Question: Should we change our character and attributes to become happier in life?

Answer: No, all we have to do is to connect with one another correctly. By discovering the Creator in this connection everyone remains the same. Moreover, a person doesn’t need to distort himself, pretend to be something else, and engage in eliminating egoism. It is enough to restore the connections between himself and others above the ego.

Question: What is a connection? Is there anything in our world that is similar to it?

Answer: Imagine that you hate someone and love him at the same time. If we calculate the average between these two attitudes and arrive at an average attitude: between your attitude to another and the other’s to you, this will be the right mutual connection.

We assume that a certain attitude is our nature and that we cannot change it, but we can build a small bridge of mutual connection above it. The greater the gap between egoistic hate and altruistic love, the higher a person is and the greater is the magnitude of the Creator he discovers between himself and others.

Question: Are these relations similar to the relations between a father and son?

Answer: Absolutely not, a father and a son are connected by relations on the animate level, an animal relationship.

Question: Why aren’t we given an example of the right connection?

Answer: Because we cannot connect the two emotions of love and hate at the same time. But we were given a group of like-minded people in order to build such mutual relations.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/13/16

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Torah “Deuteronomy,” 02:16 – 02:19: So it was, when all the men of war finished dying from among the people, that the Lord spoke to me saying, “Today you are crossing the boundary of Moab at Ar. And when you approach opposite the children of Ammon, neither distress them, nor provoke them, for I will not give you of the land of the children of Ammon as an inheritance, because I have given it to the children of Lot as an inheritance.”

There is a very clear sequence in the correction of egoism. Esau comes first, then Lot, and then all of the others except Amalek who can’t be corrected. Therefore it is said that it is impossible to correct him, because he is so-called “Lev Ha-Even” (stony heart). His correction is destruction.

Thirty-two main desires, which are the basis for the entire egoism, are unchangeable! And all others can be corrected to bestowal, love, and connection. The order of the correction is specified in the Torah.

For a person who understands what it says and who feels the upper roots, this is a real state with which he can deal and correct himself. For him this is revealing an inner world, and he, by working with it, clearly sees the entire geography, history, humanity, various nations, and so on. Everything is inside his egoism and is subject to the actions of correction.

Remark: The Creator says to the children of Israel, “Neither distress them, nor provoke them.” But they begin to feud.

Answer: The war for correction begins. When we talk about extermination and murder, we mean the destruction of the egoistic intention, which are restored to altruistic intentions.

Egoism by itself only corrects the intention “for myself” to the intention “for others” and becomes altruism. And all the desires remain. This is called the extermination of the nations or correction.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/20/16

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New Life 561 – The Holiday Of Shavuot In Israeli Society
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What does the Wisdom of Kabbalah say about the consumption of dairy products and fruit that is typical of the holiday of Shavuot? How is it possible to realize the occasion of the giving of the Torah and what is assured to humanity through receiving the Torah?

The consumption of dairy products symbolizes love, like the love of a mother for her children. The color white symbolizes Light, clean giving. If we relate to each other with love, we attain very special fruits, we discover a perfect world.

The problem is that we naturally feel everything only through the desire to receive, stealing for myself, exploitation, and so forth. There is a special force that can transform the bad attitude toward others to a good attitude. We call this force “Torah.”

The wisdom of Kabbalah makes it possible for a person to receive the force of the Torah, the force that corrects our attitude toward others. We receive the Torah with the Exodus from Egypt, which symbolizes the summit of distance, hatred, and separation.

If we don’t bring the good force into Israeli society, we cannot continue to exist. The good force is inherent in nature, it is hidden. Therefore, the method for discovering it is called the “wisdom of the hidden.” Kabbalah teaches us that if we don’t connect with the help of the good force, our enemies will compel us to connect.

Today, neither the religious nor the secular define “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) as the goal of the existence of Israel. Only Kabbalah is engaged with the general rule, “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” and so it succeeds in connecting between all parts of the people.

Making a correction means correcting your attitude toward others from hatred to love with the help of the force of the Light. A corrected person feels responsible for the whole world; his role is to connect the positive force with everyone. In conclusion, the Torah of truth, the hidden Torah, the “Torah of Light, is a method for building love for others, a perfect and eternal life.

Happy Holiday!
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From KabTV’s “New Life 561 –  The Holiday Of Shavuot In Israeli Society,” 5/3/15

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In the News (gazeta.ru): “The United States mistakenly detained a black athlete, confusing him with the real culprit. Why do members of other races for a man ‘all look the same’…

“Nevertheless, there is also a scientific substantiation of this phenomenon, which is not a racist prejudice, as many think. For this phenomenon there is even a special term – the effect of “cross races» (cross-race effect). By this phrase researchers understand cognitive phenomenon, which consists in the fact that members of one race is more difficult to distinguish and identify the members of another. …

“Throughout the XX century, the world, at least parts of it, have become more tolerant. Nevertheless, the ‘cross-race’ effect has not stopped. No longer be held, and research. For example, a Canadian-German group of researchers in 1995 was able to experimentally confirm that it is very difficult for members of one race to understand what emotions are expressed in members of the other race. Further research only confirmed the assumptions that were expressed before. …

“According to psychologists, the ‘cross-race’ effect is mostly due to the fact that people do not often come into contact with members of other races in childhood. …

“Moreover, the [Texas] state government…developed a special training course for police officers.The main task … was to teach the servants of the law ‘not to arrest the first blacks or Hispanics,’ they came upon and to distinguish between and identify them. The experiment failed: the only effective way was to use police officers of the same race as the alleged criminals. …

“Nevertheless, there is a way to save children from the problem of distinguishing other races. To do this, you need to actively show them before the age of nine months. If you miss the moment, the child will join the number of those for whom they ‘all look the same.’”

