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My Thoughts On Twitter 8/2/20

Dr Michael Laitman Twitter

The world is trying to escape evil, but we mustn’t just escape, we must reach goodness, build relationships in which the Creator is revealed. Today’s crisis is an opportunity to build anew, to organize a network of connections that will be a vessel in which the Creator is revealed.

The blows received from the #Coronavirus will eventually cause all of humanity to bow, settle in, and calm down, realizing that there is an upper force at work here that will not allow us to do whatever we want: neither right nor left. We’ll have to submit to the influence of the third force—the Creator.

The longer the #Coronavirus goes on, the more unrest there will be in #Israel up to civil wars. Egoism is growing every day and will not let us calm down. Reconciliation among the Jews can only be in the middle line, above the egoism on all sides. Only the upper light will do it!

The Jewish wars were not with the Greeks or Romans, but between the Jews. And there is nothing new in today’s unrest, it is revealed again as thousands of years ago, the war of egoism that does not want to yield to anyone. Until our egoism reveals its hollowness and asks for correction.

In the uncorrected state we are the evil of the world, but in the corrected state we become the opposite—all good. Therefore, it is said that when Israel rises, it rises above all, and when it falls, it falls below all.
After all, we are the essence of the greatest desire to enjoy of all the nations of the world.

Love, awe, and faith are the qualities of the network that connects us. Above the globe, we’re connected by a single network. Let’s imagine it, and begin to feel that it really exists and has power. It is the Creator who awakens us to this connection, gives us strength, and supports us.

The coronavirus stopped our egoistic development because we couldn’t stop ourselves. We must see the guiding hand of the Creator in everything and see that all that happens is a correction, and that there is no evil in the world.
My ego does not let me to see the future as long as I am looking for its solo benefits.

Israel will feel the pandemic more than any other country, for #Israel is to blame for it according to Kabbalah. Redemption is only possible by the Jews aspiring to the good connection of “Love your neighbor.” Otherwise, it will become increasingly clearer how the Creator is leading the people to correction via the path of suffering that they themselves choose.

We are interpreting our state incorrectly. We’re like a sick person who thinks he’s perfectly healthy, with a full life ahead. All the signs of humanity’s extinction are evident. We cannot ignore them. Everything must be subject to being healed from the exacerbating ego.

The #US economy is in a sharp and deep decline, more than in the other countries. With its crude capitalism, it’s closer to the recognition of evil and true socialism. Especially with the US being the modern Babylon. Other countries are stuck, inflexible. Nature’s blow looms in the winter! The remedy is connection!

The science of Kabbalah teaches the correct use of two opposite forces of nature: reception and bestowal, hatred and love. Nothing should be destroyed! If we combine and balance them correctly, we will achieve similarity to the Creator.
There is nothing superfluous in the world, we just need to balance these forces.

The spiritual embryo floats in the mother’s waters—in the light of Hassadim with which it is born. If we unite in a healthy embryo, we’ll feel that we are in the light of Hassadim, in the sea of mercy. We, the soul, the embryo, will grow and learn to see the new world. Before we’re born there!

By uniting we’re building a body of the new-born humanity, we must unite in a way for us to be born healthy. The #Coronavirus is helping us advance toward spiritual birth, leaving only necessities. It is a cure for the crisis, not a punishment. The Creator’s blows are His remedy!

The crisis that the #coronavirus has led to is the birth of a new world. We entered as an embryo into the process of preparing for birth in the new world. Nature, the Creator, is pregnant and must give birth to us. We must help Him, agree with this process, unite more, and prepare for birth.

There may be internal enmity in other nations, but there is no such hatred as between the people of Israel because we hate the Jews within ourselves. The inner Jew is a desire to unite above the ego, to show the world that it is possible to live in a corrected world.

