Audio Version Of The Blog – 2/5/24
Posted on February 5th, 2024
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Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “What Does ‘To Love’ Actually Mean?”
There is a saying about love: liking a flower means picking it, while loving a flower means watering it daily.
But what does it truly mean to love, to nourish a flower, so to speak? It means understanding the needs of your loved ones and fulfilling them, i.e., “watering” them. Love is about identifying what others need and providing it.
Imagine encountering a withering flower. We can revive it easily by giving it water, and then witness it perk up and come to life. Yet, what about love that seems to completely fade away, like a flower that dies? Do we lose hope, or do we continue to water it? In such a case, true love demands that we persist and continue to nurture it.
While many might argue that we need to leave the withering flowers alone, I hold that we should sustain hope and continue watering them. It is because nothing disappears in nature. Nature’s own cycles present examples of barren lands that suddenly sprout with life.
Therefore, even if we face death, a deflated existence, we can overcome such a state. How? It depends on expanding our inner feelings.
When we talk about something “coming to life,” we mean living at our level, restoring its vitalizing forces. It might sound far-fetched in our current understanding, but we can indeed reverse processes of decomposition and decay through our efforts.
Where can we find the patience for such endeavors? Nobody possesses infinite patience. We can, rather, reach an understanding of the process. If love has dwindled within us, we can revive it over a prolonged period by considering it an investment in that which we try to revive. In such cases, we should not think of the years it takes; they become inconsequential as we already live the outcome. Our efforts that we invest quickly dissolve in the face of the goal of what we try to revive. Our spirit will then penetrate this dead state, and it will sprout.
Moreover, we should never surrender in these efforts, as difficult as they become. It becomes a relentless pursuit, and it eventually turns into a true prayer. I once had a neighbor whose little son was ill with brain inflammation. I remember how, at about two or three in the morning, she knocked on my door and brought me this child, a little bundle, handed him over, and said helplessly: “Take him.” She gave up. We should never reach such a state. By never giving up, we eventually reach a genuine prayer. It is complicated, and there might be instances where it feels too late, but the message remains: never surrender in our love and care for others.
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Everything you will hear, see, and feel at the convention, you must keep within yourself in order to pass on to others. In addition to lessons, you will have all kinds of virtual meetings. Try to briefly convey to each other your inspiration and desire for connection so that we are all in the same heart, meaning in the same desire.
We must give ourselves to the common desire to unite, so that everyone connects through us and there is a single desire in which we reveal the Creator.
To give oneself means not to have any desires of your own, but only the desire to connect everyone.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/24, Preparation for the “Life in the Ten” Convention
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Question: How can we create such an atmosphere at the convention that the state of connection is our only desire and nothing distracts us from it?
Answer: You enter the convention completely empty of all your duties, deeds, and thoughts. There is nothing but thoughts of unity, only about it, nothing else.
Question: How do we seriously approach the work of creating a unified desire?
Answer: You must agree on this with each other before the convention—don’t utter empty words but only what is necessary to connect your hearts.
Question: What should our attack on connection look like during the convention?
Answer: To connect with each other so that there is no free space either in everyone’s heart or between us. We will succeed; you will see. You will suddenly feel that you have the strength, the desire, and the thoughts that you can do it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/24, Preparation for the “Life in the Ten” Convention
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Question: If there is a sense of detachment in relation to the connection, then what should our orientation be when everything is open and there is nothing definite?
Answer: You must break all the bad ties between you, instead restore good ties, and think only about how to turn into one big Kli together. You do not need anything else, just to become one single heart.
Question: What does it mean that as the differences are corrected they disappear? After all, everyone has their own root of the soul, and connection allows you to reveal even more clearly the individual characteristics of each desire.
Answer: Although the individual characteristics of each are revealed more clearly, the direction is the same. The meaning of spiritual ascent is for everyone to unite and create a single network that will connect all hearts.
Question: I feel like I do not know how to connect all the World Kli in my heart. But I know you can do it. Can I add my intention to yours?
Answer: Please, I am open to everyone in the world, absolutely everyone. Therefore, join me, I will join you, and together we will strive for complete connection.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/24, Preparation for the “Life in the Ten” Convention
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Question: On the eve of the convention, I experience two states: excitement and joy. I would like to know which of them should I pay more attention to?
Answer: We should be glad that we have the opportunity to come a little closer to the Creator, and we are together on the path to this.
Question: What is this inner work of everyone at the convention that will be broadcast outwardly so that those nearby can hear and see something from everyone about the work of the Creator?
Answer: We need to feel our desire in such a way that it comes from the heart and affects the desires of everyone. After all, we want to be so connected with each other that everything that we have in our hearts is fulfilled.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/24, Preparation for the “Life in the Ten” Convention
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Question: The righteous one within me is you, my teacher. And what I receive as knowledge from you, should I carry out in faith above reason until I bring it to attainment?
Answer: It can be done differently: the righteous one is within you, and you must extract it from yourself, raise it above your head, and always be guided by its thoughts and desires. This will be your faith above reason. Therefore, you must determine if the righteous one is within you, to what extent you can align with it, and then you will understand and realize who you are or what you are.
Question: How can one practically extract the righteous one from oneself?
Answer: Obey everything that your inner righteous one says. Constantly listen to its voice.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Why We Need to Extend Hochma”
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How can we, together with our friends, invite the Creator to our meal? This is not difficult at all. The Creator is not proud and does not require a special invitation.
If we have even a slight desire for Him to be among us, He will come and be with us at our meal and at our gathering.
There is no force in the world softer, more yielding, more understanding, and more responsive to us than the Creator. Certainly, He will be with us at our Kabbalah convention.
But if we want to be with Him, that is a completely different and more complex question. For this, we need to acquire His qualities and get closer to Him together and feel this closeness as the greatest reward among all existing in reality.
Then we have this chance. However, only to the extent that we are ready to become similar to Him, to this force, which is immense not because of its great power, but due to the willingness to lower Himself and secretly help each of us in such a way that we do not feel it. This is entirely opposite to our egoistic nature.
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From the talk at the meal, 1/13/24
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Thus, one should try to have a desire, as this is the whole substance of creation. But the desire must be clarified, as it is natural that each animal feels what is harmful to it. Similarly, we must take note that the desire will be for something (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 154, “There Cannot Be an Empty Space in the World”).
A person must control himself so that his desires are always the highest, most important of those that arise in him. Therefore, we need to take care that there is no emptiness.
By emptiness, we mean that all desires should make us yearn for something as important as possible. In this regard, we weigh the person and make up our opinion about him.
Question: There are times when great desires for spirituality arise, then everything disappears, and an emptiness appears. Can I use impressions from the past at this moment, or should I nevertheless look for something new?
Answer: It is best to look for the new, which you feel at the moment, and from it turn to the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “There Cannot Be an Empty Space in the World”
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Preparation to the Lesson
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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “What Is ‘Do Not Slight the Blessing of a Layperson’ in the Work?”
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Selected Highlights
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