Newsmax: “Ireland’s Abortion Referendum: A Global Perspective“

The largest portal Newsmax published my new article “Ireland’s Abortion Referendum: A Global Perspective“

This week’s dramatic referendum in Ireland showed that the majority of Irish people want to do away with an age-old law by which women who have abortions, and doctors who help them do so, could face up to 14 years in prison.

But as abortions become legal in Ireland, something far more revolutionary than a change of laws is being born.

The transformation taking place in the conservative Irish society reflects the global thrust of liberalization, shattering one social convention after another across modern human society. Day by day, man frees himself from various social frameworks that used to control his thoughts and dictate his behavior.

More Freedom Demands More Maturity

Let’s take a glimpse at history. From monarchies through various dictatorships, to the democracies of our time which continue to change shape in modern times, a natural course of human development becomes evident. The individual is gradually taking over the reins for his/her family and possessions, body and behavior, and all of the components that make up his/her identity.

But here is what we can easily miss: Freedom must be accompanied by maturity of the human being, if we are to maintain balance in society.

As we relieve ourselves from the chains of the past and march into the future’s freedom, we have to cultivate human awareness to a whole new level. With every limitation that’s being lifted, one should ask himself: How am I connected to other people around me? What is my natural obligation towards them? How do my actions influence everyone else?

We are entering an era where answers to these questions will no longer come from clergymen, government officials, laws and regulations, or any institution that aims to dictate people’s way of thinking. Instead, it will come from the inner development of the human being, or if you will, our “spiritual” development.

Yet, hoping for positive human development to happen by itself is not what I am suggesting. Rather, I am certain that we need to begin educating ourselves as a society by illuminating existential questions, learning about human nature, and preparing for the interdependent state the world is coming to.

In other words, I am advocating an expansion of human awareness in society as a whole. And as a result, the individuals in society will better understand how to conduct themselves towards balance.

Freedom Through Interdependence

How does that work? We should take our cues from how nature maintains a “dynamic equilibrium.” When looking at life within the human body, we see contrasts such as heat and cold, organs with various functions, different kinds of germs, active and passive forces, and yet they all work together in balance and reciprocity, complementing each other. It’s the principle of life that works without our involvement.

We humans, however, must develop and complement each other consciously and volitionally. Our development as human beings demands us to reach balance and reciprocity at all levels of life.

If we won’t develop the ability to do so, giving ourselves more and more freedom may manifest very negatively in the form of terrorism, crime, and other forms of abhorrent behavior. Without the maturity to maintain social balance, we could find ourselves plunging into social-familial-political chaos to the point where one only does what’s right in his own eyes and for his own sake.

I believe we will come to see that neither money nor power can drive us to seek social harmony; only education that aims to raise human awareness will help us sense our interdependence and appreciate our common humanity. And the more we develop the human being inside of us, the more we can free ourselves from limitations outside of us.

Settle Everything With The Creator

Question: Should a student be in full agreement with the group? Or is there a place for his inner struggle?

Answer: Even if a student disagrees with the group, he needs to understand that his disagreement must pass through the Creator.

Why should he fight the group? He must struggle with the Creator, the disturbances that come from Him!

Everything comes from the Creator! I have to settle all this with Him. Why does He give me such obstacles? For me to find contact with Him. I need to settle it with Him, not with the group!

The Creator awakens various negative qualities in a person, which he takes in the left line, and good qualities—in the right line. Therefore, he relates to the group realizing that both lines in him are the Creator in the opposite and in the direct form. And he should bring them to the group, lock them on it, to give the group their correct attitude.

We also do the same: There are two lines, and the third is formed when you already are in contact with the group and with the Creator inside it.

People must constantly control themselves in order not to forget that all their thoughts and feelings come from the Creator who gives them the original parameters, and demands from everyone that with these thoughts and feelings we correctly treat the ten. Then we will reveal the Creator in it.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 10/30/17

Are The People Of Israel Ready For Their Mission?

Why Are We the Chosen People for It?

