Resistance To The Wisdom Of Kabbalah, Part 3

From the book Collection of Laws, “Blessings for Smells and Blessings for Gratitude”, Law 4: We must now approach the true righteous man of this generation, so that he will find out for us what faith is for today’s time, for faith must be learned every day anew.

And in this, the main strengthening of the evil principle in every generation is to hide and hide precisely the true righteous man of our time. As we see with our own eyes that the main disagreement about the righteous man of this generation, and then after a long time will recognize him and call him a righteous man, but they will not agree on the righteousness of the next generation.

In every generation there are disputes about the Kabbalist who lives and works at this time. They hate him, struggle with him, and cannot agree with him. This is nature.

In fact, the same thing happens in every personal state. When we ascend the spiritual steps, we can agree with the steps that we have already passed, but we are against the current state and have a lot of objections.

Only after the state has been passed through struggle, through the right, left, and middle lines, through ups and downs, and clarifications, as a result of all this, we can agree with the past, which is already included in the correction.

Therefore, the objections to Kabbalah are quite understandable. We need to consider them as an integral part of the process of development that comes from nature. We will still feel the face-to-face confrontation with the right and left lines, the power of bestowal and the power of reception—the two forces that act in nature.

Therefore, do not worry too much about the opponents of Kabbalah. We are on the battlefield of two forces. And in fact, this is not a struggle, as it seems to us, but a form of communication and correction. In this way we can study these two forces—when one is based on the other.

But at all times, a Kabbalist who lives in this generation has no chance of being recognized by his contemporaries and understood by the people. How is it possible to understand him if he belongs to the same generation? Everyone else is at such a level that they are not capable of this.

But after a while, there is a softening. Some gradually start to understand the Kabbalists of the last generation and there are some who are even engaged in spiritual work but still cannot understand his followers.

That is why even the Ari was not accepted by all the Kabbalists of his generation immediately. The renewal that every Kabbalist brings to the world in his time is not necessarily revealed in other souls. That is why it is difficult for them to agree with him.

Each generation reveals a new layer of informational genes (Reshimot), and there are souls in this layer that are more developed and are already ready for correction. and therefore, these people go all the way. And there are those who are still on the borderline and can wait.

They say that Kabbalah is the right teaching but not for them, and maybe they even do not agree with it. That is, they feel some relation to Kabbalah and, at the same time, separation and hatred appears. They begin to protest against Kabbalah.

People who began to study and then left also become opponents of Kabbalah because they need to justify themselves. Their Reshimot have not matured yet. And if a person has not corrected his desire to enjoy, then he must justify himself as to why he left the correction process.

At all times, the egoistic desire wants us to feel that we exist, that is, that we are right. Therefore, their criticism of Kabbalah is inevitable. There were a lot of such cases in our time and in the past.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/17, Lesson on the Topic: “The Resistance to Kabbalah”

Why Does A Person Need This Huge World?

Question: You say that the Creator is revealed in the ten. Then why does a person need this huge world? The ten would be enough.

Answer: This huge world is a reflection of the desire created by the Creator, which consists of the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels. The speaking level is the highest. However, there is an even higher level in it—one that has a point in the heart—it corrects everything and all other levels join it.

Therefore, the desire is so great that eventually one feels all the qualities of the Creator: what is called the four phases of direct Light, His quality of bestowal, and the full power of bestowal.

Question: Does it mean that a person begins his spiritual development when there are nine other people around him, that is, nine biological bodies?

Answer: It is only in this laboratory in uniting with nine other people like him. No more than nine. There can be a little less, but it is preferable to have a ten.

And then the entire world becomes one ten. A lot of tens begin to join them and then they merge with each other, like drops of water.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/11/17

“This Song Will Bear Witness Against Them”

Torah, Deuteronomy 31:21: And it will be, when they will encounter many evils and troubles, this song will bear witness against them, for it will not be forgotten from the mouth of their offspring. For I know their inclination what they [are planning] to do today, [even] before I bring them in to the land which I have sworn [to give them].

