“I Shall bring You Upon My Land”

Question: In the Book of Prophets, Ezekiel, 38:14-16, it is written: “Therefore, prophesy, O son of man, and say to Gog, So said the Lord God: Surely on that day, when My people dwells securely, you will know. And you will come from your place, from the utmost north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding horses; a great assembly and a mighty army. And you will ascend upon My people Israel like a cloud to cover the earth; at the end of days it will be, and I shall bring you upon My land in order that the nations recognize Me when I am sanctified through you before their eyes, O Gog.”

It turns out that the Creator says: “I shall bring you.” What does it mean?

Answer: The point is that the Creator’s power is above all. It alone rules all other forces in the world, which can be divided into positive and negative, plus and minus, i.e., standing in opposition to each other at any level.

By moving these two opposite forces against each other, the upper force develops them. Only when they are in conflict, at war with each other, can they develop correctly.

And then we can say that there is war between Gog and Magog. In fact, it is going on constantly throughout history, throughout all our development, every second, every moment, but we attribute the war of Gog and Magog to the level when it arises between the main, most majestic forces of nature.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/30/21

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Most people stop looking when they find the proverbial needle in the haystack. I would continue looking to see if there were other needles.
(Albert Einstein)

Comment: Einstein is reputed to have said that in reply to being asked how his intelligence differed from others’ intelligence.

My Response: In general, this is true. But who is capable of it? Immediately there are disappointments, repetitions. Nothing shines ahead and there are a lot of critics who disagree with you.

Question: Is that when you look for the first needle in a haystack?

Answer: And even if you found this needle, then what? They can only laugh at you even more; there is something to cling to. A huge number of problems arise for humanity on this path.

The main thing, I think, is not to pay attention to anyone, neither critics nor praisers. You have to check within yourself. Your heart says that this is the right way, go ahead.

Otherwise, nothing will work out! Otherwise, you will simply follow others. If you want to go on your own… I am not saying to go ahead with a torch and illuminate the path for humanity, no! If you want to go your own way, you just have to go. And there can be no obstacles in your way! That is how I go and that’s it. I am not forcing you. You check for yourself.

Question: What is stopping us?

Answer: We are stopped by public opinion. That is the problem.

Comment: There is terrible, destructive criticism!

My Response: It doesn’t matter! Let them talk. I am the way I am.

Comment: And there are logical proofs that this is the wrong way.

My Response: Wrong way, so what? So I am wrong. Do I have the right to make a mistake? I do. Let me be wrong. Half the people are wrong. Let’s say half. You know that is an understatement. Well, I am wrong. But I check with myself all the time: “I go the way I want to go, and I do not listen to anyone?” Then this is the right way.

Question: What is this inner torch that leads?

Answer: I feel that I cannot do otherwise. I cannot! I can, of course, force myself, turn away, get carried away, do something, and in a few years I will still come to the same thing. I have to discover myself! So I can open this path so that I can achieve my spiritual growth, my spiritual goal. And what is it like, I don’t know.

Question: But, one way or another, is this already a spiritual path?

Answer: The spiritual path. And it is always only spiritual. What else is there for a person in this world? What other development? Only to develop your soul or your inner desire. I strive to hear myself and that’s it.

Question: And if frustration comes at some point?

Answer: It is always there. So what? But this is my way!

Question: And if you realize that it is a mistake, what then?

Answer: Also my way. All, all this is my way! And let no one and nothing sneak into it! Let me make my own mistakes! Do not disturb me! And then what I am done with, I am done with. It is mine! I am guilty or I deserve it, but it is me.

Do not look at others! Never! You have a different soul, you cannot be like them, and they cannot be like you. So pay less attention to everyone. Would Einstein have done something if he had looked at others? It is impossible! Just listen to yourself. Even if I am wrong, it is me.

Question: And if we apply this to the everyday, common person?

Answer: What does ordinary mean? Everyone can be different. Let him listen to himself, hear himself. That is how I can, this is how I want, that is how I think, not in spite of others, but it comes from inside me.

