We should devote our lives to others.

We must constantly struggle and engage in self-analysis in order to find egoistic grains that have to be corrected. [Tweet This]

It’s immense and tireless work that grinds us like a mill, thus altering us. It’s extremely complicated to be constantly squeezed between heavy millstones that cut us alive; moreover, it’s us who should be spinning the millstones with our own hands and yet admire doing this work.

This is a real breakdown for my egoism. I act in relation to the friends, and the friends act in relation to me. I correct myself by means of correcting them. No one does this without others, and he depends on others in all his actions in the positive and negative sense, in joy and sorrow. He depends on their good and bad actions, and they depend on his good and bad actions. This is what the mutual guarantee is. Wishing good for ourselves, our nation, our country, I must take care of everybody. Only then will it be good for me.

Read the rest of this entry »

Leviticus, 12:1-13:59 – 14:1-15:33

This Week’s Torah Portion | April 23 – April 29, 2017 – 27 Nissan – 3 Lyar, 5777

In A Nutshell

In the portion, Tazria (When a Woman Delivers), we learn about laws related to a woman who has delivered. If she delivers a boy, she is considered impure for seven days. On the eighth day the boy is circumcised and the woman begins a 33 day purification period. If the woman delivers a girl she is considered impure for fourteen days, and the purification period lasts 66 days.

The portion also details rules concerning afflictions. A person who is infected with something must come to the priest, who diagnoses the sore and knows the rules concerning each of them.

The portion, Metzorah (The Leper), is dedicated to the rules concerning leprosy, and what to do when one has been infected with it. A leper who has healed must be examined by the priest, then bring two birds. The priest slaughters one bird and dips the other in clean water.

The end of the portion discusses the impurity of nocturnal ejaculation and the rules concerning a woman in menstruation—anyone who touches her is impure until the evening.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

Why are the rules in the portions described in such detail?

The whole Torah is an instruction by which to correct our nature. Man was deliberately created with an egoistic desire; this is why we want everything for our own good, as it is written, “For the inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis, 8:21). Creation itself is the evil inclination, the sum of our negative qualities. The inanimate nature, the vegetative, and the animate around us are completely neutral—neither good nor bad. It is managed by the laws of nature that act instinctively on all its elements.

Read the rest of this entry »

Practically speaking, all of our songs about love, our poetry and all our emotions; all this is our longing for the micro-dose of light that is in our world and that shines on us from various forms of our world. [Tweet This]

The “Big Bang” is the result of a tiny spark of Upper Light that infiltrated our world and caused our whole universe. And it was merely a tiny spark! We need to understand that spiritual revelation is something infinitely stupendous, and we need to prepare our empty desires for it. Even the smallest pleasure which we receive upon ascending to the first spiritual degree out of 125 is billions of times greater than all the pleasures of our world combined. A great inner work awaits us, and yet it is incredibly easy only if we do it together with love. This union determines everything!

Read the rest of this entry »

Leviticus, 9:1-11:47

This Week’s Torah Portion | April 16 – April 22, 2017 – 20 Nissan – 26 Nissan, 5777

In A Nutshell

The portion, Shmini (On the Eighth Day), deals with the events of the eighth day after the seven days of filling.^[1] This is the inauguration day of the tabernacle. Aaron and his sons offer special sacrifices on this day. Moses and Aaron go to bless the people, and finally, the Creator appears to the people of Israel.

Aaron’s sons, Nadav and Avihu sin with offering on a foreign fire, and the fire consumes them. Aaron and the remaining sons receive special instructions how to conduct themselves in the situation, and among others orders, they are forbidden to mourn.

The portion tells of another misunderstanding between Moses and Aaron and his sons concerning eating the sin offering. The portion ends with the rules concerning forbidden food, detailing the animals, beasts, poultry, and fish that are forbidden to eat. Rules of Tuma’a (impurity) and Taharah (purity) are also briefly explained.

 Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

The portion mentions many details concerning the tabernacle and offering sacrifices, what is forbidden and what is permitted. How should we understand it internally?

We need to examine which of our 613 desires we need to correct, and how. It was said about man, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created for it the Torah as a spice,”^[2] so we may correct our evil inclination—the egoistic desires—in which we think only of ourselves and cannot perform a single act of giving and love of others.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Zohar expresses the system of Nature’s laws that flow down in a cause and effect chain from one law in Nature to direct this world. [Tweet This]

In order to understand what the holy Book of Zohar talks about, we must first acquire the same nature as that of the Kabbalists who wrote The Zohar. We have to rely on the power hidden in this book, which influences the reader. We will then receive the Light that Reforms, which will influence and change our nature. There are two forms of nature: reception and bestowal, and both are described using the same words, symbols, and letters. To the extent that our nature changes, we will understand what The Zohar talks about. It will suddenly become clear and the book will be revealed to us.

Read the rest of this entry »