Kabbalah Blog - Part 126

March 27, 2016March 23, 2016

An Integral Approach to Nature

The way to solve today’s world’s problems is by viewing the world as one whole.

We view life as being multifaceted due to our fragmented impressions of the world.

We divide nature into different branches of science—but how many can there really be? Nature is one. We are the ones who divide it into disciplines such as biology, zoology, botany, and geography; because of our limited perception, we don’t grasp it as one.

Humanity continues repeating the same mistakes because we solve problems differentially—we cannot solve a single problem because we are not internally holistic. The only way to solve today’s world’s problems is by viewing the world as one whole.

There is an integral approach to solving our problems: we can transition from division and differentiation to interconnection. When we consider anything happening in the world as being part of our common world, we will no longer make wrong decisions.

Unity among people awakens the single force of Nature—the force that unites and includes everything, including us.

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March 26, 2016April 1, 2016

Shmini (On the Eighth Day) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Leviticus, 9:1-11:47

This Week’s Torah Portion | March 27- April 2, 2016 – 17 Adar II – 23 Adar II, 5776

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.

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March 23, 2016March 23, 2016

Hope for Peace

Altruism is nature’s underlying principle, and it is humanity’s goal to equalize with this principle.

Everything living receives and gives to its surrounding environment. This is nature’s underlying principle, the law of altruism.

An individual cell not only sustains itself, but also supplements other cells and organs: they must “yield” to each other, know about each other, interact, and “help” one another.

This is what happens in any living body. Biologists describe it brilliantly: they say that this is “nature’s wisdom”; that nature lives by this principle, that this is the general law of nature, and that without it, even crystals could not unite, and atoms could not interact.

Researchers are discovering such “altruistic” behavior in the substance’s tiniest particles. Moreover, altruistic behavior of the entire organism and its components clearly manifest at the vegetative and animate levels, where growth is possible only when cells unite and allocate a role for each cell without seizing foreign territory in the “cell community.”

They are talking about self-denial, about mutual understanding and mutual support of cells, parts, body organs, about each being ready to kill itself for the success of the common program. We see that such actions take a form of mandatory law in nature, in general as well as in each of its parts—except for the conscious activity of humans.

In all of nature, this law of altruism acts according to the program inherently instilled in all creatures, without any room for free will—except man. A person must reach such disillusionment with one’s own development and progress to realize the necessity to fulfill this universal law of nature, the law of altruism, within oneself as well.

When together, we exert to adapt to this law and its properties—to yearn for this law to enter our consciousness and to have the strength to establish this rule over us—we will correct the whole of nature and become an integral part of the entire creation.

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March 20, 2016March 13, 2016

The Law of Success

When one considers society’s success equal to one’s own success, it provides correct motivation for everyone.

Our success is motivated and measured by others—we are constantly working to fulfill the goals of our society.

We are usually unaware of this dynamic and attribute all of our accomplishments to ourselves.

Our individual perception isolates us from one another—we are not aware of how we affect the entire system. At the global level, this creates crisis in all realms of life, threatening the very survival of the whole. We must change our perception to consider the success of society to be equal to our own.
This change in perception provides the correct motivation for all individuals, and the survival and prosperity of the whole.
This is the law of success.

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March 19, 2016December 20, 2015

Tzav (Command) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Leviticus, 6:1-8:36

This Week’s Torah Portion | March 20 – March 26, 2016 – 10 Adar II – 16 Adar II, 5776

In A Nutshell

The portion, Tzav (Command), deals with rules of sacrificing, especially those related to priests. The portion mentions the commandment to donate the fertilizer, the gift offering, sin offering, guilt offering, peace offering, and the prohibition to eat animal fat.

Tzav also mentions punishments for those who eat non-kosher meat, as it is written, “The soul that eats from it shall bear iniquity (Leviticus, 7:18). One who eats fat from the offerings, “The soul that eats shall be cut off from its people” (Leviticus, 7:25), and one who eats the offerings’ blood, “That soul shall be cut off from its people” (Leviticus, 7:20).

Subsequently, the portion deals with the seven days of filling, and the inauguration of the tabernacle. The Creator commands Moses to assemble Aaron and his sons the priests, and the whole congregation at the door of the tent of meeting. Moses washes Aaron and his sons and dresses them with the clothes of priesthood. Moses puts the anointing oil over the tabernacle and all that is in it, and sanctifies Aaron and his sons, showing the priests—following the Creator’s command—what to do with the various organs of the offerings.

Commentary by Dr. Michael Laitman

The Korban (offering/sacrifice, from the word, Karov [near]) is the way to draw near the Creator. There is nothing but the offerings. Today we are in the worst state. There is nothing worse than this world and our current state. We must come out of that state and advance toward the Boreh (Creator), from the words Bo Re’eh (come and see). We will discover the Creator according to the changes and corrections in us because the upper force, namely the upper light, is in complete rest, and all the changes occur in us, as it is written, “I the Lord do not change” (Malachi, 3:6).

Nearing the Creator depends on our qualities. Therefore, we must all change ourselves and correct all the negative and egoistic desires in us, according to the order the Torah narrates. The word Torah comes from the word Horaa (instruction) how to correct our egoistic desires, turn them into aiming toward bestowal and love, and shift from unfounded hatred to absolute love.

The bad global crisis is happening due to unfounded hatred among everyone. There is abundance in the world, but we cannot share it among us. We cannot establish social justice, connection, unity, and arrange ourselves and our lives better because of our characters, as it is written, “The inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis, 8:21). To correct the heart, which symbolizes our 613 egoistic, corrupted desires, we need the Torah.

The Torah is the “light that reforms.”^[1] One who treats the Torah properly discovers one’s wickedness, as it is written, “The world was created only for the complete wicked or the complete righteous.”^[2] That is, we must discover that we are completely wicked, created with an evil inclination. Then, “I have created for it the Torah as a spice”^[3] because “the light in it reforms them.”^[4] Then we come to a state of complete righteous. This is how we must see it.

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