New Life 682 – What Is Kashrut?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

The issue of Kashrut is a major issue in Judaism, and the nation was built on it. What is Kashrut and why is it a good thing? The natural system operates on us through 613 forces and we are made of 613 forces that have to be compatible with the forces of nature. Performing a Mitzva (commandment) means a reconciliation between me and the forces that operate on me, and a person who performs a Mitzva is called a “Kosher” person.

The dietary laws of Kashrut are determined by upper roots, not according to the Turkish or British law. Every upper root has a branch in our world, taking a lamb and a pig, for example, there are such animals and there are also such internal attributes in a person. To split the hoof and to ruminate means to differentiate between right and left, between receiving and bestowal and not being filled directly.

The upper world is the upper system of nature and we have to be kosher, which means to be compatible and in harmony with it. When we feel how nature operates on us we call it “God,” and we can have a channel of communication with Him, a dialog. The clash with the forces of nature that operate on us leads to problems in life, while being adapted to them allows us to live in harmony, but since the destruction of the Temple, we have lost the adaptation and the connection with the upper system and are left with only external actions and signs. Other nations also have laws as to what is allowed and what is forbidden to eat, but not according to spiritual roots like in Judaism.

A person who corrects his desires according to the upper system begins to feel it and becomes a kosher person.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 682 — What Is Kashruth?” 1/26/16

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New Life 681 – The Role Of The Three Religions
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Part of humanity has a passive ego, like in the Far East, and the part that has a developed ego created the religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The ego began to develop from Judaism in ancient Babylon. Abraham discovered the upper force and invited everyone to learn how to discover the upper force in the connection between them. The nation of Israel was united with the upper force until the destruction of the First Temple, until the connection of love between the children of Israel was ruined, and since then, Judaism has turned into a religion of external actions without the attainment of the Creator.

Popular Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are the three lines that are supposed to lead humanity forward and prepare it for the revelation of the Creator. Christianity has taught a big part of the world about the existence of the upper force and has assimilated concepts like prayer, reward and punishment, this world, the next world, and more.

Christianity even has developed culture, art, science, and higher education in universities. Later, Islam began to spread, and the Christian sages who underestimated the Sufi sages forced the Muslims to convert to Christianity by rape and by sword.

Today, Christianity is growing weaker and Islam is rising. Later, the two religions will unite against us Jews, and we will be forced to repent, which means to return to love of others and the revelation of the Creator between us. Then, the upper force will fight for us so that we will be able to change all of mankind for the better and spread love among everyone.

In fact, none of the religions actually engages in love of others and doesn’t set it as a goal, including Judaism. Only the wisdom of Kabbalah explains to humanity how to return to the connection between us and thus pull the entire world out of the crisis it is in. This is the correct meaning of being light unto the nations of the world.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 681 – The Role Of The Three Religions,” 1/21/16

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Question: Are Kabbalah books written according to the Jewish tradition?

Answer: Kabbalah books have nothing to do with any tradition. They explain how to treat other people and how to build a relationship between this world and the highest world, to discover the secret parts of the universe—all the other worlds that are around us and govern us.

Then we will be able to manage our lives in the reverse order. At the same time, we will reach beyond the physical limits of our short lives, our small forces, and can see through time.

There is no need to tie the wisdom of Kabbalah to any tradition; a Kabbalist can be Indian, Arab, Norwegian, or from South America—no matter who. It does not say anything about earthly rules except one: bringing people together into one integral whole just like all of nature.
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From the Talk at the Moscow Jewish Cultural Center, 11/24/15

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Question: During the years 2007 to 2008, residents of Libya and northern Iraq stopped investing in children’s education, in projects that dealt with their policies, and began living as if with no future, as if subconsciously acknowledging that they felt a crisis was near.

Answer: People are drawn to the ideological connection between them. They have understood that humanity needs some kind of special mission, goal.

Thus, ISIS and other organizations were created that, as a result, developed a terrorist system that attracts youth from all nations in the world since it gives them hope and primarily because they gather under the slogan, “Together we will achieve something, change something.” This appeal attracts people.

We need to show the world a parallel system with a call to attract them to good deeds, good ways, and not negative ones. Otherwise we will lose everyone. After all, with each day that passes, more and more people turn to drugs or are attracted to all kinds of terrorist organizations not connected to ISIS that are being organized in different places

Question: Over the past decade of radical Islam, the so-called Jihad gained huge popularity. But in parallel, we’re also seeing the growth or formation of these extreme ideological currents in other religions. Could this indicate that the old civilization is ending?

Answer: All religions are structured on the same egoism, and although they have proclaimed “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” not one of them is involved in this and are not able to be involved because if they should become involved, no one would join them. Thus, there is no future for religions: not Judaism, not Christianity, and not Islam.

The future lies only in the development of mutual connection between human beings. We need to hope that this connection is not built on the basis of mutual hatred like ISIS, but on the foundation of mutual love and attraction to good mutual cooperation of all peoples of the world.

