Entries in the 'Zohar' Category

The Adaptor Between Heaven And Earth

Dr. Michael Laitman“Zohar For All – Passover,” “Bo (Come unto Pharaoh),” Item 174: … It is written, “A land where you shall eat bread without scarceness.” “Scarceness” is bread of affliction. It is called, “bread of affliction” because the moon, Malchut, has been waned and is not blessed by the sun, ZA, and does not shine from the sun, as it is written, “For all that is in the heaven and in the earth.” This means that, “All,” which is Yesod ZA, clings to the heaven, ZA, and to the earth, Malchut, receiving from the heaven and giving to the earth.

The main thing is the relationship between Zeir Anpin and Malchut, because Bina, by formatting Zeir Anpin its bestowal upon Malchut, actually shows that if Malchut doesn’t adapt itself to Zeir Anpin, it is in smallness and it doesn’t even have the head of the Partzuf. Therefore, it is called Zeir Anpin, “a small face,” and Malchut has nothing, which is the point of darkness.

It says that there is no Creator without a created being, since Zeir Anpin is artificial. It is a tool that was created by Bina, which is empty and which becomes full, whole, and big according to how much Malchut can reach an equivalence of form with it.

It turns out that Malchut determines the size of Zeir Anpin since it has nothing of its own except what it needs to take, the attributes from Bina, and to arrange them, and thus bring Malchut to the level of Bina and then to the level of Keter.

The Creator is called Kadosh Baruch Hu (The Holy One, Blessed), because this Partzuf is holy for us—by holy we mean the one who bestows. He sets an example for us as to what we should be, He corrects us and we reach an adhesion with Him, but actually there is no Creator without the created being. It is because He has no form if we don’t stabilize a certain deficiency or a desire below. By that deficiency we reveal Him to the Light of Bina, which then fills Him.

This is a very special mechanism. Zeir Anpin always, wherever we study about it, in the four phases of the direct Light, or in other places, is a “small face,” we go over it quickly and there is nothing we can say about it. We must understand that Zeir Anpin is the adaptor between Hochma and Bina, (father and mother) and Malchut. On the side of Bina it has the attributes of Hassadim and doesn’t need anything. If it has a deficiency on the side of Malchut, then accordingly the Lights of Hassadim will be revealed in it and it will be filled with the Light of Hochma, but only if Malchut will want to adhere to it.

Zeir Anpin is VAK, (six Sefirot), and Malchut is a point. VAK symbolizes that it is empty and is ready to develop according to the point of Malchut if it wants to become more than a point.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/12, The Zohar

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In One Circle Around The Pillar Of Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Book of Zohar is the main tool that enables us to exit this world into the upper world. We should expect and hope that this will happen any moment.

The Zohar operates like a special mechanism. We can be ready to enter spirituality, but unable to draw the Light upon ourselves. Or we may seemingly draw the Light, but not be ready for it. This book is a system that creates the correspondence between the group, in which we first hate one another and then connect. But this also takes place only under the influence of the Light. Even to feel hatred, we need to sit together in front of the book.

If the Light didn’t influence us, we wouldn’t feel such hate towards one another. But when the Light is first revealed, we suddenly understand how deeply we hate one another. And as a result of working on ourselves and using the Light correctly, we turn the hate into love and connection, and then we discover what is written in the book.

To study the Torah means to discover all this hate and our inability to connect, our helplessness, and, in the beginning, even a lack of desire. We should discover all the stages, all the attributes, and then change them and find out for what we should yearn. All this is done only with the help of the book.

It doesn’t mean that we have to learn the text by heart and to know what is written there. The degrees should connect correctly into one ladder so that AHP of the upper one will sink into GE of the lower one, and the connection between them will open up the route for the requests that rise upward and for the filling that descends from Above, which is the route to the upper force. All this is done by a system called “a book”: with the help of a book, a writer, and a story.

Those who read the book together and want to attain something must feel that they are equal. The sages of the Talmud made the study easier for us, and now in order to succeed we don’t need any corporeal restrictions, as it says: “Live on bread and water, sleep on the ground, and feel lucky.” Instead, they prepared this study for us by which we draw the Light that Reforms.

They have inserted into their books an influence upon us that brings us closer to the “pillar” by which it is customary to pray. This is the special, middle line that connects and balances the forces of receiving in us and the forces of bestowal that we want to acquire, by connecting all this to our request.

They managed to make things easier for us by building the system by their souls, to complete the initial spiritual system of the forefathers. And now we can connect to them through our teachers: Rabash, Baal HaSulam, and all the other Kabbalists throughout the ages, until we attain the sages of the Talmud and then the forefathers. Thus we will connect to the spiritual “pillar.”

The Book of Zohar enables us to connect to the space organized into a line (Kav). But in order to receive from this line, we have to build a circle. Part 2 of The Study of the Ten Sefirot is dedicated to this topic and tells us how the upper Providence passes from the circles to the line, and from the line it is possible to connect to the circles.

