Entries in the 'Q&A' Category

Angels All Around

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How should I relate to antipathy and hatred when they arise not toward friends in the group, but toward outsiders who aren’t with us on the spiritual path?

Answer: Why would I suddenly hate outsiders who have nothing to do with my spiritual path? I view them as angels without free will. If they aren’t in the group and don’t have free will, of what could I possibly accuse them? They are acting like puppets, following orders from Above.

That doesn’t mean I should disregard them. Simply, I understand that they do not act freely and independently. In everything that happens to them, I see the Creator’s hand. Consequently, I need to work either “for” or “against.”

As concerns external actions, I need to relate to people in the corrected form, trying to make sure that everybody has everything they need. Or I can begin working with them and pass knowledge about Kabbalah to them.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/31/2011, Shamati #26

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The Cure For All Troubles

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can the reading of text that I do not understand help me connect with the group or to desire this?

Answer: By itself, the reading of text is not effective. The thought of what it is exactly that I desire does help. It is like a source of strength.

Suppose you are given a medication, and you cure what you intended to cure with it. The medication affects the entire body, and you have to decide exactly what you want to treat, be it the leg, arm, head, a wound, or whatever you wish. The medication itself is universal.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/31/2011, The Zohar

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Distracting Thoughts: The Food For The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the purpose in the distracting thoughts which come during the reading of The Book of Zohar and prevent me from focusing on it?

Answer: All of this is given from Above, and we don’t know why we have these or other thoughts in one form or another, or why they are necessary. We can make various calculations, but we will never find out the real reason for them.

Thoughts can be very obsessive, and all of a sudden, they can disappear and never come back again. They can come in bouts; now I think about one thing and then, about something else. Obviously, they are necessary. After all, the soul is growing based on these thoughts.

Therefore, we have to take them into account, that is, to understand that all of this comes from Above, and there are no coincidences. We receive conditions from Above and based on them, we have to grow.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/31/2011, The Zohar

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You Get What You Order

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean that “Above, they always agree with a person’s choice as to what spiritual degree he desires to reach”?

Answer: Above, they always agree with how high a person wants to ascend, what his desire and intention are. The Creator lays down the law and does not change it, as it is written: “The law is set and cannot be broken.” It creates the desire to enjoy, and these two forces, bestowal and reception, begin to work in the universe. And it is the created being that sets the balance between them.

The force of bestowal that comes from the Creator is absolute, unlimited, and invariable. The Absolute cannot change; He is always ready to serve you. To what extent? He is ready to serve you as much as you want, but only to the extent that you want it.

In other words: “The upper one always agrees with the decisions of the lower one.” The Creator doesn’t interfere in our decisions; in fact, everything is done solely by Him but because you engage Him. He does everything, but always on your demand. It is as if you are always writing and sending your demands to Him: Do this or that, for the benefit or detriment—and it is so constantly. And He carries everything out.

It is said: “The shop is open, and the hand is writing,” meaning that we enter His store and take anything we want on credit regardless of whether or not we wish to repay. This is the way the Creator set up the universe: He works according to the law of absolute love and bestowal. And to whatever degree you are “for” or “against” this law, you will feel accordingly. And this very feeling will push you forward.

If you act in order to consciously bring yourself to bestowal, then the law will affect you positively, and you will feel less and less difference between it and you. However, if you don’t want to get closer to it or you move even farther away, you’ll feel worse and worse. But this feeling will still push you to return.

However, on the Creator’s part there is no change. After all, if He could change, he would not be called the Absolute as it would mean that He could be better or worse. And so it is said: “I do not change my HaVaYaH,” that is, “the law is set and cannot be broken.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/29/2011, Shamati #61

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Learn To Live In Balance With Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is nature, and what does it mean to be in balance with it?

Answer: We exist in nature. A huge number of parameters influence us, such as temperature, pressure, various vibrations, all kinds of waves, radioactivity, and others. We must exist in balance with all these natural phenomena.

This is the physical law: A body that exists in a state of balance with its environment is in its most comfortable state. If the temperature, pressure, or other parameters rise even a little, I feel bad. If they drop a little, I also feel bad.

This is how I am created in this nature: I can exist in nature within certain boundaries, and within these boundaries, I must make myself equivalent to the surrounding nature. That is why in winter, I need to dress warmly to be in balance with nature, and in summer, it’s the opposite, and so on.

This pertains to the part we can see, but there is also a part of nature we can’t see. It consists of the laws of desires, laws of our desired development, that is, moral laws. Man must conform to these as well, to be in balance with them.

We don’t know these laws. We think that we’re so good in this world if we give donations, help the poor, don’t bother anyone, pay our taxes, help old ladies across the street, or whatever you can imagine. Is that not enough?

Not only is that not enough, it doesn’t count for anything at all because I only do what I think and understand with my egoistic mind. In order to do what I need to, I must study nature itself and to aspire to be similar to it.

This law of similarity is the only law I need to obey. Every day I change, grow, and become someone else. It follows that every day, at all times, I must correct and adjust my balance with nature.

