Comment: Rabash has an article about Tu B’shevat (the new year of trees) in which he tells how to care for trees, prepare the soil, fertilize, do something with the roots, remove dry branches. It is clear that we are talking about a tree inside a person, i.e., about his inner work.

My Response: Indeed, in order to get good fruits from trees, a lot of work must be done around them. Citing trees as an example, Rabash as if addresses a person who must grow himself to become a fruitful tree.

For example: to prepare the ground means to prepare the right environment around you. To fertilize the soil means to bring good, nice books and games to a person with the help of which he could develop correctly.
Removing dry branches means removing what will not bring any good fruit so that it does not interfere with progress.

Question: Could it have been described in another way?

Answer: No. Rabash gives such a beautiful and complete example, which is amazing.

Question: There is a book The Tree of Life, which was written by the greatest Kabbalist of the 16th century, the Ari. What is it about?

Answer: It is about the Creator’s governance of creations through all the worlds to our lowest world so that we can rise from this low state through all the worlds to the level of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 6/14/22

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Question: The spiritual world can be characterized as a comparison of incomparable, mutually negating manifestations. In our world, there is either hatred or love, which cannot exist at the same time. Whereas the spiritual world is built on the interaction of these opposites.

What is this phenomenon? It is written in the sources that it is for this reason the revelation of the Creator is such great pleasure.

Answer: The spiritual world is built on the fact that our egoistic desire forces us to start correcting it with the help of an altruistic intention.

Therefore, spiritual reception, in which egoistic desire and altruistic intention are combined, gives us such huge opportunities for cognition and expansion of consciousness, states we can define, evaluate, weigh, and experience completely new units of measurement called Aviut (thickness of desire), Masach (screen), Ohr Hozer (reflected light)—units, with which the science of Kabbalah operates.

These opposite states give spiritual volume. There is no volume at the material level, as only one side prevails.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 6/7/22

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The main thing that we lack is connection, at least in something. Baal HaSulam writes that the entire world is entering a state called the last generation where everyone should be connected with each other. Whether we want it or not, the upper governance will always spin us around the connection between all people in the world.

We will see how different countries, companies, parties, and social organizations will be drawn into one whirlpool, connecting, colliding, and influencing each other. Day by day, this entire knot will become more and more confusing and seething because the world is moving toward universal connection.

Therefore, it will be necessary to find out what state we are in and to what extent we are opposite, not ready to hear each other, and doing completely different things. Until in the end, from this opposition, we will see that in fact there is no difference between us. It does not matter what each of us does, we must all unite.

It is like a family where everyone has their own responsibilities and their own profession. However, there is a circle that unites us, a family in which we grow up and learn to better understand and feel each other in order to build an environment for our existence day after day.

It does not matter what the mother does, who the father works for, and where the children study. After all, in addition to everyone’s personal activities, there is a common connection between them, which is called family. It does not matter that each of the family members is busy with their own business in the outside world, inside the family, we are connected as one.

This is how we need to see the connection between all people. There are many thousands of different companies, parties, and groups in the world, but we all have to feel that we are in the same system, in the same family. Despite the fact that everyone has their own activities outside of this system, there is something that connects us into one family.

In this family, we do not determine what kind of personal business everyone should do. It is only important to us that we feel like a family, like relatives, connected and dependent on each other.

We will see how day by day the upper governance, nature, and the program of evolution bind us more and more tightly together. We are increasingly dependent on each other and have no way to escape from this family. We need to write more about this until humanity understands that nature leaves us no choice; it pushes us to get acquainted with this system, and acknowledge that we all are one family.

We will really begin to see a relative belonging to this family in every inhabitant of this world and according to this, we will establish new relations between us. This will eliminate many problems on the path of our spiritual development because this is what the Creator wants from us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/25/22, Writing of Rabash, Questions in the Work

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Can love for the Creator be greater than love for friends? It simply cannot be that I treat the Creator better than my friends. After all, the friends are my spiritual Kli, as it is said: “And from the love of friends one can reach love of the Creator.”

