Question: The 9^th of Av is considered a national day of mourning for the Jewish people. On the 9^th of Av, the First and Second Temples were destroyed, the Inquisition began, and they were expelled from Spain, which the Jews considered their home. On the 9^th of Av, the slaughter of Jews by Bohdan Khmelnytsky began. On this day in 1914, the First World War began, and with this it touched the whole world.

Today how relevant is this date the 9^th of Av?

Answer: This date is like a root. The spiritual root of the manifestation of evil in the world, but primarily in relation to the Jewish people.

Question: So it should be standing in front of us, looming?

Answer: This will protect us from stupidity.

Question: The future generations will go through the 9th of Av as well?

Answer: Until the world is completely corrected, this is the source of evil.

Question: Should we be afraid of this day?

Answer: It is good when it passes calmly. I’m being completely serious.

Comment: They say that one should not be signing contracts on this day.

My Response: In general, it is better not to do anything on this day.

Question: Do you mean that this is for all the people of the world or is it still for Jews?

Answer: First of all, for the Jews, because it depends on them how this 9th of Av will pass through them and around the world. So, if it passes calmly, you can continue to move further toward correction, hoping that it will be done in such calm steps.

Question: Can this blackest day turn into the brightest?

Answer: Naturally! Of course! But when it will be depends on us. When our nation will understand what they have to do, agree with it, and turn the day of hatred into a day of love. That’s all.

Question: I see that when the 9th of Av comes, it is only a day of mourning. No one thinks that this day should be turned into a bright day. People don’t think that. Should there be a thought like this?

Answer: Of course, there should be! Yes, indeed! After all, our problem is that we generally deny any obligation on the Jews in this world. This is a problem! This problem has been going on since the exodus from Egypt and receiving the Torah.

It is necessary to fulfill it! To fulfill it so that the rest of the nations of the world will come to its fulfillment too.

And the fulfillment does not consist in performing some mechanical movements, but in loving your neighbor as yourself. That’s what’s missing.

Everyone once heard that “love your neighbor as yourself” is the main testament of the Torah, but no one thinks that it is mandatory for everyone in the whole world to fulfill it. For whom is it an obligation?

For the whole world, this is a kind of voluntary, non-coercive offer. And for the Jewish people, this is compulsory. We have pledged ourselves, we received a property, a connection with the upper force that will correct us for this in accordance with our wishes, our requests. And we don’t demand it. That’s it; it all went astray from there.

Question: Please tell me. After the First and Second Temples were built we were moving toward love for our neighbor. Why was it necessary for the 9th of Av to appear and for these Temples to be destroyed?

Answer: In order for us to start correcting them. Because the construction was going on from above. We were given a power that somehow united us.

Question: So two Temples were built from above?

Answer: Of course. The force comes from above, not from us, from ourselves.

And the Third Temple, we must still realize how necessary it is and demand it ourselves from below.

Question: Will the Third Temple be built by the whole world?

Answer: It will be built in the hearts of those who strive for the Creator. They are called the people of Israel. And then it will be taken up by the whole world.

Comment: You mean, Israel is not today’s Jews, Israelis who live in Israel, Jews with a mom and a dad according to the passport, but those who strive for the Creator.

My Response: Yes. In principle, those who aspire to the Creator are called “Israel,” and they are obliged to fulfill the connection and spread it throughout the world.

Let’s hope that this is the last time we celebrate, if we can say “celebrate,” this gloomy date, and from this time onward, it will be the opposite date of unity and connection, turning into love.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/15/21

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My new article on Linkedin “England’s Freedom Day Reflects the Sorry State of the World”

Despite nearly 50,000 new confirmed cases daily and a rising pace of infection, despite 1,200 physicians backing a letter to The Lancet medical journal warning that “this decision is dangerous and premature,” and “provides fertile ground for the emergence of vaccine-resistant variants,” and a call “to pause plans to abandon mitigations on July 19, 2021,” the UK government went ahead with what was dubbed the “Freedom Day,” where nearly all Covid restrictions have been lifted. People in the UK are now permitted to cram bars, restaurants, entertainment halls, sports events, and gather however and wherever they want without any limits. Even masks are no longer mandatory in Covid-ridden England (albeit with few severe cases).

