Audio Version Of The Blog – 1/31/21

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My Thoughts On Twitter 1/31/21

Dr Michael Laitman Twitter

#Antisemitism in the world grows to the degree the world’s egoism needs correction. The remedy for it is in the Jews’ own possession—it lies in their commitment to redeem humanity from the evil of #egoism. The problem is revealed, and if it isn’t corrected by having people come closer to one another, #Antisemitism arises.
From Twitter, 1/31/21

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“The Ancient Divide Is Menacing Today” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “The Ancient Divide Is Menacing Today

You can always tell when a youth becomes a grownup: It’s that shift in their attitude when instead of blaming others for their misfortunes, they examine themselves soberly, learn what they did wrong, and work on improving it so it doesn’t happen again. Our nation, too, has an attitude, and that attitude determines our fate. When we are mature and examine ourselves judiciously, we succeed. When we lean toward the victim’s narrative, we are victimized.

Since the onset of our nation—when we came out of Egypt and established our nationhood by pledging to unite “as one man with one heart” and be “a light unto nations”—we have been divided into two groups. One group followed the spiritual idea of sticking to the rule, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” These people went through ups and downs in their level of unity and often fell into deep hatred, yet they always came through and united above their divisions. They saw in their divisions a calling to reinforce their unity even more. The other group that formed back then took to observing various customs and traditions. They were satisfied with observing rituals and did not seek union of hearts because they did not see this as the core of Judaism.

The divide between the two groups was never bridged, and over the years, hatred and alienation have developed between them. These two groups might have been able to live side by side peacefully were it not for the vocation of the Jewish people. We were not created to follow rituals and observe customs and traditions; we were created in order to be a light unto nations, to set an example of unity “as one man with one heart.” If we omit the element of unity from our Jewishness, we lose the meaning of our peoplehood. This is why our Torah states, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18), and why our sages wrote explicitly “What you hate, do not do unto your neighbor. This is the whole Torah, and the rest is commentary” (Shabbat 31a). Of course, hatred sometimes erupts, but it is precisely so as to show how to rise above it by increasing our unity. This is why King Solomon wrote, “Hate stirs strife, and love will cover all crimes” (Prov. 12:10).

The Book of Zohar, too, explains why we have disputes and why it is vital that we rise above them and set an example to the world. In the portion Aharei Mot, The Zohar writes, “‘Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to also sit together.’ These are the friends as they sit together and are not separated from each other. At first, they seem like people at war, wishing to kill one another … then they return to being in brotherly love. …And you, the friends who are here, as you were in fondness and love before, henceforth you will also not part from one another … and by your merit, there will be peace in the world.”

For many centuries, our forefathers fought to maintain their unity despite the chasm. When they succeeded, they thrived. When they failed, they were punished and banished by foreign rulers such as Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, in the First Temple, and Titus, the commander in chief of the Roman legion, in the Second Temple. However, our forefathers did not blame Nebuchadnezzar or Titus for their woes, although both committed their said atrocities against our people. Instead, our forefathers blamed themselves, their own people, for their lack of unity, for slandering each other, for shedding blood, and for hating one another. After the ruin of the First Temple, we reunited in Babylon due to the threat of destruction that came from evil Haman. Soon after, we were given back the land of Israel. After the ruin of the Second Temple, we dispersed, immersed ourselves in the nations around us, and lamented our misfortune. As a result, we remained persecuted, used, abused, banished, and murdered for two millennia.

In the late 19th century, we started to take matters into our own hands and established the movement for creating a Jewish sovereign state once more. We still did not realize the significance of unity above all divisions to our nation, but we abandoned the victim narrative and started to work on a solution. After the Holocaust, the nations decided to give us a chance and granted us sovereignty in the land of our fathers.

