Audio Version Of The Blog – 10/31/19
Posted on October 31st, 2019
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In principle, all our actions and our entire path consist of two stages. The first is to love your friend as yourself. When this is achieved, we proceed to the second stage: love the Creator as you love your friend, your group.
One stage transforms into the other. It cannot be otherwise: love your friend as yourself, love the Creator as you love your friend. There are no other alternatives. This is what spiritual development consists of; it is completely different, opposite to our nature.
When a person encounters such a condition, he must shake himself well more than once in order to confront the fact that connection with others must occur outside of and above himself. In order to do so, a upper light must come and create these conditions.
I can demand it by being inspired by my friends. Playing between us, we can create among us such a desire: jealousy, envy, anything. The main thing is to understand that I must achieve this; otherwise, I will remain an animal in our world, end my life like all animals, and nothing else will remain.
Only envy, jealousy, and a desire for honor lead a person from his animal state to the next, the highest one.
We must understand that only our serious decision to master the spiritual state at any cost, at the cost of breaking up with our egoistic life, with our egoistic attitude to the world, will give us the opportunity to rise, and to love our neighbor as ourselves and to love the Creator as our neighbor are two stages by which we must reach our goal.
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From the Convention In Moldova “Day One” 9/6/19, “Dissolving in the Friends,” Lesson 1
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Question: When there is a desire to fill a friend, we forget about ourselves. In theory, should this desire alone be enough to somehow annul myself?
Answer: Yes, perhaps, for now. Probably that will change later. What does it mean to fill a friend? It means that you are prepared to sacrifice everything if only he receives what he wants.
Question: Is my desire to fill the friend egoistic?
Answer: It does not matter that it is egoistic. At the moment I do not check whether or not it is egoistic. I am not in the position yet to weight egoism and altruism. I am prepared to fill the friend with what he wants. This is called love for him.
Then, there are degrees, which I will climb and discover that this is egoistic love, and in fact, not even of the friend, but of myself, that I satisfy my desires in this way.
We learn that the love for one’s friend is only possible above self-hatred. One must feel self-hatred and to the same extent feel the love for others. This will then be the love for a friend and not for my new desire because this is self-deception.
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From the Convention In Moldova “Day One” 9/6/19, “Dissolving in the Friends,” Lesson 1
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why should we respect elders?“
The elderly represent the layer of society that holds a reservoir of wisdom and experience.
We see that people with more developed desires, such as scientists, who seek knowledge about our lives and the world develop more in their practice the more they age.
When scientists reach their elderly years, they don’t simply stop their scientific work, go on pension and relax for the rest of their lives. After spending a major portion of their lives accumulating knowledge and experience, the older they become, the more they improve in their scientific work. There is no age to seekers of science, knowledge, and wisdom.
We should respect the elderly because we very much need them and can highly benefit from the wealth of their wisdom and experience.
What would happen if all elderly people were removed from the planet? We don’t feel it, but the world would lose an immense amount of richness and depth.
One of the problems today is that it has become normal to live until the age of 90 and over. When I was younger, over 60 was considered old, with 70 being the peak. Now it’s over 90. Unfortunately, however, society has yet to realize how to make best use of people in this age group. It is a sign of us failing to best realize what nature has given us.
It’s common to envision our elderly years as those where we detach from the daily grind, go on pension, and find ways to relax and enjoy life till we die. Unfortunately, however, we fail to see how such an approach separates us from the vitalizing spring of human activity that comes from being contributing members of society. Numerous studies today show the physiological and psychological benefits of human contact, and it is no different for the elderly. In addition, death doesn’t come as a result of old age, but as a result of people losing engagement with life.
We should therefore, first and foremost, understand what elderly people lack most, which is to express themselves. Moreover, in order to let elderly people express themselves, we would need to setup systems that activate their contribution to society.
