Audio Version Of The Blog – 10/5/20

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Viruses Emerge From All The Cracks

625.02Gradually we must understand that if we unite, it will be good for us, and if we separate, we will suffer. Everyone must be united into one system, one person. This means that we are rising from our current level, where we live in separation, to the level of one person as one soul, that is, one desire, where all our desires are united above our egoism.

Considering the speed with which the world is now moving day by day in the revelation of evil, we can envision all of humanity in the spiritual space within a year or two. This material world will disappear from our senses because it exists only in our egoistic perception.

While we are in egoism, we only experience this material world, and if we move toward bestowal, we will experience another higher reality. We must enter it.

Nature is simple. If we connect and treat each other well, we will be happy. And if we move away from each other, then viruses, all sorts of problems, troubles, and forces of evil emerge from all the cracks between us. If we get closer together, we do not allow these evil forces to escape, but we keep them inside with restriction and the screen.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/25/20, Shamati #42 “What Is the Acronym Elul in the Work?”

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Holidays—Stages Of The Correction Of The Soul

632.1Rosh Hashanah, Slichot, and Yom Kippur are stages of the correction of the soul. The holidays we celebrate in this world symbolize the actions we need to perform within ourselves that relate to every person on the path of his or her correction.

Anyone who feels the need to correct himself in order to get closer to the Creator, unite, and adhere to Him, tries to perform these actions.

On Yom Kippur, we learn how to distance ourselves from our egoism, from the will to receive for our own sake. Yom Kippur symbolizes restriction: when we do not use anything from our will to receive, which is indicated by the five prohibitions customary on this day: do not drink, eat, wash yourself, and so on.

After restricting this egoistic use of desire, we move on to the next stage and learn to bestow for the sake of bestowal. To do this, we need to make a cover for this desire. The process of correcting the desire, which allows it to perform actions of bestowal, is called Sukkot.

On Yom Kippur, we decided not to use this desire and we did not eat or drink—everything was just “do not do.” Now we are learning how to turn this will to receive into a tool that allows us to start bestowing, performing the action of Bina, of faith. Sukkah, the thatch, Schach, the covering, symbolizes this correction. We want to cover our egoism, our will to receive, because we have already decided that we cannot enter spirituality with it the way it is.

On the other hand, we have nothing but this desire: egoism is everything I am. In what form can the will to receive be used so that the action would be like bestowal? To do this, we need the qualities of Bina, faith.

The Sukkah is the connection between us, the soul we assemble that reaches mutual bestowal and is filled with the light of Hassadim under the shadow of faith. The shadow comes from the cover built over us, a screen, that shows that we do not want to receive anything from the Creator, but we want to be like Him.

On Rosh Hashanah, we decided to follow the path of correction, and on Yom Kippur, we made a restriction. Now we are beginning to build the Kli of Bina, bestowal for the sake of bestowal. And then we will come to a complete Kli that can receive in order to bestow.

We want to reveal the Creator who fills all of reality, to feel Him, to understand Him, and forever to connect with the upper force that controls the entire universe. All of humanity must reach this goal, and then this corporeal world will disappear. All our physical sensations will melt away, and we will rise to the spiritual level, to the true reality where we will exist eternally.

Building a Sukkah is the first stage of the correction of the soul. Ten egoistic desires connect together in mutual bestowal and build a common altruistic force between them so that the Creator can shine the light of Hassadim upon them through their connection. This means that they are in Sukkah.

Then they add more and more to the desire for the sake of bestowal, go out of the Sukkah, and come to receive the light of the sun, that is, the light of Hochma for the sake of bestowal. However, the first stage is reaching the Kli of Bina, faith, bestowal in order to bestow between all the friends and from them to the Creator. This is what the Sukkot holiday is dedicated to.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/30/20, “Sukkot

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Spiritual Work—Easy And Joyful

622.02If we build the spiritual Kli (Sukkah) correctly, then this work will give us only pleasure. If we work together in spirituality, we will only enjoy, we do not need to suffer. If you suddenly feel suffering, it is a sign that our work is not spiritual and we are doing it wrong. It is like the parable about a man who is carrying a heavy suitcase by mistake.

