We Must Move Ahead as If on The Edge of a Knife

963.5Question: There is a war going on in Israel right now. It feels like everything is breaking apart.

On the one hand, there are hostages. Hamas detains hostages whose parents and relatives say: “We love our children more than we hate Hamas.” This is natural.

On the other hand, the parents of the dead soldiers urge those who are fighting to fight to the end. They write: “Our eyes are filled with tears, but our hearts are boiling, we stand up straight and say: “Continue bravely to victory! Eliminate the threat to our homes and protect our children.”

How should a decision be made in such cases?

Answer: We need to do what is best for the country. And what is best for the country, of course, is to destroy these animals. Because any weakness will later turn into tragedy later. We can already see this.

Question: So if you stand by this firmly as a leader, have decided, and are rigidly pursuing this policy, do you think that sooner or later…?

Answer: I do not know when “sooner or later” or what will happen, but I believe we simply have no other choice! Especially after we have just seen what they have prepared for and how they are preparing. Aside from Gaza, it is everywhere. This is in the north and the south, up to Iran and Yemen, and so on.

There are haters everywhere, and we must stand up and find a solution to the problem that is acceptable to us! Not to them. For them, we just need to be brought to a state where we are ready for anything. But we are not ready for everything. We must be ready for anything to give nothing away!

Question: Us means a country, a nation, and that’s it?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: The fact that this will divide the country is for you as a leader…

My Response: I don’t think it will divide us. I think in the end we need exactly this internal breakdown that will convince people there is no other way.

Question: Is this not a discussion, it is just a decision?

Answer: It is a decision. This decision may be bloody, but it must be such.

Question: Do you think any weakness will only lead to more and more victims?

Answer: Of course, naturally. There is no doubt about it.

Comment: After all, it was easier for King David. He seemed to be in full contact with the upper force.

My Response: I don’t think his state was easier, after all he fought for 40 years. So, it couldn’t have been easier.

Question: In order to make such a decision, do we have to somehow consider that we are in the holy land, that this is the land of our ancestors?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Should these exalted words be voiced?

Answer: All these exalted words should be voiced. We must use them every time, even though they do not come so much from our hearts. But we must get past this state where we are no longer visitors from foreign lands, but live here on our land long enough to know what we are fighting for.

Question: If we repeat even, as you say, mechanically: “This is our land, and we will not give up an inch of this land,” does it enter your heart in a while?

Answer: Yes, absolutely.

Question: What system is at work here? For example, a person does not feel it.

Answer: Self-persuasion.

Question: And the heart accepts, and that’s how I live. Does the decision become clear then?

Answer: Yes.

Question: It turns out that the way out of this is always to keep going along this line?

Answer: If you go forward boldly, like on the edge of a knife, you gain confidence, strength, and victory.

Question: What needs to be done to feel that the upper force is with us, that the Creator is with us?

Answer: To do this, first of all, we need to take a step toward the Creator and demand for Him to be revealed to us and the whole world.

Question: Is it a step toward the Creator to say, “You brought us here, and we stand for this land”?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/26/24

Constant Examination

938.07Question: With what or with whom can we compare ourselves in the ten? Is it possible to take an ideal ten as a benchmark and compare ourselves with it?

Answer: No, we cannot see the ten outside of ourselves in the correct form, not at all. We must examine our ten and aim it toward the Creator. By identifying our egoistic qualities within it, we ask the Creator to correct them.

A person must constantly examine himself regarding how he evaluates his friends and whether he looks at them with a good or evil eye.

Question: Can we combine all the desires accumulated during the day into one desire and bring it to the ten?

Answer: No, a person has many different desires that change throughout the day. One must identify them, unite them, and elevate them, and turn to the Creator and ask for their correction. This is what everyone in the group should do.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “A Sightly Flaw in You”

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Learn from the Creator by His Actions

294.2Question: Should we desire to adhere to the Creator because this makes us partners and helps Him fulfill the purpose of creation?

Answer: The Creator does not need our help. But we should go exactly according to our feelings and learn from the Torah.

The most important thing our teachers tell us is to learn from the Creator by His actions. And His actions are bestowal, love, and unity.

Question: How can I verify that I am performing all actions based on connection with the Creator?

Answer: If you perform these actions based on connection with your friends and want to come closer to the Creator, then you can perform these actions with the Creator. But first, there must be unity in the ten.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Wisdom Cries Out in the Streets”

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Commandments that Must Not Be Violated

253The issue of “shall die and not breach” applies only to three Mitzvot [commandments]: idolatry, bloodshed, and incest (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 88, “All the Work Is Only Where There Are Two Ways – 1”).

