If the friends externally fulfill the requirements of students, participate in lessons and in the meetings of friends, then I don’t have the right to leave them. The Creator brought me to them, and I must work with them.

Especially now, in our time, to be in a Kabbalistic group is a happy opportunity received from above. The Creator pulls us toward Him.

If a person at least somehow relates to this process, more or less, then I don’t conduct any criticism, for me the main thing is to be connected with everyone in whom there is such a desire. Believe me, we are in a special state called the Exodus from Egypt. This is the outcome of not just one small group led by Abraham, but of representatives of all humankind, all people, all walks of life.

We all want to exit our egoism, to rise and unite with the Creator. The Creator helps us in this, it is not by accident that the coronavirus epidemic has come, which facilitates the exodus from egoism.

The Creator wants to show us how wrong our connection is, and therefore He puts us apart from each other through the coronavirus. Now we need to understand how to connect again, but in the right form. As soon as we are ready to connect correctly, the virus will disappear.

We will not return to the old world, but will come to a new connection, to a new society, to new occupations. Life will not be the same as it was before the coronavirus. Therefore, it is necessary to explain to all of humanity what the Creator requires of us. It is friendship toward each other, it is love in order to reveal the properties of bestowal, it is unity between us, and from love for the creatures to come to love for the Creator.
[262417]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/20, The Writings of Rabash, “The Need for Love of Friends”

Related Material:
The Virus Softens Our Hearts
Stepping Over Into One Heart
Never-Ending Exodus From Egypt

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

Everything Starts from Passover

Question: It is not clear why after Purim, that is after a person, having corrected his desires, becomes similar to the Creator, Passover begins again?

Answer: It is because all the holidays (Hagim) are a circuit, from the word “Mechuga,” moving in the circle.

Everything starts from Passover, which represents the exit from Egypt, that is the revelation of egoism.
Pharaoh represents egoism, which is gradually revealing within us.

Moses (Moshe), from the word “Limshoch,” is the force that pulls us out of egoism and leads out of Egypt.

Ten plagues are ten restrictions that push us toward the exit from Egypt; without them we would not leave it.

Question: Does it mean that a person should feel ten blows on one’s egoism?

Answer: Yes. They are manifested in the awareness of egoistic evil. You begin to understand that your nature is evil.

When a person enters Egypt, he feels darkness, complete hopelessness, he can do nothing with his life, with himself, because egoism buries him alive in the ground.

This was described by Kabbalists based on their inner feelings.

Question: One of the Egyptian plagues is the killing of all the firstborns. What does this mean?

Answer: Children are our future. Killing them means that a person does not see the future in his egoism.

Question: So the Kabbalists sensed these states and made the analogy of our world, for example, the killing of the firstborn and the Egyptian darkness, and described them?

Answer: It is absolutely obvious that these actions in the spiritual world should produce such consequences in our world. This is why this is described in the language of our world.

Question: Did these firstborns really die in Egypt?

Answer: No. The Torah describes everything that happens at the upper degrees within us when we are working on ourselves, trying to exit Egypt, receive the light called “the Torah,” a state of spiritual elevation, which is called the Land of Israel, and so on.
[261969]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/29/19

Related Material:
Spiritual Holidays, Part 8
Spiritual Holidays, Part 7
Spiritual Holidays, Part 6

Filed under: Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/8/20

Every Passover night, during the ceremonial meal, there is a custom to pour one extra cup of wine and keep it for Elijah the Prophet as a welcoming gesture. Passover symbolizes passing over from egoism to altruism, and Elijah symbolizes the force that changes us from love of ourselves to loving our neighbors. Egypt symbolizes our egoism, and we begin to feel Egypt as an exile when we begin to want to emerge from our egoism. The more we want to pass over to love of others, the more we suffer from our ego and the darker Egypt becomes for us.

Finally, Egypt becomes so dark that we cannot see anything good about it. It is a state of intense recognition of my selfishness, and a request from the bottom of the heart that the Creator will change me so I will no longer harm or harbor bad thoughts about others. When the request is so intense that no prize or booty can tempt me to even want to enjoy it egoistically, the transition from bad to good occurs. That transition is called “the coming of Prophet Elijah.”

