Hell, Heaven, And The Kabbalists

Question: There is a joke about heaven and hell: For one person, God made an exception and showed him heaven and hell. They asked the person: “Well, how is it there in Hell?” He answers: “There is an enormous round table there in the middle of which stands a bowl with a fragrant smelling puddling. Sinners are sitting around the table and each of them has a spoon in his hand. But they are angry and hungry because the spoon is too long so that nobody is able to bring it close to his mouth.”

They ask him: “And how is in Heaven?” He answers: “There is an identical table there with the same bowl and delicacies. Around the table sit the Tzadikim (righteous). But they are satisfied and content.” They ask him: “How can this be?” He answers: “They have learned how to feed each other.”

Did Kabbalists invent this joke?

Answer: That’s what they say!
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New Life #565 – Jerusalem: The Capital Of Love

New Life #565 – Jerusalem: The Capital Of Love
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

The religions are constantly bickering and arguing about who is right and which is the true religion. The religious wars that we have seen throughout history stemmed from this.

At first, Abraham taught them all to “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and that is how he brought different people to the discovery of the Creator. As the ego grew, love for others was destroyed and the feeling of the Creator disappeared. As a result of the destruction of love for others, Jerusalem was destroyed and we went into exile and the revelation of the Creator was lost to us.

The people of Israel were left only with physical actions, Mitzvot (commandments). Instead of the wisdom of Kabbalah, Judaism developed. And then the city of Jerusalem and the stones in it were made holy, instead of love for others.

What is in Jerusalem today is Klipa (a shell) and not Kedusha (Holiness), hatred instead of love. When we return to using the Torah correctly and demand love to dwell among us, then Jerusalem will be rebuilt. And then there will be a new religion for all people, the religion of love, the wisdom of Kabbalah and the revelation of the Creator.

The way to peace in Jerusalem is through building connections of love between us. From us this will extend to the whole world. If we make peace between us, peace will come to all people, but it is up to us to be the first.

Why doesn’t the world recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel? It is because it is torn apart by mutual hatred. In fact we have not yet established the land of Israel and Jerusalem. The land of Israel (Eretz Yisrael) is the desire for love (Ratzon Le Ahavah), and we have yet to reach this.

Next year in Jerusalem: Today there is not one corrected brick from which it is possible to build a holy city. In the future, the whole world will become the “Land of Israel,” when the sovereign will be the upper force, the power of love; the whole world will be a desire for love, the Land of Israel.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #565 – Jerusalem: The Capital Of Love,” 5/7/15

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The Future Supermarket

Comment: Every year about 700 tons of food is discarded in Denmark. Now for the first time in history, a new type of supermarket opened in Denmark’s capital that sells food waste: expired food or damaged packaging at a price that is 30%-50% cheaper than the usual price. People say that this is the future of the world.

Answer: Basically everything we consume today is so synthetic, made of plastic, paper, and wood it isn’t clear how they can have an expiration date.

You can add something to a product and not put an expiration date on it at all and open the box or can a few years later, and it is the same. There won’t even be any bacteria or bugs in it because the product is inedible for them. It is edible for people but not for them. I am sure that if we gave animals what we eat, they wouldn’t touch half of what we eat.

Question: Do you believe that these supermarkets will last for a long time? After all, pretty soon all these products will have no expiration date.

Answer: I don’t believe these supermarkets have a future. We will probably reach the “victory” of the human mind and preserve everything with no expiring date. If we take tomatoes, for example, which were once raised under normal conditions and tomatoes that are raised under the current conditions, the tomatoes of the past wouldn’t even make it to the supermarket, while today’s tomatoes lie on the shelves for a month and nothing happens to them. You can even play football with them and then eat them. So this whole idea is no longer relevant today.

Question: Is the system of using these surpluses relevant?

Answer: Of course, because although there are no natural elements in our food anymore, and there are preservatives and different additives, we are still alive. So what difference does it make what our food contains or not. We see that people live on it and that is enough. In the past people lived until the age of 40 and today they live until the age of 80.

Question: What can you say about that from a Kabbalist’s perspective?

