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Netanyahu Criticizes Moshe Ya’alon

laitman_547_06Question: The Prime Minister of Israel summoned the then Defense Minister  Moshe Ya’alon to explain his comments in front of senior officers of the IDF. Ya’alon stated that the officers should express their views even if they are different from the views and the opinion of the senior command and the political leaders. His words provoked different responses on part of the government and the army, starting from full support to the idea of firing Ya’alon. (Ya’alon resigned from his post a few days later.) How do you relate to such pluralism?

Answer: This isn’t pluralism but indiscrimination that exists only in our army. Military men should engage in their profession. For some reason we are witnessing an unfortunate tendency of military men preparing their political futures. This is totally unacceptable because while still in the army they begin to adapt to certain streams or political parties, whereas the army should be totally indifferent and independent of anyone, subordinate only to the government. No matter what it commands, the army has to carry out its orders and think only about how to do so in the best possible way.

If military officers begin to argue about why politicians think one way or another, it isn’t an army anymore but another parliament. This must cease, stop, and there should be a law that a person who is released from military or police service cannot hold a position in the government. He can engage in any type of administrative work in the free market, no matter where and how, but under no circumstances can he be part of politics.

Comment: In that case we wouldn’t have had half of our prime ministers since most of them were ex-military officers!

Answer: And we don’t need them. What was the benefit of General De Gaulle’s becoming Prime Minister? He lost the love of his people. We should understand that it isn’t the same thing. For some reason we believe that a person who knows how to command will also know how to run a state well. Studies show that it is the exact opposite because the laws in each case are totally different. This is the reason that it should not be allowed.

Question: Why is it that in the Israeli army everyone wants to express himself and to show his independence?

Answer: The point is that all the Israelis have come from different places and were initially organized only in kibbutzes. All the members of the kibbutzes served in the army, they were accustomed to this way of life, and then gradually made their way to politics. This happened because our state was founded at time of war, but today it is simply impossible.

Question: Is the fact that everyone feels that he is the boss related to the spiritual level?

Answer: “Everyone should be happy with his fate and with what he was given! It is the duty of the workers to work and for a brave man to be a warrior,” said Shota Rustaveli. This is how we should advance.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 5/17/16

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Crossing Of The Red Sea (Yam Suf), Part 2

Laitman_514_04There are several levels in the relationship between people and the upper force, the thought of creation.

Some people think the following: “Apparently, there is an upper force that has a great goal. This force demands that we do what it desires in our lives. If we do what it desires in a simple form only, in our material life, and keep the commandments, we will receive a reward.”

For some, the reward can be feeling good in this life, and therefore they consider it worth doing. For others it is that they will have a future world after death.

There are still other people who don’t agree with this and think differently: “The upper force doesn’t want us to relate to this system in which we now exist in such a simple form, meaning just to make this life here better or even to acquire a so-called future world after it.”

On the contrary, this upper force wants us to know it, to reach its level, to become similar to it, to take care of the entire system the way it does, and through this, to become its partners. It wants each small part within this system, each person, to take upon himself the burden of care throughout the common system and influence the entire system from his personal point, the way that the upper force influences and supports this entire system with bestowal and love, because it is good and does good.

Hence, there is a difference between these three types of people. The first two types, who care about their personal life in this world or in the future world, stay in their egoism with Pharaoh and don’t want to leave him. But they are prepared to fulfill the commands of the upper force while staying within their egoism.

Only people of the third type don’t agree with this and say, “The upper force wants us to be like it, to attain bestowal and love of others, because ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ is the main rule of the Torah.” These people are ready to exit Egypt and escape with Moses away from their egoism, are willing to exit control of the ego. This means they exit Egypt.

When they run away—wishing to disconnect from self-care, care for their relatives, and rise a little to care for the common system—they don’t leave their personal concerns, but understand that all of this can exist only in one space together with everyone, and that all of humanity, all the people and all of the souls, are one global system, and a person cannot care only about his personal well-being because it will make him similar to an animal.

Then, while trying to think about great things, to break away from the control of their egoism and thus disconnect from it, they suddenly feel that this egoism comes, grabs them, and says, “No! Why do you need to completely disconnect from me? You can, together with me, earn the future world and a little bit in this world. Please, keep all of the commandments, even ‘love your neighbor as yourself,’ but think about how to make yourself feel good, providing yourself with the future world and everything else!”

