He Revealed

He told me:  “Rabbi, there was one thing concealed before the Creator, which He revealed to the Supernal Assembly, and it is this.  When the concealed of all the concealed desired to reveal Himself, He first made one single point, and this point ascended and became a Thought.  With it, He drew all the forms and with it engraved all the images.

 

The Zohar

Page 38

Light Doesn’t Reach

How can a bad thought about the Creator be turned into a good one? We first need to understand that it is bad, so that we will think about its correction. That evil can be seen only with the Light of the Creator, through His greatness. However, if the Light of the Creator does not shine, we cannot see. In the beginning, we all think our thoughts are good. But we are in this world, below the barrier, in the dark, in a place where the Light doesn’t reach us.

 

Michael Laitman PhD

The Path of Kabbalah

Page 73

Soul Connects

For example, if my soul connects with someone else’s, then the question I had will present itself in that person’s emotions, while for me the question might have already been replaced by another.  These perpetual changes are called “reincarnations of the souls.”  We cannot understand how these jumps occur or why, but there is a certain degree of spiritual attainment that once there, reveals how souls bond and separate.  It can be compared to a welling forth, a continuous flow, transition from place to place and from one soul to another.  But there is no accurate definition for it.

 

 

Michael Laitman PhD

The Path of Kabbalah

Page 119

Impressions Follow Sensations

We must know that we cannot attain any reality as it is in itself.  Rather, we attain everything according to our sensations.  And reality, as it is in itself, is of not interest to us at all.  Hence, we do not attain the Torah as it is in itself, but only attain our sensations.  Thus, all of our impressions follow only our sensations.

 

Baal HaSulam

The Giving of the Torah # 66

Spiritual Force of Light

In other words, the soul is a spiritual force of Light; like a pulling force of a donkey that helps overcome egoistic desires and move from place to place in the spiritual world, onto a Higher Degree.  To raise MAN means to feel what is lacking and what needs to be attained–this is what man’s work is all about.

 

The Zohar

Page 256

Once in the Spiritual

The desires one works with in the spiritual world are bare, open;  they are not clothed in the costumes of our world.  A Kabbalist stops studying our world once in the spiritual world, and regards it as nothing more than a natural consequence, a branch of a spiritual root.  Of more interest are studies of the reason, the root, and the beginning of every desire, not its consequences in the lowest and corrupted degree.

 

Michael Laitman PhD

The Path of Kabbalah

Page 71

No Way Back

There is no way back: everything that happens is dictated by the necessity to bring every soul to its final state.  Only this goal determines the state of our world at every second, what happens to it in general and to each of us in particular.  The Creator created nothing for naught.  Rather, everything serves His purpose.

 

 

The Zohar

Page 45

Surroundings are Just Like Him

One can change his desires only if one wishes to change them.  Man is created an absolute egoist; he can neither adopt different desires from other people or from the surrounding world–as his surroundings are just like him–nor does he have any link to the spiritual worlds, since such a link is possible only through mutual properties.  The spiritual can only be perceived in altruistic desires.

 

Commentary – Dr Michael Laitman

The Zohar

Page 42

Our Essence

Our self is our essence, the only thing that characterizes an individual.  However, it is ever-changing, and what remains is merely an external, animate shell.  This is why it is said that every moment man is born anew.  Yet, if this is so, how should we regard one another, and how should we perceive ourselves?  How can we possibly “stabilize” anything within and outside of us if we are constantly changing, and all that we perceive is a function of our inner state?

 

The Zohar

Page 42

Just As In Our World

Just as in our world, the world itself and all its inhabitants, except man, are robots operated by their animal nature, rather than creatures with free will, in the spiritual worlds, all the spiritual beings, except for the soul, are operated by their spiritual nature.  Upon being born in our world, man, too, is an animal without freedom to act against his egoistic desire to receive pleasure.  He usually stays that way throughout his existence on earth, being not at all different from the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, automatically following orders of his inner master, egoism.

 

The Vision of Rabbi Chiya

The Zohar

Page 195