A Building for the Creator

508.2This is similar to one who wishes to move a big building; of course, this is impossible. So what does he do? He takes the building apart into small bricks, and he can move each piece. So it is here: Through diminishing the light, one can make a small effort (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 202, “In the Sweat of Your Face Shall You Eat Bread – 2”).

Question: What does it mean to “move a big building to another place”?

Answer: Imagine that the Creator wants to give a person some kind of reward weighing 50 kg. But he is not able to hold it and bear it.

In this case, the Creator gives him small portions that he can take and carry away, take and carry away, until he collects everything that he received from the Creator in his place.

Question: What are we building brick by brick in the world of infinity?

Answer: The house in which the Creator will dwell.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “In the Sweat of Your Face Shall You Eat Bread – 2”

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The Path to Happiness Lies through Sodom

294.1When you get older, you will understand that you can somehow live in the world only under one indispensable condition: you must understand that selfishness is a natural property of man.

When you come to terms with the idea that everyone lives only for themselves, you will be much more lenient towards your neighbors. They will stop disappointing your hopes, and you will begin to treat them more mercifully. People strive for only one thing in life – pleasure. (Somerset Maugham,Of Human Bondage).

Comment: We need to come to terms with the idea that everyone is an egoist, that everyone lives like this, and from this everything will calm down.

My Response: Of course, if everyone accepts this condition.

Comment: If we understand that everyone lives in their egoism—and I do, too—everything will calm down.

Answer: Yes, sure.

Question: “What is yours is yours, what is mine is mine.” This is still the law, right?

Answer: This is the first law on the path to real peace, that I accept all the weaknesses of others. It is called “what is yours is yours, and what is mine is mine,” and we do not interfere with each other. We respect each other.

It is not yet talking about convergence, merging, or “love your neighbor as yourself,” but about understanding our general law of nature.

Question: So, do you think this law is fair? Is this the law of our world?

Answer: At some stage, yes.

Comment: But Sodom was built precisely on this principle.

My Response: Why do you think that Sodom is evil? If today we were offered Sodom instead of our state, then having understood this, we would gladly accept it. We would be content. There would be no war, and there would be no atrocities. We would simply peacefully coexist.

Question: Why did the Creator not like this Sodom and overturn it?

Answer: This is not the end of creation. It is not the purpose of creation. The purpose of creation is for everyone to live in caring for each other.

Comment: That is clear. And in Sodom, those caring for each other were punished. But in any case, it would be suitable for the first step.

My Response: I am not saying we need to take these steps exactly. The Torah shows us that such a society will still be destroyed.

Question: That is, does such a society have no future?

Answer: That is correct. But as an intermediate, it exists. Here we are given an example.

Question: We have not even gotten to that first half step yet.

Answer: We are still a long way from Sodom.

Question: Before “What is mine is mine, what is yours is yours”?

Answer: Yes. You see what happens between neighbors, states, countries, and everywhere in general.

Comment: “What is yours is mine” is the main principle today.

My Response: We are at the lowest stage of egoistic development.

Comment: It always seems that this has already passed, that we are already somewhere…

My Response: No way!! Look what is being done! How people treat each other, what thoughts they have!

Question: If let us say we come to this step: “What is mine is mine, what is yours is yours,” is the next step “I do not harm another”?

Answer: Yes, by no means do I harm anyone else.

Comment: Do not do to others what you do not want to do to yourself.

My Response: Yes, but this is also not good.

Question: This is like the second step. And the third?

Answer: The third step is to imagine myself in the place of another and do good to him as I imagine what they would do to me. This is called “love your neighbor as yourself.”

Question: That is, we have three steps: first Sodom, as you say, “What is mine is mine, what is yours is yours”; second, “Do not do to others what you do not want to do to yourself; third, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And what do we come to then if we take these three steps?

Answer: To ensure we all have the same desire: to do only good things for each other.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/4/23

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A Single Desire

935Question: Are our little requests that are combined into a common prayer of the ten the light we return to the Creator?

Answer: No, the light is not between you; you do not return it to the Creator. You act only to create one desire between you that is capable of receiving a little of the light the Creator wants to give you. And by this action, you delight the Creator.

Question: How do we feel the light of the Creator in the ten?

Answer: Like the desire to do everything just for the sake of friends.

Question: What action attracts more light?

Answer: Just to connect even closer with each other.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “In the Sweat of Your Face Shall You Eat Bread – 2”

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We Do Not Learn from Mistakes

766.9Comment: You said that in reality children never learn from their parents’ mistakes.

My Response: Of course. How could that be? You cannot convey your life experience to another even in our world, much less in the spiritual world.

I remember my teacher sat in front of me on long winter evenings in Tiberias, and I pestered him with the same questions. He looked at me with compassion, eyes full of pity. He had very expressive eyes.

I saw that he sympathized with me, but could not help in any way more than what he was trying to explain, guide, and suggest. Usually, after my questions, he would sigh and say: “Let us read something.” And that was it, nothing else.

I remember I felt very bad. We went with him for a walk in the Beit Shemen forest. This was at the very beginning of my study. I studied with him for about a year, and a year is nothing to study Kabbalah. He saw that I was completely torn to pieces. I prayed: “Help me with at least something!” Such requests are generally not typical for me, but I blurted out: “Help!”

He looked at me with such pain, like a father who is ready to give everything to his hopelessly ill child, but can do nothing to help. We sat on a bench; I can show this place even today. He took from his pocket the article “Thou Hast Hemmed Me In Behind and Before” (“Achor Ve Kedem Tzartani”) and began to read to me. This is an article from the book A Sage’s Fruit, which we were just preparing for publication at that time.

