Spiritual Influences on the Land of Israel

Question: You explained that there are five sources of influence on the Earth, in particular, on the land of Israel. The first source is the root, the thought, the beginning of everything, the quality of the Creator, the force of bestowal.

Next, four types of influence correspond to four phases of the spreading of the light, the creation of the created being. Each of them influences a certain part of the Earth.

The root, which is the beginning of everything, the thought, Keter, influences the part of the Earth that is called Mount Hermon. Hochma influences the Upper Galilee, and so on. What is this Kabbalistic geography?

Answer: Since each upper influence occurs through five phases that are determined in the upper world, our country is also divided into five parts. Then they are divided into twelve parts and so on. It all depends on what aspect of the division we are talking about.

From a geographical point of view, Mount Hermon is Keter, Galilee is Hochma, the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) is Bina, the Jordan river up to Jerusalem is Zeir Anpin, and below it begins the movement toward Malchut, to the Dead Sea and stretches up to Eilat, to the Red Sea.

Remark: The great Kabbalists Ari and Baal HaSulam also mention countries such as Jordan and Syria.

My Comment: This is a different kind of division, not the Land of Israel, but other lands. Yet, again in the center of the influence of the upper force is the Land of Israel and then next to it Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Babylon, also five parts.

All other countries are divided any way you like, it does not matter.

Question: It is interesting that Kabbalists clearly define these borders even hundreds and thousands of years ago. Does it mean that it is not about countries, but rather about spiritual influence?

Answer: In the spiritual worlds, there is a prototype of these influences that later are reflected in the matter of our world.

Question: Does it mean that a person who is in spirituality can somehow feel where within him Lebanon and Syria are?

Answer: Of course, he absolutely clearly feels different qualities and how to vary and manage them.

Question: Is Hermon from the word “harmony”?

Answer: This is the upper harmony because Keter is the basis of everything that descends to our world.

Question: If a person comes down from Mount Hermon to the Upper Galilee, does he feel that this is Hochma?

Answer: An ordinary person feels nothing except the difference in air pressure. A Kabbalist, however, depending on his or her interaction with our world, can turn this on and off within himself.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/28/19

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Is it possible to change your spouse’s character?

Remark: We understand that freedom of will is only in selecting the environment and it is not possible to change the basic qualities of a person.

My Comment: There is no need to change them.

Question: Should we not try to demand that our spouses change their qualities?

Answer: In no way! They are given to us from nature and will remain the same. The only thing we can do is combine their use for the benefit of our connection so that in this connection between us we would reveal the upper force. This is our goal, our reward.

Freedom of choice is only in the fact that both I and the opposite party annul ourselves and form such a place on this mutual annulment in which we will discover the upper force, as it is written, “Husband and wife, the Creator between them.”
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 12/31/18

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New Life 14 – The Path To Happiness
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Moshe Admoni and Limor Sofer-Patman

Humanity is in despair since we can no longer satisfy ourselves through competition with others at work and at home. Happiness is attained through a sense of balance and tranquility or lack of pressure. We are experiencing the emptiness that awaits us when the goal is to attain pleasure and avoid pain. We need to aim for a new level of enjoyment that can only be discovered through mutual love and reciprocity. Nature is inviting us to connect with the whole world and realize that we are interdependent. We need to invert our nature and discover the new paradigm by correcting the connection between us. The crisis we find ourselves in is an opportunity to grow and give birth to a whole new level of connection and happiness for all of humanity.
From Kab TV’s “New Life 14 – The Path To Happiness,” 1/17/12

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “The Conditions for Raising Oneself Above One’s Circle”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Item 22

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 134

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It is written that the Creator is near to those whose heart is broken. The heart breaks when I understand that I cannot break it by myself. I must exert many efforts to agree that my heart is really made of stone, and only the Creator is able to break it so love may enter.

We are building a bridge of love paved above an abyss of hatred. Hatred, combined with love, gives us the understanding and sensation of that which is called the Creator—a unique quality of connecting irreconcilable differences.

Out of two extremes that negate one another, a single force is born that is not from this world, “the light that reforms”—it builds the connection between us, allowing us to understand what the Creator is.
As a result of the opposition of two forces—love and hatred, and their union, the middle line, the Creator emerges.

Arvut is a special connection, the right connection between broken desires, hearts. Not one person, but as one, as if one desire. Inside, only a deep difference between one and the other remains, polar opposition and hatred, covered by love.

The world is one system in which we unconsciously carry out its laws. We must include ourselves in it consciously, intentionally taking part in its management. The system is broken, tangled, and is revealed at the lowest degree, “this world.” We have to unite this system until we attain the Creator’s degree.

I have to make efforts so the light will come and unite our ten into a spiritual Partzuf. The light connects us into one creation, Malchut.

