Entries in the 'The Tens' Category

How Is It Possible To Discover The System Of Creation?

Laitman_524_01Question: According to what criteria is it possible to determine whether a person is going in the right direction?

Answer: If a person carries out what is written in the wisdom of Kabbalah—meaning that he works in a group correctly, making an effort to connect with his friends in order to attract the Upper Light—this means that he is going in the right direction.

With a good connection that is created between him and his friend, he discovers the system of higher management because everything that there is in creation is discovered between ten friends, only in miniature form. Their connection is built like a hologram. There is one big picture within which it is possible to take out some part and see the full picture within it, but on a smaller scale.

In the same manner, we take a group that is composed of ten people (ten small Sefirot), and they attain everything that exists in creation within it, but in a small form. Certainly, we don’t see details and particulars there, but if we join an additional group of ten with this group of ten, our field of vision will grow, and in this manner we can expand the perception of our reality. Our task is to discover the system of creation.

Question: Did you study in a group of ten?

Answer: I learned through a different method, one on one with my teacher. This was a different system through which, in its time, it was possible to prepare a person to continue the work. Studying alone is much more difficult and complicated than studying in a group, but this was necessary because this made it possible for me to acquire the training method.

Today, there is no longer a need for this method. I am sure that I was the last who received knowledge from his teacher like this, whereas now the world has crystallized as an integral system so that starting from our generation and on solitary Kabbalists are not required.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/8/15

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Repentance Before Rosh HaShanah

Dr. Michael LaitmanIn order to ask for forgiveness, we must know what love is for people like yourself and what it means by asking these questions, “What haven’t I done on behalf of this love? If it is necessary to feel that I have love for others, which is the main Mitzvah (commandment) of the Torah, do I or do I not feel it?” Many people think that it is enough just to carry out physical Mitzvot.

The Kabbalists advise us to unite into groups of 10, so that together we can check if we are truly treating each other well. Is everyone trying to distance himself from his ego and connect with others, become integrated with their desires and to feel love between us? If we understand that all of this doesn’t exist, we feel we are to blame, so we ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness is for not carrying out the main condition, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Today, this condition has become imperative for the whole world in order to come out of the global crisis. But the people of Israel must be the first to realize this, and we are not doing it. So we ask for the power to help us attain this love. We clearly see that we are not prepared to carry out this condition by ourselves, but we can ask for help. And we conclude the Selichot (forgiveness) by asking for the power to carry out the main Mitzvah and bringing people closer together. And through this getting closer we also get closer to the higher force, the Creator.

A person cannot realize this by himself, so we work in a group, which is how we check if we have attained mutual bestowal and connection or not. If not, we need to ask for the power to help us connect and reach unity. This common request is called prayer and it is derived from our connection, from the center of our circle, like a pillar that rises upward. When we examine our union, we reach Selichot.

From here we see that without studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is impossible to discover what to ask, towards what to be attracted, the purpose of Creation, and how the Torah is connected to the Mitzvot of love of others and love of the Creator through the entire order of correction. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to realize ourselves according to what is written in the Torah. The only Mitzvah is to rise above our ego and attain connection and unity between everyone. It includes within it all the rest of the Mitzvot, which are individual corrections of our ego. The egoistic desire is composed of 613 parts, each one of which we must correct, beginning with the easiest and moving towards what is more and more difficult. In this way it is necessary to carry out 613 corrections, which are called the 613 (Taryag) Mitzvot.

When we help each other we ultimately attain redemption, meaning that we discover the higher power, the Creator, within our correct mutual connection of bestowal and love. And this is the forgiveness before Rosh HaShanah. Certainly it is impossible to begin the New Year, the new beginning, the next level, towards which we must ascend thanks to our correction without clarifying all that we went through. And this is the essence of repentance, to ask with greater vigor for the Light that Reforms to correct us and make it possible for us to attain an even stronger union.
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From KabTV’s “Selichot” 8/17/15

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A Good Example Of Education For Everyone

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is so special about the education method that you suggest? After all they also speak about love of others in schools and about the need to treat friends nicely, but we see that it isn’t working.

Answer: Talking about how to behave has nothing to do with education, since education is based on learning from examples. Only examples operate on and influence a child. If we want an adult to be well educated, he too needs to have the right examples, just like a child. We have no choice. We need to establish systems that will set an example of the right relations between people. But from where can we take such examples if everyone mutually hates one another? Who will set the example for us?

