Audio Version Of The Blog – 9/3/20

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Conflict Of Two Teachings In Judaism

570Question: In the 18th century, two teachings emerged among the Jewish people. One of them was Hasidism—a direct appeal to the human soul, to the Creator, to the study of the Creator and oneself.

This course was opposed by another school, which promoted only the dry teaching of the Torah. There was a serious conflict between them. As it was written by the eyewitnesses: “Heretics were persecuted, subjected to Herem (excommunication), forced to publicly repent their sins, and even subjected to corporal punishment.”

What was the reason for this conflict?

Answer: The reason was very profound because it stems from the destruction of the Temple. It was destroyed precisely because people refused to work on the connection between them due to unfounded hatred. They started to distance from each other and stopped working on love and connection. And this is how it has been ever since.

Some of them understood that the most important thing is a sensory, heartfelt, mutual connection between everybody. Yet, if for them the most important thing was to create such a unity between them as was in the soul of Adam, to be as one man with one heart, it was not so for others.

This is how people usually are: physicists and lyricists, some more inclined to mental research, and others to sensory research. This was clearly evident among the Jews, and therefore, they were in great opposition to each other.

Remark: The main point is that Kabbalists were spiritual leaders for both sides.

My Reply: Yes, but it did not matter. The point was not about the Kabbalists who understood each other and knew what was going on and why the other group thought so. The point was how to lead the masses: just teach them the Talmud, or educate them in a sensory attitude toward each other.

Remark: You said that one of the reasons for this split was that it was not yet time to spread this wisdom. Although many Kabbalists of the 16th century were already writing that it is possible to reveal Kabbalah, to this day not everyone agrees with this.

Answer: Indeed, to this day, Kabbalists feel the echoes of past battles. However, not to such an extent anymore.

I hope that modern history and the development of humanity will quickly neutralize all this and bring us to a common denominator.

For more on this topic, read my book A Very Narrow Bridge: The fate of the Jewish people.
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From KabTV’s “The Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 12/28/19

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My Thoughts On Twitter 9/3/20

Dr Michael Laitman Twitter

Just as children don’t understand how to keep social distancing, so we don’t understand how to treat each other in the right way.
How can I feel another person, so I’ll draw near him in the right way, so that I destroy the virus by getting nearer in the right way?

Freeze!
Start to love the disturbances you see in the world.
And you will then see that the negative is not coming from the world to you, but from you to the world.
Good luck!

We have entered a phase of correction of the human ego. Nature will be constantly compelling us to renounce the ego in all its manifestations, amongst ourselves and toward nature. Unless this happens, all the world’s people have no right to expect any improvements to their state.
From Twitter, 9/3/20

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Either We Stop Destroying Nature Or The Virus Will “Help Us”

738Question: When people in China came out of lockdown from their rooms and apartments and seemingly were freed a little from the virus, a huge Hermes store opened there. They brought beautiful handbags covered with diamonds, a lot of leather goods, and people started buying. In one day, it made about $2.7 million.

You are saying that person’s way of thinking will change, they will start thinking differently, but a person does not seem to change much. How will this happen?

Answer: A person does not change, but I think that the virus is aimed at preventing us from making money from unnecessary actions. The virus is a consequence of our egoistic attitude to nature, and it will force us to do only what is necessary and sufficient. No more than that. Let’s wait and see.

I do not think there will be a complete return to the past. We have entered such a state with nature where it can no longer tolerate us. Look how the fish jump out of the water. Animals come and seek freedom.

This shows us to what extent we are an alien organism in nature, how we cannot, simply cannot, be an integral element of nature.

Comment: Of course, we took the places where animals once were.

My Response: If we were doing the right thing, nature would not feel this. The wolves would not rush into our parks again, the fish would not jump out of the water for joy that we are not there. I can hear the birds chirping! Everything is different! The air is so much better.

Question: Do you think that civilization, humanity, can harmoniously enter nature?

Answer: Of course. If only this were civilization and not barbarism! Today’s civilization are barbarians! The way it was a thousand, two thousand years ago. Therefore, we need to understand that we cannot continue in this way.

I am sure the virus will not leave us and more new modifications will come. I am sure it will be migrating in its different variations to many parts of the world. I am sure that against the background of suffering from the virus, against the background of fear, there will even be some kind of wars, changes in relations between countries. Especially for America and China I think there will be problems. This is on one hand. On the other hand, these problems will force the world to change.

