Complete 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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Comment: 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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Comment: You said that punishment is the impression from understanding that such an action should not be done, which means that the very action performed by a person should leave such an impression in him.

My Response: Simply put, a person should punish himself.

We must bring a person to a state where he evaluates his past action as a punishment from above, feeling that he was allowed to transgress some right action and do the wrong thing instead. He judges himself. This internal lynching causes in him such a state of bitterness, resentment, regret, and self-condemnation that this becomes an actual punishment for him.

He understands that he himself made a mistake. At the same time, it is necessary to help him come to the point that next time, despite future disturbances and impulses, he could no longer perform such an action. But this is possible only with the help of a special spiritual template, the upper light.

Kabbalah states very simply: “I created evil” says the Creator, that is, the Creator created our evil. “And I created the Torah,” that is, a special light to correct this evil.

We have no other weapon in our hands. If we really want to correct a person, then it’s done only with the help of the upper light, this special force of nature that created him.

And if we invent some restrictions ourselves, then they only harden a person toward nature, society, and even himself. He comes out of prison a big beast.

Therefore according to the Torah, in Israel in ancient times there was no punishment like prison. Instead, there were sanctuary cities. If a person inadvertently harmed someone and was being persecuted for it, he could run away to one of six such cities and stay there until all the circumstances were clarified or until the so-called jubilee year (shmita yuvel).

This is a certain year when a general amnesty is announced, all debts are forgiven, all leased lands are returned to the owners; that is, absolutely everything starts anew, from scratch.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Presumption of innocence” 4/27/10

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Preparation to the Lesson 2

Lesson 2 “Annulling Before the Friends”

Preparation to the Lesson 3

Lesson 3 “Adhering to the Friends”

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My new article on Linkedin “One Year Later—Polarization Is Still Sinking America”

A year after the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th during a 2020 election protest, polarization prevails in the United States and lack of trust has only deepened. Only 20% of Americans have faith in the integrity of its election system (a nearly 50% drop from the previous year) according to a new ABC/Ipsos poll. Finding a common ground between Republicans and Democrats to recover public confidence looks impossible, but there is no other alternative in this matter of existential importance.

Exactly one year ago former President Donald Trump’s supporters invaded Capitol Hill in an attempt to prevent the ratification of Joe Biden as the nation’s leader. At that time the country was fraught with deep political divisions and social tensions that ripped Americans apart into two factions. While half of the nation exuberantly celebrated, the other half felt disenfranchised, frustrated, and angry which boiled over into vehement questions of fraud in the electoral process.

Nothing has changed much. The wounds are deep, still raw, open, and bleeding. America remains torn apart and the social divide has intensified. A recent University of Massachusetts poll reveals that 71% of Republicans consider Joe Biden’s victory illegitimate, and on the other side, 91% of Democrats believe Biden was duly elected.

There is no problem with different camps being in disagreement as there will always be differences in opinions. The real threat is the extremism. The current mistrust and strong mutual accusations are eroding America’s social fabric. The situation is so bad now that it is hard to believe it could get even worse. But the current breakage being revealed now in US politics and between its citizens actually poses a unique opportunity for all to realize that there is no way to survive and thrive unless the country unites.

The alternative scenario is an unbearably explosive situation of constant strife that is on course to erupt into the total internal disruption of America. This will clearly not benefit any side or any individual. In the interdependent and interconnected reality we live in, breaking the boat that keeps everyone afloat will only sink and drown all so quickly that no means of bailing out will remain. Currently each side is too busy paddling in its own direction to even notice there is a hole in the boat.

What is needed is to reveal something that currently does not exist: a common denominator to repair the breakage. The disparate positions can yield this together, and only together. The Republicans lean to the economic side, to industry, and the military, and Democrats lean toward social movements, massive protests, rousing pretty words to achieve their agendas. Can one live without the other? No, that is impossible, one side cannot wipe out the other; they need to be balanced in such a way that the trust in the democratic system is restored.

