Why We Need To Understand The Greatness And Uniqueness Of Baal HaSulam

Today is a special day, the Yahrzeit, the day commemorating the death of Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam.  

Who is Baal HaSulam? He is the soul that connects us to the Creator. He was a person who opened all the gates of the wisdom of Kabbalah to the last generation we’re now in.

Without Baal HaSulam’s teaching, we would be unable to be awarded with what we have already received. Moreover, without Baal HaSulam’s teaching, we would be unable to progress to what is ahead of us, both in terms of the knowledge and the method of Kabbalah, and also its stages of attainment.

No matter what will happen as we head forth, we will reach a need for the Creator. However, such a need will have to pass through this great soul.

“A person has the choice of going to a place where there are righteous. One can accept their authority, and then he will receive all the powers that he lacks by the nature of his own qualities. He will receive it from the righteous. This is the benefit in ‘planted them in each generation,’ so that each generation would have someone to turn to, adhere to, and from whom to receive the strength required to rise to the degree of a righteous.”

– Baal Hasulam. Shamati article 99. “He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous.”

One of the reasons why the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “the wisdom of Kabbalah (reception)” is because it passes through each generation, and every generation needs a teacher, a Kabbalist, one with spiritual attainment, in the world. That is a necessity in the wisdom of Kabbalah. Only extremely rare and unique individuals can reach attainment of the Creator by receiving special treatment from above. As such, we need to always be connected to great sages who are in spiritual attainment, so that in each generation, we can make spiritual progress.

Since the wisdom of Kabbalah discusses phenomena that a person can only attain through the teacher, then he learns sources, through the teacher, which pass through all generations. The key to the student’s attainment of what passes through his teacher is subjugation, through which the small can receive from the great. Accordingly, there are degrees of the student’s subjugation to the teacher.

Therefore, we need to understand how great and unique Baal HaSulam was, and how much we need to subjugate to what he left us, his writings, with the hope that to the extent of such subjugation, we will be able to connect to his spirit, through which we can receive the upper force from the Creator.
Lesson on the Topic “Baal HaSulam Memorial Day” on October 10, 2019.

New Life # 281 – The Source Of Emotions And Their Role

New Life # 281 – The Source of Emotions and Their Role
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Emotions exist in order to lead us to the most internal source of all life where matter disappears. Emotions are the desire to enjoy pleasure, expressed through bodily sensations and feelings. The mind is enslaved to the emotions and directs a person toward what feels good. The desire to receive pleasure is in constant movement, growth, and change and can therefore never be fulfilled. This leads a person to despair at which point he begins to ask himself questions about the meaning of life. He starts to disagree with the process of life and criticizes what is truly good. He develops new desires as a result of his growing awareness in both mind and body. He discovers a way to experience an absolute and full sense of goodness by leaving the body completely and going directly to the unlimited source of all life and fulfillment, the foundation of nature.
[127855]
From Kab TV’s “New Life # 281 – The Source of Emotions and Their Role,” 1/2/14

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

“Anti-Semitism In Australia: The Deeper Cause And Solution” (Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “Anti-Semitism in Australia: The Deeper Cause and Solution”

Two anti-Semitic events involving children that hit Australia in the past week are just the tip of the iceberg showing a worldwide boost in anti-Semitic sentiment, crimes and threats.

The first was a 5-year-old who was revealed to be subject to anti-Semitic bullying at his school’s bathrooms regularly for months. It reached such scales where the boy would wet his pants in class rather than use the bathroom to avoid the ridicule. All it took was his classmates finding out that he was circumcised for the abuse to begin, which included calling him a “Jewish cockroach.”

At another school, a 12-year-old Jewish student was taken to the park by his classmates, who forced him to bend over and kiss the shoes of a Muslim boy. Of course, the act was photographed and spread on social media. In the months following, the child suffered from anti-Semitic slander, physical assaults, threats and curses. Beyond an injury to his face, which ended with a visit to the hospital, the child began to suffer from acute anxiety.

