A Question I Received: You said that there are three components of the intention while reading The Zohar: 1) Everything I read in The Zohar occurs inside of me; 2) I feel that I’m studying The Zohar together with my friends, and I feel them; and 3) Unification between us is possible only due to the Upper Light. How is it possible to maintain these three intentions simultaneously and continuously;  which should be given priority?

My Answer: The intention should always consist of all three components together. As Baal HaSulam writes, a person constantly should be in the intention, “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one.” If one singles out one of them over the others, he strays from the path.

We’re talking about a single reality called the World of Infinity where the Creator, creature, and the entire universe with all of its qualities (the good and the evil, the past, present, future, and everything that we can possibly imagine), are revealed in one point which is the connection called “adhesion.” Thus I should think only about this state, constantly feel as though I exist in it, and aspire to it. All the interferences that are revealed are only meant for me to direct myself more and more correctly to this point of adhesion where all the qualities complement each other.

Therefore, the group, the Creator, The Book of Zohar that I’m reading, myself, and everything happening inside me become included into Infinity together. We wish to reveal one reality which is the only one that exists. We exist in it even now, but, in order to reveal it, we need to aspire to this picture.

Every degree or each of my states is the same Infinity. We reveal it only as we draw closer to it in increasingly higher resolution and with greater precision. However, every degree is the same ten Sefirot which are revealed more: from a drop of semen (a point) to a full Partzuf.

The intention should consist of the fact that everything is situated in the state of Infinity where I, too, exist. I just desire it to be clarified to me and for its minor details to become larger and to complement each other so that the group, the Creator, all the states, and I are revealed as being one whole. All that is needed is the effort, and it will come. We shouldn’t think about how to connect all the components. On the contrary, we should try to see the final, perfect picture where we exist.

The Surrounding Light comes from this picture with which you wish to be connected. It’s precisely what we need in order to reach revelation. Any deviation to the individual components of this picture just weakens the Surrounding Light.

We need to strive to “learn” as Baal HaSulam writes in Item 155 of “The Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.” To “learn” means to reach adhesion, a connection with that same picture that I’m trying to imagine now. As it’s written, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife.”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/29/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Shifting From Illusion To True Perception
Laitman.com Post: Malchut Of The World Of Atzilut Is, In Fact, You
Video: Inner Work And The Zohar – 5 Minutes Of Light (5:31)

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

A question I received: The World Zohar Convention will start in New York in just two days, and it seems like everything has already been said about it, such as how to prepare for it and what will happen there. Still, could you provide some final summary instructions?

My Answer: The summary is to attain a connection among our hearts. This is the only thing we have to correct and this has to be the most important thing to us.

You should not worry about now being able to see and hear everything, or not being able to understand everything. The most important thing is your heart: You have to worry about connecting it with all the other similar desires of the people participating in this world assembly.

There will be over a thousand people present at the actual convention, and they will be joined by hundreds of thousands around the whole world. If these hearts desire to unite in a single desire to attain the revelation of the Creator, to attain bestowal and love through their unity, then it will happen! This goal is attainable. It can be achieved, and it will happen one way or another in the very near future.

In previous years I did not talk about love and unity, but now we are already at the threshold of practically revealing the Creator, the quality of bestowal and love, in our world. Therefore, we are entering this Convention with hopes for great success.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/5/10, “Matan Torah”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Spiritual Attack Never Ends
Laitman.com Post: Just 2 Days Left Until The World Zohar Convention
Laitman.com Post: Tune In To The Spiritual Net

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Unity - 1 Comment →

The Zohar, Items 16-21 (synopsis): The narrative of the Torah starts with the action performed on the soul which has already gone through the breaking of the vessels, the mixing of the broken parts, and the fall into hate and rejection. In other words, the Torah is talking about the soul which is ready for correction.

Being in the state of concealment, a person in our world doesn’t feel flawed, miserable, and full of hostility and hatred. Only the influence of the Upper Light will uncover and help us understand our true nature, which is under total control of instant gratification and pleasures.

