Comment: They say that now people can develop a condition called skin hunger or touch starvation. Especially in these times many people suffer from this, even unconsciously.

According to experts, we feel touch starvation when there is an imbalance between the number of desired touches and the amount that we actually receive. This is very similar to the usual feeling of hunger. In this sense, even touching a dog, a cat, or another animal already satisfies the hunger.

Therefore, most of the animals in shelters have been adopted in America. Large numbers of people come to pick up abandoned cats and dogs. There is such a trend in the world today: I want to have something warm next to me, and I will give my warmth to it. What do you think about this trend?

My response: Of course, when I cannot touch a person in a human way, at least I want to touch an animal in an animalistic way.

Question: But this is good, right? At least you give warmth to someone.

Answer: I cannot imagine these external, tactile contacts that replace the internal inclination and contact of hearts. There is no substitute for that. If there is an internal contact, then distances do not interfere with it and the body does not matter at all here.

Let’s say you have a dog and you play with it. I have nothing against that, but this is not what we should really experience.

Question: Only people can connect their hearts?

Answer: Yes. And not physically, and not tactilely.

Question: How can we connect hearts?

Answer: In aspiration. When you feel that you are aspiring for others and get the same response from them. Then you feel that one heart and the second heart have really opened and a common space appears between them. In this common space you can already feel love, understanding, mutuality, and feeling.

Question: Does this also happen because of hunger?

Answer: Of course, certainly, everything happens because of hunger.

Question: What is this appetite that attracts one heart to the other?

Answer: Lack of vital forces, not animalistic, but spiritual ones. I can feel them only if I connect with another person in this way.

Question: That is, the person says: “I have no strength.” Despite the fact that he has food and money, he says that he does not have the strength to live. Does this mean that he is looking for another heart?

Answer: Yes! He unconsciously feels that he has no one to live for! Life is still built on the fact that you give birth, reproduce, educate, give, and feel the same from others. This mutual fulfillment of each other is life. It is impossible to give to someone without receiving.

Question: Are these times coming?

Answer: I hope so.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/20/21

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Comment: Igor writes to us: “I have discovered the ability to heal with my hands. At first, I healed my relatives as I continued my regular job. I am a master cabinet maker, I make fine furniture. Somehow it just so happened that people started coming to me and I began healing them. They suggest that I leave my job and earn money as a healer, but I am not sure about it. It doesn’t feel right to charge money for this kind of work. I want to ask you what I should do? Why did the Creator give me this ability? And can I make a living from it?”

My Response: I don’t know. I can’t advise you here. If you can help people, then this is a good thing. So by all means, try it and do it. And if you can also free up from your job and earn money by healing people, there is no prohibition against it. I don’t know.

Or you can keep it as a hobby. Although, the work of a wood carver is also a very interesting job.

Comment: It’s rare today. And it is clear that he loves this work. That’s why he is having these doubts.

My Response: This is a very special kind of work. Such people are worthy of envy. He creates with his hands, giving pleasure to himself and others.

Comment: And if he’s given the ability to heal, what is it given for? This, too, follows along the same lines?

My Response: But this already gets tricky. Now he can heal without any self-benefit, without taking any reward for it. Therefore, his healing is more effective. But when he starts charging money for it, this already poses a problem, what will he do? That is, will he be healing for the sake of money or in order to heal?

Once my teacher Rabash and I came to Haifa to see my friend, a good doctor, and he cured Rabash. And then I paid, although he was willing to do it without taking money. I was surprised. He named the exact amount, for example, 363 dollars, and began to write out a receipt.

I said: “Are you writing me a receipt?!” He replied: “If I don’t write out a receipt, I won’t be able to think right. I will have the wrong attitude and thoughts. I will be looking at things differently. I will think about crooked paths.”

And when Rabash heard this, he was so pleased! He said: “Wow, this is a real doctor, he does not allow himself to think crookedly.”

Comment: That is, crooked means thinking about money, and straight means thinking about a patient’s recovery.

My Response: Yes. I treated you, you have to pay. And the amount was, I remember, some very odd number. “I have to write out a receipt for you, and everything must be absolutely proper!”

If you go into healing with your special abilities, you should think about making sure these abilities do not disappear. And this can only happen if you have the right attitude to the world, to life, to what you do with people.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/1/21

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Question: In his book Give and Take, psychologist and professor Adam Grant divides people into three groups: takers, givers, and matchers. “Givers like to give more than they get, paying attention to what others need. Takers like to get more than they give, seeing the world as a competitive place and primarily looking out for themselves. And matchers balance and give on a quid pro quo basis, willing to exchange favors but careful about not being exploited.”

What do you think about these three groups?

