Can You Be Anti-Semitic If You Don’t Know What Jews Are? (Quora)

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can you be anti-Semitic if you don’t know what Jews are?“

Yes. I can be an anti-Semite even if I don’t know what a Jew is, because I feel, without any intellectual grasp of what I feel, but I simply feel that my happiness, the world’s peace and my advancement in life depend on the Jews. I feel that this small nation of 15 or so million people runs and manipulates the world, squeezing out its juices and energies, preventing human society from enjoying a good life. That is a subconscious sensation of every person in the world. Also, if one doesn’t feel that way, then it can awaken very quickly, since it lies latent within every person.

New Life #425 – Security And The Israeli Spirit

New Life #425 – Security and the Israeli Spirit
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

The Israeli people are the only ones who can lead the world toward peace and harmony because we alone have the force of giving. If the Israeli nation were connected “as one man with one heart,” a special force of nature would pass through us and bring peace and connection to the whole world. When we connect, Hamas will fall and anti-Semitism will subside. War awakens this eternal connection; however, it is a pity to wait for blows to connect us. We have to establish the connection proactively, by ourselves, as part of our daily routine. The wisdom of Kabbalah is a scientific method that teaches us about the whole map of reality and how to build a model of connection to improve the lives of everyone.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #425 – Security and the Israeli Spirit,” 8/12/14

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Why Is There So Much Anti-Semitism On The Internet Such As In YouTube Comment Sections And Social Media? (Quora)

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is there so much anti-Semitism on the Internet such as in YouTube comment sections and social media?“

I don’t think that there is a particularly unique role of the Internet in relation to the rise of anti-Semitism. It is simply a platform for people to express whatever they feel, and they can write as much as they want there. However, anti-Semitic comments on this electronic medium are merely an expression of anti-Semitic sentiment that has been around for generations, regardless of the Internet.

Anti-Semitism is a natural phenomenon depending solely on the Jews. The world is under nature’s governance, and Jews hold the potential to be above nature in their ability to bring themselves and the whole of humanity closer to the revelation of the upper force.

What does it mean that the Jews have the ability to be “above nature”? It means that the Jews became known as “Jews” through the spiritual unity (“love your friend as yourself”) they discovered under Abraham’s guidance in ancient Babylon (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]). Such unity is considered as above nature, because

• Human nature is a desire to enjoy for self-benefit alone.
• Unity with and love for others is foreign to human nature, and thus
• Achieving unity among people requires a special revelation—of the upper force, a connecting force of
  love and bestowal—in order to rise above our nature to the second, spiritual nature.

The Jews lost contact with this spiritual nature about 2,000 years ago when they went into exile and dispersed around the world. However, the fact that the Jews once attained spiritual unity remains latent within them, and as the need for such unity starts becoming sensed on a global scale—with a lot of problems revealing worldwide that have no comprehensive solution but in rising to a higher, spiritual level—then there is an increasing demand on the Jewish people by the nations of the world, who subconsciously expect a solution to their problems from the Jews. Thus, anti-Semitism rises in order to pressure Jews around the world to wake up to their role.

“Tisha B’Av, Rising Above the Straits” (The Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “Tisha B’Av, Rising Above the Straits“

American society is fragmented to pieces. The polarization of the political spectrum did not start with the recent controversy involving the current US administration and four Democratic congresswomen labeled as “anti-Israeli” and “anti-Semitic.” But the dispute certainly highlighted the abyss between the Right and Left in a way that has dragged Jews and Israel into the brawl from both sides. Now is precisely the time for Jews to connect above differences and provide an example of unity to all.

We have just entered the period of time called “Bein ha-Metzarim” (“Between the Straits”), which begins on the 17th of Tammuz and ends on the 9th of Av (Tisha B’Av), during which we commemorate the destruction of the First and Second Temples. This special time could never be more pertinent than now. The ruin of the temples, in fact, symbolizes the shattering of our human relations—a true reason for mourning—but we can also find joy in the situation if we recognize it as an opportunity to rebuild ties of unity between us.

