My new article on Linkedin “Billboards in the UK – a Wake-Up Call to British Jews”

The billboards that recently appeared in the UK, emblazoned with the title “NORMAL PEOPLE BOYCOTT Israel,” are a reminder to UK Jews that hatred toward the world’s only Jewish state is alive and kicking in Britain. The slogan on the boards, which references Sally Rooney’s decision to deny Israeli publishers the rights to her latest book, obviously seeks to normalize boycotts of the Jewish state.

Such attacks as these in Britain are hardly new, and they are becoming ever more frequent. During the last Gaza conflict, UK Jews were not only subjected to anti-Israeli sentiments, but also to overt antisemitism, including threats of sexual violence and assault leveled against them.

This has led many UK Jews to realize that antisemitism in the UK has become “an ever-present entity within British life,” as a Jerusalem Post story recently put it. Therefore, instead of waiting for the next incident to occur, Britain’s Jews must act now, and there is much they can do.

UK Jews proved, in the face of the threat posed by Jeremy Corbyn, just how resilient they are when they stand united in the face of threats to them and to the state of Israel. This unity has always been the refuge of our people in the face of every menace. Today, as well, it should be our first port of call.

The lesson we must learn from our past and from our leaders throughout the ages is that we should not wait for suffering, threats, and boycotts to drive us toward unity. Rather, we should want to unite in a spirit of friendship and co-operation all the time and every single day.

The head of the Board of British Deputies, Marie Van Der Zyl, correctly recognized that the unity we showed in the face of Corbyn’s threat was something to be maintained. However, we should not only try to maintain that connection, but enhance it in both quality and quantity. If we Jews strengthen the ties between us, without denying the many differences between us, but by rising above them, we will truly become “a light unto nations.” Then, unity will remedy all of our problems.

As Rabbi Eliyahu Ki Tov quite clearly states in The Book of Consciousness, “We are commanded at each generation to strengthen the unity among us, so our enemies do not rule over us.” If we come together in the spirit of a family, where we are concerned with the well-being of each “family” member, we will very quickly witness positive changes. The ghoulish specter of antisemitism will finally be vanquished, and our unity will become an example for the rest of the people to follow.

We see that despite the billions of pounds spent on trying to deal with antisemitism, conferences on the subject, high profile supporters of Israel, government pledges, absolutely nothing is effective in dealing with the problem. On the contrary, despite the efforts, antisemitism and hatred for the Jewish state are on the rise worldwide.

The reason for this is that we are not tackling the problem at its root, which is the continual alienation and disunity among us. Only when we address this state and rectify it by building good relations among us will we be able to stop antisemitism dead in its tracks. Everything is in our hands. We have the power to change everything and the time to act towards it is now.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can you influence plant growth with your thoughts?“

We influence not only plants with our thoughts, but also animals and even stones. However, we cannot yet examine such phenomena.

There is absolute interconnection and interaction between all parts of creation. If we saw this network of forces, we would find that only we humans are a negative harmful element in this system of forces.

Neither inanimate, vegetative or animate forms of matter have freewill. They have no egoism, i.e. a desire to enjoy at the expense of the other. They exist according to the laws that nature has embedded into them. Humans, however, due to our freewill and our egoism, become the only harmful elements in nature.

Based on a talk, “Kab TV’s Close-Up Reference Point,” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Comment: Most people come to Kabbalah because of suffering. As we engage in Kabbalah and rise above our egoism, we begin to look at everything from a different angle.

It turns out that the suffering remains the same, we just look at it differently, but the problems do not disappear.

My Response: If you begin to consider the emerging problems not as suffering, but on the contrary, as a means of attracting you to the Creator, to the highest goal, then why treat them as suffering? These are then states that push you toward development.

But what else?! After all, you are sheer egoism. Well, how can you be nudged forward, if not by being pricked?

Comment: Although I perceive suffering differently, it still remains.

My Response: No, it doesn’t stay. You look at it differently, you have changed your point of view. Soon, instead of suffering, it will seem to you that this is not suffering but happiness. After all, it all depends on the purpose it comes for and what it ties you to.

Let’s say a person works hard and digs a deep hole, but if he earned a million dollars for this work, then this is no longer suffering. This is an opportunity to rise to the next level. But he continues, should he dig this hole? Yes, he should.

