The blog “Kabbalah, Science, and the Meaning of Life” has just been aired in Lithuanian:

Kabalos mokslas ir gyvenimo prasmė. Michaelio Laitmano dienoraštis

Groups in Lithuania (in Vilnius and Kaunas) have been studying with us for many years and have even held several congresses already. Our Lithuanian friends actively participate in our congresses all over the world. Many books and articles have been published, as well as a large website in Lithuanian. I also congratulate you on publishing a newspaper in Lithuanian!

As svyajkinu visus mus!

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Mutual Guarantee (Arvut) is the condition for life, for the existence of any living organism. When all of an organism’s forces and actions are coordinated and aimed at a common goal, then the negative correcting forces (crises and illnesses) do not emerge in the organism, and the system exists in permanent balance (homeostasis).

The current events (the financial crisis, general depression, drugs, breakdown of the family unit, emptiness, aimlessness, the global crisis, the ecological crisis) are revealing to us the single and general reason for everything taking place – that we are all an integral part of Nature, that all of Nature’s parts are interconnected, and hence they must behave accordingly. However, we – humanity – do not behave this way. We are akin to a cancerous tumor in Nature’s single, harmonious organism.

Mankind must realize that it constitutes one whole organism, and the law of the common mutual guarantee – of care for every person and for everyone at once – is the essential condition of our collective survival. The Biblical principles, “Do not do unto others what you don’t wish done unto you” and “Love your neighbor as thyself” are laws that determine the general balance of nature and our society. If we don’t abide by them, we will perish.

Baal HaSulam’s article, “Arvut” (Mutual Guarantee), describes how we can attain balance with Nature using the Kabbalistic source texts. The book, Kabbalah, Science, and the Meaning of Life talks about my meetings with American scientists who research the scientific fields bordering the Upper World.

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Lessons: Article “Arvut”, 17.11.05 – 23.11.05

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We have published a new book titled Kabbalah for the Student:

All of our students are familiar with the book Kabbalah Le Matchil (Kabbalah for Beginners). It contains all the articles that we study, all the basics of Kabbalah. It is the fundamental book for any student of Kabbalah.

We are proud to announce that it has finally been published in English. Now people in the entire world can learn the basics of Kabbalah using the original source texts by Baal HaSulam and Rabash. It arrives just in time – it has never been so necessary!

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Purchase the book – Kabbalah for the Student

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Two questions I received on the virtual group:

Question: How does mutual guarantee work in a virtual group and what does it mean there?

My Answer: It’s the same as in a physical group, because you are not uniting through the bodies, but through your “points in the heart” – you must feel that they are together. I think that it’s easier to feel this virtually than during physical contact, when the externality overshadows the internality.

Question: On one of the virtual group websites, I proposed to create a Kabbalah Constitution, and to start working on creating it. However, this did not evoke any interest. Should I continue with it?

My Answer: Yes. Get in touch with those who are working on the development of a virtual community at [email protected]

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Baal HaSulam Article: “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
Israel Congress 2005 Intention Handbook – The Intention of the Group

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The Book of Zohar. Chapter “Raising a Prayer” – 1

The Zohar speaks about the prayer which every person offers his Creator. This inner action of man constitutes his greatest and most valuable work in making efforts for the Creator’s sake.

We can change only under the influence of the Creator’s Light, by receiving His properties from Him. Hence our only task is to cultivate a desire to change. As soon as this true desire appears within man, the Creator will immediately give him the strength needed for its realization. So the problem is not how to realize a prayer; it is, rather, how to attain it, how to formulate one’s request for the strength to become like the Creator!

A prayer is a sensation, a desire in one’s heart. A person is not completely aware of it and cannot describe it, for the sensation in one’s heart is not subject to any control and conscious correction – it cannot be “created” by one’s own will.