Answer: In the future, when working on the unification of all races and peoples, we will have to raise children of different races together “from the cradle” so they will have a better mutual understanding. This may also be solved in a mixed group of adults who work on getting closer and on revealing the attribute of mutual connection in order to reveal the Creator in the group.
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In the News (The Telegraph): “There is a crisis in modern masculinity, with men struggling to deal with pressures in their personal and professional lives, according to a report by the mental health charity CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably). …

“Suicide is now the single biggest cause of death in men aged 20-49 in England and Wales, with males accounting for 78 per cent of all suicides in the UK. Female suicide rates, in comparison, are declining. …

“Roughly half of all the 1,000 men and women surveyed said they had experienced some form of depression, yet women were much more likely to seek help or confide in a friend. 74pc of women who had suffered depression said they had spoken to someone about it, while only 53pc of males had done so. 69pc of men who had suffered depression said they preferred to deal with the problem themselves.

“When it came to work, 42pc of men said they felt pressure to be the main breadwinner in the family, compared to just 13pc of females. Of those surveyed, men were much more likely to have lost their jobs previously (54pc compared to 35pc of females) and to have lost their job more than once (25 pc compared to 10pc of women). 29pc of men believed their partner would think they were ‘less of a man’ if they lost their job.

“When asked about relationships, around three in 10 men felt that they personally lacked qualities and abilities that sexual or romantic partners look for in a man. …

“Men also felt additional pressure to remain strong during times of crisis. Around 42pc of male respondants said they believe a man is ‘mostly responsible’ for being emotionally strong and taking charge in a crisis, compared to around 17pc of women.

“Speaking of the findings, CALM’s chief executive Jane Powell said: ‘The research underlines that so often their own worst enemies, men need new rules for survival. Outmoded, incorrect and misplaced male self-beliefs are proving lethal and the traditional strong, silent response to adversity is increasingly failing to protect men from themselves.”

In the News (The Guardian): “Philip Zimbardo is a superstar mainstay of introductory undergraduate courses in psychology – well, a lot of them. He’s the man behind the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971, which provided insights into the psychological impact of being placed in either a position of power, or powerlessness in a confined prison setting. But in a new book out this last week, Zimbardo’s focus has shifted to – in his view – something much more concerning. Zimbardo thinks that there is a crisis in menfolk going on, and it’s all the fault of video games and porn.

“One of the main concerns that Zimbardo and Coulombe seem to have is that young men are playing video games to excess, and that they are using games as a form of extreme escapism from the worries and responsibilities of real life.”

My Comment: It is possible to detach from the screen only through an enticing of life that the screen cannot provide. When a man discovers that there is an exit to the next level of consciousness and existence, he will detach his attention from the screen, from the games and so on, and enter into contact with people like him to attain an exit to a higher dimension.
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New Life #587 – Freedom Of Expression
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What responsibility is placed on a person who publicizes his personal opinions, what kind of responsibility is involved in the use of freedom of speech, and why should we understand where humanity is heading before using this freedom?

Summary

To the degree that a person expresses his opinions, he feels his existence. This is a natural impulse that is derived from the ego. As we develop and the ego grows, we demand more freedom of expression.

Looking deeper, it is worthwhile clarifying what freedom of expression is. Is it the freedom to say anything that comes to me? Freedom of expression also requires a person to be responsible because his words can have much influence in the world.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is explained that even the thoughts of a person influence the world, so this requires even more responsibility.

Freedom of expression, as it is today, leads to social disorder and contempt of people toward each other. Even the media are controlled by particular interest groups and others, and everything is bought and sold with money.

To reach true freedom of expression, we must learn what the world is developing toward according to the law of nature. The summit of development will be when all parts of reality will be in absolute balance, connected as one.

On the way to this, we must go through all kinds of forms of opposition between each other, as it is said, “…as light excelleth darkness” (Ecclesiastes 2:13).

The opinions that people express today are not really independent opinions. What is heard impresses one, and so on.

A child’s self-expression are to grab, take, and hit others. Then he or she expresses verbally. Yet it is not enough to allow a person to shout his opinions; he must be taught what the good state toward which we aspire is.

Nature determines where we are advancing to, not us. But like little children, it seems to us that we are free. Keeping our mouths shut is also not good. But in the meantime, when everyone shouts, we aren’t advancing toward the good. Without a general social educational process, we won’t advance toward the good.

