My Brother, My Sister

Hello Friends,

I was speaking with Gil over lunch the other day and we decided to start writing a song together, a song that had universal appeal; one we could use for Kabbalah without it having an official Kabbalah stamp on it.

As you all know BB is strongly focused on introducing the concept of altruism to humanity, to help us recognise our need for authentic Kabbalah.

Please, have a look at what we've written so far, and add any suggestions you like. This is an open forum...all idea's are 'welcome'.

Let's see if we can create a song for BB...

Gil mentioned we've got a melody man that can add music to it as well, could be interesting :)

Please Note: This is only a first (make that second) draft, feel free to make any changes you'd like, if you'd like too. Have some fun with it...I'll keep an eye on the user comments and suggestions.

Here it is:

Mr Brother, My Sister

As the nights become longer,
My feelings grow sombre.
Wondering why I’m here,
Wishing the answers were
Clear. Listen…do you hear?
Why are these deepening

Questions ringing in my
Ear?

What is the purpose of life?
Why am I here?
This thirst is drawing me
Near; the answers are
Beginning to appear...

Never satisfied, a puppet
To these insatiable desires
Dwelling inside. But now
Just tired; tired of trying to
Beat the next man to his feet,
Tired of chasing temporary
Desires that simply seem to
Fleet.

What is the purpose of life?
Why am I here?
This thirst is drawing me
Near; the answers are
Beginning to appear...

As these fleeting desires
Keep coming, I keep
Running (at their mercy),
Till I suddenly realise - I’m
Not worthy. So I stop to give
To my brother, my sister;
Only to discover an eternal
Pleasure like no other.

What is the purpose of life?
Why am I here?
This thirst is drawing me
Near; the answers are
Beginning to appear...

When I give to you,
I feel closer to the truth.
The greatest gift is found
In giving. I want for you,
You want for me - feel our
Hearts continue to expand,

as we unite hand in

Hand...

What is the purpose of life?
Why am I here?
This thirst is drawing me
Near; the answers are
Beginning to appear...

BB Sydney, May 2006

The Chile International Kabbalah Congress August 4-6, 2006

The Chile International Kabbalah Congress The Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education and Research Institute presents



The Chile International Kabbalah Congress

August 4-6, 2006

Everybody is invited to the Chile International Kabbalah Congress that will take place in the capital, Santiago, on August 4-6, 2006!

International Kabbalah Congresses are held around the world in order to circulate the knowledge about the Science of Kabbalah and to increase the spiritual level of humankind. During the congresses, Kabbalah students from different countries meet each other. Although they speak different languages, their common aspiration towards spiritual development and self-perfection unites them into one. A wonderful atmosphere of love and friendship that is created during the congresses stays in the hearts of participants forever.

The congress program includes daily lessons, discussions, seminars and group meetings, festive meals, and a unique cultural program.

Rav Michael Laitman, Ph.D. will be present as the principle lecturer, together with Kabbalah students from all around the world. Such gatherings of people who have awakened to spirituality have left so many life-changing impressions and indescribable sensations among past participants.

Everybody is welcome to experience the single most life-changing phenomenon that has ever hit this planet— the Science of Kabbalah.

Please fill out the registration form and click "Register" to submit your registration. We will send confirmation of your registration and all seminar-related materials via e-mail.

http://www.kbb1.com/~chile/register.html

Roots & Branches Super Logos

I've been designing some polished versions of the BB Tree logo for websites and such. Anyone can feel free to use them in Circulation. I'll post more up as I create them. Which of the following do you think is better?

Click on the pics for enlarged versions:


POP-QUIZ: Did you know that there are exactly 22 leaves on the branches of this tree, the same amount as the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet!

A Must to Watch

Wisdom in Action - Part I, II & III
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ARIfilms

Advice from the morning lesson

To always be directed, drawn to bestow to the society, to resemble the Creator.

To feel my desire only in order to serve a fellow man.

Advice from the morning lesson:

We have to show good relationships, even if it is not exactly so. Start playing love of friends.

Aspire Higher

"a prayer, even if does not emanate from the depths of one's heart, still prepares the individual for salvation. In a prayer a person promises the Creator that after he receives spiritual strength he will concentrate all his efforts on returning the spiritual aspirations that are lacking at the present moment. In this lies the great power of the prayer. A plea of this kind is accepted by the Creator, and as a result a person advances by the path of the Kabbalah, rather than by the path of suffering.

