Ynet Article: “Two Intellectual Giants Who Predicted The Future”

Two of the greatest spirits of the twentieth century, who were removed from the world during the Days of Atonement—predicted what would happen to us today, and they were not wrong… Rav Michael Laitman’s special column about Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) and his succesor Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag, marking their death days.

“Two Intellectual Giants Who Predicted The Future”

On a cold, rainy night in 1979 I couldn’t sleep, thoughts plagued me. Suddenly I found myself behind the wheel, driving without direction. A large sign interrupted my thoughts: “Bnei Brak.” I entered. The streets were deserted. At the corner of Chazon Ish street I encountered a passerby. “Where do they study here?” I asked. He looked at me and answered, “Go to the end of the street, there you will see an orchard, across the street.”

So for the first time I met my teacher, Rav Baruch Shalom Ashlag, the oldest son and heir of Baal HaSulam—the greatest Kabbalist of the twentieth century. From this moment my life changed beyond recognition.

For twelve years I served as his personal assistant and student, and absorbed from him everything that I know about the wisdom of Kabbalah. Every day he would retreat to the second floor and write. That is how his profound articles were born that paved the spiritual path that is most appropriate for every person today. Nobody before him wrote in such a simple and practical language. Like a father who guides his children down the path, he takes the readers by the hand and leads them until they discover the true meaning of life.

Rabash followed in the footsteps of his father Baal HaSulam, the Kabbalist famous for writing the “Sulam Commentary to The Book of Zohar.” Both of them absorbed the ancient wisdom of the chain of Kabbalists that preceded them, and they were the link that accommodated it to our generation. “I am glad that I have been born in such a generation when it is permitted to disclose the wisdom of truth,” writes Baal HaSulam (“The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”).

A Time to Act

In the year 1922, eleven years before Hitler rose to power, Baal HaSulam foresaw the threat of annihilation facing the Jewish people in Europe.

He took pains to warn the heads of the Jewish community in Warsaw that the sharp Nazi sword had already been placed upon their necks. He urged them to unite and return to the land of Israel, but they refused to heed his calls and ostracized him, and he emigrated to Israel alone. The Second World War came and didn’t pass over the members of that Jewish community, all of whom perished in the death camps.

In the thirties Baal HaSulam made supreme efforts to meet with the heads of the Yishuv(settlement): David Ben-Gurion, Zalman Shazar, Moshe Sharett, Chaim Nachman Bialik, Chaim Arlozorov and other public figures. He tried to speak with them about the importance of unity and about the need to connect the parts of the Jewish Yishuv that was emerging in the land of Israel.

In 1940, over the objections of the ultra-Orthodox circles of engaging in the wisdom of Kabbalah, Baal HaSulam published a newspaper called, The Nation—the first newspaper of its kind devoted to the socio-spiritual unity of the Jewish people. His opponents turned to the British government and took care of the closure of the newspaper.

Baal HaSulam expected that precisely in our day religion would lose its hold on people, the political basis would crumble, and social factionalism would destroy all its good parts—until humanity would remain without an answer. He tried to talk about this with all who would agree to meet with him. The subject burned in him and he felt the need of the hour. He knew that the only remedy for the suffering expected for Israel and the world was to restore the unity that was always the foundation of the nation, otherwise they would rise up against us to annihilate us.

The Last Generation

The message of unity that Baal HaSulam bore, is more relevant than ever. Waves of surging hatred and anti-Semitism are threatening our continued existence. “We have gathered here to establish a society for all who wish to follow the path and method of Baal HaSulam,” began my teacher Rabash in his first article (“Dargot HaSulam, “Purpose of Society 1”).

After his departure in 1991, people began to gather around me whose hearts were burning with a desire to discover the purpose of their existence. Gradually the Bnei Baruch group was founded, named after Rabbi Baruch Ashlag, which became the “Kabbalah for the People” organization.

Every morning we study from the books of the Kabbalists: The Study of the Ten Sefirot, The Book of Zohar with the Sulam Commentary and other writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. We try to continue and disseminate the method to all who want it, exactly according to how my teacher transmitted the wisdom of his father to me.

As of today we number around two million students throughout Israel and the world, and we see our role as carrying on the way of the two great luminaries, and just as Baal HaSulam emphasized, “…only through the expansion of the wisdom of Kabbalah in the masses will we obtain complete redemption” (Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot).

On these days we commemorate the departure of the two greatest of the generation. I hope that we will have the sense to walk faithfully in their way.

One Law For All

The Torah, “Numbers,” 15:29: One law shall apply to anyone who sins inadvertently from the native born of the children of Israel and the proselyte who resides among them.

