“I Have Set Before You Today Life”

Torah, Deuteronomy 30:15 – 30:16: Behold, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil, inasmuch as I command you this day to love the Lord, your God, to walk in His ways, and to observe His commandments, His statutes, and His ordinances, so that you will live and increase, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land to which you are coming to take possession of it.

This sounds like a hymn because these are the only things that are before a person: a blessing or a curse, a path of good or a path of evil. However, in any case, they lead to the same result.

It is just that the path of evil is a very long path of sufferings, wars, big problems, as a result of which a person still begins to realize and understand how to move forward. But this is a terrible path!

There is also a path of good when a person himself creates this system, no matter in which way. Like children who build toy cities and houses, so we too must play with each other in order to build the correct relationship and correct connection between us through artificial connections, as if we love each other and want to get closer to each other.

For this “as if,” the Creator will send us strength, knowledge, and opportunities so that in the connection between us we would reveal Him and be in connection with Him.

Question: Why do you attach such a great importance to a game?

Answer: It is because a game is the basis of life for everyone. Even atoms and molecules play with each other.

A game is the basis of existence because development can happen only if we play in our higher state, in an ascent. “What will I be when I grow up?” Let’s say that now I begin to drive a toy car or play with a toy plane. I am developing while I play in this state. Therefore, the entire life is a game.

Comment: It is much easier at the material level because you see a pilot and say: “I want to be a pilot.”

Answer: And here Kabbalists explain to you what you must play. If we listen to them, we will begin to advance. Therefore, what is our life? A game!

Question: Why is the preparation period so long?

Answer: This is not a preparation period, but a period of awareness, of shaping our desires within us. The fact is that if once it took us thousands of years and then centuries to change from one state to another, now it takes years or maybe even days. And soon it will take hours and even minutes to qualitatively change our states. Time is shortening.

Thus, we come to a completely different state when we are both the performers and the receivers of everything that happens.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/18/17

Dispelling Myths About Kabbalah, Part 4

The Story About Rising on the Steps of Love

Question: What does Torah write about according to the wisdom of Kabbalah? Does it describe the historical events?

Answer: The Torah describes the upper system that governs the entire world, including me. It explains how I can reveal this system and establish the direct, “short” relationship with my Creator.

The Torah gives a person the opportunity of bringing him to the love of the Creator through the love of the neighbor as himself. Love is the deepest and the most inner and intimate connection. Torah brings a person to these relations with all of humanity and with the Creator. This is not only spiritual, but also the complete instruction.

Question: Still, did the events described in Torah actually happen?

Answer: These states occurred within a person who was in the process of attaining the Creator, correcting his properties to such a degree until they would be equal to the properties of the upper force, and climbing the rungs of bestowal and love.

Question: Did people like Moses and Abraham exist?

Answer: Of course, they existed. All spiritual states described in the Torah also were realized in the material branches of this world. Every spiritual root has to touch its material branch and become manifested in it.

Question: Who was the first man, Adam HaRishon, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: A man whose name was Adam lived 5,777 years ago. He is considered the “first man” because he was the first one to reveal the Creator, the upper force, and he wrote a book about it titled Angel Raziel.

He was a person like you and me. After him we are called people, “children of Adam”(Bnei Adam) since all of us came from him.

This is not because he was the first human being in this world after the monkeys. Just like other people, he was born of a mother and father. However, Adam is called the first man because he was the first who revealed the upper system and the upper force existing within it, which governs all of us.

Question: How long has the world existed according to the wisdom of Kabbalah: 5,777 years or 14 billion years?

Answer: Obviously the world has existed for 14 billion years. The Kabbalistic books describe the Big Bang and the evolution of the world. Baal HaSulam writes how the Earth was going through the periods of warming and cooling for the duration of 30 million years. People simply don’t understand what is really described in the Torah, and therefore they get confused.

Even 500 years before Darwin, the great Kabbalist the Ari wrote that a human being developed from a monkey and this development took tens of thousands of years. All evidences obtained from the archeological excavations are true. Kabbalah is a science rather than a blind belief. It is based on Kabbalists’ research of reality. This research gives them the understanding of the world.

Question: Not everything described in the Torah seems to be like real events. For example, I never in my life have encountered a snake who could speak or a sea that could split.

