Devoted To The Friends

Even if we manage to think about the friends and stop caring about ourselves, in the next moment it disappears. It will never become a constant thought, but will change at a frantic pace. After all, we need to scrutinize all the crumbs of the desire, all of its fragments. The vessel of the soul was shattered into pieces and then fell from the height of the world of Atzilut through all the worlds: Beria, Yetzira, Assiya, continually breaking into such tiny particles, the smallest atoms, which can no longer be divided.

Now we need to restore this soul, assembling it from these atoms. I receive the foundations of creation in my hands and think about what to assemble from them. In our world, we need to know the laws of valency to make up some substance from the basic elements. It is the same in the spiritual world; I begin to learn how I can connect the elements of creation on myself. What does it mean to connect two, three, or four atoms for the sake of bestowal?

How are they connected on the inanimate level into inanimate matter that does not move and develop by itself? Then, the foundations of creation must be connected into vegetative matter so that the connection of atoms causes development, that is, becomes more similar to the Creator. A plant already has life in it. It turns out that I took the still, inanimate matter and brought it to life! This already is a completely different degree.

I then create a connection on the animate level that exists on its own and has some kind of free choice: moves freely, excretes, and absorbs. This is how we build all kinds of connections between us, starting from zero and even from minus, coming from hatred to unity.

Imagine, how much we must connect with a friend in order to create vegetative matter, that is, for the group to become a “plant” and begin spiritual life, reaching such a connection above rejection that it begins to emit and produce materials, scrutinizing what is good and bad for itself. The friends in the ten begin to grow all the time.¹

The main action is provided by the environment, not actions of a person himself, but of the environment he is in. You can be a perfect seed of some elite sort, but if you are not planted in good soil, then nothing will come of you. The environment is more important than the seed itself, that is, the root of the soul.

There are even stories about Kabbalists who initially had no chance of reaching spiritual development. According to the root of their souls, they could not ascend to high degrees. Only thanks to the environment they joined, without any idea of what they were saying and doing there, only through their constant presence, did they receive a new soul. It is even possible to achieve the state when the Creator will change your soul, not because the former soul was bad, but it was shallow, not suitable for the elevated role. It turns out that a person as if moves from the heel of Adam HaRishon to the heart or brain of the entire system of the general soul.

It depends on how devoted the person is to the group, doing everything one can. Those people who in the beginning were very unsuccessful, could not understand and integrate into the group, felt great resistance, but did not leave, precisely those people achieve great success later.

Therefore, every day it is necessary to take care of improving and enhancing your environment, in order to receive optimal influence from it, which will help you become even more devoted to the friends, and through the friends, to the Creator.²
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

Evolution Of Desires, Part 4

Society Dictates Desires

Question: Our desires are controlled by society. Why is it set up this way?

Answer: Our desires are defined by the desires of the society because we exist in interaction with it, in constant interconnection with all the desires within the society: personal, private, global, no matter what. Therefore, my desire is defined by the society surrounding me.

Question: Does it mean that the society controls our desires?

Answer: It does not merely control them, it defines them! It points me: this one—yes, this one— no, to what degree, etc. Everything depends on the environment in which I exist.

A desire at the human level can change its location and fall under various social influences. According to this, it will also change the desires.
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From KabTV’s “Basics of Kabbalah” 12/3/18

“What Are Your Reasons For Supporting Israel?” (Quora)

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What are your reasons for supporting Israel?“

I support Israel for a single reason: that Israel becomes a source of the world’s connection. Through the special connection that Israel has the potential to bring—a connection above people’s innate divisive drives (“Love covers all transgressions” [Proverbs 10:12])—the world can elevate itself to another level of existence, both corporeally and spiritually:

Corporeally, this means that all human conflicts and natural disasters would cease. We would feel a life filled with happiness and confidence as a result of the balance with nature that such connection would yield.
Spiritually, it means we would rise to a new dimension of eternity and perfection. This is due to awakening the force of connection and love dwelling in nature to reveal in our newly-created connections.

Therefore, I support Israel for this sole reason.

Today, it is very sad for me to see the contrary, how Israel is the source of all of the world’s problems (“No calamity comes to the world but for Israel” [Yevamot 63]). That is, the more that the people of Israel fail to apply efforts in the direction of connection—connection above our differences for the sake of positive global connection—the more the world sinks deeper into division and conflict. It is as Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) writes in item 69 of his “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” that “they cause poverty, ruin, robbery, killing and destruction in the whole world.” Why? It is because the people of Israel possess the method for the correction of human nature, i.e. correction of the egoistic, self-centered drive to benefit at the expense of others, which is growing rampant in our era. The more the ego inflates without an effective form of regulation—the connection above differences that the people of Israel have a method and a role to realize—the more problems and crises abound in the world.

Moreover, the more the nations of the world feel problems in their lives, the more they feel hatred toward Israel. This is because they subconsciously feel that the people of Israel are the source of their problems and are holding something significant away from them. Anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism thus rise due to the people of Israel’s failure to implement the role required of them in the world.

