“Coronavirus And The Value Of Life” (Thrive Global)

Thrive Global published my new article: “Coronavirus and the Value of Life”

We like to think of ourselves as conscientious, moral people. But COVID-19, or Coronavirus Disease, is exposing our true nature: selfish to the core.

2019 was a record year for Dengue Fever in Latin America. Some 3 million people were infected, and 1,500 of them died. Each year, the disease is claiming more and more lives but hardly anyone outside Latin America knows about it. Why? Because it’s Latin America, and in the eyes of the West, Latin American lives are worth less than West European lives or North American lives. If we in the Western World valued Latin American lives the way we value our own, the media would give it due coverage.

Likewise, the coronavirus aroused very little interest as long as it remained inside Mainland China. Would we really be alarmed if the virus killed, say, 100,000 people, or even a million people in China, but did not migrate to other countries? What would it take for us to move uncomfortably in our seats? The answer is not a number, but the identity of the affected.

We like to think of ourselves as conscientious, moral people. But COVID-19, or Coronavirus Disease, is exposing our true nature: selfish to the core. This is why the world started panicking over the coronavirus only when it spread to the rest of the world; this is the sad reality of our lives.

Two Lessons from the Virus

So far, the coronavirus has taught us two very important lessons:

We are all equal in the eyes of nature. Whether you are rich or poor, a tyrant or a servant, the tiny bug could not care less; it’ll hit you just the same.

We are all mutually dependent. We are passing the germ from one person to the next and one person’s irresponsible behavior, even if inadvertently, can cost other people’s lives and numerous others pain and agony.

What the virus will not teach us is how to turn this negative interdependency into a positive one. This, we will have to learn on our own, through our efforts to build a new paradigm of living. If we focus our efforts on improving life for everyone rather than only our own, and often at the expense of others, we will transform our environment, the social and ecological ones.

The pandemic is an opportunity for us to develop a new outlook on ourselves, to envision success not as a triumph over others, but as empowerment of society as a whole. True, this thinking goes against our nature, but nature itself is going against our nature nowadays, so we had better start thinking outside the box. If we don’t change our mode of thinking, reality will force us to, and much more painfully.

Coronavirus Disease is a prelude to a stream of ordeals that will befall humanity until we’re willing to become mutually responsible on the social and ecological levels. It does not take a lot to see that the virus is a test to our mutual consideration. Look at how China reacted in the beginning of the outbreak, pretending that the virus was no big deal, and look how it has managed to slow down its spread—by placing everyone in quarantine until the spreading dwindles. And it worked. Look at how Italy initially dismissed the danger, and look at the catastrophic results.

Now we need to take the mandatory mutual responsibility to the next level and start reaping its fruits. We can do much more than heal society from the virus. We can heal it from the spreading alienation, loneliness, and depression that have plagued our societies long before the virus. All it takes is our willingness to accept that we are responsible for one another.

Cherish the Difference

If we accept mutual responsibility, we will learn to cherish each other’s differences. Our unique characters will no longer separate us; they will connect us and will give each of us unique ways to contribute to society, which no one else will be able to give.

Questions of race or gender equality will become extinct since each person will be priceless. How can you evaluate a person who has unique qualities that no one else has, and who is ready and willing to use those qualities to benefit all of society? Will it matter if that person came from Latin America, China, or Germany? Will it matter if that person is well educated or not, rich or poor, black, white, or yellow? None of it will matter. All that will matter is that that person has a priceless gift to give to all of us. This is the reality of people living in mutual responsibility.
— Published on March 11, 2020

“Sooner We Learn Coronavirus Lesson, Sooner We’ll Heal” (Newsmax)

My article in Newsmax: “Sooner We Learn Coronavirus Lesson, Sooner We’ll Heal”

We’re still not getting what’s coming.

COVID-19, or coronavirus, is messing up our lives and we have yet to grasp the consequences. The masks, the quarantine, but mostly, the fear, are telling us that a new phase in our existence is emerging.

So, the sooner we get a grip on things, the better it will be for everyone.

Imagine this:

You’re sitting at home, cannot go to work because your employer went out of business, cannot buy food because the stores have all been emptied and there’s no supply to refill the shelves, and supply shipments have virtually stopped. But you have children to feed. What will you do? You can’t even send them to school where they can get a meal since all schools have been shut down by the virus!

What will you do, grow vegetables in the bathtub?

If it sounds mad, it’s because it is. But in a matter of months, this scenario could be the reality of tens of millions of Americans, Europeans and people in every country in the world.

