Audio Version Of The Blog – 07.11.12

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Why Ethics Are Irrelevant

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 28: …And then we embark on a new kind of labor—to insert all that exaggerated will to receive in the form of bestowal. Then it is healed, because now it obtained equivalence of form. … It is only that in the meantime it has been given to the Klipot for purification. But in the end, it must not be a different body.

There is a desire to receive that was created by the Creator. It isn’t the desire that we all have to sustain our animal body, but a desire that is outside this world that was given to us in order to correct it, to correct our attitude to others.

Everything that is outside the attitude to others doesn’t count at all. Our “animal” part is characterized by desires for food, sex, family, money, respect, and knowledge. It doesn’t matter what form they take; they don’t count at all.

Education, culture, ethics and other values are part of our world only because we think about correcting a person’s attitude to such things by attributing some significance to them. But we were initially given a clear instruction: “Love thy friend as thyself.” It is a comprehensive, universal principle. This is the only thing we have to correct and the only direction we should aim at, regardless of all the other desires. It is in the attitude towards others that the “shattering of the vessels” occurred, and it is there that we discover the upper Light, the adhesion, by the correction.

Kabbalists say that we have to discover the egoistic desire in the mutual relations with others and to acknowledge the fact that it is all for my own benefit instead of the benefit of others. Everything is measured in relation to others, and it is according to this criterion that we call the desire to receive an “evil inclination,” as Kabbalists define it.

If my power is aimed at my self-benefit and not at the good of others, it is called the “evil inclination.” Now I need to turn it into a good inclination so that the same power, the same desire, will not be for my own benefit but for the benefit of others. Why is that? Because by that, we bring contentment to the Creator.

If I work this way, I summon the Light that Reforms, the force that corrects me by ascents and descents. Now I consider my good attitude towards others as an “ascent,” while in a “descent” I see that I am still against bestowal upon others.

I continue these clarifications, until all my desire to receive is actually “dead” and is incapable of anything. Then from the state of death, I revive it and reach the “resurrection of the dead,” and thus reach Gmar Tikkun (the final correction).

So everything takes place within my desire to receive that is aimed at others—individually and towards the environment, and generally towards the Creator. We should be aware of this in a strong and clear manner.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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Not Everything Has A Price

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is quality much more important that quantity in spirituality?

Answer: Because the attainment of Godliness is qualitative and not quantitative. In fact there is no quantity; it is all one. There is one desire and one Light and the connection between makes it one. All our work is qualitative.

Thanks to his correction, the created being learns the Creator’s essence and the attitude towards Him within the upper Light. Everything that was initially created within the desire to receive, according the Creator’s desire, was meant to reveal Him to a certain extent. He himself, Atzmuto, is still unattainable, but the Creator has dedicated a part of Himself to the creation. Thus the desire to receive that must be fulfilled to the fullest was created in order to discover the one who created it. We can’t do more than that. Kabbalists imply that there are additional ascents, but we don’t know about that.

So all our attainment is qualitative, and there are no calculations in it. Although we use numbers, we actually count qualitative revelations. Even in our world, if we checked things carefully, we would see that there are only qualitative parameters and not quantitative ones. If we understand that things are not exactly the same, then the quantitative calculations become impossible.

But our discernment and our attainment are weak: In the meantime, we don’t discern qualitative parameters and don’t know how to approach them. Only later, from the whole vessel, will I be able to discover the quality of things and define them accurately since they will all be part of me. In the meantime, we work according to quantity.

Question: So how can we measure quality?

Answer: It’s revealed only in the depth of the desire. But since we have no other choice, we describe it in quantitative terms: “125 degrees,” “6,000 years,” “600,000 souls,” etc. Our egoistic language is all based on quantitative concepts, and the quality doesn’t matter. In the past it was important, but since the Middle Ages and even some time before that, we began to develop only quantitatively while quality has become less important.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/12, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar

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What Motivates The Idealists?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: So far I receive pleasure from receiving, since I cannot be in contact with a higher level of receiving pleasure from bestowal, what can I do to change things?

Answer: You think that you should change the receiving with bestowal and to go on enjoying as if nothing has happened? It is impossible to simply switch from one to the other, after all, then you would bestow egoistically, in order to receive, in order to enjoy like before.

Comment: But I won’t be able to enjoy the receiving if I understand that the pleasure from bestowal itself is much more sublime and not because I gain something from it.

Answer: No, it is impossible to make a corporeal calculation and a spiritual calculation in the same vessels of receiving; when you compare between receiving and bestowal, you clarify what is more worthwhile.