Answer: The Torah does not speak about our world, but rather about the upper world. However, all spiritual roots reach our world and govern it. For example, the original serpent is our egoism, which sits within us and tempts us all the time.

The serpent, Adam, and Eve described in the Torah are the inner, spiritual properties that exist in each of us. The Torah speaks about the inner, spiritual properties within a person. When a person develops himself through the study of Kabbalah, he attains the forces existing within him, that relate to each other like Adam, Eve, the serpent, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is an inner dialog within a person.

Moses and Aaron exist within each of us. Everyone reveals the book of Torah and finds it within himself. The nation of Israel and nations of the world, Nebuchadnezzar, and Maccabees are all different forces of our soul.

Within us there is always a battle between the good and evil forces, which we are created from, as it is said “I created the evil inclination and Torah as addition to it as a remedy for its correction.”

The force of evil is constantly growing within us, manifesting itself with greater strength each day. At the same time, we have to attract the force of good, the Light of Torah that returns us to our source, through the study of Kabbalah. Thus we will constantly balance the growing force of egoism with the good force.
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Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 02.28.16

New Life #706 – Jewish Culture: The Light In The Torah

New Life #706 – Jewish Culture: The Light In The Torah
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Rav Laitman tells his life’s story, about his grandfather, a synagogue in Russia, and his search when he arrived in Israel. The desire to know what is behind the Jewish rituals brought him to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Kabbalah teaches us that there is a special force in nature called the Torah.

The Torah is not a book but the force for the correction of a person’s ego. When we connect, together we can draw the force of the Torah, which will build the love between us and reveal the Creator to us.

In the material world we have different symbols indicating the upper spiritual roots. The Light in the Torah is a force that is in nature like other forces, and we can reveal it in the connection between us. This force is not in a book in the Holy Ark written on parchment. The book is only a symbol of that force. This is the reason that it says: “I would rather they left Me and kept my Torah, since the Light in it reforms.” We have to pay attention to others, which means to want to reach the state of good relations between us, so that we will be as one man with one heart.

The Light gives us the answers to existential questions such as: What are we living for? And why can’t we receive everything?

Everyone understands the Torah according to his own capabilities. Thus Kabbalists don’t see stories in the Torah but the phases of correction. The Light is a natural force that can be identified with the suitable device, and that device is the special connection between us.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #706 – Jewish Culture: The Light In The Torah,” 3/17/16

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The Spiritual Source Closest To Us Is Passover

Question: What is the connection between us through which we left Egypt?

Answer: From Egypt only desires that want to connect leave, meaning only Israel. All the rest of the parts of the desire to receive that don’t feel an attraction to connection die in Egypt, they are the army of Pharaoh.

We work on the connection between us in a group; but we discover that we are not ready to reach it, so “…and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage….” (Exodus 2:23). This means that we cry out to the Creator and ask Him to connect us.

Question: So what is our work? Must we work on prayer?

Answer: The prayer cannot be artificial, for prayer is the work of the heart. At the end of all my efforts, after I have become convinced that nothing depends on me, I break out into prayer.

It is impossible to pray by the clock, this is not called prayer. Prayer must be adjusted to the feeling in the heart. So at this moment you can be in a state of “Yom Kippur” and in a few more hours be in a state of “Passover.” This is not talking about time but about states.

So why is there great significance to the Passover holiday that is marked on the calendar? It is because the Upper Lights that come down to us from the “end of correction,” through all the steps of the ladder, reach our world and even create a small illumination in it. And we want to connect this illumination with all the Upper Lights ofbestowal and love of others, which we yearn to reach, to connect them together to world of Infinity. So also in our world, in the physical branches, we celebrate this state and want to be like it even on the physical level. This is particularly relevant to the Passover holiday.

All the rest of the holidays are very high: Rosh HaShanah (embracing the right) and Sukkot (embracing the left) are great Surrounding Lights. But everything begins with Passover. Therefore it is called the “head” of all the months. The exodus from Egypt is the birth of spirituality, so this spiritual source is the closest to us, found right above our heads. All the rest of the holidays are much higher.

We want to approach this source, meaning to begin to actively connect as much as possible. The symbol of the exodus from Egypt is the first connection between us, and after that we add more and more “meat,” more desires, to that point of connection.

