Entries in the 'Conventions' Category

What Are Women Capable Of?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Many women from all over Europe came to the convention. Could it be that they don’t push us, men, actively and strongly enough to act?

Answer: You shouldn’t expect others to do your work. Of course, we have to support the women and allow them to pressure the men, but you shouldn’t sit idly and wait: “When will they put pressure on me?” It isn’t the same as it is at home with your wife, where you don’t move unless she “kills” you with her nagging.

Here it’s different; here we do have to concede. They push you to fulfill the goal of life, and you should help them in that and listen to them. But don’t think that it’s only their responsibility; it’s also your concern.

The women’s concern is not only to push the men; they are also busy with their spiritual work. We don’t see, don’t feel it because they do it quietly, a bit submissively. But if we look at their level of knowledge, progress, and loyalty, women are on a level that isn’t any lower than the men’s, and many women are much closer to attainment than most men.

Don’t be misled by the fact that they are seemingly quiet and are thus not that special. They have great knowledge and great powers. If you give them a chance to be a bit more active, you will see of what they are capable.
[103675]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 3

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If You Want, You Will Be Heard

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If we look at ourselves through the eyes of the physical world, we see how weak we are economically, socially, and politically. We lack the required position in the world. Based on this, how can we disseminate something?

Answer: I don’t know what kind of position there should be in the world when someone wants to disseminate something. Go to the Internet and you will see that this is an integral system in which you can do what you want. It was created specifically for dissemination.

Everything depends upon you. If you try to correctly offer your method wholeheartedly, according to what people want to hear from you, they will hear you. It’s up to us only to learn how to do this. No position is required to do this.

In 1995, I opened a web page for Kabbalah and then began to disseminate without asking permission from anyone. I published my first three books in 1983 while I was still with Rabash when I didn’t have any students at all. I regularly appeared on radio programs through which a multitude of people reached us. As of today, we have two television channels and we print newspapers for all the holidays. Therefore no special position is required here.
[103556]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

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Preventing The Friends From “Falling”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the time between the Arava convention and the European convention, the friends in the group worked very hard and on the whole have experienced many descents. What can we do so that the friends won’t “fall?”

Answer: We need only one thing to help the friends not to “fall”: to strengthen the connection with the Creator; the friends from other groups should remind you about this. When a group works correctly, it becomes one whole. An individual, however, cannot do anything. So, there are many groups that have to help one another. Only in the connection between them will the Creator be revealed.

Groups should work as a single organism, just like a body operates. Can the kidneys, the heart, the lungs, and other bodily organs be healthy if there is no communication between them? It can’t happen! There must also be an organ that manages all the activities just like in a body the brain (Brain) does.


It operates all the groups and they give it “feedback.” Thus there is a constant cyclic mutual activity of all the organs.

If the body’s activity is not circulating, there is no balance between the organs, and then the body is ill. Even if all the organs are healthy and only one part is ill, it will lead to the imbalance of the whole body. Therefore, there must be a mutual connection.

We have already reached this point. Now in order to connect and to advance correctly without any obstacles, everyone has to be connected, and we need the mutual interconnected support of all the groups, one system of studying and disseminating.
[103804]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 3

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A Role Model For Many

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we unite if within us we are beat and in total darkness? After all, the desire to receive destroys everything. How can we raise a prayer, a request to the Creator, if internally there is only hatred? What can we do about that? I agree that I have to be in a group, but in France it is quite complicated…

Answer: We are at a stage in human evolution where things are only starting. We are the pioneers, the avant-garde, marching before everyone else. It is of course very difficult. We can find people around us who think like us and who understand that we must somehow solve the problems but don’t know how. It takes time.

The question is whether we actually need people who think like us to be physically close to us. I have many students all over the world who work with us and help one another in dissemination. When we work together, it connects us. Thus we build a group, a community.

You may live in France, in a place where there may not be any of our students, and you may still be connected to us. You don’t have to be in direct contact with other people. It is of course important, but it is also possible to manage without it.

There is, for example, a guy in Switzerland who develops successfully without a group. A wonderful student! Ask him to share his experience with you; he is a role model for many.
[103553]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

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The Monolithic Unity Of The Team

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The children are our future and the world’s future. They work on connection by playing games, but sometimes they get tired of the connection games and say, “That’s it, enough! We want someone to finally win.” What can we do in situations like this?

Answer: It is a problem when someone in the group wants to win. It means that the game isn’t managed correctly. Of course, both grownups and children always wish to win. It is a psychological urge that exists in each of us to some extent. However, education is about teaching a child gradually to think that it is impossible to win alone but only together, and then a habit becomes a second nature.

This is psychology. This is how many groups around the world are trained, such as divers, athletes, and so on. It is psychological training. When a person understands that, even if he succeeds in something, it is still thanks to the group. So, this is something that must be learned. We can teach this to kids so that they will think, feel, and behave that way.

There is even a tragic example of a submarine that was sinking and half the crew could have saved themselves, but the other half could not. So, the first half refused to leave the submarine, and eventually they all died. They felt that they were so connected that they could not leave their friends!

This example shows to what extent the preparation for connection—for the feeling of “we” without which there is no “I”—is developed in a person.
[103550]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

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A Family Congress In Europe

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we remain in a state called “one family” during the convention in Germany? How do we tell the difference between this kind of “family” and the regular family, which is one of our animate needs?

