Audio Version Of The Blog – 02.13.14

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“We Already Grow Enough Food For 10 Billion People – And Still Can’t End Hunger”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from The Huffington Post): “Hunger is caused by poverty and inequality, not scarcity. For the past two decades, the rate of global food production has increased faster than the rate of global population growth. The world already produces more than 1 ½ times enough food to feed everyone on the planet. That’s enough to feed 10 billion people, the population peak we expect by 2050. But the people making less than $2 a day – most of whom are resource-poor farmers cultivating unviably small plots of land – can’t afford to buy this food.

“In reality, the bulk of industrially-produced grain crops goes to biofuels and confined animal feedlots rather than food for the 1 billion hungry.”

My Comment: This situation will not change until humanity realizes that it itself has to correct inequality created by our egoistic nature, and that only by reaching equality, first among ourselves and then with the Creator, can we achieve prosperity for everyone.
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The Destruction Of The Planet Has To Be Taxed

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (John Hassler, Professor of Economics and Per Krusell, Professor of Economics, Stockholm University): “There now is widespread consensus that the key driver of climate change is the emission of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels. Since climate change affects the global economy, this is a textbook example of what economists label a ‘pure externality.’ There is substantial uncertainty about how large this externality is. Yet, available knowledge can be used to provide an estimate of the externality that is surprisingly robust. In this note we argue that this provides a strong case for using a carbon tax rather than emission caps.

“Given the fact that there is now around an extra 200 gigatons in the atmosphere, the total flow loss is around 0.5% of global GDP.

“We see a more promising future in striving to agree on a uniform global carbon tax. We have argued that its optimal value can be robustly computed and its main subjective element – the intergenerational discount rate – should not be a cause of significant disagreement across countries.

“Our formula can calculate the discounted value of damages that will occur in the future due to all the fossil carbon emitted so far. To us it appears reasonable that the countries responsible for past emissions – largely the developed world – should acknowledge this debt. It also appears reasonable that mortgages on the debt be paid to a fund aimed at helping poor countries deal with adaptation.

“The practical implementation of a global tax may be challenging, especially in countries that rely less on markets than does the developed world. But using the tax as an explicit extra cost, or price tag, in any decisions to use fossil fuel represents a practical mind-set. Similarly, any investments in carbon capture and storage that, per unit, cost more than the tax should not be undertaken. In short, the plan to introduce a global carbon tax seems to have a chance of succeeding, while the current attempts to agree on a two-degree warming cap have, for understandable reasons, proven rather futile.”

My Comment: No fair agreements between countries and especially agreements that try to compensate for the “destruction of the planet” can be accepted and implemented—egoism will not allow to do it. The crisis will inevitably lead to the need to change our nature from hate to love because otherwise we will continue to destroy the planet and ourselves along with it.
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The Wisdom Of The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus (Ki Tissa),” 31:1-31:5: The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: ‘See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have imbued him with the spirit of God, with wisdom, with insight, with knowledge, and with [talent for] all manner of craftsmanship, to do master weaving, to work with gold, with silver, and with copper,with the craft of stones and with the craft of wood, to do every [manner of] work.

The attribute of Bezalel or the wisdom of the heart is revealed when we can express the attribute of love and bestowal in the work that is manifested clearly in the spiritual world. Each of us has the attribute of Bezalel but we have to find it within us. It isn’t about a specific person who has skills to perform any kind of work. We all have to learn to express our altruistic attitude towards others so that it will be locked on others.

The greatest expression of the human attribute of love and bestowal upon the world and through it, upon the Creator is called “the building of the Temple” and all its features, when everything becomes one general home for the one general desire. Everyone who follows the spiritual path to the end of correction has to become Israel first (Yashar – El, straight to the Creator), then Levi, and then Cohen and to discover such attributes like Moses, Aaron, the great priest, and Bezalel.

A person can change the stony heart, his ego, into similarity and full equivalence of form to the Creator by polishing it into a gem, which means by inserting all his love into the stony heart. The measure of love in it turns it into a jewel, or as it says in The Book of Zohar, into a rose.

This is the work of the attribute of Bezalel in the attribute of the wisdom of the heart. But this wise heart turns us into a human being. When we have the Light of Hochma and the Light of Hassadim, we can turn our darkest and most egoistic state into a rose, which symbolizes the attribute in which the Creator is revealed.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/2/13

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An Intention That Brings The Creator Closer

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus (Ki Tissa),” 30:16: You shall take the silver of the atonements from the children of Israel and use it for the work of the Tent of Meeting; it shall be a remembrance for the children of Israel before the Lord, to atone for your souls.

