From my column in Ynet: “The Man Who Paved The Spiritual Way Of The Nation Of Israel”

At the age of 35 he appeared in Safed, mysterious and majestic, and during the two and half years before his sudden death he changed the course of history and brought about a tremendous change. Thanks to him the wisdom of Kabbalah was revealed to anyone who wished to study it and not just a chosen few. The ARI, Rabbi Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, the greatest Kabbalist of Safed passed away on the 5^th of Av 444 years ago. He left behinda method of study and a relevant message, which were adapted to our times by Baal HaSulam, Rav Yehuda Ashlag.

 “If I had found even one righteous among you, I would not have been taken away from this world before my time,” said the ARI sorrowfully to his students a few moments before he passed away

Rav Isaac Cohen, who was by his side, sobbed bitterly and said “What shall we do now?” and the ARI answered: “Tell the friends on my behalf that from now on they will not engage in the wisdom that I have taught them at all, since they did not understand it properly and only Rav Chaim Vital will engage in it in hiding and by whispering.” Rav Isaac Cohen was very upset and asked “Is there any hope?” “If you are rewarded I will come and teach you,” the ARI answered. “How will you come and teach us after you pass away?!” asked Isaac Cohen again. “You have no business inquiring what is hidden,” answered the ARI and passed away at the age of only 38! (Shaar HaGilgulim)

The Zohar: The ARI’s Whole World

The ARI was the greatest Kabbalist in 16^th century Safed and one of the central and most significant figure in the history of the nation of Israel and the wisdom of Kabbalah. He was born in Jerusalem in 1534. His father died when he was eight and the family encountered many hardships as a result. In order to improve their situation, his mother decided to move to Egypt to live with her brother. There the ARI lived most of his life, and delved into the study of The Zohar.

After attaining tremendous spiritual levels and by his special concealed understanding of the development of humanity, he felt that the time had come to reveal it. He moved to Israel and settled in Safed. The ARI knew that he would meet Rabbi Chaim Vital, his loyal student, who would later write his teachings and spread his wisdom in the world.

Thus in 1570, at the age of 36 the ARI moved to Israel and settled in Safed, the city of the Kabbalists. It was centuries after the time of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (Rashbi) and the Zohar group, years during which humanity had waited for the right teacher who would open the next spiritual level of the wisdom of Kabbalah. The ARI’s arrival to Israel and the publication of The Book of Zohar were clear signs that the time had come.

The Spark of Rashbi

Once he reached Safed, the ARI began to study with the great Kabbalist of the time, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero (the Ramak). But shortly afterward the two exchanged roles, the ARI began to teach the group of Kabbalists and the Ramak learned from him.

Rabbi Moshe Cordovero was to first to acknowledge the young Kabbalist’s greatness and as his friend and student he used to say: “You should know that one man who sits here will rise after me and enlighten the generation with the wisdom of Kabbalah. If the pipes were clogged in my time, the pipes will be revealed in his times. You should know that he is a great man, the spark of Rashbi.”

At that time humanity was in an unprecedented turmoil: the Middle Ages were over; the Renaissance began and brought about revolutionary changes in technology and in industry. The human ego erupted and pushed the world to an accelerated evolution and to many storms. Two hundred years later humanity was about to undergo fierce radical changes in Europe, especially bloody revolutions and civil wars.

The ARI who had foreseen the changes in human nature realized that he had to develop an alternative path of spiritual development that would balance the eruption of the ego in order to avoid the terrible suffering. He thus adapted the wisdom of Kabbalah and turned it into a scientific, practical academic method, instead of the method of connection, which until then was allowed only to very few special people. According to his method, if his instructions are followed correctly, people would be able to and the masses would engage in it. The method of correction, which he developed (and is still studied today) lead to an unprecedented shift in the spiritual development of humanity and totally changed history.

The Baton Is Given to Rabbi Chaim Vital

Only two and a half years were enough for the ARI to leave his significant hallmark on the history of Kabbalah. At the same time he never wrote any of his teachings. His whole Kabbalistic theory is known to us only from the writings of his students and the most prominent one and his follower Rabbi Chaim Vital (Harav).

