The Fork-Lift Truck

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we measure efforts? History shows us that for some Kabbalists the path was easy and others suffered greatly. How can it be that one passed the Machsom (the barrier) in five years, another in thirty years, and still another made great efforts and achieved nothing at all?

Answer: We cannot compare people’s efforts. After all, we don’t know their starting position and their place in the general system.

Suppose someone is on the top fifth position in the pyramid of souls. However, accordingly, he is born with the worst desires, with the most corrupt attributes, and he has to work on them many years—say not just thirty, but thirty years times ten live cycles. How long does it take for him to reach the states that allow him to reach his “place” and to attain the root of his soul? In the meantime, you feel sorry for him: “Poor soul!” But another person may belong to the middle layers and do his work easily in a couple of years.

As far as we, people with the point in the heart, the souls that belong to the category of “Israel,” are concerned, we have to work very hard. First, unlike the “nations of the world,” we were at the top already and went through shattering. Their desires to receive were always that way, but our situation is much worse, and hence our corrections are much more difficult. The hatred towards the nation of Israel and the troubles it went through over the course of history attest to it.

Even the spiritual path, the ascent to the mountain, is much more difficult for us than it is for the rest of the world, for whom the ascent will be easy. People will just join us: “Yes, we want to, we are ready.” They will really feel that it is worth it. The evil inclination, the shattered desire, hides in us, and not in them. They only bring their “weight,” the load that is tied to your feet. Now you have to invent the mechanism that will lift this heaviness.

How can we create such a “fork-lift truck”? How will it operate? What blocks and ligaments does it need? We have to decide this. People bring us their luggage and leave it at the terminal, like in the airport, and we have to load and deliver it.

There is no reason to be outraged by it. Moreover, no one can claim that his path is easier or more difficult, compared to somebody’s else. After all, you do not “clothe” in the other, and hence you can’t compare or complain. By nature, you are absorbed in yourself, and you cannot measure efforts.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/2011, “One Commandment”

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We Start From A Distance

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “One Commandment”: It is hopeless to wait for a time when a solution is found for allowing one to begin the work of the Creator altruistically. As in the past so in the future, every servant of the Creator must begin the work egoistically and from that achieve bestowal.

We start from a distance, with the egoistic desire to receive whatever seems valuable to us: money, respect, power, knowledge, excellence, health, the next world, foresight, or comprehension of secrets. Each one is attracted to something else in the wisdom of Kabbalah, something that is close to his heart. This is how a person begins his path.

But gradually, thanks to the integrated influence of the group, the studies, and dissemination, a person draws upon himself the Light that Reforms. The Light is the only acting force, but we activate it by different, collateral means and actions that seemingly have nothing to do with it.

I may joke around with the friends, have no correct intention and hardly sit at the lesson, or disseminate because my ego wants to impose my values on others. It all does not matter. If the actions themselves are close to the Light, if they are intended to bestow, to study, and to unite, then they draw the Light that Reforms. As it is said: “Commandments do not require intent.”

So there is action, and there is intention. My actions are the studies, dissemination, gatherings of friends, and the work in the group. However, I have no control over my intentions. I can feel that I am an angel or a devil, it doesn’t matter. If I perform the necessary actions to the best of my ability, I draw the reforming Light that gradually helps me transition from the egotistic intention to the altruistic one—from Lo Lishma (for oneself) to Lishma (for the sake of bestowal).

The only difference is the intention. The actions remain the same: I continue to study as before, I take part in gatherings of friends and dissemination, but my intention is corrected more and more, compelling me to truly connect with others, with the Creator, and to bestow upon them.

This is the process, and we should only continue it without any delays. No one can escape it. We should only look for the most efficient actions to hasten the process and still look for the intentions that are closer to bestowal and can be added to them.

Everyone goes through the same stages, and no one can skip any of them. We can, however, speed up the advancement, and this is all of our work. It is said that Israel hastens time. Here the Creator cannot yield. After all, all the stages are essential in order to acquire the mind and feeling needed to create the vessels that enable us to understand and to attain Him, to reach the equivalence of form and merge with Him.

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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/2011, “One Commandment”

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A Global “Wallet”

Dr. Michael LaitmanEuropean countries assumed that by creating a common currency and uniting against America and Russia, they would become the third power. But it turned out that union also involves trust, a feeling of collectivity, mutual participation, common finances, and the disappearance of borders, meaning cultures. In other words, everything is common.

Boundaries can still be removed between countries, but the “wallet” cannot be common. After all, this is the most important! It reflects our feelings and relationships. When do we say that people live together? When they have a “common pot.” This is the way it was in ancient times, and this is the way it is now.

If a husband and a wife have separate bank accounts, they go out to a restaurant, and each pays for himself, is this a real family? But today this is considered to be normal: You pay for this, I pay for that, and this is how we exist.

The process of evolution has led us to a point where we find ourselves connected with one another in the entire world, and not just in Europe. However, people still experience it differently in different places. The world must come to a state where people must treat each other well. This is where the problem is!

We are unable to come to a certain diplomatic agreement with one another. Europe is a good example of this. They just cannot do it! It is necessary to destroy the egoistic connections and build altruistic, meaning, common connections instead. There must be collectivity! And this collectivity must be above all our differences. Here, I am not referring to contradictions. Contradictions must be destroyed, but differences have to remain. Above them, we have to create a collective, which will be called a “common nation”: Europeans. And that is it. Nothing else.

