Question: Martin from Czechoslovakia is writing, “I don’t understand why someone would want to reach such a state. Why would I want to nullify myself before someone I don’t know, and who sends me suffering?” He adds another sentence, “If I’m a thief, then at least I can be proud of that, but who wants to be a slave?”

Answer by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD: I agree with him. I have no problem in saying that he’s right. “A person’s pride will humiliate him.” The matter is in defining what is it to be a “slave,” what is it to be a “man,” what is it to be a “woman,” what is it to be a “thief,” etc. It’s a matter of definition.

“Slave” means knowing that the will to receive now controls me. That it controls, and not that I’m the landlord. I firstly differentiate myself from my ego, and see that this ego controls me. I want to see like this or like that, and my nature comes and makes of me whatever it wants. I see how this occurs in humanity: We want to try, to be in something different, but we’re incapable. Our nature conquers us and makes of us everything.

So I’m a slave to my nature, right? A slave. So he can already stop thinking that he’s a man, and that he’s free. He’s not free, but he’s blind to that. He doesn’t see how he’s completely addicted to his nature, and that he’s a beast carrying out commands. That’s one thing.

The other thing is that if he were to know that this slavery he’s currently in ruins him and eats away at him, then that would end his life without any compensation. If he’d look at it properly, then he’d understand that there might be another state, that it’s possible to exit it. It doesn’t matter what state he’d enter into, but the main thing is that he’d exit his current state. Why wouldn’t it matter what state he’d enter into? We hate the state of bestowal a lot, but I need to hate my current state more than the state of bestowal, so how do I do it?

So he’s right. I don’t know who the second landlord is. I only have the opportunity to sell myself to this second one, and thus I’d disconnect from the first. So I need to choose between them – that’s my choice. If by doing so, I don’t feel myself as turning into a slave of the second essence, of bestowal, then it’s not a decision.

Decision – I’m free in that I can choose between the two. Suddenly one identifies oneself within a very small range, a decision of whom to belong to, and thus begins his work. It’s a very internal, psychological thing that a person goes through, and he begins understanding that he’s sold to one or to the other. He begins building himself in that. There are many things here. That’s already the middle line.

Taken from today’s daily lesson, on Baal HaSulam’s 18th Igeret (Letter) from 1926.

Today’s Daily Lesson Featured:

• Preparation on a quote by Rabash (Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag)
  Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio
• Baal HaSulam’s 18th letter from 1926
  Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio
• Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 4, Part 12, Page 1201, Item 194
  Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio
• Baal HaSulam’s article, “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot”
  Download: WMV Video | MP3 Audio

…with commentary by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, as well as questions by students of Bnei Baruch and live viewers on Kabbalah TV.

The lessons will be continuing daily at 8:10pm until 11pm EST, Saturdays through Thursdays, on Kabbalah TV, and will be available for free download in the Kabbalah Media Archive.

Kabbalah LIVE Video Q&A Celebration
Wednesday, September 02.09 – 8:00pm EST (U.S.)

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

Machsom (Hebrew for “barrier”) is the barrier that stands between this world and the spiritual world. Here’s what Rav Michael Laitman wrote about the Machsom in this must read post…

A question I received: You’ve been the leader and mentor of the Bnei Baruch group for nearly twenty years. Maybe it’s time to make a public summary? How many people have crossed the Machsom over this period of time, and how has the world changed as a consequence? Or is this no longer the objective today? Are you now simply trying to change the world without your students’ personal correction?

I understand that this question will be deleted, but at least someone will read it. But if you do decide to publish an answer, then please don’t beat around the bush: give us real numbers and results, and the actual improvement in the world.

My Answer:

* Number of students in the world – around 2,000,000.
* Number of groups in the world – 73.
* Number of people who have crossed the Machsom – 19.
* Number of people who are about to cross the Machsom – 210. The rest will cross it by the year 2012.
* Annual growth of students – 700-900%.
* Number of hopeless students – 1. It’s you.

