Society Of The Future: Glory Of Bestowal

Question: It is written that the last generation will “have many methodical books of wisdom and morals that prove the glory and sublimity of excellence in bestowing upon others, to a point where the entire nation, from small to great, engage in them wholeheartedly.”(Baal HaSulam, The Last Generation). What is this proof?

Answer: Only those who acquire qualities of bestowal and love have the proof.

An inversion of perception of reality takes place in a person who receives the upper qualities. He begins to feel everyone closer than himself, more important than himself, and above himself. Their knowledge, feelings, thoughts, approach, principles, and decisions become more important to him than his own behavioral bases.

Through others, he begins seeing the world outside of himself and eventually realizes that there is a common, single, and kind force in the world that keeps everyone on itself and pervades the entire universe. It fills the world with kindness, love, interrelation, and the feeling of eternity and perfection.

This is what is revealed to a person who acquires qualities of feeling his neighbor.

He gradually expands his circle that starts from the ten consisting of people who are close to him in spirit, methodology, and purpose. Then to this ten he attracts external tens who are studying within the framework of Bnei Baruch Kabbalah, then he moves to the people of Israel because these people were in the state of mutual love 2,000 years ago before destruction of the Temple, that is, before the disruption of good relationships between people.

And only after this he moves to the rest of the nations of the world, as it is written: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 6/26/17

Is The World Within Me Or Outside Of Me?

Question: Everybody knows that The Book of Zohar speaks about a person’s perception of reality. It is written in it that “a person is a small world.” That is, the entire world is within a person. If everything is in me, then how can it be that someone from the outside intervenes in my reality and can even harm me?

Answer: He does not exist outside of you. He is within you.

You are arranged in such a way that there are antagonistic qualities and forces within you. However, since you have not achieved a state of inner harmony yet, instead of seeing all the negativity within you as some bad inner combination, opposition, and antagonism of qualities and forces, you see it from the outside.

All this is for you to correct yourself internally. You are specifically shown all the faults from the outside, so that it is clear to you what you must correct within yourself. After all, you do not feel this inside yourself.

Question: That is, ideally, it would be good to feel all this inside myself?

Answer: If you could correct this inside yourself, then outside you would see only simple white light, the quality of love.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 2/12/17

“And The Lord Will Bring You Back To Egypt In Ships”

Torah, Deuteronomy 28:68: And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships, through the way about which I had said to you, You will never see it again. And there, you will seek to be sold to your enemies for slaves and handmaids, but there will be no buyer.

None of the nations will want you to live within their borders. The fact is that the desires that are subject to correction, in which the point in the heart arises, cannot exist inside egoistic desires.

They will be pushed out by the law of equivalence of form, and therefore the Jews will be completely isolated from others. And where will they be? Speaking from the geographical point of view, it is simply not clear where and how they will live because the only place for them is the land of Israel.

On the other hand, in order to choose the path of correction, a person must have freewill. This is a problem. I personally hope that there will be another round such as the one in the days of Tsarist Russia when the first Jewish societies that returned to Palestine were born.

Comment: But then the Jews were running away from pogroms.

My Response: Perhaps such circumstances will arise once again when they will be forced to leave the countries of exile. But this time there will be a basis prepared for them, a reason to return here. We are preparing this basis.

Question: It is written: “And the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships.” What does this mean?

Answer: To return to Egypt means to return to your egoism. If you are running away to some place, it is considered that you are running away by sea. There is no other way out of Israel, only by sea. All of this is explained in the Torah.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/28/16

The Spiritual Root Of Pride

Question: Can you please explain what the spiritual root of pride is? What is the root of arrogance?

Answer: It’s our egoism. In the world in which we exist, there is an “I,” the most important persona. Why? Because that’s how I experience myself. I am the most important, the most central, the most.

Our initial nature was intentionally created as the opposite of the Creator, so that as we begin to experience qualities of bestowal coming from Him, we can compare these qualities with our own egoistic qualities and begin to construct our understanding of the difference between this and that.

It is similar to the way we build an electrical system with various resistors, condensers, batteries, and other components. The elements may be opposite to one another, but thanks to the interaction between them, they create a correctly functioning system.

In our world too, everything is built on action and reaction because we, as created beings, can experience any property, sensation, or quality only with respect to its opposite: from darkness to light, from sour to sweet, and so on. There is no other way for us to discern anything. Two qualities need to be present in us, and we feel the difference between them.

The Creator has only one quality, the quality of bestowal, which is His initial state. He only created the quality of reception in order for us to exist and to be able to develop the quality of bestowal above it. It turns out that we exist in our world strictly in the movement from egoism to altruism. And this difference between them needs to remain.

