Entries in the 'Unity' Category

Life-Giving Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanConvention Preparation
The only thing that will help us is unity. You depend on others and you know it. You know that the mind and the feeling won’t get you anywhere. They will keep changing, inclining in one direction or another, but with no result. You are like a dead body in a society of friends.

This society buries your egoism in the ground and raises your soul upward. So let it do that. Believe us, you really are dead. So give us the chance to take care of you, to bring you back to life.

Here is what Chaim Vital writes in the book, The Gates of Reincarnation: My teacher (the Ari) warned me and all the friends that were with us in the group that we should take upon us the commandment of love for the neighbor as oneself, and to aspire to love for every person from Israel as to oneself. By virtue of this, one’s prayer is accepted, which is gathered from all of Israel and able to perform a correction above. In our love of friends, every person can become included in the friends like an organ in a body. Our teacher warned us about this very much.

If a person understood that he has no other way to go, that he just has to give himself over to society, he would join the friends and would benefit from it. There is no Kabbalist who did not write about this or pass this on to his students. This is the foundation of our Kli.

We are beginning the practical preparation to the Convention. This is an unusual convention. Everyone sees how special it is, what inner and outer preparatory work we have already done. So let us try to spend the last days and hours before the opening in connection, in unity, in understanding that it’s impossible without this.

I advise you to print out all of the excerpts that we used at the Convention in the Arava desert. Let the friends read them and translate them for one another, let them discuss it in their free time so we won’t have a minute free of unity. These words of Kabbalists are wondrous messages of unity and they have great power. So let them be a basis, a foundation of everything we are doing.

I summon you to understand that no one here is exempt from mutual guarantee. Every person is responsible for everyone. Whether he wants it or not, he was brought to the group, he was appointed a messenger and a responsible person. Even if he is out there, in the external world physically, instead of here, this doesn’t matter, he is responsible for everyone.

Therefore, let’s constantly hold on to the unity, in which we attain the Creator. Let’s not leave this goal for a moment. Let’s wait every moment for the upper Light to come, to illuminate our small, flawed desires and unite us. Then it will enter and fill this unity it created, and we will attain the revelation of the Creator to the creation. I am sure that this is exactly where we are headed.

And once I have acquired this above-mentioned clothing, sparks of love promptly begin to shine within me. The heart begins to long to unite with my friends, and it seems to me that my eyes see my friends, my ears hear their voices, my mouth speaks to them, the hands embrace, the feet dance in a circle, in love and joy together with them, and I transcend my corporeal boundaries. I forget the vast distance between my friends and me, and the outstretched land for many miles will not stand between us.

It is as though my friends are standing right within my heart and see all that is happening there, and I become ashamed of my petty acts against my friends. Then, I simply exit the corporeal vessels and it seems to me that there is no reality in the world except my friends and I. After that, even the “I” is cancelled and is immersed, mingled in my friends, until I stand and declare that there is no reality in the world—only the friends. (Rabash, Letter #8)
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From the lesson on 12/2/11, Shamati

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I Had A Wallet And Now It’s Gone

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I am trying to imagine 72 hours at the convention. How will this process bring me to the One, Unique, and Unified?

Answer: I enter the convention hall like a holy pool (Mikveh), a place that will purify and correct me. This is a place filled with holy water, the quality of Bina, the mother’s womb that I become included in and grow in. I don’t need to do anything besides settling in there like a drop of semen inside the womb. I must only cleave to it, and everything else will be done by others. I must simply become part of what is happening.

It is written, “The Creator dwells inside of his nation,” where “inside of the nation” means the place where everyone gathers and each person annuls his egoism as much as he can for the sake of uniting together. Then we reveal that there, inside of this unity, the upper one is present—Malchut, the Shechina. And inside of it—the Shochen, the Creator.

We don’t need anything else! Just come there and don’t be a smart alec. Lose your “I”: You come in and dissolve. Someone asks you to do something, so do it. Just connect to it, without any clarifications. The most important thing is to go with the common flow.

That is why the convention is appropriate for everyone, for every person. If a person can just come there, then a powerful force will arise there that will take us over and will spin us all in one whirlpool, like one whole. And we don’t need anything else. We won’t need a special mind or lengthy studies, but just that force. With it, you will already receive an impression of the upper one, of the upper level. So come!

You came there and you’re singing, dancing, eating, and preparing food, and you annul yourself before what is happening as much as you can. This will bring you to the upper level because it is there, inside, in the connection between people.

The tradition to hold mutual meals, to sing songs, and dance was established by Kabbalists. All of this leads to unity, and without unity, it’s impossible. Abraham once invited guests to his tent and first of all, he sat them down at a common meal, while explaining that it is necessary to unite and love the neighbor.

