Entries in the 'Nations of the World' Category

Unity Is The Guarantee Of Victory, Part 5

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Today every Israeli is like a dormant volcano that will erupt with a single word. Apparently only a true miracle will help us because our situation is so distant from the unity about which you speak.

Answer: In summation, we are one millimeter from this state. But in order to overcome this millimeter, it is necessary to switch from one situation to a second situation within the Israeli head and activate a mechanism that exists within it, but it is in a dormant state.

This is a mechanism of connection and Arvut (mutual guarantee) within which we once existed. It is necessary only to awaken a person and bring to his awareness that he is different from and opposite to his present self. This is so he will see where the origin of his good and evil is found.

It is necessary to understand that we have a unique role in this world in that we can bring Light to ourselves, our families, and to all of humanity. If we truly want to win, this is done not through winning soccer championships at the Olympic Games, but rather it is transforming ourselves to be a conduit through which the Light will stream into the world.

We must be the link that connects the origin of the Upper Light and the whole world and all of humanity. And then everyone will say, “Finally the Jews have begun to bring us something good! We felt that evil came from them, but now we feel that good energy comes from them.” And this will be Chanukah, the festival of light. We need to let everybody know about such a miracle.

Question: What does it mean to bring Light to the world?

Answer: Light is the life force. It gives health, development, new life, new relationships of a person within the family and also regarding all the other people. It also means the right relationship to all of levels nature, the still, vegetative, and animate, and to the environment. With a new attitude like this, our planet will become a true Garden of Eden. This is because the Upper Light is the force that corrects and revives everything.

Question: How is the ancient Israeli spirit that we are missing today connected to this?

Answer: Only by way of this spirit can we attain everything. For when we unite, the power of good from above will pass through us and fill the whole world. And this is the true miracle, because we are only carrying out the conditions between us that make it possible for the Upper Light to pass through us to all of humanity.

Our unity is the necessary condition; there is nothing else. Then the Light that comes will consolidate us even more, will stream to all the people, and will connect them also. And then everyone will become a single unit.

Question: Is something like this possible?

Answer: It is said in Isaiah 56:7: …for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples, and Isaiah 2:2: …and all nations shall flow unto it. Not only is this possible, this must happen whether we want it or not. The entire process of evolution is leading us towards this.

So, it doesn’t frighten me that today the ego in Israel has risen to the heavens. This has to be, Ecclesiastes 2:13:…as far as light excelleth darkness. The more that darkness grows, the brighter and stronger the Light will be when it is revealed.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/11/14

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The Maccabees And The Greek Ideology, Part 3

Dr. Michael LaitmanTo date, we have exhausted all the possibilities of the egoistic approach in all areas, whether in education, culture, daily life, family, the relationships between people and nations, the ability to continue the exploration of the universe, and so forth. The limitation to the egoistic awareness of the world is already so close that we can feel it.

This is not just talking about the collapse of science, but about its end, about that line where its ability to learn and explore nature in an introverted manner, on the basis of our egoistic desire, ends. There are still a multitude of things and phenomena in the world, but we don’t have the power to reach them; we don’t have the ability to perceive and discover them. They remain “invisible” to our present senses.

On the other hand, when I rise above research according to the “Greek” model and want to go outside towards bestowal and love, I rise above my material, beastly, and human “self” and want to feel the reality of nature as it is, without “self-made” interference, without a “filter” oriented towards personal benefit.

A person first perceives reality and investigates it later. So I want to perceive reality without bias, without any “filter,” without any internal interference. I want to see it as it truly is.

And then, through working on myself, I discover that essentially it is entirely immense bestowal and love. There are a multitude of systems that work according to this power. They are found all around us and I can create a connection with them, thanks to which I can understand what is actually happening.

Because in addition to the conventional two percent, all the rest of the details of reality are specifically found there in the system of bestowal. Further, we call this a “higher” system because it is specifically it which directs, inspects, and determines everything that is happening.

Returning to the holiday of Chanukah: It was about this that the Maccabees were fighting; it was about a sense of reality and the Jewish attitude towards it. Either our own extroverted method would be at its foundation, which goes beyond the limitations of the materialistic and corporeal perception, or the opposite, we would be satisfied with a narrow perception of the body, which is to say the “Greek” version. The struggle was conducted between these two opposing perceptions in those days.