But the first contact is the exodus from Egypt, which is why it is called the “birth” of man—that which we have succeeded in accumulating from the shattered parts through leaping above our ego and the connection between us. This is called a true “miracle.” We receive this opportunity thanks to the influence of the Light; otherwise, it is impossible.

We must seriously prepare for this state because we spend a lot of time together at meals and in lessons with all the groups in the world and try to actively reach a connection. We hope we will succeed in implementing this; we still have time. There is no time in spirituality and we can carry this out very quickly, at least temporarily reaching this state and descending again. And there is also a second “Passover” in another week. Someone who doesn’t succeed in realizing this in the first Passover will get a second opportunity.

Question: What is connecting actively?

Answer: All of our hearts must contact each other in a single point, reaching a point of contact. It is not enough just to want it; rather, we must actively carry this out. The prayer is awakened in a person only at the necessary time that comes as a result of the action in the physical world. If I do something and absolutely suffer from failure, from this point the prayer breaks forth.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/14, The Zohar

Passover Is A Reminder Of The Future

Passover reminds us not only of the past, but also of the future.

From time immemorial, Passover evening has united Jewish families around the holiday table. The feast is spelled out in every detail, yet is foreign to formalism, and its unhurried ceremony revives the exit from Egyptian slavery.

But if we came out of Egypt, then why do we again repeat: “This year we are slaves, next year we will be free?”

Our sources state that behind the known events and ups and downs, there is one more layer of information that is not so much about history but about human relationships. Or rather, it is about the unity and mutual understanding that the Jewish people reached and is so necessary, not only to the Jewish people, but especially today to the whole of humanity.
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Passover – The Level Of The Exodus From Egypt

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 23:4 – 23:8: These are the Lord’s appointed [holy days], holy occasions, which you shall designate in their appointed time: In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, in the afternoon, [you shall sacrifice] the Passover offering to the Lord. And on the fifteenth day of that month is the Festival of Unleavened Cakes to the Lord; you shall eat unleavened cakes for a seven day period. On the first day, there shall be a holy occasion for you; you shall not perform any work of labor. And you shall bring a fire offering to the Lord for a seven day period. On the seventh day, there shall be a holy occasion; you shall not perform any work of labor.

Question: Why is it forbidden to work on the first and last days of Passover?

Answer: It is because we distinguish between two states in the spiritual work: awakening from below and awakening from Above.

During the awakening from below we evoke the cooperation between the Light and the vessel by our yearning. The Light corrects the vessel and gives it the right intention. During the awakening from Above, this work is fulfilled from Above but only because we have created all the right conditions for it in advance.

We make efforts, thus creating the right conditions for the first and last days of the holiday since the week of Passover has to be closed at its ends by states in which we don’t do anything since the upper Light does all the work. The first day of the holiday is the beginning of the exodus from Egypt. The last day is the end of the exodus that seals it.

It is important to say that the nations of the world have different calendars. The Christian calendar is based on the movement of the sun. The Muslim calendar is based on the movement of the moon. While the Jewish calendar takes the movement of the sun, the moon, and the earth into account since the earth is the central object between the sun and the moon.

On the one hand, we take the year into account, which means the revolution of the earth around the sun, and on the other hand, we take the month into account, the revolution of the moon around the earth, and compare the two. Thus the Jewish calendar doesn’t change and so, for example, we can calculate in advance which day of the week will be the first day of Passover in another 35 years.

What is more, based on the comparison between the movement of the sun, the earth, and the moon, we can say that Passover cannot be on certain days of the month. This means that everything is accurately related to the general astrological system.

Question: The Torah refers to holy assemblies several times. Why do we have to gather in Passover?

Answer: Holy assemblies during Passover are the most important thing for the Israeli nation since it is actually thanks to their desire to unite that they need to come out of Egypt.

A person’s union with a group of people, with the society, with the nation, or with the whole world is actually different levels of the exodus from Egypt (from the ego). When we attain the force of unity, a certain tension, this exodus, the detachment from the ego, takes place.

It is always among us, separating us and making us feel repulsed by one another. If we begin to compress and condense it, try to unite and connect to one another, then the exit from the ego begins the moment we first attain unity.

On the first day of Passover (the exodus from Egypt) we begin to tighten this connection. Then we work on it during the week and totally unite on the last day of the exodus from Egypt. From that moment on we are a united nation.