The Creator says to a person: “I know that you are a liar, a scoundrel, a traitor, and therefore, I direct you so that you can overcome it. However, this song will sound in you as evidence.”

This is a state when a person completes the previous step and ascends to the next.

Torah, Deuteronomy 31:22: And Moses wrote this song on that day, and taught it to the children of Israel

“The same day” means in the same state.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/25/17

New Life #903 – Life In A Movie

New Life #903 – Life In A Movie
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

What is the power that manages our lives? Are we all imprisoned in a movie that was written for us? How can we influence our daily lives for the better?
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From KabTV’s “New Life #903 – Life In A Movie,” 9/5/17

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Jerusalem, Built From Our Hearts

Jerusalem is an indicator of the spiritual state of the people. That is why, there’s no place with greater disunity and hatred between all the currents of people than in Jerusalem.

It is a very rigid city because it manifests the true state in everyone’s heart toward unification. Jerusalem can either be the center of separation for the people of Israel or the center of its unity.

In the times of the Second Temple, people practiced the Torah and commandments and engaged in acts of charity, so why was the Temple destroyed? Because there was unfounded hatred (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate “Yoma”).

In those times, the commandments were meticulously followed, the Torah was studied, philanthropy was spread; there was only one problem that people did not get along with each other. It is just like today: there are a lot of religious people that scrupulously follow everything; however, there is disunity among them, distance, antagonism, and hatred.

And that is why everything collapses, as it is written: “The day the Temple is not rebuilt, it is as if it is destroyed again.” Until we unite above our differences, we cannot achieve the corrected state.

That is why correction is not conditioned on the observance of the Torah, the commandments, or engaging in charity but only on the connection of the hearts. We need at least to turn toward loving your neighbor, and then Jerusalem will be rebuilt, and everything in it.

Question: Does charity not mean mutual bestowal?

Answer: Charity is when a person is really ready to help another, give away everything he has—but his heart. He is not ready to connect in his heart. What is his intention for giving the charity? For the life of his children, reward in this world, and the future world.

Without studying the science of Kabbalah, it is impossible to achieve the state of bestowal, the quality of Lishma, because a person does not attract the Light that reforms, which is called the Torah. He is not trying to change his egoistic desire. Therefore, his charity is purely for his own benefit.

That is why the Temple was destroyed, despite people following the Torah and commandments and engaging in charity, because it all was for their own sake. The people were divided and that is what led to the destruction of the Temple.

We are unable to connect to be in one desire, in one heart, which is called “being under one blanket,” a single anti-egoistic screen.

Love of all has to be the purpose of our existence. Without this, there will be no nation of Israel, no country of Israel, no land of Israel. That is why it should become a national program. All efforts should be made to educate the people in the spirit of brotherly love, and naturally, Judaism has to lead the way of being an example of such love for the entire nation.

As it says in the book Sefer ha-Middot (The Book of Character Traits) in the chapter, “Importance of Faith”: “Jerusalem will not be rebuilt until peace reigns among the people of Israel.” Achieving peace within the people of Israel and committed, friendly relationships is what it means to rebuild Jerusalem: not from stones, but from our hearts.
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“For I Proclaim The Name Of The Lord…”

Torah, Deuteronomy, 32:03: For I proclaim the name of the Lord; Ascribe greatness to our God!

Question: Why should “Amen” be said after the blessing?

Answer: “Amen” means truth, rightness. In all languages it is pronounced Amen, and is referred to as a seal after each indisputable statement.

Question: What does it mean: “For I proclaim the name of the Lord?”

Answer: This means that within my desire, or a part of it, I can perform an action when all parts of my desire will be collected in such a way that the Creator will reveal Himself in them. The Creator does not reveal Himself for no reason. He is a quality of bestowal. It should appear on some substrate, on some matter, on some basis. I must prepare this basis from my desires, from my relationships with others. If the relationship of absolute bestowal and love arises between us, then the Creator manifests in our inner relationships. This is His name.

Question: Why are different names of the Creator manifested all the time?

Answer: The names of the Creator are qualities of bestowal, of love, which are manifested in different styles at different levels.

