Fruit-Bearing Desire

509Question: What does it mean “they ate of the grain of the land”?

Answer: The desire that you correct becomes a fruit-bearing desire. It gives you the opportunity to exist.

You receive the light from the Creator. Those parts of the light that enter into your desire, fulfill, correct, and develop it are called “the grain of the land of Israel.”

Israel means “straight to the Creator.” In this way, a person establishes a connection between himself and the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/20/21

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 11/30/21

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #99 “He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous” 

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Selected Highlights 

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“Why Do We Ask About The Meaning Of Life, Rather Than Simply Live Life?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do we ask about the meaning of life, rather than simply live life?“

We ask about the meaning of life because, in contrast to the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature, the human level is qualitatively higher than the animate. In other words, the human level of existence is driven by the question about the meaning of life. Contrary to the animate level of existence, which does simply live life, the human level of existence hosts the question about the meaning of life, and has the ability to attain the meaning of life.

We have a question about the meaning of life because we have an innate tendency to wish to live eternally. If we cannot live eternally, then life loses its value, because everything dies and disappears.

Therefore, specifically the human’s most important question is about the meaning of life.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on “What Is the Meaning of Life?” Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Audio Version Of The Blog – 11/29/21

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“Money Can’t Feed The People That The Ego Starves” (Linkedin)


My new article on Linkedin “Money Can’t Feed the People that the Ego Starves”

David Beasley, executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, said that billionaires “need to step up now, on a one-time basis,” and donate $6 billion to save 42 million people “who are going to die if we don’t reach them.” He also said, “I’m not asking them to do this every day, every week, every year; we have a one-time crisis, a perfect storm of conflict, climate change, and Covid.” If Mr. Beasley believes that this is a one-time crisis and that six billion dollars will eliminate world hunger, he is probably the only one. Hunger does not exist for the reasons he cites, but because of human selfishness, and no amount of money is large enough to feed the people that the ego starves.

Hunger does not exist for the reasons he cites, but because of human selfishness, and no amount of money is large enough to feed the people that the ego starves.
Nor will money satisfy the ego. On the contrary, money only makes the problem worse because it goes into the pockets of the wrong people, who become even greedier, while those who could make good use of it see very little of it. If we believe that we can solve the hunger crisis with money alone, hunger will surely increase and many more will die.

In fact, I believe that our approach of fighting the symptoms rather than the pathogen itself will make things so bad that it would be better for us not to live through those times. There will be abundance, yet acute shortage of the most important staples like bread and water all at the same time. People will be miserable.

You will see entire battalions guarding food while others starve nearby. It will not be done in secret, but in plain sight; you will see it in the news. Those who have will say they feel sorry for the starving, but they will not lift a finger.

The ego will never let us feel satisfied. It will always make us feel empty, however rich we are. Even if we deny all the people in the world the most basic needs and keep them all to ourselves, we will still be unfulfilled.

The only good use we have for our egos is to realize that they are leading us to extinction. They are teaching us that as long as we focus only on ourselves, we will not feel satisfied. Once we learn this, it will drive us to rise above our selfishness.

Another thing that the ego teaches us is that we are dependent on each other. We cannot feel rich unless we compare ourselves to others who are poorer than us. We cannot have what we want unless someone brings it to us. In other words, we cannot live, and we cannot evaluate ourselves without other people around us.

Since we cannot get rid of egoism, as it is our core, we must “teach” it the value of cooperation and consideration. When our egos learn that it is in their best interest to be considerate, they will enable us to enjoy unselfish pleasures and we will stop humiliating other people and destroying our environment, which are currently our only pleasures (whether we admit it to ourselves or not).

