Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog - No Comments →

From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/20/22

Every deficiency, lack, or negativity we feel, every worry we experience, and every concern in our hearts, are only the results of the severance of the loving connections we once had with one another. This is why the only way to correct anything in our lives and in the world around us is to restore and improve our human connections.

When we move toward connection rather than toward separation and hostility, as is the case today, everything that seems threatening, menacing or empty, every ache in our hearts and every pain in our bodies will become positive, filled with joy, connection, and love. All we have to think about is changing our relationships from hostility to friendship.

Because we are different, we are stronger together and weaker apart. When we care for one another, the differences between us complement each other to form a whole, and wholesome society. When we are apart, they weaken us. This is why we needn’t try to make everyone the same, but rather caring, and leave our views and characters as they are. Then, the whole world will find its peace and harmony.

Photo by: Baruch Ratz

Filed under: Facebook, Society, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

My new article on Linkedin “The Freedom Convoy Is a Power Struggle”

The Freedom Convoy was originally created to protest vaccine mandates for crossing the United States border, but later turned into a protest about Covid-19 restrictions in general. While many of the drivers and activists partaking in the convoy do it in good faith, the forces behind them have nothing to do with freedom or health, and everything to do with power and wealth.

It is very sad that such an important issue as our health has been hijacked from the public, as well as from health professionals, who are the ones to whom we should listen. Instead, each side, for and against compulsory vaccination and mask mandates, pulls its way not because of health concerns, for most of the time, but because political and industrial entities are paying top dollar for people to push the agenda that benefits them financially or politically. As for people’s health, it is inconsequential. Since there is no profit in caring for the public, there is no reason to promote it.

As I see it, the only benefit from the struggles erupting over vaccine and mask mandates is that we will realize our true nature. In the end, each side is so focused on winning that it is impossible to know who is right, who is wrong, or even if there are right and wrong in this clash.

The solution to the questions of who is right and what is the right thing to do will come only when we change human society from the basis. The virus is dissolving the fabric of society precisely in order to force us to rebuild it, and rebuild it right.

Reconstructing society must begin where society is weakest—in our attitude toward others. Only when we begin to treat others with consideration first, and finally with concern, other aspects of society will begin to improve, as well. Until we initiate this transformation, matters will continue to deteriorate. If we do not reverse course in time, society will collapse.

War, any war, never leads to peace. A war ends when one or more parties lose, or when the parties run out of power, funds, soldiers, or any combination of the above. It does not end because the parties want peace.

The only way to turn enemies into friends is through explanation. Once people are too exhausted to fight, they will have no choice but to listen. Then it will be possible to talk to them about mutual dependence, the benefits of cooperation, the advantages of peaceful relations, and other ideas that pride and vanity shun while we are strong.

Interestingly, the Hebrew word for peace is “shalom,” which comes from the word “shlemut” (wholeness/complementation). It means that we are at peace only when we complement one another and together make up a whole. To do that, we must look at every problem from every angle, and embrace all perspectives.

Our sages expressed this notion in various ways, some of which are quite poetic. The book Likutey Halachot (Assorted Rules), for example, writes, “Vitality is mainly through unity, by all the differences being included in the source of the unity. For this reason, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ is the great rule … to include in unity and peace. The vitality, sustenance, and correction of all of creation are mainly by people of differing views becoming included together in love, unity, and peace.”

Similarly, Raaiah Kook wrote, “Any division between … one collective and another … builds worlds. Since everything is improvement and construction, there is no reason to speak bitterly, but to announce the greatness that both sides are doing, and that together, they are perfecting the everlasting structure and are correcting the world. Then, … the love will grow according to the intensity of the hate, and the connection will grow according to the size of the separation.”

Only if we approach our dispute with this positive and proactive attitude, do we have a chance of turning the deepening divisions in society into greater unity. If we insist on fighting through the end, our society will end before the battle ends.
[294102]

Filed under: Coronavirus, Crisis, Health, New Publications - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Antisemitism: The Impolite Side of Britain”

“Go back to the gas chambers” and “filthy Jews” are just some of the increasingly frequent antisemitic attacks on Jewish youth and children in the UK, who are also confronted with Nazi salutes, insulted and spat upon. Meanwhile, adult Orthodox Jews have been brutally beaten in broad daylight in unprovoked attacks. Why is hatred of Jews so virulent and shameless in the prim and proper UK?