Happy passing over!

Filed under: Facebook, Holidays - No Comments →

The Times of Israel published my new article “Ma Nishtana? A Passover Unlike Any Other”

The Passover holiday this year is expected to be the most unique in modern history. For the first time, the Jewish people, regardless of their location, will celebrate not only around the table but inside the Web. It is a special occurrence as physical restrictions have been imposed to celebrate with extended family—particularly to protect the most vulnerable, the elderly, from potentially contracting the COVID-19. This new situation is also an opportunity to zoom out and look at the bigger picture: the connection between the exit from Egypt and the exit from this pandemic.

On Passover night, everyone sits with their loved ones at a festive table to read about freedom and the sufferings of slavery and plagues, and the desire for liberation. We ask ourselves, Ma nishtana? (what has changed), which is an inner reflection on what makes this night different from all other nights. This year, that traditional question adopts a deeper dimension, demanding from us a meaningful and thorough scrutiny.

Passing Over All Calamities

Passover (Pesach) means “passage” or “transition” from the egoistic state of self-love to love for the neighbor, where you think of others, even if just a little. This transformation is similar to completely replacing a computer’s operating program. Likewise, we have to replace our current inner program of a selfish and egoistic approach with one of mutual consideration.

The coronavirus pandemic surged throughout the world precisely to serve that purpose: to make us realize that the whole of humanity is a single unit, where any element in nature, even as minuscule as a virus, can affect the whole system in the blink of an eye. The pandemic is telling us: “Stay home; you will be locked-down until you begin to realize how internally locked-down you are inside your ego.” Our current circumstances indicate that nature is interconnected and humans are the ones who are isolated, an internal isolation from each other.

The phrase, “we were slaves,” that we recite as part of the Seder tradition, refers to the great ego that rules everything, that we are slaves of Pharaoh, of our egoism—our lack of consideration for others. In the modern world, we seem to have raised Pharaoh’s power to such an elevated height that it batters us with its immensity. Unrestrained egoism pits us against the others, provoking rejection, quarrels, and struggles.

COVID-19, Not a Plague but an Opportunity

All human beings and all parts of nature are linked within one closed system, and if one individual thinks only of himself, he is harmful to everyone else. Furthermore, such harm reproduces and spreads widely and rapidly like an epidemic. Just like a healthy body requires complete integration between all its organs and systems, integration is also the only formula for a healthy society that will ensure that no damage is done to either mankind or the rest of nature. Through the coronavirus, nature is trying to bring us to the awareness that mutual guarantee, becoming as one man with one heart, is a necessity for our survival.

Therefore, COVID-19 cannot be considered a malevolent plague that has appeared for no reason or purpose, just like the plagues in the Haggadah we traditionally read about during the Passover Seder (ceremonial meal). The virus is actually an opportunity for humanity, this year like no other, to break free from the clutches of self-destruction and slavery. These challenging times are placing a mirror before us, raising awareness of what we need to correct in order to be in balance with nature, which is our intention to consider the well-being of others. If the purpose behind our connection with the world is to exploit everything around us only for personal gain, the time comes when these bad connections become so unbearable that nature breaks them apart by manifesting itself as a calamity.

When we fix our disruptive and destructive human relations and unite above our differences, we are saved from our enemies and come out from exile to freedom. The exit from egoistic thoughts and actions to those of bestowal is the deeper meaning of coming out of Egypt.

Each unification of our hearts and good intentions with another is a realization of the principle “love thy friend as thyself,” the great rule of the Torah.

All of the commandments, meaning the actions toward these corrections, are included within that one great rule until we finally reach the complete correct connection and enter the Land (Eretz, from the word Ratzon [desire]) of Israel (Yashar-El, meaning straight to the Creator). In other words, our desire becomes similar to and unites with the force of nature that controls everything—the Upper Force that brings about freedom, health, and all goodness in life. Happy Passover!
[262858]

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

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/3/20

The whole world is coming out of Egypt these days, not just the people of Israel. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, Egypt symbolizes the ego, and through #COVID-19, we are being pulled out of our egoism and into a more inclusive and considerate worldview. The #coronavirus is forcing us to look at the health of the whole world and not only our own; it forces us to be in mutual guarantee and mutual responsibility.

