In a society freed from the cyclical chase for material acquisition, we would invest a large portion of our time on a daily basis, investigating, exercising, and developing the sense of the natural human #connection that binds us together. #UBI #BIEN

#Ego
We attain the world by comparing opposites, one against the other. We sense shifts between qualities, and not any of them separately.
The Creator is the quality of complete bestowal, but we cannot sense Him unless we’re the opposite. This is why we need the ego!

Any #soul is always greater and wider than the one that’s loved.
(Rav Kook, Orot HaKodesh 4)
Don’t forget about that…
#Spiritualwork_ML #Kabbalah

The method of the world’s correction comes down to correcting egoism, man’s #evil nature. The Creator is revealed in the corrected #egoism. The method of correcting egoism and revealing the Creator is called #Kabbalah.
(Baal HaSulam. Preface to The Book of #Zohar) #Antisemitism

Don’t be surprised that I mix up the notions of #peace in #society and the #world, since the whole world is one society. Every person sustaining himself at the expense of all mankind is thus obligated to serve and care for the whole world. (Baal HaSulam. #Peace in the World)

Any quality, whether good or bad, and even the worst, most harmful one, has a right to exist. We cannot eradicate or erase it. Instead, we must only correct it and return it to #goodness. (Baal HaSulam, “#Peace in the World”) #quoteoftheday #consciousness
#Reality_ML #Kabbalah

Realization of evil: Before entering the spiritual world, a person goes through 7 years of famine, hardening of the heart. He sees that he’s drowning in his egoism and will never come out of it. And it’s true, since the will to enjoy is our only nature.
#Passover #Kabbalah

#Ego
The Creator’s struggle with #Pharaoh isn’t to defeat Pharaoh, the force of the ego, which the #Creator Himself created and controls, but for man to combine these two forces within him in the middle line so as to build within the structure of #ADAM.
#Spiritual_work_ML

Our perception is built on reception, absorption. Kabbalah study, work in the group, Light, lead to a reverse perception of the world in the Light of bestowal. I understand that I was locked in the egoistic desire. It’s an illusion enabling us to enter the upper world by exerting

#Ego #Egoist
Work above the ego means acting against one’s rational logic, against desire, i.e., loving and bestowing. In my knowledge, heart, and mind, I hate and reject, while above reason—I love and bring closer. This is possible only with the help of the upper Light OM (Ohr Makif). #divinity

The ego is our nature. Removing it strips us of #life’s foundation. But replacing the #ego for bestowal makes unbounded #fulfillment possible. For only the intention changes, and all the actions remain—and receive, with the intention to “bestow,” i.e., for the benefit of others!

#Dying is no problem. Cursing life is no problem. #Suffering from #life is no problem, and additionally, being proud of one’s suffering. The problem is changing one’s life—to do so, one must change oneself… #selfhelp
#Spiritualwork_ML #Kabbalah #Freedomofchoice_ML

A distinguishing mark of any #evil is self-love, called #ego. It is opposite to the Creator’s qualities, who has no desire to receive for Himself, but only the desire to give. (Baal HaSulam, The Essence of #Religion and Its Purpose)
#WisdomofKabbalah_ML
#Reality_ML

Man is created not to amass wealth. He must ask for love for studying #wisdom and obtaining #faith. The Creator shall let his heart see, and shall infuse him with spirit—and he shall become the Maker’s beloved in this #life. (Baal HaSulam, Foreword to Panim Meirot, para 10)

Our evolutionary social development pushes us to utilize our wiring for human connection, to distill it through constant work on our relationships, and evolve to a new social reality. #UBI #basicincome #employment #unemployment #BIEN #ToysRUs

From Twitter, 3/28/18

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The Times of Israel published my new article “The Passover From Materialism To Unity:”

Passover is an opportunity to pass over from a state of divisiveness, disregard and coldness in modern society, to one of unity, care and warmth.

Although the Jewish year formally begins on Rosh Hashanah, there is a more expansive view of the Jewish holidays that shows Passover as the start of the Jewish year. To see it from this perspective, we need to understand the deeper meaning of Passover.

Passover describes an inner process where a period of intensifying division leads to a decision to unite, followed by the discovery of a more unified state. Also, Passover points out what makes the Jewish people unique.

What Makes the Jewish People Unique?

Unlike other nations and races, the Jewish people did not emerge organically from familial offspring or terrestrial closeness. The Jews were originally a gathering of people who became known as “the Jews” when they dedicated themselves to uniting “as one man with one heart,” and accepted the responsibility of being “a light unto nations” (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]).

The holiday of Passover explains this transition.

It starts at a time when the people of Israel lived exceptionally well in Egypt. In terms of commonly accepted social values, they had it all: comfort, wealth and success, or as it is written in the Torah, “in Egypt … we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted” (Exodus, 16:3). However, even with all their material abundance, they felt that something was missing.

