Question: What is this connection between us? After all, we are not friends in the physical sense. How do we connect and unite in the right way?

Answer: Friendship, on the physical level, is characterized by people that are pleased to communicate with each other; they have similar habits, common bonds, and so forth. This is what connects and unites them.

We are friends of a different type; we are friends for a purpose. Were it not for this purpose, we would never sit together. So, we need to understand clearly that only the importance of the goal holds us together, connecting and fastening us together. This is why the group exists.

The question is how does one not forget that the group doesn’t exist on its own, that by ourselves we are not connected? We gathered here not because it is good for us to be together, but so that we would connect above all the problems that constantly pop up between us, and that is how we ascend spiritually. The group must know under what conditions we have gathered, what we are working for, and what our work is.

Every day, we must discover new problems between us, and every day we try to solve them by rising above them. This means that we are not solving problems on the physical level as is customary in this world, but by specifically rising above them and turning to the Creator with a request for correction.

We are not prepared to get along alone; this is a spiritual correction. By not doing anything but only clarifying our problems in workshops, we ask the Creator to correct and fulfill us. He is the only one who corrects the connections between us, fills them through His revelation, and is, Himself, discovered in these connections.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/14, Questions and Answers

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Question: How do we choose the appropriate partner? Where do we begin?

Answer: Follow the general law of nature in which everything seeks balance. So, the more similarity there is between the partners, the more compatible they are with each other. The similarity is in the education that they received, their values, their worldview, and their behavior in various internal and external situations. It is necessary to look for compatibility, and the more that couples are like each other, the more the family has a chance to succeed.

So first, it is up to the person to examine himself to understand who he truly is, and this is done with the help of talks, joint activities, and workshops. First of all, one must know human nature, study its psychology, through which I already will begin to understand who I am, what motivates me, and how and why I react in such a way.

It is necessary to find out how many reactions various people have for the same problem, ordinary life situations, and check how similar our reactions are so that we can understand each other. Perhaps, I am in a completely different situation now, but the response of my partner is clear to me, and I would react exactly like that if I were in a similar situation.

For this, we must teach a person to go outside of himself and be “clothed” in other situations, looking at himself from the side. He must check his responses in different situations, and then he will understand how many different types of behaviors exist in him, the different reactions and different patterns from which he is composed, and now it is up to me to understand which patterns the other person is composed of.

We use an approach like this in not only searching for a partner, but generally, in understanding another person. We must clarify how many different situations there can be, how many reactions, mood swings, and changes, to the extent that I can understand him and be clothed in his image. Can I imagine myself in his place? We give each other signs that we understand each other, that we agree and accept each other.

This is a study of the person, who he is and which forms of behavior he can have. There are various types of people: hotheaded, optimistic, melancholy, and indifferent (choleric, sanguine, melancholic, and phlegmatic). Psychology has clear criteria for these standard types and is able to determine which of them are compatible with each other. In this way, it isn’t a problem to classify people according to groups. As a result of workshops, discussions, and bonds created during games, they will understand who is more compatible with them.

The learning begins with talks and lectures that are designed to help singles understand what human nature is, with what intensity egoistic inclinations are discovered, and how much we depend upon the opinion of the environment, in other words, that we are compelled to submit to our internal impulses and societal pressures. Our behavior is determined by habits that we get through previous education. We must try to see what habits we are woven from and understand that the person standing in front of you is a complex personality of countless habits, and that I cannot “turn” him according to my desire.

After all, each of us expects that our partner will react exactly like we do at every moment in life and will behave like I want, but I must understand the other person and agree that, within each of us, there are a set of different human images to which I must accommodate myself or else I will not be able to be connected with him. In this way, I begin to discover flexibility regarding the other, building something compatible to both of us at every moment within all of his and my internal patterns. That is how we learn the simplest sociology of human behavior and that of any human society.

We must act exactly this way, for all of nature seeks balance, connection, and accommodation to equivalence of form at every moment. In the general system, everything depends on how much the components and the integration of the components become compatible with each other, until a homogeneous society is attained. Each is left with his freedom, yet he knows how to accommodate himself to everyone else. The general consensus depends upon this.

That same general rule operates within the family as well. That is what we must teach everyone. It is appropriate for the person found within the larger society as well as for familial peace. The same rules apply everywhere.

To establish a family, everyone must be a psychologist. We have no choice! We are facing a situation where we cannot connect between us in any other way. Previously, this connection was a natural connection as it is with animals, but we are no longer on the animate level. We have risen to the new level of Adam (Man). So, we must learn to build seemingly artificial connections that are not derived from our nature.

Man is not an egoistic and primitive creature. He must complement his egoism so that he will not alienate others but will reach connection with them. To do this, it is up to me to constantly concede a bit of my ego to make it possible for others to intrude my space, and my partner makes it possible for me to penetrate his space. Then we establish a connection between us.

