Audio Version Of The Blog – 10.20.16

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Whom To Ask For Forgiveness And For What? Part 4

laitman_236_01Question: On the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), there is a custom to pray and ask for forgiveness for all the sins you have committed. Can we, indeed, receive such forgiveness from above?

Answer: This calculation is not with some kind of deity that watches us from above, but with the common system of nature, where we exist. A person must bring this system to the absolutely perfect form with respect to himself so that everybody in it is connected and receives through him a force of goodness that fills everyone. Each one must do so: any man and woman.

The only way to correct our sins is to move forward and correct the past through this advancement. There is no need to eat at yourself about past sins, we must always look forward. Everything I’ve done until today wasn’t done by me, but rather because the program of nature was unfolding this way.

However, my innocence for the past crimes doesn’t relieve me from the obligation to correct them. After all, the problem exists! Therefore the Creator tells us that He created the evil inclination, and every day this action of creation is updated; in other words, this evil is renewed every day.

He himself confirms that everything we did until present day is recorded on his account. But the state we are in today,  we need to correct ourselves. Nobody blames us for the past; however, we must repay our debt.

Question: Then what does it mean that transgressions can be in relation to the friend and in relation to the Creator?

Answer: Asking friends for forgiveness for transgression means to scrutinize and correct our relationships with everyone, one after another, point by point. And if I relate to the system in general, in the integral form, addressing its common quality, called the Creator or “come and see,” then I make a calculation with respect to Him. After all, I created this “place” and corrected it.

To ask the Creator for forgiveness means to ask everybody together for forgiveness. Then I discover that there is a force within them that connects everyone. And if I caused this, it means I reached full repentance.

If in the connection with others I connect with the Creator, then my plea for forgiveness was accepted. The Creator fills the system that I have constructed and it becomes me.

Connection with other people is what leads us to the connection with the upper force, the plea for forgiveness from everyone is the repentance before the Creator, and the blessing of everyone is the blessing of the Creator.
[194667]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 9/27/16

Related Material:
Whom To Ask For Forgiveness And For What? Part 3
Whom To Ask For Forgiveness And For What? Part 2
Whom To Ask For Forgiveness And For What? Part 1

All With Respect To Man

laitman_549_02Question: Who created the desire to receive if there is no Creator?

Answer: The Creator.

We have to understand what is meant by the question whether there is a Creator or not. We have to ask with regard to whom He exists. Can you say now that He exists for you? No.

A person can speak about the Creator, but it doesn’t mean that He exists, and so we say that the Creator exists or doesn’t exist only with regard to the person who attains Him or doesn’t attain Him.
[194367]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/8/16

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Ynet: “Excuse Me, What Are We Guilty Of?”

From my column in Ynet: “Excuse Me, What Are We Guilty Of?”

Elul is the last month on the Hebrew calendar, so it is considered a month for reflection about the past year and preparation for the new year. For what and why should we ask forgiveness, and how must we act when the reason is discovered? Rav Michael Laitman teaches how to really forgive.

14 billion years ago, the Big Bang occurred, and the universe was created. An enormous amount of energy that was concentrated into one tiny point exploded in every direction, and the universe began to expand at a tremendous speed. The many particles that were created gathered into atoms, and the atoms into stars and galaxies. Billions of years after that, the inanimate planet Earth was formed, and plants and animals developed on it until the birth of humanity.

Man lived peacefully and calmly, in balance with the rest of humanity and the forces of nature, until suddenly another explosion occurred. “The Big Bang of humanity” shattered the pastoral unity in human society, and began to distance people from each other, similar to the way stars in the universe continue to drift apart.

The negative, egoistic, and unconscious force of separation that operated to make distance between us was identified for the first time by a human being named Adam. He understood that he must heal the rift between his contemporaries. Since he was the first to bring a substantial change in the system of broken relationships between people, we have a custom of celebrating his discovery on Rosh HaShanah.

14 billion years ago, the Big Bang happened, and the universe was created

Since then, 5,777 years have passed. We count them according to the Hebrew calendar, and every year we are accustomed to reexamining the essence of our lives and our role in this world. One of the questions that can help us to define our situation is: have we become closer to each other this year above our natural tendency that separates us, or haven’t we? This soul-searching is called Slichot (asking for forgivenesses), and to internalize its meaning, we must go on a short journey through time.

Introducing the Israeli Team

Twenty generations have passed since that human being developed his observations and was called Adam HaRishon (The First Man) and until most of humanity settled in the center of the ancient world, ancient Babylon.

