Question: Karl Marx wrote in, “On the Jewish Question,” “Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist. Money degrades all the gods of man – and turns them into commodities. Money is the universal self-established value of all things. It has, therefore, robbed the whole world – both the world of men and nature – of its specific value. Money is the estranged essence of man’s work and man’s existence, and this alien essence dominates him, and he worships it.

“The god of the Jews has become secularized and has become the god of the world. The bill of exchange is the real god of the Jew. His god is only an illusory bill of exchange. …

“Judaism could not create a new world; it could only draw the new creations and conditions of the world into the sphere of its activity, because practical need, the rationale of which is self-interest, is passive and does not expand at will, but finds itself enlarged as a result of the continuous development of social conditions. …

“Only then could Judaism achieve universal dominance and make alienated man and alienated nature into alienable, vendible objects subjected to the slavery of egoistic need and to trading.

“Selling [verausserung] is the practical aspect of alienation [Entausserung]. Just as man, as long as he is in the grip of religion, is able to objectify his essential nature only by turning it into something alien, something fantastic, so under the domination of egoistic need he can be active practically, and produce objects in practice, only by putting his products, and his activity, under the domination of an alien being, and bestowing the significance of an alien entity – money – on them.

“The social emancipation of the Jew is the emancipation of society from Judaism.”

Question:  How is it possible to blame an entire people and compare it to the rest of the people?

Answer: As a scholar, Karl Marx was working completely logically and correctly maintained that specifically for Jews there are characteristic traits and the most egoistic behavior.

And it cannot even be otherwise because specifically this group of people was on a high spiritual level in the past from which it fell below everyone through their damaged egoism. That is also what is said in the Torah, if the Jews ascend, they rise higher than anyone. But if they fall, they fall below everyone. In absolute, (absolute value), their ego is the greatest!
[190042]

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Question: What is the spiritual root of money?

Answer: Money in Hebrew is called Kesef. It has a double meaning: It refers to silver (Kesef) and cover/coating (Kissufim). If I have enough to cover my needs, it is called money (Kesef). According to the degree that we can cover (Kissui) our needs, we can fulfill our desires. The word “Kesef “ is of Eastern origin (Kesef, Tanga), coming from the southern periphery of Russia.

In our times, money can be virtual, and Jews once paid only with silver. In the Torah, it is mentioned that Abraham weighed out 400 Shekels of silver for the Cave of Machpelah in which he buried his wife.

The Torah speaks specifically about silver and not gold because silver is considered to be the property of Bina, bestowal, while gold is considered to be the property of reception. In itself, gold symbolizes greed and avarice, while silver symbolizes Atzilut, generosity, giving, and bestowing.
[189598]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/3/16

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Torah, “Deuteronomy,” 6:10 – 6:13: And it will be, when the Lord, your God, brings you to the land He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and hewn cisterns that you did not hew, vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant, and you will eat and be satisfied. Beware, lest you forget the Lord, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall fear the Lord, your God, worship Him, and swear by His name.

If we argue from the point of view of an ordinary person, haven’t we earned the land of Israel by being in slavery in Egypt for 400 years and then wandering in the desert for 40 years, “Have I received it for free? I spilled so much blood for it, suffered so much.”

But spiritual work is completely different from what it seems to us. Everything that is described in the Torah happens within us to the extent that we seek to unite with each other. By revealing stronger connection we get closer to the land of Israel in it.

The land of Israel is this common desire that we acquired the first time as an egoistic desire in Egypt, when we were connected only by the desire to exist for the sake of egoism, i.e., for the sake of Pharaoh.

We constantly fulfilled this desire, allegedly enriching Egypt, until our egoism swelled so much that we saw how it buries us in it and kills us. And then through the ten plagues that the Creator brought upon us, we cried out to the Creator and asked to exit the slavery.

All our work was that we were shouting, asking the upper force of love and unity to pull us out of our egoistic separation and mutual hatred. We were coming to it also during the forty-year journey through the desert, when we didn’t yet work with egoism in order to unite in it, but were only rising above it.

