Audio Version Of The Blog – 7/2/20

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio

“Modern Time Plagues” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “Modern Time Plagues

We have not yet recovered from one plague and the next one arrives. A giant dust cloud from the Sahara Desert reached the states along the US Gulf Coast affecting air quality. The phenomenon is not uncommon, but its size and strength is unusual, according to NASA. The record-setting dust storm came at the same time as information of a locust swarm’s invasion in South America, destroying up to 80% of the crops in their path. And all this is happening while the coronavirus pandemic is spreading ever faster. Nature’s signals are unequivocal; we just need to learn how to read them in order to shift from helplessness state to hopefulness.

After long generations of development, nature now requires us to mature and ask ourselves, what we are living for, what is the point of our existence, do we want to continue to carry on with daily life without understanding what we should do, and for what purpose.

We are definitely experiencing times similar to the ten plagues of ancient Egypt. More maladies are forecast to arrive. Without considering the impact of other environmental factors that already put food sufficiency at risk, the UN estimates that the coronavirus crisis alone could double the number of people suffering acute hunger to 265 million globally by the end of this year.

When people face incomprehensible blows and take a surface look at them, end of-time theories emerge. The magnitude and frequency of disasters are certainly perceived as a worrisome “perfect storm” to people. However, such epidemics and other natural calamities occur in order to lead humanity to examine its course of action toward nature and rethink its goals above a mere existential life.

After long generations of development, nature now requires us to mature and ask ourselves, what we are living for, what is the point of our existence, do we want to continue to carry on with daily life without understanding what we should do, and for what purpose. Nature wants us to answer these questions and grow. Until now, we have advanced unconsciously like small children, led by a selfish desire to receive for ourselves, running after futile pleasures to the detriment of others.

The human egoistic approach contradicts the perfect balance of the entire natural system. Therefore, nature pushes us from behind until we become aware and understand the program that controls creation. It is a sort of inner “software of nature” that operates every aspect of our planet. We need to crack that system’s code, penetrate it, and take an active part in managing the entire reality.

Once we understand how this program works, adjusting our attitude toward one another, fixing our relationships, we will positively affect the whole system. Above all natural egoistic tendencies, we must learn to build bonds of connection, consideration, mutual responsibility, and love. By merely thinking in the direction of mutual consideration, all of nature will begin to calm. We will bring balance to all mankind, to the whole earth, and to the entire universe, since thought is the most powerful force in reality.

Thoughts work similar to a magnetic field. We do not see the forces operating behind that field but they exist and influence each other. Likewise, we humans positively affect others through our thoughts about how to increase connection.

Nothing happens by chance or without purpose. The world is enduring tremendous challenges. Even though they are usually perceived as unbearable, we can see their positive side if we realize that these blows help us accelerate the process of connecting. They are aimed at uniting us, at revealing how we depend on each other to survive and prosper. But we should not wait for disasters to awaken the sense of unity among us. By fixing our human relations and our interaction with nature, we will be able to avoid these blows and feel wholeness and benevolence from nature.
[267083]

“Anti-Semitism And Pandemics” (Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “Anti-Semitism and Pandemics

Be it a plague or a war, a flood or an earthquake, a revolution or a financial meltdown, in the end, there is always one culprit: the Jews. In America, too, many already blame COVID-19 on the Jews, as is the case with the riots engulfing the tormented country.

In the 1950s and ’60s, the Jews stood shoulder to shoulder with the blacks in their fight for equal rights. No one remembers and no one gives them credit. Now, too, they stand shoulder to shoulder with the protesters. No one will remember and no one will give them credit.

The Jews donate to various charities and NGOs more money than any ethnic or racial group. But what do people say? “First they stole it, now they’re giving us the crumbs to buy our gratitude.” Of course, not everyone says it, but a great many do, and an even greater many tacitly agrees with them. It’s always been like that and it’ll always be like that until we learn what fundamental flaw we Jews have in our approach.

Jews are the only nation that has ever been tasked with bringing peace and love to the entire world. We gave the world the most altruistic motto ever conceived, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” yet we display the complete opposite of it: internal enmity and odium. We may sympathize with strangers’ pains, but we loathe our own coreligionists. And even though they don’t verbalize it, deep down, this is what Jew haters hate about Jews: that Jews hate each other.

