Jacob is the most important spiritual attribute, and therefore, he is called our forefather. Abraham symbolizes bestowal from the Creator and Isaac is the revelation of the desire to enjoy in the creation.

Jacob is a combination of two qualities, giving and receiving, the right and the left line, due to the inner work of a person. Man connects these two lines that come from above in order to achieve similarity with the Creator.

Man, Adam, means similar (Domeh) to the Creator. Therefore, Jacob is the most important of the three because these are the qualities revealed within a person to the extent of his similarity to the Creator. This is why the property of Jacob is called Tifferet—splendor, beauty, honor—the properties of the Creator revealed within the creation.

It is through this work that man reaches spirituality. We are granted these two qualities from above, the good and the evil inclinations. The good inclination comes from the Creator through Abraham. The evil inclination revealed in creation also comes from the Creator who created it. But the right combination of these two forces is achieved through man’s work, and we must execute it.

The left and the right lines do not cancel each other, but rather emphasize each other. If there is the right line, bestowal, then it is permitted to awaken the left line, reception. And it is precisely because the left line is opposite to the right that it increases and highlights it.

This is why Jacob includes both lines and intensifies them. The miracle of correct spiritual work is that opposite qualities are emphasized and increased even more, each one emphasizing the other.

Precisely because of the fact that there is the force of bestowal against the force of reception and the force of reception against the force of bestowal, each becomes more intense, more significant. This is why the quality of Jacob is called Tifferet (splendor) because it combines two opposites in one.

When they are correctly combined and enhance each other in the middle line, they are manifested in man not as a simple sum of the right and left lines, but as an illustration of their opposites and glory.

In our world, there is plain darkness and plain light. But if we mix darkness with light, we get a lot of different shades that can be distinguished neither in the bright light nor in the dark.

Our whole life is based on combining the left and right lines. If we want to reveal the Creator, we need the two forces bestowal and reception. By creating all possible combinations of one with the other in all forms, we will reveal the quality of the Creator relative to the quality of creation.

Abraham is the desire to bestow, Isaac is the desire to receive, and Jacob is the combination of desires to receive and to bestow. In combination, these two qualities begin to enhance and emphasize each other. As a result, the right and left lines are revealed in Jacob 620 times stronger than they were before they combined in him.

It turns out that correctly combining the force of reception with the force of bestowal allows us to experience the force of bestowal in contrast to reception 620 times greater. It is through the middle line that we increase the creation made by the Creator from a tiny Kli, a single black dot, in infinite white light to the scale of the entire light of infinity. As it is said “The darkness will shine as light.”

Thus, we reveal the Creator inside our Kli and attain the entire light of Infinity in it. But this Kli begins as a black dot with a very small change in the light.
[271867]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/5/20, “Sukkot“

Related Material:
The Meaning Of The Holiday Of Sukkot
Sukkot—The Beginning Of Building The Soul
According To The Advice Of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 10/9/20

When we gather with people who also wish to overcome their egoistic inclination and exert a positive influence in the world, we get ready to receive the Torah. By doing so, we set the foundation for a society that is capable of switching the current chaotic direction the world is treading to a positive and balanced one.

We can rejoice then in our recognition of the real cause of all our problems—our egoistic nature—and in our having the means at our disposal to redirect this nature to a good direction of connection, love, and giving. That is already a major step toward the reformation the Torah speaks about.

Happy holiday to all!
Read my full post

Filed under: Facebook, Holidays, Torah - No Comments →

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 10/9/20

Friday is the day of Simchat Torah [lit. The Joy of Torah]. On this day, we celebrate the completion of the cycle of reading Torah portions and the beginning of a new one. But why is completing a cycle of reading only to start over a reason for celebration? It isn’t. If we look only at the superficial level of things, there is nothing to celebrate.