We all are connected to each other and are within one single system, and the question is for what purpose we use this system. We can use it like ISIS and all kinds of Jihad organizations do, or it’s possible to develop the correct perspective on human existence as a whole, where everyone is equal and no ideology or system tries to control or subjugate others.

Question: Can we control the process of self-development?

Answer: No, for this to happen, we need to abandon the previous paradigm completely, to renounce our ego and our nature, and want to change. This hasn’t arrived yet.  First we need to want to find the meaning of life.

The main mission standing before us now is to confront humanity with the question of what is the meaning of our existence. And then we gradually find the correct goal and the way to attain it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/29/15

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Question: Is there a connection between Israel, the Jewish people, Judaism, and the Torah?

Answer: Unfortunately these concepts are only slightly connected at the moment.

The Jewish people are the nation that was founded according to the laws of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the laws of close cooperation, mutual help, and a mutual struggle over egoism, to raise above egosim in the connection between us.

To do this there is a whole method that teaches us how to rise above our increasingly growing ego. When we reach this connection, the spiritual connection that appears between us enables us to be a nation.

Modern Judaism is divided into two parts:

• Judaism that implements the external part of the Torah and focuses on observing the Mitzvot (commandments) in the corporeal earthly form as Orthodox Jews do.
• Judaism that implements the internal part of the Torah and focuses on intentions: “What am I doing this for, what is my goal?” The focus here is not on the physical observation but on the internal observation of the Mitzvot that are aimed at ascending above our nature, and the ascent that follows to the next level of our existence, a level on which we exist before we are born and after we die.

These two parts of the Torah are opposites: the internal part of the Torah is called the wisdom of Kabbalah and the external part is called the keeping of the corporeal Mitzvot.

The wisdom of Kabbalah will gradually be revealed not only to the Jews but also to all the people in the world because everyone has to eventually reach complete mutual cooperation between them thanks to the wisdom of Kabbalah, since otherwise this world has no right to exist.

The year 5,776 according to the Hebrew calendar is now coming to an end. According to the Torah humanity has to reach the full mutual connection by the end of the year 6,000. There are 224 years left to reach the state in which we will be able to feel as organs in one healthy body, living in complete cooperation between us. Can you imagine that? Everyone connected to seven billion other people.

This is what we have to do. It is possible on the spiritual level. When you ascend a bit with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah, you begin to see a totally different dimension, the leadership system of our world in mutual cooperation. In fact you can choose your future.
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Question: What is the difference between a group for Kabbalah students of ten people and a sect whose purpose is to exploit its members?

Answer: A group of Kabbalah students is based on absolute pure love and in such a group you don’t obey those who manage it but only its spiritual goal. Therefore it is up to a person whether to join it or not.

In a sect, on the other hand, there are many conditions; it is very limited and closed, has its distinct ideology, and the closer one gets to the center of the sect, the more and more hidden it becomes. A sect also has typical rituals such as prayers, meditations, etc. Such things are not part of studying the wisdom of Kabbalah.

A group of Kabbalists is not closed. It is based on the principle of mutual love, honesty, warm-heartedness, mutual inclusion, and mutual help according to the principles of Kabbalists and the sources that are studied. The only ritual it encourages is sharing a meal.

There are no conditions as to religion, race, or a nationality. A person who wants to join the group is accepted and if he wants to leave, he can do so. Everything is open and free; all the study materials are available on the Internet in every language; there is no barricade or separation.

The wisdom of Kabbalah encourages the unity of all mankind in mutual love and good mutual relations without any coercion, equally for everyone and with everyone.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/29/15

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Question: Why do the religious Torah scholars attack those who study Kabbalah?

Answer: It is absolutely natural that people don’t want us to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah because it eliminates the need for everything else. The world won’t need other sciences and culture, no poetry and literature, ballet and music, nothing.

The attainment of the Creator gives a person the sense of higher harmony that will completely fill him. All the hidden niches of the soul will be filled with the Upper Light, with the most natural and complete joy.

Specifically for this reason, those who are involved with all kinds of areas of science and art immediately oppose the wisdom of Kabbalah. It follows that we are taking their livelihood from them. What is left for them?

Similarly, nothing will remain for the religious, because the wisdom of Kabbalah is a method that is very directly involved with the greatest general rule, as is stated in our sources and in the Torah, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). The question is whether religious people are carrying out this general rule correctly and maintaining their love for others.

All the religions hate and have killed each other. For thousands of years they have been killing people in the name of God. Obviously this is not the correct attitude toward people; there is only one divine Mitzvah (commandment): “And you shall love your friend.” This is what the upper force, the Creator, requires from everyone and we must follow it.

But since religions are the offspring of the ego, they are engaged in every thing possible except good relationships between one another. On the contrary, they incite people against each other. Today it is difficult for the common man to understand this, but from the moment he begins to attain the higher reality, he understands how deeply he is immersed in hatred and how much he has gotten used to thinking of this as a matter of course.

All of the religions grew as a result of the fall of the Jews from the level of “And you shall love your friend as yourself” into mutual hatred, and from that, 2,000 years ago, after the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (Temple), modern Judaism appeared, and then Christianity emerged and at a later stage, in the 6^th to the 7^th century, the religion of Islam. Since then they have existed to this day: each within its separate circle, conflicting with and opposing each other.

