New Life 1287 – The Challenge Of Distance Learning
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Tal Mandelbaum ben Moshe

Distance learning puts teachers under a lot of pressure to cover the material while it is hard for students due to the many distractions. Teachers and administrators need to ask themselves how to make studies seem more important in the eyes of children. Parents need to see their children’s studies as very important and also take part in them by, for example, depicting the teachers as kings and queens. Cell phone companies should disconnect phones during school hours.

We need to arrange the education system differently so that teachers and students will work together, integrating and sharing in mutuality and connection. The study has to be done in a group and should include many exercises and activities so that the students will remain focused. Competitions can be held in which the kids are divided into two groups in order to encourage and motivate them.

We need to take problems from daily life, from the family, and from what happens in the country, things that the kids are familiar with, and work on them as part of the study material. The social aspect is important to students as well so we need to establish the right communication between them during the lesson. We have an opportunity today to really change the outdated education system and to participate in the building of man.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1287 – The Challenge Of Distance Learning,” 11/6/20

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Comment: There is pain in the world. As you keep saying, this pandemic is not the end of it. The UN has already accepted that we have lost this fight with more than a million dead and more than 30 million infected, and that we need to unite. But how? How can we unite? Suddenly Karabakh! Nation on nation! Such hatred is spilled out that did not exist before. What’s going on in Belarus?! What’s happening in America?!

My Response: The world, of course, has descended…

Question: What about Israel? The government can’t make basic decisions. It seems that we were not put in apartments, in rooms, the virus didn’t scare us.

Answer: Mutual pretensions are the strongest.

Question: This is staggering! What kind of nature is this?! How can we work with it?

Answer: This is the next state of egoism. The fact that I pay less and less attention to the consequences that are allegedly threatening. I am threatened, others are threatened, it doesn’t matter, I don’t feel it. What can I do?

Question: A person has no responsibility. Should there be a change of mind or a change of heart?

Answer: “What the mind doesn’t do, time does,” the Bible says.

We are trying to speed up this process of the revelation of evil. For what? For humanity to tell its ego: “That’s it! You don’t rule me anymore! I’m separating myself from you! This is you, and this is me.”

What can I do to realize that it is guiding me all the time? I get up in the morning and feel that it is guiding me: “Get up, go there, do that, sit down this way, that way…” It commands me all the time.

Question: Should I admit that I am its slave?

Answer: I don’t admit it. I begin to understand this and begin to rebel against it because I see that, in principle, it does not prepare anything good for me.

We need to rise above this so our earthly nature does not guide us. We can’t go on living this way anymore.

Question: We can talk about egoism and man, about the fact that egoism turns us, pushes us, spins us, and, in principle, pushes us into the abyss. Can an ordinary person reason like that or not?

Answer: If you explain all this to him all the time, he will eventually be able to see, on the one hand, the explanation, and on the other hand, the blows of fate.

Explanations must always be before his eyes. And he would not see them, read them, or anything. But the time comes, he gets blows, and then he suddenly sees. Or begins to search frantically: “What should I do?! How do I get rid of the problem?!” And then he begins to see, to listen.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/1/20

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Question: The Internet is an inexhaustible source of communication today. More and more often, virtual communities characterized by the absence of restrictions on languages, anonymity, voluntariness, and common goals and interests are being formed.

What do you think is the trend of these changes? What is nature pushing us to?

Answer: Nature pushes us toward correct communication with each other. We do not yet know what correct communication is, but we will gradually find out. It will take several more years and we will understand what nature requires of us.

In the end, it will all come down to changing communication between people. We see that over the course of many millennia of our development, people have tried to come to some new state of communication. They were chasing the discovery of land, power, and wealth, but in the end, they figured out which images, methods, and forms of communication were the most optimal for them. They did not understand what they were doing, but in general, they were moving toward this.

And in our time, these clarifications are elevated to a new level. It turns out that the very technology of changing distances, which are reduced due to transportation techniques, virtual communication between us, etc., leads us to the fact that we can very quickly and efficiently establish ultimate communication with each other.

At the same time, we reveal that our connection is purely mechanical, technical, and not the one that nature requires from us.

Question: Do you think that the appearance of such virtual communities in which everyone can communicate with millions of people is a positive phenomenon?

Answer: Of course.

Question: For hundreds of years, books were the main source of information, but today they simply disappear, and all communication has changed. Is it development or degradation? If in the past a person could read several books a week, today people read much less.

Answer: In any case, the form of recording in writing will not disappear, and we will continue to use it. After all, this is not communication in the form of writing, but memory.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 10/7/20

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Work with Faith Above Reason”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, ‘Histaklut Pnimit,’ Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 5, Item 61″ 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Love of God and the Love of Man”

Selected Highlights  

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My new article on Linkedin “On the Merits of a Three-Generational Family”

Today’s family often has only one adult living at home with the kids. But come Thanksgiving, I’d like to take a moment to discuss the merits of a full-size family. And by full size, I don’t just mean two parents and children, but rather grandparents, parents, and children all together. That is, they needn’t all live in the same house, but the benefits of keeping close family ties are something we should be aware of, especially today when it is so easy to find ourselves socially isolated and not realize that this is the reason for our sadness and irritation.