To that end, we first must learn the demands that nature or the Creator (it doesn’t matter what we call it) presents to us, the extent to which we conform to these demands, and how to achieve balance. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about: What the surrounding nature is, what we are, in what sense we do not correspond with nature, based on what parameters, and how can we achieve balance with them. That is what the entire wisdom amounts to.
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From the Sunday Virtual Lesson Series 7/31/2011

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Could It Be That Pharaoh Was A Jew?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: I was shocked by your statement that American Jews are against Israel and its existence as a nation. What are your words based upon?

Answer: There is a purely psychological effect: When a person lives in a certain environment, he wishes to justify his existence in it. But if he has an additional environment, that means he is not entirely loyal to the one in which he exists, and therefore the environment perceives him as “not one of us.”

For example, this is apparent from people’s reaction to the Pollard case, and from my contact with many American Jews. They are very critical of Israel because it would be more comfortable for them if it were different, more attractive to Americans. The prevailing opinion among them is, “Israel is not acting right!” Not to mention their love and support of Obama…. And what about his Jewish advisers, who are bothered by Israel’s very existence in the context of their global plans….

Generally speaking, I suggest you look at history, at how America closed itself off to emigration of European Jews, indirectly sending them to the gas chambers. Yet President Roosevelt was known as ‘President Rosenfeld’ because of the great number of Jews in his administration, and Bernard Baruch, Roosevelt’s financier and adviser, was known as the ‘unofficial president.’

A while ago there was a documentary film about the history of television, called “The President of the Jews” which showed a full blown conflict between Bernard Baruch, the State Department, and Jews in the Treasury Department and the courts. Finally, the State Department created additional bureaucratic obstacles, such as a requirement to present a certificate of good behavior from the German police.

See: Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization, Nicholson Baker, 2008

Page 83: “Millions of strong, courageous European refugees could settle, proposed Baruch, in a place to be called the United States of Africa—a large nondenominational republic assembled from pieces of Kenya, Tanganyika, and Northern Rhodesia… ”

Also see: American refugee policy and European Jewry, 1933-1945, Richard Breitman, Alan M. Kraut, 1987

Page 233: “Baruch would be more likely to consider colonization of Jews on some undiscovered planet rather than Palestine.”
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Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We have the basis of correction: the question about the meaning of life. What basis do the masses have?

Answer: We attribute our question about the meaning of life directly to the lack of unity. The Light is manifested in unity, and therefore, we have to take care namely of our unity. It turns out that the meaning of life for us is to be connected with each other.

As for the others, the meaning of life for them is still in various egoistic goals. At the first stage, they should understand that a means of achieving these goals is unity. By becoming united, they will get what they want.

And then, on the way to this, they will gradually begin to understand, to realize: “Affordable housing is important, but unity is more important.” Then, they will come to correction.

Our explanations start from the point that unity should be used as a proper means to succeed in life. Hence, it becomes clear that we talk about the most important, the best tool that we have. In the language of Kabbalah, this intention is called “Lo Lishma”: We want to use the power of our unity for egoistic purposes.

Then, beginning to appreciate unity, we find in the connection between us an “added value,” which in itself provides a special, incomparable status, an unprecedented feeling. Thus, we reveal the “addition” in unity: We suddenly begin to like taking care of each other; we find a unique charm in mutual bestowal, in mutual guarantee.

This pleasure from mutual bestowal is that very pleasure that the Creator originally desired to give us at the Thought of Creation. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the book Ohr Bahir (The Bright Light) that the purpose of creation is to bring pleasure to His creatures by the Light of mutual bestowal between them and the Creator.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/2011, “The Peace”

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At The Breaking Point

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The protest movement in Israel is expanding. What would be the right course for its development?

Answer: Of course, at this stage it is necessary to take care of the average citizen.

But generally, the problem is that the whole world had put great hopes on the middle class. There are simple workers who are satisfied by simple pleasures in life, and opposed to that, there is a higher layer, which comprises a very big part of the population. It includes youth who still haven’t chosen their life path. As a whole, we are talking about people who want to live, to experience the world, and to live a normal life by the modern standards.

However, due to the crisis, which has actually gone on for about twenty years now, the world is starting to lose the impulse of gradual movement. Japan, which once made a gigantic leap, has reduced its turnovers a long time ago. And everyone else is also slowing down and even rolling backwards. These are the systematic processes that correspond to the program of creation, and you cannot do anything about them.

As a result, the middle class is losing hope of a good life and is descending to the level of the simple worker. This was caused, in part, by technologies, and generally, by the new turn of development. But the main reason is that we have found ourselves in a global world and societies are now being permeated by an integral interconnection. Today a family is barely able to raise even one child. All the areas of our lives are immersing in a crisis which demands new investments in order to avoid total collapse.

