Entries in the 'group' Category

Bring Your Hatred To The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I accelerate the revelation of the broken desire between myself and the friends?

Answer: We go through states where we are always sent an awakening of evil. The question is: How do I accept that evil? Do I perceive it as a disturbance? Why do I discover that I hate others? Why do conflicts between us keep surfacing?

If you give in to the hatred and don’t want to see one another, then go home, stop uniting, and don’t set your sights on spiritual work. However, this work lies precisely in revealing the evil, the hatred (Sinah), all the way until Mount Sinai. We have to know that this is the path: We are revealing destruction, the breaking.

And no matter how big the extent to which it is revealed, we do not correct it artificially. We do not hold fraternity parties with rowdy toasts following a hearty meal, and we do not “make up” like kids in kindergarten. Rather, we want to correct the evil by means of studying, by means of the Light that Reforms. With the understanding that on the external level there is hatred and repulsion between us, we do not cover it or try to smooth it out. We want the Light to come and change this hatred and repulsion, to turn it into connection, all the way until love.

No matter how much hatred becomes revealed, we do not touch it. We do not strengthen or weaken it; do not suppress it or correct it. We do not do anything to it, but only wish to bring it like a valued treasure to the Light that Reforms.

“Finally I revealed a little bit of hatred! This is the Upper World, but in the reverse. It is the opposite side of the spiritual Kli. When it turns to connection and love, it will become a full-fledged vessel for the Light!”

We have to treat this hatred with great care, making it special, and then bringing it to the Light. Yet, what we do instead is cross it out as if everything is already OK, or we go our separate ways, or split up the group. True, sometimes there are hopeless situations because the people are still weak and cannot act or understand otherwise. Then a division is suitable as a temporary solution. But in essence the real work is done precisely on the background of hatred. So let’s not forget that this is our path: We are working on ourselves.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/11, Writings of Rabash

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Don’t Let The Source Dry Up

Dr. Michael LaitmanWritings of Rabash, ““What Is He Who Does Not Have Children In The Work”: A tree that does not bear fruit is like a childless man who does not give birth to anyone. A person and the Torah are called barren if they do not have children.

Question: How can we refine the common intention that is aimed at help from above?

Answer: Help comes only in response to a desire to unite. That is why we study together to attract the Light of correction. All of us together must discern the desire to unite (the common prayer) because otherwise not one of us will have the right request or the strength to continue on the path.

A person has a basic desire: to feel good. Sometimes in addition to it the question about the meaning of life arises in him, which is a desire to acquire Light. That is when he begins studying the science of Kabbalah. Before he had this additional desire, he developed like an animal following the orders of his earthly desire. We take a person into account only from the moment when he aspires to something higher.

How does a person use all of the inclinations that are given to him? After all, development is only possible by virtue of a desire being added to him from the common Kli . But a person must include himself in it, similar to a tree that receives all the forces from the surrounding environment, such as the earth, air, sun, and so on. If a person knows how to accept everything for the benefit of his spiritual growth, then he will absorb this need from the environment and with it will request the Light that Reforms during the study.

This Light constructs one’s inner process whereby one’s inner qualities, objectives, and notions grow. That is how a person advances. He continuously thinks about how to receive an ascent from the environment. To do this, he has to lower his head before the friends and elevate them in his eyes as the best people of the generation. At the lesson he has to not forget why he studies. In the end, a person only receives an additional awakening from the group, but then the Light has to come and aim him correctly.

Thus, with the help of all of these factors, a person provides himself with the forces for growth. He has to check: Do these forces produce any fruits? On one hand, he advances in the left line, continuously revealing the evil inclination that the Creator made. Alternating with this, he reveals the Torah as a spice: He understands what to do with the evil inclination and how to discern the Torah with its help, which is the Light, the quality of bestowal.

Thus, as a person carries out the advice of Kabbalists, he reaches a certain sensation. Even if it is not a real vestment of Lights into vessels yet, nevertheless new details of perception emerge in him—specks of Light that clothe into Kelim. True, for now it is not felt as fulfillment, but as Surrounding Light—the Light that Reforms. A person is still on the path to the Source. He still hasn’t reached goodness, even to a small degree. Yet, he is moving forward.

