How to Become a Hero
Question: What were the final efforts you made
before the Creator answered
you? What did you do before passing the Machsom?
Dr.
Laitman's Answer: The
question is incorrect because this happens unexpectedly. What works is the sum of all the different efforts, some of which you do
not even suspect are there. Only later, when you sort out the "accumulated
collection" do you start to understand that everything you went through was
necessary for you to attain what you just attained.
However,
as long as the end result of all the efforts is not revealed to you, you do not
know how much is left. That is why it is impossible to say that some specific
effort brought you to completion.
Question: What was special about your efforts?
Answer: I think nothing besides patience,
persistence, and consistency (of course, with the background of worries and
everything related to them). Baal HaSulam writes about this in the famous
example in Item 133 of Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot: "And only the heroes among them,
whose patience endured, defeated the guards and opened the gate. And they were
instantly awarded seeing the King's face...."
Who is a hero? It's a person who had
enough patience, who did everything possible not to veer off the path.
From the 1st part of the Daily
Kabbalah Lesson 01/09/11, Writings of Rabash
So You Want to Ascend? Ask the Driver!
Question: What do we
have to do so The Zohar will find its way into the deepest recesses of the heart, into our desires
and thoughts?
Dr.
Laitman's Answer: Open your
heart. Nothing else is needed. The most important thing is not to despair and
not to relax, and to make efforts precisely when the going gets rough. The article "Donkey Driver" in
the Introduction of The Zohar is exactly the place where it explains
that when you are walking along and your "donkey" (in Hebrew "donkey"
is "Hamor,"
originating from the word "Homer," matter, the will to enjoy) can no longer
carry its burden, you are sent a "donkey driver" that helps your donkey
to ascend.
This driver
stings the donkey with a sharp stick and it's unpleasant. However, it makes you
move forward. Therefore, if you agree to have a driver like that, you will
receive him. But you have to ask for these "stings."
Question: I know how
to ask for good things, but how can I ask for the stings of the donkey driver?
Answer: If I don't
identify myself with my ego and want to be liberated from it, then I think the opposite: The more stings it
receives, the more able I am to distance myself from it, to run away from it
and ascend above it.
These stings do not wound me, but my ego. If
I separate and detach from it, then we are separated by a distance and I
therefore do not feel the sting that passes over it. The sting comes only in
order for me to part with my ego. Then I don't perceive these blows as
happening to me, but to my "Pharaoh,"
and in the meantime I ascend.
From the 2nd part of the Daily
Kabbalah Lesson 01/09/11, The Zohar
Kabbalah International