This is my “I” that must be pulled out of me. And you will feel, even in mistakes, very comfortable with it.

Just close your eyes and you are all alone! But you are with yourself, you are not running away from yourself. That is all.

Question: That is the way to live?

Answer: Yes. That is my advice. Then, in order to implement it, you have to create a special environment for yourself, and so on. But still, you are alone.

Comment: That is, if I felt, “this is mine,” then I have to grab onto it and that’s it.

My Response: I implement it.

Comment: And that is the way I go. And along the way there will be squalls, seventh waves…

My Response: It does not matter, I will be even closer to myself.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/8/21

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Comment: In Italy, four craters of Mount Etna have awoken and also volcanoes on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, Mount Sinabung, and in the northern Kuril Islands, Mount Ebeko, and before that, the Kamchatka giant, Klyuchevskoi, woke up. Now four volcanoes are carrying ash into the atmosphere at once.

There is a danger of a volcanic eruption in the heart of Europe, in Germany, in the area of the volcanic fields of Eifel. This would stop almost all of Europe.

They say that if one volcano starts really becoming active, then immediately the chain joins. And there are 20 large, giant volcanoes in total.

We dream about something, we quarrel, we play war games, countries argue with each other. And suddenly the eruption of only one volcano or several volcanoes, and that’s it! That is, we are nothing on the surface of the Earth! And no one can predict when this volcano will explode!

If humanity felt this, would it change?

My Response: No! Why would it change?

Comment: You begin to feel that everything you do is such a small thing, and you need to somehow have time to do something good, to have time to love.

My Response: Why? If not this time, then the next time when the volcanoes erupt into the sky, everything will disappear. Between these two “puffs” in the atmosphere to have time for something? For what?! Sit, drink beer, calmly wait for what will happen to happen. And that’s it.

Comment: This is one of the positions. But even this position would end an active nuclear race, the active hatred of each other. Let them sit aloof. Maybe it would be even better.

My Response: Or we advance to the goal of creation, as Kabbalah says, in a serious way. And then, of course, every second is precious to us because we write ourselves in eternity! Or what difference does it make what happens and when it happens?

Therefore live quietly, drink beer, sit and watch TV shows, football. When one of these volcanoes or all of them together puff up their smoke, then that’s it, the shop will close. In the meantime, try to do what you can to raise your soul.

And what else is left?! There is nothing else! Only these two options.

Question: Does the fact that these volcanoes constantly remind us that there may be a catastrophe mean anything? Does nature speak to us?

Answer: This suggests that we find the reason for our behavior and the behavior of nature. We have to find the reason for all this. And then we will understand that everything depends on us, that we need to deal with ourselves in this way in order to calm the volcanoes.

It all depends on us! You can calm the volcanoes at once. But only together.

When we will be all squeezed into such a fiery circle, then maybe people will hear. Let’s think well of each other and of all nature. Let us restore order, balance between ourselves, and balance between ourselves and nature. Let’s decide how to do it. We’ll have time for everything, we can solve everything. Just let’s move in this direction so that everything between us and between us and nature is as smooth as water.

Question: So you are saying that this is how nature’s dialogue with man takes place?

Answer: Of course! But this is not yet a dialogue, but a monologue.

Question: So we have not yet entered into a dialogue with nature?

Answer: No. But it expects this.

Question: And so the volcanoes just puff up, and don’t immediately burn us?

Answer: Yes. It is very interesting how nature plays with us. There are so many such mysterious, unpredictable, and threatening phenomena of nature that it simply puts in front of itself.

Question: How do we enter into a dialogue with it?

Answer: Start balancing our relations.

We must realize, understand, and accept, even if we do not understand, then accept that we are at the highest stage of nature. If we create the right relationship between ourselves, without jerks, distortions, without hatred, without anything, so that we are just comfortable, pleasant, and calm, then all nature will calm down beneath us. And that’s it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/29/2021

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Ascending Above Bodies

Question: Today the masculine part in a woman is salient and the feminine part in men is more prominent. Is there a reason for that?