One who observes the Commandments because he has faith in reward and punishment believes in the Creator, His Torah, and His governance, but simply uses it for his own benefit. By observing the Commandments with such an intention and remaining in it all of his life, he does not grow spiritually. And one who does not grow in our world is called “still” (inanimate), since we divide all of nature into the following levels: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking (human). Therefore, such people are regarded as spiritually still (Domem de Kedusha), but they are already “spiritually” still, as opposed to those who observe mechanically, by force of habit.

In Kabbalah, the word “body” implies desire. A desire or a body can be egoistic or spiritual (altruistic). The gradual passing of the egoistic body and its replacement with the altruistic one is called one’s “spiritual birth.”

Man’s spiritual growth is designated by an increasingly growing intention to observe the Commandments only because such is the Creator’s desire. Man observes it only for His sake, completely selflessly, as if no reward of any kind will ever be given to him in return, not even in the form of his own self-content. It is as though the Creator does not know who fulfills His desire, as though man himself is uncertain of whether or not he observes the Commandments. Yet, he does it anyway, for such is the Creator’s will.

An essential part of our spiritual ascent is a special process that requires that, on discovering a greater evil within us, we ask the Creator to grant us the strength to overcome that evil. We then receive strength in the form of a greater spiritual Light. This continues until we actually reach the original level and size of our souls. At that point, our egoism is completely corrected and filled with Light.

When we are distracted by outside thoughts, we feel that thoughts obstruct us from ascertaining the spiritual, because our strength and minds are wasted on extraneous concerns, while our hearts become filled with petty desires. At times like this, we lose faith in the fact that only Kabbalah contains the true life.

Once we overcome this condition, we come out of our state and move into the Light, receiving a Higher Light that helps us ascend further. In this manner, our extraneous thoughts work to help us in our spiritual advancement. We can overcome obstacles only with the help of the Creator, since man can only work on something if he perceives some personal benefit in the task.

However, our bodies, hearts and intellects do not understand what benefits can result from altruism. Therefore, as soon as we try to make even the slightest altruistic move, we lose all strength of the mind, heart and body. We are left with nothing else but to turn to the Creator and ask Him for help. In this way, unwillingly and without any free choice, we advance toward the Creator until we merge with Him completely.

The lower half of the Higher spiritual object is found within the Upper half of the lower spiritual object (GE de Elyion are within AHP de Tachton). In the lower object, the screen is found in the eye area (Masach ve Nikvey Eynayim). This is known as “spiritual blindness,” (Stimat Eynayim) because in such a state even the Higher object has only one half – GE. Hence, it turns out that the screen of the lower spiritual object conceals part of the Higher spiritual object.

The Higher spiritual object drops its screen to the lower one, and it then reveals itself to the lower object, which in turn begins to view the Higher object as the Higher one views itself. As a result, the lower object receives the state of fullness (Gadlut). The lower object then sees that the Higher one is in a “great” state, and realizes that the Higher object’s prior concealment and apparent manifestation as the “small” state (Katnut) was done exclusively for the benefit of the lower one. In this way, the lower object could become aware of the importance of the Higher one.

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I was doing some research on modern Kabbalistic sources, and came across a book called Kabbalah: New Perspectives, by Prof. Moshe Idel. In it he mentions a poem by Prof. Gershom Sholem (1897 – 1982) – the founder of the modern academic field of Kabbalah. But before I say more about this poem, here is some background on its author.

Sholem devoted his career to replacing the traditional attainment of Kabbalah with academic and philological research. For example, in one of his lectures, published in the book Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, this is how he describes Kabbalah in his time, “As a result of Kabbalah’s lengthy process of development, during which Kabbalah paradoxically influenced Jewish history, it has again become the same thing it was in the beginning – an esoteric wisdom of small groups of people, who are deprived of contact with life and have no influence on it.” Likewise, in the article “On the Possibility of Jewish Mysticism in Our Time,” Sholem writes, “There is no doubt that in recent generations there were no awakened individuals who could bring mystical teachings to new forms or start significant social movements.”

