Entries in the 'Suffering' Category

Problems That Stem From An Excess Of Intelligence

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe difference between a person and a cat is that a cat doesn’t make mistakes because it is connected to nature, with the force that moves it called nature or the Creator. This is the power of the overall system that manages the cat and shows it how to behave at each and every moment.

So a cat never makes a mistake. It doesn’t even think about what it is doing; it only acts and that’s it. It is constantly managed by the system, and so every one of its jumps are precisely calculated. A cat acts like a perfect machine.

A person, unlike a cat, is not a perfect machine. On the contrary, he doesn’t know how to act and constantly makes mistakes. Even though he has received additional senses and intelligence in comparison to other animals, he is not managed by nature.

This is called his freedom of choice, which determines how he uses his human emotion and intelligence. And if he doesn’t take the entire general system into account, he always activates his intelligence incorrectly and harms himself. After all, his ego causes him to err.

If we intentionally don’t learn how to use our intelligence correctly, we always harm ourselves. The proof for this is in the entire history of the human race that has gone on for thousands of years, yet development isn’t good and beautiful anywhere. It is accompanied by wars and problems, searches and disappointments, and failure is followed by failure. We try to do things for the best, but things only become worse.

The time has come to say, “Enough!, We are tired of all of these failures, the hatred, the problems in the family.” One by one, families fall apart, since in our development, we have reached the recognition of evil.

This is no longer just the miserable life that we lived before when nature pushed us to development through blows. In our time we have reached a level of intelligence and feelings by which we can see we have been developing by suffering that is only increasing. We are talking about a third world war. So, are we unable to stop it?

Modern man no longer wants anything from life except drugs or antidepressants. He doesn’t want to start a family and bring children into the world. He doesn’t want to take any responsibility. In this situation, we come to the month of Elul, to repentance. But this means that the solution to this bad situation is already illuminating us and redemption is near. We are ready to stop this flawed development, this negative trend. We have had enough suffering!

This is the sum total of the month of Elul, our decision to develop in a new form from now on. It means that we decide to reach balance with nature, to approach the higher power through establishing new rules of behavior based upon, “and you shall love your friend as yourself.” In this way, we reach balance with nature and become like the higher power.

Human society must reach full mutual support so that by itself, it will control that additional intelligence and feeling that has raised us above the level of the animal, prevented us from balance with nature and took us outside of the realm of its control. This means that we must arrange our reason and feeling through connection, unity, and love between us.

In this way we complete ourselves on the level of Adam (man) and make the entire system homogeneous, integral, connected, united, and completely mutually dependent, like everything else in nature. This is called love.

We don’t understand what love is. Love is to be in partnership, in the right connection with all the rest of the parts of nature. You feel them and do what they need and they feel you and do what you need, like a healthy body in which all of the organs are in a mutual connection such as this.

The understanding that we must reach such a connection is called the month of Elul, repentance.

Question: So what is it necessary to think in a time like the month of Elul, in order to change life into a better life?

Answer: In our world, only the good connection between people is missing. There is full abundance, but everyone suffers because of their intolerable character. We must correct this, and we have the opportunity to do so.

If we direct ourselves towards correction, it would be a wonderful result of the self-criticism that we do in the month of Elul. So we truly advance according to its name: Elul, meaning,  “Ani LeDodi VeDodi Li” – “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine,”(“Song of Songs” 6:3).
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From KabTV’s“ A New Life” 9/14/14

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Automatic Or Conscious Effort?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: We understand that the process of our advancement becomes more and more efficient, but together with this it becomes more and more difficult, in a good way. How is it possible to add happiness and thanks to this so that they won’t just be words? Where do we get the excitement and elation even though events might not be that pleasant?

Answer: Happiness is derived from an understanding that all of this is from the Creator and that everything is for our advancement so that, together with the group, we bring ourselves into one shared body called the soul. In any case, humanity is advancing forward, but not consciously; whereas we are advancing consciously. The entire difference is in this and this is indeed a tremendous difference.

Imagine a body that is working automatically because at every moment it is moved through new conditions, and the mind, which doesn’t work automatically, consciously reacts, scrutinizes, and decides how to act.

