Audio Version Of The Blog – 01.21.14

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The Highest Lookout

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam says in Letter 5 that he is happy about the evil that are revealed. It is the forces that are designed to help, although they are submitted in such a form because they are not corrected yet. It is about desires that cannot be revealed any other way.

The Lights and the vessels are revealed in accordance to each other. The desires, revealed as good or evil, are the components of the new vessel. It doesn’t matter how I see them, as long as they are revealed. Now I have to work with them.

We mustn’t ignore, negate, or annul them. I cannot close my eyes like a child and pretend that they don’t exist. I cannot detach myself from them, get rid of them, fall asleep, get drunk, or take some drugs. No, I have to confront them, and for this I have all the necessary means to do so: the group, the study, etc.

I don’t ignore any obstacle. I mustn’t think that it would be better if there were no interferences because they build a new vessel, another brick in its structure. If there were no flaws in me, then I wouldn’t discover anything. If something is revealed, it means that it’s time to correct that part of my vessel and put it in the right place.

This is why I am glad. I draw away from the problems a little, look at them from the side, objectively, and then I see the height that I have reached! It turns out that I can correct this too!

It’s hard to understand, but on the corporeal, physical levels what comes to the world is only what is sent to us from the upper Providence, and it’s meant to bring the creature to perfection. On the other hand, it’s all because we cannot advance towards correction.

So why do the righteous suffer? It’s because the world is round and united. They also depend on it and cannot draw it after them, although they feel the problems on the corporeal level. This is part of the general correction.

So what should I do when evil is revealed? If I can draw away from it and see the cause of what is happening, then I ascend above the body and above what it feels. I look at everything that happens to it from the side and I am glad that I am going through these great corrections. What is more, I don’t take the body into account but the soul. I already see a different picture.

On the whole, the solution is simply to make any effort in order to get used to the intention of in order to bestow upon the group by ascending above my body, above this life. On the corporeal level I continue to do everything that is necessary: I worry about the family, go to the doctor when necessary, etc. But at the same time I am above and detached from this level. Everything that I do is in order to ascend.

Thus I identify with the Creator who sends me the obstacles. I understand that His “packages” were meant to help me establish the right perspective to all the states, both the evil and the good, and to keep in touch with Him. I now view this whole life from this perspective.

The Book of Zohar describes how Rabbi Chiya saw himself sitting in the upper assembly as everyone listens to him. He was allowed to see this state, and I too look at myself from above from another state while adhered to the Creator. No, it isn’t a split personality but a realistic view of things.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Did You Expect Salvation?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a person who has decided to participate in the convention for the first time overcome all the hardships and see the importance of the convention above all?

Answer: He should simply be with us, keep in touch through our TV channel or the Internet. Then in the time we have left things will get better.

There are no obstacles along the way to the convention that cannot be overcome. It’s when a person comes, when he is incorporated with us, that he will see how helpful it is in every aspect of life. By exerting himself in faith above reason, he will be able to solve many personal problems and will overcome many troubles.

I am not afraid to say this because it’s exactly what Kabbalists promise us in their writings. It isn’t what I know, but what they say.

A person who has only seen us on the screen for two years can dedicate two and a half days for the convention because he may have to wait for another year at best for the next convention; how can he not come? How can you miss something like this? What else has he got in life? How does he intend to fulfill his life?

It is said that the soul of a person who passes away is asked two questions: “Did you engage in the Torah?” “Did you expect salvation?” A soul is the vessel that receives the filling, which means the feeling of the Creator. “Did you engage in the Torah?” means did you want to draw the Light that Reforms? Were you drawn to where there should be love?

The Torah is the spice for the evil inclination, the means in which there is the Light that Reforms. This is exactly what the convention is meant for, so that together, everyone will draw the Light for the revelation of the Creator in the connection between us.

This is what a person’s soul is asked: “Did you draw the Light in order to resemble the Creator; in order to reveal Him?” This is called “Did you expect salvation?” This is the principle of “I have exerted and I have found.” The “finding” is the spiritual salvation.

When a person is behind the TV screen can he engage in this? How should he know how to do it? This is why he is invited to a special event in which everything is prepared for his arrival and the opportunity of engaging in the most important thing in his life is served to him on a platter. Then he would certainly have an answer to such a crucial question.

