Shame As An Engine For Spiritual Advancement

Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 7:One who eats and enjoys the labor of one’s friend is afraid to look at his face because by doing so he becomes increasingly humiliated until he loses his human form. And because that which extends from His wholeness cannot be deficient, He gave us room to earn our exaltedness by ourselves, through our work in Torah and Mitzvot.

The creation is opposite from the Creator in its internal attribute, in the egoist desire of “I shall rule.” The only thing that can stand opposite it is the shame that stems from the defect in your own “self.”

In fact, these two discernments merge into one, and it is quite sufficient in order to bring the created being to correction. This is because a person is ready to do anything so that he won’t have to feel the defect of shame in his desire to receive. We can stand shame only if it is possible to cover the desire to receive so that it won’t actually be hurt. Even if the desire to receive may be hurt on the first levels, we cannot accept it on the fourth level, since then it will immediately force a person to put an end to the current state and to stop the feeling of shame immediately in every way he can.

Usually we compensate for the defects by learning from our environment. The whole system is built that way, so that in the opposite three lines we will somehow cope with the shame. But in fact, it is a great feeling that was prepared for high souls.

Question: How is shame related to adhesion, which we have to attain?

Answer: Shame and adhesion, fears and anxieties, whatever you want, are all components of adhesions. In adhesion each of them participates fully in the highest, most open way.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

You Left, Me Right?

Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 5:We must first understand why the Torah was given specifically to the Israeli nation and not to all the peoples of the world equally. Is there, God forbid, nationalism involved here? Of course, only an insane person would think that. In fact, our sages have examined this question, and this is what they meant by their words (Avoda Zarah 2): “God gave it to every nation and tongue and they did not accept it.”

But what they find bewildering is why, then, were we called “the chosen people,” as it is written: “The Lord thy God has chosen thee” (Deuteronomy 7:6), since there was no other nation that wanted it? Moreover, there is a fundamental question in the matter: Can it be that the Creator came with His law in His hands to negotiate with those savage peoples? Such a thing has never been heard of and is completely unacceptable.

The upper Light brought the Babylonians the feeling of the shattering, the feeling of destruction, the feeling of a crisis, when everything fell apart before their very eyes. People felt hatred and an inability to sustain themselves.

So what did they do? The same thing that we do when a family cannot live together anymore, the parents separate and get divorced.

In fact it was a very clever solution, and they did the right thing: “Why should we torture one another? Let’s separate, you go to one side and I will go to the other.” This is also what Abraham said to Lot: “You go to the right and I will go to the left, or you can go to the left and I will go to the right. You choose which way you want to go. We shouldn’t go the same way, why should we fight?”

This is how the crisis in ancient Babel was solved. It raised the collective question: “What should we do?” And as an answer, some began to think about the purpose of life and about what to do with this life; how to raise it to a higher level, while others pursued their self-benefit in order to simply manage in life.

Of course, the crisis brings along troubles. Here there should be an external awakening, some pressure that makes a person feel bad. The new phase doesn’t just arrive, but is accompanied by some blow by fate. The masses encounter massive disasters, which leave them on the same level but with the question: “How do we get along? Perhaps we should create new situations? Revolutions for example? Or perhaps some element of bestowal, an internal or an external one?” The other, small part is evoked by being drawn from Above. So the Creator turns to everyone, but only a few who connect wake up and they are called the “nation of Israel.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

What Will Wake Me Up?

Sometimes a person is in such a state that he doesn’t want anything. Nothing attracts him: not unity with the friends, not understanding the Kabbalistic texts, no feeling, and no connection to someone important. He doesn’t think about the inner goals that should be fulfilled during the day in the group and at work. It is as if he is “dead.” It isn’t that he feels that he is “dead,” but that he doesn’t feel himself at all, he is asleep.

What can a person ask for in such a case? He can ask for two things:

• To be a little closer to the group, so that the “currents” that flow through the friends will flow through him too, and will thus shake him and wake him up.
• A basic desire to place himself under the Light so that it will impress him and revive him.

If he has no clear demand that comes from his deficiencies or his impressions, he needs these two factors: One of them operates from the side of the vessel and the other is operated from the side of the Light.

First I want to belong to the friends so that everything that flows thorough them will flow through me. The main thing here is to be involved in “spiritual matters.” I come, sit down, and listen to what is going on; I just listen on the spiritual level, by opening all my spiritual “openings” to the currents that flow in the group.

