“2021 – A Decisive Year For Europe” (Linkedin)

 My new article on Linkedin “2021 – A Decisive Year for Europe”

2021 is going to be a decisive year for Europe. The Old Continent has become a cesspool of divisiveness among countries, factions, movements, and peoples. The UK, Germany, France, the Balkans, Italy, Spain, everything is so divided and splintered that unless Europeans start thinking of themselves as one entity very soon, they will suffer terribly. It will certainly not be easy, but a pan European identity is their only way out of anguish.

Europe is in many ways the cradle of human development. As such, the world will look at it and learn, and Europe should show the world what the future of the world can be like. It must show that despite all the many colors, races, nationalities, and their war-ridden history, they can rise above it and build themselves as one family, truly as one family. Otherwise, they will simply consume one another. If they do not unite, I see no future for them.

Besides their internal frictions, China, Russia, and the US will vie over control in Europe, and nothing will be left of “the Old Lady.” Even Africa will join the “party,” as is already happening with the migration of refugees, but in other ways, as well.

When you look at the world map, it’s interesting to see the unique role that each place has in bringing the world to a better place. The US is an example of a nation divided into myriad factions that are still one nation. Europe is an example of many nations that must function as one nation. Each must provide an example of unity above the differences that the world can follow. If either of them fails to carry out their role, they will suffer. I can’t say who will suffer more if they do not execute their required union, but both will certainly agonize.

Israel, too, has its unique role. In fact, Israel’s role is perhaps the most important in the process of unifying the world. Israel must provide the philosophy, the theory, the ideological infrastructure for unity: where it comes from, why unity is essential, and by which rules and regulations we are to arrange it.

The current European Union will not achieve these goals. In fact, I am all for dismantling it, and I’m happy that the UK left it. The current EU was not built in order to unite Europe. It was established in order to bolster banks, industrialists, and billionaires, but not to unite Europe. One could drive from one end of Europe to the other before the establishment of the EU, so there is no benefit in terms of open borders. The regular person does not gain anything from living in a so-called united Europe.

As I said in the beginning, a European union should be a union of the hearts, where they feel that they are in deep connection. And the more different they are, the more tightly they will unite, according to their efforts. The ones who are the farthest now will be the closest once they unite.

This union must be completely unrelated to the existing institutions of the EU. It must be a separate entity that functions whether or not the current EU survives the approaching upheavals. This union of hearts is the union they were searching for over the past thirty years or so since they established the EU.

And as for Israel and the ideology that Israel is required to provide, the level of hatred that Europeans will harbor toward Israel depends on the level of their hatred for connection. If Israel offers a way to connect—which isn’t the current situation, but presumably—and the Europeans shun it because they do not want to connect, then they will have no choice but to take some more beating from other countries or from nature until they yield and become receptive to the notion of connection.

And speaking of antisemitism, we think it is impervious to reason, and perhaps this is so, as are all hatreds. However, antisemitism is not impervious to a model of unity coming out of Israel. Even Henry Ford, whose antisemitic ideology Hitler admired, wrote in his rabid composition The International Jew—the World’s Foremost Problem, “The emergence of the Jewish Question is a part of the culmination of destiny that has come upon us, not for harm but for good. …The justification of a discussion of the Jewish Question is the good for the Jews, and the greatest present obstacle to that good is the Jews themselves. The time is here when they shall see it.”

In other words, antisemitism is not necessarily a fact of life, but something that Israel can overcome by carrying out its role, and by the nations accepting Israel’s contribution—the ideology of unity. The future of Europe hangs in the balance; if Europeans overcome their divisions soon, they will triumph. If not, they will lose bitterly. Israel, for its part, must do its duty in the healing by providing the ideology of unity above differences and by setting an example.

“Wake Up Humanity, Before The Waves Drown Us” (Linkedin)

 My new article on Linkedin “Wake Up Humanity, Before the Waves Drown Us”

Most of the summaries of 2020 (the few who even attempted it) speak of 2020 as a tragedy, as if their lives have been stolen. In my view, this is an immature perspective. When a little boy plays outside with his friends and his mother calls him in to finish his homework, the boy thinks she is a terrible mother, but we grownups know better. We are like that boy, throwing a temper tantrum at Mother Nature’s insistence that we do what we must. Nature didn’t do anything bad to humanity; she only called us in to do our homework. And as we all know, if we don’t do our homework, we will fail the test. And when the test is about our lives, it is not one we want to fail.

While we were home, in the first lockdown that Mother Nature imposed on us, we should have started doing our homework. We should have realized that she had sent us the virus that sent us home only because we have been bad to one another, like brothers who cannot get along and fight so much that their mother has no choice but to send them to their separate rooms. She hopes that after some time alone, they will realize that they shouldn’t treat each other as they did and will resolve to find a way to get along.

