Answers To Your Questions, Part 145

Question: If the wisdom of Kabbalah is an exact science, what does it say about planet Earth? Is it actually a planet? Six months ago, I came across a theory that the Earth is flat. At first it seemed like total nonsense, but then I somehow began to understand its essence and wanted to know what the wisdom of Kabbalah says about it.

Answer: Kabbalah explains things scientifically and always has believed, just like today’s modern science, even in ancient times, as it says in The Book of Zohar, the Earth is round.

Question: May I ask why I understand a lot, but cannot remember? No matter how hard I try, I do not succeed. It is as if someone erases my memory.

Answer: This is wonderful because we don’t need to know; we need to discover a new attribute inside us in which we will begin to feel the upper world in the same way we feel our world.
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The Youth Of Europe Don’t Want To Work

Comment: More and more European youth do not to work and prefer receiving a social benefits. This is particularly widespread in Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, and Ireland. It was customarily thought that the economic crisis would displace inefficient people and the young would go forward, begin to study, develop a career, and take their place. But the youth actually prefer to sit on welfare.

My Comment: The reason for this is not that people are lazy. They have no incentive and so they become lazy. Everything depends on whether or not there is something that lights up a person’s egoism. Money and a career no longer provide a person with an incentive, they don’t pull him forward. This is no longer the candy he would run toward, like a child.

Question: So what does a person do when he sits receiving public welfare?

Answer: Nothing, he sits from morning to evening on Facebook, his whole life. We see what is happening there. And what will happen when this is over?! It is frightening to even think about!

It is only possible to imagine what kind of deep cry from billions of people will break out from total darkness. They won’t have anything to fulfill themselves!

I would not want to live during this period. A person moves through a state where he is unable to hear; he must realize and feel that he no longer grasps anything. He is imprisoned within himself. There are stars, but they don’t release the light, and here nothing enters. One has no desire. One is so extinguished that he doesn’t even absorb sounds from the outside.

Our future could become so dark.

I hope that before this happens, people will begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah and will understand that the meaning of life is truly discovered within it. I hope that I am preparing the ground for this because this is the remedy.

What is important is that humanity move toward us. They have nowhere to turn. They will come and stand by our gate and shout: “Give!”
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/5/16

The Difference Between Depression And Spiritual Descent

Question: Why when studying Kabbalah are descents referred to as egoism, isn’t it ordinary depression?

Answer: It seems to you that it’s depression. You experience an unknown feeling, i.e., you aren’t interested, it doesn’t attract you, but actually it is not the usual depression of lack of taste for the world, but a real immersion into darkness.

This is impenetrable darkness, the feeling of the absence of desire for anything whatsoever. In other words, egoism has been added.

Man begins his life in Kabbalah at the state of “zero,” with the normal animal egoism toward this world with desires for food, sex, entertainment, money, control, and knowledge. This is his initial position (DR).

Then, he reaches the wisdom of Kabbalah and experiences a certain ascent, he is included in the group, ready for anything, life is wonderful, and everything is good. He has found himself. Until then he was somewhat sad, something was missing, the meaning of life, etc. And here is the first ascent, “I have found it!”

But then he falls into the opposite state that sucks him as if in a black hole. It is a vacuum that pulls all his strength from within, he person can hardly turn his head, he has nothing to live for. It’s like he was hit in the head with a bag of dust and he feels dust in his head and his heart. He begins to experience ups and downs, ups and downs.

It’s important to understand that the attainment of the upper world is built on the absence of the egoistic desire for it. Thus, the wisdom of Kabbalah is called, “the wisdom of how to receive.”

And without egoism, how can I receive something? How without desire, without a burning yearning to be a real and healthy egoist can I grasp and capture the upper world?

A normal person wants to eat, to walk, to dive into his cell phone, or to talk to someone. But it isn’t possible to conquer the spiritual world in this way. For this, one needs a different weapon, a huge desire. When I’m burning, I’m ready for anything, I want to obtain the upper world.

And so egoism is added, to the state of egoism number 2. And thanks to that, I rise to state number 3.  Because of state 3, I descend even lower to state 4, and then rise to state 5, and again descend further downward. After a huge number of descents and ascents, I attain, for example, state 9.

