Preparation to the Lesson
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Lesson on the Topic, “The 15th of Av: The Day of Love”
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and Its Essence”
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 4, Chapter 2, “Inner Light,” Item 2
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Selected Highlights
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “nnnnNAMEeeeee“
What is the meaning of life? At a certain point, we realize that there is no sense in living, that we live in vain. Life passes us by every day, and maybe it would be best if we did not exist to begin with?
Indeed, we have sought the meaning of life for thousands of years, and we as a humanity have yet to find an ultimate meaning to life. It is as if we live in order to ask this most fundamental question in every generation and to not find an answer to it.
The question about the meaning of life arises within us involuntarily. Although it might seem better and easier not to ask about the meaning of life, if it would be so, then we would remain at the animal level. Humans, rather, keep evolving, and our constant development is expressed in us increasingly asking about the meaning of life from one generation to the next.
We cannot help but ask about the meaning of life and why we are here. The mere fact that we keep questioning ourselves will bring us to the point when someday we will start discovering the real answer to life’s biggest question. I hope that such a day will come very soon.
What, then, is the meaning of life?
The meaning of life is to discover the meaning of life.
What is it though? We will need to discover it. We live in this world in order to seek the answer to specifically that question, and we all subconsciously seek its answer regardless of age, nationality, gender and profession. We are locked in a constant search for the meaning of life, and we have no idea about the base motivation behind such a search.
It might seem as if some people manage to find themselves in life, saying that they live life well and achieve a lot, regardless of a specific search for the meaning of life, but such people simply convince themselves of such statements. However, the desire to find the meaning of life lives within them as it does with everybody, otherwise they would not be alive to begin with.
Every moment of our life starts with the question about why we are living. We do not realize it, and we thus live through the given moment, and then in the next moment we ask ourselves that same question—”What am I living for?”—and we do so time and again. We continue living in such a way during the course of our entire lives, but we still lack a clear answer. Nonetheless, we re-enter that quest, living through every moment with that question at its basis, and move throughout our lives in such a way. Our life’s flow is a continuous question about the meaning of life and a constant search for an answer that we never discover.
Moreover, the question—“What is the meaning of life?”—precedes our physiological perception. It is our most important and fundamental question. Moreover, it is a question that relates to our spiritual quest. After we ask about the meaning of our lives, our body and our organs start revitalizing and blossoming, and we develop as such.
Eventually, after living millions of diverse lives, we eventually will indeed find the meaning of life, which is to reach a clear perception and sensation of the source of all life. We will all reach that discovery. At a certain point of our development, we will shift from unconsciously asking about the meaning of our lives at every moment, to a state where we will start seeking the meaning of life consciously. That is, we will improve in our ability to imagine what the source of our lives is, and how, on what basis, with what qualities and intentions, we can approach it, grabbing hold of it like a baby to its mother. When we do so, we will then have a certain tool by which we can start connecting with the meaning of our lives, and when we reach that stage, then we will start actively seeking our lives’ source, working out what it wants from us, what we expect from it, and why the entire meaning of life is only to eventually draw and adhere to the source of our lives. At such a point, will we truly start absorbing and understanding the meaning of life.
The search for the meaning of life is a pathway to eternity, and eternity is a state of constantly coming closer to the source of our lives, increasingly holding onto, clinging to, and adhering to it.
Based on the video “What Is the Meaning of Life? Why Do We Ask about the Meaning of Life?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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My new article on Linkedin “ The Clash between Islam and Judaism ”
The never-ending clash between Israel and the Islamic world is far deeper than a dispute over land or territory. The ultimate purpose of Islam is to rule the world. It may take years, decades, centuries, or millennia, but the ultimate goal is for Islam to govern the planet. They have patience, persistence, devotion to their faith, and as we can see, Islam is making headway the world over. Jews, on the other hand, have no ideology at all. Currently, our only ideology is to indulge in selfish pleasures. But at the basis of our nation lies a unique idea that neither Islam nor any other religion can accept: love of others as much as one loves oneself.
Currently, Jews do not give a second thought to this idea; they are as afraid of it as any other faith, if not more so, since they are the ones tasked with spreading it around the world. But Jews, as we said, are immersed in the exact opposite of love of others, and therefore no one spreads this notion today, and this is what our world looks like: a planet whose inhabitants fight against each other to the death.
Because our current way of life has nothing to do with our vocation, and everything to do with indulgence, the tendency among Jews in Israel is to seek a quieter place elsewhere. When Zionists first came to Israel, they believed that our historic homeland was the place where we could build a safe haven for the Jews. We did not look for a place where we could realize our calling—to love our neighbor as ourselves and become a light of unity to the nations. Instead, we only sought a place where we would not be slaughtered and persecuted.
