Roots And Branches

There is a law of roots and branches.

Historically we came out of Egypt once, crossed the desert, came to the land of Israel, built the First Temple, then the Second Temple, and so on, and all of this has already happened.

But we are not talking about things that happened in history; after all, they had to happen this way. We are talking about the law when a spiritual root necessarily has to touch its earthy “response,” or earthy branch. Roots and branches must connect with each other, but only once!

It is enough for the root to touch the branch lightly, and it already performs the work in it, creates connection. Therefore, we don’t need to return to Egypt again to buy a plane ticket to meet our Pharaoh there that rules over us. It’s just no longer necessary.

It remains for us to do what we have to do, i.e., to correct ourselves. All this already exists in the root and now we need to implement it in the branches. Therefore, we are in the land of Israel, in egoism, and now we need to undergo all this ourselves, to go through and to correct it.

Question: What does it mean then that a person should feel as if he exits Egypt every day?

Answer: The exodus from Egypt is a rise above our egoism. There are 613 egoistic desires (Taryag) in the egoism that need to be corrected to altruistic ones, i.e., desire of hatred, competition, and hostility to connection and love. This is called observing thecommandments of correcting desires.

And this must be done daily because every time a person rises to a new level, each of them has the same 613 desires but in a different, stronger form. Therefore, every day a person must imagine that he exited Egypt and has the right to correct these desires.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/11/16

Correction Of The World: A Pyramid Of Desires

Question: For three years we have been engaged in the general dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah, but then we began spreading it among the Jews, we separated the friends from the general dissemination. How is it possible to cover the shortage of forces?

Answer: According to the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” dissemination of the method of correction, the wisdom of Kabbalah in the world, must be carried out according to a pyramid of desires:
1) to those who yearn for the goal of creation,
2) to Jews who carry Reshimot (Remembrances) from previous spiritual states, and
3) to the rest of humanity.
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History Of Humanity – A Look Inside, Part 1

Question: You claim that the solution for all problems is in our unity. I am an historian and have studied the history of the destruction of the First and the Second Temples. The First Temple was built by King Solomon, and I am not sure that there was any unity between the people of Israel at that time.

It also doesn’t look like people knew what unity was during the construction of the Second Temple and afterward during the time of Herod. Anyway, if by “Temple” we mean internal connection and not a material concept, then why do we mourn the destruction of the Temple on the ninth of Av?

Answer: There is a difference between the way historians and Kabbalists study history. Historians study events in the form in which they are seen by us based on the visible facts. The cause for all of the events also derive from the analysis of what they have seen. Therefore, they concluded that there were quarrels and feuds between thepeople of Israel and that clans were fighting with each other.

Humanity works with the means that are available to it and tries to understand the processes we undergo with their help. Therefore, historians ascribe what has happened to different reasons: economic, personal, and random events.

But the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah begins from a completely different root. Kabbalah says that the root cause of everything in our world is the force of nature, which has a program. Under this program, the force of nature, which can be called the upper force or the Creator, our reality unfolds.

Kabbalists study the actions of this upper force, try to understand it and ascertain the event which has occurred from its actions, instead of studying events relative to the subjective perception of a person, which depends on his development and his ability to comprehend events and their causes, the way historians do.

A person sees a spectacle unfolding in our world: Herod, Pharaoh, Moses, Solomon, and Nebuchadnezzar. But they all are just puppets on a stage. Can we see the hand of nature that is acting inside the dolls and moving these puppets on the stage?

This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah deals with. It explains that creation has a beginning and a final goal. The upper force of nature leads all of the creatures from the beginning of creation to its end so that eventually they will achieve the same level of development and the same abilities as the force of nature itself.

Our desire to enjoy, which is opposite to the force of nature, to the desire to bestow, must develop and reach its worst form, opposite to the Creator and standing against Him. Then, a special creature should appear, which will have a desire to enjoy and a desire to bestow in itself simultaneously. It will be called Adam, a man, because it will be able to become like (Edome) the Creator.