The Creator has many styles because His common name is the ten Sefirot, the four-letter name HaVaYaH. It is not voiced in a person, it is only its manifestation in the properties of a person that is voiced. Therefore, there are ten so-called indelible names, ten Sefirot, in addition to others.

Question: We often say that He is great, good, loving, etc. Is it possible to call them names of the Creator?

Answer: No, these are epithets, not names. In the same way, I can say about a person: “He is good-natured, he is wise,” but this is not a name, it is his certain quality.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/30/17

The Era Of Stress, Part 1

Question: Stress, tension, and psychological pressure have all become ordinary phenomena that every person experiences. Our era is even called the era of stress. Modern existence puts a person under chronic daily stress, making stress a constant rather than a periodic occurrence.

It is also known that prolonged stress is the cause of all most common illnesses: heart disease, diabetes, strokes, depression, etc. What explains this frightening phenomenon that we are living with today?

Answer: A person is a desire to receive pleasure and if he receives pleasure, he is calm. This is also seen in animals. But, from generation to generation, a person’s desire for pleasure constantly grows so he always requires ever increasing pleasure or fulfillment for his desire.

And because everyone wants to receive ever increasing pleasure, we find that we have to share with others, therefore, there is nothing in life from which we can just receive fulfillment. With each generation, life becomes increasingly more stressful.

And now stress is becoming increasingly more specific; the evidence is the increase in the incidence of heart attacks and depression, the rise in the use of narcotics and antidepressants by every group, including household pets.

We are all under constant stress, which increases the probability of heart disease and other illnesses. Not all diseases appear to be a direct result of stress, but in reality, stress is the main cause. There is no disease in the body that is not the effect of stress: skin disease, diseases of the inner organs, mainly, the heart and lungs.

Stress accompanies us from the moment we are released from our mother’s arms and it does not leave us until the end of our lives. As children we are required to go to kindergarten where we are immediately placed under stress because we don’t want to be there. Before, children were raised at home by their mothers and grandmothers, and later took on the profession of their fathers and continued their craft. A person didn’t leave his circle.

Today, he is obligated to travel somewhere, run, fly, search, where to receive a profession and fulfillment for his life. His egoism grows. He receives information from the Internet, from others, and doesn’t want to be less successful than the rest. Therefore he is under constant pressure. The result of all this is that we live under constant stress.

In addition, a person works 24 hours a day. We could ask, why should he work so much? But, the elite want to earn more money and drag us into all kinds of competitions. The husband and the wife work, while the poor children are abandoned in a kindergarten or at school from early morning, where they too are under stress. If you talk to children, you would be amazed at the kind of psychological pressure they are under.

You can’t take a small child from the mother. A child, by his very nature, needs to grow up within the family or some kind of a wider environment that he accepts as his own family. As soon as he is taken from home and placed in a kindergarten, he immediately finds himself in a stressful state because he doesn’t feel safe there.

A child wants to be the same as everyone else, that is the most soothing state. It is not pride, but merely a lack of confidence, that makes him want to hide himself among others. After he moves through this first stage and becomes like everyone else, i.e., the society accepts him, then the ego pushes him to want to stand out from the rest. He starts to make a constant calculation between safety and aspiration for power, pride, and can even step outside his comfort zone or put himself in danger to a particular degree.

But the search for a maximal safe state or the desire to stand out both put us under very heavy stress, and this is where our entire life happens. If we live in a society that is completely controlled by egoism, then we cannot hide from stress and we are only left with antidepressants and narcotics. This is what we are seeing in today’s society.
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From KabTV’s “A New Life” 7/27/17

New Life #902 – Nuclear Threat In Our Day

New Life #902 – Nuclear Threat In Our Day
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

The situation toward which we are said to be developing already exists, but the question is in which way we achieve it? Why should a person’s level of awareness be raised in regard to life, death, and the next world, so as not to fantasize about living in the Garden of Eden? What effect does the possession of nuclear weaponry have on humanity?
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From KabTV’s “New Life #902 – The Nuclear Threat In Our Day,” 9/5/17

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