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Lesson on the Topic: Preparation for the Convention
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 8
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Question: What should I do if I am not built for this work? I have engaged in this work for so long and I have the desire to escape from it all the time.
Answer: You’re still not doing anything. You think that you engage in internal work and that you are advancing, but the advancement is assessed in regard to one’s connection to the group. Now let’s see if you are under the influence of this environment, that you have determined this, and they don’t just impress you automatically.
When you come to the group, it naturally influences you whether you want it or not. You are like a small child who hasn’t learned anything yet. You were just born, and you are taken care of like a baby: diapers, milk, etc. You grow and advance completely unaware that you are totally in the arms of the upper.
But later you are required to participate and connect to your environment: at least to smile at your mother, to reach out to her, to learn something. This means that you must interact with the environment. Do you participate with the environment in anyway, at least like a baby? Do you smile at it? Do you wave your arms and legs with joy like to your mother, when the group approaches?
Our society has to be like a caring mother, or like an incubator in which a person can mature very quickly on the path of “I shall hasten it” and reach the end of correction. There is no other way.
Question: But what can keep me in the group? What if they throw me out?
Answer: We don’t throw anyone out of the group. Even if your egg has not cracked but just lays in the corner of the incubator its whole life. Only if it stinks and begins to spoil and poison our society will we have to throw you out. But as long as you are passive, it isn’t that bad. Even if you are considered a burden on society, we are ready to carry you on our back. Only a person who intends harm has no place among us; everyone else does.
People leave because they don’t listen to what they are told: that spiritual fulfillment is possible only though connection. This connection has to be in the form of an incubator that warms us. Rather than the Creator, the group has to be the good and benevolent for a person. A person cannot advance without an environment, without a group. There is no other way, you either do so or you don’t.
Also there is a good chance for success as there are new opportunities now that no other generation before us had, not since the beginning of humanity in this world. Today we can begin with massive, open dissemination, unlike Baal HaSulam who started to bring people closer very carefully, one by one, mainly from the Orthodox environment, although there were several secular people among his students.
Today we can open the wisdom for all. This means that it is time to build an incubator for the small circle, for the wider circle, and for the whole world. It is our duty to build it. We are the ones who have received the awakening for the Creator, and so we have to build the incubator for all of humanity. This means that we should be the transition, a kingdom of priests.
[123913]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/13, The Book of Zohar
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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parashat, “VaYikahel,” “The Ascent of the Prayer,” Item 131
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 7, Item 79
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 5
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Shamati #72, “Shlavei HaSulam,” “Confidence Is the Clothing for the Light“
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 7, Item 77
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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parashat, “VaYikahel,” “The Ascent of the Prayer,” Item 131
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 4
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The Book of Zohar, “VaYikahel” Item 131: This is so because after the separation ZA was established as entirely Hassadim, on the right line, and Malchut as all Gevurot, on the left line. Hence, they are disputed as in the two lines, the right and the left of Bina, until ZA ascends in the middle line and establishes peace between them, uniting them with each other.
This is what our ascent depends on, on the extent that we can attribute everything, all the reasons, to one cause, to one state, to the middle line. The middle line is not found in nature; it comes from the Light that Reforms.
If we try to establish the middle line by ourselves, then the left line is revealed in contrast to it, as it says: “He who is greater than his friend (on the right line), his desire is even greater (than the left line).” Then the two lines converge into the middle line, so we ascend.
[123833]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/25/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 7, Item 74
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 2
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Baal HaSulam, Article, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”: We can see that all the interpretations of The Book of Zohar before ours did not clarify as much as ten percent of the difficult places in The Zohar. And in the little they did clarify, their words are almost as vague as the words of The Zohar itself.
As Baal HaSulam writes in “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” in paragraph 155, the books of Kabbalah were written for those who already had spiritual attainment or wanted to acquire attainment. For these people, these books are like a means for advancement; it is possible to attract the Light that Reforms with them.
So why do the interpretations and explanations matter to us? Why did Baal HaSulam write the Sulam commentary to The Book of Zohar?
The Sulam commentary helps us to rise to the text of The Book of Zohar in order to use it and get the Light that Reforms from there. First it is necessary to approach, to come close, to rise to this book, and then you derive benefit from it and enjoyment from it and receive the correcting Light that Reforms from it. After that I rise again, come close to it, and again receive the Light that Reforms from it. And that is how it is throughout the 125 levels.
This is to say, there are 125 levels in The Book of Zohar, and the Sulam commentary also has 125 levels that make it possible for me to rise to the level of The Book of Zohar and to use it according to its mission, to attract the Light that Reforms and correct myself. It is as if I am climbing up a ladder in a library to going from tier to tier getting a new edition of the same book each time.
