In the News (Catholic Herald): “Christians in Europe must break down ‘walls of fear and aggression’ and try to understand people of other faiths and backgrounds, Pope Francis has said.

“In a video message on Saturday to participants at the ‘Together for Europe’ gathering in Munich, the Pope insisted that ‘invisible walls’ are being strengthened and dividing people from one another. 

“’These walls are being built in people’s hearts,’ the Pope said. ‘They are walls made of fear and aggression, a failure to understand people of different backgrounds or faith. They are walls of political and economic selfishness, without respect for the life and dignity of every person.'”

“Pope Francis told representatives of some 300 European Christian organisations, movements and communities from different churches that they and their fellow Christians need to find new, more vibrant ways to offer Christian values to European society and to the world.

“’Europe is called to reflect and to ask itself whether its immense heritage, so permeated with Christianity, belongs in a museum or is still able to inspire culture and to offer its treasures to the whole of humankind,’ he said.

Question: Pope Francis is an extraordinary person. Is this warning about the lack of awareness of a person of other religions dangerous?

Answer: No, this is not a dangerous warning. He is simply stating a fact. Within the religions there are thousands of different “walls.” For example, if the “wall” that exists between Christians and Muslims is clear, the impulses that burn within each one of the religions are much stronger passions.

Question: Is Europe, as the Pope appeals: “still able to inspire culture and to offer its treasures to the whole of humankind”?

Answer: Europe is a tired continent. It is not ready to do anything.

Question: The Pope also said:“’Every authentic unity draws on the wealth of diversity which forms it – like a family which grows in unity in so far as its members can fully and fearlessly be themselves.’

“For Europe to be a family, he added, the good of the human person must be the central concern and groups and nations must find ways of working together that “are not only economic but also social and cultural” (Catholic Herald).

Answer: All of these words are right, but many of the inhabitants of Europe can say this; what is important is do they have a method for realizing these words? If not, then these are only beautiful expressions; it is like sitting next to our grave and crying.

The inhabitants of Europe have no faith in their power and essentially have no faith in the method of correction, the change. So Pope Francis is indeed looking at everything correctly and is saying the right things, but what is next? In fact, he is just lamenting over Europe. The Pope is the spiritual leader of not only Europe but also a billion other people. He must offer an educational method.

In the past, in their evolutionary development Christians became savages. Today, Christians and all of humanity must be educated to become human, connecting to become united, resembling nature, creating a single harmonious whole. Through connection like this, everyone can feel happy and balanced, and peace will dwell in Europe.

Comment: He also says, “Unity is like a family.”

Answer: Indeed, it is up to society to live as one big family. The Pope is correct that this situation doesn’t exist in Europe. The ancestors of European society didn’t set this goal for themselves. But he can now show them the way. He can turn to the entire continent of Europe as their spiritual leader.

We must write to him and actually spread before him a series of explanatory applications, documents, and materials. This should be his appeal to Europe. The Jews, and in their hands the wisdom of Kabbalah, exist to help the Pope to turn to the society of his European friends correctly. For after all, the wisdom of Kabbalah is derived from the same source from which Christianity is derived.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/4/16

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New Life 735 – Blessings And The Connection To The Creator
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

“A person should not enjoy the world without a blessing.” It isn’t easy to understand what the sages mean by that, but they don’t refer to empty words. A person should reach the revelation of the Creator and true gratitude.

Children learn to say blessings and adults should learn how to actually discover the Creator.

Those who have revealed the Creator say that He is good and benevolent to all, and therefore I have to be like Him. The blessing is only a reason to connect to the upper force in order to identify with Him. The blessing should include the intention to discover the Creator and to bring Him delight.

All our work is to correct our attributes, to correct the desire to receive, which is totally egoistic. All this can be fulfilled only by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah in a group of people.

It says “the commandments were given only in order to purify the created beings,” that is, purify us, to correct our egoism. To bless actually means to reach a state in which a person enjoys the actual connection with the Creator and his giving to the Creator.

The purpose of the blessing is not to say thank you but to ascend to the level of the Creator, to be loving and giving like He is. Giving to the Creator can only be by giving to others, as it is written,  “from the love of the created being to the love of the Creator.”

Therefore, “love thy friend as thyself” is the greatest rule of the Torah. This is the goodness that a person can “give” the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 735 – Blessings And The Connection To The Creator,” 6/21/16

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New Life 734 – Why Do We Bless?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

The reality that we feel is not the actual reality we live in. This is the reason scientists have been trying for quite a while now to break through this world and discover the forces that manage it.

