Audio Version Of The Blog – 11/23/23
Posted on November 23rd, 2023
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Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “From Division to Unity: The Book of Zohar’s Vision for Society”
It is written that as the days of the Messiah approach, The Book of Zohar will be revealed to all. This does not mean that the physical text will be found on every bookshelf, dusted off every week. Rather, it means that a clear understanding of its teachings will spread throughout humanity. As Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) wrote in his “Speech for the Conclusion of The Zohar,” its wisdom will illuminate the path of the people of Israel becoming a united people in the Land of Israel—a people shaped by the supreme law, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
However, there currently exists a vast disparity between how the people of Israel relate to each other and their ideal relations that the scriptures depict. It seems as if we head in an opposite direction to unification. Even at times of war, we see ourselves drifting apart, distancing ourselves from our role of uniting above our differences in order to become a conduit for such unity to spread worldwide. While this contradiction is disheartening, we need to acknowledge that a turnaround can happen in an instant. The stages of transforming ourselves from a divided to a united people, with threads of mutual love and care in our connections, defy human logic.
Yet our increasing distance from each other signifies our forthcoming closeness. How can that be? The people of Israel’s current state aligns with the Kabbalistic texts’ depiction of the initial pre-Messianic era stage, one that precedes humanity’s transformation from division to unity. It does not mean that we will acquire an immediate revelation of higher wisdom or that we will instantly unite as described in The Zohar. However, we are indeed headed to a critical juncture where we will find that we need to either comply with nature’s laws of mutual love, bestowal and connection, and seek to match our connections with nature’s, or we will face destruction. We thus need to prepare our synchronization with the very natural laws that guide our development to higher states of unity.
Our journey thus far highlights our shortcomings—how poorly we relate to each other and how we resist applying the required inner changes in our attitudes to each other. From this state of resistance to unity above division, we need to recognize that salvation lies solely in our unity.
“Love your neighbor as yourself” is our guiding principle and our failure to uphold it will result in self-destruction. Once we grasp the need to aspire for drawing closer together and correcting our attitudes to each other—from flowing with our divisive drives until they drown us, to rising united above the floods of our division—then we will uncover inner strengths and abilities, as well as a source of constant support, encouragement and confidence.
The Book of Zohar has yet to become revealed in its full glory. We have yet to acquire a complete understanding of what is written in The Zohar, and use it for its intended purpose. But we have to be ready for the revelation of the states it describes, and to long for them to happen.
We have undergone a period of preparation for The Zohar’s revelation, we just lack clarity on why and how we should approach it, and to awaken our hearts to the sublime states of spiritual unity that it leads us to.
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Question: In one of the articles, Baal HaSulam writes that during a war there are states when governance is transferred to a destructive force, which then is manifested in the corporeal world.
Then this can no longer be corrected; you have to wait for time to pass. This happened during World War II, during the Holocaust.
What kind of destructive force is this?
Answer: This is the enormous force of the Creator, which He decides to use in educating people. Then bad conditions descend on humanity, and the Creator begins to deal with people according to the strict law.
Question: Baal HaSulam writes that when governance has already been transferred to this destructive force, even prayers do not help. Before this, you could correct something, pray, and somehow change the situation, but when the destructive force is manifested in matter, nothing helps. There are many such cases in history. Or is there still something that can be done?
Answer: Of course, there is. We still have to do something despite the circumstances. But we must not forget that there is a good time and an evil time.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/29/23
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Question: In Hebrew “army” is called “tzava” – “tze ve bo”, which means entry and exit from the power of the evil principle, i.e., our egoism.
When a person fights with it, he is either under the power of egoism, or comes out of it. Can we say that the most important thing is the work process itself, and the result of the war is not important? Or is winning still important?
Answer: The result is very important to us! But besides this, we need to understand why the war occurs, its reason, in what case it can stop, and so on. We must learn to work with this correctly.
Question: Does the result of war depend on the Creator or on people?
Answer: It is always from the Creator. The result depends on how much our plans and desires coincide with the Creator. And then there will be no defeat.
Question: For an external war, are the same principles true as in war with the evil inclination of man?
Answer: Yes. If a person wins a war with an evil inclination within himself, he can thereby win a war that has already manifested itself in the outside world.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/29/23
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Question: From the point of view of Kabbalah we see that at the corporeal level there is some harmony within the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature; otherwise our world would not exist. At the same time at the human level wars never stop. Why is war our most natural state?
Answer: War is our natural state because the biggest egoism is in the human being within all of nature.
The confrontation between the two civilizations, the East and West, is a war of values. The values that exist in the Eastern part belong to their internal structure. While the values that exist in the Western part are more mercantile and materialistic.
Therefore, the difference between them is very big—psychological, mental. Based on this we cannot say that certain values hinder us while certain ones bring us closer together.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/29/23
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Question: Are internal wars with an evil inclination possible without external manifestations?
Answer: Theoretically wars fought only mentally by the desires of the heart are possible. But when we will get there, I do not know.
After all, we can come to this only after we are absolutely sure that with our own desires, we create a place for wars and all negative actions.
The Creator, as the highest governing force, manifesting itself in external war, influences humanity to realizes the futility of its attempts to correct the world.
