State 1 (our present state) is “bestowal” to oneself, which is comprised of our pleasure and the desired fulfillment. State 2 (the state we wish to achieve) is bestowal to the Creator, which will constitute pleasure for us. And herein lies the contradiction.

In “bestowal” to oneself, the action itself, the work, and the reward are all in one direction, in one line. Therefore, it is called the Direct Light, and everything is clear to us here. The beginning, the end, and the achievement of this final goal are directed in one direction: toward me.

But if I wish to delight in bestowal to the Creator, then the problem of opposite intention and result emerges. I need to correct the intention, and it’s against my desire! Bestowal to the Creator should turn into reception of pleasure for me. And I must enjoy since that is the plan of creation. Yet the enjoyment should come from bestowal, and this is completely opposite to me!

The purpose of creation is pleasure, and the correction of creation is bestowal. However, these two conditions contradict each other. This is the main obstacle and difficulty of our perception, which constantly blocks our path, depriving us of an opportunity to realize what was planned.

We have to exert great effort and perform enormous work on the one hand, and yet on the other, its outcome does not depend on us; it is given from Above. Meanwhile we only reveal our desire through our work. We don’t acquire the goal, but rather, obtain the Kli, the vessel that can hold it.

Therefore, these two opposites (bestowal to the Creator and the pleasure derived from it) will unite only from adhesion with Him. And only the Upper Light, which changes our nature, can bring us to this adhesion.

We need to change from the state in which the heart controls the person (and for this reason Kabbalah considers such a person “wicked”) to a state where a human being in us governs over the heart and thus a person is called “righteous.” And there is only one solution for achieving this: the Kabbalistic group, which is a model, an example, and the framework in which we can check ourselves and see to what extent we correspond to this goal or not.

The group is capable of convincing me that I don’t have anything more valuable than bestowal to the Creator! On the other hand, however, I reach the conclusion that I am incapable of anything, and only the Creator can help me. In this manner I reach the needed desire, a prayer.

However, right now we lack these two polar opposites: Keter and Malchut, the Direct Light and the Reflected Light, the reverse correspondence to the Light and the desire. All of this is contained only in the corrected Kli that has an intention against the desire.

We need to build this model of the first 10 Sefirot within ourselves for the first time. Then we will have the inner structure, like a first cell of a new organism, from which the embryo of the soul will develop.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/10, “What Are the Two Actions During the Time of Descent?”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Help Me Understand What I Want
Laitman.com Post: Don’t Squander The Treasure
Laitman.com Post: The Upper Light Will Mend Everything

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

Question: Why does the Creator allow some people to commit brutal crimes?

Answer: The science of Kabbalah illuminates the questions of perception of reality, free will, and human nature, showing that a person who lives in this world does not possess freedom of choice. Therefore, he doesn’t commit any conscious acts.

A person can attain the freedom of choice only in a Kabbalistic group, which is a group of people connected in order to attain the spiritual goal. In this case a person receives or earns some degree of acting freely. However, those who have not reached spiritual attainment and have not reconciled two opposite forces, action and intention, do not act at all!

They arrive at the end of this life as if they have never lived. In other words, they haven’t lived as “humans.” It is their biological body that lived, just like any other type of animal. It is a life dictated by instinctive nature only. A person can only rise above it by way of “faith above reason,” when he desires to attain a different nature.

The unity of these two natures, Upper and lower, is regarded as the human in him. Only a person who achieves this can be said to have performed independent actions that are worth punishing or rewarding. In other words, only a Kabbalist can be judged for his own actions. An ordinary person cannot be judged since he acts in accordance with Nature’s orders. He follows one route and does nothing using his own free will.

Nevertheless, in our world punishing measures are necessary. However, we don’t administer them at will but under orders from Above, although it happens through the government legislature, courts, and law enforcement devices. All of this exists in order to hasten our development!

