Entries in the 'Inner Work' Category

Don’t Let Disappointment Be The Result Of Your Efforts

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a person still annul oneself?

Answer: One does this out of desperation and hopelessness. This takes place on the condition that the person doesn’t run away. If one comes to class twice a week instead of seven times and doesn’t become included in the group, one prolongs time. Of course, nothing is ever lost, and even the smallest exertion still counts. But the question still stands, how big is this contribution?

Put together a clear schedule for yourself, such as group work and dissemination, and then begin to implement it without any desire. The heart is where the deeds are. That’s the way our world is, and it’s a good thing that it’s been designed this way. After all, we can awaken our hearts with the help of deeds.

People adopt someone else’s child, put forth efforts and begin to love this child. At first, they don’t have any natural love towards it, but later this child becomes more loved by them than a biological child. The point is that this requires a lot of effort.

We’ve put a lot of effort into our spiritual development as well. But it still needs to be analyzed to find out what it gave us. We fall into despair, and this is very good! The disappointment shouldn’t throw us back home—in the place where the children of Israel cried out from the hard work.

A man is obliged to embark on the next level of work, but one escapes it, since after all, one gets disappointed. A person thinks that the result is obvious, and can’t comprehend that disappointment is this result. This should be a desired and correct result at a person’s current level.

While a person thinks that no results were ever achieved and there was no success, he accuses the group, the teacher himself, and decides to quit. The only one thing to blame here is the misunderstanding of the revelation to a person that one does not have the power to get closer to the Creator. What could be better than such a state?

There should be no happier moments in life than when all of the attempts of a person fail. We see that the friends who were with us for years didn’t understand this and left. Each one of us can be in their place, as it is said “Do not believe in yourself until the day you die,” that is, until death of egoism and complete correction of your desire.

In this state, it is necessary to drag yourself to the lesson by force and try to wake yourself up, engage with the group and get the group’s strength. This is where the work is.

There’s nothing particularly to enjoy when you wake up and feel inspired right off the bat. But if you wake up with an effort and drag yourself by force and start to awaken and force yourself to work, then you really do the job. You must love this work by which you awaken yourself from the state of unconsciousness.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/14, Writings of Rabash

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Everything Is In The Hands Of Man!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When the innocence and fairness of Job is tested time after time though suffering, three friends approach him to express condolences. They hint that he has done something bad and that it cannot be such that blows came from nothing.

But Job does not agree with this, continuing to insist on his innocence. These friends represent the question that we often ask ourselves: Have I personally done something bad for which I receive punishment, or it is something else?

Answer: Nature does not ask whether we did or did not do something. We imagine fate as evil following evil and good following good. But the law of nature does not act according to this formula. If initially it is said that “man’s heart is evil from his youth,” he automatically finds himself in a negative account.

Question: It turns out that the friends’ advice to look for evil in oneself is wrong?

Answer: He will not find it. He will just come up with different formulas by which one should behave, but will not explore nature itself. He does not take into account that the law of “love thy neighbor as thyself” applies to him.

For example, in our world there are different laws of behavior and culture, such as how to behave in the family, in society, in nature, and etc. Where do these laws come from? Are they based on the knowledge of nature, the good? No. Typically, people come up with them according to their calculations, and we must respect them.

It turns out that we initially form relationships between ourselves in a distorted way and then do not know where bad luck comes from. How do we come up with this nonsense in that we say that the Creator gave, the Creator took, the Creator is blessed, and I have nothing to do with it? I feel I’m a saint. I accept this fate as it comes from Above and do not see my participation. How will new misfortunes not come my way?

Question: People tend to think that if misfortune happens to someone, then obviously he did something bad individually. And you describe the system, meaning look not at individual destiny, but the destiny of society.

Answer: It is difficult to consider an individual’s fate because our vision is limited. There are notorious sinners, who feel well. And if I look with my egoistic eyes, I see people enjoy by deceiving others and stealing throughout their lives. They have everything, are even respected, and after death are called righteous. The question is whether or not he can serve as an example. Of course not! One person’s individual life cannot be an example.

Question: If misfortunes come to a person one after another, in the end, he will curse the day he was born. Many people feel that death is better than such a life.

