The Ten Plagues Of Egypt

Question: What are the “Ten Plagues of Egypt”?

Answer: The purpose of creation is going to the next level of existence, the upper world. While living on Earth, we have to feel the upper world, to see the system of management, the Creator of everything that exists in this world and is hidden from us today.

Egoism, which is our foundation, the enormous force of nature that we must transcend, is what “runs” us. On the one hand, the ego is drives us upward; on the other hand, it will not free us. After all, if it were to lead us as usual within itself through all the configurations and structures through which we have passed in the course of human evolution—the primitive era, the era of slavery, the feudal era, the capitalist era, and the socialist era—it would not be clear toward what we would continue.

But egoism puts a “wall” in front of us, we cannot move further; so the current phase is called “the last phase of human development on Earth.” In other words, egoism is requiring us to become rounded, to unite on the one hand, but on the other hand, it won’t let us unite. Therefore, the only solution we can come to is to transcend “Pharaoh” (egoism), above Egypt to the next level of existence, the higher system of management.

This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks about. This is what we must reach. The “Ten Plagues of Egypt” exist in order to completely break away from egoism. This is because our egoism consists of ten parts, which are the ten Sefirot: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. Each one of them “portrays” for us a particular type of existence within the ego.

We must gradually release ourselves from these ten Sefirot, these ten modes of existence. This happens when we begin to see that each one of them is finite, incomplete, leading to a blind alley and giving us no hope of continuing our existence within the ego.

The final phase of each of these ten levels, these characteristics, these parts of our ego, is the ten plagues of Egypt. After them it is no longer possible to remain within the ego. Instead we must get up and run away from it blindly. On the present level, we cannot see the next level. So the flight from Egypt happens at midnight, in total darkness.

The ten plagues of Egypt are in fact a separation from our egoism, when we run away in the dark and it is unclear where we are going. But the main thing is that we are running away from it! And so gradually we develop before us a new life, a new world, new eternal, infinite, and perfect new expanses.

Question: Is it possible to get along without the plagues?

Answer: No. In fact it is not pain but insight, enlightenment. The plagues pass over our ego and in these states we rise above it!

Comment: It turns out that if I identify with the ego, I feel the plagues. But if I rise above it, i.e., identify with Moses who is leading me forward, I don’t feel them.

Answer: This how the plagues function. They obligate a person to rise above them, and then he stops feeling the ego. If the person is elevated above it, he stops feeling it. Then a relaxed, new life begins.

So in fact, the ten plagues are not really plagues. They are the highest gift that the Creator gives a person, pushing him out of egoism forcefully. So, let’s go, let’s run away from it and gain a new world!
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/12/16

We Can Teach Everyone The Torah!

Question: Why do you believe that you are allowed to teach the Torah to people who are not Jewish?

Answer: According to the Torah, the goal of creation is to bring all the created beings to adhesion with the Creator. Adhesion is attained by the correction of the ego to love, as it says: “love thy friend as thyself; this is the great rule of the Torah.” Jews are a nation that has to fulfill the Creator’s rule first, and then teach it to the whole world. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah says and what I believe. I will refer to the following items:

The source of the prohibition

Contemporary Rabbi Yoel Shwartz, says: a non Jew who studies the Torah commits a sin. It is forbidden for Jews to teach the gentiles the Torah. The prohibition for a gentile to study the Torah is first mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud: Rabi Yochanan said “A gentile who studies the Torah should die, as it says, ‘Moses commanded us a law, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.’ (Deuteronomy 33:4). This is our legacy and not theirs!” (Sanhedrin 59:1).

“It is forbidden to teach the Torah to gentiles” (Hagigah, 13:1). Rambam quotes Rabi Meir as the authority, “a gentile who studies the Torah should die, and they are allowed to study only what is related to the seven commandments” (Mishna Torah, the Laws of Kings 10:9).

Shmuel Abuav who lived in the 17^th century said: The Christians use the Jewish writings in order to prove the reliability of their faith and it is therefore forbidden to teach them the Torah.

However, there are quite a few examples of famous rabbis who taught the Torah to gentiles. A teacher of the German researcher of Judaism Johan Raichlin was the composer of the classic commentary of the Bible, “Our Story.” Such people knew theHalacha and couldn’t consciously break the rules of the Torah!

Rambam said that it forbidden to teach the Torah only to the gentiles who don’t acknowledge the Godly nature of the Torah. “We can teach the Torah to Christians because they believe that our Torah was given to us by God through our teacher Moses (Pe’er Ha’Dor, 38).

The Talmudic scholar of the Middle Ages Menachem HaMeiri said that if a gentile studies the Torah out of curiosity, it is not forbidden to teach him. This became relevant in modern times when the question of whether it is allowed to teach Jewish matters at universities arose.

