The Torah, “Numbers,” 13:3 – 13:5: So Moses sent them from the desert of Paran by the word of the Lord. All of them were men of distinction; they were the heads of the children of Israel. These are their names: For the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zakkur. For the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori.

All the names in the Torah, and especially the names of the spies, have a special inner meaning. Their numerology symbolizes attributes by which the future land of Israel can be explored. This is the reason that we have to reveal and expose these attributes inside us,  prepare ourselves for them, and make them a group. In this group, made of the heads of tribes, they are correctly united. Thanks to this force of unity, they advance towards a gradual equality of their attributes with those that are in the land of Canaan and see to what extent they cannot fight them.

In other words, the force of togetherness, connection, and unity that they attained is not enough to overcome the force of the ego that can overcome them and tear them to pieces. They simply don’t understand how to overcome and dominate it. But the state they are in is absolutely correct. It is impossible to say that they had missed something while exploring the land and that they couldn’t clarify things. Everything is correct! All the attributes by which a person intends to conquer the land of Canaan are not enough to conquer it.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 3/30/15

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Question: 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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Convention in Guadalajara “Preparatory Lesson”

Convention in Guadalajara “Day One” Workshop 1

Convention in Guadalajara “Day One,” “The Spiritual Ladder,” Lesson 1

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Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Conventions, Convention in Mexico, Part 5”

Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Item 56

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings,” “And to Cleave Onto Him”

Workshop

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The Great Commentary, “Bamidbar”: Supernaturally, streams of water emanated from Miriam’s well and separated the Shechina’s camp from the Levites’ camp, and then the Levites’ camp from the camp of the children of Israel.

The streams have branched off into the creeks that separated the parts of the tribes. However, no creek divided Joseph sons’– Manasseh and Ephraim – camps.

It is believed that Miriam’s well is in the lake of Galilee. Don’t try to find spirituality in the material world, although everything that exists in the spiritual world is reflected in materiality. Each branch of this world has its spiritual root. “Miriam’s well” is a spiritual state in which spiritual qualities are categorized.

The well can be visualized as the Milky Way, or as a woman’s breast milk intended to breastfeed bestowal. What does the “Milky Way” signify? Naming the intersection of stars in the sky “the Milky Way” is not accidental. “Cosmos” denotes bestowal of the Upper Force.

“Miriam’s well” separates the Cohens, Levites, and Israel to the degree of their ability to bestow. Nevertheless, as we see, it doesn’t separate Joseph and his two sons (Manasseh and Ephraim) because Joseph (Yosef) is Yesod, the state of a pure righteousness. At the level of complete bestowal, there is no separation among categories. That’s why the two sons of Joseph were not split apart.

Question: Does it mean that categorizing is still necessary for the time being?

Answer: Unless each of the properties manifests itself fully, they won’t reach a state of a mutual coupling. After Adam’s sin, i.e., after the shattering of the general soul into numerous people, each soul continued to mature for thousands of years. We have accrued so much egoism that it is extremely hard for us to come closer to each other and reconnect.

This was done only to show that we are selfish and then to rise above our egoism to the property of bestowal and love. When we all reach unity without losing our great individual properties, we’ll reveal the Creator.

If not for our mounting selfishness that manifests in us so vividly, if not for connecting above our egos, and at the same time retaining our egoism inside us, we would never perceive the Creator. After all, He is everlasting; it’s us who don’t feel Him. It is our job to sense Him 620 times stronger and progress from zero to Infinity.

Therefore, all material selfish properties must be preserved and should be interconnected with the altruistic glue. This will allow us to reveal the Creator who explicitly fills the entire world.

As for the separation, it existed at the time of the First Temple when the people of Israel reached their highest degree. It was then forbidden to marry those who belonged to other tribes.

But when they began descending to the lower level, their egoism began to grow, and a spiritual downfall occurred. At this point, the rule lost its importance and people began mixing among themselves.

Before this happened, the ban was strictly observed because the spiritual work in each property was so obvious that all properties were clearly categorized and separated from one another. People were able to differentiate among them. We too, will achieve this state someday.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/24/14

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Singapore Experiment: The Right Dictatorship

Question: In March this year, Lee Kuan Yew, one of the founders of the “Singapore economic miracle,” died. On an empty spot on the edge of a swampy Malaysia, with nothing around but an English military base, within a short period of 50 years, the most prosperous nation in the world was established. But in this nation, there is not a speck of democracy in the sense that we understand it in the developed nations. How did this nation succeed in doing what large nations like America and England have done, while maintaining the strictest leadership and dictatorship of law?

