“Secrets of the Eternal Book”

Video program with

Dr. Michael Laitman and

director and screenwriter Semion Vinokur

Program 1, Chapter “Lech-Lecha”

Semion Vinokur: Hello, dear friends. We continue our series of programs 'Secrets of the Eternal Book.' So let us raft down the river called the Pentateuch in our boat, let us continue our journey trying to attain inner understanding.

And Dr. Laitman is, as always, here with us in the studio. Hello Dr. Laitman.

Dr. Michael Laitman: Hello.

S.V.: Today, we have gotten to Abraham, and he will stay with us for quite a long time. We have already discussed that at this level of egoism, a person has the first aspiration towards the Creator. Abraham leads us. It is written in the Great Commentary ...

M.L.: By the way, the book was written many thousand years ago...

S.V.: Yes.

M.L.: ...it was written at the time of Exodus from Babylon...

S.V.: Somehow, the attitude towards it is not exactly skeptical, it is just different than the attitude towards the Pentateuch or the Torah.

M.L.: It is written in a very peculiar way. That is why the attitude towards it is different.

S.V.: It is written in a literary style.

M.L.: Yes, it is written in the literary style; it describes both earthly and, at the same time, heavenly actions. That description is sort of confusing, as it is intended for a person who is in a state where all this is one entire world, one entire phenomena for him. Of course, it sounds strange for us, and, therefore, the book is also perceived as a semi-legend. Well, it is something similar to what we find in “The Ballad of Oleg The Wise” written by Alexander Pushkin : “Thy horse shall be thy death”. It is something absolutely semi-real.

S.V.: By the way, the same as with “Thy horse shall be thy death”; the narrative about Abraham begins as a detective-story about what was there before him. It is written....

M.L.: And very similar, by the way, “How now prepares…”

S.V.: “How now prepares…” (Laughing)

M.L.: ...the chapter is called “Lech-Lecha”

S.V.: Yes, “Lech-Lecha”. It is called so in Hebrew, what is it in Russian? I have not found a precise translation.

M.L.: “Go, go”

S.V.: “Go, go”

M.L.: Yes (laughing).

S.V.: Go, get out of here, sort of...

M.L.: it can be translated in a very rude way or in a very gentle and touching way

S.V.: What is the rude translation?

M.L.: The rude way is “get out”.

S.V.: Get out! (laughing)

M.L.: Yes, “go away”, as well as “get out”, “leave”, and it is, really, so: get out from that egoistic world, the kingdom, in which you have revealed yourself. This is what Abraham reveals in ancient Babylon.

S.V.: So, this is what the Creator tells Abraham, “Go, go”?

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: “Get out of here!”

M.L.: Yes, get out of here and leave this egoistic desire for another desire based on what I will be showing, telling and revealing to you now, you will achieve the exodus into a new, spiritual and divine desire; the desire of bestowal and love. The chapter is all about ascending.

S.V.: In the meantime, I wanted to tell a little bit about Abraham before starting this chapter so we could talk about this.

In the Great Commentary it is written so ... at that time King Nimrod reigned in Babylon...

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: It is written about that time:

“The strength and deceit of King Nimrod were to a proverb. It was universal knowledge that his arm, aimed at a deer's heart, never missed its mark. Woe to him who dared to doubt that Nimrod was a self-created god! An executioner always stood next to his throne.”

What is it all about?

M.L.: By the way, this is, in fact, the image of a real king. A king is a person, who, first of all, is feared. When we talk about having the properties of the Creator, we also say that, first of all, this is the property of fear, awe. “Iraa” is awe, only it is called so in relation to the Creator, because we perceive His greatness; we do not fear his threats, but we are in awe of His greatness and, hence, the fear is called awe. This awe stems out of respect, out of great revelation of this great force, of this great replenishment, of this great universal governance.

S.V.: Meaning that I do not fear, but awe the Creator.

M.L.: Yes, these things are a little bit different...

S.V.: Yes, I can feel it.

M.L.: ..right. Then, we attain love. It is the same thing in earthly form. But as we are egoists, it acts upon us differently: the king has to treat us harshly, cruelly, causing in us fear and anxiety, awe up to horror of his power. Our life is in his hands, without any conditions, without any laws, without any logic. He can do anything he wants. Then, at the peak of this fear, appears love.

