Audio Version Of The Blog – 9/26/19
Posted on September 26th, 2019
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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 9/26/19
A small, yet powerful, conference. A local, yet global, conference. A brief, yet impressive, conference.
This past weekend we had a Kabbalah conference in the city of Bologna, in northern Italy. Dozens of students from Italy and neighboring European countries attended the conference.
The theme of the conference was “The Joy of Connection”—and indeed, joy was felt in the air from the warm bond created between the hearts that came together as one.
The goal of the conference was to organize the Italian group for a huge European conference to be held in Bulgaria in a month and a half.
The socio-cultural crisis, the loss of European identity in the face of waves of mass immigration and the EU’s instability require the unification of the continent into one, and us starting to build our internal connection.
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 9/26/19
While I was giving live lessons from Italy to thousands of my students around the world, my students were holding a parallel conference to their new students.
The KabU retreat took place in the Poconos, Pennsylvania, and despite the forested holiday destination offering many activities, the students were focused on building internal connections between them.
Two events took place in parallel: The main event for 100 students, and the second event was for dozens of new lecturers in the wisdom of Kabbalah.
Whether a student or a new lecturer, the foundation is the same: practicing the method for human connection above the separating ego, through workshops, discussion circles, dining together, and learning from the sources.
My article in Newsmax: “Israel Remains United in Its Divisions”
We have no nation. Division stands in our midst.
Those are the results of an X-ray scan of Israel following its 22nd election.
How can a nation constantly in conflict and under threat let its every sector care only about its own backyard and personal interests?
The dead heat between the two main political parties and round-the-clock deal-making expected in the coming weeks to form a governing-capable coalition further highlights the great divide in Israeli society.
However, discovering the wretched state we are in opens up the perfect opportunity to realize that we have no alternative but to cast a vote for unity and elect the force that connects us as a nation.
How could our nation unite above its divisions?
Could politicians put their egos aside and strive instead to rise above their personal benefit for the sake of a common goal?
Clearly, no one is interested in doing so, but the fact is, we have no choice.
We have entered an era where the nation is up against grave threats, the most vivid being Iran. Wealthy and powerful Iran is gaining support from Russia and China, and it is convenient for Iran to tag Israel as its enemy.
As Iran holds a strategic position in the heart of the Mideast, its beef with Israel lets it flex its muscles in the global sphere, as well as show its readiness to escalate pressure toward that goal.
After 71 years of statehood, instead of becoming stronger, we suddenly see that Israel is in an unfounded state. Our legs are stuck in quicksand, and we cannot pull ourselves out. We are a stubborn, powerful, enduring and unequivocally creative people, but in 2019’s second national election, we are left again with polarization and partisan manipulation instead of choosing our good future together.
Why does Israel’s political spectrum look like a rough patchwork, where loose threads fray in detachment from one another?
It’s because we have failed “to elect” the one and only force governing all aspects of nature: the upper force. Once again, we have neglected the only Jewish element that justifies our existence as a people: the value of our connection.
In order to come to terms with the urgent call for unity and put it into practice, Israel needs competent leadership that prioritizes rebuilding the social fabric.
It will require a gradual educational process that should be led by a national-unity government made up of Benjamin Netanyahu, ex-military chief Benny Gantz, and Avigdor Liberman, with Netanyahu acting as prime minister until the rest acquire the necessary skills to govern.
The job of heading a nation requires learning experience just like any other profession, but we have no academy for governing the nation, and the volatile internal and external pressures we face leave no room for trial and error.
Ruling the country demands a completely different mindset than ruling the army.
Although organizing our political leadership is important, we will not return to sanity until we realize that our main goal as a nation should be to eliminate our biggest enemy: our war with each other.
The principle of unity that we inherited from Abraham, the father of the nation, has completely escaped us. It is a principle by which we became a nation in ancient Babylon.
In its absence, we have dismantled into a loose collection of peoples and “tribes.”
The principle of brotherly love built the Temple — the connection between us — and its absence, unfounded hatred, kicked us into exile and persecution.
Therefore, regardless of who will form the next government, we should certainly not depend on the guidance of a flesh-and-blood leader that will be replaced in four years or less. We need to depend on the power of society, the strength of our connection. This is and always has been the root of our salvation as a nation.
In other words, it is important to cast our votes and choose our leaders as in any democracy, but our real free choice should be made on a daily basis, renewed regularly and not subject to the considerations of any government in office.
At any given moment, it is worth stopping for a moment to ask: “What are we living for?” “Why do we exist?” “Who runs our lives?” “Who runs the society we live in?” “Who governs us?” “Who is really in control?”
The upper force in nature drives humanity. It emerges from its hidden state when society functions harmoniously in mutual guarantee (Arvut), showing us how we live in a unified system where all parts are interconnected as a singular and integral unit.
Disagreement is part and parcel of our Jewishness.
There is no need to eliminate or obscure our differences and divisions. Nor do we have to flatter and agree with the views of others. But we do have to bridge the abyss between opinions, to spread an umbrella of love over our differences, because “love will cover all transgressions.”
As our ship sails forth into unknown waters, it is time to persistently emphasize the positive qualities of others and create a more harmonious society where mutual care, consideration, understanding and support prevail.
By doing so, we will be able to realize how our disunity drills a hole in our ship’s keel, whereas our cohesion strengthens our ability to navigate to a safe port of a bountiful land.
That is the election vote we need to cast regularly for the ultimate positive outcome.
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My article in Newsmax: “Israel at a Crossroads: Time for a Government for Everyone”
If other people’s failures can make us feel a bit better in our loss, Israel is not alone in the world in its political limbo after the second elections this year again left no clear winner.
