Torah, “Deuteronomy,” 9:1 – 9:2: Hear, O Israel: Today, you are crossing the Jordan to come in to possess nations greater and stronger than you, great cities, fortified up to the heavens. A great and tall people, the children of the ‘Anakim, whom you know and of whom you have heard said, “Who can stand against the children of ‘Anak?!”

When a person advances in his Kabbalah studies and tries to get closer to his friends on the spiritual path in order to reach unity where the Creator will be revealed, he sees huge external and internal obstacles in front of him.

Internal obstacles appear between the participants who try to get closer to each other because such an egoism erupts between them that, as The Book of Zohar tells us, they literally want to kill and burn each other.

On the other hand, they are subjected to adverse external influences because everyone who doesn’t participate in the movement to establish a common heart are their adversaries.

These are the nations of the world, people of Israel that aren’t connected to their movement yet, and the so-called mixed multitude (Erev Rav – workers of Pharaoh). It means all of the adversaries of Kabbalah, all adversaries of the method of connecting people into one whole, are currently enemies of the spiritual path.

We see this for ourselves and cannot do anything. This is a natural product of our advancement. After all, it is written, “Who can stand against the children of ‘Anak?”

Our adversaries seem to us very strong, wise, sure of themselves, and logical. They understand what they are living for and are convincing because there is an egoistic world in front of them where they exist and navigate perfectly.

From their point of view, you are an unreal person full of unrealistic fantasies and just lead people away from a normal life. It is exactly like Pharaoh who said to Moses, “Why do you and Aaron distract people from my work? Let them work for me, I will pay them, and everything will be fine.”

Pharaoh commanded his servants, “Give them more work so that they won’t listen to these two. What is it that they suddenly decided to deal with some kind of love?!”

Today, the same thing happens. The ideological Kabbalah haters, the mixed multitude (Erev Rav), are trying to succeed especially in this. In all times, there is a war waged with them.

Question: But the people of Israel are entering the land of Israel and beginning to develop it.

Answer: The people of Israel gradually are joining the handful of Kabbalists under the leadership of Moses and Aaron, which includes their disciples and the ancestors of the tribes. In this way, they gradually lead people to a state of connection between them that is called the land of Israel.

Question: Then, do the children of ‘Anak cease to be giants?

Answer: Actually, there are no more giants in the land of Israel. They appear there only when another shattering happens.

For example, before the destruction of the First and the Second Temples egoistic societies appeared that stated that they knew how to serve the Creator, destroying through this the level of bestowal and love that was achieved between people. It was they who brought the Romans and Greeks to Israel that banished its people from it. Since then, we have existed in this state for 2,000 years.

Even now, they don’t let us to assemble together to reach integrity, bestowal, love, and unity between us. They feel that it undermines the foundation of their power over the people, and therefore, they are strongly against the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Question: How do we not see giants in them, that is, knowledgeable and logical people?

Answer: It is said very simply, “Turn your gaze to them, and they will turn into a mountain of bones.” We need to unite between us, attract the force of the Creator to us, and direct our energy to the connection of the people.

By this, we will destroy the giants because they exist only in order to shatter people to pieces, small currents, to not let them assemble and make them work only in egoism.

Therefore, even though they sometimes talk about the principle of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” they haven’t realized it themselves.
[192346]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/4/16

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New Life 495 – How Can We Control Luck?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Life in modern times is very dynamic and by nature we are forced to balance it with  confidence and control so that in various life situations we will be happy to feel doors are open before us. How can we control luck?

Leading figures in politics, wealthy people, or world leaders would be very happy to maintain their positions, but we are gradually discovering that the world today operates according to different laws that do not depend on them. Our growing awareness requires the world to change with regard to us, but reality, or what you may call fate or luck, invites us to change and to develop.

A Little Bit of Luck

The word “luck,” “Mazel” in Hebrew, stems from the root “to drip”, and refers to a force that drips on us bit by bit and guides us to develop in the right way, helping us to advance correctly toward the spiritual goal. According to the Torah, we can control our fate or our luck according to the rule that Israel are above the stars and fate. What does that mean?

