What Is Freedom?

Question: What is freedom? Does it depend on where a person is in the world?

Answer: Freedom does not depend at all on which era or place in the world a person lives. The environment in which he lives is given to a person from above, from outside.

He does not choose the environment, which society to be born in, what kind of educationto receive, or what values to adopt to live in accordance with.

Freedom can be interpreted according to one and only one condition: freedom from my egoistic nature. I cannot be free of anything else.

Freedom from my egoistic nature means that I do not live according to the laws of my egoism that my nature pushes me from within, but only in accordance with the human society, only for humanity’s benefit. In other words, freedom means that I rise above my egoistic nature for the good of all humanity.

I acquire my free life above my egoistic nature. Rising from the egoistic level of life to the altruistic one, I live and also feel the flow of the eternal nature. I also feel perfect, eternal, and free.

Of course, the implementation of these laws depend not our place of residence, nationality, or gender. It depends on a person himself and on the confrontation with his original nature.
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The Round Table of Independent Opinions, Berlin 9/9/06

See Your Soul Through The Friends

Question: It is written (Psalms 1): “…nor sit in the company of scorners.” A person who knows that “scorners” are his internal states now suddenly sees “scorners” in the ten. How should he work with this?

Answer: He should change himself through the group until they look perfect in his eyes. This is his work. Through the friends, he should see his soul, that is, all ten Sefirot.

Comment: You said that in more advanced states, we must sometimes on purpose awaken these “scornful” in ourselves.

My Comment: Not right away. First of all, we need to build the correct system, methodology, and then look within for reserves for fast passage. Then, we will need the negative force too.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 4/18/18

Everybody Has A Chance

Question: If all the events in a person’s life are not accidental, does every corporeal event have an upper cause, an upper root?

Answer: Every person has his own “angel,” i.e., the upper force that rules him in particular. In other words, each of us, via his point in the heart, the root of his soul, is placed inside the spiritual system.

In reality, there are no distances, there are no upper and lower worlds—they are one and the same system, only everything depends on how deeply we go into its sensation or are beyond its sensation.

If we delve into the feeling of this system called “soul” or “upper world,” then we actively penetrate it with our corrected desires and work in it.

If, by virtue of our uncorrected egoistic desires, we cannot work in this system, then we feel our world and, naturally, we have only the initial connection with the upper world, that is, the embryo of the future.

Only when we start correcting ourselves can we gradually be included in this system. In principle, however, we are all in a state where every person has the opportunity to start feeling themselves in the upper system.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 7/1/18

Medium: “How To Tackle Stress In A World With The Highest Stress Ever”

 My newest article “How To Tackle Stress In A World With The Highest Stress Ever” was just published on Medium.

We can extract key insights about the internal mechanism driving the upswing in human stress from the wisdom of Kabbalah. By understanding the process at work, we can become empowered to effectively intervene.

Crossing streets jammed with heavy traffic, approaching the workplace every morning to face an avalanche of duties, returning home after a 9-hour work day plus a long commute to tackle parenting, financial, health and relationship problems have become the dead weight of our modern world and the never-ending sources of intensified stress. Polls show that stress levels in the US are at all-time record highs. According to this year’s report of the American Psychological Association, approximately 90% of young Americans of Generation Z, age 15–21, are among the most severely affected.

The rest of the world is in no better shape. A study conducted by Gallup in more than 145 countries revealed that people’s reported daily worries, stress, physical pain, sadness and anger have hit the highest levels since the researchers began collecting data. In order to capture trends in despair or hope, the Gallup study calculates a Negative Experience Index, and recent findings reveal that it has risen from 23 to 30, representing a major 30% increase over the past decade.

Stress levels, in particular, among Americans are higher than the overall world average, according to the Gallup study of 154,000 people. Surpassed only by Greece, the US population is now more stressed out than any other people in the world. Findings from the 2017 American Psychological Association’s “Stress in America” annual survey indicate that as many as 63% of Americans are stressed about the future of the nation, money, work, the political climate, violence and crime.

This frightening phenomenon of escalating stress that we are experiencing today also affects people’s health and well-being. Chronic stress is found to be related to multiple health-related problems: heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and depression, to name only a few.

