Audio Version Of The Blog – 02.11.15

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Life Management Instructions

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: There are 24 books in the Tanakh: the Torah, the Books of Prophets, the Holy Scriptures. Why are they called holy? Aren’t they written in ink and on paper by earthly people of flesh and blood?

Answer: Their authors didn’t write about this world. Rather, they are written about a system of governance of this realm. Our reality is run from a higher level.

Our world, like a computer, is controlled by some operating system. Everything is under its control: atoms, molecules, the inanimate, vegetative, animate nature, and people.

Everything that exists in this world is governed by the two forces of attraction and repulsion, plus and minus. There is nothing else! This explains why we must understand exactly what impacts us and figure out whether we can somehow influence the forces that oversee us.

Is it possible to improve our destiny? If we knew beforehand where these two forces were leading us, could we rearrange our future? All of humanity constantly dreams about what the next day will bring.

Contemporary society has become very powerful, but at the same time we feel helpless because we don’t know what to strive for. In this respect, the books of the Tanakh are extremely helpful because they describe the entire system of governance.

Imagine owning a machine or device that you don’t know how to operate, nor do you have you any idea what it is for. All of a sudden, you are given an instruction booklet with diagrams and descriptions, including the functionality of each button like instructions for a mobile phone.

Humanity has developed to such extent that it must get acquainted with its system of governance. That’s why the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed.

Question: Where is the governing system located?

Answer: It is inside us. In the end, we will discover our internal management system through which we will change and reorient our lives. This system is called a soul.

Question: How are holy books connected with our internal control system?

Answer: The Scriptures tell us about the structure in general, as well as its parts that are inside us. The Tanakh is a holy book because it explains how our nature operates and particularly the way humans are managed.

If we understand what this book talks about, we can change our destiny for the better, reach higher goals, and attain other dimensions.

Then, not only we will correct our poor lives and improve our earthly existence, but we will also ascend to states beyond this world. The Tanakh is full of surprises!
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/22/15

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Developing Correct Communications In The Virtual Environment

Dr. Michael LaitmanIngenuous Hatred

Question: Contemporary means of communications created a new pattern of how people deal with each other, structuring a new social environment that lacks the former “ceremonies,” pretentious manners, and posturing. People’s interaction became direct, straightforward, plain and business-like. Pretentiousness was replaced by straightforwardness. Do you think we went overboard in this matter? Is it good that we have lost etiquette?

Answer: In other words, should we reanimate the lies that previously held our society together? No, that is in the past.

Comment: Still, the old style of communication somehow protected us from each other.

Answer: Yes, it distanced us and created an impregnable personal circle with rigid boundaries. This was done to isolate our egoistic hearts that are unwilling to tolerate anyone whatsoever.

Comment: However, unpretentious straightforwardness also triggers serious problems.

Answer: It is natural at the intermediate stage and it stimulates us to change ourselves. This is how the revelation and recognition of evil occurs. It is an essential stage in correcting the evil. Otherwise we wouldn’t acknowledge that there is an obstacle in our way, nor would we admit that we must take measures against it. Maybe I can continue to live as before?

Humanity was not any better off some 200 or 2,000 years ago. The only difference is that today our negative side became more obvious. We have lost gracious manners and stopped using pretentious and beautiful words. Previously, we would say: “Sorry, I have no time. Let’s talk later.” Today, there is no place for such courtesies. Our fingers text, “Go away. I hate you.”


It is very good since we approach the moment of truth! The truth is that we are liars and egoists; we all hate each other and we suffer because of our animosity. Nature requires a worthy connection among us to ensure our advancement.

What can we do if we are placed in a limited, closed sphere? Today, the whole Earth is too small for us. All of a sudden, we realize how much all of us depend on each other.

The nodes that bind us together will grow even tighter. Let me give you an example. Let’s say that a harmful enterprise is built in some country. The entire world is breathing in its stench and suffers because of the consequences of its activity. However, the government of the country where the enterprise operates says. “It is our territory. Here we are allowed to do whatever we want. We apologize for the inconvenience, but there is no other way to handle it.”

