New Life 706 – Jewish Culture: The Light In The Torah
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Rav Laitman tells his life’s story, about his grandfather, a synagogue in Russia, and his search when he arrived in Israel. The desire to know what is behind the Jewish rituals brought him to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Kabbalah teaches us that there is a special force in nature called the Torah.

The Torah is not a book but the force for the correction of a person’s ego. When we connect, together we can draw the force of the Torah, which will build the love between us and reveal the Creator to us.

In the material world we have different symbols indicating the upper spiritual roots. The Light in the Torah is a force that is in nature like other forces, and we can reveal it in the connection between us. This force is not in a book in the Holy Ark written on parchment. The book is only a symbol of that force. This is the reason that it says: “I would rather they left Me and kept my Torah, since the Light in it reforms.” We have to pay attention to others, which means to want to reach the state of good relations between us, so that we will be as one man with one heart.

The Light gives us the answers to existential questions such as: What are we living for? And why can’t we receive everything?

Everyone understands the Torah according to his own capabilities. Thus Kabbalists don’t see stories in the Torah but the phases of correction. The Light is a natural force that can be identified with the suitable device, and that device is the special connection between us.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 706 – Jewish Culture: The Light In The Torah,” 3/17/16

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New Life 704 – Spiritual Sexuality
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Question: Why does sex play such a central role in our life?

Answer: It is because life is created by the connection between opposites, and the desire for sex is actually a desire for life. Our sexual desires grow during our evolution as human beings. In nature we also see that the male wants to have offspring and the female wants to belong only to him. It is rooted in us. Our attitude to sex is actually the basis for everything in our life even when we are not aware of it. Freud also spoke about it.

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us that it stems from the upper root in which we are intended to be in coupling, in a perfect connection, in a perfect mutual connection between people, in a connection in which every individual acts both as a male and female, as the one who gives and the one who receives.

At the peak of our evolution we will reach a state in which we are connected as one, since we all stem from one soul. The greatest insight we need to acquire is that no one can fill himself and that each individual has both a male and female part in order to connect, which means the readiness to give and to receive.

The wisdom of Kabbalah deals with spiritual sexuality and tells us that it is the basis of nature. Our whole perception of life stems from the spiritual root and includes accounts of giving and receiving, and when I connect correctly to more and more people, a corrected system of interconnection is built between us. As created beings, we all exist as a female facing the male who wants to fill us, the Creator, the upper force, the good and the benevolent. This is the ultimate joy and all our desires and passions stem from it.

Question: Why is the human sexual desire not limited to certain times in the year like in the animal world?

Answer: The more developed a species is the more unlimited it is. This is also from where the human sexual distortions stem. The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us how to reach a spiritual coupling, the ultimate connection between us regardless of sex.

The more an individual fills another in a perfect mutual manner, the more we ascend to a spiritual level of existence.

Women want to look beautiful and to attract men by nature, while men pay less attention to their looks. The sexual desire that is rooted in us since the thought of creation is to “to do good unto His created beings.” We are yet to discover the spiritual coupling!
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From KabTV’s “New Life 704 – Spiritual Sexuality,” 3/17/16

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New Life 719 – Moses And The Power Of Faith
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

How does the struggle between Moses and Pharaoh in the story of the exodus from Egypt illustrate the opposite desires inside us? What is the force that empowers Moses when he encounters Pharaoh, and what is faith according to the wisdom of Kabbalah?

The Torah describes what happens in a person who wants to resemble the Creator. Faith is the force of love and bestowal that a person acquires in this process. It is the ability to act for the good of others and the Creator.

Every person’s nature is self love; one feels that he or she is the center of the world. In some people questions arise about the point of living? Why am I the way I am and what the purpose of it all? What is the benefit that we live and die? What should I do all this life?

Man doesn’t know the answer to these questions because he doesn’t see the whole system. In order to know it he has to get to know the general management software.

These big questions are called Moses, stemming from the Hebrew root “pull – moshech,” as they pull a person beyond himself to the goal of creation. The inner voice of Moses in a person seems to tell him to stop thinking only about his private circle and to relate to the whole general system.

Other egoistic desires rise in a person and confront Moses, pulling a person back to the desire to receive for himself. Then Moses feels that he is enslaved, totally subordinate to the huge egoism inside him. Moses discovers his connection with the upper force that controls the whole general system through “Come to Pharaoh,” and frees the desires called the children of Israel, who learn the way of love of others, from the domination of Pharaoh. The rule of love thy friend as thyself enables a person to get to know the general system, the upper force.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 719 – Moses And The Power Of Faith,” 4/21/16

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Question: How does Kabbalah explain “the night of the exodus from Egypt”?

