Audio Version Of The Blog – 06.09.15
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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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(Continued from the “Revolution Of The 21st Century: Rich Man, Poor Man”)
Once, wealth and nobility were very much respected. Commoners were happy to cater to the rich to get the leftovers from their table. The very closeness to the “great man” was seen as a huge honor.
However, eventually, servility faded, and people began to ask another question, “Why can we not occupy the same position? Why do they have, and we do not?”
From this it is a short distance to revolution when the poor rob the rich, often killing them or trying to change places with them. Ultimately, this brought about a myriad of troubles and problems.
I do not think that such” initiatives” ever achieved success. Every revolution later devours itself and promotes not those who strive for high ideals but completely different people who come and reap all the fruits for their own interest.
It happened in the days of the French Revolution. It happened in Spain, in Russia, and in many other countries. All of humanity goes through this process.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/14/15
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The Torah, “Numbers,” 3:11 – 3:13: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying. As for Me I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel in place of all first-borns among the children of Israel who have opened the womb, and the Levites shall be Mine. For all the firstborns are Mine; since the day I smote all the firstborns in the land of Egypt, I sanctified for Myself all the firstborns of Israel, both man and beast they shall become Mine, I am the Lord.
Every new level begins from the Sefira of Keter, which contains everything. When it spreads it builds the other Sefirot. The Sefira of Keter is born from the previous state, which is the firstborn.
Question: Why are the firstborn of Israel compared to the firstborn who died in Egypt?
Answer: Because the firstborn who died in Egypt are egotistic desires that mustn’t be kept alive and so they had to die. It is thanks to this that a new type of firstborn appears. This means that the desires that were focused only on receiving for themselves die in their yearning and become the next level of the firstborn of Israel, the Sefira of Keter.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/31/14
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Question: Is it possible to succeed without competition?
Answer: Positive competition and positive envy are always useful: “See how they succeed and I don’t!” Athletes feel this kind of competition in our world and it spurs them to greater achievements.
When we acquire the upper forces envy motivates us to become better, greater, and to mutually cooperate with others in order to expand our soul by connecting with others, to succeed in expanding yourself as much as possible, to be under the influence of the Upper Light and to resemble it. This is very useful competition. It says: “The envy of sages increases wisdom.”
Question: Which desire is more natural to a modern athlete, that his rival would break a leg or that he himself would achieve better results?
Answer: Of course he wants his rivals to break a leg and that he wouldn’t have to race anyone. After all, the ego will not move if it doesn’t have a motive that it finds worthwhile to act for. It has to focus on a certain goal and then chase it.
But today because man is very egoistic and has already tried to achieve many goals; it is very hard to move him from his place. It is possible only under the influence of the environment that can convince him not to sit in his armchair! Otherwise, he will not make any unnecessary movement: couch, TV, TV series, and that’s all.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 5/13/15
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Question: So far, I cannot say that I have been studying Kabbalah. I listen to your radio program, watch TV and movies. I just can’t get an answer to one question. In your book, Kabbalah for Beginners, you wrote that the process of studying Kabbalah is about reading the sources, contemplation, and group participation…
What exactly will raise us to the Creator? How will the worlds be divulged to a human being? Will it happen through reading, thinking, and interacting? Are there practices that teach contemplation, prayers, dreams interpretation? Is it possible to instigate or change certain desires in us?
Answer: The attainment of the upper world occurs in developing our property of bestowal. Inside this property, we will be able to sense the superior nature “of giving and loving.” In order to develop such a property, we need to join a group (preferably 10 people) and work on building these kinds of relationships among us. The entire Kabbalah and the Torah in general speak only about this process!
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Twelve tribes positioned in a specific order around the Tabernacle of Revelation, each under its banner, represent the properties of a single Kli (vessel) near which all the members of the camp led by Moses gathered.
Question: Was this form first acquired by Abraham’s group once they left Babylon?
Answer: Abraham is the starting point from which the method of correction of egoism associated with the human degree in ancient Babylon was launched.
Adam was the first one who ever revealed egoism; Noah was next. Their non-egoistic cognition emerged as the first and second levels. The third and fourth levels belong to a selfish part of the soul, to the thickness of egoism.