And when I’m in the lowest state, a terrible and unpleasant state, I experience fear, defeat, and a feeling that “death is better than this life.” This is the parting with our corporeal egoism, while we are still alive.

When a person accumulates a certain number of ascents and descents, he rises to point 10. Comparing points 9 and 10, I see that all of this really comes from the Creator, “There is none else besides Him” and “He is Good and Does Good.” And this is faith above reason because reason (knowledge) is within egoism, and faith is in the property of bestowal.

So this is the first time that I build a spiritual Partzuf, a drop of semen, the embryo of the soul.

With this begins the birth of the soul. And whoever reaches this degree is already on the way! And whoever hasn’t reached it can say whatever he wants. Interestingly, people who are in the middle of the path but haven’t reach 10^th point often leave the study of Kabbalah. They begin to curse the wisdom of Kabbalah, me, our system.

We need to understand that the spiritual world is not what it appears to you; it is perceived according to the method described in the authentic Kabbalist sources.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/15/16

“Dead” Money For Mars

Comment: An immense amount of capital has accumulated that is actually outside the world economy; it exclusively performs the role of accumulation of wealth.  Experts have suggested using this wealth to establish a colony on Mars. They say: “Why invest where we are? Why not implement this someplace else, like on Mars, and make it a huge global project that will require substantial human resources.”

My Comment: That is, they are saying: “We have nowhere to go on Earth, we’ve messed up everything here so it’s better not to continue. Let’s take on Mars. Let’s make a big project of a few trillion dollars, and invested all the dead capital in it.”

For what? It doesn’t matter. We will be in business. The only problem is—why?

I fundamentally disagree with this approach, which shows that people don’t know what humanity should be engaged with. Humanity must engage in self-correction, in self-transcendence.

We are on the level of the animal world. The next level we must ascend to is the level of the Adam (Man) from the word “Domeh” (similar), similar to the general higher integral force. We need to bring humanity to a state of general unity where all of us together will be one single system called Adam, and then we will begin to feel the next level of existence, the next step.

Now we are in the framework of the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, and in this sense we are animals. We have only the beginnings of the next level to which we must ascend, the level of Adam. We can reach this level only if we connect between us into one integral system and transform to become like the general nature of the world.

If we do this, we will begin to feel the next level, and then we will see the world in an absolutely different state: eternal, perfect, and not limited by the framework of our bodies. It will gradually disappear from our sensation, and we will feel that we exist only within the connection between us, which is called the soul. This is the state we must reach.

Question: Would you specifically invest all the sums of “dead” capital in this?

Answer: Absolutely everything! I would do everything so that humanity would provide itself with only what is most necessary and all other efforts would be directed to connection between us because that is how we begin to ascend to the next level called Adam.

Then, we would have no need to turn to planets like Mars. It won’t give us anything. We do not found life anywhere in the universe, not even primitive life. Therefore, there is nothing to rush to somewhere billions of light-years away; it would do nothing for humanity.

Qualifying for the next level, above the speed of light will not happen through the construction of physical engines because matter cannot move beyond the speed of light. We can move above it if we acquire the characteristic of bestowal, because it is built on the departure from ourselves; it operates with anti-matter, with the characteristic of bestowal instead of reception.

And then we will truly go not only beyond the solar system and space, but beyond the boundaries of the universe, to the next level of existence. There are completely different conditions, completely other levels there, and that is where we must develop.

By going out to the next level, we become detached from our bodies; it ceases to exist for us. We dwell in the power of bestowal only, in the connection between us—this is the future of humanity. And this is not fiction because such a condition was described thousands of years ago in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Why do we need some kind of Mars? We can travel beyond time, above the speed of light, instantly at any point in space, adding all kinds of space, and opening up new worlds. Let’s begin this journey!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/7/16

Racism In The United States

In the News (Russian Bazaar): “Last week there was the worst mass destruction of American police since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. A black extremist shot and killed five and wounded twelve law enforcement officers in Dallas (TX). ‘I just want to kill white people’, – said an extremist. …

“No black rights organizations expressed any condolences to the families of the killed police officers. …

“During the nearly eight years in office, Obama and the Democrats have made the term ‘black racism’, to put it mildly, incorrect. Even the most conservative politicians and public figures are afraid to mention it. If someone dares to utter this phrase, then he is automatically labeled as a racist. …

The “donkeys” have trained Americans so well that, by analogy with the Orwell’s “Proles,” people unknowingly make “crimestop.” It, let us recall, was the name of one of the proven methods of indoctrinating population in the relevant for modern America novel “1984”:

“Crimestop” means an instinctive capability to stop on the threshold of a dangerous thought, the ability not to see analogies, to ignore the logical errors, misinterpret even the most elementary arguments.

