Audio Version Of The Blog – 11.20.12

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Introductory Lecture – 11.20.12

Kabbalah for the Nation Introductory Series

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Let’s Open The Door To The Light

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Can The Book of Zohar help me recognize evil?

Answer: The Zohar, more than any other source, can help a person feel the evil. We advance on the way to the Light, to the Creator, to the force of bestowal, which is the only one who rules and who operates in reality since the desire to receive doesn’t move if the force of bestowal, the force of the Light, doesn’t impress it.

So it turns out that without Kabbalah books, and especially without The Book of Zohar, we wouldn’t discover the source of our movement, but would just wander in this world. It is the Light that impresses us in the form of circles if we evoke it to get closer to us equally on all sides, and then everything is immersed in different troubles and problems.

But what are troubles and problems? It is the feeling of our oppositeness from that Light. We don’t know what the Light is, but we feel bad, not knowing what it is.

If a small child feels cold, for example, he is shivering and crying and doesn’t know what to do. Next to him there is a door to a warm room, but he doesn’t know that he should go in there. So he continues to cry and to scream, but is not able to tie his bad feeling with the cold. He doesn’t understand that he feels bad because of the cold and doesn’t know that if he goes through the next door he will feel good and warm. He attains this only according to the actual phenomenon, but he doesn’t know where it stems from. He only reacts simply to his inner state, without a cause and with no results. This is how the simple desire to receive responds.

But if this desire begins to build a head for itself, then he already understands where things come from and why and how he can be saved, and what actions he should take in order to escape the bad situation—this is already a head. But how is it created? By the Light that by different actions builds in him this mechanism, which doesn’t exist in the desire to receive at all.

Thus we gradually advance to the good. There are people on such a level of development who simply cry out when they feel bad. There are others who try to escape in different directions, but don’t know the right direction. There are also those who manage to escape. There are those who understand that there is no need to escape, and that if we perceive the Light that comes to us and it makes us feel bad, here in our place, we will turn it to good, and there is nowhere to run at all. So they overcome their state, transcend it, and discover the Light in the same place. It all depends on our development.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/12, The Zohar

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War Until Reaching A Complete Victory In The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash. “Love of Others”: I look at a small point called the love of others and I think about it: What can I do in order to help the society. It’s because when I look at the society, I see the sufferings of the individual, illness and pain and also the general sufferings, which means wars among the nations. There is nothing I can give other than a prayer and this is called “feeling sorry for the public.”

People in our world understand that when times are hard we usually help one another in different ways. We host people who have to leave their homes; we send help and essential products in order to ease the life of people who find themselves in extreme conditions. Everyone understands that we have to feed those who are in trouble and to give them a place to sleep and to support them. That’s the way it is in every culture throughout history, among all the nations.

Kabbalists have a different approach to this. This doesn’t mean that they disqualify the ordinary mutual help. We see that throughout history, even from the time of Abraham and the other forefathers that they invited guests and how important the idea of hospitality was for them, both in the corporeal and in the spiritual sense.

But the question is what should we do if we are under a constant threat, like we feel these days, and on the whole throughout history. If we think logically it turns out that there is no chance that Israel can succeed here, surrounded by enemies whose only desire is to erase us from the surface of the earth.

How can we, despite all this, go on living on this land under this constant threat, till when? From a logical perspective it is impossible and perhaps we should build our state somewhere else, like it was once suggested in Uganda?

But the only thing that can help us is what Kabbalists tell us about the place from which the world develops and about the spiritual message, about the upper force that is connected to us and that is with us. We work in connection with it, in one direction and can thus change our fate.

First we should understand that everything that is happening was given to us as assistance. Then it will be clear that we have to work in this place and only here, under these special conditions can we advance and fulfill the goal of creation. It isn’t by chance that we are in such a hostile environment, but according to a certain goal according to the upper plan.

The small point of love of others Rabash speaks about is the spark in us. We have to arrange this spark, to reinforce it, to support it, and to aim at attaining our source, our root. Thus we will be able to fulfill the thought of creation for all the nations.

