New Life 705 – Jewish Culture: The Synagogue
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

The internal essence of the synagogue is a place where people connect and ask for the power to love one another. Today the attitude to the synagogue is very far from the attitude to a place that the synagogue is supposed to represent.

When Abraham and Sarah gathered people in their tents they taught them to connect and to reveal the upper force in the connection between them. When the Temple was destroyed we drew away from the upper force, from love of others, and the synagogues became formal rituals.

Unfortunately there is no warmth or love in the synagogue today and so people are not attracted to it. They only come to pray and then hurry back home. There is no soul in the synagogue, no spirit of life, and this is a state called exile. In order to come out of exile we need the force of the Messiah, the force that can draw us from exile, from the separation between us to connection, to the revelation of the soul. The Temple and the Ark of the Covenant, and nowadays the synagogue and the Holy Ark, are symbols of spiritual roots.

There is no holiness in stones if there is no holiness in the heart, and holiness is love. We have to pray for the love to be restored between us.

A Minyan, a prayer, reading the Torah, etc. are all symbols of the right connection in which the Creator is revealed. There is no trace of the inner essence of spirituality in all the rituals held in the synagogue these days. One can be psychologically moved by these rituals, but this isn’t the necessary correction of the heart. In the synagogue, all the hearts should melt into one heart in which the force of love is revealed, and the real Torah is the force that can connect all the hearts despite the evil inclination that is revealed.

A Minyan, a group of ten people who come to the synagogue wishing to connect, can reveal the Creator, the force of love between them. The revelation of the force of love in the world is the purpose of development, as it is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”
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From KabTV’s “New Life 705 – Jewish Culture: The Synagogue,” 3/17/16

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During its evolution, humanity has gone through many preliminary stages of development. It is trying to connect in order to become one man, Adam, like the upper force.

The first time such an attempt was made was in ancient Babylon. Rambam writes the patriarch Abraham gathered many Babylonians around him and organized them into a big group that he later led to the land of Canaan.

Under Jacob’s leadership, they moved to Egypt from the land of Canaan, went through Egyptian slavery, and exited from it under the leadership of Moses. But since they exited ancient Babylon, this group had one constant motto: unity and love your neighbor as yourself.

These weren’t just movements from one country to another. These were stages of development. Their egoism grew and developed, demanding a new method of connection. Abraham’s method wasn’t working anymore because it was suitable only for the period of the forefathers.

This period was over, and a new time had come. Pharaoh symbolized the huge egoism that the group of Abraham had accumulated, and therefore a more effective method of connection was required that was stronger and deeper than the old one.

And then they received the Light that Reforms. In other words, they began to work with the upper force, attracting it through practical attempts to unite. The condition for receiving this force is mutual guarantee. If we are ready to become guarantors for each other, meaning to connect, then we create the quality of unity and love between us, similar to the upper force of nature.

And then on the basis of the principle of similarity and equivalence of qualities, they could attract the positive force of unity, hidden in nature, called the Creator. Although all of nature of this world is based on a negative force, we can attract the positive force and include both of them within ourselves.

Symbols of the negative force that are revealed between them are the golden calf and the numerous other problems and troubles that the Torah tells us about that are haunting them constantly during their wandering in the desert. Despite this, they attract the positive force more and more, until they compensate the entire negative force that is revealed between them with it. It means that they have prepared themselves for the next stage.

This whole process is called forty years of wandering in the desert; it is the acquisition of the positive force that will cover the negative force. In all the egoism that was revealed in them in Egypt, they were given an additional force to enable them to treat each other with compassion. This is called the preparation for entering the land of Israel.

Obviously, we are talking about a new internal state, not about geography nor history.

Entering the land of Israel means that much stronger desires are revealed in them that were not revealed during the previous stage, called the desert. Much stronger egoism is revealed that is called the seven nations inhabiting the land of Israel, which must be destroyed or banished.

Of course, we are not talking about the people, but about the destruction of the egoistic desires inside a person and inside this entire group that is entering a new state, a new level of development.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/16, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You claim that the solution for all problems is in our unity. I am an historian and have studied the history of the destruction of the First and the Second Temples. The First Temple was built by King Solomon, and I am not sure that there was any unity between the people of Israel at that time.

It also doesn’t look like people knew what unity was during the construction of the Second Temple and afterward during the time of Herod. Anyway, if by “Temple” we mean internal connection and not a material concept, then why do we mourn the destruction of the Temple on the ninth of Av?

