Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

Perceiving The Future Together

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Do animals feel nature as one system in which everything is connected?

Answer: Yes, they feel it at their level.

Question: And can they feel the future, for exactly that reason?

Answer: Animals can only feel some kind of threat to their life, but they are not able rise above the worry of their regular, beastly existence. This is called instinct.

Animals feel the connection to the general system, but for them it provides only the information at the level of animate. Animals know what will happen, thus they are more careful than men and their behavior is more logical.

Animals don’t make mistakes! They have all the required information in order to exist, which is called natural instinct. Man is lacking this.

Question: If I had such instinct, would it be possible that my life would be better? Maybe I wouldn’t be overdrawn at the bank, wouldn’t have an ulcer, and wouldn’t be living in constant tension.

Answer: That’s a good question. What is preferable? Since if you had such instinct, then you would be an animal and not a man. Animals have all the information for a good life, i.e., the feeling of connection with the goal of creation. And man doesn’t have this at all. Why? Because at the speaking level one doesn’t automatically receive connection to the goal of creation, but must acquire it through self development.

Every person has this potential, but one needs to advance gradually. You cannot catch the occasional passerby and begin to convince him that he needs to do this. A person needs to be ready for this. If he feels that he must know the future, then I am able to teach him how to do this.

Comment: I am ready for learning! I really must know the future because that will solve all the problems for me, and explain to me how to behave towards my children and my wife and what profession to choose.

Answer: You will know everything! If you have such a burning question that brings you to despair and demands a reply, then this is a sign that you can do this.

At the end of the course for integral education (the wisdom of connection), you will come to the sensation that all people are inseparable parts of the same system, without any difference between them, including yourself. And in the beginning, it is enough to reach this feeling towards a stranger, not towards a family member.

Question: Meaning, if I feel towards a stranger as I do myself, then based on that I will create within me the ability to see the future?

Answer: Yes. You will feel the integral sensation, exit from within your ego, and sense me, for example. You must feel me as you do yourself. If you are able to feel something outside yourself as yourself, then the whole of reality opens up before you. You open your senses and you can see all your surroundings in a real way.

Question: Why can’t I learn integral thought by myself with the help of my intellect, without needing someone else?

Answer: For whom do you exit yourself if not for someone else? This is not abstract philosophy, but it requires a lot of practice and many actions with whose help we examine all the “pros “ and “cons.” It isn’t simple. After all we need to exist beyond the feeling of our “I.” That is the first condition of integral thought.

When I exit my “I,” I begin to feel who is outside of me, and to the same extent, I feel everything else. I open the extent of my feelings, from the level of my five senses to a complete reality.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/23/14

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From Babylon To South America

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Is the European group of Bnei Baruch also to blame if the world experiences a disaster because of a lack of connection within Israel?

Answer: Today, everyone is responsible for this, meaning each one who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah and feels a connection inside Israel. When I refer to Israel, I am referring to all of our friends and groups all over the world.

All of us have received an awakening from the Creator, just as the group of Abraham received it in ancient Babylon. And so we are found today in the same situation of Israel (Yashar-El – straight to the Creator).

It is not important that one received an awakening 3,500 years ago in Babylon, came with it to this day, and another received this awakening in South America only a few months or years ago. According to the spiritual world, there is no meaning to these physical years.

All of us are already related to Yashar-El , directly connected to the Creator, and so must convey the Light through us to the world. If we do this, it will be good; and if not, it will be very bad. I hope that we will succeed.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/14, Chosen Topics on: Holocaust Memorial Day

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A Point That Expands Through The Yeast Of The Light

laitman_275Malchut included in Bina—meaning the desire to receive that is included within the desire to bestow—molds the desire to bestow in regard to itself. As a result of this integration, the system of worlds is created: Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya (ABYA), the higher system of management that conveys the Light of Infinity to us from above.

As a result of the integration between Bina and Malchut, the desire to receive becomes complex. From now on, there is a heart in it, which is the Malchut, the desire to receive, and the “point in the heart,” which is the point of Bina. This is the soul, the creature.

