My article in Newsmax: “The Hague vs. Israel: The Tribunal Should Be Within Us”

The recommendation to launch an investigation by The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against Israel for alleged war crimes in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is another proof that the Jewish nation is once again singled out among all the nations in the world by international organizations. However, if I were to be questioned at the ICC in The Hague, I would not have anything bad to say against the prosecutors, but rather, I would explain to them and to ourselves why the world hates Israel and what it is that we are guilty of.

I would run a quick survey of the system of creation from beginning to end and demonstrate that “no calamity comes to the world but for Israel” (Yevamot 63). The reason for the hostility against us is not because of the “occupation” and has nothing to do with our necessity for self-defense, but is because we fail to execute what the world needs from us: to connect and provide the world with the system for ultimate connection.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the nation of Israel was created differently from all other nations of the world. Ours is a nation established to serve as a source for humanity’s future connection, of every nation in the world. It is why Israel was created and it is our destiny. Moreover, it is what the world subconsciously expects of us.

However, the current situation is that the ego in us increases daily, widening the divide between us to a point of hatred, a hatred that must be covered with love.

Even the issue of the world’s hypocrisy for singling out Israel is out of place.

While it is true that Syria is using chemical weapons against innocent civilians, Turkey mercilessly attacks the Kurds, and Iran shoots demonstrators indiscriminately, if we were to delve into understanding the system of creation, we would see that even these cases are a result of the spiritual negligence of the people of Israel.

We are the ones who fail to rise above the hatred and rejection between us, and the nations of the world reflect the state of our relations. We are not only responsible for this world, but for all the worlds, for better or for worse.

Even if a predator attacks another animal, it is our responsibility; even if one insect kills another it is because of us, i.e., our negligence to awaken the positive force between us that can balance the natural negative force of the ego that is revealed. As it is written, “Love will cover all transgressions.”

Only the balance between hatred and love can stabilize the world.

As long as we are divided and bring no equilibrium to humanity, we the people of Israel, have no right to this land on the shores of the Mediterranean. In his commentary on the first verse in the Torah, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (RASHI) writes:

“If the nations of the world say to Israel: ‘You are robbers who have occupied the lands of seven peoples,’ they respond unto them: ‘All the land is of the Almighty, he created it and gave it to whom he saw fit. Of his volition He gave it and of his volition He took it from them and gave it to us.'”

The world does not care what goes on among the people of Israel. They hate us and want to see an end to the Israeli enterprise. On the other hand, we are weak and lack an ideological basis and understanding of the conditions upon which we exist here in the land of Israel, and what our role is vis-à-vis the world. Therefore, it is not about a few leaders or political parties who are guilty, nor about war crimes. In truth, we are all guilty for all crimes in the world.

We are a stiff-necked people. Instead of learning how to implement the principles of connection that are embedded in the system of creation, we behave like a small child who is being punished by his mother until he begins to listen and does what is expected of him.

He calls her a bad mother, but just as in our upbringing, there is no choice: we have no option whether or not we should carry out our role.

Over and over again, we have to hear the explanation of our sages until the message filters through and the formula reawakens the desensitized-yet-integral part of us: If we will only get closer and unite among us, we will change the relations that affect the balance of the entire system. We will then be bestowed with honor and appreciation from the world, as is written, “And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord.” (Isaiah 14:2)
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Question: In what way does the teacher depend on the student in the transmission of spiritual knowledge?

Answer: In many ways. The teacher needs to try and open up the student, to help him attune to a common wave with the teacher. They should try not just to understand each other, but to live together through one idea gradually being imbued with common sensations.

Question: What does it mean to become a student of a Kabbalist?

Answer: To become a student of a Kabbalist means to want the same feeling, understanding, and thought as the teacher.

Question: What rules should a student observe in relation to a Kabbalist teacher?

Answer: The student should try to attach himself to the thoughts of his teacher and try to enter into him as deeply as possible. Nothing else is needed. In order to do so, there are such auxiliary methods as helping the teacher in his activities.

Even in ordinary science a lot depends on how close a student is to his teacher. In Kabbalah, it is even more so because a Kabbalist passes to his students not simply knowledge, like professor to a student, but sensations that cannot be felt by the ordinary senses and qualities. Therefore, a much greater proximity is needed here—a common connection between them. However, this is achieved gradually.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals in Kabbalah,” 10/27/19

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Who will win in a war if all 190+ countries teams up against Israel? What if God doesn’t help Israel?“

It could definitely become a reality where the entire world teams up against Israel.

We, the people of Israel, can expect more and more hatred toward us, and it can dress all kinds of forms that we consider as unjust. For instance, the recent allegations in The Hague of war crimes that Israel immediately took defense to, or myriad other forms of blame against us.