Therefore it is necessary to organize special workshops in small groups called tens for all sectors and social classes within the population. We hold such circles all over the country in Israel: in Eilat, in the Tel Aviv harbor, in Tiberias, and in other cities. Many people already know us. If a person participates in such a circle, this circle becomes an example for him and he begins to feel that something special is going on within it.

Strangers who find themselves sitting next to one another by chance begin to communicate in the circle according to certain rules and about a certain topic and begin to discover feelings of connection, unity, warmth, and understanding. Their eyes shine and they look at one another in a totally different way than they did when the workshop began. People totally change during this 15-20 minutes. All this disappears, of course when they go home afterward. A person has to repeat this process every day and then after a week or a month he will change.

What I say is based on the great experience I have had. I have many students in Israel and all over the world who thus are changing and so are the new people who know what the success of the world depends on and how we can rise from the general global crisis that is founded on mutual hatred between all the countries, peoples, and individuals.

We can overcome it instead of advancing towards terrible destruction. The Torah says that we will reach a state in which “a person’s enemies are in his home,” which means that a person will see that everyone rejects him, is distant from him, and refuses to understand him, within his own home.

Is it possible to live this way?! After all, we know that our body lives and operates in harmony between all its parts while a dead body is destroyed. So let’s choose the right way!
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 8/2/15

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A Game That Becomes Our Life

laitman_527Question: Why does a child play so naturally and truthfully while for a grownup a game is a lie?

Answer: It is because we adults have gotten used to living in a lie: our life is a lie and the game is a lie. It isn’t a crime but simply our nature. A game is always a lie and never the truth because after all, I don’t play myself but someone I would like to be.

We wouldn’t be able to advance without games. Children perceive a game as the absolute truth and therefore develop and grow. If we wholeheartedly joined in a game, like kids, we wouldn’t be able to leave it and would stay in it.

This is actually the tool that the wisdom of Kabbalah uses. I am told: “You need to love others, and in this love you will begin to feel the Creator! Here, you have a group that is made of ten people; start establishing such relations between you by pretending that each one loves the others. You have to create such an atmosphere between you so that each one will disappear in it and will melt in his love for others.”

I act out this love over and over again by returning to it a thousand times each day until I am incorporated in it to such an extent that I melt in this love and connection. Then I can attain the revelation of the Creator.

By being incorporated in love, I am incorporated in the Creator. This ceases to be a game and becomes the game of my life. But first I play it artificially: I pretend that I love the friends and annul myself before them without any desire to do so. I force myself and convince myself that I have to act this love, although I don’t feel it at all.

But I suddenly feel a warm feeling. The others influence me by setting an example for me by their alleged loving attitude; I see that they are loyal to this love and I feel ashamed that I cannot return the same love to them. I criticize and reprimand myself over and over again and once more force myself to love the others.

But when I annul myself this way, I suddenly begin to see how all the corporeal objects around me begin to disappear: the table, the chairs, and the walls. They all disappear from my perception and only one thing remains—the love that I feel. I also disappear. I become enslaved to this feeling of love, and there is nothing left but that feeling that is external to me since my “self” disappears.

My “self” is my ego, which disappears, and then I begin to feel how the upper force, the Creator, fills everything. It is because I have annulled myself and now I can feel Him. I have annulled my egoism and have received the attribute of the upper force, the attribute of bestowal, and this is the real game.
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From KabTV’s “The Torah Chapters with Shmuel Vilozni” 2/2/15

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Mini-Model Of The Universe

laitman_934Question: It is said in The Zohar: “Happy is the one who was among the first ten in the house of meeting, because thanks to them, an assembly that consists of not less than ten people becomes complete and they are blessed by Shechina (Divinity).

After the assembly is complete, correction happens. It is written: “The greatness of the King is in the multitude of people.” So, those who follow the first ten are associated with the bodily correction, that is, with the correction of the congregation. ”

What does it mean, “the first ten followed by the entire nation”?

Answer: Any spiritual structure consists of ten Sefirot, no more and no less. By bringing together ten different properties, we form a mini-model of the universe, including the part of it that we do not know of or have any idea what it is.

The fact is that we are only dealing with our little world, but really don’t know much about it and we can’t fully understand it, not to mention the vast universe, comprising all the worlds. Therefore, it’s absolutely unimaginable to talk about the higher worlds, each of which is billions of times greater than our world.

At the same time, if we build a community of ten people that complement each other, this “vast impossibility,” fortunately, becomes very easy to comprehend. As soon as they connect with each other, the general force that embraces all the worlds starts influencing them. This force is called the Upper Light or the Creator.

