And The Planets Appeared In The Sky

Question: If the ten Sefirot correspond to the ten planets, why have we discovered only nine? Does this have a root?

Answer: The fact is that in reality there are a lot more planets in the universe. Kabbalah predicted them long ago.

In particular, The Book of Zohar writes a lot about it in different places. I was not interested in it. Although, as a child, I studied astronomy, as soon as I got close to Kabbalah, the spiritual consequences of our world stopped being of interest to me.

Question: The Torah writes: “And the planets appeared in the sky… .” What is it talking about?

Answer: The Torah does not write about the physical planets but about spiritual forces. The Earth, the Sun, and the Moon are all spiritual forces and not what we can see and observe. Although we do compile the earthly calendar, one must clearly understand where it refers to the spiritual roots and where about their consequences.
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From the lesson in Russian, 12/30/18

How To Make Life Good

Question: How can we explain to the 99% of people what a good life is?

Answer: We consider life as good according to what is good for us.

In our time, however, having uncorrected connections between ourselves, we cannot feel good. We see that the world is falling apart because the upper light descending upon it wants to fill it and the world feels its oppositeness to this light.

The closer spiritual goodness is to our world, the worse we feel. The nearing of the upper light gives us a sense of darkness because we are uncorrected, opposite to it. Therefore, if we want to feel the blessings and all the goodness, we must change ourselves to be similar to the upper light so we do not plunge into problems and crises because the light is coming closer and closer to us. In other words, we have to unite on the level of this world. That is the problem.

For example, the news announces that an asteroid is on its course to Earth and that the planet is in danger, people should feel themselves in danger, the upper light is coming closer to us, the Creator wishes to be revealed to the creations. This is why we are called “the last generation.”

We have entered a path of increasingly escalating pressure on us. This is why the science of Kabbalah has become revealed; it explains that we have to start adapting ourselves to the upper light to become somewhat similar to it.

We are a Kli (vessel of the soul), the Creator is the light. We can become similar to Him only if we unite between ourselves. In other words, if we wish for a better future, we must unite.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/11/19

New Life #1092 – Family Values In Israel

New Life #1092 – Family Values in Israel
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary:

Israel was originally created by strangers who gathered around Abraham and connected through the value of love. They built a society like a family in which each one felt that he is in a warm, secure, embracing place of refuge from outside pressures. This internal, spiritual connection is much stronger than the sense of belonging experienced in a family. It is eternal and binds us into a single soul. It embodies the feeling of harmony, wholeness, and abundance in nature.
From KabTV’s “New Life #1092 – Family Values in Israel,” 3/12/19

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See Whose Orders You Follow

It is written that the Creator hardens the heart of Pharaoh, that is, the egoistic desire to enjoy. It is necessary to isolate and increase it so it will become obvious who your enemy is on your way to the Creator, identify it, then turn it from the evil Pharaoh into the good Creator, and thus reach adhesion with the upper force.

There is no servant more faithful to the Creator than Pharaoh who is summoned to bring us to the Creator so that we will be able to distinguish between light and darkness, bestowal and reception, sweet and bitter. With the help of Pharaoh, we learn how to reach the qualities of the Creator. Ultimately, the Creator hardens the heart of Pharaoh, that is, He is behind everything, even the events that are most unpleasant for us. “There is none else besides Him” in the entire reality.

If we are able to accept that all forces of nature, all human beings, all hostile actions, and all thoughts come from the Creator and we want to come to love Him, then we turn all these adverse means into help.

We can only discern any quality through the contrast of opposites, not by itself. We are created beings and we must feel both ourselves and the Creator. The gap between these two sensations gives us the feeling of reality.

The more we differ from the Creator, the deeper and more accurately we can reveal Him, on a more inner level. Therefore, it is said that the greater a person is, the greater is his egoism. The further we advance, the more serious disturbances we encounter, and, at the same time, the collision of opposites helps us come to the conclusion that “There is none else besides Him.”

Our entire work is in establishing the uniqueness of the upper force, nothing besides it exists. The whole world is comprised of disturbances from the force that opposes the Creator, called “the Pharaoh.” Over all this confusion created by the Pharaoh, we can establish that it was sent by the Creator. Then all the disturbances become enveloped in “There is none else besides Him,” and we can examine this principle more accurately in all its detail by building the image of the Creator through the image of the Pharaoh.