Answer: I don’t perceive democracy in the same way as it exists everywhere, or that that deserves to be called a democracy. This is not the rule of the people, but its imitation: A handful of people take control over all the economic, political, social, and military resources; they say there is a democracy, and that they operate in the name of the people.

As long as we are under the influence of internal egoism without the altruistic force of nature to balance it, there cannot be a democracy. A democracy is built on contrast, a counterweight and a balance between two forces, which are positive and negative: our ego and the force of bestowal and love. There is a force of hatred and rejection and a power of attraction and connection, which must be balanced with each other. If the ego is balanced by a positive force, then it cannot be evil. And conversely, love and bestowal without the ego can lead to even worse extremism than the ego.

In other words, we were created in a system that is in a balance of plus and minus, between which what remains is only to ignite some kind of tension that gives the right orientation for all the work of the system. And if the positive force doesn’t exist or it is minimal and exists only in fear of annihilation, then we don’t have the conditions for a democracy. We “fall out” of the system in which the two forces are revealed. And therefore when we exist only in an egoistic system, what is most suitable for us is the correct dictatorship.

If a king rules a nation, then he takes care of his nation, his subjects, he doesn’t annihilate them, and they consider him to be great! He is the master! But in a democratic nation, there is no master. We let an election decide who operates the steering wheel for two, three, or four years, and then what? What do the elite care about what will be after that?! They will not be elected again, so they need to grab everything they can while they are in control.

So the dictatorship in Singapore is a wonderful system of government. Democracy in the form of a Sanhedrin.

Question: I have heard that the correct head of the state should be Kabbalists, who knowing the laws of nature,  will manage it in the interests of the entire society. What will be the basis of the moral drive of their behavior? Wouldn’t they be infected with greed; won’t they want to get rich after they attain control?

Answer: There is a concept such as the Sanhedrin (great assembly), where 120 Kabbalist sages gather, connect in a circle, and discuss all the issues on the agenda. The discussion is not based on differences of opinion, which is typical of our world, where it is believed that truth is born through debate. There is no truth in debate, because from the start it keeps us on a beastly level and we cannot rise above that. And we must rise above ourselves, because our stage can only lead to a higher level. We seem to rise to our next level, from which it is possible to see how to reach it.

This happens when people unite into a single, complete unit in spite of all the differences of opinion, and by annihilating their ego, they reach a common heart and mind together. This is a unique inner tension and practical work. From a state of unity, and only with this, they complement each other; they begin to come to a common opinion. But it is not connected to personal opinions; rather, is felt through a common unity. It is in this form that the system of governance for the nation and the people should be manifested.

How can strife and discord be avoided?

Question: Today many nations are trying to recreate this model to one degree or another. Take for example Turkey, in which the government has gradually become concentrated in the hands of one person, or Russia, that doesn’t even hide that it lives and thrives thanks to one person. There are also a multitude of other examples in less developed nations. Does it follow that the formation of governmental pyramids like this is the only way it is possible for humanity to go? So, where is it possible to take people like these who are satisfied with such a method of management?  And eventually in Singapore, which was not originally corrupt, all the key places became occupied by relatives of Lee Kuan Yew. Ultimately, some kind of caste was created.

Answer: Certainly this model cannot exist forever in an ideal state once bribery, power struggles, and the like begin. For some time it can hold its position on some ideal, but after that, everything deteriorates along the usual egoistic tracks.

Question: How would the Kabbalists avoid reaching this situation in the management of the nation?

Answer: The fact that they are united among themselves, the 120 greatest sages of the people would avoiding conflict and differences of opinion. Specifically in this situation, they would begin to discuss some issue and from their unity, they would receive an answer. After all, the unity between them is their next goal, which they must reach and include all people with them.

Question: Do discussions in circles, which your students organize, constitute a small version of this form of unity?

Answer: Yes. Discussions in the form of roundtables are organized all over the world, not just in Israel. We actively create a gathering, a discussion circle of men and women, who implement the unity by detaching and rising above themselves. Each one invests himself in the others and everyone yearns to be absolutely equal, with none greater or smaller in any way. We aspire to find a precise system of inner balance between us and pursue it so that all will be equal and integrated with each other, will lose himself in our unity, and from “I” will come to a state of “we.” Then, from the state of “we,” come to a state of “one,” as one person with one heart.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 4/1/15

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Question: The modern Israeli society suffers from divisiveness. People feel that they are strangers to each other, really to the point of loathing and hatred. Sometimes, you simply want someone to disappear, board an airplane with your family and depart forever.

Answer: This is what we felt at the time of the Egyptian exile. This is the slavery when the ego dominates us, “plays” with us more strictly, and creates relationships like these among us.

As a result, we find ourselves in a position where we simply have no where to go. Today, some still think that they can flee somewhere to another country, but nothing will help.

