Every person has the right to examine whether the place he chooses to study is good for him. However, after a short test, he should make up his mind and enter the study process at the selected place without any further doubts. Otherwise, he won’t be able to reveal the Creator and His world.

There are groups who claim that they study according to their own method. But how can there be a method that was not passed down through the chain of Kabbalists from master to disciple?

It is impossible to receive such a method on one’s own. Only Adam HaRishon received this method “from Heaven,” as it were, and discovered it on “his own.” However, all the others, including Abraham, obtained it through the chain of Kabbalists. At first, Abraham was “an idol worshiper,” meaning that he was engaged in a special spiritual work, only in its reverse form, after which he realized its inadequacy. Twenty generations past Adam HaRishon, Kabbalah was passed on to Abraham.

The method of attainment can be acquired solely through clinging to a teacher. This is the way it expands from Above downward through the chain of souls, from soul to soul. Can you really connect to the root if you are not Adam HaRishon himself? Only Adam HaRishon is tied to the Creator directly. All the other souls must receive from him through the chain of Kabbalists, depending on the soul’s place in it. Everybody receives from the one who stands before him, and is connected by a linked chain with one root.

It is a hierarchic system similar to a tree. I am positioned in it at a specific place and can receive only from the person nearest to me and above me. For this, I need to annul myself before him in the same way a lower Partzuf annuls itself before the Upper One in the spiritual world.

Therefore, when people claim that they receive “Light or enlightenment” from Above or while in sleep, they are not being serious. A spiritual contact can be attained solely by staying close to a Kabbalist while he is alive. If you manage to reach at least one such point of contact, from that point on, you can develop everything else.

However, without this initial point, you won’t have anything from which to advance further: You are cut away from the whole tree, from the entire system of souls. This is why people always ask, “Who was your teacher? Where did you come from?”

For this reason, out of all diplomas, the most precious piece of paper that I possess is a tiny newspaper article where I am named as a loyal student and the right hand of Rabash. It testifies, to the very least, how connected I was with my teacher.

Dr. Michael Laitman, from the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/10, “Letter 38”

Question: Do we correct the world at the same time as we correct ourselves?

Dr. Laitman: Yes. We correct ourselves and of course, in the correction of each and every one of us we correct the whole world. This is because it is a closed system, and as such, you can only correct yourself through your participation in every single person. Moreover, through your correction, you already prepare corrections in all of the souls, because you are integrated with everyone.

Therefore, if you correct yourself, then that corrected part of yourself exists in all the other souls and, as a result, they already begin to feel something.

This is because there is no single “I.” “I” is integrated in everyone, and there is no “you”—“you” is integrated in everyone. So if, let’s say, a million people correct themselves, and you are integrated with everyone, you therefore start sensing that same part from those little million people who are incorporated in you. How do you sense it? You suddenly get thoughts and desires about things you’ve never ever dreamed of previously, things you’ve never been attracted to.

That is the interconnectedness. We are in the same system of Adam ha Rishon (The First Man), we can’t escape it, but it’s broken, and that’s why those who correct themselves sentence themselves and the entire world to a scale of merit.

Source: Dr. Michael Laitman, in the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee): WMV | MP3 (55 min)

Image: "new world-4" by rené van haeften.

When our holy zeal and great desire for redemption are gone, and our natural, human and national desire to live honorably as a nation are no longer present; and when it is no longer possible to legitimately blow the Shofar (horn) of redemption, our enemies come to us and blow it in our ears, “reminding us of our purpose.” They force us to hear the sound of the Shofar by blowing it into our ears and giving us no rest, like Amalek, Hitler and others did, to wake us up to our redemption.

… This type of nationalism, meaning ‘the sorrows of the Jews’ is a whip, and it too is a form of redemption, namely, “sorrows all around us awaken us and unite us,” however, for this Shofar sound, there is no blessing.

The Writings of Rav Kook, Vol 1, Article “Shofarot” (“The Horns”)

Rav Kook tells us that if awakening comes from externality and not the internality of the system of creation, then it does not come on account of the correction of creation, but it is an awakening from above, where out of no choice, we are awakened as such, because we cannot awaken ourselves.

Therefore, what we will do, through all these blows that come to us through “in due time,” through all situations and external, unpleasant causes, all our actions are then not out of correction, but because we run away from blows, from a bad place to a place that’s “a little better.” Therefore, it is not considered as being correction, but that we are in that in the animate level, like animals escape from blows, from sorrows that come to them from nature, e.g. a brushfire, so it is with us.

However, correction needs to be at the human level, where a person arranges his own deficiency. Other than the deficiency for the purpose of creation, he needs to become equipped with yearning. Then, when he has deficiency and yearning for the correct state, Hafetz Hesed (delighting in mercy) and active bestowal to the others, if there are such inclinations that he gathered and united through all kinds of activities among all the friends, then these actions can be received as actions of MAN, of request, of efforts for correction.