Answer: I am speaking from this perspective, because if our body can digest all this today and exist, there is no need to complain and demand what we had 40 years ago. 40 years ago we did not have the medicines we have today and people lived until the age of 40. Today, on the other hand, they swallow pills and live until the age of 80.

It is the same with our food. In the past we ate fresh tomatoes directly from the garden to our plate because they would already begin to rot by the next day. Today the tomatoes look beautiful even after a month and they are transported by planes to countries all over the world. There is nothing we can do about it, this is our development.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/28/16

“The Death Of Money”

In the News (fondsk.ru): “The central banks of the leading Western nations are flooding the global economy with money. … Money [interest rates] is not only very low, it has become almost free. …

“Today money cannot measure the cost or the price of goods and services. A striking example – the price of oil, which may change several times during the year. The fact is that oil prices were measured using a tool that only by inertia we call money. In fact, it is a banal tool of speculation, manipulation and redistribution of wealth in favor of the owners of money – those who control the printing presses. Without exaggeration, we can say that today we are witnessing the death of money.

“Companies in the fields of industrial production, agriculture, construction, and transport cannot make long-term investments, long-term contracts, or engage in research and development. They cannot even engage in normal trade. … Modern producers are in a position that our ancestors were thousands of years ago when there was no such universal medium of exchange as money.

“Naturally producers are trying to adapt to the era of the death of money by building new economic relations. These new relationships are called in various ways: …

– Pure barter, which does not involve the use of money in any form;
– Partial barter, which is designed to minimize the use of official money;
– Barter based on the use of alternative money, that is money that does not have official status.”

My Comment: In the future there will be a rational allocation of necessary and sufficient products and services that can be acquired in any store or service point

by recording the acquisition on the account of every citizen by means of a code. Subject to the successful participation of each one in a daily system of compulsory public education and necessary work according to its distribution.
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How Effective Is The Workshop?

Question: How effective is the workshop if the friends have only been repeating your words for years during the workshops, and in fact have been using their mind (the ego) but don’t include their feelings? Should we add emotional exercises?

Answer: A person, like a kid, automatically repeats what the books say or what he has heard and it is only once in awhile that he has a greater understanding of what he reads or says.

It is a normal process both in our world and in the upper world. In both cases we develop under the influence of the Surrounding Light, but in the case of spiritual development we invoke and summon the Surrounding Light by special efforts: thegroup, the yearning for connection and unity, Kabbalistic texts, etc.
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The Selfie As A Symbol Of An Era

Question: A “selfie” is a concept that even psychologists really cannot explain. They believe it is narcissism. People enjoy taking pictures of themselves with a video camera before they die, when they fall into an abyss, or hover over a speeding train. After that, they post the photographs on the Internet.

This is the most popular thing today, and everyone loves to look at them. It is a kind of virus of our time.

Answer: Why can’t they explain it? If you post this on the Internet, this says that eternity dwells in this. The Internet is our encounter with eternity because, theoretically, what is uploaded there will exist forever in the system of mutual human relationships. That is the way you get yourself there.

Question: Why has a self-portrait become a form of communication?

Answer: This is because a person who photographs himself, expresses himself. People look at him, understand who he is, what he is expressing by the expression on his face, what he wants to say, and the background on which he wants to fix himself. This is the transfer of very concrete and good information.

Question: Psychologists have a theory of social comparison. The theoretical thinker Leon Festinger said that humans have an inborn characteristic of constantly evaluating themselves in comparison to others.

Answer: Certainly, this is because otherwise our ego cannot evaluate itself. How can it measure itself if not in relation to others: I am worse, better, where, how. The main thing is to show people where I am, with whom, and on what background. Look, be envious and be impressed.

Question: Why does a person constantly need to photograph only himself? Photograph your loved ones, relatives, and friends.

Answer: There are no longer my favorites. Only “Me.” Even if I love someone, it is only because he gives me pleasure. This is like my love for a good steak. So, the selfie explains our self-love very precisely, the desire to be found at the center of attention. “Look at the ‘center of the world.’ Leave everything else on the side. Do you see me? It’s me.”

Question: Will this lead us to a dead end?