The entire creation is divided into two parts: From the outside, there is the system that is surrounded by the Light of Infinity, and from within, there is the soul. Until the system reaches the soul, it passes through 125 levels of reduction of the Lights, levels of Ha’alama (Concealment), for which reason they are called Olamot (Worlds).

The Light that passes through Yashar (directness) is called Ohr Pnimi (Inner Light), and the Light that shines from the outside is called Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light). The Light of Yashar awakens us and gives us the sensation of the present, and the Ohr Makif that comes by way of Igulim (Circles) gives us the sense of the future. If the future doesn’t illuminate me, then I have nothing to live for; I feel no purpose ahead, and this is a problem. However, if I don’t even have Light in the present, then I die. It is desirable for both the present and the future to illuminate me. However, if I am not connected to a society, then the future Light cannot illuminate me. This is because the future illuminates more and more strongly the more and more that I connect with the group, and if I am not connected with them, then I have no future.

So someone who doesn’t work on strengthening a connection with the group loses power and eventually leaves, and if a person doesn’t work with the Light of the present, then he doesn’t even revive himself in the present state. We must try very hard to provide ourselves with both a future and a present.

The “straight line” and the “circles” are two forms of higher management. If a person works on his connection with the group, then he discovers these two forms there. Specifically for that purpose, the forms of management through the straight line and the circles are created to bring a person to a connection that will fill his entire vessel. But how does he get this great vessel if he is only an inner point in the center of all of the circle? Just as yeasted dough expands, so he also needs to be expanded by the Upper Light and fill the entire vessel.

The desire to receive is a small point created “out of nothing.” However, if we transform it to become for the sake of bestowal, it is expanded to the size of the entire creation.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/30/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Kosher, Suitable To Serve The Creator

laitman_560“(Leviticus 1:2): “…from animals, from cattle or from the flock.” Blessed be the Omnipresent who told about Himself through the first Tzaddikim, Adam brought a bull on the altar, as it is said (Psalms 69:32): “And it will appeal to the Lord more than a young bull.” Noah kept what was written in the Torah, as it is said, (Genesis 8:20): “And Noah built an altar to the Lord.” Abraham kept the whole Torah, as it is said, (Genesis 26:5): “Because Abraham hearkened,” for he made a sacrifice and brought a ram, Isaac kept what was written in the Torah and flung himself down before his father like a lamb to the slaughter. Jacob kept what was written in the Torah, as it is said, (Genesis 35:4):”And they gave Jacob all the deities of the nations….” (VaYikra Rabbah 2:10)

Three types of animals symbolize the three lines in spiritual work. A person must sort out all of the desires within him and choose the ones that will help him reach the highest work. This is the line of Jacob, the “middle line” that includes within it both plus and minus.

Abraham is Hesed, Isaac is Gevura, and Jacob is Tifferet. For each one of them, there is a suitable Kosher animal, meaning suitable to serve in order to bestow to the Creator through society.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/13/13

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The Luck Of Cats

laitman_564Question: What are these 49 Gates of Tuma’a (Impurity) they passed through before the exodus from Egypt?

Answer: We try to get out from our ego toward love of others, and we are not ready. Again we try, and again, we don’t succeed. We try again and again, until, basically, we discover that all of us are in a situation in which we don’t want to leave Egypt. We have no possibility of doing this and no strength. We are not able to leave. It is a completely hopeless situation.

Our ego, as it is now, pulls us into all kinds of stupidity with which we try to fill our lives. So, in what way are our lives different from the life of a cat, besides the fact that the cat feels good about himself? Yesterday, the weather was clear. He laid down and warmed himself in the sun. There is something to eat, so the cat eats and sleeps, and nothing more concerns him.

A person needs to receive a thousand times more than a cat to feel satisfied. So, who is more joyful and happy, the person or the cat? As far as it seems, the cat is happier. He lies in the sun all the time, he knows that his owner always will feed him, and he is not concerned about anything for himself.

The cat looks contemptuously at how his owner runs around all the time. He runs to work, doing a thousand other things. He doesn’t understand why people make such  a hectic life for themselves. Why are they running around so much? Every day, they go around in the same circle: They put the children in kindergarten and they run to work, to the store, and home. They prepare food, eat, and go to sleep to start all over again. Is it worth it to go around like this all year, to break out once a year for a seven-day vacation?

