Entries in the 'My Similarity to the Creator' Category

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One Reward For Everyone

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe laws by which we are moving toward the goal of creation, are not similar to those laws that are moving people without a point in the heart. They belong to the AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh – Ears, Nose, Mouth), whereas we belong to GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim – Skull and Eyes).

We must attain feeling and intellect; we need to know the system, understand it, and know how to operate it, imitating the laws similar to the Creator according to the law of the “head,” in order to attain the thought of creation. We need to manage the entire creation as if from the position of the Creator. This is the task of the head.

The Creator created the world of Ein Sof (infinity) and we, in our work with the line and circles, build the head surrounding Ein Sof where the thought of creation is found and is concealed from us today. We work within Malchut of Ein Sof and build our desires in it. By this we move on the line; we constantly build new heads in similarity with the Creator, until after all the acts, we attain Him.

Then all these individual heads combine to a general head, which is the attitude, the thought, the beginning of creation. We reach this point from which everything begins and is included in it. This is the work of Galgalta ve Eynaim.

The desires of the AHP help us with this ascent. They constitute the same “matter” from which we ascend until we complete our task. Of course, they are included in the shared system with us, and they have all that they need. But in this system there is a part that makes decisions and a part that executes them, until finally at the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun), all the differences will disappear. And then all will merge into a whole through the collective action called “Rav Paalim ve Mekabtziel.”

In the meantime, we don’t understand how the parts that belong to Galgalta ve Eynaim and AHP will connect to each other. In the meantime along the way, there is a clear “division of labor”: The reward is the same for all, in that we are all equal. Moreover, in Gmar Tikkun the greatest lights will enter the greatest Kelim, the desires of the AHP.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Useful Pondering Over A Bowl Of Soup

Dr. Michael LaitmanAspiration is something that goes beyond ordinary desire. Desire is given from Above. It becomes revealed within me and I begin to want something. Let’s say a desire to eat some soup has appeared within me. I realize this desire and fulfill myself. My “me” is totally absent here. A desire simply became revealed and it realized itself.

Aspiration is called something that originates not from my desire for the fulfillment that is currently given to me, but rather, it is an additional desire to give pleasure to the Host who gave me this soup. This additional desire appears above the fulfillment. After all, He also gave me this desire for the soup. I want to show that I want this soup because He is giving it to me. This is called an aspiration.

I discern that I received the desire from the Creator and that the fulfillment comes from Him too; all of this is in order to create a connection between us. However, I don’t want to receive this fulfillment in a direct form. I agree to receive it only for the sake of my attitude toward the Host. I make a restriction on the fulfillment that He brings to me, but this is also terrible because it’s like pushing away the Host. However, I’m going for it for the purpose of rising and using this fulfillment, but only because it comes from Him.

I reveal the aspiration for the soup and the desire for the soup itself, which comes from the Creator. I do it only after my decision to receive for His sake. This means to reveal “the initial point of the letter ‘Yod’,” the head of HaVaYaH, Keter.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we protect ourselves at the time of the Creator’s revelation if our Reshimot (informational genes) and desires change and are being renewed at every given level?

Answer: This is true, but we shouldn’t overlook the initial principle that states that the only thing we have to do is work on our desires and demands; the result will come from Above. It doesn’t make a difference if we face even a thousand confusing situations. All we do is prepare a desire for each state.

There is total confusion around us; we cannot trace internal connections and don’t understand a thing. We don’t have to understand: All we have to do is to want. We are not obligated to comprehend the situation and assemble fragments of the whole picture into one. Our task is to want to connect them together with the help of the Light that reforms. The more confusion there is, the better.

If we regard our work incorrectly, it seems that we don’t advance at all. We get more and more confused and frustrated; looking back, we are frightened by events in recent years, and looking forward, we don’t see even a glimmer of hope. Rabash once told me: “If at the time you leave a lesson you don’t feel more empty than the day before, it means that the lesson was unsuccessful.”

The lesson should end with a sensation that we don’t have anything. “What do I do?!”—I cry out. My cry has to resound.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/12, “Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Completing The Creator’s Creation For Him

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is a good indicator that we are on our way?

