Audio Version Of The Blog – 7/19/20
Posted on July 19th, 2020
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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 7/19/20
Why do we send our kids to school? So they would become cultured? So they would have successful careers, make lots of money and earn people’s respect? In the end, we send them to school because we want them to be happy. It’s not as if we believe that school can really make people happy, but we think that without it, they will encounter even more hardships than life hands each of us anyhow.
What is the result? Very few are happy, the majority are struggling, and many don’t even finish. And worst of all, other than some learning habits and techniques, school gives no tools for life, no skills of human relations, no experience in cooperation, no understanding of human nature, and no idea about the world we live in or where it’s going. With a few exceptions, schools get an F in education.
Why does this happen? Because in order to succeed, we need to redefine education. We need to think of education as a process of adaptation to the laws of nature. Education should both teach the laws of nature and assist us in adapting to them.
When we are born, we are nothing more than little animals. In fact, we are more helpless than any animal. We have no instincts to guide us, we cannot find our mother’s nipples, and we cannot even urinate without making a mess. No animal is more helpless than man. But this helplessness is exactly where we can gain the most. By learning every aspect of our existence, from the most basic to the most exalted, we become conscious on a far deeper level than any animal. If we realize our potential, then the human being, which begins as the most inferior of creatures, ends as the most sublime. But only if we realize our potential. This is the purpose of education.
Education should teach us that nature is whole, complete, integral. It is an indivisible entity that appears to us as separate pieces only because we perceive ourselves as separate, and therefore perceive everything else as separate entities, as well. Education should help us see the world for the integral whole that it is, and feel ourselves as included in it. It is not intellectual knowledge that we need, it is a very palpable experience.
Because it is so vital for our lives, education is not for kids and adolescents; it’s for everyone. In fact, it is more for grownups than it is for children, since educated grownups can educate their children, while uneducated grownups might spoil the children’s education even if it is good.
Correct education is done in groups that work on their unity until they become one whole. This develops in them the integral perception and allows them to perceive reality as integral, as well.
Without understanding and experiencing this wholeness, we will not know how to deal with the global crises we are experiencing at an increasing frequency and severity. Without grasping that we are whole and therefore mutually responsible for one another, we will not survive the integral reality that is encroaching on us.
Today, an educated person is not one who is well mannered; it is one who is internally connected to humanity, to earth, to everything. This is the only education that will carry us through the crises, and the only education that will make us happy.
Jews Down Under published my new article “Antisemitism and Pandemics”
Be it a plague or a war, a flood or an earthquake, a revolution or a financial meltdown, in the end, there is always one culprit: the Jews. In America, too, many already blame COVID-19 on the Jews, as is the case with the riots engulfing the tormented country.
In the 1950s and ’60s, the Jews stood shoulder to shoulder with the blacks in their fight for equal rights. No one remembers and no one gives them credit. Now, too, they stand shoulder to shoulder with the protesters. No one will remember and no one will give them credit.
The Jews donate to various charities and NGOs more money than any ethnic or racial group. But what do people say? “First they stole it, now they’re giving us the crumbs to buy our gratitude.” Of course, not everyone says it, but a great many do, and an even greater many tacitly agrees with them. It’s always been like that and it’ll always be like that until we learn what fundamental flaw we Jews have in our approach.
Jews are the only nation that has ever been tasked with bringing peace and love to the entire world. We gave the world the most altruistic motto ever conceived, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” yet we display the complete opposite of it: internal enmity and odium. We may sympathize with stranger’s pains, but we loathe our own co-religionists. And even though they don’t verbalize it, deep down, this is what Jew haters hate about Jews: that Jews hate each other.
When we became a nation, we were given a task: Unite “as one man with one heart,” and thereby become “a light unto nations.” For centuries, we have been trying everything to avoid our vocation. We talk about morals, ethics, justice, but we refuse to talk about love.
Morals are a miserable surrogate for love. Just as a mother doesn’t need morals to tend to her child because her love guides her, if we cultivate love among us we won’t need morals, and we will treat each other beautifully.
Then, and only then will non-Jews say, “Now we respect them.”
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the significance of gematria?“
Gematria is a person’s or soul’s particular internal state, which consists of a spiritual desire (called a “Kli” [“vessel”]) and spiritual light (called “Ohr”) that fills the desire.
It is a way of recording a definitive state of the soul. The totality of all feelings, perceptions, states, memories and intentions that the soul undergoes can be expressed by means of letters or letter sequences known as “Gematria.”
Since ancient times, Kabbalists, i.e., people who attain a soul and increase their closeness with life’s causal force of love and bestowal, known in Kabbalah as “the Creator,” have recorded information about the spiritual states they experience, and all such records are known as Gematria.
In other words, when we attain the soul, we perceive through a new sense called a “screen” (“Masach”), an intention that equalizes between the Creator’s light (“Ohr”) and the desire (“Kli”) of the created being. Gematria thus becomes an expression in our world of what we perceive with the screen.
What, then, is the significance of Gematria, i.e., recording spiritual states in our world?
