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Passover—Become Human

744Question: Passover symbolizes the exit of each of us from the animal state. But it all begins with the Creator’s promise to Abraham to inherit the land of Israel. The Land of Israel is Eretz Israel, the desire for the Creator. Did nature originally provide that every person will achieve this quality?

Answer: In general, yes. As a result of our development, absolutely all people on Earth must achieve the quality of “Adam – Man,” that is, similarity to the Creator.

Question: What does “becoming a human” mean from the point of view of Kabbalah? What is this level?

Answer: “Man” in Hebrew, “Adam,” is from the word “Domeh,” which means “like the Creator” or “in God’s likeness.”

What does “in God’s likeness” mean? Since all the qualities of the Creator, His attitude to everything that He created, are love, bestowal, and good feelings, then a person acquires these qualities, becomes like the Creator, and is called a Human. And before they are acquired, he is considered an animal.

In other words, if a person is in his natural egoistic qualities and cares only for himself, then this is called the “animal state,” and if he cares for others, and the altruistic quality of the Creator is in him, then this state is called “Man – Human.”
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/26/21

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“Israel—From Slavery To Freedom” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Israel—From Slavery to Freedom

Passover in Israel is celebrated with a certain sense of freedom this year, with the sensation among its population that the pandemic is behind us. People are taking advantage of the spring sun to relax and travel, almost without restrictions, while the situation around the world is completely different. Many countries continue to battle the coronavirus plague. In Germany and France the third wave is worsening, in Britain and Spain the morbidity rate is climbing again, and in Brazil thousands are dying every day. From country to country we see that the threat of the virus is far from over.

Not only in medicine and technology must Israel be at the forefront, but we must also be a leading force on the spiritual front. It is upon us to demonstrate unity and social cohesion as a supreme value. We were founded as a people upon this root and have been nourished by it since the days of Abraham. Therefore, our first obligation is to unite and, at the same time, find creative ways to make our method of social unity accessible to the world.

Why is Israel first to taste a bit of freedom? Because we are a small and smart country, a country where it is possible to make hasty and effective decisions, and to easily adjust guidelines for the area from one day to the next. Israel did not ask for alms from any nation but simply reached out, bought vaccines and began inoculating its population until it covered the country. The sense of urgency characterized by this nation, which is used to operating in a state of war, would have allowed the vaccination to start even earlier and even faster, but the fears, uncertainties and false news that arose about the raging virus contributed to the relative slowdown.

Still, Israel provides a good example of management of the pandemic. Technological and medical power are Israeli success stories. The historic Mapai party, which bequeathed to Israel a well organized and accessible public health system based on social democratic values, functioned wonderfully during the pandemic.

Another core feature inherent to the Israeli nation that contributed to our effective response is our interdependence. No one in the country can be completely detached from the others since we share a common life. We have suffered together in the Holocaust; we have been persecuted as Jews for generations; we each bring with us our own immigration story. All of this commonality works together for mutual support when a shared challenge like the pandemic arises. There is a shared concern that the situation we go through affects one another.

This foundation of mutual guarantee among us will spur us on to develop further and become an advanced country in many areas. But at the same time, there is an expectation that the world will continue to slander us by claiming that we are the distributors of the coronavirus, spreading stories about how the Jews took care of themselves without regard for the rest of the world.

It is of paramount importance that we carefully consider our role and responsibility to the rest of the world. From a global perspective, the role of the State of Israel towards the world is crucial and complex. It would behoove us to clearly identify where we could and should contribute most to humanity.

Not only in medicine and technology must Israel be at the forefront, but we must also be a leading force on the spiritual front. It is upon us to demonstrate unity and social cohesion as a supreme value. We were founded as a people upon this root and have been nourished by it since the days of Abraham. Therefore, our first obligation is to unite and, at the same time, find creative ways to make our method of social unity accessible to the world.

It is not an easy task to project unity, neither within the complex state of Israel nor within the world in its present state. All of humanity and with us topping the chart are deeply mired in the mud of egoism. If we do not act together with cohesive forces to extricate ourselves, we will sink even deeper. This will cause the spread of more diseases and epidemics in addition to the existing strains and mutations.