All our misfortunes are caused by the fact that we do not get along with each other and cannot achieve unity among the people of Israel. On the outside, it seems that the enemies are to blame for the destruction, but the foreign external force only executes the sentence; we are the ones who activate it within our people. We have no one to blame but ourselves.

Abraham taught his disciples to live by the law of loving one’s neighbor as oneself. This main rule: “love will cover all crimes” separated them from all other nations of the world who remained in Babylon, and later scattered throughout the world.

Representatives of all nations followed Abraham’s call to unite in love. They called themselves Yisra-El (aspiring to the Creator), to unity and love. This dream is still alive in people and is beginning to be realized in our time.

The 9th of Av symbolizes the destruction of the Temple, which occurred due to baseless hatred. The Jews are a nation that Abraham gathered in ancient Babylon when hatred broke out between people and he taught that there is only one remedy against hatred: rising to love above hatred!

These days, it is critical to perform a correction. The world goes through confusing situations, from state to state, without understanding what will happen to it tomorrow. This indicates a high speed of progress and our lack of understanding of where the world is going or where it should end up. Only Kabbalah will show the illuminated path.

“You stand here today” before entering into a covenant to create a place for the revelation of the Creator, a connection between us similar to the upper force, that allows it to be revealed. There is no Creator until we build the quality of bestowal between us and give Him a place where He can dwell among us.

We were connected but had to undergo a breakage in order to rebuild it ourselves. All breakage is a preparation for today’s state. For the first time, we perform an act of unification over all the previous divisions: the First and Second Temples, to build a place of holiness love and bestowal.

We are in turmoil and confusion, with no hope or strength. But through scrutinizing these states, up to the most severe, “the 9th of Av,” the destruction of the Temple, we see that we are unable to do anything. We come to the 9th of Av, when everything collapses without a thread of holiness, except a tiny spark from the Creator.

We make a covenant with the help of the Creator’s spark. From the lowest, most horrible state, we erect the perfect, corrected Kli. The 9th of Av is the day of total breakage, and this same state is the place of construction, correction. “The darkness will shine as light,” and we will thus resurrect ourselves into life.

We inherently contain a contradiction because we have two opposite qualities: our root comes from the Creator, while the entire egoism is a form opposite to the Creator. We are between these two opposites and try to connect them, but this connection occurs by way of collision.

Abraham (3,500 years ago) taught his students to live in accordance with the highest law of nature “Love your friend as yourself,” “Love will cover all crimes.” Observance of these laws separated Abraham’s group from all other nations of the world that subsequently dispersed across the whole globe. But Abraham’s group also fell back into the ego 2,000 years ago.

#Jews are a group that Abraham assembled in Babylon when hatred erupted among the people living there. He taught the method of rising above the hatred to love. The Tower of Babel represents hatred among people. Those who followed Abraham became the people of Israel and the rest remained in Babylon.

We should relate to everything that happens to the people of Israel not in the same way as what happens to an ordinary people. #Israel is a group that must undergo its own path, out of the ego, the quality of reception, and into the quality of bestowal. That is why the Creator has a special relationship with them: their shattering (the 9th of Av) and looming rebirth.

It is written that when the Creator sends blows by this He heals. For He sends blows to our ego, forcing it to yield and make space for the aspiration to come closer together. And we can only get closer together under the pressure of the blows! However, by accepting and understanding them for what they are, we’re hastening time and mitigating the suffering. The virus heals!

The birth canal is narrow, and we’re going to have to get real close in order to come out the other side. By connecting, we’re going to exit it easily. We must change our EGO-values for the things we previously deemed important to become unimportant and the unimportant to become important. Once we turn over head first, we’re going to be of one opinion.

Turning over to head first before labor means a turning over of values from personal to collective. In the new world, to which I wish to be born, the old values (food, sex, family, money, power, knowledge) are losing importance.
Connection becomes of highest priority, in which the new reality is revealed.