If we want to make sense of this festive day, we have to go beyond the exterior, to the inner, true meaning of the Torah. It is written, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice” (Masechet Kidushin). This means that the Torah is not some piece of text that we must recite without applying its content to ourselves, but a means for correcting our evil inclination. If we use it for any other purpose, we are missing the whole point.

If we achieve correction of our evil inclination, then we have a reason for celebration. If we do not, then we should keep working until we reach the state of Simchat Torah, namely the correction of our evil inclination through the “spice” of Torah.

In Hebrew, the word Torah means both “light” and “instruction.” The “light” in it is regarded as “the light that reforms,” a force that “corrects” our evil inclination into a good inclination. The “instruction” part of the Torah refers to what we have to do in order to “reform” ourselves, and that is to love our neighbors as ourselves. Old Hillel said about this, “That which you hate, do not do unto your neighbor; this is the whole of the Torah” (Masechet Shabbat, 31a), and Rabbi Akiva added, “Love your neighbor as yourself; this is the great rule of the Torah” (Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim, 30b).

At the moment, the festival of Simchat Torah is simply a reminder of what we should be doing, and in that sense I’m happy about it. But in truth, we have no cause for celebration since there is anything but love of others among us. Even if we weren’t corrected but at least wanted to use the “light” in order to reform ourselves, it would be reason enough for celebration. But currently, I do not see that we are acknowledging our desperate need to change or that we are willing to and feel accountable for the state of our nation.

The situation is even more serious when it comes to our relations with the nations of the world. As Jews, we are constantly under the world’s watchful eye. They judge us by a different yardstick than they judge any other nation, and with good reason: They feel that it’s our duty to bring them light, to be “a light unto nations.” That is, we are not only required to use the reforming light on ourselves, but we are also required to pass it on so the rest of the world can be rid of the evil inclination. Even if the nations don’t articulate this request explicitly, their accusation that we are causing all that is evil in the world is in fact the flip side of saying “You are not bringing the light you are supposed to, the light that will reform us and stop the evil among us.”

Even our own sages tell us that our task is to bring the light of unity to the world, and when we do not, we inflict trouble on the nations. The Talmud writes, “No calamity comes to the world but because of Israel” (Masechet Yevamot, 63a). The Midrash is even more specific: “This nation, world peace dwells within it” (Beresheet Rabbah, 66).

We see that when antisemites accuse us of causing wars, they are in fact saying the same thing that our sages have been saying for generations but we refuse to listen. Because we wouldn’t listen, we have been given antisemites to intimidate us and force us to listen. Perhaps if we tried to do what our sages, who certainly want our best, have been advising us for millennia, we wouldn’t be suffering from antisemitism to this day, eighty years after the horrors of the Holocaust.

The Book of Consciousness writes, “We are commanded at each generation to strengthen the unity among us so our enemies do not rule over us.” With these words, I would like to wish us all that this coming year, we will unite “as one man with one heart,” learn the true meaning of the Torah, rejoice in it, and merit the words of King David in Psalms 29, “The Lord will give strength to His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.”

Filed under: Facebook, Holidays, Torah - No Comments →

The Times of Israel published my new article “Simchat Torah, Reasons to Be Joyful”

Simchat Torah marks the conclusion of the Tishrei holiday cycle with a celebration of joy in the Torah. But is it possible to feel a happy atmosphere when the world is facing such a conspicuous pandemic? Indeed, the current situation gives us an opportunity to recognize the cause of our predicaments—our egoistic inclination of self-concern—and to transform them into the right direction of love and connection. What is the real meaning of rejoicing with the Torah? Where is this joy rooted? To understand the deeper meaning behind this celebration we should first understand what the deeper meaning behind the Torah itself is.

The Torah is the “light that reforms” [Midrash Rabah, Eicha, “Introduction,” Paragraph 2]. It refers to the force that develops and sustains all living organisms. The light is a desire to give, and its creation, particularly us, is a desire to receive. The joy we feel during Simchat Torah symbolizes our discovery of this light, i.e., the attainment of its characteristic quality of giving onto our innate desire to receive. Such attainment is feeling a much more expansive reality than the one we feel when we only receive.

