Audio Version Of The Blog – 12/4/18

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

“Hanukkah Universally Illuminates Our Lives” (Newsmax)

The largest portal Newsmax published my new article “Hanukkah Universally Illuminates Our Lives

Hanukkah is not just another week in the Jewish calendar. It can be used as a respite dedicated to personal enlightenment, one week set aside for life transformation. The holiday of Hanukkah signifies the victory of light over darkness, unity over division. Indeed, such a victory requires no less than a miracle, but it is one within grasp. We need only know how to light the candle and make it happen.

Through our connection, we strike a match against the darkness and ignite the light in our lives. This is the brilliance of Hanukkah, the holiday of light. As with a match, a little friction transforms into a gleaming flame.

Of all the holidays, Hanukkah and Purim are considered special for many reasons. First, the Torah makes no mention of them. Second, after the full completion of humanity’s corrections, it is said that all the holidays will be canceled except for these two. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Hanukkah and Purim are of utmost importance because both are directly connected to the rebuilding of the Temple, which symbolizes the place where Creator and creation bond.

The Temple’s ruin represents a breaking of this bond between us. Rebuilding that bond means attaining all the abundance and goodness in our existence. This is the Kabbalists’ quest.

Like a thirsty man trying to draw water with a leaky bucket, who must first fix the vessel before he can fill it and drink, one who feels detached from spirituality must first mend the bond with the Creator before being able to receive the offered illumination.

In order to live a purposeful life, we need to ascend through a cycle of spiritual development called “a year.” In each upward cycle, we face the same desires met previously, but on ever-higher degrees each time. While we do so, we encounter recurrent milestones of inner changes, discernments and situations aimed at rising to the next spiritual degree, the correction of the soul. The Kabbalists call these degrees “holidays” and “Sabbaths.”

The holidays and Sabbath in our world were determined by Kabbalists to provide a framework of behaviors in accordance with our work in the inner spiritual world. That is the reason we celebrate the holidays each year and the Sabbath each week.

Stopover on an Enlightened Path

The word Hanukkah, from Hebrew “Hanu-Koh,” or “stop here,” represents the first stage of spiritual development, a process of correcting the desire to enjoy for oneself and inverting it into a desire to bestowal unto others, a state that liberates us from darkness. Darkness manifests as separation, conflicts, arguments, ruthless competitiveness, and the desire to exploit and dominate others.

Our inner struggle to overcome our egoistic nature is what we call “The War of the Maccabees against the Greeks,” i.e. “Greeks” symbolizing characteristics that yearn for control over us.

The victory over the Greeks is the foundation of any person’s path on the spiritual ladder. This triumph lets us perform corrections that will lead to the final correction—Purim—when we attain the endless bounty that the Creator prepared for all.

When we can rejoice in each other’s successes, share our concerns, in mutual connection, we will realize what nature tries to teach us: that we belong to one single body. If we take just the tiniest step in this direction, we will see miracles on the way. We will see how a small lamp, the smallest jar of oil, will kindle a strong and warm fire that illuminates everyone’s life.

What Is the Miracle of Hanukkah?

Overcoming our ego — the desire to enjoy at others’ expense—requires rising above our nature, and this is considered a miracle. Instinctively, our ego governs our existence, even though the outcome causes a boomerang effect that brings us suffering. How then does this miracle happen? Every time we connect with each other, the force that is higher than all other forces, obstacles and conditions, is drawn into action and the miracles manifest before our eyes.

Although a miracle is a supernatural phenomenon, we are able to make it happen whenever we choose closer connection above all kinds of resistance. Today, if we wish to rise above our ego and try to connect positively with others, a completely new upper force will be revealed within us, and with its help, we will be able to bring peace, love and unity to the world.

Let us spin ourselves together around this exalted goal to ignite the spirit of unity, enlighten our lives, and radiate joy and fulfillment to everyone.

Happy Hanukkah!

“The Nation Of Israel Is The Only Nation With No Biological Root“ (The Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “The Nation Of Israel Is The Only Nation With No Biological Root

The nation of Israel is the only nation in the world with no biological root.

Unlike other nations, which emerged from shared parents and a small group, the nation of Israel has no biological parentage. Instead, it emerges from ancient Babylon, where Abraham the Patriarch connected people from different nations based on a spiritual idea: the need to love and unite above all differences.