Just as Rabbi Aba served by Rabbi Shimon’s (Rashbi’s) side to write down his teachings, which were to be published in The Book of Zohar, so did the Harav write down the whole wisdom from the mouth of his teacher, which today is known as the ARI’s Kabbalah.

“First a person should arrange his prayers and accept the commandment of love thy friend as thyself and tune his heart to love all of the children of Israel as his own soul, since by that his prayer that includes all of the prayers of Israel rises and will be fruitful. Everyone should include himself as an organ of his friends. If a friend is in trouble, everyone should share his sorrow, and pray for him, and thus he should share all his prayers and his actions and his words with his friend, and my teacher greatly warned me regarding the matter of our love of friends.” (Shaar HaKavanot)

The Harav didn’t add anything to the words of the ARI, and when he wasn’t sure whether he understood his teacher, he specifically said so. One of the major works of the ARI is the book Etz HaChaim (The Tree of Life), which describes all the systems of the upper worlds and the laws of the creation as a clear scientific method, and also the Eight Gates, a series of books, which also includes explanations about reincarnations.

His Successors

“The Holy ARI was Messiah Ben Yoseph, and so he could reveal such a great wisdom,” said Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag. His great wisdom symbolizes the point between the end of the period of exile, which was characterized by a great division between people and the beginning of the redemption, characterized by wonderful unity between all of mankind. “If I could say words of praise I would praise him every day and say that his wisdom is being revealed every day just like the day the Torah was given to Israel.”

Baal HaSulam was the first in the 20^th century to reach the spiritual level of the ARI and could therefore interpret his writings for our generation. He wrote a wonderful connection called The Study of the Ten Sefirot and in the introduction he wrote that the book was meant for anyone in our days who wishes to find the answer to the question of “What am I living for?”

This question has not disappeared and is hidden in every person’s heart. Just as terrible crises erupted in the time of the ARI, which shook humanity and spurred many into asking this questions, so do such crises occur today: a series of terrorist attacks all over the world, the rise of radical Islam, the fading of the EU, the growing polarization between different sectors and communities, and so on. It is actually by studying and reading the special method developed by the ARI with the commentary of Baal HaSulam , his follower, that we can find an answer to the meaning of life. They immediately raise a person to spirituality and enable him to feel the unity on top of the separation that rules us and leads to global destruction.

“If my people listened to me at times when the evil grows strong, they would spend all their time studying The Book of Zohar and the writings of the ARI and thus annul all the afflictions and draw an abundance of Light (Notzar Hesed). It is enough to study from these two great Kabbalists who have paved the way for us to the attainment of happiness, wholeness and eternity in order to build the right connections between us for a good life and to climb up the spiritual ladder, which they have placed for us, a ladder that reaches the sky.
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From Ynet article 8/8/16

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Torah, “Deuteronomy,” 7:22 – 7:23: And the Lord, your God, will drive out those nations from before you, little by little. You will not be able to destroy them quickly, lest the beasts of the field outnumber you. But the Lord, your God, will deliver them to you, and He will confound them with great confusion, until they are destroyed.

The process of correcting desires occurs gradually, from the lightest to the heaviest. Nations are our desires on the level of man. The beasts of the field, locusts, gnats, and so on symbolize desires of the animal level.

Everything that comes from the earth, eruptions (until you root up the ground), floods, etc., are desires of the still level. That is, there can be anything you want at any level: the still, vegetative, animal, and human, and all this is within a person and is subject to correction.

Therefore it happens gradually, starting from the smallest desire and ending with the greatest one. Although, basically if you can correct a large, high desire, everything included in this category and which is under this desire is corrected.

Question: Does it mean we can correct the biggest desire first?

Answer: It depends upon where a person is. In principle, initially everything is corrected on the lowest level and upward.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/27/16

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New Life 324 –  Truth And Falsehood
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What is the meaning of truth and falsehood in our lives, according to what are they defined, in which cases is it possible to relate to falsehood as truth, and is it possible to reach absolute truth?

