The Revival Of The Spiritual Level

The Torah, “Numbers” 20:27 – 20:29: Moses did as the Lord commanded him. They ascended Mount Hor in the presence of the entire congregation. Moses then stripped Aaron of his garments and dressed Eleazar his son in them, and Aaron died there on the top of the mountain. [Then] Moses and Eleazar descended from the mountain.

The whole congregation saw that Aaron had expired, and the entire house of Israel wept for Aaron for thirty days.

Death spoken about in the Torah—the deaths of Aaron, Miriam, Moses, or other souls that attain the Creator and which are the foundations of the general system of man’s soul—means an ascent, not the demise of the body. The body is the corporeal level of a person and so there is nothing to mourn.

In the spiritual world, if the system called Aaron has completed its role, Aaron dies because he need not correct himself anymore; it is completely corrected to join the common system of the soul of Adam. This is called death.

What we regard in our world as a tragic event is a great joy in the spiritual world. It is written that the “…righteous, who, in their death, are called living.”

Question: But it says here that “the entire house if Israel wept for Aaron for thirty days.”

Answer: They wept because he was no longer with them, but was incorporated in the general state, so they couldn’t count on him specifically.They are deprived of the visible, physical support and communication, but of course, the whole system called Aaron remains. It is an enormous sub-system of the leadership in the general soul of man, but not the same level that the people are on. This is the reason they wept for him, but for a very limited time.

We mourn the dead for seven days, then in the memorial service after thirty days, and then once a year, not more than that. There are special days of visiting the cemetery: seven days after the burial and then after thirty days, and then once a year on the day that the person passed away. The reason is that death is the revival of the spiritual level that is totally detached from the body that is buried. Baal HaSulam used to say that he didn’t care at all where his sack of bones would be buried.

In ancient times, 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, before the exile from the land of Israel, the deceased were placed in a cave and walled in for one year. In a year, the caves were opened and everything that was left of the decayed bodies was collected in a vessel, sealed, and placed in a common cave. The tradition to bury dead bodies in the ground appeared later.

Today, we know the places of many ancient burials in various regions such as Syria, Iraq, Iran, and so on, since the land of Israel was much broader at that time than today. For example, Moshe and Aaron are buried on the other side of the river Jordan.

Many of the graves of ancient Kabbalists who lived more than 2,000 years ago, before the destruction of the Temple, are located in Galilee. The ARI, the greatest Kabbalist of the 16^th century, listed them. That’s how they were discovered.

The ARI walked the fields between Safed and Mount Meron where Rabbi Shimon was buried and pointed out the sages’ graves. Then, the tombstones with the names of the Kabbalists were placed on the graves.

The ARI sensed who and where each was buried because the root and the branch are linked. Even though the body is not a spiritual part of the human being, it still is related somehow with the spiritual component and suffers together with it. So the ARI was able to accurately find the connection and locate the burial places. Since then, monuments to great Kabbalists can be seen in Galilee.
[171038]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/1/15

Why Is The Hour Of Our Death Not Known?

Question: Why is the hour of our death hidden from us?

Answer: It is very good that it is hidden because I have to reach a state where it is not important to me at what moment in my life, in my beastly existence, I will be separated from the physical body.

I must reach a state where I will live in the soul not the body, so it doesn’t make any difference to me if I exist in a body or not. If I continue to exist within it, this is only so that in some way I will bestow even more to humanity, to the world.

So, it makes no difference to me at what moment I will be separated from the body. I am simply under the control of the higher management, and that’s it.
[170767]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/1/15

The Miracle Of Hanukkah, Part 1 – Do You Believe In Miracles?

Question: We are celebrating Hanukkah to commemorate the miracle that occurred during the war of the Maccabees, when the jug of oil provided enough oil to light the Menorah for eight days instead of just one. Do you believe in miracles?

Answer: No, I don’t believe in miracles. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, a miracle is a serious, scientific matter not as we perceive this concept in our world. The upper force doesn’t perform miracles and doesn’t do anything that is supernatural and that exceeds the limits of “He has given a law that cannot be broken.”

