When you approach a city to wage war against it, you shall propose peace to it. And it will be, if it responds to you with peace, and it opens up to you, then it will be, [that] all the people found therein shall become tributary to you, and they shall serve you. (Torah, Devarim, Shoftim 20:10-11)

If you have desires which you can cover with an intention to bestow, then there is no need to fight them.

In general, one should not fight with the desires, but only with the intentions. This war ends if you turn them from the intention, “for my own sake” to the intention, “for the sake of others”. Everything depends on the influence of the environment and development of the individual.

Question: When I offer peace to a desire, does it mean that it is ready to accept the intention to bestow?

Answer: Yes. From a psychological point of view, we always need to start with this and not break ourselves. If it is possible to gently move to a different level of our inner work in understanding, in bestowal, in concern for external factors, then our victory is in this.

Everything depends on how you study, how you disseminate, how connected you are with friends. This is how you advance.

Our progress, for the most part, is not actualized through war. It is not necessary to constantly be in a state of stress. Of course, it is not to say that there may not be some battling, but it has to be controlled and appropriate. On one hand, never relent, because your responsibility is only to engage in correction. On the other hand, all intentions and desires that arise in you, need to be reframed with help from the Light, the upper force.

That is, you need to begin passing such Light, such thoughts and actions through them that would enable you, very gently but inevitably, form a connection with the Creator above them and to understand that they come from only one source, and you should only connect to that source through them. Only then all of them will become yours and will obey you. This is the challenge of our lives.

Comment: This is always very difficult because basically, you are changing your nature and it is somewhat of a forced process.

Answer: Everything depends on the intention of a person. Let us say, right now you need to take a 40 lbs package somewhere. It is not easy to do it, it is hard. But if you need to bring it to your beloved little grandchild, who needs it very much, then it becomes much easier, quickly you find the strength. Because everything depends on desire, goal, and intention.

Comment: However, the intention is given from above. That means it is necessary to ask for it.

Answer: Of course, but you have to demonstrate persistence in this.

Comment: The example with the grandchild is clear to me, but with the Creator it is more complicated.

Answer: Why is it more complicated? If everything in the world occurs only in order to turn you to Him, then there is nothing complicated. Imagine for yourself that you receive everything from Him and only in order to turn toward Him.

He is very jealous and will do everything in order to get you to pay attention to Him. It is a terrible jealousy, almost impossible to describe! In every minor detail! In whatever it is! And only when there is enough attention from you (no more and no less), then everything is well.

That being said, we are not talking about performing mechanical actions, such as making a blessing before a meal. We are talking about a person  who changes his attitude and reveals the Creator thanks to His nudges.

Direction toward Him must not only be in every action, but in every breath, in every glance, in everything, so that every cell, every fiber, yearns toward its source.
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From a TV program “Secrets of the Eternal Book,” 09/19/2016

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Preparation for the Lesson

Lesson on Topic: “Purim,” Part 1

Lesson on Topic: “Purim,” Part 2

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Question: What does it mean to perceive what is external to you?

Answer: Our desire is actually neutral. It can be used for your own benefit or for the benefit of others. It all depends on what a person wants: to bestow or to receive.

If I want to receive, the desire is called a corporeal desire and I feel this world; if I want to bestow, to give, the desire is called a spiritual desire, and then I feel that I am in the upper world.

The point is that anyone can receive, but you need to know how to be able to bestow. “Kabbalah,” although this translates to  “receive” in Hebrew, it is actually the science of bestowal. Therefore, it is built on the quality of bestowal and its main law is love.

Love is filling the desires of other people, which unfortunately does not exist in our world.

Most importantly, if I can bestow unto someone, I can help him attain the upper world. In other words, our bestowal to the world comes down to disseminating this method, because it is only by this method that a person can reach a comfortable, true, eternal, and perfect state.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/6/16

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Question: What gives a person the feeling and attainment of the complete picture of the world that surrounds us? How does it change his life and his fate?

