Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

Purification By The Light Of Hassadim

laitman_572_02Question: What do I have to change about my desires? How do I deepen them?

Answer: There is one very simple method of exiting yourself: from your small desires to bigger desires, to desires that are properly focused. What is more, you exit yourself with regard to others.

Therefore, a person wasn’t created by himself but in a society or even in a small group that engages in developing the desires correctly, in clarifying them properly, and thus correcting them.

By mutually helping one another exit himself to others, we begin to understand that the others are not really others but simply seem to us that way in order to help us develop ourselves. This means that we were intentionally given the illusion that we exist in a big world, which we see on the outside, so we will be able to study and explore ourselves internally. If it were inside us, we wouldn’t be able to study ourselves.

The Kabbalistic method explains how we should focus ourselves so as to treat others properly and to merge with them and adhere to them. To merge and to adhere means to attain love. Love is adhesion (Dvekut), resemblance, equivalence, and connection. At the same time, I suddenly realize that the same desires, which seemingly exist on the outside, are actually mine, and then the whole picture of the world around me disappears and there is no difference between them.

By attaining my real state, when all the desires around me clearly become mine emotionally, the picture of the world around me, that is now felt as a huge field of my desires, disappears.

It turns out that as I advance I gradually include everyone more and more inside me. These desires are called clothing, a hall, a yard, etc. They have to be corrected, which means to be purified by the Light of Hassadim (Light of bestowal).  Clothing refers to the desires that are closest to us.

It says in the Torah: “and he shall wash his clothes and be purified.” If the priest determines that a person is pure and he is ill but it is not leprosy, it means that his desires are on a level where they can be healed and corrected to love and bestowal unto others. In order to do that, the clothing (the desires) have to be purified by the Light of Hassadim (mercy) and then everything is all right.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/20/14

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Living Or Existing?

laitman_281_01Question: Humanity in its development and attempt to speed things up has cut down quite a few trees. If in my participating in a group and trying to carry out the Kabbalistic method I don’t understand the concrete laws of nature and cannot weigh how my actions will manifest, how can I make correct actions so I won’t make matters worse?

Answer: Everything is much simpler. If it is for the good of the group, then your movements are considered to be positive. If not, then our movements are considered to be negative, and so they require correction. So it is necessary to “give it to you on the head,” so you will understand that you have been acting incorrectly until you learn to act in accordance with the group.

All the rest of humanity is simply managed from above, they have no freedom of choice. And your freedom of choice lies in directing your actions consciously towards the good of the group.

So it is necessary for there to be a precise scrutiny at every moment, not to miss even a second of life and to constantly adjust myself precisely: “I am either there or here”; you understand that freedom of choice is only given for this and that is how it is realized. If you realize it, you are said to be alive. If not, it means that you only exist.
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From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 3

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Live According To The Mind Or According To Love

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The holiday of Chanukah begins, reminding us of the victory of the Maccabees in the war with the Greeks. What does their opposition mean in a deeper sense?

Answer: “The Greeks” is my desire to enjoy; my egoism that tells me: “Listen, you need to rely on logic and instinct. We have to live by the mind, and you have it. You can arrange life rationally, evaluating and weighing every opportunity. Be like everyone else.”

This is the Greek approach. It is  correct and good, everyone likes it, and there is nothing to argue against. It is true that the world cannot realize it because our life is far from paradise. However, we simply have no other tools that are clear, true, logical, backed by science and psychology, based on a solid foundation, and understood by sense and reason.

But there is another approach: the “Maccabean.”

“No,” say the Maccabees, “we do not want to live in this way. We want to live by the laws that Abraham laid as the foundation of the Jewish people, the principle of love for the other as for oneself. This is what we must achieve.”

The Greek in me replies to this: “To be honest, you are one hundred percent right.”

But wait, how so? After all, he just stated the opposite. It turns out that both are right?

“Yes,” my Greek continues, “I would, of course, like to live according to love. But this is an unattainable utopia. Do you have a pill, which if swallowed, would ensure all the people of the earth will love each other? Can you impose unity, mutual help, mutual care, mutual guarantee, and equality everywhere? Are you able to make everyone friends?”

Thus, the problem of the Maccabees is that they are irrational and unrealistic. The same is said about the wisdom of Kabbalah: “Why is it needed? It is better to achieve real success in life. A slight interest in high matters might be useful, but to give them all of my life is too much. It isn’t logical.”

