Audio Version Of The Blog – 11.20.17

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Is There Freedom Of Choice Between Good And Evil?

laitman_961Question: Is a person initially good or evil? After all, depending on this, all the systems of governance and the systems of the state are built. What does Kabbalah say about it?

Answer: A person is a creature who can harm anyone, even those closest to him, for the sake of his own fulfillment. This is his nature.

Questions: So is there freedom in this? Can he use his nature or not use it? After all, we see that not all people are evil.

Answer: This is another question: “Can I rise above my nature?”

Question: To be kind is a free choice? Do I choose to be a good person?

Answer: A person chooses nothing. These questions are in a very narrow framework, as if we ask a prisoner: “Are you free or are you in prison?” If he was born in prison and has never left it, he would say that this is life. He does not even know what freedom or prison are.

Question: That is, the science of Kabbalah begins with the fact that a person suddenly has a question: “Am I not free? Am I in prison?” This moment begins his search for the meaning of life. Does it mean that before that he should not be touched?

Answer: He should not be touched at all. Only people who want this come to us. And those who are not interested do not come. We have nothing to do with them.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/2/17

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Newsmax: “Millennials Know Not The Socialism They Ask For”

My latest article in Newsmax: “Millennials Know Not The Socialism They Ask For”

A monument of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) in front of the Central Pavilion in the All-Russia Exhibition Centre in Moscow, Russia. (Danielal/Dreamstime) 

There’s an important reason why socialism failed horribly in the past, and today’s young minds must take that into account.

More millennial Americans are fed up with capitalism, and would prefer to live in a socialist country. That’s the tendency a survey last month conducted by YouGov and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation found, as millennials were the only U.S. age group that favored socialism over capitalism.

Why would American millennials be attracted to socialism? When you think about exploding student debts, high rents, stagnant wages and job insecurity, why wouldn’t socialism surface in their minds as a potential solution to resolve these stresses, with systems to subsidize their every need?

Millennials Indicate a Change of Spirit in Society

Over the past three or so decades, there has been a significant shift in the tectonic plates underlying the human spirit. The baby boomer American dream spirit evolved into a fundamentally different millennial one. While the baby boomer strove for tomorrow’s prosperity, the millennial settles for today’s convenience.

Possessions we used to save up for and wait to buy are now available the moment after we think about them. Our desire to be publicly recognized and admired no longer needs to pass the approval of specialists or industry executives, but can be fulfilled instantly on social media. Being smart today isn’t about memorizing and recalling information, like we once incessantly trained and tested ourselves on. Our tech devices are “smart,” and our image is tied to how savvy we are about using all this tech to our advantage.

That’s the unique socio-economic paradox of the millennial generation: working long and hard is no longer to achieve luxuries, but necessities. Through technological developments, we’ve made the fruits of wealth, public admiration and knowledge readily available and struggle-free. And yet, today’s millennial struggle is to keep up with the costs of food, housing, education, healthcare and childcare.

A natural result of this process is for socialism to sprout up in the millennial mind, “Why do I have to break my neck just to make ends meet?”

Where Socialism Falls Short

As someone who experienced Russian “socialism” firsthand during my university years, I’m sure millennials would be interested in the first part of the story I can tell them, about a government that unloads the weight off people’s shoulders, takes care of all their basic needs, and leaves no one without affordable food, housing, education, transportation, healthcare and childcare.

But what’s the other side of the story?

Socialism doesn’t take into account the default state of human nature: the fundamental need to fulfill oneself before any other person. The fact is that people don’t wish to live their lives in order to benefit other people. Any surplus effort one makes within a socialist system sees no direct surplus reward, and even if we can see how everyone would be better off in a communal society, we wouldn’t be able to give up on our individual gain. Our very nature won’t let us.

Thus, people lack motivation to work for the benefit of the whole. The Soviet approach to this problem was to shove it down people’s throats and expect them to be thankful later. But then, even its enforcers relied on the same motivation, and the system imploded with unthinkable violence and suffering.

How Millennials Can Push for a Better Society

It depends on people wanting to benefit other people. People have to be organically motivated to contribute to society, wishing to see everyone become happy and secure. This is not our default state and certainly not where society is now.

However, it does exist in potential. Everyone agrees in theory with ideas of equality, altruism, mutual consideration and kindness, but in practice, these ideas cannot be forced, they need to gradually sink into the human spirit and change us from within if we are to even consider a social structure that applies them.

