Entries in the 'Egoism' Category

Winning The Game Against The Ego

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe whole Torah is only about a person’s inner states. Jacob’s family of only seventy people reaches Egypt and settle among the Egyptians. The seventy representatives of the Israeli nation are the seventy major altruistic attributes that go down into the desire to receive, into their ego.

First they reach high positions in Egypt and become managers, but gradually the Egyptians, meaning a person’s egoistic desires, begin to enslave their altruistic attributes and subdue them.

Question: Why does the Israeli nation go down to Egypt?

Answer: The point is that it is impossible to develop spiritually in this world and advance to the spiritual world if you don’t ascend to new levels on the spiritual ladder, which is supported by your ego. The levels of the spiritual ladder are built from the material of the human ego, and the more the ego grows, the higher a person ascends by increasingly overcoming it. This is the only way to ascend from this world to the level of the upper world, from Malchut to Bina.

Therefore, it is impossible to manage without the slavery in Egypt, without Pharaoh, and without all the wicked figures that are revealed that the Torah tells us about. They are all in your heart.

The children of Israel go down to Egypt since there is famine is the land of Israel, meaning that there is nowhere to advance spirituality if you don’t attach your ego to it each time, correct it, and then ascend. This is the only way the spiritual levels are built. Therefore Jacob’s family has no choice but to go down into the ego.

However, they didn’t take into account that a new king rises in Egypt, “a new king that didn’t know Joseph.” The new Pharaoh is the same desire to receive that suddenly begins to grow sharply in a person. A person wants to develop the attribute of bestowal within him, dreams about ascending this life to a more sublime form of existence. Suddenly, arising in him, he sees only thoughts and desires that pull him away from this and which hold him by his arms and legs..

He feels as though a heavy load has been placed upon his shoulders. This means that a new king rises in Egypt that does not know Joseph. The new ego does not want to play games with a person, has no accounts with him, and only wants one thing: that you should work for him like a slave.

It obliges you to live like everyone else in this world, like all the Egyptians, and to be even more egoistic than them. Unfortunately, the Israeli nation today manages to be loyal slaves of the ego.

The Jews win Nobel prizes and are very successful the world over and even take pride in the fact that they are more successful corporeally than everyone else. We have taken the greatest pride in being the European basketball champions, have learned the Greeks’ games and began to play these corporeal games even better than they did..

Our ego is ready to work for its own benefit and this is called Pharaoh. If the desires for bestowal, spirituality, connection, and unity, which should be an example for everyone, are revealed within us, Pharaoh which is the force of the ego that manages us, immediately kills them.
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From KabTV’s “The Torah Chapters with Shmuel Vilozni” 12/15/14

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The Maccabees And The Greek Ideology, Part 3

Dr. Michael LaitmanTo date, we have exhausted all the possibilities of the egoistic approach in all areas, whether in education, culture, daily life, family, the relationships between people and nations, the ability to continue the exploration of the universe, and so forth. The limitation to the egoistic awareness of the world is already so close that we can feel it.

This is not just talking about the collapse of science, but about its end, about that line where its ability to learn and explore nature in an introverted manner, on the basis of our egoistic desire, ends. There are still a multitude of things and phenomena in the world, but we don’t have the power to reach them; we don’t have the ability to perceive and discover them. They remain “invisible” to our present senses.

On the other hand, when I rise above research according to the “Greek” model and want to go outside towards bestowal and love, I rise above my material, beastly, and human “self” and want to feel the reality of nature as it is, without “self-made” interference, without a “filter” oriented towards personal benefit.

A person first perceives reality and investigates it later. So I want to perceive reality without bias, without any “filter,” without any internal interference. I want to see it as it truly is.

And then, through working on myself, I discover that essentially it is entirely immense bestowal and love. There are a multitude of systems that work according to this power. They are found all around us and I can create a connection with them, thanks to which I can understand what is actually happening.

Because in addition to the conventional two percent, all the rest of the details of reality are specifically found there in the system of bestowal. Further, we call this a “higher” system because it is specifically it which directs, inspects, and determines everything that is happening.

Returning to the holiday of Chanukah: It was about this that the Maccabees were fighting; it was about a sense of reality and the Jewish attitude towards it. Either our own extroverted method would be at its foundation, which goes beyond the limitations of the materialistic and corporeal perception, or the opposite, we would be satisfied with a narrow perception of the body, which is to say the “Greek” version. The struggle was conducted between these two opposing perceptions in those days.