Nature turns the fetus upside down and pushes it out of the mother. So we must change our attitude toward the world from egoistic to altruistic. The environment helps us, but the fetus itself exerts tremendous efforts during birth. Let us labor together toward our spiritual birth that lies ahead.

Presently we’re going to have to go through labor pains, to be born in a new quality, out of the quality to receive and into the quality to bestow. But we have no choice. This is preprogrammed by nature. The process is underway! And we cannot avoid it. We can only ease the process of rebirth by aspiring toward unity!
From Twitter, 8/2/20

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“The Future Of Tech: Learning The Technology Of Connection” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “The Future of Tech: Learning the technology of connection

In one way or another, our daily lives are deeply influenced by the biggest U.S. tech companies. The information we are exposed to, what we consume, and our virtual interactions all depend largely on the online platforms that recently faced a Capitol Hill grilling on the way they do business. The CEOs of Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple tried to refute accusations of biased content moderation, privacy intrusion, and market domination stymieing competition. But the question still unanswered is how much are they contributing to bringing people closer together. Any hearing that fails to initiate such change will be superficial and meaningless.

The prodigious minds behind the tech companies can and should apply their skills to developing software dedicated for connection, including simulators of desirable human relationships and how to achieve them. The idea is to visualize a perfect coexistence and interdependence in which individuals function like cogwheels learning the steps for realizing this vision of ideal integration among people. In order to attain this goal, the player will follow a gradual process over multiple levels of advancement until each one feels comfortably connected.

The depth of American distrust toward such tech giants was revealed in a study conducted by a Pew Research in June. 72% of U.S. adults consulted in the survey said big tech companies have too much “power and influence” in politics. Earlier this year, another poll found that 65% of the people did not regard the industry’s expansion over smaller competitors as beneficial to users.

The way social media manages what is considered unreliable and harmful information is also controversial. In protest, more than a thousand companies have pulled their ads from Facebook to boycott allegations of inaction from the media platform against hate speech.

Ignite the Fire of Love

American public life is dominated by hatred and lack of social cohesion from all sides. The escalating unrest in Portland and other major cities, in addition to the severe political schism that has ignited America in recent years is a fire that will not be appeased until all stakeholders find a common ground where they can rise above their differences and build mutual trust and understanding.

It is precisely the turbulent atmosphere in America that offers a compelling opportunity for people to open their eyes to the urgent need for unity above all that divides them, because the alternative is hazardous for everyone. It is written, “Hate stirs strife, and love covers all crimes” (Proverbs, 10:12). In other words, time is of the essence for creating the conditions to get closer to each other without erasing our differences by building a canopy of brotherhood and respect above them to enable calm and peace.

The information technology giants could play a paramount role in facilitating closeness, empathy, and mutual support among people, although the current conditions created by these platforms serve the opposite purpose. They have fallen prey to political interests, slander mongering, and repulsive bullying and shaming. But nature itself is drawing a red line over anything that does not promote qualitative connection above separation and gaps.

The Technology of Connection

The current pandemic has shaped a new reality in which balanced human relations emerge as the only way for humanity to achieve stability and thrive. Therefore, the world has entered the era for a new vision of mutual giving in all its endeavors.

We need technological platforms that will illustrate for us in a user-friendly way how to become properly connected. A company’s business failure or success will hinge on its ability to fulfill and facilitate humanity’s need to reach the crucial goal of achieving unity.

The prodigious minds behind the tech companies can and should apply their skills to developing software dedicated for connection, including simulators of desirable human relationships and how to achieve them. The idea is to visualize a perfect coexistence and interdependence in which individuals function like cogwheels learning the steps for realizing this vision of ideal integration among people. In order to attain this goal, the player will follow a gradual process over multiple levels of advancement until each one feels comfortably connected.

