Entries in the 'Free Will' Category

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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The Right to Choose, Part 1

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I would like to know your opinion about the unstable political situation in Israel, which led to early elections. It has become a tradition that the Israeli government does not keep its assumed term. Egoistical play and intrigue are at fault, leading to the collapse of the government coalition.

I would like to understand this phenomenon, because it affects all aspects of our lives and affects everyone’s pocket, forcing us to come up with a few more billion for early elections.

Every government during the election promises to bring our common ship to a wonderful shore, drawing in front of us a wonderful life. But in the end, we feel that this ship is constructed with many separate blocks, where each block draws to itself.

It faces many conflicting interests, and the ropes tying the whole structure together become torn. Such feelings arise in people by causing a sense of insecurity and instability in us.

And this is not a new phenomenon; it accompanies us from the very inception of the state of Israel. Already so many governments have broken down, each time by bringing us to early elections long before they are due.

According to statistics over the 68 years of Israel’s existence, 33 governments and 19 Knesset assemblies have been replaced. The average time spent in power by the Israeli government is less than two years. This is the ruthless display of statistics.

But we do not want to open any political debates here, which are now well underway on all media channels. We just would like to understand the reason for this phenomenon and how we can fix it. How do we provide a captain for our ship who will lead the ship to the sacred shore? What was the cause for such instability in our government?

Answer: The answer is very simple. In the past there was a king put above all of society and the state government. Even though the king had many ministers, they all obeyed him. It was impossible to challenge the decisions of the king since everything he said was sacred.

How did the king make the right decisions?  He got them from heaven. People believed that the king was placed by a higher power and had a direct link with this power. This is how humanity progressed throughout its history, developing society, technology, science, religion, and education. All countries developed according to some program, with some countries becoming more developed than others. The king stood at the head of society, and under him there was the hierarchy of his assistants and courtiers.

Nature moved us along without asking for anything, yet sent everyone all the necessary thoughts and desires. Of course, we were accompanied by problems and wars, but it was all planned by nature and was supposed to happen. All we had to do was to learn from the experience and gradually move towards an understanding of how to make this a more balanced life.

The force of nature sent the king in the direction in which he lead his people and the people followed him. That was the case in all countries, and the people of Israel also went through many tests, all thanks to the higher power. Everything was planned in advance.

We see that in the days of the prophets, the entire process we had gone through was described by them. For hundreds of years before the destruction of the Temple and the people of Israel going into exile, the prophets knew and wrote about it. The Talmud says that even 70 years before the destruction of the Temple, there were signs of its destruction.

Question: Back then, did the rulers of Israel know that what was going to happen?

Answer: Of course, they knew because it was written in the Talmud and in the books of the prophets.

Among other people, the monarchy remained until recently. For example, a king ruled Russia at the beginning of the last century. People were very religious, no matter what group they belonged to within the society. Everything was organized so that humanity existed and acted at the will of the higher power.

This was ongoing until the time came to exercise freedom of will. Freedom lies in the fact that I myself get involved in the program of nature, study it, and realize how I need to change myself, the entire human society, everyone of us, and most importantly, our relationships with each other.

Now it is the duty of every person. Monarchies began to crumble and eventually we come to the fact that today everyone is king! Everyone is involved in a life of society as a separate, independent person that makes decisions.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/9/14

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The Force Of Good And The Force Of Evil, Part 1

laitman_207Question: All religions imagine the world as if its ruled by the two forces of good and evil. An ordinary person perceives the world the same way by feeling he’s being exposed to bad and good forces. What is the good force, causing all the good things, and what is the evil force that brings all the troubles?

Many people dream that in this world there is only one force of good and wonder why there is a force of evil? This duality is a constant struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, destruction and construction; it accompanies us throughout our lives. Why is there a confrontation between the force of good and the force of evil?

Answer: There is no confrontation. It’s just us that feel some forces as good and others as evil. In nature there are no good or bad forces. Indeed, there are opposing forces, the plus and the minus, attraction and repulsion, the light and the darkness.

Life is impossible without the two opposing forces, there is no metabolism in living organisms, no metabolic process, and there is no connection between subatomic particles or between space objects in the universe, uniting them into one body.

Life is always based on the confrontation between the two forces, and flows in the “middle line” that connects them both. Life appears in the subject or body in which these opposing forces interact. When they reach relative equilibrium, then the next step of the renewed life is born.

