My new article on Linkedin “Harnessing Society’s Power of Complementing Contrasts”

When you look at societies around the world, it is clear that tensions are rising everywhere. Whether it is between Right and Left, religious and secular, Conservatives and Progressives, Blacks and Whites, or locals and immigrants, the reasons are countless but the tension is the same: Two opposites that want to cancel one another.

The contrasts in society are its source of energy; we must harness them to build a better, stronger, and healthier society. We must not, and cannot agree, but rather complement each other. Once we do this, all of us will benefit from the power of society, the power of complementing contrasts.

It will not work. The contrasts will only grow, as will the tensions. All of reality is built on complementing contrasts that are interdependent. Take one away and you have canceled the other. Human society is no exception, except that we don’t recognize our interdependence and therefore do not want to complement each other. Instead, we want to cancel one another. We regard anyone who does not think or speak like us as backward and ignorant, hence the cancel culture.

But if two complementing contrasts are required for development, how can one party be right and the other one is wrong? If reality itself requires the presence of opposites, how can we want to cancel those we regard as opposite from us, when in truth, it is the existence of the opposite view from mine that justifies the existence of my own view? If, for example, there were no Conservatives, would there be Progressives? The whole concept of Progressivism exists because there is the concept of Conservatism.

Moreover, and this is the most important point: Neither side matters in and of itself. Only the tension between them matters! The frictions between opposing views makes people think, move, build, explore, challenge, or in short, live!

Therefore, we must feel our objection, our dismay at the opinion of our opposers. At the same time, we must not cancel them; we must acknowledge that they are the reason that we feel so strongly about the subject. Their zeal about their views excites our own, and together, we keep each other growing.

The contrasts in society are its source of energy; we must harness them to build a better, stronger, and healthier society. We must not, and cannot agree, but rather complement each other. Once we do this, all of us will benefit from the power of society, the power of complementing contrasts.
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My new article on Linkedin “Between Good and Evil”

From the subatomic level to the most sophisticated human societies, everything consists of two basic, yet opposite elements. We define one of them as positive and the other one as negative. For example, we define the electric charge in a proton as positive and the one that is in the electron as negative. We define light as positive and darkness as negative, growth as positive and decay as negative, birth as positive and death as negative, and we define love as positive and hate as negative. We also attribute value to our definitions: We regard the positive as good, and the negative as bad.

We already exist concurrently, but we resist this idea and still strive to cancel one another. In order to create the healthy balance that can engender the next level of development, we must be conscious of the process, agree to coexistence with our opposite, accept our mutual dependence, and that without the other side, we will not develop.

But life does not consist of static states, but of cycles. Generation and degeneration are intertwined, and we would not have one without the other. Therefore, neither of them is good nor bad. We would not have love if we did not have hate, so which of them is good and which is bad? In a cycle, just as in a wheel, everything moves through all the possible positions; nothing has an absolute, unchanging value; it all depends on its position in the cycle.

Now, imagine what would happen if we removed one item from a pair of opposite elements. What would happen to the day if there were no night? What would happen to life if there were no death? Only when we have both do we have a complete and functioning system. If we have a balanced number of protons and electrons, we have a complete atom. If we have a balanced number of animals in an area, we have a stable and healthy ecosystem.

As things evolve, they tilt and sway, and each time, a different aspect takes charge until it gives it up in favor of the opposite element. When they reach a more or less stable balance, it is a sign that the system has completed its construction and a new system has begun to evolve on top of it. This is why evolution goes from the simpler to the more complex, and why human society has evolved from smaller and simpler societies to larger and more complex ones.

The same pattern permeates all of creation; the tilt from positive to negative is the engine of reality. It never stops; when it reaches stability, it engenders a new level where the tilting process starts all over again until the new level reaches harmony and stability once more, but only in order to develop another level, higher still.