In both cases, the schools denied involvement in the incidents, and faced minor backlash from the Jewish children’s parents and Jewish organizations. Both Jewish children eventually left the schools.

Despite these events coming to light in the media, there is no guarantee of a safeguard from future such events. We are left with no reason to believe that other Jewish children won’t face similar or worse bullying.

The 2018 Anti-Semitism Report of the Kantor Center reported an unprecedented 59% increase in anti-Semitism cases in Australia compared to the previous year. The cases included phone and email harassment and threats, verbal abuse, vandalism, and anti-Semitic posters and graffiti spreading in the public sphere unimpeded.

These are just some of the cases. Most cases are not reported at all, and Jews continue encountering harassment and curses on a regular basis whether on their way to synagogues on Shabbat, whether at Jewish festivals or other Jewish events.

It’s no wonder that Jews and Israelis living in Australia are starting to feel uncomfortable, to say the least.

I have quite a few students and friends there. Debbie and Avi are part of a large Jewish and Israeli community, living in Bondi Beach in Sydney. Debbie stated that she shivered when she saw the pews of Sydney’s northwestern neighborhoods covered with swastikas and graffiti that call for killing Jews.

Aviva and her family also migrated to Australia a decade ago in her work for a small town near Byron Bay, which has a large community of Israelis. One day when Aviva was sitting in a little café, as she usually did, she was surprised to discover a swastika adorning her coffee. When she asked the waiter what this meant, he explained that Hitler was basically pursuing peace and equality, and his ideas had good intentions.

Apparently, even in a stable and tolerant democracy, in which Jews are free to maintain their beliefs and customs, there is reason to fear. Again, we find that Jews have nowhere else in the world to escape and shake off their role.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that Jews have a special role in the human puzzle: “Israel’s purpose is to unite the entire world into one family,” writes Rabbi Kook. The people of Israel are a special people who rose with the common agreement to love one another and live “as one man with one heart.”

The method of uniting the Jewish people, which can also unite humanity, has been instilled in us Jews. Therefore, it is our duty to use it, and to bring about the long-awaited union between us—to set an example for a humanity that is suffering from increasing division and hatred. But as long as we continue letting ourselves get driven into conflict with each other, failing to transcend our egos and connect with each other, anti-Semitism intensifies and gives us a hard reminder that we have a role.

The only way to stop and even reverse the rising trend of anti-Semitism around the world is if we Jews realize our unity above our growing divisions, and to spread this unifying tendency to the world.
[253625]

In The Grip Of The Integral Nature

Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: … the benefit of each and every person within his collective is evaluated not according to his own goodness, but according to his service to the public. And vice-versa, we appreciate the attribute of evil of each and every individual only according to the harm one inflicts upon the public in general, and not by one’s own individual value.

These things are crystal clear both from the perspective of the truth in them, and from the perspective of the good in them. This is because what is found in the collective is only what is found in the individual. And the benefit of the collective is the benefit of each and every individual: who harms the collective takes his share in the harm, and who benefits the collective takes his share in the benefit, since individuals are part of the whole, and the whole is not worth in anyway more than the sum of its individuals.

Here is a constant calculation, absolutely complete and very real.

I see before me a vast integral system of the entire world, not our world, but all the worlds. I feel like I am locked in this system through the rest of humanity, an enormous amount of interconnected cogwheels. And I have absolutely no freedom to turn by a few degrees in one direction or another.

After all, a cogwheel is like a sphere: I can spin here and there, in different directions, at different angles.

Yet, wherever I turn, I am connected with other cogwheels. I affect their rotation, their state, and they affect me. This is the world.

This means that nature is absolutely whole and interconnected and we have no way to do anything against it.
[252356]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 7/21/19

One Common Reality Called The Kli

Why should our work be in concealment and darkness? It is because initially we feel nothing spiritual. We are created opposite to the spiritual quality of bestowal and love in order to build spiritual, real people. The human (Adam) is called “similar” (“Domeh“) to the Creator, and we need to create this from ourselves.

