Unity Above Hate

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the Creator always resides in our mutual connection, how can we unite and at the same time, forget about the Creator and stray off the path?

Answer: What forms of unity could divert you from the path? All kinds of them! The Russians tried to do it, didn’t they? They did. Fascists tried (“Fascio” in Italian means “unify,” “tie in a bunch”), didn’t they? They did! Kibbutzim, Sparta, armies, vegetarians, fundamentalists, and so on are all various forms of association.

This is why unification has to be thoroughly scrutinized, analyzed, and implemented not by us, but by the Upper Light. First of all, we must keep the principle of “I am the First, and I am the Last,” “The end of an action lies in its initial thought.” I must advance toward the Creator and not simply strive to achieve love and bestowal between us in a secular fashion.

We should be dominated not by the force of egoism, but by the force that is above egoism since all advancement occurs by way of “faith above reason,” above hate and not within or with the help of hate.

We hate each other, but there is someone we hate even more. Therefore, we unite, and our general hatred mutually connects us to even greater hatred for a third party that we wish to destroy.

There is a great margin for error here. That is why we have to employ the Torah, an instruction that always leads you to the Light; and it is the Light that corrects you, not you yourself. Neither in the mind, nor in the sensations, nor in any action on the way to correction, do you ever use what is in you except the Light that Reforms. You have nothing to add to it except your effort to annul yourself.

If you annul yourself, you give the Light an opportunity to work on you and make out of you a correct future form. Otherwise, the Light will make the wrong form out of you so that through suffering you would discover the correct method you hadn’t understood previously.

The Light affects you all the time. The question is whether the Light and desire are opposing each other or not, and you are the one who determines that.

This is the deciding point, the point of free will. Only the group can help you to place yourself under the Light correctly. While the Light illuminates constantly, you have to continually examine yourself in the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/10, Baal HaSulam, Letter 17, 1926

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How To Really Renounce Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to nullify yourself before the group? Is self-annulment not renouncement of egoism?

Answer: Self-annulment is not cancellation of egoism. I “annul myself” before my manager who tells me what to do, before the police, and even before my own children. When my children demand something, I nullify my desire to rest and take care of their desires.

In reality, I am not nullifying anything. I simply trade one trouble for another. I prefer one thing to another, leaning on healthy egoism. This is not freedom of choice.

When I understand that I should cancel myself before the group since I will reach more in it, it is not self-annulment. This is a good egoistic calculation. The real self-annulment happens when I know that, egoistically, I do not need this. After having completely checked myself, I do not find any benefit in this, and still I rise above my reason and feeling.

We are gradually coming to this. And everything else is carried out “within reason.” I choose the group because it is better for me to be in it than on the outside. Many people go to different clubs according to their interests because it is worth it. Religion is also based on personal benefit.

However, the wisdom of Kabbalah is based on principles that are opposite to egoism. Here, we do not choose something that benefits us. Even though in the beginning we seem to strive toward the lesser evil and even goodness, which is defined as eternity and perfection, still, on the way, we ascend over egoism. Then, one must reject himself and join the desire of the group.

Like a commando brigade, we selflessly carry out the common task in order to reach something. At first, we act purely egoistically, but with time, one realizes that he must reject himself because the common strength, the common unity, is preferable to any personal success.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, “Show Me Your Honor”

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The Mind Of The Group

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the mind of the group and how can I understand it?

Answer: What we read in the articles, what we speak about, sing about, and study, what we imagine as our unity, meaning the desire and aspiration it has to be imbued with, the thoughts that should preoccupy the group, all of these things are the mind of the group.

The group is like the Creator. It is our unity. When we are one, we see that there is none else beside the Creator, the Good that Does Good. This is the way we describe the Upper Governance that leads us towards the goal.

This becomes revealed through unity, that is, the “mutual guarantee,” when everyone becomes sealed together on the way to the goal, and everything that happens only pushes us towards it. The goal is the kind of unity between us when we reveal our integrated interconnection, the single system of Adam. There, we all operate like the cells of a body, in mutual harmony.

This harmony, this law, the mutual bestowal, the reins between us, is the Creator (Boreh), which comes from the words “come” (Bo) and “see” (Reh). The “Creator” is what we attain in the connection between us; He is the flow of our common life.

This is where all the thoughts and desires of the group come from. I am a separate cell, while the group is a live body, Malchut of the world of Infinity, Shechina, something that contains the spiritual application. This is how I should be imagining it.