Here, we abandoned the victimhood narrative but developed a new, even more sinister narrative: hubris. We think we are powerful, we think we’re entitled, and we think we are smarter than everyone else. Additionally, there is still that part of the nation that thinks that because it observes rituals and customs, it is entitled to protection from above. The one thing no one thinks about is unity. Instead of setting an example of unity, we have become an example of conceit, entitlement, and mutual disgust.

And just as before, by doing so, we have turned a powerful empire against us. The new administration in the US is anti-Israel and seeks to abolish the Jewish state, to strike it off the map. We should have no qualms about it. If we want to thwart its scheme, our only weapon is our unity. Otherwise, it will succeed, and we will be left with nothing but our narrative of victimhood. But just as before, our misfortune will not come to us because of any outside ruler, but because of our own division and mutual hatred, which we have cultivated instead of mutual responsibility and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

We have no time to lose. If we do not rise above our hubris, stop childishly blaming others for our woes, and begin to take matters into our hands and unite very, very soon, we will not be able to save our country.
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Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 10/30/20

570Question: Is personal space and its boundaries important to you?

Answer: Of course.

Question: How do you keep people from crossing your personal space?

Answer: I show that this is where our common interests end.

Question: How long can you be alone, without contact with people?

Answer: Endlessly.

Question: Does a Kabbalist open up access to his personal space by writing articles, books, and other materials?

Answer: Personal space is personal. By describing my life in print or speaking to the public, I reveal myself. But this is by no means my personal space. Personal is where only I and the Creator are.

Question: Why do people have a need to touch others, to violate someone else’s personal space?

Answer: They want rapprochement, they want to convey their emotions, although this is not always favorably met by the interlocutor.

Question: How do we relate to a person who reacts very sharply to violation of personal space? For example, he is against a welcome hug.

Answer: We need to put some kind of barrier between ourselves and them so as not to violate this space. Perhaps for you it may even be less than a touch, but for him a distance of a meter is already entering his zone.

Question: The reduction of the distance between people consists in the correction of society. What distance are you talking about?

Answer: I am talking about a general understanding of the goal of creation, the goal of development.

Question: What should fill the space between us?

Answer: Love.

Question: Like every person, you probably have close students and distant ones. How do you divide people into these categories?

Answer: By devotion. Not only to me, the main thing is the goal.

Question: The wisdom of Kabbalah says that all people should become one. Does this mean that there will be no distance between people at all?

Answer: There won’t. Although they are all very different, there will be no distance.

Question: Will social distancing help contain the spread of the coronavirus?

Answer: No. The coronavirus will disappear, like all other problems that will come for it, only if people begin to draw closer to each other in their hearts.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 10/30/20

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Specific Cognition

261Question: Why did the authors of The Book of Zohar first have a desire to kill each other?

Answer: Because in the course of their work they revealed their true essence: how torn apart and disconnected they were and how they hated each other.

We do not yet represent the egoism that exists in each of us. It is a terrible egoism when there is no mother, no father, no wife, no children, no one, and nothing for me. For the sake of my most scanty pleasure, I am ready to destroy everyone, without regrets, without any calculations, just like that.

That is, I do not have any relationship with the others, I cannot see others, except for the sake of my own petty pleasure. This is my nature, as well as everyone else’s. Anyone who denies this simply does not yet understand how he was created.

Therefore, first of all, we need to achieve this negative state. As it is said: “I created egoism and created the Torah to correct it.”

Question: It seems strange. After all, if I move toward the Creator, shouldn’t  I feel more and more love and certainly not hatred for my friends?

Answer: You begin to reveal more and more egoism in yourself, and thanks to this you rise above it. On one hand, you need great egoism, on the other hand, a greater influence of the light, with the help of which you constantly rise above it.

The ego grows, and you rise above it. Thus, starting at the foot of the broken “statue” that you are rebuilding, you go up to its head. The material is added, egoism is added, and you glue it more and more.

You find yourself in this statue, connected with the rest of the souls into one single whole, into one single organism, where everything is mixed, and everything is common. The identification remains but such that you feel connected with everyone. Here is a paradox.