Although we are a desire to receive, completely opposite to the light’s giving quality, we don’t feel the full intensity of this oppositeness, its “evil” (“the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” [Genesis, 8:21]). What we do feel is that the more we develop, the more problems and pains emerge. The purpose of the unfolding crises in every field of life we’re experiencing today is to make us seek out why they are happening and how they can be resolved.

Moreover, today’s globally interdependent condition, particularly evident due to the pandemic, shows us that the more we develop without working together to resolve the many personal, social, ecological, and financial issues pressing on us and looking at them as a common state that demands mutual responsibility, then we’re bound to tumble into deeper chasms.

The global crisis today is occurring in order to bring us to the discovery of our nature—the desire to receive pleasure for self-benefit alone—as the cause of our problems. We need to learn how to redirect our desires in order to fix these problems at their core. As it is written, “I have created the evil inclination,” and “I have created for it the Torah as a spice” [Babylonian Talmud, Masechet Kidushin, 30b] because “the light in it reforms them” [Midrash Rabah, Eicha, “Introduction,” Paragraph 2.].

In other words, our egoistic desires were created with a means of redirecting them into a form of giving, the Torah, and by doing so correcting them, thereby adding fulfillment and pleasure to our lives, a spice. The question then is: How? How can we work with this light? How can we invite it into our lives, let it work on us, and allow it to bring about positive changes? The answer lies in our connection.

When we gather with people who also wish to overcome their egoistic inclination and exert a positive influence in the world, we get ready to receive the Torah. By doing so, we set the foundation for a society that is capable of switching the current chaotic direction the world is treading to a positive and balanced one.

We can rejoice then in our recognition of the real cause of all our problems—our egoistic nature—and in our having the means at our disposal to redirect this nature to a good direction of connection, love, and giving. That is already a major step toward the reformation the Torah speaks about.

Happy holiday to all!
[272186]

Filed under: Holidays, New Publications, Torah - No Comments →

The property of mercy, Hesed, was the secret of Abraham’s successful dissemination of knowledge about the Creator because it is love that opens a person to the whole world.

Therefore, Abraham managed to explain to the Babylonians what needs to be done in this life in order to ascend to the level of the Creator. The ones who heard him followed him, but Abraham wanted to save everyone. Likewise, today we must continue the work of Abraham.

We are obliged to open ourselves to everyone in the same way Abraham did and tell everyone about the purpose of life, the purpose of creation, about the correction that man must make. This was the beginning of the correction of every person, of the whole world, which Abraham accomplished. And we need to keep going the same way.

This will be mercy because we will explain to everyone that there is an opportunity to live forever, to achieve perfection, health, and knowledge, everything that one could wish for, to be filled with all the blessings. And it all starts with the quality of Hesed, mercy. This is the first correction of the desire to enjoy.

Everyone must find out why we exist, what form we must come to, and how to implement all this so that all the blows that we now feel pass us by.
[271816]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/3/20, “Sukkot“

Related Material:
Abraham Is The Property of Bestowal
New Life 869 – Abraham’s Method Of Correction
New Life 721 – From Abraham To The Generation Of The Desert

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Dissemination, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The festival of Sukkot symbolizes the beginning of building the vessel of the soul. The Creator created the desire to receive, which existed in complete bestowal. But this state was maintained by the power of the Creator, from above. This system was called Adam HaRishon, one soul.

But then, in order to give Adam the opportunity to grow, to become independent, and to realize where he is, the Creator broke this vessel, this common soul. And this is called the sin of Adam with the Tree of Knowledge since the huge egoistic desire was revealed and we exist with it to this day.

