The Strength Of The Spiritual Chain Depends On Its Resistance

Dr. Michael LaitmanThere is no division between individual and group or collective work— all this is one work where I can see parts of my own soul as foreign and hateful to me. And I have to overcome all this haze and fog that deceives me, picturing them to me as my hateful enemies or at least, my slaves.

This is not a simple work for I am working on my spiritual vessel until I gather all of it and join it to myself. This is only possible by the power of love, raising above all hatred and resistance that I feel toward them.

All of this opposition remains like the resistance generated in opposition to an electric current. Together, the electric current and the resistance do the work to spin the motor. As a result of this action, the Light, the spiritual world, is being revealed.

However, now, we are completely separated from each other like a broken chain. This is not even an opposite kind of connection. I don’t love or even hate others—I simply don’t care about them. However, when we begin to work in order to get closer to each other, we then feel how the hatred, the opposition, is being revealed.

Only after the hard work in the Egyptian slavery of our own egoism, we come from the level of Jacob (from the small state) toward Mount Sinai (the mountain of hatred). From this mountain of hatred, it is possible to receive the Light that Reforms, which is called the Torah. Now, we already have something to work on.

However, he who has not started to unite, who is still under the control of the feelings of this world and tries to use his friends in a petty way as in any other place, this person has not even started his work. Perhaps, he is not trying to use them because he may have a kind character and wants to be friends with everyone, but this does not do anything toward his development.

As it is written, “She bringeth her bread [faith] from afar,” namely from distancing and rejection. There is no personal or group work here. You need to join within yourself all of the seemingly foreign parts of reality, until you reveal in the connection of these parts that the entire universe is in inside of you.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/2011, Shamati #121

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An Easy Path Together With The Light, Part 1

Dr. Michael LaitmanKabbalists have prepared for us an easy and simple way of attracting the Light that Reforms, in contrast to what used to be before.

We find and see in the words of the sages of the Talmud that they have made the path of Torah easier for us than the sages of the Mishnah. This is because they said, “One should always practice the Torah and Mitzvot (commandments), even Lo Lishma (for oneself),  and from Lo Lishma he will come to Lishma (for the sake of bestowal), because the Light in it reforms him.”

Thus, they have provided us with a new means instead of the penance presented in the above mentioned Mishnah, Avot: the “Light in the Torah.” It bears sufficient power to reform one and bring him to practice Torah and Mitzvot Lishma.
- Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 11
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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 09.26.11

Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam, “The Prayer for Rosh HaShanah”
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The Book of Zohar - Selected Chapter VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled)“The Revival of the Dead,” Item 493, Lesson 24
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The Book of Zohar - Selected Chapter VaEileh,” Lesson 1
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Talmud Eser Sefirot Part 6, Chapter 15, Question 131, Lesson 32
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Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 130, Lesson 56
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Writings of Baal HaSulam The Nation,” Lesson 20
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Good Environment – 09.25.11

My Good Environment – Dr. Laitman’s Advice and Principles for the Week

Shifting To The Economy Of The Future

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What economic concept does the idea of mutual guarantee offer?

Answer: It’s difficult to say something about the current transitional period. We have to work together with specialists. There is the economy that worked until now, and there is the economy of the next phase, built upon fair distribution and the provision of basic needs. A person will work to provide himself with the vital necessities in the commonly accepted sense, while investing all the rest of his efforts into inner growth because there he experiences fulfillment, which will eventually become infinite.

Together we decide how to provide for our vital necessities, and then, as we advance, we will see how they get reduced to the basic ones.

But for the time being, the world has to live normally. A person needs a home, a washing machine, a refrigerator, a vacuum cleaner, a bed, furniture, a school for his children, a pension, a vacation, health insurance, and so on. However, all of this is required to the degree necessary for existence, considering that all of our intentions aspire to mutual guarantee. This is the surest guarantee in and of itself: When I am sure that everyone takes care of me, I get rid of my egoistic worries. We have to help every person so he would be able to not think about himself.

For that we need an economy, banks, trade, and mutual calculations—everything that’s necessary for providing for seven billion people and for solving problems and compensating for unforeseen accidents and failures. In short, we need large scale systems, but ones that work on the principle of complementarity rather than competition.

Accordingly, we will give up excesses. Say, we won’t exchange our cars for new ones as often if the old ones are still fit for use. Or we will cancel expensive scientific projects that are pointless.

The problem is the transition, which is possible only on the condition that we work together, showing economists, sociologists, and political scientists the next state of the world. Then they’ll understand that there is no other choice but to shift from opposition to unification, and to discuss the ways to come out of the crisis in order to be saved from the threat of annihilation. They have to become aware of this problem, and then they will be able to compile a mutual, therapeutic program.

On our part, we have to influence the world as much as possible so the transitional phase won’t be so painful. This depends mainly on us. After all, everyone else is acting automatically, by the orders of egoism, which can only be budged by troubles and to some extent, our influence. And we are not addressing people’s minds, but are bringing our unity into human society, which will become a favorable ground.

Then they will suddenly feel, “There is something worth listening to here.” Even if they did not know anything before, on the inside they will admit that we are right.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/25/11, “The Nation”

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The Choice Of The Masses

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: Do the masses have freedom of choice to join bestowal?

Answer: Neither AHP nor Galgalta ve Eynaim have freedom of choice. They find free choice in the middle third of Tifferet only by uniting with one another.

Of course, the choice of AHP is not the same as that of Galgalta ve Eynaim. The choice of the masses is expressed by realizing that they have to complete work on unification as fast as possible—not by the path of suffering, but by means of conscious and voluntary connection to the spiritual leaders.

We shouldn’t look down on AHP for the fact that it is being led by a shepherd. Galgalta ve Eynaim is also following the Creator, the force of bestowal, the program of creation, like a flock. This is not what makes us special. We are special because we accelerate the time by looking for an opportunity to bow down our heads on our own. This is our freedom of choice.

However, AHP is no less significant than Galgalta ve Eynaim. Rather, it is more significant.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/25/11, “The Nation”

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Mutual Guarantee Event In Jerusalem, 09.20.2011

Here are some pictures from the “Mutual Guarantee: Everyone Together” event in Jerusalem, September 20, 2011.

Unity As The Method Of Solving The Crisis, Part 4

Dr. Michael LaitmanOpinion: (Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay, Professor of Economics, Emeritus, University of Montreal, Canada, the author of The Code for Global Ethics): “The world’s crisis is a moral one. …Humanity needs a new moral revival free from the old formula that encouraged conflicts and wars. Tremblay’s The Code For Global Ethics proposes a universal code of rights and obligations outlining rational humanistic principles to be applied to a global, shrinking and interdependent world.

“[He states] that humanism’s foundation is idealism, compassion, and mutual tolerance; it is humanity’s universal vision. A moral code, writes Tremblay, must be judged on its treatment of others and improvement of lives.”

My Comment: But who can develop this code and make it acceptable to the world community? Only Kabbalists will be able to draw up this code because they are familiar with the future state of the world, while only well-known people can present this code to the world.
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The ARI Institute At ICSSPE’s Conference On Sport

ICSSPE ConferenceThe ARI Institute participated in ICSSPE’s International Conference on Sport for Development and Peace, which took place at the Wingate Institute in Israel with participants from 32 countries, including a delegation of 30 from Jordan. The theme was Sport as a Mediator between Cultures.

ARI Executive Board Member Dr. Gilad Shadmon and Director of Special Projects & Educational Research Dr. Eli Vinokur spoke with Israel’s Minister of Culture & Sport Limor Livnat, UNESCO, and United Nations representatives, and representatives of European Governments.

The ARI Institute’s presentation was well received:  KIDS BONDING THROUGH SPORTS GAMES (presentation)

1) Children learn through games more than any other means.

2) The games must connect the kids and not cause divisions.

3) Competitiveness must be against the clock or other achievements, but not one against the other.

4) Winning is only together and not on one’s own. Unity that is achieved is the real prize!

5) Change the rules of conventional games to make them about unity and bonding. For example, our children changed the rules of soccer:

a) A child that scores two goals switches to the other team.

b) You cannot score until you have passed the ball three times.

c) Every fifteen minutes one or two players switch sides.

6) The purpose of the sports games is to increase the kids’ bonding and unity, as well as inter-dependence.

[Read more →]

Pray For The Internal Power Of Bestowal

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: What does it mean to ask the Creator? Do I have to acquire His attributes for that?

Answer: To ask is to search, demand, and even ask for my own transformation. After all, I have to express my own desire for it. I sentence myself (this is the meaning of “to pray” or “Lehitpalel” in Hebrew), I investigate which attributes I lack and how I can attain the force of bestowal.

This force exists inside the society. Therefore, if I enter the society, develop a desire to “clothe” in my friends with all my heart and soul, and connect with them internally so as to totally dissolve in this connection, then I will find the power of bestowal there. This is exactly what I pray for.

I pray to reach such a state in which I will see that everyone is perfect and connected. This situation is called Shechina (Divinity), the general gathering of souls (Knesset Israel). I want to be there, and I pray for the connection that brings together all the souls yearning for “Yashar-El” (straight to the Creator) to be realized in me.

I don’t turn to some external power or desire that exists independently, or to some imaginary figure. All the prayers are aimed at Malchut (of the world of Atzilut or the world of Infinity), to the connection between us, in which we discover mutual bestowal. I want this state to be revealed to me, and this is what is ask for.

This is a very delicate point, and we have to be careful not to start imagining some statue or figure, but only the state in which we are connected and incorporated in each other, tied together in complete bestowal. More correctly, it should be called an attribute and not a force because a force may seem as something distant, while an attribute is what I intend to acquire myself. These are very slight differences, but they determine the cleanliness of my attitude, and hence they are so crucial.

It says: “There is none else besides Him,” however, we have to imagine this as our state in a perfect system. Then we can be sure that we won’t be mistaken.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/22/2011, Shamati $#240

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