We must set a good example to the world because we are better qualified than all other nations. It is not because we are more idealistic than they are, but because we suffered from tyranny more than all other nations. For this reason, we are more prepared to seek counsel that will end tyranny from the land. (Baal HaSulam, The Writings of the Last Generation)

Baal HaSulam speaks not so much of the physical suffering of the people of Israel, although Jews were oppressed for many thousands of years, he speaks of the suffering to reveal the Creator, of the inner change that man has to do to free himself from the rule of egoism.

This has prepared us for the fact that now we can be a group leading humanity to the goal of creation. We pulled ourselves to this level, although it was not easy, being God’s chosen people costs bloodshed to every generation.

Question: Do you think that the people of Israel are ready to fulfill their mission?

Answer: No. If once I thought that in 10 to 20 years I would be understood, I’m not sure whether they will agree with this in the future generation. Our hopes for correcting the world are, of course, good, but to accomplish this we need to agree with the Creator’s program blindly and go forward “like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load.” We have no other choice.

However, the closer we get to the tipping point, the more acute the situation will become. Kabbalists will be a particularly persecuted group within the Jewish people, and Jews will be persecuted by all the peoples of the world. Then everything will be resolved.

It is written, “And the children of Israel cried out from their work in Egypt.” People will cry: “Why do they hate us?” And Kabbalists will cry out to the Creator to give enlightenment to the people of Israel, so they will understand why they are hated. That’s when the people of the world will understand why they hate Jews.

Question: In spite of this attitude, should we continue to spread Kabbalistic values?

Answer: We have no choice. The Creator appointed each of us to this work, and we are obliged to fulfill it. When we bring Light into this world, it becomes clear where truth is and where lies are.

Therefore, feeling themselves opposite to Kabbalists, Jews will begin to hate us more and more, and nations of the world, in turn, will hate Jews. This is the embodiment of total darkness that thickens before leaving Egypt. In the original sources this state is described as great suffering, stress, and threats. People will stop understanding each other, and the peoples of the world will rise against Israel.

Thus, suffering will increase if we do not move them to the next level in time.

Question: Does this mean that people have freedom of choice, which is to listen to Kabbalists?

Answer: Not yet. One has to have a certain spiritual background for this. And this can happen only through our dissemination.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation,” 11/12/2017

Did The Characters Of The Torah Exist?

Question: Did the prophet Bilam, who was equal to Moses, ever exist physically or were they both historical representations of spiritual forces?

Answer: The Torah speaks only about person’s spiritual path, about his spiritual elevation. Bilam is a great negative force, the opposite side of Moses. In order to reach the degree called Moses, first we will have to be at the opposite degree called Bilam.

It is necessary for us, like Moses; one cannot exist without the other. Similarly, Pharaoh is the opposite side of the Creator, equal to him in strength, but negative, not positive.

Question: So did Rabbi Shimon, the author of The Book of Zohar, exist both physically as a historical figure, and as a spiritual degree, but Bilam and Moses were not historical characters?

Answer: All characters of the Torah existed physically, but each of them played his spiritual role. Therefore, each of them personified a quality opposite to the one opposite to him. For example, Bilam personified the quality opposite to Moses.

In principle, the spiritual root must always touch its earthy branch once, embodied in matter. However, Kabbalah deals exclusively with roots. What do we care about historical characters? We are interested in ascending the spiritual ladder and going through all the states called Bilam, Moses, and so on.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/14/18

Witches, Devils, And Ghouls

Question: Do spirits, poltergeists, angels, and demons exist?

Answer: There are no witches, ghouls, devils, demons, or other evil spirits.

These are all qualities of a person. In Kabbalah, there are many names of both pure (altruistic) and impure (egoistic) forces. However, they are all inside a person. It does not mean that we need to cast out demons. We must correct our egoistic qualities.

Do not imagine them in the form of an image. Do you want to change something? Then, just change yourself, your egoism. Let’s say that yesterday your egoism was -20 and today it is ^–10. This means that you have cast some “demon” out of yourself.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/14/18

“Light” And “Darkness” From A Kabbalistic Point Of View

Question: What do Kabbalists mean by light and darkness?

