“On The Merits Of A Three-Generational Family” (Linkedin)

 My new article on Linkedin “On the Merits of a Three-Generational Family”

Today’s family often has only one adult living at home with the kids. But come Thanksgiving, I’d like to take a moment to discuss the merits of a full-size family. And by full size, I don’t just mean two parents and children, but rather grandparents, parents, and children all together. That is, they needn’t all live in the same house, but the benefits of keeping close family ties are something we should be aware of, especially today when it is so easy to find ourselves socially isolated and not realize that this is the reason for our sadness and irritation.

In spirituality, the three generations have a special meaning: They represent the full process of the ascent of a prayer. It begins with a person raising a prayer, sending it through a “medium” to the top level, and the top level returns the answer through the medium down to the beseeching individual.

When parents get an occasional break from their kids, it helps them relax and allows them to be more thoughtful and patient when they are with the children. It also increases the longing of the children for the parents and the parents for the children, and nothing bonds people more strongly than the right amount of longing.

This spiritual root manifests in many phenomena in our world, but one of the most vital ones is the three-generational family. This is why it is so mentally and emotionally healthy to maintain ties with all the generations in the family.

In addition to the spiritual benefits, grandparents can give to children what parents cannot. By nature, parents are more judgmental and demanding. Being the primary educators, they have to be that way. Grandparents are more accepting and give the children a place where they can always feel that they are loved the way they are. This is very important for children. Additionally, when children see that their parents treat their own parents well, they, too, will treat their parents well when they grow up, since example is the most impactful and lasting mode of teaching.

To the elderly, time with their grandkids is no burden; it’s a gift (to a degree, of course, as much as their health and energy allow). They enjoy being with their grandchildren, it connects them to their own children, the parents, and gives them vitality and health. To the parents, the children’s time with their grandparents is an opportunity to be with one another or do other things that they have no time or energy to do otherwise.

When parents get an occasional break from their kids, it helps them relax and allows them to be more thoughtful and patient when they are with the children. It also increases the longing of the children for the parents and the parents for the children, and nothing bonds people more strongly than the right amount of longing.

This Thanksgiving, I wish everyone a happy holiday, with lots of love and with the whole family.

“A Legacy That Will Keep Rolling” (Linkedin)

 My new article on Linkedin “A Legacy That Will Keep Rolling”

During a visit to Argentina years ago to chair a Kabbalah congress for my South American students, I vividly witnessed firsthand the impact of the gifted football player Diego Armando Maradona on his fans—a deep impact made not only at his birthplace, but around the world. At only sixty years old, his heart blew the last whistle in his ultimate match called “life.”

This is why such cultural heroes of the world who have reached the top of their fields all too often become addicted to drugs, fall from grace, and divorce and remarry countless times. Pleasure and pain are linked together, and without pain they do not feel real pleasure. Inside this duality they frantically and desperately search for the meaning of life.

He is considered by many as the greatest football player of all time. I do not know all his amazing skills on the field, but I am aware that he had a special attitude toward his profession, a huge passion and enthusiasm for the game, a great love for football that captivated the masses, as well as an unmatched commitment to bring fans joy and connect with them. In that sense, professionally speaking, he set a great example for many athletes around the world.

If we separate the athlete from the man, off the field Maradona had a special relationship with life itself. With all the noise around him, he remained a simple and unassuming person, warm and cordial like many of the Latin people. It’s easy to judge someone’s deeds on the surface, but after visiting the slum in which he grew up, one must tip their hat to him and say that, despite being raised in a difficult environment, he did much more good than bad to others.

Therefore, there is no point in harping about the way he conducted his private life, his behavior or personal attributes, but to focus instead on his professional achievements, on his unique excellence and his positive contribution to others. His love of sports and privileged talent transformed him into a legend that will live on in the admiration of generations to come.

One may ask why so many talented stars and celebrities with phenomenal success behave erratically throughout their careers, sometimes even showing a tendency toward self-destruction. It stems from the fact that they touched the pinnacle of fame, tasted world prestige, felt like revered idols, and once they felt the sweetness of global recognition and wealth, realized these accomplishments provided very little fulfillment. This is why such cultural heroes of the world who have reached the top of their fields all too often become addicted to drugs, fall from grace, and divorce and remarry countless times. Pleasure and pain are linked together, and without pain they do not feel real pleasure. Inside this duality they frantically and desperately search for the meaning of life.

Who Breaks The Law Of Mutual Guarantee?

 

Question: Baal HaSulam writes that only after society wants to achieve an integral state, becomes self-sufficient, and economically independent can people become guarantors for each other. So must everyone have the minimum necessary material first?