Answer: The night of the exodus from Egypt is a result of all previous development of Jews whereby they brought themselves to the state that allowed them to become a nation and understand that inside them is the ego, Pharaoh, that rips them apart, leads to the conflicts with each other, and makes them feel distant from each other.

Look what is happening around: discords in the family, society, and government. We would do anything in order to suppress an alleged enemy. We need to start feeling our state as Egypt, as the reign of the Pharaoh, meaning our egoism that prevents us from being one nation, one family. Precisely this is called night.

This is why on the Passover night we gather together with our families and consider ourselves as one family, one nation. We want to demonstrate that we are ready to unite, to be together with the aim of rising above our egoism and coming to the freedom from it. This is the exodus from Egypt and the entrance to the land of Israel.

Between them there is a period of 40 years of passing the desert whereby we correct ourselves. By this correction we prepare ourselves for the entrance to the land of Israel as we can’t go straight away from the egoism and hatred to love. After all, love is the same egoism just in a reversed form. And 40 years long periods of preparation represent a distance from the desire to receive to the desire to bestow, from hatred to love.

Egyptian night is a pitch dark, terrible night of an absolute lack of understanding of what is happening and what will happen. People see that because of the mutual hatred, they cease to exist as a nation, as a family. They understand that this dead-end state leads them to death.

But at the same time they don’t see the way out of it because the power of egoism seems to be historically eternal and absolute. In everything the person turns to he sees his egoism, and he feels that he does everything only for his own benefit. It controls our every action: internal, external, our relationships, etc.

Everyone keeps such a distance from another where he would be able to defend himself and to receive maximum from the other. It means that the egoism all the time regulates our relationships with each other, nature, animals, the world, and life.

The terrible state of communication only in an egoistic manner is revealed to us as the darkness of Egypt. Exactly in this state, in the middle of the night a force suddenly appears in us, which leads us forward to the exit from the egoism and gives us a feeling that we can rise from it.

A culminating point of inversion appears and the most terrible darkness suddenly starts transforming into some hope, light: An exit exists somewhere, I have to run! And I run after this dream, after this internal power that suddenly erupts in me. And the light appears!

It is a special night, the night of exiting the egoistic slavery to altruistic eternity and perfection. This is why we celebrate it.
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From a TV Program “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/13/2016

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The Torah, “Numbers,” 33:55, 33:56: But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live. And as I plan to do to them, so I will do to you.

We need to alienate from ourselves our own desires, meaning to correct them within ourselves. The desires do not disappear anywhere; it’s impossible to cut them off and to throw them away. There exists an enormous desire created by the Creator, as it is said: “I created the evil desire (evil inclination) and gave the Torah for its correction.”

The intentions for this desire can be either egoistic or altruistic. The desire itself is inert. In its original application it is an absolute zero, but it is given to us in a negative form. Therefore, we need to correct its negative application into a positive one, which can be achieved by changing the intention. This is called driving out the nations that exist within your desire.

Those whom you let remain of them [will become] pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, [that is, these desires won’t let us perform any spiritual actions of bestowal, love, and mutual connection] and they will trouble you in the land in which you live. This reminds very much of our current state. After all, we do not work on ourselves!

Today the so-called nation of Israel are those who were given the opportunity to reach spiritual correction. However, we don’t do anything! Therefore we constantly receive pricks and punches, knives onto our backs and necks—what our neighbors do to us. And that’s because we don’t do our job! There is no need to blame them, only ourselves! We need to find the correct formula in order to change the state that passes only through us.

If we do not follow what Kabbalah says, we will suffer, we won’t achieve anything. We need to do something about ourselves.

We find ourselves at the epicenter of the “potential atomic explosion,” and we don’t understand what we evoke upon the entire world through ourselves. We have to acknowledge our responsibility for what is happening.

Comment: But doesn’t this concealment come from the upper degree?

Answer: Concealment is given specifically so that we can correct ourselves quickly, in connection with others, to feel the upper state and bring it upon the rest of the humanity.

