Everything Is Only For Good

 

Question: Can the wrong path affect in my feelings? For example, I am a total egoist and I don’t want to see or hear anyone. So suppose the system takes away my hearing, my ability to listen attentively, or even my sight, so that I will relate to others more attentively, read lips etc.

Answer: You don’t need to pay any attention to what the system does with you because you don’t know why all this has been prepared for you. Only later will you see that it was for your sake. You need to do everything only in order to find connection with the friends and, by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, to reveal the upper world in this connection.

Perhaps at the moment you don’t understand how the upper world can be revealed between you, but when you begin to create the network of mutual actions between you, it will become the vessel of the soul, which means the place in which the upper light, the upper system, the upper knowledge, the upper feeling, will later be revealed.

This is how you will begin to reveal the upper world in the connection, break away from the self, and exist in the general system.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/18/18

The Difference Between Moral Principles And Moral Norms

 

Question: There is a difference between moral principles and moral norms.

A moral norm is, for example, to give up a seat on public transport. Moral principles include humanism, altruism, collectivism, justice, mercy, peacefulness, patriotism, and tolerance.

Most people fulfill moral norms but not moral principles. Maybe this is because moral principles are less specific and everyone understands them in their own way?

Answer: Yes, they are less specific. We should learn to realize them inside ourselves by building an internal system of our thoughts and interactions. Then, we can gradually come closer to their implementation.

All sorts of norms, such as giving up your seat on public transport, have nothing to do with the correction of a person. These norms are intended to make a social product out of a person and nothing more. This is not what the science of Kabbalah implies. One follows some principles that one was taught but, at the same time, one do not correct oneself.

Question: What if it comes from love for your neighbor?

Answer: This means that it comes from selfish love for one’s neighbor. We must clearly understand the reason for our actions. Is it an attitude toward a common connection into one unified system with the comprehension of its unified higher power, or is it giving the human community a more decent look?
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 10/9/20

What Does It Mean To Exit Yourself?

 

Question: Sufferings come because of the difference between what is desired and what we have. How can we learn to appreciate what we have correctly?

Answer: To do that, we must gradually understand what exiting yourself means.

That happens when the relation with the friend in the group becomes more important for you than the way you feel about yourself, and when your connection with him becomes more important than your personal interests.

If the connection with the friend becomes that important, it means that you rise above yourself and thus exit yourself. To that extent we can feel that the Creator is between us.

Does He exist? He certainly does, even right now! You just need to exit yourself and you will feel Him.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/18/18

On The Verge Of Entering The Spiritual World

 

Question: What does it mean that we don’t remove egoism,, but build small bridges of connection over it instead? If I change my focus above the unfolding egoism, aren’t I still somehow transforming it?  Or does it just seem to me that way and it actually remains the same?

Answer: On the verge of entering the spiritual world we begin to feel problems in our mind and feelings. It is similar to the way physicists discover the duality of light: the structure of its particles or its wavelike structure.

Electrons and photons behave as either particles or waves depending on whether a person observes them or not. This means that we understand that it does not depend on physical laws, but on the laws of our perception.

In physics there is evidence and trials that indicate that we don’t totally understand what we are dealing with. Although in physics it is all expressed in formulas, in graphs, in the movement of needles on a meter, or the flickering of numbers on a screen, we still don’t understand what is actually happening.

Our corporeal mind is built on absolute egoism, and it cannot understand and perceive anything that is opposite to it, when it is built on anti-egoism. Moreover, it isn’t just anti-egoism, the mere change of plus to minus, I think one way and you think differently, on one hand from the perspective of your ego, and on the other, from mine, from the perspective of my egoism. This yields nothing.

The point is about being in the same object, in one desire in which there are two kinds of feeling, one that is egoistic and another that is in contrast to it, but they both exist simultaneously in the same object. There is a good example from the Torah for that, when the Creator tells Abraham, “it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned,” he is your future and he will lead humanity forward toward the goal. And shortly after He adds, take him and kill him, “sacrifice him there as a burnt offering.”

How can these two opposites coexist? Of course there are superficial commentaries about it, that through death he seemingly reaches another life.

But we need to understand that it is about a totally different perception, a different matrix, and that opposites cannot only coexist, but they also complement each other and still remain opposites.

When we speak about oppositeness we mean that if one exists, the other also exists, and vice versa, although we don’t understand how they exist. For this, the upper light must descend on us, expand our concepts, sensations, and when they become spiritual, we will realize it.

This is actually what we are trying to attain in the ten, to see the world on a different level, which means with a different mind, with a different heart, with a different perception, with a different awareness and recognition.

