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First Steps In Spirituality

595.06The whole work of man in this world and in all the worlds is to draw near to the Creator. We climb the spiritual ladder through 125 degrees, five worlds that each contain five Partzufim, each with five Sefirot. 125 Sefirot separate the lowest state from the highest.

Part of this work is done during the preparation time in this world and part of it takes place in the upper worlds. It depends on the type of soul, on how much effort it needs to invest in this world and in the spiritual world, but the work is to constantly strive to get closer to the Creator.

And all this is despite the resistance of our egoistic desire to enjoy and the feeling that as we move closer, we feel further away from the Creator. The ego is growing and I feel even more distant from the group and the friends. But that is why I have more opportunities to make an effort and advance with the group and the ten.

Gradually, we begin to realize that the ten does not exist in isolation but depends on other tens. Being in ascent or descent depends on the environment. The environment affects a person, and one ten is affected by all other tens. Therefore, we must think of how to elevate and inspire them all.

Our task is to get closer to the Creator and the main unit for this work is the ten. Therefore, all tens should influence each other and feel our interdependence.

The spiritual work consists of raising the Shechina from the dust, that is, restoring the connection between us, the common soul of Adam HaRishon. It was broken into pieces, and we need to raise the Shechina from the dust through our own efforts and by asking the Creator for the power of unification to bring the broken Kelim closer together despite all their differences and the resistance of our egoism.

The Creator pushes us further and further away, hardens our hearts, and plunges us into darkness. But this is a consequence of the breaking of Adam HaRishon that has already happened, and we need to work on it every time and unite above the separation.

The Creator reveals to us an ever greater fall and we need to rise to even greater unity. And once again, we fall even lower and unite even more—egoism and holiness grow against each other. Ascents get higher each time, but this is due to the fact that descents get deeper. Therefore, the greater the person, the greater is his ego, his broken desire.

After the last congress, we feel less inspired, strive for the Creator less than during the Congress. And this means that the Creator has distanced Himself so that from this state we take a step toward Him, like a child being taught to walk. How can we take this serious, conscious step toward each other and the Creator today?
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/20, “Close to the Creator During a Descent”

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“What Is Next For America?” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “What Is Next for America?

Regardless of who will be sworn in this January at the U.S. presidential inauguration, much has been said about “Trumpism” as a strong political force that will expand not only in America, but also in other parts of the world where a new style of governance has been adopted.

How will this impact the future in America? At this point, it is hard to tell about the evolution of movements and tendencies that are currently unfolding. What I know for sure is that any political powerhouse can be considered as such only if it is aimed at connecting the opposing factions, the antagonism between people. This is the ideology that should prevail and be clear to everyone from now on.

It is precisely the capitalists who know how to work, organize, promote, and earn—the ones who can advance humanity to the correct connection. Conversely, the socialistic approach of the Democrats will reveal itself to everyone as an approach that is not constructive, does not build. Such an attitude and direction was implemented in Russia and destroyed the country.

However, under the current circumstances, no single force alone will be able to govern and succeed. Neither right nor left, neither Democrats nor Republicans, but only a unifying force above both that can be drawn by enacting a positive connection above the differences.

Bridging the divide in America requires everyone feeling they are taken into consideration and are represented; not like it is in the current state where half of the country celebrates victory and the other half feels deceived and embittered.

What will make people want to rise above their divisive stances in the first place? Why can’t the sides continue trying to overpower one another to put into place their vision of how things should be run?

It is because, ultimately, the underlying division leaves everyone dissatisfied. And the longer society develops while remaining divided, the more negative and bitter America will become. In extreme cases, each player pushing his or her divisive position onto others can lead to total chaos and turmoil, to unfortunate levels of suffering that eventually force people to revise their conduct and change focus.

The cure for division can be found in a process of unity-enriching learning. People must come to the realization that nature wants us to unite. This system of learning will not demand the impossible from people, nor force anyone to do anything that they do not want to do. We simply discover how to organize our socio-cultural influences to bring the need for unity to the center of public discourse, then we will think about it more and more, and will start wanting it to happen.

The problem today is not polarization in and of itself. Rather, it is that people view the polarization exclusively from their own side. The more we develop, the more we see that our side is good and correct, and the other side is wrong and bad. Thus, we increasingly view the other side as a heavy burden on society and on ourselves, one which we would be happy to eliminate from our lives.

If we, however, could see our polarization from a broader context—that nature is polarizing us more and more in order for us to exercise our free choice to positively connect above our increasing polarization—then we would be able to size up the situation more accurately and steer a straight course toward a harmonious and balanced state.