We have no way to approach the Creator who has no image. However, it is the disturbances that build the image of the Creator in the inverse form for us.¹

Pharaoh confuses us throughout our lives until the day we die, forcing us to think that our duty is to serve egoism. We are not even slaves, but voluntary workers, of Pharaoh, ready to carry out all the orders of our nature in order to receive pleasures in return, or at least to avoid suffering. However, if the Creator wants to bring a person closer to Him, he hardens his heart, showing him that he is working for the evil force, for Pharaoh, who does not care about a person’s welfare, but deceives one throughout one’s life in order to eventually bury him in the ground. Pharaoh enjoys the fact that we are following his orders.

However, the good force is hiding behind the evil one and wants to teach us the advantage of light over darkness by showing us through these opposites that there is something above our nature. All this is so that we, through our desires and efforts, will discover this upper reality, the spiritual world, by ourselves, and come to recognize the upper force that is above Pharaoh. This is how we reveal the opposite form of Pharaoh—the Creator.

Afterward, we chase “none else besides Him,” looking not at Pharaoh himself, but trying to see the Creator through him. Let Pharaoh play any role before me, the main thing is that he helps me reveal various forms of the Creator’s attitude toward me.

The Creator is a permanent, unconditional, invariable good that I cannot see. The upper light even now fills all of reality, but who sees it? Pharaoh gives me a transparent negative through which I look at the light and see all kinds of images. I will not be able to understand and distinguish anything in the Creator if it were not for Pharaoh.

The crueler Pharaoh becomes, the more contrasting details we can reveal in the Creator. Without Pharaoh there is no Creator; therefore, the Creator initially created the evil inclination. When we look at the Creator through our evil inclination, we can see all kinds of forms, types of relationships, actions, and intentions, and with the help of Pharaoh, we learn how to become similar to the Creator.²
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/24/19, Pesach (Passover)

3 Similarities Between Pre-Holocaust Europe And Today’s World

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 5/2/19

Consider some striking similarities between pre-Holocaust Europe and today’s world: on one hand, social division becomes felt more rampantly, Nazi, fascist and other extremist views gain popularity, and also anti-Semitic pressure increasingly mounts on the Jews. On the other hand, there is still time for the Jews to take a step toward fixing the problem in a positive light.

See the full post >>>>>>

The Special Spiritual Component

There are people who find it hard to even hear that we need to reach connection in order to attain the Creator. The Creator is so exalted and incomprehensible, He is in another dimension that we do not feel. He does not fit into the scope of our mind and feelings. We cannot assemble this puzzle—the image of the Creator—from the thoughts and sensations within us so that we somehow feel and understand Him.

Yet, on the other hand, they say that it happens through simple corporeal actions in our world. We do not understand the connection between the two: how will it help if I smile at others and treat them well? We don’t think of it as a serious game, just hypocrisy. We are egotists by nature and have already tried to change our external behavior without changing the inner essence.

However, here we should understand that there is a special spiritual component called the light that returns to the source—a special force that we can draw and it will change our nature. Therefore, even if we do not want to connect, to get closer to each other, and to support each other, we must do this in order to come closer to the Creator. This is hard work and we need to convince ourselves of its necessity so that even acting against our desire, pretending and playing, we awaken the light that reforms.

The more artificial and unnatural our effort is, and we make it nevertheless, the more light it awakens. Hence the paradox that people who cannot stand any connection with others and do not accept this principle, through their smallest efforts to connect, they awaken a great light of correction.¹
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/19, From The Point In The Heart to A Ten” (Preparation for the Convention in Latin America Convention 2019)
1 Minute 14:52

What Does Kabbalah Study Bring Into My Life?

Question: Can I tie all the events in my life with the study of Kabbalah or would all those events happen to me anyway? What does Kabbalah study bring to my life?

Answer: Your study of Kabbalah gives your life purpose. It gives you an eternal gain that does not disappear with your corporeal body, but remains beyond it. Since the property of bestowal is above egoism, it continues to exist even when our body dies.

Kabbalah gives us an absolutely pure benefit from the life in this world. It may take one life or a few life cycles, but you will be able to achieve the state of complete similarity with the Creator, His level. This is the purpose of our development.
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From the Daily Kabbalah lesson in Russian, 12/23/18

What Does The Upper Light Respond To?