Related Materials:
*Register for Free Online Kabbalah Courses
*Your First Course in Kabbalah

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

In this Kabbalah Today issue you will find articles on the current economic crisis and the upcoming U.S. elections.
Also, just in time to close the period of submissions to Project 10^100 by Google an article on Google’s apparent success in the last couple of years.

To view previous issues of Kabbalah Today visit the KabbalahToday website

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

1. Desires of a spiritual nature that want to rejoice selfishly in the Creator.
Rav Michael Laitman, PhD in the article “Selected Topics in Kabbalah.”

2. Uncorrected desires. Impure desires. Low, animal lusts.
Rav Michael Laitman, PhD in the interview “Heaven and Hell.”

3. Shinui Tzura (difference of form) separates and departs spirituals (see the definition for What is Separation?). Know that this Hofchiut Tzura (opposition of form) from one end to the other separates and drives them to the opposite ends until there isn’t any suction between them.

You already know that there is only a will to bestow in the Ohr Elyon (Upper Light), and not to receive even a bit. The Klipot are of completely opposite Tzura (form), meaning want only to receive and swallow everything; they haven’t any will to bestow whatsoever. For that reason they are separated from the Life of Lives and are therefore called “Dead” and so is anything that cleaves to them.

Baal HaSulam, in Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 3: Table of Questions and Answers for the Meaning of the Words.

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

Rav Michael Laitman, PhD commentates on an article from Rabash’s Shlavey HaSulam, providing the spiritual definitions to the terms “Israel” and “Nations of the World.”

Video clip taken from the lesson on Rabash’s article #25 from Shlavey HaSulam, Volume 4 (19 September, 2007)
Download the full lesson: wmv video | mp3 audio (55 min)

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

Click here to view the video at Kabbalah TV

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

From Today’s Daily Lesson

Today’s lesson began the first in a series of studying Part 1 of Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), by Baal HaSulam.

In his commentary, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD stressed the importance of understanding the correct definitions of the spiritual terminology in this opening part of the text. One needs to attune one’s focus on Baal HaSulam’s definition of each word one comes across in order to properly attune oneself to the text’s spiritual meaning, otherwise one can easily misinterpret the text with corporeal, physical meanings.

Rav Laitman placed special emphasis on the spiritual world (which Talmud Eser Sefirot describes) being completely disconnected from the corporeal, physical world that we perceive through our senses. Therefore, in order to base one’s approach to the study of Talmud Eser Sefirot correctly, and not mix up spirituality with corporeality, understanding the spiritual definition of each term presented in Talmud Eser Sefirot is a must.

To aid the reader of Talmud Eser Sefirot establish the correct approach to the study and clarify the spiritual meanings of the terms presented in the text, Baal HaSulam included tables of questions and answers for the meanings of the spiritual words at the end of each part. In this lesson, Rav Laitman and the students of Bnei Baruch present a very good example for students interested in delving deeper into the study of Kabbalah, of how to use these tables of questions and answers together with the body of the text to best absorb the text’s spiritual meaning.

The lessons on Talmud Eser Sefirot will be continuing daily at 9pm EST on Kabbalah TV, and will be available in the Kabbalah Media Archive.

Download the full lesson: wmv video | mp3 audio

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

Two things make up a spiritual degree: a desire for something and the intention to use it for the Creator. (p. 91 “The Reality Cycle” in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah)

What are the Sefirot?

