A New Level: Discovery Of The Characteristics Of The Creator

The Torah, “Numbers,” 14:10: But all the congregation bade stone them with stones, when the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting unto all the children of Israel.

The people rose up against the two Tzadikim (Righteous), Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, the son of Nun, who urged them to go to the land of Israel undaunted by its inhabitants, and to defeat them. And the Creator was immediately involved here; this was speaking about a transition to the next level. Until now, the children of Israel lived in the wilderness and were working with the characteristic of Bina, bestowal for the sake of bestowal. Whereas now they were entering into the land of Israel, they were beginning to work with the ego, so they were constantly reminded of Pharaoh.

Reception with an intention of bestowal is a completely different level. When giants appear before us, which are egoistic desires that we need to work with an intention to bestow, we don’t understand how this is at all possible. A very serious internal change happens here because the method of working with the ego has changed. In the wilderness I only rise above it, become detached from it, for the wandering in the wilderness is one big Exodus from Egypt. Whereas now the entry into the land begins; so the work is absolutely different.

Egypt is one state, the wilderness is a second state, the land of Israel is a third state. The period of Egypt ended with ascent above the ego. Whereas in the land of Israel, I sink into the ego again, begin to dig into it, raising it up to me, and with its help I connect and communicate with everyone.

In other words, if I rose above my ego before, I gave everything that I could and I helped with everything, now I begin to raise my ego and yours, and communicate within it. This means that work is being done here with opposite characteristics that simply didn’t exist before.

And this work produces giants. If during the transition process, which is called the wilderness, we are elevated above the ego and approach only the Lights of Nefeshand Ruach, now we begin to attain the Light of Hochma because we are already working with the ego. The discovery of the characteristics of the Creator happens with this, which we couldn’t attain in the wilderness, only in the land of Israel.

This is new, complex work, which seems absolutely impossible; a new approach is required here. So Moses our teacher, as the leader of our internal characteristics, who led us through the entire wilderness, cannot go further with us. He must be replaced because the entire paradigm, our relationship to correction and advancement, has changed.

Question: What does the sudden appearance of the Shechina (Divinity) at that moment symbolize, when the people of Israel are about to stone Caleb and Joshua?

Answer: Here it is no longer possible to do anything because a few people among the nation, from the “herd” of former slaves, understand that they are found at the forefront and know how to overcome the obstacle, whereas others don’t understand.

The question arises: where is Moses here? He should be in the front! But he doesn’t belong to this level, so he didn’t go to see the land. Moreover, he died, just like a level that finishes its work and then a new level begins.
[165207]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/15/15

Natural Disasters And The Role Of Humanity

Question: What is the role of humanity in nature?

Answer: The role of humanity in nature is to understand that they are the center of nature, and they must work so that all of nature will come to a state of total harmony, without any disasters, and in absolute, total and eternal serenity.

Question: Do the actions of humanity influence the appearance of all kinds of disasters?

Answer: The disasters are our fault because in the final analysis, everything gathers within the person. And when a person overcomes his ego through connection with other people into a good general system, the person influences nature so that all of the disasters, all of the undesirable phenomena, disappear. We exist in a single integral system. The levels of still, vegetative, animate and speaking are found within nature and are a closed circle, a ball, a sphere. And we are the most important part of this sphere, the highest phase of evolution. If we bring ourselves into balance and harmony, then we also balance all the rest of nature. Today already, there are scientific proofs of this. If we succeed, then nature will in fact immediately restore itself; so great is our power that it can either harm or correct the world.

Question: How can an ordinary person understand this?

Answer: When it becomes so bad for him that he begins gasping in despair, then he will be forced to begin to be involved with his correction, even without understanding anything. But now we, the Kabbalists, try to do this so that before a person reaches this limit, he will understand from the start the imperative of unity and in this way he will avoid his suffering.

Question: And what will happen to the devastated ecology, with all of the tons of plastic embedded within the ground?

Answer: Everything will be processed immediately; it will be swallowed by nature and placed before us in the best most sterile form.

Question: This sounds like a fantasy! Where will all of this disappear?

