My new article on Linkedin “At the Mall Today, in the Morgue Tomorrow”

Corona deniers abound in every country. You can see them demonstrating against government initiated lockdowns, walking around maskless, bragging about their carelessness and indifference to the harm they can inflict on others by infecting them, and packing public places as if it’s 2019. So what if more than a quarter of a million Americans died and countless others suffer from post corona complications that no one can explain, heal, or say how long they’ll last? So what if my “freedom of expression” jeopardizes someone else’s life? In a free country, I’m free to do what I want, right?

Wrong. We’re free to do what we want as long as it doesn’t inflict harm on others. When it comes to Covid-19, irresponsible behavior in public doesn’t fall into that category; it risks other people’s health, and possibly their lives.

I would like to suggest an idea to authorities that wish to contain the plague: Start a campaign and title it, “At the Mall Today, in the Morgue Tomorrow.” Take security camera footage of people in public places, how they have fun and hang out with each other carelessly, how they disregard safety precautions, don’t wear masks, don’t keep the required distance, and don’t avoid contact. Two weeks later, go over these data and cross-check them against registrations of new confirmed Covid cases. I’m sure the results, despite all the privacy laws protecting personal data, will show sufficient evidence that Covid is very real and people do suffer the consequences of their actions.

There is no intention to revenge inconsiderate behavior, but simply to prove that the danger is real. This act, as cold as it may seem, may save numerous lives by exposing the truth that so many people are trying to deny: Covid is real, and it is here!

Once people realize that there really is a problem, that the 270,000 odd Covid deaths were real people who are not with us anymore, they will be more open to contemplate ways to resolve the situation. This is when we need to start talking about mutual responsibility, solidarity, interdependence, and all those beautiful and true ideas that seem so insubstantial to people until interdependence hits them in the face because they or someone they love was infected by a careless person.

We need to realize, and start acting accordingly, that there is one basic rule to all of nature: All beings are one system, one entity. Just as there is no such thing as one organ being sick but the rest of the body is healthy, there is no such thing as one person being sick and the rest of humanity is healthy. A sickness anywhere is a sickness everywhere. The fact that we don’t feel it doesn’t mean it’s not true; it means that our senses are flawed, that we are sick with alienation, and that in order to heal the rest of our illnesses, we must first heal the condition of alienation.

If we work on this together, we can change reality. We can learn to feel each other, feel our connectedness and our mutual dependence. We can discover the benefits of mutual responsibility and solidarity, but first we must make a joint commitment to do it. When we are sick of isolation and loneliness, we will be able to heal ourselves from our senseless pride and start connecting. When we are sick of alienation, we will be able to see that alienation is our real sickness.

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My new article “The Fountain of Eternal Youth” appeared in Medium.

Throughout centuries, countless methods and treatments have been created that claim to stop or diminish the aging process, as people experience deep physiological, psychological, and social changes associated with growing older. Israeli scientists claim to have found the secret to looking and staying younger forever. Even if that turns out to be possible, it means nothing without exploring the subject from a deeper level, one that answers the most important question of all, “What do I live for?”

Scientific research from Tel Aviv University and Shamir Medical Center in Israel placed a group of healthy 64 year-old people in hyperbaric chambers and supplied them with sessions of high levels of oxygen for three months. Scientists responsible for the experiment claim that the therapy delayed the aging process, “reversed” it, and transformed those individuals’ performance to levels similar to people 25 years younger.

Aging scares and troubles most of humanity. Since the natural aging process relentlessly brings a person closer and closer to the end of life and to the unknown, it can also involve anguish. Old age and death are not necessarily a pleasant thing, but everything that happens in nature has a definite purpose and benefit that we may not realize. So it would be ill-advised to run to tamper with or change any natural state.

It is far wiser for us to go hand in hand with the natural aging process and learn to adjust comfortably to our situation, instead of artificially fighting the natural phenomena of getting older. People age; it happens naturally. The question is whether we as a society behave properly with people throughout the entire lifecycle process. We must scrutinize, “Are the elderly busy and feel that society needs them?” Indeed, a healthy society should consider their contributions as important!