Answer: Definitely. This is not even a question. But the fact is that it is possible to achieve an ideal material state if at the same time we have a state of reciprocity.

Comment: Further, Baal HaSulam adds that when the society of those wishing to achieve a mutual guarantee is influenced by irresponsible, self-loving people, the provision of the necessary needs cannot be guaranteed. Even if one person still takes care of himself, everyone else will no longer be able to come to a mutual guarantee.

My Response: Naturally because integrity is violated.

Question: But how can it be that in a society where everyone cares about each other, one person stops doing this?

Answer: In principle, this is theoretically impossible, and even more so in practice. Because everyone will begin to influence each other there will simply be no place for such a person. He will not be able to remain so because under the influence of the environment he will be forced to voluntarily, consciously work for others.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 8/21/20

How Is Man’s Spiritual Potential Measured?

 

Question: How and according to what is the spiritual potential of a person who comes to study Kabbalah measured?

Answer: This can only be determined by the very great Kabbalists, who see the world in the second half of the spiritual ladder.

They seemingly draw a person, absorb him into themselves, and then feel what his capacity, the unfilled volume of his soul is.

A Kabbalist who is only a beginner, however, cannot determine anything. To do this, you need to have heavy vessels of reception.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/25/18

The Infinity Of The Creator And His Creation

 

The Creator made the desire of the creatures small, like the Malchut of the world of infinity. Infinity meant that the desire was completely filled, that is, without boundaries, like a full glass.

But then this desire must develop to infinite proportions. Due to the fact that the Creator created the creation, the desire to enjoy, the opposite of Himself, this gives us the opportunity to reveal the Creator without any boundaries and restrictions, without any stopping on the way until the end of correction and after it.

When we finish all the corrections, covering the whole desire to enjoy with the intention to bestow, then further progress will continue in other forms, no longer due to lack. However, the endless movement forward will continue anyway because this is the only way to reveal the infinity of the Creator.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/20, “Connecting the World in the Last Generation”

“Why I Care (And Write) About The World” (Times Of Israel)

 

The Times of Israel published my new article “Why I Care (and Write) about the World”

Recently, I have received some questions about my interest in “worldly” matters. These readers seem to believe that kabbalists should take no interest in the material world and current affairs. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Kabbalists care a great deal about the world, and for very good reasons.

But before I elaborate on the reasons for writing and speaking about the world we live in, it is important to realize that in doing so, I am in no way the first. Great sages throughout the centuries were very interested in the events of their time. They often wrote about it, too. In the 20th century alone, two spiritual giants expressed themselves on various occasions regarding the world around them. When the great Rav Kook saw that the Jews were in danger abroad, he wrote a plea for their arrival at the land of Israel. In a declaration published in the book Essays of the Raaiah, he asked them, “Assemble one by one, wait not for formal words and orders; wait not for permits from renowned ones. Do what you can, flee and gather.” After a few more sentences, he adds, “Amalek, Petlura [anti-Semitic Ukrainian leader], Hitler, and so forth, awaken for redemption. One who did not hear [the call] … for his ears were blocked … will hear against his will.”

A contemporary of Rav Kook, the great Rav Yehuda Ashlag—known as Baal HaSulam for his Sulam [Ladder] commentary on The Book of Zohar, and the father of my teacher, Rav Baruch Ashlag (RABASH)—wrote in great detail about current affairs. His essays “The Peace” and “Peace in the World,” and his extensive composition The Writings of the Last Generation are some of the publications where he expressed his views on current affairs and politics, both in Israel and around the world.

But Baal HaSulam worked tirelessly to circulate his ideas, and mainly his warnings. He published a newspaper titled The Nation, in which he dealt only with current affairs, and predicted the outcome of WWII, Israel’s conflicts with the Arabs, and much more.

In “The Peace,” Baal HaSulam analyzes Russian communism and predicts its downfall. Even though he wrote the article in 1932, he was already convinced of Russia’s ultimate collapse. In his words, “Go and see what has become of [Russia]: Instead of rising and exceeding the achievements of the capitalist countries, they have sunk ever lower.” Note that in 1932, he already wrote in past tense, as though it was a done deal. “Now,” he continues, “they not only fail to benefit the lives of the workers a little more than in the capitalist countries, they cannot even secure their daily bread and clothes on their flesh.” Later in the essay, Baal HaSulam explains that this has happened to them because they failed to educate their people about the importance of unity and solidarity.

Baal HaSulam does not stop his explanation with Russia. In The Writings of the Last Generation, written shortly after World War II, he explains once more why communism did not succeed, and what will follow it: “Soviet Russia has already proven that an insufficiently developed society will invert the cooperative governance into the worst governance in the world. Moreover, [Marx] assumed that the subsequent phase to the ruin of today’s [capitalistic democratic] governance is the governance of the workers, but reality has shown [perhaps a reference to Weimar] that the subsequent governance to today’s governance is the Nazi or fascistic governance.”