Therefore, the people of Israel need only come to the realization that they hold their own as well as humanity’s life and well-being in their hands. By starting to tilt the scales toward connection, they will bring harmony to themselves and to the world, whereas by continuing to tilt the scales toward division through their indifference and rejection of their role, they will continue inviting problems to the world and hatred to themselves.

It is thus my hope that the people of Israel will acknowledge their role and start making efforts to connect sooner rather than later, because if things keep developing as they currently do, then not only will the elimination of the State of Israel become a reality, but we will experience wars and major suffering on a global scale the likes that we have never seen before.

Street Naming After The Rabash

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 8/16/19

Today, on Friday, August 16, 2019, the street upon which the central building of the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education and Research Institute is located—called in Israel, Kabbalah L’Am –Bnei Baruch Association—will have its name changed to “Rabash Street” in commemoration of the great Kabbalist Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (the Rabash)—a decision made by the Municipality of Petah Tikva, headed by Rami Greenberg.

Rabash was a special Kabbalist who acted for the unity of all the people of Israel: religious and secular, all races and factions as one. He was very concerned that the true Torah of Israel—unity of the people—would reach the ears of all people and increase unity in society: a power capable of healing all of the world’s problems.

As a result of Rabash’s many years of devoted work, a group became established—men, women and children—who wanted to realize the vision of Kabbalist Yehuda Leib HaLevi Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), as he specified in The Writings of the Last Generation: a vision of a corrected and unified human society. This group became known as “Bnei Baruch” (i.e. “the sons of Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag [the Rabash]”). We, as members of this group, understand that it is a long path, as Rabash himself described in his first article, that “although we have not yet achieved this goal, we have the desire to achieve it. And this, too, should be appreciated by us, for even though we are at the beginning of the way, we do hope to achieve the exalted goal.” (Rabash, “The Purpose of Society,” 1984.)

We—the members of Bnei Baruch, the students of the method of connection and the wisdom of Kabbalah that Rabash received from his teacher and father, Baal HaSulam, and passed down to us—have a strong will and determination to continue the path of our teacher. We are currently in a lab-like environment, learning upon ourselves how tocreate a new unified society and increasing our understanding of what that means, because we are still unworthy of being such a society.
Rabash is our teacher, the source and fountain from which we have received our entire method. Therefore, we are very moved and delighted that the residents and municipal authorities of Petah Tikva recognize us as a positive force and valuable addition to the city, deciding to change the name of the street where our world center is located, to the name of our teacher, Rabash.

We will endeavor to give back to the city’s residents, and to all who know our teacher and what he stood for, our maximal efforts to realize our teachers’ vision of a new unified society. I very much hope that we will reach a state where Rabash’s great name will be promoted in the world, as the one who opened the path of Torah, the method of correction, and that his method will bring about the unification of human society in Israel and around the world.

“Do You Support The Existence Of Israel? Why?” (Quora)

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Do you support the existence of Israel? Why?“

I support the existence of Israel as a source of the world’s connection. Through the special connection that Israel has the potential to bring—a connection above people’s innate divisive drives (“Love covers all transgressions” [Proverbs 10:12])—the world can elevate itself to another level of existence, both corporeally and spiritually:

Corporeally, this means that all human conflicts and natural disasters would cease. We would feel a life filled with happiness and confidence as a result of the balance with nature that such connection would yield.
Spiritually, it means we would rise to a new dimension of eternity and perfection. This is due to awakening the force of connection and love dwelling in nature to reveal in our newly-created connections.
Therefore, yes, I do support such a nation’s existence.

Today, it is very sad for me to see the contrary, how Israel is the source of all of the world’s problems (“No calamity comes to the world but for Israel” [Yevamot 63]). That is, the more that the people of Israel fail to apply efforts in the direction of connection—connection above our differences for the sake of positive global connection—the more the world sinks deeper into division and conflict. It is as Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) writes in item 69 of his “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” that “they cause poverty, ruin, robbery, killing and destruction in the whole world.” Why? It is because the people of Israel possess the method for the correction of human nature, i.e. correction of the egoistic, self-centered drive to benefit at the expense of others, which is growing rampant in our era. The more the ego inflates without an effective form of regulation—the connection above differences that the people of Israel have a method and a role to realize—the more problems and crises abound in the world.

Moreover, the more the nations of the world feel problems in their lives, the more they feel hatred toward Israel. This is because they subconsciously feel that the people of Israel are the source of their problems and are holding something significant away from them. Anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism thus rise due to the people of Israel’s failure to implement the role required of them in the world.

Therefore, the people of Israel need only come to the realization that they hold their own as well as humanity’s life and well-being in their hands. By starting to tilt the scales toward connection, they will bring harmony to themselves and to the world, whereas by continuing to tilt the scales toward division through their indifference and rejection of their role, they will continue inviting problems to the world and hatred to themselves.

It is thus my hope that the people of Israel will acknowledge their role and start making efforts to connect sooner rather than later, because if things keep developing as they currently do, then we will experience wars and major suffering on a whole new level of egoistic relations the likes that we have never seen before.

