Entries in the 'Torah' Category

Cohens And Levites – Properties Of Pure Bestowal

laitman_624_03_0The Torah, “Numbers” 8:9 – 8:10: … and you shall gather the entire congregation of the children of Israel. You shall bring the Levites before the Lord, and the children of Israel shall lay their hands upon the Levites.

“Hands” stand for the receiving properties. If the people join the Levites, the latter become able to receive for the sake of further transferring what they receive to the people. However, if people do not join the Levites, they don’t acquire a receiving vessel because in this case the Levites have no capacity into which they can receive, meaning they have no Kli for the Light to enter. Therefore the Levites are concerned about having the people of Israel approach them. In this case, they fulfill their mission.

It is said that Cohens (Cohanim – priests) and Levites do not have an allotment (a share) of their own. Their share is solely in the spiritual world. You can say that Bina is their home. Therefore, Cohens and Levites stand for the human properties that are of a purely bestowing nature.
[162140]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/15

Related Material:
The Levites – Part Of The Creator Inside Me
Priests And Levites
The High Priest’s Qualities, Part 1

With And Without Protection

laitman_232_06All the sins in our spiritual work are due to human error. We think we are already protected and have risen above our egoism, but, in fact, when we reveal a new level, we fall and cannot do anything.

Question: Why is a person allowed to make mistakes?

Answer: For example, I have young students who are about 25 to 40 years old, healthy normal men who understand that there is nothing worth anything in life except for spiritual unity. The Light comes and provides them with a protective layer, a Masach up to a certain level.

But if we place them in a restaurant with plush curtains, Gypsies and dancing, or in a soccer field with thousands of fans, we don’t know where would happen to their thoughts a moment later.

This turns out to be simple arithmetic: the moment one is given additional egoism, which has no Masach, a person falls. It is a physical law!

During the lesson people can rise to the level of absolute purity. They are protected because everything is closed. The only thing the remains is love and bestowal because we cover the friends with our common Masach. Then, we go out together to celebrate our spiritual ascent in a restaurant, and that’s it. They fall!

This is Adam’s sin. First, you rise to the level of heaven (the Garden of Eden) where everything is wonderful. And then when you want to raise everything to the divine level, you see that nothing works out. For you, the world remains in the restaurant.
[158988]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/24/14

Related Material:
Popcorn Syndrome
Where’s The Pleasure?
Egoism’s Traps

The Banners Of The Twelve Tribes

laitman_749_02The first letters on the main banner of Judah carried the first letters of the three patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The inscription on the main flag of Reuben carried the second letters of the names of our forefathers, and the main banner of Ephraim carried the third letters of their names.

The flag represents the main attribute of each of the twelve tribes that properly connect in order to become the attribute of bestowal over the increasingly growing egoism that is continuously revealed in us.

Therefore, the banners should not be confused or interchanged. They have to move in accordance with one another. Just like a human body advances according to its motor skills, so does the general soul have to advance by digesting and properly correcting the ego revealed in it since Adam’s sin. Thus the common soul has to constantly turn the ego into the attribute of love and bestowal.

There are many names and letters inscribed on the banners that symbolize the right sequence of the correction of the attributes.

All the attributes are mutually connected, but the main thing is that there isn’t one bad attribute among them. If you are a thief, a liar, or a traitor, is there anything good about that? If we take ten grams of a lie, twenty grams of a theft, and thirty grams of treason, mix them properly, and correct them into the opposite attribute, the outcome will be the next level.

The correct combination of the letters (Kelim – vessels) according to the three lines provides precise guidance as to how to advance step by step in the correction of our shattered egoism.

The image on the banner of each camp symbolizes a certain part of the general soul. Everyone knows how to properly connect with all the others in order to advance step by step.

If a group is made of ten men, everyone must properly and in accordance with one another weave a common basis for increasingly better conditions for the revelation of the Creator. This is actually how the 40 year journey in the desert is fulfilled.

Question: Is there a difference between the first letter, the second letter, and all the other letters that appear in the name on the flag?

Answer: Of course. But the point is that they appear exactly like the four letter name of the Creator: “Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey.” Even if there are other letters they replace His name in a particular order.

Keter and four letters is the foundation (the ten Sefirot) of the spiritual vessel. It is impossible to attain the attribute of love and bestowal in Malchut if the first nine Sefirot don’t precede it.

This means that absolute bestowal in the first Sefira Keter has to go through ten different filters, changes, in the different attributes of egoism, until the created being attains the last phase that enables him to fulfill the attribute of bestowal, thus raising himself to the level of the Creator.
[159637]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/31/14

Related Material:
A Stream Of Goodness
Symbols On The Banners Of Israel
The Twelve Tribes Of The Common Soul

The Menorah – A Symbol Of The Unity Of The Lights

Laitman_509The Torah, “Numbers” 8:1 – 8:2: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and say to him: When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall cast their light toward the face of the menorah.

