A question I received: How can I bestow to the others if I have to feel their desires as my own? Won’t I be giving to myself?

My Answer: No, I will feel them specifically “as” my own. The distinction between us, the hatred, will remain, and above this hatred I will build the bridge of love. Within me, there is an egoistic desire against the others, and above it, the screen and the Reflected Light, a desire to fulfill them rather than myself. When I fill these desires, it will be with the intention to bestow.

Sensing myself and others opposite to me, as well as  sensing their desires as my own, turns into a spiritual Partzuf of my soul. All desires that were outside of me enter the “body” of my soul now, because I fill them for the sake of bestowal. As the head or “Rosh of the Partzuf,” I can only fulfill these desires. The rest of my body is the desires of others.

If we were to picture a spiritual Partzuf, the head is the original “I,” while its body is the desires of all other people. Otherwise, who would I be fulfilling, myself?

I attract the Light to pass it on to the others; that is, I am the head which decides to take this action. When I fulfill the others, I become similar to the Creator in relationship to them.

This is why I feel that the Creator manifests inside the soul’s body, inside the desires that have become my own. This Creator is me, and it means that I merge with Him. The desires belong to the others and by fulfilling them I become similar to the Creator.

This is how a spiritual Partzuf is built: The head contains its thoughts, desires, the desires of the others, and the decision of how to act, while the body consists of desires of the others that have become as its own. Loving "thy neighbor as thyself,” it feels the merging with the Creator and its new world.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/10, Article “Matan Torah”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Greatest Light Is Revealed Above The Greatest Hatred
Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life: "Building the Spiritual Kli (Vessel/Tool)"
Video: How To Attain The Quality Of Bestowal – 5 Minutes Of Light (5:11)

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

Zohar, Chapter “BaHar (On Mount Sinai),” Item 66: …there are two creations in man, creation for good and creation for bad. With the Torah, he separates them and the Creator gives him a soul from Him, to dominate over both—the one that is good and light, the next world, and the one that is evil and dark, this world—as it is written, “And He blew into his nostrils the breath of life.”

Our entire reality stems from the separation between darkness and light when we can truly “filter” the qualities that pertain to this world and to the world to come. We begin to build ourselves through discernments, by distinguishing the qualities for the sake of bestowal and those for the sake of reception.

All that we study in our world is our animal existence, meaning our nature. Why animal? This is because an animal doesn’t grow, but always remains at the same level with respect to its perception.

Therefore, until we begin to use the Light so as to build ourselves, by distinguishing the bestowing qualities from those of reception, until we amass these bestowing qualities, desiring to dwell in them, and build ourselves out of them, we exist only in this world.

Just as drops of semen begin to form into an embryo in the mother’s womb, so we must try to utilize the group, the environment, the study, the intentions, and various actions to continually add and accumulate the qualities of bestowal within. This is how a spiritual body will be formed.

Every time we reveal yet another part in bestowal and wish to gather them all together, this is called our next reincarnation. Indeed, we see our new life every time and a new opportunity to keep gathering and adding to us the qualities of the human level that are similar to bestowal and the Creator (the word “man” in Hebrew is “Adam” which is from “Edome,” similar).

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: An Independent Point Above The Created Matter
Laitman.com Post: A Thin Ray Of Light Inside Infinite Darkness
Laitman.com Post: Life Is Merging With The Creator

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

A question I received: Do I feel just my reaction to the Light and never the Light itself?

My Answer: That’s right. “The Light” is my reaction to bestowal and I don’t know where or from whom it comes from. The Light is what I feel within me; it is my desire to bestow, the impression inside my will to enjoy.

The same thing is true in our world: I don’t know what causes my pleasure. I take a piece of cow, make a steak out of it, put it in my mouth, and enjoy it. Can you explain that? The cow is surprised, thinking, “I have half a ton of meat, so why don’t I enjoy it?”

