Audio Version Of The Blog – 8/3/19
Posted on August 3rd, 2019 at 9:55 pm
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Question: What determines the future of a person?
Answer: Undoubtedly, everybody is interested in the future. At every moment of time, it bursts into the present and turns into the present.
Therefore, the future is constantly connected to us and determines our present. If we know that something is about to happen, even not very soon, we nevertheless expect it and our state in the present depends on it, especially our mood, our attitude to the world and to life. Therefore, the future is a factor that significantly affects our lives.
Question: Is this what distinguishes a person from an animal?
Answer: Animals sense the future, but not to the same extent as a person and they are not so susceptible to it.
The future of a person depends on the way he adjusts himself in the present. After all, in fact, there is no future. If we live passively then we determine the future, what it will be, meaning depending on other people, circumstances and everything else.
When we live spiritually, there is neither future nor present. We somehow can talk about the past, because we were in a state when time was flowing, some kind of changes were happening within us. However, if I am now in the present, I can clearly make of myself such a created being that has no future.
In our world it sounds very unpleasant, “You have no future,” and to say this to a person means to kill him. Yet, in the wisdom of Kabbalah, this is not so. You have no future because you are going to create it by yourself now.
Go and do it, sculpt it, draw a picture of it and that is what it will be. And when will it be? Whenever you want.
However, if there is no past, present, and future, no world at all, and it is all just depicted to us by our qualities on the white background of the upper light, then what is the meaning of the question “What determines the future of a person?” It depends on a person!
And not just in the way we pathetically state, “A person makes his own future!” No. The fact is that each person knowing this algorithm of influencing himself, makes himself and the future because his internal desires create him and the external desires – the world around him. Therefore, the future depends only on him, and with all its elements and details.
It is not easy to come to this. However, we are capable of it and someday we will be able to do it. In the meantime, it seems to us that this is a fantasy.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/28/19
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From What “Point” Does A Kabbalist Make A Prediction?
Going Beyond The Limits Of Time
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why did God allow millions of Jews to die in WW2?“
We need to understand, as is explained in the wisdom of Kabbalah, that in history, nature doesn’t consider the amount of bodies in the world. The upper force, or nature, calculates only with regard to the implementation of the process toward the attainment of its final perfect state of complete unification. In this process, there are times when we Jews flow in the currents of the world, like a disease in its latent period, and there are periods when the disease surfaces and needs to be treated.
The wisdom of Kabbalah became open for all in the 16th century, during the time of the great Kabbalist, the Ari (Rav Isaac Luria). Since then, there has been a demand for its realization, i.e. the revelation of Godliness (the force of love, bestowal and connection) to all people in the world. Accordingly, if the Jews would have approached this method, wanting to engage in it and reveal Godliness both for their own sake and for the whole world, then we would be living in a completely different world today, filled abundantly with love, happiness and peace.
Since the Jews have made no significant steps toward the implementation of this method, then they cause all negative phenomena to appear in the world. Both Jews and non-Jews are unaware of this, but it subconsciously dwells within non-Jews that the Jews are to blame for the negativity in their lives. Therefore, the mass murder of Jews during World War 2 came as an extreme climax to implement the hatred toward them for that reason.
In his “Introduction to the Book of Zohar,” Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) describes this phenomenon:
“In such a generation, all the destructors among the nations of the world raise their heads and wish primarily to destroy and to kill the children of Israel, as it is written (Yevamot 63), ‘No calamity comes to the world but for Israel.’ This means, as it is written in the above corrections, that they cause poverty, ruin, robbery, killing, and destruction in the whole world.”
Question: If I read Baal HaSulam’s letters and feel how I roll along with the author from one described state to another, how can I not leave this internal movement with him? How can I stay with the author all the time?
Answer: It really takes a lot of effort. But even if it does not work, do not worry, you will come to this again anyway. Most importantly, do not try to stay in a particular spiritual state. Real Kabbalists even asked to forget everything and start anew. Imagine how much they understood that new states are better than old ones. Do not be afraid of anything! Surrender to this flow, let it carry you forward.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 3/10/19
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A New “Computer” On Every Degree
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New Life 273 – Teaching Children To Be One
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz
Children need to be educated to connect with others from an early age, which will lay the foundation for them to develop a spiritual couple connection as adults. There is no difference between the sexual education of girls and boys. First, they learn to connect with the same sex and, later, to the opposite sex. A spiritual environment shows children that connection between people brings us to a higher degree of development and life. We talk about how to rise above the ego, pair over rejection, and connect on top of hatred. We provide an example for how to become one heart in one mind rather than two and eventually unite with the whole world.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 273 – Teaching Children To Be One,” 12/22/13
 Video: Play Now | Download |
 Audio: Play Now | Download |
Lesson Preparation
| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 65
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Lesson on the Topic “Work with the Disturbances”
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
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The EU is in crisis. It cannot be reformed because the EU is not a finished structure. There cannot be a good connection between egoists—interests diverge, the structure disintegrates.
