Audio Version Of The Blog – 07.25.14

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Maturing Not Through Blows

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe are involved with a system of forces that is trying to reach balance and gives us interactive answers. Moreover, there is a single force that activates all of them. This is the power of balance. It influences and acts upon all the particular forces, on all the parts, to bring them to an inclusive balance, and this force is called the “Creator” or “nature.”

However, it is not revealed to us because then we would be united against our will. Suppose that the Creator were to visibly demand from us, “Unite, otherwise I will finish you off.” Certainly, we would listen to His voice from a lack of any other choice.

However, we would not have matured in this way, because our choice, “to be a good child,” would be left on the level of the beast and would be based on fear of punishment.

On the other hand, today, when we are punished, this still doesn’t oblige us to become “good children.” There is no clear connection between the two so that we ourselves would complete the deficiency through our understanding so that we would mature, attain, and reach the entire system of creation.

So parents, also, by punishing a child, don’t oblige him to comply immediately, for they want him to mature, to distinguish between good and evil, and understand how to act correctly by himself. This is so the small child who doesn’t understand will become a mature adult who will acquire intelligence through foolishness.

It is impossible just to hit him like a beast that is afraid of you and depends on you and so he does what you want. No, we don’t want the child to be so dependent upon us. We hope for him to have understanding, attainment, self-awareness, and the correct free choice.

So, there is no direct connection between troubles and conversely, the good deeds. Nature arranges everything so that we must fill  this interval between disasters and good deeds with the recognition of evil.

Question: How is all this connected?

Answer: The Kabbalists must teach the people of Israel how to act, and, when the people of Israel reach the level of understanding and feeling, they will begin to teach all of humanity. This is called “being a light to the nations.” After the inner correction, we will see to what degree they are ready for this in order to comprehend this from us.

Today, we have wisdom. We have the knowledge about what must be done and we are trying to go out to the people.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Wars of Israel” 7/18/14

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Unification Is The Mission Of Israel

Dr. Michael LaitmanRecorded in a Lesson: I finally realize that if there is destruction that is no more than the thickness of a hair’s breadth from our side in the group, or even among the people of Israel, it can cause an immense mountain of problems among the nations of the world. For example, there may be those who would just look at each other sideways in Israel, whereas among them, they would start to kill each other and poison each other with gases over the same thing. That is how all of this develops in their coarse substance.

And so it is understandable that other than connection and unity there is nothing else for us to do. This is because it is like someone who is tirelessly working hard drawing water that is flowing out of a faucet and flooding a room instead of simply turning off this faucet once and for all so that things will be okay.

This unity that must also spread to the nations of the world is the mission of the nation of Israel, then all peoples will stop claiming that they are the source of all the problems of the world!
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An Armor Of Love Against Missiles

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Suppose that in a circle we attain closeness of our hearts. Will this prevent missiles from falling on us?

Answer: After an experience like this, people will understand and agree that it is possible to attain a better result through connection; they will advance. They will feel that the people of Israel truly possess a unique power with whose help it is possible to correct the world.

They need to come to a conclusion like this gradually—another workshop and another, as many as is required. Education is not acquired all at once, but, each time, little by little, they gradually begin to discover that this is so.

The main thing is that we will see how these actions themselves suddenly begin to change reality. It will become noticeable that through activities like these we make it possible for the Light to work within every human desire. Throughout the world, positive changes will happen. We will feel how everything will begin to relax and everyone will begin to relate to Israel differently.

Suddenly, it will become clear that the United Nations is no longer directed against us, and our enemies and haters suddenly will agree to peaceful measures.

There is no choice. Only Israel has free choice and operates independently in the world. Whether we want it or not, everything revolves around us. We cannot say that we are not guilty and that we don’t understand what they want from us. We belong to the people of Israel and so, we must bring the world to correction! The Kabbalists already wrote about this five thousand years ago.
[140010]
From KabTV’s “The Mission of the People of Israel,” 7/8/14

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A War We Have No Chance Of Winning

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Despite the fact that unity should be the common denominator of our people, we still find reasons to be divided in the debate about the need for a ground attack in Gaza.

The shooting continues and the unilateral cease fire did not lead to anything. What is more, it didn’t lead to the support of the world.

We would like to hear voices saying that we have tried so hard and that, now we are forced to act firmly, but no. We are not popular like we were before, although no other country would agree to have enemies attack its citizens.

