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My Thoughts On Twitter 5/25/21

Dr Michael Laitman Twitter

#Antisemitism will unite the Jews of America and Israel—this is the benefit of it once again…

We are perplexed by the fact that we are at the center of attention for the nations. But according to the thought of creation, they have to unite around us, and with us. The whole problem is only that we do not pull them in, do not become the point of the world’s unity.
The yearning for unity—this is what we have to show the world!
#jews #israel
From Twitter, 5/25/21

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“Full Speed In The Wrong Direction” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Full Speed in the Wrong Direction

The Palestinians’ cheers of victory, and the hesitant sigh of relief that Israelis let out at the start of the ceasefire are both genuine. Israel won the battle but it is losing the war, and the Palestinians know it. With each campaign, our grip on the land weakens while theirs grows stronger. We may win future battles, too, but the world is with the Palestinians. If we continue battling them only on the physical level, we will eventually lose the war and the land we live in.

The only way that we can win is on the ideological level. If we grasp why we are here and what benefit our presence here brings to all of humanity, we will win the world’s support. Otherwise, the nations have no need for a country whose people hate each other so profoundly that their 120 members of parliament are splintered across dozens of parties. The sense of mutual loathing this tiny country discharges is so caustic that the whole world is troubled by what is happening in this tiny piece of land, which is roughly the size of Connecticut. We are making great efforts to strengthen and fortify ourselves, but we are going full speed in the wrong direction.

We must remind ourselves over and over that our strength lies in our unity, and only in our unity. Nothing else will hold for long. Defense systems such as the Iron Dome are good for only so long, but permanent protection comes to the people of Israel when we think of each other instead of ourselves.

Our ancestors founded our nation on the basis of mutual responsibility and love of others. We conceived the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself” and made it our foremost tenet. Without living it out, we are not true to our legacy, to the basis of our peoplehood, so we are not really Israel. And since we are not really Israel, we have no claim on the land of Israel. This is what the Arabs feel, as does the whole world.

For our claim on the land to be valid, we must be true to our vocation: to be “a light unto nations.” As long as we are divided, they feel that we are bringing them nothing but darkness. They feel that we are the cause of all that is wrong with the world, and it is precisely because of our hatred for each other. Therefore, if we rise above our hatred and unite, the world will be with us, including the Palestinians. If we give in to division, the world will kick us out of here.

The Book of Zohar (Aharei Mot) wrote about the significance of our unity many centuries ago. In the words of Rabbi Shimon, “‘Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to also sit together.’ These are the friends as they sit together and are not separated from each other. At first, they seem like people at war, wishing to kill one another … then they return to being in brotherly love … and by your merit, there will be peace in the world.” May we follow the advice of our sages and avoid the punishments of our ignorance.

“What Does True Love Really Look Like?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: What does true love really look like?

In the lives we currently know, true love is nonexistent. If we start rising to our next degree of development, above our current life, where we all come from, then we start discovering true love.

Today, there is a need to re-educate ourselves about love, even though life itself is doing most of the work for us. We need to realize that the instances of what we call love are but tiny sparks within an omnipresent higher love that gradually draws us to its discovery. And the discovery of this higher love is synonymous with discovering the meaning of life. It is a completely different feeling—an attraction, connection and fulfillment that is whole, perfect and eternal.

The ideas about love that propagate through novels, TV shows and films only confuse us. From a biological standpoint, we should by all means find suitable mates, raise families and our next generation. But more importantly, if we direct our aspirations spiritually, toward love for all humanity, then everything will fall into place.

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

“Jews Are Sitting On A Powder Keg” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Jews Are Sitting on a Powder Keg

There is a sense of imaginary peace after the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, but abroad, the fuse of antisemitism is again lit and flaming. Jews both in Israel and basically anywhere in the world are in a constant war for their lives, looking to their backs, keeping an eye on their surroundings because danger can arise at any given moment from both obvious and unexpected places. What else do we need to face up to in order to understand that the world has a problem with Jews? Both Israel and the Jewish people are basically standing alone. Therefore, the only place to find a solution to the hatred is between us, in our willingness and capacity to unite.

Since the beginning of Operation Guardian of the Walls launched by Israel to defend its population from thousands of missiles attacks from Gaza, there has been a sharp spike in antisemitic incidents around the world, as well as international condemnation of the Israeli military response. The perpetrators of these antisemitic attacks deliberately singled out and targeted synagogues and Jewish institutions. The incidents occurred in broad daylight and included verbal and physical aggression against Jews in the plazas, restaurants, and streets of major cities across the United States, Europe, and Latin America, among other locations.

