The Importance Of Friends

Question: Is the the only salvation for a person engaged in spiritual work the friends?

Answer: There are two approaches here. First, I save myself in order to save them. Indeed, thanks to them, I can pull myself out of the stream of egoism in order to give myself to them. Second, I cannot save myself, only they can save me.

In both cases, the importance of friends is purely altruistic. This constitutes mutual guarantee. If so, the prayer is obtained for all.

Question: So I ask my friends to save me in order for me to save them later? That is, I do not need my life…

Answer: For your sake, you wouldn’t do it. This is called above life and above death; it is behind the screen. When we nullify ourselves and move toward connection, the purely individual calculation is no longer there, both psychologically and spiritually.

Question: So without the help of friends, I cannot be in the right intention and prayer toward them? Do I receive strength from them in order to give even more strength to them?

Answer: Yes. All work is only for a group of friends. You understand that they are you. This is your spiritual “I,” your real realization.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/6/18

Secrets And Angels

Question: Adam HaRishon wrote a book called The Secret Angel. Kabbalah seems to be a science, but this book is about secrets and angels?

Answer: “Secret” means hidden and nothing else. Everything that is hidden from me is called a secret, and the moment it is revealed, it becomes a reality.

“Angel” is a force. Any forces of nature are called angels. For example, the force of gravity: if now something falls to the floor, it means that the Earth has a force that attracts everything above it. This force is called the angel of attraction. “Angel,” in Hebrew “Malach,“ stems from the word “Malchut.” We call any particular properties of Malchut, angels.

Question: How is the hidden force that Adam attained different from electromagnetic waves and the force of gravity?

Answer: Adam revealed the common force of nature, which governs the whole universe, all of creation, our world and the upper world. He called it the Creator, “Boreh,” which means “Creator.” That is, he realized that this force creates. In addition, Boreh, means “Bo“ and “Reh“: come, discover, and see, attain. Adam experienced all of this himself and described it in the book The Secret Angel.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 9/16/18

New Life #1081 – Equality And Wholeness In Nature

New Life #1081 – Equality and Wholeness in Nature
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

All people are equal because they were created by nature. There is nothing superfluous in the world. If one part is missing, the entire system lacks something. Everyone is important in the general system of souls. Society needs to respect the unique contribution of each person just like each part of the body makes a different but important contribution to the functioning of the whole. If I can do without a person, it is a sign that I disregard the general law of creation. It is up to each one to be a guarantor for others, to be concerned for their welfare, and to be responsible for everyone. Nature is advancing us toward this understanding of the importance of equality. The more human relationships differ from the laws within nature, the more we are harmed and suffer. We can either develop through blows and suffering or from awareness and understanding. In the end, we will come to embrace equality one way or another. The upper force created us as egoists and left room for us to correct ourselves. In a corrected society a person will feel free like a baby in the hands of his mother and will enjoy everyone else’s enjoyment.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1081 – Equality and Wholeness in Nature,” 12/18/18

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Dress Up Like Bina

“Malchut sweetened by Bina” is the desire to enjoy that makes a restriction and enters Bina, as if it does not exist. Then it gradually begins to reveal itself, trying to be similar to the qualities of Bina, as if it were Bina.

Imagine you are invited for cocktails and a banquet with a sophisticated society. At the entrance you are warned: “Pay attention to behave decently, very important people are gathered here, not commoners like you.” So you restrict yourself, enter, watch how others behave, and try to be inconspicuous, that is, try to no reveal your true qualities.

You look at others and try to imitate them, as if you are also an aristocrat. You watch how they stand, dance, sit, and talk. You see how they slowly sip their cocktails, not like you usually drink vodka straight from the bottle. You do your best to be like them, that is, you take on their external form for a while.

But when you alter your external form, your desire to enjoy begins to get used to it. Dressing into such external forms is already a correction. This is not your correction, since it is borrowed from others. This is the kind of correction that we need to make over 6,000 years. Then there is a correction that concerns our very nature, and from a flea market vendor, you turn into an English lord.

Over 6,000 years we acquire and dress into the garments of: NHY, HGT, HBD—the power of Bina rules over Malchut, restricts it, and clothes it with its qualities. Then Malchutreceives the force of correction. Now it is completely incomprehensible to us.

