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“Who Comes To Study” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Who Comes to Study

People often ask me who is the most likely person to become a Kabbalah student, and why some people take interest in it, and some do not, or even reject it. Well, the first thing I mention are the known words of Baal HaSulam, the author of the Sulam [Ladder] commentary on The Book of Zohar, who wrote that Kabbalah is for anyone who asks about the meaning of life. However, many people ask about the meaning of life but don’t end up studying Kabbalah, so while most everyone who comes to study Kabbalah had frequently asked about the meaning of life, not everyone who has asked about the meaning of life end up studying Kabbalah.

Especially today, when the ego is destroying every part of human society, and every person individually, it is especially important to know how we can rein the ego and use it constructively.

Covid has increased the level of people’s anxiety dramatically. Many of them even started to ask about the meaning of life. However, this in itself is not enough to become a serious Kabbalah student. People have gone through all kinds of states during the pandemic: They’ve suffered blows for no apparent reason, felt powerless to deal with them, were forced into an endless struggle for survival, and often had very little support from friends, family, or authorities. Such circumstances can easily drive a person to ask why they deserve the punishment, what is wrong with this life, and how come others are happy and they are not.

However, people entangled in the midst of a crisis are (usually) not the best candidates for studying Kabbalah. Kabbalah is a long process that requires commitment on the part of the student. Therefore, I would say that the best candidates for Kabbalah studies are those who are not in the midst of a crisis, but have experienced one (or more) before, and have since stabilized their lives. Nevertheless, the question about life’s meaning does not let up. When this happens, it is a sign that the question is deep enough to make a person a serious and committed student.

When a person begins to study Kabbalah, new horizons open up. The expanded perception of reality transcends the familiar norms and boundaries that the student was accustomed to or grew up on. This takes away much of the burdens of life, and many “guilt trips” that we all have are lifted because the realization of how things work reveals that we are all ego-driven and therefore cannot really help being selfish.

At the same time, it does not make a student reckless because the wisdom of Kabbalah also teaches how we can become masters of our egos. We do not destroy it or suppress it, but rather harness its powers for positive purposes and make it work for the common good. This is why Kabbalah students are on the one hand very individual, but on the other hand are highly committed to society and collaborate enthusiastically for everyone’s success.

Especially today, when the ego is destroying every part of human society, and every person individually, it is especially important to know how we can rein the ego and use it constructively. Therefore, those who are ready and willing to learn Kabbalah seriously have much to gain from their studies, and society will gain from their learning even more than they themselves will gain.
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“Why Is There Antisemitism? Do Not Bring Up Israel, Because Antisemitism Existed 2000 Years Before Israel Was Born.” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Why is there antisemitism? Do not bring up Israel, because antisemitism existed 2000 years before Israel was born.

Without antisemitism, there would be no Jews.

Hatred and pressure on the Jews has kept them united. They have no instinctive will to unite, but the forces of nature pressure Jewish unity through seeming negative antisemitic forces, and it is up to the Jews to use the antisemitic pressure as a wake-up call to realize their unity, so that unity can pass through to all people of the world. When everyone feels a positive unifying force entering their lives, then antisemitism will also subside.

Kabbalists are people who do not run away from antisemitism. Instead, the kabbalists call for the study and examination of antisemitism in order to view it as a phenomenon that has a purpose and a role in nature.

The wisdom of Kabbalah has become disclosed in our times in order to assist humanity to reach a higher level of existence. When the wisdom of Kabbalah will become a universal method of education, then we will become “a light unto the nations.” In other words, the only rule by which the Jewish people and the nations of the world will get along harmoniously will be that of unity: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

The People Of Israel Before And After Receiving The Torah

933Question: What is the difference between the people before and after receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai?

Answer: Before receiving the Torah, the people are considered just a gathering of people.

Question: But why? After all, they were already called “Israelites” in Egypt?

Answer: They were called so by their natural aspiration. But what it meant, they did not know and did not understand. Therefore, there is nothing to say about their spiritual state, it was only minimal.

They partially began to feel themselves in egoistic bondage during the second half of their stay in Egypt and later in their attempts to get out of it.

But when they approached Mount Sinai, they were faced with the need to accept the Torah, the upper force, the quality of bestowal and love, and started using this quality to correct themselves, then they gradually revealed the meaning of the light of the Torah.

