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Hanukkah For Humanity

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/7/19

This Is What a Hanukkah for Humanity (Not Just Jews) Looks Like

Hanukkah is a pit stop on life’s race track, coming from the words “Hanu” (“park”) and “Koh” (“here”).

The more we advance, the more we encounter such stops. They let us discern what we have done, and whether we should change our direction in order to progress more optimally.

Humanity Needs to Stop and Change Direction

At one point or another, we all encounter thoughts that throw our whole path in life into question: “What am I doing with my life?” “Am I living my life to the maximum, or am I wasting it?” “How can I live in a way where I won’t be sorry afterward for not making the most out of it?”

The more we plod on in life, we more we find ourselves struggling with all kinds of circumstances. We thus need to ask ourselves: “What are we struggling for?” “What is the purpose of it all?” “Where are we headed?” “What does it mean to ‘win’ in this struggle?”

Sometimes, we find ourselves in situations that make us stop and rethink our lives’ entire course. Also, sometimes we need to forcefully stop ourselves, even if we want to continue, recalculate where we’re headed, and whether we should impact a change for a better future.

Today, we are in latency. Even though society races forward, we still have the opportunity to look at ourselves from aside, and ask: “Where are we headed?” “Are we going the right way?” “If we detect that we’re going the wrong way, do we have the ability to change direction?”

Therefore, we should see in the words, “Hanu” and “Koh” (“park here”), a desire brewing in humanity to cry out and stop the current way we’re running our lives, and change to a more fruitful direction.

The Problem With Our Individualistic, Consumerist and Materialistic Lifestyles

Our current individualistic, consumerist and materialistic lifestyles, where we live from one Friday to the next, are leading us into greater debt. Our debt is not only monetary, it is our lag behind our balance with nature’s increased demands on us: to connect our attitudes to each other in order to match nature’s connectedness.

It is impossible to pay back the massive debt we have accumulated, but one way or another, we’ll have to pay it. In the meantime, we continue extracting from nature as much as we possibly can.

Neither do we listen to our own thoughts that momentarily surface, questioning the way we live our lives, as they get drowned in the noise of the constant barrage of mixed messages, nor do we listen to those who explain to us how nature operates on us, the general tendency of our development, and offer advice on how we can benefit our future progress.

Ignoring these hints for change, we continue running our egoistic race.

How Hanukkah Is a State Humanity Needs to Undergo Today

Essentially, humanity needs to stop for a moment and think of how it can achieve more balance within itself and with nature. Hanukkah is much more than a holiday marked on a few calendars. It is what humanity as a whole needs to undergo.

However, we can make no such stop until we recognize the cause of our individualistic, consumerist and materialistic lifestyles, gaining awareness of how the consumerist cycle—manufacturing products we don’t need, advertising them so that we want them, buying, selling and disposing of them—ultimately does no good to ourselves or to our planet.

We are overdue in making this pit stop. If we continue business as usual, then we can simply count the days it will take till nature will activate a major blow upon us: pressures and disasters that would make life unbearable.

However, what is the alternative? If we stop our current consumerist race, what would be able to replace it? And how would we know its replacement would be better?

The Alternative to Consumerism: Positive Connection

In order to understand consumerism’s alternative of positive connection, we need to first understand the importance of social influence.

Society determines our values according to what it promotes to us as enjoyable, worthwhile and important. The fact that we compare ourselves to others and try to have what they have, then since we’re promoted consumer goods all the time, seeing people enjoying and discussing them, we thus also want them.

Therefore, we need to determine what is most advantageous for us all to enjoy, so that we won’t live our lives in a way where we empty our pockets to fill richer pockets, whenever we make a transaction to buy something else we don’t need.

For instance, instead of Black Friday, we could advertise a “Global Picnic Day,” a day where families and friends meet up in a park, at the beach, in nature, or go to the cinema or a trip somewhere—to promote a fun day together with family and friends. It all depends on what we decide to promote to ourselves. If we saw people around the world posting about themselves on Global Picnic Day, on the news and social media, celebrities, influencers and all our friends celebrating it in different ways, we would find ourselves also wanting to organize ourselves somehow to enjoy the day. We would also find that such a day would give people much more pleasure than a global day of buying and selling.

So why don’t we do that?

Instead of wasting our money buying a whole bunch of things that we’ll mostly discard of, we would instead focus on enjoying ourselves in positive connection with other people.

