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“A Good Slap To Calm Us Down” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “A Good Slap to Calm Us Down

The latest strain is really turning everything we’ve known about handling the pandemic on its head. It is super contagious, generally mild, and no vaccine seems to protect against it. In short, it has taken two years of unprecedented efforts and unmatched investments and made a mockery of them. It is just the slap we needed in order to wake up from our delusional efforts to maintain our previous way of life. Instead of fighting a doomed war, we should put our heads together, and design a safer and calmer way to live.

I don’t regard the virus as an illness; I regard it as a cure. The healing process must begin with rethinking about our lives: what we want to achieve, what will make us happy, what is truly meaningful in our lives, and how to build a society where people do not undermine others’ dreams but support them, so that everyone can realize their dreams instead of only a select few, at the expense of everyone else.

The fact that the virus is disrupting our previous way of life is nature’s gift to humankind. We were drowning in hubris, and now we’re shown our limits. Nothing is healthier than knowing the truth. If you know the truth, you can start building better from it. But if you don’t know who you are and where you live, everything you do will come out crooked and collapse.

Because we want to show everyone that we are the bosses, nature shows us who is the real boss. For this reason, until we bow our heads and get in line with all other elements of creation, nature will continue to forcefully and painfully “explain” to us the truth.
In fact, we are witnessing the collapse of our old way of life. The fact that nature is destroying it is proof that it was unsustainable. If we are smart, we will take the hint and not try to go where nature will not let us.

Governments have already spent trillions of dollars on rescue packages and other relief programs. They can continue doing so and take advantage of the fact that people are quitting their jobs by the millions every month to install countrywide, and even worldwide, programs that re-envision human society. On every level — personal, community, national, and international — we should rethink the structure of our society and our relationships with others.

Science will not defeat the virus. It mutates faster than scientists can develop vaccines or medicines. Even if scientists were able to develop new vaccines every few months, what kind of life is it if you have to get a booster shot against a new variant three times a year?

Worse yet, these viruses are our own making. We are basically walking-talking bags of microbes, and there are so many we don’t know yet until they become pathogenic. If you take the multiple cases of cruise ships whose crews and guests are all fully vaccinated, yet repeatedly suffer from outbreaks, and the (absolutely bizarre) case of the polar research station whose crew is fully vaccinated, checked frequently, quarantined, and located in the North Pole, hundreds of miles from other human beings, yet two thirds of them have suddenly come down with Covid, you will realize that the virus is within us, not outside of us, and this is where we need to find the cure.

The element within us that is noxious and generates every noxious element in reality is our attitude. Our abusive and exploitative approach to everything and everyone around us makes everyone sick. It warps every level of reality and turns it from benign to malignant.

If you look at every other part of creation, you will not find that any of them is evil, ill-meaning or malevolent. All parts of nature function just as nature has created them. We are the only element that consciously aspires to take more than we need, to deny others what they need, and not in order to sustain ourselves, but for the joy of making others suffer and the feeling of superiority.

Because we want to show everyone that we are the bosses, nature shows us who is the real boss. For this reason, until we bow our heads and get in line with all other elements of creation, nature will continue to forcefully and painfully “explain” to us the truth.

When we stop being abusive, we will not be abused. When we stop wishing harm to others, we will not suffer nature’s harm. If we seek to live calmly and pleasantly with everyone around us, this is exactly the life we will have. This is nature’s lesson to humanity.
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“The Plain Truth – Israel Has No Friends” (Times Of Israel)

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Plain Truth – Israel Has No Friends

Painful as it may be for Israelis, neither the EU nor the US is friends with Israel anymore. The Jewish state must come together and unite in the face of hatred and isolation, or see the dream of Israel disintegrate.

B’nai B’rith International recently released an alarming report that exposes the extent of the anti-Israel activity among purportedly friendly EU countries. The report, titled “Aligning Principles and Practice: EU Assistance to the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian NGOs, Rethinking the Approach to Meet Normative Goals,” exposes the EU’s tacit support of terrorism against Israel. Coupled with the waning support of the US, it is clear that Israel has no friends left in the international arena. This leaves Israel with a very hard choice: Unite over its deep divisions and face the headwind, or disintegrate and vanish from existence.