Answer: This doesn’t matter! The forces of nature will do their work, so that everything will immediately be balanced. Moreover, the world will reach such balance, such unity, such harmony that we cannot even imagine! This will be an absolutely different world.

Question: How will the cleansing of the polluted oceans and the earth happen?

Answer: I don’t even think about this. For this activity, forces of nature will enter, which in the meantime, we have no concept about: the force of bestowal, the force of love, the completely new force of interconnection. All reciprocal, thermonuclear activities will seem minute in comparison! These are completely new characteristics of nature, about which today neither physicists, biologists, nor other scientists have the slightest idea.

Comment: Which is to say that filth will transform into a useful mineral?

Answer: We won’t even need useful minerals; we will exist on an absolutely different level! We will no longer need this world; we will enter into feeling a completely different system of mutual cooperation of forces, into a world of higher harmony.
[165215]
From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 8/18/15

Towards Spirituality, With Help From Above

The weekly section of the Torah, “Shalach” tells us how Moses sent the spies to the land of Israel, the land of milk and honey, where wonderful special fruits grow. Suddenly they saw that giants lived there, who didn’t allow them to get in and to get near those fruits.

This means that in order to conquer this land and to discover the greatness of the spiritual world, they have to fight against very big egoistic desires and gradually overcome them. But a person doesn’t have the power to overcome even the smallest egoistic desire, to dominate it and to conquer it. He needs help from Above in order to do that.

The question is how should he ask for it, since a person has no confidence in anything. He thinks: “What could I reach for? In any case it is impossible!”

It turns out that the fruits are wonderful and the land is actually paradise, but there are giants every step of the way, and they feel like ants running around under their feet that could be stepped on without the giants even noticing.

It says that the spies took a bunch of grapes that could only be carried by eight people together and with great difficulty, which shows how heavy it was. It is indeed so because a person weighs himself and understands that he cannot overcome these obstacles and that he really needs help from Above.

Thus the people begin to complain: “Why has God brought us to this land?” A riot is about to start in the camp of Israel: “Let’s pick a leader and go back to Egypt.”

After having been through so much and having attained so much, they discover that they are dealing with the upper force that leads them in life, that the target has been set and everything is planned, but if they stubbornly refuse to accept it they will die in this desert! Indeed a totally new generation arrived at the land of Israel.

Why did everyone die in the desert? It is because they didn’t have enough power to advance and were thus doomed to die. The Torah says that every year on the 9^th of Avthey used to dig graves for themselves and lie in them. Those who died died and those who could rise from the grave kept on advancing.

Thus was forged new generation that was brought up in the desert and were not afraid of anything until they reached the borders of the Promised Land.
[164979]

From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/15/15

The System Of Our Spiritual Development

Question: What is a punishment in spirituality?

Answer: There is no actual punishment in the wisdom of Kabbalahbecause we don’t deal with a human being who seems to get tired of something, angry, or regret something, but only with the system of providence. If we don’t perform a certain role, the system operates in an alternative manner and takes care of us accordingly.

If I drive my car in fourth gear and something suddenly breaks, I change to third gear. Now the engine works much harder and I drive more slowly and feel less comfortable, but I still keep driving. Then another part breaks and I switch to another state, which means that everything depends on our participation. The greater it is, the faster we advance, of course, in greater comfort, above time, overcoming everything by small efforts on our part, along the path of goodness and not the path of sufferings.

Therefore it isn’t about any punishments, although we use this term in everyday language. There are no punishments in our world either. If you behave properly, you advance along this path; if you don’t, you are corrected. We call this correction punishment. It isn’t a punishment but a correction.

As for the system of correction. it is absolutely unemotional. We only attribute human qualities to it, like the good and the benevolent.

I can also say that when I play the piano, for example, I regard it emotionally as if it is my partner or a friend. A person applies his feelings to objects he works with no matter what he engages in, like a computer, for example, although it is just a piece of metal. This is also how we relate to the Creator, although it is an unemotional system, as it is written: “He has given a law that cannot be broken.” The Creator is the law of nature!
[164984]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/15/15

I Yearn For Bestowal

Question: Why does the Creator afflict pain unto the righteous, and how can I justify Him?

