My Thoughts On Twitter 6/1/20

Dr Michael Laitman Twitter

The Torah is not a book, but light. The Creator: “I have created the ego and the Torah for its correction, for the light in the Torah corrects the ego and makes people better.” The Torah is a system of drawing the upper light—the energy that corrects man, taking him from love of self to the level of love of all, altruism.

Today we are in a state of “standing before Mount Sinai” (Sinai means Sina, hatred). We’re beginning to understand that the ego is hatred toward others, that is, stands between us and prevents us from normal existence. We must stop using it, and instead turn it to good. That is why we were given the Torah.

Shavuot, the celebration of the giving of the Torah. It symbolizes the Torah’s revelation in the world, i.e., the bond between the Creator and humankind. ~3500 years ago the Creator revealed Himself to a group of people who wished to rise out of the ego (Egypt, Mitz-raim, concentration of evil) and into the quality of love and bestowal (Isra-el, straight to the Creator).

On Shavuot, we celebrate acquiring a connection with the Creator that allows us to rise out of this life, its lack of sense and purpose, above the animal existence. There’s no greater celebration than the Giving of the Torah, for everything begins from there! If not for this, our life would be wasted!

The Torah enables us to rise above our lives and attain the upper force, enter eternity, perfection, the upper dimension, based on bestowal rather than reception. Our world exists inside egoism, reception. The spiritual world lives for the sake of bestowal and is therefore eternal and perfect.

Giving of the Torah took place after the nation of Israel came out of Egypt, meaning after escaping the ego-intention and crossing the Final Sea, signifying separation from the ego and entry into the Sinai desert, where hatred (Sinah) is revealed between altruistic and egoistic desires

The commandment of love for the neighbor as for oneself includes all commandments, meaning all corrections that a person must perform in his ego-desire, in order to bring it to bestowal and become righteous. Inside of this love for people, he attains love for the Creator.
This is the Giving of the Torah.

Rabbi Akiva, the great sage of the 2nd Temple, “Love your neighbor as yourself is the general rule of the whole Torah,” its essence. The Torah was given to attain love for people. To receive the Torah, one must WISH to receive it! Studying Torah means learning how to love others. Are you ready for this? Do you really want it?

Nature knows no mercy. It is a system of laws, so if we don’t react today and answer nature’s demands, more powerful forces will come that will compel us to work on our correction, until we raise the connection in our society to the same level of integrality as all the other levels of nature.

The #quarantine is leading to unrest and tension in the society, which may result in an economic #crash. The pandemic is stripping the world of stability and security. If we don’t mend our relationships, we won’t solve the problem at its root—and then we won’t escape crises in all things, for we are bound by total dependence!

Medicine against the virus won’t help in our interactions—nature will demand of us an integral connection. It will force us to organize good connections between us. Only then will we be able to interact with one another, run businesses, profit from each other on the basis of our goodwill rather than greed!

Following the #coronavirus, the reshaping of society will begin. Redundant professions will disappear. People will be earning without working. The service industry will almost fully disappear! Only 10% of the population are required for the #economy!

#Governments will be forced to feed the other 90%! So we should hurry and change the foundations of society, lest we experience unrest and #wars.
#UBI

Hillel (Ancient sage. Shabbat Treatise 31:1): “The whole Torah comes down to, ‘What you hate, do not do to others.’ The rest is all commentary!” That is, all the commandments are intended to explain the execution of the commandment, “Love your friend as yourself.” Because in this one achieves adhesion with the Creator.

Rabbi Akiva: “Love your friend as yourself” (Vayikra, 19:18) is the general (klal) rule of the Torah (B.R. 24:8). “General” indicates parts that form the rule. In other words, all 612 commandments of the Torah are the sum of the rules that make up the one commandment “Love your friend.” All of the Torah is given in order to achieve it.
From Twitter, 6/1/20

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When Hatred Tramples Fear

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 6/1/20

Hatred has overcome modern day Babylon. All over America, stores are looted and burnt, cars are torched, places of worship are vandalized, and people are beaten and shot. Who cares about the coronavirus now? When hatred sets in, fear is trampled, as is reason.

But if there is anything we should have learned from the virus, it is that we are all in this together. You cannot hurt another human being without being hurt yourself. We are living in a circular system, and what goes around comes around, invariably. If America does not wake up very soon, it will fade into the dust of history, as did Babylon and all other great nations of the past.

But America is not gone yet. Its numerous ethnicities are its biggest bane, but also its biggest boon, provided the nation rises to the challenge. For centuries, America has been unable to create equilibrium among blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics, or Native Americans. It tried harder than any other nation in history, but the chasms are too deep.