Comment: Even Bill Gates agrees with you on many things. He says that this will continue for twenty years or more, the virus will not go away. He believes that we should be prepared for this. He has such a mindset. Only the conclusions are different. He says, “We must prepare for this.” That is, prepare injections, doctors. He has no conclusion considering, now let’s try to understand why the virus came.

Your conclusion is that we must change. Why does humanity not come to it?

My Response: It does not see a direct connection between our attitude to each other, to the world around us, to nature and viruses. It does not understand that the virus is a natural particle that we have forced to begin spreading and putting us in order.

Yet, it will change us. Through a long way, through suffering, we will still arrive at the result that we should reach, although we could have come to it through awareness. This is how it will be.

Question: How long will this last?

Answer: Until a person is completely corrected, when one becomes an absolutely clear and correct integral part of all nature, in spite of the huge egoism that exists in him.

Now we have the opportunity to return to nature in a correct way, at least partially. Do not switch on any manufacturing plants that we use to destroy the environment. Leave many people not engaged in unnecessary production that litters everything and produces unnecessary things, but engaged in studying and creating the right relationships among themselves.

This is a great positive force that nature lacks, which must come from a person. At the level of the animalistic world, it occurs by itself: animals act in the way nature dictates. A person, however, must be brought to the right interaction.

Then we will see the person’s impact on the surrounding nature. The Torah says that a little child will lead both wolves and sheep, and they will be friendly with each other. This means that people will participate in nature in such a correct way that the evil force will disappear altogether! The evil force in nature will disappear. In everything!

Today we have no idea what the world around us means. Now wolves appear, fish jump out of the water for the joy that there are no people. We left them for a month, hid in our “dens,” and they are so happy that we moved away from them.

Do you understand what we are doing with nature?! How much it hates us, cannot stand us! When you look at this, you are simply amazed, “Am I really so harmful, so evil?!”  Yes. “Do I really affect this environment so badly?!” I hope the virus will help us.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 4/20/20

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Health And Medicine, Part 6

627.2Virus—Man’s Friend

Question: Viruses are by far the most dangerous enemy of man today. The greatest threat to us once were large predators, but today, man himself has become a terrible predator. However, he is powerless against tiny viruses consisting of a DNA molecule, RNA in a protein coat, which behave like intelligent beings. Why is medicine unable to deal with them?

Answer: I believe that viruses are man’s friends. Moreover, viruses are friends of society. They strike in order to force us to change both people and society.

Therefore, we should look upon the virus not as an enemy but as a helper, even if not very pleasant and even threatening. But if we would seriously study what a virus is leading us to and aimed to it, we would not let it manifest itself in us as a disease. We would simply run ahead of the virus toward the changes it is supposed to bring about in our society.

Question: There are millions of different viruses. Some of them are truly man’s friends. They benefit our body. But at some point, these viruses can do harm. What does it depend on?

Answer: It depends on a person. If a person does not seriously change himself, then nature reminds us by the appearance of various problems.

See what we are doing with the world around us! During the two months that we did not work, nature started to come back to life, animals began to appear in parks, the concentration of ozone in the air increased, everything began to shine and sparkle! Now you want it all to go away?

Question: Do you think that our egoistic attitude toward each other causes the problems?

Answer: Not only our attitude toward each other but also the industrial attitude toward the world. With our consumer approach to the vegetative and animate nature, we excite certain forces in it, and it begins to balance us through the manifestation of various breakdowns; in this case, through a virus.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 5/14/20

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See The World Through Others

423.02Question: How can a person realize that what he sees in the world is the result of his uncorrected worldview, his uncorrected qualities?

Answer: It’s not easy. If a person constantly controls himself, i.e., is engaged in self-analysis and self-examination, and tries to make something objective out of himself, then he understands what his reactions are.

By being in the right society and constantly showing an example of this attitude to everyone, he can tune in to the perception of reality in such a way that he will clearly distinguish: I feel this in my egoism, which needs to be raised and corrected all the time. And thus he will see the world differently.

Question: Can this be taught?

Answer: Yes, but everything is very difficult. In principle, nobody engages in this because this is not the usual work of a person on himself when acquiring skills or a trade, but it is a clear direction to get a new view of the world.