In principle, the title of this article can be translated as “I control you from all sides.” I cannot say that I understood anything in it. But what else can you give a beginner?

In this case, we are talking about those people who strive to penetrate the spiritual system; they feel bad because they do not know it and do not attain it, and this pain speaks inside of them! After all, nothing corporeal was pressing on me at that time. I was perfectly settled, healthy, and young. It was spirituality that I lacked!

Question: Can you now evaluate how he perceived you at that moment? You, in fact, were part of him.

Answer: Of course, I was incorporated in him. He perceived me as a small system that needed to be adjusted, and he sympathized with it and really wanted to help it, and it reacted naturally. What else can you do? You just have to keep working with it and wait for the results.

Of course, he was worried about me, but he was worried as a father for a child who was not in a hopeless state. The father has a medicine that he gives to the child every day and sees that in the end the child will recover and do what is needed.

One day I could not overcome myself and did not follow him to take him to the sea. Then he was taken there by another student, who on the way asked: “Why is it always only Michael who accompanies you?” Rabash replied: “I cannot do anything about it. He has a special soul.”

I learned this 20 years later from that friend during a chance meeting. I did not even think about it and, moreover, I was surprised that Rabash said that about me to another student.

Therefore, when you look at a student, you take into account his entire future, and it sets you up to treat him accordingly. You tolerate his antics and lead him forward, or you “hit” him more often, or maybe, on the contrary, you pull him out “by the forelock.”
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. You do not Learn from Past Mistakes” 1/15/12

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The Meaning of Luck

546.02Question: How do you distinguish between the concept of “if you did not labor and found, do not believe” and luck, which can come without effort? After all, luck is a gift from above.

Answer: In any case, we must do something to make such a phenomenon happen.
To exist means “to be loved in the eyes of the Creator.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Explaining the Discernment of Luck”

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An Instrument for Revealing the Creator

625.02Question: How do we correctly reduce the light of Hochma to be above reason and to receive luck?

Answer: We must go by faith above reason, and in this way, we will merit the revelation of all knowledge. The process of revelation, however, is a Kabbalistic secret.

First, you must develop a desire for knowledge within yourself and negate the idea that you attain the purpose of creation through knowledge, and instead you focus primarily on acquiring the same corrections applied to the desire to receive.

Then, through this refusal, called reflected light (Ohr Hozer), you will attain true knowledge and uncover all that exists in nature.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is for this purpose, which explains that you must make a restriction (Tzimtzum), a screen (Masach), reflected light (Ohr Hozer), and gradually uncover the quality you wish to reach.

Question: Suppose a certain state comes to me. Should I say, “No, I do not want to receive this; I want to connect with my friends and through the connection, bestow to the Creator regardless of what is revealed”?

Answer: No, you should not refuse. From this desire, directed toward the Creator or His action, you should simply make a suitable vessel, an instrument for revealing the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Explaining the Discernment of Luck”

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Merit and Luck

571.02Question: As is written: “Sons, life, and nourishment do not depend on merit, but on luck.” What does this mean?

Answer: This means that the results of a person’s efforts, aimed at having sons and other fruits of his labor, depend not on the effort itself, but on the influence of the Creator on those efforts, on how much effort a person puts into becoming a conduit for the upper light.

Question: How do we free ourselves of regret and suffering that the Creator rewarded us according to merit rather than sending luck? What should the correct prayer be?

Answer: The correct prayer is a request for the success of your friends and that you will hold onto them and rise together with them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/29/24, Weitings of Baal HaSulam “Explaining the Discernment of Luck”

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A Kli Corresponding to Luck

282.01The correct Kli (vessel), which corresponds to luck, is our desire to receive when a person understands where he is and in what form he can unite with the Creator and perform the action of the reflected light, which raises him in accordance with the Hisaron (deficiency) that he created in the Creator. This is how they connect.

Question: What are the merits that make the light of Hochma shine?

Answer: These are the merits of using the opportunity to place your Kli under the upper light, which will be able to receive the light of Hochma in the middle line.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/29/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Explaining the Discernment of Luck”

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The Creator Knows Everything

558Question: Today our feelings are based on vessels of reception. At what point can we trust the heart to work from the desire to bestow? How can we avoid deceiving ourselves?

Answer: Act as best you can; the Creator does not require more from you. He knows all your intentions, thoughts, and abilities. He understands them clearly.

There are no options here to go around the Creator or to do anything differently, just open ourselves directly to Him.

Comment: Of course, you cannot deceive Him. But it turns out that we are deceiving ourselves and do not even understand it.

My Response: Ask the Creator, just in case, to open you and see what is inside you. As it is said: “Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before.” You must ask the Creator to open your heart and mind to you, to correct them, and to bring them closer to Him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Mind and Heart”

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The Correct Reaction

534Question: If a person has fear, he or she must strengthen their faith in the Creator. If the fear is not leveled, one should not ask for it to be taken away because it comes from the Creator.

In this case, how do we work with fear correctly?

Answer: It does not matter. You can even ask the Creator to take away the fear and annul it. Even better, ask Him to raise you above this fear. This is the most important. It is good when you can react like that.

Question: But I do not want to fear the Creator, I want to be like Him, to adhere to Him, and to love Him. Is it possible to replace fear with love?

Answer: No, because we are egoists, there must be fear first, and then love.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Concerning Fear that Sometimes Comes Upon a Person”

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