Israel refers to every person who aims at Yashar-El, which means at resembling the Creator, the general upper force of nature, the good and benevolent force, the force of love and giving. A person aims at that goal like a pilot who checks all the data he has while preparing for and during a flight: the different pressures, his location, the route, etc. He constantly adjusts his path and navigates in order to bring the passengers safely to their destination.

A person who wants to discover the upper force and to improve his life also constantly checks himself every step of the way. When he is ready to advance toward the spiritual goal the luck force puts delicate pressure on him, guiding him and enabling him to advance smoothly. The same luck force continues to guide him toward the final destination, fine tuning his advancement more and more. A person who focuses on the goal correctly feels that the luck force pushes him forward in a nice and pleasant manner.

The Changing Technique

What is it exactly that the luck force guides? Here is some background: man is basically a desire to receive pleasure and joy, an egoist who cannot easily change his desires and his perspective. This is where the luck force, the developing force, comes in. The luck force helps a person feel and understand the need for a change; this force helps a person change his attitude.

Luck gradually turns the egoistic desire to receive pleasure at the expense of others to a desire to give and to love others. The more a person changes his perception, the more loving he becomes and the more he begins to see and feel a better more beautiful world. This transition sounds unnatural, and rightly so. After all, it is about restarting a person’s attitude.

So how can we prepare ourselves to changing our luck for the better? According to the wisdom of Kabbalah it is possible only if we organize the right environment, which will promote values of love of others. Such an environment is built of a group of friends who have a clear goal toward which everyone helps each other advance more easily, more gladly, and by mutually supporting each other. Thus a person acquires the luck that helps him advance consciously, and gradually develops more love and giving to others, a new attitude to himself and to his environment.

Heaven on Earth

A person can develop during his lifetime. A person’s internal development from egoistic self-love, called this world, is a natural, normal state from which we begin to live our lives. We can develop toward our ideal state, toward the goal of love of others, and use the luck force correctly. Changing our attitude toward others and feeling greater love and bestowal is called the next world.

The change a person undergoes by changing his intention from self-love to love of others is called the transition from this world to the next world. In this state a person begins to feel that he is unlimited, about to enter heaven. There are no limits to love and bestowal, and a person feels that he is in an infinite dimension in which everything is good, for his own good.

In summary, the goal of life is to teach us to love, no more, no less. The more we try to resemble the force of love and giving, the more will be worthy of being called Israel, straight toward the upper force, and the more the luck force will operate on us, helping us gradually connect to the upper force, to heaven, without any limitations, until we feel eternity and wholeness.
[151820]
From KabTV’s “New Life 495 – How Can We Control Luck?” 1/8/15

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The spiritual knowledge lost by the people of Israel after destruction of the Temple gave a special impetus to the development of the European civilization. It gave Europeans an exceptional strength of spirit, the desire to conquer, explore new lands, and to develop.

Pilgrims travelled the roads and spread the Christian religion everywhere and taught people to pray. It brought science, knowledge, and faith to the residents of Europe that were complete barbarians at that time. This religion supports people until today.

Ancient Greeks received all their wisdom from the Jews. Initially, there were quite primitive beliefs in many gods in ancient Greece. The legends of ancient Greece are so naive that can attract only young children. Science and conception of the human soul that, allegedly, develops from a deep breathing, were also primitive.

Ancient Greece rose due to borrowing ideas from the wisdom of Kabbalah that was alive in the people of Israel. Although the Greeks learned from it only external ideas in a distorted form, that is exactly what developed European civilization and gave Europe the form it is in today.

Thanks to this influence, Europe received a special spirit that it was striving to pass to the whole world. Therefore, Europeans went to discover new lands and continents, but their main motive was religious and missionary.

From religion science developed, alchemy and geography that were necessary in order to prove to everyone that the Christian religion was the truest  that conquers the world. It was very important for the Europeans. The colonial wars and conquests initially had exclusively religious purposes. It was only later that they realized that they could receive economic benefit from them.

