Audio Version Of The Blog – 1/10/24
Posted on January 10th, 2024
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Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “Want to Express Your Divisive Attitude? Shut Your Mouth!”
IDF soldiers launched a “Shut Your Mouth!” campaign in Hebrew through which they aimed to leverage social influence in order to communicate the message to their fellow Israelis that if unity is lacking in their speech, then it is better to shut their mouths.
This campaign comes at a time when the soldiers seek as much support and strength as possible, and divisive discourse that had been thriving in Israel leading up to the tragic events of October 7, 2023, has proven itself to both weaken Israeli society, and boost the confidence of the terrorists who wish to attack Israel.
It is indeed commendable to create an atmosphere of disrespect for divisive discourse and appreciation of a unified one. Therefore, if this social pressure gains traction, it can help make anyone—including politicians and media figures—think twice before propagating divisive words, and help promote a more unifying discourse.
Through the campaign, the IDF’s soldiers served to raise the awareness that reckless tongues from their fellow Israelis and Jews harms them, that they feel how divisive attitudes among the nation negatively influences their solidarity even on the frontlines.
The wisdom of Kabbalah supports such sentiment. Verbal malice knows no bounds. Once spoken, cutting words roam freely, causing a breakdown of relations that destructively influences society.
The book Orchot Tzadikim underscores the power of speech, stating that speech can cause more harm than a sword.
“A man can do more harm with his tongue than he can with a sword. For a man can stand here and yet betray his companion, who is a long distance from him, and cause his death (by his word), while the sword can only slay someone who is near it. Therefore, man was created with two eyes, two ears, two nostrils and one mouth to say to him that he ought to speak less. Silence is fitting for the wise, and thus all the more so for fools.” – Orchot Tzadikim, 21:7.
Also, the Talmud recounts a time during the First Temple when division between the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah led leaders to “eat and drink with each other, and stab each other with verbal barbs” (Yoma, 9b). Enemies took advantage of this weakness, which resulted in the Temple’s ruin on both physical and spiritual scales.
Emphasizing the need for the people of Israel to summon the strength to come together in the face of myriad divisive drives, Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) wrote in his paper, The Nation: “The enormous effort that the rugged road ahead requires of us mandates unity that is as solid and as hard as steel, from all parts of the nation, without exception.” I strongly recommend that the future campaigns we organize will take on this unifying direction.
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Question: How can we keep connection in the ten constantly? Sometimes, it lasts for an hour, and sometimes, it disappears somewhere in a second. What can we do?
Answer: If the connection disappears in a second, you must immediately restore it. All the time, constantly thinking about it, like a young mother who leaves her child at home, and all her thoughts are only about what is going on with him and how he is doing.
That is how we should think about the ten. Keep it together all the time with your thoughts, your desires, and your embrace.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Concerning the Giving of the Torah – 1”
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Question: What does spiritual freedom mean in the ten?
Answer: This is a state where you feel connected to each other and the Creator. At the same time, you begin to rise above all material problems and do not feel that they are pulling you down.
Question: How can material pleasures be transformed into spiritual ones?
Answer: There is no difference in pleasures. If they are for the Creator’s sake, then they are spiritual, and if, for your own sake, they are material.
Question: Are the feeling of being as one and the feeling of “I” close to each other or opposite?
Answer: They are opposite. Your feeling of “I” should disappear. Instead, there will be a feeling of “we.”
Question: What does freedom from the angel of death mean?
Answer: Complete liberation from egoism.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Every Act Leaves an Imprint”
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Question: How can we learn to love something that is initially against our nature or higher than nature and act out of love and not out of envy or pride?
Answer: We can force ourselves, persuade ourselves, and push ourselves toward a connection with the friends because within this connection we acquire contact with the Creator.
And although this is entirely against our nature, and we do not want it, to find contact with the Creator, we approach friends and are ready to be with them together, in an embrace, in one single desire.
Question: How can we understand that one should desire wisdom?
Answer: We want a connection with the Creator, so we want to acquire wisdom. Wisdom is the thoughts and the desires of the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is He Will Give Wisdom Specifically to the Wise”
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Question: It is said that there are many lights that a person receives while in adhesion with holiness. Therefore, when they entice a person to attract good into their qualities, they receive this light.
What does it mean that they tempt a person?
Answer: The fact is that the light descending on us from afar attracts us. And the desires that it shines into are egoistic, so they confuse a person and drag him to themselves. Thus, when we approach it, we lose all these lights.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/30/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Concerning the Staff and the Serpent”
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Question: If there is a great desire and striving for the Creator, how can we check whether it is directed for the sake of the Creator or for our own sake?
Answer: It depends on how a person works in a group, whether he cares about his friends, and whether he wants to bring contentment to the Creator through communication and mutual assistance to his friends.
Then it can be said that a person is approaching the quality of bestowal.
The true depth of wisdom lies in the common bond of the friends and their connection with the Creator when He reveals Himself in the center of the group.
That is the wisdom of the ten, seen in the friends’ agreement with what the Creator is doing to them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is He Will Give Wisdom Specifically to the Wise”
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Natasha writes:
Hello, dear Michael Laitman! It is very important for me to know your opinion. The fact is that my niece, who is only 18 years old, is dying of cancer. And yesterday the doctors told us that she is to die in about one month.
Throughout her illness, the whole family supported her and told her that everything would be fine and that she would overcome everything. But now the doctors have pronounced their verdict, and she will be gone in a month. I do not know what to tell her. I really do not know. I will be standing in front of her, she will look me in the eye, and I will have to say something. What should I say?
My Response: You should say that there is nothing worse than this world, and all of us will eventually move to another world and it will be better there. A person will meet this with understanding and relief.
Question: So you think this girl already understands inside her that she will leave?
Answer: Of course she understands it.
Question: In the case that she understands it, or in any case?
Answer: She will understand it. This will remain inside her. And she will accept this departure as a good transition to a better state. It is not a lie, not at all. On the contrary, you alleviate a person’s last suffering here in this world. And let her go.
Comment: That is, this world is not the best one.
My Response: It is the worst one.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/20/23
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Question: Alexey asks: “Explain how I, such an imperfect, wicked person, can adhere with God? How?”
Answer: God is waiting for those who are imperfect and wicked, but still want to adhere to Him.
Question: Does it mean that Alexey has already made the first step?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Do we need to feel that “I am imperfect and wicked”?
Answer: Yes, then you should aim to the Creator and see that He is waiting for you.
Question: What if I do not feel that I am imperfect and sinful? What if I do not feel it?
Answer: Then why do you need the Creator?
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/23/23
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Comment: The Torah describes 613 commandments of the upper world, and in The Book of Zohar, which is a commentary on the Torah, the Prophets, and the Holy Scriptures, there are only 14.
My Response: In The Book of Zohar there is a completely different gradation since each of the fourteen main commandments is divided into many more.
Question: Aren’t there are too many instructions for us? How can we work with them?
Answer: It is not hard. They simply talk about how one can comply with the laws of the universe and how a person can influence nature, society, and oneself in a good way.
In principle, all the commandments are based on this. Nobody made them up. They were written by Kabbalists from their understanding of the inner force, the inner law of nature. If we want to correspond to it, we must behave in such and such a way.
It is quite simple. The Creator is the will to bestow, the creation is the will to receive, and all the commandments are instructions of the Creator for how to work with different types of desires at the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels and bring them in equivalence with the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 12/10/23
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