Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 38
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Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
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Selected Highlights
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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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Question: War is inevitable in the inner world of a person. He will always be at war with his egoism because the evil inclination is what the Creator created. But is the manifestation of war in the corporeal world necessary?
Answer: If we do not allow the internal manifestation of wars, then we will reach an external balance as well.
Question: Of course, it is easy to talk about wars and write books when sitting in the laboratory. But when there is shooting under your window and your relatives are dying, how can you behave in such situations?
Answer: The most important thing is education. We have already talked about this many times in our conversations.
Unfortunately there is no education in our world that would completely direct a person only to searching for the middle line between the right and the left ones.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/1/22
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Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai [author of The Book of Zohar] was revealing the secrets of the Torah, and friends were listening to his voice, connecting with him, and each contributed his part to this unity (The Ramchal, Adir BaMarom (Mighty on High), 24).
Rabbi Shimon and his nine disciples had such a strong desire to attain the Creator in all states of their interaction that they managed to create a mutual inner connection between them. This means that “friends were listening to his voice, connecting with him.”
They were reading passages from the Torah, each of them reacted to these texts, described their feelings, and completed the others, and one was responsible for writing down the words of all the disciples.
Since they were connected with each other, they expressed their impressions from the common source, the Creator, whom they were attaining, feeling, and thus could analyze, verify, influence Him, and receive an answer from Him.
That is, their impressions from this common source is a very serious study of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/15/22
Related Material:
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What determines that some people suffer more and others less? It is from the inner basis of a person, from his place in the general system, because he is as a certain cornerstone in it responsible for the entire system, and therefore, he must be pushed more sharply toward correction.
There are no dealings with individuals as is commonly believed. Never! Because the system is general. Only the inclusion of a person is taken into account.
None of us live on our own. Can a single cell exist in the body on its own? If it lives only for itself, then it turns into a cancer cell. It must give itself completely to the whole organism. Only for its sake does it exist, by its order it dies, by its order it functions without any thought of itself.
And then—this is a paradox—if everything in the body exists only for the common life: the heart is not for itself, the lungs are not for itself, all parts of the body are not for their own sake, then the whole organism really lives and functions successfully.
Imagine what a balanced system it is! It is like you are hanging in the air and everyone has to think about everyone. As soon as somebody thinks of himself, everything collapses, you fall.
We exist in exactly such a system. It turns out that by taking care of each other, we come to a state when we rise above the level of our existence.
What is the paradox? If my animal body exists and thanks to it I exist as a human above my animal body, then when I consciously connect with other people into a single harmony, I will begin to feel my existence at a higher level, at the level of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Partnership Agreement” 4/7/10
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can I become more empathetic?“
A student at a school approached his teacher, because he saw a girl who had come to school in a torn coat. Since it was winter and her coat was inadequate to stand up against the cold weather, the student suggested a trade setup where anyone could give whatever they wanted with the aim of making sure that every kid in school would have an umbrella, boots and a coat for winter. The teacher was very moved, shared the idea with the parents, and it was set up in two hours.
A question that arises from this heartwarming situation is why are we all not as sensitive as that child? Obviously, we would find ourselves in a much more positive reality if we were.
We adults are bigger egoists and are much more inclined to pay attention only to what is ours. We have been created in such a way where we feel increasing detachment from each other in order for us to develop a sincere prayer for help: to have our hearts opened so that we can feel others similarly to how we feel ourselves.
By reaching such an inversion of how we feel reality, then we would feel connected, close and understanding of each other. We would then all feel like one body. We would have no holes in our coats, and would feel ourselves as parts of the upper world—of love, bestowal and connection.
Based on the video “How to Become More Empathetic” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
Preparation to the Lesson
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 31
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Selected Highlights
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio
My new article on Linkedin “The Bully Is a Victim, Too”
One of the most painful, yet often undetected social phenomena among children is ostracism. Usually, it happens when a leader in a social group, such as a class or a sports team, picks a child as a target for exclusion and turns the rest of the group against the victim. To the child, it is a horrific experience that can scar a young soul for life. Worse yet, a bully who behaves this way feels emboldened by it and is therefore likely to repeat it either toward the victim or toward other children. To cure this social ailment, we need to understand why bullies behave this way and how we can help them adopt more positive patterns of behavior.
Bullies target children they perceive as weak, who do not stand up to them, or who are socially isolated. The bully’s goal is not so much to make the victim feel bad, as it is to make the bully feel good about himself or herself.
Often, bullies come from homes where they feel insecure. They may be suffering from physical or emotional abuse and feel trampled on at home. To compensate for their sense of inferiority at home, they need to feel superior elsewhere, and that other place is likely to be school or a sports team, or any social setting where the bully participates.