Unless we do that, we cannot do anything. See what happens in Israel before the elections, 20 different parties fight with each other and are ready to devour each other. See what happens in Europe and in the whole world. This is only the beginning. We will see such problems that we will not be able to solve on our earthly level in any way. No way!

The point is that providence is bringing us closer to each other, are we are unable to find any common ground because the egoism of each state, each nation, is constantly growing. If in the past we were able to draw away from each other according to the growing egoism, now providence is pressuring us, pushing us toward each other, and we cannot change that.

We can either begin to demand that our perception of the world be changed to a true, spiritual perception, or we will bring ourselves to war by getting closer together linearly. It is because there will be no other way if we are constantly pushed closer together and at the same time remain increasingly more opposite to each other.

The Creator operates on us by two forces, from the inside and from the outside. On the one hand He develops the egoism in us, and on the other hand He pushes us increasingly closer together. If in the past we lived at a distance from each other and would connect only when necessary, today we are in one common backyard.

Tomorrow we will be in the same apartment, and then we will be in the same room. How will we be able to bear it!? What is more, the growing closeness between us is taking place while the egoism also grows internally in each one. It is by such means that the Creator is forcing us to turn to Him.

At the same time, only those who are in the right state will turn to Him. You cannot just cry out to Him. People have been crying out to Him for ages uselessly.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah we need to gather in tens and to create the right atmosphere in them, in which we would like to find a solution to the problem: how a ten can become one whole?

The whole world will be divided into tens and thus everyone will be corrected. It may seem to us that we are building tens, but in fact it is not so. In the future we will find out that providence is instilling all these thoughts, feelings, and decisions in us.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 2/6/19

“On Jewish Unity And Antisemitism – Israel’s Golden Era” (Times Of Israel)

 

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “On Jewish Unity and Antisemitism – Israel’s Golden Era”

Following their liberation from slavery in Babylon after King Cyrus had sent them free with “silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:4), the expats, or more accurately, two of the twelve tribes of Israel, returned to the land of Israel and to Jerusalem and built the Second Temple. The history of our people is strewn with agony. But the period between the Cyrus Declaration, in 539 BCE, and the beginning of the Hasmonean revolt, in 166 BCE, was relatively a quiet one and marked by a great achievement: being a role model of unity for the nations, even if briefly.

It isn’t that there were no squabbles among the Jews at that time. Since we were called upon to rebuild the Temple, there was much to argue about. But one way or the other, the Temple was built and quiet was restored. In fact, some of those years might even be regarded as the people of Israel’s golden era.

In terms of material life, not much is known about the lives of the people of Israel in the land of Israel during the third and fourth centuries BCE. In his book A History of the Jews, renowned historian Paul Johnson writes about that peaceful time in our history, when there was nothing to report: “The years 400-200 BC are the lost centuries of Jewish history. There were no great events or calamities they chose to record. Perhaps they were happy,” he concludes.

However, on the social and spiritual levels, much was happening. Three times a year the Jews would march up to Jerusalem to celebrate the festivals of pilgrimage: Passover, Shavuot (Feast of Weeks), and Sukkot. During each pilgrimage, the sight was spectacular. The pilgrimages were intended primarily for gathering and uniting the hearts of the members of the nation. In his book The Antiquities of the Jews, Flavius Josephus writes that the pilgrims would make “acquaintance … maintained by conversing together and by seeing and talking with one another, and so renewing the recollections of this union.”

Once they entered Jerusalem, the pilgrims were greeted with open arms. The townsfolk let them into their homes and treated them as family, and there was always room for everyone.

The Mishnah relishes this rare camaraderie: “All the craftsmen in Jerusalem would stand before them and ask about their well-being: ‘Our brothers, men of so and so place, have you come in peace?’ and the flute would play before them until they arrived at Temple Mount.” Additionally, every material need of every person who came to Jerusalem was met in full. “One did not say to one’s friend, ‘I could not find an oven on which to roast offerings in Jerusalem’ … or ‘I could not find a bed to sleep in, in Jerusalem,’” writes the book Avot de Rabbi Natan.

Even better, the unity and warmth among the Hebrews projected outward and became a role-model for the neighboring nations. The philosopher Philo of Alexandria portrayed the pilgrimage as a festival: “Thousands of people from thousands of cities—some by land and some by sea, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south—would come each festival to the Temple as if to a common shelter, a safe haven protected from the storms of life. …With hearts filled with good hopes, they would take this vital vacation with sanctity and with glory to God. Also, they made friendships with people they had not met before, and in the merging of the hearts … they would find the ultimate proof of unity.”