In order to rid itself of egoism and come to the state of everlasting pleasure, the creature, Malchut, has to change its intention from “receiving for its own sake” to “receiving for the sake of bestowal.” This gives rise to the property of Bina which demonstrates how the desire to receive can become bestowing.

When the creature “restricts” its desires and annuls itself, it comes under the power of Bina, the mother who is teaching her daughter, Malchut, to work in bestowal. As soon as Malchut becomes included in Bina, the mother starts passing on to her daughter the “garments and precious adornments,” meaning the property of Hassadim. Under its influence the creature gradually becomes similar to the Creator.

As a result of her further spiritual development Malchut rises above Bina and obtains the property of “Elokim.” This means that she begins attaining her root and comes to the understanding of her place, function, and duty in the system of the common soul.

The Zohar Lesson in Russian 5/2/2010

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Finally, We Are Ready For Correction
Laitman.com Post: Kabbalah Is A Patent For Infinite Pleasure
The Book of Zohar: “The Mother Lends Her Clothes to Her Daughter”

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

The Zohar, Chapter “Emor (Speak),” Item 129: Open for me an opening like the tip of a needle, and I will open the high gates for you. …This is why when David wished to come into the King, he said, “Open to me the gates of righteousness … This is the gate of the Lord.” The gates of righteousness is Malchut; it is the way to enter the King. “This is the gate of the Lord,” to find Him and to adhere to Him. Hence, “Open to me, my sister, my love,” to mate with you and forever be at peace with you.

In one of his letters, Baal HaSulam describes entering the spiritual world. There is a wall in front of us, we are walking along it, looking for the entrance, but can’t find it. However, the instant a person becomes similar to the One who is behind the wall, an entrance appears in the wall.

This is the way to enter the spiritual world. You have a solid wall in front of you which doesn’t have any opening, and then, all of the sudden, an entrance opens for you.
In the material world, we know that there’s a door in a certain place, it’s closed, but it can be opened. However, in the spiritual world, there is no door; nothing is visible in advance; everything is completely concealed. It’s utterly impossible to imagine that something can be opened here. Then, suddenly, an entrance opens.

Everything happens according to the similarity of properties of the person standing in front of the wall, and the Creator behind it. If they share at least one percent of similar properties, the person can enter inside. It happens on the condition that he wants to enter only to the extent of this percent and leaving the rest outside.

This means that a person wants to become connected with the Creator only through the desires that fit Him. Then, the entrance opens and he finds himself in the spiritual world. Corrections of our desires ultimately lead us to a desire called “gates to the Creator.”

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/30/10

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Spiritual Lens
Laitman.com Post: Vibrate In Unison With The Sounds Of The Book Of Zohar
Laitman.com Post: Wanting To Be Like The Creator Above Everything Else
Video: The Creator Is Within – 5 Minutes of Light (3:35)

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

Our entire problem in spiritual advancement is that we approach Kabbalah, the revelation of the Upper World, as if it were a scientific theory that we must attain with our mind and actualize with our own forces. However, Kabbalah offers us something completely atypical – the chance to acquire new qualities. And as long as a person does not acquire them, he will not find out what Kabbalah talks about.

All of Kabbalah is the method of developing a new quality in a person, the quality of “love for one’s neighbor.” It is also called “the Creator.” Thus, Kabbalah is the method of going from a total negation of Him to His full revelation. Our initial “earthly” feelings and mind do not bear any relation to the revelation of the Creator. The revelation of the Creator is the creation of His quality inside a person. Kabbalah is the method to form the quality of bestowal within us, the state of the Creator.

Our entire reality consists of two components: feelings and mind. When a person creates the image of the Creator within himself, he acquires a new mind and a new feeling instead of the previous ones. That is how he goes from the perception (or sensation) of this world to the perception (or sensation) of the Upper World.

The new sensation inside a person is called the Creator, “Boreh,” which means “come and see.” It is also called the soul.

