God blesses us, we bless God; a holy dialogue

Rabbi Baruch Ashlag, receiving and giving blessing

A holy dialogue increases the life and goodness in the world. The Zohar teaches us that God’s only desire is to give goodness to His created beings. Therefore all that He wants to give us is ready for us. However, we cannot always receive the goodness He wants to give, because we become separated from Him by receiving for ourselves alone. Blessing God for everything we enjoy is a simple and wonderful way that Judaism teaches us to change the one-way flow into a productive dialogue.

The Scripture in Deuteronomy tells us that, just as God blesses us with His goodness so we also need to bless Him. The Zohar on this verse teaches that our blessing and thanking God for all He gives us, is the key to changing a one-way flow into a dialogue that only multiplies the goodness not only for ourselves but for all hummankind.

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From the Zohar on Ekev paragragh 1 and Rabbi Baruch Ashlag’s Al HaTorah Parshat Ekev
With grateful acknowledgment to Rabbi Avraham Mordecai Gottlieb who inspired this learning.

The light of God is revealed on Chanukah in an unexpected way

The Chanukah candle placed outside the house for all to enjoy and see the miracle

Rabbi Ashlag looks at the details of the laws of Chanukah as explained in the Talmud and teaches a wealth of inner work as he elucidates their inner meaning.
We are taught by the Sages of the Gemorrah that the Chanukah candle should be placed outside the house opposite the side of the mezuzah in the doorway.
Rabbi Ashlag teaches that this detail actually teaches about the root of the spiritual light of Chanukah when God gave the people of Israel a miracle over the Greeks in those days. But what does this mean for us now? When we try to give to others or to God unconditionally we find that many obstacles lie in our path. But the most difficult to overcome is our own inner adversaries.Our own inner Greeks, who represent our rational mind that opposes faith. We find that much as we want to we are unable to overcome our own selves. Finally we realize we need God to reveal His light to us just as He did in these days to our forefathers and show us a miracle. The inner miracle of Chanukah.
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From the Bircat Shalom Sefer HaMaamarim of Rabbi Baruch Shalom Ashlag

Other talks on chanukah:

Faith: Torah from the Years of Fury
Chanukah: The Triumph of the Soul over the Ego
Chanukah: What is a miracle?

The language of giving is a new language

Giving freely from the heart

We all know how to give something in order to get something in exchange. We do this all the time. But try giving completely freely, without looking for any benefit whatsoever, not even an emotional compensation. We might think we could do this in theory, but just try it in actual practice and we find that the whole idea seems somehow unreal, surrealistic even. In fact, when we start trying to come into affinity of form with the Creator by giving unconditionally, it feels like learning a new language. We act as if we are emotionally tongue-tied. Our whole organisms feels as if we  don’t understand ourselves , and we lack the vocabulary in this new language of giving.

Although we  may know that giving unconditionally is a good thing in theory, we require motivation to carry it though in practice. It is through the study of the Kabbalah that we get the tools and the inner fuel to keep going.

From the teachings of Rabbi Ashlag and the Zohar Bereishit.
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Giving and receiving: Coming to a balance

Giving with love

We are created from the dust of the earth. That means we all have the innate nature of desiring to receive happiness and goodness. This is in accordance with the Purpose of the Creator in His creation. So then why do we feel embarrassment or shame when we receive without having earned what we are receiving? This feeling of shame stems from another aspect of our Creation, an aspect connected with our true purpose in the world, that of tikkun.

Although our inbuilt nature is that of receiving we also were given the quality of being able to give. This came about with the union of the Sephirah of Malchut with that of Binah, whose aspect is that of compassion and giving unconditionally.

By giving to the other unconditionally we convert a finite separated vessel of receiving into an infinite channel for the goodness of the Creator.

From Rabbi Avraham Mordecai Gottlieb’s commentary on Matan Torah of the Baal HaSulam.

Listen Now (Podcast about 18 minutes).

Israel’s Independence and its connection with the revelation of the Zohar

A return after 2000 years!

Unlike the physical realm in which giving and receiving come together, in the spiritual realm they are often widely separated.
Writing on Israel’s independence Rabbi Ashlag points out that we have been given the opportunity for the return to our land and the complete redemption, both in the life of the individual and as the community as a whole, we have yet to receive it in its full meaning. Still we must see the cup as half-full and celebrate the great opportunity with which we have been blessed.
Adapted from an article written by Rabbi Avraham Mordecai Gottlieb.

Listen to podcast: 15 minutes

Learning as Service

We learn new materail because we are interested, curious  or want to investigate something further. But in learning Torah it is more appropriate to consider giving to the learning than receiving from it. Such learning becomes a service, bring us into affinity of form with the Creator. Learning then becomes new, fresh and vital as we learn with the soul. Listen to full talk on http://www.nehorapress.com/115470/audiolearningKabbalah

The eternal dance of the male and the female in Kabbalah

In the language of Kabbalah the male and the female represent the forces of giving and receiving; the dynamic dance beween the light and the vessel. In the union of opposites a new entity is formed, the possibility of receiving the light with the intention of giving. This represents the ultimate purpose of Creation. This dance is represented within each man and woman, between each other and in our relationship with the Divine. Rabbi Yehudah Lev Ashlag teaches us the spiritual roots of the entities in this world according to the language of the Kabbalah, the “language of the branches”

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