And the cat lies around all day, licks himself, and it is good for him. So, which of us is more joyful and happy? Who is more complete? Certainly, it is the cat, whereas the person is a most miserable creature, as it is written about Ishmael, “…his hand shall be against every man, and every man’s hand against him.” (Genesis 16:12).
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/15, Writings of Rabash

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Sale And Redemption

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” 25:47- 48: If a resident non Jew gains wealth with you, and your brother becomes destitute with him and is sold to a resident non Jew among you or to an idol of the family of a non Jew. After he is sold, he shall have redemption; one of his brothers shall redeem him.

A stranger is the external ego that in and of itself becomes a greater level in relation to the people of Israel (Galgalta ve Eynaim). This speaks about corrected states. So, if there is a stranger who settles with you and gets the upper hand, meaning that he becomes great and corrected, then your brother who is smaller than he in level, his sale to a stranger becomes his correction. You must sell him because entry under a higher level with a greater ego, called a stranger, is the correction.

However, after you have sold your brother to a stranger, you can redeem and buy him back, for he has already corrected himself by being sold, meaning he nullified himself to the stranger. When the redemption ransoms him, he returns to you together with that part of the stranger that he acquired at the time of the sale.

The only situation in which the sale is considered a sin is prostitution, meaning I am sold to another for the purpose of obtaining pleasure, not in order to adhere to him and do great work. So, from prostitution, we don’t take a tithe because the Partzuf itself is not sacred since it is not working with an intention to bestow. It has Aviut (thickness/coarseness), but there is no Masach (screen), the intention to bestow.

After he is sold, he shall have redemption; one of his brothers shall redeem him. Or his uncle or his cousin shall redeem him, or the closest [other] relative from his family shall redeem him; or, if he becomes able to afford it, he can be redeemed [on his own]. He shall calculate with his purchaser [the number of years] from the year of his being sold to him until the Jubilee year; then, the purchase price shall be [divided] by the number of years; as the days of a hired worker, he shall be with him. (Leviticus 25:48 – 25:50)

Redeeming the brother means paying with a Masach for a Masach, since someone who goes through correction is under the Masach of a greater Partzuf. He needs to wait (which means to pass through levels) until the year of the Jubilee (Bina) when everyone becomes free, and everything goes back to its true owner.

It is necessary to pay for that work that the master must carry out on the brother (on the uncorrected desire) until the Jubilee year (Bina), meaning that he does this work instead of the master, and then the brother can go free.

Suppose that I have 17 years until the Jubilee year (50 years). This means that I must pay for a Masach corresponding to these 17 years. I then take him from under the Masach of the master to my Masach. However, if I ransom him, meaning to free him, does he truly become free, since after all, my Masach has not been moved to anyone? The question can be asked, “What do we rely on to acquire a Masach here?”

This is the redemption, the ransom, that specifically happens in this order when, …one of his brothers shall redeem him. Or his uncle or his cousin shall redeem him, or the closest [other] relative from his family shall redeem him; or, if he becomes able to afford it, he can be redeemed [on his own]. This indicates that the correction has been done to the degree that the Masach has been reduced.

The ransom of captives, slaves, and various other people is a very great correction, a real act of charity and kindness. There is even a ransom of bodies that were murdered. This strengthens the spirit of the people, giving them faith that we will not leave anyone behind. This is just like when Moses upheld the condition of taking everyone out of Egypt without leaving even one under the Parsa (border). For, if we are one soul, then it is impossible to leave any fragment behind, because without it we never can attain the entire completion of correction.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/19/14

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Breaking Free Of The Domination Of The Ego

Dr. Michael laitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus” 25:44 – 25:46: Your male slave or female slave whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may acquire a male slave or a female slave. And also from the children of the residents that live among you, from them you may acquire [slaves] and from their family that is with you whom they begot in your land, and they shall become your inheritance. You shall hold onto them as an inheritance for your children after you, as acquired property, and may thus have them serve you forever. But as for your brethren, the children of Israel, a man shall not work his brother with rigor.

