Assimilation Is Impossible

Question: In the territory of Germany, the Jews first appeared with the Romans in the 5th century AD, but the epicenter of Jewish settlements dates back to the 10th century.

As in Spain, they contributed to the development of the economy and trade. Despite the instability of the situation of the Jews, Germany became one of the most important centers of the Jewish community. Here a special type developed, the Ashkenazi community. By the 17th century, the center of the Ashkenazi community moved to Poland, Lithuania, and Prague.

This is how the German historian of Jewish origin Heinrich Graetz described the state of German Jewry, “If the laboriously constructed organism of a nation has lost vitality, the bonds connecting the individual parts are weakened, and internal dissolution has set in, even the despotic will which keeps the members in a mechanical union being wanting; in short, if death comes upon a commonalty in its corporate state, and it has been entombed, can it be resuscitated and undergo a revival?”

In addition, the mass process of conversion of Jews to Christianity, assimilation, and emancipation began. What do you see as the problem of assimilation?

Answer: The fact is that it is impossible. As soon as assimilation begins, anti-Semitism immediately rises with such a force that assimilation is suspended, and despite the fact that Jews would very much like to dissolve into the people among whom they currently live, it is impossible.

Comment: However, on the other hand, you said that the dispersion of Jews among other nations and their mutual mingling has a purpose.

My Response: The goal is not to physically mingle, but rather to bring their own ideology, culture, and monotheism to the nations of the world. We are talking about a historical movement that existed for several thousand years.

It is written in the Torah that Jews should bring light to all nations. To do this, they need to become its source. In other words, they should not be dissolved, but should be a source of light, knowledge, monotheism, and a correct attitude to the development of civilization in every nation.

For more on this topic, read my books Like a Bundle of Reeds: why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour, and The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord.

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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 8/12/19

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Question: The basis of conformism, first of all, is that the opinion of others is very important to us even if we do not notice it or do not recognize it.

Why do we care so much about the opinions of other people whom we neglect, and in fact do not care about at all? How can you explain this paradox?

Answer: This is indeed a paradox. On the one hand, I am deeply indifferent to others. On the other hand, it is very important to me that they approve of me. If even a small mouse, cat, or dog shows some gesture of disdain for me, I will get upset. This will hurt me very much.

It is arranged so by nature so that we would get into correct contact with the world around us. So that we will have good mutual communication. So that I will correctly influence the world and the world will influence me in global harmony.

Question: In principle, if I didn’t care about society, I would never be able to establish proper communication with it?

Answer: You would not be able to change yourself and feel the globality and integrality of general nature. This is the most important thing.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 4/30/20

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Why does nature make the birth process accompanied with such terrible agony? The fact is that afterward, this pain turns into force. The pain experienced by a woman during childbirth strengthens her and gives her tremendous strength later in life, which allows her to care for the baby and endure life’s trials.

The suffering experienced during childbirth strengthens the woman’s body. Therefore, a woman who has given birth is stronger than a woman who has not given birth and is stronger and more patient than a man.

Birth pains are very beneficial for health, it gives women patience and resilience in life. Therefore, the suffering that humanity is going through now in connection with the coronavirus will give it strength for development in the future.

After all, we will have to pass from one world to another, like a baby who is born from a mother’s womb that turns from an embryo into a human. After birth, he begins to behave in a completely different way and to become acquainted with a new reality and a new world outside the mother’s womb. The body of a newborn begins to act independently: the child cries, smiles, learns to listen, see, and then speak.

The child also goes through the pains of birth, although not as strongly as the mother. He loses all the sensations he had inside of his mother. His mother pushes him out, but he himself makes an effort to get out as well. Of course, he does not understand what he is doing but acts instinctively at the call of nature.

Nature forces the baby to turn his head down and gives him the strength to get out of the uterus through the narrow birth canal in order to be born. The baby also does a great job in childbirth.

Today each of us is such an embryo, and the mother’s womb is our environment. We need to be born with the help of the environment and start living in a new environment, feeling the environment as a Partzuf (Hebrew-face) of our soul.

We are forced to give up the usual life in the old world where we felt warm, confident, protected. Now we leave this place and go out into a new world that we do not know. How can we get through this state, overcome this barrier?

It is not yet visible that the uterus is beginning to open. Everything is closed for now, even though the contractions have already begun. But these contractions, the pressure on humanity inside the womb, is not directed yet. The embryo has not yet turned its head down, and it will take time for it to be born.

Turning  head-down is a turnover of values, of everything that was important before. Head-up means that the most important thing for me is my egoism and my own selfish existence. But now I want to abandon this approach, cancel, forget about myself, and start behaving in a new way, which means that I turn upside down.

Everything that was important to me before is no longer important, but what is important now is something completely different from before: bestowal, unification, love for one’s neighbor. The old values of human society, food, sex, family, money, power, knowledge, all these lose their value in the new world where we are all going to be born together. One acts on completely different principles.