How do we do this? The Creator has broken us into pieces and He is between us. In order to reveal Him, we need to connect among each other. To the extent of such connection—tension, intensity, sensory perception of our connection, unification, and aspiration to each other—we will begin to feel the Creator.

This work is being hidden because we do not feel and are not interested in what is between us at all. We are only interested in what is inside of us, and what is outside of us as if does not exist. Externality exists only to the extent that we feel its benefit for ourselves and no more.

How can I transform myself to a sensor that feels externality more than internality? To stop feeling what is inside of me means restriction (Tzimtzum). I begin to feel that outside of me is the reflected light (Ohr Hozer), and what I will feel in this reflected Light, that is, in the feelings emanating from me outwardly, will be called the Creator.

Therefore, the work is being done in concealment, in the dark, at night.

The Creator invented a trick to let us perceive a reality that we should not perceive. This trick is called darkness. When it seems to us that we are lost, lacking understanding, knowledge and sensation, when we are confused, lost, falling into an unknown state, and losing our orientation in the world, this means that we are at the beginning of a new spiritual stage of comprehension and have a reliable basis for revealing the light. As the saying goes: “the advantage of the light is from within the darkness.”

Therefore, the feeling that I understand even less than before actually creates very good prerequisites for moving forward. Any new spiritual step begins with loss, disorientation, and a feeling of hopelessness, that is, darkness. To the extent that we feel darkness, we continue to make efforts and search for the light. The light is outside of us and the darkness is revealed within us.

This is where the whole method comes from: you must exit yourself toward your friends, and on the way toward them, you will find the light. They come to you and you go to them: this is how we mutually help each other even with selfish goals. This is already some kind of movement, like a baby that may make some movements unconsciously. But these chaotic and unconscious movements propel us forward.

The upper force gives us hints and plays with us. This Creator creates everything around us. We will later see how He works in us. There is nothing around us—the reality we feel is in each of us. Then we will understand that there is not each of us individually but only the one common reality called the Kli, HaVaYaH.

If I feel lost, this is a template from the Creator of my new state. I have to close my eyes and just connect to my friends. The Creator will resist this, assuring that there is nothing to look for because they are the same as me, and perhaps even worse. While in egoism, I see them in even greater egoism and greater darkness.

But I try to navigate in this chaotic state by exiting myself and trying to understand how to connect with others outside myself, right up to the feeling of a new reality there.¹
From Lesson 4, World Kabbalah Convention in Moldova 9/7/19, Rejoice in What We Lack/Work in Concealment

Who Are The Judges?

In the News (The Guardian):  “Prisoners could be handed the keys to their cells to incentivize good behavior, as well as a series of other benefits, under government plans that call on governors to put more emphasis on rewards and less on punishments.

“Ministers want to give prison chiefs the power to begin allowing inmates who follow the rules more time out of their cells, the freedom to cook their own meals and more time to spend in the gym, as well as the freedom to choose when to shower and more time to meet visitors. …

“Officials cited evidence summarized by the government last month that positive reinforcement was more effective as a means by which to change behavior in the long term. And they stressed that those who did not abide by the rules could still lose privileges. …

“The policy also called for prison staff to ‘consistently use verbal reinforcement for good behavior and challenge poor behavior outside formal reviews’, and handed prison chiefs the ‘freedom to increase the amount of time out of cell for recreational activities or exercise alongside education and work programs’.”

Question: What do you think about this system of detention?

Answer: In principle, the Torah and especially Kabbalah feel that incarceration is not a correction. We see that it corrects nothing. On the contrary, people leave prison even more angry with huge malicious egoism that they again begin to use in everyday life among people.

Prison is not education. Education must be organized differently.

In the past, a few thousand years ago, there were cities of refuge where people were deported and looked after. They had to remain inside the city and had no right to leave it.

When the ones supervising them (educators, etc.) saw that a person was functioning normally, they could gradually take him beyond the boundaries of this system.