Question: What can we derive and learn from this day?

Answer: Today, after two thousand years of the “Greek” perception, we must leave it. So this entire perception, along with its science and culture, has sunken into a crisis. Now the Jews and those who understand that they are right should come out of human society, again acquire an objective perception of the world, and then bring everyone else out to this level.

And then, we will approach the study of true reality, where the entire infinite world is placed before us and we know how to adapt ourselves to it as unlimited creatures living happily within eternity and wholeness.

This is what is today called the “War of the Maccabees.”
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From Kab TV’s “A New Life” 12/14/14

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What Did The Maccabees Fight Against?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We know that the Maccabees didn’t fight only against the Greeks but also against the Hellenists. What is this conflict about? Is it about two opposite ideologies?

Answer: The concept of Hellenism is a perception of reality, a paradigm, a worldview, a philosophy, and a perspective of the world. The world perceptions of the Greeks and the Romans were totally egoistic.

They claimed that man is in the center of the creation and that it isn’t bad and it isn’t a mistake. Man was considered a perfect creature, which means that his evolution has been completed and that he cannot change his nature. According to this perception evolution could only be:

  • Physical—sports and Olympic Games;
  • Rational—the fabrication of myths and fantasies, which were common in those days.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is the approach that allowed the Israeli nation to come out of the universal Babylon, which is the basis for all the other perceptions, including the Greek perception, and the natural evolution of the desire and the mind in order to attain a good life in this world. All the other perceptions regarding our nature refer to this world.

That method is based on absorption, on perceiving, and on receiving with the help of the raging ego that constantly develops in a person. This force is like a tight spring that is released inside us constantly pushing us to different pleasures.

Thus we cook inside our ego, each in his own pot, and all of us together in one giant pot. This process helps us advance scientifically, culturally, in sports, and in other aspects that make our life more comfortable. Thanks to the ego that constantly burns inside us as a part of our nature, we build fantastic things to satisfy ourselves.

But there is an opposite approach according to which our nature is basically evil. Why?—Because it isn’t for connection between people but leads to separation between them. After all, each one establishes relations with others only for one’s own benefit. Therefore, this approach is flawed and destructive.

My nature forces me to take advantage of everything that goes on around me, everyone that is around me. It is all for my benefit. This is a natural desire, my innate attribute. At any given moment I weigh my moves in order to use the world egoistically.

This leads to detachment because we are in a continuous struggle between us, in competition, which is the basis of the ancient Greek culture. The Olympic Games are a clear example of that. Eventually the Greek approach requires the use of others for our own benefit.

On the other hand, our nation believes in totally different values. Abraham gathered his students and explained to them that they were to establish a society that should live on the principles of mutuality, unity, and love. The essence of the Jewish approach means that the other is more important than me.

This perception that Abraham initiated was carried on through Egypt, Mount Sinai, and the land of Israel and was accepted until two thousand years ago. The principle remained unchanged—to constantly develop for the benefit of others so that they will be more important to me than myself.

But what do I gain from that? After all, this approach is also based on the ego because we have nothing else but that.

Such an attitude towards others allows me to exit my nature, to ascend above my limitations, above my body, and to feel the world through the others who are dearer to me than myself.

This is exactly how a mother sees the wellbeing of the world through the wellbeing of her own child. It is as if she dresses in him and then she doesn’t operate according to her own desires but in his benefit.

If I dress that way in all of humanity, I will see a totally different perfect world regardless of my attributes, my desires, and my limitations.

The Greek approach is based on absorption, while the Jewish approach is based in bestowal, on exiting myself, which allows me to discover the force of nature that operates on the outside. In addition to that, I acquire the force of love and bestowal by which I explore all of reality.

The main thing is that I discover the upper force, which created all of the spiritual reality that operates in bestowal and also the corporeal, egoistic reality that operates in receiving. I know the general force and ascend to its level. When I detach myself from the egoistic desire of my body, I ascend above it to an eternal dimension of love and bestowal. Why is it eternal? Because it is whole and lacks nothing.