Therefore, the most important thing is to fear that he will not have children, that he will remain without a strong desire, will stop halfway and wither by a dried up source. If you have a desire, it is necessary to discern the evil inclination in it, which is formless and opposite to spiritual advancement. Then one has to add the Torah as a spice, the Light that Reforms to this. If the Torah brings fruits, then it is no longer childless.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/11, Writings of Rabash

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Manual: How To Bring Joy Back

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Spirituality requires completeness and joy, but in the group we sometimes deem it as gaiety. How does it fit in?

Answer: You drop into the group after your mundane, “civil” life. There, you would enjoy food, sex, family, wealth, respect, power, and knowledge. Here, however, you are placed before a goal that you don’t achieve and people you didn’t pick.

In the outside world, you would individually decide with whom to work and spend leisure time, but here you see the faces of the friends. Look, would you invite them into your circle? You have no choice. Moreover, there is no benefit. You find neither a reason, nor place, nor ways to feel the joy you used to experience in the outside world.

Now, you need to replace all your ideas. What am I here for? Why do I need all these people? How do I find fulfillment? What is the goal? How important is it? Having gathered and arranged these questions and their answers correctly, you must simply burst with joy, and soar to the seventh heaven because you are so happy.

After all, you are in the only correct place, in the company of the right people who yearn for the same exalted goal as you do, which cannot be reached on one’s own. Look, they all came together just for you. They exist solely for you to attain perfection.

Then, looking at the friends, you start loving them. They become important, close, dear to you, and the goal isn’t that distant any more. If we all unite, we will find it among us. It isn’t in some distant galaxy, but right here behind the partitions separating us, which we must crush.

The goal is to reveal the Light in us, but it cannot flow as long as there is a gap in the net. Because of the torn wires, the spiritual current doesn’t pass through any of us. So, let it shine; close the circuit. Everything is ready for us, and, if you see the events correctly, you will definitely get filled with joy.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/5/10, Rabash “The Matter of Schechina

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"The Place" Where The Creator And I Meet

Dr. Michael Laitman with StudentsQuestion: Where may the prayer for our unity and correction come from? How do I start asking for it?

Answer: We cry and beg for correction, but it is a pretense and falsehood. We, ourselves, don’t even realize that it is just lip service.

However, if I am working in the group and allow it to influence me, thereby exercising my only free choice, then it passes to me its enthusiasm and motivates me toward spirituality. At that point, it isn’t a lie since I am inspired by the friends. Even though I tried to connect to the group artificially, when they worked on me, I started to take it seriously.

This is how I am made: I am a particle in the collective system which has been functioning this way since the beginning of creation. That is why I cannot escape being affected by the environment, try as I might.

However, in this case, it was my wish to be influenced by the friends, and I made an effort to achieve it. If I now turn to the Creator with the desire received from the group, I will immediately receive an answer to it, a response. After all, this desire has a unique nature: the will to unite.

When I try to unite with them on my own or cry to the Creator to get this wish granted, it is a false demand. It isn’t regarded as a true prayer (MAN or Mayin Nukvin, Female Waters), but a lie. Although it is also beneficial, I will eventually see that it doesn’t work.

However, when I turn to the group, exalting it and reducing my own importance, and receive from it a new desire, a request that I further raise to the Creator, this is called MAN. As a result, there will be an answer from Above called MAD (Mayin Duchrin, Male Waters), which will truly connect me with the group, and there, inside it, I will find the Creator.

Inasmuch as I contribute myself to the group upon my own request, to that measure, the Creator will be revealed to me. However, no altruistic desire or action can come directly from me.


The group stands between me and the Creator, and we meet inside it. I raise my prayer to the Creator through the group. In response, He channels the answer to me through the group, with the help of which I may now rise to the group and find the Creator in it.