Question: What can we derive and learn from this day?

Answer: Today, after two thousand years of the “Greek” perception, we must leave it. So this entire perception, along with its science and culture, has sunken into a crisis. Now the Jews and those who understand that they are right should come out of human society, again acquire an objective perception of the world, and then bring everyone else out to this level.

And then, we will approach the study of true reality, where the entire infinite world is placed before us and we know how to adapt ourselves to it as unlimited creatures living happily within eternity and wholeness.

This is what is today called the “War of the Maccabees.”
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From Kab TV’s “A New Life” 12/14/14

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What Did The Maccabees Fight Against?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We know that the Maccabees didn’t fight only against the Greeks but also against the Hellenists. What is this conflict about? Is it about two opposite ideologies?

Answer: The concept of Hellenism is a perception of reality, a paradigm, a worldview, a philosophy, and a perspective of the world. The world perceptions of the Greeks and the Romans were totally egoistic.

They claimed that man is in the center of the creation and that it isn’t bad and it isn’t a mistake. Man was considered a perfect creature, which means that his evolution has been completed and that he cannot change his nature. According to this perception evolution could only be:

  • Physical—sports and Olympic Games;
  • Rational—the fabrication of myths and fantasies, which were common in those days.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is the approach that allowed the Israeli nation to come out of the universal Babylon, which is the basis for all the other perceptions, including the Greek perception, and the natural evolution of the desire and the mind in order to attain a good life in this world. All the other perceptions regarding our nature refer to this world.

That method is based on absorption, on perceiving, and on receiving with the help of the raging ego that constantly develops in a person. This force is like a tight spring that is released inside us constantly pushing us to different pleasures.

Thus we cook inside our ego, each in his own pot, and all of us together in one giant pot. This process helps us advance scientifically, culturally, in sports, and in other aspects that make our life more comfortable. Thanks to the ego that constantly burns inside us as a part of our nature, we build fantastic things to satisfy ourselves.

But there is an opposite approach according to which our nature is basically evil. Why?—Because it isn’t for connection between people but leads to separation between them. After all, each one establishes relations with others only for one’s own benefit. Therefore, this approach is flawed and destructive.

My nature forces me to take advantage of everything that goes on around me, everyone that is around me. It is all for my benefit. This is a natural desire, my innate attribute. At any given moment I weigh my moves in order to use the world egoistically.

This leads to detachment because we are in a continuous struggle between us, in competition, which is the basis of the ancient Greek culture. The Olympic Games are a clear example of that. Eventually the Greek approach requires the use of others for our own benefit.

On the other hand, our nation believes in totally different values. Abraham gathered his students and explained to them that they were to establish a society that should live on the principles of mutuality, unity, and love. The essence of the Jewish approach means that the other is more important than me.

This perception that Abraham initiated was carried on through Egypt, Mount Sinai, and the land of Israel and was accepted until two thousand years ago. The principle remained unchanged—to constantly develop for the benefit of others so that they will be more important to me than myself.

But what do I gain from that? After all, this approach is also based on the ego because we have nothing else but that.

Such an attitude towards others allows me to exit my nature, to ascend above my limitations, above my body, and to feel the world through the others who are dearer to me than myself.

This is exactly how a mother sees the wellbeing of the world through the wellbeing of her own child. It is as if she dresses in him and then she doesn’t operate according to her own desires but in his benefit.

If I dress that way in all of humanity, I will see a totally different perfect world regardless of my attributes, my desires, and my limitations.

The Greek approach is based on absorption, while the Jewish approach is based in bestowal, on exiting myself, which allows me to discover the force of nature that operates on the outside. In addition to that, I acquire the force of love and bestowal by which I explore all of reality.

The main thing is that I discover the upper force, which created all of the spiritual reality that operates in bestowal and also the corporeal, egoistic reality that operates in receiving. I know the general force and ascend to its level. When I detach myself from the egoistic desire of my body, I ascend above it to an eternal dimension of love and bestowal. Why is it eternal? Because it is whole and lacks nothing.