Closer to our time, ships began to bring goods from China and India to England and a need for the Suez Canal arose.

There was a transition from the Christian religion to science. Europe shifted the focus from God to man, the human spirit, and the human values. It is possible to say that this change began with the French Revolution that was followed by revolutions in other countries. Science began to develop rapidly in addition to religion.

There was no other continent where so many different nations lived in close proximity and had a common religion and philosophy received from Rome and Greece. Besides, the people of Israel, who came out into exile, were living among the European nations. They moved from one country to another and were contacting other nations, passing to them the spirit that lived inside them. Therefore, Europe has developed as no other country.

It is possible to say that the place where the people of Israel came from began to flourish. And as soon as they were expelled from there, these countries fell immediately. It means that we can see two ways of development in Europe. The first one is the development of the Christian religion, and the second is the development of the Jewish spirit. These two directions, influencing each other, have built the European civilization.
[192547]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/18/16

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Question: Europe is going through difficult times: an economic crisis, refugees problem, the spread of Islam, and resurgence of fascism and Nazism; all these problems are snowballing very rapidly.

Yet Europe made a great contribution to the development of humanity, probably greater than all other continents. What is the reason that such a high civilization developed in Europe?

Answer: Ancient civilization emerged in the Middle East, in ancient Babylon, Persia. But then it all moved to Europe, to ancient Greece and Rome, which built European civilization.

From Greece to Europe came science and philosophy that Greek scientists received from the Jews during the period from the First Temple until the destruction of the Second Temple, a thousand years before our era. European scientists and philosophers write about it themselves.

The Romans gave the social system that developed Europe. After all, when the Roman Empire was at the height of its prosperity and power, Europe was totally barbaric. If the Romans didn’t conquer Europe, crossing it all up to the northern borders and down, it’s hard to say what would have happened to the European civilization.

The Romans gave Europe a state system; they laid and paved the roads. The Talmud writes that when Judea fell, the Roman Empire took over its power and wisdom and rose upon them. Eventually everything came out of Israel, from the destruction experienced by the Jewish people. The spiritual knowledge of the people of Israel, their spiritual attainment and strength, were exhausted, and only pitiful crumbs were left from them.

The people of Israel didn’t know how to use them because they were not created to build something in this material world, but only for the spiritual work. The Romans adopted this knowledge and used it to build the material life in European countries.

The campaigns of Alexander the Great really contributed to it who stated that he sought to convey this modern, scientific, developed public method of existence to the entire world. This was the purpose of his conquests.

In addition, Christianity was a great help in spreading the Roman influence over Europe. It was adopted from the Jews and grew on the basis of those remains that were left after destruction of the Second Temple. The first Christians were Jews that turned Christianity into a new religion, after the destruction of the Second Temple.

Christianity obliged its followers to develop this religion, to spread it further and to add new souls to it. This is what inspired ancient Rome to conquer Europe, bringing science, philosophy, and religion there.

Prior to it, barbarians that worshiped spirits inhabited Europe. Christianity gave them a system and books. Art began to develop since people were illiterate and drawings were required in order to explain this idea to them.

Religions and philosophies blossomed on the ruins of the Jewish Temple due to the impossibility of continuing the spiritual idea that fell and shattered. The entire European civilization grew from the few crumbs that were left from the hidden wisdom that the Jews had.
[192531]
From KabTV’s “New Life #762 8/18/16

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Opinion (DSLauretta, Professor of Planetary Science and Cosmochemistry at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, near-Earth asteroid formation and evolution export): “Yesterday, the media reported widely on the upcoming launch of OSIRIS-REx. While many of these reports were accurate and informative, a few of the headlines were a little misleading. For example:

NASA Spacecraft Set to Explore Giant Asteroid That Could Destroy Earth

“Fortunately, as the news cycle progressed, these inaccuracies were corrected:

No, Asteroid Bennu Won’t Destroy Earth

“I thought it would be useful to summarize the effects of a Bennu impact. The Minor Planet Center classifies Bennu as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid because it has a diameter larger than 150 m and a minimum orbit intersection distance (MOID) of < 0.05 Astronomical Units (abbreviated AU and equal to the average distance between the Earth and Sun) with the Earth. Bennu has a mean diameter of 492 meters and its MOID is 0.003 AU. The MOID will steadily decrease resulting in a potential Earth impact during the later decades of the 22^nd century. The tabulation of potential Earth impacts results in a cumulative impact probability of approximately 1 in 2700 sometime in the 2175– 2196 time frame. …

“A Bennu impact would be a major natural disaster. The results would be felt for hundreds of miles with most of the damage concentrated within tens of miles of the impact site. The Earth would be largely unaffected, with the exception of a new geologic feature – the Bennu impact crater!”

Answer: I don’t believe that humanity will be under such an attack at all because according to nature’s plan we have to reach a certain state. Until we reach complete similarity to the good force of nature and begin to see everything through it, nothing will happen to us. Only when we do will the world, which we see though our egoism, gradually melt away and fade away from our feelings, and instead we will have a new feeling of a good and perfect world, which we call the upper world.

Then humanity will feel that it exists in a totally new dimension. In a good dimension, not a bad one, while the asteroids and such are revealed to us the way they are because that’s what we feel in our egoistic states.

Therefore, it is a waste of time talking about this issue and a waste of money developing means to deal with it, since it will not lead to any positive outcomes.

All our advancements, including scientific and technological ones, are also useless.

We will undergo states in which we will draw away from this advancement; states of the recognition of evil in every aspect even with regard to scientific and technological advancement. I am saying this as a scientist. We will feel that our egoistic development is totally unnecessary.

Humanity has undergone all the phases of evolution in order to feel the current state as the recognition of evil, of egoism. Everything we have created in the world was created by our egoism and so we will cease to use it. At the end of our spiritual evolution everything that we have created on the surface of the earth will simply evaporate.

Question: What can lead to the extinction of the Earth and of mankind? Can this actually happen?

Answer: Certainly not!

It is only as a result of the correction of our nature, from an egoistic nature to an altruistic nature, that we will reach a state in which we will begin to see another world.

Our world will indeed turn into a different world, into a good and perfect world that is totally closed, and so there will be no problems.

Then the world as we feel it now will disappear, we will also not feel ourselves the way we do now and will only feel our internal attributes, whereas the external attributes will gradually be nullified and will seemingly evaporate. It is because our egoistic attributes will become altruistic and we will not feel all that anymore.
[192022]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/3/16

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Question: Isn’t our method overloaded with terms that increase the egoistic mind, which is useless in spirituality?

Answer: Our study of the wisdom of Kabbalah is based on a very limited study of Talmud Eser Sefirot (TES), with an emphasis on the study of the basics of the spiritual work.

I constantly regret the fact that I cannot study TES (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) with my students to the extent that we should. After all, studying about the upper world, about the leadership that manages us is essential in order to draw the Surrounding Light, (the Light that is external to us as long as we are not corrected), as it says in item 155 in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot.”
[191950]

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Question: You often have said that Eastern doctrines are based on the suppression of the ego. One of the basic principles of Zen Buddhism is that truth cannot be expressed in words and that the only criterion is personal experience.

The Zen Koan system (questions and answers) is based on the principle that it is impossible to answer the teacher’s question by using formal logic.

The method is meant to spur the student on, helping to transcend the limits of logical thinking to reach a level where he has no rational support.

It seems that you often use a similar method, whether consciously or unconsciously. Is that really so?

Answer: To some extent this is also one of the techniques used in studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, but it doesn’t mean that the methods are similar, not in development nor purpose.
[191902]

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Question: Not long ago we marked the day that the ARI departed. Why do we specifically mark the day of the departure of a great Kabbalist?

Answer: Actually it is a holiday for us. Because a giant like the ARI departed from our world, he ascends the levels of attainment and in this way he is able to positively influence more and more about our world and us, everything that is connected with him.

Clearly, this speaks about his soul and not his body. The body is a “beast” that we bury and that is all. Nothing happens with it, nothing.