The light must transform human nature in all its 620 egoistic qualities from “receiving for oneself,” self-gratification, to the quality of bestowal, in order to please and fill others.

Thus, initially, Abraham gathered people around him who simply strive for the quality of bestowal. Therefore, they were called “Israel” (Yashar-El), directly to the Creator.

Then they began to examine themselves, their egoism, meaning that “they entered Egypt.” And only after leaving Egypt did the correction of their egoism begin and the Torah was given, instructions for its correction. This is the difference between the people before and after receiving the Torah.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/9/21

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Reward For Spiritual Work

592.04Question: When a person performs actions for the sake of the Creator without any taste in his work, that is, his egoism does not receive a reward, then he begins to doubt what he is doing. This is called “Hirhurim” (doubts) from the word “Har,”(mountain).

He comes to this mountain of doubt: “Am I doing the right thing? Am I on the right path? Why do I need this?” And he begins to hate this state, this quality, the Creator. Is this what is called “approaching Mount Sinai”?

Answer: Yes. All the contradictions that are revealed due to the natural egoistic nature of a person do not allow him to go further in the direction of bestowal, love, and connection. Then he begins to hate these qualities, his egoistic nature, and to fight with himself.

Question: Does it then turn out into a nightmare state when a person does an action against his nature for years and does not receive any reward for it?

Answer: His reward is that he is able to perform actions exactly against his nature. The work itself becomes a reward for him.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/9/21

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Manifestation Of Spiritual States

740.01Question: A person approaches Mount Sinai in a state where Moses, Aaron, the Cohen(s) [priest(s)], Erev rav (the mixed multitude), and the Egyptians are inside him.

All these properties should be combined in him. As it is said, ” Either all of you must be in mutual guarantee, or here will be the place of your burial.”

How can such different desires of a person unite?

Answer: This happens for a moment, and then we see that it does not oblige anyone to do anything.

Question: So, this is some kind of symbol that happened once to manifest itself in the material world?

Answer: Any spiritual state must appear in some form at least once in our world.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/9/21

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Why Is A Person So Limited?

278.01Question: Can a person instantly change the picture of perception? Suppose I am here now, and a second later I am in another place, in other states, in other radically opposite sensations?

Answer: Of course he can. It is all his inner feelings. He can be in each of them, he can be in all of them at the same time, he can be in several of them, and so on.

Question: Why is a person so limited? Why does he need to achieve everything and why does everything change very slowly?

Answer: In order for us to master the possibilities of transitioning from one state to another and to be able to manage these transitions ourselves.

Question: Why is the development always very slow and step by step?

Answer: Since it is anti-egoistic, in essence, the opposite of us, therefore, it is given to us with such difficulty.

Question: When a person reaches the highest level of reality, he literally becomes a superman. How would you describe the qualities that he acquires?

Answer: The opposite of his egoism. There is a kind of inversion in relation to our world, as it is said: “And I saw the upper, reverse world.”
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 4/12/21

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Life Is A Song To The Whole World

944Scientists are trying to understand how singing affects the state of our body and soul. It has been noticed that when a person sings or listens to singing, his blood pressure and level of hormones in the blood can change. What is the secret of singing that can heal a person?

The point is that singing does not put any violent pressure on us. We do not feel it as someone else’s will wanting to subjugate us, but we connect with it and want to swim along with the pleasant melody. The song finds a response in our soul, in our inner experiences, in aspirations of the heart.

Therefore, we all love songs. Singing existed even before people started talking. Animals and birds also sing. Songs can express many more thoughts, desires, hopes, and aspirations for which there are no words and they evoke a much more correct and kind response in the hearts of people who will understand me and agree. The song is a special soft and kind language of communication.

A song is capable of generating a whole world of sensations in us because it comes from the very depths of the heart, from the innermost aspirations. I cannot sing what I totally disagree with, I cannot do it. You can say false words, but you will not be able to sing them.

People love to sing together because it leads to connection of hearts, to a common experience about which the song sings, to common hopes for the present and the future, to memories of the past, and a common history. The song can include an ocean of feelings and hopes of the entire nation or even the whole world.

Singing gives a person additional strength that was not in him before he began to sing. Singing may even be without words and it will still resonate in other people’s hearts. Everyone will present their words behind this melody.