But in the meantime, people don’t understand what they should do, although there is a direction that spurs the desire to escape from the ego. But it is merely an animalistic instinct without the proper awareness. People will acquire the recognition when they gather at the foot of Mount Sinai.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/28/14

Build A “Tent of Revelation” In Yourself

Kabbalists talk about the spiritual world with words of this world, which causes us to be very confused. We read in the Torah about building the “Tent of Revelation,” (Tabernacle) and our mind grasps this as a physical activity.

The Kabbalists say that we can ultimately discover spirituality if we read these books by trying with all our might to descend into the depths of the words and clarifying what is truly concealed behind every word.

Question: So Moses is not an old man with white hair, a long beard, and a staff?

Answer: Certainly not! Moses is a characteristic. We are not talking about people or objects, but only about characteristics. Not an evil person but evil, not a stingy person but stinginess. The spiritual world is characteristics in their purest form.

So when reading the weekly portion, I must imagine a spiritual state, the upper world. If it is written that it is necessary to build the “Tent of Revelation,” so I must clarify, what is this spiritual tool in which the Creator is revealed? What characteristics in me must match what must be within it: The “Ark of the Covenant” with the Cherubs, Cohanim (priests), and Levites, with the people of Israel standing around it?

I begin to search for these characteristics only within me; everything happens within a person. The whole world is inside of me, as it is said: “And a person is a small world.” Even this entire world that I now see around me is actually found within me.

We must always try to represent this correctly, and ultimately an inner transformation will occur when I will begin to feel that it is truly found inside of me. Then I will understand how to build the “Tent of the Testimony” and what the work of the Cohanim, the Levites and the people of Israel that are around them are, and how my twelve tribes of Israel move forward in the wilderness.

I must build all the details that are mentioned in the Torah from my characteristics and desires. Before me lies the heap of my desires, and I must take them, sort all the forces and characteristics and clarify how to connect them to build the same form the Torah talks about.
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From KabTV’s “The Torah Chapters with Shmuel Vilozni” 12/15/14

In The Service Of The Creator

The Torah, “Leviticus” 1:1 – 1:2: And He called to Moses, and the Lord spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying, 

Speak to the children of Israel, and say unto them: When a man from [among] you brings a sacrifice to the Lord; from animals, from cattle or from the flock you shall bring your sacrifice.

We need to supply all the desires (still, vegetative, animate, and speaking) for the benefit of the society in a completely altruistic way, without any bestowal to ourselves, directing all our goals and thoughts to concern for others, in the same way that a mother thinks only about the welfare of her child.

If a person can direct himself in such a way, then he partially transfers his desire from the side of receiving to the side of bestowing. However, this is very lengthly work in a society, in a group, with the studying of the system that attracts the Light of correction.

Let’s suppose that I have desires within me with which I previously had tried to receive self-benefit by taking advantage of others, and now with these desires I am working with a certain system where the Light bestows on me and changes these desires from being receiving (egoistic) to being for the benefit of bestowing (altruistic). However, this isn’t the altruism of our world, even though that’s what we call it because we don’t have other words.

Actually, it is absolute bestowal and love toward others without any benefit for self. When a person begins to work on this level, then he “sacrifices,” which means he detaches parts from his egoistic desire and transfers them to the altruistic service of others.

Desires of all the levels participate in this: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. In addition, the levels of still, vegetative, and animate serve man, as in our world, and those of the speaking level (man) serve the Creator. Within man are all the desires of still, vegetative, and animate, and he raises them in his work to complete bestowing and love, without Egypt and not in order to receive a reward.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/13/13

Tuning In To The Creator

Question: Sometimes we say that the Creator is inside us, other times we say that He is in the connection among us. How can we link these two notions?

Answer: There is no dilemma here. How can the Creator be found? How do we regard and evaluate ourselves? What makes us consider ourselves good or bad, strong or weak? For that, we need an external measurement tool, a standard against we can measure ourselves.

In order to be able to measure ourselves, we should see the properties of those around us and compare our qualities with theirs. To direct ourselves correctly, we have to maintain numerous liaisons: remote and close, hateful and benevolent. We should deal with opponents and well-wishers, that is, all of humanity.

One target is insufficient to reach the goal. It is essential to tune oneself into connection with the Creator. For that, we need to involve all of the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels of nature. If we manage to set our minds correctly and if our behavior is absolutely right and positive, we’ll definitely attain the Creator.

