Content of the Book Kabbalah Le Matchil,

Lesson Series in NYC, Lesson 4, Part 2

Lesson by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, New York, USA

May 24, 2006

Regular: Commentaries of Rav Laitman
Capitalized Italics: transliteration from Hebrew
Bold: Questions and comments from the audience

Question: Isn’t our aspiration to unification with the Creator egoistic?

Sure. It’s egoistic.

Question (cont’d): Is it the highest manifestation of egoism?

It’s a good question. In general, who studies Kabbalah? People who come to study Kabbalah, do you think that they are egoists? Yes, they’re egoists. A man feels bad, therefore he starts searching and comes to Kabbalah. Not from a good life. If you have a good life, you don’t search for anything and don’t go anywhere. You felt bad and therefore came to Kabbalah.

This is what Baal Hasulam says in the Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot. He says it very beautifully:

Indeed, if we set our hearts to answer but one very famous question, I am certain that all these questions and doubts will vanish from the horizon, and you will look unto their place to find them gone. This indignant question is a question that the whole world asks, namely, “What is the meaning of my life?” In other words, these numbered years of our life that cost us so heavily and the numerous pains and torments that we suffer for them, to complete them to the fullest…

We are all adults. We understand that whatever we go through was not dependent on us. Instead, life just run over us. In general, looking back, man sees that it just happened this way. We call it “fate.”

Baal HaSulam says: “Not at your will you were born, not at your will you live, not at your will you die.” What for? How? What is happening to us? Everybody asks these questions but don’t get answers. Science of Kabbalah exists to answer these questions.

Hence, a person comes to Kabbalah with questions, “What do I live for? Why do I live? Why do I suffer? What is the use of my life? Why I am always in a mess, always getting beaten up?” and not from anything good. And naturally they come with egoistic desires to learn, to recognize, to get something, to know tomorrow, to somehow affect their fate. Therefore, all questions are egoistic. We see it in people who come to study Kabbalah. They don’t come to become altruists; they are normal people, meaning egoists.

When a person comes to start studying, we don’t tell him that he has to change himself. We begin studying calmly, engage him in issues like: “You want to know the meaning of life, the purpose of life, the Upper Worlds where you descended from where your soul was before it has clothed in your body, where is it from, where was it before? When the body dies the soul ascends somewhere, do you want to know what is going on with it before birth, after death, how can you affect it? Do you want to know all of this? Please sit down and study.”

In other words, we also talk to him egoistically, “If you want it, you will get it.” And a person studies. He only asks, “So, when?” You come and ask me, “So, Rav Laitman, we’ve seen you in New York for several years already. So, what’s then?” [Addressing the student] You hesitate, you don’t ask.

Student's remark: No, just so.

It is exactly so, I see. You became impudent, didn't you?

Student's remark: Quite right.

By the way, it’s a normal question.

What can I tell you in response? I can answer you simply. As long as you are in the desires which you are in now, my answer is addressed to these desires: “Everything will be all right, dear friend.” It cannot be done otherwise, since you will run away. You will not be able to comprehend the questions and answers that gradually will come up later.

In the beginning you are like a child. We attract a child: Learn and you’ll get candy. If you learn this, you’ll get a bike. If you learn that you’ll get something else. We attract him with the presents or awards which he knows are worth studying for and so he is gradually learning. And while he is learning he becomes smarter. He already understands that the present is secondary; it was used to attract him egoistically, as bait. But in reality he is getting smarter and now, with his mind developed, he is able to see beyond his presents and already wants other things.

The same applies here. People come to study and we tell them, “Everything will be all right.” In other words, “You’ve got questions, you’ll get answers.” We just don’t tell him that to get genuine answers he has to change himself, otherwise he wouldn’t understand them. We don’t tell him that he has to become a completely different person. He thinks that he can comprehend with his head, “So, I’ll sit, study, listen and everything will be clear.”

Of course, he’ll understand more, even without changing internally because Kabbalah talks conceptually about the structure of the Upper Worlds, about how everything functions, connections between pieces of our world, and the world where we exist. In other words, he certainly becomes smarter, wiser and starts to understand more of what’s going on.