Thus, the middle class, including students, has no hope for the future. And this is a very big mass of people. For example, in Spain unemployment has enveloped up to 50% of the youth. Upon returning home, graduates of European universities discovered that there is nothing for them to do. They cannot get work or create a family. The time for this has come but there are no hopes. Moreover, they do not see an improvement happening now, nor in several years. They don’t even have a chance to put something away for the future because instead of economic development, we are shifting to a decline.

So what should we do? There is just one way to achieve success at the next stage: by directing the world to integral relationships. This is the only thing that will bring us success in our earthly activities. After all, we are all in an integral system and therefore it is necessary to give everyone the appropriate upbringing. People should be told, “Here’s the country’s budget. This is what we can do. We will gradually correct the situation, starting from the bare necessities, but on the condition that you begin to study.”

People have to be taught about the integral world in a form that’s accessible and clear to them, using examples and obvious illustrations. This learning has to happen over the radio, television, and Internet, through literature, theater, music, and cinema, so everyone would understand what kind of world humanity has entered. It is necessary to make use of culture and arts so people would become imbued with this and would feel where they are.

Then, no matter what we do in the nation and in the world, success will come our way. That’s because our actions will be aimed toward correction. On one hand, we will calm people down, providing them with the necessities, and on the other hand, we will educate them, and a few months later they will become different. They will become aware of what is happening and will start feeling the world’s globality, which does not leave any other solution besides a change in relationships.

When masses of people learn this, the results will correspond to the new conditions because every person is mentally connected with others and everyone influences one another even without saying a word. Besides, this message is heard everywhere. It permeates all of the mass media and conquers the Internet, “Everyone is global and you must also become global. Otherwise you don’t have any chances to succeed in anything.”

Thus, if we are talking about the right way for the social outburst to proceed, then at the next stage everyone will come home from the demonstrations, receive additional means from the government, without which they cannot do for now, and begin studying. This can’t possibly harm them, so let’s see whether the science of Kabbalah is correct. Let’s see whether we will really change as a result and by virtue of that, so will the whole world.

After all, society and the world are a product of our attitude to one another. It’s enough to work on yourself, and everything around will transform as well, becoming more effective and blossoming. So let’s try it, especially seeing that humanity has no other solution.

The problem is us: How quickly will we be able to explain to the nation and the world that this is the salvation? One way or another, all the countries are at risk and the situation will only get worse. No one besides us can give the world an explanation of the reason for the crisis and the way to come out of it. No one will reveal the actual opportunity to change the situation and show that the current breaking point is part of the program of human development instilled in us from the beginning. Kabbalists have discerned this point a long time ago and have described the exact timetable of its realization. So let’s listen to them.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/29/11, “One Commandment”

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The Role Of Scale

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What can force people to start studying the laws of an integral world?

Answer: They should be advanced by the environment aimed at that direction. Today, you can get people into the streets because of high prices of cottage cheese or housing. When the protest exhausts itself, you will have an opportunity to explain to them what the problems is.

But they will not be able to achieve anything because to meet their demands, the whole country has to be shaken up. It is not easy to begin constructing affordable apartments. Here, you have to break whole systems, carry out laws, and turn everything upside down.

The current situation is contrary to justice, but it is very difficult to correct. Each person is an egoist; each pulls to himself, and as a result, everything will remain as it was. Not a single government, not a single member of parliament is interested in anything else but his own career.

And that is why it is impossible to get anything real from them. They will throw a trifle, the effect of which will be cancelled by other factors. It cannot be otherwise: Such is our world. In reality, people in power are no worse than us, ordinary citizens.

And therefore, our task is to educate the people. General changes among the population will lead to correct changes at all other levels.

You should not think that it will take too much time. If the process unfolds on a large scale, it will gain completely different power. Another law is acting here: the law of a closed system. And the need here is different—the need to live a normal life. But here is a trouble: The modern state is organized in such a way that it does not care about this.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/2011, “The Peace”

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Lo Lishma: Having Something To Correct

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is the intention Lo Lishma (for oneself) a necessary step in spiritual advancement?

Answer: Naturally. Every time we discover that we are acting with the intention Lo Lishma, meaning for our own benefit. And then we demand the Light that Reforms, for it to correct Lo Lishma to the altruistic intention Lishma (for the Creator’s sake).

I have 613 desires, and if in any one of them I act for my own benefit, that is called Lo Lishma. However, if I act for the sake of bestowal in this desire, that is already Lishma. We’re dealing with two necessary states, where one is stemming from the other. First the evil inclination is revealed, and then the Torah (spice) corrects it to the good inclination. As a result, the egoistic intention becomes altruistic.

It is written: “There is no righteous man on earth who has done good and did not sin first.” We must come to Lishma from Lo Lishma. And the same goes for the correction of all our 613 desires.

And if I don’t correct my evil inclination, don’t utilize the Light that Reforms according to the method of Kabbalah, I don’t reveal then even my own evil. Whatever bad things I may do in this world, it’s not the same evil that we’re talking about here. If I don’t discover within the intention to receive, I have absolutely no connection with the matter of desire that needs correction. I remain nothing but an “angel.”
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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