Despite a press release by the EU, stating that it “has never and will never finance or support any terrorist organisations,” and that “it exercises maximum diligence to avoid any such situation and takes such allegations extremely serious,” the reality is very different. The B’nai Brith report quotes Member of the European Parliament David Lega stating that the EU “has … aided and abetted persistent human rights abuses by the Palestinian Authority and has turned a blind eye to unconscionable practices such as the payments to families of convicted terrorists, considered martyrs for the killing of Israeli civilians. The European Union has for the longest time also failed to hold both UNRWA and the Palestinian Ministry of Education accountable for gross anti-Semitism and incitement to violence against Jews and Israelis in Palestinian textbooks.”

No one likes bad news, but I always prefer being painfully aware to being blissfully ignorant. The financial (and other forms of) support that EU countries give to terror-supporting Palestinian organizations expresses their genuine view: They would like to see Israel gone.

Nevertheless, it cannot be otherwise before we realize our task here in Israel. In 1929, Dr. Kurt Fleischer, leader of the Liberals in the Berlin Jewish Community Assembly, sensed why the Germans were becoming increasingly antisemitic. He stated, “Anti-Semitism is the scourge that God has sent us in order to lead us together and weld us together.” Regrettably, the awareness of the linkage between antisemitism and internal disunity did not penetrate deep enough, and the result was catastrophic.

Division has always plagued the Jewish people, as has antisemitism. Yet, if we look at history, and if we notice what our own leaders have been telling us since the inception of our people, we will see that the two are inseparable: When division intensifies, so does antisemitism.

We do not have the privilege of testing history; the house is on fire, and we are bickering over every petty issue, just to spite our antagonists. We may not realize it, but it is precisely the malice among ourselves that is evoking the world’s hatred toward us. As Fleischer said, the purpose of antisemitism is to weld us together, to fuse us into a nation whose members transcend all divisions, love one another, and care for one another without denying or suppressing the differences among them.

This is our vocation—to rise above our divisions and form the union that our ancestors pledged to form, “as one man with one heart.” If out of 19 condemnations that the UN completed in the previous year, 14 were against Israel, and 5 were against other countries, it means that the world holds us to a different standard than it holds the rest of the world.

We, too, have it in our core values that we aspire for Tikkun Olam [the correction of the world], so we, too, demand of ourselves more than we demand from the rest of the world. Yet, we must realize that the Tikkun begins at home, with one another. This is the example that the world needs to see from us, and the lack thereof is the reason it condemns us so much more than any other nation.

We do not need to correct anyone else, and the nations of the world do not need us to love them. They need us to love each other. If we let it sink into our minds and hearts that this is what we need to do, the world will change its attitude toward us and will be happy to see us living here and setting an example of love that covers all the crimes, as King Solomon put it in Proverbs (10:12).
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No Need To Sink With The Titanic

632.1Comment: Yulia writes: “It is obvious that we all live in connection with nature and with each other. We hear you when you call us to be human in the true sense. But how can this be practically achieved? Everyone today lives concerned only with personal problems and joys. To unite people, some kind of grandiose step-by-step program is needed. In my opinion, people can unite only if something concerns them personally.”

Answer: Absolutely right! She speaks correctly. But what can be done? You somehow fold your hands and say, “That’s it. We can’t do anything. We will watch as we slowly sink, like on the Titanic.”

I think that’s wrong. We have to fight. If we turn to the upper force of nature that created us like this and strive to rise in connection with each other, then we should succeed.

Otherwise we just go down to our end. We have no other option. Alternatively we advance gradually and kill ourselves. This could happen in the next war. Or we will rise above ourselves and begin to implement good relations after all.

Question: Yulia wrote: “Some kind of grandiose step-by-step program is needed to unite people.” Does it exist?

Answer: The program exists. But she has to connect to it.

We have this program, and we are trying to disseminate it, explain it, and implement it. It is in front of you, please.

Question: In this step-by-step program of ours there are several stages about which questions are asked all the time. And you have talked about them. The first is “don’t do to others what you don’t want done to yourself.” And the other is “love your neighbor as yourself.” Can you explain them to people in a very simple way?

Answer: This is reaching the level of Bina and reaching the level of Keter.

I’ll say it simply. The first is to rise above your ego. This is “don’t do to others what you don’t want done to yourself.” To achieve a neutral state when you don’t want to do anyone any harm.