We might think that this was a slip of the pen, so to speak, but Baal HaSulam makes his point very clear. In his writings, he mentions the word Nazi, Nazis, or Nazism 27 times, and the word “fascist” or “fascism” 11 times. In the excerpt below, he warns that the Nazi regime is likely to emerge from the Left rather than from the Right: “We should also take into account that all those who are ruining the natural process of the just governance actually came from the proletariat and emerged from their midst, and not necessarily the Soviets, but the majority of Nazis were also initially pure socialists, as well as the majority of fascists. Even Mussolini himself was initially an enthusiastic socialist leader.”

Further below, Baal HaSulam returns to Marx and writes about the danger of Nazism emerging specifically in democratic, capitalistic countries: “[Marx] thought that the subsequent stage to the bourgeois [capitalistic] regime would be a cooperative workers’ regime, but in the end, we are living witnesses that if the democratic bourgeois government were to be ruined now, a Nazi and fascist regime would promptly rise in its stead.” Worse yet, “Whenever the democratic government is ruined, a fascist, Nazi regime will inherit it.”

Baal HaSulam did not settle for writing about his predictions. He participated physically in political assemblies and parades in Poland before he moved to the land of Israel. Here, he met with political and social leaders and tried to convince them to include education toward unity in their platforms, speeches, and writings. He met with David Ben Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel; Zalman Shazar, the 3rd president of Israel; Moshe Sharett, the second prime minister of Israel; Haim Arlosoroff, head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency, renowned poet Hayim Nahman Bialik, and many others. In all those meetings, he strove to promote the agenda of unity above differences. Regrettably, they would not listen, and today we are faced with the consequences.

My teacher, RABASH, Baal HaSulam’s first born son and successor, spoke to me at great length about current affairs and where they would develop. He knew that I would continue his path and the path of his father; we had talked about it many times, and it is my commitment to him and to Baal HaSulam to carry on with my efforts to warn humanity about the approaching cataclysm.

We need to understand that a kabbalist relates to the world in a very different way than other people. A kabbalist’s one and only goal is to help everyone develop the quality of love of others. Kabbalists strive for connection above all the differences, knowing full well that these differences all come from the singular, benevolent force that has created the world, and are implanted in the world precisely so that we will be able to develop the quality of love of others to counter the natural rejection we feel toward those who oppose our views. Were it not for the existence of opposers, we would not feel hate and would therefore have no impetus to develop love in order to counter it. It turns out that even those we hate, the Creator—the force of love and giving—put them there in order to help us grow and become loving individuals.

The countless conflicts in our world are opportunities to bridge hatred by building love between us. This is why these conflicts occur in the first place. If we acknowledge this and work on building love, our bonding strengthens and our society thrives. If we do not seize the moment and succumb to our hatred, the force of giving will have to give us even greater hatred in order to compel us to build love above it. It turns out that the more we avoid our work, the more we bring upon ourselves increasing pain and hardships.

We need to understand that spirituality means giving, love. It is not some parallel universe or an “elevated” state of consciousness where you become aloof and indifferent to material life. On the contrary, spirituality is an approach to life in this world that changes our perception of it. A kabbalist’s task is therefore to help all people see the force of giving acting behind everything that happens, and help them connect with it. A kabbalist must take interest and write about current affairs as a means to explain the operations of the giving force, the Creator, and advise people how to direct their lives, establish their own connections with the Creator, and achieve happiness and confidence in life.

When kabbalists observe the world, they look for the easiest, quickest, and most pleasant ways for people to achieve the positive transformation that they want to advance. If this way requires support for a certain political entity or direction, they will support it. They have no personal benefits to gain as a result of their support, or any other ulterior motive. Their only motivation for supporting any entity or organization, political or not, is the advancement of humanity toward connection, mutual responsibility, and solidarity. Kabbalists will support anyone who champions it, and appose anyone who hinders it.

Because kabbalists want everyone to be connected and acquire the quality of love, they care about the entire world: all the people, animals, plants, and planets. Rav Kook once said to the renowned author Alexander Ziskind Rabinovitz (AZAR): “I wish the whole of humanity could be placed into a single body, so I could embrace them all.” This is the attitude of a true kabbalist.

“Jerusalem, The Heart Of The World” (Thrive Global)

 Thrive Global published my new article: “Jerusalem, the Heart of the World”

We discover a fresh new purpose to our lives as we come closer to each other in our thoughts and feelings of mutual care and empathy. We align ourselves with the perfect global interconnectedness and reciprocity existing in nature.

