Audio Version Of The Blog – 7/8/21

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“No Safe Haven For Diaspora Jews But Israel” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “No Safe Haven for Diaspora Jews But Israel

About the prospect of raising his Jewish family in Belgium: “I believed I could. Now I doubt I can,” wrote Joel Rubinfeld, president of the Belgian League Against Antisemitism, in an op-ed published in a local newspaper. This sentiment is increasingly common in Europe and the United States alike. Despite the rise in antisemitism in Belgium, the government there decided to remove military security from Jewish institutions. Now without state protection, the Jewish community is asking for help from Israel. This or any other security scheme would be useless until they realize where Jews can really find a safe haven and their role.

Should the State of Israel intervene in the security situations of the Jewish communities in the Diaspora? Absolutely not. Today it is Belgium, tomorrow it will be another country in Europe or elsewhere. The State of Israel must urge Jews living abroad to fend for themselves and should not become involved in trying to safeguard the Jews in other countries against antisemitism.

The Jews in Belgium are not so poor as to lack the means to maintain security around themselves, so why do they demand the State of Israel to do so? Why should Israeli money fund security services to guard them so that they can live comfortably in Belgium? I am definitely opposed to the Jews in Israel taking responsibility for the Jews of Belgium and the Jews of the Diaspora in general. We have no interest in keeping them there.

Even if the Jews decide to move from Belgium to another country where they feel safer, they will have to learn firsthand that the place for Jews is the Land of Israel. Beyond Jews realizing that they have a state and a homeland here in Israel, they must decide on their own to return to fulfill the exalted role of the Jewish nation—to create a model society of love that covers any hatred that might reveals itself within it, a society of mutual guarantee in accordance with the laws of the Supreme Power.

The phenomenon of antisemitism is revealed in the world as a natural response designed to remind the people of Israel why it exists in the world. Our only option and shield for defending ourselves against hatred is the implementation of our role as “light unto the nations.”

Therefore, the solidarity we feel with the Jews of Belgium should not be expressed by rushing to invest our money in safeguarding their institutions—a move that would be futile—but by explaining, both to ourselves and to them, the cause of the animosity against Jews, and what we must do to fix the problem for the world and ourselves.

If we do not start moving towards carrying out our role, we will find ourselves with no place to hide. As it is written, “The Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees and the stones and trees will say, ‘O Muslim, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” (First extract, “The Victory of Muslims Over Jews,” Hadiths)

Our Jewish sources say that eventually all the Jews, including the Ten Tribes we lost along the way, will return to the Land of Israel to unite. Although there seems to be no place to absorb them all, there is plenty of room.

The Book of Daniel calls the Land of Israel the “land of the deer.” As the Talmud explains, “Just as the hide of the deer has the capacity to encompass its body, but shrinks when separated from its flesh, so too can the Land of Israel expand to encompass its rightful inhabitants but shrinks when we are exiled from it.” As in this allegory, in the same way that the deer is able to expand its skin, accordingly we can expand our hearts to be as one, a safety net for the Jewish people and for peace in the world.
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“How Do We Stop Our Governments From Starting A New War?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: How do we stop our governments from starting a new war?

We should counter war within the law’s boundaries, and not by means of terrorism or other unlawful actions.

We need to understand that the people and large associations will be able to stop their governments from going to war if they receive an education that explains the causes and solutions to their problems.

We should never oppose the government forcefully and violently, mistakenly thinking that some kind of justice can be served in such a way. We will never win through force, but only by conviction, education and explanation.

This is why the problem with several associations engaged in this field is that they communicate among themselves, and afterward, when they need to carry out an action, they cannot do so. Their actions end half-way through. I hope that the time will come when several conferences and events, held by organizations interested in protecting the world, will give birth to a new broad-scale education for humanity. They will then obligate governments to refrain from war. The censure from everyone will be so strong that it will stop the process of waging war in its conception.

Based on a Q&A with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on September 9, 2006. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Habit—Software Content

49.01Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 7: Through accustoming oneself to some thing, that thing becomes second nature for that person. Hence, there is nothing that one cannot feel its reality. This means that although one has no sensation of the thing, he still comes to feel it by accustoming to that thing.

It all depends on how much we train ourselves, impose a certain form of thoughts, behavior, and  movement on ourselves. In this way, we can reformat ourselves so that we will enjoy some actions, objects, and things. Or vice versa.

It all depends on how we program ourselves. There is nothing else in a person except software content.

Question: In principle, our desire is the raw material and the program is education. Is it possible to educate a person to treat his neighbor as himself? To care for your neighbor as you do for yourself?

Answer: It is not easy. Such a process must be constantly accompanied by certain rewards so that I can take care of someone else, so that I feel that I benefit from it.