Bina does so according to its desire, and Malchut through the power of overcoming. There are people at this banquet who are happy to behave in a refined way, and you act out of necessity so you will not be thrown out. For them, this is life, they have the qualities of Bina, but the qualities of Bina only rule over you, while inside you there is complete egoism.

You are jealous of these people and want to be just like them. Otherwise, your pride will be wounded. It is written that “the angel of death turns into a holy angel.” Pharaoh helps the children of Israel come closer to the Creator. If my pride has suffered, I am ready to crush my egoism. Human pride is the greatest power. I can go without eating or drinking and spend half my life becoming like them.

We are built on the mutual integration of qualities. Therefore, in the four stages of direct Light, Behina Dalet is built as a result of the qualities of bestowal and love, but in it they become egoistic, for their own sake. It contains all the properties of the Creator, only in an inverse form, and therefore, it is possible to invert them.¹
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/19, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16
1 Minute 19:25

“They Helped Every One His Friend”

When everyone is in good spirits and feeling well, sensing no lack in anything, having achieved a certain connection and spiritual attainment between themselves, one can not dwell on this state. Here comes a big problem of how to awaken the desire for the next degree. It’s because, if we stay in the same state for longer than one moment, it becomes a Klipa.

The state can be elevated, spiritual, and altruistic when the whole ten reaches the connection with the Creator, but if it lasts for more than a moment, it means that we are using it for ourselves. That is why we have to immediately reveal a new deficiency.

In fact, it is much more difficult to overcome a pleasant obstacle than an unpleasant one. After all, suffering itself pushes the person forward, and pleasure stops him. But if we still haven’t reached connection and each one is happy with his path and state, or the opposite, he cries over it, it is not considered a spiritual deficiency. After all, the spiritual desire is the need to connect, to work on a common desire for the Creator. Whether it is gratitude or a prayer, it must be the result of connection.¹

Everything can be bought with money except the Creator. It even says: “Buy yourself a friend,” because we are all egoists. All problems can be solved with money except for one: the connection with the Creator. The attainment of the Creator is achieved quite differently, and therefore, you will not draw near Him until you renounce your egoism.

Also, we cannot give up the ego, only the Creator can do it for us. Therefore, it is necessary to perform all sorts of actions so that the Creator would want to cancel our ego and give us the power to overcome.²

All the problems are caused by our distance from the Creator, and by coming closer to Him, they disappear. So, we have only one problem: how can we come closer to the Creator?³

The Creator hears only one request from us: the one for the connection with friends, for mutual bestowal in the group—nothing else. If we want to complain to Him about our personal problems, this is not the right address. He will not hear these complaints because He is the one who created these problems in order for us to want to connect with the group above them. The need to connect with the ten should be more important than personal problems, and with this request, we can turn to the Creator. It means that the spiritual is more important to us than the material, meaning that the connection with the Creator and the friends is more important to us than various corporeal problems.

We even kiss the stick that helps us be directed toward the Creator. If the corporeal, personal problems did not exist, a man would never question the meaning of his life.⁴
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/19, Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 4 “They Helped Every One His Friend” (1984)

New Life 1080 – Privacy And Love

New Life 1080 – Privacy and Love
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

The desire for privacy stems from shame. Neither animals nor children are ashamed and neither desire privacy. When children begin to feel their egos, they feel shame, fear being hurt, and want to hide. As we grow, we learn to feel that we are trespassing if we infringe on the privacy of others. Today, commercial and political factors penetrate our privacy in order to influence us as they please. Soon, we will no longer even be aware that we are being managed. This type of privacy needs to develop into consideration for others and for society at large. We must educate all of society so that no one will want to harm another.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1080 – Privacy and Love,” 12/18/18

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Can Death Be Delayed?

Question: Why does a natural event like death instinctively create fear? What is its spiritual root?

Answer: It is loss, disappearance, annihilation, nothing remains. A person as an egoist, is very sorry to lose it even though life is mostly full of suffering.

Also, if we would count the amount of pleasure obtained during our lifetime relative to the suffering, then, of course, it’s not worth living. Nevertheless, our animal body is really challenged by this.

Question: How can we correctly use the fear of death?

Answer: For the time being, we need to be afraid of death, so that, as stated in Kabbalah, it will push us to the possibility of choosing real life. Therefore, to attain eternal, perfect life, we need the fear of death.

Question: Is it possible to ask the Creator to delay death in order to be able to attain more of spirituality?