Evolution Of Desires, Part 3

Doubly Devastated

Remark: In our desires, filling is felt only for a short time, and then disappears. This is most problematic.

My Comment: The fulfillment does not disappear, but is simply suppressed by other desires because they change in us all the time.

Since we have a huge number of desires, they are in a certain relationship with each other, and their constant correlation does not give us rest.

Therefore, we forget the past and are already thinking about the future. The impression disappears. Although we wish to return to it, we are no longer able to.

Question: That is, the filling is not static?

Answer: No! Filling exists in desire. Desires change and always overflow from one to another in all kinds of combinations. After all, a person has a huge number of desires. Therefore, we constantly feel changes in ourselves.

Question: Why, when the filling disappears, do we feel doubly empty?

Answer: If there were no filling, we would feel ourselves in its absence. Since the filling has already been and is gone, then we feel the absence of filling and the absence of this place as filling, meaning doubly empty.

Suppose if now I am at level zero, feeling a certain lack of it, emptiness, and then I am given filling, say, two million, and then this filling disappears, then I feel the lack of filling for two million plus what I had, meaning what I have lost. I do not just feel zero, but I feel “minus two million.”
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From KabTV’s “Basics of Kabbalah,” 12/3/18

“Tu B’Av, Building Love Above Hatred” (The Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “Tu B’Av, building love above hatred”

“There were no good days for Israel like Tu b’Av, a day when the tribes were permitted to mingle with each other and where each and every person bestowed their goodness upon their fellow man.” (Tiferet Shlomo)”

Tu B’Av is a special holiday that symbolizes love, relationships built above hatred, above the destruction of the Temple, which crumbled because of hatred between us. We correct the hatred when we rise above it and thus attain the great love, “And you shall love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).

It is written in the Mishnah that Tu B’Av is the greatest day when, according to tradition, the young women of Jerusalem would go out dressed in white to the orchards and vineyards to sing. The young men would join them to choose their bride. These are the images characterizing the holiday of Tu B’Av.

However, it is not the earthy love of young men and women in the vineyards that we speak of, but a totally different kind of love: one built atop the egoism (self-interest instead of concern for others’ wellbeing) that destroyed the First and Second Temples during the period between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av, which we have just finished commemorating. These dark days remind the Jewish people about the destruction of the two Temples, as well as other problems and afflictions that we have undergone. And just days later, when all is gone and corrected, a new period begins.

The festival of Tu B’Av symbolizes the time in which we build a new Temple, one in our hearts, in the positive connection between hearts. We look for a spiritual partner to help us accomplish this, and the spiritual partner for both men and women is the higher force of love and bestowal, which we call “the Creator.” We connect with Him and together receive absolute fulfillment, pleasure and enlightenment—the revelation of the real world—existing in that sublime and whole reality and not only in a tiny fragment of reality that we know as our world. The whole process of the Tu B’Av unification symbolizes our ultimate correction, the rebuilding of the Temple, and our transition from hatred to love.

What Is Love?

True love, not on the corporeal level as we usually think of it, is a special feeling of connection between us which elevates us to the heights of eternity, wholeness, and an infinite expansion of our feelings and thoughts. We begin to sense that we exist eternally, totally fulfilled, when we relate to each other with this love. Imagine the feeling when everyone loves you; everyone relates to you as if you were their own little child. We need to give each one of us this kind of feeling.

However, there is one special condition required to achieve true love. True love unfolds only by connecting two opposing forces, two contradictory attributes, into one; the new force—a new consciousness, understanding and feeling—develops atop this connection, elevating us to the higher level of the perfect, spiritual reality.

This is why Tu B’Av (the 15th of Av), the day of love, happens right after Tisha B’Av (the 9th of Av), the day of destruction. Only after the enormous, horrible crisis where we reveal the evil, the hatred between us, are we able to correct ourselves and reach true love. Then a new period begins. But in order to attain true love, we must first recognize that our state is completely opposite to it.

How to Build the Third Temple

It may not be obvious to us, but the entirety of nature works through contrasts. Evolution displays a dynamic interplay of two opposite forces. These forces manifest as plus and minus, hot and cold, ebb and flow, or male and female, they create deeper levels of conflict and self-interest, and thereafter, greater levels of reciprocity and connection. This is why the indispensable first step is to reveal a state of fragmentation—humanity’s current state—and then collect all the pieces and rebuild a perfect whole. This is what we need to reconstruct together through our relations of mutual concern and reciprocity.

It says in The Book of Psalms that the Third Temple will be called “a house of prayer for all nations.” Symbolically, Tu B’Av indicates that this is a holiday of love for the whole world. It’s as if the 15th of Av is a kind of Valentine’s Day for humanity.

What else could we mean by building the Third Temple? It speaks of a state in which we connect into one single system called Adam (human), which stems from the Hebrew root “Domeh” (“similar”), as in “similar to the upper one” (“Domeh le Elyon”). When this system is connected by the positive force, when humanity is connected positively, the state will be called the Third Temple. The Creator will be revealed in the system of positive human connection as the upper force of the world. Thus, we will live in a feeling of eternity and wholeness, in a totally different world, and this is what we call “the Third Temple.” It will be the real day of love that is written about in the words, “love will cover all our transgressions,” and “love your friend as yourself,” which means that this is humanity’s ultimate state.