Answer: Most of all I like the matchers because they lead to contact, to mutual, good, kind contact. This is the most important thing. It is not about the fact that you can give away as much as you want. It will not do anything. It is the same with receiving if someone gives something to you.

Exchanging, however, causes mutuality, and by this you can correct a person, you can change both yourself and the other, and create communication between you; this is the most important thing. The goal is to create communication.

A giver will not do anything. On the contrary, he can cause hatred if he gives all the time. It does not mean anything.

Comment: So you are a realist. You give me something, I give you something? Exchange pleasantries.

My Response: Yes, but by this we teach each other that he can do the same thing that I do; by giving to him, I open myself in order to receive something from him. And so on. The most important thing is mutual exchange.

Question: Isn’t our world today built on this, “You scratch my back and I will scratch yours”?

Answer: The world is built on mutual exchange.

Question: Does it mean that you are satisfied with what is happening in the world today?

Answer: No. This does not satisfy me because the current exchange that exists in the world is only to take and not to give.

Question: What is the next stage after matching?

Answer: This is written in Kabbalah: mine is mine, yours is mine, and then yours is yours, and mine is yours.

Question: That is, you come to an almost impossible state. To something that is impossible to imagine: mine is yours and yours is yours, right?

Answer: Yes. Such relationships are the most correct ones that are justified by the upper nature, which is opposite to our nature. This is what we must come to. Together with this, a completely different space is revealed to us, an eternal world.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/24/21

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Prophets, Joshua, 6:26-6:27: And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord, that rises up and builds this city, Jericho; with (the loss of) his first-born shall he lay its foundation, and with (the loss of) his youngest son shall he set up its gates.

So the Lord was with Joshua; and his fame was throughout the entire land.

To this day, the city of Jericho is located below Jerusalem, on the bank of the Jordan, but Jews do not live there.

After Jericho fell, the people followed the Creator in everything, and the Creator gave the city to the Israelites. But the laws were not fulfilled in full.

The people of Israel were told: take everything from the conquered city of Jericho, only do not take the forbidden. And yet some of them secretly took the forbidden. Therefore, when Joshua sent his men to capture the city of Ayya believing that it would be easy and fast since the Creator was with them, suddenly, an unexpected thing happened.

Prophets, Joshua, 7:5: And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty-six men; and they chased them from before the gate to Shebarim, and smote them in the descent; and the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.

The heart is a combination of properties of strength (Gevura, courage) and mercy (Bina). Therefore, the heart contracts and works like this: from one property to another. This is how we exist.

And the sons of Israel took properties that cannot be corrected, that are forbidden.

Question: And that is why they were punished?

Answer: Not that it is a punishment, but it is a natural consequence of the fact that they used properties that cannot be corrected.

Therefore it is written: “And the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.” This means that they still have the pure property of I, but without strength, without any force inside of it.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/27/19

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Everything Is Evaluated Not by Its Appearance at a Given Moment, but According to Its Measure of Development.

Everything in reality, good and bad, and even the most harmful in the world, has a right to exist and must not be destroyed and eradicated from the world. We must only mend and reform it…” (Baal HaSulam, The Writings of Baal HaSulam Volume One, “Peace in the World”).

We must treat everything that exists as something necessary for our lives. Nothing exists in vain, although sometimes it seems to us that nature is full of all kinds of pests in the sea, underground, everywhere and that it wouldn’t be harmful to get rid of them.

But with each passing day as we explore nature more and more, we begin to understand that everything that exists is created by necessity. And the wisdom of Kabbalah gives us an absolute understanding of this.

Every species of plant sprouts and every species of animal exists only due to necessity. The natural levels of the still, vegetative, animate, and human must live in mutual harmony and share in everything.

So there is nothing harmful on the face of the Earth. And if we see something harmful or bad in its relationship with us, then we need to us to understand that it exists so that through our correct attitude to nature we will bring ourselves to a state that makes it possible for us to see that everything that is found in this world is correct, true, and should exist.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 7/7/19

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Comment: A young girl writes: “I can draw well and play a musical instrument. I would really like to change the world, give it something. But what is the point if I study to be a musician or an artist if the world no longer needs it. Where can I put my skills, my desire to do something for others?”

My Response: First, there is a difference between a profession and a vocation. A profession is imposed on us by society based on what it needs. Therefore, if once artists, musicians, and poets were held in high esteem, today this is not the time. Maybe soon it will be like that again, but any period can drag on for two hundred years.

Question: So she needs to look for a calling?

Answer: Yes. If, for example, she draws, let her be a teacher of drawing. But the main thing is how she realizes herself internally in addition to earning. She also wants to make a hobby out of her profession. Not many people accomplish that. So maybe she needs to come to terms with it.

