Audio Version Of The Blog – 11/30/19

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio

Family And Marriage, Part 6

laitman_600.04Time and Love for Children

Question: Do I understand correctly that nature instinctively instilled love for children in us only so that we would learn to treat other people the same way?

Answer: Yes and no. Over time, love for children will change. It is already changing. Today, people relate to children differently than before.

Throughout all generations there has been a draw, caring, and love for children, but all this is changing.

Since our desire, understanding of the world, and method of communicating with the outside world are changing, naturally, the attitude toward children as a part of the world is changing too.
[254064]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/1/19

Related Material:
Family And Marriage, Part 5
Family And Marriage, Part 4
Family And Marriage, Part 3

“Rethinking Social Media In The Era Of Hatred” (Newsmax)

My article in Newsmax: “Rethinking Social Media in the Era of Hatred

If Hitler had access to social media like there is today, he would have been allowed to buy ads, reflected British actor Sacha Baron Cohen in a recent thought provoking statement, calling internet platforms “the greatest propaganda machine in history,” ruled by money.

I concur, but beyond the speeches, real changes will demand unprecedented measures in times of extraordinary challenges to face bigotry, discrimination, and the most deeply-rooted form of hatred: anti-Semitism.

Social media has been deliberately built to influence our emotions, preferences, decisions, impulses, energy, attention span, and interactions. There is a well-established process to influence our minds and pockets. The internet was created for the purpose of serving humanity, says its inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, who 30 years later laments how the opposite has been achieved and “communities are being ripped apart as prejudice, hate and disinformation are peddled online,” suggesting that the web needs “radical intervention from all those who have power over its future.”

Is the Future of Humanity for Sale?

Social media and the media in general have become the ruling power where everything is permissible regardless of the veracity or positive benefit to society. The current communication systems are handled according to monetary interests, a reflection of human nature that is innately egoistic, i.e., aiming at self-benefit and exploitative relations. We will eventually need to realize that any technological innovation or means failing to advance humanity toward greater positive connection only harms it. But how can we achieve such a lofty goal considering that it is against the way we are built: egoistic?

It will happen when we eventually feel there is no other alternative to thrive but to change direction.

The world is rapidly moving toward a dead end, a turning point in social evolution: power structures are shaking in multiple countries around the planet, as we have witnessed in the last few weeks. Global economic debacle is predicated by international analysts. Such a scenario is showing us that self-centered perceptions and actions are reaching maximum capacity. If money can now buy anything, it will gradually lose its value, and social media as well as political, economic, and social actors will have to find a way to stay afloat.

Here is precisely where the Jewish people can contribute to society’s betterment. It is not by chance that the main social media platforms such as Facebook, Google, and others have been created by Jews. It gives us a hint of our true identity, our purpose, and role in the world: to unite humanity as a whole. We currently have the tools; now it is time to learn how to use them for a higher purpose.

New Principles for a New Society, the Role of the Jewish Nation

About a century ago, Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag wrote: “Do not be surprised if I mix together the well-being of a particular collective with the well-being of the whole world, because indeed, we have already come to such a degree that the whole world is considered one collective and one society.”

The Jewish nation can pioneer the correction of what needs to be fixed in the world: human relations — the way we relate to one another and the purpose of what we have created to either belittle or support each other. The use of social media to enhance mutual concern and a more holistic perception will positively shape the world of today and tomorrow.

In order to do so, every society could follow the model established by the Jewish people centuries ago, similar to what was called in ancient Israel, a Sanhedrin, an ideological body responsible for the nation’s right direction, to achieve balance and harmony. Similarly, in today’s world, the model of such an ideological body, a pluralistic watchdog where all the ideas are represented and discussed, until a common agreement is reached and only then disseminated, could help monitor the correct use of social media.

Such a body should be comprised of representatives from the entire political spectrum, as in Congress, in charge of evaluating media if harmful or malicious information is disseminated to the general public, instead of only facts.