Answer: It is so the righteous can justify Him. You “harness the cart before the horses.” However, the truth is that the Creator afflicts pain unto the righteous so that they will have a chance to bless and justify Him. How can they justify Him without the pain, on what grounds?

An independent person must be opposite to the Creator internally and similar to Him externally. This means that you must be made of two opposite forces, two opposite forms, two opposite attributes.

It is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” This refers to the Light in it, since the Light in it reforms it. The evil inclination, the matter of the desire to receive, remains the way it is, and we must dress the intention of in order to bestow above it. Thus, we reform it with the help of the Light and change it to the good and right form.

When we work that way, we first curse the Creator on every level and disagree with Him. This is the reason that the level of Ibur (Conception) is called “rage and wrath.” Then we reach the blessing and the justification of the Creator, until we reach self-sacrifice.

My self-sacrifice, however, is not a result of pleasure the way it is in our world when I am ready to totally sacrifice myself if it is worth it. In that case, I don’t connect to the Creator but to the pleasure that stems from Him, and, if it stops, my ego will not allow me to connect to Him anymore. We totally depend on the pleasure in this world, whereas, in spirituality, we add another dimension, another level, and reach adhesion with the Creator and not with the pleasure and the benefits that stem from Him.

Now, I begin to value my status as the one who bestows and gives. The Creator doesn’t give to me. I don’t need His bestowal. I don’t want to receive it. I don’t want to adhere to Him because of this goodness. I don’t want to be addicted to it. I want to respect the attribute of bestowal, which has no form or image. I yearn for it.

As a result, I must be made of two forms, of an internal form that is the desire to receive and the external form that is the intention of in order to bestow. Otherwise, I cannot be adhered to Him since “For our heart will rejoice in Him” and not in the Lights that stem from Him, which only confuse and bribe me, and which I must resist.

The Lights are measured from above and awaken me—which means my ego—so that I will be turned on and become addicted to the pleasure that drives me crazy and dominates my mind and my heart. Eventually, I am left with only one point that doesn’t attract me to pleasures that come from the Light, and, at that point, I can keep myself constantly outside of the pleasure, refuse the tempting offers. Not that! Not to be addicted to the pleasure!

The temptations make our head spin, and the body is confused by the excitement. Here, we need to prepare the mutual guarantee between us since, without it, I cannot be independent. The pleasure comes in order to cover the shame and to make me independent. Baal HaSulam speaks about it in the Talmud Eser Sefirot, “Histaklut Pnimit,” part 1 item 7:

… They said that there is a great flaw in free gifts, namely the shame that encounters every receiver of a free gift. To mend this, the Creator has prepared this world, where there is work and labor, so as to be rewarded in the next world for their labor and work.

But that excuse is very strange. It is like a person who says to his friend, “Work with me for just a minute, and in return I will give you every pleasure and treasure in the world for the rest of your life. There is indeed no greater free gift than that, because the reward is incomparable with the work. The work is in this transient, worthless world compared to the reward and the pleasure in the eternal world.

What value is there to the passing world compared to the eternal world? It is even more so with regards to the quality of the labor, which is worthless compared to the quality of the reward.

Our sages said: “The Creator is destined to inherit each and every righteous person 310 worlds, etc.” We cannot say that some of the reward is given in return for their work, and the rest is a free gift, for then what good would that do? The blemish of shame would still remain! Indeed, their words are not to be taken literally, for there is a profound meaning in their words.
[129326]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/14, The Book of Zohar

He Who Stands On The Earth Builds Heaven

Baal HaSulam, Shamati #34 “The Profit of the Land”: All the torments that exist in the world are but a preparation for the real torments. These are the torments that one must reach, or he will not be able to acquire anything spiritual, as there is no Light without a vessel. These torments, the real torments, are called “condemnation of Providence and slandering.” This is what one prays for, to not slander Providence.

