Audio Version Of The Blog – 02.14.12

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The Lesson Is A Chance To Connect With Eternity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Next Saturday, more than 250 people from our groups throughout Israel are going to assemble in Rehovot. What should our attitude be in order to acquire the right deficiency?

Answer: First, you should rest before the gathering. I recommend that you go to sleep early, without any unnecessary talking, at 8:00 p.m. at the latest, or even earlier, so that you will be full of energy and lively the next day.

When you get up, you should spend at least 45 minutes preparing yourself and the classroom. You shouldn’t speak much with one another. It is better to sit and read inspiring passages, and perhaps sing a little.

We must be in a calm atmosphere, in spiritual upliftment, in a delicate feeling. This is the preparation for the lesson. Then we will connect, all the groups around the world.

Question: Should we evoke the joy toward the Arava convention at the same time?

Answer: A morning lesson is a serious matter. We should be happy internally because we are coming in contact with something that is eternal and unique, where we go through serious states. The joy during the lesson is a general feeling that doesn’t burst forth.

Our general preparation, the general thought during the lesson, is aimed at mutual incorporation. However, everyone does his own work, personally, when he corrects himself in order to incorporate with the others.

Then we will take songs and preparation passages with us to the Arava so that, with them, we will go happily to connect among us. There, the atmosphere will be a bit different: self-annulment reinforced with general activity.
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From 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Introductory Lecture “To Be A Man, I And A Family” – 02.14.12

Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Lecture Series, “To Be A Man, I and a Family”
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Anatomy Of Fear And Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Beresheet (Genesis),” Item 195: It is so because upper AVIYod de HaVaYaH, GAR de Bina—are fear. YESHSUTHey de HaVaYaH, ZAT de Bina—are love. Therefore, when the Mochin de ZON come only from YESHSUT, Hey de HaVaYaH, it is considered that love preceded fear. And when they also come from upper AVI, Yod de HaVaYaH, it is considered that the fear preceded love, since Yod is fear and Hey is love. Thus, fear preceded love.

Fear preceded love. This is said about the created beings because this is the order in which they should correct themselves in relation to the Creator. While only love comes from the Creator, the created beings need fear, too, in order to evoke them to reach love.

This can be explained differently. The relationship between a father and a son should not be based on absolute love between them. This is so that they will always be careful that one wouldn’t stop loving the other.

After all, if one person loves the light without limit, he evokes hate by that. This is because the other person doesn’t feel the limits, and without them, he doesn’t feel love. It is very hard for him to get along with someone who has no limits.

We are built in such a way that we have to feel everything within a certain framework. Then, we can feel. However, without a framework, we lose the feeling. So, on one hand, I feel that the other loves me, but, on the other hand, I have nothing to hold onto when this love is limitless.

Therefore, I demand that he lets me feel his love. I begin to hate him because by his limitless love, he deprives me of the vessel in which I can feel this love. Without a vessel, I don’t feel it.

Therefore, Baal HaSulam says that, if parents love their children with absolute love, the children begin to hate them or at least to disrespect them. So, when we speak about education, we speak about limits, punishments, and pressures that parents have to put on their children so as not to deprive them of their vessels, the vessel of perception.

This is related to the upper system of Aba and Ima (fear) and Ishsut (Love) that must connect in influencing the lower. In other words, the upper part and the lower part of Bina (thought) must connect in order to influence the lower.

This means that fear and love must be connected. When these two systems connect, they influence the lower correctly. This will build the vessel and then fill it.

Thus, the deficiency that comes from the upper and demands correction will receive the light. This is so that it builds the lower in a way that will enable them to feel fear and then love, not in the opposite order, not love first, because this cannot be.

So, first of all, we must create our collective vessel and worry about the connection among us. Then, if the connection is fulfilled, love will flow in it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson2/8/12, The Zohar

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Spiritual Search: What Do We Find?

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 93: These are the words of our sages “I labored and found, believe.” And we ask about, “I labored and found, believe,” that the words seem self-contradictory, since labor relates to possession, and a find is something that comes without labor at all, absentmindedly. He should have said, “I labored and bought.”

However, you should know that this term, “find,” mentioned here, relates to the verse, “those that seek Me shall find Me.” It refers to finding the face of the Creator, as it is written in The Zohar that He is found only in the Torah, meaning that one is rewarded with finding the face of the Creator by laboring in the Torah. Hence, our sages were precise in their words, and said “I labored and found, believe,” because the labor is in the Torah, and the finding is in the revelation of the face of His Providence.

We act in order to discover a deficiency, a need for a certain phenomenon. If this deficiency is right, if it matches that phenomenon, then this phenomenon is revealed. Only then can we see what it actually is, because it is a “find.”

I lack the power of bestowal, the Light of bestowal, but I don’t know what it is. This is because my deficiency comes from below and it doesn’t exactly match the final phenomenon. This phenomenon belongs to an upper degree that is so different from me, like the degree of animate differs from the degree of vegetative. Every new discovery raises me to a new qualitative level and every time it is as if I turn from a dog into a man.

