Entries in the 'Love' Category

Exalt Righteous over Wicked

17.01Question: What does a righteous one do with the mountain of evil that he or she sees in front of them?

Answer: He is trying to overcome this evil and turn it into good.

The fact is that wicked and righteous exist in one person, and therefore he wants to kill this wicked within himself, or at least lower it, and, on the contrary, raise the righteous, exalt him above the wicked. In this way, one will be getting closer to the Creator. The righteous and the wicked exist in each of us, and the way we treat them depends on us.

They cannot exist alone; they always seem to complement each other. Therefore, a person, feeling that he is wicked, corrects something in himself and against these corrected properties he feels righteous.

But, in principle, they always replace each other, wicked one moment, righteous the next, and again, wicked one moment, righteous the next, and this is how a person rises: a step with his left foot, a step with the right one, then again, a step with his left foot, a step with his right one. Thus we move forward.

Question: How is the property of the righteous replaced by the property of the wicked?

Answer: New egoistic desires arise in a person, and it turns out that he becomes wicked.

This happens in order for him to correct all his properties, so that all the evil, about which the Creator said at the beginning of creation: “I have created the evil inclination,” will be corrected by Him for good, but at the urgent request of a person.
[319194]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/23, Writings of Rabash “What Is, “Calamity that Comes upon the Wicked Begins with the Righteous,” in the Work?”

Related Material:
An Honorable Task Of Becoming Righteous
The Place Where Sinners Retreat
He Who Justifies The Creator Is The Righteous One

Sprout the Seed of Bestowal in the Nations

448.9Question: Wherever Jews were expelled from, countries fell, culture, economy and everything else immediately declined. How should the peoples of the world understand that only by following Israel can one come to harmony and knowledge of the Creator? How should they help the people of Israel?

Answer: They do not really need to help. They should just learn. See what is happening to many countries. Let us hope that everything will be fine, that everyone will come to the final correction of their egoism and understand that the main thing is good and kind connections.

Question: Then why are the people of Israel so divided?

Answer: Because they are in an even worse state than the peoples of the world. Jews have no idea they should be united.

Question: But the Creator scattered them everywhere. There is not a single country in the world without Jews. Why did the Creator scatter them all over the world? Is it to gather them together again or so they will feel their destiny?

Answer: It is so that they all gather together, but before that, it is to plant a seed in every nation they are currently exiled in. They have to plant this seed there so it can sprout.

Question: Is that why Rabbi Akiva was happy when the Second Temple was being destroyed?

Answer: Of course.
[319216]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/23, Writing of Baal HaSulam “Exile and Redemption”

Related Material:
The “Thin Stream” in the History of Humanity
Long Way To The Temple, Part 7
Inner And Outer Israel

Demand Correction from the Creator

294.2Question: What is going on in the world? It seems that the peaceful years are over, that the time of peace has come to its end. Where is the world heading?

Answer: The world is moving toward awareness of its own misery, sin, mutual hatred, and egoistic relationships with each other. In the end, all this helps us raise our heads and demand correction from the Creator. Correction!

Question: There is a part of humanity that is against the normal civilized world, against the existing order in the world. So what kind of correction should we require?

Answer: It depends on everyone. We must definitely try to explain to people that everything depends only on their kind attitude toward one another. This sounds naive, but in principle, as we are studying, all the good forces of nature, which alone can turn us into normal people, are based on this.

Question: So, correction will take place, and these forces will turn us into normal people? Will your neighbors become normal and say: “We love our brothers in Israel”? Will this happen in this way?

Answer: Yes, definitely.

Question: And what should we do for this? Request that the terrorists who are shooting at you come to this realization?

Answer: Of course. So that in the first place we come to the realization that a good future depends on good relations between us. We must be closer to each other in our hearts, both friends in our tens and the whole world. At least friends in our tens.
[318805]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/23, “Current Events in Israel”

Related Material:
A War against War
Understand The Meaning Of War
Let Him Make Peace Between Us

From the Toy Reward to the Real One

938.03The correct work for bestowal, without expecting reward, means to think only about the friends and through them about the Creator, to want to help them in their spiritual work.

It is necessary to keep this intention all the time, that is, to connect more and more and to try to raise this burden together for the sake of the Creator. Then we will see how each time we do it better and better despite the fact that the burden is getting heavier.

The friends are in my heart because I want to connect with them in order to receive strength from them and pass to them all the strength that I have for the sake of our main common goal of raising and elevating the Creator above us.

Here we have to make a choice in order to wish for a true spiritual reward. After all, by nature, we get a desire for egoistic fulfillment, like children dreaming of a toy car instead of a real car.

Then we get smarter, and we already begin to neglect the toy reward, but we do not grow up to the real one yet. After all, to do this you need to connect with your friends and try to build this “real car” in your mind and heart together with them. This is how spiritual work begins.
[318262]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/23/23, “Concerning Bestowal”

Related Material:
Efforts Are the Reward
“According to the Sorrow, So Is the Reward”
Where To Look For The Reward For Bestowal

“What the Jonah Story Tells Us about Antisemitism” (Times of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “What the Jonah Story Tells Us about Antisemitism
Nine years ago, I published an article in The New York Times (print edition) titled, “What We Jews Owe the World.” This year, come Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), I’d like to share it with everyone following me, as I think that the message within can have a major impact on the future of our nation.