Businesses that develop software and means for advancing humanity are the future since the old paradigm of reckless competition has become irrelevant in an increasingly interdependent reality. Thus, what the world needs most right now is a more cohesive existence. Our common vision and work in that direction are what will guarantee prosperity and peace for all.
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“Where We Are Going With COVID In The Driver Seat” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Where We Are Going with COVID in the Driver Seat

It is now the height of summer and COVID is still spreading ever faster. In a couple of months, as temperatures cool, it will spread even faster. This will not be another flu season; it’ll wear us out.

At the moment, governments can still execute relief programs, but they are bleeding cash fast and soon there won’t be any left. When that happens, we’ll regret having burnt it on saving hopeless businesses, but those businesses will be gone for good, as will the money, and we will have to get back to the basics.

Machines will do the vast majority of all the work humanity needs for its sustenance, and people will be free to socialize. Gradually we will realize that the reason for our illness, all illnesses, as a matter of fact, is our negative connections. With so much ill-will and bad thoughts about each other, it was impossible to build a sustainable civilization, so the coronavirus came along and forced us to reboot the system. If we insist on running it again the way it was, it won’t work. If we accept the situation, even if involuntarily, and follow COVID’s dictate to see that everyone gets the basics they need and we spend our time connecting with each other, everything will work and the virus will not affect us.

This, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, is the whole idea of COVID-19: It’s scratching out the previous century and sending us back to the basics: Get what you need and be thankful you got it.

But it’s not going to keep us there. We can produce much more than we need, but we keep it to ourselves so it gets stuck and goes nowhere, people go hungry and manufacturers go bankrupt. COVID will teach us to produce only what is needed and see that everyone gets it. Then things will run smoothly.

At first, we will do it because it will be the only way to survive. But once the system begins to run, we will realize that this is a much more rewarding way to live. Machines will do the vast majority of all the work humanity needs for its sustenance, and people will be free to socialize. Gradually we will realize that the reason for our illness, all illnesses, as a matter of fact, is our negative connections. With so much ill-will and bad thoughts about each other, it was impossible to build a sustainable civilization, so the coronavirus came along and forced us to reboot the system. If we insist on running it again the way it was, it won’t work. If we accept the situation, even if involuntarily, and follow COVID’s dictate to see that everyone gets the basics they need and we spend our time connecting with each other, everything will work and the virus will not affect us.

“What Does It Take To Build A Successful Startup In These Uncertain Times?” (BIZCATALYST 360°)

My new article on BIZCATALYST “What Does it Take to Build a Successful Startup in these Uncertain Times?

At the outset, we need to grasp the extent to which the world has shifted to a new program over the past few months. Today, we live in a completely different world. It is as if aliens visited us and implanted a new chip into our reality, changing our surrounding conditions, our behaviors, and our ways of thinking.

Still, we are in a transition phase, and likewise, many people continue trying to operate according to the outdated program of our pre-coronavirus world, a program that prioritizes values of self-benefit over benefiting others.

If we understood nature’s evolutionary tendency to guide all of its parts to perfect connection and interdependence, then we would see how today’s changes are for our ultimate benefit: they come to bring us closer to each other, not necessarily physically, but to a more heartfelt closeness.

And when we feel closer to each other, we feel happier, more confident, safer, and healthier.

Therefore, what we need more than anything else today is an environment that can support, encourage and guide our connection, so that we can balance our relationships with our new program of development—conditions that demand increased cooperation and care for each other.

If we fail to upgrade our attitudes to each other in order to match the mutual dependence and responsibility required by today’s new program, then we will feel an increasingly heavier weight on our shoulders the more we plod on from one day to the next.

Nature, by means of the coronavirus, has placed us into new conditions precisely in order to transform us.

Today’s startups thus need to take that into consideration.

If our past startups ended up in a marketplace that pitted them up against each other, now everything needs to change. We will still need to compete, but our competition needs to shift from egoistic, where we try to reap as much of the market for our business as we can, to a competition where we each aim to contribute as much as value as possible to humanity.

