A Struggle For The Soul Of The Jewish People

Opinion (Winston S. ChurchillIllustrated Sunday Herald, February 8, 1920, page 5): “SOME people like Jews and some do not; but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact that they are beyond all question the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world.

“Disraeli, the Jew Prime Minister of England, and Leader of the Conservative Party, who was always true to his race and proud of his origin, said on a well-known occasion: ‘The Lord deals with the nations as the nations deal with the Jews.’ Certainly when we look at the miserable state of Russia, where of all countries in the world the Jews were the most cruelly treated, and contrast it with the fortunes of our own country, which seems to have been so providentially preserved amid the awful perils of these times, we must admit that nothing that has since happened in the history of the world has falsified the truth of Disraeli’s confident assertion.

Good and Bad Jews

“The conflict between good and evil which proceeds unceasingly in the breast of man nowhere reaches such an intensity as in the Jewish race. The dual nature of mankind is nowhere more strongly or more terribly exemplified. We owe to the Jews in the Christian revelation a system of ethics which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all other wisdom and learning put together. On that system and by that faith there has been built out of the wreck of the Roman Empire the whole of our existing civilization.

“And it may well be that this same astounding race may at the present time be in the actual process of producing another system of morals and philosophy, as malevolent as Christianity was benevolent, which, if not arrested, would shatter irretrievably all that Christianity has rendered possible. It would almost seem as if the gospel of Christ and the gospel of Antichrist were destined to originate among the same people; and that this mystic and mysterious race had been chosen for the supreme manifestations, both of the divine and the diabolical.

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Discover Tremendous Opportunities To Receive Pleasure

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Actions that are intended to unite us are dictated by the fact that we enjoy them. This kind of delight is bigger than the one we get from any other activity. Does it mean that we are like robots that have only a plus or a minus?

Answer: It doesn’t matter. By no means should we refuse pleasures! Kabbalah prohibits it. A person who deliberately refuses pleasure is called “Nazir,” meaning someone who engages in self-restriction. Someone who chooses this goes against the plan of nature since the goal of nature is to bring us to absolute delight.

By transcending the framework of our egoism, by desiring to rise above it, against it, we open tremendous opportunities to receive pleasure. Our egoism restricts the ability to receive delight. How much can you eat or drink? How long can you dance? Everything has its limitations.

By ascending above the egoistic field into the external one, we reveal the world of Infinity. What does the world of Infinity mean? It’s a desire that is not limited by anything at all. It’s exactly what we should discover.

Why is the science that we study called Kabbalah? It teaches us how to reach maximum unlimited eternal delight and how to attain a sensation of everlasting existence within all coordinates and directions. So, when we study and stay with the group, we by no means should pursue self-restriction. Not at all!

One should only think of how to connect with others. At the same time, if you want to eat ten dinners or thrill yourself any other way, please do so. Nobody prohibits you from indulging into pleasures. What really matters is where your head is. That’s the most important thing.

There are ascetics who limit themselves as dieting women, sometimes even worse than that. So what? They don’t “kill” themselves by acting so, but rather feel even bigger pride and self-importance: “See, how good I am!”
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/16/12, Preliminary Lesson

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Women Are The Key To Success

Dr. Michael LaitmanI’ve heard from the women that they deliberate about: “How we can put pressure on the men.” And I think that the women should not push, but help, not with words, but with their desire, even with menacing silence.

In general, a strong women’s group is the key to success. It stabilizes the men’s group. Like a wife and a home stabilize a man, and he will not run away, knowing how he has to go through life. It is a good “weight” on his feet: It is useful, it is required, it is necessary.

This addition is very effective in all cases. We have no idea how much a Kabbalist needs it. That is why I advise single men to quickly resolve this issue. It does not disturb women if they are not married, although if it is possible…but for men, it is a duty.

I say this in all seriousness. It is desirable; it is very desirable for those who want to advance to start a family. This stabilizes a man; this helps him. Yes, he gets an extra load, but this load is necessary. It is one of those burdens that you take upon yourself to move forward due to them. So, take this seriously.

Now, here are a few words about the interaction between the men and women’s groups. The women’s group helps; the women’s group performs the same actions along with the men. It can participate in almost all the events in such a way so as not to interfere with the men and not disturb them. So, it is better not to mix in the same room and coming together in circles; we are not interested what is going on behind our backs.

Women’s groups should be feminine. In the women’s group, besides the usual questions, specific questions should be raised: “How can we help our men so that they feel more responsibility in connection with each other?”

