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The Violin Will Play When The Wind Blows

Dr. Michael LaitmanBefore starting to read or hear text that carries spiritual information, one must first attune himself to the place spirituality is revealed. It is written, “From love for the creatures (meaning from love for friends) one comes to love for the Creator.” Therefore, from the beginning we must imagine the group, the right connection between us, within which we await revelation.

All of the science of Kabbalah is devoted to the revelation of the Creator to the creatures. And success depends on how correctly I imagine the place of this revelation, meaning its conditions: the aspiration to it, a high evaluation, gratitude, and at the same time—suffering. Good impressions and bad, meaning great inspiration and great despair. All of it together.

But in the end, I focus on a reality in which I await the Creator’s revelation—the quality of bestowal, which rules over the whole universe from concealment. “There is none else besides Him”—the force of love and bestowal.

Once I attune myself this way in order to cling to this quality as much as I can imagine it with my entire heart and soul, in my heart and mind, aiming all of my thoughts, desires, and forces at it, I can then read the text. It might be talking in technical terms, such as Talmud Eser Sefirot, or be a legendary tale—that doesn’t matter. Behind all of that, I try to see how it describes the relationships between me and the upper force of bestowal, meaning how much I correspond to it.

This is what the book or the reader’s voice tells me about. No matter what the form in which I receive information about the Creator’s revelation, I will be ready to perceive it.

When we look at our life, in it we must also try to see how to reveal the attitude of the Creator, who “clothes” into the world. And first of all, obviously—in a group. He awakens all of us together, “day and night” (meaning in different states—ascents and descents) so we would finally reveal Him in the connection among us.

All of us together are like a musical instrument that must be tuned well and correctly by establishing the appropriate qualities, mutual connections, and harmony between us so the instrument would play correctly. When that wind blows, which played on David’s violin, then like that violin, we will play together.

In general, a person should try to see the expression of the upper force in all events of his life, even though he does not understand why and how things happen. On one hand, in regular life we must try to act normally and be the same as everyone. But at the same time, internally, we should relate to everything as if it is the revelation of the Creator to us.

For the time being this is like a game—it is not real because you still don’t know exactly how to decipher the picture that appears to you, but still, you have to search.
[65183]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/12, Writings of Rabash

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Love And Harm Are Incompatible

Dr. Michael LaitmanPeople who have spiritual attainment know the laws of the universe and understand the nature of the masses. They not only have knowledge, but also experience of their own development, which also began from the lower, inanimate level. They have gone through inner corrections and have learned empathy, concessions, love. They have acquired the necessary “toolkit” to take care of the masses. They always act for the good of the people rather than for their own benefit because they live in a different, spiritual nature.

Question: What is their care for the world aimed at?

Answer: They want to “raise a lad in his own way.” In his own way, but to raise him, meaning to gradually cause him to advance by means of studying, explanations, and examples rather than by suffering. These sages carry out the main work, attracting the Light, while the masses receive the benefit from it.

Today the masses suffer: some are left without jobs, some are hungry, some have bad health, problems with their families, children, and so on. In the meantime, the sages attract the Light that reforms and teach people on a simple, accessible level, enabling the Light to flow to the masses and correct them.

As a result, people receive the Lights of Nefesh and Ruach, while the Lights of Neshama, Haya, and Yechida remain with the sages at their higher degrees, according to the reverse order of the Lights and vessels.

Thus, the masses receive fulfillment which precisely corresponds to their desires. People want good children, well-being in their families, a sure pension, health, activities, a good household, a pleasant vacation, safety, etc. They don’t have desires of a different level, and they don’t need them either.

Only later, as part of the general process, will the masses begin to join the sages, and then a mutual inclusion will occur. But again, it will be passive on the masses’ end.

Thus, the great ones descend for the sake of serving the people, but they don’t descend on the inside. Precisely their high degree allows them to pull the masses up, level by level.

Question: Doesn’t this entail a danger of unwillingly causing harm?

Answer: Can a loving mother harm her baby? After all, we don’t attach a policeman to every mother. This is a mother’s nature: to take care of the baby. And the mom doesn’t just take care of the baby, but is imbued by his desires. So can she harm him? All her thoughts are focused on what will give him pleasure, what will benefit him. What formula, temperature in the room, water bottle—a mother does not disconnect from this wave of love even for a moment.