Answer: This is an escape from responsibility, from purpose, and an unwillingness to hear. It is necessary to form public opinion that will help a person hear that there is a goal and that he needs to organize his life. It is neither blind fate nor destiny. Everything is in the hands of man!
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/28/14

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Esau and Jacob: A Battle for Leadership

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The Torah says that Jacob followed his mother’s advice and pretended he was his brother Esau. By that, he deceitfully received Isaac’s blessing. What is this story about?

Answer: Isaac represents the left line. Esau and Jacob stand for two lines that derive from him. Neither one of them can exist without the other.

Jacob was the one who was meant to receive the blessing, since he was chosen to define and execute the entire process of correction. He is the one who provided everything to achieve the corrected state at the end of the process.

However, Isaac gave birth to Esau because it is absolutely impossible to advance without his line. In essence, Esau’s line is the line of desire, emptiness, a need and a demand to be fulfilled. In other words, Esau signifies a sensation of emptiness, suffering, and pursuit.

That’s why Esau went to the fields (field of life), which stands for the foundation of human existence in the capacity of a relatively free subject. Without this basis, human life has no meaning whatsoever. Without the quality named Esau, one cannot transition to a state called Adam (Man), and so remains at the animate level. This explains why Esau was Isaac’s firstborn to whom he was supposed to transfer everything he had.

Conversely, for Isaac’s wife Rivkah, it was not so because the program of creation was originally inherent in Jacob, not in Esau. In essence, Jacob is not Isaac’s descendant, rather he is Abraham’s. He is Isaac’s son, but not his firstborn.

This arrangement vividly demonstrates that the program of creation is an auxiliary factor, whereas the matter of creation is the basic thing. The same applies to nature. Even though Israel (“a head for me” – לי ראש) is the head of humanity, still humanity is the basic material of the desire that has to lead to unity, to adhesion with the Creator.

Question: Does it mean that Esau (an empty desire that requires fulfillment) represents the contemporary world?

Answer: The darkest and strongest forces have to be converted into the lighter ones. The Jewish people are obligated to bring the masses to merging with the Creator. The Creator is waiting for Esau, whereas Jacob is assigned to fulfill his role.

It’s a battle for leadership, for which of them is more important. It’s about splitting the functions and identifying what type of connection with the Creator each of them bears. The combat continues until the very last state, at which time the competition between them turns into connecting and replenishing one another. Egoism cannot achieve this result on its own.

In fact, Jacob didn’t really understand why he was involved in this hassle. He was a mama’s boy; he didn’t have immense desires, nor bottomless needs as did Esau. On the other hand, Esau is huge, strong, and mighty, but at the same time he is unhappy and empty. We have to understand his unenviable role. If we look at miserable, unhappy, suffering humanity that earns billions of dollars without any clue of what to do with it, it’s quite hard to envy them. Esau stands for the general masses that have to be brought to order.

Esau demands an answer from Jacob. The foremost anti-Semites, such as Henry Ford, understood this fact and wrote about it. Nevertheless, the Jews still want to escape to America and assimilate there. They do whatever is possible not to be identified as Jews.

Question: Jacob also made slight efforts to resist his mission, but his mother forced him to pursue it. In fact, who is “the mother”? Who pushes the Jewish people to act as Jacob?

Answer: Mother is a property of Bina. It’s a quality of bestowal and love that clearly realizes that otherwise it will never be implemented on the scale of all humanity.

This particular mother has two children, both of whom were born from love called Bina. They are only divided for the purpose of showing humanity the way to unite the properties of Esau and the qualities of Jacob, and demonstrate to humanity how to correctly direct these qualities. The property called Jacob has to cover Esau’s qualities with intention. If it happens, everything will work out well.

In general, neither of the brothers can be blamed for anything. Only by acquiring genuine freedom of will can we implement it into life. I would say that currently we are going through this state. Although it’s not current per se, rather, it started in the Ari’s time, in the 16th century.

Nevertheless, we are quite tardy. Look at what’s going on in the world! We have to fulfill Jacob’s mission as soon as possible. Otherwise, Esau will press on us even stronger. The most essential thing is to realize that it is us who trigger the pressure by doing nothing.
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From KabTV’s “Weekly Torah Portion” 11/14/14

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Ascending Above Time

Dr. Michael LaitmanA person truly fulfills himself when he acquires a new life of bestowal and giving and when he discovers that the force that fills the world is the force of love and bestowal.

Many elderly people discover this at the end of their life, and regret the fact that they cannot identify with this force.

