Celebrating The Victory Of Intention

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, article “Purim”: It is said that in the end of correction, all the holidays will be annulled except for the Book of Esther because there has never been such a great miracle as on that day. Neither on Saturdays nor other special days such a great Light was revealed but only during the days of Purim. And that is why there is a great advantage of Purim over all other days.

Indeed, before the end of correction it is impossible to correct all the shattered sparks and vessels, but only 288 sparks out of 320 so as to connect them to bestowal. And this is clarified gradually, but there are 32 sparks left of all the sparks, which cannot be clarified.

And this is called the “stony heart (Lev HaEven).” And it is only when all the 288 sparks will be clarified completely, the stony heart will be corrected, as it is said: “And I will remove the stony heart from your flesh, and I will give you the heart of flesh, and then death will disappear forever, and all the evil will be corrected into goodness, and the darkness will shine like the Light.”

It follows that the Light of Purim corresponds to the end of correction and is revealed only by miracle. And for that reason, all the holidays are annulled except Purim, which belongs to the end of correction, when all the evil will be corrected, and there will be no difference between damned Haman and blessed Mordechai, and Haman too will be corrected to goodness.

Haman is the ego that manifests when we rise from the exile and attain the level called “to bestow in order to bestow” that characterizes Mordechai the righteous. The righteous symbolizes the attribute of Bina (Hafetz Hesed) from which we rise even higher and totally erase any memory of Amalek by attaining the level of “to receive in order to bestow.” This is already the next degree.

When Mordechai, the intention “to bestow in order to bestow,” the point in the heart, manifests in a person, he begins to fight with the desire to receive within him. Haman is the grandson of Amalek, which means that he is behind Amalek by two degrees. When Haman is corrected by Mordechai, he gets closer to Amalek by one degree and becomes his son.

Haman and Amalek are the egoistic forces, Klipot (shells). Haman is revealed in the beginning of our path, and we have to bring him to correction, “to bestow in order to bestow,” which is called Mordechai. Thus we rise one degree upwards, to the level of the son. Then we reach Amalek himself, the shell that stands opposite to the intention of “to receive in order to bestow.” This matches the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Amalek symbolizes the egoistic intention, all the big desire to receive with the intention for oneself, which a person discovers and gradually corrects. Haman is the part of Amalek that is revealed upon entering spirituality, the attribute of Bina. Then many other wicked described in the Torah are revealed, and they are all the offspring of Amalek. We only have to destroy the offspring of Amalek, “to erase the memory of Amalek,” because it is the egoistic intention.

Of course, it isn’t about people or actions, but only about intentions.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/2012, Writings of Rabash

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The World Through The Prism Of The Environment

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What do you have in mind when you talk about life outside the body?

Answer: Even now we are living a life outside our bodies. I live in my feelings, desires, and thoughts received from the environment. They are not mine but obtained by me from the surrounding environment. Of course, they exist within me, but I call them “out of body” because I live by interests received from others who impress upon me and advise what’s worth living for, what to think about, and what to feel.

I don’t even realize that if I lived in a forest, my understanding of the world would be completely different from the one I have right now. It’s as though the environment gives me a different view of the world and forces me to perceive it one way and not another. And indeed, this is a big problem.

Suppose my environment makes me think that being a cannibal, or killing people, or taking advantage of them is normal, while you see life completely differently. You have a completely different attitude to animals, yourself, the world, and family. We live within the model of perception that society instilled in us throughout our development, and accordingly, this is the way we see the world.

When I travel to a different country, sometimes it really strikes me that people think completely differently there and gravitate towards different values. Thus they have another way of looking at things, and they don’t see what I see. They judge people differently than we do. And if we get acquainted with history books or law codes of different countries, we will see just how different we are.

I’m not even talking about cultural differences or specific cuisines. I am interested in a person’s worldview and not in what he likes to fill his stomach with. What’s important is a person’s understanding of historical events, of human life, of good and evil, his or her attitude to reward and punishment, to what one should achieve, and what kind of life one wishes to build for oneself.