S.V.: It is quite surprising!

M.L.: Yes. It stems from our egoistic desire. The feeling towards the Creator stems from a gradual transformation of desire to an altruistic state and then it comes to awe and to open love. It does not even matter what happens and even if in my eyes He will not be the King, I will love Him in all his manifestations. But here everything holds only on the fact that there is an executioner next to him.

S.V.: It says so, “An executioner always stood next to his throne” - very interesting. It is said so, in fact, about the time of Stalin.

M.L.: No, but actually, the one who wants to be king, he should be this way. In our world, to be king, for example Tamerlane ...

S.V.: Genghis Khan and others like them.

M.L.: Yes, yes, for them it was commonplace that a king is not a king if he does not “chop heads off”, let's say, a couple of dozen of his men and it should be for no reason. Not because he is so righteous, on the contrary, there should be no justice; there should be only the will of the king, that’s all.

S.V.: Then, I ask 'What does it say then? It does not talk about this, does it? It talks about this king, Nimrod, who rules within us, in our, let’s say egoistic 'Self', right?

M.L.: Right, this egoism actually makes absolutely no sense. It just eats everything up; it just makes me suffer about possessing the entire world, though I know it in advance that this brings me harm.

S.V.: So, who is this king Nimrod?

M.L.: This is our egoism, which forces us to keep on fighting and does not give us rest. This is a problem, and I still can do nothing, I am still afraid of its manifestations, and, therefore, I start loving it.

S.V.: My egoism?

M.L.: Yes. On this hatred … on this fear, appears love, but it lasts, of course, as long as there is an executioner next to it.

S.V.: Well, then it comes a different time for him and it is written that:

“One day Nimrod's astrologers humbly approached the throne and fall on their knees before the king. “Your Majesty”, they announced, “we have become aware of grave danger threatening your throne. The stars predict that a boy will soon be born in your kingdom; he will deny your divinity and will overcome you!”'

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: It sounds like a beginning of a detective story.

M.L.: In the egoistic kingdom, which is based on man's complete egoism that works only for itself and it seems so to him that it is only for himself, then he has an insight: this little boy, this new attainment, new understanding, which will reveal that Nimrod is worthless. Even in the state when this boy is small and weak, in just one word he can do it all, because all desires increased a little and are satiated with egoism, realized that he actually leads them nowhere, only reigns. That is, in fact, his only property and action, meaning that he leads to nowhere. Then, this little boy appears there; he reveals that 'The King is naked.' Because of this, Nimrod, of course, falls.

S.V.: When does the time come for this boy? Anyway, who are these astrologers?

M.L.: When the egoism reaches its climax of greatness. The astrologers are those properties that, sort of, help this egoism to manifest itself, somehow, correctly, because the egoism itself is very dumb; it only has a single thought, “This is good!” It does not understand any consequences, it sees no consequence of actions, and it does not take into account any other forces that exist in nature.

These helpers are not so blinded by their egoism. They carry more reasonable balanced properties in a person, which are in an intermediate state between this great egoistic desire and understanding, awareness, knowledge, wisdom. On the one hand, this is why they are not like the king, they are wiser, but this is due to the fact that they are less egoistic.

S.V.: Therefore, they can anticipate this threat, right?

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: Here is what it says about the boy Abraham, who is about to be born...

M.L.: But it is done on purpose, it is necessary that Nimrod would know about this, because, otherwise, Abraham will not grow to be Abraham. He must grow in persecutions; he must grow in exile; he must grow up. We see the same with Moses, and then it happens with everyone: any growth occurs in a state of exile, in a state of exclusion, pressure, persecution.

S.V.: What does Nimrod do? He says:

“I will issue a decree ordering to build special houses where all pregnant women will be held. We shall then make sure that only the baby girls will be kept alive”. Terach, one of the most honored noblemen at the court, was present during the discussion and jokingly asked, "You do not expect to hold my wife in one of these buildings, do you?"

Meaning Terach, Nimbrod's close adviser...