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

There is, and how brightly the light shines depends on us. From the wisdom of Kabbalah, we can extract key insights about the internal mechanism driving the upswing in human stress, and by understanding the process at work, we can become empowered to effectively intervene.

The Origin of Stress: The Human Ego

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the origin of stress, as well as all the ills and misfortunes that rule our lives, can be traced back to the ego, the part of human nature that constantly pushes us to achieve the unattainable.

A person is a desire to receive pleasure, and there is a sensation of calmness and satisfaction if pleasure is received. However, from generation to generation, our desire for pleasure constantly grows, and along with it, the demand for fulfillment which then also multiplies the efforts we need to exert to achieve our goals. This is the process driving the trend for life to become increasingly stressful over the years.

Today, we are bombarded by external pressures from the media, from the Internet, from all aspects of the environment that dictate the standards we are expected to meet: travel to fancy or exotic places, achievement of the highest professional success, respect and admiration from our peers. In short, we are spurred at every turn to stand out from the crowd at any cost. With everyone beating their way up the same mountain, we are forced to build our success atop the failures of others. As a result of the constant pressure of this ruthless competition, we live under permanent stress.

Living as we do in a society that is completely controlled by egoism, we are unable to escape from this pressure even by closing our eyes or traveling somewhere else. Stress haunts us no matter what we do to escape. Neither antidepressants nor narcotics, so prevalent in today’s society, can erase the emotional pains.

Why Is Our World Built Upon an Egoistic Nature that Forces Us to Compete With Each Other?

The science of Kabbalah explains that stress serves the purpose of bringing us to awareness of our egoistic nature and its negative consequences that affect us on many levels.Ultimately, we are destined to reach disillusionment and to recognize our situation as hopeless, to understand that we must reassess our values and leave the rat race we are running . Then we will urgently search for a different route and taste a new type of pleasure in a completely different place.

This space of lasting pleasure that is truly attainable and sustainable is hidden in the environment. This is the fertile field where we can build relationships that will nurture us while we also nourish others, creating a magnetic positive ambience that illuminates our surroundings. As Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) wrote in his article “The Freedom,” “Thus, all its praise and spirit depends on the choice of the environment in which to sow the wheat.”

In such an environment that values relations of solidarity and mutual understanding over divisions, we will still compete to receive fulfillment, but in a whole new way. The one who brings the biggest benefit to others will be considered most successful. Pleasure from bestowal to others is much more intense than any egoistic fulfillment and it does not lead to stress. In fact, the more we give, the more we all enjoy.

Such a state will prolong our lives and make them better, more comfortable, safer, and more pleasant. An environment of altruism will complement and balance our lives. When this happens, we will also begin to thrive inside the integral connection between us and nature, that which has created all four forms of existence — still, vegetative, animate and human — and sustains them in perfect balance. We will step into a whole new world and feel the next level of our qualitative evolution where we will be able to control our lives.

When Will All People Feel A Spiritual Awakening?

Question: We know that it takes many years before a person engaged in spiritual work begins to feel an internal response to the rule “love your neighbor as yourself.” Will those people outside the group also require the same amount of time to come to this feeling?

Answer: If these people do not have an inner urge and the upper providence does not bring them to the group in order to realize it, they will not be able to do anything.

There are two necessary conditions: the point in the heart, and the condition of the Creator placing a person’s hand on the good fortune and beginning to help him in this. Otherwise, nothing will work out.

Many people in the world have a point in the heart, but for some reason they are not brought into our ranks. Perhaps it is still early or there are some other circumstances we do not know about.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 4/18/18

Don’t Cut Yourself Off From The Creator

Question: What does it mean to relate a thought or situation to the Creator? Is it possible to give an example of how to make this internal action?

Answer: To begin with, at least think that everything that happens to you at each moment in the head and in the heart, in the mind and desire, comes from the Creator. You just feel His thoughts, His desires.

Do not attribute all your thoughts and desires, whatever they may be, to yourself,  but only to Him. You will then see how much your attitude to these desires and thoughts changes, how they change by themselves and how the world changes through them. This is very interesting.

Naturally, you will constantly forget about Him, you will cut yourself off from the Creator. You cannot feel completely controlled by Him. Only when you connect everything to the Creator and acknowledge that all your thoughts and desires come from Him are you considered as a created being. Otherwise you do not exist!

