Audio Version Of The Blog – 10/27/21
Posted on October 27th, 2021
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Comment: The goal of psychology is to improve the quality of material life. And the purpose of Kabbalah, as Baal HaSulam writes, is to reveal the Creator to the creatures in our world.
My Response: In principle, we are placed in a very interesting amount of impact on us by just one single force, the upper force of nature. You can call it the Creator or just nature in general.
If we do not improve ourselves in the quality of bestowal and love for the world around us, do not suppress our egoistic quality and do not develop the quality of altruism in ourselves, then we are within the framework of psychology.
This can be said both with respect to man and, to some extent, with respect to the animal, vegetative and even still levels of nature, which are below the level of “man.” By studying them, we practically study the psychology of our world, the reactions of interaction between all organisms and the governing force of nature.
But if we want to change ourselves in accordance with the upper force of nature, then we are already entering the realm of Kabbalah.
Psychology is designed to make people feel better and more confident in our world and only within the limited frame originally given to us by nature.
The alternative to it is that a person can develop himself above these limits, rise above his egoism, begin to explore the world in the quality of bestowal directed at others and not at himself, and then he will begin to study the second side of his essence, which is called “soul.”
The science of Kabbalah deals with this so that a person can go beyond our world, find out what really exists outside of it. After all, within the limits of our world, he only feels himself and what he captures inside himself.
But since our perception device is very limited, then, by developing ourselves to the quality of interconnectedness, love, bestowal, filling the world of others, we begin to feel reality in a different way. We feel a force that exists outside of us and affects us from the outside.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/15/21
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My new article on Linkedin “Shipping Crisis Calls for Wising Up on Shopping”
Informally, Halloween, which is a few days away, begins a shopping season that stretches through the beginning of the following year. But this year, ships are stuck at sea, ports are jam-packed, and merchandise is not reaching the stores or the customers who ordered online. It appears as though many children and lovebirds will be disappointed this holiday season. From computer chips to cars, the world seems to be downsizing volumes, and I think it is a great thing for all of us.
Because we are unwilling to feel connected, nature forces us to realize it. We have been interdependent and interconnected for decades, if not more, but our attitude toward each other has been to exploit and harm one another wherever and whenever possible. We derive pleasure from others’ pain, oblivious to the fact that their suffering will eventually hurt us, too.
Now, using precise blows to our emotional soft spots, nature is making us see what we refuse to see: We are all connected. The shipping crisis will be a blessing for all of us if we wise up and understand what it is telling us about shopping, and about our attitude to one another as a whole.
When you create ties on the basis of trying to pull your way as hard as possible, at some point the ties will snap. This is what is happening today. All the systems of connection we have built are breaking, which affects every aspect of our lives—from food prices to gadgets to transportation, and to every realm of human engagement. We have built our entire system on egoism; can we expect it not to collapse?
Now we have no choice but to start thinking more in terms of “we” and less in terms of “me.” When it is clear that disruptions anywhere lead to disruptions everywhere, we cannot maintain abusive and exploitative attitudes toward other places or other people. We have to shift from thinking nationally to thinking globally, from an exclusive thinking to an inclusive one.
Eventually, we will need mechanisms to coordinate global activities, functioning mechanisms, not like the UN or its affiliates. But this will come later, after we change our thinking and build what needs to be built without trying to use it for power or exploitation.
In a world where plagues spread like the wind, production stops the world over, and food and gas prices spike everywhere, collaborative thinking is not optional; it is imperative. Cooperation is the only reasonable attitude, the only one that will change things for the better. If we keep pulling our own separate ways, the strings that tie us all together will snap and we will all fall painfully hard.
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My new article on Linkedin “76 Years After Its Founding, the UN Has Yet to Achieve Anything”
“United Nations Day, on 24 October, marks the anniversary of the day in 1945 when the UN Charter entered into force,” writes the UN page dedicated to this date. The title of the page reads “Building Back Together for Peace and Prosperity,” and states that the anniversary “offers the opportunity to amplify our common agenda and reaffirm the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.” For 76 years, the UN has been trying to bring peace to the world. In 76 years, we have not moved one inch closer to it. If I had to summarize the operations of the UN during the entirety of its time, I would capture it in four short words: a waste of time.
I cannot say it hasn’t tried. During the earlier years of the previous decade, I myself had dealt with the UN extensively. I met several times with then director general of UNESCO, Irina Bokova and we sought ways to mitigate some of the world’s most pressing issues. I had a wonderful meeting with the former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro, after which an organization that I am heading, ARI Institute, collaborated with the UN, which declared that the topic for 2012 would be “education.” Together, we designed an international educational program for establishing unity and camaraderie in society and in schools.