By making attempts to maintain harmonious connections, staying in bestowal, and mutually complementing each other in accordance with the principle of “loving thy neighbor as thyself,” we immediately “oblige” the supreme power to impact our efforts to follow the law of similarity of properties. The upper force affects and helps us unite to the degree of our efforts to be connected.

When we comprise one system, we start feeling any commotion that happens between us: one clings to another and then connects with somebody else, and so on… In this case, we directly sense interactions among us. Suddenly, we reveal the powers and properties of the vast universe, including the higher worlds, which we currently have no idea about.

We see: “Oh, there are five worlds between us!” All of a sudden, we clearly perceive five levels, each of which is divided into sub-levels, and so on and so forth. One can explore the entire universe through the union of ten people (a Minyan) who are interconnected by complete bestowal and love. Their connection is sufficient; nothing more is necessary. This is the way we can start comprehending the entire universe.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/21/15

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How To Acquire A Practical Approach To Life

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: My younger brother has just graduated from university and now he ponders where to work and what to engage in. His indecisiveness forces him to weigh all the options for a long time. What would you advise him?

Answer: I would advise him to establish a stronger connection with the environment and perhaps even with different communities. I would have this be taught at schools and universities. I would also open different courses so that everyone would be able to attend them and to learn what kind of lifestyle is best for him in regard to what he wants and how to attain it.

Today there are many unemployed people who don’t know where to turn. There is no other way but to allow a person to actually interact with his environment and choose the sort of life he considers the best for his nature, his attributes, and his habits.

Question: Isn’t there a risk that I would follow any advice at work according to my desire?

Answer: If I hear different opinions, I will learn to compare them and thus eventually become wiser. Why is the computer smart? It can simply perform many calculations at a high speed. If I have many options and lots of experience, I will also become a genius. This is the whole wisdom.

Question: So how can we upgrade our “computer” so as to become smarter?

Answer: You can only do that by being incorporated into societies that are not too big. You should start working in workshops of ten people. I acquire a sensible approach to life by those who surround me, even if they are mistaken or are not highly educated. For example, I can sit with a musician, a manual laborer, a teacher, a shoemaker, a cook, or a scientist in the group of ten.

The moment we all sit together in a circle and exchange opinions, I build a vessel of connections with nine people in my mind and feelings. The more I am incorporated in each of them, the greater volume I acquire until I include all of humanity inside me.

I then divide my desire to receive into many cells and determine the different connections between them. It is like a game where one desire reflects your nature and another desire reflects your friend’s nature and so on. Now whenever a desire to receive on a different level appears in me, I implement the necessary strategy, which is one of those I acquired from the environment. This means that I have acquired a practical approach to life.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/11/13

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The Era Of Universal Calming

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen we, the Jewish people, publicly declare our mission, nations will cease pressuring us and will give us time and the opportunity to perform the mission. Moreover, they will come to help us as much as possible, saying, “Just tell us what to do. We are ready.”

Question: Why has this mission been hidden from us for so long? If we had known about it, then maybe we would have realized it in life a long time ago.

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah has remained hidden intentionally because we had to be immersed in the nations of the world. We are talking about a large-scale, highly complex program. We fell from the degree of love into unfounded hatred and this degree is invisibly rooted within us.

Thus, going into exile among the nations of the world, and not knowing how, we affect them and form all sorts of connections. Our contribution is still to be manifested, especially as the ten lost tribes are contributing for the first time since the time of the First Temple.

Therefore, as it is said, war, terrorism and all the miseries and misfortunes, come ultimately because of the Jews.

This means that it is necessary to unite with each other according to a special technique: in circles, in tens. We have already started the process, but this must be done on a large scale by all the people, among the Jews in Israel and abroad. Here and there, we have to lead the people to unity, as in the days of Abraham and the days of the First Temple. We have to rise to this height.

As soon as we start doing this, there will come a general calming, and no one will blame us. So, let’s try. It is in our hands to calm the world. Enemies that are standing today at the border and waiting to destroy us will disappear.

There will be no more anti-Semites and everyone will be in favor. After all, in the end, Israel starts to function properly and give the world what it should, as everyone states, “Finally, these Jews began to realize something that requires them to a higher law, a higher power.”

The fact is that unwittingly, the Jewish people have a special potential, which is the ability to change the world, reality, ourselves and humanity. It is entrusted to us.

We have received the methodology of Kabbalah, and today, according to The Book of Zohar and many Kabbalists, it is time for its revelation and realization. This is the only way to get rid of anti-Semitism, and in general, to correct ourselves and the world. This should happen in our generation, here and now.

Question: How will Israeli society look then?