We won’t manage anything without unity. I understand that our egoism, our nature is against it. I was also opposed to unity once, and even more than you are. But that doesn’t scare me: For any egoism, there is a force capable of defeating it. Most importantly, try to be as determined as you can and set your mind to coming there and losing yourself.

Get lost in some unknown place, like a wallet that you had and is now gone. There’s just nothing you can do about it: It was there, and now it’s gone! Try it!
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/28/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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The Upper World Is Simple!

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is no “upper world”; the upper world is the connection between us. If we feel this unification, we will sense the upper world within it. It does not exist somewhere outside of us. The spiritual world does not exist on its own. We, ourselves, create it and form it.

There is the simple upper Light, and there is a point standing in the midst of the Light. It is divided into many parts. If we unite this point into one whole and connect all of its parts together, it becomes similar to the Light. According to the law of similarity of form, it turns into a big vessel (Kli) for the Light.

It turns out that this black point within the Light of Infinity is transformed into a huge vessel that includes the entire Light. Without connecting its parts together, there is no vessel, there is nothing except for the black point. “Existence from existence” is the Light, while “existence from absence” is a tiny desire, which is still not sensed, non-existent as the creature.
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From Lesson 1, Arvut Convention at the Arava Desert 11/18/2011

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All Interaction Happens On The Inside

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the group, we need interaction, contact. That is the only way I can reveal love and hate for my friends. When we work together on dissemination, I receive a real inner response. But in all other regards, we just sit together at lessons or meals, sing and dance together. I don’t find any interaction there….

Answer: Still, try doing this together with the group more and more. In reality, this is the work: to sit together with friends, to eat with them, to dance and sing with them. This will cause greater repulsion to be revealed inside of you. Overcome yourself and try to submerge deeper into the group—and you will discover your weakness.

This is already the expression of the truth. The more you try to take control of yourself, the more negativity you discover toward the friends. This is the entire essence and nothing more is necessary.

The sons of Israel received the method of correction only when a strong egoistic desire ripened in them. This was no longer a clan or a family, but a great number of people who felt that they didn’t belong to one another. That is how a nation emerges: I am part of a group, I was brought to it, and I participate in the life of the friends, who are connected by a common goal. But to be perfectly honest, I don’t harbor any warm feelings for them.

And now I must form the deepest connection that can possibly exist in reality—the same as the connection with the Creator. Can you imagine: to cleave to the friends like to the Creator, without any excuses, and to feel them closer than myself. Is this possible? Yes. You make efforts, and in response, Light comes from above and corrects you.

In mutual actions, everything that’s important is inside. You can take physical measures only if you can vest the intention into them. Otherwise, you shouldn’t. We need actions that will become an expression of our interconnection. This includes conventions and dissemination work. But in reality, if a person is really dear to me, then I invite him to a coffee shop or to my house to socialize with him in a friendly setting. I try to be as close as possible to him.

The gist of the matter is not for every person to prepare for the convention in his own niche, hoping that these external efforts will unite us. Rather, we must feel a much greater proximity, which is what we were slightly able to achieve at the convention in the Arava dessert. After the December convention, we will continue acting in this direction to come even closer to one another.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/22/11, “Mutual Guarantee”

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What If I Fall Out Of The Loop?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We have pledged to take care of one another in order to uphold the standard we achieved in the Arava and to keep moving further. But what should a person do if he suddenly discovers that he has “fallen out of the loop”? Should he feel that he is drilling a hole in the common boat?

Answer: Of course. And this should be a source of great distress for him. First of all, it’s not simple to reach the sensation of unity, but he should at least regret the fact that he is separated from it. Secondly, let him feel bad from knowing that all the friends are already there. Thirdly, his absence harms others, and this entire harm is recorded in his account.

This way, he misses out on much more than his personal concern because his part is idle in every one of the friends and does not complete each one of them. It turns out that his harm is multiplied by the number of members in the group.

Until now we talked about the egoistic calculation, but now let’s look at the problem from the other side. A person does not support his friends with mutual guarantee, does not become similar to the Creator, and does not attain bestowal to Him by working in the group. This spiritual damage is not as obvious, but we have to remember about it as well.

Question: Can we say that by doing so a person shifts not only the whole group, but also the whole world to evil?

