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Hi Gianni
this morning I read a blog by Dr. Laitman titled “Does God Suffer?”: God, or the Creator, suffers greatly without us. He has an infinite desire to give, to bestow, to saturate all of creation with goodness, yet there is no one who truly wants it. Yes, we human beings want to be filled, to receive, but not from Him. That is the tragedy. What we see is almost like a war of nerves: who will be the first to give in, to confess love, to say sincerely, “I love you”? It is a game of exhaustion, of waiting for one side to yield.
this raised so many questions:
1. How do you know the Creator suffers? for human, the state of suffering will manifest in various “negative”e emotions such as sadness/grief/anger/despair etc, how is that different for the Creator? Bible describes God sometimes being angry or sad.
2. Lishma is to bestow without wanting any self benefit, but it seems like the Creator is wanting something from us? he wants us to receive for him, to bring contentment to him, otherwise he suffers, doesn’t that sounds like “Lo Lishma” ? or though it appears to be wanting from us, but it’s actually more talking about our side, if we do not do things for him, to bring contentment to him, we will not reach the the goal of creation. if so, why he would be suffering since he has no self-benefit in it?
not sure if I explained well, I may have asked similar questions, one moment it can be very clear, next moment it’s very confusing.
thank you so much!
I understand. You’re reasoning and thinking about the Creator as if His mind and heart would function via similar mechanisms to how ours do. About this, Kabbalists write that the Creator says, “Your thoughts are not as my thoughts.” And now I need to say something seemingly contradictory, but it’s not. The Torah, it is written, is written in the language of people. Meaning it’s written according to how we attain the Creator on various degrees of correction that the Torah writes about. So, on the degrees of correction and attainment of the Creator, I will attain Him in my Kli [vessel] as if now He is saddened, now He is wrathful. But that’s only how I feel Him in the state of my Kli. Here, we’re not speaking of perceptions that I should convinced myself of, that He’s like this or like that. But it’s written there, and you will attain those states as clearly as you see the sun in the morning sky.
But all His behaviors are of bestowal, relating to us for our benefit and only our benefit. He doesn’t think of Himself. How do Kabbalists know? This is what they attain.
this helps greatly.
believing that he only bestows for our benefits, even when I can’t make reason of it before I am corrected completely. is this also the faith above reason? I heard yesterday during a class that faith above reason is a spiritual state that’s always there, it means bestowing above receiving. can you explain more on faith above reason?
thanks for always being there for us!
Hi Gianni, I am so sorry, but I have another question. What happens if you force connection? If you urge people to connect and adapt to a frame , although their clearly say no? I feel this is coercion. And I learned coercion doesn‘t work. However, I feel there is a very thin line between overcoming and coercion. And I feel if you put enough pressure on people, they may say yes to things that they strongly disagree with. So, I am not sure how to go about issues like that. I have an idea that overcoming is beneficial. But if it’s coercion I feel it can be very harmful. I might be wrong though. So, I really need to ask this.
It again depends on if we’re talking about some beginner mistakes or something else. Are we talking about forcing some poor mother to turn on her camera while she’s nursing or something? We can’t obligate a woman to anything time-dependent because the world demands twice of her what it demands of a man – and besides, there is such a spiritual law. She can connect when and how she can, and the Creator judges her against her – meaning she herself is the metric ruler. Against her prior state, she is judged if she advanced another millimeter toward the connection. We can’t tell on the outside. Only to the extent she said, “If I’m not present Monday through Friday, call me, knock on my door, help me to not lose sight of the goal,” we can serve her desire. We can ask such things of the friends, about ourselves; but we can’t do the converse and tell a friend, “You should be here Monday through Friday, have your camera on” and so on. We can agree generally and raise the importance of the fact that having our cameras on is an expression of our desire to connect, with all the means that we have – since, after all, would you choose a zoom, let alone a zoom without your camera on, if given the chance to speak with your cute darling beloved small child? So, if we aspire to be like organs in one body – that’s even greater love than any love we can imagine. So, of course I’d turn on my camera; of course I’d speak in the workshop like I’d speak, even at 2 in the morning if woken up by my darling child who knows no better than to wake me. We’re aspiring for love. Real love. And here, that will mean reaching love of the Creator at the same time. Having said that, we also need to understand that we don’t understand the situation of the other women. And, even what I’ve said above, we have to be sure we didn’t say it to target someone and teach them to stop neglecting the ten, slacking, and so on – since then, that intention will be all that is heard. Imagine each of them as your beloved daughter that is tentatively flirting with the path of Kabbalah and has a chance to now correct her soul during this lifetime, how gentle, careful, and thoughtful you’d be to push to hard, so as not to turn her off and return her to the darkness of corporeal listlessness for another lifetime. So, I should pressure myself, and only give the friends the pressure they ask for. I already pressure them greatly by showing a great example in every moment, as this sets a high bar, and we’re built to want to reach a bar another sets.
