Question: Is there a punishment for the sins of a generation? Is there a concept that children should pay for the sins of their fathers?

Answer: In general, yes. After all, we do not exist by ourselves, as we think. Usually, people believe that they can do whatever they want without realizing that they are within the framework of nature, which has its own laws.

We gradually reveal these laws at the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels. But at the human level, we cannot reveal them. We can only assume that they exist.

The fact is that we look at inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature from the top-down, and therefore, we can understand it and somehow manage it. And we can only look at other people at our level. We do not have a “second floor” from which we can look at them. Therefore, on a human level, we constantly make mistakes. We have nothing to compare with, we do not have a second floor  to look from above to below.

According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we must rise to the next level, called faith above reason, from which we will correctly see our earthly level and understand who we are and how we should behave.

Question: Where did the term “descent,” “decline,” or “coarsening” of generations come from?

Answer: We see that each generation develops in its own egoism, which is becoming more sophisticated, multileveled, and complex. Therefore, it pulls us down. We must necessarily balance it by striving upward.

We do not understand this yet. But in our time, we have already come to a state that allows us to understand how we can balance egoism and more or less influence our existence.

Question: Can we say that it is precisely the different level of egoism that is the cause of conflicts between generations?

Answer: Naturally. We are all selfish, but each one in one’s own way.
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From the TV program “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 5/21/2020

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Question: Who should I appeal to if I have a request?

Answer: To the Creator. The Creator is the upper light, the attribute of absolute goodness, love, and bestowal. There is nothing other than this force in the world. There is only me and Him. Everything else that seems to exist, exists between me and the Creator.

The moment I begin to correct myself, the distance between us changes accordingly, i.e., changing attributes between me and the Creator. We, as it were, begin to draw closer to the point of complete adhesion with Him.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/4/18

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic of “What Is Preparation for Selichot (Forgiveness)”

Lesson on the Topic of “The Law of Arvut (Mutual Guaranatee)”

Selected Highlights

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Medium published my new article “A Shana Tovah Depends on Us”

We are on the threshold of a complete revolution — a substantial change in our attitude toward ourselves, society, humanity, and all of nature. Rosh Hashanah, in Hebrew meaning the “head” or “beginning” of “the year,” arrives at a special time, one like never before, in the midst of a global pandemic. We are aware of the far-reaching impact of the virus, but we need to ask ourselves for what purpose did it arrive? The answer to this question is the key to a good new year, a Shana Tovah 5781.

The coronavirus era is reshaping our lives, literally by force. It is moving us toward a higher and more advanced world in which all the parts are bound together. The fact that the world looks exactly the opposite now — filled with ego games, violence, corruption, struggles and riots — is all part of the development process.

The coronavirus is showing us just how our individualistic, self-serving behavior is leading us to destruction and pain. By looking ourselves square-in-the-eyes in the mirror, with complete honesty, we will want to reform and correct our nature into one that only wants mutual cooperation and unity.

The increasing challenges and predicaments we are experiencing awaken worldwide introspection in order to realize that the current path humanity treads is not leading us to a good place. This recognition alone is already a very important step in our development. The coronavirus has turned out to be a force that is awakening humanity to undertake a complete revision of its state.

Our current understanding of what is happening boils down to awareness that we are being beaten by this virus. But our discernments do not dig deeper than that. We have no idea what the blows are directing us toward, where they are coming from, and more importantly, for what purpose. We are as helpless and disoriented as a newborn baby who feels pain and will not stop crying, without any understanding of the reason for the situation.

Thus, our most important challenge is to discover the reason for the coronavirus, not in the biological sense, but in the essential sense, from its very origin. Social distancing, masks, crowd prevention, a global race for a vaccine, experimental treatments — all are measures looking to alleviate the problem of Covid-19. Nevertheless, none will be able to constitute a comprehensive solution to the coronavirus phenomenon.

Nature, just like a loving parent, always works for the good of all of creation together. The blows, pressures, and anguish, as painful as they feel to each individual, do not come to harm us, but to bring us to balance with nature, and by that, to a better life. Their purpose is to sharpen our awareness of our priorities in life, of what really matters: our harmonious relations with each other and with nature.

The pandemic is aimed at teaching us how to approach our surrounding environment properly, in an integrated and complementary way, with the desire to do good to others and to our environment. Nature is global, integral, and unified. Thus, the trend of evolutionary development is to cause us to identify ourselves with those same qualities, despite the fact that we were created different and distant from each other.

