The Truth On Crutches

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: …by nature, the power to work is not equal with each and every person. One person in the society labors in one hour of work, due to his weakness, much more than his friend who works two hours or more.

And there is also a psychological matter here, because he who is very lazy by nature exhausts himself in one hour more than his friend in two hours or more. And according to the perspective of the evident truth, we should not compel one part of society to labor more than the other part for the fulfillment of the needs of their lives. In fact, the naturally strong and nimble in society benefit from the labor of others and exploit them maliciously against the attribute of truth, because they labor very little compared to the weak and the lazy in society.

Can we evaluate people from the angle of truth or in accordance with the category of veracity? By itself, it is a wonderful and true category. It attests to a very simple thing: One deserves as much as one gives, meaning that everyone must be valued correctly and justly based on one’s contribution to the general structure. It is a law of nature. We can design numerous other regulations, but in reality it is exactly so.

Our rewards equal our efforts, although exertions should not be assessed through absolute numbers. Rather, they must be calculated by using relative specific measures. For example, it is extremely hard for me to lift a ten-kilogram weight and carry it for ten kilometers. However, for another person, it would be just an easy stroll. He won’t even notice this weight. I would need to rest for a couple of hours to replenish the energy I lost and eat something nourishing, whereas the other person wouldn’t be tired at all. On the contrary, he would feel much better than before.

Hence, it means that we simply cannot use the category of truth and do not have any criteria to make accurate calculations here. So, is it possible to lead a truthful life in our society?

You won’t find this problem in inanimate, vegetative or animate nature. There, everything exists in accordance with the attribute of truth, although we don’t notice it since we do not comprehend the entire picture. Each species occupies a niche of its own. All are connected; all are driven by natural instincts. Therefore, everything is correct.

We don’t know what it means to be governed by veracity since, at the speaking level, nature lets us go, releases the reins, abandons us, and allows us to establish relationships with it on our own—not as individuals, but rather as a society. Integration and social relationships are, in fact, the major problems we are facing at this time.

Previously, when humanity was still at a primitive stage of formation, the world was as one flock, as one family. Thus, it didn’t require any particular clarifications. At that time, everyone’s share was defined by a family, a tribal sense of community, and corresponded to the laws of nature.

However, when liaisons among humans lost its family basis and transitioned into a professional services exchange field—when people stopped being just parts of their families, tribes, clans, and villages, when they began to develop on their own—the problem emerged. After all, now people compare themselves to others and tend to give their neighbors as little as they can and, at the same time, receive as much as possible. We and the people around us are no longer a unified system. This explains why we have no clue as to how to get along with each other. The category of truth among us is vague, and that’s why we don’t sense or understand each other.

“I worked on your boot for a whole week,” the cobbler says.

How do I know if he is lying to me or if it really takes that guy so much time and effort to mend my shoe? Perhaps, is he simply unprofessional? A month ago, in another shop, it took them only one day to repair a mate to the same boot, and they charged me pennies. Now, I am paying four times more and had to wait an entire week!

To make a long story short, when we go beyond the boundaries of natural communities, we deal with unresolved problems. We are unable to stick to the category of truth and need additional criteria to support it. After all, if it falls it would cause chaos in society. That’s why we make “crutches”: various social programs, national insurance, hospital and pension funds, free education, and so forth. We don’t rely on our ability to implement the category of truth into life since we know that people will do nothing about it. Instead, our countries take over to compensate for it, and allow us to stay aloft and float not too far from unattainable shores that we cannot yet reach.

We have no ability to reach the shore since we traded family ties for commercial relationships that are built on the principles of mutual lies. Our society is in a huge conflict with this category: the attribute of truth. By not obeying it, we suffer and don’t know what to do next. By obeying it, we still acknowledge that there is something false in it.

This situation instigates an eternal confrontation between the masses and the elites. According to the category of truth, everyone is equal, and yet, the elites take away a huge portion of the wealth, leaving the masses poor. All rotates around the original problem.

Is there a way out? Can we establish genuine criteria? For that, we must feel others as we feel ourselves. The category of truth simply cannot be grounded on anything less than that. We must sense how intense other people’s exertions are and compare them with our own efforts. This comparison will let us replenish our relationships.

If we could measure how much each of us has received from nature—how healthy one is, how capable of doing various types of work—and what the real outcome of our efforts is exactly, then, possibly, we would distribute resources in a more correct way. However, in reality, our calculations always are wrong, and we never will distribute wealth fairly, honestly, and correctly because of the Creator’s interference. He deliberately spoils everything so that we come to Him since He is the truth!

Subsequently, the problem is not a just or merit-based distribution, but rather our altruistic intention to bestow. Any calculations are right only on the condition that we act solely to establish a connection with the Creator. Only then can we distribute things in accordance with the category of truth.

This explains why the “socialist experiment” failed in Russia. Its organizers did not hold the key: a connection with the Upper Light. Although they were given a chance, in the end, the upper governance turned it into a negative example.

[110960]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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