The American Rabbi Jacob Weinberg said that when a gentile studies the Torah for academic purposes, there is no prohibition to do so. He was a lecturer at the non-Jewish University of Giessen in Germany who taught the Torah and the Talmud.

In the 19^th century the Lithuanian, Rabbi Israel Salenter dreamt of turning the Talmud into one of the subjects at non-Jewish universities and at that time only gentiles studied at universities.

Teaching mixed groups

Halacha authorities such as Jacob Weinberg, Isaac Klein, Moshe Finestein, Ovadia Yoseph and others claimed that the prohibition to teach the Torah refers only to a group that is totally non-Jewish, but it is possible to reach the Torah to a Jew in the presence of gentiles even if they can also study.

According to Rav Finestein a non-Jewish slave of Raban Gamliel, Tabie, is mentioned in the Talmud as a great expert in the Torah. Tabie acquired his knowledge when he was present in the lessons given by Raban Gamliel to his Jewish students. The sages of the Talmud had no problem teaching the Torah even when there were non-Jews among the listeners.

The seventh Rabbi from Lubavich welcomed the study of the Torah by modern means of communication and in modern languages although this form of teaching included many non-Jewish readers and listeners.

Constraint: The prohibition to teach the Torah to non Jews is cancelled if there is a government decree because disobeying such a decree might endanger the Jewish community. Today any attempt to separate Jewish and non-Jewish students in academic institutions might arouse negative responses. Thus a Jewish lecturer may believe that he is constantly under the government decree which nullifies the prohibition to teach the Torah to non-Jews.

Is there a prohibition to teach the Torah to non-Jews?

Rav Isaac Ilinburg (1550-1623) noticed that his Italian colleagues taught the Torah to non-Jews. He emphasized that neither Rambam nor other Halacha authorities ever mention the prohibition to teach the Torah to non-Jews.

He thus concluded that parallel expressions in Masechet Hagigah are not the Halachaat all. He said that he was not ready to publicly declare that only for fear of the reactions of his colleagues.

Rav Arie-Leib Ginsburg (2695-1785), the author of The Lion’s Roar, holds the same opinion.

Summary:

History provides us with plenty of examples of non-Jews who studied the Torah and used their knowledge not in order to harm the Jewish nation but in its favor, in order to contradict false accusations against Judaism.
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Cleaning The Vessel Of The Soul

Question: Are we to blame for our suffering?

Answer: No, the Creator who created evil inclination is to blame. This is what He said: “I created the evil inclination, and I gave a method to correct it.” But if we manage to transform evil into good, we will obtain the same level of existence as the Creator Himself.

Everything in our world is arranged so that man himself would unearth all the problems of his nature, his evil inclination, and he himself would discover how to correct it. Moreover, these problems can be easily overcome; all we need is to just systematically and correctly use the method of correction.

If people start asking these questions, it means they are ready to start using this method, and then they will gradually understand why everything is created this way and not otherwise. They will realize that the Creator is a special force of nature that includes in itself the entire world, the entire nature, and all upper levels, which are unreachable to us yet, but which we will reveal.

By correcting our ego, deliberately created by the Creator to be so savage, enormous, universal, we become the masters of the entire nature: both of our world and all other worlds. We rise to the level of eternity and perfection, even without falling into death, but simply by rising to the next degree.

Nowadays humanity has reached such level of development when the question about the meaning of life arises in most people in the world. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, it means that we are ready to discover the upper world.

Question: So why do we suffer when the thought of creation bring contentment to man?

Answer: It’s because we don’t correct ourselves. If we know how to do it and start entering the method of correction, we will immediately feel better and better, climbing the steps of the benevolent ladder.

Comment: In this regard there is a very interesting legend. A man exhausted by thirst is standing beside a stream with clear spring water and trying to fill a dirty glass. The water seems to him unpatable, bitter, he can’t drink it and he curses the dirty stream (in this way we often curse the Creator who sends us suffering).

When he finally understands that the problem is not water, but his glass, everything changes. He cleans the vessel, the taste of the water changes, and he realizes that there always was spring water in his glass while he was suffering.

Answer: Yes, this is our life. If we manage to draw correct forces from it, we will be able to constantly enjoy it. And if not, then vise versa.
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Happiness And The Pursuit Of It – It’s Bad!

In the News (mignews): “Scientists claim that people who are happy and carefree live less than people who are dismal because a high degree of feeling happiness is crazy and makes a person take unnecessary risk. The researchers found that happiness and even the desire for it – it is bad, it can hurt the psyche, poison life and even reduce its duration. This is according to experts from Yale University in the United States, from the American University of Denver and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. This is confirmed by the collected factual material. … Books that give advice on how to become happy are also a bad influence. Readers begin to pursue happiness, suffer failure and as a result feel worse. Scientists advise that one should stop being concerned about happiness and this will bring true happiness.”

