Audio Version Of The Blog – 12/5/21
Posted on December 5th, 2021
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The things happening in the world will obligate us to restructure #society and the #economy. Otherwise we will be obliterated. We should see the things that are happening as a challenge from the Creator, and the need to provide an answer—by changing every person and society as a whole, towards #unity. But for now, everything is moving backwards…
#Sustainability
From Twitter, 12/5/21
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Question: In Kabbalah, the most fundamental spiritual state is restriction. What is a restriction? What are we restricting?
Answer: We restrict using our ego to the point where we can begin using it in the direction of bestowal and connection rather than in the direction of rejection and reception.
Egoism is our nature. If we want to begin sensing the spiritual world, meaning, what is not clothed in inanimate, vegetative, and animate matter, but seemingly beyond it, then we need to reorient ourselves and change the direction of using our qualities from reception to bestowal.
Question: Does this apply to all kinds of desires, particularly the basic ones: food, sex, and family?
Answer: A person must reach a state where he uses all his desires, both the basic and the rest of them, not for self-enjoyment. If these desires are necessary for our existence, which is called “neither praised nor condemned, “then we can use them.
The truth is the restriction is placed on the intention. Therefore, I can use everything necessary for the functioning of my body, there are no restrictions on this. It will not hinder your entrance into the upper world.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/16/21
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At our stage of development as a human race, nature expects us to unite so that we realize, at least for our egoistic benefit, we are on the same planet, frantically rushing somewhere in a huge space, and are dependent on each other. There is no one else to help us, we have to organize our own life on this earth.
This is our home, a small village. And if we do not establish this life so that all the inhabitants of the globe can live in peace in a kind world and if we do not care for our planet, we will not be able to survive on it.
This is a problem because nature’s program will not allow us to try again, start over, and correct our mistakes. We are always obliged to move forward according to the program of nature, which in the course of our development will require us to comply more strictly with the laws of connection, in increasingly multi-faceted, high-quality communication.
We will have to meet these requirements. As long as we do not deviate very much from the form laid down for our level of development, nature forgives our mistakes. But if we strongly violate it, we get blows from nature: drought, volcanic eruptions, etc. If our separation crosses all boundaries, then nature reacts with a global pandemic.
And of course, this latest “omicron” virus is just one link in a long chain. There are ranks behind it, a whole army of such negative impacts on man and human society that we will not be able to survive. Nature will beat us until there is a small handful of people left on earth who will understand that there is no way out and who will build the right relationships among themselves.
Each new wave of the pandemic is perceived as an unpleasant surprise. It seemed to us that the virus was almost defeated, and suddenly it hits us even harder. But why did everyone think that the virus would disappear? After all, it came with a specific purpose to shake us up and help us understand that we lack unity.
And if we are working on mutual, friendly connection, we can fix the situation with this. Only this is the real medicine. And if we have not done anything in this direction, then, as is usually the case with a neglected disease, more severe conditions are revealed. If the patient does not receive the right medicine, then the disease progresses, it will not go away by itself.
The disease goes into a chronic stage, and it seems to us that it is over. But no, this is only a leap to an even more serious level of the disease.
The same story begins again: quarantine restrictions, fears, new vaccinations. After all, we have not learned anything during the two years of the epidemic and have not understood the main thing: for what purpose did the coronavirus come to us and what we should oppose it with (besides medical treatment and everything else).
The virus requires us to come closer and unite. It came as an invitation to connect to one system. The virus hit everyone; we were obliged to help our neighbors, which would have eliminated the epidemic. The virus invited everyone to take care of everyone. But did we do it?
We put masks on everyone and dispersed to a safe distance, which was also good. Although it is against connection, it is also against our egoism if we physically distance ourselves from each other. If everyone has a negative desire for the other, then the further we are from each other, the more isolated, the better. This calms the situation, which is confirmed by tests.
But still this is not a solution. Nature obliges us to find a real solution. But we were not looking for it, but only veiled our egoism with masks.
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From KabTV’s “Conversation with Journalists” 11/28/21
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My new article on Linkedin “Jewish Unity – OK; Responsibility – No Way!”
