Question: When my daughter was ten years old she crossed the street before a vehicle and I felt like I wanted to die. Can you call that true love?

Answer: It is a natural instinctive feeling you didn’t work for.

Question: But I have invested in her and raised her.

Answer: Every animal does the same. One way or another, this feeling comes without a purposeful exertion on your part. Therefore it isn’t true love of others. In your perception your daughter is not another but actually part of your own body; your connection and attitude to her remains on the corporeal level, on the animate level, and has nothing to do with the human level: man (Adam).

Question: So what is the human level? Do I have to love all of humanity like my own children?

Answer: No, not like that. First you have to check to what extent you love yourself, in every detail and in every situation. Then accordingly, you have to convey this love to humanity in every detail and in every situation.

Question: To be honest, I don’t only dislike them but I actually can’t stand them, and you speak about such love…

Answer: Yes, on top of this suffering you will learn to what extent you love yourself. Comparing to them, you will learn about your self-love.

Question: Today, the opposite is true: When I heard on the news that a certain leading politician would be going to jail I rejoiced and celebrated this. It seems odd that one can be glad to hear that someone else is about to suffer in the next six or seven years. I even felt pain as a result of my mercilessness. After all, what do I care if he goes to prison and sits behind bars?

Answer: The more others suffer, the better you feel. A person always examines himself compared to those around him. If you are in a place where people receive half a kilo of bread and a liter of water a day, a simple sandwich will make you feel superior to others. Now you don’t even look at it, but in that situation it would be very precious to you. Everything is relative.

Question: Does this mean that when someone goes to jail I should really hurt as a result?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Is this the love we speak about?

Answer: Yes, you should hurt as if you have been locked behind bars.

Question: Is that possible?

Answer: If you wish to feel that, the Light will do it for you. Then you will feel that you suffer with the whole world and then you will also be able to correct the whole world. Otherwise, you won’t be able to.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Torah has existed for thousands of years and we must understand what it represents. Basically, there is a means in our world through whose help it is possible to attain the goal of creation. But what is the goal of creation? Come, let’s clarify this.

In front of me is a universe, stars, the sun, and the moon. Under my feet is the earth and on it all of the still, vegetative, and animate nature, and humans. All of this exists. Why does this exist? Where does this come from? What is it for? For what purpose does it exist?

The Torah explains all of this to me. It is designed to inform me why and for what I live, the reasons for my existence and what the result is, where I am going. In short, the Torah can teach me about everything without leaving any space or location empty.

So how does one acquire this knowledge? How does one penetrate into this vast and wonderful wisdom that is found above our reality and extends to the spiritual worlds?

It is possible to reach this by means of defined general rules that seem to me very far from nature and its laws, like: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Zoology, and other fields of natural science. Instead of bringing me scientific facts, they say: “And you shall love your friend as yourself.”

This is not at all clear to me. Give me precise formulas! Love is a simplistic idea. Nobody knows what to do with it; each one pulls it towards himself in whatever way he likes, and “rolls” it out from one end to the other. Ultimately, we don’t grant any seriousness, stability, or real power to this characteristic.

However, if a person undergoes suffering, things become serious; this we understand. Whereas, love lacks all power in our eyes, it lacks clarity; it doesn’t underlie the foundation of the world. And therefore it is very difficult for us to internalize the concept that is called a “great general rule of the Torah.” We cannot seriously relate to it.

But in reality, an approach that moves through love possesses greater weight and cannot be destroyed. This is an “iron rule” from which it is impossible to deviate; it requires us to pass through all of the restrictions, all of the threats, through everything, so that we will attain that concept of “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” Specifically through attaining the characteristic of love, we explore the whole world, understand it, and attain all of reality.

And so true love is different from what we imagine to ourselves; yet we have a problem with this when we relate to this concept with the utmost seriousness and begin to realize it.

Once, many years ago I was present at the funeral of a young couple that were killed in an accident right before their wedding. While reciting the Kaddish the chief Rabbi of the city, a person who understood the wisdom of Kabbalah, then said with tears in his eyes that what we lack is love, that only thanks to that can we correct all crimes and defects.

I didn’t understand him then and I thought that probably this is how it is customary to say a eulogy. And only much later, after I studied for some time, I understood what he meant. Yet all the other people related to his words the way I did in the beginning, even though there were many spiritual people there…
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: Kabbalists say that when a person discovers the spiritual world he realizes that his entire former life was a dream. What does this mean?

