Audio Version Of The Blog – 06.24.14

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To Know The Height

Dr. Michael Laitman“If you only knew from what rubbish poetry grows without shame.”—Anna Akhmatova, famous Russian poet.

My Comment: To achieve something sublime, subtle, you have to go through everything in life, and then only you can create a high work of art. If you yourself become well “soiled” much, then you can experience the height from this dirt.

Knowledge and ascent happen like this, from the revelation of all the baseness in oneself and rising above it. Only in Kabbalah, this happens not for the sake of oneself, but in spite of oneself… The mystery of fine structures is in the dirt that they have to reveal in themselves and to cleanse!
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The Eternal Sunshine Of A Spotless Mind

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: On one hand you talk about the Ohr Makif as if it is something wise, passionate and alive. But on the other hand, the Light is at absolute rest, and only according to my changes does its influence on me change. How can I resolve this contradiction in me?

Answer: There is nothing wise besides the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light). Everything else is an egoistic desire for pleasure that at every moment wants to get a maximal feeling of existence and fulfillment.

This desire can grow under the influence of the Light to very high parameters according to the Reshimot (reminiscences) that are found within it. But the desire grows in only one way: to enjoy with even greater feeling, more openly and prominently according to whatever its internal combinations are, but only for enjoyment! It doesn’t know anything else!

The Upper Light, which influences it all the time, invites impulses and stimuli for greater and greater fulfillments in it. And since the egoistic desire becomes further away from a pure nature, it acquires distorted and monstrous forms within us.

But we play all the time and lie to ourselves and others by hiding our essential nature so that it is not seen in us. Behavior like this is typical in humans but not in animals.

The levels of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, operate only according to the principle of “maximal reception with minimal effort” to bring themselves to a state of fulfillment. Desire chooses their actions and evaluates them like this. So the natures of the still, vegetative, and animate don’t make mistakes. They have very clear algorithms.

Every level sees particular options for attaining the most fulfillment of its desire, choosing from them what requires the least effort because efforts deduct from the fulfillment attained. And this results in a simple formula according to which all levels of nature operate.

Look at any healthy animal, how it behaves with precision. But if it is sick, then its natural program errs and the animal begins to behave differently. We see this immediately.

So the Ohr Makif acts everywhere in everything; it is the only thing that exists!
[137942]
From the Sochi Convention 6/10/14, Lesson 2

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No Work Is More Important Than Dissemination

Dr. Michael LaitmanWritings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut”(Mutual Guarantee): The work in Torah and Mitzvot is expressed in the words, “and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests.” A kingdom of priests means that all of you, from youngest to oldest, will be like priests….so will the entire nation be organized so that the whole earth and everything in it will be dedicated to the Creator only.

It turns out that he who harvests his field in order to feed his fellow person is the same as he who sacrifices to the Creator. Moreover, it seems that the Mitzva, “Love thy friend as thyself,” is more important than he who makes the sacrifice….

The closer a person’s actions are to serving the physical needs of others, the higher his work is. If I have stitched sandals for a friend with loyalty and love, like Rabbi Yochanan, the Shoemaker, then with this I have done work that is greater and more important than the work that the High Priest does in the Temple in the Holy of Holies on the Yom Kippur (Day of Judgment).

All the more so, if I go out of my way, out of my surroundings to the wider public in order to explain to a person the goal of creation and to attract him to it, to give him a little knowledge about it, to give him support, to lend a helping hand, then there is no more important work than this. It is even impossible to compare how important this work is compared to all other work.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/18/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Whole World Is Nourished By Me

Dr. Michael LaitmanMutual guarantee is the law of connection between the vessels, between the souls. None of us can do his work if the others don’t sustain and don’t support him. It is a structure that exists only thanks to its connections. The moment someone breaks the connection, the whole structure falls apart.

The general law of connection and interdependence is called mutual guarantee. I exist now in the simplest form that has nothing to do with spirituality since it is the only form that can exist without the law of mutual guarantee.