On the other hand, Greek perception can eventually contribute to a person during his short corporeal life and that’s all. Since all its goals don’t exceed the framework of the physical existence and the body isn’t eternal.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/14/14

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Hanukkah – The Miracle Of Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn 170 BCE, the Greeks, led by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, captured the Temple. There was a division between the adherents of Greek philosophy and religion and those who remained loyal to the concept of a single Creator.

Some priests, including the high priest (Cohen Rishon), supported the Greeks. The Jerusalem Temple was desecrated and turned into a sanctuary of Zeus. Severe persecution and forced Hellenization of the population led to the Maccabean revolt, led by Matityahu Hashmonay who issued the call, “He who is for God, follow me!”

The uprising ended with the victory of the Maccabees. Having entered the Temple, they found that the pure oil to light the Menorah candles would last for only one day. But a miracle occurred. The candles burned for eight days and so is called the miracle of Hanukkah.

Question: What does Hanukkah represent from the spiritual point of view?

Answer: The history leading to this holiday begins with Abraham as the founder of the Jewish people. Long before the Maccabees, It was he who first issued the call,  “Whoever is moving towards the Creator – follow me!” Under this motto, he gathered a large group of Babylonians, to whom he taught his approach to the universe, the purpose of life and creation, the higher human destiny, etc.

But most importantly, under the slogan of “unity in the name of unity,” Abraham began to unite those who sided with him because it is in the pursuit of unity that we reveal the upper force of nature, the Creator, which unites us. It forms us into one whole and we become invincible to either external or internal egoism. What Abraham began, the Maccabees, united with each other, continued.

In principle, it is the same action of a rebellion against egoism, only at different levels, and that is why it occurred at different points in history.

Having united people, the Maccabees came to the same state as Abraham and won. To the extent of unity with greater groups of people who joined them, they revealed a greater spiritual force, which was the force of unity, the upper force of bestowal and love. Therefore, they were invincible to egoism, which was personified by the Greeks in this case, in Babylon by the Babylonians, in Egypt by Pharaoh, and later, by the Romans.

Through unity with large groups of people joining them, they recognized more and more spiritual power: the power of unity and the supreme power of love and bestowal. Therefore, they were invincible against the selfishness personified in this case by the Greeks, the Babylonians, Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and later, the Romans.

In general, it is the only fight, a war throughout all generations. And even when we do not have an apparent enemy, our inner enemy always rebels within us, again and again pulling us towards worshiping various idols in our life. We must fight it.

It is easy to draw a parallel between these two wars and today since modern idols are fully exposed as complete nonentities, leading us to some end and we have nothing else to do with them. On the one hand, we are still drawn to them, and on the other hand, we understand that this is temporary, harmful and brings no good results.

Therefore, our behavior is reminiscent of a man who gets drunk, does not know or hear anything, forgets himself,and is disconnected from what is happening. We become immersed in business or other things just to stay occupied, thus imitating a movie hero, a literary character, or just acquaintances who have supposedly succeeded in life. This is the idol  that is so attractive to us.

Question: Do you think that these desires have exhausted themselves?

Answer: No, but I know that all this is temporary and limited. Life itself shows us that. The world is like a theater and we always play a role in it.

There are people who seek nothing. The main thing for them is to live quietly and peacefully, so no one bothers them. But, there are few of them. The majority are pulled by competition, the struggle for a place under the sun, and we begin to pretend that we are business people, running with a briefcase and changing from one plane to another, and in this way, we run to the grave.

Question: Can the miracle of Hanukkah take place nowadays?

Answer: In life there is always a place for a miracle. Every time we connect with each other, the force, which is higher than all the other forces, obstacles, conditions, is manifested, and then there is a miracle before us. We can evoke it, even today.

A miracle is a supernatural phenomenon, but we are able to cause it ourselves, when we wish. Today, if we want to rise above egoism in our unity, then a completely new upper force will be manifested within us, and with its help, we will be able to calm the whole world, arrange everything, and everyone will be fine and easygoing.

Question: What kind of a miracle happened when the candles of the Maccabees were lit?

Answer: Through their unity, the Maccabees attracted the Light that gave them the opportunity to stay in the state of bestowal, love and connection until they began to pull new masses of people towards themselves.

The desires of people who connect with each other in one whole symbolizes the oil, and their gathering in spite of their egoism symbolizes the wick. They burn in their desire to get closer, and when they unite somehow, a light appears within them that support the fire of their desires.

If they begin to be engaged in even greater dissemination and draw towards themselves greater masses of people, then the lamp will burn continuously.