On the other hand, Greek perception can eventually contribute to a person during his short corporeal life and that’s all. Since all its goals don’t exceed the framework of the physical existence and the body isn’t eternal.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/14/14

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Brochure: “Who Are You, People Of Israel” In German


The Jewish magazine NU with the brochure “Who Are You, People of Israel?” was sent to 4,300 recipients in Austria.


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The Kabbalists About The Nation Of Israel And The Nations Of The World, Part 14

 

The Eternal Flame Of Unity

Laitman_931-01Question: How did your teacher Rabash relate to Chanukah?

Answer: Very little was said about Chanukah. We read a little about the holiday from the book of the Ari, The Gate Of Intentions (Shaar Kavanot).

The point is that this holiday doesn’t stem from the Torah itself. Chanukah symbolizes a typical case that from the time of Abraham onwards should continuously repeat itself. It symbolizes the numerous corrections that await us along the spiritual path.

We are in a continuous war against our internal egoistic enemies and should constantly connect and unite against them. Then a miracle takes place in the connection between us, the upper force of love.

Question: Is this why we say Chanu-kah which in Hebrew means a stop along the way?

Answer: A stop along the way is only half of the correction of the ego, of the desire to receive until the level of bestowal. But we have nothing to bestow and so Chanukah symbolizes the ascent above the ego. This ascent is like the flame of a candle that flickers above the ego.

The oil that is absorbed by the wick symbolizes our ego that has to be corrected that way so that in contrast to our nature, it will give its Light. This happens under inner pressure when we intend to connect despite our ego in order to reach complete bestowal. This is the essence of Chanukah.

The burning of the oil symbolizes our self-annulment before each other in the connection between us. The wick is our collective effort to connect and to unite, which lights the fire.

The miracle is when the Light that connects Malchut (our egoistic desires) with Bina (the attribute of bestowal) arrives. Eight days (eight levels) later Malchut attains the attribute of Bina and a new ego begins to grow with which we work in the same manner.

Question: We have to reach a state of unity one way or the other, either along the path of the Light or along the path of suffering. What will happen with Chanukah then?

Answer: All the holidays except for Purim will disappear. In Chanukah we only rise above our ego while in Purim we use it in order to work with the intention of in order to bestow. Here we use all our old ego to the end so that it fully works in love and bestowal. Thus a state like Purim is eternal.

It is a state of upper joy that swallows all the other states and the holidays that match them and so they all disappear.

Purim is the most sublime holiday that symbolizes the end of the correction of humanity.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/17/14

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A World Without Borders

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus,” Parshat Kedoshim, 19:23-25: And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as forbidden; three years shall it be as forbidden unto you; it shall not be eaten. And in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy, for giving praise unto the LORD. But in the fifth year may ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you more richly the increase thereof: I am the LORD your God.

Question: What is the intention of division into three, four, and five? What is this gradation within a person?

Answer: A person who is involved in correcting himself has five levels of ego within himself. In the first three levels (0, 1, 2) he can’t feel his egoistic desires yet, just as a little child who is also unconscious of himself. After he goes through these three years, he attains the fourth level, the level of the sacred.

In the fourth level, the level of Bina, he must give all the fruits that he grows in the present level. This is called bestowal in order to bestow. And on the fifth level, his reception will be intended in order to bestow and so on this level, he can consume the fruits of his effort.

In the physical world, when talking about fulfilling a Mitzvah (precept) of consuming fruit, we take into account only what grows within the boundaries of the land of Israel, and not what is outside of the land. So from generation to generation, there have been constant debates about where the true borders of Israel stop. According to the Biblical borders, all of the holdings of King David, which existed even before the first Beit HaMikdash (temple), belong to Israel.

This included quite a wide area that included Transjordan, Syria, and Lebanon. And so when we bring fruit that grows from there, a problem is created. On the one hand, the Israelites didn’t grow the fruit, but on the other hand, it is not clear in whose territory they were working. There are a great many questions here, but they don’t affect us since we are involved with spiritual correction not physical correction.

It is said: “And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food.” In spiritual work, when you come to a desire and begin to work with it, it transforms from the level of the still to the vegetative. You can use it in order to bestow, only after you pass it through the first four phases: 0, 1, 2, 3 without using it, for in the fourth phase of Bina, everything is transmitted to the Beit HaMikdash. Only in the last phase is it possible to use it for yourself, because now your reception will be in order to bestow.