While it is perfectly natural to hold on to our differing opinions, today we need to wake up to the fact that we are becoming increasingly interdependent. And in order to realize our interdependence harmoniously, we need to start seeing the need for building a second level of discernment above our current one: the construction of positive connection in the middle line on top of our disagreements that should be more important than letting ourselves remain at the level of our conflicts alone. Such an approach will be the key to America’s prosperity.

“Is There Such A Thing As A “Law Of Love”?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Is there such a thing as a “law of love”?

Love is a law of nature.

Everything is born and lives through love. However, hatred is necessary for love to exist because love needs to become established over another property, otherwise we would have no sense of it.

There are thus two contrasting properties in nature that mutually complement and designate one another.

Based on the talk “Communication Skills: Love as a Law of Nature,” given on October 22, 2020. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Watch the full talk here » [30:45]

“The American People Deserve Praise, But The Future Is Bleak” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “The American People Deserve Praise, but the Future Is Bleak

I must confess: For many years, I thought that Americans cared only about money. I was wrong. In the years after the Obama administration, I have learned to appreciate Americans. I have learned that they truly care about ideals, and not only about material gain. But perhaps precisely because of it, the future of America is very bleak. Unless Americans somehow find unity above their deep divisions, the US will soon become a third world country, leaving the international arena to Russia and China.

As things stand now, the future of America is bleak. Biden cannot run the country, and Obama will run the show behind the scenes. If this happens, America will decline to a level of a third world country. In that case, Russia, with its military power, and China, with its wealth, will dominate the world.
Come January, great changes will happen in American society, regardless of the identity of the president. Whoever is declared triumphant, the other side will not accept it, and this will stir up the country.

Both sides, including the Democrats, to whom I do not belong, must understand that this division leads to unity, one way or the other. There can be no winners here, since winning isn’t the point of the division, but unity above the division. You can’t walk on only one leg; you need both the right leg and the left leg to move forward, and the same goes for society. Opposite views don’t mean that one is right and the other is wrong, but that both are required in order to make the right decisions regarding society.

There are merits to the Democratic and the liberal perspectives, as there are merits to the Republican and conservative perspectives. Both sides advocate worthy values. But when one side denies the other side’s legitimacy, demonizes it, and presents it as “the enemy of the nation,” it obviates the legitimacy of the critic. The realization that only unity above the differences is the solution will come, but the question is how soon and at what cost. Both sides must keep the future of the country in mind.

In my view, if Biden becomes president, it will give Americans a chance to see (those who still haven’t realized it) what it was like in Soviet Russia. It is the same approach that destroyed Russia, and we will see what it will do in America. If this happens, people might understand that Trump was not as bad for America as he was portrayed by media and political adversaries.

The bottom line is that you cannot go after people’s whims; you have to follow the natural law of unity, which leans neither toward Democrats nor toward Republicans, as both are required in order for the country to prosper. The current talk about revenge and other divisive discourse will yield nothing but trouble. Cessation is unrealistic, and revenge is a call for civil war.

But all is not lost. If the American people decide to rise to the challenge and realize that their personal future depends on the future of their country, they might be willing to unite above the chasm. It requires courage, sincerity, and resolve, and Americans are known to have all three. The question is whether they realize that they must employ these traits now, before it’s too late.

The First Amendment, which enshrines freedom of expression, is valuable. However, there can be freedom of expression only when it lies on the basis of common values such as mutual consideration and the integrity of society. This does not mean that one cannot express even the most extreme views, including even an aspiration to dismantle society. However, even one who expresses such views must accept that expressing them is possible precisely because it is part of a collection of views that make up a complete whole, and that he or she would not be able to express such views were it not for the existence of their complete opposite.

For example, think of the human body. Within our body, there are organs that perform opposite actions, yet their performance is made possible only because of the existence of their counterparts. Think of opposite muscles that enable our movement, think of organs that use oxygen, emit CO2, and stimulate our breathing mechanism. Without organs that emit CO2, we would die of suffocation. Our body is filled with contradictions that enable our healthy existence. How conceited are we to think that in society, only our view merits existence? If the American people can learn to work together for their country, above their opposite ideals, they will discover that the contradictions between them are precisely what the country needs in order to be healthy, prosperous, and strong.
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“When You Fight The Symptom, The Cause Keeps Hitting” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “When You Fight the Symptom, the Cause Keeps Hitting

Nature has a great sense of humor: Just as humanity started rolling out the vaccines, it churned up two new strains of the coronavirus, one probably in the UK and one in South Africa. Both strains are fast spreaders, and doctors are as yet unsure if the vaccines are effective against them. But what can we expect? From the very beginning of this pandemic, I warned that Covid-19 isn’t the problem; it’s a symptom of a much deeper problem that stems from ill human relations. When you fight the symptom, it’s no surprise that the pathogen keeps hitting you. The current strategy is about as smart as having a burst pipe and trying to seal the water instead of shutting the faucet.

