Fasting—Restriction Of The Egoism

Question: During the second Babylonian exile, the Persians conquered Babylon and created a vast Persian Empire. It is interesting to know what happened to the Jewish people there.

Baal HaSulam, Shamati, #144, “There Is a Certain People”: “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples.” Haman said that in his view, we will succeed in destroying the Jews because they are separated from one another; hence, our force against them will certainly prevail, as it causes separation between man and God. And the Creator will not help them anyway, since they are separated from Him.

Haman, the embodiment of the egoistic force, put everyone on their knees except Mordechai. Mordechai declared that he was Yehudi [Jewish], from the word Yichud [unity/union], meaning striving to unite with the Creator, and thus refused to obey Haman. Enraged, Haman decided to destroy all the Jews.

Then Queen Esther asks everyone to fast, and the Creator helps them and they win.

What is fasting? And how is it related to connection or separation?

Answer: Fasting is a certain rejection of all the values that people are used to in their lives. This is not the same as on the corporeal level: I am fasting today, so I am refusing to eat or drink.

Fasting means that everything that represents my life becomes absolutely prohibited for me. I see it as completely unnecessary, non-existent; I refuse everything I used to live by, all the values that I held high; I completely distance myself from my previous ideals. I re-evaluate my whole life.

During this time, I must transition to a completely new level of existence. If I were used to enjoying life and all it has to offer, now it is to the contrary, I immerse myself into internal scrutiny: Who am I, what is all this for, etc.? Meaning, I restrict my egoism.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel,” 7/8/19

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New Life 1215 – Coronavirus, Children’s Questions
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi

Do you want to be the cause of the revelation of the force of goodness in the world, like Superman? The future of the world depends on each of us. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to have consideration for others, thereby saving the world from all disasters. Humans are destroying nature and humanity by creating imbalance in the system. The Coronavirus appeared as a result of our hatred for one another. The virus will disappear and the quarantine will end when we treat each other correctly and become an integral and beneficial part of nature. Anyone who changes helps others acquire the strength to treat everyone well.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1215 – Coronavirus, Children’s Questions,” 3/24/2

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “Concerning Above Reason” 

Selected Highlights

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/23/20

Various pundits are pointing to consumerism as the reason for the destruction of nature, which eventually led to the appearance of the coronavirus and other menaces. They are advocating the idea that we should stop shopping and return to what they call “sustainable” living.

I don’t think it’s natural, and certainly not sustainable to live the way our forefathers lived eons ago. Human nature requires(!) pleasures. We aren’t only animals; we are also humans, and humans have many desires that animals don’t. Needs for entertainment, shopping, or traveling are not luxuries. We really do need them. The problem is not with the desires but with how we use them, and mainly, for what!

We’re all part of one, interconnected system. Everything we do that coincides with our interconnectedness helps us, and everything we do that contradicts our interconnectedness hurts us. If I buy something in order to strengthen my connection with another person, it’s good for me. If I buy that same thing in order to show it off and make others feel bad, it’s bad for me. So the problem is not with our actions, but with our intentions!

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My article in Newsmax: “Are We Going Back to Normal?”

Nature is doing its job—we just need to support it and the world will heal from the coronavirus pandemic.

People stand and cheer for healthcare workers outside Mount Sinai West Hospital at 7pm on Manhattan’s Upper West Side during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York City, New York, U.S., April 13, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

One thing we have certainly learned from the coronavirus quarantine is that nature could live peacefully without our interference. As countries begin to consider lifting the lockdowns imposed to avoid further contagion, we see unequivocal signs of the planet’s ecological recovery. Nature is a master teacher, now it is our turn to become exemplary students, pass the difficult test handed to us, and advance a grade by improving the relationship between us and the environment.

“As people stopped commuting and traveling, the Earth’s surface vibrated less,” reads a recent National Geographic article which explains how the coronavirus has “quieted” the world with the measures to curb the pandemic, thus reducing seismic noise. It puts in perspective the tremendous impact of humans on nature for better or worse.

Since COVID-19 pushed the world’s pause button, satellite images released by NASA show a significant reduction in toxic emissions and pollution in America. The air is dramatically cleaner in big cities across the globe, the chirping of birds has replaced the unbearable metropolis noise, and animals reclaim their habitats penetrating the big cities. One obvious conclusion is that instead of man’s hectic race to manipulate the world, it is much better when we sit quietly and allow nature to breathe, recover itself, and bloom.

Our attempts to control others out of pride, and particularly, our predatory behaviors toward each other, have brought despair and affliction upon us. However, humankind has the ability to consciously make a change. The first step toward change is awareness. Otherwise, it is impossible to fix something that we just assume works well.

Flattening the Negativity Curve about the Future

If we stop producing, acquiring, and accumulating the unnecessary stuff that is choking the planet, if we discuss and internalize what really matters in life and invest more time in nurturing good and healthy relationships, we will stop feeling that life is a dead-end road and our future will seem brighter and clearer.

