Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why are Israelis so smart?“

Why are Israelis so smart?It is because the Israeli ego is the biggest one out of all the world’s nations.

Everyone has a desire to enjoy life, which acts on us subconsciously. Israelis also want to enjoy from the next world, here and now. That additional desire to enjoy is called “the point in the heart” in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

3,800 years ago, when the Israeli nation was founded, it was that additional desire that differentiated between all the ancient Babylonian residents and the group that Abraham named “Israel” (from “Yashar Kel,” i.e., “straight to God”). In other words, out of all the Babylonian residents, it was this people called “Israel” who desired to attain the meaning of life, a clear perception and sensation of the complete picture of reality, while living in this world.

How is it that the Israeli nation emerged in such a way?

Very simply, the ego in certain people grew and started demanding the reason for existence.

The ego’s growth makes us unhappier and more impatient. Why? It’s because an additional desire means an additional void, and it makes us restless until we find out why we’re alive.

The wisdom of Kabbalah was developed solely to answer the question about the meaning of life. Through the study of the wisdom, we discover our place in nature, as well as how and why nature works at its deepest levels. The wisdom of Kabbalah was developed by Abraham around 3,800 years specifically for anyone who hosts that additional desire to know why we’re alive.

Therefore, the Israeli ego is many times greater than the ego of others, i.e., of the nations of the world. There is nothing we can do about it. It is simply how the system of nature operates through us.

With this additional ego in the Israeli people, it becomes important to learn how to use it and direct it optimally and constructively, i.e., so that it would be aimed at the discovery of the meaning of life, and not that it would be used for self-serving motives at the expense of others.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a method of guiding the desire for the meaning of life to the attainment of the higher reality, where we discover the reason for our existence, while we’re alive in this world.

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Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Prof. Stephen Bronner, co-director of the International Council for Diplomacy and Dialogue and the author of A Rumor About the Jews: Anti-Semitism, Conspiracy, and the Protocols of Zion talk about the role model for humanity that Jews have to become.

How can you be a role model if you are hated?

The solution is in its initial root. Jews as a nation originated in ancient Babylon according to the principle “love covers all transgressions.” They have an inborn inclination to implement the method of balancing society by building positive human connection above their egoistic nature and differences.

Today, when the world suffers from crises and viruses, there is an urgent demand for a method that positively connects society. Therefore, if the Jewish people regain awareness of what they once had achieved in history upon the modern global-scale social division, they will become an example of unity for everyone, a “light unto the nations.”

People have no natural inclination to unite above rejections between them, but when they hear and see how unity among people makes the world a better, healthier, and happier place, they will follow this direction and build a society based on, as Prof. Bronner mentions, cosmopolitan traditions.

When we all find the balance between the opposing forces of nature—altruism and egoism—everyone will experience a good future. Jews have been given the ability to take the first step there.
—

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Question: Why, despite all the acts of dissemination and the best possible participation in the work of a ten, we nevertheless feel dissatisfied, feel that we act insufficiently for spirituality, even though we utilize all available means? Why does the Creator send us this feeling?

Answer: The Creator, despite our good efforts and precise heartfelt aspiration, still makes us feel dissatisfied. Most likely He wants even greater aspirations from us.

Contact the Creator and ask Him, even if He hides. This is how He is called: “the one who hides” (Kel Mistater).

Therefore, ask Him: “What do you want from me? How can I draw closer to You? Show me, give me a hint.” Start flirting with Him in this way. You will see that by expressing your needs, sensations, and desires, you will start feeling His answer in them.

Don’t be shy. He likes such conversations very much. This upper force is amorphous. It is around us. The more you awaken such questions and sensations within you, the faster and subtler you will feel Him.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/12/20

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Question: What is light? Is it some kind of energy?

Answer: The light is what enters our desire and gives absolute fulfillment with satisfaction, knowledge, a sense of existence in all parameters on all axes.

The light is the only intelligent energy in the world that carries out all actions upon matter. Matter is the desire to receive, to enjoy. There is nothing more than light and desire. The light works with the desire.