Human societies go through the exact same process as the rest of reality. The previous century demonstrated the extremes that humanity can reach. My teacher’s father, Baal HaSulam, who wrote about this as early as the 1950s, already noted, “Humanity has already thrown itself to the extreme right, as with Germany, or to the extreme left, as with Russia, but not only did they not ease the situation for themselves, they have worsened the malady and agony.” Like all of reality, human society had to go through extremes, but it also has to find its balance, where extremes exist in mutual support and move on to the next level of development.

This is our current point in time. We have tried our best to ordain the most fanatic extremes, but they all gave way (as they should) to their opposites, which in turn collapsed, as well. Now we have all of the extremes existing simultaneously, and it is time for them to complement one another just as atoms, seasons, and all animals do.

However, this is where humankind’s uniqueness comes into play: In all of nature, the tilting and subsequent harmony happen on their own, through nature’s inherent forces. Humankind is different. We already exist concurrently, but we resist this idea and still strive to cancel one another. In order to create the healthy balance that can engender the next level of development, we must be conscious of the process, agree to coexistence with our opposite, accept our mutual dependence, and that without the other side, we will not develop.

Moreover, we have to agree to it on every level. We must go through that process of recognition in matters of gender, race, culture, opinions, and anything that pertains to human existence. If, for example, we do not accept that there are both Democrats and Republicans in society, we will never grow above the political rift. Instead of generating a higher and more advanced reality that includes both views, we will sink into the rift until bloodshed erupts.

Worse yet, it doesn’t matter how much blood we shed, we will still not be able to eliminate the other side since nature has created it, just as it created us. If, by chance, one side does destroy the other, the “triumphant” side will disappear, as well, since its opposite will no longer exist. We will stop advancing, nature will recreate that situation all over again, and we will ultimately have to accept that both sides must exist and complement one another.

Only then will the higher level emerge. When we accept that both opposites are mandatory, we will rise to the next level of development. This is the secret of evolution.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why did the Coronavirus come to all the world? Why is this virus active?“

As much as we have been affected by the pandemic, we are still unaware of its true effect on us.

The pandemic has affected us very deeply. It emerged in order to create a new humanity, to upgrade our attitudes so that we would relate more positively, considerately, compassionately and constructively to each other and to nature.

If we look at ourselves a year ago, and if we would be able to see ourselves a year from now, we would see completely different people. We cannot return to the kinds of people we were before the pandemic. On one hand, the pandemic has isolated, detached, and estranged us from each other more and more, but by doing so, it has given us space to think about who we are, where we are, why we are here, and also, what kind of attitudes we have to each other and to the world in general.

Nature has placed us onto a new level of development from which we will be able to very quickly transition to a whole new kind of positively-connected human society.

It seems as if we have been struck with a very contagious viral disease, but when we understand nature’s purpose and plan, then we see how this state came about precisely as a means to upgrade our attitudes to each other: to become detached from our egoistic-consumeristic values that had been running rampant leading up to the pandemic, and to let us further develop in a more refined manner toward the purpose of creation, to the discovery of who and what we truly are, and why we are alive here in this world.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Adam Nieścioruk on Unsplash .

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My new article on Linkedin “When Inclusion Turns against Itself”

Banning Children’s Books and Movies Is the Writing on the Wall – Society Is Crumbling

Over the past several months, we have been bombarded with news about “corrections” taking place in various global companies, corporations, but most notably, in the education system. These measures, which are taken purportedly in order to make society more inclusive, actually ban, prohibit, limit, and condemn many of the most basic freedoms of people in a democratic country, such as freedom of expression and even freedom of thought. There are too many examples to mention, but here are a few typical ones: Amazon has removed the iconic children’s books of Dr. Seuss, and Disney+ has taken down from children’s profiles such cherished movies as Dumbo, Peter Pan, and Swiss Family Robinson, and added a caution next to the title in grownups’ profiles that the movies contain culturally inappropriate content.