If the people who make up the nation of Israel unite based on this spiritual idea, then they can be considered as a nation. Likewise, there is no basis for them to be called a nation if they fail to aim themselves at love and unity. Especially today, the nation of Israel is visibly not a united people. From those who want to completely disidentify with being Jewish, to those who are against the existence of the State of Israel, as well as sharp divisions in views across various political, religious and secular factions, they can be compared to nuts in a bag: if there is pressure on the bag, then they are forced to come together, but if that pressure goes away, then they disperse in different directions.

Therefore, in our present reality, the nation of Israel is only a nation in potential. It is a group that has the potential to unite based on the spiritual idea of “love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) and to be a positive example of such unity to humanity (“a light unto the nations” [Isaiah 49:6]). In other words, the group that emerged in ancient Babylon, which comprised of representatives from different nations who had a desire to unite above their inborn differences and achieve a positive and complete form of unity, received the method of how to unite from Abraham.

Why?

It was in order for them to pass the method and example of unity on to humanity at a time when humanity would need it. Today is such a time. Today, the human ego, characterized by the desire to enjoy at other people’s expense, has grown to overblown proportions. It sparks increasing divisions in societies and spurs conflicts between peoples and nations. Therefore, the need for unity, and a method and example of how to unite above any and all differences, rises in parallel with the increasing ruptures in human society.

Until the unifying potential of the nation of Israel becomes actualized, anti-Semitism will increasingly surface to pressure the Jewish people to actualize unity above their differences, and then pass this example onto humanity.
[237993]

Paris Riots

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/3/18

The riots taking place in the heart of Paris are the seeds of an inevitable change in the rules of the socio-economic game in Europe.

The “yellow vests” people protest the rise in fuel prices and cost of living as they are vandalizing the streets, torching cars and pillaging shops on the Champs-Elysées. Even the statue of Marianne, the national symbol of freedom originating in the French Revolution, was not immune to the wrath of the protesters.

These violent acts express a growing sense of deprivation and exploitation that people feel towards their government. Beyond those who take to the streets, many are beginning to sense that the ruling elite is concerned with its own interests, with no regard to the needs of its citizens. They are beginning to realize that their leaders have one mission in mind: to preserve their throne in every possible way.

And when modern Europeans feel like they are being dispossessed from the little they have left in their pocket – everything becomes permissible. Their barbaric side comes out and their rage translates to violence, plunder, and chaos on the streets. Even if a person risks being shackled in prison the next moment, the erupting human ego cannot be restrained.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron was in Buenos Aires at the G20 summit, sitting around the table with other world leaders, as each of them maintains focus of their personal interests. In their case, the ego blinds them from seeing the intricate network of global interdependence that connects them. Every leader is busy tying another knot, ignoring how the reality around them is unraveling.

Setting the tone at the summit, Trump secures his country’s interests. He reaches understandings with his Chinese counterpart, to forge an agreement that will benefit both countries. The U.S. president typically demonstrates isolationism, yet with a clear aim to benefit his country. He does that, for example, by blocking the entry of illegal immigrants into America, unlike Europe, which keeps its doors wide open.

Europe in its deteriorating state is somewhat reminiscent of the Soviet Union in its pre-disintegration period. Social polarization is intensifying daily, there are many clashes of interests between leaders, and some countries are seeking to withdraw from the European Union – all the while waves of immigration continue to shake the socio-cultural fabric of the continent.

However, the powerful blow that will shock Europe will be the dissonance between affluence and poverty. While billions of euros are flowing across the European Union, the middle class is becoming poorer and angrier. At the same time, an unparalleled technological-industrial revolution is fast approaching, threatening hundreds of millions of jobs.

When approximately 60% of the public in one of the European countries find themselves out of the workforce and unable to return to it, changing the rules of the game will be inevitable. It is easy to envision a “European spring” scenario where riots – as we just saw in Paris – spread like wildfire across Europe.

Even today, a group of statisticians from Poland predict that we have about 12 years until a “global financial crisis of unprecedented scale” takes place. But in a globally integrated system, where every part is intertwined with everything else, such a crisis may certainly occur beforehand.

The first, necessary step in changing the rules of the game will be to provide some form of basic income to every person that will cover the basic necessities for life. However, bread alone will not satisfy the human being for long. A guaranteed income will appease the body, but not the spirit.

