Entries in the 'The Creator' Category

Why Did The Creator Make The Evil Inclination?

laitman_207Question: How could the Creator, who is completely good, and doeth good, create the evil inclination that doesn’t bear His property? Why did He do it? Why aren’t we born to a world that is full of benevolence?

Answer: If we were born in a completely wonderful world, we would be like angels who have no evil inclination. That is, we would exist only in accordance with one singular force.

However, the purpose of the creation is to attain the Creator’s level, get smarter, perceive, and reach the same state as His, acquire similar power and parallel properties with the Creator, i.e., become totally like Him.

To achieve this level, we just have to bear the properties that are opposite to the Creator. However, we also should possess the qualities that are similar to His, i.e., we should be comprised of two parts. One part is the evil inclination, the properties that are adverse to the Creator, with which we are born to this world.

Whereas, the second part, the Creator’s qualities, should be acquired by us, on our own. This is how we are supposed to “build” ourselves by involving both parts more vigorously, thus becoming more and more like the Creator.

The process of achieving His level consists of 125 degrees. It continues until we reach the state called “The sons of the Creator returned to Him.” It happens when we reach equivalence of properties with the Creator. For that, we need to be comprised of two opposite parts.

Therefore, the Creator made the evil inclination, a selfish desire. However, He is the One who grants us benevolent desires when we ask Him. These two forces allow us to reach perfection.

Question: But how can I obtain properties that I know nothing about?

Answer: To make it happen you have to join a group that works on the same task. You should engage in it. You won’t be able to do it alone, on your own. Group connection elicits the Returning Light, and thus receive a second, positive force of nature that balances out the negativity in each of us.
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From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 5/17/15

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The Spirit Of The Russian Jewry

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: For some time great Kabbalists lived in Russian cities: the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and others. Did this influence the spirit of Russian Jewry?

Answer: Without a doubt, students of the Baal Shem Tov lived in every city. The Baal Shem Tov first began to apply the wisdom of Kabbalah that the Ari revealed in the 16th century. He taught this to his many Kabbalist students, those who attained the highest level in the system. Their role was to arouse inspiration in the people, to correctly elevate, stabilize, and lead them forward. This was the idea of restoring the spirit of the people, which they had already lost at the time of the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash (Temple), when they fell from the level of mutual love to mutual hatred. So the need ripened to raise the people from the egoistic level of rejection, to the altruistic level of mutual love.

The Baal Shem Tov established what was called Hassidism, practical Kabbalistic work. But it is necessary to say that the Hassidism of today is much different. The Baal Shem Tov changed the study of the Ari to bring it closer to the people and show them them inner correction. In this way, he implemented the general rule of the Torah, “Love thy neighbor as yourself.” The people were then able to leave both spiritual and physical exile, because one is connected to the other. But if a person was not ready for spiritual redemption, he also would not attain physical freedom.

So for two generations until the 18th century, the Kabbalistic current that was called Hassidism prospered. In every village and settlement, there were people who were involved in attaining the Creator on the basis of the right connection between them, which is what the Torah requires. In this way, Judaism became spiritual, and many people appeared who became teachers. At the same time, opponents of Hassidism appeared, but no matter what, both groups began to rise spiritually and this played an immense role in influencing the environment.

Around that time, opportunistic people began to appear, which changed everything and replaced the popular current so that they were no longer involved with the attainment of Torah. Instead, they simply carried out the physical Mitzvot (commandments) with some kind of slightly greater inner aspiration, but no more than that. This means that Hassidism fell to a lower level. But until the end of the 19th century and in spite of all this, there were still a multitude of Kabbalists who felt the higher world, the system of management. From this, they taught others. This very strongly influenced the spirit of Russian Jewry and was rooted in them forever. So the continued discovery of the spiritual world, the discovery of the soul, the feeling of the upper world, and the entire system of discovery of the Creator as the higher force of management, pushed, and today still pushes a large part of the Jews of Russia towards true spiritual attainment.

