Question: On the 17^th of Tammuz, after no animals remained for the Kohanim (priests) to sacrifice, the established sacrifices ceased in the Beit HaMikdash (Temple). What were the sacrifices?

Answer: Sacrifice is a very interesting action. If I reflect on the subject of who we are, we are beasts. I exist within my body and constantly think about it. As long as it is alive, I am also alive, and when it dies, I no longer exist either. The sacrifice of my animal indicates that I am truly sacrificing my entire beastly life to the Creator.

Sacrifice (Korban) is from the word “Karov” (close). It symbolizes a person getting closer to the Creator. The person nullifies his egoistic desires one after another and rises above them. In that way he approaches the Creator, the characteristic of bestowal and love, by nullifying his beastly ego. He gradually reaches closeness to Him.

The 17^th of Tammuz, the date on which the priests were finished with their sacrificial animals, indicates that they could no longer bring themselves closer to the Creator. They fell from a spiritual level and returned to the level of the beast; they became “beasts” themselves. Today we must raise ourselves from this level since that is also what is said about our world: “They are all like beasts” (see Psalms 49:13).

The 17^th of Tammuz symbolizes the downfall of even those great people who were on a spiritual level and those characteristics that were in every person when feeling the Creator fell to the level of the beast. Descent for the purpose of ascent is a mixture of the characteristics of the Creator with the characteristics of the creature.

So the 17^th of Tammuz also symbolizes the collective fall of the people, the fall of the highest Kabbalist Kohanim among the people and the fall of every person from his spiritual level so much so that after that nothing remains besides absolute destruction. As a result, we begin to realize the conditions for correction.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/11/16

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Question: It is said on the 17^th of Tammuz, Antiochus Epiphanes burned the Torah and brought a statue of an idol into the Temple. If we look at that from a spiritual perspective, what does that mean?

Answer: The Torah doesn’t simply refer to the tablets or to a scroll of paper with something written on it. The Torah is Light, a spiritual force that descends from an upper level that is filled with love and bestowal unto people who aspire for this level.

The Temple refers to a person’s heart. The fact that a person is above his egoism is called holiness. So when the state of love and bestowal disappears, the Upper Light, the Light of Hassadim (Mercy) disappears and the holiness also disappears, and instead a statue of an idol (of egoism and self-love) is placed in the Temple, which means in our hearts.

This is the reason that humans bow to idols. Of course, we should thoroughly purify our hearts, our attributes, our intentions, and our feelings of all the egoistic idols until we are able to aim our desires at the full connection between us, so that each of us will think only about the wellbeing of others.

Question: Is the fall from the holy level of connection also an act of destruction?

Answer: Yes, but it is essential because otherwise the Creator will not be able to insert His attributes into the created being. The attributes should be opposite and at the same time include each other inside them, the Creator should include the attributes of the created being, and the created being should include the attributes of the Creator.

Then they will begin to create attributes that come in contact, that can resemble each other, one opposite the other; the Creator descends to the created being thanks to the incorporation of the created being’s attributes inside Him, and the created being can rise at least a bit above his life, which means above his attributes and desires, and reach the level of the Creator.

Thus they mutually cooperate. This sums the whole principle of the correction called Tzimtzum Bet (the second restriction).

It is important to say that the mutual penetration of the opposite attributes doesn’t stem from the 17^th of Tammuz or the 9^th of Av but from Adam’s sin, because it is there that the system of mutual connection and the equivalence of form of the created being to the Creator already exists thanks to the sin and the clash of the polar attributes.

Thus the chain of ascents and descents should regularly take place in every person. So I wish you all successful descents, which should be followed each time by an ascent!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/11/16

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Question:  What can you tell us about the 17^th of Tammuz?

Answer: The entire period after the holiday of Shavuot and the giving of the Torah, meaning the “descent” of the unification system and elevation above the human ego, is portrayed for us as a very complex stage. It is impossible to simply achieve realization of the correction method among the Jewish people or all of humanity without serious complications. We see that every action, even the best, in any case must begin from suffering, from an impulse, from an understanding that it cannot be realized, that it requires sacrifices, and it is specifically the events of the 17^th of Tammuz that provide an answer to this subject.

The 17^th of Tammuz is a tragic date in the history of the Jewish people. It was the beginning of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (Temple) in Jerusalem. In all times this date has been marked with sorrow. It symbolizes the beginning of becoming aware of our inability to carry out the plan of creation, meaning the direct correction of human nature.

After all, to correct it we must incorporate all of our characteristics with those of the Creator. This is a very interesting point because there is nothing positive about us!

The incorporation of the positive characteristics of the Creator with the negative characteristics of the person in order to change their form from a “mess” can only happen with destruction, with a shattering. Otherwise it is impossible to bring the two characteristics, the two opposing categories, together.

