Audio Version Of The Blog – 6/27/21
Posted on June 27th, 2021
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During the reign of King Nimrod (from the word “Mered,” rebellion) in ancient Babylon several vectors of human development were simultaneously manifested there.
On one hand, Nimrod is like a tough, treacherous, oppressive ruler. On the other hand, people became more aggressive, demanding, and selfish toward each other.
In addition, Abraham’s father Terah began the so-called separation of the gods. He sculpted all kinds of figurines and told the Babylonians that each of them represented some kind of deity to whom one should pray, anoint, and light candles.
From a spiritual point of view, these are some unknown forces in a person that he wants to somehow please, understand, and cope with. This is the worship of deities.
It is said that Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. This means that he wanted to pull people out of their primitive animal state and raise them higher, incite their egoism, competition, and thirst for all kinds of gains.
Question: Against whom did Nimrod rebel?
Answer: In principle, there was no one he could rebel against, except against nature itself, which lulled people. He did not want that. He wanted his subjects to be selfish, competitive, move forward, and move his kingdom forward.
Comment: In general, this is a positive property. After all, we want our children to compete and develop in this way.
My Response: Competitions can also have a different character. A person can compete for not being selfish and not to conquer everyone and everything.
“Nimrod” in a person is a negative property that to this day develops in mankind at an indomitable speed.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 6/11/21
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The Method Of Nimrod And That Of Abraham
Question: Throughout all times, different nations of the world mention prophets and prophecies. What is a prophecy?
Answer: Prophecy is a person’s perception of the program of creation and its source, i.e., the upper force and its revelation in a certain format, in quantity and quality, before the rest of the people
The real prophets are Kabbalists who attained the Creator through the equivalence of their properties with the properties of the Creator and who tell us about His properties, His program, and what we should be according to it.
Question: Is there a connection between prophecies and predictions? Is it the same thing?
Answer: A prophecy is a vision of a more distant future, it is vague in time. And the prediction is something more specific, for the near future.
In every generation there are people who can prophesy and predict. But whether they are ready, whether they allow themselves to do it, is another question.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 6/13/21
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Kabbalistic Prophecy
Prophets, The Book of Joshua, Chapter 3:7: And the Lord said to Joshua: This day I will begin to make you great in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so will I be with you.
This proof is necessary both for the Israelites as well as for the rest of humanity, that is, for those who walk the path of Joshua and those who are outside this camp who don’t accept the properties of bestowal and love as the most important thing, as connection between people above all egoistic motives. Those who do not perceive this should bow down, understand, accept, and begin to implement it.
This must penetrate a person from above. In no way can it simply be accepted: “I want this, so I start and do it!” This is an internal restructuring of the entire human system, which can take many, many years.
Question: Does the Creator want to show that He will stand by Joshua Ben Nun as He did with Moss so that the miracle will happen and everyone will see?
Answer: It should be such that, on one hand, everyone will understand that it is a miracle, that the Creator does it. And on the other hand, so that people can see it, realize it, accept it, and implement it because they are ready for it.
This happens at the boundary between the probable and the improbable.
Question: But when we ask for the manifestation of the Creator, the manifestation of a miracle, can we see that the Creator is with us?
Answer: Please. But for this, you must be ready to see it all. In other words, we must reach such a state that this can be revealed.
Question: Will others see that the Creator is with us?
Answer: If they have the appropriate qualities, they will see it, and if they don’t, they will not. It all happens according to the law of equivalence of form.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/11/21
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Question: Does a prophecy work by itself or do we need people who support and explain it? Is it possible to turn to prophecy and find out what will happen? How does this system work?
Answer: I cannot say how this system works. However, the fact is that the general principles of the spiritual world, its laws, are explained in Kabbalistic books. I have, at least, described them all, and for many years I have been teaching classes on these topics every day. So, I have nothing much to add here.