Everything happened in the way puzzles are made. First, a picture is drawn, then cut into many pieces so that children can play and put it back together. The Creator deliberately led us to sin with the Tree of Knowledge so that the serpent, our terrible desire to receive, would be revealed. And for 6,000 years now, we must correct Malchut by organizing the qualities of the Sefirot in it: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod.

We are now entering the final stage of this period. Our Sukkah has a very symbolic appearance because for the first time we are practically starting to work as the last generation. The process of the final correction is starting.

The pieces of the puzzle, which each of us represent, are beginning to draw closer together. We must make a human form out of them so that all our desires unite and become like the Creator. There is a small piece of this puzzle in each of us. We only need to gather in tens, and then from tens in hundreds, and in thousands, as the Torah explains. And so we will try to build out of ourselves the form of man, Adam, resembling (Dome) the Creator.

This building begins with the simplest materials, the lightest desires in our soul. This is how a Sukkah is constructed from the “waste” that is separated from “food.” Food is what our desire to receive instinctively likes. And waste is what we naturally reject.

And by connecting with each other, we want to find out what is waste relative to our connection in order to raise this waste above our heads and to increase its importance above all our thoughts and desires that push us away from each other and prevent us from connecting.

We need to connect and become one person. This is the correction of all humanity, it must begin now during the coronavirus pandemic. With this and other events that will be revealed from above, the Creator pushes us to take action, shows us where we can start assembling this puzzle.

Kabbalah deals with the practical implementation of the program of creation, its correction. And now we are working on the first stages of this correction. We have already passed the stages of Slichot, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur, and now we are entering the period of the Sukkot holiday.

Sukkot symbolizes the corrections that must be made within ourselves, in our desire. The Creator created nothing but desire. In this desire, we feel this world as if it exists, we feel reality, and ourselves. But all this is only presented within our desire to receive.

We need to correct ourselves in a way that we will see ourselves as one person. A desire similar to the Creator is called Adam, man, and in it, we will reveal the Creator coming to embrace and merge with us. And it all starts with the Sukkah, with the fact that we build a connection between us in the light of Hassadim. This is not yet a real connection but only coming closer to each other.

The coronavirus pandemic shows exactly how much we are not able to get close to each other. If we get close to our egoistic desires, we bring each other diseases and harm. This is a living example of our bad relationship.

Therefore, we must try to organize everything both materially and spiritually so that all of humanity understands toward what we need to develop and how to correct ourselves and our world. All the forces, all the conditions that are now unfolding in the world are designed to push us to rise to the first spiritual degree.
[271714]
From the 1^_st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/20, “Sukkot“

Related Material:
Holidays—Stages Of The Correction Of The Soul
Sukkot: Adhesion With A Single “Embrace”
Spiritual Holidays, Part 5

Filed under: Adam-The Common Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

We have entered the last generation, that is, we have entered the final stage of the correction. We are standing right at the entrance gate that open this period, but there is already the home stretch behind it toward the end of correction.

We do not know how long it will take and what states we will have to go through. But one thing is clear, we have already entered the final phase of correction and must leave it completely corrected.

We talked a lot with my teacher Rabash about this coming future. But today it has already turned from future into an everyday reality. It is necessary to connect with each other and find out the new properties within this connection because they will already be spiritual.

From these spiritual qualities, one must build a spiritual Partzuf, the roof of the Sukkah, that is, the screen and walls that refer to the general structure of the soul. Thus, it is necessary to gather and unite all tens together, all small Partzufim, each of which is built like a small Sukkah. Having assembled this puzzle, we will connect the whole desire to enjoy, completely turning it into bestowal.

I am very glad and touched that we are in such a process. Who would have thought that we would be so lucky to come to this? We are not able to appreciate what is happening now.