South African actors rehearse their “Jerusalema” dance steps as they prepare to shoot a special feature film based on the viral music hit, after an online dance challenge captivated millions around the world, at the Cape Town Film Studios in Cape Town, South Africa, September 24, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

The pandemic’s determination and tenacity to continue its global spread has created a numbness and dulled us to sleep. A general fatigue has expanded throughout humanity, so the urge to find any source of contentment is only natural. Recently, a song in the Zulu language came along with a message of hope—Jerusalema—which transformed into a collective dance that has taken the world by storm. Its wildfire spread shows how eager people are to connect. Now the question is how can that feeling of connection be elevated to a higher level of unity, one that surpasses our physical actions and the distances between us to give lasting joy.

Jerusalem is the heart, the center of the world, the epicenter of all desires and aspirations, a state in which everything is based on mutual love for one another. When we reach such a state through the connection of our hearts, we will not only activate new sensations of livelihood, high spirits and energy, we will also attain boundless and eternal joy.
Michael Laitman

Some of my students asked me about the global sensation “Jerusalema,” explaining that the South African theme became a lockdown anthem as group dances spread in every part of the planet to uplift the spirit during Covid-19 restrictions. My response is that dancing, especially in a group, is a positive activity as it gives a sense of togetherness. At the same time, humanity’s state of desperation will still be waiting to resurface as soon as the contagious beats die down and everyone returns to his own place and concerns about the uncertain future.

In other words, a group activity for entertainment will act as a sort of therapy and escape from reality, but it won’t allow us to close our eyes like scared children without sharpening our minds with meaningful questions about what the tiny virus is trying to teach us. The pandemic calls for a deeper scrutiny of the state of the world, what we have wrongly built until now, and what needs to be flipped for humanity’s betterment—that the virus is stirring up the need for connection between us toward the goal of a better life.

Interestingly, the song’s theme of Jerusalema as home, as a special place in life, can be explained with a profound perspective from the wisdom of Kabbalah. In the Ari’s book The Tree of Life, it is written that if a person reaches the revelation of the upper force through the right attitudes of love and bestowal toward others, he discovers a special quality called “Jerusalem,” which refers not to a physical place but to a state of perfect unity.

Therefore, today’s Jerusalem, which is a holy city for the three major world religions, is not the real Jerusalem written about by prophets and sages. Jerusalem (Yerushalayim) represents the “perfect city” (Ira Shlemah) in which we all achieve perfection in the relationships between us, complementing each other. We discover a fresh new purpose to our lives as we come closer to each other in our thoughts and feelings of mutual care and empathy. We align ourselves with the perfect global interconnectedness and reciprocity existing in nature.

Jerusalem is the heart, the center of the world, the epicenter of all desires and aspirations, a state in which everything is based on mutual love for one another. When we reach such a state through the connection of our hearts, we will not only activate new sensations of livelihood, high spirits and energy, we will also attain boundless and eternal joy.

— Published on November 26, 2020

“What Is Freedom Of Speech And What Are The Limits Of Free Speech?” (Quora)

 

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is freedom of speech and what are the limits of free speech?“

Freedom of speech and freedom of expression definitely require limits. The first limit is that we should not hurt or offend anyone.

Causing no harm to others should act as an inbuilt “constitution” that first and foremost determines the limits of our free speech. It is similar to how we consider it a criminal offense to break into another person’s home and cause damage to its property.

Suppose I have a neighbor whose father passed away, and I start making fun of his father. It would be disgraceful and disrespectful to my neighbor, and I would awaken hatred by doing so. How could I let myself do that? It is completely irrational.

If we want to hurt and offend others, then it is precisely these desires that require correction. Their correction initially needs a restriction of their outward manifestation. Afterward, we need to bring ourselves to a state where we hold nothing against anyone in the world other than our own self, and we can then truly be considered free. In short, we can be free in every aspect of life on condition that we each refrain from harming each other.

In such a state, we can have criticism, disagreements and arguments, but we would need to learn how to not awaken hatred in each other while doing so. We would therefore need to regularly engage in connection-enriching learning, to elevate our sensitivity, empathy and inner intelligence so that our common goal to live harmoniously, peacefully and happily with each other would envelope all of our thoughts and aspirations.

In short, we cannot let ourselves hurt each other. On the contrary, we have to respect each other. We each feel different ideas, people and objects in differing levels of importance according to where, to whom, and how we were born and raised. One person considers something to be very important, and another person considers something else to be very important. However, above what we each consider as important, we should try to see what we all have in common.