In other words, everything depends on the desire, not the fulfillment. The spiritual vessel is HaVaYaH (Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey) or desire, and the Light in it is designated by additional letters, meaning other desires. Yet, we use them to designate the Light, the desire. I never feel the “meat,” but only my impressions of what I call “meat.”

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, “Matan Torah”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Light Is Everything That’s Received In the Kli
Laitman.com Post: Binary Calculation System: Current Desire And Previous Light
Laitman.com Post: Infinite Pleasure Is Right In Front Of You (Advanced)

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

I can desire correction for bestowal only if the environment supports me in this. The desire to bestow manifests and acts only in my connection with the others, and thus I need their assistance in the form of “mutual guarantee.” To the extent that I support them, they support me. This is a system. To the extent that I activate it, I receive from it.

By desiring to join the group and connect with the others, I trigger a counter-reaction toward me. The others pass me the correct forms of our connection without even being aware of it. Since we exist in a network, they show me the type of connection we have.

This connection is not simply a desire to bestow; rather, it is a guarantee that cements our connection. This results in response to my request. Then, I turn to them with my prepared vessel (Kli), with a prepared system of connections that consists of 613 (Taryag) elements. Without knowing it, I activate the whole system. Thus by connecting with each other we revive the whole system among us.

Mutual guarantee is a very deep concept. It refers to life and the activation of the inner system of connection between us. We only need to retrieve it from within and start using it.

Otherwise, I can scream about my desire to be connected with the others, but how can I know how to do it? Do I understand how to connect with each person and with everybody all together? It is because I awaken them that they begin to influence me and pass to me the forms of our connection. They may be aware of it; it’s not important. We nevertheless activate this system of connections.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Reanimating The Universal Soul
Laitman.com Post: The Only Means For Advancement
Video: Using Our Environment – Kabbalah Moments (3:02)

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

If we place our “seed” in a good environment, it develops. If we put it in “bad soil” (environment), even the very best seed will wither. Everything depends solely on the environment. This means that we need people around us who reveal the evil of egoism within themselves and want to correct it.

I have to place myself in such environment and aspire to absorb from it all that’s possible: moisture, minerals, and warmth or, in other words, everything that soil can provide for a seed.

As Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Freedom,” at the time of his death a person can’t take anything with him from this world except for the property of bestowal that he attained. One can attain bestowal only in this world, but while in this world, he can sense himself. It’s written, “See your world during your life.” However, if you have not attained anything, then you remain only as a seed which will be placed into the soil again, and thus will get another chance.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/10, Article “The Freedom”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Our Spiritual Growth Resembles A Seed Planted Into The Ground
Laitman.com Post: Become An Embryo In The Womb Of The Upper Level
Laitman.com Post: Our Spiritual Birth Is Up To Us

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will - No Comments →

Everything consists of just two components: desire and fulfillment. In Kabbalah, fulfillment is called Light. It is all around and inside us, unlimited in scope. We are in it like in an ocean. All the changes in how we perceive ourselves and our surroundings depend on the changing of our desire. Our desire, in turn, either changes under the influence of the Light or under the influence of our efforts. The desire is called a vessel and the fulfillment is called Light. The Light is constant, and the only thing that changes is the desire or vessel; its change alters the constant Light that it perceives.

Kabbalah teaches us how to change our desire so we feel an additional, spiritual world within it. This is the meaning of the verse, “You will see your world in this life.” This happens when a person creates one more inner desire. Inside it, he feels the Upper World, and then even when the desire in which he feels this world disappears, it does not influence his desire and sensation of the Upper World. It always remains in his sensation. Yet, even if one was unable to create a new desire, the Partzuf of our world eventually disappears and is replaced by a new one. Thus, a person is “born” into the sensation of this world.

Every sensation in the desire has its period of existence. When a certain level or Partzuf runs it course, it disappears and is replaced by the following one. However, on the level of this world, it remains as long as we don’t create an inner desire (Partzuf) of the Upper World, the desire of bestowal and love.

In essence, all the generations are Partzufim on the level of this world, existing within the quality of reception. They are limited by their inner perception because this kind of development takes place within a single plane: We return to the same level or the same world in various life cycles. We see our reality in different forms, but always on the same level – this world.