Question: Do you suppose that the physical borders of Israel must be like those in the days of King David?

Answer: According to the Talmud, there was a time that the borders of Israel stretched from the Nile on one side, including the Sinai, and on the other side, to Babylon.

I suppose that we don’t need to argue about this at all because the correction that is forcefully approaching us now will, in any case, destroy all the borders and blur them between the different people, their cultures, and all the different forms of life. The correction will unite everything and the mixture of the people will itself become the same Babylon, except corrected.

Question: Why doesn’t this directly affect Israel? Why is the mixture of different people taking place everywhere, whereas Israel is apparently left on the side?

Answer: It is because Israel must be the teacher, the leader of the overall correction, and must provide the demonstration of the correction.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/09/14

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The Maccabees And The Greek Ideology, Part 1

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: While we are celebrating  Chanukah, the festival of the victory of the Maccabees, let’s talk about the Hellenization, which prompted them to go to war with the Greeks.

After the conquests of Alexander of Macedonia, the Greeks imposed their culture, which in those days seemed quite enlightened, rational, and intellectual.

The rational approach, consciousness and understanding was at the forefront, on the one hand, and on the other hand, beauty and aesthetics. Competition also played an important role. Essentially, ancient Greek culture was portrayed as very progressive and dynamic.

Initially, in the first two centuries, the new government was sympathetic to all the peoples, including the Jews, allowing them to keep their customs and religious rituals. Together with this, they were required to be a part of the universal  “supermodel” empire with cultured moral principles.

At first glance, everything was okay. The Jewish elite joined the process and saw the developmental trends in it. But among the Jewish people appeared a group that opposed assimilation and wanted to keep its uniqueness instead of disappearing into the “collective” culture. Why was that? What was bad about it?

Answer: First of all, these events look very different to my eyes. That part of the people who remained faithful to Jewish culture represented not a quantitative, but a qualitative minority—the weakness of man’s internal forces.

Greek culture could not seriously penetrate Jewish culture, for it was in absolute opposition to what the Jewish people lived and breathed and what absorbed their entire approach to life. First of all, in those times, the Jews passed through a powerful comprehensive education system. It was said that there was no child from the age of six from Dan to Beersheba who didn’t know the laws of impurity and purity.

Moreover, this is talking about the inner purity of a person. Today Rabbis pass examinations on Kashrut, but the people knew then that “purity” was essentially the intention to bestow, and “love your friend as yourself.” Impurity was its opposite, the use of the ego for personal benefit. The Jews lived according to the law of love until the days of Rabbi Akiva, when the second Beit HaMikdash (temple) was destroyed and the principle of love your friend as yourself collapsed, something which later led to the exile of the Jewish people.

Indeed in the period of the Maccabees, they were all still at a great spiritual height; people knew how to keep the Torah and the Mitzvot (precepts) in the spiritual sense by correcting their desires for the good of others and for the good of the Creator. All of them then were truly as one person with one heart. They certainly were compelled at every moment to overcome the evil inclination that was continuously growing, and in this way, they rose higher and higher in the love of others, in unity. Their unity caused growth of the ego at all times and they again united again above it in order to discover all of the ego within the people, connect above it, and attain the completion of correction.

They yearned for this, and on this condition the first Beit HaMikdash was built. Then a retreat from this began, which was completely natural, until everything was destroyed and the people of Israel went into exile and then later left it, as it is said, Genesis 15:14: with great substance, as in the time of the exodus from Egypt. However, this time it would draw all of humanity after it, which in fact is something that we need to do today.

First of all it is necessary to understand the process, which is completely opposite of what happens with all other people. The people of Israel live according to the law, Leviticus 19:18: And you shall love your friend as yourself, in Arvut (mutual guarantee), each one supporting the others and creating unity through the power of bestowal. And then the Creator was revealed among them.

The prophets also appeared from here. Everything that they did and wrote was derived from living within the Light, through discovering the higher power, the true higher reality.
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From the program “A New Life” 12/14/14

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Unity Is The Guarantee Of Victory, Part 4

Dr. Michael LaitmanToday’s modern world has become a small village in which everyone depends on everyone else. However, it is steadily degrading because it lacks the power of connection that would consolidate and weld us all together. The world needs to get this power from the people of Israel.