Answer: This is an incorrect question. Try to attain spirituality instead of putting off death.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 10/7/18

Without Depending On Inspiration

Remark: Recently during a workshop we talked about the love of friends and I heard how everyone spoke not from logic, but from a deep feeling and understanding that it is important, that this is their future, and that they are ready to follow this path selflessly…

My Comment: I am not particularly encouraged by such phrases. Suppose friends are talking about ascent, desire, aspiration, love,  and friendship now, we know how quickly it passes and what remains.

I love to build my inspiration, based on the beginning and end of creation: Where we are? How do we achieve it?—not from what a man says today and tomorrow maybe not.

Therefore, I prefer to always have such a state from which I can develop love, desire, approval, and greatness. But this should be based on the structure of the universe, on the reason for its creation, on its purpose. Then it is really something eternal, global, and perfect.

Of course, everything depends on a person’s character and qualities, but I personally prefer to always have a drawing at hand that shows the beginning and end of creation, the whole path, and how it can be overcome with the help of the group.

Therefore, whatever I have been asked, I always say: “Let’s start with Adam, with his development, with the fact that together we have to restore his structure.” We cannot escape this. We are in it. And then I explain what to do. It does not depend on inspiration. This is the reality.

Question: So, when I am in a dead state, I start to scroll again: the creation of the common soul, the breaking of Adam HaRishon, etc.?

Answer: Yes. But you understand why this dead state is given, where it comes from—from the everlasting, perfect, eternal, and true!
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/27/18

New Life #1078 – Why Do We Hate?

New Life #1078 – Why Do We Hate?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Human nature is the egoistic desire to enjoy. We love what pleases us and hate what distresses us. The ego grows daily and we are completely occupied by our experiences of love and hate or pleasure and pain. When the sources we thought would bring us pleasure end up becoming sources of suffering, we learn to hate them. If a person becomes a source of agony for me, I can no longer enjoy life as long as he exists. Inflicting a person’s “I” drives him crazy. All of life is simply a calculation regarding how much we are willing to suffer in order to earn something. Human imagination and knowledge expand the boundaries of hate and love whereas other creatures have only instincts. Only mankind enjoys the fact that others suffer. We have to learn to work correctly with hate and love so that we can rise above them in the middle line.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1078 – Why Do We Hate?” 12/13/18

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Counter To Reason

Question: Why does Kabbalah speak to me through the mind even though I don’t understand anything? Why does  it require change and work at the level of feelings  even though I don’t feel the upper world?

Answer: It is because our feelings lead to a new mind. Reason is the result of new desires and feelings.

For some reason, we believe that feelings and the mind are opposite to each other. It is not so! My feelings, that is, my desires and what I feel in them, practically determine my mind. Being determines consciousness.

By changing desires and their fulfillments, my mind changes. And if not, then I can go by faith above reason counter to it. The mind is not sacred to me, but sometimes it is more important than feelings because it gives me a certain degree, and I suppress my mind and go above it.

Reason says: “Expand your knowledge, your desires, and work with them.” And I answer: “No, I do not want to work with them because they do not give me the answer. I have to go a different way.”

What does counter to reason mean? I do not destroy my mind; I only say that what I see does not limit me. I have to climb a step higher than it.

What a step above the mind is, I do not know. Can I think of something higher than myself? So I appeal to my feelings and say: “My egoistic feelings are wrong. I will go with the properties of bestowal, not reception. This is the only way I will achieve the result. And then, my mind will change.”

We are influenced through the mind from above and I appeal to the feelings and go above them to the property of bestowal. And then, I reach a new level: new feelings and a new mind.
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From the lesson in Russian 8/26/18

On The Verge Of Breaking Into The Spiritual World

Question: Was the desire for knowledge once an obstacle for the development of Kabbalah?

Answer: Thirst for knowledge pushed aside striving to attain the upper world and people began to engage in comprehending the material world. Since the middle of the 17^th century there was interest in science and art and then the technological revolution occurred. This eclipsed humanity’s striving for spiritual knowledge.

If a person has interesting possibilities of revealing the secrets of nature of this world and attaining them, then why engage in something intangible, incomprehensible? This is how the first layer of the desire for knowledge appeared.

But at the beginning of the 20^th century it became clear that science had exhausted itself and by the end of the century many scientists already said that the age of science was coming to an end and there was nowhere else to develop it. And today everyone agrees with this.