Similarly, Spain is headed for its fourth election in four years in the wake of inconclusive results from last April’s polls; and in the UK, the Supreme Court ruled that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament — an apparent move to avoid opposition to Brexit — was unlawful, causing political turmoil.
It seems humanity has advanced technologically but has regressed in terms of stability and certainty about the future. The good news is that reaching a solution does not require rocket science. The leaders just need to take the example of a family and govern accordingly.
Family life is based on interdependence and built on mutual concessions. If it weren’t, then any crisis could easily lead to divorce.
A delicate balance is kept where, on one hand, the couple endeavors to stay close and appreciate the comfort and security that the closeness provides, while on the other hand, they maintain healthy individuality and room for personal growth. Successful couples move in a sort of mutual dance where each partner refrains from seeing the negative aspects of the other and covers disagreements with love.
From Independence to Interdependence
In Israel, the leaders who aspire to run the country feel no interdependence. They appear to be complete separated, bearing no resemblance to a warm family. Each pursues his own justice, barricades himself in his position, and thinks of his own self-interest.
Unlike family management, where negotiations are relatively easy and the damages are small in scale, at the state level, slight movements can quickly result in complicated political squabbles that risk deterioration into social crises or re-elections. Therefore, any party that barricades itself within its own position deserves no governance until it can muster the strength to relent a little in its position and pride.
It is abundantly clear to everyone that the success of the State of Israel will depend on its ability to form a national-unity government. This government should be like a family incorporating countless opposing views and political rivalries, yet working together, mutually compromising for the benefit of the people. It can only work this way because no unity can exist except above diverse opinions. The sages expressed it as follows: “Just as their faces are different, so are their opinions,” in other words, just like the differences that exist between members of a family.
The political approaches of the two major parties, Likud and Blue-White, are similar in character. Therefore, the current prize to be won for Israel can be taken by compromise and nothing else. Even if there is a significant conflict in the future between the two leaders, Netanyahu and Gantz — disagreements over the peace process that could deteriorate into real struggles, for instance — the national-unity government’s magic will work.
Unity Out of Diversity
Unity accepts and contains the other, agrees to work with the different, and gives room to everyone.
Unity balances the various worldviews and draws a continuous line between diverse perspectives in order to weave a single, complete vision. Unity produces a reflective and rich discourse from a smorgasbord of opinions.
Israel’s divided people are thirsty for solidarity and cross-sectional social cohesion, wishing beyond hope that our chosen leaders would set an example and sit together at a round table, just like in a classic family. We long for leadership strong enough to demonstrate mutual trust, one that can give up on ego and pride for the people’s benefit.
Good for All, Good for Me
Leadership that works toward such unity would inspire people with a positive spirit of becoming an example of willingness to yield self-benefit for the collective good.
Why would someone be willing to give up their own particular position for everyone’s benefit?
Such visionary leadership is possible when one comes to realize that each of us is an integral part of a collective whole, so when everyone benefits, I am also a recipient of that goodness.
This has been the hallmark governing resilience the people of Israel since time immemorial: a powerful government made up of leaders with differing views who are strong enough to transcend their private egos for our common property: the people of Israel. With such leadership, the people too will come out stronger and more united, able to rise above the prevailing divisions in society. This is the beginning of the road to heralding Israel’s unity as an example for the world.
This means that every person from Israel is guaranteed to finally attain all the wonderful attainments that the Creator had contemplated in the Thought of Creation to delight every creature. And one who has not been awarded in this life will be granted in the next life, etc., until one is awarded completing His Thought, which He had planned for him.
And while one has not attained perfection, the Lights that are destined to reach him are considered Surrounding Lights. That means that they stand ready for him, but are waiting for him to purify his vessels of reception, at which time these Lights will clothe the able vessels. (Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot”).
A person should try to develop the quality of bestowal, the quality of connection between the shattered parts of the common creation, of the common soul, to connect them together, and to participate in this as much as possible. This is the implementation of the condition of “love your neighbor as yourself.”
To the extent that he approaches or even implements the condition of “love your neighbor,” the inner energy shines upon him, the so-called love, the connection between the broken parts.
It attracts these parts to each other and helps them form one single whole, one soul, already on a new level because egoism has entered between them with its minus and the plus became higher than the minus; that is, it grew due to minus.
Therefore, a person receives a huge new soul, the quality of bestowal, the quality of attainment called the upper world.
Question: While in the biological body, a person, as if, enters the sensation of this common soul. Will one continue to live in it once the body dies?
Answer: One has nothing to do with the other. Our animal body is necessary in order to begin to enter this soul, to feel it and to begin building it.
Question: Does it mean that through our bodies, we, as if, establish the first contact with other people, and then this all happens on the sensory level?
Answer: Yes, and completely outside of the bodies.
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From KabTV’s “Basics of Kabbalah,” 12/11/18
Related Material:
One Soul
Gather The Parts Of The Collective Soul
Me And The General Soul
New Life 1152 – Perceiving The Reverse World
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe
It is possible to get out of the body, replace my limited, egoistic perception, and feel a different reality based on giving. All of reality consists of me—my qualities and what I feel—and it changes when my desires change. We can transcend our egoistic perception by rising above it and developing senses for absorbing reality in a new way. When we exit from the perception of self-benefit to the perception of the benefit-of-others, we reveal an opposite world. Giving becomes precious and the upper world becomes tangible when we develop our mind and feelings according to the law of equivalence of form.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1152 – Perceiving The Reverse World,” 8/8/19
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