Through completely breaking away from Egypt and rising above egoism we enter the land of Israel, i.e., egoism itself, in order to convert it into the quality of bestowal and love. And when this great desire called Pharaoh or Egypt is transformed into this quality, it is already called the land of Israel.

Therefore, all the names of places mentioned in the Torah do not relate to geography; they are within us, inside our enormous egoistic desire that the entire humanity serves to this day.

And now we begin to realize that it is killing us, that we invest our life into this enormous desire and eventually die without leaving anything. So what do we live for? Is it in order to throw ourselves and our children in the crater of an insatiable ugly creature—egoism?

And therefore we decide to rise above it, as it is said, “And the sons of Israel cried out from the hard work.” This is when we receive forces of unity that are above egoism and begin more and more to pull ourselves from egoism during forty years of work in the desert.

And then once above egoism, we create a new strong generation that was born in the desert, we begin to enter egoism, to conquer this land. We descend into egoism and begin to transform and correct it. And this is the entry into the land of Israel.

Thus, every time during ascents and descents the laws are explained to us that are equally revered, but are implemented on completely different material, and therefore we see them in a different way.
[190211]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/6/16

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Question: Each person has abilities and talents that were given to him from birth. How do we use them correctly in life?

Answer: A person with talents, let’s suppose he is a musician, a painter, or a writer, can certainly combine the wisdom of Kabbalah with his specific activities, but it is very difficult since he invests both intellect and emotions in his creativity, which in principle he should invest in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

When a person is involved with the wisdom of Kabbalah, in the development of spirituality, he spends a great deal of energy in order to yearn for it, with his heart, his soul, and also his intellect. It doesn’t mix well with such worldly activities like science or art.

Question: Isn’t it possible that these talents were given to a person specifically so that he could apply them in the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: As strange as it might sound, there is no kind of corporeal activity that can be of any use in the wisdom of Kabbalah except for the art of writing and drawing, and also these tendencies must be used only in order to disseminate Kabbalah, for describing it and bringing it closer to people.

Question: What about theater, painting, and sculpture? Especially if it brings joy to the soul….

Answer: I do not know why people think that the soul is “happy” when it sees some sculpture; I understand that people think of it in this way, but it isn’t the soul.

Observing in this way comes from the physical urges that still control a person, but this will gradually change to a more inner observation.

Man should not in any way destroy, belittle, get rid of, or be ashamed of anything within himself, or blame himself that he still has these urges.

He can enjoy art, literature, music, and anything else, but as a result of the study of Kabbalah, when he begins to come closer to the revelation of the spiritual world, this revelation will be so comprehensive and inclusive, exciting and fulfilling, that he won’t have room in his heart or his mind to be involved with anything else except simple necessary work.

My teacher Rabash explained that the very best thing for a Kabbalist to be was a shoemaker.  He was referring to any monotonous work that allows a person to think about spirituality.
[190110]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/10/16

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New Life 742 – World Demographics
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Since our return to the land of Israel from exile, the world has changed; we need to build a “new man” here. In general, the world takes on different forms according to the rate of advancement of the people of Israel in their correction. Our progress or our delay in building the “new man” influences every aspect of human life.

The Earth can contain tens of billions of people if they would relate to each other in a proper way. It is impossible to isolate the demographic situation from the rest of the aspects of human life because everything is linked to everything.

The more egoism grows, a person cannot stand the obligations of family and children. He wants comfort. The growing ego obliges us to invest in ourselves and not in anyone else. In the past, a man’s home was his fortress. He needed a family to survive. But today there is an alternative for everything and a person wants to feel free.

We are standing before a new level of existence that requires personal change. We returned to the Israel and the wisdom of Kabbalah was discovered to give an example of how a person must accommodate himself to nature. A truly free person is someone who clarifies what correct development is according to nature and is prepared to implement it.
[189567]
From KabTV’s “New Life 742 – World Demographics,” 7/7/16

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Preparation for the Lesson

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 1

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 6, Item  “Questions About the Order of Cause and Result” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption,” “The Difference Between A Secular Ideal and A Religious Ideal

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Question: In Jerusalem an extraordinary Gay Pride Parade was organized as a protest against one of the Rabbis who called homosexuals, “perverts” and the additional 250 Israeli Rabbis who support him. How do you relate to pronouncements of this kind?

