Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

The Choice Between The Calculation Of The Donkey And The Calculation Of Man

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe need to accept all events patiently and see them in two ways, along two lines, from the point of view of judgment and of mercy, so as to distinguish precisely between what influences my “donkey” (my egoistic substance) and what may influence the human in me. Then I will feel a split within me and to the extent that it is possible, I will adhere to the human in me.

If I suddenly discover that I have been in the donkey part for quite some time, I need to be thankful for this instead of being sorry about it. After all, it is the Creator who arranged it so that without noticing it, I became clothed in my “donkey” so that I again would include the donkey desires and discover that I again had returned to the donkey calculations. From there, I must rise to the human calculation and strive more and more to hold onto that with the help of the group.

If I forget about the group and I have nowhere to take their material, their thoughts in order to attach and develop the human part in me, the Creator throws me into my donkey again. Thus I gradually build the human in me with the help of these two sources: the group and the donkey.

When we suddenly find ourselves below, within our will to receive, and again make pragmatic material calculations as if there were no Creator and higher purpose, and no spiritual path, rather only our ordinary life, we don’t need to regret this. One should regret only a little that the Creator threw him into a “place of filth,” into the stinking ego, and the main thing is to draw conclusions, to depart from this descent and begin to compare the states to understand and feel them better.

In this way, these terms enter more deeply into the mind and feelings of a person who makes an effort to analyze them within himself. Thus he constructs a control system for himself and his states, and so he advances.
[104133]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/3/13, TES

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Take Me As An Example

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can I become an example for the group?

Answer: You simply have to be it. Let’s say that starting today, I become an example for the group. I smile to everyone, love, help, remind about the importance of the goal, and do what is written in Rabash’s articles about the group. This is all.
[104214]
From Lesson 5, European Convention 3/22/13

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What Lies Ahead?

Dr. Michael LaitmanAn endless process is expected in which there will be big local conventions. On the 10th to 12th of May there will be a convention in the US, in New Jersey, and in June there will be a convention in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. In July there will be a convention in St. Petersburg, in August there will be a convention in Europe, and in September the holidays begin in Israel…in short there is a big convention in a different country every month.

I see all these meetings, as well as the study and our workshops, not as isolated events, but as an uninterrupted, continuous, smooth process in which we are “pressured” to reach the gathering before Mt. Sinai. We have to clarify all the stages and then go through them internally, and this will be, of course, accompanied by many inner eruptions and explosions, and at the same time, we have to stay on track in order to eventually discover the new spiritual vessel, a new life.

You must understand that we have to die and be reborn internally. We have to be reborn in our perspective of life and of the world, in all our set of values, in education, and culture, in everything. We have to change, to move on to an unknown round, adjusting to a dimension that we cannot even imagine now.

In order to do that, we need a strong collective force and a continuous evolutionary process. No matter what happens, we have to think only about correction. The “ten plagues of Egypt” will be revealed to us, and so we have to learn from Moses what to do about them. The Torah calls him “the most humble of all.” This means terrible suffering and above that, gratitude and joy. See how much trouble the people of Israel caused him in the desert…

We will go through these steps together.
[104120]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/13

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A System Of Spiritual Measurement: The Group

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How is it possible to check whose servant you are: a servant of Pharaoh or a servant of the Creator? How is this examination realized, intellectually or emotionally?

Answer: We check with the mind what we feel in our heart. A heart is all the desires of a person, and I need to check who controls my desires: the will to receive with an intention in order to receive or with an intention in order to bestow. The will to receive is always there; it is the substance of creation, but I must examine for what I am working.

This examination is done only through the group. In our physical world we cannot measure anything without a scale of measurement. We require some unit of measurement: a meter, a kilogram, Hertz, a measurement scale with which I will be able to measure and weigh some phenomenon.

How can I weigh a desire and my intention that controls it? This is only possible depending on how I adhere to the group and associate myself with the whole. Through this I can measure myself and change something within me. Otherwise, I will always be mistaken.

Therefore, “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself” is called the fundamental rule in the Torah for it controls everything. If I do not place myself correctly relative to society, I will not be able to see where I am at all. With my measurements, I will not be able to discern any error, neither the smallest nor the largest.
[103981]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13

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So The Group Will Absorb Everything

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the meaning of adhering to the group?

Answer: To adhere to the group is to be with the friends in the entire process through which they are passing, to perform the tasks, to participate in all the events: in studies, dissemination, duties, gatherings of friends, workshops, and paying maaser. I need to try to be a useful and active participant in all this. These are mechanical actions of joining a group, which are visible.

Besides this, within myself, I wholeheartedly try to be included in this image called a “group,” to disappear, to melt there. I want to be absorbed within this concept of the “group,” the “society,” so that nothing of me remains.

If I try to do this according to my egoistic motives, to the extent of my efforts, I become closer to the Light, and It brings me thoughts about this and shows how appropriate I am to it or not. So, I begin to demand that the Light correct me more. I begin to relate to my inclusion in a group in a more practical way, connecting this inclusion with the Light that influences me and helps me to enter a group.

