November 26, 2024
Archive for June, 2015
June 5, 2015 at 10:00 pm · Filed under Torah Portion
Numbers 13:1-15:41
This Week’s Torah Portion |June 07 – June 13, 2015 – 20 Sivan – 26 Sivan, 5775
In A Nutshell
The portion begins with Moses sending the twelve heads of the tribes to spy in the land of Israel, to examine it and prepare to enter it. The spies return and describe a land flowing with milk and honey, but occupied by giants that will make it impossible to enter the land, conquer it, and rule it. Their words spread fear in the people, except for Joshua Ben Nun, and Caleb Ben Yephunneh. This angers the Creator and He wants to destroy the entire people. Moses prays and asks for mercy on the people. As a result, only the ten spies that slandered the land die in a plague. The other two, Joshua Ben Nun and Caleb Ben Yephunneh continue to accompany the people.
Later in the portion, the children of Israel trip once more and seek to run back to Egypt. In the end they repent and abort their decision. Afterward Israel make another mistake: they try to fight and conquer the land without instructions to do so, and therefore fail.
The portion ends with the instruction to wander another forty years in the desert until the entire generation of the spies passes away, except for Joshua Ben Nun, who is to lead the people into the land of Israel.
Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman
We have to develop from our will to receive, from our ego, into a state in which we come to be “the people of Israel,” when we are all Yashar El (straight to God), having the quality of the Creator: bestowal and love. We will all be in “love your neighbor as yourself,”[1] in love of others, because we have no other choice.
We must not go by our own reason, which alternates between dictations to advance and retreat. Rather, we must fight while examining if we are doing what is right, and if the way is right. The portion explains that we cannot know what to do or even where to start. It is a problem because we are accustomed to work by the mode of “A judge has only what his eyes see.”[2] It seems as though we must advance by following our essence, according to our Kelim (vessels/tools), using our minds and hearts.
The Creator demands that we develop and do something. But how can we do something if we cannot tell between right and wrong, if we do not know whether to move forward into war or run back to Egypt? We can see that there are giants in the land of Israel. And while there are also fruits there, we cannot tell who rules there, which desires, or how big they are.
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June 5, 2015 at 5:00 pm · Filed under Altruism, Articles, Books, Ego, Freedom, Perception of Reality
Developing a Need for the Creator
The Zohar is considered by many to be a moral teaching based on Kabbalah, since it is written in the language of the commandments, prescribing what an individual should do. It is clear that by defining the book of Zohar in such way, people attempt to deny its mystical, concealed essence.
The authors of the Zohar have written this book, which deals only with the composition and the operation of the spiritual worlds, in a deliberately scholastic and legalistic language. This was intended to leave no doubt in the readers’ minds that the main purpose of Kabbalah is not the wisdom itself, but the “dispenser of the wisdom.” In fact, the main purpose of Kabbalah and of the spiritual laws is to develop our need for the Creator, and for us to wish to come closer to Him in the qualities of the soul.
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June 4, 2015 at 5:00 pm · Filed under Altruism, Articles, Books, Perception of Reality
A Screen that Rejects the Creator’s Light
All the words of Kabbalah and all the advice it provides are concerned with only one issue: how we can reach the Creator and unite with Him. All our deficiencies stem from our inability to sense the greatness of the Creator. Having just begun to aspire to come closer to Him, we already want to experience Him in our senses.
But this is impossible until we have a screen (masach) that refuses the Light of the Creator. This exists as long as we do not have vessels of bestowal. And as long as we do not have these qualities of bestowal, we are only able to have a feeling of the Creator from afar, which is called “Surrounding Light,” which can shine from afar on who is still distant in qualities from those of the Creator.
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June 3, 2015 at 5:00 pm · Filed under Altruism, Articles, Books, Ego, Perception of Reality
Forming a Demand for the Creator’s Help
The strength gained when we perceive the Creator enables us to gradually return to the Creator completely, and to alter all the egoistic desires to altruistic ones.
The more “bad” desires we possess at the beginning of our path, the more self-improvement we can undertake, and consequently, the closer we can come to the Creator. This is why we should never lament our bad qualities, but rather ask for their correction. We should turn to this way of thinking every time thoughts of worthlessness come to mind.
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June 2, 2015 at 5:00 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Perception of Reality
A Pure Force That Imparts Pure Thoughts
In reality there exist the creatures and the Force that created them and continually governs them. This Force is able to rectify the creations, giving them the strength to improve themselves and begin to ascend spiritually. It is with the aid of this Force that the universe was created; therefore impure egoistic forces can neither diminish its power nor use it to their own advantage, since the impure forces have an effect only where the pure forces are weak.
Hence, the ultimately pure Force helps us distinguish between pure and impure thoughts, since as soon as our thoughts are directed away from the Creator, the power of the Force of the blessing disappears.
When Advancement Leads to Anguish
The sounds of the letters (nekudot) symbolize the outpouring of Light, the perception of the Creator. Any perception of the Creator, any spiritual sentiment comprises ten Sefirot. Starting from the highest of these (Keter), the sounds correspond to the following gradation: 1 – kamatz; 2 – patah; 3 –segol; 4 – tseireh; 5 –shva; 6 – holam; 7 – hirek; 8 –kubutz; 9 – shuruk; 10 – without sound, that is, corresponding to Malchut—the last stage of perception, which never becomes filled. Sometimes, in the process of advancing towards the goal to draw closer to the Creator, we suddenly feel weak, since we lack knowledge of Kabbalah and are unable to perform any unselfish acts. Instead, our thoughts are only concerned with our success in this world.
We then fall into despair and tell ourselves that the ability to draw close to the Creator was given to special people with special powers from birth, as well as qualities, thoughts and desires appropriate to this goal, and whose hearts yearn for Kabbalah and for self-improvement.
Rising from Despair with the Creator’s Help
But afterwards another feeling arises—the awareness that everyone has a place prepared for them beside the Creator, and that everyone, sooner or later will merit spiritual pleasures by clinging to the Creator. We will then rise out of our despair, and become aware that the Creator is “All Able” and plans the path of every one, knows what each one of us feels, leads us, and awaits our turning towards Him with a request to draw closer to Him.
Afterwards, we will recall that more than once we had said this to ourselves, but nothing had changed. In the end, we remain immersed in thoughts of our despicable weakness and insignificance. Later, we come to realize that this feeling was sent to us by the Creator in order that we can overcome it.
We then begin working on improving ourselves, using all the will we possess. Suddenly, we receive from the future condition to which we aspire. This means that the Light of the future state is shining from afar, since it cannot shine from within as long as our desires remain egoistic in nature. The Light (spiritual pleasure) cannot enter and shine (please us) in such desires.
The Return to the Creator
As creations, we are a concentrated essence of egoistic desires, and are known as “human beings.”
The Creator, on the other hand, is totally removed from anything egoistic. Therefore, returning to the Creator, clinging to Him, and becoming aware of Him, all come as a result of becoming equivalent in form to Him. Such a return to the Creator is called a “higher return.”
This is the reason that a return to the Creator, a merging with the Creator, an awareness of the Creator can be considered as nothing other than concurring with Him in certain qualities. It is this return to the Creator that is known as tshuva.
One can determine that such a return has been achieved only if the Creator Himself “testifies” to it. What is this testimony? It is that one now has the ability to constantly feel His Presence, which makes it possible to be with the Creator in all thoughts.
In this manner, one can tear oneself away from the desires of the body.
“The Return to the Creator: How to Arrive at Your Final Destination” is based on the book, Attaining the Worlds Beyond by Dr. Michael Laitman.
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