Entries in the 'Collective Soul' Category

The Merging Of The Desires

Dr. Michael LaitmanDuring the descent of the desire from the point of the shattering downwards, it is divided into smaller and smaller parts which are constantly mixed according to the intensity and the type of the shattering. It isn’t only about the Aviut (thickness) but it also depends on the level that belonged to the Aviut of Keter, Hochma or Bina.

A correction begins only after the end of the incorporation of all the shattered parts into each other, just like different vegetables, such as tomato, cucumber, or onion that are put into a blender and ground together. First the vegetables are cut into big pieces and then into smaller and smaller pieces, until they become a homogeneous mixture in which it is impossible to identify the different vegetables that were put into the blender.

In the blender there is what used to be a tomato, a cucumber, and an onion, but you cannot see them since there is only a brown mass. We must now correct this mixture and raise all its components from the bottom up. What should we do? Do we have to separate the vegetables again? What is incorporation?

Suddenly we understand that this blender, the shattering, has taken us out of a special state, mixed us together in a such way that we could have never been able to be incorporated into one another if we had remained corrected.

In the initial corrected state, we were connected by the Light that created us. Thanks to the Light, we were a tomato, a cucumber, garlic, or onion. Each of us was another vegetable and although we were all connected, no one was incorporated in the others because the Upper Light connected us. As a result of the shattering, we have reached the state in which we are totally shattered, and whether we like it or not, we are incorporated into everyone else. I want what the others have and I feel what they have in my ego. The altruistic connections between us were maintained by the Light since the beginning of creation but were shattered when we began to feel egoistic impulses, such as, “ the neighbor’s grass is greener,” “what a big car he has!” “What a nice dress!”

This is how we began to absorb each others’ desires. The shattering left a merging of desires in each of us. It turns out that the shattering caused something that we could not have done by ourselves in any way. It forced us to be incorporated in one another.

Today everyone is connected to the whole world through five people he knows. I am not even aware that I am incorporated in the desires of an Eskimo that lives somewhere in the Arctic or of a person living in South America, Australia, or India, because I have never been there. How does that happen? I don’t know, but it is a result of the shattering.

We think that the shattering was a disaster, but it was essential in order to bring us to correction. Now that we have been mixed together the only thing left for us to do is to correct ourselves with the help of the upper Light. What does the Light have to do in order to correct our vegetable mixture? Does it have to separate us into a tomato and a cucumber again; does it have to sort us out? Or should it perhaps take this whole mass and glue it into one vegetable, one vessel?

The mixture is beginning to take on a form according to the levels of the Aviut of the desire under the influence of the Upper Light. There are parts that belong to upper or lower layers. How do we know which layer each one in this mixture belongs to?

In our world there is the force of gravity that builds certain layers in a certain way and there are differences between them. In the human mixture there are also differences between the layers of the desire, yet they are not created by the force of gravity of the earth, but by the force of gravity from above, by the Upper Light.

The Upper Light enters the shattered vessels, which it shattered. But now it begins to correct them and to reform them. The mixture of vegetables is made of the shattered desires that were mixed and shattered infinitely by the Upper Light. Now the Light that Reforms arrives and all the components gradually appear according to their reaction to the Light and thus they feel that they have something in common, whether closer or further away from the Light and from each other.

They clarify whether they belong more to the tomatoes and less to the cucumbers, more to the onion, etc., according to the perception of the Light and according to the feeling of its influence on them. Although they have all been mixed, changes begin to take place in this mass.

There are special parts among all the shattered desires: the Jews. In the past they drew the Light that Reforms but did not live up to its correction and were shattered and fell. They were the reason for the shattering of the whole desire and for the mixing. Now they have to be revealed, which means that a special action is taking place in the world today. We have to see how everyone is incorporated in everyone else. There are the ten lost tribes among us who were incorporated in the general shattering. This is a very complex, varied and deep action, but we don’t correct it by simply returning to the initial state in order to have the tomatoes and the cucumbers that were there before, but rather we correct all the layers together and reach a connection that is 620 times greater. The previous unity was by the Upper Light and now it is attained by the Light that Reforms according to the request of the lower who wants this adhesion.

