New Life #99 – Pregnancy And Birth From The Embryo’s Perspective

New Life #99 – Pregnancy and Birth from the Embryo’s Perspective
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

An embryo feels what goes on between the parents and is affected by it. It never sleeps and is constantly perceiving information and developing. It distinguishes between the father’s impact and recognizes this additional source of influence. In fact, the embryo tries to neutralize the father as if he does not exist if the father treats the mother poorly by, for example, shouting. This lowers the self-confidence of the embryo and forces him to respond with defensive violence. The relationship between the parents even affects the embryo’s future relationships and entire life. In order to feed the embryo with maximum positive energy, the parents have to correct themselves by having a positive attitude toward one another.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #99 – Pregnancy And Birth From The Embryo’s Perspective,” 11/4/12

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So That The Heart Would Truly Love a Friend

Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”: Our sages said: “Disperse the wicked; better for them and better for the world.” In other words, it is better that they do not exist. However, it is the opposite with the righteous: “Assemble the righteous; better for them and better for the world.”

Initially, there were no righteous. The righteous are our corrected qualities. At every level when we enter a new degree, the old righteous fall, and the new sinners rise, and we turn them into righteous again.

“What is the meaning of “righteous”? It is those who want to keep the rule, “Love thy friend as thyself.” Their sole intention is to exit self-love and assume a different nature of love of others. And although it is a Mitzva [commandment] that should be kept, and that one can force oneself to keep, love is still something that is given to the heart, and the heart disagrees with it by nature. What, then, can one do to make love of others touch the heart?”

It is impossible. Only the upper Light can make such a correction for us. It is not within our power since it requires two forces: one that is uncorrected and the other that is the power of correction, which we do not have. We do not even know exactly how or what should be corrected.

This is why we were given the 612 Mitzvot: they have the power to induce a sensation in the heart. However, since it is against nature, that sensation is too small to have the ability to keep love of friends de facto, even though one has a need for it. Hence, now he must seek advice on how to actually implement it.

The advice for one to be able to increase his strength in the rule, “Love thy friend,” is by love of friends.

This speaks about the fact that there is bestowal and there is also reception for the sake of bestowal.

Question: Are the work in the tens, the workshops, and the studying all directed at only one thing: to attract the Light that reforms?

Answer: Yes, we do not need anything else. The Torah is the upper Light that corrects our egoistic desires and turns them into altruistic. The correction of an egoistic intention into an altruistic one is called observing a commandment.
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From KabTV’s “The Last Generation” 4/18/18

New Life #1065 – Paradoxical Thinking And Spiritual Development

New Life #1065 – Paradoxical Thinking and Spiritual Development
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

Paradoxes are resolved through awareness of the Creator. They come to me from one integrated source and I want to return them to this higher root. By working on myself to constantly be in bestowal and love, I discover the complementarity between opposites. The connection between good and evil is done only through transcendence to a third line, which unites the opposites. In spiritual development, we don’t destroy evil, or the ego. Instead, we transcend it because evil advances us. Human egoism is a destructive force, but if we construct a more advanced system of thought in which bestowal is more important than reception, it becomes a stimulus for spiritual development. The Torahencourages paradoxical thinking in order to elevate a person to a spiritual level. We can learn to love without eliminating hatred by rising above it.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1065 – Paradoxical Thinking And Spiritual Development,” 10/2/18

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The Times Of Israel: “I Too Have A Dream… A World Free Of Anti-Semitism”

The Times of Israel published my new article “I Too Have a Dream… A World Free of Anti-Semitism.”

Rekindling Black-Jewish Relations in America through Jewish connection

Early in the afternoon, walking in a busy area of Brooklyn, New York, a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke was punched in the face and kicked in an unprovoked attack by a young black man as caught on camera. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident, but only one of the latest in an upward spiral of anti-Semitic attacks in America perpetrated by African Americans. We explore in this article the basis of this widespread hatred and the source of its unique solution.

Just recently, a 26-year-old black man was arrested, suspected of being responsible for seven fires set outside Jewish facilities in New York, and for writing anti-Semitic graffiti “Kill all Jews” and “Die Jew rats, we are here,” on a Brooklyn synagogue. Days before, another black man was charged with a hate crime after smashing a Jewish man with a stick in a New York neighborhood, in another unprovoked attack.

Just days after a number of synagogues and yeshivas were attacked in the area, the New York Police Department arrested a group of black teens who carried out a series of anti-Semitic attacks in Brooklyn, including pushing a 10-year-old Hasidic girl to the ground, knocking the hat off a 14-year-old Hasidic boy, and throwing a metal pipe through the window of a synagogue during Shabbat prayers in the Williamsburg neighborhood.

Black anti-Semitism has also emerged in the form of vicious hate speech targeting Jews and Israel. Earlier this year, an African-American city councilman in Washington, DC accused the Rothchilds of being responsible for climate change. Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter endorsed the BDS boycott of Israel, accusing it of being an “apartheid state” perpetrating “genocide.”