Second, I allow the Light to operate on me, to go thorough me by filling me and by bringing me back to life
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/23/12, The Zohar

We Only Need To Ask Correctly

Everything is arranged such that the upper force, the good and the benevolent, is Above in the hands of the Creator. In order to reach this force and to identify with it, a person has to be adapted to it, to adhere to it, and to just discover a desire for that. His corrections and his ascent totally depend on the upper force.

It turns out that there is a negative force below and a positive force above, and a person is in between so that he will be able to determine by himself whether he wants to join the force of receiving or the force of bestowal.

When he sets himself apart from these two forces and begins to determine his state, it means that he is connected to the “human” point in him. All our work is to clarify what the states we constantly fall into mean. The upper force determines all these feelings within our ego, our desires, and our attributes so that we will see how opposite we are from the upper nature that we want to resemble and attain.

Accordingly, we will be able to determine what to ask for. In fact, nothing is required of us but the request, and it is the sum of all our exertion.

Therefore it says: “I have labored and found!” I exert myself in order to check and to clarify my current attributes, which I received as a preparation from Above as a result of the shattering. I have to compare these attributes to the Creator’s attributes, but how do I know who the Creator is?

I have to yearn for bestowal in the group and constantly feel the greatness of the goal. When an opposite force is revealed in me, I will be able to compare the two forces. I don’t compare myself with others, but constantly raise the right line and then the left line is evoked in me. Between these two lines I clarify my deficiency by yearning to resemble the right line together with my left line.

Thus I perform the “holy work” in my correction and do everything in my power to finally discover how opposite I am from holiness and purity. This brings me to a prayer.

Everything is first attained only by the power of prayer, which is the end result of all our efforts. If I discover the right deficiency inside me, I am rewarded with bestowal by the Light, with correction and then with a filling, which means with adhesion to the Creator.

A person attains the implementation of the work in this very special way: From the absolute opposite from the Creator, he adheres to the Creator. We should understand that there is no higher state in our work than the feeling of deficiency, a prayer, if this deficiency is real. This is how the sum, the conclusion, of all our exertion is revealed.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/23/12

The Heart Cannot Abide Without Love

The heart is at the center of everything. It’s not an accident that we associate human desires and passions with the heart. We say, “from the bottom of my heart,” or “my heart is bleeding,” or “my heart is melting with joy,” or “follow your heart.” The heart can be “kind,” “tender,” “sinking,” “broken,” etc. In general, the heart signifies the essence of life, both in the material and spiritual senses. Of course, we use this word symbolically. The heart per se is a bodily organ; it can be implanted and/or replaced even by a man-made device. Essentially, the heart is a “pump.”

However, it’s hard to overestimate the significance of this organ since it denotes the main action of nature, the act of receiving and giving. The heart “collects” blood from the entire body and then delivers it to all other organs by applying pressure; thus, it provides nourishment to all body parts and cleans them of toxins.

By all means, the heart doesn’t work on its own. It simply cannot pump blood through the entire body without blood vessels that interact with the heart by pushing the blood further to every single cell of the organism. The heart works not because it’s so strong, but rather it sets the rhythm and instigates the original impulse in the body. Then, multiple mechanisms of the blood system (which are not yet explored well enough by contemporary science) begin working together with the heart. Hence, the heart is not only a bodily “pump,” it also coordinates other systems.

There are multiple problems associated with the heart’s work, since “receiving and giving” have to be well-balanced. The health of the entire body depends on the harmony between these two states, which makes it possible to evaluate both physical and spiritual (internal) constituents of a person. If a system of receiving and bestowal is well-balanced (similarly to how it is attuned in the heart), then one harmoniously interacts with others and maintains correct relationships with one’s surroundings. We receive and give (in the same way as the heart), thus providing healthy collaboration with other people.

In other words, at the interpersonal level, we all are connected with each other through our “hearts,” meaning through our qualities. Ideally, we have to use our qualities to pursue one purpose, which is to maintain harmonious relationships with others, meaning giving and receiving all that is needed.

At the same time, the heart per se doesn’t need anything except minimal energy to provide normal work. It doesn’t consume blood that flows through it, nor does it receive anything specific; it simply functions. The “pleasure” it receives (if we can use this word in this context) is the fact that it serves the entire body and pours energy into it.