I am one circle, and my partner is another circle. We begin to bring our circles closer together so that each one of us penetrates into a common segment, even though this is still a small segment. We then examine this common territory and make sure that we constantly maintain it between us. This is only possible though negating myself.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/9/13

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The people of Israel need to know how to become independent, friendly, and close, as it is written, “As one man in one heart.” This is our duty to ourselves, to all of mankind, and to the Creator. We possess this method from Kabbalah, and we must realize it. Otherwise, we are not a nation.

We have returned to the land of Israel in order to materialize the opportunity to reach this state. However, if we refuse it, we must go back to the countries of exile, and we do not know what the upper force will do to us, since it desires our unity, and we contradict it.

Question: According to what you are saying, I would call Israeli Independence Day the day of our dependence on one another.

Answer: Yes, the paradox is that when we are in the state of complete dependence on one another, ourselves, and others—when the influence of the environment determines our behavior—we acquire the feeling of independence from ourselves.

How do we reach a state where we can be sure that we are not harming ourselves and others? It is only by rising above ourselves, when everyone’s “I” is under the power of the environment. We do not have anything else. We determine our independence by completely submitting ourselves to the environment.
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Excerpt from the “Conversation About Independence” 4/2/15

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I am a son of Holocaust survivors who were among the few of the Laitman family who survived the Holocaust. Two thirds of my relatives were slaughtered in the death camps. I was born in 1946 and was raised under the dark shadow that the war left on my family and on the Jewish population in all of Eastern Europe.

For me the Holocaust isn’t some distant memory, but a painful reminder of what might happen to us. It is this thought that brings up the constant troubling question in me: How can we prevent another Holocaust?

I feel an ocean of hatred closing in on us. The external signs have never been clearer and international reports indicate an upsurge in anti-Semitism. On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a question was brought up on the BBC as to whether the time has come to cease talking about the Holocaust, and about a month ago, there was supposed to be a scientific convention in England about the legitimacy of the State of Israel. If this is not enough, an agreement regarding the use of nuclear weapon has recently been signed with Iran, which is more evidence as to why we must not rely on our allies.

It is hard to ignore the clear warning signals as to what is expected. So how can we prevent another Holocaust? In addition to lamenting about the past, we must make room for close scrutiny, examination, and the correction of our current state. We live in a closed system of forces that operate according to the law of connection. When we are compatible with that law, we feel good, and when we are divided and separated, this system, like any other system in nature, forces us to balance ourselves. Sometimes correcting this direction can involve great suffering.

I am aware of how difficult it may be for Holocaust survivors and their families to read what I say, but still the truth must be said. The Holocaust took place because the Israeli nation didn’t keep the law of connection. Why us? Because we have a special responsibility to keep this law. We have a role that was given to us back in the days of Abraham. When egoism tore the people of ancient Babylon apart, our forefather discovered the law that governs our reality, which is the law of connection. The few that learned the method of connection from him became the nation of Israel.

Keeping the law of connection is our life’s goal, and passing on the method of connection and unity is the only justification for our existence as a nation. At the beginning of the 20^th century we received an opportunity to return to the land of Israel, not in order to build a home for the Jewish people, but in order to connect within it. The Jews didn’t take this opportunity and preferred to isolate themselves in their communities in Europe or to integrate within general society. The reaction of the upper system to these actions was the Holocaust. A moment before the world drowned in blood, Kabbalists still cried out that we had to return to our land and unite, but the Jews didn’t listen. Instead of willingly moving closer, the terrible afflictions of the Holocaust brought us closer to one another, and it was as a result of the Holocaust that we received a country.

With all due respect to the United Nations, the real mandate for the existence of this country is our role. The county we received, as Kabbalists say, is only an opportunity to keep the law of connection, which is exactly what the world demands of us. Subconsciously, the world wants us to unite and to also pass Abraham’s method on to them. But we refuse to connect, and this is the source of the hatred they feel towards us.

Holocaust Remembrance Day and Independence Day have to become days in which we all engage in our role as a nation, and they must also be days of reexamining the essence of our existence. During these days, we have to gather in tens of thousands of roundtables throughout the country and talk about the only way of being truly independent—independent of our ego and connected to one another through love of others. This is the only way we can secure our future and our children’s future.
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The Torah, “Leviticus” 26:21 – 26:22: And if you treat Me as happenstance, and you do not wish to listen to Me, I will add seven punishments corresponding to your sins: I will incite the wild beasts of the field against you, and they will bereave you, utterly destroy your livestock and diminish you, and your roads will become desolate.

The phrase,” I will incite the wild beasts of the field against you,” means that a person’s active correction begins with the help of the negative forces and attributes to which he has given birth. It is very hard to explain this allegory since everything takes place inside a person, in his feelings.

Imagine living with your family in the jungle when suddenly the jungle is invaded by wild animals. They come running out of nowhere and surround you. Imagine the fear that you feel facing this long and exhausting threat on your life!