All the miracles are only in relation to us. The system functions according to rigid laws that operate everything from the beginning of creation to its end. We have to learn these laws and then the phenomena we encounter in the system will not seem like miracles to us.

The first miracle, for example, is the miracle of the exodus from Egypt. People wanted to connect but could not do so because a force separated them. This force is called Pharaoh, their egoism.

They wanted to be as one man in one heart, as Abraham had taught them in ancient Babylon, so that love would cover all sins, but their efforts were in vain. Following seven years of satiety, seven years of hunger came along, until there was a miracle that allowed them to escape from Egypt and the domination of Pharaoh.

The same thing is happening today in era of technological advancement, when the accelerated development of technology, culture, and education begins. First it seems that it provides us with unprecedented opportunities and everyone aspires for the American dream: a wonderful career, science, and that promise to reveal all horizons.

But suddenly we discover that we have reached a totally different state than what was dreamed of. The American dream burst like a bubble, and the whole world finds itself in a whirlpool that drags us more and more deeply to the bottom. This is the end of the seven years of satiety and the beginning of the seven years of hunger.

I also felt as if I was living in the seven years of satiety in the 60’s and the 70’s when I believed that the horizons were open before me. But then I discovered that the science I engaged in did not provide any answers to my questions about the meaning of life and the purpose of life.

Thus, the seven years of hunger began and I began to search for a way to revive myself, for the meaning of my life, for the purpose of life, and for what I could give my children. This is how I found the wisdom of Kabbalah, and this is a miracle, just like the miracle of the exodus from Egypt.

A miracle is when a person who has no way of discovering the meaning of his life in an ordinary way suddenly receives a special Light, an extraordinary force, that shines on him, opens his heart and mind, and reveals that this life has a  goal and that he is part of a special process.

This miracle that opens a new life to him is called the exodus from Egypt, and it has to take place in everyone’s life to a certain extent.

A person escapes from Egypt, from his egoism, by acquiring the attribute of bestowal, the force of connection and unity, and begins to implement it. But then his egoism erupts again and he needs a miracle once again in order to overcome the egoism, and this time it is the miracle of Hanukkah.

Question: How are events that occurred in ancient times, like the exile in Egypt and the time of the war of the Maccabees, related to our time?

Answer: It is said: “the actions of fathers are a sign for the sons.” This means that what happened to our forefathers will also happen to each of us.
[171665]
From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM 12/6/15

The Wide Open Space Where The Soul Exists

Question: What does it mean to transfer clothes from father to son?

Answer: Clothing (Levush) refer to the correction of the body and the body is egoism.

Animals don’t need correction and are called angels, which means they were created simply in order to fulfill their mission. Man is different from animals and cannot live without clothes.

The clothes of the great priest included a belt, shirt, trousers, hat, robe, vest, breastplate, and headdress. The rest wore similar clothes but less decorated.

A person lived in a tent made of animal skins. A tent is the best environment for a person. Adjoined to the tent was a section of the yard, which was measured out a certain band, fenced off courtyard.

The yards were connected into a city and the city was surrounded by a wall. Seventy cubits were measured from the wall, which was the area that surrounded the city, and then another 2,000 cubits were measured. All this symbolizes the wide open spaces where the soul exits.

We also see the same thing with regard to the clothes of the body. We see how many garments there can be over our soul, which is parallel to the way we dress and manage our life in this world. Even if we don’t have anything, we instinctively exist in this complex space.

We need this space because a person’s internal space requires everything to be arranged specifically this way: a house, a garden or a yard that surrounds the house, a street, a neighborhood, a city, etc. A person needs everything, and even if he builds something that is totally different from these frameworks, he will make changes in it later.

This reflects the inner need of the soul to arrange the material world according to the same system.

Question: What does all that mean on my way to the attribute of bestowal?

Answer: Thanks to the fact that I arrange my desires properly—internal, external, and more external—and correct them in accordance with these measurements (requirements), I advance.

Question: What is easier to correct, the clothes that are closer to the body (the internal desires) or those that are further away from it (the external desires)?

Answer: Both of these desires and the others are corrected simultaneously, because the more you exit yourself, the deeper you have to penetrate yourself. It is the same in our world too, the more internal a person is, the further he has to see and to exit himself, which means that he has to think more about the world.

