Find The Center Of The Group

Rabash, “Love of Friends – 2”: Hence, the primary basis upon which the building of sanctity can be erected is the rule of “Love thy friend.” By that, one can acquire the need to bestow contentment upon the Creator. After that, there can be fear, meaning fear of perhaps not being able to give contentment to the Creator. When actually past that gate of fear, he can come to faith, because faith is the vessel for instilling Divinity, as it is explained in several places

Question: Why is fear a commandment but faith and love for one’s neighbor are not?

Answer: Fear is an awakening from below, which is extremely necessary. Faith by itself is the quality of bestowal. However, I would not focus on these three conditions. The most important thing is to find the center of the group.

The center of the group is the point where everyone annuls himself. This is a definition of an embryo, its attachment to the upper Partzuf. In other words, there is a next degree above you and you need to find the center of the group from which you ascend. Through this center you receive the Light that comes to you as if through capillaries.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 4/12/18

New Life #91 – Understanding Depression, Part 2

New Life #91 – Understanding Depression, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Depression can be a turning point in our lives. It presents us with an opportunity to find our true selves and can lead us upward toward a higher experience of life. If we build the right environment for ourselves, this environment can influence us and make it possible for us to program a better tomorrow. The right environment is one focused on giving. We need to train workers and learn how to exercise our imaginations. We can change our experience of life by changing our attitude.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #91 – Understanding Depression, Part 2,” 10/25/12

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Kabbalistic Associations

Rabash, Social Writings, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ’Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”: And we see that in reality, there is love of friends among the secular, too. They, too, gather in various circles in order to have love of friends. What, then, is the difference between religious and secular?
The verse says (Psalms 1), “…nor sat in the seat of the scornful.”

There are countless numbers of associations in the world of men, women, mixed groups, children, etc., which are formed according to various interests and topics. However, these are all in order to somehow fulfill themselves and decorate their lives.

The associations Kabbalists gather together have the goal of exiting oneself, rising above oneself. Kabbalists seek to unite such as to attract a special force of nature that would elevate them above their original egoistic essence. While doing so, completely new relations arise between them, called “Arvut“ (“mutual guarantee“).

Their goal is to endeavor beyond our world, beyond our nature. Such people are very unusual in their associations, which are different from all other communities in humanity.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 4/18/18

How Can One Be Neutral?

Question: If I am born an egoist and my whole “self “is egoism, how can I be neutral?

Answer: The fact is that when a person is led to the goal of creation, he is given conditions in which he is somewhat neutral. He has freedom of choice and is given the exact states in which he can choose. This, however, as a rule, is only in a group.

There is no evil in our world that Kabbalah discusses. This evil manifests itself only between friends seeking to unite, and the evil—their selfishness—prevents them from achieving the goal.

Outside of Kabbalah is evil at the level of animals in the forest. It is necessary only to bring humanity to the group.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/17/18

Why Does The Creator Lure But Does Not Allow To Enjoy?

Question: If the Creator gives a desire and gives a filling, why does He only lure, but does not allow enjoyment?

Answer: Imagine you were tied to a table covered only with sweets and left this way for the rest of your life. So, what’s next? A person needs a contrast. It is known that people working in the confectionery industry are very fond of herring, and vice versa.

We feel neither sweet, nor bitter, nor salty, nor sour if it has no contrast. Therefore, it is only through good and evil, through the right balance between them, that we begin to develop and attain the Creator.

Good is the absolute property of the Creator, and evil is the complete opposite of Him. We must create their correct combination in ourselves, which will let us feel the Creator.

In principle, good and evil are given to us in order to first attain the outer side of the Creator, and then Him Himself: His intentions regarding us, His original thought, the purpose of creation, and then even deeper—where secrets already begin to be revealed.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/17/18

New Life #90 – Understanding Depression, Part 1

New Life #90 – Understanding Depression, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Depression is like a virus that stems from existential questions we cannot seem to answer. Physical pain can result from mental pain and depression. We can’t find a solution to the growing feeling of emptiness inside, and old ways of coping through sports, entertainment, and hobbies are no longer effective. We feel cornered because we are closed inside of ourselves. There is a single remedy for depression, a new human program based on the principle “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” In other words, we need to exit our bodies and feel our desires and thoughts inside others. We can learn how to exit depression by considering what is good for others instead of what is good for myself. This can be achieved via discussion workshops in groups.
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From KavTV’s “New Life #90 – Understanding Depression, Part 1,” 10/25/12

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Entering Spiritual Work

All spiritual work goes by faith above reason. It is called “faith” because my regular corporeal senses, the desires I was born with, do not approve of it. But I receive a certain Light from above, which holds me in this state called “faith” and allows me to do the work despite the fact that I feel no upper degree. Also, I do not want to feel it, nor to work for the sake of feeling good, being its slave. Instead, I want to rise above it, above my nature. Therefore, I ask to be given the Light of faith.

