Our broken Kli is gradually moving toward the center of our connection, which begins to feel like the center of the universe, of all worlds, of the entire system of Adam HaRishon, toward the new place where the corrected vessel meets the light. The more we think about it, the more we develop our sensitivity. There is nothing in our world that one cannot feel; it all depends on our invested efforts, our attitude, our desire.

We must strive for this point of connection with all our desires. Both the good and the evil inclination accompany a person to the meeting point where we join together and reveal the Creator. In order to achieve this, each person needs to abandon his “I” and move from the outer rim of the common vessel toward the center of the group.

If together we all think about the single central point, that is, the Creator, and advance toward Him, then everyone stops thinking about themselves and loses their personal self as if it does not exist. Due to the increased focusing on this thought and the aspiration toward the center, we remain with a single concern for the existence of a common system, for its vitality and revelation, and personal worries disappear. Thus, we gradually come to self-restriction and common unity, which creates a place for the Creator to be revealed in order to please Him.

Day after day this picture should become clearer in our feelings and minds, in our inner vision, so that we understand and feel that it really exists. We reveal this state that exists, this upper world, out of nothing.¹

Everything that has happened had to happen. Everything that will happen already exists. The only thing I must do is decide how to move from one scene to the next by applying efforts and my soul’s devotion. I add only my attitude—restriction, screen, and the reflected light—and reveal an already existing state.²

Everything is already perfect; you only need to correct your attitude in order to see that the whole world is an absolutely perfect world of infinity. But we do not feel it, we do not live in it; therefore, we need to change all our senses in order to feel ourselves in the world of infinity.

In order to do this, we have been given the ten to aim ourselves in the right direction, to calibrate ourselves, to focus our vision and perception, to feel ourselves in eternity, in new, true values. Malchut of the world of infinity is the place where we all unite together and merge with the Creator. The Creator is one and the creation must also be one as the Creator. All that we reveal is the oneness of the Creator.

Therefore, the Creator shattered us, giving us the opportunity to seek this unity in different states, in pros and cons There is no evil; there is “help from the opposite,” showing us the discrepancy from the true picture, manifesting it in all our sensations and understanding, in the mind and the heart. And to make this discrepancy more apparent, it dresses it in unpleasant sensations. It turns out that I see not just the distance between my perception and my goal, that is, between the imaginary and the genuine world, but I perceive this gap as suffering, as pain.

Therefore, we call it an evil inclination, although in essence it is not evil but helpful, because it helps us feel how much we deviate from the truth. The most important work is in the ten where we can very quickly correct this discrepancy between us and the Creator.

It is as if I am building a true picture out of my ten, gathering all the correct elements and connecting them with each other, bringing them closer together and focusing until they reach perfect sharpness: ten corrected Sefirot filled with the upper light.³

The ten is a matrix ensuring my contact with the Creator. I feel like I am talking to my friends, but this is not so, this is how I talk to the Creator. The ten is the language of communication with the upper force. The entire creation is a divine book, a conversation with the Creator.⁴

The method for bringing the desire to enjoy in equivalence with the light is: ten different parts of the desire that, despite their differences, connect to become like the light, and then you can see and hear in them the action of light as if in a body or a radio receiver. The stronger the connection, the greater the revelation. All the details of this receiver are already in our hands, and now everything depends on us.⁵

It seems to me that the ten is just ten people. But in fact, the Creator is speaking to me through them and I need to understand what He wants from me when He is expressing Himself through each friend. This is a special code, a language that I need to learn.

Then I will reveal that a ten is the ten Sefirot, and I will see how each Sefira shines with its own color, with a different force and character of glow and different connection with the others. On one hand, they are all included in one formula together, but each contributes its own unique part to it: more wisdom or mercy (Hochma or Hassadim), different types of desire and connection with the upper.

It is as if I am in front of a screen and the more I raise above myself and connect with my friends, the more I understand what the Creator is transmitting to me.⁶
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/19, The Center of the Ten

¹ Minute 0:00
² Minute 14:50
³ Minute 16:20
⁴ Minute 37:10
⁵ Minute 45:20
⁶ Minute 49:45

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To The Light Through The Center Of The Ten

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Question: If everything is predetermined, including the fact that by choosing we will suffer more or less, then why do we need Kabbalah?

Answer: Kabbalah is needed to raise us above our egoism to a state where we will not obey anyone or anything.

Egoism enslaves us, therefore, the science we study is called “the science of Kabbalah,” the science about the bondage of our egoism, and how rising from it gives us a sense of freedom.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 11/17/19

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My article in Newsmax: “What a Hanukkah for Humanity (Not Just Jews) Looks Like”

While the Hanukkah party at the White House caused ripples with Trump’s new executive order, and Jews around the world prepare for one of their major holidays, let’s take a look at what a Hanukkah for humanity, not just Jews, would look like.

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

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

At one point or another, 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.

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.

Our current individualistic, consumerist and materialistic lifestyles are leading us into greater debt. Our debt is not only monetary, it’s 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.