The simple reality is that we cannot exist without provision from the outside, and the coronavirus is decimating that provision. If we don’t find a way to reboot the chains of supply that have been frozen still by fear, we could be facing hunger of a magnitude that will destroy our society and claim the lives of millions of people who aren’t even sick with the virus.

The Key to a Successful Reboot

Why is all this happening?

Because we are ignoring one simple, natural law: interconnectedness. Interconnectedness means that everything in nature is connected to, and therefore dependent on everything else.

We, on the other hand, live under the assumption that we needn’t recognize anything other than our own needs. Herein lies the problem: While the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels of nature function in harmony and balance, the human level seeks only to exploit: We use nature and abuse each other simply because we can.

Now, in what seems like the first time, but certainly not the last, nature is saying, “Enough!” Reality is demanding that we become responsible, mature, but mainly, considerate of one another and of the environment.

Now we are called upon to raise our eyes, acknowledge the world around us, and begin to think more in terms of “we” and less in terms of “me.” This is how all of nature operates, and it demands that we do, too.

Becoming More Like Nature, and Less Like People

In order to start balancing our approach to reality, we should begin to work more like nature, and less like people, or at least less like the people that we used to be until the outbreak of COVID-19. To do that, we should start including other interests in our thoughts. What animals and plants do instinctively, we are required to do consciously.

While it is much harder for us to do than it is for animals and plants, it holds a unique reward: an enhanced perception of the whole of nature. The more parts of reality we include in our awareness, the broader our perception of reality becomes. It is an endless process of growth with infinite rewards, bound only by our willingness to exert in it.

As nature is interconnected, so we can become, if we set our minds and hearts on it. In that sense, the coronavirus is an unprecedented opportunity for growth, and it would be a horrible mistake for us to miss it.

By disconnecting our supply chains, the virus has reminded us that we are inseparably connected. By thinking about this interconnectedness and what it requires of us, we can defeat not only COVID-19, but also the “viruses” that sicken our society, pollute our minds, and make us destroy each other and the world around us.

In that sense, the coronavirus is a vaccine, not a pathogen, and the sooner we learn what it teaches, the sooner we will all heal.

Development Of Egoism And The Method Of Connection, Part 8

The Main Commandment and Its Derivatives

Comment: Baal HaSulam writes, that at first the Torah was given on a condition of mutual guarantee (Arvut), although later, when the golden calf was made, this condition was no longer observed because wars were fought about this issue, and the sons of Levi killed 3,00 people.

All this, of course, did not add love and unity. Later, when they came to the land of Israel, there was no peace either. Therefore, there was no one who could observe this main commandment. Literally several decades passed after the giving of the Torah, and there was no one left to observe this condition.

My Response: I think it took longer. In any case, the entire period was accompanied by huge conflicts among the people. There were many different currents, opposing groups, that were ready to destroy each other.

Comment: Further, Baal HaSulam writes, that in order for the people of Israel not to forget the Torah they began to observe the other commandments, although the main commandment was abandoned because they had no other advice.

The main commandment of the Torah “love your neighbor as yourself” was abandoned because egoism grew and people began to observe other commandments. What does it mean “other commandments”?

My Response: “Other commandments” are the reflection in our world of the main spiritual commandment and spiritual connections between people. There are 613 desires in a person, the so-called TARYAG, and all of them must be directed to the connection with others and with the Creator.

However, in our world, they are used to fulfill our egoism. Changing them to “love your neighbor,” to the fulfillment of others, of society, is called observing the commandments.

Question: So, are 613 commandments the internal actions as a result of which a person corrects his egoism in order to connect with other people in sensation, that is, through the souls?

Answer: Yes. In any case, the general rule of “love your neighbor” is broken down into many inclinations, desires, and actions. And all of them together make this rule.
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From KabTV’s “System analysis of the development of the people of Israel,” 7/1/19

What Does It Mean To Bring Pleasure To A Friend?

Question: Our goal is to bring contentment to the Creator. Through love for our friends, we will come to love for the Creator. What does it mean to bring pleasure to a friend? What kind of pleasure are we talking about?

Answer: It is a very simple pleasure—when you assist him to achieve what he desires.

The friend wants to reveal the Creator, you help him in this. This is the pleasure you can give him, to become his real companion on the road, to bring him closer to his own goal.
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From KabTV’s, “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/26/20

“Human Development: Nature Or Nurture?” (Quora)

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Human Development: Nature or Nurture?“

Human Development: Nature or Nurture? Every person has a “preset” of unchangeable inner properties, which are congenial qualities that nature inserted into us.