Remark: It is also said in the Torah that the guilty ones were sent there so that others could not take revenge on them.

My Comment: Yes. It was all organized very seriously for the mutual benefit of both these people and external society. Later they returned.

I would advise this. They should feel free and change gradually.

Remark: But still the idea of the accusers and those that endorse incarceration is different, “They must be humiliated, locked up.”

My Comment: That is natural because we do not have a system of education; we only have a system of coercion and punishment.

Question: Does the system of punishment not work?

Answer: We see that it does not work. Moreover, the rest of society becomes infected by these thoughts. We see proof of the insufficiency of the punishment system in the ones who return to the streets, destroy everything, break store windows, set up barricades, and so on.

Question: Do you think that even the most inveterate criminal can be re-educated?

Answer: I think that it is possible to re-educate them and give them an opportunity for self-control in these cities. They can establish such an order that all others will envy because there is a concept of honor among them. We must understand that they are serious people who can establish order.

Question: What should change in the way of thinking of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors?

Answer: I think they should be locked up instead of these criminals. Then their way of thinking would change. It is impossible to be on one side and think for the other side. Of course, I mean this as a joke, but there is some truth in it.

Remark: You always say that the system of judges used to be completely different. Judges were those who simply could not accept a bribe.

My Comment: Being a judge was the highest position. In principle, to this day it is considered that a judge should receive a good salary, should be protected and independent. But what kind of independence can there be today if all judges obey governments, all are in collusion with each other, “one hand rubs another,” etc.?

Remark: Previously judges did not need to be paid a lot.

My Comment: This is not the point. They really were independent.

Question: How was that possible? What is this ideal image of a judge?

Answer: A judge greatly valued his position. He cherished the public opinion that was constantly tuned in such a way that a judge was above everyone, even above a king. A judge was on the same level as the Creator. It is possible to see this in the Torah, in the Book of Judges. This is the highest position in the country.

Question: Is it possible to raise such people in our egoistic world?

Answer: For this, it is necessary to educate them. We need an education system, not a penal system and not this public one that is a mess. But it is possible.

Question: Do you think that what they want to do in Britain is a step toward education?

Answer: Let them try. But in order to build a correct system, the right people must build it. I do not hold out hope that they will succeed. People with a different way of thinking should create such a system.

Question: So, is this a dead end?

Answer: Yes. Until they turn to Kabbalists nothing will help them. Good luck, British ladies and gentlemen!
[252359]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman”, 7/16/19

Why Reveal Egoism In The Ten?

Question: Why are tens of thousands of the quintessential historical examples of the manifestation of egoism and evil not enough to come to the need for correction? Why reveal egoism between ten unfamiliar people? What can we reveal there?

Answer: The egoism that you reveal every day in relation to your loved ones and all the others is not the ego that we are talking about.

Egoism is what interferes when you want to connect in the ten in order to reveal the Creator.

Therefore, we should study the qualities of connection to know them. By connecting correctly in the ten, we receive the manifestation of egoism. In further work on the ego in order to rise above it for the sake of revealing the Creator, both egoism and the Creator are revealed.
[251998]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/7/19

New Life #247 – Discovering Who I Am, Part 1

New Life #247 – Discovering Who I Am, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

It is important for every person to know his identity, what sets him apart from others, and the power of the environment in shaping his personality. Humans are motivated by a desire to enjoy that has no rationality and constantly grows. In order to make the right decision at any given time, we must check whether or not we have the right connection to the environment. We live in an ecological sphere in which we feed each other. This is how ecological balance is maintained. The still, vegetative, and animate levels of life all have natural, instinctive, life-wise programs to maintain balance, but humans do not. We need connecting circles to build engagement with others in heart and mind and tens’ workshops through which we can absorb wisdom.
[163391]
From KabTV’s “New Life #247 – Discovering Who I Am, Part 1,” 11/7/13

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

“What Forgiveness Should We Ask For On Yom Kippur?” (Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “What Forgiveness Should We Ask for on Yom Kippur?”