Time after time, nature will keep hitting us until we realize that viruses, volcanic eruptions, wars, bloodshed, or forest fires aren’t the real problem, but we, humanity, are the world’s only problem. When we ask how to correct ourselves instead of everything else besides ourselves, we’ll start seeing some positive results to our efforts.

The root cause that’s behind all of our disasters, traumas, and any other conceivable affliction, is our own egoism. This is what’s destroying the world we live in, including ourselves. Whenever we’re told that our ego is the problem, we furiously deny it, but this doesn’t make it any less true. We deny it because our egos don’t want to face the truth that they are the problem. But until we do, the troubles will only worsen.

And here comes another problem: The world will not know how to rise above egoism until the people of Israel show the way.

Currently, we Jews are showing the exact opposite; we squabble among ourselves and show nothing but division. When antisemites blame us for causing all the problems, I can’t help but agree with them. We who became a nation when we agreed to unite “as one man with one heart,” and who were promptly after assigned to be “a light unto nations,” shine nothing but the darkness of division and separation instead of the opposite, as we were meant to do.

They may not realize it, but antisemites don’t hate us because of how we treat them; they hate us because of how we treat each other. When we project the odium we feel for one another, that odium spreads the world over and makes people hate each other and jump at each other’s throats. When the rivals finally turn against the Jews, it’s not because they’re looking for a scapegoat, though scapegoating may have something to do with it; it’s mainly because they really feel that they are at war because of us, though they cannot say how we instigated it. Nevertheless, their intuition is correct: Had we been united instead of divided, we would have projected unity instead of division, and the rest of the world would be at peace, as well.

When humanity is not at peace, when nations fight for superiority, they use every means at their disposal to achieve it. In the process, they exploit people, natural resources, pollute the Earth and deplete it like there is no tomorrow. But in the end, they are destroying our future. Now we have reached the future; we have come to a time when humanity’s exploitation has become so burdensome that nature can no longer take it. Now it pushes back on us, and it will not stop until we change. The more we pressure nature, the harder it will push back, and regular people will suffer the consequences.

However, if the people of Israel realize their role and change course from derision to cohesion, the entire world will change its course along with Israel. When that happens, we won’t need vaccines; our own relationships will protect us from harm, and not just from viruses, but from all the other misfortunes that are caused by our disunity. We’ve come to a point where we can vividly see how the level of disunity in Israel, and subsequently in humanity, is impacting the intensity and frequency of disasters throughout the world. Now all that’s left is to keep pointing it out until the world becomes convinced and we are ready to fight against our egos, which separate us and thereby kill us.
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“Cultured Meat Will Not Save Us” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Cultured Meat Will Not Save Us

A week ago, Food & Wine magazine broke the story that lab-grown chicken meat will make its restaurant debut. According to the story, “Good Meat Cultured Chicken was approved for sale in Singapore. Now, it’s heading to its first commercial restaurant.”

I’m all for it. Anything that helps people is good, and what’s more helpful than securing food and water supply? In fact, in recent years, there has been an influx of inventions that can help people cope with food and water deficiencies. We can produce water out of the moisture in the air, grow vegetables without soil, desalinate seawater into fresh drinking water, and now we can even produce meat without animals.

It seems as though we have defeated nature. But in truth, we haven’t. It is our own nature that’s developing these wonderful inventions, and it is our own nature that will prevent us from using them for people’s benefit. As long as we do not change who we are, life on Earth will not improve. In fact, they will go from bad to worse.

These inventions enable us not to worry about anything and focus our attention on improving our societies, strengthening our bonds with one another, and solidifying our communities. But will we choose to use them in this way or will we choose to profit off of them, just as we are doing with the coronavirus vaccine? We all know the answer.

Life on Earth can be as good as it should be only when we change how we relate to one another; nothing else needs to change. People will be happy only when they live in solidarity with the people in their community, and the countries they live in are at peace with the rest of the countries. Our ill-will toward each other is the only cause of misery, and the only cure to our woes is changing our intentions from wanting to exploit or destroy each other to wanting to help and support one another. Until we change our bad thoughts about each other, water and food from (almost) thin air will be just two more disappointments on the pain-filled road humanity has been treading since the dawn of time.