When the Light fills the vessel, it gives it a Godly mind and feeling that stem from the root that preceded the creation of man. The Light gives a person the knowledge, the feeling, the perception of reality that is above his root. We can hold on to this only if we come to life and want to resemble Him by that, above ourselves.

Therefore it says, “I labored and I found.” This find is always one level above the deficiency and the current exertion. This is how all the Partzufim of the spiritual ladder are built. There is nothing to be ashamed of here, because when I work on a lower level, I prepare myself for the total self-annulment before the higher level.

This is how the love of parents in our world bears children, takes care of them, and fills them. It is the same here, of course, where there is the love of the Creator, but at first I use it to rise to its level and to complete it to resemble the Creator.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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On One Skewer

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I check if my appeal for correction is correct?

Answer: The appeal is correct if a person wants to unite with the friends and connects to this his desire to attain the Creator. Everything should lie on one single line, on one axis: me, the united group of friends, and the Creator. In this case all desires are in the correct order.

Find out if you can clearly draw this picture for yourself, if you can skewer together all the necessary factors.

Then you will move on to the other form to circles: outer, middle, and inner. The outer circle is you. You contain the second circle, the group, which in turn contains the third circle, the Creator. In the end they all merge into one whole. Then there is no difference between you, the group, and the Creator. Everything is one.

In this way every person, every soul comes to perfect attainment.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Turn The Initial Spark Into Constant Burning

Dr. Michael LaitmanReaching the goal is based on practical work in a society, in a group. The group is meant to be joined by people who aim toward the same goal and received a natural aspiration toward revealing the Creator. The same way, the upper Light, the Creator, gives these people a desire to reveal Him and get close to Him. He gathers them around their teacher and passes this knowledge on to them to reach revelation of how to realize this desire, which the Creator invokes in them.

The Creator creates all the conditions–gives books, a teacher, a group, and a desire–everything except for something that should come from the person himself who needs to organize all these conditions, to focus and direct oneself toward one goal.

Friends help every person come to the lessons, participate in the group work, and study, just like in regular corporeal studies and groups. But the main thing is that one hears that it is impossible to reach the goal with the mere desire that was invoked by the Creator because it is not more than 10% of the desire that is needed to require revelation.

And you have to obtain a full, perfect desire which you get by being inspired from friends’ desire to reveal the Creator, by seeing that they are eager to reveal the Creator, by their talking about it, and by seeing how much they do and how many efforts they put toward it. All of that inspires and evokes the desire inside of you because by nature, we are made this way.

But in spiritual work, a person needs to make his own efforts to notice his friends and be inspired and impressed by them. After all, you can neglect them and everything they do and all their work will remain unnoticed. On the contrary, it is possible that you can pay attention to every little thing, get inspired from how much effort everyone puts into waking up early to come to the lesson even though it is hard for them, how many foreign desires appear in them, but they overcome all of them heroically, how they yearn to be together, etc.

On one hand, the group should open itself and show its strong desire toward revealing the Creator and reaching the goal of Creation. This inspires a person and gives him that additional desire that he lacks. In fact, we get every desire toward the Creator from the environment. The point in the heart is just an initial spark, which ignites this whole process, but afterward we have to advance.

There is work here that needs to be made on a man’s side: to lower oneself and see friends higher than oneself. There is work that comes from the group: to show itself as high, exceptional, and strong with respect to everyone. This is the individual work of each person and work of the group as a whole. We need to take care of that and not to accept a disdainful attitude.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/12, Writings of Rabash

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The Black Market Provides Employment For Half Of The World’s Population

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Robert Neuwirth, in his new book, Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy): “Neuwirth points out that small, illegal, off-the-books businesses collectively account for trillions of dollars in commerce and employ fully half the world’s workers. Further, he says, these enterprises are critical sources of entrepreneurialism, innovation, and self-reliance. And the globe’s gray and black markets have grown during the international recession, adding jobs, increasing sales, and improving the lives of hundreds of millions. …

“They see themselves as supporting their family, hiring people, and putting their relatives through school—all without any help from the government or aid networks. …

“In most developing countries, it’s the only part of the economy that is growing. It has been growing every year for the past two decades while the legal economy has kind of stagnated. “Because it’s based purely on unfettered entrepreneurialism. Law-abiding companies in the developing world often have to work through all sorts of red tape and corruption. … It’s also an economy based on providing things that the mass of people can afford—not on high prices and large profit margins. It grows simply because people have to keep consuming—they have to keep eating, they have to keep clothing themselves. And that’s unaffected by global downturns and upturns.

“Half the workers of the world are part of System D [the self-reliance economy, or the DIY economy]. By 2020, that will be up to two-thirds. So, we’re talking about the majority of the people on the planet. …

“[These goods] are sold through tiny kiosks, street stalls, and little informal markets. …

“The biggest flow of goods is from China. …it’s also easy to deal with China.