We receive these qualities from our parents, who received them from their parents, and so on all the way back through each one’s ancestral lineage.

These qualities include our character, emotions, initial attitude to the surrounding world, and they heavily influence our actions and reactions.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the person’s unchangeable qualities stem from spiritual roots, and every one of us is a part of a common collective soul, which in Kabbalah is called “the soul of Adam HaRishon.”

We receive our inborn properties and conditions according to our place within this common soul.

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches that the meaning of our lives is to regain consciousness of our place in this common soul by attaining the upper force of love and bestowal, called “the Creator.”

We humans have a completely opposite nature to the Creator’s: our nature is a desire to receive pleasure, while the Creator’s nature is to give pleasure, an attitude of pure love and bestowal.

Therefore, on one hand, we are egoistic beings who think solely out of personal benefit, while on the other hand, nature develops us to increasingly connect.

Thus, besides our inner qualities, we are given an external environment, a society that teaches us how to use these properties in a particular way, directing us to the attainment of the Creator, whether we realize it or not.

This is how nature nurtures us: by placing us inside the various environments that “sculpt” us, bringing us closer to understanding the purpose of our existence.

As we initially exist in a fixed interdependent system of nature, we are subjects to its laws. We can change neither the purpose of creation nor our inner qualities.

What, then, can we change?

What we can change is our environment.

Human development directly depends on the society that we build, on the positive attitude toward others that every one of us can show to our peers and children, and on each and every person’s personal example toward others, as well as the information we distribute through media channels.

The more that we can add awareness of who we are and what goal we pursue through society, the more we can benefit our lives, guiding ourselves to increasingly connect, and by doing so, reach balance and harmony with nature.

“Coronavirus: A Lesson In Mutual Responsibility” (Thrive Global)

Thrive Global published my new article: “Coronavirus: A Lesson in Mutual Responsibility”

In less than three months, COVID-19, a.k.a. Coronavirus disease, has taught us a lesson in humility before the forces of nature that we had refused to learn for more than a century.

Staff in protective suits spray disinfectant on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) train after Indonesia confirmed new cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia March 10, 2020 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/NovaWahyudi/ via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. INDONESIA OUT.

Who would have thought that a virus, and not a particularly deadly one, would press the world’s kill switch? Who would believe in the beginning of this year that a measly flu-like germ with the name of a beer brand would paralyze aviation the world over, crash stock markets globally, start an oil-price war between OPEC and Russia, put entire countries under quarantine, shut down schools and universities the world over, cancel major sports events, and all within ten weeks?

In less than three months, COVID-19, a.k.a. Coronavirus disease, has taught us a lesson in humility before the forces of nature that we had refused to learn for more than a century. It taught us that our protections, safety nets, and struggles for power and dominance are useless when nature decides to play its tricks on us.

“Most of all, Coronavirus is teaching us a lesson in mutual responsibility. It is forcing us to recognize the painful fact that we are interconnected and interdependent the world over.”

But most of all, Coronavirus is teaching us a lesson in mutual responsibility. It is forcing us to recognize the painful fact that we are interconnected and interdependent the world over. Because when a virus that started in Wuhan, China, can kill your loved ones in Chicago, Illinois, don’t you wish your countries would not be embroiled in a trade war? Wouldn’t it be nice if countries could collaborate just once and take collective action to stop the spreading of the virus? Wouldn’t it be much more helpful if we realized that we are responsible for one another even when we are half way across the world and don’t want to hear about it?

A Wonder Drug for Earth

Ironically, this pathogen is like a wonder drug for Earth. For decades, we have been warned about the harm that overconsumption is doing to our planet. For decades, we have been told that we must restrain our greed, excessive depletion of natural resources, and the shopping frenzy that has become our favorite pastime. For decades, we have ignored the warnings. Now, nature is forcing us to simply stop: no flights, no shopping, no entertainment. Quarantine yourselves at home and reflect on your actions, your commitment to others, and theirs to you.

In truth, nature is kind; it could have taught us the same lesson with far more aggressive measures. It could have caused a nuclear disaster like the one in Chernobyl or an earthquake like the one that devastated the nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan. It could have made Ebola far more contagious and destroy half of humanity. It could do a million things we cannot even imagine that would all but obliterate humanity. But it is not; it is giving us a chance to reflect on how we live and start living more responsibly toward each other and the planet that is our common home.