Consequently, the Sulam commentary is not just an explanation for the book. Hence the name because “Sulam” means ladder. Therefore by involvement with The Book of Zohar and this commentary together, I can use the language of Kabbalah and the language of Midrash, “the language of the branches,” that make it possible for me to come close to the text and to yearn to activate what he describes there and attain what is latent there.
I don’t imagine a Garden of Eden with souls floating there, rather I know that it is talking about my inner world, about how I am linked to a group, how I describe to myself the picture of the spiritual state that comes into being within my desire to receive through rejection and reduction of the reflected Light.
Therefore the book must prepare us for the correct comprehension of what they wrote. And from the start it was clear that The Book of Zohar not only had to be hidden until our day but also it had to receive an addition that would make it possible for our generation to use it in order to take the Light that Reforms out from it.
Without the Sulam commentary we would not have the possibility of taking the Light that Reforms out from this book. And in fact, for a thousand years after the discovery of The Book of Zohar, we could not truly use it until the time arrived to submit it to the people. And so Baal HaSulam came and gave his commentary to it, which is used as a “ladder” through which we have the possibility of rising to every level of the 125 levels of spiritual attainment.
[123691]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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We are now revealing the broken world. In other words, in our world we have descended nearly to the very bottom of the application of our egoism. If even one deeper layer were revealed, we would not get out of it. After all, there are truly horrific conditions awaiting us in which we lose the human form.
It is said in the Prophets that this is possible if we follow the path of time, and everything occurs in its time. In general, the Tanakh (the Torah, Prophets, and Writings) describe the path which awaits us if we do not “cooperate,” if we do not adhere to its guidelines. In particular, the Prophets write about terrible, unspeakable disasters.
Baal HaSulam also indicates that in the worst case, we would become a global village filled with weapons of mass destruction.
What is the essence of the fall that we are experiencing today? In fact, it brings us closer to this darkness which needs the greatest Light for correction.
But how can light and dark be combined?
For this we need the group, the teacher, and the sources in the center of course. However, there is still something missing.
Here, the Sulam (Ladder) commentary to The Book of Zohar comes to our rescue. It provides the group, everyone who wants this, with the connection to the Light. It describes our inner state along with the external one, which is described in The Zohar. As a result, we can connect the two worlds with each other: the internal parts of perception with the external images. This allows us to cling closer to the text, not forgetting that it ties us with spirituality, and explains what is inside of us. Gradually, this understanding is manifested inside a person.
That means that we cannot do without either The Book of Zohar or the Sulam commentary because together they connect us with the greatest Light which corrects the entire human egoism.
In reality, The Zohar is capable of much more. In our world, in the depth our egoism, we do not show the spiritual desire, just the “animal” desire. By ascending the spiritual degrees, we reveal increasingly deeper desires each time. This world is in the middle point of all the worlds, and in order to rise, we must first descend. So, The Zohar is intended for those high degrees that are preceded by descents. And this world is just a grain of sand in comparison with them.
[123700]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”: And since the degree of the authors of The Zohar is at the full level of the 125 degrees, they cannot be attained prior to the days of the Messiah. It follows that there will be no common attainment with the authors of The Zohar in the generations preceding the days of the Messiah. Hence, The Zohar could not be revealed in the generations before the generation of the Messiah.
That explains why Kabbalists hid The Book of Zohar. After all, there was no need in it for all the generations before ours. To give them this book would be like giving school children or even students the materials at the level of Nobel laureates. This would only confuse people. For example, if we tried to teach children the theory of relativity or other complex concepts, they would not be able to digest it and perhaps it could even damage their minds.
A person gradually acquires the essential means to approach difficult materials. It’s not easy. Some frontiers of science are available only to a few people in the world to understand, and not all of them are also able to work with the material, meaning to develop it further. Not everyone’s mind can withstand it.
Therefore, people should not be given an unripe fruit, or rather the fruit for which they are not yet ripe. Everything needs to be learned gradually. It’s said: “Don’t put a stumbling block before a blind person” because he will fall. Give him a chance to develop in stages.
The authors of The Zohar knew what they were doing. They were on the spiritual level inherited from the Temple, on the degree of love for the other as for oneself, and due to love, they attained the Creator concealed in it. They describe their attainment in The Book of Zohar, explain how they are organized between themselves, and they reveal the Creator in accordance with it.
However, others still could not work in this way because then they were entering a period of two thousand years of exile. That is why the Kabbalists hid The Zohar until the present day. But nowadays, this book is revealed to everyone.
[123697]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam
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