Audio Version Of The Blog – 01.13.17

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Ynet: “2017: An Optimistic Prediction”

From my weekly column in Ynet: “2017: An Optimistic Prediction”

Terrorism, waves of immigration, Brexit, Donald Trump, jingoism, ISIS, the legalization of soft drugs, climate crises, raging social networking, and a host of negative dramatic events plagued us in the past year. Summarizing the year is the easy part; the wisdom is in understanding what must change so that next year’s summary will be better. Rav Laitman with an optimistic prediction for the year 2017

2016 was a year of many upheavals in the entire world. It was a complex, intense year full of sharp turns that ultimately permeated the public consciousness with the recognition that we are in a problematic social, economic, and security situation. This recognition is also the best thing that has happened to humanity, and it also grants an opening to great hope.

It turns out that we can succeed in anything or at least prevent deterioration if we just change our way of thinking. The secret of success lies in identifying the connection between the various negative events, locating the factor that motivates them, neutralizing it, and in this way, balancing the course of events in 2017.

The End of the Era of Egoism

According to Kabbalah, the factor that links a variety of events,  both positive and negative, is the egoistic nature of humans—the desire to receive pleasure and delight—the attempt to benefit maximally and succeed in all areas of life, even if we trample others on the way there.

What is surprising about the year 2016 is that there already are clearly recognizable signs of the end of egoistic development after the thousands of years of the existence of the human species. The wars, crises, and great disappointments that we experienced this year are a sign that the egoistic system in its exploitative form doesn’t work anymore.

The egoistic fuel has run out. There is no more drive to enter into financial, commercial, political, military, and cultural competition because the end is in sight. In this way, no one wins; all of us lose. Combine the processes of globalization, advanced technology, and three-dimensional printers in the equation occupying the world, and the conclusion is that the future in the labor market starting from the year 2017 will be very different than what we have been familiar with up to now. In such a situation, even more severe events are liable to happen than what we were exposed to in the past year.

A Time for Renewal

Egoism will not disappear. It is inherent in us from birth. But the moment the understanding becomes more clear in the consciousness of humanity that if we continue to operate only from our egoistic nature, we will fall into an abyss, only then can the need for an essential change be awakened, and from it, we can begin to search for a new method that will transcend the negative power of the ego for somewhere new and positive.

The desire for profit, the drive to succeed, and mutual competition that have motivated us up to now—the characteristics and inclinations of human nature—will not blur or become extinct. We need to learn to use them wisely and beneficially, instead of for an individual’s personal benefit, directed  toward the benefit of all of society.

The wisdom of Kabbalah exactly fits the transition from the old world to the new world, from 2016 to 2017. It has the power to guide a person and all of humanity in a positive way, stimulating the right questions and providing a wide and deep perspective for understanding the processes that are visiting the world. The method of connection that the ancient wisdom of Kabbalah offers provides a way that can change our attitude toward others, treat each other correctly, and make a living from each other, but with respect. With the help of a process that integrates study and experiential workshops, the ability to connect with each other is developed. We become closer to each other emotionally, and we transcend our innate egoistic nature to a broad, eternal, and higher reality.

Symbolically, the end of the year is celebrated with the end of Chanukah, the Festival of Lights. From the darkness, the Light breaks through; from the crack in the ground, the plant sprouts, and from the crisis, life is born. I have never been so optimistic toward a new year in which the two components required for achieving a good and happy life have been placed together before our eyes: despair in the results that we have achieved so far, and in contrast, the wisdom of Kabbalah is available to everyone who desires it; it provides the right direction toward the royal road. The future is in our hands. 2017 can be optimistic.
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From Ynet article 12/29/16

Will There Be Ramifications From The UN Resolution?

laitman_552_03Question: When I spoke with you last year, I assumed that two major conflicts in the world were becoming more serious: the conflict between Russia and the West, and the conflict between the Shiite Muslims and the Sunnis. At the time, you emphasized that if we don’t begin to unite, all of these conflicts will sooner or later be turned against us and we will not be able to do anything about that.

Can we say that in a certain sense, the UN members have united and voted against us?

Answer: In a certain sense, yes. After all, they voted against Israel unanimously. How it is all arranged is interesting, but it is not important. Everyone realizes that the UN is like a puppet that can be twisted as they wish.

Question: Will the ramifications of this resolution impact our lives in Israel?

Answer: There will be no ramifications. We shouldn’t pay any attention to it. We don’t depend on the nations of the world. It is actually they who depend on us. If we begin to seriously unite, they will do everything in their power to get closer to us.
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From a webinar “The Year in Review” 12/26/16

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Can A Student Become A Friend Of The Teacher?

laitman_528_04Question: What must a person or a group do for a student to become a friend of the teacher?

Answer: Everything happens gradually, as people rise, and they begin to appreciate the spiritual work and understand that they are not ready to do anything themselves.

They get rid of illusions and begin to better understand what spiritual elevation is. After all, spiritual ascent is not achieved through egoistic actions or efforts; you can’t elbow your way in.