Now it is time for us to help each other learn to care for one another. It cannot happen if we try alone, but since we’re all trapped already in one boat, much like the passengers on the virus-hit Diamond Princess in Japan and the Grand Princess in California, we should all embrace mutual responsibility and start building a more balanced and considerate way of life. Evidently, nature has a far greater cache of penitentiary measures than we can ever counteract. So far, it has been merciful and gentle with humanity; we do not want it to pick up the stick.

The world we live in now is the brainchild of our egocentric mindset. If we do not change our thinking, the world will not change for the better however we may try to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy and diminish deforestation. But if, instead of our current attitude, we will begin to nurture mutual consideration and responsibility, our world will reflect it and will transform in sync with our new state of mind.

It is written, “They who sow the wind, reap the storm” (Hosea 8:7). If we sow egoism, we will reap its consequences many times over. The current crisis is but a sample of what might happen. But likewise, if all of us aboard the ship called Planet Earth, sowed mutual care and mutual responsibility, what would we reap? Can we even begin to imagine the benefits?

Maybe now, when everything is put on hold, we should take a moment to reflect on our mindsets and start reforming the relationships in our lives. Maybe now is our chance to reverse course, to start imagining different courses for our lives. Maybe now we should start thinking less in terms of me and mine, and more in terms of community, society, and humanity. After all, who knows how many more breaks nature will give us?

— Published on March 10, 2020

Development Of Egoism And The Method Of Connection, Part 7

The Golden Calf—Symbol of Egoism

Question: As soon as the people of Israel received the method of connection at Mount Sinai, separation between the people began again: the golden calf, the Korah uprising, the complaints of the people, the spies, and so on.

What does the golden calf mean?

Answer: The golden calf is all the egoism that people took with them from Egypt. They cannot get away from it, it is always with them. Sometimes they rise above it, sometimes they do not.

Thus, the golden calf is a symbol of egoism that pulls them back to the same states. It is not about geography, although they want to return to Egypt, but it is about their feelings, at what level of communication they want to exist.

After all, we talk about society. Therefore, the desire to return to the state in which they are separated from each other is the worship of the golden calf, that is, of their egoism.
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From KabTV’s “System analysis of the development of the people of Israel,” 7/1/19

The Wisdom Of King Solomon: “Two Are Better Than One”

Comment: The synonym for the wise man is, as it is often said, King Solomon.

It was the best time in the Jewish state. In his time the Temple was built. He wrote great books. He was engaged in education, and in general there was a hold in all matters.

There are quotes that are attributed to him. They are very deep and at the same time very simple. Please comment on them.

“Two are better than one, since they have good reward for their toil.

“For if they fall, one will lift up his friend, but woe to the one who falls and has no second one to lift him up.

“Moreover, if two lie down, they will have warmth, but how will one have warmth?”

Everything is so simple.

Answer: No, it is not simple. These are great and seemingly simple facts, but unattainable for the ordinary person to simply take and implement.

This refers to the internal unity of people, above hatred, when each of them is a separate entity. This is huge work of a person on himself, moreover, according to a serious technique.

Question: Do you think it is not just said: it is good to be together and not alone?

Answer: No, this is King Solomon. Would he just say that?

Question: Do you mean he clearly understands that people cannot be together?

Answer: Of course. It is the disclosure of internal hatred that is necessary in order to discover the extent to which we must reach in order to become so close to each other, to warm one another. This is not bodily warming, it is when you work on my soul and I work on your soul.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman,” 12/5/19

Who Am I?

Question: I began to analyze myself and came to the conclusion that now I do not know who I am. Will Kabbalah help me figure this out?

Answer: Kabbalah definitely will help you figure this out. But is it so important to figure out who you are?

I would not try to find out, although, as stated in Kabbalah, a person seeks to know the root of one’s soul.

In principle, we should find this out, but not who I am now, because there is nothing to talk about about the animal body, these are only compact, small instincts, nothing more.

Who I really am, we will come to this at the very end of our correction when we correct all our egoism, specifically given to us for this.

In fact, we are huge, great, spiritually very high creatures, we only have to reveal this. And we will reveal it.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/5/20

“Why Are We Alive?” (Quora)

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why are we alive?“

Why are we alive? Many people ask this question and it leads them to change their lives in one way or another.

I engaged in that question a lot. I studied bio-cybernetics, the systems of the human body, thinking that I could attain the meaning of life by doing so.

But I didn’t find its answer in that field.

I found it only many years later in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

The question about the meaning of life always disturbed me, because without knowing its answer, I had no view of why life is worth living. Today, I see the younger generation especially feeling this question, even if they don’t ask it with exactly those words. Finding no answer to this question makes our lives feel meaningless, and we feel a lot of negative phenomena as a result.

