We Should Not Ban Speech

961.1Question: There have been debates about freedom of speech, democracy, and hate speech for decades.

Should we allow mean-spirited speeches of evil people?

Answer: We need this, we have to learn from this. Otherwise, we, the narrow-minded ones, may not get a clear understanding of the depths of human nature.

Comment: You are talking about human nature, and he, of course, was talking about democracy.

My Response: Democracy is one of the expressions.

Question: The question is, do the boundaries of what is allowed still exist or not? Here a malicious person makes terrible speeches, and they say, “Let him say it, do not do anything to him.”

Answer: I also think that we need this. It is necessary to verbally express everything. And then…

Question: And then, what will the authorities that hear this do?

Answer: This is their problem, how to limit and prevent the development from speeches to action. There should be speeches, we should study them, we should perceive them correctly and object to them, build our attitude on this.

Question: Do I have to work on this, rise above this, and generally build all the arguments in the fight against this? Is this how I grow?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: If only humanity behaved like this.

My Response: We would have learned something gradually.

Question: The first natural instinct is to suppress. It is natural to immediately suppress. Is it wrong?

Answer: Of course.

Question: Tell me, how in this case, if we talk about the country, should the people be educated to choose such leaders who will work with everyone who opposes them in this way?

Answer: People should be included in discussions, understand their dependence on such statements, and learn. They must have a desire to learn. But it depends on the preparation, it depends on the society.

Question: Do we need to raise such people? This is education.

Answer: Absolutely.

Question: What, in your opinion, is a true democracy?

Answer: True democracy is when everyone is given the opportunity to develop according to their natural inclination, on the one hand. But, on the other hand, he is put in a certain relationship with the surrounding society that he begins to perceive the consequence of his democratic approach to himself, and all the flaws in his perception of the world quickly become clear to him.

Question: Does a person in a democratic society understand that I started it and it was started by me incorrectly, and I need to correct myself?

Answer: Yes. A person should feel as if he is on such a lathe, which he starts, carves out some kind of block of himself, and at the same time, he understands and feels by the reaction of the machine, which is nature to him, to what extent he can continue, change himself, and so on.

Question: In other words, how should it be refined it to some kind of harmony, an ideal state?

Answer: Yes.

Question: You, in a way, said now that a person even manages society, as it were. Each person. Does it mean that his advice, his desire come in and work? Does he see where he made a mistake, where he did not make a mistake and he corrects himself?

Answer: Yes. We need to try to create such a society so that everyone can shape themselves.
[316773]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/3/23

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Between Multiple Authorities and a Singular Authority

165Question: How can we enter under the authority of a teacher in order to move by this to the authority of the upper?

Answer: To do it, you need to be in connection with your friends and then compare how connected you are with them, with the teacher, and with the Creator. All this connects together: Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.

Question: In the Shamati article “What Is the Measure of Faith in the Rav?”, Baal HaSulam writes that there are multiple authorities and there is the authority of the Creator, the singular authority. According to the teacher’s advice, we should be in wholeness, in connection. How can we oppose multiple authorities with the authority of the Creator at every moment of time?

Answer: Think about it all the time.

Question: Can we win this battle by constantly changing multiple authorities over us and finally come to “together”?

Answer: Of course! By the way, this is not so difficult. It is harder to start and get organized, after that moving forward is no longer a problem. That is, of course it is a problem, but it is no longer such enormous work.
[319544]
From the Daily Kabbalah lesson 10/21/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 10 “What Is the Measure of Faith in the Rav?“

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Faith, Awe and Unity

610.2Question: What is the connection between faith, awe, and unity?

Answer: In unity we find the force that unites us, the awe with which we turn to it, and thus achieve the goal of creation, that is, the feeling of the Creator in us.

Everything is aimed only at bringing us together because it is only then that the Creator can be revealed in us.

Question: How can we correctly focus on the Creator giving complete faith as a reward?

Answer: Your thought should be focused on getting such a feeling from the Creator’s attitude toward you where you could do anything for Him. This will be the reward for all your efforts.

Question: Is complete faith a state of final correction (Gmar Tikkun) or is it there at every stage?

Answer: In some ways it exists at every stage.
[319499]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah lesson 10/20/23, Writings of Rabash “What Is “the People’s Shepherd Is the Whole People” in the Work?,” in the Work?“

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About the Quality of Our Effort

243.01Question: How can we separate the qualities that prevent us from moving forward from ourselves?

Answer: Separating them is very simple; if they strengthen your connection with the group, you leave them, and if they are against your connection with the group, you move away from them.

Question: How can we check the quality of our efforts?

Answer: If there is a reaction to them, then their quality was good. This is the only way.
[319832]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/23, Writings of Rabash “Come unto Pharaoh – 1“

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 11/6/23

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “How to Recognize One Who Serves God from One Who Does Not Serve Him”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 1, “Inner Observation”

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Handmaid Who Is Heir to Her Mistress”

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Selected Highlights

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 11/5/23

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If They Came to Kill You

200.02Question: You have been talking about the law of love, bestowal, and mercy for many years. You said that this is the basis of our nation, the basis of the law within which we exist, and the whole world exists. Is this what we should follow?

Answer: Yes.

Question: This is on one hand. On the other hand, it is written by our sages in the Babylonian Talmud: If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first. What does this mean for you?

