Audio Version Of The Blog – 08.11.16

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download: MP3 Audio

What Does A Kabbalist Feel?

Laitman_115_04Question: Millions of people in the world are dying of starvation, in automobile accidents and various disasters. If the whole world is a single body, why don’t we feel this? Does only a Kabbalist feel this?

Answer: A Kabbalist doesn’t feel it either. He feels the general desire of the whole world, how it is gradually moving toward the end of creation and is fulfilled in certain ways, better or worse, greater or less harmony. After all, everything is advancing toward a common harmony.
[191142]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/10/16

Related Material:
How Does A Kabbalist Live?
Practicing Kabbalist
What Makes A Kabbalist Suffer

We Are All In A Network Of Forces

laitman_264_01Question: If the world around us is becoming more violent and more intimidating every day, how should we connect with people at work, or when using public transportation, and in other places we encounter people whose point in the heart has not been revealed yet?

Answer: I advise you to delve more deeply into yourself and to be in less contact with the outside world since you will not be able to correct it. The best thing you can do is to get away from the world a bit and to focus on your internal changes.

When the upper force is gradually revealed in you, the world will begin to shine for you in a different way. You will see to what extent the people around you are far from you and you will understand that they are managed from Above and that they don’t have anything of their own, no freewill, no qualities, etc. but that this is simply how they are played with from Above.

The whole system will be revealed to you and you will see seven billion people running around back and forth like ants. We are all in a network of forces that manages each and every creature on this planet and you shouldn’t relate to people as to someone who has freewill.

It will become clear to you how to draw the positive force from the network of forces we are in unto yourself, to ascend by this force above the common fate, and to acquire a special new fate. It will be in your power.
[191149]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/17/16

Related Material:
When There Are No Common Interests
In An External Wrapping And Without It
Sorting Life’s Values

Physics For The Orthodox

Laitman_514_02Question: At the gathering of the 18th Knesset, a compulsory education law was passed regarding essential subjects (mathematics, physics, and others) for the ultra-Orthodox schools. However, the ultra-Orthodox are introducing another bill to nullify this reform.

How do you feel about the proposal of teaching essential subjects for a general education in all schools?

Answer: I don’t understand the ultra-Orthodox’s fear. This doesn’t include history, social sciences, culture, or art. These are subjects that are essential today for every person to apply for any job.

Maybe they are afraid of being left without their electorate or that people will become more secular, will begin to work and leave their communities in which children grow up without a profession;  they don’t have degrees and must study in a kollel [institute for advanced Talmud and rabbinical literature study] for a poor people’s scholarship. The problem is compounded by the fact that they receive very large benefits from the state according to the number of children in the family.

If you consider the situation from the perspective of the future, on the one hand, in any case everything is going toward a reduction in the number of places to work because robots and automated machines will enter our lives so much that we will simply not be able to find work for everyone. On the other hand, in spite of everything, it is necessary to give a person a minimal job besides studying Torah. At least, that is what the Americans did. But it could be that to a particular degree this caused them to begin to become distanced from religion, from Jewish communities and to gradually spread all over America. The problem is serious and as far as it seems, the Orthodox are considering this issue.

They must stand guard in relation to their community and they are doing this magnificently. They use whatever they can get from the nation and from local self-management organizations. They are good politicians who can see everything correctly, predict developments, and come to agreements. They understand what they must do. There is a thorough understanding of their internal problems, but externally they always present themselves as one single monolithic force.

Comment: In principle, this is a type of preservation….

Answer: This preservation is correct because in their perception there is nothing new in the world, “If we wait 30 years, nothing will happen.”

Preservation like this is justified. So I think that they know what they are doing and all of our secular views about their behavior, in which we immediately denounce and judge them, is derived from a point of view in which everything must be changed immediately and be constantly clothed in another form.

While they assume that changes can wait, the main thing is to hold their community together, under one roof, behind one fence and not allow it any way to dissolve or to disperse anywhere.

Comment: According to Kabbalistic theory, the ego is growing and one way or another it will always win, meaning that the barriers will be breached….

Answer: This will only be in the end of days. First everything will come from the secular strata of the population through the moderate religious Jewish communities. And only at the end, when all the rest will already be close to correction and unity, then the Light of correction, by way of the external strata, will it gradually manifest in them.