A person is given conditions in which he can grow. He must include within himself qualities that are 100% opposite to the Creator and qualities that are 100% similar to the Creator at the same time. In this way, a person can become a perfect creature, independent due to his opposition to the Creator and equivalent to Him at the same time. This is the development that the Creator planned for creation.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/16, Writings of Rabash

Between Humanity And The Creator

Torah, Deuteronomy 7:1: When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land to which you are coming to possess it, He will cast away many nations from before you: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivvites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you.

Our desire (spiritual structure) consists of seven parts: Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. In the Torah, they are represented by seven nations—seven very strong egoistic desires.

And the desire to reach love and bestowal is very weak in a person. It is like a small Moses against the great Pharaoh. Egoism rules between us and we don’t have any strength to cope with it because we lack the qualities of bestowal, love, and connection.

We have no other option except to ask the Creator to help us conquer these nations. And He fights for us. Our strength is manifested only by the fact that we are connected with Him.

We are the link between all of humanity and the Creator. Therefore, we receive negative inclinations from both sides that are obliged to put us on the correct level of relations with both the Creator and all the nations of the world (our egoistic desires).

Our strength is that we can connect with the Creator, to enlist His support and thus overcome our egoism.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/6/16

New Life #758 – Loving Children Properly

New Life #758 – Loving Children Properly
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

There are two opposing forces at the foundation of nature, the force of attraction and the force of repulsion, love and hatred. So hatred and love are the two main forces upon which all of our lives are built. Only in humans, has nature not left clear boundaries when it comes to attraction and repulsion, love and hate.

For these two forces to be in balance and for our children, we need to to us to relate to the “middle line.” Absolute love awakens repulsion and hatred in a child because he doesn’t know how to respond to it. So incessant pressure is useless and places children in an unclear situation. As people, we are not prepared to feel something that is unlimited; if love is unlimited, it is impossible to feel it.

To know how to behave correctly, one must study human nature. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches this. The right connection includes 3 kinds of attitudes: I am greater than the other, smaller than the other, and equal to the other. Parents and children need to sit in a circle together and speak as equals.

Through such conversations, children will acquire importance and responsibility. If parents radiate a spirit of reciprocity, equality, and respect, this spirit will pass to the children and they will understand that even when parents restrict them, it comes from love. In addition to feelings and intellect, we must develop the middle line in children.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #758 – Loving Children Properly,” 8/11/16

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Why Do We Need To Correct A Man If He Was Created In The Image Of The Creator?

The Creator created a spiritual prototype of a man calledAdam. He was on the level of the quality of complete bestowal and love, i.e., was in equivalence of form with the Creator.

We are called “sons of Adam” and there is a part of him in each of us. Today, we are completely opposite to the Creator and our task is to rediscover the quality of bestowal and love in the connection between us and to rise to the level of an upper force.
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Ynet: “What Is Important For Our Children At School?”

Ynet: “What Is Important For Our Children At School?”

Posted on September 8th, 2016 at 9:43 am

From my column on Ynet: “What Is Important For Our Children at School?”

If we don’t want to wake up one morning and discover that we have lost a whole generation, we have to change the education system that prepares our children for life as soon as possible. But while all the surveys indicate the need for urgent change the Ministry of Education is focused on conveying knowledge and on grades only. What is the solution?

If you were one of the decision makers in the country, which public service would you improve first? The medical care services, the National Security institute, the courts, or the education system? Hundreds of Israelis answered this question in a poll conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics and the results were published this week.

If you are the excited parents of children who are starting a new school year this week, you probably know the answer to this question. More than 30% of the public believe that the Israeli education system needs improvement: 48% of the parents in Israel are disappointed with the way it operates; 60% look for alternatives, and 81% of the parents complain that the education system doesn’t prepare the children for adult life in the 21^st century.

The customer is always right, and in this case it is the parents. What tools to manage in society will our children have after 12 years of school? What values will they learn in school? Racism is growing, the division in the nation is widening, and the discourse in social networks is becoming more violent. Who is preparing our children to cope with these real problems and many more?

Parents, do you care?