But when he gradually gets into Kabbalah study, interesting phenomena will start happening to him. He will suddenly feel bad, life will seem even worse, darker, hopeless, and more unpleasant; he will have no strength and no interest to life. This is a result of proper learning. This is what it is all about; that's where he gets tricked. That is, he has been seduced egoistically, by promising that he will get what he wants. But as a result, while on the path, he starts feeling that something is wrong.

Why he is being induced with such bad feelings? The Upper Light of his studies starts shining closer on him and he starts feeling worse. He starts feeling that he doesn’t have that Light inside of him because the Light shines against his properties. In other words, a stronger feeling of oppositeness, darkness emerges. Then he begins to feel himself as an egoist compared to the Light. He doesn’t know what the Upper Light is but still feels as an egoist. That's also bad. He starts feeling that the more he studies the worse he becomes. He is even afraid, “Look! How do people around me look at me! Surely they must see what I’ve become.” He doesn’t understand that the people surrounding him don’t see anything. It is him who sees himself that way. To the extent of their studying, each person surrounding him also sees only themselves, and not the others. One only sees oneself.

Nevertheless, if a person studies Kabbalah properly, he begins to feel himself in Galut (exile), an exile from spirituality. He didn’t feel that way before. It happens only if he is studying properly. That is why in the beginning the path goes through a double concealment.

I remember myself. I came to my teacher though truth to be told, prior to that, I studied a little with others. Then I suddenly felt bad, again and again. Everyone around was grinning but I felt bad. What did I get into? What's going on? They would all say, “Don’t worry, everything is going to be fine.” There were 5 to 6 old men over 70 who studied with Baal HaSulam. They have passed away now, they are all in the other world. Back then I was 33 and they were about 75. “What's happening? I feel bad, darkness, it's getting worse, I have no mood, etc. I came to them with such inspiration to study Kabbalah, to uncover all of it, the Upper Worlds, learn all of it.” “It is OK, it’ll pass in a week, you’ll start seeing everything, it's just around the corner.” It took awhile, until it all passed… They were good liars.

Remark from the audience: Not two weeks.

No, it’s not two weeks nor three. But it depends on the intensity of studies and on the intensity of the work in a group. We talked about it already.

One's proper work (and this is written in all articles) with Torah with attracting upon oneself the Upper Light reveals to him the truth that he is opposite to this Upper Light. This truth has to be revealed completely. This state is called double concealment. This is when he finds out that he exists in absolute opposition to the Creator. That is, he feels bad even though the Creator gives him pleasure. However, in his opposite properties instead of pleasure, he feels the opposite: suffering, darkness, despair, and depression. This is first. Secondly, he doesn’t even feel where it comes from. Simply the whole world is darkness, dark and bad. This is double concealment.

However, this is being gradually revealed to a person to the extent of his work on himself and to the extent he creates the environment of proper books, teacher and friends. Otherwise if he realizes this state as a result of Kabbalistic work, he’ll run away. So it is revealed to him when a certain proper environment exists around him.

He starts to progress further, to study deeper, to understand more and he doesn’t run away. He then reaches a state where he sees that he is absolutely opposite to spirituality but he is drawn to it. Besides darkness and the sensation of oppositeness, the Light that shines upon him begins to invoke a feeling of the greatness of bestowal, the greatness of the Creator’s property. Obviously, he then feels even worse, he sees that he is opposite. However, he cannot let it go because he sees that this is the ultimate high. So he carries on.

This means that a person gradually changes his values. He starts seeing that he needs to rise above this life, that it is not important whether I succeed in this life or not. In fact it is the opposite, all this is nonsense. This life is such that you don’t need to succeed in it. In order to succeed in this life you need to rise above it into the Upper spiritual realm. Such thoughts start gradually arising in him, he gradually understands that there is another purpose, another goal and another possibility, not to just somehow better survive a couple of years which are left, but rise up into eternity.