All these properties are inside us. It is possible to attain the Creator only by relating to all four levels of nature positively since the Creator is the sum of kindness, love, andbestowal.

Question: When you talk about positive self-orientation, I instantly imagine the vastness of humanity, nature, stones, skies, and the entire cosmos. Is this a feasible task?

Answer: Reaching a correct mindset is very easy. You have to convince all your internal properties, the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking, that all that surrounds you is saturated with mutual love and is the best possible way of existence. If you succeed, if you manage to correct the properties that seem external to you, you will attain the desired state.

Question: Does it mean that I should work with things or people that are hostile to me?

Answer: Your enemy most clearly demonstrate to you your own imperfections and negative properties. It is called a help against you. With their help, we advance.

Question: It is said in the Torah: If someone comes to kill you, kill him first. How should we relate to this?

Answer: As soon as one finds a quality that one is unable to overcome, no matter how hard one tries to deal with it with love, understanding, and a sense of unity and yet fails to correct it, one must kill it. This is a correction. We kill our own property that is impossible to improve when it rises against us.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/08/14

If Young People Only Knew…

Question: The sons of the great priest Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, died because they skipped the level they had to go through. These are the kind of mistakes that happen all the time.

Answer: A person wants to sacrifice himself; he yearns unknowingly and without understanding that the spiritual action he performs is beyond his powers.

But this action is necessary so he can see the limits of his powers, so that his yearning forward will die, which means shatter; it disappears due to the unprepared form he made. But later he will be able to perform it as a result of many small actions.

Try to jump three meters high! The sons of Aaron wanted to take this level of in order to bestow for the sake of the Creator, for the sake of the whole nation, but it was beyond human powers, beyond the level they were on. Therefore, eventually the attribute of judgment was revealed, the rigidity, fire that can be both good and bad. In this case it swallowed them.

Question: But they did it with the right intention.

Answer: Their intentions were not justified. How can you go on such a mission if you don’t have the Creator’s clear support? All your attributes, all your actions of bestowal, stem only from the power you receive from Above.

You are nothing but a small egoist. Some new egoistic attributes are revealed in you, while you have to receive altruistic attributes, to connect them and to reveal the middle line on which you should work. This is called sanctifying a property, the attribute of bestowal, when you attract your ego, correct it by the altruistic attribute of the Light, and keep on advancing.

But if you don’t do that you have no right to use only the left line, no way!!

This is especially true on the level of the sons, since this is a small level. But Nadav and Avihu took the great egoistic potential that was revealed, which wasn’t prepared for them at all. It is like a youth who takes upon himself what even an adult cannot do since the adult understands that it isn’t in his power to do, while the youth thinks that he will be able to perform the mission he is given. But things aren’t that simple.

A the saying goes: “If youth knew; if old age could.” Therefore, old people realize that they cannot do something and don’t do it, while the foolish youth think that they can handle a task and gets so fired  up that he gets burnt.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/15/13

A Woman Is A Cup Of Blessing

A woman is a symbol of the desire. The desire should be raised in the spiritual work to the level where it is purified of all its egoistic mixtures.

As it states in Zohar La’am, “Leviticus,” “Amor,” item 38: Moses said: “It is a Mitzva (commandment) that the great priest should marry a virgin.” As it says: “he should not take a widow, a divorcee, a desecrated or a prostitute, but he should take a virgin for a wife.” Why should he take only a flawless virgin? It is because a woman is a cup of blessing, “if it has been tasted it has been flawed.” This refers to Malchut that is called a cup of blessing. The great priest who sacrifices the offering before the Lord should be whole and flawless in all his parts, since the defects disqualify the priests. Whole in his body, whole in his Nukva, so that he can keep the saying: “you are completely beautiful my wife and flawless.”

Therefore the names “widow,” “divorcee,” “desecrated,” prostitute.” and “married” all mean that the desire is not yet completely pure and free of the ego. It is only after the total purification that it becomes worthy of the level on which the priest works.This level is called a virgin.To become a virgin means to ascend to the level that isn’t corrupted by the egoistic inclination.Then it can be used as the Nukva by the priest since it is free of any egoistic parts and inclusions and thus he can marry her. This means that with the help of such a desire, he can now receive the Upper Light to perform the Zivug de Haka’a and then give birth to the next level.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/14/14

Who Will The People Follow?