In the tradition of many nations, there is choral singing, polyphony, which evokes the feeling of a special connection between people, a special power that is higher than us. This strength arises from the joining of hearts in song, common desires, disappointments, and hopes, that is, a common life.

Therefore, there is such a lofty piece as the “Song of Songs.” Singing is the most powerful appeal that is possible from person to person and from a person to the Creator.

In fact, a person sings all the time addressing the Creator. Any experience of a person at every moment of his existence is a song addressed to the higher force.

If all the people of Israel sang together, it would improve our relations with each other and improve the state of the country. Let’s all sit together and sing: “How nice and pleasant it is for brothers to sit together.” After all, only when we sit together as brothers can we feel good and pleasant. This singing itself will already be such a change beside which nothing would be needed.

If we want to change our country, our people, and the whole world for the better, then let’s sit down and sing about how good and pleasant it is for us to be together. This can change our destiny.

How else can we influence it? We did so much in order to correct, but the only way is to unite. If we are talking about how to achieve unity and turn to the higher force, how to exist together and spread the power of bestowal and love born of this unity to all of humanity, then this in itself is a blessing from above. The whole world would accept this power and unite in one heart.
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From KabTV’s “Look from the Inside” 3/8/21

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Under The Power Of The Environment

423.03Question: You say that we should not consume more than our body requires. Until a certain point, humanity followed this path. What happened next?

Answer: Then man began to develop incorrectly due to incorrect social development. The fact is that if a person existed on his own, regardless of society, then he would only do things in order to maintain his body, provide himself with the necessary nutrition, and ensure his procreation.

That is, all our bodily needs are reduced to food, sex, and family. We have natural internal needs for them, and within this framework they have to be realized.

But man is also under the control of the environment. In animals, the relationship between them and the environment is clearly regulated by their instincts. And we, people, develop huge social desires for wealth, power, fame, and knowledge that go beyond our instincts.

These four kinds of desires can only be satisfied at the expense of society. Self-provision is not called wealth. Wealth is measured in relation to others, as are power and fame. And knowledge is in relation to all of nature.

In other words, when my egoistic desires go beyond what is necessary for my body and exceed the normal fulfillment required to exist for a certain number of years, I begin to subjugate the surrounding nature and society. It is then that egoism manifests itself, which ultimately destroys us.

Question: On what basis does a Kabbalist claim that the essence of man is the desire to enjoy?

Answer: This question should not be addressed to a Kabbalist. Everyone knows this: biologists, zoologists, physiologists, and psychologists. Man only desires pleasure. We see the world only from the perspective of where can you receive the maximum pleasure or what should you run away from, so that it does not hurt.

Only toward pleasures and only far away from suffering, this is how we are directed, this is how we act, willing or not.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Marriage Contract” 8/19/09

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The Commandment: “You Shall Not Steal”

550When I walk on the spiritual path, I contact the Creator through my corrected properties. I am already ascending and I can take action in the upper world, I feel the Creator, and opposite desires appear in me because the impure side is always ready, so to speak, to help you, to drag you somewhere away. And now you have to be careful “not to steal.”

From the spiritual point of view, “You shall not steal” means do not steal from the direction toward love and bestowal, toward holiness, to the side of your egoism: “Hold on! Stay on guard!”

Do not steal from your spiritual self to your impure self. On the contrary, drag everything from your faulty, impure properties to pure, upper, light ones. The opposite is called theft.

Question: And in our life?

Answer: Corporeal life is nothing! Kabbalah even does not speak about it because the level at which we exist today is not considered real at all.

Question: Professional thieves surely justify their actions?

Answer: All of them can be justified because in this world we have no freewill. Therefore, in this life there is no reward, no punishment, no hell, and no paradise. I can either calm or disappoint everyone depending on who expects what.

If you end your life at the level at which you live, then you have neither paradise nor hell, you simply die like any other animal.

And if you have developed your soul from what we call the point in the heart to the first smallest ten Sefirot, this remains forever and continues to develop from one cycle to another.

That is, you are reborn in this world, reach a certain age, again come to Kabbalah, and again begin to develop your soul until you reach the full height of the level of the world of infinity. You may need several lives. But only this remains from life to life.

Therefore, after all our past lives before this present one when we only felt the first attraction to Kabbalah and began to realize it, only this one remains. Only from this one will we have impressions that are bigger than just informational data.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #11

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