November 28, 2024
Archive for July, 2014
July 31, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Books
1. Disclosing a Portion: The Inner Mechanics of the Torah
The Pentateuch, or The Five Books of Moses, is a fascinating odyssey of a nation in the making. Yet, underneath the tales that reveal human nature at its zenith and at its nadir lies an ocean of wisdom that, if uncovered, can alter reality itself. Dr. Michael Laitman’s Disclosing a Portion: the inner mechanics of the Torah uncovers some of that wisdom in a manner none other has done before.
Throughout the year, each week observant Jews read a different portion of the Pentateuch (which they refer to as the “Torah”). Each portion deals with a different topic, and is titled according to the first word, or words, in the portion.
As you read through the portions, you will discover that each of the protagonists in the stories we’ve known for so long is not a myth, but a living force within. These forces direct and determine your path in life, and when you come to know them, you come to know your true self. Take your time to delve into the text, and portion by portion you will find new meanings that will enrich and empower you as you become the happy, confident person that you dream of being.
Pre-Order Your Copy of Disclosing a Portion Here »
2. A Sage’s Fruit: Letters of Baal HaSulam
The greatest Kabbalist of the 20th century, Rav Yehuda Leib Halevi Ashlag, who wrote the Sulam (Ladder) commentary on The Book of Zohar, had very few students. A prolific writer, he spent almost all of his time at his desk, so the students that he did have were precious. When spending time away from home and from his students, Rav Yehuda Ashlag would write elaborate letters to provide them with guidance and encouragement. Today these letters offer a window into the special relationships cultivated between the great teacher and his devoted students.
A Sage’s Fruit: letters of Baal HaSulam is a compilation of those letters, which are now being presented to English speaking readership for the first time. The unique style and tone that Rav Ashlag uses in his letters offer inspiration and guidance to any seeker of spiritual advancement. The nature of this book is such that it changes a person. Regardless of how many times one may read the text, it constantly takes on new forms, as if reading it for the very first time. Now that these letters have been revealed, it is unclear how we could perceive spiritual advancement without them.
Pre-Order Your Copy of A Sage’s Fruit Here »
3. Women, Relationships & Kabbalah
Rav Michael Laitman’s words have been carefully compiled into this book according to topics that help a woman to find answers to questions along the path of her spiritual development. She will find answers to questions concerning love, relationships, family, children, the group, unity, dissemination, the nature and role of a woman, her inner work, and the correction of her soul.
“…Our corrected relationships in this world reflect the underlying structure and goal of nature, and once a person feels the need to be in harmony with this goal, their relations become the medium by which they can measure their progress.
Pre-Order Your Copy of Women, Relationships and Kabbalah Here »
July 30, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
The Mystery of Reincarnation Explained
In each generation, the same souls that existed in previous generations reappear. They are clothed in new bodies, evolve, and become more sensitive and receptive to sublime and complex spiritual knowledge. Thus, people who lived thousands of years ago had the same souls as our own but are more developed today, bringing technological and spiritual progress to our world.
Any progress in humankind is the result of souls rising to a higher degree, after having gained experience in previous lives. Each soul that comes to our world begins its life with the experiences it has accumulated in the previous life. Hence, the soul goes through a process of accumulating knowledge, spiritual attainments, and worldly sensations, leaving it with memories we call Reshimot (records or reminiscences).
Of all the souls that have come down to our world from previous generations, only a few have wished to evolve into the spiritual realms. However, in our time, many have done so. We are much more advanced than our ancestors. It is easier for us to absorb new information and live it, because we are born prepared to absorb this information. Hence, each new piece of data is completely natural for us.
How the Concealment of Kabbalah and Reincarnation are Related
Kabbalah books tend to be revealed and concealed intermittently. They can be hidden for several generations, reappear, and then be lost again. It happens this way so that humanity can go through certain “corrections” (Tikkunim). Generally speaking, these books exist throughout the history of humankind to correct humanity and assure its development. All these books will be known to everyone in the future. The Zohar and the books of the prophets state that in our final days, all humanity will use these books as manuals for attaining the upper worlds, and people will have happy, eternal, and complete lives.
Souls of great Kabbalists go through special cycles. They do not appear in our world in every generation but, like the books, only in special ones. The soul of the first man incarnated later on in Abraham the Patriarch, Moses, Rabbi Shimon Bar- Yochai, the Holy Ari, and, in our days, Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag.
Such a soul comes only during special times, when it is meant to influence and correct the entire human race.
The Story of the Reincarnation of a Very Special Soul: The Ari
In the 16th century, the time of the Middle Ages and barbarism, a child was born in Jerusalem. Later in his life he received the name the Holy Ari. He absorbed the entire Kabbalistic knowledge since the first man and processed it and phrased it in such a way that all the generations following him could receive their spiritual nourishment from his books.
