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Good Morning! One of the things I like to do is to go back through articles we read in Assembly and read the articles or verses cited in the article to get a better feel for it. Often Psalms or other Bible passages are cited. Which translation do you think would be most conducive to our study?
I’ve just joined the GE but where am I supposed to start ? Do I just wait for events to be listed on the homepage?
I’m lost 😆
Hi Luke,
Great to hear from you! While the Learning Path was entirely self-paced, the Graduate Environment offers a much more interactive experience, with several live lessons taking place throughout the week.
If you’re able to attend live, that’s fantastic, but no worries if not. All lessons are recorded, so you can easily watch the replays at your convenience.
One class to especially look out for is your Young Group session, which takes place every Sunday. That’s your main class in the Grad Environment. We hope to see you there next Sunday!
Hi Gianni,
I have few unrelated questions, and I hope you don’t mind me putting them all in one 🙂
1. We are suppose to go through states quickly, in and out, just acknowledging the state and move on. But where is the scrutiny there? I need to dwell in a state for a while to be able to understand and scrutinize. And how do I know what is the next state that I am supposed to move on to, when I can barely understand the state I am in?
2. I’ve read that reaching the Gate of Tears is a one-time event. What does that mean exactly? Where does that Gate lead?
3. In one of your videos, you mention 4 forces that rule the World. Could you please point out somewhere I can read more about that? I was very much drawn to that 🙂
4. I cannot fully grasp the idea of someone who is not a particularly likable person being a bestower. And to be honest, I don’t really like to mingle and talk to people, although I do it since we need to show the love, but I can’t do that for a long time, so I think that could be a solution for me, because I do want to become a bestowed, but at the same time I do want to avoid “human contact” let’s say. And I don’t know what I am asking exactly, so can you please guide me a bit here?
Thank you very much in advance!
1. The state is always a new form of disconnection, isolation, independence – in short, a shattering; and the next state is always a nullification of everything that belongs to the Shattering, in short, to come to There Is None Else Besides Him, all is from one, good Source, and so I too need to become one, and good – so connected and bestowing. I can do that by connected into one with my friends, and then One receives One. That is, we feel Him through being like Him. You’re right that each time it takes time to convince myself that I have nothing besides this to do – almost like trying to convince completely different people of it.
2. There’s nothing to do – I’m still convinced that at least a little good exists in me. There’s no way to talk me out of this. It has to be proved to me, on the flesh, by me trying to really love and care for my friends and open their hearts. I peel back one layer after another until I reach the bottom, that at no depth is there a shred of good in me. This stands before every person, and the difference between people is only in the depth of their understanding that there is no good in them. Because our nature is the complete opposite of good, bestowal – so that it could be inverted to bestowal, and not that it’s bestowing to begin with. I would like for things to be different, that everyone, including the Creator, would love me for what I already am, so that I wouldn’t need to change. Instead, there’s nothing about me that is worth loving, as-is. I require a complete inversion to the opposite of what I am. When I reach that realization, I’m at the gate of tears, where I really ask for this inversion. You see, prior to this, I can’t really ask because I believe that deep down there is already goodness and so I don’t really need to ask.
3. That’s all from Baal HaSulam’s Peace in the World.
4. How lucky you are that you have no interest and even a repulsion when it comes to connecting to others. It means you can only do so because you’re told you must do it to reach the Creator. You can turn to the Creator from that strife having to connect to the friends causes you, and ask Him to let you connect His Kli for His sake. If I’m certainly not doing it for me sake, I’m already halfway there. All I need to do now is turn to Him out of this state.
I was listening to one of those 5 minutes clips from Rav Laitman’s classes that came out recently. I think it was July 17th or thereabouts. In it his students were asking why no one has reached attainment in the organization even though some people have been doing the method for 30 years. I’m asking this because I can’t help but wonder if the system is so scientific and reliable then how come it’s not producing the predicted results. In the lesson the students ask him why he was able to reach attainment in 12 years but no one else has been able to do it. I’ve been mulling this over for a while now. Rav himself said he does not know and it’s in the hands of a higher power. It bothers me. I’m just being brutally honest. The claim is that these books have mysterious influences on us which transform us over time whether we understand them or not. Seems to me like at least some of the people who have had plenty of time to be influenced should now have reached some kind of adhesion with the creator. Is it possible to be gradually attaining? Or does one have to wait until Rav declares you are? These are my very personal concerns. I’m embarrassed to bring them up. Please don’t hate me.
Hi Harry,
These are good questions. That’s because it can take 30 or even 40 years to attain true spirituality. We just don’t understand how sublime this thing is. We’re imagining something small, with our minds and hearts that are not built to be able to imagine it. There’s simply no form like it that can enter our senses or thoughts. 40 years isn’t so long after all, considering that for lifetimes and lifetimes we die like animals without attainment of the only reason we’re in this world to begin with.
Having said that, I don’t think you’re conclusions are so accurate or that it has to take nearly that long. Moreover, it depends which level of attainment we’re talking about. What students ask, and what Rav answers, are a scrutiny. Typically, the questions are for the benefit of the masses of students studying and not necessarily personal questions. That’s if it’s a mature student asking. Beginners ask what they want to know, and that’s fine. But mature students ask Rav questions that they feel the mainstream of our society might need – because they are interested in bestowal upon the society and the advancement of every friend. In themselves though, there are students that are far below the Machsom (barrier), close to it, right on it, and after it. There’s nothing about them that would indicate it and one would be very powerfully inclined to conceal it in every way, so I think speculation is futile.
A person, in the end, without proof except for his Point in the Heart, which tells him “here is the truth, and nowhere else,” he needs to go toward the goal and hold on with his teeth for as long as it takes. After all, if he’s decided that this is the place, then he has no choice but to follow the Kabbalists all the way to the Upper World. Like Rabash told Rav Laitman when he asked, you will not get any further insurance than this. You can search in other places, but in the end, you have to decide on one place, and stick with it till the end.
Hello Gianni,
Recently I feel like I have entered a state of everything I felt i believed about God/Creator is completely dismantling. When I came to Kabbalah I already understood that everything I was taught was fairytale stories (Baptist) but the idea of God has still remained. Now all of a sudden I’m like, who, what is God? Who, what am I praying to? Why am I praying? What is the point of praying? Who is hearing the prayer? I feel like the friends in my group are way too good for me, why am I even with these people? I don’t even know how to connect. And that trying to even connect just causes more hurt so what’s the point. I feel like if I bring all this to my Ten then it will just bring heaviness. So I am stuck with all this and have no clue what to do with it.
Hi Naomi. Well, these are standard arguments of the Will to Receive, to throw us away from spirituality. Each one, we can find in the writings of Rabash. They’re all normal and on the way to the goal. Each is like a boss in a video game and has its approach, and we have to go Above Reason, to connection, regardless of their approach. If I think these are MY thoughts, that’s a problem. They’re forces appearing in me.
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