Opinion (Steven Reiss, The Ohio State University): “Religion is not just about fear of death. Religion couldn’t achieve mass acceptance if it only fulfilled one or two basic desires. …)

“People are attracted to religion because it provides believers the opportunity to satisfy all their basic desires over and over again. You can’t boil religion down to one essence….

“We all share the same 16 goals, but what makes us different is how much we value each one …

“How much an individual values each of those 16 desires corresponds closely to what he or she likes and dislikes about religion. …

“Religion has to appeal to both introverts and extroverts. For extroverts, religion offers festivals and teaches that God blesses fellowship. For introverts, religion encourages meditation and private retreats and teaches that God blesses solitude. …

“Religion attracts all kinds, including peacemakers and those who want a vengeful God. …

“Religion competes with secular society to meet those 16 needs and can gain or lose popularity based on how well people believe it does compared to secular society. …

“In 16 Strivings for God, I discuss a mystical personality type – the kind of person who would likely find value and meaning in mystical experiences and would be attracted to religion for that reason.  …

“We can test that and find out if there really is a mystical personality type. …

“I’m not trying to answer theological questions about the existence or nature of God. What I’m trying to answer is the nature of why people embrace religion and God.”

My Comment: As I always keep on saying, the foundation of human nature is egoism, the desire to fulfill oneself, to come to material and psychological satisfaction. Its demands become greater than normal existence can offer to a person.

There must be a versatile psychological wholeness that religion always provides. But material and psychological desires grow, both quantitatively and qualitatively, towards the discovery of the meaning of life.

In the past, this was partially satisfied by the sciences; today the demand and the need to attain the meaning of life has moved beyond science, and science recognizes the inconsistency in this.

Suffering forces us to search for a solution to the question about the meaning of life, about the meaning of enduring suffering, and, here, against all the sciences, religions, methods, philosophies, only the wisdom of Kabbalah appears in the final run towards the finish line, not just providing the answer for a person, but revealing the upper world and introducing him to a new existence.
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Comment: In the December issue of Time magazine, their “Person of the Year” was announced. This year Chancellor Angela Merkel won the title. Runner up was awarded to the leader of the terrorist organization ISIS Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.

Answer: The “Person of the Year” is chosen according to his influence on the world, according to how many speak about him, and not according to the quality of his policies, if they are useful or good or not, rather it is how much he advertises himself. While Angela Merkel is a soft and gentle woman, Baghdadi is a man who is ready to slaughter everyone, so should he be the “Person of the Year.” It is typical in our world that such characters are accepted as heroes. I would even say epochal.

The idea is that he should be in first place. Who is setting the world revolution, driving it? It is him. Who is Angela Merkel in comparison to him? He has founded a very strong worldwide nation. If this goes even further, and we ignore the wisdom of Kabbalah, that tells us the way the world must reach its completion of correction, he will build a worldwide caliphate. On the background of modern democracy, which is to say chaos, anarchy, and all the rest, he is perceived as prominent, clear, and predictable. If we take the model of Time it appears that he is the man around whom the entire world has turned this year.

Comment: You said that the main thing is not to let him set up a state.

Answer: Yes, but he has already set it up and that is the problem. So it is not necessary to fight somewhere, but there, where he is building this nation, cut them out at the root, so that a totally clear place will be left. It is possible to do this through very large common efforts. And meanwhile the world is playing with democracy, each one involved only with gathering his political capital at the expense of others. They constantly gather for G20 or G8 forums, while he alone goes out and appears against them saying, “I will slaughter all of you.” And they cannot decide on anything.

Very serious forces of connection and unity are required here. There is no second Al-Baghdadi who would unite them all and say: “to hell with your democracy; death is approaching you in the form of Baghdadi and his associates; you must stand against them seriously. They are already found with you in your home. What can you do? What is left for you? You need to annihilate them, if this is still possible at all. Through your policies and all kinds of calculations you are trying to undermine each other, and that is how you are making it possible for the enemy to plant a stake in your territory, and today it has already become very difficult to overcome this.”
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/11/15

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Preparation for the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 22

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Giving of the Torah” 

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Gatehouse of Intentions”  

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Question: You once said on one of your programs, that even through helping an old lady to cross the street, a person develops spiritual Kelim (vessels) within himself.

That is, are you saying good deeds have a positive impact on the entire existence of a person (including all his incarnations), and the person receives mercy from the Creator?

