November 29, 2024
Archive for October, 2013
October 26, 2013 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Definitions
Barrenness
Barrenness is inability to give birth to the next degree. It is possible to give birth only through the right combination between the ego and the intention to bestow upon others.
Pregnancy
Pregnancy is a state where I am ready to give birth to the next degree. It includes nine months of conception, as well as other things, which comprise into nine Sefirot of Ohr Yashar (Direct Light) and Malchut, where in the tenth we deliver.
Birth
Birth is admission into a new degree, new bestowal. It is the ability to connect with everyone on a new level. Accordingly, we receive the revelation of Godliness on the next level.
The Right of the Blessing
Having the right means being cleansed. The more I can work with my ego in order to bestow, the more cleansed I am. My ego may be thicker, but I overcome it and become purer. Thus, one develops opposite the other.
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October 21, 2013 at 7:00 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
What is the soul? The soul is a desire created by the Creator to enjoy Him (the Light).
It is actually in perfect adhesion with the Creator, just as it was when it was first created. But the soul needs to accomplish this situation in its own right, to actually obtain an equivalence of form independently, and in so doing become like its Creator. In order to accomplish this task, the Creator completely separates the soul from Himself. This happens by giving the soul the exact opposite attribute that He possesses – the will to receive again.
Through this disparity of form, the soul stops sensing the Creator and is clothed in a corporeal body with the will to receive pleasure purely for its own sake. So if the soul does not sense the Creator, what does it sense? It senses “our world,” the very place that we consider our entire existence. In order to achieve that original state again, when it was complete and sensed the Creator, the soul must take on the task of attaining those attributes of the Creator. It does this through a process that is akin to giving birth to them, creating them itself.
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October 20, 2013 at 7:00 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Every single act we perform in life is born out of a desire. From the smallest, most insignificant, conscious act to acts that require a vast amount of energy, they are all performed for one single reason: a desire entered us and affected us enough for us to take an action to fulfill it. Kabbalah calls the force that propels us to fulfill these desires “the will to receive.”
We are completely controlled by desire; without one, we remain perfectly still, not moving as much as an inch. But what is the goal? What are we trying to achieve by consciously and subconsciously following our desires? The answer is pleasure. We pursue them in order to receive pleasure in one form or another.
This will to receive is so complex and cunning that at best we barely even notice we are slaves to it. Of course, nobody in their right mind wishes to admit they are a slave to anything or anybody. But if a person takes time to seriously reflect why he or she performs any given action, even actions of the highest morality, there is only one conclusion that explains all acts. We act only in order to receive pleasure for ourselves…….period.
The will to receive pleasure is so powerful that it can even override instant gratification, such as safety or money, for a greater pleasure to be received in the future. At the end of the day, if we have any stake in an outcome, if we calculated ways to achieve this result, our will to receive made that decision.
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October 19, 2013 at 10:00 pm · Filed under Torah Portion
Genesis, 23:1-25:18
This Week’s Torah Portion | October 20 – October 26, 2013 – Cheshvan 16 – Cheshvan 22, 5774
In A Nutshell
In the portion, The Life of Sarah, Abraham gives a eulogy after Sarah’s death at the age of 127. He buys a lot for the grave from Ephron the Hittite for four hundred shekels of silver and buries her in the Cave of Machpelah, in Hebron.
Abraham objects to Isaac marrying a woman from the Canaanites, and sends Eliezer, his servant, to Aram Naharaim to find a wife for his son. When Eliezer approaches a well, he meets Rebecca and asks her to give him water. She gives him water, and offers water to his camels, as well. Eliezer takes her offer as a sign that she is the right woman for Isaac, and so he brings her to Canaan.
After the death of Sarah, Abraham marries Keturah, who bears six children, which Abraham sends eastward. Abraham died at the age of 175, and inherits all that he has to Isaac.
The end of the portion elaborates on the generations of Ishmael and on his passing at the age of 175.
Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman
We need to remember that the Torah speaks of what happens within, as one reveals one’s soul, the innermost part. The revelation of the soul is gradual, and manifests in the stories of the Torah. Abraham is the initial force with which a person reveals the soul and opens the internality to discover the upper world. He is the first force of overcoming, the force of bestowal, along with that force’s female, Sarah, which is suitable for the degree of Abraham.
To know with which desires we can work and with which we cannot, we must sort out our self-centered desires, leaving the degrees with which we still cannot work for the next degrees, for states where the desire is stronger. To scrutinize the desire called Isaac, we must first remove the desire with which we cannot work, and sort it with another female, with Hagar, from whom comes Ishmael, the Klipa (shell/peel) of the right.
The Isaac degree within us emerges only afterward, and is an extension of the Abraham degree. It is written about Isaac, “For in Isaac will your seed be named” (Genesis, 21:12), meaning that Abraham’s rise to a higher degree is named Isaac. At the Isaac degree, one should reexamine one’s desires, and sort out with which desires it is possible to work, and with which it is impossible.
A person cannot scrutinize alone, as that person (Abraham) comes from only one force, one side, from the force of Hesed (mercy). Abraham is still without Gevura, and must first acquire the degree of Isaac, which is the foundation of Gevura. This is the point where the force of Eliezer comes to the aid. Eliezer is like the upper light—scrutinizing the desires for a person, bringing one to the degree where one can sort the next stage of correction out of all of one’s desires. That stage is called Rebecca.
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October 19, 2013 at 9:00 pm · Filed under Definitions
Years
The words, Shanim (years) or Shanah (year), come from the word Shoneh (repeating) when we repeat the corrections but on a higher level. There is a ladder of 125 rungs. There are five worlds, with five Partzufim (faces) in each world, and five Sefirot in each Partzuf. 5x5x5 are the 125 rungs, or degrees where we need to repeat the corrections, each time on a more advanced step. This is how we go from stage to stage, from degree to degree, until the end of all the corrections, where we are included in the world of Ein Sof (infinity), in Dvekut (adhesion) with the upper force and in complete similarity with it.
The Cave of Machpelah
The Cave of Machpelah is the great Tikkun (correction) of Malchut that is included in Bina. This is how it can correct itself in equivalence of form with Bina. Malchut is the will to receive, and Bina is the desire to bestow. When Malchut and Bina equalize with one another, then we have inserted the force of Bina throughout the earth, the desire, down to the state called a “cave.”
Burial Site
A burial site is a place where we bury our ego. We do not bury the will to receive, but only the intention to receive, the qualities that work in our favor, and against others. When I bury qualities that make me feel good, such as the desire to exploit, defeat, or see others as inferior, it is a burial of the will to receive. Thus, we do not bury the desire, but only its egotistical form that manifests in us.
Marriage
Marriage is a state where I can repeatedly take various egotistical qualities from my will to receive, correct them, and thus cover them. This is the meaning of the wedding ceremony, with the Huppah (wedding canopy) being the Masach (screen). The Zohar explains it very clearly in the essay, “The Night of the Bride.”
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