Entries in the 'man' Category

The Source of Happiness


Baal HaSulam. Article “The Peace.” He who breaks the laws of nature:
Because the world is governed by the Creator, who has a specific goal in all of His actions, hence anyone who breaks the laws of nature that were set by the Creator, harms the end goal, which is founded on the observance of all these laws without exception. And he who breaks even one law violates and harms the end goal that was set by the Creator, and will therefore be punished by nature (by the Creator via nature).

Baal HaSulam. Article “The Peace.” Attainment of the Creator is the path to peace:
The egoistic opposition between people and nations will disappear from the world only with the help of the Upper Force of the Creator (Nature), if we will desire unity with Him. This is initially implanted in the Thought of Creation. And if we aspire to this goal of adhesion with the Creator, then our envy, pride and hatred with disappear, and we shall assemble together into one heart, filled with the knowledge of the Creator.

Baal HaSulam. Article “Peace in the World.” The whole world is regarded as one single society:
In our times, when every person is dependent on the whole world in order to provide for him, in the same degree every person becomes dependent on the whole world just like a tiny gear in a car. Hence, we can no longer consider the well being and safety of a certain country or nation, but only the world as a whole. After all, today the well being of everyone in the world depends upon and is measured by the well being of all the people in the world.

And don’t be surprised that I link the well being of the individual with the well being of the society and even the whole world. In reality we have already reached a state where the entire world is regarded as one society. Today every person in the world is nourished by the entire world, and therefore must care for the well being of the whole world.

Baal HaSulam. Article “Freedom of Will.” The source of suffering:
Unity of the society is the source of happiness and well being, whereas separation between people is the source of all miseries. All fortunes and well being depend only on the drawing together and unification of the global community.

My Comment: Baal HaSulam wrote the articles “The Peace,” “Peace in the World” and “Freedom of Will” back in 1924-1927!

The Crisis of Earthly Wisdom

History Is the Unraveling of Reshimot Inside UsTwo questions I received on failed “wisdoms”:

Question: Why are all the “wise people” in crisis?

My Answer: Because it has become clear that their “wisdom” is in crisis! After all, it is human and earthly, not “Upper.” Only the wisdom of Kabbalah alone will become revealed to everyone – proudly alone, on the throne of the highest value.

Question: Lenin was driven by the desire to make more people (the proletariat) happy with the help of a better society. In essence – though not in form – this desire coincides with the Creator’s desire to make the creatures happy. Then why do you still feel “sick” about his “speech on the armored car?”

My Answer: Half of the world are still sick in the stomach just thinking of him! Today they still can’t recover from this mistake of forcefully imposing the condition of unity, mutual guarantee, brotherhood, communal property, and mutual means of production, as well as the consequences of this.

All of these must occur by means of man’s self-correction, voluntarily, and through education, instead of through the overbearing “education” of the KGB, when they were annihilating their own people. Baal HaSulam writes about it in his newspaper “HaUma” (The Nation) and in the article “The Future Generation.”

Related Material:
Lesson on the article: “Peace In the World”
Introduction to the Book of Zohar. Items 19-25

How Will We Live In The Last Generation?

liveTwo questions I received on life after the full correction:

Question: If people will rise to the highest spiritual degree, how will we live? What will we eat? Where will we sleep? How will we travel from one place to another? What will be our general form of existence?

My Answer: There are two states:

1. Before the full correction, when our corporeal level of egoism is still not corrected. Hence even though we attain spiritual degrees, we still retain the sensation of this world.

2. After we are fully corrected, when even our corporeal egoism is corrected, we will cease perceiving this world. That’s because it is perceived precisely in this corporeal part of our desire, whereas we will sense ourselves as being fully and exclusively in the World of Infinity – the only true state. All the other states are partial states of its concealment. In Hebrew the word for “concealment” is Olama, and it is the root of the word “world” – Olam. Hence all the concealments of the one existing state of infinity are called worlds.

In the article, “The Future Generation,” Baal HaSulam provides a detailed description of what life will be like before the attainment of the second state above. I have also written a book on this article, called The Last Generation. In addition, there are lessons on it in our online archive.

Question: Did the sons of Israel accept the mutual guarantee after the exodus from Egypt? And what does the exodus from Egypt represent for us?

My Answer: Yes, after their exodus from Egypt the sons of Israel (the group of Kabbalists, students of Abraham) accepted the condition of the “mutual guarantee” – an absolute spiritual bond between them, and the willingness to be as one soul of Adam.