Answer: If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first means that we must forestall the enemy. And we are obliged to do this because this is the Creator’s covenant.

Comment: Then there is the law of love, bestowal, and mercy.

My Response: It depends in relation to whom and how. But if someone comes to kill you, then you must first rise and defend yourself so as to destroy the one who came to kill you.

Comment: Can you, please, explain the law of love, bestowal, and mercy at the moment when you are going to fight and kill the enemy.

Answer: This does not apply to enemies. No. There can be no love for someone who hates you and wishes for your death

Question: Can any kind of revolution ever happen so that we will suddenly look at our biggest haters with different eyes? Will anything happen?

Answer: Only after we get rid of them can there be a completely different attitude toward them. We should get rid of the haters. And then we can negotiate with those who remain.

Comment: All the laws are kind of revolving around mercy. And this one is very sharp!

My Response: It is not sharp, it is just straight. I do not see anything drastic or anything out of the ordinary in it.

Question: Why does it not say: “Try to make peace, try…”?

Answer: Any attempt is out of the question! After all, he came to kill you!
[319614]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/16/23

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222Question: What do you see as our future, and what is it like?

Answer: I see the future as getting rid of the haters, understanding who is next to us, and making sure they understand who is next to them. We need to secure our borders and create conditions for us to peacefully exist and unite.

Question: Unity is more or less understandable to people, like the unity we have now. What are you talking about? After the war, after victory.

Answer: There is no “after the war.” In principle, we are in a state of constant war.

Question: Why?

Answer: Because the enemy wants it that way. So, we must not weaken ourselves and not act as we did before this attack.

Question: You are talking about an external enemy. What about our internal enemy?

Answer: The internal enemy needs to be convinced that we have no other way.

Question: Who is the internal enemy?

Answer: We are. Between us. I think we need to undergo very serious re-education here. There should be friendship and support among us.

Question: How do we achieve that?

Answer: By explaining that without it we will not survive.

Question: It is clear now that we are currently united by adversity. But in the future, for example when we are on the crest of victory, there will likely be disputes about what happened, why, and how. Various scenarios are possible. How do you shape the country? How do you build the future of the people?

Answer: Only through unity! We must talk about it constantly. We must promote unity from a very young age and continue to do so throughout life.

Comment: You keep talking about uniting above oneself.

My Response: Because we are egoistic, unique egoists, the biggest in the world. That is why we need to unite above our egoism.

Question: This work is endless. So it will never end. We cannot eliminate this enemy, can we?

Answer: No, and we should not. It is great that we have it. The Creator intentionally created this egoism within us so that we constantly work on it and elevate ourselves higher and higher toward Him. That is our main work.

Question: What if we falter? What if we start quarreling again?

Answer: Then the external enemy reminds us of that.

Question: That is, we must make it very clear that our disputes and their level provoke an equal level of hatred toward us from the whole world. Is that the right formula?

Answer: Absolutely from the entire world!

Question: If this fear enters us—that at the moment we start wars between each other, wars come to unite us but at an external level—if this formula exists in us, do you think it is normal to live with this fear?

Answer: It is normal. It is thanks to this fear that we can move toward unity.
[319934]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/16/23

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Soldiers of the Creator’s Army

933The people of Israel are going through very difficult times today. But, on the other hand, this can lead us to very good changes, as it is written in the prophets.  Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob‘s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it (Jeremiah, 30:7). It is precisely from the worst states we can get up, rise, grow, become strong, and achieve success.

After all, we understand that we have no choice; we must rise and succeed, and the Creator will be with us. Many people already realize that we need to correct ourselves, correct the force of separation between us. I hope this recognition of evil will help us rise and build ourselves.

I do not feel like we are hopeless. Our weapon is our unity, and we have not used it. If, out of desperation, we nevertheless take it and begin to use the force of our connection, no one will resist us. We will project this force of unity to the whole world, and the world will listen to us.

We must not give up because we have not even started this war yet. We must move forward and achieve success, we have no other choice. The Creator will still nevertheless obligate us either by the easy way or the hard way.

This is a war against our egoism. We cannot refuse to fight, because we are fighting not for ourselves, and not for our lives, but for the Creator. We are soldiers of the Creator’s army, and the Creator will win, the force of bestowal must win! It will be so.

The force of bestowal is the force of the Creator. If we dress in this force of bestowal, we will win. We must always remember that our success depends only on our internal unity, on the connection of our hearts. The force of unity is our main weapon.
[319992]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/23, Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Most Important Is to Want Only to Bestow“

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What Does Hatred Push Us To?

213Question: I strongly feel what is happening in Israel. It seems that this is actually us, that our hatred has accumulated so much, materialized, and come out because there is no place for it anymore. It feels like a huge basket of hate is growing that is coming back to us.

What is the difference between the evil inclination created by the Creator and the evil we generate with our feelings toward each other?

Answer: The Creator created only the root of the evil inclination, and we inflate it. We inflate it more and more until the whole world is inflamed.

Comment: This is really scary, because I truly felt that what happened depends on us. I felt afraid not to love, to be in a state of non-love.

My Response: Yes, this is very well said. When I reveal that I don’t love others, I should be afraid because it pushes us all to self-destruction.
[319839]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/23, Writings of Rabash “Man Is Rewarded with Righteousness and Peace through the Torah“

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