Question: How can I draw the surrounding light: with my effort or my desire? What does it respond to?

Answer: Desire and effort are very close notions. But mostly, the surrounding light responds to our efforts.

To the extent that I try to exit myself, connect with friends and achieve a property opposite to my egoism, I begin to feel from the center of the group the impact of a special property called “faith above reason.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah lesson in Russian, 12/23/18

New Life #1091 – Education For Our Children

New Life #1091 – Education for Our Children
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary:

As parents and educators it is worthwhile to identify what a child is attracted to and to cultivate his natural inclinations. Natural inclinations are not inherently good or bad but their expression can be negative or positive. We need to speak with our children about what they experience and their related thoughts. Good education explains the egoistic nature of humanity and how to promote good to others. As parents, we have to remember that the best way to calm our children is to correct ourselves.
From KabTV’s “New Life #1091 – Education for Our Children,” 3/7/19

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New Life #1090 – Social Boycotting Among Children

New Life #1090 – Social Boycotting Among Children
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary:

Boycotting is so widespread among children because human nature is a desire to enjoy being higher than others. It is natural that every society has a leader and children need to be taught how to attract others in a positive way. They need to learn how to attract the good power that is inherent in nature in order to balance evil.
From KabTV’s “New Life #1090 – Social Boycotting Among Children,” 3/7/19

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How Beneficial Is Every Thought?

The main thing is to assemble and restore the common soul, which shattered after the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. We have already received this broken vessel in preparation for our work. What is required from us is the action, about which it is written: “And let them make Me a Temple and I will dwell within them.”

The Temple is a holy vessel, completely directed to bestowal. We are building it from our bricks, placing stone upon stone, from the stony hearts that can connect with other bricks. This is how we build the Temple out of our egoism, out of our shattered desires, gluing them together and creating a place in which the upper force, the Creator, can dwell within us.

This is our only work and goal, and therefore, we should always check how beneficial every action, thought, and desire, is for the construction of this holy tower, the Temple.¹
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/19, From The Point In The Heart to A Ten” (Preparation for the Convention in Latin America Convention 2019)
1 Minute 0:20

Change The Map Of Your Destiny

Question: Can Kabbalah help change the map of your destiny, even if it is decreed in the stars?

Answer: The fate of each of us is very clearly defined. If we take the starting and ending points of our path, then, whatever you say, each soul must go through all these stages and reach its final destination, its full realization.

It depends on how you will tread your path: quickly or slowly, falling and crawling or climbing, or, conversely, flying from one point to another. It makes a big difference whether you will undergo serious suffering, being in the negative, or if you will be in the positive.

Nevertheless, the end point for each of us has already been established. So everything that the science of Kabbalah offers is for the purpose of not slowing you down.

Let’s say that a soul comes out of point “A” to point “B.” You can stop at point “n” and move to point “m” over several lifetimes, in terrible suffering or you can get there fast, as if in flight. Therefore, we determine the pace of our advancement, its magnitude, and its quality. It depends on us.

This is what the science of Kabbalah offers. The science of Kabbalah lets us see the whole perspective, to approximate the ultimate goal we must reach.

Practically, each segment of the path is the achievement of the ultimate goal, only on a larger and larger scale: Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida, or the 125 steps of the gradual development of the soul.

As we develop our soul, we begin to feel how we attain and open nature, to become included in it, begin to see and understand it. It is like a grand symphony that involves us and lets us be its integral participant. Attaining such great harmony, when each part in billions of states connects with all others in perfect interaction, is the greatest pleasure.

Question: Do we advance in a straight path or is there always a sine wave?

Answer: A sinusoid exists, as it is said: “There is no righteous in the world who would not stumble.” But the point is that when you stumble, immediately get up, advance quickly, so that even our mistakes will serve to push us toward the search, meaning, inspire us toward further advancement.
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From the Daily Kabbalah lesson in Russian, 12/30/18

How The Upper World Is Revealed

Correction can be made only with the help of the Torah, the upper light, which initially filled the common soul and then escaped from it and remained outside as the surrounding light.The light is waiting for the desires to be ready in order to re-enter them according to the law of similarity of properties. Therefore, all corrections are possible only through our connection: physical and mental. We must try to connect until we stop feeling that we are separated by bodies.