They are opposite in properties. The desire wants to receive everything for itself, to absorb, and to be filled. The light wants to give, emanate, and fill. The entire universe is built based upon these two components, including our world and all other worlds. Only it consists of micro-doses of desire and light.

Question: It turns out that behind any desire there is a spark of light?

Answer: Without exception. Otherwise the desire would not exist.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 12/22/19

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The #coronavirus epidemic is the first blow of a whole series of blows that will be revealed one by one. We create room for the #virus by treating each other badly. The virus emerges in the place where mutual guarantee is missing, which we should have established.

Humanity is interdependent in every area of life. However, human relationships aren’t improving. We’re becoming increasingly opposite to our interdependence. We connect in order to exploit each other. When these bad connections become unbearable nature breaks them apart #COVID-19.

If we could see that a kind gaze cures us of the #coronavirus, everyone on earth would instantly become righteous. But a person is required to have awareness and aspiration toward bestowal, rather than to selfish profit, toward thoughts about everyone instead of himself. He will stop being sick when everyone feels good.

#COVID-19 Today our dependence on each other is expressed by the fact that, out of fear of being infected, I close myself off from others, disconnecting from the negative connection. But let’s reveal our positive dependence! If we unite properly, we will start producing positive viruses!

Humanity has undergone a long path of development and is starting to feel as one body. We should thank the #coronavirus—it has brought the whole world to such unity. If the #epidemic drags on, humanity will reveal that it truly belongs to one system where everyone depends on each other.

A Kabbalist feels the life of the animate body similarly to changing out of one shirt into another. If the most important thing is me (the soul), rather than the shirt (the body), then each time I change my shirt, I change and receive more beautiful clothing. #Death entails nothing but the loss of opportunity to make corrections.

If North and South America and European countries, close borders, humanity will revert to border barriers. The only solution is to scrutinize what should be the proper connection between us and how to build good relationships, so no virus could infiltrate.
The virus shows a breach of connection!
#Covid_19

The problems being revealed to humanity serve as medicine, pushing us to unite. We do not wish each other well. The virus is passed from person to person, from an ill-intended gaze and words of condemnation, which materialize in the form of viruses.

The virus has resulted in mass #layoffs. This wave will uproot humanity—we are at the “red line”—nature will not allow us to continue existing this way. For the first time in human history, we are realizing that this is a blow from above. Every person will feel that this is divine retribution, that we are being straightened out from above.

Every person in the world should understand: the coronavirus isn’t an accident. The forces of nature lead human society, aspiring to unite us into one system. In this system, there are laws that nature will obligate us to fulfill—if not by our goodwill and our understanding, then coercively.

The #coronavirus is a problem shared by everyone. It demands of humanity to unite in the right way and to establish mutual guarantee. Nature is trying to bring us to the awareness that mutual guarantee is a necessity, so we will once again become as one man, one system.
From Twitter, 3/13/20

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Question: What are your impressions of the past convention?

Answer: This convention will be felt by us for a very long time to come. We cannot yet evaluate it. There has been a powerful and serious connection between people, groups, and, I would say, continents. Moreover, it happened at a time when the whole world is in panic from a spreading virus and other problems: “What will happen to us?”

I think it is a wonderful time. We live in a special era. For the first time in human history, we are entering a new state, a feeling, awareness of the upper world.

It was only revealed once in a small group of people when they came out of Egypt. However, what is going to happen now, starting from scratch, in all the nations of the world after the shattering, mingling, and so on, is, of course, a special state.

I am very happy about it. You have no idea how great, special, and lucky you are. After all, out of billions, a small group of several thousands of people have been chosen. It’s amazing.

Now the post-convention period begins. It’s time for overcoming, and time for real work. Certain falls and descents are inevitable. In fact, the descent is a special state of the soul and body when it grinds, chews, and absorbs what it has received.

And we have had a lot of impressions. We could not even get through them. We grabbed them with, what is called, our mouth open. Now, these impressions are gradually accumulating in our mind and soul, slowly starting to be stored in a certain archive.

