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My Thoughts On Twitter, 9/17/17

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Rosh Hashana Is an Opportunity for Change #RoshHashana @JPostOpinion

From Twitter, 9/17/17

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A Neutral Attitude To Kabbalah Does Not Exist

laitman_281.02Question: It is hard for a person to remain neutral when he gets acquainted with Kabbalah. He either becomes its adversary and hater or a faithful ally. What determines which side a person will take?

Answer: It depends on the extent of the development of his “point in the heart,” on the force with which it is burning, and on the demand to break free and find an answer about the meaning of life. He will not be able to mute it and decide that the meaning of life is in observing religious traditions; he wants to discover the upper world.

A person’s nature decides what he will be: an opponent of Kabbalah or its faithful ally. I did not have a choice, I had to become a Kabbalist because the question about the meaning of life was vital for me and demanded me to find an answer to it.

All of humanity is divided into two types of people according to this feature. This division also exists inside each person; one part opposes Kabbalah and the other is attracted to it. Such a confrontation can continue till the end of the path.

Question: Have you ever had a desire to give up Kabbalah?

Answer: No, never. There were periods of weakness, which each one has, but I could not imagine how it could be possible to leave for good. It is necessary to believe that there is an upper program that guides a person. No matter where he wants to turn, the program leads him to the designated goal.

Question: Why does the upper program, which is the Creator that wants to be revealed in the created beings, awaken in people such a resistance to Kabbalah throughout all of history and even nowadays, when Kabbalah must be revealed to everyone?

It is interesting that the negative attitude to Kabbalah is akin to anti-Semitism, when clever, intelligent, and progressive people, for example, such free thinkers as Voltaire, at the mention of the Jews, as if lose their mind and begin to swear like troopers. The same attitude exists to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the mention of which turns clever, educated people into thick ignoramuses. Where does this come from?

Answer: This resistance comes from the fact that there are two forces in nature, the force of bestowal and the force of reception. A person by his nature belongs to the force of reception, which is to the desire to enjoy for the sake of his own pleasure. We accept everything that works for our enjoyment, this is close and understandable to us, and we can appreciate this and understand each other.

We are always in the process of “buying and selling,” trying to extract maximum pleasure from each other. As it is written, “Go make a living of each other.” Our lives consists of this, like in the market. Everybody understands that we are egoists; this is the basis of politics, philosophy and everything else.

Besides, we also see egoistic connections in nature, in physics, chemistry, inside inanimate matter, plants, and animals. At the level of elementary particles, molecules, and the most developed organisms, up to the human, his mind and feelings, everything acts according to the laws of egoism, the desire to enjoy. Therefore, egoism is understandable to everyone.

However, when it comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah that speaks about the opposite nature, about the force of bestowal and love that does not exist in our world, it causes bewilderment. After all, for us even bestowal is only for our own sake and love is only for ourselves.

Therefore, we do not understand what Kabbalah is talking about. We are not capable of perceiving that there is such a formula of when you act for the benefit of others. If someone ever thought that he acted for the sake of others, it was a hidden reception and a concern for himself.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that we need to rise above our nature to such an extent that we cease feeling ourselves at all and receive a new desire that does not exist in our world. It dwells above the roof of this world where we will acquire a different, opposite desire for bestowal and a program that operates according to a principle opposite to the current one.

If today we want to be filled with all the goodness and our mind and feelings are directed only at our own pleasure, then there we will act in an opposite way aspiring to fulfill our neighbor. We will have to approach and love selflessly, not our child, friend, or homeland, but someone opposite to us and even hated by our egoism.
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From KabTV’s “The reasons for the negative attitude towards Kabbalah” 7/19/17

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Answers To Your Questions, Part 188

laitman_571.04Question: If the exile of the Jewish people is designated to mix them with other nations (this is how we see this phenomenon in our world) to be able to correct them, then mixed marriages are the best way, are they not?

Answer: This is mainly about the spiritual mixing of desires and goals, and physical mixing can be a result of this.
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If There Is No Method Of Correction—There Are No Jews

Laitman_006Question: According to the science of Kabbalah, who owns the Temple Mount and the Cave of Machpelah?

Answer: They belong to the Jewish people when they are united. However, today the Arabs are more united than we are. What kind of correction is possible when people are separated?

The unification of people is possible only through the methodology of the wisdom of Kabbalah; only it can unite everybody. The people are even proud that they have so many different movements and factions: Hassidim and “Mitnagdim,” Ashkenazi and Sephardi, Orthodox Jews and “the knitted kippahs” of various types, plus a further division into “Germans,” “Moroccans,” “Romanians,” and “Russians.”

This just indicates that we do not perceive everyone as brothers, but only as comrades in distress during difficult times. We are like nuts in a bag that are forced to be together because the external pressure keeps them in one bag.

Therefore, such commotions happen on the Temple Mount. I see the forces of nature behind all the characters acting there. But nature is in our hands and we create all the current events with our own hands. Therefore, we cannot expect something different, because obviously nothing has improved within us from yesterday until today.

Does anyone else beside our organization talk about love and unity among the people of Israel? Everyone laughs at us when we try to spread this idea of unity through radio and newspapers.

