Question: It is said: “If I am not for myself, then who is for me.” How can we understand this?

Answer: You have to think about how to constantly advance. For this, you should join a group, get closer to your friends, and be an example for them, so that they in turn become an example to others, in a circle.

As a result, you will form a great force of striving for connection into which you will simply be sucked.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/23, Writings of Rabash “Who Needs to Know that a Person Withstood the Test?“

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Question: The article “The Night of the Bride” in the “Introduction to the Book of Zohar” begins with the fact that Rabbi Shimon studied the Torah at night when the bride unites with her husband. Who are the husband and the bride? What is it about?

Answer: “The Night of the Bride” is a state that humanity goes through before attaining the Creator, when the Creator does not yet reveal the desires of people in order to awaken their hearts.

In other words, “night” is a state of concealment, “bride” is all of humanity, our soul, our desires, and “husband” is the Creator.

Question: Why then could it not be written: “Humanity unites with the Creator”? Why specifically “bride” and “her husband”?

Answer: I think that Rabbi Shimon decided to express what he felt in this way. Moreover, he expressed his feelings in this way because he felt spirituality very deeply, and not because he saw an artistic image according to which everything that humanity experiences before the revelation of the Creator is called “night,” and the connection of humanity with the Creator is called “wedding ceremony.”
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From KabTV’s “Introduction of The Book of Zohar” 11/12/23

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We think that connection in the ten is the same as simple friendship like with former classmates or other long–time friends with whom it is easy and pleasant for us to be together.

But the ten is not the same at all. By connecting with friends in the ten we build a spiritual Kli. Through this, we attract the Creator, the good who does good, into our connection, and it is He who corrects our state.

Therefore, connection in the ten is not just a friendly connection, but the attraction of a higher spiritual force into our connection, the only force that can correct everything.

And if we want to change the picture of the world that appears before us today with its wars and sufferings in practice and get closer to the Creator, then we need to get closer to our friends, as it is said: “From love to friends to love of the Creator.”

And then, within our connection, the Creator will be revealed, and we will feel how the state of the world changes.

All states that we see around us are actually our personal, internal states. We do not see what is truly happening in the world, but we see only what we are capable of seeing in it.

And if we want to see that not only the power of judgment rules in the world, but love and mercy, we can do this through the power of our unity and prayer to the Creator. The power of judgment will completely disappear only at the very last stage of final correction. The main thing is to rise now from the feeling of this world, the lowest reality, and feel that the Creator is doing everything for our benefit to raise us higher and higher.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/15/23, Writings of Rabash “What Is the Meaning of ‘Reply unto Your Heart’?“

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Question: All I see around me are reflections of some of my qualities. How do I recognize these images in myself through seeing something from the outside and receiving some information?

Answer: I am not interested in external images! These are all false; they are my contrived ideas and our temporary, illusory world. It is depicted by our qualities as if it exists outside of us, but it is inside of us: the galaxy, the universe, and so are all my inner qualities.

At the first spiritual degree, it takes such a low position that Kabbalah simply does not deal with it.

Let us say I have a dog. What difference does it make to me how the dog perceives its world? I am interested in feeling the world through higher qualities. Kabbalah uses low qualities only for analogy, to explain how to develop upper qualities in ourselves, and not to go deeper down.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Limitations of Vision and Hearing” 11/29/11

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You already know that there is no absence in the spiritual, and that transference from place to place does not mean becoming absent from the first place and arriving at the next place, as in corporeality. Rather, they remain in the first place even after they have moved and arrived at the next place, as though lighting one candle from another, without the first being deficient (Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Science of Kabbalah”).

In spirituality, there is no moving from place to place. Everything that is in its place can also change and move to another without leaving the previous one.

Comment: Now even quantum physicists have discovered that electrons can be in different places at the same time.

My Response: This is not the same thing. In spirituality there is no transition from a past place to another or reproduction, as is possible in our world. It is just that the property of each spiritual object is such that it does not disappear from where it once was, but generates another state from itself.

Comment: For example, in one of the articles, Baal HaSulam gives an example of water that can freeze or evaporate, i.e., change its properties.

Answer: Yes, but these are aggregate states; however, the essence does not change.
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From KabTV’s “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” 11/7/23

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “What Are Spies in the Work?”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 2, Part 6, Item 29

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Selected Highlights

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Question: There is an anecdote about a plane that crashes, and one passenger survives and gets to an island. Cannibals live there and they grab him and bring him to their leader, the chief. It turns out that the chief is an intelligent, attractive man of European appearance.

