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Shamati 9. What Are Three Things that Broaden One’s Mind in the Work
I have a question about Shamati 9 that has been on my mind. I’ve encountered the phrase “envy, lust, and honor bring a person out of this world” before, and I thought I understood what these terms meant. However, after reading Shamati 9, my understanding has been completely turned around, particularly with regard to the concept of “lust.”
In Kabbalah, it often surprises me how the definitions of concepts are different from what we might initially think. Could you provide a concise explanation of what “envy, lust, and honor” mean within the context of this method, particularly as they are described in Shamati 9?
Here’s the quote from the article that I’m referring to:
“Obtaining that is through envy, lust, and honor, which bring one out of the world. Envy means through envy in the Holy Shechina, regarded as zeal in ‘The zeal of the Lord of hosts.’ Honor means that one wants to increase the glory of heaven, and lust is by way of ‘Thou hast heard the desire of the humble.'”
Thank you for your guidance.
Hello, I have recently been drawn to the prayer Avinu, particularly this version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DYCO1vOXMA&ab_channel=JoshuaAaron, but I don’t know if that is in line with our studies, and I would like to know more about it’s origins. Can you please point out some materials I can read and advise?
Thank you!
Hi Zorica,
It’s in line, if you’re attracted to it, since it was written by holy Kabbalists, though it’s not explored much in our writings. As you know, it’s not that each excerpt from the ancient sources – such as the Siddur, the Talmud, and so on – finds commentary in Kabbalistic sources. Why? Firstly, those should be taken as-is, even though there are deeper interpretations we discover on the way. The Kabbalists wrote them that way, in that language, even though they could have written them in Kabbalistic language. The second reason is that their Kabbalistic interpretations may not relate to our zone of proximal development, even if they seem interesting to us. But we can still read them in a more literal way. The passages that Baal HaSulam and Rabash do want to put in front of us, they interpret, sometimes expansively, in their writings.
This post is somewhat related though:
https://laitman.com/2024/06/what-is-the-creators-name/
How do I maintain my connection to the ten despite being buffered every day by the influence of the general public? I guess it is to fortify the importance, but I am disturbed by the behaviours of the general public and wonder why people don’t care for spirituality.
That’s because they depend on an awakening from the Creator that we have and they don’t. That, we can’t give them. Only if someone has the awakening and asks me to remind and renew it in them, I can help.
As for my awakening, I can renew it by returning to connection over each obstacle I’m sent, seeing each as unique and special, a chance to raise the broken sparks of connection out of specifically that state.
His weakness is that He created a creation that has to help itself by asking Him for help and He can’t do a thing if we don’t turn to him. And we can turn to Him except out of a need for connection between us. So you see what a problem He has.
That means it is a two way thing, I can’t connect with the friends by myself except I ask for help from the Creator. And also, the Creator can’t connect me if I don’t ask for help. Is that right? It gives me a sense of dependency and not trying to connect the friends on my own thinking.
Is there any specific way to ask the Creator to connect the friends?
Hi AspiringAltruist,
That’s almost the entire work in the group so I can’t give a complete answer. A short one is that we need to become sensitive to the friends, so that we will learn what will inspire them. It’s an art. At the same time, we should always see them as the greatest of the generation, and envy them like a father envies that his son becomes greater than him while also wishing for this success (as opposed to wishing to lower him). This causes us to lust for the goal in the proper and required way.
Hi, I’m a little conflicted. I think I heard the Rav say that we should just live our Corporeal life as normal, and not worry about changing anything. Maybe I am misunderstanding what the Rav was saying…
1) If what I am learning on the path of Kaballah and truly want to work toward spiritual altruism; but my daily life to survive in this world requires reception (because my business needs to turn a profit), I feel very incongruent. How do you separate the two, if that is what we are supposed to do?
2) If I do the work with the help of the Rav, authentic sources and the friends and are working in the spiritual world, because our world as Tony would put it is the world of results, how does that affect our day to day life if at all?
Hi Greg,
You eventually resolve this inner dilemma without compromising your business needs. Baal HaSulam’s teacher was a successful businessman, but no one knew that he was a Kabbalist – and there were many others like that. While a Kabbalist has a biological body, he has to exist under the conditions the Creator made on the level of reality that body inhabits. If around me is a capitalist system, I have to work accordingly – like what’s normal among my contemporaries. And without injecting Kabbalistic principles into it. That is, we’re not bringing spirituality down into this world, but rather elevating to the spiritual world. If we want to correct this world, it’s all in the intention. Later, everyone will see that only that needed to be changed, and all that we did – wars, suffering – was only to avoid changing that. That’s why the wisdom of Kabbalah is all about changing the intention from reception to bestowal.
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