New Life #484 – Choosing Discovery Of The Creator And Concern For Humanity
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Question: Besides the heavy obligations, does belonging to the “chosen people” give the Jews any advantages, benefits, or “concessions”? What is good about being the chosen people?

Answer: We cannot simply refuse and reject our mission: neither those who belong to the Jewish people today nor the twelve tribes who were lost almost 2,500 years ago. We cannot hide from our role; we are obligated to carry it out.

Being or not being chosen doesn’t depend on us. We only have to look at where it is possible to add our independent participation, thanks to which we will come to a good and calm life so that everyone will understand and appreciate us. This is not in the sense that we will be superior to others, but that they will aspire to the same goal and become included in the same process.

We cannot escape. In any case, we must carry out our role. Nothing will help, not hiding from it or dying, but only fulfilling our mission.

Question: Does this mean that being chosen signifies that we discover the plan of development of life and act accordingly, making it possible to achieve success in everything? In what way is the daily life of someone who discovers the plan of development distinguished?

Answer: A person like this will understand where he is, how to connect correctly with people, how to build a more and more secure basis at every moment for an even greater revelation of the upper force. He constantly advances toward discovery of the upper force within him, and this fills him with higher knowledge and emotion. All of his desires and thoughts will be directed only toward it.

Even today we unconsciously yearn for and only aspire to the revelation of the upper force. We think we supposedly want food, sex, success, family welfare, money, honor, and knowledge. But in fact, in all of this we are searching for the unique taste of the upper force.

And now thanks to this we are alive; we feel the taste of the Creator in everything. Everything, every object that brings us pleasure contains a microscopic detection of the Creator. But if we want to feel the full extent of this so that it will fulfill all of our desires and thoughts, revealing the entire perspective of the future, to do this we must prepare ourselves, meaning we must connect with the environment correctly.

Question: Throughout the history of the Jewish people, there have been many sages in every generation who sought and explored the upper force. This was the lot of the greatest minds of the generation, the elite. But is it possible that now every person on the face of the Earth can attain the Creator, all seven billion people?

Answer: First the seven million Jews in Israel must reveal the Creator and show everyone that they have this power. All of the people will feel it. The moment the people of Israel begin to advance toward the revelation of the Creator, all of humanity will freeze with tense expectation, understanding that after the Jews achieve this discovery, it will pass to all the peoples.

Question: So what is this “chosen people”?

Answer: The chosen people are a people who choose the revelation of the Creator and a concern for all of humanity, for this is the purpose of the discovery,: the revelation of the upper force, the general power of nature, to all people. This is our obligation, and then everyone will truly be happy. They will transcend the concept of time, movement, and space, thus exiting to another dimension.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #484 – Choosing Discovery Of The Creator And Concern For Humanity,” 12/28/14

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New Life 441 – The Tishrei Holidays: Searching For The Creator
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What are the stages that a person passes through on the way to searching for the Creator, how can the connection between us contribute to discovering Him and why specifically in the holiday season do we have the opportunity to approach Him?

In the beginning of creation, we were in contact with the force that created us. We were like an embryo in the womb of his mother. The concealment was made to make it possible for us to grow, to understand who and what the Creator is and to be like Him. So a person doesn’t see the Creator. And one must try to locate Him, like in hide-and-seek, within and around himself. The partition that separates a person and the Creator is composed of five worlds (Olamot), concealments (Ha’alamot), 125 levels.

On every level we transform lack of understanding and feeling into understanding and feeling. We acquire the characteristics of the Creator. The concealment is found within my heart and mind. I expand and transform the characteristics of my heart and mind. Everything that I think and want comes from Him. There is none else beside Him. And I am only a point that discerns this. Discovering the Creator is the role of a person in the world.

Kabbalists who have already discovered this exist to help him. In every generation there are those in whom an urge is awakened to discover the Creator. Some of them have left writings for us.

Today is a unique time in which there are many people who want to discover the Creator. Searching together is much easier. In the levels of attaining the Creator, the level of difficulty always increases, but the Kabbalists help.

The futility and emptiness that is felt today is designed to bring the person closer to a search for the Creator. The Sukkot Holiday is when those who search for the Creator begin to feel waves of warmth and embraces from Him.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 441 – The Tishrei Holidays: Searching For The Creator,” 10/5/14

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New Life 627 – Yom Kippur: Spiritual Ascent
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

What influence does society have on a person complying with the customs of Yom Kippur; what is the essence of the covenant that we must make with the upper force, and about which transgressions must we atone for on this holiday? Yom Kippur has a special power In Israel and it influences everyone. Yom Kippur is an opportunity for introspection, thinking about why am I alive and what the essence of my life is.

Transgressions between a person and other people are basically about a change in human nature, the ego. Your attitude toward your entire environment must be like your attitude toward yourself. A transgression is using your ego to take advantage of others. Transgressions between man and God mean that you don’t relate to all of reality as if it is you.

