Entries in the 'Free Will' Category

Growing Up “Against Our Will”

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: We must know that the above-mentioned law of development, which is spread over the whole of reality, is guaranteed to return all evil to good and useful acts through the power of the Government of Heaven Above, meaning without asking permission from the people who inhabit the earth. However, the Creator placed knowledge and authority in the hands of man and permitted him to accept the above-mentioned law of development under his own authority and government, and handed him the ability to hasten the process of development as he wishes, freely and completely independent of the boundaries of time.

Representatives of the still, vegetative, and animate nature are unable to change the law of development, but we can do this, we can “take it into our own hands,” i.e., use it for acceleration. We have the ability to slightly change its action, to get out from under the total control of nature with its indispensable imperatives to get involved with the management through our efforts. Due to this, our development will continue, firstly, faster and secondly, in a more pleasant way.

As a rule, the force that develops us is cruel. It is called the “press” or “roller” of development and it leads us forward only by suffering. Our desire is drawn to pleasure and ideally strives for bliss which requires no actions. Fulfilling the desire, pleasure “paralyzes” it, immobilizes it; we see this sometimes in young children. Filled to the top, I become still, freeze, feeling no need for any movement. That is why we need troubles and suffering that will spur us to move us from the spot and develop us further, to force us to move faster.

As a consequence, the force of development appears to us as bad, negative, and we run from it to where we can see the positive, the good. Moreover, we always run in the direction opposite from where we got the blow. Thus, we “automatically” pass the still, vegetative, and animate stages of development, as well as their equivalents on the human degree, not knowing and not feeling that we are driven by the law that can be used.

But in the end, we find the “human in ourselves” who wants and can effect what is happening. He looks for means of self-development, the advancement of self. He finds out what his purpose is, what he lives for; he asks questions about the meaning of life with the purpose to find the force of development, to learn the law of development and use it for his benefit, i.e., for the realization of the goal.

As for our relations with other people, as well as the still, vegetative, and animate nature, we must bring them benefit as well based on our development, meaning to include them in the good development that we will reach.

Not everyone is able to accelerate the process. The majority simply follow their nature. We are talking about development and development is always contrary to our nature, always goes with efforts, through force, under pressure, with pain. It is always opposed to the egoistic desire, which only wants to enjoy the current state.

Thus, if Israel are rewarded and take the law of development that their bad attributes must go through in order to invert them into good ones, they will bring it under their own government. In other words, they will set their minds and hearts to correct all the bad attributes in them and turn them into good ones by themselves. Then, “I will hasten it,” meaning they will be completely freed from the chains of time.

There is a point on the path from which the person receives an impulse, the realized need for development. He wants to know why and for what he lives on the Earth and then he comes to the means that is called the “wisdom of Kabbalah.” This means allows him to develop himself without being dependent on the limitations of time by the path of acceleration.

If a person, for whatever reason is lazy, shies away from this opportunity, then his path lies somewhere in the middle between time and acceleration.

That is why we must strengthen the group and always make calculations between them: to what extent is acceleration in our hands? Ideally, we should fully control it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”

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A Soul In Search Of Choice

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The upper world is composed of 125 levels of attainment. What happens with the soul if it rises to the fifth level, for example, does it have a free choice to advance further or to remain at this level?

Answer: Free choice doesn’t exist anywhere or in anything except regarding one and only one activity: strengthening the connection with the group.

Free choice is only in this. For if you don’t hold onto the connection with the group, then that power that you need to awaken in yourself in a good form to advance forward will constantly push you back through negative influence, through suffering. If you begin to flee from these sufferings, but not from your desire, rather against your will, then you advance like the rest of humanity. But if you understand that it is necessary to rise in spite of it all, then you must connect with the group.

There is no other free choice  in the world besides this choice. All humans on the face of the earth are enslaved and lack free choice. It is impossible to do anything in your present, past, or future if you don’t begin to change your fate with the help of the group and not choose going forward with an individual yearning instead of the stick that is pushing you from behind.

