The main function of a judge in the period of judges was to judge one’s own attributes: to know when they were good and when they were not, and in what exactly they were good or not good, and to thus move forward to correct himself, to pray, and to turn to the Creator so that He would give the property of bestowal and love and raise a person above his egoistic nature.

The image of an ideal judge is that property in a person where he can be absolutely detached from his egoism, dominate himself to a certain extent, control himself, and turn into a greater quality of bestowal and love.

Therefore, first of all, the judge had to determine what is good and what is bad. And then rise above what is bad to the level of what is good.

Question: Can this be nurtured in a person or is it inherited?

Answer: It can be developed in a person.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/11/22

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What could humans learn from fungi?“

Israeli researchers discovered how a fungal network manages the exchange of nutrients between trees. Fungi connected to tree roots communicate the transfer of minerals, nutrients, water and carbon, while the trees funnel their carbon to the fungi in return. The researchers also found that the fungal network serves to strengthen and recover trees that developed certain problems.

Therefore, one thing we can learn from fungi is that there are complex and smart connections in nature. Among us humans, we actually have much more complex and profound connections, but due to our egoistic nature, we have no idea how to approach them. Fungi and trees, however, use their connections to their mutual benefit because they contain no such ego.

However, nature made us human beings with the ability to connect two opposite qualities, the negative egoistic quality of humans and the positive altruistic quality of nature. It is so that we can correct our egoism into its opposite—altruism—and by doing so, reach nature’s higher degree. And for us, nature’s higher degree is one of love, bestowal and positive mutual connections among everyone.

On one hand, fungi have a certain awareness of something missing in the ecosystem, and pass on certain forces to complement it. Among us people, on the other hand, we can see opposite examples, such as people continually amassing more and more wealth to a point where they do not know what to do with all of their surplus, while others starve to death.

We would thus be wise to learn from fungi about the intricate connections in nature, and that we can positively realize our interconnections by prioritizing the benefit of others over self-interest. Our eyes see an egoistic reality, but behind the scenes, from the perspective of nature itself, is an altruistic reality, and if we filled our connections altruistically like nature, then we would experience harmonious, peaceful and whole lives.

We would then gain nature’s wisdom. We would understand how the intricate connections in our reality work, and how we could maximally benefit our lives by mutually complementing each other through positively realizing such connections.

Based on the video “The Wisdom of Fungi” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Jesse Dodds on Unsplash.

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Question: The word ”Kabbalah” is perceived by many as something mystical. All the people shouting that they are engaged in Kabbalah from Madonna to who knows who, are they really engaged in Kabbalah or in show business?

Answer: Of course it is show business. Kabbalah is a teaching about the revelation of the Creator to a man in this world. Anyone can practice Kabbalah. But in order to actually achieve results, one must get into it very seriously.

Question: If this is so, then why don’t all Jews without exception study Kabbalah?

Answer: Firstly, it was once forbidden to engage in it because people were not sufficiently developed. But starting from the 14th to 15th centuries, Kabbalah had already been allowed to be practiced. Great Kabbalists such as Rambam and Ari wrote about this. And in the 20th century Kabbalah was revealed to everyone so today anyone can study it.

But the fact is that there are many impostors who created show business around Kabbalah and made a lot of cheats: Kabbalah and medicine, Kabbalah and spells, Kabbalah and the pulse of de-nur, or whatever. This is nonsense! They are fairy tales for the people to keep them in line.

Question: So the people invented it for themselves?

Answer: It was not the people who invented it, but their leaders.
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From Kab TVs “Encounters with Kabbalah” 1/5/22

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Why does the question about the meaning of life arise in a person precisely at the moment when he seems to have achieved everything? It is because he no longer has goals; all landmarks are lost and our world cannot give them to him.
We are specifically designed in such a way that we begin to rise from the level of our world into the next dimension.

But a person does not see it. He sees that this is our time, this is our generation, these 50 to 100 years are a very short historical period. We were always running after all sorts of achievements, money, power, fame, notability, and did not think we were mortal. Various goals within life overshadowed the final zero result for us: “It doesn’t matter. The main thing is that today I can play myself.”

And now we come to the conclusion that it is impossible to play ourselves during this life. I cannot! Like a prisoner who sits in a cell, he is served good food and he hears the gallows being made for him in the courtyard.

What can he do? Just drink from hopelessness. Can he have fun if he constantly hears this knock? As soon as the gallows are erected, he will be led out and hanged.

In such a state, when the final state of our existence is clearly manifested before us, we do not understand what to live for.

When we face the question of the meaning of life more than life itself, then there is a reassessment of values, and the result is very important to us. Here humanity comes to such a state: if this life ends, then it is itself worthless.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Summing Up” 4/7/10

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Question: In principle, do all four spiritual covenants manifest themselves when a person already has attainment of the Creator? And before that can any unions be made in the group?

Answer: In a group we create such qualities among ourselves that help us stick together and do what Baal HaSulam and mainly Rabash talk about. In his articles Rabash writes about the group, about the union, and about our movement toward connection, within which we really attain the Creator.

Comment: We also sort of make agreements in the group, for example, to come to lessons on time, to meet, and to participate in congresses. But all these are egoistic agreements, which sometimes we follow and sometimes not, in contrast to the union with the Creator. After all, if you have already agreed with Him, then it is forever.

My Response: It should be the same in the group. Rise, but do not fall.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/28/21

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Winning the War (Against the Evil Inclination)”

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Peace”

Selected Highlights

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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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My new article on Linkedin “Time for Love to Cover the Crimes between Turkey and Israel”

Last week, Turkey’s president, Tayyip Erdogan, hosted the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, in his palace in Ankara. The purpose of the festive meeting was to end fifteen years of cold and often hostile relations. There have been previous attempts to thaw the relations between the two countries, but for various reasons, it did not happen. I hope that this time it will succeed.

