WEDNESDAY PRAYER: BINAH-MAIN READING FOR THIS WEEK – FOR MITZVOT – Peace in the World

READING: SUNSET TUESDAY

Main Reading for KABBALISTIC PRAYER this week, today with THE READING FOR MITZVOT.

ARVUT OF: Sheridan Moreton-Judd.

Peace in the World

-Rabbi Michael Laitman, PhD

Everything is evaluated not according to what it looks like at a certain moment, but by the degree of its development.

All there is in reality, good, bad and even most harmful in the world has a right to exist. It should by no means be completely destroyed. Our task is to merely correct it and return it to the Source.

It is enough to take an attentive look at the process of the creation to realize the greatness and perfection of the act and the One Who performs it. Therefore we should understand and be extremely careful to neglect any part of the creation and say that it is superfluous and unnecessary. Because it is slander with regards to the act of the creation.

However, it is well-known that the Creator did not complete the creation at the moment of its making. We see that our reality is governed by the laws of step-by-step development that begins with the stage preceding conception and continues up to the end of growth. This is why we do not perceive a bitter taste of a fruit as a flaw in the beginning of its growth.

The same applies to the other elements of reality: if something seems bad and harmful, it only means that this element is in a transitional stage of its development. Hence we have no right to define it as bad and neglect it, because it is unwise.

Those who “correct the world” err

This conclusion enables us to understand that the people who have tried “correct the world” in every generation erroneously perceive man as a machine, which does not function properly and requires improvement, i.e. replacement of defective parts with better ones.

All their efforts were focused on destroying the evil that exists in the human race. truth to tell, unless the Creator had opposed them, they would have certainly succeeded in “sifting humanity through a sieve” and leaving in it only what is good and useful.

However, the Creator takes utmost care of every tiny particle of His creation, allowing no one to destroy anything in His domain. In accordance with it, all such “correctors” will disappear; while evil will remain in the world. It exists and counts the stages of development of every element of the creation until they reach their final state.

Evil properties will then turn into good and useful ones the way the Creator initially conceived them. This resembles a fruit hanging on a tree branch for days and months until it ripens so that every person will discover its taste and sweetness.

Accelerating the correction of nature

However, the aforementioned law of development that extends to the entire reality and guarantees the transformation of all evil into good and useful acts without asking people’s opinion. At the same time the Creator endowed man with power and allowed him to control this law speeding up the process of development at his own will, freely and regardless of time flow.

It turns out that there are two kinds of power acting in the above-mentioned process:

• “Heavenly Power” that guarantees that all evil and harmful will turn into good and useful. This, however, will occur “in due time”, slowly and painfully, as the “developing object” goes through terrible sufferings, ruthlessly crushed by the road-roller of evolution.
• “Earthly Power” that represents the people, who took control over the above-said law of development and who can free themselves from the shackles of time. They considerably accelerate the process of reaching the final stage. In other words, they complete their own evolution and correction.

If they deserve it, they will be able to take the law of development in their own hands. This law is destined to transform their negative properties into the positive ones. This means that they should begin to work with their negative properties and correct them. This will free them from bounds of time, and the achievement of the highest level of development will solely depend on their own desire, i.e. on the quality of their actions and thoughts. This way they will speed up the process of reaching the final stage.

Even if they do not deserve to control the development of their negative properties and leave it in the hands of Providence, the final correction and redemption are still guaranteed to them. In this case the process will be completed on term and conditioned on time.

In accordance with the law of gradual development the process of correction should include many different levels. It is a slow, difficult and extremely long process. Since the “developing objects” in question live and feel, hence while advancing through the stages they are bound to experience enormous and horrible sufferings. The power that compels the person to pass from one level to the next is nothing but the force of anguish and pain. Sufferings accumulate on the lower level and reach such an unbearable degree that the person is bound to leave it and rise to the higher level.

Such is the guaranteed end based on the law of gradual and time-dependent development, termed “in due time”. The completion of the process is inevitable, because the person is destined to take the development of his properties in his own hands (this is called “I will hasten”).

Good and evil are evaluated according to an individual’s actions with regards to the society

Before we set about researching the correction of evil in the human race, we should first determine the value of such abstract notions as good and evil. In other words, while analyzing the actions or properties of good and evil, we should clarify with regards to whom they can be considered as such. To understand that one should know the relative value of the particular compared with the whole, i.e. an individual with respect to the society in which he lives and from which he receives both material and spiritual sustenance.

Reality clearly demonstrates that an individual has no right to exist if he isolates himself from the society, which would serve him and satisfy his needs. From this it follows that man is initially created to live within a society. Every individual is like a tiny wheel inside one mechanism. No individual wheel has any freedom of movement. It is involved in the general motion of all the wheels in a certain direction so that the entire mechanism would be able to complete the given task. If one of the wheels breaks down, it is not considered as breakage of one particular wheel. It is estimated from the view point of its role in the entire mechanism.

Similarly, every individual’s value in the society is determined not by how good he is by himself, but by the extent of his contribution to the society as a whole. And vice versa, we do not evaluate each individual’s degree of evil. We rather estimate the damage he causes to his society.

It is clear as noonday both from the standpoint of truth and goodness, because the whole contains only what is present in the particular and the benefit of the society is the benefit of each individual. One who causes harm to the society harms himself. He who is of benefit to the society receives his share, since the particular is always a part of the whole. The value of the whole is a sum total of its parts.

It turns out that the society and an individual are one and the same. There is nothing negative in the fact that an individual is subordinate to the society, because both an individual’s and the society’s freedom constitute the same. Good or bad properties and actions are only estimated according to their usefulness to the society.

Needless to say, the above-said only refers to the individuals who do their duty in the society, receive as much as they need and do not encroach on their comrades’ share. However, if certain members of the society behave differently, they cause harm both to the society and to themselves.

All the aforesaid is but highlighting the weak point that requires correction. This way everyone can understand that his personal benefit and the benefit of the society are the same thing and in this manner the world will achieve its complete correction.

Four categories: mercy, truth, justice and peace with regards to an individual and the society

Now that we have discovered the true meaning of goodness, we should take a close look at the means at our disposal for faster achievement of happiness.

There are four categories at our command for attaining this end: mercy, truth, justice and peace. All those who have tried to correct the world used these categories. Rather, humanity has developed until today within these four categories – the Divine Providence has brought people to their present state.

As was stated above, the best thing we can possibly do is take the law of development under our control. We will then free ourselves from the sufferings which history prepares for our future.

In accordance with this let’s research and analyze these four categories in order to understand what they have given us up to now, and consequently find out what help we can receive from them in the future.

Practical difficulties in establishing the “truth”

When we “theoretically” examine positive properties, we naturally have no better one than “truth”. The goodness we defined above taking into consideration the interdependence between the individual and the society, when he gives and properly functions within it receiving his fair share, is nothing but “truth”. It is always in demand, because in practice this quality is not accepted by the society. In practice this lack of truth is predetermined by it. There is some flaw or factor, which prevents the society from accepting it, and we should find out what it is. If we profoundly research the practical significance of truth, we would undoubtedly discover that it is obscure and extremely difficult to see.

Truth obliges us to equalize all individuals in the society, so that everyone would receive his part in accordance with his effort, no more and no less. This is the only real basis that raises no doubts. Obviously, the actions of the person who wants to benefit from someone else’s efforts contradict both common sense and the category of truth.

But how can we imagine and comprehend this category for it to be accepted by the society? For example, if we oblige everybody to work equal number of hours, the category of truth will still remain concealed from us. Moreover, we will discover undisguised falsehood with regards to the worker’s physical and moral state.

Quite naturally, all of us cannot work equally. There will always be someone, who due to his weakness makes a bigger effort in one hour than his comrade in two hours or even more.

There also exists a psychological problem, because the lazy person exerts a lot more energy in an hour than someone else who works for two hours. From the viewpoint of absolute truth we cannot oblige one part of the society to work for provision of the life necessities more than the other.

In practice it turns out that the strong and enterprising members of society benefit from the efforts of other people and thus malevolently exploit them, which certainly contradicts the category of truth. Compared with the weak and lazy members of society they themselves make very little effort.

If we take into account the natural law of “following the majority”, we will see that the kind of truth based on the actual number of working hours is utterly unrealistic and impossible to implement. The weak and lazy will always represent the bigger part of society and they will never allow the strong and industrious minority to enjoy the fruit of their work.

So it is clear that the principle based on the individual’s efforts is totally impracticable. It turns out that the category of truth cannot be the key factor determining the development of an individual and society. It lacks something that can provide the life conditions in the completely corrected world.

Moreover, we find even bigger difficulties seeing that there is no clearer truth than in nature. Every person most naturally feels that he is the only ruler in the Creator’s world. He is quite sure that everything and everybody was created with the sole purpose of making his life easier and more comfortable. At that he does not feel any obligation to give something in return.

Bluntly speaking, everyone’s nature is to use the life of all creatures in the world for his own benefit. Everything that the person gives to his neighbor is only done forcedly, under compulsion. But even then he takes advantage of his fellow creature. He simply resorts to cunning so that another person would let him have what he wants.

This means that the nature of every branch is closely related to its root. Since man’s soul emanates from the One and Only Creator, the person feels that all the creatures in the world are created to serve him and should submit to his rule. This law is indisputable and inviolable.

People only differ by the choices they make. One chooses to use creation for receiving the basest pleasures, another craves for power and the third one seeks honor and respect. Furthermore, unless it cost so much, everyone would agree to use the world to get all of it together: wealth, power and recognition. However, the person is forced to make his choice according to his abilities.

This law may be called the “law of uniqueness”; it is imprinted on man’s heart. No one can possibly escape from its influence; everyone receives his part, the great one according to his greatness, the small one according to his smallness. This law is neither good nor bad; it represents nature’s reality and has a right to exist as any other part of creation. There is not a faintest hope to repeal or even slightly mitigate it as there is no chance to destroy the entire human race. In accordance with this, we will not act against our conscience by saying that this law represents “absolute truth”.

How on earth can we convince an individual by promising him absolute equality among all the members of society, when all he naturally aspires to is to rise above society? After all that has been said, there is no doubt that nothing in man’s nature can be more opposite to this.

Now we understand that it is utterly unrealistic to make an individual or society happy in accordance with the category of truth so that everyone would completely agree to it, as it should be in the state of Final correction.

The use of other categories instead of the category of truth

Now let’s study three remaining categories: mercy, justice and peace. At first glance, they were not created initially to support truth, which is very weak and fragile in our world. From this point history began its slow, step-by-step movement towards organizing the life of society.

Theoretically all the members of society unconditionally accepted the rule of truth, but in practice they opposed it in violation of the agreement. truth has been destined to be used by the most deceitful people ever since. It is not to be found among the weak and righteous, so that they would use it even to a small extent.

Inasmuch as they could not conduct themselves in accordance with the category of truth, the number of the weak and exploited grew. This led to development of such categories as mercy and justice, because the foundation of society’s existence obliges the strong and lucky to help the weak and miserable so as not to harm the society as a whole.

Yet the nature of things is such that in these conditions the number of the weak and miserable grows so immensely that they begin to threaten the strong, which consequently leads to discord and clashes. This served as a reason for the appearance of the category of peace in the world. So all of these categories: mercy, justice and peace originated and developed due to the weakness of truth.

This led to separation of society into groups. Some of them adopted the category of mercy and compassion, i.e. donating part of their own property to less fortunate ones; others adopted the category of truth, i.e. accepted the principle “mine is mine”, “yours is yours”.

Bluntly speaking, these two groups may be categorized as “builders” and “destroyers”. Builders are those who care about society’s well-being and for this they are ready to share their property with others. The ones who are naturally inclined to destruction find the category of truth (i.e. the principle “mine is mine”, “yours is yours”) much more convenient. Being totally unprepared to sacrifice anything for others’ sake, such people prefer to protect their property even if it threatens society’s existence.

Hope for peace

When external conditions brought these two groups to opposition and put them on the verge of ruin, the “builders of peace” emerged in society. These people rejected the power of aggression and offered new and just (from their point of view) principles of co-existence within a society.

However, as a rule these “builders of peace” originate from the ranks of “destroyers”, adherents of truth and of the principle “mine is mine and yours is yours”. This is because being strong and enterprising they will sacrifice their own lives and the life of society if the society does not agree with their opinion.

At the same time the compassionate and merciful “builders”, who believe that their life and the life of society is above all, are not ready to jeopardize themselves and their society to force the society to agree with their opinion. They are the weak part of society usually referred to as cowardly and poor-hearted. It stands to reason that the brave who are ready to take risks always win, hence it is only natural that the “builders of peace” originated from the midst of the “destroyers”.

From the aforesaid it is clear that the hope for peace to which our generation so impatiently aspires, is worthless pertaining to both the “subject” and the “object”.

The “builders of peace” in every generation are subjects, i.e. the people who are supposed to establish peace in the entire world. Since they are made of the human material called “destroyers” and adhere to truth, i.e. live by the principle “mine is mine and yours is yours”.

Naturally, these people defend their opinion with such fervor that they are ready to jeopardize their own life and that of society. This gives them enough strength to always prevail over the “builders”, adherents of mercy and compassion, who in their cowardice are ready to share their possessions with others for the sake of preserving peace.

It turns out that demands for peace and destruction of the world are the same, while the need for mercy and building of peace are also identical. This is why it is impossible to hope that the destroyers will establish peace.

Hope for peace is utterly unfounded with regards to the “object” (i.e. the conditions for the existence of peace), because the conditions for the happy life of an individual have not yet been created in accordance with the category of truth. There is and will always be a not so numerous but important part of society, which is dissatisfied with the current conditions. They always make up a ready material for new builders of peace, whose generations will endlessly supersede one another.

Peace for a particular society and peace for the entire world

You should not be surprised by the fact that I mix up the notions of peace in a particular society and peace in the entire world, since actually we have already reached the level, when the whole world can be considered as one people, one society. In other words, inasmuch as every person is sustained by the entire humankind, he is compelled to serve it and care for well-being of the entire world.

We have already proved the individual’s dependence on the society by comparing him with a tiny wheel in a huge machine. Thus it turns out that social and individual welfare are the same thing. Yet the opposite is also true. To the extent of the person’s concerns about his own well-being, he certainly cares for the society’s welfare.

What is the scope of this society? It is determined by the space in which an individual receives what he needs. For example, in ancient history this space was limited to one family circle. In other words, the person needed no other help but that which was provided by his family members. Consequently, he did not have to be dependent on anyone else but his own family.

At a later period, when families joined together to settle in small villages and towns, the person became dependent on his township. Later on, when settlements and towns merged into countries, he began to depend on the citizens of his country.

In our generation too every individual’s welfare is provided by practically all countries of the world. Resembling a small wheel in an enormous mechanism, the person depends on the entire world.

In accordance with it, the possibility to peacefully establish a good and happy order in one particular country is unimaginable. There is no way to do this before it is achieved in every country of the world, and vice versa. Since today countries are already connected through providing one another with life necessities, it is pointless to speak about just ways of establishing peace within one country or nation. These ways should be sought for the entire world.

Although it is known and adequately felt, all the same humanity does not fully realize it. Why is it so? It is because according to the process of development in nature an action always precedes a realization of the phenomenon. Only reality will prove everything and push humankind forward.

In reality the four categories contradict one another

The four mentioned categories: mercy and truth, justice and peace inherent in each of us and concealed from other people split up in man’s nature either as a result of development or education and contradict each other. So if we take, for example, the category of mercy in its abstract form, we will discover that its power suppresses all the other categories. That is according to the laws of mercy the other categories have no place in our world.

Mercy constitutes the condition “mine is yours and yours is yours”. Provided the entire humanity behaved in accordance with this category, all the magnificence and value of truth and peace would vanish. If everyone were ready to give everything he has to his fellow creature without receiving anything in return, the factor which forces the person to lie to his comrade would disappear.

Since truth and falsehood are interdependent, in principle we would be unable to say anything about the category of truth. Unless there was “falsehood” in the world, there would be no such notion as “truth”, not to mention that the other categories that only emerged to support truth would disappear as well.

Truth the principle of which is defined as “mine is mine and yours is yours” contradicts the category of mercy and cannot tolerate it, since from the viewpoint of truth the principle “to work and help your neighbor” is wrong, because it corrupts the person, teaching him to exploit others. Besides, truth maintains that everyone should be saving means for a rainy day not to become a burden for someone when times get rough.

Furthermore, there is no one who has no relatives or heirs of his property, who according to the principle of truth have a priority right before all the others. So it naturally turns out that the person who dispenses his property among other people poses as a liar with regards to his relations and heirs if he leaves them nothing.

Peace and justice contradict one another too, because for peace to be established in society a certain number of conditions should be met. They would allow the clever and industrious people to grow rich, while the lazy and unpractical ones would remain poor. Thus the hard-working person would receive his own share and that of the lazy one. He would be enjoying good life, until the lazy one turns into a beggar.

Of course it is not fair to punish the idle and unpractical people so severely, for they did not steal anything from anyone. What crime did these miserable people commit, if the Divine Providence had not endowed them with agility and intelligence? Should they be punished and subjected to suffering that is worse than death? So if justice is a condition for establishing peace, then peace is contrary justice.

Justice also contradicts peace, because if the order of division of property corresponds with the principle of justice (i.e. to give considerable valuables to idle and unpractical people). Needless to say that the strong and industrious ones will not rest until they abolish this practice that subdues the strong and allows the weak to exploit them. Hence there is no hope for peace in the society, because justice is opposed to peace.

Property of uniqueness in egoism leads to destruction and extermination

We can clearly see how our properties clash and fight with one another not only among groups of people, but also within one person. The four categories rule over the person simultaneously and alternately and wage such a war that common sense cannot establish order and harmony between them.

To tell the truth, the source of all our confusions is none but the property of “uniqueness” present in each of us.

Although we know that this magnificent and exalted property was given to us by the Creator (the source of all creation), when this feeling of uniqueness joins with our narrow egoism, it becomes destructive. It is the source of all misfortunes in the world, both past and future. It is said that there is no one in the world who is free from this property. All the differences between people are only determined by the way it is used: for gaining power, esteem, etc.

However, there is something in common among all the creatures: each of us aspires to use all the others for his own benefit using every available means and disregarding the fact that he builds his own happiness by destroying what his fellow creatures have.

It is irrelevant how everyone justifies his actions, because “our desires control our thoughts” and not vice versa. Moreover, the bigger and more important the person is, the more he feels his uniqueness.

The use of uniqueness as a means of development of an individual and society

Now let’s try to understand what are the conditions that will be accepted by the entire humanity when peace prevails in the world, what is the positive power of these conditions that will provide a happy life to an individual and to society. Besides, we will try to find out what this readiness of the humankind to meet all the special conditions really is.

But first let’s return to the feeling of uniqueness in every person’s heart, which awakens the desire to take advantage of everything and everybody for his own sake. The root of this sensation stems from the Creator’s uniqueness and extends to His branch – people. Here a question arises that demands an answer: why is this feeling revealed in us in such an ugly form that it becomes a basis of all the damage and destruction in the world? It is impossible to leave this question unanswered.

The fact is that uniqueness has two sides to it. If we look at it from the Creator’s standpoint, i.e. from the point of achieving similarity to His uniqueness, it only compels to “give”, because such is the Creator’s property. There is no property of reception in Him, since he lacks nothing and does not need to receive anything from His creatures. Therefore, uniqueness (continuation of the Creator’s property in us) is destined to be realized in us in the form of “bestowal”, altruism and not egoistical reception.

On the other hand, from the point of view of practical action of this property in us, we find that it behaves in a completely opposite way. It manifests as egoistical reception, i.e. as a desire to be the richest, most powerful and unique person in the world. Thus these two sides are as opposite and remote from one another as East from West.

This provides us with an answer to the above question – how does the uniqueness emanating from the Creator, the Source of life on the Earth manifest in us as a source of destruction? This happens, because we use this precious means with a wrong, opposite intention – receive for our own sake.

Uniqueness will never act in us as bestowal and altruism. We cannot deny that there are people among us, in whom uniqueness acts in the form of bestowal. They share their property and achievements with the society.

However, these are two sides of one medal. They only speak of two aspects of the creation’s development leading all to perfection. Starting from the stage preceding the conception, the creation gradually ascends the levels of development, one after another, until it reaches its highest predestination – the initially preordained eternal perfection.

The order of development of these two aspects, points is as follows: the first point constitutes the beginning of evolution, the lowest level that is very close to non-existence. It corresponds to the second side of the property of uniqueness. The second point is a predetermined level, which the creation will reach and where it will rest and remain eternally. It corresponds to the first side of the property of uniqueness.

However, the period in which we now live is so advanced that it ascended above many levels. It rose above the lowest level (the second side of uniqueness) and distinctly approached the first side. Hence there are people among us who use their uniqueness in the form of bestowal. There are few of them so far, because we are still in the middle of our development.

When we reach the highest point of the “ladder”, all of us will only use our uniqueness in the form of bestowal, and no one will ever think to use it for the sake of egoistical reception.

In accordance with the above-said, we found an opportunity to take a look at the life conditions of the last generation, when peace prevails in the entire world and the humankind reaches the highest point of the first side. It will then use its uniqueness in the form of bestowal.

We must copy this form of existence to such an extent that it will serve us a standard and penetrate our consciousness amid the turmoil of our life.

Life conditions of the last generation

…First of all, everyone should properly understand and explain it to his immediate circle of acquaintances that there exists an absolute interdependency between peace in the society (which means peace in the state) and peace on the planet. As long as social laws do not satisfy all and as long as there is a minority which is unhappy with the way the state is ruled, it will try to defy the state rule and demand a change of government.

In case this minority is insufficiently strong to openly struggle with the regime, there is an alternative, roundabout way to throw it off. For example, two states can be provoked and led to war, because quite naturally there will be many more dissatisfied people during the war. The dissident minority will then have an opportunity to become a decisive majority, overthrow the government and organize a new one that would better serve its own needs. So peace for an individual turns out to be a factor that directly affects peace in the state.

Furthermore, if we take into account the ever-present part of the society, for which war is a trade and a hope for a career advancement, i.e. professional military and armaments experts with a lot of clout and add to it another minority dissatisfied with existing laws, we will come up with an ever-ready overwhelming majority, which aspires to wars and bloodshed.

Since peace in the world and peace in a particular state are interdependent, even those citizens (intelligent and enterprising ones) who are currently content with the status quo are seriously concerned about their own security due to the tension maintained by the destructive elements of the society. So if they could understand the value of peace, they would certainly be happy to adopt the mode of life of the last generation.

Suffering vs. pleasure while receiving for oneself

If we take a close look at the above concept, we will see that all the difficulty consists in transforming our nature from the will to receive for ourselves into the will to bestow, since one contradicts the other.

On the face of it the concept seems utterly incredible. However, if we properly look into it, we will understand that the contradiction between egoistical reception and bestowal is nothing but a psychological factor, because in practice all of our actions are bestowal without receiving any benefits for ourselves.

Although we perceive egoistical reception in different forms, such as possession of property and everything that delights the eye, heart and stomach, it is defined by one word – “pleasure”. So the essence of egoistical reception is nothing but the will to receive pleasure.

And now imagine the following: if the person could see all the combined pleasures he receives during his 70 years and all the bitter sufferings and hardships that befall him, he would most probably prefer not to be born at all.

This being so, what does man gain in our world, if he only enjoys twenty per cent of pleasure compared with eighty per cent of suffering? If we compare one with the other, the result will be sixty per cent of anguish without any compensation.

However, all the above said is a personal calculation we make while working for our own benefit. On a global scale the person gives much more than he receives for his existence and pleasure. Provided our intention changes from reception to bestowal, we will be able to receive delight in full measure without endless suffering.