If we see bodies, this is a sign of how much we differ from each other. And as soon as we begin to rise above our material bodies, above the internal division, the material world melts and fades away.

This world does not remain: There are only desires connected with each other and striving for ever greater unity and connection. This is how we reveal the upper world instead of the world that is before us now; we begin to see matter from the inside.
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From the World Kabbalah Convention “Day Three” – 2/21/19, “Covenant of Salt,” Lesson 9

Somewhere Far Away

Anti-Semitism in the world continues to grow. Last week in California, during the prayer at the end of Passover, a terrorist attack took place in a synagogue resulting in one person being killed and several others injured. However, it still fails to make people listen. It seems to them that this does not concern them; after all, it is happening “somewhere out there, far away.” This shows how much the Creator hardens the heart so that a person is indifferent even to such incidents. Just six months ago, a similar tragedy took place in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, but everyone has already forgotten about it.

Therefore, the Jewish people are called a “stiff-necked people.” A person does not respond to these warnings, thinking that this happened on a nearby street and cannot happen to him. We forget what happened yesterday, not to mention a few months ago, and do not notice that tension is building. To be stiff-necked means to receive a blow, wake up for an instant, and then forget everything as if it never happened.

The problem is that there is no sensation of an accumulative pain, heading toward a point when a person will be forced to respond. Everything disappears like water in sand.

It is most important to understand that this is not a random event, but a natural one, which proceeds from the foundation of creation. This process will continue and will not end unless we start doing something about it. Kabbalah explains this phenomenon on a scientific basis; it warned about the danger many years ago, while everyone laughed at such a possibility. Now it is no laughing matter, but still no one wants to listen to the Kabbalists. Time will come when there will be no choice and they will have to listen.

No matter how stiff-necked the people of Israel may be, the Creator nevertheless leads them out of Egypt by striking them and making them suffer. In our time it might be the same. Kabbalists continue to warn, but they do not believe, just like how they once did not believe Moses.

It is very symbolic that in just a few days the world will be marking the Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the same Holocaust is returning… Either Jews will unite or it will be very bad. Unity is a solution not only for anti-Semitism, but also for the general correction of the world, the correction of humanity, the growing global crisis, and the approaching world war, which are already being spoken about openly.¹
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/19, Dissemination of The Wisdom Of Kabbalah

The Role Of Women In Spiritual Work

Question: In spiritual work we rise above the oppositeness of our opinions. As a result, I become a specialist in clarifications and the opinion of the ten becomes as important to me as my own. I need to constantly absorb the desires of the friends and of the world, but are you saying that as a woman I do not need to do this?

Answer: In our time, there has not yet been a state that women in such numbers rush to the disclosure of the spiritual world. I welcome it and I am very happy about it.

This suggests that we really have risen to a new state when the world should be corrected. Yet, organizing women in tens still seems to me as an unrealistic action today.

It will still not work like with men. It will be much more fictitious, more artificial. There are such conditions between women that they are unable to overcome. They have a much more serious problem interacting with each other than men do.

A man does not have such natural antagonistic relations as women. Therefore, I do not know how to direct the relationship between women. We see from the Torah that men unite in groups, in tens, and women gather around them, not uniting with each other.

It was like this when receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai where the women stood behind the men, surrounding them. Allegorically, it is always said that women provide auxiliary work for men. They apply pressure on them, organize them, force them to progress; in this sense, they are not just great help, but strength.

We see how a woman is very quiet, but turns our world around. We are not saying that men shout everywhere—that is just a game, soon it will pass. Everything else in the world is determined by a woman.

So we need to find a form for female dissemination, female participation, female communication in Kabbalah, which we would understand and which would correspond to spiritual development. I still cannot express it clearly. I am saying it as it is.

I cannot imagine a women’s ten. Women are very artificially interconnected, not like men. And I cannot say the same thing to men and women because each of them feels completely isolated from the others. It is not so with men. They hug, sit with each other, and a sense of community prevails in them. This is nature.

We will develop further and become wiser.

The Creator Is Not A Person

Question: Although you have already said that the Creator, as a personality, does not exist, you yourself continue to communicate about Him as a physical person who thinks, desires, experiences, rejoices, grieves, etc.

How can we understand your statements? Is there some kind of personality? Or is the Creator some kind of force? Forces do not have emotional components, so they cannot be used to describe any of their manifestations.