Philo was not the only one who admired what he saw. Those festivals of bonding served as a way for Israel to be—for the first time since they were given that vocation—“a light unto nations.” The book Sifrey Devarim details how gentiles would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation.’”

Some three centuries later, The Book of Zohar (Aharei Mot) described succinctly and clearly the process that Israel went through: “‘Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to also sit together.’ These are the friends as they sit together and are not separated from each other. At first, they seem like people at war, wishing to kill one another … then they return to being in brotherly love. …And you, the friends who are here, as you were in fondness and love before, henceforth you will also not part from one another … and by your merit, there will be peace in the world.” Indeed, being “a light unto nations” could not have been more evident than at that time.

In fact, the renown of the Jews at that time went so far that it initiated the proliferation of their law outside of Israel. By the mid-240s BCE, the rumor of Israel’s wisdom had reached far and wide. Ptolemy II, king of Egypt, had a passion for books. This led him to aspire to possess all the books in the world, especially those containing wisdom. According to Flavius, Ptolemy told Demetrius, his librarian, that he “had been informed that there were many books of laws among the Jews worthy of inquiring, and worthy of the king’s library.” Not only did Ptolemy not have these books, but even if he did, he would not be able to read them since they were “written in characters and in a dialect of their own [Hebrew], [which] will cause no small pains to get them translated into the Greek tongue,” which Ptolemy spoke.

But Ptolemy did not give up. He wrote to the High Priest in Jerusalem, Eleazar, and asked that he would send him men who could translate the Jewish books to Greek. Seventy men were sent down to Egypt following Ptolemy’s request. But the king did not send them off to work right away. First, he wanted to learn their wisdom and absorb whatever knowledge he could from them. Therefore, “he asked every one of them a philosophical question,” which were “rather political questions and answers, tending to the good … government of mankind,” writes Flavius. For twelve straight days, the Hebrew sages sat before the king of Egypt and taught him governance according to their laws. Along with Ptolemy sat his philosopher, Menedemus, who was in awe at how “such a force of beauty was discovered in these men’s words.” This, indeed, was Israel’s heyday.

Finally, “When they had explained all the problems that had been proposed by the king about every point, he was well-pleased with their answers.” Ptolemy said that “He had gained very great advantages by their coming, for that he had received this profit from them, that he had learned how he ought to rule his subjects.”

Once Ptolemy was satisfied with the answers they had given him, he sent them off to an isolated location where they had peace and quiet and could focus on the translation. When they completed their task, writes Flavius, they handed over to the king the complete translation of the Pentateuch. Ptolemy was “delighted with hearing the Laws read to him, and was astonished at the deep meaning and wisdom of the legislator.”

Historian Paul Johnson, whom we mentioned earlier, wrote about the Jews in antiquity that “At a very early stage in their collective existence they believed they had detected a divine scheme for the human race, of which their own society was to be a pilot.” Perhaps during the third century BCE, our forefathers succeeded in that task. However, as we know from history, our brotherhood did not last, and less than a century after those wondrous events took place, Israel were engulfed in a bloody civil war. This will be the topic of the next essay.
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(Article No. 6 in a series – previous article)
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For much more on this topic, please see my latest publication, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism: Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord

A Thousand Times You Will Fall And Rise

 

If I still remember that a descent comes from the Creator, then this is not yet a descent. A real fall is complete disconnection when I have no connection with the Creator, no thoughts, no desires. There is only one option left: to contact the ten.

We are in a state called the “corporeal world” for this, so we can fall within it and start from scratch, from the material level, from separation from spirituality. But nevertheless, we are left some kind of an end of the thread, a rope is dropped even when we are in our world. And this is why in our world we are in the system of Bnei Baruch, in connection with the world group, with the ten, with the lessons.

Even if I completely fall out and break away from spirituality, I still have a material connection with the spiritual system: with the ten, with the lesson. As long as I feel this material connection with the ten and hold on to it until the Creator throws me out completely, despite my lack of desire, hatred, and rejection, I am still considered to be in a fall from the spiritual, that is, in a spiritual state, and I can begin to rise from it.

Therefore it is said: “A thousand times the righteous falls and rises.” You need to get used to the descents and not panic. The Creator always gives the medicine along with the blow. If someone in the group was in descent, then there will definitely be those who did not fall and can help. And besides, there are Gabai and Shaatz—people who are responsible for taking care of the connection in the group in any state and raising it quickly. It all depends on the correct organization of the group.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/20, “Close to the Creator During a Descent”

“What Is Morality?” (Quora)

 

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is morality?“

Morality is a clear realization of the principle, “Love your friend as yourself,” i.e., a state of absolute positive connection above the ego, where we perceive and sense a completely different reality to the one we feel in our inborn ego. Until we realize the principle of “Love your friend as yourself,” what we define as morality in our world changes the more we develop.

