Question: Why do you think that anyone who is concerned about the meaning of life can study Kabbalah?

Answer: I base my words on what happened in ancient Babylon where the Babylonian priest Abraham revealed Kabbalah to everyone. He recruited a small group of people that he began to teach Kabbalah to, rallied them into the so-called nation, and later brought them out of Babylon.

But this was not a nation, it was just a group that moved away from ancient Babylonian civilization. As a result, it should present the Kabbalistic methodology to the whole world.

Comment: There are people who would like to study Kabbalah, but while searching they turn to various rabbis, and are dissuaded in every possible way with arguments that only a religious Jew can study Kabbalah and a woman cannot study it at all.

My Response: What can be said about people who do not understand why Kabbalah was given to us? We must take an example from two historical figures Abraham and Sarah who taught everyone without exception. The Torah says so: “And everyone will know Me, young and old. And My house will be called the house of prayer for all nations.”
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Expulsion” 12/11/09

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Does God belong to any religion?“

God is the general nature and law of reality. In Gematria, the words for “God” (“Elokim”) and “the nature” (“HaTeva”) have the same numerical value, as they both represent the law of bestowal and love, or altruistic love. It does not mean the egoistic altruism inherent to us, where we perform altruistic acts in order to earn and receive something in return. Rather, it refers to the altruistic law, without any consideration of, or return to, oneself.

Our purpose in life, from God’s or nature’s side, is to bring us to full equivalence of form with Him/it. Such is God’s or nature’s goal in relation to each person. We were created by God/nature solely for this purpose.

God/nature leads us to this goal where we resemble Him/it. That is why we are called “human,” which in Hebrew is “Adam,” from the word “Domeh,” “Lehidamot” (“to become similar”). We need to become similar to God/nature by transforming our ego to altruism, to a form of bestowal. When we complete such a transformation, we complete our role in this world, and we then no longer have to return to this life. We then remain solely in the eternal spiritual life, without dressing into the materialistic body.

We need to use our freedom of choice by means of society’s influence upon us so that we become similar to God/nature. From God’s or nature’s side, He/it pushes us via positive or negative forces—depending on what we choose—pushing us toward the same goal.

It can also be added that God has no religion, because religions are an invention of people who wish to give themselves a psychologically-justified explanation of our existence in this world having a certain goal.

God is our general nature, which advances us to become eternal and perfect like Him.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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To serve the Creator means to go along with Him in the process by which He leads me, to accept His plan, His goal for which He created creations, and to be ready to work for the realization of His program.

I agree in advance that this program is the most correct and the best for me, even though it is contrary to my nature. But I want to follow it and fulfill it.
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From the International Kabbalah Convention 9/25/21, “Entering Impregnation – Revealing a New World”, Lesson 1

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Question: You said that the Creator is just a force without matter, and we must somehow create matter for it ourselves. What are these laws that will manifest there?

Answer: Power without matter is the Creator. When this force is clothed in matter, in desire, according to the law of similarity, then it becomes, as it were, material. Although this is not matter, but simply a person’s desire that becomes similar to the property of bestowal. Therefore, Adam consists of these two properties, the desire to receive, which creates out of himself the external form of the desire to bestow.

Adam and Eve are two forces that, by thus interacting with each other, make up the system called Adam. Adam has two parts. The feminine part is included in him as matter, and he shapes this matter under the likeness of the Creator. That is why it is called Adam, which means “like the Creator.” This must be achieved by each of us.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States”

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Question: When you met with different spiritual leaders did you find any point of contact with them?

Answer: No, none, because their teachings are built on the suppression of selfishness.

All methods except for Kabbalah are built on the suppression of egoism—to desire less, think less, eat less, move less, that is, to constantly reduce oneself in one’s earthly manifestations. And Kabbalah says: “Leave all earthly manifestations. You must develop your spiritual part.”

