Entries in the 'Kabbalah for the Nation' Category

Kabbalah For The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday a completely new paradigm, a new worldview, and a new approach is arising before us that has never existed before. In the past we changed the world, but now the world is invariant and we have to change ourselves.

These inner changes in a person can come only by his choice, by his desire, by a conscious decision that he makes with every step. And Kabbalah is essentially the method, the action plan on this path.

By definition, the science of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to creation. By changing, a person reaches similarity with nature. And being similar to nature means being similar to the Creator. A person (Adam) is one who is similar (Domeh) to the upper one. This is what we must constantly discover in the process that is sweeping the world forward.

By having a Kabbalistic method and being its representatives in our world, we have to help all of humanity by disclosing this method in all sorts of ways. Obviously, it has to be done with the understanding that people resist changes, don’t want them, and look down on them. That’s true, but nevertheless, this is how everything should be. And on our part, we have to improve the presentation in order to bring the method to the people in a comfortable and pleasant form.

Otherwise, the world will of course suffer more and more from one day to the next, becoming immersed in confusion, helplessness, and bewilderment. People can become so confused that matters will escalate to a war. After all, when you are confused and disoriented under a hail of blows, your nerves can give way.

And then you will be willing to do anything just to stop the chaos. Even war will seem like salvation because it seems to put everything in their place. Just like a person can go into a rage, so can humanity, and in our days, we understand that this means a world war.

It’s up to us: How quickly will we assimilate the science of Kabbalah and place it on the runway in a clear, correct presentation for the whole world? All of us together have to become an enlightening, educational organization that helps and explains to people how to change in order to establish the right interconnection and thereby reach equivalence with nature or with the Creator, which is the same thing.

If we don’t attain balance and harmony with nature, then besides social failures, we will feel its devastating blows, which will finish us off. After all, even in human society today, we are incapable of anything until we change ourselves. Egoism is evoking an enormous amount of social problems, but we cannot stop.

The consumer society is depleting the earth, 200 years of the industrial era have exhausted all of its resources and soon they will dry up completely. Drinking water, oil, and other resources are all nearing their end. Eventually we won’t even be able to lead a normal life, not to mention the excesses. And still, we are incapable of holding ourselves back, of limiting production and pollution.

And we won’t be able to do that until we change man’s nature. No artificial solutions will help us. We still put our hopes on the old methods, but nature no longer accepts “payment by credit” from us. It will accept only one thing from us: harmony with it, homeostasis with this global system.

The need to change man is forcing us, Kabbalists, to come out of the previous boundaries and start making actions on the scale of the whole world. And we don’t have any other choice. As Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Science of Kabbalah and its Essence”: As a whole, Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator. Where? In a person. According to what? His equivalence of form. A person acquires similarity to the Creator, the all-enveloping, global nature, becoming a single whole with it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/22/11, “The Teaching of Kabbalah and its Essence”

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Know The Desire Of Your Neighbor

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Are we addressing scientists and other thinking people so that our message could descend through them to others?

Answer: Yes. We could direct scientists to address the governments on the top and the people on the bottom. It’s as if we are approaching from aside and mixing in with this middle layer of intelligent, thinking people and scientists. We bring them to a common task, to a common opinion, and elicit them to address the higher and lower layers.

We don’t have any other opportunity. We cannot do this on our own because we are armed with a method that appears unrealistic to both. And if we will wait until they discern that it is realistic, we will be letting the world slide down to the path of suffering.

Question: Are we striving to build this address on a reasonable basis?

Answer: Of course. Only on a reasonable basis. Every person has to be addressed according to his desire. And that includes the Creator as well: If I want to establish a connection with Him, then I have to act in agreement with His desire. He wants to bestow to me – and that’s wonderful. I give him this opportunity. I open myself up for His gifts, and this is reception for the sake of bestowal.

I am always working with someone else’s desire because otherwise I do not make contact with others, but on the contrary, I close myself off inside. At first I have to feel the desire of the neighbor, be it a desire of the masses, of scientists, of my friend, of the group, or of the Creator. After that I work according to this desire. For what? For unification. In what way? However this desire dictates to me.

Incidentally, this is why advertising agencies first hold surveys in order to discern what people think, what they want, and what they are drawn to. Everyone who works with the public and desires to achieve success is always holding his hand on the pulse of his audience. How else can they go about it? If you want to speak to a certain part of the people, then you have to know their desires. These are basic truths.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/19/11, “Arvut

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Tents On The Streets

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Over the last few days couples in Israel began a protest against the housing crisis. They are starting up tent cities in public places to protest against the skyrocketing housing prices. Will this lead to correction?