What is more, we see a dispute in the government. The deputy minister of defense was fired by the prime minister following his strong criticism of the government policy. In addition, every minister has his own opinion about the situation, and it is clear that they do not agree with one another.

If wars in the past led us to unite, today we are separated under the rocket attacks. What should happen so that we will truly unite?

I will bring an example from our life. During the siren alert, a strange woman came into our shelter since she was near our building at the time. When she was at the doorway, she hesitated, wondering if she should go back to her car since she left her handbag with her purse in it and forgot to lock the car.

In fact, she wasn’t sure which she should fear more, the coming missile or the fact that someone might steal her bag from the car.

So, of whom are we more afraid, of ourselves or of the enemies on the outside? It is a very painful dilemma.

Looking at our current situation, we find ourselves over and over again in the awkward situation of those who are forced to shoot in a civilian neighborhood where the enemy hides their arsenal, and each time, we are accused of killing innocent people. No matter what we do and how hard we try not to hurt people, no one shows any understanding.

The result is a paradoxical situation. We either don’t protect ourselves, or protect ourselves and feel uncomfortable. So, there is no choice, and we always come out as the guilty ones.

In addition, if, in the past, we could talk about unity in times of trouble, today everyone feels that there is no unity and consensus among us. Even the “missile steamroller” is not enough to bring us together anymore and forge us to one another as it used to be in the past.

Answer: I suppose that this time the people are reacting differently and in a new way to what is happening. The point is not the current conflict itself. Of course, the attitude of the world toward the Jewish state is getting worse, while the Jews abroad are reluctant to be in contact with Israel so as to avoid the accusation meant for Israel.

As to Israel itself, people are greatly divided. In the past, everyone united in times of war and tried to avoid criticism and even feared to express criticism since the result was social banishment. However, today, people feel powerless, hopeless, and helpless, and acknowledge the fact that there is no real solution. In the past, it seemed that we had a solution, but now we are sure that there isn’t one.

This brings the people to a totally different state. For the first time, we are up against an enemy whom we have no weapon to fight. What is more, we have no weapon against the enemy inside us. When there is no general solution for the nation of Israel in the land of Israel, people are divided and each one looks for his own private solution.

For the first time, the question about what is really important awakens internally, but it seems that people don’t want to think about it yet. After all, according to what is going on, we have no future here. Logically, all the means we have are futile when the pace of events grows. We are facing a situation with which we cannot cope. It seems that there is no solution.

This feeling penetrates the nations and makes us feel helpless and desperate. The conflict over the ground operation in Gaza was because no one actually had any real answers. There is no solution, and we are beginning to realize it more and more.

The Jewish people, whose survival throughout history is a wonder, live in an artificial state. It isn’t clear what it lives on, and its state is insoluble. Everything is gradually sinking into a mist of hopelessness.

Question: If we look more closely at the Jews all over the world, we see quite a gloomy picture. If in the past the Jews abroad used to unite with the people in Israel in times of trouble, today we see this much less and even the opposite inclination. Most Jews abroad, if not all, actually agree with the general international opinion that Israel is wrong in the current conflict.

For example, the founder of J. Street in the US came to a conference in Israel and said that the military policy and strategy in the occupied territories are wrong and a blow to Hamas, and the civilians in Gaza surely will provoke the hostile response of different countries in the world. As evidence, he brought up the example of the boycott of the Presbyterian Church of Israel. What is more, J. Street actually promoted this decision of the church during their convention.

In the meantime, a Jewish member of the Iranian parliament said the Israeli policy in the occupied territories is identical to the policy of Nazi Germany.

Jews who live abroad publish clips that encourage pressure on Israel on the part of Christians, openly expressing their disagreement with the Israeli policy.

We see similar phenomena everywhere. This is not the first time that we have seen that, and on the whole, it is a sign that something very bad is going to happen. The situation was very similar before the command to expel the Jews from Spain. The same thing happened in Germany after Hitler’s rise.

Now, the same picture is reoccurring, an internal erosion of the nation’s unity that seriously weakens our ability to exist as a state. The point isn’t military power but the fact that we simply don’t know what to do with ourselves.

The only ray of light that I see is the fact that our illness—being a divided nation—is already visible. A significant part of the people feel that the current war is different from those that preceded it since we are not united. The right diagnosis is the guarantee for healing.