“While politically correct Americans have done “crimestop” regarding the African-American criminals, black racism received an incredibly fertile ground for blossoming. …

“The longer Obama holds the office, the greater the number of African Americans who call themselves racists. Driven to insane political correctness and the protection of the black population has led to an dramatic opposite result.

“African-Americans feel themselves above the law and have begun to wreak havoc across the country, and no criminal cases have been opened against them. …

“One of the supporters of the black racism wrote, ‘Hatred for whites is like drinking, eating, and going to the toilet, it is instilled on the physiological level.’

“Many Americans can’t understand how black extremists receive funds for their activities. The main sources of funding are as following:

“The first source is grants from the government and large corporations for the fight for racial injustices. Only last year ‘fighters against racism’ received more than two billion dollars.

“The second source of funding is big billionaires, who belong to the Democratic Party establishment. For them, any racist incident, hyped up to the federal scale is a stone in the garden of Republicans. The less power the “elephants” have in the government and Congress, the more favorable contracts these billionaires receive from the government. Racism is one of the components of enrichment for the unscrupulous “donkeys”.

“The third source is the personal contributions of white youths.

“The 18 – 25 year-old white Americans are behind all the ultra left events of recent years. They organized and carried out the campaign “Occupy Wall Street» (OWS). They almost brought the socialist Bernie Sanders to power.

“They actively finance BLM and other similar groups.”

My Comment: Obama didn’t care about equal rights, because his goal is the domination of African-Americans over white people; therefore, he didn’t invest in educating the African-American population. His main attention was directed to bringing Muslim emigrants to the United States. The migrants entered the country without problems and now Obama’s concern is to give them the status of immigrants. There is no doubt that if Hillary Clinton wins the election, the United States will be “enriched” with several millions of radical Muslims.
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New Life #436 – Rosh Hashanah

New Life #436 – Rosh Hashanah
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah Rosh HaShanah (the Hebrew New Year) is the beginning of a change. What is the change? What introspection do we do on this holiday, and how does a person become compatible with the system of nature that operates in the world?

A new beginning starts by summing up the year that has passed, by finding the evil in us with regard to love. It is a self-examination of if I were directed to the upper force whose nature is love and bestowal. So that we will be a head and not a tail means that we will not encounter blows without understanding why, that we shall advance toward love by ourselves. Nature has a plan to bring us all to a state of mutual bestowal, connection, and balance to be as one man.

We can correct our attitude to this plan every day. We don’t need to wait for Rosh HaShanah. The “day of judgment” refers to the evolutionary program of nature called God. I can turn judgment into mercy. What am I judged for? To what extent do I object to or support the program of development, like a computer program. We have to do such self-examination every day, but Rosh HaShanah is a kind of general symbol.

I cannot affect this program personally but only by correcting my attitude toward others. The goal of our development is connection, love of others like ourselves, and do not do unto others what is hateful to us. The nation of Israel has to perform this self-examination since this nation has to lead the whole world to correction.

A Shofar, pomegranate, apple dipped in honey, and a fish head all symbolize the mitigation of the Dinim (judgment) by respecting bestowal instead of receiving. Crowning the king means that the goal of our development should lead us and that we should be as one bundle.

Being sealed and signed in the Book of Life means that we are all connected in one network. Establishing a connection with others is being sealed and signed in the Book of Life. A person seals his own sentence since it is up to him and to his attitude to others in the network. In order to be sealed and signed in the book of the righteous, a person has to learn the laws of the system, which are pure bestowal.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #436 – Rosh Hashana,” 9/28/14

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Ynet: “Have We Lost Our Way As A Nation?”

From my article in Ynet: “Have We Lost Our Way as a Nation?”

Is the decision to deny our historical relationship to the Temple Mount only the warning shot before the impending de-legitimization of the State of Israel worldwide? Is the real reason for this decision the conflict between the Palestinians and the settlers in the West Bank, or is it that we have lost our way as the nation of Israel? (Rav Laitman about the true legacy of the Jewish nation).