Look at the people around you and how they are fighting for their survival. This is how they unconsciously carry out the program of creation. The pace of their work is slow with a low threshold, and it takes a lot of time until something happens with them. But in our times, this frequency is increasing.

We were given a completely different system, a system of conscious participation in our changes. The main thing is to be included in it and to overcome all kinds of problems. For us it is much more difficult to overcome them than for a regular person because these problems seem pointless to us, since there is no need for them, and they are only disturbances. We see that it would be better to be involved in something else.

In general, a person knows that this is the way life is and he cannot do anything about it. For us this is not life, just as everything that is found in this world is not life. But on the other hand, an opportunity has been given to us to look at this from a higher level; we understand that we were given our world so that we will be able to activate our intention. We carry out these actions to overcome disturbances, but with the intention that through this, we are entering into a higher state, into a higher system.

For many years Kabbalists worked hard to earn their daily bread. Baal HaSulam worked in construction. Even today, in Bnei Brak, a building is preserved that he helped build. Rabash worked in road construction, then as a shoemaker. He changed professions many times before he began working as a clerk in some institution towards the end of his life.

The life of the Kabbalists was very difficult, but they didn’t flee from this. The main thing is that together with this they could consciously continue to work for the sake of the Creator, advancing towards Him, incidentally, thanks to these terrible situations.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/14, Shamati #5

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A Small Collective Effort Can Change The World

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we unite more closely around the events that are taking place in Israel? How can we affect and help strengthen the groups in Israel on the one hand, and at the same time, use this situation in order to advance and leap to a new level?

Answer: The point is not just about Israel, but that the Creator wants to raise the created being to a state of adhesion with Him. We have to see everything in a much more global manner and not be confused by what we see in the corporeal world.

There is a created being that includes the different levels of the desire and every desire has to reach complete compatibility with the Upper Light, with the Creator, and with the attribute of bestowal. This is what the Creator is leading us to.

The less egoistic, purest part of creation begins to yearn for the Creator and so it is called Israel, Yashar-El (straight to the Creator). Although in our world, even though this part seems the most egoistic, it isn’t so.

It fact all the nations of the world make up the whole great ego that is divided into billions of tiny pieces and so it isn’t expressed in its full intensity. The ego of Israel is concentrated in a small number of souls. How many people in the world yearn for the Creator? Let’s say a million such people and all the others number seven billion.

This is the reason that people think that we are much more egoistic: we demand to reveal the Creator, the spiritual world. We have to understand that we are one vessel (the vessel of the general soul). We have to yearn to go forward, and not to help Israel. Israel also doesn’t have to help us, but we must come together. The Creator has arranged these conditions for us that we don’t chose. They stem from the incompatibility between the Lights and the vessels, from the oppositeness between them.

The Light of Ein Sof (Infinity) is in a certain level of compatibility between the vessel of the world of Ein Sof at any given moment and they must reach absolute connection. The relationship between them determines everything that happens in the world.

Therefore, we have to accept this as an essential condition and see each of these conditions as the optimal condition that was chosen by the Light and the vessel. It is the law of physics that operates here and not anyone’s desire. It says in the Torah, in the language of the Haggadah, that this what the Creator wanted.

“He gave a law that cannot be broken,” and so we have to see objectively that every state that was given to us stems from the adaptability between the Light and the vessels. Although these states are very painful and unpleasant, all the internal and external states, the general and the private, were all given to us only so that we will connect more tightly among us. This is the only way we can fulfill them correctly.

The right fulfillment of each of these states is only in the connection between us that is aiming at resembling the attribute of bestowal, the attribute of the Light, until the Light is dressed, incorporated, and felt within us. We have to yearn for that at any given moment, despite the difficult conditions that the Creator gives us. Sometimes they are very unpleasant, confusing, humiliating, complicated and disturbing, making it difficult for us to understand what is actually going on.

By the way, this is the best state, which indicates that a person has transcended from one state to another, sometimes it may be very painful and accompanied by physical problems. I saw how my teacher Rabash used to go through them. He actually didn’t understand where he was and what he was doing. I used to take him by the hand and help him sit by the table and serve him a cup of coffee and then another, and then gradually we would begin to speak and come back to himself and turn to Light. But at first, he was simply a body that could hardly move.

We should understand that since each of us includes all of the desires, starting from the still, vegetative, and animate, all the way to the human level. We will gradually go through all of them.