And what does “value” mean today? It means caring that everyone’s needs are met, as well as helping everyone genuinely become happy, safe, and healthy via upgrading the quality of human relations.

Therefore, anyone bold enough to initiate a startup in this period should first be equipped with sufficient knowledge and an environment to understand the transition the world is in, and then create tools that help people feel closer to each other.

For instance, there is plenty of room for technology to develop means by which we can feel ourselves together in one room, and even more so, as parts of a single whole where our every breath and contact is sensed by everyone.

In other words, as we head toward the discovery of our tight interdependence, we can develop technologies that help us sense what it means to feel as one with others, and which will thus help guide our fateful transition much more positively and harmoniously.

We thus need startups that authentically fill the human need for connection, which will serve to smoothen our transition from our current degree to greater mutual support and consideration.

“A Merry Requiem To An Old World” (Linkedin)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMy new article on Linkedin “A Merry Requiem to an Old World

The old world has died, and I couldn’t be happier. Everything we’ve known will not be the same: relationships between couples, children, workplaces, international relations, everything will change. The ego that reigned in all those contacts is dying, smothered by recurring lockdowns and other fetters imposed on it by a virus.

Humanity is chanting a requiem to the old world, and I am cheering for the new one to come. I have been waiting for it for decades, and now it is finally arriving. Naturally, it is not an easy transition. There will be many pangs and pains along the way, but any person who understands like me that the world to come will be governed by love and mutual responsibility is very happy these days.

Once we are free from the chains of egoism, we will understand what freedom really means. Every person will not only be able, but encouraged to develop one’s potential to the fullest. Society will actively support each person in fulfilling one’s dreams, as the realization of these dreams will contribute to society, make it richer, more united, and more vibrant.

The first stages are already happening: No jobs are coming instead of the ones that have faded, and more and more people are realizing that the coronavirus is not a crisis; it’s a transformation. They are recognizing that they won’t only have to change their jobs, or even careers. They are realizing that they will have to change their entire lives.

But even this is still only part of the truth. The whole truth is that they will have to transform how they think about life. People will learn to perceive everything differently: themselves, other people, and their relationships with other people and the world.

Instead of an individualistic, self-centered perspective, where each person cares only about oneself and (in the best case scenario) about one’s loved ones, people will transcend their egos and form a realm where every person is equally important, equally contributing, and equally caring about everyone else.

People will develop group consciousness that will override the individualistic one. That group consciousness will determine what happens in their lives, rather than the ego, which knows only how to fight for survival until it loses and we give up on life. There will be no losers in the approaching world, since winning will mean making everyone feel valuable, worthy, deserving, or in short, happy.

Material worries will be people’s least concern. Machines can do these jobs better than humans, so why should humans trouble themselves with them? People will be concerned with building the new society, something that only humans can do.

Everything we know today, and which is based on restraining the ego, will change dramatically. Law, education, the job market, healthcare, housing, every realm where we currently express our egos will be revolutionized as we will use our skills to express concern for others.

If we feel resentment when we think about such a world, it is our ego that resents it. Once we are free from the chains of egoism, we will understand what freedom really means. Every person will not only be able, but encouraged to develop one’s potential to the fullest. Society will actively support each person in fulfilling one’s dreams, as the realization of these dreams will contribute to society, make it richer, more united, and more vibrant.

Vast amounts of energy and funds will become available, since they are currently tied up by authorities that have to keep our reckless egos at bay. But when we work for the benefit of society, these entities will not be needed, and the abundant human and monetary resources dedicated to keeping them running will be at the service of society.

We have no idea how much wealth humanity produces. Every person produces each day several times over what he or she consumes. Currently, that surplus goes to the state and the wealthy. But COVID is forcing everyone to act more socially; it will teach everyone that unless everyone is happy, no one will be happy.

