A Minus In Humanity’s Bank Account

Michael LaitmanQuestion: If you look at the Internet, you see that what most people are looking for is an answer to the question of how to get out of debt, how to come out of a minus in their bank account. Can you comment?

Answer: First of all, we are being kept in a minus deliberately. A minus is a kind of slavery, a kind of connection between people that is used to confuse a person and in this way to enslave him. We do not understand this and consider ourselves free. But you are not free in any regard. If you cannot freely feed yourself or your family today, then to the same degree, you are tied down by iron chains. And if, in addition, you have a minus in your bank account, then you are enslaved completely.

All kinds of taxes, payments, and debts that every person has are a form of modern slavery. It seems like everything is OK, you can borrow some more money, things are not so bad….

This new period of people living in debt began recently. Entire nations live in a minus. The debt of certain nations amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars. It’s a minus in the country’s account. And then you can’t do very much. Your accounts could be “blocked” so you won’t receive anything until you pay up. Thus, an entire country becomes enslaved until it begs, “I am ready to do anything you tell me—just give me food!” Like a slave working for food. This is exactly what is happening to people and entire nations, and there is no way out of the minus!
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/11, Lesson on Money

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Who Should Be In Charge Of Mass Media?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Who should be in charge of mass media in order to influence people positively?

Answer: Mass media should be managed by the spiritual government (the Sanhedrin, the assembly of Kabbalists) which knows how to build the correct and hence most beneficial relationships between man and the entire society. Mass media owners should know what goal they are leading humanity toward since they possess the most powerful instruments to impact the public.

There is no other means to affect humanity except the means of communication. There is no other way to reach every person. His or her views are based not on what they studied in school, but rather on the information that mass media feeds them. Therefore, anyone who will be in charge of the Internet will receive reins over the majority of its channels, and will have control over the entire world.

Using mass media, the public could be prepared for anything since people absorb everything from it. Mass media creates the information field that feeds all humanity. All seven billion are being cooked in this “broth” that fills the Internet, and we see what the result of it is. Hence, it is necessary to know how to “cook” them and for what purpose, in order to bring them good and not harm them instead.

The Internet of the future will be ruled by unity since that is what it is designated to. It will be unity where all are connected together and depend on each other in a positive way, where everybody “joins the good.”

You cannot unite with everybody in a negative form since if you do, you will cause destruction. But in unifying with love, we are not only creating a benevolent system with kind relationships and a happy life, but we also ascend to another dimension of existence, to eternity. We join the upper force and ascend to a higher dimension of this web, from the virtual to the spiritual level.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Throughout all of history money brought about wars between governments and inside families. So how can it be used to connect people?

Answer: Everything depends on how money is used. If I want to fulfill my egoism, then I need money. But if I want to use my egoism to fulfill others, then I need an anti-egoistic screen, a “covering” for egoism such as money.

Money is an indicator of my power, the force of the screen. Thus, wars aren’t fought because of money, but because of egoism.

Besides, you can’t buy everything with money, although you can buy almost everything. Even in our world there are qualities relating to the root of the soul which cannot be bought, such as a special connection between people or a special aptitude that comes from the root of the soul (such as talent in music, art, or literature).

Qualities that we receive from nature cannot be bought with money. The things we have to add ourselves with our efforts, including the relationships between people and love, are also very difficult to buy.

Sometimes we confuse money with efforts. But it is impossible to simply pay and buy a certain attitude. The things belonging to nature, which we receive from the Creator and have to return to Him, are impossible to conquer egoistically, and our paper money also won’t help here.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/11, Lesson on Money

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Why Do We Need Money?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is money related to spirituality and how does it help us advance?

Answer: Money (Kesef) is a covering (Kisui) over my egoism. It is a force enabling me to cover my egoism, to fulfill it, or to use it for fulfilling others. Money gives me the opportunity to work with my egoism—either for its benefit or against.

Therefore, in the integral world, money has to be used only for the sake of connecting between people. A person has to leave only the necessities of life for himself and give all the excess to the world’s correction.

In the generation of the future, in the corrected world, money will disappear. I will receive everything I need from society, so why would I need money? If the whole world will be corrected and every person’s necessities will be provided for, and in addition no one will need excessive fulfillment, then what is money for? There won’t be any need for it.