The group is Malchut, Shechina, that is, the “place,” the common desire, where I reveal the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, “Show Me Your Honor”

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Erect A Bridge Above Your Own Egoism

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the Creator brings me suffering, then how can I come closer to Him?

Answer: The Creator deliberately sends you suffering to make it easier for you to rise above your ego, inside of which you feel the suffering. Once you ascend above your own ego, you will be able to develop a different attitude to other people: one that isn’t based on reception, but on bestowal.

Then you will begin to feel the Creator and a world that does not function in order to receive and to fulfill your ego, but that is based on bestowal and fulfilling the desire to bestow. That is, you will be able to acquire a sensation of the second dimension of reality.

The nature in which we exist divides into two parts. Our half resides in the tendency to assimilate reality inside of us. But when I perceive and receive impressions of the reality I am in inside of myself, I cannot perceive any more than the reality of this world. In contrast, the second half is oriented at a nature opposite to ours: bestowal without any return connection with me. By means of the science of Kabbalah we have the opportunity to acquire this additional second nature and start feeling the second part of reality.

However, by ascending above your ego, above what you feel in the will to receive, you already work in the will to bestow alone. It turns out that you can exist in two forms and accordingly, feel two dimensions. After that you can already understand why the Creator is concealed from us.

From the lecture in “Kabbalah L’Am Hall” on 12/14/10

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The Sculptor Of My Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It seems to me that in order to connect with the text of The Zohar, which is written in an unfamiliar language, I need a miracle, but in our world it is difficult to believe in miracles.

Answer: I don’t know what it means “to connect with the text.” I hear some story in a foreign language. I was told that it is about me, about everything that is meant to happen to me today and in the future. By all means, I am very eager to learn because it is so important to me! The Zohar is a “secret code” that I have to decipher and reveal for myself. What should I do?

Kabbalists teach us: “If you make as big an effort as you possibly can, wish for it, search for the right approach, then you will reveal it. You are able to disclose it, but everything depends on how much effort you apply.”

We have to study a lot, learn how to sense and abandon some of our inner properties in order to better comprehend this text because it describes an understanding and approach to life that is completely opposite to us. You have to “dress” in these ideas, identify yourself with their characters, get to know and love them, even if you don’t like or understand them yet. You must alter a lot in yourself if you want to understand this story.

In fact, you change yourself in accordance with the story. All it talks about becomes more or less close and clear to you; you start sensing and accepting it to the extent that you become a part of it and reveal it to yourself.

It happens as a result of many actions through which you try to imitate the world of The Zohar. “What is this all about? I want to understand and feel it, to live in this world, so how do I change myself to start seeing at least a little bit of what The Zohar speaks of?”

I should always be aware of the matter inside myself which is constantly changing according to the story. I am the “clay” that shapes the story. I want to form it! This is how I am getting closer to the story, even though I begin to perceive and sense it rather than understand it, as it is said: “And Adam knew Eve.”

My approach is to let the narration in The Book of Zohar create more advanced forms within myself until I acquire the real shape. Indeed, the story by itself implies the revelation.

This is how we should work with the text; this is the right approach that we should exercise to get closer to The Book of Zohar. I want the Book to change me, carve “my matter” into any shape it deems necessary. I am totally open and ready for everything; I completely entrust myself to it!
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, The Zohar

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The Role Of Jacob In Egypt

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the weekly Torah portion “VaYechi” there is a very interesting relationship between the Egyptians, Jacob, and his children. They cried over him, embalmed him, buried him in the land of Israel, and much more. What does it all mean?

Answer: Our egoism or will to enjoy, which is called Egypt, cannot exist without the will to bestow. We need the Upper Light! However, the Upper Light does not come to us unless we have sparks of bestowal. When a person begins to connect qualities of reception and qualities of bestowal, then he sees that he thrives in his egoistic desires!

Therefore, the “seven years of plenty” in Egypt (where seven years do not designate a period in time, but seven Sefirot of Zeir Anpin) are possible as long as Jacob is in Egypt. As long as Jacob, the middle line, exists, he is able to correctly connect the right and left lines, reception and bestowal. Thus, he provides Light and prosperity to everyone. That is why Jacob, the combination of the right and left lines, was so respected.

However, this combination is only beneficial to Egypt. It increases egoism, but that is insufficient; one has to keep growing. Therefore, once Jacob raised egoism to a great size, he completed his role.

