Entries in the 'Nations of the World' Category

Different Levels Of Desire

631.3Question: Sometimes you say that the people of Israel is an intention straight to the Creator and sometimes that it is a desire to give.

This is also how we call the Temple that was built in Jerusalem, Beit HaMikdash, that is, a vessel of holiness, the desire to bestow. Are they all different levels of desire?

Answer: These are different levels of either the desire to receive or the desire to bestow.

Question: What is the difference, for example, between the desire to bestow, which is represented by the Temple, and the one, which is represented by the land of Israel?

Answer: These are different levels of desire. Just as you have all kinds of desires for something bad or good, it does not matter, but they are on different levels, so is this. Only the desires to bestow include the correct attitude to all five levels of nature: inanimate, vegetative, animate, man, and the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 5/21/21

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“He Who Comes To Kill You”

522.01Question: It is said in the Torah: “He who comes to kill you, kill him first.” What does this mean in our inner work?

Answer: If there is a program in nature for achieving love, connection, and someone stands up against it, then you must destroy him. We have a clear program for correcting the world, bringing everyone closer together, and if anyone is against it, wage war with him.

Question: It turns out that any of our spiritual forces must somehow manifest themselves in the matter of our world. In other words, if I did not manage to correct some part of my egoism and it has already started to manifest itself in the form of an external enemy that attacks me in the material world, then there is a clear law: I must fight with him.

Why is internal war alone not enough?

Answer: But you cannot deal with it, so you make up for it with an external battle. Moreover, an external war must be much stronger and fiercer than an internal one because you must somehow correct your properties.

Question: What if I am only waging an external war without an internal one?

Answer: It will accomplish nothing. Wars can go on for hundreds, thousands of years and will be of no use. Moreover, I must say that all the wars that are waged in the world can be considered Jewish.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 5/14/21

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Jerusalem—The Heart Of The World

426Question: There is a holiday called Jerusalem Day. After the Six-Day War, Jerusalem became whole and this day was designated as a holiday.

What does Jerusalem mean in a high sense and Jerusalem Day in a spiritual sense?

Answer: Jerusalem Day is a day when the people, land, and state will find their central point of existence. Jerusalem—”Ir Shalem” (whole city), when people will feel that they have one heart, one thought, and one desire toward one goal.

Question: What is the goal of these united people?

Answer: To reveal the goal of the existence of the whole world to the whole world.

This goal is to bring people closer to each other so that there is no difference between them. This is a very lofty goal that should bring everyone to complete unification.

Then there will have to be one nation in the whole world covering the entire Earth. In this unity, it will begin to attain the upper force, the Creator, and will discover in this the reason, the goal of its existence, the existence of humanity!

Question: Then, will Jerusalem become the capital of the world?

Answer: Yes, and it will be Yerushalayim, Ir-Shlema, a whole world, a whole power, a whole heart, whole desire, whole city, and so on.

Question: When they say: “Jerusalem is a white city,” what do they mean?

Answer: White means that all must be built on bestowal and love—the color of light.

Remark: That is when they say, for example: “Paris,” you take it as it is, “New York,” you understand that it is like Babylon, there are many different nations and so on. When you say “Jerusalem” even to outsiders, will they still have something inside?

Answer: Yes, because in each one of all the people living on Earth, there is a point that has not yet awakened, called Jerusalem, and it is in each of us, in every person on Earth.

Question: People of different religions live in this city. Does this mean that the world will be like this city?

Answer: No, the world will be united. There will be one religion. It will be a religion of the attainment of the single upper force, which in exactly this manner will unite all the nations into one nation.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/10/21

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In The Name Of Connection

959Question: It is said that all wars for connection are fought for us by the Creator, the upper force of nature. How does it work?

Answer: Indeed, we have no strength. There is only the desire for this to happen. To the extent that we want to rise above our egoistic nature and connect with each other, we awaken the upper force of nature, which performs these actions and connects the opposing forces into one positive force. This is how it works.

Comment: Wars stimulate technological progress, but they do not contribute to the internal development of people.

My Response: They extend the time for our advancement. Progress only delays us at the corporeal level and does not allow us to rise to the spiritual level.

Question: What is “holy war”?

Answer: The holy war is a war in the name of connection, for the sake of the triumph of love between people.

Question: Should a Kabbalist justify world wars?

Answer: One cannot justify a war itself, but its purpose if it is necessary and comes from within nature, then yes.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 5/14/21

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What Should We Be?

933Question: Baal HaSulam writes in the newspaper The Nation, published in 1940, that we, people, are always in a state of development just like the planet Earth, which went through the constant struggle between two forces—positive and negative.

