Audio Version Of The Blog – 12/4/23
Posted on December 4th, 2023
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Question: There is an anecdote about a plane that crashes, and one passenger survives and gets to an island. Cannibals live there and they grab him and bring him to their leader, the chief. It turns out that the chief is an intelligent, attractive man of European appearance.
The passenger tells him: “You are a person of European education; you are so cultured. Have you not been influenced by civilization?!” The leader answers him: “Of course I have been influenced by it. When I eat you, I will use a plate, a fork, and all sorts of seasonings. Everything will be very smart.”
The question is this. We see that civilization has not stopped wars and has not stopped horrors. In theory, what should be the purpose of civilization?
Answer: We need to change all this from the inside. Only from the inside. That is, civilization is what happens inside, within a person.
Question: Within a person? This is a coup, of course.
Answer: There are no coups; there have not been any yet. But eventually, at some point, we have to come to that.
Comment: Right now with all this horror that is happening, with all these wars, with all this barbarism…
My Response: There is no horror, just people demonstrating who they are by nature. It is egoism, just human egoism. It needs to be corrected. Nothing else! Human egoism is not balanced everywhere, not in any country or in any system of the world.
Therefore, if you give people the freedom to devour each other with impunity, you will see how barbaric they are. That’s it!
Comment: But they will still use a spoon, fork, and plate.
My Response: Yes, it is a habit.
Question: Are you saying that they will use this civilization, but they will eat each other at the same time?
Answer: Yes.
Question: You said that civilization should happen inside a person. Please explain these words “civilization inside a person.” What should happen inside a person?
Answer: Imagine that you are in a stadium, and there are, say, a million people there. Do you have any idea what kind of a sight this is?
Comment: I imagine. Such a mass that is rooting for someone.
My Response: They are rooting for someone, for something, against someone, and so on. Do you think you can change them to be in a pleasant way toward each other?
Question: If they support different teams?
Answer: Of course. Who else goes to the stadium? Only because there is such a struggle there.
Comment: Hardly.
My Response: Hardly? That is, we see that humanity has practically not changed. It is in this form that it manifests itself.
Question: In the form that someone is rooting for someone, and he is already ready to eat the other?
Answer: Yes.
Question: And then what? If we are talking about a change in a person, what then? Should they start rooting for the same team?
Answer: No, I would just ban such events. Completely! All of such competitive actions.
Question: Are you now speaking against any competition?
Answer: Any. Because they make people hate the opposite side. This is the basis of civilization: we are better, we are wiser, we are more correct, we are stronger, and so on.
Question: What, in your opinion, should happen at the stadium in this case?
Answer: Some kind of games, but not one against the other.
Question: Do you include wars, different opinions, politics, and everything here?
Answer: Absolutely everything! People have to learn completely different relations. But they, on the contrary, go somewhere else from here. They are only engaged in competing with each other: who is better, who is bigger, who is stronger, who is more afraid of whom, and so on.
Comment: Then, speaking globally, there is a country with its borders, its anthem, its flag…
My Response: Destroy everything that separates people from each other!
Question: But first of all, within these boundaries, is it necessary for people to undergo some kind of correction?
Answer: Naturally, it should be a campaign for correction.
Question: Is the goal that the borders will fall? A long-range goal. What is today’s task?
Answer: Today’s task is for everyone to go against themselves.
Question: If we manage this task, will it then be possible to open borders?
Answer: Of course! There is no question about it.
Question: Then what does it mean to “go against myself”?
Answer: To go against yourself is to go against your egoism, against hatred of others. This is our task.
Question: What if I feel this hatred? How should I extinguish it? This exists in every person.
Answer: Educate people so that they are closer to each other, so that they love each other, and so that they feel that they depend on each other all the time. Not in a bad way that otherwise he would attack me, but in a good way.
Question: Should humanity have the goal that one way or another we should come to a family of nations?
Answer: This is what we have to come to.
Question: Will there be no people then and no nations then?
Answer: There will be none of this.
Question: Can you tell me what will be?
Answer: There will be one nation on the whole earth.
Comment: I really want to believe in it and live like this.
My Response: Only in this way will we be able to reach some kind of future correct state.
Question: Then what was the mistake of the Utopians who wanted to build such cities?
Answer: They thought to do it purely mechanically, without educating a person, without waiting for him to change. But this, of course, was utopia.
Question: Is the entire problem of utopians and those who dream of unity that they do not come to the fact that there is this evil in us?