Nature operates according to laws. And so the question is: What is the general force, the general formula that manages nature? The first man to discover it lived 5,776 years ago. He discovered the Creator, the general force.

When a person changes himself and his attributes, his perception of the world changes. If he nullifies himself, as if resets himself, he perceives the true reality.

The upper reality helps us get to know it better, and we can do so either willingly or as a result of pressure. The upper force is good and benevolent, and there is none else besides it.

I have to tune myself to the upper force in every situation in my life. Thus I gradually annul the partitions between me and the upper force, and this is from where the custom of blessing stems. The goal of everything that comes from the upper force is for our own good. It leads us to the revelation of the upper force.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 734 – Why Do We Bless?” 6/21/16

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Question: Are you moving away from traditional Judaism?

Answer: Without a doubt. The reason for this is that we must reveal the knowledge about the world we are living in to people. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals. It teaches a person how to discover the world that is hidden from him, more precisely, to discover the Creator, because nothing except this “field of life” exists.

Religion teaches a person mechanical actions that he must carry out in order to mechanically, but unconsciously, conform to this field. It aspires to hold a person only at the level of implementing instructions. This form is convenient for religious domination and also subordinates a person because everything is clear: carry this out and you will receive a reward!

Kabbalah explains that through this acceptable mechanical implementation, a person’s state is called “exile” from spirituality, meaning exile from feeling the Creator.

This period of performing mechanical actions ended in the time of the Ari in the 16^th century. The Baal Shem Tov, the great follower of the way of the Ari, began to introduce the wisdom of Kabbalah to the masses in a practical form. Opponents rose up against him and a war began between the supporters of the revelation of the Kabbalah to the people and those who opposed this movement.

Currently, the religious part of society carries out the Mitzvot (commandments) mechanically, and a large part of society is moving further and further away from any tradition. I believe that it is specifically for the part that is “moving away” that it is necessary to reveal Kabbalah, the heart of Judaism, the true Torah, the ability to discover the Creator. When people don’t find answers to the meaning of things, they move completely away from the Jewish people. The example for this is American Jewry.

Studying the wisdom of Kabbalah reveals the possibility and opportunity to discover the Creator.

Our Bnei Baruch organization invites anyone interested in entering spiritual life and the feeling of eternity, because it is said that “they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them” (Jeremiah 31:33), “and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isaiah 2:2). Any resistance to us will disappear in the future, both by our opponents and by that part of society that still doesn’t perceive that the wisdom of Kabbalah brings freedom from all troubles and an ascent to the sensation of wholeness. This is because human egoism is growing constantly and pushes a person toward discovery of the Creator as “help made against him.”
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Question: Why is it that the religions don’t unite but instead each one pulls the blanket over itself?

Answer: It is because all faiths and religions are completely egoistic. Religious wars and attacks have continued for thousands of years and have not ceased to this day, especially in Judaism. Many factions and religious denominations have appeared and all of them are pitted against each other.

Religions are a product of human egoism, so there is no reason to expect anything good from them. They actually are the “opiate of the masses.”

Religions don’t apply the general rule, “You shall love your friend as yourself” (“Leviticus” 19:18). In general, where are they upholding this Mitzvah (commandment) and in what way?

So, the wisdom of Kabbalah has no connection to religions. And this is also the essence of the problem. We have a huge clash with various religious organizations. Religious organizations believe by performing mechanical actions, a person assures himself the world to come.

Kabbalah says that with this mechanical implementation, a person will not have the world to come but remains an egoist. If there is no ascent above his egoistic nature, what kind of spiritual world can there be for him?

The world to come is a world of altruism that a person constructs while he is in this world through implementing the principle, “You shall love your friend as yourself.” It follows that religion simply buys people and nothing more.

Comment: It is interesting that for people who study the wisdom of Kabbalah, nothing prevents them from remaining in their religion.

Answer: Every person who wants to can be involved in the wisdom of Kabbalah regardless of his religion. Baal HaSulam writes about this in his book, The Last Generation.

Belonging to one religion or another doesn’t bother a person; he can safely maintain its customs. But internally he must be changed to altruism, rising above his egoistic nature. This is what differentiates the wisdom of Kabbalah from religion. Everything else is a tradition that can be maintained or not maintained. This is a personal matter. But ascending above the ego through the wisdom of Kabbalah is an absolute postulate.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/20/16

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Question: The famous Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti believed that school’s should teach children about love and a holistic approach to life.