That is, there is nothing in the world we could discover that would really be a special breakthrough. There are even theorems about the finiteness of knowledge.

The science of Kabbalah explains that gaining knowledge is a human method and proceeds from our capabilities. We do not explore what the world is. We explore the world as it appears in our senses.

The world is matter given to us in our sensations. So we need to introduce a clear framework: where is the boundary of our attainment? And it turns out that it is very clear, simple, and close. In principle, we already feel it.

In this way, science, which blazed for 150 years, has practically burned out. And therefore, we are now on the threshold of breaking into the spiritual world.

Kabbalah predicted this many thousands of years ago. It clearly saw that at the end of the year 2000, when the realization of all of the ten Sefirot of the third world was completed, a feeling of their end would begin to appear as well as understanding that there should be a breakthrough to the upper area.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/7/18

New Life #1076 – Eternal Enjoyment And Pleasure

New Life #1076 – Eternal Enjoyment and Pleasure
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

The mechanism of enjoyment and pleasure is destructive like the angel of death that puts a drop of poison on the edge of a sword and forces a person to swallow it.Pleasure decreases after we have fulfilled and enjoyed ourselves. We replace small pleasures with bigger pleasures and pay for the chase throughout our lives. We increase the amount of drugs we take or change to a stronger drug to achieve the same level of pleasure. From a developmental point of view, the role of pleasure is to teach us how to transcend the natural mechanism and understand what real pleasure and suffering are. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to receive so that we experience eternal pleasure and life. Pleasure can pass through us endlessly and without limit when we learn the importance of influencing others in a positive way.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1076 – Eternal Enjoyment and Pleasure,” 12/11/18

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From Egoism

We are built from the desire to enjoy, from egoism, which only cares about its own good. But this force that exists in me and worries about itself is not me; it is an extraneous force that exists in the body. We do not understand it and we identify with it because we were born and raised with it.

So I can’t even imagine that my egoistic desire is not really mine. I can rise above or separate from it and feel it as a stranger existing outside of me. This is called the power of Pharaoh over man. If I discover that egoism is outside of me, it means I reveal the Pharaoh.

If I build love for the friends in the group and through it try to draw the surrounding Light, then this Light affects me and cuts me off from my desire to enjoy. Then I feel that this force is alien, not mine. It just ruled over me so much that I thought it was me.

Gradually, I realize that egoism is not me, but it was so cunning and insidious that it penetrated me and took control of my every desire and thought, my heart and mind. It ruled everything, but now I see that I can gradually free myself, move it away, and remain outside.

I want to be in neutral territory, not under its rule. I feel it determines what I think about and what to want. And I do not agree with this! I want a different force to rule over me—the force of bestowal, the force of the Creator. These two forces are opposite to each other.

But how can I do this? I see that the egoistic desire is driving me to the grave. Just look at what is happening with the world, where it is going. Everyone already is beginning to understand where the egoistic nature is pushing us.

Therefore, I need the reforming Light, the force of the Torah, which will separate me from my desire to enjoy. I will begin to feel that this desire is evil and that I can get out of it. I had “seven fat years” (“seven years of satiation”) when I enjoyed my desire to enjoy, the fruit of its development in a capitalist, egoistic form, and all the blessings of progress.

However, today we reveal that the egoistic desire will not lead us to good. It turns out that this power is evil. Then you need to decide what to do. People with a point in the heart oriented at the upper force wishing to reveal the Creator, the upper world, the essence of life and its purpose, have a direction in life and are ready to realize it.

From above they are led to a group, to the place of their correct realization, and a person’s goal is to choose this good fate and awaken the reforming Light through the group. Only with the help of the Light can a person begin to separate himself from his egoism, which buries him, and begin to feel it as someone else’s force, the power of the Pharaoh, and hate it. Although I grew up in the house of the Pharaoh, in the end I run away from him.

We can do all this work in the ten, each helping and supporting the others and showing an example of mutual bestowal. In the measure of our efforts to unite, we will attract the reforming Light that will separate us from the egoistic desire and bring us to a new place, under the good power of the Creator.

On one hand is the domain of the Pharaoh, on the other hand, the domain of the Creator, and we are standing in the middle between both of them. As a result, Pharaoh turns into the left line,  the reforming Light into the right line, and in the middle we include both of these forces.

We get the desire to enjoy from birth, we borrow it from Pharaoh, which is called we leave with many possessions. Above it, we build a restriction, a screen and the reflected Light, all the corrections received from the reforming Light, and in this way we are set free.