Question: Does it mean that when I reach the state that I am completely not free I am considered as a created being?

Answer: Yes. There is no other state. This complete flow in the thoughts and desires from the Creator erases a person from the system.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/17/18

Don’t Sit In The Seat Of The Scornful

The verse says (Psalms 1), “nor sat in the seat of the scornful.” We must understand the prohibition on “seat of the scornful.” Is it due to slander or idle words? So the prohibition is not because of a “seat of scornful.” What then does the “seat of scornful” add to us? (Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”)

Apparently, this prohibition is somehow different from the first two.

The prohibition to be in the seat of the scornful is a completely different direction of development of a person, the whole society, the whole world, and the whole universe. It all starts with a small intention that underlies the search: why and for what purpose does this society arise. This intention has to be radically opposite to all the others.

Therefore, it is necessary to find the initial and the final point of development, to manifest them, and on this basis understand how it is possible to get from the first to the last. This is a problem.

In order to advance spiritually, it is necessary to know what we are moving away from.

The scornful and the enemies are our inner qualities. It is therefore necessary to identify those qualities that we have to suppress, must distance from, and somehow protect ourselves from.

Or maybe, sometimes to awaken them in order to understand, on the basis of which definitions we can figure out the direction in contrast to these qualities: the pros and cons of our goals. We thus move forward.

Question: Not sitting in the seat of the scornful means thinking about the Creator all the time?

Answer: Not just thinking, but combining all your actions, thoughts, and feelings with the concept called the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 4/18/18

What Determines The Speed Of Advancement

Question: If a person who has been studying for many years keeps asking the same question all these years: What is connection? What is annulment? How can one annul oneself?, is this natural?

Answer: Yes. We do not know exactly how all this should be happening in our time because our time is special. Yet, regarding the number and quality of the people who join us, I think that the process cannot go much faster.

Unfortunately, we want to accelerate time without making appropriate efforts. Everyone’s initiative is required. It is not enough yet.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 4/12/2018

Newsmax: “Understanding The Midterm Elections From A Global Perspective”

The largest portal Newsmax published my new article “Understanding the Midterm Elections From a Global Perspective”

“The only thing that I regret is that I killed two [cops] … I wish I killed more of those …” said illegal immigrant Luis Bracamontes with a diabolical grin on his face. Then came the title, “Who Else Would Democrats Let In?” to end the video posted by President Trump on his Twitter profile.
The immigration crisis is deepening social polarization in the U.S., fanning the flames of public discourse and dividing America into two very distinct camps: Either you are “in favor of immigrants” or you are “in favor of America.” In political terms, you either belong to the Trump camp or you belong to any other camp.

But how did the immigrants steal all the limelight? Why did this particular issue manage to split the U.S. so deeply?

What is happening in the world’s greatest superpower is an inseparable part of a process that is taking place the world over. To better understand it, let us sail over to Europe, where the immigration crisis is far more evolved.

When a German family sends their children to a mixed school together with children of immigrants, when cafes, public transport, and cinemas are crowded with people of foreign cultures, they ask themselves: Is this the desired outcome from the European Union? Is this what we anticipated from Europe’s common market project?

The answer — to many families and individuals, whether they’re in Germany, Britain, Czech Republic, Portugal, or other EU countries — is increasingly no. Europeans are developing an antagonistic reaction to the new reality they are waking up to every day.

In addition, the open border policy set forth by Angela Merkel and other EU leaders brought swarms of Muslim immigrants who necessitate a new agenda in European countries. Issues such as wearing burkas for women, permitting alcohol and pork at festivals, and separation between men and women have suddenly become a part of European life.

Some 30 years after the European Union was established, Europeans are beginning to feel disillusioned and threatened. Their long history, their glorious culture, their common heritage, all seem to lose their status and slip through their fingers. Hence their growing need to protect their unique identity, their European “I.”

In political terms, the result is isolationism, nationalism, and traction of right-wing politics in various shapes and sizes. Thus, it is no wonder that Europe is anxiously looking at the midterm elections in the U.S., trying to decipher whether Trumpism is a passing fad or only the beginning of the next political era.