That is, the opposing forces establish a certain harmony between themselves during their encounter in the material. It turns out, the opposing subatomic forces, the electrons and protons, build the entire atoms, which join together in a molecule.

Molecules of the opposite forces already can decide between themselves what is good and what is bad for their compound. This is why they attract, assimilate, and absorb useful substances, and extract harmful ones. This is how metabolism occurs during which life survives and develops.

All of this is done at the expense of the proper alignment of two opposing forces. There is no development and life without it. Otherwise, there could be no development of our universe consisting only of inanimate matter and especially vegetative matter. The combination of the opposing forces on the vegetative level is even more complex, and on the animate level the complexity is more intricate.

There is a difficult investigation that takes place inside one’s mind and perception, the definition of good and evil on all levels. Our mind is built on the fact that we constantly analyze the struggle of opposing forces and look for the most benefit from any form of their connection.

It’s impossible to use only one force without the other, only in their interaction. That’s the way life goes.

On the still, vegetative, and animate levels the system works fine, is developing well. If sometimes we see some disasters in nature, it’s only because we evaluate their relevancy to ourselves. But in fact, the whole universe—still, vegetative, and animate worlds—are moving under the influence of positive and negative forces that interact with each other and move evolution forward.

Everything is fine until it comes to the human. These two forces of “good” and “evil,” as we call them, also affect a person. If we knew the essence of the program of nature and kept the balance of positive and negative forces, then we would live quietly and peacefully.

The problem is that a person has freedom of choice. One chooses the balance of positive and negative forces at will. This is where our initial spoiled nature manifests itself, and as a result, we make more pleasant and convenient decisions instead of the correct ones.

We are more interested in profit than in truth. This is why we begin to lay a curved path, one that isn’t in the middle between the negative and positive forces that must be equal and properly combined with each other to promote development. Instead, we are always inclined to follow a convenient way, and at the expense of others.

We are all parts of integral nature, and there we must be in total harmony with the inanimate, vegetative, and animate worlds, evolving in the same direction with them. Nevertheless, if we were to maintain a balance between the two forces by exercising the freedom of choice while keeping them in harmony, we would develop properly.

We wouldn’t allow ourselves to use the forces of nature more than we need to in order to live harmoniously with each other and the environment. Our life would be simple, but serene. We’d get what we need for our existence from nature, and we would use the rest of the forces for our own internal development.

All of the misfortunes of mankind began when humanity began to produce more goods than it needed for life. This is the turning point where humanity began to deteriorate. From this point on we’ve lost the balance of forces and started to turn them as was convenient to our egoism.

The general scheme is as follows: There is a positive force, a negative force, and we are in the middle, the people with our own egoism. If we were to use these two forces of nature in order to balance our lives and if we would implement all of the erupting egoism for our internal, spiritual growth only, then we would rise to the next level called “man.”

Our material life, that is, the life of our bodies on the animate level, with everything they need like food and family would have remained at the bottom in a balanced form, in the same state in which it should be. We would use our egoism to bring balance into the two opposing forces and rise to the spiritual level, to spiritual life.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/3/14

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Rising Above The Gaping Emptiness

Dr. Michael LaitmanDepression is one of the problems of modern humanity; it appeared at the turn of the 17th – 18th century in forms characteristic of the aristocracy of the day. People that led idle lives, didn’t know what to do with themselves, with what to occupy themselves. Based on this, they secretly began to raise the question about the meaning of life; on one hand, everything seemed to be there, and on the other hand, there was nothing.

To distract people from these thoughts and dampen the growing emptiness, society began to encourage romance, sex, and small wars. Then the development of various technologies began, and sports, travel, and the pursuit of fashion became popular. Everything was focused on keeping a person busy, giving him a sense of fulfillment instead of focusing on the true answer to the question “Why am I here?”

In parallel, print media, radio and television, and soon the Internet were developed, which further filled leisure time and all of a person’s resources. The Internet is filled with a vast variety of information that plugs the emptiness that arises within us.

But despite this, no matter in what a man is engaged, there is a greater and greater sense of inner awareness of worthlessness, insignificance, and the limits of his existence. The question of the meaning of life subconsciously gnaws at any person, be they more or less educated. This wormhole is inside of him, and he needs to do something with it.

This longing by the masses has caused a significant level of depression, and in order to address this, the masses are offered sedatives and other recreational drugs. Under the banner of struggling for a healthy humanity, government health agencies prohibit smoking, but instead they are slowly killing people with recreational drugs.