And the second is when you want to fill everyone with absolute goodness. That’s it. Two steps.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/25/21

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“Why Are There So Many Conspiracies That The Jews Are Behind The Coronavirus?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Why are there so many conspiracies that the Jews are behind the coronavirus?

The many conspiracies discussing Jews as behind and benefiting from the coronavirus emerge as part of a more general pressure on the Jewish people that exists in nature, which ultimately aims to lead the Jewish people to unite: to reach mutual love and care for one another, in order to become a conduit for unity to spread throughout humanity.

When we, the Jewish people, will unite with common threads of love between us, then the lies and the pressure against us will subside, and in its place will form a blossoming harmonious connection.

The Jewish people were established when a group of ancient Babylonians gathered around a unifying ideology, to reach “Love your neighbor as yourself.” In other words, we are not a nation that shares a natural biological connection, but we were formed when we attained connection around a deeply unifying ideology.

The further we are from realizing the ideology that initially made us a Jewish people—a common love among us—the more pressure and hatred arises against us. On the contrary, the closer we come to realizing a common love in our connections, the more we will find not only calm and peace, but moreover, an inversion of the hatred against us into one of love and reverence for a people who bring peace, love and harmony to the world.

As Rabbi Akiva said, “Love your friend as yourself—this is a great rule in the Torah.” We need to implement this great rule among us here on earth. At the moment, we are far from realizing it, and this is exactly what we need to do: to bring the law of “Love your friend as yourself” to everyone—to implement it among each other, and it will then spread to everyone. Then, the world will stop hating us.

Based on the video “Why Are There Covid Jewish Conspiracies?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Generation Of Wealth

566.01Question: The current generation can be called the “Lady Gaga” generation. Of course this is a collective image, though many people know that there is in fact a shocking singer who is popular among the younger generation. The values ​​that Lady Gaga instills are fame, wealth, honor, freedom in this life, to be independent from anyone, and simply not to pay attention to others.

Why is it easier for parents today to place their children under the authority of such programming? They do not even notice what TV programs their child is watching, as long as they are not in the way.

Answer: Parents prefer to leave their children in the care of their environment, and what will be will be. This is our egoism. We do not want to engage with other people.

We don’t even feel our children as close as we should. A person has reached such a peak of egoistic development that he does not care; he sees that the child is sinking into bad actions and does nothing about it.

We know perfectly well what happens to children after 12 to 14 years of age. They start using drugs, participate in all kinds of “pajama parties,” arrange all kinds of orgies. But all this is around sex, which in general is natural, and around drugs, which have already become quite common.

As a result it is no longer considered something special. Here completely new relationships and new goals arise. After all, in order to stand out today, you have to be someone special in your animal manifestation.

And we cannot do anything; we have no one to turn to. In our evolutionary human development, we have lost the generation of parents.

Therefore parents are no longer parents. It is impossible to expect them to somehow be able to treat children correctly, to create the right environment around them, to demand that the state do this, since the head of state is occupied by people who have also been raised incorrectly.

Therefore our entire upbringing system is not concerned with upbringing, but only with education. A person goes to school in order to gain general knowledge. He is only assessed by his academic performance. True, they also give an assessment in discipline, but this is not taken into account by anyone.

The main thing emphasized is to succeed in the sciences, to provide for oneself in the future. But neither the schools, nor any other institution, not the house or what surrounds the child—the outside, television, the Internet—form a person out of him.

Unfortunately we cannot impose any demands on children or even on their parents because they are not in a position to do anything at all. We see this even from grandfathers and grandmothers, who, although they regret what is happening, are also rather passive. This lost state has been observed for at least fifty to sixty recent years.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Generation” 8/24/09

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How Can We Feel The Creator Loves Us?

565.01Question: Is love for the Creator and the feeling of His greatness and importance one and the same?

Answer: No. The feeling of greatness and importance is the feeling of the Creator. Love is your attitude to Him; not His attitude to you or how you perceive Him, but how you react to it.

Question: Initially, it is said that the Creator loves us. How is His love for us manifested?

Answer: It is not manifested in anything. It depends on a person, on how he reveals his connection with the force that defines him, feels, animates, controls, and leads him.

In the measure of your attitude to the Creator, you can feel His attitude to you. If you love Him, you will feel that He loves you.

Question: Sometimes, when something good happens in life, it seems that some upper force loves you, helps you. Or is it not this?

