New Life 469 – The Meaning Of Hanukkah
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

What is the meaning of the holiday of Hanukkah, what do we celebrate and what is the important role we have toward the whole world that it reminds us of?

The nation of Israel was born from the mutual commitment to be as one man with one heart, with love of others. Whenever there is separation between us, others rise up to destroy us. Then something comes to remind us we need to unite.

We also need to increase love between us in the family, until we become “All Israel are friends.” Today, in Israel, there are many security threats. If we unite between us, everything will disappear.

The miracle of the oil symbolizes that it is possible to reach the Light, the upper force, that will help us to connect. The Temple symbolizes the connection between the hearts when they become one large heart. The menorah symbolizes what we attained: through connection it’s possible to be rescued from all problems and to defeat everything.

The Maccabees symbolize the tendency to connect, and they awaken the whole of Israel from its hibernation. Man himself includes the Greeks, the Hellenists, and the Maccabees. The Greeks symbolize the egoistic attributes, the Maccabees symbolize the small tendency to connect and to love, the point in the heart. If man wants to find these forces of the soul, he can win the inner war within himself.

The Hellenists symbolize the Jewish tendency to be like Europe, each one only for himself.

The Jewish spirit is to be connected and loving, to discover the upper force between us, and to bring Light to the nations. Jewish life is when everyone is concerned about everyone else and each one thinks of how he can do good for the collective.

When we as Israelis adopt the European approach of individualism, we have no Light.

The world depends on the Light that we bring, the energy of life. The lack of Light brings hatred to Israel.

When there is no mutual concern and everyone is for only for himself, troubles befall a person. And when there is connection and love, then everything works out, i.e., at home, with the children and the family, with health, and at work.

At the political level, if we ignite the Light between us and light up the world, the world’s attitude toward Israel will change for the better.
[149990]
From KabTV’s “New Life 469 – The Meaning Of Hanukkah,” 12/11/14

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Children, Education, Holidays, Israel, New Life - No Comments →

Question: What is the meaning of our life if, as it turns out, we see the world though the egoistic glasses that show us the imaginary world?

Answer: The meaning of life is in making a decision that life is pitiful and that from it, we have to rise to the upper reality. The difference between these two types of reality defines the power of our spiritual attainment.

Question: And what is so wrong with our current reality?

Answer: First of all, it is wrong because it is illusory. Science already knows that what we see in front of us is a holographic picture, while actually there is not a single Universe, but many.

The egoistic, materialistic, development of science leads it to the limit of the materialistic comprehension of the world and brings it to a dead end. Science is in crisis because it can not advance and make further discoveries. Only one thing is clear: We have reached a borderline.

Until we discover the upper force, the entire world will remain an illusion. We exist inside the computer and we have to change our perception. Being only at the still, vegetative, and animate degrees of perception, we’ll remain inside the same computer program as now; after all, nothing can be changed there.  

But on the human level, in our relationship between the people, we acquire a new program called a program of bestowal instead of reception. And inside of it, we start feeling the upper reality, filled with the force called the Creator.

It turns out that we take off our egoistic glasses, which we used to see the world only through the point of view of personal benefit, through the will to receive. And now we see the world through the prism of desire to fulfill the other, to give, to love, and that is why we see an undistorted reality.

“What is good for me” is an illusory reality, and “what is good for others” is the true one. Illusory, egoistic reality drastically differs from the true reality, and that is why we often argue and do not agree with each other, even those closest to us. Because now, each of us has their own truth.

In true reality, everybody will have one opinion, one intention, since everyone will care about the other, and not about himself. And that is why there will be no arguments between us, but only connection and completion of each other.

Everybody will rise above his or her personal egoism and will try to satisfy the other’s needs, to fulfill the other’s desires. And that is why love and unity will always prevail between us. Can there be any conflicts if I constantly think about how to fulfill the desires of a fellow human being?

We will soon come to this state, we have no other choice. Evolution itself and current global crisis will bring us to the new reality. By rising above egoism, we raise ourselves above time, space, and movement, above the petty egoistic desires toward the desire of the upper force, which is bestowal and love.

The only true reality is the force of bestowal, the force of love. We have to take off all egoistic glasses we wear now and see the true reality.
[197104]
From a TV Program “A New Life,” No. 787, 11/01/2016

Related Material:
Fantasies And Reality, Part 4
Fantasies And Reality, Part 3
Fantasies And Reality, Part 2

Filed under: Love, Perception - No Comments →

Preparation for the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic: “Spiritual Movement”

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 32

Writings of Rabash, “Rungs of the Ladder,” “What Are the Powers Which Are Needed for Work”

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson - No Comments →

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

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

Question: Is a dream an illusion or reality?

Answer: A dream is a kind of a from from this Earthly reality, nothing more. This means it is a disconnection from reality.

Question: In the past people believed that dreams were as much a reality as the reality that surrounded them. Today the wisdom of Kabbalah says our world is an illusion and we can transcend to another world where everything is good and right. Is it programmed by the Creator that one reality replaces another infinitely?