Answer: Absolutely! Even though there won’t be any revelation of the Creator by this, it will bring the person to a group, which creates the conditions for disclosure.
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Life according to Kabbalah is existence within the Light, in the property of bestowal. It is perceived as a sensation of boundless existence when you endlessly flow within this state and see it as eternal.

At the same time, the perception of corporeal reality, the sensation of time, space, and limitation disappear. You enter a different coordinate system. It has different limitations where you define yourself in relation to others.

We must get used to this, as it is a necessity for entry. Sometimes it takes a few years before a person begins to sense the upper world. However, our task is to come to the sensation of the upper reality before we physically part with this world. Generally speaking this is the main mission of Kabbalah.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/1/15

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Question: How must one relate internally to other people’s suffering?

Answer: With balance, as with everything.

Question: If an event happens in my life that makes me very happy and I want to thank the Creator, how should I behave in such a case? Can there be thanks to the Creator that is not egoistic?

Answer: You should always thank the Creator and for everything.

Question: Why don’t I feel that the group is correcting me? I was an egoist, and that is how I remain. Likewise, there is no feeling of unity, and I have not found any special happiness in a group. What should I do?

Answer: You must force yourself to yearn for the unity of the whole group until you feel an attitude toward them as toward your beloved children. In our world, only a state like this will create a spiritual field of revelation for you.
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Egoistic death is to get rid of selfishness by himself, because only it is subject to death. All the rest cannot die! Therefore death in spirituality is nothing but awakening, illumination, and understanding.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, if a person carries out his mission and corrects himself, he blesses the Creator by reciting Kaddish – a prayer about the death of the body.

This prayer is very deep and emotional. It is not just the manifestation of feelings of gratitude to the Creator for what a person suffers in this life through the body. Indeed, precisely because of life in the body, a person attains the next level of his development, which instead of the current shell, he is reborn in another body, And he thanks the Creator for being able to come closer to Him, changing his corporeal shell.

Comment: It is interesting that the Romans took the dying emperor standing death, as if defying the gods.

Answer: The Romans had no deep ethical concepts. But like the Greeks, they were very materialistic. The resistance of the Jews to the Romans and the Greeks defined the world of today.

The Romans conquered all of Europe and gave it its materialistic development, whereas the Greeks filled this development with their philosophy and scientific insight into the world. All of this happened so that the world would ultimately rise to the level of the Creator, above both materialism and the development of modern science.

So today we see that wealth and luxury are no longer at the heart of determining happiness. And philosophy is already becoming history, philosophers and philosophy have disappeared. This means we are approaching a new stage, elevation into the spiritual dimension.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/1/15

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Question: What determines the life expectancy of different people? After all, both wonderful people and vile killers die young. Could it be that, from the point of view of the maturation of the soul in this current life, the first souls already have ascended higher, while the latter are hopeless, so they are taken away in order to be reborn?

Answer: All of this relates to reincarnations. No calculations are made here regarding the bodies. You can be a good or evil person, but in egoistic terms, it does not matter.

The calculation focuses only on the general system in order to bring it optimally to complete correction. Therefore, it is only about the fulfillment of a person’s soul. The body is given to a person so that by his free will he will place himself in the general soul in connection with others in total love and bestowal.

If he can do that, he finds his soul. Then the calculation is according to his state at any given moment.

If he cannot do it, he is given a certain amount of time to be incorporated willingly into the general society and perhaps even into the spiritual world. If he doesn’t use this opportunity, it is taken away from him, and he moves on to the next life. The same spiritual gene will be dressed in another body with new data in a new environment, and he will still be given an opportunity to fulfill his mission.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/1/15

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Question: You once said that if a man and a woman are mutually connected, it is a powerful means to reveal the Creator, and a person who has this field of work is very lucky and doesn’t need much time to fulfill it, but actually only a few minutes a day.

But what exactly should you do during this time? What is the best way to study the wisdom of Kabbalah with one’s spouse?

Answer: It doesn’t really matter. What’s important is the effort a couple makes to feel as one spiritual whole in the face of various interferences that come along all of the time above which they must reach an upper agreement for the sake of their spiritual advancement.

Question: How should a person behave correctly and harmoniously from a spiritual perspective in situations of conflict with loved ones? On the one hand, the ego constantly finds different tricks to make people break up, and it is scary to realize how helpless we are. On the other hand, I truly cherish and value my relationships.

Answer: Try to understand that all of the connections between us go through the Creator. This will fine tune your perspective in all your relationships.
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