We live in a system of forces, and do not determine the egoistic qualities in each individual. Therefore, we cannot order or define our relations.

Our morals are thus based on the conditions we live in, and they are the outcome of human evolution. They arise from the human ego, which makes us think that how we live our lives is somehow incorrect, that we need to live differently, and by conducting ourselves a certain way, we will all live better lives. In other words, the human ego determines our morals with its control over us.

Based on the talk “Communication Skills: Moral Principles and Social Norms,” October 9, 2020. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Watch the full talk here » [54:02]

Uniting Despite Differences

 

Question: What do you think? Will people continue to split into different groups according to their political and religious reasons up to the point that the one block will fight against another? Will even members of the same family be set against each other? Do you see this in the future?

Answer: We can already see it now. There are such examples and there are many of them. But I think it will gradually recede because the blows, which we are already beginning to feel and that are associated with the last stage of our development, will lead us to unite despite our differences. They teach us and push us toward unity even if we are in preliminary hatred of each other.

Question: Nationalism is different from racism, but is the root still the same?

Answer: Yes, the root is the same. It emanates from the shattering of the common system called Adam into different parts. Our goal is to connect these parts.

We do not have to particularly understand what these parts are, how different they are, how they should be connected. This is all useless and will bring us nothing. By studying our differences, we will get nothing.

We need to bring ourselves to the necessity to rise above our differences, in spite of them, and then we will achieve proper existence.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 10/14/20

Personal Zone Invasion

 

Question: There are different types of distances between people. There is an intimate zone with a distance of 15 to 45 centimeters into which only the closest ones, for example, children and parents are allowed to enter.

The personal zone from 45 to 120 centimeters is used in everyday communication with familiar people.

The social zone is from 120 centimeters to 4 meters. We communicate at work and with strangers within this distance.

The public area, with a distance of more than 4 meters, is used in lectures and meetings, etc. Is it permissible in the educational process to violate the intimate zone by, for example, sitting closer at a workshop or hugging when singing songs, etc.?

Answer: It depends on what the workshop is about and its purpose. If people learn integral interaction and rapprochement with each other, then gradually, to the extent that they receive theoretical material, they must also implement it in practice. Therefore, of course, practical exercises are implemented.

When we sit closer to each other, we can talk about more intimate processes we are going through. We can join hands, dance, eat together, and use all kinds of human communication.

Comment: Let’s say, as an instructor, I understand that this should not be done right away, but only after two or three months of training. Nevertheless, we must still take into account the individual characteristics of each person. Anyways, there are those people who move faster and there are those who find it more difficult.

My Response: You should know your students because after several lessons you can already see with whom you can continue rapprochement, with whom not, who needs more explanation, and who should be given some examples.

Question: Is it necessary to include public opinion or still wait until the person wants to?

Answer: Not public opinion but the opinion of the group. It is necessary.

The group, with its common opinion, will influence everyone and, as a result, everyone will gradually, more or less, come to some common denominator, common state, or common opinion. This is the nature of a group when people work together, study, and communicate.

We must raise the importance of the goal to which we are moving and this importance will affect every person.
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From KabTV’s”Communication Skills” 10/30/20

What To Worship?

 

Baal HaSulam, The Writings of the Last Generation: Ethics cannot rely solely on education and public opinion, because public opinion necessitates only what is in the public’s favor. Hence, if one comes and proves that morality is harmful to the public and vulgarity is more beneficial, they will immediately discard morality and choose vulgarity, as Hitler testifies.

Question: It turns out that Baal HaSulam denies any education in the material plane and says that this will inevitably lead to Nazism. Hence, there must be some kind of higher ideal. But we see in religions that God, as the highest ideal, has not worked. So what can work?

Answer: Nature! They put God in an incomprehensible place, associating Him with some kind of priest. In general, they made of Him some kind of figure with all the attributes in all kinds of guises. For different people, for each group, it is different.

And if you destroy all these gods, idols, what will remain? Nothing! Only complete emptiness in which only the power of love is at work. Its disclosure to humanity is the manifestation of the Creator. This is what we should worship.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 9/10/20

The Basic Principle Of Spiritual Development

 

Question: Is the basic principle of spiritual development to remember the Creator each and every second, or is this not a must?

Answer: The basic principle of spiritual development is to tie everything unexceptionally to the Creator, because “there is none else besides Him,” and everything in us was created and is managed by Him.

