November 25, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Step One – Grab the Power of Kabbalah Like a Rope Thrown to a Drowning Person
There are two parts to Kabbalah: revealed and hidden. Both constitute the Creator’s thoughts. Kabbalah is like a rope thrown from above to a drowning person in a sea of egoism. By observing spiritual laws, a person prepares for the second, main stage when the one who observes and the one who obliges spiritually merge.
Revealed! The Steps on the Spiritual Ladder and What You Will See on the Climb
Those who observe spiritual rules go through five levels: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, andYechida. Each level consists of five sub-levels, which are then divided into five additional sub-levels. In all, the ladder of spiritual ascent, or closeness to the Creator, consists of 125 steps. The five main steps of this ladder are called “worlds.” Their sub-levels are called Partzufim, which consist of Sefirot.
All that exists in a certain spiritual world perceives the objects in that world and below it. However, they cannot even imagine or feel anything from a higher world. Therefore, one who reaches one of the 125 levels attains all the souls that exist there from the past, present, and future generations and remains there with them.
How Through Kabbalah You Can Gain Sight of Incredible Levels of Attainment
We, who exist only in our world, are unable to imagine or feel anything existing at other levels or other worlds, including those that populate them.
Kabbalists that reach a certain level on their path to the Creator can describe that level with expressions that only people who attained it can understand. Those who have not attained the described level can be confused by such descriptions and be led away from the correct understanding.
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November 24, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
The Bad News Is – Transformation Is Beyond Your Power; The Good News Is – There Is Another Way
By following the Creator’s will, feelings, and thoughts, we become like Him. In the same way that the Creator acts only for the sake of His created beings, we have to wish well for our fellow beings and to be good to them all.
However, is it possible for us to do good to others with absolute selflessness?
After all, the Creator created us as absolute egoists, possessing only the will to enjoy. It is impossible for us to transform our nature. Even if we could always be good to each other, we would consciously or subconsciously try to derive some benefit for ourselves. Unless we see some self-profit, we are unable to make even the slightest movement for the sake of another.
Why You Should Learn How to Draw the Light Upon Yourself through Kabbalah
People are powerless to change their nature of absolute egoism, let alone transform it into something completely opposite. We are unable to be good without receiving honor, rest, fame, health, or money in return.
This is why the method of observing the spiritual laws through Kabbalah was given to humanity. Using the method of Kabbalah, we can draw the light upon ourselves that transforms our nature. There is no other means by which our nature can be changed.
To Envision Your Transformation, Take Example from Nature
The body and its organs make a single whole and constantly exchange sensations and information. For example, if the body feels that one of its parts can improve the general condition of the whole body, that particular part immediately feels it and fulfills this will. In case some body part suffers, the whole body instantly knows about it and tries to improve the situation.
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November 22, 2014 at 10:00 pm · Filed under Torah Portion
Genesis, 28:10-32:3
This Week’s Torah Portion | November 23 – November 29, 2014 – Kislev 1 – Kislev 7, 5775
In A Nutshell
The portion, VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out), begins with Jacob leaving Beer Sheba and heading for Haran. He stops for the night and in his dream he sees a ladder “set up on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it” (Genesis, 28:12). The Creator appears before him and promises him that the earth on which he is lying will be his, that he will have many sons, and that He will watch over him. The next morning, Jacob sets up a monument in that place and calls it, Beit El (House of God).
Jacob comes to a well near Haran, where he meets Rachel and her father, Laban the Aramean, who offers him to work for him for seven years in return for permission to marry Rachel. At the end of the seven years Laban deceives Jacob and gives him Leah instead. He compels Jacob to work for him seven more years, after which he gives him Rachel and Jacob marries her.
Leah has four sons from Jacob, while Rachel is barren. Rachel gives to Jacob her maidens, who give birth to four more of his sons. Leah delivers two more sons, until finally Rachel conceives and gives birth to Joseph.
Jacob asks Laban to pay for his work. Laban gives him some of the flock, although they had a different agreement. Jacob shows the flock the troughs, and they conceive and deliver. Some of the lambs are born striped, some are speckled, and some are spotted.
Jacob feels that Laban is not treating him as before. At the same time, an angel appears before Jacob and tells him to return to the land of Israel. He leaves without notifying Laban, and Rachel steals the idols. Laban chases them in search of the idols, catches up with Jacob on Mount Gilead, and rebukes him for fleeing and stealing the idols.
Finally, they make a covenant on the mountain. Jacob is preparing to enter the land of Israel, he sees angels accompanying him, and he calls the place, Mahanaim (two camps).
Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman
Kabbalah always interprets stories as stages in a person’s inner growth, according to man’s purpose in this world—to discover the Creator, to achieve His degree, meaning to achieve Dvekut (adhesion).
Thus far, all the portions related to man’s initial point, Abraham, which is scrutinized through study, the group, connection with the teacher, and the books of Kabbalah. Subsequently, a person discovers the next stage, Isaac, followed by Ishmael, and then by Esau.
The portion, VaYetze (And Jacob Went Out), speaks of Jacob, who is the middle line. Abraham is the right line, and Isaac is the left line. Jacob is special in that the middle line contains all the qualities, the good, as well as the bad. In the middle line, the evil inclination and the good inclination merge in order to achieve the degree of the Creator, our goal.
The work in the middle line is done entirely in faith above reason, in bestowal, above the ego. This is the quality of Jacob in a person, and this is how it develops. Jacob leaves Beer Sheba, meaning a certain place, an inner state, and heads for Haran, which is another stage along the way. On the way there he must shift from state to state through the day and the night. In other words, Jacob experiences internal, spiritual ascents and descents.
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November 21, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Quotes
Dr. Michael Laitman: In principle, this is what the great commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” talks about. You were instinctively made to feel what a mother is – the safest, kindest place in the world. You might already be a grownup, but you still instinctively aspire to this feeling just like a child.
So make the world be like that!
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