Entries in the 'Suffering' Category

How To Avoid A Hopeless Situation

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Leviticus”, 22:26 – 22:28: And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain under its mother for seven days, and from the eighth day onwards, it shall be accepted as a sacrifice for a fire offering to the Lord. An ox or sheep you shall not slaughter it and its offspring in one day.

This is speaking  about the corporeal part of a person’s desire and how it can be raised and corrected in relation to the previous level.

First, there is development in utero and then the period of suckling. A week is enough for an animal to receive and to adapt to a whole level of HGT NHYM, since an animal goes through only seven levels of development and not ten like man.

During the seven days (seven levels) the animal receives and adapts to everything from the upper level and detaches from it. It lives according to instinctive laws, and therefore a human being that is on the animal level works instinctively.

When you look at the world you see that everyone learns from others how to live and repeats what they see. Animals don’t have the three upper Sefirot that symbolize a head and therefore their head is on the same level as their body, not above it.

The same thing happens today, with a world that is currently on the animal level of development. Its head disappeared some ages ago when the real great minds disappeared.

Humanity evolves in a totally automatic manner, despite what scientists, philosophers, governments, bankers, or the masses say. They only pile up their meager  changes on every level of nature, but it does not at all change the perception of their evolution.

The critical moment was when man began to produce and earn more than needed. From that point onward, capitalism began to develop, but until that moment everything was simple and natural. Man lived by providing his basic necessities, not because he wanted to, but because there were no new technologies to help him.

But when man invented the plow that allowed him to plow deep into the ground, he began to engage in making pottery and metal working, which were opportunities to make greater profits than needed.

The added value inspired the ego and the ego began to spur the added value. Instead of the internal, moral, ethical development of man, the world turned in the direction of technological development and this was the turning point that determined the direction humanity would follow.

But today we are at the end of this path, where our technological development is collapsing and we are facing a hopeless situation. We must understand that we have to decrease our desires to a level that is suitable for a decent living. It is as in mathematics: a necessary and sufficient condition. This means that consumption should be sensible, while all our energy and options should be focused on attaining the upper goal and making ourselves human beings together with all of humanity.

Comment: It turns out that there is no choice, just like in Pushkin’s legend of The Fisherman and the Golden Fish. He should have stopped when he had the luxury palaces, but the old woman couldn’t and eventually she was left with nothing,. We are at that same point right now.

Answer: But we have the option of a soft landing. By using the wisdom of Kabbalah we can show humanity, in a good and sensible manner, what would happen if we don’t accept this method. Otherwise we will still fulfill the goal of creation, but in a hard way, through revolutions, wars, and problems.

We see how conflicts suddenly break out in a seemingly empty place. You just need to strike a match. There is great hatred in the world as everyone hates everyone else and therefore the tiniest spark can start a fire.

We have to do our very best to make the world understand that the Torah speaks about the improvement and modifications of man along a good, healthy, safe, smooth path of harmonious evolution. Haven’t we suffered enough that we don’t want that? Do we have to suffer a lot more in order to change our path towards positive evolution? Therein lies our problem.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/28/14

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Come Quickly To The Promised Land

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Where are we today? The people of Israel left Egypt, received the Torah on Mount Sinai, understood that they had some kind of task, a mission, and what was next? What kind of task has been placed before us today?

Answer: Our actual task today is to develop the people of Israel in the land of Israel so that they will know what they must do to sustain themselves and continue to exist.

When our people will ensure their existence, they must explain why they exist, for what higher purpose. Only if we carry out this higher purpose and yearn to bring all of humanity to adhesion with the Creator do we merit being connected with Him.

This knowledge must reach the people, and we will attract the Light that must illuminate us when we go to meet it through our yearning to connect and provide an example for the entire world. However, if we don’t connect, then that same Light will illuminate us through its backside.

If we are not ready to approach this Light, it will be revealed to us in an opposite way, and as a result, we will experience terrible misfortune such as wars, disasters and another holocaust like we passed through 70 years ago.

We see from day to day how the world situation is developing and becoming worse. Everyone in the world is beginning to talk about anti-Semitism as if it were a normal phenomenon. No one is ashamed anymore, and no one considers it to be bad. England, Scandinavia, and Spain, essentially all of them, are recognized as being openly anti-Semitic, as if it were self-evident.

In fact, they are right, after all, we have not transmitted the method of correction to the world. We have not carried out our obligation.

Comment: The problem is that not everyone believes that this is really our obligation, our function.