This is what Tu B’Av truly symbolizes, love built specifically above the hatred among us that we discover in every moment of our lives. Let us hasten in our identification of the bad so that we can start building mutual love and understanding above it and spread this warm blanket of love over the whole world.

“The Doors Of Attainment Were Locked And Bolted” And The Ari Opened Them For Us

We are honored to have such a teacher, Baal HaSulam, who is the next incarnation of the soul of the great Ari. It is said about the Ari that he was Messiah ben Joseph, that is, he connected all the previous Kabbalah with the current state of the end of correction for us, with the generation of the era of the Messiah. Therefore, as soon as the Kabbalah of the Ari was revealed, Kabbalists abandoned all other Kabbalistic methods and adopted his methodology.

This was not due to the Ari’s methodology being more understandable or that he ascended in his attainment above others, but because of the connection of his soul with the end of correction. The soul of the Ari is directly connected with the end of correction, and therefore, through him and his teaching, we can also establish a connection with the state of the final correction and correctly realize ourselves, all together, and each of us individually.

Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to Panim Meirot uMasbirot”:

‘’You have not a generation without such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Indeed, that Godly man, our Rav Isaac Luria, troubled and provided us the fullest measure. He did wondrously more than his predecessors, and if I had a tongue that praises, I would praise that day when his wisdom appeared almost as the day when the Torah was given to Israel.”

Indeed, we are unable to appreciate the height of the Ari, like a baby cannot appreciate the actions of adults. Everything we have today came from the Ari, and through his soul, we receive all the upper influence and correction. Baal HaSulam and Rabash come after the Ari in this chain.

The Ari never wrote a book himself. His books were written by his disciples. Some of the records were hidden in his grave and some were secretly kept in some kind of chest, and this is how they reached our time. Of course, the upper force and the higher purpose acted throughout. Otherwise, how is it possible that in some merchant like the Ari traveling between Egypt, Israel, and Damascus, engaging in trade, suddenly the upper aspiration awakened and forced him to settle in Israel and devote himself to Kabbalah.

All the information about the Ari is very inaccurate: there are two synagogues in Safed named after him and it is not clear to which he belonged. Everything is very vague as if it were not about a human being. There is no information about his family, wife, children, whether he had descendants. Nothing is clear. Of course, no one has freedom of choice and everything that happened to the Ari was dictated from above by the Creator.

Before the Ari, only individual, chosen people were engaged in Kabbalah. After him, however, Kabbalah came out of concealment. The life of the Ari in Safed was not easy because of the many opponents to Kabbalah. He began to reveal Kabbalah and organize groups. It helped him that Ramak, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, who had great authority in Safed, stood up for him and realized that the methodology of the Ari came from true, deep attainment.

The Ari is unique because he opened the wisdom of Kabbalah for us in a completely new way. He introduced such concepts as ten Sefirot, direct and reflected light, Malchut, the screen (Masach), and precisely defined the structure of the worlds and the Partzufim. All this is described in the book The Tree of Life written by Chaim Vital from the words of his teacher.

Chaim Vital studied with the Ari for only a year and a half until his teacher’s death. During this year and a half, he managed to gain knowledge that was enough for twenty books. It took another three generations to collect and print these books. It is obvious that some upper, nonhuman force was behind all this.

After the Ari, Kabbalah was revealed because he brought a special inner, spiritual force to the world. Besides, his teaching began to spread little by little. It doesn’t matter that he taught only in a small city, in Safed; this spiritual force, which he brought closer to our world through his soul, was felt all over the world.

Thanks to this, a Kabbalist such as Baal Shem Tov later appeared in Russia, who continued the work of the Ari and began to talk about the same concepts: worlds, Sefirot, Partzufim. In Hasidism, it is customary to call them the teachings of Baal Shem Tov, but in fact, the basis was laid by the teachings of the Ari.

Baal HaSulam wrote that he was the reincarnation of the soul of the Ari, that is, that he had a direct connection with him and was able to directly attain everything attained by the Ari. The next reincarnation of the soul is like inheriting the entire spiritual attainment of the father, passing it to the son.

Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to Panim Meirot uMasbirot”: “There are not enough words to measure his holy work in our favor. The doors of attainment were locked and bolted, and he came and opened them for us.”

Restriction, screen, reflected light—the Ari describes not only how the light spreads from above downward, but the specific development of the desire, its stages of coarsening, the connection of this process with the force of the screen. Therefore, he belongs to the generation of correction and is considered to be Messiah ben Joseph, after which begins the correction of Malchut itself, the era of Messiah ben David.

Perhaps Kabbalists reached the same heights even before the Ari, but they did not receive a clear understanding in the form of a connection of lights, Kelim, and screens. Their attainment came as a revelation from above and not from within, from their own Kelim, which would allow them to build the world by their own attainment. Therefore, after the Ari and onward, everyone can study Kabbalah and gradually attain what he revealed.