“Yom Kippur” means you need to correct yourself until you connect with all of creation with a single heart.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 627 – Yom Kippur: Spiritual Ascent,” 9/17/15

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New Life 626 – Yom Kippur:  Self And Social Realization
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

What is the source of that special feeling in Israel during the Tishrei holidays? How can we go back and again be a cohesive nation in its land and what is the role of Yom HaKippurim for the people of Israel?

Yom Kippur is a special day because people in Israel make it like this here. It is felt differently abroad, for example. On Yom Kippur one should take stock personally, but this cannot be done alone; it can only be done together.

Rosh HaShanah is a day to recognize that there is a king, an upper force, the total power of nature that takes care of everything. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to expand the boundaries of our world and discover this force. To do this, a person must transcend his narrow egoism, abolishing the boundaries between himself and others.

Abraham spoke about this principle, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), which was the basis for making us the people of Israel. When we nullify the boundaries between us, we are truly the people of Israel and are worthy of the land of Israel. After 2,000 years of exile we have returned here to rebuild. This is only an opportunity.

We must do some introspection. This is represented for us on Yom Kippur in the story of the prophet Jonah. Jonah represents the nation of Israel and its role in the world: teaching people to connect with each other better. It is known that people pay a lot for the right to read the “Maftir Yonah.” This is a remedy for success. Indeed, if we understand what our mission is and realize it both within Israel and in the world, everything will be good.

After all, Europe is collapsing, the Middle East is burning, and the entire world is shocked and blames us, as always. And this year within Israel, we are beinning to understand that there is no link between us except when there are external troubles. It is up to us to find a way to connect, and there is a clear and precise method for this that comes from the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 626 – Yom Kippur: Self And Social Realization,” 9/17/15

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New Life 773 – Rosh HaShanah Customs
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

The root of Rosh HaShanah (Head of the Year, New Year) is the spiritual birth of the first man who discovered the general force of nature. This is a hidden force that includes all the laws and forces of nature that can be discovered if we become equal to it. Rosh HaShanah is considered to be the day when Adam HaRishon (the first man) discovered the Creator, Bore, from the Hebrew words “Bo-Reh” “come and see.”

We were created with an egoistic desire to receive and we must recognize the evil in it, to keep ways from it and to turn to goodness. Rosh HaShanah is a phase on the way to correction in which we want to crown the good force on top of the evil in us. All our customs are a replica of the internal spiritual actions of correcting the evil in us.

Blowing the Shofar symbolizes sublime spiritual actions, which are very hard to explain in plain language. The greeting “a good and sweet year” symbolizes the need to sweeten the evil inclination, to peel the desire to receive from the egoistic intention, and to cover our raw desire to enjoy with a good intention of in order to bestow. This is the good inclination. The key to a sweet year is how we use the desire to enjoy and whether it is for my own sake or for the sake of others.

The saying “may we be the head and not the tail” means that we should not follow our egoistic thoughts but that the Creator should control us, that by the power of love, bestowal, and connection, He should reign over us and guide every action in our life.

“That our rights (Zchuyot) should be many as a pomegranate” stem from the root “Zachut,” which means “purity” and refers to the purification of our ego, to bleaching it, to performing as many actions for the sake of others, and on the way, also for the sake of the Creator. Good actions are actions that come after the correction of the evil inclination and before that everything is ego.

Rosh HaShanah is in fact the time for the recognition of evil, the desire to change our head and to crown the Creator instead of having the force of receiving, which we were created with, manage us, we want the force of bestowal to manage us.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 773 – Rosh HaShanah Customs,” 9/27/16

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New Life 772 – Selichot (Forgiveness) Between A Person And The Place
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

God, the Creator, HaVaYaH, the place, all these names refer to the upper force that created the desire to receive. The Creator fills the desire to receive to the degree that the desire to receive resembles the Creator who bestows. The Creator resides in the ties of bestowal between people who connect to each other. This is the place.

It says that it is useless to ask the Creator for forgiveness if you have not corrected your relations with others. Therefore, Selichot (prayers of forgiveness) should come from the connection between people into one group. This is where the Creator is revealed. The personal reckoning is to what degree I am connected to everyone in good relations. There is no account of myself.

The detachment from the Creator during the 2,000 years of exile distorted our true perception of soul searching. Everything a person does is written in the book; we are all closed in one network and every motion we make is recorded in the network. You affect the network, so you have to constantly make sure that the network is connected and not disconnected. Not knowing your duty doesn’t exclude you from punishment. If you haven’t tightened the connections in the network, it is as if you caused disconnection.

Forgiveness, remorse for the past, and receiving in the future are all included in a person’s soul searching, and thus he corrects his attitude toward the network; no one can perform this correction for him. Forgiveness between a person and his friend is turning to someone at a certain point, clarifying, and correcting the attitude toward him.