As the world becomes increasingly interdependent, people will have to expand their circle of concern. We need to enhance our social sensitivity, broaden our worldview, better understand our nature as human beings, our limits and responsibilities, and most importantly, learn how to tap into our inherent wiring for human connection.

If the world started feeling an upgrade in consciousness, a positive change in their lives through this new model to find balanced communications and human interaction, the tendency toward anti-Semitism would invert: the Jewish nation will be perceived as the conduit of the good that fills people’s lives.

Such a sense of fulfillment can be achieved if we start using the web as a common umbrella of mutual understanding and support that would help us unite above all of our differences, divisions, and conflicts.
[256303]

Why The Next Holocaust Can Happen In America – Talk With Shaul Magid

Shaul Magid, the Distinguished Fellow in Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, meets Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman to discuss anti-Semitism, and why America is one of the most sensitive countries where it can have an immersive growth.

The most developed nations of the world can feel the severest effects of anti-Semitism. This is so because they better feel that Jews “are hiding the key to Heaven” from them.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, Jews really do. They bear the method of correction, which lets them bring the force of love and bestowal into the world and prevent the upcoming overall crisis. This method the Jewish people received in ancient Babylon 3,800 years ago from Abraham who revealed that building positive human connections helps to consciously rise above the destructive egoistic human nature. Today, there is an urgent need for this method to be shared with everyone.

Unfortunately, after three exiles, it was lost, and Jews fell into some kind of coma. There is a false sensation of being secure. Even though recently, we were able to observe the anti-Semitic acts all over the world (especially in the US), instead of turning to their nature and become a “light unto the nations,” Jews powerlessly fight against anti-Semitism advocating laws for protecting Jews and state security. With such a state of things, the next Holocaust can happen in a country like America.

In order to prevent this, we must understand that the solution lies in the connection between us. The Jewish people need to do so first, and by the law of nature, the world will follow them.

Male And Female, Part 1

laitman_622.01

Two Forces in the Universe

Question: Kabbalists write that the relationship between genders is the foundation of the entire universe. Are people divided into men and women because there is the Creator and the created beings?

Answer: Yes. Two forces of the universe—the force of bestowal and the force of reception—are manifested in matter in the form of man and woman.

Question: So the force of bestowal is the male essence and the female essence is the force of reception?

Answer: Yes, but purely conditionally. In principle, from the aspect of forces, this is true: the male force gives and the female one receives. However, when it comes to receiving and bestowing, it does not mean that the female force is attuned to the egoistic quality to receive and the male one to the altruistic quality to bestow.

In each person there are both forces: both male and female.
[255109]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 12/31/18

Related Material:
“Man” And “Woman” In Kabbalistic Terms
Men And Women Studying Kabbalah
Female Desire And Male Intention

“Black Friday”

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 11/29/19

Each year, right after Thanksgiving, human nature runs amok. We call it “Black Friday.” Let’s not kid ourselves; retailers aren’t losing money on Black Friday, they’re making a lot more of it. So why don’t they sell at these prices all year long? Because we customers are not united.

I’m not trying to suggest that unity for the sake of cutting prices will get us anywhere. It won’t. If anything, it will make things worse because there will always be people who will take advantage of the situation at the public’s expense.

But if we’re willing to stand in long lines, spend a lot of time and effort to save a few hundred dollars (at best), think how much we could save by collaborating? How much we could save by building our commitment to each other, and not just to ourselves?

Audio Version Of The Blog – 11/29/19

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio

“What’s Wrong With The Media?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What’s wrong with the media?

Accelerated by the Internet, the media has become steroid-pumped with power, acquiring freedom, influence and control like never before.

Anyone can promote anything they want. If you are paying, you can control the media, and by doing so, control public opinion: society’s psychology, awareness and subconscious.

Individuals and groups guided by wealth and power motives thus methodically change public opinion, even using the media to manipulate legal proceedings and government elections.