A person who advances towards the Creator goes through many unpleasant states that eventually teach him to ignore them and to know how to justify the Creator on top of them. We see that our life is full of fatal mistakes and we burn with shame for what we have done in every moment of our life.

We torture ourselves for being evil, for having missed so many opportunities to advance quickly and to attain a good life. Now too we cannot make good use of the time and opportunities we have been given.

It is wrong to think this way. We mustn’t attribute any importance to reality itself and to how we behave and take the opportunities we have, but rather, we need to justify the Creator for everything that happens both inside us and around us. We should not simply justify Him for everything He does, but also understand that behind this whole picture there is a different picture of the upper system to which we should adhere above all the ugly forms that appear before us at any given moment in the past and at present.

We mustn’t regret anything because we condemn the Creator who arranged everything! All these pictures should actually remain, and we should build the positive attitude towards the Creator above them by our efforts. This is a person’s main work.

We have to build the exact same attitude not only towards bad events, but also towards good events, since they come from Above and we have no reason to relate to the good or the bad ones differently. It makes no difference what the Creator presents to us and how it is depicted in our ego. In fact, what our ego finds attractive like success, achievements, and even acts of bestowal are all reasons to turn to the Creator and to attribute all these essential actions to Him. We had to undergo all that including the good, the bad, and the neutral events in order to build the right attitude to the Creator.

By changing our focus from the actual actions, from all the values and all the events in the past, present, and future to the providence of the good Creator, we turn the picture of the world from a negative to a positive one, from the fictitious form called this world to the form of the next world. If we want to see all the most horrible events or the most joyful ones as good, if we see everything only in the Light of the Creator as good, we thus reflect all these events in the opposite light, and by them build the first picture of the spiritual world.

Then we see that there is a great advantage to our desire to receive, which depicts everything to us in opposite forms as help against. Therefore it is written: “the profit of the land.” If we relate to our ego this way, we can build Heaven above it.
[129346]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/14

What Is Possible To Ask From The Merciful And Gracious?

Question: To reach prayer, is this the individual work of a person or the work of the entire group?

Answer: Of course this is the shared work of all of us. From where would I get the strength for it? If I don’t identify with the sorrow of the community, I wouldn’t be able to reach prayer.

Otherwise I will scream for myself, but for this won’t receive an answer from above. I must transmit to the Elyon (Higher) the request of others, the Prayer of Many. It is called this because I scream for the many, and not because many people scream.

The “many” are my own desires that are portrayed to me as strangers. I scream because I want to approach them, feel them like I feel myself, reach love of others as myself, and connect.

I don’t scream about it being bad for them and the Creator needs to help them, even though this is also prayer, as it is said, “One who prays for his friend is answered first” (Baba Kama 90b). The main thing is, when I see them as parts of myself and am connected with them, to that degree I am connected with the Creator.

After all, if I ask the Creator to be merciful to them and to solve their problems, then in this way I blame Him that He is abusing them and am thinking He is cruel and am asking Him to do something good for them. But I cannot turn to the Creator that way and I will not have equivalence of form with Him if I don’t decide that He is merciful and gracious.

So a true prayer is not a request that something good should be done for others. How can I ask the Creator to do something good if He is also good that does good? I ask Him to make such a correction in us that all of us will adhere with Him. This is the entire prayer, there is nothing more for which to ask.

If I see something bad, this is because there is a gap,; the forces of Shevira (Breakage) are discovered. And the Shevira is within me, so I see reality as being so bad. So I ask that all of us will be able to adhere to the Creator and give Him pleasure. After all, we are so despicable that we are not prepared to accept Him as He truly is: good that does good.

It means that we don’t ask Him to do good for us because in every case we are found in an optimal situation for us. We ask for correction of our distorted vision and sensation, so we don’t blame the Creator like little children who scream, “Bad Mommy!”

Question: But what is to be done with an evil inclination that constantly proclaims that everything is bad?

Answer: A person must try to rise above his evil inclination and not annihilate it. We need to rise above it and be higher than it because desires of bestowal must be above desires of reception. Yet it is forbidden to extinguish the desires of reception; for then the desires of bestowal cannot exist.