Therefore, the way for everyone is the same, but if you grasp this as desirable and pass through all the inner changes from your own free will, then you will begin to be changed from egoism to altruism. And if not, then nature will obligate you to change through great suffering that will eventually break you and you will agree to do everything yourself.

Question: So if a person doesn’t feel happy about his involvement with spiritual work, this is a sign that he is doing something incorrectly?

Answer: This is saying that he is not advancing. It is possible to advance only through happiness. Forward movement represents my preference for the characteristic of bestowal instead of the characteristic of reception, the characteristic of love instead of the characteristic of hatred. How is this possible if you are not happy with your choice? There cannot be anything like this. It is a sign that there is still no choice.
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From the Convention In Krasnoyarsk Day One 6/14/13, Lesson 2

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Choosing Between Two Extremes

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Every evolutionary process is a cycle: There is a beginning, a climax, and an end. Don’t you feel that the evolution of civilization is coming to an end in the egoistic feeling?

Answer: Today we have returned to Mesopotamia! Once again we are in ancient Babylon. Only this Babylon now covers the entire globe. That ancient Babylon, a civilization of three million people, has grown to seven billion. We are back in the place we escaped from, which means in the same crisis that the ancient Babylonians went through. This is exactly what Kabbalists predicted.

Question: But the people in ancient Babylon did manage to exit the ego?

Answer: They did not overcome the crisis but solved it in a different way. They drew away from one another and dispersed all over the earth, which we cannot do.

If we don’t solve the crisis we are in by using the wisdom of Kabbalah, the only thing we will be able to resort to will be war, there is no other way. It’s our only point of freewill, we will either be able to bring people to our method before they start a war or they are about to experience the path of sufferings; there is no other way.

Nature is not cyclic, it has never been and will never be; it doesn’t develop that way. We see it in the still, vegetative, and animate nature; we see it in space. If a certain body revolves around another body, it doesn’t mean that it is a cycle but that it moves forward. Just like the backward and forward movement of a wheel moves forward.

Nature doesn’t need cyclicality. If we say that nature is conscious, wise, and that it created us and it is clear that the program that manages us is much wiser than us, then cyclicality is corruption, lack of purpose, and absolutely inconclusive.

Kabbalists started writing since the days of Adam. He was the first Kabbalist who discovered the spiritual world 5,770 years ago and who wrote about it in the book The Angel Ratziel. Since then everything that Kabbalists prophesied was accurately fulfilled. Therefore, I see no reason that this is going to change.

A person who studies Kabbalah begins to see its laws since it’s just like physics: There are two forces, two vectors that are balanced by a third force, a Masach (screen), and there is nothing but that. This is what the work of all the systems is based on, of all the different mechanisms in still nature, the living cells, in an organism that is a collection of cells, and so on all the way to human society, a collection of egoists. All are governed by the same laws that are elucidated with minute precision.

A Kabbalist who studies the laws of nature actually experiences these states. Thus he goes through what humanity has not gone through yet and can write about it for humanity and teach it. Otherwise, he has no reason to do so.

We begin to study Kabbalah from the level of the world of Ein Sof (Infinity) from where one force descends, the positive force of bestowal, and then thanks to it, a second force is created, the negative force of receiving, the desire. Then we study about the development of these two forces, about the four phases of the direct Light, and about its descent into our world.

By the way, the Torah only describes the world of Atzilut, the world of correction and not what preceded it. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” which means that Bina of the world of Atzilut generates the system of ZON (Zeir Anpin and Malchut). It is the uppermost level in the Torah. In fact in Kabbalah we learn about higher Sefirot.

When we study these laws, we see that they are fulfilled everywhere without exception. Corporeal nature is a result of these laws. It is transparent and we see how it all moves, grows, and develops; we see how these two forces cooperate and generate the still nature, the vegetative, the animate, and the “speaking”; we see what generates every small movement in our world. Therefore there can be no guess work here.

The main thing is that the freewill that humanity in ancient Babylon had still exists today. But it is relative freewill. If you don’t want to use it and to advance along the good and conscious way, it means that more sufferings should be added so you will understand the need to develop in a positive way. Otherwise you may come to a nuclear world war.

