Question: Why is Israel, with all its military superiority, losing the war?

Answer: Today is not the government and the state that rules everything but public opinion, not only the public opinion in the country, but also the world public opinion towards different countries.

In this case it doesn’t matter who has the “Iron Dome” and who will win the war. The war is won by the one who can control public opinion both at home and abroad.

In order for us to organize the correct public opinion in the world, we need to justify our actions. We can justify our actions only if we tell the whole world why we strive to live here in Israel, why we are needed here, why living precisely in Israel we benefit the world.

And to justify their actions, we can only if we tell the world about why we strive to live here in Israel, why do we need here, why living in Israel we benefit the world.

This is what we need to do, meaning that we have to explain who we are, what our function in the world is, and how our struggle for our independence is going to help the world, that is, to bring the world to the corrected state.
[141440]

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Question: When differences of opinion appear in a group, this extends over everyone all at once. To resolve the problem of confrontation, representatives of both sides gather into a small group and reach agreement and unification. How is it possible to extend this unity to everyone?

Answer: I think that it is necessary to organize a shared circle in which everyone sits together, and the initiator group appears as the force of peace that tries to unite them all.

Even with different people, among large family clans, it is customary to gather together with former foes who understand that it is necessary to unite. They reconcile, reach agreement, and after that, invite everyone to a large circle, where they discuss all of this and prove the necessity to rise above all the previous differences in opinion. This is the right position.

We said that the Creator wants to establish connection with us. He places between us and Him this whole world and portrays in our emotions and thoughts all kinds of symbols and images so that we begin to understand His language. We shouldn’t forget this!

The group has to perceive everything that is outside the framework of the common connection, the shared love, the common agreement, the unity, all that from the side of the Light could be called spirituality, we can relate to all of that, to all lack of focus that He gives us, as to the signs of the Creator given to us so that we will come again to the single whole in which we dissolve completely: emotionally, mentally, and intellectually, complementing each other all the time.

In this manner, ultimately, we will find a common language with Him, and impressions and understandings will constantly accumulate in us.

Imagine how a child perceives the world that is totally unfamiliar to him: without knowing anything, without understanding, without having any feelings and emotions! He grasps it, grasps it, and gradually the world accumulates within him: ground, mixed, and constantly renewed all the time, and the child begins to understand it. This means that his mind formats itself in the right way.

The heart and the mind begin to understand how to work with the reality in which he finds himself. After all, he can find himself in a reality that was two or three thousand years ago, or the reality of today, or it can be the reality that will exist in another one or two hundred years.

So, the child only has to yearn to perceive the real world in a form like this: with an open mouth! We also need to do the same thing in regard to the spiritual world, according to the laws that the Kabbalists described for us. In other words, we discover ourselves in it, and that’s it!

I have to be in unity and mutual love all the time. This means that I discover my spiritual senses. However, if my senses are not like these, this means that they are not spiritual. I don’t perceive this world. I have to change myself so that I relate creatively to all the problems that arise.
[140945]
From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, Lesson 4

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Question: How can we measure and make sure that we are uniting correctly?

Answer: The truth is that spirituality is concealed from us and is only revealed in the right connection between us, in mutual guarantee, when we become as one man in one heart, according to the principles that describe unity, such as “love thy friend as thyself,” “don’t do unto others what is hateful to you,” ” all of Israel are friends,” and so on.

So how can we check if we act properly? We have to make efforts according to what Kabbalists tell us. By that we summon the Light that Reforms.

Yes, I don’t know what the right correction is. I have no idea what it means to unite but I yearn for that like a child who doesn’t know but who tries and makes an effort. Even if he does everything wrong, such efforts also draw the Light that Reforms, the force of nature that also influences us. This is how children learn, when they know nothing and have no initial understanding.

If we act the same way, if we follow the advice of Kabbalists, even if we don’t understand it but hope to advance, the Light that Reforms operates and guides us to the right unity. When we attain it, we discover that it is actually the real unity.

There is no other way. This is the spiritual path from absolute uncertainty until the gradual acquisition of knowledge. It is impossible to know in advance what you are about to reach. This is only possible in our egoistic world, the only picture that the ego reveals to a person.
[140972]
From the Convention In Toronto. Lesson 2, 8/06/14

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Question: Can we come to the suffering of Shechina from our state?

Answer: Many of us have pets: a dog or cat. They know who their owners are and they follow them around the house all day long. Wherever their owners go, their pets go there too. But if their owner grieves or cries, the pets don’t “feel” the owners’ tears because their desires are at a much lower level. In the same way, the suffering of the Shechina are at a higher level, and we simply are unable to sense it.

