Mishkan Hakavana
Greenwork Business Park, Building E, Yakum, Israel
Phone: +972-9-7717806 Email: [email protected]Design: Amit Ayalon, Michal Sahar
Development: Mair Sadan, Jasmine Nackash
Creator
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Creator
"Love your neighbor as yourself" is not about us loving each other—that's not the goal. It's a means to achieve "And you shall love the Lord your God." It's a way to bring the Creator into presence. 'Loving your neighbor as yourself' is a necessary means, and that's why it's moral. If it were the goal, it would end at human need.
Being kind to others remains within the human criteria, but the whole definition of love doesn't belong to the human realm. How can I grow if I stay constantly within this line, this bathtub, this swamp?
How do I correct my view of the other? I understand that the Creator placed the other in my life so that I can repair the connection between us, so that I can see the connection between us. This is also how I can distinguish and separate from seeing the other as instrumental, as a subject that fulfills my intellectual, physical, or other desires. I detach them from that and turn them into a creation of the Creator. In other words, they were an object, but now they may become a little more of a subject.
The distinction here is: for what purpose? Not so that they can satisfy me, but so that together we can provide a place for the Creator's revelation. This view, which we try to accustom ourselves to, where everyone has this view of one another, is what Baal HaSulam speaks about in the essay on mutual responsibility.
In this view, where you were created by Him, you have a role within it—you have uniqueness. This means that true love can only occur there. To make the distinction, this is love for your soul more than for your physical form or your personality structure. When someone says they love you very much, they fell in love with your dress. Our existence is a shirt, it is a perishable garment, and we cling to it as if it defines our identity, as if our personality is 'who we are.' These are all garments, even shells, or what seems to me to be 'myself.' Myself is something else—it's my spirit.
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Adam
Rabbah Saphir Noyman Eyal and Rabbi David Ingber discuss the profound influence of Baal HaSulam on Rabbah's Kabbalistic studies and teachings. Rabbah explains that Baal HaSulam's interpretation of Kabbalah is often misunderstood, particularly in popularized centers, where it is stripped of its deeper meanings. She emphasizes that his teachings, which combine the heart-centered approach of Baal Shem Tov with the intellectual rigor of HaARI, offer a holistic understanding of humanity's relationship with the Creator. Baal HaSulam's focus on materialistic psychology resonates with the current generation, aiming to awaken the 'point in the heart', the spiritual consciousness that seeks liberation from the ego's captivity.
The Role of Kabbalah in Self-Discovery
When asked what Kabbalah offers to modern seekers, Rabbah emphasizes that Kabbalah reveals uncomfortable truths about oneself rather than about God. She explains that studying Kabbalah requires surrendering to the reality of the ego and recognizing that we operate primarily through self-interest, even in acts of kindness. The goal of Kabbalistic study is not to gain intellectual understanding but to shape one's identity and spirit through patient engagement with the light. This process, according to Rabbah, involves an ongoing practice of surrendering one's ego, although it may take years to fully comprehend this surrender and its implications.
Kabbalah vs. Buddhism: Expanding the Ego for Spiritual Growth
Rabbah contrasts the goals of Kabbalah and Buddhism, noting that while Buddhism aims to dissolve the ego, Kabbalah seeks to grow and expand it. In Kabbalah, a larger ego allows for greater capacity to connect with others and receive divine light. The key difference lies in Kabbalah's belief in a purpose-driven expansion of the ego, in contrast to Buddhism's focus on reducing the self. This expanded ego enables individuals to form meaningful connections with others and ultimately with the Creator. The conversation concludes with a discussion about how true spiritual connection is realized through balancing different aspects of the self and society, and how Israel has a unique role in contributing to global spiritual growth.
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Language
The working base is that the Creator wished humans to be His partners.
We need to understand forgiveness in its Hebrew sense, meaning how forgiveness allows us to move to the other side: not where we will feel more comfortable with ourselves (lighter, without anger, guilt, resentment) allowing different things to come into fruition, or be felt for ourselves). This is the will-to-receive talk, which is fine in itself, but it has nothing to do with forgiveness. Forgiveness, in Hebrew, speaks about sending away. Sending something away means that if you find yourself in a position (this relates to Yom Kippurim, since the beginning of the year - in Kabbalistic perception - relates to judgment, meaning: getting to know ourselves as a disturbance to the process of growth of creation). This goes back to the conversation that I had with Elyse (a member in the Mishkan): it's not going back into creating better equilibrium among ourselves, rather it is creating a common purpose that will allow us to send away (or to understand) that the conflicts between us relates to the bigger conflict we have with the Creator.