It is achieved only through an “explosion” as in the formation of metal alloys or the formation of a mixture of oil and water. It is accomplished only through a strong and shaking collision.

This is how the walls of the Temple were crumbled and then the Temple itself was destroyed. Everything was shattered and ground into dust! So for thousands of years the Jewish people endured much suffering including the Holocaust, expulsion, extermination and pogroms.

We have reached a state, where through studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, under the influence of the Upper Light, we are beginning to differentiate true goodness from bad, the characteristics of the Creator from the characteristics of the creature. By separating and correcting them, we place them as two lines against each other and abide in the middle line between them, combining good and bad in the correct mutual relationship with each other.

The 17^th of Tammuz (Yud-Zayin Tammuz) represents the beginning of the explosive shattering through and the power of the mutual entry of the two opposite properties of the Creator and creation.

Egoism and the characteristics of the Creator, (the property of love and bestowal), can exist separately by themselves. But when they come in contact with each other, an explosion occurs without which it is not possible to recognize the evil of our nature and begin its correction.

It is in this explosive entry of the forces of good in the force of evil, that have within them so-called Reshimot, informational records by which gradually, with the help of the Upper Light, it is possible to place the ego in the lowest state and obligate it to serve the goodness of the characteristics of bestowal and love since it cannot do anything itself.

Therefore, from the point of view of the wisdom of Kabbalah, these are essential periods. They existed from the beginning within the plan of creation even before their realization in our world, beginning with the siege of the Temple in Jerusalem followed by its destruction.

We have already gone through all of this, and now if we behave correctly, we can expect only good times of correction and the correct realization of the Reshimot that are found within our egoism.

For this we must attract the Upper Light to be able to distinguish with its help where there is a bad characteristic and where there is a good characteristic, how to separate between them, and how to correct one relative to the other. If we approach correction correctly, then no more evil will be revealed in the world because all of the negative characteristics of the creature will have already been revealed in the past.

The wisdom of Kabbalah makes it possible for us to begin with a fundamental cleansing and clarification of our characteristics, to evaluate the states we are going through clearly, to choose the positive side relative to the negative, and  to place them correctly one against the other.

Then from the connection between them, we can build a single field and a correct connection between us that will be called the “Third Temple,” the common desire that will reveal the upper force and a new level of existence to us.

I hope that these days will be used as a push to recognize what is happening and that people will begin with a correction to move properly and easily through the clarification of the evil in their nature.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/11/16

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New Life 700 – The Sabbath Customs
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Man belongs to the animal world and the difference between him and animals is the desire to know what he is living for. Abraham taught that the question about the meaning of life leads a person to the revelation of the upper force. To discover the upper world, we have to correct the evil inclination in us, our ego.

The Sabbath candles symbolize the Light that comes unto us as a result of the corrections we perform during the six weekdays.

We have to resemble the upper force and become loving and giving according to the plan of creation. Abraham discovered that there is a special force in nature that can help us accomplish this mission, which is the force of the Light, the force of love and giving. Therefore we light two candles, which symbolize the two kinds of Light: the Light of correction of the different parts of the ego and the Light of filling.

When we light the Sabbath candles we should think about getting closer to the love of others. When the egoistic desire is corrected, it is called a soul and it operates with the intention of love and bestowal like the Creator.

Why is it the woman who lights the candles, why do we cover the eyes, and why do we bless? These customs stem from spiritual roots that symbolize the corrections we have to perform. The wine symbolizes the Light of Hochma and the bread symbolizes the Light of Hassadim.

When we sing the song “Welcome the Angels of Peace,” we sing about the forces that correct the desire to receive into bestowal. These correcting forces turn a person into a loving person who bestows unto others and then he discovers the upper world. “Oneg Shabbat” (the pleasure of Sabbath) symbolizes the great Light that a person who has corrected his ego in the spiritual state called the “Sabbath.”
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From KabTV’s “New Life 700 – The Sabbath Customs,” 3/8/16

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New Life 699 – Sabbath The Day Of Rest
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

There are days and nights in nature; there are months and years, but there is no week in nature. In fact the nation of Israel added the idea of a week. Starting from the first man who discovered the upper force until the last man who will discover it 6,000 years later, this is the time that symbolizes the six weekdays. The seventh millennium symbolizes the corrected state in correspondence to which the Sabbath is a world to come. The essence of the correction is the transition from egoism to love thy friends as thyself through the Light that Reforms.

Since the destruction of the Second Temple, only the external form of the Sabbath customs are left and nothing more. The spiritual Sabbath is the Sabbath of the end of correction, when we are all as one man in one heart, adhered to the Creator. If we don’t engage in the correction of the ego, we have nothing more than a psychological impression of the Sabbath. But a person who corrects himself discovers systems of six correcting forces and the state of Sabbath at the end, which means a cycle. We don’t work on the Sabbath because we have completed our correction in this spiritual state. Other nations copied the structure of the week from us and set their own day of rest.