We can find joy in connection and consideration only if we give up trying to satisfy our ego. We can come to it by seeing what our egos have done to us and to the world around us, or we can come to it by waiting for disasters to strike us personally. The first way is faster, easier, and safer. I hope we choose it before we experience the disadvantages of egoism first hand.
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“No One Loves A Nation Whose Members Hate Each Other” (Linkedin)


My new article on Linkedin “No One Loves a Nation Whose Members Hate Each Other”

I have been told that the problems in supply chains afflicting the global economy have gotten so bad, and the prognosis is so dire, that some countries are considering shutting down international trade and trying to become self-sufficient. It is clearly an impractical idea, but it shows how desperate some countries have become, and how pessimistic they are about the future. There is a solution, but it involves reciprocity and consideration of others, and no one wants to go that way. So, for the time being, we will continue to suffer.

Look at what we have done to our planet. We have polluted it, corrupted it, and depleted it of resources and much of its beauty for the illusion of power and control. We could have achieved so much more with a fraction of the effort and a fraction of the resources we have drained from the planet, but for this, we would have to work shoulder to shoulder with each other, and no one wants that.

Regrettably, the situation will continue to worsen until everyone points their finger at the Jews and blame them for everything that is wrong with the world. Around this, everyone will be happy to unite, and not around anything else.

It is not only the world, but many Jews feel guilty, too. Look at how many Jews justify Jew-haters! Moreover, Jews who do so are not treated as traitors, as they would be anywhere else, but as progressive, justice-seeking people. Why are we like that? It is because deep down, we feel that the world is correct in its accusations, that we really are responsible for the world’s troubles. We cannot rationalize it, but we feel it nonetheless. Even if we do not admit it, our meek resentment to the most absurd allegations proves that we do not feel innocent.

Especially now, when the world has become such an interdependent, closed system where everyone affects everyone else, anything bad that someone does immediately impacts the entire world. We, Jews, are expected to correct the world. Since the world is broken, in the eyes of the world, as well as in our own eyes, it is our fault.

Think about it, no nation has conceived such a notion as Tikkun Olam [correction of the world], certainly not as one of its core values and goals. No nation has pinned its entire essence on love of others, to the point where one loves one’s neighbor as oneself. No nation has made mutual responsibility such a deeply rooted principle that its members feel entitled to demand it of each other. And finally, the sages of no other nation blame their defeats on unfounded hatred among the members of the nation, instead of on external enemies.

Even with regard to the nations of the world, our calling has always been a positive one. As soon as we became a nation, we were designated as a chosen people—chosen to exemplify those core values just mentioned: Tikkun Olam through love of others and mutual responsibility. Is there anything the world needs more than these?

Yet, instead of living up to our vocation, we have become the opposite. We are a display of self-loathing, inner division, and mutual derision. We are arrogant, but we have nothing to be proud of since people don’t need technology; they need to love and be loved, and we are denying them their needs through our negligence in our duty.

No one loves a nation whose members hate each other, all the more so when that nation was forged to be the trailblazer toward unity. If we reject our calling, who will pave the trail?

We are an assortment of members of nations from all over the Near and Middle East, who once united “as one man with one heart.” Because of our unique example, we must lead the way for the unity of the world, and the only way to do it is through our example.

Each of us is a descendant of those members of the nations. The nations will not be able to unite without our example. Our ancestors were “ambassadors” of the nations, and we are their heirs; it is incumbent upon us to carry out our ancestors’ legacy: to be a light unto nations and redeem the world of hatred. If we unite among us, the world will follow through. If we shun one another, the world will shun us.
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“What Is The Difference Between Kabbalah And Eastern Teachings?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the difference between Kabbalah and Eastern teachings?“

There are over 4,000 religions and beliefs in the world. The main religions stem from Abraham, who lived in ancient Babylon close to 3,500 years ago.

Abraham taught his method, the wisdom of Kabbalah, to a small group that he called “the people of Israel.” He also gave gifts, or other forms of faith, to the rest of the people. The Torah states that Abraham gave gifts to the children of his concubines and sent them eastward, where these methods reach back to us.

The difference is that Abraham’s method possesses the ability to correct a person, something that exists in no other method.

Kabbalah gives us the ability to attract the positive force toward us, which is concealed in nature, and which will correct our hatred toward each other by covering it with love.