Now that the fantasy of evenness has been shattered, America must take the only possible alternative: let the differences be, and leverage their benefits. Now is the time to comprehend that hurting Americans means hurting America, that America is all its ethnicities, faiths, races, and colors, and without one of them, it wouldn’t be America.

Rising above differences in order to create a greater whole, a greater America, may not be what every American wants. But what is the alternative? The only option for America today is to find unity above the rifts and make America an example of courage to unite above hatred. Make the world see how people can make peace among themselves if they truly want to. Babylon, too, was overcome by hatred. Now we’ve come full circle and today’s Babylon also consists of countless fragments, which will either disassemble themselves and perish, or rise above their hatred and be the world’s beacon of hope for peace.

[Photo by Julian Wan on Unsplash]

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Shavuot—The Holiday Of Finding A Connection With The Creator

laitman_744A special holiday is coming – Shavuot, the holiday of the giving of the Torah. It symbolizes the revelation in the world of the Torah to us, that is, the connection between the Creator and people.

This happened about three and a half thousand years ago, in the Sinai Desert, near Mount Sinai. Such symbols exist in our world because each spiritual root is obliged to touch its material branch.

This holiday is significant in that a person receives a connection with the upper force. Otherwise, we would remain animals that exist aimlessly on Planet Earth, which is rushing somewhere in a lifeless space.

And now we can connect with the very force that created the universe, the globe, and the people on it, and that launched the entire process of evolution. We can find out what is behind this process, what are the forms of relations between us and the higher power.

Shavuot is a great holiday because we celebrate gaining connection with the Creator, which allows us to rise from this life, from its aimlessness and meaninglessness, above this animate existence. There is no holiday bigger than the giving of the Torah; everything starts with it! If it weren’t for it, our lives would be in vain.

We would remain ordinary animals born in order to live and die. The Torah gives us the opportunity to rise above our lives, comprehend a higher power, and enter eternity, perfection, another dimension that is based on bestowal, not reception.

Our world exists only within egoism, reception, and the spiritual world exists for the sake of bestowal; therefore, it is eternal and perfect. Thanks to this means, which is called the Torah, we have the opportunity to rise from the lower world to the higher one.

Therefore, we celebrate Shavuot, in which there are not many symbols: white clothes and dairy food are symbols of bestowal. Those are all the characteristics of this holiday.

According to history, the giving of the Torah occurred after the people of Israel left Egypt, that is, after fleeing from the selfish intention and crossing the Red Sea (Yam Suf), which meant breaking off from egoism and entering the Sinai Desert, the place where hatred (Sinaa) between altruistic and egoistic desires is revealed.

And then a person faces a mountain of doubts. Har (mountain) comes from Hirhurim (doubts). How many objections we have against the desire for bestowal is revealed to us and we need to work on them. Therefore, we shout: “Where is the tool that will allow us to achieve bestowal? We do not have such strength!”

Then we get a power from above called “the upper light,” “Torah,” that is, “light” (Ohr), “program,” “technique” (Ora’a). Thus, we begin to develop purposefully.

Until now we are making correction after correction in our egoism, generation after generation, until we come to the end of correction. All this is possible thanks to the hidden power of the Torah, which is called “the light that returns to the source,” the highest light of correction.

In the days of this holiday there is a special power in the world. And if we study it together, it will move us forward.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/20, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]“

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“What Is Shavuot?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What is Shavuot?

Shavuot is the celebration of the giving of the Torah.

The Jewish holidays, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, mark significant stages in our spiritual path, i.e., in our transformation from our inborn egoistic selves to our spiritual, altruistic selves, above the human ego.

Specifically on Shavuot, we receive the name “Israel.”

The word “Israel” stems from two words, “Yashar Kel” (“straight to God”). It refers to a state when we are granted the method to attain the Creator, the quality of love and bestowal, through our free will.

If we do not use this method, then we will instead develop involuntarily to that goal through many indirect paths, much suffering and pressuring forces.

Becoming the people of Israel means that we ourselves decide that we truly want to attain the Creator, i.e., to attain relations of love and bestowal among each other, and act as if we ourselves implement such connections, without waiting for the Creator to give us such an ability.

Our efforts to achieve positive relations draw a positive response, which eventually grants us the ability to understand, feel and attain the Creator.

The Creator operates on us whether we attain Him or not. However, when we attain Him, we understand how He works, want Him to act through us, and precede His actions on us with our longing for Him.

In addition, when we discuss “the giving of the Torah” and our “reception of the Torah,” we need to understand that our engagement in the Torah has nothing to do with delving into the words of a written text.

Engaging in the Torah means increasing our unity, prioritizing unity above every divisive drive we feel, as King Solomon put it (Proverbs, 10:12): “Hate stirs strife, and love covers all crimes.”