Despite the fact that I do not see, hear and understand how the power of bestowal works, I still want to work according to its laws so that it would clothe in me. The people of this world are guided by the power of reception and follow their desire to enjoy, unconsciously submitting to it like dolls in the hands of a puppeteer. I, however, want to be guided by His other hand, which is called “the hand of faith,” so that it will begin to control me, capturing my whole heart and mind.

However, at the same time, I do not leave my old nature. I want to feel it and compare how one is different from the other in order to work by faith above reason. I will have reason and in addition, faith, which is higher than reason; that is, the power of bestowal will dominate over the power of reception. I will know and understand how bestowal can be dominant, and I will be able to direct it myself. It will remain under my control.

This is called “faith” because I do not require knowledge of how the power of bestowal operates; I just want it to be dominant over the power of reception.

Therefore, all spiritual work begins with acquiring the force of faith, the force of bestowal, above the force of reception, which is called “reason.” I remain a reasonable person and do not soar in fantasies as if I walk by faith alone, ready for any bestowal. I am not ready for anything, I see things absolutely clearly. Faith above reason is based on real force, even stronger than the force of reception.

I work with the full inclusion of all my feelings and reason, with my environment and the entire world, but in a new way, in a different style of work. This is the entry to the spiritual work.¹

Faith above reason relies on sensations that seem unnatural to us. The natural feelings received from birth are our rational knowledge. Now, however, I ask to be given an additional perception of reality in order to build a new level of bestowal, Bina, faith, which does not rely on corporeal knowledge. I rely on reception because it is built on egoism. But I ask to be given such a perception of reality as if I can sense the Creator, as if His power of bestowal has been revealed throughout the world, and everyone is in love and bestowal, and I want to be the same.

I realize how far my request is from reality, but I want to align myself in such a way that I relate to it on two levels: the power of reception and the power of bestowal. On one hand, like a judge, I can only go by what my eyes see, which is corporeal reality. On the other hand, I perceive the world as if it was corrected, only the single force of the Creator operates in it, and there is nothing else besides it.²

If the Creator had clothed in me and had given me His power of love and bestowal, replacing the egoistic force of reception that used to control me, I would become an angel. I would only love and bestow to everyone just as unconsciously I want to receive from them now. I would simply replace one nature with another.

This can never happen. The goal is to remain as the same created being while also becoming similar to the Creator, that is, to include two levels.

Therefore, after many years of disappointment in the futile attempts to obtain the force of bestowal, to feel love, and the spiritual world, I finally understand that I do not even want it. I do not need the force of bestowal that would completely engulf me like egoism currently does. It would not amount to anything. True bestowal consists of remaining within the force of reception and acquiring the ability to rise above it by the force of bestowal.

While hating somebody, I get the ability to treat him well. I don’t want to turn into an angel and love everybody. I remain the same egoist as the Creator made me, not destroying my desire to enjoy, but above it, I make a restriction, a screen, the reflected Light, and I build my attitude of bestowal above reception. I don’t want any reward or compensation, I just want to treat everyone the way the Creator treats them. That is, my intentions are relatively unselfish.³

We must reveal all the evil inside of us and obtain the force of faith, Bina, above it. We cannot become the Creator, we can only become similar to Him. Therefore, our force of bestowal can only exist above the force of reception, as if we bestow.

The force of bestowal is the force of the Creator. We can only imprint it in ourselves and thus become a human, Adam, meaning similar (Domeh) to the Creator. We apply gilt on top of our desire to enjoy. But inside, under this gold foil, the whole sculpture remains, all the evil of our ego. This is the Aviut of desire and the screen above it.⁴
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/18, Lesson on the Topic “The Work Within Reason And The Work Above Reason”

Thrive Global: “How Human Connection Can Help Alleviate Anxiety And Fear”

Thrive Global published my new article: “How Human Connection Can Help Alleviate Anxiety and Fear”

We all like to relax and sleep soundly, but our growing uncertainty about the future makes us anxious and concerned. The best way to rise above these feelings is to switch from self-concern to being concerned for others.

