Audio Version Of The Blog – 07.14.15

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Revelation In Concealment

laitman_260_01The Torah, “Numbers” 9:15 – 9:18: On the day the Mishkan [Tabernacle] was erected, the cloud covered the Mishkan, which was a tent for the Testimony, and at evening, there was over the Mishkan like an appearance of fire, [which remained] until morning.

So it was always, the cloud covered it and there was an appearance of fire at night; and according to the cloud’s departure from over the Tent, and afterwards, the children of Israel would travel, and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would encamp. At the bidding of the Lord, the children of Israel traveled, and at the bidding of the Lord, they encamped. As long as the cloud hovered above the Mishkan, they encamped.

The cloud is the attribute of concealment. I must constantly make sure that I am in concealment in order to advance toward the goal, toward the attribute of bestowal so that my ego will not see anything and that I will have the power to work on it all the time.

This is called faith above reason. So I constantly follow the concealment that shows me which way to go. At the same time, I don’t run away from the cloud in order to get closer to the Light, but actually hide from the Light in the cloud.

There are many articles about this and especially Rabash’s articles, most of which are dedicated to the issue about to how to ascend from Lo Lishma (Not For Her Name) to Lishma (For Her Name).

A person who wants to reach the end of correction has no other choice but to constantly to look for the cloud because one can raise himself only when the Creator is concealed.

This seems to contradict common sense. I conceal my ego and work above it for the sake of the attribute of bestowal despite my feelings, my knowledge, and my understanding, despite the fact that the Creator can be revealed to me as great and awesome. I want to conceal Him!

I look for the cloud in which I don’t see anything and don’t hear anything from the upper. In that case, I can advance with all the others (with my group, for example), and only in the direction we must choose and don’t distinguish the attribute of love and bestowal, which is not complete yet. When we try to rebuild it, we ask the upper to do it for us, but without the revelation of the Creator!

On the other hand, the wisdom of Kabbalah is about the revelation of the Creator to man. To the extent that we can be in the cloud that covers us, we begin to feel that this action takes place inside a great Light, during daytime. It is through the cloud that we begin to feel the upper Light, but only when we put ourselves in it.

Then, when we reach the end of correction, the cloud suddenly evaporates somehow, and we begin to perceive the revelation of the Light in the attribute of love and bestowal, which means outside of ourselves.

Question: In daily life a person says, “I look for a clear sky,” but you say, “I look for the cloud.” These two approaches are totally different.

Answer: This is the reason that the spiritual revelation is called The Megila (Book) Of Esther (stemming from the words “revelation” and “concealment” in Hebrew). A Megila refers to revelation and Esther refers to the concealment. This is where the double attribute, the revelation in the concealment, are revealed.

This happens all of the time in the spiritual work, and this is the reason people find it so hard to perceive the wisdom of Kabbalah because according to their logic, they think that everything is very simple. In fact, a person must work, and for a long time, in order to understand the logic of the upper world, which constantly eludes them.

When he is invited to the revelation, he must actually close his eyes. Therefore, it says that, when the Creator was revealed, Moses didn’t look at Him, and, thanks to that, he was rewarded with the complete revelation of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/4/15

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Economy – For Life And Not For Profit

laitman_202_0Question: In an article by Baal HaSulam, he writes about the new economy of the corrected society. In what way does it differ from the economy of today that has entered a deep crisis, and what must be the transitional stages on the way to achieving it?

Answer: The main difference between the economy of today and the economy of the future is that the future economy is directed toward the participation of the simple and common man that has received a new special education through which he will understand what kind of a system he is in. This is a completely new approach.

First of all, the person needs to go through a preparation to learn the structure of human society, and then see himself as a part of it.

He will understand in what form he must communicate with everyone else, in what manner society provides itself with what it needs, what its needs are, how the society fulfills them, and what the level of optimal fulfillment is that is satisfactory for every citizen and every nation, and what kinds of goals the society places before him in the social and personal realm in culture and in education.

A person must know all of this because we are tightly linked with each other. Lack of understanding divides us into dozens of factions and all kinds of movements, and we only interfere with each other.

So, the top priority is not in a change to a new economy, but the creation of a system of education that encompasses the entire nation and even the world. A person begins to acquire a clear understanding of his place in society and the universal mutual connection.

He will not study it as an abstract theory as in a university; he will experience it and try it practically on himself in society. Everyone will participate in exercises like these.

Only after a person understands where he is, how much everyone depends upon each other, and toward what goal humanity is approaching, will it move toward a transition to a new economy, not before then.

These changes cannot be imposed from above in the form of directives. A person must participate in them himself. He must consent to be satisfied with an optimal standard of living. An optimal level makes it possible for a person to live without feeling a deficiency and need for something, but for one, it will not be more or less than it is for others. After all, our bodies require the same thing.