The coronavirus era is reshaping our lives, literally by force. It is moving us toward a higher and more advanced world in which all the parts are bound together. The fact that the world looks exactly the opposite now — filled with ego games, violence, corruption, struggles and riots — is all part of the development process. If at the beginning of the pandemic we still saw manifestations of solidarity and mutual help, today everyone’s patience has run out.

Moreover, the illusion that we treat each other well has been shattered, and it has become clear that it is human nature to look out for only oneself.

The helplessness we are feeling will lead us to search for guidance from our sages who, throughout thousands of years, created a unifying method for this special time to usher humanity to a new horizon. This timeless method develops in a person the vision and feeling that we are all within one system. Once this notion is firmly instilled in us, it becomes natural to treat others as we would like to be treated until we become “as one man in one heart.”

And when we are finally harmoniously connected, we will feel how the one power in nature that rules everything in reality does only good to us.

So what should we wish ourselves for the new year? First, to recognize our egoistic human nature as a self-destructive force that separates us. Second, that we will desire to change direction and connect for the good of all. By this, we will activate the force in nature that radiates a healthy and peaceful world. Our intention and will to build a deep connection between our hearts will heal the coronavirus at its root and will ensure that next year will be the sweetest we have ever experienced, a true Shana Tovah.

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Usually, we communicate not through similar properties but precisely where we are opposite to each other. This is how the pieces of a puzzle are connected: there is a notch in one, there is exactly the same protrusion in the other, and then each goes inside the other attaching the minus to the plus and the plus to the minus. Only in this form is the connection possible.

Therefore, where I see a minus in a friend, I come there with my plus. And where I see a plus in a friend, I should see my minus. It turns out that it is good for us that the Creator awakens opposite qualities in us. You don’t need to change them; you just need to ask everyone to connect them together. This is the only thing that is missing, and you don’t need to change anyone.

Let all the pluses and minuses gather into one another like a key in a lock. It will become a life force for us. We will be able to understand what connection is, what an electron, a proton, a neutron, and other particles are.

There are more than four hundred different particles in an atom. Why are there so many? Isn’t just plus and minus enough? No, this is not enough. There must be many other particles around them with all sorts of properties in order to support the combination of pros and cons and bring them together into one atom.

From this, we will understand what physicists still lack to understand how matter works.

We rise above our understanding and feeling because the main thing is connection, as it is said: “Love will cover all crimes.” A friend has a minus, I have a plus, or vice versa, he has a surplus and I have a deficiency, no matter what kind, the main thing is that there is love, that we are united in a common goal, that we strive for the Creator who will reign between us.

Inside, there is a common minus one against the other, but outside, the Creator covers us with His veil, the power of unity.

We should not act like children who cut the corners of a puzzle with scissors hoping that it will be easier to assemble it. He will not be able to connect at all like that. And you cannot try to force the wrong pieces of the puzzle into each other. We must understand that all the properties created in us by the Creator are one hundred percent correct. We are absolutely perfect. We just need to find out the correct connection between us and ask the Creator to make it happen.

We find out the deficiency between us, that is, in what we cannot connect, our common minus, which is the fact that no one can connect to the other. And then we call for help from the Creator who comes and fills us with his power of bestowal, complements Malchut with Bina, and then everything works out.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/10/20, “The Law of the Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Medium published my new article “.So Long Teddy Bear — Time to Grow Up If We Want Covid Out”

As I said from the beginning of the outbreak, the coronavirus is not another virus and Covid-19 is not another pandemic. It’s a game-changer, a transformer that will turn our lives upside down and inside out. When it’s done, we will be different people, and until it’s done, it won’t go away.

Whatever picture governments and the media are painting, the truth is that we are in the midst of an economic, social, and political meltdown. The very basis of our way of life, where we are forced to compete with one another for resources and funds, and over social status and respect, where we cannot trust anyone because the success of one necessarily means the failure of another, that basis of our previous lives is finally dissolving.

When we transform our approach from selfish to selfless, we will collaborate even better, and everyone will truly benefit from our common products. There will be abundance for everyone.

Just as melting snow creates a lot of mud, but underneath it the grass is growing and buds are shooting up from the frozen earth, so our lives are shedding their former, frozen facade, and a new one, vibrant and joyful, is budding. But until it sprouts, we’re going to have to do some wading in the mud.

In the meantime, there are several things we can do to expedite the budding of our new and better life.