We, the people of Israel, have the ability to switch on a new light in the world, where the entire world would think and speak positively about the Jewish people and the State of Israel, but the way we currently conduct ourselves brings upon us increasing hatred.

The hatred against us is an outcome of our negligence. It is negligence of the biggest kind: We have the ability to correct the world, to bring about a natural balance among human society worldwide, spreading peace, love and unity upon the growing division and hatred, but we neglect our ability to do so.

The more the nations of the world point out our seeming wrongdoings, the more we try to defend ourselves. However, there is no use in trying to defend ourselves in such a way. We are entering a state similar to what was unfolding in 1930s Germany, only today, it is not a matter of one nation or region against us, but in today’s globally-connected world, the entire world is frowning at us more and more.

No matter what we do to try and improve our image, with all the advances in science, medicine and technology we bring to the world, we cannot buy a positive attitude toward us.

Why? It is because the hatred felt toward us is natural. It emerges from the laws of nature.

Human nature, the egoistic desire to enjoy at others’ expense, which is at the basis of every person’s thoughts, actions and behaviors, continually grows. It is the negative force in nature, positioned opposite to the positive altruistic force of love, bestowal and connection. In our times, the egoistic desire is growing to enormous proportions, and humanity finds itself in myriad problems as a result of the growing ego that finds no balance with the force of love and bestowal opposite it.

How can this growing ego be brought into balance with the positive force? It can be done through the method of correction that was made to establish this balance, the method for revealing that force through the positive connection of society.

The people of Israel were originally founded as a nation that implemented this method of correction. They emerged about 3,800 years ago in ancient Babylon where Abraham guided them to unite above the rampant social division of the time, and they acquired the time “Israel” (“Yashar Kel” [“straight to God”]), from their aim directly at the force of love and bestowal. They drew this force to themselves, and it connected them above the divisive ego that was bursting at the seams.

As the ego in Abraham’s time was tearing apart human society, and he gathered anyone who felt a need for better relations to come and learn how to connect above the divisive ego, so it is today: the people who were founded on that method have the ability to start making strides toward better connection, more love, unity and peace among each other, in order to be a conduit for the positive force of love and bestowal to spread among wider circles of humanity.

Our neglect to realize this ability, and our continued efforts to instead dabble in egoistic goals for money, honor, control and knowledge, lets the ego run wild, and it ultimately brings about all kinds of outbursts, pains and crises. As a boomerang, the nations of the world feel hatred increasingly surfacing within them toward us. It is a subconscious hatred where they feel we hide something good from them, without knowing exactly what it is, and neither the people of Israel nor the nations of the world can rationally pinpoint the core reason for the hatred.

It is a fact that Israel is hated by all the nations, whether for religious, racial, capitalist, communist, or for cosmopolitan reasons, etc. It is so because the hatred precedes all reasons, but each merely resolves its loathing according to its own psychology. – Yehuda Ashlag, The Writings of the Last Generation
.

Therefore, we live in a time today where if we, the people of Israel, fail to wake up to our role and start implementing the method of correction we once realized in ancient Babylon—to unite (“love your friend as yourself”) above division (“love will cover all transgressions”) in order to spread unity among society (to be a “light unto the nations”)—then it could indeed become a reality where the entire world teams up against Israel.

Whether it is the allegations in The Hague last week pushing for an investigation into war crimes committed by the State of Israel, or whether it is American Jews in New York and Jersey City last week getting murdered due to clear anti-Semitic motives, such examples from the last few days alone are among a long string of intensifying anti-Semitic motions that have been exponentially rising the last few years.

The problem is that we are a stiff-necked nation, as is mentioned in the Torah, where despite the distinct anti-Semitic tendencies, we close our ears to the deeper calling behind the hatred. We are like a little child whose mother gets angry at him, and we point back to the mother saying that she’s a bad mother, without understanding the intention in the mother that wishes for the child to fix his conduct.

We thus need not point our finger back at humanity, at anti-Semites and at people who seek to illuminate our wrongdoings. If we instead focus on our own unity, on realizing the ideological basis for what made us a nation to begin with, we will then draw the positive force of nature upon ourselves, and through us, it will spread to humanity. That and only that will certify a change in attitude toward us, as a new state of unity among humanity would bring about new positive sensations of happiness, confidence, love and peace. We would then become felt as a kind of tap that allows the positive force to enter people’s lives, and would accordingly receive a positive response from the world.

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “Prayer”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 19

Lesson on the Topic “Hanukkah”

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Two sides:
1. Egoism—against unity
2. Unity above ego.
Both have to exist in us. From the bottom we get the strength of desire (Aviut), from above we get the power of intention (Zakut), using both to build a vessel (Kli) for the revelation of the Creator.
#Kabbalah #unity

I must feel the Creator playing me like a violin: be sensitive, be on the lookout, and invite the Creator in. The #world is the Creator’s message to the creature in various forms: through sounds, images, colors—this is the language of the Creator. If a person understands it, he connects with creation and the Creator.