Question: Why is the study identical for both the children of Jacob and for foreigners?

Answer: It is because we have a multitude of characteristics and desires that we catch and absorb from the outside, from the entire world. The characteristics, thoughts, feelings, and even our habits are called foreigners.

That is, there is one law for all. You cannot say, “I arrived from afar. I was brought up differently, and so I cannot be otherwise.” That has no meaning. If you want to attain a connection with the Creator, you must correct yourself just like everyone else.

There are no exceptions! It could be that, for you, a greater Light of correction is required. Your way may be a little longer, and you may require more support, but, in any case, you must attain the correction equally with everyone and finish it on the same level as everyone else.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/13/15

A World In Which Evil Is Found Everywhere

Comment: In the meantime not all people understand that we are in a systemic crisis. Even if someone feels this, he thinks that the crisis will soon come to an end: “A year or two we will suffer, tightening our belts a bit, and everything will be as usual.”

Answer: I don’t think that the crisis will end soon because there is no power in the world to monitor order that would take a firm hand, putting everything in its place.

The world leaders were once Germany and England, later a few nations together. Even the opposition between America and Russia made the world situation smoother since the two powers reined in and restrained all kinds of jumps. Today this doesn’t exist.

America has abandoned its role of global policeman and we see that the world is entering an unpredictatable situation. There is no power to hold onto the world order, applying pressure somewhere to limit something, making something else possible through which nature could move and maintain at least some kind of order. This doesn’t exist now and cannot exist because American dominance and its presence in the world arena is decreasing, which previously made it possible to hold, maintain and align the world order.

So the world is deteriorating into a state that is unpredictable. This program was determined by nature a few thousand years ago and was tested in the Kabbalistic sources. They said that ultimately the entire Islamic world would begin to dominate the Christian one. Moreover we see that this is not a military intervention, but a quiet and peaceful occupation.

It is already impossible to stop this process; it is impossible to equalize the growth of the Arab population in Europe and that of the European population. So according to the calculations of the experts, in another 20-30 years Europe will be entirely subordinated to Islam.

The world is entering a completely wretched situation; if in the some South America nations, like Brazil and others, clearly went in a kind of socialist direction, now they are driving themselves into such big problems, which translates into a crisis. In the end, the world will become quite homogeneous, and evil will be found everywhere.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 8/19/15

A Vanishing Clock Dial

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Section 61, 63: The answer is that the world, during the six thousand years of its existence, is like one Partzuf divided into three thirds:Rosh (head), Toch (interior), Sof (end), meaning, HBD (Hochma, Bina, Daat), HGT (Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet), NHY (Netzach, Hod, Yesod). This is what our sages wrote, ‘Two millennia of Tohu(chaos), two millennia of Torah, and two millennia of the days of the Messiah” (Sanhedrin 97a)….Hence, only after the completion of these lowly souls can the Highest Lights manifest, and not before.

There is a general rule that is called the “inverse relation between Lights and vessels” (Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Section 24), so that the vessels that fell to a greater depth were higher before the Shevira (breaking).

Which means that even though we are in a state of breaking, in the lowest state, through our correction we can add very great power to the general Kli, and as a result of this, a great Light will be revealed.

The first generations excelled in realization and their desire to receive was relatively refined, so the Light of Hochma was not revealed that much. This was not the same method and not the same Light that we discover within our Kelim. And on the other hand, according to the inverse arrangement of Lights and Kelim, the Light of Hochmawill be revealed within the Kelim of HBD, while we belong to the Kelim of NHY.

And at the end of correction all of the Light and every Kli will be a single circle.

Question: Why are the 6,000 spiritual levels described as 6,000 years? It seems that the Creator created the creature and gave it an ultimatum, to finish the correction in the specified period and not beyond it.

Answer:  A system of worlds exists, ABYA (Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya). In this system, the world of Atzilut is the world of correction and doesn’t belong to the brokenKelim, but was created to correct them. The worlds of BYA are the place, the environment, the state, in which the broken Kelim, the broken souls exist.

In reality only one soul exists, the soul of Adam HaRishon (the First Man). This soul was divided or broken into a multitude of parts that fell according to their spiritual level into the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya and must be rediscovered. According to the intensity of the breaking, these parts are divided into three groups: HBD, HGT, andNHY.

They are revealed according to a particular order: Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya, from light to heavy. The parts that belong to the worlds of Beria and Yetzira and the upper two thirds of the world of Assiya are revealed according to the program of creation. After all, in the present stage, the Kelim are still not divided according to the right line and the left line in such a form that they can activate their freedom of choice.

