Can We Picture The Spiritual World?

Question: In the corporeal world there are colors, shades and sounds and we can describe and draw. How can we picture the spiritual world? Are there corporeal objects there like houses and trees?

Answer: No, and neither are there in our world. Houses, trees, colors, shades, and sounds exist only in our perceptions. Objectively there is nothing beyond our senses.

All of reality is depicted in our brain and is then fixed in our senses. This is how we feel our inner attributes, which depict inside us what seems to be our environment.

The spiritual world is objective and external to us, and so we begin to feel the perfect eternal nature there, the upper nature that is in perfect harmony, and not our own nature.

We are chained so tightly to the frameworks of our world that we cannot imagine what the perception of the true reality is. When we get rid of our body, of the feeling of existing in the current dimension, everything will be clear, as it says: “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/21/16

A Second Holocaust? It Is Up To Us

When anti-Semitism is rising reaching heights we have never seen before, a call to cancel the Holocaust Memorial Day was echoed on campuses all over Europe. In the US, there are campus protests to boycott Israel, and the BDS organization is becoming increasingly more legitimate in the eyes of many. It may be time to begin asking ourselves how to prevent a second Holocaust.

I was born in 1946, about a year after WWII, in the region of Vitebsk where many Jews were killed. The atrocities our people had undergone were burned into my memory since I was a child and have been part of my life. For me, the Holocaust Remembrance Day is not just a national memorial day for a tragic event that took place in the past, but a warning sign of what might happen, especially if we consider the hatred that the nations of the world feel toward us.

It is a common mistake to believe that the hatred for the Jews was born in Nazi Germany seven decades ago. It is actually a phenomenon that is more than 3,000 years old. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the root for the deep hatred is at the gathering at Mt. Sinai, a special event where the feeling of hatred was revealed among the nation of Israel (the word “Sinai” stems from the root “Sina – hatred” in Hebrew), on top of which they managed to rise and unite as one man in one heart through the method of connection, the Torah.
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From the Webinar, “Why Jews?”

Two Systems Of Control

Question: What is the spiritual root of cruelty?

Answer: There are two systems of control: right and left. The left is a cruel and terrible system, and the right is its opposite, it gently softens everything with affection, welcoming, encouragement, and support. And we advance in the middle line, more or less around it.

Sometimes the left line enters  the control of the world, and wars and annihilation begin, great suffering comes. If the right line enters the world, then we feel that everything is going well.

The problem is that when we feel good, we soften and weaken, returning the world to the hard line again.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/14/16

Why Is The Creator Hiding?

Question: If the Creator intends to give us pleasure, why is He hiding?

Answer: How else could He fill us if we didn’t have a desire for pleasure?! So this is necessary. First the Creator hides Himself, creates the desire for pleasure, and then this desire develops itself to feel a great need, a yearning for fulfillment!

And then to the degree that the huge egoism is corrected, he feels the Creator. Otherwise a person will not appreciate the immense pleasure that the Creator prepares for him. Moreover, this fulfillment exists around us and within us now, but we don’t feel it! So to tempt us, the Creator hides and creates all kinds of problems for us.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/14/16

New Life #720 – The Splitting Of The Red Sea

New Life #720 – The Splitting Of The Red Sea
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

The development of humanity cannot be described without the Torah that influences it dramatically. Kabbalists don’t relate to the Torah as a description of the phenomena of nature, but as an inner description of a person according to “A person is a small world” (Midrash Tanhuma, Parshat Pekudei, Siman 3).

The truth is that there is no world outside of a person, everything that we see around us is a projection of our interior. 100 years ago we didn’t imagine that there would be television, and in the future, technology will insert the viewer into the movie realistically. When we approach a spiritual perception we understand that reality is portrayed within us. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the wisdom of perception.

The Torah describes how the upper thought, the higher program, directs all of the theater around us. A person lives within himself, yet he has the possibility of connecting to that higher thought, the upper force. Some of us believe that there is a higher power that demands that a person fulfill Mitzvot (commandments) and accordingly gives us a reward in this world and in the next world. Others say that the higher power expects us to want to become aware of it, to resemble it, to love as it does.

Those who are concerned about their privacy in this world and in the next world, remain in the ego, with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. And those who are concerned about love of others, to be like the upper force, which is good and does good, leave Egypt. When they want to break away from the control of the ego, egoistic thoughts again “pursue” them, which are called, “He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh” (Exodus 9:20), and they seem to tell a person to fulfill Mitzvot, to receive a reward and be satisfied with this.

The Exodus from Egypt reaches its conclusion with the splitting of the Red Sea (Yam Suf), detachment from the egoistic intention. It is called this because it indicates the end (Sof) of the control of Pharaoh in Egypt. The egoistic intentions in a person are not able to agree with disconnection. Therefore they sink in the sea, and this is their correction. The sea symbolizes the waters of Gevura, and they are opened only for those who are truly ready to break away from self-interest and thinking of oneself as a law of nature.