This concealment is for our own benefit. If it didn’t exist, we would function automatically, following the instructions from above mindlessly, with no feeling or reason, as if we were a wound up mechanism. In that case we would be called angels. But man needs to be higher. He needs to rise to the level when he himself chooses to be similar to the Creator and brings His idea into the world.
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From a TV Program “The Secrets of the Eternal Book”

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New Life 717 – The Exodus From Egypt Within Me
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Reality is a whole; therefore, it is difficult to talk about part of it without knowing the entire picture. The burning bush in the wilderness represents the internal revelation of Moses after burning his ego and matching his characteristics to Divinity, like to a similar absorption frequency; he and the Creator broadcast on the same wavelength.

Fundamentally good is not inherent in us; the evil inclination is, so we can not consider anyone but ourselves. After the forty years Moses lived with Pharaoh, he came to Jethro for forty years and learned about the quality of bestowal, Hesed (Mercy), and how to attain it above the egoism that is exposed. Then, he can return to Egypt to work on the ego.

The goal of humanity is for all of human nature, including all egoism, to resemble the wholeness of the upper force whose nature is love.

The return to Egypt symbolizes the return to the ego of Moses that still needs correction. None of us recognize the Pharaoh within ourselves. Pharaoh symbolizes the absolute dominance of the general ego in us. Moses symbolizes the small desire for the characteristic of bestowal, the discovery of truth.

The people of Israel represent the desires that can be corrected to the attribute of bestowal and love within the general ego. The ego is the entire field of reality, and Moses needs signs and wonders to show the ego that he has power. So, Moses takes the rod, whose function is to aim him in the spiritual way, to put the ego below, and go above it.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 717 – The Exodus From Egypt Within Me,” 4/19/16

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New Life 716 – The Children Of Israel In Egypt, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

After being raised in the house of Pharaoh, Moses, who represents the force of love, goes out and sees terrible things. The children of Israel and the Egyptians represent different approaches to life, pure egoism in contrast to connection and love.

Today people find like distasteful, and if we don’t advance on our own, the force of nature that manages the world might embitter our lives. Today, just as in the past, we must break away from the current method of life and move on to a new method. This is the reason that Moses married Tzipora, Jethro’s daughter, since she represents an additional desire, a desire that is made of receiving and giving. Moses receives an additional desire in order to advance because Moses is a weak force that is not enough to face the big ego, but the Creator is with him.

This is the preparation Moses needs in order to deal with the Egyptians, with Pharaoh, with the children of Israel, and with the Creator. This is how the Creator prepares the children of Israel for redemption.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 716 – The Children Of Israel In Egypt, Part 2,” 4/14/16

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Comment: France is a Christian and Catholic nation, yet mainly accepts Muslim refugees, while Christian refugees standing in crowds at the border of Iraq seeking entry to France are refused.

The newspaper Figaro conducted a study and found that the left wing of the ruling Socialist party doesn’t want to look as if France prefers Christians.

Answer: A corrected humanity should consider everyone absolutely equally, yet this is not happening anywhere in the world. A Christian, Catholic, or Protestant nation must first and foremost take in the Christians who are suffering throughout the Middle East before they are killed. Their number there is not so great.

Comment: They are killing masses of Yazidi families who have fled Mosul.

Answer: The Muslims are intentionally killing Christians; so they should be taken in first.

Comment: They are sitting in Iraq and waiting for exit visas, but they aren’t getting them. Instead, the authorities conduct rigorous testing and require proof of the vulnerability of their position.

Answer: In the meantime they are accepting right-wing extremist Muslims.

Comment: The newspaper Figaro asks: “Why does such a large nation like France, which agreed to accept thirty thousand Syrian refugees according to the German quota, refuse to bring Christians in?”

Answer: They want to portray themselves as liberal, but in the meantime Christians are being killed. How is it possible to understand the world of today? People are playing a double-sided game: Even though I am like this inside, on the outside I need to look otherwise. This is a very interesting paradox, I will accept those who are murdering and those whom they are killing I will leave behind.

So we have nothing to be indignant about that among the Jews living in the Diaspora, the same thing happens. They are against Israel and in favor of the nation ceasing to exist, that the people of Israel would completely dissolve among the other peoples so no memory of them will remain.

It is believed that within just one or two generations American Jews simply “die,” i.e. become completely assimilated among Americans.

It is more accurate to say that specifically within one or two generations we will feel very serious blows in America and among the American Jews when the Creator will return them to their root with the help of a brutal force.

This will be revealed in the form of a holocaust or bigger problems. The Jews will begin to return to their roots because they will have nowhere to escape.