Moreover, if I never suffered in this life, I cannot sympathize with others. For example, the majority of people have never experienced famine. They never starved. For our generation it is normal. It’s quite rare that someone has no food at all for several days in a row. It sometimes happens that we are hungry because we had no time to eat, but none of us ever experienced real starvation. That’s why for us it is impossible to understand what those people who have absolutely nothing to eat go through. We cannot share their pain.

We can’t feel the Shechina’s sufferings because Her pain is generated by a desire to give everything She has, but there is nobody who wants to take it. Subconsciously, people suffer because of their inability to exist at the level of the world of Infinity, but they don’t acknowledge or realize this fact. However, we have to rise to this level.

The Shechina’s affliction belongs to the next level. Can you imagine your dog crying when you are upset? Let’s say, your friend died and you are crying and mourning. Can your dog share your pain? No! The dog can only sense that you are in a bad mood, not more than that.

This explains why we are incapable of connecting with the Shechina. If not for the Upper Light that develops the desire through the four stages of the direct Light – from the initial inanimate level to the vegetative, animate and speaking stages, we won’t be ever able to climb to the top. It is the Light that does it for us; we are not the ones who do it. If we want to rise from our animate desire to the speaking level called “man” (Adam, similar to the Creator and the Shechina), we need the Upper Light to help us.

However, after the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels, including the highest step of the animate desire (a human being, the last variation of “monkeys’ that belong to this realm) were created, the Upper Light stopped the process.

In order to rise to the next step, we have to be the ones who trigger the Light! Then, It will develop our desires to the next level, because a desire is the only material of creation. The desires of the next stage will be the desires of the Shechina, the revelation of the Creator, the property of bestowal. We have to attain this level because our job is to attract the Upper Light onto ourselves.

This is where the wisdom of Kabbalah steps in because it is a methodology of attracting the Upper Light, the system of self-development that allows us to seek the external help of the Upper; however, it happens only if we are the ones who trigger the Light.

If we don’t seek the Light, it’s similar to a cow that suffers because of an excess of milk; when she cannot carry it inside herself any longer and milk flows from her udders, and there is nobody to milk her.

However, the Upper Light continues pouring, but we don’t sense It inside our Kelim (vessels), but rather around them. We cannot receive the Light into ourselves because we don’t yet have similarity of properties with it. We don’t want to bestow or receive for the sake of bestowal; this is why the Upper “milk” pours all around us and we feel very bad. We realize that there is abundance around us, but not inside us.

So now the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed. It never happened before, but it is happening now! All that took place before our time is called the “forefathers.” These are the steps that humanity had to go through in order to prepare the methodology of correction for us. Today, we must implement this methodology in life.

Kabbalah speaks about becoming similar to the Upper Light with the help of daily activities and by building relationships among us that exist at the spiritual level. If we start doing it, the Light will impact us to the extent of our efforts.

Then gradually, the drops of “milk” that Dvinity dispenses will penetrate into us, enlighten and correct us; thus, we’ll change. As a result, we’ll aspire to rise to the level of “Adam” and will want the same things as the Upper Light, Shechina: we’ll aim at receiving for the sake of bestowal; we’ll strive to be “Bnei Eichal”, i.e. the sons who comprise the Upper Kli (vessel).

This state can be reached only by attracting the Upper Light that manifests in us only through our similarity with It in everything: in the way we interact with each other, disseminate, and to the degree of our exertions to correct the world through ourselves.
[140020]
From the International Summer Camp In Bulgaria “Day One” 7/11/14, Lesson 2

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Question: Right now we are studying The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES), Part 2, “The Connection Between Ability and Intention.” I cannot concentrate and relate this to myself and understand it.

Answer: We are a desire to receive pleasure, and the intellect is developed only to serve desire. So as long as you haven’t begun to feel within you what is described, you cannot use these parameters of desire. Will it be possible to use it and with what intention?

But there are people who have the ability to learn, not inside themselves, within the desire, but by constructing a model in the mind. They learn the Talmud “theoretically” without using it on themselves. Unfortunately, that is how everyone is learning today!

But the Torah specifically requires “practical” learning (sensory, within the desire), i.e., on ourselves, on our desire. And as long as it isn’t, as long as you cannot go through this state in sensation, you don’t understand what the Talmud is saying.
[139423]

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Question: What is the importance of the convention in New Jersey?