It follows that the more I am included in it, the more states I begin to discern: greater or smaller inclusion, how much I forget about myself, how much more I belong to the friends, how much more or less I love them. Only according to this do I evaluate my ascents and descents, since no other ascents and descents exist.

And so together with everyone, I turn to the upper Light that makes of us one whole. And here the work begins. All measurements and evaluations take place only in regard to the group because without this there is no correct measuring scale, there is no correction with which I would be able to examine myself.

I have no indication and evaluation of my emotions, not in relation to the Creator and not in relation to myself, if we don’t do this within the group. The group is the place where I feel, measure, and carry out all spiritual actions.

There is no other place outside of it! There, in the group, I need to discover hatred and my ego, all of my characteristics. All that is discovered outside the group doesn’t require any correction. Only what is discovered in the relationships between the friends, this is the only thing that we need to correct. Pharaoh, the ego is the force of mutual rejection and of hatred that is discovered in a group. And outside the group, this is all the physical life of the animal body.
[103976]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13

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Contractions That Precede The Birth Of A New World

Contractions That Precede The Birth Of A New WorldQuestion: Have we reached the lowest point from the Creator?

Answer: We are at a doorstep of sensing the Creator. We can tell by observing what is going on in the world and within ourselves. We exerted enough, held a huge number of conventions, including the ones in the desert. We hope that this current convention, the upcoming Passover week in Israel, as well as our efforts that are directed to unity and mutual connection will become the last attempt and we will attain revelation.

We don’t know when it will happen. It always happens unexpectedly. It’s described in the original sources. Generally speaking, we are standing at the doorstep of a spiritual revelation. As a rule, it always emerges out of the darkness. The transition to the next step always takes place similar to the exodus from Egypt in the middle of the night or to the birth of a child who comes into the world out of nothing, from the darkness.

Let’s hope that we will attain revelation here and now. We have to stay alert, wait, and wish for it to happen to us every minute of our lives. Even if it doesn’t happen immediately, still my personal understanding and experience tells me that it will definitely happen.

By no means can I sign for it or pledge that it will happen since everything that occurs to us depends on the entire the world. That’s why neither I nor the greatest Kabbalist of the world are capable of predicting how and when it will happen. We are pioneers. Past Kabbalists were individualists; they revealed spirituality among themselves, in small groups, such as Rabbi Shimon’s disciples, students of the ARI, Ramchal, and Baal HaSulam.

Now, it’s our turn to transition to the next level. I can’t accurately predict the exact date or any specific conditions that will bring us to revelation. Nevertheless, we are at the doorstep, on the eve of entering a spiritual realm. Nine months of intrauterine development are over and the labor has already started. This is the state we are in at this time. It can last for a while, similarly to how a child moves slightly back and forth, and the mother senses this movement as birth contractions. We are already at this stage.

Question: Is it the lowest point from the Creator in respect to the humanity?

Answer: It’s the farthest point and at the same time it’s the closest one. After all, there has to be a difference of potentials.


On one hand, “birth contractions,” a huge tension and tremendous efforts, are inevitable. One may wonder, what is happening? But we know from everyday life that this is the way children are born. Everything will turn out well.

Question: How do we sense the life of this point: individually inside each of us or in the group?

Answer: It’s not a point any more. We will be born when we connect. Connection among us will be a construction consisting of ten parts, ten Sefirot—the first image of an infant that we will birth. This construction of ten parts has to have a certain structure: an internal tension and a huge power that connects all antagonistic, egoistic, desires together. A unity of complete opposites creates a “voltage” where the upper Light becomes revealed.

It’s a law of physics, a superficial molecular tension, nothing but that! We observe the same things in everything around us: in nature, in technologies. Any natural phenomena are built from opposites.
[103407]
From the European Convention 3/22/13, Lesson 1

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Our Number One Killer Is Our Laziness

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 35, “Concerning the Vitality of Kedusha“: Hence, it is a correction that each time one extends something and has a descent, he must begin anew, meaning new scrutinies. And what one had from the past has fallen into the Sitra Achra, and she holds it in her authority as a deposit. Afterwards one receives everything that she had received from him this whole time.

Thus we can see that everything that happens is in our favor. Thanks to the desires that the Creator has shattered and thrown into the sea of the impure forces (Sitra Achra), to the other side, into egoistic desire to enjoy, we have a chance to advance towards Holiness, towards desires to bestow. These desires to receive force us to draw more and more Light.

At the moment we draw a little Light and the desires of the Sitra Achra immediately swallow it. This happens over and over again until the measure is filled, and then the ego “vomits” everything it has swallowed, and we get back all the Light that we have managed to draw for a while but were unable to keep. Thus the Sitra Achra helps a person accumulate his exertion, collect all the tiny Lights, and then give it back to him as one full measure that enables him to attain the spiritual level.

This is why we create the “holy animals” from the descents, from the states we usually don’t want and don’t like. But we have to understand how grateful we have to be for all the mechanisms in the system of the upper Providence and especially for the system of the forces of impurity, which rules over us during the whole period of preparation, until we enter the authority of Holiness, of the desire to bestow.