If we want to join the line of the great Kabbalists of the past, there is no other way but to form circles. It’s just like a baby who is in his mother’s arms. A mother treats him like a line: carefully and thoughtfully, by knowing exactly what happens to him. While the baby totally annuls himself and exists “in circles,” unable to appreciate her actions or differentiate that something is coming from above or from below. And this allows them to connect.

We have to act in the same way. This is possible only if we mutually annul ourselves in the group and organize the group correctly, as per instructions of Rabash. Then through the book, the system of the line that was formed by the great Kabbalists who pass the spiritual energy on to us, we will be able to receive this force, even if we don’t know how it operates. Let the upper Light do its job, and we will see the result.

We’ll see it in the same way a growing child feels the result of his development, not knowing where it comes from and how he develops. All that is required from him is the desire to grow up. We too have to demand only the right desire, meaning to constantly yearn for greater connection. This will indicate that we have annulled ourselves before the upper one and that we’ve connected to the line.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/2012, The Zohar

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 04.18.12

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One Word Describes The Whole Path

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the Torah is the book of instructions telling us about the spiritual path, how can we follow them if we don’t feel anything but this world?

Answer: First we have to rise. The Torah wasn’t written for people who are below the Machsom (the barrier separating us from spirituality). Even when it tells us about different events such as the Egyptian exile, the forefathers, or Babel, the real meaning of what is said there can only be revealed by those who are already engaged in the spiritual work, beyond the Machsom.

Everything depends on the level of revelation of the spiritual concepts. The Book of Zohar, for example, explains the word Beresheet (Genesis) in a way that includes the whole path, from the beginning to the end.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/2012, Writings of Rabash

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It’s Time For Spiritual Action!

Dr. Michael LaitmanFor thousands of years, our development continues on the inanimate, vegetative, and animate stages, which are not simple at all since they are based on the shattering of the first spiritual entity (Man), meaning the split souls. Since the moment they were shattered, each broken element includes all others in it. Each particle acquired a chance to live: to receive and to bestow, to consume and to discharge.

All forms of existence emerged from two forces, receiving and giving. The desire for pleasure in its pure form cannot subsist on its own. It needs some force that acts against it, meaning that it requires the desire to bestow.

This is how matter (desire) develops until it reaches a human (speaking) phase, which in its turn also starts to progress. The human level of advancement needs special “treatment” in that it requires a higher intensity of spiritual power. That’s why a specific group of people called “Israel” transpired; the direct translation of the word “Israel” is “Yashar-El,” “straight to the Creator.”

After exiting Babylon, this group of people descended to Egypt in order to absorb additional, powerful desires while still being in a state of immense aspiration; it was called the “Egyptian exile.” After getting an additional portion of the desire to receive, this group was granted a chance to work with it in order to transform it into the desire for bestowal.

At that time, the world’s nations used to be at an average level from which this particular group of people fell to the degree of “minus four hundred (400) years, which stands for “Egyptian exile.” It dropped 400 steps in accordance with the full circle of development, four phases of the Direct Light.

While in Egypt, the group acquired additional desire, and along with the additional desire, the group exited Egypt, received the Torah, and rose to the level of the First Temple. However, it ws destroyed and fell; the Second Temple was constructed, but it again was destroyed. As a result, the group descended to the depth of the last (current) exile where we are all at this time.

The degree of the fall that happened during Egyptian slavery equals the level at the time when the Temples existed. All of the above happened to make us drop from our prior height and reach the final shattering (exile) that continues to this date. The downfall we are currently in is so deep that we simply cannot fall any lower. From here, we can rise together with other nations and complete our correction.

Each spiritual action triggers material consequences in this world. Thus, we are obligated to continue working in this material realm during the whole period of exile. Exile means separation from spirituality and the inability to produce any spiritual actions. However, since we act materialistically and pursue egoistic desires through our bodies rather than souls, we still fulfill preparatory work that is associated with the period of exile.

The last exile is coming to an end and we all have to transition to freedom. The difference between exile (Galut) and deliverance (Geula) is only in one letter “Aleph,” which stands for “revelation of the Creator.” This means that we have to attain the upper world to reach the state at which the Creator fills the whole universe.

The reality we live in today will stay intact. All we will do is add the upper Light, the power of bestowal, to our prior sensations and thoughts. They will fill the whole world in which we will discover the upper reality since we will obtain different corrected properties.

At that point, we will understand the essence of the preparatory work that we did previously by fulfilling material commandments since we were incapable of doing anything else while we were still in exile. Thus, after we manage to return to the physical land of Israel, our present day task is to rise to the spiritual land (desire) of Israel.

It is said: “Each action leaves a mark.” This applies even to material actions since we build spiritual acts on top of them. Prior generations were supposed to fulfill material work in this world, whereas our duty is to pursue spiritual activities. That is why we concentrate only on spiritual work: human intentions and desires, attitude to concealment and revelation, and the property of bestowal that we’re about to acquire.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/30/12, The Zohar

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