Coefficient Of Bestowal

Any science in the world studies connections between parts of reality, each on its level of reality—physiological, psychological, biological, and physical—and so there is psychology, biology, physics, etc.

The wisdom of Kabbalah does not deal with these levels, but with the most basic level, that is the desire contained in each part of creation, only in different forms, on different levels, and in different sizes.

Therefore, Kabbalah is considered the main science. It conducts the same scientific research as any other science, derives formulas, studies creation and the actions of the Creator, clarifies our place in creation, and measures creation in relation to the Creator. All this presupposes a serious scientific study. All other sciences do not give such exact definitions.

In fact, creation is very complicated. Although it would seem that it is based on a very simple formula: the Creator’s desire to bestow equals the creature’s desire to receive.

However, this is not a simple equality because it includes a coefficient that should equalize the desire to receive and the desire to bestow: the Creator’s desire to bestow equals C multiplied by the creature’s desire to receive.

This coefficient includes within itself a restriction, a screen (Masach), and Reflected Light. We need to implement this equation all the time. Therefore, I must know the desire to receive, the desire to bestow, and my coefficient.

So I always study the Creator’s desire to bestow. I aspire to and equate myself with Him. According to these parameters, I determine my state and place in creation. In this way, I explore all of creation. Without this, it is impossible to relate to the Creator correctly, and I need to reach the degree of love for Him. The coefficient is my intention for the sake of bestowal. Without it, I cannot contact the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/18, Writings of Rabash

Touch Point With Truth

How do we come to a true prayer that is born out of a genuine desire? It is written: “A person is where his thoughts are.” Therefore, one has to start checking where his thoughts are: to restrict myself, my desire, to one point and with it attach myself to the Creator. And then I start to feel different states that are going through me, and in each one I should re-attach myself to the adhesion with the Creator.

I may not know exactly how to execute this restriction to a point, but I keep trying, like a child who wants to grow up. This is how I start to build my spiritual Partzuf, and scrutinize the disturbances that the Creator sends me from all directions, which scare me, confuse me, and rattle my heart and mind. I continually return myself to the point of adhesion. Nothing more is asked of me; this is how I build my spiritual plane.

If, above all disturbances, I nullify and attach myself back to the Creator, then every disturbance in my heart and mind gets corrected and included in holiness. That is why I will always remain in the genuine desire and true prayer, trying constantly to return to adhesion and realizing that I cannot do it without the Creator’s help. I will constantly reveal problems and apply my effort to ask for adhesion with the Creator.

My first point of adhesion has to be genuine. I am not a part of it, there’s only my goal to adhere to the Creator. And then I begin to study the Creator, from His actions over me I can learn His attitude, character, behavior, and understand what He wants to tell me. This, in essence, is what is called the science of Kabbalah.

The books of Torah are holy because they were written by those who were in holiness, in the spiritual world, i.e., in bestowal and attainment of the upper force, in brotherly love, at the time these books were written. If a person is writing from the feeling of attainment of the Creator, “good that does good,” from the desire to do good to everyone, from the state of love your neighbor as yourself, then his writings are called holy, and they contain the quality of bestowal—Bina.

However, the person reading this book may not have the correct, good intentions. After all, we are born egoists and we start from a negative balance, desiring to attain the reward, or at least avoid punishment. A person thinks that Torah is a wonderful remedy from all problems, and by studying it he will make himself better in this world, and maybe in the next world. Therefore, he studies for his own betterment in this world and the next world, from the fear of punishment and the desire to receive rewards. In this case, what is important to him is the number of Mitzvot he observed and the number of books he studied.

The greatness of the Creator means that in any state that may come, whatever problems and misfortunes befall me, I first and foremost think of Him. Not even of my adhesion with Him, but only of Him, to give Him pleasure.

How can one check if a person really cares about his inability to bestow to the Creator or whether he is just thinking of himself: “Why have I still not reached bestowal?” The way to check is whether he is ready to help others come to bestowal upon the Creator, then he is truly aiming at bestowal.