The Hebrew word “Mashiach” (Messiah) comes from the word “Moshech” (pulling). These days, we are all being pulled out of our inherent egoism. It is unpleasant and often frightening, but it’s the beginning of a new era in humanity, a time of mutual care and mutual responsibility, a time of unity.

This Passover, as we celebrate the exodus of our people from Egypt, let’s also be thankful for the beginning of the exodus of the entire world, every person in humanity.

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

What do Purim’s Characters Represent?

Question: What do the characters of the Purim holiday represent: the King, Queen Esther, Mordecai, and Haman?

Answer: Haman is our great egoism without which we could not achieve the complete correction.
Esther, from the word “concealment,” represents Malchut, which acts in concealment and around which everything revolves.

Mordecai (Mor-Dror) is a quality of Bina, the righteous man who needs nothing. He is only waiting for the state where he can really serve.

Ahasuerus is a king, above whom is the Creator.

The people represent all our desires. This whole group of actors acts out Purim.

Question: Indeed, we perceive Purim as a children’s holiday when everyone wears costumes and puts on masks. Why is there such a custom?

Answer: People put on masks because we do not fully know the essence of this holiday: who each one is really acting, who is hiding behind what, and why all this is necessary.

If we try to act out this story correctly within ourselves, in the soul, in the connection between us, then in the end we reach a state called “Purim.”

Pur, Goral—the lot is cast in such a way that is absolutely unclear why. In the end, everything should have been on the side of the villain Haman, who wanted to destroy the people, but it turned out in the opposite way: he was hanged on the same gallows that he prepared for Mordecai.
[261197]
From Kab TV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/29/19

Related Material:
Spiritual Holidays, Part 7
Spiritual Holidays, Part 6
Spiritual Holidays, Part 5

Filed under: Events, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Purim is the Complete Correction of the Soul

There are two types of correction: the absence of receiving is to reach the level of Hanukkah, and receiving for the sake of others is to reach the next level, from Hanukkah to Purim.

Purim is the use of one’s egoistic desires not for oneself, but for the sake of others.

I can address all my arsenal, all my qualities in my heart and mind, in my feelings and thoughts, to the world, from myself outward. This is what we need to do. It is how we reach the next very high degree—the complete correction of the soul, which is called Purim.

“Purim” is from the word “Pur (lot).” You as if cast a lot because at the level you have reached everything happens above reason, only in complete bestowal.

Question: Why did the events of Purim occur about 2,500 years ago and Hanukkah—in the second century BC? It would seem that it should be the other way around.

Answer: It does not matter.

Question: Are historical events related to this?

Answer: No. Moreover, it all cascades from above downward, and in our time, it ascends from below upward. This is a backward count.
[261194]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/29/19

Related Material:
Spiritual Holidays, Part 6
Spiritual Holidays, Part 5
Spiritual Holidays, Part 4

Filed under: Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Is coronavirus the beginning of the Egyptian plagues?

Question: Now we are on the threshold of the Passover holiday and the symbol of this holiday is ten plagues sent to Pharaoh. Is the coronavirus epidemic the beginning of a series of cataclysms?

Answer: There is no doubt that we are at a very interesting stage in our development, which today requires us to get closer to each other in a more correct way. What is required from us is not mutual trade, not mutual revenue, when we use each other wanting to profit at someone else’s expense, but the relationship to each other through good connections. Then we can fly, move, and connect as much as we want.

Question: Are you talking about some kind of internal sensory relationships?

Answer: About intentions.

Question: Indeed, today we feel a great dependence of everyone on everyone. If a glacier was melting somewhere before or there was a war, it was not felt at all. Today, however, it affects the whole world and naturally everyone is concerned. There is relative solidarity here, but it is seemingly negative: I do not want to be dependent on others.

How can we move from forced integration when we feel this dependence to positive integration?

Answer: There is nothing we can do. We can only learn from the example of ancient Egypt. There, too, everything was done through the blows, through ten Egyptian plagues.

Imagine that there will be no coronavirus, so there will be something else. Let’s say we live quietly as we did a couple of months ago.