Answer: There is a difference between the way historians and Kabbalists study history. Historians study events in the form in which they are seen by us based on the visible facts. The cause for all of the events also derive from the analysis of what they have seen. Therefore, they concluded that there were quarrels and feuds between the people of Israel and that clans were fighting with each other.

Humanity works with the means that are available to it and tries to understand the processes we undergo with their help. Therefore, historians ascribe what has happened to different reasons: economic, personal, and random events.

But the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah begins from a completely different root. Kabbalah says that the root cause of everything in our world is the force of nature, which has a program. Under this program, the force of nature, which can be called the upper force or the Creator, our reality unfolds.

Kabbalists study the actions of this upper force, try to understand it and ascertain the event which has occurred from its actions, instead of studying events relative to the subjective perception of a person, which depends on his development and his ability to comprehend events and their causes, the way historians do.

A person sees a spectacle unfolding in our world: Herod, Pharaoh, Moses, Solomon, and Nebuchadnezzar. But they all are just puppets on a stage. Can we see the hand of nature that is acting inside the dolls and moving these puppets on the stage?

This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah deals with. It explains that creation has a beginning and a final goal. The upper force of nature leads all of the creatures from the beginning of creation to its end so that eventually they will achieve the same level of development and the same abilities as the force of nature itself.

Our desire to enjoy, which is opposite to the force of nature, to the desire to bestow, must develop and reach its worst form, opposite to the Creator and standing against Him. Then, a special creature should appear, which will have a desire to enjoy and a desire to bestow in itself simultaneously. It will be called Adam, a man, because it will be able to become like (Edome) the Creator.

A person is given conditions in which he can grow. He must include within himself qualities that are 100% opposite to the Creator and qualities that are 100% similar to the Creator at the same time. In this way, a person can become a perfect creature, independent due to his opposition to the Creator and equivalent to Him at the same time. This is the development that the Creator planned for creation.
[191959]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/16, Writings of Rabash

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New Life 435 – The Month Of Elul: Time For Soul Searching
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What soul searching do we do during the month of Elul? What do we discover when we engage in such thoughts, and how do we get on a new path toward a balanced and harmonious life?

The Jewish holidays describe the phases on the way to the perfect connection between people and between humanity and nature. The goal is to attain the force of love among people and to become equivalent to nature, to God. There is one law in nature that ties together all its parts, except for mankind, into one system. We are pushed forward by blows until we cry “enough.”

The question is why do we suffer. This kind of soul searching during the month of Elul comes from a special illumination that that Light of the mind shines on us. “I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me.” “Beloved” refers to the great system of nature which develops us, the Creator.

Our soul searching is about why we quarrel with each other endlessly; why we were created with such an evil nature; how lowly and contemptible human nature is compared to the great pure and beautiful nature.

All the species in nature operate according to their instincts and so they are never wrong, while we go wrong over and over again. Why is that so? Because we try to use our emotions and our mind in order to harm others, and it returns to us.

In the additional mind and emotions we were given compared to the animals, we have freedom of choice.

The conclusion of the month of Elul is that I want to reach a state of balance, the state of “love thy friend as thyself.”
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From KabTV’s “New Life 435 – The Month Of Elul: Time For Soul Searching,” 9/14/14

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Question: Chronic shortage of electricity has led to the damage of the water purification system in the Gaza strip. As a result of this, the Palestinians are streaming sewage into the sea, and wastewater has reached the reservoir that provides water to the settlements on the border region of the Ashkelon coast. Some ecologists are calling the situation a near ecological disaster. We cannot isolate ourselves from Gaza, not from missiles and not ecologically. What must we do?

Answer: The Turks wanted to build an electrical power station in this area, after all this is a big area with magnificent buildings, swimming pools, and beaches and one and a half million people live there. They certainly should get everything necessary.

They cannot get along on their own because they are completely directed toward war due to their hatred of Israel. Besides, by providing them with free products and resources for many years, we have gotten them used to this. On paper, everything was apparently entered under their “debt,” but they have no intention of paying so they are not doing anything.

During the time that we were involved in building water purification plants and the purification of waste water so that we provided water everywhere in the land for all the situations that can happen in life (a situation that doesn’t exist in even one of the nations in the area), they were not really concerned about their future. It is our fault because we accustomed them to this. We passed the water wells to them and everything that was used by us in the beginning of our way in the area and they neglected everything. Seawater reached all of these systems and they became filled with salt. Now it is impossible to clean them.

What will they do now? They will suffer.

What will we do? We will also suffer because it is up to us to behave differently. But instead, we are supplying them with millions of liters of bottled water.