The ARI is a giant soul that was clothed in a body in our world. In this manner, a young man of 37, whom we call the ARI, began to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah to his students. For a year and a half he revealed the entire method, the entire system of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which nobody before him was able to reveal.

The ARI knew more than everyone and knew how to convey and formulate it as nobody before him was able to. For this we are in debt to him because he laid the foundation for the method of correction of a person and the world, which we must implement. Through this we attain the highest, eternal, and complete level of our development. Therefore we are grateful to him.

He left only one student after him, Chaim Vital, who recorded everything that he heard from the mouth of his teacher with absolute precision, and where he had doubts about the precise transmission of the words of the ARI, he left comments. We learn these writings, like all the Kabbalists in the world have done for five generations. Specifically thanks to these records we are able to advance in a good way toward the correction of ourselves, all of nature, and the whole world.

Without these records and writings, we would advance like little wretched and stupid “beasts” that don’t even know why they live, what their nature is, what their development is, and why they are given sufferings.

Whereas the method that was revealed by the ARI helps us understand toward what we must develop, what the goals are, what the stages are through which we must pass in our development, and how we must pass through all of these stages. For our development in a good way under the influence of the good force instead of the evil force, we are bound to be thankful to him.

Comment: They say that the ARI was a turning point in the history of humanity.

Answer: Humanity discovered the method of correction in our world through him, understanding why and how everything is done in the world. There were giant Kabbalists before him, as exemplified by Abraham, Moses, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and others. But it was specifically the ARI who succeeded in disclosing this method and revealing it for us.

So only the ARI is a giant teacher for us, and we absolutely rely on him; he opens our eyes. Already Baal HaSulam and Rabash have come after him, a father and son who described the method of the ARI in a purely practical way so that in our time we can use it and attain truly visible results.

The ARI discovered the wisdom of Kabbalah in our world, and today, someone who truly wants to correct himself and attain the goal of creation, to discover the upper world in addition to this world, can use this method. Our Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education Center accepts everyone who is interested, in all languages, and is ready to help anyone who specifically wants to study the writings of the ARI.
[191754]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/10/16

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Question: My little daughter refuses to even taste certain foods claiming that it doesn’t taste good even though she has never tasted it. What is the reason for this kind of natural behavior?

I believe that many people feel the same way about the wisdom of Kabbalah, feeling repulsed by it although they don’t really understand what it is. Understanding this phenomenon could help us spread the wisdom of Kabbalah in the world.

Answer: If we don’t know what something tastes like, we don’t want it. But once we taste it we begin to yearn for it according to the Reshimo, the impression that is left.

The opposition to the wisdom of Kabbalah stems from the lack of a Reshimo (spiritual record), but mainly because the wisdom of Kabbalah is in opposition to our nature and it is about the correction of the ego, which is actually our whole essence. Therefore, only a person in whom the Reshimo is revealed, the impression from an earlier spiritual state, will come to study and implement the wisdom of Kabbalah.
[191738]

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Question: If it is necessary to dedicate all of one’s life to spiritual development and leave “other business” aside, when is there time left for living? Why has the Creator made everything so complicated?

Answer: And what is a person living for? When we begin to study the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah, we begin to live it, feel what forces it is speaking about, how it is possible to discover and feel them, and how the world system is managed.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is the foundation for all human culture, all religions, and all knowledge because it speaks about the higher system of management. Everything that exists in our world is a result of this system. Through studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is possible to get hold of it.

There is no prohibition on earthly pleasures in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is possible to quietly go fishing, watch a soccer game, be involved with sports, and care for a family, and so on. There is no need to give up any worldly pursuits, except for the consumption of hard drugs because they detach a person from reality and from comprehending the higher management.

The wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t prohibit anything. This is not a monastery, not suffering, or self-restriction. It only speaks about adding special higher pleasures to our lives.

Nonetheless, we know that for every pleasure, for every fulfillment, for all knowledge, we must pay with our effort and time. It is the same thing here.
[191725]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/17/16

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