Answer: Yes. Today we are getting rid of this last communist utopia.
Question: Do you think that with this current state, with all this madness, something will turn around in a person after all?
Answer: At least it seems that we are in a period of reformation.
Comment: That is, these horrors, these wars, everything that is happening…
My Response: All this should convince us that this is the wrong way, that you will not take anything by force, you will not win anything and you will never justify yourself in any way.
Question: Is this what you call civilization?
Answer: Civilization is when people understand that the most important thing is a good connection between them. That’s all.
Question: Where is the Creator here? Where is the upper force that you talk about all the time?
Answer: When we put good above evil, we build the Creator.
[320053]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/19/23
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Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “What Does Unity Mean?”
Unity is a new reality that we have no clue about. It is a new matter that we have yet to sense and it possesses spiritual qualities of love and bestowal. When we incorporate and live in this matter, we start discovering a different new dimension of existence. It is as if we find ourselves on a different planet. However, it is not a physical change of location but the revelation of a new inner quality of love and bestowal that brings about this unity.
Unity thus does not simply mean mutual connection, good relations or a sense of confidence that emerges from being around other people. It is rather the revelation of a new quality that does not exist in our world. When we obtain this quality, we align ourselves with nature’s laws, which are fundamentally laws of love, bestowal and connection. It is a revelation in our mind and feelings, one of our unity with nature.
While people generally think positively about unity, it is still not treated with such a high level of significance. Reaching such a state of unity is the purpose of human life, and it is within our abilities to achieve. About reaching such unity, it is written, “We will do and we will hear.” That is, we can apply certain efforts in order to unite, and by doing so, reach a genuine request to unite. And when we reach such a request, called a “prayer,” then we attain our higher unified state.
Humanity constantly develops to this state of unity, and it will become revealed to all. The new matter that will become revealed within people’s unity is the spiritual quality of love and bestowal. The very moment we discover this quality in our connections, we reveal spiritual existence, one where we unite with the quality of love and bestowal dwelling in our connections.
It might seem far fetched that people who are so different to each other in a multitude of ways end up reaching a state of unity. However, unity precisely plays out above divisions, differences, oppositions and inner distances to each other. No matter what surfaces in our innate desires that differentiate and divide us, we can apply a common yearning to unite above them all, and the more we organize ourselves in such a direction—caring about uniting above everything that separates us—the more we draw the spiritual forces into our world that act positively on us in order to make this unity a reality.
[321793]
Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “Why Does Antisemitism Seem So Acceptable in Today’s World?”
Antisemitism acts as a law of nature. The more the Jewish people are divided among themselves, the more they activate supernatural forces that awaken hatred toward them in people’s hearts all around the world. Such hatred then overshadows any facts and evidence that might seemingly serve to portray the Jewish people in a positive light.
Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) wrote about this antisemitic tendency in his “Writings of the Last Generation”:
“It is a fact that Israel is hated by all the nations, whether for religious, racial, capitalist, communist, or for cosmopolitan reasons, etc. It is so because the hatred precedes all reasons, but each merely resolves its loathing according to its own psychology.
In the same text, Baal HaSulam goes on to discuss how the unity of the Jewish people, and the global spreading of the unity that Jews establish, is the solution to dissipating the hatred toward them, replacing it with a positive unified spirit that leads to global peace and harmony.
The more people feel problems and crises entering their lives in a variety of ways, the more antisemitism rises. It is because the solution to all problems is ultimately the awakening and spreading of nature’s positive unifying force throughout humanity. Antisemitism is thus a form of pressure on a certain blockage that is not letting this unity to arise.
The Jewish people originally became known as “the people of Israel” and later as “the Jews” because they implemented Abraham’s method of uniting above their divisive drives, and in their unity, they discovered the single positive force dwelling in nature. Today, when darkness expands throughout the world in an array of increasing problems and crises, there is a subconscious feeling in many people around the world that somehow Jews are to blame for their troubles, and it stems from this need for unity to prevail—first among the Jewish people, and then in humanity at large. Therefore, there will be no peace until Jews unite “as one man with one heart” above their divisions.
Antisemitism is an eternal and inevitable phenomenon that is impossible to escape. However, if we Jews change our attitudes to each other, becoming more positively connected, loving and supportive of one another, then the forces of nature will influence and change people all around the world in a direction of support and respect for the Jewish people. When people feel a unifying spirit entering their lives, the problems and crises that they experience today will disappear and become replaced with a new positive atmosphere—a thriving, harmonious and peaceful world.