The Midrash “BeShalach”: Moses began to pray, and the Creator opened the heavens. The enlightenment came down upon the nation of Israel, and they saw an army of angels by their side. Moses continued to pray, but the Creator said to him, “This is not the time for prolonged prayers. My children are experiencing a critical moment. You don’t have to turn your voice to Me since the prayers of my sons come before yours, and I hear them. Tell them to go into the sea, and I will perform miracles for them!”

Comment: The matter is that, if you want to invite the upper bestowal, you must request it from your level, and only after that will the Creator begin to act.

Answer: In the beginning, it needs to be an awakening from below, and then, according to this, will come the awakening from above.

But the people are led and instructed by spiritual leaders that show it the correct way. Without them we wouldn’t know what to do so we need to listen to the spiritual teachers and carry out whatever we are told.

Today leaders and politicians are completely dependent on the people. If the people so desire, then they would do anything they want with the people. Thus, the main thing for the leaders of today is not to give the people this opportunity. They try through all means to suppress the desire that awakens in them, to block and quiet their ambitions.

However, very slowly, the wise ones will replace the politicians; the time of the revival of the Sanhedrin when the wise ones will decide together and, from within their unity, will come one, complete whole.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/30/14

“Health To All Their Flesh….”

Question: They say that there are unique powers in the letters of theTorah. One of the powers that are connected with the letters is the power of healing. How do they heal?

From what I understand, all of these letters, together, form the lines of a code that manages me (and every person) at every moment and determine everything that happens to me, but in this code there are intervals. If I am sufficiently developed and wise, then will I be able to write these intervals myself and then change the course of the process?

Answer: In the Torah, it is written, “For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh” (Proverbs 4:22). These letters, themselves, are forces, but this is not talking about letters that you write on paper. With every letter that you perceive, you are changed. You must change according to each letter to allow these letters to be embedded into you.

Our entire problem is that we are in an egoistic state, always wanting to receive for ourselves. This is the opposite of the material into which the Torah can embed itself. It can be embedded only in material that is entirely bestowal and love, which is the opposite of our ego.

Every letter is a symbol, a form or a manner through which I provide the best to others. Both the form of the letters and their combinations indicate how we can take the material, the desire to receive, and make from it a desire to bestow. We work with the desire to receive in the form of a desire to bestow, and then the letters are created from the desire to receive.

It is said that you had a formless heap of the desire to receive like a mountain of sand, and now, by adding water and cement to this sand, you make a solid mass out of this mountain, and from that, you already can make the form of the letters.

However, what does every letter symbolize? In this form, your formerly egoistic desire now wants to bestow to others, to give something to them, to help in some way, to arrange something, and it is the same thing even for the Creator, for the general program, so that it will be realized and will be good for everyone. This is what you make out of your natural substance.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/21/14

War With Pharaoh

The Midrash “BeShalach”: Why didn’t the Jews continue their journey? Why did they camp in Pithom even though this decision involved additional risk for them? The answer lies in the fact that they were stuck because there was a sea in front of them; nor could they run to the desert, since wild beasts were waiting for them there.

But the people of Egypt did not agree with the Pharaoh’s plan: Recent losses were still too fresh in their memory. Therefore, Pharaoh used every means of persuasion and various tricks to force the Egyptians to agree. “Know! he told them. Even though according to the royal tradition in order to protect myself I should be riding in the rear of my army, in this battle I’ll be at the head!”

“Why are you going to behave so unusually?” they asked the Pharaoh. “Because this war is not against the Jews, said the Pharaoh. It is against their very G-d! So I’ll be at the head of the battle!”

This extract is about a very serious degree of detachment in those who are engaged in the Torah religiously, but study it for their own sake, i.e., for the sake of the Pharaoh.

The Pharaoh is not against the Creator since both of them help identify each other. This explains why the Pharaoh says: “Blessed is the Creator! I am a sinner…” There are many interesting developmental stages that oppose this state, but the major thing for Pharaoh is preventing a human being from engaging in altruistic actions and detaching from selfish fulfillment.

Regular egoistic inducements that are originally built in us do not count since they are given to us by nature. They are not considered “Egypt.” Only the actions that one does for one’s own sake and that are mentioned in the Torah, in the Pentateuch, are considered to be of importance.

