – hatred). However, prior to that I have to go through "Egypt" – the slavery of egoism, the Pharaoh. I have to come to hate it and then run away from it, searching for the force to correct it.

When I stand at the foot of the mountain of hatred toward my neighbor, I have to say whether I really am ready to unite with others, to love them above my hatred, and to become as one man with one heart. If I have gone through all the blows and plagues of egoism (Pharaoh) and I feel that I have suffered sufficiently, then I agree to it! That’s because I hate my egoism even more than I hate my neighbor.

I agree, thinking that this will enable me to reveal the Creator. Eventually, however, I understand that love and bestowal to my neighbor is what fulfills me. I no longer demand anything but this. This action in itself fulfills me, and that is how I become equal to the Creator.
[22460]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/3/10, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Essence Of Correction
Laitman.com Post: How Can You Love Others?
Kabbalah Insights: "Love Of Fish"

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Love, Torah - No Comments →

The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Bereshit,” Selected Excerpts
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: What is the “Torah”?

Answer: The force that corrects and unites us descends upon us in its various manifestations. The force that can bring us awareness of evil and its correction, unity with the good, and the models of connection is called the Torah. In other words, the Torah is the entire system of our correction.

Zeir Anpin of the World of Atzilut is regarded as the “Torah” because it is an image or a system after which I aspire to model myself. I do so by collecting all souls in Malchut of the World of Atzilut so that the connection between them would be equivalent to Zeir Anpin of the World of Atzilut. In this case, all souls plugged into Malchut of the World of Atzilut unite and enter adhesion (Zivug) with Zeir Anpin of the World of Atzilut, the Creator. In this way, we reveal the connection and adhesion between us.

All of this occurs, starts, and ends in ZON (Zeir Anpin and Nukva) of the World of Atzilut. Malchut of the World of Atzilut undergoes seven states until she reaches the level of Zeir Anpin, equivalence with Him, in her full capacity. At the End of Correction (Gmar Tikkun), they become as two great Lights. Hence, Zeir Anpin of the World of Atzilut, which is regarded as the “Torah” or “the Creator,” serves us as a model with its structure, force, and influence.

As for us, before anything else, we must aspire to connect together in the dark and realize that we need His assistance. When, in our consistent effort to unite, we discover that we are unable to do so, then, like little children, we will start crying and demand correction and its example from Him. As a result, the Upper One will hand a model to us and the strength to unite.

However, our request and demand have to derive solely from our efforts to connect with each other. Otherwise, we won’t be rewarded with the Light since we do not exist in the adhesion of Malchut and Zeir Anpin of the World of Atzilut, and we are not in Malchut.

Malchut senses only unity. Meanwhile, all of us are below in the worlds of BYA (Beria, Yetzira, Assiya). Only our desires to connect with each other ascend to Malchut in order to reveal the Creator and attain the property of bestowal.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Path To Revealing The Creator
Laitman.com Post: Preparation For Receiving The Torah: The Light Of Correction
Laitman.com Post: The Most Important Task In Life

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A, Torah - No Comments →

If we desire to unite in order to reveal the Creator, then the various forms and phases of our connection comprise all the steps of the ladder we have to go through. This ladder starts in our world, in the state of separation between us, and continues until the state of total unity called the “World of Infinity.”

All of the science of Kabbalah (or all of the Torah) speaks only about how to reveal the 125 degrees of unity among us. Therefore, if each of us prepares to unite with everyone into one whole while reading The Book of Zohar and desires to reveal the Creator (the form that our unity takes) inside this unity, then our aspiration is called: “Israel (those who aspire to the Creator), the Torah, and the Creator are one.” In that case we really open up The Book of Zohar in order to attain the goal.
[21143]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Returning To Malchut Of Infinity
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar Is The Link To The Upper Force

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Torah, Unity, Zohar - No Comments →

Here is a simple intention to have while reading The Book of Zohar:

1. I connect to every letter and word, and they enter me like a medical infusion that is administered drop by drop, which I perceive as “the elixir of life.”

I go from one word to the next, not knowing what hides behind each one. Yet I am convinced that word after word, like drop after drop, this “elixir of life” gradually pours into me.

2. If I am able to hold on to this thought at all times, then without really delving into the text but through the text or inside it, I allow myself to discern the Creator and my attitude to Him.

The text is what happens to a person, and the intention is a person’s connection to the Creator. At first we hold on to the intention, and then through it we try to reach the Creator, the One from whom we hear and from whom we receive. The text is the state of my desires which I want to attain.

If a person is also able to imagine that right now he really hears the text of The Zohar from the mouth of the Creator, that the Creator passes this knowledge to him, telling him about his own higher states, then this is one of the best ways to connect to the Creator. This is called “Hearing or studying the Torah from the mouth of the Creator.”

3. If we try to unite our intentions together while reading The Zohar, then deep down, inside our joint efforts, we will feel that The Zohar talks precisely about this.

The Torah describes only how we should unite together, in what degree, form, and manner. Therefore, the text of The Book of Zohar is not separate from the intention. It does not exist by itself, but talks only about realizing the intention.

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Expect To Be Healed By The Zohar
Laitman.com Post: A Thin Bridge Into The Spiritual World
Laitman.com Post: Open The Door To The Creator!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Prayer and Intention, Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

When I read the text of The Zohar, it’s not good if the text conceals the purpose of reading from me. I must constantly check: What exactly do I desire by reading it?

First and foremost, I desire for the reading of The Book of Zohar to reveal my illness: egoism, and then to heal it by helping me acquire the quality of bestowal instead of it. I want to acquire unity with others who aspire to the same goal. This is called the intention before the study.