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July 29, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Why The Book of Zohar Is So Important for Your Spirituality
Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai (Rashbi) was the author of The Book of Zohar, which was written in the second century CE. It is the most important work of Kabbalah and considered to be its primary and most fundamental textbook. Rashbi lived between the Talmudic period and that of The Zohar and is regarded as a great researcher of both human nature and the upper world. He is also among the most important sages of the Talmud (his name is mentioned there some four thousand times). He was proficient in the languages of both the Talmud and Kabbalah, and he used both of them to describe the upper system of management, how the events of the present and the future are made to happen there—all the innovations and transformations—and how they come down from there to our world and manifest themselves in the clothing of this world.
The Zohar explains which actions influence the rest of the world from here below. Rashbi was the first Kabbalist to describe the reactions that we get from above for our thoughts. He described how they operate in the upper world and thus affect the unfolding of future events that are to descend to us. The Zohar is crucial to us because it encircles all the possible circumstances throughout human history.
The Unique Circumstances Behind the Writing of The Zohar
Before Rashbi began to write The Zohar, he established around him a group of disciples, where the soul of each disciple corresponded to a certain spiritual degree in the upper world. There were nine students, and he was the tenth. Together they formed one collective soul, corresponding to the complete structure in the spiritual world called the Eser (ten) Sefirot.
Thus, although Rashbi is the author of the book, each and every one of the students represents one of the attributes of the spiritual world he describes. He built a sort of prism, through which the simple upper light descends to our world and divides into ten parts, which are then divided into ten inner Sefirot. Their story is in fact a description of how those ten spiritual properties or forces come upon our world and lead it and how each person can use these forces for his or her own benefit and for others.
Why The Zohar Is Often Misunderstood
Rashbi said he could not have written the book by himself. He was supposed to write the book for the last generations and, in the meantime, conceal it so that it would only be revealed in the 16th century. To write this book in such a way that the intermediary generations would pass it by, he used his disciple Rabbi Abba. Rabbi Abba began writing the book while hearing and studying it from his teacher, but he wrote it in such a way that those who read it perceive only the outermost layer of the book.
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July 28, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Zohar
What Secrets Lie in the Torah?
People search for all kinds of codes in the Torah and find all the possible interconnections among its parts. Indeed, the parts of the Torah are interconnected in an infinite number of ways— the number of the letters, the words, the verses, and the phrases have been calculated. Recently, a fantastic work of calculation analyzed the inner structure of the letters and parts of letters. But those calculations give us nothing. They don’t teach us what stands behind each symbol or dot, or the shape of the letters and their combinations.
What the Dots and Lines in the Torah Mean
The Torah was first written as a single word with no spaces. Only later was that single word divided into individual words and the words into letters, and those letters were further broken down to their parts. In the end, these parts become a point and a line that extends from it. A black point on a white background symbolizes the source of the light: the light emanates from the single point. If the light descends from the upper force, from the Creator to the creature, it is a vertical line; if the force is ascribed to the entire creation, it is a horizontal line.
This is all the information that we get from the Creator. All the possible combinations between dots and lines depend on those two signs sent to us from the Creator:
- The vertical line—a personal sign sent to humankind by the Creator
- The horizontal line—a general sign sent to humankind by the Creator
- All the situations in between
All the signs combined created the code for the relationship between God and humankind, and at any moment things can appear different because at any moment the soul is in a dif- ferent state.
Why The Book of Zohar Is the Key that Unlocks the Torah
A person who looks at the letters of the Torah, provided he or she has learned to read it correctly, can see his or her own past, present, and future through the combinations of dots and lines. But to see these things, one needs a key. With it, one can read the Torah like a tour guide to the spiritual world as opposed to simply a historic episode. This key is found in The Zohar, which interprets the Pentateuch and explains exactly what Moses meant by writing the Torah.
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July 27, 2014 at 7:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Adam Wasn’t the First Man, but He Was the First Man to Discover Spirituality
The history of Kabbalah corresponds to the history of humankind. It begins at the same time Adam appeared on earth, who (as tradition has it) was the first man. With Adam begins the spiritual evolution of humankind. Adam was the recipient of the first Kabbalah book: The Angel Raziel (Hamalaach Raziel).
A person who lives in this world feels the nature of the world within him or her, as well as the nature of the world around. People who feel both worlds simultaneously are called Kabbalists. The first man sensed those two worlds and described them in his book. That book is now available to us, containing interesting drawings with explanations and diagrams that the first man wrote by himself.
When one opens the book, it is evident that the author is not an uncivilized, uneducated mammoth hunter. He was a Kabbalist of a very high degree. He discovered the fundamental secrets of creation. He studied the upper world, the world where our souls roam before we are born and descend to this world and where they return after our physical death.
Did You Know that Adam Wrote a Book about the Spiritual Journey We all Must Take?
The first man, who was also the first soul that came down to our world, tells us about the evolution and descent of the rest of the souls. He does not tell us about the bodies that would be born in our world, but about those souls that come out of his own, the souls of his children, grandchildren, and great-grand- children. He tells us about the entire humanity that would stem from him, what will happen to it, and when it will rise once more to the root from which it came.
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