We have direct contact only with the Creator, and this connection affects us. But in order to connect to Him we need to unite in the ten, and then from the ten we will be able to act with Him mutually and interactively.

Question: How can we measure the spiritual growth of the group?

Answer: The spiritual growth of the group is measured according to the level of mutual guarantee, mutual connection, and mutual support between the friends, and the level of their loyalty to each other. You need to understand that in the spiritual world you are one unique whole. This is how you scrutinize yourselves.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/25/18

How Can We Increase Good Connection?

 

Question: How can we increase good connection?

Answer: It is only when we integrate with each other that we continuously reveal how dependent we are on each other, because it is only through right connections, through contacts between each other, that the revelation of the upper world and the Creator takes place. Not in each of us, but between us.

A spiritual network is a dimension in which we do not see people and their desires but connections between the desires. These communication knots are the vessel of the general soul.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/25/18

First Steps In Spirituality

 

The whole work of man in this world and in all the worlds is to draw near to the Creator. We climb the spiritual ladder through 125 degrees, five worlds that each contain five Partzufim, each with five Sefirot. 125 Sefirot separate the lowest state from the highest.

Part of this work is done during the preparation time in this world and part of it takes place in the upper worlds. It depends on the type of soul, on how much effort it needs to invest in this world and in the spiritual world, but the work is to constantly strive to get closer to the Creator.

And all this is despite the resistance of our egoistic desire to enjoy and the feeling that as we move closer, we feel further away from the Creator. The ego is growing and I feel even more distant from the group and the friends. But that is why I have more opportunities to make an effort and advance with the group and the ten.

Gradually, we begin to realize that the ten does not exist in isolation but depends on other tens. Being in ascent or descent depends on the environment. The environment affects a person, and one ten is affected by all other tens. Therefore, we must think of how to elevate and inspire them all.

Our task is to get closer to the Creator and the main unit for this work is the ten. Therefore, all tens should influence each other and feel our interdependence.

The spiritual work consists of raising the Shechina from the dust, that is, restoring the connection between us, the common soul of Adam HaRishon. It was broken into pieces, and we need to raise the Shechina from the dust through our own efforts and by asking the Creator for the power of unification to bring the broken Kelim closer together despite all their differences and the resistance of our egoism.

The Creator pushes us further and further away, hardens our hearts, and plunges us into darkness. But this is a consequence of the breaking of Adam HaRishon that has already happened, and we need to work on it every time and unite above the separation.

The Creator reveals to us an ever greater fall and we need to rise to even greater unity. And once again, we fall even lower and unite even more—egoism and holiness grow against each other. Ascents get higher each time, but this is due to the fact that descents get deeper. Therefore, the greater the person, the greater is his ego, his broken desire.

After the last congress, we feel less inspired, strive for the Creator less than during the Congress. And this means that the Creator has distanced Himself so that from this state we take a step toward Him, like a child being taught to walk. How can we take this serious, conscious step toward each other and the Creator today?
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/20, “Close to the Creator During a Descent”

“What Is Next For America?” (Linkedin)

 My new article on Linkedin “What Is Next for America?”

Regardless of who will be sworn in this January at the U.S. presidential inauguration, much has been said about “Trumpism” as a strong political force that will expand not only in America, but also in other parts of the world where a new style of governance has been adopted.

How will this impact the future in America? At this point, it is hard to tell about the evolution of movements and tendencies that are currently unfolding. What I know for sure is that any political powerhouse can be considered as such only if it is aimed at connecting the opposing factions, the antagonism between people. This is the ideology that should prevail and be clear to everyone from now on.

It is precisely the capitalists who know how to work, organize, promote, and earn—the ones who can advance humanity to the correct connection. Conversely, the socialistic approach of the Democrats will reveal itself to everyone as an approach that is not constructive, does not build. Such an attitude and direction was implemented in Russia and destroyed the country.

However, under the current circumstances, no single force alone will be able to govern and succeed. Neither right nor left, neither Democrats nor Republicans, but only a unifying force above both that can be drawn by enacting a positive connection above the differences.

Bridging the divide in America requires everyone feeling they are taken into consideration and are represented; not like it is in the current state where half of the country celebrates victory and the other half feels deceived and embittered.

What will make people want to rise above their divisive stances in the first place? Why can’t the sides continue trying to overpower one another to put into place their vision of how things should be run?

It is because, ultimately, the underlying division leaves everyone dissatisfied. And the longer society develops while remaining divided, the more negative and bitter America will become. In extreme cases, each player pushing his or her divisive position onto others can lead to total chaos and turmoil, to unfortunate levels of suffering that eventually force people to revise their conduct and change focus.

