The articles in the book Shamati (I Heard) were not written by Baal HaSulam as works in which the writer examines every word, but rather, these articles were delivered as talks during meals with his students, which RABASH (Baal HaSulam’s son and first student) heard and later recorded on paper.

Baal HaSulam did not allow students to write anything down in his presence, including during the lesson. Until today, this approach existed throughout the entire history of Kabbalah. Throughout all generations, none of the Kabbalists recorded a single word during the studies, since it was forbidden to write.

After all, a student received the “oral” Torah, “from the mouth” of the teacher. One perceived in accordance with what he heard and comprehended. This is because when a person writes, he doesn’t comprehend. Whereas when a person listens, the material is absorbed; it enters one’s desires and qualities, thus raising him.

Moreover when one enters spirituality, every word that the teacher spoke including the minutest details, will be remembered. One remembers the form in which it was said, along with everything in its deepest meaning.

Nothing vanishes in spirituality. Our entire “movie” already exists and is premiering before us. We only need to learn to move from it and live in an absolutely new informational space.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/10, Shamati 59

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Shamati – The Most Valuable Book In the World
Shamati #25: “Things that Come from the Heart”
Video: The Book of Shamati (3:14)

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

There are special souls, which are very valuable for the entire system of souls since they bring this system to life and help the other souls to reach revelation and attainment and consciously join the process of development. There are many special souls, but we only know some of them. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains this system. These special souls open the gates of attainment and perception of spiritual existence to us.

These systems are part of the common system of the single spiritual organism, and they serve as the carriers of Inner Light to the other souls on the stages of development. The development of our generation depends on the souls of Rashbi, the Ari, Baal HaSulam, and Rabash. For us, they are the fundamental parts of the system, who reveal the influence of the Upper Light to us, carry the Light, the force of life, and create the proper environment, where we can develop spiritually.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

For the last few days, I have been feeling that many people are beginning to understand that our unity is created so that all of us, together, will reveal the reality of our connection with the Upper Force of nature. We are becoming a group which attracts people to the unification and revelation of the Creator within this unity. This is becoming clearer for people.

Our goal is to connect all of humanity to this Upper Force in order to rise to that level. This is already starting to penetrate our minds and sensations. The very initial connection between us and the Upper Force has opened.

We work on developing our unity by participating in daily lessons through the internet. We are following the method that I received from my great teacher Rabash, Rabbi Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag, which is why our group is called Bnei Baruch (Sons of Baruch). Our uniting according to this goal is called Dvekut (merging with the Creator), our final state.

Filed under: Unity - No Comments →

The following is an excerpt from Rabash’s article on the holiday of Purim, “Concealment and Revelation”:

“Darkness is the Babylonian exile, which the nation of Israel brought upon itself because the Creator (Zeir Anpin) was asleep. The sinner Haman, who was a great astrologist, cast lots (Pur) to determine fate. Haman and his ten sons are the ten Klipot (impure forces) because he knew that the Creator slept and thus His upper governance did not protect the nation of Israel (those who aspire toward the Creator). Therefore, Haman thought that the time has come to annihilate the nation of Israel.”

Haman is our entire will to enjoy, which stands opposite the entire Light of Hochma. He knows that the Light is about to be revealed. However, he doesn’t know that this can only happen in the middle line, and that later even that will be revoked when the transition to the state of the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Alef) takes place. Malchut unites with Zeir Anpin in the middle line and they ascend to Bina, where they attain the state of the End of Correction.

Annihilating the nation of Israel means annihilating the intention of “for the sake of bestowal,” which holds a person back from receiving the Light of Hochma egoistically. Mordechai is the intention of bestowal, but if he acts alone, without the desires of Haman, then it is just bestowal for the sake of bestowal. That means he blocks the Light of Hochma, preventing it from being revealed.

In other words, if a person does not work in the middle line, then even his best actions of bestowal will block his path of development. This is why Mordechai needs a connection with Haman. When they start to argue with each other (an argument between the intention of bestowal and the egoistic desire), they come to understand how they are able or unable to unite.

The intention of bestowal enables the desires of Haman to be used. However, these actual desires will not be fulfilled, and this is why a clash occurs between Haman and Mordechai. This story is talking about how a person can create the right unity between two conflicting forces or two opposite intentions. It is also describing the battles, confusion, and doubts that await us on the path of correction until we find the right method.

This is what “Megillat Ester (The Scroll of Esther)” tells us about.

