Audio Version Of The Blog – 11.25.14

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio

[audio:http://files.kabbalahmedia.info/download/audio/eng_o_rav_2014-11-25_declamation_blog-rav_full.mp3 title=’25.11.14′]

A New Way Of Thinking About Money

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: As Einstein said, we cannot solve our problems on the same plane that we create them. What kind of new thinking must we develop regarding money?

Answer: In the past, people depended on money much more than today. There was no social security, no health or retirement funds, nor any kind of social assistance for single-parent families or those living below the poverty level and so on. In all such cases, people had to have money to cover themselves.

If we were suddenly to refund those sums that were subtracted for the maintenance of schools, kindergartens, and hospitals from a person’s salary, his salary would grow by a third. But he would certainly not keep this money for difficult times. He would waste it, and if something happened to him, he would be the responsibility of society.

We see that our development obliges us to advance in such a direction that money, meaning coverage for all kinds of different expenses, will pass more and more into the hands of society. Clearly, it must be utilized correctly and not for political games.

If we see that people are concerned that their salary is not enough to maintain their home, to pay for services and food, so it could be that we must advance in this direction.

For example, it is necessary to make a general accounting for a city’s inhabitants as to how much is necessary to pay for water, gas, and electricity for everyone. The problem is that we will need to educate people to plan economically for every need, since without education there could be many more expenses than today.

But regarding the basket of commodities, we absolutely can do this. By allocating a particular sum from everyone’s salary, we can supply everyone with coupons with which they will be able to use at a store to get whatever groceries they need for a month. We could even organize a weekly delivery.

In addition, I would also suggest creating storage facilities for various things. Instead of people keeping things in their attic and throwing them away later, it is worthwhile to provide them for general use by others. When you need something, you would come and take, if not yours, then goods that belonged to someone else. This relates to clothing, children’s toys, and other things, even kitchenware.

In this manner, we could utilize not only household items, but also our professional services. For example, we could organize various systems for offering services to each other that we cannot pay for by ourselves. Once a week, every professional would work voluntarily for a number of hours and everyone would be aware of this. We would not need to pay for these services with money even though it is available. It follows that we would receive a meaningful addition to our salary.

Comment: In the meantime we believe that money gives us independence and we don’t want to depend on each other that much.

Answer: Home economics realistically demonstrates how much water, electricity, gas, and fuel I need, how much I can allocate for renovations, how much will be left for food, clothing, etc. If we write down all of these items, then a person will be convinced that he will always remain in a deficit (minus). Is this called living with money? He simply has pictures in his hands with which children play. If we explain all of this logically, basically people will move away from independence like this.
[147294]
From the program “A New Life” 9/02/14

Related Material:
Happiness For Money?
Ten Kilograms Of Effort
Reasonable Consumption

The Cost Of A Kilogram Of Pleasure

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the Talmud Babyli Berachot, it is written: Go and make a living from one another. And as human beings we make a living from one another. Yet very rapidly our profit will be in discovering the unique pleasure of the connection between us.

Warmth, concern, and admiration give us a feeling of going outside of ourselves to such a level of connection that is independent of the body. We create a place where we feel tranquillity and pleasure, a dimension in which everyone is found in a general atmosphere of warmth and goodness. A person will feel that he is living with desire and fulfillments that are disconnected from the body.

The tendency towards drugs, the attraction to rioting and revolution, the attempts to relax through medicines to silence the emptiness inside, all testify that we must find a new tool, a new desire and new senses for true pleasure.

Nature pushes us relentlessly towards a kind of global connection. We see what impressions are created with people in discussion circles and connection games and how they love to play together like children, to sing and dance. Adults, educated and level-headed, are ready to behave like little children. And the need for these simple pleasures continues until the end of life.

There is an additional step to this that is still hidden, and a person yearns for it subconsciously. This is to break away from living only on the level of an animal. We have already reached a state where we are ready to provide ourselves with the necessary standard of living required for our corporeal lives.

But our ego, our distortion, prevents us from doing this. And in the meantime, the need for the next level of development, the level of Adam, is becoming clearer in people. The central role in this belongs to the media.

The means of communication today have already reached dimensions that make it possible to be closely involved with the analysis and study of the paths of future development in humanity. It is not enough to provide facts about them, nor is it enough to just stay in one place like today; rather, people must be attracted to a new form of pleasure.
[146637]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/10/13

Related Material:
In A Playful Atmosphere
The Theory Of Internal Contact Between People
Open The Door To Tomorrow

A State Of Rest

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, Leviticus 19:1-4: And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying: Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them: “Ye shall be holy; for I the LORD your God am holy. Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and ye shall keep My sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. Turn ye not unto the idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your God.”