This is a good example of mental/spiritual health with behavior in accordance with the principles: “Don’t do to others what you hate for yourself” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” One has to regard the needs of his surroundings as his own and provide others with everything that is in his power to satisfy all of their external necessities. This is exactly how the heart functions.

Current research states that we are closely interconnected in many different ways, not excluding the unity of our souls. So, we can say that the systems we belong to have reciprocal influences upon each other. As a result, when we have a nervous breakdown or low spirits, they by all means reflect upon our heart. Our heart is very sensitive to our spirits; the heart can get “sick” not only as a result of some physical disease. It’s not an accident that when we get into a critical situation we put our hand on our hearts, since our nervous system instantaneously affects the heart and forces it to respond.

Our understanding of what’s going on in the higher systems of egoistic relationships among us starts from here. So far, we are using our “hearts” solely for mercenary receiving that has no sign of giving whatsoever, meaning that we use the heart in a completely wrong way, whereas all it needs is harmony. Besides that, we influence our physical heart from the level of our desires and corrupt relationships.

Until now, we were not involved in integral connections of the global community; this explains why the impact of these mechanisms remained so weak. However, in the middle of the last century, a close connection among all of us emerged; nevertheless, we still continue acting selfishly instead of cultivating our relations. As a result, wrong egoistic interactions impact our physical hearts. There’s nothing strange about the intensification of cardiac problems that has turned out to be one of the most dangerous health issues nowadays.

It’s not hard to cure the heart, since it’s not a really complex organ. Although, all we do at this time is “mend” it by using various symptomatic remedies, and in the meantime, statistics continue to show dismal trends. It happens because we haven’t started to correct the relationships between us. Only by building the right mechanism of receiving and giving at the human level, the highest level, only through “pumping” the system with correct and equal relationships that convey harmony and peace can we alter our bodily systems, first and foremost, our cardio-vascular system.

It’s worth mentioning that the configuration of our heart, its mitral valves, mode of operation, and related systems, are in line with our spiritual structure. However, we don’t take into account the wholeness of our organism, but rather treat visible symptoms and not the real cause of the disease.

Even doctors agree that “everything comes from the head,” and the “head of everything” is our relationships, thoughts and desires. In spirituality, the “heart” is the core of our desires so much stems from the spiritual qualities of a person.

In fact, the only cure for the heart is love. It is said, “Love covers all crimes.” In other words, if one’s heart works solely for bestowal and strives to satisfy external needs, it means that “one works with love,” either to one’s body or to one’s neighbors. No doubt that this kind of work, by all means, should result in a complete cure. So, instead of “heart research institutes,” I would open “institutes of love.” It will be the best preventive method ever.
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From a “Talk About the New Life” 10/10/12

If We Finally Want To Be Born

There is a clear plan that we have to fulfill step by step. But we don’t actually hurry or do that since it is hard and unpleasant. It is much more pleasant to think that we are seemingly advancing and that everything is fine. We suffer a little since we don’t advance fast enough and that we receive too little fulfillment, but we cannot call this a state of spiritual birth yet.

We must realize that if we want to finally be born, we have to account for the fact that the state of the global group and the state of every individual is very tense, difficult and dangerous.

We can say the same thing about the people of Israel in the land of Israel, as Baal HaSulam warns us. He calls the people to connect in order to avoid suffering, and this really helps going through complicated and difficult situations more easily. It is like a birth taking place in a modern hospital, compared to a birth 100-500 years ago when many births ended with the death of the baby and of the mother too. Then a birth was a very dangerous experience, despite the fact that people were different and much closer to nature and there weren’t as many disruptions as today.

The more we sweeten this transition for people, no matter how much we work with them, they will still have to go through the difficult states in order to approach their spiritual birth. They will have to go through great pressures. With the help of Ahmadinejad, Obama, and other enemies who are generally called “Pharaoh,” we will advance.

But our group has to be like Moses with regard to the people, by explaining to them what is happening and why and what should be done about the situation. We have to explain to people that the blows don’t strike the attribute of Israel in us but the Pharaoh that is concealed in us. The blows hit the Egypt in us, Pharaoh, while Israel in us continues to live comfortably in the land of Goshen, lacking nothing.