Every Day To Come Out Of Egypt

First of all, one must adhere to the Creator and then perceive all the disturbances through this point of adhesion, to increase adhesion with the Creator because of them, without getting deeper into life’s problems. I have to leave all my fears and troubles, and adhere to “There is none else besides Him.” I become included in the Creator, into this only existing reality, as one point, as if at the beginning of creation.

“Know that before creation there was only the upper Light, which filled everything… .” And then, in this upper Light a black dot was formed that was opposite to the Light in its desire for pleasure. But it nullifies itself completely before the Light, and I want to do the same! And after I already reach the point of adhesion with the Light, meaning that I see only the Creator in everything that is happening to me, I will be able to open my mind and heart, thoughts and desires, to the point that I am able to refer them to the Creator.

I have nothing of my own, I become a single point. And all my feelings do not belong to me, but are sent by the Creator, so that I will cleave to Him even more. Then my point of adhesion begins to expand above all the disturbances, and my area of adhesion with the Creator will keep on growing. Thus, these are not disturbances, but “help from the opposite,” because it is against me, but it helps me increase our adhesion even more. I do not always succeed in referring everything to the Creator, although I understand that it should be so. Problems and fears can be so big that I will not be able to stay in adhesion with the Creator. The sign of adhesion is the joy that comes from “There is none else besides Him, good that does good.” When I am in adherence with Him, I feel myself in perfection, because everyone who adheres with perfection is also perfect.

If there is no joy, then I am in exile, not in adhesion with “There is none else besides Him.”

I am sitting at work and feeling myself in exile, needlessly wasting time. Someone has come up with all these tasks, and I have to waste my life in them. There is no way out, I have to continue, but with the intention that while doing so I am adhering with the Creator, nullifying myself before Him. And all of it is due to work and disturbances, the so-called imaginary world that gives me the opportunity to increase my adherence. And if I achieve adherence, then I cease feeling this world, it disappears. And if I achieve adherence, then I cease feeling this world, it disappears. Instead of separating, it becomes uniting, concealing the screen turns into revealing.

I turn exile into redemption just by referring everything to the Creator, and this is enough. The whole difference between Egypt and Israel is that the same desire revealed in Egypt changes its intention to bestowal; it passes through the desert and comes to the land of Israel. Thus, every day we must see ourselves coming out of Egypt.

Every day I must strive to achieve adhesion with the Creator, and then I reveal that I am in exile from it. Therefore, my daily work is to adhere to the Creator above the separation and change my evil nature into the good one, the angel of death into the angel of life.
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/18, Writings of Rabash, “A Real Prayer Is Over a Deficiency”

In Tandem With The Creator

Try to act very simply: before any desire or thought pops into your heart or mind, catch yourself that it was sent to you by the Creator.

Try to continue acting in tandem with Him with this thought or desire. You will understand how differently you begin to sense everything until you feel that you and He are partners.

In each moment, He engenders thoughts and feelings in you and you try to continue them together with Him with constant perusal of how to make Him stay within your actions all the time.

You will see that you succeed.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/29/17

New Life #949 – Women In The Management Of Society

New Life #949 – Women In The Management Of Society
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

In the future, women will function like mothers and will care for all of society like a family. They will be involved in education, culture, and building good connections between people, whereas men are more inclined to be involved in industry and research. A new kind of social education will redefine what it means to be feminine; a woman’s identity will no longer be associated with external beauty but with her concern for all of society.
From KabTV’s “New Life #949 – Women In The Management Of Society,” 1/16/18

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Have Patience!

The separation of creation from the Creator happens because of the difference in intention, not in action. Through the action of receiving, the created being adheres to the Creator who is the one giving: as an infant to the mother. And if the infant had adult reasoning and experience, then he would understand that it is not necessary to interrupt his receiving from the mother, but rather to add to it his own intention to give.

It is not enough for the mother to delight only in the infant’s receiving from her. It is also necessary to add the child’s understanding of the entire depth of her experience and love and his own gratitude for such bestowal. This will then become the level of human, not an animal one, as an unaware infant.

