Entries in the 'Torah' Category

Why Was The Torah Written In A Historical Language?

laitman_531_01Question: Why was the most important book in the Torah written in the historical language? After all, they could have used the language of the Sefirot. Why did Moses choose this language?

Answer: The Torah was written in a universal language. It includes all the other languages behind which the wisdom of Kabbalah is concealed. Those who study Kabbalah use it and for the ordinary reader it is not essential.

Moses wrote the Torah from his level of attainment, but he had to convey his attainment to the people, so the Torah was written in this form.
[199018]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/24/16

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If Your Brother Is Sold To You

Laitman_509Torah, Deuteronomy 15:12: If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you for six years, and in the seventh year you shall send him forth free from you.

Six or seven years symbolize the correction of six or seven Sefirot of the lower part of the Partzuf (spiritual system). The desires called Jews (Yehudi, from the word “Yihud – unity”) during these six or seven years enter into you so much that now they are fully part of you. They can’t be below you.

Question: What does “your brother is sold to you“ mean?

Answer: Sold means that it fully belongs to you, there is no difference between you, and you have to start working with the desire of the other as your personal part. Caring about him and caring about yourself become one. “You shall send him forth free from you” means that in certain cases he separates from you and becomes an independent soul.

Torah, Deuteronomy 15:13: And when you send him forth free from you, you shall not send him forth empty-handed.

Since there is the birth of a new soul, you have to give it all that is necessary to reach maturity. It should receive fulfillment for the future, for the entire length of the path when it will be correcting itself and will need forces for the correction.
[199500]
From KabTV Program “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/10/2016

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Not To Return To The Past

laitman_934Torah, Deuteronomy 13:17: And you shall collect all its spoil into the midst of its open square, and burn with fire the city and all its spoil, completely, for the Lord, your God; and it shall be a heap of destruction forever, never to be rebuilt.

A person will never be able to take these intentions that have become egoistic in him and use them again. He must do everything in order to not return to them.

Question: What does it mean, “collect all its spoil into the midst of its open square, and burn with fire the city and all its spoil”?

Answer: The fact is that in a group engaged in spiritual work, the analysis revealing egoism and altruism becomes more and more evident and people see that all earlier intentions, which previously seemed to be good, proper, and aimed at unity with each other, are, in fact, egoistic.

Our joint desire is called a square or a city. And the phrase “and it shall be a heap of destruction forever, never to be rebuilt,” means never to return to the previous state. In this way we move forward to complete correction.
[198090]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/20/16

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Everything Takes Place In Our Desire

laitman_571_03Question: The Book of Job describes how Job’s children, wife, and all his cattle died and how he sat afflicted cursing the Creator. Was he freed from his egoism through that? Is the fish that swallowed him his ego or not?

It also says in this book that the Creator speaks with Satan. How did the people who wrote this book discover that the Creator spoke with Satan about Job?

Answer: You are a bit confused. You should read the correct translation and try to feel everything to what is happening in our desire.
[198479]

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“Crush The Head Of The Snake”

Laitman_155Torah, Deuteronomy, 13:12: And all Israel shall listen and fear, and they shall no longer do any evil such as this in your midst.

When everybody sees that you act in a drastically tough way, they will understand that it is impossible to act differently and will agree specifically with this because the Creator will have already been with you.

And before this, everybody will yell at you and drag you to different directions asking: “Why?! You can’t do it! What’s wrong with you?!”

Take a stone and crush the head of the snake. Then everyone will immediately say: “That’s right!” They will discover what you have actually just done in your correction, in your analysis of this problem, and how you solved it.

This is what “listen and fear” means—fear how bluntly and stubbornly you went and “crushed the head of the snake,” despite all your reasonable arguments that burst from the inside. This is called “faith above reason.”

Everyone around you will curse you saying: “What nonsense!” and you insist on it. Why?! There is no answer. You know just one thing: your teachers acted this way, the Creator demands this from you, and you personally understand it this way, without any interference from the outside.

The way of truth is the toughest, the most unpleasant, and, at the first sight, the most stupid and unreasonable.