This is all related to the same actions we usually use to train animals: a dog or a cat. There is nothing special about it. It is just that animals are much easier to train because they are already domesticated.

We have trained them for many generations and they have become more flexible about our requirements from them.

Question: If in order to reveal the upper light or the upper power we must correct our attitude toward our neighbor, then does it mean that I can accustom myself to feel the light through the habit of feeling my neighbor?

Answer: Although this is very difficult, it is possible because it is nothing more than a directed habit.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 6/25/21

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“The New Race For Space” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “The New Race for Space

Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon and one of the world’s top contenders for the title “the richest man on Earth,” is racing against business magnate and investor Richard Branson, founder and owner of Virgin Group, which controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Their goal is to beat one another to outer space in vessels built by companies they own. The race between them has generated significant backlash, including a petition that states that if these two billionaires reach space, they should not be allowed to return.

Indeed, man’s ego knows no boundaries. It transcends all of nature’s forces. Man wants to devour everything: the planets, the stars, the galaxies, the entire universe, to have it all inside and leave nothing for others. In fact, everyone else should be inside of me, as well. Billionaires are people with a hyper developed desire for wealth, power, and status. They will go any length to beat anyone who challenges them, even if only by a few days, as is the case with the race discussed here. Such people have one thing in mind: to be on top.

Even so, I think that signing such petitions as the one being spread now, that we should not allow them to return from space, is not only impractical, but unwise. We may not like them because we envy their wealth, but they still provide work for millions of people. They drive our economies, promote technological innovations, and all of us benefit from their efforts to gain personal power. Therefore, however selfish they are, in the end, everyone benefits from their achievements.

We could argue that their achievements come at our expense, and at least partially, that would be true. However, currently, this is human nature. We are all built to work this way, and had we been in their shoes, we would have done the same. It is involuntary and therefore should not be held against them.

If we want to change them, we have to change everyone; we have to change human nature, and we can do that by changing human society. Currently, we only want to change them and not ourselves, but we don’t see that the same ill-will that makes them exploit others causes us to resent them. Our envy of them testifies not to their corruptness, but mainly to ours. If we want to eradicate their corruptness, we must eradicate corruptness in all of society, including ourselves. If we agree to change ourselves, we will be able to change others, and then all of society will be harmonious and equal. There will be no exploitation not because of some regulatory measures, but because people will not enjoy exploiting; they will enjoy contributing and sharing.

Therefore, as always, the correction begins with us. We, too, must understand that we are living in an interdependent system, where if I hurt one person, animal, or object, I am really hurting myself. Just as our body is a system where no organ wants to harm another organ, so, too, people should behave with one another. But because we don’t want to connect, we cannot see how connected we are. As a result, we harm one another and thereby ourselves. This is all the learning we need in order to lift this world from the manic depression it is in, to calm, peace, and harmony. But the work begins with us.
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From Suffering To Happiness

510.01Comment: “Logic will get you from point A to point B. Imagination and hard work will take you everywhere else,” is quotation attributed to Einstein.

My Response: True.

Question: Today, logic has led us from point A to point B. And what do we see? How can you use your imagination to leap over this impasse?

Answer: If we come from one point to another with the help of logic, then we come to the same point, only we dig even bury ourselves in it even more with the help of our logic.

Question: And imagination? How do we jump out of this state?

Answer: Imagine the state opposite to the one we are in.

Comment: Now we are in some kind of confusion, in suffering.

My Response: Imagine a state of clarity and joy. And try to create it. Not based on your past state but just out of the blue.

Question: Just create happiness out of nowhere? Is it possible?

Answer: If it is not possible, then why do we exist? And if it is possible, then only in that way. You cannot create happiness out of misery. Out of misery, you only have to understand that you need to achieve happiness.

Question: So you are saying that only the effort to achieve happiness is required of us? We need to build this happy state and try to achieve it?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Utopians once aspired to this. What is the difference between what you propose and those utopians and The City of the Sun?

Answer: Utopians did not rely on the real nature we are in, on the egoism we exist in. They believed that they can just take it, pick it up, and simply want to do it.

Question: Just take and place a person in The City of the Sun?

Answer: And you must build this city of the Sun yourself! It does not grow out of our fantasies.

Question: When you say that you need to imagine happiness, what stages do you need to go through?

Answer: I mean that we must realize through standing on all the sufferings there are and relying on them, that we can do something opposite to them only if we change our relationship to each other. And so we need to start looking into our upbringing—personal, social, group, family—at all levels.

Question: And this is what you call building a happy society?

Answer: Of course. It depends only on the attitude of people toward each other. Nothing more.