On the contrary, the only possibility for advancement is to step on ourselves a bit, to get closer to others, and in this harmonious relationship, to try to find the place where the Creator is revealed. This place comes from the mutual integration of my properties with other people’s properties as a result of this interconnection.

The entire process happens gradually, and one who is studying with us will come to this.

Question: Is there a situation in which students can become friends with the teacher?

Answer: The concept of a student-friend or teacher-friend exists, but nowadays, this is rather vague. They generally say this when a teacher studies one-on-one with a student.

In general, this is certainly possible, even with many students, but not yet at our current level.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 8/7/16

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A Special Type Of Attainment

laitman_534Question: You once said that when a person attains spirituality, knowledge of the alphabet comes to him automatically. Does this happen by learning the wisdom of Kabbalah in English, in Russian, or in other languages also?

Answer: When a person attains spirituality, he will know the Hebrew language; he will feel it. This is a special type of attainment in which everything is revealed to him as it was for Adam.

However, this natural way of learning the language happens only for special souls. After all, when Adam understood the interaction of the higher forces, they began to take shape in forms, in pictures, so he saw how they became an alphabet, 22 letters, patterns; each one symbolizing a particular force, a connection between matter and Light.

Therefore, it is still desirable to know the language in order to read the wisdom of Kabbalah in Hebrew.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/24/16

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Love, Rather Than All Problems

laitman_624_05_0Question: Is there anything useful in this treasure of the wisdom of Kabbalah for young couples who, because of the growth of the ego, encounter problems sustaining their relationship?

Answer: Let’s adapt the wisdom of Kabbalah to our world and use it! After all, egoistic competition happens in the world from childhood to adulthood. For our entire lives, it is hell, a continuous struggle from which we have no benefit, only the gloating of our ego when we revel in our superiority over another.

We must use our earthly life that has been given to us to try to balance it, change it. We give birth, raise, and educate a child not to gratify his own ego, but to transform children into people who can enjoy life in peace and not constantly be defensive.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how to do this.

To do this, we must use a system of connections between people, and above all of our egoistic rejections and contradictions, we can build bridges of mutual connection toward love.

We can do this while being egoists as nature created us; above this nature, we can build mutual altruistic connections. It depends only on education! If we educate a generation like this, it will be happy and strong indeed.

It seems to us that altruism could weaken us and that, ultimately, we could be eaten, annihilated, or devoured, but it is precisely the opposite. Love is the most powerful feeling in the world, and it provides the people who realize it with immense inner strength.

The United States can serve as an example of how the growth of the ego and pitting oneself against others weakens and leads to crisis.

If our method of unification were in Europe, today it would be stronger and more advanced than everyone else.

An aspiration toward unity, toward mutual attraction, lies in nature and we should take advantage of this power. It creates more and more new forms of matter and of everything that exists, while separation only destroys and kills.

Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah is imperative for us.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/2/16

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To Do Evil In The Eyes Of God

Laitman_155Torah, Deuteronomy 17:2 – 17:5: If there will be found among you, within one of your cities which the Lord, your God is giving you, a man or woman who does evil in the eyes of the Lord, your God, to transgress His covenant, and who will go and worship other gods and prostrate himself before them, or to the sun, the moon, or any of the host of the heavens, which I have not commanded; and it will be told to you, and you will hear it, and investigate thoroughly, and behold, the matter coincides; this abomination has been perpetrated in Israel. Then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has committed this evil thing, to your cities, the man or the woman, and you shall pelt them with stones, and they shall die.

If I discover within myself some negative qualities that I couldn’t see earlier because I wasn’t yet on this degree, I must extract them from myself, isolate them, and begin working with them. These egoistic intentions are called “a man or woman who does evil in the eyes of the Lord, your God, to transgress His covenant.”

I examine them until I kill them. This is their correction. Therefore, it is written, “Then you shall bring out that man or that woman who has committed this evil thing, to your cities, the man or the woman, and you shall pelt them with stones, and they shall die.”

A stone or “stony heart” is an inner feeling through which a person determines the insignificance of his nature and sets out to change it.

Question: However, the “Islamic State” organizations interprets this literally; as it is written, they throw stones, cut off heads, and so on.

Answer: This isn’t a correction. It’s impossible to achieve anything this way. It turns out that one destroys another, and there is no end to this feud that has no purpose.

Question: But they claim they follow the Koran literally without suspecting that it means executing their own egoism. Is it even possible to explain it to them?

Answer: They will realize it automatically after the people of Israel understand it. We don’t have to explain anything to the world. We should just speak openly about the wisdom of Kabbalah. The correction should be performed by the people of Israel, and through them, the Light will come to the entire world. But all of humanity should know about the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From KabTV Program “The Secrets of the Eternal Book” 8/24/16

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 01.13.17

Preparation for the Lesson

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Lesson on the Topic: “How to Build the Correct MAN,” Part 1

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Lesson on the Topic: “How to Build the Correct MAN,” Part 2

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