The moment I begin to mix with others and connect to them, I detach myself from my current form and feel that I belong to the system, and to that extent, I feel the force in the system that is called the Creator.

Everyone is connected to one system of connection of mutual guarantee. And this is actually the reason we can connect because everyone connects in order to work for others.

Mutual guarantee is our achievement. Feeling that I am responsible for all of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature means that I feel that I am equal to the Creator. This is the only way I can be like Him: It is as if I give birth to everyone, raise them, sustain them, and revive them all. The whole world is nourished by me. This is called the force of mutual guarantee.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We Can Prevent The Threat

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In 1940 Baal HaSulam wrote about the danger looming over us. But today we see that this danger is no longer in potential if we don’t connect, we see it in reality in our children being kidnapped (in Israel).

Answer: It depends on how you look at things. Most people don’t think this way and go on with their life as if nothing happened. They may be ready to participate in some actions for the kidnapped boys, and here too, it isn’t everyone. Everyone has very egoistic calculations, so in the meantime we are forced to advance along the path of suffering, along the path of in its time.

In order to switch from in its time to I shall hasten it, we need a powerful system of education so that people will understand that they can change things and gain something by it.

It has to be a wide system of clarification that includes the whole nation. It shouldn’t be a result of the sufferings, the blows, and the troubles. We should not wait for the moment that people will be ready to listen to us. We shouldn’t wait for the blows, but rather we want to reach them when they feel good and bring them to an even better state. We have to establish a gradual system of education that will increasingly influence people.

We are going through a difficult practical learning process with the public. We learn what people accept, what they don’t, how we should better approach them, how to talk to them, and what our message should actually be. Thus we teach ourselves how to learn from others.

Comment: It is scary to think about what may happen if we don’t manage to carry out our work and prevent the war of Armageddon that the prophets wrote about.

Answer: There is nothing to be scared of! If we do whatever we can and try to convey the method of correction to people and draw them to the goal of creation, it is enough. Even if we don’t see that we succeed, it still works. We open a passage for the surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) and allow it to reform everything.

It is like a baby who in one day advances in learning about the world much more than an adult may advance in a year. But a baby doesn’t understand that and acts unknowingly.

This is what happens to us. We act without understanding, trying one way or another, and it seems that we don’t succeed. But such states are actually the most beneficial for advancing. Thus we don’t create a barrier for the Light since we are too confused and this is actually a good thing!

Question: Can we prevent the war of Armageddon if we carry on this way?

Answer: We are already at war. If we continue to work this way and other parts of the nation join us in order to fulfill this mission, this goal, then there is no doubt that everything will be alright and things will quickly improve. I don’t foresee any disasters in that case.

But we have to try to stay ahead of the blows so they will not catch up with us. We have to run faster than the whip that is about to hit us. We are able to do this thanks to the importance of the goal, so that we will not have to escape the whip but will yearn forward because we value the connection and the goal.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

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An Inter-Factional Approach

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, The Nation: This paper, The Nation, is a new creature on the Jewish street, an “inter-factional” paper. And you may ask, “What does an ‘inter-factional’ paper mean? How can there be a paper that can serve all parties together, despite the opposition and the contrasts among them?”

Indeed, it is a kind of creation that was born in straits, through hard and dreadful labor-pains, from amidst the venom of hatred that had struck the nations to obliterate us from the face of the Earth, the destruction of millions of our brothers, and they are still prepared to continue.

We see that it is the same today. Our movement operates for the connection of the whole nation and of the whole world actually, so that they will all be as one bundle, as one man in one heart. We have to set an example and dedicate ourselves to serve the people and the world. Therefore, we don’t belong to any party or any political movement, but are actually among everyone above all the differences.

After all, the differences stem from the human mind that wants to perform corrections one way or another. Even if everyone acts out of good intentions, it is still only according to one’s understanding. We, on the other hand, don’t operate according to our desire but according to the desire of the upper, which we learn from the upper wisdom, from the wisdom of Kabbalah, from the wisdom of truth.