Let me give you an example: A friend of mine was called to army reserve service at the beginning of the operation and he told me over the phone that he is actually overwhelmed by the people who left their homes and their families and are ready to protect the state and are filled with a sense of pride, mutual guarantee, and self sacrifice. However, on the other hand, the military reality is rotten. The nice words the army uses evaporate when we look at things from the inside. What is most painful is to see the gap between the wonderful people, the fighters of elite units and the rotten establishment, a mechanism that is outdated, including the media, and destroys the unity between us, setting different parts of the nation at each other.

What should we do about this hopelessness? Is there really no solution? How can we advance?

Answer: It is impossible to advance with what we have. This is not advancement, but regression. There is nothing to hope for in our current state.

If we want to talk about the new state, we must prepare for it, ascending to a totally different level of recognizing what is going on.

We must look at things generally and see what the Israeli nation has come to. It is impossible to demand that the world should treat us as if we are like everyone else. No, we cannot be like everyone else. We are a special people, a special state, and our state in the world is unique. However, we pretend that there is no difference between us and the others, and this, of course, doesn’t work.

It isn’t by chance that the Jews abroad speak against us and that they want to detach themselves from us and have nothing to do with the Israeli nation.

However, the real reason for what is happening is that the Israeli nation, the state of Israel, is not on the level that they should be.

Question: What is this new level of consciousness? What should the Israeli nation turn into so that they will have hope again?

Answer: According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we must be united and become as one man in one heart. This has nothing to do with religion. The point is that if we are united, we are a nation, and otherwise, we are simply a collection of immigrants from different countries that were given a certain length of time to correct themselves and unite, and if not, we will be dispersed again.

The connection between us is the pre-condition for entering the land of Israel and for conquering it in order to live here exactly like the nation of Israel in the land of Israel. If the connections between us are cut off, and, instead of “love thy neighbor as thyself” we shift to unfounded hatred, we will be thrown out of here and cease to be a nation, and, instead, will be dispersed all over the world, while the other nations do whatever they want with us.

This is our fate, and there is nothing we can do about it. It has led us throughout our history, and the 21st century hasn’t nullified its demand. So eventually the question is whether we are able to unite or not.

Question: What should we do if we have disagreements?

Answer: It makes no difference. We must unite above them. We are a developed nation, and so our opinions are totally different. Sometimes, they are similar, and sometimes they are opposite to one another. There is no other nation that is so divided in its perspective. What is more, each of us has several different perspectives.

Therefore, we must learn to unite above all the differences and the disagreements. It is possible if we implement the method of connection that the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us. Then, we will be one nation in a united state, and the entire world will come to us to learn this method.

After all, the world needs it, too. The state of the world is no better than our state. It is in the midst of a terrible crisis, and doesn’t know which way to go nor how to advance. The confidence in the future is gone; events overwhelm humanity; missile attacks are not the worst thing that may happen.

It is a natural phenomenon, a natural law, that the nations of the world blame the Jews for their troubles. It is clear that Israel is the source of all the troubles in the world. When Israel is not united, there is no unity in the world. We disrespect one another, don’t join one another, don’t reach love and unity, and ignore the basic principles of “That which you hate, do not do to your friend,” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

To live as one man in one heart is the formula of the existence of the Jewish nation. Otherwise, we are not a nation and, accordingly, neither are we a state. After all, a state needs to be established by the Jewish nation according to its inner attributes, when everyone is attracted to unity, creating the external conditions to support it. All the government institutions and mechanisms, including the education system, must be based on this approach. The basic commandment of one man in one heart and to reach mutual love must be the basis for everything.

All this is described in our sources, and there is nothing to look for anywhere else. We should only understand the writings according to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Otherwise, we will miss the opportunity to live in this land and to build ourselves. After all, this is an opportunity we have paid for with the lives of six million people who were burnt in the holocaust.

This opportunity actually was given to us by the nations of the world, but, in the meantime, their attitude toward us is changing, and there isn’t one nation that supports us.

Question: Indeed, in 1967 when the Six Day War broke out and Israeli tanks went into the Sinai, even the Germans supported us, and one of the major newspapers published a headline, “They are rolling!!!” How everything has changed since then.