The weekdays symbolize our engagement with the ego that is divided into six parts that we have to correct, while the Sabbath symbolizes the corrected state and this is where the customs associated with it stem from. But the actual customs don’t correct the ego. All the Jewish customs are corporeal branches that imply what the spiritual root of correcting the evil inclination into love is.

The first man (Adam HaRishon) discovered the upper force for the first time 5,776 years ago, although there were many generations before him.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 699 – Sabbath The Day Of Rest,” 3/8/16

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In ancient Babylon Abraham discovered that the egoistic force that erupted could be balanced by the good force. He realized that it was not a local conflict that only related to Babylon, but it applied to the entire universe, to the entire upper system that includes in itself not only this world, but also the five upper worlds.

So Abraham began to ask how it was possible to reach this balance? After all, our egoism is very shallow in comparison to the upper worlds and the great forces of good and evil that act in them. What a tremendous evil force we need to reveal in order to attain the entire positive force of nature? How would we be able to withstand such egoism?

And the Creator consoled Abraham that he has nothing to worry about, because his descendants would go into exile. Meaning that the group called Israel would receive such a big negative force that would oblige them to reveal a positive force to balance it.

The balance of these two forces starts from the state at Mt. Sinai and the receiving of the Torah. We by ourselves cannot extract the positive force from nature that would balance the tremendous force of our egoism.

We need an entire system for achieving this positive force and the balance between the two forces. This system is called the Temple, a huge vessel, a special state, where negative and positive forces are in harmony with each other.

When Abraham heard this from the Creator he realized that success was guaranteed. The most important thing was to reveal a powerful negative force called Egypt. This entire negative force is revealed as the Pharaoh that rules over the children of Israel and makes them feel that they must rise above him.

A miracle happens at Mt. Sinai where they receive this positive force. This is a big holiday, a great joy from rising above our nature, and new horizons open in front of a person.

It is impossible to reveal the positive force without revealing the big negative force within us, because the egoism acts as “help against it” and pushes us forward, forcing us to look for the positive force. We feel that we can’t exist in slavery to our egoism any longer. All the Egyptian plagues and blows to our ego push us to reveal the good force.

Question: What conclusions can we draw from the events at Mt. Sinai for our lives today?

Answer: The giving of the Torah happens every day and a person needs to imagine himself standing at Mt. Sinai again. Every moment we need to renew this root again and again, because the egoistic force within us is renewed all the time and we need to draw the positive force against it in order to balance them.

We will continue to advance this way until we reveal the entire negative force and the entire positive force against it, each time reaching the balance between them. It means rising through 125 degrees. At the end, the positive force called the Creator will balance the entire egoistic force allotted to the creature. And then we will feel ourselves in harmony between these two forces and will reach the revelation of the good upper force.

And the negative force wasn’t bad, it actually helped us reveal the Creator and unite with Him.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 6/2/16

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New Life 733 – The Correction Of The Night Of Shavuot
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

The correction of the night of Shavuot (Tikkun Leil Shavuot) is a spiritual state in which the darkness of the ego is revealed and then we require the Light of Torah. The Light of Torah makes it possible for us to accept every situation as a situation that precedes correction and associates everything with “There is none else beside Him” (Deuteronomy 4:35).

From the darkness, from the discovery of the evil, the ego demands correction. In Judaism, the intent of the concept of night is that the day begins from it, correction begins from it.

Humanity is beginning to understand today that there is a negative force in us that drives us toward war and discord. The wisdom of Kabbalah says that this is a good state. It is the “evening.” If we know how to correct ourselves, the morning arrives.

In the spiritual process, the right decision is accepted in a state called “midnight” because in the greatest darkness there is a great Light that illuminates our mind and feeling and advances us toward love and bestowal. The correction itself arrives from the connection between people in a group, in a Minyan, for the sake of discovering the Light that Reforms. So the force that can transform us from receptive creatures to creatures of bestowal is called “Torah.”

The correction of the night of Shavuot means that I take it upon myself to begin to correct my heart from hatred to love of others, to love of the Creator. Loving the Creator means equalizing our characteristics with His characteristics, becoming good and benevolent like Him. The correction is implemented in relation to others because the essence of the correction is love of others, connection to others.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 733 – The Correction Of The Night Of Shavuot,” 6/9/16

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New Life 731 – The Giving Of The Torah On Mount Sinai
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What is the Torah that Moses received on Mount Sinai, why did its reception depend on the connection of the people of Israel, and how do we return to being a “Light unto the nations”?