Answer: I once had an old car that gave me a lot of trouble. I tried to fix it myself and more than once took it to the repair shop. The mechanic who was repairing the car and I scolded it with unkind words, referring to it as a living being.

When we address something, we often impose on an object, on a force, on a phenomenon, our properties, our feelings, which, of course, do not exist in this object or property. The same is true of the Creator.

To the extent that I can create the property of bestowal, love, and connection in myself, I call this property “the Creator” and no more than that. But in fact, outside of this property that I have created, the Creator does not exist.

Here we need to position ourselves correctly and understand that this is why the Creator is called Boreh, Bo-Reh: Bo (come), Reh (see). You must come and see, i.e., reach the same state in order to discover this property. We also call this property Elokim. It consists of two parts of the soul. One part is called AHP, the other is Galgalta ve Eynaim.

If we are talking about the soul, what does the Creator have to do with it? Does it also refer to a person? We do not even talk about what exists outside of a person.

We are talking about attainment within a person when a person reaches the quality of bestowal, the property of love.

This property is above egoism, it is not easy to build and develop in oneself. When we acquire it, we call it the Creator. Then we can talk about perceiving the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/23/18

Matza: In Order To Escape

The Passover holiday stands at the head of all holidays and all times in the spiritual process because it symbolizes the exit from the desire to enjoy to the desire to bestow or more precisely from the desire to receive for your own sake toward the desire to receive for the sake of bestowal. That is why Passover is so important; after all, it is an entrance to the spiritual world, to the sensation and understanding of spirituality.

Before this, a person goes through many states, starting from his original nature when he is inside the desire to enjoy and does not even realize it. Then, he begins to ask why he lives. That is, a simple animalistic existence does not satisfy him and he wants to understand the meaning of life, its source, its cause and purpose. An animal does not ask such questions; this is the beginning of the birth of a human.

Entering spirituality begins with the fact that a person suddenly feels that he can no longer think about himself and wants to perform actions outside of his egoism. Passover symbolizes the entrance into a new world, the beginning of a new state, Lishma, the beginning of bestowal, faith, acquiring the property of Bina according to which we begin to work.¹

Only when a person feels and understands that he is unable to act for the sake of bestowal can he be considered in exile. It is an exile from the property of bestowal, which he wants to acquire and cannot. Only this measures the extent and severity of the exile.²

Humanity is divided into three parts. The first part are those in whom a point in the heart has already manifested and it leads a person to Kabbalah or makes him search for it. The other part still does not understand why all this is necessary. The third part fights exclusively for corporeal realization, without touching the intention, for maintaining the intention for their own sake. On this basis, humanity can be divided into many groups, nations, and all kinds of currents.³

The Egyptian inside of me convinces me that the main thing is to perform the actions that the Torah demands of us without paying attention to the intention, that is, exclusively corporeal commandments. If I do not ask about the results of my work, it means that I am an Egyptian, that I work according to the Egyptian inside of me. If I start taking care of the intention, then I find myself in Egypt as a slave, in exile from the spiritual world.

There is a spiritual reality in which everything is for the sake of bestowal, but I exist in my egoism. The extent to which it bothers me, more or less, determines my place in the spiritual process until I reach the state when such a life becomes worse than death for me and I feel that I have to exit the selfish intention. This means that I am already on the verge of liberation, at the exit from Egyptian exile.

My inner Egyptians are holding me and convincing me that I must continue as before and everything will be fine: the main thing is the action and the intention doesn’t matter. If I agree with this, I turn into an Egyptian. But if the inner struggle for intention arises in me, then I see that I am under the power of the Egyptians and I wish to get out of this slavery. I realize that the main thing is not the action, but the intention, and I must get rid of the intention for my own sake. This means I need the light that reforms and to flee from Egypt.

I am ready for anything, just not to remain in the egoistic intention. I do not need anything but the ability to perform this action. I have already broken away from the intention for my own sake, but have not yet reached the intention for bestowal. I still do not know what bestowal is and to whom to bestow, but I am already at the exit.⁴

The shift from an Egyptian to Israel means that I no longer have the strength to perform an action. I do not want to perform it for the sake of the ego, but I still do not know how to perform it for the sake of bestowal; therefore I do not know what to do. This is the exit from Egypt, in total darkness, when we do not know what to do. Then salvation comes.⁵

It is written that the Egyptians work with white bricks without a single speck or dirt. If I egoistically add brick after brick to my work every day, then I build a beautiful snow-white building without any dirt or shadow of doubt, feeling completely holy. The Egyptians in Egypt cannot experience any awareness of evil because they take an example from what the whole world is doing; what else does a person need?