In fact, we can accelerate the oncoming of the transformation through simple and helpful exercises. For example, if we start wearing masks not in order to avoid catching the virus, but to avoid transmitting it, it will already create a shift in our perception of the world. This is just an example, a first step, but as the saying goes, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Humanity has seen plenty a revolution in its time, but it has never seen a transformation. We are the first generation that gets to morph into a new being—kinder, wiser, better.

“When Will The Coronavirus End? Are There Any Vaccines Nearing Release?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: When will the coronavirus end? Are there any vaccines nearing release?

Despite the high anticipation for COVID-19’s demise, it is here to stay for a while.

The coronavirus emerged in order to change the way we think, and it will remain with us until we complete this transformation.

Since humanity is a massive diverse aggregate of different people, it will take some time for us to adapt to a much more interdependent world than what we were accustomed to in pre-coronavirus times.

Similar to how people get used to living with chronic diseases, so too we as a humanity will get used to the coronavirus.

It will simply become an integral part of our lives.

As any onset of a disease is felt severely as a shock to the body’s systems, likewise we are currently undergoing the initial pangs of the coronavirus’ “injection” into humanity.

However, this transition phase will settle and human society will assume a new, more independent form.

Even much of the engagement that the coronavirus has brought upon us has acted to exemplify our dependence on each other, i.e., how we depend on each other to wear masks, keep good personal hygiene, maintain our distance from each other and quarantine ourselves if we knowingly contact people with the virus.

We thus see how a small virus has helped us start seeing a more connected world, which operates on everyone and where everyone holds mutual influence, and it will continue to “teach” us such wisdom the more it stays with us.

We would thus be wise to internalize how we are all parts of a single system that is developing toward a new state of balance with nature.

That is, as nature is interdependent and interconnected, so we also discover more and more of nature’s and our own interconnectedness the more we develop.

Also, the more this process of increasing interdependence reveals itself to us, the more we will find ourselves at new sets of crossroads, stage after stage: We either agree to our increasing interdependence and accept more responsibility and consideration for each other, or we oppose it, and thus feel our tightening connection as an increasingly ugly and painful situation.

However, either way, nature presses us to connect more and more, like a steamroller of evolution that flattens our egoistic and harmful attitudes to each other. It squashes our egos like a lemon skin against a lemon squeezer, and will continue doing so until all of our egoistic juices become extracted.

At that stage, we will find a new kind of fulfillment in such qualities that currently seem less important or even ugly to us, like kindness, altruism, giving and consideration of others.

If only we could see that there is a very clear line from our current reality to a new, unified and perfect one, that nature has a state of perfection in store for us and carefully guides us there, then we would encounter everything in our lives more confidently, with a sense of purpose.

Now, we are divided in our attitudes to each other, and more than anything else, this division causes all of our pains. Our division is expressed as each of us being primarily concerned with self-benefit over benefiting others, which is opposite to nature’s holistic characteristic. Suffering is the differential we feel between our state and nature’s, and it operates on us to make us connect.

The more we make strides to connect with each other, the more balanced we will become with nature, and we will thus experience an inversion of our pains and sorrows to pleasures and joy.

We need only agree to connect above our divisive drives that constantly pull in the other direction, and when we reach such an agreement, we will likewise experience its benefits.

Thus, viewing humanity as a single organism and nature as its superior, we can see how nature vaccinated humanity with the coronavirus in order to heal us from our divisive attitudes to each other.

We can thus expect to exit the coronavirus pandemic as a stronger humanity, with healthier attitudes dwelling within, among peoples and nations. Therefore, while we are forced to keep our distance from each other, while doing so, we would be wise to think how we can become more internally connected.

What, then, would it take for the coronavirus to end?

By understanding that it is much more than a mere physical disease, but that it has come to bring upon a change to our thinking—from divided to connected, egoistic to altruistic, and individualistic to interdependent—then by adjusting our attitudes accordingly, we would truly put a stop to the pandemic, since nature would no longer need to use it to teach us a lesson.

