Audio Version Of The Blog – 05.16.15

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Why People Become Disappointed In Religions

laitman_627_2Question: Why in our time do people become disillusioned with religions?

Answer: A person discovers that no religion can give him fulfillment. After all, all religions appeared due to the fact that the nation of Israel fell from the height of love of others into the unfounded hatred, having lost connection with the upper force of nature.

In response to the darkness, humanity developed religions: Judaism first, then Christianity, and then Islam. These religions did not occur by chance, but each has its own root. Christianity belongs to the left line, Islam – to the right line, and Judaism – to the middle line.

That is how they relate to the spiritual roots because everything in our material world stems from spiritual roots. It is written: “No blade of grass grows until its [guiding] angel above strikes it and says: ‘Grow!’” Therefore, all the phenomena of the world stem from the upper world, and there is nothing new in our world.

Religion is designed to give a person some image of the upper force when he is not aware of it and does not understand it. It helps a person to examine his nature.

Religions have given impetus to the development of philosophy and science. First science was developed by religious people, and only in a few hundred years was it separated from religion and became accessible to everyone.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/7/15

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Processing The Emptiness In The Desert

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Numbers” 1:52 – 1:53: The children of Israel shall encamp, each man by his own camp and each man by his division. The Levites shall encamp around the Mishkan of the Testimony, so that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel and the Levites shall keep the charge of the Mishkan of the Testimony.

It says in Midrash Raba that when Moses counted the Jews, dividing and classifying them according to the tribes, the Creator taught him how to become one camp and how to advance, which means how to put the ruined vessel back together.

Four types of egoism on three lines make up the 12 tribes, the 12 parts of the spiritual vessel. The shattered vessel must be corrected by uniting all the parts into one as the people advance in the desert, which means according to the revelation of the ego in every camp and in every tribe.

The Creator teaches the nation how to gather everyone so that each time they absorb new corrupt emptiness, process it internally, and correct it into the attribute of bestowal. This is the advancement in the desert in 40 years (levels). This is how the corrected part from Malchut to Bina must be the accurate unity of the nation and thus conclude the building of their connection with the Creator.

The movement of the camp in the desert symbolizes the processing of the emptiness. This is actually a very unpleasant movement forward since the desert is swarming with scorpions and snakes, the sun is burning, there is no food or water, and everyone is covered with sores. In other words, the desert symbolizes a person’s growing, burning egoism. People feel the connection between them like a sore that touches another sore, and the pain will not let them unite. They must ascend above it, and although the Light that comes doesn’t heal the sores, it formats them into one general, healthy body. The pain and the sores turn into one unified vessel in which pleasure is revealed.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/24/14

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The Gifts Of Abraham

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In what way are the spiritual methods of the East different from the wisdom of Kabbalah? After all, they apparently speak about similar things.

Answer: There are 3,800 religions and faiths in the world. All of the main religions actually came from Abraham who lived in ancient Babylon close to 3,500 years ago.

Abraham taught his method, meaning the wisdom of Kabbalah, to a small group that he called Israel. And he gave gifts, or other forms of faith, to the rest of the people. The Torah says that Abraham gave gifts to the children of his concubines and sent them eastward, where all of these methods reach back to us.

The difference is that the method of Abraham possesses the ability to correct a person, something that doesn’t exist in any other method. The wisdom of Kabbalah makes it possible for us to attract the good force towards us that is concealed in nature and that will correct our hatred towards each other to love. This good force is added to our egoistic nature and we become bearers of two forces. The integration of these two forces makes it possible for us to work with them, develop correctly, and discover an additional form of reality that is found outside of us.

