Audio Version Of The Blog – 12.09.14

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Darkness Before The Coming Of The Messiah

Laitman_119In the footsteps of the Messiah insolence will increase and honor dwindle; the vine will yield its fruit [abundantly] but wine will be dear; the government will turn to heresy and there will be none [to offer them] reproof; the meeting-place [of scholars] will be used for immorality; Galilee will be destroyed, Gablan desolated, and the dwellers on the frontier will go about [begging] from place to place without anyone to take pity on them. [Talmud, Chapter “Sotah” 49:6].

In the world a sum total of two states exist, upper and lower, and from them the birth of the next step is possible.

The first state is one in which the upper force is revealed to man. People wait for it, yearn for Him, understand and grasp what they attained. This state is called the “way of Torah,” the way of the Light, of recognition and wisdom, and we paved it by ourselves by restricting time and inviting upon ourselves the developing forces of nature.

But in the other state, it is the opposite: Man denies it completely, enters into his ego, and does in it whatever he wants. The land of Israel or the desire for the Creator, for bestowal and love, is not important to him. This state is completely opposite to the first state, and when we come to its completion in a hardened state, it is then that we are ready for the revelation of the Messiah, because even the smallest Light will show us our ultimate futility and we will begin to feel the need for the bestowal of the Upper Light on us.

Such a contradiction between the situation in the present and the future state can be felt as a very strong yearning by a person for the next degree, or on the contrary, a complete distancing from it. Then a tiny quantity of Light will be enough for us to see that we are in darkness. And without it we will not feel anything.

Today we don’t feel that we are in darkness at all, as if we don’t have eyes, there is no Light. And if He will illuminate a little, we will feel darkness. And if not, then it will be enough for us with what we exist. This is our world now.

Remark: But complete darkness is prior to the coming of the Messiah.

Answer: Meanwhile we are not in complete darkness because everything is measured against man. Therefore, if man does not determine his state as complete darkness, we will not be able to talk about it.

Humanity needs to determine the two states. The regular feeling of darkness by people is because of the pressure of the Kabbalists and from the masses. They were able to torture and slaughter the Kabbalists. A state like this of humanity is one of the signs of the coming of the Messiah.

Question: So why is the Messiah not coming?

Answer: The people did not understand it; they only saw the terrible execution of Rabbi Akiva, without understanding that he is making the last step to eternity. Precisely at this time came the death of twenty four thousand of his students and the destruction of the temple.

And also today, the people do not understand yet in what period they live. People don’t feel that they need the force of the Messiah. Therefore we need to teach and educate them and disseminate the method of connection and unity.
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From KabTV’s “Will the Messiah Come?” 11/14/14

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Don’t Let Disappointment Be The Result Of Your Efforts

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a person still annul oneself?

Answer: One does this out of desperation and hopelessness. This takes place on the condition that the person doesn’t run away. If one comes to class twice a week instead of seven times and doesn’t become included in the group, one prolongs time. Of course, nothing is ever lost, and even the smallest exertion still counts. But the question still stands, how big is this contribution?

Put together a clear schedule for yourself, such as group work and dissemination, and then begin to implement it without any desire. The heart is where the deeds are. That’s the way our world is, and it’s a good thing that it’s been designed this way. After all, we can awaken our hearts with the help of deeds.

People adopt someone else’s child, put forth efforts and begin to love this child. At first, they don’t have any natural love towards it, but later this child becomes more loved by them than a biological child. The point is that this requires a lot of effort.

We’ve put a lot of effort into our spiritual development as well. But it still needs to be analyzed to find out what it gave us. We fall into despair, and this is very good! The disappointment shouldn’t throw us back home—in the place where the children of Israel cried out from the hard work.

A man is obliged to embark on the next level of work, but one escapes it, since after all, one gets disappointed. A person thinks that the result is obvious, and can’t comprehend that disappointment is this result. This should be a desired and correct result at a person’s current level.

While a person thinks that no results were ever achieved and there was no success, he accuses the group, the teacher himself, and decides to quit. The only one thing to blame here is the misunderstanding of the revelation to a person that one does not have the power to get closer to the Creator. What could be better than such a state?

There should be no happier moments in life than when all of the attempts of a person fail. We see that the friends who were with us for years didn’t understand this and left. Each one of us can be in their place, as it is said “Do not believe in yourself until the day you die,” that is, until death of egoism and complete correction of your desire.

In this state, it is necessary to drag yourself to the lesson by force and try to wake yourself up, engage with the group and get the group’s strength. This is where the work is.

There’s nothing particularly to enjoy when you wake up and feel inspired right off the bat. But if you wake up with an effort and drag yourself by force and start to awaken and force yourself to work, then you really do the job. You must love this work by which you awaken yourself from the state of unconsciousness.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/14, Writings of Rabash

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Questions And Answers

  1. I must always remember that evil is the force from the Creator, for “There is none else besides Him.” How should I treat evil? Evil was given to me for correction, so it can be turned into good.
  2. When does evil become good? It does so when I correlate evil to the Creator.
  3. How can one unveil evil becoming good? Light enters the desires between which there is no screen (connection, common intention, and mutual guarantee), and so the Light’s good turns evil (egoism) into good, which fills the “space” between us. Along with our efforts attracting OM (Ohr Makif, the Correcting Light), we summon evil (egoism, Pharaoh, the opposite side of the Creator) that turns into good (bestowal, love, revelation of the Creator).
  4. How do we attribute all of our work to the Creator? Everything comes from the Creator. Exile is where the Creator hides from a person; work-in-exile is the revelation of the Creator, and exiting the exile means revealing that “There is none else besides Him.”
  5. What is the cause for burdening of the spiritual mood? The fact that a person forgets that one receives everything from the Creator! And as soon as one remembers it, then it is immediately determined how to relate and to respond to this state designed by the Creator.