A staggering total of 2,255 antisemitic incidents were registered in 2021, the highest total ever in Great Britain and a record-breaking number in recent years anywhere in Europe. The study conducted by the Community Security Trust, a UK anti-Semitism monitoring group, found a 34% increase in antisemitic incidents, up from 1,684 recorded cases of Jew-hatred in 2020.

In recent weeks, security cameras have documented particularly serious cases such as unprovoked beatings of Hasidic Jews. An ultra-Orthodox mother walking down a London street with her two children, one in a stroller, was verbally assaulted by a man who shouted, “We do not want Jews here.” In another case, children outside a Jewish school were victims of antisemitic slurs by a man who threatened them, “You Jews are so bad, I wish I had a gun to shoot you.” Last December, during Hanukkah celebrations, Jewish teenagers traveling by bus in London were attacked by a group of men who insulted and even spat on them.

The younger generation of British Jews is the new target of Jew-haters, not because they are an easy target, but mainly because antisemites cannot imagine a new generation of Jews growing up in Britain.

Such behavior, of course, is not expected in the seemingly polite, calm and even-tempered Britain. I have travelled through the UK several times and can testify that fine manners only deceive us and mask the deep-rooted antisemitism that has been simmering for generations.

Why is this so? The reason is that the more advanced and cultured a society is, the more antisemitic it becomes, and not the other way around, as one might think. In fact, besides being very developed, the British also have a very uncouth, straightforward and stubborn side. In addition to the medieval blood libels that are still present, and using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a pretext, they have all the elements to be truly antisemitic.

It is precisely from their development that they have the clear understanding that Jews have a special role that they do not fulfill. That role is to connect positively “as one people with one heart,” to develop harmonious, unified relationships between themselves to become an example to the rest of the world, to become a light to the nations.

All of humanity feels that everything depends on ego or self-interest and that we, the Jews, have raised the bar of egoism to the highest level. They expect us to balance this ego by transcending our differences and uniting for the benefit of all. If we do not achieve this goal, we hinder the path of goodness and tranquility for all, and antisemitism arises.

The virulent hatred that rears its head in the UK and around the world should serve as an awakening for us to unite and unleash the positive force of nature that will be activated when we become one. Now it is up to us to be a light unto nations, to bring unity, peace and tranquility to the world by paving the way for others. Then we will guarantee a good future for this generation and the generations to come.
[294132]

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, New Publications - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the most important thing as a teacher to teach your students?“

The correct worldview: a view of the world, life, a person and an epoch.

That is most important for me—to position a person toward the correct view of his life. To do so, I need to more or less explain the picture of the world we live in, where it is headed, how to change it in the best possible direction, and provide the means to do so.

The world derives from our perception. We do not actually live in the world; the world lives in us. I thus need to teach that we create our world, painting it inside ourselves. It is quite difficult to reach that point. Starting to relate to the world in such a way is a very serious and internal spiritual revolution.

Moreover, our attention needs to be drawn to the fact that the world is not what we feel. The world is a derivative of our attitude to it, i.e.. we can recreate and readjust ourselves to the perception of another world. The world has no shape or form of its own. It is a picture that we can program. Therefore, we can create the world we live in, and it will change according to the change in our wishes, qualities and efforts.

Based on KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” on December 9, 2021. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Education, Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do you define human progress?“

Human progress takes place in our attitude toward each other and to nature. The more we understand nature as a perfect mechanism, and the more we adapt ourselves to it, then the more we can consider ourselves making progress. By making such progress, we eventually enter into balance with nature, and by doing so, we achieve harmony and perfection.

Progress in our attitudes to each other and to nature leads us to balance between positive and negative forces, and the ability to successfully navigate ourselves among these forces.

We are born and we exist in the negative force, the human ego. This force makes us prioritize self-benefit over benefiting others and nature. We progress to balance among each other and with nature by aiming for a state where we each wish to benefit others and nature more than ourselves, and we work against our egos to achieve such balance.

