Entries in the 'Zohar' Category

Laboratory Of Perfection

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: From whom or what do we ask for connection and correction during the reading of The Book of The Zohar?

Answer: The Light, although this force is concealed. It holds everything in perfection, but it is concealed from us. I am shown life through all kinds of imperfect forms, so I will ask for the perfection. But I need to imagine, on my own, what this perfection is.

Perhaps the meaning of perfection is that I will be fulfilled, great, wise, knowing, and in control? Or maybe perfection is that instead of receiving all these fulfillments, I specifically degrade them and rise above them to love and bestowal? No, that isn’t perfection. So what is?

We need to learn about perfection from Above, because It is perfect. And to just bestow, or to just love someone, that isn’t perfection either. Perfection, I must learn from the upper one.

So I ask Him to reveal to me what perfection is. And this is revealed. We see we lack perfection and from each revelation of this lack of perfection, which the Creator reveals, we learn, from blow to blow. After all, there is a gap between the blows, which is designed for our recognition, understanding, and comprehending what was bad and what could be better.

In this way, people advance, as according to Baal HaSulam: They destroy the previous state after they no longer are able to endure it, and agree with the new state, which previously they didn’t want to agree with, and now they see that it is desirable. But this is the way of suffering, the way of the evolutionary development of nature.

But if we want to advance rapidly, from within consciousness, understanding, and self-participation, then we need to search for what is called “perfection” on our own. And then we ask the Creator to reveal, to give us the appropriate mind and feelings.

For this purpose he places a condition: You want to discover Me? You want to learn the system, to advance consciously, to understand and comprehend what perfection is, what life is, what the system of reality is? Please! I also want the same. I want you to be a son and not a slave.

But for this you must execute actions, exercises, like at work, so that through them you will learn about this system. How? In the group. If you are ready to connect with the friends and to learn about unity, which means One, Unique, and Unified, and to learn what love based on hatred is, then you have a system of relationships with the friends.

I organized this system for you. I brought you to it, gave you teachers from all generations who already attained this system and described it for you. Everything is in your hands. Take it and begin to realize it. According to the measure of your advancement, I will reveal more and more means to you. And thus you will understand, will attain, and  will discover what perfection is.”
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/12, The Zohar

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.14.12

Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash “Concerning Above Reason,″ (To: “It follows that when he wishes”)
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “The Sling-Stone,” (Starting with: “This means that the extension of the Mochin“), Item 209, Lesson 62
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 2, Lesson 23
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“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 96, Lesson 42
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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.13.12

Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Letter #2”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “The Sling-Stone,” Item 206, Lesson 61
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, Item 29, Lesson 22
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“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 94, Lesson 41
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The Opposite World Through The Eyes Of Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do I have to do if I realize that when I am praying for my friends I am in fact praying for myself?

Answer: This is called “Lo Lishma.” You think of others because without them you can achieve nothing. It is an egoistic intention since you pray for everybody else only because you can’t manage without them. So, this means that you are really praying for yourself, “Lo Lishma.”

We pray to get closer to the Creator and to “bestowal.” But do we clearly realize what bestowal is? For us, bestowal is a pleasant sensation, some kind of positive acquisition, a present!

Does it have anything in common with actual bestowal? No, it doesn’t. It’s a lie, but with good intention. So far, we sense that concealment is given to us from Above to make us think of various spiritual concepts as if we were little children. A child looks at each garbage truck with delight thinking that it’s God’s chariot that descended from the skies; he regards its driver as an angel and envies him.

The deceit is organized by nature so that a child learns to respect anything that is higher than him and thus learns to strive and achieve an upper level, otherwise he won’t grow. The same scenario works with all of us: We have to worship the group because only with its help can we achieve the spiritual world and attain bestowal.

We regard bestowal as a process of giving to us, rather than our giving to others! This is how we view bestowal; if not for that, we would have run away a long time ago. However, the force Above overturns the deceit completely and presents it to us in a totally opposite way, thus making us wait for a present. Sweet treats stimulate our growth.

Therefore, our current concepts are wrong; they are the reverse side of reality. That’s why our world is called “opposite” and deceitful. When we advance towards spirituality, we become opposite to it. But those who lead regular lives are not considered opposite to spirituality whatsoever; they are simply cut from it.

We are aware of our oppositeness to spirituality since we educate ourselves. We try to be in control of our divergence as much as possible by restricting ourselves. If we can understand where actual truth is and where deception is and if we manage to expand the boundaries of sanctity by giving up on something we like, then to the extent of our efforts we will advance.

Everything depends on the degree to which we are able to give correct sensory definitions to spiritual concepts in order to start sensing bestowal, in other words to start realizing that for us it is similar to death and that there is nothing worse than that.

It’s even worse than death, since death is a complete discontinuation after which there is nothing at all, whereas here our lives are taken away from us and we become the Creator’s slaves; we can only torture ourselves from morning till night by working hard against our own will; we can neither compliment our egoism nor die.

It is opposite to such an extent that one cannot even imagine it. Oppositeness unfolds only when we acquire the property of Bina, the readiness to suffer until that suffering turns into the opposite of its opposite state: into love.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/12, The Zohar

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What If I Am Falling Asleep?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I use The Book of Zohar to wake up the group for the attack before the convention in the desert?