It turns out that we really have no other choice but to unite and bring the whole world a a new kind of relationship based on unity and interdependence. That’s when communicating in a virtual environment will, in another way, truly bind us, but not as it is today.
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 1/20/15

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Life Under The Shadow Of The Fear Of Death

Dr. Michael LaitmanWhen a person approaches old age, he begins to regret that his time is up, that is, that it is the end of his life. In fact there are those who think about this starting even in childhood and constantly check themselves precisely in relation to this point of death.

In the end, they either sink into depression or the opposite, they become inflamed with a strong desire to succeed and buy an eternal place for themselves in the eyes of others.

They hope that the point of death will not reach them personally, except in this worldly life. These are great people who leave their mark on the history of humanity, like Alexander the Great, Archimedes, famous scientists and leaders who changed our view of the world and the face of human society by making special discoveries and passing them on to the world.

We remember these people and read their biographies. Historians pass this science on from generation to generation and tell us about them. These great people are like marks along the entire axis of history. Basically, we count historical time not according to the years, but according to those special people, by saying, “This happened in the days of Julius Caesar,” and the like.

A person understands that it is not time itself that is the marker of human society but the people who played particular roles in those times in history. And so a vital need appears in a person to enter into eternity himself, into the same pantheon where all the central pillars of human society are gathered.

There are people who work their entire lives from a young age only for the sake of this, and in truth, there are individuals who succeed in leaving their mark on history.

But if we are talking about people who are not great but ordinary people, in old age these people feel that soon their lives will end. And even though through the methods of modern medicine it will soon be possible to extend human life significantly, no matter how much it will be lengthened, even to the age of 200 or 300 or even 500, in spite of it all, it will end. And that is how it truly will be. We will live much longer than now, but the same problem will remain.

The idea is not in the number of years. There was a time in previous generations when a person did not live past the age of 30 on average, and 200 years ago, to the age of 40. Only among the elite did the lifespan move between 60 and 70 years, but the masses lived 35 years on average or a maximum of 40 years. You remember how Pushkin wrote about this, that a person entered old age with white hair at the age of 38. At that time, it was normal to consider a 40-year-old man as old.

In our day we live twice as long, but the same fear of death remains. It depends upon human development. The more a person develops, the more the question of death concerns him. There was a time when human life was not valued and it was possible to send an army of a 100,000 soldiers to be killed in a single day. But today, the life of every person is of great value.

Presently, instead of a billion, there are seven billion people living on the face of the Earth. Humanity is investing a great deal of energy and money in order for machines to fight instead of people. This suggests that the life and death of every person is very important.

Today, it is impossible to send a person to fight as a gladiator in the arena to entertain the crowd as was customary in ancient Rome or even in America where no more than 200 years ago there were still slaves. Then it was possible to beat a slave and do with him whatever arose in the mind of the master. But in our day, the life of every person has a higher value.
From KabTV’s “A New Life” 4/22/14

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The Stability Of The Laws Of Nature

Dr. Michael LaitmanM.Weisman, Midrash Sefer, “Shemini:” Nadav and Avihu lost their lives since they regarded the laws of the Holy of Holies light headedly. The nation was shocked by the serious punishment. It was an indication that the Creator will not allow any changes or even the slightest innovations in the ceremony that was dedicated to Him.

Everything is done according to the laws of nature and therefore whoever is wrong, even in the good sense, by wanting to serve the Creator and trying to intensify certain actions especially on the high levels, he commits a sin and, in fact, immediately falls from that level.

What is more, his fall is identical to his height. It is spiritual death and absolute detachment from the previous level. This is a fall to a very low level where the shattering begins followed by the correction beginning again by connection and unity.

This is our spiritual desire, Nadav and Avihu, the desire to breakthrough and to leap up all the levels as quickly as possible.

The sons of Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, had to ascend higher than Aaron, and they did so, but it was before the correct time to do so.
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/22/1

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The Clothing Of The High Priest

laitman_740_02M. Weisman, “Midrash,” “Shemini“: They (Nadav and Avihu) didn’t dress in the clothing of the high priest.

This means that they did not attain the Returning Light (the clothing for the Light [Ohr] of Hochma). Clothing is what raises a person from an animal level to the human level.

They didn’t have a Masach (screen); there was no Returning Light and there was nothing corresponding to the level they were on. Their mistake indicates that it isn’t easy for a person to reveal such a big ego.

By the way, these are special souls, so why didn’t they understand that they couldn’t do anything without clothing, without dressing in the Returning Light in the way that is required for that level? This is guidance from above. Here the Creator shows that He carries out His plan.