After all, no matter what we say, the sufferings have an educational role, although we are in continuous regression. We regressed when we were egoists, but now there is nowhere to return to, so a war will be a most serious addition that will help us understand the way things really are, but it’s very undesirable.
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From 1st Preparation for the Convention in Krasnoyarsk 6/13/13

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With The Friends Under The “Sukkah Of Peace”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is so special about the love of friends that allows me to cover all sins?

Answer: Love of friends covers all sins. After all, if we work on connecting our sparks in the group, then all the other desires surrender to the Light of love despite the fact that they are so opposite from one another to the extent that they actually hate one another. This Light operates on us from above, from the upper level, when it covers us with one blanket, one umbrella, a Sukkah of peace, and obligates all of us to unite, although internally we remain very different.

Question: Do I choose the friend once or anew every day?

Answer: I don’t choose according to corporeal criteria. In the meantime we don’t know why we have been brought into one group from above, he and I. It depends on the root of the soul, on the sentence of the souls, which we will learn about later. But because we are in a group we have to fulfill our freewill and to connect into one system, one group.

Choosing a friend means being loyal to him despite the repulsion and the doubts. I shouldn’t feel any difference between him and me. Every moment the thought and the desire change in me, I have to choose him in the exact same manner, I examine myself and him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/13, Writings of Rabash

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The First Cell Of A New Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanNature has made a dog instinctively connected to its owner. It feels that its life depends on the owner, and so it annuls itself before him. We, too, should annul ourselves, not instinctively, but by our own freewill by making our own decision, by working against our ego that doesn’t exist in animals, in order to attain the same correct loyalty and self-annulment without any preconditions, just because the upper is my source of life.

We must learn from nature, but there it happens by itself while we must work hard. There are such difficult states that we simply cannot accept this, and that confuses us and erases all our efforts.

This “dog’s loyalty” is not that different from the way a person must subdue himself before the group and it is much less than the loyalty we should feel toward the Creator. All our study and all our work are meant for that, for stabilizing the necessary vessels in us through which we can contact the Creator. We need them so we will have something with which to come to Him.

This is all given to us for our preparation: a teacher, a group, the world, the study, the dissemination—everything that we can think of—and it is all in order to create the first cell by which you adhere to the Creator. It is like a cone. You perform many actions below, and you only reach one point of adhesion with the Creator above when you really enter the womb with the drop of semen.

The First Cell Of A New Life_1
According to the spiritual ladder you perform a great deal of actions below, billions of actions that eventually turn into one action at the top of the ladder, and in this one action, you come in contact with the Creator. You turn a great number of actions into one small, qualitative action with regard to the Creator.

This is the only thing that allows us to reach Him. See how many actions a small child does until he can perform one rational action. See how hard he works at running around until he finally manages to do something meaningful where the mind, the feeling, and the motion become one whole.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/13, The Zohar

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A Desire Independent Of Anything

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”: And you evidently find that the giving of the Torah had to be delayed until they came out of Egypt and became a nation of their own, so that all their needs were provided for by themselves, without dependence on others. This qualified them to receive the above Arvut, and then they were given the Torah.

Freewill is required to be independent of anything and I must feel it as mine. It is a desire that requires me to be connected with others, but not for achievements and other such results as happens with a commando, sports teams, and so forth. I want to be linked with others to discover the higher force. I require a precise and clear desire to discover mutual bestowal and mutual love of friends so that the Creator will be revealed among us and in this form, we will feel that we are giving Him satisfaction.

All this is “depicted” and realized between us specifically if we really have this as a deficiency. This comes not from someone on the outside. No one forces me about anything. I have no personal benefit. It is only for the common good.

What we want is that through love of the people, we reach love of the Creator. This desire will bring us to “reception of the Torah.” In other words, we have an opportunity to realize this, not all at once, but gradually, of course. I discover this need more and more clearly. I get the power to develop it. Accordingly, through my link with the group, the Creator is discovered in its center. This is how we advance.