Until then, they will be against any changes; they will hate the wisdom of Kabbalah and this will continue until the end of days.
[191050]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/24/16

Related Material:
Orthodox Youth To Join The Army?
The Difference Between The Secular And Religious Approach
Why People Become Disappointed In Religions

Ynet: “School For Emotions: Hatred Becomes Love”

From my column in Ynet: “School for Emotions: Hatred Becomes Love”

The religious and secular in Israel can’t stand each other. Secular Jews in Israel would rather their child marry a Christian spouse than an Orthodox partner. That is what came up according to the latest survey published by the Pew Foundation, and it reveals what all of us already know. Is there a way to bridge the separation and hatred?  Rav Laitman teaches how love will cover all crimes.

Israel has an impressive list of achievements: a strong military, economic stability, advanced agriculture, first place in Nobel Prizes, and we are thriving in almost every aspect, except for one thing which is precisely the most important: the relationships between us. In all the years of our existence, we have not succeeded in building ourselves as one connected nation, and if we don’t learn to do this, we may soon be erased from the map.

Last week, the results of a comprehensive survey conducted by the American Pew Foundation were published. The survey conducted over six months involved in-depth interviews of 5,600 Israelis, and presented a disturbing picture about the crisis in our society. According to the study, relationships of alienation and separation exist among the four main groups in Israel: secular, traditional, religious and ultra-Orthodox. Members of the groups rarely connect, almost never marry each other, and are divided in their positions on a wide range of subjects from religious and national issues to their political positions.

The survey results are hardly surprising. The extreme tensions and disunity, the implicit and explicit hatred, the trampling of anyone who thinks differently, and the exploitation of others are egoistic expressions that are leading to the destruction of our society, and respectively, also to the denial of our right to the land and the destruction of the nation of Israel (1).

The Ego and its Punishment

The main factor dividing us and destroying every good relationship is our egoistic nature. The negative force burns in all of us and makes us reject and even hate anything that is different and foreign to us. The ego dominates us so strongly that it hides from our eyes the tight link that exists between us in spite of all the differences.

We can create countless agreements and compromises that apparently will assure us of social order, but the experience of many years proves, and is also expressed well in the latest survey, that we only are going and dividing into many factions and sectors.

We could dismiss all of this by saying, “This is sad, but not really that bad. There are more serious problems than these,” but according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, all of nature has a plan that differs from ours which causes all of its various organs, meaning us, to act as a perfectly harmonious body. In contrast to the still, vegetative, and animate levels that function in a perfectly coordinated manner with the laws of nature, the human species is the only one that is motivated by pure egoism, pushing every person to provide himself with the most pleasure at any price, even at the expense of others (2), and this, as was said, is against the laws of nature. We can wait for nature to urge us and push us toward the desired unity, but it would be better for us to march forward on our own initiative and flow with it according to the same lawfulness and in the same direction (3).

Unity, not Uniformity

The first time we worked together with nature was about 3,500 years ago in the days of ancient Babylon. We shared a common destiny then. When the negative power of the ego suddenly broke out, it divided the Babylonian empire into a collection of tribes who were strangers to each other (4). Those divided groups rarely intermarried and were divided in their opinions, as is happening with us today. However, some of them were smart enough to gather around the Babylonian priest Abraham. That is how we managed even then to receive from the mouth of the father of the nation the method that eventually connected us as one people, the wisdom of connection between people—the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Abraham did not try to hide or blur the differences or the gaps. By virtue of his attainment of the depths of the laws of nature, it was clear to him that the matter was impossible. Every sector, community, or group in a unified and rich society is significant and must be protected and nurtured. What must be done is to bridge all of the gaps that hurl society into the abyss (5).

The unique position in nature that makes it possible for two opposites to coexist and live in peace with each other is called “Love covers all transgressions” (6) in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It means that it is up to us to maintain two floors simultaneously. On the first floor are the gaps between us that divide us with severe hatred, whereas on the second floor, we cover them with love. No feelings disappear. Rather, specifically within the gap that intensifies between the plane of hatred and the plane of love, a new space is discovered, a place in which the Higher Power connects and includes both of them as one (7).

The Wisdom of Kabbalah – The Way from Hatred to Love

Today, we are “separate people united against their will by a ‘common enemy’” as Achad Ha’Am said in his time (8). Since then, we immigrated to the land, remained a group of exiles, and have not succeeded in becoming a people (9). The only thing that does succeed in uniting us is that blazing hatred from the side of our enemies, whether it is the Intifada that is raging in the streets or the winds of anti-Semitism that are blowing through the enlightened world in our direction. However, the script just keeps getting worse. The moment that the hatred of our enemies weakens, the contempt among us increases, and it will not be long until the fires of hatred will reignite and spread to depths we have never known. It is even liable to develop to extreme points and lead to civil war (10).

This is precisely the reason for the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah in our time (11). Kabbalah doesn’t come to preach to us to be good to each other. Rather, it is a special method of connection for the people of Israel, and it is the only thing that can unite us to rise above the gaping rifts between us.

The goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah is to stabilize human society so that it will be able to continue to maintain unique and separate parts and simultaneously be connected like organs in a single body. The power of the wisdom of Kabbalah is in strengthening the unity between us until we feel the general power of connection, the Higher Power (12). When we connect among us, we gradually will be able to radiate this power to all of the nations of the world, serving as an example and model for them and becoming “a light of nations” (13).
[179547]
From Ynet article 3/14/16

References:

(1) “Most of the people have lost their ancient spiritual form, and a few have even sunken into a pursuit of all the vanities of life, fake factions and false Kabbalists, brawls and squabbles and unfounded hatreds, and their spiritual form is even worn externally without any internal Light” (Hillel Zeitlin, Safran shel Yechidim).

“And here is the main sign of the illness of the hour—the terrible internal disintegration, the disputes between factions, the hatred of brothers that are consuming all of us here, destructive acts and the internal destruction and ruin of the extremist parties” (Hayim Nachman Bialik).

(2) “But the equal side in all the people of the world is that each of us stands ready to abuse and exploit all the people for his own private benefit with every means possible, without taking into any consideration that he is going to build himself on the ruin of his friend” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “Peace in the World”).

(3) “…nature, like a skillful judge, punishes us according to our development. For we can see that to the extent that humankind develops, the pains and torments surrounding our sustenance and existence also multiply.

“Thus you have a scientific, empirical basis that His Providence has commanded us to keep with all our might the Mitzva of bestowal upon others in utter precision, in such a way that no member from among us would work any less than the measure required to secure the happiness of society and its success. And as long as we are idle performing it to the fullest, nature will not stop punishing us and take its revenge.

“And besides the blows we suffer today, we must also consider the drawn sword for the future. The right conclusion must be drawn—that nature will ultimately defeat us and we will all be compelled to join hands in following its Mitzvot with all the measure required of us.”(Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “Peace”).

(4) And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered upon the face of the entire earth.” And the Lord descended to see the city and the tower that the sons of man had built. And the Lord said, “Lo! [they are] one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have commenced to do. Now, will it not be withheld from them, all that they have planned to do? Come, let us descend and confuse their language, so that one will not understand the language of his companion.” And the Lord scattered them from there upon the face of the entire earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore, He named it Babel, for there the Lord confused the language of the entire earth, and from there the Lord scattered them upon the face of the entire earth (Genesis 11:4-9).

(5) “There has never been any kindness as there was with Abraham…and he brought peace between one person and his fellow, for after all he was the father of many nations, because of this he unified and made peace among all the created beings” (Gevurot HaShem, Chapter 6).

“Love your neighbor as yourself.” That charge implies that whatever you would like other people to do for you, you should do for your comrade in the Torah and mitzvot.

“The reward one receives for accompanying guests is greater than all of the others. This is a statute which Abraham our Patriarch instituted and the path of kindness which he would follow. He would feed wayfarers, provide them with drink, and accompany them.” (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon [Rambam], Mishnah Torah, Sefer Shoftim, Hilchot Avel, Chapter 14:1-2).

“Now Abraham was forty years old when he comprehended his Creator.
“…and [he] began to stand up and to proclaim with a loud voice to the whole world, and to reveal to them, that there was but One God of the whole Universe, and that Him only it was right to serve; and so he continued preaching and assembling the people from city to city, and from kingdom to kingdom…

“…and so thousands and myriads assembled around him, who constituted the men of the house of Abraham; and (Abraham) planted this great and radical principle in their hearts, and also composed books…

“And thus the thing was continually gaining strength among the children of Jacob, and among those that joined them, so that there grew up in this world a nation who knew the Lord…” (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon [Rambam], Mishneh Torah, Sefer HaMeda, Hilchot Avodah Zarah, Chapter 1).

(6) “Hatred arouses quarrels, but love covers all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12).

“…the heart of the vitality, persistence, and correction of the whole of creation, by people of differing views being included together in love, unity and peace” (Rabbi Nathan Sternhertz, Likutey Halachot [Assorted Rules], “Rules of Tefilat Arvit [Evening Prayer],” Rule no. 4).

(7) “The essence of peace is connecting two opposites, so don’t be afraid of your ideas if you see a person who has opinions that are the complete opposite of yours, and it seems to you that it is impossible in any way to maintain peace with him; and also when you see two people who are really opposites, don’t say that it is impossible to make peace between them, for on the contrary, this is essentially the whole of peace, to try to have peace between two opposites” (Likutei Etzot, The Value of Peace).