Essentially, society today needs to stop for a moment and think of how it can achieve more balance with itself and 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 rampant consumerism is positive connection.In order to understand this alternative, 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, then since we are incessantly promoted consumer goods, seeing celebrities, influencers, friends and acquaintances 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, celebrating it in different ways, we would find ourselves also wanting to participate. We would also find that such a day would give people much more enjoyment 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, we would instead focus on enjoying ourselves in positive connection with other people.

Therefore, if we parked ourselves on the side of our life’s race track for a moment, 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.

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Question: When you, as a student of Rabash, discovered internal disconnection from your teacher, how did you reconnect to him?

Answer: It happens very often. We must follow this and try to get closer literally every minute. In principle, any advancement is based on closeness with the teacher. It is the only way.

Question: New students want to get close to the teacher as soon as possible. But they do not yet have an understanding of the subject. How important is it to restrain them and explain that they need to first learn the basics of Kabbalah, and then rush to connect to you?

Answer: On what basis will we build connection? It is not pointless. It comes down to the fact that together we advance toward the goal. They support themselves, I support them, and this is how we advance.

In the beginning, when a person is beginning their study, one does not even know what it is all about, what one is rushing to, why one was brought here, and what one should desire.

Therefore, I think it is good that for the first six months, we meet once a week.

When I started studying with Rabash, I came to his classes every evening for two hours. Only after two or even three years did he allow me to move closer to him.

I do not know how often you study, but if you can devote 10% of your general activities to communicate with me, I will be very happy.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals in Kabbalah,” 10/27/19

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Lesson Preparation

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 8

Lesson on the Topic “Anti-Semitism”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 155

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/19/19

What is a miracle?

Hanukkah is a great time to talk about miracles.

A miracle, by definition, is something that according to the laws of nature isn’t supposed to happen. So for example, if at the end of the eight days of Hanukkah I’ve only gained two pounds or less, that can certainly qualify as a miracle …

But more seriously, how do you define something as “defying the laws of nature?” And if something defies the laws of nature, is it only defying the laws of the nature that we know, or the laws of all of nature?

Happy Hanukkah !!

See the full Hanukkah Card
Please feel free to print and share it with your community.

Learn everything about the spiritual meaning of Hanukkah

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Faith above reason is the topic we must constantly return to. Relative to it, we will undergo ascents and descents; all our work is concentrated around it. Faith above reason means that bestowal becomes higher than reception, that is, a person comes to the state when he or she lives with the force of bestowal. Of course, one rises and falls again, but a person already begins to conquer this territory, “the field that the Creator has blessed” where one is in understanding, awareness, and yearning to adhere to faith.

If I do not check what I have received, it is called faith below reason. After all, I do not have knowledge; I did not recount what I received, but simply took it for its word. It turns out that my faith is even lower than reason: There is no knowledge, just blind faith. In spirituality, this is not considered faith, it is only so in religion.

For faith above reason, I first must have my opinion and know what is happening according to it. I know that there is not a $1,000 in the envelope, but $999 or even just $1, but I accept it as $1,000. This difference determines my spiritual degree. I need these two clear points: reason and faith, Malchut and Bina.¹

Faith above reason means that I accept $999 as $1,000 from the bottom of my heart. Clearly, it is not advisable to do so in a store. We are not talking about this world but only about the spiritual one. In the spiritual space, we must go by faith above reason because we are building our attitude toward the Creator above our reason, increasing so. Spirituality is not based on the force of knowledge, but on the force of faith.

I advance based on what Kabbalists say because I do not want to rely on the opinion of my egoism. The more I can annul myself before the upper one, the more I acquire the force of faith with which I can advance with the mind and heart of the upper one.

In the corporeal world, it does not work because there is only one space in it. However, in the spiritual space, there are two degrees: me and the upper one (the AHP of the upper) and I go according to the opinion of the AHP of the upper. I include myself into the opinion of the upper one, and since I cleave to it, I can rise together with it. That is only because I accepted its opinion that becomes my faith.

This is the difference between the upper and the lower degrees. In the perception (in the Kelim) of the upper one this is $1,000 and in my perception (in my Kelim) it is $999. I understand, feel, and know that I am $1 short and I only have $999 in my pocket, not $1,000. Yet, in the Kelim of the upper, I have $1,000; I fill this empty area with the force of the upper one and feel myself complete because of him.²

It is written about faith above reason, “They have eyes but they will not see; they have ears but they will not hear.” I have eyes, ears, heart, mind; I am a smart person and understand and feel everything on my degree, judging only by what my eyes see, and I stand firmly on the ground. However, the question is how can I rise to the degree above myself, by which lift? Where is this elevator, this means, with the help of which I will change my feelings and reason to the feelings and reason of the higher degree in order to rise from the state “I” to “I + 1”? To do this, I need to go by faith above reason.³

From above, an empty space is revealed to me all the time and I must fill it with faith. When I fill it with faith, I feel how for me it is getting filled with reason. Then again darkness is revealed, the empty space that needs to be filled with faith. With this force of faith, I rise to the next degree, which again will turn into reason. This is how we grow: conception-nursing-maturity (Ibur-Yenika-Mochin) each time rising and perceiving the darkness and emptiness that are revealed to us as part of the higher, following above us degree.⁴
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/19, “The Work in Faith Above Reason”

¹ Minute 6:20
² Minute 11:50
³ Minute 27:40
⁴ Minute 1:29:10

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The Times of Israel published my new article “The Light of Hanukkah to Heal a World of Divisiveness”

The commemoration of the miracle of Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, comes this year at troubled times, when the darkness of anti-Semitism again targets Jewish people worldwide. Our very existence is a miracle after being persecuted throughout history and surviving, and now should be no different. We again will be able to overcome all difficulties the moment we unite. However, this unity will not be achieved through presidential decrees or sympathy from political leaders. Such measures only give us time to realize what we truly need to do to thrive and live safely.

