Entries in the 'Zohar' Category

The Time Of The Final Battles

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Zohar, Chapter “BeShalach (When Pharaoh Sent),” Item 311: The Creator is destined to revive all those kings that have afflicted Israel and Jerusalem: Hadrian, Lupinus, Nebuchadnezzar, Sennacherib, and all the other kings in the world. He will give them dominion as in the beginning, and the rest of the nations will gather with them and they will wage war on Jerusalem.

And the Creator will avenge them openly around Jerusalem, as it is written, “And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem.” … And this is written for the time when the Messiah comes; this song is an eternal song.

This is not talking about times, but about Surrounding Lights that come to us, giving us the sensation of time. Therefore, everything we will reveal in the future, in greater Aviut (thickness, coarseness) of desire, are heavier parts of Malchut such as Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, and others that become revealed at the very end of all the corrections.

That is why it is called the “time” when the Messiah (redemption from egoism) comes, the time of the general correction, the result of all the corrections. This correction takes place by the Surrounding Lights (Ohr Makif) and Kelim (desires, Lev HaEven) that were impossible to correct until this time, and now they are corrected.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, The Zohar

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 11.03.10

Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “The Creator and Israel Went Into Exile”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “BeShalach (When Pharaoh Sent),” Item 332
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Lesson 14
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Exile and Redemption,” Lesson 2
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Three Days At The End Of Correction

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Should I perceive the Convention as a reflection of the corrected system of souls?

Answer: Of course! If I plan to come to the Convention, then I am about to become part of a system that is completely corrected compared to me.

It doesn’t matter that some of the people attending will be total beginners who just started studying the science of Kabbalah, or even people who just want to start getting familiar with it, who are confused and don’t understand anything yet. The Creator has brought them here and therefore I have to perceive them in relation to me as being just as corrected as the Creator.

If I see them as uncorrected, stupid, and not understanding anything, then I have to see all of this reflected inside myself. This applies to everyone with the exception of people who are clearly opposed to the goal; they must be distanced and they’ll be dealt with at the End of Correction (Gmar Tikkun).
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, The Zohar

Through All The Obstacles

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is it that every time I think about unity between us, some force pushes me away from it?

Answer: This is “help against you.” There are two forces leading a person toward the goal. One acts in the direction of unity and the other against. By being between them, a person has freedom of will to choose the right environment and with its help (influence) to choose the path toward the goal instead of the opposite path.

Accordingly, both forces help him from both sides. One force pushes him into the group while the other pushes him out of the group (the environment) so that he is always at the equilibrium between these two forces.

He thinks that he is being pushed away from unity, but that’s not so. He receives the force to overcome exactly proportionate to the opportunity to be strengthened in his environment that he received prior.

A person is never driven to failure from Above, as it is written, “One is only elevated in acquiring the quality of bestowal, and never stopped.” Even if there is an obstacle placed before a person now, prior to that it is ensured that a person will be able to overcome it with his free choice.

It’s the same as how we raise children. We consciously and deliberately give them exercises that are more difficult so they will become smarter and stronger.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/10, The Zohar

The Constructor Of Your Soul: “Do It Yourself”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to think about unity during the reading of The Zohar in order to have the entire group cross the “Red Sea” and enter the spiritual world?

Answer: The Zohar reveals that what happens from the perspective of the spiritual vessels (desires), that is, different types of connection. It does not describe the picture from the Light’s perspective. There are Kabbalistic books that contain descriptions from the Light’s perspective: how different Lights come and how they spread. It is like we are being told what is depicted in a certain picture.

To provide a description from the desires’ perspective, however, is to explain how a picture was drawn, not what is actually drawn. It is like saying what colors one needs, how they are mixed, how to apply them on the canvas, or what technique and brush to use.

It turns out that a spiritual picture is not simply made by freely drawing whatever I want, like from the Light’s perspective. No, at first, everything needs to be arranged as if you were using a ruler and other graphing “tools” (Kelim, vessels); everything needs to be calculated. This is because it comes from the side of the desires, the spiritual vessels, and they need to be well-prepared in the first place.

This is the narrative style of The Zohar and the entire “practical” Kabbalah that comes from the side of the created beings: the depth (Aviut, coarseness) of the desire that is needed, the screens, different actions including screens, and that which will be consequently revealed. We need to use this description and draw the picture ourselves, instead of simply enjoying it.

If we already were in these states, we would be able to enjoy the picture in a different way. We would read and receive the explanations of the picture that we would already see. However, so far, we are unable to be impressed by the picture. We arrive from the side of the desires and learn to draw the picture. The Zohar tells us step by step where we need to arrive and hands us the instruments that we need to create this “canvas.”

We create this picture in the group, in the unity between us, and all the names, lines, and all the objects only stand for different types of interconnections of the desires. Once you connect them and create even the initial, minimal connection, you will attain the first spiritual degree, and the picture will become revealed.

It’s essential for us to understand the way everything operates, the way everything needs to be connected for the system to work. It is like constructing a vehicle, connecting all the parts and the power supply, putting in the gas, the oil, all the necessary fluids, completing the construction, turning on the ignition, and, voila, the car powers on! This is the result we need to reach.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/10, The Zohar

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Two Windows Of Our Reality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we reach the proper connection for the Light to be revealed between us?

