Weep, My Soul

Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, "What's the Difference Between ‘The Gate of Tears' from the Rest of the Gates": Even if a person weeps shedding bitter tears, but he weeps for excesses, no one will respond to his cries. This person stands before the gate of tears, but the gate is closed and does not allow his prayer to enter. People do not cry over excesses. It is customary to cry only over vital necessities.

Question: What does it mean to cry in spirituality? How does a person know he is really crying? And should the group reach the state of crying?

Dr. Laitman's Answer: Of course, both the group and every individual in it have to reach this state. This is the "prayer of many" where every person prays for everyone, including himself. The prayers in the prayer book are constructed upon this principle.

Crying is the state of smallness (Katnut) when I know that I cannot attain unity by myself; in fact, I cannot even desire it by myself. Even before I reach the certainty that I am unable to make a spiritual action, I have to understand that first of all I need a 100% desire. "Let it happen to me!" And this is a desire I also can't acquire alone.

For example, I had hoped to get rid of an illness by myself, but gradually I realized that it's impossible. Having suffered and wasted a ton of efforts, I see that I cannot do anything about it. I discover that I can only get cured by a doctor. So what's the problem?

The problem is that I have to ask the doctor for it. I have to demand and implore him to perform the surgery. And I have to really desire this, even though I am very afraid of it. Fear stops me, but the futility of the situation pushes me to plea for help.

The same thing happens to us: To the degree we advance, we feel more and more clearly that we have to go through surgery to eliminate egoism, that very egoism that leads us through life and supports us in every way. So how can I ask or even think about coming out of it? It can only be done by means of the Upper Light.

I have to receive the desire from outside, from the group, and I do so unwillingly. It is written about it, "We go from Lo Lishma to Lishma," meaning from the egoistic intention to the altruistic one. I aspire to that which is opposite to me today: for all of my worries to be about the neighbor, so all the money besides the "vital minimum" I need will go to my neighbor, and so everything will be for my neighbor.

Can I really desire this, as if there is nothing more important in life? Can I ask for these thoughts not to leave me for a second? Can I cry for it?

Suppose someone shows me a petition for bestowal: "I request to be provided with an altruistic desire so I will take care of others with everything I have besides what I need to survive." Sign it! Go ahead! Want it! But how can I want it? After all, I can't create a new desire inside myself.

That's true, but if you agree to it in principle, and then start working in the group, the necessary desire will come to you from the friends. The environment contains a spiritual force, the force of the Creator. Nothing depends on the friends themselves, and it was arranged that way initially. If I turn to the environment, to our inner interconnection, there I find everything. There I reveal all the levels, forces, and states until the very end of correction.

Suddenly I discover that we are united and in our unity I feel all the spiritual phenomena, down to total unity. I reveal everything that the science of Kabbalah talks about there, in our interconnection.

The forces of bestowal between us is the connection between the souls. The soul is the force of bestowal in a person, a part of the Creator from Above.

 From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/10, Writings of Rabash

The Group Beyond the External Veil

Question: In order to receive strength from the friends, I have to value them. But how can I value them if I'm an egoist?

Dr. Laitman's Answer: You value the unity of people, or in other words, of souls. Externally the only thing there can be between people is hatred, envy, and the like. However, behind the external facade, every person contains the inner him - the force of bestowal that is concealed inside him.

It's like there are two screens in front of you: external and internal. On the external screen you see this world, whereas on the internal screen everyone is united by the forces of mutual bestowal. After all, the soul is the force of bestowal that's concealed inside us. This is the picture you turn to, wishing to reveal it, to be included in it, and to dissolve in it. You do not deal with the external forms.

What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? When you turn to the inner picture, you will see that there is no breaking there, but all the friends are united with each other. This is the Shechina. It contains mutuality, unity, mutual guarantee, and in a word, everything besides you. You want to become part of it, demanding it, asking, and pleading for it.

That is the meaning of building the right environment. Otherwise you look at the friends on the outside and do not find anything there. The Creator deliberately drew this picture in front of us so that by tearing down the veil and looking deep into our unity, you will discover the exact environment that Baal HaSulam talks about in "The Freedom."

This is the environment you have to turn to and from which you have to demand everything. There, everyone is corrected; by becoming included in the friends, you will discover the Creator among them, meaning the common, all-inclusive force of bestowal.

In Kabbalah, besides the simple sum there is a notion of all-inclusion (Koalel), which is the integral force of everyone. For example, the common force of 100 people equals 100. But inside their unity the Creator is present, being an additional force that is deeper, spiritual, and all-inclusive.

That is why the friends are capable of anything due to having rejected their egoism in order to reveal the Creator, to reveal the root and unite with Him. They do not attain the four degrees of still, vegetative, animate, and human, but the Creator. They do not attain Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, and Haya, but the addition, the Light of Yechida that was not there previously; Keter, the point of the letter Yod.

If a person desires to work with the environment, then the environment is ready for him. Then he sees all the friends as the greatest people of the generation. And in truth, inside each of them there is a giant. After all, if they have an inner spiritual aspiration, then inside they are already united. In principle, on the inside all of humanity is united, but you have to turn to those who also externally express the spiritual desire at least slightly. Then you have an environment.

After that, to the extent you lower yourself before the environment and value it, you will receive strength from the friends until finally reaching the gate of tears. Spirituality will become the most vital thing in your life, but at the same time you won't have any possibility of obtaining it. That is when you will cry out.

You will then be crying out to the reality that you reveal as mutual bestowal, to the common force that lies there called "mutual guarantee." It is from there that you will receive what you need, the desire or need to become a part of the friends. Having discerned many details of unification, you will enter the inner picture.

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/10, Writings of Rabash