Audio Version Of The Blog – 11/7/22
Posted on November 7th, 2022
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “A Nation that Is Not a Nation”
A week before the general election that was held this Tuesday, the newspapers Israel Hayom and Haaretz published two separate surveys, both concluding that contrary to the common perception of Israelis as preoccupied with problems of defense and terror, they are actually troubled by the cost of living. Of course, governability (huge parts of the country being terrorized by Bedouin and Arab mobs), Iran’s nuclear program, and social fragmentation are also major concerns, but people are deeply troubled by the fact that some basic products at the supermarket have simply become unaffordable.
I must admit; these are not my concerns. I have one, and only one concern. It is not that I do not feel the pain of rising costs or do not worry about terror. However, I feel that we will not solve any of our problems before we solve a far more fundamental problem: We are not a nation. We call ourselves the Israeli nation and say that Israel is our country, our homeland, but we are not a nation, nor do we feel like one.
To be a nation, we must have a minimal level of national solidarity, a sense that we share a common fate and certain common values or beliefs. Currently, there is nothing that holds the factions of the nation together.
There is only one solution to our problem: To drop all discourse on any matter, as urgent as it may seem, and focus on one and only topic: Fostering national unity. This is not true for all the nations, but for the Israeli nation, it is critical for our survival.
Because our nation was originally founded by people who came from different countries, nations, and cultures, there was nothing to hold us together but the conviction that unity is a value in and of itself, and in fact a value that is more noble than any other value. Moreover, our ancestors joined the Israeli nation in the first place because it placed unity above all other values, and our ancestors sympathized with the idea.
Because our ancestors came from all the nations of the world and forged a new nation based on unity, they became a model for world unity, an example that everyone could sympathize with and follow, since their own representatives were among the members of this novel nation. This is why we were given the mission of bringing about Tikkun Olam (world correction) by setting an example of unity and solidarity above differences.
But we abandoned our unity, and in so doing, abandoned the one thing that had made us a nation. Since we began to hate each other for no cause, we ceased to be a nation. This division was, is, and always will be our first and foremost problem. In fact, it is our only problem.
I hope that the new government will have a solid enough basis, and the required courage to forge an initiative to unite the Israeli nation above all its factions and fractions. If we succeed, we will not be troubled by high cost of living, by enemies who want to destroy us, or by any of the problems that have haunted us since we succumbed to hatred two millennia ago.
* For more on the importance of Israel’s unity, read my book The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, and my latest publication: New Antisemitism: Mutation of a Long-lived Hatred.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Is Our Future Eternity?”
A student told me he had read that the famous futurist Ray Kurzweil is about to publish a new book titled The Singularity Is Nearer. Apparently, it is a development, or elaboration on ideas Kurzweil had presented in his earlier book, The Singularity Is Near. According to the article my student read, Kurzweil predicts that by 2032, ten years from now, medical technologies will be so advanced that we will be able to live forever. My student asked for my opinion on the prospect of eternal life.
Well, for the life of me, I cannot understand what is good about living forever. Besides the fuss that we make about dying, what benefits does it give me to never ever die?
I know that holy books tell us that in the Garden of Eden, there is eternal life, so if we can live forever, it will be heaven on earth. However, if no one dies, will this planet be heaven on earth? To me, it sounds like a sure recipe for creating hell on earth.
Also, if we live forever, what dreams and hopes will we have? What is the point of living if there is no pressure to achieve anything?
Life is given to us for a limited amount of time in order to use it to achieve something, to do something with it. Life is given to us so we will use our time here in order to attain spirituality, not to remain forever confined to the physical existence.
Spirituality means extending myself, reaching beyond the self and connecting with the common root of all of us. In simpler words, spirituality means feeling all of humanity, and eventually all of reality, as one body, or better yet, as one entity that has neither beginning nor end. It is the opposite of eternal physical life, where time stretches on indefinitely. Spiritual life means living without time at all.