This week school will once again become the central institution that influences your child’s life and future. The public education system was established as the 19^th century industrial revolution accelerated with the intention of training many workers for the assembly lines. It has not changed much since then… It thus turns out that the main focus is on teaching professional skills that will serve the economic system better and will help it develop. As long as schools continue to be a factory for producing good and competitive citizens and the achievement test is the only criterion for measuring success, there is no point sending our children to school.

The school system should first focus on teaching values and not information. Improving the core subjects and increasing the number of students who take five point English and math final exams (the highest level) and rewriting phrases in social studies is important, but this is the role of the Ministry of Information and not of the Ministry of Education.

Profound Re-education

In the meantime, there is a sharp decline in the number of youth that want to serve in the army. Many young people think about leaving the country and we are becoming increasingly more indifferent to one another every day. In a state that is coping with a national problem called unfounded hatred, the seeds of which were planted with the destruction of the Temple, we have to take action and teach the national idea of “love thy friend as thyself.”

“The one concerned with days, plants wheat; with years, plants trees; with generations, educates people” (Janusz Korczak). Every parent worries about the future of his children and does his best so that they will learn to keep the family relations between them. This is how we together should also worry about the future of the next generation. We should encourage the improvement of interpersonal relations so that we can discover the power of unity and the wellness and security it offers, not as a result of the false spirit of mutual guarantee which emerges at times of trouble. “Our only hope is to profoundly rearrange the education of our children, to discover and to reignite the natural love that is flickering in us and to revive the national muscles in us which have been inactive for two thousand years” (The Writings of Baal HaSulam).

A Lesson in Connection

If we don’t want to wake up one morning and discover that we have lost a whole generation, I suggest that we start the school day as Baal HaSulam says in his article, with at least one hour of consolidating unity activity. We mustn’t miss the moment; we have to sit on the school bench again. “We, the nation should lead to an interaction that will create a micro society among the students in which everyone cares about everyone else like a small family. This will prepare the children to establish a warm friendly connection on top of all the tension and the natural conflicts among them, and bring out all the creativity and potential in them. (“Education doesn’t create anything new but brings out what is already in a person” Rav Kook).

During the “connection hour,” the teachers will provide the basic tools for building a strong and healthy connection between the students, bring examples of positive mutual dependence and consideration, and will guide the students in how to better cope with the global world, which affects every aspect of our life. The children will sit in a circle in which everyone is equal and can see and hear each other, not behind desks arranged in a row. Everyone will learn to listen to each other without imposing their opinion until they reach a general understanding. Gradually they will learn to overcome their egoistic nature, and finally they will feel a partnership, connection, and love as it is written: “love will cover all our transgressions.”

A Teacher forLife

The teacher will also be part of the circle and will sit with the children and talk with them on the same level. He will replace his authority and superiority with the art of asking leading questions that help the children discover the information by themselves by communicating and speaking among them. This is how information is assimilated in a much more meaningful, qualitative manner.

A child who grows up in an environment that measures his success according to his consideration of others and according to his contribution to the whole society is guaranteed to flourish and to be educated. As an adult he will undoubtedly face life with a much wider perspective of the world and with a feeling of responsibility and care regarding the building of a considerate egalitarian society, just like the environment he grew up in.

“It is a shame to admit” says Baal HaSulam in the same article that “one of the most precious and important qualities which we have lost during our time in exile, is our national awareness, which means the natural feeling that connects and sustains every nation. It is because the strings of love that tie the Israeli nation together have deteriorated and have been cut from our hearts and are lost and gone.” Our nation has a great wisdom of connection, an ideology that has been established for generations. All we have to do is to implement the method of connection that is rooted in the love of mercy of Abraham among our dear children. It isn’t a dream, in is right here in the relations between us.
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From Ynet article 8/31/16

A Woman, Satan’s Tool Or The Crown Of Creation?

Comment: Some men feel that women are Satan’s tool because of their bitter experiences with them.