After all, the reason comes from the material level, and here we must act from the higher degree.
The upper degree is the faith above reason, that we climb against our mind.
[197838]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/13/16

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Kosher Animals

Laitman_509Torah, Deuteronomy 14:3 – 14:6: You shall not eat any abomination. These are the animals that you may eat: ox, lamb, and kid, gazelle, deer, and antelope, ibex, chamois, bison, and giraffe. And every animal that has a split hoof and has a hoof cloven into two hoof sections, [and] chews the cud among the animals that you may eat.

Spiritual correction is based on the action that is called Tzimtzum Bet (Second Restriction). Its essence is that the division of our desires happened in us thanks to the connection of the Upper Light (the quality of bestowal and love) with the lowest quality of a person (to receive for his own pleasure).

They are divided into weak desires, called desires to bestow, although we are not going to bestow anything in them, and the rougher ones called desires to receive.

Tzimtzum Bet states that we can work with other people on the level of small desires because we can help them with these desires, influence them, and relate to them correctly, and big desires we cannot use so those are restricted.

This is represented by the division between Kosher and non-Kosher animals. Kosher, hence, usable, are the desires that have indications that they are fit for bestowal. On the animal level, bull, sheep, goat, deer, etc. symbolize these desires in us.

All of them differ from the other animals on the basis of having cloven hooves, which indicates a clear division between qualities of bestowal and reception. Even if the quality of reception is manifested in them, it is so small that it works for bestowal. Furthermore, these animals constantly regurgitate their cud, which means that they have a closed cycle of food consumption. In our world, this is an external consequence of the Second Restriction.

Torah, Deuteronomy 14:6 – 14:7: And every animal that has a split hoof and has a hoof cloven into two hoof sections, [and] chews the cud among the animals that you may eat. But you shall not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those that have the split hooves: the cloven one, the camel, the hyrax, and the hare, for they chew the cud, but do not have split hooves; they are unclean for you.

If the animal is missing even one of the Kosher components that represents signs of Tzimtzum Bet, it cannot be used for food.

Thus, the Torah speaks about the correction of our egoistic desires and their use with the right intention. A person makes a restriction on his desires and seeks an opportunity to work with them further. Those of them that he can use “in order to bestow” are called Kosher, in other words, suitable for bestowal to others.

In our world, these qualities are represented in a certain way by some animals, fish, birds, and even plants. From everything that surrounds a person, he must select only what he can use with the intention to bestow.
[198239]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/20/16

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How To Interpret The Torah?

laitman_209Torah, Deuteronomy 13:13 – 13:16: If thou shalt hear tell concerning one of thy cities, which the Lord thy God giveth thee to dwell there, saying: “Certain base fellows are gone out from the midst of thee, and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying: Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known”; then shalt thou inquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought in the midst of thee; thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword.

We can’t interpret the Torah literally because it speaks only about spiritual qualities and spiritual states of a person. If it is written, “Smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword,” it doesn’t mean that it really happened that way.

To smite means to eliminate egoistic intentions within you: not the desires, they are all correct, but the intentions became egoistic. They must be cut off, as if with the edge of the sword.

There are four levels of desires: still, vegetative, animate, and human. Depending on what level the desire belongs, it should be either slaughtered, burned, or stoned, and so on.

It means that first of all, it is necessary to determine the level of the desire. Therefore, you should ask a person to figure it out and help him determine what it is. After all, you can’t climb into him and switch his intention from “for my own sake” to “for the sake of others.” You must make sure that he himself would perform this switch. This is a correction.

It is written in the Torah that “have drawn away the inhabitants of their city,” meaning they started to fall from the level of bestowal and unconditional love for one’s neighbor. After all, once the most important thing for society was the love of one’s neighbor and bestowal. “We” prevailed over the personal “I,” which was suppressed by each one.

We all move to correction; therefore, executions and punishments that the Torah speaks about are the punishments for all sorts of egoistic problems that are revealed and must be corrected by the influence of the environment, pressure, and education.

If suddenly the “I” begins to manifest in a person and he, driven by his egoism, draws others into it, arguing that this is the way we need to act, he should kill these impulses within himself. The society must care about it, worry, and prevent these states.

It is written, “Certain base fellows … from the midst of thee.” “The midst of thee” is the qualities of bestowal and love, and “certain base fellows” are the egoistic desires that lead a person to other gods, other values. Therefore, a person shouldn’t just act against them, but should clarify their internal motivation: where does it lead, where it came from, why does he suddenly have this weakness? After all, egoism is renewed in each of us every second.