These days when Israel enjoys a national respite from the yoke of the coronavirus provide an opportunity for us to take stock and ask how we will increase the unity between us, how we will show positive examples to others, how we will prioritize the needs of others, how we can continue to ascend and connect. It is worthwhile to make any efforts that we can in this direction, even if the actions are artificial at first, because eventually, the habit will become second nature. There is no more perfect time to begin this ascent toward unity than during Passover, passing over the slavery of our selfish approach to an era of unity and mutual guarantee. This is the journey that will truly lead us all to freedom.
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The Ten Egyptian Plagues

294.2Question: Going through the ten Egyptian plagues, each time a person is more and more aware of his egoism as the evil that must be gradually corrected. As our great teacher Rabash writes, this is possible only with a correct appeal to the Creator. Does this mean there is a certain positive force in nature, but it is necessary to address it correctly?

Answer: And how can we correctly address it if we are completely under the rule of the negative force, under the rule of Pharaoh? For this, we must all cry out to the Creator together, as it is said: “And the children of Israel sighed from the work, and their cry went up to God,” and He delivered them from Egypt.

Question: Does man clearly feel all ten Egyptian plagues as they are described in the Torah?

Answer: No, not like that. There is what is called the language of branches in which we describe spiritual properties and actions with words, formulations, and definitions of our world.

Therefore, a person in our world, experiencing some kind of limitation in his egoistic desires, cannot say: “Now locusts are passing over me.” It doesn’t feel like that.

Question: There are four types of language that express spiritual action. Can the exodus from Egypt be explained in Kabbalistic language?

Answer: Yes, it can. Unfortunately people who do not study Kabbalah will not understand it.

The fact is that allegories are used by those who try to rewrite the Torah in a common language. And Kabbalists write about this in purely technical terms.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/30/20

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Firstborn—The Next State Of Man

633.3Comment: The tenth Egyptian plague is the death of the firstborn, when man does not feel any pleasure in the coming future.

My Response: The most important thing in a person, what he strives for and what he should go forward with is his future, his firstborn children, the continuation of life, his aspirations. But he discovers that egoism in no way helps him in this, but, on the contrary, takes away from him the whole perspective. And so he is ready to leave Egypt.

The firstborn personifies the next state of man who comes to the realization that there is no point in continuing to exist in egoism. If he does not get rid of Pharaoh, if he does not get out of Egypt, then there’s no point in living. There is absolute darkness, there is no glimmer of life or hope.

In fact, such an egoistic state may seem like heaven to others, but not to him. He sees nothing in it!

Question: It is interesting that in the corporeal world, everything in a person’s life can be all right: a family, a job. But at the same time, he goes through such internal states from which only some force can bring him out. What is this force? Where does it come from?

Answer: A person is not able to get himself out of egoism. How could he possibly have the strength? He cannot use the ego because he has revealed its wickedness at all stages, at all ten levels. But get out of it? Where to?

But how can he use his primordial desire? Renounce it? That is one thing. And life? It consists in the fact that he must still receive light, energy, and connection with the Creator. He doesn’t have it. Therefore, a certain transition is necessary here to break away from everything previous and to connect with the future.

Question: Can we say that this is the so-called crossing of the Machsomthe exodus from Egypt?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And man does not come back?

Answer: No. We are not going back to Egypt. We must get out of it.

In principle, all of Kabbalah is built on the exodus from Egypt. Therefore, in all further ascents after Egypt, we say: “that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.”

Question: Is this the most important event?

Answer: Yes, because only then can you become more and more like the Creator. Egypt is the zero transition point from which we begin to grow spiritually.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/30/20

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How To Save Children From Suicide

919Question: A writer asks, “Please tell us about suicide among children. How can I explain to a child that it is wrong and that one shouldn’t have such thoughts? At a neighboring school, a girl jumped from a high-rise building. There are two versions of why this occurred: the first is unrequited love, the second is the influence of the Internet, and that she was driven to it. How should we talk to teenagers? How can we prevent this from happening? Or is it the fate of a person?”

Answer: We must understand that a teenager is a small person who must attain the world gradually. Just like when we are born. At first, we are completely inside the mother. Then we “stick our head out.” We begin to comprehend a little, inside our crib, our room, in the apartment, and so on.