We must rejoice in the bad as we do in the good, because good alone can’t build a powerful Kli. Let’s grow up and align ourselves correctly.
#Kabbalah #Wisdom #quotes

One should not think that a simple departure from egoism is the end of correction. The truth is that it is only a preparation for correction which has not even begun.
#HanukkahSameach #hannukah2019

One can’t continue the old way after Hanukkah, a new power is needed because a different light is coming. Before Hanukkah we grow in bestowing desires, in smallness, Galgalta-Einaim. We do not fight our ego, but rise above it.
#Hanukkah #wisdom #Kabbalah

By turning the angel of death into a holy angel, we are building the image of the Creator. All the evil that the Creator has imbedded us with we transform into His image.
#wisdom #kabbalah #Hannukah

We abandon all our quarrels and disagreements and begin to unite above them in the opposite way. Whatever I hated—I now love, what I used to repel—I pull closer, whomever I didn’t want to see—I can’t take my eyes off. I overcome this by building one state above another.

“One needs to pull away from the feeder, because it is not right for a person to eat from the same trough as a donkey.” It means that I perceive reality not just pragmatically, primitively, like an animal, but see the melody of the Creator in it.
#wisdom #Kabbalah

We must rejoice at the rise of a conflict—be insightful about what the Creator is sending us. It is wonderful that He awakens enmity. All hatred comes from the breakage, a ditch crawling with snakes, but it gets revealed gradually so that we can build a layer of unity above it.

If you are able to build a relationship where, on the one side, you’re ready to “kill each other,” but above it you come to love of friends—this is called a ten, if you can’t—there is no ten as of yet. A simple condition, just two sides: love will cover all crimes.

We have to learn to live in both states simultaneously—between hatred and love that support each other. Hatred is the heat, the fire that incites love and keeps fueling it more and more. There is no plus without a minus. We need to understand how to combine these opposites.

#Hanukkah is the middle of the path: “stopped here” (hanu-po). There is still a significant and unique war ahead, but for now, having achieved bestowing desires, we are getting a respite. First, the war for the desires of bestowal, faith above reason, and then we begin to work with the desires of reception for the sake of bestowal.

The strength of connection within the ten is measured by disturbances that we can unite above. Egoism is revealed, separating us and giving rise to hatred for each other, but we begin to unite above it. Mutual rejection remains, thus we are working with both of these states.
From Twitter, 12/24/19

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Rarely do Kabbalists see their dreams come true. Even more rarely do they see the fulfillment of the dreams of their great teachers. But today is such a festive day: With great joy, I want to share with you that my just released book, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, brings to light everything my teachers had taught me.

They taught me that the fate of the Jewish people depends on their unity, that when they unite, they succeed, and when they hate each other, the world hates them.

Now, at last, packaged into one book, is an enormous collection of evidence from the entire history of the Jewish people that this is what actually transpires. It is a proof that the predictions of our sages are correct!

With the help of dozens of friends and students, a vast amount of resources has been collected, which points to the fact that, as one famous author put it, “The Jews are foiled by their own disunity.”

Indeed, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism is like no other book you have ever read about Jews, about history, or about anti-Semitism. By the end of the book, you will know the reason for the oldest hatred, how it can be dissolved, and how Jews and non-Jews alike will benefit as a result.

I am grateful to the friends and students who have helped in seeing this project through. I am sure it will enlighten anyone who reads it just as it enlightened me while working on it.

In addition, as part of the release, we have printed the first 50 copies in Israel, and I have personally signed each one of them. Here is a link to this limited edition initial set: bit.ly/TheJewishChoiceLimitedEdition50Copies

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How should you define hell and heaven?“

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, heaven is the spiritual world of complete bestowal, with no shred of reception.

If we have even the tiniest desire for something beyond what this world has to offer, we can then use the wisdom of Kabbalah to prepare for the spiritual world of bestowal, to engage in positive relations with others.

Then, when we die—not our bodily death but death from our inborn egoistic desire to enjoy at the expense of others—we then enter the second nature of giving and bestowal, and that becomes heaven for us.

If we make no preparations and have no desire to bestow, then relationships of bestowal and love of others are as hell for us.

Therefore, it is considered that this world is a basis upon which, if we prepare ourselves accordingly, we can enter heaven, the spiritual world of bestowal and love.

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The Times of Israel published my new article “How to Reconstruct a World in Pieces and Attain Peace”

The world is entering a new year, carrying on its shoulders a heavy weight. An unprecedented number of people worldwide, around 168 million, will need urgent humanitarian assistance and protection in 2020 due to global crises and conflicts, according to the United Nations’ overview for this year and beyond. Why should we continue repeating the same vicious cycle? Can we do no better as humanity? We certainly can and should. We just need to know how.