And only in the Kelim of the bottom part of NHY, meaning beginning from our generation, which is called the last generation, is there a possibility of developing more rapidly and efficiently than the program of creation. Previously the program of creation determined the connection and the relative rates between the Lights and Kelim according to an awakening from above, which is truly considered to be 6,000 years. And now the new method is discovered.

This is because creation is not just a product with characteristics that are given to it initially, devoid of any potential for development of new things so it is not clear why it exists. And specifically we who want to realize the program of creation by ourselves with our own powers, justify the Creator, confirming that it was not just created without any benefit; it is not just automatic. The benefit is that creation makes it possible for a person to search and find possibilities of joining the process according to his freedom of choice to hasten the correction and advance creation through elevating MAN. And then all of creation belongs to a person, the whole world belongs to him.

And so, the time of development is shortened, not because there is a need for this, but rather, this is a sign of how much the person himself yearns to finish and correct creation. Why? Because in the corrected Kli it is possible to give great contentment to the Creator.

What this means is that from now on we are ready to dedicate our time so that all of our actions will be in order to bestow, and through this we attract the whole world towards correction.

Question: Why is this process still connected to physical time?

Answer: In your perception you make a division between spirituality and physicality. But in fact, physicality is what is called an intention for the sake of reception and spirituality is an intention for the sake of bestowal. How can one be without the other?

Everything comes from above, and the spiritual root determines the physical branch. The physical branch includes the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate, everything that we see, all the desires that are not ready to determine any change regarding the Creator independently. This includes the nature of Adam, which is not a person in our world, rather an Adam (Man) who is ready to resemble the Creator. Only people like these belong to the level of Adam, bestowing and not receiving.

It is the same thing regarding time. There are times that belong to the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate, and there is a special time for those who belong to the level of Adam, those who ascend above their nature. They feel their time, their state, their level, to the same degree that they correct themselves. For them time is not determined by the clock and not by dates on the calendar. The dial on the clock simply vanishes from your feeling if you reach your individual end of correction.

And so we are living at the end of the 6,000 years, and our period is unique in that we have the possibility of freedom of choice. We are working not only for ourselves but for all six millennia. After all, those who formed the ladder of spiritual levels depend on us. And if we attract the smallest Lights, they are revealed above as the greatest Lights.

This is correct even though it is difficult for us to appreciate our work because we don’t see its results.
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From the 3d part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Reason Above Desire

Question: Have I understood correctly that when disseminating to the 99% of the population, we are going from something positive to something positive, meaning from great happiness to even greater happiness?

Answer: It depends on how you accept everything.

In the Introduction to The Book of Zohar, it is said that only one state exists, and it is absolutely corrected. We are in it, but don’t perceive it with our senses. To truly feel wholeness, we must develop ourselves.

All of our work is to direct ourselves toward this wholeness. We cannot understand it because we are so broken, so damaged inside that we cannot perceive it. It seems terrible to us because this life for us is eating, sleeping, and spending some time, like in a movie, and we don’t think of anything else as living.

We just need to correct ourselves, our feelings, our senses, our understanding, and perception—only ourselves, nothing else. The intention is made in the center of the group. The more that the group grows and becomes stronger, the more rapid the intention becomes.

Question: When we sit in a circle, sometimes we go through very painful states.

Answer: In both the bad states and the good states, it is necessary to find out whether you are above them or within them. If you cannot answer this question, it is a sign that your feelings and intellect are at the same point. This is impossible. You need to be lifted above your feelings. This is reason above desire.

You have these two points that are far from each other, and you examine your feelings through the intellect. It could be that you don’t agree with the feelings, but you agree that they have a place, and you must go through them.

Suppose that I feel bad because my foot hurts. However, the doctor says, “Cut it off.” So, it must be cut off. I understand that he is doing something good for me. It will be beneficial for me. Therefore, all the bad states that you go through are only for your benefit.

Question: Do the people who belong to the 99% go through painful states in circles like these?

Answer: No, they don’t have duality and contradictions. They are within their emotions and don’t rise above this. Depending on their psychology, they are elevated slightly, but only to make the negative feeling disappear. But we don’t annihilate this negative feeling, Instead, we transform it into something positive.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/4/14, Workshop 5

From State To State

Question: Suppose that I blame a friend for not being nice to me. On the other hand, I understand that this is the Creator. These two situations—between the Creator and the form through which He sends me everything—really tear me apart. Where is the turning point, the place where the two things connect?

Answer: When some negative thought appears in me regarding a friend, this is a result of the egoism that is growing within me. Nothing has changed, except for the ego (desire). Desire is the only component that changes in all of creation. In each one of us, it grows gradually both qualitatively and quantitatively.

