The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 135: The seven firmaments are above, and in each there are stars, signs, and suns that serve in each and every firmament. In all the firmaments, there are Merkavot [plural of Merkava—chariot/structure], one atop the other, to assume the burden of their Master’s kingdom. And in all the firmaments are Merkavot and suns that are different from one another, standing one atop the other. Some have six wings and some have four wings; some have four faces and some have two faces, and some have one face; some are burning fire, some are water, and some are wind, as it is written, “He makes the winds His messengers, flaming fire His ministers.”

Angels are forces of the still, vegetative, and animate levels with respect to man. In this world man exists within the still, vegetative, and animate nature, which creates the necessary environment for him. Similarly in the spiritual world, amid the forces of our soul, there are various forces of the still, vegetative, and animate spiritual levels, which are called angels. With the assistance of these forces, I form my attitude to the Creator, as I aspire to aim myself toward Him in order to find the connection with Him. My soul exists thanks to these forces; they are its environment. In this way I advance.

Angels are also the forces of man’s soul, which a person arranges in order to exist in his soul. A person directs all of these forces toward the Creator and thereby gets in touch with Him. These angels have neither free will, nor their own reality. They resemble the powers of nature as we know them as gravity, and the laws of interaction between molecules and atoms and large and small bodies. All these forces are called angels.

We should not imagine angels as bodies with wings flying around! The “wings” that The Zohar speaks of are coverings or the screens that they bring to a person. With the help of these forces, a person attains self-realization and then has the power of the screen called “an angel with wings.”

Therefore, our attitude to these forces should be same as to nature in this world. Everything that surrounds a person (with the exception of people), all other powers, are angels. Essentially, we always aspire to arrange them in a way that is most comfortable for us. It is similar in the spiritual world.
[14546]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Two Angels On The Same Path
Laitman.com Post: Building Your Self Between Two Magnets
Laitman.com Post: Connecting To The Director Of All Reality

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 150
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary,” Item 16
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 1
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Rav Baruch Ashlag “Concerning Love of Friends”
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item  129: …The offering of the poor is the lightest: two turtledoves or two young pigeons. And if not, he brings a little flour and is thus forgiven. At that time, it is declared and said, “For He has not despised nor abhorred the lowliness of the poor,” since the offering of the poor is the most praised.

This is talking about a person, with what degree of desire (Aviut) he can work in order to bestow.  In the measure that his will to receive is revealed to him, he takes parts from it, the thicker and coarser ones, and if he is able to work with them in order to bestow, he is called rich. And if he can take only the smaller, weaker ones from his will to receive and bring them as a sacrifice, that is to bring them closer to the Creator, he is called poor.

The word “sacrifice” (Korban) derives from the word “bring closer” (Lekarev). According to what part of his will to receive a person brings closer to the Creator in order to use it to bestow, he is called rich or poor.  The rich brings more, and the poor less; each one to the extent that he is able to work with his will to receive in order to bestow. “Sacrifice” is called the will to receive that I previously used in order to receive but now bring closer to the Creator, and in doing so transform it from a receiving to a bestowing one.  Because of this new will to receive, I came closer to the Creator and made one step forward on the ladder to adhesion with the Creator.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: There Are Some Desires We Can Never Use
Interview with the Future: Part 4. Contact with the Upper One – “Adhesion with the Creator”
Shamati #192: “The Lots”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar, On Major Corrections

Adam was the first person to reveal the order of actions that lead to spiritual success. He passed on this wisdom to his disciples “mouth to mouth.” And everyone can add to his friend (Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”).

One: The Creator is One, all of reality is included in Him at all times; everything stems from Him; He is perfect despite the seeming imperfection of creation. Kabbalists call this investigation “One.”

Abraham laid down the basis of this investigation. In his Book of Creation, he arrived at the conclusion that there are not two different authorities of good and evil, but rather everything is ruled only by good (Baal HaSulam, “The Character of Kabbalah”).

The Book of Zohar, Preface (abridged)

1. Abraham is the root of mercy in the souls. That is why he corrected the common soul (Shechina) and made it suitable for fulfillment by the Light of Mercy.