Filed under: Holidays - 1 Comment →

When Baal HaSulam explains The Book of Zohar using the terminology of Kabbalah, he aims to provide an explanation that will develop our soul and sensations rather than our mind. This is, indeed, a challenge because the language of Kabbalah is very precise, logical, scientific, and dry and therefore, a person faces the pitfall of becoming too engrossed in it mentally. This is especially so in our time when egoism is so highly developed that its development occurs through the mind. The modern person is inclined to look for a scientific explanation using the earthly mind instead of feeling the Upper World inside his corrected desires.

As a result, when a person hears an explanation, he is lured into Klipa. If he accepts everything on a purely rational basis and starts to provide explanations to what is happening without relating it to the correction of his sensations, then he won’t aspire for spiritual attainment. He will be satisfied with the explanations on the level of his earthly reason, and that will halt his spiritual progress. Moreover, he will go on to confuse others who don’t understand that his beautiful words hold no spiritual attainment, but just abstract knowledge.

This is why my teacher Rabash conducted his lessons in a way that caused his students to leave the lessons confused, not understanding anything. They did not aspire to acquire pure knowledge, but waited to acquire the ability to feel what they read. There is also a different approach to teaching Kabbalah where a student rejoices after the lesson about receiving certain knowledge and being able to connect everything beautifully into a single picture of the world. These are two completely different approaches.

Either way, life will put everything in its rightful place. The global crisis, suffering, problems, and the development of egoism will bring an end to our superficial interest in science. People will become smarter and realize that abstract knowledge is of no use because it does not provide any solutions to their problems. We have to reveal and feel spirituality, instead of building theories based on things written in books.

When the mind works based on feeling and attainment, we truly reveal nature, the Creator. However, when the mind keeps growing instead of achieving real attainment, it is described by the verse, “One’s knowledge exceeds one’s actions” (Hochmato Merubeh Mi Maasav) and this halts a person’s spiritual development. He starts to be a know it all even though he is actually in total darkness and does not feel what he speaks of.

Therefore, it is my wish to prevent every person from being carried away by speculative commentaries, and to help everyone aspire only to self-correction and the attainment of real revelation.

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

It is only by virtue of The Book of Zohar that we will be able to come out of exile to redemption, and there is no doubt that we are now in a special state. We have to thank the Creator for choosing us for this mission; and on the other hand, it is a great responsibility. Let us have faith that the Creator will lead us through all the obstacles and they will only make us stronger.

I am fearful and inspired, and at the same time worried and anxious. We have to be aware of our great responsibility. All the generations of Kabbalists, the people who attained the goal of creation and the Creator’s desire, are inside the same system that we want to belong to. They have already corrected themselves in this broken system of the common soul (Adam HaRishon) and have prepared it for us, enabling us to accept it as a global system where it is no longer separate, corrected souls that are revealed, as was the case during the times preceding Rabash. He was the last in the lineage of Kabbalists who transmitted Kabbalah, the method of correction, to us. These special souls were instilled in all the generations like drops in an ocean.

Now, for the first time in history since the times of the last exile, we want to attain the last, final redemption. This is the real exodus from Egypt. Moreover, it’s happening at a special time – right before the holiday of Purim, which symbolizes the End of Correction. These conditions are completely extraordinary.

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

A question I received: At the upcoming Zohar Convention 2010, how is it possible to carry out so much work and attain the spiritual level in such a short time, just three days?

My Answer: It does not depend on time at all. It will happen the moment we carry out an action of unity together.

When I was in Rabash’s group, we once went through a similar state. I asked him, “What do we need to do in order to realize this state?” He replied, “You need an attack!”

You have to do this yourselves; everything depends on each and every one of you. You have to go into this attack, aspiring to create a connection among you. Then it will happen.

Even people who attend the Convention just in order to take part in the general inspiration, to simply tune in to the common flow, by desiring to become part of it, they will perceive holiness on the first level. It is called the still level, Domem de Kedusha, because it doesn’t require any special abilities on your part. All you have to do is come there and “go with the flow.” Just by doing this, you can merit to come out of Egypt. A person who joins others will also run away from Pharaoh together with everyone.

When we hold a Convention such as this one, a special state emerges because even though we don’t feel spirituality yet, we greatly influence one another when we get together physically. It wasn’t an accident that the Creator made this world, where we are connected physically and can influence one another.

While we sit somewhere far away by a computer monitor or TV screen, we can’t feel each other so well because we don’t yet have the sixth sense. Therefore, coming together physically in one hall greatly influences us and awakens our inner aspiration to unite our desires.

This is why our world exists, because it is precisely the place where we can begin our spiritual work from scratch. In it, we don’t depend on spirituality and can discern and acquire every spiritual quality, making a free decision of wanting it or not.