If I did not have my daily teaching schedule, I would happily go out and clean the street. I would gather friends who live in my neighborhood and offer them to clean with me around the buildings. Why not? It’s healthy to move outside, breath fresh air, make a physical effort and in the process be in the company of others. Upon finishing this joint activity I would sit down together with my friends on the neighborhood’s bench and drink coffee. Any self-respecting community leader can offer such a social enterprise and many others to its elderly residents. Our senior citizens have a lifetime of experience and wisdom to share as mentors and help those just beginning their path.

And if the example of cleaning seems to someone as not worthy or dignifying, the problem is within the person himself. It is important to train all members of society to take care of the environment and serve the community. From this principle it is clearer that society must be properly educated in order to respect and appreciate old age, to give it a place, to devote thought to it. Society’s right attitude should be to discover how much it needs its senior citizens. Ask the children, they understand this well because this premise is naturally built in them.

Grandparents, parents, and children should maintain bonds of connection that flow from generation to generation, giving birth to a spirit of youth within the elderly among the family. The elderly already understand that one should accept life as it comes and have learned how to strive to be above all worries and project such attitudes to grandchildren. The youngest ones receive so many invaluable gifts from grandparents, an example of love that is unconditional, simple warmth without calculations.

In a nutshell, aging should not be a scary prospect. Instead of thinking that we have nothing else to contribute, the golden years should open a plethora of opportunities for new attainment when we realize that the most important aspect of a rich and meaningful life is found in human connection. Precisely the questions: “What is the meaning of life” and “Why do I live” are the gateways to a boundlessly better world.

With the knowledge that the answers to those questions can be found in our human relations, in our connection, and in actions that have lasting benefit to others, we transcend our corporeal life. We understand that there is a colossal mechanism surrounding our life and our world that surpasses existence in our temporary physical body. This reckoning prepares us in great depth to enter the wide, eternal world, a higher level of existence beyond the limits of time and space.
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My new article on Linkedin “He Who Comes to Kill You, Kill Him First”

Our sages wrote, “He who comes to kill you, kill him first” (Midrash Rabbah, 21:4), and “If one comes to kill you, kill him first” (Midrash Tanchum, Pinhas, Chapter 3). A few days ago, the top Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, considered the mastermind of Iran’s nuclear program, died after his car was apparently ambushed in a district east of Tehran. Although most fingers point to Israel, I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that this is a feat of American forces. Either way, I am wholly in favor of it. A person who dedicates his life to the destruction of others should be eliminated. This is not only Jewish ancient law, as just stated, it is the reasonable thing to do in the eyes of every sensible person. Fakhrizadeh devoted his life to developing an atom bomb that would destroy the state of Israel and kill its people. This makes his killing a classic act of self-defense.

There are reports of some Jewish organizations that denounced his killing. Even if their words are mere groveling to powerful anti-Israel forces whom they wish to placate and propitiate, such a position proves that they have no wish for the existence of the State of Israel.

A decision to take someone’s life, even if he is your worst enemy, does not come easy. It requires months, if not years of deliberation and weighing of all the options. But once it is clear that only eliminating that person will stop the progress of a plan for genocide, even if only temporarily, it becomes justified to kill him and disrupt the ploy.

In the case of Iran, it is obvious that its goal is to use nuclear weapons to destroy Israel. It is also obvious that they do not have any plans to arrest or slow down their efforts to build such weapons. Therefore, eliminating the Iranian chief nuclear scientist is a wise and required move.

In fact, even considering the possible Iranian response, such as attacks on embassies or using its proxies in the Middle-East to attack Israel, I have no doubt that the costs were calculated and the right conclusions were drawn.

It is true that Israel is in danger now, but when has it not been, when Fakhrizadeh was alive? Israel has been in danger since the first Hebrews left Babylon following Abraham and decided to build a new nation on the basis of love of others, opposite from the rest of the world.

The latest incident does not change anything in the big picture. All it does is buy Israel time to get a grip on its role in the world: unite its ranks and set a model of solidarity above disputes.

If the people of Israel unite among themselves above all their differences, they will become the role model that the world desperately needs. This is the only circumstance in which the nations will consider Israel’s existence as legitimate, and even desirable. Internal solidarity and mutual responsibility are the only cures to the hatred against us. They are our only true defense against nuclear bombs, as they will neutralize the hatred that creates them.

