Audio Version Of The Blog – 03.31.14

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/audio/eng_o_rav_2014-03-31_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’31.3.14′]

“The Rise Of Anti-Capitalism”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The New York Times): “We are beginning to witness a paradox at the heart of capitalism, one that has propelled it to greatness but is now threatening its future: The inherent dynamism of competitive markets is bringing costs so far down that many goods and services are becoming nearly free, abundant, and no longer subject to market forces. …

“The first inkling of the paradox came in 1999 when Napster, the music service, developed a network enabling millions of people to share music without paying the producers and artists, wreaking havoc on the music industry. Similar phenomena went on to severely disrupt the newspaper and book publishing industries. Consumers began sharing their own information and entertainment, via videos, audio and text, nearly free, bypassing the traditional markets altogether. …

“Thousands of hobbyists are already making their own products using 3-D printers, open-source software and recycled plastic as feedstock, at near zero marginal cost. Meanwhile, more than six million students are enrolled in free massive open online courses, the content of which is distributed at near zero marginal cost.

“Now the phenomenon is about to affect the whole economy. A formidable new technology infrastructure — the Internet of Things — is emerging with the potential to push much of economic life to near zero marginal cost over the course of the next two decades. This new technology platform is beginning to connect everything and everyone. …

“Nowhere is the zero marginal cost phenomenon having more impact than the labor market, where workerless factories and offices, virtual retailing and automated logistics and transport networks are becoming more prevalent. Not surprisingly, the new employment opportunities lie in the collaborative commons in fields that tend to be nonprofit and strengthen social infrastructure — education, health care, aiding the poor, environmental restoration, child care and care for the elderly, the promotion of the arts and recreation. …

“We are, however, entering a world partly beyond markets, where we are learning how to live together in an increasingly interdependent, collaborative, global commons.”

My Comment: Our entire development brings us to the need to move to a new level of communication, a world without borders; the general dependence, the virtual network of the material world will be parallel to the spiritual network of the higher world.
[131151]

Related Material:
What Comes After Capitalism?
Technologies Make Us Redundant
Today’s Economy Is 90% Air

The Strange Bestowal To Yourself

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why is the work of fulfilling the desire of the other called an “intention”?

Answer: This is called an “intention” because I use myself, everything that I have, in order to fulfill the desire of the other.

I can work only with the desires. There is work called preparing the Kelim: This is bestowal for the sake of bestowal, the level of Bina. And there is direct spiritual work, receiving in order to bestow.

But I always work with the desire. If I work with my desires, this is called “in order to receive,” and if I work with the desires of the other, this is called “in order to bestow.”

In every case, the work is done with the desires and the intention shows for whose good I am acting: in order to receive or in order to bestow. The intention is my work plan. The intention in order to bestow means that I work with the desire of the other above my own desire and use all of my ability to help him and to fulfill him.

But essentially, his desires are mine. They simply pour some kind of dust in my eyes which makes it impossible for me to see that they are mine and that all of this is myself. So I work trying to fulfill these desires, which are seemingly foreign to me, but essentially I am fulfilling myself. After this I see that all of this belongs to me. So why did I have to work for the sake of such a strange bestowal? This was so that I would need to create a relationship with another and essentially feel the Creator through him.
[130887]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/14

Related Material:
Receiving In Order To Bestow
Subtleties Of Receiving In Order To Bestow
He Who Doesn’t Ask For Himself Receives Twice As Much

The Work In The Exile In Egypt

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It says that love was revealed in the exile in Egypt. What correction is performed in Egypt?

Answer: There are many corrections there: The detachment from Jacob, the detachment from Joseph, the connection to Moses, all this is on top of the desire to receive that constantly grows; the end of the seven years of famine and the plagues of Egypt are all many inner discernments because they are the preparation of the vessel. It says the whole difference between exile and redemption is the letter Aleph (Hebrew), in the revelation of the Light, the revelation of the Creator. In exile you have to discover to what extent you are missing the Creator because without Him you cannot connect with others.

Only when you accumulate and collect all these desires, passions, the sorrow of not being able to reveal the Creator, which means the attribute of bestowal among the friends; when you regret that you cannot connect with them and you still make an effort to discover love, the connection without any account of yourself, and you cannot do so; you reach the ten plagues of Egypt by which you already detach from Pharaoh. Before that you couldn’t detach from him.