The significance is that by reading the letter sequences and words, we do not simply read stories, fables, parables or any other corporeal information, but we shift from one spiritual desire to the next, discovering our soul, i.e., our increasing closeness with the Creator, through the changing letters and their sequences.
Every letter in Gematria is a spiritual symbol, and every word is a matrix. It is like a encrypted secret code where every word, letter, sequence of letters and words, and every word’s root, stems from the relationship between the light, the Creator’s quality, and the vessel, the soul.
The more we approach Gematria with the intent of attaining our soul, the more we will sense the harmony registered in the connection of the forces of nature that are expressed through its letters.
Kabbalists created the Hebrew language to express their spiritual attainments, and in addition to the 22 Hebrew letters, there are expressive points, called “TANTA” (“Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin, Otiot”), which express the letters’ connections and developments.
The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet break down into:
9 letters from Bina;
9 letters from Zeir Anpin;
4 letters from Malchut, and
5 more letters at the ends of words.
The 5 letters at the ends of words symbolize the positioning on the Parsa. The exit of the light builds the expressive points (TANTA) that disappear. Vowels are nearly never used. They are just hinted at.
Ultimately, the significance of Gematria, the words, letters and their sequences, is that it contains the revelation of the Creator to the created beings, and by reading it, we can attract such an influence upon ourselves, drawing us closer to the discovery of our soul’s connection with its Creator.
Question: I am a first year student in Kabbalah classes online. How soon can I feel the Creator in a group?
Answer: It does not depend on which course you are studying, but on how much you want to master this method. Try to get as close as possible to some group and together with your friends make such contact where you stop feeling the egoism separating you from them.
Or vice versa, you will feel it more and more, but at the same time overcome it. Thus, you will begin to move toward the revelation of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 5/10/20
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Question: Does a Kabbalist believe that there is an attribute of freedom in each person? Or is it not an innate attribute in every individual?
Answer: It is an innate attribute in every individual, but it is very limited and is not necessarily expressed in this life.
Question: I want to complete my whole correction and reveal the Creator in this life. Where is my freewill? What exactly depends on me?
Answer: Get rid of everything that is unnecessary, choose what is most important and necessary for the revelation of the Creator, and that’s all. This is how you will solve your problem. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah does.
Question: Do I need to give up my needs in order to attain freedom?
Answer: We cannot give up any of our needs. We can simply reassess our values internally so that we can engage only in what is necessary for the attainment of the most important goal in life.
Question: In what way is the implementation of my freewill expressed every second?
Answer: You should gradually reach the point where you determine what your most important goal is and move toward it correctly.
Question: Was Baal HaSulam a free man?
Answer: Every Kabbalist is a free person because he ascends above his egoism.
Question: Can we say that freewill comes down to the creation of the correct external and internal boundaries of one’s conduct and living up to them, and the more you adhere to them the freer you are?
Answer: Freewill is expressed by one’s total devotion to the right environment.
Question: When does a person stop living from one day to the next and thinking only about himself?
Answer: Whenever he wants to. There is no other answer.
Question: Are there limits to freedom?
Answer: There are no limits to freedom. It is all in the desire to bestow, and so it is infinite.
Question: What can you do if you feel great doubts before making a choice, how do you choose?
Answer: Always choose connection and kindness with your group and not any other way.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 11/17/19
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Question: Is the Creator’s perception expressed in our creativity, and is it the expression of primordial human understanding of world views?
Answer: If a person gets closer to the Creator, it affects not only his world view, but also all his creations in this world: everything that he does, creates, and produces. This is because very deep internal changes take place in a person.
Therefore, we should attain the Creator. This will impact the world and everything we produce, write, say, treat, or teach people, which means everything that we do will be revealed as the existence of the Creator inside us.
These actions will correct the world and will draw others to the revelation of the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/24/19
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Physical and Internal Commandments
Question: Some people think that for the purpose of correction it is enough to observe the external framework of the commandments. Others, Kabbalists in particular, claim that it is necessary to change one’s egoistic nature to altruistic, and then this will be considered a correction. What is needed in order to become corrected?
Answer: In the Kabbalistic sources it is written that all the Torah is given only for the correction of the heart. The Creator requires only this of us.
But because people cannot go to correction directly since it is very difficult, they are given a different framework, a more external one, where a person uses the world around him to somehow approach the property of bestowal, the property of connection with others anyway.
The truth is that in the end, over the centuries, these external commandments have been eviscerated, the inner meaning disappeared from them and only the external symbols remained. Therefore, their performance is not connected with the heart in any way. That is, I can hate other Jews and the whole world in general, and at the same time supposedly be righteous.
Question: In addition, there are groups of people who believe that it is necessary to fulfill only the commandments of the Torah. Others fulfill the commandments added later by the sages. And Kabbalists say that the commandments are internal changes of one’s intention to correct one’s desires. How to combine it? Which interpretation is correct?
Answer: The interpretation is simple. Because we exist in the sensation of the external world, some external actions are necessary. Therefore, on one hand, we must comply with certain external frameworks: social, family, and state.