Answer: We are in a process, in a period of transition, but we will eventually begin to understand how we should get closer to each other in order to reveal the Creator.

By the revelation of the Creator we mean to our next level of existence in which we ascend above our bodies and begin to exist in a volume our corporeal life and death have nothing to do with. We begin to exist in a soul.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 3/3/19

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Work with Intention”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, Chapter 1, Item 3″

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The Opposition of the Two Properties of Nature

Comment: “The War of Gog and Magog” is a prediction written by the prophet Ezekiel in the 5th century BC 2,500 years ago. But the events that are described in the Book of Ezekiel in The Prophets in the Tanakh and the signs that are mentioned there point to our time.

We know that all the original sources written thousands of years ago spoke not about corporeal events, but about spiritual ones. In addition, Gog and Magog are not two different characters, since Gog is the king and Magog is the place he came from.

My Response: The fact is that our entire world is going through a series of corrections, which consist in the opposition of the desire to receive and the desire to bestow, egoistic and altruistic forces, plus and minus. All of nature at the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels consists of this.

At the inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels, there are interactions of plus and minus, absorption and expansion, of everything that only exists in nature, in all forces: physical, chemical, etc. This is studied in our earthly sciences.

But the same forces exist at the level at which the properties of a person exist: bestowal and reception. These so-called mental properties are studied only by the science of Kabbalah. We cannot define them precisely because these forces are only partially known to us, for the most part they are hidden.

Moreover, they manifest themselves only in the form in which positive and negative properties are expressed in us. And due to the fact that a person explores them inside himself and on himself, it is very difficult for him to study them because for this he must become separated from himself.

Therefore, when the science of Kabbalah deals with a man’s attitude to himself and to the world, with our properties of bestowal and reception, what in nature is called plus and minus, attraction and repulsion, then our knowledge about the corporeal world is not enough, and we need to explore our inner properties.

But since they are hidden from us and we see them not in front of us, but only inside ourselves, then, by exploring them in ourselves, we are partly an interested party, and therefore, we cannot study ourselves objectively.

As a result, the science of Kabbalah has developed and is developing only to the extent that a person can rise above himself. Only in this form when he kind of repulses himself, rises above himself, which is called “in faith above reason,” can he research himself objectively, regardless of his attitude to what he is studying, and can he only study the properties themselves.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/30/21

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The lower the soul of a person,
the higher the nose  [turns] up.
He stretches his nose to where the soul has not grown.
(Omar Khayyam)

We see this in real life even with a naked eye. And everyone can see that it is so.

Comment: A person displays himself, he becomes a great politician, a great businessman.

My Response: He has to hold himself up somehow. If others do not hold him by appreciating him and respecting him, then he raises himself in this way. Look at all the politicians.

Question: That is, “he stretches his nose to where the soul has not grown”? Where does the soul stretch, rise up to what?

Answer: The soul stretches to the Creator, that is if a person understands this. And if his soul does not grow to such a state, then at least he wants to raise himself to such a level that he is respected.

Question: Does he put pressure on others?

Answer: Of course!

Question: And if the soul grows, then it raises him?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Why is man given individuality? After all, he is still growing, he wants to grow!

Answer: Everyone is very individual. To the extent that a person wants to realize himself in closeness with the Creator, in likeness to the Creator, and he shows himself more through these actions, all his correct properties become prominent.

Although it seems that if he wants to become like the Creator, he nullifies himself. No!

Question: Why is man given talents, individuality?

Answer: Only for this. So that he becomes like the Creator in each of its special properties.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/2/20

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My new article on Linkedin “Where Do We Go From Here?”