Several interesting conclusions can be drawn from this. First, egoism is not destroyed, because otherwise we will lose the sensation of altruism. We cannot remove the quality of hatred, because without it we would not be able to experience love. We cannot get rid of sinners, thieves, and bullies, otherwise we will cease to experience what it means to be righteous. Everything is attained through contrast. That’s why it turns out that everything has to be in the world, but only in correct balance.

This is what the Kabbalist strives for because he understands how all of nature is constructed. He is not planning on destroying anyone or correcting anyone; he only demonstrates what exists in front of you, but what you do with it is your choice. In other words, this is a very generous methodology, relying on well-balanced individuals.
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From Kabbalah lesson in Russian 4/2/17

Why Did Dinosaurs Become Extinct?

Question: Why were the dinosaurs in existence for hundreds of millions of years? Does a Kabbalist know what made them extinct?

Answer: All the inanimate, vegetative, animal, and human life are gradually transformed into higher forms.

That is why the ancient fern and other plants became extinct, as did various kinds of animals. Even minerals have changed. According to researchers, you can tell how many million years old a particular rock is. Everything happens naturally.

The same holds true for the people. Just look at how different people living today are from those who lived a hundred or a thousand years ago. Even in their appearance, not to mention their level of consciousness.

If I were to teach Kabbalah today the way Aristotle and Plato wrote about it, claiming that the soul depends on how deeply a person breathes, I would be laughed at. Can you imagine what the great thinkers of the past wrote about?! With a deep inhalation and exhalation we fill our soul. And they really believed that is what the soul is.

Today, those great minds of their generation would look like silly boys if they remained on the same level because the constantly developing desire develops us. That is why we can not compare ourselves to other generations.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 3/19/17

New Life #887 – The Right Attitude To The Events In Our Life

New Life #887 – The Right Attitude To The Events In Our Life
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

What is the right attitude to the events in our life? Why is our development throughout history felt as suffering, and how can the recognition of the force that operates us affect this feeling?
From KabTV’s “New Life #887 – The Right Attitude To The Events In Our Life,” 7/25/17

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The Covenant In The Land Of Moab

Torah, Deuteronomy 28:69 – 29:03: These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

And Moses called all of Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that the Lord did before your very eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to all his land; the great trials which your very eyes beheld and those great signs and wonders.

Yet until this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear.

If you look from the side of the Judean desert, from the northern part of the Dead Sea against Jerusalem, then Moab stretches on the other side, beyond Jordan. Staying there, you are outside of the land of Israel, that is, you do not have to start correcting the desires for love, for reception for the sake of bestowal. However, these laws are already beginning to affect you.

Question: On one hand, it is written: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your very eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to all his land; the great trials which your very eyes beheld.” On the other hand, it is written: “Yet until this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear.” Why is there such a contradiction?

Answer: It is because the children of Israel have just finished mastering the degree of Bina, which is bestowal for the sake of bestowal, purification of their desires, and now they must start transforming them to bestowal and love.
This means that they must see because this is about the Light of Hochma.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 28/12/16

Entrance To The Land Of Israel: Not Threats, But Instructions

Reading the chapter of the Torah “Ki Tavo” (“When You Come”), it seems that it is full of threats. However, these are not threats, but instructions that give us an opportunity to act correctly at a new level.

Let’s say that a person is engaged in constructing nuclear power plants. How long is it necessary to train him so he will work correctly with such complex and dangerous equipment?!

It is the same here, this chapter explains how to keep ourselves on the spiritual path and what all the tolerances and landings, measurements, controls, checks, joints, and so on should be.

“Ki Tavo” is a special chapter because it speaks about the entrance to the degree “the land of Israel.”

Question: Does it mean that if we make a mistake in producing “the nuclear plant” that is called “the entrance to the land of Israel,” then we will be undergoing a step-by-step trial?

Answer: We already are undergoing this step-by-step trial. Look what is happening in the world to this day. We do not even know the consequences of the Chernobyl accident and of the explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.

Question: That is, is a nuclear power plant just child’s play compared to the entrance to the land of Israel?

Answer: Of course! We somehow got out of this on the material level. Say, a couple of thousand people were killed, although in fact there were many more, another couple of thousand are ill due to the radiation, another couple of million people are also ill, but they do not know why. But humanity survived it all, and here it will not. Here the people that enter the land of Israel must move only forward, there is no turning back.

Ascending to this degree, you are obliged to fully obey the instructions, including all the slightest subtleties; otherwise, there will be a breakdown that will affect everyone.

Question: Do you mean that there is only an entrance and no way out?

Answer: No, you are kicked back from the land of Israel. This is what happened to us 2,000 years ago so that today we again will begin to rise to this level, and this is, in principle, what the wisdom of Kabbalah is preparing for us.

This is an entrance to such a level where even on the first degree you become similar to the Creator. This is called the land of Israel, which is when your egoism already begins transforming to the equivalence to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 12/19/16