To find the meaning of life, we need to find the source from which life is created and develops.

The source of life is the upper force.

We can call the upper force “the Creator,” the “upper light,” “nature” and many other terms, but essentially, there is a source of life, and the question about life’s meaning and purpose stems from it. Ultimately, we exist in order to attain the meaning of our lives.

How we attain the meaning of life is another question.

How can we attain the source of life?

It is a question that humans specifically ask, and not all kinds of forms and organisms on the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature. Moreover, not all people ask this question, and those who do, ask it in different intensities.

Every generation feels an increasing need to answer the question about the meaning of life. Especially in our generation, this question is expressed by more and more people feeling depressed, stressed, lonely, anxious, and getting into drugs, extremism, and finding themselves in all kinds of other problems.

The wisdom of Kabbalah has emerged on a mass scale in our era precisely to answer the question about the meaning of life. It provides a method by which we can undergo self and social transformation in order to feel a new sense of reality, one that is complete, interconnected and full of goodness and happiness.

We attain the meaning of life when we attain a clear perception and sensation of the force that created and develops us. Such a new perception gives us a distinct understanding of why we were created. By attaining life’s source, we attain nothing less than eternity and perfection while we are alive in this world.

The Best Remedy For Coronavirus

The coronavirus has become a global-scale problem for humanity. The death toll of the virus that originated in China and has spread throughout the world has already surpassed 3,000 people. How should we relate to this problem?

We encounter numerous problems on the path of our development. New viruses and new diseases appear all the time. Due to global warming, the earth evaporates and we discover something new every day. We may witness the comeback of diseases that existed in the distant past, some 50,000 to 100,000 years ago.

We don’t know where the new viruses come from, we didn’t live back then since humanity exists on this planet consciously only for a few thousand years. That is why we may expect the manifestation of an increasingly large number of new viruses and bacteria.

The wisdom of Kabbalah gives a simple means of protection: we have nothing to be afraid of if we unite with each other. By way of our unity, we create a place and the force that kills all the viruses. Try it and you will see.

For example, we recently held the World Kabbalah Convention at the heart of Tel Aviv. More than 5,000 people from 78 countries participated in it. We were together for the three days of the main convention as well as before and after it, for 10 days in total. And no one got sick, or even caught a cold.

The thing is that we have a vaccine: a special disinfecting agent that eliminates all the microbes—it is our unification. This is the force of nature that acts against all evil forces. If people want to unite together, they fear no virus, they get a vaccine that kills all the viruses, both spiritual and material.

This is why I had no doubts about holding this convention. Some suggested canceling the convention or at least restricting access to people who have to avoid big gatherings for fear of different infections, meaning nursing mothers or people with chronic diseases.

However, I’m confident that such a convention does not pose any health risk. We have the remedy for all the viruses, we only need to learn how to use it, and it is not simple.

People need to learn how to utilize the connection between them that can eliminate and disinfect all infections and kill viruses that exist at the biological and also spiritual degrees. This might seem mystical and unreal, but precisely the connection between people is the remedy for all diseases and problems. It is because our unity takes place at the highest possible level in this world.

There are four levels of nature: still, vegetative, animate, and human. At the still, vegetative, and animate levels, nature exists the way it was created, without changes. But at the human level, we may influence what happens. If we build good relationships between us, we pass energy and force to each other so that it as if vaccinates us from evil thoughts, problems, and bad relationships.

But if we don’t correct relations between people, we stimulate the proliferation and manifestation of various viruses and natural disasters: volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, typhoons, and so on. Everything depends on the relations between people because we exist at the highest level of nature. That is why our attitude either kills nature, or on the contrary, commands it to become better.
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From KabTV’s Program “The World: The Coronavirus Epidemic,” 3/3/20

Development Of Egoism And The Method Of Connection, Part 6

Difference Between the Method of Moses and the Method of Abraham

Question: What kinds of means were there in the method of Abraham and in the method of Moses who pulled people out of egoism?

Answer: Moses had very simple means. From below, everything depends on the desire of the people for connection, for mutual guarantee (Arvut). To the extent that they aspire to this, they are provided with the upper force that connects them.

Question: That is, the main condition is the law of mutual guarantee. In the Babylonian Talmud it is written, “If you accept the law of guarantee, that is good. If not, here will be your burial place.” Does it mean that nature or the Creator forcibly demand this fulfillment?