We Jews anger the Creator constantly, endlessly, and in every situation, when we agree to division and hatred among each other, and do not want to connect.

The Creator strongly desires for us to be united because from that force of connection, He will become revealed to humanity. By facilitating this action of connection, the Jewish people truly become a “light unto the nations,” and a conduit of peace and tranquility to all.

However, the opposite is currently happening.

Due to our alienation, we prevent all the goodness from spreading through us to the entire world. And because of our estrangement from one another, we need to ask for forgiveness this Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement).

The Role of the Jewish People and Yom Kippur

A key part of the Yom Kippur prayer service is in reading the book of Jonah the Prophet. In the story, God orders Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh, who had become very abusive toward one another, to correct their relationships if they wanted to survive. However, Jonah evaded his mission. He took to the sea in an effort to escape God’s command.

Like Jonah, we Jews have been inadvertently avoiding our mission for the past 2,000 years. For this reason, we have suffered terribly. If we want to alleviate more suffering, especially today, in times of rising anti-Semitic tides, we simply cannot afford to keep remaining indifferent to the role we have to fulfill.

“Since we were ruined by unfounded hatred, and the world was ruined with us, we will be rebuilt by unfounded love, and the world will be rebuilt with us.”
– Rav Avraham Itzhak HaCohen Kook, Orot Kodesh (Sacred Lights), Vol. 3

Yom Kippur, traditionally considered the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, is observed on the 10th of Tishrei. It is also known as the Day of Judgement. But who judges? And who is being judged?

It is the individual who judges himself. We are accustomed to examining our actions in the world, but we should also examine our intentions, especially with regard to others, like taking an X-ray of the heart’s intentions, checking to see how well we were able to rise above our egoistic self-interests to care for the needs and desires of others.

Why? It is because through such concern, we reveal the world for what it really is: a unified and interdependent system.

The role of the Jewish people, as explained by our sages, is to pave the way for unity above all differences as the only solution to all the evils in the world-–to serve as an example of unity for the rest of humanity. However, what do we see instead? We see deepening division and rejection of one another. Therefore, the nations of the world complain about our wrongdoing, despising us, punishing us and even desiring to annihilate us.

This hostility toward Jews is manifest in the spike of hate crimes worldwide, targeting Jewish victims for no reason other than religion. In Berlin alone, an average of two anti-Semitic incidents are reported daily, a total of 404 cases in 2019 (until April), as informed by the city’s commission for combating anti-Semitism. In New York City, violent attacks against Jews are spiraling out of control with anti-Semitic crimes up 82% this year, as compared to 2018, (a total of 152 cases so far, while over the same period last year, there were 93 incidents) according to the Police Department’s statistics.

Day by day, the multi-faceted sensation of instability in the world increases people’s need for calm and contentment. This increasingly causes sentiments of anti-Semitism to boil within humanity.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that hatred against Jews is triggered by our lack of desire to unite: among each other and with the Creator. When we are divided and reject one another, we block the passage of the force of love and connection through us to humanity. Then, humanity’s insistent demand for a better and more united life surfaces with force, inflicting us with blows.

“In such a generation, all the destructors among the Nations of the World raise their heads and wish primarily to destroy and to kill the Children of Israel, as it is written (Yevamot 63), ‘No calamity comes to the world but for Israel.’”
– Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, Introduction to the Book of Zohar.

Transforming a Mournful Day into a Happy One

Yom Kippur is the state where I reveal the egoistic force of separation within as something evil. After I discover it, I can then approach the Creator with this evil and demand correction from Him. This transforms the Day of Atonement into a day of joy because I discover the ailment for the evil within me, my selfish nature. In other words, I find how my ego needs to be corrected in order to fix my relationship with others, and that it is the cause of all division, conflict and crisis in the world.

People often consider Yom Kippur as a sad day because they do not realize that what is perceived as “bad” could be used as a springboard to attain good. What is regarded as good or evil depends entirely on one’s attitude. For example, if, during a routine visit to a doctor, one discovers that he has a disease, then the evil was revealed so that it could be treated and healed. This is an example of how the discovery of something bad in you turns out to be something good.