We haven’t even recovered from Covid-19, and already, we are at war with our neighbors. And this time, it is not only with our neighbors across the Gazan border, but literally with our next door neighbors: Israeli Arabs who have been living peacefully with Israelis for more than five decades. In fact, most of the youngsters rioting now have never known anything but peaceful living alongside Israelis. They work in Israel, with Israeli Jews, went to Israeli universities with Israeli Jews, and send their representatives to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. Yet, now they are rioting against Jews, raising flags of Palestine, where they do not want to live, and burning the Israeli flag, where they do want to live. They are lynching, shooting, and stoning Jews, burning Jewish owned shops, synagogues, and cars, and they are chanting “Death to the Jews.”

From day to day, our hatred for each other is growing more intense and venomous. Accordingly, the passion of our neighbors to throw us out of here is proportionally intensifying. The equation is clear and simple; we just have to be honest enough to see it: When we hate each other, they hate us; when we want to destroy each other (as we did in the Second Temple), they want to destroy us.

To us, Jews, this is a major shock. Most Israelis did not imagine that this was how their Arab neighbors felt about them. The situation calls for some serious reckoning. We need to contemplate where to go from here, and why we are here in the first place. No other nation needs to ask these questions, but we, Jews, must. Because if we cannot explain to ourselves, and even more important, to the world(!), why we exist, and why specifically here in Israel, then we will have no moral right to be here, or to be at all.

Telling ourselves that we are here because we needed to save ourselves from antisemitism in the wake of the Holocaust is not the answer. Already, the nations regret voting in favor of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine in November 1947. They haven’t decided to reverse that decision, yet, but if they had to vote on it again, they would vote overwhelmingly against the whole idea.

So, what should we do? We must remind ourselves that we are here not to build a shelter from antisemitism, but to reestablish our peoplehood. We became a nation at the foot of Mt. Sinai, when we pledged to unite “as one man with one heart,” and we were immediately tasked with passing on that unity to the rest of the world, or as the Torah phrases it, with being “a light unto nations.” This is why Old Hillel told the man who asked him what it meant to be a Jew, “That which you hate, do not do unto your neighbor; this is the whole of the Torah, and the rest is commentary” (Shabbat, 31a). This is also why Rabbi Akiva, whose disciples wrote both the Mishnah and The Book of Zohar, said that “Love your neighbor as yourself” is the principal law of the Torah (Jerusalem Talmud, Nedarim, 30b). We should ask ourselves if we are keeping this law, because if we aren’t, then we don’t deserve to be here.

I think the truth is evident. From day to day, our hatred for each other is growing more intense and venomous. Accordingly, the passion of our neighbors to throw us out of here is proportionally intensifying. The equation is clear and simple; we just have to be honest enough to see it: When we hate each other, they hate us; when we want to destroy each other (as we did in the Second Temple), they want to destroy us.

But the opposite is just as true: When we love each other, they love us. We determine our fate by determining how we relate to one another. I don’t know where we will go from here, but I do know what we need to do if we want to go anywhere good: We need to start developing love for one another. The harder we work on this, the faster our situation will improve.
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[Image: People walk next to burnt vehicles as they enter a building after violent confrontations in the city of Lod, Israel between Israeli Arab demonstrators and police, amid high tensions over hostilities between Israel and Gaza militants and tensions in Jerusalem May 12, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun]

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My new article on Linkedin “Where Israel’s Real Might Lies”

The rockets from Gaza are frightening, and they are certainly disrupting our lives. However, the real monster that’s emerged in this round of the Arab-Israeli conflict is the violence of Arabs who are Israeli citizens against Jews. Last night, rioters went through all the Jewish businesses in Old Acre, in Northern Israel, and torched every one of them. Attempted lynches were carried out in Lod, Tamra, and Acre. Jews were also injured from gunshots fired into homes in Lod, as well as from rocks and stones, and Molotov cocktail bottles. In Haifa, 60 Jews were hurt by smoke inhalation after Arabs torched cars owned by Jews, and the list goes on and on. All this comes on top of the hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel, killing several people, wounding many more, and destroying homes and property.