If your load is heavy, then you are carrying the wrong suitcase. You see, the suitcase you must carry is very light. It is so weightless that it is not you who is carrying it. It is carrying you instead. As it is said about the ark of the covenant: “The ark carries its carriers.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/30/20, “Sukkot

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The Commandment Of Forgetfulness

557If we want to maintain the level of faith we have achieved, then everyone must take care of others. After all, no one can be sure that he can preserve something himself, only if “they helped every one his friend.” The only way we can protect each other is by mutual guarantee.

No one is able to protect himself in any way when it comes to spiritual attainment. Having achieved some success, I will lose everything in a moment if my friends do not support me. That is why we need mutual guarantee between us all.

I can’t hold anything because my spiritual vessel is just one point, one pixel. I must be connected to all the other pixels at least in the ten, otherwise it is impossible.

Therefore it is said: “the group or death,” because I will immediately lose everything I have achieved if I remain disconnected from the group. I just don’t have a place, a vessel, or a memory where it can be stored. The spiritual can be preserved only in the, ten Sefirot in the connection between them. We will find out where the collective memory of society is located. It is not in society itself, but in the light.

Therefore, each of us can preserve our gains only if we are connected with others, in the ten, and from it we are connected further. What is outside of me will remain, and what is inside me will disappear, vanish.

And if we are connected to each other, then we should not be afraid to lose what we have achieved. If we care about our connection, then even the loss will only be in order to get something new and more important than before. This is called the “commandment of forgetfulness.” We must forget previous achievements in order to go further. As it is said: “May everything be anew for you every time.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/30/20, “Sukkot

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“Why It Takes Caring To Build A Proper Sukkah” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Why It Takes Caring to Build a Proper Sukkah

Sukkot [Feast of Tabernacles] is one of the most family oriented Jewish festivals. For those who observe it, it is a special experience to sit inside the Sukkah [the festive hut], eat and sing together, and celebrate the family gathering.

But Sukkot also has a profound spiritual meaning, and judging by the coronavirus closure instructions, it seems as though our reluctance to observe it on that level has made us, in a sense, “unworthy” of celebrating it as we are used to. The spiritual meaning of Sukkot has to do with the quality of our relationships.

Like all other Jewish holidays, Sukkot symbolizes a phase in our transition from people who are inclined toward singularity, to people who practice and advocate solidarity. The people of Israel “inaugurated” their nationhood when they committed to love each other “as one man with one heart,” and the Jewish holidays detail the process of achieving this goal.

According to tradition, the sechach, the roof of the Sukkah, must be made of the waste of granary and winery. This waste, the things we toss away, symbolizes the values we naturally rate as less essential for our success in life, for our singularity, namely pro-social values. Traits such as giving, caring, empathy, solidarity, mutual responsibility, and other such values that make social life possible usually come last in our list of priorities, after we have satisfied our personal ambitions, which we never do. However, for solidarity, for creating a solid and sustainable society, they are the most important.

Making the sechach particularly from those usually discarded elements means we invert our values and transform ourselves from self-centered individuals into caring and empathetic people. Putting these values over our heads, so to speak, represents the inversion of our values.

It seems like today these ideals are precisely what we need in order to mitigate the raging anger that has spread throughout society. Perhaps if we adopted these values in our lives year-round, we wouldn’t have to celebrate Sukkot with only our conjugal families.

I wish for all of us to embrace these values of Sukkot so we can make for ourselves a better world, a safer future, and a happier life altogether.

“Is There Truth In An Age Of Fake News?” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Is There Truth in an Age of Fake News?

At a time where every TV channel, news website, and newspaper has a political agenda, can we expect anyone to tell the truth? Even social media are plagued with bias, so what can we ask of mainstream news outlets?

Worse yet, many people who are aware that mainstream outlets tilt the news to fit their political agenda turn toward alternative news sources such as personal blogs and Twitter accounts, and other less familiar social media sites. These sources often publish unchecked information. As a result, rumors and misinformation abound throughout the World Wide Web. So what can one who wants to know the truth about something important do? In truth, not much. As far as the media goes, it is already an all-out war and you simply cannot know what is really happening. The only thing we can be sure of is that fake news is no longer an exception.

