Audio Version Of The Blog – 09.17.14

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See The Friends As New

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Should the groups of “ten” that are formed at the convention be composed at random from unrelated people, or is it possible to keep those groups of ten that have already worked together for a few years?

Answer: If people want to be together, maybe it’s good. But I would like to warn them that this shouldn’t be habitual. This could nullify what we could attain.

We must attain connection above all possible problems, especially beyond the place where we connect, where we are not familiar with each other. This doesn’t mean that we must choose people who are our opposite.

But still, when we come from somewhere with our group of ten where everyone has been acquainted with each other for some time, has discussed various subjects in circles and workshops hundreds of times, what kind of innovation can there be here?! What is there to work on? Everything would roll along on our habitual pattern. I don’t think this is good.

A group of ten that is shaped and created in a convention must maintain one composition from the beginning of the convention to its end. But if this will be a group of ten that has worked for years, then it creates a problem. I personally would not want them to put me in a group of ten like this. I am familiar with these guys, we have talked about everything among us; one could say half a word and I already know what another will add. I have no surprises with them, I don’t need to change and adapt myself; this isn’t good. So I don’t think that this is the way it should be done, to the contrary.

It is said that we should always see our friends as new. As new! I am going to discover them on a new level. And this begs the question: “Will this work for me with those same faces I have seen in front of me for years?” I work well with them; we have gone through many conventions together. It could certainly be that because of this I will not be able to struggle with myself to approach them, for even in this way they seem close to me.

So I would not recommend being included in a group of ten that has more than two very close friends.
[143453]
From the Convention Preparation Webinar, 9/9/14

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In A Blender Of Desires And Thoughts

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What state must a person reach when the convention opens? What must he experience?

Answer: He must feel that it is as if he has entered into a blender within which he wants to mix his thoughts and feelings with the thoughts and feelings of others, so that he has nothing left.

From this mixture of desires in the heart and thoughts in the mind, something emerges that can be called a “spiritual Kli,” a “spiritual Partzuf.” This is because a desire is the “body” of the “Partzuf,” and the thoughts are its “head.” In this way we create a pattern (model) of an Adam (one person), a single image of all of humanity.

The role of each one is to mix with everyone so there is nothing left of him, neither in the head nor in the heart. And what results will fill his heart and mind.
[143449]
From the Convention Preparation Webinar, 9/9/14

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The Desire Hunter

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: It is written in the Torah, “In the field you catch an animal or a bird.” What does that mean?

Answer: A field, just like a desert, is a state in which it is impossible to determine where you are, since all your desires are not completely analyzed and have not been clarified in any way.

You don’t know them yet and don’t manage them, but only begin to reveal them operating like a hunter that catches what he can.

There are different types of hunting, but in ancient times people mainly engaged in farming and in raising domesticated animals. They began to tame animals very early and in fact hardly hunted at all.

Everything was very simple. No one hunted roots, wild fruit, or wild animals.

In Babylon, too, there was no hunting. It was a small, civilized society whose people engaged in agriculture and fishing, since there was solid black soil between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and an abundance of water and fish, and this is what they lived on.
[143317]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/6/14

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Creating A Man Out Of Me

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” (Acharei), 17:10-17:11: “And any man of the House of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among them, who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from among his people. For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have therefore given it to [to be placed] upon the altar, to atone for your souls. For it is the blood that atones for the soul.”

On the one hand, blood is the vital force of the body, and on the other hand, it stems from the Hebrew word “Domem” (inanimate), the lowest part of the desire.

The point is that we have to use the attributes that we can raise to bestowal. Since we push ourselves from the lowest part of the desires, which are symbolized by blood, we cannot use them and have to release the blood from the body.

By choosing the different desires that we have, we see that the inanimate and vegetative desires are very weak, meaningless, and rather easy to use in order to bestow. On the level of the animate, they are very heavy; thus we feel that we exist in a corporeal body and see ourselves that way.

We don’t see the inanimate or vegetative states since they are concealed by our corporeal desires, which are more meaningful than the small desires. When we discover the animal states inside us, we encounter a lot of problems because we identify with them and see ourselves as them.

How can I distinguish between them and the human being in me? How can I raise the animal desires to the state of a man? “Kill’ your animal and “use it for food” so that the human level could ascend above the animal level.

What can we do in order to attain this? How can we properly tell the difference between my animal desires? Which ones can be raised to the human level and which cannot? What can I create the image of a man from? After all, he is born from an embryo that is given from above and all the rest of the nourishment comes from below, from the animal desires.

How does a human being differ from an animal in our world? It is that point in the heart, the seed that created the “I,” the self. I resemble the Creator and therefore I am called a man (Adam, stemming from the Hebrew word “Domeh” to resemble [the Creator]), and if not, I am an animal.

So the only problem is in what we call offering a sacrifice because we take the desires of the inanimate, vegetative, and mainly from the animate level, and constantly raise them to the human level. This means that we have to kill them on the animate level and raise them to the next level so that the human being in us will be nourished by these desires, by making them his spiritual work.

The Torah usually says that a person has to raise his desires to this level where there is a place to offer a sacrifice (the word “sacrifice” in Hebrew stems from the word “getting closer” to the Creator), and there it is possible to sprinkle the blood on the altar.

When you kill an animal (the lowest desires), the blood (these desires) has to be completely drained; you sprinkle the four corners (four phases) of the altar with it, which means that you bring your full desire to the Creator, you ascend to Him. Eventually, all the desires have to go through this change and ascend to the level of the great priest since only then is a person considered to be fully corrected.