We have to help Israel be together with us in one connection among us. All those who yearn for the Creator are called Israel. We have to remember our descent from Babylon and reach the state that all of modern Babylon called Israel yearns for the Creator. How? We do this by working together.

I hope that the Creator won’t leave us and will not hold back our advancement. The tension in the world will not subside, but will grow. Even if we are bombed, if there are demonstrations against us, or pressure put on us, the main thing is that we continue to yearn for the Creator above all that and bless every situation, since at least in this way we can develop. But we have to try to do it differently.

On the whole, we will later discover that by making one small change in our intention, we can change everything that happens in the corporeal world from bad to good. In one day our enemies and the missiles can turn into something wonderful and that is the absolute opposite! Together we will be able to do that and we will witness all of it!
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From the Convention In Toronto “Day One” 8/4/14, 1st Meal 

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The Secondary Growth Of Terror, Part 1

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: A new threat looms over the world. The threat unifies us with a sense of common danger. Its name is ISIS, the Islamic state that is rapidly gaining ground.

The outstanding cruelty of this organization includes terrible executions of western journalists and proves the organization’s great efficiency.

This organization has financial resources, good technological abilities, and excellent organizational skills that allow it to quickly establish their control.  One gets the feeling that we are witnessing the evolution of an epidemic that will take over the world if we don’t stop it.

This concern fills the hearts of leaders and citizens who are looking for a solution. In the last two weeks, the world has been trying to unite in its struggle against the organization. The UN published an announcement denouncing the organization’s actions and both the Western world and the Arab world are calling to unite forces. The last NATO convention also raised this issue. As a result, they have agreed to establish a coalition of ten countries including Turkey, with massive support. A declaration regarding military, diplomatic, intelligence, and political cooperation against ISIS has been made, hoping that the Arab states will be the next to join.

The UN secretary, the president of the United States, the British prime minister, the king of Saudi Arabia, and others have joined this initiative, as the common threat brings everyone together to fight the common enemy.

Many suggestions have been made, including changing the law that would prevent the return of ISIS warriors who have a Western citizenship to their homes, tighter control of Muslim organizations that are spreading in Europe and in the US, limiting activity on the Turkish border, and banning ransom payment for hostages, since this money finances terrorist activities and thus returns to us like a boomerang.

Let’s suppose that NATO is convening to discuss the threat presented by ISIS and other extremist organizations that are raising their heads. If you were a consultant, what would you advise them to do in order to uproot the problem and neutralize the cruel hatred on an international scale?

Answer: We can put the solution in one word: unity. If we don’t advance towards connection, towards a coalition of states that is so strong that it will eventually become one family, new resistance organizations will emerge and will surprise us anew in very unpleasant ways.

We should stop asking where ISIS was six months or a year ago, where it gets all the money for such widespread operations, where they keep their arsenal, where they get their medical care, etc. because, after all, it is impossible to fight in a desert without all that, and they need thousands of people to supply all their needs. Just like there is an immense mechanism behind an army that provides it with food, ammunition, logistics, medical care, etc. The armed gangs in the Middle East also need many people who serve the warriors.

Thus we speak about a huge organization with great resources and unlimited possibilities. It has already spread throughout the world, and with the help of systematic propaganda, is attracting many people, not only from the Middle East, but also in the developed Western countries. This international network operates very wisely. They are in contact with each other and have a serious leader.

Why have we just recently found out about it? If we hadn’t spoken about it now we wouldn’t have been able to discover and get to know them. Was no one on alert? Didn’t the Western intelligence services, that are everywhere with all the means they have including bases, agents, etc., know what was going on?

Are we so naive that we can be told fairy tales about the emergence of a new leader whose kingdom spreads all over the world and among its citizens, are people from different countries? It isn’t by chance that the man who cut off the head of the American journalist was a British citizen.

This means that we don’t understand the background for these events. I guess the Western leaders meant to quiet this problem down for a while. I doubt that they didn’t know of and hadn’t discussed it because such problems are always an issue for discussion.

We see that eventually, humanity depends on leaders who only think about themselves and how to stay in their position for as long as possible in order to enjoy the benefits of their position.

