Why Do You Want To Live Like This?

Humanity is in a complete panic because of the coronavirus, which forces us to stop all production, all trade, it paralyzes and blocks entire countries. But an ordinary person thinks about his family first, about his children and how to feed them tomorrow. He is mostly concerned about how to survive. And this is the reason why the world agrees to freeze, as if saying, “First, we will take care of life, and then we will restore industry and production.”

But who does my fate depend on? How can it be influenced; how can you guarantee a good future for yourself? If we knew the answers to these questions, then we would probably calm down a bit.

This question arises in everyone because we are primarily animals. There are only three levels in nature: inanimate, vegetative, and animate. And the human species belong to the animate level, only we are more developed. Therefore, first of all, we need food, just like animals. It is written: “If there is no bread, there is no Torah.” Food is essential for life.

But in the situation with the coronavirus, nature apparently wants to teach us something and asks us a question from a different perspective: “What do you want to live by? Just by the instinct of self-preservation like all other species? That is not enough.”

Animal species can live like this without having to worry about anything else. But us humans should start asking what we live for. And this is already a problem.

And so, the coronavirus comes as a bitter medicine and asks: “What are you living for? Do not rush to answer, think. And I will help you: I will cancel all the false activities that you came up with, which is 90% of all your doing. It is 90% of everything you produced, sold, and threw away, depleting our planet’s resources. You worked for each other so you could sell and buy all the time, just to toss it away in the end.”

The whole planet has become a landfill. We built a system that produces things to throw away so that we have something to do. We cannot exist without working this way. But suddenly, the coronavirus comes and stops us so that we can no longer run to sell and buy. As if it asks, “And what will you do now? Think about why you were doing all that and you will see that there was no benefit in it. It is time for you to think about another kind of life, about its meaning, about what you are living for.”

You cannot build a system that operates like a conveyor belt where everyone produces and produces and produces, only to have the last one in line throw it all away so that the system would start producing again and throwing it away in the end. There is no need for such work. The main question is what do we live for? Until you answer it, sit at home and contemplate.”

Look how nature, lovingly and with care, like a mother or a father, as a loving parent wants the child to think about life and to learn. If you are sitting now and only worrying about what you will eat tomorrow, let us think more globally. After all, you are not the only one who is sitting there not knowing what to do, and realizing that this is exactly what humanity needs.

Therefore, I am not afraid of this virus. We have hope. If we come with an answer as to what we live for, we will continue our existence. And if we are unable to find the answer to this question, then there is no need to continue. After all, I should continue my evolution like the human being I am. Thinking about the meaning of life is a special quality of humans. And if I live without such a question, just for the sake of existence, then my questions are on an animal level.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #1214 Coronavirus. How to Deal with Fear?” 3/19/20

Should I Worry About The Health Of The Planet?

Question: Is it worth taking care and worrying about the health of the planet and not indulging in excesses, not getting involved in chemicals?

Answer: Kabbalah says absolutely nothing about that. It says that you must engage in attaining a higher goal. Then everything else will also return to normal and will naturally fit in your efforts to correct the soul.

Do just that. Do not waste your time on preservation of nature and everything else. Nothing of the kind is needed. You have no idea what the laws are behind all this.

If you strive for your soul’s correction, then you naturally include all other conditions for the world’s correction.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/26/20

The EU Is Dyng, And It Should

Posted on April 11th, 2020 at 10:01 pm

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/9/20

The European Union was born in sin and will die in agony. It was forged in order to give Europe a competitive edge against the US and the strengthening China and Russia. It focused almost exclusively on creating a common market and a common currency, but it gave no thought to the social implications of a union of peoples that have been on and off at war with one another for centuries.

The monetary union created a powerful currency but impoverished many of its member states and left them dependent, despondent, and denigrated. It did not create union; it created even more hatred. Monetary union without solidarity, a sense of national pan-European patriotism, is unsustainable. The migrant crisis almost took it apart as it pushed the UK out of the EU but it managed to persist. The coronavirus crisis, however, seems to be a blow that the EU will not survive. In my view, it is for the best.

