Entries in the 'Zohar' Category

Find All The Images Within Yourself

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt is written: “I created the evil inclination.” In the weekly chapter “VaYishlach,” the image of Esau is a certain special interpretation of the evil inclination; in other chapters, this will be the pharaoh, Bilak, Bilam, and other villains, but this will always be my evil inclination; it does not exist outside of me. It is simply described from different perspectives, emphasizing different properties that I need to work with each time on a different level.

In contrast, I am also being told about the forces that I must use to help me work with this, and I am shown that my first encounter with this evil inclination results in complete failure.

I immediately submit to it when it becomes revealed; I do not know what to do! But then, gradually, I begin to free myself of it, I separate myself, I restrict it, and begin to control it slightly. I cut a piece of it and correct it, then another piece, and in this way we go from one layer to another until the very end of correction, until we correct our entire egoism.

The Torah always reveals how man corrects himself, and now you will not have any difficulty reading it. Man is a small world, and everything must exist within you, you only need to try to find Beit El, Shechem, Balak, Dina, all the character of this tale within you, and also all the still, vegetative, and animate nature that the Torah speaks about, because these things are also properties of your soul, just on a lower level.

By no means should you ever see a literary work in the Torah. It is written about this: “Do not make images, do not make any images for yourself.”
[29340]
From the Weekly Torah Portion 11/18/2010

Related Material:
The Torah Score
We’ll Circumvent Esau!
You Shall Not Make Yourself An Idol

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.24.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” Letter 47

[media 3] [media 4]

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “Torah and Prayer,” Item 184

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 73

[media 7] [media 8]

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.23.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Workshop

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Rabash, Igrot,” Letter 23

[media 5] [media 6]

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “Torah and Prayer,” Item 182

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 71

[media 9] [media 10]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Nation” 

[media 11] [media 12]

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.22.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Workshop

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam,” “Concerning Above Reason”

[media 5] [media 6]

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “Two Points,” Item 124

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 71

[media 9] [media 10]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Nation” 

[media 11] [media 12]

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.20.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Workshop

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam,” Article 371

[media 5] [media 6]

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “Two Points,” Item 122

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 70

[media 9] [media 10]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “One Commandment” 

[media 11] [media 12]

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.19.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Workshop

[media 3] [media 4]

Shamati #69 “First Will Be the Correction of the World” 

[media 5] [media 6]

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “Two Points,” Item 121

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 69

[media 9] [media 10]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Nation” 

[media 11] [media 12]

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.18.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Workshop

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 119

[media 5] [media 6]

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “You Are Partners with Me,” Item 62

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 67

[media 9] [media 10]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee,” Item 26

[media 11] [media 12]

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.17.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Workshop

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”

[media 5] [media 6]

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “You Are Partners with Me,” Item 61

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 66 

[media 9] [media 10]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee,” Item 25

[media 11] [media 12]

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.15.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Workshop

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

[media 5] [media 6]

“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “On the Night of the Bride,” Item 146

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 64

[media 9] [media 10]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee,” Item 23

[media 11] [media 12]

A Blessing In The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Isn’t our entire work in concealment? And isn’t it from the state of concealment that we have to bless the Creator?

Answer: How can you bless Him in a state of concealment: to suffer pain and to bless Him? It is impossible to bless the Creator from a state of concealment if you are in an opposite state from Him.

If I have the same desires like Him, I am in a state of revelation. If I am in a state of concealment it means that my desires are opposite to Him. There are special states like working at night, but if you bless the Creator in the dark, you have to turn the darkness into Light.

If the Creator afflicts me and I say “thank you very much” and ask for more, it is like the son who is proud of his own powers and fights the enemy with a sword and a shield made of cardboard. This cannot be.

By my corrections I may reach a state in which instead of blows I feel mercy, then love. I can then bless to the same extent, as it says, “all my bones shall say.”

It is impossible otherwise. It is impossible to feel pain and to bless at the same time. If I feel bad, I curse the Creator. I cannot be neutral and open my mouth to bless since we speak about the work in the heart.

If my desires are corrected according to the Creator, I bless Him in them. First I have to restrict my desires and to annul myself. All the desires that I can turn into bestowal and correct by the Torah are the desires with which I can bless.

A blessing is a feeling in the desire that is in equivalence of form with the Creator, that feels how good and benevolent He is by bringing blows unto my desire to receive. I annul my connection with the desire to receive and ascend above it. Therefore my desire to receive suffers, yet I don’t enjoy the pain like a masochist but rather rise above the desire to receive to the desire to bestow.

I am then glad about the blows that my desire to receive feels in the absence of the Light, in total darkness. My “self” is adhered to bestowal, above my ego.

My desire to receive will never receive anything but I change what I identify with it. For example, a girl gets pregnant and has a baby. First she only worried about herself: What she can enjoy, her dresses, having fun, and all sorts of things. But now she only worries about the baby. Her whole heart is in him and all her attention is focused on him. She doesn’t care about what happens to her, as all her thoughts are about him and he is the most important thing to her.

If I exit myself this way it is called annulling myself. When I am inside the others, it means that my whole heart is in the Creator. This is my correction. Then it makes no difference what darkness I feel inside, as long as the others feel the Light inside.

Question: Won’t we demand revelation?

Answer: It depends on what revelation means to you. Revelation for me is worrying about others. It isn’t the same Light that fills my ego, my desires. I attain the Light that I receive in others since this is my beloved baby. To the extent that I am in others and worry about them I can demand the Light.

Then I can feel what they receive thanks to my exertion. This is called day for me. So in them I feel the Creator’s presence and thus approach the end of correction. These are not the same vessels I had before. I have established my attitude to people and to the Creator on top of them, but I don’t receive a filling in my old vessels.
[136483]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/01/14, The Book of Zohar

Related Material:
Blessed With Bestowal
Blessed Are You Who Created The Worlds….
The Long-Awaited Guest