Entries in the 'Israel' Category

We Can Prevent The Threat

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In 1940 Baal HaSulam wrote about the danger looming over us. But today we see that this danger is no longer in potential if we don’t connect, we see it in reality in our children being kidnapped (in Israel).

Answer: It depends on how you look at things. Most people don’t think this way and go on with their life as if nothing happened. They may be ready to participate in some actions for the kidnapped boys, and here too, it isn’t everyone. Everyone has very egoistic calculations, so in the meantime we are forced to advance along the path of suffering, along the path of in its time.

In order to switch from in its time to I shall hasten it, we need a powerful system of education so that people will understand that they can change things and gain something by it.

It has to be a wide system of clarification that includes the whole nation. It shouldn’t be a result of the sufferings, the blows, and the troubles. We should not wait for the moment that people will be ready to listen to us. We shouldn’t wait for the blows, but rather we want to reach them when they feel good and bring them to an even better state. We have to establish a gradual system of education that will increasingly influence people.

We are going through a difficult practical learning process with the public. We learn what people accept, what they don’t, how we should better approach them, how to talk to them, and what our message should actually be. Thus we teach ourselves how to learn from others.

Comment: It is scary to think about what may happen if we don’t manage to carry out our work and prevent the war of Armageddon that the prophets wrote about.

Answer: There is nothing to be scared of! If we do whatever we can and try to convey the method of correction to people and draw them to the goal of creation, it is enough. Even if we don’t see that we succeed, it still works. We open a passage for the surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) and allow it to reform everything.

It is like a baby who in one day advances in learning about the world much more than an adult may advance in a year. But a baby doesn’t understand that and acts unknowingly.

This is what happens to us. We act without understanding, trying one way or another, and it seems that we don’t succeed. But such states are actually the most beneficial for advancing. Thus we don’t create a barrier for the Light since we are too confused and this is actually a good thing!

Question: Can we prevent the war of Armageddon if we carry on this way?

Answer: We are already at war. If we continue to work this way and other parts of the nation join us in order to fulfill this mission, this goal, then there is no doubt that everything will be alright and things will quickly improve. I don’t foresee any disasters in that case.

But we have to try to stay ahead of the blows so they will not catch up with us. We have to run faster than the whip that is about to hit us. We are able to do this thanks to the importance of the goal, so that we will not have to escape the whip but will yearn forward because we value the connection and the goal.
[137882]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam 

Related Material:
Connection In The Face Of Evil
The Force Of Connection Will Disarm The Terrorists
The War Of Gog And Magog: In Or Outside The Soul?

An Inter-Factional Approach

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, The Nation: This paper, The Nation, is a new creature on the Jewish street, an “inter-factional” paper. And you may ask, “What does an ‘inter-factional’ paper mean? How can there be a paper that can serve all parties together, despite the opposition and the contrasts among them?”

Indeed, it is a kind of creation that was born in straits, through hard and dreadful labor-pains, from amidst the venom of hatred that had struck the nations to obliterate us from the face of the Earth, the destruction of millions of our brothers, and they are still prepared to continue.

We see that it is the same today. Our movement operates for the connection of the whole nation and of the whole world actually, so that they will all be as one bundle, as one man in one heart. We have to set an example and dedicate ourselves to serve the people and the world. Therefore, we don’t belong to any party or any political movement, but are actually among everyone above all the differences.

After all, the differences stem from the human mind that wants to perform corrections one way or another. Even if everyone acts out of good intentions, it is still only according to one’s understanding. We, on the other hand, don’t operate according to our desire but according to the desire of the upper, which we learn from the upper wisdom, from the wisdom of Kabbalah, from the wisdom of truth.

Thus our approach is inter-factional and is suitable for all the streams and movements. We are ready to work with anyone who is ready to connect to us, but if we feel that there is separation somewhere, we immediately leave that movement and move aside.

Our work is important in order to bring the idea of connection to everyone. We are ready to join anyone, no matter whom. But of course, it has to be a connection that leads to the correction of the world and not a connection of the wicked that causes harm to the whole world,

Baal HaSulam called his newspaper The Nation (Ha Uma – also translated as The People), an inter-factional paper that was first published in 1940, and we can say the same about the pamphlets that we are publishing now one after the other for all the different levels of society. All this is above any inter-factional disputes or conflicts.