They were ready to carry on this way, and if ISIS hadn’t started with active conquests, they would have allowed it to continue to reinforce its network. No one cared. The world is destroyed by people’s egoistic attitude within every country. The breach in the connection between us is so great that no one even cares. We cannot think about what connects us. A person thinks only about himself and worries only about today or tomorrow, at the most, and that’s it. Our ego has become tough and intolerant.

Therefore, I don’t expect the world leaders to take any special action.The bombing will not help, since we all know it is impossible to defeat terrorist organizations.Their power is in their ideology and fighting against it with weapons is futile. Only another ideology works against a certain ideology. We do need to take military action in the meantime, but we shouldn’t think that this will bring victory and the end of ISIS. It will not disappear. Such terrorist organizations don’t disappear, but rather change form, merge, and split apart, but no one has ever succeeded in uprooting them.

We see this in Israel, in our war against Hamas, which proves that it is impossible to defeat it and to come to any agreements, since whatever is signed today is irrelevant tomorrow. We all know that, so any negotiations with them are nothing but deception.

This refers to all the terrorist organizations and there is no chance for peace unless a Palestinian leadership, like Jordan or Syria, for example, can at least keep an agreement. Only  then we will be able to talk about some stability and about a government that is responsible for what it says. In the meantime, new terrorists emerge in place of the ones that were killed, and nothing changes. Therefore, I have my own solution for the international community, and that is that only an ideology can be an efficient weapon, and this ideology is very simple.

What does ISIS actually want? It wants connection. They want to bring everyone together under their black flag. Therefore, the weapon we can use against it can only be an idea of connection between everyone under our flag. The color makes no difference. The main thing is that it will truly unite everyone according to the same principle ISIS believes in, that “everyone can join us.” This is what humanity should do and we should start now to work on the general connection.

When we do that, we will teach people to connect, tell them what an integral world is and how important it is to establish it in similarly to nature, since nature forces us to do just that. We have to deliver this message to people in different ways, through study, entertainment programs, video clips, etc. so that the message will reach every sector.

Then we will be able to say that we have started the fight against all the terrorist organizations, and in general, all the evil in the world. The only means to do this is through the introduction of a system of training and education, which explains the laws of a single, integrated world.
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From the program “A New Life” 9/07/14

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A World Without Suffering

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can we pass through those situations that are expected for the world in the near future without suffering?

Answer: The only method is through attracting the Upper Light. You cannot do anything else. So we are going on the way of “I will hasten it,” meaning in the way of the Light. Otherwise there will be continuous suffering or an imbalance in a ratio of 90% suffering and 10% Light.

Look at what is happening with us in Israel, which is a case in point of too little Light and much suffering. Everyone endures suffering, both Israelis and Arabs. In such a manner, we are bringing the nation into a state that is not good.

Question: The most important part of correction is the people of Israel living in the territory of this nation. All of Bnei Baruch is working for the sake of its unity. And what is our role? What must we be involved with here if the correction begins from there? What should our efforts be?

Answer: All of the groups in the world, including the groups in Israel, are connected into one system. The attraction of the Light into our world depends on our common efforts. First of all, the Light works through us downward, and after that, through the people of Israel. The whole problem is that we must consolidate it, but this is a very complicated task. After that, through the people of Israel, the Light will pass to the rest of the world.

We must try to work with these three levels, connecting together as much as possible. There are many resources here that have not been utilized, and if we realize them correctly, there won’t be suffering in the world.
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From the Convention In Sochi “Day Two” 7/14/14, lesson 6

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Science Has Placed Us On The Path Of Suffering

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”, section 41: The Zohar writes about the text “and those that seek Me shall find Me,” and asks, “Where does one find the Creator? They said that the Creator is found only in the Torah.”

We must thoroughly understand their words. It seems that the Creator is hidden only in corporeal things and conducts all the futilities of this world, which are outside the Torah. Thus, how can you say the opposite, that He hides Himself only in the Torah?

This means that we can never discover the right system, the true forces in nature that manage us, the higher management and oversight, nor the higher power that is at work in an action if we are not engaged in the inner Torah, which is the wisdom of Kabbalah, the correct  way. Even the science of the physical world cannot bring us closer to this.

