Entries in the 'Zohar' Category

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.31.11

Shamati #26 One’s Future Depends and Is Tied to Gratitude for the Past
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma (Donation) 2,” “The Stars,” Item 841, Lesson 37
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 2, Item 3, Lesson 4
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 46, Lesson 29
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rav Yehuda Ashlag “The Peace,” Lesson 3
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Playing The Game Is Serious Business

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe game is the most important chore for us. Therefore, when we are reading The Zohar, we have to play at being great Kabbalists and imagine that we reside in the same state as the authors of The Book of Zohar, those who first revealed how much they resented each other, but joined together afterwards.

In the beginning, they hated each other, and consequently, did not feel anything beyond their animate state, the state of this world. From such a deep descent, they started rising to the spiritual level of mutual bestowal and guarantee, and that is when their bond grew so strong that they revealed what is described in The Zohar.

Therefore, from our lack of connection, we too have to try to achieve a bond as strong as theirs, and then we’ll uncover what The Zohar narrates; we will reach the level of the authors of the book. If they started with hatred, literally wanting to kill each other, although we don’t reach such a deep awareness of evil, as much as we are able to do so and correct it, we’ll reach at least some degree of understanding of what they wrote about, and then we’ll climb up on the same degree that they revealed.

Question: How is the game connected with drawing the Surrounding Light?

Answer: The game is everything. It is the only action we perform. The game signifies that I strive for what I desire to achieve. What is the difference between this game and some other creative action in our world if while doing it, we also desire to get something out of it? Good question, but in this game we don’t really know what to do. It has an element of fortune, free will; it has something I cannot know in advance. And that’s why it is called a game.

In this game, I depend on the others as if we are in a true state playing in some imaginary action. But in reality, this imaginary action turns out to be true when we come to it. Therefore, the game is regarded as a serious business.
[49187]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/2011, The Zohar

Related Material:
A Game Of The Spiritual World
Time To Act For The Sake Of The Creator
A Game: Stepping Into The Unknown

Weekly Torah Portion – 07.29.11

The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Masei,” Selected Excerpts
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.29.11

Shamati #61Round About Him It Stormeth Mightily
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma (Donation) 2,” “The Stars,” Item 831, Lesson 36
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Kabbalah for the Student, General Preface” “(start with: “From the above-mentioned…”), Item 3, Lesson 5
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “One Commandment
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Stop Looking At The World Through A Torn Curtain!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What sentence can I write in front of me in capital letters so that every time I get distracted and my thoughts wander, I could come back to it and refocus again?

Answer: Imagine a state that is worth constantly aspiring to, and describe it so this sentence would immediately remind you that you perceive reality as divided and broken up into different parts only because you are inside of egoism.

As soon as you discard this view through your ego, everything becomes a single whole. It’s like you are looking at reality through a curtain that has small holes in it and what you see seems to be made up of separate parts. But then you remove this curtain from your eyes and all of reality turns out to be one.
From the 2dn part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/11, The Zohar
[49518]

Related Material:
The Inner Vision And The World Of Forces
The Point From Which One Enters The Spiritual World
Study With Happiness

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.28.11

Shamati #218 The Torah and the Creator Are One
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma (Donation) 2,” “Man’s Nourishments Are as Hard as the Tearing of the Red,” Lesson 35
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 2, Item 2, Lesson 3
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 44, Lesson 28
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rav Yehuda Ashlag “The Peace,” Lesson 2
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Joy Of The Long Awaited Encounter

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe reading of The Zohar can be compared to a long awaited meeting with a person you love, someone you wished to be closer to. When the two of you finally meet, it doesn’t matter to you what exactly he is saying. The most important thing is that while being next to him and hearing his voice, you feel your closeness. The actual words are not important. Let him talk. You don’t even listen to them that closely. Through the words, you want to feel how you come closer to him and feel him more.

And it’s the same with The Book of Zohar. All the different words and stories that are written in it seem to confuse us, but then, we understand why this is written there: It is because all of it are names of our connections. But I don’t care about what is written in the book exactly, what it is talking about. What matters is that I am close to it at this time. Because I rejoice at being connected with it, I don’t really pay attention to its words. The most important thing is that we are close.
[49413]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
In A Circle Of Great Kabbalists
The Point From Which One Enters The Spiritual World
The Ladder Of Properties

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.27.11

Shamati #50 Two States,″ (start with: “The important thing…” TO: “By that one can attain adhesion with Him”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma,(Donation) 2,” “The Seven Blessings of the Bride,” Item 788, Lesson 34
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2 ,”Ohr Pnimi,” Item 2, Lesson 2
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 42, Lesson 27
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rav Yehuda Ashlag “The Peace,” Lesson 1
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.26.11

Shamati #213 Acknowledging the Desire
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selected, Chapter “Truma,(Donation) 2,” “The Meaning of the Blessing for the Food,” Item 769, Lesson 33
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 2, Item 1, Lesson 1
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 38, Lesson 26
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Item 28, Lesson 10
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

An Umbrella For Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Zohar, Chapter “Truma,” Item 759: Once the Nukva was adorned—meaning built by [Partzuf] AVI [Aba ve Ima]—and ZA and Nukva returned to being PBP [Panim be Panim], that shape of man, ZA, came by craving for the Nukva. There, in the Nukva, the second man of Beria was engraved and depicted, as his form. It is written about him, “And begot a son in his own likeness, after his image.”

The Book of Zohar
talks only about what is happening in the network that connects the souls. The entire sum total of these connections between us is called “the upper world,” whose pictures are described by The Zohar, including forces, Lights, various forms and images. There is nothing more for us to imagine because this is what we are living in.

Each of us individually is a desire to enjoy, and outside of every one of us, in the connections between us there is the upper world, filled with Light. Therefore, I have to “wrap up” my will to enjoy, cover it as if in a shadow, perform a restriction on it and create a screen and reflected Light, and then to exist outside of it, in my relationships with others.

This is exactly what The Zohar talks about: which form or image I take on in relation to others. If I do this, then I reveal everything we read about in The Zohar. Otherwise I am inside of myself, in my will to enjoy, and I feel only this world.

We can perceive either inside of us or above us, outside of us. “Outside of us” means in the attitude to the neighbor, where “a neighbor” is the people with whom I want to build a connecting network. This is called “the group.” If I relate to the whole world in this way, then the group is the whole world.

While correcting my qualities, if I desire to reveal the force that founded everything, then I reveal it according to the law of equivalence of form. As soon as my connecting network with others acquires a spiritual form, a spiritual essence, the true mutual bestowal, the level of mutual guarantee even on the first stage, then inside of it, I immediately feel the Creator.
[49184]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/25/11, The Zohar

Related Material:
The Radiance Of The Integral Soul
Man Is A Formula Of Connection
Everything Is Revealed Between Us