We cannot blame the media for warping stories. In doing so, they only service their customers, most of whom do not want the truth, but news that caters to their existing views. Most people only want to reinforce what they already believe about the other side. Therefore, the only way to change the media is to change our attitude toward all parts of society. If we become inclusive, so will the media. If we remain belligerent, the media will keep catering to our attitude. After all, their survival depends on their popularity.

If we are looking for solace in this dismal state, it is that every correction begins with finding the problem. A few years ago, no one even thought that fake news existed, much less considered that it might plague major news outlets. Now that we know it is happening, now that we know we should relate to every news item with a grain of salt, we can begin to look for corrections. Just as in medicine, the first step toward healing is the diagnosis.

However, there is a serious hindrance in our quest for the truth: the absence of an alternative. By alternative, I am not referring to alternative news outlets; those are in abundance. By “alternative,” I am referring to an alternative attitude. People will recognize that fake news is rampant only when they recognize that their attitude toward others is harmful to their own interest. When they begin to seek ways to bridge the hatred that’s plaguing society, they will find that the media is feeding the hatred, and they will force it to balance its reporting.

Just as we embrace and love all parts of nature, the hunters and the hunted, the spring and the fall, so we should treat one another. If intense hatred is revealed, it is a sign that equally intense love will follow. Instead of fearing it, we should embrace the process and help it manifest by hastening the emergence of the love following the hatred. This diversity of states, this dynamic balance is the only true news, and every news source that tells you otherwise, that tries to convince you that only you are right or only you are wrong, is fake news.

In other words, to change the media, we first have to change our own attitude toward others. In consequence, the media will air content that suits our aspiration and will stop vilifying people with other agendas.

There is a good reason why we should change our attitude: There is no one sidedness in reality. Everything has its opposite, without which it could not exist. There wouldn’t be day if there were no night; there wouldn’t be warm if there were no cold; there wouldn’t be love if there were no hate; there wouldn’t be Democrats if there were no Republicans; and there wouldn’t be liberals if there were no conservatives. The existence of one without the other is about as possible as the existence of only one side of a coin. Can you imagine a dime with only the heads and not the tails?

Just as in nature, opposites in human society do not contradict, but complement each other in a dynamic balance. If we could see that our own existence as humans, the definition of who we are as individuals, our values, beliefs, and ethics depend on, and are often defined by those with whom we disagree, perhaps we would be more respectful to each other.

If we really think about it, if we observe both nature and human society throughout history, we will find that they’ve always moved from left to right, from sunset to sunrise, with ebbs and flows, ins and outs, ups and downs, and from hot to cold. These interchanging states have gotten us where we are, made us who we are, and are as eternal as reality itself. They are, in fact, reality.

Just as we embrace and love all parts of nature, the hunters and the hunted, the spring and the fall, so we should treat one another. If intense hatred is revealed, it is a sign that equally intense love will follow. Instead of fearing it, we should embrace the process and help it manifest by hastening the emergence of the love following the hatred. This diversity of states, this dynamic balance is the only true news, and every news source that tells you otherwise, that tries to convince you that only you are right or only you are wrong, is fake news.

“How Do I Get Rid Of The Coronavirus Naturally?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: How do I get rid of the coronavirus naturally?

The remedy for the coronavirus is very simple: positive relations among people neutralize the virus.

We all hold the remedy for this virus in our hearts: by activating positive connections among all of us, coming closer to each other’s hearts, then we will all witness the virus’ disappearance.

It might seem far-fetched, but if we understood how nature is developing us, and what nature expects from us in our current stage of development—that we make moves to positively connect, and by so doing, resemble nature’s interconnectedness—then we would reach balance with nature, and would not experience its influence as negative.

If humanity would somewhat hear and absorb this message, then that would already be a major part of the virus’ cure.

“What Kind Of American President Israel Deserves” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “What Kind of American President Israel Deserves

We Israelis always want the president of America to be pro Israel, and with good reason. For decades, the US has supported Israel in many ways—financially, in the international arena, and in military aid. This support did not come without its price tag, and the US has always had at least a certain amount of control over Israel’s foreign policy, but there is no question that America’s support of Israel has done us a lot of good.

The world looks at Israel with dismay and often with disgust not because of our military conduct, but because of our conduct with each other. If we behave the way Israel should behave, making unity our top value, then whoever is elected on November 3 will be a favorable president toward Israel, as will all other nations. It is said that Jews are smart. I hope that we are smart enough to learn from our past errors so we don’t have to experience another cataclysm in the grief-stricken chronicles of our nation.