There are many good reasons to warm up the ties between Israel and Turkey. The economy is the most obvious reason, and probably the most important. The economy sustains the entire world. It sustains every country and every family, and I think that a sense of mutual dependence among people and nations is good. This is why our sages wrote, “Go and make a living off of each other” (Sanhedrin 16a), since this kind of connection is the safest.

Also, in a sense, Turkey and Israel have a lot in common. Both countries are “somewhere” between east and west; and both are looked upon as “outsiders” by NATO, even though Turkey is a member and Israel is officially a Major Strategic Partner. Therefore, we have a mutual interest in collaborating; we can really assist one another.

As for the conflicts of the past, I think they were necessary and, in retrospect, even helpful, as they now form the basis for our rapprochement. If we had had no disagreements in the past, we would have nothing to overcome, no distance from which to draw closer. Consequently, it would be impossible to create closeness. Now that these differences have subsided for some time, it is possible to rise above them and form a strong bond between us.

When there is no disagreement, there is nothing to overcome. If there is nothing to overcome, there is no motivation to draw closer. This is why King Solomon, the wisest of men, said, “Love will cover all crimes” (Prov. 10:12), meaning that hatred is there so we can cover it with love.

Besides the economy, there are other ways we can help each other out. We can help each other in international relations, in various technological developments, and in many other areas. Moreover, traditionally, Turkey and Israel have never been on particularly bad terms; there is no inherent hatred between us, no historical enmity. But even if there were such antagonism, it would be just another impetus to cover it with friendship, as I just mentioned.

On a more personal level, I have been to Turkey several times in the past, and wherever I went, I did not sense any negative feelings. The Turkish are very civilized people. They are an ancient nation, very powerful, and I do not think we should have any problems with them.

The disputes of the past are just politics. And the good thing about politics is that it changes quickly, while the inner feelings remain. Therefore, I think we can look to a better future, learn from the past, and cover all the crimes with love.
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War is a great clarification arranged from above, at all levels. But they all focus on one goal: to find out the truth. That is, to gather all the opposing forces from both sides, gradually bring them closer to each other, guide them toward one direction, and return everything to their source—the Creator. The main character in the war is the Creator.

It depends on the Kabbalists to what extent the corporeal war will turn into a spiritual war so that the purpose of the war will not end halfway at the destruction of evil, but will bring it to the subduing of all egoistic desires and transform them into good ones.

To win the war does not mean that one egoism overpowers another, but rather, it means that everyone bows down before the upper force, the force of love and mutual bestowal. The end of the war is not just the reconciliation of two fighting parties, but it is uniting all the inhabitants of this world, which in the end should be aimed at adhesion with the Creator. This indeed will be a true victory.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/22, “Winning the War (Against the Evil Inclination)”

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How can we win the war against our egoistic desire that cares only about itself? This is its nature and because of that, it is opposite to the Creator, the force of bestowal and love, which obliges us to think about everyone together and perceive reality in this way.

Reality is not what it seems to everyone in one’s egoism that wants to subjugate the world and rule over everyone by itself. On the contrary: it is necessary to overcome one’s own egoism, which exists in everyone, in order to unite with others as one and bend one’s evil inclination so that it becomes a good inclination.

The highest level, the hero of all heroes, is the one who overcomes his evil nature and turns it into good so that darkness will shine as light. Then we come to real victory when there is no evil left in the world. Both opposing forces were given to us by the Creator specifically to research their opposition together so that we could attain Him.

Everything comes from the Creator. He is the only source of everything. Therefore, there is no good and evil in the world; everything is in the force of the Creator, who is above everything. This is the kind of victory we need to achieve so that the angel of death turns into a holy angel, and all the forces that exist in the universe work only for connection and mutual completion.

It is necessary to defeat our evil inclination so that it bends down and begins to work as a good inclination, only for connection. This is our goal. Both good and evil come out of the Creator and come to us in the form of two lines so that we study them, work with them, and realize that we are only required to bow the egoistic intention before the intention of bestowal.

A hero is someone who overcomes his desire, and a superhero is someone who turns his egoistic desire into receiving for the sake of giving. This is the correction.

Therefore, the main thing in war is not to kill, destroy, ruin, burn, or subjugate, but to think about how to correct the evil inclination so that darkness shines as light. Without darkness there is no light; we exist only in the contrast of one against the other. We are not able to feel either darkness without light or light without darkness.

We exist only in the contrast of two opposites. And therefore, only by combining good and evil, darkness and light, can we feel ourselves and exist.

The Creator is constantly growing and inflating our egoistic desire, and we must reduce it and use it for the sake of bestowal. It is precisely because we have a desire to enjoy, the opposite of the light, that we can ignite the light and strengthen it.

The real victory in the war against the forces of egoism is to change the principle of their work, their function. And then, upon the difference of potentials between them, we will emphasize the light even more and reveal the Creator in all of reality. When we cancel the egoistic intention and continue to work with the power of reception for the sake of bestowal, the Creator grows and reveals himself to all creatures 620 times more than before in all our corrected kelim.

Therefore, the war does not end with the fact that evil is completely destroyed. It cannot be done. One can only bend evil, gradually begin to revive it, and use it for the sake of bestowal in the direction of good so that it works together with the power of light and reveals the Creator to us 620 times more.

The Creator has given everyone only one spark in the heart, and we ignite a great light inside our egoistic heart using egoism as fuel to ignite the power of the Creator’s force of bestowal and illuminate the world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/22, “Winning the War (Against the Evil Inclination)”

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