A Prayer Is Work In The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is a prayer a plea for the Creator’s help during bad times? Can I recite traditional prayers in my own words?

Answer: Prayer is called the work in the heart and not words a person says. I may not know the words of the prayers or the language at all. After all, a child’s cry is also a prayer. He doesn’t know any language, he just screams. Why? He wants something. This is called a prayer.

A prayer is raising MAN, revealing an empty desire. Raising a desire means that I want something higher compared to my present state. If I want this, it is called a prayer.

And if I want something that does not exceed my present level, then this request is not considered a prayer, and it does not rise upward, to the Upper One, who takes care of me. The Upper One is willing to carry out just one action: to help me ascend to Him. It is meant precisely for this, according to the order of the degrees that came down from above downward. Therefore, the prayer should be raising MAN (Mei Nukvin – the waters of Nukva), when Malchut wants to be like Bina.

There is the level of Bina and the level of Malchut. During the second restriction (Tzimtzum Bet) Malchut rises to Bina, and Malchut is already present in Bina. Then, as a result of the breaking, Malchut descends from Bina back into Malchut, but it descends together with the broken Bina. This is, in fact, the spiritual spark (the point in the heart) that is instilled in us.

A Prayer Is Work In The Heart
Now from our common Malchut, our desire to receive pleasure and the spark of Bina that awakes us, we wish to raise this spark back to Bina. My work consists of evaluating the spiritual spark in comparison with Malchut. I compare them to each other. If the spark is higher, this means that I wish to become similar to Bina, to merge with it, since the spark is a part of the Bina in me, a part of the Creator from above.

Then it is as though I raise it back to the level of Bina with my aspiration. This is called “the waters of Nukva,” which I raise upward. It is a part of Bina (water) that is in Malchut (Nukva). This is called a cry, a prayer. And it doesn’t matter what you say out loud during this time.
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From a lesson 10/18/2010, The Book of Zohar

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 10.24.14

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How Do We Unite In A Mixed Ten?

laitman_940Question: In small groups, tens often include beginners and veterans. They speak different languages, have different levels of understanding. How can they unite in such a diverse ten? What should be used as a foundation?

Answer: I do not see any problem. Look to the root, since inside a group, a newcomer and a veteran are absolutely the same.

It is like in the example with Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma who saw in his students an ideal group even though they were clueless beginners, understanding nothing. The difference between them was as between heaven and earth. But he saw their inner essence, how much they are connected with each other in the spiritual world.

If we would look at our friends like this, then there is no difference if one came to the group a few months ago, and another was in it for five years. We need to distance ourselves a little from external characteristics.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/14, Writings of Rabash

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A Request For A Solution

laitman_938_03Question: When in a large group, a group of ten helps the friends care for one another and support each other in their studies and dissemination, but on the other hand, it somewhat replaces one’s attitude towards the group and creates a certain egoistic formation within the group. There is even competition between the tens. How can we solve this dualism in a large group?

Answer: This is a very good state but we have not yet fully experienced it, so it is hard to answer this question. Maybe we need to organize ourselves in a whole new way and create a different kind of connection between us.

It is easier to interact in a small group. But what can we do in a large group where, presumably, one hundred people divide into ten groups? There needs to be a connection between them as well.

When it comes to a common system, being in one common net, “One’s as good as none.” Only the ten is a Minyan.

Minyan translates as “count” from Hebrew (from the word Mune). In other words, the count begins with a ten.

In the spiritual system, a ten is a unit, one knot that contains ten people. But they are not a knot but a Minyan until they unite as one man with one heart. Minyan is a single unit, ten together as one.

Tens must connect with one another as a hierarchy: initially, ten people connect as one and on the next level ten groups connect as a single group, etc.

This has never before existed in the world. And so we must advance little by little as we learn by experience. And we will be given an example from above.

And so the question remains. I want everyone to feel that this is an open question and that we do not know what to do, because this makes it a sort of a request for a solution.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/14, Writing of Rabash

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The Unity Government Of The World Family

Question: If the fuel gauge needle in a car goes below the red line, the car has run out of gas and the car stops. Has humanity similarly crossed the red line of the balance with nature, which has caused the spread of the Ebola virus?