At this point, let’s zoom out to see the process this describes: Human nature, which is a desire to receive pleasure, constantly urges us to fulfill ourselves. The more we fulfill ourselves, the more we feel empty, and the more we feel a need to seek higher and greater fulfillments time after time. Thus, our desire to enjoy grows, and we evolve through various stages of the desire’s growth. After we satisfy our basic needs for food, sex, shelter and family, our desire grows, and we develop social desires—money, respect, control and knowledge—which we continually try to satisfy.

Then, we encounter a problem.

Like a dog chasing its tail, we chase after all those pleasures, but we keep finding ourselves wanting something more or different than them, without being able to point out what we really want. The Passover story describes this new desire: that when our material desires are quenched, a new desire for positive social connection emerges. This desire is called “Moses.”

Moses had been around the whole time the people of Israel were thriving in Egypt. He grew up in the house of Pharaoh until he himself exhausted the material pursuit of happiness. That is when the Egyptian exile began. Pharaoh, i.e. our ego, refuses to accept unity. It cannot think of anything worse than the idea of living life with a goal to “love your friend as yourself.”

So as the people of Israel prospered in Egypt, they naturally started wanting more than what they had, and the idea of social unification—Moses—started forming among them. Then came the struggle between Moses and Pharaoh. On one hand, Moses pointed the way to unity and love for one another, while Pharaoh insisted that he rule, i.e. that they would continue living and working only for egoistic, material fulfillments. When Pharaoh saw the people of Israel accepting Moses, he became the savage king the Passover story describes.

Through a long process, the people of Israel ultimately stood by Moses, demanded their unity, and triumphed. They united at the foot of Mount Sinai and accepted the law of “love your friend as yourself.” They then proceeded to purify themselves of hametz (leaven), i.e. their ego, and made the transition (i.e. the Passover) from egocentrism to unification, realizing Moses’ idea and guidance.

Passover Today

Since Passover describes a process of overcoming egoism with unity, it is just as relevant today as it ever was. Today’s materialistic culture looks increasingly like the Egypt described in the Passover story: we enjoyed the delights of materialism for quite a while, but more and more people are increasingly feeling that their lives are missing something.

We see this expressed among individuals with increases in depression, stress and loneliness, and in society with intensifying politically-fueled social division, xenophobia and anti-Semitism. All these phenomena show us that we can have all the material abundance we want, but it still won’t fulfill us, and what we really need in order to fulfill our new, bigger desire is unity, positive social connection.

Unlike our material fulfillments, we cannot picture what uniting above our divisions would be like. We see no example of unity that we can fill our media and educational systems with, and so we keep regurgitating and reinventing materialistic ideas, stories and products since we do not see nor know anything else.

As society continually engages in this materialistic pleasure-chasing loop without any other goal in sight, and as problems increasingly burst out from this setup, the more society points the finger of blame at the Jews. Anti-Semitic sentiment thus rises because the Jewish people, in their ancestry, possess the template for realizing the new desire for connection. If the Jewish people fail to aim and work toward unification in a time when not only the Jews, but the world at large, needs unity, then the world subconsciously starts feeling the Jewish people as the cause of their problems.

Our forefathers underwent the process of uniting, saving themselves from ruin in the process. Today, as the finger of blame is on us for all kinds of reasons, it’s up to us to identify the root reason for all that blame—that out of all people, we have been given the keys to unite above all differences, and this is what the world really needs from us. It’s as if the world pays no attention to all the technology, culture and medicine we bring to the world. However, if we do as our forefathers did, then we’ll realize what we were put here to do, and we’ll see how the world’s attitude to the Jews will change to one of respect and appreciation.

I hope that we will start paying attention to the root causes and tendencies behind the world’s problems, and that this Passover, we will make a step toward their ultimate solution—unity.

Happy Passover!
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The fourth stage of desire Behina Dalet, which is the created being, is the farthest from the Creator in its qualities, but at the same time, the closest to Him in its ability to attain Him. The other stages are impossible to rate in terms of attainment, because they contain no reflected Light. It appears only if Behina Dalet works with them.

Let’s say that my egoism and I are impressed by a certain melody, painting, or story. These works themselves have no feelings. However, by integrating them with my egoism, I give them a feeling, and attain the Creator through them. They themselves don’t have it, and that is the meaning of the “first nine Sefirot.” The first nine Sefirot are the qualities that, combined with my ego, help me discover the Creator’s qualities, which He shows toward me, my perception.

The difficulty in perceiving the Creator is that He acts “in circles” (without any restrictions), while the created being has to answer Him “in a straight line,” meaning with a screen that restricts egoism. But when we rise from one degree to the next by faith above reason, it is a continuous, “analog,” and integral ascent. As we reach the next level, we are able to discern it as discrete, as a particular degree.

We still do reveal something from the circles, from the Creator’s perfection, by making an ascent with faith above reason. Faith above reason lets us get as close as possible from the straight line of the created being to the round perfection of the Creator.

The force of unity comes to us from the endless Light. Therefore, if we reach even the smallest measure of the quality of bestowal with the help of the Light, the force of the round perfection, where everyone is equal, we thus form the desires that are close to the circle, to the Creator. However, they are formed in us through our straight line.