Answer: Light is the quality of bestowal and love. Darkness is the quality of reception, up to hatred.

In our world, we do not understand either of them because we do not have the real quality of bestowal and love, and we act only out of egoism. Yet, it is impossible to understand one without the other.

We have absolutely no contact with the upper world, nothing but a spiritual spark. Therefore, everything depends on our contribution to the development of integral relations in the group. Through such relations, we can attract the upper Light, and it will create the system of interrelationships in us where we will exist in both good (light) and bad (dark) states.

Question: When will we begin to understand what light is?

Answer: It will happen when we begin to realize that we are in darkness.

Question: It is written that the Creator created us as opposite to Him. Is it not so?

Answer: It is about the real egoism that we still need to reach. We, however, are at inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels. Now, we must rise to the fourth, human level. It is this level that is opposite to the Creator. We have yet to reach this level. We reach it in the spiritual world as the left line.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/10/17

To Believe Or Not To Believe

Question: Can a Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, or any other religious person be a Kabbalist?

Answer: It is not a matter of faith. What matters is that a person who was told something, has read, or somehow received information, accepts it as a belief, meaning he uses it as data, as a fact. In this case he is called a believer.

Kabbalah is not a faith. It is a science that researches something that is unattainable for an ordinary person. However, every person can achieve and discover the new spaces and new forms. This is even discussed in physics today.

It confirms that there is matter, energy, spaces, and volumes that we cannot sense. There is movement above knowledge, above light and time, and beyond time and space.

It seems as if science starts discussing this even though a person does not enter it with his own senses. He pictures this solely in theory. However, the wisdom of Kabbalah helps us develop sensory organs within us that will enable us to feel and sense spaces beyond time, matter, or dimensions, and to exist within them. These spaces are considered spiritual.

Question: Do I have to believe you?

Answer: You don’t have to believe me when I tell you that this exists like how you don’t have to believe physicists who tell us that the light disappears, that there are white and red dwarfs, other universes besides ours, and so on.

You don’t have to believe them or me. It all depends on whether you desire to attain it yourself, whether you think that it is important to you. If it is important to you, then you are invited to travel to “another world.” If this has no importance to you, then stay in this world. Good luck!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 3/20/18

New Life #1000 – At The Threshold Of A New Life

New Life #1000 – At The Threshold Of A New Life
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

In the new life, we will no longer fight with each other; rather, each one will fight with his ego that hinders his connection to others. The younger generation is discovering that the ego no longer functions as a way to attain fulfillment. Human nature must change so that we learn to enjoy life together in an infinite way rather than in a limited egoistic fashion. There is a north star guiding us to exit this life into another eternal dimension where we will feel like one body. We will live as one soul connected together and our pleasure will be experienced through mutual complementarity.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1000 – At The Threshold Of A New Life,” 4/22/18

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The Work Of Man

The work of man is to reveal his existing state and build a desirable state above it. The existing state is always bad because the evil of our egoism is revealed. However, this is actually good because the Creator is revealing our true state to us, and above it we need to build our desirable state. As long as the Creator is directing us, taking care of us, leading us, and bringing us closer to Him, we need to consider our state as perfect. There is an existing state that I feel bad in, and a desired state that I try to envision as perfect.

If I do not take into account the feeling in my desire to receive, then it completely changes my state: I find myself in the world of infinity, in the Creator’s domain, in absolute goodness, but of course, I feel the complete opposite in my egoism. Therefore, I have to trust the sages that the perfect state is the true one and I exist in it, only I do not feel it yet, as it is written: “They have eyes and see not.”