The great anxiety regarding the fate of the State of Israel does not allow me to sit idly. UNESCO decision that denies the close connection between the Jewish people and the Temple Mount and the Western Wall is not what bothers me, but the fact that it this is a first step and a good way on the road to denying the legitimacy of the State of Israel.

The Jewish people have a long term memory. Our historical connection to the Jewish legacy or to the land of Israel will not be cut off by international organizations and diplomatic declarations. We still remember very well the Holocaust we have undergone, the great tension just before the UN declaration of the foundation of the State of Israel, the great joy in the city squares, and Mota Gur’s moving announcement that “Temple Mount is in our hands,” at the end of the Six Day War. We have forgotten only one important thing: our role in the history of mankind.

The United Nations and the uniting nation

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the relationship between Israel and the nations of the world has not changed one bit in the last 3,500 years. The Jewish nation was founded in ancient Babylon when different individuals, families, and tribes who were alienated from each other agreed to follow the revolutionary spiritual idea as led by Abraham, the father of the nation. The social division at the time reached unprecedented peaks due to the erupting ego, and the mutual hatred and repulsion became part of daily life. Abraham, a unique Babylonian scholar, refused to accept the situation as inevitable, and began to explore nature and the system of creation. By studying himself and through his deep search, he discovered that humanity is connected by a network of ties, and the basis of this system we can see are only two forces: positive and negative. The positive force is constantly working to bring together and connect all of the individuals into one whole, while the negative force operates to separate and divide them.

Abraham concluded that the internal regularity that exists in one individual is true with regard to the systems of nature. He concluded that the immediate solution for the Babylonian society in crisis was to restore balance to the bad relations between them through strengthening the positive force in nature. Thus, he gradually guided the Babylonians and taught them how to develop the unity between them as the supreme value and to rise above the egoistic nature that separates them. “Abraham began to call the whole nation and to let them know that there is one God in the world. Because they used to gather around him and ask him questions he used to tell everyone according to his level of understanding until he brought him back to the path of truth, until thousands and hundreds of thousands gathered around him, and they are the people of the house of Abraham. And he planted this great idea in their hearts and wrote books, and this idea grew and increased among the children of Jacob and their followers and a nation that knows the Lord was founded in the world.” (Rambam, “Strong Hand”). Thus, the method of connection between people developed: the ancient method called the wisdom of Kabbalah.

The Babylonians who listened to Abraham’s advice and reinforced the foundations of mutual guarantee and love of others discovered a natural phenomenon they did not know before. They discovered that, when their relationships ascend to the level of unconditional love, a feeling of harmony and wholeness spreads among them, a kind of upper force that connects all the separate individual forces into one, which they called God. The hundreds of thousands of Babylonians who made up this group and were aimed straight to the force of connection that was revealed among them, Yashar El, called themselves the people of Israel.

The force that is concealed in the Jewish nation

Since the day the Israeli nation was founded on the basis of unity, they were given the mission to spread the method of connection among the seventy nations of the world, the Babylonians who chose not to follow Abraham and who dispersed all over the world. Since the entire world is connected by a harmonious network of ties that strives for constant balance, the fate of Israel and the nations of the world—the two opposite parts that operate in the system—are dependent and connected to each other. The part called the nations of the world constantly demands from the part called Israel to be a light to the nations and set a good example of unity above all of the divisive factors “since the secret of the unity of the world is concealed in Israel,” as Rav Kook says.

A lot has been written about the direct and indirect connections between Israel and the world in the authentic Kabbalistic sources and especially in The Book of Zohar, which was written 2,000 years ago: As long as Israel kept the force of connection between them, the positive force streamed through them to the world and it was good for everyone. But when they began to quarrel with each other and lost the sense of unity and mutual guarantee, the nations of the world rose against them with the subconscious demand for the vitality the force concealed in the Jewish nation arouses.

