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 →

By studying Kabbalah, we come into contact with the Light itself. By uniting with others who desire the same goal and studying together, we actively tune into Malchut of the World of Infinity where all people exist in their inner oneness, as one whole. As we desire to exist in this state actively, we draw the concealed Light to ourselves from this perfect state, thereby hastening our spiritual development. This is called becoming Isra-El, aspiring “directly to the Creator,” one who “hastens time,” who draws the Light to himself on his own through his studies and forces Him to be revealed. It also means one who “illuminates time,” meaning one who wants the Light to direct him to bestowal (Sanctity is the quality of bestowal).

It turns out that studying in a Kabbalistic group gives us the “reins” or the “steering wheel” through which we can control ourselves – our forms of development and its speed – as we become independent of the Light. However, on the other hand, the Light is very powerful and it has a program of development for each of us, as well as for all of us together. Therefore, when we try to hasten our development on our own, suddenly we begin to feel how dependent we are on this Light, on its awakening. Only with its help can we advance.

The Light raises and lowers me, which rouses within me the desire to develop in order to make myself “similar to the Creator,” a human being, by rising above this animate level and this whole material life. I wait for the Light to begin to influence me. I prepare myself to surrender to it completely, to attune as much as possible to the studies, the group, dissemination, and to solve all the questions that have accumulated during the darkness and the concealment.

I am like that “rooster” from the parable about the rooster and the bat that waits for the dawn. I am waiting for the Light to come and illuminate the path for me, and I rejoice when the Light comes. However, the “bat,” who does not prepare himself for the coming of the Light, perceives the awakening from Above as darkness.

Although we exist in one common system, only those who await the coming of the Light perceive it as something desirable; for them it is truly Light. On the contrary, those who do not wish to draw closer to the Light, to bestowal, and to love one’s neighbor, will feel continuously greater crises and problems in this world.

We all exist in the World of Infinity, but everything depends on our preparation. We can either feel infinite Light or infinite darkness there, or we can feel nothing at all as though we are unconscious and merely carrying out an animate existence. Everything depends on our desire to become human, meaning “similar” to the Creator in His love and bestowal.

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

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

A Kabbalistic group unites around one goal: reaching love for one’s neighbor and through it, love for the Creator. This means loving the property of love and bestowal. Every person, who agrees with this goal, adds his small force to the group, the point in the heart that was given to him from Above.

None of us is able to enter the spiritual using only his own strength; we can only do it through combining our strength, in other words, joining with a group and canceling ourselves, our egoism. Joining a group and canceling our egoism with the purpose of receiving the force of bestowal from it is the first step towards spirituality. Work in a group is the work on transitioning from corporeality into spirituality through the opening created by the group.

The group is the means. It is not the group that fixes you like a screwdriver or a wrench, but you yourself must use the group for work. The group is the spiritual model before you. It is given to you in a corporeal form, but we turn it into a spiritual form by relating to it as to a collection of souls and not a group of bodies.

We build a spiritual space inside our group. We build a spiritual vessel, the Kli, by canceling ourselves and connecting our points in the heart to the collection of all the other points. I only add my single small force to the group, but I receive "620" times more from it. Spirituality becomes revealed to me as a more inner degree in the exact place where I find this connection and our common force.

We cancel our material nature, our animate egoism. All our "donkeys" (donkey, Hamor, which comes from the word Homer – matter) stay beneath, but we rise above them and unite. So we acquire a single, big force, which is "620" times greater than the previous one, and this force will definitely let every person defeat the animal within. In this way we create a new spiritual vessel, which did not exist before the breaking of the souls. Inside this vessel, among us, we reveal the common property of bestowal within which we reveal the Creator.

I add my single force and receive 620 times more by rising to the first spiritual degree. And now I add this big force to the group and receive 620 times more as I rise to the new degree. It turns out that my initial point of the soul swells 620 times its initial size, and this way then it grows bigger and bigger as it ascends step by step. The group becomes Malchut, Shechina.