Similarly, the upper one does not have his own desires. He receives desires from the lower one and works on them. Love obligates him to do what is good for the one he loves. I can love either him or myself. If I love the neighbor, then I ascend above self-love, and then I use everything I have to serve him, leaving only the necessities for myself.
[65192]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/12, “The Freedom”

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The Masters Of The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanFor some reason we are afraid that if we give up our egoism, our desire will cease to develop. But in fact, it’s quite the opposite; it’s now that we don’t develop it and rather, we use it in its lowest form. This destroys man and the world. The global elite have developed this approach on purpose so that a person will obey and agree to the infinite chase. Everything is arranged so that a person feels satisfied and considers it a “good life.” The top percentile of society fools people and turns them into slaves. A person is told, “What a good boy you are. Work more and you’ll get a bonus.” And he gladly continues the forced labor.

A person doesn’t understand how he is manipulated by society, education, the media…it isn’t by chance that the elite don’t want to change these mechanisms. They want you to remain a fool. Actually the whole world works for them.

When people wake up they’ll understand that they have been cheated and that their life is worse than a beast’s life. Beasts obey nature, even unconsciously, but directly.

But you are being manipulated by that one percent of humanity, and you smile happily as you’re turning on this “skewer.” You don’t even suspect that you are carrying out their orders that have been inserted into your head for decades through the TV screen, newspapers, and other channels. You are in a worse position than a trained dog.

Look at how they oblige you to buy and with what entertainment they feed you. And you obey their orders faithfully from morning to night. You are not free at all. There is a program in your head that totally enslaves you.

Until the elite feel that they are on the verge of collapse, it’ll be very hard for us to bring something to the world. They know what they are doing. They are holding all the strings that sustain humanity. They throw democracy at you like a bone, so that you will play with it by your “kennel.” These “masters of the world” are so proud that they don’t understand that they are destroying themselves this way.
[65078]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/12, “The Freedom”

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Correcting The Mistakes

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam “The Peace”: Since Providence extends from the Creator, who undoubtedly has a purpose in His actions, since there is no act without a purpose, we find that anyone who breaks a law from the laws of nature that He has imprinted in us, corrupts the purposeful aim.

We exist in a global, integral world. There is no choice; we must implement all its laws. Once we kept them to a smaller extent since we had less desires, less contact with nature and the world. Today we are more involved with it, and that imposes greater obligations upon us.

When we don’t carry out all the laws of nature, we are incomplete and flawed. Thus our problems and sufferings will increase until they force us to obey them.

After all, we exist within nature. And from this comes the absolute need to execute its laws.

It is interesting that at the levels of still, vegetative, and animate all the laws of nature are executed naturally. There are no mistakes made. If there were a mistake, then it would be a sign that something was unwell. I once told a friend of mine, a veterinarian, about a cat who jumped unsuccessfully before my eyes, and got badly injured. He said that the cat was, without a doubt, ill. An animal doesn’t make mistakes since it obeys its instincts and its calculations are always correct because the laws of nature are at work and nothing more.

Man, on the contrary, can make mistakes in order to complete himself in awareness and recognition, until becoming similar to nature. And this also includes the small volume of our world’s nature, so that we will be able to advance forward and understand that it is not only this inner sphere that we need, but also we need completion until the level of the external sphere, the upper world where the laws of providence and management are.

We must carry them out and through them manage the whole of reality. When we include them within us, “we will pass to the side of the Creator,” and then we will manage the world with the attribute of bestowal.

“To know” these laws, is not simply to know of their existence without actively executing them. “Knowledge” in this case means adhesion, involving both the internal sense and reason, when you invert to be one with these laws and they operate in you exactly like in the animal world of the animate. This is called adhesion.

Thus, we need to unite with the entire world according to the law of love for others. The concept “others” includes the still, vegetative, and animate in nature, the levels that are found under man. After that, one needs to love the Creator. This means to merge into one with all of these laws, with all of these attributes. And then, there is no doubt there will be no error.

When you realize them as they are, in heart and soul, you reach Gmar Tikkun ( end of correction).

Thus, only for humans is there the ability to make mistakes and correct mistakes. Only in this way they develop. Through this, they complete their beastly existence via nature, or in other words, via the Creator, and acquire equivalence to Him.
[64781]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/23/11, “The Peace”

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It Is Always Darkest Before The Dawn

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere are different materials, for example dough, clay or marble, and there is what we make of it. In “Safra Detzniuta” there is an example of a farmer who comes to town and is surprised to see in the market rolls, pretzels, cookies, and other baked goods made from the same flour he produces.

According to evolution, the contact with the upper Light brings about many different forms, but the material that takes on these forms stays the same, and that is the desire to receive. So there are never any restrictions on the desire itself. We don’t do anything at all with it; our actions are only with regard to the forms.

Now our desire has an egotistic form that is aimed against the goal of creation. So we have to restrict this form, but not the desire. Only in this way will it receive a new correct form and we will be able to use it as we please.