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New Life 449 – The Phenomenon Of Emigrants From Israel, Part 1

 

New Life 449 – The Phenomenon Of Emigrants From Israel, Part 1
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

The people of Israel are a group of people who are associated with our ancestor Abraham in Babylon on the basis of kindness, connection, and love. They were a group of strangers who interacted with love in order to go Yashar-El (straight to) the upper force. The land of Israel is a spiritual place to which people who have a desire for connection with others and with a higher power are drawn. People who abandon the importance of being connected together with others in the land of Israel emigrate from the land.

The people of Israel must live in the land of Israel, but in order to do this they have to return to living in connection and love. If we were “like one person with one heart, ”they would feel that in this land there is a force that belongs to them. If a spiritual revolution doesn’t happen in the land of Israel, the entire Zionist enterprise will fade away.
From KabTV’s “New Life 449 – The Phenomenon Of Emigrants From Israel, Part 1” 11/11/14

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Uniting For The Sake Of Uniting

 

Question: There is a law that  a person in a crowd falls under its influence. He begins to lose control of himself and can easily lose his “I.” But why, when I am in a group of people who want to unite and reach a new level of attainment, this law doesn’t seem to apply?

Answer: Because egoism does not push you to unite, you must act against it! And you enter the crowd with your egoism and realize it like everyone else. It’s very simple, very easy.

Any person who joins a crowd becomes like it. He finds justification for his egoism, feels big, great, like the crowd. It is very difficult, almost impossible, to be in a crowd and not obey it.

Comment: But I spend a lot of time among people who want to unite for the sake of unity. And they don’t influence me.

My Response: This isn’t a crowd! The crowd is an egoistic rabble who decides to combine their individual egoistic impulses for some even greater gain. And so it goes, breaks, hits, and rampages. It affects your egoism, and you start acting like them. The crowd drags you along.

And when you want to unite for the sake of unity, it’s a completely different matter! You are part of a group that works to rise above its ego, to annul it, to deny its animal nature. There is a lot of work going on here. An outsider won’t even know what you’re doing.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 9/25/20

The Meaning Of Life Is Here And Now

 

Question: Many different schools of self-improvement offer such concepts as living consciously, living in the present moment. They promise that this state will allow you to enjoy life, feel it more, and manage it. How does one live exactly here and now?

Answer: Begin to comprehend the meaning of life here and now. Nothing else is needed! I want to comprehend the meaning of my existence, the connection with an upper force that controls me.

And we are governed by nature; it is the highest power. Let’s comprehend what it requires of us at every moment of time, how we can be with it in mutual connection, in such communication so that I understand how nature affects me and how I should react to it correctly.

Then my life will be full of meaning. In nature I will find a partner and begin to feel my interaction with the outside world here and now.

Question: Does this aspiration somehow neutralize thoughts about the future?

Answer: I want this future to be embodied now, on the spot, here. This is my future.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 11/6/20

“Physical Microevolution Reflects Giant Evolution In The Spirit” (Thrive Global)

 Thrive Global published my new article: “Physical Microevolution Reflects Giant Evolution in the Spirit”

The main attribute that is evolving in us now is our sociability. We are shifting from “survival of the fittest” to “survival of the friendliest.”

Surprisingly, humanity is still evolving, even physically. Moreover, we are accelerating our evolution. According to researchers from Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, who published their findings in the Journal of Anatomy, “A lot of people thought humans have stopped evolving. But our study shows we are still evolving — faster than at any point in the past 250 years.” As a result of this accelerated evolution, babies are being “born without wisdom teeth and with an extra artery in their arm, while other babies are born with shorter faces, smaller jaws and extra bones in their legs and feet,” they explain. These are not abnormalities; they are natural mutations in healthy babies.

If we get through the next few years without destroying ourselves through war and bloodshed, we will come out the other end of the internal revolution strong, united, and happy.
Michael Laitman

But these changes indicate more than physical evolution. They reflect the profound transformation we are going through in our mindsets. Tomorrow’s children will differ from us in much more than an extra artery or fewer teeth. They will think differently, feel differently, communicate differently, and will therefore build a very different world. They will literally be a different species. We are now in the midst of a historic transformation, which is why humanity is so unsure about its future.

We are moving into an era where we will not feel ourselves as distinct individuals, but as an organism composed of myriad cells and organs spread out across the globe. The advancing globalization and interdependence we have witnessed over the past century will shift from the outside to the inside. We will feel connected not only in consuming commodities, but in our minds and hearts.

Already, the coronavirus pandemic has shown us that we are dependent on each other for our health. Gradually, we will learn that we are dependent on each other for our thoughts and feelings, our aspirations, dreams, and goals in life. We will discover that we cannot leave one part of the planet unattended since that would be as if we have neglected part of ourselves.

It is nothing like anything we’ve ever experienced. It is not communism or even socialism, but a new, social mindset of mutual accountability, a desire to feel close to all the people in the world simply because they really are a part of me.