The work in order to bestow should be done not because we want to acquire our soul but to bring contentment to the Creator.

The desire to acquire the soul is our general desire that the Creator, the property of bestowal and love, will be revealed with it. And we yearn for this not because it will be good for us afterwards from this because in such a case this would be an egoistic acquisition. We want to discover the upper power only to bring Him contentment.

This is precisely as the example of the guest and the host when the host wants to please the guest and the guest agrees to accept, but only on condition that through this he will give pleasure to the host, rising to his level. Therefore, the intention to give pleasure to the Creator raises us to the level of absolute bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/9/13

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And The Main Illumination Is Left In The Root

Dr. Michael LaitmanWritings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 183: This is why it is said that he should take advice from the holy fathers, since the prayer that we pray is the correction of the Holy Divinity, to extend abundance to her, to satisfy all her deficiencies.

Divinity is all of our desires that are connected in order to become something collective where each one loses his “I” and builds something shared.

Hence, all the requests are in plural form. This is so because the prayer is for the whole of Israel, since all that there is in the holy Divinity exists in the whole of Israel. There is a difference between the terms Divinity and the community of Israel. We build the community ourselves and the Divinity is what the Creator finishes as a result of our efforts.

It follows that when we pray for the whole of Israel, we pray for the Holy Divinity, since they are the same. Thus, before the prayer, we must look into the deficiencies in Divinity, to know what needs to be corrected and filled in her. Meaning, to what degree we still need to be included in each other.

However, all the generations of the whole of Israel are included in the Holy Divinity. Therefore, it is said that the Kabbalists in previous generations made corrections for us and we no longer need to subject ourselves to corporeal austerity. All the efforts of the Kabbalists of the past are included within the Holy Divinity, within the Malchut of the world of Atzilut, and in our day we merit correction of the general shattering on the level of the final correction, meaning the level of the Mashiach.

The holy fathers are the inclusion of the whole of Israel. They are the three roots of the 600,000 souls of Israel from every generation through the end of correction. And all the extensions and bestowals that the whole of Israel extend and receive in all generations are first received by the holy fathers. From them, the abundance reaches the whole of Israel in that generation that extended the abundance.

This matches the structure of the spiritual Partzuf, HBD-HGT-NHY. The first two thousand years are the “Avot” (forefathers) HBD; the next two thousand years are the sons, and we, the people of Israel, belong to the last two thousand years.

It is so because this is the spiritual order, that no branch can receive anything, except through its root. This is to say, the Light passes through everyone who preceded us in that hierarchy of the tree of life, beginning from Adam HaRishon (the First Man), then twenty generations from him until Abraham, and after that Moses, all the prophets, Rashbi, the Ari, Baal HaSulam, Rabash, and finally it reaches us. This arrangement never changes because that is the way a pyramid is built and the souls had to appear one after the other in that order. Therefore, we always receive the Light through those who preceded us.

…The primary illumination remains in the root, and only a part of it extends to the branch. The work we carry out is not great. But it acts like an amplifier receiving the weakest signal, and within the system there is a very powerful resistor. This is to say, we don’t enter into this system except to influence it by arousing amplification within it.

But it’s clear that all the intense changes take place within the amplifier and the result is revealed in the world of Infinity. And here, below, we feel only a small part of the reaction and all of the wonderful results are revealed within our holy forefathers on the higher levels. But with the end of correction there will be a collective mutual integration.

And those who will come after us will receive less and less with greater and greater resistance. That is how this system is built. But together with our small influence within the system, together with the great resistance, a great stimulus is awakened. The great desires of the forefathers are filled with an intense Light as a result of our miniscule work below. We don’t understand this because we don’t take into account the intense resistance of the entire system of worlds that are acting as an amplifier.

It therefore follows that all the corrections that were already corrected in the holy Divinity stand and exist in the souls of our holy fathers. All the results of our work are concentrated in the higher levels. And if we were to receive them in ourselves, we would not maintain our position and would become arrogant. This would destroy us. We receive precisely that measured dose sufficient for us to carry out the correct next step, shielding us from arrogance and destruction, from egoistic reception. Therefore, we receive little, but exactly what we need.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.13.14

Preparation to the Lesson

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Workshop

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The Book of Zohar — Selected Excerpts, “Lock and Key,” Item 41

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 3, Chapter 7, Item 3

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 47

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