By now, we have become so alienated that we cannot stand anyone who isn’t exactly like us. As a result, we introduce “equity,” which tries to force fairness and impose impartiality and equality, when in fact, it states that if you don’t think like the decision maker thinks you’re “supposed” to, you are ostracized, subject to various social punishments such as banning from society, losing your job, shaming on social media, and other social punishments that are often more hurtful than incarceration, and occasionally cause people to take their own lives.

There is more: Coca-Cola asked its workers to be “less white” to fight racism, seriously. Megyn Kelly, in an interview with Bill Maher, said she pulled her children from a private school because, among other woke oddities, it conducted a “three-week experimental trans education” program in her son’s third-grade class.

There is still more: The Grace Church School in Manhattan offers a 12-page guide to “inclusive language.” The guide discourages children from using the words “parents,” “Mom,” and “Dad,” and suggests that they use “folks” or “grown-ups” instead. In New York City, the Department of Education will remove all selective “screens” for middle schools for the 2021-2022 academic year and eliminate district priority for high schools altogether. To increase diversity, a lottery will replace the screening tests. And finally, Bari Weiss writes about a friend of hers, a Manhattan mother of a four-year-old girl who watched her daughter draw, when the girl said casually, “I need to draw in my own skin color.” Skin color, she told her mother, is “really important.” This was what she learned in school.

The irony about these examples, and countless more, is that they are all consequences of a campaign to increase inclusion and diversity. Clearly, the campaigners do not realize that when you inhibit freedom of thought and freedom of expression, you are abolishing inclusion, eliminating diversity, and shredding society into pieces. I don’t think that this ideology will prevail, but if it does, America will finish itself off.

This campaign is going toward a clear outcome, which I call “recognition of evil.” In other words, it is going to show us that our own nature, human nature, is rotten and evil to the core. In the process, it will also show us that we don’t have a clue about the right way to educate children or grown-ups.

Successful education requires knowing its final outcome before you even begin. And as for the inclusion campaign, nature didn’t create people equal; it created them different! It didn’t create them better or worse, but rather different! We, humans, attribute value to one race over another, to one culture over another, to one faith over another, and to one worldview over another. Therefore, we humans are the problem, not the race, gender, faith, or culture into which we were born. We make people unequal because this is how we think of them. Diversity is a blessing; it makes people unique, and therefore extremely valuable! Trying to eliminate the differences between us will create separation, alienation, and hatred, and it will not create inclusion or equality.

Indeed, for many centuries now, we have been growing further and further apart. By now, we have become so alienated that we cannot stand anyone who isn’t exactly like us. As a result, we introduce “equity,” which tries to force fairness and impose impartiality and equality, when in fact, it states that if you don’t think like the decision maker thinks you’re “supposed” to, you are ostracized, subject to various social punishments such as banning from society, losing your job, shaming on social media, and other social punishments that are often more hurtful than incarceration, and occasionally cause people to take their own lives.

Trying to change human nature is as wise as Don Quixote’s tilting at windmills, and far more damaging. It injures people’s souls, especially that of children, and maims their psyches. You cannot tie people to a mental procrustean bed and expect them to come out unscathed. They will never be the same, and they will not be healthy individuals.

What you do have to do is utilize each person’s uniqueness for the benefit of society. You need to highlight the differences and show how each person’s contribution makes him or her unique and irreplaceable. When you make people proud of who they are, they will not want to change themselves; they will not want to change others, and they will feel confident connecting and communicating with others. This is the whole trick to building a thriving society.

In a society that endorses people’s uniqueness, they will not hesitate to socialize, mingle in diverse groups, and get to know other people and cultures. There will be no racism or discrimination among them, no judgment and no xenophobia, since they will know that they have something to gain from every person they meet. Such people will form flourishing societies that will be inherently diverse, and naturally inclusive. They will be vibrant and welcoming precisely because all views, races, genders, faiths, and cultures are welcome.