Answer: A good indicator is one’s discovery of the deficiency from which the spiritual Kli (vessel) is constructed. As it is written, “God will complete for my sake.” This means that, in response to this deficiency, the attribute of bestowal will truly arrive. Through it, our spiritual Kli will be filled.

We were given the initial Kli, HaVaYaH, about which it is said, “I the Lord do not change (Ani HaVaYaH lo Shiniti),” “Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey,” or the four stages of the direct Light. We can broaden it only by attaining the root through the tip of the “Yod” through which all of the HaVaYaH is filled to the same extent to which we open to Her the place of fulfillment, our deficiency.

The fulfillment is measured by the extent of bestowal that is acquired by this HaVaYaH (Yesod of Neshama – foundation of the soul). The soul (Neshama) is filled with the letters: “Yod-Vav-Dalet” (the complete spelling of the letter “Yod”), “Vav-Yod-Vav” (the complete spelling of the letter “Vav”), “Hey-Yod” (the spelling of the letter ”Hey”), and so on.

How can the Kli of HaVaYaH, the “skeleton” of the soul, be filled with letters? After all, the letters are also Kelim. Does that mean that I seemingly fill a pail with empty cups? Is that called filling? I wanted to be filled by the Light! The bestowal that the Kli acquires is specifically called the Light. It fills it, and it doesn’t need anything else.

Therefore, the acquiring of deficiency for the desire to bestow is the essential preparation of the person himself. When the desire to bestow arrives, it will fill the Kli with longing for bestowal, for love. There is no other filling: only this!

When a person is filled with the attribute of bestowal, he studies the Creator, the upper force, and becomes like Him. It is especially in this that he feels the fulfillment, that is to say, the filling is the Masach (screen) and the returning Light.

This is what we need to long for, to prepare for. All the work is just for this purpose. The main problem is not to become confused and not to replace the real fulfillment from bestowal, from the desire to bestow, the desire to love, with other fillings. No other fulfillment is able to give us more from this corporeal life than the very “small candle” and the awakening to spiritual life, meaning a kind of weak luminescence that stimulates the desire to receive and forces it to search for real fulfillment.

Therefore, all of our work is to search for the correct deficiency, and thanks to it, we become familiar with the Creator. That is what we can add to His work.

The Creator created the desire to receive, and we add to this desire our new correct form. We take this raw material and sculpt from it what seems to us as good and correct. Thus, we complete the creation.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Penetrating Love Through Barricades Of Hate

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf I feel indifference toward the friends and nothing disturbs me, it is a sign that I haven’t begun to discover hate and certainly not love. However, if I already feel repelled by them, it is the influence of the upper light that is shining on me to show me my evil, my ego.

Not everyone is ready for this kind of work: It is possible that a person may connect with others and feel good; it’s pleasant, it’s interesting to go to the desert with everyone with all that hugging, and he doesn’t feel any hate. Hate can only be revealed by the Light that reforms.

Does it surprise you that this is the way It reforms you? Yes, this is the way to Him.

It is important not to despair that you have discovered hate that repels you. Don’t shout, “Where is my advancement? What kind of reward is this for my efforts?”

If you continue despite everything, if you want to connect with the friends because there is no other choice and Kabbalists advise you to do so, if you annul yourself, then you will understand that it is possible to reach bestowal and the revelation of the Creator only through connection. But you see that by yourself, you cannot connect and then you realize that connection is only possible with the help of the Surrounding Light.

The hatred towards the friends also comes from the Light, but this happens without our request. It is the revelation of evil. In order to correct it, a person must relate to the upper force purposefully and ask It to be revealed so that we will have the opportunity to connect with others.

There are many ascents and descents, disappointments, and a long period of helplessness on this path when you can’t annul yourself or turn either way. We are purposefully being exhausted this way until eventually the Light from Above comes to help us, and we begin to appreciate the friends. Here too you should check whether you appreciate them for no reason or whether you appreciate them because you appreciate the Creator.

Israel, the Torah, and the Creator should always be joined into one, and then this aims you in the right direction. Israel (you) is full of hate; the Torah (the upper Light) reforms you, helping you build the love on top of the hate. And then in the middle line, when you correctly connect the right and the left, you reveal the Creator and it all merges together into one.