It is written about engaging in the Torah meaning increasing unity in more places…

“Obtainment of the Torah is primarily through unity, as in the verse, ‘And Israel encamped there before the mount,’ ‘as one man with one heart,’ and there their filth (evil inclination) ceased.” In Parashat Emor, the book continues, “During the days of the [omer] count, a person should correct the quality of unity, and by this one is rewarded with obtainment of the Torah on the festival of Shavuot, as it is written, ‘And they journeyed from Refidim and came to the Sinai desert, and Israel encamped there before the mount.’ RASHI interpreted that they were all in one heart as one man and this is why they were rewarded with the Torah.” – Maor Vashemesh (Parashat Yitro).

“The root of mutual responsibility extends primarily from the reception of the Torah, when all of Israel were responsible for one another. This is so because at the root, the souls of Israel are regarded as one, for they derive from the origin of the unity. For this reason, all of Israel were responsible for one another upon the reception of the Torah.” –Likutey Halachot (Assorted Rules), chapter “Hilchot Arev” (“Rules of Guarantee”).

“It is impossible to observe Torah and Mitzvot (commandments),” meaning receive the light that transforms egoism into love of others, “unless through mutual responsibility, when each one is responsible for his friend. For this reason, each one should include himself with the whole of Israel in great unity. Hence, at the time of the reception of the Torah, they immediately became responsible for one another, for as soon as they want to receive the Torah they must merge as one in order to be included in the desire. …Thus, specifically by each being responsible for his friend, they can observe the Torah. Without this, it would have been impossible to receive the Torah whatsoever.” – Likutey Halachot (Assorted Rules), chapter “Hoshen Mishpat,” (“The Book Writes [Rule No. 3]”).

“Why Do Many Jews Eat Dairy Products During The Shavuot Holiday?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Why do many Jews eat dairy products during the Shavuot holiday?

Consuming dairy products during Shavuot is a symbol of love.

White symbolizes light, which is the pure force of love and giving.

Put simply, if we relate to each other out of love, we attract a positive response into our lives and progress to the discovery of a perfect world.

“What Is Part Of The Time Between Passover And Shavuot Thought To Be?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What is part of the time between Passover and Shavuot thought to be?

“And by the exodus from Egypt they received the level of faith…and after Passover, the purifying work begins in preparation for the receiving of the Torah. And when the Torah is dressed in a person’s soul, this is the time of Shavuot, the time of the giving of our Torah.” (Kabbalist Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag [Rabash], “Letter 52”)

Passover marks the end of the time of slavery in Egypt.

Our slavery in Egypt means that we feel problems stemming from the ego to make us want to disconnect from it and elevate ourselves upon it, and identify with the quality of love and giving.

In the process, we renew our efforts to rise above the ego time after time with the help of a supportive environment, i.e., others who share a similar desire to be above the ego and who support each other to do so.

The effort to rise above the ego is the work in Egypt. After we realize the full extent of that work, we receive a positive response to the effort: a force that emerges and corrects us.

That state is called Passover.

It is a significant correction on our spiritual path.

Passover, however, is only one stage toward our full correction. It marks the elevation above our ego.

Afterward, the time between Passover and Shavuot, designated by a count of 49 days, marks a time of disconnecting ourselves from our ego and rising to a level called “Bina,” a state of absolute giving, where there is no egoistic involvement whatsoever.

Shavuot marks the next correction, the full extent of the force we receive from Bina that lets us connect our ego with the force of correction, the force of the Torah. That is, at Shavuot, we don’t merely rise above the ego, as we do in Passover. At Shavuot, we gain the ability to connect our ego with the force of the Torah, which lets us use our ego in a corrected way.

Of course, such an explanation of the time between Passover and Shavuot relates only to the spiritual meaning of the holidays, as described by the wisdom of Kabbalah, which explains that the holidays are states on our spiritual path that we can feel at any moment we apply the necessary efforts to enter such states. See the links in my Quora bio for more info about how to get started with Kabbalah study.

Nations Of The World And A Point In The Heart

laitman_944Question: Is there a proportional dependence of our qualitative unification and the opening of a point in the heart in some of the nations of the world?

Answer: I would not say that there is such a division of the nations of the world when first one nation reveals a point in the heart, then the second, and then the third one. I can see this even in our groups.

Today in virtual communication with us there are Germany, Bulgaria, Israel, Vienna, Yoshkar-Ola, Petersburg, Almaty, Azerbaijan, Holland, Czechoslovakia, Moscow, many friends from Africa, North and South America, etc. I do not think it depends on skin color or nationality.

And even people who have already revealed Kabbalah and study with us generally perceive it in the same way. Therefore, it cannot be said that “points in the heart” will first arise in one nation, then in the second, and then in the third one. This happens in waves depending on the development of people. The Creator’s light affects them and highlights one or another person.