The answer to this requires a broader view: human society is developing across the globe towards an integral connection, and it happens through a cyclical movement of “contraction” and “expansion,” similar to a breathing process.

The end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century led to an unprecedented process of “expansion,” expressed through the globalization of trade and commerce, the opening of borders, the internet turning the world into a small global village, the establishment of new international institutions and other intricate links and dependencies woven across the globe.

In the last few years, however, we are witnessing a growing process of “contraction”: Britain’s Brexit, the growing strength and relevance of various right-wing movements, and the meteoric rise of Trump, which is motivating and inspiring other leaders around the world. Just a few days ago, the populist Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro earned the nickname the “Trump of the Tropics.”

Expansion and contraction, connection and separation, cosmopolitanism and nationalism, are natural cycles. They are two opposing processes that complement human development. Like two legs for walking.

What’s important to understand is that the demand for a unique sense of identity in every person and every nation will not disappear from the world. And yet, the global interdependence that has been woven will only grow stronger and we will not be able to escape it. Therefore, human society is moving toward an inevitable, fundamental change that is far beyond politics.

Humanity’s good future involves a fundamental development in human perception: each individual person or nation will maintain their unique identity without suppressing it in any manner, and yet act to realize it for the common good. It is an evolutionary phase that requires development beyond the egoistic nature of man. Therefore, prior to discussing the integration of nations, the opening of borders, the creation of common markets and global agreements, we must nurture a higher level of human connection.

Communist Russia has already demonstrated to us in the last century that even with an aggressive regime it is impossible to tie human beings together and force them to live a cooperative life. Kabbalist “Baal HaSulam” describes this in his article “The Peace”: “… anyone can see how a large society such as the state of Russia, with hundreds of millions in population, more land than the whole of Europe, and which has already agreed to lead communal life … And yet, go and see what has become of them: instead of rising and exceeding the achievements of the capitalist countries, they have sunk ever lower.”

Back to the midterm elections in the United States: Whether the Trump camp will be strengthened or weakened, the contraction movement will continue by nature until it fulfills its evolutionary purpose. It is what our time calls for, in order to balance human development.

Humanity — and not just America — needs to realize that the correct integration between cultures and the beneficial opening of borders will only occur when we rise to a new level of human awareness. Nature is teaching us an important lesson with every passing day: Only by cultivating human connection — above and without eliminating all our differences — can we build a solid foundation for a healthy reorganization of human society.

Then, every person and every nation can maintain their uniqueness and even leverage it for the benefit of the world.

There Is A Difference Between Corporeality And Spirituality

Why can’t we know the spiritual path in advance and move along it just like in corporeality, by acquiring strength, knowledge, and intellect? This is how it works in science and in any material matter—everywhere except in the spiritual. Spirituality requires of us to perform an action before we understand it and even before we are able to perform it.

That is, we do not have the power to unite, but we try to do it; we have no power to understand the action, and we still act as if we understand. Only in this way is advancement possible.

It is a huge difficulty that in the absence of strength, reason, understanding, and any sensation of spiritual action, we still have to realize it. This is a serious obstacle. Any instruction given by a teacher or written in a Kabbalistic book until it is perceived in our current senses, does not correspond to our understanding and power, and therefore, we cannot perform anything.

But we do not need to perform anything; our task is only to try to perform, to become convinced of our inability, to accumulate desires, and with these desires turn to the Creator and ask Him for strength, understanding, and feeling. More specifically, we ask Him to help us perform the action. I do not ask for anything more than the ability to perform what is placed on me.

The problem is that one has to go against one’s mind and heart, above reason and feeling. I feel rejection from my friends, but I must unite with them. In my mind I understand that I should do the exact opposite of what the teacher is talking about, but at the same time, I am ready to follow his instructions like a small child who instinctively obeys his parents.

This is called faith above reason. The difference between corporeality and spirituality is that in spirituality we have absolutely no opportunity to be guided by our own mind and sensations. On the contrary, you need to rejoice in going above reason and feelings. After all, if you act according to reason and feelings, agreeing with your mind and heart, it will be a material action from which nothing spiritual will ever grow.

