Audio Version Of The Blog – 8/29/19

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My Thoughts On Twitter 8/29/19

Dr Michael Laitman Twitter

To the extent that I can make room inside myself and integrate with the group, the thought of creation can fill my connection with the group, i.e., the corrected Kli. This is how I become fulfilled and achieve equivalence of form and adhesion with the Creator. #wisdom

From Twitter, 8/29/19

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Walk With The Rod And The Serpent

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen the importance of spirituality falls in my eyes, it is as if the rod falls out of my hands and turns into a serpent. But these two states are connected: we cannot rise up without going down. “God has made one opposite the other.” The rod holds me up and the serpent drags me down.

If spirituality falls in my eyes and I elevate it, it means that I am walking with the rod. The nature of the rod is such that it constantly falls and each time I have to lift it up. The rod falls, I lift it; it falls again, I lift it again with the help of the ten and the reforming light. At first, we just study this theoretically, but later it turns into practical work. I begin to work with these forces, feel how the ten gives me energy, desire, and support by attracting the upper light and revealing the Creator.

Such a powerful compression occurs inside the group that the force of bestowal is revealed in it. Through this pressure, we squeeze all the egoism out of ourselves and it flows outside. An empty vessel remains there, already without egoistic desires, filled with the light of Hassadim.1

If someone humiliated me, just spat in my face in front of everyone, what should I do? If this happens in ordinary life, with outside people without any connection to inner work, I must react as it is customary in this world, the same as everyone else: defend myself, complain, that is, act according to the situation. In the external world, I must look like everyone else and not appear strange.

However, if such a conflict occurs with a friend and the friend suddenly insults me, then I have to accept everything. There is no room for calculations. The calculation here is the opposite: everything the friends do is for my benefit.

The Creator shows us His actions more clearly and we must become more delicate and sensitive in order to understand where everything comes from. 2

It is written, “Anyone who is proud, says the Creator, ‘He and I cannot dwell in the same   abode.’” Proud means the one who thinks that he has his own thoughts, his own desires, actions, that he has at least something of his own. To think that I have even a grain of something that belongs to me personally is already pride.

All our work is in completely annulling ourselves so that there will be no one else beside the Creator. From this absolute zero, we must lower ourselves even further, until negative infinity, so all the work that is required after our complete annulment will be done not by us but by the Creator, according to our request.

It turns out that from plus 100 percent of egoism, we descend to zero and then further to minus 100 percent of egoism. In this way, we reveal the right desire, the vessel in which the Creator clothes and begins to act. This is called the revelation of the Creator to the created beings in this world.

We must work with our desire to enjoy for the sake of bestowal, meaning, use our egoism to the fullest. By doing our work, we grow our egoism 620-fold and attain a corrected desire that is 620 times greater than the original one.

We lower our egoism all the time, it again erupts and grows even more each time. The light that enters us at the next degree only inflates our ego. Through our work, the light of infinity enters into us for the sake of bestowal, but we immediately fall and want to receive this light for our own sake. Thus, the light throws our little egoism up to the degree of the light that was going to fill us for the sake of bestowal and eventually was received egoistically.

The next egoistic degree comes from the light that I drew for the sake of bestowal, but then I fell and wanted to have it for myself, This is the rod and the serpent: the importance of bestowal drops in my eyes and I must raise it higher and higher. This is how we ascend. Therefore, we reach 620 times more power. 620 times more is the degree of the light from Malchut to Hochma.

It is as if we are inflating our desire to enjoy the upper light with a pump and it expands 620 times. Only we can do this because we are in two opposite states: for our own sake and for the sake of bestowal. The Creator cannot give this to us already prepared; this can only be achieved by working on our correction, through the Torah and commandments. Therefore, it is written: “ There is not a righteous man on earth who will do good and will not sin.” How else can he be able to become even greater righteous if not through the fact that the upper light has entered the desire to bestow and turned into egoistic reception. 3
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/17/19 , Baal HaSulam, Shamati 59, “About the Rod and the Serpent”
1 Minute 52:40
2 Minute 56:30
3 Minute 1:04:50

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“Anti-Semitism In Fashion: When Anti-Semitic Symbols Become Trendy” (Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “Anti-Semitism in Fashion: When Anti-Semitic Symbols Become Trendy

There is nothing chic about Nazism but there is already a fashion trend called “Nazi chic” gaining popularity in the world. Clothing and accessories, phone covers, pillow cases, and other kinds of merchandise with pictures of concentration camp victims and images exalting Hitler are now easily found in online stores. We Jews cannot remain indifferent to this phenomenon coming to shake us up to understand the paramount importance of uniting our forces. By becoming one unified people will we be able to avoid normalizing the horrors of the past to prevent history from repeating itself.