The manifestation of the Light, the upper force, the Creator in the people’s unity is the miracle. Besides that, there are no other miracles because the essence of all miracles is that our unity brings about the manifestation of the inner force, called the property of love, the Creator. It works wonders. The crossing of the Red Sea, the miracle of Hanukkah and the miracle of Purim are always the revelation of the Creator in our unity. Therefore, there is just one technique and it contains nothing complicated. It came to us from Abraham, who first showed how it is realized.

The fact is that we can unite in any manner, but the essence of the miracle is that we unite so that a new upper property appears within us, which is not manifested in any other actions, that raises us to the next level of consciousness, sensation, vision, and existence.

Question: How could people believe that one candle would burn for eight days when they knew that it would be sufficient only for a day?

Answer: If we aspire to unity, we are not interested in anything except to come to this state, within which the Creator is revealed. Then we reach the conditions of infinity and go to the next level of existence, where there is neither time nor space. And eight days is just an allegory, since there are eight Sefirot from the level of Bina to the level of Malchut.

Question: How can a person not think about what will happen tomorrow?

Answer: If you work for bestowal, tomorrow does not exist for you! There is no next moment! The most important is to give.

Tomorrow will disappear from your field of vision, mind, and calculations! It does not exist! You are included in the action of bestowal and are seemingly extended to everyone else. Nothing will remain in you. Your “I” simply disappears.

Then, in the next step, a new egoistic state appears. The same thing is repeated, like the wheel that moves forward, but at the same time revolves around itself.

Question: Under what circumstances is this possible?

Answer: It comes gradually, after many years and only from Above. But it will come. I can promise to all of my students that it will come true, and they will reach this state.

I think that together with them, I will still be able to go through their first steps in this ascent. This is the desire of every spiritual teacher who cannot abandon his child halfway. The teacher wants to guide his students across the desert so that they reach full bestowal, and they would not have any possibility of turning back, since the property of bestowal would reign in all their desires.

Then, they will develop their spiritual path on their own, with the next leader, like Moses and Joshua. But it is desirable for us to cross the desert together.

Question: How do you view the miracles from the material point of view? Let’s say, for many years, archaeologists seek confirmation of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, but find no traces. Indeed, something should have been left. In addition, there no evidence has been found of the 40 years of wandering of the nation of Israel in the desert.

Answer: Archaeologists find confirmation of these or other historical events when the time comes. Therefore in its time, they will suddenly find artifacts of history in the same place where they previously could find nothing. These discoveries are still ahead.
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From KabTV’s “Secretes of the Eternal Book” 12/17/14

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The Mystery of Israel

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn recent years,  politicians have started talking about legislative consolidation of the Jewish character of the state of Israel. The reason for this is the broad wave of  anti-Semitic attacks. The whole world has a problem with the Jewish people,  asking: “Why did they take the possession of land that does not belong to them?”

Many do not even agree with the original division of the territory in accordance with the UN resolution. Today, a secondary vote, of course, would deprive us of the right to our own state.

After the disaster, the world was uncomfortable in front of us, and if we indeed were to get the country, this will continue, according to the laws of common development.

However, we have to make it really ours, take the holy land (Eretz) as a desire (Ratzon) to purify and form not as a collection of exiles, but as the people of Israel, in the full sense of the word, fully united and aspiring straight to the Creator (Yashar El).

We have to take a course on cohesion, love, and unity, to become as one man with one heart.

If we had arranged our nation in this way, we would not have had to carry the endless war for the past 66 years without a single second of rest and relaxation. And the situation would not have been like it is today such that when all of Israel is forced to plan an emergency evacuation, an escape plan in case of a disaster.

Question: Again and again, life confronts us with basic issues that affect our very existence in the land of Israel. And always this topic covers the fog of uncertainty, vagueness. Why is there this agonizing incompleteness in our self-determination? Why haven’t all “I’s” been dotted?

Answer: It is because we want to be like all the other nations and define our country like everyone else, according to the traditional representations of territory, borders and public entities. However, for us it does not work and does not apply to us. This usual format does not cause a faithful response in us, where we do not feel for ourselves, and do not find any correlation as to how our country should be identified and appear as our people, and every person in it.

