How Can We Bring All Desires into One?

282.01Question: There are differences in our level of desire to attain the Creator. There are guys who want to advance quickly and devote their whole lives to the path, while others have less strong desire. How can we combine these desires into one?

Answer: This all happens only on the basis of unity.

What is interesting about unity? There are hundreds and thousands of people with different languages and mentalities, but when they unite, new qualities are obtained, and none of them remain what they were before.

Just as, for example, there is a big difference between raising a child among people who will influence him or leaving him in the forest to grow up alone. It is clear that nothing will come out of him.

It is the same here. We must constantly influence each other and set an example. If at a given moment I give an example to my friends, then in the next moment they influence me. This is where our progress lies.

To the extent that we think about others, to that extent and with this force the Creator thinks about us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/29/23, “Preparation for Opening the Heart at the Congress”

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Don’t Be Ashamed of Your Nature

583.01Question: I feel the hearts of my friends, but my heart is torn into pieces. I keep bumping into the wall of egoism when I try to open it. I feel terrible shame from the thought that if I open my heart, everyone will see that there is criticism, judgements, and all sorts of nonsense.

Answer: So what’s the big deal? First, the usual answer to this is: “Go to the Creator who created my heart this way, complain to Him.” Therefore, when a person reveals his bad heart, he should not be ashamed and hide.

He must try to rise up and ask the Creator to correct, in general, what the Creator Himself did. We have every right to turn to Him and demand that He correct our hearts.

The science of Kabbalah is built on the fact that we unite in asking and demanding correction. And the Creator initially says: “I created the evil inclination and gave the Torah to correct it.”

What does “the Torah to correct it” mean? This is the highest light that we can attract, and it will correct us; only it can do this. And our task is to discover our faults and evil, and ask the Creator for help. He specifically waits for us to beg Him because in this case we will draw closer to Him.

Everyone can ask the Creator, and He hears everyone, but we must push Him to action only from the group. There are thousands of people at the convention, and therefore, when you ask and speak, you connect with each other and unite in a common heart.

In ordinary life, we act in tens. And if the ten is united, it can influence the Creator so that He changes each of its friends. Good luck to you!
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From the 1st part of the Lesson of the International Kabbalistic Convention “Opening Hearts” 9/30/23, Lesson 1 “The Work Is Mainly in the Heart”

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“A Plea from a Broken Heart” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: A Plea from a Broken Heart

The heart of the people of Israel still aches from the tragic events of October 7, 2023. It is a pain felt deep within, permeating the very air they breathe. As the Kabbalist Menachem Mendel of Kotzk once proclaimed, “No one is complete when their heart is in pieces.” A broken heart is highly sensitive to its own fractures. It yearns fervently for restoration, to become whole once again.

A broken heart is like an open book, vulnerable and exposed. It notices even the faintest impurities that pass through it and can regret those moments when it lets those impurities pass by.

The stark divisiveness of the people of Israel throughout the year, expressed in the constant protests and demonstrations, all shattered with the tragedies on October 7. Today, brokenhearted, they can naturally implore for healing.

The plea is simple: may no unkind thoughts traverse our hearts, may no folly enter, and may we shed no disdain or arrogance in our interactions.

By doing so, we draw closer to balance with the fundamental laws of nature—laws of love, bestowal and connection—for if we do not wish to align our unity with the total unity that exists in nature itself, then we have a rickety basis for our unity.

How can we align our unity with nature’s unity? It is by regularly developing our very plea to mend our fractured hearts to unite as one.

In our wounded state lies an immense opportunity: to ask for healing, to pray for the unity of all, so that we could stand as a single harmonious entity—a nation bound together “as one man with one heart.”

It is my hope that this plea from a broken heart will accompany us moving forward, and that with its help, a positive sense of unity will take shape not only in our nation, but the world over.
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Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on October 12, 2023. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Image: “Broken Heart” by Suzanne Schroeter on Flickr.

Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 10/17/23

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “What Is an Optional War, in the Work? – 2”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Exile and Redemption”

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Selected Highlights

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 10/16/23

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“Unifying Israel: A Call to Action for a Better Future” (Times of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Unifying Israel: A Call to Action for a Better Future
The world has again turned its attention toward the tiny Jewish state. Celebrities, journalists and world leaders are among a legion of people expressing their sympathy and standing by Israel’s side. Iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower in Paris are bathed in the colors of the Israeli flag.

History, however, clearly shows that support for Israel can fade in an instant.

The people of Israel are meant to shine, to be “a light unto the nations,” and set an example for other nations. It is not by chance that it is a nation renowned for its innovativeness. The pioneering spirit of the Jewish people is due to a deeper potential that they possess, the ability to create a model society where unity prevails over intense division.