We would give up our life under such circumstances, but the upper force arranges things so that we begin to protect ourselves and begin to cherish our life, without knowing where to run or what to do! We reach a state in which we are ready to betray our friends and family as long as we can escape this threat. This is how you are shown who you actually are. A person discovers his true nature. This is a positive recognition, the right one!

Question: Not too long ago, there was an avalanche in Nepal where nearly 40 people were killed. I heard a terrible story on the radio: A young man said that he had escaped, leaving his friend behind, but, when he realized at a certain point that he had left him to die, he went back, but it was already too late. Now, the thought doesn’t leave him, and he must live with that his entire life.

Answer: That’s true, and everything is done so on purpose so that a person would understand his nature.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/12/14

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The Torah, “Leviticus” 26:18 – 26:20: And if, during these, you will not listen to Me, I will add another seven punishments for your sins: I will break the pride of your strength and make your skies like iron and your land like copper. Your strength will be expended in vain; your land will not yield its produce, neither will the tree of the earth give forth its fruit.

“I will add another seven punishments for your sins,” means that  instead of the right state of ZON, the six Sefirot of Zeir Anpin and one Sefira of Malchut, I get only the darkest Malchut.

Many years ago when I felt this state for the first time, I nervously asked my teacher, Rabash, “What is this?” He entered into my state a bit, felt it and said, “This is the illumination of Malchut.” This felt like darkness, like an abyss under foot, much like a terror that binds a person in darkness and he can’t do anything about it. Everything simply freezes in its place.

This state continued for a few moments, maybe only a thousandth of a second, but the impression that remained was imprinted within me. In spirituality, nothing ever disappears! However, this feeling can be pulled from the memory and partially experienced.

Thus, if Zeir Anpin doesn’t illuminate Malchut, the punishment is 70 times greater. Or, it could be vice-versa: Zeir Anpin shines, but Malchut feels the Light as darkness, an abyss, and as a black body that swallows everything. This happens when the Light enters a Kli that is absolutely not ready to receive it.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/12/14

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In the News (from MedDaily):” A recent new study that found the brain processes words like pictures. It doesn’t see letters and doesn’t add up sounds, but instead perceives each word as a picture. The neurons distinguish whole words and not their parts nor letters.

“The brain remembers what each word looks like and then uses a special, illustrated dictionary. We identify the faces of people we know in the same manner. But the identification of faces is related to the right hemisphere of the brain, while the identification of words is related to the left hemisphere.”

My Comment: According the wisdom of Kabbalah, only  clear attainment of increasingly newer depths of the world by our internal sight will allow a person to attain all of creation, which is the Creator. The attainment is divided into two parts: creating an internal tool of attainment, the Light of Hassadim, the attribute of Bina, which in our world is called hearing, and self-attainment, the Light of Hochma, the Light of attainment, that in our world is called sight.
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The Torah, “Leviticus” 26:14 – 26:17: But if you do not listen to Me and do not perform all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes and reject My ordinances, not performing any of My commandments, thereby breaking My covenant, then I, too, will do the same to you; I will order upon you shock, consumption, fever, and diseases that cause hopeless longing and depression. You will sow your seed in vain, and your enemies will eat it. I will set My attention against you, and you will be smitten before your enemies. Your enemies will rule over you; you will flee, but no one will be pursuing you.

Everything we read about here is inside a person. It is the fear of our own shadow, since if we are not ready for the spiritual ascent, the Creator’s face seems as a terrible darkness to us. The greatest fears, scares, and horrors a person can experience appear when he encounters the attribute of bestowal to which he is the complete opposite.

Everything is based on the fact that we must prepare ourselves for the revelation of the Creator. Otherwise, He turns His face to us, but we are seemingly opposite to it, and so we turn this picture and perceive it as the opposite part, since we are not ready for it. Then, bestowal seems to us as the most terrible punishment, when we are actually the ones who create the darkness through our incorrect internal images.

All the troubles and the afflictions that seem to be sent to us by the Creator are perceived as sufferings because a person wrongly perceives the good states that the Creator reveals to us because the time for these revelations has come. Instead of feeling that they are good, a source of life, and mercy, a person feels them as …shock, consumption, fever, and diseases… .

Because we are not prepared to perceive the Light correctly, we feel the Light as darkness. The Creator never conceals anything from us. On the contrary, He constantly reveals things to us, but because we are totally opposite to Him, the revelation is very painful. There is no greater horror for us than the revelation of the attribute of bestowal and true love because this feeling is worse than death for our ego. It is because we cannot perceive this attribute, assimilate it, and melt it inside us.

Therefore, we are told: But if you do not listen to Me and do not perform all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes and reject My ordinances, not performing any of My commandments, thereby breaking My covenant, then I, too, will do the same to you; I will order upon you shock, consumption, fever, and diseases that cause hopeless longing and depression.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/12/14

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