Answer: Sometimes it may seem to us that we are living as if in a dream. And oftentimes dreams possess such force and clarity that they have a huge impact on us, even more so than what takes place in this life. These dreams impact us so deeply with the feeling they leave.

Sometimes dreams at night continue the events that take place during the day and it is hard to decipher if one is asleep or awake.

Question: Don’t we wake up eventually!?

Answer: The actual question is do we really wake up or do we just dream about being awake?

If we look at our reality, then we can really see how limited we are. We perceive this reality with our five senses: vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and nothing else! Perhaps there are other ways of perceiving reality that are unavailable to us?

We are even deprived of the reality animals perceive. For instance, a dog perceives a world of smells; a snake perceives the world in heat patterns. A snake sees the picture of the world made up of warm and cold spots, as if pixels on a monitor.

We live in the world where it is possible to discover something new every minute, but we do not feel where it comes from. The universe expands, our entire life develops, and perhaps this takes place according to some program? Must a program of creation exist?

We see that everything in the world takes place according to clear, unchanging laws. If some random event takes place in our life, this means that we have no idea where it came from. It should not be doubted that it was a legitimate result of some formula.

Question: Am I in a dream or in a real life?

Answer: It is impossible to determine.

Question: I still see a room around me, various objects, and people?

Answer: You can still see and feel everything in the dream as well. In the dream and in reality we still see some picture and at the same time are unable to determine if it is real or fake.

Only after awakening can we tell if we were asleep before. So far, we live this life and still cannot awaken. Inside this life we dream that we are asleep or sometimes wake up, and besides we do not know anything else. Perhaps there are higher levels of sleep and being awake out there? Kabbalah talk about such levels.

A person can attain the opening of one’s eyes by studying Kabbalah and raise to the level where all of the reality will be revealed. This is when one will realize that  one has been asleep the entire time prior to this.

In our time, in our generation, we are obliged to wake up and exit the slumber where we exist without realizing the purpose of our life. Kabbalah provides us with the methodology by which we can really wake up.
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From the Radio Program Israeli 103FM 2/8/15

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Like A Bundle of Reeds, Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour, Michael Laitman, Ph.D.

Chapter 1: A Nation Is Born
The Birth of the People of Israel

ISRAEL—THE DEEPEST CRAVING

The astounding result of Abraham’s efforts was the birth of a nation that knew the deepest laws of life, the ultimate Theory of Everything, or in the words of Maimonides: “A nation that knows the Lord was made in the world.”[i]

Indeed, Israel is not merely a name of a people. In Hebrew, the word, Ysrael (Israel), consists of two words: Yashar (straight), and El (God). Thus, Israel designates a mindset of wanting to discover life’s law, a desire to attain or perceive the Creator. In the words of Rabbi Meir Ben Gabai, “In the meaning of the name ‘Israel’ there is also Yashar El [straight to God].”[ii] Likewise, in his Drush [written sermon] regarding the Traveler’s Prayer, the great Ramchal wrote simply, “Israel—Yashar El.”

Put differently, Israel is not a genetic ascription or attribution, but rather the name, or direction of the desire that drove Abraham to his discoveries. Genetically, the first Israelites were either Babylonians or members of other nations who joined Abraham’s group. The meaning of their name was clear to the ancient Israelites. As Maimonides wrote, they had their teachers, the Levites, and they were taught to follow life’s essential laws.

Today, however, we are unaware of the fact that “Israel” actually refers to the desire to know life’s basic law, the Creator, and does not allude to a genetic lineage. Nearly 2,000 years of concealment of the truth since the ruin of the Second Temple have practically obliterated the truth that Abraham’s discovery was intended for all the people in the world, just as Abraham himself intended it for all the people in Babylon, and later “began to call out to the whole world,” to quote Maimonides.

Through the years, only Kabbalists kept this truth alive. Kabbalists such as Elimelech of Lizhensk,[iii] Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz,[iv] Chaim Iben Attar,[v] Baruch Ashlag[vi] and many others wrote in plain words: Ysrael means Yashar El (straight to God).

Moreover, the need to discover this force is more pertinent today than ever. Nothing has changed in Nature since Abraham’s time, and the Creator is still the one force that creates, governs, and sustains life.