The time has come now for Jews, Christians, and Muslims to rise above all religions and unite as the only religion in the world, which exists under the Mitzvah of “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” as Baal HaSulam writes.

Question: Do the representatives of the religions have freedom of choice about this?

Answer: No, this is determined by the program of development. As long as the wisdom of Kabbalah has not been fully revealed, all of the religions will be against it. Only after its final revelation, choice will not remain for them except to agree with the wisdom of Kabbalah and be included within it.

Question: How do the religions relate to the goal of creation?

Answer: The religions are required for the discovery of the goal of creation, so that a person can understand the wisdom of Kabbalah from its opposite reflection. The religions open a person and bring him to a state in which he begins to feel, see, and understand that it is not by chance that he is on the plane of this world.

It is difficult to imagine from what a low point people are developing, and to develop humanity to the level of attaining the higher nature requires many tools like religions, faiths, philosophy, music, culture, and science, anything. The main thing is that humanity will be in a state in which it will be able to feel what the wisdom of Kabbalah gives it.

Question: Does this mean that you are not against art, literature, and the like?

Answer: Not in any way; all of this opens people, including the religions. They were intentionally given to develop humanity and prepare it for awareness of the spiritual system.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/15/15

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Opinion (zeit online, Tamim Ansary): “The true power of the IS is not in his bombs and guns or its hideous determination. It resides rather in the ingenious way in which how the organization formulates their worldview and forges a weapon: It is an apocalyptic confrontation between Islam and the West is in progress. … They will wipe out the satanic other and unite the world under the umbrella of Islam.”

My Comment: No matter what you call modern Islam, we already see the chaos it generates and spreads in the world. It also makes no difference what the true Islam is, which like true Judaism and Christianity, perhaps may not exist in our world.

Humanity must learn to live together without imposing any ideas by force but by appreciating only one idea—the inclusive connection and unity above all the differences and contradictions.
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Comment: A year after the massacre at the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a new edition was published depicting God on its cover with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and hands soiled with blood. The Vatican immediately protested.

Answer: Why was the Vatican indignant? Didn’t God to this?! Who creates all the problems in the world?

After all, God said: “I created the evil inclination” (Kiddushin 30b). What is the origin of all the terrible crimes and everything else? Our evil inclination that the Creator created in us: so turn to Him.

He gave us the evil inclination so that we would correct and reeducate ourselves, but we are not doing this. The second half of the phrase “I created the evil inclination…” is “I created the Torah as a spice.” Therefore, it is necessary to take the Torah and use it correctly.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how to change our nature from an evil and egoistic nature to a good and altruistic nature. That is how God will be revealed before us correctly. Then we, the evil inclination, and the good inclination will be aimed correctly and will rise to the level of the Creator. That is what the Creator created the evil inclination for.

When we use only one characteristic without the other, we don’t have anyone to blame except ourselves, and anyway the Creator created even this in us.

Therefore one must turn to the Creator, but through the second half of His statement.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/7/16

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Comment: Not long ago a well-known Egyptian theologian came to the University of Haifa and conducted a series of lectures for Arab students. In one of them he indicated, that from a realistic point of view the Jews have no fewer rights to the Temple Mount than the Muslims.

His words aroused complaints. Students shouted that he indulges the “Zionist invaders.” And it happened in our University of Haifa!

Answer: All the state is working to ensure some way to appease those who vote against the government. We, all of us, exist here according to the will of God. So I don’t see any contradiction between what is really going on and the incident at the University of Haifa where probably more than half the teachers and students are Arabs. I would call this institution one of the largest Arab universities.

And how many Arabs do you think are studying at Jewish, religious Bar Ilan University? For a long time we have stopped being the owners in charge of the nation, the people, or the land. From this we can conclude that there is no proper education and formulation of the question.

People who receive an Israeli passport, not necessarily Jews, must feel they are citizens of this state, and not take a non-religious university into national religious wars. That should not be. Otherwise, the government should declare itself a religious organization like the Arab states.

Arab students receive serious ideological education directed against Zionists. And this isn’t so with the Jews. The Jews are not tied to the land or the nation, so they don’t show any resistance. The Jews don’t understand how valuable this land is. The land of Israel possesses an amazing characteristic; in a certain way it connects a person with higher forces.

This is the place in the world where you can find your spiritual destiny, and because I am here and not somewhere else is on the basis of the root and branch. It is very important to be in here. A man who understands this feels he has no other place on Earth. Then he reacts differently to everything and has the right to protect this land.

And those who don’t have these roots don’t feel this. In the Six Day War we conquered Jerusalem but due to a lack of a clear ideological foundation, we have now given up what we won because it was not important to us. So all flows gradually away from us drop by drop.

I am not against all of this also belonging to Islam. I am against all of this belonging only to Islam. In general, Israel doesn’t need to belong to religions, but should equally be for all people on the face of the Earth. Religions are a product of human egoism.   We must by all means pull out all that belongs to the spiritual from religious dictatorship.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/4/16

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