The main thing for us is to unite and reveal a new reality in the connection between us, a higher power, unite with it, and constantly strengthen this contact.
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From KabTV’s “Women in the New World” 7/9/20

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Question: How will the current pandemic affect our development? Does it promote human freewill? We see that it, on the contrary, kind of takes away our freedom of choice because we behave in accordance with the external circumstances in which we exist. Where is freedom here?

Answer: Actually, we have not had any freedom of choice. We never have been guided by it; we acted only in the name of our egoism.

Taking into account all kinds of restrictions that the environment imposes on us, we have acted only under the influence of one single factor—our egoism—in order to fill and satisfy it every instant.

Comment: In the past, at least there was an illusion of freedom of choice.

My Response: You are right, the illusion has disappeared. But precisely due to the fact that it does not exist anymore, we have the opportunity to achieve real freedom of choice.

It is to rise above our egoism, which fetters us hand and foot and does not allow us to be free in any way. That is, freedom of choice is, first of all, freedom from one’s egoistic nature, which is imposed on us from above.

Question: Why is it written in many sources that freewill is in choosing the correct environment?

Answer: This is already a means. If I believe that I am obliged to get out of the power of egoism that dominates me, then I am looking for a means to achieve this. And it turns out that this can be done only by building an appropriate environment that would correctly influence me.

Question: In any egoistic society, receiving from it brings me pleasure, and giving back to society causes suffering. I do not want to give to it, or I do want to, but to the extent that I receive from it.

But suddenly values in society begin to change and they tell me that giving is good. And I begin to work, as it were, against my egoism. Is this the freedom of choice that you are talking about?

Answer: Freedom of choice is to expose oneself to the influence of the correct environment in which the property of bestowing is considered the highest and prevails over the property of receiving.

Then by including myself in this society, like a small child with closed eyes, surrendering to it, I can change these two levels in me so that the property of bestowal would be more important, better, and greater to me compared with the property of receiving.

Question: So, on one hand, I am going against my natural property to receive. On the other hand, society provides me with certain values that tell me that it is worth giving back to it. And this conflict evokes a certain spectrum of actions in me in which I am free?

Answer: Absolutely right.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 4/30/20

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New Life 1170 – Interpreting Reality Correctly
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, one’s worldview is a projection of one’s inner characteristics. It follows then that if a person changes one’s main characteristics or inner programming, one’s image of the world also changes. We each want to be king of the world and feel good at the expense of others according to our natural human egoism.

By changing our attitude to love of others and equivalence of form with the Creator, we find the remedy for all the bad situations in life and our perception of reality changes simultaneously. In the end, it will seem that the world is entirely good. Through love of others, we achieve love for the whole world and then the picture of the world stands in us correctly.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1170 – Interpreting Reality Correctly,” 10/24/19

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Lesson Preparation

Lesson on the Topic “Our Responsibility As A Ten For The World” (Preparation for the Virtual Convention “A New World” 2020)

 Lesson on the Topic “Love Covers All Transgressions” (Preparation for the Virtual Convention “A New World” 2020)

Lesson on the Topic “The Obligation of Bnei Baruch to Humanity in the Last Generation” 

Selected Highlights

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We are going to a virtual convention in two weeks. This is not an easy connection because we began preparing for it already from the beginning of creation, billions of years ago. And this is only in our material world, before that there were many actions in the spiritual worlds.

And finally, we come to the point where we begin to feel the breaking, the reverse form of connection in order to achieve it.

We can say that at this moment we are at the lowest starting point from which a continuous ascent begins toward the program of creation, its goal, where we all unite together and with the Creator. The entire universe, all the worlds, all the stars and galaxies, are connected together at the point of unity that we must reach.

The first station on the way to this goal is a virtual convention, which we are holding in two weeks. It may seem that this is not so important, but we must realize that we value the importance according to our uncorrected selfish desires, but in fact, the desire to unite at this special time between the thousands of people participating in the convention is very important.

This is the first convention held during the period of the coronavirus. In February, we managed to hold a big convention right before the start of the quarantines. It was like we jumped into the last carriage: We held a convention, and the door slammed shut right behind us.

And now we are starting to organize our system during the coronavirus period. We have already gone through its first wave and can understand what this is about. Humanity does not yet understand what is happening. The epidemic will not recede; it will move forward like a steamroller of development and will sculpt a new form from humanity.

This huge asphalt roller will roll right over us and hit us into the ground, if only in this form we are able to connect with each other. Let’s not wait for the development rink, but do it on account of our own work. You should not be naughty children whose mother is forced to punish in order to make them behave well. And the child has no way out, he has to obey, as we are now, out of hopelessness, doing what the coronavirus and other viruses that are in line for us want from us.

We need to rise to a state where we understand why the mother, that is, nature, the Creator, requires us, and we want to fulfill her requirements by our consent and goodwill.

We want to bring this first convention of a new era to a new state: not like before when we sat together, talked, and hugged. We should not regret that we are not sitting in the same room; we should not regret the past. It has already passed. Everything new must be taken for granted with understanding and approval.

New states require even more connection from us. And if we see that material changes have occurred, then they should only awaken us to even greater internal connection so that the external form does not confuse us, does not give the illusion that we are already connected by the fact that several thousand people are sitting in one room.

Now there is no such thing; we are not in the same room and do not even strive to be together physically. We want to be together spiritually as one person with one heart! And therefore this is a completely new convention, in a new era. There is nothing from past conventions in it: It is a new level, a new approach, a new attitude. And we look at it as a spiritual level to which we must ascend.

I want to be connected with everyone, but where and how? By ascending to the spiritual level, to the spiritual place where our convention is held—to the space within the Creator. We will all enter into this space and want to exist there, to unite with each other within Him. The Creator is called “place,” and it is in this place that we hold our convention, our gathering of everyone together, in order to support each other together with the Creator on this first spiritual step that awaits us.

I cannot convey to you the feelings that are in my heart. But let’s hope that together we will discover this state and feel the connection between us within the Creator at our first convention of a new era.
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From a Kabbalah Lesson, 8/1/20

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Medium published my new article “Contagious Contraction — The Global Economy Has Changed For Good”

Many pundits expressed alarm when the economic data regarding the contraction of the global economy in the second quarter began to pour out. One by one, the biggest economies in the world reported unprecedented contractions that dwarfed the already frightening contractions of Q1. As if they’ve all been struck by a virus, contagious contraction seems to have gripped them all. The U.S. contracted by 9.5% compared to Q1 (33% compared to the same quarter last year). Canada did even worse and contracted by 12% compared to Q1, and the Eurozone trailed even that with 12.1%. A country by country examination of the Eurozone exposes the grim reality with Germany falling by 10.1%, Italy by 12.4%, France by 13.8%, and Spain contracting by a whopping 18.5% in a single quarter compared to just three months earlier.

We’re headed for a good future of an orderly life of mutual responsibility. So the sooner humankind sobers up from the hangover left after the demise of the American Dream, the better it is for everyone.
The only country to boast significant economic growth was China, as one might expect, but with the global economy shrinking faster than the mercury in a thermometer placed in the freezer, the manufacturing colossus is unlikely to find export markets that will keep its growth positive going forward.

And since, as World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said about the prospect of finding a vaccine for Covid-19, “there’s no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be,” the bottom line is clear: The economy we had is gone for good.

But the fact that the past will not return is not a sign of troubles to come. In fact, our only problem right now is that we want it to come back. We mustn’t even dream about it; it only delays our recovery and makes it needlessly painful.

We have to change our whole approach. The future economy will allow for only one provider per family. The government will make up for the drop in income. Healthcare, social security, pension, education, public transportation, all those will be free of charge. Staples will not be sold; they will be given according to a quota per capita. Each grownup and child will be entitled for certain staples, and these will guarantee that no one goes hungry. The same will apply to housing, power, gas, and water. No one will be homeless, cold, or hungry.

The “American Dream,” which everyone around the world has shared for decades, has by now become a nightmare. Now it will be replaced by a reality of orderly life.

In fact, “orderly” is the word to keep in mind. Everyone will have enough, no material deficiencies, but also no excess.

I know it sounds socialistic, if not communistic, but it isn’t; it is realistic. If we do not construct an orderly life for all of humanity, we will have no life at all; it’s that simple.

Alongside the benefits that the state will provide, and in order to adjust more quickly, people will learn about the new reality that’s been imposed on us against our will. Since we cannot beat it, we might as well join it. But to do that, we need to learn what’s happened, why the world has tumbled down on us, and what we can do to establish the new “normal” of orderly life as quickly as possible.

People will learn what it means to be part of an integral system whose parts are interrelated and interdependent. They will develop new thought patterns where competition is good only if it is intended to benefit everyone. Role models will change; the new ones will be people who help cultivate solidarity and mutual concern. Habits will change; everyone will feel more accountable to their communities and to each other. We will be able to trust not only our friends — already a rare commodity — but even complete strangers.

These good things will happen not because Covid and the crash of the economy have turned us into angels, but because they have left us no choice. Once we realize that either we all swim or we all sink, the vast majority will make the right choice. As society changes and the mindset becomes pro-social, even the most obstinate will find themselves nurturing good thoughts about others quite naturally.

We’re headed for a good future of an orderly life of mutual responsibility. So the sooner humankind sobers up from the hangover left after the demise of the American Dream, the better it is for everyone.
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