Answer: It is necessary to listen to what the sages, the Kabbalists, say. We have no other choice. We will never attain the truth as long as we have not corrected ourselves and have not attained revelation. So we cannot sit and wait until the truth becomes known to us. It will never be known to us if we don’t advance toward it.

We welcome everyone in this world to connection and a simple unity. We are not required to wait until the heavens open and we see the spiritual world. Sit in a circle with others and in 20 to 30 minutes you will see how you begin to feel this higher power. In the center of this circle, in the center of our connection, we feel the origin of a unique force.

This is possible and this must be done quickly among all of the people of Israel! The problem is that it is not for nothing that these people are called “stiff-necked.” In spite of it all, you must not despair, for the people of Israel in relation to the entire world are like the Cohens and Levites among the people of Israel.

Although we are not ready to be Cohens and Levites, the people of Israel who yearn to be Yashar El (straight to the Creator), will be required to become them, since the world will require this from us.

The moment that we begin to seriously realize this task together, and the moment we begin to carry out this unification of the people of Israel, the entire world will settle down. Everyone will look at us and say, “See what they are doing! We will wait. They have initiated something special.”

The nations of the world will feel this because within them are the roots of the shattering due to the sin of Adam HaRishon with the tree of knowledge, and if Israel begins to correct this sin, then the nations of the world will feel this, “Oh, they are making this correction! We didn’t even know that it was possible to correct this at all and come closer, whereas the Jews are doing it!”

The nations of the world will immediately change their attitude towards us. We will begin the correction and it will be known immediately to the entire world. We don’t even need to advertise anything about it. Not long ago, I published a large article in the largest American newspaper, The New York Times and, after that in the English newspaper The Telegraph and in the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera. However, in the future, there won’t be a need to advertise anything. The nations of the world will write about it themselves because they will feel it themselves.

However, if we don’t bring them this correction and don’t carry out our task, the anti-Semitism, which we are now witnessing, will continue to grow. So, come. Let’s cross the wilderness quickly and reach the land of Israel.
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From KabTV’s “The Torah Chapters with Shmuel Vilozni” 2/2/15

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A Basement For A Beloved Son

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhat is required in order to discover the good? Why does someone who is born into great abundance not appreciate it? You tell children: “See how much you have! How much I have given to you! When I was a child I didn’t have this.” Yet they wave you off and don’t want to hear this.

They cannot appreciate your goodness since they have nothing with which to compare it. So they don’t understand what kind of gratitude you require from them. They want to go to the movies, they can go; they want a computer, they get it; a new mobile phone, to go on vacation, whatever they want. They have everything, and so they also have no desire for anything.

You tell them that when you were their age, you built a car for yourself from a shoebox and played with this car for two years, and they laugh at you. They are right, because everything is measured according to desire.

They feel themselves on a particular level of satiation and will not move from it in any direction. First one must descend to minus infinity to be able to feel plus infinity afterward.

About this it was said in “Leviticus” 26:10: When I break for you the staff of bread, and ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will bring back your bread by weight, and you will eat, yet not be satisfied, meaning that nothing in the world changes except our consciousness. Even now you are found in Olam Ein Sof (the world of infinity), yet instead of that you feel this world because you don’t have the Kelim to perceive Ein Sof.

On one side there is a sack of gold coins, and on the other side there is a mountain of diamonds. In front of you is a table set with a bounty of delicacies, yet you are dying of starvation and suffer from the stench.

Everything depends upon your perceptive Kli. You are in Olam Ein Sof, which never changes. Everything depends only on desire, and desire is built above an abyss that is constantly revealed to a greater degree.

Therefore, it is difficult for our children to feel a reason for living, specifically because they have everything. Baal HaSulam tells a parable about a king who put his son in a basement for 20 years and caused him mental anguish by showing him how everyone else was successful. Others are sitting in a bar or watching the World Cup, whereas you are sitting in a dark cellar full of mice, cursing your father.

This continued until the son discovered that his father was acting from the goodness of his heart and with great love. His father was suffering himself because he had given his son grief. Whereas if you give your children everything that they want from the goodness of your heart, this means that you hate them.

Question: Does it follow that I must intentionally hurt a child in order to educate him?

Answer: You limit him because you want things to be good for him, and you are willing to suffer in order to do this. You do this for his sake so that it will benefit him in the future. It will not be good for him now, as his ego desires, but will benefit him throughout his life.

Or, you want to feel good from the thought of how much you have given him. You think to yourself: “I couldn’t afford any of this in my childhood, so my son should enjoy it.” Is this what you call love?