M.L.: He is an astrologer, so to say, he is a wizard. He predicts everything that is good for egoism, he is a guide, a leader of egoism in this great kingdom. Nimrod knows that thanks to Terach, he lives and flourishes, and, therefore, he should meet him halfway.

S.V.: His son, Abraham, will be born very soon.

M.L.: If Abraham shows Nimrod that he does not trust him, then why does he listen to him at all? Meaning that there should be a complete trust between Nimrod and Terach. Terach is like the next step, a more forward looking one, than Nimrod.

S.V.: As we say, he is a visionary, right?

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: Nimrod puts this in practice. What are those houses? It is written here quite mercilessly, “All boys shall be killed and only the baby girls will be kept alive”. What does this mean?

M.L.: It reminds us of Pharaoh, who said the same thing about midwives. How Moses was then found, as the only one saved from execution. All infants were killed, but only Moses survived. The same is here, all infants were destroyed, except for Abraham, who was saved and stayed. Meaning that of all desires, that are born in the process of growth and development, there is only one desire that is correct. Therefore, a person must choose it.

I can choose only one desire with my egoism and with its help I can advance to the goal; my egoism wants to destroy this desire. Therefore, there should be a subconscious internal development in myself; independently of me it grows and manifests, and then I can do nothing about it. Meaning that there are such properties in us that must grow out despite, and independently of us without being perceived by us.

S.V.: And yet, I again ask this question, “What does it mean that only girls lived and boys had to be killed?”

M.L.: Desires remain, new intentions are destroyed.

S.V.: Meaning the “girls” are this desire.

M.L.: Yes, the desire. It does not matter which word to use “desire” or “want”. Nukva comes from the word Nekev, from the word 'vessel'; woman is the vessel, the female part.

S.V.: So, boys are the fulfillment, right?

M.L.: Yes, it is the property of fulfillment, how to fulfill. Each one fulfills in his own way. Therefore, we do not need any other new fulfillment, we just need this old system, and only with this doctrine we advance forward.

S.V.: Meaning that he says...

M.L.: Fulfillment of the ego. You provide more ego, and I know how to fulfill it, this is what Nimrod says.

S.V.: Then the following happens. Terah hides his son in a cave and when Abraham is three year old, he suddenly starts looking around, looking at the world, and he suddenly begins to feel forces behind all this. As it is said, three year old Abraham reveals the Creator.

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: My first question is, 'What does it mean these three years somewhere in a cave? What kind of attainment is it for a man? What is Abraham? Three-year old attains the Creator! How should I understand all this, the one who is reading it, for example?

M.L.: Meaning that he begins to perceive all good and all bad - the first year. It is like in Egypt when we talk about, at first, seven years of Plenty and then about seven years of...

S.V.: Famine.

M.L.: ...famine and only then this middle line begins to manifest between them, which leads to the exodus, to the rise from Egypt. The same thing is here: the first year is simply the perception of the world , the second year is the perception of its egoistic fulfillment, the left and the right lines, and then the third year is the perception of its internal concepts, the inner driving force. Meaning, that the third year leads him to attain the Creator, the source. Meaning, that our world has two reins: both positive and negative forces that govern and rule this world. This third year, the third part, is the middle line, from which these two forces originate. Abraham reaches this state, and of course three years does not mean that he is a three-year old child. Then it is said that when he was thirty-seven years old, etc., he began to take action. Then, when he was about to have a baby born ... he is already a hundred years old and etc. Meaning that all these are the heights and measurements of attainment: three years, seven years, ten years, thirty, forty, and so on up to a hundred and to a hundred and twenty, etc. Meaning that they are measurements of his control over the ego, the nature of the universe and his understanding of how the Creator governs it and how he should aspire to gain control over it from the Creator.

S.V.: Meaning that for a person who is attaining the spiritual world, these three years are three steps of advancement...

M.L.: Yes, three years or three steps, they are three days or, as in Egypt, seven good years, seven bad years, and then the middle line emerges, and by the time of the Exodus it manifests in plagues, etc.

S.V.: Then it says that Nimrod, sort of, forgot a little bit about Abraham. Abraham is a boy who has already attained the Creator.

M.L.: Well, because a person develops in such a way that at any given step he gets used to that level and thinks that everything would continue as before.