Answer: I consider the Jewish people to be a single family in which there are different children, including these. And even if someone doesn’t want them, there is nothing to do, they are our children .Of course, nobody chooses to be born with these tendencies. After all, they are given to us by nature. So homosexuals struggle with having their natural tendencies recognized as normal because they cannot get rid of them anyway. We know that sexual attraction is a most powerful factor, even more than a craving for food. Humanity is constantly increasing its sexual inclinations. We see this everywhere, even on the Internet. So one must respect this and not relate to it childishly.

It is necessary to stop all of the pronouncements “against” and “for” and to become organized as a single family, because the main thing is the unity among us. We cannot do anything about this issue; we need to accept it as it is and not make it any harder than it is for people in whom such an attraction is latent from birth. It is up to us to let them live in peace and find appropriate partners for themselves, unless otherwise impossible.

The correction comes from us. When we connect, we awaken positive forces, Light that can reform the relationships between us. In this respect, it is up to the LGBT community to reconsider the purpose of the Gay Pride parades, not because it is forbidden or permitted for them to be held. It is clear that in a democratic nation it is permissible to hold parades like these. The question is, do we specifically want to emphasize what separates and divides us? Or maybe it would specifically be better to search for what connects us among the differences?

As long as we don’t harm others or exploit the weaknesses of others, every person is allowed to realize the lifestyle that is appropriate for him in his private life, including religious belief or sexual orientation. But it is important to do this without cutting off the ways that lead us to communication and building a single, united people.

So I don’t agree with the pronouncements of the Rabbis. This is human nature and there is nothing to be done with this. In any case, it is necessary to get along and live in one nation. After all, it is impossible to live with mutual hatred all the time. We already need to leave the state of “exile” and gradually approach building the Third Temple.
[190411]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/21/16

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Question: I have a sensation that someone is next to me all the time. For example, before I reach the pharmacy, he makes sure that they have run out of the medication that I need. And that is how it is with everything. How must I behave when life trips me up in everything like this?

Answer: Everything comes from the Creator. There is no need to be particularly concerned about this. You just need to understand that this is how we are being educated.

Comment: But there is Murphy’s Law, according to which a buttered sandwich always falls with the buttered side toward the floor.

Answer: This doesn’t affect the spiritual world because in the spiritual world there is only one law: the will of the Creator. Everything runs according to His will all the time, and I accept this as a given. So it makes no difference to me if He “arranges” the same situation for me 200,000 times. I always accept every situation as coming from Him for the purpose of my development.

Question: So you don’t try to understand why this is happening, but just take for granted that everything is coming from Him?

Answer: I don’t know why. It is only when I go through the situation and rise above it to a particular level that I can partially discover what it gave to me.
[190257]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/10/16

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In the News (newsru): “According to the New World Wealth, in recent years, when many countries in the Middle East were destabilized due to the sharp growth of extremism, many Arab millionaires went to Western countries.

“Reporter Imad al-Marzouki on the Al-Masdar site wrote this week that, according to the same New World Wealth, rich Jews from Western countries move to Israel. …

“According to published reports, as of 2015, French Jewish millionaires in 2500 moved to Israel. At the same time in 2007, France had left 7,000 millionaires. A similar phenomenon is observed in other Western countries, including the UK, Italy and Russia. …

“Expert Iyad al-Manan, said today, after the Arab countries plunged into chaos, and the West was marked by a surge of anti-Semitism, Jews began to feel Israel more secure than anywhere else . Arab millionaires, on the contrary, prefer to send their money to the West because of the destabilization of the region, and these two trends are gradually increasing.”

My Comment: It is said in the Torah that in the end of days the Creator will gather His people from all the ends of the earth.
[190131]

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