Question: When I studied at MAK online, [Bnei Baruch’s Russian Education Center] I decided for myself that I should stay away from all the material problems of a friend, because this could hurt my spiritual progress.

But at the congress some kind of connection was awakened between us, a greater involvement in each other. For example: I got a headache, and a friend was already poking around in his pocket and giving me a pill. But at the next meeting, I was ashamed to look in his direction, awkward, I felt obliged to him.

What is the role of such expressions of caring and concern between friends in spiritual advancement?

Answer: You must reach a state where you will not be uncomfortable with one another. On the contrary, it will bring you together completely unselfishly, without any calculations. I gave a friend the opportunity to help me, and I am very happy about this. I am glad that I have such friends who immediately felt that I needed their help.

There is no giver and receiver here. Everyone gives and everyone receives. That is how one should strive to consider such states.

In the general network of relations between us, there are no states at all when I give to you, but you don’t give to me, or I receive, but you don’t, because both bestowal and reception are absolutely equivalent, one and the same. When I give, by that I receive. A friend gives me the opportunity to give to him. Maybe you give him a pill or something else, but in fact you receive from him. This is partly what you felt in your relationship at the congress.

There is no such thing: I receive or I give. These are all actions for the mutual connection between us. In an integral connection, the actions themselves have no meaning. What matters is only the construction of this absolute network, when all the strings of communication, and there are an infinite number of them, get aligned and are transformed. And on this level the quality of the Creator reigns.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/1/20

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How does fate lead two people to marriage?

Question: Who is a woman for a man and vice versa, a man for a woman in the spiritual? How do they identify each other? Are there any patterns in family and spiritual life?

Answer: Do not think about it. There are certain spiritual conditions between husband and wife, but nothing more. There is no need to consider everyone else.

Question: But still there are some active interactions provided for between the spouses?

Answer: Yes, of course. We do not just meet and get married. Although sometimes we make a lot of all kinds of mistakes, however, if we conceive children, then this is already a family. And then, in accordance with this, the score is already relative to the relationship between a man and a woman.

Question: If there are no accidents, how is the combination of souls for the needs of their correction connected with how fate brings two people to marriage?

Answer: It seems to you that fate, who is allegedly blindfolded, leads you and pulls one out of the crowd, the other out of the crowd, and brings them together. Nothing like this!

These are all spiritual forces that act in accordance with the initial state of breaking up the soul and with the final state of uniting all the broken parts together. Between these two states, all the souls go through their rearrangements, combining, combining, and giving birth to children and so on. All this happens gradually, until we come to the general correction.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/8/20

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Question: Is this game a socially based principle both in our world and in a person’s spiritual work? Do I have to understand what the goal is I’m heading toward, take certain principles, and use them in this game?

Answer: Yes, otherwise it is impossible without the playing.

Even plants have the principle of the game, only we do not notice it. In the animal world we see clearly how small animals play with each other, otherwise they don’t develop. Their parents understand this, give them the opportunity to play, and treat this play with great patience.

As for us, we naturally know that a person can be developed through playing. There is no other way! Therefore, we use all the elements of the game. See how many different toys we invent just so our children can develop.

The same goes for Kabbalah. Kabbalah opens up a whole new world for us in which a person must develop spiritually from scratch, no matter who the person is in our world. This may be a thirty or forty-year-old person, in one’s prime, a scientist, wise, but absolutely undeveloped in spirituality. Therefore, we invent all kinds of actions that can develop this person. First and foremost, these are the actions that take place in a group.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/25/19

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “The Approach to Studying the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 

Lesson on the Topic “Concerning Above Reason” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 25

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

Selected Highlights

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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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From 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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A 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 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/20, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]“

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Michael 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]”).

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Michael 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.

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