Answer: This is a good thing. However, what can our poor government do for them? We ascribe great capabilities to it, thinking, “They’ll decide something today and will carry it out tomorrow.” But that’s not so. Didn’t the government know about these problems? Don’t the ministers just want to get together for a conference and make a decision so that starting tomorrow, new, cheap houses will start being built?

This can’t happen because we are dealing with a great complex of interconnected social problems, and this is just one of them. We cannot correct any one of them unless we correct the connection between the people in the country. No one will be able to help: not the prime minister or the government, not the parliamentarians, and not the people who are sitting in tents on city streets.

It’s good that they are sitting there, and it’s good that the Prime Minster is concerned. It’s good that he’s afraid and they are making demands of him. Maybe this will finally push them to reach the right conclusion: that correction will not come from the Prime Minister. And even money won’t solve anything. There is a bigger problem concealed here. Even if there will be enough money in the country, the authorities won’t be able to make any useful decision.

We have to understand that in our times there are no separate, problematic situations. Now, when nature has closed us inside of an integral net, everything depends only on the connection between people. There is not one social problem, not even the smallest one, that could be solved without a social interconnection, without a connection within the nation and within the world. Without resorting to this means, you won’t be able to do anything.

The task might seem secondary or purely technical, “What’s so hard about it, really? Just give out an order, free up some land for construction, and let them start building.” But they cannot do that because they will come up against insurmountable barriers on the inside. That would be the same as demanding pure bestowal from a person when he is simply incapable of it. He just can’t do it.

So know this: Today there is just one solution to any problem: mutual guarantee. If there is no mutual guarantee, there is no solution. This is exactly what we have to bring to the people’s understanding. We can be sure that we will attain success and will overcome all the problems only by means of the force of the mutual guarantee.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/11, “Arvut

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About The Book “Zohar For The People”

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: When you simplify The Book of Zohar, aren’t you afraid of ruining it?

Answer: No, I’m not afraid because I know for sure that I’m ruining it! The text of Zohar for the People is compiled from the original text of The Book of Zohar and the Sulam Commentary, weaved together and simplified.

Therefore, it is definitely ruined compared to the source. Many words (such as Behina and others) that underline precision, were removed from the sentences in order to make the text easier. The resulting text is coarser, less precise, but more concrete.

We had to take this plunge in order to bring The Zohar’s text closer to an average person’s level of reading and understanding. Of course, this kind of text does not replace the source under any circumstances. It is intended for mass reading of The Book of Zohar.

Some study Kabbalah as mechanics, some study Kabbalah as a wisdom, some study Kabbalah to memorize things, some study Kabbalah to write books, some study Kabbalah to teach—but some study Kabbalah in order to change. Under the influence of the upper Light that descends upon a person in the process of reading The Book of Zohar, one starts feeling the upper world, and then, from the sensations, he begins to understand it. This is the real study of Kabbalah. And the book Zohar for the People is intended for these kinds of people.
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Falling Asleep In The Enemy’s Grip

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why aren’t modern scientists discovering the essence of what is happening?

Answer: On the contrary, they are gradually digging out the essence. Many people are already discovering and writing that human society has to strive to unite. It is written, “Believe in the wisdom of the nations.” They have knowledge and they see that unity really is necessary. We simply don’t have any other choice. People can see this with their own eyes even without being on the spiritual path, without acquiring the method of correction.

Moreover, they will widely voice the need for unity themselves. We should only encourage this process with all our might.

But the most important thing that will be required of us is to let all the people know through all the possible means, using all the channels, that there is a method, a means. This is where the problem lies: How can we present this method to the world so it would take the medicine? How can we rewrite the entire science of Kabbalah in a way so people won’t turn away from it?

We have to act gradually: Now we aren’t talking about the Creator, the Torah, the commandments, and so on. We are only picking up the thought about unity and continuing it. We continue to explain more and more, until people’s understanding will undergo specific changes and most importantly, they will undergo inner development by means of the Light. Then new points in the heart will be revealed, and besides, the world will be able to realize that “Israel” is a function, a predestination. And suddenly, everyone will begin to interpret us differently.

For that we must gradually bring our part, the method of correction, to the people. They will talk about the crisis and the need to unite on their own. We must only explain how exactly that unity can be accomplished.

We feel pained by the inability to unite, as if the Creator, nature, is leading us to a dead-end just so we would kill each other. Just like in Ancient Babylon, we are standing before an invariable law. We hate one another and at the same time we totally, boundlessly depend on one another. So what should we do? My enemies are standing behind my back ready to kill me, but I am falling asleep in their arms like a baby. Is that possible?

Nature is leading us to a dead-end, a catastrophe. This is what we have to talk about with the world, clearly showing it that this is the best possible state in order to receive the method of correction.

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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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