Entries in the 'Zohar' Category

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 01.17.12

Writings of Rabash, Igrot, “Letter 34”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Three Lights,” (Start with: “For this reason”), Lesson 38
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, ”The Eser Sefirot of ha Olam Nekudim,” Item 3, Lesson 3
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Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 46, Lesson 23
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The Forbidden Secret Is Open To Any Baby

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why does Baal HaSulam write in “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” about the forbidden part in the wisdom of Kabbalah: that Kabbalists can reveal what belongs to “Flavors of the Torah,” but cannot disclose the part that belongs to the first three Sefirot or the “head of the Partzuf?”

Answer: Even if Kabbalists tell about something that is “forbidden,” we won’t understand anything. It is like talking about anything next to a baby without needing to be careful because the infant still will not hear or understand anything anyway. He doesn’t connect the words he hears to any meaning. Just like when we read The Book of Zohar, single words are understandable, but for us they add up to senseless sentences

“The secrets of the Torah” are not information that is carefully hidden from us. It is simply our brain, which at the moment is on an ordinary beastly level, cannot perceive them. So for us it remains a secret, as does all of reality. Please, it is all revealed to you, look! Do you see anything? Who is to blame that you don’t have the means to perceive? Develop them and you will see reality. It is the same when it comes to the “secrets of the Torah.”

We study in “The Study of the Ten Sefirot” about what belongs to the head of the world of Atzilut, the head of Arich Anpin, and we know that there are the parts of RADLA (Reish delo Eiyada), parts of its “brain” (Mocha de Avirah, Kruma de Avirah) that are concealed from us in the upper Light. But we study everything that belongs to the “flavors of the Torah” and not its “secrets” in this system. The difference is that the “flavors” relate to the thoughts of the created being and the “secrets of the Torah” relate to the Creator’s thoughts.

There would be no point mentioning all this, if there weren’t people who claim that it is forbidden to study the wisdom of Kabbalah because it is a secret. There are no secrets in it; on the contrary, the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals reality to us! It doesn’t reveal some “forbidden secrets”: In order to reveal the secrets you have to reach them yourself by preparing your vessels, your desires, your vessels of perception. If you prepare all the desires that belong to the seven lower Sefirot (ZAT) in the full height of the spiritual ladder, then you begin to discover their upper part (GAR). You will be ready for this revelation and will discover this secret yourself. [Read more →]

Not An Experiment On Lab Mice

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why are there serious scientists who believe that the crisis will be over soon, that unemployment will drop, and that the European economy will flourish? Don’t they see how grave the situation is?

Answer: These scientists are clever people, they are experts in their field, but the problem is that science in general speaks about laws that have already been revealed in the world and not about those that will be revealed in the future.

If the new laws that are being revealed now are on a different dimension compared to what we had before, not even one professor can say a thing about them.

We are all egoists and act within our own selfish spheres. We are used to this kind of life. We study it and this is what we understand and explore. Human society exists on this level and this is the level that all the scientists, sociologists, and psychologists work within.

This is one collective dimension we all share and in which we all are. We study it as if we perform empirical lab studies under special conditions, like in a greenhouse: we record different readings and come up with laws.

On the basis of these laws we can come to conclusions that apply to the greenhouse only if it remains in the same conditions without change. In that case, those professors might be right, although this is also a question because there are many scientists who say exactly the opposite.

The point is that the conditions today are changing for the first time in history! In the meantime, scientists don’t understand that things are changing, but I already see it from the spiritual world. But how can we prove this to people? This is why Kabbalsits have kept quiet all this time.

Even a hundred years ago Baal HaSulam began to speak about the crisis, and about the fact that we are one family, about the danger of a nuclear war. But no one wanted to listen; they called him a communist and a mystic.

But today it is already possible to speak, although there are many scientists who won’t see the crisis until it hits them in full force.

But I don’t want it to hit them so. We see that there is no choice and that we have to explain. After all, a scientist studies real life, he studies you and me! And we can’t wait until we begin to starve, until we empty the earth of its natural resources, and until millions of jobless people go out to the streets for this scientist to wake up and say, “Oh, it turns out that there is another trend…” and then to begin to study it.