What should we come to? To what perfection? As far as I understand, the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature is already in perfection, and the human has not yet reached it.

Answer: Yes, the inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature by itself is perfect. However, due to the fact that the human is not perfect, he affects it and radiates his bad properties. Therefore, all nature suffers.

That is why he must come to a state when he needs to become Man. “Man” is “Adam” in Hebrew. Adam, from the word “similar,” “Edomeh” leElyon—similar to the Creator. This is what we should be, that is, be in bestowal and love between us. Then, naturally, having become different, we will feel the world in which we live as a different world.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States”

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Correction Under The Influence Of External Forces

615.1Question: If the time has come, and at this stage of development, all of humanity should be connected in sensation, for example, at level “38,” and they are connected at level “36,” then are these two missing steps activated and some external force begins to correct?

Answer: If we do not work inside ourselves enough at the level of sensation, then external forces are activated that carry out this work, although, of course, it is of poor quality, since it is performed without our desire, and not at our behest, at our will.

Therefore, we will have to go through a very long period of suffering, realizing their meaning, and correcting them. This is a very bad, long journey.

And if we understood and knew how we should act in order to get closer to each other, then any small negative impulse from nature would push us and do all our work.

Question: That is, at the level of forces and intentions, correction can take place in a split second, and if this already manifests itself in the matter of our world, then it can drag on for years, hundreds and even thousands of years?

Answer: Yes, this is what we see in history.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 5/14/21

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Physical Manifestation Of Ideological Wars

294.2Question: The Jews had to constantly fight for connection. But why, even if we look at what is written in the Torah, did they first fight with external enemies, and then began to fight against each other and with those Jews who accepted Hellenism?

Answer: All the Jewish wars were between the original representatives of the Jews and those who wanted to break away from this nation and preach other values but also remain part of them.

They wanted to convince the entire nation that the new values that the Hellenes or the Romans carry are correct. Supporters of the observance of true national values rebelled against them. Wars were fought between them.

There were practically no serious wars between Jews and Romans and Jews and Greeks. To a certain degree, they happened later, and more with the Romans than with the Greeks.

The confrontation that consumed the entire country greatly bothered the Romans who did not know what to do with it, and therefore, sent their representatives, governors, up to the point that they were forced to send troops.

Question: It turns out that the conflicts within the nation caused a kind of response from the upper force, which was manifested precisely in the fact that the Greeks and Romans came here and did their job.

If we transfer this to the internal war, then can we say that the “Greeks” are my desires?

Answer: All that a person is made of is his desires. They are all egoistic and are divided into several degrees. One of these degrees is called “Romans,” the other one “Greeks,” and so on.

If you, as a Jew, do not cope with them, then you become under their control and enter a state of war. You are forced to destroy them, and they destroy you until you get a certain result from these clashes.

That is, those wars that you cannot fight internally within yourself, ideologically, you will have to fight outside of yourself, physically.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 5/14/21

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The Material And The Spiritual Earth

746.03Question: We know from Kabbalistic sources that “Earth” (Hebrew: Eretz) comes from the word “Ratzon” (desire). And “Israel” means Yashar Kel (Straight to the Creator). Thus, the land of Israel is the desire for the quality of bestowal, the equivalence with the Creator.

What is the connection of this desire to the coarse matter that we see in our world as a result of such a high quality?

Answer: We observe the correlation between the spiritual and the material also in our world. Many Kabbalistic sources describe that all spiritual forces distributed in the spiritual world have their material expression on Earth, in space, around the Earth. And we can see them all.

Much has been said about the land of Israel. If we observe the laws of the spiritual world, the laws of bestowal, love, connection, and proper interaction among ourselves, then we feel the blessings of living in the material land of Israel.

And on the contrary, if we do not observe them, then this Earth, as it is said, will vomit us out, we will not be able to exist on it, and we will still be forced to leave it after a long torment.

We seem to have received this land 70 years ago, but we cannot say that we really have it. We simply occupied it and did not adapt to it because we did not observe in material form the spiritual laws of bestowal, love, connection, and benevolent attitude toward each other.

Question: But why does the Earth itself, this coarse substance consisting of atoms and molecules, correspond to the desire to become like the Creator, the quality of bestowal?

Answer: Because spiritual forces operate on all levels of nature: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human. And the Earth feels it.

The Earth is not coarse matter. We exist on it, we feed from it. This is our grace, our mother, as they say. Without it, man cannot exist.

Until we put ourselves in order, in love for each other, in connection with each other and with the whole world, with humanity and the universe, we will not achieve good conditions in this world and on this Earth.