But if the Light of Mercy (Hassadim) stayed in the souls of Abraham’s disciples (the “people of Israel,” the group he created), they wouldn’t be able to exercise their desire to receive pleasure. That is why the correction of mercy didn’t bring the Thought of Creation to completion. This is because the main idea behind the Thought of Creation is to please the creatures specifically by receiving fulfillment from Him.

2.  This is the reason why Abraham (the property of bestowal) gave birth to Isaac (the property of receiving). As a result of Abraham’s correction, Isaac discovered the existence of the common soul which was in the state of a complete perfection filled with the Light of Mercy. He then sensed its desire to receive the entire perfection that was pre-determined by the Thought of Creation.

In other words, Isaac awakened in it the desire to receive from the Creator for the sake of bestowal which means that the desire to receive emerges only because of the desire of the Bestowing One; if the Bestowing One didn’t desire it, the soul wouldn’t possess even the tiniest desire to receive anything at all from Him.

This type of receiving for the sake of giving is considered bestowal since it is a quality that is not supported by egoism. It completely corrected the general desire (Shechina) to receive the entirety of abundance that was programmed at the time of creation.

3.  However, since the world was not ready for complete correction, the villain Esau appeared and corrupted the process of correction.

Esau didn’t follow “receiving solely for the sake of bestowal” as per Isaac’s correction; he sinned by receiving “for his own sake.” Even when he came to understand that the Bestowing One didn’t want him to receive, he still continued to receive pleasure for his own sake and that’s why Klipot “bonded” with him.

Since Jacob was aware of Esau’s “defect,” he corrected the Soul within the property of trepidation. That’s why it is said: “his hand grasping Esau’s heel.”  As a result, the corrections of Abraham and Isaac were united and no wrongdoing occurred.

4. But this correction was not final since it resulted from fear of sin that comes from “Esau’s heel.”  When complete correction takes place, the fear of “Esau’s heel” is annulled, and trepidation appears out of the greatness of the Creator. Jacob’s fear serves to correct all generations of the people of Israel until complete correction is attained.

5. Everybody has to go through correction, and by doing so perceive the soul created by the Creator. This means obtaining the “qualities of the forefathers.”

Only after the acquisition of such properties, correction of the soul commences; it takes off from the same place which Jacob left for us, meaning elevating trepidation to a degree at which it depends solely on the greatness of the Creator. Afterward, the Upper Light is attracted through this elevated property of trepidation to guide us towards complete correction.

6. The reason for all afflictions that emerge in this world is exclusively to correct the desire to receive within souls so that they become ready to receive all of the abundance included in the Thought of Creation.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Spirituality Is The Unity Of Darkness And Light
Laitman.com Post: The Law Of Upper Love
Spiritual Search:  Fifteenth Talk.”Our Desire to Receive is Equal to the Creator’s Altruism”

Filed under: Kabbalistic Sources, Zohar - 1 Comment →

The more we strive toward the Light, the better our future will be since we rouse the revelation of the Light ourselves. The Light illuminates this world more and more, and those who head toward it perceive this state as good, while others perceive it as bad. First the Light develops the whole world (our Universe, the terrestrial globe, and everything it contains) according to the inanimate, vegetative, and animate degrees, cultivating only the egoistic desire. This is material development, at the maximum of which is the animate level; in this manner, the Light develops matter.

However, when egoism grows to the animate level, there is nowhere else for it to grow. It feels its complete powerlessness; it feels that it has reached a dead end and there is only darkness ahead. This is how the world comes to crisis and despair. However, all this occurs under the influence of the Light which shows us that there is nothing else with which we can fill the will to receive. Actually, we never could fill it; we only hoped for the future and aspired to it constantly.

However, once the future stops shining before us, and we have completely depleted our desire on the animate degree, we do not feel any possibility of development ahead. Why? What for? At this point, humanity finds itself at a dead end without any goals or hope for the future.

This is why the science of Kabbalah is being revealed today. It explains to us the purpose as to why all this is being done. It is so that now we can become partners with the Light on our own and reach the degree of Human, which is similar to the Creator. Rising from the animate level to the human level is our next stage of development.

This is impossible without the realization of the Upper plan. Malchut of the World of Infinity is finally reaching the conclusion of the purpose of creation as conceived by the Creator who wanted creation to come to know Him, meaning to become independent yet similar to Him. And creation is currently beginning to realize this Upper plan.