S.V.: This way the ego is lulled, right?

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: Abraham returned to his father Terach and began working in his shop selling idols.

M.L.: There spiritual advancement begins, first of all, in a state where a person guided by his ego is still under some control of Terach. He absorbs knowledge from Terach: what guides him and what he has learned. Meaning that he picks up from his father, Terach, all his knowledge, all his techniques, how to cope with life, with ego, etc. He learns all this up to the point when he becomes equal to him in the egoistic use of this world. Meaning that you cannot begin your spiritual advancement before all the egoism is in your power, you understand its essence, and you can control it. This is what Abraham reaches.

S.V.: Can you control your ego, when you feel that it is bad for you or not?

M.L.: No, no, no

S.V.: So it is a 'no'?

M.L.: At first, it is a 'no'. Abraham works with his father...

S.V.: For egoistic reasons.

M.L.: ...he makes these statuettes, amulets, idols, sells them, meaning that he earns egoistically on seemingly spiritual attainment. People believe that he has a connection with spiritual forces, meaning this force in our body, in our spiritual entity, that is leading him forward. At this stage, we believe that we can succeed in our world by attaining the spiritual world. Meaning that this all happens egoistically, but this is already an egoistic spiritual growth.

Meaning that, at first, we cared only for primitive life like Nimrod. Then we started to think why? We can, first of all, make our primitive earthly life much easier if we attract the Upper Forces to it.

S.V.: Meaning that we use them for ourselves.

M.L.: Yes, of course, to draw from Above down. We will be healthier, more successful. We will know what is tomorrow, we will know all ... how to say it? Is it bad if we know everything we need for our life? Who does not want to understand and know everything?

S.V.: Let the spiritual world serve me.

M.L.: Knowledge is power! Of course. Then a person begins to understand that these forces and the very existence in the field of these Upper Forces are good by itself. It is perfection, grandeur, infinity, there is no binding to our animal body and to this animal life. On contrary, we do not lower the spiritual world here, but raise ourselves to the spiritual world; the real life is up there! Why should I snatch something from there for my small, low existence? I'd better break away from this existence to the Upper. This transformation happens to Abraham.

S.V.: It is a revolutionary idea, in fact, isn't it?

M.L.: Yes!

It takes place gradually, and so it is the same way today. When a person comes to us, he comes because he feels bad in this life and he thinks that through Kabbalah he will improve it and make it better. We welcome his desire: it is healthy, realistic. “Friend! Everything is for you! Here, everything is open!” But when he begins to study Kabbalah, he begins to understand - and we do not hide this, by the way, we do not hide this - and everyone falls for it every time.

It is in accordance with nature that a person cannot come to it any other way. No matter how much you tell him, he does not believe you, he has no way out. He understands that there are forces that govern him, so he tries, at least, to control them. After a while, a spiritual revolution happens in him: Why should I do anything in this life, somehow, make it slightly better, improve it? Why should I have minor renovations, if I can rise, indeed, to some great dwellings of the Creator and live in my eternal and perfect state!

The present state is not eternal, not perfect; somehow, I just try to avoid some problems here. Naturally, a person begins to choose egoistically the spiritual instead of the material, but when he chooses the spiritual he begins to aspire to the spiritual because being separated from the material is the next best thing. Then he also comes to an understanding that the spiritual is not to make him feel better, but it is, indeed, valuable on its own, and he becomes more separated again, and it happens gradually again and again.

S.V.: You have just talked about three stages, right?

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.:The first stage is to attract Him in order for Him to serve me...

M.L.: But it is not the first stage. Before it, we exist like animals in this world...

S.V.: Well, in general.

M.L.: at the level of Nimrod.

S.V.: Yes, I live quietly, with my beer and TV. Then, I get this desire to spice my life a little bit ...

M.L.: Then follows disappointment...

S.V.: Disappointment.

M.L.: ...problems,depressions, drugs, etc.

S.V.: I want to sweeten my life, right? Meaning that the spiritual would serve me, right?

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: The next stage is when I suddenly begin to realize that I'd better ascend...

M.L.: ...ascend there, yes, why, what for...

S.V.: … why engage with these earthly things, I'd better ascend there...