An email I received regarding one of my op-ed columns on Times of Israel read as follows: “I think you are 100% correct that the biggest problem Jews face is their constant infighting and lack of unity. HOWEVER [caps in the source], I think you are making a very serious mistake when you end up, in fact, blaming the Jews for all the world problems including antisemitism.” I understand where this view is coming from, and I think this email merits an appropriate reply.
First, the idea that Israel are responsible for their fate, for better or worse, is not mine at all. It has been the view of our sages and spiritual leaders throughout the ages. It is actually the idea that the nations that afflict us are blameworthy that is quite recent. If you read the Talmud, Midrash, The Book of Zohar, and countless other authentic Jewish texts, you will find very few statements (if any) that place the blame on foreign kings and nations.
Below are a few notable examples of our sages placing the responsibility for our woes with us rather than with our enemies. These quotes only scratch the surface of what actually exists, but there is a word limit to newspaper columns. For more information, as well as ideas on how to foster unity, I recommend reading my books The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism and Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour.
We attribute our woes in Egypt to evil Pharaoh. Yet, we conveniently ignore the words of our sages on this matter. Midrash Rabbah (Shemot 1:8) writes, “When Joseph died, they broke the covenant and said, ‘Let us be as the Egyptians.’ …Because of it, the Lord turned the love that the Egyptians loved them into hatred.” In other words, Pharaoh and the Egyptians did not turn against Israel because Joseph died, but because after his death, the Jews wanted to abandon the unity they had obtained under him and disperse among the Egyptians. This brought upon them the hatred of the Egyptians.
Here is another example from later in our history: In the days of the First Temple, Nebuchadnezzar II conquered the land of Israel and destroyed the Temple only after Jews became spiteful toward each other, slandered each other, shed blood, and “stabbed each other with the daggers in their mouths” (Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 9b).
The page just mentioned in Masechet Yoma (9b) also mentions the reason for the ruin of the Second Temple. In simple words it states, “The Second Temple … why was it ruined? It was because there was unfounded hatred in it.” Elsewhere, the Talmud writes (Yevamot 63a), “No calamity comes to the world but for Israel.”
In one of the most scathing texts ever written about Israel’s obligation to the world, The Book of Zohar details what happens to the world when Israel shun their obligation to set an example of unity to the world. In the part known as Tikkunei HaZohar (Corrections of The Zohar), correction no. 30 is probably the harshest: “Woe unto them,” the disunited Israel, “for they cause poverty and ruin, looting and killing, and destruction in the world. Woe unto them, for with these actions, they bring about the existence of poverty, ruin, and robbery, looting, killing, and destructions in the world.”
On a more positive note, here is what happens when Jews unite. During the period of the Second Temple, when Jews were united, the nations would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation,’” writes the book Sifrey Devarim (354).
More recently, the book Maor VaShemesh writes, “The prime defense against calamity is love and unity. When there are love, unity, and friendship between each other in Israel, no calamity can come over them. … [If] there is bonding among them, and no separation of hearts, they have peace and quiet … and all the curses and suffering are removed by that [unity].” Similarly, the book Maor Eynaim stresses, “When one incorporates oneself with all of Israel and unity is made … at that time, no harm shall come to you,” and the book Shem MiShmuel adds, “When [Israel] are as one man with one heart, they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil.”
The last example I would like to share is an inspiring quote of one of Israel’s greatest contemporary sages, Rav Kook. In his book Orot HaKodesh, which contains assorted writings penned at different times after World War I, Rav Kook writes, “Since we were ruined by unfounded hatred, and the world was ruined with us, we will be rebuilt by unfounded love, and the world will be rebuilt with us.”
I hope now it is a little clearer why I place the responsibility for our future on our laps, and stress that we can determine our fate through our choice between unity and division. I hope you read my books and appreciate the historic examples contained in it, but most of all, I hope we all unite and put an end to the troubles of our tormented nation, and the troubles of our tormented world.
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My new article on Linkedin “Buy Nothing Day or Black Friday? Neither”
Buy Nothing Day is a day of protest against consumerism. It is held the day after Thanksgiving, concurrent to Black Friday. In my opinion, the protest accomplishes nothing because shopping fills a void that makes us briefly happy. If you asked me, I would say, “Open the stores and let people take whatever they want.” Once we realize what animals we are, we might seriously consider doing something about our nature.