Anxiety is something that builds up over time, it doesn’t happen overnight. Every evening, you probably sit in front of your computer or TV set, trying to relax after a long day’s work, and what do you see? A world on the verge of collapse: hurricane devastation across the US, the opioid overdose epidemic, school shootings, political dramas, people killing their own family members… and all this comes on top of your own problems at home and work. As a result, instead of feeling calm and enthusiastic about the next day, you constantly feel anxiety and fear about life. If you relate to any of this, then you’re not alone. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in the United States, affecting 40 million adults aged 18 and older.

The sensation of helplessness regarding the future is a universal matter of concern. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 1 in 13 people globally suffer from anxiety, and social anxiety disorder is the most common. It manifests as fear of being judged by others, negatively evaluated, or rejected in a social or performance situation.

We cannot live in a bubble. Out of necessity, we live our lives as members of society. Yet, the problem begins in that we do not know how to relate to each other.

International organizations are trying to deal with mental health problems by targeting anxiety and depression as one, the leading cause of disability worldwide. Multiple campaigns to tackle this phenomenon have been launched with no success, as there has been nearly a 50% increase in the amount of people struggling with these mental dysfunctions between 1990 (416 million) and 2013 (615 million).

Why Are We So Anxious?

These are not only numbers, but people’s deep struggles. British writer, Matt Haig, shares his personal anecdotes on modern negative influences from social media and his own tussling with anxiety and depression in his book, Notes on a Nervous Planet, noting that, “It is not the technology itself that is the problem. It is our lack of awareness about how it is changing our lives and affecting our minds.”

Feeling anxious now and then is part of our daily lives: when we need to make important decisions or face challenges in our workplace or with our families. It is considered a mental illness when the distress is overwhelming and might keep us from carrying on with our regular duties, causing sleep deprivation and affecting our health and wellbeing.

Both genetic and environmental aspects influence our normal anxiety traits as well as anxiety disorders, but social pressure is a key factor in the development of chronic anxious behavior on what is perceived as lack of control over stressful life circumstances or events.

A large aspect contributing to social anxiety is competition triggered by social media. We constantly compare ourselves, and this leads to unsettling anxiety if we look at ourselves as less popular or less successful in relation to what we see as role models or desirable standards that are usually unrealistic.

Concern as a Foundation of Life

Life is a natural process that is not supposed to be without stress and problems. If we look at the animal kingdom, animals are constantly concerned about their survival, how to overcome the threats of those who want to eat them and take their offspring. Humans, the most developed part of nature, are not any different.

We struggle our entire lives. Why is it so? It is because our nature is the will to enjoy that constantly develops not in quantity but in quality and complexity. Society and education pressure us day and night to pursue higher and more qualitative pleasures. We constantly want to fulfill ourselves as much as possible according to our personality, conditions and the environment that shape our values and attitudes toward life. These measurements determine what we consider as pleasure or suffering. The more we progress, the more helpless we feel.

How to Control Our Destiny

As humans we are able to make conscious decisions about the way our reckless actions might affect other levels in nature and ourselves. Instead, we are controlled by our ego, our desire for endless pleasure. We want to enjoy ourselves as much as possible even if it is at the expense of others.

The world has created conditions as in a bow-and-arrow game. We went backward and seemingly developed humanity to a point where it is abundant with means for fulfilling ourselves, that everyone should be having a great time. But in fact, the path has been so full of suffering, blood, war and disappointment that we finally start seeing that it will not work this way anymore. Therefore, from now onward, we will need to begin to release the arrow from the bow and set it off to the right direction, toward a more balanced existence.

How Can A Person Suffer Less?

Feeling this internal desire for fulfillment takes a lot of our time. A lot of energy, strength and nerves are demanded to feel happy and free.

We have created all kind of mechanisms to avoid being anxious. People have tried to shut off themselves, disconnect through drugs, alcohol, or release their frustration through aggressive behavior. But the influence of the environment in molding our values is so powerful that these intents to escape from reality will not help.

Problems cannot be magically erased but we need to reach a comfortable level where a person is able to cope with fears and anxiety reaching balance between normal worries and a healthy life. It does not mean that we should avoid responsibilities or throw ourselves into the arms of society to take care of our duties. It is, however, a condition we cannot achieve alone.