Between the Creator and me, there has to be the group. That’s why it is called the “place” and so is the Creator because there, He and I meet.
[27184]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/21/10, Beit Shaar HaKavanot

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Detach From Everything Else!

Dr. Michael LaitmanOur unification has to take place at a quantitatively new level. We need to unite in a way where everyone internally engages inside all the others, leaving his egoistic desire outside. He must only bring his yearning for spirituality, called the spark of Light.

With this spark, he dives into the group, disconnecting from his emotions and everything else that doesn’t belong. As a result, all the sparks of all people merge together.

This detachment allows me to get to know the collective will to receive pleasure that resides outside of my ego, and in it I discover the ability to perceive the Upper World and the Creator.
[27091]
From the lesson on Rabash’s article on 11/05/10

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The Compass Pointing To The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I check that I am going in the right direction?

Answer: You will never be able to find this out. To do that you would have to know where the final goal is and where you are. Then you could draw a straight line between the two points and discern the right direction.

But if you do not know these two points, then what can you do? And the fact is that you will never find out what they are!

That is why we have the group, which is the only opportunity to move toward the goal. You have to become included in it, and the more you join it, the more it will mean that you are moving in the right direction.

How can you check this? The moment you really start to unite with them, inside that unity among all of you, you will reveal the Creator. He will be your witness that right now you are going in the right direction, and that is no fantasy!

This evidence is the first supporting fact, and only then can you be sure that you went in the right direction. Before that, it is written, "One made efforts and found."

Efforts should be made during the study of the primary sources in the group. Everything else is auxiliary work.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/10, "The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose"

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You Won’t Figure Out Anything Without The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanOnly the group can give you the desire to change your nature, and only the Light can change it, and only then will you really understand what bestowal is!

Today it seems to me that bestowal is simply to bestow to others. But that is completely incorrect!

How is it possible to bestow to others if in spirituality we unite as one whole without any differences between us? To whom do I bestow in that case: to others or to myself?

Therefore, right now we have absolutely no understanding of what bestowal is. This spiritual notion seems to get lost somehow. If I ascend to some spiritual level and see that on it everyone unites together, then it would seem like I have no one to bestow to: I am the only one everywhere!

We cannot understand this until the Light comes and gives us this spiritual vision. We egoists think that bestowal is when we give to another person by overcoming our lack of desire.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/10, "The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose"

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How To Turn A Descent Into An Ascent

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do I keep the intention while being pressed by all kinds of obstacles?

Answer: To keep the intention is possible solely with the help of the environment and a strict schedule: I have to know that there is a lesson to attend, and I have to come; I have chores and duties in the group, and I have to honor them. It’s forbidden to digress from the routine schedule in anything.

Use all your free time to do more work than before. During a descent, the only thing that can help is your connection with the group where you do any work, like a diligent laborer, without the senses and intelligence of which you are incapable at the moment.

The correct realization of a descent is when you are not trying to escape from it, but use it to ascend. If you think that you can handle it with your own desire and mind, it is totally incorrect. During the descent, a person doesn’t perform any clarifications nor does he have any feelings. He is dead, as it were.

What is a descent? It is a reception of an additional, more exalted desire to feel pleasure. You are made to feel that your GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) are being adjoined with the AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh) of the Upper One, and instead of your desire, you feel His.

Previously, I had my own 10 Sefirot, and the Upper One had His. However, now I attach His desire to mine, my GE and His AHP, and there are 10 Sefirot once again. Instead of my small AHP, I have the addition of the AHP of the Upper One, the enormous desires that are willing to restrict and nullify themselves. This AHP is allowed to work with me, which places an enormous burden on me.

Suppose I can lift 20 lbs, but am forced to lift 50 lbs. I can’t do it! They tied a 50 pound weight to each of my legs. Can I really take a step? Or, I was going to give somebody $10,000 and suddenly discovered that I, myself, have a debt for this very amount in my bank account. How can I now give the money to another? There are plenty of such examples in our lives.