When desire increases, I begin to feel new feelings regarding my friends, and in general, they are negative. If I don’t do anything, they work on me, and it is absolutely possible that they will take me out of this state. Or, I do something and my situation changes that way. In both cases, the states are changed into opposite states. From above, I am let to understand how quickly everything can transform and how my opinion regarding the friends can transform from negative to positive, and later, vice versa. That is how we are taught.

From us only one thing is to be achieved:that we will create an image, a system, an example of the ideal higher state within us, and we will yearn for it, wanting to realize it among us, including it within us so that we become not “we” but “one.” This means that we won’t just become connected together. Rather, we will work as a single body so much so that the “we” disappears. There is no summation. Rather, there is “one” that includes everything within it.

We know that ten components of creation connect harmoniously between us on the lowest level. They are equal in value to one, a single component of creation on the next level. Within it, the ego grows and again creates another ten components from one point that work on themselves, integrate together, rise to the next level, and then they transform into a single unit there. This is the order of growth of the levels.
So, we always need to see this pattern until it becomes our internal state, really to the feeling that we are living within it, existing within it.

Question: When the transition from ten to one is felt to a particular degree, you also begin to understand that it could not be otherwise. This means that all the bad states are intentionally sent by the Creator to then feel His goodness and His care.

Answer: This happens because feelings grow in you like this for observations and new characteristics that you could not feel before.

Question: Sometimes I am in these states for a day, two days, a week, and sometimes move through them in seconds. How is it possible to hasten this process? How does one turn toward the Creator correctly?

Answer: Don’t ever be sorry about that state you are in. Even the best state will pass as quickly as possible and will transform into a higher state. You don’t want to delay any one of them, not even for a second. It is impossible to stop the moment. Otherwise, you come to the adversary, like Doctor Faustus.

Question: There are such states that simply fall and pile up on me, and I don’t even have enough time to clarify and understand them. What is happening to me?

Answer: This is not important. After that, you will clarify things. Sometimes, it is impossible to correctly grasp your state, even on the next level, rather only through a few levels. Sometimes, what you already have passed through begins to be perceived and realized after ten years have passed. Don’t worry. The main thing is the acceleration.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/4/14, Workshop 5

An Unbiased Look At The World

There are certain actions a person must carry out by changing his or her egoistic nature. After all, our nature forces us to love only ourselves, to gain at the expense of our neighbors, regardless of the suffering it causes to the other and even enjoying it.

In the same manner, we don’t take into account the Creator. If it weren’t for the fear of the upper force, we wouldn’t think of it at all. However, there is concealment, due to which I don’t know what will happen to my life, my children, those close to me, or myself. Will I still be alive in the next moment? What does the next day have in store for me? Therefore, I perform a calculation and decide to be good.

We think that the Creator has some obligations with respect to a person if he carries out his obligations with respect to the Creator. In other words, if a person behaves correctly, the Creator treats him well.

Yet there is another condition that obliges us to not only relate well to the Creator, but also to the whole world and the levels of the still, vegetative, animate, and human. I need to treat the world that surrounds me like I treat myself. Hence it is written, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” My neighbor is anything within my environment.

Imagine that I treat everything outside of me with the same level of sensitivity, care, andlove as I treat myself! I then stop feeling the difference between me and what is outside of me. The whole inanimate world, plants, animals, and people become like me.

I feel that I, the whole world, and the whole universe are as one pie in which I exist. There is no difference between what I have inside and what is outside. If we achieve this state, we thereby cancel all the boundaries and acquire an additional sense that allows us to feel what is outside of us. I have always felt the outside world through judging how beneficial something is for me. And now I cancel my egoism, my preconceived notion, and I just feel the outside world.

Suddenly I discover that the outside world and I merge into one, which is called the upper world, or the Garden of Eden. The world is full of light, energy, life, and pleasure. There is only the Upper Light, which exists in absolute rest and tranquility. There are no separations, limitations, or time.

I exit the limitations of this egoistic world and our egoistic perceptions and I reveal a new true reality, which is not bound by the boundaries of my egoism.

If I reach such a perception, when I feel the whole world as one whole, where the upper and lower worlds unite, I can feel all the Light that fills them, the only force of the Creator, then I reveal the truth, by which I exist in this world.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/17/15

Where Is The Upper World?

Question: Our lives are so primitive: working, going back home, eating dinner, and going to sleep, waking up in the morning and going back to work. And you talk about some kind of “upper world”!

I would like to see it, but when I look up, I see only the ceiling. Is it possible to change something in my life? Where is this upper world?