If the initial adhesion that was sustained by the upper was one unit, the new adhesion is 620 units, 620 times stronger, and it is all thanks to the work of the lower.

The lower asks to remain in the form that was created after the shattering and only wants to correct its attitude. Therefore the general soul is corrected layer by layer according to its awakening; the first layer, the second and the third. Otherwise, there would be no ascent but a simple restoration of the tomatoes and the cucumbers.

We want to keep the mutual incorporation since it is actually by merging that we reach a more powerful adhesion, 620 times stronger, in which everyone is incorporated in everyone else. Therefore we have to be thankful for the shattering and for the opportunity to be incorporated into one another. The Jews were mixed with the rest of the Babylonians and now we can finally start our collective correction!
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/01/14, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Old Baggage Is An Obstruction To A New Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The people of Israel lack unity, a common goal. What is the reason for this detachment? Perhaps we are too carried away with the Western way of life, where everyone has his own ideology and goals?

Answer: We have come out of exile and carry all of its features within ourselves. But this does not mean that we should remain like this. Why did we come back to this land to live as the people of Israel in the land of Israel?

A few decades ago, I belonged to one nation, you to another, and he to a third. We lived in different cultures and in different geographical locations. And then we came to Israel, but nothing has changed. This is a gathering of exiles, every one of whom comes with his own baggage, protecting what is inside. Or will we want to open this baggage and ourselves from within to unite and become one nation?

The force of unity is the main force of nature, by which we live. But the force of separation confronts it. These two forces must be in equilibrium. This happens everywhere and always: pluses and minuses, hot and cold, tension and relaxation.

The two opposites seem to always be fighting with each other, but in fact they become connected. Life is the combination of these two opposing forces.

But the human being has only one negative force, egoism, and he has no force of connection. Even if we become united, it is also due to the egoistic force. I just want to use someone for my own benefit and that is why I do something good for him, in order to get closer to him.

We have nothing except the negative egoistic force. But it is said that I have created the evil inclination, and I have created the means of correcting it, the Light that Reforms. There is a force opposing our evil inclination, which is the Light, a special internal force of nature, which is revealed to us when we are united.

If we come together to seek this force, connecting with each other, we will find it. It will allow us to rise above our egoism and subdue it. That is, this power of unity should be revealed more than our egoism.

By making an effort to connect with each other, we increasingly reveal the inner force of unity. As a result, this force of unity becomes stronger than the force of separation and begins to dominate. Thus, we become bearers of two forces: the force of separation which acts internally and the unifying force which acts externally.

Human society will live a special new life because we have two forces, not just one. Through the wisdom of Kabbalah, we will achieve a special connection and gain the true force of unity. This force will not be egoistic, as in a gang of terrorists, but will raise us above our ego. The force of connection and the force of separation will exist simultaneously and balance each other out and raise us to a new degree, to a new life.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/27/14

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The Will Of The People In The Modern Era

Dr. Michael LaitmanPreviously the world was governed by kings and lords who didn’t need anyone’s permission. Anything they said was considered sacred.

Then, monarchs began listening to their parliaments; thus, autocracy was somewhat limited. Later, the Parliaments split into various chambers and deprived the monarchs of any real power.

Finally, today we are facing a very peculiar situation: governments are losing their influence. Government officials appear unprincipled, unscrupulous, and lacking ideals. They have no positions, no ideals, and no goals towering above everyday life.

On the other hand, it is the mass media that has acquired a tremendous influence and forms and manipulates social opinion. And today virtual social networks join this process and often intercept the initiative from the mass media.

So, it turns out that governments no longer have any decisive power. Governmental bodies barely cope with current affairs, ostensibly executing their people’s will, a will that is shaped by the mass media.

The next step will be that people will create their own platforms; they will form their own level of social understanding and agreement. The role of the mass media and governments will be just to listen to them and, in varying degrees, to implement it.