“… huge international corporations want to get their goods into informal markets.

“…They sell lots of products through the little unregistered and unlicensed stores in the developing world. And they want their products in those stores, because that’s where the customers are.

“Basically, they hire a middleman…—sometimes several layers of local distributors—to get the product from a legal, formal, tax-paying company to a company willing to deal with unlicensed vendors who don’t pay taxes.”

My Comment: A parallel economic system is created in the world, and this helps it to survive in an environment where corporations want to subjugate everything and grab all the profits. For the time being, these systems support each other, but gradually the formal economy will hang itself on its own rope.  And the shadow economy will work on the principle of reasonable income and necessary goods. For now.
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Newton About The Last Days Of The World

In the News (from HaAretz): “The end of the world will be coming in just another 48 years, in 2060, according to the father of modern physics, Isaac Newton, who died in 1727. His calculations were not based on mathematical principles or the laws of physics, but instead on the Christian Bible and the Book of Daniel from the Hebrew Bible. …

The time times and half time do not end before 2060. …. It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner. This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail. (Source: Wikiquote)

“Contrary to his public image, most of Newton’s work was not devoted to science but rather to theology, mysticism and alchemy. Unlike Newton’s scientific texts, which are owned by the University of Cambridge in England, the 18th century thinker’s theological writings made their way to the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, and they have just recently been digitally copied and posted on the Internet in cooperation with Cambridge University’s Newton Project. …

“Among the National Library collection in Jerusalem, there are a large number of works by Newton about mysticism, analyses of holy books, attempts at projecting what the end of days would be like, and what the ancient Temple in Jerusalem looked like. The collection also contains maps that Newton sketched about mythical events to assist him in his calculations over the end of days.

“‘From our perspective, there is a contradiction between natural sciences and rationalism and theology, mysticism and faith, but in his mind, as a product of his time, part of the understanding of the laws of nature involved understanding how the world worked,’ Milka Levy-Rubin, who curates the national library’s humanities collection, said of Newton. ‘The stage of history was a field of research for him.’

“Newton’s theological writings have importance beyond the intellectual edification they provide, Levy-Rubin noted.

“Newton belonged to a group of theologians who ultimately managed to change the face of Christianity in general and its relationship with the Jews in particular. Until then, the prevailing doctrine held that the degradation the Jews had suffered over the centuries was proof of the validity of Christian belief. The spirit of the Renaissance, however, prompted theologians to revisit the scriptures, including the Hebrew scriptures.

“In their rereading, they saw the Jews’ place in history in a new light, viewing the historic role of the Jews as one that had not ended. They foresaw a time when the Jews would return to their ancient homeland, after which, in the view of these Christian thinkers, they would accept Christianity, as a prelude to the return of Jesus.”

Newton writes in “Of the Day of Iudgment & World to come: “So then the mystery of this restitution of all things is to be found in all the Prophets: which makes me wonder with great admiration that so few Christians of our age can find it there. For they understand not that the final return of the Jews captivity & their conquering the nations of the four Monarchies & setting up a righteous & flourishing Kingdom at the day of judgment is this mystery. Did they understand this they would find it in all the old Prophets who write of the last times as in the last chapters of Isaiah where the Prophet conjoyns the new heaven & new earth with the ruin of the wicked nations, the end of weeping & of all troubles, the return of the Jews captivity & their setting up a flourishing & everlasting Kingdom.” (Source: Newtonproject)
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Where Is The Creator?

Dr. Michael LaitmanI have often given the example of the mathematic structure (according to Landau) of two digits: 1 and 0, (the Creator and the created being, the Light and the vessel). But how do the two connect?

The point is that our world is integral and infinite and if we try to imagine it in numbers, we will cut off the connection with Ein Sof (Infinity). There is a gap, Ein Sof, between every two consecutive numbers. In every event (we observe), which is real and concrete, there are its past, its future and all the other possible events (states), which exist simultaneously.

Can we attain what is missing between the numbers, the events, the attainable and the unattainable, the existent and the non-existent, the something and the nothing?

There is a void between two fixed torques, but it is in this gap that the changes take place when the old picture of the world disappears and a new picture appears “as if from nowhere,” but with slight modifications.

The source of this is the raising of MAN (prayer) from the previous state, through all the worlds, to Malchut of Ein Sof, that includes all the analogous states which later descend, down the ladder of His Providence, taking on the form of the concrete, numerical, quantal future states.

Hence, through the world of Ein Sof, the past and the future are locked, and this is a step (a change of step is the Reshimo—reminiscences, and a quant is the minimal change) in the development and the movement of the world towards its goal. Thus, there are constant gradual changes in the world, and every change is discrete and fragmented. But eventually they all fill themselves until the perfect state, because every discrete change is recorded in the world of Ein Sof.

Anyone who can (by using the method of Kabbalah) connect to the source in the world of Ein Sof, finds the answers to all the questions in the Upper (above consciousness), and feels the new existence internally.
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