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Contact In A Force Field

laitman_579Question: Do you feel the students sitting in front of you as one entity, as one breath? Or can you feel almost everyone?

Answer: No, I usually don’t tune into each person. I do it very rarely, only if the person has a special internal movement, and one really wants to cling to me.

There are some people who need it. Then I act so that one feels that this phrase is for him alone. By doing so I hug this person or put my arm around him, transferring something of mine into him. This happens very rarely.

Comment: Many people who watch you on TV or even sit during the lesson experience a feeling that your words are addressed specifically to them. They supposedly get answers to their questions.

Answer: This is actually the case.

But now I’m talking about a purely internal contact with a particular student in one’s particular state.

It’s not important for a student to sit in front of me. Imagine a huge meadow covered with flowers of different heights, as though in a movie, where the flowers sing to the music while coming out of the ground and going back. You take care of this flower bed by cheering this one on, and by petting the other one a little. It doesn’t matter where they are. A job is a job.

This is just a field where the young plants grow. Thus, my physical and external contact with a person in this world has no meaning. Maybe one hasn’t been born yet, and will watch this TV program only twenty years from now once born and grown up. Contact occurs in a force field, and in any case will reach him.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/2/14

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Don’t Deceive Yourself

laitman_423_01The Torah, “Leviticus” (Kedoshim), 19:13: Thou shalt not oppress thy neighbor, nor rob him; the wages of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.

A person should not play sophisticated tricks on other people under any circumstances. He has to be honest and truthful as much as possible since otherwise the attribute of love and bestowal doesn’t work.

When we ascend above our corporeal state in the group, we understand that there is nothing we can do since we were created this way and all the problems are above our corporeal creature, in the unity among us in mutual love and bestowal. We reach a state in which there can be no lies. Otherwise a person deceives himself because he doesn’t establish a connection with the other parts of his soul.

It is because together we make up one unique soul, which is one for everyone and all are incorporated in this general soul. Then it is your incorporation, your soul, from your perspective. So, who can you deceive if it is actually you? Who can you lie to, and who can you cheat, or steal from, detract in your giving, or leave what you can do today for tomorrow? This means that it isn’t bestowal anymore. Therefore it says: “… nor rob him (thy neighbor),” since he is actually a part of you.

The Creator performs the whole correction in us. Part of the correction is fulfilled by our evident efforts and part of it stems from efforts that are not evident.

You suddenly discover that you don’t work in order to bestow but in order to receive, by feeling that all this is yours. This means that you justify your being a thief since you are also allowed to do what others are allowed to do.

There was a popular movie in Russia in the past called Be Careful of the Car in which the leading character used to steal cars only from thieves. He used to sell the stolen cars and give the money to orphanages. This is being your own judge. This is where the problem is, when a person believes that he is doing the right thing and that he doesn’t steal.

This means that he should be made aware of what is going on and it can only be done after he steals. There is nothing else we can do and therefore we go through many different phases.

It says that there is no righteous in the land that does good and hasn’t sinned. It is impossible to skip these phases.

“The wages of a hired servant shall not abide with thee all night until the morning,” means that when you have to give you have to do so immediately. If you stall, you turn into one who receives instead of one who bestows, even if you don’t profit from it at all. Thus, whole worlds are revealed in a person with regard to his connection with other people and to the same extent with the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/26/14

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Is Thanking For the Suffering Greater Than For the Good?

laitman_628_4Question: It is known that the Sages’ advice regarding the suffering and attitude towards it is that “a person has to be thankful for the bad as well as for the good.” This similar attitude towards the good and the bad looks like masochism.

Answer: First of all, it is important to understand that everything that takes place happens for us to learn something. I grew up in a family of Holocaust survivors.

I saw that children and adults live with this trauma and constantly talk about it at home, within the society, in the city, and still have no idea what to do about this trauma. And yet they continue to live as before, arranging their lives with respect to society and nature according to the natural impulses without any proper calculation.

Question: I have to “be thankful”? I understand the event didn’t happen by chance, so do I still have to learn something?

Answer: What else if not for this; is it good for? For instance, there was a period before the Holocaust or some other shock. During this period, there was something I left undone, so the shock took place. This blow is supposed to teach me how not to allow this to take place, and to change my behavior. What should I change?

I haven’t seen that there was a board of people created since the Holocaust, at least among the Jews, to investigate why this happened to us, and for what reason. No, we only thought about how to get best situated in different places.

If now we’ve reached such a level where we clearly comprehend the purpose of creation, if we understand that we’re in a global, interconnected world, and continue to destroy it with our interconnection, like a cancer leading to death, don’t we provoke the next impact by doing so?

Question: But how does this relate to the personal human suffering?

Answer: A person must wonder why is this happening. Otherwise, one isn’t a man but an animal escaping from danger. Therefore, we can’t escape from life.

I have to investigate how and why evil comes, understand that this force directs me towards good. I need to achieve a balance, to come to bestowal, love, and connection between all. I have to fulfill nature, to correct the evil inclination and make it good. After all, all of nature, except for people, are the power of love and connection.

Imagine that the entire universe and nature are the good force. And only in humanity in a small area does evil nest, so we can fulfill it with a force for good. When we have both good and evil, then we can thank for the evil as well as for the good. And while we still don’t fully learn this and don’t fully fulfill it, nature will continue to send us suffering, literally the suffering of Job.
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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 12.09.14

Shamati #15 “What Is Other Gods in the Work”

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The Book of Zohar “Introduction,” “General Explanation for All Fourteen Commandments and How They Divide Into Seven Days of Creation,” Item 12

[media 3] [media 4]

Talmud Eser Sefirot Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 56

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

[media 7] [media 8]