Why should the Spanish, Italians, Greeks, French, Germans, and others feel like they are separate nations? Is it because they have different languages? Their languages will gradually be replaced with just one language or a combination of languages, for example with Esperanto. It does not matter. Nature is obligating us to do it, otherwise we will not be able to fix things.
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From the Talk on Mutual Guarantee 9/25/2011

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In The Grip Of The Common Interconnection

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe evolution of humanity and its advancement was always happening on the basis of the development of our desires. New desires were constantly appearing in us: We wanted to develop technologies, agriculture, science, and culture; we discovered new lands, and so on. Overall, it’s as if man wanted to “consume” this entire world, and he has almost succeeded. As a result, he has basically mutilated nature, quite possibly irrevocably.

Now, however, a completely different action is taking place in nature. New desires no longer develop in us, and all the desires, qualities, and relationships that develop are beginning to take a completely different qualitative form.

We are no longer connected between us in a simple egoistic manner where we can regulate our relationships with legal, practical, and social laws, which somehow give us the ability to exist without “consuming” one another. Today we are beginning to feel like we exist beyond the laws accepted in human society. We are beginning to feel that we are connected with one another against our will and this is what is bad. I don’t want to be connected with anyone, I just cannot!

We left the caves, built huge cities, separated ourselves from the ground, and formed a human society where everything is so intermixed and interconnected that I am unable to exist without thousands of other people. And today I cannot exist without the entire world. I depend on different countries: One product is made in China, another in Japan, something else in the US. My car is from Japan, my television is from Germany, and so on. In general, none of my things are mine; they come from who knows where.

It is in this way that I am involved with the entire world through reception and bestowal since I also must give. This is with regard to the economic, financial, and trade connections.

What if we take into consideration everything else: health and safety (medications, materials), education, rearing, not to mention books and mass media? Today nothing can exist in a separate country. The world has become so interconnected that we all are obliged to one another.

And here a problem arises: Our egoism wishes to remain individualistic. “I don’t care about anyone else, leave me alone! Who cares about you and why do you care about me?” But this is no longer possible—I depend on everyone. Everyone demands something from me, and I must also receive something from them whether I want to or not.

And now this connection contradicts our egoism. I am ready to use everyone in the world, but what about giving? Sure, I am ready to buy-give. That is not it! A completely different connection is being revealed here: We affect one another with our thoughts, qualities, and feelings. Everything is passed from one person to another; the entire world seems to have become common.

I arrive in another country, and I don’t feel like I am in another country: It has the same hamburgers, the same pizza, the same soft drink, everything is the same. When you know the language (today English is becoming the international language), there is no difference at all where you live. You go to a supermarket or other stores, and there are the same things everywhere: goods, brands, and cars. In other words, the world has become one.

I am so involved in the entire world that I suddenly feel like I owe something to the rest. And this is a bad thing for me. My egoism does not tolerate this!

It turns out that the system we have created (the financial, trade, and world systems) does not take into consideration this type of interconnection, which is called mutual guarantee and is based on a normal, good attitude towards one another. This is not taken into consideration in the treaties. A situation arises when a certain willful, sensitive, and moral interaction with others is required of me. And I don’t want it! But the world, the entire system, is obligating me. This is where the crisis is.
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From the Talk on Mutual Guarantee 9/25/2011

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The Mosaic That Leads To Perfection

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are standing at the foot of a ladder in a state opposite to Infinity, which we have to attain. Our ascent through the steps of this ladder occurs as a result of two active forces: the force of our desire and the Light.

On each level of our ascent, we have to show a greater desire to connect, and then to the extent of our desire, the Light acts upon us and connects us to one another. We do half of the action, which is called “half of a shekel” and the Creator does the other half, as it said: “A prayer does half the job,” “the Creator will finish it for me.”

We only try to connect to one another, and the Light comes—and performs this union between us. On a higher level we’ll experience an even greater pressure so that we will connect even more, and then once again the Light will come to connect us.

This is how we obtain a greater connection by ascending up the steps of the ladder until we reach total unity. Essentially this is the entire process that we must undergo.

This process contains practical work when we must physically sit together at meals, participate in different events and dissemination projects. However, the main work in correction happens when we study and want to attract the Light that Reforms so that it will create a connection between us.

We have to want to connect in order to attain bestowal and spirituality, and then the Light will influence us. However, this is more effective when we request this when we study and wish to connect and attract the Light. After all, when we read the sources, the words of which hide the Light, we are in the same place, the same state as the Light, and it is close to us.

It doesn’t matter how much I understand while reading the text because I am still unable to truly understand it until we connect. However, from the very first level of connection, I’ll understand what I read—thanks to the fact that the Light will connect us. It will connect all of our different forms into a mosaic. From this mosaic, I will reveal a picture of the spiritual degree, and within this new picture, I’ll reveal what I read about in the Kabalistic books.

We’ll start ascending to a higher level, meaning we’ll obtain greater egoistic desires. We’ll still have to connect, and this will be a more complex and higher level of connection. We’ll demand more Light, it will connect us, and a new mosaic will form between us.

Although we won’t appear to change, what will change are our egoistic desire, our intentions, and our efforts to connect above our egoistic desires. In the connection between us, we’ll reveal a different mosaic, a different and loftier picture, and in the words of The Zohar we’ll reveal a new inner state, one that’s more exalted and detailed.

We aspire to connect like the pieces of the mosaic, but the text tells us of a state where we’re already connected, and no matter what level we’re on, the text always corresponds to it. For this reason as we read The Zohar, we must demand for the correction to occur right then—thanks to the Light hidden in it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/2011, The Zohar

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 10.23.11

Writings of Rabash “Because Yakov Has Chosen the Creator”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter “Pekudei (Accounts),” “The Hair in the Tefillin,” Item 332, Lesson 14
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 6, Chapter 15, Question 289, Lesson 15
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 161, Lesson 69
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Writings of Baal HaSulam Peace in the World,” “The Attribute of Singularity in the Egoism Affects Ruin and Destruction,” Lesson 10
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