I don’t want him to study these new laws on me, so that later he will be able to tell about them and get a Nobel Prize at my expense. This is why we have been given permission from Above to reveal this knowledge in advance, before this experiment is preformed on living people.

So I can declare that I disagree with the opinion of the scientist with all due respect and the appreciation I feel for modern science. In fact, according to what he sees, he is right. But there is another process going on here, which is hidden at the moment. Many people will disagree with him because they already see that something strange is happening here. To be on the safe side, it is better to assume that they are right.

After all, this isn’t an experiment on lab mice but on living people! If Spain explodes now, it will immediately spread like wildfire to Italy, Greece, and the rest of Europe.

But this doesn’t mean that scientists don’t understand. They work with numbers and statistical data, they study the world, its processes and results according to what they see: They don’t see anything yet. This is why he is right because as it written: “A judge has only what his eyes can see.”

But there is a sage, who looks a great distance ahead and sees the future states as they are being formed.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/12, The Zohar

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 01.16.12

Writings of Rabash Letter 34
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Illuminations of Light and Illuminations of Fire,”  Lesson 37
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6, ”The Eser Sefirot of ha Olam Nekudim,” Item 2, Lesson 2
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Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 40, Lesson 22
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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 01.15.12

Writings of Rabash The Prayer
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “Illuminations of Light and Illuminations of Fire,” Item 132, Lesson 36
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 6,  “The Eser Sefirot of ha Olam Nekudim,” Item 1, Lesson 1
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Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot,” Item 36, Lesson 21
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Come To The Lesson To Attain The Force Of Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere are many ways we can check our desire in which all the clarifications take place: “What for? Why? Where does it come from and where is it leading to? By what means can I advance? How can I check whether my goal is the right one? What are my true intentions? Could it be that it is simply my egoistic desire and personal interests that naturally attract me, and that everything that is against them repels me?”

A very close and thorough examination is needed here. At the same time we should be careful not to be too absorbed in these clarifications because it is part of my work, only half of the “half a Shekel” that is my part. The other half should be expressed in action. The action is studying together with the group, feeling the friends, and the examination during the study: Is it in the same line of thought with everyone else, in contact with the teacher and the group?

The second half of the “half a Shekel” ends when a person receives the change from Above. All our efforts should end in attaining an open deficiency that waits for salvation from Above, like Nukva, the female desire that opens herself to receive the correction.

This is how we should prepare ourselves for the lesson. Here a lot depends on the greatness of the source from which we receive this bestowal, from the immense height of The Book of Zohar and its authors. The mechanism that operates in The Book of Zohar is the world of Ein Sof because it passes the upper Light from the head of Zeir Anpin, the Light of Ein Sof.

If a person works on all the levels: in his feelings, his connection with the group, with the teacher, with the state of the world, with the systems of the worlds, with the upper force, and connects it all to the one mechanism that he operates now, then there is hope that his awakening and his action will evoke an awakening from Above. And his prayer (MAN) will draw the response (MAD) from Above.

The prayer (MAN) (Mei Nukvin – female waters) is the desire, the deficiency. The response that comes from Above is MAD (Mei Dhurin – male waters), the power to overcome. We have to feel that we turn the weak, meaningless, painful, and defective state into bestowal, power, and correction, and feel inside us how our MAN turns into MAD
[66049]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/12, The Zohar

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Weekly Torah Portion – 01.13.12

The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Shmot,” Selected Excerpts
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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 01.13.12

Shamati #153, A Thought Is an Upshot of the Desire”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” “The Two Great Lights,” Item 130
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Preface to the Book of Zohar, Item 23
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Writings of Baal HaSulam The Peace,” (Start with: “We not excessively examine the Mitzva”)
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When Overcome By Deadly Sleep

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf there is no desire in a person’s heart, he falls asleep and is considered dead in spirituality. After all, spirituality begins when the desire awakens it. The desire never comes by itself.

Even if a person is awakened from Above, and suddenly feels a longing in his heart, a strange desire—it is all on account of the Upper. Nothing but that will come to us from Above. Although it may seem to a person that he advances with the one desire that he was given as a present from Above, he cannot advance by himself. It will go away the same way it appeared, leaving almost no traces.