Regarding the future, in principle, it is already possible to talk about it in our times because we are at the end of days, the end of times. I think there is nothing special to add here either.
It is only a question of how to rise to the last degree: either by good forces, which we must develop and invoke ourselves and summon from nature, or by evil forces. If we do not invoke good forces, then evil, egoistic forces will push us to this “by a stick to happiness,” as they say.
Question: Does it mean that humanity is facing the last degree?
Answer: In general, yes. It consists of several stages: preparation, action, then reception, awareness, and feeling. Now we are in the preparation period.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 6/13/21
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Question: Is it possible today to introduce a connection similar to a spiritual one in modern cities in order to bring people to good relationships?
Answer: I do not know how we can do that. After all, it is necessary to educate people; it is necessary to show them what they have in modern cities. Everyone enters their own cell, closes the door behind them with a couple of locks, checks whether they are closed, whether their neighbors will disturb them. Unfortunately, this is the only way we can feel somehow safe.
A person, first of all, subconsciously thinks about this. We pay attention to our clothes, our houses and apartments, how we behave, and our personal vehicles, etc. All this comes from our inner need to protect ourselves. Maybe a person does not feel it so much, but it is so! This is the root of the problems of thievery, violence, and anything at all.
However, if we provide a person with security regardless of any external conditions, and he will not have a tendency to isolate himself from others, on the contrary, he will feel that he is always ready for communication, for even greater rapprochement, then we will have a completely different construction, architecture, the science of space distribution. Then everything will be different.
Instead, today we have a tendency to make a minimal environment safe for myself wherever I am: in a taxi, in the subway, it does not matter where, but I still feel that I am among others. This is my place, this is my security, this is my life, my cell.
Therefore, we need to educate people toward more friendly connections, and then, based on this, to the extent that they feel safe, they will expand their boundaries and change the appearance of cities, apartments, and everything else.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations” 6/9/21
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My new article on Linkedin “How We Summon Our Enemies”
In his book The Jew in the Medieval World, Prof. of Jewish History Jacob Rader Marcus presents a dramatic depiction of the events leading to the announcement of the Alhambra Decree in 1492, which led to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Marcus writes that “The agreement permitting the Jews to remain in Spain on the payment of a large sum of money was almost completed when it was frustrated by the Prior of Santa Cruz, Tomás de Torquemada,” who despite his Jewish roots, headed the Inquisition in Spain. According to Marcus, “Legend relates that Torquemada … thundered with crucifix aloft to the King and Queen: ‘Judas Iscariot sold his master for thirty pieces of silver. Your Highness would sell him anew for thirty thousand? Here he is [pointing to the cross], take him, and barter him away.’” King Ferdinand, dumbfounded by the zealous speech, promptly discarded any hesitations he might have had about the implementation of the decree.
However, what happened next was even more astounding. Marcus writes that Queen Isabella, who was present in the room when Torquemada stormed in, “gave an answer to the representatives of the Jews, similar to the saying of King Solomon [Proverbs 21:1]: ‘The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turns it wherever He wills.’ She said furthermore: ‘Do you believe that this comes upon you from us? The Lord has put this thing into the heart of the king.’” Subsequently, concludes Marcus, the Jews “saw that there was evil determined against them by the King, and they gave up the hope of remaining.”
In 1929, a few years before Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, it was already clear that antisemitism was rising in the defeated country that could not recover from the consequences of World War I. Reflecting on the growing Jew-hatred in his country, Dr. Kurt Fleischer, leader of the Liberals in the Berlin Jewish Community Assembly, stated that “Anti-Semitism is the scourge that God has sent us in order to lead us together and weld us together.”