Globalization – a Great Idea Done Wrong

In principle, union is a great idea. It’s the right way to go because all of reality is evolving toward greater unity and collaboration. Evolution went from the simplest particles to compositions of particles that created atoms, which created molecules, which created organisms, and so forth. Likewise, human society evolved from clans to settlements that grew into cities, counties, countries, and empires.

However, there is a fundamental difference between the way nature evolves and the way human society evolves. As nature evolves, it maintains balance and harmony. A concept of overconsumption doesn’t exist in nature because every animal takes only what it needs for its survival. With humans, where the ego rules, overconsumption is the kernel of our existence. The more we have compared to others, the more we value ourselves. Therefore, any alliance has, by default, an ulterior motive to hurt someone else—an enemy of the alliance, one of the members of the alliance, or both. This is human nature, but it contradicts nature’s core principle of evolution that it must be based on balance and harmony.

In order to create lasting monetary globalization, the people in the participating member states must first choose to do so. This is a profound and extended process that requires adopting a pan-national identity that is stronger than the national identity. Only when people sympathize with the multinational entity more than with their own nation state will they agree to such a transformation.

No such preparation was done in Europe. As a result, the stronger countries, following their inherent nature to exploit, plundered the smaller, weaker economies and left them destitute and dishonored. Now that the coronavirus has struck, the enmity and distrust among them is surfacing and proves that they cannot rely on one another. They need to put the EU to rest and start over. And the first step in that direction is to return to nurturing their local economies.

It is not that countries should not forge unions. On the contrary, I believe that in the end, when we have overcome our selfishness, we will not need borders and the notion of the nation state will evaporate. But we are nowhere near there yet. Instead, we must be sensible, acknowledge our self-centeredness, and try to agree on rules and boundaries that will keep our savageness in check and allow all of us to live in relative peace and stability.

Subsequently, we should begin to teach ourselves about the unity that exists in nature, where every part contributes its skills and receives from the collective everything it needs in order to thrive. When we gradually come to see that a collective existence is not only safer than individualistic competition, but also much more rewarding, we will be able to cautiously, slowly, and wisely build a common entity. But this will not be a European, American, Russian or Chinese entity, but a global human race.

Until then, we must accept and respect our differences.

(Image: European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen holds a news conference detailing EU efforts to limit economic impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Brussels, Belgium April 2, 2020. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/Pool)

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A Cup For Elijah The Prophet

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/8/20

Every Passover night, during the ceremonial meal, there is a custom to pour one extra cup of wine and keep it for Elijah the Prophet as a welcoming gesture. Passover symbolizes passing over from egoism to altruism, and Elijah symbolizes the force that changes us from love of ourselves to loving our neighbors. Egypt symbolizes our egoism, and we begin to feel Egypt as an exile when we begin to want to emerge from our egoism. The more we want to pass over to love of others, the more we suffer from our ego and the darker Egypt becomes for us.

Finally, Egypt becomes so dark that we cannot see anything good about it. It is a state of intense recognition of my selfishness, and a request from the bottom of the heart that the Creator will change me so I will no longer harm or harbor bad thoughts about others. When the request is so intense that no prize or booty can tempt me to even want to enjoy it egoistically, the transition from bad to good occurs. That transition is called “the coming of Prophet Elijah.”

Happy passing over!

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The Crowned Virus

What must governments do to help us get through this difficult period? All governments should understand that they have a special role and turn their thoughts a little. They should know that the future of the world lies in global integration among all people, and the government must strive for this.

It is necessary to organize such forms of training for children and adults, to establish an educational system so that everyone understands that a human being is the most destructive force in nature. And we must become the force connecting all parts of nature.

After all, we are smart and well developed, but we turn our entire development into evil, we direct it to destruction. Therefore, governments are obligated to change; people will have to explain this to them.

It is no accident that the new virus received the name “coronavirus”; it really does royal work, it dominates the whole world and organizes our lives as a king would. I hope that we will still see many consequences of its reign, meaning changes in our lives.

Coronavirus quarantined each and every one of us. But I think this will benefit us. We need to overcome this isolation by uniting together, and above all, virtually, from afar. And to the extent that we learn how to tolerate each other, to connect and get together internally, mentally, we will be able to leave each of our homes and connect with others.