Question: How can a desire be independent of anything?

Answer: The idea is that I choose the way by myself. It is not just that the reception of Torah is delayed until the “departure from Egypt.” I was always dominated by an ego that is unaware of the spiritual world. This is not about slavery to a landlord; it is not about working from dawn to dusk to provide food for my family. In that, I am not free. Rather, I must be free in my desire to choose the right way. Pharaoh still holds me, is still revealed during the exile in the wilderness, but I already have the power to be directed toward the Creator, toward bestowal, and my desire is free.

How can this be? Have I corrected myself already? How is it possible to be free of the ego? However, in spite of all this, my desire to be directed toward the Creator in the right way is truly independent.

Question: On what does the strength of this desire depend? There are people in whom it burns, and there are those in whom it barely simmers.

Answer: Of course, awakening comes from above, and the question is, will the person realize this with the right choice? The right choice is really the right environment, a group of friends. As long as I have not entered a group, the Creator chooses for me, like we choose for an infant what he needs to eat and what he will do. However, as a child matures, we leave a little room for him, allow him to choose games, offer him the choice of an omelet or porridge. We understand that individuality is awakened in him according to his degree of maturity.

Also, on the spiritual path, according to the degree of maturity, a more conscious choice is formed. They give him this choice very simply: through adding some evil, a bad feeling. As it is written, “I created the evil inclination.” The Creator says, “If you want, I will transform it into good. You only need to ask for it.” So, it follows that, for me, the question is, should I ask Him or shouldn’t I?

In general, the higher power controls everything. All the evil forces, all the disturbances, all the external factors, everything is in His hands. All good states, all the forces of Light, also come from Him. I stand in the middle. For me, the main thing is to understand that I am linked with the higher power, and It controls me, embraces, and encloses me on all sides. So how, in all the states with which He confuses me, will I be able to want the connection with Him?

The problem is found at the edge of my perception, at the threshold of my consciousness. If I feel a faint pain, I can agree that it comes from the Creator and stimulates me to turn to Him. It is said that the Creator is “jealous.” It seems that He is jealous if I turn my attention to someone else. The moment that I forget about Him, He immediately reminds me about Himself, giving me an opportunity to choose.

So, here, there is a need to understand where to find the boundary of separation: What kind of pain or what kind of pleasure must I feel to be separated from the Creator? With this, the human being in me is measured. How much I will put the restriction and the screen on myself so that nothing will separate us?
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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What Was Man Created For?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Lately, rich people give up their money for the benefit of society. The fact that they benefit from that is irrelevant. They still think that if they build another hospital or school in Africa, they will benefit society. Even my African relatives who live in Europe say that it won’t help unless we force the Africans to work, but the Africans don’t want to work.

Answer: We have actually prevented them from doing so. In the past Africa used to produce and export different products, but our incorrect attitude towards this continent changed everything.

Question: What will the six billion people on this planet do? We invent work for people just to keep them busy. Was this complex world created so that a person should wake up in the morning, ride over-crowded public transportation, reach an office or a factory, perform mechanical actions, come back home, and thus keep on doing this for the rest of his life until he dies?

Answer: We have turned ourselves into slaves. But now our perception is changing. Man was created to do a totally different kind of work—to work on himself and not to work in production.

We all understand that one percent of the population can provide for the rest of the world whatever is needed to sustain a sensible life, a home, family, health care, and all the rest. One percent at the most, and soon this will also be replaced by automated machines and computers that will produce practically everything.

Man, however, will only engage in regulating the two forces of nature, the force of receiving and the force of bestowal in which we have to exist. We have to develop the force of bestowal in us next to the force of receiving and aspire to balance them.

Implementing the integral education system in factories and schools will mean that after a couple of lessons a person will begin to understand that the world is totally different, that a person doesn’t have to be in control, go to work, work for a whole day, come back home, go to bed, and thus over and over again. He will suddenly understand that this is not his destiny and that it will never help anyone.

