Audio Version Of The Blog – 07.07.16

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In Memory Of Eli Wiesel

Eli Wiesel, one of the pillars of the Jewish world, who served as the “mouth” for millions of Holocaust victims and dedicated his life to commemorate the Holocaust in an attempt to prevent a second one, passed away.

As a talented writer, awarded countless laurels and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, his personal history is closely interwoven with the fate of the Jewish people. In 1944, when he was 15 years old, he was sent with his family to Auschwitz, where he lost his mother and one of his sisters. Later after the death march, his father died in Buchenwald. But Wiesel was lucky to witness the liberation of the camp by the Allied Forces.

Since then he invested all his energy to let the world know about the atrocities the Jews had undergone in those terrible years.

We met in New York for the first time when I was on a lecture tour in America. Against the backdrop of a global surge of anti-Semitism, I crossed the country from coast to coast to give a series of lectures and interviews. Then I was fortunate to get to know an exceptional personality. He was truly a noble man, an outstanding representative of his people. We quickly found a common language since we are both from families that survived the Holocaust.

Eli showed great knowledge in Jewish literature. Among other things he was familiar with the authentic wisdom of Kabbalah in which I engage. He was very worried about the growing anti-Semitic trend, and I shared my concern with him regarding the impending waves of anti-Semitism about which I have been writing all these years. He listened attentively.

During that conversation, I told him about the main message of the wisdom of Kabbalah, about the special role of the Jewish people in fulfilling the principle of unity, and that after we fulfill it between ourselves, we have to pass on the method of unity to all of humanity. Eli showed great interest in this view and we had a very fruitful conversation.

It is very hard to accept his death. Eli Wiesel was one of the giants of the Jewish spirit who championed the Jewish people, and the moral foundations and universal values of humanity.

We, the Jews living in the land of Israel, are indebted to this man. In the hour of farewell, we have to greatly honor his mission, which has been completed, but which has not ended. His mission has been passed on to us, and just like Eli Wiesel we are responsible for the future generations.

Blessed be his memory.
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Answers To Your Questions, Part 133

Laitman_183_04Question: Not long ago I discovered by chance that the last name I have been living with for 44 years is not mine; the father of my grandfather was forced to change it immediately after the revolution. The real name of his family was Gornish. I don’t know how to write the name of this family correctly, but it is believed to be Jewish. Are you familiar with the name, and what does it symbolize and indicate?

Answer: This shouldn’t bother you; there is no connection between the name of a family and a person, just as is the case with his first name. What matters is only the spiritual level on which a person is found, and this depends only on the person.

Question: There is a person in whom I am interested and I would very much want our paths to cross, but unfortunately we miss each other on the same day sometimes by a few minutes. Coincidences like these seem unjust. Is it necessary to consider that if an acquaintance is not happening, this is a sign that it is not meant to be? In your previous answer you said that everything that happens with us at a given moment is the optimal thing for us. What must I do?

Answer: Go and get to know each other! Tell him that he interests you, and if he is the right person, he will not treat your attraction to him lightly….
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Related Material:
Answers To Your Questions, Part 132
Answers To Your Questions, Part 131
Answers To Your Questions, Part 130

The Wisdom Of Kabbalah Is Not Philosophy

Laitman_060_01Question: The famous Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti believed that school’s should teach children about love and a holistic approach to life.

Krishnamurti said, “Man has built in himself images as a fence of security—religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man’s thinking, his relationships, and his daily life. These images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man.” (Krishnamurti, “The Core of the Teachings”) How does the wisdom of Kabbalah relate to this?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah regards all the philosophies that speak about love and friendship positively. At the same time, it asks how do we implement this because this is the problem. Every person in the world will say that friendship is excellent! Love of others? Wonderful! Mutual help? Vital! But how do we fulfill it if we have a completely different nature? A person looks at everyone like a wolf, thinking about how he can grab them by the throat.

This is our egoistic nature. Man is a creature who is operated by a subjective egoism that only thinks about how to sustain itself in the most comfortable way. Therefore, the main problem is in the implementation. Where does one find the power to overcome the ego?

If we understood that egoism is bad, we probably could agree. At the same time, we don’t see any alternative for the ego. We don’t know how and cannot overcome it. Sometimes, we try to do good deeds, but we feel even worse than when we do bad deeds.

We need an upper force in order to overcome the ego, an upper force that is above our nature, above the ego. If we could find it in nature or somewhere to get it, and find a way to draw it, then we would have something we could talk about. If not, all of the wonderful projects and all of the philosophies remain merely theoretical.

Question: Despite the Indian philosophies of love and friendship, in India there is an untouchable caste.

