Entries in the 'Zohar' Category

How To Put An End To War?

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday there are no wars of survival wars, and no wars of independence, no wars against attackers, but rather wars directed at bestowal. This is exactly how we should see the current state.

In the past, Abraham’s group broke off from the part of humanity that was concentrated in Babel and since then all our existence is meant only to correct ourselves by going through shattering and destruction, exiles and holocausts. This is the essence of the many bitter corrections, as a result of which we are back at the land of Israel today.

Not all the nations understand this return, and among those who have accepted it, not all of them treat the state and the army in the same way. These of course are childhood diseases, which we have to go through during the stages of our development. In the paper Ha’uma (The Nation) and in other places, Baal HaSulam says that we are not a nation yet in the true sense.

Here is an excerpt from his article “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“:

It follows that our generation is the generation of the days of the Messiah. This is why we have been granted the redemption of our holy land from the hands of the foreigners. We have also been rewarded with the revelation of The Book of Zohar.…

Yet, with those two, we have only been rewarded with this gift from the Creator, but we have not received anything into our own hands. Instead, we have been given a chance to begin with the work of God, to engage in Torah and Mitzvot Lishma. Then we will be granted the great success that is promised to the generation of the Messiah, which all the generations before us did not know.

In this light, we must see the same path the past generations made. This process is essential despite the many disasters it involved, and at the end of which we were finally given a chance to return to the land of Israel in order to rebuild a state and a nation here. Today it is in our hands: There are all the necessary conditions, and from now on we have to pave the road to the correction of the world. Only when we are prepared for that, will the troubles and the problems that are aimed at us come to an end.

Today everyone who aims at and yearns for spirituality, for the revelation of the spiritual Providence of the upper force, belongs to the group called “the nation of Israel.” These people aim at Yashar – El (Straight for the Creator), and today they have to take on the form of bestowal. Then the pressure on Israel will stop and we will be able to take care of the whole world correctly. This is our mission.

As for now, we don’t see the whole picture, our role, the goal, and the process which we have to implement on the way to reaching the goal, we don’t understand why disasters fall upon us systematically even today, and when the afflictions and wars will come to an end. We cannot stop them, but we can correct ourselves, and then they will come to an end. It is simply impractical and futile to count on the fact that we will be rid of them if we don’t correct ourselves.

The knowledge of the whole system is required here: Why does it happen, what are the reasons, what is our responsibility, what is the goal that we should reach, and what should we fulfill in order to do I that? Only then is it possible to talk about a solution to the problems, only then will there be no more wars end and fallen heroes.

If people could see the general process, they would understand that we are becoming worse than we were before. We are not building a state and a nation, and do not arrive at any consensus. On the contrary, more and more people relate to the nation and the state by putting their self-interests first: As long as a person feels good, he is here, and when it is bad, he leaves the country. He doesn’t tie himself to anything here. Show him a place on the globe that is better and that is accessible and he will leave immediately.

So on the whole the question is: Why are we crying if we are not doing anything? Isn’t it silly and childish? Instead of just shedding tears and avowing never again, let’s find out, let’s look for the reason for what is going on. New planes and missiles are fine, but let’s examine things and focus on clarifying them.

What is lacking? Even in the direct practical sense, why are there so many who don’t join the army? Because we don’t care about the people, about their spirit, about their self-recognition. Look at what we are teaching the younger generation. The point is not about military service, but about a person’s investment in the society. If we don’t worry about that, why should we cry about it afterward?

Isn’t it better to invest in means and efforts to change the internal state of the people, in raising them, thus reaching a general consensus? Otherwise, if people do not recognize the state and its fallen heroes, the sporadic phenomenon will become a general trend.
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From “A Conversation Dedicated to the Memorial Day to the IDF Casualties and Terror Victims”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.26.12

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Igrot,” Letter 13

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Zohar for All – Passover “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” “And Pass Over the Lintel and the Two Mezuzahs (Doorposts),” Item 88

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 15, Item 43

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Lesson Topic: The Israeli Nation (Independence Day)

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The Passover Sacrifice

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhy wasn’t it enough for us to receive one page of text from our teachers, from Kabbalists, from the great sages, who discovered the whole upper system and the upper force that will connect us to them? Instead they wrote many articles about different states, about holidays, and about all the levels of attaining the Creator. After all, there is nothing but the attainment of the upper force by studying the changes that occur in the upper system.

Kabbalists described all these states because we have to draw the Reforming Light, in every possible way, in every direction, in all the levels, although we are not there yet.

Today we are reading about these states at the time that matches their corporeal branches, the special time that is connected to Passover: We read about the exodus from the exile in Egypt and about the Passover sacrifice, which means how to come closer (the same Hebrew root korban and karov), and transcend the Machsom (barrier). Besides, we are doing it together in the group, and this symbolizes the whole essence of the exodus from Egypt, of the transition from separation to connection.

We feel the separation as being enslaved to our desire to receive, as separation and shattering. Connection seems like freedom, redemption, the desired miracle! If we read the articles with this intention and want to draw the Reforming Light, it will come.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabblah Lesson 4/22/12, Zohar for All

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A Text That Is Clean Of The Corporeal Shell

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar, “Bo (Come unto Pharaoh),” The Passover Sacrifice, Item 189: When the Creator came to Egypt, He saw the Passover blood written on the door, and the covenant blood—how they were standing at the door.

Question: How can I keep the right intention while reading The Book of Zohar?

Answer: There is no doubt that I can’t keep the right intention, but I need to imagine the state I want to be in now.

First I need to totally detach myself from the voice of the announcer, as if I don’t hear anything. I know that I am connected to a pipe through which the Light flows unto me and it can either help me or harm me: it can become the “elixir of life” or the “potion of death.” It all depends on how I hear!