It turns out that we are not the people of Israel, as it should be, and we do not live in the land of Israel nor in the country of Israel, as it should be according to the original sources, according to our basis. We have tried to adopt the concept of external concepts, simply taking them in, but they have not come to fruition. The international standard label comes unglued again and again.

As a result, we feel that it is not suitable, but continue to burden ourselves with it, without making the definition clear. And the world, for its part, does not understand our actions and sees the state of Israel as some artificial entity.

We can eloquently argue that this is our land. We can even sacrifice for the sake of life. However, we still do not understand what “the people” and “the country” mean for the Jewish people.

Baal Sulam wrote a great piece about it in the newspaper “The Nation” (HaUma), which, incidentally, was closed following its initial release. In this paper, the nature of these concepts and the need to return to their roots after two thousand years of exile was described in detail.

Why should we turn to ancient history and to the primitive life now that once was lived by our ancestors? On the contrary, in the previous centuries advanced nations planted their cultures everywhere. A foreign culture with a particular success was transferred to the indigenous peoples of Africa and America. Languages would die out as well as the traditions and beliefs, giving way to the English, Spanish, and French influence.

But we still have not been able to keep within the margins of the present. There is nothing we can borrow from the people of the world. On the contrary, we are organized in such a way that the people of the world adapt the correct things from us.

It is not up to us and it is not pride or arrogance. We are hard-wired this way. It is no coincidence that the world sees us as an intelligent, developed people, nurturing a purpose of life. The world feels that the Jewish people have a secret they do not want to open to others, so this means they must force us to give it up.

This feeling is indestructible, and we must finally understand what they want from us. Indeed, what kind of a mystery lies within us? If we only knew, then we could sell it for triple the price. But no, it does not work this way.

After all, what we hold inside and that lies within the people of Israel without their knowledge is this great, beautiful, alluring, shining goal, the future of the world.

Our world is bound to the brotherhood in which we once lived. We need to regain it, in other words, to live together as a law-abiding people, love our neighbors as ourselves, according to the principles that we received on Mount Sinai, and to be as one man with one heart.

Today our global, integrated world feels the unbreakable relationship of all its parts, literally requires it, and requires compliance with this law. If we reveal an umbrella of guarantee over all of us, we will find ourselves in a world that is for us, is as the Garden of Eden.

That is why in this modern era, the world pays attention to us without knowing how or why and begins to demand the law from us by which it will live tomorrow. After all, today’s life seems more and more intolerable to the world, pitch black, and hopeless. It no longer presents a picture of tomorrow. And subconsciously, people feel that the Jewish people have the answer.

Anti-Semitism flourishes around the world as a consequence, affecting millions of people. Thus, it simply obliges us to wonder about the law and about the way of life that should form the basis of our existence here.

If we really did go back to the roots, if we would put into practice the concept of “the people of Israel” aspiring “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El), i.e., to unity, solidarity, and love, if this were so, we would educate the people based upon the law combined with each other, as one man with one heart, helping neighbors and binding people together by this partnership. This would serve as an example to the world. Moreover, we would teach people how to build unity.

The world would then understand that we are a special part of it and that we really need to learn. And there is much to learn, since it’s the future and the salvation of all mankind. It is not just for a few decades comprising the lifespan of every generation, but rather a new basis for a new foundation being laid here in which our world will be perfected and ascend to a new level, into the eternal, perfect condition.

Today our egoism devours itself and as a result, we live an average of 70-80 years. If we move from the egoistic receiving desire to an altruistic one, to bestowal, and if everyone would live with their heart wide open among one’s nation, taking care of all, we would find other natural laws, the laws of love and bestowal. At that point we would enter into the eternal, perfect life and our world would open the opportunity to live beyond the limitations of time, space, and motion. We would begin to perceive the world in which there are no limits.

In the meantime, the problems towards the Jewish people, which we call anti-Semitism, will grow more and more. We cannot get rid of this. On the contrary, we will have to give an answer, as it is necessary to stand face to face with this situation.

At the same time, we will need to solve the problem of the Jewish character of the country, recently exposed for public discussion. But, it must not be by artificial language and not on the basis of the laws that we have inherited from the British mandate or Turkish rule. No, we need to take up the Torah and draw out all the necessary definitions.