Answer: According to what we study, a corrected woman in the spiritual world is not an actual woman but a corrected desire that is also found in men. A woman is a person’s egoistic desire, and if it is not corrected, it can really be called Satan. You can imagine that it is inside a person and then it is called a woman. There are many levels in the process of correction and each level has a name.

Question: And then the woman is the crown of creation?

Answer: Yes, the corrected female desire is the final phase, which the Creator wants to see and for which everything was created, while a man is only the mediator between the Creator and the female desire; he only fulfills his functions.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/24/16

New Life #759 – Proper Boundaries In Love

New Life #759 – Proper Boundaries In Love
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches how to relate to others in a balanced way, including one’s spouse.

Summary

For this we must study human nature, add limits to instinctive sensations of love and hatred, and make connections between us correctly, with a spiritual connection.

A person begins to feel the other when he reins in his narcissism, the desire to fulfill himself. He restricts his egoism, rises above instinctive drives, and develops a relationship toward others through internal effort.

In proper love between spouses and in general, there exists a balance between feelings and intellect. On the one hand, there is love, and on the other hand, there is a limit to revealing that love, a limitation on the giving to others depending on the response of the other side.

In order to build a loving connection, we must take the desire of the other and work on fulfilling it, the result of which is aspiring to become one.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #759 – Proper Boundaries In Love,” 8/11/16

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In Harmony With Global Nature

When a person enters the global system of nature and adjusts himself to it by observing all its laws on all levels, he comes to the balance and harmony with both material and spiritual nature, because they are one whole. It seems to us that they are different things because we don’t perceive them as a whole yet.

We don’t notice a lot of things in nature. After all, in the material world we see only a small fragment of it.

But if a person acts according to the laws of Kabbalah that explain how to tune in to the entire nature, called the Creator, he receives only positive feedback from it.

It is said so in the Torah in a simple language that everything will be good for you: your wife, children, home, peace, country, weather, sun, and moon, everything will shine and flourish. And during your life you will begin to move gradually from the perception of this world only to the perception of the spiritual world, that is eternal and perfect, as well.

You will move from one system of forces to another. You won’t feel when you die since you don’t die, but simply turn into a spiritual person. You gradually stop feeling your body and feel yourself living in the eternal, infinite, and perfect space.

This is the state we must reach. The wisdom of Kabbalah and the entire Torah urge us to do just that.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/11/16

How Can We Defeat Egoism?

Question: What should a person do if he feels that a huge egoistic potential is hanging on him and doesn’t allow him to function normally? What measures should he take in order to get rid of this burden?

Answer: Only the Upper Light can correct any kind of egoism, the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) that is external to us.

Question: A person has to turn into a human being, Adam, in order to defeat his egoism and get closer to the Creator. But what happens if Satan (a man’s ego) wins? You often speak about what we should do in order to win, but what if we lose?

Answer: There is no Satan, but only our egoism, and the Creator manages everything according to a person’s efforts. Everything depends on the quality and the quantity of our efforts.
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Everything Depends On A Person’s Internal Development

Torah, Deuteronomy 9:4 – 9:5: Do not say to yourself, when the Lord, your God, has repelled them from before you, saying, “Because of my righteousness, the Lord has brought me to possess this land,” and [that] because of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord drives them out from before you. Not because of your righteousness or because of the honesty of your heart, do you come to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and in order to establish the matter that the Lord swore to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Question: “Not because of my righteousness” does the Creator bring me to this land, “but because of the wickedness of these nations, …” He “drives them out.” Does it mean this isn’t my achievement?

Answer: Of course. A person has no strength to act directly against himself, against hisegoism. He can only try, and to the extent that he tries and suffers, he appeals to theCreator, and the Creator frees him from egoistic desires. Therefore it happens in such a roundabout alternative route.

Comment: And then again and again “Not because of your righteousness’ is repeated…

Answer: No, it just seems to us that the same thing is repeated. We are talking about new levels! Every time we advance, all these steps and all these circumstances seem completely different to us.