In spirituality the account is totally different, I make it not based on what is in the desire, but in what is in the Creator—in order to bestow upon Him.

What Motivates The Idealists?
Comment: There have been many idealists throughout history, and we don’t see that they received any reward for their actions. Some even gave their lives for a sublime goal.

Answer: That’s the way it seems. However, our nature is totally egoistic, and it is all a desire to enjoy. We can see it in little children and even more in adults. If there is “matter” it cannot be anything but a desire to receive.

So the “idealists” as you see it do not exist. They are simply people whose desire is aimed differently; they enjoy giving to others and they feel good about it. Their intention is the same intention to enjoy, but externally it is expressed differently, it is expressed in giving.

How is an idealist different from a mother who takes care of her child? She also gives him everything. So why don’t we call her an “idealist”? It is because it is her child and we understand that nature obliges her to take care of him, just like animals do.

On the other hand, an idealist operates for the benefit of strangers, and we don’t see what motivates him. But the same concern is part of his nature too; he enjoys giving to others and so he acts accordingly. Eventually, there is no ideal here; it is nature that motivates such people. He doesn’t work against his ego, but rather in a way that is natural for him. If you forbid him to take care of others, he will be ready to kill you, since by that you will be depriving him of the possibility of enjoyment. So it is the same desire to receive that manages the idealist.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/12, Introduction to The Book of Zohar”

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Roundtable In Haifa 6.18.2012

About 450 people gathered in the Leo Baeck Center to attend the roundtable meeting of representatives of social and educational organizations. Along with the initiators of the project, including the Association of Community Centers, the HaTzofim movement (the Hebrew Scouts Federation), the Arvut movement, the Bnei Moshavim movement and the Volunteer Association, there were representatives of the youth movement Noar Oved ve’Lomed (the Federation of Working and Studying Youth) whose blue shirts stood out. This event demonstrated the possibility of dialogue in which different parties come to collaboration.

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Parents and Poverty: A Threat To Young Generation

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Dr. Peggy Drexler, Author, Research Psychologist, Gender Scholar): “A 2010 Federal Reserve survey – done every three years – found a staggering 40 percent drop in household net worth. With the economy continuing to struggle in the areas that hit people hardest  – home and jobs – the next survey is unlikely to show an appreciable drop in pain, possibly not for years to come. …

“As families struggle financially, they often change.

“Anxiety and depression take seats at the dinner table. Children – with their receptors to parental mood always running wide open – will sense the change in household tone. They will pick up on even the subtle shifts in the rhythms of daily routines.

Worse, they may see the loss of homes, changes in schools and friends, even verbal and physical abuse as the family fault lines crack under the unrelenting stress of getting through the month.

“Children pushed into poverty by a recession, the report says, are three times more likely to be poor themselves than those who managed to stay more affluent. ‘In short,’ say the authors, ‘the conditions of today will give rise to the next generation of poor Americans.’

“The recession has also had its way with the trust and expectations of young adults — particularly the younger end of the Millennials. …

“They are forced to assume that ‘everything that came before them was a mirage – that it was built on unsafe foundations.’

“People will find their way back to confidence. But especially for those growing up under the weight of its fearsome uncertainties, it will be with us for generations to come.”

My Comment: Integral upbringing obliges our creating public dining rooms, clubs, athletic fields, voluntary childcare, and a cultural mass leisure, and so on. It is about creating an environment that will raise up the people of the future, and not grow the lumpenproletariat. The problem is not in the means, but in the desire to organize that our egoism stops.
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An Appointment With A Unity Specialist

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is the course of integral education different from the nice and simple concepts about altruism used by cheap psychology and New Age?

Answer: The main function of the course is to try to prove to a person that we can only save the world by connection. We have the method of connection that we believe to be the right one. Practical work will prove the advantage of this method compared to other methods that seem to be using the same concepts.

On the surface, it may seem the same, but there is a difference, just like when we compare two violinists, one who is a famous virtuoso and the other one plays on a street corner. We offer a new “game,” so let’s see who will succeed.

Expertise is the inner quality of the art. So the concepts may seem identical. There are doctors who are specialists that people come to from all over the world. One may wonder why they do that if there is a doctor in a clinic near a person’s home. People pay a lot of money so that a famous doctor will examine them.

Both are doctors, but it is a matter of art. One has an inner sense that cannot be sold or passed on to others; it is an inner, natural gift. We too have such an inner power, let’s check! If we succeed time after time, then people will stand in line waiting for us and we will be considered specialists.