This is why the group needs to be united with a single opinion: a desire to reach bestowal, adhesion with the Creator. This creates the "head" (Rosh) of the spiritual Partzuf. Our common spiritual vessel is the spiritual world, but every person experiences it in their own way, according to their essential, primary point of the soul; the soul does not disappear, instead it grows 620х620х620… times. This is how we build the spiritual world within, where the Creator becomes revealed. There is no other place.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/10, Article “The Purpose of Society”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Planting Yourself In The Right Environment For Spiritual Growth
Laitman.com Post: We Have Assembled Here To Become Human
Kabbalah Moments: "Group And Light"

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

A question I received: Can we take the spiritual principle that you have attained and apply it in a new Internet space?

My Answer: The spiritual principle is the perception of the Creator. You must lead a person to that. To do so means to instill in a person a strong necessity to communicate with the others and thereby step out of oneself. As soon as a person starts perceiving others as himself, he will immediately discover the Creator outside of himself.

Why do we need a society? It is to practice exiting ourselves. The Creator is beyond me, but I don’t perceive Him. The surrounding society, on the other hand, is within me, but the Creator purposefully made it look like the society is something external. In truth, it only seems so; I only feel that everything is outside of me.

However if I “glue” this imaginary picture, both its external and internal manifestations within me, I and the surrounding world become one whole, and in this way I prepare my perception to grasp what is outside of me. When that happens, I immediately and naturally discover the Creator because except me, outside of me, there is only Him.

Then where are these worlds, where is all humanity? I discover that they are all within me and have always been there. They existed externally for the sole purpose of enabling me to tune myself like a musical instrument, as a new organ of perception, to feel the Creator. This is why I was given the sensation of myself, which is divided into two parts: me and the world. But in reality, this world doesn’t exist outside of me at all.

When we find a way to tell this to people and show them the necessity of such self-tuning, they will understand why Kabbalah teaches us to “Love the others as yourself.” It is solely for the purpose of bringing us to the perception of the Creator, the Source of ultimate goodness and perfection.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: “Come And See” A New Reality
Laitman.com Post: The Spiritual World Is Above Reason
5 Minutes Of Light: “Spirituality, A Change Of Perception”

Filed under: Internet, Perception - No Comments →

In the article “The Purpose of Society,” Rabash writes that man is born as loving only himself, and hence he can’t make the tiniest move without serving himself. Yet without renouncing egoistical love in us, it is impossible to reach the adhesion with the Creator, the equivalence of His properties.

Therefore, the group is necessary for in it the desires and strengths of each add to one another. Everyone is then able to use this immense common force in order to renounce the egoistical desire that prevents him from fulfilling the purpose he is born for. This group must consist of people who have a common purpose. Then together, they will comprise one huge force that enables each of them to struggle with himself.

In order to receive the collective power from the group, everyone must contribute his strength to it and renounce himself, that is, only see his friends’ strengths instead of their weaknesses. If he considers himself just a little higher than them, he cannot unite with them, bring in his force, and receive the collective one.

Plan

1. Human nature – love of self.
2. The purpose of creation – adhesion with the Creator through the equivalence of properties with Him.
3. It is impossible to fulfill the purpose of the creation on one’s own, but only within the group and through its power.
4. In the group, all must be equal in the purpose, means, and one’s own annulment. Annulment is only possible by exalting the friends.
5. The greatness of the environment is reached in words and actions.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/10, Article “The Purpose of Society”

Related Material:
ARIfilms: “The Law of Equivalence of Form”
Unlocking The Zohar:  “Power Of A Group”
5 Minutes Of Light: “Importance Of The Goal”

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

Man is born loving only himself. This is our nature, and we can’t do anything about it. We always live inside it and cannot step out of it. All our actions are only for our own sake; otherwise, it is impossible to move forward. Therefore, I need a foreign force which would act against my nature and change it.