The number and intensity of highly violent conflicts has risen for the first time in four years, according to UN officials. One in 45 people are expected to require humanitarian aid with even the most basic needs such as food, shelter and healthcare as a result of the world’s instability.

Following every war, research is undertaken, books and plays are written all about the aspiration and desire for peace, but it seems to be a pipe dream. After all, what is peace? Is it the opposite of war, or something else? A penetrating examination of the term “peace” from the perspective of the wisdom of Kabbalah sheds new light on this important goal and how to achieve it.

Following difficult conflicts, wars and much suffering, people have no choice but to concede to ceasefires, armistices and peace treaties. And then it is always a question how long they will last till the next outburst.

The essence of the term “peace” in Hebrew (Shalom) means wholeness (Shalem). Is the mere absence of war sufficient to experience wholeness? Certainly not. A deeper analysis of the term “peace” brings us to the common root of our nature, the root from which we split into male and female parts, myriads of species, and diverse nations.

Today, we number billions of people. We perceive ourselves as separate from each other, and often not even at peace with ourselves. The lack of understanding concerning how to arrive at peace is humanity’s central problem.

The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches that nature develops us to a state of absolute peace. However, in order to approach peace, we need to recognize the global principle: nature is an integral system where all its components are mutually interdependent.

We humans are the sole violators of the delicate balance on the planet with our narrow egoism, i.e., the desire to benefit ourselves at the expense of others, with which we harm humanity, the world and nature. It is interesting to note that as far back as 1930, Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) recognized the interconnected state of the world:

“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.” (Yehuda Ashlag, “Peace in the World”)

Preparation for a state of absolute peace will require a comprehensive societal educational investment for many years to come. It will then be possible to actively start changing human behavior and the state of the world.

This is where the wisdom of Kabbalah’s knowledge of nature can help. It teaches how to bring about an internal change in human nature, which strengthens the will to reach the state of peace. What is needed on the way is the learning of how to work properly with the feelings of hostility that have separated people and nations. Just like a couple that makes up following a quarrel, it is precisely in uniting above the great hatred that a stronger connection can be built.

Proverbs (10:12) teaches us that, “love will cover all transgressions,” and it is the same in nature. Everything is defined by its opposite: light and darkness, heat and cold, sweet and bitter, and so on. Rabbi Nachman of Breslov explained, “The essence of peace is to try to make peace between two opposites.” (Likutei Etzot, “Peace”)

The peace process depends on the development of advanced connections between opposites, the incorporation of opposites to such an extent that a new perception emerges in which there is no longer “them and us,” but a commonality that grows and develops. There are no borders in a state of absolute peace; all exist as a common area and it makes no difference where one is. Government offices, taxes, harvests, resources, budgets—all become the property of the people who have united in peace, and thus they earn a new level of prosperity.

Nothing is more important than the genuine peace toward which human development is headed, and Kabbalah provides a method to do it swiftly and pleasurably, with growing awareness, understanding and sensation. We need only implement it.

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Question: Damaged relationships spoil people’s entire life, they can be confusing because of little misunderstandings. What is the right thing to do to prevent resentment, damaged relationships, and to improve them?

Psychologists give the following recommendations: Try to understand the point of view of the colleague. The result of an action is not always intentional. The difficulty with some micro-manifestations is that we all apply different standards to their assessment.

Answer: Where are the standards? The standard is mine—how I see others and compare myself with them or how I see myself and compare them with me. This is completely wrong. It is like taking a dress and putting it on. If I wear it, my stomach and my thin arms and legs will stick out, and the dress will look ugly to me.

There are no common standards. There can be only one standard—for the benefit of one’s neighbor. That’s all. I perceive no one in any way, neither myself nor anyone else. I am only interested in one thing: if some situations occur, whether they occur for the benefit of man.

By man I mean all of humanity, the general image of a person. In no way do I consider anyone specific or I most definitely will be lost.

Question: How can we understand correctly the point of view of the other person, whether it is right or not?

Answer: I cannot understand another person. How can I understand him? How can I exit myself in order to understand the other?

No, we simply need to act in a way that is good for the other person, for anyone. That is, except for my survival necessities, in everything else that depends on me, I must act for the sake of others.

This is natural. Very often we, as a result of our habits, make some movements, gestures, or utter some words, phrases that might seem even offensive to others.

We might not even feel and understand that. It is necessary to tune the heart. The heart should be adjusted to kindness toward others. All the rest will not work at all.

If a person is cordially attuned to the other, then it will be interpreted correctly. Even if he said something wrong, somehow could not express himself, the other person will feel that.

Aim the heart toward the other person, toward all people, toward the good. We need to get used to it. We need to educate ourselves for this. It is necessary that the same attitude be maintained by the environment and the surrounding society. Everything will then be good.
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From Kab TV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 7/14/19

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