Two Poles Joined By One Aim

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is “Truth and Faith”?

Answer: Truth is a fair reward and punishment, when I work and receive what I’m entitled to for my work.

However, we see that life is not always arranged according to this principle. And a person who works more than everybody else does not necessarily receive more than everybody else. If that was the case, the world would be relatively straightforward.

But in order to pull us out of this egoistic straightforwardness, the Creator makes His additions and greatly confuses us. Thus, we see that a fair, true calculation does not always transpire, and there is a place for faith, meaning hope for good luck or some upper help beyond one’s understanding.

Faith destroys the principle of fair truth. This is why people get so confused in this world and hope for a miracle, a blessing, or a miraculous cure. The same confusion exists on the spiritual path as well: On one hand, everything is given to the measure of one’s effort, but on the other, everything depends on luck.

A person should work in order to join these two principles into one. It is written: “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named, but sacrifice him.” Meaning on one hand, you will see him giving birth to your “grandchildren,” all the new successors up to the end of correction, but on the other, he needs to be annihilated. How is that possible?

It is not clear to us now, but it constitutes the very first principle of entering the spiritual world, which Abraham had to adopt according to this story. A person corrects his vision in such a way that for the first time he is able to join two opposites into one.

It means that he ascended to the first degree and mastered a spiritual principle according to which two opposites merge into one whole. And now, he understands how to work with reason and faith above reason simultaneously—with hatred, the sins of which are covered by love.

If a person begins to grasp this principle and takes it into account in his or her work, even without having realized it yet, he will no longer experience difficult obstacles that push him backwards. He feels that these obstacles in particular are meant to advance him and sees that all these contradictions are an opportunity for him to ascend. And then he rises.

On the contrary: “Man’s pride shall bring him low.” If he does not accept this condition and is not willing to join two opposites into one, this becomes an impassable obstacle. That’s why he gets off the track and leaves the path.

Therefore, it is important to direct oneself correctly: straight to the world of Infinity, understanding that the difference between this world and the next one is in our ability to join two poles into one. That sets us a direction, just like taking an aim.

This principle is expressed in various ways: “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one”; ascents and descents that have to become one whole; the group and I should work together so that I invest into it at the time of ascent and receive from it at the time of descent, meaning so that the group serves as my electrical current “rectifier.”

The main conclusion that follows from it with respect to this world is that we must not destroy a single quality either in ourselves or in the world. We need to bring them all to correction and combine them into one—to rise above them by uniting with the Creator.

We won’t be able to establish a good life and a fair society in our world if we don’t unite among ourselves as equals. Meaning, everyone will work for the benefit of society to the extent of his or her ability and receive according to his or her needs.

But we can fulfill this condition only if we aspire to it for the purpose of uniting with the Creator, meaning for the sake of the quality of love and bestowal that unites our opposite properties into one, infinitely perfect state.
[52315]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/2011, Shamati #43

Related Material:
Blending Of Opposites
Working In Two Directions
The Truth Lies In The Middle

3 Comments

  1. Also, this unification brings confidence, as one can not be swayed by insults if they know that they have no attributes. Also, it brings balance, which most people suffer from imbalance. Fixations that lead to egoistic, parasitic feeding. making one feel stronger than others, cooler, smarter, sexier etc. Balance brings peace, unity brings peace, within, and without.

  2. I am a little bit confused by this “faith above reason”. This is because when i see the tree of life i see that Understanding, comes before mercy or faith. Is this because reason is separate from wisdom and understanding? I always took this to mean that true faith arises from those things that we understand, which was based on our experiences as long as we perceived them correctly.

  3. Could one see this general success in higher spirituality above reason over the physical or lower spiritual within reason as follows — say around the fundamental of our freewill in a reality of pure cause-and-effect:

    Outer concentric circles have a one-to-one correspondence on all points with inner (all is cause and effect by Nature, no point of freewill), yet the outer circles have larger diameters (allowing for an infinity of freewill points). Infin./Zero transcend logic.

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