The world subconsciously feels that the source of all of the evil and the root of the suffering it undergoes is directly connected to the fact that the nation of Israel is not fulfilling its role. The fact that Israel are the most hated nation in the world, either for religions reasons, or racial reasons, or capitalism, or communism, or cosmopolitanism and more, the hatred that is at the root of all these reasons is that everyone excuses his hatred according to his own psychology, as Baal HaSulam says. This feeling of hatred is brewing among many and forming a trend reflected in the hostile attitude toward Israel. The UNESCO decisions regarding the Temple Mount may deteriorate to even more hostile decisions and even to the understanding that the world was wrong when it voted for the establishment of the Jewish state in the heart of the Middle East, and that now it is time to go back on their decision and act to deny the legitimacy of the only Jewish state in the world.

Rav Yehuda Ashlag warned us about this a hundred years ago when he said, “We need to give the gentiles the wisdom of connection, justice, and peace since it is only with regard to this that they are our students, and this is what they have been waiting for since our return to Israel. And the wisdom of Kabbalah is attributed only to us, and it shows to all the gentiles the justification of Israel in returning to their land and even to the Arabs. But our return doesn’t impress the gentiles today in any way and we have to hasten because if we don’t, they will sell the independence of Israel to satisfy their own needs, not to speak of the return of Jerusalem.” (The Writings of the Last Generation” by Baal HaSulam).

We determine our own fate

UNESCO, the UN, the EU, and other bodies that condemn us and vote against us are a kind of reflection of our failure in fulfilling our role. In other words, we provide UNESCO with the grounds for their decisions, and the nations of the world only execute these decisions. The world’s attitude toward us depends only on us, and it is up to us to determine whether the world will continue to demonstrate hatred and anti-Semitism, or whether they will understand and respect our presence in the land of Israel!

About two years ago, I met in Paris with Mrs. Irina Bokova, the UNESCO general secretary, as part of my efforts to spur a positive change of attitude of the organization toward the state of Israel. Although I had already foreseen the outcome of the meeting before my trip to Paris, I still felt it was important to try. Unfortunately, the outcome of the meeting proved what our teachers, the great Kabbalists, have said: there is no point in expecting any kind of change on the part of political factors. The decision regarding the future of the State of Israel, for better or for worse, is in our hands.

“And when the children of Israel shall be completed with full knowledge, wisdom and overcome springs to mind over the Israeli border and pour all the nations”

“The aim of Israel is to unite the whole world as one family,” (Rav Kook). All we have to do is decide to make a profound change in our interpersonal relations, to connect as one man in one heart, and stop worrying only about ourselves. The positive force that we will create between us will balance the dividing forces, and thus we will bring perfection to the network of connections between people. The force of connection will permeate among the nations of the world and obligate them to begin a similar process, too, to connect and acknowledge us as the source of connection and goodness. “The nation of Israel was made to be a kind of transmitter through which the sparks will flow to all of mankind all over the world until they develop and are able to understand the pleasantness and the tranquility there is in love of others. And when the children of Israel shall be completed with full knowledge, the flow of the springs of wisdom will grow stronger beyond the border of Israel and will saturate all the nations of the world,” (The Writings of Baal HaSulam).
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From Ynet article 10/18/16

Women’s Task In Spiritual Correction

A female soul needs more spirituality than a male soul. It is less satisfied in our world since subconsciously it feels that egoism doesn’t give her anything.

On the other hand, men have to perform greater corrections than women because they are incorrigible egoists. For women it is simply easier to perform corrections. They are more sensitive to the advice of Kabbalists, and this is the reason there are such gaps between us, that women yearn for the wisdom of Kabbalah more, although the men have to perform the more serious corrections.

How can they compare themselves to each other? Women need to pressure the men spiritually!
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/29/16

Toward Faith Above Reason

Question: Is it possible to increase the frequency of the ascents and descents, to accelerate them to the speed of the Light and even beyond?

Answer: There is no limit on ascents and descents. They should reach a special intensity in frequency and magnitude. The intensity of the ascents and descents depends on their height multiplied by the frequency. Both the height and the intensity are important.

The height and the intensity bring a person to the level of feeling that everything that happens to him, even in the lowest state, actually comes from the Creator.

A person locks on the Creator in that state, and for the first time ascends to the level of faith above reason.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/15/16

Life Without Friends Is Dangerous

Comment: According to a study carried out by Harvard University, life without friends is as dangerous as smoking (Newsweek).

My Comment: A person is a system influenced by many factors: loneliness, sadness, fears, worries, all sorts of doubts and pressures put on him by society. All these factors can create great pressure, which could cause serious illnesses.