Answer: There is nothing else in nature. It is all very simple; there is one law: to bring humanity to connection. In the case that along this path there are suddenly some kinds of interference from people, then nature, as usual, destroys them. It will unite us by force.
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From KabTV’s “System analysis of the development of the people of Israel,” 7/1/19

From Babylon To Rome, Part 1

The Foundation of the People of Israel

Question: During the First Temple, the Jewish people reached their point of unity. As a result, the Temple was built, a symbol of the union of all 12 tribes. A spiritual decline then began, which entailed the separation of the people. It lasted about 16 years and ended with the destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian exile.

Baal HaSulam, in his article “Exile and Redemption,” writes about this period: “And because they would not do it, but wished to include their narrow selfishness, meaning the Lo Lishma, this developed the ruin of the First Temple, since they wished to extol wealth and power above justice, as other nations.”

But because the Torah prohibits it, they denied the Torah and the prophecy and adopted the manners of the neighbors so they could enjoy life as much as selfishness demanded of them. And because they did that, the powers of the nation disintegrated: some followed the kings and the selfish officers, and some followed the prophets. And that separation continued until the ruin.

What kind of justice are we talking about?

Answer: In this case, the concept of justice refers to the Jewish people since it follows from its very foundation: why and how it was created.

The fact is that they gathered from various small nations that inhabited Babylon during the time of Abraham, and were created on the condition “love thy neighbor” and “love covers all transgressions.”

Therefore, if they adhere to this rule, then they exist as people, and if they take other conditions as a basis for their existence, then from the point of view of the forces that act upon them, they are no longer a people.

Other forces influence the rest of the nations, since each nation is affected by its own strength, its so-called “guardian angel.” In other words, the common power that exists in humanity selectively acts upon each group of 70 nations of the world.

The people of Israel do not belong to them because it is an assembly of their representatives. The Jewish people are very different and opposite to each other. If they gather in order to coexist correctly over their egoism, then they are viable. But if this rule is violated and they stop rushing to unite over all of their problems, then they become a dispersed people.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 7/8/19

“Is It Important To Have Love In Life?” (Quora)

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is it important to have love in life?“

The principle of love, or more specifically, loving others as oneself, is known to all, yet there is a lot of confusion surrounding it.

There is a general agreement among most people that there needs to be love among people, yet we see that some people are willing to eliminate large portions of humanity in the name of love. It is even more surprising how vaguely this principle is reflected in different religions.

As a result, we are not very concerned about loving each other in actual fact. We are raised through a multitude of influences that completely neglect the question of how we can reach true love among people.

Therefore, the question here is correct, and we should definitely stop and pay attention to it: Is it important to have love in life? Is love really that important?

Perhaps it is enough to teach children morals and have a general atmosphere of respect among adults? Or should love of others nevertheless be life’s goal, which we strive to reach at every moment, and which we are concerned about reaching every person and everyone together equally? Maybe if we set love of other people, all people equally, as our goal, and tried to reach that goal in the fastest possible way, then we could spare a lot of suffering in humanity, and moreover, experience lives of much greater fulfillment and happiness?

Therefore, this is an extremely important question. If we discuss the meaning of life, the purpose for which we entered our world, then why do we neglect this principle so much?

In essence, we are extremely far from understanding the fact that this principle is the universal law of the universe and of nature. All other laws that we know, and especially ones we do not know, rotate around such an axis.

If we wish to understand ourselves and the world we live in, then we have to attain the laws of nature, which are fundamentally laws of love and connection. Without attaining love for others, or as it was written, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” we will be unable to discover who or where we are.

Love is the key that lets us see the entire picture of reality accurately, to understand, feel and become included in it, and to use it for self-realization.

By acquiring love for others in practice, we attain the Creator’s quality. Other laws are just facets and partial expressions of this fundamental law of reality. It is similar to how the law of gravity can be expressed in different ways, but as a whole, it always determines how one object is attracted to another.

There is a general phenomenon and there are particular cases of it. There is a law of universal bestowal, and for us it is first and foremost expressed as the social principle, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” By realizing this principle in society, we carry out the universal law. It controls us, and if we want to arrange our lives well, we have to aspire to its realization.

Spiritual Movement

Question: How can I correctly build the interaction between society and my personal spiritual space?

Answer: Just be inside the group and live its spiritual life. In addition, you may have a family and a job, but your spiritual life is in the group, and together with it, you move forward. This is how it always lines up.

Of utmost importance is the feeling that we are always in the correct society, giving to it, and receiving from it. By such consistent actions with the environment, we can progress.