Question: Why does the weekly section of the Torah, BeHaalotcha begin with the description of the Menorah (lamp)?

Answer: It is because the Menorah (lamp) is the embodiment of the Light that descends from above unto the human souls. It is a Menorah of seven candles that is the embodiment of the six Lights that descend from Above: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. All the six Lights belong to Zeir Anpin, a structure that we call the Creator.

The Creator is a relative concept that symbolizes the one who is above us. Because Zeir Anpin is above Malchut it is revealed as the Creator with regard to us. If we ascend to His level, it rises above us once again and so there is a different Creator each time: we change and ascend and He changes and ascends. It is all relative.

The Creator operates and influences us by the seven Lights and so the Menorah is called the lamp of the seven candles (three candles on the right, three on the left and one in the middle), which symbolizes our connection with the Creator. Thus, we change our properties into the opposite attributes, the attributes of receiving into attributes of bestowal, and can illuminate like Him.

Three candles on the right and three on the left symbolize the right and the left lines and we who are in the middle are the middle line in the spiritual work. Of all the items that symbolize different attributes of the connection between the Creator and the created beings, the lamp is the brightest and most prominent symbol of this connection.
[161881]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/15

Related Material:
The Menorah Is A Symbol Of A Great Idea
Constant Light
A Lamp In The Human Heart

Being Filled With Love

laitman_569_01Egoistic desires run the world. We try to absorb into ourselves as much as we can, and we see that these desires cannot be fulfilled. All attempts to satisfy them lead us towards death.

No matter how much we fill ourselves with all kinds of: food, sex, family joys, discoveries, knowledge, and so on, we still come to the fact that from them nothing remains. On the contrary, even greater emptiness comes and adds to the disappointment.

We think that the pleasure we will get is equal to the desire for it, but when the pleasure enters the desire, it grows twice as much and we are left doubly empty. This is because Light and desire cancel each other out leaving us with twice as much emptiness.

To this day this was how life has been for all of us. A person enters the world naked, and leaves life doubly naked. We go through a lot of incarnations until we begin to understand that it is not worthwhile for us to pursue anything; it gives nothing.

Gradually humanity is becoming aware of this, and we are beginning to search for the truth. It brings us to a method with whose help it is truly possible to be fulfilled. But this fulfillment doesn’t enter directly into the desire to receive; rather, it is realized through the fulfillment of others. So here love for others is vital, and so we have an infinite possibility for enjoying, while they enjoy themselves, we enjoy fulfilling those we love.

In our world there are examples of how this works on the instinctive animal level of nature, when we fulfill our children and those that we love. And in the spiritual world everything is much more powerful, because there we fulfill each other, not because we love someone from the start, but we give birth to love within us for absolute strangers and even people who repulse us. This love doesn’t just appear that way; rather, it comes with the help of the Upper Light. When a person obligates himself to serve others, he begins to give birth within himself to a feeling of love for them, because they become dear to him, like an adopted child in a family, because of their investment in him, the parents begin to love him even more than their biological children.

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to bestow to others and be fulfilled with this. But we are not talking about bestowing in order to receive. The main thing is receiving for the purpose of bestowal.

Then I fulfill myself and simultaneously fulfill others. My goal is to fulfill them! But ultimately the fulfillment remains within me. Here appears the “branching out” that is incomprehensible to us today, which a person gradually begins to attain when he is involved with the wisdom of Kabbalah.
[161810]
From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 6/10/15

Related Material:
Earthly Love Is Worthless From The Start
Is There Love In Our World?
There Are No Two Loves That Are Alike

Sculpting The Creator’s Image

laitman_527_03Question: The fulfillment of the instructions of the Torah ends upon entering the land of Israel. What leads us onward?

Answer: It says that: “a person’s soul will teach him,” which means that person’s soul leads him along the spiritual path. This means that a person is born into the spiritual world; he has exited Egypt, wandered for 40 years, reached the full attribute of Bina, and can now work with the Light of Hochma, is in direct contact with the Creator, taking examples from Him and enacting them.

This is the work in the land of Israel, when a person’s initial desire is only a pile of clay, but once he contacts the Creator, he sculpts himself according to His image by becoming more and more compatible to the Creator. This means that he draws additional external forces upon himself, forces that are greater and coarser, and sculpts the Creator’s image from them, the attribute of love and bestowal in all its infinite forms beyond any limitations.
[161736]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/28/15

Related Material:
Entering The Land Of Israel
The Third Temple And A Solution To The Global Problem
Conquest Of The Land Of Israel

Taming The Ego

Laitman_115_05Question: How should I examine my egoism: as part of me or not? How should I work with it?