The positive force becomes added to our egoistic nature and we then possess two forces. Their incorporation makes it possible for us to work with them, develop by redirecting our self-aimed desires in a direction of positively connecting to others, and discover an additional form of reality that is outside of us.

Modern physics discusses the existence of such a reality. Other than the universe, i.e. the world that we now perceive, there are other forms of reality.

The wisdom of Kabbalah makes it possible for us to break through our world’s limits and enter into the perception of higher worlds.

We have no such possibilities in other methods because they provide no access to the force that we can attract through the study that gives us the ability to make such a breakthrough. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, such a force is named the “reforming light.” That is, the uniqueness of the wisdom of Kabbalah is that it lets us attract this force that corrects our egoistic nature, elevating us above it to an opposite nature of love and bestowal, while we alive in our world. It is as is described in kabbalistic texts, that “You will see your world in your lifetime” (Berachot 17a).

Based on a talk “Short Stories” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on October 22, 2014. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

The Inevitability Of Fate

760.3Question: Who determines the fate of a person? You write in your blog that fate depends on the root of one’s soul. Even the Creator does not determine this, but everything is written in the root of the soul. What are we talking about?

Answer: The root of a soul is the initial normative data in a person that he must implement.

These initial data, the so-called Reshimot, force a person to act in a certain way and lead him to his ideal state. What depends on a person is only the time he spends on the realization of this path: faster, slower, in a more comfortable way, or through suffering. In other words, the fate of a person is predetermined, but it depends on him how he will go through it, how long it will take, and how he will feel in these deterministic states.

Our freedom lies only in how to perceive the deterministic path of our development and how to implement it in the best way.

Question: So, I am just changing my reaction?

Answer: But this means a lot, because depending on our reaction, we influence the upper force in a positive or negative way.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/26/21

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Kabbalah—In Favor Of Our Internal Development

565.02Question: How can we distinguish laziness from dangerous, harmful inaction?

Answer: Laziness is a very useful property. If only it prevailed in humanity and did not push us to do all sorts of stupid things, then we would generally live well.

Everyone would move like a sloth. Do you know how they move? If we were all like that, it would be great!

Laziness is a very good property. It is not for nothing that the Torah says: “Sit and do nothing – better.” If you can do nothing, don’t. The world won’t stop. You will not stop this terrible progress, everything will spin. And you take part in it as much as you have to. But it’s no longer worth twitching somewhere and doing something.

In general, Kabbalah is not in favor of developing a person technically. It is for developing him only internally.
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From Kab TV’s “Conversations” 11/1/21

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Why Are Miracles Performed?

610.2Question: What are miracles and why are they performed?

Answer: There are no miracles! There are no miracles in the world.

Question: Then what is presented in the Torah as miracles from above? For example: the Creator helping the Israelites, etc.

Answer: This allegorically describes the state of people who understand the Creator and His control of the world. For a person who attains this, everything is a miracle because he relates everything to the Creator.

Question: Why does the Creator do those miracles?

Answer: It is simply that all actions the Creator performs in nature are aimed at raising a person to His level, at teaching him. We constantly live in the Creator and we are always in His actions. The whole world is the actions of the Creator. And therefore, everything is a miracle.

Or you can say the opposite, that there are no miracles. We are in a system ruled by the Creator. Absolutely, completely, in everything! It depends on how we perceive this system. It all depends on the level a person is at, on his development.

And when it writes: “The Creator performed a miracle,” it means something unusual, not something that happens every day according to the program of creation.

Question: Why is the Creator doing this? Do people need proof?

Answer: This is necessary in order to shake a person, raise him to the next level of awareness, action, etc.

Comment: Still, a person is weak, he needs miracles.

My Response: No. He perceives revelation of the Creator in this way as kind of a reward, a connection with the Creator. But, in principle since we do not foresee these actions in advance, they are for us something extraordinary—a miracle.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 9/20/21

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