In this article, like in many others, Sholem denies modern Kabbalah, or Kabbalah of the 20th century. He points out that Kabbalah has ceased playing an important role in the Jewish culture of his time and that no original and innovative Kabbalistic methods have been created since the 18th century! This viewpoint is very obvious in the article “On the Possibility of Jewish Mysticism in Our Time.” Sholem’s attitude to Kabbalah in his time is also described by the modern researcher, Prof. Boaz Hoss, in the article “Don’t Ask All Questions.”

Considering all this, it’s important to point out that Gershom Sholem, the founder of the modern academic research of Kabbalah, and a scholar who’s renowned by the entire academic world, never says a word in any of his research about Baal HaSulam, the greatest Kabbalist of his time, nor of his works on Kabbalah. How can a researcher overlook something like this? This is an example of envy, dishonesty and petty egoism that do not allow a researcher to face the truth: to admit to himself and to the entire world that all academic research of Kabbalah, anything besides its attainment – is false!

When I was giving a series of lectures in American universities, I heard different comments about Gershom Sholem. In particular, I recall one distinctive comment from the Rector of the University of Illinois, who said, “Gershom talked about Kabbalah, but you are talking from Kabbalah. He urged people to research it with the mind, while you urge people to enter it with their feelings.”

The poem that appears below was written by Gershom Sholem shortly before his death, and it shows that despite everything, he finally admitted that he is in the dark and does not attain that which is concealed in the Kabbalistic texts. Yet, the superficial academic approach and the dishonesty in researching Kabbalah that he sowed continue to be practiced by his students.

“Death in the Professoriate” was a result of replacing research of Kabbalah “through oneself and inside oneself” (or in other words, by correcting oneself in similarity to the Upper One) with academic research that’s done “outside of oneself” (in conjunction with meditation according to Abulafia).

“Vae Victis” (Woe to the Conquered) or “Death in the Professoriate”
I threw myself into ancient books.
I was awestruck by their signs.
I spent too much time alone with them.
I could no longer leave them behind.

The glimmer of Truth is ancient,
Yet disaster is unforeseen:
Generations are weakly linked,
And knowledge is not clean.

I have brought back the blurred face
Of the fullness of time.
I was ready to leap into the abyss,
But was I really primed?

The ancestral symbols are here explained;
The Kabbalist was no dope.
But what transformed time proposed
Remains foreign, beyond our scope.

Time transformed casts us a fearsome glance,
For it is unwilling to turn back again.
Yet abandoned joys grow palpable
Once your Vision has dissolved in pain.

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News Report (translated from BBC): The head of IMF, Dominic Strauss-Kahn, announced that the world is “on the brink of recession.” He appealed to world leaders to act “quickly, decisively, and together” in order to overcome the global economic problems. On Friday the President of the United States, George Bush, is expected to speak to the American public about the economic situation of the US. What are we to expect?

My Comment: Relax, the world will never be the same as it once was. Accept it and don’t try to bring it back! Through our egoistic natural development (and no one’s to blame – such is the implacable dialectic of nature), we have reached the revelation of the integral, global system of human interaction in our world. Moreover, since man is the most egoistic of all creatures, he also incorporates all of the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, and everything requires its own solution, or the proper regulation (balance).

In this case, we become dependent on everyone else. There is no way back, and there cannot be. The forces of the common and single civilization are now surfacing, and they will make us understand that different laws are at work here – the laws of a single organism. Those who will understand this faster will be able to come out of the collapse quicker. By becoming properly connected to the common system, they will be able to cure themselves economically, socially, morally, and so on.

I am not a prophet, but following Baal HaSulam’s texts, for the past six years I have been speaking and writing books and articles about the crisis. There was no way to prevent it, but there is a means to come out of it. I’ve spoken to important people about this, telling them that it is necessary to institute “global education,” or in other words – “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” because otherwise things will get bad. However, they laughed at my naivety.

Now we have to start the work of explaining the situation to people, and we are running late with this. While people learn how to change things, the blows of fate will keep on coming.