But you can’t tell people this in the beginning. That’s why they come you tell them what they want to hear. The main thing is to get them stay. Gradually while studying from authentic sources, the Inner Light begins to affect them.

Question: What does it mean that spirituality should be revealed in a group, in the work with my friends, in Arvut?

Spirituality should be revealed in a group working with friends, in Arvut. The group, the friends, Arvut, is a collective soul. At the moment, this collective soul in front of me exists in my current properties and sensors as seven billion two-legged human beings. This is how they seem to me.

If I start correcting myself, I’ll start seeing that they only appeared this way to me. To the extent of my correction I will see a higher picture. I will see that they are connected and interrelated to each other, they form a common system called Adam that is filled with the Light. I will see and feel it. But what do they feel? I don’t know who they are, I only feel myself. I begin to understand that they do not exist. As I ascend and see a different picture of the world, I begin to decisively realize that both, the past picture of the world and the current one are only illusions, it is just my perception of my inner state.

What does the world mean? The world is something I feel inside of myself. I don’t know what’s beyond me. Nothing exists but the Upper Light, and nothing else. What does the group mean? That which today appears to exist outside of me, will exist inside of me after I correct it.

This picture is always eluding. You will come back to it and it will immediately escape again and again. This is not important but you must draw precise and well-defined conclusions. Despite of what I know, what I understand, remember, whether or not I can concentrate or imagine this picture, this is not important.

Besides, there must be a personal charter, what shall I do in order to reach the goal. It is the same as for kids: I am enticed by the toy and I do what's needed to get it. So in the meantime I am doing it for some toy or fulfilling the charter, I am just doing and that is very good. When I finally fulfill it, I will understand it all, that is why I am doing this, why I need it, etc.

Question: You say that the obvious is an illusion?

Yes, certainly. But it depends on whether we are talking about absolute attainment or about what is going on in our current Kelim. What does it mean “the obvious is an illusion?” If I came over to you and hit you on your forehead, will you feel it? You will. Is it illusion or not? That is what my Rav was always saying: “Come, I will show you”.

In other words, an illusion is something that will disappear when we ascend above this world to the Upper World that is eternal and absolute. How will we observe our state from there? As existing or not? As non-existing. That is why at that moment we will call it an illusion but today it is reality for us.

Question (cont’d): What should motivate us to aspire for this?

That is to ascend to the true state, i.e. from illusion to the true state. So it was said: “Ainu Ki Hol’mim” (As if we were dreaming). Meaning, when the Upper Light comes down to a person, he ascends above that level and feels that in the previous state he was as if sleeping and everything was like a dream.

Question: A regular person?

Yes.

Question (cont’d): Anybody?

Yes, anybody. Everybody must reach the highest, the absolutely perfect state. Absolutely everybody even the last Eskimo.

Question: What about the newborns and the elders?

The newborns have the whole life in front of them with all the possibilities. As for the elders, if you are sitting here that means you have the possibility. Don’t retire yourselves. Retirement exists relative to the government but relative to Kabbalah there is no age. If you are sitting here, or you are listening to Kabbalah or to somebody else, regardless of age, is listening means you have in this life the possibility to reach the absolute perfection and never come back.

How do you know how much time would you need for this? The calculations are not yours, so do whatever needs to be done.

Question: Why do different people see the world (this illusion, this fantasy) alike?

Different people and in general, all people see the world alike because we have similar properties. Five properties, five senses, they are the same. They are based on various combinations of desires and that is why each of us perceives the world and interprets it a bit differently. But this is only interpretation; the actual properties that govern five channels of perception are the same for everybody. However, if we were to talk about how a Kabbalist perceives this world, that's a completely different perception.

Question: You were talking about reincarnation of souls that are being put into the bodies for correction and it goes in circles. Is there is a complete dissipation when nothing is happening?

We were talking about reincarnations and about various changes. Does that possibility exist when something disappears to somewhere? If somebody steals something, it will disappear from one place and gets to another. It may not be known in which place but it will be somewhere. How can you imagine that something will disappear completely? Give me an example.