For them as well as for us, this signifies the complete unification into one desire (one soul). However, in our case this is no longer a unification of a portion of the “Babylonians,” but of the whole “Babylon” (all of humankind) in the joint desire of Adam.

For more on this, see the article “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee).” In it Baal HaSulam writes that the sons of Israel are just a transitional link intended to pass the method of egoism’s correction, Kabbalah, on to all of humankind.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: The Book of Zohar. Chapter “The Seventh Commandment”
Laitman.com Post: Where Is Our Moses?
Laitman.com Post: Why Isn’t Spirituality Attained Individually, but Through Mutual Guarantee?
Chapter from the Book A Guide To The Hidden Wisdom of Kabbalah: Lesson 9
Shamati #110: “A Field Which the Lord Has Blessed”

The Machsom: Numbers and Statistics

MachsomA question I received: You’ve been the leader and mentor of the Bnei Baruch group for nearly twenty years. Maybe it’s time to make a public summary? How many people have crossed the Machsom over this period of time, and how has the world changed as a consequence? Or is this no longer the objective today? Are you now simply trying to change the world without your students’ personal correction?

I understand that this question will be deleted, but at least someone will read it. But if you do decide to publish an answer, then please don’t beat around the bush: give us real numbers and results, and the actual improvement in the world.

My Answer:

  • Number of students in the world – around 2,000,000.
  • Number of groups in the world – 73.
  • Number of people who have crossed the Machsom – 19.
  • Number of people who are about to cross the Machsom – 210. The rest will cross it by the year 2012.
  • Annual growth of students – 700-900%.
  • Number of hopeless students – 1. It’s you.

Why Devote So Much Time to the Crisis?

What Do Villains and Prophets Have to Do With Bnei Baruch's Virtual Group?Three questions I received on the global crisis:

Question: Why do you devote so much time to analyzing the crisis? Why should we care about the suffering of these oblivious and egoistic animals (or why should we pity them egoistically, since we can’t do it any other way)?

My Answer: 1. These people are all close to me!
2. Just like everything else in the world, the crisis has a reason and a purpose. Its purpose is to bring out a need in mankind’s to reevaluate its behavior.

The suffering will not stop until we accomplish this, and accomplish it right. I do the things I do in order to help people choose the correct attitude to what’s taking place, which will reduce the suffering.

Soon enough this “oblivious and egoistic animal suffering” will affect you as well. When it does, please don’t forget to write to me about how your opinion changes regarding how much time people should devote to this problem.

Question: Does it make sense to think of the reciprocal hatred (or lack of reciprocal love) that’s being revealed in the world as a reflection of the state the Bnei Baruch group is in, or my personal state?

My Answer: The group and the world are interconnected, but are on different levels: the group depends on the world for its spiritual ascent, and the world depends on the group to reduce the force of the suffering that descends upon it (whether or not it wants to listen to the group).

Question: Why is the unity of the common soul being revealed today from its reverse side? Do we really need to feel pain from realizing our connection to all people in the world?

My Answer: This is the only way to convince people to correct their nature. Pain is the measure of our imbalance with Nature. And we’re the ones who establish its severity.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Reflections on the Crisis

The Fate of Physics Hangs on the Large Hadron Collider


I had a conversation that was recorded about the Large Hadron Collider. I spoke with our friend and my long-time student, Dr. Valdas Rapsevichus, who is one of the participants in the global physics experiment in Switzerland.

Summary: Physics develops to the extent that it acquires new experimental data. In the field of high-energy physics, no serious new data has been received in as long as thirty years.

If new discoveries will be made with the help of the Large Hadron Collider – such as Higgs bosons, supersymmetry, and so on – then physics will be able to advance as a science, and will receive the funds to do so as well. However, if nothing new will be discovered, then the financing will stop and it will be the end of physics as a science.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: In the News: The Biggest Physics Experiment to Date, a Black Hole, and the End of the World
Laitman.com Post: Does G-d Play Dice with the Universe?
Laitman.com Post: The Physics of the Upper Light
Article: “Kabbalah as Compared with Other Sciences”

Where to Defend a Dissertation on Kabbalah

Where to Defend a DissertationA question I received: I am one of your students from India. My parents want me to get a PhD, but I’m not sure what to do. When I am not working, I spend my free time studying Kabbalah. If I were to start working on this degree, then I would have to devote my time to something that completely doesn’t interest me.

I thought that perhaps I could compromise with my parents and get a PhD, but on a topic of my choice: “The Application of Kabbalah in Parenting and Education” or something along these lines.