Krishnamurti said, “Man has built in himself images as a fence of security—religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man’s thinking, his relationships, and his daily life. These images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man.” (Krishnamurti, “The Core of the Teachings”) How does the wisdom of Kabbalah relate to this?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah regards all the philosophies that speak about love and friendship positively. At the same time, it asks how do we implement this because this is the problem. Every person in the world will say that friendship is excellent! Love of others? Wonderful! Mutual help? Vital! But how do we fulfill it if we have a completely different nature? A person looks at everyone like a wolf, thinking about how he can grab them by the throat.

This is our egoistic nature. Man is a creature who is operated by a subjective egoism that only thinks about how to sustain itself in the most comfortable way. Therefore, the main problem is in the implementation. Where does one find the power to overcome the ego?

If we understood that egoism is bad, we probably could agree. At the same time, we don’t see any alternative for the ego. We don’t know how and cannot overcome it. Sometimes, we try to do good deeds, but we feel even worse than when we do bad deeds.

We need an upper force in order to overcome the ego, an upper force that is above our nature, above the ego. If we could find it in nature or somewhere to get it, and find a way to draw it, then we would have something we could talk about. If not, all of the wonderful projects and all of the philosophies remain merely theoretical.

Question: Despite the Indian philosophies of love and friendship, in India there is an untouchable caste.

Answer: It is indeed strange that there are sectors that are untouchable in a nation that speaks about love. If every religion is based on love, compassion, and sympathy, where is that love and sympathy?

In fact, there is a huge range of separation between people: caste, society, family, and clan. These examples clearly illustrate how sweet, but empty, such ideas can be. There are philosophies according to which you should sit and self-reflect.

Where is a person’s creativity? Is it inside himself? Searching within yourself will lead to nothing but mistaken philosophies and psychological methods to change a person, but it is impossible to change that way.

A person who has a certain character will remain the way he is unless an external force called the Upper Light will correct him systematically according to what the wisdom of Kabbalah says. It is our only hope.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 6/19/16

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Question: What is the difference between the attitude of the Kabbalists toward the Torah and the attitude of the masses toward the Torah?

Answer: The masses believe that a holy person or an angel is engaged with the Torah, and that if a person actively performs Mitzvot (Commandments), he fulfills the Torah. The sages of Kabbalah believe that the Torah was not given to angels, but to humans. Therefore it is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I have created for it the Torah as a spice, for the light in it reforms it” (Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 30b).

Only someone who has an evil inclination, egoism, needs the Torah. This is what Rabash wrote in the article, “The Claim of the Angels” (Articles, Volume 3). In other words, the difference is in the relationship of a person to the Torah: either it was given for performing mechanical actions or for the internal correction of the person’s essence, egoism, and from it, the creation of the soul.
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New Life 502 – Magic For Sale
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Spiritual Weapons

Question: Is there really such a thing as magic or witchcraft? Can we use supernatural powers in order to change our reality?

Answer: No. In fact, the term “supernatural” needs to be reset. If we speak about what is above our nature, it includes all the natural phenomena.

We cannot influence the movement of the earth and other planets, but we can calculate them. Thus, many phenomena moved from the mystical realm to scientific concepts.

But at the same time, there are still many things we don’t know and the roots of which we cannot perceive, and this is an area we are still weak in, still faced with nature that we cannot calculate in advance. Meanwhile, man aspires for security; he needs an insurance policy for all his troubles.

This is where magic stems from. First it allegedly provides protection from any possible threat, including enemies, which a person can now resist with “spiritual weapons.” Second, there is the option to switch to the offense and establish one’s superiority, to clean the area of any troublemakers that stand in a person’s way.

The Supernatural, Affordable

Here many make promises declaring they know how it is done and that they will help a person if only they are paid for their services.

There are concepts such as black and white magic. The former is meant to cause harm and the latter promises to help a person. But this division is random, just like children play good and the bad guys. A person feels that he is weak when confronting the forces that determine his life. He would like to control his own fate and he goes to “experts” to hear their advice.

Moreover, the inevitable death of the body and the uncertainty about what lies ahead scare us. What will happen to my soul? Where will it end up? Can we avoid hell and guarantee ourselves heaven? People are very worried about these questions and others can make good money here.

Question: Does this mean that there is no magic?

Answer: No. But the problem is that anything that we attribute to a person’s internal world is related to his psychology. Consequently, a person can be influenced in a way that may seem like magic to him. This also happens with many religious people.

