Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does Amalek mean in the Bible?“

Amalek is a quality that is very close to us. It appears to be absolutely evil, a disturbance that needs to be destroyed, and not only destroyed, but it is written that even its memory should be erased. However, nothing was created unnecessarily. Everything in existence was created solely to benefit our development.

Amalek is a quality that helps us develop optimally, and it constantly guards us. It is as if we walk along a path, and wherever we can fall or deviate from it, thorns appear and send us a “Keep away!” warning signal. That is how Amalek stands guard to guide us in the right direction.

The desire comes from Amalek and unwillingness also comes from him.

In Hebrew, Amalek is a shortened form of the words “Al Minat Lekabel,” which means “in order to receive.” It describes the egoistic intention over a desire—to receive for one’s own personal benefit. It is written about such an intention, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah, a spice.” The evil inclination (the egoistic use of desire) is positioned directly against the Torah, which means both spiritual light (Ohr) and also spiritual instruction (Hora’ah).

They both operate on us in order to guide us to a balanced state between the two.

We thus need to relate respectfully to Amalek, i.e., to the ego, since it is a necessary quality for us to establish our spiritual connection. The evil inclination—the ego—which resists and incites us against spirituality—the quality of love, bestowal and positive connection—helps us discover our spiritual connection by showing us how to find such a connection where we initially discover the qualities of Amalek, i.e., the egoistic intention.

Amalek is thus a very cunning quality that shows us the extent to which we are immersed in thoughts and desires for self-benefit, and when we see this egoistic intention operating on us, we can then identify how we need to act in an opposite direction.

Amalek, the ego, thus develops our spiritual skills, letting us attain more spiritual qualities of love, bestowal and connection by showing us the opposites of those spiritual qualities within us.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on April 18, 2021.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: At the level of inanimate nature, particles, for example, electrons, obey the laws of physics. Is this their sense of the higher information field?

Answer: Yes, they absolutely, completely, blindly follow the instructions of this field, the instructions of the Creator.

Question: And how does the transition to higher levels of consciousness take place, say, from vegetative to animate?

Answer: In this case, desire jumps to a completely new level. If the still level only cares about its constant state and does not want to change in any way, then the vegetative level, on the contrary, treats the environment creatively. According to its nature, it wants to receive as much beneficial things as possible and to expel everything that is harmful to it, and thus grow.

The next, animate level is even greater. In order to get something beneficial from the surrounding world and give back everything unnecessary or harmful to it, the animal develops movement, special properties for absorption, excretion, and so on.

And man is already working at the highest level, the spiritual level. The difference between a human and the previous animate level is that he must work consciously, with desire, with intention, but not physically.

Question: It turns out that the field increases egoism so much that it manifests itself as a change in the structure of a material object. That is: plants uniting form animate tissues, and they are already capable of realizing this desire?

Answer: Yes. Not only the number of elements in the atom increases, but the atoms themselves and the molecules themselves, their combinations, become completely different. Their combinations acquire a new essence. This is not only their collection and some new physicochemical properties, but they are really capable of memorizing, giving out information, and exchanging it among themselves. This is how active, radioactive elements, etc. appear.

We see how still, vegetative, and animate nature gradually develop. All transitions from level to level and intermediate states that appear during transitions between these properties are explained in Kabbalah.

Question: Is all this is unambiguously controlled by Reshimot (information records)? Are there no coincidences?

Answer: Everything is determined to such a tiny scale that we cannot observe it. But this is absolutely clearly legitimized in nature.
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From KabTV’s “Meetings with Kabbalah” 3/22/19

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All nature—still, vegetative, and animate —develops according to its own laws. We humans are also part of animate nature. But there is another part in us, which is called “human.”

It is interesting that the constantly growing egoism in us is the human component that drives us toward development. But we are misusing it.

That is, our body is an animal, and our spiritual component, the human in us (in this animal there is something else called a man), does not develop according to natural laws. It is given to us so that we ourselves develop it correctly, but we cannot manage it.

First of all, we must reach the realization of evil, that by natural egoistic development we cannot bring ourselves to a right life, to a good, kind state. When we put ourselves on the brink of disappearance, extermination, destruction, then humanity will come to its senses. This is stated in Kabbalah, and this should be decided in the coming years.

Question: What if people don’t listen?

Answer: They will listen, they will make you suffer. After all, our nature is the desire to enjoy. Therefore, if we experience suffering, we are ready to do everything to get rid of it. And now we are stuffing ourselves with bumps, we are introducing ourselves into suffering, which ultimately will unite in such huge, unbearable sensations that we will be ready to change everything.

Question: But what way out does a person have today?

Answer: Find out what is happening to us. This is revealed by the wisdom of Kabbalah. It tells about the history of our development, starting with the higher forces of nature, how the network of forces in the universe was created, and then gradually the universe and everything in it was formed, and where this should lead us.