Once taboo, the glorification of anti-Semitic manifestations and Nazi symbols is becoming increasingly popular in the world of fashion, art, music, sports, festivals and even amusement park attractions such as a swastika-shaped ride recently closed in Germany, where public display of Nazi propaganda and memorabilia is illegal. Just this past year, this ban was surprisingly lifted for computer games.

Erasing the Holocaust as a Tragedy

The trend to trivialize the darkest chapter in Jewish history is worrisome because, as we can see, it is now found in basically every human field. Moreover, polls conducted in Europe show that the memory of the Holocaust is starting to fade. In America, 1 out of 3 people queried on the subject do not believe that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.

The Auschwitz Memorial recently condemned online shops that advertise products ranging from home decor to clothing featuring starving Jews from the Holocaust and Nazi symbolism. The museum demanded a more strict verification system for retailers “as sometimes things go beyond just a bad taste and become disrespectful. Especially when images of victims are there.” Online users have also been shocked by the offensive merchandise and some advertisers have agreed to pull specific items from their websites while others remain available online.

Even international fashion companies have caused uproar in recent times for using anti-Semitic imagery and hate symbols in their designs, such as striped garments including yellow stars resembling clothing Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust and swastikas.

What about Making Connection Fashionable?

Today’s growing hatred toward Jews and people’s indifference to historical Jewish suffering reminds us of our task. This grotesque trend is an opportunity for us to reflect on the reason for anti-Semitism and to remember that we have a method of connection to prevent the atrocities from recurring.

Over many centuries, our ancestors fought to maintain their unity above their growing selfishness. But 2,000 years ago, Jews succumbed to unfounded hatred and were exiled from their land. Since then we have lost the ability to be a light unto nations because we have lost our unity. The moment we lost our unity was the moment when anti-Semitism as we know it began.

Only when we rekindle the brotherly love we cultivated centuries ago and share the method for achieving this with everyone, will the world will stop hating and blaming us for all its troubles. How is this possible? It is possible because, whether we like it or not, Jewish unity determines the state of the world and its fate. Through our connection, we stream a positive, uniting force into the world, a force the world desperately needs. Conversely, our separation denies humanity this power and evokes within it hatred toward Jews. This is the cause of the nation’s aggression toward us and why they perceive us as the source of all evil.

In his essay, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Rav Yehuda Ashlag writes about the important role of the Jewish people: “The Israeli nation was established as a conduit to the extent that they purify themselves [from egoism], they pass on their power to the rest of the nations.”

Now is our time to become a “light unto the nations” through our example, to make unity, peace and calm the only trendy fashion in the world. We cannot allow atrocities to happen again when we have a method of prevention through our connection. It is indispensable to stick to this goal of brotherly love among all Jews above all obstacles because our lives depend on it and because the well-being of the world requires it of us.
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Two Forces, Emanating From The Creator

laitman_595.01Question: There are two forces: the power of reception and the power of bestowal, evil and good. If everything is the Creator, then who is the one that perceives these two forces?

Answer: The person develops in his natural property, which we call egoism. The Creator gives it to us. He created us with this property. So it is said: “I created egoism.”

Now we must turn this property into the opposite, into bestowal and love. Where does the property of altruism come from? It also comes from the Creator. Egoism develops in us even if we do not ask the Creator for it, but altruism develops in us only if we insist on it.

Our job is, over egoism, which the Creator constantly develops in us, to constantly ask Him through the group for Him to balance egoism with altruism. We will then walk as if on two legs, understanding and feeling the whole universe, all the worlds beyond time, space, and motion.

Thus, both forces come from the Creator. One of them is the power of the Creator, the power of bestowal and love. And the second, generated by Him from nothing, is the egoistic power.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 4/7/19

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New Life 1135 – Governing Society According To Natural Law

New Life 1135 – Governing Society According To Natural Law
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Society needs a mechanism that will protect it like a raft on the waves—a connection above the individual ego. The ego pulls everyone in an anarchistic direction. Nobody knows what is truly good. Society requires a head that knows how to constantly create balance between people and the general laws of nature. The head must be constructed from a large body of wise people who study the wisdom of Kabbalah, discuss the laws of nature, and teach the people.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1135 – Governing Society According To Natural Law,” 7/9/19

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 8/29/19

Lesson Preparation

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Lesson on the Topic “There is None Else Besides Him”

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Lesson on the Topic “Dissolving In The Friends” (Preparation for Convention in Moldova)

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