American Jews say they fear to identify themselves publicly as Jews. Some have taken off their Star of David necklaces, some have considered removing the mezuzot from their homes, and some even hesitate to walk to their synagogues.

So one may ask why is it that Jews are taking the hit for Israel’s actions which have been judged as wrong and unjustified by the world? Very simple. People have a problem with Jews in general. Therefore, they lash out against the State of Israel, against the Jewish people, and will be happy to erase both completely.

Our enemies point out very precisely that what needs to change can be found with us, within the worldwide Jewish community. We need to reconnect to and strengthen our common identity as a people whose existence is eternal because we were given a special role to carry out in the world: to unite in love above all differences and to help others do the same.

Within this united amalgamation, our differences will remain, as they are an integral part of the fabric of who we are, but rising above them is mandatory. We can either annihilate the threats against us by establishing unbreakable connections above whatever separates us, or our enemies will annihilate us without mercy.

Foremost Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) wrote about the tendency of the Jewish nation to draw closer together when danger lurks: “It is the common suffering that each of us suffers being a member of the nation. This has imprinted within us a national awareness and proximity, as with fellow-sufferers. This is an external cause. As long as this external cause joined and blended with our natural national awareness, an odd kind of national love emerged and sparked off this jumble, unnatural and incomprehensible” (The Nation). But now, we see that even in times of trouble we are not banding together!

Until there is a need for a connection between the factions we have built in our far flung Jewish community, and until we transcend the conflicts and arguments that incite hatred between us, the external wars will not stop. They will only become more intense.

Many Jews in the Diaspora are trying to disassociate from Israel, and by doing so, they increase the pressure on us inside Israel and cause the realization that we stand completely on our own. Each community will stand alone then if that’s what they want. They can unite and take care of themselves for their own sake. And those living in Israel will have to do the same until we reach the critical integration necessary to face our existential threats.

In the final analysis it comes down to this: The more we indulge in indifference to our only mission—the crafting of the unity subconsciously expected of us by all the nations of the world—the easier it will be for our enemies. Our enemies will not even have to fight with weapons; they will need no rockets or missiles. What for, since all of humanity is ready with its forces, systems, and fronts to fight together with Hamas against Israel? All of humanity—from America and Russia to faraway China—everyone. In every country in the world, in every government, there are enough people who will be happy to abolish the legitimacy of the State of Israel and the people sitting in it and to wipe us off the face of the earth.

It is difficult for us to hear that the source of the problem lies with us; it is difficult to realize the enormity of our role and the responsibility placed on us, the reason for all this hatred directed at us. It tends to enter one ear and exit from the other. But we must listen and act with all haste. The heart of the Jewish nation is very broken, shattered, and grounded within egoism, but there is no choice but to strive at every moment to reach the connection between us until our collective heart begins to awaken and beat. Once we realize our mission and unite in love, we will discover that sitting on a powder keg need not be our destiny. Instead, our loving unity will create a peaceful garden around us where we can calmly sit.
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“Guardian Of The Walls – The Day After” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Guardian of the Walls – the Day After

Ceasefires are illusory in the Middle East. Everyone realizes that the hiatus in hostilities between Israel and Hamas will last only until the first provocation occurs. In the coming months, hundreds of millions of dollars will flow into the Gaza Strip, which will rebuild its military infrastructure that the IDF so skillfully destroyed with surgical precision to minimize civilian casualties after Hamas deliberately positioned its most critical assets in high-rise buildings, hospitals, and kindergartens. Israel’s hope that it will take Hamas years to rebuild its power has no grounds to stand on. With the entire world behind it, it will refurbish its arsenal and reconstruct its military infrastructure in no time, and at no cost to itself, since the world will readily finance it. And when Hamas feels strong enough, it will rain another barrage of rockets on Israel’s civilians, and no one will blame Hamas for it, but rather Israel.

I don’t know how the next round will unfold, but I know that as much as we don’t want it, we will be compelled to partake in it, since we don’t call the shots, but rather Hamas. In the eyes of the world, no reasoning justifies our presence here since reason is meaningless when it comes to feelings, and the feeling that pervades the world when it comes to Israel is hate.

The only way we can avoid future standoffs with our neighbors, and in the process turn the world’s opinion in our favor, is to understand why things go against us and how we can change it. First, we need to understand that reasonable arguments don’t convince anyone. We can employ the most eloquent speakers, the most knowledgeable pundits, and the most successful models and actors to present Israel’s case, but no one will buy our story. Since they don’t believe a word we say, it makes no difference who speaks or what they say. Second, we need to understand that appeasing the Arabs’ demands will not pacify them. On the contrary, it will only embolden them. We must understand that they do not want a piece of this land; they want all of it, but even more than that, they want us dead.