Such a life can happen not when we perpetuate the body, but when we rise above it and instead of thinking only of ourselves, thinking of everyone else. Currently, we are absorbed in ourselves because we only want to serve ourselves. If we wanted to serve others, we would feel them just as we currently feel ourselves. When you feel others as tangibly as you feel yourself, you are no longer confined to your body. As a result, you are not confined to any of the body’s limitations, including life, death, or any concept of time.
This glorious future is not wishful thinking; it is the future of humanity. It will happen as soon as we stop thinking only of ourselves and begin to genuinely think about others. The sooner we change our state of mind, the sooner we will begin that blissful life. If we procrastinate, we will keep fighting until we realize that serving the ego does not pay and we will take to the spiritual path. If we hurry, we will take to the spiritual path without having to suffer first.
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Question: Is the intention of Lo Lishma a necessary stage of spiritual development?
Answer: Of course. Each time it is revealed to us that we are acting with the intention of Lo Lishma, meaning for personal gain. Then we demand the reforming light so that it corrects Lo Lishma for the altruistic intention of Lishma.
I have 613 desires and if in any of them I act for my own benefit, this is called Lo Lishma. If, proceeding from this desire, I act for the sake of bestowal, this is already Lishma. We are talking about two necessary states, one of which results from the other. First the evil inclination is revealed, then the Torah, the spice, corrects it for a good one, and the egoistic intention becomes an altruistic one.
It is written, “There is not a righteous man on earth who does good and will not sin.” We must come from Lo Lishma to Lishma while correcting each of our 613 desires.
Well, if a person does not correct his evil inclination and does not use the reforming light according to the Kabbalistic method, then even his own evil is not revealed to him. The bad that you do in our world is not the evil we are talking about. It is when you do not discover in yourself the intention for the sake of receiving, and you have no connection with the matter of the desire that needs to be corrected. Well, stay an “angel” for now.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”
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All attention should be focused on our duty to connect, to go toward unity. This is the correction of the transgression of the tree of knowledge. We can’t hide from it. If we take a closer look, we will see that every person, all nations, and all of mankind generally revolve around this correction.
It will soon be revealed to us that every effort, every action, even of any individual, if he or she wants to succeed must contribute to the correction of the tree of knowledge.
We will inevitably come to the state of the end of correction. The only question is how we will travel this path. Will we be driven at every step by the whip? Will we figure out the right forms of progress in every step and in every detail? Will we ourselves move toward the same goal with the help of prayer and friends?
One may ask why we should create this alternative that is not wanted by the Creator. This is for us to have the freedom of choice to agree with the Creator and prefer to go this way, not under blows, but voluntarily, and to restrict our egoism and enter into work for the sake of bestowal (Lishma). We advance by putting our efforts and prayer into it and by trying not to escape every moment to return to the egoistic path.
Eventually we will achieve the same goal, but instead of making our way through a dark forest, through robbers, and in fear of being beaten and killed, we can drive along a beautiful highway in a Mercedes quickly and comfortably. We will perceive the goal differently if we are not driven to it from under the stick. When we move toward it along the road laid out for us, we are correcting ourselves more and more and getting closer to the goal.
At every meter of this good path, we gradually bring ourselves into line with the goal; that is, we change. While on a bad path, we increasingly resist moving until we come to such suffering that life becomes worse than death. And when we prefer this death, our egoistic desire is killed for us, which leads us to correction.
The quantity and quality of suffering on the path of acceleration of time (Achishena) is incomparable with the natural path of development in its time (Beito). After all, if I am ready to suffer in order to come to the truth, then this is no longer suffering!
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/1/22, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”
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Kabbalists wrote about the essence of the soul: “The soul is a part of God above and is not at all changed from the Whole, except in that the soul is a part and not the Whole” (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Chapter 1, Inner Observation, Item 3).
Question: How can we understand that the soul is a part of the Creator?
Answer: Basically, the soul is not a part of the Creator. The one who reveals the Creator, however, attains only some part. In fact, it is impossible to divide the Creator, to cut off a piece from Him, like a stone from a rock. One can only come to understand that this is how our attainment takes place.