Life will prove that, since we are assisting the unity and the connection among the people. We don’t call for riots and breaking shop windows, but for studying and for education. Because according to all the research, the data, and social statistics, we can already see what helps and what doesn’t.

Never has it been possible to attain something good in this world by force. Wherever there were riots and the governments gave in to the pressure of the people and performed some reforms from the top down, it eventually harmed the people. If we examine things, we will see that after lowering prices, the prices rise again and are even higher than they were and suddenly the retirement age increases by two years; it is the same in every area.

How can that be, why is it getting worse exactly in the same place they tried to improve things? It is as if the desired improvement brought about a negative result. But this is the law of nature that people don’t know and we do. All the improvements that are not performed according to this law will become harmful, exactly the opposite of what was intended, from plus to minus.

This is evident from statistical data. If someone doesn’t believe it, he can try to create uprisings and riots again and see what it will lead to in half a year.

It isn’t even a result of the crisis; it is simply a fixed law. Any strong nation that invaded other countries and dominated them was eventually dominated by the same nations, perhaps not immediately, but in a few centuries. France once ruled all of North Africa by making it its colony. Now it turns out that North Africa is coming to France and dominates it.

That’s the way it is everywhere, history always backlashes like a boomerang in response to any forceful action. We should learn from this so that we can at least stop ourselves from illogical actions. We have been blind until now, but if we already know the outcomes, we should change our strategy. There is no choice; we are finding ourselves in such a crisis today, that we cannot make any more mistakes. We must come to the right conclusions.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 6/29/12

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A Mercedes For Ten Dollars

Dr. Michael LaitmanIntegral education is a very serious tool that includes the special force that is revealed among us. It is the force of connection that saves us from all the troubles: from hunger, insecurity, health problems, problems with the kids, the break up of the family, etc. A person attends a course of integral education in order to find out how to solve all his problems.

All this happens in five sessions: It’s like buying a Mercedes for ten dollars! Since we are getting ready to acquire the force of the inner connection by which we will be able to attain everything, balance, harmony and connection, this is a real acquisition.

If people working in a certain plant connect, it is worthwhile and profitable even for the owner of the plant, since because of such connection the productivity increases, absenteeism decreases due to the absence of illness, and conflicts and disagreements disappear. It is even good for business.

A person should understand from the start what the plan is and what he gains from it. Then he will be ready to be part of the game. We are grown people dealing with a very serious matter by intending to acquire a special natural force that is concealed within our connection.

It is the most powerful force that is above everything, since all the other forces are separate. By this force of connection, we will be able to solve all our problems.

At the end of each workshop we should sum up things in order to assess our achievements—we’ve achieved connection; we felt how helpful it is; we understood how from this point we can begin to solve problems and deal with different questions, tie them together and approach them integrally.

We can already see how much we can save thanks to our connection: in the municipality, in industry, at home, in the family, and at work. The force of connection allows us to make changes on every level of our life. It is to such an extent that if we begin to organize everything and correct things from the bottom up, then what the government does will not worry us on our level. By the changes from the bottom up, we will force it to manage us differently.

We only need to rise from the bottom up (the Returning Light), which means to connect among us, even for the egoistic goal of attaining a better life. In any case, it will already be connection, which means the correction of the shattering. So gradually, by raising all the people with comprehensive integral education, we will change the general atmosphere in society, and it will spread all over and change our life.
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From a “Talk on Integral Upbringing” 6/29/12

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Education: A United Front

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe need to persuade the organizations that are our partners in roundtables that their actions are not sufficient and should be supplemented with integral education and upbringing.

Then gradually by giving them integral education and upbringing, together we will organize a united front of correcting nations and people to mutual aid because our actions will be with the right intention in the likeness to nature, in mutual agreement, which will attract a higher force, the Light, the Creator into human actions.

That is why we need to work together with them, gradually leading them to an understanding that without educating, first of all of us, and then bringing up the nation, no action will yield good results. So, our first task is to gradually enter into close contact with these organizations so that they become imbued with the idea of correcting a person, not just performing actions.
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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.11.12

Preparation to the Lesson

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A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar (Rav Yehuda Ashlag),” (Starting with: “And what we explained,” To the end)

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The Book of ZoharSelected Excerpts “Beresheet Bet (Genesis 2),” Lesson 137

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Item 106, Lesson 27

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Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 33, Lesson 13

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