As with our past experiences in history, if a nation erupts on us, we find its substitute in another.

However, now things are very different. Not only are we attacked on all parts of the land at once, but even the most advanced nations have locked their doors before us without any sentiment of mercy or compassion, and in such a ruthless manner, unprecedented in the whole of human history, even in the most barbaric times.

Baal HaSulam wrote that we have reached a state in which we must immediately bring about a change in the nations of the world by the connection between us. Otherwise things will be very bad for us and for the whole world. Baal HaSulam wrote about this in 1940. Then the paper was shut down because of complaints that came from the religious public. His inclinations and his attempts to connect the people and to soften the situation didn’t succeed, and the outcome was the holocaust.
[137774]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
With Our Face Turned To The Country And The World
The Kidnapping Of The Boys Is Like A Knife In The Heart
Hoping For The Return Of The Youths Unharmed

Connection In The Face Of Evil

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why do we connect in times of adversity, when something bad happens, but when things calm down, everything reverts back to competition and separation?

Answer: Why do we have to wait for the blows in order to connect in the face of adversity and advance towards the Creator on the path of suffering? It is better to follow the path of “I shall hasten it” (Achishena) than the path of “in its time” (Beito).

Even now, if we hold workshops in circles after the kidnapping of the three boys, it is already the path of in its time, the natural path of evolution, and not the path of hastening time, the path of I shall hasten it. But if we don’t perform any actions of connection, it will be even worse, since we will not advance but descend.

We have received a negative blow (a minus) and if we make a circle now, which means if we draw the Light that Reforms and advance further ahead, to a better state, this path is called in its time, which means the natural path of evolution.

But if we had made this circle and advanced without the initial blow, without the minus, it would have been the path of I shall hasten it, the path of the Light.

However, if we receive a blow and don’t make a circle, but simply advance in a certain direction, we advance towards an even greater minus, as if we descend. On the path of in its time, we somehow still advance towards the goal, but here we don’t advance towards the goal at all.

This means that even if we hold connection workshops now, after the tragic case of the kidnapping of the boys, it will still be the path of in it time.

We have been given a method according to which we can improve our lives in every way, no matter what happens. Now we only have to use it. We have all the means. We know how to summon, to draw, the good force that will automatically correct everything, that will spread and clean everything like water. We only have to draw it by workshops, discussions in circles, etc. Do you want to use it, fine, and if not, then don’t!
[137757]
From the 5thpart of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/8/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
One Big Workshop Throughout Israel
The Kidnapping Of The Boys Is Like A Knife In The Heart
Hoping For The Return Of The Youths Unharmed

The Kidnapping Of The Boys Is Like A Knife In The Heart

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How must we begin to correct the situation? The event that is most worrisome these days is the kidnapping of the boys. What should we do?

Answer: The boys were kidnapped because we have not realized our role and have not connected as a people. Now, after these tragic events, the people have begun to connect.

But they are connecting because of trouble and not because they want to reach mutual bestowal. This is not the right connection.

Baal HaSulam wrote in the newspaper The Nation that Israel connects under the pressure of external factors like nuts in a sack. Understandably this also helps, but not much.

As long as we have not begun to hate our egoism more than anything else in the world, the correction will not begin. Direct all of your hatred for the kidnappers at your ego, then it will help. The solution is only in the fact that we don’t have anything to hate besides our egos. We must teach all of the people about this. We have no choice, for this is the only thing that will truly help us. The method was given to us for this.

All of the people are now enraged against the terrorists, blaming the poor boys who hitchhiked. But it is written: “I will place over you a king like Haman and against your will you will return to the good” (Sanhedrin 97b). This is what is done through the terrorists. Is there something that they can do through their own desire and not through the desire of the Creator?

Rabash told a story about how a school teacher gave a student who misbehaved blows, and the student had to kiss the stick. In this way, the student acknowledged that the problem was not with the stick, rather everything was found in the hands of the Creator. If you curse the terrorists, it is as if you are cursing the Creator, since indeed, all of the means are found with Him.