What has changed is that today we need true knowledge of the Creator more than ever. In Abraham’s time, humanity had numerous other paths to follow besides Abraham’s path of truth. Today’s social paths, however, are gradually proving themselves ineffective in solving our declining social morals and cohesion.

Indeed, in time, the Babylonian culture dissipated and the people dispersed the world over. Their alienation and social discord, which caused their fall—represented by the fall of the tower—became inconspicuous and unobtrusive. People resettled in new places, bringing with them the Babylonian culture and attitude, unaware that they were carrying their customs of disharmony among them—the seeds of future struggles.

Now that we have a global community, every crisis is on a global scale. The mistakes we make take their toll on the whole world, making Abraham’s discovery of a single force paramount, life-saving information that must be added into our calculations and plans if we wish to survive.

[i] ibid.

[ii] Rabbi Meir Ben Gabai, Avodat HaKodesh [The Holy Work], Part 3, Chapter 27.

[iii] Elimelech of Lizhensk, author of Noam Elimelech (The Pleasantness of Elimelech), Likutei Shoshana (“Collections of the Rose”) (First published in Levov, Ukraine, 1788), obtained from http://www.daat.ac.il/daat/vl/tohen.asp?id=173

[iv] Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz, author of Keli Yakar [Precious Vessel], Concerning Beresheet [Genesis], 32:29.

[v] Chaim ibn Attar, in Ohr HaChaim [Light of Life], Bamidbar [Numbers], Chapter 23, Item 8, https://sites.google.com/site/magartoratemet/tanach/orhahaym

[vi] Baruch Shalom Ashlag (Rabash), in The Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article no. 9, 1988-89 (Israel: Ashlag Research Institute, 2008), 50, 82, 163.

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Writings of Rabash, Letter 28

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The Book of Zohar, Selected Excerpts — “Middle Line,” Item 124

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, “Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words,” Item 45

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar“

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Question: Will whoever comes to the congress find his soul and begin spiritual life?

Answer: He will try to do this. Perhaps, it will be accomplished not at one go, but he certainly will move in the right direction.

Therefore, Kabbalists invite many people from everywhere to their congress in order to unite together. We sing, dance, listen to talks, lectures, hold workshops in circles, and have  assemblies of friends (Yeshivat Haverim). Thousands of people gather from all over the world, from the most remote locations, such as Australia, New Zealand, South America, Japan, and China.

Kabbalists gather all these people together and teach them how to connect with each other in accordance with the same method, which was founded by our forefather Abraham.

So, we increase the power of our connection with each convention. Gradually we come to such a connection, which will be enough to reveal our next state, the higher degree, the spiritual world. This is the goal of Kabbalistic conventions.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/8/15

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I don’t need to change my desires. I don’t need to limit, break, or suppress them but only direct them properly towards the right goal.

It is written: The Torah, “Leviticus,” 21:5: They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shall they shave the edge of their beard, nor shall they make cuts in their flesh.

First I choose two desires and find out how I can connect them so that together they will attain the next level by uniting on this level into one whole. Then on the next level, they will find more desires that can also connect and unite in order to attain a whole union on the that level. This continues according to a hierarchy, until the one uppermost desire connects all the other desires to such an extent that the Creator can be revealed.

Although the desires are connected and are focused on unity, they are different. The outcome is a mosaic in which each part complements the others until they reach perfection. On the one hand, the perfection is revealed in it, but, on the other hand, we see different parts, colors, and shapes.

We can read this mosaic and understand its unity since is it made of many parts. If it were the simple revelation and clarity of unity in the form of one white Light, it would be much more difficult for us to grasp it. But when a mosaic of desires plays a whole rainbow of colors, we perceive it as a melody.

Question: Doesn’t this colorfulness change into one color later?

Answer: It is perceived as one whole, but it is actually made of many shades. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to feel anything.

We hear the harmony in music, and although there are thousands of sounds and different transitions, we perceive it all as general harmony, as unity. But if we simply spread out the system of notes (the score) into its components, it would seem as if there is no unity.

It is actually for this reason that when people from different nationalities, mentalities, and professions get together, they can reach the one single goal, the one desire. The more we ascend towards unity, the greater the difference we will feel among us so that we can achieve it.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/23/14

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Writings of Rabash, Vol. 2, “Igrot” (Letters), #42: How could they be as one man with one heart? After all, what the sages said is well-known, “Just as their faces are dissimilar, so their opinions are dissimilar” (Talmud Yerushalmi Berachot Chapter 9, Column3, Halachah 1). So how could they be as one man with one heart?

