Audio Version Of The Blog – 01.31.15

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A Night’s Sleep Is The Continuation Of The Day’s Activities

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How does nature develop us with the help of dreams?

Answer: A vigorous, energetic state is called a day. When we are asleep, we exit from our prior state and connect with the next, active one. A dream is a small state (VaK – Vav Ktzavot), through which our prior, awakened state connects with the next active state.

It is similar to the neutral gear of a car transmission that is used in between the gears when we switch from first gear to second and then third gear. They are separated by a neutral gear, this is the dream at night.

If not for the neutral gear, we would not be able to switch from the first, to the second, and then to the third state. We cannot ascend to other states without sleep.

This explains why sleep is so important and why it takes so much time: 8 hours! When we are still in our egoistic nature, i.e., if our natural intentions are oriented towards our own sake, we just have to follow the demands of our physical needs. RAMBAM writes that a regular person must have enough sleep.

While we live in this material world, we must behave normally, and a night’s rest is a simple, physiological process that helps make this possible. If a person has already attained a spiritual level and acts for the sake of bestowal, then why does he need a night’s rest?  What does it mean to us?

Dreams may be consequences of the events that we experience during the day. Our aspiration to attain higher spiritual states during the day allows us to make a spiritual ascent while we sleep, or to at least make relevant clarifications.

The wisdom of Kabbalah refers to the night’s sleep as a continuation of the day, a continued vigorous state. Sleep is physiologically essential, both for those who live only within the boundaries of this world and those who dwell in the upper world, at a spiritual level.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/11/15

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Dr. Michael LaitmanHeaven and Hell

Question: You are saying that witchcraft is a psychological phenomenon. How does it reflect on those who don’t even suspect that they are the targets?

Answer: This is the way by which our desires are directed towards others. All our desires comprise a pool of forces that impact everyone around us. Our attitude to the world in general and to the surroundings we live in contribute our personal energies to the overall system.

Question: So, witchcraft is a desire of a person oriented to somebody else’s benefit or detriment?

Answer: Desires matter, but why do you call them witchcraft? Each one of us acts within a general network of powers that exists among us. It is an extremely complicated system. We are a source of a whole complex of uncorrected, evil forces that are called ego. We have to correct these powers and transition them from wickedness to benevolence, or in other words, be good to our neighbors.

It means that from the will to receive, which is taking as much as possible from others, we have to end up bestowing to everyone. Accordingly, the key principle, the universal rule of the wisdom of Kabbalah, states, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This principle replenishes the general network with positive energy. Everything we generate has to bring benevolence to others. This is how a positive network is created.

When building such a network, we enter the world comprised of complete benevolence, meaning we enter the Garden of Eden. Thus, heaven is a state in which everybody thinks only about the others’ well being.

At the same time, hell is mutual hatred, a state in which we all suffer.

How to Defend Against Negativism?

Question: If someone impacts us wickedly through the general network, can we somehow defend ourselves?

Answer: Yes. For that, we have to involve positive powers.

Question: Whom should we direct them towards?

Answer: To everyone. Even if I have no idea who exactly sends me a negative impact, it doesn’t really matter. My positive and kind attitude to others turns into a shield through which negativity cannot penetrate.

The mechanism is very simple. I can be hurt only if I am in my egoistic desires and if I care only about myself. If I bestow, contribute, give, share, and love others, nobody can hurt me. I am invincible because I exist within others.

It is very strong psychological armor. Thanks to it, no matter how much others want to hurt me, they won’t succeed.

Moreover, by acting in this way, I neutralize all my offenders since we exist in a unified, common system. This explains why by contributing our sincere attitude to other human beings and a desire to bring benevolence to everyone, we enhance positive energy in the general network. Positivism is capable of destroying all negativism directed against us. Then, not only will nobody be able to hurt us, but nobody will even make an attempt to do so.

This is how the system works. The Torah, particularly the wisdom of Kabbalah, explains these issues to us in detail. We see that when one is a source of benevolence to others, the evil forces are unable to hurt that one.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/18/15  

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Birth Into A New World

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Midrash Mispar, Parashat HaShavua, “Beshalach”: The Creator said, “I know that the dispute between Judah and Benjamin was for the sake of My honor, therefore I will bless both of them.”  

Benjamin received his blessing in that the Beit HaMikdash (Temple) was built in his inheritance, and Judah began to possess the honor of the kingship.

Judah and Benjamin are two characteristics, two opposing forces, who shared in the birth of the people.