Economics is a reflection of human relations. It’s about what one gives to and receives from society. Therefore, if one will receive what he needs from society, and will no longer be judged by his socioeconomic status, social values will have to change.

Many will compete on the formation of new social values. Leaders, religions, radical activists, and various ideologies. But only one social concept will be capable of uniting Europeans and maintaining peace on the streets. It is the concept that will be in balance with the natural course of human development. The concept that will make every person recognize that we are all connected and interdependent. It will raise humans to a higher level of consciousness, introduce them to a deeper level of connection, and infuse their spirit with a new motivation. Ultimately, the quality of connection between people will be the basis for a healthy, new society and economy.

To learn more >> >>>>>>>>>

Grab Hold Of The Goal

laitman_942Question: When I see my friend as lower than myself, this is my normal egoistic state. Does all my work happen when I feel smaller than my friend?

Answer: No, because it is a question of work that it is necessary to come to through internal efforts. There are people who constantly feel below others. There are people who always feel superior. There are those who do not pay attention to others at all, do not even notice them.

All the work is to first grasp onto the goal, the Creator, and from this determine our present state. The fact that we are trying to grab hold of the goal together makes us equal.
[236755]
From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 5/9/18

Related Material:
Equality For The Final Goal
Assembling The Mosaic Of The Creator
Seven Billion Included Universes

Happy Holiday Of Spiritual Conception!

laitman_293.1The deeper we delve into explaining the holiday of Hanukkah, the more we are convinced that it contains the entire path, all events, and all states that one who wishes to reveal the spiritual world, the upper force, goes through.

It might seem like some ancient story that has turned into a folk or children’s holiday: lighting candles, eating sweet donuts…

However, in reality, Hanukkah contains the entire struggle of a person as he breaks out of this world, upward. He overcomes all of the obstacles that the Creator places in front of him in order to reveal, above them, the upper world, his eternal and perfect state, the “advantage of Light from the darkness.”

It becomes revealed precisely against the transient, imperfect states that come to us in times of great calamities and wars, the realization of human egoistic nature.

Discernments, discernments, discernments… through all the states that we are destined to undergo. No one treading this path can circumvent or skip any discernment or obstacle; one has to go through them one after another. No one will receive more or less work than the others—each person might have his own accents and measures, but in reality, every one of us goes through every step on this path.

Not only are we all parts of one body, but through the breaking we have also become included in one another and every person is inside everyone. Once, before the breaking, the reciprocal penetration was there only among the bestowing desires.

However, after Adam HaRishon’s downfall of sin, the receiving and bestowing desires intermixed with each other, along with the upper Light that had filled them at the time of the breakage. As a result, every state includes all the others, and only becomes discerned through the lack of correction. Therefore, every person has to go through all of the states.

The quality of bestowal, Bina, must become revealed during Hanukkah. It explains all of our characters to us, our path, the person’s exit from revealing this world to revealing the upper world that shows him what he must separate from and become free of, what he must distance himself from and what he must come closer to, cleave to, connect to, and in what forms.

This is all contained in the holiday of Hanukkah, in the corrections that we have to go through. We could call it “the holiday of spiritual conception and nursing,” that is, a small state for now. Yet it’s already a spiritual state: Even though a person still can’t use them practically, he is already gaining the understanding and forces that belong to the upper, spiritual world.

He enters the degree of Bina, and that is the entrance to the Garden of Eden! Starting from this stage and on, he builds himself in equivalence with the Creator. Before the holiday of Hanukkah, he was only correcting himself in order to rise above his egoism, to become free from it, and separate from it. By reading articles about Hanukkah, we strive to check, discern, and understand the conditions that allow us to acquire the quality of bestowal, Bina.
[218150]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/17, “Lesson on the Topic: Hanukkah According to Kabbalah”

Related Material:
Hanukkah Is A Stop In The Middle Of The Path
The Inner Meaning Of The Hanukkah Holiday
Hanukkah Is A Celebration Of Victory Over Ourselves

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 12/4/18

Lesson Preparation

[media 1] [media 2]

Lesson on the Topic “Hanukkah”

[media 3] [media 4]

Talmud Eser Sefirot,  Vol. 6, Part 16,  Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words, Item 125

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”, Article “Proof of His Work by Experience”

[media 7] [media 8]