Using the absorbed material, we are already climbing to the next stage. All our previous knowledge receives elevation.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/1/20

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is there a treatment for the Coronavirus?“

It might sound very profound and not what people expect as the answer, but positive human connection is indeed the ultimate solution not only to the coronavirus, but to all problems we experience on personal, social, global and ecological scales.

Today, the coronavirus comes to show us that in the face of danger, we are all equal, and that there is no escape.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, which I have been studying and teaching for over 40 years, states that there is nothing more powerful than positive human connection.

As a practical example of the immense power of positive human connection in light of the coronavirus outbreak, after panic spread to various countries, including Israel, we hosted a World Kabbalah Convention in Tel Aviv.

Around 5,000 people from 78 countries attended for three days, studying, eating, singing, hugging and dancing together in one space. Moreover, a lot of the participants shared accommodation with each other. We had a medical team on board, and there were no reports of anyone getting sick for the entire convention.

The principle is very simple: We have nothing to be afraid of if we aim at unity.

Our positive connection is the “disinfectant” and the real treatment for any disease, because by connecting, we come closer to nature’s connected form and experience a certain extent of balance with nature. All diseases stem from our imbalance with nature, and so we need only learn how to use this tool of our connectedness to enter into more balance with nature, experiencing positive outcomes as a result.

If our thoughts and attitudes are positive toward one another, mutually considerate and caring, we then become immune to harmful forces. When we connect in a single thought and goal, “as one man with one heart,” we build a field of love and gain the strength to deal with any disease.

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Spiritual work is unlike our regular work in this world. In everyday life, we are used to the fact that if we get up in the morning, go to work, take care of family and society in the evening, this is what life is all about. But spiritual life is not measured in this way. In spiritual work, the achieved level or state is considered zero relative to the next state, which is measured only by the difference, the addition to the prior degree.

Each new state has to be greater than the previous one, which means that we are entering spiritual life. Otherwise, it is not spiritual but corporeal.

If any success lasts longer than the moment it was achieved in, it turns into a corporeal and egoistic state. It is no longer considered that we are aimed at the Creator, at spiritual work. There is nothing spiritual or unique about it. Therefore, the group must be concerned with constantly renewing its spirit. If the impression of what was achieved lingers to the next moment, it loses its flavor.

We did tremendous and important work at the convention, but all this is already in the past. The states should change at a pace of breathing: inhale—exhale. We cannot accept absence or renewal. Usually, after such major conventions, we tend to fall into a slumber, like hibernating animals.

It usually takes about a week to calm down after such sharp spikes and return to normal. Most importantly, do not give in to such transitional states. With electricity, such transitional processes always take place when the system comes out of balance after sharp shifts and need time to stabilize.

The convention itself is a giant jolt upward followed by a sharp fall in which everything depends on the work in the group, on the connection between us, rather than the internal work inside each of us. Each one of us is a zero, but there is the ten that creates something new.

Naturally, a person cannot feel the rising spirit, the desire, or the drive forward on his own. It is good that we do not feel any of it because this is precisely what lets us create a new corrected state together.

Spiritual work is increasingly powerful unity of friends in the group; there is nothing else. Strive to achieve this unity faster so that the upper light can reign between us. It depends on our unity. We must make efforts to unite in such a way that the power of unity is revealed in us even stronger, until we reveal the power of love. The power of love is already the Creator.¹

The spiritual state ends the moment I begin to feel it. If I can sense it, it means that it has already gone. Now we have to create a new state by connecting and uniting with the friends. The previous state was given to us by the Creator, it was Him who organized the convention and ensured its success. And now, after this success, we must “bring a sacrifice” because it was not us who guaranteed the success, so we must be grateful to the Creator for all the work that has been done. He did it as an example so that we would be able to execute it ourselves and create a permanent result in us.

We are seemingly returning to the same state as at the convention, but through our own efforts. We no longer receive awakening from above, which let us unite at the convention in the desert. If we continue to exert our own efforts, not only will we bring back the recent unity, but we will be able to attain in our own Kelim what this awakening entailed.

There is no need to think of the prior states. Doing so is a Klipa. We need to aim toward greater and greater unity. We will not feel it the way we did in the past because the Kli is always changing, and we are reaching new states within the connection.