There is a plan that operates on the world and drives it towards the goal. The goal of creation is total unity of all of humanity, which becomes one system of locked and balanced forces (desires) that are corrected in love and bestowal. This general force that totally connects everyone and turns us into equal participants in the one system is called the Creator.

Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy means that we must reach an absolute connection between us, one of absolute mutual cooperation and absolute love. The Creator seems to be calling us to keep our holiness, hold on to it and make it our main goal.

The state we must attain is called Sabbath (the end of correction), which means that we must see it as our ultimate goal.

The Sabbath also symbolizes absolute rest when, in fact, there is nothing else to correct because a person has corrected his incorporation in everyone, and everyone has corrected his incorporation in Him to such an extent that he has attained an absolute, integral connection. This is called rest.
[147907]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/26/14

Related Material:
A Test On The Attribute Of Holiness
Saturday As The Result Of Corrections
The Day Of Merging With The Creator

Rising Above The Gaping Emptiness

Dr. Michael LaitmanDepression is one of the problems of modern humanity; it appeared at the turn of the 17th – 18th century in forms characteristic of the aristocracy of the day. People that led idle lives, didn’t know what to do with themselves, with what to occupy themselves. Based on this, they secretly began to raise the question about the meaning of life; on one hand, everything seemed to be there, and on the other hand, there was nothing.

To distract people from these thoughts and dampen the growing emptiness, society began to encourage romance, sex, and small wars. Then the development of various technologies began, and sports, travel, and the pursuit of fashion became popular. Everything was focused on keeping a person busy, giving him a sense of fulfillment instead of focusing on the true answer to the question “Why am I here?”

In parallel, print media, radio and television, and soon the Internet were developed, which further filled leisure time and all of a person’s resources. The Internet is filled with a vast variety of information that plugs the emptiness that arises within us.

But despite this, no matter in what a man is engaged, there is a greater and greater sense of inner awareness of worthlessness, insignificance, and the limits of his existence. The question of the meaning of life subconsciously gnaws at any person, be they more or less educated. This wormhole is inside of him, and he needs to do something with it.

This longing by the masses has caused a significant level of depression, and in order to address this, the masses are offered sedatives and other recreational drugs. Under the banner of struggling for a healthy humanity, government health agencies prohibit smoking, but instead they are slowly killing people with recreational drugs.

The by-product of ignoring the truth and not focusing on finding the right answer has led to everything being permitted. Humanity isn’t limited in any type of behavior, meaning sexually or drug related. Fulfill yourself with anything, just so the depression isn’t felt. This approach has led to the masses being willing to kill everyone and everything, including oneself, since he is no longer afraid of anything.

Searching for the meaning of life is most difficult because in order to find it a person must rise above oneself. A person can’t rise above oneself except in the case, by the will of fate he finds the wisdom of Kabbalah. Although it’s also a long path, at least one sees some kind of a perspective, not through feelings but through logic.

It turns out that depression is a problem for all humankind. The sooner humanity will move forward under the influence of the Internet and the overall development, more and more people will feel the insignificance of life, its limitations, and short term.

Subconsciously we feel that much greater potential is inherent in our lives than the one in existence now. For a person wasn’t created to live like an animal, meaning to be engaged in oneself, one’s offspring, and the arrangement of one’s own life to the grave. A person has some internal embryo that requires its own self-actualization and realization. On one hand, there is this embryo in each person, and on the other hand, this embryo can be suppressed.

Today, the most important industry of the world is the entertainment industry, which takes huge amounts of money, resources, etc. Even this industry has already been experiencing a setback and we are no longer satisfied by Hollywood and other mass entertainment venues.

A person has become impatient in the search for the meaning of life. A person cannot watch an online video clip that lasts more than five minutes. A year later, it will be shortened by a minute, and then by another minute. A question gnaws at him “Will I find something here? If not, then I won’t even want to watch.” After all, viewing long clips only increases the void, so it’s better not to watch them.

The problem is when a person opens a book or becomes engaged in some business, he is afraid to stop such activity due to an even greater disclosure of emptiness, insignificance, worthlessness, and lack of response to this gnawing question; therefore, he tries to preempt it. Therefore, people decrease their Internet discussions and talks over the mobile phone, limiting them to short phrases like ‘See you tomorrow! Later!” as if they want to leave something for the future. And what do they have tomorrow? The same emptiness that is today, but it seems better to break in the middle of a conversation, as though there was something to talk about afterward.

A person has to feel that there is a future! And there is no future! Somehow today we still can see it. Perhaps it looks ghostly and foggy, but we can still lie to ourselves about it. But day after day this feeling passes by, and in the hands of humanity, there is nothing that can plug this void.