For this reason, a person should never agree to the path of suffering, even if he is certain that the sufferings are being sent by the Creator; and even if he firmly believes that everything that is sent by the Creator is sent for his benefit. The Creator does not desire a person to passively accept suffering. On the contrary, He expects an individual to prevent suffering, to avoid the condition in which the Creator must push a person from behind by sufferings, to strive by himself by means of faith, that it is for his benefit to ask of the Creator this advance forward.

Even if one feels that he does not yet possess a true desire in himself to attain the right state, one should still ask the Creator to grant the true desire and faith through the power of prayer. That is, one should ask the Creator to give him a desire to ask, which he lacks."

Definition: Peh (mouth)

In spirituality the place of Zivug is Peh. There, where the Rosh, the calculation, ends. At first, there is the calculation, then the act. The passage between calculation and the act, there the decision is made and from there we speak. Meaning, there are no places, no situations, there are no organs—we are speaking of a process: When I calculate the things and then do the action, and continue it –then the beginning of the action is called Peh.

Let us learn—there is no slip of the Peh in spirituality!

Definition: Thought – Speech – Action 18 May 2006

Action means that a person contributes his entire free time to bestowal in favor of the other.

Thought – you don’t have to be very smart; - the thought
must be found in your heart: through the bestowal to the other you should reach the bestowal for the sake of the Creator.

Speech means that a person examines himself, evaluates his actions, whether he advances in the right way.

Important: Difficulties

Not to think that deviation from the responsibilities in your life and family is beneficial to your soul! The Creator will arrange difficulties for you in a different place.

Advice of Rav: 18 May 2006

To demand for the Surrounding Light to shine on me to the extent that I am
in darkness in relation to it.
To ask myself whether I recover during the
morning lesson.
To examine and reassess whether I advance in the right way.

Quotation of Rav from the morning lesson:17 May 2006

We cannot bestow upon the Creator before we bestowed upon man.

One receives
all the powers to advance from the society and not from oneself.

Claims to Make Lesson 11May2006

We must make claims to only one thing:
That He will give us the brains and the feeling to understand the public, so as to provide the public with suggestions—means to reach the correction.
This is our only plea: to ask of Him. The claim is not on Him but on us, for we do not make claims on Him.
There is no other possibility here to reach the end of the correction, other than in mutual work for the correction of the world.
(Lesson of 11.05.06, Introduction to the Book of Zohar, from minute 48:07)

The World Without End

We know nothing about the Creator, except His will to create us and to give us the enjoyment. Upon His device, desire of enjoyment arose from nothing.

The Creator's will of creation is called "Keter" (crown), since it surrounds like a crown his will to give us the enjoyment.

The creation of the keter may be imagined as a vessel (kli) ready to get the enjoyment, or the Creator's light (ohr). This point of the creation is called Hochmah (wisdom) and the enjoyment filling the kli is called "ohr Chochma" (light of wisdom).

Since the desire of the enjoyment is the only human's desire, the Creator directs us using it. in many countries in hot summer days we hear water-melon sellers driving cars or modest barrows and calling for buyers. Why these men work so hardly under the burning sun? The Creator gave them desire to bring enjoyment to their families, but thus they bring the enjoyment also to the others while selling juicy quenching fruit. Thus the light gives to the creature not only the enjoyment itself but also the ability to give the enjoyment to the others. But the creature (kli) refuses to have this ability. The enjoyment from voluntary deny to receive (get) the light is called "ohr Chassadim". This stage of the development of the creature is named "Binah".

But the life is impossible without the light (orh of Chochma). And the new form of the creature (Binah) begins to receive some minimal portion of the light and hence is transformed into a new kind called ze'eir anpin. Further development of the creature brings a new desire to enjoy the light, and it beoomes a new object - malchut (kingdom, it means kingdom of desire).

Hence there are the following stages of the creation and of the development of the creature (kli):

l. KETER. The Creator's will to create kli and to bring it the enjoyment.