Answer: Let’s ask ourselves why this is happening. There is no point in being nice guys in the eyes of the world, and they don’t even demand that we do so. They demand something else: that we should be an example of the connection of the world.

After all, the current crisis includes the entire world. It is a human crisis that is taking place in human society and from there, affects nature. We can fix it only by a positive connection among everyone and cooperation between the nations, and only we can set an example of connection and have the power to fulfill it.

This is actually what the nations of the world are saying: that, by being divided, we invoke all the evil in the world. It makes no difference what they blame us of. Behind every accusation that they make, there is one idea. We are a pain in the neck for them, and we are responsible for the fact that the world is in such a bad state.
[139644]
From KabTV’s “Talk on the Current Situation in Israel” 7/16/14

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Make Room For Everyone

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How do we use our ego correctly, and how do we nullify ourselves to realize the goal of the group?

Answer: Our ego is our faithful helper. If we hear it correctly, if we understand how it is necessary to work with it, then we will thank the Creator that He made us like this. Unfortunately, we don’t work with it correctly.

Whatever people come to the group, however they may be, and however long they stay with us, it could be that they will come today and will leave tomorrow, that doesn’t matter to us. We must accept every person (as long as he is not harmful) as someone who is missing from our whole Kli. It doesn’t matter with what “craziness” he reaches us. We must accept him as desirable.

The group must make room for everyone, support everyone, but only if he does not begin to disparage it, if he does not begin to be too condescending or harm the studies, or won’t express disagreement with the main requirements for the group that were given to us in the writings of the great Kabbalists: Ramchal, Ari, Baal HaSulam and Rabash.

We must be concerned about the friends because each one of them is a fragment of my soul. After all, every world group, all of humanity, everything still, vegetative, and animate, are my soul. But, in the meantime, I perceive only that part that the Creator gives me so that I somehow will begin to build myself spiritually.
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From the International Summer Camp In Bulgaria 7/11/14, Lesson 2

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Unity In Yearning For A Common Future

Dr. Michael LaitmanEurope includes a number of nations and as many languages, opinions, and ideologies. How would it be possible to begin to unify such an egoistic, fragmented situation?

I think that this is possible and even more than in any other place in the world because due to this fragmentation, it is felt how weak Europe is, how much it has lost its power in the world, its culture, and its spiritual and ethical foundation. What is left of it? It is devouring itself, and, in addition to that, immigrants are streaming into it from all over the world, conquering parts of it.

Today, it exists thanks to the past, thanks to several decades of development after World War II. I think that if you scrutinize this situation—highlight, examine, and describe it correctly—it can become a springboard for bringing the Europeans to a good upheaval.

I have met with the leaders of the European Union. They have no plan for the future; the future is absolutely lost to them. Emptiness and lack of faith in the future is all that is left to them because they don’t have any kind of mechanism in their hands for correcting the current European situation.

Europe truly needs unity, but not under one financial roof. This is the worst possible thing to invent, so nobody wants it, but there is unity in yearning for a common future.

This unity doesn’t exist now, but, in the future, they will need to reach this. So, there will be possibilities for Europe to survive and remain a strong continent. Let it  be a United States of Europe, speaking different languages with different cultures and environments, still it will be a  united states.

We call upon them and  explain how to do this. After all, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, there is a method—as it is written, “Love covereth all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12)—and we need to give that to Europe.

For this, it is necessary to rise above all the differences and conflicts to the point of rejecting the reality among us. We know that between neighbors, for the most part, there are disagreements, but if there is a desire, it is possible to rise above them and attain an agreement so that our “Concorde” will fly and not fall.

I think that everything must begin from consolidation between the groups, from understanding that this process is the most important thing for the continent. When you begin to engage in unity between the European groups, you will feel the need to unify within each group.

Then, you truly will begin to work among yourselves, organizing meetings, conventions, and putting together a plan of action; and to strengthen your group in every nation, you must expand it, disseminate, and so forth.

After the ground is ready, it will be possible to organize a large, serious, and true convention for all of Europe. I consider this to be the most important thing. However, again, this requires work on all levels: each one within himself, we within a group, we in dissemination around a group, we in connection between the groups, and we in connection between nations on a continental scale.