We don’t know what truth is. Every generation has different values; each person changes during his life.

It is human nature to think constantly only about oneself and one’s own good. If so, what kind of truth can there be here? For me, truth is what is good for me and falsehood is what is bad for me.

All of our lives are one big lie. I want to exploit everyone for my own good, but I hide this. It follows that there is no absolute truth or absolute falsehood; everything is a matter of expediency. This is very prominent in politics.

Even when a person does something good for someone else, it is only because he feels close to him. It follows that truth is our nature, meaning our desire to receive, to control, to exploit everything for our good.

Our children are less hypocritical than we are. We received an education about how to speak nicely and so forth. This has no power over them.

Once there were ideals, Socialism, Zionism. Today it is clear that everyone appeals only to himself and everything is a lie. Today there is no power in making an investment. It is even possible to download everything for free on the Internet with the press of a button.

What a person thinks of as his truth is basically the result of the education he received. When the question, “What am I living for?” is awakened, I have an opportunity to get closer to discovering the truth about myself.

In the Torah it is forbidden to lie, for its goal is to raise the person to the height of, “You shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), to the truth. Accordingly, falsehood is anything that doesn’t bring me to love of others.

The higher power is entirely love, giving and bestowal. There are no lies in it. I am the opposite, and my work is to become like it.

Truth and falsehood are relative. A white lie is a beneficial lie. It is necessary to check if the goal is for the good of others or a different goal. What must always guide me is the good of others, detached from my own self-interest. A man must compliment his wife for the sake of peace at home. The higher truth of “and you shall love your friend” is obligatory.

It is up to us to define the aspiration to love others as the goal of life. Without this, all of our lives would be false.

There are people who have a tendency to lie. They can also change. They specifically have a tendency toward creativity.

When advancing toward the truth, love of others, in the framework of the family, we go through all kinds of states. Each one must help others through giving a good example, showing that he is making an effort to love. How does one deal with a child who lies in the family?

Conclusion: If we define love of others as the goal of our lives, it is called living in the way of truth.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 324 –  Truth And Falsehood,” 3/23/14

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing It’s Joy,’ In the Work”

Writings of Rabash, “Dargot HaSulam,” Article 566

Lesson on the Topic: “Tet-B’Av“

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Comment: Lately you sound like a political commentator and not a Kabbalist.

Answer: In our shared cultural development we have reached the end of the previous stage of human development, a stage in which humanity evolved according to natural law, through its continually growing egoism, like a little child or adolescent.

But just as the period of childhood ends, so also this period is ending, and today nature is forcing us to grow up and relate to life differently. For this, it is up to us to work against our egoistic desires and rise above them with faith above reason.

To realize this transition from childhood to adulthood, the wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed and tells us where we are, what happened throughout history, and what will happen in the future. Beginning from this moment, we have before us two ways of development: the way of suffering or the way of Torah, the good way. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to walk in the good way, which means learning to resemble nature and unite like all of nature is united.

The integral feeling will unveil before us the true world in which we exist. But now it is hidden by our narrow egoistic feeling. By discovering the true world we will be “creators” of another eternal and perfect world.

Since this transition is imperative for everyone and must happen in our time, as is written in the wisdom of Kabbalah and according to everything that is happening in the world, it seems that we must teach the wisdom of Kabbalah with news events, and explain what the events are caused by and toward what they are leading us.

It is possible to see my commentaries from previous years and be convinced about how right they are. Even Baal HaSulam wrote about politics in the writings of “The Last Generation” and in the newspaper, The Nation.
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Research (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science): Psychologists from Yale and Harvard University conducted a series of studies.