Buying Our Way to Heaven

The holiest day of the year for the Jews is Yom Kippur, when we fast and pray. A key part of the prayer is reading the book of Jonah the Prophet. Interestingly, many observant Jews believe that buying the privilege to read the book will make them successful for the rest of the year.

Naturally, only the wealthiest in the community can afford to compete for it. The sums vary according to the affluence of the community, and in some cases the privilege is sold for well over half a million dollars.

Cracking the Code

What people are not aware of, however, is the real reason why the book of Jonah is so important. Kabbalists determined that this reading is the most important in the year because it details the code for saving humanity.

Jonah’s story is special because it speaks of a prophet who first tried to dodge his mission, but finally repented. Another special aspect of Jonah’s story is that his mission was not to admonish the people of Israel, but to save the city of Nineveh, whose residents were not Jewish. In light of today’s precarious state of the world, we should take a closer look at this story and its meaning for each of us.

Shape Up or Ship Out

In the story, God orders Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh, who became very mean to one another, to correct their relationships with one another if they want to survive. However, Jonah bailed out of his mission and took to the sea in an effort to escape God’s command.

Like Jonah, we Jews have been inadvertently avoiding our mission for the past 2,000 years. And yet, we cannot afford to keep avoiding it. We have a task that was passed down to us when Moses united us into a nation based on the tenet, Love your neighbor as yourself, and it is our duty to set an example of unity for the rest of the world. Our forefathers, Abraham and Moses, wanted to unite all of humanity, but back then the world was not ready (for more on that, see my article, Why Do People Hate Jews?).

That group, namely the people of Israel, must still become a role model to the world. Rav Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of Israel, put it poetically in his book, Orot Kodesh (Sacred Lights), Since we were ruined by unfounded hatred, and the world was ruined with us, we will be rebuilt by unfounded love, and the world will be rebuilt with us.

Sleeping through the Storm

In the story, Jonah’s escape from his mission by ship caused the sea to roar and nearly sank the vessel. At the height of the storm Jonah went to sleep detaching himself from the turmoil and leaving the sailors to fend for themselves. Gradually, they began to suspect that someone among them was the cause of the storm. They cast a lot and the lot fell on Jonah, the only Jew on board.

In many ways, today’s world is similar to Jonah’s ship. As Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, put it: “We are all in one boat, one global economy. Our fortunes rise together, and they fall together. …We have a collective responsibility—to bring about a more stable and more prosperous world, a world in which every person in every country can reach their full potential.” Yet, the sea around us is raging, and the sailors, who are all of humanity, are blaming the Jew on board for all their troubles.

Like Jonah, we are sound asleep. Though we are beginning to wake up to the existence of hatred toward us, we have yet to realize that not carrying out our mission is the reason for the hatred. If we do not wake up soon, the sailors will throw us overboard, as they did with Jonah. Yehuda Ashlag, author of the Sulam (Ladder) commentary on The Zohar, wrote in his essay, The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee): It is incumbent upon the Israeli nation to qualify itself and the rest of the people in the world to evolve into assuming this sublime work of love of others.

The Wake-Up Call

Jonah tells the sailors to throw him overboard, as only this will calm the sea. Reluctantly, the sailors obey and the storm calms. A whale swallows Jonah, and for three days and three nights he stays in its abdomen, introspecting his actions and decisions. He begs for his life and vows to carry out his mission.

Like Jonah, each of us carries within something that is stirring up the world. We, the people of Israel, carry a method for achieving peace through connection. Unity is the very root of our being. This DNA is what makes us a people because we were declared a nation only after we pledged to be as one man with one heart and strove to love our neighbor as ourselves. Today we must rekindle this bond because wherever we go, this untapped power is destabilizing the world around us in order to compel us to unite and reignite it.

Just as the current separation among us projects separation to the whole of humanity, unity between us will inspire the rest of the nations to unite, as well. When we unite, it will endow humanity with the energy required to achieve worldwide unity, where all people live as one man with one heart. So the only question is whether we assume our responsibility, or prefer to be thrown overboard, only to subsequently agree to carry out our task.

If we want to end our troubles, be rid of antisemitism and have a safe and happy life, we must unite and thus set an example of unity for all the nations. This is how we will bring peace and quiet to the world. Otherwise the nations hatred toward us will keep growing.

Now we see that when people pay so much for the privilege of reading the book of Jonah on Yom Kippur, they inadvertently state their support of the mission of the Jewish people toward the world: to be a light unto nations by showing an example of unity and connection. To conclude, let me quote once more the great Rav Kook: Any turmoil in the world comes only for Israel. Now we are called upon to carry out a great task willingly and mindfully: to build ourselves and the entire ruined world along with us (Igrot [Letters]).
[318312]

Reveal the Upper System in Yourself

509Question: How can we correctly use all the situations that are given to us and feel the spiritual world, and not just shout at the wrong point?