The whole business with the Sefirot may sound confusing, but it is less so if we remember that they stand for desires. Keter is the Creator’s desire to give Light (pleasure); Hochma is our reception of the pleasure; Bina stands for our desire to give back to the Creator; ZA is our desire to receive in order to give to the Creator; and Malchut is our pure desire to receive, the actual Root of the creatures – us. (p. 89, “Before the Big Bang” in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah)

Bad

There is no bad in Kabbalah; it’s all a question of how we relate to the situations we’re in. Pharaoh is considered an evil force. But Kabbalists inverted the Hebrew letters of the name Pharaoh and found that it really means Oref H (the posterior side of the Creator). In other words, Pharaoh is really the Creator goading you harshly to progress to spirituality because you are not pushing yourself fast enough. If you push faster, you will find that Pharaoh is your friend. (p. 141, “Letters, Numbers, Names” in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah)

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

The messiah is a spiritual force. It is the Light that penetrates self-aimed human desires to correct them so that they become altruistic, that is to say, identical to those of the Creator. In our world all spiritual forces are manifested in material garments.

For example Rabbi Shimon, the Ari and Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) represent a spiritual force radiating the Light of correction. This force appears in our world as a man, a Kabbalist, a professor, a book author. Therefore, the Messiah is a guide who becomes progressively accepted by humanity. Humanity will follow the path pointed by the Messiah because evil and suffering will be felt by all, and there will be no other way out. People stand on a level where they cannot imagine the coming of the Messiah as a Light but only as a human leader. But for Kabbalists, the Messiah is the spiritual force of correction (in the image of the world of AB SAG).

Rav Michael Laitman, PhD in “Selected Topics in Kabbalah“

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

We are continuing to post responses to the “Misconceptions of Kabbalah” competition…

ENTRY SENT BY JANNET: My encounter with Kabbalah was when I went to the library and out of curiosity borrowed the book entitled “Qabbalah Magic.” It told of what magic you can achieve and things you can acquire by performing all these rituals. However I didn’t finish the book as I felt it wasn’t what I was looking for.

Myth: Kabbalah Is All About Magic

FROM THE BOOK: It is a common mistake for people to think that Kabbalah deals with fortune telling, revelations of the past, and the study of the present. The definition of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to people in this world today, not after death. Perhaps some draw this parallel as a result of the perception of secrecy that surrounds Kabbalah.

Either way, Kabbalah has no connection to magic. In fact, Kabbalah forbids fortune telling or any attempt to find out about the destiny of the physical body. The body is temporary, negligible, and, thus, insignificant. It is not worthy of attention beyond the question of how it serves the soul.

pp. 55/6 in The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kabbalah by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD and Collin Canright.

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

1. The sum total of sensations that a person receives through the five senses.
Source: The Perception of the World

2. The lowest level of entirely egoistic desire.
Source: The Perception of the World

3. The feeling of extreme remoteness from the original cause, of absolute inability of even minimal contact with it, while realizing its existence and longing to reveal it entirely.
Source: The Language of Kabbalah: Fundamentals of Terminology

4. Where the “desire to receive” reaches its final development and receives completely separated from the light.
Source: Pticha—Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, item 2

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

The origin of the name “Babel” is the word Balal (Hebrew: confused, mixed), named after the confusion of the tongues (Genesis 11:9): “Therefore was the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”

Click here to view this definition in Kabbalah Today issue 4

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

Student: It’s unclear how the Partzufim of BYA receive the Light of Hochma. Baal HaSulam doesn’t explain it.

Rav Laitman: That’s right. Baal HaSulam doesn’t explain it nor does he intend to. This is the problem: We think that Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) is an explanation of the Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria).

Baal HaSulam doesn’t explain the Ari at all. He wants to direct us in how to study the Ari to reach the goal: to correct ourselves and then to discover what the Ari discusses in our Kelim (vessels/tools/receptacles), because you will never know otherwise.

It is literally impossible to bring you a picture of what is happening in the world of Atzilut. If he does explain, sometimes, that some things happen somehow by different technical actions, he also doesn’t intend to give a technical explanation so that you will learn that the will to receive and the will to bestow need to be in mutual bestowal to one another, that the Upper Light will correct the will to receive, and so on and so forth.

Why would he explain spirituality? It’s impossible to depict. At the end of it all, Baal HaSulam strives so that you will direct yourself toward revelation by the explanation. This is his entire hope; that you will reach him by your own corrections, and then you’ll discover what is being discussed.

