Audio Version Of The Blog – 12/22/23
Posted on December 22nd, 2023
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Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “Why did God destroy the Tower of Babel?”
The Babylonians wanted to be together, to build and live as one commune, with mutual respect and love for one another. As it is written in the story of the Tower of Babel: “And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make ourselves a name, lest we be scattered upon the face of the entire earth” (Genesis 11:4).
The Creator, however, wanted their connection to be according to His conditions and not theirs. This is why He mixed the languages, leading the Babylonians to quarrel, which led to the tower’s destruction.
In the spiritual sense, the Tower of Babel is an egoistic elevation of corporeal life, where we wish to live according to “love your neighbor,” but based on egoism. That is the main mistake, the idea of not needing the Creator’s help for the mutual construction of a well-connected society, that people think they can achieve and sustain unity on their own. In principle, the construction of the Tower of Babel was by and large at the heart of communism and various revolutions, the idea of “peace to huts, war to palaces,” that the populace would manage on its own.
The construction of the Tower of Babel is a state of the highest possible egoistic construction, beyond even a person’s loftiest goals in material life for the heights of wealth, honor or power, because it aims at a goal that we wish to remain with us forever, whereas it is clear to a person that the other goals are transient and bound to perish in this corporeal life.
Precisely the idea of building a tower “up to the heavens” is the key problem, i.e., the thought that we can construct our own connection without making contact with the Creator. What is it that the Creator does not like in such a setup?
“And the Lord said, ‘Lo! [they are] one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have commenced to do. Come, let us descend and confuse their language so that one will not understand the language of his companion.’ […] And the Lord scattered them from there upon the face of the entire earth, and they ceased building the city.” – Genesis 11:6-8
The Creator does not let the Babylonians reach a common egoistic outcome. In order to truly unite and enjoy our connection, we need to insert the Creator into the picture, that we unite in order to fulfill His will, not our own. Therefore, in order to build a tower that will not collapse, we need to build connections to each other of mutual love and bestowal, but these connections should be for the sake of the Creator.
What does “for the Creator” mean? “For the Creator” does not mean for the sake of some kind of God “up there somewhere” so high up that He is invisible. “For the Creator” rather means a connection between us that we elevate above ourselves, i.e., “love your neighbor as yourself,” where above such a connection, we raise the ideal of the Creator who created this perfectly-connected state above our egoism. If we build a tower not for ourselves, but for the sake of the other—for the benefit of others in order to benefit the Creator—then such a tower will last forever.
Why, then, if humanity underwent the experience of a failed egoistic construction, have we continually tried building new and different egoistic towers throughout history? It is because we as a humanity have needed it. Whether they have been towers, pyramids or mausoleums, we build these constructions out of our inner egoistic necessity to build a place for our egoism—and we are still building such towers.
We will stop building these constructions when we will reveal the Creator in our connections. The revelation of the Creator will completely cover our dreams, plans and future. In other words, when we reveal the Creator, we will understand that our efforts to build egoistic towers were all in vain.
With all the wars, suffering and bloodshed in the name of the myriad egoistic towers we have tried to build throughout history, it might seem as if the Creator is very cruel for not revealing Himself sooner, but this is an incorrect view. We need to understand that the Creator becomes revealed under specific conditions, that we need to match His form of total love and bestowal in our connections with His form of love and bestowal. We have never organized ourselves in such a manner. Yet it stands that if we resemble the Creator’s qualities of love, bestowal and connection, i.e., if we are like Him, then we will attain His revelation.
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Question: How can one maintain a state of prayer while working in a group and not be more in a state of mind?
Answer: I will say only one thing: try to solve all problems in connection with the friends. That is it.
A problem arises—deepen the connection with friends. Another problem arises—deepen the connection with them again.
And you will see that only in this way can you solve all your problems because through this you approach the connection with the Creator. It is very important.