It could be that I will be satisfied with one chicken wing, whereas you need an entire chicken, but the principle is that everyone receives according to the beastly needs of his body. In addition, it is necessary to ensure every human need: education, culture, and leisure. That is, everyone requires fulfillment according to his material and social deficiencies, and there is still the intellectual deficiency that a person fulfills through learning, searching for an answer to the question of the meaning of existence and the attainment of the goal of life that goes beyond the boundaries of physical existence.

The main thing is to understand that there are several levels of existence. One level is corporeal—meaning material, beastly, where each one gets what is good for his body, family, and lifestyle: a house with all of its contents, normal conditions—but not more.

Everyone needs to agree that this is enough for us, and it is not necessary to create an artificial deficiency that confuses everyone and convinces them that they must buy a new product so that someone will get rich. Only normal things will remain, things that are beneficial for our health, and if it seems that it is possible to do something that is even better and healthier for the body, then we do this.

This means that everything must be rational and not for profit which is to blame for our having created hundreds of different kinds of thousands of products. The economy of the future will be reasonable.

Question: But many can say that the economy of today is reasonable because it is based on supply and demand. If there is a demand, then a product is created. If there were no demand for hundreds of kinds of cheese, then it would not be produced.

Answer: The demand is created artificially. We want the economy to serve our lives and not our lives to serve the economy.
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From KabTV’s “The Solution” 6/24/15

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Technological Progress And Moral Regression

Laitman_004Today, once again the world faces the same problem that existed in ancient Babylon: humanity is at a dead end on the threshold of a world war, mankind is again sinking into barbarism.

It is interesting that in the past 30 to 40 years scientific, technological, and cultural development of everything that distinguishes a human being from a beast has entered a new stage.

Modern technology gives the least educated person everything he needs: televisions, computers, and mobile phones. Inside he remains a barbarian, and at the same time, he uses such developments of humanity that surpass his internal state by hundreds of years. In turns out that people have regressed.

If 30 to 50 years ago, a person was interested in paintings, books, and music, and had to absorb at least some part of what humanity has done and attained before him, today, this is not so. Everything has been replaced with sending text messages. What do people write to each other? What for?

In my time, children from a village wanted to be intelligent, modern. They were ashamed of their ignorance, whereas today this is not so. It follows that specifically thanks to technology—thanks to having everything and not needing to get anything, not needing to elevate yourself to any level—humanity is returning to barbarism.

Today, we are passing through a particular state called the “recognition of evil.” Who are we? Humanity must recognize its barbarism, which is leading people directly toward annihilation. In parallel to this, the people of Israel must develop the next state of humanity: mutual connection, oneness, and becoming an example for everyone else.

Question: So, in what way are the Jews to blame?

Answer: We should have begun our work from the period humanity began to leave the Middle Ages, from the time of the Ari at the end of the 16th century.

It was precisely then that technological advancement began, which should have been accompanied by moral development so that a person would know why this had been given into his hands, and instead of this, a person became a barbarian with an iPhone.

Question: To where must the Jews bring this barbaric mass? Is it to oneness, to love?

Answer: Today, we Jews are no less barbaric than all the rest. So, first and foremost, we need to bring ourselves to unity. We are in a very great descent relative to the level we must comply with.

Question: But at all times, the Jews have aspired for a better world: they invented socialism, the idea of equality.

Answer: They didn’t invent anything. The idea of equality has been latent in them from the beginning. This process began 3,500 years ago from around the time Abraham gathered people who wanted to know the meaning of life, “We will not be slaves to our ego. We will rise up against it, each one within himself and all of us together.”

Since this is in the foundation of our development, we haven’t done anything unique.

Question: So, how can humanity remain barbaric if an idea like this is latent in it?

Answer: Relative to the same level in which we existed 2,000 years ago, beginning from Abraham to the destruction of the Second Temple, today we are barbarians. We don’t eat each other in the literal sense; we do this through our desires and intentions.

We don’t understand that everything that is happening in the world depends on us, and we can correct this by showing ourselves as an example of a completely different existence.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/14/15

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Anti-Semitism: A Strange Contradiction

laitman_224Question: When we speak about anti-Semitism, one must point out one interesting phenomena: those same anti-Semites who hate Jews fiercely, at the same time love them.

For example, Voltaire wrote about the Jews, “They are the rudest of all people, the most hated of all our neighbors. All of them are born with intense fanaticism in the hearts. I wouldn’t be surprised if these people will one day become a real disaster for the whole of humanity.”

Together with this, the same Voltaire confessed his love for the Jewish people: “ I love them so much that I would like them to be in Jerusalem, instead of the Turks who completely bankrupted and destroyed their country. Work the miserable land as you never worked it before, raise the land to the exposed peaks of your demolished mountains…”

Similarly Tolstoy and Chekhov spoke contradictorily about Jews, as did other writers and thinkers. It is said that there is only one step from love to hate, and we don’t even have to take this step since love and hate are woven together to such an extent.