For millennia, since the days of Abraham, Kabbalists have explained the meaning of “the people of Israel” and “country of Israel,” and who is a “Jewish person.” We need to open ourselves to the world, abandon the boundaries and take into our surroundings, everyone who wants to live by the law of love and unity under the umbrella of bestowal. That’s right, rather than geographic, the boundaries of the land of Israel, that is, universal mutual guarantee, will extend to the whole world.

In principle, the land of Israel is not the territory on the surface of the globe, but a place where people live according to the law of love. So now it does not exist. After all, the earth (Eretz) means the desire (Ratzon). If there is the law of love between people living in any place and they follow such law, their relationship, their common desire is called the land of Israel, the desire aspiring straight to the Creator (Yashar-El), and thus they want to be like the upper force.

That is what we have to explain, demonstrate, and offer to all peoples. And then, instead of hatred, we will feel empathy, respect and affection, which is what we feel right now from many thousands of our students around the world. We see how committed they are to us when we teach them how to unite with each other to cooperatively achieve a higher power.
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From the program “A New Life” 11/30/14

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When The Ego Begins To Soften

Laitman_633_4Question: Each of us lives his life with the typical hardships, successes, and disappointments. We would like to make our lives happier, but the question is how? Where do we get the feelings of warmth and security?

Answer: The answer is in our mother’s womb, then in her arms, and then in the warmth of our home and hearth. We gradually draw away from it, but our inclination to preserve these forms remains, although we want to be independent in our ego.

What is more, we see that our ego begins to soften with regard to the way it feels the community that we establish as we participate in the discussion circles. I look at what I can give up in the ego. I don’t really annul it, but it simply begins to help me incorporate more and more in the life of the community and to feel that I belong to a greater circle. Thus, our ego can function as “help against.”

When we developed only egoistically, we continually destroyed our community life. However, now, when we restore the community—at least in the form of a game—the ego that feels the pressure begins to help us. It isn’t annulled, but takes on a new form. This is called integral community education.

Let’s hope that we will be able to attain it. We thus balance the general global force of nature, and it connects humanity according to our inner inclination. When the two forces that influence us become harmoniously balanced, our life will become happy.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/8/14

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Playing With Community Life To Form Mutual Connections

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In today’s modern world, the greatest payoff for independence is loneliness. So how can I, on the one hand, keep my independence, and together with this gradually add elements to this life that will connect me with other people?

Answer: A person doesn’t have to give up anything in order to be included in the life of the community. On the one hand, this life is more developed, corrected, and warm, and on the other hand, you are included in it to the degree that you want, to the extent that is beneficial to you. You don’t give up anything in this.

As a general rule, we think that we need to give up our independence, our freedom, and our decisions. Come, let’s try to play with the life of the community, with agreement between us, with such a connection from a distance so that we reach a particular equality in all kinds of forms of connection. We open circles for children; we help each other mutually, and we disseminate new forms of learning in circles.

Come, let’s begin classes in organizations, workplaces, and various places where people meet, organizing meetings that look like a community, but external in the beginning. This could be a roundtable, a picnic, or a festival. Come, let’s begin to talk about the importance of such an approach to life.

With this, we begin to resemble the global nature that compresses and mixes humanity such that people are constantly moving from place to place, from nation to nation. It is no longer possible to say where the place of one group of people or another is to be found because borders have become blurred and cancelled.

Come, let’s start talking about this and clarify together how much a mutual connection of equality can be beneficial to a person as an addition to his life. In fact, we awaken in a person an additional form of thinking that doesn’t obligate anyone. It is just external participation. If we begin to work in this direction, then a person will almost immediately begin to feel additional benefit, so much so that it will be attractive to him, whereas the previous way of life will lose its value.

You want to keep your former life and add to it? Please! There is no compulsion! But gradually, thanks to this social influence, this softening, without pressure and obligation, changes will take place within you. It will also be felt in your children and your partner, and through this means of communication, everyone will begin to feel the benefit of this situation; in the meantime we are only playing, for after all all of us are egoists, and we aren’t even trying to hide this fact.

We only want to examine the validity of good connections and not the influence of the community on the life, wellbeing, the way of life at home, or anything else. Come, let’s try to feel its relevance to our region, city, and neighborhood in the relationships between us. It is not important what level of measurement we choose. With this we build a softer and more secure environment, reducing the tension in the air.