If the UN is to be an effective institution, it must be above any particular interest of any single country. Its sole interest must be for all of humanity to unite, and it must be given the power and authority to carry out its task.
Sadly, the meetings and efforts did not result in changes on the ground. They failed not for lack of competence or good will, but because the UN is not intended to succeed. It is not intended to make the world a better place, but to serve as an arena for international political manipulations and power struggles under the guise of concern for human rights, food and water problems, and climate change.
Its intentions may have been good when it was first established, but once politicians took over and pushed their own agenda, they warped and distorted everything. By doing so, they had turned an institution that could have been very meaningful and positive in humanity into a stage for making empty speeches and sanctimonious declarations. This is why I said that its activity has been a waste of time.
If the UN is to be an effective institution, it must be above any particular interest of any single country. Its sole interest must be for all of humanity to unite, and it must be given the power and authority to carry out its task.
Currently, no one in the UN is accountable. If the intended agenda does not happen, no one pays for it; no one is held responsible. This is why no one takes it seriously.
For this reason, I think that the UN, as such, should be dismantled completely. Instead of it, there must be an international educational institute dealing with installing the realization that we are all dependent on each other. Before we realize that when we pollute one part of the world, we are polluting our own backyard, nothing good will happen.
Countries must learn that they have to support one another despite their mutual enmity. Unless we rise above vindictiveness and begin to build a common, global entity called “humanity,” humankind will suffer the consequences of its disunion.
We can learn that we are connected in one of two ways: a good way or a bad way. The bad way is the one we’re on today, and we can see where it is leading. The good way is our only option since this is the only way where we come out alive on the other end of it.
In conclusion, I hope that this birthday was one of reckoning for the UN, that heads of states are beginning to realize that if we want to celebrate more birthdays, and we want our children to celebrate them, we need to change course. Once we learn how to feel close to one another, it will be possible to build a United Nations that will warrant its name.
Happy Birthday!
My new article on Linkedin “We’d Shoot Anything for Social Media Attention”
“For more than 40 minutes, a woman was harassed by a stranger on a public transit train in Philadelphia and then raped while bystanders held up their cellphones, seemingly to record the assault,” NBC News reported last week. “The assault was observed by a SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) employee, who called 911, enabling SEPTA officers to respond immediately and apprehend the suspect in the act.” A few days later, another video surfaced, depicting a crocodile pouncing on a fourteen-year-old boy, whose remains were found several hours later.
While some readers’ comments expressed shock at the bystanders’ unwillingness to intervene, I think it is their natural instinct to preserve themselves that prevented them from doing so. What is anything but natural, however, is the fact that they documented the events on their phones and posted them on social media. This is a testimony that we are not only worse than any animal, we rejoice in, and exploit the suffering of others, even when that other is a woman or a child.
On the face of it, the bystanders committed no crime, yet we are appalled by them even more than we are appalled by the sex-offender or the death of the child. There is a good reason for it: The bystanders could have been each one of us. They were not sick people; they were regular folks commuting to or from work, or perhaps traveling to visit a friend or a family member. They represent the true face of society, of which we, too, are parts.
Our sages defined indifference as “Sodomite Rule,” the principle for which the Biblical city of Sodom was destroyed. They called that principle, “Let mine be mine and let yours be yours” (Mishnah, Avot, 5:13), meaning that no one interferes with another person’s life; each one keeps to him or herself. For this carelessness, Sodom was destroyed. How far are we from that trait? Judging by the filming bystanders, we have gone beyond it.
This is why our society is disintegrating. We can already see that we have no feeling for others, other than the desire to exploit their misfortunes or use them for some selfish pleasure. Is it not time we did something about who we are instead of waiting for a Sodom-type fate?
Enjoying people’s suffering is nothing new to humankind. In ancient Rome, for example, a common punishment to the worst of criminals, runaway slaves, and Christians, was damnatio ad bestias (condemnation to beasts), in which condemned people were killed by wild animals, such as leopards or lions, before a cheering crowd at the Colosseum. These days, the Colosseums are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks. The arenas might be different, but the joy of the spectators indicates we have not changed.
I think we must begin to seriously contemplate correction of our core nature. We are on the brink of destruction. A race whose nature is so corrupt, a race that has taken over the planet and imposes its wickedness on all beings, will not be allowed to live for long. I think we must reroute not just our behavior, but the cause of our behavior, its engine, namely our own nature.