So our role, with all the difficult conditions that the upper force presents us with, is to respond correctly, inclined to connection, unity, and mutual guarantee,until we attain the state of “love thy friend as thyself.” Eventually the whole world will join this love as it says “and all the nations shall flow to Him,” and by that we will fulfill the thought of creation.

All this is attained by prayer, which means by our work in the heart.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/12

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The Future Is In Superhumanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Ken MacLeod, an award-winning science fiction writer): “Theoretically, Marxism came up with a secular, materialist account of what made humanity distinctive: a complex, evolving, and indefinitely extendable interaction of labour, consciousness, and social relations, all rooted in the mutually reinforcing co-development of hand, brain, and tongue. …

“But the aims of most of the millions of ordinary people who believed in socialism were modest: full employment, social security, free education, and healthcare.”

My Comment: For the first time in human history, we can select in advance one of two ways of our development towards the state of complete balance that has been established by nature. We need to see our future state because it is opposite to our egoistic nature. If it had matched nature, we would have just moved forward automatically as throughout our history, pushed by our growing egoism.

It is the oppositeness of our egoistic nature relative to the next altruistic state of humanity that stops us in transition to this state. The pressure on us, egoistic individualists, from integral altruistic nature will constantly increase, producing crises and disasters that will push us to understand the causes of our suffering and to accept balance with nature, to achieve unity among us and with it as the peak of our development.
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Interconnection As A Remedy For The Crisis

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister): “Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría said that Spain must be united in tackling the crisis and called for the difficult situation to be handled with shared determination, both nationally and internationally, to avoid ‘cracks’ that would make us vulnerable and ‘to strengthen and shield ourselves from uncertainty.’

“Regarding the reform of the public administration services, she highlighted the need to promote a ‘far-reaching’ reform that avoids duplication, saves money and improves the service; in short, one that provides ‘coherence’ and better channels resources. She insisted that this reform is the most important structural reform currently being implemented by the Government and announced that ‘an important merger process’ will take place at the end of the year because ‘21st Century governments cannot function with 19th Century structures,’ she said.”

My Comment: This is how nature will gradually force us to accept its higher general law—all its parts tend to a single form, mutual connection, and equilibrium. Of all the still, vegetative, and animate parts of nature, it is the human being who is an offender of balance. Our egoism wants to grab and use the whole world for itself. Suffering or reason or their combination will force it to be tamed. The example of Spain shows that they are close to the realization of the problem.
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An Illumination Of Eternity

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the definition of the “Creator?”

Answer: The “Creator” is the force of bestowal in a person. If a person feels that he belongs to connection and bestowal, then the Creator is already alive in him. A person feels something new that is not his own, something upper, and wants the upper to be in him, since by that he acquires something better, even on a corporeal level.

Question: Does it turn out that the general reach the revelation of the Creator unconsciously?

Answer: That’s right, since it is AHP and not GE, only “from Your actions shall we know You.”

The general that operate in connection feel a better life in their actions. Imagine that suddenly everything works out, you and your family have everything, your children are taken care of, you are healthy and secure… where does this happiness come from? It stems from the connection among us that gives us a general collective feeling that we are like brothers. A kind of unity, love, and an agreement that the Creator is dressed in the created beings, connects us.

In addition to that we feel a kind of eternal flow in this. There is a special illumination in the unity, which tells a person: “You are alive and you will continue to live.”

I receive this addition by connecting to others and living in them. My life is divided between everyone; I am totally in them and by that I feel an eternal life, an eternal existence. The illusion of life and death disappears, since it was felt only in my separated and limited ego. Now, however, when my ego is spread among everyone, when I depend on everyone and everyone depends on me, I don’t feel that I am dead anymore; I live among everyone.

This is all the psychology, the internal feeling. All this comes to the ordinary person, when he makes steps towards connection. He feels an addition of spirituality in every aspect of life. It is “spirituality” because he comes out of himself towards others and is under the force of bestowal. Even if he acts according to the blows, not understanding exactly the actual reason for what is happening, even if everything has been taken care of for him, it is normal. We too operate this way with regards to the advice of Kabbalists.