Without an explanation of how the desire works with the screen and the reflected light, it is impossible to implement correction. Therefore, the Kabbalists before the Ari made only preparations for correction, and the Ari revealed the work from below upward and opened the method of correction—practical Kabbalah—to us.¹

The day of a Kabbalist’s departure is the day of his elevation. Therefore, on this day, we want to be connected with the Ari, with his soul and his method, in a special way, even more than before, and commemorate the day of his memory. This, in fact, is a joyful day because his soul has fulfilled itself and rose to a higher degree. Therefore, Kabbalists never mourn the departed.²
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/4/19, Memorial Day of ARI

What Loneliness Is Given For?

Question from Facebook: Why is loneliness given to us and how do we correct it?

Answer: Loneliness is given to you for you to feel that everything is in your hands, nobody pressures you, you are in charge of your condition, and you can do everything.

Start to use your loneliness correctly and you will see how good it is because in reality this state is given to you by the Creator so that you can turn to Him.
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From KabTV’s “Answers to the questions from the Facebook,” 3/10/19

Shield And Sword: Work On Desires

Question: Are the shield and sword metaphors for the right and left lines? In that case, what is bestowal and what is receiving?

Answer: The shield is basically the restriction of working with your desires. The sword is when you turn these egoistic desires into altruistic ones, strike your enemies with it. That is, you defeat them, conquer them, so that instead of working for receiving, they work for bestowal.

Question: Does the ten also get a shield and sword?

Answer: Of course. It means that before getting them, people should gather in the ten. Before that, nothing is given to anyone separately.

Kabbalah speaks not about one person, but about ten, which comes together as one organism. Otherwise, they will not be able to annul themselves to each other and somehow start becoming like the Creator.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian, 4/7/19

“Does The State Of Israel Have A Right To Exist? Why Or Why Not?” (Quora)

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Does the State of Israel have a right to exist? Why or why not?“

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, there is a program that runs through nature’s and humanity’s development, which guides us all to a state of complete unification, eternity and perfection at the end of our development. In this process, the State of Israel has been given a right and ability to exist, however on a very specific condition: that the people of Israel fulfill a key role in the process.

What is the role of the people of Israel? It is to pioneer a method of unifying above division among each other—i.e. to reach what is described as “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) and “love covers all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12)—in order to become a conduit for unity to expand worldwide—i.e. to be “a light unto the nations” (Isaiah 42:6).

According to our role, to bring unity to the world, we have been doing the opposite until today. We are unaware of the duty we have toward the world, and due to the lack of awareness and efforts to unite, we experience increasing division among each other. As a result, we become a source of the world’s problems, conflicts and separation.

Therefore, if the people of Israel fail to develop from this moment onward in a unifying direction, then the period of the existence of the State of Israel will come to an end. If the people of Israel in the State of Israel, in the land that we have been given, fail to motion toward serving the world with a positive example of unification, and continue developing in the opposite direction, then the State of Israel will have no right to exist. Then, as has taken place before in history, the Jewish people would become pressured to exit this land and disperse around the world. Moreover, according to the exponentially-growing hatred toward the Jewish people and the methodical delegitimization of the State of Israel unfolding from one day to the next, I think that the decision to eliminate the State of Israel could very well happen soon.

Evolution Of Desires, Part 2

Historical Periods and the Development of Desires.

Question: From a historical point of view, we can break down the evolution of human desires according to historical periods. Supposedly from 35,000 BC to 4,000 BC, the inanimate level of human desires developed. These are basic desires like food, sex, family.

Then, 4,000 years ago, starting with the growing egoism in Babylon and approximately until the 5th century, the development of the vegetative level of desires, mainly desires for wealth took place.

From the 5th to the 15th century, merely a thousand years, the desire of the animate level developed—for power, and from the 15th to the 20th century, there was a development of the human level of desires—for knowledge.

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by the development of both individualism in people and of spiritual desires. That is, people already want to attain their root.

How are all these desires divided into inanimate, vegetative, and animate within one person?

Answer: It depends on the nature of a person, on what level of egoism prevails in him or her. After all, all these desires are of various egoistic levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate, human. Depending on the power of egoism in each of these components, a person is more inclined to either animate satiation or vegetative, inanimate, or human fillings.

Question: We see throughout history how our desires are constantly growing. They grow both in a person and in all of humanity. What is the reason?

Answer: This is due to the fact that we must achieve the maximum quantity and quality of desires in their widest variety. We must evaluate, weigh, find out their purposefulness in us, how it works, why, what for.

In order to be not just executors of these desires but to be able to control them, to take possession of these desires, to rule over ourselves, to reach a level higher than ourselves, so that by controlling our desires we would achieve maximum freedom from them and the ability to control them according to some kind of higher, reasonable decision.
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From KabTV’s “Basics of Kabbalah” 12/3/18

“Why Can’t Palestine Recognize Israel?” (Quora)

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why can’t Palestine recognise Israel?“

The people of Israel alone determine the attitude that the nations of the world have toward them. The nations of the world have no free choice in how they perceive Israel. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Israel are people with free choice, because it was the people of Israel who were granted the ability to rise above the egoistic human nature—the desire to enjoy at the expense of others—that runs on autopilot within each and every person. If the people of Israel make the choice to rise above the divisive egoistic drives and unite, then an abundance of goodness will flow out to the world through them. Likewise, if the people of Israel fail in making that choice, letting egoism continue to grow unabated, then no agreements will help them: it will be bad for them and for the world.

