Audio Version Of The Blog – 06.17.14

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The Rating Of Global Challenges In 2014

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from GALLUP International): “WIN/Gallup International, the leading global association in market research and polling, has revealed that respondents of its global annual poll regard corruption as the most important problem facing the world today.

  • Twenty-one percent (21%) of respondents globally identified corruption as the most important problem facing the world today – the highest response rate amongst the 17 categories;
  • Economic problems in second place globally at 14%;
  • Poverty (the gap between rich and poor) in third place globally at 12%;
  • Biggest regional concerns: Asia (26%), Americas(19%) and MENA (15%) said corruption; Western Europe (24%) and Eastern Europe (20%) said poverty; Africa said economic problems (21%).
  • The data was collected as part of WIN/Gallup International’s Annual 2013 poll that interviewed 66,806 people in 65 countries.
  • Biggest concerns in Bulgaria: poverty/the gap between rich and poor – 23%, economic problems – 17%, unemployment – 15%, corruption – 9%, wars and conflicts – 7% and crime – 5%.”

My Comment: No one pointed out that the only problem in the world is overcoming the rejection between people, which by correcting,  we will help the world will change towards becoming beautiful. We see that this problem is not considered solvable. This means that we must make every effort to explain to people that the only solution is to create connections between people. Otherwise, no problem will be solved, and in the aggregate will bring us to war.
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Spiritual Gene Instead Of The American Dream

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean “to become a Reshimo (a spiritual gene) relative to the rest of the world?

Answer: The modern world is lost without any idea where to go or who can lead it to some kind of goal. This feeling of helplessness, distress, and emptiness will increasingly grow.

We are going through a complete disintegration of the basis of previous life. Formerly, the world was developing very rapidly, it looked as if the American dream would come true any moment and a well-developed capitalism would allow each one of us to live a good life and earn “big” money. All of a sudden this state of affairs has stopped and life has lost its meaning. This sensation of hopelessness triggers the question, “What is the meaning of my life?” While we are transitioning from our prior state to a spiritual realm, we have to turn into a spiritual gene (a Reshimo).

People whose spiritual genes wake up come to study the wisdom of Kabbalah. They need to advance this seed that is built into them. They have already reached the lowest point of disappointment in their lives, begin thinking about the essence of life, and begin moving with this internal determination that they have revealed.

But what should we do with others who do not have this spiritual gene revealed inside themselves yet, with all those seven billion who extend into despair and hopelessness, people who are approaching the bankruptcy of their prior values? How can they rise to a new state if their spiritual gene doesn’t wake up in them?

Our international organization has to become a spiritual Reshimo for the entire world. Our common desire, our collective Reshimot, becomes “a drop of semen” inside humanity, inside this massive human desire.

The mass has already rotted and deteriorated, all that is left is the seed (us) that knows the way and possesses energy, intention, knowledge, and experience. That’s why we go ahead of everybody and move the entire humanity forward. This is the function of a spiritual gene.

Spiritual Gene Instead Of The American Dream
After the shattering occurred, all that was left was only Reshimot – spiritual sparks, “points in the heart,” that fell inside the broken desire. A spark and a broken desire worked together for thousands of years and eventually they figured that the desire is empty and broken. It has no chance to receive any fulfillment since it has neither a screen, nor underwent a contraction, nor is there any Reflected Light in it.

There is only one Reshimo that burns inside the desire and is able to bring the desire to its new state since the Reshimo (the spark) is connected with the Light. All there is are the Lights, the sparks, and the vessels. The Lights are on the top (in the world of Atzilut), the broken vessels and desires fell. Inside the desire there is a spark of the Light, a point in the heart.

The Light influences the spark. Only due to this impact, the entire vessel elevates, otherwise it is unable to rise. This explains why our time is so suitable for correction. The spark is very noticeable because the desire (the vessel) feels that it is broken and empty and has no hope for the future. That’s why a connection among the Lights, the sparks, and the vessels appears. A spark connects the desire with the Light. This is what is going on in the world now.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/13

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Friends, Wake Me Up!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The more I advance, the less strength I have. How can I be responsible for anyone else?

Answer: This is actually an indication that you are really advancing and that you discover that you have no force. It is very good and it is considered advancement.

Friends, Wake Me Up!
After all, you advance towards bestowal and you discover that you have no force. Your strength is running out and that’s the way it should be until you reach a state where you have no power at all, complete zero.

How can it be otherwise? How can it be that your ego will allow you to advance towards bestowal? It is like the ten Sefirot of the Direct Light and the Returning Light: As you advance in bestowal from 0% to 100%, your ego diminishes from 100% to 0%. This is called the opposite order of the Lights and the vessels.

And nothing is wrong with that! You should be glad that you have less and less strength to study and to love the friends. You begin to fall asleep and to feel that you are a rag, but this is the truth that should be revealed.