Although the emphasis of the general is on the action and not from an inner clarification, they too discover the Creator and experience the spiritual feeling. Every one who takes part in bestowal is already called “human,” even if he is operating on a totally mechanical level. It makes no difference since he is also part of the general whole.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/12, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah“

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Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam: “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 11: However, we find and see in the words of the sages of the Talmud that they have made the path of Torah easier for us than the sages of the Mishnah. This is because they said, “One should always practice the Torah and Mitzvot, even Lo Lishma, and from Lo Lishma he will come to Lishma, because the Light in it reforms him.”

Thus, they have provided us with a new means instead of the penance presented in the above mentioned Mishnah, Avot: the “Light in the Torah.” It bears sufficient power to reform one and bring him to practice Torah and Mitzvot Lishma.

It turns out that we don’t need to change anything about our lives; we don’t need to limit ourselves or to pay attention to our body, to count how much we eat, drink or sleep. It doesn’t matter if I sleep on a down comforter or on the ground, how “good” I am to others, to my relatives, to myself, and what I deal with. All this doesn’t matter, what’s important is the practice of the Torah (which means the study of Kabbalah) in such a way that the Light in it will reform me.

I only need this Light and it will already manage all my relations: with myself, with the friends, with the environment, with the Creator. The Light will manage everything. I only have to try to draw the Light upon me and give it a chance to operate. This is what the sages say.

They have already established the connections in the general system of the souls, which was totally shattered, and they have taken it through several stages of development: Babel and the exile in Egypt. The group that Abraham took out of Babel has already developed and established connections between all its members, which mean the souls, the parts of the general system.

They could already build the first Temple, and receive the Light of Mochin De Haya in order to bestow, and then they fell from this level and were exiled to Babel. Then they came out of exile and built the second Temple there, on the level of Mochin de Neshama, and then fell again. This means that they have been through different levels of development that were necessary for the preparation: three exiles and three redemptions. Thus they performed all the personal, individual corrections, which the people of Israel who are part of humanity, the group that stands at the head of the process of correction, have to perform.

Thanks to the fact that this group has been through all the exiles, the redemptions and the destruction of the two Temples on the level of Mochin de Haya and Mochin de Neshama, it established a network of the right and necessary connections with the upper part of the general soul, of all of creation, called GE. So any person who wants to correct himself now, has the chance to do so.

The destruction of the two Temples and the exile of the people of Israel were necessary in order to return to Babel that remained without correction and to integrate with them in order to later correct them. This stage, which was made for the mutual incorporation ended about a hundred years ago or even during the time of the ARI. Now anyone who wants to be corrected doesn’t have to torment his body and to live under the conditions of penance, which the group that corrected GE lived under.

Then they corrected themselves separately from the other nations of the world and lived under the special conditions of “you shall eat bread and salt and drink water sparingly, sleep on the ground and labor in the Torah.” But after they had performed their corrections and tied themselves to the whole system, this system already exists in a partially corrected manner, concealed from us.

Now everyone can use this mutual incorporation of the souls of the nation of Israel with the nations of the world; GE that entered AHP and integrated with it. If a person wants to be corrected, if the spiritual spark lights up in him, then there is a system that supports him, through which he can draw the Light that Reforms.

The Light will fix everything since there is a system that is ready to absorb it and to provide it with all the levels of correction. So we don’t have to restrict ourselves in any way, everything is possible except for denouncing or causing harm intentionally. A person can have a different character and different attributes, but if he wants to work in order to draw the Light that Reforms, then he should be provided with the chance to be incorporated in a group. His lifestyle and attitude towards others, the load that has accumulated, which he brought with him, should be left for the Light, so that it will take care of it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/14/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Dr. Michael LaitmanNature is a circle; it’s perfect. At this time, nature impacts us integrally. This conclusion derives from laws of nature and is supported by sociology, physics, and other sciences. Therefore, our society must reach the same condition and become global, closed, rounded, and integral. Everybody must depend on each other.

Look at what is happening in the world now. Today, it is enough to isolate any particular country, and it will perish. It will not endure on its own. Look at Iran or some other countries. They completely depend on everyone and everything. We are unable to break these liaisons.

Afflictions push our society from behind toward integrity. It should become as rounded as nature itself. Integrality means that we must reach balance and equality with each other.