We harm ourselves with this even more, as it is forbidden for us to hate the people who bring troubles upon us since they are indeed doing the will of the Creator. We must direct all of this hatred at ourselves, our egoism.

As it is written: “Neither them nor their reward” (Berachot 5b). Why do we feel pain and then try to heal it if we could aspire to love and correct everything from the start? All of our problems would disappear immediately!
[137602]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/18/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
The Force Of Connection Will Disarm The Terrorists
Hoping For The Return Of The Youths Unharmed
To Rescue The Kidnapped Boys

Those Who Followed Abraham

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In what way is Israel different from other nations? Why do they have a special role?

Answer: The desires of GE (bestowal) are called Israel and AHP (reception) is called the nations of the world. The matter of creation is a desire to receive, but it is so small that it can only yearn for bestowal called Israel. Therefore it is written: “You are the fewest of all the nations.”

There was a man who lived in ancient Babylon called Abraham who wanted to reach a good life, to be free of the ego in which all the people of Babylon were immersed. The people decided to build the Tower of Babel, but their languages were mixed and they ceased to understand one another, so they lost contact with one another.

Abraham understood that the goal is actually to be connected and that by connection can we establish a system in which we will discover the upper force that operates and manages us. How many people followed Abraham? There were 5,000 men out of 3 million.After all, a person needed to have a special kind of purity.

The pure people who joined Abraham, according to their intention, their yearning to resemble the upper force that is absolute bestowal, are called Yashar- El (straight to the Creator). All the others who yearned in the opposite direction, in the direction of the ego, are called the nations of the world.

The goal of creation is, of course, to bring everyone to the level of Yashar-El, to a different level of existence. But in the meantime, it is only that small part of the population that agrees to such an ascent. Abraham led these people out of Babylon and guided them to Israel. They differed from others thanks to their vessels, which were the root phase, and phases one and two. These are vessels of GE that were ready to understand this idea and were attracted to connection.

We exist in a field that doesn’t operate on a certain individual but only through our connection. The moment there is a connection between several people, they summon the Creator’s influence upon them, the influence of the field, according to the connection between them above the ego. Then they feel that the upper force and the Light is revealed in them.

We are all in the field of the constant Light that is in a state of absolute rest. If we don’t connect, we don’t see it and don’t’ feel anything. But if we begin to connect with others, then even in a connection between two, and all the more so between ten people, we begin to perceive this field like “a radio receiver.”

This perception inside us is felt as the revelation of the Light and the Creator, of the upper force, as if we perceive a radio wave. This is what Abraham explained to the people of Babylon. There were those who understood him and followed him since it was clear to them that this was the only way to overcome the crisis that was developing in Babylon.

All the others didn’t understand Abraham and remained in Babylon to flow in the current with their ego. Since then, the whole world is divided into two parts: Israel and the nations of the world. It may seem strange that Israel is so important while it is only a nation of several million people, but it determines the essence of the process. We see that this division has been maintained throughout human history until these days.

It isn’t about a geographic location on the surface of the earth, but about a spiritual idea. There are people who follow Abraham’s idea, like Israel, and others who follow their own nature, like the people of Babylon.
[137516]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/15/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Naivety Is Not A Flaw
A Special Account With The People Of Israel
Who Is Responsible For Correction?

The Force Of Connection Will Disarm The Terrorists

Dr. MIchael LaitmanQuestion: What advice would you give to all the people who are looking for a way to release the kidnapped teenagers now?

Answer: The advice is for just one thing: to connect, to unite. No other action is demanded from us. Connection is the foundation of the nation of Israel that was designated to be as one man with one heart, united in Arvut (mutual guarantee) and love.

As it is written, “All Israel are friends” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is only about connection and unity.

We recommend holding workshops and discussions in circles, which we have already tested and work well. If we carry out an action of this kind, which leads to connection and unity, and make even a small step toward greater unity and connection, then we will immediately see how everything works out in the nation, family, hospitals, old age homes, and of course, with these wonderful teenagers that everyone is so worried about at present.