It turns out that there is a method that raises us to the next level, and if we don’t reach it out of our freewill, nature will push us in this direction.
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From KabTV’s “The Global Crisis” 3/19/13

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What Can We Expect When We Are Blindfolded?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why do we speak so little about good things and so much about problems and hardships that we encounter along the spiritual path?

Answer: I think that the problems we encounter are a good thing. In our case, we wouldn’t turn to find the Creator if it weren’t for these “troubles” as we call them.

I feel that such troubles are sweet since otherwise my “animal” would never turn in the Creator’s direction. They can indeed scare me and worry me and can even be a threat to my life, but it all comes in order to direct me to Him.

If so, what is wrong with that? Your corporeal body is what experiences the unpleasant feelings, so don’t identify with it, start forming the human being in you that “rides” the corporeal animal.

On the whole, the spiritual world is based on overcoming the evil inclination. It’s impossible to escape from it. Humanity has tried to do so throughout history with the help of various religions, beliefs, social structures, law codex, science and technology.

All this was actually an attempt to escape, a search for other means to improve our lives and abandon the path to the Creator. But these means bring about an even greater flaw, and eventually we will be left with nothing. For example, a few days ago the UN recommended using insects for food in order to fight hunger. Here it is—the future of the world….

In short, only by the revelation of evil can we be directed towards the goal since this is how we can choose what to consider as evil.  I may feel bad when my self love “complains” out of discomfort, or I may feel bad since I haven’t acquired my soul yet, the connection with others, and with the Creator as part of it. This is exactly where our free will lies.

It’s impossible to escape that, no matter what arguments you bring. The upper Providence operates without asking for my consent. Now I have to accept it and later I will understand it.

In any case spirituality is built on the corrupt desire for pleasure. So we cannot avoid speaking about it; after all, it is said: “I have created the evil inclination.”  “Torah,” meaning the method of correction, is needed exactly for this reason and this is precisely when a little bit of evil is revealed between us, when we already want to unite, but still don’t know: in what form, in what principle, that will “glue” us together, and how to fulfill this unity.

Thus we demand the Torah manifested in opposition to the evil that is revealed, but it is “sweet” evil. We begin to understand that we don’t have the power to face it by ourselves, that we need the help of the upper force, and that the evil is in the tear of the connection between us. We simply must; we want to strive to connect, “as one man in one heart.” We may call what is happening “evil,” but in fact it isn’t evil at all, it’s the oppositeness of the Creator, His “posterior.” It’s all Him.

This means that we don’t struggle between the grips of evil and the Creator at all, since I feel that the good and the bad are both Him and are the faces of His attitude. A father also sometimes smiles at his son and sometimes gives him a tough look thus evoking different reactions in the child as he forms his perception.

Question: Still, on the one hand, I am shown the negative side, and on the other hand, I am not shown what I will receive at the end….

Answer: You will pass the breaking point, the shattering, as a result of which you will suddenly feel pleasure in bestowal. The Light will come and awaken you to love others. Then you will bestow upon them and will feel infinite pleasure.

After all, it’s your ego that limits you and that is stopping you by saying: “This is as far as you can go and not further than that.” You struggle with it in order to expand the limits of bestowal. If there were no ego, you would engage in bestowal in the same manner that you engage in receiving now, simply because you find that bestowal is pleasant.

So to make sure that it is real love and that it’s not artificial, it’s built on the desire to receive, so that you can be neutral, free of receiving and of bestowal. Then you actually work, you actually control the filling of all of humanity and you perform the Creator’s mission, taking nothing for yourself, having no contact with the negativity that you have to escape from or the positivity that could bring you pleasure. This is the moment of eternity in a person, the midpoint on the scale of good and evil.

Question: What does it mean “to bring us pleasure?”

Answer: It’s a different meaning, a new one. I choose the pleasure so that it will not depend on me and I will not depend on it.

It’s impossible to explain, to illustrate, or to draw. It’s about a feeling, and if you try to touch it with your current mind, it’s the wrong approach. After all, you don’t allow your heart to open wide.