However, the vociferous and virulent anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakahn, who makes no effort to hide his inflammatory thoughts, overshadows all other African-American Jew-hatred. He recently compared Jews with termites, preached from his pulpit that contemporary Jews are “not really Jews but are in fact Satan,” and constantly incriminates Jews as evil conspirators.

Why have Black-Jewish tensions escalated?

Blacks and Jews, as minorities in the US, have a long history of fruitful cooperation dating back to the Civil Rights movement when they worked hand in hand to advance the ideal of a more pluralistic society. American human rights champion Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. also had a special bond with Jews and Israel, as he expressed in the late 1960s: “Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect her right to exist, its territorial integrity and the right to use whatever sea lanes it needs.”

What has soured relations between the African American and Jewish communities since then? From the moment Jews began to establish their status in American society through hard work and taking full advantage of every window of opportunity, the relationship between Jews and African Americans began to change. Blacks felt left behind and grew increasingly frustrated.

Within many American circles there is insidious anti-Semitism, and Jews are portrayed as the oppressors of the unprivileged, among them blacks, accused of being rich at the expense of the disadvantaged. Such claims have thrown fuel on the flames of frustration and resentment from the black community, inciting anti-Semitic sentiments.

However, we must take care not to generalize about the tensions between the Jewish and African American communities. It is also true that a black-Jewish alliance has been established to fight racism and anti-Semitism in light of the revival of the White Supremacists movement in America. The real problem is that nothing ever seems to palliate the ogre of anti-Semitism. The truth is that, while the underlying root of anti-Semitism has caught some American blacks in its branches (along with many others), to eradicate the hatred, we must grasp its root.

The greatest Kabbalist of this generation, Rav Yehuda Ashlag, understood exactly why anti-Semitism obstinately persists and explained it sixty years ago: “It is a fact that Israel is hated by all nations, whether for religious reasons, racial reasons, capitalistic reasons, communistic reasons, or cosmopolitan reasons. It is so because the hatred precedes all reasons, but each [person] merely resolves one’s loathing according to one’s own psychology,” (Yehuda Ashlag, “The Writings of The Last Generation”)

The wisdom of Kabbalah studies the fundamental forces of nature and explains that there is an ironclad law within nature that cannot be changed. One can only study this absolute rule and learn how to act upon it, but never attempt to violate it without extreme consequences. What is this supreme law of nature?

Kabbalists throughout the ages explain that all of humanity is contained within one harmonious system of inter-relations in which two opposite forces operate: positive and negative. The negative force is the same rejecting egoism that distinguishes and separates people, the same urge that causes racism and hatred of the other. Against this repelling force within each of us stands the positive force that encloses, connects and unifies all the various parts of the system.

Opening the Pipeline of Harmony in the World

Since receiving the law of human interaction within this system at Mt. Sinai, it is as if Jews hold the microphone for communication within the system like a kind of microprocessor that reverberates to all humanity. In their hands is the method of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah. Once the Jews unite, the same positive force radiates outward to the entire world. But, as soon as the Jews let the egoistic force within nature manage them, the irrational-seeming hatred of anti-Semitism is aroused in all the organs of the system, in all countries, forms, and skin colors.

Like a body involuntarily gasping for breath, the world unconsciously pressures the Jews to deliver the solution to humanity’s problems. Tragically for all, instead of drawing down the breath of life for them, Jews obstruct the airway that carries the goodness to the world with their swollen pride, choking infighting, and self-centered disregard for the health of the body of humanity.

Black anti-Semitism in the US is one unpleasant symptom of a much more invasive disease. Therefore, before the disease enters its acute phase where cases of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism erupt in full force everywhere, pushing Jews to unite, it is imperative that Jews fulfill their duty to humanity and open the conduit of fulfillment for all.

Within this act, Jews will bring peoples of all kinds and colors closer. There will be no Jewish-African American divide. At that time, anti-Semitism will disappear throughout the world and our shared dream will become a tangible reality. As Rabbi Eliyahu Ki Tov wrote, “We are commanded at each generation to strengthen the unity among us so our enemies do not rule over us.” (The Book of Consciousness).

New Life #1064 – Inner Resistance Is A Stimulus For Human Development

New Life #1064 – Inner Resistance Is a Stimulus for Human Development
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

There is nothing bad in the world. Everything that happens can be used for the positive advancement and development of humankind. When something happens that is not exactly what I want, it awakens resistance in me because it undermines my ego. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, a person encounters all kinds of resistance and this promotes his spiritual ascent. In order to correct ourselves, we must see others as emissaries of the upper force and learn how to absorb contrary opinions. We must see everyone as puppets of the Creator and behave as though we are relating to Him in every scene.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1064 – Inner Resistance Is A Stimulus For Human Development,” 10/2/18

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In Order To Not Go Astray

Rabash, “Concerning the Importance of Society”: Therefore, in matters of work on the path of truth, one should isolate oneself from other people. This is because the path of truth requires constant strengthening, since it is against the view of the world. The view of the world is knowing and receiving, whereas the view of Torah is faith and bestowal.