I have been to bars on the British Isles; I know what it’s like there. These places are jam-packed, and people literally stand shoulder to shoulder because there is no room. Without masks, these places will undoubtedly become Covid hotbeds.

I understand that it is tough to avoid things you like for so long, and people need to unwind. But what if Covid does not go away? What if, as the physicians’ letter warns, a vaccine-resistant variant appears, with a high mortality rate, and there is no vaccine to protect from it? What would the government do? Would it not impose restrictions, and probably far worse than Britons had to bear until a few days ago? The government would have no choice but to cut out people’s joys and freedoms slice after slice, until none of it is left. Eventually, it would have to give money to people just so they can get the bare minimum to sustain themselves. Bar and restaurant owners will end up with nothing, and they will also have no future since there will be no vaccine to give them hope that at some point, they will be able to reopen their businesses. For this reason, I see no benefit in this decision.

But there is another, more important issue here: Such a move reflects the poor state of solidarity in the world. The virus may have started in China, but since then, it has mutated several times and now we’re being infected with a strain that first appeared in India. Covid knows no borders; once it appears, it is omnipresent. We may not like it, but we are responsible for one another. Currently, we think of other countries only in terms of how we can exploit them, harm them, and govern them. This has to change because if it doesn’t, that ill-will that’s emerging from within us will put us all to death.

Covid-19 is a sign that we must begin to make decisions with other people’s benefit in mind, and not just the benefit of some people, but of all the people, since, as we already know, an infection anywhere is an infection everywhere. There needs to be a governing body of world experts that will keep in mind the benefit of the entire world, and this body will decide what is right for the planet, and what is not.

The current time is special; we need to work with it correctly. We need to seize the moment and begin to be more considerate, to decide together what to do against our common foe. And once we decide, we must act on it together.

We can wait; we can be doubtful, but the result will be our own demise, if not in this wave, then in the next. Nature is leaving us no options but to band together and fight for our lives. We can achieve this, but only if we give this government of experts the required authority to do what it takes to save humanity from Covid, and basically from our own ill-will toward each other.

In the current situation, we are worse than any animal. When there is a forest fire, animals stop hunting one another and everyone focuses on escaping. You might even see natural enemies running side by side away from the flames. Not so are people: We try to demolish other people and nations even while we’re running from a common threat, such as a virus, and even when doing so may put us in danger, such as the case with the “Freedom Day.” We are devoid of the instinct that keeps animals alive, so unless we develop it ourselves, we will not survive. It’s as simple as that, and the sooner we understand it, the fewer unneeded casualties we will have to mourn.

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Baal HaSulam, “From My Flesh I Shall See God”: Likewise, concerning the soul, a person reincarnates until one acquires the wisdom of truth in full. Without them, the soul cannot reach its full level.

A person reincarnates in our world and his spiritual gene is clothed in different bodies time after time. A person who lives this life but whose body dies before he fulfills his spiritual gene will return to a new corporeal body in which he will go through tens of years that were predetermined for him and then die again.

This will continue until he attains the development of the soul in one of his reincarnations.

But it is not that the knowledge one has acquired raises the level of the soul. Rather, it is the soul’s inherent nature that it will not grow by its own effort before it has acquired the knowledge of the spiritual nature. Its growth depends on the measure of its knowledge.

Generally speaking, knowledge doesn’t enable the soul to do anything. It enables a person to cooperate with the soul correctly in order to help it develop by the right actions.

The soul develops by the good and right actions to such a state that he will no longer have to return to a corporeal body in our world.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 6/16/19

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Question: In the first chapters of the book “The Prophets” (Joshua), it states which laws should be followed. It is necessary not to deviate from the instructions of the Torah and not use your own mind, but the mind of the upper. Then everything will be fine. What does it mean to use the instructions that the Creator gave to Moses, to the people?

Answer: Leaving Egypt is a way out from under the power of egoism. The crossing of the Red Sea symbolizes separating from egoistic thoughts, desires, and motives.

Entering the desert is an intermediate state between the power of the Pharaoh and the power of the Creator. Therefore, the desert has its own laws that must be observed in order to pass this state.

