Audio Version Of The Blog – 2/10/23
Posted on February 10th, 2023
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Judicial War May Devolve into a Civil War”
The judicial reform that Israel’s new administration is advancing has stirred turmoil throughout Israeli society. From every sector and faction of society, people are condemning the reform or rooting for it. Those condemning it warn that the reform will obliterate Israel’s democracy and place it at the mercy of politicians. Conversely, those who praise it say that it will restore the balance to Israeli democracy, which has been disrupted when Israel’s supreme court took excessive rights into its hands, such as the power to revoke laws or appoint new judges.
Recently, the protests against the proposed reforms have become so heated that prominent figures in the Israeli society, such as incumbent mayors, decorated retired generals, opposition leaders, and former prime ministers have begun to tout the possibility of a civil war, with some even explicitly calling, on social media and in public speeches, for the murder, no less, of Prime Minister Netanyahu, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin, and the entire cabinet, in order to restore democracy.
Since the inception of our nation, we have been known as obstinate people. We are extremely opinionated, and we think that only our view has merit. Worse yet, at certain points in our history, we took this view to the extreme and not only believed that anyone who disagreed with us did not deserve to live, we also acted on that belief and went on vicious civil wars. Now, it seems, we are heading there again.
Democracy is not good for such people. Democracy is for those who believe that general policy decisions are made at the polls. If more people prefer one policy to another, the parties that support that more popular policy will win the election. It does not make them entitled to abuse the minority, but it does make them entitled, and even obligated to implement the policy for which they were elected.
If I think that my country is democratic only when the view I support is in power, then I am not a democrat; I am a tyrant in disguise. It hurts me when I see what is happening in Israel today. While the rest of the world is learning and progressing, we are stuck in power struggles that will unquestionably bring the country to its knees and ruin the State of Israel.
Perhaps, considering our bloody past, when we killed each other in civil wars, it would be better if the people were dispersed and the nation disbanded. I have no idea what the Creator has planned for us, but if the choice is between dissolution and civil war, I prefer the former.
That said, there is a third alternative. Our people always have been and always will be obstinate, arrogant, and opinionated. If we are disbanded now and reassemble later, we will still have to face each other and disagree just as we do today. We are like that because our ancestors were like that, and precisely because they were like that, they realized that their only chance of success was to step on their own egos and form a union precisely with their dissenters. In those days, it was either unity or death. Now we are approaching that dramatic point once more.
In the past, when our ancestors chose unity, we not only became a nation; we also became a model for the world, a proof that no matter how much we cannot stand each other, if we rise above our hatred and unite, the bond we will form will overcome anything, and the power of such a nation will be insurmountable.
At the moment, I do not see that people are in any mood for conversation, much less unity. All I see is bellicosity. But as long as we are still not fighting, there is hope that we will come to our senses before we drown the ship that we are on.
We see that many people came to the group to study Kabbalah at the call of the point in the heart, at first they were on fire, but later cooled down and left this path. Why does this happen? It is because they could not annul themselves and rise above their pride.
To advance, you need only one thing, to bow your head before everyone, lower yourself to zero, and not make any calculations. If a person expects to receive more and more, then he has not yet started working against his egoism.
To lower yourself to zero means to make absolutely no calculations for the future. There is nothing in the present, there is no future, and I do not need them. I want to be at least at zero in the state that the Creator gave me. If I hold on only to this zero, then I discover behind this zero the opportunity to hold on to the Creator. I discover that there is the Creator to hold onto because I disconnect from my egoism.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Following the Creator in the Desert”
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Thus says the Lord, “I remember in your favor the kindness of your youth, your bridal love, your following me in the desert, in a land that is not sown.” This is written about the assembly of Israel, Malchut, when she was walking with the people of Israel in the desert (Zohar for All, Emor, “The Holiday of Sukkot,” Item 275).
Malchut is all desires that want to be corrected and reach the degree of Keter.
The desert is the entire path from Malchut to Keter, which we have to go through and ascend relative to the connection between us by uniting more and more. When we reach Keter, we become like one whole, as it is said: “The Creator is one and His Name is one.”
This is the path we have to go through. On this path of ascent from Malchut to Keter, all the events that the Torah tells us about happen to us. It is necessary to walk on the land that is not sown, on which nothing grows, on which no one has walked, sowed anything, or succeeded in anything. Yet you are walking on it because you want to come to the house of the Creator; you are following His instructions: “Follow Me.”
We are walking through a desert land where there are no signs of life, there is nothing to feed from, and there is no food (light of Hochma) and no water (light of Hassadim). But we still keep going, because this is the command of the Creator who wants us to come to Him in this form.
We only have a prayer that we want to follow the Creator with all our might. There is nothing to eat and nothing to drink, but we keep walking this path because this is what is ahead of us now. If you wait for more comfortable conditions, then nothing will work. You need to accept the conditions that the Creator gives you and continue the path until you rise to the degree of Keter, that is, to complete adhesion with the Creator from the side of Malchut.
Along the way, we go through all sorts of ups and downs, disconnections, burdening of the heart, and confusion of the mind. Success depends only on the willingness to continue. Let there be no feeling, no understanding, no guiding star ahead, and no good luck, but we are moving like an ox to the burden and the donkey to the load; we just keep going.
