In 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
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 20^th century.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 727 – Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai,” 5/17/16

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Question: 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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Commandments 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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Preparation for the Lesson

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

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

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

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