Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How has the coronavirus affected you?“

Personally, it has affected me similarly to how it has affected many people around the world: by placing me into social distancing conditions.

I follow all the instructions of the Ministry of Health, and encourage everyone to do the same.

One of my students asked me, why does a Kabbalist follow the government’s instructions in such situations if Kabbalists are supposed to live above this world, in connection with the root of life?

I observed this example in my own teacher, Kabbalist Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag (the Rabash). When I was with him in the Gulf War of 1991, under missile attack, I saw how strictly he adhered to the government’s instructions to stay at home.

In relation to following laws set by the government, there is a saying in the wisdom of Kabbalah, “I dwell within my people.” It means that we discover the positive unifying force of nature in the accumulation of human desires that aim at some extent of unification.

In short, I follow the government’s instructions, especially in such cases as wars and pandemics, and advise my students and anybody willing to listen to do the same.

In addition, the coronavirus has affected my organization, the Bnei Baruch Kabbalah Education & Research Institute, by placing us into a completely virtual format. We continue our daily lessons and other activities with students connected from their homes. This was no major change, since we have a system setup for virtual lessons that has been running for many years, and many students connect daily from around the world in a virtual setting, so we were well-prepared for that.

Other than the study, we are responding to the coronavirus by rigorously explaining how the wisdom of Kabbalah sees the coronavirus through many posts, articles, videos, and other means.

Essentially, we explain how:

• the coronavirus emerged as a response to humanity’s over-inflating egoistic-competitive relations;
• the coronavirus came to save us from a worse man-made disaster that we would have brought upon ourselves if we let our exploitative relations continue growing unabated;
• we can expect a major long-term change in human society as a result of this period brought on by the coronavirus, one where we will calm down and become more focused on life’s essentials, and less on keeping up with the Joneses;
• the optimal use of our current social distancing conditions is to engage in learning about how we can better understand our place in the world, where it is headed, and how we can bring ourselves into balance with nature.

I thus invite anyone who wishes to connect to us, to join our lessons (links in my Quora bio) or to visit our website where we update with materials about Kabbalah’s view on the coronavirus.

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