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Don’t Stop In The Middle Of The Way Towards The Goal

laitman_750_03The Torah, “Numbers” 13:17 – 13:22: And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them: “Get you up here into the South, and go up into the mountains; and see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it is good or bad; and what cities they are that they dwell in, whether in camps, or in strongholds; and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land.” Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes. So they went up, and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, at the entrance to Hamath. And they went up into the South, and came unto Hebron; and Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were there. Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.

This is talking about very strong forces acting against the children of Israel. It is also the place itself, Hebron, and the time of the first fruit of the grapes, which symbolize the fruit of Hochma and also Anak and his three children.

In general, everything is working against the possibility of the person overcoming the obstacles; he has no forces for this. Here this requires a new force, the characteristic of bestowal, which they didn’t succeed in attaining in the wilderness. So how could they get it now on the border? This is not understood. So they go back and tell everything that they saw. From their side there were no sins; the only thing they say is: “With what we have, we cannot control the ego that stands in front of us. We don’t know what to do. There is no answer.”

In principle, they carried out their mission absolutely correctly; they discovered everything that there is correctly. And further, this was not even any of their business. The problem is just that they drew the wrong conclusion in that they decide that it is forbidden for them to go forward. We don’t need to stop. We need to search for another way, to search for the power of faith above reason, do something, but not give up on the next level of ascent.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/30/15

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The Essential Commodity Of The Jews

laitman_214We are approaching a major crisis—financial, military, leadership, and political—a universal crisis fraught with the collapse of core systems. All of the top universities, a huge army, leading banks, and thousands of tons of gold in the vaults—none of this will help.

If connection between systems is severed, everything falls apart. Likewise, an organism also dies if healthy organs are deprived of interconnection due to a failure of the nervous, circulatory, or lymphatic systems.

This is exactly what is happening today in every country and in relations between countries, and only we can bring back to life the vital systems of the global body. We are doctors who will hook them up to an IV and revive the connections, domestic and international. This is the only way the world can survive.

This method is rooted in us, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, and we are approaching the stage when it will be necessary to implement it within the people of Israel, and then, by way of example, pass it on to others. Everyone will have a need for it: America, China, India, Russia, the Islamic world, and Europe. It will become our core commodity.

I hope that in the next two or three years, if not sooner, humanity will realize that this is the only thing it needs. Moreover, people will see that only Jews have it, and they will come to us with the most important demand, the age-old grievance of anti-Semites, “This is what you have, but you are not giving it to us.” At last, we will be glad to share our assets.

Question: What exactly is this commodity?

Answer: It is a method of connecting people from which arises the unity of people and governments, of all parts of a nation, of all parties and movements. Let everyone have their own opinion and their own direction, but we will learn to unite above everything, as it is written, “love covers all transgressions.”

Then, every country will become unified as one, after which it will understand how it can complement the others, and thus international unity will arise. Thus, all of humanity will become truly one whole.

It is written about this, “…for they shall all know Me from their smallest to their greatest,” and “…My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” This is what we need to come to. Therein is the salvation of the nation of Israel. It is not with America, but with each other that we need to build correct relationships, and only then will we save ourselves and the entire world.

Our real weapon, the true means of salvation, is the method of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah. It structures our relationship with the world through a higher system of governance and through the providence of nature itself, the nature of creation. Through it, we can truly influence the entire world for the better.

People accuse us of wielding a secret power over the world, and indeed, we truly are capable of leading it, but only on condition that we do so responsibly, if we bring humanity to a good interconnection and a true universal unification.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/4/15

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Long Way To The Temple, Part 5

laitman_747_01Exiled for Thousands of Years

After destruction of the First Temple, the Babylonian exile began. Purim events described in Megillat Esther took place during this period of time.

The hardships of exile forced the Jewish people to return to the land of Israel and enhance their unity.

They managed to build a good, strong connection among them even though their unity was not quite the same level as it was previously. They returned from Babylon with a new higher degree of egoism and strong selfish desires that they picked up from other nations.

It was as if they returned to Babylon that they once abandoned, submerged in the bubbling egoism, and then again returned to Israel. However, this time they were unable to build relationships as faithful, strong, and wonderful as they had initially. So, they decided to build something less complicated, that is, to create the type of connection called the “Second Temple.”

They were intertwined with each other but still divided into various confronting groups and clans. As a result, a new round of collapsing began. It’s very important to realize that unity can be reached only for a moment; after this moment, for centuries people slid down from the height of unity.

This is what happened to the Second Temple. The First Temple lasted for several centuries and then collapsed. The Second Temple repeated this pattern.

Great Kabbalist, Rabbi Akiva, lived at the time of the Second Temple. He made every effort to strengthen unity among the people of Israel.

Unfortunately, an unexplainable hatred instead of brotherly love suddenly appeared among his disciples who numbered 24,000 people. Distorted connection among them didn’t allow them to sense a magnificent “circle” that embraces the entire universe.