Third, in light of the first two, we should stop looking at what we can do for the world, and start looking at what we can do for each other. This is the battlefield we have neglected for too long. Among each other is where we will find our strength, and where we should have focused all the time. I understand why it made more sense to try to convince the world that we want peace, but now that this strategy has failed entirely, it’s time to reroute and see how we can build our inner strength.

Historically, our strength came from one and only source: our unity. Our ancestors did not evolve into a nation as do other nations: through natural multiplication of biologically affiliated people. Jews, on the other hand, had to weld their nationhood consciously and laboriously, since their nucleus consisted of members of just about every tribe and clan in the ancient world. These foreigners were initially so alienated from each other that unless they united, they would have slit each other’s throats, as indeed they did in times when enmity defeated unity.

However, when unity prevailed, a miracle unfolded before the eyes of the world: People from all the nations lived together in harmony, mutual responsibility, and loved their neighbors as themselves. Indeed, the ancient Jewish people was a proof of concept, a role model that presented an alternative to the bloodshed that was the everyday reality of people in antiquity.

Whenever Israel’s internal unity prevailed, the nation thrived and achieved greatness. Whenever division got the better of us, the nations tormented, persecuted, and banished us from our land or from among them.

History seems very consistent when it comes to this aspect of our history. Under Joseph in Egypt, we were united and thrived. When he died, we aspired to assimilate and the Egyptians enslaved us. When we united in the desert after fleeing from Egypt, we were declared a nation that was not only “legitimate,” but was tasked with being “a light unto nations,” namely set an example of unity and cohesion to the whole world.

While our unity prevailed, over crises and strives, we went from strength to strength. We even conquered the land of Canaan and built the First Temple. But when our unity waned, Nebuchadnezzar II banished us out and sent us out to Babylon. In Babylon, we wanted to be as the Babylonians and brought upon us Wicked Haman, the “archetypal” Hitler. But when we united, following Haman’s intention to annihilate us, we prevailed and earned the Cyrus Declaration, which sent us back to the land of Israel with gold, silver, lots of food, and the support of an empire to build a Second Temple.

When we divided, became Hellenists, and sought to become like the Greeks, war broke out among us and the Temple was burned. When the Maccabees managed to reunite the people, even if only briefly, we won the Temple back and drove out the Seleucid empire, who took the treacherous priest Menelaus and put him to death for inciting them against the Jews.

When we divided once again, the Romans came and put a siege on Jerusalem. Here, they waited for us to decide, and we opted for civil war, killed each other indiscriminately, burned each other’s food supplies, and the Romans finished the job and exiled us from here for two millennia.

History has never deviated from the correlation between our inner division or solidarity and the world’s enmity or affinity toward us. Currently, Israel’s precarious situation requires that we notice this pattern and employ our ancient tactic: unity against calamity, or as the Talmud states it: “Either friendship, or death” (Taanit 23a).

Why Does Childhood Depression Occur?

543.02Comment: In the last 15 to 20 years childhood depression has become very common. Doctors do not know what to do about it. They cannot find the reason. There can be some reasonable explanations for adult depression.

My Response: It is not just that. We can restrain adult depression. You can force a person to be lower, more limited. But we need to develop our children.

A person who is depressed is given sedatives, tranquilizers, even some drugs just to “put him to sleep.” How can we do this to children? By doing this, we detach them from their natural growth. The manifestation of depression in children is opposite to the tendency that they must develop, overcome, and grow. We encounter a phenomenon here that we cannot conquer.

Question: The fact is that patients are five to six years old children. Why is a six-year-old child depressed and finds that nothing pleases him?

Answer: The question of the meaning of life! Many great Kabbalists wrote about this and in particular Rav Kook and Baal HaSulam.

As long as I can remember, as a child, I had this question. Not explicitly, but it was: “Why? What for? What is all this about?” This question did not allow me to live, did not allow me to rejoice. It was necessary to find an excuse to have fun: to go on a spree, to get carried away with something in order to escape this question. And it was all during childhood.

But let us assume that the soul has no age. Then it will be easier for us. Let’s not look at the young generation as being children.

A soul is a soul. We received it from our past incarnation in which we lived to our old age. And today, in our brand-new young body lives an old soul that has lived on this earth for many generations and has been through a lot.

The fact is that you evaluate a child by its small body, but you should look at its soul. It is already old, wise, and understands that all this is pointless. It has already lived for so long that you cannot confuse it. What will you do with it?

So through depression it gives you its external emptiness and lack of fulfillment. So what if it manifests itself in a small child? And if it was in its thirties, in its forties, is it different?