“There is no happier moment in a person’s life than when he discovers how absolutely powerless he is and loses faith in his own strength since he exerted all possible efforts that he was able to, but reached nothing. This is because precisely at this moment, during this state, he is ready for a complete and clear prayer to the Creator.”
– Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, Pri Hacham: Igrot Kodesh.

This moment is called a personal “Day Of Atonement.” From this moment on, a person can be certain of receiving the light of correction.

Our Entry to the Book of Life

I earnestly hope that we use Yom Kippur as an opportunity for introspection and realize the true reason for our suffering and the suffering of the world so that we will be able to fulfill the role that humanity expects from us:

“The Israeli nation had been constructed as a kind of gateway through which the sparks of purification will flow onto all of mankind throughout the world, until they can perceive the pleasantness and serenity that exist in the kernel of love of others.”
– Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag, The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee).

May all the Jewish people lead by example and be inscribed and sealed in the Book of Life for a good year.

Heaven And Hell Are Internal States

Question: During its development, the soul undergoes various transformations. From a religious point of view, heaven and hell are a certain stage of development of the soul. I would like to know what it means from a Kabbalistic point of view.

Answer: It is not what religions say.

Heaven is a state of joy of bestowal to others. Hell is the state when I literally burn with shame.

Hell is a feeling of shame. Heaven is satisfaction from love. But all of this is on a spiritual level. There is nothing else.

Question: What causes shame?

Answer: Shame occurs when you see how opposite you are to the Creator.

In The Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, we study that the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) happened because the Kli (vessel) discovered its oppositeness to the Creator, and feeling shame, it made the restriction on itself.
[251420]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/23/19

One Group

Perception of reality is impossible to explain in words; you either see reality or you do not. If I take off my glasses, I will not see anything in front of me. I will know that there are people there and I will hear their voices, but I will not see them. In order to see reality through the Creator’s eyes, we need such glasses in which we could see the soul that exists in everyone and in all of us together so that it would be as one whole. This is how it works because perception of reality, as the sum of individuals, a sum of units, requires a different, integral approach.

We want to depict the Kabbalistic groups around the world as one group, and we want to care for all equally, rising above our personal concern for our ten, our country, and our language to the common soul of all humanity, the entire Babylon. This is all in order to correct our perception and see reality through the Creator’s eyes, in an integral and collective form.

Therefore, we should now try to think about the common soul, at least about all our groups in the world, in order to step over all differences between us. Everyone will thus correct their shattering and our perception of reality will become more integral.

How can we do this? It can be done only by working on our feelings with the help of the mind, understanding how important it is to connect the parts of the shattered soul. We must do everything in our power, and we will then arrive at the prayer that will save us. The problem is that it takes a lot of effort to reach such a prayer, when I understand that I cannot realize what I desire, but I want it very much and I know whom to ask and that He can help me.

We correct nothing by ourselves and make no connection to each other. Yet, if despite the rejection, we nevertheless make efforts, then we turn to the Creator who completes the work for us. This is how we should prepare for the congress in Bulgaria: do everything possible and then part of the convention will become a prayer.

This is no longer a relationship in the ten, the understandable human connection that is in my field of vision and sensation, but rather something intangible and unclear: with whom and how do I connect? I do not have the forms within me through which I connect with other groups into one Kli; therefore, all that is left for me is to pray, to ask.
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/19, Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”

New Life #246 – An Integral Education Course, Part 2

New Life #246 – An Integral Education Course, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

We need to obtain a special desire to receive, the kind that doesn’t disappear as soon as it is filled. We can only truly enjoy from mutual love, from the desire to fulfill others. We can learn how to rise above the desire to receive and attain a desire to love others through connecting workshops in a course in integral education. This course touches on the most important emotional questions for a person. Who am I? What am I? What do I live for? People learn how to be open and overcome the feelings of coolness and rejection that arise when we approach one another. We succeed when we have the right attitude toward others thereby creating a common emotion called the center of the group, which becomes a source of happiness, warmth, freedom, and fulfillment for all.
[147041]
From KabTV’s “New Life #246 – An Integral Education Course, Part 2,” 10/29/13

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

All Desires Remain

It is impossible to eradicate the will to receive because it is creation itself. You can confuse yourself, get drunk, rush after one desire instead of another, extinguishing the first desire in such a way, but it is impossible to uproot a desire. I can ignore it out of fear or because of other stronger desires, but it is impossible to fight it directly.