Free choice is the choice to connect among each other and by doing so, reveal the upper force—the force of connection and love—here in this world. If we fail to make that choice, then the negative side of the force of connection and love—division and hatred due to egoistic desires growing without any effective regulation—will ripple out to all humanity in depth and width. This is the root of any positive or negative attitude toward Israel from the nations of the world.

Today, since the people of Israel are not making any effort to realize their unifying role in the world, then anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli sentiment—including denial of the State of Israel—grows in order to pressure the people of Israel to fulfill their duty in the world.

Evolution Of Desires, Part 1

Four Levels Of Desires

Question: The entire history of humanity is a process of development of human desires. Baal HaSulam writes in his articles that both in nature and within a person there are four levels of desires: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human. Therefore, we see these four levels outside of us.

What are these desires and how many of them are there, in quality and in quantity?

Answer: In principle, the desire to fill oneself is common to all levels of nature. What to be filled with depends on the deficiency the desire feels and on what will give it the feeling of fulfillment and pleasure.

If this desire is at the inanimate level, then it wants to realize itself as it is. At the same time, it is not able to add or subtract anything from its desire but only acts in the same way it exists. This desire is called inanimate. It cannot develop, but wants to fulfill whatever it feels it is lacking, that is, to get closer to something, to distance itself from something. It works in this form.

Then the desire develops from the inanimate level to the vegetative one.

In the vegetative level, there are already changes in the desire itself. It grows, changes its form, creates all kinds of auxiliary desires and tools for its own realization. Therefore, it develops lengthwise, in breadth, grows, moves toward the sun, air, and water. It acquires the ability to control its initial desire in order to realize itself. This desire is called vegetative.

However, it cannot move from its place; like a plant, it grows in the same place it was planted. It can spread from there, but its initial root remains where it was planted by the upper force, something or someone external. It continues to develop from this state.

Yet, this type of desire can reproduce, influence the environment, and be influenced by the environment. It is like plants that interact with the four states of nature: winter, spring, summer, and autumn. The inanimate desire, however, does not have this ability.

The vegetative desire differs from the inanimate by the fact that it spreads, but so far, it remains at the same place it exists.

The next desire is the animate. It already can move from place to place, meaning that it has freedom of movement. Naturally, its reproduction is much more complicated and consists not of the same states as the states of a plant but requires connection with others.

In the animate desire there are male and female individuals that move, build a family between them, actively search for sustenance, and so on. There is already a fight for a place, for a species, and for a female here. That is, this desire has a whole set of tools for realizing itself in an optimal way.

The next level of desire is the human who contains all the previous desires. In addition, he has freewill in their implementation, and he can move, combine, move away, approach, and change his goal for what and how he can develop.

The human is not limited in his desires and their fulfillment, everything depends only on him. Therefore, his desires: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, give him complete freedom. He is the leader, he is the king of nature.
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From KabTV’s “Basics of Kabbalah” 12/3/18

New Life #1 – Toward A New World

New Life #1 – Toward a New World
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi

Humanity is being born into a new dimension in which society will be integrated and all levels of existence will get along. We are in transition, just like a fetus before birth. This crisis is unpleasant and we feel mutual pressure, just as with labor pains. Human desires have grown and brought us to this dead end where we cannot get along in the family or at work. Everything has become a misunderstanding and is in a state of disorder while, at the same time, we are discovering the inevitable interconnectedness and interdependence of all life on earth. The only solution is what is called “Shalom Bavit” or domestic peace that occurs when everyone, including all peoples and nations, search for mutual wholeness.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1 – Toward a New World,” 10/15/12

Audio: Play Now | Download

“How A Trip To The Moon Makes Everything Clear” (Thrive Global)

Thrive Global published my new article: “How A Trip To The Moon Makes Everything Clear”

To see ourselves realistically means to see ourselves as parts of a globally interdependent system. It means to see an ideal and holistic picture of mutually influential relationships.

I like listening to astronauts describe their feelings after looking at the Earth from space. What’s interesting is that astronauts are generally quite mechanical, not openly displaying their emotions. But when they travel into space and see the planet as one small nest full of little chicks, then these generally unemotional people express very deep and touching feelings, as they paint a vivid picture of the integral system we share.