The Torah tells us about different egoistic states that we undergo, one of which is enslavement to our ego.

We shouldn’t perceive what the Torah tells us as a story about the mutual relationships between people, since mutual relationships in this world are fulfilled automatically according to our natural attributes. The Torah tells us only about our internal states.

The Torah turns to us personally and refers to the states that we undergo, either as slaves to our desires or as people who are free of their desires and are the leaders, managers, and creators of our desires as a result of our development, i.e., to the extent that we can rise above our ego.

All of these are spiritual categories relative to the ego and there is nothing else but that.

Question: In that case, who is Moses?

Answer: Moses is the uppermost point of the desire that is born in the ego, breaks free and pulls people (the desires) who quickly can follow.

Moses doesn’t come out of the ego by himself. After spending 40 years with Jethro, he must go back to Egypt because his brothers are there. Even Pharaoh makes him an offer to leave Egypt with Aaron. Pharaoh doesn’t want Moses to take from him that part (Israel) that makes him rich, since he receives the Light through that part. This is the reason that he doesn’t want to let the people go. However, on the other hand, he allows Moses, the actual point of bestowal, to leave: “You don’t belong in Egypt anyway. You haven’t been here for 40 years, and now you suddenly show up.”

The slaves, Pharaoh, Moses, and Joseph are all desires that express a person’s attitude toward his ego, called Egypt, but the main one is Pharaoh.

When I take my people (my desires) out of the domination of the intention for myself and place them under the intention for the Creator, I exit the borders of Egypt, moving beyond the borders of the circle ruled by Pharaoh. It is the Creator who rules outside that circle.

This is the reason that I must take my desire out of that circle, since it can be either under the domination of Pharaoh or under the domination of the Creator. In order to do that, I must establish the conditions in Egypt that allow me to take this desire out so that it will agree to follow me.

I must weaken Pharaoh’s influence over my desires, which means to afflict them with ten plagues. I must place the desires (the people) in such darkness that they do not achieve any success nor a ray of Light in their lives. Only then can I collect them and free them from the domination of Pharaoh. This is called crossing the Red Sea, the borderline between egoism and altruism.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/12/14

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Freedom And Dependency

laitman_537The Torah, “Leviticus” 26:1 – 26:2: You shall not make idols for yourselves, nor shall you set up a statue or a monument for yourselves. And in your land you shall not place a pavement stone on which to prostrate yourselves, for I am the Lord, your God. You shall keep My Sabbaths and fear My Sanctuary. I am the Lord.

Not to prostrate yourselves means to try to be as independent as possible—free.

This is a paradox, but freedom and independence must be formatted under the slogan, “for I am the Lord, your God,” which implies absolute lack of freedom. It is in this absolute lack of freedom that I attain that I must be totally free, which means to ascend above myself and be united with the Creator.

It is actually in the unity with Him that I achieve complete independence. It is hard to perceive this paradox because of its duality, but it exists. Scientists who deal with quantum physics also are beginning to realize this duality. Although they don’t perceive it, theoretically they realize that it is so.

However, how can we integrate these two opposites? It is absolutely impossible. It is impossible in our one-dimensional perception. We cannot even imagine what it means to be free according to our unity with the force of the Creator. In order to do so, we need to have an internal system that combines the two opposites.

Question: This means that I must be free of all the idols and graven images that I follow.

Answer: The idols and the graven images are essential for my development. I must hold on to something, like a child who holds on to some toy, a pacifier, or a blanket, and cannot manage without it. I feel the world through them.

It is impossible to advance without idols and graven images since we develop to the extent that we ascend above them. Each time I change the different deities until I ascend above these states by becoming totally free of the idols and at the same time am totally dependent on the Creator.

This phenomenon is typical of our times when the idols and graven images gradually disappear and a person seems to find himself hanging in the air. We are beginning to cleanse ourselves of them, but, at the same time, they also are flourishing and spreading. We soon will see the growing attraction to religion and more wars that are supposedly desirable to God.

