Audio Version Of The Blog – 2/2/22
Posted on February 2nd, 2022
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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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Question: How can a person annul himself if he feels he is righteous and prideful toward his friends?
Answer: Let him pray and ask, and annul himself in front of his friends through any action. Thus, he will have the opportunity to annul himself before the Creator.
In this world he has the possibility to do everything with the group to annul himself. And he has the opportunity to pray, to ask the Creator to help him annul.
Question: When I see someone greater than myself, then I can annul myself. So should I pray to see friends as great?
Answer: You must see them as great. Try to see something special in each of them.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Annulling before the Friends” Lesson 2
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My new article on Linkedin “The Dilemma of Non-Jews Playing Jewish Characters”
It is highly doubtful that Golda Meir could have imagined that forty years after her death Jews would create a storm in Hollywood regarding the actress who would play her character in the upcoming biopic “Golda.”
Filling Golda’s shoes in the production is the non-Jewish British actress Helen Mirren. This casting sparked a protest by Jewish actors in the United States and the UK against non-Jews playing Jewish characters in movies and series. Just as African or Asian actors insist on portraying African or Asian roles on screen, Jewish actors assert that only a Jewish actor is capable of embodying Jewish characters and representing their people.
I strongly and unequivocally agree with this opinion. Not only because Golda Meir is a Jewish Zionist figure, the Prime Minister who led Israel in the tense days of the Yom Kippur War, but because the Jewish spirit cannot be conveyed at all by non-Jews. Even if it were Albert Einstein, who lived far from Zionist ideals in America and was totally immersed in the world of science, a non-Jewish actor could not express the same spirit.
In the world of cinema there are many examples of non-Jews who have played the roles of Jews, but much more than the complex facial expressions, body language, and distinctive speech, it is the inner spirit that is indescribable.
If we were to conduct a comparative test, I think both Jews and non-Jews would agree that it is impossible to play a Jew if you are not a Jew. Why is that? It is because of the collective experiences endured by this people throughout the ages that pulses in the fiber of their being. Jews are a people who took the role on humanity’s stage at the foot of Mount Sinai to be a “light unto the nations,” a symbol and model of social unity. This is a spiritual message and mission that has not disappeared; it is engraved within them and is passed on from generation to generation. Whether we like it or not, the Jewish spirit is present and alive in every Jew, regardless of the country in which Jews live.
I have seen Jews from China to South America, from Europe to the Far East, and although the different local culture has influenced their lifestyle, they still remain Jews. They have an essential inner quality that does not allow them to escape their Jewishness, so much so that they can be perceived as Jews. This living heritage cannot be replicated or simulated with authenticity by someone who lacks the innate quality. Therefore, a non-Jewish actor or actress cannot play a Jew.
In short, non-Jewish actors can be great and win praise by playing Jews on stage, but in practice, the deep and substantial spiritual root instilled in the Jewish psyche, which is connected to the root of creation, will not touch the heart of the viewer.
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We ask the Creator to give us the strength so we can perform all our actions for You, meaning for the sake of the Creator. Otherwise, meaning if You do not help us, all our actions will be only for our own benefit. (Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,’ in the Work?”)
Our attitude to the future, regardless of whether it will be for our sake or for the Creator’s sake, depends only on the Creator’s help.
If He does not help us, we will automatically do everything within our egoistic nature and live within the limits of our world and will think only about ourselves without even realizing that it is possible to go beyond these thoughts. This is the lowest, the worst possible state of all in nature.
And vice versa, if the Creator shines His light on us, helps us to connect, and begins to fill the space between us, the emptiness, rejection, and distance, then we will begin to feel each other exactly in the way in which His presence between us will do it.
Our initial state can be compared to slices of bread or vegetables in soup. The soup is like the light of the Creator, which should fill all the distances between us, and we will be in it. This is called “creating Shechina,” the presence of the Creator that would fill everything between us.
In accordance with this, our attitude toward each other is changing. While we remain egoists inside ourselves, opposite to each other, we treat each other in accordance with the effect of the light, the Creator, on us.
By making a restriction on our egoism and finding a screen to turn the ego into bestowal, love, and connection, we thus get a multiple, 625 times the connection with each other. It turns out that all our actions are no longer for our own sake, but for the sake of our connection with everyone, between us and the Creator.
But if we cannot ask the Creator to help us with His force, to correct everyone’s intention from receiving to bestowal, from distance to connection, then nothing will help us. We ourselves will not be able to make a single correct move toward each other. In no way! Only if the Creator helps us.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Asking the Creator to Fill the Place Between Us” Lesson 7
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Therefore, let me remind you the validity of love of friends in spite of everything at this time, for it is upon this that our right to exist depends, and upon this our near-to-come success is measured.
Hence, turn away from all the imaginary engagements and set your hearts on thinking thoughts and devising proper tactics to truly connect your hearts as one (Baal HaSulam, Letter 47).
It is necessary to make all of us such a union that our different feelings, thoughts, motives, and goals, as it were, complement each other, up to one heart, one thought, which will include everything. This state will be called Adam, similar to the Creator.
Question: Is it enough to unite with some of the friends in order to reveal the Creator? Or do you need a complete union of the ten?
Answer: With all the friends who can participate in this, let it be half a dozen, it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that you strive forward together and realize the conditions for the revelation of the Creator. The rest will join when they can.
Question: By what signs can I evaluate the impact of the group on me?