That’s why the Maccabees are initially small and weak. They have nothing that will convince me. A tiny Maccabee is hidden within me and a strong Greek is comfortably settled.  What should I do? What war will occur between them?

But I receive an answer that tells me: “Even if you give up the external picture, internally you understand that there is no other way, we need to achieve full unity, which is love, so that then you will start to build the appropriate group. In it, you will attract the Light, which is a special force that is inherent in nature that you can use. You have only a small spark, but nature has a huge Light, and you can attract it to yourself.”

Then you will see that the whole world was just a theater of illusion. It will fade and dissolve; like in Hollywood movies, it will vanish and be gone. Indeed, the whole picture was imaginary.

However, this will happen under the condition that you join your spark, your candle, with the great Light that fills the world. And in order to feel the need for this, you must make efforts that are contrary to your own mind.

Question: How could I explain this to my family who are far from such thoughts when the Chanukah candles are being lit? How can they be introduced, even a little bit, to this understanding?

Answer: The Maccabees won the war against the invaders because they became united. They went to the people and managed to bring it to unity.

Therefore, it is not necessary for us to bring calls for unity during war, when it is already happening. No, we must unite now and then there will be no war. By this we will neutralize all the evil forces.

So, let’s unite. What harm could there be? None. We need only to apply a little effort. That is what Chanukah tells us: by uniting, we will win our greatest victory.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/14, Writings of Rabash

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A Place For Effort

laitman_238_01Question: All of our efforts throughout the day, other than the morning lesson, are mixed because they are arranged in circles for both men and women. I have a feeling that in general the women are not felt in these circles, they become “as delicate as a dandelion”….

Answer: You don’t feel the female ego? But why should it be discovered? There is no such Mitzvah to be a big egoist. On the contrary, if what you have is already corrected, it means that you are a spiritual person. But if you don’t know what must be corrected in you, it means that you aren’t working on yourself, so the ego hasn’t been discovered in you.

Comment: An impression like this is created that among the women there is a lack of inner unity. Each one is for herself.

Answer: And who is hindering you? You are complaining that the ego hasn’t been discovered in you. But the Upper Light is what must reveal it, the same Light that influences you and from which you will feel yourself as a big egoist. This means that the ego is discovered when you invest effort.

So you must try to serve others more and more, work on unity, on helping. When you finish working on this level, they will show you that essentially you are a big egoist and have been doing all of this for your own sake.

In no way do we create negative actions or awaken negative thoughts or desires in ourselves. We advance forward and upward only, never backward and downward. We never do that. And after a person finishes work on the present level, the next level of ego always appears.

But if you don’t even feel the ego within you, then you remain on the previous level. This means that you are expending very little effort to make our group a single complete unit in your eyes.
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From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 3

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The Order Of Development

laitman_947 Question: In the external public we work with, does the ego grow? Do they feel this growth or is their ego poured into us?

Answer: The main thing is what we get. Certainly the ego of the masses also increases, but it changes its form; it becomes organized on a higher level. It could be that some of them reach a state in which the point in the heart breaks out, for there are still many people in the external world in whom the point in the heart is working internally and in the meantime hasn’t been revealed externally.

And there are also those in whom it is not revealed; they connect with us as an additional part of us and suddenly they get everything that we have gained through our continuous effort. That is how the order of development is revealed.
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From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 3

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Immersing In The Desires Of Humanity

laitman_582_01Question: In our ascent to the next level, we must connect its ten parts into one to advance even more; in other words, we increase this difference with another ten through the combination of additional ego. How does this happen? Is this somehow connected to our going out to the external public with the desires that we get from them?

Answer: If you are affected by the suffering of humanity, which is called “Don’t detach yourself from society,” then you will unwillingly include them within yourself and elevate efforts in the group and for the Creator.

Question: But I perceive their suffering egoistically. I look at them; things are bad for them and I think: “What if it I felt so bad?”

Answer: Continue. It’s okay. Gradually your opinion about them will change. Your thoughts will gradually move towards particular work. You will soften a bit and no longer be so egoistic.

Question: How is this connected to a group? If I am affected by the external crowd, somehow I must move this into the group and digest it?

Answer: Suppose that something hurts me. How can I deal with this in my group work? There is no way. It enters into my work and that’s all there is to it. What don’t you understand here? These are simple human characteristics.