Moses in you is ready to do so, but the people of Israel are not. To the last moment your desires only hear that they should come out of Egypt, that they should prepare themselves, that these corrupt desires will receive blows, and that the desires that are focused on the Creator will be able to differ. It’s very hard work, but this shouldn’t stop us since this is the work in Egypt. Otherwise, we will not reach redemption. We will not be awarded with the Creator’s help, whose “strong hand will lead the Israelites out of Egypt,” until we reach the end of our exertion, by trying to overcome all the problems, failures, and the heavy feeling.
[131066]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/26/14, The Zohar

Related Material:
Cut Pharaoh Off
The Faces Of Pharaoh
Aliens In A Foreign Land

And Every Wise-Hearted Man Made The Tabernacle

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus” (VaYakhel), 36: 8, 36:13, 36:20: Then all the wise-hearted people of the performers of the work made the Mishkan out of ten curtains [consisting] of twisted fine linen, and blue, purple, and crimson wool. A cherubim design, the work of a master weaver, he made them. And he made fifty golden clasps, and he fastened the curtains to one another with the clasps; so the Mishkan became one. And he made the planks for the Mishkan of acacia wood, upright.

This is about the creation of the anti-egoistic Masach (screen), returning the Light, and all the other spiritual actions that are only in order to bestow. And he made the planks for the Mishkan (Tabernacle) of acacia wood, upright, which means that the wise-hearted raised the Masach to the desired height and thus left the ego under the Masach.

The clasps of gold and the other jewels symbolize our egoistic desires, everything that is so close to our ego. If we show these things to animals, for example, they will not even look at them, but they are very important to the human ego. Humans differ from animals in that. This is actually what our ego loves. Thus the ascent to a certain level symbolizes the adaptation of the Masach to a person’s ego, to what he can bear and stand against.
[131063]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/10/13

Related Material:
Speak To The Wise-Hearted
Putting The Corrected Desires Together
The Tabernacle, A Small Model Of The Corrected World

Putting The Corrected Desires Together

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus” (VaYakhel), 36:24, 36:33: And he made forty silver sockets under the planks; two sockets under one plank for its two square pegs, and two sockets under one plank for its two square pegs. And he made the middle bar to penetrate in the midst of the planks from one end to the other end.

A socket is the attribute of Bina that has to be the foundation for the building of the attribute of bestowal. The pillars, the bars, the keys, the doors, the entrances, the exits, the passages, and more refer to the composition of the desires and how they should be connected (permanently or temporarily), which desires should the Masachim (screens) be made of, etc.

The desires can be internal or external. For example, ten Sefirot of ascent can be round, which means to surround the whole structure of the soul just like our body that has internal and external organs that are surrounded by the skin, and around us there is an additional world, which is our internality, but which seems to be on the outside.

These are the methods of composing the corrected desires. After all, the main thing is how exactly they should be incorporated into one another, in which connection.
[131060]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/10/13

Related Material:
A Place For The Revelation Of The Creator
The Spiritual Structure Of The Desires
Speak To The Wise-Hearted

Making A Human Being Out Of Me

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus” (VaYakhel), 36:4-36:6: Then all the wise men that were doing the work of the Holy came, each one from his work, which they had been doing. And they spoke to Moses, saying: “The people are bringing very much, more than is enough for the labor of the articles which the Lord had commanded to do.” So Moses commanded, and they announced in the camp, saying: “Let no man or woman do any more work for the offering for the Holy.” So the people stopped bringing.

Question: What should we make of the fact that the people give the Creator more contributions than needed?

Answer: It is about our realization that there is a limit to the self-restriction on every level.

We gradually begin to create a general vessel (Kli), a general desire that is aimed at bestowal, mutual love, and incorporation into one another. Here, we should know how to work with our mutual incorporations since there are small, medium, and large states of each soul and of all together. The correction and the assembly of the corrected parts are gradual, and all the parts are not mixed together, only in certain measures.

All the work is fulfilled above the Masach (screen), which means that a person must limit himself in spiritual bestowal, despite the great pressures and yearnings. That’s the interesting part.

Question: However, it says that Moses limits the nation here.

Answer: Moses is my part. I must learn to manage both the attributes of bestowal and the attributes of receiving and to work with them like with two reins in order to advance correctly. It is because I cannot work only in order to bestow since my ego doesn’t disappear. It turns out that I exist between bestowal and receiving. Only that way! I create myself from these two attributes.

I don’t dissolve in the Creator and don’t fall into egoistic darkness, but exist in the correct state. I hold the two reins and, thus, advance toward wholeness and eternity.

The two forces stem from the Creator. He is the right line, the attribute of bestowal, and He created the left line, the egoistic force. If I adhere to one line or the other, I am totally under His control, but if I hold the two reins and perform the right mutual actions between them, it is as if I build the middle line between them, and that is me.