This is the Upper Governance over all people, who are like puppets, with the purpose of bringing them closer to the point of freedom of choice.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/10, “What Are the Two Actions During the Time of Descent?”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Studying Yourself From The Side
Laitman.com Post: There Is Nothing New Under The Sun
Laitman.com Post: Life Beyond Time

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will - No Comments →

Baal HaSulam’s article, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 8: Therefore, come and see how grateful we should be to our teachers, who impart to us their sacred Lights and dedicate their souls to do good to our souls. They stand in the middle between the path of harsh torments and the path of repentance. They save us from the netherworld, which is harder than death, and accustom us to reach the heavenly pleasures, the sublime gentleness and the pleasantness that is our share, ready and waiting for us from the very beginning, as we have said above.

We shouldn’t regard these great Kabbalists as people who lived some time ago; they are parts of an enormous system: the soul. A Kabbalist is a soul that attains the Creator, knows and feels Him, and resides in the collective system of souls, Adam HaRishon. He is its integral part and acts as an inter-medium that binds us to the spiritual world at a time when we do not realize or perceive it.

In other words, a Kabbalist not only leaves us his writings, he also actualizes a connection between our souls and the collective system. We ourselves do not perceive the souls of the Kabbalists. Yet, they connect our souls (points in the heart) with the common system, allowing us to connect with each other and become part of it. Thereby, a stream of Light that flows within the system reaches us and revives us so that we may become its integral active parts.

This constitutes the work of Kabbalists in all the generations: They ensure our life within this spiritual system. For the time being, we exist in it merely as points without consciousness. But Kabbalists assist us by transmitting the Surrounding and Inner Lights that are present in the system thereby awakening us.

Therefore, the life of a Kabbalist doesn’t end with the death of his physical body. When we speak of a Kabbalist, we are talking about a soul that exists in the common totality of souls and acts regardless of whether or not his body exists in the material world. This soul is the active and the part of the system closest to us (as, for example, Baal HaSulam or Rabash).

Our whole Kabbalistic group represents a certain spiritual organ of the collective soul, and they take care of us spiritually. This is written about us: “We should be grateful to our teachers who impart to us their sacred Lights.” They are imparting them to us right now!

We do not shift from one system into another. We always remain within the same system and only awaken toward more consciousness.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/5/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Righteous Man Is The Foundation Of The World
Laitman.com Post: The Return Of The Ari
Laitman.com Post: Rashbi’s System Revives The Common Soul

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

We exist in this world on the animate level, where we are completely controlled by our nature. However, at some point in time, we reveal that this life is insignificant and pointless, and experience a desire to rise to a higher level. Yet, how can we ascend above the animate existence, which is automatic and involuntary? How can we become “human,” free and above the life of our animate bodies?

“Human” means “similar” to the Creator (because the word “Adam” comes from the word “Domeh,” similar). In order to realize this ascent, to build a new, “human” nature inside the “animal,” so that our new nature will be equal to the Creator, we have to draw the Light that Reforms upon ourselves. This is a special Upper Force that influences and changes us so we ascend, raising our understanding, sensation, abilities, and perception. That is how we rise to a higher level called “Human.”

This is not just a mechanical ascent or an accumulation of more knowledge, but a transition to a different level of nature. We don’t understand how it occurs because right now we are all looking at the world from within our animate bodies. I am hiding inside this animal and I perceive this world through its eyes, ears, and other senses. I am unable to see the world differently until the Light comes from Above and enables me to be liberated from this animate skin and its sensations, and to clothe into a human guise. Then I will see and feel a new reality.

Right now we don’t know what kind of reality we exist in or where we have to arrive. Each of these things can only be assessed and researched based on the other. However, in order to set this entire process in motion, we were given two main pieces of advice: Be in a Kabbalistic group and study Kabbalah books. Through the group and the desire to unite together, we are able to come out of ourselves and become human. A human being is one who is connected with others and has the ability to bestow to his neighbor. With the force of our desire, a book draws Light upon us and turns what we desire into reality. That is how we actually attain the human level, equivalence to the Upper One.