Thus our approach is inter-factional and is suitable for all the streams and movements. We are ready to work with anyone who is ready to connect to us, but if we feel that there is separation somewhere, we immediately leave that movement and move aside.

Our work is important in order to bring the idea of connection to everyone. We are ready to join anyone, no matter whom. But of course, it has to be a connection that leads to the correction of the world and not a connection of the wicked that causes harm to the whole world,

Baal HaSulam called his newspaper The Nation (Ha Uma – also translated as The People), an inter-factional paper that was first published in 1940, and we can say the same about the pamphlets that we are publishing now one after the other for all the different levels of society. All this is above any inter-factional disputes or conflicts.

As with our past experiences in history, if a nation erupts on us, we find its substitute in another.

However, now things are very different. Not only are we attacked on all parts of the land at once, but even the most advanced nations have locked their doors before us without any sentiment of mercy or compassion, and in such a ruthless manner, unprecedented in the whole of human history, even in the most barbaric times.

Baal HaSulam wrote that we have reached a state in which we must immediately bring about a change in the nations of the world by the connection between us. Otherwise things will be very bad for us and for the whole world. Baal HaSulam wrote about this in 1940. Then the paper was shut down because of complaints that came from the religious public. His inclinations and his attempts to connect the people and to soften the situation didn’t succeed, and the outcome was the holocaust.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Don’t Dwell Upon The Past

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In preparation for dissemination, we go through many difficult physical states. All of the mutual flare-ups of the ego leave a deep scar on the heart, and it is as if you get an immunization so that you will not enter into such intimacy that you could get another wound.

Above what is it worthwhile to rise? Is it above your backing away from revealing your heart so that you won’t get close to such a distance where you get scars, or above concern about feeling the hatred that they leave?

Answer: Do not think about anything but going forward. Therefore, as it is written, “Love covereth all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12). Never go back to the past.

It appears to the degree that we can correct it. And until then it is forbidden to dwell upon it. It arises only when we are ready to correct it. So, act as if it never happened. That is how we should behave in life.

Question: So what can I ask the Creator for?

Answer: About the future.

Question: But I am not able to forget about the ego flare-ups from the friends.

Answer: If you are ready, then yes; if you are not ready, then no. When you are not ready, then you see that your ego is directing you.

Question: However, the Creator trips me up so that I see my own justification.

Answer: Certainly, He turns you around and confuses you. There is nothing you can do about it. That is how we go forward, and that is how we learn.
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From the Sochi Convention 6/9/14, Lesson 1

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An Unknown Property That Transforms The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In what form should we conduct a first meeting with the external public to leave them with a feeling of warmth?

Answer: Think about what is possible, it makes no difference. It could be that it will be a workshop in the form of a game.

The main thing is for a person to discover that when we connect and unite, then some kind of inner force, warmth, a “raspberry ball,” appears among us. It doesn’t matter what you call it. “Wow! How good this is!” That’s it, nothing more is needed. Only this feeling should remain with them. This is the conclusion of the first meeting!

However, it is necessary for this result to be registered: As we came together in a circle and each one didn’t think about himself but about how to be together with everyone in the center of the circle where all of our yearnings forward are gathered and everything personal is left outside of it, then, within the circle, we discover something new and pleasant, our shared child, our shared feeling, and this was so good, so warm, that when we looked at each other we felt that all of us were close, and this feeling is revealed only when we are connected like this.

I believe the result of the first round of the workshops or simply the meeting should be a raspberry ball. We need to bring people to a state where they feel that through the connection between them some special property is discovered that gives them warmth, hope, confidence, and transformation of the soul.
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From the Sochi Convention 6/9/14, Lesson 1

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.24.14

Preparation for the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Igrot,” Letter 47

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“The Book of Zohar” — Selected Excerpts, “Torah and Prayer,” Item 184

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 73

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