People of law, such as judges, police and lawyers, have become involved in the media’s brainwashing machine, and all human systems have come under the media’s influence.

The media has become the influencer following us everywhere we go, in our hands and pockets, ears and eyes, all day, every day.

And who or what controls the media?

Money. Not an ideology. Not a plan aimed at educating and raising society to better connect and enjoy happier lives. No, just money.

Money is the worst fuel for a system. It is just quantitative units, where the more of these units you have, the more value you have.

How the Bought Media Has Contributed to Society’s Decline

Since so many people pump money into the media, and the media plays such an influential role in shaping public opinion, the media is increasingly feeling the power it has, and it has begun using its power in the most aggressive and egoistic way possible. Today, there is regular behind-the-scenes buying-and-selling in the media, manipulating power at the highest levels.

The egoistic use of the media is a major disease-like problem spreading throughout human society. It confuses people, since anyone can promote whatever they want, as long as they have enough money.

The more money a person aspiring for a position of power has, the more he can influence his opinion on society. Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s statement at a recent ADL conference contextualized the severity of what this means: “If Facebook were around in the 1930s, it would have allowed Hitler to post 30-second ads on his ‘solution’ to the ‘Jewish problem.’”

Since we value money and power so much, then we live in a world where those with more money—not wisdom, knowledge, expertise and experience, but money—control.

We see situations today where judges, i.e., people who need to be “untouchable,” have become influenced by the media to pass judgments with the fear of what could be done to their image in the media.

If we would start setting boundaries to limit the media that we consume, so that it would aim at benefiting the public and not merely the self-interests of those who take advantage of it, then we could prevent any further blind acceleration toward an oncoming wall.

The Solution to Bought Media – The New Media Review Organization

Although it seems unrealistic to discuss any kind of regulation on the media today, it would become more realistic if another major financial collapse struck.

The world as we know it today would come to a complete halt.

Picture the scenario that the stock market crashes. Money flow stops. Our exchange system—buying and selling by means of money—stops. Advertising stops. Nothing fuels the systems we’ve built to connect us. Everything stops.

Our constantly flowing competitive, materialistic and self-interest energized value system, based on money, gets shocked.

Since money stops moving and we wouldn’t be able to buy or sell anything, we would stop valuing money, and then we would be able to see how much money got out of hand.

At that point, we could envision a collective of people around the world forming, creating a new media review organization. Due to seeing the error in the way the media was bought by anyone who was paying beforehand and how our money-focused lives led us to a shattering, we would be more inclined to reach an agreement that the media needs to be reviewed and filtered in a way that cannot be bought by money.

Their role would be to make the media informative, and not act out of interests. It would start by closing off the Internet as we know it, so that there would be no fake political, economic and national promotions.

This new organization would define laws and boundaries for filtering out anything that could incite the public, with the focus on giving the public the information it needs, events described as objectively as possible.

The main team would of a diverse group of people from all backgrounds. They would be expected to argue regularly, but the leading principle they would be continuously reminded about would be that they need to reach a common agreement on what’s most beneficial for the public, and thus, the organization reviews and passes on information to the public in an unbiased manner.

They would also engage in learning about how to work together as equals, regularly checking to make sure that everyone in the decisive committee had equal weight.

Where Does That Leave Us Today?

The question is, do we need to wait for a financial collapse, where everyone becomes desperate from not being able to live the materialistic lives we currently live in order to undergo this change?

It all depends on how much we can raise awareness of the kind of connections we need to establish in human society. If we aim to connect human society to be as interconnected and interdependent as the technological, economic and cultural connections naturally revealing to us, then we would experience harmony. Likewise, on the contrary, anything we do that doesn’t head toward better connecting people will have negative side effects.

The media crisis we find ourselves in today comes to show us that we are nearing the end of an era of unconscious human development, one where the egoistic system based on money is positioned between all of us. It is a system that has no value other than the ego of the person who outcompetes others.