Answer: How would you perceive your life if you knew which of your actions have a good impact and which have a bad impact on the whole world, if you had the perspective of everything that is in our life, even infinite years ahead, as if time did not exist, and if you were in a continuous developmental process feeling what is beneficial for this development and what is harmful, how would this feeling affect you?

You would suddenly discover that it is an interesting interaction, a symbiosis, the connection of your corporeal and spiritual parts, which impact each other with such incredible interdependence that with can make amazing discoveries and attain such achievements and heights that are quite difficult to achieve outside the corporeal body.

The wisdom of Kabbalah gives us this opportunity to use here in this world. Therefore, act now because you will be in the upper world forever since time does not exist there.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 11/20/16

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Question from Facebook: I have been betrayed many times in life. I know what it is, but I still want to ask, what is betrayal?

Answer: I have also often felt a change in attitude toward me that could be called betrayal.

But since I began to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, I have always accepted it as completely natural, without any internal drama, without anger or grumbling, without a desire for revenge, because first of all, that is how human nature is manifested.

Second, this doesn’t reveal the person who betrayed you, but the Creator who is showing you how much your attitude has not been perfect, far from total love, loyalty, and complete interaction with others. So your resentment and grumbling is out of place.

On the contrary, you need to understand that if you want to attain absolute devotion  in your relationships with others, you must ascend in spiritual levels to a state where your ego will be completely subordinated to the law of brotherhood and love. This is a high level but attainable.

Only to the degree that you rise to a level of shared work with a friend, will you be able to trust him as yourself.

And there is no place for betrayal there because during an ascent you enter into an area where you are protected by the Upper Light. A higher energy illuminates you so that you are not able to carry out anything improper because you are under its influence.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/1/17

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New Life 310 – Man’s Character
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

What is our character, what is its purpose, is it possible to change it, and what is the way to realize it in order to reach connection through integral education?

Each person is born with a different character

There are four basic character types and each one of them is then divided into four. Overall there are 16 basic character types.

The character a person is born with is the one he will die with. It’s not possible to change it, but one can learn to use it correctly

Each person is composed of many gears and each cogwheel needs to conform to roll with others. Mankind needs to reach completion between these four prototypes to be as one whole person. People are always looking for people to complement them, they are looking for a perfect connection with the environment.

Balance and mutual completion means that we all are both different and equal.

Everyone wants overall completion, even the sad types. For example, in the past there were leaders with “the look of melancholy.” What defines a person’s character is both fate and genetics. You can call it Reshimo (Reminiscence).

There are four internal character layers: a. the hidden layer, b. the known and undesirable, c. the desired, and d. the outer presentation.

Above one’s nature, one needs to reach “love your friend as yourself” in order to reach mutual completion and a good world

The integral approach doesn’t work on individual psychology, but on the development of human connection. Nature created us differently so we would realize ourselves in the connection between us. Connection: each one tries to act for the good of the other, and see whose attributes complement each other beautifully.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 310 – Man’s Character,” 3/4/14

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“The most egoistic actions beget the nations Ammon and Moab, from which arise the Kingdom of Judea and King Moshiach.” The Zohar, Vaera.

It’s remarkable how nature’s perfect governance gets warped by our egoistic behavior and yields the opposite, horrible result! EGOIST

Kabbalah explains the system of creation, the world’s program of development and governing forces. The goal (& our destiny) is perfection.

Anti-Semites (Haman) are the Creator’s messengers (angels) — they force the Jews to unite, correct the world and raise it to the Creator.

“Only a global government can save humanity.” Stephen Hawking. Correct! Because it must be united by definition.

Young American Jews! Anti-Semites won’t let you live in peace until you unite above your differences and eradicate its root. @CAMERAonCAMPUS

Michael Laitman: A Farewell to US Politics
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From Twitter, 3/10/17

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In my regular column in Jewish Business News, my new article: “Why Jews Are The Key To The Unity Trump Called For In His Congress Speech“

Jews are once again at the center of events, and it is no coincidence. They hold the key to the unity and stability of American society.