And suddenly there is a war somewhere in Africa and Latin America, no matter where, because of which the extraction of some raw materials, for example, rare earth metals, stops. Because of a couple of kilograms produced in a year, the entire economy can stop. What will you do then?

All governments will immediately start pursuing these two countries, which are at war with each other and stopping the export of material necessary for the whole world. The world will still discover global dependence and will have to take measures to ensure that relations between everybody are smooth and good. Otherwise, there will be nothing.

Comment: By the way, Wikipedia gives the following definition of interdependence: “in an interdependent relationship, it is assumed that all participants emotionally, economically, environmentally, morally, and in some other way influence each other.” In other words, dependence is not only physical but also moral.

My Response: Yes, it is manifested at all levels.

Question: Does it mean that there is a lack of understanding of this dependence in society?

Answer: This is the main thing. This is why if we want to wreck each other’s lives, we stop trading, even to our own detriment, only to make sure that it will be even worse for the other.

Question: What kind of pain do you think people feel today? How does the virus affect people? What is the state humanity is in?

Answer: Today, people do not yet feel the full essence of this problem. They digest it, but they are not choking on it yet, so to say; they are not really concerned, “Well, there is, of course, a virus. Well, out of 100 million 100 people die. So what?” You see, this is not the scale that can impress the world.

Comment: It was the same in Egypt, these blows also began slowly. However, we have a chance to come to our senses.

My Response: Yes. By disseminating the method of integral connection we can explain that all this can be stopped.
[261940]
From KabTV’s “Coronavirus Is Changing Reality,” 3/12/20

Related Material:
Coronavirus Is Changing Reality, Part 2
Coronavirus Is Changing Reality, Part 1
The Global Pandemic

Filed under: Coronavirus, Crisis, Globalization, Health, Holidays - No Comments →

Medium published my new article “When Purim Meets International Women’s Day”

The events described in the Purim story hint at humanity’s spiritual corrections. Translating these corrections from the poetic and colorful language of legend to the language of qualitative inner change lets us see how they describe connection among people, and how we can strengthen such connection. We can then find ourselves, our inner states, our attitudes to each other, and our various relationships as the characters and situations taking place in the Purim story.

International Women’s Day, which falls on Purim this year, draws our attention to two women in the Purim story: Esther and Zeresh, the symbolic representations of two forces at work in the world, which are in fact one.

Every woman has a Queen Esther (wife of King Ahasuerus) side: the quality of righteousness, which justifies the actions of nature and its laws, the laws of love. Every woman also has another Zeresh (wife of the wicked Haman the Agagite) side: a threatening quality, which condemns the power of nature and denies its laws.

How can we discover the attribute called “Esther” within us?

We first need to traverse the attribute of Zeresh, a mind state that focuses our thoughts on how to squeeze the most out of the world: to buy and sell, to receive and control. It is this feminine quality that prods men to strive for power and honor. Without the claims and demands of such a quality, men would be satisfied with much less, fulfilling their basic needs.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Zeresh is also known as “the corrupted Malchut,” the egoistic desire to enjoy for self-benefit alone, prior to being corrected with an opposite intention to love and bestow. She wants to be above others and to erase them, having no concern for any meagerness and mediocrity that she influences upon them.

Women are mostly unaware of the desires that Zeresh represents, because the surfacing of those desires can bring about much anguish. Can a woman fulfill the aspirations to be more beautiful, talented and successful than other women? By nature, such egoistic desires can never be completely fulfilled, as there will always be someone more beautiful, talented and successful. Why, then, would any woman want to hurt herself for no apparent reason? Therefore, such desires mostly lurk repressed within, beyond the reach of conscious awareness.

This is the way of Zeresh, one that lacks self-awareness. Moreover, such a woman can feel righteous, that she wants only good for everyone, while in fact, her attributes are the polar opposite of goodness.

The attributes of goodness are represented by Esther.

Discovering the loathsome inner urges to be better than others illuminates the spiritually elevated form of sincere concern and love for others, Esther’s qualities. When women reach the high spiritual level that Esther represents, they rise above the competitive games and materialistic trappings of the ego.