I see everything through my ego’s prism. However, if I rise above it, then I reveal my true state. Through this exercise we attract the reforming Light that influences us and raises us from the existing state into the desirable one. We, however, do not stop seeing ourselves in a bad state. We feel that the two states become more distant from each other, polar as two lines: the left is the existing state and the right the desired state. The existing state is the one we see in our world and perceive in our ego. Above it we build a desired state, imagining the world where a single Creator rules.¹

Our state will never change because we exist in absolute rest, in Malchut of the world of infinity. Only the attitude to our existing and desired states determines the form of our reality, our relationship with the Creator, our place.

So we should not wait for the state to change by itself. We have to build our reality ourselves: we must completely separate our sensations from our existing state and imagine ourselves in the world completely in the Creator’s power, under the governance of the single force besides which nothing else exists.  This force allows us to feel a bad state in order to raise us. Even if I don’t understand or feel anything in spirituality, it is enough for me that I am connected with it, in a single point. For I know that the Creator exists in the world and rules over everything, including me.

However, unlike with the others, He lets me know about it! This alone is important to me: the Creator’s attitude toward me. This single point is what the whole world could be built on.²

I feel myself like a baby in the Creator’s arms, under His full care, and I rejoice in it like a baby in its mother’s arms. The states and times change: either the left line or the right, ascents or descents, but I always have to remain in the middle line. The Creator does not just throw me from one state to the other. I go through the states by myself and build the middle line out of them.

I rise above the right line and the left, above the growing darkness and the ever rising light and perfection, like in a cone, and include both of these states inside me.³
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/18, Lesson on the Topic: “The Work Between the Desirable State and the Existing State”

Why Do The Nations Of The World Hate The Jews?

Baal HaSulam, The Writings of the Last Generation: It is a fact that Israel is hated by all the nations, whether for religious, racial, capitalist, communist, or for cosmopolitan reasons, etc. It is so because the hatred precedes all reasons, but each merely resolves its loathing according to its own psychology. No counsel will help here, except to initiate international, moral, and Altruistic Communism among all nations.

Question: Why do the nations of the world have this feeling of hatred toward Israel?

Answer: The nations of the world sense their own empty egoism, their own unfulfilled desires, and at the same time, feel that their fulfillment of these desires must come through the nation of Israel. Since it is not coming, they consider Jews to be the number one problem in their lives. They connect all suffering with what they perceive as our not giving them enough, not bringing to them that which they consider a necessity.

Question: Why do the nations of the world intuitively feel this hatred, but Israel does not sense what is wanted of them?

Answer: The extent to which the nations of the world hate Israel is the extent to which Israel hates Kabbalah. We see this in the example of Baal HaSulam. Kabbalists were always unwelcomed, unloved, and subjected to exile.

The cause of the hatred in both instances is one and the same: the desire to attain the Creator, toward adhesion with the Creator. This is hateful to the nation of Israel and even more so to the nations of the world because it steers them toward a completely opposite course from the one of our world.

The nations of the world hate Israel for its general striving toward revelation of the upper world, and the nation of Israel hates the Kabbalists for its specific, individual striving toward this.

This formula will exist until such time as a certain turning point is reached and people come to understand that it is actually the Kabbalists who have the solution to the problem, the key to it.

Judaism must present something new to the nations. This is what they expect from the return of Israel to the land! It is not in other teachings, for in that we never innovated. In them, we have always been their disciples. Rather, it is the wisdom of religion, justice, and peace. In this, most nations are our disciples, and this wisdom is attributed to us alone.

By “Judaism,” Baal HaSulam meant the Torah, Kabbalah. “…return of Israel to the land…” signifies the rise to the upper world – to Bina.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation,” 11/20/17

What Is Primary: Form Or Matter?

Question: What is primary from Kabbalah’s point of view: form or matter?

Answer: Of course, matter (desire). Desire develops to its egoistic form, and then this form goes through certain stages of development, awareness of itself as the opposite of the Creator, and then aims to correction and similarity with the Creator until it reaches complete similarity with Him. It is all form.

Baal HaSulam has a very interesting article, “Matter and Form in the Wisdom of Kabbalah.” I advise you to read it.

Question: So, are you a materialist?