“We are not neutral when we claim that for consolidation, there must be consolidation of common responsibility, of mutual responsibility, of mutual influence. We claim that we must not blur the boundaries between the unions, circles and parties, rather a shared recognition of the common reality and a common position in a test of common responsibility. Separation between hearts is a disease that afflicts the peoples in our time and following its cure by way of coerced union is nothing but a mistake. Unity is lacking in the organizational structure. At the moment there is no remedy for this except that there will be people from different circles of opinion who need one another with a pure heart and take the trouble together to discover the common foundation” (Martin Buber, “Education and Examining the World”).

(8) “This Zionism sees where the Jews are – separated people who are united against their will by the ‘common enemy’, but it does not see Judaism – a single unit that aspires to exist in its unity even without all of the external compulsion. This is its main deficiency, revealed in all of its ways and deeds” (Ahad Ha’Am, “The Congress and its Creator”).

“Historically we are a group of people who belong to each other with clearly recognized relevance and whose consolidation is firmly maintained by the existence of a common enemy” (Theodor [Binyamin Ze’ev] Herzl, The Jewish State).

(9) “In the end, all we have here is a gathering of strangers, descendents of cultures of seventy nations, each building a stage for oneself, one’s spirit, and one’s leanings. There is no elemental thing here that unites us all from within into a single mass.” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “The Nation”).

(10) “It is a shame to admit that one of the most precious merits we have lost during the exile, and the most important of them, is the loss of the awareness of the nationality, meaning that natural feeling that connects and sustains each and every nation. The threads of love that connect the nation, which are so natural and primitive in all the nations, have become degenerated and detached from our hearts, and they are gone.

“And worst of all, even the little we have left of the national love…exists within us on a negative basis: It is the common suffering that each of us suffers being a member of the nation. This has imprinted within us a national awareness and proximity, as with fellow-sufferers.

“This is an external cause…

“And most important, it is completely unfit for its task. Its measure of warmth suffices only to an ephemeral excitement, but without the power and strength with which we can be rebuilt as a nation that carries itself. This is because a union that exists due to an outside cause is not at all a national union.

“In that sense, we are like a pile of nuts, united into a single body from the outside by a sack that envelops and unites them. Their measure of unity does not make them a united body… The fault is that they lack the inner unity…” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “The Nation”).

(11) “I am glad that I have been born in such a generation when it is permitted to disclose the wisdom of truth. And should you ask, ‘How do I know that it is permitted?’ I will reply that I have been given permission to disclose…

“…and this is what the Creator has given me to the fullest extent. We deem it as dependent not on the greatness of the sage, but on the state of the generation…” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam]), “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”).

“Turning the hearts and occupying the minds with noble thoughts, whose origin is the secrets of the Torah, has become an utter necessity in the last generation” (Rav Raiah Kook, Mist of Purity, p. 65).

(12) “The wisdom of the truth teaches us about the global unity, the side of equality to be found in the whole of existence through the very top, at the parity of the form with this Maker, and how to walk without obstacles by the path of this Light” (Rav Raiah Kook, Orot HaKodesh [The Lights of Sanctity],” 2 p. 393).

(13) “Israel brings Light to the world as it is said, (Isaiah 60:3) ‘And nations shall walk at thy light’” (Midrash Rabbah, Shir HaShirim, Section 4, Verse 2).

“…the Israeli nation had been constructed as a sort of gateway by which the sparks of purity would shine upon the whole of the human race the world over.

“And these sparks multiply daily, like one who gives to the treasurer, until they are filled sufficiently, that is, until they develop to such an extent that they can understand the pleasantness and tranquility that are found in the kernel of love of others. For then they will know how to shift the balance to the right, and will place themselves under His burden, and the scale of sin will be eradicated from the world” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee],” Item 24).

“When the Children of Israel are complemented with the complete knowledge, the fountains of intelligence and knowledge shall flow beyond the boundaries of Israel and water all the nations of the world…” (Rav Yehudah Ashlag [Baal HaSulam], “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 4).

Teenage Depression

Laitman_182_02Comment: The number of teenagers suffering from depression in the US has risen to over 11%, yet these young people rarely consult their doctors (Healthline.com and Mental Health America).

Answer: These teenagers don’t understand that they suffer from depression and believe that it is the way of starting life.

Comment: They say that that there are three major symptoms of depression: The first is a sharp decline in academic achievements and in activities they were successful in previously, such as studies, music, etc. Second, changes in food consumption: A person may either overeat or totally lose his appetite, and Third, an inability to concentrate on a concretely on a specific activity and the desire to be alone. Teenagers at the ages or 12-17 are especially inclined to do so (Mental Health America and National Institute of Mental Health).