In less than a month, America will vote on who will be its president for the next four years. I think this is a good time for us to reflect on what makes us worthy of support. What are we giving to the world? Why did we establish the State of Israel to begin with? Is it only in order to serve as a safe haven after the Holocaust? If this were so, then I’m sure the nations already regret their vote from November 29, 1947 when they supported the establishing of a Jewish state.

I think that to merit support from the American President, and from every other country for that matter, the people of Israel must live up to their name. We may want to be like all other nations, but we are not. We didn’t come from a single clan or tribe; we have no biological or familial affiliation. On the contrary, our forefathers came from clans and tribes from all over the Fertile Crescent, which were often hostile toward each other. These refugees from their own nations became a separate nation since they had the same ideology, the same spiritual idea that unity and love of others must transcend all other values. This is why we began our official nationhood only after we agreed to unite “as one man with one heart.”

We struggled with our commitment to unite all through our years in the desert and we achieved sovereignty only after we achieved unity. When our unity disintegrated, we were exiled to Babylon. When we reunited under Haman’s threat of destruction, we were given Israel once more. But then we started hating each other to the point that we slaughtered and starved one another while the Roman legion sieged the walls of Jerusalem, and that made us unworthy of having a land of our own and we were exiled until now.

After World War II, we were given another chance at sovereignty. But if we don’t rise to the challenge, the nations won’t support us. Unless we find a way to be once more “as one man with one heart,” and set an example of unity to the world, the nations will see no purpose in our being here.

If another vote on the establishment of the State of Israel were done today, does anyone believe that we would receive the required two thirds favorable votes? Regardless of our foreign policy, the nations will condemn us as long as we are an example of belligerence and internal division. The world looks at Israel with dismay and often with disgust not because of our military conduct, but because of our conduct with each other. If we behave the way Israel should behave, making unity our top value, then whoever is elected on November 3 will be a favorable president toward Israel, as will all other nations.

It is said that Jews are smart. I hope that we are smart enough to learn from our past errors so we don’t have to experience another cataclysm in the grief-stricken chronicles of our nation.
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Baal HaSulam—The Channel Of Our Connection With The Creator

216.02The anniversary of the passing away of Baal HaSulam, our teacher, is a special day. This is the soul that connects us with the Creator, the person who opened the gates of the wisdom of Kabbalah for the last generation, in which we live.

Without his teaching, we could not be awarded what we have already received and can still receive in the future. Knowledge, the entire approach, the methodology, and the stages of attainment, all this was prepared for us by Baal HaSulam. Of course, everything comes to us from the Creator but through this great soul.

One of the reasons that the wisdom of Kabbalah (reception) has such a name is that it gets passed on from generation to generation. Every student must have a teacher. Only exceptional individuals with special help from above can directly reach the attainment of the Creator by themselves. Therefore, we must always be connected with the sages who have attained spirituality, the great Kabbalists, so we can advance from generation to generation.

It all depends to what extent a person is able to follow the teacher. Everyone has their own difficulties in this. It is natural because this is how the degrees are arranged from above downward. It is difficult for the lower one to overcome their egoism and connect with the upper one.

In our world, on the animate level, there is no such problem because nature obliges a child to be dependent on adults. However, at the degree of man where you need to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, this is not easy to do. There we need to bow down and maximize the greatness of the teacher in order to learn from him.

Of course, this is not in order to honor the teacher but only for the benefit of the student. If the student feels less than the teacher, he will be able to bow down more and receive from the teacher. In the sciences of this world, this requirement is not so categorical, after all there the student must be critical of the teacher and check him out.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, however, a person cannot attain anything if he does not bow before the Creator. Therefore, as much as he bows down before everything he receives from the teacher, who teaches him from the sources that came from the teachers of all generations, that much attainment he receives. Only in this form can the small one receive from the big one.

Therefore, we need to understand what an exceptional and great man Baal HaSulam was. We must accept all his works and legacy without any criticism, then we can hope that we will begin to connect with his soul and receive through him the upper force from the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/19, “Baal HaSulam Memorial Day”

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