2. CHOCHMAH. Desire of enjoyment arisen from the light.

3. BINAH. enjoyment not from the light but from its returning to the Creator.

4. ZE`ElR ANPIN (Z"A). Receiving some portion of ohr Chochma

necessary for normal life.

5. MALCHUT. Feeling the importance of or Chochma, Z"A tries to become full of this light and thus turns into malchut. it's malchut being the only real kli (creature) because it desires ltself to receive the entire enjoyment from the Creator. The previous forms are not real kli, but onIy stages of its development. The Creator's will is to create thle kli would like ltself to enjoy His light. Malchut full of the light is called "olam Ein Sof" - the world of Without End. The movement is change of desires giving birth to near creatures (kli). The time is a chain from the cause (the primary desire) to the effect (the secondary desire). "The world of Without End" means a vessel full of enjoyment without any limit, i.e. unsatisfied desire. This is the condition of kli malchut. Therefore, from the Creator's point of view, malchut is the completion of the program of Creation.

The aim of the Creation is to create a new thing the creature and to fill it with lmmense absolute enjoyment. Thus the Creator gave to the creature a great desire to receive the enjoyment.

To read the complete article Click Here

What man must do in order to have his prayer be accepted by the creator?

In order for the Creator to hear the prayer, it should come from the very heart of hearts, i.e. all one's desires must be concentrated in that prayer. And this is why one must delve into the text hundreds of times, even without understanding anything, just to achieve a true desire, so that the Creator could hear him.

How can man reach to a state of prayer?

There is a rule: the effort spent on attaining something increases the desire to attain it, and the strength of that desire is determined by the suffering caused by the unavailability of what we desire. The prayer is the suffering itself, not expressed in words but only felt within the heart.

Proceeding from this, we can understand that only after strenuous effort to attain what is desired can man pray so sincerely that he will receive it.

Exploring Kabbalistic Words New Addition to the BB Blog

Hello Group

Just an idea, we have been talking a lot about the topic of desire of late so I thought it a good idea to expand on this word from selected articles.

These descriptions will be added on daily to help focus those that read the advice from the morning class.

Enjoy

fabianvon

Australian student group studying with the Bnei Baruch World Academy for Kabbalah Studies

www.kabbalah.net.au

Definition: Rest

The righteous have no rest either in this world or the next.
Rest-
Rest lies in incessant advancement. For there is no stopping in spirituality nor motion. What does this mean?
That all changes are felt as rest, uninterrupted changes, the whole time. For when something stops, then the feeling stops.
All our feelings come from beatings, changes. Yes, what is it that is called "dead"? Therefore do not wait for rest, on the contrary, accept motion as the state of rest, as the favorable state.
How is it with a child? Stop him! – For him it is torture, he is exploding-let him just go wild, yes? That’s it, be a child!

Definition:

The sensation of the other is the ability to feel for the sufferings and to share the happiness of the other.

Weekly assignment from the society’s committee:

How do I begin to arouse concern for me in the hearts of my friends?

Passage from the morning lesson: 12 may 2006

The social environment has to be very important for me, so that every one will look at another as at the leader of the generation. But sometimes it is just the opposite: we are ashamed of having such friends, because we judge them according with the measures that the external environment imposes on us. In this way I look at the friend and realize that if I was going to present him to the some alien, I would feel embarrassed for him. This indicates that I don’t appreciate him, don’t value his inwardness, his personality. Still, his exterior appearance and the public, the outside opinion affects me, and this is very perceivable.
I am ashamed in front of my environment and my family at having such friends, in other words, I care about their judgment and take them in consideration, but not that “love will cover all the crimes,” that I value my friend and see him only as righteous, and recognize all his supreme qualities, and that in my eyes he belongs to the greatest of the world. Then how can I have a thought as if I am ashamed of him?

Quotation of from the morning lesson:12 May 2006

- If someone thinks that he can attain the goal on his own, by doing so he eliminates himself from the group and “is removed from the world.”
- The equality expresses itself in the fact that one can succeed without another.

- In the society every one has to look at another as at the leader of the generation.