What does this actually depend on? It completely depends on the influence of the environment, which is both the source of the problem and its solution. Society should organize itself in such a way that the person will feel nurtured through a balanced flow of information, without distortions created by the media to draw people’s attention.

Healthy Competition

We always need to yearn for something, to have the feeling of hunger together with the possibility of fulfilling ourselves. It is a natural inclination that we do not have to destroy. But we have to experience some kind of lack, not to the degree of anxieties, threats and fears, but to such a level that pulls me to its fulfillment in a positive way.

The world has become round. We live in an integral system where we are interdependent. We become aware of the influence on the environment because we live in it, so we see that we have no option but to improve it. How? Through a new kind of education, from an early age to adulthood.

From an early age, we should receive integral education, not only knowledge and information. Our education is currently focused on a system of individualistic competition that pushes us to become more selfish and egoistic. This needs to change. Instead, in order to create a society free from anxiety and many other symptoms of our egocentric-based systems, our education should be based on how much everyone can contribute to society. It would still be competitive, but it would be healthy competition, where one who helps more and gives a good mood to others becomes more recognized, and not one who builds one’s success on the ruins of others.

If we implement this principle, our lives will take a twist to a positive direction. This new altruistic attitude that we would develop and train, like a muscle, would expand outwardly and positively affect the way we treat ecology and all of life’s systems. But it all starts and depends on improving relations among people first. As a result of education to change society’s influence on a person, anxieties and fears will click into their balanced proportions as with all of our qualities.

Healthy Connection

Like a mother who protects her baby from external negative influences, or a magnetic field around the earth, we can build a defensive shield, a powerful support system against strong negative influences.

The means to achieve this protective environment is called the method of connection, where people sit together in a circle to share positive information and uplifting experiences on the connection with others. We learn how to develop a selective ear, teaching us on how to filter between important and useless information for our personal progress as integral parts of society.

Circles of people who connect can transform anxiety into feelings of security, happiness, and relaxation through various games and exercises. Everyone impresses the others by being “smaller” and influences the others in a positive way by being “greater.” Everyone elevates the general mood in the group with jokes.

Hypersensitivities are alleviated by absorbing opposite impressions of relaxation from others. By playing with one another as though we are safe and secure, what we act out together can gradually become our new reality.

Anxieties, concerns and fears are a natural part of our make-up. The key to overcoming anxiety is thus not to erase it, but redirect it toward others: to switch self-concern to concern about others. By working with a method of connection and using techniques to develop healthy connections, we would then see a transformation of all kinds of anxieties into feelings of happiness and confidence.

New Life 1062 – The Desire To Know

New Life 1062 – The Desire To Know
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Nature has given humans the desire to know so that they will learn how to correct themselves, develop the eternal part within themselves, and reach the level of the Creator. This desire to know and understand comes from our need to survive, advance, and develop. We seek answers to questions such as, “Who am I?” “Where did I come from?” and “Where am I headed?” We have the creative, higher force inherent inside us. However, this force can also be used in a destructive, egoistic way. Although nature openly invites us to learn about it, our ability to absorb eternity is limited. We fail to see the connection between various forms of study and nature as a whole.
From KabTV’s “New Life 1062 – The Desire To Know,” 9/27/18

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A Special Kind Of Egoism

Question: You are saying that our time is different from others in that low souls have descended into the world and selfishness has increased. What do you mean by that?

Answer: I mean that we have come to the state when we need to break into the upper world.

With our little egoism, aimed only at earning more or succeeding in something, we cannot achieve anything. In life you have some goals, preferences, values, and spend all your life swirling among them.

Earthly goals, however, are not egoism. Real egoism manifests itself only in relation to spiritual unity between people—where there are serious obstacles.

Question: Is there egoism toward the Creator?

Answer: Of course. It is the kind where I want to be instead of Him! The Creator created egoism equal to Him, and so the ego feels such an impulse.

Question: Does this mean that Kabbalists have a connection with the Creator and they want to use Him for their own sake?

Answer: If you are already in this system and you have a connection with the Creator, then spiritual egoism is called a Klipa, and these are completely different, special obstacles that need to be corrected.
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/24/18

Different In The Egoism, Same In The Bestowal.

Question: If the soul is all of us, does it mean that it contains different properties because we are all different; is it always present and we just need to see its diversity?