If your Kli (vessel/tool/receptacle) is not on a degree that is written here, in the same state as the world of Beria, Yetzira or Atzilut, then you won’t understand what is written, in each and every sentence. So you have to be brought. His entire trouble is to bring you there. Not to simply “blah blah” talk about it. It’s not a world where I can tell you about a certain state, a certain place and you depict it and imagine it to yourself…

This is how it is in our world, however, in the spiritual world you’re incapable of imagining it. It’s the opposite; it’s not worthwhile for you to imagine it, because all these imaginations give you satisfaction. Therefore, he has completely no intention of bringing you any knowledge—only Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light), as he mentions in item 155 of “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot.”

Rav Michael Laitman, PhD in the lesson on Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), Volume 6, Part 16, item 107: wmv video | mp3 audio (55 min)

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

“Envy, lust, and honor bring a man out of the world” (Mishnah, Avot 4:21), Kabbalah explains that this declaration made by the Mishnah sages isn’t meant in a bad way. On the contrary, it means that if you know how to work with these desires, they will elevate you beyond your present reality, your present world, and let you into the spiritual world.

Click here to read full article

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

TORONTO (Sunday, 13 May): In a lecture aimed at the students of the ARI Online Education Center course, Rav Michael Laitman, PhD lectured on the essence and the purpose of Kabbalah, its role in human evolution and specifically in the world today (aired live on Kabbalah TV’s Live Stream).

As Rav Laitman motioned to open the lecture with the first sentences of Baal HaSulam’s article The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah, he quickly detoured, stating in a lot simpler words “What is it?” then proceeding to give his modern version of Baal HaSulam’s definition in the article:

Definition of Kabbalah:
“The wisdom of Kabbalah is the revelation of nature’s laws that are systematically arranged before us so as to bring us to the recognition of the Creator.” –Rav Laitman (from the lecture)

Rav Laitman continued the lecture with a discussion of how nature arranges life on the still, vegetative, animate and speaking degrees of nature, how a person living in this world perceives evolution through this arrangement, and how we develop through these degrees in order to achieve blissful, eternal life, perfectly balanced with nature.

The following quote by Rav Laitman (from the lecture) defines Kabbalah’s approach to the state we are being led to, and the ultimatum that Kabbalah states nature is placing before humanity in our era:

Kabbalah on Balance with Nature:
“Balance with nature is expressed in the wisdom of Kabbalah by the words ‘equivalence of form.’ In other words, nature’s form is in giving everything, and man wants to receive everything, and thus our nature is opposite from nature in general. We therefore have to bring man to the degree of the Giver, to equalize with it. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, the degree of the Giver is called ‘equivalence of form’ or Dvekut (adhesion).

This is how, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, we define the final goal that we should reach. If we achieve it, we will have an eternal, perfect and tranquil life, as is nature itself. If we do not achieve it, nature will constantly pressure us until we completely improve and correct ourselves.”

The rest of the lecture was a Q&A session between Rav Laitman and the ARI Online Education Center students, questions dealing with how we should relate to violence, the role of religion in humanity’s evolution, how we should relate to Kabbalistic books, as well as many other questions.

Follow the links for the full lecture:
Rav Michael Laitman, PhD, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.” Lecture presented at the Toronto Bnei Baruch Education Center (13 May, 2007):
wmv video | mp3 audio (86 min)

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

Rav Michael Laitman, PhD describes the terms “Tikkun” (Correction) and “prayer” in Kabbalah, how one relates to another, and what the purpose of prayer is in Kabbalah.

Click here to read article

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

What is the Essence of Kabbalah? 04:31
Kabbalah has been clouded in confusion, legend, myth & misrepresentation because authentic Kabbalah has been hidden for thousands of years … until today!