The wisdom of Kabbalah has nothing to do with religion. All religions are only 2,000 years old. And Kabbalah originated in ancient Babylon. The first Kabbalistic books date from this period.

Today Kabbalah is becoming so popular and in demand because by studying it we begin to understand the origins of our nature, our life, and our development.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Common Law Marriage” 8/11/09

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Question: You said that the feeling of the informational field within us can be called consciousness. What are the consciousness of the lower levels of matter: inanimate, vegetative, and animate?

Answer: These levels also perceive the surrounding informational field even much closer than we do. Being a part of this field, they do not disturb it with their nature or their distortions. Therefore, we say that they live instinctively.

All members of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature include fields that direct and control them. Thus, from the part of the object, there is no participation in the upper management, they simply instinctively comply with what it dictates.

Just like small children who are at first like animals, but when they grow up, something called egoism appears in them, i.e., a conscious intention to use their qualities for their own benefit and preferably to the detriment of others.

There is nothing you can do about it. It intentionally appears in a person so that we, having independently risen above our egoistic quality, would become at least equal to Him and in this regard reach the level of the Creator. The fact is that the egoistic quality is an addition to our animate nature, which comes from the opposite side of the Creator, and we must treat it with respect.
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From KabTV’s “Meetings with Kabbalah” 3/22/19

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does it mean to conquer yourself?“

Conquering yourself means aiming to organize your egoistic drives in order to reach life’s final destination—balance with nature—and not caving into the ego’s demands.

By doing so, we enter into a constant struggle with the ego, which always draws us in different directions and makes us fail, and if we play our cards right, then we also overcome it time and again.

Human nature is egoistic. Due to the ego residing in each of us, we either consciously or subconsciously aim to benefit ourselves at the expense of others and nature. However, we are developing toward a final state of total balance with nature, which functions according to opposite altruistic laws.

Therefore, if we seek our final state, trying to align ourselves with it, and try to build positive connections and altruistic attitudes to each other above our innate egoistic quality, i.e., thinking in terms of what would benefit others, nature and the world above thoughts of self-benefit, then we would be on course to conquering ourselves.

Based on the show “News with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman” on February 15, 2021.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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My new article on Linkedin “Some Lives Are Worth More in Our Egoistic World”

Covid-19 has claimed nearly 350,000 lives in Brazil, vaccinations are infuriatingly sluggish, and thousands of casualties are added to the tally each day. In the meantime, European countries have access to vaccines, and their daily tallies are in the lower triple digits. Yet, the tragedy unfolding in Brazil gets little to no media attention while the struggle in Europe, which, by the way, could have been even more successful if it weren’t for bureaucratic incompetence, is getting the full spotlight. Are Brazilian lives worth less?

As I have stated countless times, we’re in a different time now, when the interconnections between us impose an all-encompassing solution. We will not be healed from the virus, in one mutation or another, until we heal our egoism. Until then, any reprieve from its whip will be short-lived, and every blow that will follow will be more painful than the former.

Judging by the media coverage, the answer is clear. However, in truth, the answer is even worse than “Yes, they are worth less.” The uneven attention that the tragedy unfolding in Brazil, and in a few other countries in South America, demonstrates the level of self-absorption we have reached. It is now at a point where it is impossible to answer the question of the value of life simply because no one gives it a single thought. Life, it seems, is not worth discussing, but only rating and coverage.

This is not news, of course, but when it becomes so patent, it’s still worth mentioning, even if only to remind ourselves of the nature of our being. Humans, we are seeing once again, are selfish to the core.

Let’s ask ourselves a question: If, for the sake of argument, we could do whatever we want, whenever we wanted, and no one, absolutely no one, would know about it, point the finger at us, punish us, or reproach us in any way, what would our world be like? How would we behave if that were the case? As I’m sure you can imagine, we have much more to learn about our nature than has been revealed. Perhaps it would be wise to imagine what we’d do if we could rather than wait for it to manifest, since we see that gradually, what we do not imagine, materializes in reality.

If I could give humanity the best present, I’d make everyone see the real human nature as quickly and as harmlessly as possible. This would make us search sincerely for a correction of our nature rather than apply makeshift fixes that let the fester swell up even worse until it painfully explodes.

Still, the pandemic won’t let up. As I have stated countless times, we’re in a different time now, when the interconnections between us impose an all-encompassing solution. We will not be healed from the virus, in one mutation or another, until we heal our egoism. Until then, any reprieve from its whip will be short-lived, and every blow that will follow will be more painful than the former.