Answer: We named the next European Congress a “family convention.” We think that the time has come and that the knowledge that we have accumulated and the circumstances which we are in allow us to build one unified family that will be comprised of all our groups—one big Kli (vessel.) As Baal HaSulam writes, the entire world is one family, and today we have to become as one family.

In other words, all our groups and our friends who do not have groups, wherever they are, have to make themselves sense the rest of the Kli on a regular basis and totally depend on each other. This kind of connection really exists and we have no other way but to gradually reveal it. It’s our primary task.

Secondly, we have to maintain a good connection, never criticize each other, but rather get closer with others. We have to find a common denominator and mutual grounds: common desires and intentions, feel complete mutual interdependence. It’s as if we are at home with our families and have no doubts that we depend on each other. This is the least we can do now.

At the same time, we don’t have to know all of our friends by names. We simply have to sense that they are inside us and that we are one joined entity. Then, while working on self-correction, we, at the same time, help others and feel everything through ourselves and try to correct, fulfill, and shape others spiritually. Each of us has to act this way in respect to others.

It’s vital. By working so, we will jump ahead and will approach the ultimate level of the universe in which we all exist and which is yet hidden from us by our personal egoistic properties. We have to rise above ourselves at least a little and accept the fact that others are equal to us if not higher, bigger, or more important than us. If we manage to act so, we will break the wall that is called the “Machsom.”
[103162]
From the Virtual Lesson 3/17/13

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The Creator Is Waiting

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to address the Creator?

Answer: To address the Creator means to demand from the inner forces of the world that hold and control it to be clearly manifested in us. We have to know this force, be in contact with it, and to act with its help. That is why we ask, demand, it to be revealed.

It does not matter to the Creator how you address Him. You can curse Him, just do not leave!
[103681]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

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Temporary Relief Or Full Recovery

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I work in an artistic workshop where I help people with mental and emotional problems, with depression, and all sorts of social problems to come out of their seclusion through art. I don’t understand the difference between integral education and social work. What is the difference between them?

Answer: The difference is that in the case of integral education, you transmit the Light through yourself to others. You organize them so that they will transform into a spiritual Kli (vessel). After all, you have a point in the heart and therefore, you work with them through yourself. You receive their desires and problems and arrange them such that something is added in you and for this addition you can receive the Light.


This is not social work, but spiritual work. This is the difference between them.

You work in order to attract the upper Light to organize all humanity into one whole, into one unified system called “Adam” so that in this system the upper Light, the higher state, will be revealed. This is not some kind of relaxation instead of a pill. Rather, it is specifically the elevation of humanity to the next level of existence.

We are not engaged in relaxing people even though we may say this to them. But we understand that it is impossible to do anything on the level they are at, except raise them to a spiritual level.

All of our attempts to resolve some of the problems in this world, charity, or help for various population strata are to no avail. Nothing is fixed with this, and it only gets worse. There are many investigators of this subject; and it is completely clear that all of the problems are derived only from our not correcting ourselves and instead, becoming involved in this kind of social work.

I am not saying that this work is not required or that it is harmful. If it is possible now to help a person in some concrete manner, it is necessary to help. However, together with this, one must not forget that we don’t attain anything with this. Therefore, it is possible to be involved temporarily with social work as long as we haven’t yet begun the widespread dissemination of integral education.

Question: Do these two types of work conflict with each other, and is it possible to unite them?

Answer: It is possible to unite them but only to the degree that you understand that with this, you are providing only temporary relief to a person’s condition. If your actions are connected to real correction, then this is meaningful.
[103572]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

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Neighbors, Let’s Be Friends!

Neighbors, Let's Be FriendsQuestion: There are many nations and cultures in Europe that feel separated and divided. How can we build a European continent without any barriers?

Answer: The differences in culture and mentality are irrelevant since we rise above them. We should understand that this is the spiritual distinction that originated in ancient Babel. It is intentional.

Can you imagine what one heart and one mind means? You rise to a different level of communication where there is no need for language or for anything else—you simply feel each other since the information flows from one to another without words. You work according to a single unique plan that is above all differences. This is what we should reach.

So Europe was built that way on purpose, varied and full of contradictions, where for centuries mutual relations between all the nations and the cultures have been very complex. However, there is no need even to understand and to clarify this. The only thing we should do is simply rise above all that together! If you pay attention to the language a person uses, to his character, views, and habits, you will never reach a single opinion! This is the entire problem!

We suggest that we should unite above all the problems, above everything that exists on the ordinary, corporeal level. Then there will be no problems. This is the whole method of integral education.
[103495]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 2

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Incredible Progression

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If I include all 600,000 souls in my quality would ordinary people feel my great power when they interact with me? Will I influence them in certain way?

Answer: 600,000 souls are not parts separated from one another; it is a conventional Kabbalistic name of the level to which we have to rise.

This means that if now I sense the minimal bonding with others then conventionally it is called one. When I begin to climb the spiritual rungs and let’s say I include myself into Zeir Anpin, it means that I include 10 souls within myself; if I become included into ISHSUT – it is 1,000 souls, in Aba ve Ima – 10,000, etc. In addition, this is multiplied by 60 because Zeir Anpin consists of six parts. When I rise to Arich Anpin it turns out that I multiply myself by 600,000. It means that my today’s attainment increases 600,000 times.

However, this is just a convention because we don’t understand what 600,000 means. It is an incredible progression. It is not linear, but rather exponential in the infinite degree.
[103320]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/22/13, Lesson 1

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