October 24, 2024
November 9, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books, Love
To Reach Spiritual Attainment, Just Follow One Law
The great sage, Rabbi Akiva, (1st century CE) said: “Love thy neighbor as thyself is the comprehensive rule of all the spiritual laws.”
When Rabbi Akiva speaks about love for our neighbor (one of many spiritual laws), about our duties with regard to society and even to the Creator as the comprehensive law, he implies that all the other laws are mere constituents of this rule.
Kabbalah’s Absolute Litmus Test of Love That Applies Anywhere: ‘How Would I Like It If…?’
However, when we try to find an explanation for this, we are met with an even more unusual statement by the sage, Hillel. When his disciple asked him to teach him the entire wisdom of Kabbalah while standing on one foot, Hillel replied: “Anything that you hate, do not do to others!” Hillel’s answer teaches us that the whole purpose, indeed the reason for the existence of Kabbalah, is to clarify and fulfill a single law: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Is Love an Impossible Dream?
Yet, how can I love another as myself? Loving others as myself would imply constantly fulfilling all the desires of all the people, when I am unable to satisfy even my own desires! Moreover, the sages explain that we have to satisfy others’ desires before our own.
Take this Self-Test! How Well Can I Keep the Law of Love?
Instructions: Evaluate yourself in the following two situations on a scale of 1 – 10, “10” meaning “I would ALWAYS carry out this action”, and “1” meaning “I would NEVER behave in this way.”
- If you have only one pillow, you must give it to your friend. How often would you carry out this action? (Evaluate yourself on scale of 1 – 10)
- If you have one chair, another person should take it, while you stand or sit on the ground. How often would you carry out this action? (Evaluate yourself on scale of 1 – 10)
If you could not answer “ALWAYS” to these situations, you will not be fulfilling the instruction of loving your neighbor as yourself. So, is this really a feasible demand?
Read the rest of this entry »
October 31, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
How to Avoid Digging for Fool’s Gold
Can one solve this fundamental puzzle of human life without touching upon the question of its source? Every human being encounters this question. The search for the goal and the meaning of existence is the key question around humankind’s spiritual life. Hence, starting with the second half of the 20th century, we are observing a revival of humanity’s spiritual aspirations.
The technical progress and global catastrophes that gave rise to a variety of philosophies have not brought spiritual fulfillment to humanity. As Kabbalah explains, out of all existing pleasures, our world received only a tiny spark – its presence in corporeal objects is what provides all our worldly pleasures.
In other words, all our pleasant sensations, from whatever source, are caused only by the presence of this spark within them. Throughout our lives, we are placed in a forced quest of new objects of delight, hoping to receive greater and greater pleasures; we do not suspect that they might not be anything but shells.
How to Use the Upper Light to Reveal the Spiritual Motherload
To receive absolute fulfillment, we must acknowledge the need for spiritual elevation above matter. There are two paths in our world to reach that goal: the path of the spiritual ascent (Kabbalah), and the path of suffering.
The path of Kabbalah is a path of independent and voluntary realization of the need to gradually terminate egoism, when the Upper Light is used to perceive egoism as evil.
Read the rest of this entry »
October 29, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Anti-Semitism, Articles, Books
A Hidden Hand behind Anti-Semitism
When I read the newspapers and listen to the radio, I see that the nations of the world treat me differently because I belong to the Jewish people. The attitude is laden with hostile, anti-Semitic emotions.
Even within Israel and around it there are peoples who wish to destroy, or at the very least, subdue the Jewish people. Our challenge is to treat this situation as one that comes to us from the Creator and that it is happening in our favor, so that we will change our line of thinking and the way we work. It is happening so that we will rise above our normal human reaction, from an instinctive reaction to what our eyes see to questioning the reasons for what is happening around us.
If I do not relate to the phenomenon of anti-Semitism as it is, but to the reason behind it, I will then be operating in the spiritual degree called “humanity.” This is the only way for me to develop an ability to understand the essence of events. Instead of running away from situations, like an animal runs from a hunter, I can actually change external causes.
Kabbalah Unveils the Purpose behind all Human Suffering
There is only one reason for all the pains of this world: to make us wonder at their meaning, to raise us from a level of aimlessly suffering to a level where we think about and analyze the reason and the purpose for the pains. The spreading of the wisdom of Kabbalah brings the purpose and cause of the pains to the public awareness. By doing so, we can shorten the amount of time it takes for every person to understand the cause for suffering and realize that there is no pain without a reason, that it comes from the Creator. The purpose of the operations that the Creator performs on us is to develop in us, through a series of negative situations, a grown-up attitude toward pain. Therefore, we should not escape them, only use them and see them as a gift from the Creator.
Read the rest of this entry »
October 25, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
How the Desire for Spirituality Begins with an Enormous Unclarified Desire
As soon as a spark of spirituality appears in you, even as an impulse that is still hidden from your eyes, you stop being satisfied with your life. You begin to search for something beyond money, honor, sex, food, power, and knowledge and don’t know where to find what you really want. This is the first time you feel that there is something beyond your surroundings in this world. That spark evolves later on to become the desire for contact and adhesion with the Creator.
All throughout this journey, a person is defined by his or her unique desire to cleave to the Creator, differentiating humanity from other life forms. People still have within them the desires of the still, vegetative, and animate degrees, but our specific degree is measured by the intensity of our desire for the Creator.
The Need for Spirituality Is the Final Level of Human Desire to Develop
In his introduction to the book Panim Meirot Umasbirot (Illuminating and Welcoming Face), Baal HaSulam writes that all the desires except the one called “human” are measured by the desired object:
- In the still degree, desires are turned toward food, sex, and family, meaning bodily and beastly pleasures.
- In the vegetative degree, desires are turned toward money and security.
- In the animate degree, desires are turned toward power, control, and respect.
- In the speaking degree, desires are turned toward spirituality. A person’s desires have by now evolved to such an extent that he or she desires something outside the physical world.
Read the rest of this entry »
October 24, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
To Change the World a New Level of Consciousness Is Needed
By now it is clear not only for people studying Kabbalah, but for everybody that unless the path the world is on changes, we are heading for disaster. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us that we can only change the world by changing ourselves.
In order for the world to change, there has to be a new consciousness among the public, one that is above emotions. There has to be reason as well as emotion in the way we relate to the world. We need reason to relate to good and bad critically and to realize that if we feel bad, it must mean that there is a reason and a purpose for it. The public is stuck in a cycle of merely “feeling bad,” or “feeling good.” It can take hundreds of years before people start asking: “Why is this happening to me?”
Rising Above Feelings of Subjective Good and Bad through Kabbalah
Our goal is to explain where our present state is leading us. As Baal HaSulam wrote, “Religion is not for the good of the people, but for the good of the worker,” meaning that the purpose of religion is not to benefit people, or to benefit the Creator, but to benefit those who are working to be corrected. The entire world was created for that ultimate goal. But if you judge what happens to you only by feelings of “good” or “bad,” you remain in the degrees of still, vegetative, or animate and never advance to the degree of speaking, the degree we need to complete our correction.
Read the rest of this entry »
« Previous entries ·
Next entries »
