Audio Version Of The Blog – 1/5/24
Posted on January 5th, 2024
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I think that the coming 2024 year will be better than previous ones.
Humanity is slowly but steadily approaching the understanding of how to get out of this dangerous state it has brought itself. Everything will be fine!
We must remember that everything depends on us, on how we are connected with each other, and from this connection we turn to the Creator. This is the main force in the world that will defeat all wars and all the forces of evil.
Let’s all hug together, unite from heart to heart, and then we will see how silence, tranquility, and peace descend on this world from above.
I wish you all the best! Good luck!
[323065]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/31/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Are Three Things that Broaden One’s Mind in the Work?”
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Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “The Non-Televised War That Will Determine the Fate of the World”
Parallel to the wars unfolding in the world today is a non-televised and inaudible conflict taking place inside the person.
We can understand this inner war when we understand the internal definitions of “the nations of the world” and “Israel” according to the wisdom of Kabbalah: the nations of the world as desires to receive for self-benefit, and Israel as the opposite desire to bestow, which seeks a higher power of giving above our inborn receptive desires.
Among this interplay of inner qualities, The Book of Zohar depicts certain nations that were offered the teaching to discover the oneness of the force of giving and love called “the Creator,” namely the children of Esau and Ishmael, and that they did not want to accept it, and thus the Creator turned to Israel with this very teaching. That teaching was the Torah, which itself comes from the word for “teaching” (“Hora’ah”).
When the Creator wanted to give the Torah to Israel, He went and invited the children of Esau, and they did not accept it, as it is written, ‘The Lord came from Sinai, and dawned on them from Seir,’ meaning that they did not want to receive it. He went to the children of Ishmael, and they did not want to receive it, as it is written, ‘appeared from Mount Paran.’ Since they did not want, He returned to Israel. […] From this it shone for Israel and added to them much light and love. Likewise, He appeared and shone to Israel from Mount Paran, from what the dwellers of Paran said, that they did not want to receive, from this, extra love and illumination were added to Israel.” – The Zohar, Balak, 138, 140 from Kabbalist Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (Rabash), “What Is, ‘The Children of Esau and Ishmael Did Not Want to Receive the Torah,’ in the Work?
Esau and Ishmael are the closest inner qualities to Israel compared to all other qualities, and they emerge specifically in order to purify Israel, i.e., to provide Israel with feelings and discernments of what it lacks in order to become a pure desire to bestow directly to the very force of giving and love that is the Creator (“Israel” from the words “Yashar-El” [“straight to the Creator”]).
The uniqueness of the receptive qualities of Esau and Ishmael is in their demands upon Israel, the bestowing quality. These desires to receive want the abundance that comes from attaining the desire to bestow, but without the attainment of the pure desire to bestow in and of itself. Therefore, the desires to receive that wish to receive what only the desire to bestow can acquire, and to gain all of that for themselves, awakens immense hatred in those desires called Esau and Ishmael, up to a point where they wish to eradicate Israel.
What is the solution to this situation of growing hatred on behalf of the desires to receive up to a point of total elimination of the desire to bestow? The solution rests solely in the desire to bestow, i.e., in the quality of Israel, that through its correction up to a point where it is a pure desire to bestow, as its name suggests—that it is aimed directly at the source force of love and bestowal—then its contact with the force of love and bestowal will let that force spread to all other desires. Moreover, this expansion of the force of love and bestowal upon all the desires to receive will completely satisfy them, as they will then feel a new profound quality of love and wholeness fill their empty places of hatred and division that they previous possessed.
Therefore, if those of us who have a tiny point of a desire to bestow—Israel—learn how to rise above the attraction to the desires to receive, we then grant these desires that are closest to Israel—Esau and Ishmael—the ability to bestow to the force of love and bestowal according to their own will. Their newfound ability to connect with life’s source will then completely satisfy them, and their hatred and wish to eradicate Israel will disappear.
We should thus prioritize our ever-increasing connection to each other and to the force of love and bestowal over everything else. If we relate to the war in this internal manner, as a war to establish the independence and the rule of the desire to bestow over all other desires, then we will reach a state where we will gather all of nature’s forces to us in order to aim them at life’s source, i.e., to align them with the Creator, the very laws of nature that operate in a manner of love and bestowal.
Our own success in this war will then become an ability that all people will acquire. Everyone will then discover a new source of fulfillment, satisfaction and happiness enter their lives with their ability to direct themselves in a manner of love and bestowal above the myriad desires to receive that surface on a moment-by-moment basis.