Therefore we have to teach people that a new eternal life is real. Thus, even at a young age, a person will know what to expect and how to make use of time. The right fulfillment of time is necessary in order to bring yourself to a level of existence above time. Time is actually given to us so that we can ascend above it.

This is attained by serving society correctly when a person helps society and society helps him and then the two, man and the society, raise themselves above time.

We must understand that we feel time in our corporeal body, while outside the body, time doesn’t exist. A person has a very subjective inner perception of time since we measure time according to how our body operates: the frequency of our breathing, our heartbeat, and our metabolism, which means according to the life of our corporeal body.

If I detach myself from my physiological body, I can raise myself to another time axis. I no longer perceive the passage of time, but the number of actions that I can perform each time I am in that axis. Then, I am totally independent of time.

It is hard to imagine, but this dimension does exist. Even Einstein said that time is relative. We can say much about time, such as when it ends, when it changes, and how we can stretch or compress it.

Our psychological time totally depends on our corporeal body. If we want to ascend out of this body to the next level, to our spiritual level, to our consciousness, we can detach ourselves from the time of our body.

The body will continue to live, but we will acquire an additional perception of absorbing and extracting, and in the entrances and exits of this system, we will begin to feel life in terms of time that is measured only according to actions of bestowal and receiving and not according to the clock or the orbit of the earth or other celestial objects in space. This has nothing to do with our lives since we are much more complex and sublime than these orbits and cycles that measure time and life.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/22/14

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The Impartial Rotation Of The Wheel Of History

Dr. Michael LaitmanMicah, 7:6; Tractate Sotah 49.6: Before the advent of the Messiah …the house of gathering will be the home of debauchery, Galilee will be destroyed in wars …sages will be shamed, those afraid of sin will be despised, and there will be no truth. Righteous will not be able to get along with the falsehearted, and will be forced to retire.  

Before the coming of Messiah …youngsters will be ashamed of the elders and the elderly will rise in front of the young …for a son disgraces his father; a daughter rises up against her mother; a daughter-in-law, against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the members of his household. Gradually, we are approaching this state. We sense it in all spheres of our life; in families, countries, and social structures.

People remain alone with their egoism and the interests of our friends or family members are not taken into account. The state of affairs that we currently experience is called complete darkness.

In the Tractate Sotah, it is said that “the face of the generation will be as the dog’s grin.” In other words, the face of the generation has already acquired a terrible impression of the dusk. That’s why we talk about the darkness that approaches us.

We notice it when we look at our youngsters, we also watch this process looking at ourselves and observing our own changes. We admit that we unconsciously agree with everything that happens around us without having a clue that this kind of attitude turns into a habit.

This state is completely opposite to the one that might bring us closer to the Creator. It’s only a way of demonstrating how much farther we are getting from Him.

Nonetheless, detachment from the Creator or drawing closer to Him is one and the same move, such as a wheel that rotates in a reverse motion, but still takes us forward. The same concept applies here in that I am at the point that is opposite to my goal, but I still continue advancing.

Question: What sensations do people experience when moral, social, and family values are being destroyed?

Answer: We see what’s going on with families, children, divorces, drugs, and relationships.

Big families are rare these days since solid family connections vanish. Detachment of parents from their children and vice versa is a symbol of our time. Spouses cannot live together any longer since they have nothing in common. We do everything to be independent and invent numerous technological novelties that allow us to be completely autonomous.

We think that our home is our castle. However, we cannot rely on our families, nor count on their support just because we are their parts. There is nothing like that anymore. Instead, numerous nursing homes, various hostels, and other places where people remain lonely are very widespread today.

All these are signs of the darkness that is meant to enhance our need for the Messiah’s arrival, which is the force that will pull us out of the state of detachment and bring us to unity.
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From KabTV’s “Will Messiah Come?” 11/14/14

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The Force Of Spiritual Resurrection

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Isaac forbade Jacob to marry any of Canaan’s daughters. Why is it so important not to “mix?” What does it mean?

Answer: According to the general system, Jacob had to descend solely from the middle line. As a result, he had to originate the property of Israel and reach a big state, adulthood (Gadlut), and give birth to the twelve tribes of Israel. In other words, he was the one who had to generate a complete, correct, and balanced system that had to be shaped in a way that could sustain ascents, shattering, and dissolving into Esau, meaning into humankind, and be reborn, thus reviving all of humanity.