I have no doubt that in the end, we will come to the resolution that we must do this, but I am afraid of the price we will have to pay until we get there. If we make a conscious choice to change now, before nature forces us to do so, we will avert the cataclysms that clearly await us. If we choose inaction, nothing will stop them from coming.
The relics of humanity will still have to make the necessary changes and reform human nature, but there is no reason whatsoever that there will be such disasters. Earth is rich enough to provide for everyone abundantly, but it depends on whether we change ourselves for the better or maintain our diabolical nature.
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My new article on Linkedin “Hollywood’s Untold Jewish Story”
After a decade of delays and a cost of nearly $500 million, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles has finally opened to the general public; here classic films will be screened and screenplays and pictures from the dawn of cinema will be shown.
But the surprise that many have today is that there is no mention in the museum of the pioneers who built the Hollywood industry: the Jews. An article titled “Jews built Hollywood. So why is their history erased from the Academy’s new museum?”, published in The Forward, brought this subject to people’s attention. The author quotes Doris Berger, the museum’s senior curator, explaining the reason to omit the bold Jewish contribution to Hollywood, “We want to attract many different audiences. We want people to see themselves in our programs and exhibitions featuring highly known objects and films as well as lesser-known filmmakers. We aim to create dialogue.”
Jews of Eastern Europe who immigrated to America were the first to build Hollywood. Until the end of the 19th century, even the beginning of the 20th century, Jews were excluded from various professions, educational institutions and social circles. As those who had nothing on the one hand had an opportunity opened up for them on the other, the Jews took with both hands and gratitude the uncultivated ground of cinema.
The place was vacant, it was very easy to enter, work and succeed, and they were drawn there as to any place without disturbances and restrictions. Thus, with the help of the developed business sense, the Jews made the film industry a comfortable cushion of prosperity.
It is likely that behind the modern pluralistic philosophy of the museum’s Jewish curator lies a simple need to obscure these facts, to lower Jews’ prominence and remain under the radar. The truth is that this is not a great loss because the people of Israel, blessed with their skills, are not meant to entertain the world and provide it with an hour and a half of escape from reality.
The role of the Jewish people is to harness a sharp thought and wise heart to spread a fulfilling explanation of the nature of the world to human society providing the tools and knowledge to connect to each other in this difficult life. This is the doctrine of the nation, these are the aspects rooted in our people that we are commanded to realize and instill in everyone. In other words, until we, the people of Israel, present the method of fixing the world, it is worthwhile for us not to be vociferous.
Even so, Jews in the United States cannot afford to show the current state of affairs and brag about their contribution. Jew-hatred is on the rise in America and there is no need to add trivial prominence. We need to be pioneers in presenting the story of humanity: where we are today and where we can head to if we work for change.
Drama and comedy, laughter and crying, are tools that touch the heart directly, so through them one can describe with sensitivity and wisdom the immense difficulty we are in today. With their help it is possible to illustrate on the one hand all the natural disasters that afflict us, all the cruel battles and struggles that erupt between us and on the other hand to draw in clear lines our abilities to overcome forces and create a better world.
The Jewish people are able to be pioneers in creating a new script, a new plot to reverse the current negative society’s trend by redirecting the ties between us, from receiving to giving, from hatred to love.
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My new article on Linkedin “What If We Could Be Young Again?”
David Sinclair, a professor of genetics and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School, claims to have found a way to make people young again. He calls it “epigenetic reprogramming of aged tissues,” and according to him, we can gain back lost years. Assuming this is true, and assuming we could buy a pill or some other form of medication that could do that to our tissues, I would not want it. I would not take it even if it were free. I think it is not a gift, but a curse on humanity. What matters is not how many years we live, but how we live our years.
If I were asked if I wanted more power than nature has given me, it would be only more power to change my selfish nature, my egoism. What would it give me to live in order to acquire more wealth, or power, or social status? But correcting the ego, growing closer to the nature of loving others, and connecting people to the nature of creation—the integrated network of benevolence that supports us—this is a goal worth living for.
Only when we connect to the interconnected network of reality, life becomes worth living. In such a state, we emerge from the illusion that we exist only for ourselves and begin to feel the whole of existence. Just as a cell exists individually but lives for the sake of the organism of which it is a part, when we live not for our own sake, but for the sake of all of humanity, and all of reality, we are endowed with the life of all of reality.
In such a state, we need no reprogramming of any tissues. We reach far beyond the tissue level and connect our consciousness with everything around us. This is what I call life!