But the people of Israel don’t want to carry out their role or fulfill their mission and serve as an example for connection and unity for the rest of the world. Each one aspires to hide in his niche, imitating the European lifestyle under the conditions of Western democracy that make it possible for a person to live in isolation independently.

But this aspiration is absolutely opposed to the spirit of the people of Israel, for it doesn’t allow us to attain Arvut (mutual guarantee). And Arvut is the foundation and basis for the existence of our people.

Question: It has seemed to us that the problem is in the forces of darkness that are arising in the world in the terrorist organizations of extremist Islam. So now it is becoming clear that the world lacks the power of connection and unity?

Answer: The point is not the terrorists and not the anti-Semites. This is only the result of the lack of Light, due to which dark desires appear in humanity, in an individual or in a group of people.

In the hands of the people of Israel is a faucet of Light, and whether this faucet is opened so that the Light will stream to the world or whether it is closed depends upon them. This is the reason that all the nations of the world blame Israel; they blame us that they aren’t getting the Light. They don’t understand that they lack the Light, but intuitively they feel that we are to blame for all of their problems.

Everything that happens among the people of Israel influences the whole world. Whereas, our people don’t understand and don’t want to listen to the fact that without inner unity, we are not at all the people of Israel and we are not positioning ourselves against the power of nature.

Question: The mood today in Israeli society is very bleak. People feel disappointment from what is happening in the nation. Today we very much require such a miracle as occurred on Chanukah. What must be done so that the miracle will happen?

Answer: The miracle will happen only thanks to integral education. The war of the Maccabees was an ideological war. The Greeks didn’t come with the goal of physically annihilating the Jewish people, they wanted to annihilate them ideologically. If we were to place them in an endless soccer game, then it would be possible to assume that the Jewish people would be wiped out. Annihilation of the people of Israel means playing instead of engaging in connection and unity.

Question: Soccer is a good example because this year there were unprecedented events of cruelty and violence at soccer games, the like of which has never been seen in Israel. Warm feelings of fans for their team suddenly became so fanatically violent that it was really frightening to enter the stadium. This is an example of an anti-Israeli spirit. What is the Israeli spirit that we need to attain instead of this?

Answer: It is said: (Proverbs 10:12): Love covereth all transgressions. Above every force of separation we need to establish the force of unity. This is even though this force of separation remains and we cannot do anything about it because this force comes to us from nature. We don’t need to struggle against this force, our impatience, or the hatred and jealousy. In spite of their existence, we must cover them with love, our good attitude towards others, bestowal and trust.
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From the program “A New Life” 12/11/14

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Hanukkah – The Miracle Of Unity

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn 170 BCE, the Greeks, led by Antiochus IV Epiphanes, captured the Temple. There was a division between the adherents of Greek philosophy and religion and those who remained loyal to the concept of a single Creator.

Some priests, including the high priest (Cohen Rishon), supported the Greeks. The Jerusalem Temple was desecrated and turned into a sanctuary of Zeus. Severe persecution and forced Hellenization of the population led to the Maccabean revolt, led by Matityahu Hashmonay who issued the call, “He who is for God, follow me!”

The uprising ended with the victory of the Maccabees. Having entered the Temple, they found that the pure oil to light the Menorah candles would last for only one day. But a miracle occurred. The candles burned for eight days and so is called the miracle of Hanukkah.

Question: What does Hanukkah represent from the spiritual point of view?

Answer: The history leading to this holiday begins with Abraham as the founder of the Jewish people. Long before the Maccabees, It was he who first issued the call,  “Whoever is moving towards the Creator – follow me!” Under this motto, he gathered a large group of Babylonians, to whom he taught his approach to the universe, the purpose of life and creation, the higher human destiny, etc.

But most importantly, under the slogan of “unity in the name of unity,” Abraham began to unite those who sided with him because it is in the pursuit of unity that we reveal the upper force of nature, the Creator, which unites us. It forms us into one whole and we become invincible to either external or internal egoism. What Abraham began, the Maccabees, united with each other, continued.