It will be necessary to somehow regulate the processes of exchange and transfer from one company to another and between factories in order to provide for the whole world and to attain the corrected, perfect form, but this won’t happen by way of paper money any longer. We will have to somehow measure the connection between us. We will, indeed, assess it by “money,” but it won’t be the same money that is in circulation today, but the degree of one person’s bestowal to another.

If we shift to bestowal, then we also need “money.” However, it acquires the form of a screen which is measured by the unity to which it leads.

“How much did you pay?” The answer is: to the extent of the unity that emerged! In the meantime, today the price I pay is determined by how much I will receive for myself by detaching from others and thereby creating separation between us.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/11, Lesson on Money

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There Are Many Surprises Up Ahead

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does the root of the soul depend upon what kind of connection exists between the souls?

Answer: There are many conditions applying to the connection between the souls, just like in an integral system where every element is connected with all the others. We are unable to even imagine this.

Suppose that one person has to be corrected, and because of him thousands upon thousands more elements of the common system become involved in the process of correction, meaning souls and creatures on various levels. This is somewhat similar to an embryo’s development. It grows in a very strange way: Suddenly a tail-like extension is formed, then it disappears, and certain forms get replaced by others.

Why do we have to go through all of these states until we take on the form of man? And that happens even in an embryo! Why do we have to receive nourishment through the belly button? Isn’t that strange? In essence the intake of food through the mouth also looks strange, but at least that comes from equivalence to the spiritual Partzuf that receives Lights (tastes, Taamim) through the mouth, Peh which is in the head, Rosh of the Partzuf.

It’s senseless to ask about this because the ways of development, the conditions and interconnections all come from the connection between the souls. Why do the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature have to develop precisely the way they do, producing such great varieties of fish, birds, animals, thousands of species of plants, and billions of different creatures?

All of this comes from the development of desires and combinations between them. It is written, “The end of the action lies in the initial plan.” If we did not have to attain total inter-inclusion in one another at the end of the action, in the final correction, then we would not need such a variety of species on every level of development on the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature.

All of these levels appear and disappear to the degree correction takes place according to the given period of development. That is why certain species of animals and plants have already vanished from the face of the earth, while others are only now being revealed.

Every day scientists discover new species of animals that were unknown before. Did they exist or not? They did not. They are only now being revealed. Suddenly this form begins to be revealed and to exist because our desires, which manifest in various combinations, present a new vision to us in the form of these creatures.

Previously these connections between the desires did not exist and it was as if these creatures did not exist. After all, they are only an external appearance of specific combinations of our desires.

Many more things will become revealed. But in the end all of this comes from the same principle.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/11, The Zohar

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A Big War For A Little Person

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: As I understood, you wish to turn mass media into educational resources as though every individual has to be schooled. But do you really think people will comply? As a matter of fact, they don’t like to study and prefer entertainment instead.

Answer: You simply don’t realize that while you are swallowing the information with which mass media are “entertaining” you, you are schooled indeed, but by a very bad school! You just don’t register it, but mass media do whatever they want with you. They reform you, which means that you are in their school, and it is educating you even more than you think!

You thought that there is no agenda behind them, no politics? Somebody pays for everything and defines in what key it will be presented. From dawn till dusk, people sit and think what the tone of the newspaper should be, what trend it should follow. And this regards all mass information. There is nothing that would be published just to entertain. Step into showbiz and you will see its policies and ties with the newspapers.

A little person doesn’t understand what huge wars are being fought for the right to control him or her. You are being thoroughly schooled day by day; they brainwash and modify you to the core.

This aim at changing a person should remain, but changing him for the better! All of us are the product of mass media, and look at our society, what we have come to. School is not only when I sit at the desk and stare at the teacher. Everything around us is a school, and all of it is arranged by someone, supported by some ideology.

Newspapers should keep being fun and interesting for the readers, but it has to have a good purpose. It requires great skill. It’s easy to photograph and publish murder scenes. It is much more difficult to present it so that a person wouldn’t want it to be repeated, which is against our egoism.

Harder yet it is to evoke in a person regret that this did happen so he might feel compassion, so that the media worked to truly connect people. The modern mass media cultivates man’s ego, everyone’s desire to feel pleasure. And we, on our part, must employ all our channels, use all our interrelations and our ties with the world to work on them, pouring the wisdom of Kabbalah through them.