The main challenge for a person who begins to study Kabbalah is the inability to connect all of his development with the Light that has to change him, with the force that has to bring him a new mind and feelings. We cling to external forms and aspire to perceive the text that was written by Kabbalists with our earthly feelings and mind. We try to adapt spirituality to our earthly existence. However, in all the books of Kabbalah, not a word speaks about our world. Our state is necessary only in order to attract the Light that Reforms through studying in a group. Our task is to expect for the birth of new feelings and a new mind within us, which will give us the perception of the new reality.

Our entire battle with our nature amounts to finding new instruments of perceiving the world, and then perceiving and attaining through them.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/10, “Matan Torah”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Imperceptible Influence Of The Surrounding Light
Laitman.com Post: The Ray Of Light That Lifts Us Up
Laitman.com Post: A Request To Return To The Source

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

In the News (From Northeastern University): Human behavior is 93 percent predictable, a group of leading Northeastern University network scientists recently found. Distinguished Professor of Physics Albert-László Barabási and his team studied the mobility patterns of anonymous cell-phone users and concluded that, despite the common perception that our actions are random and unpredictable, human mobility follows surprisingly regular patterns.

My Comment: Our individuality manifests only at the time of the Creator’s revelation within us, that is, when we start building His image within us. Indeed, it is the only new and free individual action. Beside this, everything is simply preprogrammed by the desire to receive pleasure (egoism), which acts only according to the principle of “maximum reception with minimum effort.”

Therefore, all our actions could be predicted beforehand. For that reason, Kabbalah calls us “animals.” We become “people” by realizing our only freedom of choice – in exiting egoism and becoming similar to the Creator.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: True Freedom Lies In Becoming “Human” Faster
Video: What Generates Movement? (1:45)
Video: The Law of Equivalence of Form (4:09)

Filed under: Free Will, News - No Comments →

The Zohar, Chapter “VaEra (And I Appeared),” Item 6: …each degree comprises GAR and ZAT, which is ZA, and there is attainment only in ZA of each degree, even in ZA de [of] GAR, called Daat. However, no one can attain in the GAR of each degree, even in the GAR of the degree of Assiya.

We perceive everything inside of Malchut. Malchut is called “the Creator’s image.” Presently we do not see the true picture of the world, but only what enters our five senses (sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch) and is presented in our brain. We receive an impression from the information delivered to us by our senses, and sense reality that seemingly exists before us within, in the back of our brain.

The same happens to Malchut. Baal HaSulam explains in “Preface to the Book of Zohar” that along with Malchut, there exist the first nine Sefirot; however, Malchut does not know what those nine Sefirot are. She attains these Sefirot after including them within herself, sensing them as something that appears before her.

Thus, Malchut discovers the first nine Sefirot to the extent that she is able to act like them, from below upward. When Malchut becomes like Keter by repelling the Direct Light and forming the Reflected Light, from within the Reflected Light, she attains the fact that before her are the first nine Sefirot, that is, the lower one begins to act outside of itself, outward, and sees what is happening in the Reflected Light.

The same applies to us in this world. We see something that exists before us in accordance with our ego, depending on what is beneficial to us and what isn’t. Whatever doesn’t affect our ego, cannot bring us benefit or cause harm – we do not detect.

This stems from the spiritual roots: Malchut senses the first nine Sefirot only to the measure of the Reflected Light, which the Direct Light imprints within itself. This is the picture that appears to Malchut as though existing before her. Nothing else exists as far as she’s concerned, for she doesn’t sense anything above that.

If Malchut were to have the desire to enjoy of the Root (0) phase, she would not detect before her anything other than the Root phase. If Malchut were to have a greater desire to enjoy, she would see before her a wider picture of reality. Everything is determined by the thickness of our desire (Aviut) and the Light it reflects. That is why nothing in Kabbalah speaks of what truly exists in reality, for everything depends on the measure of one’s attainment.

From the Evening Zohar Lesson 4/28/10

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Attaining The Names Of The Creator
Laitman.com Post: Acquiring The Real Perception Of The World
Laitman.com Post: A Reality Filtered By Egoism

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Perception, Zohar - 2 Comments →

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 →

The Creator created us with the desire to receive pleasure. The fulfillment that we feel in it (either within it – egoistic fulfillment, or in others – for the sake of bestowal) is in fact, called our life or to be more precise, “our book of life” since it constantly needs to be renewed.