Esther is concealed and humble. She acts behind the scenes, moving the world with transparent threads of love for others, not self-love and never for herself. She runs the world by exemplifying how to live by loving others. Esther represents the desire to enjoy created by the Creator, but includes the quality of love and bestowal, the desire to give. Esther uses all of her power and skill to lead society to unification, peace and love.

The Purim holiday and International Women’s Day show us the paramount role of women for the betterment of the world. Both feminine forces, Zeresh — the driving progressive force — and Esther, its corrected state — the force of compassion, love and care — are indispensable to bring about unification, peace, love and balance among humanity.

It is possible to reach a balanced state in humanity when female qualities and male qualities complement one another. Therefore, instead of focusing on how men or women can independently rise, we need to learn how to rise together.

It is no coincidence that the drive to find new balance between the genders has become so prominent in our time. Humans are evolving toward a higher experience of life, and for this reason, we have a yearning for a greater sense of wholeness. Lasting harmony, however, can only emerge when opposite forces complement each other.
[261301]

Filed under: Holidays, New Publications - No Comments →

KabNet published my new article: “The Meaning Of Purim”

Purim, which takes place on the 14th of Adar, is the holiday of opposites. It connects between happiness and despair, concealment and revelation, Mordechai and Haman, exile and redemption.

Purim (which stems from the word “Pur” [“lot”]) is the ideal spiritual situation, the final correction (Gmar Tikkun). It is a state where a person’s desires are corrected with the intention in order to bestow, and one becomes united with all desires, thus filling one’s desire with the Creator’s revelation (i.e., the revelation of the quality of bestowal and love that connects among all desires).

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF PURIM

Megillat Esther (The Book of Esther) describes forces that unfold in the person. These forces are what a person attaining spirituality discovers in connection with the Creator. They manage everything taking place in everyone’s lives, and have been given the names Mordechai, Esther, Haman, as well as many others.

The story of Purim unfolds before the construction of the Second Temple, soon before the Aliyah (ascent) to the land of Israel. It depicts the final battle before the final correction (Gmar Tikkun). At this stage, the people of Israel, the innermost desire within the person that aspires to spirituality, live calmly and peacefully in the kingdom of Ahasuerus.

Mordechai, the spiritual desire that wants only to adhere to the Creator (the quality of bestowal and love), lived happily and the kingdom was at peace.

The people of Israel represent the majority of the desires that want to go straight to the world’s leader to learn the law of the universe (the word “Israel” comes from the words “Yashar Kel” [“straight to God”]).

Indeed, in the beginning of the story, the narrative suggests that there is something wrong: “There is one nation that is scattered among the nations.” This passage can also be read as “There is one desire that is scattered among the desires.” It is this nation, Israel, the desire for spirituality (a desire of bestowal and love), that is supposed to be united against all other nations, which are desires for self-gratification. The strength of the desire for spirituality (Israel) comes only from its unity, so when it is dispersed, it signifies that the person has not yet fulfilled his destiny, for only the people of Israel (the united desire for bestowal and love above all other desires) can lead the other nations (all other desires for self-gratification) to the common goal, adhesion with the Creator.

The evil Haman, who represents the egoistic desires in the person, wants to exploit the situation for personal gain. He eventually wants to overthrow the king from his throne. Haman believes that the fact that the people of Israel, the Jews, are dispersed testifies to their weakness, confusion and lack of faith. Therefore, he finds the situation to be a rare opportunity to eliminate the Jews from the face of the earth, as they are the sole force that stands between him and exploiting the Creator.

What Haman fails to understand, however, is that the Jews are dispersed for a reason: The Jews’ dispersion (i.e., the dispersion of the small amount of spiritual desires among the large amount of egoistic desires) is in order for all desires to acquire the form of bestowal and love, i.e. that spiritual unity comes in integration and perfect balance with all desires, and not in separation to them. Indeed, we will see the truth of it when at the end of the story, all people reform. The meaning is that all the desires in the person, called “people,” accept the spiritual desires that leads to confidence and happiness, called “Israel.”

The Israel in a person (the altruistic part) is limited. That limitation can only be overcome by the evil Haman. That is why we need to find the Haman (the egoistic part) within us.

Filed under: Holidays, Kabbalah Study, New Publications - No Comments →