We will then see that behind this society is an upper force. We give and receive, give and receive, and this is how we interact with it. Like a bicycle wheel that turns forward and backward, forward and backward, making the bicycle move forward. This is how we can imagine our spiritual movement.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 2/2/20

Above Love And Hatred Is The Meeting Place With The Creator

Our path goes from hatred to love. After all, we are created beings, which means that we are first of all opposite to the Creator; therefore, we are made up of egoism; otherwise we would be unable to exist. If we had no evil egoistic desire, we would not be created beings. A created being is the one who has an evil inclination. Those who have no egoism are not considered to be created beings, and therefore, inanimate matter, plants, and animals do not belong to the true creation since they are not opposite to the Creator. They have no freedom of choice, feelings of hatred, and rejection; they just instinctively follow the laws of nature.

The hatred in a person comes from his oppositeness to the Creator, to the force of bestowal, love, and connection. Therefore, all egoistic qualities, feelings, thoughts, and desires that awaken in a person are initially given so that he can exist opposite to the Creator.

Evil is only what is opposite to the Creator. All our qualities are divided into those that are similar to the Creator or opposite to Him. Everything that goes against bestowal, love, and connection is evil. On the other hand, it is a great joy to discover the qualities opposite to the Creator because they give us the right to exist as created beings and to be human, not animal.

Animals have no evil inclination. Although they kill and devour each other, they do so only in order to survive. Animals do not want to hurt each other; only humans do. Whenever evil desires awaken in me toward others, I must understand that these are just human qualities, that is, a human being is awakening in me even if shattered, uncorrected, and wicked. Without this, I cannot separate myself from the Creator.

Therefore, we must be happy about all the evil that is revealed, about all the sinners. After all, it is impossible to correct a sin that has not been revealed. The correction of egoism turns into spiritual actions and sublime spiritual attainments. Therefore, our path is from hatred to love. It is impossible to love if previously you did not go through all the stages of hatred. An indifferent person feels neither hatred nor love because a person’s work is to turn hatred into love.

The higher a person rises, the more hatred, the left line, is revealed in him, and the harder he must work to bring himself to love, to the right line. This is how we always exist between hatred and love. When the rejection from the group is revealed again and again, we need to understand that this is a transition to a new degree, which always begins with shattering. This is the only way to move up the degrees of connection and love.¹

The created being always starts with the left line, with the revelation of evil, hatred, and breaking initially prepared by the Creator. He created a perfect system and then broke it. Therefore, instead of perfection, hatred and rejection being revealed to us, and by supposedly correcting what the Creator created, we grow and become smarter. We always keep both lines and move in the middle line, between hatred and love.

The source of love and hatred is in the Creator. Love is the quality of the Creator that comes out of Him directly, and hatred is the opposite quality that comes out of Him as existence from absence. These two bases, the right and left lines, existence from existence and existence from absence, love and hatred, both come from the Creator. That is the way to relate to them.

I should not attribute either hatred or love to myself because I receive them from above. I must always associate myself with the middle line, balancing hatred and love so that they would act as one. They cannot exist without each other. I, as a created being, cannot exist in a single thought, in a single desire, but always in the combination of opposites, between both of them.

You must see a simple system in front of you: the group and the Creator within it. If we reach the first point of connection between the friends, then the Creator is revealed within this connection as its consequence. If we achieve a more powerful connection, the Creator will be revealed even more, and so on. Each time, by revealing the next degree of connection, we reveal new qualities of the Creator through their opposite. I discover hatred and rejection in myself, and by overcoming them, I achieve connection, revealing the qualities of the Creator. In such a way, I begin talking to Him.

At every second, my thoughts, desires, and attitude toward others change, and I thus feel how the Creator treats me and what He wants to say to me. By the fact that I want to bring all relationships to connection and love, I respond to the Creator and talk to Him. This is how our dialogue with the Creator, our connection with Him begins; everything is through the ten, the group, and the connection with the friends.

Therefore, the Creator is within a society, within a group, or within the whole of humanity, depending on the level of connection I have reached with Him. This is how I become increasingly closer to adhesion with the Creator.²

The Creator created nothing but love and hatred. What, then, is the middle line? If there is no feeling of love or hatred, then a person is as if dead, there is no created being.

The middle line is the measure of adhesion of the created being with the Creator. Neither love nor hatred is me. I build myself when I understand that there are two forces and I prefer one over the other because I value the qualities of the Creator more than the qualities of the created being. By connecting two lines together, I build myself out of them both.