Therefore, if we really stopped the way we currently live our lives, we could pop the consumerist-materialistic bubble that we have blown up around ourselves, and start to advertise a new approach to life that we could ultimately enjoy a lot more from: one where we focus on positively connecting to each other, and which would bring us to greater balance in our relationships and with nature in general.

Possibility Of A Civil War Breaking Out In Israel

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/7/19

Lately there has been much talk about the possibility of a civil war breaking out in Israel. Here is my commentary on the issue.

Take Me To The Spiritual World Through The Center Of The Ten

laitman_258It seems to us that a person of strong faith should always find the strength to withstand any state and never lose connection with the Creator whether in sadness or in joy, as if nothing can shake or knock the person off eternal adhesion. But in reality, this is not so: a person striving for the Creator experiences constant changes. One must feel growing weakness within oneself, but at the same time know how to achieve increased confidence and adhesion with the Creator. Therefore, one advances and adds all the time.

However, if one feels no such changes within oneself, powerlessness and uncertainty, descents and fear, straying from the right path toward the Creator and the purpose of life, if one is not concerned about that, then it is actually an important reason for concern. A person needs to engage in the group as quickly as possible with all one’s might in order to begin receiving the surrounding light through it, which changes a person.

If we think that everything is fine and there is nothing to worry about, then this is the time to get concerned.1

In our world, we consider a person as strong if he advances without feeling heavily burdened. They put an additional ten kilograms on his back, and he keeps on going; another twenty kilograms, he keeps on going as if nothing happened. We consider such a person to be heroic and strong.

In spirituality, however, it is the opposite. A hero is the one who is sensitive to each gram that is added to one’s load and instantly turns to the Creator with a request to correct the lack of confidence and for the force of bestowal. Spiritual advancement is measured differently, in increased sensitivity. The Creator keeps adding difficulties to us in quality and quantity, and we always have the opportunity to ask Him for new strength through the environment and to thus advance.

Advancement on the path depends solely on the changes felt by a person, which the Creator awakens in each person. Each time, I have to realize where my weakness lies and how to be strengthened in order to advance. Clearly, I lack faith, the force of bestowal, therefore, I need the environment and the Creator more and more so that I can contribute to the environment, turn to the Creator though it, and thus continue on the path.2

Everyone needs to check what changes the congress has made in them. One might feel detached, another being pulled in, the third one may have a blurry mind and feelings. Some might be unable to find themselves in the ten, to look at the friends, to feel them, to find them in one’s heart like before. Participation in a bigger ten had such an effect on him that he stopped feeling the previous connection with his friends.

There are a lot of post-congress phenomena, which cannot be ignored while waiting for you to return to your usual track. I need to check what is happening to me and why, what kind of an effect the congress had on me. It is very important.

Everyone in the ten feels differently and we must examine whether we can return to the previous state or if this new state is much brighter, loftier, and more intense. We began to better appreciate the connection between us and understand why we are returning to our ten to be together. We do not just follow the advice of the Kabbalists, we begin to realize that without it we will have no confidence or strength to advance, we will have no place to draw strength from or to turn to the Creator.

The ten becomes a spiritual source, a spring. We feel how we can stabilize ourselves within it and resume our corrections. Each of us carries a special quality, like ten Sefirot, and that is why we are very different. But we are connected by the common work, the common goal; thus, out of ten people and no less, we can form a perfect way to relate to the Creator.

The ten turns into a Kli, an instrument, we can use to change things with, to influence or become connected to a wider or higher level.3

The center of the ten is the tiny eye of a needle through which I enter the spiritual world. To do so, I must restrict all my thoughts and desires, compressing them into a single point so that they would take me into the upper world through the center of the ten.4
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/16/19, Hardening of the Heart

1 Minute 4:20
2 Minute 8:05
3 Minute 10:35
4 Minute 12:15

Related Material:
The Center Of The Ten Is The Spiritual Vessel
See Through The Ten
Find The Center Of The Group

Family And Marriage, Part 13

Laitman_503_01Soul Mates

Question: How did it come about that a person has a family and relatives?

Answer: Everything comes from the spiritual system.

Question: Are they soul mates?

Answer: Yes, they are close. At some level, they are fueled by you. You must nourish them, in a sense, take care of them. Maybe with time it will come about in both material and spiritual form.

Question: According to Kabbalah, a person must take care of his family. There is even such commandment. What should the relationship with relatives: aunts, uncles, grandmothers, and grandfathers be?