The two opposite parties and their followers that are currently in a trajectory of greater separation need to do the opposite of their current inclinations and instead get closer, not because they profoundly love each other or even agree with each other, but because they need to find their shared interest, the nation. It is in everyone’s common interest to overcome their differences to keep America afloat.
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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 1/6/22

When you look at people immersed in computer games, you get the feeling that they would readily jump into the computer and become the avatars that represent them in the game. Indeed, computer games answer all our questions. Some people even believe that in the future, we will live in a computer network and communicate with one another in a world that is completely virtual. But games have a purpose: to make us ask about reality and our place in it.

From a broader perspective, we can see that our “reality” is a game, as well. We buy, sell, win, and lose. If you tell a child what you do all day, he will tell you that you, too, play games.

For most people, today’s games are different from the ones their parents played. They no longer play ball or ride their bikes through the park. They play on their phones, alone or with other people online, or they watch others play.

There is a reason for this. We build reality according to our desires. As our desires have changed, our games have changed accordingly. As we have become more self-absorbed and narcissistic, our games have changed to reflect our self-centeredness.

Also, in many ways, children in today’s games feel like they are building their own world. This is far more satisfying than playing basketball, for example. If we, adults, felt like we were building an entire world to live in, much like kids do in Minecraft, for example, we would never come out of the game.

On the computer, on the playing field, or in life, we play to win. But thousands of years ago, the authors of the Midrash said (Kohelet Rabbah), “One does not leave the world with half one’s wishes in one’s hand, for one who has one hundred wants two
hundred; one who has two hundred wants four hundred.”

The only way to win the game is to ask about its purpose. When we ask, it is as if we stop the game and demand to know why we’re playing in the first place. In life, too, we should stop and ask why we do what we do, why there are stars, air, Earth, people, why everything exists and why we live. When we ask these questions, it is like going back to our childhood when we asked ourselves these questions. When we ask, the questions themselves bring us answers, and answers are the only victory we need.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The True Touristic Magnet of the Land of Israel”

Travel and tourism is among the sectors most affected by the Covid 19 pandemic around the world. Israel is no exception. Last year, only 300,000 tourists visited the Jewish state due to travel restrictions, in contrast to the record-breaking 4.5 million tourists reported for 2019. But even as the virus comes under control worldwide and the situation normalizes, we must recognize that what Israel has to offer is much more than breathtaking landscapes and iconic sites.

Among the victims of Israel’s battered tourism industry are tour guides and travel agents who have been virtually unemployed for the past two years as travel bans have been repeatedly imposed to control new variants of the coronavirus imported from abroad. Hundreds of tourism workers demonstrated in the heart of Tel Aviv a few days ago to demand compensation for the long period during which they could not work regularly. The protests erupted after the finance minister advised them to “change jobs,” but in the end a financial aid package was approved.

Nevertheless, love of the land and enjoyment of the profession are not enough to try to keep tourism the way it was. In general, tourism today has undergone a kind of distortion. There is a tourism that encourages shopping, a tourism that encourages entertainment, and another that encourages prostitution. The original tourism, which was based on traveling to different places, especially abroad, and learning about the culture there, has already lost its appeal. Therefore, I do not believe that the tourism industry should be artificially revived.

It is also a mistake to blame all the problems of tourism on Covid-19. Without Covid-19, some other disease would have occurred or some other natural phenomenon would have brought down the tourism industry, which needs to be revamped.

If we were to see the big picture of reality, we would realize that the goal of the human race is to achieve the unity of all and join together as one big family. If we use tourism as a means to come closer, to get to know other peoples, to overcome differences, then this means is helpful to us. But if we, especially Israelis, allow ourselves to be captured by the magic of foreign cultures, abandon our ancient Jewish culture and tradition and replace them with new, foreign worldviews in our social fabric, then there will be no more room for tourism and it will insidiously continue to dwindle.