Currently, we are baffled and afraid for our future. But anyone who fosters connection among people above all the differences should know that he or she is going in the right direction.

If we are afraid of diversity today, tomorrow we will embrace it. We will cherish those micro differences between us in our minds, bodies, cultures, faiths, and habits as they will enrich our lives with color and vitality.

The main attribute that is evolving in us now is our sociability. We are shifting from “survival of the fittest” to “survival of the friendliest.” The transition period may be tumultuous, but we can go through it quickly and pleasantly if we go through it together.

If we get through the next few years without destroying ourselves through war and bloodshed, we will come out the other end of the internal revolution strong, united, and happy. But this will happen only if we act in unison toward this goal. If we do not, then nature will impel us in its myriad horrendous ways to transform ourselves regardless of our wishes.

— Published on November 25, 2020

“How Can I Not Be Afraid About Coronavirus?” (Quora)

 

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can I not be afraid about coronavirus?“

I think that the coronavirus will keep spreading and that it will lead us to a situation where we will be simultaneously afraid of it, and accustomed to its place in our daily lives. Moreover, our fear of the virus will have no impeding effect on our day-to-day functioning.

We can add the coronavirus to a long list of risks that we have learned to live with. Yet, we would be wise to learn how to observe a few rules that the coronavirus sends our way. Moreover, we can expect other crises to surface, and at each juncture we will have to adjust ourselves.

In the future, we will also look back at the coronavirus pandemic in a positive light, in that it served to align humanity’s relations more closely with nature’s interdependence and interconnectedness.

Firstly, it compelled us to consider how we were living our lives, and think of how we could renew and improve our relations.

Secondly, it slowed down the consumerist train we were riding, giving us room to differentiate between our life’s essentials and what we could do without.

Thirdly, it showed us clear examples of how nature restores itself when we calmed ourselves down for a few moments.

We are still in the midst of a major lesson in interdependence that this virus brings us, from the need to exercise mutual dependence in our respective localities—maintaining personal hygiene, wearing masks and upholding social distancing conditions—to witnessing our tight global interdependence in how the virus surfaced as an outbreak in one part of the world, and quickly spread to become a global pandemic.

I have spoken and written at length about crises being opportunities for us to seek better connection with each other, and that they serve to progress us to a state of balance with nature.

Fighting the coronavirus head on is futile. We will increasingly discover how viruses are impossible to fight. They are inside us. Our bodies have billions of viruses, and so there is no point in fighting our own bodies. We would thus be much wiser if we learned how to align ourselves—our thoughts and desires—to positively connect with other people and nature. Our bodies will then healthily support our aspirations to realize the fullest meaning of living as human beings, i.e., adjusting our attitudes to each other in order to match the tightening interdependent and interconnected conditions that nature sets for us. We will then experience life much more happily and healthily.

Photo by Yohann LIBOT on Unsplash.

Filed under: Coronavirus, Q&A, Quora | Add Comment / Ask Question →

“Hubris Kills” (Thrive Global)

 Thrive Global published my new article: “Hubris Kills”

If I could advise rulers on the most essential asset to their countries, I would tell them that education for connection is their number one requirement for successful governance.

Hubris is one of our most fundamental, yet destructive traits. There is even an academic name for it: illusory superiority. Basically, it means that most people think they are better than they really are in most aspects of life. We tend to overestimate our qualities and abilities in most everything we do, say, or think. We tend to overestimate our cognitive abilities, health habits, driving skills, and intelligence.

Especially today, lack of connection, hatred, and alienation are ruining everything. We are unique individuals, we will stay unique, and we should stay unique. However, unless we are taught how to use our uniqueness for the common good, our uniqueness will bring upon us nothing but bloodshed and death, instead of prosperity and joy.
Michael Laitman

We even think that we are more bias-resistant than we actually are. Researchers call it the “bias blind spot,” which basically means we describe ourselves as less susceptible to bias than other people. But if, for example, 68 percent of surveyed faculty at the University of Nebraska rate themselves in the top 25 percent for teaching ability, and 94 percent rate themselves as above average, some of them have to be unrealistic about themselves since the numbers simply don’t add up. The same goes for Masters of Business Administration students at Stanford University, 87 percent of whom rated their academic performance as above the median.

One of the key explanations that researchers have found to the phenomenon of illusory superiority is, not surprisingly, egocentrism. In other words, most of us are too selfish to see ourselves for who we truly are.