The by-product of ignoring the truth and not focusing on finding the right answer has led to everything being permitted. Humanity isn’t limited in any type of behavior, meaning sexually or drug related. Fulfill yourself with anything, just so the depression isn’t felt. This approach has led to the masses being willing to kill everyone and everything, including oneself, since he is no longer afraid of anything.

Searching for the meaning of life is most difficult because in order to find it a person must rise above oneself. A person can’t rise above oneself except in the case, by the will of fate he finds the wisdom of Kabbalah. Although it’s also a long path, at least one sees some kind of a perspective, not through feelings but through logic.

It turns out that depression is a problem for all humankind. The sooner humanity will move forward under the influence of the Internet and the overall development, more and more people will feel the insignificance of life, its limitations, and short term.

Subconsciously we feel that much greater potential is inherent in our lives than the one in existence now. For a person wasn’t created to live like an animal, meaning to be engaged in oneself, one’s offspring, and the arrangement of one’s own life to the grave. A person has some internal embryo that requires its own self-actualization and realization. On one hand, there is this embryo in each person, and on the other hand, this embryo can be suppressed.

Today, the most important industry of the world is the entertainment industry, which takes huge amounts of money, resources, etc. Even this industry has already been experiencing a setback and we are no longer satisfied by Hollywood and other mass entertainment venues.

A person has become impatient in the search for the meaning of life. A person cannot watch an online video clip that lasts more than five minutes. A year later, it will be shortened by a minute, and then by another minute. A question gnaws at him “Will I find something here? If not, then I won’t even want to watch.” After all, viewing long clips only increases the void, so it’s better not to watch them.

The problem is when a person opens a book or becomes engaged in some business, he is afraid to stop such activity due to an even greater disclosure of emptiness, insignificance, worthlessness, and lack of response to this gnawing question; therefore, he tries to preempt it. Therefore, people decrease their Internet discussions and talks over the mobile phone, limiting them to short phrases like ‘See you tomorrow! Later!” as if they want to leave something for the future. And what do they have tomorrow? The same emptiness that is today, but it seems better to break in the middle of a conversation, as though there was something to talk about afterward.

A person has to feel that there is a future! And there is no future! Somehow today we still can see it. Perhaps it looks ghostly and foggy, but we can still lie to ourselves about it. But day after day this feeling passes by, and in the hands of humanity, there is nothing that can plug this void.

No matter what, this emptiness remains and becomes more gaping, black, and grim. So, the younger generation quietly parts with this life, since it is much easier to forget everything while under the influence of drugs and to leave quietly rather than carrying this darkness internally.

We are faced with a huge problem that we lack the desire and ability to solve. Only Kabbalah gives an answer to this problem. However, until people don’t become completely disappointed, they won’t hear us out.  We must be ready to present them with the Kabbalistic wisdom in a way they can understand. It should become clear that only we have the answer, and the answer is only to reach the infinite, eternal, perfect existence, which is not concentrated in our body, but among us, in the sense of our own “I.”

My body, the animal substance, dies after some time; however, the human being in me is forever. So I need to separate the “I” from what I now consider myself, pull it out, isolate it from my body, and start raising, nurturing, and shaping it. This is the human being in me that I must realize.

Question: If a person is on this path, will his depression fade?

Answer: Yes, but other problems will certainly start to appear because a person has to develop himself. However, they all will end up breaking away from their animal. After rising above the body, the person will remain there for eternity and in perfection. The wisdom of Kabbalah provides a real answer that is realized by ourselves in our world and inside us. Here we do not depend on anyone and no one can restrict us! This is our freewill. To realize this we don’t need any special tools; everything is in our hands.
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From KabTV’s “Short Stories” 10/23/14

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Lateral Movement

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we determine that we can move on to the next spiritual level?

Answer: When you feel that you have no more powers to develop and have exhausted them on the current level, but have not yet reached the goal, it is a sign that you lack the next level.

In other words, we reach a certain state in our spiritual development in which we run out of powers to attain an inner level or to just remain on the same level today that we were on yesterday and to remain tomorrow on the level we are today. We run out of fuel! Then we begin to advance laterally. This is called self-movement, using your freewill.

The purpose of lateral movement is to connect all the people in the world into one whole, one desire, and one network that will be based totally on the good, mutual connection between people. Then the Creator, the attribute of love and bestowal, will be revealed in this network.

By this network we will transcend to a new level of existence and change our feeling of the world and our perspective.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/26/14

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The Children Of The Universe, Part 7

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe vast development of humanity doesn’t pay attention to the universe, and yet it is the place where we can find our roots. ​I​n the enormous open spaces of the universe, we would find the power, clumps of other types of matter, anti-matter, and so on.