Answer: At present, our formation on the spiritual path is taking place. I think that later, when the masses will come to a spiritual state, the structure of relations along spiritual lines will accordingly be established.
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From Kab TV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/1/19

Related Material:
Family And Marriage, Part 12
Family And Marriage, Part 11
Family And Marriage, Part 10

Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 9/7/19, Part 1

laitman_584.01Question: With what intention should I come to the ten: Is it that I cannot be without them or they cannot be without me?

Answer: You cannot be without them. That is for sure.

Question: What is the difference between agreeing with the governance of the Creator and accepting the kingdom of heaven?

Answer: It is the same, the next degree above us.

Question: We work with the Creator. He gives darkness to our ten, brings us to the working state, and we respond to Him with our light. He gives us even more darkness, we return to Him even more light. How can we include the world into this cycle? How can we stop working in this wonderful feeling: I, the ten, the Creator—the Creator, the ten, I?

Answer: When the darkness and the light are equal for you, you will be able to correctly work with the entire world.

Question: How does the connection of opposites happen?

Answer: It is from above.

Question: What is the most effective way to use the state of excitement and ascent, to learn from the states of descent, to add even more connection, and fill the gaps between us?

Answer: Only in the group. If you do this together, you will certainly receive the center of the group and find a solution in it.

Question: How can we create the center of the circle, to see and feel it, and to raise a prayer from it?

Answer: Take one friend, then a second and a third one, do not take ten at once. Try to assemble a triangle from them, then a polygon, and when you master this you will gradually reach a circle.
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From Lesson 4, World Kabbalah Convention in Moldova 9/7/19, Rejoice in What We Lack/Work in Concealment

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Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 8/18/19
Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 7/28/19
Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 6/23/19

What Is The Real Solution To Anti-Semitism? – Talk With Shaul Magid

Shaul Magid, the Distinguished Fellow in Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, meets Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman to discuss anti-Semitism and find the most efficient way to solve it.

The solution to anti-Semitism lies in establishing loving connections between Jews according to the principle “Love covers all transgressions.” What would be considered a transgression in this case? And how can the connection between the Jewish people make the nations of the world not hate them?

There are two forces operating reality: negative (exponentially growing human ego) and positive (the force connection between people). 3,800 years ago, atop of the deep crisis of human relations in Babylon, called out by a sudden eruption of human ego, Abraham found that connecting two operating forces of reality, and setting the positive force above the negative one gives us a chance to reveal Godliness, a force of love and bestowal, called in Kabbalah “the Creator.” Out of the 70 nations in ancient Babylon, Abraham collected a group that implemented his method. Later on, that groups received the name, “Jews” (from “Yehudi” – “united”).

Since that time, Jews carry in themselves a method that can bring the world to balance and let the good enter it. Taking into account the current situation in all areas, it’s time to implement that method. First, Jews have to reestablish connections between them (“love your neighbor as yourself”), and then, share this connection over the globe (to be “light unto the nations”).

If the Jewish people start following initial Abraham’s teaching—“Love covers all transgressions”—and rise above conflicts and divisions between them (considered “transgressions”), Godliness will enter the world, and Jews will have no enemies and haters anymore as they will fulfill their deep-rooted role in the system of nature we’re all parts of. This will be a true solution to anti-Semitism. However, if Jews fail to perform their role, they can expect to continue facing rising anti-Semitism, even to a point of a new Holocaust.

Male And Female, Part 7

921Husband and Wife Come from the Same Environment

Remark: According to Kabbalah, there is the law of equivalence of form, which says that we should seek a partner with whom we have a common foundation and qualities.

My Comment: Yes, it is necessary. It is advisable to look for a partner who came from the same environment as you, and who is close to you.

Remark: However, Kabbalah also says that the connection of opposites gives a bigger and better effect.

My Comment: We do not need “effects.” We need peace and a normal existence. We are talking about the family.

I need my wife to understand my tastes and habits, to feel me because she herself saw something similar in the society where she developed. If I marry a woman from the other side of the Earth, it might work out, but we always will have some misunderstandings on a purely instinctive level.

Question: Do you still recommend that there should be similarity of properties?

Answer: Yes. In principle we see this from the Torah when Abraham advised the young men to bring themselves wives from the same places they came from.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 12/31/18

Related Material:
Male And Female, Part 6
Male And Female, Part 5
Male And Female, Part 4