Question: Will people leave the group of the last generation?

Answer: They will leave because in the group of the last generation one needs to make great efforts to constantly make progress.

The fact is that when you are in psychological groups or groups engaged in spiritual practices, then the movement takes place on the basis of knowledge or development of the method.

However, in the Kabbalistic group, the egoistic engine constantly operates and it kind of pushes you out of the group. If you do not constantly work against it, then you do not rise above it and cannot advance. Therefore, in the Kabbalistic group, there is always a need for additional efforts, and one cannot stand still. This is what forces a person to advance.

Question: Why is it that when a person is taken out of the group, he seems to go against the group and/or the method?

Answer: He must justify himself egoistically, so he turns against the group he was in. He wants to show that he is right and they are wrong. He thus tries to find flaws in the group to prove his point.

When a person comes to the group, the point in the heart, which is awakened from above, speaks within him. He suddenly feels that his soul is here.

Then, to stay in place, he needs to make an effort. This is the place of spiritual work. He holds on somehow, for some time, but if he does not make serious efforts, he is drawn away from the path.

Question: How can one make an effort to clear out all the opinions that a person absorbed during his life?

Answer: Everything is written in the Kabbalistic sources. They are written for this purpose.
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From KabTV’s “The last generation” 4/25/18

New Life 1063 – Expanding The Limits Of Perception

New Life 1063 – Expanding the Limits of Perception
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Summary

The wisdom of Kabbalah expands the limits of perception and develops new tools of perception within a person. It builds a higher inner sense that makes it possible for a person to see the general communication network of nature. Through its discovery a person acquires the ability to foresee what will happen and knows everything. The general law of nature is love, which means correct and mutual communication between everyone, above the human ego. A person discovers that he lives within a nature that is filled with wisdom.
From KabTV’s “New Life 1063 – Expanding The Limits Of Perception,” 9/27/18

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The Times Of Israel: “Why Israel Must Fight On Two Fronts”

The Times of Israel published my new article: “Why Israel Must Fight on Two Fronts”

Residents of southern Israel are right to protest. They demand quiet, and I agree with their harsh criticism against Israel’s leadership. Their willingness to stay in their shelters in order to allow for a temporary attack that will bring their normal life back testifies to how fed up they are.

Israel must give a decisive blow to the infrastructure of terror in the Gaza Strip: demand that Hamas dismantle its weapons and stop its rule on the ground. To crush the terror completely, and prevent it from rearing its head. This way, at the very least, we will obtain relative quiet in the coming years, and allow the children in the south to go to sleep without fear.

Unfortunately, the current round of rockets has once again proven to us what we have learned throughout history: a jihadist terrorist organization understands only force. They are not interested in reaching an agreement or reconciliation with us. It doesn’t matter if we lift the siege, open the border, enable infrastructure, push for international aid or inject millions of dollars in cash. Thus, we have no choice but to respond with such force that will paralyze Hamas’ ability to harm us.

I do not call for war, and certainly not for harming the innocent Gazan population. But as long as we’re in the midst of an ongoing battle, we must respond with all severity and maintain the upper hand; as it is written, “he who comes to kill you, get up early to kill him first.”

The weakness of our leadership reveals the extent to which its view has been distorted by continuously trying to convince the world that Israel is moral and righteous. The world, however, is not impressed. On the contrary, the international media continues to paint a false picture of the reality in Israel. One only needs to glance at the European press, for example, to notice headlines that portray Israel as the aggressor, after a day with almost 500 rockets fired at Israeli civilians. Therefore, what the world thinks cannot be taken into consideration by our leaders.

There is no doubt that the next round will be more painful. We took a serious step backwards, against ourselves and against the safety of our children. Hamas, on the other hand, is celebrating their success in sparking a political earthquake in Israel, after the resignation of the defense minister. They — and the entire world — have concluded that Israel is weak.

However, I relate our weakness to a single factor: the lack of spiritual foundation in the people of Israel. Unlike any other people or nation in the world, we are required to fight on two fronts: the physical and the spiritual. We have to protect the safety of our residents and defend our borders with great fervor; and at the very same time, we must attack our division at all costs. This is the real war for Israel.

We all take part on the spiritual front, and right now we have been caught off guard. We must reach a cease-fire between us. This is the fire that invites our enemies to enter our house and do as they wish.

All of us without exception — leaders and soldiers, politicians and citizens, rightists and leftists, religious and secular — must be vigilant against the enemy within us, the snake that separates us from each other. Only when we join forces against our own division will we reawaken the spiritual foundation of our people.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the spiritual connection between us is our only salvation. It will build a wall against enemies. And the whole world is subconsciously waiting for the power that lies in Israel’s unity. Even Hamas.