Transcript of “What is the Essence of Kabbalah”:
Well, there has been a lot of confusion, legend myth & misrepresentation surrounding the true nature of Kabbalah because it’s been shrouded in mystery for thousands of years, and it’s called the Hidden Science for 3 reasons.

1. In the past Kabbalists taught only a few worthy, highly developed people in each generation who already possessed inner qualities not developed in humanity as a whole until recently. These qualities allowed them to understand and use it correctly. So it was purposely hidden by the Kabbalists.

2. All Kabbalistic books are written using words that seem to refer to things and people but in fact not a single word in any Kabbalistic book is talking about the physical world, and if you don’t learn how to read these books from a Kabbalist in the authentic teaching lineage, you simply can’t understand them. No matter how bright you are, you’ll end up with a product of your imagination and nothing more.

3. Kabbalah reveals the purpose and nature of this system we call life, and unless a person has a powerfully real and serious need to ask this very question, they can’t hear the answer, even if it’s shouted at them. But today people all over the world are seeking out Kabbalah.

So let’s clear up the misunderstanding. First lets look at what Kabbalah is not. It’s not and has nothing to do with…

religion,
magick,
mysticism,
witchcraft,
divination,
cults,
healings,
meditation,
self-help,
philosophy,
theory,
parapsychology,
ESP,
telepathy,
clairvoyance,
new age,
psychokinesis,
superstition,
dream interpretation,
phrenology,
tarot cards,
mantra’s,
yoga,
red strings,
holy water,
blessings,
Judaism,
Islam,
Christianity,
Buddhism,
Hinduism,
Sufism, or anyism,
past life regressions,
holistic medicine,
numerology,
faith healing,
aromatherapy,
secret societies,
reiki,
hypnosis,
channeling,
transmutation,
phrenology,
astrology,
astral travel or projection,
lucid dreaming,
spiritualism,
communicating with the dead,
out of body experiences,
magnetism,
voodoo,
freemasonry,
theosophy,
reflexology,
UFOs,
creationism,
fanaticism,
or any other belief…

…although many of the above mentioned have borrowed and misinterpreted the principles of Kabbalah over the years.

So now, what is it really?

Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag defines Kabbalah this way:

This wisdom is no more and no less than a sequence of roots, which hang down by way of cause and effect, in fixed, determined rules, weaving into a single, exalted goal described as “the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures in this world.” *

Which means there is an upper force and then there are governing forces that descend from this upper force and bring about our existence in this world. We’re familiar with physical forces, such as gravity, electromagnetism and the power of thought. But there are forces of a higher order that act while remaining hidden from us. Just like we know the effects of electricity, but can’t see it and don’t we don’t really know what it is.

The ultimate comprehensive force—the Creator—is the sum of all of the world’s forces and the highest level in the line of higher governing forces.

This upper force gave birth to five upper worlds and a barrier separating them from our world.

The science of Kabbalah doesn’t study our world and the people in it, the way traditional science does. It investigates everything that exists beyond that barrier.

There is nothing other than forces descending from above in accordance with precise laws. These laws, as Ashlag writes, are fixed, absolute and everywhere. Ultimately, they’re all directed so that we can reveal the governing force of nature even while we exist in this world.

Click here to view this video at Kabbalah TV

* Quote taken from Ashlag, Yehuda. “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.”

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

In today’s lesson on Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), Rav Laitman defined “spirituality” and “soul” in relation to a student’s question (19:00).

Student:What’s the difference between the 6,000 years and the 600,000 souls? Does it have the same weight?

Rav Laitman: You think about spirituality as if it’s defined and deterministic like corporeality: “Here is a cup, so I call it ‘a cup,’ and there is a book, so I call it ‘a book’… and ‘a soul is a soul’”…

There is no such thing in spirituality.

Spirituality is only the interweaving of forces and nothing else.

You’re a building engineer and have bricks on the mind (laughter). Ask a person who works with computers if he or she can define what’s inside the computer. Ask this person what matter he/she’s dealing with… It’s evasive. Where is matter within the computer? There’s RAM and different memories being burned, the existence of movements and connections of things creating different forms out of themselves… this is how it is in spirituality.