Each of us has this desire to become human and not remain an “animal.” And we have the group which affords the opportunity to make efforts in order to come out of the animate sensation and unite together. Our connection is what will enable us to be called “people.” The Upper Light that we draw through our mutual reading will complete this work for us and will transform our efforts into a new, actual reality. So let us study together with this hope.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/10, The Zohar

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: We Have Assembled Here To Become Human
Laitman.com Post: The Kabbalistic Group Is A Spiritual Booster
Kabbalah Today Article: Love, Love, Love
Kabbalah Moments: “Love For Others And The Creator”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Unity, Zohar - 3 Comments →

A question I received: Who is our “Upper One” in spirituality?

My Answer: We don’t know that. We exist in the womb of the Upper One as a mere point, a droplet of semen, our spiritual Reshimo (record, gene). Beyond this Reshimo, we have nothing else!

In fact, our corporeal body, mind, and feelings have no relation to the spiritual world and cannot be seen there. In the spiritual world, there is only a womb of the Upper One (Malchut of Infinity) and us inside it. And each of us is a Reshimo (0/1, Shoresh Aviut/Aleph Hitlabshut) or in other words, a point in the heart.

Our task, as a point in the heart, is to try to cling to the wall of the spiritual womb! Beginning with the three days during which the semen is absorbed, the first problem for the embryo (us) is to attach itself to the wall of the womb. Attaching to the womb is establishing the very first contact with the Upper One.

In order to do this, we must annul ourselves before the Upper One. But where is this Upper One, this wall of the womb? What is it exactly? The Upper One is the Kabbalistic group, my environment! This is how the Upper One reveals the Creator for me.

Thus, there are the group and me, who adheres to it, despite all the obstacles. I accept the entire force of the group’s desire for bestowal, and I am willing and ready to take it all in through annulling myself before them.

When I attach myself to the group, my Aviut, which is the strength of my will to bestow, begins to grow and cause unpleasant sensations in me: disappointment, growth of egoism, and burdening of the heart. But I must go even deeper in, like a leech, clinging to the group which is the “wall of the womb.”

Then, between us, the first connection will appear, not through a point, but through the tube through which “blood” will start flowing into me. This connection, so far, is on the inanimate level (“Dam”- blood, from “Domem” – inanimate), but I will have already received spiritual sustenance from the Upper One.

All of this takes place through my connection with the group. There is no other “wall” through which I can enter the spiritual world!

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, Article “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

Related Material:
Kabbalah Moments: “Spiritual Simulator”
Kabbalah Moments: “Annul Oneself Before The Group”
5 Minutes Of Light: “Growing The Desire For Spirituality”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

A Kabbalistic group is the AHP of the Upper One, Malchut that incorporates many other souls in it. I’m the lower one, and my task is to connect my point in the heart to those other souls even though they are foreign to me. If I annul my point in the heart relative to the Upper One, it turns into my GE (Galgalta ve-Eynaim) and, thanks to the Upper One, acquires a form. The Upper One gives it everything that it needs for growth, providing it with the structure, meaning with all the souls, the entire World of Infinity, the whole vessel of the common soul.

If you want to become a spiritual object (Partzuf), adhere to the Upper One, and its AHP will become your newly revealed world. To the measure that you cling to the AHP of the Upper One, your point in the heart expands, thanks to the AHP’s parts.

To adhere means to accept its rule over me, as Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Freedom.” The AHP of the Upper One is my environment. By clinging to it, I receive from it everything I need much like an embryo receives blood, oxygen, and nutrients from its mother. I do so in order for my point in the heart to grow into a spiritual organism.

This organism will resemble whatever I received from the AHP of the Upper One, the group. Yet, it will be its manifestation in my point in the heart, my spiritual gene. In other words, it will be shared by them both, the group and my own point in the heart. This is similar to how a child looks a little like his mother and his father, yet receives his essence from the Creator.