In the first years of Israel’s existence, there was an intense feeling of existential threat. This made us come together whenever the conflict with our neighbors became violent. Over the past several decades, we have come to realize that our enemies are not strong enough to annihilate the Jewish state. They can hurt us, but they cannot demolish the country.
As a result, we turned once more toward indulgence, just as we did while we were in the Diaspora. Since the modern State of Israel was not established on the ideology of mutual responsibility and love of others, but as an attempt to find safety, the minute we did not need unity as a means of survival, we threw it out the window.
Now, our enemies rejoice when they see us clashing with each other. They know that if they are patient, we will disintegrate from within and they will not need to fight against us on the battlefield.
If we want to have a foothold in the land of Israel, we must rethink our reason for being here. Israel is no longer considered a safe haven. Even for those who do come here for reasons of personal safety, it is no longer a strong enough motivation to remain here. The future of the country depends on understanding the real purpose of the Jewish people and embracing its vocation.
The “ideology” of the Jewish people is love of others. This was the basis of our peoplehood when we first became a nation at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Therefore, only if we strive for it do we merit the title “people of Israel,” and the right to live in the land of Israel, the land of the people who strive to love each other as themselves and set an example that will be a light to the nations.
We currently have no idea about our vocation, yet our existence in this country depends on knowing it. Therefore, educating ourselves and our children about the meaning and purpose of the Israeli nation is vital for our future. If we want to win the ideological war with Islam, then just as they are taught to hate Jews from infancy, we should teach our children to love others. If we bolster our solidarity and increase our unity, no enemy will stand against us.
Real Judaism is not about services and customs. Real Judaism means rising above our selfishness, uniting above the ego, loving (or at least striving to love) each other as ourselves, and doing these in order to be a light to the nations, to set an example for the world.
Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Bring Back the Pioneer Spirit”
When I came to Israel in 1974, I was sent to a hotel that accommodated new olim (Jews who had just immigrated to Israel). Each family was given a room and we slept, dined, and learned Hebrew there. One day, I found out that one of the waiters serving us in the dining hall was actually the owner of the hotel. He had donated his hotel for several years to help new olim in their first steps. I was amazed to discover that there were people with such spirit. That man was a true pioneer, and it was the pioneer spirit that drove him to do what he did. That spirit did not let him sit by, but galvanized him to do something meaningful in his life. Today, this spirit is a rarity, and we desperately need to find a way to bring it back to life.
The pioneer spirit exists in the heart of every Jew. After all, every Jew is a descendant of pioneers who paved the way for a new social model of mutual responsibility and solidarity, which was unheard of at the time. Until Abraham began to spread his ideas about mercy and love of others, and until Moses had turned the descendants of Abraham’s group into a nation, the idea of a nation fashioned by transcending one’s ego was unthinkable. The prevailing conduct was that the strong rules and subjugates or annihilates the weak, both among nations and among individuals. Here, however, was a new concept, embodied in the words of King Solomon (Prov. 10:12): “Hate stirs up strife, and love will cover all crimes.”
The Golden Rule, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” represents the core of being Jewish. It is not a commandment to do something or say something. Nor is it a commandment to praise a deity or worship it. It is simply a commandment to love others as much as you love yourself.
The pioneers who established the State of Israel did a great job at founding a sovereign country in a land that was largely swamp and desert when they came here, and against six charging armies that sought to annihilate the Jewish presence in the Middle East. However, they did not finish the job. They established a state, but now it is up to us to nurture the soul and spirit of that state so as to merit the name the “State of Israel,” a country that hallows one and only law, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
If we take the next step and fill the heart of the Israeli people with the Israeli spirit of solidarity, mutual responsibility, and above all, love of others, it will be our final triumph. No one will challenge our presence here because everyone will realize that we are not here for ourselves, but for the world, to carry out our calling and be a light to the nations, spreading the light of unity and friendship above all differences and conflicts. If we rise above our internal divisions toward unity and love, we will complete our ancestors’ task, and their pioneering spirit of caring for others will spread around the world.
Therefore, the only war we need to wage is against our egos. The only victory we need is the victory of unity over division.
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Question: Let’s say a person living in this world feels some kind of descent or ascent: good or bad mood, and some situations happen to him. Is it all the effect of light?
Answer: Yes, of course. This is how we feel the light. It transforms within us into all kinds of scenes and images.
But in principle, there is nothing but light and the desire opposite to it. These two opposite qualities—light (the desire to bestow, to fill) and the opposite desire to receive, i.e., positive and negative qualities—exist only in nature. Their combinations with each other are presented to us as all kinds of objects and phenomena.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/19/22
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Question: What is the connection between Reshimot, and is there an influence of the point in the heart on them?