These are seven years of satiation—when a person joins the work of Egyptians self-righteousness and secure about one’s success. He does not even realize that he is acting egoistically. Such awareness is already the result of the impact of the light that reforms that constantly illuminates in small portions, gradually promoting him. “Many pennies join into a great amount.”⁶

If there is no strength to work, then only one thing remains: a prayer. Appealing to the Creator solves all problems. After all, the purpose of everything that happens with us is to oblige us to contact the Creator. In Egypt we acquire all sorts of means and methods of connection with the Creator. We must find the solution to every hardship that Egypt poses before us through new connection with the Creator.⁷

The severity of the work depends only on the intention. If the intention is for the sake of the Creator, for the sake of bestowal, then you fly like on wings, feeling no heaviness in the work, as if you’ve left the Earth’s field of gravity and soar in space. If the work is hard for you, then you are carrying the wrong suitcase and are not aiming at the Creator.⁸

We receive the influence of the Creator through the whole broken soul of Adam HaRishon. The Creator perceives only the whole soul together. Meanwhile, I can have an initial, personal, and very limited connection with the Creator, but it still reaches me through the common soul.

“… the upper Light is in complete rest,” that is, it fulfills the common Kli. But I attain a connection with the Creator in the measure of my connection with the common soul. Suppose I have connected with one of the twenty billion, to this extent I attain a contact that always goes through the common connection. The Creator is inside all the created beings in a perfect form because everyone has already reached the end of correction, and I connect with this state.⁹

What is the difference between Matza and bread? Matza is also bread, only bread of poverty, made solely from flour and water. Even the water in it is in limited quantities. You cannot make bread without water at all, and therefore, water is added in a minimal quantity, just to knead the dough and not let it sour. This is a sign that we still cannot work with our desires for the sake of bestowal, but we no longer want to work for the sake of receiving. That is, it is a kind of intermediate state: neither there nor here. Matzasymbolizes fulfilling in order to escape.¹⁰
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/19, Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 14, “The Connection between Passover, Matza, and Maror” (1987)

“Eva Could Be Me” (The Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “Eva Could Be Me”

Germany 2019: “More than 12,000 neo-Nazis are active and prepared to use violence,” reads a recent German official report. It’s chilling to realize that this document sounds like it came from the early 1930s when a tiny Jewish girl took her first breaths in Budapest, Hungary. At age 13 during the spring of 1944, young Eva Heiman kept a personal diary like many teens now do on social media. Until three months later, she was taken from her home to her death in Auschwitz. 75 years have passed since then, and “Eva Stories,” a brilliant project on Instagram, traces her life and provides a “modern” glimpse at the dark days of the Holocaust. Tragically, those gloomy days have returned with the rise of anti-Semitism in America and the world, and these are signs, as our sages foresaw it, for us to unite as the one and only deliverance of the Jewish people.

While our cultural world has shrunk to a smartphone screen, our inner world has to expand. Although some would push the Holocaust to the margins of historical memory, we must instead strive to investigate our past and our future. We should demand answers in order to gain insights and shed new light on our reality.

If Eva was actually alive now, she would wonder, ”How could it be possible that anti-Semitism raises its ugly head in 2019 in every corner of the globe and in every language after all that happened? How is it possible that Jews are still the most persecuted people in the world? How does that burning hatred erupt in Hungarians and Germans, as well as Americans and Russians? How can it be that the brilliant Jewish mind—the one capable of flying a spaceship to the moon, of creating an artificial heart, of winning Nobel prizes and Oscars and building social media platforms—has not managed to defeat the hatred toward us over thousands of years?”

In spite of her graceful manners and her innocent smile, Eva must have been experienced enough to say, “No, the hatred toward us does not stem from jealousy. People do not hate us because we are the smartest, the most successful and inventive, and not because they think we control the media, banks and commerce.”

