New Life 783 – Going Up To The Torah
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What is the meaning of going up to the Torah, what is the spiritual stage called Bar Mitzvah, and what kind of process is a person beginning to go through when he reaches this stage?

The Torah is the program of all of reality; it explains how the higher power operates on us.

Main points:

• Two forces come from the higher power—right and left, and they are found in everything. A person must balance both of them.
• “And you shall love your friend as yourself is the great general rule of the Torah” (Yerushalmi Nedarim Chapter 9) means that all options and situations will be directed for the benefit of others.
• Spiritually, going up to the Torah means reaching the middle line, the balance between the two forces.
• Going up to the Torah for a Bar Mitzvah indicates the maturation of a boy who is ready to achieve balance.
• There were Kabbalists who achieved balance before the age of 13, but most people don’t achieve balance until the end of their lives.
• To realize the Torah, we must be in a special society that aims toward balance between people.
• We must organize ourselves within a Minyan, a group of ten, a group, and through these connections between us, we discover the good, balancing force. This force connects us, balancing between our ten opposing egoistic forces.
• One cannot read the Torah except in a Minyan because reading the Torah is the discovery of the higher power.
• There is the Torah that explains reality; there is a Torah that operates as the Light that Reforms, and there is the Torah that is the discovery of the Creator.
• The Creator is the origin, the root of everything. All our tendencies in life are directed toward discovering our roots.
• Cohen, Levi, and Israel are practices that symbolize the different intensities of a corrected ego.
• The Holy Ark and the curtain symbolize the stages of intellectual and emotional development on the way toward discovery of the Torah.
•  The cantillation signs: Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin and Otiot, are the four stages of attainment of the higher power.
• A person who organizes his inner desires according to the Torah and everything that is in it, is called a “man of Torah.”

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From KabTV’s “New Life 783 –  Going Up To The Torah,” 10/25/16

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New Life 782 – Reading The Torah
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What is the inner meaning of what is said in the Torah, what do the weekly portions represent, and why do we begin to read the Torah every year from the beginning?

The Torah is the general law of nature which explains how to behave regarding the higher operating system.

Main points:

• Reality is built in strata, and there is a higher system that manages it with an operating system called Torah.
• Moses was the first to describe it comprehensively and he gave the Torah to the people of Israel. The Torah was written in a coded language.
• The entire Torah talks about how we must be balanced in relation to the forces that act upon us. It explains how a person develops further and further toward complete balance.
• There is the Torah we read every week that is divided into portions and there is the hidden Torah. With the help of the hidden Torah, a person can discover the Creator, the general force that is operating in reality.
• There is an external maintenance of the laws of the Torah and there is its inner maintenance, which is expressed in the correction of man’s relationships to others. A person knows that he is in true balance when he acts for the benefit of others.
• There is an external reading of the Torah and there is an internal reading: the discovery of the Torah each time on a new level.
• Reading the Torah is a discovery of the higher system, making it possible to discover the Creator through it.
• On every spiritual level, a person must reach an attainment of a deeper understanding of what it reveals.
• The seven days are seven forces: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut.
• “And the heavens and earth were finished….” (Genesis 2:1) A balance between the positive force and the negative force brings a person to a state that is called Shabbat.
• The yearly reading of the Torah represents a new level of discovery of the hidden reality until its complete discovery.
• In the final point of balance, we see “from one end of the world to the other,” the full reconciliation between the opposing forces of nature.
• To read the Torah means discovering the program of the world and achieving a whole and eternal state.
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  From KabTV’s “New Life 782 – Reading The Torah,” 10/25/16

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Torah, Deuteronomy 12:22: But as the deer and the gazelle are eaten, so may you eat them; the unclean and the clean alike may eat of them.

The changing states of clean and unclean are inherent in every person because we are always in the process of correction from the complete shattering that happened at the beginning of creation to the complete correction that will be at the end.

Therefore, all my states, both clean and unclean, I must bring to complete unity. Moreover, they work simultaneously. As it is written, “Love will cover all transgressions,” meaning the transgressions remain and love covers them.

“Unclean” is the one who undergoes the period of purification. We don’t in any way destroy the previous unclean states, but we form the clean ones above them and they together lead us to contact with the Creator, which is located between them as a filling between two slices of a sandwich. The filling is the feeling of the Creator, the contact with Him, and two slices of bread are clean and unclean states.

Question: Should the feeling of the unclean state come immediately after we reach the clean state?

Answer: Of course! In order to continue correction! We must maintain both states constantly changing, as in a wheel. Therefore, our advancement is called Ofanim (“Ofen” means wheel). This is how we advance: what is at the bottom rises to the top, and whatever is at the top falls to the bottom. Therefore, there is nothing that wouldn’t simultaneously rise and fall.