On the one hand, I am glad people have so much money to spend. On the other hand, the spending seems redundant to me. If I need something, I do not wait for a shopping day to buy it. If I can wait for a shopping day to buy it, I probably do not really need it.
In other words, I think these days mostly benefit the store owners and perhaps the economy in general, but I do not think the shoppers benefit. I am sure they have no real need for most of the things they buy on Black Friday and other such days.
Shopping days may help people forget the emptiness inside, but if they really enjoyed life, they would not need it. Worse yet, buying things we do not need gives very little and very short-lived pleasure, and the void that remains after it leaves grows even deeper and darker.
If we want a lasting pleasure, a delight that grows the more we have of it, and where even its absence is enjoyable, we need a very different kind of pleasure. The only pleasure that can give us such a feeling is the pleasure from giving to people we love.
Think of a mother and her children: The more they have, the happier she is. When she wants to give them something but cannot, she does not suffer the way we do when we do not have something we want. She simply waits for the moment when she can meet them and shower them with her love.
It seems unreasonable that we should feel this way about strangers, but we feel them as strangers only because we do not realize how intertwined we all are. What if you met a complete stranger whom you didn’t like, but after some time you realized that the stranger was actually your long lost brother or sister?
Our closeness to each other is hidden from us, but it is even closer than kinship. We are literally the same body, the same organism whose organs are unaware that they are connected.
We can feel our connectedness, but we must be willing to feel it. Currently, we hide behind walls of alienation and coldness, presumably to protect ourselves from strangers. In truth, we deny ourselves the power of our connectedness and the joy it brings.
Gradually, as problems grip the world, we will learn that we are connected whether we like it or not. When we acknowledge our connectedness, we will discover that it is not a curse, but a blessing. We will discover that this is where our true strength lies and that only our ego has prevented us from seeing it. Then we will learn to enjoy giving, and Black Fridays will be but faint memories of dark times when shopping was our definition of happiness.
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In the News (BBC): “The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents that reveals hidden wealth, tax avoidance and, in some cases, money laundering by some of the world’s rich and powerful.”
Comment: At the same time, in their everyday political or ordinary life, these people behave as if they care for the welfare of the people. But in fact, they steal and put everything offshore.
My Response: It is natural. And it exists everywhere. Therefore, there is no use waiting for them to stop thinking about themselves.
It is not that simple. The elites have built a very serious safety belt around themselves. Therefore, no one expects that something will happen. In addition, they themselves take care of each other and inform each other if one of them gets to know something.
In fact, they are not at war with each other. Even the elites of countries hostile to each other inform each other about what can shake them anywhere, in any place possible. It can be in Israel, in the Emirates, in Iran, anywhere, and it functions above all the agreements and connections that we know about.
Question: That is, it is a kind of international elite who understand the danger of the masses getting out of control and they are trying, despite the contradictions among themselves, to preserve this pyramid? Are we getting back to the pyramid in which the main masses cannot live without the top, but the top cannot live without the main masses as well?
Answer: Yes. But shouldn’t people in different countries of the world be concerned about at least preserving what they have? If not improving, then preserving? Otherwise, the world may enter a state of such threatening imbalance that it is better for us to leave everything as it is.
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From KabTV’s “Conversations” 11/1/21
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Question: What is the difference between restriction and screen?
Answer: Contraction is when I simply reduce reception from an external source, maybe from people or from nature, it doesn’t matter what. That is, the desire remains but I cut it from use, from filling.
And the screen is no longer just a reduction in the use of one’s desires, but their conversion to bestowal, to the opposite, not to receive into oneself, but to give to others.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual State” 11/16/21
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do some people have outbursts?“
Outbursts are not unique only to some people, but on the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature, there are several instances where tension bursts out in order to lead to a calm state.
For instance, volcanic eruptions emerge after a lot of tension accumulates under the ground, and it reaches a state where it is impossible to maintain the inner tension. The external shell can no longer hold the tension within, and we then see how volcanic lava and ash erupts out of the earth.