Baal HaSulam wants to explain to us that there is no difference between the soul that is within a person and the Creator Himself. There is a difference in attainment; a person attains only some part, some manifestation, of the Creator, but nothing more.
Then, as he grows spiritually, he will attain a greater and greater part of the Creator within himself, until, as a result of his spiritual development, he reaches the feeling that the Creator fills him with absolutely everything.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 10/16/22
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We should therefore always distinguish two discernments in His bestowal: The first is the form of the essence of that upper abundance before it is received, when it is still an inclusive, simple light. The second is that after the abundance has been received, for by this it acquired one separate form according to the properties of the receiver (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Chapter 1, Inner Observation, Item 2).
According to the similarity of my qualities and the qualities of the Creator’s bestowal, I feel only a certain influence. That is, the light before clothing into me is called “simple, uniform, single,” and when it is clothed in the receiver, it is as if it takes on my qualities.
Question: If my qualities are opposite to Him, do I feel myself opposite to the Creator?
Answer: There are a great number of possibilities here, depending on the similarity of the qualities of the Creator and the qualities of a person. This is how a person feels. The more his qualities will be similar to the qualities of the Creator, the more correctly he will feel Him.
Question: How clear is this feeling of the Creator?
Answer: It depends on the measure of similarity because practically we feel only the Creator, there is none else besides Him.
Therefore, our entire pursuit is to reveal Him in all His manifestations. Then we will see that everything around is just Him, His single force and a single fulfillment.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 10/16/22
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Question: If there is something successful in dissemination and the world takes it “with a bang,” how can we deal with it?
Answer: No. We should not experience constant problems, but if the world perceives the dissemination with a bang it does not mean that we have already reached something. We will begin to feel that we lack the Creator’s help in this, and then we will face other problems so we will find out.
By being in a state of constant contact with the world and with the Creator, a person sees the upper world in our world, and the Creator in it, and how all this is controlled by one unique unified force.
Comment: But all the same, in spirituality everything goes step by step: victory – defeat, victory – defeat.
My Response: Any victory then turns out to be a defeat for the next step. What you learn today is not enough tomorrow. We are moving on.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Victory Is a Sign of Defeat” 8/2/13
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Question: Did Adam make any real mistake?
Answer: Allegedly, a real mistake. Adam failed to reveal the universe correctly, which is represented by eating from the tree of knowledge. He ate it egoistically, and therefore he must come to the realization of the unfaithfulness of the egoistic path of development, the egoistic attitude to himself, to the environment, and change his attitude with his whole history.
This, in principle, is his sin; he tried to do the opposite but could not.
Question: Why was Adam shattered into small parts?
Answer: In order for everyone to solve their own little problem. And what do you do in our world when you face a big task? You break it into pieces, and into more pieces, and more, and give everyone a task, adjustments, and an implementation plan.
All of us in the world unconsciously solve this problem. We do not understand what we are doing, but in theory we are solving a very simple task: a person’s attitudes to the environment, to nature, and the universe, and understand what the Creator is, what the universe is.
In principle, the problem has been solved, the algorithm has been found, but it has not become the asset of all eight billion people so they are still unconsciously poking around and solving this problem through suffering.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Collective mind” 9/7/13
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “When do we consider that a person is criminal?“
Until we completely correct our ego, where we can position ourselves to the benefit of society—which is already a degree like we never saw before anywhere in this world—then we are always criminals of sorts.
We are criminals from birth. It is because we are each born with our ego, and so we each wish to benefit ourselves, and besides benefiting ourselves, we might also feel good by harming others, because we measure ourselves in relation to others.
Criminals, in essence, are those who breach “Love your neighbor as yourself,” which is the general law of reality, and a crime is wishing to harm others for the sake of self-benefit. In short, we benefit by feeling better off than others, either by acquiring money or other possessions, or by obtaining some form of honor or control from the crime.
Based on the video “When Do We Consider That a Person Is Criminal?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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