Making a covenant is the first condition from the upper force, and the lower will feel that its nature is evil and will want to balance it. The second condition is that a person will seek to know what the goal of life is. Many people ask this, but they have no answer. We have developed an entire culture in order to suppress this question.

The evil inclination, the evil desire, is divided into 613 individual desires. Corresponding to them are the 613 Lights of the Torah. We receive the Torah on condition that we are ready to connect. Then there are two forces in us, negative and positive, in order to reach balance. Only one characteristic in us, “Moses,” can rise above the ego, above “Mount Sinai,” above the evil inclination that is revealed.

The revelation while standing at Mount Sinai is an internal revelation, within a person. It is the discovery of great “Gevurot” (heroism). After receiving the Torah, the people advance toward love of others. They feel that they belong to a single system. Three forces are included in the chosen people: negative, positive, and we in the middle between these two forces build the third force. The chosen people are people who draw upon the good force, the Upper Light, and transmit it to all the nations of the world. With the correction of all the evil, Mount Sinai, the Beit HaMikdash (Temple) is built on the “holy mountain.” Everything comes to correct the connection between us, but human development does not end with this because everyone from Babylon must reach this.

In the past, the connection among the people of Israel was destroyed, so they were dispersed among the nations. In our generation, it is up to us to correct this fracture, meaning ourselves and the world. We are the spiritual descendants of those people who felt divinity and it is up to us to receive the Torah again.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 731 – The Giving Of The Torah On Mount Sinai,” 6/2/16

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Dear friends! During these days we celebrate the greatest holiday that symbolizes receiving the upper force in our world, its revelation and possibility to use it for the common good, for the spiritual elevation of the humanity in order for everyone to become a dweller of the upper world and to feel eternity, infinity, and perfection.

Contact with the upper world is a gift of connection that we can use for our benefit and the benefit of others, but only on condition that we will take on arms the upper force and bring the entire world to perfection with its help. This is the mission of our nation in the name of which we received the upper Light called the Torah.

During a short historical period we were realizing the spiritual method only among ourselves, but today the time has come when the entire world needs it. And therefore, as it is said in the wisdom of Kabbalah, we have reached the state of the “last generation,” meaning the last generation that can feel only a limited material world.

Let’s start to unite together in order to reveal the upper Light within us, in the center of our union, according to the law of “love your neighbor as yourself.” Then it will start to gush, will be manifested within us from the depth of the universe, and will change the entire world and us!

Everything depends only on us. We have come to the state when the entire history of the humanity faces the moment of accomplishing the great correction. The Light is ready to affect the world.

Therefore, we have to achieve that the Torah be given to the entire humanity so it will begin to feel itself existing in the quality of love, kindness, and mutual connection and will rise to the next level of the universe, above life and death, above limitations of our world, and above all problems. This is the giving of the Torah, meaning the upper Light, upper force, and our receiving it.

I wish everyone to realize this way the holiday of Shavuot, the holiday of the giving of the Torah!
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New Life 561 – The Holiday Of Shavuot In Israeli Society
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What does the Wisdom of Kabbalah say about the consumption of dairy products and fruit that is typical of the holiday of Shavuot? How is it possible to realize the occasion of the giving of the Torah and what is assured to humanity through receiving the Torah?

The consumption of dairy products symbolizes love, like the love of a mother for her children. The color white symbolizes Light, clean giving. If we relate to each other with love, we attain very special fruits, we discover a perfect world.

The problem is that we naturally feel everything only through the desire to receive, stealing for myself, exploitation, and so forth. There is a special force that can transform the bad attitude toward others to a good attitude. We call this force “Torah.”

The wisdom of Kabbalah makes it possible for a person to receive the force of the Torah, the force that corrects our attitude toward others. We receive the Torah with the Exodus from Egypt, which symbolizes the summit of distance, hatred, and separation.

If we don’t bring the good force into Israeli society, we cannot continue to exist. The good force is inherent in nature, it is hidden. Therefore, the method for discovering it is called the “wisdom of the hidden.” Kabbalah teaches us that if we don’t connect with the help of the good force, our enemies will compel us to connect.

Today, neither the religious nor the secular define “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) as the goal of the existence of Israel. Only Kabbalah is engaged with the general rule, “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” and so it succeeds in connecting between all parts of the people.

Making a correction means correcting your attitude toward others from hatred to love with the help of the force of the Light. A corrected person feels responsible for the whole world; his role is to connect the positive force with everyone. In conclusion, the Torah of truth, the hidden Torah, the “Torah of Light, is a method for building love for others, a perfect and eternal life.

Happy Holiday!
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From KabTV’s “New Life 561 –  The Holiday Of Shavuot In Israeli Society,” 5/3/15

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