Harmful Viruses

Dr. Michael LaitmanSome time ago, a small group of people came out of ancient Babylon. They called themselves Isra-El due to their aspiration “straight to the Creator.” Then, 2,000 years ago, this group broke and mixed with all the nations that also once were Babylonians.

Now, due to the resulting mutual interpenetration over 2,000 years, everyone’s spiritual data has intermixed. A new group Isra-El (Yashar El, those who aspire towards the Creator) is appearing and beginning to form from the modern Babylon.

Now, this group has to realize the condition of the mutual guarantee (Arvut) among them. And if there are parts in it that do not carry out the mutual guarantee, they cause a great deal of harm to the connection of all the friends.
Harmful Viruses

Because of these irresponsible people, the group referred to as Isra-El (which desires to reach the Creator, similarity to Him, and His revelation) is not able to accomplish it. We have to make sure that we do not have “viruses” like that in this group.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/12/10, “The Love of the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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When My Child Is Held Hostage

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I feel that my spiritual goal, my “child” is held hostage by others. How do I get it back?

Answer: You don’t need to get it back, but rather, you need to make sure that these people are loyal to you. God bless if you worry about it as if it’s your child. For instance, if your son were to end up in the hands of enemies, can you imagine what you would feel? After all, he is now among ruthless rivals, and harming him brings them tremendous pleasure.

Question cont.: And they are my friends?

Answer: Yes, they are. That’s why you call them friends. They are those with whom you must unify. In fact, if you were united as one whole already, you would feel that you are in the World of Infinity now. These are the initial rules, and it’s not worth trying to color the picture pink. Our egoism hides much more horrible aspirations.

Do you feel now how great your concern should be? Your offspring will remain in the hands of the enemies, and they will constantly look for the ways to harm him, but so that he wouldn’t die and only suffer more. Your only chance is to turn their hate into love. Hence, you must worry only about how to make them your friends and get them to love you.

Think how to achieve this. In the group, this concern has to be present and felt. Instill it in each other; ask for it during your studying because a prayer during the reading of Kabbalistic texts is the most effective.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/10, “The Arvut”

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We Have To Be As Ready As Possible

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe have set the purpose and mood of the Convention to be “standing at the foot of Mount Sinai.” We are coming together in order to unite. It is not just to show respect for The Book of Zohar or anything else, but rather, to implement our unity at the level where we will reveal the Upper One.

At this Convention we are taking on an obligation and this scares us. Let this fear remain. Let us come there not in order to have fun with others or to tearfully hug each other at a three day long picnic. Rather, we are getting together in order to carry out very important work, which gives us great responsibility. We have a desperate need for it and we are “wound up” to do it. Most importantly, we are taking on the obligation ahead of time to provide mutual guarantee to one another.

It is similar to how a laser is prepared for operation by being revved up. Active processes take place in its working environment and the illumination is continually increased and multiplied until it bursts forth with a very powerful, focused beam.

That is how we are “winding ourselves up” today for an “attack.” We are not giving up for anything. No matter what happens, we are preparing to ambush. We have all the necessary forces for doing this and all the necessary preparatory base.

If we forestall this, then things will only get worse and much more difficult. All the troubles and suffering are caused only by falling behind, by our not accelerating time and simply allowing things to happen as they will.

On the other hand, if we attain success, then new forces will suddenly join us and we will find new means to achieve unity among us. Therefore, all of the time we have left until the Convention should be devoted to preparation. We have to leave behind all the fears besides the one fear that makes us feel responsible, similar to the unceasing worry a mother feels for her baby.
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From the talk on Mutual Guarantee 10/15/10

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What If The "Spiritual IV" Doesn’t Work?

Dr. Michael LaitmanIt’s time we understand that we are doomed. Everyone is sitting on the hole he has drilled in the common boat and is barely holding on to cover this hole. Every minute, here and there a new leak opens, and try as we might, we are still sinking.

There is no way to advance toward the goal like this. I have to realize that I depend on all the others and visualize this dependence. If I don’t try to “edit” the picture, it will look horrible, but this is what will prompt me forth for sure. “Exodus from Egypt” lies essentially in the revelation of our total dependence on one another. We can’t remain in our egoism anymore.

After all, everyone holds a tube with the intravenous infusion for the others in their hands and doesn’t want to turn it on. That’s why everyone lives on a tiny illumination (Kista de Hayuta), in hopes for authentic life.

My life is at stake! Except existence in this world that will soon expire, I have nothing, till I make the friends to turn the IV on. I simply need the healing fusion, the Light that flows through my soul and gives it the sensation of spiritual life.