Question: To sum it up: you say that if I am now suffering, in pain, at a dead end, then to get out of it I need to imagine, visualize…?

Answer: The opposite state. The reason for suffering is in my “I,” in the fact that we are opposite to each other, we hate, dislike, repel, and want to profit from each other. If we want happiness, we must free ourselves from self-interest and raise public interest instead.

I must wish happiness for everyone and then I will also exist in all this happiness.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/22/21

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We Only Need A Strong Desire

626Question: 150 to 200 years ago, the only way to seriously learn something was to do the same thing that your teacher or master does. Today, there are completely different forms of education. Hundreds of millions of people learn a variety of things in various ways.

How can we correctly find among this diversity of choices what to learn and from whom to learn? How can we not get confused?

Answer: In Kabbalah, there are very clear definitions of who a Kabbalistic teacher is, what a student should be, and what he wants to learn from a teacher.

However, this is not quite suitable for modern youth and for modern people. Anyone who wants, will come, ask, and find out. And the rest of them will still not be interested.

It is enough for a person to have a strong desire to find and this desire will lead him to the teacher. It will not allow him to be inactive, it will definitely push him to achieve the goal.

Question: How can I increase my desire?

Answer: With the help of a correct society. If a person finds such a society, then he has the opportunity to realize his desire.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 6/13/21

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Six Rules For Getting Out Of Neurosis

962.2Comment: The well-known psychologist Mikhail Labkovsky has drawn six rules relating to how to get out of neurosis, stop worrying, and live well. First: do only what you want to do. “Just listen to yourself, to your feelings, and do what you want,” he says. This is the first rule of a normal, healthy life.

My Response: Not bad. It is difficult to disagree with this. Any person agrees with this because he is an egoist, after all.

Question: What stands behind this rule: I do what I want? We did not live like that. I went to work because I had to.

Answer: It depends on what I want. If my desires are at odds with others, with those around me, then of course there will be a problem of what I will get in response to the fulfillment of my desires.

Comment: The second rule: do not do what you do not want to do. He continues: “Concessions and compromises are a direct way to a cardiologist or oncologist. So you should not do what you do not want to do. Ever!”

My Response: It is true that internal contradiction causes all kinds of diseases and problems. He is right. But what can be done? After all, we live in a world in which I am not a son of royalty who can do whatever I want. Incidentally, I suffered greatly from the fact that my parents allowed me too much. I think this is a wrong attitude.

Question: There is a problem here, not doing what you do not want to. Suppose I went to work that I did not want to go to, and we were forced to do what we did not really want to do since childhood. I didn’t really want to go to school either. Do you think there is a problem here?

Answer: According to the psychologist, yes.

Comment: The third rule is to immediately talk about what you do not like. That is, to say right away: “You cannot do this to me, it is unpleasant for me.” This is a healthy way to respond. And you only have to say it once. If you are not heard, step away from the relationship.

My Response: I understand that. If possible.

Question: You add this tag all the time?

Answer: Of course! It cannot be different. Of course, I would not go to work that is unpleasant to me, I would not communicate with people who are unpleasant to me at all, I would only do what is good and convenient for me. I would not say what I do not like and would say what I like. What would happen then?

Comment: Fourth: not to answer if you are not asked. Remarks such as “How tired I am! I am sick and tired of everything, I have no more strength,” are not questions. And you should not respond to them with “What happened to you? Why are you complaining? ”

So don’t answer when you are not asked.

My Response: This is good. It is real, and it is reasonable.

Comment: Fifth: to respond only to the question. “When you are asked a question and you answer only that question, then you are a confident person.”

My Response: This may be good. But then you will not have any topic for conversation, and people will think that you are just closed inside yourself, selfish, and that is it.

Comment: Furthermore: “When sorting out the relationship, talk only about yourself. This rule does not imply any conflict at all. You do not sort out the relationship with your partner, do not argue with him, and just talk about yourself, only about yourself.”

My Response: Okay, talk.

Comment: All of your answers just now testify to the fact that these rules are more suitable for a person who lives in an empty space.

My Response: Of course.

Question: That is, if you are surrounded by others, you by and large will not be able to really observe these rules?

Answer: No.

Comment: Another thing he claims is that only a stable, psychologically healthy, and egoistic person can observe these rules, and that is how one should live in our world.

My Response: I do not think this is possible.

Comment: You keep answering that the environment will not give you the chance to live according to these rules.

My Response: No. It will press, change, and reformat you. It is not correct when I say only what I want, when I need to, and what I need.

Question: Then give us your several rules or one rule of how to live a healthy life in the environment, in our world, so that you feel that you are living. What do you think?