Answer: We need to ask for a desire. We are constantly falling asleep in our life. It is no coincidence that our heart becomes burdened by the constant growth of the receiving desire. It has to grow to infinity, and thus we should react to this correctly. The desire becomes more and more violent and egoistic, more demanding and burdensome.

It is good if we try to bring it to correction, that is, to unity. And if we do not try, we experience troubles and misfortunes, which will force us to think about life only not because of the goal, but because of pain. Thus, we advance.

As for The Book of Zohar, it is possible to ask for the Light, which you lack.

Suppose, you are sick. You have fever, chills, you do not feel well, and want nothing, but to lie down and close your eyes. What do doctors recommended in this case? Indeed, you should not tire the body with physical activity; you need rest. You lie in bed, good for nothing, and even cannot eat; you lose your appetite, any food seems disgusting. But what can you do? Then, do the following: Open a cookbook, read the recipes, look at the photos in color, and gradually your appetite returns.

It is the same here: You are sick, you are sleepy, so open your book. Not necessarily The Book of Zohar, any book that is close to you and to which you respond. Depending on conditions, I use different books: The Gates of Intentions, Gate of Reincarnations, the 16th part of TES, and Shamati. Everyone is awakened by something else. It could be Psalms. It is written: “A man learns where his heart is.” The main thing is that they are our materials.

If a person is completely confused, the sages advise that he should think about the day of death. He can go to a cemetery and reflect on graves. Of course, this is just an example, but the point is to throw the body some calculations and shake it. In fact, it is not about physical death, but the death of the egoistic desire.

However, the most obvious of all the means is the group, the impact of the environment. If a person works in a way that he should be included in the others, it is very effective. As a rule, it helps a lot to organize an event for the public because he receives people’s desire and power to move forward.

Dissemination is the most effective method and the best solution. When one participates in it, he feels how much strength it gives.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/12, The Zohar

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.12.12

Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash “Concerning Love of Friends”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “The Sling-Stone,” Item 204, Lesson 60
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, (Starting with: “The Daat de Nekudim”), Item 26, Lesson 21
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“Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 91, Lesson 40
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A Springboard To Ascend To The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I ask for help if I don’t feel where it can be requested?

Answer: That’s true. But does the baby who has just been born and cries feel whom he’s calling? He just screams.

That’s called concealment. I am situated in the upper Light. This upper Light doesn’t depict any image of reality to me, as yet. Imagine a baby who has just now emerged from his mother’s womb: He is simply content or not. Besides that, he doesn’t feel anything. He doesn’t feel the reality surrounding him.

That’s how we are: We’re content or not. From where and why, that we don’t feel. Afterward, we begin to recognize this world, become familiar with it, and respond to it; hence, we begin to develop.

In spirituality, we develop in the same manner in our relationship with the Creator. Now, I don’t feel it, understand it, or know anything about it, whether it exists or not. Yet, the Kabbalists tell me: Pay attention to what’s taking place behind the scene of this world before you. Indeed, this world is situated before you in order to begin to develop the connection with the Creator through it. The Creator created you in such a way so you’d cling less to this imaginary reality. It is imaginary, because instead of the Creator, instead of the upper force, you depict something inside you in the meantime. Different waves of liquids paint the image of reality for you, like in a dream. That’s why it has been said about this world: “We were as dreamers.” Indeed, a dream also seems true to you. It’s the same thing now, as well.

Hence, in order to awaken and emerge from this dream, this bubble, we need the reforming Light, the spiritual force. Does it exist or not altogether? I don’t know, I don’t feel it. I’m told: “Would you like to try? Be my guest, you have the opportunity; you have been given this world along with the means through which you’ll be able to begin to feel something above this world. Would you like to use this means? Go ahead! You don’t? Try to turn down receiving it. Just like you reached this means against your will, with no choice, out of pressure of all sorts of physical or emotional misery, that is how you can also attempt to escape.”

However, we see how all of humanity is gradually advancing and can’t escape. Why? What is this crisis? It’s being revealed to humanity that there is no choice other than revealing the comprehensive system, the force governing and activating all, the upper force.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/12, The Zohar

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The Light Will Answer All

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt doesn’t matter how much a person understands where he is or in what state; those states also continuously change according to his degree. The higher we ascend, the more frequently the states shift, and within each one of us there are also ascensions, descents, and different fluctuations in equivalence with the degree in which we’re situated.

That’s why it doesn’t matter in what state or degree or instance we’re in; rather, it’s important to request assistance. That is because all the changes arrive only through the reforming Light. I can be like a baby who doesn’t understand anything and has no perception of what’s being done to me: They perform all kinds of surgery, actions, and treatments upon me, give me a little food, and force me to do something. In general, those are confusing and unpleasant states, in which there are more questions than answers. Yet, the reforming Light must give me an answer for everything. I have nowhere else to turn, no one to ask for anything, only It.

This Light is concealed in our bond, in the center of the unity of people longing for the Light. It is amongst them. To the extent they want to be included in that Light that exists amongst them, they reveal It.

That’s why we’re going out to the desert, secluded far from the rest of the world, and want to attain internal concentration.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/12, The Zohar

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Weekly Torah Portion – 02.10.12

The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Yitro,” Selected Excerpts
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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.10.12

Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “Which Degree Should One Achieve so He Will Not Have to Reincarnate”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “The Sling-Stone,” Item 202, Lesson 59
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Preface to the Book of Zohar, Item 28, Lesson 15
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“The Peace,” (Starting with: “Now it is vitally important for us”), Lesson 10
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