This is how new attributes, which we will later have to correct, are revealed in our world. They are always revealed in the form of wars, problems, plagues, and natural disasters after which there is gradual correction.

They didn’t wear the clothing to which bells were sewn, the sound of which rose the great priest to the recognition of the presence of the Almighty.

Bells were sewn to the edge of the clothing of the great priest (Cohen), which symbolized his lowest level. They symbolized the attribute of bestowal and created a sound that rose and spread in every direction.

This means that the attribute of bestowal stemmed from the clothing of the priest (Cohen) in which his ego was dressed. The ego was so corrected that the sound symbolized the spread of bestowal to the next level.

But Nadav and Avihu couldn’t be dressed in that clothing because they had to ascend through Aaron by connecting to him, but they didn’t do so.

This is basically the essential condition in order to ascend to the next level. The cloak with the ringing bells was essential in order to ascend from the level of a priest, which means the dressing in the attribute of bestowal.
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 1/15/14

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Believing What Is Written

laitman_533_01Question: In what way can we pick up the community outside a convention if an event of this kind requires much larger material investments than we have? How can we get everyone to sit in circles?

Answer: Whatever we do, we need to pick people up so that they won’t need to come in under the pressure of troubles and blows from nature, but only for the good life. How does one do this? Rack your brains and search. We need to do this. We have no choice. We must search for how to reach people in good times, so the bad times won’t come, God forbid.

I don’t think that it is necessary to make any entertaining television programs with a “treasure hunt.” I think that a form like this only hides the truth instead of attracting someone to it. It doesn’t seem to me that we can be successful in this way. People will only follow the story line and won’t pay attention to the inner message.

First of all we must describe our present situation, develop it to a dramatic state, and then show how it is possible to avoid suffering, and more than that, reach success. This is the task of dissemination.

For this need, I think that it is best to put out a small and accessible booklet with explanations. In the last twenty years television and the Internet have evolved so furiously that they have pushed everything else out so that we want to see everything on our screens. But I think that after the initial enthusiasm and excitement for this new kind of media, people will go back to reading again.

This is because reading can organize the mind in a form that not even a picture can. When we are reading, we get information through which we can organize and change our thinking, our brain cells, and our approach by ourselves; meaning that we are formatting ourselves.

It is impossible to convey such information through the ear because it doesn’t penetrate this way. Only a very small percentage can be absorbed through hearing, as well as through seeing. In particular, information is grasped when one reads. Letters are something that we cannot let go of. The truth must be written.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/14, Writings of Rabash

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laitman_220Abraham’s Adventures

After Abraham attained all of this, he started working with people. He explained true welfare and how to live as one family again rather than the principle of “national insurance.” But Abraham discovered that only a small number of people understood him. People were stricken by the egoism that suddenly ignited inside them; they were unable to understand that this egoism wasn’t theirs at all, that it was actually an alien force inside man.

They started to perceive it as their own nature, the same way we do today. If I think that someone is bad, then he’s bad and I’m good; that’s it. I don’t feel like something is controlling me from inside, making me think badly about someone. I am unable to see myself from the outside and understand how this “alien” force moves me. I don’t have an objective point of view. I cannot detach myself from my thoughts and feelings, “step aside” and look at my behavior, my character, my nature, or myself from the outside.

People are unable to see themselves objectively from outside, like we do with others. A person must critically analyze himself, become his own judge. Abraham explained this “independent” approach to people: let’s step outside of ourselves and look at what’s happening to us. This evil inclination, which has become more apparent, is showing me that I’m separate from the others. So why don’t I separate from myself in the same way and reconnect with the others? Nowadays these techniques are adopted by modern psychology.

When he started teaching the Babylonians what is in essence materialistic, applied psychology, Abraham found only a few thousand people who were ready to listen to him. People did not see any harm in the ego developing inside them; they did not feel the evil yet. They only saw how they could use the ego to make money, succeed, and prosper by building a better society that was more successful and progressive, that would allow everyone to be successful, to have their own “Tower of Babel” to the heavens.

Then Abraham and his followers of like-minded people, who shared the idea of the mutual guarantee, took off and left. Josephus in the great Midrash mentions this. Maimonides (12th century) says that thousands of people left with Abraham. That’s how they came to Canaan, present-day Israel.