In the created being, the sensation of the lack of such an intention is called shame, and it is the reason for making the restriction. (Talmud Eser Sefirot)

The Main Thing Is To Have Patience

The whole difficulty in studying Kabbalah lies in that it demands a change in values. That’s why people leave; they are not ready and do not agree to this because they lack patience. They do not believe that this study will bring them a real outcome and do not understand what this wisdom is talking about.

And here patience is mandatory in order to give the upper Light, the force that turns us into a new creation, time to work. Gradually we begin to feel, understand, and judge by new criteria. Then even though from all appearances it may seem that the individual is still the same person, in reality, he becomes completely different.

It becomes impossible to judge him by ordinary, earlier measures, values, and laws because he now reasons according to the law of similarity of form with the upper force; in other words, he reasons completely differently from the way he did before.

We attain such a substantial change as a result of the work of the upper Light on us, by going through a very complex inner revolution. Many years are needed for this to take place because such changes occur within a person gradually, in small portions. And even this is difficult to bear. It is much easier to advance within a group, which a person can hold on to. If, with eyes closed, a person grabs on to a group, then he can move through all difficulties.

He closes his eyes to the old values and receives from the group, from the connection with the friends, from the new Kli (vessel) in which ten becomes as one with new values: new reason and experience, new relations, new units of measure.
This is a very delicate, difficult period, about which it is written: “A thousand enter the room, but only one exits into the light.” It is necessary to acquire patience, to give the upper Light the opportunity to work on you and give you new qualities. Where it is written: “Do anything, just don’t leave,” it refers specifically to this process.

An infant is not ashamed to receive from the mother; there is no shame yet on his level. But Malchut of the world of Ein Sof (infinity) decided that she wants to be the same as the Creator and bestow to Him in the same manner. That’s why she makes a restriction—a very noble and strict action. On one hand, she stops receiving from the Creator. And on the other hand, she decides that adhesion to the Creator is more important than receiving from Him.

This decision determined the entire subsequent process creation goes through. For the one who desires adhesion with the Creator, the understanding of adhesion must be more important than the reception of fulfillment, in other words, more important than life!

After creation develops, in the fulfillment it receives from the Creator, it discovers that the Creator loves it and wants to give it pleasure. That’s why it cannot be fulfilled just by receiving. The love of the Creator obligates it to respond in a similar manner, called “Reflected Light.” Of course, this returning Light is very weak in comparison with the Light of Hochma of the Creator, but it makes the creation similar to the Creator.
(Rabash, “The First Renewal”)

Until the person rises above his desire to enjoy, acquires a screen and Reflected Light, in other words, some kind of similarity of form with the Creator, can he exist in the spiritual world, in the experience of the upper Light, or to understand spiritual actions? The entire renewal begins only after the exit from Egypt, from egoistic receiving.

That is why it is forbidden for idol worshippers to study the Torah, where “forbidden” means “impossible.” A person cannot study the Torah because he does not have any connection to it. Torah is the clothing of the upper Light in the desire to the degree in which the desire is ready to receive it, in other words, similarity of form with the Light. And then the upper Light clothes in the desire, as water fills an appropriate vessel which correspondences to it, possessing a screen and an intention for bestowal.

So, we attain the Creator by His actions, by studying His nature. In reality, we attain the Creator in our own selves, revealing in ourselves the forms of bestowal and calling them the Creator (Boreh), in other words, “come and see” (Bo-Reh). In this manner we study the Torah, that is, the laws of the upper Light’s clothing in the corrected desire. All of this begins only after the restriction and acquisition of the screen and Reflected Light, which is called the exit from Egypt.

Without a group, the person has no place where he can formulate his relationship to the Creator. In a group he creates that place, through which he receives from the Creator and through which he gives to the Creator. And then he sees that this is not just a group, but ten Sefirot, a soul.

“Lo Lishma” means that the work not for the sake of the Creator, but for the Pharaoh, in other words, “not for Her Name” (Lo Lishma).