This must be done. We won’t escape from this.
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From the International Summer Camp In Bulgaria 7/11/14, Lesson 2

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A Good Or Bad Example For All People

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn every integral system each one influences the entire system. If there exist general mutual connections and everyone depends upon everyone in a system, it is clear that each smallest part, component, and organ in this system can disrupt or destroy the work of the entire system and serve as a bad example to all the rest.

However, the integral spiritual system differs in this. That same principle also acts positively in it. One destructive part can destroy the entire system and one part that acts correctly can fill it entirely. This is particular addition exists in a spiritual system. Each one absorbs the entire system and therefore can correct them all.

In the meantime, we cannot digest these things. When we begin to feel the structure of the spiritual system through the Light that Reforms, we understand that the whole and the part are equal there. In the meantime, we all have an influence on the importance and dependence of each one on equality.

However, in fact, this spiritual principle, “The whole and the part are equal,” means that there is no whole and no part. Rather, there is only one thing: one Kli (soul) and one Light.

In order to reach the corrected state, we are in a situation that is its opposite. First, through our efforts, we must discover our evil and, after that, reach a state of “Depart from evil, and do good” (Psalms 34:15), and then we discover the lack of the unity that we must attain.

In the process of attaining unity, there is a difference between two parts of the system. One part is called Israel, Yashar El (directly toward the Creator), that has a relationship and connection with the Upper Light, with the higher power, and it can attract it for the purpose of correcting itself and the entire system. This means that Israel must correct itself for the sake of the entire system.

The second part of the system, which is called the “nations of the world,” cannot attract the Light that Reforms by itself and in addition, cannot unite, even though it wants this. So, the part called the nations of the world feels dependent upon Israel negatively because it doesn’t receive nourishment, fulfillment, from Israel. Israel doesn’t reveal unity within itself, and, so, it doesn’t influence and radiate this unity to the nations of the world. This is even though it must be an example to the others and a “light to the nations” (Isaiah 42:6).

This is no ordinary example of good human relationships because it is operating on a spiritual level, not on a human, physical level. The moment Israel unites, it becomes a system through which the Light that Reforms can pass to the nations of the world. Then, they also will be connected, and then their lives will be filled with Light.

So, everything depends upon that part of humanity called Israel, and this is what we see according to the attitude of the nations of the world toward it.
[139955]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/14, Writings of Rabash

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Turn Toward A Person’s Desires

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What actions and efforts must be taken to create a unified European group?

Answer: In general, it is necessary to turn to the desire of a person that has not been fulfilled within him, that pains him. This could be security, health, critical problems of the nation, or the family.

According to what is happening in the world today, we cannot say that people have such desires that we can grasp and attract them to us.

We see how many drug addicts there are in the world. People are running away from problems and taking antidepressants. In this aspect, Europe is not the happiest place in the world. In the undeveloped African nations, people feel much happier than in advanced Europe.

The feeling of happiness doesn’t depend upon a high quality of life. It is impossible to calculate this in terms of wealth or comforts in life. This is the inner state of the person. It could be that he has nothing and he feels free, easy, and simple. He doesn’t think about what will be tomorrow. This doesn’t concern him.

On the other hand, Europeans are concerned about that in another ten years that, all of a sudden, they wouldn’t have a pension. So, they are already in a panic now. In this regard, everything is very personal.

It is necessary to examine this “market” of desires, what the person wants. In every nation, the groups must be involved in examining how to approach this question. We need explore all kinds of sociological surveys, look at the advertisements through which all kinds of charlatans promise people freedom from all problems, determine what the people are turning toward, what are the people’s desires, what catches people on the hook the most. In every nation, this can be different in various layers of the society.

If you do this, you will have a clear understanding of how to go out to the public and what to talk about. You will begin to come in contact with them by reading these materials, and you will begin to absorb their needs and empty and unfulfilled desires into yourselves.

These desires will begin to work in you, and you will begin to think, “How is it possible to approach people? What workshops should be organized? What should I ask them so that they will understand that they don’t have this and this is bad for them here?” That is how we gradually bring them to the conclusion that, with the help of unity, the connection, it is possible to solve the painful problems.

So, the first step toward European unification is to determine the main needs in every region in every issue and their lack of fulfillment, and offer to fulfill them. It is possible to attract people to us only through fulfillment of their ego.

We are not lying because we truly can help them do this.
[139950]
From the International Summer Camp In Bulgaria 7/11/14, Lesson 2

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Convention In Colombia “Day One” – 07.25.14

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