Answer: It is better to see egoism as an extraneous force and then you can gloat when you kick it. Then you will ask for powers to detach yourself from it.

Question: Will I be able to thank the Creator that the ego receives blows?

Answer: Yes, at first it is painful and then it becomes pleasant. When the ego dies, a person immediately begins to feel the eternal world. We can fully attain all the levels of correction while living in our corporeal body! But when we cut it off ourselves nothing ends. During the phase of correction we cannot even fully cut it off ourselves because we will have to advance with it. We continuously process the egoistic quality into the attribute of bestowal (the attribute of Bina) and then into the attribute of Keter, the intention to receive in order to bestow. Therefore, we mustn’t suppress our ego in any way. We have to regard it as something extraneous, but ours, and to keep it on a leash, like a dog in a doghouse.
[161693]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/28/15

Related Material:
Leaving Egypt…
Conquest Of The Land Of Israel
Short Stories: Crossing The Egyptian Border

Entering The Land Of Israel

laitman_749_02Pharaoh (egoism) exists in us constantly. When we exited Egypt, we thought we escaped it, but it continues to control us calmly from within.

For that very reason, we need to wander through the desert for forty years so that, gradually, step by step, we can correct that quality in us—at least neutralize the egoism, connect it to Bina, and bring ourselves to a small state, wishing not to use the ego in spite of any temptations. We achieve this when we pass through the desert.

Therefore, it is written in the Torah that the generation of the desert must die, and a new generation will be born instead, where egoism will be corrected and connected to the quality of bestowal, but in a neutral form. We don’t transform egoism to bestowal yet, but it already exists under the control of the intention to bestow.

Going through the desert is completed when we completely have neutralized our egoism (bestowal for the sake of bestowal), but have not yet corrected it to altruism (receiving for the sake of bestowal), and entering the land of Israel (Eretz Israel: Ratzon – Desire, and Yashar El –  straight to God) means that we begin to process the desire that we already have made neutral, and we go to it in order to conquer and transform it.

After all, seven nations who live in the land of Israel remain there, and we need to throw them out of this land and become their captors, which means to check our desire.

Seven nations represent seven desires, the seven final Sefirot of Malchut that we need to conquer, expel from within us—that is, to neutralize, stop using, and throw them out of the boundaries of Israel. This is called the correction of Malchut.

We need to conquer this land, populate it, and begin to correct it with the weekdays and Saturdays—that is, with a consistent ascent, six years and the seventh year, and so on—using all the methods of correcting our desire, which is called “the land of Israel” (Eretz Israel).

That is the initial egoistic desire that the Creator created in such a way that the serpent of egoism enters us, and we work long and hard to realize it until we begin to relate to it as a foreign object inside us. We begin to hate it like an external force that enslaves and pushes us away from the Creator.

Only then do we see it as Pharaoh, rise above it, and escape it with the help of the upper Light since we lack the strength to do so on our own. But when we accept the Torah and begin to correct ourselves, extracting ourselves from the egoism, it means we enter the land of Israel and turn the quality of receiving into the quality of bestowal.

Then, Pharaoh becomes the greatest Light because the correction of the greatest egoism that we have turns it into a directly opposite quality, as it is written, “the angel of death becomes the angel of life.”
[161632]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/28/15

Related Material:
Leaving Egypt…
Conquest Of The Land Of Israel
Reaching The Land Of Israel

Wine Is The Light Of The Upper Wisdom

laitman_276_01The Torah “Numbers” 6:1 – 6:3: Do not drink wine or any other intoxicating (alcoholic) vinegar or grape infusions; do not eat fresh or dry grapes.

Question: Why are grapes mentioned alongside with alcoholic beverages in the Torah?

Answer: At that time, grapes were never used as food. People tried to stock food for a day, a week, and even years ahead.

This explains why wine as well as olive oil, flour, and other products that can be stored for a long time were especially precious and why grapes were used only to make wine.

Grapes belong to a very high level—the level of Hochma. Why is there a special ceremony of tasting wine and saying blessings for wine? The reason is that according to Kabbalah, wine represents the Upper Light, the Light of Wisdom, the Light of Hochma, not just because it is a useful product as they think nowadays.

Wine kills bacteria that live in it because the Upper Light treats, corrects, and fulfills all our desires completely. No matter how much dirt there is on the grapes, during the process of fermentation all dirt turns into sediment and the wine stays clean.

Collecting grapes and making wine is not an easy process. Kabbalah describes each nuance of this procedure: the type of grapes, the diameter of each grape is pro-rata to its external surface, the month the grape is collected, and on which side of the mountain relative to Jerusalem of where it grows, etc.