We are the first generation in which this special informational gene (Reshimo) is being revealed. It pertains to the human degree and we must realize it. Therefore, the Light which is now acting in this world will always be to the detriment of the egoistic desire expressly for the purpose of helping us to ascend.

At the same time, the Light will help those people who wish to realize this “gene of bestowal” in them. The Creator has come closer to us…He has revealed to us the informational gene (Reshimo), the science of Kabbalah, the world crisis, the whole situation, and all the means that allow us to discern this new direction of development and to execute it. We only need to reach for the Light on our own and we will see His Goodness.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/10, Shamati #241

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: What’s The Use Of Our Suffering?
Laitman.com Post: Ascend To A Higher Dimension
Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life: Realizing the Spiritual Gene, Part – IV “The Reshimo”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, My Similarity to the Creator, Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar was revealed only during our times since we have now gone through the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of our development and reached the human level (human, "Adam" – from the word "Edame," which means "similar" to the Creator). Therefore, presently we feel a crisis, helplessness, despair, and disappointment in our lives. This is precisely why The Zohar is being revealed: so that we could realize our connection, reach the same system of connection between us as exists in Malchut of Infinity where we are all connected as one whole.

The first stage of correction is called "don’t do to another what you hate." This is the level of Hafetz Hesed (not wanting anything for yourself), the "return from fear (trepidation)." The second stage of correction is even higher; it is the level of "love your neighbor as yourself," the "return from love," receiving for the sake of bestowal. We have yet to perform these two corrections, and they both are realized in the relationships between people.

Then the Creator is revealed in our corrected relationships to the extent that we love and bestow to the neighbor, as it is written: "From love for the neighbor to love for the Creator." Not a single correction can be carried out in any other way except by realizing it in a group of Kabbalists (i.e., those who desire to reach the level of a human being).

In the relationship between them, they build a system of Malchut of Infinity as they wish to feel the Light of Infinity, the Creator, in it. The Zohar needs to provide us with the strength for this, this desire and the inner attainments. Therefore, while we read The Zohar we need to try to be in the intention that we are all one whole that our points in the heart, the desires for the spiritual, unite as one. From these common desires, we build our spiritual vessel, the Shechina, Malchut of Infinity, in which we will feel the Creator.

We need to feel that we are together, like the authors of The Zohar, the group of Rabbi Shimon, and within this system of connection between us, we should try to imagine what this Book is telling us about. After all, the only thing written about in The Zohar is the connection between us. Although this is described in various forms and images that seem to be from this world, it is only the forces of our soul that are described in The Zohar.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Before Reading The Book Of Zohar
Laitman.com Post: Do Not Miss Our Train!
5 Minutes Of Light: "The Time Has Come To Open The Zohar"

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Zohar - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 108: Hence, since the sins of the lower ones blemish above, they offer a sacrifice. That offering is as it is written, “And for your transgressions was your mother put away,” where the sin causes separation between ZA and Malchut for his flaw, since Malchut was sent away due to the sin. And the offering that they sacrifice brings the upper world, ZA, closer to the lower world, Malchut, and everything becomes one.

Man never willingly commits a sin. If he knows for certain that he would be committing a sin, he would not be able to do so. He sins only if he doesn’t know or doesn’t consider the act a sin. It is impossible to sin before the Creator, but can only do so if He is concealed, which no longer makes it a sin.

All the sins mentioned by the science of Kabbalah have taken place from above downward by the Upper Force. When ascending from below upward, we never sin. We merely reveal the sins that exist in us from Him in the first place.

The Creator created the evil inclination; no greater or other evil could have been done. He turned Himself into a polar opposites, placed this oppositeness into us, and is gradually revealing it to us. All the evil that we are presently revealing within is but the smallest measure of oppositeness to the Creator that exists within us.