This is regarded as the revelation of the AHP of the Upper One. What can I do if I experience it as complete darkness? Is there any way I can handle it using my intelligence and emotion? What intelligence and senses? From my point of view, is there really any logic in all this?

I was a “good child” at my rung, and out of the blue, I am loaded with the desires and duties that I cannot handle. Am I supposed to carry them all out in my present state, when I have lost my mind and senses and am completely lost and trapped in endless problems? How can one do anything alone?

Salvation lies solely in the group, and doing any available mechanical work in it by yourself. This will be the starting point of your ascension to a new state.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/10, “600.000 Souls”

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My Beloved Group

Dr. Michael LaitmanA group is not a union of individuals but a union with the Creator; otherwise, it is not a Kabbalistic group. I come to this group exactly because the Creator resides within it; if not, why do I need all these people? People always unite by interests, and what can a Kabbalistic group give us? It can give us the Creator! And this is the only reason I come here, in order to find Him in the connection between us.

This is regarded as: “Israel (I, who aspires to the Creator; Isra– directly, El– the Creator), the Light of correction (the Torah), and the Creator (the root of all) are one.” All three of these components must become one in order for me to achieve them. This is the reason I come here, and it defines all actions I perform in the group, as well as my attitude to the friends, and absolutely everything else!

It turns out that I relate to this very notion of the group as to the Creator because He resides there within it! But I am not able to focus my eyes on Him. He keeps getting blurry for me, and I don’t know where He is. I can’t catch him with my targeting device.

Yet, I am told that if I look at it through the group, it is aimed precisely at Him, with the result correctly targeted. Therefore, I value the friends as much as I value the Creator; after all, only through them am I able to reach Him. Besides, it is written: “From the love of created beings to the love for the Creator.” In other words, if I achieve love in the group, then as a final result, I will undoubtedly reach Him and attain love of the Creator.

I can’t work on love in relation to the Creator since I don’t see whom I must work with. Therefore at each stage, I attain love for the Creator by working on love for the group. Otherwise, I cannot study the Creator: I imagine Him according to my correct attitude to the unity with friends. I build and uncover this form myself. If not, why do I need to come in the group? I do so only because they are selected by the Creator so that through them I could approach Him. That is why I love them! They are my salvation!
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/10, “The Freedom”

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Brushing Off The Dust From Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe clarify everything that takes place not from the outside, but within ourselves for there is nothing outside of us. The Upper Light is simple, and we reveal it only when we equalize ourselves to it in our qualities.

Therefore, only attainment can expose all the details of perception. The realization of importance and lack thereof, our desires, high and low, exile and redemption, ascents and descents, creation and the Creator, all this is revealed only in relation to us.

Our reality is initially arranged in such a way that spirituality is unimportant to us. The Creator and the Shechina, as the place of His revelation in us, the quality of bestowal, the group in which we advance, everything that pertains to the Upper One has no importance to us.

Our desires are purposely created this way. They present us with an opportunity to create effort on the path to an opposite quality so that bestowal would become important in our eyes. Why is this work necessary? It is needed in order to reveal all the qualities of the Giver from the opposite state. And for this we need to acquire and to incorporate these qualities into ourselves.

Thereby we will change our external form from reception to bestowal. Our ” material,” meaning our initial desire will manifest externally as though it wishes to bestow. Whatever it does in regard to the group and the Creator, it will always display itself as giving. Otherwise, it won’t act at all.

Consequently, we need to ask to raise the importance of bestowal in our eyes, which is called bringing the Shechina to life from the dust. The Shechina is a Kli (vessel) in which the quality of bestowal is revealed. Shechina is unity of souls. Everyone unifies the souls in spite of the rejection, and then this place acquires a screen and the Reflected Light, the quality of bestowal, intention for bestowal. As this intention grows, we reveal more and more that the Light, the Creator, dwells in our vessel.

Thus, our whole work is conducted between two states: exile and redemption. In Hebrew these words are similar, only the word “redemption”  has the additional letter Aleph (א) which means the Creator, Light, the quality of bestowal that fills creation and ascends the throne in its desire.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/10, “Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall”

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