In principle, it is the same action of a rebellion against egoism, only at different levels, and that is why it occurred at different points in history.

Having united people, the Maccabees came to the same state as Abraham and won. To the extent of unity with greater groups of people who joined them, they revealed a greater spiritual force, which was the force of unity, the upper force of bestowal and love. Therefore, they were invincible to egoism, which was personified by the Greeks in this case, in Babylon by the Babylonians, in Egypt by Pharaoh, and later, by the Romans.

Through unity with large groups of people joining them, they recognized more and more spiritual power: the power of unity and the supreme power of love and bestowal. Therefore, they were invincible against the selfishness personified in this case by the Greeks, the Babylonians, Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and later, the Romans.

In general, it is the only fight, a war throughout all generations. And even when we do not have an apparent enemy, our inner enemy always rebels within us, again and again pulling us towards worshiping various idols in our life. We must fight it.

It is easy to draw a parallel between these two wars and today since modern idols are fully exposed as complete nonentities, leading us to some end and we have nothing else to do with them. On the one hand, we are still drawn to them, and on the other hand, we understand that this is temporary, harmful and brings no good results.

Therefore, our behavior is reminiscent of a man who gets drunk, does not know or hear anything, forgets himself,and is disconnected from what is happening. We become immersed in business or other things just to stay occupied, thus imitating a movie hero, a literary character, or just acquaintances who have supposedly succeeded in life. This is the idol  that is so attractive to us.

Question: Do you think that these desires have exhausted themselves?

Answer: No, but I know that all this is temporary and limited. Life itself shows us that. The world is like a theater and we always play a role in it.

There are people who seek nothing. The main thing for them is to live quietly and peacefully, so no one bothers them. But, there are few of them. The majority are pulled by competition, the struggle for a place under the sun, and we begin to pretend that we are business people, running with a briefcase and changing from one plane to another, and in this way, we run to the grave.

Question: Can the miracle of Hanukkah take place nowadays?

Answer: In life there is always a place for a miracle. Every time we connect with each other, the force, which is higher than all the other forces, obstacles, conditions, is manifested, and then there is a miracle before us. We can evoke it, even today.

A miracle is a supernatural phenomenon, but we are able to cause it ourselves, when we wish. Today, if we want to rise above egoism in our unity, then a completely new upper force will be manifested within us, and with its help, we will be able to calm the whole world, arrange everything, and everyone will be fine and easygoing.

Question: What kind of a miracle happened when the candles of the Maccabees were lit?

Answer: Through their unity, the Maccabees attracted the Light that gave them the opportunity to stay in the state of bestowal, love and connection until they began to pull new masses of people towards themselves.

The desires of people who connect with each other in one whole symbolizes the oil, and their gathering in spite of their egoism symbolizes the wick. They burn in their desire to get closer, and when they unite somehow, a light appears within them that support the fire of their desires.

If they begin to be engaged in even greater dissemination and draw towards themselves greater masses of people, then the lamp will burn continuously.

The manifestation of the Light, the upper force, the Creator in the people’s unity is the miracle. Besides that, there are no other miracles because the essence of all miracles is that our unity brings about the manifestation of the inner force, called the property of love, the Creator. It works wonders. The crossing of the Red Sea, the miracle of Hanukkah and the miracle of Purim are always the revelation of the Creator in our unity. Therefore, there is just one technique and it contains nothing complicated. It came to us from Abraham, who first showed how it is realized.

The fact is that we can unite in any manner, but the essence of the miracle is that we unite so that a new upper property appears within us, which is not manifested in any other actions, that raises us to the next level of consciousness, sensation, vision, and existence.

Question: How could people believe that one candle would burn for eight days when they knew that it would be sufficient only for a day?

Answer: If we aspire to unity, we are not interested in anything except to come to this state, within which the Creator is revealed. Then we reach the conditions of infinity and go to the next level of existence, where there is neither time nor space. And eight days is just an allegory, since there are eight Sefirot from the level of Bina to the level of Malchut.

Question: How can a person not think about what will happen tomorrow?

Answer: If you work for bestowal, tomorrow does not exist for you! There is no next moment! The most important is to give.