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New Life 1086 – Recognizing Good And Evil
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Life is like an ongoing war for each person since we all want to benefit at the expense of others. A truly good person is someone who knows how to benefit others without personal benefit. We need a new educational process that depicts the benefit of caring for others so that people feel motivated to do good to one another. It must help us recognize that absolute darkness awaits us if we don’t’ change our human nature. More developed people will enjoy benefiting others because they will feel that we are all a single body.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1086 – Recognizing Good And Evil,” 2/26/19

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Rabash, “He who Hardens His Heart“: It follows from the words of The Zohar that Pharaoh means within reason, that it seems irrational that they would be able to exit their authority, unless through faith above reason, for this power cancels all the powers in the world.

We cannot, with our egoistic mind, realize what we must come to: from one stage to understand another stage. Just as a child cannot understand how adults perceive the world, but we force him and he agrees because there is still a natural tendency in him to accept what adults tell him even  though he does not grasp it.

It is impossible, while at a lower level, to understand a higher level. Therefore, our entire path goes, as they say, in faith above reason, when we accept the properties of the higher levels as the highest and wish to absorb them in ourselves to become like them even without understanding their greatness and peculiarities.

Question: Reason cannot operate because it is under the power of our egoism and obeys it?

Answer: Reason is a derivative of egoism. Therefore, based only on reason, it is impossible to get out of the animate state we find ourselves in.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/26/21

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Question: Why do men and women today not want any obligations to each other?

Answer: Why? In the past cycles of life, I was born with a new egoism, much greater than in the previous cycles. Selfishness in a person grows every day, every minute, and therefore we develop. We are constantly creating something new in the world, pushing forward in science, art, culture, building new relationships, making revolutions. Animals do not have this; their egoism is constant. Take an animal five hundred years ago and today, they are practically the same thing.

If you take a person of the previous and today’s generations, there is a huge difference. Our children no longer understand us. Even if we compare ourselves with ten years ago and today, we will not understand each other.

The egoistic foundation, which is changing in us all the time and requires developing ourselves in search of fulfillment, is qualitatively different. For example, in past generations we lived in what is called the animal state—as we were born, this is how we should be.

Let us say I was born into the family of a plowman, blacksmith, tailor, or shoemaker. This means that I will also inherit my father’s occupation, his tools, and even his clothes, I will build a house nearby, I will marry the daughter of a neighbor.

Everything fits. A man felt that he needed it and it helped him. He felt, this is my framework, it provides for me, it protects me. He felt good.

I remember even my grandparents did not have any marriage registration. They were married according to the national custom, they made a chuppah, and that was all. Then, when my grandfather died, and it was necessary to rewrite the acts of civil status, they took several witnesses, the same old people, and they testified that they were husband and wife.

Marriage was not a human obligation. It was a natural environment of communication for him. He created around himself his home, his family, his yard, his garden, next to his parents, some kind of community, city, maybe even a country, state, and so on.

That is, a person at that time wanted to create some kind of shell around himself in which he could exist. This is how an animal acts by creating protective systems around itself. But suddenly, over the 20th century, we broke this framework and began to move from the animal level of development to the human one. It was said in Kabbalah several thousand years ago that such a revolution would take place in the 20th century.

A person is one who does not tolerate any frameworks, he must get out of them. Therefore, a new culture, science, relationships in the family and in society appear. Now, all are equal, there are no boundaries, I do not listen to anyone. Man is trying to break free from everything. Even going into space is the realization of our desire to go into a higher state, into the outer dimension.

Although we still do not feel it, this is the direction of man’s aspiration, to go beyond the framework of our life, those seventy years in which we exist. They constrain me, I see the beginning and the end, and therefore this whole life is like a prison. I have to find something higher, outside of this life.

If a person does not reach the answer to the questions: why and what for?, then he neglects everything else. For him, everything else is no longer important. Exist as easily as possible, and that is all.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Common Law Marriage” 8/11/09

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Question: On one hand, the Creator was hardening the heart of the Pharaoh, and on the other hand, He was giving him constant blows. The last two blows are the Egyptian darkness and the slaying of the firstborn. What do these states symbolize?

Answer: Egyptian darkness symbolizes absolute evil and absolute emptiness revealed as a result of using the quality of egoism—reception for one’s own sake. You cannot achieve anything with it. Through revealing your ego, you understand that you are in Egypt.

The death of the firstborn means that all your deeds lead you to death. You see that there is no point in starting and doing anything as long as you are in Egypt.

Question: That is, the firstborn (Ben) always symbolizes the next state of man.

In addition to the fact that I feel darkness in my present state, I do not see any pleasure, I do not see anything in the future. If I remain in egoism, I have no future. Is this the state that nature is supposed to bring us to? Only then will we want to leave Egypt? Does a person consciously participate in this or is he forced by nature?

Answer: A person comes to Pharaoh together with the Creator and participates in the ten blows of the plagues. He sees how egoism suffers and begins to move further and further away from it. That is, he no longer attributes the suffering to himself but to the ego that is still inside him.

Gradually, he begins to understand that he needs to get rid of egoism, but he sees that there is no way to destroy it, and all that remains is to simply run away.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/26/21

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