This explains why, when exiting Egypt (rising from one’s egoistic intention), actions are annulled and Egyptians die as a result of the ten Egyptian plagues. The desires and people who follow the instructions of the Torah for their own sake remain under the power of the Pharaoh because they aspire to this kind of power. They are seriously engaged in the Torah and all earthly commandments for the sake of their own fulfillment and hold on to them very strongly. They are the ones who stay in Egypt and chase those who really want to run away from it.

The Pharaoh says: “I’ll be at the head of my army,” i.e., this is the moment when their oppositeness manifests itself: either for one’s own sake (Lo Lishma) or for the sake of the Creator (Lishma). “For one’s own sake” means for Pharaoh, “for the sake of the Creator” signifies those who exit from Egypt. At this point, a struggle between them begins.

Usually, Pharaoh follows his army. It means that all egoistic actions “feed and nourish him.” When his confrontation with the Creator starts, he heads the army since the most important thing at this time is ideology: whether you do it for your own sake or you do it being completely detached from yourself, i.e., for the sake of the Creator. That’s why the Pharaoh considers it a sacred war that is directed “against their very G-d!”

Right after that, Egypt starts withering since Pharaoh nourishes himself from the source other than Egyptians, from those who aspire to being with the Creator but so far are not there yet. This is why anti-Semitism emerges; however, this kind of “fuel” is absolutely essential.

Pharaoh gets stronger with the help of the desires that “are afraid of the Creator but work for the Pharaoh,” i.e., that follow everything that is commanded, however, they are doing so for their own sake. When they tend to change the intention and start working for the sake of the Creator, Pharaoh immediately feels that this might be his end and starts a war with their G-d.

At this point, our egoism faces a huge problem: What if the Creator wins? The mere fact that there are people who exited Egypt and then returned irritates Pharaoh since our egoism is afraid that the intention for the sake of bestowal might win. Egoism doesn’t have any other way but to reveal itself and try to survive, otherwise Pharaoh stops being the Pharaoh. It won’t be an intention for “one’s own sake” any longer.

Comment: They return and frustrate the Pharaoh.

Answer: They don’t return to Egypt, though! It’s a different level even though they have already reached the cities of Pithom and Ramses that were built for Pharaoh. At some point, they worked “for his sake”; however, now they return to the same level, but with an intention “for the sake of the Creator.” This is why the Pharaoh (our egoism) is not able to accept the fact that people return liberated and attack the Pharaoh’s “jurisdiction,” i.e., their own egoism.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/23/14

The Soul’s Designer

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 20:13: And a man who lies with a male as one would with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon themselves. 

A person kills himself while using the desire, the male part incorrectly, when the one who bestows becomes the one who receives.

This refers to a desire that can be used in order to bestow but is used in order to receive. We don’t simply create the wrong contact between the male and female parts of the desire, but actually lower its level.

With regard to that it is said, “They shall surely be put to death.” Such contacts put themselves to death.

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 20:14: And a man who takes a woman and her mother it is evil counsel. They shall burn him and them in fire, and there shall be no evil counsel in your midst. It is about a short circuit, a wrong connection between the upper and the lower levels. This is impossible.

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 20:15: And a man who lies with an animal, shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal. The animate level of the desire isn’t ready to be used in order to bestow. The desire descends by one level and begins to grow again from the level of the vegetative to the animate level and then to the level of the speaking.

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 20:16: And a woman who comes close to any animal so that it will mate with her, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon themselves. The Torah speaks only about how a person can sort out the desires inside him, compare them correctly and create the right network by using them.

There are, for example, many neurons in our brain, which have to connect into synapses (connections) upon which everything depends. If these connections are correct, a person is normal, but if the contact between the neurons is wrong and there are, for example, 500,000 neurons instead of a million, a child is born underdeveloped.

Therefore, the Torah tells us how to create the exact form of the right system inside us, since it was given to us when it is totally ruined. But when you put it together, you begin to realize its inner principle which is impossible to attain any other way. You are like a small child who begins to grow wise by playing with different toys as he understands how they are made. Here too, we are given the right instructions so that we will understand the design of the Creator. It is only by this kind of work that we get to know and attain Him.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/23/14

Adultery In Spirituality

The Torah, “Leviticus,” 20:10: And a man who commits adultery with [another] man’s wife, committing adultery with the wife of his fellow the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. All desires exist in a person and are divided into male and female parts. The first nine Sefirot are the male part. The tenth Sefira Malchut is the female part.