Like never before, we are on the verge of a historic breakthrough. As humanity impatiently awaits the reopening of society and businesses, we should not become nostalgic about the past. Returning to what we call “normal” would be returning to the abnormal state that constantly left us unfulfilled, chasing unrealistic goals, and immersed in exhausting competition to succeed at all cost. However, since the old, egoistic patterns have proven themselves unworkable, it is worthwhile to look forward to welcome change, instead of backward. Ultimately, the current crisis has come to raise us and all of creation to a higher level of existence, so we would be wise to flow with the harmonious power of nature and allow it to heal us.

How do we ensure that we do not derail our trajectory toward a renewed and rehabilitated world? We will stay on the right track if we realize that nature is whole and round, where all its elements must be connected in one integral system in which they support and complement each other.

Humanity needs to replicate this pattern and move in sync with nature by gradually refraining from treating one another badly. We must understand that we constitute a delicate system in which each person depends on the other and we need to constantly strengthen social cohesion. This is the formula of nature for a wonderful and balanced existence, one that is complete and eternal. Thus, it is precisely from this enormous coronavirus crisis that we can flatten pessimism about the future and raise the curve of the positive new life.

— Published on April 16, 2020
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Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”: It is known that the end of the act is in the preliminary thought. Before one begins to think about how to build a house, one contemplates the apartment in the house, which is the purpose. Subsequently, one examines the blueprint to make it suitable for this task.

So it is with our matter. Once we have learned about the purpose, it is also clear to us that all the conducts of Creation, in its every corner, inlet, and outlet, are completely prearranged for the purpose of nurturing the human species from its midst, to improve its qualities until it can sense the Creator as one feels one’s friend.

These ascensions are like rungs of a ladder, arranged degree-by-degree until it is completed and achieves its purpose.

Baal HaSulam considers descents to be identical to ascents, as it is said, we increase in holiness and do not decrease in holiness. Our whole path from the beginning to the end of creation is a continuous ascent. It is identical for everyone even for those who are not very successful, those who are lucky, those who feel these levels, and those who do not feel them.

We ascend continuously. We come closer to the end of correction at every moment, and although we advance slower than we could and very often we feel descents instead of ascents, these feelings are totally subjective. In fact, in absolute terms, we are constantly advancing.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/12/20

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Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”: “This wisdom is no more and no less than a sequence of roots, which hang down by way of cause and consequence, by fixed, determined rules, interweaving to a single, exalted goal described as ‘the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures in this world.’”

The wisdom of Kabbalah is intended for the created beings in this world in order to guide them to the attainment of the Creator according to absolute, fixed laws, which gradually lead people to His attainment, feeling, perception, and eventually to adhesion with Him, which means to the complete revelation of the Creator.

And who is the Creator? He is the highest, general, integral force of nature, which includes all of creation.

This is the reason why understanding this state enables us to understand what is actually going on and to respond correctly to what the Creator, nature, is doing with us and what we can do with it.

By implementing the wisdom of Kabbalah, we can see our participation in creation, in nature. After all, Kabbalah is the science of nature, of everything that was created, including the root, that is, the Creator.

This means that studying this science, especially in our times, is indeed essential. This is what our evolution pushes us toward, and it happens through a constant increase of suffering and lack of understanding in order to force us to know the Creator, to reveal Him, to understand how crucial it is for us to be in contact with Him.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/26/20

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The structure of the soul consists of four parts. Therefore, the following condition that passes through a person after the intrauterine development of the soul is a division into certain parts, the so-called TANTA: Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin, Otiot or Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin (Tifferet), and Malchut.

The main thing is that these stages, like the four stages of direct light, initially build us according to the levels of Aleph, Bet, Gimel, and Dalet. Thus, the desire derives from the light, i.e., from the property of the Creator, and the property of creation develops through four stages, the desire to receive comes from the desire to give.

Similarly, in the four stages at each level in each segment, the so-called four-letter changes occur called Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin, and Otiot. They are manifested onto every smallest desire, both onto desires that are joined together and onto those that combine together in one spiritual Kli (desire).

That is, the law is simple, a four-stage distribution, formation, and creation of desire. We can track the same thing in our world on inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels of nature. Each of these levels is divided into its four stages.

Therefore, when we develop spiritually, we will surely go through all four stages on our desire, which gradually begins to create and grow us through internal division. In principle, as it happens in a human embryo it also happens within us.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 2/16/20

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Question: Chaim Vital wrote that in order to ascend the spiritual worlds where you will feel the influence and the reality of the Creator, you need to completely remove all thoughts and imaginations that we receive from our animalistic nature. How can we properly conduct workshops during a spiritual ascent?

Answer: You do not need to conduct workshops during a spiritual ascent or during a spiritual descent. You must be connected to your ten as much as possible in both states. And there is nothing else to do. Be within your ten to the maximum, and you will succeed correctly.

Our methodology is very simple: you need to identify yourself in your connection with the rest of the ten. You will find a field between you and your friends there. It will turn into an understanding of the upper world, and the sensation of the Creator will appear in it. And so it will end: you, the group (field), and the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/1/20

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