The cure for division can be found in a process of unity-enriching learning. People must come to the realization that nature wants us to unite. This system of learning will not demand the impossible from people, nor force anyone to do anything that they do not want to do. We simply discover how to organize our socio-cultural influences to bring the need for unity to the center of public discourse, then we will think about it more and more, and will start wanting it to happen.

The problem today is not polarization in and of itself. Rather, it is that people view the polarization exclusively from their own side. The more we develop, the more we see that our side is good and correct, and the other side is wrong and bad. Thus, we increasingly view the other side as a heavy burden on society and on ourselves, one which we would be happy to eliminate from our lives.

If we, however, could see our polarization from a broader context—that nature is polarizing us more and more in order for us to exercise our free choice to positively connect above our increasing polarization—then we would be able to size up the situation more accurately and steer a straight course toward a harmonious and balanced state.

While it is perfectly natural to hold on to our differing opinions, today we need to wake up to the fact that we are becoming increasingly interdependent. And in order to realize our interdependence harmoniously, we need to start seeing the need for building a second level of discernment above our current one: the construction of positive connection in the middle line on top of our disagreements that should be more important than letting ourselves remain at the level of our conflicts alone. Such an approach will be the key to America’s prosperity.

“Is There Such A Thing As A “Law Of Love”?” (Quora)

 

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is there such a thing as a “law of love”?“

Love is a law of nature.

Everything is born and lives through love. However, hatred is necessary for love to exist because love needs to become established over another property, otherwise we would have no sense of it.

There are thus two contrasting properties in nature that mutually complement and designate one another.

Based on the talk “Communication Skills: Love as a Law of Nature,” given on October 22, 2020. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Watch the full talk here » [30:45]

“The American People Deserve Praise, But The Future Is Bleak” (Medium)

 Medium published my new article “The American People Deserve Praise, but the Future Is Bleak”

I must confess: For many years, I thought that Americans cared only about money. I was wrong. In the years after the Obama administration, I have learned to appreciate Americans. I have learned that they truly care about ideals, and not only about material gain. But perhaps precisely because of it, the future of America is very bleak. Unless Americans somehow find unity above their deep divisions, the US will soon become a third world country, leaving the international arena to Russia and China.

As things stand now, the future of America is bleak. Biden cannot run the country, and Obama will run the show behind the scenes. If this happens, America will decline to a level of a third world country. In that case, Russia, with its military power, and China, with its wealth, will dominate the world.
Come January, great changes will happen in American society, regardless of the identity of the president. Whoever is declared triumphant, the other side will not accept it, and this will stir up the country.

Both sides, including the Democrats, to whom I do not belong, must understand that this division leads to unity, one way or the other. There can be no winners here, since winning isn’t the point of the division, but unity above the division. You can’t walk on only one leg; you need both the right leg and the left leg to move forward, and the same goes for society. Opposite views don’t mean that one is right and the other is wrong, but that both are required in order to make the right decisions regarding society.

There are merits to the Democratic and the liberal perspectives, as there are merits to the Republican and conservative perspectives. Both sides advocate worthy values. But when one side denies the other side’s legitimacy, demonizes it, and presents it as “the enemy of the nation,” it obviates the legitimacy of the critic. The realization that only unity above the differences is the solution will come, but the question is how soon and at what cost. Both sides must keep the future of the country in mind.

In my view, if Biden becomes president, it will give Americans a chance to see (those who still haven’t realized it) what it was like in Soviet Russia. It is the same approach that destroyed Russia, and we will see what it will do in America. If this happens, people might understand that Trump was not as bad for America as he was portrayed by media and political adversaries.

The bottom line is that you cannot go after people’s whims; you have to follow the natural law of unity, which leans neither toward Democrats nor toward Republicans, as both are required in order for the country to prosper. The current talk about revenge and other divisive discourse will yield nothing but trouble. Cessation is unrealistic, and revenge is a call for civil war.

But all is not lost. If the American people decide to rise to the challenge and realize that their personal future depends on the future of their country, they might be willing to unite above the chasm. It requires courage, sincerity, and resolve, and Americans are known to have all three. The question is whether they realize that they must employ these traits now, before it’s too late.

The First Amendment, which enshrines freedom of expression, is valuable. However, there can be freedom of expression only when it lies on the basis of common values such as mutual consideration and the integrity of society. This does not mean that one cannot express even the most extreme views, including even an aspiration to dismantle society. However, even one who expresses such views must accept that expressing them is possible precisely because it is part of a collection of views that make up a complete whole, and that he or she would not be able to express such views were it not for the existence of their complete opposite.