Therefore, we must spread our agenda among people in various countries; we should convey our message and explain to them what it means to be the people of Israel in the land of Israel.” We have to explain to them what will happen when we attain unity.

When people will feel the deficiency and need for unity and when they understand that unity is the only salvation from all their burdens, the general public will demand their governments to make it work. The governments will ratify new laws and launch new educational programs in kindergartens and schools that will teach how to cultivate correct relationships among people.

This is how the global shift will happen: the will of people will define further progress.

Question: If the general public plays a decisive role, will uncontrollable situations, chaos, and anarchy result?

Answer: Not at all! There is no power better than this. Power is needed for rulers to rule over their people, whereas in this situation, the people are already driven and governed by the idea of unity. The time of individualism is over. We are approaching the end of correction and that’s why public opinion becomes a main factor.

No, there won’t be any chaos and confusion in this scenario. People will turn into a unified whole; their opinions will be closer, and destructive confrontation that leads to wars and disasters will disappear. People will feel the desire to unite and instead of kings, political parties, and factions, there will be a powerful, consensus, a unified view.

Question: A general consensus, isn’t that wonderful?

Answer: We will arrange things in a way that the Light spreads among us and returns us to the origin, to unity. This is how the people will become the only ruler. This is the revelation of the upper force in us, the revelation of the Creator in creation.

Question: But how exactly will people handle various matters?

Answer: With the help of the upper force because the Light, the force of bestowal, the power of unity, will spread connecting them into one whole. Then, together with the power of love and bestowal that will fill them, the people will merge with the Creator, the force that made them and that gives them vitality.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: ‘The Wars of Israel’” 7/21/14

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Within A Single Spiritual Force Field

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe must build a system of active connection between all people in the world. However, this is not the Internet, virtual or physical system, rather it’s an internal system. We must yearn to create a feeling between us like a mother regarding her infant whom she can feel, even across great distances.

They say that with animals, this instinct is even stronger. This is demonstrated in the movie about the little dinosaur that was taken far from its parents by humans. The adult dinosaurs went wild looking for the baby, crossed an ocean, and found him through instinct.

Specifically, a connection like this has to be among us. At a distance of thousands of kilometers from each other, despite the distance, we have to feel ourselves as existing in a single spiritual force field. All kinds of changes in each must necessarily be felt by all the rest. We must try to attain contact like this and feel inner changes at every moment, which then becomes our inner life.
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From lesson 4 of the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14

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Dissolve Into The Friends

Dissolve Into the FriendsQuestion: When I direct myself toward dissolving into the friends, into the group, and I have the desire for this, I feel that I am higher than they are to some degree.

After that, I perform an action. I take a turn in the kitchen, wash the floor, or wash the dishes. I begin so see other friends who are more influential, and I feel myself as lower than they are. Is this tension between what is desirable and what I understand that I get in comparison to others a prayer? Is this the right work?

Answer: If I serve the group and feel myself lower than them all the time, ready to help them in everything and to serve them, this means that I completely yearn to nullify myself before them. After the nullification comes the next stage: Can I be integrated with them? When I nullify my ego, I am included with them like a drop of semen in the uterus of the mother. This is already an Ibur (the beginning of the creation of the Partzuf).

The readiness to be integrated into the group and dissolve in it completely symbolizes that all of my thoughts, desires, and yearnings exist only to perceive the desires and characteristics of the friends, and, through carrying out their desires, give contentment to the Creator who gives me this possibility for creating a system of communication between me and Him, which is called a “group.”

If I dissolve into this matrix and accept it completely as my field of work, then I find the Creator in it. He fills all the friends in the group, and I begin to feel Him in everyone. They don’t feel this, as in the example of Rabbi Yossi ben Kisma, whereas I feel it. We have to reach a state like this.

After that, the connection with the Creator on the basis of the group must become mutual where He and I already begin to speak with each other. I begin to understand His plans in the group, and according to this, I answer them by dissolving even more actively in it.