However, my friends don’t let the Light flow. What do I do then? Wake them up and inspire them to open these channels. If I succeed, I will live; if not, I’ll die. And this is what we must do all together.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/10, “The Arvut”

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What Brings Contentment In Life?

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday, people are increasingly worried about their well-being. Essentially, every person in the world can be provided with all that he or she needs, but we are unable to accomplish this. Even the richest and most powerful people don’t feel absolute security and fulfillment that can be accomplished by the collective love: mutual guarantee. It will be possible only if we take care of each other.

Humanity thought that material wealth would satisfy it, but the American dream, the society of consumers, has ruined itself. We have reached the need to change our attitude to life. The sensation of goodness, peacefulness, and completeness is not defined by how much I own. We can’t be satisfied with any fulfillment.

True contentment will become possible only when the Light starts flowing between us. But to achieve this, we have to open the way for it through our mutual caring for each other. While thinking about others, I unblock the system, thanks to which contentment will definitely fill them and me. We need this contentment to realize Arvut (mutual guarantee) so we may start worrying about how to fill the Creator.

At first, we think that our exerted efforts will simply result in our feeling good. And only when everyone starts truly thinking about everybody else, annulling individual egoism, then our intention will switch to altruism. Thus, from Lo Lishma, we arrive at Lishma, in the measure of our realization of mutual guarantee.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/10, “The Arvut”

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Unclogging Spiritual Arteries

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do I give guarantee to the group? What do I need to care for?

Answer: You care for the friends, eager to give them a feeling of confidence. In all of reality there isn’t any lack except for our desire aimed at the mutual interconnectedness.

The Light is willing to fill all of us, but we stand in its way. I don’t think about you; I even hate you, thereby blocking the channel through which the Light has to come to you. It turns out that your problems exist because of me and alike: I don’t allow infinite abundance to reach you.

This, in fact, is the broken system. The Creator created the World of Infinity, all souls, and the channels between them and entrusted us with these channels. But I, with my hatred, block all the channels for everybody. And so does each of us.

Now, the Kabbalists say, the time has come when we must, together, open the channels to the flow of the Light. Thanks to the collective effort, the Light will start spouting in them again, and everyone will realize that he doesn’t feel any lack. This is the law of the closed system of nature. And we, in our world, feel its negative effect more and more.

There is no choice: The channels connecting us were blocked from Above, and we must break through these plugs with the individual effort. After all, these channels represent our egoism, despite which I wish to expand the plugged-off channel. By exerting effort, I draw the Light and allow it to work, flow in the channels in a thin stream, and revive the entire system.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/10, “The Arvut”

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How To Stop Thinking About Myself, Part 2

Dr. Michael Laitman

All of Israel are responsible for one another (Sanhedrin, 27b, Shavuot 39).
(Continuation of How To Stop Thinking About Myself, Part 1)

7. If in the group everybody thinks about all the others, the group becomes a perfect system that exists in the state of Arvut (mutual guarantee) or one soul. All the friends rise above their desires and enter a unified interconnection between them, thereby becoming guarantors in bestowal to each other.

Each person detached his “point in the heart” from his egoism and connected it with the “points in the hearts” of the others. Thus, the desires remained “below,” and the connection occurs between the “points in the heart.” In such connection of mutual bestowal, there act essentially different, altruistic laws. A new world opens its doors before a person.

8. Once a person has risen above his egoism, correction of his connection with the others begins by means of the previously rejected desire. At first it happens in “bestowal for the sake of bestowal” and then in “reception for the sake of bestowal.” All relationships are carried out solely to delight the Creator. This collective spirit that is present among the friends manifests in everyone; they are now able to detect and aim their intention solely at it.

There appears a sensation of interaction neither with oneself nor with the others, but with the unified whole. The relationship with the Creator Who is being revealed in the unified whole emerges from this unity.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/10, “The Arvut”

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The First Degree Of My Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is there a difference in the efforts that I’m required to apply when I fulfill the conditions of the mutual guarantee for the first time and when it happens for the second time?

Answer: The difference is in a sensation of a lack, in that I now intend to achieve the second degree on the basis of the first. The first degree stays in me as a Reshimo (internal record, imprint), a state that I have experienced but could not preserve because of an additional desire to receive. I must now overcome this additional desire in order to attain the next degree. The previous degree helps me to reach the next one.