We have to try and accurately clarify where our desire comes from. It can come from the group, from a friend, from an impression, from a certain event, or from a certain memory. A person attributes all this to himself because he doesn’t know and cannot feel that it comes from the outside. But he must calculate and check whether he was searching for it a moment before that, in tension, did he try to attain that desire? If there is nothing that ties the previous moment to the appearance of the desire, it means that it isn’t his, but that it simply passed through him and wasn’t registered on his account.

This desire doesn’t bring him correction, but is rather like an exercise given to a child so that he will learn. But it is not considered part of one’s personal advancement. While an example together with his participation is enough for a child, for us it is not enough. All our advancement is only thanks to our own desire.

This means that I have to exert myself with regard to my environment and the books in situations where I cannot do that and do not have any previous desire. It is from such situations that I have to try and somehow wake up.

Here the habit of working according to a clear schedule is very important so that I know what I have to do now. Then I will remember and oblige myself to do it. This can also be thanks to the mutual guarantee in the group, which always reminds me of my obligation to myself and to others.

I can get additional support if I build a system around me that constantly reminds me how important spirituality is and makes me search again.

But even if I am reminded from Above in a way that I don’t understand, by “the direct and indirect influence of the Creator,” in the hidden ways as the Creator operates—I still have to continue by myself afterwards until I discover my own desire.
[66052]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/12, The Zohar

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On The Wave Of The Book Of Zohar

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: For quite some time now during The Zohar lesson I feel as if I am trying to find the right wave of a radio station, but I only hear noises. We constantly speak about the fact that while reading The Book of Zohar we should tune ourselves to one goal or another, and I can’t do that at all…am I missing something by that or should I just keep on going and it will come eventually?

Answer: The thing is that if we are talking about receiving a wave and not about the Reforming Light, then among all the noises I should find the exact frequency in which I will hear the silence; the silence is what I need to hear. This is the exact frequency of the station. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah this accurate direction indicates that I am getting ready to receive the Inner Light.

Here, however, we are talking about the Surrounding Light, about the Reforming Light, which you don’t recognize when it comes to you. You aren’t working here in order to receive some wisdom, to receive some “station” and to hear something new.

You are here in order to activate the maximum desire, and in it you will receive the power to overcome, not knowledge. After all, you are not looking for knowledge here, but for the desire to bestow, to annul yourself before the Upper, to adhere to Him, to His attribute of bestow, to the power of bestowal, to reach self sacrifice, and the ability to actually incorporate in the group in order to receive from it the power to find this upper spiritual mechanism there.

You are not tuning yourself to the “station” of wisdom. You don’t wait to be shown something like on a TV screen. This isn’t the channel through which the Reforming Light comes. It comes to the place in which you yearn for bestowal most and are ready to annul yourself and develop your connection with others. This is the result of the Reforming Light, which we should expect.

I don’t aspire to understand and to feel the material we study at all. I yearn to understand and feel the actions of bestowal themselves. After all, “to know the material studied,” as Baal HaSulam says in part 155, of the “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” means to know the Upper, and not to acquire knowledge. Knowledge in spirituality is the knowledge of bestowal, and it is in the Light that I study how the spiritual tool works. I won’t see it if I don’t have this approach.

After all, what does the Reforming Light bring us? It allows us to relate to the hidden world in which we dwell through the attribute of bestowal. When I begin to relate to the world using the attribute of bestowal, the world becomes transparent and through it I see the networks of connection. It is about these networks that I study, the networks in which I am incorporated, in which I begin to feel like a spider in a web.

When I feel the whole system of connection, I begin to correct it, to pull the strings that are drawn from me and to see upon what I bestow. Eventually, this is our whole study: about how I move the whole system and how with its help I correct my actions and work for this system, and how this whole system moves until the Creator, the general force, is revealed.

This is why I don’t look for the “station” that should be revealed by The Book of Zohar. But the “static” will gradually bring you to search for another “station,” and you will find it.
[66044]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/12, The Zohar

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