1. We have been hanging on to our old lives as if we’re adolescents gripping to a shabby, frayed teddy bear that we have loved since childhood. We cannot see that Mother Nature is offering us a plethora of new and exciting games to play, suitable for our age and understanding. We’re so hung up on the past that we cannot release our grip on it and grab the wealth that future is offering us.

However, it will happen nonetheless. We will have to give up our old way of life since we are changing whether we like it or not. Even if businesses are reopened without any limitations, buyers won’t come as they did before and businesses will collapse in droves. If we transition to the new era mindfully, we will be able to provide everyone with income and occupations. If we do not, we will still do it, eventually, but after a parade of disasters. The catastrophes we are seeing now all across America are just a prelude to a cacophony of colliding and contemporaneous adversities.

2. We have to understand that essentially, we’re not going through an economic crisis. Seeing it this way is the narrow worldview of financiers who make their living by exploiting people and seizing financial opportunities. But in truth, we are going through a social transformation, a transition from a selfish to a selfless attitude toward life.

We may think that living selflessly gives you less material abundance, but this is absolutely wrong. When a society lives selflessly, its residents all guarantee the well-being of each and every member of the community. This means that they never have to worry about food, shelter, education, healthcare, energy, and after school activities. Instead of individuals caring for themselves, the community cares for them. People, in return, do the same for others, but their minds and hearts are carefree.

As a result of the transformation in society, our whole concept of the economy will change. Since the economy reflects the relations in society, when members in the society collaborate, the economy becomes collaborative, too. Also, this process does not unfold in any compulsory manner, but simply because it’s in everyone’s best interest.

Consider this: We already live in a collaborative society. Nothing we produce is made 100% locally, and without collaboration from countless other manufacturers in numerous countries, we wouldn’t be able to produce anything. So the problem is not that we don’t collaborate, but that we collaborate against our will and attempt to extort, manipulate, and cheat on each other in the process. When we transform our approach from selfish to selfless, we will collaborate even better, and everyone will truly benefit from our common products. There will be abundance for everyone.

3. The third, and most important requirement for expediting the transition from the old world to the new is mutual support. We have to help each other see where we are going, that we are heading toward a beautiful life. People will not be able to let go of their teddy bears and embrace the new and easy living until they see others do the same. So think about it, talk about it, and excite others about the new life ahead because as soon as we agree to the transition we are going through, the budding shoots will burst through the snow and a new spring will begin.
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Medium published my new article “Repenting Last Year’s Sins Does Not Permit Their Repetition in the Next”

In the weeks leading up to Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), and especially on that holiest day of the year, many Jews repent last year’s sins. We ask God to forgive our sins against Him, and mainly against each other, and plead with Him to erase our “indictment.” We confess our sins before Him, and in return, expect Him to forgive us.

Every occasion on the Hebrew calendar symbolizes a stage in our transformation from selfishness to selflessness. This is the meaning of Tikkun — that we become good people, who want to do good to one another and strive to love our neighbors as ourselves.

At the end of the fast, we sing with joy that our sins have been forgiven and God has forgiven our sins. And what do we do immediately afterwards? We begin to fill up next year’s sheet. This is a complete misunderstanding of the whole idea of Selichot — the request for the Creator’s forgiveness.

Every occasion on the Hebrew calendar symbolizes a stage in our transformation from selfishness to selflessness. This is the meaning of Tikkun — that we become good people, who want to do good to one another and strive to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Selichot is not permission to sin next year; it is a pledge to refrain from sin, a request of God to change our evil, selfish inclination into a good, giving inclination. If we resume our mistreatment of each other as soon as Yom Kippur is over, it’s as if we tried to cheat God. It doesn’t work.

We Jews have the obligation to correct ourselves and be a role model nation, “a light unto nations.” This is why all our holidays are about transformation from egoism to altruism. As long as we avoid it, we are pariahs in the eyes of the world, a pestilence the world wants to clean up and clear out. We ask why there is antisemitism and why Jews have suffered at the hands of the nations throughout the generations, but we ourselves are causing them to hate us through our abominable relation to our brethren.

Every non-Jew, and especially antisemites, examines closely how we treat each other. Even Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that Jews unite only when a “common booty” entices them to cooperate, but otherwise, they are mean to one another. If we want atonement for our sins, we need to look at our past only in order to learn from it how to treat each other better, and ask God to give us the strength to keep our promise to Him, but mainly to each other.
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A Round Table Is a Serious Psychological Training

Question: The circle methodology consists of three parts. The first part is educational. It is necessary for understanding the entire process, the final goal, and means. This can be a mini-lecture, watching a movie, reading sources, and then discussing it.