Answer: If you have received the opportunity to enter mutual guarantee with your friends, then by participating in the common work, obviously you shift the world to goodness. After all, every person is part of the common network and we are its central part. Therefore, by strengthening the group, I strengthen the whole world in its spiritual ascent. And the opposite is also true.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/11, “Mutual Guarantee”

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A Unified Agreement

Dr. Michael LaitmanTo develop our spiritual sensation, we unite and connect. We have to attain the kind of unity that is called, “mutual guarantee.” Essentially, this is the vessel for feeling the spiritual, eternal and perfect life that is outside the body.

For that we have to do what Kabbalists, who are people that have already gone through this path, advise us to. They are our teachers and are therefore called “Rabbanim” in Hebrew, which is the plural of Rav, meaning a “great” person before whom I bend down my head like before an experienced instructor that is worthwhile to listen to.

He accomplished the transition from the sensation of just this world to the sensation of the upper world, and moreover, he went through many states and levels there. Therefore he can help me with advice throughout the whole path, until I complete my development in the true world. By virtue of Kabbalists, I reveal the gates to the world, enter it, and advance.

Kabbalits advise us to unite, and in that unity, by making great efforts in spite of our egoism and natural disregard, to look precisely for the feelings we disregard. I reject the neighbor and hate him, I am unable to even think about how we can be truly close to one another. But Kabbalists tell us that we have to be as one man with one heart, uniting in the mind and feeling to such an extent that no boundaries will remain between us in thoughts or desires.

This is all painfully opposite to our nature. We are being offered such conditions that we would be willing to trade them for anything else. We are nauseous from this and are thrown away from it at every moment in different directions—anything but unity. We just want to cover ourselves up with half-hearted advice and actions, lie to ourselves and others that everything is normal…But we can’t.

What can help us here are demands imposed by physical unity: We act all together and no one can evade his responsibilities. That is exactly why we are in this world of actions that are not defined by intention. In spirituality, the thought is the action, but in corporeality they are divided: I can think about one thing, desire another, and do a third.

This is the wonderful quality of our world: Here we can start the path to spirituality without even yet thinking about it for real or wishing for it sincerely. We are able to make actions that pride, passion, ambition, envy, and shame incite us to do—everything that is inherent to our egoism.

Therefore, being in the group, at the end of the day, I must carry out what it obligates each of its members to do. After that, by virtue of that, I advance involuntarily. I must only push myself into the group, take on obligations, and sign a “unified agreement” with the friends that under any circumstances, they have obliged me and I have obliged them to need one another. That is how we advance, using our egoism.

Thus, in our world we have the opportunity to start the spiritual path from zero, from pure ambition. We activate its negative qualities, connecting with one another by the unity of mutual help, and use all the negative qualities just to observe this unity. In this case, you obligate the friend and he obligates you, and you both advance, having no other choice.

This is exactly what we saw when we went to the convention in the Arava desert. We found ourselves together without external influences and discovered that the group can obligate every person to rise and come closer to the sensation outside the body, where a person begins to discern details hitherto unknown, a different existence “outside of the skin of his body.” It turns out that “outside of us” is really possible. That is how we advance.

Today we can unite with one another in this world by means of the right egoistic actions. However, now every one of us has to “jump out of his skin,” rise above his personal egoism, above his entire being, and unite with friends into a single whole. Stated differently, every person must rise above himself and go from the material group to the spiritual one.

Then the common vessel will form, the common soul, the holy Shechina where we will reveal the Creator on the first spiritual level. We made a big step toward this and acquired a common sensation, and now we must strengthen ourselves.

Thus, we build the vessel of mutual guarantee: We pledge not to forget one another and all together we take care of our spiritual life. After all, this is the purpose of our current existence in the material world, the goal of all people and this whole reality. Only by virtue of mutual care will we rise to the level of spiritual unity.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 11/20/11, “Mutual Guarantee”

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Women’s Support

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: A convention in the Arava desert will be held this weekend, which will be attended by several hundred men from Israel to unite, to crystallize the inner force of mutual guarantee between us, and to become the nucleus for unification at the December convention. How can we do this?

Answer: Indeed, there has to be a special inner nucleus in which all the points will gather into one. This point is surrounded by a more passive part—the women of Bnei Baruch, and the widest circle is the external world.

On the inside, all of our friends from the whole world merge together. Why men? Because that’s the nature of creation: They are the ones who need correction to attain love and unity, whereas women reach this differently. Then, when we attain the desired state, we will be able to pass it on to others.

Question: How should women support men at this convention?

Answer: They have to think about our success. We need this support as without it we will have a very hard time. It’s exactly the same as how “the sons of Israel came out of Egypt by virtue of the righteous women.”