Forgiveness, on your part, needs to come with wishing not to continue to partake in the human disturbance (or shutting down) of the will of the Creator to bestow goodness. You have to send it away. And sending it away (not wanting to be part of it) doesn't automatically mean that we know how to be. We can’t have insurance on how to be in order to send something away. It needs a state of vacancy in us. Meaning, I want to be vacant of this, and I wish, ask, beg that what will take its place is His intention, not my intention to be better.
It relates to the article that you read, because forgiveness has to do with prayer. In Hebrew there are three levels that relate to this: atonement, forgiveness, and absolution. Even the Christians understood instinctively that absolution, though given today in the form of indulgence,or forgiveness, by the priest in the Catholic church, cannot [work]. It needs to be given directly from the Higher. No representative can give it to you.
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Creator
As a basic notion, shame in Hebrew (bushah) is a description of the condition that activates the power of return to the form that the Creator can actually bestow his light or his will upon us (shuva).
Nehama d'kisufa is the bread of longing-- everything that has to do with the way, on the most basic level, that we are able to connect to the purpose or to the reason of our existence and our life. The function of shame is to awaken one to this longing. The second function of it is to realize the state that we are in and to know that we are being garbed and dressed by the higher in order for the shame not to inhibit us from furthering the work.
I must be willing not to think, not to calculate with my vessels or with my abilities, but to calculate with the will of the higher. He wished this state of longing, of feeling inadequate in order to enable me to rise to a different level. Therefore, shame is not in order to punish oneself. If you punish yourself for your inabilities, you're actually rejecting the Creator.
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Adam
When there is an awakening to the lack of ability to feel, then you feel the weight of the yoke—of what is required of you. Then you start to ask.
Passover is a meeting point that evolved humanity into the state of recognizing what true freedom is. There is a choice not to live under the imprisonment of the law of the will to receive to oneself. On Passover we have a unique opportunity to ask to reveal the goodness that was hidden in creation so that we can pull the curtain up on that reality. This is an offer of redemption for all of humanity. -
Creator
The student discusses the concept of HISARON, emphasizing that it does not imply a deficiency or flaw in character, but rather a lack in perception or in spiritual awareness. This lack is not about material or physical shortcomings, like wealth or health, but rather the inability to recognize and align with the spirit's desires. The true 'want' comes from the soul's failure to perceive the spiritual dimension that gives life its deeper meaning. Without this awareness, life is akin to death, as there is no connection to the essence of the spirit. This disconnection leads to a focus on worldly desires, blinding individuals to the spirit’s true needs.
The student further connects this spiritual lack to the biblical story of Yosef, highlighting that his journey is not just about receiving privilege, but about discovering his spiritual purpose. The narrative emphasizes that life is not meant to be self-serving, but rather in service to others through spiritual growth. Yosef's development reveals the importance of overcoming ego and narcissism to align with the higher calling of the spirit. The challenges he faces symbolize the struggle to transition from a self-centered existence to a spiritually enriched one.
Finally, the student explores how Greek philosophy, which was embraced by the priestly class in ancient Israel, emphasizes human reasoning and the mind’s ability to understand all, including divinity. This focus on human intellect creates tension with the concept of faith, which calls for going beyond human understanding to divine perception. The story of Yehudit is presented as a rebellion against the over-reliance on human laws and intellect, promoting a return to a deeper spiritual sovereignty. This shift requires a change in consciousness, moving from rationality toward divine intelligence, which transcends human limitations and connects to the true essence of life.
The moral here emphasizes that the true deficiency is not a flaw in character but a lack of spiritual awareness. It highlights the need for individuals to move beyond worldly desires and rational thinking, aiming instead for a connection to divine intelligence that brings true life to the spirit.
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Adam
Shekhina, or Shakti, as a living essence. It’s not a mechanical creation, but a sensing, feeling entity. One can say that all of Creation, whether nature, animal, humans, plants, fauna, flora, whatever, is the sense tentacle of that Being, the end nerve of that Being. So it’s not only a force or power. This is where Ba’al HaSulam is speaking about neglect, because in a way the wholeness of it is our spirit, our true spirit. So the ego should grow in order to be able to contain, transform and actually bestow.
When we say Shekhina is actually the whole of Creation, it means it’s the membrane of connection between us. It means that each one, each spirit holder, is a point on the net, of what is Shekhina, and the way we can actually express the service for her is to connect, because we, I don’t want to say should, but the offer is that I see you not as something that is a reflection to my way, but you as a part of me--you are an essential part of my spiritual body. When I see you, I see the part which is actually my limbs, or that which is missing in me, and I am, that which is missing in you.
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Creator
Zohar allows us a unison with the thought of creation. The purpose of the Zohar, as it declares itself, is to rescue or to allow us a tool, a meeting point—a unison with the thought of creation which is reformation, or tikkun. This can take every spirit out of exile.
Only with the connection to the state that is expressed and exemplified by the Zohar community can we actually start to feel the presence of it and enable it to work upon us.