Are you looking at the condition or are you looking at the result? By studying Kabbalah, you become attached to the result and see what you are earning at the same time, what reward. You are included in the light, included in eternity, infinity, out of your narrow state. And then everything changes for you.

But is this world changing with you? Your view of it changes. You begin to understand the depth of its structure, why everything happens this way, and you justify what is happening. But the world itself does not change. And then it will change too.
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From KabTV’s “Videoconference”

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The wisdom of Kabbalah speaks of a system of interconnections between all parts of the universe. Today the world has exhausted its straightforward selfish development where we wanted to study and work in order to achieve wealth, power, and other material values.

Now all these systems are gradually being depleted. And it turns out that we need to look for what nature offers instead of them. We have always worked within the framework of our nature and cannot get away from it. Therefore, we need to understand what its form is now that is manifesting in the world.

Humanity is beginning to comprehend the integral closed whole form of the world. Today, not only Kabbalah, but all other sciences support this attitude toward the world. The only problem is human egoism, which does not agree with this, wants to crush everything under itself, and does not understand that the unfolding integral system is in contradiction with it. Now it must comply with this system according to the law of similarity of properties.

Humanity will be obliged to obey this law. Nature will bend us all, as they say, to oblige. But the whole point is, in what way? Either by realizing its integrity or by suffering.

We need to realize that nature is global and integral, and therefore cannot be broken. We will not break it anyway, but will only destroy the natural environment closest to us, and this will cause us irreparable damage, even harm.

We must recognize the power of nature over us, study it, and act in its likeness, as today, looking at it we invent various devices. Look at what robotics we are creating! Whatever we do, we learn from nature, rather than pushing our understanding of the world. We do not understand it; we ourselves are derivatives of this world.

Egoism is an inert disagreement with the perfection of nature, which is above us, and we ourselves do not understand what forces, connections, laws it controls us with.
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From KabTV’s “The Science o fManagement” 6/23/21

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When the single structure of the common soul split into male and female, the property that binds them, the property of the Creator, disappeared at the same time. Therefore if we want to unite both parts, we need to invoke a third force, the force of the Creator, to become the glue that connects us to each other.

In our time, families are actively breaking up so that we feel the need for their unification and realize that it is possible only by revealing the Creator. It turns out that all of today’s disintegration is needed in order to understand Him.

Therefore, by uniting and demanding to understand the Creator, we create the correct connection in the family and reveal the Creator between us. That is, the expansion of egoism, its growth, and the disintegration of the family occurs with the purpose of making us feel the need for the Creator who will make peace between us.

Question: But why with such cruel methods?

Answer: These methods are not cruel, but are exactly what happened at the very beginning of creation when the Creator disappeared and left us alone against each other.

And now that we have gone through this story, we see how ready we are to distance from each other: artificial insemination, women here, men there, unisex, you don’t know who and what. We are approaching a state where we will not need each other at all.

All this is necessary in order for us to emerge from the initial state to the realization that we need the Creator to unite us and to be drawn to one another for the sake of His revelation and not for each other’s sake.

The Creator is what glues us together, i.e., the power of love and bestowal is what we lack and what we can find among ourselves if we want.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Emancipation” 9/16/09

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Comment: Baal HaSulam says that all of humanity and all of nature that we are a part of is one mechanism in which every cogwheel impacts another. The goal of the wisdom of Kabbalah is to bring all the cogwheels to a certain balance so not to harm others but to bring them pleasure.

My Response: Imagine billions of cogwheels that do not turn separately but turn as one man in one direction or another at the same time. At the same time! By that a force that raises them is formed. They do not turn separately, but each one turns together with the others and by doing so they begin to feel the Creator who is external to them.

Question: The nations of the world reach a state of bestowing in order to receive, while the nation of Israel, which means people with the points in the heart, i.e., with the question about the meaning of life, work with an intention in addition to that.

Does this mean that by doing so they constantly change their intention and by that dictate the general direction to all the nations of the world? Is there some kind of click? If so, when does it happen? When does the nation of Israel begin to turn everyone in one direction?