“On Jewish Unity And Antisemitism – Emerging From Exile And Starting Anew” (Times Of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “On Jewish Unity and Antisemitism – Emerging from Exile and Starting Anew

(Article No. 5 in a series) In the previous article, we discussed the rise and fall of the First Temple due to bloodshed and sins among the kings of Israel. When Israel were exiled, they were sent to Babylon, from which Abraham had previously come. There, in Babylon, they dispersed and assimilated until once again, a great hater of Jews arose and sought to destroy them: the arch-antisemite known as Wicked Haman.

Haman said to King Ahasuerus that the Jews were separated: “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom” (Esther 3:8). However, their physical dispersion was not what instigated Haman’s hatred; it was their disunity. The 17th century commentary on the Torah, Kli Yakar, states it very clearly: “‘a certain people scattered and dispersed’ means that they were scattered and dispersed from one another.” Likewise, the prominent interpretation of Jewish law, Yalkut Yosef, takes “separated” to mean that “there was separation of hearts among them.” So, as it happened with Pharaoh, and as it happened with Nebuchadnezzar, separation among the people of Israel leads to emergence of enemies who wish to destroy them. Haman was just another link in the chain, albeit quite a vicious one.

To get what he wanted, Haman told King Ahasuerus that the Jews “do not observe the king’s laws” (Esther 3:8). Yet, even though the king permitted him to eliminate the Jews, each year on Purim, we celebrate the miracle of our survival because at the very last minute, Mordechai united all the Jews. “‘Go gather all the Jews,’ meaning tell them words of blandishment,” writes Haim Yosef David Azulai (the CHIDA) in the book Pnei David, “so they will all be in one unity. Go gather as one, the hearts of all the Jews.” This telling 18th century description demonstrates the desperation of Esther and Mordechai at the prospect of seeing their entire fold obliterated, as was Haman’s intent. Their last resort was unity. When the Jews united, they saved themselves and facilitated the beginning of the return from Babylon.

But unlike Egypt, when the Jews had to flee in the dead of night, this time, they left not only with the king’s blessing, but with his full moral, financial, and spiritual support: As soon as Cyrus came to power, he felt that God had ordered him to send the Jews back to their land and rebuild the Temple. He sensed he had been commanded to help them in their task. He gave the famous Cyrus Declaration which stated, “Every [Jewish] survivor, at whatever place he may live, let the men of that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:4). After his order was carried out, “King Cyrus brought out the utensils of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away [plundered] from Jerusalem and put in the house of his gods” (Ezra 1:7).

The Cyrus Declaration marked the official end of the exile in Babylon and the beginning of the era of the Second Temple, though the Temple itself had not yet been built. During that period, the Jews achieved great heights, but eventually declined to two civil wars, the last of which was so bloody and brutal that its wounds have yet to heal.

The next article in the series will tell the story of the “golden era” in the history of the Jews in the land of Israel, when the nations of the world wanted to learn from them how to conduct their social lives.

For much more on this topic, please see my latest publication, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism: Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord.
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Moral = Love Your Neighbor

599.01Question: What is morality for you?

Answer: Morality is a clear implementation of the principle of love your neighbor.

Question: What associations do you have with the word “morality”?

Answer: Realization of the principle love your neighbor.

Question: Which of the moral principles is most important from your point of view?

Answer: Love your neighbor.

Question: The absolute absence of moral principles is impossible. Even the most primitive people have a concept of what is allowed and what is not. And what moral principle cannot be crossed?

Answer: That which prevents you from fulfilling the law love your neighbor.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 10/9/20

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Decipher The Language Of The Creator

720Everything that is around us, the system in which we exist, or the matrix, is the Creator. Therefore, Kabbalists believe that we are not in a human society but are in the Creator, and everyone needs to find the right interaction with Him.

The Creator is one single force that controls everything and constantly plays with me through the objects around me: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human.

Then, I have to figure out how to react to them correctly. For this purpose, the science of Kabbalah has been given, which tells us how—through the correct reaction to the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and, mainly, human levels in nature—it is possible to reach a state where, behind all of the objects and phenomena, I will see a single, governing force that talks to me in this way.

It will become clear to me what the Creator wants from me, and by my reaction to the four levels of nature, I can transmit back to Him.

Question: That is, I have to somehow learn how to decipher what this power, the Creator, wants to tell me?

Answer: Yes, and then I’ll recognize His language. I will hear everything: the birds and animals, the rustle of plants, the wind, and the hum of the Earth.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/4/19

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