Answer: Young people this age begin to look for meaning in life, “I am starting my life, what should I engage in?” Then they realize that there is nothing to engage in. Not too long ago physicists, poets, musicians, mathematicians, astronauts, and navy captains were respected. There was romanticism then, whereas today all people care about is money. It is only natural that any form of bravery, achievement, and romanticism has lost its meaning.

Young people today don’t know what is the ideal for which to live or to suffer, and after all, these are years in which a person wants to make an effort to achieve a certain sublime goal since he thus develops his self-respect and is proud of belonging to something that is sublime and special. In the past youth dreamed about heroic acts and even the hippies followed the idea of purity, but now all this is gone.

It seemed that young people could have everything since traveling to India today is like going to visit one’s grandma in the nearby town, but the question is “where should I go and for what if I already know what is there?” Therefore they have nothing to aspire for, no sublime goals, and no meaning in life. I cannot imagine how one can live this way.

When I was young I was torn between different choices of what I should be. We had many options, while today this need remains deep inside and is immediately extinguished because there is nothing to aspire to. Consequently, a person feels greatly disappointed by the fact that there is a great need, a great tension, a great internal desire, and on the other hand, he develops feelings of emptiness and disrespect to what he sees in life.

There is nothing one can desire, nothing to make an effort for. Where are the sleepless nights? Where is the search? There is nothing. This is the reason that people feel lost. As teenagers, they cannot understand or know which way to go, whether to study economics in order to make money or to study a certain field of science and then live on the crumbs that the rich throw them. They cannot dream, they have not been intrigued, they have not been led forward, and nothing interests them.

Question: What will happen then?

Answer: They will feel so greatly disappointed that they will want to destroy the world that doesn’t promise them anything but simply forces them to live. This is the reason that there is a growing rate of suicide and the growing popularity of escape to ISIS and other terrorist organizations. People consume more drugs and engage in crazy games on the Internet just to take their minds off their situation and to be busy with something. It is a lost generation. We have nothing to offer them and they have nothing to offer themselves. We are basically living by the law of inertia.

Question: But can we offer them any way out?

Answer: There is only one way out. We are intentionally in this condition, we have reached the final phase of our development and there is only one thing left for us to do: to unite in order to reach the next level of our evolution. There new unlimited dimensions will open up for us, unlimited fillings, daring, romanticism, and everything!

Our job is to bring the youth to this path of development. Their disappointment has ripened, and despite the negativity, they have an inner need. We have to develop the right approach in order to encourage them to this romanticism, to the special attainment and to the revelation of the world. It isn’t about the revelation of certain swamps, forests, or even outer space in order to orbit the earth, but about a totally new world, a world we can ascend to, live in, and develop ourselves in a different direction, in different forms and attributes, to create, to dare, to be like gods.

This is what we can offer young people, but we have to find the right way to approach them and offer it to them. The problem is only in the first encounter with them. We have to find the right way. So don’t wait, we have to start now.
[190638]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/18/16

Related Material:
Depression Among Youth
Dreaming Of Death
Depression—An Illness Of Lack Of Meaning In Life

New Life #354 – Time And The Transience Of Life

New Life #354 – Time And The Transience Of Life
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Why does the concept of time become very significant in our lives? How does it affect our development and how can we reach eternity by virtual education?

Summary

Time is like a policeman who constantly requires things from us and we are obliged to it.

After the age of 50 a person begins to sink and doesn’t have any great plans anymore. He lives in the present. There were people who wanted leave an eternal mark and became great men in history.

Old people feel that everything is about to end. Even if we live for hundreds of years this will still be a problem. It is not a good idea to concentrate the elderly in old age homes. An elderly person needs to be among everyone, among people of all ages.

A productive old age is when a person is active and contributes to the society he lives in until his last day. Elderly people can greatly help the young, especially in building the right attitude to life.

How can you leave an eternal mark? By discovering the eternal system of connections among us and by living in it. We feel alive when we get what we want. When we grow weaker and don’t want anything we grow old.

The force of receiving gradually diminishes while the force of giving which is aimed outwards keeps growing. Developing the force of giving during our life enables us to feel the eternal system of connections between us.
[147222]
From KabTV’s “New Life #354 – Time And The Transience Of Life,” 4/22/14

icon for podpress Video: Play Now | Download
icon for podpress Audio: Play Now | Download

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 08.11.16

Preparation for the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Rabash, “Dargot HaSulam,” Article 218

[media 3] [media 4]

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 7, “Table of Answers for the Meaning of  the Words,” Item 9

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot” 

[media 7] [media 8]