The angel inquiring the soul at the spiritual gate is a metaphor which explains to us how important it is not to waste our life in vain. Especially when you have such an opportunity, as it says: “There is a person who attains his world in one hour.” And you still have different calculations? If he had another opportunity now, he would have no calculations. So we should understand that it is here that the principle of the resistance of the forces of impurity is revealed.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Point Of Losing The Feeling Of The Ego

Dr. Michael Laitman“The Light and the Sun,” VeYechi: The main point regarding the assembly is that we should all be united and that everyone should ask for one thing only, to find the Creator, since the Shechina resides among a group of ten. Of course, if there are more than ten, then the Shechina will certainly be revealed. And each one can join his friend and listen to how he should worship the Creator and to find the Creator.

And he should annul himself before his friend and so should his friend before him and so should everyone. And so if this is the intention of the assembly, then more than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to feed him, and thus the Creator comes closer to them and is with them and all the salvations and the blessings and the good bestowal from the source of mercy, and the great mercy and the benevolence are revealed upon the assembly of Israel.

Everything depends on the connection, on the correction of the shattering, on the correction of the sin of the “Tree of Knowledge.” This is all our work by which we become Adam, which means the one figure that resembles (Domeh) the Creator, one soul, one vessel. With the help of the friends, we overcome the resistance of our ego, draw the Light that Reforms, and thus advance.

We see that our advancement is only due to the connection and is fulfilled in the connection, in the point where we feel the crisis and where the repulsion, the hatred, the cooling down, the mutual disgust is revealed. It is always a problem to locate this point because we avoid it, forget it, and are in a state of numbness.

It’s in that central point where we really have to be connected that all our feelings disappear! All our sensors and our senses cease to work there. It’s as if we discover and enter a void where there isn’t even hate, but where all the feelings simply disappear. Thus we gradually discover the spiritual space that we have to fill by our connection.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/14

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Whoever Laughs At My Efforts

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe great dark depths of my desire that are still unknown are called the “heart of stone,” which is revealed only as a result of my efforts. The system of Adam HaRishon (first man) committed the sin of the “Tree of Knowledge” because of the concealment of the stoney heart. It reveals itself if we advance towards adhesion. When I yearn for adhesion, I suddenly discover that I cannot do it and that it simply isn’t for me.

When I turn a reasonable amount of desires into “in order to bestow,” I discover an addition, a giant rock inside laughing at me: “You have no chance, this doesn’t affect me; you will never be able to correct me.” I cannot reach adhesion as a result. I resemble the Creator in some way, but the stoney heart doesn’t let me get near it.

This is the reason for Adam’s sin, he discovered the stoney heart, the snake, but couldn’t keep the intention of to receive in order to bestow. Therefore, we also have to clarify this state gradually in order to ultimately decide that there is no other choice and that we have to correct it. Eve also felt that this was all their work, which means that without the revelation of the sin, of the fruit, life is tasteless. She found a special force in the tree of knowledge that doesn’t exist in any of the trees in the garden.

Question: It turns out that the stoney heart is kind of a Pandora’s box. Do we discover it gradually on every level or do we discover it all at once at the end of correction?

Answer: A bit of it is revealed on every level. After all, the lowest level also includes everything in it. Infinity is revealed in it, but you perceive it according to the resolution of your screen. So you should constantly work on the sensitivity of your vessel of perception.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Are We Smarter Than Ancient People?

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Stanislav Drobyshevskiy, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology, Department of Biology, Moscow State University): “It is not a fact that we are smarter than people of the Upper Paleolithic, who lived 40-10 thousand years ago. They were generalists.

“Every Cro-Magnon knew how to make and how to use all the necessary tools, how to light a fire, what he could hunt and from whom and how to flee, what could be eaten, and what would hurt the stomach; he was a builder, and a physician, and a historian and a hunter, and a master of all trades.

“Now it is the time of professionals. Everyone knows his narrow task, but is helpless in general. Humanity is rapidly turning into an ant hill – is it a sign that we are becoming smarter?”