History Is Coming To A Close

All sciences, except Kabbalah, work within a small Light that can be obtained in receiving desires without correction. So our entire world exists without the intention for bestowal.

But this is a very limited glow, a barely smoldering spark of life that allows desires to exist just waiting until the time of correction.

In our time, the Light has almost filled all desires. Therefore, science is in crisis, and has reached a dead end. There are no more breakthroughs in science; everything is fading. We only find connections between various phenomena. Humanity is allowed to discover this because it leads to the understanding that our world is closed, round, global, and integral.

So we must be connected with each other and with all of nature. Only in this direction does science develop and reveal our common relationship to us. But beyond that, there will be no scientific development. Only technology will develop, not the fundamental sciences. Scientists have been talking about this for many years.

We have completely exhausted our desire to enjoy that we can exist in. Now only its perverted forms are possible. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before the Great Depression in America, we used such incentives as money and power to advance for.

Then, it ended. Today, we simply earn abstract numbers in accounts, and money also is losing its value. History is coming to a close. In other words, we are becoming aware of the need for correction.

However, there will be no more material development due to the Light of Hochma entering into this world’s desires. As a result, people will experience disappointment, depression, and a global crisis in all areas of human activity.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/28/18, Shamati, Article 37 “An Article for Purim”

Susceptibility To Spirituality

Question: Since 1995, Kabbalah has begun its disclosure to the masses. Does this mean that children born after 1995 are at a higher spiritual level than we are, and that they are more susceptible to spirituality? Or are they more egoistic, which makes it more difficult for them to correct themselves?

Answer: It does not matter what egoism they bear, whether it is bigger, smaller, or whatever kind it is. However, each forthcoming generation is more susceptible to abstract concepts than its previous one.

Lower and lower souls constantly descend into our world. But on the other hand, by working on themselves, they reach even greater peaks.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/22/17

New Life #948 – True Social Equality

New Life #948 – True Social Equality
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

We establish boundaries between us and divide into political groups according to our egoistic nature. Today, we need a comprehensive social educational system that encompasses the means of communication, the media and culture so that everyone will be active in promoting connection. No one should feel less than another and those in higher positions in society should want to help the ones in lower positions. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Jews, who are not from this world, will show others how to gain eternal existence through mutual connection.
From KabTV’s “New Life #948 – True Social Equality,” 1/16/18

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My Facebook Page: “Trump Defuses Nuclear North Korea”

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 3/12/18

From a global perspective, we are marching toward an interdependent reality with every passing day. Whether we notice it or not, interdependence forces us to lay a new basis for international relations. In this context, I see Trump’s politics as helping the world go through a “reset” stage, shaking away pompous ideologies and politically correct habits that tend to inhibit our thinking and distort reality, so as to restart human relations from a pragmatic give-and-take stance.

Read my latest on Newsmax:

I Return The Whole World Inside Me

I always direct myself toward “There is none else besides Him,” which is the cause of everything that is happening to me, but I see this imaginary world between myself and the Creator, which gives me all sorts of problems. I have to imagine this world as a reflection of my inner qualities. Depending on my perception of reality, I see my internal qualities outside of me, all around me.

If I see you in front of me, it means you exist inside me as a particular desire with certain qualities. As I correct my external relation to you, I seemingly return you inside me. You are now included in me and I no longer see you on the outside.

In our world, first an embryo develops inside his mother, then is born and gradually grows into an adult. Here the reverse process occurs, returning to the source inward. So we study the inner Torah and penetrate into it.

The whole world that I see from the outside, I need to try to find inside me as my inner qualities. If I see various events in this world, good or bad, then I should try to imagine them inside of me and try to correct the way I relate to them, to change my desire to bestowal. If my desire is aimed at bestowal, then I become similar to the Creator and unite with the Creator into one whole. This is called adhesion.

It is desirable to imagine that the external reality is seen outside of us only due to our inner uncorrected states. But in fact, this reality must be internal. That is why we study the internal part of the Torah, learn that everything is within us and the correction takes place inside a person.