My Comment: That is how we become aware that it is a justified but unfulfilled desire that is optimal for existence. The Creator created it so specifically for us to attain the goal of creation.

The desire for fulfillment will never be fulfilled. Above it, we aspire for the unlimited greatness of the Creator, His infinite comprehension, and in this yearning we attain happiness! Kabbalah described the conditions for attaining happiness almost 6,000 years ago…
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The Reality Of The Universe

Comment: A group of famous American scientists gathered in the American Museum of Natural History in New York in order to discuss topics that sound quite unreal.

In particular, it was noted that our Universe seems real to us, but lately an increasing number of scientists began to wonder whether the world around us is just a result of some complex simulation. And whether we and everything around us are just data points in some space hologram.

Answer: Our world is not a hologram, but a special system of forces that appears to us in this way and is displayed on the screen that exists inside of us.

There is no world outside of me and everything I see around is inside me: you and everybody else. It follows that I play with some images allegedly existing outside of me.

Actually there is only one quality outside of me:the quality of complete love and bestowal called “the Creator.” Kabbalists describe it very simply, like a given. And if you ask: “What about me?”—you feel the same relatively to yourself and so does everyone else.

So do you exist? Relatively to me you exist, relatively to you I do too. It is very difficult for us to understand. We will stay confused about this for a long time. However, nothing will work untill we exit into a correct image of the world and then we will see it all.

It is said in Kabbalah: “Whatever will be revealed to you, is revealed to you and nobody else.” And this is the only way it will be.

Question: Does it mean that science will not discover it?

Answer: It is impossible. We don’t yet have relevant properties in order to correctly determine and imagine to ourselves the real world.

One can say that it is a “matrix” and we live inside it. And this is not a fiction. We live inside the system of forces that draw within us, on our internal screen, different images that in reality don’t exist. Like electric forces draw all kind of images on the television screen, same way it happens inside us.

Scientists will reach a dead end because all their assumptions don’t have a proof and won’t give anything to humanity. In any case, science is limited by the fact that it attains everything within our five earthly, corporeal sense organs.

We have to rise above them and acquire a new sensory organ that allows us to exit “outside of ourselves.” And then we will start feeling the real world, not disturbed by our egoistic properties.
[181524]

The Huffington Post: “On Consumerism, Terror, and Human Nature”

In my column in the Pulitzer Prize winning online news aggregator The Huffington Postpublished my article in English and French.

“On Consumerism, Terror, and Human Nature”

For decades, we have been told that if we only had that coolest, newest car/phone/pair of shoes/you-name-it, we would be happy. But as soon as we get that newest thing that was guaranteed to make us happy, we are told that a new something has just come out and we will never be happy unless we get it… This is how we invented consumerism.

In recent years a new trend has surfaced. It’s called “lowsumerism,” advocating buying only what we really need and being conscious of the impact of our purchases on the planet.

But avoiding over shopping won’t make us any happier. So instead of asking, “How can we stop overconsuming?” we should ask, “Why are we overconsuming in the first place?”

Psychologists, Brickman and Campbell, coined the term “Hedonic Relativism” to roughly describe our propensity to consume perpetually. Nowadays we call it what it is, “Hedonic Treadmill.” But observing a phenomenon and naming it do not explain its cause. To understand why we are so prone to it we have to understand human nature and the course of its development.

Like all other elements in reality, we, humans, consist of positive and negative elements. Inhaling and exhaling allows for breathing, and the heart’s pumping in and pushing out of blood allows for circulation. Without them we would die. Likewise, male and female complement one another so as to allow the continuation of our species, and children’s rest-play cycle allows them to grow up healthy.

On all levels of reality, this balance between the negative and positive is maintained, except for one part of the system—the level of human desires. In my book, Self-Interest vs. Altruism in the Global Era: how society can turn self-interests into mutual benefit, which I published five years ago, I showed how human desires are evolving in such a way that the negative element is taking over and causes us to skid off balance, into a mode that is destroying our planet, our society, and ultimately ourselves. The over-amplification of the negative elements in our desires manifests in excessive self-centeredness, alienation, coupled with a desire to exploit others for personal gain.

The problem is that our natural instinct to stop when we have had enough is overtaken by our need to outdo others—be smarter, stronger, prettier, wealthier, and so on. The more “ers” we can attach to egos, the better we feel about ourselves. Consequently, nothing about us is balanced. And because we are permanently out of balance, we are in constant (though usually unconscious) anxiety, to the point that we confuse relief (from anxiety) with happiness.