Repairing the current political divide in America, especially during the already exacerbating campaign climate of the 2020 election, has nothing to do with Trump, specific members of Congress, or either side of the political spectrum. The problem is much wider and deeper. The divisions are between American Jewry and the Israeli nation, between Muslims and Jews, and within US society as a whole. The myriad aggravations signal an urgent imperative for change in human relations that Jews must initiate and lead by rising above all the divisions that separate us.

Why must Jews lead the charge? It is because the Jewish people possess precisely what America and the world desperately needs: the key for a cohesive and harmonious existence. Jewish unity must now be our first priority. It is the historical purpose of Jews to demonstrate unity within their ranks as a model of corrected social relations for others to follow.

We became a nation at the foot of Mount Sinai only when each person present accepted the condition of being “as one man with one heart.” In the centuries that followed, Jews practiced principles of connection enabling them to rise above their differences for the creation of ideal social cohesion and unprecedented human development. It was only during the long exile that followed the ruin of the Second Temple that this unity was forgotten.

Therefore, why should we mourn the destructions of Tisha B’Av at this particular time?It is because, since the 16th Century when the great Kabbalist, the Ari (Rav Isaac Luria), declared the opening of the process of correction for all humanity, our negligence in repairing the shattering perpetuates the destruction. By delaying this process we block the building of the Third Temple, meaning the correction of the shattering in our connections. Our state of shattered connection is what’s truly considered the ruin of the Temples, a state in which we have lost consciousness of ourselves as a single entity.

Thus, there is both great joy in our opportunity for correction that the shattering brings us while, on the other hand, there is sorrow over our fragmentation under the forces constantly emerging to damage our connection. Our state is a manifestation of the principle that, in spirituality, we always encounter two opposites in the same place in order to advance.

Now is the time to be proactive. We Jews, the bearers of the tenet “love your neighbor as yourself,” must rise to the challenge, put down our internal disputes, and unite above them. As King Solomon stated: “Hate stirs strife, and love covers all crimes” (Proverbs, 10:12). This is the true and positive call to action that we should take from this special period of reflection. It is the one act that will guarantee our safety and happiness in America and wherever we live.
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The Structure Of The Universe, Part 4

Restriction—Malchut’s refusal to accept the Light

Question: If the development of the world would have stopped at the first stage, would we be like animals with no independent desire to receive?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And if everything had stopped at stage four and not developed any further, then even though this desire was independent, we still could not control it?

Answer: It is still not an independent desire because even though it breaks and aims toward the pleasure on its own, it is directed toward the pleasure dictated by Keter. It wants to be fulfilled according to its nature. This desire realizes that it wants the same thing that Keter wants.

Malchut feels that she receives from Keter and chooses what she wants to receive from it. It is precisely because she herself wants to receive from Keter that she continues to develop internally and realizes that she is not free, that she is controlled by these pleasures and desires. Meaning, the plus and the minus control her completely.

Thus, the property of freedom emerges in Malchut. She does not want to submit either to the lack of fulfillment or to the desire to be filled. She wants to feel independent because it feels that this property is present in Keter; he is the first, nothing is before him.

Now, a few more states develop in Malchut: she feels as an imperfect creation, she wants to become similar to Keter, similar to her Creator.

She feels that the Creator is absolutely free and is above bestowal and reception. But she is controlled by either the lack of fulfillment or by being fulfilled. Meaning, she has no freewill, no independent “I,” and the influence of both the plus and the minus control her completely.

She begins to feel that she has no freedom, that she is fully controlled. We call this feeling the revelation of the evil of one’s own nature, which is subject to either pleasure or the lack thereof.

This feeling brings Malchut the sensation of shame from the fact that she has no freewill and that she, in principle, is fully controlled. It is the feeling of being under complete control that gives rise to the need for an independent action. This stops her so much so that she stops having any kind of contact with the Light.