We gradually attain the circle through the straight line, but there is always some elusive additive we lack. As when we try to calculate the infinitive, the area is broken down into a multitude of rectangles approaching a curve, but the elusive remainder always remains.*

A person receives the desire from above, but he builds the intention through his own efforts. The intention contains a part of the connected vessels he received from the friends, because the Klipa is always in his way, annoying him, he reveals the additional intention, like a child that huffs and puffs trying to achieve something, and that is how he learns. It is through our efforts that we build an addition to our desire, which is called an intention.**
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/18, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, Chapter 2, Item 6
* (Minute 45:19)
** (Minute 51:15)

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Why was it beneficial for Pharaoh to raise Moses in his house? Just think, how much has the world gained from the Jews? The world owes its entire development to the Jews because the upper Light is conducted through them, through the quality of Bina to Malchut, bringing it everything: the start of all religions, beliefs, and knowledge.

Even the corporeal desires for food, sex, and family develop because the Light shines on them from above in addition to the animal level. And this is all because there is an intention to bestow, represented by Israel. Therefore, more Light keeps coming and develops desires. And the desire itself does not develop, it is dead like dust.

The only reason that a desire develops is for the sake of it reaching the next degree. And if all four stages have already been reached: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, then further development can only come from above, through Israel.

This can be seen by the displacement of the Jewish people experienced in Europe as they were exiled from one country to the next. If not for this small group in our world that is somehow connected to the upper Light, the world would not have developed. Why would it? All the development is done for the sake of achieving bestowal, adhesion, and the end of correction.

And if there is no such group and no connection between the upper Light and Malchut, then Malchut does not develop. Therefore, the world blames the Jews for all its problems. It is the Jews that caused the world’s development that has now come to the end. The world is up against a wall, the global crises is unfolding, and the Jews are obviously going to be blamed for it.

The Jews are astounded by these accusations because they gave the world so much good, so many new inventions. But this is a misunderstanding of our role, because we are meant for something completely different.

It is similar to the story of the exile in Egypt. At first, the Jews brought a lot of benefit to Egypt, and then life went bad. These parts of Bina are supposed to start rising from Malchut and to elevate it to the next level of development. It is like a woman who is ready to give birth, but is unable to. Can you imagine what would happen to this child?
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/18, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Pesach,” Part 1

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Baal HaSulam writes that the advantage a person has over an animal is that the desire for spirituality awakens in a person. If not for this, a person would lead an animalistic existence. Spiritual aspiration is what makes a human (Adam) out of a person.

“Egyptian slavery” is a state preceding spirituality, like a corridor we must pass in order to enter the spiritual world. Therefore, first we enter Egypt. Once there, we begin to clarify our desires and prepare ourselves for the spiritual degree.

Egypt is characterized by an immense increase in egoism until a person wants to swallow the whole world. The person then begins to ask, “What is the meaning of my life?” and to search for the answer. In the end, he sees that egoism completely dominates him, making him a slave of Pharaoh. He does not agree with this and wants to work for the Creator instead.

But he discovers that he cannot do this. Therefore, he screams and makes demands until he is in complete despair that his efforts do not bring any result, as it is written, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work.”

The person feels blows because he is striving for spiritual work, but sees that nothing comes from it, and a cry bursts out of him. That is, the right desire, the request, arises in him and he then comes out of Egypt.

How many times during the years of our work have we tried to bestow, to unite, to think well of others, and to care, but so far, we have seen no results? Where do all our efforts go? After all, nothing disappears without a trace. We are in a closed system where the law of conservation of energy operates. But where is the fruit of my work, my desires, cares, successes, and misses— does it all really just disappear?

No. It all accumulates: my, yours and humanity’s work throughout all times. Therefore, there are people who receive such burdening of the heart that leads them to the exodus from Egypt. Others continue the Egyptian slavery for now, but nevertheless, from generation to generation, they accumulate their efforts. This applies to all of humanity, without exception.

Even a tiny louse that makes efforts to eat and survive also contributes to the common piggy bank, because it also belongs to the common desire created by the Creator.
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From the 1^st Part of the Kabbalah Daily Lesson 3/11/18, “Preparation for Pesach,” Part 1

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New Life 961 – What Is Missing In The Zionist Vision?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Zionism means to exit egoism and enter an altruistic nature. The wisdom of Kabbalah, based on the teachings of Abraham, demonstrates how to achieve this based on the value “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It teaches us to be like siblings in one family, connected in love. Nevertheless, the Jewish people experience mutual hatred and remain ethnically, religiously, and politically divided. A new Zionist vision will grow from among students who study the wisdom of Kabbalah and it will focus on connection among all these factions.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 961 – What Is Missing In The Zionist Vision?” 2/6/18

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, Vol. 2, Article 8 

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 2, “Histaklut Pnimit,” Chapter 9, Item 111

Writings of Rabash, Letter 3

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