Evening Zohar Lesson – 04.28.10
Posted on April 28th, 2010
A question I received: It’s been said that if one goes to a convention their spiritual advancement is about the same as what they would have advanced between that convention and the last convention. Why is that? Why does someone advance so much during that short, little period of three or four days?
My Answer: Because we come together, we are leaving our work places, our homes, and our families, we take vacation from work, and we spend money for that effort in order to bond. We make efforts in order to acquire something that is beyond this level of life, something higher. It is a fulfillment that is beyond this life.
People, who are willing to give up on so many things, in order to bring themselves to spirituality, simply deserve it. Besides that, they come to unite, so everyone absorbs the strength and forces of everyone else. That kind of embrace is worthy of months and months of studying and even then it is impossible to attain it. I don’t think that a person who doesn’t come to a convention like that is capable of achieving a similar result. It doesn’t matter what he tries to do in life unless on the condition that he is, let’s say in prison or in some situation that doesn’t allow him to come. I have a student, for instance, that is in the North Pole; so, he works from there, and he can’t, really can’t come. Some people are really even in prison and they study with us. They are in prison (because of mistakes they made in the past), so they really can’t come.
But because they are incapable, they will receive whatever we receive from that convention. But if a person has the opportunity to come, even if it requires meeting difficult conditions, if he has the opportunity, I don’t think it’s worthwhile to stay home. It’s just a shame to miss this kind of intense opportunity to make such great advancement.
From an Interview with the Learning Center Director 4/5/10
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: World Zohar Convention: Bringing The Light To America
Laitman.com Post: Tune In To The Spiritual Net
Video: Walk Through The World Zohar Convention 2010 (3:16)
The Zohar, Chapter “BaHar (On Mount Sinai),” Item 63: “You may use them as slaves forever.” It is a Mitzva [commandment] to enslave a Canaanite slave. They are from the side of Ham, who performed incest, as it is written, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brothers…”
To be a slave is also a correction. A desire that could be forced to obey the power of the corrected desires is called “a slave that is close to his master.” Slavery is the form of its correction, a proper way of its existence.
For the time being, I am unable to be free within a certain desire, nor can I work with it for the sake of bestowal on my own. I can only attribute it to my other desire. Such a desire can also be called “a child,” “a woman,” or “an adolescent;” it is not a “man” yet, not a “hero” who is able to “overcome” (a man, “Gever” is derived from “Itgabrut” – overcoming, surmounting).
A form of desire that is able to work only under the authority of another desire is called “a slave.”
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, The Zohar
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Practical Joke
Laitman.com Post: The Final Condition
Video: Being Free – Kabbalah Moments (2:11)
A question I received: Should the work on the intention during The Zohar study begin during the day, long before the lesson?
My Answer: One should work on the intention all the time. The world is arranged in such a way that we are in contact with the group and the studies only for a brief interval of time.
Thousands of people from around the world are watching the lesson right now. Many are listening to simultaneous translations. There are those who can barely even understand the translation, since it’s available only in the main languages. However, it makes no difference for their spiritual advancement. With regard to The Zohar, we all are in an equal position. We come to the lesson like to a gas station. We fill ourselves with the Light and then live in it during the remaining hours.
Our world is purposely arranged in such a way that we work for one third of our lives, sleep for the other third of it, and waste another third on various nonsense. Only an hour or two remain, which we tear away from our sleep and use it to study.
However, when we begin to study, we need to understand that our whole life is arranged correctly, and we shouldn’t work just for the lack of a better choice. The Creator purposely organized this process for us. If we come to the lesson even for an hour, this should be enough to remain in adhesion with the goal for the twenty-three remaining hours and to prepare our desires for that one hour of study.
More than 2000 years ago in the Negev desert there lived a person by the name of Bar Bi Yoma (a student for one day). He was a peasant who worked in the fields. When his work was done for the season and he could leave his home, he walked to Jerusalem. After the journey to Jerusalem, he would have only one day available to study the Torah; the next day he would hurry back home to work.
In honor of this person, there is a custom today for everyone to study for one day out of the year. Back then sages said that his studying for one day was equal in value to continuous study over the course of a year because he would aspire to this day throughout the whole year.