In this period, two natural opposing forces were working on humanity: the force of connection, the positive force that strives to develop society by maintaining connections of mutual responsibility, and opposite it, the force of separation, the negative force that is controlled by the egoistic nature. The negative force is what distanced and separated the inhabitants of Babylon to a previously unfamiliar level until, finally, they stopped talking to each other and became enemies. These opposing forces of nature that clashed with each other caused a difficult crisis, but just as a plant sprouts from a seed in the ground that cracks open, so from the crisis between people, a new humanity was born.

The social rift continued to develop, and humanity was scattered over the face of the Earth. Only a small group of people decided to defy the forces of nature and actually oppose the process of separation. Burning within these people was an inner drive that compelled them to connect with each other.

This chosen group called itself “Israel” because their desire to be Yashar – El (straight to God), like the characteristic of the whole and eternal force of nature. Elsewhere, they were called “Hebrews” (Ivrim) because they already had moved (Avar) toward acting according to the laws of nature, or “Jews” (Yehudim) because they were acting to unite (Yichud) and harmonize with nature.

At the head of this group stood Abraham, an uncompromising researcher who was searching for the meaning of life. He was the first to identify the reason for the crisis: the developing egoism that separates and puts distance between people. Abraham urged his students to be strong, to rise up, and to strengthen the spirit of unity with all of their might above the terrible schism. Their efforts to connect aroused a positive force inherent in nature. This force balanced the negative tendency and connected them with a strong bond that was called “one man in one heart.” From these efforts, Abraham developed a method for connection that he taught to all who came to him. This method made it possible for the members of the group to begin to develop a system of relationships between them based upon giving, love, and mutual responsibility that they called Beit HaMikdash (Temple).

The Turning Point in Human History

Once the children of Israel reached a maximum level of connection between them, the situation deteriorated, and the connections weakened. They understood that in order to strengthen the connections between them, they needed to be connected to their Babylonian brothers who had dispersed and become the seventy nations of the world. Brotherly love was replaced by unfounded hatred, leading not only to the destruction of the system of relationships of the “Temple,” but also the destruction of the physical Temple and continued with the crash of the united kingdom of Israel. The force of ego continued to divide the Babylonians and sowed hatred in every direction.

A Good and Sweet Year.

For 2,000 years, the Jews assimilated among the nations of the world. On the one hand, the spark that Abraham sowed in the people of Israel began to flourish in the heart of humanity, and on the other hand, the Jews absorbed new egoistic desires and opinions. The conclusion of the global merging marks the starting point for a real process that is leading to a turning point in human history.

Slichah, the Error Between Reality and Desire

In the global and connected world of our day, the people of Israel and the seventy nations of the world are immersed together in a common trouble, a bit like Adam HaRishon 5,777 years ago, or Abraham 3,500 years ago. The dramatic crisis that has visited us today is the result of the same imbalance between the opposing forces of nature. The ego creates conflict and division, and causes us to become distant from each other. In contrast, the power of connection develops people, mending the broken parts into a complete, harmonious system.

In the first generations, we did not understand how the forces of nature operated because we didn’t have the tools in our hands for doing this, but once a point of connection was first created in Babylon, we were required to strengthen and develop it when faced with all of the states of separation. Abraham left us a method and a mission: to provide the world with the power of connection until it reaches a harmonious and balanced state.

In order not to make a mistake on the way to the destiny that nature has placed before us, we need to carry out a daily house cleaning and examine in depth how much we have advanced toward connection between us and whether we are still on our way toward the same network of complete connection that Adam HaRishon discovered.

This essential clarification is called Slichot, the discovery of the gap between the forces of nature that aim toward unity and our unwillingness to unite. It is symbolically customary before Rosh HaShanah for us to clarify together the degree to which we are acting in accord with the laws of nature of the entire system. Regarding this, we confess that, “We are guilty, we have betrayed, we have robbed …” and we regret the opportunity that was in our hands to realize the connection between us and we did not do it. Now is the right time to consider a new path toward connection.

I hope, wish, and pray for a year of change, a year of building a system of correct relationships between us.

Happy new year to all of the people of Israel!
[194096]
From Ynet: “Excuse Me, What Are We Guilty Of?” 6/2/16

What Came First, The Torah Or The Wisdom Of Kabbalah?

laitman_527_04Question: What came first, the Torah or the wisdom of Kabbalah? Why do we study the wisdom of Kabbalah without studying the Torah, Moses’ Torah?