Today, we are the ones who have to complete our spiritual resurrection. However, it doesn’t mean that we have to finish self-correction first and only then humanity’s turn will come. Not at all! We are included within humankind. To the degree of our self-correction, and the level of the spiritual revival of every single one of us, the part that corresponds to each of us will instantaneously be altered. So, we progress according to what we must modify in others.

Question: Is it our responsibility to act on the other nations’ territory?

Answer: Yes. We are carrying their correction on our shoulders and they will start helping us as soon as we succeed. Should we start acting correctly, they will immediately join and follow us, and will ask us to tell them what they are supposed to do.
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From KabTV’s “Weekly Torah Portion,” 11/14/14

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In Each One Of Us There Exists A Foolish Job

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In the well-known story of Job, human suffering is described, which to a greater or lesser degree touches each one of us.  Job was (Job 1:1): …whole-hearted and upright, and one that feared God, and shunned evil. And in spite of it all, troubles fell upon him one after another.

In the end, the bitterest news arrived that a powerful storm had destroyed his house and his ten children were all killed. When he heard about these events, Following this event, Job stated (Job 1:21):…naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither; the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. The first question that pops up for each one of us is, “Was this fate?”

Answer: There are no accidents. There are forces of nature that act on and influence all parts of creation and on all creatures in general, and on separate parts of substances and on substances in general. You can relate to them however you want, but first of all, you conclude that this is not just blind fate but a process that passes through the whole of creation and includes you.

Unlike the natures of the still, vegetative, and animate, we have the ability, with the help of unity and connection between us, of attaining such a common bond, thanks to which we stop being the harmful part of nature. Through this, we neutralize the bad developments. And the same development that must exist will pass over us in the right direction.

Question: It follows that the freedom that is given to us is expressed in a change in attitude to what is happening?

Answer: This is not just an internal attitude, but rather it is also an action. All of nature is united. And humanity within this nature has become a negative factor, since disagreements rip us apart, with each one building himself at the expense of others; we hate each other, distance ourselves from everyone, and we fight all the time.

It follows that in all of nature, only we are harmful, and so all kinds of disasters happen to us. If we were to continue to connect with unity, agreement, cooperation, and Arvut (mutual guarantee), then certainly we would accept the forces that develop us in a positive manner. Freedom is given to us for this.

Question: Why specifically Job, who was “whole-hearted and upright, and one that feared God, and shunned evil” is the one who received blows, becoming the symbol for human suffering for all generations?

Answer: If we ask the people who surround us, then everyone will tell you that they are wholehearted and upright, like Job. “I am evil? No way! I am a decent and loyal citizen!” That is how each one of us relates to himself. Nobody feels the general imbalance! “As for me, the whole world should burn, the main thing is that it will be good for me; I won’t feel this. I am ready to be on an isolated island in the heart of the ocean of the burning world, and nothing concerns me.”

That is what Job also thought: “Thank God, I have everything, so it is okay.” He was whole-hearted and upright when it was good for him, and when it became bad, he also thanked the Creator: “The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD!”  Ultimately he perceives what is happening as the action of the higher power which he cannot influence in any way. I would say that he is portrayed as a fool. He agrees with what was and with whatever there is, but he himself doesn’t do anything.

I think that the same thing is happening today with people. Ask anyone: “Is there a crisis?” Yes. “Is there climate change?” Yes. “Is it true that this is dangerous?” Yes. Everyone sees that there is no work, people are sick, couples divorce, and children live on the street. All this is true, but thank God! Why “Thank God?” And where are you? How are you “whole-hearted and upright”? “Thank God.”Is this your attitude?  That is how it must be? So the suffering continues so that people will change their attitude towards life.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 5/28/14

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Who Corrects the Tenth Part of a Desire?

Dr. Michael LaitmanTorah, “Leviticus,” Kedoshim 19:09-10: And when ye reap the harvest in your country, do not reap up to the end of the edges of your field and do not pick up the harvest that has fallen. And not to strip your vineyard clean and do not pick up the separated remaining berries in your vineyard, leave those for the poor and the stranger, for I am the Lord thy God.

A field means the material desires of a person, which one should cultivate. While correcting them, one uses them for unity and interaction in the overall system of interconnection between all people.

Do not pick up the harvest that has fallen, means that you aren’t able to completely correct yourself. The first nine Sefirot correct themselves through our efforts, request, interconnection, and the work with others. The tenth Sefira is not only impossible to correct, but even to ask for it is impossible. We aren’t able to ask for this egoism to work towards bestowal, since it’s our foundation that separates us from the Creator.