Detachment among Rabbi Akiva’s students accelerated the collapse of the Second Temple, i.e., hastened annihilation of their internal connection. This explains why they once again were exiled. The exile has lasted or two thousand years, until now.

To be continued
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/5/15

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Birth Of One Single Group

laitman_938_03Question: What do you mean by the term “group”? Are these the people who are around us all the time: family and friends?

Answer: A group is an association of people who have one goal, one purpose. They eliminate all kinds of misunderstandings between them and act like a single fist, all of whose fingers are different but connected together into a single unified force.

In addition to this, our group must possess a particular characteristic. If they have a common goal, then they gather together to create a force for attaining this goal. This force can only give Light, and we can only get the Light needed for advancement with the help of Arvut (mutual guarantee).

This means that when I take the desires of someone else and want to correct and fulfill them, then I am like the Light, it shines within me and I am included in a group as a source of Light even though I am getting it from a higher power station because I want to give fulfillment to others.

If all of us act like this, then we become connected through mutual Arvut and advance towards a common goal. On every level of our growing spiritual advancement we get more Light, which connects us more tightly and we advance forward. This is what is called a group.

I think that we have already begun this action and have truly begun to feel that the foundation for our success is inherent in this. It used to be that some of the people understand this and some of them not as much. Now we “comb” everyone with a single comb, a single size, a single style. Now all of us have straightened the line, we know and understand the same thing. This is very important because everyone will now have an identical understanding of the material and the goal of the movement.

This was the biggest problem for everyone because there are many groups among us that are far from each other, and on the one hand, this created a great potential opportunity for advancement, but on the other hand, all the groups were on different levels and didn’t understand each other.

But now we are doing this for one single whole and have truly become one big group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/14, Writings of Rabash

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The Family Of The Future Is A Fusion Of Minds And Hearts

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does an earthly family with a corrected spiritual relationship look like?

Answer: It is difficult to say since we have not yet seen such examples in our lives. For now, we are still in a state of breakage, in exile.

Therefore, since the time of Rabbi Akiva, after the destruction of the Temple, we know nothing about such families who would correspond to the corrected spiritual relationship with the Creator.

Moreover, it is written about how Kabbalists of the past suffered because of their wives who often had very difficult personalities and presented many grievances and demands. Kabbalists accepted it as inevitable and a consequence of the breakage and exile in which we exist.

A spiritual couple should feel as if it exists in one body, in common agreement and understanding, completing each other in a fusion of minds, hearts, and mutual intentions. Everything that exists in the body of the other, in their mind and heart, I accept as my own thoughts and feelings.

And these are not just nice words but are truly felt even on the most earthly, physiological level. If something is hurting in your partner, then you feel this pain in your body, even if they do not tell you about it. This is a complete union of bodies in accordance with the union of souls.

We will come to this state as soon as we begin to correct ourselves in relation to our general love for one another.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/30/15

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Rav Laitman On Ynet – Who Are You, People Of Israel?

Hello Dear Readers,

I invite you to read my article published on Ynet on the subject of the role of the people of Israel.

Ynet Who Are You People of Israel

“Who Are You People of Israel?”

Time and again, Jews are persecuted and terrorized. Being Jewish myself, I often ponder the purpose of this relentless agony. Some believe that the atrocities of WWII are unimaginable today. And yet, we see how easily and abruptly the state of mind preceding the Holocaust is re-emerging, and “Hitler was right” shouts are sounded all too often and all too openly.

But there is hope. We can reverse this trend, and all it requires is that we become aware of the bigger picture.

Where We Are and Where We Come From

Humanity is at a crossroads. Globalization has made us interdependent, while people are growing increasingly hateful and alienated. This unsustainable, highly flammable situation requires making a decision about humanity’s future direction. Yet to understand how we, the Jewish people, are involved in this scenario, we need to go back to where it all began.

The people of Israel emerged some 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon. Babylon was a thriving civilization whose people felt connected and united. In the words of the Torah, “The whole earth was of one language and of one speech” (Genesis, 11:1).

But as their ties grew stronger, so did their egos. They began to exploit, and finally hate one another. So while the Babylonians felt connected, their intensifying egos made them increasingly alienated from each other. Caught between a rock and a hard place, the people of Babylon began to seek out a solution to their plight.

Two Solutions to the Crisis

The search for a solution led to forming two conflicting views. The first, suggested by Nimrod, king of Babylon, was natural and instinctive: Dispersion. The king argued that when people are far from one another, they do not quarrel.

The second solution was suggested by Abraham, then a renowned Babylonian sage. He argued that according to Nature’s law, human society is destined to become united, and therefore strove to unite the Babylonians despite, and atop their growing egos.

Succinctly, Abraham’s method was a way to connect people above their egos. When he began to advocate his method among his countryfolk, “thousands and tens of thousands assembled around him, and … He planted this tenet in their hearts,” writes Maimonides (Mishneh Torah, Part 1). The rest of the people chose Nimrod’s way: dispersion, as do quarrelsome neighbors when they try to stay out of each other’s way. These dispersed people gradually became what we now know as “human society.”