It is impossible to delve only into yourself and completely forget about the environment. Conversely, if you want to exit into the world, you have to raise yourself at the same time.

Question: What does it mean transfer your clothes?

Answer: Clothes symbolize the correction of the soul, and so the father passes his corrections to his son as the son is his continuation, the next level. Therefore in the corporeal world it is a custom to pass on clothes from father to son.

The only limitation are shoes, because shoes are the last level, the partition between heaven and earth.
[170751]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/29/15

Finding Your Soul

Question: What happens to the soul after the corporeal body dies?

Answer: The soul has no relation to the corporeal body; therefore, saying it exists in our body is absolute ignorance.

A person doesn’t have a soul. It appears only after he exits his egoism and becomes incorporated in others. After all, when he invests himself in others, cares about them, and serves them, the feeling of being melted and integrated in humanity appears in him. This feeling of melting into others and the attribute of love and bestowal unto others is called a soul.

Does a person have it? Any one of us can ask this question, but first he has to simply look at himself and at what he is engaged in from morning till evening, what his problems and his worries are, and accordingly he will understand how far he is from the revelation of his soul.

The soul is in others and not inside a person. We were given life in order to exit our self love and reach the love of others. If a person fulfills the transformation of himself, of his feelings, thoughts, joys, fears and aspirations, he acquires a soul.

When merging with others he begins to feel a different existence, a new level, a new dimension called the next world, the soul, the revelation of the Creator.

He has to attain this level while living in his corporeal body. In this case the body enables him to fulfill the transition from worrying about himself to worrying about others.

This isn’t a socialist philosophy but a practical method of the transition from the corporeal body into a spiritual one. The corporeal body is called egoism and the spiritual body is called altruism, bestowal.

Therefore during the life of our corporeal body we are given such an incredible opportunity. The body is absolutely neutral and exists only in order to allow us to perform the transformation from egoism to altruism, and then it can quietly die.

If I manage to fulfill this transformation, I acquire a spiritual body, and if not, I die just like any other beast, because in this state I am considered a beast. But when I acquire the soul and exist above my ego, I enter a state called a human being.
[170845]
From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/1/15

We All Are One Soul, Part 3

The Person In A Good World

Question: If nature is a single body, what is the optimal participation of a person within it?

Answer: Most interesting is that a person has a unique mission innature. It is very difficult for people to connect together because this is against our nature, our egoistic evil inclination. But if we try to connect and unite despite everything, by that we influence all of nature.

After all, a person is above all the rest of nature, and so our thoughts act like ultramodern weapons, the most powerful and revolutionary of all the weapons in the world. It has been kept secret so far, but there are already many organizations in each country that are developing methods of influencing a person’s thoughts. If we knew how to do this, then through the desire in our heart and the thought in our brain, we would be able to influence the world much more strongly than through any other means available in our world.

Question: What can I do with my thoughts?

Answer: So far you aren’t in a state where your thoughts can work in the world because you aren’t included in the system of creation; you haven’t discovered the system of connections between all thoughts. But later you will discover you are within a web that connects your thoughts with the thoughts of other people, and your desires with the hearts of all the people in the world. And you can influence their minds and hearts when you put your thoughts and desires into them. When you learn to do this, you will see what a revolution it is possible to make in the world.

Question: Doesn’t this seem like a very powerful means that gives me control over the entire world?

Answer: This is an extraordinarily powerful means, but we can use it and see the system only on condition that we have a good influence for the benefit of others. There is a security barrier on which it is necessary to make a Tzimtzum (restriction) on ouregoism.

First we must attain the good power we can positively influence others with. And then we are granted the right to influence the world. Whether we want it or not, we are advancing towards this state. All of the problems of the modern world endured by humanity today are sent so we will understand that there is no choice: we must discover the overall system and enter into it.

We must bestow good upon the world, and then we will discover the entire system, the system of mutual bestowal, the good thoughts and desires called the soul. This system is one for all of us, one general soul.

It is specifically the wisdom of Kabbalah that makes it possible for us to discover it; it prepares a person for good reciprocal relationships, for a positive influence on everyone. And then a person is included in this system, reveals it, and accordingly begins to make useful, corrected actions, work on correcting the world, advancing the world to a good state.