To commit adultery with a married woman means using a corrected desire that is not yours. If your tenth Sefira is not corrected, it isn’t your woman since it still belongs to the other nine Sefirot. You cannot use it correctly in order to bestow and will not succeed in doing so.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/23/14

The Torah Is A Program And A Guide

A Book as a Means for Discovery

Question: Where does the Torah come from? Some think that it was emanated from above to Moses.

Answer: This is not even an idea, but its complete absence. 

Comment: Others suppose that Moses wrote the Torah himself.

Answer: First of all, Moses didn’t write it himself. There were people, his students, who wrote the Torah throughout the forty years of wandering in the wilderness. There is nothing here that goes beyond the limits of the ordinary world that we know, that is, except for one addition: the discovery of the upper force that surrounds and envelops this world and manages all of nature.

When we say that the Torah was given, that it was transmitted to the people of Israel, this is talking about attainment. There was no hand that transmitted something from above. The upper force is specifically a force, not a heavenly printing house that tossed scrolls to Moses. Is it possible to imagine something like that?

No, the Torah was written in the usual way. You cannot touch the upper force, just like the other forces in our world, with your hands,  and it is not grasped through a parchment or paper delivery. People attained it. Under its influence, they became aware of its mission, its purpose, and, over time, they became the people of the Book.

In this case, the Book is a discovery, a primary source through whose help we discover its author: Who He is, why He wrote, what He wants from us, and do we identify with Him or not?  If I am living in this world without seeing and knowing anything else, then for me, this book, this Torah, is something that was given to us as a higher, primary source through which we can attain the upper force. We have no connection with that except through the Torah.

Guidance for all Generations

It is necessary to understand that the Torah is not parchment scrolls or printed pages. Rather, as it is said, it is a program that must be implemented through the children of Israel, and it is implemented by them from generation to generation.

Accordingly, in every generation, if a person discovers this book for himself, that is, if he connects with it and is included in it in that he wants to discover the Creator through it, he sees that it is not just a historical story, but a history that is actually happening now. This is because, spiritually, the Torah is not limited by time. Through this history, a person can become aware of the upper force, and then the book becomes a source of revelation for him. Its true meaning is in this.

Thousands of years ago people discovered it for the first time, and since then this book has been with us in the form of the written Torah. Through that initial discovery and its written description, by maintaining the conditions that were transmitted together with the book, every generation can draw upon its message: What must one be in order to discover what is written in it?

A Book that Changes Us

Question: How would you characterize the Torah? In general, what kind of book is this?

Answer: Throughout the years of studying in school, we study particular books until we become mature, knowledgeable, and developed to a certain degree.

It is the same thing with the Torah. I must pass through all of those forms that its study creates within me. The preparation for learning and the learning itself, meaning, the correct use of the Torah, leads to this. I am constantly changing, developing, and passing through the stages described in it.

At the end of the way I attain my final individual correction. I become completely like that force that is showing me this entire “movie” of creation.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/04/15

Spies Are Thoughts And Desires

Question: The oral Torah says that Pharaoh sends his spies to theIsraeli people. What is the meant by “spies”?

Answer: Spies refers to all the thoughts and desires that awaken in a person during his spiritual work that remind him of his previous life: the daily joys, the worries about his self-benefit, and his participation in different activities in the corporeal world. The daily routine suddenly becomes desirable and seems sweet, attractive, warm and safe.

Question: It says that the Israeli people managed to resist the pressure of the spies, killed some of them and sent the others back. What is the internal meaning of the dead spies?

Answer: We should kill all the egoistic intentions, desires, and thoughts that appear inside us, which means to cut off the connection with them and throw them out of my head, and then they die. The more you think about something, the more you are nourished by the energy of that object and the more it holds on to you.

What is more, you don’t even need to hate it, since by that you also nourish it by delighting in the hatred. When two people hate one another, for example, they feel an inner elation, a feeling of struggle, a feeling of life. But when you cut off your hatred towards someone, you cease to feel it, and thus you block it.

Therefore, when you accurately focus yourself on the goal, you kill all your corporeal desires and thoughts that constantly accompany you and try to lead you off the spiritual path.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/23/14