However, actions that come via external blows, all kinds of unpleasant events, that is only escaping toward good from blows. It is not that one yearns for bestowal. Then, when we see that people gather and want to be together, help each other out, and collaborate. There is nothing to be proud of in such a situation. These actions are similar to animals escaping from bad, and there is no correction in that.

Therefore, in our educational program, we need to respond to what the people are used to, but the main thing is to continue running activities in the times when some blow isn’t the reason for the activities, where we can explain the matter of connection, urgency, what we attain by that, and to what state we elevate ourselves, because the whole correction is in stabilizing the desire, the yearning for bestowal, not in that it is urgent for our ego to escape from bad, but because we appreciate the quality of bestowal as something exalted and special, and work out of goodness. We thus need to feel that difference between those two tendencies, and try to work from the corporeal good, to the spiritual good, where nothing urges me in my life to add exertion, other than the revelation of the Creator, the quality of bestowal and love, and by that we come close to the act of bestowal.

Based on the “Preparation” part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson of June 20, 2014. It can be downloaded from the Kabbalah Media Archive.

What is the spiritual definition of “nation” and “Jew” and how do they not relate at all to the corporeal definitions of these terms? What is MAN? What is Hafetz Hesed? What is an act of bestowal? How can an act of bestowal be made, and what are the benefits of reaching bestowal instead of remaining in reception? Learn the answers to these questions and more by learning the fundamental principles of the wisdom of Kabbalah in the Free Kabbalah Course: 20 lessons that will transform your life in 10 weeks. Click the banner below to sign up…

In humanity’s future, we will produce no more than we will need in order to exist. Existence depends on the importance of spirituality in relation to corporeality. If a person is wholeheartedly devoted to spirituality, then what kind of corporeality does he need? A bit of sport, food, sleep, family, all kinds of necessities for one’s existence, as well as some special things, e.g. suits and/or dresses, for one’s presentation toward others. Everything other than necessities will feel like a stress to deal with.

Today, we produce an abundance of unnecessary commodities, and are in constant routine consumption. In the future, however, we will buy less, not because we will not have the money, but because of inner reasons: We will not want to buy all kinds of commodities since we will realize that they contain no fulfillment and provide no meaning to our lives.

Thus, humanity will reach a state where the spiritual desire, which needs to awaken on a mass scale, will start neutralizing the corporeal desire. We will see this replacement of desires taking place in the near future. We will see how we will stop feeling a need for all the consumer goods outside of our necessities.

“What Will Humanity’s Future Look Like?” is based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson of May 4, 2014, “Unity of the People.” You can watch and/or download this lesson in video and audio formats from the Kabbalah Media Archive.

What is spirituality? What is corporeality? What is the spiritual desire? Why is the spiritual desire awakening on a mass scale in our era? These questions and more are dealt with in the Free Kabbalah Course, which provides the fundamental principles and tools by which to correctly approach the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is recommended to take the Free Kabbalah Course before approaching the Daily Kabbalah Lessons with Dr. Michael Laitman. Click the banner below to sign up…

We need to try and see in every state we go through, the worst and the best, the most confused through to the clearest, that it is a relationship between Light and Kli (vessel). Therefore, I need to go through the state, and the question is whether I prepared myself to go through the state in order to connect the Kli to the Light, and the preparation is in connection and integration with other Kelim (vessels). I then need to go through these states, one at a time.

If I prepare myself well, then I go through the state with awareness, and bring the medicine closer to the wound, blessing the bad as well as the good, because every state comes to progress me spiritually. I prepare the supportive environment, my schedule, I organize and prepare myself in all kinds of ways, where to the extent in which I my heart gets burdened, I am in the correct state toward what is taking place.

If pleasant or unpleasant emotions surface in me, then it is easier for me to relate to them, but there are many situations when a person feels nothing, when he’s clouded, when moments, days and weeks go by and he is in a non-beneficial state, feeling like he cannot add anything.

Indifference is a big problem. Here, we need to work in a way where we determine how we organize ourselves, and just as that comes without feeling, then the person acts emotionless, but mechanically connects all these moments in the correct direction as much as it is possible to do so. There’s no feeling, emotion, understanding, but at least mechanically, he participates in whatever possible, and thus it is considered as going in the correct direction. “One should sell the beams of his house” in order to make steps forward toward spirituality.

“Prepare Yourself to Progress Spiritually through Indifference” is based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson of May 4, 2014, Rabash: The Social Articles, “One Should Sell the Beams of His House.” You can watch and/or download this lesson in video and audio formats from the Kabbalah Media Archive.

What are “spiritual states”? What is “Light and Kli (vessel)”? What does it mean to progress spiritually? What is the supportive environment? What is “the heart” and the “burdening of the heart”? What do “correct” and “incorrect” mean in terms of spiritual progress? All these questions and more are dealt with in the Free Kabbalah Course, which provides the fundamental principles and tools by which to correctly approach the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is recommended to take the Free Kabbalah Course before approaching the Daily Kabbalah Lessons with Dr. Michael Laitman. Click the banner below to sign up…