Answer: The Kabbalists already said a hundred years ago that we are in a situation like this, that we must begin to think about the general balance of the Earth, and first and foremost, that of human society.

The lack of balance began at the end of the 19th century. This is even though we still didn’t think then that the world was becoming so global and mutually connected. We were never engaged in the world as a single system in which everyone is mutually connected. It will not help me if I would be stronger and richer than the rest. Everything should be calculated based on the entire great human family.

Kabbalists write that the whole world has become one family. And this means that I must be concerned for everyone, like in a family. Already at the beginning of the 20th century it was necessary to be concerned about this, that on the Earth there would be one government, one health department, and all of the other governmental agencies.

All of these governmental agencies and the world government must exist in order to take care of the whole world as a single family, and to teach all of us egoists how to live within it.

Just as parents educate their children and don’t let brothers fight with each other; the whole of humanity, too, in a natural way, quarrels with itself, but the government, like a concerned parent, represses these conflicts and balances the situation as much as possible: sometimes with a shout, sometimes with a light spanking, and sometimes with a candy.

The main thing is to teach people to gradually advance them towards conscious balance. We have a need for this kind of only for this purpose, not for anything else.

The necessity for this kind of government was awakened at least a hundred years ago, but we are late in creating it. We don’t understand what is required of us. We exist in a single system that links all of the governments and all of the nations with their borders and protectionism. This is because no nation wants to let go of its interests and each one holds onto its chair.

So whose fault is it that our world doesn’t live as one family? It is the governments! First of all, they are interested in mutual separation and political games so that there will be enough power, money, and control in their possession. For this they maintain the international conflicts in which each one shows its ego and demonstrates its importance.

All of the peoples suffer while the governments celebrate. We must create a united nations, but not as it exists today, composed of egoistic governments that conduct political games and empty talk.

There must be one government in the world that will teach everyone how to unite according to the laws of “one family,” how to balance themselves and attain mutual cooperation and equality all around the Earth. Then there won’t be any Ebola or any other problems.

But as long as we are not doing this, we will suffer just as the prophets described would happen in the end of days; we will endure not only epidemics, but also other blows from the unbalanced system that we ourselves have brought into imbalance.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/19/14

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ISIS: We Will Fly The Jihad Flag Above The Vatican

Dr. Michael Laitman

In the News (from New York Post): “The fanatical jihadists have published an image of their black flag with white Arab lettering flying above the Vatican on the cover of their English-language magazine Dabiq.

“The cover story, ‘The Failed Crusade,’ envisions the ancient Italian city under the rule of a Caliph and a hardline Sharia regime, according to the Jerusalem Post.

“‘The Islamic State claims it will one day conquer Rome, threatening to “break [the] crosses” of infidels and sell and trade their women.”…

“Pope Francis has called for international action to stop the group and backed the US-led coalition that has been striking ISIS targets.”

My Comment: In the prophecies of the correction of the world, which, according to Kabbalists, must be realized beginning with our time, and further, the war of Islam against the Christian world is indicated as the first phase of the correction of the world.
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The Root Of Ebola

Dr. Michael LaitmanReference: Disturbing headlines in the media tell of a serious epidemic of Ebola rapidly spreading in several countries in Africa. Currently, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are about 4,500 deaths and around 9,000 infected and carriers.

A WHO internal document suggests that attempts to halt the pandemic have failed. The whole world is concerned with what is happening. Of course, a variety of Hollywood movies come to mind, including Virus, filmed almost 20 years ago; its plot is based on the epidemic of Ebola.

In fact, the first outbreak of Ebola was noted in 1976, and since then until 2013 about 1,700 people have died from the disease. Thus, the virus itself is not new, but over the years, it has undergone mutations and shows a very high mortality rate.

Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with bodily fluids of the affected. Its primary symptoms are fever, headaches, dizziness, and other symptoms often associated with influenza.

Over time, the symptoms are aggravated: there is external and internal bleeding, as well as some other characteristic effects. Gradually, the body begins to fatally bleed, and thus the second name of the disease is hemorrhagic fever. The incubation period ranges from 2 to 21 days, a relatively short period.