Therefore, we should look out for each other, consider how we can prevent viruses of any kind to pass to others, from physical diseases to any kinds of harmful thoughts, and by exercising this mutual responsibility and consideration, the coronavirus will disappear from our lives.

Above photo by Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash.

“The Good Reason That Human Society Is So Bad” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “The Good Reason that Human Society Is So Bad

King Solomon already told us, “Go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise” (Prov 6:6). Not only ants, but any animal society is more caring and orderly than any human society. They have clear laws, mutual responsibility, and they respect and love one another.

When we shift from self-centered existence to caring for others, our worldview expands and we begin to experience the world on a much deeper level.

We, on the other hand, have unclear laws, which is just as well since we don’t obey them anyway. We are resentful toward our governments, careless to our neighbors, competitive and cunning toward coworkers, and feel alone and insecure in a cruel world.

But there is a good reason for the mess we make of our societies. Human society and animal societies have completely different purposes. Animals operate on instincts. They don’t need to decide on the laws of their society, which rules are right, and which are wrong. Their social behavior is encoded in their genes and they feel no need to change them since those rules protect them.

Human societies were initially built for the same purpose, but that purpose is no longer relevant. Contemporary human societies are not built to protect us from enemies; they are built to elevate us above our egos. Our social relations reflect the self-centered nature of our relationships, and if we are brave enough to look at ourselves in the mirror, we will see who we are and begin to change.

When we shift from self-centered existence to caring for others, our worldview expands and we begin to experience the world on a much deeper level. As long as we are confined to our own needs, all we see is our own wants. But when we see the needs of others, we feel their thoughts, hopes, challenges, and how they deal with them. Just as we perceive ourselves as entire worlds, so do everyone else. The more people we care about, the more worlds we “absorb” into ourselves, and the richer our own world becomes.
For this reason, human society was not built to run on instincts, but on people who nurture interconnections in order to gain deeper understanding and awareness of themselves, the people around them, and the world at large.
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“Is The World Going To Change Forever Because Of The Coronavirus?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Is the world going to change forever because of the coronavirus?

The coronavirus is inviting us to make a significant change.

It is up to us, however, whether we will experience the impending change as positive or negative.

What is the major change that the coronavirus comes to spark in us?

It is that we change our attitudes to each other, to think positively about each other in order to build a new society that is better connected and balanced with nature’s interconnectedness and interdependence.

If we saw nature’s tendency to develop us to become increasingly connected, with ties of mutual responsibility and consideration, then we would see that we need only implement more care and consideration for each other in order to positively realize our transition.

Failing to take any initiative to improve our connections would generate more suffering. That is, if we fail to upgrade our attitudes to each other, then we will feel the growing distance between the level of dependence nature requires of us and what we ourselves implement as various pains and complications. Vaccines and other medicines would then be of no use, as the coronavirus operates on a whole new level that we have yet to recognize.

It likely seems far-fetched that the coronavirus requires a change in our attitudes to each other more than anything else, and that we will fail to defeat it with mere physical means, but longer term effects of the coronavirus will urge our discovery of upgraded attitudes to each other out of a lack of other options.

In other words, through the coronavirus, nature has given us new conditions by which we undergo fateful changes. For example, if we want to teach our children a new language, mere explanations of that new language are insufficient in order for them to absorb it. But if we place them in conditions where they encounter the language more and more, such as posting words on post-it notes on various furniture and devices around the home, as well as holding regular times when we speak the new language together, then the practical change of conditions teaches the new language more than any explanations.

Therefore, through the new tighter interdependent conditions that the coronavirus pandemic has revealed to us, we would be wise to try and develop our attitudes, to match our new interdependence accordingly.

One exercise we can conduct in this direction involves masks. As health departments around the world have requested wearing masks in public places, we can check our attitude to such a condition: Do we wear the masks, or ignore the guideline? And if we wear the masks, is it because we don’t want to get infected by others, or is it because we don’t want to infect others in case we are asymptomatic carriers of the virus?