Answer: Imagine that there are two windows before us, like on a computer screen. In one of them we see a system where we are perfectly connected with one another. It is called the “World of Infinity.” In the other window we see the system that is now before us, where hatred governs instead of love. This system is called “this world.”

These are two different systems. The World of Infinity lives and exists; it is called the first (Aleph) and the third (Gimel) states of reality. This is the only state created by the Creator, in which He exists.

All other states, from the World of Infinity to our world, the 125 degrees of connection between us (125 states), are for us to use to gradually ascend. All the states except for Infinity are called “worlds,” meaning concealment, hiding. The same World of Infinity, but a more concealed one, vaguer, and not fully recognizable is called the World of Atzilut. An even foggier one is the World of Beria, and so on.

Every world is similar to the world above and below it in every part and detail. The only difference is the degree of revelation of the Light in it. The less Light, the darker it is. It is similar to when we see things well during the day and everything is clear, but at night it is dark, yet there is little difference between darkness and light.

In other words, we exist in that same state, referred to as the “World of Infinity,” only 125 degrees of concealment are blocking it from us. And because the concealment is so large on the last degree, where we exist in our world, we are considered completely separated from spirituality. We do not even have the slightest sensation that there are states and degrees between us and the World of Infinity, as if we only exist here, and there is nothing else.

We exist in this world, in our “window” on our “screen,” but there is another “window” on the same “screen,” the World of Infinity. For this reason, when we try to treat each other properly, like in the World of Infinity, as if we already were there (even though we are not yet capable of it), by doing so we make ourselves similar to the World of Infinity, we as if desire to reach it.

When we aspire to it like infants who want to become adults, we evoke the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) from the same World of Infinity. This Light is the Light that Reforms and brings us closer to the World of Infinity.

The same principle works everywhere: When I aspire to attain a source of energy, I evoke a large influence through my aspiration to come near it. These are precise laws of physics operating here, there is nothing imaginary or mystical here.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/10, The Zohar

The Pipeline of Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe exist in a general system. If we actualize the right connection between all its parts, we will create a web that connects our desires correctly.

It is as though we correct a “pipeline” between us, whereupon the Upper Force (the Creator) comes and begins to run the Light of life through these “pipes.” Everything depends on how we establish the connection between us, meaning the diameter of the “pipe,” to what measure is it the right kind of connection. And then the Light of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida (NRNHY) flows through it.

Thus we advance along the 125 degrees of connection between us, until we reveal the entire Light of NRNHY, which means we exist in the World of Infinity.

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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/10, The Zohar

Advanced Math Of Creation

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Creator is constant, existing, and unchanging. However, the creature cannot experience something that doesn’t change. We neither recognize nor feel permanence.

All our sensations operate by measuring contrast since “everything is attained through comparison.” We recognize something only if it changes or moves, if there are differences between occurrences in terms of time, motion, power, and thousand other measurements. But we have to have them first!

Therefore, the Creator demonstrates Himself to us and gives us an opportunity to get to know Him through multitude of modifications that do not exist either in Him or in the will to receive (desire). But He must arrange billions of changes in the relationships between Him and the desire to receive so that the latter may get to know Him.

After all these changes, we attain contentment and completeness. But in order to achieve this and know the Creator, we have to go through them. All these modifications are artificially created by the Creator.

The desire to receive and the desire to give, reception and bestowal, Klipa (shell) and sanctity, are all created for a single reason: to give us an ever lasting impression of the Creator. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to recognize anything in the simple, white Light. We wouldn’t even know that it is “white.” It is impossible to pass to the creature unwavering perfection and permanence but only through infinite number of changes.

To a certain degree, it can be observed in electronics. In order to transmit some phenomenon, we must split it, divide it into a multitude of impulses or discrete data, and pass them on at high frequencies. With the help of such partition (discretion), transmission of multiple tiny modifications, their reception and further integration (unification), we can pass information through the communication lines.

Another person can also be known only by various changes you observe in him, by you encountering  him or her, and not in any other way. But after you have collected all your impressions, you may say that now you know that person.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, The Zohar

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 11.01.10

Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “And the Children Racketed Within Her
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “BeShalach (When Pharaoh Sent),” Item 252
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Lesson 12
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Ve Zot Le Yehuda,” Lesson 2
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How Do You Measure The Upper Light?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the Matronita that The Zohar talks about?

Answer: Matronita is Malchut. Our common desire to become similar to the Creator is called Matronita. The Creator (Kadosh Baruch Hu) is the general name of the Light of NaRaNHY that fills us.

However, we cannot feel the Light by itself. What is the Light of Nefesh? How can I say anything about it? Right now I tried something and felt a sweet taste, calling it the Light of Nefesh. Then I tried something else and felt a taste that’s sweeter, deeper, and with different inner shades, and I called it the Light of Ruach.

How can I measure them? I do it by the growth of my desires which have to reveal additional tastes in the new Light of Ruach compared to the Light of Nefesh. How many desires participate in feeling the Light of Ruach? Suppose there were five desires in order to reveal the Light of Nefesh. Now twenty more are necessary in order to reveal all the additional shades of sensation, which is called the Light of Ruach.

But how do I measure this Light? I do it according to how many more sensations I still have to enact in order to reveal it. That’s why one person can be listening to an opera, enjoying it, and experiencing an entire spectrum of feelings, while another person sitting right next to him will keep looking at his watch and impatiently waiting for it to be over.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/31/10, The Zohar