Some people are prepared to spend day and night playing cards and enjoy having others serve them, while for others it’s important to make their contributions wherever possible, to take interest in achievements of science, and to reveal something new for themselves. The outlook on such things can fluctuate from one extreme to another.

We see that the problem of society is that we don’t understand each other. What do wives usually complain about to their husbands? “You don’t understand me!” And this is actually the case because we really didn’t receive an upbringing about how to live in a family.

When I was an adolescent, I wasn’t educated about what a woman is. Is it some living creature that exists by my side? Does she have certain demands, a unique personality? What vision of life does a woman have as opposed to a man? A woman is a completely opposite world, not dependent on anyone. Do I understand her? Do I wish to understand her? Do I take her into consideration? Am I capable of doing this?

Since we haven’t received any internal models of what a woman is, what type of mentality she has, and how she sees the world, we don’t have an ability to take her into consideration. A man truly doesn’t understand her, and this is why each of their meetings abound with mutual attacks. They try to get along somehow, yet they aren’t capable to actually understand each other, that is, to become included in one another. And this is a big flaw in our upbringing.

Statistics on divorce rates and on those unwilling to even start a family attest to this. We see a similar situation in child education: We don’t know how to approach a child correctly. We all know that there is an increase in child abuse cases, and it is all because parents don’t understand them.

In regards to my own children, I have sensed just to what extent I don’t understand them, how unprepared I am for being a father. After all, a father is an educator, a creator, someone who shapes the child for their life to come. But I wasn’t able to do that due to the fact that neither the feeling nor understanding of everything that pertains to children was developed in me at all, while it’s absolutely necessary to teach that.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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A Greenhouse For Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the near future, humanity will eliminate all types of unnecessary jobs except for the ones needed for providing all that is required for normal and rational life. A person will have to work two or three hours a day and the rest of the time will be free.

In these hours people won’t simply be freed from work but will have to create an environment that will influence everyone else. And each of them will have an effect on others so that any person will be under a correct influence of several types of environments that facilitate his or her further growth.

This process is similar to the way that fruits and vegetables are grown in a greenhouse. Different conditions are provided in succession and in specific combinations, and because of that, they grow bountifully and we receive excellent sweet fruit to suit any taste. We need to do the same with ourselves and with our children. This work will become the main occupation of a person living in a new era.

There is a reason why we consider the current crisis not as a tragedy but as a positive phenomenon, the birth of a new society, a new humanity in which we begin to prepare ourselves for the next stage of unification and realization of all possibilities that each of us has.

In this manner, we are progressing towards mutual connection and understanding and as though creating from the entire humanity an image of one man, all parts of whom harmoniously complement each other and create a single entity.

In this single humanity that we create we reveal one force that gives us the feeling that each of us no longer lives in an individual inner sensation but in a common perception of this unified whole. A person lives his own life but at the same time, he or she senses the lives of everyone else who now have become so close to him that he understands them, feels them, and is included in them.

It turns out that I no longer live the life of a simple little person, but my life is intertwined with the breathing and living of the entire humanity. From the state of a small, weak individual I begin to ascend towards the most exalted status in nature. This is how we perceive life from this new “speaking” level that belongs to the degree of Man.

Our psychology, attitude towards life, and worldview will change from a petty, egoistic, and narrow personal outlook to a broad and global perception. And through the prism of the entire humanity, as if through new glasses, I will begin to see a new world.

I begin to view it differently and reveal within it a life that depends not only on the desires of my body, but on all people in the world. And then I rise to a sensation of life beyond my body. In this manner, through psychological ascent we reach a special state.

The entire process that we have to undergo can be divided into two parts. The first part is the path we traveled thus far. Throughout its entire duration, we developed without utilizing our environment that much. And even if we had to resort to its aid, it was only in rare cases.

Right now we are in a crisis that is justifiably called global and integral. Now we feel that we don’t have a choice, and that through the use of the environment we need to develop in a direction whereby all of humanity becomes integral and global, bound together as one man with one heart. This can be achieved with the help of a corresponding environment.