It means that forces are awakening in a person that tell him that he needn’t fully disconnect from egoism because, by that, where would you go, into what world, what kind of strange space? Take care of everyone, but make sure it is for your own good!

Then, man sees that he is haunted by these forces, these thoughts that are called “God-fearing servants of Pharaoh.” On the one hand, they seemingly are ready to do everything that the upper force tells them, to keep commandments, but just not to disconnect from self-love and not to move to universal love, to the love of others.

These who go with Moses ask, “So what do we do?” And they answer, “Keep only physical commandments, but without the intention to bestow in order to do good to others. Do it only to do good to yourself, in order to earn this world and the future world. Keep the commandments, but your intentions should stay egoistic.”

This absolutely contradicts the desires and thoughts that go with Moses because what is most important for them is to disconnect from thoughts about self-benefit and to move to thoughts of benefit for others, and from them to thoughts about the benefit of the common system, that is, the Creator.

There is a big fight between them here. These egoistic forces pursue the forces that go with Moses, wanting to catch them, stop them, and return them back to Egypt, meaning to corporeal, purely egoistic work. After all, the Pharaoh was clever. He was saying, “Do you want to perform all of the actions that the Creator commanded you here? Please do!”

It means that the exit from Egypt is exactly when I disconnect from the intention to receive for myself, for self-benefit, and think only, purely, about the benefit for others apart from myself. This is called exiting Egypt and crossing the Red Sea. These egoistic desires called “God-fearing servants of Pharaoh” are not capable of doing it. Hence, they have no other corrections, except drowning in the Red Sea on the way.

The Red Sea is this crossing between Egypt, where I am under control of the Pharaoh, and a place where I am disconnected from him, where I can’t think about self-benefit. Perhaps, I still can’t think about the benefit for others, but I am exiting the control of self-love.

Therefore, there is no other correction for these desires, apart from drowning them in the Red Sea. This way, they sacrifice themselves and then gradually are corrected. Of course, desires can’t die. This is just a way of processing them when they lose, correct them, and then they rise to correct work, completely in bestowal and love, and in power of the light of faith.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/21/16

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“The Democracy Fest Is Over”

laitman_546_03In the News (svd.se): “Not even Europe and the United States are immune to the anti-democratic plague that is spreading across the world. Human rights eroded while many countries hold elections to cover up abuse, concentration of power and corruption. Belief in European cooperation and peace-building through economic integration is replaced by aggressive nationalism in country after country. …

“The dream of the end of history as a festival of democracy is over.

“Global democracy has been declining for a decade. … The third wave of democratization that began with Portugal’s democratic revolution in 1974 has now fallen ten consecutive years, and no improvement is seen on the horizon.

“Billions of people live in bondage in their states which are ruled by corrupt leaders who only care about fulfilling their hunger for power. … Laws that restrict civil rights movements are spreading throughout the world aspiring to destroy their rivals. An anti-democratic cartel in the human rights council in the UN is trying to block decisions regarding freedom of speech by visible heads.

“More and more countries cease to respect international law and bilateral agreements. Journalists are being killed much more often. Elections became a form of art mastered by numerous illegitimate leaders. Dictators love elections. …

“We must realize they force Europe to choose nationalism over internationalism, chauvinism over humanism.

“We must realize that powers that are interested in European collapse and put collective nationalistic pressure on free mass media do exist!

“Faith in the non-liberal democracy in Europe needs to be stopped. It casts long historic shadows and stimulates corruption. It is very harmful for economics and triggers violence and conflicts. Belief in non-liberal democracy undermines European collaboration and serves our enemies’ interests.”

My Comment: Since this is the time predicted by Kabbalah to realize our nature as evil, to realize that we cannot build anything better; if we do not change our nature, we will destroy ourselves. So we are left with no choice but to start the education of the population, rather than complaining about bad people trying to govern the good people…
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New Life 727 – Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai

New Life 727 – Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

We live in a world that is incomprehensible to the human ego that has developed and become imbalanced. Kabbalists advise us to balance the human ego through the wisdom of Kabbalah, a scientific method for revealing the positive force in nature. The first to discover this method was Adam, and Abraham was the one who developed it so that it could be implemented in a group.