Humanity somehow needs to cut off this tight and complex connection and do something about the economy and politics and the harm they have caused the world.

However, they will solve nothing by this method. The only alternative for the sufferings is the proper education of people and bringing them to the recognition of what is going on in the world. There is nothing else but that, no other method of changing man or of putting pressure on us, on the part of nature or society. This critical point is getting closer.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/19/14

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The Laws Of Nature Contain Everything That Is Good

laitman_761_2The Torah, “Leviticus” 26:3 – 26:4: If you follow My statutes and observe My commandments and perform them, I will give your rains in their time, the Land will yield its produce, and the tree of the field will give forth its fruit.

The Creator’s commandments are the laws of nature—both the laws of nature of our world that we partly see, understand, and know about, and the laws of the upper nature that is concealed from us—which are based on the attributes of love and bestowal, mutual cooperation, and understanding.

Your threshing will last until the vintage, and the vintage will last until the sowing; you will eat your food to satiety, and you will live in security in your land. (Leviticus 26:5).

This means that everything will return to its normal state, not only in our corporeal life when a person has everything that he needs, but also in the spiritual life. If we begin to keep the laws of the Torah, we will receive a reward on the level that we fulfill them, either on the spiritual or the corporeal level, or on both levels together.

The system is built so that if we are normally incorporated in it and fulfill our role, taking our niche in nature, all of nature operates harmoniously, thus filling each of us with harmony.

Question: What is the meaning of, “you will eat your food to satiety, and you will live in security in your land?

Answer: It refers to the two levels. One level is our human level that we feel in order to bring and adapt us to the second level, to the spiritual level. Bread is the embodiment of the attribute of Hassadim (bestowal, Bina). “You will eat your food to satiety,” means connecting to Bina and fully attaining this attribute. The word, land, stems from the word, desire (Ratzon). “And you will live in security in your land,” means that we must fulfill all the conditions in our desire, and then all the desires will be filled.

The Torah describes the structure of the system that operates and influences us, which is called the system of the spiritual worlds: Adam Kadmon, Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. We advance in these Sefira, and our mutual cooperation with it is only possible when we are connected mutually in a right, harmonious manner, complementing one another and creating one whole sphere of all of humanity inside it.

If we keep this condition, we find ourselves in total harmony with the external Sefira as a result of our common desires (desire meaning land), and everything that is good fills us. We feel this system in a perfectly precise manner, and it feels us in the same manner, and thus we work together.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 11/12/14

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Never Interfere With The Laws Of Nature

laitman_764_3Question: How do we relate to the powerful, multi-leveled intimidations that are abundant in the Torah, like “If you won’t follow My laws… etc.”?

Answer: The Torah never intimidates anyone. It is a clearly written instruction and like any other it explains what and in what order things should be done.

I remember one time when professionals showed a technical specification to a scientist. He looked it through and said: “If you follow this instruction, you’ll get an accordion instead of a submarine.” Everybody was perplexed, looked at each other and silently stepped away from the scientist. Later, things turned out to be as the scientist predicted. In other words, knowing the laws means: “If we act in a certain way we’ll get certain results…”

Comment: Do you mean that similar to those “professionals” all humanity doesn’t hear “the scientist?” We are warned: “Do not turn rivers backwards. It will ruin the ecology!” Nevertheless, we still do what we want.

Answer: Yes, you are right. It was a communist project. The world was afraid that they would actually reverse the flow of rivers. There is nothing you can do with an uncontrollable country that was all of a sudden preoccupied with a crazy idea. Should they ever implement this plan, it would change the world ecology and turn the Earth into a lifeless planet. Water would disappear and life would vanish from the face of Earth.

Fortunately such grandiose projects are quickly forgotten. It’s incredible that they considered this plan in the first place. Humanity must choose a different path of advancement. There are other ways of getting a greater harvest.

When I was in Krasnoyarsk, someone asked me: “Is it possible with the help of Kabbalah to correct what happened after the Krasnoyarsk hydroelectric station was built?” Locals told us that after the dam was built fish stopped spawning; everything around the construction died; things are not as they used to be. We should never interfere with the laws of nature.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 11/12/14

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