Such progress in our attitudes to each other and to nature requires investing in educational programs that can make it happen. These programs should focus on guiding people to reach a state of positive connection to each other above our egoistic and divisive drives. If we progress in other directions, e.g., science and technology, without progressing in our attitudes to each other and to nature, then we will find ourselves in more and more of a tangle, using whatever we make or discover to our detriment rather than to our benefit.

Based on the video “Why New NASA Technology Doesn’t Impress Kabbalists” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How can I stop being superstitious?“

We are unfamiliar with nature as a whole. There are several acting forces that suddenly appear to us, and we do not know what to do with them. We then believe in all sorts of things that supplement our power of faith, which serve to make us familiar with, and take control of, such forces. Those are what we call “superstitions.”

Then, the question becomes, how should we relate to the unknown? First and foremost, we need our faith to be in the force of love and connection, that there is a single force sustaining everything and everyone in a single system. If we wish for everything and everyone to be as one, then we are on the right track.

We can thus stop being superstitious when we relate logically to reality: that there is a superior force of love, giving and connection in nature, and we can do certain actions in our world in order to reveal that force and adapt ourselves to it.

Therefore, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, if we wish to receive protection in our lives, we should direct ourselves at the force of love, giving and connection—the force of nature—and by doing so, we will attract this force into our lives. This is the meaning of what is written in kabbalistic texts, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”

Based on the video, “How a Kabbalist Relates to Superstitions,” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Q&A, Quora - No Comments →

Question: We say that there is none else besides Him and that the Creator does everything. At the same time, we say that we create Him by our mutual inclusion. Is it the same Creator or do we just lack the words to designate two different forces?

Answer: These are different manifestations of the upper force. The first manifestation is when the Creator builds, makes, and creates, and there is none else besides Him. The second is when we manifest the Creator in relation to ourselves and talk about the measures, steps, possibilities, and means of attaining Him.

This is completely different since we are already grading Him into levels, steps, and talking about the Creator: the light of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida, and so on, at what levels, in what properties we perceive Him.

This is not the upper light that created us, but its various parts, which we, to the extent of our similarity to the upper light, snatch from it, feel, and reveal.

But, in principle, there is only one source—the upper light. On one hand, it is how He affects us and on the other hand, how we partially comprehend Him in our Kelim (vessels), to the extent of our similarity to Him.
[293305]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1

Related Material:
The Unattainable Force
The Holy Names Of Bestowal
Everyone Writes The Book Of Creation

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Events, Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

Question: I asked the Creator to be kind to my friends, to lift them up, but this is all material. How can I do something spiritual?

Answer: It doesn’t matter that we are in the material, egoistic part of creation. What matters is what we ask for.

We always correct from the egoistic part of creation to the altruistic one. This is how the prayer (MAN, Hissaron, lack) rises when I turn to the Creator from my faulty state and ask Him to transfer me to a corrected one. There can be nothing else here!

In a good state, I imagine myself connected with my friends, and all of us together are directed to our common unity, which we call the Creator. We want to give everything,  each of us outwardly relative to the others, to this common connection of all that is good and kind in us. This is the correct aspiration of a person through a group to the Creator.
[293672]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1

Related Material:
Direct Degree To The Creator
Making A Step Toward The Creator
To Become Similar To The Creator

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Events, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →

Question: Our convention is called “Rising Above Ourselves.” Could you give an outline for everyone of what we should do at this congress? What task would you set for us now?

Answer: Ascend above yourselves. We must unite, push, stomp on, and suppress our egoism. Not to suppress it so that it does not exist, but to rise above it, until the moment I feel myself in my friends.

And then I want to feel the Creator in all this. But one after the  other: first feel the friends and then the Creator.

Question: So throughout the convention I should feel my friends, not myself?

Answer: Yes. This should run like a thread through the convention: “I want to achieve a sense of connection with my friends, a connection in which I will discover the quality of the Creator, the upper force of bestowal, love, and connection. I don’t need anything else from my life. Just that.”
[293621]
From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/6/22, “Approaching the Creator Through the Network of Connections Between Us” Lesson 1

Related Material:
Everything Is Determined By Unity
Between The Friends
Unity Is A New Reality

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Events, Group Work, Spiritual Work, The Tens - No Comments →