In addition, she is a woman, she will have a family and children. All this will overshadow her noble impulses a bit.

Comment: You have just touched on the matter of profession and vocation. Society pushes us to make a lot of money. Therefore, people with a vocation that does not bring large incomes have an inner break. A person does not know how to deal with the desire to make money, to become great, to change something on a global level.

My Response: First of all, making money is one thing. Changing something at the global level is different. Make it your profession? Make it your hobby? The person hasn’t decided yet. Therefore, it is difficult to give specific advice here.

I would advise him, first of all, to decide. He needs good, smart, grown-up people, maybe even a psychologist who would gradually explain to him what is best for him. Together they would “speak through” his inner world.
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From KabTV’s “Integral World” 7/13/18

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Annulment as a Preparation for Ibur (Impregnation)” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

Selected Highlights

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Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
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Comment: The Olympic Games motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger” was introduced in 1894.

Now the International Olympic Committee has added the following to this motto: “Faster, Higher, Stronger—Together!”

My Response: This is good. The recognition of evil is already beginning.

This suggests that, theoretically, a turn to “together” is coming. People are aware of what the most important thing in these games is and why we should have them as well as any other event of mankind.

We can compete and think how to beat the others but only so that friendship will win in the end.

I think that this manifests in people out of powerlessness and not out of their determination to get closer. Yet, it does appear.

Question: How would the Olympic Games look like if this together would be filtered through the heart?

Answer: No, this is impossible to imagine. You are suggesting that people would compete not to win but to defeat themselves!

Question: Are the Olympic Games and sports in general suitable for defeating oneself?

Answer: If the Olympic Games were based on the same principle as in ancient Greece—when wars stopped, when everything stopped—absolutely everything! Nothing happened! Only peaceful competitions and, in fact, it practically was not a competition. It was just a demonstration of capabilities of a person who overcomes nature, his internal physiological, physical nature, and at the same time also overcomes his egoistic nature, which is even more internal.

Question: Do you think this is what they had there, even just a little?

Answer: There were at least some rudiments of movement toward each other.

Comment: And now, on the background of wars, troubles, earthquakes, failure to help each other…

My Response: And now, it is because they are being pushed by all sorts of political, economic benefits, and so on.

Comment: That is, if it was aimed at winning over oneself…

My Response: So that all of us rise together. Can you imagine what heights these games would have? We are preparing to demonstrate to the entire world our human capabilities in order to rise above ourselves in spirit. Athletes would be great Kabbalists. I think they are taking some steps toward this. Otherwise, this would not exist.

Question: Are we for adding “together” to the motto of the Olympic Games?

Answer: Yes. We are always for together.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/22/21

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My new article on Linkedin “The Spiritual Reason that I Took the Third Shot”

A little while ago, I received an invitation from the Ministry of Health to go to a certain vaccination center in my country, Israel, to get my third shot. I stood in line for maybe half an hour before my turn came up, but once I was inside, the whole thing was over in less than a minute. I was told to wait for 10-20 minutes after the shot to make sure I had no side effects but admittedly, I didn’t have the patience. I felt just fine, just a little tired from standing outside for half an hour, so I went straight back to the office to get ready for the daily shows.

We can only blame ourselves for the fourth wave that’s raging now in Israel. Had we been more united, this wouldn’t have happened. From the spiritual perspective, the virus isn’t a medical problem, but a test to our union, and we are failing it. The rule in spirituality is that if we work together, we will be safe, since our unity makes us equal to the unified force that creates life. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is called “I dwell among my own people.”

RABASH, my teacher, had taught me by example and in words that we should obey what the doctors say. If there are disputes, he follows the government’s directive. This, to him, was the meaning of dwelling among his people. RABASH didn’t immerse himself in the intricacies of the medications he was given; he knew he had to follow the doctor’s orders because it was the right thing to do in the spiritual sense.

Like him, I don’t get into the question of whether the vaccine works or not, whether there are ulterior motives behind it or not, or into any other question. All I know is that the Israeli government has recommended that anyone over 60 be vaccinated, and it summoned me to go and do it on a certain day at a certain place. Therefore, I do it, to be among my people, the people of Israel.

To me, it is an expression of my desire to unite with my people. Had we all had the desire to unite, we wouldn’t have come to this; we would have eliminated the virus. It is a test that we are failing every single day. As long as we keep failing, the virus will keep spreading, and no vaccine, medication, or any other measure will help.

If we don’t learn to unite through the virus, another blow will come, more sinister and aggressive than Covid. If we don’t learn from the second blow, a third one will land on us, worse than the former two. When we learn that our only remedy is unity, to choose togetherness over everything and anything else, our troubles will stop.
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