Audio Version Of The Blog – 8/1/24
Posted on August 1st, 2024
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Question: When we begin to feel shame and disgust for false pleasures, is this a gift from the Creator or is it the result of our efforts, a sign of some progress?
Answer: In general, this is the result of our bad actions. Therefore, we need to be filled with such pleasure that we can address to the Creator.
Question: But if we see that these are false pleasures; for example enjoying praise; if we feel shame and disgust at the same time, how should we relate to it?
Answer: Maybe this is not true. I must check my feelings in connection with the Creator: I receive pleasure and at the same time I feel distanced from the Creator, or I receive pleasure and feel closer to Him.
[331875]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/9/24, Writings of Rabash “Man and His Role”
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Question: The income strategy for effective altruists involves a high-paying job.
Modern philosophers have developed the idea that there is no need to consider the possible unethical actions of a person while earning money since the benefits of what a person earns and donates will be much greater than the unethical actions while working. What do you think about this approach?
Answer: I do not think that is an excuse. No way! We must act as it is said: “A wise man has only what his eyes see.” What he sees, he can take into account, evaluate, and make a decision about; this is the most important thing.
Question: What should people do in border areas when they need to know whether it is ethical or not to take a step left or right?
Answer: We must act as ethically as possible and, in no case, succumb to the general flight into fantasy. A person must have a system of values that cannot be crossed.
[331795]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 6/30/24
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Question: Suppose a friend is “drilling a hole in the boat.” Everyone woke and perked up. And then, when he was gone, everyone fell asleep again and formed a sleepy swamp. How can we determine when it is necessary to intervene in the work of a ten and when not?
Answer: It is good that a friend awakens you with negative antics at some particular stage, but this is not how you should be awakened. It is not a method of promotion.
We must awaken from the fact that we are looking for and not finding, or looking for and finding means for an even greater rapprochement between us.
We need to identify more missing Kelim among us. They will manifest themselves from our desire for even greater rapprochement. Start getting closer, and you will see how discord, bad relationships, and similar issues appear between you.
These things must be aroused gradually, intelligently. By trying to get closer, we see that we again encounter problems. We start off, it seems to be easier. But as we are getting closer it gets worse. This is what happens in everyday life. We see how we live with our neighbors, near and far.
Therefore, in a group, we must constantly awaken ourselves to a greater rapprochement with each other and clarify how negative qualities, properties, and rejections arise in us. Then we have something to move forward with.
That is not what is called “drilling the boat.” On the contrary, we check the boat, strengthen it, and see where it might leak.
[331011]
From the Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/20, “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]”
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Question: What should one do if there is a fear of destroying what is already built and that someone will be buried under the ruins, unable to rise by himself?
Answer: There must be a stronger connection with the Creator than any destruction.
Question: It turns out that elders are those not afraid of destruction or descents. On the contrary, do they draw strength from this breakage?
Answer: That is absolutely correct. We need to learn not to fear falls, i.e., to beware of them. When they happen, we should start asking for their correction.
Question: What do I need to destroy in myself?
Answer: It is necessary to destroy your egoism concerning others. And your love for everyone, if it exists, must be expanded and elevated.
[331882]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/24, Writings of Rabash “Ruin by Elders—Construction; Construction by Youths—Ruin”
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Question: You are asked about shame: “You always say that shame is the most powerful means.” Is that true?
Answer: Yes.
Question: The writer asks: “In what way? To convince a person that they are wrong? To shame them?”
Answer: Shame is an assessment of a person much lower than he considers himself to be, and this is an assessment with which he cannot agree.
Question: Someone else evaluates them that way, right?
Answer: Yes.
Comment: It is such a blow to a person’s “self.”
My Response: Of course!
Question: What are they ashamed of?
Answer: The fact that they receive this message from their surroundings.
Question: What if they come to this conclusion themselves? Does it change anything?
Answer: Then they usually forget about it. If it is not under the power of others, then it is forgotten.
Question: So when I am shamed, that is a very heavy state. Does it bring something? Do I change because of it?
Answer: A person must change. Either he’s hiding or hiding himself, or he has to do something about it.
Question: And why does he get this? It is all one way or another from above, through someone obviously, but why are they shamed?
Answer: It is to change them.
Question: And when a person understands this, then?
Answer: Then it is a correction.
Question: Why do we blush when we are shamed?
Answer: It is the sort of animals we are; we blush when we are ashamed.
Comment: Animals do not blush especially. True, they have all sorts of movements showing shame.
My Response: We do.
Question: Why do I later hate the person who shamed me?
Answer: Not only do I hate them later, there were times when such people were killed, and so on. That is, the one who brings me some negative feelings, I am ready to annihilate.
Question: Shame and humiliation are they similar forms?
Answer: Yes.
Question: If a person has no shame, what does that say? There is probably not such a person. But suppose.
Answer: Usually it means they do not understand what it is about.
Question: This person?
Answer: Yes, they are undeveloped.
Question: So developed people live with shame?