Answer: When talking about the upper world, which is located above our world, thewisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t mean an ordinary height, as if it were a ceiling or stars in the sky; this is talking about inner and higher human characteristics. Sometimes we say: “What a tall person, he is above everyone,” but we don’t mean his height. Napoleon was a meter and a half tall, at the same time, he was a great personality. So it is first necessary to clarify, what “low” and “high” mean.

In Kabbalah, “higher” means “higher” according to characteristics. Higher characteristics are bestowal, love, connection, and unity. And if we indicate that a person is low and inferior, we are referring to his dismal characteristics, not height.

So we call the spiritual world the upper world because love and unity reside there. And to approach it is possible specifically thanks to connection and unity.

Why don’t we feel the Creator? Because there is no unity between us. If we want to feel the force that surrounds, envelops, and includes all of creation within it, we need to connect and to become as one.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that even if ten people connect and unite as one person, then they will feel the upper force, the upper world. It is specifically this connection that we try to implement in Kabbalistic groups.

And this is the essence of the method that is described in the original books of Kabbalah like The Book of Zohar and the original books by the Ari and Baal HaSulam.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 9/6/15

The Main Thing Is To Not Forget Him!

Question: If I imagine that the Creator is behind of everything that is happening to me, will I always be angry at Him. Before I used to be angry at the people surrounding me, blaming them for all my problems. If there is none else besides the Creator, will I have to hate Him now?

Answer: Don’t worry, this is normal. It doesn’t matter what your attitude towards the Creator is. The main thing is to keep thinking of Him all the time. Do not forget Him! It doesn’t matter how you relate to Him, whether good or bad. The main thing is to think about Him all the time.

The Creator wants a person to be connected to Him. He wants the person to be the one who is looking for this connection, not the Creator looking for him. The person should see one Creator in everything, as the One who is good and does good. These are the two parameters, the two properties, through which one can sense the Creator.

Around me, there is just the Creator, while the entire world is His external manifestation as though these are actors who move on the stage according to the director’s idea.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life”  2/5/2015

Does The Person Act Or Is The Person Activated?

Question: On the one hand, we see that the person is part of nature, and everything that happens with him affects him. However, on the other hand, we place ourselves at the top of the pyramid as the crown of creation, something higher that stands above all of nature.

We are different than other creatures in intelligence, in our wisdom, and in the ability to plan and develop. We have a special addition that is not the same for any other part of nature. What place does the person hold in the system of nature?

Answer: Without a doubt, man is an integral part of nature. Our bodies belong to the animate level; all of its systems are like animals’, and there is nothing special about them. We produce children exactly in the same manner and take care of them like any animal.

A human begins where his thought, his education, and the power of his intellect, his intelligence, is awakened and developed from generation to generation, and along with the intellect, emotions are developed, the awareness of who he is and where he is. These questions are aroused in every generation, but with a newer quality.

There is a very great role for education here. In addition to development from the side of nature, we develop ourselves with the help of special systems within us, and we pass our scientific knowledge and experience from generation to generation. This is not like the survival experience that animals transmit to their offspring.

Humans transmit wisdom, scientific knowledge, and a perception of the world to their children. So, we are stronger than all of them and are ready to develop means that animals do not attain. The ape doesn’t know how to use anything besides a stick, and a human invents more sophisticated tools.

Animals are entirely activated by nature on the level of instincts and don’t ask where the orders that they obey come from. However, a human can ask why this is happening this way and is it possible to do this differently? He searches for how to leave unpleasant situations and achieve maximal comfort. It is as if he were guided by the same motivations as animals, but the animals act instinctively, like a machine. And even though many latent instincts and habits are incorporated in man and are transmitted from generation to generation, what is unique about him is that he learns constantly.

A human learns from an environment that influences him very strongly, and he changes according to the environment. Latent in him is the aspiration to leave the place where he is, to develop, to conquer new areas, to feel that he is in control, and to understand and exploit everything around him with his own powers. But we see that if a human being acts this way according to his desire, he must constantly escape from the troubles that he causes himself. As a result, he becomes more miserable, even though he is above all of nature.

We develop under the pressure of our egoism, which doesn’t exist among the animals. Animals act only according to instincts, and humans have freedom of choice: what and how to do something. So, it follows that in every situation in life, I have a possibility of doing something good or not good in relation to others, and clearly I make a choice according to my personal benefit. However, I must check carefully as to what exactly is beneficial to me. After all, a person is different from animals by also having the power of destruction, and he is capable of harming himself.

This destructive power is the control of our ego, and humans must fulfill the commands of this power even if they understand that because of it, they are sentencing themselves to a very difficult life. They must submit to this internal aspiration. They see that they are on the threshold of war, but they still cannot stop and are ready for death because their ego is stronger than their survival instinct.