My Comment: We do not have to get smarter; we need to become aware of our helplessness in the egoistic rejection of each other so that we will want to cooperate, connect, unite, and reveal the higher existence in complete unity.
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Nothing Is Redundant In This World

Dr. Michael LaitmanEvery person has his own purpose and nothing is redundant in this world.

When I read about how many people are killed every day in different disasters, accidents, or car crashes I cannot help but wonder about how unruffled our society is.

Once there were militias that kept the order in the streets in old Leningrad, and we were forced to be members of these militias. It was there that we heard for the first time the announcement: “There was a murder on x street, go there immediately.” Nothing was written about it anywhere and no one spoke about it. We were shocked: “There is murder?!”

Today we hear about such things all the time. For example, a thousand people were killed in Lebanon and another thousand were killed in Syria, etc., but this hardly disturbs anyone. It may take several weeks of riots and many losses before the UN sluggishly begins to denounce such actions of vandalism. All this is reminiscent of the “just anger of the Soviet people.”

However no one is redundant in this world and everyone is fulfilling his purpose no matter what. When the upper providence removes these people with different bloody methods, it means that we don’t live this life correctly and so it is taken from us, thus correcting things by terrible forced deaths.

But humanity relates to this so passively that even the media hardly mention the fact that some international organizations protesting against the killing, demanding the masses be appeased.

Surprisingly, no one is calling out to do anything. Everyone is calm. If governments didn’t have to react to such events in certain polite international diplomatic frameworks, the media wouldn’t mention them at all.

In the ancient world, by the way, human life was much more meaningful. Slaves were worth a lot of money and could well pay for themselves. They had to be fed, and clothed, but in return they worked from morning to evening, and so they were well cared for and cherished.

This is mentioned in many books and especially in the Talmud, where it specifically says how to take care of a slave. After all, he could yield more to the owner than an animal. In other words, a devotee, a loyal servant, cost a lot of money. Therefore no prisoners were killed but were enslaved.

Life was also valuable because in those days there was no social support as we have today. If the provider of a family was killed, his wife and children died of hunger since there were no welfare systems that could support them. So society was interested in preserving people’s lives.
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From Kab TV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/19/13

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Life Is A Priceless Gift

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What will happen to us if human life is gradually devalued?

Answer: The value of human life has nothing to do with the number of people on earth but with our attitude towards each person. Unfortunately, we don’t feel any loss when someone dies. We don’t even value our own life as we should, since we don’t see any meaning in it. In the past life and death were respected. People used to mourn the deceased. After all people valued life.

Today, when we can provide everyone with a relatively healthy affluent life, with good education, can help people stand on their own two feet and to become vital and value life, the desire to live disappears. If we could speak frankly to all the people in the world, they would say that they live against their own will. Of course, it’s scary to think that one might go to sleep and not wake up, but if they were offered to end their life that way, painlessly, they would agree. Many people in the world feel that their life is meaningless and don’t want to experience and to feel what they feel as living. This means that the meaning of life is in need of re-evaluation.

Today many people who are depressed and take antidepressants gradually move on to taking drugs that are becoming legal so that they can be in a good mood. When a person is “high” he doesn’t become a burden on society and society doesn’t have to worry about his death. With drugs, you kill him in a nice civilized way.

This is the best, simplest, and cheapest solution for the elite. They have already won against the giant cigarette manufacturers and the legalization of drugs has already been taken to the next level.

Comment: But this is not a correction.

Answer: The authorities have no other means to correct people, and why would they do that?! It isn’t their goal. They don’t see the future. They will realize the need for correction only when they have no choice. Another solution may be a war that would “cleanse” the earth and leave only one billion people and a clean environment. This is clearly an ideal solution for them and they would undoubtedly agree to that since the most important thing for them is to rule in a normal organized world. There is no point ruling and managing this madness.

However, the problem is that today, when a global connection is revealed in the world, it’s impossible to predict anything and they discover that they are gradually losing control. They cannot understand that nature is managing us and that it is bestowal and absolute love. Nature reveals its oppositeness in order to draw us to it and to help us reject the egoistic nature we are in now. The elite don’t understand this, since they don’t understand the reasons for the current crisis.