Answer: The whole society will be united as one man with one heart. Everyone  will feel the eternal, perfect peace. Everyone will identify with the upper force and move into a future dimension that is entirely good.

Question: Is it a secular or religious approach?

Answer: Absolutely secular. It has nothing to do with religion. After all, religion is not engaged in the principle of “love your neighbor as self”; it does not nurture interconnection and love between people, especially on a global scale. Religion helps to keep local customs, traditions, and give a person different services, which of course, do not conflict with the wisdom of Kabbalah.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 11/25/14

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Discovering Your Creation

Dr. Michael LaitmanWe learn how the creature deteriorated from one point of unification to separation, to gradual fragmentation, to the discovery of greater and greater forces, to building a system of connection between the parts. Even before the shattering, there existed various characteristics and the forces between them.

In such a way we learn about the whole system of connections between the future creature and the Creator, between the characteristic of reception and the characteristic of bestowal, and about the cooperation between them. This is the system of higher forces, higher worlds. And to make it possible for us to truly exist, despite and in contradiction to the Creator, a shattering happened and our present state was created. From that we began to advance towards trembling.

It must be understood that this fear, this awe, and concern, this anxiety are the measuring tools with whose help I feel the level, the world in which I am found, and whether I am concerned about myself in our world or I am concerned about others in the higher world.

In general, it is a great and wonderful fortune that we were given our situation in the world where we feel the ego that separates us, because with its help we can measure how close or far we are from the exalted goal. This is expressed in a comparison of the beastly fear in our world, an apparent concern about the next world, and dread on a higher level, where we depart from the framework of our mundane concern and logic and are concerned only for what is found outside of us. Through this we begin to resemble the Creator. It is precisely here that a person measures his state, the level on which he is found. Clearly when we are in an egoistic state, we are not prepared to come out of it unless a higher force acts upon us, which is the characteristic of bestowal (the Creator) in a form that we call Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light). It illuminates us from a distance, in secret, because we do not have characteristics that are similar to it. We awaken its influence on us, only to the degree of our efforts to approach each other.

This is an internal, voluntary movement. It is as if I am trying to enter into the feelings and mind of every friend. I withdraw from his external appearance, the external problems and characteristics, and everything that touches upon his mundane characteristics. Only his heart interests me, his yearning for detachment from himself towards connection with others and rising above his beastly state. This is to say, it is what raises a person above his donkey. It is up to me to feel what is happening within his heart and connect it with my heart.

It is the same thing regarding the mind. The various characteristics, thoughts, intentions, and problems don’t interest me, only what belongs to our development. In that way, it is up to me to take from my friend, his point in the heart, his point in the mind, and connect these two points with my two points.

In myself as well, I examine and emphasize only my yearning for the Creator (my point in the heart) and my mental orientation towards Him (my point in the mind). That is how all of us connect with one heart and mind to something whole, as if we are building a spiritual likeness from ourselves composed of heart and mind.

So where is our dread? The dread is when we succeed in building our common point, the pure heart that we have assembled and the mind that we have assembled, and we rise as much as possible, as much as we are detached from what we imagined for ourselves in the mundane sense. A permanent dread is awakened in us as to whether we will succeed in maintaining our collective structure.

This happens within every group of ten, and after that in all of the groups of ten together. Later, our convention will be connected with all the mirror conventions that are held in parallel with us in one spiritual space.

We must hold onto all of this within us and be constantly concerned that this structure will be felt more and more as real in every moment. In the beginning, it is only some kind of a hint, but gradually it becomes thicker and more solid. We even find some new characteristics within our united heart and mind.

We truly begin to feel something, and then we feel the division of this perimeter into ten Sefirot, meaning that we reach a spiritual structure within which we feel active forces, the Creator.

In this way we begin to feel Him and how He maintains our inner structure together, which is the ten Sefirot. All of us are included within this structure and each one feels the ten Sefirot within his particular individual perception, within his original spiritual characteristics, within the point in the heart and the mind.

Each one of us discovers his creation without disturbing each other. Our souls are included in each other and become connected so that eventually a general picture of the Olam Ein Sof (world of Infinity) is created.

We are already connected between us on levels that lead upward and the ten Sefirot become increasingly clear. Within them are discovered immense internal characteristics, combinations, coalitions, systems, and connections. Ultimately, all of these together become a Sefira that is composed of infinite emotional and intellectual connections.

In this way we reach attainment of the Creator, meaning attainment of the immense mind and emotion that fills this Sefira. This is the way that we must go together.

So the main thing is the characteristic of bestowal, and so we must fear falling into our mundane scrutinies, into our natural corporeal concerns. In a convention we must limit this to the level of necessary subsistence only.