Answer: We are all very different and yet the same. We are different in our egoism because everyone wants a little for himself, the way he wants it, in the form that is easier for him.

However, if we are talking about the property of bestowal and love, then everything is much simpler because I have to absorb the desires, properties, and aspirations of the other and try to fill them for his sake, as opposed to for my own benefit.

Then, I gather all my strength and abilities and focus on the other, like a mother who wishes to give all of herself to her baby.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/10/18

The Times Of Israel: “Pittsburgh Tree Of Life Synagogue Massacre A Call To Unity“

The Times of Israel published my new article “Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue massacre a call to unity“

“It is a tree of life for those who hold fast to it, and all its supporters are happy. Its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace.” (Proverbs 3:18)

As US flags fly at half-staff for 3 days following the horrific Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh—the killing of 11 people and the injuring of six others by a gunman wanting nothing less than to eradicate all Jews—it is time to unite above our differences and bow our heads not only for the victims’ families and friends, but to contemplate on why such a heinous anti-Semitic hate crime took place, and what we can do to prevent future attacks.

While the ADL called the shooting “likely the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States,” hate crimes in general were recorded as being the highest in over a decade in 2017, with a 12% increase in the US. Moreover, Jews accounted for around 54% of those hate crimes, despite being just 2% of the US population. Therefore, while we unite and pray for the victims’ families and friends, we need to understand that we are reacting to a symptom of an intensifying problem.

The Tree of Life is For Those Who Hold Fast to It…

In order to solve the problem at its root and not wait for mass shootings and other crises to temporarily unite us, we need to recognize the unity of the Jewish people as a force capable of solving anti-Semitism. When the Jewish people unite above their differences, love covers hatred, peace covers conflict, happiness covers all the emptiness in the world, and as if miraculously, from within, people feel a new kind of fulfillment in their lives. And when people are fulfilled, thoughts to eliminate an entire race stop popping up into their minds. How does this all work?

How is the Unity of the Jewish People a Solution to Anti-Semitism?

Historically, Jews are a living testament of resilience. Throughout history we have been persecuted by Romans, the Spanish Inquisition, the Russian Empire of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and of course, Hitler … and yet we have survived. Modern-day challenges will also not destroy us unless we sit passively by and fail to use this event in Pittsburgh as a wake-up call. To answer the call and make sure that such slaughter of Jews never happens again, we first need to understand who we are, why we are here, and what is our role and purpose on this planet. Only then will we be able to comprehend why we go through so many tribulations and struggles, and only then can we discover how to change to a positive course.

The originators of our nation came from different tribes all over Babylon and the Near East. The only thing that held them together was their belief that Abraham’s tenet of mercy and love of others was the right way to live. It transcended all other values and considerations, and so, they followed him.

We were established as a Jewish nation at the foot of Mount Sinai when all our members committed to unite “as one man with one heart.” Immediately afterward, we were commanded to be “a light unto nations,” namely to spread the light of unity throughout the world. That is what makes us unique. Since we once experienced brotherly love, we have the ability to once again unite above differences and set an example to others who so desperately need such guidance.

Rav Kook summed up the role of the Jewish people as follows:

“The purpose of Israel is to unite the world into a single family.

As long as we maintain our unity, we thrive and remain safe. When we abandon it, the world regards us as a negative influence and anti-Semitic manifestations resurface with a vengeance, as evidenced in the Tree of Life synagogue attack.

When our enemies strike they do not ask what denomination we belong to, or what our origin is, or whether we are right wing or left wing. They simply strike out against us, convinced that the world’s problems will be solved by erasing Jews off the face of the planet. These overriding forces of anti-Semitism constantly resurface in different ways to compel us to unite as we become increasingly distant from implementing our role of being “a light unto nations.”

How We Can Turn This Around

Instead of exemplifying unity, we radiate divisiveness to the rest of the world. In such a state, the world will always find reasons to hate us and feel justified in trying to destroy us. The point upon which our prosperity depends was succinctly expressed by Samuel David Luzzatto:

“The success of our nation depends only on our brotherly love, on connecting to one another as members of a single family.

It is my hope that we will use the choice we have in our hands to lead the world from darkness to light, chaos to unity, by rising above our differences. We don’t need to agree on everything, but we do have to connect our hearts above all that separates us.

It is said in Shem MiShmuel:

“When Israel are ‘as one man with one heart,’ they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil.