All my thinking and energy keep working for the purpose of filling and comforting myself. But there is one point in me that is pushing me to step outside of my nature, rise from the animate level, and reach the Creator, that is, to attain the human level. Only this point in me belongs to the human level, the level of the Creator since “man” is similar to the Creator.

I belong to the material world entirely, but this one point in me belongs to the spiritual one. If it doesn’t awaken, a human being lives solely in this world and doesn’t suspect anything more; he is satisfied with this materialistic life. If, however, this point is awakened in his heart, he feels uncomfortable in this world and strives to rise from it. He is influenced by two forces: One pushes him from behind out of the material world, and the other pulls him from the front, from the spiritual world.

Without renouncing oneself (one’s egoism) and rising above one’s nature, it is impossible to reach adhesion with the Creator. I have to decide which nature I wish to be related to: to the nature of the Creator or that of the creature, that is, to choose bestowal or reception.

Since giving is opposite to our nature, there is only one means to move from the material to the spiritual: a Kabbalistic group. The group has immense power because we work together and everyone annuls the egoistical desire that prevents him from fulfilling the purpose for which man is born. The purpose is to become similar to the Creator. The Creator is the force of bestowal, love, and annulment of self. This is why I need the group as an external foreign force that works as a lever which allows me to turn my nature around.

In order for this force to be great and invigorating, the group must be united and strong within itself and burn with the desire to fulfill the spiritual purpose. Then, everyone in it can use this power and step out of the enslavement of egoistic love.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/10, Article “The Purpose of the Association –2”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Life Is Merging With The Creator
Laitman.com Post: Breaking The Vicious Cycle Of Life And Death
Laitman.com Post: A Blessed Seed Planted In The Garden

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - 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 →

A question I received: Why do we constantly talk only about the connection among us, and say nothing about the connection with the Creator?

My Answer: Right now we are talking about realizing our goal at hand, and this is why we devote so much attention to the connection among us. The final goal is adhesion with the Creator according to the law of equivalence of form, which means that we need to become “Human,” Adam (“similar” to the Creator).

First, we need to prepare our spiritual vessel (Kli) by making it similar to the Upper One. This is one vessel  for everyone; all of its parts should unite as one man with one heart. All our hatred, envy, ambition, pride, and thirst for power become included within it; we need to rise above it all and unite in order to become similar to the Creator, and thereby attain adhesion with Him.

It seems to us as though the Creator is somewhere outside of us, but in fact, He is revealed inside that common spiritual vessel which we build among us. Therefore, to have a correct perspective, we need to perceive everything as if it exists in one place. We build this space for the revelation of the Creator!

It is precisely there where we unite with each other above our egoism. Our egoism remains below, and above it, we build the connections among us. And if our connection is solid, based upon the force of the Light that Reforms, then in the connection, we will reveal the Creator (Boreh), which means “come and see” (Bo-Re).

This is different than picturing that He is somewhere high in the clouds and I am doing something here, below, in order to reveal Him in the sky. I reveal Him precisely in the connection between souls, between the organs of the spiritual body, as the inner Light that fills it.

Meanwhile, people think that when we speak only about uniting with each other that the Creator is separate from this. This is because internally they are not willing to agree that there is a connection between our work – the studies, dissemination, and unification with each other – and the Creator.

Each person perceives the Creator as something elevated and is willing to unite with Him, but we are unwilling to unite with another person. They don’t understand that this is the same thing. A more inner connection among people is called the “Creator,” the quality of bestowal, but the nature of man does not permit one to agree with this.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/18/10, Article “Arvut (The Bond)”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar Sheds Light On The Connection Between Souls
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Love for the Creator & Love for the Created Beings”
5 Minutes of Light: What is the Creator? (5:09)

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - 1 Comment →

The Torah is the force of correction, and it changes us to equivalence with the Creator. When we become similar to the Creator, we are called “Adam,” and each of us is called “Ben-Adam” (human being) on his part. Adam means “similar” (in Hebrew – Edame) to the Creator. Thus, a “human being” isn’t one of the billions that exist in our world, but one who achieves equivalence to the Creator.