We Jews have a true treasure in our hands. If we were to tap into the exemplary sources of the Jewish people that speak of brotherly love as a way of life, and unite “as one man in one heart,” we would serve as a magnet for all in the world. “The Land of Israel is not some external entity. It is not merely an external acquisition for the Jewish people,” as Rav Kook wrote, but “rather, the Land of Israel has an internal meaning. It is connected to the Jewish people by the knot of life. Its essence is imbued with extraordinary qualities.” ( Lights, The Land of Israel)

The power of mutual connection between us is capable of evoking a greater positive force, a force of the highest nature. With its help, it is possible to open a new tourism, such as has never existed before – a tourism that connects the spiritual level with the physical level, between the Land of Israel from above and the Land of Israel from below, a sublime feeling that will be transmitted to every person in the world.
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My new article on Linkedin “If You Run Over “Signposts,” Expect Accidents”

Now that we are facing a fourth jab, or a second booster shot, pick your term, it is obvious that we are going about the pandemic the wrong way. It makes no sense to get vaccinated every six months or so. We cannot beat the virus because we do not understand that it is not an external enemy, but emerges from within us for a reason. Until we understand why it is here, we will not know how to deal with it.

SARS-COV-2 is a signpost. Like all signposts, it is in the ideal place to keep us on the right path. However, instead of following the sign, we think it is an obstacle in our way and try to run over it.

To know how to deal with the virus successfully, we first need to know what it is for. Why has it come specifically now and not before or later? For example, just recently, a combination of new algorithms and technologies identified hundreds of previously unknown microbes that live in our bodies. There are countless more that we do not know about, and many of them are viruses.

A virus is not necessarily pathogenic. It becomes noxious when we excite it to act against us.

In other words, our negative behavior induces negative change in the virus, just as it induces negative changes in all of nature. The virus is a signpost in the sense that it indicates that we have gone astray. If we return to the right path, the virus will disappear. If we do not, it will stay until we do, or another painful signpost will take its place until we understand.

The only way we can stay on track is to lead a balanced way of life. If we switch from coal to solar and from gasoline to electricity, but do not change our abusive and exploitative attitude toward other people and the environment, nothing will change for the better. We will see escalating disasters on all levels, from earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, and fires, through droughts, storms, and rising sea levels, to epidemics and finally to social breakdown, chaos, and war.

They are all signposts. They will stop harming us when we stop bumping into them. When we adopt a balanced way of life, where we live in harmony with one another and with all of nature, when we nurture reciprocity and mutual development instead of swagger and degradation of others, we will not be at odds with one another or with nature.

As long as we set ourselves on a collision course with the people around us and with nature, we will have accidents. When we foster mutual consideration in society and align ourselves with the planet we live on, our lives will be a smooth and joyful ride. It is basic common sense.
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Rabash, “You Stand Today,” 471: Likewise, when a person feels the love of the Creator, he understands that it is worthwhile to leave other loves for the love of the Creator. But later, when the awakening passes away from him and he no longer feels the love of the Creator, he will want to return to the other loves that he had already decided to toss away.

At that time, a person needs the covenant and [to] maintain the same conduct that he had while he felt the love of the Creator, although now he has no feeling whatsoever. Then, the work must be compulsory, to enslave himself to the covenant that he had made before. This is called “that you may enter into the covenant.”

Question: If there is no more love, it is necessary to make a covenant in order to forcefully return to the state of love. What kind of covenant is it?

Answer: If I realize with my mind that everything comes from the Creator and that everything around and inside of me is absolutely good, I make a commitment that I will continuously reveal this state in me, and not for the sake of making me feel good about it, of course it will be good for me, but for the sake of bestowing pleasure to the Creator.

I do not want to think bad of Him, speak bad of Him, begrudge Him, and see evil in everything. I must correct all the evil in me, and then I will see absolute good around me.

Question: Is it possible to control your feelings and emotions? A state comes and that is it.

Answer: I ask the Creator to help me in this. Without turning to the Creator, without an insistent and repetitive request, I will not achieve anything.

Question: That is, I cannot fulfill this covenant by myself?

Answer: Of course not. Only if you ask Him.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/14/21

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