It isn’t by chance that we speak about a game as the major tool for our advancement. If you put yourself out of the game, then you are left only with complaints. You can diminish the value of everything in life by a disrespectful attitude, and what’s next?

We need to unite, and in order to do that we work in groups. Why groups? Because this is how we allow the Light to influence us at least a little. We may underestimate the connection between the friends and what it can draw. But by our mutual efforts, we give it importance and appeal, and again prompt drawing a bit of Light that Reforms by that.

Who actually needs bestowal? No one. But yet, we speak about it and the Surrounding Light responds to that, and is ready to accept our “lie.”

This is how we develop and there is no other way. It’s always from an egoistic state of Lo Lishma (not for its own sake) that we reach the altruistic intention of Lishma (for its own sake).  It’s impossible to form the created being in any other way.

As for the complaints, the ego always plays the role of the accuser, but the sufferings will eventually break it. You will not be able to dictate your conditions to the Creator. He aggravates you on purpose in order to spur you on and there is only one answer for that: to subdue yourself before the group.

You must understand that your ego is totally “square” and that you will achieve nothing by its help. As long as you look at reality through the prism of self-love you will see nothing. All the worlds are concealed from you; the upper Providence system is out of your sight. What can  be opened for you if your ego filters all His calls? Can you claim the demonstration of anything when in front of you is an impervious blindfold?

This is why Kabbalists give us advice about how to act in this state. If we don’t use their advice, the troubles will help us grow wise.

There is no point in feeling resentment that something is concealed from you. You have no means to see the truth; it’s only in unity that we can see the Creator’s leadership and to be aware of what is going on.

But it’s on condition that this understanding and this feeling will not throw you off track. After all, when you finally get this chance, you will actually not want to feel and understand in order to avoid a “bribe.”

You will say to the Creator, “Don’t reveal anything to me.” Otherwise I will lose my free will and will turn into an “angel” and descend to the “animal” level. I would rather be a human being that struggles and makes mistakes than a “holy animal” that has no free will at all. Only on the human level can I express my attitude and only there do I exist.

You will want to place Masachim (screens) over the Light, fearing that you will not resist its temptations. After all, the guards that don’t let you get into the King’s palace keep you away not by sufferings but by blows of abundance which are much stronger and are revealed to you as love that drives you crazy. It’s much more difficult to put a Masach over it than over the troubles of the evil inclination.

Today it actually helps you in contacting the Creator. The sufferings focus you on the goal. Therefore, it says, that Pharaoh brings the children of Israel closer to the Creator. Then there will be other obstacles and I will understand your complaints. After all, the blows of the Light are much harder. But no matter what happens, you will always want the struggle between these two opposite forces since only between them can you determine your independence.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/13, The Zohar – Introduction

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From The Bottom Of The Mountain To The Top

Dr. Michael LaitmanRabash, “What is the Preparation for the Receiving of the Torah”: As for the Lord, it says “and the Lord descended upon Mt. Sinai, at the top of the mountain.” And as for the people, it says “and they gathered at the bottom of the mountain.” And we should understand what a “mountain” means. A “mountain” (Har) originates from the word “doubts” (Hirurim), which is a person’s mind.

If we accept this message in our mind, it means that the Creator is at the top of the mountain, meaning that He operates that way and we feel and agree that we have no choice and that we must receive the Torah. It’s because after we understand that the evil inclination prepares us for burial, we must receive the Torah, to be saved from death, from this doomed life.

So where is our free will if we are naturally forced to receive the Torah? The evil inclination itself, which is our desire to enjoy this life, leaves us to this choice. But is this called receiving?

So when we gather at the foot of the mountain and discover our evil inclination, and opposite to it we reveal the Torah, it’s a start. We clearly understand that we begin to live under these conditions. Now as the evil inclination is revealed in every step we make, we have to decide: Why has it been revealed, why do I need it, and how can it be corrected by using the evil inclination and the Torah that was given for its correction correctly? Can we ascend to the Creator’s level, to the top of the mountain?