This is why I must take care of the balance of the two opposites, not trying to erase or belittle either hatred or love but using them in a balanced way. I attribute both forces to the Creator and I am equally grateful to Him for both of them. I include both qualities and therefore feel that I am independent of them, but I can build a point of connection with the Creator in the middle line, between hatred and love.

After all, both of them come from the Creator. And what comes from me is the ability to connect these two feelings together and attribute them to the Creator. The middle line is built from this. It does not exist initially, it is us, human beings, who build it by our attitude toward the Creator.

We receive two forces from the Creator: the good and the evil force. The evil force separates us from the Creator, and the good force lets us connect together. With this attitude toward creation, we feel that there is a special place called the middle line, and thus we connect with the entire reality.

The middle line is the person, Israel (Yashar-Kel), which means “straight to the Creator,” because it aims me like an arrow directly to the Creator.

The right and left lines are only feelings, sensations, conditions, and laws according to which I arrange myself in equivalence of form with the Creator. However, our meeting with the Creator takes place in the middle line, where there is no hatred and love. Instead, there is a third component that is above both of them, and it is called “adhesion.”

Love is built only above hatred and is inseparable from it. However, adhesion, the middle line, exists on its own, independent of hatred and love.³
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/20, Love Your Friend As Yourself – From Hatred To Love

“When Purim Meets International Women’s Day” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “When Purim Meets International Women’s Day”

The events described in the Purim story hint at humanity’s spiritual corrections. Translating these corrections from the poetic and colorful language of legend to the language of qualitative inner change lets us see how they describe connection among people, and how we can strengthen such connection. We can then find ourselves, our inner states, our attitudes to each other, and our various relationships as the characters and situations taking place in the Purim story.

International Women’s Day, which falls on Purim this year, draws our attention to two women in the Purim story: Esther and Zeresh, the symbolic representations of two forces at work in the world, which are in fact one.

Every woman has a Queen Esther (wife of King Ahasuerus) side: the quality of righteousness, which justifies the actions of nature and its laws, the laws of love. Every woman also has another Zeresh (wife of the wicked Haman the Agagite) side: a threatening quality, which condemns the power of nature and denies its laws.

How can we discover the attribute called “Esther” within us?

We first need to traverse the attribute of Zeresh, a mind state that focuses our thoughts on how to squeeze the most out of the world: to buy and sell, to receive and control. It is this feminine quality that prods men to strive for power and honor. Without the claims and demands of such a quality, men would be satisfied with much less, fulfilling their basic needs.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Zeresh is also known as “the corrupted Malchut,” the egoistic desire to enjoy for self-benefit alone, prior to being corrected with an opposite intention to love and bestow. She wants to be above others and to erase them, having no concern for any meagerness and mediocrity that she influences upon them.

Women are mostly unaware of the desires that Zeresh represents, because the surfacing of those desires can bring about much anguish. Can a woman fulfill the aspirations to be more beautiful, talented and successful than other women? By nature, such egoistic desires can never be completely fulfilled, as there will always be someone more beautiful, talented and successful. Why, then, would any woman want to hurt herself for no apparent reason? Therefore, such desires mostly lurk repressed within, beyond the reach of conscious awareness.

This is the way of Zeresh, one that lacks self-awareness. Moreover, such a woman can feel righteous, that she wants only good for everyone, while in fact, her attributes are the polar opposite of goodness.

The attributes of goodness are represented by Esther.

Discovering the loathsome inner urges to be better than others illuminates the spiritually elevated form of sincere concern and love for others, Esther’s qualities. When women reach the high spiritual level that Esther represents, they rise above the competitive games and materialistic trappings of the ego.

Esther is concealed and humble. She acts behind the scenes, moving the world with transparent threads of love for others, not self-love and never for herself. She runs the world by exemplifying how to live by loving others. Esther represents the desire to enjoy created by the Creator, but includes the quality of love and bestowal, the desire to give. Esther uses all of her power and skill to lead society to unification, peace and love.

The Purim holiday and International Women’s Day show us the paramount role of women for the betterment of the world. Both feminine forces, Zeresh — the driving progressive force — and Esther, its corrected state — the force of compassion, love and care — are indispensable to bring about unification, peace, love and balance among humanity.

It is possible to reach a balanced state in humanity when female qualities and male qualities complement one another. Therefore, instead of focusing on how men or women can independently rise, we need to learn how to rise together.

It is no coincidence that the drive to find new balance between the genders has become so prominent in our time. Humans are evolving toward a higher experience of life, and for this reason, we have a yearning for a greater sense of wholeness. Lasting harmony, however, can only emerge when opposite forces complement each other.