Question: We know that the Earth is made up of atoms, the atoms are combined into molecules. The Earth has a core, a mantle, a crust. And what are the elements of the desire to give, to become like the Creator?

Answer: It consists of desire and intention. That’s it. Nothing else. In the desire itself, there are five levels: zero, one, two, three, and four. And according to them, there are five kinds of intentions. It is simple. The main thing is that all your desires are to be for the benefit of others.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 5/21/21

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To Create Good Connections

571.03Question: If I do not cultivate an altruistic intention, if I do not unite within myself, do I enter a state of war? With whom should I unite: to unite my desires within myself or to unite with other people?

Answer: You must unite with the whole nation so that no other impulses arise in you, either on the level of the Greeks or even more so on the level of the Romans. Because “Greeks” and “Romans” are two egoistic qualities that clearly arise in a person.

Question: Why is it not enough just to fight and correct your inner desires? Why should I also connect with some other people I see around me?

Answer: The goal of the development of humanity is that everyone develops individually as high as possible relative to others, and at the same time that he connects from this individuality with the rest in the bonds of love, mutual assistance, and connection.

Question: If I am engaged in my own correction, is it not enough for me to just sit and correct my desires?

Answer: To correct how? What will your correction consist of? That you will be bound to others of your own kind above your own egoism, which alienates you from them.

Question: So if I don’t do it or don’t do it enough, then another mechanism is activated and the external desires of the “Greeks” and “Romans” are manifested and start the war?

Answer: Yes, to help you overcome your laziness and still join the fight.

Question: How does this mechanism work when an external force suddenly turns on and an external war begins?

Answer: Very simply. Imagine an air conditioner or an electric stove where you set a certain temperature level and the thermostat automatically turns on. In our case, this automaton is called the “central force of nature,” which develops us, and at each moment we must reach certain contacts with each other.

Humanity develops on inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels in such a way that it creates mutual contacts between themselves: industrial, commercial, and so on. This is the material development of our civilization.

But for the development of a sensorial, internal connection, in friendship up to love, as it is said: “love your neighbor as yourself,” here it is already necessary to have a clear participation of the people themselves in mutual assistance to each other, so that they can really rise from the level of mutual hatred to the level of love. It’s very difficult.

Then an additional mechanism of nature is activated here that shows people how much they immerse in suffering if they are not engaged in creating good connections.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 5/14/21

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Wars Are A Consequence Of Internal Confrontation

599.02Question: When I interpret all wars as my inner desires, and supposedly kill them or take them prisoner, does it mean that I do not use these desires?

Answer: Not only that. It means to change, to perform restriction your desires.

Question: The Torah says: “They came and killed all seven nations.” Moreover, they killed all the men.

You say that the nations of the world are a person’s egoistic intentions and women are desires. That is, to kill all men means to kill an egoistic intention in oneself, and then only to use women (desires)?

Answer: “Women” symbolize desires without intention. Therefore, new intentions can be attached to them, altruistic ones, and then they can be used.

Question: But still, there is a clear correspondence that the spiritual root should manifest itself in our world, therefore, there was a seizure, people were killed, and this is somehow difficult to perceive. How can the Torah, which speaks of love, give such instructions?

Answer: The Torah speaks of love as the highest state of connection between people, which is carried out precisely on the coincidence of intentions. And if these intentions are opposite, then it is not about rapprochement, connection and love, but about hatred and war.

Question: Then what should be done in the outside world?

Answer: This is what happens in the outside world. The consequence of the internal dichotomy, separation from each other, opposition in our world, leads to wars and extermination.

Comment: It turns out that the people of Israel could not correct any desires in themselves, and therefore destroyed seven nations in the outer world.

It is clear that when you are attacked, you must be the first to kill the one who came to destroy you. But it is not clear how you can take, capture, or kill in our world.

My Response: This is a consequence of the spiritual roots manifesting in our world. The Torah speaks only of spiritual roots. And what happens in the material world comes from just such a confrontation.

You cannot use some current or past or future values, assessments, and criteria to say whether it is right or not. At one time, everyone acted like that and there was nothing special or shameful about it. On the contrary, people were proud.

Comment: That is, it is better to take it all on a spiritual level and use it in relation to a person’s desires. And the fact that this happened in history, so it was accepted. It is clear that there was no liberalism, democracy, and human rights anywhere.

My Response: This is all the philosophy of our time. I understand that it is a stumbling block for many liberals and modern people. But they do not understand what modernity means, that in the past everything was completely different.

There were other people, different views, everything was treated differently. If today we saw a person not even of the 17th or 18th, but the 19th century, we would be amazed at his actions, his behavior. It would seem very strange to us, and we would not be able to perceive it.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 5/14/21

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