Tomorrow you will have to give him many times more because otherwise he will not feel that he is alive. You must build a “basement” with great wisdom and put your beloved son in there, and you will suffer many times more than he will. In this manner, you will be preparing him for a good life.

So we have a method by which it is possible to advance towards fulfillment, towards goodness, not by feeling bad, but by being aware of it. This is a very special patent. It is necessary only to understand the principle and that is enough. Then there will no longer be a need to suffer. We are not ready to go through the way of difficult suffering.

The Creator made a special system in which it is enough for us to be aware of the evil that exists in contrast to the good, in order to accept it as a tool and sense fulfillment through it. After all, we are not ready to descend to minus infinity.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/12/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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We Must Not Miss The Opportunity

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam,”The Nation”: It is clear, save for relying on miracles. That our existence as individuals or as a nation is hanging between life and death. And the salvation is, if we can find the required ploy, that great scheme who’s way is only to be found near danger, and which can tilt the scale to our favor—to give us a safe haven here for all the Diaspora of our brothers, which everyone says is, at present, the only place of salvage.

Then, the road of life will be open to us, to somehow continue our existence despite the difficulties. And if we miss the opportunity and do not rise as one, with the great efforts required at a time of danger, to guarantee our remaining in the land, then the facts before us are greatly threatening for us, since matters are evolving favorably for our enemies, who are asking to destroy us from the face of the Earth.

This was written at the beginning of WWII when people had not yet seen the real danger and the Holocaust towards which they were being led.

But Baal HaSulam says that although we had reached such a terrible state that the destructor was given permission to destroy us, we can still change the ratio between the forces of good and evil if we wish to improve our situation. It is all in our hands.

Although time operates against us, we can actually succeed during this time and bring about great and rapid changes.

Instead of waiting for afflictions, troubles, and  dangers, which means for the negative effects to push us forward, we need to advance by ourselves and turn the path of our natural evolution, in its time, to the path of, I shall hasten it. Then we will be able to advance without any blows at all. It all depends on whether we wake up as a result of the blows or whether we wake up as a result of our work.

Awakening by the blows isn’t very useful since they only change and spur us on. We need to change a great deal in order to recover and advance after such blows. So wouldn’t it be better if we advanced along a smooth path? Then it would really be our awakening to the goal of creation and to a rapid escape from the blows.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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A Good Place For Developing The Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe reincarnation of the souls is like the recycling of water in our world. This is a constant exchange that takes place between different energy levels in which are found our energetic characteristics called the soul.

A soul is something ephemeral, an energy state of a person that is constantly rising and falling. Cycles like these are necessary to realize the constant blending, adhering, and division of all the souls with each other. They constantly create mutual correction, mutual integration, and bring all the individual souls into a single, generally shared state of one single soul.

This state is called the completion of correction, and we must attain it soon. Therefore, both the wisdom of Kabbalah and the crisis have appeared in this world. Not much time is left for us to reach this state, either through the blows of nature, through huge problems, or through learning and proper use of the method of  the wisdom of connection (Integral Education).

Question: In our world are there any energetic places that can fulfill the soul?

Answer: No, there are no places in the world with such unique characteristics. They influence our mental, physiological, and even our emotional attributes, but not the soul, not spirituality, meaning not the ascent of a person to the characteristic of bestowal and love.

Only in a strong group that is created correctly and in which people mutually cooperate in the right way is the focus of a state like this to be found where a person can enter this society and develop very rapidly.

This is not a geographic location; rather, it is simply an energy that is accumulated by many people yearning to discover the central force of the world. Only a Kabbalistic group is a good place for developing the soul.
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From the International Summer Camp In Bulgaria “Day Two” 7/12/14, Lesson #4

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How Does One Protect A Nation From Dissolution?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Have I understood correctly that in the physical world and in the spiritual world envy operates differently? If in the physical world I want to annihilate the object of my envy, in spiritual work it works the other way around. I don’t know what spirituality is, but I want to feel it, so I yearn to get this through the object of my envy.

Answer: Indeed, the more envious you are of the spiritual desire of your friend, the more you benefit.

Question: I was a child of the Soviet Union. It turned out that a yearning was awakened in us for such things, which, in principle, were closer to spiritual than physical prosperity. So was this the right direction?

Answer: In the Soviet Union, the  correct understanding is education based on our egoistic desires and physical aspirations to become the strongest nation, to rule the world, to manage it, and show everyone the whip. If the leadership of the country had acted correctly, it would have been engaged with education for people and would not have aspired only to better manage people.