For example, I can look at some picture, and when I am in one state it causes me to feel one way, in another state I feel differently. In a year or two I have changed, so it causes me to feel a third way and so on. Therefore, although allegedly the same circumstance is described here, the fact is that I constantly change. Everything depends on a person’s internal development.
[192355]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 5/4/16

A Woman’s Purity

Question: What is the spiritual meaning of Niddah (expiration of menstruation)?

Answer: Niddah is a spiritual state of impurity and is meant to get rid of all the shells, Klipot, (impure desires) that are left after the correction. They are called Gevurot (limiting forces, Dinim) or Lev HaEven (heart of stone), and they are disconnected from the desire to receive, called woman, and thus she is purified.

Here lies the whole system of the universe. After all, in the same way as our body develops, our soul evolves When I speak about concepts such as the desire to receive, the desire to bestow, the three lines, ten Sefirot, etc., they are depicted in my mind and not the physical states of our male and female bodies.

Question: Do we refer to egoistic thoughts only when we speak about a woman’s impurity, to receiving, to living for my own sake?

Answer: No, a woman who gives birth doesn’t do it for her own sake because otherwise she wouldn’t give birth. Therefore, a state of purity emerges when she is ready to join bestowal. After her monthly cycle ends,  it is necessary to wait seven days  during which Malchut ascends to Bina, and then she is ready to be fertilized.
[192320]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/24/16

We Can Do Everything!

Question: I had many questions after the St. Petersburg convention. We have learned that we cannot change those around us, but can only change ourselves by working with our egoism. But in the convention you said that we cannot change ourselves either, but can only change our connections in the group.

I understand that the work in the group is very important, but still we have to work on ourselves in some way in order to correct our desires. How can we correct the intention of in order to receive for my own sake to in order to bestow?

Are there any concrete suggestions, exercises, or practical work? I cannot participate in a group physically and I don’t think that I can actually advance by working with my virtual group.

Answer: We can do anything the Creator can do, and we can also receive and harm others, which He cannot do. We can change ourselves and others internally because the whole world is inside me! You need to find a group and study together, even in a virtual group.
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New Life #435 – The Month Of Elul: Time For Soul Searching

New Life #435 – The Month Of Elul: Time For Soul Searching
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

What soul searching do we do during the month of Elul? What do we discover when we engage in such thoughts, and how do we get on a new path toward a balanced and harmonious life?

Summary

The Jewish holidays describe the phases on the way to the perfect connection between people and between humanity and nature. The goal is to attain the force oflove among people and to become equivalent to nature, to God. There is one law in nature that ties together all its parts, except for mankind, into one system. We are pushed forward by blows until we cry “enough.”

The question is why do we suffer. This kind of soul searching during the month of Elul comes from a special illumination that that Light of the mind shines on us. “I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me.” “Beloved” refers to the great system of nature which develops us, the Creator.

Our soul searching is about why we quarrel with each other endlessly; why we were created with such an evil nature; how lowly and contemptible human nature is compared to the great pure and beautiful nature.

All the species in nature operate according to their instincts and so they are never wrong, while we go wrong over and over again. Why is that so? Because we try to use our emotions and our mind in order to harm others, and it returns to us.

In the additional mind and emotions we were given compared to the animals, we have freedom of choice.

The conclusion of the month of Elul is that I want to reach a state of balance, the state of “love thy friend as thyself.”
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From KabTV’s “New Life #435 – The Month Of Elul: Time For Soul Searching,” 9/14/14

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The Wisdom of Kabbalah: What Is It About? Who Is It For? And For What?

Question: What is the wisdom of Kabbalah about?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us how we all have to rise above our egoism by the good force in nature, the Light, and how to become good and connect with everyone into one whole desire. The positive attribute of love and bestowal that is revealed among us is called the upper force because it is above our egoism. It is called the Creatorbecause He created us with an attribute that is opposite from Him, as it is written, “I have created the evil inclination.”

Question: Who is the wisdom of Kabbalah intended for?