The entire situation will change for better; it is in our hands. I am very worried about this tragic event. After all, I have three children of my own. But we know that from antiquity until the present day, the nation of Israel has been targeted by all the nations of the world. And it doesn’t stop. We see how the tension around us keeps growing more and more.

Through our connection, we don’t need to become stronger in order to stand and survive against the enemy and to defeat it with the force of the fist. We won’t need force at all. Only the nation of Israel is able to bring the Upper Light closer to this world, and in this way “He makes peace in His high places, He makes peace for us.”

Thus my prayer at this moment is only for the unity of the nation of Israel. Then we will see the best results.
[137617]
From KabTV’s “The Meeting of Worlds” 6/15/14

Related Material:
To Rescue The Kidnapped Boys
Removing The Affliction Will Save The Abducted Boys
Neutralizing The Threat

One Big Workshop Throughout Israel

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: A thousand people are praying together for the return of the kidnapped boys. Isn’t this enough to save them?

Answer: No, this is not enough; this prayer has not been organized correctly. I would suggest organizing nationwide roundtables, a common workshop. Come, let’s get ready and gather one workshop throughout the whole nation some evening. People who are ready for this will participate in this event, except for children, the frail elderly, and nursing mothers who cannot leave their babies; let’s say 80% of all the people.

If we aim to connect in order to discover within that the power of mutual bestowal through which we want to give contentment to the Creator, with this we awaken the Light that Reforms.

And the Light will already carry out the work. Only this will help, because it will influence the Light that Reforms. This is because we prepare a place, a deficiency, upon which the Light can bestow. All of our work is to prepare the place, and for this we need many people who are arranged and organized in circles, who know the general rules of the workshop and the laws of conduct in it, and who talk about the necessity of connection.

There is a formula, it is only necessary to activate it and make it work. Do you understand this formula? So please, realize it.

Question: Do the people gathered around the roundtables have to be people who have spiritual attainment?

Answer: No, they have to be the most ordinary and simple people. Indeed Baal HaSulam writes that a farmer who plows a field to feed others is doing more important work than the High Priest in the Temple. After all, this work is closer to others, is more understandable and more noticeable, and belongs to lower, more mundane desires, so certainly it will work.

The lower the desires we work with are, meaning the closer and more understandable they are to a person, the greater the Light that we awaken, according to the general rule of the inverse order between Lights and Kelim.

Only if the High Priest included all the desires of the people—including them within himself and raising with them, like Moses, the leader of the people, in that he made a Zivug de Haka’a (striking interaction) with the Light—is this considered a high action. But if he doesn’t take the desires of the people but enters into the Kadosh HaKadoshim (sanctuary) with his egoistic desires, then he dies by being struck by the Light, from a Pulsa de Nura (whip of fire).

So come, let’s organize one big workshop throughout the country together. I don’t guarantee the final result, but simply use the formula, a condition, which we can carry out in order to awaken the Light that Reforms.

Nobody knows what the result will be, but surely it will bring good changes thanks to the Light that we have drawn through our actions. The Light will advance us towards the good, towards correction. How this will be revealed in the world, I cannot say, but without a shadow of a doubt, the situation will be better because of the Light that Reforms.

This is called the prayer of many. We have no other means.
[137787]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/18/14, “The Mutual Guarantee”

Related Material:
Hoping For The Return Of The Youths Unharmed
Removing The Affliction Will Save The Abducted Boys
To Rescue The Kidnapped Boys

The Connection Between Tsunamis And Anti Semitism

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why couldn’t the nations of the world receive the Torah themselves, but have to receive it through the Israeli nation?

Answer: It is the role of the Israeli nation to convey the Torah to the nations of the world. First the nations of the world received the religions through the Israeli nation. All the major religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam are the Torah of the time of exile.

The vessels of receiving cannot be in contact with the Light and there has to be some conductor between them, an adaptor. The desire to receive and the Light are opposite to one another, so there is a need for an adaptor that will connect the desires to receive and the vessels of bestowal, Galgalta ve Enyaim (GE), so that GE will raise these deficiencies to the Creator.