And it’s alright if people don’t understand or listen, but one day, suddenly, it will start surfacing within them, and they will start talking about it themselves, clueless of whence these new thoughts came to them.

In other words, we need two things: The world ego must mature as quickly as possible, but our dissemination of Kabbalah must grow ahead of it! And when these two components, one’s great egoism and our influence aimed at bestowal, will link within each person, it will produce the right outcome.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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Kabbalists On The Torah And Commandments, Part 37

Dr. Michael LaitmanDear Friends, please ask questions about these passages from the great Kabbalists. The commentaries in brackets are mine.

613 Suggestions and 613 Deposits

We should keep the Torah and Mitzvot so [specifically because] it will bring us into purity [and not in order to receive reward in this or the next world or because it was commanded by the Creator]. Purity means purification of the Kelim [vessels] from the will to receive for oneself, which is called “dirt” [impurity] for it is in disparity of form from the Creator, who is all about [the property of] bestowal. Hence prior to cleaning the Kelim, it is impossible to place anything good [exalted] in them [it’s impossible to fill them with the sensation of eternity and perfection] because anything that is placed in a dirty Kli (vessel) will be spoiled [according to the law of the equivalence of form].

Therefore, we must seek good advice [of Kabbalists who already underwent the path of correction] for things that will purify our Kelim [egoistic desires]. This is called “qualification [suitability] and preparation to be able to receive the delight and pleasure” [which awaits us in the revelation of the Creator]. And because of that, we were given 613 Mitzvot [instructions], which The Zohar calls, “613 counsels.” These are suggestions on how to purify ourselves [our desires since man is specifically a vessel of desires] from the filth of our vessels of reception.

It is written in the “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” (p. 242), “The Zohar calls the Mitzvot in the Torah, ‘deposits.’ However, they are also called ‘counsels.’ The difference between them is that there are front and back in everything. The preparation for something is called ‘back,” and the attainment [reception] of that thing is called ‘front.’ Similarly, in Torah and Mitzvot there is ‘We shall do,’ and ‘We shall hear.’

When keeping the Torah and Mitzvot by way of ‘Who do His words [correcting their egoism],’ before they are rewarded with hearing, the Mitzvot are called ‘613 counsels,’ and they are considered ‘back.’ And when rewarded with hearing the voice of His word [the property of bestowal within], the Mitzvot become deposits [the sensation of the Light within], from the word “deposited.”
– Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “Holiness and Purity in the Work”
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An Educational Channel Instead Of Commercials

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You said that mass media must change and instead of being a commercial tool, it should become an educational one. What will they teach and how will they raise us?

Answer: A person has to be raised gradually, by way of various articles, information, and a special approach. In other words, the content itself could remain the same, but the key is how to present it and why. Any article in a newspaper, a video clip, a breaking news report, even an ad, everything is accepted and published only on condition that it leads us to correction.

There is a place for everything, but let’s focus on how we use it: What do we wish to achieve with it, what transformations in a person? Instead of chewing on all negative events and screaming, “Look what is happening in our schools, with the police, in the slums,” we should use it for correction and analysis of why this occurred, how to resist it, what can be done so that tomorrow it won’t happen again.

Mass media has to organize human society since they are called “the means of communication,” and our salvation lies in the connection between us. They have to mobilize us all to unify and, together, put these fires out, heal all these sores that are opening here and there in our society.

Mass media must build society, rather than fish some tiny accident out and blow it out of proportion in order to sell themselves at a higher rate. We need a completely different approach and media hosts. Mass media should be in the hands of wise men that understand the purpose of creation and know what humanity must be moving toward.

They must be great guides in order to use everything that exists in the world. After all, we can publish information about anything (nothing must be hidden), but the key is how to explain it in reference to the spiritual goal: Where it is rooted and where it leads to, how not to repeat the same mistakes, how an event that took place in one region impacts the entire world, why it occurred, why there and not here, and so on.

It has to be an explanation accompanied by explanation and not merely an exaggeration of a certain accident; on the contrary, it must be a call for sympathy, connection, and realization that the world is global and we are totally interconnected.