Suppose we have a desire of a certain thickness. It can soak up the properties of the Creator until the last section, up to the tenth. A tenth part doesn’t accept the properties of bestowal.

If we were to correct all nine parts, then in the end we would come to a state where there would be only one-tenth remaining, which will be corrected by the Creator. This will be His very last deed, which will end 6,000 years of our correction.

The inability to self-correct the tenth part is manifested in all prohibiting actions. We are talking about the desires on the different levels. There are desires on the inanimate level, where you want to make vegetative desires by raising oneself from the ground to the next level as a plant.

There are desires that become animate from vegetative, and those desires from the animate level you raise the level of Man. In all of these corrections, there are always actions that are forbidden to you, and all of this is related to the tenth.

But there are times when you can take some desires from the tenth part that is called “remove the top of the milk” and move it back to the first nine Sefirot. Therefore, prohibitive desires are relative. This means that you yourself can’t use them, but the poor passing next to your field can.

It’s also a correction. You leave the forbidden desire of yours to the poor, and when the poor uses it, it corrects your tenth. You can’t lift this part from the property of reception to the property of bestowal, but the poor can.

In turn, the poor person who receives this food from you isn’t able to use his or her tenth part of it, and should give it as a donation (Maaser) to the Temple or to something similar. This is how the chain of our interconnection must work.

Question: How will one feel that this is the tenth part with which I can’t work?

Answer: You will feel it when you don’t have any more strength to do anything else. If you feel you’ve given your 100%, then you only have a tenth left.

Working with the Light at high levels, a person feels and controls all his desires and one is able to see through oneself. In our state we don’t perceive it as yet,; however, a Kabbalist, who is in the spiritual environment, is able to clearly separate the first nine Sefirot from the tenth. One feels what is possible to do and what isn’t. This is first.

Second, one feels the edge of one’s field here as one’s Malchut, one’s desires over which one has no control and therefore leaves them.

In order to better understand this action, imagine that you’ve ordered a person in our world to kill one’s own son, as Abraham was ordered. Can a normal person do it? Never. There are certain boundaries (the edge of the field), which we can’t transgress.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of Eternal Book” 3/26/14

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Reaching Heaven

Dr. Michael LaitmanAt the time the people of Israel left Babylon, there were two tendencies. Since then these two tendencies, two worlds, have existed one within the other. The Jewish people were mixed with humanity, and at the same time, they did not dissolve into it. They were scattered, yet they couldn’t disappear; for at their source, they are a completely different society that is connected and linked with each other in another way.

These two tendencies cannot intermingle. The Jewish people and the other peoples have such different natural, spiritual sources that a very clear and tangible separation has existed and still exists between them. This is impossible to describe and understand.

There was a time that Babylon, the cradle of humanity, was like a family. Then a great eruption of ego occurred and King Nimrod came into power. Babylon, in a fundamental way, became the capital for all the advancement of those times: mysticism, the occult, and so on.

Babylon was really at the center of humanity. And in this center a small point was created. This was a Babylonian priest by the name of Abraham, his father Terah, and his grandfather Nahor. They were great masters of wisdom, were learned men, astrologers, and scientists. They were a very educated family for those times.

And so suddenly in Babylon problems and differences of opinion suddenly broke out. The eruption of ego separated people and caused fights, conflicts, struggles between brothers, and other problems that hadn’t existed in the past. A need was discovered for courts, lawyers, guards, police, etc.. In fact, capitalist principles suddenly began to materialize.

The family of Abraham actively participated in this because it was essentially involved in ideological work with the population.

And so the Babylonians reached a situation where they decided to build the Tower of Babel, meaning that allegorically, it reached the heavens. Their arrogance grew in such dimensions that their power, I would say, their audacity and boldness exploded so much that they wanted to reach the stars.

Abraham began to investigate the subject because this subject touched him directly. I think that he began his investigation for absolutely egoistic reasons. After all, if people wanted to reach the stars, this threatened his profession, wealth, power, and authority.

Question: So in the beginning Abraham decided to go in a simple scientific path?

Answer: He had to solve this problem. People first turned to him for advice regarding simple daily problems: Should they water the fields or not, should they go fishing or wait, whom should they marry? They asked things like that. But people became so egoistic, so immersed in narcissism, and so sure of themselves, that it was as if they stopped feeling a need for him.