Comment: According to the study, the level of fibrinogen in the blood of lonely people who have very few ties with their relatives and have few friends is 20% higher than that of other participants in the study.

My Comment: A person needs to be in contact with society. It is our nature. Therefore, a lonely person constantly subconsciously searches for contacts, and if he doesn’t find them, he is under constant stress and pressure.

Question: Do you believe that young people who are involved in virtual relationships feel lonely?

Answer: Yes, in recent times loneliness is felt more acutely because there is no warmth in virtual relationships. But this is still a positive process because the growing loneliness leads a person to the recognition of evil. The question is how and whether it is along the long path of suffering or along the quick path of the Light.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/31/16

New Life #629 – Sukkot And Temporariness

New Life #629 – Sukkot And Temporariness
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Man, just like any other animal, aspires for security and stability. In the past, life was predictable and stable, but today everything is changing, unexpected, and uncertain. We could have built a good life for all of mankind, but the ego didn’t let us do so, and half the world is starving. In the 21^st century, millions are wandering from one country to another, everything is unstable, changing, uncertain, and unsure.

The message of Sukkot is that only if we change our values will we be able to build a stable, good, and beautiful world. The essence of the change is switching from self-love to love of others, to caring about everyone.

The immigration of millions from one country to another is part of the evolutionary program of nature. We may be afflicted by natural disasters that will cause millions to wander, the Japanese, the Chileans, and others.

The only practical solution is to explore nature’s program in depth and adapt to it. The sure thing we can rely on is universal knowledge, the connection to the upper force of nature. The formula of holding onto the upper force is the rule of “love thy friend as thyself,” of changing our senses and the world.
From KabTV’s “New Life #629 – Sukkot And Temporariness,” 9/27/15

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It Is Hard To Be Righteous

Torah, Deuteronomy 11:17: And the wrath of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will close off the heavens, and there will be no rain, and the ground will not give its produce, and you will perish quickly from upon the good land that the Lord gives you.

If a person is not engaged in spiritual correction, he is left without the Light of Hassadim, without moisture and rain, and he can’t use his egoism correctly.

The sun burns so much that it becomes not a light of life but a withering heat for him. With such an attitude to life, to the world, and to his mission, a person withers without water (the Light of Hassadim). This is exactly what is happening today.

Question: Is such a state of impasse felt on each new degree?

Answer: This impasse must continue for no more than a moment. However, it has to be recognized by a person in order to move forward, as it is written, “There is no righteous man on earth who has done good and did not sin first.” So on each degree he stumbles and then moves forward, stumbles and moves forward. He passes the lowest point of bifurcation, recognition of egoism, and only then he begins to rise.

Moreover, at the lowest point, he completely denies the Creator, doesn’t agree with anything, dives into extreme egoism, and becomes the worst offender of all the laws, meaning he is absolutely opposite to the upper state of the righteous.

Question: Does this apply only to these who advance and not others who don’t reach this point?

Answer: Of course. Normal people don’t experience any internal states. They don’t even know what states the righteous are in.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/15/16

Are There Secrets That Still Haven’t Been Revealed To Humanity Yet?

Question: The wisdom of Kabbalah is an immense book of secrets. Are there secrets that still haven’t been revealed to humanity that could change the world?

Answer: There are no secrets! A secret is what a person doesn’t want to reveal because his ego repels it by saying: “Don’t go there, this is a secret.”

The wisdom of Kabbalah was never a secret. For 15 generations beginning from century zero to the 15^th century it was hidden until humanity developed.

However, there are parts of Kabbalah that were always revealed and there were parts that were hidden because people would misunderstand them. Even today it is possible to open The Book of Zohar and not understand even one word. This is because in order to do that, it is necessary to have attained the state the Kabbalists describe.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/29/16

A Woman’s Role In The Spiritual Development Of Humanity

Question: What is a woman’s role in critical points in the history of mankind?

Answer: At all the critical turning points in the history of mankind, since ancient times to the present day, it was actually the womanwho is the most crucial factor. The first great woman was Eve, thanks to whom the ego as the great egoistic force that develops the world was revealed. Hurray to our common matriarch!

The next great woman was Sarah. It was actually thanks to her that Abraham developed when the Creator told him “Listen to what Sarah tells you.” In fact all the great men we take such pride in were great through listening to their wives. That’s a fact!