Answer: History tells us that gases were created after the Big Bang and the particles of matter that began to spread came together, and this is how our planet was created. Then the oceans were formed, then came the vegetative and the animate world, and finally man.

Man began to develop significantly about 3,500 years ago. The bulk of the developed people were in ancient Babylon, which became the basis of modern civilization.

From 20 generations to ancient Babylon, 5,777 years ago, a man called Adam appeared. He discovered the leadership system of our world, which he described in the book The Angel Raziel (The Secret Force). According to Rambam, the great Kabbalist of the 12th century, Adam and his students wrote books, but none of them have reached us except for the book The Angel Raziel. Twenty generations after the first generation of Kabbalists, Abraham appeared.

Abraham was a priest in ancient Babylon, and according to Midrash Rabba, he used to go out at nights, look at the stars, and wonder where the force that moves the whole universe comes from. Why do people live, for what purpose, how, who manages them, who is spinning this whole mechanism of the galaxy?

Gradually he began to explore the system of creation in great depth. Of course, there were many other people who looked at the stars, but only he was lucky enough to discover it since this is a special attribute of the soul.

Abraham discovered the system of creation and described it in his book The Book of Yetzira (creation). It is a small book of several dozen pages, which summarize the main points of the system of creation and how the world is managed. This book, just like Adam’s book, can be bought in bookstores today. The other writings of Abraham have not reached our days.

Everything Adam and Abraham wrote is the pure wisdom of Kabbalah. After Abraham, his students Isaac and Jacob, called the children of Abraham, continued his study, which actually represented a development of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Only after the exodus from Egypt when the need for a more sophisticated method of uniting the nation and attaining the Creator arose was it revealed to Moses in the same way that we study it today. This method is called the Torah.

Adam wrote his book almost 6,000 years ago; Abraham wrote about 3,500 years ago, and the Torah was written about 3,300 years ago.

Question: Does this mean that the Torah is secondary to the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: The Torah is also the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We study the basics of the wisdom of Kabbalah in order to study the Torah, The Five Books of Moses, since it continues the wisdom of Kabbalah on the next level.

To a person who doesn’t study the wisdom of Kabbalah, the Torah seems like a collection of stories about the ancient Jews who wandered in the desert and about what happened to them. In order to understand what this book really says and what is encoded in it, we must know the wisdom of Kabbalah.
[194080]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/8/16

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We Must Be Serious And Persistent

laitman_259_01Question: I don’t know who or what the Creator is, even though I have been listening to you for five years. During this time, I have understood my nature and I don’t find it appealing. I cannot change my nature independently, the group will not accept my ego, and my ego cannot accept the group. What can I do?

Answer: There is a method for dealing with egoism to correct it. If you have such a terrible ego, you must continue studying and being present in a group in spite of everything.

You have good characteristics and foundations, I immediately feel a person who asks a question. It is just necessary to be serious and persistent. Five years is not enough time, it is basically a first acquaintance.

But the next five years will be more meaningful, when we begin to “stand on each other’s values.” Five years later, we begin to make contact, we disclose each other somewhat. In another five years, we truly begin to discover the Creator through our integration. Basically our entire lives are intended just for this.

When I began to study with Rabash, he told me that when his father Baal HaSulam was a young man, he once came to his teacher in Pursov, near Warsaw. While waiting for his teacher, he took a book from the shelf, opened it, and was amazed by what was written there! This book was apparently Etz haChaim by the Ari, which talks only about the wisdom of Kabbalah, and he so much wanted to know it.

His teacher came in and said: “What did you take?! Put it back in its place right away!” He put the book on the shelf, but already knew what it was talking about. So he immediately went to a bookstore and bought it, he sensed from the start that now he was already “on the horse”! But at that time he didn’t know that in order to understand what is said in the book would take him 20 years! And this was for such a great soul as Baal HaSulam!

I still wonder how Rabash could tell me something like this without being worried that I would be disappointed. And I really wasn’t disappointed.