Let me be clear, we must have military power. We must protect ourselves to the best of our ability, and attack those who attack us. However, if we base our confidence on military edge, it will fall apart, as we are seeing now. Israel’s only might always was, is, and will forever be the unity of its people, and nothing else.

Such mayhem is enough to shake up the confidence of anyone, and indeed it has. The Israelis are losing their confidence, but I believe it’s for the best, since now we can begin to base it on a solid foundation.

Let me be clear, we must have military power. We must protect ourselves to the best of our ability, and attack those who attack us. However, if we base our confidence on military edge, it will fall apart, as we are seeing now. Israel’s only might always was, is, and will forever be the unity of its people, and nothing else.

It doesn’t matter how divided we are; it doesn’t matter how deeply we hate each other for our different views or cultures. If we spread a canopy of solidarity over all our differences because of the simple fact that we are Jews and the essence of our peoplehood is unity above division, then no harm will come to us. On the contrary, by doing so, we will win the world’s respect and favor. Below is a piece of Jewish history that tells the tale of unity, division, and ultimate unity, and how it impacts other nations.

During the reign of Antiochus III the Great (222 to 187 BCE), Judea was ruled by the Seleucid Empire but enjoyed almost complete autonomy, as long as they paid their (reasonable) taxes to the king. In fact, in Antiquities of the Jews, Flavius Josephus writes that Antiochus the Great considered it his duty to guard the autonomy of the Jews. To show his appreciation for their assistance and his reverence for their way of life, he wrote a formal letter permitting the Jews to live according to their way: “On account of their piety toward God, [Antiochus decided to] bestow on them, as a pension for their [Temple work] … twenty thousand pieces of silver, in addition to abundance of fine flour, wheat, and salt.” His successor, Seleucus IV Philopator, kept the status quo with the Jews, who continued to live untroubled in Judea.

Even Antiochus Epiphanes, who succeeded Seleucus IV, initially had no intention to change the status quo in Judea, were it not for certain Jews who had decided to incite him against their brethren. Those Jews wanted to force the Hellenistic culture on Judea and take control of the country. To achieve this, their leader, Yason [Jason], paid Epiphanes a hefty sum of money, who, in return, ousted the incumbent High Priest in Jerusalem and handed the position over to Jason.

Jason quickly turned Jerusalem into a polis, renamed it Antiochia, and constructed a gymnasium at the foot of Temple Mount. In addition, the Hellenistic Jews abandoned ancient customs that related to the Temple and began to sow division in the country. In fact, the Hellenists sowed so much division that they even fought among themselves, between supporters of Jason and supporters of Menelaus (who in 170 BCE paid off Antiochus to oust Jason and make him the High Priest). By the time Antiochus Epiphanes wrote his infamous decree that demanded all Jews to become Hellenists, many of the Jews were already in agreement with his demands. In fact, according to The Book of the Maccabees (Vol. 1), “many of the Israelites consented to his religion and sacrificed unto idols.”

But we know the end of the story: The Hasmonean family in Modiin revolted against the decree, and under the leadership of Judah Maccabee, the Jews united and ousted the Hellenists. Moreover, Antiochus V Eupator, who succeeded Antiochus Epiphanes, restored the agreement of freedom to the Jews that his great grandfather, Antiochus III, had signed, and put the final seal on the Hasmonean Revolt when he executed Menelaus as a punishment for luring him into a war he did not want to fight.

Today, twenty-three centuries after the saga, it seems as though we haven’t learned much. As then, so now, we have to fight for our freedom because we didn’t fight for our unity before. Had this been our one and only focus, we wouldn’t have had to worry about anything else, just as the Jews in Judea enjoyed their freedom as long as they had kept their unity.

As long as we still have a country, we must shift our attention to our solidarity, to our unity, as this is our real weapon. While fighting against our enemies, we must fight the separation among us even more, since this, in the end, will determine the outcome of the war against the Arabs.
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