One should understand clearly what to do. This is a very big job and the society must constantly protect each individual, help, inspire, strengthen, and support him.
[198086]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/20/16

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The Letters As Models For Managing Our World

laitman_526Question: How were the letters of the alphabet created?

Answer: The letters of the alphabet came to us from Adam HaRishon (the First Man), he was the first who became similar (Domeh) to the Creator.

Adam was the first to discover the upper world and its results in our world. All things that exist in the spiritual world are the roots, and everything that exists in our world is a result descending from the spiritual world.

The two worlds are completely identical except that the upper world is a world of forces and our world is a world of matter. Even all the forces active on the surface of the Earth (electrical, magnetic, plasma, atomic, etc.) are also considered as part of the material world.

It was from these that Adam HaRishon discovered the roots of our world, meaning the upper world. He saw how the forces that manage our world descend from these roots according to particular rules. Adam understood the meaning of the upper management and its implementation. From this, he formulated these laws and described the structure of the letters.

Everything that exists is derived from a single black point, desire. From above to below, there are extensions from this point, which means that the Light of Hochma, the Light of life (the vertical line in the drawing), extends into our world from the upper world. Simultaneously, a horizontal force, the Light of Hassadim (Light of mercy) can also extend.

The management of the world consists of three elements, one point and two lines, a horizontal line and a vertical line. In fact, everything is managed through an integration of these two opposing forces, like the integration of plus and minus. Adam felt these forces in the spiritual world and began to study and investigate them.

Because the upper world is composed of parts called Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut, Adam began to investigate the ways in which the upper world influences our world. He discovered that the spiritual world is divided into two parts. The upper part is called Galgalta ve Eynaim (the characteristics of bestowal) from which comes decision. The lower part is called AHP (the characteristics of reception) and the management is derived from there.

Based upon his investigations, Adam described the structure of the letters. The first nine letters are found in the last part of Bina, the next nine letters are found in Zeir Anpin, and the last four letters are found in Malchut. There are a total of 22 letters, 22 standard models of management. There are another five final letters Mantsepach (MNTzPCh) for a total of 27 letters.

The Upper Light passes through each letter like through a mold and descends down in the form of that letter.

The Light resides above the letter like a single simple, amorphous, and homogeneous Light, a Light in which there is nothing special.

But when the Light moves through the mold of the letter, it acts in our world in a particular way because the interaction of the horizontal (Hassadim) and vertical (Hochma) lines in each letter is very unique. The letter “Dalet – ד” is very specific. It has a special tail, and the point where the two lines are connected to each other and form the axis around which revolves the letter. In general, the letters have many kinds of internal properties

Each letter is a separate Kli (vessel), which is a combination of the two forces, Hassadim and Hochma. Their vector is constantly changing.

Each letter is a specific stamp through which the upper force operates. The upper force passes through the mold and clears the way for its influence in our world in a particular way. A word is a collection of letters, similar to a computer command.

Question: Why does the drawing show only two lines if the control is in three lines? How is the third line reflected in the letters?

Answer: The fact is that the third line goes from the creation, from the bottom upward. And the drawing shows the management from the Creator, from the top downward.

In the letters, there is no expression of the man himself, but only the extent to which we allow it to write letters to our desire.

Question: Why is it said that the Torah was written with a single word?

Answer: Because the Torah is not divided into words, it is written as a continuous text. There is no way to divide it. It’s one simple command that runs from the beginning of creation, “In the beginning God created…” to the last word “Israel.”
[196736]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/17/16

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The Law Of Purification Of Egoism

laitman_558Torah, Deuteronomy 14:21: You shall not cook a kid in its mother’s milk.

It is impossible to begin the correction if there is not the proper separation of the right and left line. Milk represents the right line and meat or blood, the left line. Therefore, meat and dairy meals should be consumed separately with a certain time interval between them in order to allow distance between them: from meat to dairy and from dairy to meat. It is forbidden to consume them together or to consume animal blood in any form.

These laws of purification of human egoism are explained on the basis of external material since it is impossible to explain anything to anyone on the basis of internal sensations. They are clear only to those who understand the conformity of the external signs to his internal spiritual, moral, sensory structure, to the desires. And those who don’t understand, perceive fish, meat, milk, and the laws of kashrut only from the gastronomic point of view.

