“From Political Bickering To A Policy Of Unity” (Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “From Political Bickering to a Policy of Unity”

A few years ago, an Israeli TV documentary told the story of a small village in Israel that had a population of 120 families, and six(!) shuls. Why six shuls if there are only 120 families? Because the families—all of whom from the same cultural background and daven the same way—can’t stand each other. When the interviewer asked a resident if, having so few people, it occasionally happens that there aren’t even ten people at the shul (the minimum number for service) to conduct a proper service, the man admitted that it happens. And what do you do then? asked the interviewer, “I drive to the nearby settlement and daven there,” said the man. Why go to another settlement to daven, who use different prayer books and songs than the ones you’re used to, if you have five shuls right here in your own village to pick from, and that daven exactly like you do? asked the interviewer. “I won’t go in any of them,” said the man resolutely.

A few days ago, a famous Arab-Israeli woman was interviewed on Israel TV and told an interesting story. She was invited to partake in a panel of several people at a Jewish town to discuss hatred and political tensions. The timing for the discussion was perfect since it was the 9th of Av, the date when the Temple was ruined 2,000 years ago because Jews hatred their own brethren. At the height of the debate, she finally said to her hosts, “You hate each other! Jews are hating Jews! You are discussing the ruin of the Temple on the 9th of Av, and still a Jew hates a Jew and wishes him death (reference to online death threats and death wishes to Israeli politicians)! If you hate each other, how will you love me?”

We’ve always been a nation of many views. And if you look at our history, you’ll find that when we succeeded in maintaining unity above differences, we thrived, and when we let the differences become unbridled hatred, we suffered.

Today’s Israel is at a crossroads. The differences among the various factions of the nation are gaining traction, and voices of unity are hardly heard. As always, divergence is our springboard for growth, but only if we unite above it. It is always a thin line to walk, and if we’re unaware of it, we’ll trip, and the very existence of Israel will be at risk.

Our motto has always been that hate stirs strife, and love will cover all the hatred (Proverbs 10:12). It is not an easy model to follow, but today we have no choice. Our international status will continue to deteriorate and our internal strength will continue to decline until we realize we have no other choice but to choose unity above all differences.

If we stall, the world will decide that the League of Nations’ declaration of a Jewish state in 1947 was a mistake. If we hurry and unite, the world will understand why Israel attracts so much attention—since it was meant to show how opposites can unite and cover their hate with love.

What we need right now is to shift from political bickering to a policy of unity among all factions. This is our most urgent need, especially today when hatred scares us even more than Covid, and is certainly more dangerous.
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Disconnection Of Communities, Part 5

The Biggest Anti-Semites

Question: During the Age of Enlightenment, those Jewish people who assimilated among other peoples became atheists or Christians and began to hate Jews who kept up the traditions even more. This hatred still exists in the State of Israel and it is growing.

How is the assimilation and internal hatred of Jews connected with unreasonable hatred?

Answer: A person who wants to break himself away from his root, but realizes that he cannot do it, because, obviously, there are inner forces of nature that will not allow him to, begins to hate himself, the people, the spiritual principle, the Creator.

But despite the fact that he would like to completely break himself away from this and to become an ordinary German, Frenchman, etc., he cannot succeed.

It arises such hate in him for the people, for himself, for his root, from which he heal. This is why he becomes the biggest anti-Semite.

Remark:  Unreasonable hatred is a state when a person hates working without payment. We cannot do an action without receiving payment for it, fuel, benefit for ourselves—this is our nature. We hate the quality itself for no reason. This quality is bestowal, love, unity. That is, we unconsciously hate those people in whom this quality appears.

My Comment: This is why Jewish people who are engaged in various kinds of sciences, art, and social movements propagandize anti-Semitism there.

Question: What is to be done with these contradictions? The war between the Jews continues. There are reformists, ultra-Orthodox, atheists, communists, etc.

Answer: Everyone is ready to destroy the other one. More than all the anti-Semites put together, according to Kabbalah, this is normal because Jews have the biggest egoism.

Remark: But on the other hand, you say that there must be some kind of higher idea above all this, which will unite them.

My Comment: To do this, they should turn to Kabbalah, or Kabbalah should turn to them.

For more on this topic, read my books Like a Bundle of Reeds: why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour, and The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord.

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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 8/12/19

New Life 1257 – How Ideas Are Spread

New Life 1257 – How Ideas Are Spread
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

All in all, nature is a desire to receive that passes from one human to another like a virus. We receive and absorb ideas, thoughts, and genes from one another. Nature is interested in us conveying ideas and thoughts to each other so that we will achieve a single, circular, connected, integral mechanism. Nature implants thoughts and ideas in our heads but we must achieve the altruistic, integral idea on our own by contrasting them with their opposite and through freedom of choice. The altruistic idea determines that all are equal and included in each other as one person with one heart.

It is difficult for the altruistic idea to spread because it is anti-egoistic. For the idea to spread, we have to build an environment, a network of connected people, to hold our attention. The wisdom of Kabbalah can show us the way toward continued development and the avoidance of blows like the coronavirus epidemic.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1257 – How Ideas Are Spread,” 6/24/20

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Integral Dependence Is A Natural Manifestation Of Nature

Question: On one hand, you say that there is a certain space, nature, which influences us and is increasing the awareness that it is time for us to unite. But it is obvious that until there is a leader, and not one person, but maybe a hundred, a thousand leaders involved in unification, this will not happen.

Are such leaders emerging? Are they needed?

Answer: I think that today there are many of them in our world. But they should not be leaders of the type we have seen in history. These are just people who realized that the integral dependence of mankind on each other is a natural manifestation of our nature, and we have come to this.