Usually, Kabbalists collect grapes before sunrise because the formidable force (Amtakat a-Dinim) that is present in wine “sleeps” at sunrise. It’s as if grapes sleep and wake up at the same time.

In this world, there are no objects or events that do not have a root in the upper world. Everything is governed by one force. Each person on Earth performs his or her work unconsciously and involuntarily. This is how the world moves on.
[161000]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/21/15

Related Material:
Abstaining
L’Chaim – For Spiritual Life
A Glass Of Wine For Spiritual Ascent

Peace Between Husband And Wife

Laitman_632_1The Torah “Numbers” 5:18 – 5:19, 5:23 – 5:24: Then the Cohen shall stand the woman up before the Lord and expose the [hair on the] head of the woman; he shall place into her hands the remembrance meal offering, which is a meal offering of jealousies, while the bitter curse bearing waters are in the Cohen’s hand. The Cohen shall then place her under oath, and say to the woman, “if no man has lain with you and you have not gone astray to become defiled [to another] in place of your husband, then [you will] be absolved through these bitter waters which cause the curse. Then the Cohen shall write these curses on a scroll and erase it in the bitter water. He shall then give the bitter, curse bearing waters to the woman to drink, and the curse bearing waters shall enter her to become bitter.

If a woman (the creation) is a part of the correct desire, she rises and her relationship with her husband (the Creator) strengthens. However, if her desire is selfish then “letters will immediately appear on a scroll” as a result of the shattering. In this case, the Partzuf must be corrected all over again.

Question: Can you explain the work that the Cohen (priest) performs on Nukva? What does “expose [the hair on the head] of a woman” and “place into her hands the remembrance meal offering” mean?

Answer: There are no analogies in this world because in spirituality all actions descend from the upper level.

The highest level (Cohen) works on an inferior state (Malchut). Cohen is GAR de Bina, Keter. This is why the Cohen’s influence on Malchut is so intense. The Cohen is the only one who can reveal the depth of Malchut’s corrected or uncorrected desires. Nobody from the level of “Israel” or “the Levites” is capable of doing so. It can be done solely from Cohen’s level.

In other words, the Light that comes from the highest level of Keter scans Malchut to the very bottom of her intentions.

When a husband and wife (first nine Sefirot) and Malchut ascend, they can rise only through the Cohen who grants them the Light. If this connection is interrupted, it is essential to examine what goes on in Malchut.

Therefore, it is as if Cohen programs the Partzuf’s state. The latter is supposed to form it together with his wife by merging together. And when the Cohen gives the “scroll” to a woman (Malchut), it clarifies if her properties are adequate to the structure that she is about to attain together with her husband, i.e., if she is ready for it or not.

All men with whom she allegedly “cheated” on her husband are selfish desires that distract Malchut.

Comment: The Book of Zohar states that “Cohen’s judgment contradicts his high level of Hesed—the step of Mercy and Grace. It’s not so because the Cohen exerts to increase peace in the world. If a woman is “not guilty” (pure) the Cohen multiplies peace between her and her husband. ”

Answer: In this case, they form the next higher Partzuf, thus revealing additional evil and a stronger connection among them that makes it possible for them to attain the next level.

Therefore, at some stages “adultery” is absolutely necessary because it allows them to make further corrections. Everything in life happens exactly for the sake of our ascent. There is nothing in the Torah that harms people.

Question: Later, it is said in The Zohar: “… she impregnates with a son from the property Zachar (male). Applied to our material world, this phrase means that arguments between a husband and wife trigger even stronger love between them, isn’t it so?

Answer: If they correctly relate to the upper force and if they understand that all they go through is given to them only for the sake of their further convergence and uplifting, then there won’t be any mutual offense; rather, they will reconcile with each other and continue working on their further elevation. Otherwise, everything that happens between them will lead to a divorce.

Remark: It further states: “If she is ‘impure,’ then it is not the Cohen who judges her, but the Holy name to Whom she was unfaithful.”

Answer: The Holy Name (Kadosh) is a quality of bestowal, the level that they aspire to.

Together, they are supposed to reach the next, higher level of the property of bestowal, but her “unfaithfulness” made them degrade (fall) from the high level to the “will to receive.”

If she happens to be “guilty,” the property that she was supposed to attain is the one that tosses her down. At this point, she has to be corrected.

Something was missing in her aspiration to reach a new level. This “something” reveals through her “unfaithfulness.” At the same time, her husband also undergoes changes. He must find the Cohen, bring her to him, and raise his own desires to this level.

Comment: An immediate parallel with this world appears in our minds when we see a husband taking his wife to the court and the legal process starts…

Answer: In spirituality everything happens in one body: the Creator, a husband and wife, all properties and conditions—everything is within a man.
[160906]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/21/15

Related Material:
Spiritual Correction
Malchut That Is Not Free
Spiritual Betrayal