Among my students today, it is possible to find many from the former Soviet Union and Russians still living in Russia. Even today, the spiritual potential that was inserted into them by the followers of the Baal Shem Tov still lives within them.
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From KabTV’s “About Our Life” 5/07/15

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Showing The World Our Bright Faces

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: How can a person break away from the spiritual path if his point in the heart draws him to it?

Answer: The whole generation that came out of Egypt has to die, and only those who are born in the desert reach the land of Israel. They either all die or they are all born as new people when they reach the point of Bina.

Being born as a new people is exposing the points in the heart to the Light so that from it emerges a whole image of man that resembles the Creator. All the others will die, which means all the other attributes in a person. It is just as we see in our world when a thousand come into a room and only one comes out as a teacher.

Question: Now when we engage in dissemination we don’t wait for this point to be revealed in a person, but actually begin to awaken it in him. Is this somewhat aggressive manner justified in your opinion?

Answer: I don’t think that we are aggressive because our primary motive is not to impose our method on anyone, but to identify with his suffering, his deficiencies, and his unfulfilled dreams. We feel sorry and identify with him and begin to realize that the pain and deficiencies he feels are a result of his helplessness and hopelessness.

He doesn’t admit it, but we begin to confess: “There isn’t enough security in my environment. Look at what happens to me, my children, my grandchildren. What is happening with the weather.” He complains about power failures, water shortages, about the large utility bills he has to pay, etc. He doesn’t forget local politics, global politics, and everything that is on the news, even though it doesn’t concern him.

If we take all that into account, we get the feeling of uselessness, despair, emptiness, and lack of purpose that are subconsciously expressed as complaints about everything. It seems that if he accepts it, then everything will work out, but if he is given a goal and told that nothing comes to an end, that everything has a goal and that everything will be fine, this goal will cover all his complaints.

People don’t die of hunger, of course, but they lack the most basic things. We see that it is impossible to fix anything unless we correct ourselves and begin to connect and think about one another. After all, there is an excess of everything we need in the world, but at the same time, in some countries half of their population is starving and the only reason is that we are not connected.

We mustn’t calm ourselves and say that it will all this will be adjusted in some way. It cannot be! This is the reason that our contact with the world today has become so vital.

The main thing is that the crisis is now evident in every aspect of life. I see how deep it is and it is a very unpleasant feeling because if we look at things objectively, it is like an approaching tsunami that is threatening to wipe us all out. Therefore, it is either facing terrible afflictions that will force us all to correct ourselves or prevent these sufferings with our explanations that will cause people to start correcting themselves before the troubles arrive. Animals can feel an approaching tsunami and escape in advance, but our ego doesn’t let us feel an approaching disaster in advance and deceives us by whispering to us that everything is fine!

Animals cannot survive that way. We are in a worse situation because we are disconnected from nature. In order to merge with nature we have to be in the attribute of bestowal and balance our egoism through this attribute. Only then will we ascend to the level of Moses and will be able to speak with the Creator.

If we connect to nature, we will be able to correctly solve all our problems and advance to goodness. Otherwise our ego will keep on confusing us. We are destroying our life, and the situation is really becoming threatening. I am not trying to scare anyone; everyone already knows all this. People have simply gotten used to the idea that a war may break out and there will be problems, annihilation, and death. We have become apathetic: Let’s live peacefully today, and what comes tomorrow, it doesn’t matter. The world is in a state of absolute helplessness and people cannot do anything with their lives, with mankind, with everything that we have done and caused.

Never in human history were people reluctant to have children or to think and care about them, and never did children leave their parents and travel far away from them. But on the other hand, we also see the other extreme today when infantile grownups (30-40 year-olds) live with their parents and have no intention of having a family of their own.