Without the Yetzer HaRa (evil inclination), what are we left with? The Yetzer HaTov(good inclination) cannot exist in us because this is the Creator, the desire to bestow. I cannot be the Yetzer HaTov; the Yetzer HaTov can exist within me only to the degree that it rides on the Yetzer HaRa.

The Yetzer HaRa assures me of detachment from the Creator, independence. And theYetzer HaTov that controls it gives me the form of the Creator. However, I can only ask for the Yetzer HaTov to dominate over the Yetzer HaRa within me. Only the Upper Light can carry this out; I myself am not able to. This is not at my power.

I can only clarify that this is what is required from me. I get such a possibility as a result of the Shevira, which builds the connection between the desire to receive and the desire to bestow. So I get the ability to clarify, to analyze, to differentiate between one and the other. The Upper Light begins to illuminate these concepts for me and I see what is good and what is bad.
[129215]
From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/14

A Pauper Who Is Rich And A Billionaire Who Is Poor

Question: I always hear that the Creator is good that does good, but in the meantime I don’t feel this. So how can I be happy?

Answer: We are used to being happy when we feel that we have gained. If the ego gains at every moment, if it is comfortable, good, warm, and pleasant for me, money drips into my account, “One penny and another penny accumulate into a great sum” (Baba Batra 9b) and I enjoy. Thank God everything is okay, soon I will take a vacation, sail on a luxury liner, on Shabbat my favorite soccer team is playing; there is something to enjoy in life!

This is what we call “pleasure,” but this is joy now or in the future within the desire to receive. That is how we live. If I don’t feel joy in the present or in the future, I am ready to die. A person is not able to exist without joy, if not now, then at least from hope for joy in the future. Otherwise, “it is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:3).

Now the question is asked, how can we be happy in a situation where we really want spiritual revelation but don’t have it? If at the moment we don’t have it, then everything depends on hope for the future; am I confident that ultimately I will have it? It is clear that in the present I don’t have anything! “A judge only has what his eyes see” (Sanhedrin 6b), and I see that I have not yet discovered the spiritual world, don’t understand and don’t feel it.

But am I sure that I will discover it? If I am in a group and the group radiates confidence to me that we are going towards revelation and we will reach it, then I will be happy! The friends give me the confidence that we will succeed. Without this, I won’t succeed in advancing; rather, I will simply sleep all day so I won’t suffer, because at the moment I have no joy and also don’t expect it in the future. It is impossible to die, and what is left is just to sleep, at least not feel anything.

This is exactly what happens to a person. This is natural; there is nothing to do about it. The question is how do we deal with this? How is it possible to stimulate the environment so that it will influence us and we will be happy and full of energy? For this it is up to us to appreciate the friends and to be connected with them. And in addition to this, we must awaken the Light that Reforms together so that it will stimulate us all the time and provide excitement. And then I will not only be excited by the words of the people, but I will receive illumination from above through them.

This illumination is called “faith.” Faith is power that I invest without getting anything in return. It seems that this is impossible, but the Light will influence me and will give me the possibility of doing it. This is called, “faith above reason.” According to my nature, I am not ready to bestow without receiving anything in exchange! But if the Light will give me a characteristic like this, then I can. And then my happiness will not be connected to fulfillment within my Kelim. As it is said: “Who is rich? It is the one who is happy with his lot” (Pirkei Avot 4:1).

And what is his lot? He doesn’t have anything! But he is happy. Maybe he is crazy or stupid? No, he is truly the richest and happiest person! The rich don’t feel happy because they are pursuing even greater wealth all the time, and they are not “the one who is happy with his lot.” This is called feeling rich and happy. He doesn’t need anything more; imagine what a wonderful feeling this is. Even billionaires don’t feel this way because they want more and more money. They are the poorest people of all! If an ordinary person doesn’t have a thousand dollars, they don’t have millions, billions. So which of us is poorer, who needs more? It means that everything depends on the environment and the illumination of the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light).
[129162]
From the 3d part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/5/14, Writhing of Baal HaSulam