Kabbalah gives us a practical method through which one can correct himself and thus change the world around us, because the world is our projection. This is not philosophy, but the truth. The philosopher is the one who denies it.

What is the point of all our efforts to correct the world? The name “world reformers” is a derogatory one in Kabbalah because instead of changing themselves, they try to change the world around them. It is like children, who think that their game is the truth, and that the real baby is the ragdoll and not a living baby
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/18, Writings of Rabash, Vol.2, Article 44

Spiritual Action – Unanimously

Question: Do Kabbalists have a definite order of voting for decision-making? Two-thirds majority or something else?

Answer: No. A true spiritual action is made unanimously.

In ancient times, there was a spiritual organ, the Sanhedrin, where decisions made by the sages proceeded from their attainment of the upper degree, and therefore it was clear to them what to do. There were no disagreements.

If you meet with your friend at the upper degree to which you need to bring the whole group or more people, then there is no doubt about how it is done.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/22/17

Equality In The Circle

Question: In the circle, everyone has two different phases: when he gives and when he receives, when he speaks and when he listens. What is the difference between each of these phases? In what phase are we equal? When are we silent?

Answer: We are not absolutely equal in anything, except our aspiration to bring everyone closer together to discover the common quality of bestowal and love between us, called the Creator.

If we do not get closer together in this way, then we will not be equal in any way. Equality between us is in the effort to draw closer to the Creator, inside which we connect.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/22/17

New Life #947 – The Woman Of Tomorrow

New Life #947 – The Woman Of Tomorrow
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

The woman of tomorrow will be the head of the family and will connect everyone around her like a mother. She will be the glue between people and will help them open their hearts to one another. The family will be protected as necessary for the enjoyment of life and people will invest in the discovery of the essence of life. Men, on the other hand, will be involved in creating spiritual connection between themselves according to the rule, “And you shall love your friend as yourself,” which will give power to society.
From KabTV’s “New Life #947 – The Woman Of Tomorrow,” 1/14/18

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Breaking Israel News: “What Can Israel Do About Its ‘Brain Drain’ Problem“

The largest portal Breaking Israel News published my new article “What Can Israel Do About Its ‘Brain Drain’ Problem”

“More than all that you guard, guard your mind, For it is the source of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

Israel isn’t losing its best and brightest because of greener pastures or higher standards of living abroad. It is losing because it is turning its back on its true identity. To solve the brain drain, the Israeli heart must be replenished first.

I understand what lies at the heart of scientists, academics and other great minds who are making the decision to leave Israel.

In 1974, I emigrated from Lithuania to Israel and stopped in Vienna for a temporary transit. All the cars were full of Jews who chose to emigrate to the United States, Canada or Western European countries. My family and another Georgian family were the only ones “crazy enough” to immigrate to Israel. As a young ambitious scientist, I could not imagine that forty-four years later, in 2018, I would be witnessing a different kind of Israel.

In today’s Israel, both great and average minds alike can be easily tempted by dubious organizations to abandon their homeland. The reason is simple: the pursuit of material profit. Many times, these offers come from sources with an interest in weakening Israel, and unfortunately, Israel’s leaders are busy trying to divide and conquer whatever’s left of the pie, rather than making the pie bigger together.

What’s worse, a fertile soil has been created here for people in positions of power to join hands in certain directions. There’s no real way to monitor the various ties being forged between government, military, police, courts and the media. Checks and balances are eroding and separation of powers is not always there. The successful players and brilliant minds who stay here are those who make the most profit.

Our Spiritual Potential Is Our Most Valuable Asset

Had I been warned about this situation forty-four years ago, I would have taken my family to the land of unlimited possibilities and urged the Georgian family to come with me, or at the very least retrace my steps.

What keeps me here in Israel? Only the spiritual potential that lies within our people. We carry a spark of unity that comes from our very foundation as a Jewish people, and if we rekindle it here on the land of Israel, we will rediscover our spiritual mission to be “a light unto nations.”