Only today, some 4,000 years down the line, we can begin to assess whose way was right.

The Basis of the People of Israel

Nimrod forced Abraham and his disciples out of Babylon, and they moved to what later became known as “the land of Israel.” They worked on unity and cohesion in accord with the tenet, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” connected above their egos, and thus discovered “the force of unity,” Nature’s hidden power.

Every substance consists of two opposite forces, connection and separation, which balance themselves out. But human society is evolving using only the negative force—the ego. According to Nature’s plan, we are required to consciously balance the negative force with the positive one—unity. Abraham discovered the wisdom that enables balance, and today we refer to his wisdom as, “the wisdom of Kabbalah.”

Israel Means Straight to the Creator

Abraham’s disciples called themselves Ysrael (Israel) after their desire to go Yashar El (straight to G-d, the Creator). That is, they wished to discover Nature’s force of unity so as to balance the ego that stood between them. Through their unity, they found themselves immersed in the force of unity, the upper, root force of reality.

In addition to their discovery, Israel also learned that in the process of human development, the rest of the Babylonians—who followed Nimrod’s advice, dispersed throughout the world, and have become today’s humanity—would also have to achieve unity. That contradiction between the people of Israel, which formed through unity, and the rest of humanity, which formed as a result of separation, is felt even today.

Exile

Abraham’s disciples, the people of Israel, experienced many internal struggles. But for 2,000 years their unity prevailed and was the key element that held them together. Indeed, their conflicts were meant only to intensify the love among them.

However, approximately 2,000 years ago, their egos reached such intensity that they could not maintain their unity. Unfounded hatred and egotism erupted among them and inflicted exile on them. Indeed, Israel’s exile, more than it is exile from the physical land of Israel, is exile from unity. The alienation within the Israeli nation caused them to disperse among the nations.

Back to the present, today humanity is in a state similar to the one the ancient Babylonians experienced: interdependence alongside alienation. Because we are completely interdependent in our global village, Nimrod’s solution of parting ways is no longer practical. Now we are required to use Abraham’s method. This is why the Jewish people, who previously implemented Abraham’s method and connected, must rekindle their unity and teach the method of connection to the whole of humanity. And unless we do it of our own accord, the nations of the world will compel us to do it, by force.

On that note, it is interesting to read the words of Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company, and a notorious anti-Semite, in his book, The International Jew — The World’s Foremost Problem: “Society has a large claim against him [the Jew] that he … begin to fulfill … the ancient prophecy that through him all the nations of the earth should be blessed.”

The Roots of Anti-Semitism

After thousands of years of exerting to build a successful human society using Nimrod’s method, the nations of the world are beginning to understand that the solution to their problems is neither technological, nor economic or militaristic. Subconsciously, they feel that the solution lies in unity, that the method of connection exists in the people of Israel, and therefore recognize that they are dependent on the Jews. This makes them blame the Jews for every problem in the world, believing that the Jews possess the key to the world’s happiness.

Indeed, when the Israeli nation fell from its moral apex of love of others, hatred of Israel among the nations commenced. And thus, through anti-Semitism, the nations of the world prod us to disclose the method of connection. Rav Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, pointed to that fact with his words, “Amalek, Hitler, and so forth, awaken us toward redemption” (Essays of the Raiah, Vol. 1).

But the people of Israel are unaware that they are holding the key to the world’s happiness, and that the very source of anti-Semitism is that the Jews are carrying within them the method of connection, the key to happiness, the wisdom of Kabbalah, but are not revealing it to all.

Mandatory Disclosure of the Wisdom

As the world groans under the pressure of two conflicting forces—the global force of connection, and the separating power of the ego—we are falling into the state that existed in ancient Babylon prior to its collapse. But today we cannot pull away form one another in order to calm our egos down. Our only option is to work on our connection, on our unity. We are required to add to our world the positive force that balances the negative power of our ego.

The people of Israel, descendants of the ancient Babylonians who followed Abraham, must implement the wisdom of connection, namely the wisdom of Kabbalah. They are required to set an example to the whole of humanity, and thus become a “light for the nations.”

The laws of Nature dictate that we will all achieve a state of unity. But there are two ways to get there: 1) a path of world suffering, wars, catastrophes, plagues, and natural disasters, or 2) a path of gradual balancing of the ego, the path that Abraham planted in his disciples. The latter is the one we suggest.

Unity Is the Solution

It is written in The Book of Zohar, “Everything stands on love” (Portion, VaEtchanan). “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the great tenet of the Torah; it is also the essence of the change that the wisdom of Kabbalah is offering humanity. It is the obligation of the Jewish People to unite in order to share the method of Abraham with the entire human race.

According to Rav Yehuda Ashlag, author of the Sulam (Ladder) commentary on The Book of Zohar, “It is upon the Israeli nation to qualify itself and all the people of the world … to develop until they take upon themselves that sublime work of the love of others, which is the ladder to the purpose of Creation.” If we accomplish this, we will find solutions to all the world’s problems including the eradication of anti-Semitism.
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