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Archive for September, 2013
September 10, 2013 at 7:51 am · Filed under Articles, Books
On the seventh day of Creation, after a step-by-step examination of one’s own egoistic qualities compared to the Creator’s bestowal, the person reaches the opportunity to bestow like the Creator.
The Self-Scrutiny during the First Six Days of Creation
All of man’s work, the reason for his existence, amounts to acquiring the qualities of the Creator, which are the qualities of bestowal. Man corrects himself through these qualities, and in the process of the correction he ascends along the spiritual ladder toward infinity and perfection, growing closer and closer to the Creator.
What were we doing over the course of the previous six days, the six degrees of correction? We were looking at our egoistic desires through the prism of the quality of bestowal. At every degree we compared ourselves to the Creator and saw that we still had a lot of work to do. In so doing, we seemingly delved into our “I.”
Working Towards Similarity with the Creator
A Kabbalist is someone who is connected to the spiritual world, who feels this connection very clearly.
His objective is to build himself similar to the Creator. He thinks of only one thing: “What can I do to make our communication pleasurable for Him, how do I change my egoistic desire into a desire to bestow? On this degree He is so pure and bestowing. I want to be like Him, and I know that He wants this, too. I cannot achieve this directly because in His Light I am exposed as a true egoist. I understand that this is my nature, so can I circumvent it?”
Following these thoughts, a person seemingly tells the Creator: “You were the One who created me this way, to receive pleasure, so what can I do to receive yet bestow at the same time? For in this lies the true, eternal pleasure for which You have created me, and not for the fleeting egoistic one. What can I do to delight You, like a son who wishes his father to be happy?”
Becoming Similar to the Creator by Changing the Intention
The answer lies in the question itself: To receive so as to give joy. How? By changing the intention. Instead of the typical self-serving intention, I need to form an intention whereby my actions delight the Creator. This is possible only if, at a particular degree you start to “see” Him. That is, you clearly feel the magnificence of the quality of bestowal, and the utter baseness and barrenness of the ego. If the Creator heeds your pleas and grants you this revelation, you will be able to change your intention.
You will desire to be in bestowal, realizing that there is no greater joy for the Creator than this. If that happens, it means that you have built a “screen.”
“What Is the Meaning of ‘the Seventh Day of Creation’ in the Bible?” is based on the book, The Secrets of the Eternal Book: The Meaning of the Stories of the Pentateuch by Semion Vinokur.
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September 7, 2013 at 10:00 pm · Filed under Torah Portion
Deuteronomy, 33:1-34:12
This Week’s Torah Portion | September 8 – September 14, 2013 – Tishrei 4 – Tishrei 10, 5774
In A Nutshell
The portion, VeZot HaBracha (This Is the Blessing), is the last portion in the Torah. It is dedicated to the greatness of Moses. In this portion, Moses blesses the tribes of Israel and mentions the uniqueness of each tribe and its lot.
Moses dies at the age of 120. Before he dies he climbs up Mount Nevo and is buried in a valley in the land of Moab. The children of Israel mourn his death for thirty days and assume Joshua as his heir.
Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman
“This Is the Blessing” is the portion that concludes the Torah, and there are new issues in it that are not immediately noticeable. The whole Torah speaks of one person, within us. The Torah relates to our correction, the correction of the heart, our desires, to our rising above our egos and to the work by which we invert the ego, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice” because “the light in it reforms them.”
Our entire ego becomes good. Instead of exploiting, deceiving, and stealing from others, we need to act to the contrary—bestowing and loving others. We perceive the spiritual, upper world through the quality of bestowal to others. This is really the entire correction that we need to make on ourselves. It is the entire process we must go through, and which we do in this portion, at the conclusion of the corrections that the Torah details.
Throughout the portions, we gradually correct ourselves through the light that we draw from the Torah. It is not a simple thing to do because we need to know how to draw the light. In the end, when we have drawn enough light during all the portions of the Torah, having corrected our egos, we arrive at the last stage in which the point in our hearts—the point of Moses, which has accompanied us, prepared us, explained to us, and took care of us—concludes its work.
There is no death in spirituality. In fact, there is no death anywhere; it is only how we perceive things. When we speak of someone being dead or a live, it only seems to us that way, where in fact there is renewal of forms of matter.
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September 7, 2013 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Definitions
Glossary of Terms Used in the VeZot HaBracha (This Is the Blessing) Weekly Torah Portion
Conclusion, or Conclusion of the Torah
This refers to the conclusion of the guidance. It is the end of the first corrections in our preparation, during which we acquire the first correction, and after which we enter the land of Israel, where we continue the corrections. At this conclusion we experience the first correction in our 248 organs and 365 tendons, our 613 desires. It is called “bestowing in order to bestow,” or the “degree of the desert.”
Blessing
A blessing is pouring down of upper light on our matter (substance), our lives. It is impossible to execute any correction or anything good in the world unless we go along with the upper light, which is the operator and the doer.
There is a very nice essay in the “Introduction of the Book of Zohar,” called “The Essay of the Letters,” which explains that the Torah must begin with the letter Bet because only in the upper light that comes from the Creator, the degree of Bina, can we make corrections.
Tribe
Just as our bodies consist of different organs such as brain, heart, liver, kidneys, and lungs, the “body of the soul” consists of twelve primary parts, known as Hey–Vav–Yod–Hey (HaVaYaH), in each of which are three lines. Because HaVaYaH consists of four letters, if you multiply it by three lines in each letter, you get twelve parts.
120
120 is 3×40. Each Partzuf (face), each soul, divides into three parts: Rosh (head), Toch (interior), Sof (end). The complete correction in Rosh, Toch, Sof, is forty, which is the degree of Bina. We become corrected through the degree of Bina, through the blessing.
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