“I am proud that Jews are part of my family” declared President Trump at a ceremony for Hanukkah at the White House days ago. On that occasion, he signed an executive order to combat anti-Semitism, recognizing Judaism as a national identity and not just a religion, thus making it possible to withhold federal funding from institutions that provide Jews with no protection against discrimination and racism. The measure brought some relief to a large section of the Jewish community in America, where the world of academia has become a bastion of hatred toward Jews and Israel. A sense of relaxation was also experienced by British Jews after the victory of Brian Johnson over the anti-Semitic Jeremy Corbyn. But this calmness is for a limited time only.

Despite the slaps on the shoulders and the outpouring of holiday gifts, the boiling anti-Semitism will not cease. The phenomenon will increase and the hatred for Jews will become stronger and more salient until we come to terms with the root cause of the problem: the lack of realization of what makes us Jews. Our core essence as a nation is to attain unity above divisions and to be a “light unto the nations,” the victory of light over darkness and unity over division. This is precisely what the festival of Hanukkah symbolizes, the victory of the Maccabees (symbolic of the forces of unity) over the Greeks (symbolic of the forces of divisiveness).

The Role of the Jewish People

Bringing a positive light to the world is what humanity identifies as our Jewish role. Therefore, until we unite and lead humanity to positive connection, the nations of the world will continue pressuring us, which is expressed as threats, condemnation and hatred.

How can we halt animosity against Jews? We can do so by utilizing the current period of political grace to become a positive conduit of unity toward the world. We must start moving in that direction. Trump and Johnson will not be eternally in power, and when new leaders replace them, the help we now have will be gone.

It is our responsibility to change and be changed. By simply shifting our awareness, we can correct the world and bring about the unity of the nations, to be “as one man with one heart.” All of us without exception are required as Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag writes, “It is certain and unequivocal, that the purpose of creation lies on the shoulders of the whole of the human race, black, white or yellow, without any essential difference” (The Arvut).

Our grace period has an expiration date and we have to hurry up and organize ourselves to bring about closeness among us. It is our task to deliver and make available the method of connection—the wisdom of Kabbalah to the people of Israel, and through them to all the nations of the world. The method of connection will bring about the proper balance of the world, the healing that will make things better.

If we shirk our duty, there is a danger that the current support from some world leaders could give us an exaggerated sense of confidence, and history might repeat itself and strike another blow. We shall not forget that in the past, the Nazi regime initially had pro-Zionist consultants close by who later flipped and became ferocious anti-Semites leading to the Final Solution, as documented here.

The Healing Process

The illusion that we have unwavering supporters is similar to the deadened feelings of a person with a disease who has been given a painkiller. He feels fine even though the disease continues spreading. In the meantime, he lies in bed, talking and laughing with others around him, everyone thinking everything is okay, while he is merely desensitized to the disease festering under the surface toward an irreversible outbreak.

Today we have a breather period where we need to digest the process unfolding in front of our eyes, our role in the process, and act accordingly. We must not simply think that everything is business-as-usual, because nothing will heal that way.

The illness of division is rampant in the body of the people of Israel, and the healing is in exactly the opposite direction, in our unity. The cure is found in the love of the other, in building positive relationships based on the great rule, “Love your friend as yourself.”

The more we internalize and uncover the secret of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the more we will find that we only need to take a small step to bring us closer to a unity above our differences and the relative equality that will safeguard the uniqueness of each individual, while at the same time joining all parts into one.

Therefore, we must not become tired, despair, or give up. Our focus must be on internalizing and passing on the fact that a good life depends on the positive ties between us. Unity is the only remedy to mend ourselves and heal the world.

Happy Hanukkah!
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Cascading of the Upper Forces to Our World

Question: What does sequence of roots that hang down by way of cause and consequence mean?

Answer: There are two states: primary and secondary, cause and consequence. The entire creation is created by such a process of cause and consequence.

We want to reveal creation from the uppermost root, which is the Creator. He is the cause of everything and everything else is His consequence, that is, the gradual cascading of all the laws, qualities to our world, down to each of us. This is the work of the Creator, nature.

The Creator or nature is one and the same, only “nature” is the broader sense of the word, which includes everything.

Question: What does the term “cascading down” mean?

Answer: The Creator is a quality of bestowal, love, and emanation. This is an absolutely good, absolutely complete quality from which emanate all the forces, all the qualities of our world, so that we all are under Him. Therefore, the forces represent the cascading from Him (the Creator) to us.
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From Kab TV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 8/18/19

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