The passenger tells him: “You are a person of European education; you are so cultured. Have you not been influenced by civilization?!” The leader answers him: “Of course I have been influenced by it. When I eat you, I will use a plate, a fork, and all sorts of seasonings. Everything will be very smart.”

The question is this. We see that civilization has not stopped wars and has not stopped horrors. In theory, what should be the purpose of civilization?

Answer: We need to change all this from the inside. Only from the inside. That is, civilization is what happens inside, within a person.

Question: Within a person? This is a coup, of course.

Answer: There are no coups; there have not been any yet. But eventually, at some point, we have to come to that.

Comment: Right now with all this horror that is happening, with all these wars, with all this barbarism…

My Response: There is no horror, just people demonstrating who they are by nature. It is egoism, just human egoism. It needs to be corrected. Nothing else! Human egoism is not balanced everywhere, not in any country or in any system of the world.

Therefore, if you give people the freedom to devour each other with impunity, you will see how barbaric they are. That’s it!

Comment: But they will still use a spoon, fork, and plate.

My Response: Yes, it is a habit.

Question: Are you saying that they will use this civilization, but they will eat each other at the same time?

Answer: Yes.

Question: You said that civilization should happen inside a person. Please explain these words “civilization inside a person.” What should happen inside a person?

Answer: Imagine that you are in a stadium, and there are, say, a million people there. Do you have any idea what kind of a sight this is?

Comment: I imagine. Such a mass that is rooting for someone.

My Response: They are rooting for someone, for something, against someone, and so on. Do you think you can change them to be in a pleasant way toward each other?

Question: If they support different teams?

Answer: Of course. Who else goes to the stadium? Only because there is such a struggle there.

Comment: Hardly.

My Response: Hardly? That is, we see that humanity has practically not changed. It is in this form that it manifests itself.

Question: In the form that someone is rooting for someone, and he is already ready to eat the other?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And then what? If we are talking about a change in a person, what then? Should they start rooting for the same team?

Answer: No, I would just ban such events. Completely! All of such competitive actions.

Question: Are you now speaking against any competition?

Answer: Any. Because they make people hate the opposite side. This is the basis of civilization: we are better, we are wiser, we are more correct, we are stronger, and so on.

Question: What, in your opinion, should happen at the stadium in this case?

Answer: Some kind of games, but not one against the other.

Question: Do you include wars, different opinions, politics, and everything here?

Answer: Absolutely everything! People have to learn completely different relations. But they, on the contrary, go somewhere else from here. They are only engaged in competing with each other: who is better, who is bigger, who is stronger, who is more afraid of whom, and so on.

Comment: Then, speaking globally, there is a country with its borders, its anthem, its flag…

My Response: Destroy everything that separates people from each other!

Question: But first of all, within these boundaries, is it necessary for people to undergo some kind of correction?

Answer: Naturally, it should be a campaign for correction.

Question: Is the goal that the borders will fall? A long-range goal. What is today’s task?

Answer: Today’s task is for everyone to go against themselves.

Question: If we manage this task, will it then be possible to open borders?

Answer: Of course! There is no question about it.

Question: Then what does it mean to “go against myself”?

Answer: To go against yourself is to go against your egoism, against hatred of others. This is our task.

Question: What if I feel this hatred? How should I extinguish it? This exists in every person.

Answer: Educate people so that they are closer to each other, so that they love each other, and so that they feel that they depend on each other all the time. Not in a bad way that otherwise he would attack me, but in a good way.

Question: Should humanity have the goal that one way or another we should come to a family of nations?

Answer: This is what we have to come to.

Question: Will there be no people then and no nations then?

Answer: There will be none of this.

Question: Can you tell me what will be?

Answer: There will be one nation on the whole earth.

Comment: I really want to believe in it and live like this.

My Response: Only in this way will we be able to reach some kind of future correct state.

Question: Then what was the mistake of the Utopians who wanted to build such cities?

Answer: They thought to do it purely mechanically, without educating a person, without waiting for him to change. But this, of course, was utopia.

Question: Is the entire problem of utopians and those who dream of unity that they do not come to the fact that there is this evil in us?

Answer: Yes. Today we are getting rid of this last communist utopia.

Question: Do you think that with this current state, with all this madness, something will turn around in a person after all?