We have reached the last phase of the development of egoism that is already in need of correction. Therefore, it is time that we tell the whole world that we have the two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments in our hands. Let’s lift the iron mask a bit and expose our bright faces to everyone.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/30/13

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It Will Be A Day Of Rest For You

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Exodus” 35:1 – 35:3: Moses called the whole community of the children of Israel to assemble, and he said to them: “These are the things that the Lord commanded to make. Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have sanctity, a day of complete rest to the Lord; whoever performs work thereon [on this day] shall be put to death. You shall not kindle fire in any of your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.”

Initially we deal with the egoistic desires of a person or the society.

The Torah tell us that all we need to do is overcome our ego and gather together above it into one single whole. So this Parasha (Torah portion), is called, “VaYikahel” (assembled).

It speaks about the gathering of all the separated, distant, and hostile parts of the collective soul, which are found in all of us and which we need to gather, like a puzzle, into one single soul.

Through the connection of these parts, we begin to arrange them under the influence of the Ohr Makif (Surrounding Light), the characteristic of bestowal and love of the Creator. If we try to be like Him, then to the degree of our efforts, He will influence us and help our gathering into a mutual, integral connection.

Then we will see how our mutual characteristics create something whole, some kind of complete image, which in the wisdom of Kabbalah is called a Partzuf, meaning a block or structure.

This Partzuf is composed of Sefirot: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Malchut. In the first six Sefirot, that symbolize the six days of the week, we need to work in gathering the separated parts of the soul. If we succeed in this, then the Light will finish the complete gathering, working on our efforts throughout the six days of work. And then we do not need to do anything more, since on the seventh day our work is finished.

We make it possible for the Light to finish this welding between us in which then the complete unit of the soul emerges from the separated parts we gathered.

We finish a week, and begin a new week. A part and then another part is gathered, and in this way, we gather our entire common soul. Within a particular number of actions like these we attain the spiritual gathering of all the parts becoming one complete unit, the likeness of Adam (man), which means Domeh (similar to the Creator). With this, we attain the complete correction of humanity, which we must reach.

So Shabbat is the holiest day, for on this day the Light acts, influences our efforts, and finishes them. It is as if throughout the six days we create the work to be done, and on the seventh day the Light carries it out.

If on the seventh day we continue this work, then it is as if we are happy about this shattering of the soul of Adam because we are attempting to do the work instead of the Light. This is the greatest violation of the entire system of correction.

In general, we do part of the work and the Light does part of the work. If we do all of the work ourselves, we are adding even greater destruction into the system and even more strongly rejecting the reciprocity of all the parts that we gathered during the week. Generally, it is preferable to do nothing at all than to gather all week and continue this even on the seventh day. In this way, we would negate the entire method of correction of the system and all of its forward progress.

So prior to the seventh day, it is necessary to finish our efforts, meaning that we stop on the sixth day and make it possible for the Light to weld all the parts, sticking them together. It is said, “It will be a day of rest for you.” Basically, the person is doing work and not just resting. At this time, we finally feel the gradual unity of all six parts into one general whole and we finish the correction of the present spiritual level. And after that, we correct the next level and the next, and so on, week after week.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 10/10/13

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So As To Not Remain A Lump Of Ego

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe whole world is an egoistic state of matter. Everything that is in the still, vegetative, and animate levels exists only in order to preserve itself in the best way possible.

In human matter it is even more exaggerated since I want to sustain myself in the best possible way compared to the rest of the environment of the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels. I have to be in the most comfortable state so that the whole universe will engage in serving my ego. This is a person’s natural inclination. If we could only see how we restrain ourselves internally just because we don’t want to suffer. I ask myself why I should torture myself just because I am not Einstein or Picasso. I don’t want to feel sorry as if I am cutting a part of myself off, accepting that I will not be a Tolstoy or Shakespeare…

The ego has a defensive reaction for every desire that isn’t fulfilled, but wherever I can, I want to grab and subdue everything for my own sake. This is our nature; a person is ready to swallow the whole world.