An animal never goes against the survival instinct. A female is even ready to abandon her cubs to the mercy of predators to escape them herself. The natural instinct dictates that a greater and healthier part is more important than a small and weak one, and therefore the female must be saved first. That is how nature obligates animals to act in accord with the procreative instinct. However, a person can act completely differently. A mother is ready to risk her life to save her children, which is not typical of animals.

An animal simply fights for its territory, food, and continuation of the generation. But the moment that it feels that it is weaker than the enemy, it will withdraw without shame and remorse. These feelings simply don’t exist in animals. They have a normal instinct, as if it is some force working rather than the biological body. They simply gauge which is the stronger force, and the weaker surrenders. But a human is ready to fight for “truth” and “justice,” but all of these are expressions of his pride, his ego. The human must prove that he is justified, and with this he manifests his personal feelings.

Our body is no different than the body of animals. The human within us is our pride, envy, and lust. It is specifically these characteristics that differentiate us from the animal world. So the place of the human in nature is not like the place of the still, vegetative, and animate, and we instinctively distinguish ourselves from them. In addition, we can control other parts of nature: killing animals, putting them in a cage, domesticating them, and using them for food. Moreover, we absolutely dominate the nature of the vegetative and still, so we consider ourselves as being above all of nature.

But if we look at the human being, we see that what stands out is his envy, his aspiration for control and respect, characteristics that are irrelevant to the animal instincts, and so they elevate the human above everything. At the same time, even humans are managed by nature. After all, if I don’t know what will happen to me in the next moment, this brings me to the level of the normal animal. If I don’t control my future, even for the next moment, I already am dominated by nature.

So, I must clarify: Who am I really? The one who acts or the one who is activated? It seems as if I activate levels that are found above me. But I have no control over myself nor over human society. On the contrary, I am activated from above, that is, I am given the opportunity to control the nature of the still, vegetative, and animate, but I don’t control myself and what is above me, my fate and my future. In that, I am completely controlled.

This is the tragedy of the human who seems so strong and successful in all that he does. He possesses emotion, intelligence, a developed consciousness, and powerful means. After we developed to this level, we suddenly discovered that we cannot even touch what is most essential.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/23/14

Sharing The Public’s Grief Is The Key To The Revelation Of The Creator

Baal HaSulam, “Fruits of Wisdom,” “He who Shares the Public’s Grief”: “A person is measured to the extent that he measures,” that is, according to the size of the vessels, according to the container and its interior part. The same deficiency will always be full, no more no less.

Therefore, God’s servant who doesn’t share the public’s grief, but only feels his own private deficiency has a container for the abundance that isn’t big enough, and therefore will not be able to receive the general revelation of Godliness in the secret of the public’s consolation, because he has not prepared a vessel to receive this general phase but only his private phase.

But if he shares the public’s grief and feels the troubles of the general as his own private trouble, he is rewarded with seeing the complete phase of the revelation of the Shechina, meaning the consolation of all of Israel, because his deficiency is a general deficiency and therefore the abundance of holiness is also general.

You should thus understand the meaning of “the righteous have no rest,” which means that because the abundance is blessed according to the level of deficiency and the longings of the righteous, to the same extent, no more no less, they always make efforts to deepen and to expand their vessel because the one who bestows has no measure, only the one who receives. Thus, their only goal in life is to grow stronger and to yearn to make in them a vessel and thus cause contentment in expanding the borders of holiness.

The vessel of receiving is limited and the vessel of bestowal is unlimited. It all depends on a person. To the extent that he tries to expand his vessel of bestowal, he receives help from above. If he is really interested in correction and uses all the means he has, he can always increase the vessel, which means increasing his deficiency for bestowal. The Light that Reforms operates on him according to these efforts and corrects his vessel, prepares it, and then fills it. Therefore it is said “the righteous have no rest, neither in this world nor in the next world,” which means neither on the current level nor on the next level, and they will always be able to advance.

The key and the basis for advancement is to share the public’s grief, which means that the additional deficiencies and the need for bestowal can only be acquired from the environment. There is no other place; the environment is the only place where one can draw from it unlimitedly and advance as a result.

We can thus immediately assess how a person sees this advancement in the spiritual life. Today it already refers to everyone, both men and women. It depends if a person isolates himself and thinks that he will advance only thanks to his studies, or whether he participates in dissemination and in community life, connecting to the group with all his might. If he doesn’t do that, he cannot accumulate a deficiency for bestowal, of course, reach a prayer, and receive a readymade vessel. The Light is in abundance, and it will therefore immediately fill the vessel the moment it is ready.