Answer: Yes, today we are evolving very rapidly to a recognition of the ego as something bad.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/4/16

New Life #544 – Jewish Culture: The Passover Haggadah

New Life #544 – Jewish Culture: The Passover Haggadah
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

“What makes this night different?” Tonight we feel free. We were slaves and now are free…

We were slaves: we were enslaved to Pharaoh and couldn’t escape by ourselves. Today we are also enslaved to our ego, the evil inclination that divides us and sparks disputes between us and doesn’t let us be. How can we be liberated? We have to decide at the Seder table that we will no longer relate to this egoistic form.

The Torah spoke about four sons: the wise one who is clever, the wicked one who doesn’t want to engage in connection, the simple one who doesn’t understand anything, and the one who doesn’t know how to ask and realizes that there is something sublime about connection but for the time being we cannot digest it.

This is what stood by our fathers and us: if we wish to ascend above our ego, we will be rewarded with a force that will help us, the connecting force.

And the Lord saves us: the Creator turns Iran and everyone against us so that we will rise above our ego. If we build corrected relationships between us, the attitude of Iran and the rest of the world immediately will change for the better.

The Egyptians treated us badly; after the material abundance comes a feeling of emptiness and pain so that we will ascend.

The Lord took us out of Egypt: there is an upper force that can bring love among us right now if we only want it. We want to aim at the right place, not at good food, but at love that will reside among us.

With a strong hand: you tear yourself from your bad attitude to others and switch to a good attitude to others.

The Lord himself: just as He created us with an evil inclination, He will also build the good inclination in us. Who is the Lord? The force of love and bestowal, the force of unity, connection, mutual guarantee, and cooperation.

The ten plagues are ten disconnections from the negative attitude towards others and the switch to a positive attitude.

The slaying of the first born: why did God kill the babies in Egypt? It refers to our ego, that should not grow anymore. We must not allow any negative attitude toward others to grow in us; we must immediately kill it.

It would have sufficed us: we can attain everything if we only have good relations between us, we don’t need anything else. It would have sufficed us, the warmth between us at the Seder table, the force of connection and love, we want it to be among the whole nation of Israel. It is with the help of this force that we can solve all our problems, get rid of all the troubles and really flourish.

Next year in Jerusalem: A new world will be built from the force of love that we have created among us.

One, who knows (what it stands for): we begin to know the upper force from the connections of love, the one force.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #544 – Jewish Culture: The Passover Haggadah,” 3/31/15

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New Life #541 – Jewish Culture: The Ten Plagues In Our Day

New Life #541 – Jewish Culture: The Ten Plagues In Our Day
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

What is the Torah really telling us, what is revealed to us through the ten plagues, and by means of the proper education how can we build a balanced world so we can live in peace and tranquility?

Summary

The Torah is not talking about things that happen in this material world, but the upper world. Every person must realize all the stories of the Torah by himself, and within himself: Adam, the period of the flood, the Exodus from Egypt, and so on.

Every person must write a Torah scroll for himself, meaning he must correct his characteristics according to the letters in the Torah.

We were created with an egoistic nature; we only do things for our own benefit. Our goal must be transcendence to love. To correct ourselves, either through blows or through awareness, we must feel that the ego is detrimental to us.

Pharaoh symbolizes the ego in a person; it doesn’t let us be considerate to others or develop love for others. So Pharaoh, the ego in us, must receive blows. Today all of humanity is in a state of “Egypt.”

The 10 plagues led the children of Israel toward breaking away from the ego that is divided into 10 parts. An example of a plague: The world is full of abundance today, but as a result of bad relationships, half of the world is starving while the other half throws large quantities of food into the garbage.

The rampant ego is the cause of the high cost of living, housing and retirement problems. In addition, nature assaults us mercilessly. The education of children, divorces, drugs, murder, violence, and terrorism—it is up to us to recognize that all of this is derived from the ego.

The situation in the world necessitates publicizing the method for correction, the method for connection above the ego, how to remedy the situation, and that there is a cure. In addition, through connection we can rise to a new, eternal, and whole dimension of existence. And the Haggadah of Pesach (Passover Haggadah) tells us about this, about freedom from the angel of death, freedom from the ego.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #541 – Jewish Culture: The Ten Plagues In Our Day,”3/26/15

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