Answer: At least it seems that we are in a period of reformation.

Comment: That is, these horrors, these wars, everything that is happening…

My Response: All this should convince us that this is the wrong way, that you will not take anything by force, you will not win anything and you will never justify yourself in any way.

Question: Is this what you call civilization?

Answer: Civilization is when people understand that the most important thing is a good connection between them. That’s all.

Question: Where is the Creator here? Where is the upper force that you talk about all the time?

Answer: When we put good above evil, we build the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/19/23

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Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “What Does Unity Mean?”

Unity is a new reality that we have no clue about. It is a new matter that we have yet to sense and it possesses spiritual qualities of love and bestowal. When we incorporate and live in this matter, we start discovering a different new dimension of existence. It is as if we find ourselves on a different planet. However, it is not a physical change of location but the revelation of a new inner quality of love and bestowal that brings about this unity.

Unity thus does not simply mean mutual connection, good relations or a sense of confidence that emerges from being around other people. It is rather the revelation of a new quality that does not exist in our world. When we obtain this quality, we align ourselves with nature’s laws, which are fundamentally laws of love, bestowal and connection. It is a revelation in our mind and feelings, one of our unity with nature.

While people generally think positively about unity, it is still not treated with such a high level of significance. Reaching such a state of unity is the purpose of human life, and it is within our abilities to achieve. About reaching such unity, it is written, “We will do and we will hear.” That is, we can apply certain efforts in order to unite, and by doing so, reach a genuine request to unite. And when we reach such a request, called a “prayer,” then we attain our higher unified state.

Humanity constantly develops to this state of unity, and it will become revealed to all. The new matter that will become revealed within people’s unity is the spiritual quality of love and bestowal. The very moment we discover this quality in our connections, we reveal spiritual existence, one where we unite with the quality of love and bestowal dwelling in our connections.

It might seem far fetched that people who are so different to each other in a multitude of ways end up reaching a state of unity. However, unity precisely plays out above divisions, differences, oppositions and inner distances to each other. No matter what surfaces in our innate desires that differentiate and divide us, we can apply a common yearning to unite above them all, and the more we organize ourselves in such a direction—caring about uniting above everything that separates us—the more we draw the spiritual forces into our world that act positively on us in order to make this unity a reality.
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Michael Laitman on the Times of Israel: “Why Does Antisemitism Seem So Acceptable in Today’s World?”

Antisemitism acts as a law of nature. The more the Jewish people are divided among themselves, the more they activate supernatural forces that awaken hatred toward them in people’s hearts all around the world. Such hatred then overshadows any facts and evidence that might seemingly serve to portray the Jewish people in a positive light.

Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) wrote about this antisemitic tendency in his “Writings of the Last Generation”:

“It is a fact that Israel is hated by all the nations, whether for religious, racial, capitalist, communist, or for cosmopolitan reasons, etc. It is so because the hatred precedes all reasons, but each merely resolves its loathing according to its own psychology.

In the same text, Baal HaSulam goes on to discuss how the unity of the Jewish people, and the global spreading of the unity that Jews establish, is the solution to dissipating the hatred toward them, replacing it with a positive unified spirit that leads to global peace and harmony.

The more people feel problems and crises entering their lives in a variety of ways, the more antisemitism rises. It is because the solution to all problems is ultimately the awakening and spreading of nature’s positive unifying force throughout humanity. Antisemitism is thus a form of pressure on a certain blockage that is not letting this unity to arise.

The Jewish people originally became known as “the people of Israel” and later as “the Jews” because they implemented Abraham’s method of uniting above their divisive drives, and in their unity, they discovered the single positive force dwelling in nature. Today, when darkness expands throughout the world in an array of increasing problems and crises, there is a subconscious feeling in many people around the world that somehow Jews are to blame for their troubles, and it stems from this need for unity to prevail—first among the Jewish people, and then in humanity at large. Therefore, there will be no peace until Jews unite “as one man with one heart” above their divisions.

Antisemitism is an eternal and inevitable phenomenon that is impossible to escape. However, if we Jews change our attitudes to each other, becoming more positively connected, loving and supportive of one another, then the forces of nature will influence and change people all around the world in a direction of support and respect for the Jewish people. When people feel a unifying spirit entering their lives, the problems and crises that they experience today will disappear and become replaced with a new positive atmosphere—a thriving, harmonious and peaceful world.

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