These are not degrees of a descent, but those of an ascent. In other words, even if I fall, I understand why I have fallen and know what I have to do. Based on my own experience I already know how I managed to reach the state of a mutual guarantee on the first degree, and now I am going to do the same on the following degree.

This is called “a person’s soul teaches him,” meaning that I have gained experience and I know what to do. It is clear to me now that my descents are not states where I simply lose myself. I realize that I am in a descent now and that I lack strength (contact with the Creator).

It is already a realization that I am in darkness, that I have lost touch with the Creator. In other words, the point of awareness of or contact with spirituality is preserved, and that is very important. Now I begin my work from that point instead of a state completely detached from spirituality.

Expressed differently, you do not lose your previous level due to a “sin”; rather, you fall from the first degree because you have been given a desire of a second, higher degree. The magnitude of the uncorrected desire of the second degree, the sin that is being revealed to you now, overshadows the corrected degree, although the first degree stays inside the second in the corrected form.

It is actually an ascent, and not a fall; you have achieved the first degree and have now revealed the second degree, its opposite side. In the AHP of the Upper One, you feel yourself as “fallen,” a “sinner.” However, it is the way you define yourself from the perspective of the corrected first degree.

It exemplifies the saying “a person’s soul teaches him” because I already have a soul. Indeed, the first degree is my soul. Afterward, I will develop a soul of a magnitude that corresponds to the second degree, then the third, and so on.

Each time higher degrees will be emerging inside me; they will conceal the previous degrees to a greater extent, but I will always have the strength, the connection to the Light in order to ascend. I always discern each subsequent degree of an ascent based on the degree which I have already achieved. It means that I will have an opportunity to correctly diagnose what is happening to me and how to draw the Light that Reforms.

My state doesn’t resemble anything more than that of an unconsciousness patient because I am constantly equipped with the force of the mutual guarantee. I already signed its conditions, I am observing them, and I’m in a state in which I do not lose it, although from a personal perspective it may still happen. And then I suddenly realize that I am “drilling a hole in the boat.”

I have not yet drilled it all the way, I have just started, but in a moment it will be complete, and at that precise instant it begins to dawn on me. This is the revelation of egoism of the next degree. However, the previous degree, the bond between friends, remains inside me and is called “one is elevated in sanctity, and never lowered in sanctity.”

Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that the real stumbling block is attaining the first degree. Until it happens a person feels completely confused.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/10, “The Love of the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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"Material Commandments" And Correction Of The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we realize the correct connection between us? Do we need to perform purely spiritual actions?

Answer: No, we have to perform various actions aimed at connection in this world: in the group and circulation. We have to present the world with a new approach to children and adult education, to the way people relate to each other, and to show that all of our relationships have to serve the spiritual goal: the Creator’s revelation within us.

All these actions are called commandments, and we need to carry them out so as to correct our egoistic desire until the Creator becomes revealed to us in full force. The broken desires, all the mutual hatred between us, are called “anti-commandments” or anti-Creator. By transforming hatred into love, I perform commandments, meaning actions that bind us together. I perceive the forms of the revealed connection that demonstrate how each desire has to connect with the others as the Creator’s image.

That is, the Creator is the correct connection between us! We perceive Him as the correct, binding network that connects us and incorporates us into this system. This is what is called the Creator, and I need to reach this state. For this reason, He is called “Bo-reh” (come and see).

This includes physical actions as well: work in the group, friends’ gatherings, conventions, and joint study. However, these external actions need to be supplemented by inner work, genuine inner corrections (corrections of the soul) since the Creator demands the correction of the heart.

These actions are called “material commandments,” although they are not carried out with hands or legs. These are spiritual actions which I can perform only by having the Light that Reforms. I don’t do it by myself! The three of us together – I, the group, and the Creator – perform various transformations. Only together! Not a single correction can be performed by one element; all three of them have to be present.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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A Line And A Circle, Exclusiveness And Equality

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we find a correct balance between Kabbalah circulation and inner work in the group?

Answer: These are two opposite lines of work, which at the same time support each other. On one hand, we need to connect in the group as cohesively as possible, be exclusive, and follow the group’s statute written by the Kabbalists, the rules and laws described by Rabash. Inside the group, everyone must comply with the rules. On the other hand, we need to be absolutely free and open to the outside world and explain everything in the most simple and delicate manner.

We need to connect as strongly as possible and preserve ourselves so as to advance by a narrow, straight line toward the goal! This is the work "in a line." And regarding the outside world, we are a circle: There are no differences or limits, no top or bottom; everyone is equal. Take what you want, without any pressure.

These are two contradictory approaches, and we need to be aware of them.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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