There are only three levels in nature: inanimate, vegetative, and animate. A human being is what you create of yourself, and it doesn’t exist in nature. If an alien looked at us and at animals from the outside, he would say that people are animals that have been transformed, and nothing more than that. If we measure ourselves in comparison, then we are much worse than animals. Therefore, we have to aspire to make ourselves human beings.
[143313]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/6/14

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A Listening Device Given By Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a teacher feel the audience in order to understand that it has moved to a qualitatively new level so he can present difficult, serious material?

Answer: I just feel the people around me. Moreover, not only those who are sitting in the audience, but also those who are listening to me in different parts of the world.

As they say in espionage: “The enemy is listening.” How do you know he is listening? There are devices that determine that he is on your line, that he absorbs your energy.

I feel the same. It guides me when I switch from laughter to an argument, to something more serious, and then again to humor. I am in such a state as if I float in the water, and the waters fluctuations, i.e., the masses who are listening to me, move me from side to side.

This is the teacher’s essence when he feels the audience, starts to work in unison with it, and together they reach such a motion, like in the tango.
[143311]
From Kab TV’s “Talk about the Integral Method,” 9/7/14

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The Secret Of The Ten Tribes, Part 2

Dr. Michael Laitman

Question: Did the followers of Abraham succeed in building a society of justice?

Answer: In principle, they were not attracted to creating a “beautiful,” “socialist” community. They were attracted to the fact that in connection with each other, they attained the next, deeper level of nature.

Abraham told them that the crisis was intended so that they would rise to the next degree in order to reveal the inner force of nature, its meaning, its purpose and development.

In fact, he was standing just one step above them, and they too aspired to ascend there, albeit unconsciously. They did not understand how to do that, how to enter the deeper level of nature, but they had already approached the foot, the threshold, of that degree and thus could hear Abraham. And by opening the door, he told them: “This state of crisis will lead us there. That is why it is needed!”

So, they all became like one family. Isaac succeeded Abraham, Jacob succeeded Isaac. In other words, the family passed the stages of development, called “Abraham,” “Isaac,” “Jacob, “Joseph.” It was he who brought them into Egypt, having gathered all the previous, preliminary degrees and summarized their full potential—and egoism—and striving for spirituality above it. Thus, they went down to Egypt, that is, in sensing the revelation of egoism.

Question: But did they live in unity until then? Didn’t the brothers sell Joseph into slavery? Didn’t he himself foretell that they would worship him? So, there was discord, hatred, between the brothers.

Answer: Of course, and very strongly. It is because they tried to love others like themselves. If you do not aspire to that, you do not reveal the levels of egoism. When everything is smooth, you can manage well. But suddenly some cause, some obstacle, appears, and you have to strive for unity in spite of all the problems.

They arise specifically for you to rise above them, constantly striving towards greater love, greater connection, greater unity. Unity can only grow above a feeling of division.

So, the followers of Abraham gathered more and more tightly in the struggle against their egoism until Joseph brought them to Egypt.
[143474]
From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 8/27/14

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The Safest Place On Earth

Dr. Michael LaitmanI think that learning the art of good connection with others according to the method of Kabbalah should be a government program, covering all the sectors of society, from the very young to the elderly.

Question: But what about people who are strongly opposed to Kabbalah?

Answer: They just do not know what Kabbalah is. This name scares people, but it is not about mysticism, it is only about connection between people. A person is under the force of stereotypes, but it’s time to clear the wisdom of Kabbalah from them. We simply have no other choice. Unity can only be achieved with its help, and if we do not unite, not only we will not be successful, but, in general, we will have no right to exist.

When the Jews from around the world ask me in letters where they should move to escape from local anti-Semitism, I cannot tell them to move to Israel. How can we ensure safety here if the nation is divided?

If we unite and really become one whole, then it will be the safest place on earth. And it all depends on us. This is the difference between any other point on the globe and Israel where we ourselves define our security through our unity. If we unite here, we will achieve complete security. The strength of unity determines the degree of our security.

Question: How can we measure the strength of unity?

Answer: The strength of unity is measured by how much people are willing to sacrifice their egoism for the sake of others, to neglect their own comfort and well-being as during the war, and by how much they are friendly to each other. Only the strength of our unity will give us security.
[143331]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/2/14

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The Workplace Is Ready, The Rest Depends Upon Us

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: For the people of Israel, the discovery of the wisdom of Kabbalah is connected to their responsibility to the world. Will they want this?

Answer: The Creator leads a person to a group and to this type of decision through suffering. The suffering is caused by the fact that either you are searching to discover something by yourself or you are pushed and prodded from behind through all kinds of troubles and problems so that you at least will flee from them in the opposite direction if you cannot solve them.

So we turn to people who are in distress, in considerable trouble. In the past, the Jews already received enough examples of what can happen with them. It is only necessary to open their eyes a bit, without frightening them, but explaining, with the help of facts, where the hatred of the world comes from and what we are obliged and need to give to it. The entire “infrastructure” required for this work is already prepared, and the work itself is incumbent upon us.

We only need to build our message without wasting time and go out with it to people as quickly as possible. Our future depends upon this.
[141755]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 09.17.14

Workshop

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Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Convention”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot, — Letter 19

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace,” “Necessity to Practice Caution with the Laws of Nature”

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