Practically, everyone must live at the same financial level and work hard on making equality and mutual interdependence stable. Nature will push us toward it quite strongly. So far, we haven’t realized it. Therefore, we will be getting more impediments until we come to understand this fact.

How do we achieve this? If we continue using only the remedies that currently are available to us, this process will be very complicated. However, if we approach the problem from the point of view of Kabbalah, then it will be relatively smooth since the Kabbalah methodology allows us to achieve it without too much trouble and makes it almost effortless. Kabbalah explains and vividly demonstrates that the current state of affairs in the world obligates us to live according to standards of reasonable consumption.

By all means, a person must have a house, a family, a job, a car—everything that a normal human being needs at this time—but anything that is beyond this level is extra. We should not allow lavishness any more.

Nature will force us toughly by setting up catastrophes. It is obvious, and we have almost exhausted nature. Soon, all natural resources will be drained away, and we won’t be able to satisfy our needs any longer, not to mention those of our children and grandchildren. For them, there will be nothing left at all. The integral laws of nature tell us about it.

Nowadays, integral upbringing should replace our current paradigm, our current perception, of the world through integral education. We must begin to educate people to understand in order to see the world differently. Since we all are at the mercy of one another, we should naturally change our nature to the fullest interaction with each other.

Here, the Biblical appeal, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” comes to mind. It is obvious that we simply cannot abide without this verse. It is inevitable that we eventually will achieve this state, but it is important whether we will get there forcefully or voluntarily, consciously and smoothly.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is meant to help us realize these things and, thus, avoid severe blows of destiny. It helps us move ahead in a kind and mild way, which eventually will allow us to win.

What, in fact, shall we win? We will transition to a new level of existence, to another dimension. At this time, we all are at the animate level. Animals take care of each other and of their bodies. We also take care of our relatives, friends, and of our bodies as well.

In other words, we do not rise above the animate level, whereas the “speaking” (human) level—called Adam, from the word “Domeh” (similar to the Creator)—is analogous to the force of bestowal and love. This level is quite different from the one where we are currently, and we still must ascend to it.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Lesson 1

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The Present Stage Of Kabbalah Development

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe latest written source of the wisdom of Kabbalah is dated approximately 500 years ago. These are the books by the Holy ARI. About 20 volumes of his writings disclose in detail the entire system of governance of this world and its interaction with the upper world.

The ARI’s books explain not only the way this world is controlled by the upper forces, but also our impact on them, the reverse influence, and how this influence once again triggers the actions of the upper forces upon us. The books by the ARI describe all these interactions between the upper governance and us, our freedom of will, our destinies, previous reincarnations, and so forth. They provide a very serious and detailed description of everything there is.

However, it turned out to be insufficient. In the 20th century (400 to 500 years after the ARI), another Kabbalist, Baal HaSulam (“master of the ladder” in Hebrew), appears. Why? It’s because he described in detail the “ladder” that one must ascend when climbing from this world, the current state in which an ordinary person finds himself, to the peak of his development.

It’s not about physical growth, nor does it talk about intellectual development. We see that there is nothing much to boast about in this world. Rather, it is about the advancement that each of us must accomplish: to attain the upper world, the system of governance. It is about our attainment of the eternal, perfect world that still is beyond our perception. Baal HaSulam presented a modern-day methodology that we are using at this time.

His son Rabash has developed his father’s method further and made it more practical. He created a concrete, step-by-step instruction described in numerous articles. These articles clearly show how by changing ourselves, expanding our organs of perception, we can begin perceiving the hidden Universe concealed from us by our own limitations.

It’s common knowledge that we are limited. We can hear only within a certain range of sounds, we see a limited spectrum of light, and so on. In other words, all our senses—vision, hearing, smell, touch, and taste—are limited. While here we are talking about other organs of perception, not the ones that we currently have.

In order to widen our organs of perception, we invented multiple devices, such as telescopes and microscopes for the eyes, numerous types of radars, locators, and so forth. However, most important for us is to figure what additional organs of perception we need in order to sense the world around us.
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From the Georgia Convention 11/5/12, Lesson 1

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