In his group, Abraham continued to build the mutual guarantee. And although their egoism continually grew, they made efforts to stay connected above it. They taught their children the mutual guarantee from an early age. This is how they supported unity between themselves and balance with nature.

It continued until the egoism grew inside them once again, and it was so sudden that they couldn’t avoid falling under its authority. This is called the descent into Egypt. They descended into Egypt because they couldn’t feed themselves in Canaan anymore: neither earth nor cattle gave them food because of their separation; without the mutual guarantee, they couldn’t reach the reciprocity that previously allowed society to flourish, and the hunger led them to Egypt.

In Egypt they experienced additional growth of the ego to the point where they nearly gave up their reciprocity. The more they detached from the mutual guarantee and moved away from each other, the more pressure they felt from the Egyptians and from within. Each person felt hatred towards everyone as well as misfortune since each one felt as a loner rather than part of the nation, and it was hard for everyone because instead of a loving environment, everyone found themselves surrounded by people who hated them. In addition to this separation between everyone in the nation, the Egyptians enslaved them, and filled their lives with bitterness. This caused them to feel a double slavery: their excruciating separation and their slavery to the Egyptians.

Finally, their suffering became so great that they were ready to pay any price just to get rid of it, to return to the mutual guarantee because this was the only way for them to feel like one family again. They knew that if they connected they would get enough power to leave Egypt. They made the decision to leave since their life there had become the Egyptian darkness.

Their leader was Moses. He was a man who had the quality of mercy, like Abraham, who taught them this quality. Once Moses carried a lost lamb on his shoulders to its herd on the other side of the desert and saved its life. This is exactly the quality that the leader of a nation should have.

Moses was raised at the Pharaoh’s palace until the age of 40, and then in the house of Jethro, priest of Midian until the age of 80. He did not have any religious or national reasons for become a leader; it was only due to his quality of mercy. We can see from this that the quality of mercy is enough to follow the right path and to lead people.

Moses took the nation to Mount Sinai, meaning “the mountain of hatred” to make an agreement, a mutual guarantee. They died because they were opposite to the laws of nature, which required them to be equal to it. They had to create an “umbrella” (screen), which they had at one point, in order to rise above the mutual hatred, only then can life continue.

Having signed the agreement, the nation started cultivating itself. They made a pledge to become like one man with one heart, to obey the rule of “Love thy neighbor as thyself” in mutual guarantee. In the meantime, their egoism continued to grow. During this time called “40 years of wandering,” they had to constantly work on their ego, to rise above it, “cover” it.

The evil inclination boiled in each person, disagreements broke out, but people mutually supported each other. In mutual guarantee, I must support you no matter what, so you don’t forget that we are both driven by our egos, and that we have to rise above it. And you care about me so I don’t forget. This is how we help each other, everyone makes an effort, but the main thing is the society; the environment that we’re constantly building needs to implant the fundamental idea of a mutual guarantee inside us, a concern for everyone, thoughts for everyone.

This is the umbrella that we open above us. This is our only free choice: to continue on the path above the ego or remain enslaved by it. And building an environment is the only thing that is required; this is the mutual guarantee.

Together we form a general force that affects everyone, not letting a person avoid this goal, this message, and this method. A person has to remain in unity with the others, like an organ in the body that functions in complete interaction with the others. In the meantime, the body grows, new parts and organs develop inside it, and each one has to include himself in the general system. The system must be concerned about each person, never allowing anyone to shirk or fall down.

Although the ego continues to boil under this umbrella, our human level, our self-awareness and understanding exists above it. This way we constantly stay above the level of the ego’s resistance, and this force is called “a screen (Masach).

At this stage, the essence of the method is not to harm each other and to preserve the unity despite our growing ego, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your friend.” Don’t worry about doing good because you’re not capable of it yet, but at least you won’t harm anyone in a way that you would hate. This general correction is called “wandering in the desert for forty years.”

Now we’re getting closer to the land of Israel, the next stage in our history. We’re truly ready to become a nation. And that’s why we have to form a connection between us according to a new principle. The condition of not harming others has been achieved. Our entire ego has been corrected due to our mutual guarantee, interconnection, which holds us together. Without a doubt, we will not harm each other. Next we will reach the “land of Israel” and conquer it. To put it differently, we will begin to work with our ego, to turn it into good so that one can love his neighbor as himself.

We’ll build the “Temple,” the house of holiness, because the attainment of the quality of bestowal, mutual guarantee, grew thanks to this. “Holiness” is bestowal, mutual love. During a certain period in our history we truly achieved that state, we were connected with each other as one man, like one whole. In that state we felt ourselves connected with nature, its eternity and perfection.

But the program of nature is to bring all of humanity to unity and mutual guarantee, to one general community. Abraham could only look after several thousand Babylonians, but the other Babylonians, the whole of humanity, will be looked after by the nation that initially reached mutual guarantee.

But in order for this to happen, they need to be in the same conditions as Abraham was in Babylon. This means that they have to fall from their fully corrected degree to the previous degree, from “Love thy neighbor as thyself” to plain egoism. But even in this descent they keep their spark of the quality of mercy and mutual guarantee.

Thus, the nation went through the destruction of the First Temple, the exile, the fall from the degree of “Love thy neighbor as thyself” to the level of “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your friend,” and in this quality, they built the Second Temple within themselves.

Rabbi Akiva, the great sage of the period of the Second Temple, called the people to rise once again to the level of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” But he knew that by doing this he was only hastening the destruction of the Second Temple, which was also necessary. The increased ego is what caused the destruction of the Second Temple; the nation fell into egoism and lost their connection. This is what’s called exile, not a geographical or a historical exile, but an internal one, the exile from mutual guarantee, from the quality that once connected the nation after Abraham built them into one whole.

And since then the nation was in exile. This exile was to be long and difficult because the whole world has to reach the same state as Abraham reached in Babylon. And now, in our generation, we’re exactly in the same state. We live in Israel, but we are not a nation yet. Now we must unite in order to reach the same quality as Abraham when he gathered a nation out of the Babylonians.

We have received all the necessary conditions to achieve mutual guarantee according to our root, to become a nation once again rather than strangers, become like one man with one heart, to love each other like ourselves, in mutual guarantee, which is the exact means for achieving love between us. Mutual guarantee means that we have to keep building the influence of the environment, so that it will hold each person above his or her ego. And then, by attaining this quality, we’ll be able to look after the other Babylonians who spread out around the world and didn’t join Abraham.

There is no doubt that we can do this because all the other people find themselves in a state of ruin and helplessness, not knowing what to do. Nowadays they are also starting to understand that the path of development hasn’t taken them away from Babylon. Nothing has changed, now it’s just manifesting itself in its true form, more distinctly and clearly.

Great devastation is quickly approaching us. Our egoism is literally killing us, and we must correct it. Otherwise, we’ll no longer exist because humanity is eating itself from the inside while nature is pushing us from the outside since we’re behaving like an organ that’s alien to its body. That’s why we continue to get more blows every day.

So there is no other way out; we must realize this mutual guarantee between us. We have the means, the energy, and the method that has been passed on to us from the time of Abraham. Let’s hope we’ll be able to fulfill the task, that the world will understand what our purpose is and why we’re different.

Although we are hated by the nations, it is only because so far we’ve been unable to pass the method of correction on to them. First, they have to become aware of the evil so then they’ll have the ability to agree with it, not having another choice. That’s why we had to wait until our time to reveal the method of mutual guarantee and understand how to realize it, how to bring all of humanity to harmony with its inner nature. By doing this, we’ll all rise above our general ego and will attain a higher degree than before because now all of humanity will be as one whole.

Like organs in one single body, we’ll reach the “human” level of existence, the level of “human” (Adam). We’ll understand nature’s goal, the whole process, and reach out beyond the horizon to the perfect state. After all, we are approaching a perfect life, a feeling of eternity inherent in nature itself. In front of us there is a beautiful goal allowing each person the opportunity to realize themselves perfectly, by investing in others, connecting with them, and by implementing all their natural qualities and abilities. There is no suppression or limitations, and there is only one condition: to give everything to others like a cell in a body, and then you’ll be rewarded with the life of the whole body.

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 02.11.15

Writings of Rabash, “Steps of the Ladder,” Article 32

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The Book of Zohar, Selected Excerpts — “Israel,” Item 500

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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Table of Answers for  the Meaning of Words, Item 26

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World,” “Good and Bad Are Evaluated by the Actions of the Individual Toward Society”

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