The Upper World, however, is the sensation within the quality of bestowal, the sensation beyond oneself and development upwards. That’s why we are summoned, “See your world in this life.”

From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, Shamati #69

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Imperceptible Influence Of The Surrounding Light
Laitman.com Post: Reincarnations Of Souls In Our Desire
Laitman.com Post: There Is No Death, Only A New Degree

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

A question I received: What does it practically mean “To value the inner part of me more than the external part?” Baal HaSulam writes that this is necessary in the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar.”

My Answer: To value the inner part of you means to respect your mission and responsibility to attain mutual bestowal and to unite together “as one man with one heart” through brotherly love, for the sake of revealing the Creator, the general force of bestowal and love that rules in nature. This has to be the most important thing to a person. We are talking about the Upper Force of bestowal, which fills everything, but which we don’t feel because we nullify its manifestation with our egoism. The right intention for us to have is for this force to become revealed within us to the fullest extent.

I make a simple calculation: that this is the only thing that is important to me in this life. This is why I was born and what I live for. This is what I have to achieve as long as I live in this world. In addition, all of humanity depends on the work I do in this regard, because we are all connected together inside one net.

Baal HaSulam writes that “a person from the nation of Israel,” meaning a person who has a point in the heart (Isra-El means the aspiration to the Creator) determines the direction and state of the whole world with his intention. He can say, “I don’t want anything right now. I’m in a state of descent so leave me alone. I don’t want to hear about spiritual work. I’m going to rest!” In that case, where is his responsibility and the understanding that there are millions and billions of people who depend on him? He is now determining their fate and how they will advance toward correction – whether through painful blows or through realization and goodness.

If these people depend on you, then you have a very strict responsibility to make the right choice because you are leading everyone, be it in a good direction or a bad one. You have no choice about the matter; this is how the worldwide network is built and this is the place you have been allotted in it. Therefore, you must always be in a state of upper fear and remember that you decide what will happen to the whole world.

Later you will reveal that all the people are your children, the closest thing to you! But you have to think this way even now, by faith above reason. Everything that you do is not being done to you, but to the whole world!

How important we deem spirituality directly determines the fate of all humanity. What’s important for us will be important for everyone else. That is the structure of this entire system, in which we are connected with strict connections. A person without a point in the heart does not have the ability to change anything. Only you do, who are called “Isra-El,” or “Li-Rosh” (I am the head).

From the Independence Day lecture 04/20/10, “Preface to the Book of Zohar”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: “Six Thousand Souls” Is The Required Measure For Spiritual Revelation
Laitman.com Post: Before The Final Revelation
Laitman.com Post: Freedom From Exile For The Entire World

Filed under: Free Will, Israel - 1 Comment →

A question I received: What is the logic in “faith above reason?”

My Answer: “Faith above reason” has the logic of the Upper One. The logic of the lower one is when I see the world through my mind and feelings. This is how I live. I progress across a flat plane, only on my level, and can never rise higher. This is called “faith below reason,” or “faith like reason.” Faith does not determine my actions; faith, which is the property of bestowal is not above reason.

In “faith above reason,” it is as though I take off my glasses and don’t see anything except the Upper One. I am ready to join the Upper One in whatever He desires. I want to acquire His sensation and knowledge by the force of adhesion with Him. With this action I am willing to completely cancel myself, to part with my “settings.”

When I acquire His degree, I get His faith (His property of bestowal) and knowledge that are higher than mine. Through the force of greater bestowal I also acquire higher knowledge. This is called “faith above previous reason.” In this manner I attain a higher degree.

Therefore, those who proceed by “faith above reason,” actually add knowledge since they have new vessels of perception. It is because knowledge, attainment, the Light of Hochma, spreads only in the Light of Hassadim (bestowal, faith).