After some time, the mother lets them out, since she is their mother, after all, and wants them to enjoy life. However, instead of making peace, they start fighting even worse than before. The poor mother has no choice but to punish them more severely, hoping that this time they will learn. The children know that when they are quiet, Mother is nice to them. But the brothers hate each other so fiercely that they forget what is best for them the minute they see each other, so they start bickering again.

This is where we are. Nature’s blows are like the mother’s admonition or punishment and we are the obstinate children. Instead of learning, we’re counting on the vaccines to enable us to take off our masks so we can swear at each other once again, eliminate the social distance so we can beat each other up, and hail this emotional carnage as “freedom” and “normalcy.”

Every time Nature sends another punishment, it’s like a wave that hits us and forces us to retreat. During the retreat, we are supposed to reflect on our behavior with each other. But we don’t. Finally, the water recedes and we come out of our shelters only to squabble, humiliate, and exploit each other even more than before. This makes the next wave more substantial, aiming to force us to reflect. If we don’t start reflecting soon, the waves will drown us. They might come in all sorts of ways; Nature is very creative when it comes to punishments, but there is no reason for us to experience them first hand. We can choose instead to discover her creativity in giving and in caring.

Look at the coronavirus. We haven’t even vaccinated everyone from the original strain, and we are already dealing with two new strains, from the UK and from South Africa, both of which are much more contagious, and to which we don’t know if the vaccine already approved will work. It is a sign that Nature will not let up. She will not stop until we learn.

Look at how we’re treating one another with the vaccine. Why do countries that cannot afford to buy it have to beg for it? Haven’t we learned that we are all in this together? Haven’t we seen that an infection anywhere is an infection everywhere? Dispensing the vaccine to all the countries, none excluded, is our first test in mutual responsibility. So far, we’re failing.

As I see things now, I think that we will live with the coronavirus and its mutations for many years to come. It’s come to teach us to live differently, with more care, consideration, and responsibility for one another. Until we learn, it won’t go away. The waves will come and go, but the more we stall in learning, the more poignant the waves will become. In the beginning, the virus didn’t affect children; now it does. In the beginning, it affected mainly our lungs; now it affects our brains and hearts. What more do we want it to do to us before we learn what it is trying to tell us?

Remember the mother allegory: If we don’t stop fighting, Mother Nature will send us to our separate rooms or find other ways to punish us, which will be more and more painful.
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The Energy That Feeds Us

 

Question: A person is part of a large complex system. Naturally we need internal energy and strength to maintain systemic relations. What is the energy source that feeds us?

Answer: This is egoistic fulfillment on all levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human.

If we want to get to the next level, then we need to use this energy to nourish our bodies only to the extent necessary for their existence, and we fill our “I” with the quality of bestowal and love for others. Then, we will begin to receive a new kind of fulfillment, filling with bestowal. This will be a completely different feeling of awareness of existence.

Question: So, in fact, a person can simultaneously receive two types of energy?

Answer: Yes. I get an animal filling for my body and absolutely consciously because my condition dictates this to me. The highest fulfillment is where I work in a completely different way, in the quality of bestowal and love for others.

Question: Why does a person sometimes lack energy?

Answer: He does not see its source and does not know why to receive it and how to use it correctly. Therefore, the states of powerlessness, aimlessness, detachment, and nihilism are good states that lead him to a correct re-evaluation of one’s values both within oneself and in the world, and then lead a person to the next stage.

Comment: From the point of view of the systems approach, our lack of energy is not very good for the system because a person begins to become imbalanced within it.

My Response: This pushes him forward in his search. In this search, he finds himself in new states. If he did not have that need, he would never have developed. As they say, “Love and hunger rule the world.”

Question: How can one be happy and fulfilled in any given situation?

Answer: This depends on the goal. If it approaches you even with a sense of some unpleasant qualities, feelings, and actions, this does not matter. The main thing is that, in the end, you get something more. It all depends on the value of what you are aiming for.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 12/7/20

Concealment Teaches Us How To Correct Ourselves

 

We are in a special reality that entirely hides the Creator. But if we relate to it correctly, then through all its levels: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human, we gradually find out that the Creator wants us to reveal Him.

This concealment teaches us how to correct ourselves in order to reveal the Creator, not to remain in blind faith, but to attain the upper force explicitly and openly, to come from concealment to revelation. Therefore, we must perceive this world as an opportunity to reveal the Creator. Behind the material world, we will begin to reveal the spiritual world, its many stages, and each time rise from concealment to revelation.

Through such exercises, organized by the Creator from the beginning of creation to the end, we gain reason and sensations, learn how the Creator hides and how to reveal Him, and through concealment and revelation we understand what He wants to tell us.