Being a shining example of unity is our vocation as a people and that is why, deep down, all nations are expecting something to come from us. When we fail to provide that example, the nations are driven to apply pressure on us in various ways, urging us to come together. But if we deliver, we can inspire the whole of humanity towards unity.

Israel has to recognize that the “heart drain” is what causes the “brain drain.” In other words, Israelis have lost touch with that spark of unity that ties them together and has no passion to serve as a beacon of unity for the world. They feel motivated to stick together only when they are under the gun; hence, material profit becomes the only calculation they make.

Abraham Planted the Seed of Love for All People

The first thing Israel should do is a massive campaign reviving the little-known birth story of the Jewish people, which took place in Babylon 3,800 years ago. Surely, everyone can point to Abraham the patriarch as the father of Israel, but very few can recount why and how Abraham brought us together.

The book of Noam Elimelech writes that “Abraham planted the seed of love for all people,” and Maimonides explains that “he went from city to city, kingdom to kingdom, until thousands and tens of thousands joined him, and they are the people of the house of Abraham… and they became a nation” (Yad HaChazakah).

So Abraham toured all of Babylon, and the representatives from all nations who followed him and practiced the tenet of “love thy neighbor as thyself” above all differences, later became the people of Israel.

Therefore, global unity is the foundation of our nationhood. To put it another way, the people of Israel were a mini-model of a united humanity. And this is why if we don’t maintain our bond of unity above all differences, there’s no real reason for us to stay together on the same land.

Rediscovering this common bond is the only way for Israel to create a renewed sense of patriotism, and reawaken the passion to contribute to our homeland, to a point that it’s more important for us than material profit offered abroad.

Along with this line, Israel should honor and cherish successful researchers and other brilliant minds who choose to stay in the country and thus strengthen the spirit of unity. This could be done regularly through presidential acknowledgment and broad media coverage of their unique contributions.

When we replenish the Israeli heart, the Israeli brain will work even better.

JPost: “How The Purim Story Is Playing Out Right Now”

The Jerusalem Post published my new article: “How the Purim Story Is Playing Out Right Now”

Purim has one of the most suspenseful stories ever written. From the panic, doubt and fear in the face of utter destruction to the elation, euphoria and high spirits after everything works out for the best, the story and meaning of Purim encompasses one of the greatest ever resolution of opposites.

Any exceptional drama-thriller has its climax, when the tension of a situation that seems impossible to get out of flips into a miraculous solution. Undoubtedly, the peak of the Purim story is when the decision to kill the Jews gets overturned.

Purim’s plot has many places that escalate toward its climax. If we neglect the importance of these places, we will skip its main idea, and remain with nothing more than an impressive narrative. One such place, for instance is when Queen Esther relays to Mordechai: “You want me to go to the king and beg for your lives? Don’t just sit there at the king’s gate; go, gather the Jews!”

Mordechai is the story’s representative of good. The catch of the story is that, as much as Mordechai wants to bring good, he’s powerless to do so by himself. In order to do so, he needs to gather the Jews. By gathering the Jews, Mordechai invalidates the claim of Haman, the story’s representative of bad, which is to eradicate the Jews. “There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed,” Haman says to King Ahasuerus, contending that the Jews were failing to uphold the king’s laws, which discredited their existence in the king’s eyes.

At this point, a question arises: Why did Haman connect the Jews’ dispersion to their disobeying the king’s laws? Cunning and intelligent as he was, Haman understood that the law by which the Jewish nation emerged is a law of unity. The Jews became ratified as a nation when they agreed to unite “as one man with one heart.” Their dispersion meant their disunity, which meant that they failed to live up to what established them as a nation to begin with. That is what Haman emphasized to King Ahasuerus.

While dispersed, Queen Esther could be of no service to the Jews because they were breaching the king’s law. When they united, however, they re-established themselves as a nation, exactly as King Ahasuerus commanded, making Haman’s claim fall short.

The significance of this Purim message penetrates sharply into our current era. “Hamanism,” or antisemitism, is rampant today, comparable to how it was in the Purim story’s setting of Shushan. Likewise, we Jews are in the same loop of brushing off the brunt of what a sudden rise in antisemitism worldwide could lead to.