Mutual guarantee is the sensation of the common network and us inside of it. The common network is the common soul, Adam HaRishon, and we are its parts. Every person is a part of the common desire.
We are all connected by mutual guarantee, fused into one soul filled by the Creator. The common system is the spiritual degrees, worlds.
From Twitter, 12/9/19

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is consumerism a bad thing?“

Consumerism never fulfills us. On the contrary, we become emptier the more we run after materialistic pleasures, where each fulfillment we receive after each purchase soon after turns into emptiness.

Our nature, the desire to enjoy—where we constantly seek to feel pleasure, using anything and anyone around us just to input pleasure into ourselves—eventually leads us to a desperate state.

Desperation from never finding true fulfillment will awaken our understanding that we’re trapped: our pursuit of happiness leads to unhappiness, a lack of fulfillment and dissatisfaction, as Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) writes, that we die with half our desire in our hand.

“All their possessions are for themselves alone, and ‘he who has a single portion wants a double portion,’ one finally dies with only ‘half one’s desire in one’s hand.’”—Yehuda Ashlag, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Volume 1, Part 1, Histaklut Pnimit (Inner Reflection)

What we once enjoyed no longer fulfills us, and we constantly seek newer and different kinds of pleasures to try and fulfill ourselves.

We make it easier for ourselves to buy material goods. We make it cheaper to travel. But we find ourselves in a catch-22, because when our purchases and our travels were harder to achieve, they held more value.

Now, with a few taps of our thumbs, we can have goods delivered directly to our homes the same day, and access entertainment to keep us busy for hours. There is nothing left to desire.

What’s next? Our desire grows, we feel emptier, we start feeling out of control, that our desires are controlling us, and become increasingly frustrated.

Then comes a major crisis.

The accelerating consumerist treadmill is quickly reaching a state where we will be unable to keep up with its speed, and will fall flat on our faces. As a result, we will need to seek a different way to fulfill ourselves. The entire basis for our every enjoyment, that we enjoy egoistically, for our personal benefit, will need to undergo a fundamental transformation: that we enjoy altruistically, for the benefit of others.

How is such a transformation possible?

It is possible because our desire to enjoy simply wants to enjoy, and it doesn’t care about what it enjoys from.

Consumerism is built on the premise that by advertising various ways to enjoy, we will pull out our credit cards and pay for pleasure. However, if society advertised that we could enjoy by giving pleasure to others, then we would simply change the way we fulfill ourselves: by giving instead of by receiving.

Today, there are many people and groups focused on fulfilling themselves by giving. Baal HaSulam writes about 10% of the human population being naturally altruistic, i.e., people who feel an innate sense of pleasure by giving to others. Such people and organizations already provide an example of how we can change our means for enjoying ourselves.

Therefore, by shifting the way we enjoy—by giving instead of by receiving—the desire and the fulfillment will remain, but the means will be different.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah, this state is called “bestowal in order to receive.” It is a step higher than “receiving in order to receive,” which is considered as the lowest form of human consciousness.

The same human ego operates, albeit differently. It will become possible to undergo this transition when we will understand it as the solution to the egoistic dead end we reached in our consumerist attempt to enjoy ourselves.

Together with this awareness, the “recognition of evil” of our inability to fulfill ourselves by means of consumerism, we would need to establish our social influences—advertising, the media, the rewards and payments we receive for our work—to honor and respect giving and disregard receiving.

Baal HaSulam describes this phenomenon in The Writings of the Last Generation, as “free competition for every individual, but in bestowal upon others” and that “disclosing any form of desire to receive for oneself is dishonorable and such a great flaw that such a person is regarded as being among the lowest, most inferior people in society.”

In other words, Baal HaSulam explains that when human society reaches an altruistic state, medals and prizes would be awarded to people who exemplify exceptional acts of giving in order to encourage altruism throughout society at large, and disregard any displays of self-aimed enjoyment.

Human development is marked by the constantly growing desire to enjoy, and it is monstrously overgrowing. We’re recognizing our inability to enjoy egoistically, and the idea to enjoy altruistically starts surfacing.

We are headed toward a state where we will receive no fulfillment from receiving, and will then discover that we can fulfill ourselves by giving.

People would enjoy by, for instance, wandering around the public, seeking how they could contribute positively to people and to society at large. It would happen simply because we would find no satisfaction anywhere else. We would seek what and how to give in order to fulfill ourselves.

Such a different mode of fulfilling ourselves—altruistically instead of egoistically—would bring society to a state where we would start understanding how there is much greater benefit, happiness, confidence and satisfaction when we seek to enjoy by giving, and not by receiving.