Answer: It may happen, but this is not what we should come to. We must achieve love for the Creator in all His manifestations and make sure that they are all the absolute good for us, even if they once seemed negative to us. This, as the sages write, is absolute love.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/14/21

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“Why Do So Many People Believe In Conspiracy Theories?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Why do so many people believe in conspiracy theories?

We live in a world where people find it increasingly difficult, if at all, to believe the authorities, because they see how the highest positions are held by the most deceitful wheeler-dealers and liars who primarily consider their own power goals. I do not blame such people in any way, because if you want to achieve something in the egoistic world, then you need to lock yourself on that goal, and do whatever necessary in order to achieve it.

In the past, we used to believe the media, but who believes the media today? We have no idea what percentage of the media is real or fake, truth or lies. It is as if we are in the dark, and we grab hold of something in our hands thinking that it is a cat, but if we turn the light on, we see that it is a pillow.

We will not reach the truth the way we are currently going. In order to reach the truth, we need to collectively say, “Enough! We don’t want to live like this anymore! We’re not going to use television, radio or the media anymore because it’s all a lie through which we’re being used!”

Of course, this awakens the question: What would replace our current media consumption? It is possible to live without the media if we build something completely independent, where we accept nothing but what brings about a positive connection among people, and that we try to reach a state of mutual consideration and care. Everything we receive is ultimately sourced in a force of love and bestowal, which is nature’s quality, before it becomes distorted by our egoistic human nature, which thinks and acts to benefit at the expense of others and nature.

The very force of nature that permeates reality acts for the benefit of everyone and everything. This is before it comes into contact with our egoistic nature, which acts for the detriment of everyone and everything—considering only self-benefit. It can be thus thought that nature itself conspires against us. It wants us to understand that we have no choice but to learn how it works.

If we learn how nature works in its pure altruistic form, then there will be no more room for conspiracies. We will then see how we create such conspiracies, and thus also how to rid ourselves of them.

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Based on the video “Why Do So Many People Believe in Conspiracy Theories?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi.

To Not Lose Touch With The Creator

527.03Complete love is love on both sides, whether in Din, or in Hesed and successful ways. He will love the Creator even if He takes His soul away from Him. This love is complete, for it is on both sides, in Hesed and in Din  (The Book of Zohar).

Question: What does it mean “The Creator takes the soul”?

Answer: This means that in all states, from the best to the worst, we should relate with love to the upper force, which contains the entire universe, including all of us with all of our feelings and properties. We must understand that the upper force infinitely, endlessly loves us. And if we feel something bad, it is because we do not understand it and are opposite to it in properties. It wants to give everything, to love, and to fill.

And we want to be independent, not relate to it in any way and think only of ourselves. Everything that happens in a person’s life happens only because it is planned and created by the Creator. Nothing happens by the will of man. And therefore in any state we are in, we should not lose touch with Him and should realize that this comes from absolute love and only for our good. Only in this way can we achieve full contact with Him.

Comment: They say that Kabbalists use bad states for even greater connection with the Creator.

My Response: Yes, it is in difficult conditions that they try to reveal themselves even more to the Creator with the greatest devotion and union with Him.

Question: Does it turn out that it’s like a game where you are given some difficult states?

Answer: The Creator does this on purpose. He creates all kinds of states for us to rise above them and be adhered, tied, and connected to Him.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/14/21

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I Do Not Want To Be A Herd Animal!

962.6Comment: You claim that today’s misunderstanding between parents and children stems from the fact that children have more developed souls and their desires come from a more developed stage.

My Response: Of course. Today’s children demand answers to more serious questions than their parents posed. Their parents were satisfied with ordinary life and religion, but this is not enough for children. They are interested in the meaning of life.

They cannot simply follow society; they cannot appreciate society that tells them: “This is how it should be done, this is the framework, the social relations; this is how one should act; this is what is acceptable.” As the saying goes: “Die but keep up appearances.”

“But I do not want to exist for this! It does not give me any satisfaction. What should I do? Live only for the sake of being like others or not worse than them, to be guided by them, to take an example from them?! To be a herd animal?! I cannot!” So many people feel this way today.

As a result, the new generation suffers from problems of depression and drug use. Therefore, those who are unable to bend under the values of bourgeois society come to Kabbalah. A new desire pulls them precisely toward spiritual development.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up—Mystery of the Sphinx” 2/5/10

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