Such a unified spirit formed the people of Israel to begin with, i.e., people from all walks of life in ancient Babylon who applied Abraham’s method and attained a higher unified level of consciousness—namely “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

A faint glimmer of unity now seems to surface after heavy blows. But if slander and divisive pride return, the people of Israel risk losing the world’s admiration.

In my book, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, I showed a historically-recurring pattern of attitudes among the Jewish people, and toward them from other nations: When the people of Israel let divisions drive them apart, they invite tragedies upon themselves; and when they unite, they prosper.

A Hamas member who participated in the terror attacks on October 7 revealed how the ongoing demonstrations in Israel encouraged Hamas during their year-long preparations for the attack. The intensely divisive atmosphere among the people of Israel throughout 2023 ended up exploding into what has already become widely known as the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust.

Then, after the tragic events on October 7, the people of Israel experienced a collective heartbreak and melting, and they regrouped in a new climate of mutual concern and support.

We need to view today’s unfolding of events as another painful reminder that division does the people of Israel no good. It is not what the world wants from them, and it emboldens those who seek to harm them.

Subconsciously, the world wants a united people of Israel. As Rav Abraham Isaac Kook wrote, when the hearts of the people of Israel unite, “all the world’s civilizations will be renewed through the renewal of our spirit, all opinions will align, all life will glisten with the joy of rebirth at our emergence, all beliefs will don new clothes” (Shmoneh Kvatzim, vol. 5, 64). Abraham’s blessing to all nations will manifest strongly and openly, spearheaded by the efforts of the people of Israel. As long as the people of Israel continually add to their unity above any kinds of divisions that surface among them herein, then it is certain that the world’s support for them will also continually rise.
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What Makes Us Equal?

939.01Question: In order to connect, Must we be equal in order to connect; will be not be to annul unless we are equal?

Answer: No, our unity does not depend on equality, it depends on accepting each other. The fact is there will never be equality between us.

Each of us is a unique individual, a separate organism with its own nervous system, mind, and feelings. There can only be equality if we make ourselves equal. We all have the same nature, the same goal, and in this respect we are equal.

As we progress, we become both more different and more equal. Egoism develops more and more in each of us; thus, we move away from each other. But everyone strives for the same goal, so we get closer and eventually become like one man with one heart.
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From the 1st part of the Lesson of the International Kabbalistic Convention “Opening Hearts” 9/30/23, Lesson 1 “The Work Is Mainly in the Heart”

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Universal Integration

937Question: When Kabbalah speaks about the merging of two objects, does it mean integration with each friend or between each of us with the ten as the second object?

Answer: It is the adhesion of each one of us with a friend, the adhesion of each of us with the ten, the adhesion through my ten with other tens, and in general with everyone.

That is, there is multiple unification, multiplication, and combination of all our properties and desires that happen here. Then it turns out that we have a common vessel, a common desire, with common feelings where it is impossible even to understand where I am and where you are, where he is and where she is, and so on.

Everything merges together in one sphere, a sphere in which we see only one single force that created us, connected us, and brought us to it. We unite within this force without any difference between us. This is the connection of creation with the Creator.

Question: Do we connect and come to adhesion with each friend or with the ten?

Answer: You need to imagine the ten all the time and not break it down into individual friends, into individuals: this one is better or worse, this one is closer or farther from me. In no way you should do that.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/27/23, “Preparation for Opening the Heart at the Congress”

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Why Is the Force of the Group Needed?

931.02Question: There is the force of the group. We know that if the friends do not pray for me, I will not rise. My spirit is lifted only by them thinking about me. That is how I use it. But what for?

Answer: In order to rise and pull them along with you; just like today maybe they are pulling you along with them. After all, everyone helps the other and thus we achieve the goal.

We must unite into one single system called Adam from which we all scattered by our egoism and return again to this single desire where everyone supports everyone, holds on and clings to each other, and thus unite in one heart. Then we will begin to feel only one force between us and around us—the Creator.
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From the 2nd part of the Lesson of the International Kabbalistic Convention “Opening Hearts” 9/30/23, Lesson 2 “Connecting As One Man with One Heart”

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What Does the Creator Want?

934Question: Everything that happens in the tens means that the Creator is talking to us in this way. How do we learn to understand what He wants from us? By leading us either on the left line or on the right, what is He telling us in this way?

Answer: The Creator wants us to feel mutual love for each other within which we would prepare a place for Him so that He could be revealed in us. Our relationship of love for each other will be called Shechina—a place for the revelation of the Creator.

Everything that happens comes from our qualities, and therefore, we must change them to love, connection, and reciprocity.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/28/23, Writings of Rabash “Concerning the Importance of Friends”

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