Even the reforming light does not change the desire itself; it only raises or lowers its importance. Yet, all desires remain with a person as they were given to him at birth. If a person attributes no importance to the desire, then he can as if erase it from the screen on which he sees the world. There is no other way because the entire creation is a desire.¹

Before the convention, I expect that the European tens will establish connections with each other and with all other world groups. There should be one common virtual meeting place where everyone can meet, get information, and recharge.

We need to be included in each other not only on an informative level, but also in feeling. I want to feel the friends as the organs of my body that were separated, and I must bring them closer to me. As much as I bring them closer and increase my sensitivity to them, I enliven them and begin to feel them alive, connected with me, and living within me, to that extent I build a vessel of the soul until the Creator is revealed in it.²
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/19 “Correction of the Shattering – Preparation for the Congress”

“Rosh Hashanah: Looking For A Leader Of The Jewish People” (Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “Rosh Hashanah: Looking for a Leader of the Jewish People”

Israel’s political mayhem after the elections comes as no surprise. The dead heat between the two main parties in Israel and the fierce deal-making to form a coalition capable of governing the country reveals the great divide within Israel’s society.

Why should a Jew in Manhattan, Paris or Buenos Aires care? Why should this situation be a matter of concern for the Jewish New Year?

As we celebrate Rosh Hashanah—the beginning or “head” of the year—it is time to reflect as Jews on our connection as a people, regardless of the place where we celebrate around the dinner table. We are in the thick of a groundswell of hatred against Jews and Israel that will leave no stone unturned and no time for second-guessing.

Now more than ever, Israel’s leadership must also lead all Jewish people, fostering unity both in the Land of Israel and toward the Diaspora in order to tackle the great divide between the two communities.

In recent years, young Jewish Americans have experienced an increasing loss of Jewish identity, and a growing indifference toward Israel as the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people.

The internal and external pressures we face as Jews every day, in every part of the world, enhance the sense of urgency of needing to come to terms with our divisions. What happens in Israel must be relevant to all Jews because even if it is not always evident to us, we share a common destiny, an invisible but indivisible link.

Realizing this indivisibility and working toward unity should be the Jewish people’s highest priority in order to have the strength to face today’s existential threats. Our enemies make no distinction between you and me, between leftist and rightist, between religious and secular, between an Israeli Jew and an American Jew.

Consequently, we need to stand side by side as one.

5,880 Years to Break the Siege

This year, Jews all over the world felt less safe. The deadly shootings at synagogues in Pittsburg and Poway were a major wake-up call to the anti-Semitic terrorism that can unfold at any given moment in the heart of American society.

Large cities in the US have also experienced a sharp spike in violent attacks against Jews. The New York Police Department registered 184 hate crimes by the end of June targeting 110 Jews. The number of incidents almost doubled compared to 2018. In contrast, overall crimes in the city decreased to a record low.

In Europe, 89% of Jews feel anti-Semitism has increased in their country over the past decade, and a similar percentage believe it to be a serious problem. Meanwhile, the economic, academic and cultural boycotts against Israel, known as the BDS, are expanding around the globe.

Therefore, whoever will govern the country must understand that a weaker Israel and a widening gap between Israel and the Diaspora will only increase threats against us and anti-Semitism throughout the world. As reality has proven to us time and again, and as history shows, when we are divided, our enemies rise against us. As we head into the new year, we must finally be ready to reverse that fate for good.