No matter what, this emptiness remains and becomes more gaping, black, and grim. So, the younger generation quietly parts with this life, since it is much easier to forget everything while under the influence of drugs and to leave quietly rather than carrying this darkness internally.

We are faced with a huge problem that we lack the desire and ability to solve. Only Kabbalah gives an answer to this problem. However, until people don’t become completely disappointed, they won’t hear us out.  We must be ready to present them with the Kabbalistic wisdom in a way they can understand. It should become clear that only we have the answer, and the answer is only to reach the infinite, eternal, perfect existence, which is not concentrated in our body, but among us, in the sense of our own “I.”

My body, the animal substance, dies after some time; however, the human being in me is forever. So I need to separate the “I” from what I now consider myself, pull it out, isolate it from my body, and start raising, nurturing, and shaping it. This is the human being in me that I must realize.

Question: If a person is on this path, will his depression fade?

Answer: Yes, but other problems will certainly start to appear because a person has to develop himself. However, they all will end up breaking away from their animal. After rising above the body, the person will remain there for eternity and in perfection. The wisdom of Kabbalah provides a real answer that is realized by ourselves in our world and inside us. Here we do not depend on anyone and no one can restrict us! This is our freewill. To realize this we don’t need any special tools; everything is in our hands.
[147258]
From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/23/14

Related Material:
Malchut That Wanted To Attain Keter
The End Of The Development Of Egoism
Man Does Not Give Up

We Have Branded You, And We’ll Help You

Laitman_079_02Question: How could a sense of discrimination, disadvantage, which nations experience in connection with the Jews, be dealt with?

Answer: If we, the Jewish people, begin to unite for the benefit of the world, none of them will feel slighted.

It is said in the Prophets that the nations of the world would carry the sons of Israel on their shoulders and take them to the Temple, i.e., to the ideal state. How can we understand this? Are we going to sit proudly on someone’s shoulders?

Of course not. We are talking about a special partnership. The essence is that only they are able to give us strength, and we have to give them a purpose. We ourselves, in terms of the wisdom of Kabbalah, are a vessel of bestowal, Galgalta ve Eynaim, and are lacking strength. The people of Israel are small and weak. However, it has the idea, message, vision of the goal, in other words, the properties of the head, the force of the discerning mind, but not the implementation. To implement the body: arms, legs, muscles, etc. are required.

This is the “division of labor” between the people of Israel and the nations of the world. These two parts cannot function without each other, and the head really should be on the shoulders. Receiving commands from the head, the body goes towards the correct goal, to the Temple, and carries the head.

Thus, there are no “white-collar” and “laborers,” but there is one whole, two parts, working together, each in its place. As we know, in the integral system, in a single body with interconnected pieces, all the cells are equally important, no matter where they are located.

After all, perfection cannot be flawed one iota, and thus, any piece, any fragment, plays a crucial role; and the final result is shown only in community, rather than individually.

Only during the correction, the elements vary according to the importance with respect to the current moment; however, having completed an integral system, everyone becomes equal. Thus, no one feels slighted.

We can bring an example of several of our friends from different countries, who once were members of anti-Semitic organizations, but now adhere to us.

In other words, everything depends on us. In all the claims and slanders, the same message is “hidden:” “The Jewish people are guilty of what is happening!” In fact, they urge us to restore order.

This is the way their collective force from the level of integral perfection makes them act, so that they pressure us from all sides, all the way to the end. There is nothing superfluous; everything is calculated within the system. And if we properly respond to the attacks, then, first of all, we will immediately turn accusers into helpers.

For example, no matter how ardent an anti-Semite Henry Ford was, at the same time, he wrote that Israel had to lead the world towards perfection. He was aware of the potential inherent in us. The greatest anti-Semites understood our purpose, which we are not really conscious of.

Once we get to work, with all our heart strive for perfection in order to give it to the nations of the world, their attitude will change. Moreover, precisely their perfection will bring the general system to the final correction.

Therefore, we will immediately feel their support. Suddenly, it will turn out that they are dedicated to us with their heart and soul, to the extent that we ourselves are not able to. In fact, it is the “head,” the mind, that prevents us, which constantly identifies and clarifies new paths for the system. On the contrary, they will cling to us strongly, based on “feeling.”

It turns out that the real work we need to do is not among Israeli Arabs, but in our own environment.
[147985]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 11/13/14

Related Material:
Who Are We Really?
The Spiritual Division Of Labor
Unity On The Basis Of Love Or Hatred

For Myself And For “That Guy”

laitman_423_01Question: A sensation of pain is built in the very foundation of the creation. Why are many natural processes such as birth and growth accompanied by pain?

Answer: Giving birth to any state is always painful caused by the fact that the previous state brings us tremendous affliction. This is called birth pangs if we are talking about natural childbirth.