A person must understand that both good and bad states, night and day, are connected together. And one works in order to make them both directed to the connection. Then it turns out that “the unclean and the clean alike may eat of them.”
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/6/16

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New Life 781 – Jewish Culture: Myths About Studying Torah
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

How does studying the Torah protect the people of Israel? Is the Torah meant only for Jews? Why is there a separation between men and women at the time of study?

A Yehudi (Jew) is someone who yearns for Yichud (union), for oneness. That is why it is said that studying the Torah is meant for Jews. It is also said that the Torah protects the people of Israel. This is referring to the people who want the ability to connect.

Main points:

• In general, people don’t feel that they hate others, but when they try to get closer to others, this is what they discover.
• In contrast, those who are in a group that studies the wisdom of Kabbalah are actively trying to be as if they are one, like a centipede with one mind and one heart. To the degree that we connect, we receive Light, meaning a special power that develops new intellectual and emotional capabilities. To realize this requires at least ten people who want to connect (men separately and women separately). The concept of a Minyan comes from here.
• A person who observes a group of Kabbalists cannot understand what they are feeling. That is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is also called the hidden wisdom.
• Maintaining the 613 Mitzvot (commandments) means correcting the 613 egoistic desires that are inherent in us. All the customs of Judaism actually signify the spiritual actions that we must carry out to correct the relationships between us. For instance, hand washing signifies cleansing our absorptive Kli from an intention of taking from others for ourselves.
• The correct reading of sacred writings written by those with spiritual attainment can happen only through group study under the guidance of a teacher of Kabbalah.
• The joint reading of books of Kabbalah by a group must be done with texts that were written by those who had spiritual attainment.
• In our era, the secular public is closer to recognition of the true Torah, the wisdom of Kabbalah, as opposed to the religious community, which is satisfied with its form of life.
• The wisdom of Kabbalah will add to the secular public an awareness of the goal of existence and a connection to eternity and wholeness.
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  From KabTV’s “New Life 781 – Jewish Culture: Myths About Studying Torah,” 10/20/16

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The group where a person undergoes correction is a mini-humanity that was formed in the ancient Babylon.  After numerous descents and ascents, the members of the group complete their correction, rise above their egoism, and form a correct society among themselves.

Naturally, at the end of their correction demands become tougher. Therefore the name of the Torah portion “Rehe” (Behold) sounds like a warning, “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse” (Deuteronomy, 11:26).

After all, a person has already been prepared to treat the spiritual elevation seriously, rise to the next level of existence, go beyond the limitations of the material world of objects, and exist in the world of properties.

This is the land of Israel, meaning the world of intentions, qualities, and properties that don’t have any relation to what we feel now. When a person enters it, he gradually loses the sense of the material world and exists in it, as if leaving his body.

He doesn’t perceive the body as something necessary. It just binds him to others that haven’t entered the sensation of the upper state yet. However, in principle, we all will enter it gradually.

Question: Can any of the twelve tribes that approached the land of Israel turn back?

Answer: No. At this stage of the journey it can’t happen.  Everyone is focused on the land of Israel. Still, each of the twelve tribes has its own path, its own technique, and its own means of communication.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/6/16

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New Life 780 – The Study Of Torah Is Not What You Thought
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What do we imagine the Torah is beyond historical events, how does it spread before us a deeper and wider reality than the one with which we are familiar, and how does it develop the person who studies it?

The study of Torah is not what is customary in our day and not how we understand it. The Torah is the program of the world. Studying Torah is learning about the world, how it is built and is managed according to a program of development. True study of Torah is not just study; rather, it changes a person and raises him to the summit of reality.
The main points:

• The study of the whole of nature, which is also called Elohim, shows how we can climb toward the highest level.
• Within himself, a person can develop a system that is called a soul, which will be like the entire system of nature.
• The texts that were written in the sacred books were written in codes that must be deciphered. To crack the codes, a person must change himself. He must change his mind and feelings.
• The more a person expands his love for others, the greater the depth he will discover in the Torah. Love of others develops a sense in a person that makes it possible for him to go out of himself and absorb the true reality. A person begins to acquire divine intelligence and feeling, and is connected with eternity and the wholeness of nature.
• To be connected to the power of the Torah requires a teacher who is a Kabbalist and special work within a study group.
• The Torah is the Light that surrounds us. We must study how to place ourselves before it, like sunbathing.
• “And meditate on it day and night” (Joshua 1:8) means that a person must constantly search for how to advance toward love of others.
• I read a book within a group and hope to receive the force of connection and love, which is how the Torah becomes opened for us.
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  From KabTV’s “New Life 780 – The Study Of Torah Is Not What You Thought,” 10/20/16

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Torah, Deuteronomy 12:20: When the Lord, your God, expands your boundary, as He has spoken to you, and you say, “I will eat meat,” because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat, according to every desire of your soul.