This “book” is renewed according to the data (Reshimot) that are instilled in us. If they are revealed on their own through natural means this is called that we are advancing through life “in due time” (Beito). However, if we ourselves rouse the force that hastens the revelation of new occurrences (Reshimot), this means that we are advancing through life by “hastening time” (Achishena).

Whether we wish to be successful in this world or in spiritual development, we need to hasten the revelation of the corresponding events (Reshimot). Spiritual development starts when a “point in the heart,” a spiritual Reshimo, awakens within us. Then gradually a person switches from natural development of this Reshimo due to help from Above to beginning to hasten the development of this Reshimo on his own with the help of an external force, the influence of the environment. In this manner, one switches to the path of “Achishena,” the path of Light.

We do not reveal a “new book.” The whole book already exists and it includes the whole World of Infinity, a desire that is infinitely filled with the Light. Yet everything depends on how quickly we “read” it, meaning to what extent we reveal the Reshimot of this infinite reality, which is called a “book.” And I become its “author,” since in order to open it I need to “write” this “story of “life” in my heart, meaning on my desires.

The “story” means revelation. I demand the Surrounding Light which rouses the next Reshimo in me, and I advance myself to the goal on my own. Therefore, I see everything in the Light of development, rather than as forced steps due to lack of choice, through darkness.

From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/10, Shamati

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Everything Takes Place According To Our Reshimot (Spiritual Genes)
Laitman.com Post: Every Person Must Become The Author Of Creation
Video: Rav Laitman’s Morning Lesson: Reshimot, Self-Correction, & Sufferings (2:47)

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

A question I received: What does it mean that the Creator gets angry? If we’re talking about invariable spiritual laws, why does The Zohar portray the Creator as one who possesses human qualities, such as anger, envy, etc?

My Answer: The Torah uses the language of man to tell us what we feel and attribute to the Creator. I often use a computer as an example of this. Why do we get angry at a computer when it is nothing but pieces of metal and plastic? It has no intelligence, but merely executes its programmed commands perfectly. All its actions are correct.

If you press the wrong key, or if you lack the knowledge of how the program functions, you can smash the keyboard in frustration all you want, but the computer will still respond with the same error every single time. A computer isn’t a person who can change its behavior. A computer is inanimate, and cannot change. Yet, again and again, you relate to it as you would to a person, questioning it in rage: “Why aren’t you doing what I want you to do?”

We attribute to a computer our own qualities, our personalities, wishing for it to change as we do. In truth, we are uncorrected and we change, while a computer is not uncorrected; hence, its behavior is unvarying and always correct.

The same rule applies to the Creator. We’re not talking about the Creator Himself, but about “Bo-Re” (“Come and See”), that is, our perception of the Creator. We discern and conceive the Creator in our desires (vessels of reception, Kelim). And that is why we ascribe to the Creator the same qualities and reactions characteristic of us.

It is therefore written that the Torah speaks the language of man. In order to explain to us our correct behavior and to help us change, we need to imagine that the Creator undergoes changes though in truth He does not. Perfection cannot change, otherwise it would not be perfection.

By ascribing to the Creator our qualities and regarding Him as though He changes His attitude toward us, we can see ourselves in two manifestations: One, the way I am as is, the way I appear from the side and two, in the changes I undergo either in a constant or transient world.

This perceptual duality which allows us to imagine as though something changes outside of us is a great gift from the Creator. Because of it we come to perceive a different dimension, to understand the spiritual world, to enter into its perception freely and independently.

Therefore, our perception that reality exists and changes outside of ourselves is a true salvation from the prison cell of our world (the sensation of spiritual claustrophobia). It is a fundamental point which grants the creature the opportunity to rise above its creation, to become human: Adam, similar to the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Be Ready For Changing Perceptions
Laitman.com Post: The Entire Universe Is Inside Of Us
Laitman.com Post: How To Draw A Picture Of The Creator Inside You (Advanced)

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