This condition, which obliges us to stay at a distance, will work to our advantage, helping our rapprochement in a selective manner. As far as I am able to relate well to my neighbor, I will be able to get closer to him—not in order to make money off him, but in order to establish good relations.

Everyone needs to be taught this in order to build a new humanity together. And then really a good, eternal, and perfect world worth living in will open up before us.

They ask me how I see the world in a year, what will happen to it? As usual, we have two alternatives: either the world does not listen to what the wisdom of Kabbalah is talking about, the need to achieve unification, and we will lead the world to destruction, or changes will nevertheless occur.

If you look at the world through the wisdom of Kabbalah, you can see how the world is approaching correction.

However, you look abstractly from it , you can see how the world is not able to change. But we will try to work together; otherwise, it will be very bad. I hope that we will nevertheless be able to convey the correct unification methodology to all of humanity.
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From KabTV’s “Conversation with David Blumenfeld” 3/25/20

Selfishness Is The Virus

Question: At the very beginning of the epidemic, people were allowed to gather up to 5,000 individuals, then up to 2,000 people, then 500, 100, to 10. And today you cannot get together with 10 people. That is, nature forcibly separates us, but for what purpose? What will happen next?

Answer: Kabbalah says: The assembly of sinners is bad for them and bad for the world. And the separation of sinners is good for them and good for the world.

Question: What is our sin?

Answer: It is that we were originally born in sin. And these are not religious phrases. Human nature is sinful in that we are egoists and think only about ourselves, how to make things better for ourselves and worse for others. Everything is relative. We live by constantly comparing our personal condition with others.

Therefore, the separation of people from each other, in principle, weakens their envy and jealousy and thus calms the state of society. After all, if society is comprised of people who are friendly to each other, to the extent of their friendliness, they can get closer. And if it is selfish, then to this extent they should move away from each other.

Question: That is, nature created us as selfish, so it is as though there are no claims against us?

Answer: Yes, it is said in the Torah: I (the Creator) created egoism. Exploring nature, we see that the attraction and rejection of all its parts, all the laws of nature, are based on the egoistic properties of matter.

Question: So, if we do not use our egoism correctly, then nature generates all kinds of viruses and other cataclysms so that we recognize the need to correct the ego. Is selfishness the same virus?

Answer: At any moment in time, we wish to receive maximum pleasure, and even better, if it happens at the expense of others. Our whole selfish nature is a virus. Inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature and humans are in His power and manifest themselves only in this way.
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From Kab TV’s “Coronavirus changes reality,” 3/19/19

“Ma Nishtana? A Passover Unlike Any Other” (Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “Ma Nishtana? A Passover Unlike Any Other”

The Passover holiday this year is expected to be the most unique in modern history. For the first time, the Jewish people, regardless of their location, will celebrate not only around the table but inside the Web. It is a special occurrence as physical restrictions have been imposed to celebrate with extended family—particularly to protect the most vulnerable, the elderly, from potentially contracting the COVID-19. This new situation is also an opportunity to zoom out and look at the bigger picture: the connection between the exit from Egypt and the exit from this pandemic.

On Passover night, everyone sits with their loved ones at a festive table to read about freedom and the sufferings of slavery and plagues, and the desire for liberation. We ask ourselves, Ma nishtana? (what has changed), which is an inner reflection on what makes this night different from all other nights. This year, that traditional question adopts a deeper dimension, demanding from us a meaningful and thorough scrutiny.

Passing Over All Calamities

Passover (Pesach) means “passage” or “transition” from the egoistic state of self-love to love for the neighbor, where you think of others, even if just a little. This transformation is similar to completely replacing a computer’s operating program. Likewise, we have to replace our current inner program of a selfish and egoistic approach with one of mutual consideration.

The coronavirus pandemic surged throughout the world precisely to serve that purpose: to make us realize that the whole of humanity is a single unit, where any element in nature, even as minuscule as a virus, can affect the whole system in the blink of an eye. The pandemic is telling us: “Stay home; you will be locked-down until you begin to realize how internally locked-down you are inside your ego.” Our current circumstances indicate that nature is interconnected and humans are the ones who are isolated, an internal isolation from each other.