Fleischer’s statement expressed something that our sages throughout the ages have argued, that we bring our foes upon ourselves through our division. The fall of the Second Temple and the exile from the land of Israel are the most known examples of Jewish self-hatred that had brought upon us a cataclysm, but there are plenty others. In Spain, for example, preceding the onset of the Inquisition, numerous Jews sought to assimilate and disperse from their communities. They began to quarrel among themselves, and Jews who converted, and became known as conversos, often became fierce antisemites. According to Norman Roth, Professor of Jewish History at the University of Wisconsin, “Like the majority of conversos, [converso officials] were ardent Catholics and most were vehemently anti-Jewish (especially was this true with converso clergy, but also with the officials).”
A few days ago, Ebrahim Raisi was elected to be the next president of Iran. Prior to his election, Raisi was Iran’s top judge. He holds ultra-conservative views, and Israel’s Prime Minister warned that this was “the last chance for world powers to wake up… and understand who they are doing business with.”
But in light of our history, and in light of our sages’ constant warnings, we should not be surprised that someone like Raisi has come to power. As has happened throughout history, division among Jews brings upon them evildoers that seek to destroy them. When Jews reunite, the problem is solved.
Here in Israel, we know that in times of war, we unite in order to defeat the enemy. Every Israeli knows that this has been our “secret weapon” in all our wars since the establishment of the State of Israel. Every Israeli also knows that as soon as the guns stop roaring, malice sets in among us. This malice shows what we don’t know: Had we been connected, we would not have to go to war in the first place.
Indeed, every problem in the world is solved through human connection. We Jews, the nation that was formed on the basis of the strongest possible connection, that of loving our neighbors as ourselves, should be world leaders in connection. Instead, we are divided and torn, and our people are filled with hatred toward each other. As a result, wicked antisemites rise “in order to lead us together and weld us together,” as Dr. Fleischer put it. Antisemites are rising to power the world over; if we do not wake up now and read the writing on the wall, we might wake up once more when it is too late.
My new article on Linkedin “Is National Identity a Thing of the Past?”
In our global village, national identities seem to be blurring. People can live almost anywhere they want, the culture is more or less the same culture everywhere, everyone admires the same mega popstars, the same multibillionaires dictate the global agenda, we feed on the same ideas and aspire for more or less the same things. In such a state, a national identity becomes almost irrelevant.
But when it comes to Israel, the picture is very different: No one wants us to lose our identity, not our neighbors, and not the entire world. Everyone is demanding Israel to be certain things and do certain things, while Israelis only want Israel to be a country among countries, an unassuming member of the family of nations. Yet, everyone is singling us out, usually for condemnation, while we have no idea what it is they want from us.
The problem is not with the world; it is with us. If we knew what the people of Israel are about, we would know why the world is always demanding toward us and what we need to do about it.
Everyone knows that the father of the Jewish nation was Abraham, whose lineage evolved into what we now recognize as Jews. However, although the Midrash wrote about it, Maimonides wrote about it, and countless other sages have mentioned it throughout the ages, we forget that Abraham formed the nation after he looked into reality, realized that the separation that has plagued humankind since its inception is contradictory to nature, and built his group according to the principles of mutual responsibility and kindness embodied in the words “Love your neighbor as yourself.” In this way, he formed a nation that operated in congruence with the rest of nature. Over the years, Abraham’s group had evolved into a nation, and this is how the Jews came to be.
The contradictory manner of connection among people continued to plague them and wreak havoc on humanity. Wars claimed millions of lives, and famine, abuse, and oppression were the norm. At the same time, the Jews, the descendants of Abraham’s group, developed a society based on mutual responsibility and love, and thrived despite countless attempts to destroy it. The world realized that the Jews had found the way to unity and wanted it, too. The Jews, too, felt that it was their onus to be “a light unto nations,” to set an example of unity for the rest of the world. As a result, whenever the Jews fell prey to division, the nations hated them, since they had no example to follow, and when Jews united, the world praised and admired them.
The onus on the Jews to exemplify unity is the reason that the nations do not let us forget who we are, blend among them, and vanish. This onus is also why we do want to blend and vanish, since we do not want to unite, and certainly not to be anyone’s model of unity.