It is clear that humans explore the universe, but do not give their research enough weight because they are certain that our future depends on who is stronger, wealthier, or more powerful. Our advancement doesn’t aim at understanding nature in its full revelation, nor does it encourage the acknowledgement of our deficiencies.

I assume the universe is  complete bestowal and that the force of bestowal created and arranged everything that exists. Finally, by combining certain forces, bestowal generated the inanimate, vegetative, animate and speaking levels of nature.

The universe keeps developing matter towards a special, qualitatively new level at which the matter suddenly questions itself about the force that launched it: “Where do we come from? Who are we?”

We know that the thought behind any action is in the result for which the action was meant. We react to the result; however, we never pay enough attention, nor do we ever allocate enough energy to clarify what exactly is influencing us.

On the other hand, we recognize that we are the outcome of this force’s activity. While exploring human nature, we clearly see that we don’t possess any free choice nor do we enjoy freedom of actions. We are preconditioned by our genes, instincts, calculations on profits and losses using primitive formulas.

Here is the problem: How can we possibly explore the universe, its progress and the processes we undergo if we devote all our energy to other things?

One of my students works at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. He told me that at first, there were endless debates about whether or not it was good to start such a tremendous and expensive project. However, the cost of the Collider is equivalent to the cost of keeping American troops in Afghanistan for one week.

So, it is obvious that we don’t apply sufficient effort to exploring nature. I am really sorry for this state of affairs. If we knew nature well enough and spread the knowledge to ​the masses better than we do today, we would recognize our deficiencies. We would discover the lack of new properties: the ones of bestowal.

Then, besides the will to receive that we already have, we would also obtain the power of bestowal that would allow us to explore nature from a new angle.
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From the program “A New Life” 3/02/14

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The 600,000 Faces Of The Common Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Upper Light, the Creator, made a desire, “something out of nothing,” that is completely opposite to Him. This desire is the only creation that was ever made.

Later, the desire expanded under the influence of the Light and at some point started acting on its own. It aspired to become similar to the Light and considered the Light to be a remedy for achieving this goal through the act of accepting the Light for the sake of bestowal to the very best of the desire’s ability.

The desire is called the soul (Neshama). The maximum amount of Light that the desire can receive for the sake of bestowal is called Nefesh–Ruach–Neshama. The desire cannot receive other Lights, as yet. Only later, at the end of correction, the Lights of Haya and Yechida will enter the desire. Now, the desire is called Neshama, as it bears the name of the maximum Light that it can accommodate.

It means that all of us represent one soul, one desire. In order to make this single desire act independently and acquire similarity with the Creator, it was shattered into many pieces. In essence, it is still the same common desire, but now it perceives itself as being broken into 600,000 splinters. We regard ourselves as one of the fragments of the common desire.

The pieces of the desire continued to splinter to the extent that each creation in this world bears a tiny particle that once constituted a big vessel. Our goal is to get people voluntarily to reconnect all the elements.

When connected, each of the fragments, every single person, feels as one common soul. Each one merges with the rest of the 599,999 particles, thus the entire structure to a full 600,000 is obtained. Through our relations with the rest of the particles, each one of us builds one’s general soul out of 600,000 pieces.

It applies to everybody who merges with other pieces or splinters, followed by one more fragment and then another. So, when we all reconnect, we recreate our soul and together we constitute just one common desire.

By reattaching, we reach a state when we constitute one vessel. Each of us has to correct ourselves completely, i.e., merge with the rest of the pieces. So far, we are trying to connect in tens, but in fact. the same approach applies to the entire vessel, all souls, all of creation, every single person in this world, to those who lived before us and to those who are not yet born and who will show up later, after us. It doesn’t matter when.

All of them are parts of one soul because we connect to them in accordance with our personal qualities. If each of us connects to the rest of the 600,000 parts, we’ll recreate the original unique soul. Each one of us connects with others in a way that nobody else can and every person merges with others in a way that no other particle can do in the same fashion. This is why each one of us is so important!

During the process of linking with each other, we have to constantly keep in mind that even though at this time we merge with a small ten, we still are preparing to bond with the rest of creation through our tens. This is called one soul.