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Spiritual movement in unlike physical relocation from one place to another. It’s a movement in one’s intention, a renewal of qualities.
Baal HaSulam, Talmud Eser Sefirot, item 1

Time is a sensation of movement. The brain envisions images of movement, copying them in its imagination into the category of “time.” If man and his surrounding were in absolute peace, there would be no notion of time.
Baal HaSulam, Talmud Eser Sefirot, item 1

The notions of time, past, present and future, are man made notions and are not absolute. Everything exists in the Upper Force without any action on behalf of the Upper One. Everything that exists in the force later takes place in action. And those who come closer to the Creator – above the universe, ascend above time.
Rav Kook, “Letters. Volume 2”

The Book of Zohar does not speak of this world at all, but only of the Upper Worlds where there is no time like in the corporeal world. Spiritual time is a change in qualities.
The Book of Zohar, Vayatze, collection 2

Human egoism constantly prevails over man, unless the Creator helps him by bringing his soul closer to Him through shining His Light at specific times.
“Yesher Divrey Emet,” p. 35

All times and all actions exist eternally. The future receives influence from the past and from that which will happen afterwards. Time submits to forces that operate in the past, in the present, and in the future.
Ramchal, Adir BaMarom, p. 187

That which shines in alternation will shine constantly in the future, when all the past will gather into an eternal state.
Ramchal. Adir BaMarom, p. 18
[2125]

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The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Fourteenth Commandment” (abridged)

247. The fourteenth Commandment is to observe Shabbat, which is a day of rest from all the actions of creation. There are two Commandments here: to observe the day of Shabbat and to adorn its holiness, namely to receive Ohr Hochma, called “holiness”; and to observe Shabbat as a day of rest for all the worlds, in which all actions are multiplied and realized even before this day is sanctified.

Shabbat is a state of the spiritual worlds where the Light descending from Above elevates ZA to AA, Nukva to AVI, the Worlds of BYA to YESHSUT, and ZON of the World of Atzilut. As a result, man’s NRN (whoever has it, whoever is spiritually present in the worlds of BYA) also ascends to Atzilut with the worlds of BYA, and there receives Ohr Haya.

248. Because that day was sanctified, the creation of bodiless spirits was to be completed. He asks: “Was the Creator unable to delay the sanctification of that day until the bodies for those spirits were created?” And he answers: “The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil contained an evil side that wanted to govern the world. And many spirits separated and went forth, armed, to clothe in the bodies of this world.

249. However, as the Creator saw this, He roused the wind from within the Tree of Life, ZA, and struck the other Tree, Malchut. And the other, good side was awakened, and the day was sanctified. For the creation of bodies and the awakening of spirits on that night of Shabbat stem from the good side, and not from the evil one.

250. And had he hastened on that night to put forward the other side, before the good side came forward, he would not have been able to withstand it for even an instant. But the Creator provided the remedy in advance. And He sanctified the day beforehand. And He warned to appear before the other side. And the world exists. And that the opposite side thought to rule in the world, i.e., in defiance of it, the good side was created and strengthened on that night. And the good, holy bodies and spirits were created on that night from the good side. Therefore, the delight of sages who know this spans from Shabbat to Shabbat.

251. However, when the other (impure) side saw that what it had planned to do was already done by the holy side, it started to check its own forces and properties, and saw all those who perform a Zivug naked and in the candlelight. Therefore, all of the sons born from that Zivug are enslaved by the spirit of the other side. And these naked spirits of the wicked are called “harming,” and they are ruled and killed by Lilit.

252. And since the day was sanctified, and holiness rules in the world, the other side diminishes itself and hides on each Shabbat day and on each Shabbat night. With the exception of Asimon and his group, who walk secretly in the candlelight, to observe the naked Zivug. And then they hide inside the cave, called Tehom Raba (the great abyss). And as soon as Shabbat ends, many hosts fly and prowl in the world. As a result, everything is corrected by the song of the sufferers, “He who dwells in concealment,” to prevent impurity from governing holiness.