If the suffering of the external public becomes my suffering, if I am affected by it, then it works within me. But if I am so devoid of feeling and indifferent that they don’t make an impression on me, I need to cry about this and ask for it to soften me, that the Creator will make it possible for me to feel them.

Why doesn’t He give me this opportunity? It is so that I will ask for more from Him, so that I will feel the necessity for even this kind of contact with Him.
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From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 3

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A Gossip Or A Friend?

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus,” 19:16: Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor: I am the LORD.

A gossip in our world is a person who enjoys the revelation of the ego in others. What is interesting is that he is typically candid. He doesn’t lie and doesn’t try to hurt others, but simply unveils the distortions, the corruption that exists in society in the relationships between people.

Comment: But a gossip never says things openly to a person, only behind his back…

Answer: It makes no difference, since at the same time he can have good motives. The problem is whether he acts for the sake of correction and whether the action of the revelation of evil is intended to attain a greater connection between people.

A gossip separates people and keeps them further apart from one another. You can do the same thing when you discover the lack of connection between people, but at the same time you think about how to connect them. If your intention is to connect people, it isn’t considered gossip.

In spiritual work the term gossip is not examined with regard to oneself or to others, but in regard to the Creator, since He is the one who disrupts the harmony between us, causes our problems and the lack of integration of attributes and parts of the only mechanism of the soul. By His Light, He reveals the lack of coordination between them and is therefore the main cause of all these actions. We, on the other hand, have to work on the coordination between them.

Here is where the gossip is revealed as the one who reveals the evil but doesn’t think about its correction and doesn’t operate along the middle line. Each of us discovers flaws when he focuses on correction in order to correct them and not in order to delve into their revelation.

The revelation of evil draws the Light that highlights all the corruptions in me, but I should first think about the whole, integral, harmonious state, as it is said: “The end on an action is in the initial thought.” This is the whole subtle difference between gossip and doing the right thing.

If, for example, my friend tells me now that I did the wrong thing, is he a gossip or not? It is revealed only by the way it brings me to reveal my corrupted state and how to correct it. Gossip, on the other hand, doesn’t do that and the approach is totally egoistic.

Thus, if my friend reveals the evil in me in order to guide me correctly and get even closer to me, he is not a gossip, but a friend.

I cannot refuse to help the friend reveal the different obstacles and mistakes, since I see my incorrect state. I have to fear the possibility of being a gossip, yet not refrain from revealing the mistakes of my friend. I must do things properly because I have to connect to him and reach correction together with him. This is called “neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor.”

Blood is the fourth part of the four phases of the spreading of the Light in the soul, which means that it is help on the lowest level of correction that revives the corporeal body. I help others to ascend, but is with this condition. Everything else should be done by a person himself. I only raise him a little.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/02/14

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Don’t Just Share Two Toys, Give Both Away!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the stories of the righteous Job relates that his suffering is the result of a dispute with the evil spirit named Satan, who supposedly looks at people and decides to test their loyalty to the Creator.

Satan claims that Job was righteous because he had everything and thrived in life. And if you take away his wealth, it is unknown how he will respond. This is the beginning of the suffering of Job. Who is Satan?

Answer: This story is about the evil desire that confronts everybody. Satan is inside us and is called the evil inclination. It is written: “the evil inclination in a person is the Satan, the angel of death.”

Question: We consider Satan to be some kind of the higher power?

Answer: Why can’t it be higher? We are born this way; it precedes me: “the human heart is wicked from the day of one’s birth.” It rules over us. I would say that this force is even stronger than the Creator. Nature consists of four levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking.

The force that controls the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels is benevolent. That is why harmony and balance are present in the first three levels. Even though some live creatures gobble each other up, it happens only because they are governed by nature. They don’t hurt each other deliberately. The positive, kind force that rules the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels is called the Creator (Elokim).

The human (speaking) level is controlled by the negative force: “the human heart is wicked from the day of its birth.” The evil nature constantly tempts us to hurt others. Not only do I want to take your watch, ring, and beautiful eyeglasses just because I want them, I also enjoy that you don’t possess them anymore. Where does this feeling come from? It derives from the ability to sense our neighbors, i.e., “I feel you.”