If we are saying that each and every one is concerned about his own needs, we find that it is impossible to be as one man. Certainly they are not like each other. Whereas, if they all nullify their own domains, and all of them are concerned only for the benefit of the Creator, then their opinions are no longer individual, since all individuality has been nullified, and all of them enter into the private domain.

And this is the idea of what was written, “the knowledge of the inhabitants is opposite the knowledge of the Torah.” This is because knowledge of the Torah is the nullification of private domains, as the sages said, “The Torah isn’t sustained except for someone who kills himself over it.” When he kills himself over it, this is for his own good, and everything that he does is only for the sake of heaven. And this is called a preparation for receiving the Torah.

We sense reality within our vessel, which is called the desire for pleasure. Each one serves this vessel that he gets from the start, and he does everything to fill it. I always make a calculation: how much effort to make for the expected benefit, is it worthwhile or not worthwhile for me to do it. How much do I need to invest to see fulfillment within my vessel? That is how we exist from moment to moment.

My dependence upon my vessel can be nullified only if we connect with each other, and if we agree to that, we begin to find new spaces in the connection between us that we didn’t feel before.

After all, we look at everything from the point of view of our egoistic desire that dominates all matter in the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels. In this way, we get impressions from our inner reality, yet it seems to us to be an external reality. In fact, this is my inner world that is stamped into my personal desire for pleasure.

The still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of nature are the levels—0, 1, 2, 3, 4—the levels of my desire to receive where I feel my reality. My ego is found between me and others, separating us and causing me to feel myself only.

If I try to nullify this tendency so that I can reach connection with the Creator through this nullification, I discover that there is another space that is different from the space of the egoistic desire to receive. I begin to feel that I am in a new space, in a sea of forces of bestowal.

All of these forces that are discovered in the nullification of the ego bring a sense of the Creator to me, and, even though I get a slight impression of this, in order to truly discover Him, I need a stronger means. After all, I can only nullify the ego and use it for the sake of bestowal through the higher force. I discover that I have no chance, no possibility, of reaching self-nullification through my own powers and understanding.

So it is written, “The Torah isn’t sustained except for someone who kills himself over it.” However, in order to kill myself for the sake of Torah, in other words, for the sake of correction, I require a higher force. As it is written, “And the rule of landlords is opposite from the rule of Torah.” When a person begins to get observations through the power of the Light, both his emotions and his intellect are made new and completely different.

Then, he understands that all of the contradictions that he had were only like stimuli for finding solutions. However, to resolve them is really only possible through the Upper Light.

According to branch and root, we are at the beginning of the Shavuot holiday, the holiday of the giving of the Torah. The Shavuot holiday begins in the evening and is divided into day and night. Night symbolizes the days of exile that are gathered for the night of Shavuot, so we learn on the night of Shavuot because we want to finish the exile and reach its end.

After that, we decide that we probably have already invested enough in self-nullification, and then we arrive at the day and that night, the same Kelim transform into Kelim of revelation. That is how we reach the festival of Shavuot, the festival of the giving of the Torah, and from then on we gradually can advance and constantly correct all the defects and learn how much we can be like the Creator when we discover how different we are from Him.

This difference between the truth and the image gives us depth in understanding the Creator, and then from this depth we reach adhesion.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/1/14

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Question: If every person who leaves us is making a hole in our connection, isn’t our boat full of holes?

Answer: No, these people didn’t participate in the connection and didn’t intend to be integrated into it. So, we throw them away from us; simply throw them into the sea, into our collective egoistic sea called Malchut.

Question: Who is in this boat?

Answer: On the boat are those who want to be on the ship. The ship is the Masach (screen) that connects us, that joins us together. This ship is the beginning of the Kli, the first condition for our being on the ship so as not to drown in the great sea of our impure forces (Sitra Achra).

In the boat are the “points in the heart,” and under it is the great sea of our ego. And the ship is used as a protective Masach, like a raft on which we connect with our points in the heart and don’t sink. And around us the surging waves of the stormy sea of the Sitra Achra rage.
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From the 5^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/2/14 Writings of Baal HaSulam

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