That is how I grow. This means that I begin to understand and perceive what the Creator is doing with the friends, and, through my actions, I do the same thing. I am included in greater and greater communication with them, and in this way, I become like Him, and this is my spiritual growth. That is how my state called Ubar (fetus) begins to develop, and after that, already come the next stages of spiritual growth: birth and development.

Question: What is active nullification?

Answer: You don’t need to think or be concerned about this. You don’t understand in what manner to do it. With time, all of this will appear with you. Just begin to act, and our method will lead you forward. It will be revealed in the person, and, here, there is no need for any teacher. As it is written, “One’s soul shall teach one.”
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From lesson 3 of the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14

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In One “Slice” Of Desire

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You said that a person must use all that he has in order to fulfill the friend. But what is there in me?

Answer: If you have come here together with all of those people sitting next to you in the lesson and with another few thousand from all over the world, this is a sign that you are connected to them. The Light illuminates the general desire to receive, penetrates into some stratum of this desire to receive, and to the degree of its intensity, to the degree of its power, it awakens all of us. So we are awakened from this “slice” of desire that the Light illuminates and penetrates through us and awakens us. Otherwise we would remain beasts.

In this “slice,” we are connected to each other. Therefore all of us are called “friends” because there can be a connection between us; according to the mutual understanding, feeling, attainment and help. This is the difference between friends who belong to one layer of desire and our connection with the highest and the lowest. Among us we are equal.

So my correction is connection with all of those who are found in this slice of desire. This is because I understand that if we don’t connect this level, this slice, we will not continue the correction. Before us were the previous slices of desire, from Adam HaRishon forward. And we are in a new, very unique slice that from now on begins the correction of the true Malchut.

Question: But what is there in me?

Answer: What is in you is a connection to all the rest of the parts that were revealed together with you. And you must be in connection with them, to the degree that this is possible. There are those that you don’t identify with at the moment; there are those with whom you have a close, strong, and good connection. You have to know that your correction is to be connected with them.

Imagine to yourself: We are all found in one slice. Our correction is to be connected between us. There is nothing besides this! It’s impossible within this slice to think about myself. For here we are talking the slice of desire that has been revealed. The next generation will already be a lower slice or level and so on. So my personal correction is in this, that I will cause all of those who are within my slice to be connected into a single whole. And this is all.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/14, The Zohar

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Pope Francis: “Inside Every Christian Is A Jew”

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from Huffington Post): “Underscoring the close ties between Christianity and Judaism and calling Holocaust denial “madness,” Pope Francis told an interviewer that ‘inside every Christian is a Jew.’

“In a wide-ranging interview published Friday (June 13) in Spain’sLa Vanguardia newspaper, the pope said dialogue between the two faiths can sometimes be a ‘hot potato.’

“’I believe that interreligious dialogue must investigate the Jewish roots of Christianity and the Christian flowering of Judaism,’ Francis said. ‘I understand it is a challenge, a hot potato, but it is possible to live as brothers.’

“Francis’ statement seems to go further than his predecessor, St. John Paul II, who made headlines in 1986 as the first pope to visit Rome’s main synagogue and declared Jews to be the ‘elder brothers of the Christian faith.’

“’Every day, I pray with the Psalms of David. My prayer is Jewish, then I have the Eucharist, which is Christian,’ the Argentine pontiff added.”

My Comment: Undoubtedly, the further development of humanity towards the purpose of its creation will lead people to distance themselves from all religions and faiths of the world. They will increasingly begin to feel their common spiritual root, which is not clothed in earthly images and representations that religion and beliefs impose on them.

This will lead all people of the world to feel that only Kabbalah expresses the true representation of the higher force. In this aspiration to become close to it, they will come close to each other.
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A System Of Reception And A System Of Intention

Dr. Michael LaitmanPeople who have a spark, a particle of the higher nature, don’t correct themselves like all the rest of the seven billion people, because through this spark, we can connect to the source of the Light, to the source of bestowal, to the power of bestowal.

This means that we include two systems within us: a system of reception and a system of intention, meaning bestowal. In us, there is a desire that is directed toward ourselves. Besides this, we have a point within the desire, a spark that can be developed into a separate system.