And it is such that you cannot use your desires because they are selfish and have not yet been corrected. But you can be in a state of elevation above them and not apply them.

By fulfilling this condition, the people gradually approach the border of the land of Israel. Their movement continues for 40 degrees, from Malchut to Bina.

This means that egoism is constantly increasing , but in stages. And we must rise above it. The more egoism, the more a person rises above it, does not use it, and tries to bring all his thoughts and feelings closer to the property of bestowal, Bina.

When he passes through these states and breaks away from Malchut (egoistic desire), it is called that he crosses the desert and reaches the border of the entrance to the land of Israel.

Land, Eretz, is from the word “Ratzon” (desire). Yisrael (Yashar Kel) means “straight to the Creator.”

The crossing of the River Jordan means that the people completely break away from their egoistic past and enter a desire that is directed only toward the Creator. The transition is very symbolic.

When the people of Israel enter the land of Jordan, Moses (the property that guided them) breaks away from them, ascends Mount Nebo, and, looking from afar to the land of Israel, dies. Although it is written in the Torah that this place is unknown to this day, according to legend we know approximately where this happened.

And then all the nations that make up Israel, the so-called 12 tribes, that is, all the desires, cross the Jordan led by Joshua Ben Nun.

But they cannot just enter the land of Israel because this is a way out of an egoistic state into an altruistic one, and they still have some egoism left in them. In order to completely break away from the previous state, a person must finally cut off the last egoistic desires, the so-called foreskin, from himself. And the people perform this action.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/5/21

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Zohar for All, Ki Tisa, Item 54: The friends should be like them and not blemish them, for if love is lacking in them they will blemish their value above, that is, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which are HGT.

Hesed, Gevurah, and Tifferet are three fundamental upper forces that exist in the soul. We have no control over them. We can only use them for ourselves with more or less benefit.

If you correctly apply these forces called the patriarchs, the right, left, and middle lines, then you realize them in your part: Netzach, Hod, and Yesod.

By correctly realizing them, you get a clear construction of the soul in which you reveal the upper light, the upper governance, your upper life, the upper purpose.

In fact, you associate yourself with a completely different level of the universe, not with our corporeal one where you perceive everything through your physical, animal body, but through your soul. Then you remain in this soul.

You live in your body as long as it exists, but by discovering the next degree for yourself, you as if exist in two channels simultaneously: in the corporeal and in the spiritual.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #21

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Question: The predetermined states that I must go through—isn’t this fate, an ominous fate, because I feel them as bad and painful?

Answer: No. You are capable of not feeling pain and evil. But you must be in the next state. That is, you must rise from state “X” to state “Y.” Your future state has already been predetermined and you must be in it.

The question is how you reach it. If you refuse to reach it voluntarily, you will be “beaten by sticks.” And if you agree, you will be led to the desired state. Everything depends on your attitude to your development.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 4/28/19

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Growing Further in Order to Grow Closer”

Lesson on the Topic “Introduction to The Book of Zohar, Item 51″

Selected Highlights

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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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My new article on Linkedin “Israel Won’t Buy Ben & Jerry’s New Flavor: Bitter Taste”

What is the connection between ice cream and politics? None. Except Ben & Jerry’s, the Vermont based international ice cream producer, has entered the fray. In a new lick of hatred towards Israel, the company announced that it would no longer sell ice cream in Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem, places they call “Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

We do not need Ben and Jerry’s products, but we Jews do need each other to create a united front to stand strong and stop our enemies. That will be the only way to avoid being erased from the map, which is the ultimate goal of those who want to boycott us.

The company’s decision to ban the sales is not surprising though. Ben & Jerry’s, whose Jewish founders are not shy to show sympathy with progressives’ causes linked to the BDS (boycott, divest, sanction), easily surrendered to the pressure of Israeli foes. Can we consider Jewish self-haters as part of our people, the people of Israel? Why should we? They would be the first to march against Israel across America.

However, it shows exactly our main problem as a Jewish nation: the separation between us; it weakens our foundation and has gloomy ramifications for our future. It is our internal division that gnaws at us and invites attacks and boycotts against us. We must unite and oppose those who seek to harm parts or the entire Land of Israel. We need to respond, to put an end to their actions before they end us.