Therefore, we must understand that just as much as we are drawn to the Creator, we must first of all strive to unite with our friends in the same way, and even more strongly. But in practice, it usually happens the other way around. A person strives for the Creator and this is his goal, but in his friends, according to his egoistic nature, in the ten, in love for his neighbor, he does not see the importance.

We begin our journey with the desire to find the upper force that controls us. But we gradually begin to discover that we need a spiritual Kli, which is based on love for friends, unity, and a sense of the importance of all mankind. It turns out that the attitude toward our neighbor becomes more important to us than the attitude toward the Creator.

Although the Creator is more important, is the ultimate goal, the Creator is everything, at the same time, the importance of friends is revealed to us because if the Creator shines on us, it is through them. It turns out that friends are becoming more and more important to me, and I am building such an image of the group in my heart so that it becomes my Kli where I will reveal the Creator and my attitude toward Him.

Therefore, the question: “Can love for the Creator be greater than love for friends” requires a very simple answer: today, the group is most important to us. Although the ultimate goal, meaning, the Creator, always stands before us as a guiding star, we can reach this guiding star only in the chariot called the ten.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/22, Lesson on the Topic “Fear”

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Question: The German philosopher, Johann Gottfried von Herder wrote that the moral upbringing of people in a spirit of justice, humanism, and aversion to war is necessary to achieve eternal peace.

Overall, throughout the ages, it has been recognized that it is necessary to re-educate people in a way so it would be possible to establish peace. Why have they still not become re-educated?

Answer: Because it is impossible. Don’t history and experience speak of it? Egoism, contradictions between people, mutual hatred, rejection, and thirst for power all is incurable, and we are unable to do anything about it! We must accept it and look for another way for how we can work with this correctly and how we can transform despicable and abhorrent qualities into beneficial ones.

Here one needs to add the outer force that can correct egoism into altruism. Then we will receive the altruistic force that does not exist in our world. We only suspect that it might, but it does not. However, egoism does exist.

The only thing that exists in our world is the egoistic force and there is no opposite to it. We kind of wish it existed, but in truth, we don’t desire it. We simply think that yes, it would be good. However, we see that it cannot happen.

What can we do to find the kind and unifying force, which is opposite to egoism, in our world? There is nothing else we need besides this force.

Until that happens, do not force people, do not try to do something kind and good with them. Nothing will work! In the end, every time they will bump into their egoism, which develops more and more, and it will be destroying everything that they will try to do.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 3/4/22

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do I overcome stagnation in all aspects of my life?“

By realizing the positive process taking place when we feel that our lives are in stagnation, and contemplating questions such as what we had before reaching a stagnant state, what we will get later, what we would want to have, and why we feel that we get stuck.

We are in a process of life that has a start and an end. We undergo various experiences and states during this process, and a state cannot change unless it reaches its end, from which it gives birth to a new state; and once again the process continues until that state reaches its end and gives birth to the next one.

Sometimes, we have relatively smooth transitions between states, where we understand and feel how they pass with the help of various actions that we perform. Suppose that we are engaged in certain activities, whether we are at work or in the middle of some tasks that we set for ourselves, we sometimes feel as if we are not ready to change these states, that we have no desire to change a good state for something lesser, or we see great difficulty in climbing out of a bad state into a good one, i.e. we are unwilling to exert ourselves. There are all kinds of places where we get stuck in life.

Therefore, the feeling of stagnation in life is very good. It helps us understand what we had, what we will get, what we would want to have, and why we feel that we are stuck.

Based on the video “How to View Stagnation in Life Positively” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Christian Newlands on Unsplash.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Advance by Overcoming”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “One Commandment” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 3,” Chapter 12, Item 5

Selected Highlights

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 7/5/22

A viewer of one of my shows sent an email describing the following sad story: Several years ago, I started a business with a childhood friend. Many people recommended that we sign a business contract with an attorney, but it felt strange to involve lawyers in our close relationship so we avoided it and opened the business on the basis of good faith. For the first two years, everything was fine, but then the business ran into trouble and things started to deteriorate. We started blaming each other for our troubles, we lost trust in one another, and today, as much as I hate to admit it, we hate each other. This is killing me, Dr. Laitman, is there anything I can do?