I remember my wife’s words; she told me about it, and I was amazed: Where did she get it from! I did not have this idea at the moment. I told her about the current problems, and she said: “You have to connect with each other with a new strength.” I had not come to this decision, and then I heard a voice from above. This comes from the Creator precisely through the women’s part, and therefore, it is really worth listening to women.

It is important to build a relationship with the world and the correct communication between men’s and women’s parts in each group: the family, the women’s group, the men’s group, and humanity.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/18/12, Lesson 4

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 08.27.12

Preparation to the Lesson

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Kabbalah for the Student “600,000 Souls,” (Starting with: “We learned that,” To: “And they said”), Lesson 3 

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The Book of ZoharSelected Excerpt “Safra de Tzniyuta,” Lesson 6

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 1, Part 3, Chapter 11, Item 1, Lesson 26

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Last Generation,” Part 3 (Starting with: “One type,” To: “The necessity”), Lesson 2 

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 08.26.12

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio
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The Prayer Of Many – A Single Demand

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the prayer of many? Is it when we have one need or when I don’t have a single thought about myself, but only the desire of the group, of the world?

Answer: The prayer of many is when you can unite all the desires of all creatures in your request to raise them to the Creator, to give Him an opportunity to be revealed because this is His joy.

Question: How can I achieve this?

Answer: You are trying to sense them, to get out of yourself, and to begin to feel them, thus you inject their desires into yourself. In fact, you don’t need to cover the whole world and feel absolutely everyone. That will come later because you will perceive this single desire in this way. The Light will affect you and show you all this, evoking your feelings. But until then, you make such attempts as much as you can.

This is a time-consuming work because the process of preparation is the longest, most difficult period since we are operating in the dark. But then, each degree will have its own specific entrances and exits, internal process, analysis and synthesis of all that I do, manifest, and feel from others.

This inclusion of all desires into myself is what is called bestowal: when I start to feel the desires of others as my own. The desires mean aspirations for the Creator. And if there are none, it does not matter. When I start to connect with other people, first in the group, I begin to feel within the group that they strive for the Creator, even if they do not understand and do not know. I start to see and feel this desire everywhere: in people, animals, and plants. After all, the desire for life is also the yearning for the Creator, for the Light.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/18/12, Lesson 5

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Difficulties At The Beginning Of The Path

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is my work only to ask the Creator to change my attitude when I feel bad? What if I don’t feel that everything comes from the Creator?

Answer: Indeed while a person is only starting and does not perceive, see, or any inner feeling, then it is difficult. He has just started on the path and is far from his goal, from the city, and he does not see it.

But in order to take the right direction towards this city, he must imagine that he goes in the direction of the city. In any condition, from the start, he should try to imagine the city lights ahead. We are given a group, books, and all kinds of tools for that until the work becomes clearer, and he will see more and more signs of his progress.

He will begin to distinguish between them because his desire will become more clarified, precise. He will accumulate experience: various impressions, signs from which the picture will begin to emerge.

But while he does not have that, he needs to work with what he has, and most importantly the work in the group. If I don’t see the Creator, the city, or the light in front of me, and I am in total darkness, in the middle of a dark field, not knowing where to go, then I imagine the group, its center. This center becomes the Creator for me, the goal on which I focus.

If I give myself to the group, this means that I give myself to the Creator, from the center of the group directly to him. I use all the forces available in the group to be together with them in adhesion, in unity, in bestowal to the group, and thus direct myself at the Creator. He has not been revealed yet, and I have to work with the group in this form.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/12, Writings of Rabash 

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“A Man Of Light”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In The Study of the Ten Sefirot it says that a person who corrects himself begins to “illuminate,” what is this action?

Answer: A person begins to “illuminate” when his vessels begin to bestow. This illumination is already a self-movement that only a human being can perform. No other creature on the levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature can illuminate, since it doesn’t connect with the Creator in any way; it doesn’t perform independent actions of bestowal like the Light.

The simple Light fills all of creation and thus illuminates. A “human being,” however, is a person who spurs himself towards the Light, and the Light illuminates because it has more intensity than the natural intensity it has when it arrives. A person becomes an amplifier for the Light: He illuminates by himself thanks to the Light that fills him.

There is an addition to the Light created by the person! It is because he has overcome his desire to receive by turning all his desire to receive into fuel, into a combustible material. When the Light comes, this material begins to burn like a candle! So it says that a person illuminates.