But the world will not let us disappear. Our unique identity, which stems from our unique duty, has no expiration date. The more the world falls into enmity, the more it will blame us for it. It will not tell us that it is accusing us of not setting an example, but when we do it, we will see that we are welcome. As long as we do not set an example, nothing that we do will help us ease their anger. The more we turn away from each other and cater to the nations, attempting to appease them, the more they will hate us and despise us. The more we turn to each other and strive to unite above our hatred, the more they will praise us. This has been, is, and always will be the one rule dominating the fate of the Jewish people.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is egoism?“
Egoism is the desire to attract life or forces of life to oneself. At its basis, the matter of our world is different levels of egoism.
We humans are unique because contrary to the rest of nature, we do not use our ego solely for the barest necessities. The still, vegetative and animate levels of nature receive for themselves only the amount of food and energy that they require for their existence.
Egoism has been inserted only into us humans, and it leads us to consume excessively. We derive enjoyment not only from having life’s essentials and even something extra—but we also enjoy when other people lack something and suffer, unlike us. This gives us the feeling of even greater fulfillment.
This is why we consider only the human ego as truly egoistic compared to the other desires in nature. With the exception of the human, egoism does not develop in any part of nature. For instance, a one-day-old calf is like a grown bull, that is, even the representatives of the animate level complete their lives just as they were born. Their ego does not develop, whereas we humans develop by means of growing egoism, over the course of our individual lives, as well as over the generations. Each generation progresses due to its egoism being more developed than that of the previous generation.
This egoism pushes us to civilizational progress. However, now that we have reached the last stage of human development, egoism is leading us to a dead-end. We no longer know where to progress, and we become immersed in a global crisis in all spheres of our activity.
In essence, the forces of nature comprise a single closed system—besides us humans, who in our egoism consume more than our life’s essentials. It is precisely us human beings who are the imbalanced elements within nature, since we use more than what we need in order to exist. This is why only we humans are the sole elements of nature that harm other people, as well as the other levels of nature.
Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
My new article on Linkedin “A New Rabbi for the German Army – Not What the Jews Need”
Over the past week, there has been much ado over the appointment of the first rabbi in the Bundeswehr (the unified armed forces of Germany) since World War II. The appointed rabbi, Zsolt Balla, one of Germany’s most prominent rabbis, stated after his nomination: “It is our goal to make it normal again for Jewish citizens to serve in the German army.” The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, also added, “The Bundeswehr has nothing in common with the former Wehrmacht, and that is the only reason why it is possible today for us to introduce a federal military rabbi.” Currently, some 300 Jewish soldiers serve in the German military, but they are spread across the armed forces, making the need for a rabbi for the German military seem more like a political statement than a real need of the soldiers. And political statements are the last thing Jews need, in Germany or elsewhere.
Jews have already tried to blend in the German army during World War I. They fought as hard as Christian Germans to serve their fatherland, Germany, and did their best to show that they were loyal Germans. But when the Nazis came to power, it did not help them. Why do they think today will be any different? Just as no one foresaw that only fifteen years after the first war, the Jews would be blamed for all of Germany’s troubles and their participation in the war would be presented as an act of treason against the country for which they fought and died, now, too, no one will thank them when the tide turns, and it always turns.
Politics does not change reality, only actions do. In the case of the Jews, the only action they are required to take is to unite among themselves. This was the action they took that had made them into a nation, this has been the only action that has ever granted them the world’s respect and favor, and their departure from it has been the precursor of every woe they had ever experienced (read more about it in my latest publication The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, linked at the bottom of the post).
In conclusion, nothing good will come out of political statements like appointing a rabbi to 300 Jews dispersed throughout the German army, and who are probably not even very observant. The only possible outcome is an intensification of the already existing Jew-hatred in the German military. Therefore, in my eyes, this move is pointless and unwise.
To read the above mentioned book, click here.
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