We just need to understand that life is given to us so that we can reach the upper world. And after that, everything goes on according to this contact.
[193962]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/8/16

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“The Collapse of the UN Security Council”

Laitman_120In the News (The National Interest): ”Although the 2016 U.N. meetings seem quite similar compared to others held over the last several years, this week’s debate comes at a time when the international community is inundated with problems in virtually every region of the world. With the exception of a landmark peace agreement that ended five decades of conflict in Colombia, every region is experiencing some degree of threat that could spiral to a whole new level if the international community as a whole and regional governments in particular are unable to find a way to address them. The list is endless and depressing: a humanitarian abomination in Syria and daily terrorist attacks in Iraq; the rise of anti-immigration parties in Europe and the biggest challenge to the EU since its foundation; a North Korea on a full tear towards a permanent nuclear weapons capability; Russia flexing its military and diplomatic muscle in the former Soviet Union; and China increasingly carving out more territory for itself in the South China Sea.

“The United Nations was created nearly seventy years ago to ensure that crises that pop up around the world are either mitigated to the greatest possible extent or are solved in a way that doesn’t promote further conflict. After tens of millions of people perished in World War II, the last thing the world wanted was a return to a full-scale armed conflict that produced nothing but more death and societal destruction. At the top of the U.N. pyramid, of course, is the Security Council — a body of the world’s most geopolitically vibrant countries, each with a veto, responsible for the ‘maintenance of international peace and security’ in global politics. If an armed conflict, a natural disaster, an atrocity committed by a government, or a nuclear weapons breakout occurred somewhere around the world, it is up to the Security Council to determine the best course of action in a unified and collective way. And in theory, every U.N. member state is required to uphold the council’s decisions.

“Today, it isn’t a stretch to say that the Security Council is not living up to those obligations. Indeed, what was originally thought to be a body where conciliation and unity between the world’s major powers would avert further war has changed into a forum that resembles a meaningless debating society. But what’s even worse than a meaningless debating society is one whose membership is composed of highly antagonistic actors constantly at each other’s throats regardless of the issue.”

My Comment: The United Nations and the Security Council of the United Nations are a reflection of the general state of the world. Moreover, the member nations of the Security Council are already in a state of open warfare. So it only remains to make this a reality. It is doubtful if after that a place will remain for the existence of the United Nations.

There must be a higher decision to seat all the permanent members of the United Nations in a “circle” and begin to arrange a study with them according to the method of connection and unity. It will be before or after the Third World War, but this will inevitably happen!
[194048]

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“Once Again A Storm Is Approaching The US Economy”

400Opinion (Basil Koltashov, Head of Center for Economic Research Institute of Globalization and Social Movements ): “In the years 2015-2016, we buried many hopes and illusions. …

“The US economy is in a bubble. The bubble has debt already exceeding 100% of GDP.

“This bubble exists in the banking system where the situation seems stable only because of the Fed’s supercheap money. The bubble can also been seen in the housing market. And it is also in the stock market.

“There is a whole set of reasons for the 2008 crisis, but the situation is only under control for the meantime. …

“Of course, you can still talk about the strength of the US economy – the economy is high, the country is rich in resources, industry, agriculture and the development of technology. But there is no clarity with the prospects. Moreover, once again the storm is coming.”

My Comment: All of this is clear. It is just not clear how to awaken the sleeping brain of humanity to recognize the real and true danger and to become aware of a realistic solution.
[193944]

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New Life 438 – Yom Kippur

New Life 438 – Yom Kippur
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What is the spiritual meaning of the Yom Kippur customs and how do they awaken us to scrutinize our internal desires and intentions in our attitude to others, to connection, and to true love?

Almost everyone goes to the synagogue on Yom Kippur. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Yom Kippur is a very special state in the cycle of the year for a person who develops spiritually.

We are used to examining our actions, but we should also examine our intentions, especially with regard to others: Where do I stand with regard to the upper force whose nature is love and bestowal? The examination, just like an X-ray of the intention of the heart, is done by the Light that comes from studying Kabbalah.

The Ten Days of Penitence are ten X-rays of the heart, which show where I am for my own sake and where I am for the sake of others.

The Torah requires a person to correct his heart. Nature, God, examines only the intention in the heart. The fasting symbolizes the need to first stop receiving for only my own sake, restriction. Then we can bestow. We learn from the story of the prophet Jonah that we have to put ourselves aside and act for the sake of others. A person cannot turn to the Creator if there are people he has hurt in the world.

True reconciliation with others is not that they should forgive you, but that you should build in your heart whole love for them.
[144815]
From KabTV’s “New Life 438 – Yom Kippur,” 9/30/14

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 10.20.16

Preparation for the Lesson

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Lesson on the Topic: “The Mutual Guarantee”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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