“It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.” — Neil Armstrong

“The biggest joy was on the way home. in my cockpit window every two minutes — the Earth, the Moon, the Sun, and a whole 360-degree panorama of the heavens. And that was a powerful, overwhelming experience. And suddenly I realized that the molecules of my body, and the molecules of the spacecraft, the molecules in the body of my partners, were prototyped and manufactured in some ancient generation of stars. And that was an overwhelming sense of oneness, of connectedness. It wasn’t them and us, it was — that’s me, that’s all of it, it’s one thing. And it was accompanied by an ecstasy, a sense of ‘oh my god, wow, yes,’ an insight, an epiphany.”– Edgar Mitchell — In the Shadow of the Moon

Therefore, to see myself realistically means to try and see the planet as one nest that everyone shares as chicks. I then need to be concerned that the nest won’t become unstable or break.

It’s a completely different sensation to the one where we feel “grounded” here on Earth. It’s a different dimension, because you feel it as a place detached, dependent on air. Your nest doesn’t rest on any tree. It’s simply in space. Beyond that globe and its atmospheric layer… nothing.

Humanity needs to grow up and see its true integral form. How much longer can we keep letting ourselves behave like wild children, flexing our pride and power muscles at each other? It’s the worst and most irresponsible form of childishness.

“I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of, let’s say 100,000 miles, their outlook would be fundamentally changed. The all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument suddenly silenced.” — Michael Collins, Apollo 11

“How Could Modern America Become Anti-Semitic?” (Quora)

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How could modern America become anti-Semitic? “

It is becoming anti-Semitic in many ways, not the least of which is through the education system. Colleges are notorious for fomenting hatred against the Jews.

I spoke about it many years ago, that the next Holocaust would be in America because it is the most developed, modern and multicultural country in our times. As America was still becoming established, it endured its labor pains through struggles with African Americans and Latin Americans. However, when America more or less became established, then anti-Semitism started appearing more and more.

When I visited America 20 years ago, I spoke with American Jews, explaining how anti-Semitism was going to ignite in the US. They all exploded in laughter when I said that. Today, the same American Jews I spoke to clearly see and agree that anti-Semitism is an intensifying problem in America. However, today I’m saying something even worse, that the next Holocaust will be in America. They still don’t understand that and say, “in the meantime, it’s still okay.” That’s also what the Jews in Germany said as they were being escorted to the trains to Auschwitz.

I have extensively spoken and written about the reason for anti-Semitism, which is that the Jewish people need to perform a special role in humanity—to unite (“love your friend as yourself”) and be a conduit for unity to spread to humanity (to be a “light unto nations”)—and anti-Semitism appears as a force to pressure the Jews to perform their role if they make no moves in that direction by themselves. This is the role that the Jews acquired when they gathered from all parts of Babylon some 4,000 years ago, under the guidance of Abraham, who led them to attain spiritual unity, where from unity among themselves they reached unity with the upper spiritual force.

The Jews lost connection to their spiritual unity some 2,000 years ago as they entered the period of exile. In our time, there is a renewed sense of urgency for unity to reawaken in humanity. As such, all fingers point at the Jews, albeit subconsciously, for them to implement the method of connection that they received in Abraham’s time. This is the reason for the exponential rise of anti-Semitism in our time, and especially in today’s most developed country, America. As myriad problems hit people around the world due to a lack of social cohesion, the need for unity above divisions becomes more and more prominent, and the more people feel pain in their lives, the more they subconsciously feel that Jews are behind that pain—for failing to come forward with the method of unification of all peoples.

The Structure Of The Universe, Part 8

Afterword

Question: Can you summarize the material covered for those who are hearing it for the first time.

Answer: Firstly, I have often explained the stages of the development of the direct light. Other descriptions are worth seeing too. I strongly advise doing so because each time the material is expressed somewhat differently.

Secondly, people still need to get acquainted with the terms in Hebrew since Kabbalah is described in Hebrew and Aramaic. But for now, at least Hebrew is enough.

It is necessary to process this topic well because it is the main one. All worlds and everything that happens next are based on the four stages of direct light. Why four? Because Keter (the zero stage) bestows, and all other four stages (Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, Malchut or 1, 2, 3, 4) are received from Keter. You need to know that.

Next we go through how these five stages are reflected in the development of matter, in our human development, in evolution. They determine absolutely everything that is in a small microscopic particle of nature or in all of nature in general, including society, family, and each person. Whatever we take, we can always say: There are five stages in the development of desire, and therefore, we know how something happens or even how something will happen.

Question: Is the interaction of the desire to receive and to give creation and the Creator is imprinted as a stencil on the relationship between people?

Answer: It is imprinted on all forms of matter and its development. Any interaction includes all five stages.
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From the TV program “Basics of Kabbalah,” 11/27/18

“2019: The Year Anti-Semitism Became As Routine as Breakfast” (The Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “2019: The Year Anti-Semitism Became as Routine as Breakfast”

Regular reports of anti-Semitic crimes and threats have converged into a foreboding trend characteristic of our times. Whether it heads toward a destructive climax akin to the Holocaust, or a positive shift toward a much better situation for both Jews and the nations of the world, is a question solely of how the Jewish people respond to the rising hatred against them.

Historically, anti-Semitism is a phenomenon that has undergone periods of latency, and then quickly erupts into waves of violence and fear. Over the last few years, we have witnessed a modern surge of anti-Semitism, and today it has become as routine as breakfast. Anti-Semitic crimes and threats have become happenstance events that often don’t even merit news headlines anymore.