We cannot change our nature by ourselves. It was created and is sustained in us and in the whole universe thanks to a force called the Light. This force is invisible and not felt in any way by our senses, as it constantly creates, develops, and sustains the ego.

But inside the ego, there is a separate point that doesn’t belong to it, a point that scrutinizes the egoism. The Light that operates on the ego also affects this point. It begins to develop and feel where it is; asking itself, “I’m in some kind of nature? Who am I? Where am I?”

If this point seriously develops in a person (in fact this point exists in everyone, in some more and some less), it begins to ask itself: “What do is this for, why and from where? Why was I created? Was I created in order to suffer? If so, then I curse you as the source that has condemned me to such an existence. If it is for another purpose then what is it exactly? I demand an explanation from You!”

When a person demands an explanation from the Light, the Creator, he comes in contact with Him through the point in the heart, because this point is man and everything else exists in the animate state.

What can actually interest me? It can either be my own nature and how I exist within it in maximum comfort for several years and make as little effort as possible and receive as much pleasure as possible. Or, I yearn for my root, for my source, asking: “Who are You, the one who created and manages me?” This is the highest form of yearning in the dipole of the ego and the point that can develop within it.

The moment the point in the heart begins to develop, it can immediately be given its non-egoistic method of development that is fulfilled only under the influence of the upper Light. If this is what I want it to come to me more often, to have greater influence over me, it is revealed to me in my logic, understanding, and feelings,  in its goals and plans for me because it is the source of power, information—everything.

This is actually what the point in the heart or the human being in me demands. Then I am given the Torah and I begin to work with it. Anyone in whom this inclination is invoked should value it and truly fear that it could disappear and that he will remain a lump of stone of the ego or the beast.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/30/14

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Processing The Emptiness In The Desert

Dr. Michael LaitmanThe Torah, “Numbers” 1:52 – 1:53: The children of Israel shall encamp, each man by his own camp and each man by his division. The Levites shall encamp around the Mishkan of the Testimony, so that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel and the Levites shall keep the charge of the Mishkan of the Testimony.

It says in Midrash Raba that when Moses counted the Jews, dividing and classifying them according to the tribes, the Creator taught him how to become one camp and how to advance, which means how to put the ruined vessel back together.

Four types of egoism on three lines make up the 12 tribes, the 12 parts of the spiritual vessel. The shattered vessel must be corrected by uniting all the parts into one as the people advance in the desert, which means according to the revelation of the ego in every camp and in every tribe.

The Creator teaches the nation how to gather everyone so that each time they absorb new corrupt emptiness, process it internally, and correct it into the attribute of bestowal. This is the advancement in the desert in 40 years (levels). This is how the corrected part from Malchut to Bina must be the accurate unity of the nation and thus conclude the building of their connection with the Creator.

The movement of the camp in the desert symbolizes the processing of the emptiness. This is actually a very unpleasant movement forward since the desert is swarming with scorpions and snakes, the sun is burning, there is no food or water, and everyone is covered with sores. In other words, the desert symbolizes a person’s growing, burning egoism. People feel the connection between them like a sore that touches another sore, and the pain will not let them unite. They must ascend above it, and although the Light that comes doesn’t heal the sores, it formats them into one general, healthy body. The pain and the sores turn into one unified vessel in which pleasure is revealed.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/24/14

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What Is Our Main Problem?

Laitman_083The main problem of humanity is re-education to understand that we don’t control what is happening; we are within a system that reacts precisely to all of our thoughts, while our physical actions don’t arouse any response from the system.

A person must be presented with the fact that he influences the system of the forces of nature through his thoughts and intentions, while his future depends upon a response from the system. A person must be placed in frameworks like these, in such a network that he will always understand that only the right influence through intention and inner effort is what builds his future.

