Audio Version Of The Blog – 6/30/23
Posted on June 30th, 2023
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The article, “The Rose” in the Introduction of The Book of Zohar says that a rose has two states: Smallness (Katnut) and Greatness (Gadlut).
A state of smallness is the beginning of its creation when it contains only the Sefira Keter. This state is called “a rose among the thorns.”
The state of greatness is called plainly “a rose” or “the assembly of Israel,” when all negative qualities grow and are transformed into positive ones.
Thorns symbolize our negative qualities. When we want to turn on each other with our thorns, we begin to understand that our positive growth lies in our correct attitude toward each other with our petals.
The state of smallness (Katnut) is when we stop using our negative qualities. It is called smallness because in this state we cannot receive the upper light. The state of greatness (Gadlut) is when we bloom like a rose, and through wishing each other good, love, and mutual assistance, we ascend to the level of the Creator.
In other words, as Rabbi Akiva said, “Love your neighbor” is the state of greatness when you can use all your desires for the sake of others. When you simply do not harm anyone, this is the state of smallness, in which you kind of restrain yourself, as if limiting yourself with the thorns of a rose.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 6/4/23
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Comment: Since childhood, I was indifferent to anything that concerned Jews. I never even considered coming to Israel. I traveled to many countries and got certain feelings from them. But in Israel, there is a particular sense of something still not being completed here.
My Response: Israelis have their own special little pride, but it is characteristic of a young country. Jews know nothing about being chosen by God and in no way feel it in themselves.
Israel is as young a country as, say, the Wild West was in the US at one time when people cultivated its deserts and prairies; they were proud of it and still feel pride to this day. After all, it was a period of pioneers, first settlers.
In some ways, the same thing is happening here based on the fact that people live in danger, in a state of war. They adapt to this in very difficult conditions.
When I come to Canada or America and look at the life of Jews there, it makes me sick to see people who only care about themselves, about their own pocket. Moreover, they are open about it: “I do not care about anything else.”
It is a purely animalistic existence. Take care of today and tomorrow, and the rest can burn in hell! Their desires do not rise above a comfortable material existence.
But in Israel, life itself is different. It revolves around stress. Those living here must constantly feel close to danger, with questions about life. And this leaves a mark.
Naturally, in egoists this is manifested as some kind of pride: “Yes, we are like that.” But this is a specific pride that comes from their spiritual aim, from their eternal goal that they must achieve and deliver to humanity.
Comment: But there is a sense of indifference toward each other here.
My Response: I think it is a defense mechanism, a survival instinct. It is too hard otherwise.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Hatred of the Jews” 5/14/11
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Question: Vladimir writes: “My friend, who works in a bank, told me about a global reform. The bank’s managers have replaced all men from the cash desk with women. He said that the bank conducted an analysis of many years of monitoring. It turned out that ten percent of male cashiers, working with money, cannot resist and start stealing. And among women, this tendency is much less than one percent.
He asks: “Why can’t men resist having a lot of other people’s money in their hands? After all, it is believed that women love money more. What is the weakness of men?”
Answer: First of all, women are more disciplined. They are more responsible. They have less craving for theft compared to men. They are more loyal. So it is natural.
Question: Why can’t men hold back?
Answer: Men are like children. I can now steal a little something somewhere, buy myself something special, some kind of toy or something else, I will do it, I cannot resist.
Question: So at that moment does the money stick to one’s hands?
Answer: Yes.
Question: And in a woman is there some inner shame to steal?
Answer: Women are very independent and sustained. A female thief is nonsense.
Question: What is at the root here? You keep saying that a woman is a greater desire to receive, egoism can be bigger. And at the same time, you are now justifying them in this way.
Answer: This depends not just on the desire to receive, it depends on independence. Women are more independent. They feel responsible for themselves and for their future. And they feel themselves in a relatively threatening world.
Question: Will she also be afraid?
Answer: Yes. Man does not have this feeling. Again, not from intelligence and not from physical strength or courage, but because he is like a child. Because men lack internal, hormonal development like women, they feel like children.
Question: What is “hormonal”? Do you mean adulthood?
Answer: Yes, adulthood. And that is why they do not have it.
Question: You mean the responsibility to give birth to a person?
Answer: Of course! They can sit on a bench and drink beer, chat with each other, and do something else of that sort. In general, it does not matter what. A woman always has some kind of responsibility for herself, for her relatives, for her mother, for her children, and so on.
Question: Can you say anything good about men?
Answer: Nothing. What can you do? That is who we are.
Question: Then what can be done with a man who has money sticking to his hands?
Answer: This is a problem. He needs to run away from this job. That is all.
Question: So this is the advice: stay away from work with money? So that he is further away from money?
Answer: Yes. This is the first call to prison.
Question: And in the upper root, what is it with the male and female parts?
Answer: The male part just needs a big correction and immediate one, and the woman needs a softer and non–urgent one.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/18/23
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Question: Previously, people traveled from place to place and the journey took a week, a month, and so on. Now they can be in another place in two hours. If everything in me consists of desires, then what is this desire inside of me called a journey?