“Human prosociality presents an evolutionary puzzle, and reciprocity has emerged as a dominant explanation: cooperating today can bring benefits tomorrow. Reciprocity theories clearly predict that people should only cooperate when the benefits outweigh the costs, and thus that the decision to cooperate should always depend on a cost–benefit analysis. Reciprocity theories clearly predict that people should only cooperate when the benefits outweigh the costs, and thus that the decision to cooperate should always depend on a cost–benefit analysis. Yet human cooperation can be very uncalculating: good friends grant favors without asking questions, romantic love ‘blinds’ us to the costs of devotion, and ethical principles make universal moral prescriptions. Here, we provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, that reputation effects drive uncalculating cooperation. We demonstrate, using economic game experiments, that people engage in uncalculating cooperation to signal that they can be relied upon to cooperate in the future.

“Humans frequently cooperate without carefully weighing the costs and benefits. As a result, people may wind up cooperating when it is not worthwhile to do so. Why risk making costly mistakes? Here, we present experimental evidence that reputation concerns provide an answer: people cooperate in an uncalculating way to signal their trustworthiness to observers.

“People who help others non egoistically and for no self benefit are perceived as more reliable and therefore help others,” which means that they want to seem more reliable and can be counted on and accepted to work and so subconsciously they do things that are considered desirable by others. …

“…we find that participants are more likely to engage in uncalculating cooperation when their decision-making process is observable to others. Furthermore, we confirm that people who engage in uncalculating cooperation are perceived as, and actually are, more trustworthy than people who cooperate in a calculating way. Taken together, these data provide the first empirical evidence, to our knowledge, that uncalculating cooperation is used to signal trustworthiness, and is not merely an efficient decision-making strategy that reduces cognitive costs.”

Answer: Of course this is how such people want to be accepted.  So they promote themselves to acquire some “profit”:  gain social status, are promoted at work, etc.

Question: Would they behave differently if there weren’t this self-benefit?

Answer: Of course! Egoism is our nature, it requires calories, energy, an investment. Where does this energy come from? We have to see what we can get it from in the future; how we can fill ourselves. It is just lifke a gas tank in a car which you fill at a gas station.

People are ready to give a lot for the future reward that illuminates for them: for being spoken of favorably, for being promoted at work, so that their children will be proud of them, neighbors will respect them, etc. It is worth a lot!

Otherwise why do we buy a certain apartment or a certain car and spend a lot of money on it, when we could live in perfect peace and quite well without them.

Our actions cannot be free of greediness because our nature doesn’t allow us to do so! We have to spend calories on everything, joules (energy measuring units), no matter how we measure it. Therefore we have to receive this energy, which means that there has to be something that provides us with this energy for which we work, and if we don’t receive it, we cannot work because we are all mechanisms! We can only operate only if we have available energy or if it illuminates for us in the future.

Comment: But the researchers at Yale and Harvard don’t even mention egoism.

Answer: Of course not because they don’t understand it. They believe it is natural for a person who gives to do so and that there is no egoism in him and even quite the opposite.

Comment: But they did conclude that such actions are rewarding.

Answer: This is not considered egoism. Egoism is the clear fulfillment of our desire in order to harm others. If I bargain with someone in order to buy something for a cheaper price and he wants to sell it for a higher price, it is normal. It is human nature, but it may be the opposite case.

The painter Modigliani, for example, painted with “blood” because he was so hungry he couldn’t hold a paintbrush and fell exhausted at his easel. This is considered a noble soul, self-sacrifice, not selfishness. But in fact, this is overt blatant egoism.

A person lacks the clear accurate understanding of his nature; he loves to distort everything. Humanity is still immersed in its games, in confusion.

We must understand that nature operates according to a very simple principle: If there is energy, I turn around; if there is no energy I stand still and that’s all. Therefore, if we do something, it means that there is a hidden benefit in it, and if we wish to work without it, we have to know how to connect to an upper source of energy by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah and become a perpetual motion machine.

Then we will receive energy from an external source as if we are connected to an invisible pipe of energy for the sake of others. If we receive it, we will be able to work, but not in any other way.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/24/16

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Torah, “Deuteronomy,” 7:16: And you shall consume all the peoples which the Lord your God gives you; you shall not spare them, nor shall you worship their gods, for that will be a snare for you.

Any theories, methods, and goals that don’t pursue an accurate and acute goal—adhesion with the Creator in the equivalence of form with Him—should be abolished on the vine.