Tomorrow will disappear from your field of vision, mind, and calculations! It does not exist! You are included in the action of bestowal and are seemingly extended to everyone else. Nothing will remain in you. Your “I” simply disappears.

Then, in the next step, a new egoistic state appears. The same thing is repeated, like the wheel that moves forward, but at the same time revolves around itself.

Question: Under what circumstances is this possible?

Answer: It comes gradually, after many years and only from Above. But it will come. I can promise to all of my students that it will come true, and they will reach this state.

I think that together with them, I will still be able to go through their first steps in this ascent. This is the desire of every spiritual teacher who cannot abandon his child halfway. The teacher wants to guide his students across the desert so that they reach full bestowal, and they would not have any possibility of turning back, since the property of bestowal would reign in all their desires.

Then, they will develop their spiritual path on their own, with the next leader, like Moses and Joshua. But it is desirable for us to cross the desert together.

Question: How do you view the miracles from the material point of view? Let’s say, for many years, archaeologists seek confirmation of the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, but find no traces. Indeed, something should have been left. In addition, there no evidence has been found of the 40 years of wandering of the nation of Israel in the desert.

Answer: Archaeologists find confirmation of these or other historical events when the time comes. Therefore in its time, they will suddenly find artifacts of history in the same place where they previously could find nothing. These discoveries are still ahead.
[149961]
From KabTV’s “Secretes of the Eternal Book” 12/17/14

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The Mystery of Israel

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn recent years,  politicians have started talking about legislative consolidation of the Jewish character of the state of Israel. The reason for this is the broad wave of  anti-Semitic attacks. The whole world has a problem with the Jewish people,  asking: “Why did they take the possession of land that does not belong to them?”

Many do not even agree with the original division of the territory in accordance with the UN resolution. Today, a secondary vote, of course, would deprive us of the right to our own state.

After the disaster, the world was uncomfortable in front of us, and if we indeed were to get the country, this will continue, according to the laws of common development.

However, we have to make it really ours, take the holy land (Eretz) as a desire (Ratzon) to purify and form not as a collection of exiles, but as the people of Israel, in the full sense of the word, fully united and aspiring straight to the Creator (Yashar El).

We have to take a course on cohesion, love, and unity, to become as one man with one heart.

If we had arranged our nation in this way, we would not have had to carry the endless war for the past 66 years without a single second of rest and relaxation. And the situation would not have been like it is today such that when all of Israel is forced to plan an emergency evacuation, an escape plan in case of a disaster.

Question: Again and again, life confronts us with basic issues that affect our very existence in the land of Israel. And always this topic covers the fog of uncertainty, vagueness. Why is there this agonizing incompleteness in our self-determination? Why haven’t all “I’s” been dotted?

Answer: It is because we want to be like all the other nations and define our country like everyone else, according to the traditional representations of territory, borders and public entities. However, for us it does not work and does not apply to us. This usual format does not cause a faithful response in us, where we do not feel for ourselves, and do not find any correlation as to how our country should be identified and appear as our people, and every person in it.

It turns out that we are not the people of Israel, as it should be, and we do not live in the land of Israel nor in the country of Israel, as it should be according to the original sources, according to our basis. We have tried to adopt the concept of external concepts, simply taking them in, but they have not come to fruition. The international standard label comes unglued again and again.

As a result, we feel that it is not suitable, but continue to burden ourselves with it, without making the definition clear. And the world, for its part, does not understand our actions and sees the state of Israel as some artificial entity.

We can eloquently argue that this is our land. We can even sacrifice for the sake of life. However, we still do not understand what “the people” and “the country” mean for the Jewish people.

Baal Sulam wrote a great piece about it in the newspaper “The Nation” (HaUma), which, incidentally, was closed following its initial release. In this paper, the nature of these concepts and the need to return to their roots after two thousand years of exile was described in detail.

Why should we turn to ancient history and to the primitive life now that once was lived by our ancestors? On the contrary, in the previous centuries advanced nations planted their cultures everywhere. A foreign culture with a particular success was transferred to the indigenous peoples of Africa and America. Languages would die out as well as the traditions and beliefs, giving way to the English, Spanish, and French influence.