This is the focus of our work.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/12, Writings of Rabash

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Don’t Stop On The Way To Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe purpose of creation is to reach adhesion with the Creator. We discover adhesion with the Creator with the help of the attribute of love. This is because the Creator reveals to the created being the attribute and the attitude called love, which are expressed in the form of the good and the benevolent.

It is the same in our world, when we love someone, we want to do good to them. It is an external sign of love. But if a person lacks the desire to do good, it means that he doesn’t love, but rather he calculates what is more advantageous for him: He gives in order to receive.

Love is above all the calculations. First there is love and then, as a result, comes the giving. Love in itself is what obliges a person to give because one is fulfilled from that. When I love and I cannot give, I suffer. This is because love lives by our feeling good when we give to the people we love.

So why is there a Mitzva that we reach the love of the Creator? This is unclear for two reasons. On one hand, how should I want this? On the other hand, why is this an obligation? Can someone be obliged to love? Why does this idea take on the form of a commandment, of the most important Mitzva? Even in our life we see that in this world you can oblige a person to do anything except to love. If I am obliged, it isn’t love anymore.

This brings up many questions, which we shall leave for philosophers and instead will talk about it looking at the system. The system of creation was created by the upper Light, which comes to us from the source of love, from the Creator’s love to the created being. This love is inherently absolute. In order to fulfill it, the upper Light spreads from the source in the form of the good and the benevolent and stabilizes the created being so that all the processes will be able to fully take place in him. This is done only from the love of the Creator to the created being.

First we have to understand that everything that happens to us, the worst and most terrible things, from which humanity has suffered throughout its corporeal history, and also on the levels of the spiritual worlds—all stemmed from the Creator’s absolute love for us. We have to reach the same attitude on our part.

This is possible because the Light that develops us comes from exactly the same source. It descends through the Masachim (screens), the filters, and begins to influence our smallest desire to receive, the tiny grain of egoism, the low, the murky, and the dead. Gradually the Light influences our matter on higher levels of the ladder of development and evokes this grain to start growing. The desire goes through the phases of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate, to the level of speaking in which the same cycle takes place, and so on.

All this comes from love. Then, at the end of the process, whether we like it or not, love will reside among us. But it works in two lines: the deficiency and the filling. This is how we advance.

First the Creator has to gradually create deficiencies in us, desires, from top down, together with the fulfillments on every level and in every state. The difference between these levels is qualitative: We grow wiser, acquire greater understanding and feeling, and turn from single cells in a body into human beings. Then with the point in the heart, we exit into the spiritual levels.

All this stems from the Creator’s love and so there is no doubt that we will return to it. So why are we commanded to do that? Why should there be a demand for a predetermined result? The commandment is that we shouldn’t stop on the way, and should constantly move forward. If we push ourselves forward willingly we will undoubtedly reach love.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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From Your Actions We Shall Know You

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the “Introduction to the Study of The Ten Sefirot Baal HaSulam says that a person can enslave and force himself to keep the 612 Mitzvot. What does that mean? What is the action he speaks about?

Answer: After a person reveals his 612 desires in all the 125 degrees of his desire, in all the forms and the incorporations, he tries to work in them with the intention of in order to bestow. This effort is in asking for a Masach, which he receives and tries to bestow with it. Then a person fulfills all the desires of others that are revealed to him.

Thanks to this correction he reaches the 613th desire, the final desire of love that is the incorporation of all the other desires. The general, comprehensive desire is revealed to a person, not as one of 613, but as the combination of all of them, the whole spiritual vessel, a totally new and unfamiliar desire that cannot be attained in any other way. In it a person discovers the Creator.

He sees the great vessel, which he filled when he acted with the intention of in order to bestow and that he treated like the Creator. Then a person suddenly understands the Creator, not his actions, but the Creator Himself. It is written, “From Your actions we shall know You.” Now a person understands not only the goodness with which the Creator fills all of us, but the Creator Himself.