The disastrous events in the middle of last century clearly exemplify what an escalation of Jewish hatred coupled with Jewish denial of that hatred and failure to do anything about it could lead to. Purim, however, provides us with the opposite, happy-ending example: where the Jewish people understand their role and purpose, and take responsibility to realize the king’s law, uniting above their differences and thereby securing their survival and bringing about great joy and happiness.

We Jews hold the keys to both scenarios: the choice to unite, which brings about the elated state Purim symbolizes, or the choice to remain disunited, which has devastating consequences.

What is this unity we need to reach? It does not mean that we need to physically gather in Israel or anywhere else. Uniting means that we mentally and emotionally support each other in seeking that common point of agreement, “as one man with one heart,” to be there for each other above any seeming differences between us. Moreover, uniting also means that by our efforts to find our common unifying point, we will become conduits of unity to the rest of humanity, as is written, to become “a light unto nations.” In other words, our dispersion and disunity spreads dispersion and disunity, and our unification spreads unification. Unity is an unfulfilled expectation that humanity currently has toward the Jews. Neither non-Jews nor Jews can pinpoint nor verbalize this feeling, but it lurks behind all antisemitic sentiment.

“In such a generation, all the destructors among the nations of the world raise their heads and wish primarily to destroy and to kill the people of Israel, as it is written (Yevamot 63), ‘No calamity comes to the world but for Israel.’ This means … that they cause poverty, ruin, robbery, killing, and destruction in the whole world.

“And through our many faults … the judgment struck the very best of us, as our sages said (Baba Kama 60), ‘And it starts with the righteous first.’ And of all the glory Israel had in the countries of Poland and Lithuania, etc., there remains but the relics in our holy land. Now it is upon us, relics, to correct that dreadful wrong. Each of us remainders should take upon himself, heart and soul, to henceforth intensify the internality of the Torah [i.e. focusing on the unifying essence of what the Torah instructs, to ‘love your friend as yourself’], and give it its rightful place, according to its merit over the externality of the Torah [i.e. where unity is not the main goal, but intellectual progress or performing physical actions with no intention to unite].

“And then, each and every one of us will be rewarded with intensifying his own internality, meaning the Israel within us, which is the needs of the soul over our own externality, which is the nations of the world within us, that is, the needs of the body. That force will come to the whole of Israel, until the nations of the world within us recognize and acknowledge the merit of the great sages of Israel…”

– Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” item 71.

The Purim story, in addition to being an epic tale, symbolizes what life can be like when we unite. Also, as it is in the Purim story, so it is today: the Jews hold the key. We were given the law “Love your friend as yourself” before any other nation, and likewise today, we need to implement this law among each other in order for it to be able to spread to humanity as a whole. Until we do, antisemitism will continue rising in order to corner us into making that fateful decision. It is my hope that the antisemitic atmosphere will not have to grow to the likes of what we experienced in the middle of last century in order for us to wake up to our role. We have the wisdom and tools today to realize it much sooner and reach the perfection that Purim stands for even on this very day if we wanted to.
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Rise To The Level Of The Creator

We must reach the first spiritual degree called “an embryo,” which is when a person completely annuls himself, wants to be at the mercy of the Creator, and wants to reveal the truth, the first degree of his existence, the first truth of nature. By revealing this, he enters into the first contact with the Creator.

Following the entrance into the Creator’s omnipresence, he begins to work with his egoism, understanding that his egoism is a very precious, valuable acquisition. Thanks to egoism, he feels resistance to the Creator and begins constructing himself in equivalence to Him, overcoming this resistance.

In any mechanism, whether inanimate, vegetative, animate, human, or an artificial system created by us, there is always an action and counteraction, plus and minus, between which various relationships and the construction of various systems are possible. It is the same with the Creator.

On one hand, He completely controls us, and on the other hand, we disallow ourselves from agreeing with this, and desire to reach equivalence with Him.