An there is a last question, and I really hope you can help there… what does it mean to overcome “above reason”. If we work above the shattering, but we don´t clean up the mess we have created, I don´t see how this is not going to make us stumble and fall over hte chattered pieces we have jsut created. Same if we cover things with love. Thinking, a friend may do whatever they wish, we rise above that level, and leave the mess as it is… how will there be any growth an learning? I feel it´s like a recipe for falling over again and again. So, how do I have to relate to it? do I blindly cover? Do I just forget and move on? Because thinking… a friend is hurtful or harming the ten or whatsoever, and it´s just a matter of time this will happen in any group…. how can this be growth rather than ignoring the shattering, and fall right into the next void? I don´t midn falling, if there is learning. But I really don´t wish to redundantly keep falling into the same traps as a ten. That would only recreate the same level over and over again. (Then I could just as well stay in corporeality, where there is plenty of that).
You have to agree on the rules your ten follows. Though they’re practically all pre-defined and if there are questions you can reach out here or to the Arvut team. Probably, if there are issues, it’s because we’re writing our own Torah. Once we clear up these confusions, we all have to go Above Reason on everything else. It’s not sweeping it under the rug; it’s putting it in a box. I know I’m stuffing it there, and we agree that we’re going above it in order to rise upon it. Some things’ correction is just to be risen upon – for now. And my correction for now is only to scrutinize clearly and finally that this is all there is to do about it. It takes scrutiny to arrive at this certainty each time, enough to rise above reason. Rightly so: if there’s something you can do by the strength of your hand, do it. But after I examined the laws of reality, the rules of Rabash, my perception of reality, and made several efforts in various directions, I saw that I have only to go Above Reason.
Gianni, I have got another question. What does it mean to say the friends are our mirrors? I mean… it is very easily said; and basically it is a good excuse for friends in a turmoilt to not take responsibility, but blame it on the friend or the creator. I don´t really understand the meaning of this law and how to relate to it. Because if it´s corrupted and just used as an excuse, it can be so harmful.
One can only use this on himself, to excuse the friends in his eyes, since they are a reflection of his qualities. If we think about it, we’ll see how we can’t tell anyone else to obey the commandment underlying this: they are all my qualities, my approach. So, there’s nothing to tell anyone ever. I should tell only myself. Otherwise, I’m just falling off a cliff at a deeper level of the principle.
Can we say in other words that our part in the work is to discover, feel and admit/accept the Aviut of the will to receive and to transpone it into the intention in-order-to-bestow? Is this our work? This transposition of coerceness into the right intention?
Hi Gianna
I Rabash article: According to What Is Explained Concerning “Love Thy Friend as Thyself”, it says: ” According to what is explained concerning “Love thy friend as thyself,” all the details of the 612 Mitzvot [commandments] are contained in this rule. It is as our sages say, “The rest is its commentary; go study.” This means that by keeping the 612 Mitzvot we will be rewarded with the rule, “Love thy friend,” and following that, the love of God.”
my question is, should we study and practice those 612 Mitzvot? It seems like those are the means to get us to the goal of love thy friend as thyself, on top of corrected intention?
thanks as always
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