The decision makers believe that the current crisis is a result of over production and don’t understand that it’s caused by the descent of the upper force into our world as it gets closer to us. This force is absolute goodness and absolute love, and so it is revealed in our egoistic desires as a force that is opposite from us. Eventually the need for a change has to be evoked in them, but they can understand this by the upper force only through us, and for the time being they don’t hear us.

The upper force that gradually descends into our world forces us to see that there is one leadership, one goal, and one way to advance in this world. But many don’t ask themselves yet: “What is this goal? Where is it leading us? How?” It’s clear that there is one force, one idea that comes from Above, but the process itself and its purpose isn’t clear yet.

I believe that it will happen soon. We should hurry and explain these things to the public. It’s more important than showing them what we can correct, so we are mainly busy with this issue now because the most important thing is to disseminate!
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From Kab TV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/19/13

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The Creator’s Triple Attack

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: During the Arava convention, how can we feel as responsible for the friends as a submarine crew who won’t leave their friends and would rather drown with them if only half the crew can be saved?

Answer: They don’t feel that they are about to die since true death for them is being detached from their friends. They are brought to the feeling of an upper level of life and death, although it is a shell (Klipa), it is still in regards to the spiritual connection with friends.

You can reach such a state only with the Creator’s help. You need the Upper Light for that since otherwise you cannot even come close to such a state. If you organized a commando unit in a submarine, you would succeed. If you are going to organize a commando unit of mutual guarantee, you cannot do anything since you are given problems, descents, and interferences on purpose so that you will need the Creator.

Ultimately, we need to deal with Him. The general soul was shattered so that from this shattering you will get to know Him. We look at the broken shards and understand that we have to glue them together, but how can we put this puzzle together?

We try to connect these pieces in different ways, but nothing works and nothing will work! We don’t even know how to connect two parts: 1+1, since the Creator must be inside for these things to connect. This happens only when we reach an equivalence of form with Him in certain attributes.

But we don’t have these attributes. We don’t have the attribute of bestowal! This is why we cannot advance by even one step. We see that in the outside world people do organize commando units in which everyone is ready to sacrifice himself for the well-being of his friends. We cannot even think about this. After all, we need the Creator with us in every thought in this direction. This is the whole difference.

This is why the shell (Klipa) is so proud before holiness: “See what I can do! Everything is fine with me, everyone is happy, everything is nice, and what do you have?” After all, the egoistic connection is based on the mind, on confidence, while bestowal requires faith above reason. So a person who wants to reach true bestowal encounters great problems.

We can reach unity like in a submarine, but in order to do so, we need to reach a real demand for the Creator. This means that connecting is not the goal; the goal is to adhere to the Creator, and this final action must be in the initial thought. This is why we act and connect.

We need to check whether all our actions and connections between us are necessary for the revelation of the Creator, which should be the goal in every request, in every action. We can’t be confused and think that we need Him in order to connect. We actually need to connect in order to reveal Him and to delight Him.

We must properly build this formula each time, not forgetting that everything is for the sake of the Creator, and not for the sake of connection itself, neither is the raspberry ball, or the correction of humanity. We must constantly focus on the Creator.

So during the Arava convention we must constantly aim at the Creator, since this is the head of the Partzuf. We must constantly hold on to the same one thought, to the same intention, to the same plan that is aimed at the Creator.

Every question in the workshop is like a riddle that can be solved only when you build the sentence correctly, when the Creator is the goal, when everything that is aimed at the revelation of the Creator will reside among us. We need the Creator not so that he should glue us together; we want Him to glue us this way so that we will reveal Him and thus delight Him.

Everything should end with Him, in delighting Him, since the guest wants to delight the host. The Arava convention is the connection between us for His sake. Next there will be the integral education convention: The connection between us for the development of integral education. Then we will fulfill the integral connection in practice with the help of The Book of Zohar in the final great convention: The World Zohar Convention.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/14, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 01.21.14

Preparation to the Lesson

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Workshop 

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“Introduction to The Book of Zohar, “Torah and Prayer,” Item 184

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 3, Chapter 1, Item 4

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Writings of Baal HaSulam Introduction to The Book of Zohar,”  Item 34

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