The more we suffer today from this system increasingly malfunctioning, the more we will have the opportunity to consider what it would take to wake up from our coma-like state and realize unity.

Human society today is gradually nearing this new awakening. All society needs is that its mental and emotional development match the connectedness of its technological and economic development, and then distances between people will fill up with the unifying force dwelling in nature.

Also, as I regularly explain, the Jewish people hold the key to pioneering this process of unity, and it depends on Jewish unity (“love your friend as yourself”) before expanding to the unity of humanity (“light unto the nations”).

Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 10/6/19

laitman_622.01Question: Are the spiritual worlds a mirror image of our world? In our world, love is first given and it is up to us to maintain it, while in the spiritual worlds do we have to first develop relationships that will become love?

Answer: This is not entirely correct. You are talking about egoistic feelings in our world, while in the spiritual world they are altruistic, so you cannot compare them. When we talk about the law of root and branch, the intention is for the lower levels to resemble the structure of the upper level.

Question: What is the connection of the Olam Ein Sof (World of Infinity) with the rest of the worlds?

Answer: Olam Ein Sof is a world that has no end, meaning that there is no limit for the quality of bestowal and love. It is infinite, and it is therefore called Olam Ein Sof.

Question: Where are the 125 levels found, and where does the final correction happen? Is it in the world of Atzilut or in Olam Ein Sof?

Answer: It is preferable to say that it is in Olam Ein Sof; this is more understandable.

Question: Are we correcting a part of our egoism on every level?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is there a correspondence between the levels in our world and Olam Ein Sof?

Answer: The worlds are a division of the 125 levels into five worlds.

Question: Does the concept of unity in our world have its root in spirituality?

Answer: Everything that happens in our world has a root in the upper world, all properties, effects, and actions, including the most evil and terrible, all descend from the upper world.

Question: How can I attain the upper worlds when I feel rejection and hostility toward people?

Answer: Rejection of people is a very good phenomenon. It means that you are in a state where you are aware of your own nature. Whether you agree or disagree is already a different matter, but you understand that you don’t love everyone, and even reject and hate them. It is your nature. A wonderful state indeed. It is a very good state for learning the wisdom of Kabbalah and it is also the beginning of correction.
[254980]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 10/6/19

Related Material:
Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 8/18/19
Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 7/28/19
Blitz Of Kabbalah Tips – 6/23/19

Family And Marriage, Part 5

629.4Family—The Basis of Spiritual Growth of the Masses

Remark: Kabbalah speaks of the importance of the environment, which would support the view that only the revelation of the Creator can be the motivation for creating a family.

My Comment: But this environment should not be the same as in a village, in a country, or in a small town where the public opinion of a poorly educated mass puts pressure on young people and obliges them to start a family and exist this way.

Question: Is this an education process, where from school age, a person should receive an explanation about the difference between masculine and feminine, the purpose of creation, and what is the Creator? If so, this doesn’t seem simple.

Answer: Indeed, all this will need to be explained. It is thanks to this upbringing that we will return to the family again, but in a different form.

We see that we are leaving the state when we need a family. In the past, people at the age of 16 to 18 thought about it and created it; today this isn’t the case.

Question: Is the family, as the basis for the connection between people, the beginning of the path of  a person’s spiritual development?

Answer: A person will grow spiritually mainly from the family. If we are talking about a Kabbalistic group, this is a completely different matter, and if about the masses, then the family is the basis.

Question: Is the family a model where I have a positive attitude toward my spouse and children because it is inherent in me by nature?

Answer: Not only. It will be such a model in which you develop spiritually. In addition, there will be male and female groups in which men and women develop separately where they receive upliftment, inspiration, and spiritual charge, and they realize them in the family among themselves.

Question: In principle, will these two cells remain two types of environment?

Answer: Yes. Male and female groups, man and woman in the family and their children, this will practically be the structure of society.
[254021]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/1/19

Related Material:
Family And Marriage, Part 4
Family And Marriage, Part 3
Family And Marriage, Part 2