Women are a very powerful part of the common system and their support is simply indispensable. When a woman worries about a man, this gives him great forces, a great impetus to realize her yearnings. Without women’s support, we will not succeed.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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The Convention In The Arava Is A Planned Disconnection From All Disturbances

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What’s the use of the group’s seclusion at the Convention in the Arava desert?

Answer: We have gathered here to lay the foundation for a new society, whose purpose is to attain adhesion with the Creator. In order to attain adhesion with Him, we have to attain adhesion among us. And in order to attain adhesion among us, we have to unite, disconnecting from the disturbances of the outside world. After all, we’re small and we have to strengthen one another, so let the world not interfere with our doing so. That is why we are going to the desert.

In the past, groups of Kabbalists took much more extraordinary measures to isolate themselves from the external environment. A person has to allow himself a bit more freedom from this confused and senseless world, to collect himself inside a bit more and understand what his predestination is.

In the whirlwind of life, under the roar of the radio and television, you can’t make out the fine voice of your soul or attain the fragile inner inspiration. You simply don’t have the energy for it. Even Kabbalists living hundreds and thousands of years ago in a completely different world, which did not know the “wonders” of mass media, still secluded themselves, barring themselves from their habitual environment, and even “going into exile,” leaving home without taking anything with them and going off to wander for years, getting by with occasional earnings and food.

You don’t even know what you are losing in the modern world, which is stuffing and miring you with its filth. Do you want to attain something exalted? If you do, then what efforts are you making to break away from the lowlands?

It’s worthwhile for us to find time for this kind of seclusion where we will feel only our own forces, without the disturbances of the outside world. Let’s separate a day in life to feel who we are instead of who they are.

Obviously, we don’t force anyone to participate and we don’t make lists of participants or deserters. We don’t put check-marks for the future. Whoever doesn’t want to or can’t come just doesn’t come. In this sense, everything is very liberal and open. But on the other hand, if a person comes there, he has to participate in the actions that the group has assigned to help us detach from everything and feel only ourselves.

Don’t you sometimes wish to be alone with yourself? That is how the group wants to be alone with itself, to feel itself. You enter a room, close the door, and remain with your own thoughts. That is how we want to remain with our thoughts. In reality, this is clear and commonly accepted. But for us it’s not just a minute of rest, but a detachment from “the degree of women and children” and an ascent to the “men’s level.”

In the article, “The importance of the group,” Rabash writes, “When a person works on the true path, he needs to seclude himself from other people. After all, the path of truth requires fortification because it contradicts common notions. The world’s opinions are built upon knowledge and reception, whereas the Torah’s opinions are built upon faith and bestowal. And if a person is distracted, then he immediately forgets about all work on the path of the truth and falls into the world of self-love. Only in the group do the friends help one another, and therefore every person receives forces from it to fight the commonly accepted notions.”

The upper world is our inner world. We have to shift our gaze from externality to internality. Therefore, with the help of the friends, I try to go inside, to look inward, to acquire a deep wisdom, to attain the inner meaning of the Torah. There is no other choice—I need this.

A person must constantly immerse himself inward, penetrate into his depths—and precisely there he reveals the true world. The external world deliberately confuses us so through the conflict with it, upon the resistance, we would build our direction inward. Our struggle is to penetrate deeper and deeper on the background of this world’s reality, which pulls us outward.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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The Time Of Grandsons Is Here

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Mutual Guarantee” (abridged version): The merit of the forefathers is that from the height of their souls, they realized the principle of love for the neighbor without preliminary actions, which they were unable to realize. Thus, only the nation of Israel entered the mutual guarantee.

The Creator made one receiving desire, consisting of four “layers”—four levels of depth or Aviut. We start to discern the layers of egoism from light to heavy. The souls that have already completed the analysis and correction then help to perform the work on the following, coarser layers of desire of the common, single, broken soul.

First the souls belonging to the level of the forefathers are corrected. We also call them “the house of Abraham.” This is talking about thousands of people who attained the spiritual world under his leadership. Their Aviut was very small and therefore they did not need to attract the Light that reforms during the study. It was enough for them to unite with one another a little because there was no repulsion between them as they did not fall into egoism yet on all of its four levels.

The fall happened later, in the Egyptian exile, and only then did Israel start needing the Light that reforms, meaning the method received on Mount Sinai. After all, a person corrects only what surfaces in him. The Torah, the method of correction, is intended for work with the evil inclination. When it became revealed in Egypt, the force of the Light capable of correcting it became revealed.

However, on the level of the forefathers, there was no need for this yet. This is the most “transparent,” purest degree of level zero of Aviut, comparable to the state of conception. At this stage, the Torah and the Light that reforms are not necessary for correction since there is nothing to reform yet.