A new view of the world is a completely different state for a person, it is the quality of giving and loving others; it is when it is necessary to change oneself. This is a completely different method of change, not professional development, not changing yourself by being exposed to regular exercises and activities, but very special exercises and activities that can lead a person to see the world through others, i.e., as others see it.

Remark: So, this means that others are like a mirror of himself for himself. In principle, this would solve all our problems. Imagine if people had no complaints against anyone—neither spouses to spouses, nor country to country—then we would only be engaged in correcting ourselves and not others.

My Comment: Quite true.

Question: But this is only possible with a good environment that understands and cultivates it. Still, a person must have some inclination to do this?

Answer: Yes, but that would not be everybody. There are very few such people in every generation.

Question: Is this something innate? Or can anyone be taught this if there is an appropriate environment?

Answer: In principle, yes. Still, there are people who are born with a predisposition to change themselves and observe the world as if through others.

For this, a person must rise above his egoism and acquire the quality of love and connection with others. Moreover, with a certain positive environment, and not with some violators or others, only in this way will he be able to observe the world completely different, not through his egoistic “I.”
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 5/7/20

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Responsibility For Raising Children

630.2Question: Who, in your opinion, is responsible for raising children: family, school, the environment? What is the role of each of these factors?

Answer: The main role in raising children lies with their parents.

Parents are obliged to take care of the upbringing of children; it cannot be otherwise. No matter how many overseers and teachers the state puts in place, no one can replace the person who has instinctive love for the child.

Remark: But in modern conditions, a child has very little time at home. So a person is brought up by society, school, and work.

My Reply: We organized our world this way. This is what we have! Our egoism is set up so that we are ready to part with our children as soon as possible.

After 15-20 years, children know that they must leave home, and parents are already ready for their children to start an independent life. And they will continue to take care of themselves.

In other words, when we build a society, we are already laying the foundation for future social relations, including family relations.

Question: In the modern family, the child is taught to take everything he needs from this world, i.e., to be an egoist. On the other hand, society promotes through schools and mass media to be altruistic, kind, and to help everyone. And the children get conflicting messages. Who is right here?

Answer: No one is right. It is necessary, as they say, to go along the middle line: where necessary, there must be a certain rigidity, and where necessary, softness. A benevolent middle course of behavior should always prevail.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 5/21/20

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Why Should We Reach The Good Through Evil?

207Question: We know that everything is balanced by the Creator, so why should evil begin to rule so that we can reach the good?

Answer: First, it is because this is how the Creator stirs us. Second, man’s nature is evil. So by awakening evil, the Creator shakes and awakens us very strongly. Suppose you received a letter from the police, or a message from the bank that you won something. What would have a greater impact on you? Of course the negative message would have a greater impact.

Question: But how can the negative and the positive be equal? After all, a person is not an insensitive robot.

Answer: It all depends on my attitude to the Creator’s bestowal on me. If I value any form of His bestowal, like a child who correctly understands that all of his parents actions are necessary and desirable, it makes no difference to me what I receive from Him.

I can ascend above my ego and fully and mutually participate with Him under totally different conditions. My initial conditions are in the state of zero where I am already detached from myself and am already floating above myself.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 10/14/18

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 9/3/20

Preparation to the Lesson 

[media 1] [media 2]

Lesson on the Topic of “Work With Faith Above Reason” 

[media 3] [media 4]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Law of Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

[media 5] [media 6]

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “From the Mouth of a Sage”

[media 7] [media 8]

Selected Highlights

[media 9] [media 10]

Why Does Evil Precede Good?

232.05Question: Why does evil precede the good?

Answer: The Creator created evil and He also created the good in order to balance it. This is because an egoistic person can be  shaken by negative influences. And the person will chase positive influences in order to balance the evil ones.

This is the only way a person accumulates both the negativity of the left line and the positivity of the right line and grows wise.

There is no other way to do that! We cannot be made of only one property. Only the Creator consists of one property.

This is the reason the wisdom of Kabbalah operates on desire and intention. The Creator has only the desire to bestow, while we are all made of a desire only to receive. But we need to change the intention over the desire to receive so it will be an intention that is in order to bestow unto the Creator, which we can acquire, which we can receive from above. Then we will resemble Him.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 10/14/18

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