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: Then what? I'd better ascend, and then what?

M.L.: Then, as you begin to penetrate the upper spiritual values, eternity, understanding that you do not even desire to be in this for yourself, but only to dissolve in this property.

S.V.: To be like it all, like this property.

M.L.: To be in it.

S.V.: To be in it.

M.L.:Yes,

S.V.: This is...

M.L.: Yes, this is the highest level!

S.V.: Now I will spin my question a little bit. So, it turns out that you are a soul catcher?

M.L.: Me?!

S.V.:Yes.

M.L.: But a person has no soul, there is nothing to catch.

S.V.: Really?

M.L.: There is only a small animal body there and that's all.

S.V.: Meaning that you do not tell him in the beginning what he will reach, don't you?

M.L.: The soul is this state of dissolving in the Upper, only then we reach the soul.

S.V.: But when we all say 'soul', what is it?

M.L.: We simply mean our inner rudimentary substance, which will develop in us.

S.V.: What does it mean to sell idols? I want to clarify this a little bit more.

M.L.: It means you believe in these spiritual powers, and you somehow try to manipulate them. You can adorn yourself here through knowledge, through psychology, using all sorts of tricks that we invent in this life and constantly look for them. Both governments and organizations, and ordinary people - they all are looking for some tricks: how can we make ourselves more comfortable and our life less stressful?

S.V.: Is this called “to pray to idols”?

M.L.: All these idols, various forces of nature that may help us; sort of “help will come from abroad”. From that spiritual abroad.

S.V.: Meaning this is that stage that you have mentioned before, right? Here, help me here in this world!

M.L.: Yes, of course.

S.V.: I need to ascend nowhere. Here!

M.L.: Yes.

S.V.: Give me more money, power and spirituality.

M.L.: Here at this level Abraham works. At this level Terach works. Why is he called a magician? We call people magicians, wizards who can do something in our world with help of otherworldly forces.

S.V.: Then this revolution happens. Abraham begins smashing idols, begins telling people that this is all heresy and that they need to believe only in one Creator, in One, the only One.

M.L.: People did not want to believe him. No one believed him.

S.V.: They do not want to. His father reports him to Nimrod.

M.L.: Because he broke off from the level of his father and according to the denial law, he is now against his father...

S.V.: Yes.

M.L.: ...he smashes his idols that he makes out of...

S.V.: Undermines his business, by the way.

M.L.: It is not about father or son, of course.

S.V.: What does it talk about?

M.L.: It describes two stages of man's development. That he has outgrown his previous state; he denies it, breaks away from it, sort of, crushes it and rises above it.

S.V.: He wants to break free.

M.L.: Yes, and with his father being against him and, of course, Nimrod against him, it helps him break free. Meaning that we must understand that there is nothing in the world created that is actually evil. There is no evil in the world. If we properly use all forces to move towards the goal, we see that they are useful all the time in the right combination between them; they come and manifest themselves in us in a proper measure.

S.V.: Then Abraham goes through executions. He is imprisoned for ten years. Then they try to burn him in the furnace. All this he successfully passes and remains, as a result, in that country. He is, sort of, left alone.

M.L.: These are internal states in a person - as being in the furnace. When he walks there from one corner to another, and others watch him when he is going to burn down?

S.V.: Watch him in awe!

M.L.: Now he is above this egoistic hellfire, when the desire that wants to be fulfilled is burning, but he is already above this, he needs it no more, but it is burning in him! But he is above it, and, therefore, the fire does not reach him; it does not touch him. And ten years passed; his ten complete stages of....

S.V.: Being in prison.

M.L.: ...spiritual development in prison. Any level consists of ten Sephirot, so called parts. After that, that's it, he must be freed.

S.V.: Is it all in us?

M.L.: Inside the person, only inside a person! Although in history, all these dramas, actions, acts took place between different people, characters. In the spirituality, all this, all these stages of development, take place in one person; in each of us. But on our earth this takes place in different people and at different times.

S.V.: Dear viewers, unfortunately, we have to finish our program. Stay with us, next time we will continue talking about Abraham, about Abraham in us, about his journeys, about his attainment of this property of bestowal and love to the Creator. Stay with us. Goodbye.