Abraham felt that they avoided him, and this situation threatened his future.

Understandably, I am exaggerating a bit, but in principle, it must be noted that in the beginning he was a regular egoist. He made statues of idols and sold them profititably to the community that worshipped them. In the end, everyone profited from this, since the community received a feeling of security and Abraham received his profit.

And suddenly people stopped being satisfied with statues. They felt that they were above them. This was threatening to Abraham himself, his future, his profession, and his status. And so he began to investigate what happened.

It is necessary to say that in his heart, he was a true investigator. In other words, the truth was more important to him than his personal gain.

And so when he explored the nature of the phenomenon that he had encountered in the Babylonian environment, Abraham saw a very interesting tendency in the development of the ego. During this process, people began to neglect his idols, for their ego became like a god for them. And accordingly, the fulfillment, the desire, and the glorification of the ego replaced all the other cults.

In the modern era, we see the same processes throughout the world. Why do people move away from religion? It is because the ego has grown in them. “What do I have with a divinity that is sitting who knows where if I have my own divinity: my ego, my self, that is more important to me than anything else?”

Until now, Jews and Christians have broken away from their religion in droves, and in the Muslim world, a struggle against fundamentalism is happening since they are also going through a process away that takes them from religion. As for the Indians, they also have the same struggle, but quietly and covertly. Their way is slightly different, but it is also leading towards the same goal.

There is nothing to do about it, since this is the universal way of development. Yet since every nation has a different purpose, it comes to be expressed in different ways.

In any case, the ego has become a new religion. This is just as it was in ancient Egypt when Pharaoh said: “Who is the Creator that I should listen to His voice? I myself am supreme.”

That is also what happened in ancient Babylon. When Abraham investigated this phenomenon, he discovered its essence: The ego grew to such dimensions that it became the central active image, the supreme power. Highest in the hierarchy of personal worship—for me there is nothing higher than my ego.

And so Abraham wondered: How in general is it possible to contend with this ego? “Suppose that he truly is the crown of creation, the supreme power of nature. In fact, from what I see, the impression is created that the human ego dominates everything. It destroys and builds; everything good and everything bad is done only by it, with its help, and for its sake. But if we go after it blindly, we will destroy everything and annihilate each other and all of civilization.”

This is what Abraham saw. And he was helped by King Nimrod who offered his own solution: separate and distanced from each other, to calm things down, and  scatter all over the shared space.

Nimrod was very clever. He understood that he could not do anything against what was happening by himself. So he worked for the sake of the separation process.

But Abraham looked forward: “Okay, we are dispersing. And what will happen then? After all, this is only half of the work. We truly must calm the Babylonians down who formerly lived as one family and became hateful to each other. But this only delays finding the solution, and from this aspect it doesn’t bring us closer to it at all.

“The true egoistic direction demands that, on the contrary, we cooperate and consolidate. It is true that the ego separates and incites us against one another where different interests conflict. But on the other hand, it connects us so that we can enjoy each other.”

So egoistic development is both, and within it exist opposite aspects. So everyone felt this, yet didn’t know how to use it.

“I know that I cannot get along without my neighbor. Yes, I need to stay away somewhat, to be distant from him where we disturb each other. I suppose that there is a river flowing between us now, or there is a staircase found between us. But on the other hand the neighbor produces something and I produce something, so we can help each other and, in spite of it all, we need to be connected for the sake of our egoistic fulfillment.”

Here the problem of how we correctly cooperate with each other is immediately revealed. The clearest example is the Europeans with their common market. When they were separate, they existed in a reasonable manner. Clearly, they were fighting all the time, but they existed. They wanted to connect and didn’t know how to do this. In other words, it was bad on one side and bad on the other and they didn’t know how to work with the ego.

But in fact, it is impossible to work with it. This problem was clear from the start. Both Abraham and Nimrod stood before the problem of how to transform the ego into a vital force.  How do I use my hatred towards others, my dependence on others, my desire to dominate others in a positive way? And accordingly, the same attitude exists from others towards me, which is the desire to dominate, hate, conquer, and so on. How does one bring all of this to common denominator?

After all, if we don’t solve the problem, we will be constantly immersed in disputes, annihilation, wars, etc. This is what we have seen up to today. People are already tired of all this.

Look at the modern world. From the start, there has always been unrest everywhere. Soon there won’t be any place that is calm. Latin America, China, and Japan will rise up again; everywhere there are the first signs of future wars.