Answer: According to Kabbalah, we are in one desire in which we feel the Upper Light, the Creator, but we can change ourselves and acquire an altruistic perception of reality, and then we will actually feel the Creator Himself and not the distorted form that the ego depicts for us.
[197524]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/18/16

Related Material:
An Ordinary Dream
Are We Awake or Still Asleep?
The Origin Of Dreams

Filed under: Perception - No Comments →

Torah, Deuteronomy, 13:12: And all Israel shall listen and fear, and they shall no longer do any evil such as this in your midst.

When everybody sees that you act in a drastically tough way, they will understand that it is impossible to act differently and will agree specifically with this because the Creator will have already been with you.

And before this, everybody will yell at you and drag you to different directions asking: “Why?! You can’t do it! What’s wrong with you?!”

Take a stone and crush the head of the snake. Then everyone will immediately say: “That’s right!” They will discover what you have actually just done in your correction, in your analysis of this problem, and how you solved it.

This is what “listen and fear” means—fear how bluntly and stubbornly you went and “crushed the head of the snake,” despite all your reasonable arguments that burst from the inside. This is called “faith above reason.”

Everyone around you will curse you saying: “What nonsense!” and you insist on it. Why?! There is no answer. You know just one thing: your teachers acted this way, the Creator demands this from you, and you personally understand it this way, without any interference from the outside.

The way of truth is the toughest, the most unpleasant, and, at the first sight, the most stupid and unreasonable.

After all, the reason comes from the material level, and here we must act from the higher degree.
The upper degree is the faith above reason, that we climb against our mind.
[197838]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/13/16

Related Material:
To Go Straight To The Goal
“For The Lord, Your God, Is Testing You…”
The Victims Of Egoism

Filed under: Spiritual Work, Torah - 1 Comment →

Question: What does a Kabbalist feel when he looks at a letter? What kind of information is carried in it?

Answer: In one of my first books I gave an example of a page from the Prayer Book of Rabbi Shalom Sharabi.

It is possible to see what a Kabbalistic prayer book says, which is how a person can influence the higher management from below so that it will influence him in response. This is a prayer book or instruction manual for the management of the higher system.
[196981]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/17/16

Related Material:
A Prayer Book Is The Saga Of Spiritual Life
A Chain That Leads From Malchut To Bina
The Prayer Of The Heart

Filed under: Language of Branches, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

New Life 654 – Hanukkah: Light And Darkness In Life
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

The desire to enjoy: If I am the one who benefits, the Light doesn’t enjoy, darkness. There are more upper desires that aren’t in us from birth—the desire to fill others, to give, to bestow. It isn’t the bestowing that brings us joy, but rising above the ego, in this way man becomes the source of light.

Then a person matches the general source of Light in nature, the Creator, discovers Him, and feels immense pleasure.

Spiritual life is connecting to the source of Light and the influence of the Light on others; today, our duty is to learn this. The pursuit of fulfilling your private desires is the “Greeks” and bestowing fulfillment to others is the “Maccabees.” The real development of your personality is only when you learn to be equivalent to the Creator, meaning bestowing.

The Greeks sanctified the ego, pleasure for oneself with no consideration of others, only one’s personal achievements. The Jewish approach says that in this way we destroy ourselves and the world, like a cancerous growth that swallows everything. The pursuit of fulfilling your private desires brings you a little spark of light here and there, nothing more than that.

The Jewish approach is that it is possible to attain great Light only when you, yourself become the source of Light. And then man becomes eternal and complete, and bursts through all borders of perception, and becomes equal to the upper force.

When you become the source of Light for others, you become unlimited. You don’t have to produce Light, but to be the source of Light, with the Light passing through you, like an electric outlet. When you want to pass Light from one to the other, you discover that everyone is connected to a network and connected to the source of life. An unending stream of energy fills our emotions, intellect, consciousness; it is the life of the soul.

Today we give and receive from within the desire to exploit all for our own benefit. Spirituality is loving one another. It’s not just to understand what this is, you should come and study seriously and achieve this in practice.

Hanukkah is the holiday of light, we need to learn to ignite the Light through connection between us. When we connect to others, their emotions and intellect pass to us. And we become infinitely smarter and more sensitive. My blessing for Hanukkah is for the Light to come between us and fill us and direct us to the good upper life.
[171645]
From KabTV’’s “New Life 654 – Hanukkah: Light And Darkness In Life,” 12/1/15

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Children, Education, Holidays, New Life - No Comments →

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

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

Question: Why must all of the men listen to the morning lessons live, while the women can do so later? Is it because they are more corrected?

Answer: It is because we are different from each other.

Question: Are women more “corrected” than men? Does a “higher plan” specifically insert more corrected souls into the bodies of women?

Answer: Yes, they are more corrected; they don’t feel their flaws.
[198613]

Related Material:
Women’s Task In Spiritual Correction
Men And Women, The Need For Fulfillment
Who Is Closer To The Wisdom Of Kabbalah?

Filed under: Man and Woman, Q&A, Women's Spirituality - No Comments →