The major religions in the world have made great preparation for the correction. They are the Torah of the time of the exile and they must exist until they are transformed into the true Torah, which means to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Everyone will be connected only with the Creator. The connection between the desire to receive and the Light cannot be done by different methods.

The Israeli nation was exiled after the destruction of the Temple and is among the nations of the world. Afterwards, it cannot avoid being an adaptor for them, whether a good or a bad one. So the nations of the world regard the Israeli nation in a very special way and it is impossible to change that. There is always a special attitude towards Israel, whether negative or positive. Israel is always the adaptor and the conductor of the Light. They will always be in the center of events, and be the nations of the world’s target.

Question: What should we do in order to be a corrected adaptor?

Answer: We simply have to fulfill the role of the adaptor. I have to be incorporated in the deficiencies of the nations of the world, to process them inside me and raise them correctly to the Upper Light. I have to connect all the nations to the Upper Light. They tell me that if I don’t work properly, I am responsible for their feeling bad. This is the reason that they hate me, since instead of being nicely and positively influenced by me, they are influenced negatively, their lives are miserable and they suffer. The nations of the world blame Israel more and more for all their problems. It happens subconsciously, since they feel that Israel is to blame.

We encounter this spiritual phenomenon, which has no corporeal reason, all over the world.  You can find anti-Semitism even among people who have never had any contact with Israel: South Korea, Polynesia, New Zealand, etc. People who have a soul feel that they depend on Israel.

Imagine how difficult and unpleasant it is to feel that you depend on someone. You constantly think about him because it is as if he controls you. He determines your fate and everything that happens to you and your children. He is part of your life, like a relative. He constantly sustains you and this is a very difficult psychological feeling that suffocates you internally. This has been going on for ages.

This is exactly what we are trying to explain with our dissemination, both to the Israeli nation and to the nations of the world. First we have to show everyone that we all share this problem, that we need one another, and that we cannot carry out our mission by ourselves. We need to work mutually in the struggle against our general global ego.

First we have to explain the reason for all the problems to everyone: the political crisis in the Ukraine, the global economic crisis, the crisis in education, global climate changes, etc. Indeed, what is the connection between Israel and a typhoon or a tsunami somewhere?

But immediately after Japan was hit by a tsunami, the level of anti-Semitism rose there sharply. It may seem that there is no connection between the two. Is Israel responsible for the Pacific Ocean ceasing to be so peaceful all of the sudden?  But the Japanese internally feel that Israel is responsible.

They perceive this by their feelings and not by their intellect. A person doesn’t understand why, but he feels this internally and is strangled by this thought. He doesn’t know why, and he doesn’t have to know because love and hate need no justification.
[137599]
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/12/17, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Related Material:
Chosen To Serve The Creator And The Creatures
A Special Account With The People Of Israel
The Nation Of Israel: Restoring The Interconnection

The Earth Is A Living Organism

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (from NaZachot.Ru): “It is time to revise the definition of a living organism, formulated on the basis of human psychology. According to it, the living, and moreover rational, are considered only those forms of organized matter which properties correspond to those of animals and humans.

“Natural objects that differ significantly in size, power consumption, life span, rate of metabolic processes, are not considered ‘living and rational’ matter. ‘Focus on the human’ has brought science to a dead end in comprehending the laws of nature.

“Especially, this concerns the relationship between the human and the planet. Humanity systematically destroys natural parts of the planet and replaces them with artificial, often unnatural and sometimes harmful to the life of the Earth.

“The Earth is not only aware of humans’ existence of its surface and ‘observes’ their behavior through its sense organs, but actually controls society. The basis for such control is the laws geopsychology – managing people on a subconscious level. The managing body is the Earth itself, in which organism people live.

“Moreover, under certain conditions: an increase of the number of people, exceeding the permissible standards, poisoning some parts of the Earth with human civilization’s waste: the atmosphere, hydrosphere, or destruction of vegetation – the planet begins to get rid of irritating and dangerous creatures that are threatening it.