Therefore, without implementing in the group, we have absolutely no chance to follow this path. Everything starts with the shattering, the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. As Adam asked the Creator: “Will I and my donkey eat from the same trough?”—meaning, will I be a donkey who only enjoys filling his body? And where is the man in me?

The Creator replies to this: Wait, there will be shattering, the revelation of evil, and then “by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,” that is, you will gain wisdom, reveal the Creator, and become a man.¹

Pharaoh first appears when I feel how my egoism separates, peels off, and becomes a stranger. I feel that it and I are not the same thing. Egoism is a foreign power placed over me from above. Although it is established by the Creator, I disagree with it. Then this force is called Pharaoh. This is already a significant advancement.²
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/19, Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 2 “Concerning Love of Friends ” (1984)

Everything Is Resolved On The Level Of The Upper World

Question: If others are part of me, then by changing others am I changing my external parts?

Answer: Of course. But at the same time, you no longer feel whom you are changing: them or yourself.  You begin to connect with others and it turns out to be one common whole. The Creator connects everyone.

Question: Now we are at the lesson and yet there are still billions of people in the world who do things such as work, sleep, fight, etc. We do not feel them so how do we treat this?

Answer: You need to gradually get used to this and then the question of time, the multi-layered space, and everything that happens will disappear. You will see that this is nothing  and that everything is resolved at a completely different level.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 9/2/18

New Life #135 – Building Integrity In The Middle East

New Life #135 – Building Integrity in the Middle East
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

The basis of all religions is connection and love, but the ego transforms us into wild men. All the data required to build a Garden of Eden can be found in the Middle East, yet today it is the epicenter of evil and instability. The Middle East is the center of civilization because it is the meeting place between religions, cultures, types of government, and worldviews. Two opposing trends are being revealed in the evolutionary plan of nature: the trend toward human connection in contrast with the destructive nature of people. In order to survive, we must reach a consensus by finding a point of balance between these trends that unites. Only balance between the two forces of good and evil will be eternal. The method for balancing between these forces is always correct because even the negative force comes from nature. It is forbidden to eliminate evil for there is no good and evil, in truth, but only two forces that develop through their mutual balance. Everything depends on building an educational plan that is adapted to every stream and culture. Government based upon forced agreements and power will no longer hold. Cooperation between nations will develop naturally through the growing connection as the plan of nature is realized.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #135 – Building Integrity In The Middle East,” 1/31/13

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Tu Bishvat—The Beginning Of A Man

We see that without connection with truth, with the spiritual root, special dates in our world turn into children’s holidays. Tu Bishvatis also limited to planting trees in a garden or city. Which of course is wonderful in itself, but it is far from its true meaning.

Tu Bishvat, the new year of trees, is a very serious date, which according to its spiritual root means the beginning of man. It is written “Man is the tree of the field.” Therefore, it is correct to plant trees on this day, but it is also necessary to take care of educating a man in order to grow “a fruit bearing tree” out of him. This means raising a person who is similar to the Creator.

It is interesting that all the work we perform in the care of trees must also be performed on a person. Otherwise, one’s tree will not bear fruits, or they will be bitter, not fit for human food. We need to perform 39 types of work to care for the growth of a person’s soul, as if growing a tree. This is not just a tree in the field, but a fruit-bearing tree growing in the Garden of Eden because it produces our soul: corrected desires to receive and to bestow that are joined together in one fruit. This is possible through education, environment, and habitat, without which a tree does not grow to be good and fruit-bearing.

Therefore a person is compared to a tree in the field. This is not just any field, but the field that is blessed by the Creator. The Creator blesses this field according to the efforts invested into tending to the tree, according to the investment in the environment.

We do not interfere with the inside of the tree, but influence it from the outside. Thanks to the external care, it begins to produce beautiful, sweet fruits. All this depends on the environment, on the group, on the ten. We must try to build such an environment that will become the field blessed by the Creator. The relationship between friends should be such that each one can confidently grow in the correct, good form, connect together, and bear one common fruit—an apple from the Garden of Eden, the corrected soul.