Answer: We are involuntarily materialists because we work with matter, with the desire to receive, to enjoy, and to receive fulfillment.

Question: Spiritual practices, Kabbalah, etc. seem to be detached from matter to many people. But no?…

Answer: Those are not spiritual practices. This is a kind of inner psychological phenomenon that one imagines and nothing more.
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From KabTV: “News with Michael Laitman” 3/20/18

New Life #999 – The Separation Among The People From The Destruction Of The Temple Until Today

New Life #999 – The Separation Among The People From The Destruction Of The Temple Until Today
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

Since the destruction of the Temple, the people of Israel have been fulfilling Mitzvotphysically without realizing that they need to be fulfilled spiritually according to the principles “love covers all transgressions” and “you shall love your friend as yourself.” After the people reached the peak of connection in the Temple, they descended into controversy and division and there was no need to discover the Creator. Disputes arose that were Lo Lishma or not for the sake of heaven, and Christianity and Islam developed. The people of Israel must first correct themselves by discovering the upper force that fulfills their connections. Then, they must correct the whole world and bring humanity to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #999 – The Separation Among The People From The Destruction Of The Temple Until Today,” 4/17/18

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What Happens When The Body Dies?

Question: They say that when the body dies, the spirit leaves it. What is it that actually leaves the body?

Answer: In Kabbalah, the term “body” means desire. When the Light leaves this desire, it dies. In other words, it becomes a desire that is only seeking to receive. This is called a dead desire or dead body. In principle, the kind of death that you are talking about does not exist.

Question: Where are the uncorrected souls of people after death?

Answer: They always exist within the desire which acquired a similar quality to them.

After the death of the body, we begin to sense our larger spiritual, soulful state. Not because the body dies, but because a certain egoistic desire disappears.

Question: A person can die a natural death or be killed, drowned, or burned. Does the method of death impact his soul at the moment of death?

Answer: No, because he had no soul! Before a person has the desire for the upper world, he is only involved with advancement on the level of this world. That’s why it’s worthwhile to begin your spiritual advancement as quickly as possible.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 1/14/18

Three Postulates Of Kabbalah

Question: What are the three basic laws of the methodology of Kabbalah?

Answer: The first postulate is that there is a single upper force of nature, called “the Creator” or “Nature.” We ascribe no special properties to it other than it being one common force that includes absolutely everything existing in creation.

The second postulate is that the upper force created the inanimate, vegetative, animal, and human levels of nature, which are automatically controlled by the upper force without any possibility of freewill. In such a situation, a person is nature’s part that can consciously and independently react to its signals. “Human” in Hebrew is “Adam“ (from the word “Domeh” [“similar”]), which means “similar to the Creator.”

Similar to how the Creator has His freedom of action, there is an opportunity to act independently when a person rises above his nature and can act above his own nature.

The third postulate is that as a result of special actions and exercises, everyone can reach equivalence of form with the Creator in a way that we will have the freedom to act similarly to the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/4/18

The Meaning Of Life Is To Learn It’s Meaning

Question: Aside from the main goal, to attain the upper world, are there other higher goals related to an individual’s natural talents and qualities which should be pursued while they haven’t yet developed the desire for the search of the upper world?

Answer: And why should the individual distract himself with anything? In order to be a great musician? Let’s say, I start to practice a musical instrument for 12 to 14 hours a day in order to play beautifully. Is this the meaning of my life?!

What do I achieve by this? A huge egoistic fulfillment. They bow to me, respect me, I become known, I earn a lot of money, I walk out onto the stage, everyone rises, applauds!

Remark: Not only that. People listen to the music and become uplifted.

My Comment: Yes, people cry out with joy, this is beautiful, and then what? Ultimately, I and my listeners will still die, and with that, everything ends. Is this the meaning of life?

All are caught in such a “mousetrap.” But there are people, Kabbalists, with a tremendous desire to know the essence of existence. They say: “We will not accept anything less, we need to attain the Creator! The meaning of life, the attainment of the point from which everything arises, and nothing less.”