We don’t know what this is. It isn’t about the Creator’s attitude towards us, but the Creator Himself, in a pure form, without regard to us. I have attained an equivalence of form with Him.  Now I see what it means to bestow, and from these actions I attain Him, I attain the upper half of Keter.

This is what the Creator wants from His created being. The whole creation exists for this peak up there. This is where I attain the Creator disconnected from the creation.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Bestowal Is Not Paying Taxes

Dr. Michael LaitmanLo Lishma (not for Her name) is when I agree to be partners with the Creator. I have no other choice since after all I want to attain everything that exists in the world. This is the way I begin, like an egoist, like all of us.

But afterward, I despair at acquiring what is desired. If they were corporal acquisitions, I would apply more effort since I know this does the trick, or I would go study at a university if knowledge were needed, or I would steal it, but one way or another I would attain what I wanted.

But if my goal is above this world and I want to reach the root of my soul, to discover the goal of my life, where it comes from and what the plan for it is, then I will not be able to find that in this world. And it is here that we see that we have no choice, and we can’t manage through our own forces, and thus we reach the wisdom of Kabbalah.

And here I am told, “Do you want to attain that? It’s possible, but in order to do that you need to bestow to the Creator.” And then I perceive the Creator as a partner, like the taxing authority, where I think I can gain for myself on the condition that I allocate to Him the percentage He deserves.

If this is His system, He created the world, and I am in this world as a worker, as an implementer, then it’s clear to me what the Owner requests. As it is written: “The shop is open
and the owner gives credit. The book is open
 and the hand writes.
 And whoever wishes to borrow 
may borrow.” Thus subconsciously, I feel that the Creator is my partner Who will ask for His part.

Lo Lishma, is my partnership agreement with the Creator. In truth, I would like to gain everything for myself and not share with anyone; I would like spirituality to continue like corporeality, with the same conditions. But there is no choice, I am forced to share: “Tell me how much You need, I agree.”

Even if it were 99%, but if the one percent that remains is dear to me, then I am prepared to work for it. The worker in the factory works for pay of 1,000 dollars a month, while the owner of the factory can make millions. Here, it is the same thing. Therefore, I agree to a partnership deal with the Creator, and this is what each one of us does. We don’t have to lie to ourselves. Our ego doesn’t understand another way.

And here is the key point: How should I relate to this partnership? Do I bring my egoism to this partnership and divide: That’s mine and that’s Yours?

Sometimes I want to take everything for myself. Sometimes I actually agree to give everything to Him, but of course, that’s on condition that I also get something from it. Subconsciously I mean it, in my agreeing to give everything, in all of this there should be some gain in it for myself.

In as much as my state of Lo Lishma seems to me as a perfect state, when I want to give everything to the Creator, I see myself in my imagination as adhered to the Creator, and thus everything that He receives will be mine. Thus I am prepared to give to Him like to my baby, where I am not sorry for anything that I give Him since nature obligates me to feel that it’s mine. It’s as if it is I, myself, and even more important than myself.

Whether I want it or not, I have no choice other than to be situated in this kind of unconscious partnership, that is beneficial to the ego, like with income tax. And if it’s possible to somehow conceal the taxes, then it’s clear that it won’t work with the Creator.

Thus, if we are on our own, our desires to reach bestowal to the Creator is egoistic, it’s a ‘fixed’ game from the beginning. We can agree to bestow only from desperation, a lack of choice, or from the expectation of receiving payment. Everyone wants such a powerful partner who controls everything; it’s a very profitable alliance. This is the basis for all religions.

But our goal is to recognize the egoistic alliance in this point, and to correct it. Since it is especially in this point that we battle: if my relationship to the Creator will become my “potion of death” or the “elixir of life.” Will I go from Lo Lishma to Lishma or stay completely within the deadly ego? Here is the critical point.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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What Does “To Reach An Answer” Mean?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf from the beginning you do not want to go from Lo Lishma (not for Her name) to Lishma (for Her name), to bestowal, then it is preferable not to do anything at all. At least don’t ask the Creator for the sake of the ego. After all, you agree on a partnership with Him, just to get more from Him.

How should we act in order not to turn into leeches that demand “Give me both this world and the next world!” but instead of this, learn from the Creator about His attribute of bestowal without, “building” on His riches?