Let’s try to understand this unique principle. Baal HaSulam wrote: “There is a difference between corporeality and spirituality: in corporeality, the force precedes the act, as it is written, ‘before they call, I will answer.’” That is, we act according to logic, mind, feelings, and understanding. And if we do not understand, we do not act. It is “arranged according to the end of correction, where nothing is done before they have the strength to do it.”

This will happen at the end of correction because our Kelim will be ready to accept everything. In our world, we make a new discovery only when our perception is ready to accept it. And so we live in a tiny area of the entire huge universe, which is called the imaginary world, because we do not do anything until we get the power to do it.

In spirituality, without any strength to act, you must try to act. You will try, realize that you have no strength, and you will know exactly what strength you lack and for what purpose. From this, your prayer will be born through which you will connect with the Creator.

This is the whole purpose of the spiritual reality: The force does not precede our action, but our action is necessary in order to receive the force. “In spirituality, however, where it is still not arranged according to the end of correction, but by the order of scrutinies, the work must begin before the attainment of the strength, as it is written, ‘that fulfill His word, hearkening unto the voice of His word.'”¹
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson  11/1/18,  Baal HaSulam. Shamati #164: “There Is a Difference between Corporeality and Spirituality”

Is There Anything Better Than Democracy?

Question: Is there anything better than democracy?

Answer: We do not know what democracy is. Democracy for us means that we can somehow get along with each other without the power of the fist and coercion in the most brutal form, according to certain laws. By observing them, we are more or less able to not harm each other directly—and this is what we call “democracy.”

None of us knows what freedom is. We are not free. Each of us is born with qualities that we did not choose. Each of us has received education that we did not choose. We grow up and by the age of 20 we become adults; everything in us we received from our society, from factors that are not connected to us, nor depend on us.

In essence, I am a person who came out of the “oven” ready. However, the “I” is not me. “I” is what I was given. Accordingly, I advance in life.

So, do I know what freedom is? I am not free, I am just realizing what I received earlier. Therefore, it is not a democracy, it is not freedom, and it is not free choice. After all that I have received from everyone, have received since childhood, have received from teachers, if I learn how to work with all this, how to use it to achieve freedom, then perhaps I can truly realize myself.

Therefore, it is necessary to know the laws of nature, the laws of society as they should be in reality, in an objective form, independent of us.

We reveal the laws of nature, the social laws in ants, in groups of animals, and the same laws work in human society. If we open them up, if we establish them in our society, if we implement these laws in our society, then thanks to the effective use of the laws of nature we will reach true democracy.

In other words, everyone will have their own balanced place in the world, every nation, every community, every country, and all of humanity as a whole, will have an excellent balanced place in accordance with the common nature.

Today, everyone still imagines democracy and laws in their own way. Therefore, we naturally plunge into the global crisis of human society and do not yet see how we should exist.

Today’s democracy is coming to an end, and the next regime humanity will befall humanity is Nazism. Nazism will come and replace the current regime of all progressive democratic countries, and then we will see that we really do not understand the true laws of nature.

Let us hope that we will understand them before we bring ourselves to Nazism and that we will come to a beautiful, corrected form of the existence of humanity—to altruism.
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The Round Table of Independent Opinions, Berlin 9/9/06

Final Correction

Question from My Blog: You once said in one of the videos that we have to complete our mission, that is, to come to final correction, and that this can be done regardless of time and space. What do you need to do for this?

Answer: Exit the framework of space and time, as you correctly noted. That is, we should not limit ourselves to any time frame, any place on earth.

We just need to get closer to each other as much as possible. In other words, rise above our egoism because our nature is absolute egoism and we already agree with it, understand it, and have researched it well.

The science of Kabbalah reveals the method of rising above our egoism where we can rise above ourselves and connect with others. In connection with each other above our animal egoism, above our original nature, we create a system called Adam, from the word “Domeh”—similar to the Creator, that is, a unified upper force.

We also make ourselves a unified system. Then the upper force fills it, and we feel ourselves existing in the property of bestowal, love, eternity, and infinity.

That is our final correction—filling ourselves completely with the upper Light.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 9/5/18

At The Beginning Of The Spiritual Experiment

Question: Kabbalah is a science. Can we take a certain segment of people and show that they can be corrected by this method?