Therefore, if we await this one hour of the lesson for the twenty-three remaining hours of a day, all 24 hours are counted in our favor. This shows us how many hours are necessary to prepare the desire for one hour of studying.
Thus everything depends on preparation. We should spend all the other hours preparing ourselves for one hour of the Zohar lesson.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Study 4/23/10, The Zohar
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Become A Sage In One Day By Attending A Kabbalah Congress
Laitman.com Post: Every Kabbalah Congress Is Another Chance
Laitman.com Post: Everyone Has To Experience A Kabbalah Congress At Least Once
A question I received: Students experience the practical side of Kabbalah at the conventions. What is the practical side of Kabbalah?
My Answer: We were born, created in a state where the ego separates us. According to the plan of creation, we must become connected in brotherly love. This is something that is impossible to realize using our own strength because we’re all simple egoists.
Egoistically we can feel only this world. It is whatever each individual perceives in their small egos. Once a person comes out of the ego and actually starts feeling the others, he starts feeling, in this new attitude towards them, a reality called the spiritual world, or the next world, or the upper reality.
This is precisely the very practical thing that we can do together in this kind of convention. It is through that connection between us. We can tangibly feel it. To actually realize that is what we intend to do.
I really hope that it will happen, and if not in this convention then maybe the next one. But we are going towards that and what we’re going to do are really tangible, practical things that the wisdom of Kabbalah writes about, that The Zohar writes about, here and now, on the face of earth, between human beings.
From an Interview with the Learning Center Director 4/5/10
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How To Make A Heavenly Dish From Unpleasant Ingredients
Laitman.com Post: Would Someone Finally Tell Me What The Zohar Is All About?
Baal HaSulam Article: “The Acting Mind”
A question I received: How does my point of view actually change when I come out of egoistic self-love and see the world through the desires of others? Will I see a different room, a different glass on the table in front of me, and will I see all these people differently?
My Answer: An animal will always remain an animal, and that pertains to every one of us. You always remain inside the point of your “self”; however, when you attain spirituality, you add a completely different sense (vessel or Kli) to that point – the desires of other people.
The Creator created a desire consisting of ten parts or Sefirot, called HaVaYaH. Right now you only feel the lowest layer of this desire, a black point. As you are born, live, and die, you return to the same ten Sefirot of your egoism, which is the sensation of this world. This continues from one generation to the next, from one life cycle to the next (or from one Partzuf to the next), each time going through the same states: embryo, feeding, and maturation (or from one Partzuf to the next), and then once again: embryo, feeding, maturation, and so on.
How can you feel the world in a different way, not just from within the black point, but through the desires of other people who are outside of you? When this happens, your “I” still remains, and your world won’t change. If you were to disappear, then in relation to what would you feel others? You have to feel others opposite of you, and see them as opposite and hateful to you. Moreover, this feeling has to keep growing.
An example of this is the group of Rabbi Shimon: They revealed the greatest possible hatred among themsleves. But above it, they built love and thus attained the revelation of the Light of The Zohar. When you have great hatred inside and great love above it, this provides the necessary contrast in which the Light of Hochma, the Light of Attainment, shines. There is enormous egoism inside, and above it there is a screen. That is the only way to reveal a great Light.
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/10, “Matan Torah”
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: How To Build Your Ten Sefirot And Fill Them With The Creator’s Light
Laitman.com Post: Become An Embryo In The Womb Of The Upper Level
Laitman.com Post: The Secret Of Genuine Love
A question I received: The authors of The Zohar wrote the book for our generation. I just started my spiritual path. Why do they so scrupulously describe such high degrees? What meaning can I derive from these commentaries for myself?
My Answer: The degrees and the states described in The Zohar are in fact the states of the World of Atzilut. These states bear a relationship to every degree, even the lowest, when a person is merely reading this book without understanding any of it.
It is not important exactly what we read about in The Zohar. A person who opens this book for the first time can read about the most remote systems of the spiritual world. Most importantly, a person’s desire connects him with the Upper Root. From there, he needs to attract the Light upon himself and let this Light elevate him to its Source.
That’s why Baal HaSulam didn’t confine himself to only one book on Kabbalah that one could read and refer to over and over again. Rather, he wrote two thousand pages of Talmud Eser Sefirot to describe the Upper Roots and convey all that’s necessary for our ascent.