Since I feel them, I am not satisfied when my neighbor simply doesn’t feel good. I really want them to feel bad. This mere fact makes me automatically happy. So the sensation of a neighbor that is inherent to human nature allows us enjoy others’ suffering that result from the fact that they lack things that they strive for. This sensation elevates and fulfills us. The force that causes this sensation is called Satan or the evil inclination.

Question: What does the dialogue between Satan and the Creator mean?

Answer: Satan lives inside us. It is our nature. As for the Creator, He is the external nature that we don’t yet have. It exists in the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels, but is absent from the human level: “the human heart is evil from the day it was born.” This is how we are born and then continue living. You can easily see it in our children. They gradually grow for two, three, four years, and all of a sudden they become people.

They begin lying, stealing, acting solely for their own sake, doing anything they can to fulfill their desires. They want everything, and if you give a toy to a child and the second toy to another child, the first child wants to grab both. It is our duty to transform the wicked inclination into a good one, “as if for our own self.” If previously a little child grabbed both toys and never gave them to other children, now he is supposed to give both toys to his friends. It’s not about sharing. He has to act “as if it is for his own sake.”

Question: How should we understand  Satan’s manipulations when he demands sending new troubles to Job? It’s not enough to take Job’s money away. It is necessary to take away his children!

Answer: It stems from the program of nature that constantly rules over us. We permanently advance and grow, and our desires constantly enhance, develop, and become more and more egoistic. Our needs expand. However, do we become more corrected from generation to generation?

We constantly follow Satan. He pushes us to bad things: weapons, murder, terror, deceit, and slyness. Can we resist these things? No! We drift with the wicked flow that leads us nowhere. We consent to it. Moreover, we continue considering ourselves to be honest citizens!

By converting evil into benevolence, we’ll attain the Creator’s level. Then, we’ll understand all of nature and reach the best possible scientific level, build correct relationships among us and behave accordingly. We are not there as yet.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/28/13

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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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The Era Of Universal Calming

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen we, the Jewish people, publicly declare our mission, nations will cease pressuring us and will give us time and the opportunity to perform the mission. Moreover, they will come to help us as much as possible, saying, “Just tell us what to do. We are ready.”

Question: Why has this mission been hidden from us for so long? If we had known about it, then maybe we would have realized it in life a long time ago.

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah has remained hidden intentionally because we had to be immersed in the nations of the world. We are talking about a large-scale, highly complex program. We fell from the degree of love into unfounded hatred and this degree is invisibly rooted within us.

Thus, going into exile among the nations of the world, and not knowing how, we affect them and form all sorts of connections. Our contribution is still to be manifested, especially as the ten lost tribes are contributing for the first time since the time of the First Temple.

Therefore, as it is said, war, terrorism and all the miseries and misfortunes, come ultimately because of the Jews.

This means that it is necessary to unite with each other according to a special technique: in circles, in tens. We have already started the process, but this must be done on a large scale by all the people, among the Jews in Israel and abroad. Here and there, we have to lead the people to unity, as in the days of Abraham and the days of the First Temple. We have to rise to this height.

As soon as we start doing this, there will come a general calming, and no one will blame us. So, let’s try. It is in our hands to calm the world. Enemies that are standing today at the border and waiting to destroy us will disappear.

There will be no more anti-Semites and everyone will be in favor. After all, in the end, Israel starts to function properly and give the world what it should, as everyone states, “Finally, these Jews began to realize something that requires them to a higher law, a higher power.”

The fact is that unwittingly, the Jewish people have a special potential, which is the ability to change the world, reality, ourselves and humanity. It is entrusted to us.

We have received the methodology of Kabbalah, and today, according to The Book of Zohar and many Kabbalists, it is time for its revelation and realization. This is the only way to get rid of anti-Semitism, and in general, to correct ourselves and the world. This should happen in our generation, here and now.

Question: How will Israeli society look then?

Answer: The whole society will be united as one man with one heart. Everyone  will feel the eternal, perfect peace. Everyone will identify with the upper force and move into a future dimension that is entirely good.

Question: Is it a secular or religious approach?

Answer: Absolutely secular. It has nothing to do with religion. After all, religion is not engaged in the principle of “love your neighbor as self”; it does not nurture interconnection and love between people, especially on a global scale. Religion helps to keep local customs, traditions, and give a person different services, which of course, do not conflict with the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 11/25/14

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