Audio Version Of The Blog – 07.10.17

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Why Did The Great Kings Of Israel Come From Non-Jews?

laitman_947Question from Facebook: Why was the origin of the greatest kings and teachers of the people of Israel, like King David and Rabbi Akiva, from among those who were not Jews?

Answer: A person who yearns for the Creator is called “Yashar-El” (Yisrael, Straight to the Creator). A person who wants to unite with others is called a “Yehudi” (Jew) from the word “Yechud” (Unification). This is what determines if you are a Jew or not. Today every person in the world, whether he is Spanish, French, Italian, or German, no matter who, can come and say: “I want to be a Jew.” In the wisdom of Kabbalah, they don’t divide the world into nationalities.

To be a Jew, a person must carry out what the Torah says. Namely he must yearn to implement the law “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). If he agrees to this, it means that he has become a Jew, a person who yearns for unity and unification to adhere with the Creator.

The term “Ivri” (Hebrew) is derived from the word, “L’Over” (to go over), moving from the principle of egoistic existence to altruistic existence. This is the foundation of our people, a group that accepted upon itself the principle, “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” As soon as a person accepts this principle, he becomes a Jew and everyone else, not.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 5/22/17

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The Evolution Of Human Society

laitman_202_0The collective unconscious unites all of humanity and unconsciously transforms our civilization into a single body. The development of human society has gradually reached a blind alley, and a process of withdrawal and degeneration has begun.

In general, a new stage in the development of society happens on a more instinctive and unconscious level during revolutions and crises. This is because the higher force that drives humanity toward development is beyond our reach—it is the Creator above, and from us to Him—there has been the power of the collective unconscious.

The world is tired of despicable and alienated attitudes. In a time of turmoil, a dead end, or crisis, a powerful force always arrives and, which through suffering, forces humanity to take a step forward into the unknown. In our day, after the transition to the new situation, the collective unconscious will be replaced by a collective consciousness that strives and aims toward resembling the Creator, the higher level.
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Why The Good Created Evil

laitman_281_01Question: Why did the good Creator create evil?

Answer: Specifically because the Creator is good, He created evil so that we would change it to the good; we would understand in which state, at which summit, at which level, He is found and we would become similar to Him.

Question: Why was it impossible to place us in a perfected state from the start?

Answer: If we were to find ourselves in a perfected state, we would feel Him no more than an embryo does the womb of his mother.

Question: Did the Creator create anything else besides evil?

Answer: Nothing. He only created evil, what is called “against him” (Genesis 2:18), meaning something opposite and contrary to Him.

Question: If so, where does altruism come from?

Answer: Altruism appears within us when we want to adapt ourselves to the characteristics of the Creator. In every person there exists a point in the heart that the Creator intentionally placed in him, and thanks to it, we can change our original and true ego into a characteristic that is its opposite. This point is called, “A portion of God from above.” (Job 31:2)
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/26/17

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Why Should We Create The Creator?

226Question: You say that the Creator does not exist and that we should create Him. What is the Creator? Why should we create Him?

Answer: The term “CreatorBoreh” stems from the Hebrew words: “Bo-reh – come and see.” As long as you do not attain Him, nothing will happen or work out since there is no Creator external to a person. He appears inside us the moment we attain Him.

It is the same with regard to our world and to everything there is in it. As long as we observe it, it is revealed in us, and the moment we cease to observe it, it disappears. Scientists are also starting to talk about this phenomenon.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/26/17

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The Connection Between The Torah And The Book Of Zohar

Laitman_065Question: What is the relationship between the Torah and The Book of Zohar? Is it preferable to know the Torah when studying The Book of Zohar?

Answer: It is impossible to know the Torah because from the first letter to the last, it represents a code, a single line of letters that informs us of the right sequence of correction for the soul. The Torah is the course for the correction of the soul. It’s just that it is presented in such a way that we read it as a novel. That’s why we shouldn’t relate to it as to some historical, legal, or educational treatise.

With respect to The Book of Zohar, it is written as a commentary on the five books of the Torah. But only a small part of it remains, that’s why it is presented as an incomplete commentary on the full Torah. Nonetheless, The Book of Zohar is tied to the Torah.

Question: The Torah, like The Book of Zohar, was also not written by a single person?

Answer: The Torah was dictated by Moses, others wrote it down. Throughout history there has been knowledge of holy books that have been written by a collective of individuals because attainment of the upper world demands unity between people for the mutual destruction of egoism in each other. That’s why the Mishna, the Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmud were also written by many people.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 2/5/2017

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“Forty Lashes”

Laitman_155Torah, Deuteronomy 25:01 – 25:04: If there is a quarrel between men, and they approach the tribunal, and they [the judges] judge them, and they acquit the innocent one and condemn the guilty one and it shall be, if the guilty one has incurred [the penalty of] lashes, that the judge shall make him lean over and flog him in front of him, commensurate with his crime, in number. He shall flog him with forty [lashes]; he shall not exceed, lest he give him a much more severe flogging than these [forty lashes], and your brother will be degraded before your eyes. You shall not muzzle an ox when it is threshing [the grain].

The lashes are given to us purposely to teach our egoism to obey a stronger, higher judge, which is the next level. Therefore, one can punish the ego but only to the next level. Forty is the level of Bina. There should not be more lashes because that would be considered a humiliation.

If I get forty lashes, then it is neither a humiliation nor a punishment, but it is a correction.

In our time, people would perceive it as humiliation if they were punished for an offense by beatings. Imagine a judge saying to the accused: “We sentence you to either forty lashes or 2 years in prison.” Is it not better for him to serve the time and keep his pride rather than to feel humiliated in front of others?

Previously, there were no prisons in Israel. They are not mentioned in the Torah at all because prisons do not correct. Only blows can correct.

A person and society should understand that, in this way, they oppose the egoism that the Creator has placed in a person. If a person agrees to this punishment and society believes that there is no choice, a person should not be punished but should get help to correct himself. Then, both man and society work together with the ego. It is precisely egoism that gets forty strokes and not man!

This is an educational process and not punishment.

To this day, prisons in the US are not called places of detention but, rather, correctional institutions. A dog is put into a cage and a person is placed for correction.

Egoism is given to us from above and it must be judged. That is why the people of Israel, mentioned in the Torah, went to their correction with the help of blows and not imprisonment.

Question: It is said: “You shall not muzzle an ox when it is threshing [the grain].” What does this mean?

Answer: When a spiritual level ascends in a person, the animate level has to receive what is its due.
Every person has to go through the state of blows with which he rises to the level of Bina. This is how one gets punishment and rises. And the animate remains at its level and it should get what it is supposed to.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/2/16

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 7/10/17

Preparation for the Lesson

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Lesson on the Topic: “Hitkalelut (Mingling/Inclusion)”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “One Commandment”

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