Audio Version Of The Blog – 7/22/18
Posted on July 22nd, 2018
Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio
Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio
The Times of Israel published my new article “Tisha B’Av 2018: A Day of Reckoning in Israeli Society”
Let’s conduct a social exercise and see our reality through two worldviews.
One shows us the alienated world we know, with social division, cruelty and discrimination that leaves no choice besides taking to the streets. On the other hand — and here is the exercise — let’s aspire to see a different reality where we are all one family, linked by threads of love, and equally respecting the will of all members of society.
From day to day, the need for this new reality becomes clearer than ever before, the need to feel connection above the daily sense of separation. This is not about fake smiles and niceties. It’s about a whole new spiritual space of human relations — living in conjunction with the binding force of nature that ties all of us together into a single fabric of humanity.
The sense of equality that will emerge is a new perspective we haven’t seen before. We will discover how there can be room for everyone. The sense of a higher force of connection between us will provide us with the importance of preserving our differences, and the recognition that our conflicts and differences enable us to see the harmony and wholeness that lies in nature.
But in order for such a dream-reality to take shape, we have to make room within us. We have to shape a new perception of reality, opposite to the narrow, egoistic one that rules us. It takes practice and we have to play with it like children. We have to envision ourselves living in a warm and loving family, in the embrace of a loving society. We have to awaken latent feelings of connection between us, which will illuminate the dark spaces between us.
Then, nature will work its magic: the game we play will change our perception of what’s realistic. It’s not that reality itself will change before our eyes, but our perception of reality certainly will.
On Tisha B’Av, the day that symbolizes our unfounded hatred to each other, there is no shortage of attempts to elevate the value of social unity. But whether it’s through discussion circles in city squares, on social networks, or in protest tents, the discourse doesn’t rise above the limited, earthly level.
Surely, today we are not afraid of social disagreements and no longer try to blur them. We are well aware that the secular people will never agree with the religious, and those on the right will remain in dispute with those on the left.
However, acknowledging the differences between us is not enough to take us to a new space.
We lack the genuine urgency to break through the barrier of our worldly perception. The ego holds us captive, chains us to a dividing worldview in which we can never rebuild our society. At the moment, it seems like the need for change will only come with intensifying troubles, wars, struggles and protests.
But there is another way. Shorter, faster and more pleasant to all of us. It is through consciously playing, through practice, through education.
For two thousand years the Kabbalists have been pointing to unity as a solution to all our troubles. They warn us in every way they can that if we don’t connect to our common spiritual root, the events of life will teach us to do so in a very difficult and long-winding path.
Therefore, we must begin relating to the better future we want for ourselves and our children, to the positive relationship between all of us. We are not required to let go of our opinion or give in to others. We are only required to play with a new worldview, where above our differences, we are connected as one family.
The brotherly love that we will gradually build will be called “the third Temple.”
In spirituality, the root of the evil force is the 9th of Av. Great grief and misfortunes fell on this date. Their common cause is our unwillingness to oppose it with good. By moving away from each other, we repeatedly open the source of evil—then we fight with the consequences.
If we define the “state and nation of Israel” correctly, we’ll start living beyond differences, by the principle “love others,” since love has no boundaries, and anyone who wants to live by it will find a place—the borders will expand, the idea—love of others—will unite the world
The condition for Israel’s existence isn’t enemies, wars and victories, but unity!
#Israel #TishaBAv
In The Writings of the Last Generation, the 20-century Kabbalist Baal HaSulam writes about the goal, the spiritual foundation of the people of Israel—the need to strive for unification and equality among all nations, and not for superiority of one flag or language over another
Replacing gold with paper money brought our relationships out of balance and gave rise to crises. After all, there is no real value in rags. The solution: to return to the standard of our world, reception. Or, immediately switch to the spiritual standard, bestowal. We’ll have to.
It is written that the 3rd Temple will descend off-the-shelf from heaven. Meaning, due to our efforts in unity, we will receive from above, from the Creator’s rung, Bina, the force of oneness and love. It will unite us and the power of love called the Creator will manifest among us.
Today, on Av 9, destruction of the 1st and 2nd Temples, we are clearing the place for their restoration. Clearing the place is removing ourselves from self-interest. In this free space, build the Temple—the sensation of the Creator, as the only governor of the world, in FAITH ABOVE REASON.
-What obstacle are you facing?
Between you and the Creator?
-It is only you.
Rising above oneself, REASON, on the path to the Creator,
can be done only by the efforts in FAITH ABOVE REASON
that the Creator is in everything.
Today is Av 9,Temples 1 and 2 destruction day. It should be a day of sorrow, but there’s none! Why Temple? A temple isn’t a building, but the unity of hearts in love. Unification of separated hearts is called the restoration of the Temple, or the soul, where the Creator is revealed
Exercise: To constantly strive to be in FAITH ABOVE REASON. It means to strive to imagine how the Creator governs the world, you, and everything that takes place. FAITH is stronger than the world we see—REASON. Gradually, the Light that Reforms will reveal the Creator.
Exercise: The sense of the world (evil) is called REASON. The idea that the world is governed by the Creator, who is good, is FAITH. It is necessary to be in constant awareness of both perceptions of the world, EVIL and GOOD, in parallel, which means to be in FAITH ABOVE REASON.
The temple is the embodiment of not only Israel’s but all nations’ unity. So it has a place for them. If the nations opposed the Temple it wouldn’t stand an hour. Hence, it was destroyed not by the nations of the world but by the hatred among the people of Israel (Maharal MiPrag)
Av 9, the day of the destruction of the Temple, should be regarded as an awareness of the destruction of love among the people of Israel, i.e., the strife to restore the Temple of connection. It’s written: the day of the destruction of the temple is also the day of its restoration
From Twitter, 7/22/18
Related Material:
My Thoughts On Twitter 7/21/18
My Thoughts On Twitter 7/20/18
My Thoughts On Twitter 7/19/18
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 7/22/18
Days of misfortune and calamity or a time to rebuild?
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 7/22/18
Our world is governed by two forces, a positive force and a negative force. We, humans, are in between these two forces. The spiritual root of the negative force is referred to as the 9th of Av (Tisha B’Av).
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 7/22/18
The 9th of Av is the day when the First and Second Temple were ruined. “The Temple” represents a spiritual state of Israel being united and protected “as one man in one heart.” The ruin of the Temple was due to the ruin of the spiritual unity within Israel, which continues to this day.
Lesson Preparation
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Lesson on the Topic “Tishaa BeAv (Ninth of Av)”
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
