Why Is There Suffering in the World?

It is possible to teach a person the spiritual mechanics, to explain how the transition from one state to another occurs and how to perform different actions, but it is impossible to convey what he will feel then. In order to do so, he must be ready for a spiritual sensation. [Source: Dr. Michael Laitman, “Several Details about the Picture of the Spiritual World.”]

What’s Missing in the Way We Evaluate Suffering?

On one hand, we see that nature is wise and assiduous toward every creature. It develops every element successively and carefully. Look at the structure of organisms, their ability to grow, to give birth to offspring, and to interact. Everything is built in an integral form, every person has his own place and is in balance with others. If we could see the balanced world, undisturbed by human despotism, we would reveal a wonderful system, one that is not static, but perfectly balanced for development.

However, we do not see the causes of this development and do not understand why everything has to be precisely this way. Therefore, we do not understand the phases of the path. Besides, we look at it through the prism of our egoism and evaluate it according to our criteria. Therefore, we see the world upside down, as if flipping it over in our perception. [Source: Dr. Michael Laitman, “Balance that Causes Development.”]

Destroying the Planet’s Population

Is it Possible to Eliminate Suffering?

It is very hard to explain what the “human in me”. It is above my animal level, above my corporeal life. If I feel that I am human, when I don’t think about the body but rather am filled by some idea, I actually don’t feel my body—it is as if I am floating above myself.

If I descend to the animal level, like an ordinary person in this world, I feel the body. But in any case, while being in my animal body, I don’t feel pain when I cut my hair or my nails because it is at the vegetative level.If I descend to the vegetative level, I don’t feel the inanimate level, where there are no nerves and so on.

Thus, we can speak about the development from the bottom up and about a person’s descent from the top down by explaining how he gradually leaves this life.

We can explain and show a person that if he is in this social, integral body that constantly supports him, he will not feel even a minute of suffering, not in this life and not when this life is over.

A person who is connected with others constantly becomes healthier by being connected to the system that is full of mutual connection with others, and so even if something happens to him, there is an energetic compensation on the account of others. Thus, society operates as a healthy body. If a thorn enters a person’s body, for example, the whole body begins to work against it, by pushing it out, by treating the infected area, etc. The same thing happens with a person in society—the society immediately feels all the person’s internal problems and provides him with the necessary energy, and he is healed. [Source: Dr. Michael Laitman, “Not a Minute of Suffering.”]

10 of the Most Asked Questions about Kabbalah by Beginners … and Their Answers

We scoured the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education Center‘s Fundamentals semester student forum for the 10 most asked questions about Kabbalah by beginners, and here they are … with answers!

As for finding answers to these questions, how did we do it? We simply ran the following searches in Google’s search engine:

  • site:kabbalah.info write your question here
  • site:laitman.com write your question here

…and then sent the Q&A doc to a Bnei Baruch senior instructor for some basic editing and review, and here you have it.

Why are we mentioning how we ran the searches for the answers to the questions? The reason is that the websites kabbalah.info and laitman.com have so much content, including many full books, 1,000s of articles, videos and more, and many people do not know what a wonderful resource is at their fingertips waiting to answer any question they might have.

Give it a try! Don’t see a question you have here below? Write your question in Google’s search engine preceded by the “site:kabbalah.info” and “site:laitman.com” prefixes, and see what you can find!

10 of the Most Asked Questions about Kabbalah by Beginners

Click on a question here in order to go directly to its answer:

1. Is Kabbalah a religion? Do I have to be Jewish in order to study Kabbalah?
2. Does Kabbalah recognize the existence of Karma and how it manifests in this world?
3. What is spirituality and where does Kabbalah originate?
4. Is the revelation of the Creator achieved just through the study of various concepts of Kabbalah, or are there other techniques such as prayer, meditation, yoga, etc.?
5. How does Kabbalah practically assist and support us in everyday life?
6. How does Kabbalah define prayer?
7. Kabbalah is a science to enable us to know God, then what is the difference between Kabbalah and theology?
8. What is the cause of coincidences/synchronicities?
9. What does Kabbalah say about physical suffering? If God is all loving, why do people suffer?
10. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, please explain near death experiences?