By uniting, we will be empowered to firmly take root as a nation, realizing among each other and spreading to others the happiness, pleasantness and peace contained in the words: “It is a tree of life for those who hold fast to it, and all its supporters are happy. Its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace.” (Proverbs 3:18)

Spread The Knowledge About The Creator In The World

Question: If I tell somebody about the Creator and about the upper worlds, does it mean that I love him? The purpose for telling this person about it is unknown. It is not that simple.

Answer: First, you have to prepare—understand what he would like to hear. You teach students in the same way: you feel what they would like to hear from you and what they would not like. You already understand them. This is how the love for the created beings and the love for the Creator are expressed.

You are between the Creator and the created beings, transmitting the knowledge about the Creator to them: how to get close to the upper force, how to start being filled with it, become similar to it, and attain the state of eternity and perfection.

You try to tell everyone about it. What can be better for a person than to understand that he can reach the level of the Creator and that he is given opportunities, tools, and the method? This is the most you can do for people.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/17/18

Kabbalah And Individuality

Question: Is a person who has a natural fear of losing his individuality not suitable for studying Kabbalah?

Answer: On the contrary, he is suitable for Kabbalah, he has something to lose. But his work is on his own individuality, only in inclusion in the group.

Question: What is a person’s “I”?

Answer: A person’s “I” is a measure of his inclusion in a group, his complete self-annulment at each moment of time. It is there that his true individuality is revealed.

Question: It is unclear: what is equality in a group?

Answer: Until we implement it, we will not understand. We must strive for it, and the upper Light, the Creator, will complete it for us.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 4/12/18

To Pull Everyone Along

Question: Why do you, a Kabbalist, do so many actions in the imaginary reality when you could transfer the scope of actions into the true spiritual reality?

Answer: It is in order to pull you along with me as part of my essence.

Question: Does it mean that you are responsible for people?

Answer: They all are my parts! Therefore, I am tied to them. And so is each of us. There is mutual inclusion of everybody into everything. Therefore, each of us pulls others and together we draw near to the world of eternity, of infinity.

By helping others, you eventually help yourself because all others are your spiritual part. All this is one Adam.

Question: Do I bestow to myself and not to another person?

Answer: Yes, but it seems to you that you bestow to others. The fact is that the state called Adam was broken into many parts, so that each part relative to others could move from its egoism to altruism and thus acquire the quality of the Creator, the quality of bestowal and love.

If this system did not break, how could it acquire the quality of the Creator? How would it act? Yet since we are broken and there is egoism between us, mutual rejection, we can overcome it and connect with others. Then the force of overcoming will become the force of our connection and similarity with the Creator. We need to reach this state.

This is the idea of the Creator: as a result of the shattering, the created being would become egoistic and all the force of light, the force of the Creator, the force of His love, would enter between us and turn into egoism, into hatred. We now need to revert it back into connection and love, and then we will become similar to the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 6/10/18

What Is The Difference Between Fear And The Desire To Bestow?

Question: Rabash writes that fear before the Creator arises when a person is afraid that he will be unable to bring contentment to Him. What is the difference between the fear before the Creator and the desire to bestow?

Answer: The desire to bestow is what I already have and I can use it.

It is unclear where it came from because there is no such desire in our world. If we give something to someone, it is a hidden reception, not bestowal. For example, a mother who takes care of her child in fact does not bestow to him, because he provides her with such fulfillment that she is prepared to do anything for him. This is not so in the spiritual world.

In the spiritual world, under the influence of the upper Light, we receive the true quality of bestowal and begin to feel pleasure in bestowing, exiting ourselves, and rising above ourselves. At first, it is egoistic: I feel good because I rise above myself, bestow, feel pleasure, and unconsciously work for the sake of it, but I strive for bestowal.

This is not yet an exit from egoism but already an intermediate state when I begin to appreciate the action of bestowal because it brings me certain dividends.

Question: The next degree is fear. If I tremble before the Creator and want to bestow to Him, why is this not the final stage yet?

Answer: It is not a complete desire because it is an intention. The intention should be connected with the desire and then realized. Fear alone is not enough here, it is necessary to reveal clear desires that can work with fear before the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 4/12/18

All The Correction Is In Unity

The whole correction is in unity. All that we and the whole of creation need to do is to unite. If we strive only in the direction of unity within which the Creator will be revealed, and the goal of our life is the purpose of creation, then we are moving in the right direction.