The problem is in this. According to what Baal HaSulam wrote, everything was organized here for the sake of a lofty egoistic goal and not for the sake of an altruistic goal directed toward the Creator. This is because the Creator is, in principle, all of us united into a general single whole. This is the whole of creation, all of humanity and all of nature in full mutual bestowal. The characteristic called the Creator is specifically discovered here. Outside of us, the Creator doesn’t exist.

If the Soviet Union had existed for this, it would have educated the people correctly and not in order to be the strongest in order to oppress others, instill fear, and demand respect. If there had not been an immense ego standing at the head of belligerent politics, then certainly everything would have been otherwise. But since all of this was for the sake of big egos, not for the people, but for the leadership of the people itself, everything crumbled.

And it is certainly crumbling now with an even greater noise since arrogance has been rising: “We! We! We!” “We will show everybody.” “We are going our own way.” “We are the smartest, the strongest,” and so forth. All of this will very rapidly collapse. A nation cannot exist like this and it will come to Nazism. The fall of the Ukraine is a sign of what can happen to Russia. And all of this is because they put a very great, powerful ego at the head.

In no way do I wish anything bad for this nation. I consider it my homeland to a certain degree, but it has taken a completely wrong direction. Neither the congress nor the huge national ego can keep the country from disintegrating.

This is absolutely against every outlook, the entire flow of nature and every line of development. And so it will disappear very rapidly as if it never existed. The Soviet regime existed for 70 years, and it will all pass away very quickly now.
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From the International Summer Camp In Bulgaria “Day One” 7/11/14, Lesson #2

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Manipulation Of The Masses Through The Media

Dr. Michael laitmanOpinion (Noam Chomsky, American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, logician, political commentator and anarcho-syndicalist activist):

“Based on the work of American linguist Noam Chomsky, here is a list of “10 strategies of manipulation” by the media:

1. A STRATEGY OF DISTRACTION.

The key element of social control is the strategy of distraction that is to divert public attention from important issues and changes decided by political and economic elites, through the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information. ‘Keep the public’s attention distracted away from the real social problems and captivated by issues of no importance. Keep the public busy, busy, busy, no time to think, back to the farm with the other animals (citing text “silent weapons for quiet wars”).’

2 – CREATE PROBLEMS AFTER OFFERING SOLUTIONS.

This method is also called ‘problem-reaction-solution.’ This creates a problem, a ‘situation’ due to cause some reaction in the public, so that it is the principal measure that they will want to accept. For example: let develop or intensify urban violence, or arrange bloody attacks, so that the public is focused on the principles of safety, laws and policies to the detriment of freedom. Or also create an economic crisis to accept the necessary evil of recession, loss of social rights and the dismantling of public services.

3 – STRATEGY GRADATION.

To make it accept an unacceptable extent, simply apply it gradually, a dropper at a time, in consecutive years. This is how radically new socioeconomic conditions (neoliberalism) were imposed during the 1980s and 1990s: the minimal state, privatization, precariousness, flexibility, mass unemployment, inability to pay decent wages, and many changes that cause a revolution would not have to be implemented all at once.

4 – THE STRATEGY OF DEFER.

Another way to make an unpopular decision acceptable is to present it as ‘painful and necessary’ in obtaining immediate public acceptance for a future application. It is easier to accept a future sacrifice than an immediate sacrifice.

5 – ADDRESSING THE PUBLIC AS YOUNGER CHILDREN.

Most of the advertising directed at the general public uses discourse, arguments, characters, and particularly children’s intonation, often close to their weaknesses, as if the viewer were a very young child or mentally impaired. The more you mislead the viewer, the more advertising tends to adopt an infantile tone.

6 – USING THE EMOTIONAL ASPECT MUCH MORE THAN A REFLECTION.

Making use of the emotional aspect is a classic technique to cause a short circuit on rational analysis, and finally to the critical sense of individuals. Moreover, the use of emotional register allows you to open the door to the unconscious to deploy graft or ideas, desires, fears and fears, compulsions, or induce behaviors…

7 – KEEP THE PUBLIC IN IGNORANCE AND MEDIOCRITY.

Make the public incapable of understanding technologies and methods in order to keep them controlled and in bondage. ‘The quality of education given the lower social classes should be as poor and mediocre as possible so that the gap of ignorance that lies between the lower classes and the upper social classes is and remains out of reach of the lower classes.’

8 – STIMULATES THE PUBLIC TO BE IN COMPLACENT MEDIOCRITY.

Promoting the public to think that fashion is the act of being stupid, vulgar and uneducated.

9 – STRENGTHENING REVOLT BY SELF-BLAME.