Those who reject Israel and are disconnected from it are decreeing upon themselves very great blows, and their return to the land will happen through an intractable power. This is mentioned in the Torah: “Even if your exiles are at the end of the heavens, the Lord, your God, will gather you from there, and He will take you from there.” (Deuteronomy 30:4).
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/10/16

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Comment: According to a recent survey in France, about 60% of French citizens believe that the Jews are partly responsible for the growing anti-Semitism in France. 56% believe that the Jews are very influential and that they are richer than the average Frenchman; 40% say that their presence in the media is exaggerated and 13% claim that there are too many Jews in France. Generally speaking, the French don’t like the Jews.

Answer: Of course, that’s the way it has always been. The French dislike the Jews more than all other nations. But now the inclination toward anti-Semitism will grow all over the world because the world has reached a state in which it is obliged to correct itself and this cannot be delayed any longer. The general global egoism cannot develop any further, and so it begins to devour itself. And consequently more and more hatred is manifested.

People will suffer from the growing egoism and will not find a way to get rid of it. They will instinctively feel that the Jews have the key for the correction, but are not fulfilling their mission. Therefore along with the growing egoism, the subconscious hatred toward the Jews will grow, indicating that they are responsible for everything. The truth is that they are to blame, not for the sufferings, but for the fact that they don’t heal humanity of their sufferings.

Comment: But the Jews themselves don’t really understand that.

Answer: The Jews don’t understand that and neither do the nations of the world.

Question: So what do we want of the Jews?!

Answer: Nothing. We want Kabbalists who understand the essence of egoism to explain it as soon as possible to everyone, even to those who don’t want to hear. We have to go out and cry out on every street corner, everywhere, and in every possible way, through the media, in every language, all over the world, both to Jews and to the peoples of the world.

This is the only way that we can make people gradually listen to us. There will be more and more blows; we will feel bad and they will feel bad, and eventually everyone will listen to why the nations of the world hate the Jews, and especially the Jews will hear why the nations of the world hate us.

Then the Jews will begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah and will unite, setting an example for the other nations of the world, which will gladly begin to unite around the Jews. It is like sourdough that you add to dough which begins to ferment. And the Jewish people perform the role of the sourdough. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah says and we cannot escape it.

But now the starter is not performing its function, and so people feel natural hatred towards us. When one of the nations calls out to a Jew: “I hate you and I will kill you,” they mean” just show us how to connect and unite and we will follow you.”

Question: Why do the people of the world believe that the reason for their troubles is the lack of connection between the Jews?

Answer: It is instinctive; they don’t actually know why and how.

Question: What is the magical thing?

Answer: The source of power is in this connection, the wellbeing of the whole world, because it is actually in the connection between them, between all the parts that are opposite from creation, especially on the highest level, on the human level, that there is a great force that will bring goodness, warmth, and wellbeing to our world. This connection reveals perfection and eternity.

The Jews have to be the first to unite and set an example for the whole world that demands it from them. This is exactly what we Kabbalists have to tell the whole world. We should show, teach, and set an example, which means to be Light unto the nations of the world.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/3/16

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New Life 715 – The Children Of Israel In Egypt, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

How does Egypt represent a person’s ego? How do the figures in the story about the exodus from Egypt illustrate forces that operate in a person, and what is the analogy between the slavery in Egypt and the crisis the world is undergoing today?

The story of the exodus from Egypt in its literary sense is well known all over the world, why is unclear. However, if we wish to penetrate the inner meaning of this story and understand the forces that build the figures in it, we must get away from the simple description of the characters in the story. Our world is managed in the same way that different forces create the display on a computer screen. Reality is made of two forces: the force of bestowal and the force of receiving, the Creator and the created being.

The Creator’s hand turns the images from inside, and it also motivates Batya to pull Moses out of the Nile. Moses symbolizes a special force that should correct all of the other desires that are in the attribute of receiving and take them out of Egypt, which symbolizes the ego. Moses was raised as a prince in Pharaoh’s home, egoistic system of healthy capitalism where everyone cares only about himself and everything revolves around money.

Money (Kesef) represents the ability to cover (Kisuf) (same root in Hebrew), the ability to pay for the fulfillment of my desire, while Egypt symbolizes the same dream that we have in our world today. Today, we can no longer manage our world in this way because it is against the Creator, the quality of love and bestowal, and so we must advance to a system in which everyone examines what he can give to others and not receive.

When the children of Israel fled from Egypt, it was because they did not want to live according to their lust for money, according to the desire to receive, and felt that it meant death for them. The alternative is to live in love, not in pride, and this is what Moses represents.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 715 – The Children Of Israel In Egypt, Part 1,” 4/14/16

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