We have freedom because we are outside of spirituality, and are able to connect with each other in the material world. From here we can begin our spiritual ascent if we desire to do so. If we don’t desire it, then we can keep living merely in our physical bodies.

It’s unrealistic for one person to do it alone, but together it’s easy.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

A question I received: When I read The Book of Zohar I cannot connect to it. What should I do? We have looked forward for so long to this cherished moment when we would open The Book of Zohar, but now we feel disappointed.

My Answer: Baal HaSulam wrote that there is no better moment in a person’s life than when he senses complete disappointment in everything he has done up to this point. He sees that nothing has helped him, that there is no source of salvation, and no hope of spiritual ascent if everything continues as is.

Once he reaches this realization, he then reveals a new feeling of hope. However, he does not know who he should rely on. Eventually he realizes that only the Creator can help him, and that’s when he cries out: “Save me!” That is when he receives help.

Studying The Zohar is not like regular study where you receive knowledge immediately, by the principle, “You apply effort and receive.” In this case, another principle comes into force, “You apply effort and find.”

You probably hoped that as soon as you opened The Book of Zohar, miracles would start happening. But nothing can happen in the very beginning. My teacher Rabash gave an example of a man who bought a little gosling and wanted to turn it into a big, fat goose. So he started incessantly stuffing food down its throat. He would stuff the gosling and then immediately check whether it got fatter, which it didn’t. He kept stuffing more food into it, but the gosling still didn’t gain weight. Smart people told him: “You should wait a month or two to begin to see the difference.” The same applies to a child – the parents have to invest a lot of effort before the child can get up, walk, and become strong.

If we observe our soul we’ll see that it grows in the same way. When I want my point in the heart to grow into a soul, I have to treat it as a newborn baby within me that has just started to develop. It will take time for a soul to grow out of this point.

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

A question I received: Why do we simply read The Zohar – why don’t we go over the meaning of every word?

My Answer: If I explain the meaning of every word, such as “mountains, night, darkness, and day,” then you will think that you have found out their meaning and will relax. You will think that you have read and learned an excerpt and now you can go home happy. However, this is not how you should feel when leaving the lesson.

You have to leave The Zohar lesson feeling as though you did not understand anything at all – not one word. Everything is locked and closed; the book talks about a world that you don’t feel and don’t belong to. You tried to feel it, but didn’t succeed, and you still don’t know how to do this.

Until a person enters the spiritual world, he is unable to understand that the only thing that’s important is his desire. As for knowledge, the game of playing around with words, and memorizing the theory, all of this merely constructs an artificial system inside of you which calms you down and leads you away from the goal.

My great teacher Rabash had the ability to make a person leave the lesson feeling even emptier than when he came to the lesson. Our task is to awaken such a desire inside us that even our numbest places within will sense that the problem lies in our soul, which does not feel its state. Our soul feels that it is in the dark because it is receiving the illumination from the following state, and it does not match that state.

When I feel that I am unable to feel, it means that I have reached the realization of being opposite to the Upper Level. It’s as though I am standing opposite a person that I completely depend upon, but he ignores me like a wall. I can stand on my head for him and cry, but he remains impenetrable and does not react to any of my pleas.

At that point I have to collect all my strength and understand that this is the Creator’s behavior towards me, and that is how He is showing Himself to me in order that I may persist despite everything. It is written, “Only those who are persistent and truly patient attain the King’s castle.”

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

In order to go from one form to another, one must first completely stop using the previous desires. And only after that can one decide how to use them in a new way. Rabash gives the example of an alcoholic who must first give up drinking completely, and only later will he be able to set a new norm for himself.

In spirituality, every new level is built anew, from zero. Rabbi Shimon, the author of The Book of Zohar, fell to the state of “Shimon, the merchant from the market” before he ascended to the highest level of the final, corrected state. There is a law that states: “The height of one’s ascent is equal to the depth of one’s descent.” And we will never attain success unless we adopt this attitude towards spirituality.

Therefore, one cannot drag all the baggage from the past along with him. We must always erase everything completely, and then build a new attitude from scratch. If we retain anything from the past, then it won’t be new and we won’t be successful.

In our world this is not obvious and that is why it seems as if it’s possible to build something new on an old foundation. However, the same law operates in our physical matter as well, and we still end up failing, but we don’t know why. It’s because everything has to start from the level zero, from a new attitude. There has to be a total break from everything that came before. If we don’t internalize this principle in spirituality, then time will trickle away without any purpose.

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →