“Secrets of the Eternal Book”

Video program with

Dr. Michael Laitman and

director and screenwriter Semen Vinokur

Part 6, chapter Noah

Semen Vinokur: Hello, dear friends. We continue with the broadcast of our show, Secrets of the Eternal Book, talking about the Pentateuch, or Torah, and learn how to read it. As always, in the studio with us is Dr. Michael Laitman. Hello.

Dr. Michael Laitman: Hello.

SV: We study the chapter "Noah." We are almost done studying it. Now the ship, this ark has touched the shore.

ML: Right.

SV: Noah, his sons, and all the animate and inanimate, come out, by inanimate we have in mind...

ML: Yes, he had come out (if we are talking about one person). All of his internal desires that are in this ark have gone through their purification, spiritual exaltation, correction, and now they are prepared, being already spiritual, to take on this land again: cultivating it, planting it to make it fruitful, so that it reproduces, etc. Again, they are ready to connect the altruistic desire to give and to love to this desire that emerged in them now. When they were in the ark, they were sort of inside of their mother, in her waters; they have obtained the property of Bina, the property of bestowal and love. Right now, they start to land on the ground, on their selfishness. The ego begins to manifest itself in the man, and the man starts to work with it, using the properties of Bina which he has received. He now comes back to his selfishness, now he has to work with it…

SV: As I understand it, the man is sure that he will endure it, he will withstand it, and he would be able to obtain the pure fruits of the earth.

ML: Well, of course, his path will be rough and thorny...

SV: We will see this now, by the way... (laugh).

ML: Yes, and it will go on like this until the very end...

SV: Until Eretz Israel.

ML: ...until the final correction.

SV: It is written here that...

ML: He sent out a dove...

SV: Yes, we have already learnt that.

ML:... and a crow, etc. These are two forces that helped him to realize that he can come out. He broke open the door; we have also spoken about what it means to cut through...

SV: A window, he has cut out a window.

ML:... yes, he had to discover a limitation in his internal state of Bina, even that this is a property of bestowal, a quality of love, but there is nothing to give and nothing to love, so he cuts through a window, makes a hole in this sort of ideal sphere...

SV: A flaw.

ML: ... but now the light enters through it, like in the wall of the house, we talked about it. There comes the light, and because of it, he can get out of his ark. He can start working with his ego. It means that now he starts to really work on himself and by doing this relate to Creator.

SV: It says here:

"Now, these are the records of the generations of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and sons were born to them after the flood."

Further it explains who are the children, what are their names, and it ends as follows:

"These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations; and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood."

ML: Yes.

SV: This describes the beginning, as it were...

ML: of humankind.

SV: of humankind.

ML: Not our civilization, of course. Our civilization was dispersing, separating, and it existed before. This means that the man comes ashore on the ground (he had gotten the properties of Bina already), he lands on the properties of Malchut. With the properties of bestowal and love, he lands on the property of his selfishness. Imagine, as if landing on the moon.

SV: Yes.

ML: Imagine. This huge ego is in front of you, you have to begin to process it now, connect it to the altruistic desire you have obtained.

SV: to process?

ML: Yes, to work it over, so that this land would produce...

SV: Give birth.

ML: so that your desire would give birth to your new spiritual levels. You add the selfishness, the ego; you reprocess it into the altruism. This way you make one step up, you elevate yourself on the level of the ego you have managed to add. You are now at level zero: you add some egoism to yourself, you ascend by its level; you add some more, you ascend more. And so on to the level of the Creator, there are 125 steps in front of you.

SV: It is like throwing coal into the furnace, huh?

ML: Yes, and because of this...

(simultaneously)

SV: …the train runs.

ML: Yes, without it, the train will not run. “Sons of Noah” means the next stage, the next level of a man. I am now at the stage of Noah and I rise to the next level. So, my ascent to the next level is already running on three lines - Shem, Ham and Yefet. Here, all sorts of problems emerge between them.

SV: Three lines in me.

ML: Between them, between the properties that exist in me, some problems emerge. I look at them from the side: Torah teaches us to look at ourselves from the side, so it describes it like the story that happens with someone…

SV: External.

ML: …so it is easier to see, to observe for a person. We must understand what it describes. There are performances and movies like that. This Japanese theater...

SV: Kabuki.

ML: Kabuki! It is the same here. There is...

SV: Joy, sadness.

ML: Yes, yes, yes, everyone wears a mask. They impersonate a man and his internal properties.

SV: So you are saying that I look at myself from afar: there I am and that is happening to me.

ML: Of course, right.

SV: That is this show, and I watch it, huh?

ML: That is the only way it should be seen, because then I don’t identify myself with my own properties. I was created with them, but I did not create them. Why would I identify myself with them? I want to pull myself out of them, examine them from outside, and see how I can control them. Then I get to the level of the Creator, and regard myself as a device, a system that should be corrected, directed, etc.

SV: Well, this recalls stories of people who have undergone clinical death, when they were sort of watching themselves from the side.

ML: Yes, indeed, this is very useful.

SV: Very useful (laughs). It seems that everything should be fine: the flood is gone; they have landed on the ground; and suddenly...

ML: what? What is wrong? There is nothing wrong, it speaks only of those stages that we are obliged to pass. Each one of us contains this entire path ahead the Torah describes. Now from Noah to Babylon, from Babylon to Egypt, from Egypt we exit to the land of Israel, and then... Well, there are problems, challenges, issues to solve at all times. That is the path of a person: it describes what desires arise in him and what will happen to him if he does not fix them. If he does not correct them, he will be moving towards the goal by suffering. If he does correct them, he will be moving along the way absolutely comfortably and easily.

SV: And where is it said?

ML: But it does not say (laughs).

SV: And why we are not told about this?

ML: You are not told about this because that is your free will. Whether you will be correcting yourself or not, it is not known in advance to anyone including the Creator! This is the absolute free will of a person. That is why the Torah, the entire Bible, all the prophets, all the Holy Scriptures talk about such problems...

SV: Suffering.

ML: Suffering, curses, horrors, and all of them describe only one thing: forces of nature that will force you and push to the goal. If you are able to balance them, if you can soften them in advance...

SV: if you can go faster than these blows.

ML:... yes, you advance ahead, do not wait for these blows, then everything is fine and no suffering. It is similar to situations when parents say to their son: "We want to make you a doctor, a professor" - no matter what...

SV: Even worse, a musician! (laughs)

ML: ..An Einstein! An Einstein or a great musician.

SV: It's terrifying!

ML: Yes, it's terrifying! This I know for myself. (laughs)

SV: You know.

ML: Yes. So, know and keep in mind what awaits you. Here is the goal, you have to reach it. Here you are today and here is the plan we came up with for you.

SV: And now solfeggio lessons begin (laughs)

ML: Well, this you know, so...

SV: Hours of violin practice, nerve-racking. So, please, explain to me (it is important to know), why the happy way is not described?

ML: It is unknown. For everyone, the path is individual, is unique, and is his own. One thing is common for everyone: everything that is written in the Torah, it is the same direction for all. Does not matter who the person is and what he is. For everyone there is the same way, meaning there are all the same forces that will drive you forward, towards the goal of creation. But how each of us can move, mitigating this way, understanding, comprehending like a smart kid and not like…

SV: Stubborn.

ML: Not like a stubborn kid, this depends on each one of us. Therefore, no one can write about it. What is written there are the laws of nature: here is the ego and here is the force that will be moving it forward. It will definitely bring it to the end, over a specified period, over 6000 years. It will certainly bring everyone there. But your part in this process is unknown.

SV: And we are stubborn, right?

ML: Well, we're very stubborn, but the thing is that as much as we understand, as much as we are imbued with it, as much as we learn, read and talk about it, we are working on ourselves, we are preparing ourselves inside.

SV: We are brainwashing.

ML: We remain stubborn, but somewhere inside of us we have started to form an agreement, an understanding. Our agreement with this way, our inner awareness of its necessity affects us in many ways, largely, greatly mitigating our destiny. So, it is useful.

SV: People have landed. Further, it talks about the well known thing to mankind:

"Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. 2It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.3They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar..."

ML: It means that they have invented their methods, so to speak...

SV: Of progress.

ML: Of exaltation, of building. A man invents a method of his own exaltation.

SV: How interesting! Not the nature?

ML: Not the nature. Bricks are for stones, clay is for mortar. It means I, by myself, create…

SV: I connect.

ML: those stages on which I wish to climb. This is absolutely...

SV: It is interesting, by the way.

ML: ... this is not typical of an animal; it is peculiar to a man. An animal does not create tools and the animal does not create the elements out of which it builds its house. Suppose we know birds build nests, etc., but they build them of natural ready-made parts.

SV: Yes.

ML: Man is different in that sense. He creates these parts. And this is a very deep philosophical understanding…

SV: How very interesting.

ML: …of human development. He knows and understands out of what and why he should in advance create everything. The animal level does not imply this.

SV:

"Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth."

ML: Such egoism emerges in a person and says that I have to build myself, I have to build my own tower, I have to reach the heavens with my understanding, with my selfishness, and with my labor. I am capable do all of it. I will settle all over the earth; I will disperse because I'm strong. I'm standing in the midst, my tower reaches the sky, I understand and I’m aware. I comprise all nature, all creation. Well, you know, those slogans that we once heard that the "man is the crown of nature," and that the "man should subdue nature."

SV: "Man! That has a proud sound!"

ML: "has a proud sound," right, that life, in general, is a method of existence of proteinaceous matter, yes, and so on... and we are above all. Here this ego is so materialistic, so good, capitalistic, everything is in...

SV: Progress.

ML: in this, yes. It already emerges in the man at that time, at that first stage of his development. We're not talking about what happened 5000 years ago; we are talking about our inner spiritual development. Immediately, just like that, a man develops a feeling of this egoism. I want to reach the goal myself, I am ready, I know, I can, I will rise up to the sky, and I will scatter, meaning that I will cover the entire ego. Like a snake, you know, swallows something huge, and so I will swallow the whole globe, and rise up to the sky. Here it is... a snake represents our egoism, so this is our property. That is the first time it appears.

SV: Tell me, please, (I do understand), but explain to me please: these people have survived the flood, so, it means that the spiritual was revealed to them. How did those people that began to build a tower...

ML: Are you talking about the people who have historically lived at the time?

SV: Well, for example, say, we're not talking about people. Say, there is a sense; there is a sense of spiritual...

ML: The kabbalists, who experienced all that within, who are you talking about?

SV: I'm talking about the builders.

ML: You're talking about what was going on in the material world...

SV: Yes.

ML: the generation that has survived such floods, and all that is more or less historically confirmed, although it is not important to us, but there is ...

SV: There is a proof that the tower was real ...

ML: We have books. Books were written. Josephus Flavius, Midrash Rabbah (the Great Commentary) spoke about this, and many other books. These are well-known facts. So, what are you talking about? Are you talking historically about what was happening on the surface of Earth? Or what was happening in every Kabbalist who took these steps inside of him? Or what is in front of us, as future Kabbalists? Are we facing the same process?

SV: Let's look at several stages. Let’s leave the history aside for now. Let’s talk about what happened with the Kabbalists. There was a feeling of spiritual and suddenly they are feeling...

ML: Suddenly, the feeling occurs in a man...

SV: ...and suddenly there is such a leap… He begins to build his tower starting to resist what he learned...

ML: He suddenly falls into the ego, from his high aspirations, motives, goals, directions...

SV: ... after the ark.

ML: ... yes, after this, all of a sudden, boom! He falls into his ego: I have to master this, I have to climb up to this, and I have got to absorb it all.

SV: Where does the memory of the spiritual go? Where is the memory of all the best states that he felt?

ML: A man has no memory. A man is directed by his desire. Memory, thoughts, in general, his mind, exists only in order to realize the desires. That’s the way. So, all of my good properties I have acquired...

SV: Aspirations.

ML: ... yes, all the aspirations, all theories – all of this is, you know...

SV: Haloymes (Yiddish), empty.

ML: You know, there is a fable that cats were taught by training. Remember Kuklachev, our friend ?

SV: Yes.

ML: He was here recently. He trains cats. So, this fable speaks of a master who trained cats and wanted to show everyone that they are absolutely like people. He dressed them up as waiters. So, they bring in the food to the table and they serve. Knowing all this, one man opens the snuffbox, in which there was a mouse and lets this mouse out. All the cats throw away their trays and forget about everything. They start chasing this mouse. What I am saying is: if a true, genuine, natural desire emerges...

SV: Everything falls.

ML: … it can’t be suppressed by the mind, or by what was learned, or by all sorts of teachings or morals. No way. A man instantly falls back. We see great people and all of a sudden… new desire takes over. Full steam ahead! They immediately become puppets, we see it, and they become fanatics hands down. True for anyone…

SV: Where does everything go?

ML: ... it doesn’t go anywhere. The desire that is being realized changes. That’s all. All the past, all the education, all these Englishmen... I was in London once in the summer, when the heat was probably +35 C. For Englishmen, it is deadly, in London, with its humidity and everything. They are not used to it. I thought, well, let's see what happens. I was in a particular region where they were always dressed up. But now they were in shorts, could not help it, shirts were unbuttoned… I felt as if I was in the Israeli market, so there. So much for all the English ceremoniousness! Something becomes unbearable - nothing is important any more…

SV: The entire aristocracy suddenly disappears somewhere.

ML: Nothing, it’s all nonsense.

SV: I want to add something else. You mentioned the Great Commentary...

ML: Yes.

SV: There is such a thing, the Great Commentary, which only a few of our viewers know of.

ML: This is a book, it is called Midrash Rabbah.

SV: It can also be believed like everything else?

ML: Like everything else. It is written by great people, it was written around the same time as Babylon, it tells us about the ancient Babylon of Nimrod, what...

SV: How to build a tower.

ML: ... yes, it describes everything that happened there: many generations that lived at the time, the tribes that gathered around that valley, and where they built this tower. It clearly describes what it was. It is also described by the ancient Greeks generation by generation a bit later, when it was passed on. It was described by Josephus Flavius; it was accurately measured there: 90 cubits by 60 cubits, there were 7 floors, and on top there was a place for offering the ...

SV: the altar for sacrifices.

ML: sacrifices, etc. It was a very sophisticated construction. Even if we imagine in terms of modern technology, it is very difficult to build. Of course, modern technology can accomplish it, but at the time, with the tools that they had, it...

SV: I’d like to take a small passage from there and read it out loud, so that our viewers and we would feel what was happening.

"Construction of the tower was a giant enterprise. Since the land of Babylon had no stone, people invented a new building material. They burnt clay in the furnace and the obtained bricks were used instead of stones."

ML: Well, it is also a very deep thing. The stone is called the “lev ha’even”. It is a special egoistic state, which is virtually indestructible, which cannot be corrected, which exists there by nature. It subsists. We will later talk about why the stones are ground and then concrete is made of them, this modern thing, but later on.

SV: It is set aside, right?

ML: Yes.

SV: We don’t work with stone?

ML: We do, we nig, we use it, but only on the outside. They did not have it. They had to create something out of their egoism that would allow them to climb to the sky. So, they were burning their little egos, composing it, compressing it the way...

SV: made bricks.

ML: ... to create a brick out of it, this “lev ha’even”, that selfish property, which will be unchangeable, and therefore they will be able to ascend on it.

SV: Behind every word, there is so much…

ML: A person does not act otherwise, because the spiritual forces, properties are working behind all of this. Therefore, every small action can tell why it is activated in us, and how it eventually helps our advancement.

SV:

"The bricks were made as if by themselves. When people put a brick in the masonry, they found two bricks in the wall. When they put two, then four of them appeared in the wall. The tower grew and grew and soon became so high that it took a year to climb to its summit. Two wide staircases lead to the tower, one from the east side, and the other from the west."

ML: We may explain this when we’ll talk about the construction of the Temple. Then we can analyze this tower and the temple and the pyramid, and compare these structures. Why does the man erect the altar like this, his own or his ascend, his triumph - either selfish or altruistic, why does he do it this way, and what is the difference in the structure, in the desire, in the aggregate of desires that form this building.

SV: I would like us to come back to earth, where I immediately think about America. There is a deeply-rooted "essential American image” of a "self-made man." It sounds to me like "build a tower." Right, "make yourself!"?

ML: Yes, of course, right.

SV: So, these towers of Manhattan grow, the entire America raises, composed of a handful of nations, who speak the same language, English. Did they want to build this tower to heavens? Do they still want to do it? Can we make such a comparison?

ML: Well, yes, on the one hand. On the other hand, America, of course, was lucky. Naturally, and this is not a coincidence, it was initially considered as a safe haven for the refugees, for all and different ones. What was driving America and what was governing it had an idealistic origin. We must show the whole world a new order, the Western world, the New World, compared to Europe, which is fragmented, old, located inside the stuffy egoism and petty chauvinism...

SV: They do not like each other.

ML: ... different varieties of nationalism, etc. There are different religions; every religion has dozens of variations. In general, Europe was very fragmented and very controversial. We want to do the opposite. Practically, the American Civil War was a war of the white population with white population for the liberation, to banish slavery. Moreover, it was this Anglo-Saxon education, this sort of approach to life that gave way to freedom for everyone. Even today we see how in America, still, the equality, the equal opportunity is ...

SV: honored.

ML: ... yes, it honored, and the same Anglo-Saxons, all of those who...

SV: were building

ML: .. were building America, they gave the opportunity for all the others to rise, to participate and even to take such key positions, as it is today. Look...

SV: A black President.

ML: ... no, not just a black president. The Supreme Court, the prosecutor, generally the key positions are held by the Italians, Spaniards, blacks, and others. In majority cities in America today, I believe, the mayors are African-American. They have proven themselves as great leaders and administrators. What other country can show such a quick passage through all these stages of development? Russia has still not made its way out of feudalism. Feudalism! The same relationships that have been there in the times of Ivan the Terrible still work in Russia. Anyone can find oneself with ripped nostrils, or buried in the ground. Do you know where would anything like this be possible in Europe or America?

SV: So, you would not compare the Tower of Babel to America?

ML: I'm talking about the pros now. The Tower of Babel is similar to America in the sense that it gave an opportunity for people to connect. And while they were building the Tower of Babel, they were selfishly connected.

SV: Yes, exactly.

ML: When they have done building it, they sort of reached the sky. That's where they have realized, at the very end of their work, how they actually remained selfish and how they hate each other. Suddenly, having reached such a peak, what is happening today with America, too, with our entire civilization, having reached this peak, this end of the tower, we find that in fact we have built a tomb for ourselves, an Egyptian pyramid.

SV: (laughs) we were building it in the swamp, so to speak.

ML: Yes. In the end...

SV: Not the right soil.

ML: ... in the end we are all destroyed, scattered. There was an opportunity to get away from each other, not to be in contact with each other, like in a family, to get divorced, to break up. And today, what do we do? Can I escape from you? No way! Today it turns out to be a catastrophe. Our pyramid crumbles, it turns into an Egyptian tomb, and it can bury all of us under it.

SV: As we like to say at the end of the program, "at this optimistic note," unfortunately, we have to finish our program. We will continue to talk about the Tower of Babel. Still ahead of us is a great, cool showdown.

ML: Right.

SV: Dear viewers, we conclude our program for today. Here we have it, the Tower of Babel and our world. We will continue our discussion. Stay with us. Take care. Goodbye.

Closing Credits

Operators:

Igor Kotlovsky

Yuri Podolsky

Yuri Monahimov

Mikhael Goldberg

Sound: Sergei Sousin

Jonathan Geiman

Alexander Motel

Vitaly Adamenko

Sound editing: Jonathan Geiman

Linear editing: Yuri Podolsky

Editing: Victor Wiener

Music: Igor Zhigunov

David Krupnik

David Gru

Haim Cotton

Video corporation «Gurman»

Dima Graziani

Slava Lyustik

Vlad Medvedev

Richard Bone

Graphics Alexey Knishevitsky

Gleb Tregubov

Artist Gia Basilaya

Director-producer: Semen Vinokur

Producer: Ariel Elhananov

General Producer: Leonid Ilizarov

Kabbalah Media

Kabbalah Media

My LibrarySign in to like, save and subscribe to videos

Tägliche Lektion8 авг 2024(Morning)Ausgewählte Highlights

Ausgewählte Highlights

Ausgewählte Highlights

Kabbalah MediaCopyright © 2003-2026 Bnei Baruch - Kabbala La Am Association, Alle Rechte vorbehalten

My Library
Sign in to like, save and subscribe to videos

Tägliche Lektion8 авг 2024(Morning)
Ausgewählte Highlights

Kabbalah Media
Copyright © 2003-2026 Bnei Baruch - Kabbala La Am Association, Alle Rechte vorbehalten