I pass myself into the “hands” of the Upper One; I introduce my desire into it, my demand to become the part in which the right and the left lines unite and realize the act of bestowal. To the extent that I accomplish it, that is, to the extent to which the semen annuls itself before the mother and obliges her to develop it, the mother starts taking care of it in return.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/14/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Learn To See The Light In Bestowal
Laitman.com Post: Upbringing In The Spiritual World
Kabbalah Moments: "Transforming Myself"

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

A question I received: What is “The Fathers’ Merit”?

My Answer: There is a part in the general system of souls that has already completed its correction. They are called the Patriarchs. This part exists in a corrected state, filled with Light. These were very luminous souls, which is why they were able to fully correct their parts in the general system of Adam HaRishon.

But now how do we correct ourselves? We will be able to reach correction by attaching ourselves to them. If I strive to do this, I am called righteous for I want to come to the same state as them to justify the Creator and the creation. And that is when “the fathers’ merit” begins to influence me (otherwise it does not), and I receive from them the Light that returns to the Source.

For this I need a system called the Kabbalistic group, so that within it I could realize the advice given by these Kabbalists (fathers). They tell me what I need to do to place myself into their corrected part within the general system of souls. This is called “to make use of the fathers’ merit.” They have given me Kabbalah (the Torah), told me how to achieve correction, and how to utilize the correction they’ve already made in the general system. I need not torture my body; I only need to draw the Surrounding Light onto myself through their corrected system.

My choice lies only in connecting to the group, through which I can aim myself at the corrected system, called “fathers.” “Fathers” have made corrections within the broken system of Adam HaRishon, and thanks to these corrections anyone can, regardless of time or situation, use the right environment to become like the fathers to connect to them so as to receive from there the Light that returns to the Source, thereby utilizing the power of the light they had attained.

In our Kabbalistic group we want to become like that corrected group of souls, called “fathers.” Therefore, everyone ought to say: “When will my actions be like those of the fathers?” Thus we will have an example how our group can connect to their group.

In this lies our entire choice and inheritance of the fathers’ merit. If our group enters the corrected part of Adam HaRishon, called “fathers,” equalizes its qualities with theirs, and connects to them, in so doing we will make use of their “merit” and return to the corrected state that exists there.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/3/10, Article “Ancestral Merit”

Related Materials:
Laitman.com Post: Rashbi’s System Revives The Common Soul
Laitman.com Post: The Zohar: On Adam HaRishon And Abraham
Attaining The Worlds Beyond: “Transformation of Our Nature”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work - No Comments →

A “friend” is not just any person; he is a companion who stands opposite me. I gradually acquire love for him in order to reach love of the Creator. This formula is rigid and doesn’t change. First I appeal to the Creator, and in order to connect to Him, I have to unite with my friends.

I labor in love of friends because that is the necessary condition for attaining love of the Creator. A friend and the Creator are linked because with respect to my desire to receive pleasure, they are equal. The Creator and my friend are equally distant from me, and I relate to them in the same way.

The Creator is pure bestowal. I hate my friend as much as I hate bestowal, and therefore, I reject them both. If I don’t achieve this attitude and view my friend and the Creator in the same way, then I can’t work properly. It is similar to aligning one’s eye to aim at a target. If my aim is more toward the Creator, or more toward my friend, then it is no longer precise. I must aim precisely at the target, so that he who aspires for the Creator (Isra-El – straight to the Creator) and the Creator (the Light of correction) merge into a single whole.

A Kabbalistic group is a spiritual vessel, a system of souls, while the Creator is the One who fills it. The vessel becomes just like the Light. Then I realize that it is one and the same since there is no Light without a vessel (Kli).

Everything merges into one. The group becomes the model of the Creator for me. In my attitude toward them, I learn how to relate to Him, whether to love or to hate him. Certainly the only way to relate to the Creator is with bestowal. So, I am presented with the group to test how much I can bestow. My ego is what creates the distance, the disparity of form between the Creator and the group. If it weren’t for my ego, then there would be no difference between them.