You discover your nature in which there is nothing but a desire to enjoy. If in the meantime no pleasure illuminates for you, you cannot move.  Your ego doesn’t want anything and is ready to sleep until your last day: Give me a sleeping pill so that I will fall asleep and never wake up. Who doesn’t want to close his eyes and never open them again? What’s important is not to feel anything.

This is a correct impression, a person has to feel that and then work with it, but there are those who escape. Why do I need to suffer with this feeling? It is better to go with my old friends to a football game or to a pub, to some party, and to enjoy life and think as little as possible.

The main thing is not to think about the goal of creation. You can wave off these thoughts and decide that it is all nonsense in order to justify yourself and get back to your ordinary life.

But there are people who advance despite everything. At every turn we get a chance to choose, but you should know that you will have less and less strength. And then you will either receive it from Above or totally lose it and leave.

Therefore, we begin to think about how to receive force from Above. This is possible only if we ask for it through the group. If the group begins to demonstrate the greatness of the goal and the greatness of the Creator before me, I will wake up thanks to my envy, lust, and honor. This means that I have to receive the desires from the environment or through the environment from Above.

Thus, the greatness of the goal becomes so necessary for me that without it I cannot move or do anything. I have left my old corporeal life and the spiritual life is still far from sight. So what will become of me? The only thing is to end this life uselessly and die?

Here a person begins to understand why Kabbalists say: “either the group or death.” I have no choice but to organize an environment that will impress me with the greatness and the importance of the goal that will shake me and push me, rock me, shame me, and pull me.

It makes no difference what means is used as long as it revives me and wakes me up! I am ready to pay everything that I have for that, I ask: “Friends, wake me up! And when I wake up, I promise to repay you many times more, with interest!” That’s the way we should work.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/14,Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Emotional Science

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the difference between caring and service? You say that we must attract the future states. This is unclear because it truly doesn’t exist within our sensation.

Answer: Certainly. So, this is not understandable. We understand only what is given to us in sensation. The matter of the world, of creation, is desire. So, feelings are primary. First, we feel, and after that we begin to understand what we are feeling, the reasons, all kinds of connections and everything that is happening within the desire itself. We understand how it is reinforced and  how it is possible to recover it, and so forth.

It is very important to understand that the main thing is desire, meaning feeling.

What touches upon the difference between care and service? Well, “service” or “usage,” these words are not good because they indicate that we must do something without ourselves understanding what. This is what has been taught to us, commanded and forced upon us. I am not saying that this is bad. For instance, service to a nation is something else. However, this is something that cannot be in the spiritual way.

In the spiritual path, it is necessary to attain everything emotionally within ourselves and, after that, explore our emotions. On what level of desires are Shoresh (root), Aleph (first), Bet (second), Gimel (third), and Dalet (four) found? Which Light is extended into these desires according to our intention? The degree of intention—Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet—determines the amount of the Light that is revealed, in other words, the intensity, the strength of feeling of the Creator which is discovered in that desire.

All of us must begin to feel to such a degree that when reading a book, we experience and measure our feelings at the same time. The book must be our spiritual and emotional guide in the full sense of the word so that we will laugh and cry when we read it, for it is talking about which activities I must carry out within me at every moment.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a very emotional science, but only for someone who can feel these emotions in himself already, and, if not, then it will seem dry to him.
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From the Sochi Convention 6/9/14, Lesson 1

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Acceleration Of The Way

Dr. Michael LaitmanAll human beings are bearers of a particular part of the one and only collective soul: Malchut of the world of Infinity. In the right state of resemblance and equivalence to the Light, this is called Adam (from Domeh, meaning similar). All of us are shattered into parts, distant from each other, so that in spite of our natural rejection called egoism, we can connect above it.

To the degree that we begin to yearn to approach each other, the shattered desire that is in us gradually will begin to be discovered more and more, and we are egoistically repelled from each other more and more strongly.

Through our opposition to the mutual rejection and building a mutual connection above it, we enhance the intensity of the vessel of the collective soul that is composed of two opposing forces: repulsion and attraction. Accordingly, with our desire above the ego, a greater and greater Light is discovered: the characteristic of bestowal.

As it is written, (Proverbs 10:12) “Love covereth all transgressions.” Therefore, they are necessary, and the degree of the gap between the crimes and the love determines the volume of the vessel in which the characteristic of bestowal and love is revealed. A small vessel (a small contrast between hatred and love) becomes greater and greater until the contrast becomes infinite, and this is the world of Infinity.

That is how we advance forward. Everything depends upon the intensity of our work. If we build ourselves in the right way, we don’t flee from the opportunities for connection that appear with us in all kinds of physical conditions, like studying and dissemination, wherever possible. This is a necessary condition with whose help we hasten and accelerate our way.

With this, the attitude toward a friend and the entire world must be like the relationship to the Creator because this is discovery of Him. That is how He is revealed to me. If I try to approach Him, I must say that everything that is happening comes from Him. In this case, I already am justifying everything that is around me.