Therefore, the holiday of Tu Bishvat symbolizes the entire spiritual work of a person at the initial stage. A tree is something that grows from the inanimate soil. If we arrange the correct environment, the external conditions, then we get a live sprout that turns into a tree bearing fruits suitable for human food.¹
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/21/19, “Tu BiShvat (15th of Shevat)”

Everything Happens In The Framework Of The Ten

If I do not integrate with the group against my desire and do not demand the friends to accept and hold me to free me from my egoistic prison, then I will never succeed. Even if I succeeded in integrating with my friends for a while, the time will surely come when I lose all the desire and want to be left alone. I will hate them and will not even want to look at them.

Then again, a time comes when I manage to overcome myself, and then, at the call of the point in the heart, I come to the group again and want to connect with it. We receive such opportunities from above and can only reduce the time between the attempts.

Again, I join the group and fall out of it again, moving from one polar state to another. Sometimes I don’t want to think about the group or even about the wisdom of Kabbalah at all. Then, suddenly I realize that spirituality is only within the group and I need it. Such polar states indicate progress.

At first, it seems that there is one desire in us called Joseph that pulls us toward connection and there are his brothers who protest against him. Later we will understand that there really is no separation between Joseph and his brothers; these are the very same desires that are raised by the reforming Light and then fall.¹

All the corrections, all the 613 commandments, can be kept only through global connection both in general, connection of the people of Israel and throughout the world, and in the ten, the minimal cell of correction.

The rule “Love thy friend as thyself” says that even my initial, individual correction cannot be done outside the framework of the ten. It is only through mutual integration that one can build a system in which at least some connection is manifested or its absence is revealed in order to correct it.

All corrections happen not in each element separately, but in their connection.²

Each friend makes every effort to integrate with the others and by receiving strength from the other nine, he connects with them. And so one fulfills one’s personal commandment of “Love thy friend as thyself.” When all ten friends reach such a state, their individual corrections connect together into one collective “Love thy friend as thyself” inside of which the Creator is revealed. Love of friends leads them to the love of the Creator.³

None of us can keep all the 613 commandments, corrections. This is possible only through integration of each one with all the others. Each one contains 613 desires within, but one cannot correct them without connection with the others. It is only in this connection that we can fulfill all 613 commandments.

Each requires a new connection, as if on a telephone switchboard where operators once used to manually connect the lines. A person is always at such a switchboard station where he must activate various properties in the friends and put them to work. They incorporate his properties in their work, and thus eventually the ten Sefirot are formed—a mini model of the entire universe.⁴
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/19, Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 5 “What Does the Rule ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’ Give Us”

Moving Toward A Common Goal

Rabash, Writings of Rabash, the article “The Agenda of the Assembly 2”: Accordingly, when one comes to the assembly of friends, he should always see whether or not the friends have the goal that he craves, that each of them has some grip on that goal. And he thinks that by everyone bonding together for one goal, each will have his own share, as well as the shares of the whole of society. It follows that each member of the society will have the same strength as the whole of society together.

In spirituality, it is clearly seen that if we are included in each other everyone gets the sum of all the forces from the rest. No one gains this at the expense of others because the total power they accumulate and combine in themselves is gained by each of them.

This is an amazing law of spiritual balance when everyone can dispose of all the forces, all the qualities and corrections made by the group.

Question: Rabash writes: “And he thinks that by everyone bonding together for one goal, each will have his own share.” What does this mean?

Answer: Everyone will have their full part of the goal since union is distinguished by the fact that the Creator exists inside of it. Therefore, it cannot be that what you receive is at somebody else’s expense.

Question: In the article it is written that a person should be on guard when he comes to the assembly of friends. What does it mean to be on guard? In relation to whom?

Answer: You must clearly understand why you are coming, what you should bestow from yourself, and what you get from others. The assembly of friends is very serious work.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/27/18

New Life #1075 – How To Find Your True Self

New Life #1075 – How To Find Your True Self
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

The true, inner part in a person is called a soul. By discovering one’s inner point called “I” or soul, a person reveals the higher, eternal, and perfect stabilizing power called the Creator. Today we are detached from the essence of life, the soul. This is particularly noticeable with younger generations. We remain unaware of our true selves while being shaped by innate characteristics, education, and environmental factors. We continue to develop in this way from generation to generation until we finally come to the question: “Who am I really?” and search for the higher power that provides an anchor in life. This is the goal of human evolution and each of us must attain it. We all belong to one root and are all connected with one another there. When a person is connected to this innermost root, he feels that he has come home to a good, warm, and full house.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1075 – How To Find Your True Self,” 12/6/18

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Holocaust Remembrance Day: Today As Yesterday

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 1/27/19

“Never again.” A powerful statement with deep personal meaning to me since childhood when I started asking questions about why most of my family perished under the Third Reich and what the future would look like for my people, I was compelled to get to the bottom of why the Holocaust happened. On the 74th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, we need to face the reality that, in spite of all the suffering the Holocaust brought, hatred against Jews is still alive, strong, widespread, and on the rise.