There is nothing we can do about it, since these are the properties of our psychology. Eventually it all stems from ignorance.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 502 – Magic For Sale,“ 1/18/15

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Question: Can we say that the difference between you and religious people is that for them the actions come first and then the intention, while for you it is the opposite, the intention is first and then comes the action?

Answer: This is basically true and this is also what our teacher Baal HaSulam says in “The Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“ and in the article the “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose” and in many other places, but this isn’t just about a difference of priorities between the actions and the intentions, it is the rebuilding and rearrangement of a person and the incorporation of all his thoughts and goals in the action that he performs. It is changing the actual action from a mechanical action to an action that leads to unity, love, and the revelation of the Creator in this world.
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Question: My fellow businessmen know how to be sneaky and they cheat their clients. And I, on the contrary, am trying to be decent and rely on the honesty of others. And in the end I am left without anything and begin to envy them: “Why can’t I arrange my matters like them?” Is this a Klipa, impurity?

Answer: Klipa—is work against holiness, against the Creator, very sophisticated work.

Regarding your example, it is possible to say that one that deceives people in the end deceives the Creator and distances from Him. It is beyond a doubt.

If I take what I don’t deserve from the public or from nature, which is the Creator, then this is already the beginning of the Klipa. And what do I deserve? I deserve something if I work in order to bestow, if I exist in order to reach bestowal. In this case, I receive even necessities only in order to exist and be in bestowal, in order to be similar to the Creator and do the work of God. All the rest that is beyond necessities, I cannot take for myself. All the rest I need only to bestow to others. This needs to be a person’s calculation. He determines for himself: “This is what I need to exist in order to bring contentment to the Creator.” Everything beginning with this decision and continuing in the same vector is called Kedusha – holiness.

And in Klipa, I am the opposite, taking from others although I don’t deserve it and maybe didn’t even earn it. This also applies to the part of the people of Israel who do not work at all and completely immerse in the study of the Torah.

In general, due to the miscalculation in this respect, we are all drowning in the sea of egoism and distancing from the upper force. Year by year, it affects all more strongly, and at this stage we are starting to decline to a state that we already experienced in the previous century.

But it doesn’t mean that everyone has to go to work, or the opposite, to live from hand to mouth. Part of the nation really needs to study and part needs to work. Maybe there needs to be a certain rotation. Why not get organized in such a way that everyone will have the opportunity to work and also study?

Of course, in the time of the Temple, many from the nation devoted themselves to study. And the question here was not in quantity but in discernments. This is our work.

Moreover, the era ahead of us will not demand the same number of workers like before. Therefore, we only needed to arrange everything in the correct form.

The problem is that the two parts of the nation, the secular and the religious, don’t know how to talk to each other, don’t understand each other. This is the only obstacle. After all, if we were able to find a common ground and corresponding positions, I think everyone would understand: the one that studies should continue in his study. But there is no contact between the parts of the nation, there is no good attitude, there is no constructive and real dialog; there is only mutual hatred, and therefore we lack the correct analysis of the situation.

Actually, the country does not need tens of thousands of workers and soldiers. The size of the job market will contract over the years, and the modern army needs more technology than people.

Therefore, the current conflict in Israel is caused by political games. The powers that stand behind are deliberately igniting the fire.

And on the other side, the serious problem of the religious audience is that they cannot create a correct contact with the secular part and explain its position. The religious part does not start a dialog from fear of being influenced by the exterior culture. But lack of dialog causes war between brothers.

Remark: Although the walls are crumbling and the exterior influences are penetrating inside.

Answer: But this does not lead to contact, to mutual understanding. The walls are crumbling not according to our will but at the behest of time.

The parts should contact each other and begin a mutual clarification. Our problem comes from having a mutual “basket.” In the US there is no collision between the secular and the religious; they “don’t eat from the same plate,” they don’t have the same army, there are no contact points, there is no conflict that someone lives on someone else’s account, or that they don’t understand each other.

And in Israel, the nation is divided, split, and thus we continue the destruction of the Temple. Actually, the two sides are participating in this process, including those that study Torah. They call the secular part “the spoiled baby.” But if he is a baby, then he needs a special patient attitude, he demands care. Isn’t this what the Torah says? Where is the big heart, the nice caring approach, and not squabbles and strife.
In the end, all this weakens us and brings us to collapse.

Question: What would you say to the religious part of the nation?

Answer: I don’t have legitimacy in their eyes. Therefore I don’t have anything to say or anyone to talk to.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 55

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