May be it has turned from one state to another? For example, water. We boiled it, it became steam. When we cooled it, it became water. We cooled more, it became ice. We now have a huge piece of ice, with which you can kill a man with. Meanwhile, we see that water is changeable. Steam is something unknown, what is it and where does it go. It soars up in the air and I neither see it nor know of it. It is disappearance and appearance in front of our own two eyes, relative to our feelings.

But nothing disappears and appears from something that doesn’t have the root, the previous state. It is only various transformations of these states that come and go in front of our eyes. That is why it seems to us that something didn’t exist before and exists now.

Question: What is correct: we have a soul or the soul has us?

We don’t have a soul. It’s very simple. The soul is a corrected altruistic state of a person similar to the Light. The soul is a part of the Creator from Above existing in a person. If the person has corrected his desires, even by 1 percent (not important on how much), it means that the soul already exists in him at 1 percent. If he has not, there is no soul.

Then what does he have? He has an animating force as any animal. A cat, a dog, a cow, they also live. And so do we in our body. How are we different from them? Is it that we want money, honor, glory, and knowledge? That we envy others? What else differentiates us from animals? Nothing. Why should we have a soul? What does it mean a soul in a person? A two-legged creature dies, and then what? There is something left. What is left? Why would you think that he has something? There is nothing, as in any animal.

Only if a person starts developing himself does he get altruistic desires. The altruistic desires are called the soul. These altruistic desires are being immediately filled with the Creator’s Light. That is why the soul is called a part of the Creator from Above. Because the Creator, the Upper Light immediately fills this corrected desire. The Creator is clothed in a person. That part of the Creator which is clothed in a person, in his corrected desire is called the soul. That’s why it is said that the soul is a part of the Creator.

The Creator is vast and only His small part comes into the corrected desire. That’s why it is said that a person has a part of the Creator. But it is only if he has the corrected desires. What if he doesn’t? Then there is no part of the Creator in a person, there is no soul. He was an animal and died as an animal.

But don’t you worry, you’ll have a chance, although it won't be the same animal as before.

Question: To start studying Kabbalah, how important is it to have faith in the Creator? What minimal academic education should we have to study Kabbalah?

How much and what is needed to start studying Kabbalah? It is desirable that a person had a general education: a bit of physics, math, chemistry, biology, drawing, geography and history. The reason being that it is easier to relate to him, to give analogies when talking about something. In other words, a general education is certainly needed.

Kabbalists have always maintained that to study Kabbalah, one first needs to learn all earthly sciences. It is precisely what is said: all seven earthly sciences. These earthly sciences include drawing, music, etc. In other words, sciences refer to everything that man generates in his expressions at our level, in our world.

It means that it's good if a person has a general education. Besides this, one needs nothing else. Most important is the desire. Nothing else.

Question (cont’d): And the faith in the Creator?

What faith in the Creator?

Question (cont’d): That there is the Creator.

How do you know that there is?

Question (cont’d): You told us.

O, my dear. What if I did not say?

Question (cont’d): I would not ask.

You wouldn’t ask. But would you believe it or not?

Question (cont’d): No.

That’s good. Then don’t believe. There is no faith. What to believe in? You do not believe in the Creator but in what I have told you. But where would I know this from? Somebody told me. As a result, we’ll come to someone from the market who tells everybody (laugh). Let’s call him a prophet and here it starts again.

So, don’t believe in anything. This is the first commandment. Don’t believe in anything and don’t believe anybody. Don't believe at all! The main thing is to dig out the truth when you don’t believe anybody or in anything. You are not required to be a believer. You are not required to do anything. Nothing is required of you but reading of genuine Kabbalistic books because they will attract the Upper Light upon you.

Look what Baal HaSulam writes. He writes that the Kabbalistic books are full of various words that nobody understands. They explain different processes of which we don’t see. They are written in a terrible old language. What should we read them for? Even still, what are the Kabbalists writing for? They actually see the Upper World. Why do they write? They write and tell us to read.