Answer: Science is what you hypothesize and then confirm in practice. Once you have clear results, the hypothesis becomes a science.

Currently, we do not have this data. We have just come to the beginning of the experiment. If this experiment works successfully, then we will be able to say that the science of Kabbalah was proven in our time.

Kabbalah is a practical experimental science, and this is the way we work.

Question: So you aren’t saying that Kabbalah is a method of correction? Do we just make attempts at it?

Answer: Even if I did affirm this, I would be ridiculed: “Where did you get that Kabbalah is a method of correction?”

That is, I see how it works on myself and I can see some others. But how does it work on the world scale?

We are in a state when we are just starting its implementation. The fact that the world is on the decline is clear to us. The fact that the world has no method of correction is clear. The world has no power to fix itself, it has no understanding of how it works—this is clear too.

The only way I can prove experimentally that I possess the method that actually works is to demonstrate it on myself and others.

I am sure of the scientific nature of the method Kabbalah because I have experienced it firsthand and have seen it actualized on my teachers. I see how gradually it is been introduced over decades. I have been involved in it for over forty years, but I cannot show this method to anyone else.

Logically, all this is true, but until proven in practice, no one will listen to us. If you take a certain society and teach this method to it, if it masters it on itself and can demonstrate it to the rest of the world, then everything will work out.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/24/18

Increase The Intensity Of Advancement

Question: How can I improve the quality of my annulment before others? What is important to pay attention to? It feels like everything starts from this point.

Answer: I am trying to give the most appropriate material, especially on Twitter, to awaken people somehow. In each lesson we advance at least in the theoretical understanding of our task. No matter how much I want to, I cannot speak more openly, in more advanced way. This is a closed system where my students dictate the boundaries of my conversations.

The events during holidays and conventions are the only ones that give me an opportunity to express more because a vast mass of people, who somehow connect together, join us. We then somewhat succeed.

We are advancing by leaps, jumping from convention to convention, from holiday to holiday, like a grasshopper that jumps from one place to another. It’s good, I would nonetheless like more intensive, consistent, uniform, and continuous advancement.
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From TV Program “The Last Generation” 4/12/18

Two Opposites Acting Together

The spiritual path is based on opposites: ascents and descents, both of which are equally important and lead to the same goal.Opposite times, states, and created beings that have inverse qualities but nevertheless unite—the entire spiritual world is built on two opposites acting as one whole. Inverse qualities neither cancel each other out nor do they alternate. Instead, they act in parallel simultaneously.

One who is able to endure such a split, constructs himself so as to enter the spiritual world. One who cannot endure this will be unable to build a Kli for spiritual attainment.

Regarding the Creator, of course, there is no contradiction and everything connects into one. Contradiction exists only with regard to the created being, consisting of matter and spirit that are opposite to each other. We have yet to understand and feel how much their contradiction is irreversible, irreconcilable, incomparable, and absolutely insoluble.

When contradiction arises in our world, we look for a compromise, an interim solution that reconciles one with the other. In spirituality, however, we do not seek a compromise. On the contrary, the more we advance in spirituality, the stronger we feel the contradiction between matter and the form dressed in matter, between the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, egoism and spirituality, the screen (Masach) and the Light.

It is necessary to study the contradiction and wait for the Light to form the ability to withstand this opposition and include two increasingly polar opposites in ourselves. From this, it becomes clear that spiritual attainment is different from corporeal attainment because it exists in a completely different dimension. It is impossible to understand it without testing it first.

Two opposites acting together are the formula, the foundation of the spiritual Kli, its whole essence. This is an extremely delicate, piquant, and interesting thing—incomprehensible, and at the same time, attractive. It allows you to feel some taste of spirituality even for those who are not in it, like quantum physics that reaches the very boundary between matter and Light.