Answer: This is not happening yet, but we hope that soon we will be able to do it. This means that all the people who aim at the Creator will attain a state in which they will begin to feel each other and search for the Creator by mutually cooperating between themselves. Then we will succeed in everything. The whole world will feel our mutual harmonious motion and will cling to us and thus turn.

What is more, humanity will begin to gradually exit the mechanical turning and reach the next level, the feeling of the force that is external to the cogwheels, i.e., the level of the Creator. This is called an ascent to the upper world. This is the reason that the key to this level is in keeping the rule of love thy friend as thyself.

This process begins with a personal, individual yearning for this state. If we begin to do it, we will soon reach mutual cooperation between us. We will feel the contact we are in, and how this cooperation raises us, how the Creator stands behind us, and how we already begin to enter His feeling.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 7/21/19

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Question: In Japan, the number of suicides has turned out to be greater than the victims of the coronavirus for the whole of 2020. The reason for this is clear: economic difficulties, layoffs from work. The Japanese are very responsible, they have a painful state of responsibility.

Please tell me, what is it? We always talk about the “crown,” [coronavirus] and here there are more suicides in a month than in the entire period of corona.

Answer: The fact is that this is the character of a people who must be tied to some common cultural, historical, national values, and cannot feel free.

There is no freedom for them. They live on a small island to this day. To this day they are cut off from the world at heart.

They can travel, take photos of everything everywhere. But they have not left the mental and psychological development of being isolated on their small islands, in the small archipelago of Japan, plus the defeat in the Second World War with the atomic bomb and so on.

That is, they have a very huge pressure. Working for them is like forgetting. In this they simply find themselves. And now, when no one needs this work, everyone is being fired there.

And they cannot live without it because it is like an umbilical cord to the mother; they are so attached to their work. After all, they have everything at work, and therefore for them if there is no work, then there is nothing to exist for.

Work. When you have to get up, you have to go to work, you come after it, and you have a drink, maybe some glass of your own sake and go to bed. In general, this is your life. There is still a family, but all this is still within the same framework.

I cannot imagine Japan existing in a different rhythm. I cannot imagine why the government doesn’t organize fake jobs for both men and women in order to organize them in this way. After all, a free Japanese is nonsense! That is impossible! You see how they walk, how they drive.

They can’t do it any other way! For them, all these clear lines of conduct are necessary.

Question: This is what we are talking about, the Japanese. But there are a million suicides every year in the world. People commit suicide. Do you think this phenomenon will continue to grow?

Answer: This exists even among animals. Therefore, I believe that when egoism loses the meaning of existence, at any level-animal or higher, it makes a calculation: Is it worth living or not?

Question: But in principle is this a loss of the meaning of life by and large? Is that the whole point?

Answer: Of course, life does not pay for itself.

Question: So in order for a person not to commit suicide, he must have such a meaning of life that is eternal?

Answer: No, not eternal. But at least the pleasure, the fulfillment, I get eventually exceeds the costs. That is, I am left with some kind of positive balance. Otherwise, what is the point of living? Just because I’m afraid of dying? So I’m not afraid.

Question: How do you feel about the fact that there is a suicide gene? They say that American scientists have found 22 suicide genes. If we remember Hemingway, then his father, sister, brother and granddaughter all committed suicide; there were five deaths for three generations.

Does this suicide gene exist?

Answer: Gene I do not know; I am not strong in this matter, but there is a predisposition to this, of course. And the Japanese have it, and there are such peoples, such tribes, such times, and so on.

Question: And how to get out, how to defeat, either this predisposition or the gene?

Answer: Meaning.

Question: Only the search for meaning?

Answer: Only. And how else? Because the meaning of life and its correct implementation are already leading you to a new life. You don’t have to die or imagine anything. You will now see your future world in this life. Please, everything is in front of you. It only depends on the correct implementation.

Question: What is the meaning of life?

Answer: The meaning of life is to change your nature from receiving to giving, from hatred to love, from rejection to drawing closer to others.

And then you will feel a completely different existence in these properties. And it will be the reverse world. You will find fulfillment in filling others. And there will be no disappointment in this. We will come to this.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/7/20

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #4 “What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels When Annulling Before the Creator in the Work?”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 75

Selected Highlights

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