Forgiveness between a person and the place is a person’s attitude to the whole integral system; clarifying and correcting his general attitude to the system. Asking the Creator for forgiveness is asking everyone together for forgiveness. “I reside among my people.”
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From KabTV’s “New Life 772 – Selichot (Forgiveness) Between A Person And The Place,” 9/27/16

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New Life 771 – Selichot (Forgiveness) Between A Person And His Friend
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Human nature is egoistic, its inclination is evil, so from the start he causes evil to others. The question is only whether he acknowledges this, does he feel that his nature is evil, and does he regret it? Even if a person recognizes that he is exploiting others and wants to correct that, the question can be asked, what motivates him? When a person exploits someone, he becomes disconnected from the system because being part of the system means that he is concerned about the welfare of the system.

The sin is not about identifying the evil that we can identify, and therefore we didn’t relate well with others. The main thing is to examine yourself and understand what new attitude you must strive for regarding everything outside of you. The result of this examination is a true correction in which one’s mouth and heart are equal. When a person identifies the evil, he abstains from it and develops a good relationship with others.

This is already “repentance.” After a process of internal correction, you need to provide others with a good example. If there is no proper response from the other side, sometimes you must close yourself off and wait. To contend with the trampling of your dignity, you must build a higher dignity for yourself. Dignify the system. Dignify building yourself as a person who is corrected.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 771 – Selichot (Forgiveness) Between A Person And His Friend,” 9/20/16

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New Life 770 – The Month Of Selichot (Forgiveness)
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

We have to know the structure of reality in order to understand the meaning of Selichot. We are all connected in one system, but this system is shattered.We have to fix the network between us since it will not be corrected by itself and will only reveal more and more how torn it is.

The right forgiveness is an outcome of the recognition of evil in us, in our attitude to love and mutuality, which should be in the corrected system. We ask for forgiveness for not having set a good example for others. It isn’t just lip service but an examination of where we have neglected the correction of the connection between us. There is no point starting a new year, a new change, before conducting serious soul searching and examining whether we have tuned ourselves correctly.

The prayers for forgiveness begin with self-examination because by being uncorrected we are the cause of all the evil in the world. Before we rush to correct our relations with anyone we must first correct ourselves internally. Then our external attitude to others will also be corrected, of course. Before the correction, we need to acquire a “ruler” according to which we can measure the good and evil in the system.

The right system is based on a connection from heart to heart, as one man in one heart, according to the rule of love thy friend as thyself. The right forgiveness includes the correction of my evil attitude toward the whole world, the correction of the evil inclination into a good inclination called true repentance. Through love, a person raises himself to the Creator’s level.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 770 – The Month Of Selichot (Forgiveness),” 9/20/16

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New Life 769 – The Embryo, The Baby And The Soul
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

The learning process begins with the education of the parents. Whatever a woman learns during pregnancy affects her embryo. The embryo is connected to the upper database, but the pressure of the external world closes him in.The baby absorbs much more than we understand through his internal senses. We all live in order to develop our soul, and if a child has a special soul he has existential questions.

A baby is born with undeveloped internal senses, which must be developed. The senses evoke questions and curiosity , so let the child develop in the direction he is drawn and don’t inhibit him.

Whatever a person learns throughout his lifetime basically brings him closer to the correction of his soul in a very special way The world serves as a huge wrapping for the fundamental question: “What am I living for?”

We have a brain and a heart not in order to serve our corporeal body, but so they will help us attain the internality of life. We have an innate desire to know where we came from ,where we are going, what happened before we are born, and what is after death.

The answers to all these questions are on the spiritual dimension, which we perceive when we develop the desire to bestow goodness. The force of bestowal is the force to exit our natural desire to receive everything for our own sake and works in the opposite direction of  spiritual life, in the direction of giving instead of receiving, of love instead of hate. The drop of spiritual semen, the tiny point that can be developed into a desire to love and to bestow is inside us.
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From KabTV’s”New Life 769 – The Embryo, The Baby And The Soul,” 9/13/16

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New Life 768 – Learning
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Learning isn’t about how much a person remembers but to what extent he expands his perception. We don’t know what the world we live in is and what the connection between us should be, but if we expand our vessels of perception, we will perceive a wider more attractive world. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah engages in.

When a person expands his vessels of perception, he absorbs new data and then processes it and attains a new understanding. Unlike animals, we have to explore what we are living for and study the meaning of life.

This is the reason that man was given intelligence, so that he can understand his essence, his role in the world and the purpose of his evolution.

Small children have a natural instinct to learn, to know about new things and to explore so that they will grow and develop. This instinct is extinguished when they grow up, but if an adult has a desire to discover things, to learn, and to develop, he will also be able to study.

The difference between the animate level and the level of the speaking is that the level of the speaking is about endless study, and if I don’t learn something new every day, I don’t feel that I am alive. The understanding is both emotional and mental, the heart understands. If a person doesn’t learn to correct his soul during his lifetime, there is nothing left of him after he passes away.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 768 – Learning,” 9/13/16

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