Next comes the level of the sons, with the Aviut of the first and in part, the second level. And then comes our turn, the second, third, and fourth levels of Aviut, belonging to the “period of the Messiah.” Every generation in this lineage corrects its own layer of the common desire, the common soul.

Thus, the forefathers did not need the study that evokes Light, being in states of “the desert.” It was enough for them to be in the situation that surfaced in Ancient Babylon. Each of them revealed his evil somewhat, which the Torah describes metaphorically by talking about how Abraham and Sarah came down to the Land of Canaan, how Isaac solved problems with Esau, and other issues.

Next, Jacob and his sons came down to Egypt and died there, in this great, receiving desire. Then the sons of Israel went through the burdening of the heart and wanted to work on unification together to rise above hatred. However, first they descended even lower in their Aviut, which is called “visiting the cities of Pitom and Ramses.” Stated differently, by attempting to unite with each other, they did not build wonderful unity, but instead created something petty, sordid, and dangerous.

That is how they reached the need to run away from egoism and then went through the “ten plagues,” meaning unsuccessful attempts to escape. Every time they asked Pharaoh to “let them go,” they were denied, until the sorrow became unbearable. Only then, in the state of pitch darkness, does a person run away from his egoism, ready to rise above it at any price, “Better death than this kind of life.” A person reaches the final decision, really wishing to unite with others, as one man with one heart in mutual guarantee, and then he receives the method of correction.

This method leads him along the stages of the spiritual path: Tme after time, he discovers destruction inside of him and corrects it with the help of the Light that reforms. As a result, he reveals and corrects his entire, enormous egoism.

This process does not occur in all of humanity, but in a small group of Abraham’s descendants. On the path, it goes through breakings, analogously to the spiritual world, and falls down. And only later, in our days, does the true work of correcting the common soul begin.

Thus, even though since the times of the sin of the soul of Adam HaRishon, the forefathers and sons completed their work and attained their end of correction on the level of the First Temple, nevertheless descents followed after that, corresponding to the spiritual breakages. Both Temples were destroyed, similar to the two Partzufim in the world of Nekudim.

Now, after millennia of intermixing, we are reaching the analysis and correction—the self-realization. Precisely now, after all of the necessary “introductions,” the real work begins. The preparation is finished, and all that’s left is to correct ourselves.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/11, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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From Infinite Complexity To Absolute Simplicity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we measure our spiritual progress?

Answer: Spiritual progress is indicated by the extent to which a person feels that he can attain the spiritual state only through unity. This means that he begins imagining the spiritual world correctly and understanding that spirituality is the quality of bestowal, which we attain only through practical unification in the group until we totally lose ourselves.

This happens by a person’s own desire, which the Light helps him realize. He assesses himself by how many disturbances he receives while doing this and by accepting them the right away, as help from the opposite side.

He perceives all of these disturbances and resistance as constituent parts of the same system of connection. And when every disturbance connects correctly to support this connection, it operates precisely to strengthen it.

Nothing was created in vain. Any force of resistance or contradicting force in the common system has to occupy its place and assist the unity. The forces can be “for” or “against” in all possible forms and directions, but the system is built so everyone unites in this complex, multifaceted construction. Every element in it acts in its own direction, but they all complete one another, and the system exists precisely by virtue of that.

If we take any complex geometric pattern or construction, we will see many lines in it that extend in different directions, as well as unifications of all sorts of forms. And precisely the size, might, and diversity of these connections creates the rich system.

If there are several systems that are opposite to one another and complete one another, they create the right balance, which is Malchut of the world of Infinity. The more flexible the system, the more highly organized it is. And flexibility is attained by virtue of the multitude and diversity of forces. The sharper the polarity of these forces, the greater might they achieve.

The more different connections there are between the elements, the more complex and sensitive the system is, and the more it opens itself up and is able to accept and process the entire upper Light with its infinite diversity of forms.

The entire diversity of our qualities and desires was created by the Light, by its 613 Lights. Therefore, nothing that exists is extraneous. We must only place every quality, thought, and desire that does not match it in the right place, which the Light had initially intended for it.

Then we will reveal an extraordinarily rich, flexible, and highly organized system that includes such a great number of connections that separate connections disappear and everything turns into one, infinitely connected whole.

This mutual connection becomes so tight and multidimensional that it goes from being discrete to analog. All three lines, Sefirot HBD-HGT-NHY existing in the system, merge into one.

These separate, discrete forms of unification turn into one monolithic whole, which does not divide into parts and does not consist of elements, but becomes one, simple, infinite Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/11, Shamati

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