For example, think of the human body. Within our body, there are organs that perform opposite actions, yet their performance is made possible only because of the existence of their counterparts. Think of opposite muscles that enable our movement, think of organs that use oxygen, emit CO2, and stimulate our breathing mechanism. Without organs that emit CO2, we would die of suffocation. Our body is filled with contradictions that enable our healthy existence. How conceited are we to think that in society, only our view merits existence? If the American people can learn to work together for their country, above their opposite ideals, they will discover that the contradictions between them are precisely what the country needs in order to be healthy, prosperous, and strong.

“When You Fight The Symptom, The Cause Keeps Hitting” (Linkedin)

 My new article on Linkedin “When You Fight the Symptom, the Cause Keeps Hitting”

Nature has a great sense of humor: Just as humanity started rolling out the vaccines, it churned up two new strains of the coronavirus, one probably in the UK and one in South Africa. Both strains are fast spreaders, and doctors are as yet unsure if the vaccines are effective against them. But what can we expect? From the very beginning of this pandemic, I warned that Covid-19 isn’t the problem; it’s a symptom of a much deeper problem that stems from ill human relations. When you fight the symptom, it’s no surprise that the pathogen keeps hitting you. The current strategy is about as smart as having a burst pipe and trying to seal the water instead of shutting the faucet.

Time after time, nature will keep hitting us until we realize that viruses, volcanic eruptions, wars, bloodshed, or forest fires aren’t the real problem, but we, humanity, are the world’s only problem. When we ask how to correct ourselves instead of everything else besides ourselves, we’ll start seeing some positive results to our efforts.

The root cause that’s behind all of our disasters, traumas, and any other conceivable affliction, is our own egoism. This is what’s destroying the world we live in, including ourselves. Whenever we’re told that our ego is the problem, we furiously deny it, but this doesn’t make it any less true. We deny it because our egos don’t want to face the truth that they are the problem. But until we do, the troubles will only worsen.

And here comes another problem: The world will not know how to rise above egoism until the people of Israel show the way.

Currently, we Jews are showing the exact opposite; we squabble among ourselves and show nothing but division. When antisemites blame us for causing all the problems, I can’t help but agree with them. We who became a nation when we agreed to unite “as one man with one heart,” and who were promptly after assigned to be “a light unto nations,” shine nothing but the darkness of division and separation instead of the opposite, as we were meant to do.

They may not realize it, but antisemites don’t hate us because of how we treat them; they hate us because of how we treat each other. When we project the odium we feel for one another, that odium spreads the world over and makes people hate each other and jump at each other’s throats. When the rivals finally turn against the Jews, it’s not because they’re looking for a scapegoat, though scapegoating may have something to do with it; it’s mainly because they really feel that they are at war because of us, though they cannot say how we instigated it. Nevertheless, their intuition is correct: Had we been united instead of divided, we would have projected unity instead of division, and the rest of the world would be at peace, as well.

When humanity is not at peace, when nations fight for superiority, they use every means at their disposal to achieve it. In the process, they exploit people, natural resources, pollute the Earth and deplete it like there is no tomorrow. But in the end, they are destroying our future. Now we have reached the future; we have come to a time when humanity’s exploitation has become so burdensome that nature can no longer take it. Now it pushes back on us, and it will not stop until we change. The more we pressure nature, the harder it will push back, and regular people will suffer the consequences.

However, if the people of Israel realize their role and change course from derision to cohesion, the entire world will change its course along with Israel. When that happens, we won’t need vaccines; our own relationships will protect us from harm, and not just from viruses, but from all the other misfortunes that are caused by our disunity. We’ve come to a point where we can vividly see how the level of disunity in Israel, and subsequently in humanity, is impacting the intensity and frequency of disasters throughout the world. Now all that’s left is to keep pointing it out until the world becomes convinced and we are ready to fight against our egos, which separate us and thereby kill us.

“Cultured Meat Will Not Save Us” (Linkedin)

 My new article on Linkedin “Cultured Meat Will Not Save Us”

A week ago, Food & Wine magazine broke the story that lab-grown chicken meat will make its restaurant debut. According to the story, “Good Meat Cultured Chicken was approved for sale in Singapore. Now, it’s heading to its first commercial restaurant.”

I’m all for it. Anything that helps people is good, and what’s more helpful than securing food and water supply? In fact, in recent years, there has been an influx of inventions that can help people cope with food and water deficiencies. We can produce water out of the moisture in the air, grow vegetables without soil, desalinate seawater into fresh drinking water, and now we can even produce meat without animals.