As Trump mentioned in the opening of his address to congress, from East to West coast America, Jews are troubled and distressed by bomb threats and vandalism in Jewish cemeteries. Strangely, no one knows who is behind this wave of incidents, and yet too easily fingers are pointed at Trump and his administration as the root cause, expecting them to provide the solutions as well.

First, we should open our eyes and recognize that anti-Semitism been on the rise worldwide for a number of years now, well before the recent elections. What’s more, it has been pervasive on both the right and the left.

American campuses have become breeding grounds for anti-Semitic sentiments. A 2014 study on anti-Semitism on U.S. campuses by the Louis D. Brandies Center in Connecticut provided a quantitative measure of the degree of anti-Semitism found on campuses and affiliated institutions, and also gathered qualitative impressions from Jewish students such as this: “The divestment campaign and other anti-Israel campaigns are intertwined with rampant anti-Semitism.” In 2015, the Anti-Defamation League reported 90 anti-Semitic incidents on US campuses, twice as many as the year before.

In liberal democracies such as Sweden and France, Jews have been living in fear, facing death chants and hate crimes. Labor and Democratic parties across the Western World have exhibited alarming levels of anti-Semitism. So, painting the rise of Right Wing political parties as the cause of anti-Semitism is simply groundless.

The US elections certainly brought to light many of the societal ills in America, from the lingering degradation of America’s industry and Rust Belt cities, to its deep socio-economic inequalities and social polarization, as well as the anti-Semitic currents that have been brewing in America for years.

In fact, anti-Semitism has been around for millennia, transcending politics, religions, and cultures.

Jews Are Dangerously Divided

In such a climate of fear and threat, what worries me most is the growing division amongst Jews themselves. Liberal Jews and Conservative Jews have become so alienated from one another that each side feels the other behaves against the interests of the Jewish people and against their core values. Ironically, the greatest of Jewish values is unity above differences, as famously stated in the greatest law of Torah, “Love thy neighbor as thyself”.

The inability of Jews to rise above their differences of opinion shows how distanced we have become from our true heritage. This must quickly be amended, not only because it is our true goal as a people, but because it now puts us in grave danger. We may have different political opinions, but we are all Jews, and for anti-Semites, that is enough.

Instead of allowing politics to divide us, as they do so well, Jews must come together. This is not only a mechanism for fending off threats in the natural world, historically, it has proven to safeguard our people. It is written in the book Maor VaShemesh that “the prime defense against calamity is love and unity. When there are love, unity, and friendship within Israel, no calamity can come upon them.”

What Jews Have that America Desperately Needs

While safeguarding Jewish communities is good enough reason to come together, there is an even deeper reason that Jewish unity must now be our first priority. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains that it is the historical purpose of Jews to demonstrate unity and to model corrected societal relations for others. It is no coincidence that famous anti-Semites such as Henry Ford knew this as well. In his book, The International Jew—The World’s Foremost Problem, he wrote that “Modern reformers, who are constructing model social systems, would do well to look into the social system under which the early Jews were organized.”

Although long forgotten, Jews once lived under principles of true equality and mutual concern. 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 the method that allowed them to rise above their differences to create increased social cohesion and unprecedented human development. It was only after the destruction of the Temple, in the long exile that followed, that this unity was forgotten.

As Jews dispersed the world over, they contributed to the social, economic and cultural development of every society they entered. However, this development was not led by the unifying principles able to balance and harmonize these societies, and as gaps and divisions between people worsened, blame and hatred always appeared and the Jews were pushed out.

Today, as anti-Semitism is growing once more, Jews must finally provide the model of societal cohesion that only they can. Our ancient calling has become so pressing and relevant that ignoring it will have hazardous consequences.

The current wave of threats towards Jews is not about Trump—it’s about imperative change that needs to happen, change that Jews must initiate and play a determining role in. We must see that our true Jewish power, both to protect our communities and to contribute to the world, lies in our ability to unite above all differences, and that this wisdom is deeply ingrained in our heritage.

Jews must be the ones to, in Trump’s words, help to “build bridges of cooperation and trust—not drive the wedge of disunity and division.”
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