It doesn’t matter what happened in the past. The Creator gave us an example that left an impression on us, awakened us, and now all we have to do is keep on working.²
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/20, Continuing the Convention with an Ascent
¹ Minute 1:27
² Minute 9:30

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The Times of Israel published my new article “The Spiritual Root and Corporeal Branches of the Jews”

The wisdom of Kabbalah is a method that was established by Abraham around 3,800 years ago, which guides a process of positive connection among people toward their resemblance with the higher force of nature, one of love and bestowal.

Kabbalah teaches that by trying to resemble the force of love and bestowal through our efforts to connect, we attract it into our lives and it corrects us.

“Correction,” in the wisdom of Kabbalah, means reaching the perception of the uniqueness of the force of love and bestowal, and when we reach such perception, we see how no other force operates in the world.

Opposite the force of love and bestowal is the force of reception—the force acting in the created beings.

The force of reception, which is the nature of the created beings, provides us with the ability to differentiate between reception and its opposite force of love and bestowal, as through the opposite of a certain phenomenon, the existence of its opposite can be perceived.

By existing in an opposite receptive nature to the giving nature, we can connect by awakening the force of giving and love above the force of reception, and by doing so, reach balance with nature, a sensation of harmony, perfection and eternity.

According to the two opposite natures of giving and receiving, humanity divides into two general groups: one is a small group originating in those who studied with Abraham, which directed itself to connect and attain the force of love and bestowal. The other is much larger, holding beliefs in myriad corporeal forms, objects and images.

Abraham’s group received the name, “Israel” (“Yashar El” [“straight to God”]), from their orientation to attain the force of love and bestowal, and in later generations they received the name, “Jews,” from the word for “united” (“yihudi”). People with no such inclination received the name, “the nations of the world.”

According to the Jewish nation’s origin—a unification in a common tendency toward the force of love and bestowal—that same tendency should remain as their primary engagement. In other words, the nation of Israel has no need to conduct numerous physical actions, but need only focus on connecting “as one man with one heart.” That is Abraham’s method in a nutshell.

During its years of exile, the nation of Israel mingled with the nations of the world. Many descendants of Abraham’s group ended up functioning solely with the force of reception, detached from the force of love and bestowal. In the meantime, some of the nations of the world who felt attracted to unity joined the group of Israel.

Those from Israel who failed to unite above the increased egoistic desire that acted in them became idolaters, infusing corporeal forms, objects and actions with spiritual importance.

The two groups exist in a certain blend until today.

The change from being a unified nation that senses the higher force, to becoming detached from the sensation of unity and focusing solely on receiving, took place mainly during the ruin of the First and Second Temples, and intensified in the exile that followed them.

Many people from the Jewish nation started performing a number of actions, seeming signs of spiritual motions that exist separate from the human body and the material world. They thought that in such a way they would be able to somehow protect themselves in a common framework and not disperse.

My teacher, Rabash, called such actions “customs.” Customs have their place, until we will become ready enough to understand what is most important: the work of the heart, i.e., the inner work of unity with others in a common tendency toward the force of love and bestowal.

What we do with our hands, legs and mouths is in order to ultimately advance us to conduct internal actions upon our attitude to others: an inner shift from being concerned only about ourselves to being concerned about others, to a point where we love them.

Until today, humanity finds it difficult to absorb the idea that the Creator is a force. It is understandable, since our entire perception is based on corporeal senses.

Yet, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, there is nothing holy in a tree or in a stone, nor in blood or flesh. Holiness can only be in the connection between us, differentiated from and above the egoistic force that separates us. Holiness exists in the balance between two fundamental forces at the foundation of nature: reception and bestowal, without canceling either quality or inclination.

That is why the principles of the wisdom of Kabbalah sound complicated and difficult to absorb, even though the main principle is easy to understand: that we need to reach positive connection among all people, a connection that includes each and every person equally. Moreover, in the heart of our connection, love becomes revealed, which is a positive force that covers all division, hatred and conflict, and by reaching such a state, we discover nothing less than perfection and eternity.
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