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Dr. Michael Laitman discusses the Yom Kippur holiday and the story of Jonah 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, among others:
Have you read the new Yom Kippur eBooklet, “The Secret to a Happy Year,” by Dr. Michael Laitman?
If not, then we’d like to give you a free copy, which you can read and/or download at the following page:
Get My Free Copy of the Yom Kippur eBooklet: The Secret to a Happy Year »
Just click the “Read Online” or the “Download for Free” buttons on the above-linked page to either read the Yom Kippur eBooklet now in your browser, or to save it on your computer or mobile device for a later read.
The human being is created in the image of the Creator. Therefore, knowingly or unknowingly, he or she aspires to have all the attributes that characterize the Creator. For example, the Creator is in a state of eternal and complete rest. Because of that we too aspire for rest, and all our movements are only a means to attain it. The Creator is one and unique, therefore, everyone declares how much he or she, meaning his or her ego, is also one and unique. Our aspiration to achieve things we think cannot be attained comes from our soul, which is a part of the Creator. We in fact aspire for the situation of the Creator, who is actually free. And this is the purpose of our existence. If that weren’t possible, the concept of freedom would simply not exist.
Our freedom, our independence, is only possible to the extent that we are freed from our nature and can rise above it. That is because our nature is predetermined. To attain the real and absolute freedom, we have to activate a special mechanism to open the door of the cage of our corporeal world into a spiritual, eternal, and free realm.
We have to fight for our freedom. Our whole life is comprised of struggles for bits of fictitious freedom, which society obliges us to engage in. We try to be as it would have us be, and we are prepared to fill up our lives with empty acts, just to get some recognition and respect.
Continue reading “Warning: Are You Aware of the One Thing You Have Freedom of Choice In?”
In our world, we are almost completely dependent on nature’s providence. We are compelled to be born; we do not choose our time of birth or our family, our talents, or the people we meet in this life. We enter an environment we never chose.
All my characteristics are predefined: the feelings, the aspirations, and the character. Everyone is born with his or her own Mazal (luck). Moreover, it is said that “there is not a blade of grass below [in our world] that has not an angel above [a force from the upper world] that strikes it and tells it: Grow!” So is there any freedom at all?
Both nature and society evolve according to their own laws, and so do all the changes in the universe and the ever- greater catastrophes that happen, hence there is nothing that depends on us. But if everything in humankind is dictated from above, not only our characteristics and inheritance, but everything outside us, including the forces that lead us to the end of correction, to a predetermined state, what kind of freedom can we talk about or even think about?
On the other hand, if we just obey nature’s orders, it is unclear why we were created in the first place, not to mention everything else around us. If everything is predefined and there is no freedom of choice, there seems to be no point to the whole of creation. The goal of creation, however, is not that everything will continue the way it has so far advanced, without any reason, but rather to attain completeness, precisely through our gift of free choice. For that reason it is vitally important that we find where and in what our free choice manifests.
Continue reading “The Secret of Whether or Not Humanity Has Freedom of Choice”
Throughout history, during those times when Kabbalah was concealed from most people, rivulets of the wisdom still seeped through, which gave rise to various erroneous conjectures about its purpose. Even today, most prevalent concepts about Kabbalah are fundamentally wrong. Kabbalah engages neither in improving the human existence in this world, nor in mystical or ecstatic experiences.
The sole purpose of the wisdom of Kabbalah is realizing the desire for spirituality, which in turn leads a person to realize his or her purpose in life. Once that desire surfaces, a person begins to need the Kabbalah; before that, it is redundant.
In previous generations, when the desire for spirituality had not yet ripened, Kabbalists set up boundaries on the study of Kabbalah, aiming to filter out those with unripe desires. The few whose desire had ripened in them were imparted the method, despite all the limitations. Now that humanity is experiencing the surfacing of the last degree of the will to receive— the desire for spirituality—concealing the Kabbalah is no longer pertinent. The ban on studying it has been lifted and the filtering at the gate of the study is performed in an entirely different way: Being a method to acquire genuine spirituality, the Kabbalah naturally filters out those with other desires, such as for sex, money, or power. It simply cannot assist in fulfilling those desires.