We would then come a step closer to the laws of nature, which function altruistically—a force of giving and love dwelling between all connections in reality—and we would be closer to realizing nature’s connections in our social connections.

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Remark: The whole creation is divided into two parts. One part is called Israel, the second the nations of the world. If Israel does not fulfill its function, the nations of the world come to them with claims, and this is manifested at the human level, at the level of society.

My Comment: This is called anti-Semitism.

Remark: However, neither Israel nor the nations of the world understand where it comes from, although it is all recorded in Kabbalah and can be studied.

My Comment: Of course. It is also recorded in the Torah. Hatred arises naturally from the nations of the world toward the people of Israel. There is no other phenomenon like this.

Question: However, the functions of Israel and the nations of the world are not chosen by the people themselves? Does nature calibrate them in such a way?

Answer: No, it is determined according to the soul. Every person in the world can feel this.

All of a sudden, some Eskimo begins to feel the need to discover a quality of nature, cause and effect, why and for what reason he exists. That is, he aspires to the Creator, to the source of this knowledge, these revelations. Therefore, he begins to delve into everything and, in accordance with his aspiration, is called Isra-El, direct to the Creator.

Question: It turns out that the what is called God’s chosen people is just a determination of nature?

Answer: I would say that there are two parts in this “God’s chosen.” On one hand, there is a part that is given to a person from above, meaning the upper force picks him and gives him desire toward it. On the other hand, the person who feels aspiration toward the upper force makes efforts himself. Meaning, that there must be arousal from above and arousal from below.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/28/19

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In the System of Upper Forces

Remark: In the sources, it is written that every part of the Earth is influenced by spiritual forces according to the law of root and branch.

My Comment: The fact is that everything comes from spiritual roots. There is one single root, the spiritual force that later gradually decomposes into the system of upper forces connected with each other. This system consists of ten forces later expanding to thirty and so on.

But in principle, in the universe there is the force of bestowal—influence, emanation, the upper force, the Creator, the light—and the force of reception—the force of creation, the egoistic force.

The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about the system of the universe that practically consists of these two forces that are in a certain system of interactions with each other. Their interactions originate from a very high level when they exist in the form of forces and then there is a gradual coarsening, the manifestation of matter in the lower, receiving force.

In this state, the worlds are built from above downward: the world of Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. Then in each of these worlds further division occurs, which is based on the interactions between two forces.

This is explained from the point of view of the more internal, particular degrees of interaction called Partzufim, meaning degrees, and Sefirot, sub-degrees, and their further division.

“Sefira” is from the word “Sapir,” which means luminous. To the extent creation, that is, the will to receive, egoism, can, above itself, become like the quality of bestowal, it receives the upper light, becomes equivalent to it and shines.

All this leads to the fact that in the end, there is a system of interaction of two initial forces, which at different levels of interaction intertwine with each other and form all kinds of combinations. These combinations enter into all kinds of connections, assemblies, etc.

This is how Partzufim, Sefirot, and worlds appear. All this is in the system of upper forces. Then there is, as if, their materialization in our perception. That is, from the forces all this comes into the system of interaction in our corporeal qualities.

The difference between the spiritual and corporeal qualities is in the fact that spiritual qualities are built on the principle of bestowal, mutual interaction, and mutual support when each one tries to do something outside of oneself.

Then, they fall to such a level where they begin interacting with each other egoistically, only to manifest some kind of egoistic qualities, skills, and fulfillment in themselves. This is the division between our lowest egoistic world and the five upper worlds.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/28/19

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Shaul Magid, the Distinguished Fellow in Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, meets Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman to discuss anti-Semitism and why the connection between Jews is the only true solution to it.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise. There are summits and discussions on how to stop it. Various solutions are suggested. However, anti-Semitism continues escalating despite the many efforts to counter it. Thus, the question arises: What is missing in all the efforts to combat anti-Semitism?

The wisdom of Kabbalah states that there is a law of nature, according to which Jews have to consciously connect, and through their connection, let the positive upper force of love and bestowal enter the world. Since the Jewish people originated in ancient Babylon as a group gathered by Abraham around the principle of “Love covers all transgressions”—a method of overcoming the egoistic human nature by building positive connections between people—today is the time for them to reappear as one united entity and expand this unity for all humanity.

Human nature is included in the laws of nature. Therefore, Jews have to act according to nature’s plan. If they don’t, they call on themselves hatred and violence from the nations of the world, dressing up as anti-Semitism of different forms, and the external threat connects them at some point.

Is there a peaceful way for Jews to connect?

Yes. This is a conscious connection according to Abraham’s method. If Jews from all over the globe come together and start implementing “love your neighbor as yourself,” and sharing the method of connection with the nations of the world, they will invert the way in which the law of nature works and let the good enter the world.

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