Abraham gathered people into a large group divided into small groups of ten called a Minyan. Under his guidance, the members of the group learned to feel the whole system of the upper world. Later the members of the group underwent many changes until they reached a state in which their egoism erupted to such an extent that they could not connect anymore, as described in the story of Joseph and his brothers. Then the same group went down to Egypt where egoism developed even more, and under the leadership of Moses, they exited Egypt and received the Torah, the method of connection.

When the members of the group couldn’t balance the evil force in them and the connection between them was broken, the Temple was also destroyed and they were exiled, exiled from the good force, from the balanced system. In those times Rabbi Akiva taught the method of love and his student Rabbi Shimon, who wrote The Book of Zohar, was the Kabbalist who brought us the practical method of fulfilling the rule of “love thy friend as thyself” in society.

The Book explains how to extract the good force, hidden in nature, which balances the evil force, the human ego. Baal HaSulam wrote the commentary for The Book of Zohar and brought about the revelation of The Zohar to the public in the 20th century.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 727 – Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai,” 5/17/16

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Becoming Equal To The Creator

laitman_744Question: How can one become equal to the Creator?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah deals with revealing the Creator to every person in our world. Yet a person can attain the Creator only to the degree that they are similar to Him.

Our qualities have to correspond to what we want to reveal. After all, everything that we attain in this world is derived from the equivalence of form to what exist in nature. Accordingly, we create various sensors, detectors, that are capable of determining or sensing objects or phenomena the way our senses do.

During the course of man’s development, he advances toward resembling the Creator, attaining absolute adhesion with Him in even the smallest attributes, and replacing all of his present base egoistic qualities.

Sooner or later, every one of us will have to reach this, in not during present lifetime, then during the next. We will be obligated to return to this world and attain the goal of creation anyway. To the degree that we form the properties of the Creator within us, gradually occupying the entire space, we will begin to feel ourselves in His place. After all, the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals the system that governs the universe, making it possible for us to become the Creator’s partners.

To correct our egoistic qualities into altruistic, we need to attract special forces from a higher informational layer of the universe, which will change us. So our task amounts to drawing upon ourselves the upper forces that will transform us to become like the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/13/16

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Dispelling Myths About Kabbalah, Part 5

laitman_627_2Commandments And Traditions

Question: Does Kabbalah obligate one to follow the Jewish rituals?

Answer: When one studies the wisdom of Kabbalah, even being the most secular person who has never followed any traditions, he begins to feel that all of these rituals are given with the purpose of reminding about the connection with the upper force. Therefore, some people begin to follow these traditions, although there is no obligation.

Question: For example, what is the meaning of blessings for bread and for wine in the beginning of the first Shabbat meal?

Answer: It is impossible to explain these actions without the wisdom of Kabbalah. Only Kabbalah explains what the seventh day of the week, Shabbat, means. It corresponds to the seventh millennium, that is, the end of correction.

We hope that we will come to a state when the entire world will be corrected and will continue its existence in the absolute general love for the other in greater degree than for himself. Then, the upper force will be revealed between us in the corrected connection and will dwell between everyone.

Without the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is impossible to understand what the Torah is talking about.

Question: Why do we add salt to the bread during the blessing at the beginning of the Shabbat meal?

Answer: It is very simple to understand for someone who studies Kabbalah. However, it is impossible to explain it without using the Kabbalistic terms. Bread symbolizes the Light of Mercy, Hassadim, Bina, whereas salt is Malchut. This way, a connection appears between Bina and Malchut, as it is written, “You shall offer salt on all your sacrifices,” as a sign of the union.

One must study this. It is impossible to explain it in a few words. If you want to understand the inner meaning of any tradition, it is possible only through the wisdom of Kabbalah. All traditions, laws, and commandments in Judaism come from Kabbalah and exist only because of this wisdom. It explains their true meaning and fills them with the inner sense.
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From the Radio Program on 103FM, 2/28/16

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 06.01.16

Preparation for the Lesson

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Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 12

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 49

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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 10

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