The main thing is to understand that we will have to go through a very tight spot, a very dangerous and unpleasant state during our birth. Both the people of Israel and the whole world will have to go through it. Everyone will have to see themselves in a very dangerous situation, practically between life and death. It is impossible to be born without this! Without such pressure a person cannot detach himself from his ego and be born from one world into another.

Everyone will have to go through this critical point now; everyone is approaching it. It is as if we are advancing in a tube that is becoming narrower until it finally becomes a point. You have to go through this point so that your ego will remain here on this side. To the extent that you can connect with others, that you are ready to go in this direction, you penetrate through this tiny hole with your spark into the spiritual world.

We have to relate to this difficult state as to the most beautiful and desirable state. Here the influence of the environment is very important so that it will explain to each of us and to the whole world that “there is none else besides Him” and that all of providence comes from one source. So we have to see how the enemies of Israel like Ahmadinejad and Obama actually help us. It is like the saying that “Pharaoh brought the children of Israel closer to our Father in Heaven.” But this is only if we are the people of Israel and not Egypt. Then we begin to understand the process and to actively participate in it as we see that all the means to work with are before us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

All The Roads Back Are Blocked

Question: How can we get over the state of heaviness and fatigue that we find ourselves in lately which makes us fall asleep during the lessons? How can we wake up together and get out f this state as one global group by supporting one another?

Answer: This is the point of the exodus from Egypt, about which we have spoken so much, the point of the receiving of the Torah, the turning point, the birth. We know that a birth is accompanied by labor pains and that it is a dangerous state. At the moment of birth itself we feel the snake’s bite, the discovery of the heart of stone, because there is no other way we can be born.

The exodus from Egypt is called a “spiritual birth.” During that time the evil inclination has to be revealed and these are very dangerous states that keep us under great pressure, since otherwise we will not agree to escape from Egypt.

All these states are not so clear to a person yet. Imagine that it is a good state from which we break through to the spiritual world, to the upper world, that from this state we are born and ascend above the Machsom (barrier), above the border to the upper world. Therefore, it is the most tense state, the most dangerous state that can ever be in a person’s life. This is the state of his birth!

We always see a birth as a miracle, and to the last moment we are not sure whether it will go smoothly, although we have such modern medical equipment and we know about the process. Still, we never know what might happen and it is a very critical point.

The uniqueness of this point is that a person is under terrible pressure, and terrible fear. All his previous life has ended or is about to end. He doesn’t see his future life yet and doesn’t understand it, and it isn’t clear what it symbolizes, since in order to reach it he has to create an opening to the new world.

A person doesn’t understand how he can exist, since he has to “close what is open and open what is blocked,” just as it happens during the corporeal birth.

If we only yearn for the spiritual birth, we have to imagine this state in a very realistic way, as close to our understanding and feeling as possible, to the extent that we are ready to approach this state and to prepare ourselves to it.

The more we prepare ourselves for this state, the more we will advance towards it. This means that we need strong minds, physical strength, and good organization of all activities that enable us to go through the most difficult state that can ever be. All the roads back are blocked and there is nowhere to go ahead! Just like the escape from Egypt, when your path is suddenly blocked by the Red Sea and from behind Pharaoh’s troops are catching up with you and there is nowhere to hide.

There are different allegorical descriptions of the state of the spiritual birth and they all refer to pressure, difficulty, and threat. We have to approach them by ourselves and not to wait for some force to drag us or to push us in this direction. Otherwise we become lax and only look for how to best manage in order to stall. But we have to bring ourselves into these seemingly dangerous states.

If I understand and am conscious of what I do, I understand that it is only dangerous for my ego. It is pressing and unpleasant, but I approach it knowingly and evoke and summon the labor pains, the feeling of suffering, by myself. It turns out that it is another kind of pain, a sweet one.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/12, Writings of Baal HaSulam

One Is Everything

Question: What does the concept “One” mean?

Answer: “One” means that there is one form which governs and connects everyone together, unites and compliments all based on the infinite number of internal properties that are opposite one another in all possible senses.

Such a connection is called “One.” It points at the infinite number of the individual parts included in Him, their form of connection and everyone’s uniqueness in Him. All of these are included in the notion of One.

One includes the entire reality: When He was one whole, but then divided into many parts, and went through all corrections. Everything that has been attained during these corrections, all of these, is called One. This means that He includes absolutely everyone within Himself. He is not simply One, but rather He is One since everything is included within Him.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/12, The Zohar