Then Abraham’s first born son Ishmael was born from his branch; he was the Muslim prophet and the leader of the Arab nation. He became great thanks to his mother, who was Abraham’s concubine, and Abraham blessed him.

Next came the matriarchs Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel who led their husbands Isaac and Jacob. Jacob received the birthright thanks to his mother’s efforts.

Could the children of Israel enter Egypt without the wife of Potiphar, Pharaoh’s minister, if she hadn’t tried to seduce Joseph and hadn’t locked him up in a dungeon from which he was released a hero? It is thanks to his sister Miriam that Moses found himself in Pharaoh’s palace, where Pharaoh’s daughter Batya raised him. Then when he lived with Jethro, Moses married Tzipora who guided him, bore his children, and sent him back to Egypt, telling him that he must go back to his people.

During the exodus from Egypt, the women constantly supported the men and inspired them with their songs. They obliged them to establish good connections with each other. They surrounded the men at Mt. Sinai and pressured them to discover the Creator. With the Creator in the middle and the women from behind it was impossible not to receive the Torah.

When the people of Israel entered the Land of Israel, women prophets emerged who became the leaders of the nation. But they were a completely different type of prophet than Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel. They were on a higher spiritual level than the men. Learned men with white beards used to come to them for serious internal spiritual advice.

We see the same thing when the people were in the second exile in Babylon when Queen Esther managed things secretly and subconsciously. The word “Esther” stems from the Hebrew word “Histara” – concealment, and this is the reason that the great book about the exodus from the exile in Babylon is called The Book of Esther (the revelation of the concealment).

The dynasty of Israel was founded thanks to Ruth who belonged to another nation and joined the nation of Israel saying “this home will be my home.” She became the great-grandmother of the greatest Jewish king, King David. In Israel, the monarchy was not inherited like in other nations, but the king was crowned according to his spiritual level. Therefore, Ruth can be called the mother of the dynasty that was on the highest spiritual level.

King David attained great heights and became the greatest spiritual leader in our world thanks to his relationship with a special woman Bat Sheba, thanks to whom he ascended to the next level. His great accomplishments and his awe from the Creator are expressed in his book Psalms, which the whole world cites to this very day.
[194790]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/29/16

We Are Living In A Matrix

In the News (Business Insider): “In a note to clients out Tuesday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said there’s a 20%-50% chance that we’re living in the matrix — meaning that the world we experience as ‘real’ is actually just a simulation. …

“‘Many scientists, philosophers, and business leaders believe that there is a 20-50% probability that humans are already living in a computer-simulated virtual world.’”

My Comment: “We’re living”—and in the past, we weren’t living? Mankind is naïve; it constantly thinks that it has discovered something new! They finally got it. The existence of the so-called matrix suggests we are subordinate to the one law of nature. We are tightly chained to it. Each of our cells, every thought, every desire, all are within nature.

Likewise, a particular thought is sent to a person even before he thinks it. Every desire takes shape within him even before he wants something. Before he makes any move, energy, amino acids, electricity, and everything else is gathered within the body, giving him a direction. A person doesn’t do anything on his own! At best, he feels that he is moving, but actually he is being moved.

The task of Kabbalists is to discover who is moving the person, who is the master of the matrix. And why should it be otherwise? The still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels of nature develops us: all of our cells, everything around us. How could it be that we are suddenly on our own? What are you talking about? Has the guidance disappeared? Has the force of evolution disappeared? Has the program of development stopped all of a sudden?

This is our illusion. We have become separated from what is happening with us.

Question: Why do we naturally feel that we are independent?

Answer: This illusion was given to us intentionally so that we would discover that we actually exist within the law, and we need to know this law. When we discover the main law of the matrix, then we will become more enlightened people, and then we must move onward.

This knowledge should compel us to understand the behavior of the matrix, what our relationship with it is, and why we were created such that, on the one hand, we would be within it, and on the other hand, we wouldn’t feel ourselves within it.

In principle, the person is like a schizophrenic patient. He has an absolutely split personality. In other words, on the one hand, he is managed, and on the other hand, he thinks that he is the manager. This duality begins to concern him. The world is becoming such that it seems that a person has lost his hold on the reins he previously thought he was holding.