This is the life on a “human” degree that begins after exiting the animate level at which we were living by will of chance. And now we begin to guide our development in a specified direction in order to receive from the greenhouse a wonderful fruit in all of its perfection.

Because of this study we will know how to organize our environment and through it to shape ourselves and all of humanity. This is why the topic of “Environment as a determining factor of a good future of humanity” is the most important in the study and practical activities of this course. I hope that this educational program will be accepted in the entire world. It will guide us to a good life and yield wonderful fruit.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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Making A Stranger Your Own

Dr. Michael LaitmanIf we talk about the new generation, a new era in which we exist, we come to even more important conclusions. All of us living on this planet are tightly interconnected and dependent on each other, that the surrounding environment is becoming one for all of us, and that we exert an influence on climate and ecology. What happens in one place causes an earthquake or a tsunami in another; a war in one country immediately affects others.

We see that we don’t simply need to affiliate ourselves with a certain society or a group, but have to organize a common, global, and integral upbringing.

Since we are tied together, our upbringing and environment that we create (the determining factor of our development) need to transmit the same values to us so we will understand each other while still maintaining our individuality and freedom. After all, if we are so dependent on one another, we need to understand and feel each other, to become closer.

The whole problem is that we don’t understand one another, the way it happens in a family where each person complains that they are misunderstood. People are incompatible with each other because they have different values, tastes, and attitudes to life….

On one hand, in order to understand a loved one or even a stranger, an upbringing is required. But on the other, this stranger should become less of a stranger if today’s culture, upbringing, economy, and all existing structures are so close and interdependent.

It’s necessary to develop a system of global, international, and multicultural upbringing, and this great worldwide organization should ensure that each person in the world has something in common with others in their upbringing, culture, and attitude to life. Then a person will know how to accept another, and in the end, people will grow closer in their views and tastes; they will be able to make their life more secure and reach agreement among themselves.

Moreover, this won’t be just a mutual understanding between two strangers, but will have an impact on international agreements, crucial political decisions, economics, defense—on everything. We need to come closer to each other, and this depends on whether or not we can create a single system of upbringing for everyone.

Putting it differently, we need to understand that environment as a factor needs to become the solution to all of our problems. This is instilled in nature! Thus, instead of putting people in jail and isolating those who commit malicious acts, we need to forcibly, by court order, place them in a special environment that will educate them and turn them into productive members of society. Accordingly, we will verify the influence of the environment on such a person and, on the condition that he or she has been reformed, will release and transfer them to normal society.

This same principle works in relation to children and schools too. We need to check and identify different types of people and decide what is most suitable for every layer, for each age group. Based on this, as well as by considering the personality and peculiarities of a person and by utilizing the surrounding society’s comprehensive influence upon a person, we can give him or her the possibility to express themselves in the best possible manner.

That is, we have a comprehensive and diverse tool that includes a multitude of circles and different groups, and we need to try to guide a person towards the influence of a given society until he or she acquires a correct and harmonious form.

This is similar to a ripening fruit that requires both warmth and cold, night and day, moisture and dryness, light, and a certain combination of minerals. Here, too, in order for a person to mature and turn into a ripe “fruit” that tastes sweet to everyone, society shouldn’t pressure him or her from one direction only but exert all possible diverse forms of influence.

This is why an environment is a single factor through the use of which we can correct all the evil that exists in a person and in humanity, caused by our egoism. We only need to take this tool into our own hands, to organize various types of environments that will correspond to the culture, education, and habits of a given nation, to peculiarities of different civilizations, and in this manner to find an approach to every part of human society, in any country, down to each individual person.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” Episode 3, 12/29/11

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 03.12.12

Preparation to the Lesson
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Shamati #99 He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Chapter Beresheet (Genesis),” “And the Lord God Built the Rib,” Item 280, Lesson 79
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Part 7, Item 4, Lesson 3
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Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 101, Lesson 48
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