Question: What does external war bring out in a person? Does it awaken questions about the meaning of life in him?
Answer: No, we practically do not see this. For how many millennia have people been fighting each other and still this does not help them understand the meaning of life. Suffering does not raise these questions.
I think that they can only be caused by an educational process, by soft persuasion, when we sit opposite each other and correctly explain our point of view to everyone.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/29/23
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By this we have succeeded in understanding the answer of our sages that this world was created because “One who eats that which is not one’s own is afraid to look upon one’s face” (Baal HaSulam, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Chapter 4, Inner Observation, Item 20).
Question: How does shame awaken that you eat something that doesn’t belong to you, since we don’t have such a feeling?
Answer: Shame arises from the fact that we are only in reception and cannot change in any way. We are ashamed of our friends, we are ashamed of the Creator, we are ashamed of ourselves.
But we don’t have that in us yet. And then, when we gradually begin to feel that we are unable to do anything for the sake of bestowal, we will have a feeling that we cannot tolerate ourselves. And then we will have the opportunity to correct ourselves.
Question: It turns out that the desire to connect with the Creator gives you the feeling of someone else’s food, which you eat every time you receive?
Answer: No. The fact that you absorb the energy of the Creator, the qualities of the Creator, does not bother you yet. At the first stage, you feel ashamed that you are not changing. It seems to you that all the friends have changed, but you haven’t.
You look at your friends in the group and see that you are worse than them. You don’t understand what we study, you don’t understand the questions, you don’t understand the texts, you don’t understand the answers, you are not with your friends. You cannot interact with them because you think the others have been united for a long time. This is a problem.
Question: But every time it is unclear how to get to this degree. It appears that you are not putting enough effort because you don’t feel that way?
Answer: Firstly, there is not enough effort. Secondly, you may be hiding it too much from yourself so that you do not feel unpleasant.
Question: How can you reveal this in yourself? How can you notice the merits of friends?
Answer: Look at how they are connected, how they help each other, how you lag behind them, and how they participate in everything, understand texts, and ask questions. Look how much they are ahead of you in everything.
Question: But how can you see this in the friends in the ten who are currently absent? You want to see that they participate more in all events, and in the end you participate more. How can you distinguish this quality of advantage in them and put it above yourself?
Answer: It will come. First you think you are the best, and then you will see that it is the opposite. They will unite and show that they are above you.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/9/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)”
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Question: Between the world of Assiya and the worlds of BYA there is some kind of limiting line called Parsa. Is that where the second restriction took place?
Answer: Yes, the Parsa is a certain border below which the upper light cannot descend. Therefore we can divide all worlds, all spiritual space, from the world of infinity to Parsa and from Parsa down to the basis.
Our work is to raise our broken, egoistic desires, from below upward, and there, above the Parsa, connect them and fill them with the upper light, the presence of the Creator. All the egoistic desires that we cannot yet raise remain empty and dark below the Parsa.
In other words, there are a great number of desires. Before the Parsa, these desires are lighter and only the first restriction applies to them (the prohibition of receiving for one’s own sake). But if not for one’s own sake, then you can use them.
The Parsa is the border beyond which our dark desires exist, and we cannot use them even for the sake of the Creator because there cannot be such intentions there.
Thus, the entire path of correction that Kabbalah talks about is the correction of egoistic desires, both light and coarse. The coarse ones are corrected by rising above Parsa. And all these desires are only in relation to the Creator. How can we use the connection with the Creator?—For the Creator’s sake or for your own sake. For one’s own sake is below the Parsa, and for the Creator’s sake is above the Parsa.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 9/26/23
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Question: Let’s say one person lost a million dollars, and another lost a cup of rice. However, their inner feelings are the same. What is this feeling of emptiness?
Answer: What difference does it make who lost what and how much? The only thing that matters is how they feel it.
Question: But why does one of them need to lose such a large amount of money?
Answer: It is just a habit; it is an attitude.
At birth, all people are the same. When they die, they are also the same. Only their environment, a specific case, fate, so to speak, of one and the other give them different attitudes to the level of happiness, and nothing more.
A person is cleansed of unnecessary things, which leaves only the animalistic body and what this body needs, and everything else should be aimed at developing the spiritual degree in him. We do not need more.
We must exist in our animalistic body until we ascend to the spiritual degree, and then we will further develop along these degrees.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Lost a Million” 11/6/11
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Question: Does every spiritual law have an effect in our world?
Answer: No, not everyone. In our world the spiritual laws do not manifest at all with the exception of the most primitive ones—“give and take.”
Nevertheless, there is a tendency to unite in the world. For example, molecules unite into more complex substances and so forth. We see that this force exists. Gradually our world is moving toward unity in any case.
Question: If the spiritual laws do not manifest in our world, does it mean that the first and the second laws of restriction do not exist at the inanimate, vegetative, and animal level? Are they only at the human level?
Answer: Practically yes. The first law is a ban to receive for the sake of oneself. We cannot cancel or change it. It does not exist in our world. We do not see its application.
Whereas the second restriction, i.e., the second law, speaks that at some stage Kabbalists reveal the presence of egoistic desires that for now we cannot use even for the sake of the Creator since we do not have the screen. However, when we correct them, we will be able to receive into them.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 9/26/23
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