Answer: The point in the heart is the central and foremost hidden desire in us. We have to connect it with the desires of other people and with the Creator. Then we will bring the entire creation to the correction, to one single desire called “Adam.”
All human history is the revelation of Reshimot.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/12/22
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Question: What happens to a man, to his soul, when he dies?
Answer: When a man dies his body dies and he no longer perceives himself through his body. That is all.
But his Reshimot remain. A Reshimo is a record, an information chain about its further states. It is recorded from the beginning of creation to the end. And from the moment his body dies, he continues to realize this chain of Reshimot in other forms without being clothed in a corporeal body and without perceiving his existence through it.
Question: But is there any realization that this is my Reshimo?
Answer: Yes. But it is not like now.
Question: Better or worse?
Answer: It depends on his life.
Question: So there remains some awareness that I exist?
Answer: Of course. Nothing disappears.
Question: What happens to the soul then?
Answer: The soul is that part of the desire that has corrected itself and united with humanity in order to affect good on it. Thus the soul continues its existence in the total volume of the whole of the desire. This is a different realization, a higher one.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/12/22
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In the News (The Telegraph): “Cambridge music students are being instructed to ‘decolonise the ear’ and consider the classical canon as ‘an imperial phenomenon’.
“The works of composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Giuseppe Verdi are being taught in relation to topics including European imperialism and Orientalism, as the music faculty pursues work on ‘curricular decolonisation’.
Undergraduates studying for the course, titled Decolonising the Ear, are taught to consider listening to sound in a ‘postcolonial’ way, while a ‘music, power, empire’ module explores how the classical repertoire is a middle-class and imperial phenomenon. …
“According to a course guide for Decolonising the Ear, undergraduates will examine topics including how musical repertoires could be ‘complicit… in projects of Empire and neoliberal systems of power’.
“Students also learn how ‘Empire… affected our understanding of what constitutes “music”’ and how ‘genres like opera seem particularly susceptible to racialised representations’.”
Question: To be honest, I thought that music was above all this. Tell me—you like classical music, rap, you also like jazz—how do you connect all this?
Answer: What is the difference? This is an expression of human feelings, and therefore I welcome it all. I can listen to Odessan folk songs and criminal ones too. And Vysotsky songs [a famous Soviet bard]. In every expression there is a piece of some soul. This is the main thing.
Question: How can we avoid reaching these prohibitions?
Answer: This is the limitation of people.
Question: How can you reach such a height while listening to music?
Answer: You can raise any criminal song, whatever you want, to a high level, because this is the work of a person, no matter how low or insignificant; you can say about him whatever you want, but this is a work emanating from the forces of his soul. This is why you cannot just strike it out.
Question: What can connect me with this person, who, frankly speaking, is low?
Answer: I would say that the ability of a composer, an artist, a poet, a writer, is to highlight or to express some feature in our character, which was created, in principle, by the Creator. Therefore we must understand that there are no bad qualities; there is only a problem of how we treat them correctly in order to see the Creator’s thought in them. Then the most terrible works of hatred will get their rightful place in the common human pantheon.
Comment: Now you are destroying all the stereotypes by saying that there are no low and high genres.
My Response: There is nothing bad, low, or terrible. All this is necessary for us only so that we treat it as a direct communication with the Creator. Everything comes from Him, and all of us must bring it all and bow before Him. That’s all.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/6/22
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Comment: If I look at myself on the basis of my feelings, I begin to understand that some unpleasant transformations are taking place inside me. But if I look from some additional point, if earlier my “beast” was suffering, and I was ready to save it, now…
My Response: Now you understand that maybe this beast should be patient for a little while, and you will ride it. You are already beginning to study yourself from the outside!
Comment: But at the same time, there still is the association of myself with this beast and the attempt to find the strength to overcome this.
My Response: Yes, you still associate yourself with it and this state does not go away until the final correction.
The animate level that exists in us should be the basis for the spiritual degree. On it, I make my spiritual elevation. Until I have completely finished it, this level is underneath me.
Therefore, I must exist in the sensation of this body and this world until I fully come into contact with all people on the internal level to such an extent that I no longer need the level of today’s animalistic communication with them. Then this level will disappear.
It is depicted only in our feelings. The world is matter given to us in feelings. Therefore, this degree will disappear. We remain to exist only in the spiritual state and the corporeal states will catch up and enter spirituality as its components.
Literally from the very first degree of our spiritual ascent above corporeality, we will begin to understand that this world is imaginary. It does not exist, it is within us. It does not exist outside of our feelings.
I hope that humanity will quickly realize this. Science, philosophy, sociology, and psychology are already ready for this. I think that everyone will soon begin to understand this, and this will also help. The main thing is to start looking at yourself and at the world in this way, and this will come.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Secrets of Kabbalah” 2/11/13
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