Baal HaSulam wrote: “A person is measured to the extent that he measures.” After all, a person can only measure the extent that he yearns to be in the vessels of bestowal and to be filled with Light. Everything depends only on him, on the preparation of his vessel. Sharing the public’s grief is the key for the revelation of the Creator.

In his article “The Giving of the Torah,” Baal HaSulam wrote that when the children of Israel were in Egypt they became one nation that suffered the enslavement and the hard labor together the moment they began to mutually share their grief. Pharaoh brought the children of Israel closer to the Creator and enforced increasingly greater afflictions upon them, and as a result, forced them to connect.They realized that only thanks to the connection between them could they be saved and come out of Egypt. This is how a person receives the right deficiency.

It turns out that we have unlimited opportunities to advance because the whole world already needs correction. We will always have a chance to influence the public and to engage in dissemination more and more without limits; we will receive the deficiencies from people and advance before them each time in order to be their teachers and to serve them. This is how we will advance towards increasingly greater vessels of bestowal.

All the grief should be aimed at only one thing: how to absorb additional deficiencies from the close environment or from an increasingly wider environment, until the whole world is included in my vessel. This is the purpose of the shattering, which means the keeping of the commandments. Only building a deficiency for bestowal fulfills everything.

Nowadays we see that the whole world, including us, is already arranged for the revelation of the deficiency for mutual bestowal. This is how we build the place for the revelation of the Creator in order to cause Him contentment. All this will happen before our very eyes.
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From the Preparation for the Convention 2/25/14

Preparing A Place For Bestowal To Reign

Question: Why does Baal HaSulam write that a person must give contentment to his Creator? Does each one have his own Creator?

Answer: Sometimes, we only say “Creator,” sometimes “your Creator,” and sometimes we say the plural, “Creators.” That is how the lower level perceives the higher. There are a multitude of higher Partzufim (Israel Saba ve Tvuna, Abba ve Ima), a multitude of forces that take care of the Tachtonim (Lower Ones). But all of them have one intention and one goal.

The person doesn’t turn to an abstract upper force but to that level to which he is directly connected now. So he can call these higher levels by the name, Creators.

The Creator has no defined image. It is forbidden in any way or manner to describe Him as something static that exists outside of us. There is no such thing, even though it is very difficult for a person to accept this. However, this is a problem that exists only in our uncorrected perception.

It is up to us to see ourselves as a property of reception. Who am I? I am this quality of reception, and the Creator is the quality of bestowal. There is nothing more than these two properties, and I want to become like the quality of bestowal.

A property is something abstract that has no physical image. The property receives a form only when it dresses in something concrete. So, the best way to protect oneself from making a mistake is to refrain from describing the upper force as some kind of permanent form or image. This is very important for clarification and the right attitude.

After all, what is the Elyon (Upper One)? This is something that is above that now fills me. A filling of reception is wanting only to receive everything, to feel good, to be healthy, to know, to understand, to attain, to control in some way. All of this belongs to the property of reception that is directed entirely toward self-benefit.

But there is an opposite property above me, meaning that I attribute it to spirituality and value it. It is above me and I want to attain it. If this higher property would clothe me, I would stop being concerned about myself, acting only for my personal benefit. But what would I think then? Would I think about anything? What kind of form will my property of bestowal have? How will it fill me instead of the property of reception that fills me now?

Therefore, we attain a Kli, the reason, the preparation for the property of bestowal, a place in which it must be clothed. To do this, we must prepare Arvut (Mutual Guarantee), the attitude toward your neighbor in which bestowal is clothed.

This is very practical, and it is up to us to try to bring them into our sensations. If everyone thinks about this, if there is general agreement, general thought, if we are ready to pay attention to this for a long time and not just a few minutes from time to time, then we will be strongly influenced by each other in the best way and we precisely clarify this attitude toward the Creator. This is our only work: to try to more clearly imagine His property and focus on the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/14, Question and Answers with Dr. Laitman

Sukkot: Adhesion With A Single “Embrace”

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 23:33 – 23:36: And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD. On the first day shall be a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work.

Seven days ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto the LORD; on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto the LORD; it is a day of solemn assembly; ye shall do no manner of servile work.

The Sukkot holiday continues for seven days; in each one of them an ascent is carried out to the spiritual levels of Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut.

And on the eighth day a special gathering happens when a person receives filling by the Light of Hassadim (Mercy), the light of love, friendship, happiness, compassion, partnership, and mercy. This is called “embracing from the right side,” as it is said: “His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me” (Song of Songs 8:3).

This means that Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur are “His left hand should be under my head,” and Sukkot is “and his right hand should embrace me.” And on the last day, on the eighth day of the Sukkot holiday, a partial coupling of the male and female parts of the Kli happens.