Idolatry (Avodah Zarah) means that a person is forced to worship some idols, i.e., to magnify someone or something as if it were the Creator or a part of the Creator.

Incest (Gilui HaRayot) is when a person is compelled to commit adultery with, suppose, someone else’s wife. From the spiritual point of view, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife” means do not be jealous of another person.

Bloodshed (Shfichut Damim) is when he is compelled to kill others. But we must not harm anyone. In these three cases, a person is obliged to restrain himself and not violate these conditions, even if he is threatened with death.

Question: Is it possible to disconnect from the Creator in these cases?

Answer: No, all three conditions consist precisely of not disconnecting from the Creator under any circumstances.

A person is responsible only to himself and to the Creator for observing these three commandments.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “All the Work Is Only Where There Are Two Ways – 1”

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Service to the Creator

237This means that he believes that the servitude is the actual reality.

Afterward, it is the opposite: His whole work compels him, his reason. In other words, the Dvekut impels him to work.

However, he believes that everything he sees within reason is all above reason. And this was not so before, when everything that is in the form of above reason is within reason (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 205, “Wisdom Cries Out in the Streets”).

A person believes that serving the Creator is the true reality, and this is how it should be.

Servitude (slavery) implies that we do not act according to our own reason and do not make our own decisions, but rather, we carry out commands.

Afterward, it is the opposite: His whole work compels him, his reason. In other words, the Dvekut impels him to work. That is, initially a person went into servitude against his desires, but when he reaches servitude, he sees that the adhesion compels him to it.

However, he believes that everything he sees within reason is all above reason.

All that he sees within knowledge in his feeling in a clear way is above reason. Whereas before he arrived at this, his faith was within reason. That is, there was a coup within him.

We still cannot understand this. This article is difficult for us at the moment, but to come closer to spirituality, we must read such articles. They say that everything we see above is below. Everything we see in this world below is above in the spiritual world. Based on this, we can say that we will come to the opposite.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Wisdom Cries Out in the Streets”

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Despite Reason

232.05Question: Is faith above reason an action or a state that leads to action with the right intention?

Answer: Faith above reason is a state, and based on it, you can perform actions in faith above reason. If you can perform actions despite your reason, desire, and understanding because it is required, it can be called faith above reason. We need to work on it constantly.

Question: What is true knowledge?

Answer: True knowledge emanates from the light and is clothed in our corrected qualities.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Wisdom Cries Out in the Streets”

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Correct Flaws in a Timely Manner

530Question: If we talk about spiritual beauty, can it be said that this is the revelation of qualities through the ten? In other words, by displaying my qualities, do I recognize flaws in myself, or do my qualities still reveal themselves and the ten helps me turn them around?

Answer: Until you come to absolute integration between you in the ten, flaws will manifest in each of you, and will affect the others. Therefore, you will constantly need to take care to correct your flaws in timely manner, each time in something different.

Question: Do I see these flaws through the ten or does the ten show them to me? How do they manifest in us?

Answer: Usually, they manifest in connection with friends. But, in general, they are revealed by the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Sightly Flaw in You”

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Questions about Spiritual Work—93

235Question: It is written: “One’s soul shall teach him.” Can we feel the soul only in one heart or individually?

Answer: It can also be felt individually.

Question: Are the transgression of lack of faith and the transgression of idolatry different or the same thing?

Answer: Of course they are different; however, neither one nor the other in our time has the same significance as when mentioned in ancient books.

Question: If I am truly following my soul, what should I feel during this process?

Answer: You should feel drawn toward bestowal and toward love for others.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “All the Work Is Only Where There Are Two Ways – 1”

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One Subject with the Strength of the Ten

938.01Question: If someone in the ten reaches a higher degree, do the others also end up on it or does everyone stay on their own degree?

Answer: Imagine that now your entire ten is in our lesson. We are all trying to unite, and the whole ten strives to be like one person in whom all desires, all goals, and all intentions come together. This is the state we strive to reach, and we will achieve it.

Then we will be one subject who wants to attain the Creator. But the strength in it will be from ten, the intention from ten. In accordance with this, we will break forward.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “World, Year, Soul”

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Everyone Has Their Own Work

507.05Question: You said that a woman’s desire runs in depth, and a man’s desire in breadth. How does this connection and filling happen? How can we feel this point in the ten?

Answer: This is not your work, but the work of the Creator. You only have to identify your flaws and pray for their correction.

Question: Is it enough just to ask the Creator to correct a flaw? What else is required of us?

Answer: Only to ask for complete correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/10/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “A Sightly Flaw in You”

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