If a person comes to a state where he can receive the largest Upper Lights for the sake of bestowal – meaning that he can receive enormous pleasures not for himself, but rather for passing them to others – then it becomes possible for him to do this. He receives power and help from the Creator.

This is the meaning of “when the Lord your God expands your boundary and you may eat meat” (receive the Upper Light) according to every desire of your soul.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book,” 6/30/16

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Torah, Deuteronomy 12:17: You may not eat within your cities the tithe of your grain, or of your wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your cattle or of your sheep, or any of your vows that you will vow, or your donations, or the separation by your hand.

Tithing (Maaser) belongs to the Cohens (Priests). The Cohen is that part of egoism that we cannot use correctly and therefore should abandon.

Usually we pay the tithe for the dissemination of Kabbalah. People always separate one tenth of their income because a person cannot correct the tenth part of his egoism before the final correction that will occur at the end of the 6,000 years.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/30/16

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New Life 779 –  Studying The Torah Today
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

The Torah is not a book or an encyclopedia, but an upper force that exists in nature called the Light.

The first to discover the upper force 5,777 years ago was called Adam and then Abraham discovered it after him.

Abraham taught his group how to draw the Upper Light, called the Torah, in order to connect people through love. This is how the nation of Israel was founded. Later a new egoistic desire was revealed among the nation of Israel and this process is referred to as going down to Egypt.

The exodus from Egypt describes how we ascend above the egoism that divides us. Then there is a series of instructions of how we should correct ourselves, according to which we have to connect as one man in one heart, in mutual guarantee.

We have 613 egoistic desires and the force of the Torah corrects each of them. Throughout history there were times in which the people used the Torah correctly and times when they didn’t.

After the destruction of the second Temple, only Rashbi’s group of ten people was left, and they passed The Book of Zohar, the Light for the future, to us. Today The Book of Zohar was revealed thanks to the Sulam Commentary, which is meant to help us draw the Light in the Torah.

The Ari discovered the wisdom of Kabbalah back in the 16^th century in Safed and Baal Shem Tov was the next to discover it. Every generation is given the writings that are suitable for it, and in our generations it is the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash.

The Torah has been studied in exile since the destruction of the Temple, which means studying what is written in the book without correcting the heart. Today we have to return to the original attitude to the Torah as a means for the correction of the heart and the connection between us.

Why do we need the Torah today? Because the world is in a general crisis and the ego is the cause of the collapse of systems.

The saying “and you shall repeat to your sons” means that for thousands of years the Torah has kept us as the level of “the still nature of Holiness.” Today it is our duty to add the internality of the Torah since without it the externality will not be preserved either.

Studying the wisdom of Kabbalah is studying in a group in order to connect.

The Jews are different from all the other nations of the world since it is their duty to connect and to set an example of love to all of humanity. They are the spearhead on the way to correcting the world and therefore it says: “My home will be called a home of prayer for all the nations.”
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From KabTV’s “New Life 779 – Studying The Torah Today,” 10/18/16

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Torah, Deuteronomy 12:16 However, you shall not eat the blood; you shall spill it on the ground like water.

Blood represents the form of the Upper Light that we cannot receive because it exists in our biggest egoistic desire that will be corrected only in the final correction.

Only approaching the end of the 6,000-year period (6,000 degrees beginning from Adam) can we correct this desire. Moreover, we just prepare this desire and it will be corrected not by us, but by the Upper Light that comes from above and corrects it.

This action is called “Rav poalim mekabtziel.” This is the coming of the Messiah, the Upper Light. Then the lowest, heaviest egoistic layer is corrected and filled with the Light that is called blood.

Therefore, the most important thing, when using meat, is to free it from blood. All the rituals associated with blood, with a test for blood, with blood output, etc. are based on the fact that this is a natural life for our egoism and we can correct it only at the very last stage.

In addition, such concepts as pure or impure blood also revolve around this: how we can and how we cannot use it, how to be purified from blood and at the same time use it in the correct form, in order to develop. After all, if blood is the basis for life, it is impossible to exist without it.

Blood rises from the uterus to the breasts of the breastfeeding woman, turns into milk that is ready for feeding a baby; that is, it turns from red (the quality of reception) to white (the quality of bestowal).
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/30/16

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