What I yearn for in the present determines my situation in the next moment. And if I accept the system of creation as unified and integral, then through my intentions I influence the state of all of humanity, I manage the state of all of humanity, and it influences me. This means that just as I relate to what is happening now, so in the next moment there will be a way for me to adjust to it. And intention is the main means for discovering the true picture; it is designed to detect my unity with the system of management that includes everything that exists. In the meantime, it is only a feeling of unity in the world. But to the degree that the circle of my field of vision expands, it will include within it all the rest of the worlds as well.

From here it becomes clear that the main problem is to put the person before the fact of his permanent influence on the natural system, on the system of management, the system of cyclical connection. Moreover, this system must be perceived by the person as “still,” and revealed within it are all of the laws about which the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks. It is “still” in the sense that it lacks change, “He hath made a decree which shall not be transgressed.” (Psalms 148:6). But when we are talking about this system, we explain its actions in “human” language, as it is said, the Torah speaks the language of the people, projecting onto it our feelings, the system can be compassionate, angry and so forth, but it is said this way because that is what a person understands, a person “humanizes” nature, creates its image and that of the Creator correspondent to him, as a system that is like him with which he has a mutual connection.

This is even though it is completely incorrect to attribute human characteristics to the Creator. This is also dangerous because this distracts a person from cooperating with the system, with the Creator, correctly. A person begins to think that the Creator can also be changed, like he. That is, a person perceives the Creator as being like himself, as someone who chooses to respond and to act, as existing in a framework of freedom of choice. But there is no freedom of choice in the higher system!

It is written, “I created everything that exists according to law. This law is called by My name, you call Him “HaVaYaH.” I created everything through it and you discover Me through it.” This is referring to the four letter name of the Creator, which are the five phases of development of the Direct Light (including the root stage), 0-1-2-3-4 (Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet).

And we must understand, that nothing changes here. To speak about the Creator means to speak about nature, to speak about the only system that acts according to a particular law and can never be changed, changing those laws, that system of management, “He hath made a decree which shall not be transgressed.” So it is said: “The Creator is merciful,” “the Creator changes,” but to expect changes from Him is a person’s biggest mistake.

A person is given the possibility of choosing the proper way for his development, the “way of suffering” or the “way of Torah.” The choice of the right way for development doesn’t conclude by providing a distance from suffering, as we subconsciously awaken to our nature as suffering becomes only a sign that I am acting and developing incorrectly. Whereas advancement requires not “suffering,” but being directed towards “fulfillment of others, the Creator,” and it is up to me to change myself so that through these activities suffering becomes pleasure.

And where suffering is discovered in acts of bestowal is where I can ask the Creator (the Light that Reforms) to change my characteristics so that bestowal will become happiness. But even in this case I ask for happiness not because I want to feel happy but because I want to make the Creator happy, to become adjusted to the system. Then my movement and progress will be correct. And this is where the problem begins: What is more important to me: my sufferings or giving contentment to the Creator and working in a group?
Good luck!
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What Distinguishes The Family Of The Future?

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What is the ultimate force of nature, which will operate in the future family? Is it related to religion?

Answer: It is not about religion, but about the fact that we are all connected to each other above our egoism. It is written that the Shechina (divine presence) abides between a husband and wife.

The future of the family lies in the action of the upper force of nature upon it, the force of love, unity, and mutual bestowal. In such a family we will be connected by the ties that are above our animal level.

Due to the family, a person will have more than a warm and cozy family nest where one feels safe and receives help in case of illness and old age. We will build a network of relationships between us, inside of which we will reveal the force of bestowal and love that exists above our nature.

Question: Why are there families which seemingly enjoy full material prosperity, but feel they that they lack family warmth?

Answer: It is for this reason that people divorce. They feel a void that cannot be filled by anything. The family does not have what I want. And what I want, I do not know.

People feel that they need a new form of family ties, but do not know where to look for or how to find them. And thus they get divorced.