Answer: The fact is that our desires have become bigger, more egoistic, and more dynamic. Therefore, I have such desires in me when I imagine airplanes, ships, and all kinds of means of transportation including rockets. In general, this is all an expression of my new egoistic desires.
I create these models and mechanisms within myself. All this is in my desires, there is nothing else. I see the whole world inside my desire, including all artificial or natural things.
What does natural mean? Natural is something that was created without my participation.
There is physical, biological, and social nature. Physical nature, obviously, goes on by itself. Biological nature, i.e., vegetative, animate, and human nature does too.
Social nature, however, is what we do in human society, what we create ourselves and add to nature in order to exist more comfortably. We invent all kinds of toys, devices, that help us live comfortably, to see further, hear further, work less, be more lazy, fulfill ourselves with all sorts of videos, sounds, and so on.
Our ego invents all these devices for its enjoyment. But it is possible to be fulfilled without any hardware, devices, and nano-technologies. If I cannot provide myself with pure fulfillment, the light, then my ego creates egoistic pleasures, and they require huge efforts from me.
Kabbalah offers pure fulfillment. Why should we invent some huge devices in order to be fulfilled? It is possible to be filled with joy without any physical means.
Question: How exactly does the replacement of corporeal fulfillments with spiritual ones happen?
Answer: It depends on how I work. If I work in the direction “for my own sake,” then of course I have to invent all sorts of mechanisms and search for how I can fulfill myself with something else at least a little, and so on until I reach a state where I cannot be fulfilled by anything.
But if I am being fulfilled “for the sake of bestowal,” then I have a completely different kind of fulfillment and everything depends only on me.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. A Journey Inside a Person” 6/2/11
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Comment: I was talking to a man who uses hallucinogenic drugs. He said that at the time he uses them, he loses his own “I” and can penetrate into other systems, cellular communications, the Internet, and can be a hacker. He has indeed hacked modern servers.
My Response: I do not believe it. Maybe he had some kind of additional intelligence like Wolf Messing did at the time when he saw some codes and could crack them, but this is not Kabbalah. Especially since he was doing such negative things.
A Kabbalist, rising above his level, enters a field that works only for bestowal. He cannot do a single bad thing. All his actions go together with the upper force, with the Creator. Therefore, does not hack something.
Even against bad actions, a Kabbalist can do nothing. Let’s say there are some forces in the world that are launching a nuclear war now. A Kabbalist has no right to interfere! He can only intervene at the lowest level by educating people and helping them to rise and thus neutralize all the bad. That is what I am trying to do.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Unreal reality” 6/27/11
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Question: What is the basis for the creation of countries? Why are there a lot of different countries and not one common country?
Answer: Everything comes from Ancient Babylon, in particular the settlement of people according to their egoistic qualities.
In Ancient Babylon there were 70 spiritual roots of 70 tribes. But they were all connected by egoism, by one aspiration for the Tower of Babel.
When this system stopped working, everyone started to hate each other, and in order to not unite and not fight, they scattered all over the world: some to the east, some to the west. Later, the great migration of peoples happened again but after many centuries.
Question: If this phenomenon has roots, then why is it happening this way?
Answer: Every nation is drawn to a certain place! Let’s say, the Eskimos went north. It would seem that there is nothing to do there! Yet, they stuck to that earth and besides digging out some roots from under the permafrost and breeding deer, they have nothing else. But they still live there and do not want to change their habitat. That is it! They are simply stuck to it!
But when a person moves from place to place, he as if loses connection with his land, with his juices.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Dominance of America” 5/15/11
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What’s the difference between the terms ‘god’ and ‘creator’?“
PhD in Philosophy & Kabbalah, Russian Academy of Sciences (Graduated 2005)Thu
The words “God” and “Creator” evoke different feelings.
Religions, beliefs and people in general more readily relate to the word “God” as a certain power that fills the void around us, existing outside of us.
The Creator, however, creates the world, us and everything in us at every moment, which evokes a need for us to react to such an influence on a moment-by-moment basis. By calibrating our reactions in a certain way, we can come to perceive that we are the Creator’s creation, and that the Creator is a single, eternal and perfect bestowing force that created us for a specific purpose.
In Hebrew, the word for the Creator is “Boreh,” which is a combination of two words, “Bo” (“come”) and “Reh” (“see”). That is, the Creator is an extensive name that involves our dynamic participation in order to reach the Creator’s revelation.
Therefore, “Creator” is a more obligatory term than “God.” The Creator expects something from us. What does the Creator expect from us?
It is that we discover our complete dependence on the Creator, that only the Creator can make us equal to Him, and that we will start demanding corrections from Him—to invert our egoistic nature into His bestowing nature.
We can ask the Creator to do something and He does it. That is, on one hand, we are powerless like characters in the Creator’s script, but on the other hand, we are in control: that without our request and demand, we could never reach a revelation of the Creator’s eternity and perfection.
How can we ask the Creator to do something?
It is like how small children demand something from their parents, they stubbornly stick with their demand no matter how many times the parents tell them “no.” This ongoing demand from the Creator leads us to a state that Kabbalists call, “My sons defeated me.” We then start feeling that we are His children and that He created us precisely in order to develop such a relationship with Him.
Based on KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on April 28, 2022, and on May 22, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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