By being involved with scientific development, a person inserts himself into the way of suffering; since he hopes and wants to reach a good life through scientific achievements, the opposite situation is created, and he only harms himself. And this is clear, for in this manner he doesn’t develop his Kelim (vessels) for discovery of the higher power which is good and beneficent.

It follows that science brings us to failure and diverts us from the right way. As much as we value and respect modern science, ultimately it must be understood and acknowledged that it leads us to the way of suffering. Certainly everything was planned from the start, for without discovering the evil it is impossible to reach the good. This is because the human intellect must discover its empty powerlessness.

But if from the days of the first Adam (man), from the first discovery of the wisdom of Kabbalah, humanity had accepted it as the solitary means for discovering the good and beneficent power, then it would have gone by the ideal way directly towards the goal of creation.

Then there would have been no need for scientific progress and the evolution of human society. A person would have been involved in his spiritual development, whereas the compulsory physical work would have been only for meeting the requirements of bestial existence, to feed his “beast.” And all the remaining developments would have been only for the need of developing the Adam within us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Compensation That Will Cover Everything

Dr. Michael LaitmanBaal HaSulam, Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 108: This is similar to a well-known tale about a Jew who was a house trustee for a certain landlord. The landlord loved him dearly. Once, the landlord went away and left his business in the hands of his substitute, who was an anti-Semite.

What did he do? He took the Jew and struck him five times in front of everyone, to thoroughly humiliate him.

Upon the landlord’s return, the Jew went to him and told him all that had happened to him. His anger was kindled, and he called the substitute and commanded him to promptly give the Jew a thousand coins for every time he had struck him.

The Jew took them and went home. His wife found him crying. She asked him anxiously, “What happened to you with the landlord?” He told her. She asked, “Then why are you crying?” He answered, “I am crying because he only beat me five times. I wish he had beaten me at least ten times, since now I would have had ten thousand coins.

The Creator made an unpleasant “shell,” our world, in which we suffer. For the Creator, there is no concept of time and of course He knows about the imminent “compensation.” It brings Him contentment.

For each blow, for every bad sensation, for the smallest or biggest trouble, for anything that we experience in life we will get an adequate compensation to which we would have gladly consented had we known about it beforehand.

This is how the general system works: it is based on the principle of replenishment. Even though people suffer now, they will inevitably be rewarded in the future. It is only a matter of time. Compensations bring benefit to the system. The system has no flaws. On the contrary, each of us would gladly add more afflictions to our lives if we knew that we would be compensated for them.

It is an unavoidable process. Otherwise, it would be impossible to guarantee spiritual profits since empty vessels should be opened, corrected, and fulfilled. If not, the creation that possesses its own endless vessels, desires, that govern them by using and fulfilling them with perfection would never be possible.

Question: Is there a way for us to understand that the Creator is good and does good while we still are in this terrible world?

Answer: “The Creator” is a general, balanced system. It is absolute, an equilibrium in which the Light and the vessel dwell in each other. Everything is based on this principle.

So far, you don’t see that the Creator rewards you by giving you a thousand coins for each of your troubles. Later, when you understand it, you’ll say: “What a beautiful thought is hidden behind it!”

When you correct yourself, you detach from your egoistic desires and transition to the realm of intentions. Reception for your desires is no longer the essence of your existence, now your intentions are. And because you completely stop identifying yourself with your troubles, you don’t forget about them but sweeten the properties of your vessel by using different methods.

In this world, we see similar examples of people enjoying memories of their prior sufferings. For example, my mother, a very well-to-do woman, sometimes preferred to have a glass of boiling water and a piece of stale bread. It reminded her of her hungry, younger years during the war when as a student she received this ration once a day. Many years later when she had an abundance of food, she couldn’t experience the same level of pleasure from food because her desire was no longer as empty as it had been during the years when she went hungry. It did not matter that the bread then was mostly made of sawdust; it only depends on our vessels, desires.

We cannot ignore these things. We go through various situations, and thanks to them, when recalling the stages of our spiritual path that never disappear and that we never forget, we begin using them differently, not as my mother did. Rather, by going through our current states, when we receive the Lights that descend to us, we try using our old vessels, thus triggering the Lights of NRNHY to be revealed.

If you regard the world as a nightmare, it is your vision. It is said: “Everybody judges according to his own  flaws.” Now, your denial is in accord with the deficiencies of your vessels through which you see the world as a bad place. If you correct your vessels, you’ll see that there is nothing wrong with this world.

