Audio Version Of The Blog – 03.10.16

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My Greetings On International Women’s Day

laitman_572_02Dear Women!

You are a very important part of humanity!  It is through the connection between man and woman that man actually discovered the Creator. We all know that we wouldn’t have fallen from the Garden of Eden into the temporary life on earth if it hadn’t been for the woman. Now thanks to our being here, we can re-ascend to what is called The Garden of Eden but to a much, much higher level than the one we fell from.

The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about what we attain when we ascend to the Garden of Eden after the sin of the “Tree of Knowledge,” which was committed by the woman. Everything is fulfilled according to a predetermined script: we ascend 125 levels higher than the level we were on in the past.

Therefore, we must first thank the woman for bringing us down to the earth so we would actually be able to acquire a greater upper spiritual level. Secondly, when Abraham first discovered the Creator he was told: “Listen to what Sarah tells you.” We also have three matriarchs: Rachel, Rebecca, and Leah who were all great prophetesses.

Throughout history since the destruction of the Second Temple to our very days, women were the basis that holds, nurtures, and sustains the people. The Torah says: “a woman is a home,” and so she is the foundation and the basis of all the people.

Today women precede men in their yearning for the goal of creation, the wisdom of Kabbalah, and the attainment of the Creator, and are ready to do everything heroically and with great dedication in order to bring the nation to the upper attainment.

I therefore thank you for your tremendous valuable investment that cannot even be measured in the development of humanity and the development of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Thank you for preparing us for the spiritual ascent. It is a special gift that you give us every day, us men and all of humanity. We should constantly be grateful for that and not only on March 8th, Women’s Day.

Good luck, good health, and higher spiritual attainment for all of us!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/6/16

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Dispelling Myths About Kabbalah, Part 1

Laitman_115_04Listen to Sarah

Question: People say that only Jews are allowed to study Kabbalah. Is this true?

Answer: I have another question: Who are these “Jews?” Originally those who studied the wisdom of Kabbalah were called Jews.

People who gathered around the forefather Abraham called themselves Jews. He brought them from ancient Babylon to the land of Canaan. The nation of Israel originated from this group. “Jews (Yehudim) comes from the word “unity (Yehud)” – connection. That is, the original meaning of the concept “Jew” is precisely the one who is engaged in Kabbalah.

Question: What if a Turkish-Muslim studies Kabbalah?

Answer: It doesn’t matter who he is. There were many tribes and various communities in ancient Babylon. Those who joined Abraham became “Jews.”

In essence, a Jew is not a nationality like all other nations. One can be French and become a Jew. Being a Jew does not mean to belong to one’s father and mother, but rather to belong to an idea, to the aspiration to find the meaning of life, the purpose of development.

A Jew is a spiritual notion. Therefore, any person can be a Jew. A French or German who devotes himself to this approach, to one upper force (the good who does good) where there is nothing else besides this force, and to the law of love the other as yourself becomes a Jew. This is what determines his “Jewishness” (Yehudiut).

Question: Can a woman study Kabbalah? Did women Kabbalists exist in the past?

Answer: Certainly! All Jewish foremothers and prophetesses were Kabbalists. Up until the destruction of the Temple, both men and women of the nation of Israel possessed spiritual attainment. They lived simultaneously in sensation of the two worlds as one whole.

Question: It turns out that there is no difference between men and women in Kabbalah?

Answer: There is a difference. Just like in our world a woman is different from a man in her perception of reality and her behavior. However, with respect to the upper force and the goal of creation both of them have the same direction. Therefore, any person can study Kabbalah regardless of their nationality and gender.

In previous centuries there were such prophetesses as Huldah, Deborah, Miriam, and foremothers of the Jewish nation. Their spiritual levels were not less but even greater than men’s. Not without reason the Creator says to Abraham “Listen to what Sarah tells you.”
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From the Israel Radio Program 103 FM, 2/28/16

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How Does One Become Free From Suffering?

laitman_222_0Question: Does a person cause illness and suffering for himself?

Answer: It is impossible to say that suffering comes to us as a punishment. We must look at it as a revelation under the influence of the Light of more egoism within us. The Light, being a certain distance from the ego, shines on one, but doesn’t enter it so the ego feels suffering.

The closer the Light gets, the greater the pain. The person begins to think about how to avoid this pain, how to protect the ego from it, maybe even get away from it, to let the mind go and not think about anything. Masses of people take drugs, consume alcohol, or immerse themselves in various fields like: science, art, sports, and so forth; the main thing being to escape and not think about the meaning of life!