A Change for the Better

Rosh Hashanah, comes from the Hebrew words, “Rosh Hashinui” (“the beginning of change”). It symbolizes our aspiration to acquire higher values, benevolence, sharing, and caring for each other. All of our Jewish festivals symbolize milestones along the path of our transformation of the evil inclination—namely egoism—to altruism, to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

The Rosh Hashanah tradition to eat a fish’s head symbolizes our decision to be at the forefront, not the tail, leading ourselves and others toward unity.

The pomegranate we serve at this time of the year, with its numerous juicy seeds, reminds us that we, too, are like seeds, that it is time for us to ripen spiritually through unity. The seeds also represent our egoistic desires, which we want to learn how to use in a more balanced way—for the sake of others rather than selfishly—realizing our aspirations through our many contributions to society.

The meaning of the apple we eat at Rosh Hashanah is the primordial “transgression” of self-centeredness. We dip it in honey to symbolize its sweetening (correction) through our reestablished care for others. To achieve this state and rekindle our brotherly love, we have to rise above our egoism, balancing it with its opposite altruistic force by establishing positive connections between us.

The Head, Not the Tail

Let’s consider further the symbolism of the fish’s head in the Jewish New Year customs. Israel and the Diaspora need leadership that will also take care of our younger generation, which is losing grip on its traditions.

What kinds of actions should be taken toward this end? First and foremost, an educational framework needs to be established that explains the following essential questions:

• What does being a Jew mean? To be one who works to unite all separate parts of humanity into one whole.
• Who is Israel? It is those who embody the meaning of the word Yashar-Kel,e. those who go “straight to the Creator” as the unifying power in reality.
• What is the Land of Israel? It’s the path of common purpose between us.
• What is the role of the Jewish people? It is to be a “light unto the nations.” That is, to give an example of unity to the world.

We need to work in close cooperation with representatives of world Jewry, even if their views seem completely opposite, and to take into consideration their perspectives in Israel’s policymaking process. It is important for us to find a common language and to work in mutual guarantee (Arvut) with one another.

The leadership Israel requires is one that will show how crucial it is for all of us, without exception, to connect, to be “as one man with one heart,” and to give the world the key to attaining that unity. The Jewish people require leadership that will let every Jew live safely in the country of his birth and to open its doors to every Jew in times of trouble.

This demand for change must begin within ourselves. It is the choice of each of us to transform our state of separation to one of cohesion, for with that change of state also comes the transformation from insecurity to safety. And there is no more beautiful time to start realizing the power of our unity than now, around the Rosh Hashanah festive table.

We are of many different ages, tastes, backgrounds, ideas and points of view, but we should not try to change or erase any of that. On the contrary, our uniqueness is the treasure that each brings to the world. We should preserve our differences, rise above them, and cover them with mutual love and respect like the white cloth that covers the festive table. This is our special family recipe for a rounded and sweet life, and for a promising future as a nation.

Let’s raise our glasses of wine and make a toast to our unity.

Happy Rosh Hashanah!

New Life #245 – An Integral Education Course, Part 1

New Life #245 – An Integral Education Course, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

We are a generation of love, meaning that we seek happiness and discover that it lies in feeling loved and loving. We were created as egotistical beings so that we can find out for ourselves what love is and what it is not. Food, sex, family, money, respect, control, and knowledge do not bring happiness but help us evolve toward the principle “love your neighbor as yourself.” We can learn to develop the capacity to love through integral education. These courses teach us about human nature, the process of development, the crisis (recognition of evil), and the means of correction. When we open our hearts and try to connect with one another, we discover the power of correction, the field of love between us. We undergo a fundamental change in perception, a paradigm shift, and achieve mutual warmth, success, health, and harmony as well as a world full of opportunity and connection.
[146386]
From KabTV’s “New Life #245 – An Integral Education Course, Part 1,” 10/29/13

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Dvekut Unites Two Into One

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 10/5/19

In loving memory of my teacher, Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (The Rabash)