If we begin to engage regularly in connection-enriching programs, we could cultivate our natural potential for human connection. I believe the most pragmatic initiation of this could start with our children. The concern for their future can be our motivation to work on a better society.

By focusing on raising the next generation to be better socially connected, we adults would also be positively influenced by this process. We would thus create the beginnings of a supportive environment for connective ideals that could blossom into some practical and balanced changes in society.
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Between Good And Evil

laitman_243.05Torah, Deuteronomy, 33:27 – 33:29: …the abode for the God Who precedes all, and below, are the mighty ones of the world. He expelled the enemy from before you, and said, “Destroy!”

And Israel dwelled safely and alone as Jacob [blessed them], in a land of grain and wine; also, their heavens will drip dew.

Fortunate are you, O Israel! Who is like you, O people whose salvation is through the Lord, the Shield Who helps you, your majestic Sword! Your enemies will lie to you, but you will tread upon their heights.

Once people correct all their egoistic deficiencies, they come to an absolute state where the entirety of egoism remains below and it blazes and burns; it still wants. You do not destroy it, you rise above it, and in this is the correction.

It is about two systems of absolute evil and absolute good. They are positioned one in front of another and between them is this understanding and awareness of existence that is called creation. It is similar to the Creator, but precisely because it consists of two opposite forces.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/6/17

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To Shake The Jews

Laitman_510.01Question from Facebook: Why do you constantly put Jews above other nations?

Answer: I do not mean Jews by nationality. A Jew is someone who passes from our world to the upper world. The word “Jew – Yehudi” in Hebrew comes from “Yihud – unity.” It is a person who aspires to unity. Israel (Yashar El) is someone who is directed to the Creator.

We do not speak of ethnicity. Jews have no nationality. They are special and unique people and do not genetically originate from one’s parents like other nations.

Jews are representatives of various ancient nationalities that inhabited Ancient Babylon, Mesopotamia 3,500 years ago. Abraham gathered them in a group and started teaching them Kabbalah. That is how people that he called “Israel,” which in translation means “straight to the Creator,” appeared. They were people who wanted to attain the Creator.

Question: So, you only have a demand to this group, who does not want to return to its original state, called “the group that followed Abraham”?

Answer: Of course. I do not extoll this group, but on the contrary, I would like to sort of shake them so that they would come to their senses and understand that they face a huge task. I also do not want them to be self-satisfied and think that they have already fulfilled the commandments and the program of creation that was assigned to them.

They should show an example of true unity to the whole of humanity and become the “Light for others.” Then the people of the world will stop treating them with disdain and hatred. They will understand that this group of people, called the Jewish people, will bring the whole world closer to its best condition by performing their function.

Remark: In fact, the phrase “God’s chosen people” irritates everyone.

My Comment: But God’s choice is that we must fulfill a certain task! And nothing more.

And if today any Frenchman, Spaniard, German, Russian, Tatar, Englishman, etc., wants to become a Jew, then please, he can become one. To do this, he must only recognize that he is striving toward the Creator. That is all. So, try to think: do you need this?

Aspiring to the Creator means that someone wants to be like Him, that is, to gain an ever-increasing quality of bestowal and love for one’s neighbor.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 10/2/17

Related Material:
Mission Of The Jewish People
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How Can We Change The Situation In Israel: Who Has The Key For The World’s Happiness?

Who Suffers?

laitman_293Question: Humanity’s history is the history of the exploitation of the weaker by the stronger and more advanced. If it were that rocks rather than people suffered, it would be easier to relate to all of this; it would be like watching a movie. But it was people who suffered. Or is that also a part of the movie?

Answer: It is difficult for me to answer the question: “Who suffered?” In reality, it is our egoism that suffered.

That is why, ultimately when we achieve correction, in the corrected state we do not feel that we suffered, we detach from it and rise to a completely different and opposite level from the one who suffered.

It turns out that Kabbalists, who rise along the levels of spiritual attainment, discover true states and do not attribute the past to themselves. They attribute it to the control of egoism over them.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 7/16/17

Related  Material:
What Is The Cause Of Suffering?
Is It Possible To Avoid Suffering?
Society’s Suffering Through The Eyes Of A Righteous

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 11/20/17

Preparation for the Lesson

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Lesson on Topic: “The Hardening of the Heart at the Entrance to Ibur (Conception),” (Prep for Convention in Arava) 

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace,” “The Wheel of Transformation of the Form”

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