In spirituality, the three generations have a special meaning: They represent the full process of the ascent of a prayer. It begins with a person raising a prayer, sending it through a “medium” to the top level, and the top level returns the answer through the medium down to the beseeching individual.

This spiritual root manifests in many phenomena in our world, but one of the most vital ones is the three-generational family. This is why it is so mentally and emotionally healthy to maintain ties with all the generations in the family.

In addition to the spiritual benefits, grandparents can give to children what parents cannot. By nature, parents are more judgmental and demanding. Being the primary educators, they have to be that way. Grandparents are more accepting and give the children a place where they can always feel that they are loved the way they are. This is very important for children. Additionally, when children see that their parents treat their own parents well, they, too, will treat their parents well when they grow up, since example is the most impactful and lasting mode of teaching.

To the elderly, time with their grandkids is no burden; it’s a gift (to a degree, of course, as much as their health and energy allow). They enjoy being with their grandchildren, it connects them to their own children, the parents, and gives them vitality and health. To the parents, the children’s time with their grandparents is an opportunity to be with one another or do other things that they have no time or energy to do otherwise.

When parents get an occasional break from their kids, it helps them relax and allows them to be more thoughtful and patient when they are with the children. It also increases the longing of the children for the parents and the parents for the children, and nothing bonds people more strongly than the right amount of longing.

This Thanksgiving, I wish everyone a happy holiday, with lots of love and with the whole family.

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My new article on Linkedin “A Legacy That Will Keep Rolling”

During a visit to Argentina years ago to chair a Kabbalah congress for my South American students, I vividly witnessed firsthand the impact of the gifted football player Diego Armando Maradona on his fans—a deep impact made not only at his birthplace, but around the world. At only sixty years old, his heart blew the last whistle in his ultimate match called “life.”

This is why such cultural heroes of the world who have reached the top of their fields all too often become addicted to drugs, fall from grace, and divorce and remarry countless times. Pleasure and pain are linked together, and without pain they do not feel real pleasure. Inside this duality they frantically and desperately search for the meaning of life.

He is considered by many as the greatest football player of all time. I do not know all his amazing skills on the field, but I am aware that he had a special attitude toward his profession, a huge passion and enthusiasm for the game, a great love for football that captivated the masses, as well as an unmatched commitment to bring fans joy and connect with them. In that sense, professionally speaking, he set a great example for many athletes around the world.

If we separate the athlete from the man, off the field Maradona had a special relationship with life itself. With all the noise around him, he remained a simple and unassuming person, warm and cordial like many of the Latin people. It’s easy to judge someone’s deeds on the surface, but after visiting the slum in which he grew up, one must tip their hat to him and say that, despite being raised in a difficult environment, he did much more good than bad to others.

Therefore, there is no point in harping about the way he conducted his private life, his behavior or personal attributes, but to focus instead on his professional achievements, on his unique excellence and his positive contribution to others. His love of sports and privileged talent transformed him into a legend that will live on in the admiration of generations to come.

One may ask why so many talented stars and celebrities with phenomenal success behave erratically throughout their careers, sometimes even showing a tendency toward self-destruction. It stems from the fact that they touched the pinnacle of fame, tasted world prestige, felt like revered idols, and once they felt the sweetness of global recognition and wealth, realized these accomplishments provided very little fulfillment. This is why such cultural heroes of the world who have reached the top of their fields all too often become addicted to drugs, fall from grace, and divorce and remarry countless times. Pleasure and pain are linked together, and without pain they do not feel real pleasure. Inside this duality they frantically and desperately search for the meaning of life.

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Question: Baal HaSulam writes that only after society wants to achieve an integral state, becomes self-sufficient, and economically independent can people become guarantors for each other. So must everyone have the minimum necessary material first?

Answer: Definitely. This is not even a question. But the fact is that it is possible to achieve an ideal material state if at the same time we have a state of reciprocity.

Comment: Further, Baal HaSulam adds that when the society of those wishing to achieve a mutual guarantee is influenced by irresponsible, self-loving people, the provision of the necessary needs cannot be guaranteed. Even if one person still takes care of himself, everyone else will no longer be able to come to a mutual guarantee.

My Response: Naturally because integrity is violated.

Question: But how can it be that in a society where everyone cares about each other, one person stops doing this?

Answer: In principle, this is theoretically impossible, and even more so in practice. Because everyone will begin to influence each other there will simply be no place for such a person. He will not be able to remain so because under the influence of the environment he will be forced to voluntarily, consciously work for others.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 8/21/20

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Question: How and according to what is the spiritual potential of a person who comes to study Kabbalah measured?

Answer: This can only be determined by the very great Kabbalists, who see the world in the second half of the spiritual ladder.

They seemingly draw a person, absorb him into themselves, and then feel what his capacity, the unfilled volume of his soul is.

A Kabbalist who is only a beginner, however, cannot determine anything. To do this, you need to have heavy vessels of reception.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/25/18

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