The layout, or general outline, of Egypt is reminiscent of the form of the uterus with a birth canal and the straits where the Israelis crossed the Red Sea. The forces that were sent after them by Pharaoh and which drove them forward symbolize the contractions in the uterus that push the fetus out.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/30/14

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The Unemployed Generation Of Europe

laitman_926_02In the News (from Today’s Zaman): “Youth unemployment is a particularly serious concern, even in countries with otherwise positive employment statistics; in countries with worse labor-market conditions, it represents a potential source of social and political instability. Participation in the workforce is linked not only to income levels, but also to self-esteem, social inclusion, and social status….

“In Spain and Cyprus, more than 90 percent of people in temporary positions cannot find permanent employment. … Moreover, though Sweden has one of the EU’s highest employment rates, it has failed to tackle its longstanding problem of youth unemployment, which currently stands at 23 percent. In Spain and Greece, youth unemployment is above 50 percent, and the situation is not much better in crisis-hit Cyprus, Portugal, Italy, and Croatia.

“In the EU as a whole, youth unemployment stood at a dispiriting 21.9 percent in November. According to one study, this costs the EU 150 billion euros ($183 billion) per year in lost wages and spending, in addition to the hardship suffered by the many young people who are unable to find work.”

My Comment: There will be no work, but the employment of the unemployed depends on governments. Employment and work are not the same thing. People need to be occupied or they will run wild. Jews invented lessons for themselves during any free time: studying, education.

All the unemployed should be sent to the “School of Life” for the whole day, to turn them into an educated mass that would become responsible for the education of the younger generation, students, who generally will become the tutors of a new society.
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Audio Version Of The Blog – 01.30.15

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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For Waters Of The Sea To Part…

Laitman_509The Midrash, “BeShalach,”: There was a dispute over whether to give someone the right to jump into the sea first. The head of the tribe of Judah, Nachshon ben Abinadab, first jumped into the water.

Question: Why did members of different tribes begin to argue who should first jump into the sea?

Answer: Every man contains within him the people of Israel, the Egyptians, and all the other properties. It is unknown by which of them he can overcome the sea. So he chooses to move forward with the help of a property or their total unity, a little from the Egyptians and a bit from the people of Israel.

A person analyzes, “These properties I can manifest from the Egyptians in order to move forward, otherwise I will not fear and will be relaxed, and these I can manifest from the Creator to appease the Egyptians themselves and to move towards Him.”

He constantly uses the plus and minus, as an engine that runs on two opposite forces that rotate it. One pushes from the front and the other one pushes from the back or to the sides. A person manages this on his own.

The more opposing forces he can control and properly connect within oneself in order to achieve the goal, the higher one gets. This is why the dispute occurs, and why Nachshon should jump and not other properties or all of them at the same time.

When people from the tribe of Judah saw that the children of Benjamin Ben Nachshon ahead of them, they started throwing stones at them.

Stone (Even) derived from the word “Abana” (stony). Usually during any action, a person overcomes various thoughts, a desire to understand, to realize what was happening. But in the spiritual work it is necessary to move above reason.

A person begins to concentrate on one’s own abilities by forgetting that by just grasping the Creator one can pass the sea, one can enter Him like entering the mother’s womb that will be one’s ark, and the waters of the sea will part.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/30/14

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The Torah Brings Life To Man

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus”, 11:13 to 11:21: And among birds, you shall hold these in abomination; they shall not be eaten; they are an abomination: The eagle [or the griffin vulture], the kite, the osprey, the kestrel, and the vulture after its species,  and the raven after its species, the ostrich, the jay, and the sparrow hawk, and the goshawk after its species; The owl, the gull, the little owl; The bat, the starling, the magpie; the stork, the heron after its species; the hoopoe and the atalef;  Any flying insect that walks on four, is an abomination for you. However, among all the flying insects that walk on four [legs], you may eat [from] those that have jointed [leg like] extensions above its [regular] legs, with which they hop on the ground.

We see all the levels of a person’s desires here. Inside myself, I gradually begin to discover my inner essence to the extent that I advance and I begin to see these names above me. They are like captions. I begin to understand that this is the Gematria of the given desire, its name, its attribute. Suddenly I begin to feel that I understand the biology, zoology, and the botany described in the Torah. It is inside me.

The Torah, “Leviticus”, 11:25: And anyone who carries their carcass shall immerse his garments, and he shall be unclean until evening…

Clothing is an external Masach (screen). If I touch an uncorrected desire, I fall and lose the Masach. Therefore, I have to correct this desire, wash it in water, in the Light of Hassadim (mercy).

But if I cannot correct it, since it suddenly grows weak, and I cannot work with it in order to bestow; I need to draw away from the source of temptation, meaning to remove myself from the source of temptation.

When I begin to attain that, all the texts in the Torah arise in me and become clear, since, after all, how did the author of the Torah write it? He wrote it by what he discovered inside himself.

