Audio Version Of The Blog – 2/7/23
Posted on February 7th, 2023
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “New Antisemitism Needs Ancient Solution”
In an attempt to counter rapidly growing antisemitism in the country, the French government updated its plan to combat antisemitism to include training teachers and requiring students to visit sites of antisemitic or racist incidents.
The problem of rising antisemitism is hardly exclusive to France. We see this targeted hatred rising dramatically in many places. One may ponder why this age-old hatred does not go away despite initiatives like France’s Interministerial Delegation for the Fight Against Racism and Antisemitism (DILCRAH), which it adopted in 2015 and updates every three years, and the multiple efforts in other places in the world where Jews are persecuted.
Hatred toward the Jewish people has been a regularly recurring phenomenon over the course of history that started in ancient Babylon and has taken on many forms up to the current time when we see what we call the “new antisemitism” is the same old hatred clothed in new dressings.
Ancient Babylon was a time of great social turmoil marked by the shattering of the Tower of Babel when the Babylonians felt an outburst of the human ego and lost their ability to understand one another.
In response to the demands of the time around 4,000 years ago, a Babylonian priest named Abraham discovered a method for rising above humanity’s divisive inclinations to reveal the single unifying force of nature.
Essentially, Abraham led his followers on a path to the discovery of this uniting force of nature through work in practical actualization within the relationships between people who applied the principle, “love your neighbor as yourself.”
The uniqueness of the followers of Abraham was that they shared no biological roots. They came from among all the peoples, clans, and tribes of the region. They coalesced as a group formed of people from different nations in the area who were drawn together based on a unifying ideology and joined together by a commitment to work on themselves in order to attain the quality of love of others above the pressure toward social division that existed at that time.
The Jewish people became a nation through a pledge to be “as one man with one heart.” This common ideological connection among the people of Abraham was formalized into a binding covenant at the time of the reception of the Torah at the foot of Mount Sinai.
Since then, it has been our duty to maintain this connection between us and to pass it on to other peoples, a role that does not involve entitlement, but rather service to others. Therefore, it is the duty of the Jewish people to fulfill the law of love among ourselves and to set an example of this brotherly love to others.
Unfortunately, since the time this covenant was made, we have completely lost awareness of our Jewish unity, and in its place, frictions and separations prevail. However, this shared experience of attainment made an indelible impression on the Jewish soul that is so profound that it could never be erased.
Thus, we should not waste energy thinking about how to make small fixes here and there. Instead, we need to put all our effort into achieving unity. I am certain that if the few million Jews on the planet today would think about how to unite in order to do good to all of humanity, the unifying tendency would expand throughout the world and everyone would join in.
In short, humanity will be able to connect on the condition that the people of Israel unite. Today, however, Jews are more divided than any other people. Therefore, antisemitism will gradually gain force and acquire forms that will unpleasantly compel us to unite. Eventually, an inner perception will form within Jews that we need to be closer to each other. And by finally doing so, we will save ourselves and the whole of humanity from all hatred, division, and crisis.
More on the subject in my book, New Antisemitism: Mutation Of A Long-Lived Hatred.
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Question: Why are Bina and Malchut represented by the same letter?
Answer: It is a consequence of the distribution of light in desire. Bina is the highest desire, Malchut is the lowest desire. But from the Creator’s side, it is almost the same.
Question: But Bina and Malchut have different qualities: Bina is giving, Malchut is receiving. Why do they have the same shape?
Answer: But not from the Creator’s side. From the Creator’s side they are the same, but from the creation’s side they are different.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 1/15/23
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Question: Igor writes: “Dear Michael Laitman, you have said many times that there is always an answer from the Creator, but we do not hear it. On the other hand, you say that all this horror that is happening today is for us to come to a dead end from our squabbling with each other and raise a prayer. Please explain to me, does the Creator still answer us all the time, or does He not answer and wait for our prayer in order to answer it?”
Answer: This is a tricky question. I would say that the Creator, in general, expects us to ask Him the correct question, to want the correct answer. That is, let’s assume He wants us to clearly ask: “What do we need to do in order to live in peace?”
Question: One way or another, will this happen if we feel that we are at a dead end and we cannot live in peace? Is this where the question arises from?
Answer: Yes. How can we live in peace?
Comment: But it will already be a scream.
My Response: No, humanity is not screaming. I do not see anyone screaming. Humanity is only waiting for everyone to look right, to suppress the other.
Question: So when will it start asking? When will it turn to the Creator correctly?
Answer: When it will feel that it is necessary to live by the rules, by the laws, of nature. People do not want that yet.
Question: What needs to happen for this?
Answer: I want the correct, cosmic vision of the world to manifest within me. I want my mind, my feelings, my strength, everything to be directed toward feeling nature and wanting to agree with it.
Question: Does it mean that you want this little world of mine to expand up to the universe?