Whether I want or not, I continue anyway because this is my life, and no matter what happens, only in this form am I under the control of the upper one. Let him do whatever he needs to do with me. I know that this is how I am relentlessly getting closer to the goal.
The result of corporeal life is known, it is the same for everyone. The body will die, and all that remains of it is a point in the heart, the soul will rise according to the different calculations. Therefore, there is no choice except to continue.
Even if I perish in this desert, I have done everything I could with all the devotion of my soul to the Creator. I was not capable of more, and I could not do anything else, I tried to realize the potential that the Creator gave me with the point in the heart.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Following the Creator in the Desert”
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What does it mean to prepare for the desert? This means that I am ready to go into the darkness with my group after my teacher no matter how difficult and unclear it may be. This is the path in the desert.
There is desert and night around me, meaning it is unknown how, where, and with the help of what to go.
If I want to reach the connection with the upper force, with the Creator, I should not ask for guarantees. I just keep moving forward despite all the difficulties that arise before me.
The desert means that I have nothing to revive my soul with, there is no food or water. It is clear that during the day I suffer from the heat under the scorching sun, and at night from the cold; these are harsh conditions. Yet it is possible to live in the desert; people live in the desert. Therefore, it is necessary to continue despite the conditions. These conditions are specially given to us from above to help us discover the quality of bestowal and become similar to the Creator.
There is no past and no future, there is only the present moment in which I adhere to the Creator with all my strength.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Following the Creator in the Desert”
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Question: There are two categories of disturbances. One is when something happens in the outside world, and from these disturbances, a person runs to the group. This is it, he is together with his friends. Another category of disturbances arises as a result of connection: people have connected and difficulties appear. What is the difference between these two types of disturbances?
Answer: The first kind is just a beginner’s disturbance. But when you feel disturbances in connection, these are already disturbances that occur throughout the entire path, the entire ladder up to the world of infinity.
It is written in The Book of Zohar that even Rashbi’s disciples felt great hatred for each other before writing The Zohar, that is, before exploring the upper elevations, which they then described.
The problem in the connection between friends is manifested throughout the entire path. It seems to us that this is only for now, and then it will disappear. But this is constant spiritual work until the final correction (Gmar Tikkun).
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Two Kinds of Disturbances” 3/11/12
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Comment: You say that sometimes we underestimate the power of thought and the extent to which it is possible to turn everything around using thought.
My Response: Thoughts and desires are the most important and highest forces that instantly permeate the entire universe from end to end. Instantly! There is no greater, higher, or stronger power than the mind connected with desire.
All other forces are much smaller. If we were given the opportunity to use thought and desire purposefully, we would destroy, burn, and ruin everything around us immediately.
The fact is that our egoistic forces of the heart and mind (meaning desires and thoughts), manifest themselves within us in a very weak form at the level of our world. And as soon as we begin to possess the altruistic forces of connection (the right line), to this extent we begin to develop the left line—negative, egoistic connections.
By managing both forces,, we are constantly creating a system of balance. Then the middle force (the middle line) is revealed, called the supreme force of nature, the force of unity.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Power of Thought is the Manipulation of Consciousness”
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The intermediate stage of transition toward a new stage should be a period of self-study and self-education. Then we will build a society of rational consumption where we live in a normal and rational way and we take care that everyone has the same general level, but in accordance with the individual needs of everyone and according to their taste.
The most important thing is that in addition to providing us with a rational level of corporeal existence, we will develop ourselves through our new social ties so as to be in complete similarity to nature.
Thus, we will begin to enter into its hidden forces and to feel the vast space in which we exist, not the universe that we depict for ourselves, but inside a great and multidimensional machine.
In this case, it will be completely under our control since we will become its uppermost beings.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Make a Revolution” 2/10/12
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Preparation to the Lesson
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Zohar for All “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “The Third Commandment,” Item 204
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Zohar for All “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “Reinforcing Ourselves with There Is None Else Besides Him”
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Selected Highlights
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What can we change?“
Contrary to a lot of opinions, we do not have to change the economic, social and political structures, and other various superstructures in society.
We have to change ourselves. And we can do so by means of education.
Changing ourselves means changing our egoistic self-centered approach to life, which makes us want to enjoy at the expense of others and nature, to its opposite: an altruistic intention to benefit others and nature.
The education we need in order to perform this change is one that guides us to positively connect through raising the importance of benefiting others over benefiting ourselves. It involves learning about the egoistic nature dwelling within us, the altruistic laws of nature outside of us, how these laws operate throughout nature’s still, vegetative, animate and human levels, how the universe and humanity constantly develop to higher and higher levels of unification, and how to willingly and consciously align ourselves with the higher unified form to which nature develops us.
We can change nothing without undergoing this self-transformation, because we each have to be at the foundation for any new changes that transpire. Also, today in particular, we are in a transitional period where we will increasingly feel pressure to undergo this change from our egoistic approach to life that detaches us from each other and nature, to an altruistic approach that connects us and brings us closer together and with nature. Moreover, undergoing this change will yield a new sensation of eternity and perfection the likes of which we have never experienced in our current egoistic makeup.
Based on KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How to Make a Revolution” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on October 2, 2012. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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