In the end, we see that growth in the general welfare of the population is worthwhile for us. In addition to this, the inner sensation of people becomes more pleasant, freer, and sweeter. Specifically a person wants this pleasantness, and specifically this is what everyone is missing, even the most independent and wealthy person.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 10/8/14

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Now Is The Time For A Complete Revision

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the process of human development, each new state initially is perceived as good and desirable and we are pleased to enter into it. But then, gradually shortcomings existing within it are revealed and it ceases to please us. Over time, it gets worse and worse until it ends in a revolution, a struggle to move to the next stage.

We are now in this transition period. We need to make an audit of our entire previous development on the still, vegetative, and animate degrees, subject it to critical analysis and a general check to see that all this development did not work in our favor.

It was just the evolution of our egoism that made us continuously improve our material life and build systems that were able to fulfill it more and more. But it never made us happy because in the end, egoism always devoured all the fruits of our efforts, once again leaving us with nothing and an even greater sense of inner emptiness.

Having received a hundred, it is not content and wants two hundred, having received two hundred, it wants four hundred. It is a natural tendency and we will never be able to limit our egoistic appetite. It all ends when a person dies without satisfying even half of his aspirations. He never gets what he coveted, even at the end of his life.

Humanity must reveal the insignificance of its egoistic development. First of all, we need to clarify that this development was required and that we now have the opportunity to get out of the material plane and develop in a completely different direction of reality. We must move upward to a new dimension and into the matrix that is not related to this world.

To do this, we need to change our tendencies. Instead of constant absorption, which is characteristic of our egoistic nature that begins with cells and atoms and seeks only to absorb more good things, it is necessary to go directly opposite in order to feel the whole universe that is related to us.

Each of us must feel that all the others are part of us. Thus, we will feel that the whole world is one integral system. In our time, the world began to move toward such a form, but in a negative manner, showing us our inability to exist in an integral system.

We see that we are unable to succeed in the economy, in the education of children, or in any other area of life. After all, we ourselves are structured completely opposite to this integral system and everyone just grabs and pulls towards themselves.

Nature presents us with a new reality. The cause of the current crisis in human society is hidden within it. We remain in our original egoistic nature, but the total integral system is beginning to unfold before us in which everyone is connected to everyone else.

This system cannot work in an environment where everyone grabs only for himself. On the contrary, in order for this system to exist so that can we exist within it, we have to feel it as part of ourselves.

So today we need the wisdom of Kabbalah, which will reveal this upper system, the force of bestowal to us. It will explain its nature and how to work with it. Whether we wish it or not, the train of evolution is carrying us forward and bringing us to a new station. We find ourselves in a completely new condition and suddenly discover that all the previous methods no longer work.

All the capitalistic laws, under which everyone pulled everything towards himself and everyone felt comfortable, do not work. We thought we could continue like that forever, but this does not work because the force of bestowal began to work in our world. And if we are not equipped with it, if are not able to understand and feel it, to learn and begin to work with this second force, then with every moment we will lose control over what is happening and suffer more and more setbacks in our lives.

Therefore, we must study the wisdom of Kabbalah that explains all of reality “that has emerged in the worlds and those that are destined to be revealed, and in all the manners that can ever appear in the worlds, to the end of time,” as Baal HaSulam writes.

There is a science, a technique, by which we can move forward on the basis of our real experiences and sensations. As it is said that the judge has only the facts that are before his eyes and that the phenomenon that has not been comprehended is impossible to describe.

In our hands are the real tools for understanding reality. We have never had such an opportunity to see our future with confidence. Our present lives are arranged so that no one can know what the next moment brings him. The wisdom of Kabbalah gives us the opportunity not only to learn this, but also to control our own destiny. Today’s reality obliges us to do so.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Uncontrollable Assimilations

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the Jewish people begin to implement the Kabbalistic method, what will happen in the world? How will it affect anti-Semitism in the world?

Answer: Instead of feeling anti-Semitism, people will begin to treat us with sympathy, respect, and love. The nations of the world will carry us in their arms because we will provide them with the method for a perfect eternal life.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how we should correctly work with our ego so that it will not be just an evil force but a help against us, a help that stems from its oppositeness. When we fulfill this work, we will attain the peak of our evolution.

Question: There are people who offer different solutions to the problem of anti-Semitism, like suggesting that all the Jews should come to Israel or on the contrary, assimilate among the nations. What can you say about that?