If we act within our group of ten with this intention, it will be sufficient for attaining the revelation of the common soul within this group.
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From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/01/14, lesson 4

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So Time Doesn’t Slip Through Your Fingers

laitman_423_02Question: In our time, most people feel that time seemingly slips through their fingers. We deal with urgent, pressing matters, and the most important we leave for later. How can we use time to realize every minute optimally? Is there a concept of a “waste of time”?

Answer: Of course! But everything is relative. Humanity has been evolving throughout history for many thousands of years. The question is: Can I grow faster than my generation, accelerate time as if I jump over decades? If not, then can I successfully realize time in my generation?

I live in the time period in which I was born. Can I use this time most effectively? And what does it mean “most effectively”?

Suppose, I can fill my life by satisfying the basic desires—for food, sex, family, wealth, fame, and knowledge—inherent in every person in a certain combination, depending on what importance he attaches to each of them. This combination of six desires, defining the purpose in life, makes us different from each other.

But if we talk about the realization of my general desire in which, for example, 10% of the desire is for food, 20% – for sex, 10% – for family, 20% – for wealth, 40% – for power and knowledge, the question arises whether I stay in the same desires I was born with? We see we don’t. My aspirations depend on the society I am in, on the measure of its influence on me.

I can use my properties, inclinations, and desires according to the environment. That is, the environment influences the way in which I will use all my inclinations to achieve pleasure. Indeed, the desires for food, sex, family, wealth, honor, and knowledge are the sources of pleasure with which I want to fulfill myself. In essence, I am the desire to enjoy.

The question is how the society I exist in affects me. The surroundings can suddenly increase my desire for science, power, or money and food, sex, and the family will lose their former importance to me, and I will use them only in order to achieve fame or power. And it may happen the opposite way.

It depends how a person realizes himself in society. Although his natural inclinations are very important and over time they still direct a person to a certain niche, peculiar to him.

But there is always a struggle between the individual and society. The individual wants to realize himself as much as possible with the help of society, and the society wants to absorb the identity and use it for its own benefit as much as possible and not take into account the personalities at all. After all, the person does not have intrinsic value to society; it only matters how they are integrated in it.

If I want to manage my time, I should be developed as much as possible both in personal and social terms because only in connection between them or on their border will I find my optimal self-realization.

After all, I should feel where society is heading, what its goal is, where I am directed according to my natural inclinations, what the goal would be if I could change the entire world for my own benefit, what could be in the connection between me and society, and how I realize myself with the help of society, in which I exists.

This means that I am going to manage the time of my life, to realize it in the most effective manner.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/22/14

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The Guest List Cannot Be Revised

laitman_281_02Baal HaSulam, “The Peace”: From the beginning of Creation, all people have reservations, and the Thought of the Creator necessitates them to come to the feast, knowingly or unknowingly.

This plan certainly will be fulfilled, and it is all a matter of time. After all, the evil forces we develop return to us like a boomerang, pressuring us and bringing us to the right decisions.

The goal will be obtained one way or the other, and we actually are bringing it closer by using our developing ego incorrectly so that eventually it acts against us, forcing us to respond.

On the whole, until recently, the process of evolution was good for us. We developed new tools, introduced competition, built a banking system, developed commerce, discovered continents, and basically, everything was just fine since it helped us advance.

However, in the 20th century, we exhausted this form of development and for the first time began to see that there is a limit to our advancement. We found ourselves at a dead end. We have exhausted our ego and today it is beginning to destroy itself. We have seen clear signs for that for a while now. In 1971 for example, the gold coin in the US was replaced by a paper note. The eruption of the ego had many consequences, but the main lesson was that future problems will force us to change our lifestyle, the formula of human existence.

The question is whether blows will force us to grow wiser and to understand how to avoid problems along the way, or whether we will be able to identify what is coming in advance and begin to change ourselves.

Slow evolution will lead to totalitarian forms of government like in Germany or Soviet Russia in the first half of the last century. These are the two ultimate forms of the ego’s development, and we may be witnessing them again. What is more, this is exactly what we are advancing toward; however, today, it is called “Armageddon,”or we can force ourselves artificially against our growing ego to develop the good, anti-egoistic force of bestowal instead of the force of receiving between us.