On the other hand, we need to understand that the fulfillment of the Torah is intended to correct our egoism, to clear our hearts from evil attitudes to each other and to use other people. We need to do this.
Question: The problem is that each group wants to impose its point of view on others, considers itself to be right. In this way hatred arises. Naturally, this pushes us away from the goal of nature.
Baal HaSulam writes that the commandments of the Torah and the commandments of nature are one and the same. Isn’t the law of gravity or the law of thermodynamics the same as the commandments in the Torah?
Answer: All physical and internal laws at any level, not only the laws of the existence of our body, but also of our internal, sensory systems, and all the relationships between us merge into one single communication system. And we need to correct this connection, maintain it, and bring it to an absolutely complete integral level, complete interconnection with each other. This is called its final correction.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 7/29/19
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New Life 1250 – Public Panic
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi
Uncertainty can cause the public to panic and even become violent just like a little child acts out when there are no boundaries. Panic is likely to occur when the public feels a lack of management, direction, and guiding hand. Individuals have difficulty remaining calm when everyone else is panicking. There are factions in every population who want to cause panic in order to serve their interests. The public became panicked during the lockdown period and pressured the government to return to normal. As a result, the coronavirus spread. To avoid panic, it is up to the leadership to develop a genuine concern for the public’s peace of mind and to act firmly.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1250 – Public Panic,” 6/8/20
 Video: Play Now | Download |
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Medium published my new article “How COVID-19 Is Transforming Humankind”
The Fort Myers Police Department makes heart out of police cars to thank health workers at Lee Memorial Hospital
Recent reports point to “serious brain disorders found in mild, recovering COVID-19 patients.” Likewise, Melinda Moyer wrote in The New York Times: “Among patients hospitalized for Covid-19 in Wuhan, China, more than a third experienced nervous system symptoms,” and “French researchers reported that 84 percent of Covid patients who had been admitted to the I.C.U. experienced neurological problems, and that 33 percent continued to act confused and disoriented when they were discharged.” Clearly, the coronavirus isn’t only a respiratory infection; it is affecting who we are.
The novel coronavirus is forcing us to reconsider our values, our priorities, our relationships. Gradually, we will realize that lasting happiness and satisfaction cannot be found in accumulation of wealth or property.
Today, it is already recognized that the virus is spreading in the air, not just in droplets that fall up to six feet from the carrier. It is infecting everyone, every single person, though in different ways. It does not mean that we will all suffer or get sick, but we will all feel that we are changing — externally and internally — in our behavior, thoughts, and actions. In everything we do, something will be different.
At the moment, we focus mainly on the more superficial changes — the impact on our senses, such as blurred vision, loss of ability to smell and taste, etc. But the impact goes far beyond the physical senses. If you look within you carefully, I’m sure you will already find that you’re already not the same person you were before the outbreak of the virus. Notice how your thoughts have changed, your ambitions, your hopes, and expectations. COVID isn’t just a virus; it is reprogramming us, our psyche.
The novel coronavirus is forcing us to reconsider our values, our priorities, our relationships. Gradually, we will realize that lasting happiness and satisfaction cannot be found in accumulation of wealth or property. Having a bigger pile of bricks and wood written to my name won’t make me satisfied, and certainly not happy. Neither will having more zeros in the bank, whose worth is only pleasing when they make you feel superior to others.
We may not even notice that we have changed, and certainly not why, but in a few months, when we look back at who we were in the beginning of this decade, we will see how far we’ve gone. We will not feel that we have changed because of the virus; we will simply foster different values than we do today.
The virus is imposing its changes very subtly. It is levying a sense of social responsibility on our psyche. The idea that I am not wearing the mask to protect myself, but for the safety of others — so I will not infect them, since I may be an asymptomatic carrier — is foreign to the mindset we’ve been raised on. But in the mindset enacted by COVID-19, it is a given.
The social and emotional changes that the virus is creating are already underway. The more we go along with them, the better we will feel along the way.
But the virus will take it further than the duty to wear masks. Since it’s destroyed the entertainment industry, ravaged the culture of dining out, and landed a devastating blow to the whole notion of physical shopping, it is in fact compelling us to enact social responsibility on the economic level, too. The country will have to help those who cannot find income get their bread regardless. At the same time, the country must oblige them to give something in return.
We will have to learn that in a society of mutual responsibility, we get what we need, but we must also give. Moreover, only those who give earn the right to receive. This doesn’t mean that we all give the same, since not all people are the same, but it will be taken for granted that every person must make a minimum effort for the benefit of society. Soon we will realize that this is how it’s supposed to be; it’ll seem natural to us, and we will not even remember that we once thought otherwise.
The social and emotional changes that the virus is creating are already underway. The more we go along with them, the better we will feel along the way. The more we resist, the more aggressive the virus will become. If we play ball, we won’t even feel it as an illness, not even as mild as a cold. We are transitioning to an era of social responsibility, prosperity, and happiness for everyone, and the virus is our scrupulous yet caring hidden guide.
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