If you take a large mechanism, then all its points are connected. For example, all parts of a human body constantly interact, although they are not located next to each other and there seems to be no special connection between them. But feedback exists anyway, and each organ is activated through the inclusion of other organs. After all, this is an integrated circuit, parts of which are completely dependent on each other. Therefore, I do not support any conspiracy theories that say, this nation will reveal the Creator more quickly, and that one more slowly, especially in our time.

A long time ago in Ancient Babylon, there lived all nations of the world, each of which numbered several dozen people. Then from all the Babylonians a united group emerged, which began to strive for the Creator. It exists to this day, although many have dropped from it.

Several hundred people have remained from that group—those who today feel a craving for revelation of the Creator, and the rest turned into ordinary earthlings. And today the reverse process is taking place.

In the Torah it is written that the time of Messiah will come, of the last generation, when all the Babylonians will gradually awaken again in order to move to the Creator. This is what we are observing.

Just as the movement toward the Creator once appeared in a group of Babylonians, so it is happening today. Therefore, everyone will rush to Him, no matter who and how. In no case should we think that now it will be Finland, then Poland, and then Czechoslovakia, Germany, or Azerbaijan. Whatever will be, will be.

I am very glad that people are beginning to feel that the science of Kabbalah is talking about the soul, about their spiritual development. I hope that their studies of Kabbalah will promote the development of both their states and their nations.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/22/20

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From Babylon To Rome, Part 8

laitman_746.03Uprising Against Unrest Between the People

Question: In the 3rd century BC, the Egyptian King Philadelphus invited the Jewish sages to translate the Torah into Greek. That is how the Bible came about. Before that, the sages told the king how to rule correctly, what the relationships between people should be like. In fact, he took their idea and wanted to bring it to life in his empire.

But after the Jews themselves began to assimilate and adopt the laws of their neighbors, the king’s followers changed their minds. In particular, Antiochus IV Epiphanes from the Seleucid dynasty first issued a decree on respect for the Temple and the way of life of the Jews, but when they began to adopt the traditions of the Hellenists, a confrontation arose that led to the revolt of the Maccabees.

Interestingly, the Maccabees’ war was not waged with the Greeks, but with the Hellenistic Jews.

Who are they? And why was the war waged against its own people?

Answer: The fact is that among the Jews there appeared to be a huge number of people who advocated adherence to Greek philosophy, ideology, world-view, and societal structure.

Question: So is this where the unrest between the people emerged?

Answer: Only here! It was always exclusively between the people. This is how the saying came about: Leave the Jews alone and they will destroy themselves.

Thus, the departure of the Jews from their ideology laid the foundation for anti-Semitism. If we are disconnected, this law is activated and we cause hatred toward ourselves. A good attitude toward us turns bad.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel,” 7/8/19

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laitman_430Chosen by God and the Roots of Anti-Semitism

Question: As soon as Jews begin to settle into life in any country, their development goes through four periods. First, there is prosperity, then there is hatred toward them from the side of local residents, then physical destruction and exile. Is this how nature mixes all the nations?

Answer: No. This is how nature helps all nations, through the Jews, to become sensitive to the process of spiritual globalization. It is in this way that we can ultimately reach a state where we truly become one common whole and all the peoples of the world will be internally completely interconnected. This is considered as being “a light to the nations of the world.”

Question: Is this what it means to be chosen by God?

Answer: Yes. God’s chosen people are to become the light for the nations of the world, to tell them that connection over egoism is humanity’s common goal so that we will achieve perfection and shift to another state of existence. While we fail to do so, we see such an irrational attitude toward Jews around the world.

Remark: Of course, one can disagree that anti-Semitism is a law of nature, but one cannot disagree with the fact that this is a mysterious and irrational phenomenon. No matter how many innovations Jewish people try to give to other nations in the fields of medicine, astronautics, the Internet (Google, Facebook), etc., nothing changes.

My Comment: This will not help. Jews gave the world, naturally, much more than any nations that are tens or even hundreds of times more in quantity. This is not the case.

The fact is that disgust, hostility, and hatred of these people comes from a spiritual principle. We must, as a chosen nation, show people that our quality of being chosen is in our positive connection, and teach others to do so. And they are ready to accept it, if only we wish to teach them.

Question: Do the roots of anti-Semitism rest in the fact that the Jews do not fulfill their mission, do not transfer the methodology of connection to other nations? People who hear this may disagree with us.

Answer: It does not matter. The main thing is what they hear. Then they will see it in life.

Question: I would not agree if it were not mentioned in many sources. Maybe people interpret them differently?

Answer: It does not matter how it is interpreted; the main thing is that nature still does everything as it should.
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From Kab TV’s “Systematic analysis of the development of the people of Israel,” 7/15/19

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