We are trying to reach the state of trepidation in this manner.
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From the Convention In St. Petersburg “Day One” 9/19/14, Lesson 1

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The Principle Of Dissemination

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Midrash Gadol tells us that Moses passed on the Godly reproof and instructions to the people. First he taught his brother Aaron privately, taking into account his high level of understanding.

Then he invited the sons of Aaron, and in the presence of their father, began to explain the Torah to them on a level that they could grasp. The elders joined them, followed by the men, and finally the whole nation of Israel, including the women and the children.

How does the descent to the people, when it is already possible to tell all of them about the Kabbalistic method, take place?

Answer: Considering the organization of our group and our pace of advancement, we see that it has been many years before we began to actually understand and feel the inner material, to speak about the meaning of unity and connection, and how it should be fulfilled among us and how it should be fulfilled among the masses.

Now we begin to gradually organize discussion circles among the people and to explain why connection and unity are the answers to all our problems. This is the idea of our dissemination.

People who have a point in the heart, like Aaron, his sons, and the elders can reveal a relatively deep meaning of the spiritual method.

Men (Gever – from the Hebrew word to overcome), which means those who can overcome their ego, can be taught a bit less.

It is only afterward that the people can be approached: the women, the elderly, and the children (which are all spiritual categories of people on different levels of development), those who cannot seriously work on themselves. But thanks to their mass and by joining all the other levels of society that are already corrected, it can be explained them so that they will also receive the Light of correction and become holy.

This means that the spiritual advancement is from the top down according to a pyramid hierarchy. First Aaron is taught, then his children, the elders, the men, and the rest of the people. Then all the layers of society work together.

It is impossible to develop a broad range of training without an increasingly deeper and tighter connection with the previous inner circles. Therefore, Moses and Aaron need to constantly increase and intensify the connection. not only between themselves, but also with the elders and the men, so that they will have the power to work with the people.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/26/14

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The 600,000 Faces Of The Common Soul

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Upper Light, the Creator, made a desire, “something out of nothing,” that is completely opposite to Him. This desire is the only creation that was ever made.

Later, the desire expanded under the influence of the Light and at some point started acting on its own. It aspired to become similar to the Light and considered the Light to be a remedy for achieving this goal through the act of accepting the Light for the sake of bestowal to the very best of the desire’s ability.

The desire is called the soul (Neshama). The maximum amount of Light that the desire can receive for the sake of bestowal is called NefeshRuachNeshama. The desire cannot receive other Lights, as yet. Only later, at the end of correction, the Lights of Haya and Yechida will enter the desire. Now, the desire is called Neshama, as it bears the name of the maximum Light that it can accommodate.

It means that all of us represent one soul, one desire. In order to make this single desire act independently and acquire similarity with the Creator, it was shattered into many pieces. In essence, it is still the same common desire, but now it perceives itself as being broken into 600,000 splinters. We regard ourselves as one of the fragments of the common desire.

The pieces of the desire continued to splinter to the extent that each creation in this world bears a tiny particle that once constituted a big vessel. Our goal is to get people voluntarily to reconnect all the elements.

When connected, each of the fragments, every single person, feels as one common soul. Each one merges with the rest of the 599,999 particles, thus the entire structure to a full 600,000 is obtained. Through our relations with the rest of the particles, each one of us builds one’s general soul out of 600,000 pieces.

It applies to everybody who merges with other pieces or splinters, followed by one more fragment and then another. So, when we all reconnect, we recreate our soul and together we constitute just one common desire.

By reattaching, we reach a state when we constitute one vessel. Each of us has to correct ourselves completely, i.e., merge with the rest of the pieces. So far, we are trying to connect in tens, but in fact. the same approach applies to the entire vessel, all souls, all of creation, every single person in this world, to those who lived before us and to those who are not yet born and who will show up later, after us. It doesn’t matter when.

All of them are parts of one soul because we connect to them in accordance with our personal qualities. If each of us connects to the rest of the 600,000 parts, we’ll recreate the original unique soul. Each one of us connects with others in a way that nobody else can and every person merges with others in a way that no other particle can do in the same fashion. This is why each one of us is so important!

During the process of linking with each other, we have to constantly keep in mind that even though at this time we merge with a small ten, we still are preparing to bond with the rest of creation through our tens. This is called one soul.

If we act within our group of ten with this intention, it will be sufficient for attaining the revelation of the common soul within this group.
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From the Convention In Los Angeles “Day Two” 11/01/14, lesson 4

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