Question: And if we would take into account the scientists, who, for example, developed interventions that save lives. And humanity has been using them for centuries. Isn’t there meaning in this?

Answer: They are simply improving people’s animal existence. No meaning exists in our world, there is no need in digging for it! We see what we are and how everything ends. People are born, live, and die, and this continues for generations as long as the earth bears us. There is nothing else. So is it worth discussing the meaning of the existence of protein matter on this planet?!

Question: So does it turn out that the meaning of life is to learn its meaning? Kabbalists say that it lies in adhesion with the Creator.

Answer: Of course. In this life. In this world.

You must attain the Creator, reveal Him, know Him. In the meantime, you attain the state of eternity and perfection, without dying, without identifying yourself with the body, which is left as an absolutely unnecessary part, a used part of a rocket.

You are obligated to achieve this and experience it clearly and in an obvious way, like a child who puts everything in his mouth because only through taste can he identify what it is. That’s why this is called Taamei Torah, “tastes of Light.”
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 1/28/18

How To Convince Someone Who Disagrees

Question: How can you convince a person who categorically disagrees with you? Why don’t we feel the thoughts and feelings of other people through written messages? What is the algorithm of actions, thoughts, and desires?

Answer: If someone sends me something, he must very clearly imagine how I will consider his message in the way that is necessary for my egoistic existence.

Question: Does this mean that I always need to imagine the other and by imagining him, his way of thinking, to choose the words?

Answer: Yes. As far as by these words I am awakening the desire in him to adapt the message for his own benefit. That is, when I am sending the message, I need to imagine the interlocuter, his benefit, and adapt myself to him.

Question: How can you resolve a situation of conflict, when one agrees and the other does not? How do you resolve conflicts as a Kabbalist?

Answer: I do not resolve them. I embrace conflicts because eventually they advance me to the goal. I am grateful to all my opponents because thanks to them, I advance to the goal faster.

I do not need to satisfy or cajole them. No way! On the contrary, when they “poke” me that way, although it affects me very little, I am extremely grateful to them because then I begin to think: why, what for, how should I react correctly, why this was sent to me?

Everything a person experiences was sent to him by the Creator. All the puppets, dolls, that exist around me are just conductors of His message to me. Therefore, I appreciate them very much: for any message—good or bad. Moreover, I am happier with the bad since they leave a deeper impression in me, and in that way, I correct myself faster, more vigorously. There is nothing else in a person’s life and in the world but to connect everything that happens to him with the Creator. The fact that it seems to him that whatever happens comes from other people, from natural phenomena, or from anything else, is just a cover in which the Creator dresses until a person is ready for direct connection with Him.

Therefore, I look at life very positively. For me, a bad person can be more desirable than a good one. Any conflict is beneficial.

We always need to turn to the Creator who is behind both a person and the conflict and understand that whatever you do, feel, or decide is also the Creator, because He stands behind you too.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/13/18

New Life #998 – Disputes Among The Jewish People

New Life #998 – Disputes Among The Jewish People
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

With every level of the still, vegetative, animate and speaking, the desire to receive becomes greater and the power of clarification becomes greater. Therefore, developed people find themselves in disputes. A person is even in dispute with himself. That is how they develop.

Disputes among the people of Israel are necessary for their spiritual development. The higher power that developed the Jewish people awakened opposing opinions between them so that they would learn to connect above them. The Jews will subsequently discover the truth, which is union above all differences based on the principle “love covers all transgressions.” An argument for the sake of heaven is an argument that moves us toward connection with the Creator and overcomes our egoistic justifications. The Jewish people do not eliminate disputes but learn to ascend to the heavens through them.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #998 – Disputes Among The Jewish People,” 4/17/18

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Kabbalah And Mentality

Question: Suppose a person settles down in some geographical place and acquires its character and mentality. Is this all determined from above?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is there a concept of mentality in Kabbalah?

Answer: No. Earthly human properties have a very small influence on the characteristics of the soul since in the upper world a person begins to acquire completely new properties, new states.

