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Dr. Michael Laitman discusses what is so unique about Jewish holidays in 2014 as opposed to Jewish holidays in other years with Like a Bundle of Reeds executive editor, Chaim Ratz.
Like a Bundle of Reeds is a TV series originally broadcast on JLTV based on the book of the same title. It deals with the following topics:
Genesis, 1:1 – 6:85This Week’s Torah Portion | October 12 – October 18, 2014 – Tishrei 18 – Tishrei 24, 5774
Beresheet (In the Beginning) is the first portion in the Torah (Pentateuch). It tells the story of the creation of the world in six days, and the rest on the seventh day. It talks about the creation of the man, his arrival at the Garden of Eden, and the creation of the woman. The portion also narrates the story of the sin of the tree of knowledge, Cain and Abel, the generations from Cain to Lamech, the ten generations from Adam to Noah, the corruption that engulfed their generations, and the renewed hope that emerged with the birth of Noah.
Beresheet contains more stories than any other portion in the Torah. In many ways it is also the deepest of the portions, as it discusses the basis of our being—the creation of the soul.
The common soul was created out of the will to receive delight and pleasure, or simply, “the will to receive.” That will is the soul’s core, and it’s affected by six qualities: Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, and Yesod. These qualities penetrated the substance—the will to receive—and designed it in synchrony with the upper force, the Creator. The reason why man is called Adam is that the word Adam comes from the word Adamah, from the verse, Adameh la Elyon (“I will be like the most high,” Isaiah, 14:14), since he is similar to the Creator, the sublime bestowal, sublime love, to that upper force that gave birth to it.
Adam is the structure of the soul that is equal in form to the Creator and is in Dvekut [adhesion] with Him in the Garden of Eden. A garden means “desire.” The garden is the part of the creature, Adam’s substance—the will to receive. Eden marks the degree of bestowal, degree of Bina. Adam, who is on the degree of Bina, is in the Garden of Eden.
This does not pertain to our world or to the universe we know, but rather to the common soul that the Creator created. From the very beginning, the common soul undergoes a special preparation, the sin, because at its inception it was adhered to the upper force, which means that it had no authority of its own, nothing to its name, or any sense of independent existence. In a sense it is like an embryo in its mother’s womb—on the one hand it exists, on the other hand it is part of its mother, and each of its actions is ruled by its superior.
Continue reading “Beresheet (In the Beginning) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion”
It all started with believing in supernatural powers. People believe that there are individuals who are imbued with supernatural powers who can influence others and foresee and control the future. Those people are willing to spend fortunes on healing, defense from the “evil eye,” and fortunetelling. They believe that evil thoughts can harm another person and that the damage can be so great that it will be beyond repair and might haunt a person forever, causing damage in every aspect of life, including business and family.
When someone comes to me with a complaint about suffering from an “evil eye,” that person is in fact trying to say that someone influenced him or her badly, meaning someone acted in a harmful way through the power of thought. That person also believes that I hold the power to neutralize that evil thought through my own power of thought. If this person asks to neutralize another person’s thoughts, then he or she believes in the power of thought and that thoughts do in fact act and come true in our world.
The power of thought is the single most powerful force in reality. Our experience tells us that the more subtle and elusive a power is, the stronger and less limited it is. Today, there are even scientists that recognize this. Radio waves, magnetic and electric fields, radioactivity, and gravity are all examples of forces that we know of only by their actions and the phenomena they induce in our world. There are, however, forces such as the power of the thought whose actions we cannot even identify.
Continue reading “The Greatest Force in Reality that You Can Use to Achieve Balance”
The soul is like a computer program. Before it dresses in substance, it is no more than a thought, an idea, a collection of connections between events in various situations. The system the Creator built is also like a computer program; the Creator is the program. If we study it, we will be able to organize the situations we face in the best possible way for ourselves and for society. That program is not detached from our thoughts, rather it is inside us. But it is a still an object in and of itself.
The program, the Creator, doesn’t change, no matter how much we might like it to. But thoughts and prayers, meaning our desires, are what change us. The Creator is a desire: “The desire to delight (please) the creatures.” As a result of past suffering, we become better suited for this program; we feel it is suitable for us, that it seems to treat us mercifully.
Kabbalah explains that the upper force, meaning the plan of the Creator, is complete, and it is only the vessels that change. Everything depends on the changes in the vessels, not on the light, because the light does not change.
Continue reading “The Guide to Develop a Positive Relationship with Nature”
Kabbalists want to teach you how to do whatever you want using a special program in your “computer.” The system in this computer is nature, but humanity is the only part in this system that actually operates, which is why it sometimes seems as though nature is caged in a box, in a computer, and only we are outside. We are the only ones who can work with this program—receive data, affect that data, and get a response to our actions on the screen.
Kabbalists are the only ones who use and control this program, and they pass on the knowledge about the right approach to nature and how to control it from generation to generation. Their books describe how this world can be managed. This wisdom is called Hochmat ha Nistar (the wisdom of the hidden), because only a worthy person can study it, and for the rest it remains a secret. If a person does not correct his or her attributes as nature demands, he or she cannot understand that wisdom. Even in our present situation, we can begin to learn this wisdom. And even if we use it egoistically for the time being, we will improve our situation and our lives.
Continue reading “Now You Can Understand and Take Control of the System of Reality”