How can we package our ego correctly? If this is a natural force, how can we use it correctly?

The correct use of the ego was Abraham’s discovery. Not one-sided, according to the principle of separation, nor according to the military principle of who will defeat whom, which leads to self-destruction, but a clear calculation: We require the ego so that from the hatred that typifies it, we will create the characteristics of love and mutual connection.

In conclusion, Abraham solved the problem of how to transform the ego. Without getting into philosophical, historical, technical, and psychological details that are inherent in the characteristics of nature and its laws, in general, this is Abraham’s legacy.

As a result of many years of investigation, Abraham succeeded in understanding this natural phenomenon, and after penetrating more and more deeply into the ego, there he found the higher power of nature.

He understood why it was necessary for humanity to pass specifically through this development so that a person will truly rise to the level of the Creator. And then it follows that the aspiration of civilization to build the Tower of Babel to the heavens was right, but it is necessary to build it specifically according to a supra-egoistic technology. The human ego, the construction material of the Tower of Babel, will constantly grow, but each one must stand above it. The little man stands above the pile, above the mountain that is constantly growing.

Abraham researched all the components that appeared, against their will, in that small humanity of Babylon. He used them according to their designation, and he discovered that in fact there is only one solution. And he realized this solution.

He realized it by gathering a group of his supporters, his students, that truly rose up to the heavens, meaning that they built a spiritual Tower of Babel above their ego. And as a result of this, they reached the highest point of nature, the characteristic of bestowal and love. They grew to this level.

In other words, Malchut, the egoistic foundation of humanity, reached the level of complete bestowal and love, the level of Bina.

To reach this, Abraham’s group had to leave Babylon and work for many years. Abraham lived around the year 1,700 BC, and built the correct Tower of Babel, in other words the First Temple attributed to the year 900 BC.

Generally, the concept of the Tower of Babel has passed through all of human history and humanity aspires to it subconsciously. Abraham, in the end, built it, and clearly in an absolutely different form than the Babylonians themselves imagined.
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From KabTV’s “Babylon Yesterday and Today” 9/24/14

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The One Who Sets Everything In Motion

Dr. Michael LaitmanDuring our study we first discover the actions of our ego in every state. This is called another god. It is when I think that I do things by myself and that my life is determined by others such as world leaders who keep law and order, those who are close to me, those who are distant, friends, and foes. In short, I see many operating factors, both positive and negative.

Each time I grow stronger I see that it isn’t so. I simply look at what is going on as wrong and attribute those actions to those around me. But when the situation clears up, I see that the Creator sets them in motion and that they actually don’t understand what is going on. He is the only one who operates them in order to influence me. Thus, I once again discover that there is none else besides Him.

That’s the way it is in every state. Each time I eventually discover that there is no other force before me but Him.

This also applies to me: Now it seems that I am exerting myself, acting or doing something, arranging my connection with others and that I am independent in my thoughts and desires, but it is all a lie. The Creator governs everything.

Why do we see a different picture? It is so that we will be able to correct the vessel, our desires, and our ability to perceive and see that there is none else besides Him and that only He operates in reality.

Where do I reveal that? In the states, desires, and thoughts that now make me feel confident in knowing that we are all independent. It is with regard to this notion that it is written: “as the advantage of the Light out of the darkness.” The more I attribute more definite and certain independence to different factors, the more clearly I eventually discover that there is none else beside Him.

By undergoing different changes that guide me for and against the uniqueness of the Creator, I eventually begin to discover Him, not only in different situations, but also in the intensity, in the thickness (Aviut), of my desire, not only to its width, but also to its depth. I see increasingly how it operates on me through every external detail.

Then it turns out that instead of the friends and the group, I am dealing with the Creator. But that doesn’t mean that I should disrespect them. On the contrary, in the meantime, they have attained equivalence of form and so I relate to them just as I relate to the Creator. Therefore it says: “from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.”

It turns out that in all the troubles and contradictions, and in all my quests for the source of this life of sorrow, I have been brought to the one and only source and I see that it is actually the Creator who presents this whole reality to me. Previously, the force against it confused me by showing me that others are to blame for everything that happens, including me, since I made so many efforts. Now it turns out that only the Light operates both for and against.

I, on the other hand, am only a spectator looking at God’s work, at the only force that operates in all of reality.
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From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/01/14, Lesson #3

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