Modern physics talks about the existence of a reality such as this. Besides the universe, the world that we see now, there are other forms of reality. The wisdom of Kabbalah makes it possible for us to go out beyond the framework of the limitations of this world and see higher worlds. Possibilities like this don’t exist in any other method because they don’t contain the Light that Reforms. The uniqueness of the Torah is that it contains a force that corrects our nature and raises us above the ego to a nature of bestowal and love, in that it opens our eyes, as it is said, “You will see your world in your lifetime” (Berachot 17a).
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/03/15

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When You Diminish The Importance Of The Rav, You Fall

Dr. Michael LaitmanAt all times until today, humanity has the same structure of a Rav (teacher, guide), a group of Kabbalists, and all the rest of humanity. All of the work advances according to the explanations of the Rav, and the group carries them out. First, there is connection within the group, and only after that is it possible to disseminate it to the rest of humanity, in circles.

But the method remains the same method, includes the same stages, and makes it possible to realize them only on condition that we elevate the Rav. Of course this is not talking about the external form as in other doctrines. Rather, it is about realization of the advice of the Rav about how to reach adhesion with the Creator. This is called honoring the Rav, for he is on a higher level than we are. We honor his direction, his words.

When we build the right relationships between us; in other words, we realize the Torah to the point of realizing its main general rule, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” we advance. And as much as we diminish the greatness of the Rav in our eyes, we fall.

In addition, to the degree that we raise or lower the greatness of the Rav in our eyes, accordingly we are found in ascent or descent. So, it is said, “A student that is exiled—he exiles his teacher with him” (Makkot 10a). It is up to the student to know that the assessment of the Rav, the assessment of the method, and the way of correction depend completely on the assessment of the importance of the means for attaining adhesion with the Creator.

Also, when the student works on the greatness of the means, accordingly he can attain the goal, which is the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the characteristic of bestowal, love, and connection. All of this depends absolutely on the work on the greatness of the Rav and the friends. We attain the goal within the connection between the friends who build the right network of connection and a detailed understanding of all of the parts of the connection. If a person is not ready to bestow upon his connection with the friends, but succeeds in integrating into it and rising above his ego, this is called Ibur (conception), the state of the embryo.

In this state, greater and greater internal resistance to connection is constantly discovered, which is called a fetus, and each time he must nullify himself regarding the role of the group, regarding its greatness, and regarding the greatness of the Rav, and thanks to this, he continuously develops until all the stages of conception are completed. After that, there is the period of feeding (Yenika) when he is prepared to receive and to give, to participate more actively in connection, feeling how practical and true it is. That is how he finishes the feeding years and reaches a state where heavy, receptive vessels are awakened in him. Then, he can participate actively in the work, building new connections, clarifying and creating the characteristics of bestowal and love, which is called discovering the Creator among the friends.

This form begins to be clarified more and more all the time. In the beginning, it is only through the Achoraim (posterior) because it is impossible to see the face of the Creator until the completion of correction, and after that even the face of the Creator will be revealed, meaning that bestowal and absolute love will be revealed among us within the corrected vessels.

All of this will happen only on condition that the person values the Rav and the group and works on their greatness, trying to move through the ascents and descents. If he succeeds in ascending, he is immediately given a descent, adding another layer of the desire to receive so that he will rise more and more.

Only in the connection between the friends is it possible to see the entire field of work, the place in which the condition, “There is none else besides Him,” is realized—meaning the Light, the form of bestowal, and the general rule, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” which is the vessel. Everything is revealed only within the group that is directed to the Rav.

It is written, “Love of friends is enough for us,” but “a student that is exiled, the teacher is exiled with him,” this means that if the student succeeds in rising above the exile and contempt for the Rav and the group, then the love of friends completes all of his shortcomings. All corrections are included in the love of friends.

If we succeed in keeping our attention within the area that is found between us—which is what we must fill with bestowal, with love and mutual help, so that “from the love of man to the love of the Creator”—to that degree, we advance. The main thing is not to forget that all of this is revealed within the connection between us.

All of the levels of the characteristic of bestowal that we acquire—Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya and Yechida—must be discovered among us, and the more we come closer to one another, we ultimately discover the high totality in the connection between us that is called the Creator. His form is the level of Keter, Yechida in all states. If in each and every state we reach the last level, Yechida, then we feel the presence of the Creator.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/26/14

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