Answer: Of course. There is a certain threshold. If you push them beyond this threshold with your statements, they cannot agree with it.
Question: So every person has this threshold. What does it mean that a person covers their shame?
Answer: Every person. Their main concern is to cover themselves from shame.
Question: In principle, that is how a person lives. Then there is another question. In the Bible it said that “they covered their shame with clothes.” What does that mean? They ask: was it normal for them to walk naked and exposed?
It was all normal until a certain point. And suddenly, as you say, some threshold happened. What was this threshold for them, for these first people? According to the Bible, and if possible, even the Kabbalistic meaning?
Answer: When the feeling of shame appeared. The feeling of shame is when a person feels naked before others, uncovered. And that is very difficult.
Question: And if we touch on your constant theme of egoism, we are one way or another covering it?
Answer: Yes.
Question: What happened with Adam and Eve that they suddenly became ashamed?
Answer: I do not think it is a problem of Adam and Eve; it was the first social problem manifesting that they had such inclinations they could not be proud of, but rather they were ashamed of. And they covered themselves. And when you cover yourself, that is it, no one knows or understands what you represent, what you are hiding from, and whatnot.
Question: Suppose they covered themselves even materially, with clothes. Over time, these clothes from covering shifted to an element of pride. They adorned them with gold, couturiers appeared. Clothes became not just a cover of shame but on the contrary, a demonstration of wealth. What is that? Can you explain?
Answer: It is a natural inversion, because what needs to be covered, if you cover it with something that hits the other’s eyes, it is clear that it is not covering you, but on the contrary—revealing.
Question: So, in principle, what does it say about a person when they look at clothes like that? Not seeing clothes as simple covering, but when they view them as “I am beautiful, I am this…”—what is it? Why do they do that?
Answer: To eliminate any possibilities for the other to somehow belittle them and so on.
[331839]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/17/24
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Question: Does spiritual advancement come from internal work not only in the ten, but also in the group?
Answer: Of course it does. Each person, as they say, is like a small penny that joins with others to form a great amount. Therefore, nothing should be neglected.
Question: Where do we find the willpower to attend the meetings of the ten and the lessons?
Answer: You do not need to find it anywhere. You should make a deal with your friends to lift you up, take you by the hand, and bring you to the meeting place.
Question: More than six months ago, there was a virtual connection between the women’s tens of Sochi and Germany. Both had a long experience of physical meetings and physical connections. How can we now establish such a close connection without the possibility of physical meetings? Can we add concern for the corporeal affairs of friends to the virtual connection?
Answer: No, one cannot replace the other. It cannot.
Question: How do we in the ten enter the singular authority?
Answer: Only through the desire to unite and become one desire inside the Creator.
Question: How should I work with inactive friends in the ten?
Answer: Set an example for them, talk to them.
[331861]
From the Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/24, “Equals, As One: No friend is strong, the Society is strong”
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Question: You say everything depends on us. Where is the point we can press that will make it work?
Answer: The point to press is the point of realizing that we have no other way out.
We are at a turning point in the world. The world has exhausted its egoistic paradigm of existence and reached its final state. It cannot continue to exist this way.
Therefore, we are in a general crisis of all our behavior in the world. This is specifically a crisis of human relationships, between us and between us and nature. We must change this. How? By becoming an integral part of nature, which we are but we do not wish to acknowledge.
Nature forces us, one way or another, to recognize this fact and change ourselves to become integrally connected with each other and with nature so that the entire universe becomes integrated, closed, harmonious, and unified, and for that, we need to rise above our egoism.
In Kabbalah, there is a force that can correct us and transform us from egoists into altruists so that we are harmoniously connected into one single whole.
We, the people who have a point in the heart, a desire for unity, must first reveal this method within ourselves. Furthermore, the people of Israel, who were once in a spiritual state, must do this because they have spiritual genes. They are obligated to revive and realize them.
When we do this, we will lead the rest of the world. This can be done very quickly, in a very short time!
We do not have to wait until humanity plunges into immense suffering, tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, and who knows what else.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Everything Depends on Us” 3/7/10
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Question: It is said that a person must use his strength to make a choice, after which the Creator gives him everything that was in the Creator’s plan.
What is this human strength, and what kind of choice does one make?
Answer: The Creator gives man an anti-egoistic force with which he rises, becomes closer to the Creator, even reaches adhesion with Him, and thus masters this degree the Creator turned to him with.
Then the Creator gives him another task, an even greater degree. Again, one must turn to the Creator, ask Him for the desire to bestow, and with the help of this desire, rise to the next stage where he will balance a new manifestation of the Creator.
It turns out that the Creator is constantly developing egoism in us, gradually, step by step, and we ask Him for strength so the new egoistic desires that arise in us do not confuse us, do not throw us from side to side, but allow us to advance. This way every desire given to us is to let us get closer to the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/24, Writings of Rabash “Man’s Greatness Is According to His Work”
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Preparation to the Lesson
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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Letter 11”
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2nd part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “The Ruin as an Opportunity for Correction”
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Selected Highlights
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