As we ascend the spiritual ladder to the World of Infinity, we will continue to reveal evil within in increasingly greater degrees of oppositeness to Him, until the Creator becomes revealed within us on the level of Infinity as a polar opposite of Himself. The evil within us will be infinitely great, but at the same time we will have the strength to oppose it.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How Do You Define Good And Evil?
A Guide to the Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah: “Sin—the Way Out of Evil”
Kabbalah Moments: “Transcending The Evil”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - 1 Comment →

Shamati #241 “Call Upon Him While He is Near”
The quality of receiving doesn’t exist in nature. The Creator artificially created it so that we could know Him from being opposite to Him.
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 54
A person is a desire for pleasure that is immersed into darkness, and at the same time unifying with the Light, or the Creator.
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “VaYikra (The Lord Called),” Item 129
While reading the Zohar we must unify the sparks of our spiritual desires and build Shechina out of them-a vessel in which we will sense the Creator.
Download: WMV Video|MP3 Audio

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Zohar - No Comments →

When the souls unite together, a person discovers a new reality. Currently we experience ourselves as living in this world, which is at the level of individual existence; each part is disconnected from the entire organism. Yet, despite the fact that all these parts are alive and

aware of their individual existence, there is a difference between a body that is whole and a body whose parts are disconnected.

Right now, each disconnected individual is receiving a lifeline and life support, like an organ extracted from the body for transplant into another organism. Consequently, they are like “ready-for-transplant organs” on life support, which ensures they don’t descend below the animalistic existence. These organs perceive themselves as living in this reality. That’s who we are.

If we, a group of such organs, desire to unite and we ask for it, then our collective desire (the prayer called MAN) draws from Above (from a higher level) the force that unites us. Subsequently, in our unity we perceive the spiritual reality, as a body whose organs begin to connect with each other.

Thus, the entire organism experiences a different life, not the existence each of them once lived separately by striving to survive on its animalistic level. We ascend from the animalistic level of existence to a new level called human.

The sensation of this collective life of all “bodily organs” (the collective soul) is called the spiritual world. We will no longer even be able to perceive the previous existence as life because we’ll no longer live to survive, but instead will support each others’ lifeline. The Light gives us a completely new and different reality.

Our previous life on the animalistic level will look extremely low and undesirable. We’ll need it solely in order to absorb the desires of others who are still living in our world as animals; these are the desires that haven’t joined our connection yet. Gradually they will also begin to ascend. However, once having attained our spiritual life, this lower level will be unnecessary since we will all have ascended to a higher dimension.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Unity That Cannot Be Broken
Laitman.com Post: Are You Ready To Run?
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Last Generation”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Perception, Zohar - No Comments →

Moving into a new unexplored state that we have yet to discover, create, and select the correct actions, is called a game. Playing, nonetheless, is a serious activity, which carries the element of the unknown. While playing, we study our capacities, inclinations, and goals, along with their outcomes. With each iteration, a person moves forward to an unknown state.

How does one advance into the unknown? If we know the beginning and the final states, it means that the program is already within us and we are merely implementing it as we move from state to state. However, in this way we are not growing. Moving toward a known state doesn’t translate into acquiring a new one, but is only an accumulation of experience. If a person knows what the next state should be, then it is within him, he is already in it.

“Growth” on the other hand, means that one acquires a totally new state and becomes the person they are not yet today. How can we accomplish this in the most rational, mature, and correct way if not with the help of a game, a simulation? Nature itself pushes us relentlessly to learn by playing.

The same process can be observed at the still, vegetative, and animate levels. In order to continuously advance, a plant employs similar processes within itself, just like a game. If we study the plant during its growth, it appears identical to ours on the animate and human levels.

A person has to imagine correctly the next state within oneself, so much so as to receive the force of growth from within it. Therefore, the Creator’s presence in each creature is mandatory. One can make a step forward only if it already exists in him. A person must consciously and purposefully draw the Creator’s Light, which comes from his hidden higher “half.”

Therefore, a person constructs a model of a more advanced state using the group, which is a simulator of the World of Infinity, spiritual states, and mutual bestowal. When a person performs various actions, one expects the Light to act upon him and to let him know that the most correct possible state has been found. When does it occur? When the Light clothes in it.

The Light remains in absolute rest. We only need to find our similarity to it. Out of all possible forms, as soon as we pick the form similar to the Creator, He immediately fills us and we become united with one another. This is called the next state. In this way, we advance.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, The Zohar

Related Materials:
Laitman.com Post: All Of Creation Is The Creator’s Game
Laitman.com Post: The Light Of The Future
5 Minutes Of Light: “Using The Study To Build The Kli”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Zohar - 2 Comments →