But there is a reason why we cannot balance our desires like the rest of nature. We overconsume because we feel disconnected from each other, when in fact we are connected in a web of thoughts and desires that dictates who we are at almost every level. And yet, only if we rise above our self-centeredness we will be able to experience this level of connection positively.

Since we cannot rise above this connectedness, we hate it and resist it in various ways. The more subdued and introvert among us tend to shy away from society and isolate themselves. When they cannot be happy they often sink into depression and escape through drug and alcohol abuse, or even become suicidal. The less inhibited among us take the opposite route, and might express their broken connections to people in violent and aggressive manners.

Take ISIS, for example. There are many devout Muslims who do not become violent. They maintain a strict way of life according their faith, but do not try to force it on others or punish anyone who lives differently.

The Brussels terrorist attacks from March 22 are the opposite example. Beyond the Islamist ideology, it is an outburst of human hatred that has become homicidal misanthropy. Compared to such outbursts, overconsumption seems like a piece of cake to handle. Yet, all these problems stem from the same root: our inability to balance the negative with the positive within us.

We need only watch the news to know that we have reached a tipping point, where we must get a grip on ourselves, on our very nature, and restore the balance. To do that, we must learn to connect in a positive way.

We can educate ourselves into awareness of how our interconnectedness benefits us. Instead of trying to impose lowsumerism on ourselves, we simply learn how to use our desires for the common good. And since we love to be unique, our uniqueness will enrich our communities, societies, and the world we live in. Instead of taking, taking, taking, we will be giving, giving, giving. Yet because it will be the general mode of conduct in society, we will end up receiving infinitely more than we could ever give to ourselves.

In a society where everyone contributes, we will have much more than material abundance. We will enjoy emotional satisfaction from being able to express ourselves creatively, and mental strength and vigor from the constant positive feedback we will get from our social environment.

We have no time to waste. The global society is on the brink of collapse. We, the people, can change it into Heaven, or we can let it become Hell. The choice is ours, and we must make it now.
[180584]

A Cyber-Attack On Israel

Question: It was reported that pro-Islamic and pro-Palestinian organizations are planning a massive cyber-attack on Israel. They are planning to break into the email boxes of Internet users, attack Facebook, and so on.

Answer: I call on them to attack me and steal from me everything that is written on our site and disseminate it. But seriously, all of the wars today are in virtual space. I don’t understand what these organizations are arming themselves against in the first place.

Question: What if we could spread our information this way?

Answer: The point is that there is a person to whom you send the information who, being trapped by his ego, says, “I don’t want to.”

What’s the point in giving him information about the need to unite? You will not be able to give him anything unless he is given a good spanking and forced to open his mouth from above, but all of this is still ahead of us. It is probably impossible to manage it without blows.

Pesach (Passover) is before us now. Passover tells us about a person who begins to move toward freedom and continues to evolve only after he has undergone terrible afflictions and feels that he must attain the truth. Therefore, being in Egypt is essential.

A person must undergo all of the ten plagues of Egypt and reach the state in which he must exit them and attain the right goal that actually is determined while being in exile in Egypt. Egypt symbolizes our ego and how we suffer from it, and the ten plagues of Egypt are ten serious blows to the ego, which means to our desires, to a comfortable bourgeoisie life, to domination, glory, knowledge, pleasures, and so forth.

The exile in Egypt, the terrible suffering, helps us break away from this type of life, and then we begin to feel that they are worthless, meaningless, hopeless, and useless. Neither drugs nor wealth can help us—nothing! It is also impossible to die, and all that we have left is this mortal existence that is much worse than death.

Then, a person decides that he is ready to do anything in order to find the truth. It is actually from this state that he yearns for the truth, so exodus from Egypt is exodus from spiritual exile.

Question: Can a person hear the message of Kabbalists and avoid such extreme states? Otherwise, what are we disseminating this information for?

Answer: We are disseminating information so that people would be able to reduce their corporeal suffering, which can become very great before they want to get rid of them, so that they could determine as quickly as possible that egoism is bad and that a person should escape it, but only toward the right goal.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/7/16

Words And Images

Question: You once said in a lecture that you see and remember images and pictures. The matter of creation is one: a desire to receive and the form is the intention either for yourself or for others, which means in order to bestow.

Does that mean that we have to try to see the Creator (the form of bestowal) behind every object in our world? Do we change our perspective or do we change ourselves by that?

Answer: No, my thinking is simply in images; I don’t see words but images and pictures to such an extent that I hardly speak. I don’t associate words with images that appear in me, and therefore I can barely learn foreign languages, etc.
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