This is why the spiritual work is in faith above reason, above our animalistic mind; after all, it is built on the unfamiliar to us, opposite qualities. A person consists of two forms: a human and an animal. A human advances in faith above reason, accepting both opposites as equal parts of one whole. The animalistic body, however, is guided by its corporeal mind and feelings. Of course, it goes without saying that a person must saddle his animal by sitting astride it.¹
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/18, Lesson Preparation for the virtual Convention 2018
1 Minute 0:20 – 8:00

New Life #1058 – New Ways Of Thinking For Changing Times

New Life #1058 – New Ways Of Thinking For Changing Times
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

Today, people are re-examining long-held beliefs about phenomena in the world and the way things are. Although having fixed beliefs can help us to feel oriented in the world, we need to adapt ourselves to changes when nature is clearly obligating us to do so. The world is changing around us. Schools are felt to be outdated. We can see how prisons fail to correct people. The nuclear family continues to change its form. Instead of continuing to replace old fixations with new fixations, we need to develop a new type of flexible social framework that allows for individual growth within it as well. We also need a Sanhedrin or a council of sages who understand positive human development and can guide and lead society in this direction.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1058 – New Ways Of Thinking For Changing Times,” 9/17/18

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

The Times Of Israel: “Jews Vs. Jews, Who Needs Anti-Semites? What The Pittsburgh Killings Uncovered”

The Times of Israel published my new article “Jews vs. Jews, Who Needs Anti-Semites? What the Pittsburgh Killings Uncovered”

Aftershocks from Pittsburgh’s synagogue massacre have surfaced fissures and faults that riddle Jews in the US, in Israel, and between. Deep ideological divisions over who is responsible for American anti-Semitism and how to tackle the problem reveal the crumbling foundation beneath worldwide Jewry. At the same time, the cosy, secure feeling that existential threats toward Jews do not happen in America has shattered. Commonsense dictates that our footing must be restored because anti-Semitic storm clouds gather on the horizon and our survival as a people is at stake.

Hatred, an Old Disease

In 2015, a gunman killed nine people in Charleston, South Carolina, during a Bible study session at an African-American church. Racial and religious hatred is nothing new. Anti-Semitism, in particular, did not start yesterday either and cannot be attributed to any specific US president or political party. It has been present throughout history and has increased over the years. We have lived in denial, believing that this scourge of the past was dead and could never strike in America, until the murders at the Tree of Life Synagogue struck a deep chord in our collective consciousness and shook us into the reality that there are no sacred spaces that can shield us.

These are the stark facts: over the last decade since the FBI began registering hate-crime cases, Jews have been the most targeted victim group in America, despite being less than 2 percent of the American population. Fully 54% of religiously motivated hate crimes have singled out Jews. Yet, the decade saw nothing compared to the Pittsburg shooting that took the lives of 11 people, the worst attack on worshipping Jews in American history.

Jews vs. Jews

The deadly shooting in Pittsburgh has prompted an interfaith outpouring of solidarity for the victims and the Jewish community in general. However, among the Jewish community itself, there is no such solidarity. While the American Jewish Committee (AJC), launched the #ShowUpForShabbat campaign, “determined to ensure that love triumphs over hate, good over evil, unity over division,” Franklin Foer, a Jewish writer for The Atlantic called for the excommunication of Jews who back Trump and their shunning from religious congregations: “Their money should be refused, their presence in synagogues not welcome.” Moreover, Israel could not be left aside when looking for a place to pin the blame for anti-Semitism, as GQ writer Julia Ioffe asserted that the moving of the American embassy to Jerusalem motivated the synagogue attack.

In the meantime, Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Synagogue, who is still trying to overcome the trauma of the massacre in his congregation, reported receiving hate mail for welcoming President Trump to the victims’ memorial site in Pittsburgh. In addition, the synagogue tragedy has become an excuse for political pundits from both sides of the Atlantic to fan the flames of division between Israel and the US Diaspora over ideological principles on a variety of issues that have eroded relationships and deeply split Jews in the last few years: the Iran deal, the Kotel, conversions, the move of the American Embassy to Jerusalem, the definition of who is a Jew, to name a few.

Blame Game to Connection Game

It is always easy to blame someone else when a problem arises, but by doing so we eliminate the possibility of finding solutions by diverting attention away from its root cause. To find the cause of Jewish suffering we need look no further than ourselves.

The enemy is within us. To be more precise, the disorder is between us, in our detachment from each other. Jews have succumbed to the blame game instead of holding each other tight in response to adversity. Moreover, when our unity crumbles, hatred against us strengthens.