On the one hand, you feel your individuality, which consists in the fact that you are completely dissolved with everyone in one whole. In addition, the Creator binds you together. He fills you and is constantly with you.

As a result, a single whole is formed that includes you, all other souls along with you, and together with all of you—the Creator. All this is brought together so that on one hand, you can discern: this is me, this is the soul, this is the Creator, and on the other hand, everything is absolutely connected. Then you begin to feel equal to the Creator. So is each one of us.

That is, individuality does not disappear, but, on the contrary, multiplies. This is a very specific understanding. We will gradually reach it.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #3

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Why Does Kabbalah Ignore Spiritual Practices?

559Question: The opening of energy zones, chakras, astral trips, and meditation are fundamental spiritual practices. Why does Kabbalah limit itself and ignore them, as if everything related to magic was specially removed from it?

Answer: That which exists only in your head, in mysticism, in your ideas and thoughts, is not in Kabbalah.

Kabbalah should give a person a result. Moreover, this result must be tested by experience, in practice. If this is missing and there are only far-fetched ideas, then this is not science.

Kabbalah talks about how we should change our senses, and does that clearly, in a regulated manner, step by step. And in accordance with this, we will feel a new world in them.

You may say, “This is also mysticism.” No! This is not mysticism because here you calculate how much I change my egoism, how much I rise above it, to what level, how, and what I feel at the same time in the next level of the universe, which is revealed to me above my egoism.

And I can come back again and rise again. And the other does the same, and we describe it to each other. This is absolutely real. But all this must be felt.

Many sciences are at a level where you cannot transfer anything to another individual, everyone must somehow experience it in themselves.

Question: We do not need astral trips, meditation, and opening the third eye?

Answer: No way! Personally, I am a very realistic person by nature. My first occupation, even before Kabbalah, was biological medical cybernetics. I cannot imagine doing meditation: sitting with folded arms, eyes closed, and delving into something.
[276985]
From KabTV’s “Ask a Kabbalist” 12/31/18

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Shame Is The Point Of My “Self”

532Shame is the point of my “self,” its indication. The more shame a person feels, the higher he is. Shame can manifest itself in everything: in honor, in fame, and in knowledge.

What drives us forward? What develops us in society? I look at others and I do not want to be worse than them. I measure everything in relation to my shame.

Question: Does Kabbalah develop a bigger sensitivity to shame in a person?

Answer: Of course. This is great egoism. Externally, this may not be so strongly manifested, but internally, a person begins to feel ashamed even from some small tap.

Question: And how does this manifest itself in a group when we are trying to unite together and reveal the Creator?

Answer: We understand that each of us has egoism, and each of us has an enhanced sense of shame; and we must play on this feeling, showing the other person how much worse he is in relation to his friends, and to what extent he does not fulfill what we would like him to. In this way we spur him forward for his own benefit.

Question: Is there a difference between shame in relation to people and in relation to the Creator? Or is it the same thing?

Answer: It depends on a person’s stage of development. But in practice, he must reach a state in which the attitude toward people and toward the Creator will be the same. Because my attitude to people is just a means, the system through which I relate to the Creator. As it is written, “the Creator is hiding behind every person.”
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/22/19

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What Is The Meaning Of Life And What Should I Live For?

198Comment: I am preoccupied by questions about the meaning of life and what I should live for.

My Response: The meaning of life is the attainment of our root. The root that we descend from is in the Creator.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we study how the four phases of the direct light spread and develop from the top down until they create us here below in this world.

Now we have to climb this ladder back from the bottom up until we reach our source. This is our mission. Only then will we feel absolutely comfortable in an eternal state in eternal serenity.
[242217]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 12/16/18

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 1/31/21

Preparation to the Lesson

[media 1] [media 2]

Lesson on the Topic of “Mingling/Inclusion”

[media 3] [media 4]

Selected Highlights

[media 5] [media 6]