As we ascend the spiritual ladder, we tend to increasingly justify the Creator. That’s the main thing! The darkness turns into the light, and bitter becomes sweet. I see the world as more corrected, although for me it is not yet completely rectified because, as of now, I am not completely corrected.

And yet, to the degree of my correction, I justify this world, thus connecting the darkness with the Light. For me, it already shines as a bright day in unity, even though our unity is not as yet quite sufficient. By going through spiritual stages, I see that everything eventually ends up being good.

The only advice I have for you is to correct your vessels, desires. There is nothing else you can do. If you do so, wars, afflictions, and other disasters will dissappear from your picture of reality and never return. Baal HaSulam wrote: “There are no despots in the Kingdom of the Lord.”

In fact, there are no villains, as there is no evil. The entire reality is just a film that leads us from the evil inclination to a happy ending.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/26/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The Meteor Is Already Close

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: If the upper force is good, why is it revealed in an unpleasant way, pressuring us?

Answer: The higher power pressures us from above in that it aspires to be discovered. Whereas, we are found below as separated, crushed, rejecting and hating each other. The pressure of the upper force from above increases our problems, because He wants to be discovered, but is not.

All of the problems pop up because of the approach of the Creator to us. If you are not adapted to Him, then His approach awakens negative reactions in you.

Question: I don’t understand how the approach of the Creator could be perceived as negative. It would seem that this would be the opposite; wouldn’t it be necessary to awaken some kind of positive results?

Answer: Imagine that you are a child. Your mother comes to you and asks: “Have you completed your homework?” And you haven’t prepared your lessons. So your mother threatens: “Watch out, I will come back in another hour to check if you have finished your homework!” As the hour passes you begin to be afraid of when she will come back because you still haven’t done anything.

How will her approach be felt in this case: good or bad? If you don’t comply with her demand, you feel her approach as unpleasant, you don’t want her to come to check you. Isn’t this so?

And now the same thing is happening with us. We are not carrying out those actions that we must carry out. We don’t want to become like one person with one heart, where all of Israel are friends, connected with mutual guarantee (Arvut). We are not becoming like those that we must be, and so the approach of the Creator awakens troubles, disasters, and wars within us and around us.

All of these are the result of the nearing of the Creator. The Holocaust was a result of His approach. That is how the approach of the upper force is revealed if we don’t adapt to it.

So we must prevent the blow through a remedy: Begin getting closer to each other, connect so that we approximate ourselves to the approach of the Creator. Then we will accept this approach as better and better, to the state in which the upper force will be completely clothed in us. There is no better state than this!

Question: Is the upper force like a meteor that is approaching our Earth?

Answer: The higher power is not approaching us with the speed of a meteor, which is 30 kilometers per second. This is a gradual process that began a long time ago. But essentially this “meteor” is already close, and its speed is increasing all the time. The inner and outer tension has grown.

After that a period of calm could come. But even if it comes, it will be for a very brief time. Periods of calm will become more and more compressed, whereas the tension will grow exponentially. This is because we are on the threshold of the general correction and the Creator is obliging us to carry out the correction, meaning to connect among us.

We must come to a state of “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” no matter how unrealistic this may seem to us. The higher power is prepared to force us into this through its pressure. But it is desirable to begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah because from it, we discover how to attain this in ourselves before we are pressured from above with full force. We can reach this connection ourselves in a good way, without coercion.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: Preparing the People of Israel for Light” 8/20/14

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The Course Of Events Is Not In Our Favor

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Israel is in a difficult position these days, under a missile attack. Every time we hope it will not happen again we find ourselves in the same position all over again. What is going on here?

Answer: The point is that we want to solve the problem by using force, by military action. But this will not work because our enemies are strong enough and have enough money and weapons to stand against us. We think that we are stronger since we have powerful rockets armed with nuclear warheads. But we cannot use the weapons that we have under these conditions. Every war has its own rules and the reaction has to be according to the threat.

In addition to that, we do not live in a vacuum. The world intervenes in our actions, and somehow the UN, Europe, the Arab countries, Russia, and other countries are beginning to treat us more and more negatively.