Answer: These are two sides of the same person. And both sides, hatred and a special respect, which are completely, mutually dependent, mutual constants and are seen by all enlightened and caring people toward the Jews.

Question: Actually, during the course of history, all of the steps against the Jews were taken as if in order to protect them, “We love them. We want to ensure their safety, so do not carry weapons, do not become involved in certain professions, and live in the ghetto.” Also today, the movement of boycotts against Israel are accompanied by declarations of love, and at the same time pressure us.

Answer: I personally welcome this kind of love since I see in this a special revelation of upper Providence that wants the Jews to implement their universal mission for the world and to carry out everything that they need to do. Anti-Semitism is very helpful to Zionists. If there weren’t anti-Semitism in Russia, then there wouldn’t be Zionists, and the same thing goes for the rest of the nations.

Furthermore, in the Torah it is written that without the hatred of the nations of the world toward Israel, the Jews would have ceased to be a nation a long time ago. Thus, this hatred is needed exactly, as in the relationships of parents to their beloved children. There is mercy and there is judgment, meaning two hands, the left and the right. The left hand sometimes punishes, and the right caresses and hugs.

Question: Where in man does the hatred appear toward Jews and why is it so difficult for him to control it?

Answer: Where there is the revelation of love toward the Jewish nation, toward their worldview or religion, know that, shortly after, will come hatred. Conversely, if you see the hatred in the nations of the world, soon it will change for the better to expressions of love.

This is manifested not only between peoples and nations, but also between many nations and the Jews. For example, after WWII, after the Holocaust, a different attitude toward the Jews appeared, “We must give the Jews a place to live, a nation, to make sure they are in charge.” This is absolutely the clear upper providence that is not dependent on people or nations. This has been observed in an exact way during the entire course of human history.

There is nothing psychological about this. It is simply the general upper providence, super human, that is above our world and is leading it to ascend above itself to the next level, to the spiritual world of forces.

It is not the material world, but the world of forces. It is the Jews who need to specify this path since it is only with them that there is the initial experience for uniting, under the instruction of Abraham, and ascending to this level. Thus, they are called a special nation with a unique quality that is not connected to the rest of the seventy nations of the world.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/14/15

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Why Are We Afraid Of Death?

Laitman_504A person subconsciously thinks about death constantly. Everything that he builds and creates is intended to somehow nullify death.

He aspires to invent something, to build, to discover, to overcome, to do, and to hold onto his eternity. This is the fundamental motif that penetrates all of our existence.

If we were eternal or we had no sensation of the end, we would die and would not know that we died. Then we would live completely differently.

We would live full of inspiration, wholeheartedly, and we wouldn’t feel compelled to think about the end. Our subconscious feeling of the inevitability of death is very important to us.

Question: Is this good or bad?

Answer: It depends on how the person uses this reality. Without it, we would be beasts that are integrated completely in every moment of our existence because if there were no end, then the remaining sensation is, “If I exist only here, I must get everything out of this moment.”

But when we feel that the end is concealed somewhere, we try to abolish it. We distract ourselves, plunge headfirst into science, into creative search, into the creation of some works, etc., and all of this is to prove that we have overcome death. In principle, this is what drives us forward.

This is derived from the depths of consciousness and is realized not only on the level of the beast, but also on other levels, up to the highest spiritual levels in which everything is resolved in another form. There, a person begins to discover life within the soul, and therefore becomes independent of the life of the body.

If in addition to my physiological body I discover my spiritual body, called the “soul,” and begin to feel myself as existing within it, then simultaneously I feel how much my beastly body is temporary and finite and is obliged to ultimately die, again becoming inert matter.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 6/17/15

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On The Shoulders Of The Great Kabbalists

laitman_940Question: Is there anything left of the great work of Kabbalists throughout history?

Answer: Of course! We are standing on their shoulders and therefore we seem to be so strong and clever. But we have nothing that is ours! Everything we have received is from the Kabbalists of the past, and now we can add to the foundations that they have laid.

This will be done in two ways: first and foremost there should be wide dissemination of the method of unity among the people living in Israel and among the Jews all over the world.

On the other hand, the external pressure coming from Europe, America, Russia and all the other countries in the form of different boycotts will increase.

Eventually, the external pressure and the internal dissemination explaining why this is happening and how we can change things will influence the people and they will understand that the only way to accomplish anything is by correcting ourselves.

The only way we can protect ourselves is by developing ourselves and by bringing the attributes of connection, love, and bestowal to the world. We have to discover everything on ourselves and among us, and then waves of unity and love will spread from us to all the nations of the world.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/14/15

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.14.15

Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Conventions, Convention in Mexico, Part 5”

[media 1] [media 2]

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 56

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings,” “And to Cleave Onto Him”

[media 5] [media 6]

Workshop

[media 7] [media 8]