He then answers this question. Why do Kabbalists bind every person to study the science of Kabbalah if nobody understands a thing? I open up The Zohar and understand nothing. Why do I need to read it as well as Talmud Eser Sephirot or other books? He says that these books possess a special wonderful quality (called Sgula in Hebrew). Anybody who studies correctly from the authentic sources, even though they read and don’t understand what they read, but since they desperately want to know what is being said, they draw (by their longing) on themselves the Upper Light, the luminescence of the Upper Light. Because every person is guaranteed by the root of his soul that he would reach his highest spiritual state. And if he doesn’t reach it in this life, he surely attains it in the next one or the one after, but nevertheless reaches it someday.

And when the person has not reached his final state yet, even if he is on the path (especially if he is in the beginning of the path) the Lights that fill him in the final state now shine from afar during studies. It shines as if from afar, and therefore it is called Ohr Makif, the Surrounding Light. They prepare a person, as if clean him on the outside, prepare him to be worthy or corrected, to receive that Light inside. When this Light comes inside, it is said that the soul (Neshama) has been formed in him.

And that is why during the study a person learns and pronounces various words about the worlds, Sefirot (actually he is learning about himself, about his Upper state relative to the current one). By doing this he draws the Upper Light onto himself. That is it.

Hence, there is no need for faith. Don’t believe in anything or nobody. In general don’t do anything but read the right books, books in the language that you understand.

The right books are:

Abraham’s Sefer Etzira (The Book of Creation), but it’s impossible for you to read it.
Moshe’s Torah, which you won’t understand anyway, you will see a historical narrative in it.

Comment from the audience: So the Torah is useless?

It is useless as of now.

The third book is The Zohar which is also useless, you will not understand anything.
The fourth one is The Tree of Life by the ARI. This is his central book which explains the essence of Kabbalah. There you’d be able to begin to understand.

However, if you want to understand the ARI and The Zohar you should read Baal HaSulam who wrote the commentaries on all the works of the ARI and The Zohar. That is why we study Baal HaSulam’s writings as they have all previous sources with commentaries and explanations. Thus today we don’t need anybody else. He was the last Kabbalist of the 20^th century who prepared everything for us.

Thus, we need to only read these sources, his writings. It is not important if it’s translated to Russian or English. It is a guarantee that you’ll move forward correctly. If you start believing somebody else, read something else, then this is the end of the correct way. You are not in the position to determine if you are progressing correctly or not. Relative to what reference points can you say that? Is it relative to your mind that exists on the lowest level in this world? Are you able to say that you are moving towards spirituality? The entire human race thinks so. So what? That is why Kabbalists point out the one rule: study from the authentic sources and nothing else. You need nobody else and nothing else.

Question: You said that the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) is being drawn down only during the lesson. Nevertheless, we are holding the intent and working on dissemination during the remaining hours...

If you study the correct Kabbalistic sources (i.e. Baal HaSulam or Rabash) for at least an hour a day, then during the remaining 23 hours you are working, sleeping, doing chores, going to bank or doctors, God forbid, etc. If during this time you remember your study, if you manage to glance through some materials to tune yourself, hold yourself in that mood, that elevated state, then you are engaged in a constant work.

Question (cont’d): That means I’m getting the Light?

Yes, The Light is coming in constantly, only if you don’t forget.

Question (cont’d): Is that what I need to do? Berur (scrutiny, clarification)?

Everything depends only on your efforts. You are attracting the Light, it doesn’t shine by itself. You have the key.

Question: Is that possible that while you are explaining the material to somebody you suddenly realize that you start understanding what was not clear?

Certainly! When you explain something to somebody you start understanding more. This is not necessarily related Kabbalah. Take any material for example, start explaining him any law of physics, it will be the same. When a person starts explaining, he starts trying to explain it to himself in order to pass it to another person. It happens if he is explaining, not pressuring dogmatically, “It is so!” If a person explains, he needs to clarify the question completely, then to connect it with fulfillment, with an answer, live through it and then present it to another person. Naturally, this way he understands more. Hence it is desirable to explain.