It is as if I put on earphones, but I turn the volume down and don’t want to hear. First I want to know what energy, what force, reaches me through these channels, how the Reforming Light should influence me. Do I receive it like a bat and sink even more deeply into the darkness, or like a rooster that expects the dawn? It all depends on my intention and so I have to clarify this first.

So first I block my ears in order not to hear anything. What should I do now so that the Light that reaches me will heal me? I don’t want the snake that is the symbol of medicine, to turn into a real snake and poison me with its lethal venom. The same poison can be used as a medicine even though it comes from the same source, from the same snake. In order to do that I have to prepare myself, to be in a group together with the friends, to want to connect with them in my heart and soul to become one man in one heart, to attain such a love into which we can all dissolve and feel ourselves as one whole.

To the extent that we can reach that by the Light that Reforms us into one body, we will feel the force that unites us, the Creator, internally. We will feel the source of the Surrounding Light. The Light determines the connection among us. The source of the Light is the Creator who is revealed in the vessel that is arranged correctly.

First I have to imagine this whole state accurately. When I see it before me by imagining it emotionally and even visually, I gradually begin to unclog my ears. Then I turn on the volume in order to hear the announcer’s voice, as long as I can keep the image I have created in my mind. But if what is going on disturbs me from keeping that image, I turn the volume down again. If it doesn’t disturb me, I follow that voice.

I try to hear the announcer and no matter what is being said: whether it is about Passover, the blood of the circumcision on the door, the details about the exodus from Egypt, I try to find all these discernments in that image in which we are all connected.

I don’t depict the image according to the corporeal meaning of the words which the “language of the branches” uses, but rather translate them into the “language of the spiritual roots”: Sefirot, Partzufim, reception and bestowal, the connection between us and the Creator, and the unity of the concepts “Israel, the Torah and the Creator.” I immediately get rid of the actual words, as from an unwanted shell. It is as if I clean the shell off the nuts before I begin to eat them, and thus I get rid of corporeal concepts and immediately move on from the branches to the roots.

I try to imagine what it looks like in the spiritual roots: what is the meaning of “lintel,” “Mezuzah,” or “blood.” Even if I don’t understand, it makes no difference. The main thing is my efforts, wanting to know what is being studied, to connect to what is being studied. The Reforming Light influences me according to my efforts.

We must constantly repeat these exercises over and over again, in every book that we study: the articles of Rabash and Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, The Zohar, the Mishnah, Shulchan Aruch, all the books are about how to connect the broken vessel.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabblah Lesson 4/22/12, The Zohar 

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When We Are Together We Cannot Be Broken

Dr. Michael LaitmanZeir Anpin is an upper mechanism. Whereas Malchut is my system that I can build together with the friends, that is, with the desires of the Creator that He arranges for me so that I can connect with them.

There are types of desires that do not belong to me; they are foreign desires, but they are also aimed at the Creator like me. I don’t look at their faces but only at the desires, or sparks.

Then I perform different external actions in order to unite us. I want to collect all these desires, all these small vectors into one bundle so that they will become powerful. When they are together, it’s impossible to break them as it is when they are separate.

We connect when each one annuls himself in order to attain the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the attribute of mutual bestowal. We create it among us in order to show ourselves and the Creator that we are ready for bestowal and want it. Although it isn’t in our power to attain it and we can’t really bestow upon each other by annulling our ego, we still show the most we can reach in our group.

If we make such efforts, the Light that Reforms appears and fulfills the connection among us. Then from this connection (Malchut), we feel the attribute of bestowal that connects us with Zeir Anpin. Thus we discover the Creator: Yesod of Zeir Anpin connects to Malchut and Malchut begins to attain Him.

Malchut doesn’t connect to Zeir Anpin only by a point any more. It begins to open the attributes of bestowal inside it, which befit Zeir Anpin and at the same time are opposite from it because they cooperate with each other. Zeir Anpin and Malchut connect so that the upper Light is revealed between them: the Light of Hochma and Bina, the Light of AB-SAG, and thus we come to consciousness.

Everything depends on how we prepared Malchut. Accordingly, as much as a desire suitable for Zeir Anpin appears in it, it begins to grow together with Malchut. It absorbs its desire and thus grows.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/2012, The Zohar  

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.25.12

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “What Is the Hard Work and Restlessness in the Work”

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Zohar for All – Passover “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” “And Pass Over the Lintel and the Two Mezuzahs (Doorposts),” Item 75

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 15, Item 42

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.24.12

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “A True Prayer Is Over a True Deficiency”

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Zohar for All – Passover, “Shemot (Exodus),” “He Neither Ate Bread nor Drank Water,” Item 251

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 15, Item 42

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Writings of Rabash “Dargot HaSulam,” “A Matter of Exodus of Egypt”

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Writings of Rabash “Pri Chaham,” “Davar Emet (Words of Truth)”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.23.12

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “What Are the Two Discernments Before Lishma”

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Zohar for All – Passover “Shemot (Exodus),” “Why Exile and Why Egypt,” Item 246

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 15, Item 41

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Writings of Rabash “Dargot HaSulam,” “Go to Pharaoh”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.22.12

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “What Is the Blessing that He Made a Miracle for Me in this Place in the Work”

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Zohar for All – Passover “Bo (Come Unto Pharaoh),” “The Passover Sacrifice,” Item 186

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 15, Item 37

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Writings of Rabash “Dargot HaSulam.” Talk About the Preparations for the Conventions and About the Dissemination

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.20.12

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash “The Need for Love of Friends,” 

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Chapter, “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Opposite the Frame,” Item 337, Lesson 93

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Preface to the Book of Zohar, Item 32, Lesson 18

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