In order to ascend to the next stage of unification, you need to open your heart. Each new step begins with the fact that we open our hearts a little more—we feel that here I am obliged to open myself even more to the connection with friends. I cannot do it and I am sorry, I pray but by this the progress begins.
[271710]
From the 1^_st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/2/20, “Sukkot“

Related Material:
Holidays—Stages Of The Correction Of The Soul
The Days Of Spiritual Ascent
Sukkot—The Beginning Of Building The Soul

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: It seems that the autumn holidays, which are called Jewish holidays, are actually worldwide holidays. Especially now during the coronavirus, I am starting to understand this more and more.

Rosh Hashanah (the beginning of the year) symbolizes the discovery of the law of love and bestowal. This is the starting point of humanity, and this is where the counting of time begins. Why is this not a world holiday? Why do we call autumn holidays Jewish?

Answer: These holidays do not apply specifically to Jews. These are cosmic holidays that refer to the upper force that governs our world as it enters new stages of its influence over us.

Question: What does this new year require of us?

Answer: We must change, conform to nature, and not destroy each other. We must stop being controlled by our egoism like small animals. Can you imagine if the animal world had such egoism as we do? They would have consumed us and themselves; everything would have been devoured. And so only humans have it. The human being is gradually consuming everything. We have already reached a dead end! We must realize that our egoism is evil!

This year is a turning point. I hope that it will be such that we realize our evil nature and wish to change it.

Question: Is this your wish for all of humanity? Is it to realize its evil nature?

Answer: Yes, this is my wish for the new year.

Question: Is not the usual wish for everything to be fine, for there to be enough of everything at home, for everyone to be healthy?

Answer: No, no need to wish for that because it will not happen anyway. What is the point of all sorts of impossible dreams, suffering, and so on?

Question: Do you think it will be bad?

Answer: It will be bad, but the main thing is for us to quickly realize the cause of this evil in us. Exclusively in us! In addition to finding the cause, to have ability to correct it and transform it to the opposite. Humanity does not need anything else.

Question: Do you think this is feasible to execute this year?

Answer: If we do not, this realization will come through great unprecedented suffering! It is better to do it quickly. Because when a period of suffering comes, you cannot stop it. It comes for many years and with it brings such destruction and cataclysms, both ecological and societal, with pandemics and so on; it would be simply terrible.

Question: Let us say I heard you, and even the threat that the suffering could be great, what do I do now?

Answer: Tell everyone how we can avoid it, how to prevent it from happening. This can only be done through good connections between us. Just like people cling together like little animals in times of great suffering, that is what we have to do now.

Question: Warm, kind thoughts, getting closer to each other, connection, and unity, this what it should be?

Answer: Yes. If not for the good, then to avoid the bad, but we have to do it.

Question: The next holiday is Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). What does it mean for the world?

Answer: For the world, the Day of Atonement is a manifestation of a great evil inside it, which makes us feel completely powerless. There is nothing we can do but ask for the upper force to help us understand, to help us cope with our inner egoism.

After all, there is nothing external. Everything that exists in the world is only an echo of what is happening inside us.

Question: So, am I already revealing the evil inside me? Do I reveal that this is the most terrible thing possible? What do I ask for?

Answer: I renounce it, I do not wish to use it. This is the meaning of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). That is, I do not use any of my egoistic desires. None! I make a restriction on them. Externally it is defined as the five prohibitions.

Question: What would I achieve if I were to do this?

Answer: You would have stopped working with your egoism. Then you can start building your attitude toward the world only from the angle of goodness and connection. This is characterized by the fact that you are building a hut.

Question: So, we come to the third autumn holiday of Sukkot. What is the construction of a hut called a Sukkah?

Answer: This is called “Sukkat Shalom“—hut of peace. It represents the screen, that is, the anti-egoistic force that covers all of us, all of humanity. This is what we need to build.

We can hide under this force. We can gather together, and in this way we want to live.

This is all that we need to do for the new year. If we pass through these states, we are ready for the new development which is the new year. This development is toward the complete unification of all mankind under such a world blanket.

Question: If this happens, should we not be afraid of the virus and all that?