Besides, the daily regimen is very important. When it says “study,” you study. Say you have your classes in the evening. So, when you get up in the morning for 15 minutes you should read something. You should prepare your reading the night before, not to look for it when it is time to read.

It doesn’t happen that I would get up, go to the class, sit at the desk and start reading. It is not important what to read or what to study. I sit down and ask, “What are we studying today?” For me it’s not important. But I must be internally prepared that now I begin a spiritual action.

That is why I get up 30-40 minutes before the class and read the original Baal HaSulam’s writings. It’s impossible without it. I learned it from my teacher; he had been doing the same. You can’t start the lesson without it. In other words, you must have some kind of spiritual breathing. Otherwise you won’t be able to listen, and half of the lesson you will just pass through.

The same applies in the morning. You’ve had your evening class then you prepare some piece for your morning reading. In the morning you get up and read it with no rush and no thoughts. You disconnect yourself from the whole world as you have these 15 minutes and nothing else. There is no forward and no backwards, there is nothing else, just those 15 minutes with the text.

You are only trying to understand, feel, connect with it without any side thoughts. Not a single side thought, nothing! This is a training that will lead you to results. You do it regardless of what happens, a mess at home, somebody is coming after you, God forbid, it is not important. These 15 minutes must be absolutely discrete, you and the Creator together, nobody or nothing else.

No thoughts about anything: personal well-being, health, avoiding accidents, gains on the markets, winning serious money at the lottery, etc. No personal thoughts, only connection with what's described in the text. After this start your regular day.

When you drive in your car, listen to the tape; when you take the train, read the book. Whenever you have free time, you being held accountable, all is “recorded” in a book. “And what have you done today? You were doing things, wasted time which could have been filled with Kabbalah.” These seconds are being counted. Free time is called the time of choice, your freedom of will. What do you fill it with, your freedom of will, your free time? That depends on you. This is what you are held accountable for. Here in New York with your traffic and distances, you have plenty of freedom of will. So, fulfill all this time.

You go to the class after work, it’s good and convenient. Instead of going home to your wife with her problems, you go to class. You are calm and free. After class go to sleep immediately, do not have conversations with anybody. The class ended, the meeting with the Creator ended, so go to bed immediately. Until you get home, listen to Kabbalistic music or a recorded lesson. When you get home, say: “Good night!”, turn your back and go to sleep. That’s it.

In the morning you do it again, read half a page prepared earlier. Try it. and you will see what will happen to you in a few months. I guarantee it. You’ll see what happens. Then we’ll start working together. As of today, I got nobody.

Question: How does the Kabbalistic music help?

I talked about it many times. Music is the same expression as words. When a person doesn’t have words, he expresses his feelings in sounds, in songs. Since we don’t understand the Kabbalistic words anyway, the Kabbalistic songs, music are closer to us. That’s why music affects us even better then words. We need to use it, listen to it and sing ourselves. We are to use everything that brings us back to the thought, to the correct goal, to the right direction. Current technology has been developed specifically to help us make the effort in quality and quantity.

Question: I’d like to get back to my original question about the ascent of the souls. Suppose a person reached the ultimate height, 125^th level and then he would never come back. Given that Kabbalah gets more and more disseminated among all people, more and more people would stay there. Will it lead to a reduction in the world population?

Only the egoistic growth of souls affects the world population. There is an egoistic soul and it develops in one's current incarnation. Suppose it becomes larger in its egoism many fold. A person alone is not able to correct that huge egoistic soul. Hence it gets divided for a several people. Four people are getting born instead of one and each of them corrects a quarter of the old soul.

So, don’t worry about those things. Whatever you have you should correct and the rest is not important. Whichever way they will get divided, they will get divided. Don't be sorry.

This way, the correction is getting easier by multiple divisions. This process allows to finally correcting the egoistic Kli that constantly develops in its egoism. We need to study it, there are many questions.

Question: Can it develop endlessly?

Read more, we’ll talk next time.

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Nuova Vita 691 - Intenzione e osservanza

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