For the sake of the 330 million people living in America, I hope they understand it before rather than after they suffer unimaginable torments for trying to change their own nature.
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My new article on Linkedin “People Aren’t Unemployed, They Simply Do Not Need to Work”

Although Israel is recovering from the Covid pandemic, it seems as though the job market is still in the midst of a lockdown. It is not that there are no jobs to occupy; it’s just that people aren’t keen to occupy them. In fact, so many Israelis prefer to remain jobless that the government has initiated a campaign to encourage people to return from furlough or from unemployment. So far, however, the campaign has had only marginal success.

Truthfully, I understand these people. I think that before we rush back to our pre-Covid life, which apparently wasn’t something we so terribly miss, we must reflect on what we want. People now realize that they can have a good life even if they earn less. They have more free time to spend with family and friends, and once you are among people you like, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to enjoy yourself. A day at the beach with the family hardly costs a thing, but is very enjoyable and emotionally rewarding. When you think about it, how much more do we need?

We do not need to love, or even like each other, not yet anyway. All we need is to realize that those I hate are precisely the ones on whom my life depends. If we do that, we will have a society where people truly do not need to work, where they can spend their days in peace, since we’ll be watching out for one another.

Besides, the job market needs fewer and fewer workers. We’ve gone from measuring things in kilometers and meters to measuring things in nanometers. Everything has shrunk, and everything requires fewer working hands. Even computer related jobs require fewer workers than before; the whole society is shifting toward a state where less working hours are required. It is no wonder that some countries are seriously mulling universal basic income programs instead of sending people back to work, or a shorter workweek. The days of hard work are nearing their end, and we need to figure out how we want to spend the additional time on our hands.

Food supply and other necessities will not be a problem; we are already producing more than we’re consuming and we throw away the excess products just to keep the prices up. If we improve distribution, there will be no shortage of necessities anywhere in the world.

Which leads us to the real issue before us: making sure that we get what we need so we can have a good life without worrying about subsistence. To do that, we must put behind us divisions that currently set us apart, such as racial tensions, political rivalries, power struggles of all kinds, cultural differences, and so forth. It may seem impossible to overcome these age-old differences, until we realize that it is precisely thanks to these disputes that we have developed our society, technology, and all that we have. In other words, in order to keep developing, we must preserve precisely the views that we oppose. Without them, our own views will lose their relevance.

Think of love without the existence of hate, and the word becomes meaningless. Think of freedom without captivity, and the whole concept becomes void. We wouldn’t be able to value, or evaluate anything were it not for the existence of its antonym.

Today, people are realizing that there really is no need to work so much, but unless we develop the social values to support this view, society will disintegrate and mayhem will ensue. For centuries, we have cultivated self-absorption to the point that today the vast majority of us are narcissists, plain and simple. A society of narcissists cannot build a distribution system that will see to the well-being of every person since such a system requires regard for the needs of other people, and too many of us simply don’t have it.

Therefore, the first thing to do in order to sail through the transition period toward a new society is to realize that we are dependent on each other, and especially on those who are opposite from us. We needn’t like people who think, speak, or act opposite from us, but we do need to recognize their value for us. We need to realize that they are the ones who render our own tenets valid. If we achieve this, we will realize that we can’t succeed without each other, or even be who we are. This is how interdependent we are.

We do not need to love, or even like each other, not yet anyway. All we need is to realize that those I hate are precisely the ones on whom my life depends. If we do that, we will have a society where people truly do not need to work, where they can spend their days in peace, since we’ll be watching out for one another.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can we solve the worlds clean water shortage problem?“

The spiritual root of water is the force of bestowal, which in Kabbalah is called “the force of Bina.”

As such, on one hand, we develop in water when we are embryos and fetuses, we are born in water, we are drawn to water, and the human body mostly consists of water. However, on the other hand, we become emotionally drier from one generation to the next. In other words, the more we develop, the more the human ego grows, and likewise, the more our attitudes to each other dry out, lacking emotion and an inner sense of connection.

There is an abundance of water in the world, and the sole reason for water shortage is our lack of positive connection to each other. Due to our growing egoistic nature, we find ourselves lodged in myriad problems, with water shortage in several parts of the world being one of them.