How can we make sure history doesn’t repeat itself if we fail to understand where the hatred of Jews comes from? While we commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day around the world, I suggest that there is something deeper about our history as a people that we must remember so we can assure ourselves and our children that “Never again” truly means never again.

A recently uncovered book from Hitler’s personal library revealed his intention to extend the Nazi tentacles to include North America in the grip of his Final Solution plans, which were prevented only by the victory of the Allies. If such a thing nearly happened then, how hard is it to imagine the potential for a similar operation in today’s globalized world?

Every year, we remind ourselves that history must not be repeated. However, truth be told, we are witnessing very similar conditions to those before World War II, this time with rampant bigotry and hatred against Jews across the entire globe, basically everywhere. According to a survey recently released by the European Commission, nine out of ten European Jews report feeling that anti-Semitism has increased over the past five years and almost a third of them avoid attending Jewish events or visiting Jewish sites because they do not feel safe. In the US, the FBI reports a rise in the incidence of anti-Semitic acts since 2016. Out of all religion-based hate crimes, 58% targeted Jews or Jewish institutions.

The trends show that history is not necessarily a good teacher and we have failed to learn our lessons well. There is still time to correct our mistakes in this test of life. The clock is ticking for us, and until we scrutinize and internalize the reason for the constant pressures against us, we will not be able to make a course correction to eradicate anti-Semitism.

Over many centuries, our ancestors fought to maintain their unity above their growing selfishness. But two thousand years ago, they succumbed to unfounded hatred and were exiled from the land of Israel. Since then, Jews lost the ability to be a light unto nations because we lost our unity. This was the starting point of anti-Semitism as we know it.

Our unity determines the state of the world and its fate. Through our unity, we allow the world to connect as we let the positive, uniting force of love above differences stream into this need of the world. Conversely, our separation denies humanity such a soothing power and invokes within it hatred toward Jews when they are deprived of the calming force. The failure to deliver the ability to unite above differences causes the nation’s aggression toward Jews and is the subconscious reason why they perceive us as the root of all evil.

Our sages explain the phenomenon of such hatred toward us with these words: “No calamity comes to the world but for Israel” (Yevamot, 63a). Jewish leaders throughout the ages have circulated this message widely. They did so as a reminder that the only remedy capable of protecting us from trouble is the power of connection which we Jews can provide.

Rabbi Kalman Kalonymus wrote in Maor va Shemesh (Light and Sun): “When there are love, unity, and friendship between each other in Israel, no calamity can come upon them.” Similarly, Rabbi Shmuel Bornsztain wrote in Shem mi Shmuel (A Name out of Samuel): “When Israel are as one man with one heart, they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil.” The Midrash (Tanchuma, Devarim [Deuteronomy]) states likewise: “Israel will not be redeemed until they are all one bundle.”

In a nutshell, “love your neighbor as yourself,” brotherly love, and mutual guarantee are the keys to the security and prosperity of the Jewish people. When we unite above our conflicts and disputes, we unleash nature’s positive force. It is the force that maintains the balance of creation, and its absence among us causes human society’s decline. In his “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) called this force “reforming light,” and explained that it can balance our self-centered nature and thereby heal human society.

Only if we rekindle the brotherly love we cultivated centuries ago and share the method for achieving this with everyone, will the world stop hating and blaming us for all its troubles.

In his essay, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee),” Baal HaSulam writes that “the Israeli nation was established as a conduit to the extent that they purify themselves [from egoism], they pass on their power to the rest of the nations.” Therefore, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day can be more than a commemoration of the millions who died. It can also be an opportunity for us to remember that we have a method for connecting the world, a true means to prevent the atrocities from recurring.

At this time when anti-Semitism is intensifying across the globe, we must strive to rise above our differences and draw the positive force that will connect us, unite the world, and uproot all hatred. Now is our time to radiate light to the rest of the nations, the light of unity, peace, and balance through our shining example of reuniting above all our differences.