The earthly part is everything in which we exist, i.e., taking care of our body. As long as it lives we think about it, and this is our whole life. Imagine that you have some kind of animal and your whole life is devoted only to caring for it. And it lives from such and such a day to such and such a day, these seventy years, and you live with it. It dies, and you die.

Kabbalah says: “Rise above this animal so that not only it fills your entire existence because besides this there is another life. Look at the world.” And when you start looking at the world not through this animal—you give it what it needs, but look above it—you open the upper world.

Question: But an ordinary person cannot rise above this animal?

Answer: They cannot. They cannot even try to get out of it and do not understand what it means.

It means to acquire another completely different property, bestowal. After all the property with which I am in this animal is the property of receiving, and it just keeps me in itself.

But inside me initially there is a rudiment of my next state, the spiritual state. It pulls me out of this animal, pulls me to find out: “For the sake of what do I exist? Really in the name of this life? Really in the name of these years in which I am in my body and die?” If I have this urgent question that haunts me and I am obliged to answer it, then I am already in a state where I really need Kabbalah.

For the first time such states are revealed only in our generation. And therefore, only now is the science of Kabbalah being revealed to mankind, and very indifferently: whoever wants it, please; whoever doesn’t want it, no need. No one convinces anyone. The entrance is free, the exit is even freer.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Seekers” 9/16/09

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Filed under: Body and Soul, Kabbalah Study, Meaning Of Life, Religion | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #191 “The Time of Descent”

Lesson on the Topic: “Everything Is Obtained by the Power of Prayer,” Lesson 10

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 58

Selected Highlights

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The world has to go through a #depression—rejection of unnecessary production, liberation from unnecessary #consumption, reform of its necessities and activities, leaving everything only to the extent of necessity. We will thus pacify the earth and ourselves. The question is how this will happen: by world #wars, or by #conscious awareness…
#sustainability

The World Anti-doping Agency has announced that the status of #Marijuana needs to be revisited, to remove it from the list of prohibited substances. Back when the campaign against smoking started, I wrote that this is being done in order to #legalize drugs like marijuana. This is convenient for those in power!
#LegalizeCannabis #addicted

From Twitter, 9/30/21

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My new article on Linkedin “The Odd Link between Antisemitism and Zionism”

In 1929, Dr. Kurt Fleischer, leader of the Liberals in the Berlin Jewish Community Assembly, made a peculiar statement: “Anti-Semitism is the scourge that God has sent us in order to lead us together and weld us together.” Regrettably, the awareness of the linkage between antisemitism and Jewish unity did not percolate into people’s awareness, and the results were horrific. When I was a young man in the former Soviet Union, the government strictly prohibited overt displays of antisemitism. There was no love for Jews in the USSR, but the government knew that antisemitism would scare the Jews and make them want to move to Israel. Since the government did not want to lose Jewish scientists, it prohibited open displays of Jew-hatred. It turns out that antisemitism increases Jewish unity and Zionism.

There is a profound reason that antisemitism is connected to Zionism and Jewish unity. The whole purpose of Judaism is to display unity. The Jewish people achieved nationhood only once they united “as one man with one heart” at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Immediately following, they were told, in singular form since they have become as one: “This day you have become a people” (Deut. 27:9).

The same phenomenon exists today in France, where antisemitism is pervasive. As a result, a record number of French Jews have made Aliyah (migrated to Israel) in recent years. Now, a similar phenomenon is beginning in the United States.

The opposite is also true. When Jews do not feel the world’s hatred, many of them leave Israel and assimilate in countries all over the world, seeking to disengage from their Jewish legacy. It is almost as if antisemitism defines Jews as Jews, and the lack thereof disconnects them from it.

I, too, came to Israel because I felt like a stranger in the Soviet Union, like an outcast, despite being born there. I didn’t experience overt antisemitism, as it was forbidden to do so, but it was always in the background. This is why as soon as I could leave the USSR, I left for Israel. I knew that this would be the only place where I could be a Jew and not have to hide that part of me. Although I was in no way observant or religious, it was still a part of my history, my tradition, and my legacy. Having to conceal it meant having to conceal a part of me, and I did not want that.