Another problem is that we have to agree with the fact that we receive bad and corrupt forms. It is written, “a man’s heart is evil from his youth.” The Creator on his part, created the evil inclination, and we have to demand to advance to goodness.

Thus we have to show great restraint, to be tolerant toward all the forms through which the correction is performed. Some forms are even worse than the previous ones, but that doesn’t mean anything.

Impatience, outbursts, negative feelings, hate—can reveal things we’ve never encountered before on our way to the goal. Baal HaSulam brings the example of a fruit, which as it ripens goes through stages that are opposite from its final form. It becomes more sour, more bitter, less attractive, and only in the last stage does it begin to take its final form. A month before it ripens it can be poisonous. This is just as the darkness becomes thicker before dawn.

So we have to be very patient with the intermediate forms; they serve the development, although they may seem awful. We appreciate a person for his efforts, whether he does as much as he can do or not. The main point is that he shouldn’t be harmful and critical and as for the rest we can wait.

All our studying, all our advancement, all the understanding and the feeling do not appear in the material, but in its forms. This is what we study all the time. The desire is irrelevant. I look at the forms and at the differences between them.

These forms come to us from the Creator, from the Light, but they can appear in us as positive or negative. We are between the two contrasting forms: the angel of life and the angel of death. These two angels are the first nine Sefirot, and the material of our desire is Malchut. We receive the positive forms from them in our desire and the negative ones out of necessity and so we advance.

One cannot exist without the other. Every form should include the two forces that operate on the neutral matter of the desire to receive, meaning the two opposite changes that influence the data.

The desire was created as “something from nothing,” and we study everything that is in it, everything it goes through by the principle of formal education, of knowing the forms that come from the Creator, from the Light. We never study and explore the Light itself, but the forms of the Light on the material, on the desire; just as we don’t feel electricity by itself, but what it brings about, which can be measured and studied.

Eventually, we never attain the phenomenon itself, and we don’t know what the desire to receive is in itself. We only attain its reactions to the Light, and thus learn about the influence of the Light on the desire, when we deduce one from the other.
[64678]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/11, “The Freedom”

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Aren’t We Slaves?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The idea of self-fulfillment isn’t prominent enough in our message. When a person hears about connection, he is afraid to lose his “self”.…

Answer: On the contrary, today a person is enslaved to the modern destructive environment, and on this background, we offer very sensible things: Let’s work according to every individual’s abilities and provide every person with the normal basic necessities. Then we will not have to waste our resources on wars, conflicts, and credit bubbles. Besides, we will finally have some free time.

It is true that there is a problem here: What are we going to do with the spare time we will suddenly have? How will we fulfill ourselves?

But just a minute, how exactly do we fulfill ourselves today? Is it at work where we grind away ten hours a day for the landlord? On the contrary, when a person has free time, he will be able to finally reach self-fulfillment and to fulfill the human in him.

Today, because of the distorted habits we’ve acquired, we don’t know what to do with our spare time. We are simply programmed like robots: After working for many hours sitting in front of the computer, we come back home and sit down…in front of another computer. Look at how cunningly society has implanted the program of slavery in us. I eat what everyone eats, I sleep when everyone sleeps, I do what everyone does, and this is—my “free” life.

Do you think that there is no life without filling the egoistic desires? How can you get up in the morning and not chase another portion of pleasure?

But who told you that you wouldn’t be able to do that in the new society? Run, do whatever you feel like, just don’t use your ego.

The moment we understand that the ego is destructive and that it leads us to ruin, to a collision with nature—what will we have left? We will only have to balance it.

Today it is burning in you in the wrong way. You get up in the morning and you think about how you will “fix” others today, how you will use them in your favor. But you can use your desire differently, without hurting anyone. If you don’t intend to harm others, if you think positively—it isn’t egoism in its present form anymore.

Here we come to the communist view. The Soviet Union gave communism a bad name; they used it as a cover up for its unsuccessful attempt to build a new society. Still, communism in its true meaning is the best and most advanced social structure.

“But what will I do with my communist freedom,” you ask? “What will I ten hours a day?” By this you already admit that now you are a slave. After all, only a slave doesn’t know what to do if the master doesn’t tell him anything.

We actually want you to have all this free time, so that you will be able to create the human form in you. And you are saying: “I don’t want to! What is this is self-fulfillment? I understand if you tell me to run to work in the morning”—and so the merry-go-round of work days and evenings in front of the screen go by, until life is over. This is understood. You have gotten used to this slavery.

But a free society will intentionally leave you with spare time and tell you: “Give your body all that it needs and beyond that—build the human in you.”