Alongside with this, he sees the limits of his inclusion in the general system of Adam and at the same time his animal states, especially his material weaknesses and inclinations. But it does not really matter for spiritual correction.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 12/31/17

New Life #997 – Consensus In Spirituality

New Life #997 – Consensus In Spirituality
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

A society cannot exist without consensus and belonging. The more a person’s ego grows, the less he likes to follow what was formerly agreed upon. The wisdom of Kabbalah was hidden for thousands of years until the world was ready to accept its values of love and connection with others. We need to reach a new consensus that all of us belong to one people or group and that we have an obligation to take care of each other. Then we will reach a consensus that we need to implement a general social educational system based on the rule “And you shall love your friend as yourself.” When we attain this rule in society, we will be elevated to the level of the Creator and the world will become a Garden of Eden.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #997 – Consensus In Spirituality,” 4/15/18

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Spiritual Harmony Of The Hebrew Language

Knowledge of Hebrew is very important in studying Kabbalah. It is unlike the sciences of this world, for example physics, which can be learned in any language. Kabbalistic terms in Hebrew directly correspond to spiritual vessels, lights, and actions.

While reading the Kabbalistic text, we do not just read words, but go from desire to desire, revealing the Creator through the change of letters and their sequence.

Each letter is a spiritual symbol, and each word is a matrix. It is like a special secret code, an encryption. Each word, letter, order of words, and the root of each word come from the relationship of lights and desires. The Hebrew language was created on this foundation. It is the only language that has arisen not for corporeal use, but has descended from Above to define relationships between lights and desires.

Therefore, knowledge of Hebrew helps us penetrate deeper into the connection of light and desire, to feel its taste and understand why it is exactly the way it is. We can feel the harmony embedded in the Hebrew language and the internal interconnection of the forces of nature that are expressed through its letters.

When translating Kabbalistic text to English or to any other language, the essence of the explanation that is included in the word itself is lost. Translation gives a more external understanding of the action, whereas the Hebrew word expresses the inner meaning of the desires, their connection between each other and with the light, and the form of filling.

In addition to letters in Hebrew there are vocalization points, crowns over letters—TANTA(Ta’amim-Nekudot-Tagin-Otiot – tastes-points-crowns-letters)—which show how these properties begin to unfold.

There are 22 letters in Hebrew: nine from Bina, nine from Zeir Anpin, and four from Malchut, and five more letters at the end of words, that is, the symbols standing on the Parsa. The exit of the light builds points (vocalizations) that disappear. Vowels are almost never used, they are just implied.

Letters, points, crowns over the letters are all very important. They can reveal the entire wisdom. If we knew the inner meaning of the words and of the order of words and letters—all this is the entire revelation of the Creator to the created beings.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/18, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Giving of the Torah – 1”

What Makes Man Special?

Question: If we look at a flock of animals, for example, they live in a kind of a communist society where everything is communal. Is man a mutation of nature, a special being in which the ego suddenly began to develop?

Answer: Man, in his animal state, is an ordinary being. But there is human egoism in him, which raises him above nature.

In all of nature—inanimate, vegetative, and animate—there is no egoism; it boils down to instinct, the desire to survive. The instinctive desire for survival, the fulfillment of the rigid laws of nature, exists on these levels like on a hard disk, as in a permanent memory, and is not considered egoism.

Egoism is a desire for excess, when I want more than I need for my material existence. And if I naturally fight for my existence, this is not considered egoism.

The egoistic additive makes man special. Therefore, he stands out from the number of animals and begins to develop as a special being.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 11/13/17

New Life #996 – Social Conventions

New Life #996 – Social Conventions
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

Social conventions are behaviors that most of society supports that stabilize the general atmosphere. We have conservative religious conventions, conventions in science and art that lead to new discoveries, and social conventions in the media such as fake news. New conventions are accepted once people have made sure they are good for us. The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about conventions on a new level, which is that all of us must be connected with love.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #996 – Social Conventions”, 4/15/18

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