The splitting of the Red Sea describes what goes on in a person internally. The miracle happens through the power of faith when we are ready to go above our reason, and according to the force of love. The splitting of the Red Sea is detachment from the ego and association to the total system, and this is the answer to all the questions of existence.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #720 – The Splitting Of The Reed Sea,” 4/21/16

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On The Path To Correction

Question: Why does a person who begins to go along the path toward correction continue to suffer? And therefore, what is the difference between the “path of Torah” and the “path of suffering”?

Answer: A person who is going along the path of correction must already discern that the suffering that he gets, which attracts him toward correction, is called sufferings of love.

When I give a child small jobs, he or she is not suffering! These are actions the child must perform, and in this manner he advances toward a better state. If he perceives this correctly, the whole path even becomes a way of discovery for him.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/14/16

New Life #548 – The Holocaust And The New Jewish Identity

New Life #548 – The Holocaust And The New Jewish Identity
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

How has the Holocaust affected our development as a nation? What should we understand from what happened and what is the Jewish identity we have to build so that we will become a model and a source of affinity for the whole world?

Summary

The world is advancing not only technologically; we also need to develop a new awareness, a positive attitude to everyone. Today it is clear that we can achieve anything technologically and there is great abundance, but the relations between people are getting worse.

This process started a hundred years ago. We were given a chance to return to our land and to re-establish the connection between us. But because we didn’t do so, the world was thrown into maelstrom of wars, revolutions, and finally the Holocaust.

After the Holocaust we were given the chance to build ourselves in the land of Israel. Today, the world is collapsing and the ego is destroying everything. Before the Holocaust we survived in exile and kept the religious customs. But because we did not advance to a new consciousness of leading the world to love, we receive a negative push.

All the afflictions we have undergone since establishing of the State of Israel stem from the delay in our advancement toward a new consciousness. The true internal Jewish identity is that we are all one bundle. We have to correct our egoism.

Our nation has been divided into two groups in Israel, religious and secular, and there are numerous factions within each group. We have to build an umbrella that will protect us from hatred, rejection, and detachment. We must awaken the connecting force. Let’s spur the positive force in the nation above the negative force of egoism and hold the two reins.

The revelation of the force of connection and love between people is called the revelation of the Creator. This is the goal of our life. When we were in exile we kept the traditional Jewish way. But in Israel, the negative force and hatred erupted. Today we have to add the positive force that will lead the nation to connection. We need people who can lead and educate the nation to this end. Then the positive force, the force of love, will spread among us and will put in every human’s heart the care for the well being of others.

The future Jewish identity is to lead humanity to love and connection, and will thus become a spiritual nation.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #548 – The Holocaust And The New Jewish Identity,” 4/7/15

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One-Third Of British Muslims Are Anti-Semites

Question: According to the results of a poll that was arranged by the ICN company, more than a third of the adherents of Islam in Britain believe that the Jews have acquired too much control in Britain and influence over the communications media, financial institutions, and the economy. In addition, more than one-fourth of them are convinced that the Jews are responsible for most of the wars on Earth.

Unlike the other citizens in Britain, 27% of the Muslims who were questioned, acknowledge that they hate the Jews simply because of their behavior. So has anti-Semitism been more pronounced among Muslims than anyone else historically?

Answer: Throughout many generations Jews and Muslims existed together more or less normally because they never had any religious opponents, there weren’t special contrasts between them.

The crisis in relationships began from geographic and political opposition, when England didn’t want to leave the land of Israel and began to incite hatred among the Arabs toward the Jews. This was the usual policy of “divide and rule.”

Islam in its essence is not at all opposed to Judaism; on the contrary, these have been two religions that have been close as a counterweight to Christianity.

Question: Why does the current radical Islam bear such intense aggressiveness toward the Jews?

Answer: Modern Islam is radical Islam, yet the foundation of true Islam is Sufism (Islamic Wisdom of Kabbalah). Arab Kabbalists (Sufis) have lived in all times, from which are great literary works.

Today a major clash of egoism is happening in the world. So it is natural and necessary for Israel to go out first and present the method of unity to the whole world. This exists only with us, and we don’t want to reveal it in us and begin to work with it. This method of unification is called the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is not mysticism, Tarot cards, or red strings, but specifically the true wisdom of Kabbalah.

If we begin to be involved with the wisdom of Kabbalah, all of humanity will immediately feel how serious our intention is to introduce corrections of the egoistic nature of humanity into the world and bring everyone to unity, establishing peace and tranquility. Then all the streams that are directed against us will disappear.

Question: What is the first current that will accept the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: First everyone will be against the Kabbalists, including Judaism. After that, awareness and understanding will begin to happen partly among Christians and partly among Jews.

In the meantime, the matter is much more complicated among the Muslims even though inside they are closer to understanding. But there is a very big internal problem among them regarding their identity.

The best thing will be if we Jews unite and show the peoples of the world how to achieve global unity in our world.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/14/16