The term “human” is love of others, and you don’t want to raise that in you. During all the time that you could devote to that—you are busy destroying the world. After all, beyond the basic necessities, most of our resources are spent on ammunition and other destructive “toys.”

Marx, the founder of communism, understood this. He was a true scholar, an economist, and he had a deep understanding of the system. We, unfortunately, don’t understand him. Eventually, however, even the bad example of the Soviet Union will help us acknowledge the good in it. People are beginning to understand now that the whole story of the “victory of capitalism” is not that simple.
[65081]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/12, “The Freedom”

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Connecting Two Opposites? Only In Spirituality

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Freedom”: You need to determine further that we distinguish two forces in that force called the “will to receive”: 1. The attracting force. 2. The rejecting force.

These two forces are always combined in us and never act independently. What’s more, the whole essence, all the attributes in all the creatures, on every level of the spiritual and the corporeal worlds, eventually depend on the combination and adaptability of the rejecting force and the attracting force.

In our world we see that cooperation between the particles of the atom determines the state of matter and the type of matter: gases, liquids, metals, rocks, minerals, etc. Mutual relations between people are also assessed by the combination of these two forces: of hate and rejection and love and connection. It is the same with regards to our mutual connections with the Creator.

We reach perfection when we discover our full force of rejection and above it the full attracting force. In other words, when we work by the middle line, we use these two forces, until we achieve the ideal unity between them. All the other factors serve and assist us in the intermediate phases.

So a person becomes a man when he can use these two opposing forces, the drawing and the rejecting, like one whole thing. He combines them by the middle line.

In our world this is impossible. What is more, here they both act on the egotistic side. In the spiritual world, however, they are indeed opposites, one is for connection and the other is against it.

The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about the spiritual unity of these two forces: how to use both of them efficiently and to reach positive results, while no one neutralizes the other or “pulls the blanket” over to its side, as it happens in our world.

For example, friction and the weight of matter inhibit the rotation of the wheels of a car, and so energy is required to move it forward. If the attracting force is stronger than the stopping force, the car moves forward, and if not, it stands still. So the result always depends on the calculation: how much stronger is one force than the other.

In spirituality they actually connect: the hardness of the Masach (screen) and the coarseness of the desire operate as one. They create Zivug deHaka’a between them, which means that first the action of Haka’a takes place and then the connection. The vessel reaches its spiritual realization according to the level of the connection and acquires the spiritual form. Only so is it possible to reach the right result. It depends on the internal matter of the desire, that rejects, and on its external form, which attracts us forward.
[64960]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/12, “The Freedom”

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Involuntary “Freedom Of Will”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where does the freedom of will lie?

Answer: A person in our world has no free will. He is born in an already completed state and develops the innate qualities with which he was born and which he did not choose himself under the influence of the environment. Neither his inner parameters nor the external ones that influence him are not chosen by him, and that is why there is no freedom in that.

The freedom exists only in selecting a specific environment so that it would shape me to be the way that I want to be. I choose my environment in accordance with the kind of individual that I wish to become.

There is a problem here too: On what basis do I think that precisely this environment suits me and not another? Basically, there are still many more internal clarifications here until a person develops fully and understand what he needs. In principle, one understands it in his heart, he senses it: Where exactly is my freedom of will. And this isn’t easy. But we must bring practically every single person to this state.
[64698]
From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/12/11

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The Desires That I Do Not Choose

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How detailed and broad should the basic course on “Evolution as Development of Egoism” be?

Answer: It should be as detailed and extensive as possible because all the other courses will stem from it and will be parts of the main course.

After this follows a course on the freedom of will: Does it exist, what it actually is. This course is very broad and contains many topics. We don’t just study whether or not free will exists and how and where it can be realized, but also precisely in which elements of nature it exists, does a human being have it, on what level of development, how to tell the difference between freedom of will and its absence, and so on.

After all, we don’t know where our desires arise from. It seems to me that they are my own, but in reality they come from outside. Where from? Why? Desires arise within me under the influence of the surrounding society: I watch TV and suddenly begin to desire what is being shown to me, and this is unconsciously perceived by me as my own desire. The next day I already want to acquire that which I saw on TV yesterday, and I believe that I’m realizing my own desire. We all understand that this is how we get bought and how things are sold to us.

All this must be explained because it’s tied to decision-making, to awareness of where my freedom of will lies, and whether I can be free from all the possible ideas and values imposed upon me, which in truth are neither values nor ideas, but simply business.

Every topic that we develop and teach provides a person with a vast realm of activity, and that is why the information has to be conveyed using a lot of examples and discussions. Sometimes when you just offer the material to a person from the lectern and head-on, he doesn’t absorb it. However, through some explanations, games, and situations he begins to understand what he was being told then.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” 12/12/11

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