This is because, from the start, everything is determined by Him, just like all the characteristics and all kinds of movements within me. The Creator is found in everything (both within me and in what is outside of me), and the relationship between the internal and the external is the middle third of Tifferet, there, where the person feels free choice.

Therefore, such a correct intention accelerates our path.
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From the Sochi Convention 6/9/14, Lesson 1

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Blessed Are Those Sitting In A Circle

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In what way is studying the wisdom of Kabbalah different from the wisdom of connection?

Answer: We can speak to people who come to study the wisdom of Kabbalah about the Light of faith, about the Light of bestowal, about self sacrifice, about faith above reason, about ascending above our egoistic nature and about rejecting our nature, and about going through all the states of the shattering.

On the other hand, when we present the wisdom of Kabbalah to the public, we cannot approach them by talking about these ideas and concepts. We can tell them only what can be revealed to vessels of receiving. This means that we tell them that there is a method that enables us to receive pleasure, filling yourself by the connection with others.

There is an upper force or an inner force in nature that allows us to connect and to correct all the problems by this power of connection that we have received. If you want to correct your connection with your children, hold a workshop in a circle with them. You will discover the force of connection and unity among you that will change and fix everything.

When the force of connection is revealed, there is an immediate correction. I cannot generate this force from inside our circle during the workshop and fix my washing machine by it, but by holding the workshop, your washing machine will not break down anymore if this is supposed to be your correction.

We should understand that only the force that is revealed in the connection will fix everything. Therefore, we must be everywhere and hold debates around roundtables, and wherever we do that, the situation will be corrected. Thus, we teach people to avoid problems, to find a blessing, luck.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Don’t Make A Graven Image Of The Creator

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, Article, “What is ‘O praise the Lord, all ye nations’ in the Work?” (Psalm 117:1): It must be explained why The Zohar says that all of the nations have a minister over them, while this is not so for the nation of Israel; only the Creator rules over them. For the nation of Israel is the property of the Creator.

The Creator is called the middle line, Zeir Anpin. This characteristic doesn’t exist in the lower if they don’t carry out special activities in order to be its carrier, a vessel for the middle line.

So the Creator has no image or body. The middle line doesn’t exist in nature; it appears only on condition that the lower places itself between the two lines: right and left.

And all the rest of the forces in nature are called ministers of the Creator because they exist by themselves and are the result of the two forces active in reality: the force of reception and the force of bestowal. They are called angels, forces that control the 70 nations of the world.

But the nation of Israel, the one who seeks Yashar-El (straight to the Creator), has no Creator as long as it doesn’t stabilize its vessel and discover the middle line in it. The Creator (Bore) means “come and see” (Bo-Re). And as long as the middle line has not been created, the nation of Israel has no one to turn to.

The Creator is revealed solely and only on condition that the person builds himself and adapts himself to the characteristics of the upper one. In this way he creates a place for the discovery of the higher power. As long as the lower is not ready for this revelation, the upper one doesn’t exist and has nowhere to be discovered.

From here is derived the prohibition: (Exodus 20:3) “Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness” of the Creator, for this prevents us from doing the right work.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/14, Writings of Rabash

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Dr. Michael LaitmanM. Weisman, “The Midrash Says” Chapter “Shemini“: The moment that Nadav and Avihu decided that they should bring their own fire to the altar it says: ‘And Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aaron, took each of them his censor, and put fire therein, and laid incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord.’

The sages say that they were guilty of several breakings of the law. As was already said, they did not consult with Moses and Aaron and not even with each other first, and each one acted independently.

The right and the left lines (Nadav and Avihu) have to be inclined to try to connect to the middle line, but they didn’t do so.

Nadav and Avihu were attracted by their strong passion to actually feel the presence of the Almighty, and entered the Holy of Holiness in order to bring the censor there, etc. This means that they wanted to reveal the Creator without a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light.

Only the great priest can enter the Holy of Holiness, since he has a Masach. Therefore he is called the great priest, which means the holy priest who works in bestowal above others.

Nadav and Avihu didn’t have the attribute of bestowal (the Returning Light) and each one worked on his own: the right line separately from the left line. However, the Returning Light appears only on the middle line in the right connection between the two lines.

Question: Does that mean that they didn’t have a Masach on the pleasures that they wanted to receive?

Answer: The revelation of the Creator is an immense pleasure! This is actually the goal of creation. So the goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah is to reveal the Creator to everyone, by filling everyone with great pleasure.

Besides, the “strange fire” that Nadav and Avihu brought indirectly indicates other sins.

They drew the Light of Hochma that couldn’t be dressed in the Light of Hassadim (Light of Mercy). Without this dressing, the Light of Hochma doesn’t warm, and doesn’t save but burns. Nadav and Avihu lacked the Light of Hassadim in order to receive such great Light. They didn’t even try to receive it since they worked separately.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/15/14

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.17.14

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Workshop

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”

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“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “You Are Partners with Me,” Item 61

[media 7] [media 8]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 66 

[media 9] [media 10]

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Mutual Guarantee,” Item 25

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