Eva would ponder the deeper reason for the incomprehensible hatred: “Could it be that maybe anti-Semitism is a law of nature, a phenomenon impossible to erase? Are blows from nature begging us to stop and ask a deeper question?”

Certainly, after all she experienced, she would want to listen to what the haters have to say, “Jews are to blame for all human evil. They only take care of themselves.”

She would also return to our sources to learn from our sages and she would discover that, indeed, there is a close, internal connection between Israel and the nations of the world. She would rush to find out exactly what that means: that Jews are obligated by nature to pave the way for unity over all differences. Attainment of human unity is the only solution to all the evils of the world, including anti-Semitism.

Eva’s story might just become our own if we do not bear active witness to how and why bigotry and hatred unfolds worldwide. Eva’s story should underscore the stark dangers of anti-Semitism and how its magnitude and intensity can rapidly evolve and spread. The hatred persists and strengthens day by day. When we are united and become exemplars of loving brotherhood will we be able to enlighten the world toward unity and eliminate all the threats against us. Maybe then Eva would finally post on Instagram the words she wished could have been written in her time: “In Israel lies the secret of the unity of the world.”

Collect All The Sparks Of Love

Baal HaSulam, Letter 13: This happened to you due to negligence in my request to exert in love of friends, as I have explained to you in every possible way that this cure is enough to recompense for all your faults. And if you cannot rise to heaven, then I have given you moves on earth. So why haven’t you added anything in that work? 

A person cannot be constantly directed at the Creator and constantly strive to Him as the foundation of all one’s feelings and thoughts. However, friends can elevate you to this level and then you will not have to make great efforts and have excessive inner tension in order not to break away from the Creator, because the group will be supporting you.

However, first we must try to go through this by ourselves for some time. A person will then realize that with the help of the group, one can easily, even without effort, solve this issue: the group will work for you and you for the group. This is much easier.

Baal HaSulam, Letter 13: Besides the great cure that lies within it, which I cannot interpret, you should now that there are many sparks of holiness in each one in the group. When you assemble all the sparks of holiness into one place, as brothers, with love and friendship, you will certainly have a very high level of holiness for a while, from the light of life, and I have already elaborated on that in all my letters to the friends.

Sanctity is bestowal, love, and reciprocity, which is manifested between the friends because it is a spiritual quality.
[243135]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/11/19

New Life #229 – Happiness And Security

New Life #229 – Happiness And Security
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary:

Our happiness depends on the support that the environment provides to us and with the knowledge that our future is secure. How do we acquire the security that will bring us happiness?

A great need has awakened to build new relationships within the society that will give us warmth, security, and the freedom to flourish. A social safety net must be constructed to provide general assistance and protection for those in need. Everyone must participate in the building of this secure society. It is impossible to buy security with money or achieve it alone. Paying taxes is not enough. People need to emotionally invest themselves in the lives of others and learn how to overcome mutual rejection through devotion and responsibility in order to build connection above everything.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #229 – Happiness And Security,” 9/12/13

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Don’t Wait For Tomorrow

Baal HaSulam, Letter 13: Truth will show its way, that one who regrets makes his regret known. He cannot withhold himself or hide. Indeed, I feel all of you together, that today has been replaced for you with tomorrow, and instead of “now,” you say “later.” There is no cure for that but to exert to understand that mistake and distortion—that one who is saved by the Creator is saved only if he needs the salvation today. One who can wait for tomorrow will obtain his salvation after his years, God forbid.

Under no circumstances should we postpone any feelings, thoughts, definitions, and desires for tomorrow. One must gather them, direct them to the Creator, and relate them to Him.

Suppose I have many thoughts going on in my head, all of them have to be attributed to the Creator, glued to Him; I must realize that He is their source in my feelings and in my mind.

If we constantly move in relation to Him, then the correct picture of connection will gradually emerge between the Creator and me. At first, the Creator manifests Himself in the form of the original source of everything that happens to me, inside of me, and in the surrounding world. And then I see that there is no surrounding world, and all of this is what He builds around me in my sensations; it is like a projection of these sensations.

The main thing is to try to constantly bind myself to the Creator as the root cause of all my feelings. Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that the one who does not follow this will grow wiser after years, but who knows when?

If a person neglects this, then he or she is repelled from spiritual work and will not be able to return. When the next cycle approaches, which is like the revolution of the Earth around the Sun, can really take years
[243117]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/11/19