Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “What Is the Prohibition to Greet Before Blessing the Creator, in the Work?”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 2, Part 6, “Inner Observation,” Item 6

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Acting Mind”

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Selected Highlights

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The tenth commandment—putting on Tefillin [phylacteries] and to complete himself in the ‎upper form means in spiritual terms the correction of basic egoistic desires, which we must limit and turn into good desires.

Placing of Tefillin on the arm and on the head symbolizes correction of thoughts and correction of actions.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 12/10/23

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Comment: In one of Rabash’s articles about the group, he writes that when friends gather together, they raise the importance of each other and the Creator, raise a prayer, and then they feel that now they have earned great wealth.

I think that this is the way we create the screen.

My Response: Yes, this is how a screen is created; it is when people unite with each other and want to help each other. In this unity, the screen is formed between them.

Question: Is there any other way to build a screen?

Answer: No. Only in the ten.
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From the Daily Kabbalah lesson 12/20/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “And They Sewed Fig Leaves“

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Question: You said that the main thing is to forgive your friends. Is the act of forgiveness the result of working with egoism when I can set myself up like this, or will I be able to perform this action only if the quality of bestowal comes?

Answer: Of course it is better if the quality of bestowal comes. From it, you will forgive everyone, love everyone, and get closer to everyone.

Question: And if I do not respond to evil, is that forgiveness?

Answer: Not responding to evil is good. Although this may not always be true, but in general, it should be so.

Question: Let’s say I do not respond to evil, but it remains inside. How should I work with it? Perhaps we should still ask for the quality of bestowal? After all, no matter how I twist my egoism, I still feel that there is no quality of forgiveness in egoism.

Answer: That is right, there is not. Egoism accompanies us almost to the final correction. Only at the last stop does it jump off and disappear. Then we see that, in principle, it helped us achieve our goal.

You are just starting to work on yourself, so there is still time; all this will come, both the quality of forgiveness and the quality of all-forgiveness. In the meantime, try to be as friendly as possible to each other. The main thing is to get closer in hearts in the ten.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/20/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “And They Sewed Fig Leaves“

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Question: A sage sat at the city gates as a man passed by he turned to the sage and asked: “Tell me, Father, what kind of people live in this city, good or evil?”

The sage replied: “Tell me about the city you’re from, what kind of people live there?”

“They are evil, cruel, and selfish,” the man replied.

“The same people live here,” the old man answered, and the man left.

Some time later, another man came to the gate. He asked the same question. The sage replied in the same way: “What kind of people live in your city?”

The man said: “I have a lot of friends left in the city, and the people there are good and kind.”

The old man said, “You will find the same people here.”

My conundrum is that it seems quite strange that what kinds of people live in my city it depends on me.

Answer: In general, yes.

Question: Meaning, if the first one said bad people live there, he was told the same is awaiting you here. And if there were good people there, then he’d find similar people here.

What is it? How does this mechanism work?

Answer: It is based on a person’s attitude toward society. The way one relates to society, that is what he feels.

Question: What if they hate me?

Answer: But why do they hate you? It didn’t just appear today. It is a result of your behavior.

Question: So if I see haters who dislike me, I have to ask myself: why do they hate me?

Answer: Yes, that is the only way.

Question: And what if I don’t determine, for example, why they hate me, as it usually happens?

Answer: It means you are justifying yourself.

Question: So basically I have to find the answer?

Answer: You have to find positive feelings in yourself and the same in others.

Question: So I should find why they hate me within me, and try to change something about myself. And if I can do something in regard to the hater, will he change toward me?

Answer: He will change. Help everyone and they will change.

Question: So should I even bother to justify this hatred coming at me?

Answer: This is human nature. If you perceive it correctly, you will perceive him the same way.

Question: In this case, should I consider it my nature or his selfish nature?

Answer: It is his selfish nature; that is how people are, but I’m showing them an example of the right attitude.

Question: And if I’m triggered, obviously inflamed, and want to respond in some way?

Answer: Then don’t. I will not respond or be enraged. I will extinguish it within myself.

Question: When you say extinguish, it seems almost forced?

Answer: Maybe in a way I am forcing myself because despite the fact that I want to answer, I don’t answer; I want to enter into an argument, but I don’t. And this will have a result.

Comment: But you know, they usually say when you bend the bow too much, it springs back hard.

My Response: That is when we don’t apply effort. If we go about it the right way, consistently, then acting this way prevails.

Question: Do you believe in these exercises?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Do I develop a habit of turning to myself and examining myself all the time? Will I develop something then?

Answer: Yes, you will develop an even, correct attitude toward people. You will learn to forgive them, and then everything will work out.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/20/23

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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!
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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.
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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.
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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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