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If You’re a Human Being, then You Can Change the World You Live In

From the Beginning of Creation to the Big Bang

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains, that after the initially created desire to receive goes through stages of development, forming the system of the spiritual worlds, a special Partzuf, called Adam, the primordial common soul, was created.

Although this common soul was created without free choice and without the ability to become similar to its Maker, the subsequent “breakage” of this Partzuf created the opportunity for free, independent development, to achieve the purpose creation—to become similar to its Maker.

Therefore, Adam’s shattered soul is our common origin. Being a Partzuf, Adam’s structure was a perfect replica of its parent (corrected) Partzuf. In breaking, Adam extended the structure of the spiritual worlds (worlds of bestowal) to its lowest point—ultimate reception.

In consequence, all that exists in the spiritual worlds exists in our world, as well. For this reason, the same four-stage pattern by which the stages of desire evolved, followed by the four-stage evolution of the spiritual worlds, exists in our physical world. As we explore how our world has evolved, we should keep in mind the desires that evoke and guide it.

Time, as we know it, began approximately 14 billion years ago. From the Kabbalistic, spiritual perspective, the “big bang” was the shattering of Adam’s soul. The reason we see it as a material event is that we see the world through corporeal (self-centered) eyes. If we could see it from the perspective of the force that induced this massive explosion we call “the big bang,” we would see it as an outcome of Adam’s attempt to receive using the last, and greatest desire.

 

What Is the Difference between Survival of the Fittest in Darwinism and in Kabbalah?

As the original desires evolved in stages, their mundane parallels appeared and corrected one at a time, from the easiest to the hardest. Now, as each desire manifests itself in our universe, Nature, which is synonymous with the Creator, must “teach” it to work so that it contributes to the well-being and sustainability of the universe.

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Do You Make this Mistake While Enjoying Something?

The wisdom of Kabbalah tells us how the Creator’s quality of bestowal creates a desire, out of nothing, a desire to receive pleasure, and how this creature has similarity with the end of its development.

After an initial four phase development the creature realizes its total opposition to its source, end enters a new phase, using a bestowing intention to progress towards the desired similarity.

We learn how the creation receives what pleasure it can in order to bestow, and builds itself to be as similar as possible to its Creator. However, even after all the worlds have been established in the Partzuf, and all the lights that could be received in order to bestow are received in the Partzuf, there still remains one desire that cannot be made to work in the Partzuf—the desire to be like the Creator. This is the desire that the host in Ashlag’s allegory was referring to when he said, “In this case, there has never been born a person who could fulfill your wishes.” This is the most intense desire, the core desire of Stage Four, and at the same time it is utterly unachievable.

So once all the desires were exploited to the maximum, the creation’s (the company) marketing department (surrounding light), reminded the company management—the Rosh (head) of creation—that there was still more light to be received. Now it was the Rosh’s duty to examine this new desire and determine if it could receive this desire with the intention to bestow.

 

Do You Fall for this Hidden Temptation that Is Impossible To Resist?

For this reason, the Rosh assembled a special board meeting to discuss the fate of this last desire. In this meeting, the argument for not using it was that it was too strong to handle. Indeed, how can one handle a desire to be like one’s parent? If the Partzuf actually received what it wished for in that desire, it would be similar to a child instantly becoming an adult, without the knowledge and experience acquired over the years of growing up. Clearly, this was too complicated and too dangerous a desire to handle.

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Tazria—Metzorah (When a Woman Delivers—The Leper) Parsha – Weekly Torah Portion

Leviticus, 12:1-13:59 – 14:1-15:33

This Week’s Torah Portion | March 23 – March 29, 2014 – Adar II 28 – Nisan 5, 5774

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.

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