It is known that “the advantage of light is perceived from darkness,” but darkness is the first attainment. Only within it do we begin to reveal the light and the Creator, learn His language, the letters—a point, a line, a circle, a triangle, a crossbar—different forms of darkness and light, revealed one against the other.

In this way, we gradually gain understanding and start to speak with the Creator in the same language, to master His program, according to which we must build ourselves in order to understand Him, feel and become His partners, sons in the entire universe, in all forms of His concealment and revelation.

In the end, all concealments only support revelation. The concealment does not disappear, but becomes a background on which we reveal the upper force and incorporate the darkness and light in ourselves and reach our end of correction.

Concealment is perceived against the background of revelation, and revelation against the background of concealment. The main thing is to be in both states and be able to move from one to the other and back on your own, and so begin to understand the Creator’s message, His language, and know what He wants to tell us.

The whole creation consists of two forces: plus and minus, light and darkness, which manifest themselves in relation to us as concealment and revelation. That is why it is so important in every state we go through, every day and every moment, not to turn away from the situation in order to see that it has the measure of concealment, and the measure of revelation in it.

The main thing is not to forget that we stand directly in front of the Creator, who always draws us a world woven of concealment and revelation. As if writing black letters on a white sheet of paper, the Creator reveals to us His attitude, His nature, so that we study Him, learn to understand, cooperate, and so achieve adhesion with Him.

All our lives, in any situation, we must remember that we are present with some concealment and some revelation of the Creator, and by combining these two forms, He draws the world and our sense of ourselves for us. Then we will know the right way to turn deeper inside to Him, to feel not ourselves in our world, but the Creator, that is, how He builds us and our world.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/20, “Concealment”

New Life 1290 – Motivation At Work

 

New Life 1290 – Motivation At Work
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Our nature is to lose motivation just as a person who begins to eat loses his appetite at a certain point. There should be experts in an organization who make sure that motivation, creativity, and innovation remain high by making employees into partners and giving awards to show importance, respect, and appreciation. If we want a worker to come to work enthusiastically, he needs to feel that he can express his uniqueness at work.

The quality of the interpersonal connections and the atmosphere at work greatly impact the workers’ motivation. Competition in an integral organization means each one competes with himself as well as connects to others in order to contribute to the success of the organization.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1290–Motivation At Work,” 12/13/20

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Does The Concept Of “Life” Change Over Time?

 

Question: Recently, when, on one hand, the world is being hit by a pandemic and other crises and, on the other hand, there are very strong developments in technology and science, does this mean that the very concept of “life” is changing?

Answer: It is changing. Ordinary people living in this world are beginning to feel more and more that this world does not have any meaning, that none of our efforts will lead us to something special, that is, to eternal fulfillment, and, therefore, that there is really no need to live.

This is awakening, especially in the new generation. The next generations are coming who will fully feel the hopelessness and aimlessness of our existence. This will lead the masses to the question of the meaning of life. We must prepare this transition for them.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 12/7/20

The Mythological Language Of The Book Of Zohar

 

There are texts in The Book of Zohar that seem very strange to an ordinary person. Therefore, to introduce a person into them, to explain them to him, it will take, perhaps, several years.

It all depends on the qualities and states that one must experience in order to begin to feel them. Just like a small child, you cannot tell about the experiences of an adult, about his art, etc. He will not understand this.

The allegorical, mythological language of The Book of Zohar is very conventional, but accurate. After all, if I know the inner meaning of the concept “crocodile,” then through the image of an earthly crocodile, I see the forces that stand behind it, determine its general background, properties, appearance, character, absolutely everything! I see all spiritual properties in this earthly image, and I deal with them.

Thus, The Book of Zohar tells about our inner properties. Through reading it, I reveal everything in myself. The Garden of Eden is the highest level. The four rivers, the crocodile, the big sea, this is Malchut in which souls exist, and with them I must merge.

That is, this whole picture is in me. Everything exists in the person himself. Even the world that is supposedly around us, in fact, we feel what is inside ourselves. It only seems to us that it is on the outside.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #1

Will We Return To This World After Death?

 

Question: Will a person return to this world after death?

Answer: If we talk only about the animal (physical) body and its life, then this state does not return.

There is no need for it and there is nothing to regret about it. We just need to try to extract the maximum eternal benefit from each state that we go through.

Question: If we do not speak from the point of view of the animal body, but from the point of view of human consciousness, what does life and death look like?

Answer: A person’s consciousness should lead him to a state where he begins to feel the general consciousness, connects to the general cloud of information and fulfillment and stays in it. He will see himself and everything that exists in a single stream of information.

Question: Can a person remember his past incarnations?

Answer: If in order to realize himself, a person needs some new or additional information, then he receives this from being included in this huge cloud, which is called the Creator, nature.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 12/07/20