253. What places do they visit on the night of the end of Shabbat? When they come out in haste and wish to govern the holy nation, they see it standing in prayer and singing this song: “He who sits in the shadow (concealment) of the Supernal One,” first separating Shabbat from the weekdays in his prayer, and then over a cup of wine, these forces flee thence and fly away to the desert. May the Merciful One save us from them and from the evil side.

254. The three that cause evil to themselves: a) he who curses himself; b) he who throws away bread or bread crumbs bigger than an olive; c) he who lights the candle at the end of Shabbat before Israel attains sanctity in the prayer, “And You are holy.” And the light from that candle ignites hellfire.

255. There is a place in hell (the sensation of uncorrected desires, shame before the Creator) for those who transgress Shabbat (the ascent towards complete correction). And as they (those who feel that they are wicked) are punished in hell (separation from the Creator), they curse him who lit the candle before its time, and they say to him, “Behold: the Creator will thrust you about with a mighty throw, and He will seize you firmly. He will violently roll and toss you like a ball into a large land; there shall you die (be corrected against your will).”

256. For he should not light the candle at the end of Shabbat before Israel separates Shabbat from the weekdays in their prayer and over a cup of wine, as until that time, it is still Shabbat, and the sanctity of Shabbat still rules over us. And during the separation by means of blessing over a cup, all those hosts and legions that the rulers appointed to govern the weekdays return each to their place to resume the work for which they are responsible.

257. As soon as Shabbat starts and the day is sanctified, holiness awakens and rules over the world; the power of weekdays disappears and returns only when Shabbat ends. However, although Shabbat is over, other forces do not regain their power until Israel says the prayer, “He who separates holiness from the weekdays.” Only then does holiness disappear, and the legions that govern the weekdays awaken and return to their places, each to its above-appointed post.

258. Nevertheless, the impure forces do not assume control until the flame of the candle is lit, for they all come from the root (element) of fire, from which everything originates, and they descend to rule over the lower world. All this happens if one lights the candle before Israel has finished the blessing in the prayer.

259. Yet, if he waits until they complete the blessing, the wicked in hell justify the Creator’s justice over them, and they bring upon him all the blessings, recited by the congregation: “Therefore, the Creator gives you of the dew of Heaven,” “Blessed shall you be in your town,” and “Blessed shall you be in the field.”

260. “Blessed is he who considers the poor (who has attained the futility of trying to correct oneself on his own); the Creator will deliver him in the day of disaster.” What do the words “in the day of disaster” mean? This refers to the day when evil gains power and wants to take his soul away from him. The word “poor” alludes to someone very sick. “He who considers” refers to one who realizes the need to be cured from transgressions before the Creator. Another explanation is that this is the Day of Judgment in the world. “He who considers” signifies one who knows how to save himself from it, as it is written: “The Creator will deliver him in the day of disaster,” meaning that on the day when the judgment against man dominates the world, the Creator will deliver him.

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A question I received: Is there a way of stopping the thoughts that constantly keep coming to us? Can we learn to control our thoughts?

My Answer: Of course! We often think about things that we don’t want to think about. We often attempt to restrain our thoughts, change them, and replace them with other thoughts. When we can’t do this, we feel weak and stupid, as if we’ve lost control over ourselves.

In reality our thoughts do not come to us “out of nowhere.” At first a desire arises in us, even if we don’t feel it. After this, a thought emerges from the desire. The desire brings about the thought. Hence we only think about the things we want: How can we acquire, hold on to, and develop the things we desire; or how can we put more distance between us and the things we don’t desire.

A thought cannot change a desire. It can only change the size of a desire, increasing or decreasing it. Similarly, we also can’t replace one thought with another.

Hence, we can only control our thoughts by controlling our desires. So the question really is: How can I change my desires? The answer is: through the environment – the group, the books, and the teacher!

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