Michael 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.

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Question: 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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Uprising 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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Chosen 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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Combination of Two Qualities

Question: Why couldn’t the methodology be immediately passed on to all nations? After all, the Creator, nature, can do anything.

Answer: No, this is not done at the will of the Creator. We think that the Creator is the supreme being who chooses and creates according to His will. But this is not so.

The Creator is the upper force of nature, which, being in complete bestowal, connection, and love, builds something completely different form for itself—matter, which is in receiving, discord, and hatred. By combining these two qualities, by discovering their opposites and combining them, the creatures will be able to reveal the Creator.

Everything comes from the quality of reception and the quality of bestowal. As they start to be combined with each other, they form a huge system of mutually opposite and overlapping connections. This is exactly what we have.

Question: In modern terms, does natural selection occur?

Answer: I would not say that this is selection because nothing is selected or pushed off here, but just the gradual combining of two opposite qualities, reception and bestowal. There is nothing except for these two.

Remark: Historians say that several hundred thousand years ago on Planet Earth, there were about 20 species of people at the same time. One of them survived—this is the Homo Sapiens (intelligent man). Nature has made it so that they had the opportunity to cooperate.

My Comment: This is all built on inner desires that are in the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human states.

In a person or group of people, a desire is manifested, and they behave according to it. We see how people act. Only according to some of their own inner motives.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel,” 7/22/19

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How to save a marriage?

Question: It is known that one of the reasons for divorce is the selfishness of spouses. In the process of studying Kabbalah, egoism increases in both husband and wife. How can they avoid divorce with the inevitable growth of egoism under the influence of the upper world?

Answer: They should always help each other in spite of any disagreements.

The spouses understand that everything that happens between them is the egoism of everyone, which is very difficult to fight. It is difficult to endure so many years of living together with adult children or even grandchildren. Therefore, we must somehow adjust ourselves to the fact that their marriage is for life. No more options.

After all, if you have children first in one family, then in the second, in a third, then you make the children miserable. They will never forgive you for this. The child whom you left for another family will still feel that you have betrayed him. We must be prepared for the fact that you stay for life with this child. Not with your wife, with whom, perhaps, you would gladly part with, but with the children whom you brought with her.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/8/20

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The three lines are the core of the work of Malchut, the desire that builds itself in the likeness of the Creator. The right line is bestowal, the left line is receiving, and the middle line is their union in similarity with the Creator.

Question: We can say that the left line is my natural desire. The right line is a force that is outside of me that I must summon upon myself. When they merge with each other, do you get the third line?

Answer: There are many different types of middle line. That is one of them.

Question: In Kabbalah, there is also the term “12 tribes.” When speaking of the 12 tribes, everyone begins to imagine some people divided into tribes. From the Kabbalistic point of view, are we talking about three lines multiplied by the four-letter HaVaYaH, which ultimately gives 12?

Answer: Yes. It is the most complete HaVaYaH: four stages, three lines in each, which makes up the 12 tribes or a special kind of work of creation.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 6/17/19

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Question: Can a person be in a Klipa (shell) for a long time and mistakenly think that he is advancing, that he is corrected and that only his way is the right way? How can I help myself or a friend in such a situation?

Answer: If you are members of a group that studies only from Kabbalistic sources like The Book of Zohar, the writings of the Ari, Baal HaSulam, and Rabash, and perhaps even my books since they are based on the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, you really do study the wisdom of Kabbalah.

By studying these sources together with a group, you advance correctly and consistently and you will surely reach the goal.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/26/20

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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 22

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

Selected Highlights

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