They agree to publish our articles only for a lot of money because we talk about love and who needs it? Yet, if we wrote about hatred and squabbles between opposite sides they would be happy to publish this for free.

There is no point in waiting for a good life in this situation. It is written that all the problems stem from the destruction of Jerusalem. Due to the fact that there is more and more destruction among us, the Arabs are gaining strength. One is against the other, when we lack unity, they rise. They only become stronger due to our separation. The main thing is not material actions, but our lack of connection.

The most terrible thing is that the people of Israel themselves begin to agree with the nations of the world that we do not have the right to the Temple Mount and to the land of Israel. If we continue this way, eventually we will be told that we do not have the right to exist on the Earth at all, as Hitler said. Initially he wanted to expel the Jews from Germany, but then he decided to exterminate them on the spot.

If we do not realize our mission of correcting the world, then it turns out that we do not need to be on this Earth. The Jewish people are the conductors of the method of correction. However, if we do not use it, if there is no method of correction in the world, then there are no Jews. This probably is the next stage and the entire world will agree to this, as it already happened during Hitler’s times.

Nobody wants to talk about it now, but in fact, then everyone agreed with his policies. No one protested against the extermination of the Jews. There were only a few extraordinary individuals, the righteous of the nations of the world, who helped the Jews, risking their own lives. However, there were only a few of them.

It is possible that the same thing will happen today, everyone will agree that the Jews do not have a place on this earth. After all, the people of Israel exist exactly in order to implement the method of correction, especially at a time when they are already able and obliged to do this according to the upper program.
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Honor In The Society Of The Future

laitman_268.01Baal HaSulam, The Last Generation: Their courts are busy primarily with awarding accolades marking the level of each person’s distinction in bestowal upon others.

He who bestows more upon society will receive a higher decoration.

Baal HaSulam speaks about the fact that the courts will not punish, but encourage. It will become their main function. A person will be engaged in bestowal, and the courts will reward him with their attention and the marks of distinction in proportion to his ability to positively influence society.

There is not a person without a medal on the sleeve, and it is a great offense to call a person not by one’s title of honor. It is also a great offense for a person to forgive such an insult to one’s title. 

Question: Such a notion of courts is a complete revolution in the mind of a person. Will the courts issue marks of distinction? The court must judge?

Answer: No, this is an incorrect interpretation of the word “court.”

The court is an opportunity to place a person in his place in the spiritual hierarchy from zero to the 125th degree of equivalence with the Creator. Therefore, there cannot be any disagreements. Courts must both encourage and punish. However, in principle, we are talking about a corrected society where “it is a great offense to call a person not by one’s title of honor.”

Question: If the motivation of a person living in the last generation is to feel closeness to the Creator, to become like His qualities, then is it possible that precisely the respect that he receives from society will become his “fuel” instead of adhesion with the Creator?

Answer: No, this is impossible because the society itself will direct his intention, his movement toward greater and greater adhesion with his environment. After all, exactly this will be evaluated by judges and society.

Question: Don’t these titles, honor, and respect fill his egoism?

Answer: No, here it is immediately obvious what fulfills him: the selfless bestowal to society or not.

On the contrary, for him, this is an opportunity to rise even higher above the feeling of being respected that he receives. Even the epithets addressed to him and praising him will be intended not for him personally, but for propaganda for society of the greatness of such people in the society.

It is not the person who needs this, but society needs his encouragement in order to show an example to others. Society looks at him with “white envy,” and this is good. And he is filled with such pride in front of everyone precisely in order to attract people to the qualities of bestowal and love. He has no concerns about himself, as if he does not have a body or it is not his. He acts if required, and he does not act if there is no need.

His joy is that he can be an example to others in order to bring them closer to this work. Everything happens only in the quality of bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/12/17

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Final Realization Of Egoism

laitman_533.01Torah, Deuteronomy 28:48: Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemy whom HaShem shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things; and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

You will feel that you are doing egoistic work and although it is hateful to you, you have no way of getting rid of it; it continues to control you. And you will feel so for many days and years of your life.

However, this is already the realization in which yoke you are in. Without such harsh, sharp, but useful feelings, it is impossible to pass to the upper world.

Question: Is this considered an advanced state?

Answer: Of course. It is when a person goes through this and understands that he cannot do anything because he still remains a slave of his desires; he hates them with full force, but at the same time, he cannot get rid of them; he gets an opportunity to cry out.

This cry, an appeal to the Creator, helps him enter the upper world, begin rising, as if he is rising up from the bottom of the pool.

Question: Does it mean that first he must be drowned?

Answer: Certainly. And to the end so that he would realize in all his desires and intentions to what extent there is not even a gram of a spiritual state in him.

He must understand that everything comes from the Creator and that he cannot deal with this. He does not care whether he will die or not, but he cannot part with his egoism. This realization should be final.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/19/16

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New Life 884 – Studying In A Kabbalah Group

New Life 884 – Studying In A Kabbalah Group
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

How do Kabbalah books describe the network of connections between us? What is the internal work that a person performs during the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah, and what is the role of the teacher?
From KabTV’s “New Life 884 – Studying In A Kabbalah Group,” 7/20/17

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