Today a child before he even begins to walk and can only reach for something by crawling around a small area is exposed to a huge world around him. He is put in the car and driven around, pushed about in a stroller, parents turn on TV, music, and video, whatever. All sorts of complicated toys are pushed on him.

That is, the boundaries of the world are being opened for him while he’s not ready for it and does not want it! Nature hasn’t prepared him for it yet. So he’s confused and doesn’t know what to do. Therefore, he is under pressure from these new concepts around him that he is not ready for. And that’s the problem.

Thus, many kids can’t handle it. They don’t have enough inner strength. All these external stimuli affect them in such a way that children simply lose control. And when they are nonetheless exposed to some negative movies or something else, they perceive them as real and very easily contemplate suicide.

We should prohibit and restrict them! For the first two years I would not expose a child to outside stimuli. Only the natural things that he can see and hear around him, this is what he should be exposed to. The sounds and images around him, all that is there, let him see it all. But no screens. No computer or TV.

Question: So, are you a big proponent of the careful, gradual exposure of children to this life?

Answer: I want a child to develop a normal psyche to the size of the world in which he exists. Whatever he can reach, this is what he should be comfortable with.

The rest is for later. By then, all sorts of mechanisms are already in place. You can already explain things to him, talk to him, give him certain literature, and show him things. Yet even then, I would start with history, geography, some earthly things. Rather than these terrible children’s programs which are built completely on fiction, and on a terrible, distorted one at that. They show violence and anger. It is just unbelievable!

Children’s programs are the most violent ones. The child looks at that and thinks that this is the reality of our world. So why not jump from the tenth floor? He sees these leaps on TV every day in children’s programs.

That is, we have no idea what a distorted picture of reality we bring into his world. So what do you expect? We need to remove all of it. Completely!

Question: Are you in favor of such tough measures?

Answer: I am for raising a healthy generation.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/11/21

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Passover—The Holiday Of The Beginning Of Correction

749.02We are approaching the holiday of Passover, which symbolizes the beginning of correction. Everything begins with the exodus from Egypt after which the giving of the Torah takes place.

Corrections are possible only in a person who has already gone through the Egyptian exile. The creation begins with the sin of the Tree of Knowledge and the shattering of the soul, and then the process of its correction begins.

Therefore, it is clear that first of all, we need to recognize the evil, to clarify the state in which we found ourselves after the shattering at the Tree of Knowledge where the soul was divided into many parts that we now need to assemble together. And this is despite the egoistic will to receive, which so far rules between us.

Thus, we add to the soul, which we are restoring, all of the revealed evil inclination, that is, the force of the light that once filled the soul and caused the separation of each part from the rest. When we connect them together again, working against the force of the light that was filling the soul and now has become hostile to it, we attain the qualities of the Creator and the qualities of the corrected creation.

However, all this begins with the recognition of the wickedness of the state in which we are now, with the revelation of the egoism that reigns between us: rejection, hatred, misunderstanding, and clarification to what extent everyone is immersed only in himself and is not able to get out of there. All this is the very first and necessary stage on the path of studying the Creator.

All the articles about Passover we should perceive only in relation to our separation and connection. When we move away from each other, evil forces rise up and reveal the feeling of exile in us.

Then immediately we can talk about connection and correction, and redemption begins. That is, we need to see everything in the light of exile and redemption, distancing and coming closer to each other, the revelation of the shattering and its correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/18

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Egyptian Darkness

95Comment: After eight Egyptian plagues, the ninth blow comes: Egyptian darkness. If I understand correctly, this means that a person in his current state feels a complete lack of enjoyment.

My Response: I would say, rather, it is hopelessness; a person realizes that he has nothing ahead of him and nothing left behind, but he agrees to stay in this state.

Each plague is a condition when you accept the quality of bestowal as the only quality acceptable for you. It turns out that now, in full bestowal, which is required of a person in darkness, he agrees to it.

Question: Where does he feel the darkness? In his egoism?

Answer: Yes. Egoism can no longer inspire him in any way, can no longer lead to anything. A person realizes that this is a great evil, which can only be eliminated, not to feed on it, not to develop with it, because he cannot build anything in this state.

In principle, all ten plagues are ten renunciations of the ten egoistic desires that constitute our soul.

Question: Isn’t depression when a person feels darkness?