Answer: We have no other choice but to raise our eyes above ourselves and think about what the surrounding world and nature requires of us, even regardless of us. What is it leading all of itself to, what does it desire?

The surrounding nature wants to be in absolute rest and uniform rectilinear motion, as we learned in school about the laws of physics. This means that there is a goal when all of nature will be harmoniously and mutually interconnected at all its levels and in all actions and when all of the reactions of nature will be absolutely, correctly associated with actions. In this state, the world will be in absolute harmony.

When we are in such a state, then what he writes about can be partially fulfilled. Because we are connected with each other internally already in advance, I do not need to talk or discuss anything with anyone. What I feel, those around me understand and feel too.

Question: That is, then there will be no violence?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So, you are saying, look at nature, cling to it, and live like this. In such a movement.

The main thing is: what should my behavior, that of a man, be?

Answer: That I annul myself, despite the fact that he says you should only listen to yourself and everything else. But in fact it will result in something else, as if in the opposite of itself, when I annul myself, when I add, combine, unite myself with others into one common whole and relate not to myself and not to others, but to this common whole, to our internal connection with each other, and all of nature is in this union.

Then a person enters an absolutely comfortable state. There is no need to ask anyone any questions, to receive any answers, no need to torment and strive; one just needs to maintain this inner absolute and complete balance. And then you will begin to feel perfection, eternity, mutual penetration, mutual understanding, attainment, and awareness of the creation in which you exist.

Question: Then what will the first rule “do only what you want” turn into, based on what you have said?

Answer: Your desires will not be different, just do what you need, what everyone around you wants.

Question: “Do not do what you do not want to do?”

Answer: You will correct your desires, intentions, aspirations, and goals in such a way that they will be so true that only their implementation will be correct and absolutely true.

Question: “Talk about what you do not like right away?”

Answer: You will feel all the slightest inconsistencies, mismatches with the general plan of nature, and you will immediately correct them.

Question: “Do not answer when you are not asked?”

Answer: You will feel those around you and very keenly understand whether there is an opportunity to complete them with something. But in principle, this work on completing others is the most important one.

Question: “Respond only to the question?”

Answer: Yes, you will feel the desires of others, and only they will determine your actions.

Question: “When sorting out the relationship, talk only about yourself?”

Answer: Yes, because everything depends only on you, and everything will be determined only by you, and you will feel that you, being in the center of the world, rule, determine, and most importantly, care about this world. And only this care for every created being is your life.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/19/21

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Enjoying Bestowal

608.02Question: In the beginning everything was clear to me, everything went smoothly, right on track. But then the Creator confused everything to such an extent that my decisions change every second, even with very important decisions in life. What is this and what is it for?

Answer: In principle, you can actually arrange everything like on shelves, and it is not very complicated. There are only two forces: the attribute of bestowal and the attribute of reception, and you are in between.

The Creator bestows upon you from top down by both the positive force and the negative force.

The negative force inherently exists in you. It is your ego—so close, so loved and familiar. It constantly pushes you to eat, sleep, drink, travel, etc. Specifically in the left line you understand the Creator, and in the right line, you don’t because the Creator has concealed this line from you. But the ego constantly hits you and there is nowhere you can escape to. You even come to listen to us.

Here you are told that there is another attribute, the attribute of bestowal, and that you can receive it from the Creator.

If you learn to enjoy bestowal instead of reception, you will have no problem at all. Just like a mother who wants to give her child everything, to constantly feed him, play with him, and take care of him. The child feels pleasure, and she doesn’t need anything else but to be able to take care of her child all the time.

So the only thing we have to do is to reach a state in which we will manage to give everything of ourselves and at the same time enjoy the giving, the bestowal. Then we will have no problems.

The wisdom of Kabbalah is called the concealed wisdom because we cannot understand it immediately. But it is possible. The moment you begin to bestow, you begin to feel not yourself within yourself but what is happening outside of you. And outside is the eternal, perfect upper world.

We do not feel it at all because we are in a shell, isolated from it. Our only problem is to acquire the attribute of bestowal. Then we will begin to feel not our “I” but the upper world.

We will gradually get used to this idea. All religions and all spiritual practices say that if spirituality exists, it exists outside of a person, outside of us, outside of my “I.” This is the state we must attain.

It is not complicated. We just need to perceive the method correctly, clearly grasp the method, click the right spot, and that’s it! We are very close to it.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 4/7/19

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 7/8/21

Preparation to the Lesson

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to The Book of Zohar, Item 20″

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Lesson on the Topic “Finding the Good in the Friend”

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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 2, ‘Histaklut Pnimit,’ Chapter 6, Item 65″

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Selected Highlights

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