The Creator corrected Adam by granting him a garment (clothing); as to Noah, he hid all earthly egoistic properties in the “cocoon” of the Ark, whereas in Babylon a Tower was built that reached the skies. It symbolized a genuine human selfishness, a lack of mutual understanding between people.
They really had something to rise above and to correct. At this point, Abraham revealed the methodology of correction of egoism and began implementing it.
Question: Can we say that Abraham called everybody to unite so that they would regain a sense of a common family?
Answer: No. There was no place to return to because Abraham’s followers were extremely diverse. They came from different Babylonian tribes that were completely estranged throughout the lifespan of several generations and reached the degree of a complete internal detachment.
They totally rejected the idea of unity! The only thing they managed to achieve was erecting the seven-layered Tower of Babel. This meant that their egoism was ready to move forward at all seven levels, to reach the Heavens and find out where the Creator was hidden.
The Tower reflected the Babylonians’ most serious internal aspiration in their search of the purpose in life. After all, at some point they lived, one might say, in a communist society, as one people, as fellow-mates.
Previously, there was no tension among them. Before their egoism exploded, everything was just fine, quiet, and calm. All of a sudden they began to seek superiority over teach other; then everything collapsed because they strived to attain the Creator selfishly.
Babylonians tried to embody all their knowledge of the higher power in the construction of the Tower. It was their understanding of how to reach the Creator. The Tower was a sacrificial place where all sorts of magicians and fortune-tellers could be found. Various kinds of manipulations that are still very popular and widespread even today were conducted there: spells, divination cards, amulets, red strings; everything was in vogue.
However, they lacked the most important thing—the desire to reveal the Creator. This is was their undoing.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/31/14
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Question: In its time, the Soviet Union was an attempt to build a communist society, a society of equal opportunity. Why didn’t humanity learn anything from this? Why did it turn into such a tragedy?
Answer: I would not say that what they wanted to build in the Soviet Union was communism. It was a dictatorship. The Russian empire was a feudal society in which the population was predominantly ignorant; the peasants were confined to their land.
However, in his writings, Marx indicated that prior to building communism, we must pass through particular social developments. After all, a communist society, first and foremost, is a society in which everyone has a consciousness in which everyone is connected as one family above their ego, and each one feels himself to be a part of the others. This requires a person to have a full understanding of his nature and the goal toward which we must reach.
The modern person is the antithesis of the future society. He is completely against connection with others. He wants to think and be concerned only about himself. He has himself and his family, and all the rest doesn’t matter to him at all, and suddenly they say to him, “You must understand and perceive that you are a single, whole unit with everyone!” That is, he needs to understand that according to the law of nature we must reach a state where we are one family and even more, because this family is still only a physical connection between people, whereas here it is talking about our inner connection, not on a physical level, but on a level of internal consolidation in which each one feels “we,” but not “I.”
We are like a single, complete whole. In other words, this requires an inner transformation of the person and his worldview, which is impossible to implement in a short period of time, neither by force nor through persuasion. It requires a long process of education. We know that the right education for a child requires a minimum of 25 years from birth until going out to meet life. What kind of education is it possible to talk about in Russia, when communism was apparently inserted by violent methods, through revolution, through a civil struggle between different strata of the population? In the end, everything turned into terror, terrible power, and counter-revolution. There was no socialism or communism there.
Question: However, for the first revolutionaries, there were pure thoughts and high ideals.
Answer: Without a doubt, people were ready to sacrifice themselves. While I was still a student in Leningrad, I rented a room from an old woman, a revolutionary. She told me how she stood and shivered in the bitter cold, distributing cookies to soldiers who were going to the front, and, even though she herself was hungry, she didn’t have even a thought about taking a cookie for herself. People didn’t think about themselves, their ideal was the revolution that later began to devour its lovers, and this is a natural process. Ideals move our egoistic world forward, but after that an absolutely different pragmatic wave comes that begins to crush these ideals beneath it and works according to the usual egoistic laws.
To be continued.
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From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 5/11/15
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