Question: So, Israel will become a boiling pressure cooker in which people are locked up, totally unable to tolerate each other?

Answer: Right, that is how it was in the past and it is what will also happen in the future. There will be no other choice for us besides attaining unity. In addition, being unable to find the exit, we will agree that unity is possible only above the hatred.

A Bridge Above The Abyss

Question: The chasms that divide the people have taken shape and crystallized for years. Today the impression is that it is impossible to build bridges over them. Is it possible to forget all of the differences and insults? Is it possible to take control over the negative potential?

Answer: It is possible. I don’t ask you who and what you are, to what community or party you belong. It’s nothing like that. I know only one thing: I am with you, we are with everyone, we need to be together, and this is what I am going on. Certainly, we are different, opposed. We even hate each other. All of this is completely unimportant. Rather, what is important is only one thing: We must begin to connect and unite between us.

We demonstrate this connection and unity through workshops where we sit very different people, strangers, reflecting the entire social spectrum. Let’s take one representative from each party, sit them down together and arrange a workshop and you will see that even in such a mixed composition, they will suddenly discover ways of connecting. They would discover this on condition: that no one tramples on the others and foments his hatred in this ground. On the contrary, each is ready to unite and connect with the others above all the previous thoughts and desires.

So, we actually realize this, and in the center of the circle some kind of new force is revealed, warmth, mutual understanding, an ability to support and maintain a mutual connection. This is the second fundamental force latent in nature itself, the power of love. It is not the love that breaks out between a man and woman, but the same force that penetrates through interpersonal relationships.

Steps Forward

Today, we are in the dimension of hatred and egoism. I do not tolerate others; I always search for superiority above them and want to see them below me, under my control.

But, it is impossible to continue this way. We have reached a point in our development where egoism is devouring us from within. It won’t let us live as before, neither the people of Israel nor humanity as a whole. So, for the first time in history, the wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed to the world. Its function is to teach us how, under new conditions and in spite of the opposition, we can hold and maintain a good, mutual connection.

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From Israeli Radio Program 103FM, 3/22/15

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Unity Convention, Day Three, Lesson 5

Unity Convention, Day Three, Lesson 6

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Unity Convention, Day Two, Lesson 2

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Unity Convention, Day Two, Lesson 4

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Question: With whom can our movement work in partnership and under what conditions?

Answer: We are ready to connect with everyone who wants connection for the sake of correction of the world. Suppose that tomorrow Abu Mazen were to come and offer to work in partnership for the correction of the world. We would shake hands and begin to work together. The moment that some egoistic calculations are inserted into this covenant, we would immediately stop this shared activity.

The absence of egoistic considerations and a yearning to correct the world is the necessary condition. For correction it is necessary to attract the Light that reforms, because only this can help. If he is ready for this, then I am ready to unite with him. This is even though, in the meantime, it seems he is not ready.

We must take into account that it is possible to take a bit of the whole wide spectrum of different factions, political forces, nations, and governments for a short time with the goal of moving forward. This is because each one has some unique problem, and so they can unite with us and support us.

Last year we found ourselves in a dramatic situation regarding the kidnapping of three youths. The people felt terrible pressure and tension because we wanted to find and return the boys. So, with this event, we had the possibility of working with many organizations in Israel to connect the people.

In any case, it is clear to everyone that connection makes us stronger. We get more if we connect through prayer, a shared desire and action. So people went out to marches and gatherings.Thousands of people went out to the streets with placards demanding the release of the hostages. That is how it was all over the world.

Why did the desire to gather appear within them all of a sudden? Subconsciously, they felt that there was some kind of corrective force in this, some kind of new spirit that would appear in the people, along with the concept of a new state.

Even animals instinctively converge during a moment of danger. Sheep gather together into one flock and huddle together when they are concerned about an attack by wolves. If a forest fire breaks out, all of the animals flee from it together without fear of each other. This is because the general crisis connects them, and not one looks at the other in order to devour him. They all flee, meaning that they gather together in one common movement.

This inclination to connect at a time of trouble also exists instinctively among people. We need this spirit of connection, even if it is not an army marching and playing songs that is about to attack as one person. Even though we are not going out to attack, in spite of it, we feel that in this manner we are stabilizing a force through which we can correct ta situation.

So I think that we need to share this inclination that is felt among the people and unite together with them in actions such as these. In addition to this, we must organize discussion circles in parks, courtyards, and in homes.

The people who are now found in such a unique situation are ready to participate in discussions like these. It is necessary to discuss why this happened to us and how we can guarantee that this will never happen again, but only for the purpose of advancing towards the betterment of a situation and good relationships with others.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/14, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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