Blog Change notice

Due to the "New York Times Campaign", Rav's blog has been redirected and it is not refreshed in the usual manner, and due to the Holidays even on Sviva Tova there was nothing new posted recently.
So overall apologies for the large gaps in between posting, I will try to figure out how to continue the regular refresh of posts.

Only Together!!!

Life Behind The Walls Of An Aquarium

The perception of reality is a unique subject because we don’t understand it at all. If we were allowed to have several forms of perceiving reality, we could understand it by comparing them. But we live in one reality so it is difficult for us to evaluate it. What we see and feel is our only reality.

How can we discover where we truly are? Fish in an aquarium also don’t know what exists outside of it; they swim in some kind of limited space and don’t know anything more. This is how all animals and humans live in this world; how are we different from them?

But humans very much want to know where they are. Also of importance is can we change reality if we know more about it? Of course not, humanity has produced a multitude of theories about the nature of our reality, but nobody knows how correct they are. We need an objective scientific approach.

After all, no matter how much we are talking about a perception of reality; it is based only on our feelings and sensations. And who knows what exists outside of them? If I change the range of my vision, hearing, tasting, smelling and touching, then reality would be different.

It is known that even a dog that lives with a person perceives the world completely differently, through scents. Other animals perceive through warmth or cold, or by hearing. It follows that reality is our impressions of the world that surrounds us. Our senses perceive some kind of information about it and convey this through a multitude of filters. They convey it to us after many restrictions and changes. That is how we perceive the world in which we live.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that essentially we are found in an ocean of the Upper Light; outside of it there is nothing. But in each one of us there is a desire to receive, a desire to enjoy, that imprints its impressions on a background of the white Light. And this impression is what we feel.

The desire to receive has a particular range of absorption, limited to five areas— seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching—in which it absorbs the Light and conveys impressions to us. So we feel the world just like that.

But it is possible to change this perception. It is not about just extending the range of perception for every sense: wearing glasses, putting on absorptive plates, sharpening smells or tastes through some chemical or physical influences. The wisdom of Kabbalah is not involved with the development of our physical senses; rather, it brings us closer to the true form of the perception of reality.

It is possible to approach the truth if we receive impressions not through the five corporeal senses, but through constructing senses from our desire to receive that are similar to the Light. This means that they have the characteristics of Light, the characteristics of bestowal, love, that are beyond us, beyond our ego. If we can rise above the ego that is given to us, then we can create characteristics that are like the Light from ourselves.

It follows that the ego was given to us so that we would build characteristics above it that are adapted to the Light. And then we will begin to feel a reality in which the Light is in control. We will feel it in those new characteristics that are created within us.

Kabbalah is involved with developing such characteristics within a person, helping him to build a new perception of reality. And when a person acquires it, he begins to feel how much his previous perception of reality was limited, temporary, and distorted.

To the degree that he changes his perception of reality, the person is himself changed. In fact the perception of reality is what defines the person.
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From the Convention In Chile “Day One” 7/30/14, Lesson 2

Science Has Placed Us On The Path Of Suffering

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”, section 41: The Zohar writes about the text “and those that seek Me shall find Me,” and asks, “Where does one find the Creator? They said that the Creator is found only in the Torah.”

We must thoroughly understand their words. It seems that the Creator is hidden only in corporeal things and conducts all the futilities of this world, which are outside the Torah. Thus, how can you say the opposite, that He hides Himself only in the Torah?

This means that we can never discover the right system, the true forces in nature that manage us, the higher management and oversight, nor the higher power that is at work in an action if we are not engaged in the inner Torah, which is the wisdom of Kabbalah, the correct  way. Even the science of the physical world cannot bring us closer to this.

By being involved with scientific development, a person inserts himself into the way of suffering; since he hopes and wants to reach a good life through scientific achievements, the opposite situation is created, and he only harms himself. And this is clear, for in this manner he doesn’t develop his Kelim (vessels) for discovery of the higher power which is good and beneficent.

It follows that science brings us to failure and diverts us from the right way. As much as we value and respect modern science, ultimately it must be understood and acknowledged that it leads us to the way of suffering. Certainly everything was planned from the start, for without discovering the evil it is impossible to reach the good. This is because the human intellect must discover its empty powerlessness.

But if from the days of the first Adam (man), from the first discovery of the wisdom of Kabbalah, humanity had accepted it as the solitary means for discovering the good and beneficent power, then it would have gone by the ideal way directly towards the goal of creation.

Then there would have been no need for scientific progress and the evolution of human society. A person would have been involved in his spiritual development, whereas the compulsory physical work would have been only for meeting the requirements of bestial existence, to feed his “beast.” And all the remaining developments would have been only for the need of developing the Adam within us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

The Daily Direction 9.24.14

A person that works well feels the revelation of evil and he is happy with it  

The month of Elul is the month of judgment, when a person judges himself, examines himself, what did he attain in the past year, how does he arrive towards the conclusion of the year and to what does he strive to reach. If the year went well, if he worked well, if he attracted the Light that Reforms, and he was inside the group, in the studies, in short, he advanced. If he advanced correctly and properly then he reaches the month of Elul, before Rosh Hashanah (the New Year), broken, feeling that he has many shattered vessels, he has a lot to correct, he is a big sinner, and he is overjoyed. He is happy that he discovered it, that now he has a material so he can correct himself, to reach a "Shana Hadassah" (a new year), a new change, a new degree, and that the evil inclination is revealed in him, (“I created the evil inclination"), and now all he needs is the "Torah," (the “spice”), and then he can rise by correcting the evil to good, to a new degree.

Therefore, a person that worked well during the year feels the revelation of evil and he is happy with it. There is work during the nights, during the mornings, during the day; that’s how we feel ourselves in advancing towards a new degree that Rosh Hashanah (the New Year) symbolizes. [Last part min 1]   

If you don't know what it means to turn to the Creator, it's a sign that you don't know what it means to turn to the friend

To the extent you will connect to the ten and invest forces in the connection between you, you'll begin to understand it means to turn to the Creator. You'll begin to feel it means to exit yourself, to rise, to be outside of yourself and in the others, and there is no difference between the others and the Creator. If you don't know what it means to turn to the Creator, it's a sign that you don't know what it means to turn to the friend, it's the same, there is no difference. The person, who exits himself toward someone else, wants to dress in him, and by that he loses himself. It's the same technique whether it is the friend or the Creator. So try to make an effort towards the friends and then you'll reach the Creator; you will feel that it's the same. This is why the shattering of the vessels took place and all of our work is that way, from the love of the people to the love of the Creator, and in the love of people you have an examination, visible results. [Part 1 Min 22]