The solution: break up before another war breaks out, or start uniting the people/nations of the EU rather than businesses…
After the destruction of the Temple, relationships fell from the level of the heart to the bodily level of communication through hands and language. Instead of connecting the hearts, they began following instructions, checking how to speak to others. That’s how they separated from the main law of the Torah, “love your neighbor as yourself,” not even remembering it!
Following the destruction of the Temple, a good connection, it is impossible for hearts to connect lest it become an outlet for ego-hatred. This is why on the earthy degree laws of behavior were established that reflect spiritual laws.
If there is no love for the neighbor, then at least (!) don’t do to another that which you do not wish for yourself.
After the destruction of the Temple (their spiritual connection with the Creator), they decided to reduce their demands for bestowal and love—to superficial demands. They began interpreting the Torah’s laws and conditions as external laws of behavior, not requiring internal correction of the heart—egoism.
Precisely the small man, who is below, far from the Creator, transmits his request upward till Malchut of the world of Infinity, evoking the light of Infinity along all the degrees and thus from above downwards, records his name, his contribution to the general correction
Unification must emerge BETWEEN hatred and love, even for oneself. Without destroying anything, but only by adding goodness. This is the middle line, “the golden mean,” in which we reveal the Creator and unite with Him, attaining the eternal and perfect existence.
Correction lies in ADDING the good force to the evil, egoistic one. The Creator created the evil force. And He will give us the good force —per our request, as written “He who creates light and who creates darkness.” Everything comes form the Creator. We must connect the light and darkness together so “the darkness will shine as light.”
Every person is right inside of his egoism, but for the common truth and justice, we must rise above the differences. We must come to love the differences between us; we can build love only thanks to them—above them, learn the middle line, how to rise above man’s egoistic nature, in faith above reason.
The corrected creation exists not by destroying egoism, but by building connection-understanding-love above it. The nation of Israel was forged in Babylon out of 70 nations in order to create, within the disagreements, above the separation, love above hatred—and to exist precisely between them (the middle line).
The nation of Israel must show the world an example of unity on 2 degrees, as written, “Love covers all sins.” We must learn not to annihilate the disagreements, but to create connection, understanding and love precisely above them. By combining love-hate, plus-minus, sweet-bitter.
Unity in society is not attained by changing each individual or one’s attitude to others. On the contrary, without changing our opinions, we must rise above them, above all the disagreements and as we cover them, we connect with each other. There’s no other way to attain unity.
In Abraham’s times, the nation of Israel was formed as a group of his students. Abraham asked the Creator: how do I fulfill the mission, attain general correction? The Creator answered: Only by being exiled to Egypt—enormous egoism. And then by gradually coming out of it…
Egyptian exile: exile from connection and brotherly love into Pharaoh’s slavery, when egoism rules over the desire to connect between people. The egoistic desire that separates us is called Pharaoh. But after suffering, 10 plagues, egoism-Pharaoh expels us out of itself!
Without the Egyptian plagues, suffering, we can’t come out of Egypt, for we have enjoyed being in egoism, as we do now. And we, too, will receive the ten plagues—blows to Pharaoh, our egoism, which is inside each of us and all of us together, to help us break free, come out it.
Separated from egoism, Pharaoh, we can move on to the stage of its correction by the quality of bestowal, by Light (Torah). We pledge to be in mutual guarantee and unity, we want to receive the force that will unite us. Therefore, we receive the force of bestowal and the method of correction—the Torah!
For 40 years—degrees, we undergo correction in the will to bestow above egoism—in the desert. Then comes the correction of Receiving for the sake of bestowal, the Land of Israel. We build the desire to love in unity, the 1st Temple. It gets destroyed. We build the 2nd Temple. It gets destroyed. We fall into egoism completely. We mix our desires with those of the nations of the world.
And every generation that does not build the temple, it is as if it is destroying it. Why has the exile been prolonged?”
In the 16th century the ARI reveals the method of correcting the world’s egoism—Kabbalah. Vital, the ARI’s student: “…deliverance is not coming. There is no cure for the destruction of the Temple, it is already 1504. Hope has run out.”