So why do I feel a difference now? It is only because I receive pleasure from the Creator and nothing from the group. That is the only difference.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/26/10, Article, “What does ‘Love Thyself as Thy Friend’ Give Us?”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Entry Point Into Spirituality
Article: “Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”
Moments From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson: “Love of Friends”

Filed under: Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →

We are yet to discover our need for all seven billion people living on Earth. Society serves as an amplifying force because an individual’s own strength is very small. Thus, the more people in society under whose influence we put ourselves, the greater the strength we receive. It determines the height of the degree in our resembling the Creator, as well as the measure of adhesion we attain with Him.

We wouldn’t be able to achieve this alone on our own. A Kabbalistic group is a place where a person attaches himself to the Creator, and this determines how high he’ll climb to Him. The group becomes the house where the Creator and the creature dwell together. And when we dwell together there is no longer “I”; rather, there is only “we,” which now becomes the person’s “I.”

It is said, “A prisoner cannot free himself from the prison.” However, the friends can free him by providing him with their inspiration and strength. Therefore, everyone should think about helping a friend connect each state that occurs to its importance toward the purpose, along with understanding its necessity and rejoicing when the “sinners” are revealed in them.

It’s not important what states, what ups and downs, we go through; most important is that we progress toward the goal. Then we understand that we have to go through all states, like a patient undergoing treatment that might be unpleasant, but the recovery is already anticipated. Therefore, it is necessary to elevate each other’s spirits, not by acting silly or frivolous, but by giving each other the spirit of life, that is, spiritual life, which brings one happiness.

The mood is so important because it gives us the force of life. However, material life, wealth, or power won’t bring us an uplifted mood. If a person lost the power of faith, the force of life,  if he no longer feels the support of the society, the only means of advancement, then he can be helped only by another person. Only the other person can imbue us with the feeling of how important bestowal, confidence, and a fulfilled life are. In this, everyone has to help a friend. Everyone has to set an example of his burning passion toward reaching the goal at any minute.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, Article, “They Helped Everyone His Friend”

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: A Simple Formula For Spiritual Life
Laitman.com Post: Leave Your Donkeys To Graze Below
Kabbalah Moments: "Helping The Friends"

Filed under: Group Work, My Similarity to the Creator, Zohar - No Comments →

Article, “Concerning Love of Friends:”

1. Why do I need love of friends?

Love of friends is the connection among souls.

“I” is my soul, a “friend” is a different soul, but love is the kind of connection between us whereby he becomes more important to me than I am to myself, and, accordingly, I’m more important to him than he is to himself. I have to feel his desires as closer than my own. This is called loving the other as you love yourself.

However, loving the other does not mean feeling the material desires of our world and serving them; rather, it means uniting our desires to attain the Creator. I am building a totally new spiritual construction, the common soul of Adam HaRishon, which has never existed before and which is above all corporeality.

2. Why did I choose these particular friends, and why did they choose me?

Did I really pick these friends? The force from Above has led me to this group. So where does my free will begin? We build our free choice every day, constantly checking why we need to unite with friends:

a.) Do I see in them, and they in me, the point in the heart, that is, the desire to unite and achieve adhesion with the Creator?

b.) What connection should be established in order to discover Him among us according to the law of the equivalence of form?

3. Should each friend openly express his love or it is enough that it is concealed in his heart?

Every one must openly express his love for the group. By doing so, he will increase the love in his friends’ hearts and will be impressed by them. If previously he had only his individual power of love for friends, now he will receive the powers from all the friends in the group.

One must always remember the purpose of the group which is to merge with the Creator.

A Kabbalistic group is founded on love of friends because it is the springboard for attaining the love of the Creator. That is why we must show each other examples of love of another.

4. Is it necessary to know what each friend lacks in order to fill him, or is it enough to love friends in general?

It is enough to love friends in general so as to assure that a friend does not lack motivation, support on the path, inspiration, and the feeling of how important the Creator and the group are, and to provide him with all this to the best of one’s ability.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, Article “Concerning Love of Friends”

[Read more →]

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, My Similarity to the Creator - No Comments →