Make the individual believe that he alone is to blame for their own misfortune because of the failure of their intelligence, their abilities, or their efforts. Thus, instead of rebelling against the economic system, the individuals themselves are helpless and blame themselves, which leads to a depressive state with its effects being to inhibit its action.

My Comment: One can see how great the role of the Internet is in manipulating people. But this only accelerates the exit from the power of Pharaoh or egoism, because our desires and thoughts develop not by the media, but by the law of development, which leads necessarily to the purpose of creation.
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A House Open To All People

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe people of Israel have a task, a unique mission to become a house open to all people who want to discover the Creator. Therefore, we must build such a society from our people and become like a wonderful, immense cup that is ready and able to contain everyone. We must open our hands so that everyone who wants this, can come and be included within the embrace of our arms and join us.

This is because the people of Israel are not like others who became a people thanks to a shared living space and a shared history. In contrast to this, the Jewish people were established according to its role, its mission, and in accord with its future goal.

So we must prepare a place for all of humanity so that it will be possible for them to come and learn to understand why we exist, why we are alive, and why we suffer.

This is particularly important in our times, when humanity is sliding vigorously and quickly towards an abyss. It is specifically because of this that the role of the people of Israel is so important.

If we don’t hasten to carry out our mission and are late in our development, then we invite blows upon ourselves. Those same forces that we could develop within ourselves, but don’t want to, are pressing upon us negatively.

This is like a little child who doesn’t want to learn and with this he compels his parents to pressure him, and he thinks that they are bad. They actually are not bad, they simply want him to succeed. That is how the forces of nature have acted in every moment of our history.

History is a very precise and clear program and if we don’t carry out the obligations regarding ourselves and humanity at every moment, the mission that is not carried out begins to put pressure on us and forcefully moves us forward.

This negative force can be revealed in the form of problems, wars, expulsion from the country [Israel], annihilation, and a Holocaust. Everything depends on how much we delay in carrying out our mission with respect to the schedule that is determined by the program of creation.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 12/28/14

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Where Is Happiness Hiding?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Does the wisdom of Kabbalah enable a person to be happy? How does it happen?

Answer: A person asks questions about the meaning of life from childhood until he begins to develop hormonally. Then he forgets about these questions. But if they arise again later in life, he looks for answers to these questions.

Today there are quite a few such people. We can see this according to the number of people who are depressed or who suppress these troubling, tormenting questions by using drugs. Today these people make up half the world’s population and at least a high percentage take anti-depressant medication.

Therefore, the time has come for people to know that the wisdom of Kabbalah provides the answers to all their questions. Moreover, these are the exact answers they discover on their own and perceive as their attainment of the world, as the attainment of nature. At the same time, the answers they find don’t simply and abstractly connect to their questions, but they see how it works in their feelings, in the revelation of the world.

Thus, we should allow people not only to attain the world but also to change it, to change themselves and bring themselves and the world to the right connection that results in happiness, comfort, and harmony and balance between man and the world around him.

Here the wisdom comes to our aid, telling us how nature is arranged and what can be changed in man in order to reach harmony with nature and to exist in our world in a state of perfect balance. Balance is happiness.
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From KabTV’s “The New Year” 12/25/14

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Progress Is Senseless And Merciless

 Dr. Michael LaitmanIn the News (Expert): “By the 60th year of the 20th century, Western society had achieved a high level of consumption, and people understood that money was not the main measure of happiness.

“Thus the concept of multidimensional quality of life was born, which in addition to income, is determined by security, access to knowledge, the development of medicine, life expectancy, environmental conditions, etc.

“But how could these different figures be brought together? Scientists have proposed to move from objective to subjective indicators, as measured by public opinion polls. But they depend on the measurement of one’s state regarding the state of his neighbor, and it turns out that those who do not live close to the rich are happier.

“From the subjective point of view, people’s quality of life in the last millennium has not grown, but fell because of the differentiation of the population according to the level of consumption in ancient Egypt or in medieval France, which was lower than it is now.

“That is, from a subjective point of view, there is no progress. Moreover, the spread of innovations causes inequality in terms of consumption, dissatisfaction and conflict.

“Progress, instead of improving the quality of life, reduces it due to the increasing inequality, and stagnation, and on the contrary, stabilizes society. Development is a meaningless process, similar to a dog chasing its own tail, that produces nothing other than envy and suffering.”

My Comment: We cannot stop progress. Its role is to lead us to the reflection on the meaninglessness of our existence so that having asked questions about the meaning of life, we move forward to reveal the Creator.
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