“Why isn’t it coming? Because we are not demanding the correction. We have no need for correction. We must try to achieve good relationships on our own, understand that we are unable to, and ask for help. As a result of our efforts to unite, we’ll understand what to ask from the Creator. This means waiting for the Messiah—the force of correction.”
Another 500 years have passed… Baal Shem Tov asked the Messiah: When are you coming? He answered: When my sources spread into the world. Meaning, when Kabbalah is revealed. So that people will want the correction, will understand how it will come to them. In the mean time, we are destroying the planet with our growing egoism.
From Twitter, 8/1/19
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The Times of Israel published my new article “Unity Is Our Only Shield against Anti-Semitism”
Campuses in the US and UK, once places for the enlightenment and ideological progress of society, have descended into epicenters of vicious anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli sentiment, two sides of the same coin. They have become hotbeds of fundamentalist political agendas sponsored by special interest groups. A recent visit by a group of my students to Oxford University in England confirmed this perception. The Jewish professors they spoke with anxiously await retirement due to the hostile atmosphere and threats against them. Conditions will only worsen unless we Jews take this situation into our own hands and unite.
As part of a research project about anti-Semitism, some of my students conducted a series of interviews with scholars and professors in the UK who have faced anti-Semitism in academia. According to their testimonials (which will be compiled into a documentary to be aired later this year), they have been victims of threats and harassment for being Jewish or for supporting Israel, a country constantly under attack on both American and European college campuses.
Jew-hatred dressed as so-called “legitimate criticism” of Israel and its policies, singles out the Jewish state for harsh accusations of “apartheid” and “genocide.” “Israel Apartheid Week” claims to be mushrooming this year into 200 events held across 30 countries on five continents. And where are the events’ preferred venues? Indeed, they are in the very college campuses where the seeds of anti-Semitism are being methodically planted and harvested.
Recently, an officer of a student minority group at Bristol University in the UK, whose role is to combat prejudice on campus, told a Jewish student to “be like Israel and cease to exist.” This is no isolated case of bigotry against Jews. In the beginning of the year, hundreds of students voted against allowing the creation of a Jewish Society at Essex University after a member of the British university’s Amnesty International group urged students to reject it arguing that the initiative was not “politically neutral.” This reflects the tendency shown in a 2017 survey of 485 Jewish students in England: two-thirds of the survey’s respondents reported being targeted on campus because of their Jewishness.
In the last few years, millions of dollars have been injected into universities around the world to advance anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish agendas, all sponsored by foreign governments and organizations whose aim is to advance their anti-Semitic rhetoric and agendas. While faculties are permissive, under the guise of pluralism, even Jewish academics jump on the bandwagon to actively support and promote these causes, as paradoxical as it may seem. By way of illustration, last year, the American Association of University Professors issued a statement attacking Israel for banning professors who are active members of the BDS movement against the Jewish state.
What Can Be Done About Such a Highly-Funded and Methodical Approach to Anti-Semitism and Israel Delegitimization?
As I explained in my recent article, “If you were donating to combat anti-Semitism, where would you donate?” any effort to confront the growing plague of Jew-hatred and demonization of Israel with costly campaigns will be useless, as witnessed by the fact that they have borne no fruit up until now.
We Jews are a nation conceived in order to bring connection and unity to the world. When we fail to carry out our vocation, our ancient sages tell us that the nations instinctively feel that there is no justification for our presence here on Earth, and unmerciful anti-Semitism unfolds and spreads in every field in which Jews are engaged. It is written in The Book of Zohar that when we do not carry out our mission, “Woe unto them [Jews], for with these actions they bring about the existence of poverty, ruin, and robbery, looting, killing and destructions in the world” (Tikkuney Zohar, 30).
In other words, our only shield is our unity. As it is written, “The prime defense against calamity is love and unity. When there are love, unity, and friendship between each other in Israel, no calamity can come over them” (Maor Vashemesh).
Before the ruin of the Temple, our forefathers developed a unique method of connection. They did not suppress one another’s characteristics, nor did they exploit one another. Each used their individual skills for the common good, thereby creating a society that both supported everyone’s personal fulfillment while strengthening the social fabric that kept it together.
In order for us to unite today, we need not suppress or downplay our differences. What is required from us is simply to rise above the differences that separate us. Today, that same simple-yet-effective method of connection that our forefathers perfected and committed to sharing with the nations is imperative for the survival of our society. The world is telling us that it is time to return to our roots and reignite our mutual responsibility, putting into practice the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself.” By doing so, true peace and tranquility will prevail on campuses and in every walk of life.
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