Israel is one body and any injury to one of its organs requires the mobilization of the entire body.

It is good that the Israeli franchisee of Ben & Jerry’s opposed the decision of the global company, but his success will only materialise if he takes advantage of the momentum and establishes his own Israeli made fine ice cream, and not ask the public to continue buying the same brand. Similarly, American chains have decided to stop selling Ben and Jerry’s products.

It is possible that we will be also singled out by other companies in the world, but we will stand on our own, and more importantly, we will feel the need to connect and become one. We cannot allow an ice cream manufacturer to dictate our policies or decide about our sovereignty. This should be a political decision at the highest level in government rather than a business ruling.

Today the aggression against us is over dessert, tomorrow other foods, clothes, wine, and the arts may become weaponized. Our enemies find any excuse to spread antisemitic hatred under the false umbrella of justice.

The positive side of these actions is that they pressure and push us to unite and defend ourselves, which is exactly what we are intended to do, since the method of unity was handed down to us since ancient Babylon. In the first stage we will unite against those who rise up against us, and in the next stage, we will connect for the sake of others, to fulfill our role as Jewish people, to be a light unto the nations. The cherry on top will be to spread harmony to the entire world and by so doing, we will set an example which the whole world can follow.
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My new article on Linkedin “Is This Awful Summer the Best Summer of the Rest of Our Lives?”

I am not afraid of the pandemic; I am afraid that nature has started to relate to us the way we relate to it. It seems as though chaos has taken over the world. Natural disasters of unprecedented magnitude are occurring in multiple places simultaneously: unheard-of floods in some places, unparalleled fires in other places, sometimes a few hundred miles apart, and scorching heat in still other places. At the same time, the coronavirus is spreading once again with the Delta variant, and threatens to hamper humanity’s efforts to recover from the pestilence, while international relations are growing increasingly tense and volatile. But worst of all is the trend: it’s negative. Things are not only bad, but quickly worsening. If this trend continues, this awful summer will be the best summer of the rest of our lives.

We need to think things over. It makes no sense that so many crises are happening all over the world at the same time, that a virus is spreading around the world and disrupts the lives of every person in humanity, and all of these are unrelated incidents.

Perhaps you can blame climate change for natural disasters, but you cannot blame it for countries threatening to destroy one another. There is a deeper cause to our woes, and we can find it only in ourselves. When we analyze all the crises, we find that the one common element in all of them is man. If we are the common element, then the reason for the crises is within us.

More precisely, the reason for the crises is how we relate to nature and to one another. Nature is a perfect system. It maintains a dynamic balance we call homeostasis. Contrary to nature’s balance, we seek only to take and overtake. We have forced our winner-take-all attitude on a system that operates in a manner that guarantees everyone’s sustenance and well-being. We injected hatred, violence, and meanness into a system that contained none of it before. Now it seems as though that system is paying us back in our own coin: the currency of hatred.

If we wish to avoid unimaginable catastrophes, we must abandon the currency we’ve used so far and adopt nature’s currency of mutual responsibility and consideration. We have to start respecting each other’s right to lead healthy and safe lives, without trying to subjugate them, but for this, we must feel that we are all parts of one, global system.

Our sages knew all this thousands of years ago, and talked about this with anyone who wished to listen. The Jerusalem Talmud, for example, offers a beautiful allegory about our connectedness: “If the writing warns about habitual mistreatment, vengeance and bearing a grudge should be forbidden also toward those who are not from among your nation. Also, how is it possible for one to forgive an affront? [Suppose] one is cutting meat, and the knife descends into his hand; would he consider avenging his hand and cutting his other hand for cutting the first? So is this matter … the rule is that one does not take revenge against one’s neighbor, for it is as though he is taking revenge against his own body” (Nedarim 9:4).

We really haven’t any time to waste. Nature is clearly signaling that it is losing patience. If it erupts in all its wrath, Covid will be the least of our worries. Therefore, to save ourselves, we must start treating each other, and all of nature, as we would like others to treat us.
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