When we became a nation, we were given a task: Unite “as one man with one heart,” and thereby become “a light unto nations.” For centuries, we have been trying everything to avoid our vocation. We talk about morals, ethics, justice, but we refuse to talk about love.

Morals are a miserable surrogate for love. Just as a mother doesn’t need morals to tend to her child because her love guides her, if we cultivate love among us we won’t need morals, and we will treat each other beautifully. Then, and only then will non-Jews say, “Now we respect them.”

Change Your Attitude To The World

laitman_543.02Comment: People tend to use good feelings and altruistic love.

My Response: Indeed, people have this quality. It is clear that they want to use everyone for themselves. But that doesn’t mean we should do the same.

If I want to rise above animal life and not exist only for the number of years that I have been given in this animal body, if I want to reach the level of perception of eternity, perfection, all of nature now, before my body ceases to exist, then I must change my attitude to the world.

Even for purely egoistic reasons, I should do it.

Question: How many years should it take before a person changes his egoism to altruism?

Answer: This depends on the person and the time in which he lives. In our time, it can be quite fast, 5 to 15 years—but these are years! They are still years.

What do you want? Why are they given to us? Imagine that your life is coming to an end. What did you live for? To feel all the good and the bad? And then what?—With no one and not for anyone.

So you need to use the years to achieve exactly the goal with which you remain onward.
[266221]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 4/19/20

Related Material:
How Can You Stop Being An Egoist
How Can We Correct Our Nature?
How To Cure Egoism?

Merging With The Ten

laitman_530Question: The Creator is between us. Do I need to ask the Creator to correct me or to correct the whole ten, the whole world ten? Does the Creator hear me wherever I am or only when I am in the ten?

Answer: The Creator feels the created being only to the extent that he resembles Him.

The Creator’s attribute is bestowal, while a person’s attribute is receiving. In this state, a person does not feel the Creator. We can see that on ourselves.

If a desire to reveal the Creator appears in a person, he can fulfill this desire only if he creates the right conditions for that, such as being in a group and working seriously on the connection with the friends.

If a person unites with the friends in the group, he will begin to feel the Creator through the ten. A person actually feels the connection with the Creator to the extent that he merges with the ten, and not in any other way.
[257902]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 12/1/19

Related Material:
A Group Of Ten As A Tool For Adhesion
A Whole Group Of Ten
A Group And Groups Of Ten

Man—The Violator Of Harmony

laitman_752.2Baal HaSulam, Introduction to The Book of Zohar: We must not ponder the state of rest of the beings in the world besides man, since man is the center of creation, as will be written below in Item 39. All other creatures do not have any value in themselves, but to the extent that they help man achieve his wholeness. Hence, they rise and fall with him without any consideration of themselves.

Question: If the fall and crisis occur at the level of inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature, then this nature falls together with man? Where is the role of man in this? Or is he just in this environment and reaping the benefits?

Answer: Man is in this environment as the organizer of this fall. Nature itself is integral. Its inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels are interconnected and are in perfect harmony.

And man violates this harmony with his egoism. It is him who we must correct and then connect with all of nature in the same general integral picture, to complement each other in peace, in harmony with each other, and with all levels of nature. Nature’s forces push us to this.

If we quickly understand this and do everything we need, then there will be no viruses and no problems. And if we push, inflate, and only indulge our egoism, then nature will inevitably cause all kinds of problems with its sharp reactions.

These problems will show us that we must annul ourselves, unite between us, not abuse nature, which will still lead us to equilibrium but by pressure, crises, and blows.

But I hope that people will nevertheless learn and hear what the wisdom of Kabbalah says about this. And then we really straighten up.
[266477]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 5/10/20

Related Material:
A Person’s Duty
Will Man Become The Crown Of Nature?
Mismatch Of Man With The Integrality Of Nature

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 7/2/20

Lesson Preparation

[media 1] [media 2]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 34 “The Advantage of a Land”

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 36

[media 5] [media 6]

Lesson on the Topic “Connecting the World in the Last Generation”

[media 7] [media 8]

Selected Highlights

[media 9] [media 10]