So, let’s develop this way. This is actually what Kabbalists tell us: use the force concealed in nature. It can dominate us just as our ego dominates us today. So far, the evil force has dominated the good force, receiving dominated bestowal. However, now, the force of bestowal can dominate the force of receiving. This means that they will be balanced just as the wisdom of Kabbalah explains and teaches us how to understand the balance between them. After all, it is impossible to use only one of the two forces. The force of bestowal, absolute love, can be a destructive force. Generally speaking, each of the forces blinds a person, and he doesn’t see anything before him. If we accept one force only, we will be captives of that force. Only the right balance of the two forces we find inside us is called the Adam (Man) in us. It brings us to the realization and to the true feeling, to receiving and to bestowal, that allows us to use all of nature and build ourselves in the middle of these two forces.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, there is no other way that we can develop. In the worst case, we will reach it through blows and sufferings. However, the blows will not create the right form in us. We must make the choice by ourselves, make decisions, and gradually establish it inside us so that we will grow wise and understand the connection between us and the Creator through our efforts to build our home, the Divinity (Shechina).

However, we are like a stubborn kid who refuses to learn, and so the troubles come: the disciplinary measures that force him to begin learning. If he would learn from his books, there would be no need for the blows. On the contrary, he could save time and avoid the sufferings.

It is actually impossible to advance on the path of “in its time” (Beito) since then you stay in the same place without moving, like a donkey, until you are beaten and have no other choice.

Baal HaSulam says that the guests will come to the feast knowingly and unknowingly, so we should listen to him.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Dr. Michael LaitmanThe difference between a person and a cat is that a cat doesn’t make mistakes because it is connected to nature, with the force that moves it called nature or the Creator. This is the power of the overall system that manages the cat and shows it how to behave at each and every moment.

So a cat never makes a mistake. It doesn’t even think about what it is doing; it only acts and that’s it. It is constantly managed by the system, and so every one of its jumps are precisely calculated. A cat acts like a perfect machine.

A person, unlike a cat, is not a perfect machine. On the contrary, he doesn’t know how to act and constantly makes mistakes. Even though he has received additional senses and intelligence in comparison to other animals, he is not managed by nature.

This is called his freedom of choice, which determines how he uses his human emotion and intelligence. And if he doesn’t take the entire general system into account, he always activates his intelligence incorrectly and harms himself. After all, his ego causes him to err.

If we intentionally don’t learn how to use our intelligence correctly, we always harm ourselves. The proof for this is in the entire history of the human race that has gone on for thousands of years, yet development isn’t good and beautiful anywhere. It is accompanied by wars and problems, searches and disappointments, and failure is followed by failure. We try to do things for the best, but things only become worse.

The time has come to say, “Enough!, We are tired of all of these failures, the hatred, the problems in the family.” One by one, families fall apart, since in our development, we have reached the recognition of evil.

This is no longer just the miserable life that we lived before when nature pushed us to development through blows. In our time we have reached a level of intelligence and feelings by which we can see we have been developing by suffering that is only increasing. We are talking about a third world war. So, are we unable to stop it?

Modern man no longer wants anything from life except drugs or antidepressants. He doesn’t want to start a family and bring children into the world. He doesn’t want to take any responsibility. In this situation, we come to the month of Elul, to repentance. But this means that the solution to this bad situation is already illuminating us and redemption is near. We are ready to stop this flawed development, this negative trend. We have had enough suffering!

This is the sum total of the month of Elul, our decision to develop in a new form from now on. It means that we decide to reach balance with nature, to approach the higher power through establishing new rules of behavior based upon, “and you shall love your friend as yourself.” In this way, we reach balance with nature and become like the higher power.

Human society must reach full mutual support so that by itself, it will control that additional intelligence and feeling that has raised us above the level of the animal, prevented us from balance with nature and took us outside of the realm of its control. This means that we must arrange our reason and feeling through connection, unity, and love between us.

In this way we complete ourselves on the level of Adam (man) and make the entire system homogeneous, integral, connected, united, and completely mutually dependent, like everything else in nature. This is called love.

We don’t understand what love is. Love is to be in partnership, in the right connection with all the rest of the parts of nature. You feel them and do what they need and they feel you and do what you need, like a healthy body in which all of the organs are in a mutual connection such as this.

The understanding that we must reach such a connection is called the month of Elul, repentance.

Question: So what is it necessary to think in a time like the month of Elul, in order to change life into a better life?

Answer: In our world, only the good connection between people is missing. There is full abundance, but everyone suffers because of their intolerable character. We must correct this, and we have the opportunity to do so.

If we direct ourselves towards correction, it would be a wonderful result of the self-criticism that we do in the month of Elul. So we truly advance according to its name: Elul, meaning,  “Ani LeDodi VeDodi Li” – “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine,”(“Song of Songs” 6:3).
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From KabTV’s“ A New Life” 9/14/14

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