We should understand that the course of events is not in our favor and that time works against us: either we find a solution or not. We had hoped that our enemies would finally understand that they should live in peace with us and accept our existence, but we see that this isn’t happening. Islam is becoming tougher and stronger.

The fundamental Islamists are growing stronger in Syria, Iraq, Russia, Europe,  and America and they are now represented in the United Nations. Turkey is also becoming more and more Islamist. We used to think that with time, the attitude towards us would improve, but we see that it is quite the contrary.

The whole world is advancing towards liberalization, integration, and becoming more and more unified, and softer. At the same time, the Islamists are accumulating more and more power and are advancing towards greater extremism. What the Torah says about Ishmael has come: “His hand is in everything and everyone’s hand is in him.” Now we are in the time of the general correction.

We should understand that this state is irrational and cannot be explained logically. On one hand, there are the right conditions today for a good life, especially in the Arab countries, but they still insist on carrying on their war against the Jews all over the world and especially against the state of Israel. We have no choice but to turn to our sources in order to find out the reasons for that.

After all, Islam and Christianity stem from the same source and this is where they receive the force for anti -Semitism. It has been this way throughout history until today. We should understand that it is help against us, and is meant to push us towards correction.

There have always been conflicts between Islam, Christianity, and Judaism and today the situation is even worse. Our allies are leaving us and taking the other side. They are changing their attitude towards the Jews and towards the state of Israel. We are witnessing a clear inclination to place the Jews against all the religions and all the other nations, but this actually happens in order to bring us to correction.

All these religions are drawing their force from the Torah and we should also receive our power from it. The only solution is the connection between us in order to truly become the nation of Israel. If we unite as a nation, we can stand against the whole world and solve all its problems. But if we don’t, we will drown, lose our power, and find ourselves in the hands of the enemy. Our only weapon is unity.
[139183]
From KabTV’s “The Mission of the People of Israel,” 7/08/14

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We Will Not Succeed In Hiding From Tomorrow

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Why do many people try to live only for today, the present moment, in that they center all of their thoughts in it and don’t make it possible for thoughts to escape to the past or the future?

Answer: That is how the genetic force of our body works when it directs us only towards pleasures. At every moment I want to enjoy optimally, meaning to invest minimal efforts and energy and receive maximal pleasure. We live according to this principle.

The problem is that as far as it seems in accord with our naturally installed software, we experience great problems through such an approach to life. If we only yearn for pleasure, then ultimately from all of our efforts to remain like this, we receive blows that oblige us to change our approach.

I cannot shut my eyes and not think about what will be with me, as it is said in Isaiah 22:13: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die.” That is because this “tomorrow we shall die” becomes so terrible that I can no longer enjoy today.

Here everything depends on the level of development of the person and all of humanity. We have reached such a development where the future has become very important to us no less than the present. We cannot flee from thoughts about it and take some drug in order to live only for today.

We will not succeed in hiding from tomorrow, so we must learn to become familiar with the origin of life and its goal. But in the meantime, we are still trying to slip away and we have not yet reached the awareness that this won’t help.

When we educate our children, we don’t tell them that the main thing is to squeeze maximal pleasure from the present moment and afterward there will be a deluge. We know that this way is impossible and will not lead to a happy life. They must open their eyes and know where they are going, what today and tomorrow promises. We must discover the same vision within ourselves, only more widespread.

Question: And what do the methods that teach living in the present moment give?

Answer: Methods like these lower the person to the level of a beast. For a beast indeed only looks for how to enjoy every moment in its life, and so it doesn’t really think about the future.

Beasts have natural abilities for sensing the future. They feel an approaching tsunami, the eruption of volcanoes, earthquakes. They have a subtle sensitivity to nature and changes in climate. But these are very limited instincts. The human sees much more, and we need to use this so as not to decree a life of suffering for ourselves, and likewise not to leave for our children, for the next generation, a world like this in which they will suffer.

If we look at life with more mature and ripe views, then we have no choice; we must discover the program of creation and develop in ourselves the ability to perceive the future.

In general, the future frightens a person because he doesn’t know it and  is not ready to deal with it. But this is not just talking about perceiving the future but about obtaining the tools through which we can manage the future like the present. We will become the masters of our future.
[137044]
From the program “A New Life” 4/17/2014

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