Depression does not come from life. Absolutely not! We see that there is a lot of depression and suicides among people who have everything in life.

Comment: Usually they say about such people: “They get mad from fat” [unsatisfied from prosperity.]

Answer: No, not from fat. A person simply needs to know what he lives for. And when he has everything and his daily bread is not in question, he really does not see what to live for.

As long as you are forced to take care of your body, you have no opportunity to free yourself for other matters. And as soon as you provide it with everything you need, the question of the meaning of life immediately arises.

This question also appears in children. Why not? I don’t see much difference. The fact that it occurs in children suggests that, after many reincarnations in this world, our souls have come to a state where they actually need the answer to: “Why do we exist?”

Question: You want to say that we incorrectly approach a person from the very beginning by focusing on him as the biological body?

Answer: Of course! After all, this is not a person at all but his animal body. An animal! And how does it differ from other animals?

But its inner part, our “I,” has nothing to do with this body. It goes through many different improvements, dipping into the body, coming out of it, accompanying it. As a result, these metamorphoses lead it to such a development, when—that’s it! We already live in a generation in which we must necessarily answer the question: “What for?”
[282098]
From KabTV’s “Close-up. Depression in Children” 8/24/09

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The War Of Gog And Magog, Part 9

527.01Judgement Day from Kabbalah’s Point of View

Question: The Book Prophets mentions the Day of Judgement. Almost all religions say that God will judge all people for different actions. What does the Judgement Day mean from an internal point of view? Who is judging whom and for what?

Answer: Judgement Day means that the true reason for their existence, for their suffering, and the true opportunity to correct everything that is entrusted to a person is revealed to people.

When people see this, it will be the happiest day for them. On one hand, it is a day of judgement, but on the other hand, it is a happy day because the truth is revealed, how people can bring themselves to an eternal, perfect existence.

Question: The subject of life after death is also addressed in connection with the Judgement Day. Although Judaism does not speak much about it, there is still such a concept as the resurrection of the dead. What does it mean inside a person, from a spiritual point of view?

Answer: Judaism considers a person not as a protein body, but as a combination of his positive and negative qualities, and human ones at that, not animalistic ones. Our body is not considered a person. It is considered an animal. It is said: “The creatures are as beasts.”

But what we have in us, that is, what determines a person’s attitude to the surrounding world, especially to other people, must be corrected. A man is called one who connects himself with the entire world. A man in Hebrew is “Adam,” from the word “Domeh,” meaning “similar” to the Creator.

Question: Can we say that the resurrection of dead desires is our correct use of them?

Answer: Exactly. This is what is called “complete correction.”
[282422]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/30/21

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The Great Game Of Nature

238.01Comment: Now in our generation, simultaneously with emptiness, there is an aspiration for something that a person is not yet aware of. Then, as Baal HaSulam said, it turns out that all this is a game, as in the parable with the slave.

My Response: Of course, this is a great game of nature or the Creator. Nature and the Creator are one and the same.

As a result, we will all laugh at what happened, the way we laughed at ourselves when we were little children, grew up, got confused, played, fell, disassembled, and re-assembled something not knowing what and how. But thanks to such a farce, during many years of development we become adults. We never know what we are doing.

Look at a small child. Does he know anything? But he makes some attempts all the time. In principle, our development is very incomprehensible. It should be incomprehensible. That is what is interesting!

How can I understand in advance my next state if it is more developed than the present one?! In a day or in a minute or in a year I must be better, taller, stronger than today; that is, I must be more developed.

How can I understand it now?! With my mind, I cannot! How then can I achieve it? It is through this messy, diffuse movement.

To us, it seems disorderly, because we do not realize with our brains that there is a magnificent order, a higher harmony, a harmony of a higher level, but I still do not understand it. It appears to me as utter nonsense. We look at the children: “This is creepy! Look what they do!”

I recently watched my grandson. For half an hour, he walked and collected pinecones under the trees, and then scattered them, then collected them again and scattered them again.

Well, collect it once and that is it! No. His nature drives him all the time, pushes him to such interesting actions.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #13

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Shamati—A Guide To Spiritual States

216.03Question: I began to feel and recognize new spiritual states while studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. How can reading Shamati help me process them?

Answer: Shamati is attained gradually. You are twenty years old today and by studying the method with us in about ten years you will understand what this book is about, its depth, and then begin to find similar states in you.

The book will be like a guide to spiritual states for you according to your soul. Reading it will make everything turn over in you, not psychologically like in a novel, but as the revelation of different states and angles in you, and then you will begin to feel the upper world. This is how the book will work, gradually.
[247606]
From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 3/10/19

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