This is the preparation for the receiving of the Torah, but it’s only the preparation and not its fulfillment yet. Here we still act out of necessity: There is such a revelation that doesn’t leave us much choice. We see that we have an evil inclination and a means to correct it, the Torah, and if we refuse to accept it, this will be our burial place. Otherwise we have no chance of being saved from this life, which is worse than death, and so of course, a person accepts the condition he is given.

Free will appears later with every step a person makes along the way, when we begin to fulfill the Torah during the forty years in the desert. All these years of wandering are already the real levels of the receiving of the Torah, by which we rise higher and higher, until we reach the top of the mountain.
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From the preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/13

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Welcome To The Eternal Cruise

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam says in the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” that if the society cares about each of its members, it can neutralize a person’s egoistic desire. 

Suppose I go on a “everything’s included” pleasure cruise, feeling carefree since the service actually includes everything I can think of. I settle down in my cabin getting ready to spend two weeks of sheer pleasure. However, as we set off, I am told that this is going to be a eternal cruise. So, I live, and everything is prepared for me: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are  served right on schedule; my cabin is always made; there is a library, a cinema, the Internet, a swimming pool, and so on. Everything is at my service.

In addition to that, everyone treats me nicely and is very attentive, and there is nothing to worry about. The people around me are ready to help me at any time and in any way. These are the social principles on this boat, and they apply to everyone without exception.

So, how will my nature react to that? Is it possible for the ego to erupt under such conditions? The people around me teach me to annul myself by their attitude toward me, and I don’t look for ways to fill and satisfy myself anymore.

For example, I don’t wander in pubs and restaurants in search for delicacies that I haven’t tasted yet, but rather feel satisfied with simple healthy food. Luxuries don’t excite me like before. There, a buffet of desserts is open daily, and it quickly curbs my demands. After a couple of days, I already restrict my “daily consumption,” and after a week, I am satisfied with a cup of coffee and a biscuit. The atmosphere is full of Surrounding Lights that are constantly ready to restrain and calm my ego.

The main thing here is the example I take from others and the attitude they teach me. I am in the company of people who are satisfied with little. This is what is accepted among them, and that’s it. They actually don’t need more than that. They prefer to enjoy the good relationships that I now take in portions, instead of food. If I feel gloomy and take a portion of “our love,” I am immediately filled with love.

It is because I am in a network of social, human relationships whose message clearly is that I never will lack anything. The feeling itself actually is enough, and nothing else. Initially, by our nature, we depend on environment, and there are no compromises here. So, if the group radiates the right attitude toward me, imbued with tranquility, peace, and good will, then half a day later, I also will feel that everything is exactly as it should be. However, if I find myself in some gang, I also will absorb their principles.

There is a natural inclination within a person to adapt to the environment. I simply have no means and no way to fight this inclination. So, within a couple of hours, I become incorporated in the general atmosphere of mutual guarantee and stop worrying about myself. The people around me are my network of connections and are closest to me. I cannot resist their opinion since I am also part of the general network.

So, when it is my turn to reveal the Creator, the root of my soul, I am brought to a new type of connection, to a group. The same law operates here: The group tells me that there is nothing to worry about and that I will stop worrying about it. But besides that, it has to convey the message that I must connect with the friends and adhere to the Creator. It’s because self-annulment is not enough, I also need the right direction, And I also will receive this message.

My free will is not taken away from me in the group since that simply will suppress me. In spirituality, other people’s opinions are not conveyed automatically. This is another boat that I must choose by myself. The Creator brings me to the ladder, but each step up requires great effort and strengthening along the way. However, do I get stronger? Do I fulfill my free will? Without free will, I never will develop the human within me.

A “human being” (Adam) is only the one who pressures himself to enter the group and be incorporated with the friends. Then, I receive everything else from them automatically since I have no control over it anymore.

In short, we choose only one thing: the environment. The first and main condition is mutual guarantee. If we are connected in mutual guarantee and provide everyone with everything that they need for self-annulment, then there is nothing else that we need for a start.

The second condition is to make sure that everyone has the stimuli and incentives so that they surely will hold onto the friends. This ensures a person’s good fate.
[106511]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/30/13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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