The egoistic desire grew by virtue of the spiritual force, and when it stops growing, that’s when “the seven years of hunger” start, forcing a person to ascend to a higher level. We see how holiness works for the benefit of Klipa and how Klipa works for the benefit of holiness. Thus, there is no such thing as “evil” or “good.” If a person uses them correctly, they all bring him to the goal.

From the program “Weekly Torah Portion” on 12/16/10

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Review Of My Book In Croatian

Dr. Michael LaitmanAn excerpt from the review of my book Kabbalah Revealed in Croatian: “In this book, you will not find hidden mysticism, great magic, or the shallow blarney of new age literature adorned with the shades of consumerism and public recognition as in the case of the hit “The Secret.”

This book is not written to help the reader escape reality or be entertained. It doesn’t sugarcoat or sedate. Kabbalah Revealed explains basic Kabbalistic principles very concisely and effectively while leading us on the journey of the creation of the world and discovery of the purpose of life.

In a surprisingly perceptive, witty, and almost scientific fashion, Laitman sums up this great wisdom in a mere one hundred pages, while totally seizing our attention. He simultaneously reveals such intellectual openness that glues together all the pieces of one big picture puzzle that is uncovered for us in the end.
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Play Your Own Movie!

Dr. Michael LaitmanKabbalah tells us how to change our lives and ascend to a different level of existence. It’s not simply like discovering a new form of life on another planet, but it’s revealing an additional world! Our world will open up like a veil and behind it we will see a different world.

We didn’t know that the picture we see is just a screen upon which different sources of Light project a three-dimensional picture. But suddenly the invisible seam in the middle of the screen will start coming apart and we will see the forces that form this picture for us and cause it to move.

When people first saw an approaching train in a movie, they got scared and jumped out of their seats. They did not believe that this was possible. Similarly, we don’t understand that we are living inside a movie. Today there are laser shows that play pictures depicted in the air with a laser beam, where a laser is a kind of light. Likewise, the Light shows us a picture we see of ourselves and everyone else, which seems completely real to us. We feel and sense our existence because we are made of the same imaginary matter. That is why the picture of our world is very relative. In fact, it does not exist and the science of Kabbalah brings us to the realization of it.

Nature, Elokim, is gradually teaching us that we cannot control this picture. It’s as if the Creator tells us, “The movie I have put you in is getting worse and worse. Why? It’s in order to obligate you to reveal the forces standing behind the movie and to control them independently. So take control over this movie instead of me and play it yourself!” By starting to participate in playing this movie, we start to understand, feel, and attain the Creator.

From the program “Weekly Torah Portion” on 12/16/10

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Eternal Dependence

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the difference between being aware of the evil inclination and correcting it?

Answer: The will to receive is created by the Light and cannot change on its own. Outside of the Light, desire is “0,” it doesn’t exist! It is fully dependent on the Light’s influence over it.

There is nothing in all of creation except for the Light and desire created by it. Depending upon the Light’s affect over the will to receive that it created, the desire can range from “fully egoistic” to “fully altruistic.” It is all determined by the intensity of the Light’s affect on it. When we discuss the will to receive, we should mention what it is and that it’s fully defined by the Light.

It is similar to a chunk of metal which is resting under a magnet: All actions of this chunk are determined by the actions of the magnet. And we are always, for eternity, dependent upon the Light and its impact on us. And if it ceases to affect us, we will disappear!

When the Light fills the will to receive, it evokes delight in us. When the desire is empty, we suffer. When the Light withdraws from us (from the desire) almost completely, it makes us feel a lack of sensation of the Light as the source of our existence (concealment of the Creator).

When the Light approaches from its concealment, it makes us recognize the evil inclination or our egoism against its property of love and bestowal, even when we don’t yet feel it as such. When the Light’s proximity becomes greater yet, we experience it as awareness of egoism being unacceptable. In this state, the Creator (Light) becomes a guarantor in that a person will no longer employ his egoism. But if the Light withdraws, then a person will definitely fall into his natural egoism again.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how we can control the Light’s impact on us, and in this way quickly and easily bring ourselves to perfection, instead of advancing to it by means of experiencing evil on ourselves. In any scenario, we are eternally dependent upon the Light, which is great because it will certainly lead us to perfection.
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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 12.19.10

The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Letters by Rabbi Amnon Saba,” Item 34, Lesson 6
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 38, Lesson 14
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Item 82
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress,” Lesson 9
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