Answer: Otherwise nothing will happen. Precisely because I agree only to my little world, and everything else is not important to me, and even let it all get even worse is why I do not see a solution.
Question: So, if I have a thought like: “I only want to feel good, and for this I live,” is this thought flawed?
Answer: It has already exhausted itself. We see what is going on. The world can plunge into such a wild squabble that there will be, as they say, a war for peace.
Question: But all this is in the hands of the Creator. Why will He not make us ask now, right now? Already all the conditions seem to be there.
Answer: He is making it so that we would ask, but we do not want to.
Question: Are we resisting even at this moment?
Answer: We do not want to. We are ready to do everything in order to put pressure on everyone.
Question: Then tell me, how do you see this turning point inside us when we suddenly start to want?
Answer: It will appear gradually. After all, it emerges from all this hopelessness.
Question: Do you think that suffering accumulates in humanity and in a person? Or does it simply disappear, like in the sand?
Answer: We need to look mainly at humanity and see how it slowly, gradually understands that this is not the way.
Question: Then I still come back to this question. Does the Creator answer us all the time, but we do not hear? At the same time, do we need to be pressed against the wall so that we raise a prayer, and He would answer us?
Answer: The Creator pushes us so that we recognize that there must be a correct answer, and it must be even against our nature. But we have to want to make a decision that is above us.
Question: Does it turn out that we have not grown up to it yet?
Answer: No. No one has grown up to it!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/5/23
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Question: We are the consequences of the Creator’s program; He created us with the will to receive. It is programmed in the light itself. Are we to blame for this?
Answer: Nobody blames you. You are just inside nature.
Question: What does nature want from us?
Answer: Nature does not want anything. It offers you a correct, normal, balanced, one might say ideal life, an ideal existence. But only if you follow its integral law.
Question: I do follow the law. I was created with the will to receive, so I receive for my own sake, right?
Answer: No! This is not enough. You must think about others because you are in the same system with them.
Comment: But I was created that way, I cannot think about others.
My Response: Here you must add your own awareness. It will raise you to the level of the Creator.
At some stage of development, you get the opportunity to rise and to realize what system you are in. If you fulfill the conditions of the balance of this system, receiving and bestowing, then you will begin to feel its general character, that is, the Creator.
Question: Does it mean that I was created opposite to the light only to realize this and want to change myself on my own?
Answer: Yes. This opportunity exists for every creature.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 1/15/23
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Question: There is a parable about a rich man was riding in a luxurious carriage drawn by six thoroughbred horses. They reached the mud, got stuck in it, and could not get out. Suddenly along comes a cart with a peasant and two non–pedigree horses, and they calmly skip through this mud.
The rich man asks the peasant: “How did you manage to do that?” He says: “You see, your horses, sir, although they are strong individually, there is no connection between them, each one considers itself more thoroughbred than the other and pulls in its own direction. You whip one, and the other is only happy about it. My horses, however, are simple, of the same breed, you threaten one of them with a whip a little, and the other one puts all her strength to help the one next to it.”
Nowadays humanity is all thoroughbred horses. Countries with their flags, with their anthems, with their pride. We are stuck in the mud, by and large, and cannot get out of it.
How can we all become such simple horses that skip through this mud and not thoroughbreds?
Answer: This requires the recognition of evil.
First of all, we are simple horses. Secondly, we cannot get out of the mud, the swamp of our lives, if we will not think about each other. Only together will we be able to go through all this swamp.
Question: So is it possible to be such a horse that feels that the other one is just about to be threatened with a whip, and is already accelerating?
Answer: Yes, of course. This connection is mutual. It is necessary in order to overcome any obstacles.
Question: Can we say that we will be in the mud anyway if we are thoroughbred horses?
Answer: No, we can be thoroughbred horses. But not in order to gloat over each other and to think only about ourselves.
Question: Does this apply to all of humanity and to each person individually?
Answer: Yes. This, in principle, is how each person judges himself.
Question: Is there an “I” in each of us that says: “I am better than the other, I am higher than the other”?
Answer: This is in each of us, we are egoists according to our original material. Therefore, we must think about the way we can move to universal love.
Question: In what case is this possible? When does this click, this flip, happen?
Answer: When we see that our nature is evil. It was specially created by the Creator so that we could change it to the opposite one.
Question: Is that why He created it?
Answer: Yes, specifically for this because we realize what good means only if we move to it from absolute evil.
Question: When does the understanding of the Creator’s thought come to me? At what point?
Answer: Firstly, it does not come to everyone. Secondly, it comes when a person really tries to find the meaning of life. This is when it comes.
Question: At what point is this search laid in me? When does it manifest in me? Is it as soon as I am born?
Answer: No, it is not simple and not for every person. There are people to whom this comes gradually over the course of life. And there are people for whom it does not come at all. This is still the majority of people.