For example, currently in Israel there is an experimental project that pairs 80-year-olds with 4-year-olds for 2 to 3 hours a day in an effort that aims to mutually benefit the elderly and the children. I support such an initiative. In general, in the structure of a family spanning 3 generations—grandparents, parents and children—the children can receive a rawer kind of emotional connection from the grandparents than from the parents, one that is pressure-free and more heartfelt. Likewise, the elderly can find plentiful ways to express their many insights from life in sharing with the children, and the children can learn and gain a special kind of attention from their elders.
We should thus respect elders for their wealth of wisdom and experience, and instead of letting the elderly detach and wither away from society, we should rather seek ways to offer them self-expression by being contributing members of society.
Question: How can I not be afraid of the feeling that I am dissolving?
Answer: If a person feels very ill, he is ready to dissolve without fear. Everyone has such moments when he is ready to disappear, not to hear anything, not to exist.
If we increase the importance of spirituality, we reach such a state where it is worth dissolving our egoism for the sake of attaining spirituality.
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From the Convention In Moldova “Day One” 9/6/19, Lesson 2, “To Become Ready to Be Influenced by the Society”
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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 209: There are three conditions in prayer:
These are three correct attitudes to life. Everything is determined by the Creator. There is not a single thought or feeling that comes from me, only from the Creator.
Therefore, I have to always be in a heightened state of readiness, analyzing everything happening in my mind and feelings, realizing that the Creator presents it to me, and ask Him immediately for correction, to direct me properly to have good thoughts of love and bestowal toward others, that is, accompanied with good feelings that are above oneself of bestowing to others.
The Creator reveals only evil in me, as it is said: “I created evil.” However, I catch this evil mid-way and immediately ask Him to change it to good.
I then begin to enter into an interesting relationship with the Creator called “a dance,” like a tango: He leads me, and I lead Him. He influences me, and I give back to Him. Thus, we complete each other.
Acknowledging the evil is primary here. Once you understand that it came from the Creator and that “There is none else besides Him,” there is only one thing left to do: ask Him to change the evil to good. This is what our whole life is about, our entire spiritual work.
Question: Can I turn to the Creator without acknowledging my egoistic qualities and their destructiveness?
Answer: No. It is like you are the goalkeeper and the Creator constantly shoots at the goal, and you have to constantly deflect His shots.
Question: Do Kabbalists engage in self-reproach?
Answer: If you constantly cry, dissatisfied with your life, reproach anyone and everything, then you are dissatisfied with what the Creator has given you.
Question: Does Kabbalah view the cause of human depravity positively?
Answer: The Creator specifically did this so a person would need His help, and thus could ascend to His level.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 12/17/18
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Baal HaSulam, The Nation, Therefore, it is a must for every nation to be strongly united within, so all the individuals within it are attached to one another by instinctive love. …
This does not mean that all the people in the nation, without exception, must be so. It means that the people of that nation, who sense that harmony, are the ones who make the nation, and the extent of happiness of the nation and sustainability are measured by their quality.
The force that supports the nation depends on the extent the nation is similar to the upper force, which is one, that is, able to unite. Such nation will be able to overcome all the difficulties because they are revealed as the breakage and shattering within it that require correction.
Therefore, on the path, we will have to encounter many problems in order to cover all the crimes with love by getting increasingly stronger and more united. Only in such a way is the perfection revealed.
Each time more and more sins are revealed, and it is necessary to build the reverse state above them, that is, love, without despair and without giving up. This is how the world is built, and in this way, it must come to correction.
The question is, how can European countries reach unity when they have such a large number of refugees? Yet, in fact, all these refugees only help European nations understand that connection must be above all the differences. It is necessary to see the wave of refugees as sent by the upper force and not as a destructive one. It is destruction, but for the purpose of correction.
Fifty years ago, it was impossible to imagine such a situation of refugees in Europe. Europeans very much protected themselves, cherished the individuality of each nation, the Germans, the French, the Italians. The borders between the nations were very clear and sharp.
Then suddenly everything began to change with great speed. According to the upper program, everyone must reveal the shattering they are in. How else is it possible to discover the need for correction if not by bringing the foreign forces inside? This is why several million people have entered Europe, people who are alien to it in their culture, education, religion, and behavior. There is no more flagrant contrast.