This situation leads him to suffer so that he will search, and from his spiritual search, he finally will decide that he must understand the general law of creation. It is possible for him to understand it only if he begins to discover it on his own. To the degree that he becomes similar to the law of nature, he will discover it and get to know it. But in no way will he be able to do this from the outside as we would like to do.

Question: So, how then will his life change?

Answer: It is according to how much he complies with this law. He will live according to the laws of the matrix: total bestowal, total dependence, and all of us connected through mutual Arvut (responsibility). In fact, this is an immense joy because you acquire knowledge, understanding, and integration within an immense, infinite system that is simultaneously so close.

Question: Will a person lose his individuality with this?

Answer: Absolutely not. On the contrary, he will begin to acquire an individuality that he didn’t have before! So, first we need to be given a good shake to show us that we are not within this system at all. Then, it will be possible for us to gradually enter it.
[194882]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/19/16

The Merit Of Religions

Question: Primitive tribes that have survived until our day live much more peacefully and in greater mutual altruism than people who belong to any representatives of any religion. Why is religion considered such a good thing? After all, we could all live a quiet peaceful life without it, grazing our goats and living on the fruit of the earth.

Answer: If we lived that way we would remain on the animate level, living in a cave or a hut, hunting mammoths, fishing, and everything would be fine. But the process of evolution is not up to us.

We develop thanks to the egoism that grows in us, thanks to our evil nature. But the additions given to us by religions have tamed our egoism to a certain degree and shaped it in a certain way. And for this we have to acknowledge the merit of religions.

Although they stemmed from human egoism, each religion and its own form, among its own people, in its own sector, was fruitful. Medicine, culture, dancing, and even science stem from religious development.

Science developed from religion in order to prove the basics of the religious beliefs and to explain different situations in our life. Then conflicts and contradictions seemingly emerged between science and the different religions, which continue to this very day because religions were fossilized. We should respect the religions for being the root of human development.
[194787]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 5/29/16

The Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO)

In the News (Science Daily): “‘You missed out.’ Is there another sentence that could strike such anxiety in the hearts of young people? … It’s true, though, and we need to talk about fear of missing out. Known as FOMO in millennial-speak, fear of missing out is quickly taking a toll on Generation Y — and it’s probably causing damage to your own life. …

“The average college student spends eight to 10 hours killing time on their cellphone each day, and when we consistently believe we are ‘missing out,’ anxiety and depression may set in. It’s no surprise then that anti-depressant use is very high and grows each year.”

Question: How do you relate to that?

Answer: In the past, before I discovered the wisdom of Kabbalah, I also suffered from this fear to a certain degree. In my time there was no Internet, and I soured all the magazines, libraries, practically everywhere because I feared missing something important in the world about myself, about life, and I feared missing an opportunity to fulfill myself. This fear is rooted in the fact that a person wants something meaningful in his life, to attain something, not to miss what’s important, to know the meaning of life. But eventually a person runs around until he grows tired and accepts the fact that he will somehow arrive at the end if his life.

Question: Does this mean that suddenly a positive fear of not living his life in vain arises in a person?

Answer: Of course, a person wants to leave his mark, do something meaningful, so that people will know about him, will appreciate and remember him.

But a person who reaches the level of the wisdom of Kabbalah begins to understand that the most important thing for him is that people should change for the better, and this is what he invests his efforts in. It is like taking care of children: it makes no difference to a person what his children may think about him. What’s important to him is that they should succeed and think correctly about their children.

A Kabbalist only thinks about how to fulfill himself by educating others so that they will advance without having to follow him all the time. This is the main thing, and his reward is the fact that people should follow the right way to fulfill themselves by resembling nature, without even knowing about him. In other words, the fear of a Kabbalist is that he will not be able to fulfill himself as an integral part of all nature. This has to be his attitude and the fulfillment of his attitude to everyone else.

Question: Do you have any fears?

Answer: I don’t have any fears, but I do aspire to fulfill my mission, which is the feeling that I have to justify what I have been given by my teacher, and I feel his pressure on me even at the moment. It isn’t fear but a feeling of responsibility. What fear can there be in a world where the Creator manages everything? I feel responsible for revealing the legacy of the great Kabbalists to people so that every human being will have the chance to totally fulfill himself by using this knowledge.
[193639]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 8/31/16