Answer: By the signs that you want to bend your head and get only what your friends think and want and want to only be guided by this.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Adhering to the Friends” Lesson 3
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Should we worry about a large asteroid hitting earth soon?“
NASA is working on trying to hit an asteroid that might make its way to earth. They sent a missile that is supposed to hit the asteroid in ten months, and will measure the extent to which they could deflect it from its orbit.
However, we do not need NASA or science in general to protect us from these threats that we perceive. The forces of nature are aligned precisely for our existence, and so if we need to be alive, then we will prevail.
We do not have to take nature into our own hands. We only need to reach balance with its laws.
If we correct our attitude to nature on all of its levels—the still, vegetative, animate and the human—then we will gain all the protection we need from all forms of natural calamities.
“Correcting our attitude” means developing an attitude of love, consideration and positive connection in every conceivable way. We need to understand that we exist in an interconnected and interdependent system, and we need to play our correct part in this system. The more we correct our attitude from egoistic to altruistic, and most importantly, the more that we do so in our relationships to each other, then the more we will let the positive force dwelling in nature into our lives. We would thus be wise not to worry about asteroids hitting us, but to focus on the place in our lives that we can change for the better—our attitude to others and nature—and then everything will work out to our benefit.
Based on the video “Do We Need to Hit Asteroids Before They Hit Us?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
It is impossible to receive the influence of the society if he is not attached to the society, meaning if he does not appreciate them. To the extent that he does, he can receive from them the influence without any work, simply by adhering to the society (Rabash, “The Severity of Teaching Idol Worshippers the Torah”).
Our work is not hard at all. You just need to connect with the group and everything else will come through our association. The revelation of the Creator will come from above. We don’t expect anything else. By uniting with each other we will reveal the Creator and thus reach the goal.
We see that the Creator does not leave us alone; He wants us to rise in our properties above ourselves as egoists and at least stop appreciating the state of egoism we currently exist in. I really hope that we will understand this and somehow start pulling ourselves out of the ego.
And then everything depends only on us. If everyone prays and asks the Creator to lower us in relation to the group and lift the group up, then through the ascending group we will be able to see the Creator who stands behind it.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/7/22, “Adhering to the Friends” Lesson 3
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In the News (Pew Research Center, “What Makes Life Meaningful? Views From 17 Advanced Economies”):
Family and children—38%
Occupation and career—25%
Material well-being—19%
Friends and community—18%
Physical and mental health—17%
Society and institutions—14%
Freedom and independence—12%
Hobbies and recreation—10%
Education and learning—5%
Nature and the outdoors—5%
Romantic partner—4%
Service and engagement—3%
Travel and new experiences—3%
Retirement—2%
Spirituality, faith, and religion—2%
Pets—1%
…
Outside of the U.S., religion is never one of the top 10 sources of meaning cited – and no more than 5% of any non-American public mention it. In the U.S., however, 15% mention religion or God as a source of meaning, making it the fifth most mentioned topic.
Question: When will the lofty meaning of life rise to at least the fourth, third, or second place?
Answer: If something changes, it will change only under the influence of very acute events.
Question: In your clips when you talk about an upper force, about the Creator, about goodness, about nature, about connecting people with each other, and about good relations, what do you expect?
Answer: I am counting on suffering, when we—by our actions, by our way of life—will cause such suffering that we will not be able to turn away from it just like that, and that it will make us think about the meaning of suffering or, in other words, about the meaning of life because life will be filled with suffering.
Then we will begin to think whether we should live at all, whether we should suffer, whether it all makes sense, and what we should do with ourselves. And then we will start asking serious questions and trying to answer them.
We will come to the conclusion that our life is wrong and we must find the right style of life so that everyone feels good and so that life itself does not end but rather comes to its top result. That’s another story. But people will start listening.
Comment: Meaning you do not fade at the end of life, but on the contrary…
My Response: No, of course not! During this life you go to the next degree of development; that is, you rise from the animal level to the level of Man, Adam.
Question: Why does it not fascinate a person?
Answer: It is at a completely different level of attainment. This requires completely different feelings and intelligence. And neither our brains nor our hearts work for this.
Comment: But even for our inner peace, it’s good that you don’t fade, but rather blossom.
My Response: It sounds nice, but nothing more. It’s been replaced with religion, maybe a little philosophy. But in our time, when everything is packed with television, travel, and other things, which a person does not have today, he does not need that.
Question: But if, one way or another, people must come through the suffering to whatever you say, then why was this whole program launched on humanity, this whole program of entertainment?
Answer: It is in order to realize the evil of our nature and what it leads to so we can go against our nature.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 12/2/21
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Question: If we act through the group, can we come to the point that we will no longer feel the attraction to the desire to receive but will feel only the pull in the direction of bestowal?
Answer: Of course! Just as now you feel natural egoistic urges, the desire to receive and to rise above the rest, under the influence of the upper light you will feel the opposite properties: the desire to humble yourself before the rest and to be connected with others, and through them with the Creator.
All altruistic qualities will gradually begin to manifest in you and you will have to act in accordance with them.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/9/22, “Asking the Creator to Fill the Place Between Us” Lesson 7
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Preparation to the Lesson
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Lesson on the Topic: “Faith Above Reason”
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam “You Have Made Me in Behind and Before“
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 120
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
Selected Highlights
| [media 9] | [media 10] |
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