By receiving two opposite attributes from Him, I reach the correct combination of the two inside me on every level of my ascent. By incorporating the two properties with the right combination between them within me more and more, I grow, and from a small human being turn to a bigger, more mature human being until I become equivalent with the Creator.

This spiritual movement seems very complicated at first since the two opposites must support one another and not negate each another. Now we cannot compare this inside us because we are on one line: either in total bestowal or in total receiving. After all, our world is absolute egoism and the spiritual world is absolute bestowal.

We may imagine something but it is very difficult to exist in the middle between these two properties. But this is actually what we have to do. Then, we will be free from the Creator since that’s what He wants, just like we want our kids to become totally independent.

We can reach that only if we receive everything from Him and focus ourselves on using all the forces in the creation correctly,

By attaining the levels of the ascent where all the forces cooperate in harmony, a person begins to understand to what extent it is between them that we actually begin to feel the outcome of their correct mutual connection, which is called Adam (a human being), the middle part, which the Creator cannot create by himself.

He created a future image of man and we create man which is the image of the Creator. It is a totally different phenomenon when we sculpt ourselves into the Creator, thus we have some properties of Bezalel, which are already in us. All we have to do is reveal them, collect them, and gradually develop them.

When we speak about the joy in the spiritual advancement, we refer to the joy that we feel in the connection of these two lines.
[130966]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/7/13

Related Material:
Aiming At The Attribute Of Bestowal
An Indicator Of The Internal Work
A Trickle

Dancing Before The Bride

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash’s article: “The Importance of the Groom”: The sages talked about “dancing before the bride,” but they never mentioned “dancing before the bridegroom.” About the wedding meal, it is said: “Those who enjoy the Groom’s meal…” The bridegroom stands for the Torah, and the bride, faith, and faith must be above reason.

Reason cannot tolerate constant rises and downfalls that are called “a dance” like feet that rise and then fall during a dance. Lifting one’s feet (“raglaim” comes from “meraglim” – spies) signifies “faith above reason, ”taking his feet off the ground (desire).

However, one doesn’t always have the strength to go above reason; so one places one’s feet back on the ground. This process is called Dancing before the Bride.

The Upper Light never changes; it constantly stays in a state of absolute rest. It is the source of complete absolute good that never changes. All changes occur solely in man. If one is engaged in work for the Creator, i.e., wants to reach a state similar to the Creator—bestowal and love—then one has to work for the “groom” and the “bride” and transform himself into a bride worthy of the groom.

We must always say the bride is good-looking and virtuous irrespective of how she actually looks: Sometimes she is really beautiful, sometimes not, regardless of whether she stimulates the desire to work in a man or not. These changes cannot happen accidentally; this is how Reshimot (spiritual genes) manifest and make us go through various states.

Only the changes that are related to the Creator should be taken into consideration; we have to base our work only on these issues until we sense that there is none besides the Creator who is good and does good.

Our vessel is called “a Bride,” Malchut, a constantly changing will to receive pleasure. Our job is to work on top of all possible changes so that we receive a state at which there are no changes at all. By staying inside the will to receive, regardless of any changes that take place in it, we build a vessel above the receiving desire that also is undergoing constant alterations, but in a form that is opposite to the desire to be pleased.

The bigger the minus in our will to receive, the bigger the plus we can attain in the vessel that is created above the desire to receive pleasure. This is how we “dance.” We are happy to dance since this work turns into a very exciting adventure for us.

Impressions that transpire in our uncorrected will to receive serve only one purpose: we begin appreciating a chance to rise above our egoistic desire. It is called a dance before the bride.”

When we are done with this work, we are treated to the “groom’s meal.” A bridegroom stands for the Torah that is given to us as a gift. One understands that one doesn’t deserve such a great and holy present, but due to the work one has completed, one becomes prepared to adhere to and merge with the groom. One has already built a foundation for that.

When one reaches a state that allows him to see his bride, who is sometimes beautiful and sometimes ugly, as perfect and righteous, she becomes his real bride. “Beauty” denotes the Light of Hochma whereas “piety” stands for the Light of Hassadim. In other words, the Light of Hochma is ready to dress in the Light of Hassadim. This is how a person corrects his vessel and arrives at the groom’s meal.
[129768]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/12/14

Related Material:
The Wedding Band Of The Bride
Invitation to The Bride’s Chamber
Decorating The Bride

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 03.31.14

Shamati #179 “Three Lines”

[media 1] [media 2]

The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, Parashat, “Bo,” “Come Unto Pharaoh”

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “This Is for Judah”

[media 5] [media 6]