Spirituality is a multitude of different forces and vectors, connecting among themselves, creating new forms time after time until they reach their initial form—the adhesion of the creature with the Creator. This has been preplanned and already exists in the Rosh (mind), because the end of the action is in its initial thought. Moreover, we need to reach this.

Until we do reach this, all these forces and vectors operate in the billions—an infinity of forms and connections among them.

Where is the soul in this picture? Time after time, consciously and unconsciously, and in each and every one of us, there is a renewal. We live this renewal of these forces; we sense and live in a part of it, and there is a part we don’t sense.

You are a multitude of forces, interconnecting and operating, but what do you perceive out of this magnificent totality? You only perceive a very small, primitive stratum, and this is what you call “I am Gaby,” “I am Michael,” “he is Nesse” and so on. We name and sense ourselves like this.

Internally, however, each and every one of us is a soul. What is the soul? It is the entire Kli (vessel/receptacle) of Infinity and we have to find out how this Kli is adhered to its Creator.

In the meantime, I discover something tiny, false and opposite called “a dream.” The sages who have reached this vision say about it “I have seen an opposite world.”

We don’t feel anything of this great reality. It’s like you have a great big balloon. This balloon is you adhered to the Creator. You only feel a spot on this balloon, and you call this spot yourself, your life and your world. Within this balloon are a constantly renewing interconnection, circulation and revolution of forces. And at each moment, at each second, you can define this as a new soul, a different soul. There is a unique connection between these forces, in their resemblance to their Creator, in their fulfillment and absence of fulfillment. There is no such thing as a defined soul.

You may tell me: “Maybe you’re right, but I read in the book Shaar HaGilgulim (The Gate of Reincarnations) different stories about the soul coming from one person who was a merchant, and later on to another person who was righteous, and then to a third person who was a thief, and a fourth person who was something and someone else…” So is a soul something defined in a person or not? We thus need to understand these stories, because this Hollywood-like storytelling version is far from understanding what is really written there. So for the time being, you can take that in each and every stage there is a change, a new soul. And so it is written “each day a man is a new man.”

Rav Michael Laitman, PhD in the lesson of Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), Volume 6, Part 16 (May 3, 2007): wmv video | mp3 audio (38 min)

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It

What is Ego?

Student: What is the ego? Can you define it?
Rav Laitman: The ego is what I feel as self-relaxation, a void, a deficiency, a desire… it’s a socket or a depression in me that’s filled. I feel the filling of that absence as pleasure.
• There’s a deficiency which is filled.
• The sensation of deficiency is called “pain.”
• The sensation of the deficiency’s filling is called “pleasure.”
There are four definitions: deficiency, fulfillment, pain/suffering, pleasure. (50:13)

What is Shame?

Rav Laitman: There is shame above the ego and shame within the ego.
“I’m ashamed. I stole, and everything was fine but now I got caught. Oh, how people will talk about me, it’ll be in the paper and all kinds of places… so I’m ashamed. Am I ashamed because I stole? No. I’m ashamed because I was caught.” –That’s shame below the Machsom (barrier).

Shame above the Machsom is from—“Am I giving? Do I love?”—and the shame is in the discovery that I’m not like this way in every way. It is shame from a lack of bestowal. (55:50)

Rav Michael Laitman, PhD in the lesson on Baal HaSulam’s article “The Revelation of Godliness (Matan Torah)” (April 29, 2007) wmv video | mp3 audio (59 min)

• What is “the Machsom” (“the barrier”)?

• Click here for the Kabbalah TV Live Stream, featuring the live daily lessons given by Rav Michael Laitman, PhD.

Click Here to Sign Up for a Free Kabbalah Introductory Course – Starts Soon!

Tweet This Post  Delicious  Facebook  Stumble It