For anyone who understands what is being said, all this gastronomy is an internal one. He must carve himself internally to dairy, meat, fish, fowl, and other desires, in other words to still, vegetative, animate, and human levels. Salt, water and even some types of edible soil belong to the still level.

Dairy qualities in me are the qualities of bestowal, and kid is an animal, the left line, the quality of reception. Therefore, it is said, “You shall not cook a kid in its mother’s milk,” meaning don’t connect the right and left line together, otherwise you connect plus and minus and it causes a short circuit.

Question: How does the middle line appear?

Answer: When you want to direct both lines to the benefit of others outside of you they connect through bestowal from each line, yet not within you, but in the receiver, because you give this benefit to the third line.

The receiver doesn’t feel both lines together, but senses them only as bestowal. When you give from yourself, bestowal apparently loses its initial qualities. It doesn’t matter from which line it comes, from your right or left line, in the receiver it is felt exactly this way. Hence, you can give from both lines.

This is a very interesting quality. We study what happens in the third line as a dressing of one on another through the example of mutual influence of the spiritual systems Aba ve Ima (father and mother). Although father gives the quality of Hochma and mother the quality of Bina and they are opposite to each other like meat and dairy, together they connect in the bottom part (Zeir Anpin) and dress on one another in it.

Is it possible to add milk to the meat and meat to the milk? They connect in the third where they simultaneously are fully realized in their entire oppositeness.
[198671]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/27/16

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“Sandwich” Of Relationships

laitman_243_05Our task is to use all our strength and qualities only for bestowal to others and to organize society where everyone works not for themselves but only for the common good. Unlike the Creator, we are created as a desire to receive and we feel pleasure when we satisfy our certain desires, such as food, sex, family, wealth, fame, power and knowledge.

Spiritual fulfillment doesn’t pertain to your own satisfaction, but rather to the creation of a completely different vessel of reception, because everything within us is temporary in duration and limited in space. If a person fills others, but feels that they are not others but himself and his children, then he would have an unlimited possibility of filling them and thus enjoying even more than if he receives for himself.

Therefore, all we are lacking is simply to feel that all the people in the world are the most precious creatures to us and that we have an opportunity to give to them, care for them, and thus to enjoy constantly. We will have an incentive to live, to produce, and to work for them, because it fills us.

Of course, all of this is egoistic, as in the case of our children, because they are much more important to us than we are. It is evident even in the relationships in our world; after all, if mother needs to save her child, she is ready to do anything.

However, to imagine people who are “strangers,” completely not related to me, as one who is very close, is a problem. The problem is not even to imagine, because in such a case I would work for them as for my own children and grandchildren and so would remain on the same animal level, as any person in this world. This isn’t a spiritual correction.

The spiritual correction is when I begin to perceive the entire universe as depending on me and feel all the people not just as family. It is even impossible to express because there are no suitable experiences in this world.

The fact is that as a result of studying Kabbalah, when we get closer together in the Kabbalistic environment under the influence of the connection method we realize with the others, a special positive force appears in the society. It exists in nature, but is hidden from us. This is the force of the Creator; therefore, it is said that the Creator is hidden. Nobody knows, feels, and sees Him. But if we try to connect between us as a family, we attract His revelation, and this positive, anti-egoistic force begins to build connections between us.

It doesn’t eliminate our mutual egoistic opposition to each other, but builds connection above it, demonstrating that we are one single common whole. In this way we have a “sandwich,” meaning two levels of relationships. On the lower level, I still hate others, compete with them, and push them away from me even more than before. And on the level above, I suddenly begin to feel that I have commonality, integrity, unity, and reciprocity with them.

These two completely opposite types of relations between me and other people create a spiritual system within me that is called “love will cover all transgressions.” If I am in such an internal two-level state, then the upper state, when I want to give to others and care about them, is called faith, the quality of bestowal, love, and feeling my neighbour as myself. It is above my previous egoistic attitude toward people who were the strangers opposite to me.

This is the implementation of the Torah’s call—love your neighbour as yourself—because then love will cover all transgressions. So it means that love doesn’t cancel egoism, but only covers it from above.

Both layers exist in a person simultaneously and when they interact with each other they give him an opportunity to start feeling the upper world between the qualities of rejection/hatred and attraction/love. The Torah leads us to this.
[198284]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/20/16

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