During the trying times of World Word II, prominent Kabbalist Rav Yehuda Ashlag, Baal HaSulam, expressed it this way in his paper “The Nation”:

“It is clear that the immense effort required of us on the rugged road ahead requires unity as strong and as solid as steel, from all factions of the nation without exception. If we do not come out with united ranks toward the mighty forces standing in our way then we are doomed before we even started.

Our sages knew that we are a strong-headed people and knowingly left us a plethora of wisdom to follow to heal our rifts and find strength to face threats. As was written in The Book of Consciousness by Rabbi Eliyahu Ki Tov, “We are commanded at each generation to strengthen the unity among us so our enemies do not rule over us.”

How Can We Reach Unity Under the Current Climate?

There are Jews from the left, Jews from the right; less observant, more observant, not observant at all Jews; Jews who oppose Israeli policies, Jews unconditionally pro-Israel. To our enemies, these distinctions don’t matter. To them, we are one. But why should we depend on haters to remind us of our shared Jewish heritage? We can easily follow the path of our ancestors to solve our disputes: “Although Beit Shamai and Beit Hillel were disputed, they treated each other with fondness and friendship, to keep what was said (Babylonian Talmud, Eruvin, 13b).

We have been one unique people since the times of ancient Babylon, when Abraham the Patriarch gathered us as a Jewish nation, as those willing to unite above differences following our seminal principle of “love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18).

The internal conflicts between us back then were just as vivid as ours today. Each individual’s ego burned with its own views and demands, but each understood that the only way to repair their broken relationships was adherence to the tenet, “love will cover all transgressions” (Proverbs 10:12).

Jews are a mini-model of humanity. We are to function as a prototype of connection between people, between opponents. This is possible and doable with the method of connection we were given in ancient Babylon: the wisdom of Kabbalah. Kabbalah contains the “know how” to fix the world. Its treasure holds the glue to put all the broken pieces of the Jewish puzzle together again in a most amazing way where every different piece is indispensable to complete the whole picture. Our perfect Jewish connection is meant to be radiated from inside out like a kind of fractal pattern for the rest of humanity.

It is written in The Book of Zohar about the Jews’ special role, “as the organs of the body cannot exist in the world even a minute without the heart, all the other nations cannot exist in the world without Israel.” Rav Yitzhak HaCohen Kook (the Raiah), elaborated on the need for unity when he wrote, “The construction of the world, which is currently crumpled by the dreadful storms of a blood-filled sword requires the construction of the Israeli nation … in anticipation of a force full of unity … that is found in Israel.” (Orot [Lights], 16)

Shining Light for Ourselves and the Nations

Spreading unity and light in the world is our role, whether we currently agree to it or not. Kabbalists have long stated that the sooner we realize and implement our role, the sooner we will see anti-Semitic hatred dissipate and disappear. This is so because our foundational identity as a people was in unity and mutual responsibility. We are expected to pass it on to humanity. By not doing so, we bring resentment, hostility and destruction down upon our heads.

We can replace hatred with love by drawing closer to one another above our frictions. Let’s accept our current shattered state as an opportunity to truly become one people again. Then let’s continue to build layers of mutual trust, love and understanding after this tragedy fades away in the news. While tragic or happy events come and go, our role is an eternal promise. As it is written by Rabbi Simcha Bonim Bonhart of Peshischa, “this is the mutual guarantee on which Moses worked so hard before his death, to unite the children of Israel. All of Israel are each other’s guarantors, meaning that when all are together, they see only good” (A Broadcasting Voice, Part 1, Balak).

New Life #92 – Understanding Addiction

New Life #92 – Understanding Addiction
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

We all can be potentially addicted to something. Humans are made from an insatiable desire to enjoy, which leaves us feeling empty and leads us to various addictions. The addictive substance of choice gives us a sense of detachment from competition, pressures, and other environmental problems. We experience a descent from the animate level of existence to the vegetative level since the addictive substance both suppresses and fulfills our desire to receive. As the addiction becomes a habit, we need larger doses and it becomes an unsuccessful way of coping. What we actually need is the “drug of life,” which is based on mutually satisfying connections between people. A positive social environment can rehabilitate us and help us to evolve to a higher level of existence.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #92 – Understanding Addiction,” 10/28/12

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