Meanwhile, the UN has declared the current epidemic as a threat to peace and security.

Question: In the prism of the laws of nature and the direction of the processes going on in it, what exactly creates such an epidemic that caught both victims and scientists off guard?

Answer: Let’s view the picture from the perspective of Kabbalah. We are in a strict natural system, and the imbalance that we cause in it, especially in recent years, brings about phenomena of this kind.

Of course, epidemics occurred in the past. Some of them literally “mowed down” populations. But, anyway, viruses and bacteria, cells and organs, are all elements of the same system. We think that Africa is far away, that we have no connection to it, but in fact we are all parts of a whole.

That is why true medicine would take care to examine the general system and understand how it could be brought back to balance. After all, we systematically cause shifts in it and constantly disturb the balance, which leads to the disintegration of the subsystems and good connections, as well as the creation of new, distorted ties, generating unfit cells.

We would like to erase harmful microbes from our lives. But for microbes, the human body is just a habitat. We are a “biological reservoir” for them in which they can live and multiply.

People drink a bottle of yogurt in the morning with dozens of billions of beneficial bacteria and do not even realize that their body is a “home” for a much greater number of “tenants.”

It turns out that we live in a huge system, where the distance is not so important, where no body is isolated from the community. This is a giant organism in which there are various kinds of beings, both beneficial and harmful to our health.

This system is constantly balancing itself, equalizing differences, and our task is to bring it to a true equilibrium where helpful, friendly microbes are given the opportunity to be in equilibrium with the harmful, pathogenic ones.

Conversely, if we break the balance, even if it is in favor of “friends,” they turn into “enemies.” To balance the “distortion,” they have to turn part of themselves into the opposite.

For example, only fighting against predators and pests brings even greater damage because we disturb the balance of the overall ecosystem. At the turn of the 1960s, China initiated pest control, in particular with sparrows, destroying crops.

Within a year, several million birds were killed, as a result, caterpillars and locusts burgeoned and yields declined so much that there was a famine that killed tens of millions of people.

Thus, there are no “good” and “bad” bacteria or viruses. Our health is based on the equilibrium between them.

Meanwhile, we ourselves occupy the top level in the pyramid of the still, vegetative, animate, and human nature. And our problem is how here, at the top, can we create a balance among ourselves? If we would, equilibrium would then descend from the highest level of the hierarchy to all other levels and would adjust all the connections. That’s right, from top to bottom the entire system is ordered.

Therefore, it all depends on people. I don’t want to appear as a fortune teller or a moralist, but if we, as a society, would try to maintain a balance among each other, if we would introduce into the social environment a little more equality, a little more warmth, closeness, and mutual aid, it would have a beneficial impact on the lower levels of the total hierarchy, down to the still nature, including terrestrial and aquatic fauna and flora and the planet itself with its volcanoes, hurricanes, floods and other disasters. Thanks to us, the world would be eventually at rest.

After all, the human being occupies the top level in evolutionary development. In particular, social human relations today cause a total imbalance.

In this perspective, the essence of the problem is not Ebola and other troubles that threaten us. Many diseases that were rampant in the Middle Ages seemed to have vanished, but in reality they haven’t.

If we continue to exacerbate social imbalances, if we continue to break all the good relations among each other, up to the complete rejection of unity and balance, then by “our efforts” forgotten diseases and misfortunes will return. The current protection from them is not wholly a panacea, and it will turn out that there is no remedy.

Indeed, we are continuing our detrimental development and it is clear that we are drawn into a protracted, interminable crisis. As a consequence, we cause problems, diseases, and other manifestations of imbalance but on another level, on the other loop. Therefore, the old means and medications will not help.

The time has come to reflect and understand that the only medicine that can protect and safeguard us all is in human society’s balance. Only by positive relations on the top level of this system, which is under our control, will allow us to ensure our health.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/19

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Working With A Person’s Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: At the same time as the activity in Sochi, we have been involved with active dissemination in our locale. There have been close to two thousand people who have gone through our programs and have participated in circles and workshops. There were people who came regularly, time after time.

The question is: “What is our ultimate goal?” A person comes, sits in a circle; he likes the connection and unity; he even takes part in creating contact with us and later can act with us in partnership. But what is the goal? Is it that they will live better? What ultimately must happen?