But we still have not been able to keep within the margins of the present. There is nothing we can borrow from the people of the world. On the contrary, we are organized in such a way that the people of the world adapt the correct things from us.

It is not up to us and it is not pride or arrogance. We are hard-wired this way. It is no coincidence that the world sees us as an intelligent, developed people, nurturing a purpose of life. The world feels that the Jewish people have a secret they do not want to open to others, so this means they must force us to give it up.

This feeling is indestructible, and we must finally understand what they want from us. Indeed, what kind of a mystery lies within us? If we only knew, then we could sell it for triple the price. But no, it does not work this way.

After all, what we hold inside and that lies within the people of Israel without their knowledge is this great, beautiful, alluring, shining goal, the future of the world.

Our world is bound to the brotherhood in which we once lived. We need to regain it, in other words, to live together as a law-abiding people, love our neighbors as ourselves, according to the principles that we received on Mount Sinai, and to be as one man with one heart.

Today our global, integrated world feels the unbreakable relationship of all its parts, literally requires it, and requires compliance with this law. If we reveal an umbrella of guarantee over all of us, we will find ourselves in a world that is for us, is as the Garden of Eden.

That is why in this modern era, the world pays attention to us without knowing how or why and begins to demand the law from us by which it will live tomorrow. After all, today’s life seems more and more intolerable to the world, pitch black, and hopeless. It no longer presents a picture of tomorrow. And subconsciously, people feel that the Jewish people have the answer.

Anti-Semitism flourishes around the world as a consequence, affecting millions of people. Thus, it simply obliges us to wonder about the law and about the way of life that should form the basis of our existence here.

If we really did go back to the roots, if we would put into practice the concept of “the people of Israel” aspiring “straight to the Creator” (Yashar-El), i.e., to unity, solidarity, and love, if this were so, we would educate the people based upon the law combined with each other, as one man with one heart, helping neighbors and binding people together by this partnership. This would serve as an example to the world. Moreover, we would teach people how to build unity.

The world would then understand that we are a special part of it and that we really need to learn. And there is much to learn, since it’s the future and the salvation of all mankind. It is not just for a few decades comprising the lifespan of every generation, but rather a new basis for a new foundation being laid here in which our world will be perfected and ascend to a new level, into the eternal, perfect condition.

Today our egoism devours itself and as a result, we live an average of 70-80 years. If we move from the egoistic receiving desire to an altruistic one, to bestowal, and if everyone would live with their heart wide open among one’s nation, taking care of all, we would find other natural laws, the laws of love and bestowal. At that point we would enter into the eternal, perfect life and our world would open the opportunity to live beyond the limitations of time, space, and motion. We would begin to perceive the world in which there are no limits.

In the meantime, the problems towards the Jewish people, which we call anti-Semitism, will grow more and more. We cannot get rid of this. On the contrary, we will have to give an answer, as it is necessary to stand face to face with this situation.

At the same time, we will need to solve the problem of the Jewish character of the country, recently exposed for public discussion. But, it must not be by artificial language and not on the basis of the laws that we have inherited from the British mandate or Turkish rule. No, we need to take up the Torah and draw out all the necessary definitions.

For millennia, since the days of Abraham, Kabbalists have explained the meaning of “the people of Israel” and “country of Israel,” and who is a “Jewish person.” We need to open ourselves to the world, abandon the boundaries and take into our surroundings, everyone who wants to live by the law of love and unity under the umbrella of bestowal. That’s right, rather than geographic, the boundaries of the land of Israel, that is, universal mutual guarantee, will extend to the whole world.

In principle, the land of Israel is not the territory on the surface of the globe, but a place where people live according to the law of love. So now it does not exist. After all, the earth (Eretz) means the desire (Ratzon). If there is the law of love between people living in any place and they follow such law, their relationship, their common desire is called the land of Israel, the desire aspiring straight to the Creator (Yashar-El), and thus they want to be like the upper force.

That is what we have to explain, demonstrate, and offer to all peoples. And then, instead of hatred, we will feel empathy, respect and affection, which is what we feel right now from many thousands of our students around the world. We see how committed they are to us when we teach them how to unite with each other to cooperatively achieve a higher power.
[149644]
From the program “A New Life” 11/30/14

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