As with any problem, what is the point of a constant array of reports about the problem if it is not accompanied with a solution? Since I have found both the root cause of anti-Semitism and its solution in the wisdom of Kabbalah that I’ve been studying for the past 40 years, I feel it as part of my duty to bring its unique explanation to the world so that both Jews and non-Jews can relate to the phenomenon with understanding and awareness, learning exactly what buttons to press in order to reach a solution to anti-Semitism. Also, the solution to anti-Semitism is important not only for Jews, but for all people, as it directly goes hand-in-hand with a much better, happier and comfortable life for everyone.

But before discussing the solution, here is some recent data that my students gathered about the phenomenon in order to show its global-scale proportions:

• In England, an all-time record was once again broken, and in the first half of 2019, 900 anti-Semitic incidents were reported.
• In Canada, the numbers are similar: Only in 2018, 2,000 anti-Semitic events were recorded, and earlier this year in July the Canadian court banned the marking of Judea and Samaria wine as “Made in Israel.”
• Two CNN broadcasters resigned after one of them issued Hitler support messages and the other compared Jews to pigs.
• In Miami a man in his sixties was shot outside the synagogue.
• Human Rights Watch head of human rights organization refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist. The head of the organization is a Jew himself.
• The Jewish and anti-Zionist movement “If Not Now” is trying to influence the younger generation of American Jewry through anti-Israel educational workshops for instructors.
• A Jewish museum in Germany published an exhibition showing the relationship between Jews and money in a negative light. The Jewish community failed to close the anti-Semitic exhibition, and in light of the exhibition’s success, it will be extended.
• The UN condemned Israel for violating women’s rights. Among the voters for the condemnation were China, Russia and Iran.
• The question then becomes, what is the ultimate cause and message embedded within such growing anti-Semitic sentiment?

I speak and write a lot about the role of the Jewish people, which is to unite (“love your neighbor as yourself” [Leviticus 19:18]) and pass unity to the world (to be a “light unto the nations” [Isaiah 42:6]). It is not coincidental that the daily unfolding of anti-Semitic events runs parallel with social division and hatred penetrating developed human societies one day to the next. The more the world suffers from increasing division, the more there is instinctive blame on the Jews for failing to perform their role. That is the root cause of anti-Semitism. I communicate this message regularly upon the foundation of regular bursts of anti-Semitism in order to point the way to the solution: a method of uniting the Jewish people in order for such unity to spread to humanity at large, bridging its growing divisions.

Likewise, since anti-Semitism is an outcome of the nations of the world subconsciously feeling that the Jewish people are failing to perform their role, many non-Jews throughout history have voiced their demand upon the Jews in a way that directly points out the need for the Jewish people to become a beacon for unity to spread to the world.

One example is Vasily Shulgin. Shulgin, a native of Ukraine, was a senior member of the Duma, an elected semi-representative Assembly in Tsarist Russia, before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Shulgin proudly declared himself to be anti-Semitic, and in his 1929 book, What We Don’t Like in Them, he analyzed dozens of articles of his hostile perception of the Jews. Shulgin complained that Jews in the 20th century became smart, effective and energetic in exploiting other people’s ideas. But he protests that “this is not an occupation for ‘teachers and prophets,’ not the role of ‘guides of the blind,’ not the role of ‘carriers of the lame.’”[1]

Moreover, if there seems to be a contradiction between hatred of Jews and the desire to see them as a people destined to lead the blind, a metaphor Shulgin uses to refer to humanity, Shulgin reiterates this demand in his book in various ways. If the Jews lead humanity to its destination, then “let them [the Jews] … rise to the height to which they apparently climbed [in antiquity] … and immediately, all nations will rush to their feet … ‘Give us Jewish rule, wise, benevolent, leading us to the Good.’ And every day we will offer for them, for the Jews, the prayers: ‘Bless our guides and our teachers, who lead us to the recognition of Your goodness.[2]’”

It is a wonder that great anti-Semitic ideologues are sensitive to the potential of the Jews, and develop a dual attitude toward Jews: on one hand, hatred for the Jews’ current form in the world, and on the other, recognition of the Jews’ greatness. However, it is greatness in potential. We Jews need to discover for ourselves what it is that makes us great, to realize our potential to unite and pass unity to the world by implementing a method of connection that we once received, and which we are now expected to reawaken and innovate in order to suit our modern times. In tandem with the anti-Semitism growing increasingly fierce every day, we must empower our unity for the sake of the world’s unity. If we do so, then we’ll see an end to anti-Semitism, and not only will it end, but it will invert: all those haters of Jews will become lovers of Jews, and all those thoughts and efforts against the Jews will become thoughts and efforts in support of a people that brings unity, peace, love and happiness to the world through their efforts to unite.

[1] Shulgin, Vasily Vitalyevich, What we don’t like about them … [trans. Michael Brushtein & Chaim Ratz] (St. Petersburg Russia, Horse, 1992), 209.

[2] Shulgin, What we don’t like about them …, 219.