We must conduct aggressive policies as much as possible and do everything according to different principles, at least submitting documents through international organizations, submitting lawsuits, turning to a court to seriously transfer the matter to a legal track. It is necessary to put pressure on them to examine the manner in which they manage their economy and the fact that international organizations are giving them money to arm themselves and not for humanitarian supplies.

Question: How do you see the solution of this problem?

Answer: Our salvation is in union between us.

We are continuing with our work on unity and this will yield its fruit, because it brings the Upper Light into our world. The Upper Light brings a person to an awareness and understanding of why the world exists, in what manner it develops, and what the role and mission of the Jews is.

And the world is beginning to understand more and more that we have a particular mission and a task and that it affects not only us but the whole world, so it is necessary to make it possible to be realized. Lately I have even heard reactions like these and have seen some sobering here and there.

Let’s hope that we will hold out. We need to be particularly concerned about the connection between us, about unity within the nation, and then all of our adversaries will gradually disappear.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/15/16

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Question: How do you see the generation that is growing up that toward the year 2030 will become adults and build the new Israel?

Answer: I only know one thing: we need to educate the nation so that they won’t become just a mixed collection of people from all corners of the world, that they truly will become a nation.

For this to happen, we need to educate them in the spirit of unity that goes above the problems, something that is possible to attain only with the help of the system of integral unity, which comes from the wisdom of Kabbalah. I don’t see any other possibility! Otherwise, all of the nations and the countries will crush us! Just as the world decided and determined to re-establish the state of Israel, so it also will decide to cancel it, and nothing will save us!

The only thing that we can do is to become involved with the education of the nation, and thus provide an example to the whole of humanity, to show what education should include on a national scale and to continue to pass on the system of unity to all of humanity since in the integral world where everything is connected in one network, only humanity is in a state of separation. Therefore, we are experiencing two conflicting systems that are leading us to a global world war.

The wisdom of Kabbalah also warns about this. The time has come to understand what the Jewish State is accountable for in its education, in the usage of its historical mission. It is this with which we specifically need to become involved, not in building a prosperous society because that won’t help us to survive.

Question: Many are convinced that the nation of Israel survived all through history thanks to its culture and customs, including its religion.

Answer: All of that was prior to the Holocaust and the expulsion to exile! Therefore, it’s not worthwhile to reassure ourselves that it will help.

Question: What does it mean that Judaism won’t be maintained?

Answer: If we don’t carry out our mission, don’t come to connection and unity, then from above this opportunity will be taken from us and we will be forced to scatter around the world. Some of us will be destroyed, and some will be assimilated among other nations.
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From KabTV’s “A Talk About the Independence Day” 4/30/16

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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.
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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.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #762 8/18/16

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The Torah tells us how people who keep spiritual laws rise to the level of connection between them that is called the “land of Israel” (Eretz Israel). “Eretz” is from the word “Ratzon” (desire), “Israel”—“Yashar Kel” (straight to the Creator, to the upper force, love, and bestowal). They enter this state and live in it. However, they won’t be able to enter the land of Israel if they don’t keep the spiritual laws.

Therefore they send spies forward who check what these laws are, what this land is. and what fruits it has. This means they clarify what conditions we need to accept upon ourselves and what kind of special fruits the Creator promises us if these conditions are met, and what will happen to us if we don’t enter this land.

A person must reveal all this before he rises to the spiritual degree. He has to understand that by doing so he acquires freedom from his egoism, but he has to pay for it with his huge efforts to unite the so-called troops—the nation of Israel.

However, in the desert it isn’t a nation yet, but just a tribe that must gather and become one united nation in order to enter the land of Israel, which is the state of full equivalence with the Creator,09 in mutual bestowal and love between all members of society.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/4/16

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New Life #349 – Uniting The Israeli Nation: An Ideology
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What distinguishes Israel from the other nations? How is this expressed in our genealogy from Abraham until our days and how can we unite the whole world?

Summary

We have to unite the nation since our nation has no right to exist if we are not united. All of Israel are friends. We are a small but greatly divided nation since we have absorbed many views from all over the world during the 2,000 years in exile.

We can unite only on the basis the Abraham established of Hesed (mercy), love and connection. We have not worked on building the mutual love between us, on building the original Israel since we have returned to the land of our fathers.

We lack the education for love of others. We need a national socio-educational plan of uniting the nation. Unity is essential for everyone in a global integrated world. Only we can start this process.

If people felt mutual care and tried to understand others, if they felt connection and unity, we would live in the “Garden of Eden” – paradise.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #349 – Uniting The Israeli Nation: An Ideology,” 4/13/14

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