Hubris, or illusory superiority, would be amusing if it didn’t cost us heavily. It makes us think we can beat the other traders in the stock market and we end up losing money. It makes us think we have a good chance of winning the lottery so it’s worthwhile to spend more and more money on it, or on other forms of gambling, when in fact, our chances are near zero. It makes us engage in unhealthy eating habits thinking that we can beat the odds and not be affected by our poor nutrition. It also makes us take unnecessary and unwise risks on the road believing that nothing will happen to us. But people die and become maimed for the rest of their lives because of these misjudgments. These errors don’t impact only the people who make them, but often other people, too, whose only “crime” was that they were present when the misjudgment occurred.

However, while egoism is indeed the primary cause of hubris, there is a good reason for it, and a good solution. The sense of uniqueness is common to all of us. Each of us is indeed unique and it is good that this is so, provided we use it correctly.

Just as no two cells in our body are the same, no two people in the organism of humanity are the same. Each cell in our body is unique, just like us, since each cell has a unique task. When it performs its task, it contributes to the whole body. In other words, only when the cell uses its unique characteristic to benefit the entire body, its uniqueness contributes to the well-being of the collective, the organism, and we become healthy. If it uses its uniqueness for any purpose other than to improve the common good, it becomes harmful to the body and must be ejected from it.

So do we: When we use our uniqueness for the benefit of society, we help society, which in turn supports us and our unique self-expression. When we use our uniqueness for any other purpose, such as to accumulate wealth or power, we become injurious to society. In that case, we have one of two options: Either we change our ways and use our uniqueness for the common good, or stay as we are and society, at some point, will eject us. Therefore, the only way to define positivity and negativity is by defining whether one’s actions benefit society or harm it.

Currently, we are clearly using our traits negatively. It is no one’s fault; it is how we are all born and how we are all brought up. Nevertheless, if we keep this up, we will destroy one another. In fact, we are already on the edge.

Mutual consideration doesn’t come naturally to egocentric beings. Education is therefore a necessary tool in shifting our mindset from “me first” to “we first.” If I could advise rulers on the most essential asset to their countries, I would tell them that education for connection is their number one requirement for successful governance.

Especially today, lack of connection, hatred, and alienation are ruining everything. We are unique individuals, we will stay unique, and we should stay unique. However, unless we are taught how to use our uniqueness for the common good, our uniqueness will bring upon us nothing but bloodshed and death, instead of prosperity and joy.

— Published on November 25, 2020

How To Overcome Fear?

 

Comment: Scientists have identified at least five of the most common fears: fear of epidemics, fear of social isolation, fear of complete virtualization of life, fear of having children, and fear of interference with the human genome.

My Response: All these types of fears occur today. Moreover, thanks to the pandemic, they have opened up even more. I think that this moves us forward.

Question: How can I overcome fear or ease this transition?

Answer: Only by our connection above all problems—not physical connection, but in mutual assistance, benevolence, and understanding each other. Then we will be able to create such channels of balance, connection, and communication between us, which will make our life good.

And the fact that we still have to distance ourselves from each other is also for our benefit because with our current relationships, we can only harm each other.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 11/6/20

Main Motivation In Life

 

Question: Baal HaSulam writes that no amount of education can make altruists out of egoists. How do you explain to people that taking care of society is more important than their own interests and is aimed at their benefit?

Answer: There is no way. If you could convert this into money, then you could convince them. However, this would not be a concern for society, but a concern for a higher salary.

Question: Can we conclude that the main motivation in our work is the goal to reveal the upper force, the upper energy?

Answer: This is the main motivation. The most important! After all, if I attain the upper construction, the upper force, I have everything.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 8/28/20

Covidophobia —A New Type Of Fear

 

Question: Psychologists argue about the emergence of a new type of fear: Covidophobia. Some say that this is simply an exacerbation of a person’s past fears about their health. Others say that this is a special kind of fear that is being formed now. But they agree on one thing: the longer the pandemic and quarantine continue, the more such cases will appear.

How can a person stop being afraid in this coronavirus era?

Answer: I believe that this virus will continue to spread and ultimately lead us to a state where on one hand, we will all be afraid of it, and on the other hand, we will somehow get used to the fact that this is a given and we have to live with it. But one does not interfere with the other.

Despite the fact that we are surrounded by all sorts of threats to our life, we still exist. We will also live with this virus. Let’s become a little smarter, learn to adhere to some rules, and quietly continue to live with it. After all, other viruses will come, and there will be more problems. So gradually, we will get used to a different way of life.

We will see that this virus is actually even good. It educates us, brings us closer, and positions us correctly in relation to each other. In general, it removes completely unnecessary elements of communication or even elements of culture from our life. Obviously, this is necessary and we can do without them.

They say that whatever happens is for the best. On one hand, this is true. On the other hand, every problem continuously moves us forward. And therefore, one must be able to live with it.