Answer: For anyone who feels a desire to discover the secret of his birth, his destiny, and the meaning in of life. According to all our sources there are no limitations in studying the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Question: Why do religious people object to the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: Only religious people who do not understand the goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah object to it, as do many non-religious people. The wisdom of Kabbalah does not refer to religion in any way because religion does not have the goal of changing a person’s attribute from egoistic to altruistic but only to keep him in frameworks where he can live according to corporeal customs. Baal HaSulam describes this in great detail in the article “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose.”
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Three Days Of The Absorbtion Of The Sperm

Question: What are the “three days of the absorbption of the sperm”?

Answer: The three days are the right, left, and middle lines. For three days the drop of semen is held in the uterus, meaning that it attains a connection, a minimal point of contact between the lowerPartzuf and the upper Partzuf. The lower Partzuf is basically a point since the right, middle, and left lines ultimately create one point that is adherent to the upper Partzuf, the higher system, the mother.

This process is called the “absorption of the sperm in the mother’s womb.” It means that the lower part of the upper Partzuf, which is called AHP (Awzen, Hotem, Peh – ear, nose, mouth), is connected with the upper part of the lower Partzuf called Galgalta ve Eynaim. Likewise, it is enough that only one drop from the lower Partzuf, one point, is entrenched in the upper Partzuf, which is a complete Kli, so that it will begin to work for the benefit of the drop that is held in it.

The upper Partzuf is composed of Galgalta ve Eynaim (Keter and Hochma) andAHP (Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut). The AHP is called the mother’s womb and the next lower Partzuf is only a point, since the three points, right, left, and middle, are connected together into one. This point, depending on its characteristics, is ready to nullify itself and exist within the upper Partzuf in that way. This is the drop of semen, meaning the future Ubar (embryo).

The foundations of these three points are the first three days. After that, the AHP begins to develop, meaning that the lower begins to demand from the upper part of thePartzuf, from Galgalta ve Eynaim, which is connected with the next Partzuf, called theCreator.

In other words, the feminine part, the lower, asks the masculine part to be connected with the Creator. All of the parts are working with an intention of bestowal. Even theUbar wants to develop to bestowal, to adhere with the upper and continue to share in the development of the Tachtonim (lower ones).

Nobody works with its own desire; rather, all are working for the good of others, working with the desire of the others.

After that development begins in a Partzuf: three months, three months, and another three months, which is called the compartments within which the Ubar develops.

After the Partzuf finishes its full development, the womb begins to contract, meaning that the upper Partzuf begins to intentionally push the Tachton (lower one) that has been developing within it outside, and so the Tachton goes outside.
[192207]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/24/16

New Life #707 – Power Struggles Between Women And Men

New Life #707 – Power Struggles Between Women And Men
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Already in childhood we see confrontations between boys and girls. We are the only species in nature in which there is no clear definition for male and female. Nature has granted us the freedom to define the right attitude, in recognition of the nature of man and woman and the state that we must reach. Ultimately it is up to us to reach mutual with which we achieve wholeness, as “A man and a woman and the Shechinabetween them” (Sotah 17a).

Since we don’t understand how to behave with each other, we flee from struggling with the problems in relationships between men and women and are satisfied with just a sexual connection without approaching a situation of personal mutual reconciliation through which we reach becoming one. In this way we lose the opportunity to feel the real Garden of Eden, paradise, between us. Since each one wants to control the other sex, relationships fail; the family falls apart because we don’t know how to communicate correctly with each other. A special education is required.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #707 – Power Struggles Between Women And Men,” 3/31/16

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Sunset Of The Great European Civilization, Part 3

Question: The European civilization has always been a model of high ideals, freethinking, equality, the scientific approach, and faith in the wisdom and power of man, the master of the world. So why do we see today that this ideology has become harmful for us?

Answer: Everything in this world goes through birth, development, a period of prosperity, and then decline and death. The European materialistic approach, claiming that everything was in the hands of man, was very helpful and rational. Indeed, in this case we don’t need some mystical forces and rely only on things we see in front of us.

This European approach has contributed a lot to the development of man and his approach to life, in comparison to the philosophies in other parts of the world: India and Arabic countries, where the focus wasn’t on man, his education, and development.