Definition: The Creator

The Creator is called the general Light that influences us as the general Law with the purpose to bring us to the equivalence of form with Him. The power of bestowal, the all-embracing attribute of bestowal that envelops the entire creation is called the Creator.
Why is it called like this? The connotation comes from the word Boreh (the Creator), which is composed of the two words: bo and reh (come and see), which is the state that everyone should reach to the degree when this force becomes visible to you, (“see”), to the degree of complete comprehension. “Bo”, the first part of the word implies that you should attain this state, this degree.
(Kabbalah LeMatchil, Article What Level Must the Man Reach, page 151 (from the lesson of Ay 9, 2006).

Weekly assignment from the society’s committee:

How do I begin to arouse concern for me in the hearts of my friends?

Quotation of from the morning lesson:10 May 2006

Everything is found and displayed merely inside of me, and only this I can feel. Therefore a person should only look inwardly, inside himself, and that is what he has to correct.

"...if a person is able to say in his heart that everything the Creator did is for the good of man, and to be in joy and to feel love for his Creator, as if he received from him everything he could possibly imagine for himself, and in everything he justifies the supervision of the Creator, then he successfully completes the test of his intentions - kavana, and is known as a righteous person of the peoples of the world.

If a person works further on the correction of his desire to receive with the help of the Creator, then the object of verification is no longer the person's thoughts, but his actions: The Creator gives a person everything that he ever desired, but he must be prepared to to return everything and at the same time receive only the part that one is capable of receiving for the sake of the Creator"

Every moment is an opportunity to draw nearer; every challenge an opportunity to add 'depth' to our prayer i.e. intention.

Love & Light.

ARVUT TONIC

The new L'Chaim potion thanks to Mosche's efforts:

RAV-TOON

As apart of the forthcoming Science section of the BB website, Markos has given me the task of an Artistic sylist for the photo's of Scientists. I'm basing the technique on an animation style called 'Interpolated Rotoscoping' as used in the film Waking Life and the forthcoming A Scanner Darkly Here is a prototype of the Rav:

AXE & INTENT

I found it rather curious that the word 'Acts' has a similar pronunciation to the term 'Axe':

An axe can be used to create a home for a family or an axe can be used to slaughter a family. So it is not the axe (acts) but the intention of the one who wields the axe (acts). This is the meaning of Mitzvot & Kavvanah. Sever or combine?

Zivug de Haka'a & Bricklaying

It was when I was trying to figure out the conundrum of Zivug de Haka'a:

The topic of Zivug de Haka'a requires an elaborate explanation. There is an apparent positive and negative here, for Zivug de Haka'a means rejection and separation and great hatred. Thus, how can you utter Zivug de Haka'a, for it implies love of hatred, or adhesion of separation, or Hamshacha of rejection? They are two opposites under one rule. However, this rule consists of two unique carriers, meaning two forces: one that attracts and another that repels. The attracting force is in the Aviut of the Kli, and the repelling force in the Masach of the Kli. They have been put together and both rule simultaneously, at one time in two places.

How can this coincidence of opposites be possible? Well, I found a good analogy in my own vocation; Bricklaying:

When building a wall, the individual bricks are seperated and yet simultaneously bound together by composition motar. Minor revelations in our world that can hint to apparent conundrums that lie in the Upper World. If the wall is the world Kli, the bricks the individual vessels, then the motar is the desire we use to establish the building.

Just a thought.

Weekly assignment from the society committee:

How do I begin to arouse concern for me in the hearts of my friends?

Definition: Upper Level

Every Upper level means that it is further from the aspect of the desire to receive and closer only to bestowal.

Advice from the morning lesson: 08 May 2006

It is the attitude towards the state that must be changed, and not the state itself.

The evil that we feel is so that we come to hate the desire to receive.

Definition: Spirituality

The significance of the word “spirituality” as it is used in the Kabbalah books is that it is abstracted from all the material instances, namely, place, time, imagination etc. At times it points only to the aspect of the Upper Light in the Kli, though the Kli too is spiritual according to all conditions.

Advice from the morning Lesson 07 May 2006

- Only by investing in the friends would I be able to love them.
- Without the work in the group there will be no recognition of evil.