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Question: I invest 25% of my efforts out of my potential into physical life. There is no desire. Yet, I am ready to be involved in spiritual work 100%.
But the material life distracts me and prevents me from investing all my efforts into spiritual life. How can I act in material and spiritual life to collaborate with the Creator and perform all actions for His sake?
Answer: The fact is we were born and exist in a certain world, in a certain environment, and therefore must act based on it. It is necessary to have a family and children and also try to move forward and get closer to the friends and the Creator.
Don’t worry about investing more here, less there, etc. Life takes its course, and the Creator always takes what a person can give and take. The main thing is to be in inner balance in material and spiritual life.
In material life only do what is required of you. But in spiritual life, everything comes from the heart’s needs, from what the Creator requires of you.
[322645]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Action Affects the Thought“
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Question: Why, instead of the greatness of the Creator, do you feel more the greatness of your friends, as if they had swapped places?
Answer: Because they are closer to you, you understand them better and react more strongly to them. So this is a good sign that you are getting closer to each other. The Creator is not jealous of you.
Question: Is it necessary to cultivate the greatness of the Creator in my eyes and reduce the greatness of the friends?
Answer: No way. Both the greatness of the friends and the greatness of the Creator must be on the same level.
[322602]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “In the Place Where You Find His Greatness“
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Question: Rabash writes that there must be equality in the group; otherwise, you will not receive the importance of the goal.
Why is equality one of the principles of spiritual work?
Answer: We must very precisely ensure that in the group everyone respects and loves each other, yearns for connection with each other, and no one is more or less than the rest. This is the work with your egoism.
Question: In this case, how can we learn from others?
Answer: You can learn from the other when you consider him important. The condition you set for yourself is to imagine each friend as your teacher. In this case, being in a group where everyone is bigger than you, you will have the opportunity to learn from everyone.
[322523]
From KabTV’s “Practical Kabbalah” 12/5/23
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Question: The reason the creations do not receive pleasure lies in the difference of form between the Creator and the creations. The Creator is giving and the creations are receiving.
This causes shame in creations and as a result the Creator must conceal Himself. But why does a person have to be ashamed if the Creator made him this way?
Answer: The Creator created the property of shame with the purpose that through our own efforts and with His method we would gradually rise from the animate level to the level of the Creator, the highest level in the spiritual world. We must come to this state.
Typically the force from above brings a person to a group. There he sees people similar to him and he wonders: “How can I be connected with them? How can I get closer to them according to the principle “love your neighbor as yourself?’”
This helps him feel what the property of the Creator means and gradually rise to His level.
[322135]
From KabTV’s “Practical Kabbalah” 12/5/23
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Question: It happens that when you turn to the Creator, there is a feeling of inspiration and relief, and sometimes, on the contrary, there is a feeling of dissatisfaction and emptiness.
What does this mean?
Answer: It means that you are dissatisfied with the Creator.
Question: If I feel depressed in relation to what is happening in the world, does this mean that I lack faith above reason? How do I switch to the positive?
Answer: Connect to your friends and raise your head to the Creator, but not physically. Just raise your questions to the Creator with a request for Him to answer them.
[322740]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is the Exaltedness of the Creator?“
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Question: It is said that the determination of whether our actions relate to holiness is made in relation to knowledge, because in holiness there is knowledge, while in the Sitra Achra there is not. But does the Sitra Achra also feed on the knowledge of holiness?
Answer: But the Sitra Achra does not manifest the knowledge of holiness because it represents the light of the Creator, which manifests itself precisely in the intention to bestow, in the intention to be connected with others.
But in this case, first you attract the light of Hassadim, and then the light of Hochma manifests in it. This is called higher knowledge.
Question: Which actions in the ten are good deeds that pertain to holiness and reveal joy?
Answer: Actions of giving, rapprochement, love, and desire to help friends, such actions are beneficial and help us get closer to the Creator and to the purpose of creation.
[322744]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Joy Is a “Reflection” of Good Deeds“
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This means that when the Creator wants the wicked one to repent, He makes the netherworld so low for him that the wicked one himself does not want to be so. Hence, one needs to pray pleadingly that the Creator will show him the truth by adding to him the light of the Torah (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 47 “In the Place Where You Find His Greatness“).
Question: What does the fact that the Creator sends great trials to some people, but does not seem to send any trials to others depend on?
Answer: It depends not on the person himself, but on the root of his soul. Each of us receives signals that control us from there.
Question: If a person is in a peaceful state, does this mean that the Creator has to send him trials?
Answer: Yes, the Creator needs to do make him shake himself up a little.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “In the Place Where You Find His Greatness“
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