I can understand why this viewer and his friend thought they did not need legal counsel, but their decision condemned their business and their friendship to failure. We are all egoists, and we all deny it. When our ego is happy, we think everything will always be fine. When our ego suffers, we think everything is bad. This is human nature. Actually, this is the nature of all things, but it is most noticeable in human beings.

Therefore, to remain friends, do not start a business with them. A sound business is not based on friendship, but on strict egoistic conditions that satisfy the interests of all the parties ‎involved. A business requires making businesslike decisions, which have nothing to do with friendship, but only with cold, selfish decisions.

The essential role of lawyers, therefore, is not only to determine how a business should operate, but also what to do when things go wrong. If there is a detailed contract, there will be no disputes and the partners will know what to do.

When you mix business with friendship, you expect your partner to adhere to two different codes of conduct: a business code and a code of friendship. When there is a problem, the codes begin to clash, as it happened to this viewer. Then, either the business or the friendship falls apart.

If I enjoyed playing soccer with a certain person as a child, it does not mean I should do business with him. On the contrary, it probably means I shouldn’t.

Since this viewer asked me for advice, I would suggest that he and his friend contact a good lawyer and seek advice on how to rebuild their connection. It is not simple, and it may be too late, but this is my advice now that they have made the mistake and are trying to save their friendship.

That lawyer should rearrange the connection between them on a completely self-centered basis so that both parties can feel satisfied in the situation they are in. If no such arrangement is found, the two should part ways.

It is not as if there is no more room for reconstruction, but there must be a clear and solid egoistic basis for their business and non-business relationship. If they are both satisfied with it, they might be able to rebuild from there.

I hope that in the future, they will learn not to ignore human nature. We are egoists, and we should behave accordingly. Then, above our egoism, we should build connection, but without undermining our basic nature.

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Medium published my new article “Fear Comes from Absence of Love”

The more chaotic the world becomes, the more stressed and anxious we become, as well. Insecurity about the future is causing trepidation, and the only thing that seems certain is that we cannot trust anyone and have no clue what tomorrow will bring. There is one culprit behind our fears and anxieties: We are hostile and hateful toward each other, and where there is no love, there is fear, and lots of it.

Not only people are afraid. We find fear in pets, animals, and even plants, although we do not label it as such. Fear does us a great service: it is a sentinel that warns us of falling into dangerous pitfalls, a protective mechanism that all living beings employ.

It seems reasonable to think that progress should have made us more confident. It seems as though technology can protect us better than if we lived in caves. However, development has brought with it a slew of unfamiliar dangers with which we have no idea how to cope.

In the past, hazards were just as formidable, if not more so, and truly existential. For the cavepeople, for example, venturing out of the cave meant being vulnerable to attacks by predators. However, fear did not cause panic because people knew the dangers and how to protect themselves from them. Today, countless elements and factors affect our lives and the lives of our loved ones, and we cannot know them all, cannot see them coming, and do not know how to overcome them. Naturally, this puts us in a state of constant pressure and anxiety.

The more we evolve, the more self-centered we become. In fact, since approximately the turn of the century, we have reached such a level of egoism that sociologists are speaking of a “narcissism epidemic.”

As we are growing increasingly sophisticated and increasingly narcissistic, we are developing increasingly complicated systems that leave us powerless and mistrustful of them and of each other. Because we do not like or trust each other, we are erecting protective shields that increase our isolation, alienation, and thus our fear.

If we want to feel safe, we need not work directly on increasing our confidence. On the contrary, we should put aside our excessive preoccupation with ourselves and focus on developing care for others, since the lack thereof is the reason for our fear.

A sense of security does not come from fighting against hatred; it comes from striving for connection, for caring. The only malice that exists is in our hearts. Its cure is not to uproot it but to instill consideration and ultimately kind-heartedness.

A person preoccupied with caring is not afraid of anything. Caring for others is the greatest gift one can receive. If we can build a society based on consideration and care, it will be a society of confident and happy people, since there is no fear in the presence of love.
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