And fighting against viruses will not help us. We already see it. It was never actually a fight. Viruses are impossible to fight. They are within us. We are all made up of billions of viruses—our entire body. Therefore, the point is not in the struggle, as if you are fighting with your own body, but in how to adapt yourself so as to exist along with it. And then life will seem a little more joyful and benevolent to us.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 11/06/20

Darkness Intensifies The Light

 

The spiritual path consists of two sensations: positive and negative. On one hand, we reveal deficiency, desire, and sorrow, and on the other hand, fulfillment, light, and sweetness. These two sensations must be present because it is impossible to feel one without the other.

If I do not imagine a great, important goal in front of me, I will not feel the need for fulfillment. Therefore, we must prepare ourselves for both the feeling of lack and the expectation of fulfillment, for joy and sorrow, that support and do not neutralize each other. In spirituality, the right and left lines do not interfere with each other, but on the contrary, they both connect in the middle line and give us the correct perception of spirituality.

Therefore, we need to rise above the suffering and overcome the feeling of emptiness, but the main thing in the work is to maintain a balance, a correct connection in the middle line, between one and the other. If we feel only suffering, it is not called a spiritual vessel, and if we only enjoy a pleasant sensation, it is not a spiritual fulfillment.

Both sensations must be present in the created being, and only when they are correctly combined can a person work correctly and come closer to the Creator. In this case, the main thing for him is not his feeling of emptiness or fulfillment but the contentment of the owner, and he is fulfilled from his service to the Creator, from the adhesion with Him that he has achieved.

Darkness and light, night and day, sorrow and joy, all of these come together and nothing disappears or is extinguished; each completes the other. If we manage to connect them in this way, we will create a vessel for the revelation of the Creator in which the deficiency, the screen, and the reflected light are combined.

The Creator creates the creation from complete zero and gives it all the means to achieve a perfect state of similarity to the Creator. Therefore, we should not try to diminish the light or the darkness. We need both of them together for the revelation of the Creator. When the right and left lines complete each other and are combined in the middle line, we discover inside the condition for the revelation of the Creator.

Darkness emphasizes the light, intensifies it. It is like a candle burning in the dark with oil in it that permeates the wick and allows it to burn.

We need to monitor ourselves so we do not just chase a good feeling, but add darkness and sorrow to it in order to build the correct Kli. The Creator gives us only a faint spark and we must kindle from it a large bright flame that will illuminate the entire reality. This is possible only through increasing the Kli.

The desire and the light positioned in front of each other should not extinguish each other. We should aim for the middle line so that the wick and the oil work together, radiating light from their burning. All problems, difficulties, questions, and limitations, must be consciously attached to the work so that with the help of friends and lessons, darkness and light will connect into one unbreakable whole. Darkness is intended to intensify the light.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/20/20, “Work With Faith Above Reason”

“What Alzheimer Cannot Erase” (Linkedin)

 My new article on Linkedin “What Alzheimer Cannot Erase”

An old woman, fallen and withered, sits almost lifeless in a wheelchair, as strains from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake begin to play in the background she suddenly straightens up, awakens from oblivion, and her hands dance in perfect unison with the music as she recalls the choreography as if she were standing on a huge stage in front of thousands of shining eyes.

And where do we absorb the spirit from? From connection between human beings. In the tendency to connect with others, a channel opens up within us to absorb forces from it, to receive spiritual “air.”

This woman is Marta Gonzalez, and she did dance on the grand stages of the world when she was the prima ballerina of a New York ballet company she founded in the 1960’s. But for many years she has been suffering Alzheimer’s disease. In a video recently posted on the Internet she was seen with gentle sounds mesmerizing her in a moment of magic and arousing her memory and body movements.

The music here is marginal, it’s just a means. It is the spirit, the energy of life, the inner admiration, that shone in it and radiated from it. In Marta’s case the essence of life was folded and turned off in a thin memory, and a melody lit it up once again.

The spirit is the force that lies between the physical and the spiritual worlds, and it is the one that elevates man from one state to another, elevates one from level to level. In our time the human spirit is of utter importance, especially because humanity is facing difficult times of epidemics, diseases, and famine. Earthly problems are temporary, but the spirit is eternal, spreads over the whole universe, detached from the limitations of time, motion, and space. It is a spiritual force that elevates man.

And where do we absorb the spirit from? From connection between human beings. In the tendency to connect with others, a channel opens up within us to absorb forces from it, to receive spiritual “air.”

Like Marta, even when she was unaware of it, through the fact that she acted to encourage others, to lift their spirits through her performances, she herself received great spiritual awakening that emanated from within and evoked emotion in those around her. Through our unity we can also generate that rippling and eternal effect on the big stage called life.