In the future, all the inhabitants of the world will have this ability, and all of humanity will become one union, kindly influencing all thoughts and hearts, maintaining our good relationships. And all of us will become one system, one person; after all, we all  have only one soul.
[170810]
From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM 11/18/15

Me And The General Soul

Question: On one hand, we are all one soul connected into one body. On the other hand, who am I with my personal character, my tastes, and my habits? Don’t I exist?

Answer: Now, you only exist in the corporeal sense like any corporeal body in our world. If you want to know your real form, you have to rise to a higher level where you exist in your real form, where your spirit is, not your corporeal body.

If you attain it, you will attain the upper world, a new level of existence where you are connected to everyone, you influence everyone and everyone influences you, feelings and thoughts, in positive mutual influence on each other.

There you exist positively influencing all of the parts of the system that are called the individual souls that are connected into one soul, one system.

Baal HaSulam wrote in the article, “600,000 Souls“: “… there is indeed only one soul in the world, as it is written (Genesis, 2:7), ‘and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.’ The same soul exists in all the children of Israel, complete in each and every one, as inAdam haRishon, since the spiritual is indivisible and cannot be cut—which is rather a trait of corporeal things.

“Yet, saying that there are 600,000 souls and sparks of souls appears as though it is divided by the force of the body of each person. In other words, first, the body divides and completely denies him of the radiance of the soul, and by the force of the Torah and the Mitzva, the body is cleansed, and to the extent of its cleansing, the common soul shines upon him.”

We are in a state in which we all are connected into one soul, and there is nothing other than that soul. However, this is on condition that we feel this one soul, the connection between us. We exist in this connection, but we don’t feel it because everyone hates the other and is repulsed by them.

Therefore, instead of one soul that connects us into one, in which we feel a perfect eternal life, we feel something else that is opposite to that: our world. The word “world”(Olam) stems from the Hebrew word “concealed” (Alama).

It is as if we are in a state of concealment, in the dark, and it seems that we exist in a corporeal world in which there are the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, and human beings, and we are in a continuous struggle with one another. But this is only how it seems to us.

This is called the “dream” world, our world, in which instead of one soul, we feel that we are in an imaginary world that appears before us now. And this is all because between us rule the evil forces in the form of our desires, attitudes, and relationships.

To the extent we return to good relations between us, we will discover that this world doesn’t exist and that this is all one soul, and we are in it in a perfect eternal state.
[170736]
From the Israeli Radio Program 103FM 11/18/15

Europe’s Hysteria

Question: After the events in Paris, a real hysteria started in Europe. Two Air France flights headed from the United States to Paris were diverted  because of terrorism threats, fears of terrorist bombing caused the canceling of a soccer match between Germany and Holland, which the Chancellor of Germany was to attend.

In Paris, ceaseless gunfire exchanges occurred, Russia bombed Syria, and Brussels was paralyzed from fear of terrorist attacks in the city center. Will it continue this way?

Answer: Nothing will change! The world is moving forward according to the system to increasing convergence. If the convergence is organized correctly with good mutual cooperation between people, then it will be good.

It needs to be accompanied by positive participation with the system of unity and connection, not through our egosim which causes clashes between us.

We only need to learn how to bring people closer so that they will rise above their egoism without fighting among themselves because that won’t help! The previous generation fought, this generation fights, and the next generation will fight!

Question: What solution would you suggest to resolve this conflict?

Answer: In my rosiest dreams, I would like to see the UN, the G8, G20, and other organizations and forums force Israel to unite and, in this way, attract the entire world after it to a complete unification!

Nothing else is needed. There is no need to blame the Jews for being the reason for what is bad in the world, but there is a need to force them to unite so that they will become the reason for the entire world to unite.

Even if the nation of Israel would just begin to listen to us a little, then the entire world would immediately feel relief, and the terrorists would stop killing! That is the answer to your question. I see the general system, and that is the way it is structured.

You want everything to change for the better, then put the force of good into it. It will come only through connection and unity between the Jews!
[170557]
From KabTV’s “Conversations with Michael Laitman” 11/18/15