After preparing the intention or the reason why I read The Book of Zohar, I can then start to read it. If I am consistently able to maintain the intention, then I can allow myself to also listen to the text and its meaning.

This is similar to a sick person who is in a critical state: He reads a medical book only in order to find the remedy. Nothing else interests him! He doesn’t care about the style of the text or the details of the story. He only looks for the remedy (the elixir of life: the Light)!

Therefore, first and foremost we must have the right intention, and after that we can listen to the details about what The Zohar narrates. There is nothing more important than receiving the “medical procedure” because we don’t understand any of the actual story until we enter that state ourselves.

Why then did the authors of The Zohar write all of these stories for us? It was in order for us to make efforts to keep the intention. Only after that, to the extent it is possible, can we allow ourselves to listen to the story while desiring to reveal it through the intention. We have to realize that we are not living these states and don’t understand the text, but we do desire to reveal it and aspire to be inside the state that is being described. Then we can understand the text and connect to it.

My primary desire is to attain the spiritual quality through the right attitude to The Book of Zohar. After that I can pay attention to the text and be sure that I will understand it correctly. This is called “desiring to attain what you study,” as written in Item 155 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.”

The text of The Zohar is the place where I perform my inner work and make the inner discernments regarding where I am. First I must have an intention in relation to the goal, and then a sensation in relation to the text.

We have to feel the depths of the layers of attainment. This is called “Engaging in the Torah and the Commandments,” and “Studying the Torah.”

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar Is The Link To The Upper Force
Laitman.com Post: The Strongest Medicine: Drops Of Fortune
Laitman.com Post: Reveal The Zohar Within Yourself

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Torah, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Question: Does every person need to experience all of the states described in The Zohar?

Answer: It is written, “Every man has to write the Torah.” This means that a person gradually needs to reveal all of his or her qualities or desires in their initial egoistic form and, to the extent of their revelation, correct them by changing the intention from “for myself” to “for the sake of others or the Creator.” Thereby a person builds a new vessel that has a screen and Ohr Hochma that fills it.

The revelation of the broken Kli means that a person clothes into a certain type of a sinner as described in the Torah. With the consequent correction of this state, he clothes into a righteous man from the Torah. A person has to assume these images and forms time after time, alternating between clothing into a sinner and a righteous man, both of which are presented to him by the Torah.

It is like an imprint of models that already exist in you. It is as if you were walking in darkness with a projector and alternate between shedding light onto a sinner that has clothed in you and a righteous man on the opposite end. In this way, you go from image to image every time. You must go through all of them! This is because the entire Torah consists of states that you experience, beginning with Adam: the first revelation of evil in you and the first contact with the Creator.

Man begins with experiencing the sensation of his egoism in contradiction to the Creator. The entire Torah only speaks about these consecutive clothings into different roles that you play like in theater and according to a script given to you. You clothe into different figures, but you are the only one playing this multitude of roles.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: All The Wicked And The Righteous Are Within Me
Laitman.com Post: Every Person Must Become The Author Of Creation
Laitman.com Post: Torah Scribe

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A, Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Nitzavim Vayelech,” Selected Excerpts
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Torah, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: Why do all pleasures immediately fade? I am so happy when I buy a new car, but a week later I get used to it and no longer care about it. What causes the pleasure to go away? If the Light and the vessel are all that exists, then shouldn’t the pleasure be eternal? Why does it fade?

Answer: It is because the Kli (vessel) changes. The car doesn’t disappear, but my desire becomes greater and the pleasure received from owning the car no longer fills it. The change in the desire is qualitative, not quantitative. In spirituality growth is qualitative rather than quantitative.

The car parked by my house is still beautiful and new, but it doesn’t excite me as before even though just a week has gone by. This occurs because an additional desire (the “tongue of the primordial snake“) has formed inside you, causing the human being in you to ask the question, “What did this purchase give me?” You don’t even realize that you have this question, but nonetheless it awakes in you and spoils all of your pleasure.

After the breaking or the fall of the Tree of Knowledge, a point of connection with the Creator emerged in every kind of pleasure When your desire is filled, that point asks whether you have achieved eternal pleasure. It forces you to immediately search for another way to fill yourself. We have been advancing in this manner throughout all of history, and we would not have developed if not for this. This is what distinguishes a person from an animal: the birth of new desires.

A subconscious need to become similar to the Creator has continuously driven us forward from the time we came out of caves to this very day, and this is a result of the primordial sin. Our desires (Adam and Eve) would have remained as animals if the human being in us did not constantly grow. We start to feel shame regarding the Creator because we realize how different we are from Him. Shame is what causes us to ask the question, “What did I gain from this?” Subconsciously we think to ourselves, “Why do I need a car if I’m trying to reach the Creator?” Even though we aren’t aware of our connection to the Creator, this emptiness gnawing inside of us comes from Him.

From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Advancing Along The Path Of The Earth
Laitman.com Post: Who Will Show Me The Truth?
Laitman.com Post: The Serpent Is The Angel Of Help

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Evolution, Torah - 2 Comments →

Question: Where was Adam when the serpent was tempting Eve? If he were by her side at that moment, he might have chased the serpent away or have protected Eve from it by asking her not to listen to the evil “seducer.”

Answer: He veered off to the left, to the serpent’s wife.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah With A Smile
Laitman.com Post: What Will Fashion be Like at the End of Correction?
Laitman.com Post: What Do Kabbalists See? (And What Do They Eat?)

Filed under: Humor, Torah - 1 Comment →