Answer: The virus will disappear as soon as we wish to start moving in this direction.
[271598]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/14/20

Related Material:
The Highest Spark Of Love
Secret Meaning Of Rosh HaShanah
Sukkot—The Beginning Of Building The Soul

Filed under: Holidays, News, Spiritual Work, Television - No Comments →

Rosh Hashanah, Slichot, and Yom Kippur are stages of the correction of the soul. The holidays we celebrate in this world symbolize the actions we need to perform within ourselves that relate to every person on the path of his or her correction.

Anyone who feels the need to correct himself in order to get closer to the Creator, unite, and adhere to Him, tries to perform these actions.

On Yom Kippur, we learn how to distance ourselves from our egoism, from the will to receive for our own sake. Yom Kippur symbolizes restriction: when we do not use anything from our will to receive, which is indicated by the five prohibitions customary on this day: do not drink, eat, wash yourself, and so on.

After restricting this egoistic use of desire, we move on to the next stage and learn to bestow for the sake of bestowal. To do this, we need to make a cover for this desire. The process of correcting the desire, which allows it to perform actions of bestowal, is called Sukkot.

On Yom Kippur, we decided not to use this desire and we did not eat or drink—everything was just “do not do.” Now we are learning how to turn this will to receive into a tool that allows us to start bestowing, performing the action of Bina, of faith. Sukkah, the thatch, Schach, the covering, symbolizes this correction. We want to cover our egoism, our will to receive, because we have already decided that we cannot enter spirituality with it the way it is.

On the other hand, we have nothing but this desire: egoism is everything I am. In what form can the will to receive be used so that the action would be like bestowal? To do this, we need the qualities of Bina, faith.

The Sukkah is the connection between us, the soul we assemble that reaches mutual bestowal and is filled with the light of Hassadim under the shadow of faith. The shadow comes from the cover built over us, a screen, that shows that we do not want to receive anything from the Creator, but we want to be like Him.

On Rosh Hashanah, we decided to follow the path of correction, and on Yom Kippur, we made a restriction. Now we are beginning to build the Kli of Bina, bestowal for the sake of bestowal. And then we will come to a complete Kli that can receive in order to bestow.

We want to reveal the Creator who fills all of reality, to feel Him, to understand Him, and forever to connect with the upper force that controls the entire universe. All of humanity must reach this goal, and then this corporeal world will disappear. All our physical sensations will melt away, and we will rise to the spiritual level, to the true reality where we will exist eternally.

Building a Sukkah is the first stage of the correction of the soul. Ten egoistic desires connect together in mutual bestowal and build a common altruistic force between them so that the Creator can shine the light of Hassadim upon them through their connection. This means that they are in Sukkah.

Then they add more and more to the desire for the sake of bestowal, go out of the Sukkah, and come to receive the light of the sun, that is, the light of Hochma for the sake of bestowal. However, the first stage is reaching the Kli of Bina, faith, bestowal in order to bestow between all the friends and from them to the Creator. This is what the Sukkot holiday is dedicated to.
[271590]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/30/20, “Sukkot“

Related Material:
Holidays From The Perspective Of Kabbalah
Yom Kippur—Request For Correction
Spiritual Holidays, Part 5

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

If we build the spiritual Kli (Sukkah) correctly, then this work will give us only pleasure. If we work together in spirituality, we will only enjoy, we do not need to suffer. If you suddenly feel suffering, it is a sign that our work is not spiritual and we are doing it wrong. It is like the parable about a man who is carrying a heavy suitcase by mistake.

If your load is heavy, then you are carrying the wrong suitcase. You see, the suitcase you must carry is very light. It is so weightless that it is not you who is carrying it. It is carrying you instead. As it is said about the ark of the covenant: “The ark carries its carriers.”
[271595]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/30/20, “Sukkot“

Related Material:
A Flower Instead Of A Suitcase
Turning Anxieties Into Joy
Joy—The Result Of Good Deeds

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →