November 29, 2024
Archive for October, 2014
October 31, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
How to Avoid Digging for Fool’s Gold
Can one solve this fundamental puzzle of human life without touching upon the question of its source? Every human being encounters this question. The search for the goal and the meaning of existence is the key question around humankind’s spiritual life. Hence, starting with the second half of the 20th century, we are observing a revival of humanity’s spiritual aspirations.
The technical progress and global catastrophes that gave rise to a variety of philosophies have not brought spiritual fulfillment to humanity. As Kabbalah explains, out of all existing pleasures, our world received only a tiny spark – its presence in corporeal objects is what provides all our worldly pleasures.
In other words, all our pleasant sensations, from whatever source, are caused only by the presence of this spark within them. Throughout our lives, we are placed in a forced quest of new objects of delight, hoping to receive greater and greater pleasures; we do not suspect that they might not be anything but shells.
How to Use the Upper Light to Reveal the Spiritual Motherload
To receive absolute fulfillment, we must acknowledge the need for spiritual elevation above matter. There are two paths in our world to reach that goal: the path of the spiritual ascent (Kabbalah), and the path of suffering.
The path of Kabbalah is a path of independent and voluntary realization of the need to gradually terminate egoism, when the Upper Light is used to perceive egoism as evil.
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October 30, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Events
Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman will be giving a free public lecture in Los Angeles this Monday evening, November 3, 2014 at 7:30 PM until 9:30 PM Los Angeles time.
The title of the lecture will be Who Holds the Key to a Better Tomorrow? and the lecture will give the Kabbalah take on what makes people single out Jews, the roots behind, and solutions to today’s sharp rise in anti-Semitism.
Moreover, as a limited offer, pick up a free softcover copy of Like A Bundle of Reeds when you come to the lecture just by printing the coupon when you RSVP to the lecture at this page.
Here’s some more info about the lecture:
When?
Monday, November 3, 2014. 7:30 PM until 9:00 PM.
Where?
Skirball Cultural Center
Ahmanson Hall
2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
Yes, I Want to Attend the Dr. Laitman Public Lecture »
October 29, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Anti-Semitism, Articles, Books
A Hidden Hand behind Anti-Semitism
When I read the newspapers and listen to the radio, I see that the nations of the world treat me differently because I belong to the Jewish people. The attitude is laden with hostile, anti-Semitic emotions.
Even within Israel and around it there are peoples who wish to destroy, or at the very least, subdue the Jewish people. Our challenge is to treat this situation as one that comes to us from the Creator and that it is happening in our favor, so that we will change our line of thinking and the way we work. It is happening so that we will rise above our normal human reaction, from an instinctive reaction to what our eyes see to questioning the reasons for what is happening around us.
If I do not relate to the phenomenon of anti-Semitism as it is, but to the reason behind it, I will then be operating in the spiritual degree called “humanity.” This is the only way for me to develop an ability to understand the essence of events. Instead of running away from situations, like an animal runs from a hunter, I can actually change external causes.
Kabbalah Unveils the Purpose behind all Human Suffering
There is only one reason for all the pains of this world: to make us wonder at their meaning, to raise us from a level of aimlessly suffering to a level where we think about and analyze the reason and the purpose for the pains. The spreading of the wisdom of Kabbalah brings the purpose and cause of the pains to the public awareness. By doing so, we can shorten the amount of time it takes for every person to understand the cause for suffering and realize that there is no pain without a reason, that it comes from the Creator. The purpose of the operations that the Creator performs on us is to develop in us, through a series of negative situations, a grown-up attitude toward pain. Therefore, we should not escape them, only use them and see them as a gift from the Creator.
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October 28, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Books
Anyone With a Desire for Spirituality Should Study Kabbalah
The study of Kabbalah was forbidden to the masses for many generations. Kabbalists prohibited the study to women, children, and men under forty (in Kabbalah, age forty signifies intelligence—Bina—when a person already understands that the purpose of life is giving, something the public cannot under- stand because they are still at a beastly level). In other words, this kind of learning was forbidden to those who hadn’t evolved enough to be able to study Kabbalah.
However, as soon as there is a spark, a sensation of the appearance of a soul, one must study Kabbalah. When Rav Kook was asked, “Who can study Kabbalah?” he replied simply, “Anyone who wants to!” Desire is the one and only requirement for the development of the soul.
Baal HaSulam writes that if a person is ready to study Kabbalah, but refrains from doing so, then that person is the reason for all the disasters because he or she did not contribute his or her share to the management of creation. The collective law of reality is built in such a way that if a person must take an active part in the leadership of reality and refrains from doing so, the rough part of nature comes in its place. That switch between the force of humanity and the force of nature is felt in our world as tragedies and pains. As soon as we begin to feel a desire for the Creator, we must learn how to correct ourselves and thus change reality. If we refrain from doing that, we bring about more evil in the world.
Kabbalah Today & the Special Significance of Israel
Throughout history, Kabbalists were the ones to define the edification of the nation. For example, during the British mandate in Israel (1917–1948), Baal HaSulam tried to publish a Kabbalistic magazine. He saw that the time had come when the public wanted to approach the spiritual degree that only a chosen few had reached before. Hence, he tried to explain to the people about the Kabbalah. But there was still a need to convey it in a simple and easily understandable manner.
Why is this edification needed now, while it was not needed a hundred or two hundred years ago? Only after the last deportation in the previous century, and the return to the land of Israel, did a new era begin in the evolution of the souls. When the Creator brought us back to the land of Israel, He also brought us back to the spiritual soil, giving us an opportunity for spiritual operations and sublime attainments. That process is only just beginning; hence the new need to explain Kabbalah to the entire generation today.
In the past there wasn’t a need to study Kabbalah. Baal HaSulam wrote that there were many people who attained high spiritual degrees through the written and oral Torah alone. But Kabbalah books contain a greater illumination of upper light, which can assist one in the correction process. Though all holy books were written from the highest spiritual degree of the “end of correction,” the Kabbalah books that were written for our generation have a unique shine to them, instead of a general illumination, because they were written especially for those who want spiritual elevation in our time.
Why Everybody Will Eventually Study Kabbalah
Kabbalists do not say that we must teach everyone, but in our time in history it must be understood that Kabbalah is a method of development that obligates everyone. People often come, listen, and leave, and by doing so they prepare themselves for the next stage in the correction. Reading the books of Kabbalah is also a correction, and the rest is up to the Creator.
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October 27, 2014 at 5:30 pm · Filed under Articles, Definitions, Envy, Honor, Humanity, Lust, Perception of Reality
If we could turn this outbreak of desires into an outbreak of desires for spirituality, then these desires would be the best thing that ever happened to humanity. Since we are currently not doing it, they are the worst thing that ever happened to us.
When the Mishnah sages (first and second centuries CE) declare that “Envy, lust, and honor bring a man out of the world” (Mishnah, Avot 4:21), Kabbalah explains that they don’t mean it in a bad way. On the contrary, it means that if you know how to work with these desires, they will elevate you beyond your present reality, your present world, and let you into the spiritual world.
In the last several years, it has become increasingly evident that human society isn’t becoming more united. Instead, we are showing, and even nurturing, alienation, animosity among nations, among different factions of the same nation, and even among members of the same family. At the same time, globalization is forcing us to increase and tighten our level of cooperation on all the levels we just mentioned. This tension is now culminating, and humanity is on the verge of exploding.
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