Returning to our topic, there is a profound reason that antisemitism is connected to Zionism and Jewish unity. The whole purpose of Judaism is to display unity. The Jewish people achieved nationhood only once they united “as one man with one heart” at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Immediately following, they were told, in singular form since they have become as one: “This day you have become a people” (Deut. 27:9).

Once they became a nation, the Jews were tasked with spreading the light of unity that they had achieved, namely with being “a light unto nations.” Indeed, if we review the pivotal events in Jewish history, it is quite evident that each catastrophe in the chronicles of the Jews comes after an extended period of growing division and internal hatred.

In some cases, as with the ruin of the First and Second Temples, the rift causes an expulsion of the people of Israel from the land of Israel. In other cases, such as that of Queen Esther toward the end of the exile in Babylon, the Jews manage to unite in time, which saves them from extinction and even grants them sovereignty in the land of Israel after having lost it due to their own division.

There are many more notable events in Jewish history where the link between unity and success, or division and calamity, is manifest. I have elaborated on some of them in my publication The Jewish Choice: Unity or Antisemitism; you are welcome to get it and see for yourselves.

Today, there is no Jewish unity. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, we have been growing progressively divided. Currently, the levels of division and hatred among us are reaching dangerous levels, which can lead us to another cataclysm of historic proportions.

While we still have sovereignty, we can reverse the trajectory. Division is certain to lead us to annihilation; unity will surely lead us to prosperity and happiness. Will we resist the lure of righteous indignation and the delight of self-righteousness? I don’t know. What I do know is that if we bite on the bait, it will end our days as a sovereign nation and Jews all over the world will suffer unspeakable torments.
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Filed under: Anti-Semitism, New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

My new article on Linkedin “Living in a False Reality”

Our default state of mind is that everyone is out to get us, a dog-eat-dog reality. We’re living in constant fear that everyone wants to take advantage of us, abuse and humiliate us, and that if we don’t stand guard, we will be hurt every step of the way. Worse yet, we feel that this is how all of reality works. But if that were the case with all of reality, would cells ever create colonies and form organisms? Would molecules ever join to create organs, would atoms ever join to create molecules? If this were the case, there wouldn’t be life; there wouldn’t even be the universe. There would only be discrete particles existing separately, never creating anything more complex than themselves.

The reality we experience is therefore not the real reality—the one that has created us, sustains us, and allows us to read these lines. In the true reality, everything exists in harmony with everything else, and together, all parts of it create a perfect whole. In the real world, nothing and no one takes more than is needed to sustain oneself, and the system is perfectly harmonious.

As our cells function automatically and form the harmonious organism that is us, so does everything else in nature. The “mindset” of reality is not exploitation, but harmony, and everything and everyone follows it but us, humans.

We are the only element in reality that wants to take for itself more than it needs, that wants to consume and destroy, humiliate and conquer, abuse and patronize, and takes pleasure in hurting others. Because we think and act this way, we think that everyone thinks and acts that way, as well. And because we live by that premise, we have created a foul world after our own foul image.

But there is a good reason why we were created so malicious. Striving to emerge from this distressing state will lead us to understand how all of reality truly operates. We have been denied the natural instincts that drive all creations to harmony precisely so as to develop this harmony of our own volition and through our own consciousness. We are made ugly precisely in order to be able to choose beauty.

The difference between operating in harmony with all of creation instinctively or consciously is as the difference between being a part of an organism and being the mind that governs the organism and directs its actions. The destiny of humanity is to become that mind, that consciousness.

To get there, we need to start practicing harmonious relationships instead of following our inherent, exploitative nature. To achieve this, it is imperative that we realize that we are living in a false reality, that the true reality is harmonious and complete, and that it is only our flawed perception of it that prevents us from seeing the truth, and living in that perfect world.
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