Whereas those who cannot rise above their reason in the animal mind, hold onto their current state, not wishing anything greater; they cannot cancel their opinion before a higher degree, before a teacher. Thus they will not attain anything, and remain “animals.” They will be “smart and reasonable” within the bounds of their minds, but they won’t even realize that there exists a higher wisdom. After all, a higher wisdom always seems to lack any current foundation.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Spiritual World Is Above Reason
Laitman.com Post: Following The Creator’s Example
The Path of Kabbalah: Chapter 1.1: Faith Above Reason

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

A question I received: You say that Kabbalah allows a person to reach eternal life, but Kabbalists die. So how can this be?

My Answer: A Kabbalist dies in your eyes since you do not see his life the same way a Kabbalist sees it. You see only a part of him – his body, which certainly dies, just like any other animal. However, his godly, spiritual part, which he has developed inside, continues to live eternally. The moment that one acquires this part, he gains possession of it and it gives him a sensation of eternal existence; the quality of bestowal that one has acquired is eternal.

We begin to comprehend this only as we approach the Machsom, when the premonition of bestowal emerges in us. The Light that begins to reach a person, gives him a sensation of what it means to rise above matter and to think somewhat differently, to relate to others from the point of view of bestowal. A person does not exist in bestowal yet, but he can already touch it somehow. Then he gets a premonition that it is possible to adapt to this quality, a sensation that belongs to eternity.

Before this occurs, a person does not have the ability to comprehend, as the Light is not close enough to him yet, and the words are meaningless. A person wants to eat and rest, but eternity seems too far away and he doesn’t feel it. Only when one begins to feel the breath of the Light from afar, like fluttering wind, does he begin to understand that Kabbalah contains liberation from the angel of death. When the Light draws closer to a person, it brings him the sensation that eternity exists.

This is the initial condition for the only free action that we can perform. Otherwise, why do you need freedom? What else is there for you to do in life, in your animal body? Everything else is done for you from above; you do not do it yourself. The only thing that you can do on your own is reach eternity. Bestowal is eternal, while reception is temporary. The Light of Hochma does not come to us forever, but only if it is perceived within the Light of Hassadim. Therefore, in order to acquire eternity, first we need to acquire the desire to bestow, and then within this desire we will be able to feel our life as eternal.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/10, Article “The Freedom”

Related material:
Laitman.com Post: The Method of Spiritual Birth
Laitman.com Post: Make The Moment Last Forever
Laitman.com Post: Attaining The Sensation Of Eternal Life Through Bestowal

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will - 1 Comment →

If a person ascends above himself and begins to feel that unification with others is more important to him than what is happening in him, then to this extent he comes closer and closer to the Upper Force. In this manner he reaches the quality of bestowal, Lishma. In this quality of bestowal he begins to feel the Upper reality. It is as though a light turns on before him and in this light, he begins to see what is ahead.

It is like he was roaming around a dark field, without seeing or understanding anything, and suddenly he acquires the quality of bestowal, which turns on the Light, and he begins to see in what reality and in what world he exists! All this is due to the fact that he had properly implemented all the exercises that the Creator had given him. In these exercises he preferred to come out of himself in order to connect internally and spiritually to his environment, instead of closing up inside himself.

In this manner, a person acquires the quality of bestowal instead of the quality of reception, and in this quality, in the Light of Love (Hassadim), he turns on the Light and sees the true reality. However, now we see only ourselves. It is written in The Zohar that our eyes are turned inward and we do not see what is happening on the outside. This is how all our senses work. Therefore, we do not see the true reality.

The whole Torah is meant to reveal this external, spiritual world to us and to lead us into it to live actively in it! This is called the Torah Lishma, which is studied in order to reach the quality of bestowal, faith above reason (knowledge). Faith is Bina, and “above knowledge” means above Malchut. When Bina reigns above Malchut (faith above reason), and Malchut adjoins it, then, in this form, we can reveal the Upper reality.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/10, Shamati 22

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Revealing Our True State
Laitman.com Post: Bright Future Depends On Us
Shamati #20: “LISHMA (for Her Name)”

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