Answer: Incorrect shouting gradually give birth to the correct cry. No one is hiding anything from you. You just have to reveal everything within yourself.

Do you think that I am going to give you some kind of patent right no and you will start manipulating yourself and the world, move yourself this way and that way? It will not work. You have to discover this system step by step within yourself and learn how to manage it, in other words, grow up as a small child grows.

At the same time, you gain the powers of growth and knowledge. At least they are in front of you. In our world, a child is pushed forward as he is growing up. In the spiritual world, a person himself determines the pace of his own development.
[317773]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Last Scream before Death” 10/24/11

Related Material:
Fate Of The High Souls
Penetrating Love Through Barricades Of Hate
We Are Lacking an Attack

Questions about Spiritual Work—9

630.2Question: I feel pain because of what is happening in my country. How can I make it so that I feel pain from the lack of adhesion with the Creator and yearning for Him?

Answer: We must ask for both. On one hand, ask the Creator to connect us and give us the quality of bestowal, love, and connection. On the other hand, ask that we rise above our egoism and thus become more spiritual.

Question: I notice that the greatest egoistic pleasure I experience is when I control something, promote something of my own. Then it becomes unpleasant, I experience the feeling of shame and abomination. How can I escape from this?

Answer: It should influence you not because it is unpleasant, but because it is against the Creator. Then you can ask to be raised out of this state.

Question: How can I stay in a state of lowliness before the Creator, in awareness of His greatness, and the fact that there is none else besides Him? It keeps slipping away.

Answer: If you keep trying to do this, you will understand why you are given such conditions and states. You will have the right discernment of the way the Creator educates you.

Question: When I want to ask you a question, I have fear and trembling. But when I turn to the Creator or to my friends, there is no such fear. Is this a manifestation of egoism?

Answer: Practice. Speak on your own the words of appeal to the friends, appeal to the Creator, and appeal to me. In this way, you will slowly develop a habit.

Question: Is it possible to ask the Creator to tremble before the friends?

Answer: Of course. Anything you want.
[316685]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/6/23, “My Heart Is Slain within Me”

Related Material:
Questions about Spiritual Work—8
Questions about Spiritual Work—7
Questions about Spiritual Work—6

“What are the biggest problems in the world right now and how do we solve them?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What are the biggest problems in the world right now and how do we solve them?

Our main problem is when we try to egoistically fulfill ourselves at the expense of others, when we enjoy by completely disregarding other people and the system of nature we exist in.

We need to understand that we live in a unified system of nature. We are each deeply integrated with everyone and everything, including minerals, plants, fungi, the animal kingdom, and all the people of the world.

By running on autopilot and blindly following the beck and call of our egoistic desire to do whatever we feel like regardless of others, we bring a lot of harm to ourselves and to nature.

If we consider the benefit of all the people in the world, then our actions become aligned with wholeness. That is the key change we need to undergo in order to solve our every problem.

How can we make that change? It is a matter of education.

Education is not only the learning we receive in schools, colleges, universities and so on, but we become educated by every influence and example we receive from society. We thus need to upgrade the values with which we influence ourselves in our societies, by promoting, exemplifying and teaching about the need to shift from self-concern to concern about others.

When we connect positively to others in such a way, the machinery of our lives then operates in balance with nature. We will then experience the full amount of pleasure, joy, happiness and fulfillment that exists in nature, and never bring harm upon ourselves ever again.

Based on the video “Who Is Pharaoh in Our Lives Today?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Faris Mohammed on Unsplash.

“The 2023 NA Annual KabU Retreat” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: The 2023 NA Annual KabU Retreat

Hello to all of you who find interest in the wisdom of Kabbalah and wish to know what this wisdom is really about, and what it guides a person to achieve.

I highly recommend not to miss the upcoming opportunity at the 2023 NA Annual KabU Retreat to connect with others who started studying the wisdom of Kabbalah.

You have a truly unique opportunity to come together and find in that connection all the answers to every possible question that a person may have.

So I wish you the best of luck in discovering all the secrets of nature, and the secrets of your destiny and purpose.

Good luck.

“When does having an ego become a problem?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: When does having an ego become a problem?

The ego is the desire to enjoy at the expense of others, and the problem with it is precisely in that it makes us think and act at the expense of others.

It blocks us from seeing how we are one with all the people of the world, as well as with the still, vegetative and animate parts of nature.

Outside of the self-serving perception of reality that our ego gives us, we live in a reality where we are all parts of a single, interconnected and interdependent system. In this system, the ego makes us think and act without considering ourselves as parts of a whole system.

Problems and crises proliferate in our world when our egoistic approach to life continues growing, coupled with us becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent.

On the contrary, if we think and act for the benefit of the whole system, where we consider the benefit of others and nature in our every move, then we will enter into balance with nature.

When we reach balance with nature, we will experience a major upgrade in life: from a life of increasing problems and crises, to a life of harmony and peace.

Based on the video “What Is the Problem with the Ego?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.