We must know what the law of nature is demanding from us. The final state nature is moving us toward is for us to be as a single unit, “As one person with one heart.” When this general picture becomes clear, everyone will be able to express themselves optimally.

In summary, freedom of expression obligates us first to learn what kind of world we are in.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #587 – Freedom Of Expression,“ 6/21/15

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash “Rungs of the Ladder” Article 29

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Torah, “Deuteronomy,” 1:44 – 1:45: And the Amorites, dwelling in that mountain, came out towards you and pursued you as bees do, and beat you down in Seir, as far as Hormah. So you returned and wept before the Lord, but the Lord would not hear your voice, nor would He listen to you.

The connection with the Creator, i.e., with the force of Light, is very simple: If you are equivalent to Him you can connect to Him, and never otherwise.

There are no movements from the side of the Light, it is in absolute rest, and only we move toward it. But it seems to us that the Light is getting closer and then we feel good, and if we are opposite to the Light, we are moving away from it, and then we feel bad.

We think that the Light, the common force of good that fills the entire universe, performs all the actions, but in reality everything depends only on our internal movement.

By connecting more strongly with each other, we reveal the Light within us more and more. Egoism constantly supplies us with bigger desires so we can correct ourselves by getting closer to each other, until the complete revelation of the Upper Light is within us.

Question: Would it be an error to think that I will do everything by myself?

Answer: Of course. The fact is that we go forward without the Light, the entire development of humanity before our time was through the attempts to do something inside egoism. We were enclosed in our little black ego and all the time we were digging in the depths of the earth, ostensibly seeking to progress.

But the entire progress came down to robbing, stealing, and appropriating something from each other. It never took place due to good ideas or kind actions. Therefore, now we are left with nothing.

We have come to such a state because as the Creator said, “I am not among you.” After all, Moses, or the Creator, is the quality of bestowal (Bina).

Today, we finally begin to uncover the reason for our common universal suffering. Its source is the fact that humanity is in one single quality of egoism. And we don’t have the second opposite to it, the quality of altruism. Even the altruism we think exists in this world is purely egoistic.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/20/16

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Torah, “Deuteronomy,” 1:41 – 1:43: Then you answered and said to me, “We have sinned against the Lord; we will go up and fight, according to all that the Lord, our God, has commanded us.” So every one of you girded his weapons, and you prepared yourselves to go up to the mountain. And the Lord said to me, “Say to them, ‘Neither go up nor fight, for I am not among you, lest you be struck down before your enemies.'” So I spoke to you, but you did not listen, and you rebelled against the command of the Lord, and you acted wickedly and went up to the mountain.

Moses says to the sons of Israel, “You weren’t corrected enough in order to fight with your internal egoism. I warned you but you decided nevertheless that we need to race against time.

Remark: But they repented by saying, “We have sinned against the Lord! Now we will go and correct our sin.” And God replied, “I am not among you.”

Answer: We can’t get away, the laws of nature are unalterable. God is not some kind of puppet or capricious woman. It is the clear laws of nature. If you fulfill them, you receive life; if you don’t fulfill them you are going to die.

Moreover, he sent spies, the wisest men, to the land of Israel. And what did they see? They saw the enormous fruits this land gives! And why does it give such fruits? There are no Jews there yet, completely different people live there. However, they can’t extract these fruits from the egoism without having quality of bestowal.

Comment: But in the Torah it is said that two people are carrying an enormous cluster of grapes…

Answer: Correct, but who is carrying it? The children of Israel that entered it; the seven spies, they saw these fruits! They brought them to the people! They work with egoism! They discovered that with its help it is possible to obtain such fruits, i.e., to reach such spiritual heights!

Therefore they say, “If we enter this land, (plunge into egoistic desires), take a bit from inside egoism and raise it outside, then we will receive enormous fruits! This is special land!”

There are few levels of desires: zero, one, two, three, and four. The fourth level is the most base, heavy, and egoistic. Throughout the history of evolution, egoism is constantly growing. The people of Israel, by exiting Babylon, corrected the first four levels of egoism in them: zero, one, two, and three.

And now they enter the land of Israel, the last, most terrible egoistic state. Therefore, the spies who entered the fifth level, bring fruits and show them to everyone, saying, “Look what we can obtain there!”

But everybody understands that these fruits are possible to obtain through a serious fight with terrible giants living in the land of Israel, i.e., with those enormous egoistic desires that exist in this level.

Moses addresses the people saying, “We must work on this level. Do you agree?” Half of them shout, “What for? Here it is good for us as well! We will wait.” And another part is ready to go forward at any cost. Hence Moses tells the Creator that he must explain the Torah to them again.

But this is another Torah, preparation for entry into the land of Israel; we can say it is a compilation or an assembly of the previous path and a presentation in a form that requires a person to start working with the most difficult and dark layer of egoism.

Among these egoistic desires are some that we are unable to correct and just have to leave them aside. But first we need to explore, sort, select, and set them aside.

Seven nations living in the land of Israel, i.e., seven egoistic desires, must be corrected gradually. This means conquering them by covering them with the altruistic intention.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/20/16

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