“Do you control me? Alright, but I make the first restriction (Tzimtzum). I place a barrier between us and say, ‘I will do everything that comes from You, but only to the extent that I agree with how You control me.’”

There is an interesting solution to the problem: The Creator gives us an opportunity to first understand whether He is right, perfect, and omnipotent. He gives us a chance to explore Him. To the extent that I make a decision to be like Him, I let Him rule over me. However, this is not Him, but it is as if I do it, that is, I create the Creator out of myself.

This is not a simple methodology, but it elevates us to the level of absolute equivalence with the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/12/17

Ecology Of Human Relations

Six months ago in Mexico there was a devastating earthquake and another one recently. In times of such disasters, people become very sensitive and seek unity. A good connection between people can create a better atmosphere in society and thus affect nature.

Nature in general consists of four levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and people who are on the top of this pyramid. If people achieve even a small amount of positive connection, it has a very powerful effect on all of nature’s lower layers, especially on the inanimate level where earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and typhoons occur.

We just need to correct ourselves a little—our attitude toward each other to bring peace and harmony to human society, and this will have a huge impact on inanimate nature, the environment and the Earth we live on. We can soothe all the lower layers of nature under humanity.

Human society has a very strong influence on nature in general. Presently we speak a lot about the fact that we have destroyed the ecology so much that the changes are irreversible and that life on Earth will soon become impossible. Indeed, we will be unable to live on Earth and this will force us to change the relationships between us. Then, nature will return to the corrected state.

Nothing disappears without a trace; it is possible to bring nature back to life from almost zero: disappearing species of animals and plants, melting glaciers. Nature in its entirety will return to equilibrium as soon as we balance our relationships.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson “Questions And Answers”, 2/18/18

New Life #946 – The Power Of Women

New Life #946 – The Power Of Women
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

The wisdom of Kabbalah relates to the power of women as the foundation of nature; it is up to them to advance the world toward a good place. Men are managed by women. A woman needs to awaken her man and direct him in life like a mother. Women must require a stable world from men and it is in their nature-given powers to demand this from men. Women are ready to connect to fight for a common goal, but otherwise each woman is alone.
From KabTV’s “New Life #946 – The Power Of Women,” 1/14/18

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Screen And Social Responsibility

Question: Kabbalah uses the term “screen” on the desire to receive. So a person always wants to receive something.

Is it possible to equate a concept of social responsibility or responsibility to society with the concept of a screen?

Answer: Yes. The screen is an absolutely clear anti-egoistic, anti-individualistic social orientation in a person’s actions and thoughts, i.e., actions for the sake of society in spite of egoism.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 8/20/17

Equality In Spirituality

Question: One of the important rules of the workshop is equality: “In the circle, there are no more or less important participants.” How is everybody equal?

Answer: Everybody is equal in relation to unity. The higher and the lower cannot unite. They must be on the same level.

In spirituality, connection is possible only according to the extent of similarity: you to me and I to you. One time—me to you, therefore I am higher and you are lower. Another time—you to me, therefore you are higher and I am lower. As a result, we are equal.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/22/17

The Importance Of Social Connections

Question: How can we educate people so they feel the importance of building social connections?

Answer: The Soviet regime attempted to educate people in this regard, but they failed. The people leading these efforts were egoists. They used the carrot and stick method in pursuit of their goals and thus, their attempts were coercive.

Education must be guided by people who correctly perceive the global system, who know how to guide people to connect, who can work on connection, see the integral nature, and understand that it is necessary to be in adhesion with it.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 8/17/17

New Life #945 – The Meaning Of Life

New Life #945 – The Meaning Of Life
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Neither science nor religion has an answer to the question “What is the meaning of life?” The wisdom of Kabbalah is a metascience [a science of science] that reveals the answer to this question. Every person is given the opportunity to attain the highest power in nature, the power that created and manages him. There is no need to believe in the existence of this higher power since it can be explored and discovered in truth. In this way, he attains the meaning of life and eternity.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #945 – The Meaning Of Life,” 1/9/18

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