Answer: No. Not at all! This is a vigorous movement forward of a person who understands that only in this way can he reach the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/30/20

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From The Top Of Snir And Hermon

740.03Zohar for All, Shemot [Exodus], Item 16: “From the top of Snir and Hermon” is Mount Sinai, to which they drew near and gathered at its foot, as it is written, “And they stood at the foot of the mountain.”

“And they stood at the foot of the mountain,” means that all human desires within us are standing at the foot of the mountain, hate each other, hate the entire world, and are ready to use everything and everyone just for their own sake.

“From the top of Mount Sinai” means that we ascend to the level of Bina (the quality of complete bestowal). In truth, only our point in the heart, our yearning for the Creator called Moses, rises and reveals the Creator there.

If Mount Sinai is the mountain of Bina (the quality of mercy, bestowal, and love), then Hermon is the mountain of Hochma (the quality of wisdom).

Therefore, Mount Hermon is white, covered with snow, that is, the quality of wisdom. All the light descends from this mountain just as all the streams and rivers descend from it and flow through the land of Israel.

In the end, both mountains merge together: the light of Hochma dresses in the light of Bina.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #9

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Will The Points Method Help Us?

294.2Comment: At the beginning of the year, the first Civil Code in the country’s history has come into force in the People’s Republic of China. Citizens are gaining points. Of course, there is a tracking system installed.

You have a starting point of one thousand points. And you either gain more and go up or lower down. Points are earned for charity, caring for elderly relatives, good relations with neighbors, helping the poor, supporting the government, committing a heroic deed, and so on.

Points are deducted for traffic violations, unsatisfactory parental support, spreading rumors and fake news on the Internet, insincere apologies for crimes committed, participation in sects, protests against the authorities, etc.

Those with high scores will have priority in school admission, fast work promotions, fast advancement in the queue for public housing, etc. Those with low scores will be deprived of the right to hold a position in public offices, will be prone to public censure, etc.

Those who issue these laws claim that this is the only way to make people honest, kind, and open. That is, this is the way they want to educate people!

My Response: Such an educational system is unsuitable for the new world.

Question: In general, what about an educational system based on suppression, on fear?

Answer: It is necessary for the initial development of any society! Just like with man: we restrict him, he must be supervised by his elders who must be responsible for his actions, that is, they must restrict him, punish him, and so on.

Question: Should we build an educational system based on the national character?

Answer: No. If we are talking about the educational system that the world needs today, then we should not take into account any national characteristic, mentality, nothing.

We just need to gain and spread in the world the knowledge that only connection, simple connection among people—when each person understands that his good future lies only in his connection with other people—only such education can bring humanity to order.

Man will find happiness when he begins to draw closer to others, and in this understanding he begins to feel more confident, more comfortable, and he will see the future.

People should simply understand that they are in a single system—not Chinese and not Soviet— but in the system of nature that wants only one thing: that we stay in unity among us.

Question: And then a person himself, on his own, without any points, will treat the elderly well and will not slander?

Answer: Of course, it goes without saying.

Question: Is it possible? After all, a person is what he is.

Answer: Nowadays, because of the pandemic and other problems including pressures that will descend into our world more and more on a bigger scale, it is possible. It is thanks to this that it is possible.

Question: That is, the intensification of suffering makes it possible to explain to a person that we need to be on good terms with each other?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Why don’t we hear then?

Answer: No one has yet explained this to us. We have not yet reached such a state to feel and to understand that we need this. And suffering will be added. A virus will be followed by another virus, problems will be followed by other problems.

Man will not perish. Man will bear everything! Animals will die out, plants will die out, stones will melt, but humans will not.

Question: Man will come out of this state?

Answer: Yes. It will happen when he says: “That is it, I am ready! Even my heart of stone has melted. I am ready to get closer to others!”

I have absolute confidence in this. And so it will be. Hopefully, if not this year, then next one, but still I hope to live to see this.

Question: And then it will start as an epidemic, a good, kind one?

Answer: Yes. Because people will have no other way out anyway. They are already beginning to see darkness: there is fog ahead, then twilight, then night, and then an abyss. And then a gradual, really gradual, awakening will begin.

Question: And what is needed to come out of this?

Answer: It is very simple: just be together so we do not get lost one by one.

Question: And then the abyss recedes?

Answer: Absolutely!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/1/21

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