However, it doesn’t mean that a person needs to read all the books. By being connected with the text, he awakens the influence of his Upper Roots upon him. Hence, it’s worth reading any text regardless of whether we understand it or not.
In the course of preparing The Zohar for All for publication, we present the whole Zohar except for the parts that describe the research and comparison of sources. We do so because this can be of interest only to researchers, but not to those who strive to attain similarity to the Creator.
Our primary concern is to help people “enter” spirituality, to reveal the Upper Light, and to establish contact with the Creator. This is the reason we prepare The Zohar in a slightly simplified version, but nonetheless, a version certainly sufficient to allow one to enter spirituality.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/10, The Zohar
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar Is A Source Of Light From Infinity
Laitman.com Post: It Takes Preparation To Tune Into The Book Of Zohar
Laitman.com Post: Searching For Hidden Connections Within The Book Of Zohar
Everything that we read about in The Zohar becomes revealed in the connection among us. The Zohar talks about the connection among the souls rather than about a soul per se. A soul by itself is a desire; there is nothing else to it.
The uniqueness of a soul is in its ability to obtain a screen and attract the Reflected Light, and with the help of both of them connect with other souls. The Light (the Creator) emerges within their mutual desire to unite above egoism. That’s why we try to imagine that we have a screen (against our egoism) and the Reflected Light (our aspiration to connect into one whole.) We join our aspirations (Moses in each of us) above Mount Sinai (hatred.)
Each of us is a small spiritual vessel (Kli), an egoistic desire that with the help of the screen and Reflected Light works like a bestowing entity. This allows all separate souls to unite together into one soul.
Egoistic desire is our nature. When we create a screen above it and attract the Reflected Light, it becomes a soul, a desire that is similar to the Creator.
The Creator is then revealed within our mutual Reflected Light. The Reflected Light of each Kli is the Light of Hassadim. Within the shared field of the Light of Hassadim the Light of Hochma reveals itself.
If our mutual Reflected Light reaches a certain degree of power called “six hundred thousand,” the Creator (the Torah, the Upper Light or the Light of Wisdom – Hochma) reveals Himself in it.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/20/10, The Zohar
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Leap From the Roof With The Creator’s Parachute
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar Sheds Light On The Connection Between Souls
Laitman.com Post: What The Zohar Teaches Us
The Zohar, Chapter “Shemot (Exodus),” Item 340: “And it came to pass in the course of those many days.” This was the end of their exile, when Israel were enslaved in any labor. “In those many days,” meaning many days of Israel’s stay in Egypt, when the end has come. And since their exile has come to its conclusion, it is written, “The king of Egypt died,” meaning that the minister of Egypt has been brought down and fell from his pride. This is why it is written about him, “The king of Egypt died,” since descent was as death to him. And since the king of Egypt – their minister – has fallen, the Creator remembered Israel and heard their prayer.
We have to reach a state when the entire Malchut of Egypt, meaning this world, all of its goals, our whole life and achievements, will lose their significance in our eyes. We will feel worthless, unhappy, and transient. We will ask ourselves, “What do I get from all this?” This world will become devoid of any importance to us.
This is called “The king of Egypt died.” We begin to ask ourselves, “Why do I need everything that I have in this world?! What for? What do I get from it?” This state marks the beginning of the exit from Egypt.
Today humanity is starting to understand that it doesn’t have any clear plan of development or goal, and most importantly, there is no purpose in life. We are yet to see the emptiness even in those who are still fanatically devoted to some meaningless goals and don’t realize the worthlessness.
When this becomes revealed, the real wars will be forged, and it will happen out of emptiness, despair, and helplessness. The most dangerous state is when a person sees that this life is empty. While he expects to accomplish something in life, he acts and even battles wars, and thus problems, revolutions, and wars that occur in the world, are purposeful.
On the contrary, when everyone sees that life is worthless and they begin to clash with each other, it becomes a big problem. Then everyone will turn their attention to Israel.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/10, The Zohar
Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: “Isra-El” Is Responsible For The Whole World
Laitman.com Post: The Science Of Kabbalah Gives Us Protection From Blind Fate
Video: What Is The Meaning Of Life? (4:17)
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