I spoke of this in Arosa, Switzerland, as long as five years ago. Mass media will keep reporting the same news as they do today; the only difference lies in how the information will be presented, how it will be approached, disclosed, and served. That’s what the focus should be on!

It is a very delicate thing. It could be just a few lines, but they will be presented at such an angle as to point a person in the right direction.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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Egoism And Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can pleasure that one gets from spirituality be egoistic?

Answer: It surely can. Spirituality is love and bestowal. I’m willing to bestow to you and love you if it’s going to benefit me. And if not, then why should I? This is called Klipa (shell), and this is corporeality, not spirituality.

Each one of us is able to love in this way. I love my kids because they are mine. But if they are not mine, I have no regard for them. I can love someone if my well-being depends on them, but if it doesn’t, I don’t need them. In other words, I love and invest because I receive a personal benefit from it. However, this isn’t love and bestowal; this is using others.

Love and bestowal described by the wisdom of Kabbalah has nothing to do with receiving for one’s sake. I simply love in order to benefit the other person. This is even greater than our love for our children because we love our kids instinctively.

I must reach the kind of love of a fellow man that doesn’t benefit my egoism. But if my egoism receives something from this love, it’s not love: I simply love myself and fulfill myself in a round about way. Hence, it is all defined by my intention. But how can I check myself?

I have to rise to the kind of love where I’m only concerned about a fellow human being, not about myself. It’s something we must know because nature will force us to attain this level. According to the program of creation, we must become similar to the Creator. The Creator is good and does good without any regard for Himself. He desires to fulfill us and this is called love.

How can we draw closer to this state? My current intention can only be corrected by the Light that Reforms. It created my egoism and now it can lift me above it, perform a miracle: take me out of Egypt. When I ascend, I begin to correct myself.

This Light can only be sensed by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. While reading The Book of Zohar, a person begins to notice it acting upon him. The study itself contains a force that transforms him. It is said in this regard: “I created the evil inclination, and I gave the Torah for its correction, the Light that brings one back to the good.” This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed in our time and is becoming available to everyone.
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From a TV program “Ask the Kabbalist” 4/4/2010

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Where Is The “Group Of Abraham” Today?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe nation of Israel is a collective definition of people whose ancestors inhabited ancient Babylon and received awakening to “the work of the Creator,” to reaching adhesion with Him. Abraham chose such people and organized them into his group. We are joining the same group consisting of people who exist in our world as well as the souls that don’t have material bodies.

In essence, it’s the very same group, the same souls, connecting to each other to reveal the spiritual world, the Creator, to achieve similarity with Him, and to bring Him contentment. All of these souls together are called the group of Abraham.

Part of these souls has fallen from the spiritual degree and is completely lost; nobody knows where they are. It’s said that 22 million people have been discovered in Pakistan, who, allegedly, once belonged to the people of Israel. It’s impossible to know now, and it’s not that important. We are thinking not in terms of “headcount,” but in relation to the souls, desires.

As to desire, those who are aspiring to attain the spiritual world today as well as those who have attained it in all the generations, together, are considered to be part of the group of Abraham. Besides, those who were once at the spiritual degree and then fell from it, forsaking “the work of the Creator,” are now in a “dormant” state, waiting to re-attain what they have lost. They, too, belong to this group.

It turns out that “Israel” (Yashar-Kel or straight to the Creator “) is a rather numerous group since a lot of people “passed through” it over the past generations. That group needs to constantly strengthen itself. We are all working to attain spirituality while still in this world, and we are joined by all the souls from the upper world, from another dimension, which are assisting us, working together with us in a unified system to pass the Light into the common soul of Adam HaRishon.

By doing so, we are awakening all the souls that have fallen from the spiritual world during the destruction of the First and Second Temples; we are helping them to come back. After all, they have become entangled in other desires and souls, which is called “being in exile.” In addition, we are awakening souls that have never been awakened before.

We are not working alone, but together with the souls of the Patriarchs, of Abraham, of the group from ancient Babylon! It’s an immense system.

But even if the system connects to itself all the souls, all the people in the world, and if all the souls in the spiritual world pass the Light to correct their desires, all that will only be a thin line in the world of Infinity, Nefesh de Nefesh. That’s how enormous Malchut of the world of Infinity is.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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