That will be throughout the entire path until final correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/23, Writings of of Rabash “The Meaning of Sins Becoming as Merits”
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Question: When evil thoughts come, should I clearly understand that they come from the Creator and rise above them with the help of will power?
Answer: Not only evil, but any thoughts, everything that happens to us, around us, and between us is all from the Creator. It is faith when you can rise above any thoughts by your own effort.
Question: So faith is the clear knowledge that everything comes from the Creator?
Answer: Faith is the force that binds you to the group and to the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/23, Writings of Rabash “The Meaning of Sins Becoming as Merits”
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Question: In Letter 68, Rabash writes that only one who understands that he is wicked can repent. I understand that I am wicked, but how can I not forget about it? In the process of studying it is somehow lost. As far as I understand, if we do not constantly feel wicked, we will not repent of our wrong actions.
Answer: Our goal is to correct ourselves up to the level of the Creator. Therefore we must always check what else we can correct and become similar to the Creator.
Therefore those who do this work are called righteous, although they are not saints. They are righteous because they want to justify the Creator. However, those who do not want to justify the Creator—who are immersed in egoism and agree with this—are called wicked.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/10/23, Writings of Rabash the Letter No. 68
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Our sages said, “It is a caution for a courthouse to not hear the words of the litigant before the defendant’s advocate comes,” since they will justify the argument of the plaintiff. (Rabash, Letter No. 68)
Question: What does this mean in spirituality, and how can we feel this in a group?
Answer: When we examine our behavior and our thoughts and find out where we want to turn them in our actions, we must listen to all sides and try to be independent of them.
There are many rules on this topic, but the most important thing is that we do not want to listen to only one side.
It is necessary to listen to both sides and put yourself in a neutral state.
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From the Daily Kabbalah lesson 12/10/23, Writings of Rabash the Letter No. 68
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I think that when we know that we actually do live in uncertainty, then we ought to admit it; it is of great value to realize that we do not know the answers to different questions (Richard Feynman, theoretical physicist).
Question: What can you say about this?
Answer: We exist in some volume of nature, but we do not even know the part we live in and are in contact with. Therefore, it is difficult to say what else we need to discover in order to answer the questions: Who are we?, What are we?, Where are we?, and so on. There are many questions, but practically no answers.
The further we develop, the more questions we have. Even the answers that we received earlier, today seem to be somehow incomplete, implicit, and unclear. This is how we live.
Question: Why is a person given the feeling that there is something concealed from him?
Answer: Animals also have this. They also exist in a world that is not entirely clear to them.
But for humans, this is more in the area of cognition. Here, of course, we cannot compare with animals; we have many more questions, theoretical ones at that, emanating not from our being, but from our mind, our development, out of its incompleteness and inferiority. But still, we somehow cope with it.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 11/27/23
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Question: Is it possible to consider the suffering and shame of not being like the Creator as similar qualities?
Answer: These are different qualities, but we can combine them: suffering from shame and shame from suffering.
All the qualities that arise in us are necessary to achieve the goal, all of them. Therefore, we need to use them to connect with each other and the Creator, and you will see how well they all add up and help you.
Question: How can we experience suffering correctly, consciously, and quickly so that they give the necessary result in progress?
Answer: The main thing is to direct your feelings, thoughts, desires, and aspirations toward one goal, and then you will get the right picture of your suffering.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Man’s Pride Shall Bring Him Low“
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Question: The state of lowliness in the group, in the ten, is felt easily both in actions and in mind. Should we feel this state about people who do not practice Kabbalah?
Answer: To be even closer to the Creator, you must feel lower than everyone else compared to the whole of humanity. But this should not manifest itself in any actions, it is an inner feeling. You should not show it on the outside, remain outwardly an ordinary person.
Therefore, Kabbalah is called a secret wisdom, since all the work of a person on himself takes place inside him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Man’s Pride Shall Bring Him Low“
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Preparation to the Lesson
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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “What It Means that the Land Did Not Bear Fruit before Man Was Created, in the Work”
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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”
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Selected Highlights
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