Answer: The idea is that you must work on a person’s desire, on what he wants in his life. Accordingly, you must develop courses. Someone is interested in creating a family, another is interested in the education of children, a third is interested in working with his subordinates, a fourth is interested in mutual cooperation with the world, how can he be included in a society, more peaceful and healthy, etc. It is necessary to think about what he might “buy,” towards what his interests are directed.

Suppose that I go out to people. A hundred people are in front of me. I sit them in a shared general circle and go through a workshop in which they will begin to feel the right warm mutual cooperation between them. And it won’t be bad here if you ask them what they want in life, what is their inclination and yearning, what interests and concerns them. So I can easily determine in what kind of group I should include them.

This is because I have groups for the education of children, for creating a family, for improving productivity, to improve atmosphere in organizations, and more. But the direction of the group itself is not important to me because I teach them how to act with the right mutual partnership so that they will organize the right society among themselves.

The main thing for me is that they accept and perceive this right society as a field for discovering the unique force of nature where the characteristics of connection, mutuality, love, and warmth are created. They must feel this!

We must try to explain everything to them in a simple language, in the right, scientific language, with examples from daily life. Together with this, we summon a force that heals and calms us, that gives us a sensation of warmth, trust, and security. It creates everything that we greatly lack for a good existence. We need to bring them to it.

Essentially, without mentioning the Creator, we talk about His revelation, but we talk in words like these, so that they will understand all of this and no problems will pop up with them. It is necessary to develop our mutual cooperation with them specifically in this way, and the result of these courses will be the feeling of the general characteristic of nature: God is love.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/14, Shamati #5

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Ebola Is A Virus Of Imbalance

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The Ebola epidemic is threatening the world by putting humanity on the borderline between life and death. Where does the virus come from and what can we do to stop it?

Answer: The Ebola epidemic has attracted the attention of the whole world, but in fact there are many problems we have to deal with which are just as serious.

All the problems stem from the imbalance in human society. It is difficult to distinguish which of the problems that we are causing bring about wars and which bring about diseases, tsunamis, or volcanic eruptions.

There are many natural factors that can be more harmful to humanity than the Ebola virus. Experts, for example, predict a great volcanic eruption in California. Volcanic activity is constantly growing there and an eruption is very near.

If that happens, the ash could cover the whole sky to such an extent that we would not be able to see the sun. The temperature would drop to minus 50 degrees Celsius or even minus 70 degrees. It is unclear how we would be able to survive in such conditions.

We are in one system and its imbalance has reached a critical red line, which evokes the negative forces in nature. Everything depends on the level and type of imbalance that we summon. No one is punishing us on purpose in this way, and it is actually the natural response of the system. If the system is out of balance, it hits us.

We may, however, call it punishment, since on earlier levels in the past, we developed by blows that pushed us forward. The Ice Age is such an example. Baal HaSulam says that when the planet Earth was formed, it went through several phases of alternating heating and cooling and each period lasted for about thirty million years until the crust of the earth upon which life could exist was created on top of this giant volcano.

There have always been extreme processes on the surface of the earth, but they have quieted down and brought the earth to a state of balance so that life forms could appear. The temperature difference between winter and summer is about 20 degrees at the most, which is a negligible difference compared to what happened on this planet before it reached a balanced state when the temperature would rise to 2,000 degrees and drop to 50 or 200 degrees below zero.

Balance was achieved in certain conditions in which we can exist. Protein life can exist thanks to a temperature balance on earth, in the oceans, and on land.

As man developed, he rose above this whole system. All parts of nature are connected to one system: the atmosphere, the oceans, and the continents. The earth doesn’t exist according to the laws of states and nations that are divided by borders but as one planet with one ecology and general, collective, natural processes. People living on this planet today upset the balance.

This system has no intention of punishing us, but it reacts according to our actions, so we receive what we deserve from it. Of course it beats us for upsetting the balance on our human level. As a negative factor causing disequilibrium, humanity receives a counterstrike.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/19/14

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Free Public Lecture In Los Angeles November 3rd

LA 2014 Lecture Dr. Michael Laitman