However, in order to elevate oneself to the level of the Creator, in order to implement the Torah, a sufficient desire is necessary. We are consumed with earthly concerns, so how can we be concerned with the aspiration to spirituality, with elevating ourselves to the next dimension? This is part of the preparation for receiving the Torah. It’s written that the Creator gives us the Torah every day. This means it is always ready for use and it depends only on our desire.

Therefore, first of all, I need to cultivate the desire to rise from my animal degree to the entrance into a new world, which is the spiritual world. However, if I don’t have this desire, I’ll live like an animal and I won’t notice this means since I don’t experience any need for it; I don’t want or understand anything that goes beyond the realms of this world. Otherwise, I could already be advancing to the spiritual world. So far, I don’t have a sufficient desire in order to use this means to enter the Upper dimension. Thus, I need to prepare myself for the reception of the Torah.

Only if I reveal the evil inclination in me and clarify what it is that I need to correct in order to reach the Creator (love and bestowal), do I prepare myself for receiving this means called the Torah. Engaging in the Torah means extracting the Light that Reforms from it. I need to aspire to it and desire it to correct me. I need to open a book as though I receive medicine from it, without which I am doomed to die. Are there many people who study the Torah this way in our world?

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/17/10, “What is the Preparation for Receiving the Torah?”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Most Important Event Of Our Lives
Laitman.com Post: Our Work Is Very Simple
Interview with the Future: “The Law of Equivalence of Attributes”

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

Regular science is already coming closer to a worldview akin to spirituality. Everything in science is unifying and erasing all boundaries, generating such phenomena as chemical physics and physical chemistry. Scientists continue to discover new forces, as though delving deeper into the picture of the world with a microscope and revealing new elements in it. However, all of these elements belong to one common source.

In essence, each and every form of matter – positive, negative, and neutral elementary particles – expresses different forms of the same idea or force. However, for the time being we are unable to see nature "in the middle line," and we constantly perceive it "from the right" or "from the left."  It seems to us that nothing exists in the middle, as if zero, while in truth there cannot be zero. Consequently, science will come to the eventual conclusion that matter should be examined from above down, rather than from below upward, that is, from matter itself.

This is what happens with Kabbalah studies. A person works hard on examining his or her material, which is the desire to receive pleasure. He tries to fill it somehow, but as a result, comes to a complete breaking and reveals that it is impossible to do anything with oneself. Then a person turns to the Upper degree and asks it to be revealed, wishing to receive the same form as the Upper in order to reveal one’s lower degree.

Modern science is coming closer to revealing the fact that unless we, the observers, raise ourselves to a higher degree, there will be no understanding of our present degree. The science of Kabbalah addresses this problem at the outset. Kabbalah explains that if a person remains on the same degree, one will be unable to reveal a thing. It teaches: "Rise higher, and there you will attain the force that controls you; it is the same force that built and now leads you through all the states you are experiencing.”

Hence, although science has not yet reached its final stage of development (it is only coming closer to this), it will eventually reveal that we have to rise to a higher degree in order to understand something in ourselves. All of reality is contained within our desire, so will we really benefit by revealing thousands of additional phenomena in it or discovering more elementary particles in quantum physics?  It is impossible to unite all of the parts together without understanding the Force that controls everything. This constitutes the entire problem in attaining the higher degree, which moves our whole reality.

Kabbalah, on the other hand, places the goal of attaining the Creator, the Upper degree, before a person immediately. Moreover, it is a completely scientific approach since while remaining submerged in our material we cannot attain this material; we need to rise to the level of forces.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 5/13/10

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Have We Reached The End Of Classical Science?
Moments From The Daily Kabbalah Lesson: Deeper Into Matter (2:22)
Kabbalah Moments: Science Of Kabbalah (1:17)

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