Compared to other forms of bullying, the problem with exclusion is that the bully “recruits” the rest of the group to gang up on the victim, leaving the victim socially isolated and without emotional support. For a child, such a situation can be devastating.
To tackle the phenomenon, it is not enough to punish the bully. A punishment might stop the bully from continuing to harass the victim for whom he or she was punished, but it will not stop the bully from looking for other victims because the need to bully will continue. Worse yet, it might make the intimidator continue to bully, but in more stealthy and sinister ways.
Therefore, it is essential to understand why the bully behaves this way, and provide the compensation for the lack that the bully needs in more constructive ways. Instead of the bully seeking compensation by him or herself, the society should offer the compensation in a manner that fills the bully’s emotional deficiency and does not hurt others.
Human nature requires us to feel good about ourselves. If there is a place where we feel inferior, we will not rest until we compensate for it. Therefore, if a person feels loved and supported, he or she will never feel inferior, and will therefore not wish to make others feel unloved or excluded.
The solution to the problem of bullying, therefore, and especially that of ostracism, lies in the hands of society—to create a warm and loving environment for all the children where they can grow and express their unique qualities in a socially-constructive manner, for the benefit of all of society.
If children work together on projects that require everyone’s skills, they will learn to rely on each other, trust each other, and delight in each other’s talents. Most importantly, they will come to care for one another. Instead of envy, their sense of interdependence will bring them to support each other as each child’s unique abilities benefit the entire group. When all the children cooperate in this manner, they form a harmonious society where each individual is fully satisfied and at the same time cares for the rest of all the members of the group.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Ukrainian Jewish Legacy”
Beyond the headlines of the deadly war in Ukraine from which a large number of Jews are fleeing to Israel, lies a unique and rarely told story about the remarkable contribution of Ukrainian Jews to science, art, politics, culture and education in the history of Israel and the world.
Throughout the years, many Jews who were born and lived in Ukraine imprinted their unique world-class talents in many areas. Among the most prominent names of Ukrainian origin are Rabbi Yisrael ben Eliezer, known as the “Baal Shem Tov,” who was the father of the Hasidic movement. Some of his famous students include Rabbi Nachman of Breslav and Menachem Mendel of Kotzk. Among other names on the list of influential Ukrainian Jews are former Israeli leaders such as Golda Meir, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Moshe Sharet, Yitzhak Ben Zvi, and Levi Eshkol.
The world of literature is also replete with spectacular landscape descriptions of the green hills of Ukraine. Nobel Prize-winning author S.Y. Agnon was inspired by his hometown Buchach. Aaron Appelfeld wrote enthusiastically about Bukovina, and Bruno Schultz about Drohobych streets.
Ukraine is beautiful. I remember traveling from north to south—from Russia to Belarus, and from Belarus through Ukraine to Odessa, which lies on the Black Sea coast. There is not much difference in the transition from Russia to Belarus. Everything looks almost the same, filthy and broken. In the air it was noticeable how neglected everything around us was and that no one seemed to care much about the roadside villages. But from the moment we crossed the border and entered the territory of Ukraine, we immediately rubbed our eyes. We saw a new and clean place; even poor villages were well taken care of to preserve everything they had and to repair anything that was broken.
I remember it as a beautiful area, the climate was comfortable, the soil was fertile, everything was blooming, the conditions were relatively good and there was room to accommodate millions. Although Jews have lived in many countries in Eastern Europe, many of them were drawn to live in Ukrainian cities and villages, being pushed into the “borderline—the meaning of the word “ukraina.”
The Ukrainians were a very rural and land-loving people, and the locals always expected the Jews to bring development in science and medicine, in culture and the arts. At the same time, Jews experienced great antisemitism and many pogroms throughout their history in Ukraine. This pressure built within the local Jews a unique approach to life and to overcoming adversity through hard work—a kind of willpower and impulse that made them pioneers.
Even today, although we Jews have immigrated to Israel and established a national home, we still feel the stress of antisemitism pressing upon us from the global village. From every direction we are being increasingly pressured, and this is true both for Diaspora Jews and for Jews in Israel. Wherever we flee, we are always blamed for being Jews.
This pressure upon us needs to lead us to apply our willpower to a new kind of overcoming—the implementation of the correct method for forging Jewish unity to reconnect the essence of the Jewish people that we have lost in the useless quarrels between us. If we will re-acquire the knowledge and wisdom found in the connection between us, in our unity, we will then be able to give the world an unparalleled blessing, the breakthrough of lasting peace, tranquility, and fulfillment, the light humanity so desperately needs. And this gift to humanity will be the most valuable and lasting contribution of the Jewish people to the world—a true enlightenment in times of darkness.
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Daily Audio Version-MP3
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