The second is the discussion itself. It is also divided into different parts: games, reflection, and a workshop.

And the third is practice, that is, the application of skills acquired in the circle, in everyday life. Should we then implement in our lives, at work, and in our families, the attitude we received from the round table?

Answer: A round table—or the concept of raising a person above his egoism in order to get closer to others, not just learning information or getting impressions from each, but connecting among us in understanding the problem and its solution—is a whole set of joint actions. I do not think this is just a small introduction to the concept of the “round table.”

People should accept this, acquire practical skills to understand when they can rise above themselves or bend themselves before others. To understand what kind of communication should be between them, I bend before others, or I am on par with them, or I am above them. How can all this be correctly oriented, etc.

I consider the first educational stage the most important, it is very strong and includes a large number of varied exercises. This is a serious psychological training where people understand where they are and what they should do.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 7/9/20

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Remark: We see that the virus has changed people. There used to be all these races: where to go to rest, where to fly to, buying plane tickets in advance, what to buy, how to dress. All of these occupied a person’s central thoughts.

Today, a person has an incomprehensible future, he has anxiety, something was born inside him that begins to ask: “What will become of me?”

My Comment: Now a question about the future arises in a person. It has always seemed to us that the future was moving along some kind of developing egoistic steps. Now, this is no longer true and will not be like that in the future; everything is ending. The virus is eating up this future, and therefore we do not know how to build it.

Remark: There was always such a linear development of egoism that tomorrow there would be something, the day after tomorrow there would be something.

My Comment: There would be even more, it will be even better! Let’s fly to the stars. “And apple trees will bloom on Mars,” etc.

Only 20 to 30 years have passed; look at what is being done with the Earth, with outer space, and with everything! There is no solution anywhere! This is a terrible disappointment of all humanity in itself. This is a stunning change.

But that is great! We are finally starting to remove the veil from our eyes. Our selfishness blinded us: I will build it for you; I will do it for you! Come on, look! Go to the sea, go abroad! Look how many beautiful girls! Look what music there is! Look at what is being done! What a life! That is all.

Remark:  So when we hear there will be no life, this is what our egoism tells us. On the contrary, there will be life, but our egoism says: there will be no life.

My Comment: Yes. Therefore, we welcome it. Selfishness moves us forward.

Question: Despite the fact that it is now painting complete blackness for us. Do you call this forward?

Answer: It paints it correctly for us because inside it we will feel like this.

Question: So if we are following the egoistic path that we have followed so far, is there an abyss ahead?

Answer: Yes, but in nature, after all, this is done in advance that all ends well anyway. It cannot be in our life, in our world, in this nature so that everything is so stupid with a dead-end beyond which there is nothing. It is reborn, just as all stages and times in nature are reborn.

The future step determines darkness because it is not darkness. What seems as darkness ahead of us is already a future step that we feel as darkness today because we are not yet determined to see this step.

When we take a good look at the darkness, suddenly we will see: this is not darkness, these are not even silhouettes, these are not even some semi-gloomy states. It is actually a huge light! This is a new world.

Question: Has the highest step been lowered to us now? To us, it seems to be absolute darkness now. We want to live as we lived, but we can no longer live as we did. What should be done now? Grab hold of it?

Answer: We must accept it as it is and try to adapt to it; what is in it is the very best. In this way, we will re-educate ourselves.

Question: What is the next step?

Answer: It is a new world in which a person will exist in the forces of good, connection, bestowal, and love. It is approaching, and therefore it seems to us as darkness. But everything will be fine. The virus will help us.

Question: Does this push from behind drive us exactly to this stage? Does it definitely lead to this stage?

Answer: Yes. Viruses actually define our entire life. We are all just viruses. We can say that we are made of them. Even scientists say so. Therefore, we must see the correct changes in our nature in this.

Question: If I now direct myself even a little bit to this step with good thoughts, will I try to be in them?

Answer: Then you will adapt to it quickly, easily, and you will not feel there is some kind of abrupt transition to the next step at all.

Question: So is the future world good and bright?

Answer: It is already coming; it is already here. Let’s take it! Let’s not do any virology at all. We will all work together to adapt to each other. Suddenly this virus will be between us as a link. We will begin to feel each other closer to our hearts. All will pass.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 6/22/20

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