It seems as though we have defeated nature. But in truth, we haven’t. It is our own nature that’s developing these wonderful inventions, and it is our own nature that will prevent us from using them for people’s benefit. As long as we do not change who we are, life on Earth will not improve. In fact, they will go from bad to worse.

These inventions enable us not to worry about anything and focus our attention on improving our societies, strengthening our bonds with one another, and solidifying our communities. But will we choose to use them in this way or will we choose to profit off of them, just as we are doing with the coronavirus vaccine? We all know the answer.

Life on Earth can be as good as it should be only when we change how we relate to one another; nothing else needs to change. People will be happy only when they live in solidarity with the people in their community, and the countries they live in are at peace with the rest of the countries. Our ill-will toward each other is the only cause of misery, and the only cure to our woes is changing our intentions from wanting to exploit or destroy each other to wanting to help and support one another. Until we change our bad thoughts about each other, water and food from (almost) thin air will be just two more disappointments on the pain-filled road humanity has been treading since the dawn of time.

“On Jewish Unity And Antisemitism – Emerging From Exile And Starting Anew” (Times Of Israel)

 

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “On Jewish Unity and Antisemitism – Emerging from Exile and Starting Anew”

(Article No. 5 in a series) In the previous article, we discussed the rise and fall of the First Temple due to bloodshed and sins among the kings of Israel. When Israel were exiled, they were sent to Babylon, from which Abraham had previously come. There, in Babylon, they dispersed and assimilated until once again, a great hater of Jews arose and sought to destroy them: the arch-antisemite known as Wicked Haman.

Haman said to King Ahasuerus that the Jews were separated: “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom” (Esther 3:8). However, their physical dispersion was not what instigated Haman’s hatred; it was their disunity. The 17th century commentary on the Torah, Kli Yakar, states it very clearly: “‘a certain people scattered and dispersed’ means that they were scattered and dispersed from one another.” Likewise, the prominent interpretation of Jewish law, Yalkut Yosef, takes “separated” to mean that “there was separation of hearts among them.” So, as it happened with Pharaoh, and as it happened with Nebuchadnezzar, separation among the people of Israel leads to emergence of enemies who wish to destroy them. Haman was just another link in the chain, albeit quite a vicious one.

To get what he wanted, Haman told King Ahasuerus that the Jews “do not observe the king’s laws” (Esther 3:8). Yet, even though the king permitted him to eliminate the Jews, each year on Purim, we celebrate the miracle of our survival because at the very last minute, Mordechai united all the Jews. “‘Go gather all the Jews,’ meaning tell them words of blandishment,” writes Haim Yosef David Azulai (the CHIDA) in the book Pnei David, “so they will all be in one unity. Go gather as one, the hearts of all the Jews.” This telling 18th century description demonstrates the desperation of Esther and Mordechai at the prospect of seeing their entire fold obliterated, as was Haman’s intent. Their last resort was unity. When the Jews united, they saved themselves and facilitated the beginning of the return from Babylon.

But unlike Egypt, when the Jews had to flee in the dead of night, this time, they left not only with the king’s blessing, but with his full moral, financial, and spiritual support: As soon as Cyrus came to power, he felt that God had ordered him to send the Jews back to their land and rebuild the Temple. He sensed he had been commanded to help them in their task. He gave the famous Cyrus Declaration which stated, “Every [Jewish] survivor, at whatever place he may live, let the men of that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:4). After his order was carried out, “King Cyrus brought out the utensils of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away [plundered] from Jerusalem and put in the house of his gods” (Ezra 1:7).

The Cyrus Declaration marked the official end of the exile in Babylon and the beginning of the era of the Second Temple, though the Temple itself had not yet been built. During that period, the Jews achieved great heights, but eventually declined to two civil wars, the last of which was so bloody and brutal that its wounds have yet to heal.

The next article in the series will tell the story of the “golden era” in the history of the Jews in the land of Israel, when the nations of the world wanted to learn from them how to conduct their social lives.

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For much more on this topic, please see my latest publication, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism: Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord.

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Moral = Love Your Neighbor

 

Question: What is morality for you?

Answer: Morality is a clear implementation of the principle of love your neighbor.

Question: What associations do you have with the word “morality”?

Answer: Realization of the principle love your neighbor.

Question: Which of the moral principles is most important from your point of view?

Answer: Love your neighbor.

Question: The absolute absence of moral principles is impossible. Even the most primitive people have a concept of what is allowed and what is not. And what moral principle cannot be crossed?

Answer: That which prevents you from fulfilling the law love your neighbor.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 10/9/20