As a result, Europeans are slowly beginning to realize that there is no choice, the only thing they can do is to connect. They have yet to discover how this connection can be achieved. No matter how unreal it may seem because of religious differences, the most acute and irreconcilable, there is no other way.
Europeans understand that it is necessary to find the key to reaching unity and connection. And the key, first of all, is in the integral method of connection, which Kabbalah offers, in covering all crimes with love.
It is implemented with the help of the upper force. We cannot unite by ourselves; we only create conditions so that through us, through Israel, as through a connecting channel, the upper force will begin affecting all the masses of people.
This does not require their consent; they will suddenly begin to speak and behave differently. No matter that yesterday they were fundamentalists, no matter what religion they professed, how they thought, and to which of the seventy nations of the world they belonged. They all will become like one nation.
The main thing is that Europe is experiencing problems, and we must provide a solution. That is why it is so important to unite all Kabbalistic groups in Europe and around the world, especially now before the European Convention in Bulgaria. In this way, we can bring the light of connection and unity to Europe.
Europe is more and more gripped by darkness, a sense of helplessness, hopelessness, and absence of a way out. However, suddenly we will see how contradictions are softening, opinions, thoughts, and desires are changing. After all, everything is resolved in thought, and thoughts suddenly become new.
How is it possible that people who were such fundamentalists, nationalists, who did not even want to talk to anyone a little different from them, suddenly changed so much? Yet, the upper light can change everything. The way it now thickens the darkness, so it will correct it. The main thing for us is to become a conducting channel for it, this is our work.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/13/19 “Unification of the People”
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are your thoughts on the shooting in the German city of Halle that took place outside of a synagogue on Yom Kippur?“
The shooting attack near a synagogue in Halle, Germany was yet another dreadful act of anti-Semitism on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. However, it could have been much worse if the 27-year-old attacker, who identified with the far-right, had broken the synagogue’s doors and slaughtered the 80 worshipers who were conducting the Yom Kippur prayers.
In a video he shot leading up to the shooting, the attacker denied the Holocaust, denounced feminists and immigrants and stated outright that “the root of all these problems is the Jew.”
Following the attack, there were cries, prayers and warmth given to the victims’ families, but also a clear demand for a significant shift to take place against the anti-Semitism that has rapidly spread worldwide.
For example, upon news of the two people who were shot to death, condemnations came one after another, from German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeting that “shots being fired at a synagogue on Yom Kippur, the festival of reconciliation, hits us in the heart,” and “we must all act against anti-Semitism in our country,” through Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commenting for a “call on the German authorities to continue taking determined action against anti-Semitism.”
However, other than desperate words, there is an air of helplessness in the face of the growing phenomenon.
Helplessness. Desperation. They sound like very undesirable feelings. But could it be that such sensations are actually a positive outcome of the exponentially rising anti-Semitic crimes and threats?
Perhaps when we are repeatedly stunned by an irrational phenomenon that has haunted our people for generations—one which makes no differentiation between genders, between Yom Kippur and a weekday, and between synagogues in Berlin and Pittsburgh—then maybe this is what will goad us to look into what the Kabbalists have been trying to tell us for generations?
Whether in The Zohar or other Kabbalistic texts, what have the Kabbalists been trying to communicate to the Jewish people? Simply put, if we Jews unite with one another, we invite a positive force dwelling in nature to spread not only among each other, but among all humanity. By awakening nature’s positive, unifying force through our unity, we can bring peace to the world. On the contrary, if divided, where every Jew remains within him- or herself in his or her own prayers, then we provoke the opposite: hatred and conflict. As Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzhak Isaac Haver wrote, “Creation and choice, correction and destruction of the world—all depends on Israel” (Siach Yitzhak. Part 2, Likutim 1).
Hours after the deadly shooting attack, German chancellor Angela Merkel attended a vigil to identify with the victims at a historic synagogue in central Berlin. She stood with the Jewish community as they together sang, “Ose shalom be Meromav” (“make peace in His heaven”). Ironically, sometimes the answer to our toughest questions can be found right under our noses. Sometimes we need only open our ears and listen to the words we’re singing…
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