This is how it works on the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature, and also in human beings. People have more reasons to have outbursts than the rest of nature due to living in a complex web of social interactions. In general, we live in a closed system that constantly influences us with all kinds of problems and pains, and when the tension of our constantly growing desires meets with a certain amount of tension from our social interactions, then we encounter a growing need for an outburst, whether on personal levels in the family, or on social levels in public outbursts, and even on national levels where certain state or non-state actors unleash violence.
Instead of calming such tension, we can no longer hold onto it, and then we have outbursts similar to the example of the volcano. It is the only way that some people see the ability to decrease their inner tension. There are examples of some people simply shouting or going for a run when they are under a lot of stress in order to lower the tension, because otherwise the lack of a release could lead to other problems, such as heart disease or other health complications.
In short, the more our ego—the desire to enjoy at the expense of others and nature—grows, then the more inclined we become toward outbursts, because our desires demand more and more fulfillment, and the conditions for receiving that fulfillment become tougher, and more and more people see no other way of calming themselves down but through a certain kind of outburst.
We can then see the importance of needing to tame the human ego, to give it the calm it seeks. The more our ego grows, the closer we come to a state of recognizing the evil nature of our egoistic selves, and become more willing to undergo a transition to a new altruistic nature, one that is in balance and harmony with nature.
Based on the video “How to Prevent Violent Outbursts” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Comment: Once you answered a letter to a person who wrote that he was used to speaking the truth in person and therefore ruins relations with people. You explained that by giving the truth to a person’s face, he just wants to remake him, and this should not be done.
Gulmira writes to you: “We are not a flock of sheep to be silent, with our face down. Yes, there are problems when you speak the truth, but if everyone is silent, keeping their opinion to themselves, there will be no sincerity, which means love.”
My Response: If she is a grown woman and has children, then I don’t think she delivers the truth to them all the time. She speaks to them in a language that makes them understand. So that they would be pleased. In order to gradually understand how to behave, how the world works, and how to properly tune others, yourself, that is, to be gentle with people. It is written “love your neighbor” and not “correct your neighbor.”
Question: Are you suggesting that you treat the other as your child or someone very close, take care of him?
Answer: And in this way we will be able to remake the world, and in the end we will all be fine. And if I deliver the truth to others, then I will do so with my egoism. What else? And what good will it do? None. I will turn all people against me and set a bad example for them.
Comment: By this a person is working very seriously with himself because any person wants to give out the naked truth, and here he has to think all the time.
My Response: Don’t do it, close your selfishness! Who do you want to show your truth to? Firstly, it is not true, it is your egoism, only your egoistic desire.
Question: If a person wants to naturally tell the truth to another, how should he behave, should he suddenly restrain himself? What should he do?
Answer: It is best to be silent.
Question: Is this the beginning of all good things?
Answer: Yes. And in general, if you want to talk about something, then speak about abstract topics that do not directly affect the other person, allegorically maybe or speak but not about him in plain text.
Question: The main thing is not a direct defeat of a person’s I?
Answer: No way! He must do this himself. The realization of one’s own evil lies with the person himself. This is a task that the Creator gives to a person. This is the only thing that He wants from us, for us to understand and realize the nature in which He created us, that we realize this nature as evil!
And the person who always tells the truth to another must realize that this comes from his evil, because all nature is evil, selfishness. And if I reveal it, then I reveal the evil in myself. And the other does not understand this, he hears what I say, and therefore draws very wrong conclusions from this.
Question: How does one communicate with another person if you want to tell him something?
Answer: Through your own example! Only! And the rest it’s better to be silent.
Question: Don’t you need to teach anyone?
Answer: No. Or if you teach, then only what the science of Kabbalah says about how to properly understand oneself, people, and the world, that is, the actions of the Creator. It’s true. And we don’t need the rest.
We need to make the world a good, fulfilling one. Let us change the world not by our usual methods, but through the Creator. The Creator is nature. That is, the impact on nature itself.
Question: Will we be able to rise above this selfishness after all?
Answer: We will be obliged. The whole question is, when? It already depends on us.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/11/21
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