The Bnei Baruch World Group is just a vanguard, which will be followed by more and more parts of the common broken soul joining us. Thus, the Creator will have the opportunity to be revealed inside the creations with all His might.¹

I have to work on the love for my friends regardless of how my friends behave toward me. After all, I perceive them as if they were sent to me by the Creator who organizes this whole picture for me. I am obliged to accept it “as is” and to understand that I see not my friends, but myself in the reverse, inverted form, which appears to me in this form.

My friends’ behavior is a manifestation of my own properties, which I still need to correct. Therefore, it does not matter what I hear and feel communicating with my friends, how much they insult and neglect me, and not only they, but the whole world in general. I have to correct myself in such a way as to perceive each friend, my colleague on the path to the goal of creation, as my best friend, and to cultivate the love for him in myself.

Thanks to the love for my friend growing inside me, I will see that he is being corrected, suddenly becoming better, more pleasant, more desirable, softer and kinder, as it is written that “love will cover all transgressions.” Moreover, I will continue to see a bad attitude on his side and at the same time will envelop him with love until I reveal that all this is arranged by the Creator.

The Creator hardens my heart through such external attire so that I develop my property of bestowal above it. After all, it is impossible to develop upon pleasant things. I will naturally be nice to someone who loves me because it is pleasant and beneficial to my egoism.

If I see that friends neglect me and reject me, then I have the opportunity to work on it. I become very sensitive and notice such subtleties that I had not seen before: someone turns a little away from me, does not look at me in a friendly way, and ignores me. It suddenly hurts me and awakens resistance and hatred in me.

Yet, I prepare myself to hold back. Then, I try to awaken love in myself, covering with it all the flaws that I see in a friend. I then find out that there is no friend—these are my own egoistic properties that the Creator shows me. It is over this depth of egoism that I have the opportunity to build a connection with the Creator, adhere to Him, and see that there are no friends, only the Creator.

What’s most important is not to forget that all this is the work of the Creator, and my task is to check and find out that I am incapable of doing it by myself. The person cannot correct himself; he was created only to ask the Creator to correct him, he was created for prayer. We must always turn to the upper one and demand from him.

Our task is to identify our flaws and ask for their correction. Therefore, friends become a vital environment for me without which I would not be able to turn to the Creator. The worse, as it seems to me, my friends treat me, the more they help me turn to the Creator.

It turns out that I myself am looking for opportunities for correction, like an old man who is walking bent over and looking for something that he hasn’t yet lost. I make an effort to identify deficiencies that can be collected and added to my prayer.²

A friend is “bought” by one’s own self-annulment. I have to pay for the “purchase” with something, that is, to give up on something, to sacrifice my egoism. I cannot destroy my egoism, but it is possible to change its use from egoism to bestowal with the help of the Light that reforms This is called “buying a friend.”³
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/14/18, Lesson Preparation for the Virtual Convention 2018

Pittsburgh Massacre: Understanding The Hatred Toward Jews

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 10/28/18

It is with great sadness that I need to react yet again to a horrible and tragic event. I hope we learn how we can truly prevent this from ever happening again.

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How To Acquire The Desire To Bestow

Rabash, “Love of Friends – 2”: By which substance can one be brought to acquire a new quality that he must bestow, and that reception for self is faulty? This is against nature! Though at times, one receives a thought and desire that he must abandon self-love, which comes to us by hearing of it from friends and books, it is a very small force, which does not always shine for us…

A person, making timid attempts to get away from the power of the ego, may desire, scream, and pray, but this is all within the ego, inside his own cell. I remember how I wept from despair and Rabash laughed in my face. There are various challenges and moments.

This is all given to a person so that in the end one will realize that nothing is solved by the person alone. Everything is solved only by revering the group, and this is possible only with the help of the upper Light.

When joining the group, you do everything that it needs, you realize all your strength, and you do so in order to gather your friends together and make a vessel of them for the revelation of the Creator.

Question: It turns out that the influence of Kabbalistic books and sages are insufficient; we also need a group?

Answer: Of course. In the individual form, nothing happens. The influence of books on each of us is only necessary to awaken a person.

This is the preliminary information, the preliminary pressure on the person, which pushes him to the goal. Realization comes later, at a “mature age,” when a person is already in the group for several years, studies, communicates with his friends, and acquires some concepts and contacts. He masters the lexicon, a certain literature, because he must absorb it all.
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From TV Program “The last generation” 4/12/18