If we develop this spark into the system of bestowal, in other words, if we acquire an intention to act for the good of others, then our deeds will be unimportant. They will always be under the control of the intention for the sake of bestowal.

It follows that this intention for the sake of bestowal will determine all of my deeds and behavior. It doesn’t matter if I receive from others or give to others physically in this world. My intention always will be determined so that all of my deeds are intended for the good of others, and this always is more important than my own good.

Part of the collective soul that works according to this program belongs to the head of the spiritual Partzuf. Through the Light, we can create thoughts, actions, intentions, and plans that are truly for the good of others, and I will use these beyond personal benefit. All emotion and thought, strength and understanding, I put into service for the good of others. I am adherent to others and do everything for their good.

Such changes are possible only through the Light that Reforms. For all seven billion of mankind, the Light only reveals how much they are connected to each other, and then they stop doing evil to each other and become one body, which is still egoistic. All of them act for their own good as one family.

We must make another connection between us where our intention will be entirely for the benefit of others, as it is written, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” It is not that I just don’t harm others, knowing that, through this, I cause myself harm. I don’t look at this at all as to whether this will come back to me in some way. Rather, I think and act only for the benefit of the other person, without checking how this will affect me for good or bad. This is called working above my ego. This is working with faith, in other words, bestowal.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/13/14, Shamati #60

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The Fragments Of The Shattered Vessel

Dr. Michael LaitmanEach of us is a particle, a fragment of the shattered vessel. If we could connect, we would become Malchut of the world of Infinity and we would feel ourselves as one soul filled with infinite Light.

But there was a shattering when the Light of Ein Sof entered the desire it had created and blew it up from the inside by filling it with the intensity of the Creator, of the Emanator. Thus the Creator inserted His desire to do good into the created beings.

It turns out that our small desire expanded all at once by 620 times than it was before, and with all this intensity, the desire drew the Light into it in order to receive, but it wasn’t protected by the conditions of the first restriction or by a Masach (screen).

As a result, there was an explosion and the desire was shattered into many fragments. Even before that it was made of many pieces: five types of desire , meaning the levels of the root phase, phase one, two, three and four ,which are different in quantity and in quality, although it had never previously felt that it was divided.

Every level is divided into five other parts and then into five other parts, etc., and the result is a huge number of particles. In every particle there is a desire that is different from the others both in quality and in quantity. The distance between the desires is the difference between the parts, and this is the reason that no one understands each other.

Because everyone is separated from the others, no one can feel his own reality since reality is felt in the whole vessel, or at least in the connection between two, when each one feels his reality in the other. The more parts one can connect to himself, the more strongly he can feel the reality. In order to reach this correction, we are in a state called this world, and by actions of connection, we draw back the great Light that left us, so that it will influence us and correct things.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/22/14

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Becoming Grateful Guests

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe study that there is no other work but reaching connection. But we don’t create the connection by ourselves, which is bitter, general misconception that corrupts our way and prolongs the exile.

We should only want to connect and to pin this connection on an external factor, on the upper force. We don’t correct ourselves, but only discover the need for it.

The need for connection stems from our yearning to avoid afflictions and from the desire to delight the source of the Light that manages us. It is quite a long way, a whole ladder of spiritual levels that we have to climb in our understanding and our consciousness in the connection with the source of Light.

Therefore, we must first stop thinking that we are the ones who establish our connection. The call “let’s connect” means “let’s connect to the source of the upper force, the upper force of bestowal that will connect us.” All we have to do is to just raise MAN (female waters), which, on one hand, is a request and a prayer for the revelation and the raising of a deficiency. On the other hand, it is food that we eat during the forty years of wandering in the desert.

This means that we are not required to do anything but raise MAN, the full recognition of our dependence on the upper force. We have to invoke the right deficiency in our hearts and try to connect them into one heart that wants to be connected. We then turn to the host with the request to connect us in order to delight Him and become grateful guests.
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From the preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/03/14

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