At this time, the desire of the person transmits illumination through the Upper Light, and so throughout all the days of the festival, the revelation of the greatness of the Light of Hassadim and great adhesion of the male and female parts of the desire to “embrace” one are expected.

So every day of the festival of Sukkot is important, those that are spent in a Sukkah that is specially built under the dome of heaven where a sacred gathering and feast are arranged.

A person who is in a Sukkah for seven days seemingly receives all the corrected OhrotHa Makifim (Surrounding Lights), filling and pushing him toward discovery, connection, and contact with the Creator.

And this happens on the eighth day upon leaving the Sukkah, so the eighth day is called Simcha Torah. Torah is the Light that corrects the person and fills him with happiness.

Comment: It is thought that every evening members of the Ushpizin (guests), visitors, arrive at the Sukkah according to the order: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph, and David.

Answer: All of these visitors symbolize the Lights of correction in seven spiritual levels. They are not historical figures but spiritual states. Each one of the levels possesses a unique character, and only when a person passes through them, meaning that he corrects himself in seven different states, does he become ready for the revelation of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/18/15

The Best Healer

Question: Nine years ago, you suggested that we don’t talk about our states. We have grown gradually, and now we are allowed to speak about them in workshops.

Answer: But I think you will talk only about what is beneficial for the group and not just spill out all of your states. After all, you have to be responsible for the group and raise it, even contrarily to what you feel at that specific time.

You can come to the group and ask your friends to sit with you, “Guys, I feel bad, but I don’t understand why.” The group is like a doctor. It can help you clarify things inside you, It must include you inside it and diagnose you and why you feel bad. There should be no secrets. No one is asking us to share intimate details. We are talking about spiritual details, and we are leaving all the corporeality aside.

When we advance neither the corporeal problems nor the spiritual ones affect our spiritual advancement. In that case, we must discuss them with the friends. We must clarify this so that we can be connected on a spiritual level.

You don’t have to tell others what is deep in your heart. You keep that only for the Creator. But you can discuss certain doubts, problems and descents in the group, and the friends will support you, cheer you up, awaken and raise you.

When the friends feel that you are not in a very good state, they must carry you in their arms like a child, rock you a little, calm you down, give you some pacifier, sit together and talk.

Your states are not yours. You must feel the state that the group is in and whether you are in it with the group. Align in this direction, according to this inclination, and don’t think about anything else. Try to worry about the group and think about it all day long. How are they getting along? Are they holding on to one another? Can I help them in any way? Should I call them? Should I do something? Try to get used to this state of worrying about the group as a mother worries about her children.

This is how you remove all the negative influences from yourself. Why should the Creator send them to you for you to uncover the ego if you are ahead of the ego looking for a way to be more connected to the friends? After all, the ego awakens in us only with regard to greater cooperation and stronger connection with the group, and you are headed toward such a connection and cooperation anyway. So, you never will feel any negative influences. You are looking for it yourself like an old man bent over who dropped something in the street.

Try to cultivate this state among you and you will see how suddenly everything goes smoothly. Turn you head away from all the other problems as much as you can and begin engaging only in this one worry, and 99% of your problems will be solved.
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From the World Zohar Week “Integral Education Convention” Day Three 2/4/14, Workshop 5

The Life Of A Person Who Has A Sixth Sense

Question: How will my life change when I attain a sixth sense? What will I feel?

Answer: The sixth sense is the attribute of bestowal that also is divided into five types of senses. We feel this world through five physical senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, on the other hand, enables us to develop an additional sense that also is divided into sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, but on a spiritual level.

This additional sense enables me to feel the upper reality, a broader scope surrounding our world. Then, I can feel how I mutually participate with the upper force and understand the reason for everything that happens in our world.

I understand why the upper force turns to me or to others, and how I should respond to it properly in order to avoid the negative development of events and even to change things for the better and correct them.

By using the sixth sense, the attribute of bestowal, I discover the root of different phenomena that dress in matter before they reach our world.

Question: Will I become a different person then? How will it affect the life of my children and my nearby environment?

Answer: I can explain that by giving an example from our world. Suppose you are a psychologist, but you are also a mother and have a family and children. You understand people’s behavior and all the calculations and actions they make and the reason for the relationships among the family members.

In that case, you respond to what is happening not like an ordinary woman, but you can explain many things, understand, and justify them. This means that you feel life on a much deeper level.

This is exactly how a Kabbalist feels life, but much more deeply. Besides that, unlike a psychologist who only can explain the reason for what happens, a Kabbalist also actually can change our lives.

A Kabbalist sees the deepest reasons for what happens in our lives that are above time, motion, and place that stem from beyond the framework of our world.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM 8/16/15