Definition:

Finally, everything depends on the mutual work called Arvut, meaning, if there is a mutual concern that everyone worries about the advancement of the other and sees others forming one Kli that pushes him to the adhesion with the Creator, then accordingly, everyone receives vitality and ability to advance from working for the Creator. Meaning, a person’s life and advancement totally depend on his fellow beings, and he can only compel them through his relation to them, - not through words but through his inner relation, his abnegation for them, because finally it is being revealed to him that others already exist in the corrected state but depend on how he relates to them. And to the extent that he shows himself in the intention to bestow, so he will see others as being his vessel of bestowal to the Creator. If he truly wishes to bestow to the group, he will see the group as a Kli of bestowal to the Creator. Therefore it is written: “He who charges, charges in his own fault,“ meaning that there is no determining the state of the society but only from the state of a person himself.

Advice from the morning lesson 05 May 2006

We have to worry that there will be new deficiencies waking in us all the time for the purpose of attaining the goal… The group should provide me with the deficiencies, so that I will advance, otherwise I will be sitting with my hands folded, waiting for the afflictions to come.

We should concentrate just on one and single property that has to change and is going to change in us—this property is called "Adam" (man), which is similarity to the Creator.
change in us: it called the level of man, which is to be equal to the attribute of the Creator. – This is the character that has to change in us.

Quotation of Rav from the morning lesson

“Everything depends on mutual work, mutual concern, the concern about others’ advancement, on relating to them as to one Kli that pushes a person to the adhesion with the Creator, and accordingly, by working for the Creator’s sake everyone receives the vitality and the ability to advance.

Meaning, a person’s life and advancement totally depend on his fellow beings, and he can only compel them through his relation to them, - not through words but through his inner relation, his abnegation for them.”

“If you descended to the level of beast, then awaken your body at the level of beast – jump, sing, dance, until the level of man will again be awakened in you. It has a deep meaning; this is how RABASH used to do.”

Advice from the morning lesson 04 May 2006

-If you have no clear plan of advancement “sit and do not do-that is preferable”

-You must seek every time how to want to resemble the Creator.

Advice from the morning lesson 03 May 2006

Concentrate on the right intention and the adhesion, on true definitions: “In what state I am now? What is my corrected state? What are the stages of correction?” Then everything will become easy.

My View of the congress by Rachel 02 May 2006

Hello all of you Sydneyites!

I wanted to email you a few photos and to share with you some brief reflections about the congress.

The photo of the guys on stage is from one of the cultural evenings, and all of us placed a leaf on the tree as we entered the hall.

The congress was focused on circulation, as I’m sure you have heard by now. Our editing workshop, led by Mike Kellogg from the U.S., with some help from Israel’s own Leah Goldberg, was brilliant. We really got to explore what is required in our editing practice, and to sort out common problems. The translators also took part in this workshop which was very helpful.

Rav’s lectures were as always outstanding, even during the parts where we fell asleep! The Erev Pesach meal, also led by Rav on the first night, was exceptional…we could feel the journey…

The food was beetroot, carrot, cucumber and more beetroot—the traditional Pesach diet of Rabash. There was also chicken, filter fish, yogurt, sour cream and eggs and during the last few days avocado. I actually loved the food. They didn’t provide fruit, but we knew this from last time, and so brought our own.

HaKfar HaYarok was a nice location. The rooms were grubby, but ok, but our toilet block was so disgusting that we used another block. The men worked so hard to clean the common spaces and the kitchen clean. From the state of our block, I think the men must have worked very hard indeed. I think they will try for another location next time.

So, it seems that BB is really getting structured into a circulation factory. It is so much more organised now, and Rav said that in the coming few years he will need to employ full time staff—Kabbalah students of course—to do all our circulation work, as our need is growing. Especially required are media/internet people, but I think that more professions will also be required as time goes on. It is all very exciting.

There was also a lecture from Professor Laslo of the World Wisdom Council, who said at the end of a live Q/A session with Rav that he wants to support our goal! It was such a great and touching moment. Again, things are happening!

From this congress one of the important things I gained was the need to periodically read some thing short from an intention book to keep our minds focused on the goal—even at work for one minute every hour—so that we don’t get lazy and forget…it can be a slippery slope!

Oz-Israel-everywhere Kli echad!

Rachel x

Advice from the morning lesson 01 May 2006

Be always in the intention to reach bestowal to the fellow being, for in this act lies the similarity to the Creator. Be at all times in this direction, with this thought.

Instead of my will, I am to feel the will of the other as important, and to feel my will just so as to serve the other.