Selfishness grew individually until it became as global as it is today. This is manifested in science and technology, in production and world trade, which also reveal the integrity of the world. But this is not enough, since it is only an opening of world egoism. Now we will gradually see that the world must be bound by completely different kinds of forces.

The fact is that we will still not be able to continue to exploit the land, water, and air as we did before. Nature will no longer allow us to do this.

Try to get out of a pandemic and you will see how difficult it is. You will not be able to restore old ties, old enterprises. You will have no option to restore the old interactions. We will see this in the near future.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 5/24/20

How To Use The Full Potential Of Your Brain?

Question: It is said that a person uses only about 5% of the potential on one’s brain. Can we assume that this is enough to handle our individual animal needs? And if you work for the whole society, will the rest of the 95% will be opened up?

Answer: To work for the society means to rise above your egoism, to take upon yourself the goals, which are useful for the whole society, for its ultimate goal, for it to become integral, global.

When society riseד above its egoism and works only in an altruistic way, you will be able to use much more than 5% of your potential.

Question: In principle, if I need to solve a small personal problem on my own, the minimal potential is enough. But if it is necessary to solve the problem of a pandemic for example, and groups of scientists are trying to find a vaccine against the virus, then together can they connect to some kind of global mind and solve this issue?

Answer: No. I don’t think it is possible because all of them are egoists and everyone works for his own sake. To do this, they need to rise above themselves, which means to love each other, to include one inside the other.

Question: How can we use our potential if we have a large one, but only use 5%?

Answer: To do that, we need to rise above our egoistic nature, in which we were born, and acquire another altruistic nature, “love your neighbor as yourself.” Then you will be able to unite with others into one single whole, into one mind, into one desire. All of your internal data will become common, and everyone will be working for the benefit of all.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 5/7/20

Diagnosis For Humanity

Question: Modern science has developed several conceptual positions in relation to crises:

• Crisis is considered as a natural state of development of any system.
• Crisis is always characterized by the growth of egoism.
• Crisis appears as a unity of two processes. It is always both destruction and creation together.
• Crisis cannot be considered as a purely negative phenomenon.
• Crises are progressive, even if they are painful.
• It is said that a correct diagnosis is half the success in treatment.

What should a person realize? What diagnosis should each of us make for ourselves?

Answer: To start with, we must inform humanity that we all exist in our egoistic nature, and therefore, we must understand that we will have to change it.

All of nature, except humans, is integral and even altruistic.

In our world, inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature are integral. A human, however, falls out of it because of his egoism and does not obey anyone or anything. The main thing for him is that everything must be good for him, even if it is to the detriment of others.

This state exists from the side of nature as a given, in order for us to feel the depravity of our perception and the dead-end in our development.

At the moment, we have come, and this is quite obvious by our development, to a state where we begin to destroy our small planet. It cannot endure us any longer. Therefore, we have very serious problems.

Nature is rebelling against us and begins to very cruelly press us down and push us, trying to force us to change. We do not understand its actions, do not take them personally, and we continue on our path of vanity.

Question: Who are “we”?

Answer: We are very limited two-legged mammals. We are so limited that we are worse than animals. After all, even the small amount of knowledge and opportunities that we have, we use to the detriment of ourselves and the surrounding nature.

Comment: It seems to me that today millions of people have come to the diagnosis: The egoistic nature of humans is to blame for the fact that we destroy the surrounding nature.

My Response: So what if they understand? They understand and continue.

Comment: But many are already aware of the harmfulness of their behavior and are fighting against it, not just a few philosophers, but millions of people and many different organizations.

My Response: These organizations are the most egoistic ones. They fight until somebody buys them, and then they gradually fall silent. Maybe later they talk about it a little somewhere and somehow, but at the same time they understand that they must coexist with the mighty of this world, and therefore everything continues.

Of course, there are those who continue to object, but they are silenced, and they cannot be published anywhere or act. At this point, everything quiets down. After all, we see how we still go on the egoistic path, violating nature by all possible methods. This suggests that people must change.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 5/7/20

New Life 1256 – The Evolution Of Consciousness

New Life 1256 – The Evolution Of Consciousness
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the force that develops humanity is egoism. The “engine” that is found within nature develops the still, vegetative, animate, and even human consciousness to become integral. The leap in consciousness that is ahead for us is to begin to adapt to nature and to see reality not through the ego. According to one’s nature, a person doesn’t want to be connected to all of reality because this obligates him; in contrast to this, he wants to be free.

The conflicts in our lives come from people wanting to dominate each other. Suffering develops human consciousness. Humanity must reach a state in which everyone is connected with love; ideal communication is called love. In a relationship in which each one feels the other and fulfills his desires, we are completely connected with each other. A full development of consciousness is one in which I feel and fulfill your heart, and you mine.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1256 – The Evolution Of Consciousness,” 6/24/20

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The Three States Of Creation

There are three states according to the thought of creation: the initial state–Adam, the second state–our individual ego, and the third state, which we have to attain–the ascent above our ego despite the egoistic network that divides us and integrating in unity between us.

In order to reach the third state, we need to multiply the first state (the desire to receive) times the second state (our individual ego) so that we have a huge egoistic desire.

Then we have to turn this desire into a connection between us so that the egoistic networks that divide us will connect us. Thus, we will reach the third state in which we will be in complete bestowal. This is the Creator’s attribute and this is what we need to attain.

No one is asking us if this is necessary or not. Everything is programmed so that eventually we will reach one desire for one attribute, for bestowal. Then it will be revealed to us that we are connected between us and filled with the Creator.

If we spread these three states on a timeline, the first state is the beginning of the creation, the second state is the correction, and the third state is the end of creation.

The correction is gradual. If we count from zero to 6,000 years. Today we are actually in the last phase, in the year 5779, and there are about 221 years left until the end of correction.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 9/16/18