So we must disseminate the thought of creation and correction in the world so that everyone understands that he was created in order to correct his evil to good.
Question: Does everyone have to come to this?
Answer: In principle, everyone, because the purpose is universal correction.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/15/22
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Question: If, according to Kabbalah, time, motion, and space do not exist, what actually happens when it seems to a person that he is walking around the city or going somewhere? After all, he is moving.
Let’s say a Kabbalist leaves for London to visit his students. Does it actually change his state? What is happening with respect to them and with respect to him?
Answer: Physical movement means internal, vector movement in qualities. Therefore, coming to London, a person feels differently, perceives everything a little differently, and treats everything differently. This is called “moving to London.” There is no movement, except inside, in your feelings.
Comment: But when you go to another country, you fly by plane.
My Response: So what? Who cares? An airplane is a manifestation of our egoistic desires, which have developed and manifested in this way.
Question: Is there any place that removes or brings a person closer to his essence? Where should he be? For example, someone lives in Chicago, someone else in China.
Answer: Of course, there is a difference in where a person lives. We see that in our world, there is a huge difference.
Question: What is the difference between my being there and here? What is changing? Let’s say I go to the airport, get on a plane, and fly somewhere.
Answer: You land, and immediately you are completely different. A change in the internal state of a person takes place.
There are people who do not feel these movements, because for them it does not matter where they are. And there are people who do not take it well. The Kabbalist moves everything inside himself.
If I go somewhere with a group of students, I hardly feel where I am. Of course there are different languages and everything else, but it practically does not change anything. I sit with my students in Rome, in Madrid, in South America, no matter where, and I do not feel the difference. But in the country where I live, if I give lectures to an outside audience, I feel different.
It is better for me to give classes for our Italian or Spanish groups while there than to give a lecture to strangers in Israel. After all, my students, Italians, Spaniards, and others, are much closer to me. While being among them, it is as if I do not go anywhere. They understand me, but locals, outsiders do not.
Question: But when you fly somewhere, are you completely different?
Answer: No. Each time it feels less and less, that when approaching them, I speak differently. Now this is gradually disappearing because very similar social, economic, and group processes are taking place everywhere, we are all studying the same thing.
Before, I was a little different with them because their groups were young and new, and I talked to them as if they were people who were not yet aware of our methodology.
Now I can speak to them in exactly the same language. After all, they are present at all our lessons and meals. They read my blog translated into their own language, which means they are in continuous communication with us and with me. Therefore, I am the same with them as I am with my students in Israel.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Space, Does Not Exist!”
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Comment: You once said that we are not correcting ourselves, but we are correcting the connection between us.
My Response: Yes, of course. A person corrects not himself, but his attitude toward others and his connection with them.
Question: But everyone has their own qualities. How is our connection being corrected?
Answer: By merging with nature. You can be properly connected with others only if you wish to rise to the next degree of development, to the common force of nature.
You cannot connect with someone unless you acquire the force that holds the whole universe, unites all its parts and laws, and contains all the opposing forces.
This force is the global law of the universe, the balance and the connection of all forces. Einstein was so eager to find its formula, its manifestation. Naturally, he could not do this, because he was engaged in research at the level of inanimate matter. However for this, the vegetative, animate, and, especially, the human level is necessary.
Therefore, physicists today also do not succeed, although there are many theories close to it. They feel both the necessity and the need for it.
But the most important is the need, at any level of our correction, to pursue one common goal: to come to unity, to connect, so that the common force of nature supports us, manifests itself between us, and connects us.
Then we will really achieve unity because nature has this quality. It controls everything that exists—what we see and what we have not yet discovered.
The fact is that this single force is somehow relatively manifested at the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels, but not at the human level because we ourselves must summon it, we ourselves must wish and understand where we lack it, and then it will fill all the voids between us.
When I discover that the right relationship is needed between you and me, then to the extent that we determine how much we need it, the force of nature that binds us will gradually open up and realize this connection.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Vicious Ties” 2/4/12
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the biblical definition(s) of sacrifice?“
Sacrifice is an inner state experienced by everyone undergoing spiritual development.
What do we sacrifice?
We sacrifice our egoism, i.e. our desire to enjoy for self-benefit alone, or in other words, we sacrifice our nature on the inanimate, vegetative and animate levels, which wishes to experience self-aimed pleasure, success and an easy life.
Such desires are egoism’s innate nature. If we wish to limit our egoistic approach to life and reach another state where we wish to not use our egoism but, on the contrary, to distance ourselves from it, then such an inner action is called “sacrifice.”
Based on KabTV’s “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Michael Sanilevich on January 8, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Preparation to the Lesson
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Zohar for All “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “Rabbi Shimon’s Exit from the Cave,” Item 185
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Zohar for All “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “The Commandments of the Torah, the First Commandment,” Item 189
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Selected Highlights
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
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