As long as the force of impurity dominates us, it fulfills its role with utmost dedication, which is even greater than the dedication of the system of Holiness. After all, the Sitra Achra must work in the opposite manner from the Creator, in a form opposite to Him. It’s a special “angel,” a unique system, which follows the Creator’s command, His desire, and performs actions that are opposite to Holiness according to a decree from Above.

A similar story is told in one of Baal HaSulam’s letters: A king appoints different villains to rule over his subject whom he has decided to raise to the rank of the first minister. In order to do so, the king sends his servants to him dressed as criminals and murderers, and thanks to the struggle with them the loyal slave grows more and more.

All the “villains” who had to fight him are fulfilling their job with all the viciousness and the creative cunningness only because it is the king’s order and not because it’s their own will. The force of impurity, our internal systems that seem so horrible to us, works in the exact same way.

All the crimes that take place in the world, the murders and the falls, seem to contradict the Creator’s desire and we have to hate them. However, we should understand that there is no evil—there are no criminals in the King’s palace and it’s all His systems that operate from two directions: from the good side and from the bad side. We should only hate our own laziness because we cannot fulfill our free will in choosing our environment, the group, the only place where we are free.

We shouldn’t complain about any event in our life, except for one: our inability to hurry at the right time, to use the environment and with its help to advance and to hasten (sanctify) time.
[103832]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/29/13

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The Direction Of Thought

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Sometimes when we are working in the group, the Creator gives us an ascent, advanced states. How can we use them to advance the 99% of humanity?

Answer: We need to think about it constantly because everything is resolved in thoughts. Our thoughts are the greatest forces of the world. If the thought is in the right direction, it enters the vector, in connection with the Light, and that is something that can change the world.

The Surrounding Light affects us, and by our vector we make it directed Light. If we light a flashlight or spotlight, it shines directly. Imagine that we can do the same with our thoughts.

If you think about someone being in the correct state, in good thoughts, you will see how you will cure, correct, improve by this. Everything will be successful.
[104034]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 5

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Unity And A Little Chutzpah

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: This evening we are arranging a special lesson symbolizing the end of the Passover holiday, the departure from the ego. How do we need to approach this with a maximum request to cross the Machsom?

Answer: This comes suddenly. Nobody knows exactly when, nobody can predict anything. But Baal HaSulam writes that the time of Passover is a very important time; in our world it’s a special time regarding the Surrounding Lights.

Indeed, the departure can take place any time, any day, but at the same time we need to do as much as possible according to the communication of the physical branch with the spiritual root. We have a chance, and for this a great cooperative effort is required, likewise a little chutzpah (audacity).

– We deserve it!

– Why?

– Because!

This is compulsory. Regarding this it’s said: “My sons have defeated me.” Though I know that I don’t deserve it, in spite of it all, I demand, apply pressure, and this audacity is very useful because it shows that I am going beyond the limits of my ego, I believe that I depend on the Creator and it’s specifically from Him that I demand what I want. Here lies not just an emotional outburst but a deliberate shout, a necessary assault in His direction: “Do it!” That is how new Kelim, additional deficiencies, are aroused in me.

Question: What is needed in order to build this demand throughout the day?

Answer: It is necessary to concentrate on the opposition formed at the time of the departure from “Egypt,” on connection and elevation above our individual and collective ego. In general, we require a demand with the addition of audacity. And the main thing is unity. And don’t be distracted by anything else.

Question: How must one be audacious about this request and at the same time ask on behalf of everyone, together with everyone?

Answer: It’s written that we leave Egypt in the dark of night. This doesn’t say that it’s necessary to wait until it gets dark outside and to turn out the lights at home. No, this is darkness of the ego, which we feel inside of us when nothing more can save us and there is no possibility of escape.

We need to run toward the center of the group, toward love of friends, toward love of another. It’s necessary to concentrate on this; we require the importance of only this. The Light reveals the Kelim and corrects them. Everything comes from that except for the request for help.
[103943]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13, Writings of Rabash

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Don’t Wait, Act!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When men unite, they cause a feeling of incomparable thrill in women. We, women, are looking very much forward to this.

Answer: You should not wait for this. You need to act. Otherwise, nothing will happen. You should pressure men, help them, that is, behave like a wife at home in relation to her husband. That is how the entire women’s part of the world group must affect the men’s part. In principle, the soul is composed of male and female parts, and the Creator is between them.

You should not rely on men only. On their own, they would not have built the world. They cannot give birth, raise children, and perform household duties. That is why they need support, help, direction, and pressure. This is what a woman usually does at home, helping her husband.

The entire Kli (vessel) is the women’s part, not the men’s. The men do attract the Light, but to the women’s desire, to the women’s aspiration. Thus, it is necessary to match the women’s and men’s parts correctly. However, don’t wait! On the contrary, if you do not cause an urgent need to attract the Light in men, they will not do that. This is how we are organized.
[103925]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 4

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