The Light is what brings us the meaning of life. We begin to understand that without the pain we wouldn’t begin this journey. All that remains for us is to take one step toward the Light so that it can enter into us.

If I search for a method to become free of suffering and to tell me how to find the meaning of life, I come the wisdom of Kabbalah. After all, those who come to it only come because they feel emptiness in this world. They have already experienced all kinds of problems, pain, and failures in previous incarnations, and even in this lifetime they mainly experience suffering from emptiness.

Question: A few years ago I became ill with a serious illness. This suffering led me to study the Bible and then the wisdom of Kabbalah. But this suffering no longer hurts me like it used to so I just about don’t pay attention to it. Can I become healthy?

Answer: There is no problem, just continue to do this so that the Upper Light will come closer to you. All problems are derived from the fact that it is standing in front of you but cannot enter.

Question: Does this mean that if I approach it willingly, the suffering will be reduced?

Answer: No. It will only gradually change in quality because there is a need for it. This is so that the movement toward the Light will not weaken. After all, we are egoists. How else is it possible to work with the ego? One can only poke it with a sharp stick , which is called a “stimulus.”

So it is said that a person advances being equally thankful for the bad and the good, and this means that he is advancing correctly. No matter where they come from, after all, in any case they are coming only from the Creator because “There is none else beside Him” (Deuteronomy 4:35). If a person is equally thankful for these influences, he will not deviate from the prescribed path and will advance directly toward the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/3/16

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From The Meaning Of Suffering To The Meaning Of Life

laitman_532Question: Why do children suffer? After all they are helpless innocent creatures. If there is a God, how could there be so much pain and how could He allow so much suffering in the world?

Answer: The world is full of suffering and we cannot justify the fact that someone kills, steals, or afflicts pain on others.

But when a person begins to feel that the sufferings on the corporeal level can bring him to some correction, to the acceptance of justice, to the feeling pleasure and healing, he begins to justify these sufferings. On the whole, we don’t understand that sufferings don’t come in response to any transgressions, like the suffering of small children, for example, who haven’t done anything wrong yet. They only come in order to force us to look for the meaning behind them; they are the “stick” that spurs us to do so.

The problem is that we don’t feel or understand why we should be beaten and the blows may be very serious.  We see what happens in children’s wards in hospitals and what is happening in the world in general. There is tremendous suffering that eventually connects to one general desire that forces a person to be wiser and to begin to realize that he was created to perform a certain mission.

It is actually the feeling of injustice, meaninglessness suffering, and the lack of understanding of their source, the reason why such things happen, which invoke the question: Where does it all stem from? After all, there must be a reason for it!

The sufferings leaving us with a question mark direct us to the search for their real reason that we eventually find by making a switch from the search for the meaning of suffering to the search for the meaning of life.

Basically there isn’t even the slightest clue in the sufferings that we experience that they are for a certain cause. But this is the only reason we feel them.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/3/16

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New Life 616 – The Refugee Crisis In Europe

New Life 616 – The Refugee Crisis In Europe
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Anyone who claims that we should help the refugees is welcome to open his home to them. Words will not help here. Not only is Greece in trouble, but strong countries like Germany and France cannot handle the refugee crisis either.

Why is this happening today? Because the world is taking on a new shape without borders; everything is involved and everything is round. Imagine meeting strangers in your kitchen; someone sleeping in your bed. It is frightening! There is nowhere to run. There is no place on the globe where you can be alone, not even 10 square meters of quiet.

Why do we feel this way? It is in order to acknowledge our obligation to change our nature and break our internal limits. Nature obliges us to develop to a level where we will feel that we are all one heart, one body, and one thought. The corrections we haven’t done in our relations are forced upon us now by the steamroller of development.

It is actually the individualistic Europeans who are given such a pressing situation with the refugees. Nature forces us to change our attitude to strangers, as if they were our kids, to “love thy friend as thyself.” What is more, there will also be financial blows and different natural disasters that will teach us that we are in the same boat and that’s it! Then the world will demand a solution from Israel because the solution is in the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom of connection.

The refugee crisis in Europe is not a passing wave, but part of an intentional series of blows that will force all of us to correct ourselves. The mixing of the world populations will wash the world: South Americans will flood North America and Muslims will be everywhere in the world.

The Europeans will feel that they cannot go on like that unless we change our attitude to others. Then they will be worthy of the correction of human nature and will feel that the people of Israel have the method of correction. When we develop the ability to feel that we are all one family life in our world will become heaven.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 616 – The Refugee Crisis In Europe,” 8/27/15

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 03.10.16

Preparation for the Lesson

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Shamati #37 “An Article for Purim” 

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 31

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