He wasn’t a biologist or a zoologist and he didn’t stroll in the forests and the fields. Did he see these attributes, especially the ostrich and other animals that didn’t even live in these areas? It is all revealed within a person.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/22/14

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Being Directed Towards The Friends Is Being Directed Towards The Light

Laitman_524_01Our spiritual study and dissemination are derived from correction of the shattering of the entire Kli, the Kli of the collective soul. This process can be divided into three stages of development.

When I came to my teacher, Rabash, I met five or six people who had studied with Baal HaSulam.

They had a particular approach to studying: sitting quietly, reading, and speaking between them a little. They exchanged only a few words between them because they understood what was said in the books, and while reading, they were doing internal spiritual actions. That is how they advanced. Like people who walk together in the woods or in a field, that is the way they exchanged impressions about what they “saw” on the way while they were reading.

The tension among them and the internal work during which they corrected their desires was palpable. That is, they were working both together and separately.

At that time we studied only The Study of the Ten Sefirot and The Book of Zohar with the Sulam Commentary. There were no articles or letters by Baal HaSulam and Rabash then.

When I brought new students to Rabash, he began to write articles because this created an opportunity to speak about the correction of people, and the main thing, what we could add to the Upper Light.

The Upper Light presses on us and moves us through those stages that we must go through. If we aren’t ready for it, we receive its influence as a blow and against our will; we twist and dodge to reduce the suffering. After all, when you press something, the object that is being pressed will adopt the most suitable form for its condition.

On the other hand, I could put myself under the influence of the Upper Light and attract it in the most effective way. The Light doesn’t change, but in this way I change its influence on me.

In addition, my position, my location, taking on the most comfortable and correct form appropriate for the Light is not found artificially; rather, I must more or less accommodate myself to what I must get to. I don’t merely dodge and run away somewhere, instead I intentionally search for the influence of the Light.

How can one do this when, after all, we don’t see, don’t understand, and don’t feel spirituality? So the group helps me since in it I can find my most optimal position regarding the Light. I don’t accommodate myself to the Light because in our world, in the same plane in which I am found, I have the most clear and precise possibility of directing myself towards the Light. This is not in regard to the Light, but in regard to my friends.

This is the reason for the “Shevirat HaKelim” (the breaking of the vessels); it is so that I will have the possibility of working with them. Accordingly, I don’t force myself on the Light, instead I can reach it through opposite characteristics because I am not working with it but with my friends. That is how this works.

The main thing is not to miss the opportunity to choose each time the optimal form of mutual accommodation between us. Each of us begins to perceive his maximal position towards the others, and in this way he enters into a unified picture like a mosaic or a kaleidoscope.

I already begin to think about how my friends will reach their optimal form. This “togetherness” is called the “center of the group.” Where everyone is involved in this, they stabilize themselves with each other to aim towards this state. When we enter into it, it will close, and at that moment we become like the Light and immediately feel it. The shared characteristic of bestowal—this is the Light, the first level.
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From the Convention in Sochi “Day One” 6/11/14, Lesson 2

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Justice And Freedom

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion (Petko Ganchev, professor and chairman, Geopolitical Center of Eurasia-Sofia): “… Real freedom is inconceivable without justice and real justice is impossible without freedom. If freedom is a recognized need, then justice must be regarded not as equality in rewarding different people, but as but as equality of opportunities.

“Thus, real freedom must be regarded as a condition for justice, and real justice as a form of exercising of freedom.

“Capitalism with its freedom of the strong provides an opportunity for the strong to win at the expense of the weak and is unfair and not free society.

“Socialism with its justice and freedom for everyone – one was free, and all others were equal in their lack of freedom, was a totalitarian society. It did not encourage free initiative and because of the inability to carry out radical reforms it collapsed.

“If during the Great Depression (1929-1933), the crisis affected only the developed capitalist countries, but now the crisis is global because all the countries of the world are connected.

“Contemporary globalization is an objective and natural process, but it occurs in a manner favorable to the Western world, primarily to the United States. Of the 500 leading multinational world companies, more than half are of the USA. All the world’s leading institutions the IMF, World Bank, WTO, NATO are the tools of the USA, and the EU is the US protectorate.

“In the 1990s, the USA attempted to establish a unipolar world, destroyed all the institutions and structures of the welfare state and social market economy of the EU, as well as all the social protection and justice systems of the former socialist countries. As a result, the global financial and economic crisis erupted in 2008, and it has no end in sight.

“As a result, the world has come to great threats and challenges, and it is necessary to save civilization by transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world: the United Nations needs to take over the management of the world with representation of all the countries through a world parliament.

“It is a long and difficult road, but it is necessary. The salvation of humanity is in its own hands, so we need to act.”

My Comments: The wishes are correct, but it is possible to realize them only on the condition of change in the nature of man from egoistic to altruistic. New properties of bestowal and love will tell us how to act. Otherwise, we will return to the red terror of the past.
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