The problem is that our universities in India don’t have a Kabbalah department. They only have philosophy and religion departments. So where can I defend this dissertation?

My Answer: Personally, I defended my dissertation on the topic, “Kabbalah as a Form of Irrational Knowledge,” in IPRAS – the Institute of Philosophy at the Russian Academy of Sciences. You can defend a dissertation on Kabbalah in any philosophy department at any university. Dissertations on Kabbalah are being defended in all Israeli universities at the philosophy departments. We have several Kabbalah doctoral candidates, including my youngest daughter.

In addition, you can find out about defending it in America as well. However, I think that you should be able to come to an agreement on this topic in your university as well. I’m prepared to help you select the topic, choose materials, explain the thesis, and so on. As of today we’ve already published all the principal materials in English.

Related Material:
Laitman. com Post: The Irrationality of Kabbalah
Laitman.com Post: First Become a Scientist, and Then You Can Speak Against Science
Laitman.com Post: Some Quotes by Albert Einstein

A Song In Memory of My Teacher Rabash


A question I received (from the German blog): Lieber Rav Leithman, Das Lied welches zum Todestag des Rabash komponiert wurde habe ich gehört und war sehr gerührt, ja ich fühlte eine sehr große Verbundenheit, so, dass es fast schmerzte. Ewald Heinz Feuerstein.

Dear Rav Laitman, I heard a song that was sung on the day of mourning for Rabash, and I was very moved because I felt a very close connection to it, to the point that it was almost painful. Ewald Heinz Feuerstein.

My Answer: I am glad that you came across it. I will post this ancient Kabbalistic melody for you, which we sang during one of our meals:

The Lost Sons Are Disillusioned With the American Dream

A New Year's Wish to the WorldNews Report (translated from news.ru): Between the years 2000 and 2007, 3,500 people per year returned to Israel. In 2008, however, the number of people who have returned jumped to 7,000, and another 15,000 have submitted their applications to the ministry of absorption. In the last two months alone, as many as 2000 people returned to Israel.

My Comment: The return of the “lost children” marks the end of their wanderings in search of a heaven on earth, and the beginning of their search for the real heaven – the revelation of the Upper World. The Book of Zohar says that this precedes the return of the truly lost sons – the return of the ten tribes that were lost 3000 years ago. Today there are hundreds of millions of them in the world…

Related Material:
Laitman.com: Israel Are Those Who Aspire Straight to the Creator
Laitman.com Post: The Jewish Nation Can Only Be Revived By Restoring “Love for One’s Neighbor”
Part 5 from the book Interview With the Future: Spiritual Exile

Russia May Lead the Way to Global Unity

RussiaA question I received: A new worldview seeking to shift the entire civilization to a new level of consciousness has been published on the site of the national movement “RUSSIA IS US,” in the section “A New Worldview,” on the discussion forum, and other places.

Your thoughts and ideas from different articles published on your Kabbalah Academy websites and the Internet at large, were used in building a foundation for the new worldview. We would greatly appreciate your comments and suggestions.

With deep respect,
Alexey Yurievich Bartunov
Leader of the national movement “RUSSIA IS US”

My Answer: Dear Alexey Yurievich,

I will be very happy to participate in an opportunity to build a better Russia. I have always said that the inner demands of the Russians are close to the Kabbalistic ideas. The search for a national idea, self-expression, self-realization in the world in the capacity of a special enlightening force that draws respect and praise – all this is possible precisely by correctly implementing the idea of unity of all the nations. Russia can come forth as the initiator of an organizational plan for the new humanity. I am completely together with you in this!

Additional Comment: Professor Dov Sadan writes in his book Spiritual Revival that during the revolutionary period in Russia, Baal HaSulam took part in Polish workers’ demonstrations and supported them by carrying a red flag! He explained that what was happening in Russia signified that the masses were coming closer to the ideas of Kabbalah.

Later, after moving to Palestine in 1921, when socialistic changes started taking place in Poland, Baal HaSulam returned to Poland again and tried to get in touch with the leaders of the Polish workers’ movement. He wanted the socialist changes to be implemented correctly.

Unfortunately, people could not hear him. After all, to do this the society should have been able to rise above its egoism and recognize that there is no path other than global unity.

Related Material:
Laitman.com Post: Russia and Israel Have the Opposite Problem
Laitman.com Post: Instead of Seeking to Change our Economic Systems, We Should Draw the Upper Light of Correction