Thus, the state of Lo Lishma is very delicate, serious, dramatic, and life changing. After all, from this point, I can go in two completely different directions and I need to make a choice.

The search for the meaning of life, its source and goal, brings me to this point, to the teacher, the group, the books, the system, and I begin to clarify it. From it, I can go back in all kinds of directions, and I can move forward.

But how can I discover where “forward” and “backward” are? After all, I don’t see the direction. I can be told about this a thousand times, but still I don’t see it. I need to clarify it myself.

Backward is death and forward is life, but to me it can be perceived completely differently. How can I check it in order to constantly direct myself?

I have partners concerning this point: the group, the teacher and of course, the Creator. Now I need to organize all these components in order to advance in the good direction.

But what is good: Is it what is good for me, for my ego, or about someone else’s goals? There are numerous questions here and I need to clarify. It seems that I am within a sphere with 360 degrees of choices of direction, and I can choose whatever direction I wish! Where should I go? That is the huge question that a person faces.

It takes a long time until he clarifies this question, and this clarification ends only at Gmar Tikkun (end of correction). In this way we attain the answer to the same question about the meaning of life that we arrived with. Although it seemed to you that you began to feel and understand it beforehand, we actually attain it only at the end. Indeed within this question are included all of your thoughts and desires, and all of them need to be corrected and fulfilled, and then it means that you reached the answer.

We stand before this point, and we need to connect ourselves together: the group, the teacher, the Creator, and another component, the Torah.

The Creator is the source. I, the group, and the teacher are the means. The Torah is the force of correction that I activate. Thus it is said, “Israel, the Light and the Holy One, Blessed be He, are One.” And if I connect all of these into one place, the correct path opens before me.

This path doesn’t exist by itself, it is created before me like a direction that was opened, like a straight arrow, like a vector, on the condition that I choose all the items of data correctly. I need each time to organize correctly all the attributes, my thoughts and desires, to clarify the direction, and advance forward again and again. In this way, we correct ourselves.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/12, “Study of the Ten Sefirot

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The Team Of Stage Builders

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What should be the minimal hold to the group, and what is most important about it?

Answer: There are many types of work and relationships in the group: when the friends are smaller than me, greater than me, or equal to me, and whether I relate to them as the revelation of the Creator or use them as a shield. The group is everything. It’s a desire I can manage, play with, and through it, I determine my attitude towards the Creator. Through the group I acquire a Masach (screen). All my requests, my prayers, my desires, my definitions, and my clarifications go through the group to the Creator.

The group is the compass with which I can focus on the Creator, the upper force. If I can connect with the friends and be incorporated in them, I will be more concentrated and more accurately focused on the Creator. In the corporeal world I see someone and I can approach him. But in the spiritual world, I don’t see the Creator, I don’t know what the attribute of bestowal is, or where it is, in what range of frequency. It’s as if I have a radio, but I don’t know how to find the station I am looking for among millions of other stations.

So I have a problem because I don’t know what spirituality is at all, and I imagine it in a totally wrong way. If it were simply the opposite it would be good, it would at least give me some direction. I don’t know where to look for it at all. I am standing in the middle of a circle and can go in any direction in 360 degrees, and according to my nature I will never be able to guess the right direction.

Therefore, there is only one means: the group, through which I can somehow imagine the attribute of bestowal. If I yearn to connect with them internally, then in that connection, in my yearning for them, I will begin to feel what the Creator’s attribute of bestowal is. Thus I can establish my attitude towards Him inside me.

Hence, the group becomes the most precious thing for me, a means by which I attain my only and most important goal. I begin to feel that it’s when I am with the group and we establish the connection among us, that I can discover the Creator. The Creator is revealed only in that state, in the collective deficiency, in the collective feeling that is created between me and the group. Otherwise He has nowhere to be revealed.

It is as if we build a stage together on which the Creator can appear and perform, inside the feeling of our collective connection, the mutual guarantee, our adhesion. If it didn’t exist, there wouldn’t be the attribute of bestowal in which the Creator could be revealed, because an equivalence of form is required for that.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/12, Shamati #175

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