The latter discernment is definitely the most altruistic and closest to nature’s attitude to us.

That is just one exercise where we can check our attitude to others, and seek how to upgrade our attitude to such a level where benefiting others becomes as important, if not more important, than serving our narrow self-interests.

Above photo by Macau Photo Agency on Unsplash

“Don’t Overlook Message Of Tisha B’Av” (Israel Hayom)

Dr Michael LaitmanMy new article on Israel Hayom “Don’t overlook message of Tisha B’Av

We should not be mourning the destruction of the Temple but rather the ruin of our unity, our brotherly love, and the abandonment of our task to unite as one and be a role model for the nations.

This Wednesday, July 29, will be the 9th of the Hebrew month of Av, when the Temple was destroyed and the Jews were exiled from their land. Although historians attribute the exile to the commander of the Roman army Titus, Jewish sources pin the ruin and the exile on “sina’at hinam” (unfounded/baseless hatred), the hatred of the Jews for one another.

The Jewish people gained their nationhood when they united “as one man with one heart” at the foot of Mount Sinai. When they united and became a nation, they were also tasked with being “a light unto nations,” namely to make their unity an example to the rest of the nations, so they, too, would be able to unite.

The demand that Jews would be role models of unity has since become the kernel of all Jewish hatred, both emanating from other nations, as well as from Jews who resented the idea of unity and wanted to pursue individualistic (later to become Hellenistic) agendas.

Two thousand years ago, the hatred within the Jewish people became so fierce that they locked themselves inside their capital, Jerusalem – with the Roman legion camped outside the walls – slaughtered one another, burned each other’s food reservoirs, and made Titus’ work much easier when he finally decided to conquer the city and destroy the Temple.

The day when the Romans marched into the Temple and sealed the Jewish defeat was to become a day of mourning. But we should not mourn the destruction of the walls or the breaking of the altar. We should instead mourn the ruin of our unity, our brotherly love, the abandonment of our task to unite as one man with one heart, and be a role model for the nations.

When Hitler explained in Mein Kampf why he hates Jews, he expounded on his disgust with their dislike for one another. “The Jew is only united when a common danger forces him to be or a common booty entices him; if these two grounds are lacking, the qualities of the crassest egoism come into their own,” he wrote.

Numerous other antisemites wrote and spoke similarly about the Jewish people. They would not dedicate such attention to Jewish hatred of each other if they did not expect Jews to feel otherwise toward their brethren.

These days, once again, division and internal hatred are rampant, both in Israel and outside of it. Jewish anti-Jewish groups and individuals once again decry with righteous indignation that only their way and views are right, that Jews with other views are ignorant and inferior. They do not realize that winning the nations’ hearts, for which they so desperately yearn, depends not on their ideology, but on their unity precisely with those brethren they hate.

From the perspective of the world, nothing has changed. We are still tasked with being a light unto nations by setting an example of unity, and we are still hated for showing the opposite. Vasily Shulgin, a senior member of the Russian Parliament before the 1917 revolution and an avid self-proclaimed anti-semite wrote in his book What We Don’t Like about Them: “Jews in the 20th century have become very smart, effective, and vigorous at exploiting other people’s ideas. However,” he protested, “this is not an occupation for teachers and prophets, not the role of guides of the blind, not the role of carriers of the lame.”

Deep inside, every Jew feels indebted to the world. Deep inside, we feel the call of our vocation. But we will never live up to our task by hating one another. We will do so only if we show the world that above our fierce disagreements, we love each other like family. Although we cannot agree on anything, we form a union that is stronger than any dispute.

The divisions between us are the vehicle through which we can show the world what unity means, but only if we rise to the challenge and unite above them. If we do so, the world will see that unity is possible however deep the chasm between people and nations. If we keep avoiding unity, the world will keep blaming us for spreading division and will make us pay for its suffering.
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