Education brought its values to Europe, such as ethics, equal rights for men andwomen, freedom of speech, and equality. However, today, I don’t admire them as much as previously in the distant past.

After all, we know how strong the religious influence in Europe is even now, with all its slogans about freewill and equality. Inside each European lives this inner split that with all his aspirations to freedom he stays religious inside.

If you come to France, home of the French Revolution that is a symbol of all European ideals, and go to the periphery, to small towns and villages, you will see that they live there the same as it was in the Middle Ages, and the approach to life is the same and the church is the same.

The spirit that the Europeans received from the Jews influenced them in two ways. On the one hand, it brought ideals of freedom of speech and religion, education, and equality to Europe, and on the other hand, it gave Europe a strong Christian religion with all its medieval doctrines and restrictions that are alive in the people till today.

These two forces emanating from one source act in the Europeans and can’t come to an agreement. This is what determines the European spirit.

Question: Why did these wonderful ideas of education and equality bring Europe to the catastrophic situation that we see today?

Answer: The fact is that these were just nice slogans, and in reality a person hasn’t changed internally at all. He remained the same person he was from ancient times. If we dig into him a little deeper, we will see the same barbarian he used to be.

People don’t understand how to use the freedom they received. It was necessary to develop a person for this, so he would know what equality is, what forces are required in order to reach it, and how to resist his egoistic nature.

It was a scientific and technological revolution, but one can remain a barbarian and have an atomic bomb. True development involves the development of a person inside the savage, and this didn’t happen in Europe. People don’t change from nice talk alone. In order to change a person internally, an upper force is required, in addition to the inherent egoistic force that exists within us.

Since this wasn’t the case, the Europeans remained the same, as they were before. They only played in the beautiful philosophies, literature, and culture in order to embellish their life, and nothing more. However, if we go a little deeper, we will see that people remained the same as they were 2,000 years ago.
[192637]
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 8/18/16

Selling Your Soul To The Devil

Question: What does it mean, “to sell your soul to the devil”?

Answer: Selling your soul to the devil means giving all your desires for money and even for knowledge in our world. Everything in our world is called the “devil” because all our corporeal engagements divert us from the spiritual path. The world “devil,” “Satan,” stems from the Hebrew root “Leastin” (to divert). It refers to any engagement in our world by which a person replaces his yearning for the true goal.
[192280]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 4/3/16

Spiritual Birth

Spiritual birth is a very complicated birth process. The lower is inside the upper and the womb is seemingly made of two doors, one of which has an axis. In the ninth month, the embryo completes its development and the doors begin to open and the mother feels an internal pressure, which is what we see in our world.

If we express this in Kabbalistic terms, the Gevurot that have developed (the limiting force, the Dinim) put pressure on the embryo who also wants to be free. On the whole, he undergoes a very serious process during his birth when these forces actually push him out, but they also shape him as a human being in the future.

This is the first drama in his life since before he was in a kind of rest house for nine months, in perfect tranquility, fully secure, fed, and all his needs provided for. But this state ends dramatically when he is born.

The attitude of his mother to him totally changes. She pushes him out as if she doesn’t want him anymore and he undergoes great pressure and is born.

The embryo develops in the mother’s womb with his head up and before he is born he turns upside down with his head downward, which means that he is detached from his previous values and doesn’t think like he did before, and this is how he is born under great pressure.

The exodus from Egypt is called spiritual birth, which in our world is symbolized byPesach (Passover). First everything was right and good in Egypt. We developed normally in Egypt, inside our egoism.

Then Pharaoh’s attitude suddenly changed to such a degree that this Partzuf, the soul that develops, undergoes the ten plagues, called the ten Sefirot, which throw it out. The womb contracts, the birth canal opens, the water recedes (the water breaks).

The same thing happens in Egypt: the passage through the Red Sea is the passage through the water. Then the actual birth takes place.

Animals don’t undergo such a difficult process like man. For animals the birth does not involve such great pressure, while for humans the physical and the spiritual birth involve a great pressure indeed.
[192310]