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Creator
QUESTION: I don't have problems with irritation as much as I do with ‘I don't understand’. When you read in Aramaic, I don't understand. When you read in Hebrew, I don't understand. When you speak in English, a lot of times I don't understand. And I know that others feel this way, I know that it's normal, but right now I'm needing to hear from you, your answer about the gap, and that gap is being the place of the work. I'm needing to hear that answer again, in a language around the lack of understanding.
RABBAH: So, there is a classic, beautiful and generous answer of Ba’al Hasulam to that question. Definitely Ba’al Hasulam understands that when we read Ha’Ari, or we start to read Zohar, which is so layered and concealed and needs so much preparation, the first thing we will meet is not understanding.
Ba’al Hasulam is saying that there is a law, or what I call ‘a term of engagement’, that if a person perseveres in not understanding, willing to be in that state and yet still holds in himself the wish to understand, he is drawing the light that belongs to his spirit into him.
Not understanding, even in English, means that you stand under something. Under Standing.
In Hebrew it goes straight to the core, which is LEHAVIN, to understand. LEHAVIN means that your heart can actually express the quality of BINAH. It means that we need to stand under BINAH in order to understand.The question is where to stand, so that you will be under?
Because when you say 'I want to understand', you stand under MALCHUT, under the will to receive to oneself.
When you say 'though I do not understand, I wish to understand' meaning, I wish to stand under something else, that can actually carve in me a vessel of understanding. This is the gap. So, first you say that even in English sometimes you don't understand. Even in Hebrew they sometimes don't understand. Not to mention Aramaic. I actually maintain that the Zohar did not do it accidentally, there's nothing that happens by accident in the way the Zohar is constructed. With Aramaic, it was actually to create the difference between Rear and Front. Aramaic usually performs. One can say, that which is the colloquial language of the time, which everyone speaks. And then the Hebrew is what gives it the face, and then you have the gap. This is how it's built.
Ha’Ari is using a different gap. It's the gap of the term ‘language of Kabbalah’, which creates a different gap from Hebrew. So when someone reads Ha’Ari and starts to understand it, he actually can see that he does not understand the root of the Hebrew, he understands Hebrew in the way he speaks it. So, not understanding is a tool.
Actually saying: ‘yes, I do not understand, I'm not able to understand it’ is a calling. I'm asking to understand, but not on my terms but rather in the gap between what it wishes to tell me and what I wish to know. So we have a triangle. There is another point in this which is, how the Right, or the proper, adequate Will is being created? It's not a given state. It's when we come to say that we need to understand, that we want to understand, not because we want to control it, but we want to understand so we can fulfill our duty. So, what the light is doing is actually not giving us the understanding. It's carving in us a tool, a need, that is built in a more adequate position to the light. So that the first extension of the light to us is always being uncomfortable in perception, in feeling, towards everything in Ourself.
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Basic Terms
Rabbah Saphir Noyman Eyal reflects on the concept of being "uprooted from the world" and reframes it as a profound spiritual blessing rather than a threat. This uprooting involves a shift from finding one's roots in the physical, corporeal world to being replanted in a higher, spiritual realm. Jealousy, often perceived negatively, can serve as a catalyst for this transformation when it stems from a desire for wisdom and connection to the divine. In this context, being uprooted signifies a redirection of one’s focus from self-centered pursuits to higher spiritual goals, allowing individuals to leave behind the limitations of their current reality and embrace a new, elevated perspective.
This process requires bravery and honesty, as it often involves recognizing one’s own self-interest and indulgence in prior pursuits, even in spiritual studies. The acknowledgment of these motivations becomes a turning point, inspiring the desire to transcend them and seek Lishma—a state of pure intention and devotion for the sake of the Creator.
By embracing the discomfort of being uprooted, individuals can move toward a deeper alignment with the Creator’s purpose, transforming their lives and perspectives in the process. This journey reveals the true potential of spiritual growth as a means to transcend the corporeal and connect with the divine.
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Adam
The Creator cannot be fully described within human language. In Hebrew, the term for Creator, Bo Ur-ee ("come and see"), is not a title or a sefira but a resonant calling—a sound that vibrates through creation. It transcends gender or form; it simply is.
Being is something we attribute to a will, and we speak of the Creator's will. Since a will belongs to someone, we associate it with a being, but this is our limitation. This notion arises from the first step in becoming acquainted with the language of higher learning, which differs from learning as we understand it. It is a language of higher perception.
As Baal HaSulam and the Ari teach through Torah, the definitions of light or sound are not about the light or sound themselves but about the vessel—what the vessel is capable of perceiving. Perception occurs at different levels, with the highest being the ability to hear the Creator's call, Bo Ur-ee, as a whole, resonating throughout creation.