But until we wise up and rise above our hatred, targeted operations are required in order to give us more time to complete our task. The only questions are how much time can we buy, and how much longer can we take until we wise up and do what we were intended to do in the world.

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Question: It is widely believed that if you don’t love yourself, no one will love you. A slightly less discussed opinion is to love others, you need to love yourself. And even less discussed, but perhaps more valuable: to love yourself, you must first love others.

How to love yourself?

Answer: There is only one way out: try to do to people what they want or what is really important to them. Show people how to find happiness. This will be your happiness and the happiness of all; a person cannot disconnect himself from others. It is necessary to make sure that by showing or drawing people to happiness, you see your happiness in it.

Question: That is, literally to love others regardless of yourself?

Answer: Yes. From this you will understand that this is self-love.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 11/6/20

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One needs to shift as many of one’s thoughts and desires as possible above the boundary in order to attribute them to the Creator, to cleave to the upper force. This can be done through the ten, which serves as a connecting adapter that helps me adhere to the Creator.

If we arrange the ten correctly, we will see the upper force through it, we will be able to grasp it and adjust ourselves more and more to it, that is, to fine-tune even more desires and more thoughts to our connection and thus get closer to the Creator.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/20, “Work With Faith Above Reason”

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Question: Research shows that a small group of ten to forty people can demonstrate true knowledge of complex issues. Therefore, one cannot blindly believe in the wisdom of the crowd. There are matters that need specialists to be solved.

When can the wisdom of the crowd be used to solve problems and when is it collective intelligence? Why, when connected to wisdom, does it take it to a new level? And yet, this is not enough. Does one also need knowledge?

Answer: It depends on what questions you are deciding. You cannot gather a million people who do not understand anything, for example, about construction and expect that they could build a high-rise building. They won’t succeed. And if you bring together several specialists, you will get a positive result.

Therefore, it is necessary to specifically look at what the problem is that you want to solve. One either walks in knowledge or walks in faith above knowledge. If you go in knowledge, you must gather specialists. If you are faced with a task that is practically unattainable, for example, how to cope with the coronavirus, then experts will not be able to help.

We see that this form of epidemic simultaneously affects everyone in the world, It is becoming more and more dominant and spreading throughout the planet. I do not think that we will be able to limit, stop, or kill it in any way.

Then we will have to take into account the wisdom of the crowd. How do we find a solution? It is very simple. If we take a huge number of people without putting them in an office that would exploit their mind and knowledge but would collect them and try to raise them above their level so that they work for unification, then the result will be only unity, an ascent over their personal egoism. Then, they will be able to successfully identify what the problem is.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 9/25/20

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Question: The sources of moral norms can be customs, traditions, public opinion, authorities such as Buddha, Socrates, and finally, the person himself. He can also set some moral standards for himself that he has received from society. In your opinion, is the source of a particular moral behavior important?

Answer: The fact is that we exist in a certain system of forces. We do not determine the egoistic qualities within each individual, and therefore, we cannot order and define the relationships between us. They change in the course of our development along the time chain.

Therefore, our morals are based on the conditions in which we are forced to exist. They are the consequence of our historical development.

Question: What is its source? Where do man’s moral principles come from?

Answer: They arise from his egoism because he understands that this is not the way to live that we must live differently. It is better this way than the other way around, and so on.

Egoism determines our morals by bossing us around.
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From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 10/9/20

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Question: How do you come to experience suffering as pleasure? What exactly can we do to avoid behaving like naughty children?

Answer: The fact is that when I feel any kind of suffering and begin to understand that in this way the Creator guides me correctly, I already bless them and do not feel them as sufferings but as guiding forces. And then the suffering disappears. I may even want to suffer in some form, just as we pay a doctor for an operation in order to get rid of the pain.

But the desirable way is when we connect with each other and try to change the negative attributes and relations into positive ones. This is a much easier, faster way that brings us to the goal more than anything and absolutely annuls all the sufferings.

If we correctly interact with each other in the group, then all sufferings disappear or turn into positive sensations, even pleasure.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 11/18/18

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Preparation to the Lesson

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

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

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, ‘Histaklut Pnimit,’ Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 6, Item 66″   

Selected Highlights

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