The family of the future will have a new connection that leads a married couple to a higher purpose for which it is worthwhile living together. Indeed, if not for this, then what is the point of having a family?

You can buy prepared food in a supermarket, do your laundry in an automatic washing machine, so you can invite a woman over for an evening. Children can be visited once a week, and indeed, we do not see them often because we work so much. What benefits does the family add to our fully arranged, comfortable life?

Question: What is missing in today’s family?

Answer: The family lacks a higher purpose other than conventional, material animal wellbeing. We are required to reveal the human degree in our family in order to discover the Shechina between us, to reveal the upper force, and to have an eternal and perfect life. And it really can be achieved through connection within the family, with other families, and eventually with the whole world.

The upper force is the force of love and bestowal. It is called “upper” because it is above us, above the egoists, who are opposite to it, love only themselves, and do not love others.

Question: What will we feel in the future family that we do not have today?

Answer: We will feel a life without any restrictions and one filled will all flavors. We will need the whole world. Our family will be in such a connection with the other families that we feel confident, joyful, restricted by nothing. Children will grow up in this atmosphere and will be brought up according to it. We must come to this.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 2/15/15

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The World To Come, Here And Now!

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: In what way is the world that I am seeing now in my life different from the world to come about which it is said: “You will see your world in your life,” (Berachot 17a)?

Now I am now alive and see what everyone sees, a world full of hatred. What kind of benefit do I have from this “immense” computer about which you speak, that brings the entire system to a state of separation, hatred, and distrust in our relationships with each other?

Answer: I see this entire gigantic, higher mechanism and how He plays with us to bring us to develop so that we will become like Him by rising to His level. It is said, “And the children will return to their father in heaven (the Creator),” (Vayikra Rabbah 1:3). Then I begin to justify Him, understand Him, and see in what manner I now need to behave in order to live on that level  at all times and not have to wait!

The moment I begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, I have the possibility of ascending to this level of the force that manages this.
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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 4/12/15

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From Genesis To Israel

Dr. Michael LaitmanEach of the five parts of the Torah represents a totally new level in a person’s development or in the development of a group of people who want to fulfill the conditions of the Torah in order to rise to the level of the Creator.

The Torah is like a spiritual elevator that raises our properties to a new level. Those who enter it and shut the doors are ready to work on themselves against their ego. They go through five egoistic phases, which are increasingly greater in their intensity and Aviut (thickness) because egoism is crafty.

While studying each of the five parts of the Torah, the ego grows not only in quantity, but also in quality. This is a very difficult and complicated process. But at the same time, a person grows wiser and begins to understand his egoistic nature. Moreover, it penetrates the connections between all parts of nature, just as one enters a certain organization and discovers how people are connected to one another, the organization’s policies, and the ties of mutual connections between different departments etc.

In spiritual work, however, a person clarifies human nature and the nature of the soul. His advancement is on a higher level, gives greater penetration into the individual and the general connection of all the parts of the soul and all of the creation.

At the beginning, he perceives the general creation in a simple manner, like a small child. Then he is split, upgraded, and separated into parts so that by their connections and their division, a person penetrates more deeply into this system. He discovers new obstacles, new mutual connections, individual laws, etc., and so he studies and examines it from the beginning (Genesis) to the end.

He grows in the transition from one part of the Torah to another and can be told about the laws of creation and be held responsible for keeping them. There is an egoistic desire in a person to discover the Creator that occurs despite the unity with others. A certain formula has to work in it: I connect and unite with the others in order to discover the Creator in the connection between us because this is how I can fill Him with joy, just as He wants to fill me. It is in this state that I unite with Him.

When we begin to relate to our conditions correctly, different forces of help, support, and resistance appear in us. They are gradually revealed: first on the zero level of desire and then on levels one, two, three, and four, a total of five levels. There are the five books of the Torah. In these phases we move from the first word in Genesis “Bereshit” – “In the beginning” to the last word “Israel.”
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/17/14

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