He is called “a man of the Light.” Can he radiate the Light? He has prepared his desire to receive in such a way that it is equivalent to the Light. Now when the Light goes through his desire it is illuminated by it like a fluorescent lamp that is filled with a special gas or with phosphorus that begins to shine under the influence of the Light.

When the Light comes, the desire is impressed and begins to illuminate from inside. This is what happens to a person who identifies with the Light. It is because he doesn’t swallow the Light inside him egoistically, but wants to carry on its action. You should know that in order for you desire to begin to illuminate, you have to restrict it and to place it under the Masach (screen) so that you will not want to swallow the Light for itself, but rather will want to connect with the actions of the Light in bestowal and to draw this Light for everyone else. Then you will illuminate and be called “a man of Light”!

How intensely you illuminate is determined by your spiritual level.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Time Of Ripening

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam: “Time to Act”: For a long time now, my conscience has burdened me with a demand to come out and create a fundamental composition regarding the essence of Judaism, religion, and the wisdom of Kabbalah, and spread it among the nation, so people will come to know and properly understand these exalted matters in their true meaning.

We have to understand how difficult it is for a Kabbalist to act outside his framework. After all, there are significant restrictions on the revelations of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Even now, when not much has been revealed yet, we see that humanity has acquired from the wisdom of Kabbalah the foundations of the animate level of existence in many aspects. It has enriched the world by different methods throughout history: by the Greek philosophers and by different students who leaked the wisdom. The religions were born as a result: first Judaism, then Christianity, and then Islam. Different beliefs stemmed from this in the days of Abraham among the people of the East.

Eventually everything stems from crumbs of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which speaks about the forces that operate in the world and which bring a person to the predetermined correction.

On this basis people have established philosophical approaches, metaphysical studies, different theological doctrines, etc. Later these patterns became a great obstacle on the way to the truth. People were confused since they took separate systematic descriptions from the wisdom of Kabbalah and they created different systems and concepts from them as they saw fit. Thus, they tried to confirm their own claim to truth and power, denying the accuracy of Kabbalah. We should learn from these examples: People have a systematic perspective from the wisdom of Kabbalah and turn it into something that is beneficial to them.

Because of this there was a ban on revealing the wisdom of Kabbalah. After all, if the Light is poured into an unprepared vessel, it is called “immature fruit,” and it is an obstacle in receiving the truth; it evokes hatred towards Israel and distances people from correction.

As a result the sages were very careful and didn’t reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah. Even if a person had heard about it he couldn’t get any information about it. Only in the last thirty years did Kabbalah books begin to appear in stores although not everywhere. Before, it was simply impossible to find them.

Moreover, Kabbalists set serious limitations regarding potential student and even spread negative rumors to keep the Jewish people from approaching the wisdom of Kabbalah. If a person is not intended for it, if doesn’t have a true burning desire, he shouldn’t deal with this wisdom. First he has to go through certain phases of development, since we are all parts of the general desire that ripens gradually.

Only today has the time come when there is nothing to fear anymore. On the contrary, we have to spread the wisdom of Kabbalah, which means to act in opposite ways.

On the whole, Baal HaSulam was the first Kabbalist to reveal this wisdom to the masses. He wrote a lot for the general public, including the newspaper The Nation and other articles. Who knows what thoughts, concern and efforts it cost him since he was in Warsaw at the beginning of the last century when he decided that there was no choice and that we have to turn to everyone.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/23/12, “Time to Act”

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The Economic Cost Of Global Warming: It Hurts Poor Countries And Works For The Rich

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from MIT News): “Even temporary rises in local temperatures significantly damage long-term economic growth in the world’s developing nations, according to a new study co-authored by an MIT economist.

“Looking at weather data over the last half-century, the study finds that every 1-degree-Celsius increase in a poor country, over the course of a given year, reduces its economic growth by about 1.3 percentage points. However, this only applies to the world’s developing nations; wealthier countries do not appear to be affected by the variations in temperature.

“‘Higher temperatures lead to substantially lower economic growth in poor countries,’ says Ben Olken, a professor of economics at MIT, who helped conduct the research. And while it’s relatively straightforward to see how droughts and hot weather might hurt agriculture, the study indicates that hot spells have much wider economic effects.

“‘What we’re suggesting is that it’s much broader than [agriculture],” Olken adds. “It affects investment, political stability and industrial output.’”

My Comment: Nature (the upper force, which is the same thing) is a single system, and therefore manifests itself in its impact on humanity in many ways, sometimes contradictory, and which to us seem, at least, unrelated.
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