Answer: It is indeed strange that there are sectors that are untouchable in a nation that speaks about love. If every religion is based on love, compassion, and sympathy, where is that love and sympathy?

In fact, there is a huge range of separation between people: caste, society, family, and clan. These examples clearly illustrate how sweet, but empty, such ideas can be. There are philosophies according to which you should sit and self-reflect.

Where is a person’s creativity? Is it inside himself? Searching within yourself will lead to nothing but mistaken philosophies and psychological methods to change a person, but it is impossible to change that way.

A person who has a certain character will remain the way he is unless an external force called the Upper Light will correct him systematically according to what the wisdom of Kabbalah says. It is our only hope.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 6/19/16

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The Torah Was Not Given To Angels

laitman_545Question: What is the difference between the attitude of the Kabbalists toward the Torah and the attitude of the masses toward the Torah?

Answer: The masses believe that a holy person or an angel is engaged with the Torah, and that if a person actively performs Mitzvot (Commandments), he fulfills the Torah. The sages of Kabbalah believe that the Torah was not given to angels, but to humans. Therefore it is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created for it the Torah as a spice, for the light in it reforms it” (Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 30b).

Only someone who has an evil inclination, egoism, needs the Torah. This is what Rabash wrote in the article, “The Claim of the Angels” (Articles, Volume 3). In other words, the difference is in the relationship of a person to the Torah: either it was given for performing mechanical actions or for the internal correction of the person’s essence, egoism, and from it, the creation of the soul.
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Related Material:
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Internal And External Interpertations Of The Torah
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Whence Was The Creator Created?

Laitman_049_01Question: Where did the Creator come from?

Answer: The question “where” indicates that we are in the final phases of our evolution in which time, motion, and space are still important for us.

But they exist only in our world, which is the lowest of all of the other worlds. In all the other worlds there is neither time nor motion, no beginning and no end.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/20/16

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From Adam’s Rib

laitman_243_05Question: How can you explain the fact that the woman was created from Adam’s rib from a Kabbalistic perspective?

Answer: This is an incorrect translation of Hebrew.

In the spiritual world there is a male part, the part that bestows, and a female part, the part that receives. The female part, Malchut, was created from the male part, Zeir Anpin (the Creator).

Malchut is a point, a desire in a state of smallness. When it ascends up to the chest of Zeir Anpin, up to the part that is called the spiritual ribs, it receives Light through Zeir Anpin and becomes a spiritual Partzuf (a body) or a soul that exists separately, but is still adhered to Zeir Anpin.

This is what is meant when it says that the woman was supposedly created from the man’s rib.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/6/16

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New Life 502 – Magic For Sale

New Life 502 – Magic For Sale
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Spiritual Weapons

Question: Is there really such a thing as magic or witchcraft? Can we use supernatural powers in order to change our reality?

Answer: No. In fact, the term “supernatural” needs to be reset. If we speak about what is above our nature, it includes all the natural phenomena.

We cannot influence the movement of the earth and other planets, but we can calculate them. Thus, many phenomena moved from the mystical realm to scientific concepts.

But at the same time, there are still many things we don’t know and the roots of which we cannot perceive, and this is an area we are still weak in, still faced with nature that we cannot calculate in advance. Meanwhile, man aspires for security; he needs an insurance policy for all his troubles.

This is where magic stems from. First it allegedly provides protection from any possible threat, including enemies, which a person can now resist with “spiritual weapons.” Second, there is the option to switch to the offense and establish one’s superiority, to clean the area of any troublemakers that stand in a person’s way.

The Supernatural, Affordable

Here many make promises declaring they know how it is done and that they will help a person if only they are paid for their services.

There are concepts such as black and white magic. The former is meant to cause harm and the latter promises to help a person. But this division is random, just like children play good and the bad guys. A person feels that he is weak when confronting the forces that determine his life. He would like to control his own fate and he goes to “experts” to hear their advice.

Moreover, the inevitable death of the body and the uncertainty about what lies ahead scare us. What will happen to my soul? Where will it end up? Can we avoid hell and guarantee ourselves heaven? People are very worried about these questions and others can make good money here.

Question: Does this mean that there is no magic?

Answer: No. But the problem is that anything that we attribute to a person’s internal world is related to his psychology. Consequently, a person can be influenced in a way that may seem like magic to him. This also happens with many religious people.

There is nothing we can do about it, since these are the properties of our psychology. Eventually it all stems from ignorance.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 502 – Magic For Sale,“ 1/18/15

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 07.07.16

Preparation for the Lesson

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Shamati #42 “What Is the Acronym Elul in the Work”

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 94

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom,” “Freedom from the Angel of Death”

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