Answer: Nonsense. Such plans will not work. It is because nature itself is managing the whole process. Sooner or later we will have to discover the potential hidden in each of us and become teachers for all of humanity.

We will have to discover the wisdom of Kabbalah by which we will be able to restrain the ego so that we will be able to use it correctly. It is very powerful and can be very helpful when used correctly. Thus we will reach the good cause.

As for assimilation, it is useless, and we are incapable of it. On the contrary, we are yet to reunite with the ten lost tribes and we will see that they haven’t assimilated either. They will come from every corner of the world and will proclaim their Judaism.

Question: Do Jews really have a kind of a protective shield that guards them from complete assimilation?

Answer: Yes. It is because of the profound basic difference that is concealed in nature itself, in the inner Reshimot (reminiscences) that operate the Jews and the non-Jews. The Jewish Reshimo is actually found in the nations of the world as well, but it hasn’t as yet been revealed, and hasn’t started to speak with them as yet.

It isn’t by chance that Abraham turned to all the people in Babel and said, “Let’s live differently and base our relations on a new principle.” But those who followed him were those in whom this Reshimo, this inner element of unity, was already revealed. Those who didn’t hear the message were those in whom unity hadn’t yet awoken, and thus they remained in their ego.

Today however, we are very close to the revelation and recognition of the seriousness of the crisis we are in and the uniqueness of this abnormal global world. People will feel that they have to unite and that they cannot keep on living any other life but the life that is based on mutual unity into one whole.

Question: Can we say that anti-Semitism is a call and a demand coming from the world “to teach us how to keep on living?”

Answer: Of course. This is the real reason for it. The nations of the world are actually telling us openly that we have the key for a good life. We may ask how it is possible to blame us for all the troubles in the world, but this is what they feel and they cannot get rid of this feeling.

The nations of the world are totally dependent on us. Only we have the solutions to the current situation by showing them how to organize and cooperate amongst themselves.

Question: Suppose I agree with you, what should I do now?

Answer: You should join the method of integral education and learn what it means to be a Jew. It makes no difference whether a person is religious or not, whether he is politically inclined to the left or to the right. We should understand what it really means to be Jewish (Yechudi), which stems from the Hebrew word “Yichud” – unity, mutual love, and how to attain it.

Then this wisdom and method should be passed on to your family and to others within your environment.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 11/25/14

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In The Same Place After A Few Thousand Years

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: You say that only the Jews are ready to help the world in the conditions of the global crisis. How exactly?

Answer: It is according to the method that was discovered by Abraham. Specifically, he understood why the ego is constantly growing and that human development is summoned in this way. During this process, more and more disasters are experienced.

For together with all of the successes and achievements, the ego pushes us further and further into an abyss, makes life difficult and fills it with unavoidable tension. More than this, in our day, the ego is growing exponentially, not linearly.

So by discovering all of this, Abraham also discovered a further unique power in nature, which is the power of bestowal and love. We can derive that from nature and through this positive force, dominate our egoistic negativity.

How is this done? It is done through connection and unification with each other. Through our convergence, we discover this power of unification between us that can cover our entire ego. Then we feel as if we are under a safe umbrella. Nature doesn’t bother us anymore and we are not threatened by any harm. We don’t lose anything, we have no need for competition and we don’t need to devour each other. Everywhere there is absolute abundance, peace, and tranquility throughout the world.

This is what Abraham discovered and taught his students with whom he disengaged from Babylon and went to the land of Israel.

We are the owners of this wisdom. And the nations of the world feel this, especially at this time of the global crisis. It is expanding and we don’t see an end to it. There will be further pauses, but the trend is moving us towards an abyss. Under such conditions, the nations of the world understand that we have a solution. This is because they are like the ancient Babylonians from whom we once branched out in a different way.

At that time, Abraham said to everyone, “Much later you will still have to face the facts and understand that this method of counteracting evil, the ego, with good, the power of altruistic love, is compulsory. You don’t want to realize this now? So you will realize it in another few thousand years.” There is no choice, and this period has been like a moment in our reality.

And now thousands of years have passed. Today we are already close to the end of the process. Ultimately all of humanity must be aware of this, that the same wisdom of Kabbalah that was given to the Jews and which they have themselves forgotten, is imperative for this. It is necessary to counteract the ego that is killing humanity and devouring itself, like a cancer that devours the body.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 11/25/14

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