So, pain leads us from one state to another. This rule applies to all phenomenon: from volcanic eruptions, which is also a “birth,” to our spiritual birth.

Question: Why do we, rational creatures, strive to get rid of pain if we understand that the mechanism of affliction is beneficial for us?

Answer: Animals instinctively treat pain correctly. If it gets unbearable to the extent it causes their death, they die. When our ego overgrew the animate level, we started developing various methods of fighting pain. We are egoists; we don’t care about tomorrow.

Moreover, our egoism is corrupt, it is individual, personal. Therefore we don’t want to alter the origin of pain. We feel pain as a result of the fracturing of one of the body parts. Because organs not getting life sustenance from other tissues or delivering what he produces to the rest of the body, there is pain, problems, and afflictions.

The problem is not just having a desire to receive pleasure, but the fact that this desire is purely egoistic. We think only about ourselves and don’t take into consideration others. The pain that we experience comes to us from afar, from very high mental, spiritual, external systems that have a tremendous impact upon us. All of a sudden, in the countries that reached a state of ultimate abundance, people get depressed or feel powerless. Why does it happen? It is because the general system presses on us without exceptions.

Question: How do you see pain in human history? Where does it lead humanity?

Answer: Before the 20th century, each one of us progressed individually, personally, separately. People felt pain in their bodies and never related it to the rest of the world, nor did they associate it with spiritual advancement. This is the way humanity went through the phases of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of the human degree.

In the 20th century, the speaking degree of the human level was revealed: a totally integral system. We began connecting with each other and suddenly discovered that we all are intertwined with the entire world. Previously, humans lived in small villages and had no clue about the big outside world. They didn’t suspect that there is life beyond the boundaries of their village. Today, everybody knows what happens in any place on the globe, even Africans and South Americans. When I spoke with American Indians, I was quite surprised that they talk as if they come from Wall Street.

Now it is fashionable to talk about the wisdom of the crowd. Previously this phenomenon didn’t exist. It’s not that it hadn’t been discovered yet. No! It really didn’t exist because humans were not connected with each other to the extent they are now. Previously, nervous illnesses were spread only in high societies, whereas today depression, fears, and worries about the future, about the connectedness with the rest of the world is felt by all.

In other words, the pain of each individual is now multiplied whether we want it or not. Each one of us depends on everyone else and therefore must take care of others and make them feel better. Otherwise, we’ll be the ones who feel bad. Nature pushes us to unite.
[147742]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/9/14

Related Material:
Healing Through Pain
Gentlemen, Let’s Be Well!
What Is Pain, and How Can We Stop Feeling It All the Time?

Transitioning To An Altruistic World Order

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do you see the transition to an altruistic new world order?

Answer: On its own, the world cannot smoothly reach a state in which it would begin to reduce the production of commodities, consumption, and services to reasonable limits, for then the economy would simply die. People would not know what to do and they would rebel.

So, capitalism will need to artificially maintain the employment of people and find something to keep them busy with. In spite of it all, this would be a big problem. There would be rebellions, demonstrations, civil wars, and even world wars, until humanity came to the decision that it must be educated anew to reach a new world order in which we would manufacture only what is necessary, and people who are freed from work would be involved in integral education. Or, it is possible to say it this way: All the rest will be involved with spiritual work according to the general rule, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

The wisdom of Kabbalah recommends not waiting until suffering forces a person to think and reach an understanding that he needs a new education and to do something about himself. The wisdom of Kabbalah offers a scientific way to reach this state now, meaning to understand that the future of humanity is still only in the moderate, rational consumption of everything that a person needs for a normal existence.

All the rest of his resources and possibilities must be directed toward creating a single society in which the Creator will be revealed because, from the start, he exists in this world only for this purpose.

We must be able to show and tell everyone that there is no other way and this is what the wisdom of Kabbalah offers. We are now faced with a choice of which way: in the natural way, in the way of in its time, which is the way of terrible blows until we become smarter, or to go in the right and intelligent way, consciously, which is what the wisdom of Kabbalah offers. With this, we re-educate ourselves not by force but by beginning to change our world, meaning by gradually reducing its consumption and production accordingly and by arranging for equal distribution to everyone accordingly, and so on.

There is no smooth, egoistic way toward this state since the egoistic way is directed toward excessive manufacturing. In this manner, it contradicts our call to provide rational quantities of food, products, and services.
[147372]

Related Material:
Completing The Construction Of An Incomplete World
It Is Time To Change
The Keyboard Of The Commanding Computer

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 11.25.14

Workshop

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of RabashShlavei HaSulam,” “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend-1”

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Mutual Guarantee” 

[media 5] [media 6]