 Answer:  There is no importance in that it is precisely in New Jersey. That just happens to be the place where we have become used to holding conventions. We have already been there, so there we feel good and comfortable.

 However, in general, the convention in America is very important. It also accompanies my meetings with leaders of Jewish communities, organizations, and movements, which are also very important.

 Other than that, we know, feel, and hear about how the world is changing, and there is especially a great change in relation to Jews. Our role has become increasingly prominent and in demand. Let us hope that we will be able to come to this convention in a state where our friends and students will listen to us, including those English speakers who participate with us in all kinds of ways and levels from all around the world, and that we will be able to sweeten the development and try to bring it to a good path, as much as it is possible, from “in due time” to “I will hasten it.” This can be done only if that English-speaking Kli will accept this great mission. Every place in the world, at least in the English-speaking world, should try to do the same as what we do in Hebrew, in Israel.

 I very much hope that it will not end at the convention, but that we will keep working before and after the convention. Also, I very much hope that we will accept this important work that has now been cast upon us, which has befallen us, with a lot of importance, with awareness of how important and unique our role is, and especially that the American Kli will become like a pipe to the whole world. This is because their language, approach, and ability is truly unlimited, and we very much need it.

 I very much look forward to bringing a much broader public, which is not that connected to us, closer to us at the convention, that they will understand what we need to do, what the correct implementation of the wisdom of Kabbalah is. We have more work to do in this, and so I have great hope.

 I am very grateful to all the people who are engaged in the convention preparation. According to the importance they feel for the convention, I thus certainly expect it to be incredibly strong. It will be the last in a series of conventions that we will be holding in the American continent.

Therefore, I also very much hope that all our friends who can be in contact and support of it, not only from Israel, but from the whole world, will join in and support it, and we will turn the New Jersey Convention into a World Convention. 

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Question: Why are diseases and physical sufferings needed?

Answer: These are the results of the general uncorrected ego. As long as it exists in the souls, even the corrected soul, that are in complete connection with the uncorrected souls, will feel suffering.

Question: It is possible to understand why suffering is required for Kabbalists so they can learn to rise above the level of the beast, but what about ordinary people?

Answer: We are all in collective dependence as a single entity, the soul, a desire to receive. If it is “for its own sake,” then we suffer, if it is “for the sake of the Creator,” meaning similar to the Light, then we enjoy.

Question: Isn’t this cruel to fill poor creatures with suffering?

Answer: The Creator takes our final state into account; His conduct is derived from the need to bring us to the complete end of correction and perfection.
[138262]

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Preparation for the Lesson

Workshop

Writings of Rabash “Dargot HaSulam,” Article 561

Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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ARI Insitute‘s article on Israeli Independence Day was published by Aliya Magazine. Below is the article.

“As another Israeli Day of Independence has been celebrated, the all too familiar chants (not to say rants) about Israel’s need to be strong and self-reliant fill the media. Perhaps the chanters know something most of us do not; otherwise, how can you explain their insistence that independence is possible? This is true for all countries, not just for Israel; independence is a myth; interdependence is the reality of our lives.

Today, a country that wishes to be independent must focus its attention on the society rather than on the economy. The only way a country can be independent is if the people within it feel solidarity and mutual responsibility toward each other. And here lies our strength as the Jewish nation. We are the unproud proprietors of the motto, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

It is a shame we take no pride in it. If we recognized its value, we would embrace it as our social code and our troubles would end. It may sound like a simplistic, perhaps naïve statement, but it works. Today’s reality is one of connectedness and mutual dependence, yet we fail to accept it as a way of life, and instead try to step over one another on our way to the top of the heap. But even once we get there, if we ever do, it only lasts a minute before someone else becomes the short-lived king of the hill.

No other creature behaves this way but us, humans. And no other nation is as zealous about this game as us Jews, and especially the Jews in Israel. And since Israel is always at the center of attention, much to our dismay, we should at least embrace the opportunity to steer things in a positive direction. As proprietors of the abovementioned motto, it is our prerogative to employ it.

We may be a fractured and disjointed society, but these are mere facades to our common origin. In the eyes of the world, we are Jews regardless of attire and demeanor. Let us show that we can therefore rise above the superficial, and display unity above all differences, without eliminating them. We can, and perhaps should, remain who we are—religious, secular, or completely non-denominated. But above all that disparity, we should embrace the motto of unity. If we only dare, we will achieve not only independence, but will eliminate the anti from anti-Semitism and from anti-Israelism.”

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Questions and Answers with Dr. Laitman

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