If we are confined to our tissues; if we venerate them, then we exist as long as our tissues exist. But if we focus on helping all of humanity find the vitality that is found in connection, we are beyond life and death. In such a state, there are only love, care, and compassion in our reality.
For centuries, kabbalists could not reveal this truth to humankind since people would not understand them. But now that people are beginning to listen, it is possible to share this secret with all of humanity: Happiness is found not in the self, but in good connection with others.
To conclude this post, I would like to quote the words of my teacher’s father, the great kabbalist Baal HaSulam: “I am glad that I have been born in such a generation when it is permitted to disclose the wisdom of truth.”
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the root cause of antisemitism and collective hatred towards the Jewish people and their faith?“
According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the Jewish people bear the method of humanity’s correction, and negative phenomena in the world surface more and more due to the Jewish people’s failure to implement this method.
In other words, according to Kabbalah, Jews are responsible for the world’s correction. By failing to accept such a responsibility, and instead seeking to find success in this world, hatred against the Jews subconsciously dwells in non-Jews.
Antisemitism will continue until the Jewish people correct their connections up to a point where they unite “as one man with one heart,” and by spreading the method of such correction, they will realize their destiny as “a light unto the nations.”
If the Jewish people succeed in fulfilling their mission, it will act as a true solution for antisemitism. That is one of the points that the Kabbalah sages have stated throughout the generations. The Jewish people have to be corrected and connected, and through such unity, love will spread to the rest of the world. Then, all nations will respect and honor the Jews.
Based on the video, “What Is the Solution to Anti-Semitism?” Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Question: The UN Secretary General named six problems that are leading humanity to the abyss.
The first is the absence of peace. The second is climate change. The third is inequality among countries. The fourth is gender issues. He says that in countries where men and women are equal, there is peace and stability. Fifth is the lack of equal access to the internet. Half of the population does not have access to the internet. And the sixth is the conflict between generations. Sixty percent of young people consider themselves deceived by their own governments.
What do you think about these six problems that are leading humanity to the abyss, as he says?
Answer: I do not see anything terrible in any problem.
The UN Secretary General has to say something, so he does. He must see something, supposedly. This is what he sees.
Question: Then in your opinion, what is the main problem?
Answer: Only education. And this is precisely what the UN is not doing! That’s all. In addition to education nothing is needed.
Question: And when you talk about a global education problem, what do you mean by that?
Answer: In all states, in all state institutions, from elementary schools to retirement homes and above, people just need to explain what the right attitude to each other means. And associate all the problems with this.
That is, a bad attitude toward each other is the basis of all problems.
And this is introduced to a person from a young age, constantly, constantly explaining that. He will hear it and gradually understand what the problem originates from. It all happens only because people are greedy and care only about themselves. Naturally, egoism is meant here.
Question: If a person finds out that he is an egoist and that all the problems come from this, what will this do to him?
Answer: At least knowing the problem is half the solution. Firstly one will no longer look for it somewhere else. He will not create various committees and invent problems instead of that one.
He will know that the whole problem is in human nature and it must be corrected somehow. We will announce an international competition to solve this problem. We’ll talk about it everywhere. This is everyone’s problem. I wonder who will put forward any proposals for its solution.
And we will discuss this everywhere, on the networks and so on. We will publicize people who participate in this. Let’s name the winners who want to help for free. And in this way we will create a worldwide movement.
Question: Will this movement change a person? Suppose he understands that the basis of all the problems of mankind is egoism, which all of us have.
Answer: We will gradually be able to explain to people that this is precisely the problem. And that it is solved only in a special way, by the inner force of nature, whose effect on us we can arouse. And in this way this problem can be solved.
I believe that humanity has no other way. I know that. And it will just make sure that nothing helps, that nothing can be done. But if we all say that we need to change, that we are bad but we must change for the better and so on, then it’s like a prayer. It will work.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/23/21
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Question: Any person can be justified. How can you justify the Creator?
Answer: You can justify the Creator only by rising to a certain spiritual level, even to the smallest. Then you will acquire “sight,” a feeling of the quality of bestowal from which you will see the whole universe. And before that, it is impossible.
Question: What question should I ask myself in order to move toward the goal correctly?
Answer: Do you ascertain at every moment that you are absolutely at the mercy of the upper force, the Creator? This is your landmark, your right direction.
An even more correct direction is through the group: each moment I should feel myself moving toward adhesion with the Creator together with the group.
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From KabTV’s “Videoconference”
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