If we cared about others as much as we care about ourselves, then we would find solutions to our several problems, water shortage among them. People would find themselves with access to an abundance of water, however, wherever and whenever they want it.

The patent to solving our problems is very simple and open to everyone: If we connect ourselves with a positive attitude of bestowal to each other, then as bestowal is the spiritual root of water (Hassadim [mercy]), we too would draw living water, not floodwater, from above and from below.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Image: A visual representation of Bina, the quality of absolute bestowal.

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“What makes the desert beautiful,” said the little prince, “is that somewhere it hides a well…”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Wells are hidden under the sand. They exist everywhere. The root of life is everywhere, in everything. The most important thing is for us to relate to the meaning of life, to the root of life, and not to what we see outside.

Question: Tell me, is the desert burning inside me? Many people today have the feeling that there is no life.

Answer: You simply reveal something that was not there anyway. There was no life before either, only now you realize it. And so what you are revealing now is better than what was before.

Question: How can I, burning inside, understand or believe that if I overcome this state, a well will be there? What kind of thought is that?

Answer: That there is a meaning to life, there is a purpose, there are great forces of nature that can lift us up and revive us, lead us to the source of life if only we seriously wish it.

Question: How can I grasp this idea in such a desolate state?

Answer: Only if you gather yourself together with the rest of your friends. You must come together, you must understand that this is only done together. Only in the environment.

Question: The environment, are they the same as me, desolate inside, looking for a well?

Answer: That is precisely what they must understand, that this well is hidden in the connection between them.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/31/20

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Question: Can a person read The Book of Zohar not in the original language but in translation?

Answer: It doesn’t matter. You can read in any language and it does not even matter how much you understand. Your striving for the goal even without understanding what you read awakens forces that change you, and this is very important. You seek to attain.

There are many books and other information about Kabbalah in our Internet archive. It is accessible to everyone, because without basic knowledge, you still cannot exist in the spiritual world, just as a person cannot do without basic knowledge of arithmetic, physics, and other subjects.

After studying them for the first 10 to 15 years of life, he can already function safely in our world. And if he, as a child, was thrown somewhere in the forest and he comes out of there in 15 years, he will not be able to live in this world.

Therefore, we need to prepare a person for spiritual life. This is the purpose of the huge amount of information that we have on the Internet and in books, so that a person can get to know it at least a little. This is enough to begin to be drawn into the revelation of the upper.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #7

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Comment: Conflicts between people, as a rule, do not have an objective but rather a subjective component. It is an emotional thing. If you move the conflict to a rational plane, then it turns out that very often it can be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction.

My Response: It is definitely necessary to move the conflict to another plane. Make it go beyond the framework of conditions in which it exists today. Even, perhaps, bring it to the framework in which it was born, and then it will become clear whether it is really important because there is an additional layer of huge, new, I would also say, fictitious, imaginary reasons.

The main point is in the interested parties because such conflicts are fueled by people who benefit from them. They must be isolated and sorted out in parts. In other words, distract the conflicting parties from the common ground of the conflict.
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From KabTV’s “Together about the main thing” 9/2/18

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Man is a receiver in which the surrounding field is manifested and it includes absolutely everything. Depending on how similar we are to this field and how much we as sensors capture it, our informational, conceptual, sensory, and other structures change.

In principle, man feels this field to the measure of his similarity to it, and he divides this sensation into feelings and reason. There are many divisions in the feelings, many gradations in the mind.

Thus, the feeling of oneself and everything around us as existing is a measure of similarity or, conversely, dissimilarity from the information field in which we are located.

Apart from man and this field, practically nothing exists. Inanimate, vegetative, and animate objects and people are only a projection of a person’s consciousness on himself. And there is nothing that actually exists in relation to it except for this field, which is informational in terms of knowledge and sensations.
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From KabTV’s “Meetings with Kabbalah” 1/3/19

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