“Sometimes people’s subconscious receives an order for self-destruction, leading to wars, or there appear viruses, deadly to humans. The time has come to view our planet not as dead body, spinning around the Sun, but as a living organism.

“The Earth is not only alive, but also a rational creature. It constantly communicates with our Sun and even with the center of the Galaxy. This information passes along the channels, extending from the center of the earth to its surface.

“Nuclear explosions, super-deep drilling, disposal of radioactive and toxic substances in its crust cause the living planet to become concerned, and it starts to react to the actions of poorly developed human society. Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods – are the first warning actions of the Earth.

“Nature and the Earth live their lives, where everything is balanced. They have the property of self-defense and self-purification to a limited extent that on Earth and in space there are not only struggles, but mutual support and interaction.”

My Comment: Kabbalah asserts the unity of nature and its universal mind from the moment of its revelation by Adam 5,780 years ago. In all the works by Kabbalists, the attitude towards nature is as to a single, rational, higher organism. The still, vegetative, and animate parts of nature abide by the laws of nature of interaction and harmony instinctively.

Only the human being is opposite to nature in all his actions and takes it out of balance. We have reached a critical state where the Earth is no longer able to sustain us. As the science of Kabbalah explains, only studying the unity of nature and observing the law of total interaction with it will allow us to rebuild our civilization.
[137555]

Related Material:
The Earth Might Get Rid Of Humanity
The Sun Has Lost Its Rhythm
Systematic Limitations

Hoping For The Return Of The Youths Unharmed

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: These days all of Israel is concerned about the fate of the three kidnapped youths. Certainly the security forces are making great efforts to bring them home. Many are praying for them to be saved.

Discussions have been organized about how it would be possible to warn them and what precautions can be taken to avoid trouble like this. But is it possible to change something through one particular individual or must one be involved in correction of the general state of society that led to such results, that is, influencing the collective?

Answer: Improving any situation is possible only through becoming a truly collective society. This means bringing connection and unity. It is necessary to transform the people of Israel, in the land of Israel, into one collective body by means of organizing workshops everywhere, discussion circles, joint discussions, and by approaching each other.

People will begin to discover what form our lives should have. Thus, they will begin to reach a connection that will attract the Light that Reforms that will raise them to another level of existence. The Light will begin to enter them, change and create a new society of one connected whole, instead of the former society that was split into pieces and distant from each other.

Through this connection, they will become closer to the nature of the Light, which is one, integral, global, and singular. And when this entire shattered world with the egoism that divides us will rise a bit above the egoistic separation and become more connected, then the Light that acts and influences us will heal all the wounds in our relationships. In this case, without a doubt, we will merit good results, including the return of the kidnapped youths unharmed.

Question: Can we change reality with this method: one picture to another picture?

Answer: Without any doubt, we can change reality from this moment on in any direction, wherever we want. This is in our power. And there is just such an opportunity for the people of Israel.

If we connect more strongly, then the Light will approach us according to the law of equivalence of form, will enter the shattered desires, and begin to correct them. As a result, everyone will feel closer to each other, and from this, the world will be changed. Our relationships and the connections between us will be changed.

Thanks to the influence of the Light, we see ourselves connected differently to the extent that we will want to bestow to each other, to come closer, to bring goodness. This indicates that we are in the spiritual world. The spiritual world is bestowal.

We recommend that workshops and discussion circles be conducted everywhere. And if through shared exercises like these we truly begin to better relate to each other, even in the most minimal way, without causing harm to each other, and at least not doing to others what we hate, then evil will no longer remain in the world.

In this way we nullify and exterminate all of the evil in the world. Can you imagine what kind of a world we would live in if we were to attract the Light that will correct the world in this way? Nobody would want to harm anyone else! This would simply be the Garden of Eden (heaven).

This offers us a miracle to practice the wisdom of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah, here and now. We have reached such a period in history where this has become our top priority. And so we feel crises that will grow more and more as long as we do not realize this method.
[137609]
From KabTV’s “The Meeting of Worlds” 6/15/14

Related Material:
Removing The Affliction Will Save The Abducted Boys
A Nation’s Fate Is Determined At The Roundtable
The Discrepancy Between The Two Systems