Question: In practice we see that in a married couple one manages one process and the second one another. How is equality between husband and wife achieved?
Answer: It is impossible to measure. It is just that everyone wants to please the other. Therefore, there are no calculations here of how much I did for you and how much you did for me. You will never reach a real connection in this way.
You should be guided by feelings and not by rational calculation: “You for me, and I for you.”
Question: Does it mean that until we come to the correction of our qualities in spirituality we will not be able to come to the correct corporeal relationship between husband and wife?
Answer: On the contrary, first, you need to correct your qualities in corporeality and then move to spirituality.
[321064]
From the Daily Kabbalah lesson 11/19/23, Writings of Rabash “Discernments in States“
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Question: In meetings and lessons our ego is noticeably corrected. How can one work alone at home correctly so that it is felt?
Answer: While at home you should read texts or listen to lessons. Then your time will not be wasted, and you will constantly go through the right states.
Question: What does the depth of the heart mean, and why does a person not descend into it?
Answer: The depth of the heart is unknown to us. We comprehend it on the way to the purpose of creation when the whole heart is gradually revealed to us. But, in general, we should try to feel the Creator and friends with all our hearts as close as possible.
Question: How can one come to a feeling of awareness of the greatness of the Creator so that even a breath of air can be inhaled through gratitude?
Answer: It depends on your systematic efforts on an ongoing basis. But the point is that you have to join the group, and the group must join you; otherwise, it will not be permanent.
Question: If our evil is revealed to us, then at each stage will it manifest itself in portions, a little more and more? Or will it be revealed at one time, and until the end of the correction we need to work with what has been revealed?
Answer: No, evil is revealed only to the extent that a person can work with it. Therefore, at each stage it will open up more and more. So, do not be alarmed, but the full revelation of evil is yet to come.
[321099]
From the Daily Kabbalah lesson 11/20/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “He Will Save Them from the Hand of the Wicked“
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Question: The world was created in order to please the creatures. Why should a person suffer before receiving pleasure?
Answer: This is in order to help us get rid of egoism. Man is created in egoism; it is difficult for him to get out of it. Therefore, his desire to get closer to the Creator is measured by the measure of his efforts.
Question: Do we have a guarantee of the transition from Lo Lishma (receiving for oneself) to Lishma (receiving for others)?
Answer: There is no guarantee. One who makes an effort to get out of receiving for oneself to bestowal comes out to the light.
[321019]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/23, Writings of Rabash “What It Means that the World Was Created for the Torah“
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Question: After the shattering of the general system of Adam HaRishon, filter worlds were created for further correction, i.e., the worlds of Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya.
What is special about the world of Atzilut? What is this state?
Answer: The world of Atzilut is the highest world, closest to the Creator.
It begins the decomposition of the elements of the higher power into its components: the ten Sefirot, the Partzufim, and other laws of relations between all parts of this world, which then, in the worlds lower to us, are transformed into independent systems.
After the world of Atzilut comes the world of Beria, which is completely unrelated to the upper force (Elokut). Then come the worlds Yetzira, Assiya, and finally, the lowest of the worlds – our world.
[320688]
From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 11/7/23
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Question: Why does joy arise in my automatically when a child takes his first steps or begins to speak, but joy for a friend I must gnaw out of myself and ask it from the Creator?
Answer: The fact is that if your child receives something good, you automatically rejoice for him, and moreover, you feel that it was given to you. This is our attitude toward our children. But we do not have such feelings toward other people’s children.
In principle, our attitude toward children is much more reverent than toward ourselves, which is why we behave this way and feel this way.
Question: Is it possible that joy for our friends will also arise in us automatically?
Answer: If the light of the Creator descends on us, then we will rejoice for our friends as we do for our children, and even more.
[321013]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/17/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is Support in the Torah, in the Work?”
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Question: What is the difference between the world of Atzilut, the world of corrections, from the three worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya?
Answer: The difference is that the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya are, as it were, under a curtain, under concealment. In these worlds, we can rise and fall, but at the same time, we do not feel anything divine, anything related to the upper, to the Creator.
In the world of Atzilut, however, the Creator is already manifesting. That is why this world is called Atzilut from the word “Etzlo” (at His, He).
Question: Do all corrections take place in the world of Atzilut?
Answer: Not exactly corrections but their result.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 11/7/23
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