It is necessary to move away from those teachings that are very close to Kabbalah so they won’t captivate and confuse a person. After all, he doesn’t know the whole method yet, he isn’t at the end of correction, so that, from the pedestal he has reached, he could look at everything and evaluate. Therefore he must strictly follow only genuine Kabbalistic sources, without moving to the left or to the right!

By the way, there is a lot of unnecessary literature in Kabbalah that is written by people who haven’t attained or have just begun to attain the upper world. Therefore, it is necessary to study Kabbalah only through authentic sources.

Question: Is this the “trap”?

Answer: Yes, and a very big one! The trap, like a tidbit, lures you, but the trap slams shut. That’s it. It is difficult to get out of there. And you don’t know when it will slam shut. Once in the trap, you start to think that you are on the right path.

Unfortunately I have many students who were with us on the path, but due to some pretext left it and went into other currents, and it is hard to get them out.

It is possible that they think the same about us that we are on the side and they are in the main current. There is nothing that can be done, the future will tell.

Remark: In principle, does “serving other gods” mean serving material egoistic purposes?

Answer: It means serving any egoistic purposes, which includes everything that exists in our world.

Question: What does trap mean in a person’s internal work? Let’s say he is moving to the land of Israel and tomorrow, figuratively speaking, has to enter it, but suddenly falls in serving other gods…

Answer: Usually it happens before we enter the land of Israel. However even after we enter it, the huge war to destroy all idols continues since we begin to work with the same egoism that we left in Egypt and convert it into altruism.

The thing is that the egoistic desire is at the bottom. We exit it, 40 years we are above it, mastering all above-egoistic qualities, and then we begin to gradually raise egoistic qualities converting them to altruistic ones. And this is the entry to the land of Israel. In fact, the land of Israel is the same as Egypt in the correct, converted state.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/13/16

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New Life #323 – What Is The Secret Of Success In Life?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Technological development has opened possibilities for success for just about every person. How does this influence the connections between us and what is the purpose of this development?

Summary

In the past, technology was linked to materials like steel and wood, heavy production.

Today everything is virtual, easy, fast, and dynamic. Creativity, brilliance, computers, and robots are what are important.
– Manpower is less necessary for humanity. Computers and advanced technologies are replacing and hastening everything.
– Start-ups, brilliant youth, biotechnology, three-dimensional printers. We print what we want.
– Within a short time we will succeed in extending human life.
– Artistic ability like composing, painting, dancing—in the future we will be able to “download” this kind of software into a person, and then the question will be raised, if everything can be attained through the push of a button, what is success in life?
– Only one area will remain in which we can be successful thanks to ourselves—building connections with others.

Computers and machines will be able to do everything for us, and the task of building a new society will remain for us.
– Today people and organizations connect through networking in order to be successful, but this is not the connection we are talking about. We are talking about building an integral connection between a person and everything that is outside of him—all of us as one family.
– When we want to connect as a single body, we discover the power of giving and love that fills all of nature. The perception of reality will be changed. We will see the eternal connection between all the parts, beyond life and death. And this will be considered true success in life, and not all of today’s games.
– This is talking about the transformation of the desire that motivates us from the desire to receive for oneself alone to a desire to bestow to others.

The material from which we are built is a desire for pleasure. We correct it with the characteristic of bestowal above it.
– I am an individualist; I bend everyone for my benefit. There is a higher power in nature that can upgrade me.
– In this process of upgrading relationships with others, there is a place for positive competition. This is the success of tomorrow.
– At birth, nobody is equal to others. But work on upgrading nature equalizes all of us.
– When we mutually complement each other, the wonderful uniqueness of each and every one becomes clarified.

Day by day science is discovering how much all the details and all laws are connected into a single system.
– To date we measured success egoistically; tomorrow we will measure success with how beneficial I am to everyone.
– If we don’t work on upgrading our relationships with others, we will not be able to use technological advancement for the better.
[135159]
From KabTV’s “New Life #323 – What Is The Secret Of Success In Life,?” 3/20/14

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