The phrase, “we were slaves,” that we recite as part of the Seder tradition, refers to the great ego that rules everything, that we are slaves of Pharaoh, of our egoism—our lack of consideration for others. In the modern world, we seem to have raised Pharaoh’s power to such an elevated height that it batters us with its immensity. Unrestrained egoism pits us against the others, provoking rejection, quarrels, and struggles.

COVID-19, Not a Plague but an Opportunity

All human beings and all parts of nature are linked within one closed system, and if one individual thinks only of himself, he is harmful to everyone else. Furthermore, such harm reproduces and spreads widely and rapidly like an epidemic. Just like a healthy body requires complete integration between all its organs and systems, integration is also the only formula for a healthy society that will ensure that no damage is done to either mankind or the rest of nature. Through the coronavirus, nature is trying to bring us to the awareness that mutual guarantee, becoming as one man with one heart, is a necessity for our survival.

Therefore, COVID-19 cannot be considered a malevolent plague that has appeared for no reason or purpose, just like the plagues in the Haggadah we traditionally read about during the Passover Seder (ceremonial meal). The virus is actually an opportunity for humanity, this year like no other, to break free from the clutches of self-destruction and slavery. These challenging times are placing a mirror before us, raising awareness of what we need to correct in order to be in balance with nature, which is our intention to consider the well-being of others. If the purpose behind our connection with the world is to exploit everything around us only for personal gain, the time comes when these bad connections become so unbearable that nature breaks them apart by manifesting itself as a calamity.

When we fix our disruptive and destructive human relations and unite above our differences, we are saved from our enemies and come out from exile to freedom. The exit from egoistic thoughts and actions to those of bestowal is the deeper meaning of coming out of Egypt.

Each unification of our hearts and good intentions with another is a realization of the principle “love thy friend as thyself,” the great rule of the Torah.

All of the commandments, meaning the actions toward these corrections, are included within that one great rule until we finally reach the complete correct connection and enter the Land (Eretz, from the word Ratzon [desire]) of Israel (Yashar-El, meaning straight to the Creator). In other words, our desire becomes similar to and unites with the force of nature that controls everything—the Upper Force that brings about freedom, health, and all goodness in life. Happy Passover!
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At The Meeting Point Between The Right Line And The Left Line

Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”: Thus, it has been made clear that the revelation of the Creator is not a one-time disclosure, but an ongoing matter that is revealed over a period of time, sufficient for the disclosure of all the great degrees that appear from Above downwards and from below upwards. On top of them, and at the end of them, appears the Creator.

It is like a person proficient in all the countries and people in the world, who cannot say that the whole world has been revealed to him before he has completed his examination of the last person and the last country. Until one has achieved that, one has not attained the whole world.

Similarly, the attainment of the Creator unfolds in preordained ways. The seeker must attain all those ways in both the Upper and the lower.

The goal of our development is the attainment of the Creator. If He could be revealed at once, swallowed at once…. But it is forbidden. It is in the gradual understanding of His true and inverse properties, and again, true and inverse, in the transition from the left to the right line, and at this meeting point between them that the attainment of the Creator begins.

It is difficult to explain, but it comes to a person from his practical sensation. Just like in our world we can talk a lot about what we learn, what we comprehend, but when we actually comprehend something, this feeling cannot be conveyed. It was as if born in you because you comprehend it. And one who does not comprehend does not feel anything. In other words, this is not just knowledge but a derivative of the effort.

Therefore, the revelation of the Creator is built precisely on not being afraid of the friction between “I understand—I do not understand,” between “true—false.” The main thing is the effort. When you constantly make efforts and try to literally beat your head against the wall, then they gradually create properties in you where the Creator is revealed.

But the revelation of the Creator does not happen directly. Baal HaSulam writes: “This is not a one-time action but rather a gradual revelation of all the huge levels during a certain length of time.” This means that the important thing is not to retreat, and then, eventually, you will have internal prerequisites for the revelation of the Creator.

Question: What are the right efforts? What should I attach them to?

Answer: The goal of all your efforts is to try together with your friends to find the common ground between you, which is called the center of the circle, the center of the ten.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/12/20