This state is called Tzimtzum (restriction). The sensation of the creature that it is completely controlled and has nothing of its own, nothing independent, forces it to restrict its actions, its desire. It wants to stop completely.

The creature is ready to eradicate the previous state, when it was fully controlled, in itself, to extinguish it. Therefore, this state is called restriction. In other words, when Malchutfeels that there is no opportunity to act freely, she is ready to do anything to avoid feeling controlled.

Question: Does the shame that Malchut feels come from being completely controlled or from being opposite to the upper force that created it?

Answer: It is practically the same thing.
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From KabTV’s “Basics of Kabbalah” 11/27/18

New Life #426 – Security And Jews Against Jews

New Life #426 – Security and Jews Against Jews
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Israel is not a natural nation but a collection of people with different origins, views, and inclinations who share a single spiritual root. Jews speak out against Jews because we do not know who we are and where we came from. The wisdom of Kabbalahcontains the truth about the nation of Israel and its spiritual constitution based on “love thy friend as thyself.” Our unique spiritual root requires that we attain the upper force through unification. Humanity is thirsty for our guidance and blames us for all the evil in the world. It obliges us to learn who we are and what our role is. We are to be like one circle and include the whole world.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #426 – Security and Jews Against Jews,” 8/14/8

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Are Anti-Semitism And Anti-Zionism The Same? How Are They Similar? (Quora)

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Are anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism the same? How are they similar?“

Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are definitely connected. Anti-Zionism only started being felt toward the end of the 19th Century and beginning of the 20th Century with the First and Second Aliyah. Arabs were against the return of the Jews. The Jews who wanted to return to Israel were met with Arab opposition. The Arabs even waged war against the Jews who came to settle in Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberius, and other nearby places.

Also, anti-Zionism is a result of the Turkish and British rule over Palestine. They used divide-and-conquer tactics to complicate relations between Jews and Arabs, cunningly positioning them against each other in order to establish their governance over them.

The Structure Of The Universe, Part 3

The Difference Between the First and the Last Degrees of Development of Desire

Question: What is the difference between the first degree of development of desire and the last? After all, they both want to receive.

Answer: Naturally. But the fact is that the receiving in the first degree of Hochma is instinctive, directed and binding, since it was created this way from the Keter. Creation in this state simply acts because it is forced by inner qualities.

When in Bina, it stops communicating with its source, Keter, since Bina refuses to receive, it breaks off the stream of pleasure, control emanating from Keter, then the creation itself begins to determine what is important to it. This creates a new desire, Malchut, which is determined by its own striving.

Question: That is, it is an independent desire, but the first degree is not?

Answer: Yes. This can be compared with you simply filling something inanimate or something that requires, asks, and aspires to be filled.

Question: Let’s say, in the example with food. If I were given a dish that I have never eaten before, then although I have a desire to receive, I still don’t try to eat it. Only after I tried it, do I have my own desire for this dish.

Therefore, as far as I understand, the four degrees of the development of creation are the essence of the whole Kabbalah?

Answer: The four degrees of direct light speak of the creation of the creature, desire. But this creature, in principle, feels that it desires from itself. The property of Bina separates the creation from the source: on the one hand, Keter, that fills, on the other hand, Malchut, that receives. Bina sort of cuts them apart.

The fact is that creation is not yet independent. It rushes to what Keter wants to give it, but at the same time does not control its desires. To control your desires means to be above them, to rise to a higher level; when you control, you create your desires, not that desires control you.

Thus, the whole of creation begins with the four stages of direct light. Moreover, the last degree, Malchut, finally filled with all the pleasure, that is, the light from Keter, is called Malchut of the World of Infinity because its fulfillment is absolutely infinite: it receives as much as it desires and is fulfilled by that.
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From KabTV’s “Basics of Kabbalah,” 11/27/18