Audio Version Of The Blog – 3/27/22
Posted on March 27th, 2022
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What should we learn from the Ukraine and Russia War?“
We need to learn that the reason for war is the hatred that dwells among us all. Also, we need to wage war on this hatred, to push ourselves into the fight against our own ego—the force within us that constantly makes us consider self-benefit over benefiting others—in order to rise above our egos and positively connect to each other. By doing so, we will win and reach a state where there is no war.
At the moment, we see that each side points out the other side as the egoists, the fascists, and it is snowballing. We see repeats of scenes that we thought belonged 100 or so years in the past: from refugee children and elderly people standing outside in the freezing cold, to horrific scenes of the aftermath of battle. However, our ego will show us scenes from even a thousand years ago until we reach the decision that we need to let go of it.
While our ego is our nature, and it is natural to think about ourselves over others, what we miss in such a picture is that we need to reach the recognition of evil. “Recognition of evil” means becoming aware of the inherent evil of our egoistic nature; that our ego lets us feel only ourselves, and instead of ourselves, we need to feel others, i.e. to transition from “me to we.”
Such a transition is called “correction.” Until we undergo such a correction, our sense of self—our ego—will continue making us suffer. We should thus seek how we can make the monumental shift from “me to we” as quickly as possible, and focus our prayers also for this most significant correction to happen.
Based on the video “What Should We Learn from the Russia-Ukraine War?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “AIPAC’s Super Pac Marks Its Course”
According to a story that went up on JTA, the AIPAC Political Action Committee (PAC) is what we would expect from a lobbying group whose stated mission is “to encourage and persuade the US government to enact specific policies that create a strong, enduring and mutually beneficial relationship with our ally Israel.” However, “The ‘super PAC’ that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee launched in December … is more opaque: It’s called the United Democracy Project. Its brief mission statement does not mention Israel nor the powerhouse pro-Israel lobby behind its founding. Instead, it emphasizes the promotion of democracy.” When AIPAC spokesman Marshall Wittmann had to explain why the super PAC does not state that it supports Israel, he avoided the question and “did not directly answer.”
The omission of Israel from the new PAC’s mission statement highlights the course that American Jewry has been on for years: away from the State of Israel. Other than orthodox organizations, there is no connection between American Jewry and the State of Israel, and the new PAC simply spells it out.
It is not because of the policy of this or that Israeli government; it is much deeper than that. American Jewry is divesting from Israel as part of a process of divesting from Judaism altogether. Some people may resent the uncouth statement, but I always choose truth over manners.
I have no doubt that politicians will continue to make pilgrimages to AIPAC conventions and say all the right words, but the rift will continue to widen. Eventually, no one will be able to deny it.
If Israel had any inner strength, it would tell AIPAC, and all the other organizations that pretend to support it, that since they are not true to their words, they will have no prerogatives in Israel. They may come and visit like any other tourist, but nothing more than that.
The problem is that Israel will never do that because it is powerless. Our only source of strength is our unity. Since we have none of it, we have no strength at all. We grovel before anyone who smiles at us, and kowtow to bureaucrats and peddlers who promise us the world, but never deliver. We are so insecure because of our division that we cannot see that the State of Israel no longer needs outside help. We have developed to the point where the country is independent with or without external funds. Regrettably, we will not see it as long as we are weak within—divided to the core.
AIPAC’s New PAC is an opportunity for us to wake up, grow up, and realize that we are on our own. We have no one but each other. It is time for Israel to become the nation it is meant to be.
We can stand up to the bigotry and hatred of the United Nations only if we stand as a united nation. We ourselves are a miniature United Nations. Our ancestors did not come from one place or one tribe; they came from all over the Fertile Crescent and formed a nation through their sole desire to unite above their differences. We were a startup nation from the get go.
Our “algorithm” is unique: Stay different, yet stay together. When we abide by it, we are the strongest in the world and the world admires us. When we abandon it, we are the world’s laughing stock.
For Jews, education for unity is the single most important goal. “Love your neighbor as yourself” was our first “export,” and the most valuable ever. Regrettably, we have stopped producing it, so the world thinks it is a hoax. After all, who would buy a product denounced by its own manufacturer?
If we return to our roots, we will not need any lobbyists pretending to support us. Our unity will be our best promotion and the only one we will ever need.
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Medium published my new article “Being Free and Interdependent”
“Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains,” said Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his time. Who puts the chains on us that deny us freedom? That is the question. Is it the environment or ourselves? Or is it just the nature of life? The answer depends on the depth of our contemplation.
From infancy, people are obliged to do all kinds of things. Babies are born, fed, and nurtured along certain paths as part of their development. Even if they do not want to receive medicine, for example, it is given to them. Then they are sent to kindergarten, to school. They have to get up early, get organized in a hurry, follow a rigid schedule all day, listen to things that do not necessarily interest them, and do homework. As we raise our children and prepare them for life, they have no freedom of choice.
Because a habit becomes second nature, we do not feel like we are handcuffed. We have become accustomed to the boundaries and conditions that have been set, and we feel free within those boundaries. We unconsciously just let life drive us: studies, career, family, status, successes.
There are those for whom the question of freedom and independence does arise. What am I actually living for? What is the essence and meaning of my life? Just buying a house, a car, going on vacation once in a while cannot be all there is to life. Even if there were to be a new discovery of how to prolong life in good health, would that give me a sense of freedom and make me happier? These are the ultimate big questions that each of us will eventually face.
Misery, at its core, stems from the realization that our life is limited and lacking, without a big and clear goal that we can achieve. Exactly this is the feeling of slavery, literally. If in the past people still managed to turn off the internal questioning by burying themselves in all kinds of mysticisms and religions, today this works less and less. It is no longer purposeful.
There are those who believe that being free means being independent and without any reliance on others. Is such a thing even possible? Because whether I am an employee or self-employed, an entrepreneur, a junior employee, or an executive, I am still dependent on many factors that limit me.
And if I could escape from all the limitations and dependencies on others to a desert island, sitting on a beach that belongs only to me, all alone, would I be defined as free? After all, at every moment new desires would arise in me forcing me to pursue and fulfill them at all costs.
So as we delve deeper into the question of freedom, we discover how vague the notion is. Life, however, has its own dynamic and we evolve from year to year. Sooner or later, even if all our material needs were already fulfilled and there was abundance of everything in the world, the question, “what are we living for?” would come to hound us.
Eventually, each one of us will discover that personal freedom can only be achieved by building a new kind of relationship between us: good, unlimited reciprocal relations. Evolution is moving us, the human race, forward toward such an integral connection, and within this connection that we will discover a completely new kind of life for ourselves.
Like children who run around the house in joyful abandon next to their mother who they know will take care of them and prepare everything that is good for them, a sense of freedom will grow within us as we develop love and closeness in the relationships between us. An assurance will grow that I will not have to defend myself against you and you against me; my heart will be open to you and yours to me.
The genuine human connection of mutual care and consideration will free us from worrying about ourselves and rid us of stress, problems, and struggles. The power of love and giving will fill all of creation, and this is the integral force that connects all parts of nature into a wonderful seamless fabric for an ultimately fulfilling existence.
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It is already clear to us that we are in a state of exile; it is called Pesach (Passover) because we need to pass through it (Pasach) in order to enter the spiritual world and come out of the state where we do not feel the Creator, which is exile. Previously, we did not feel that we are in exile at all and that we lack spirituality, bestowal, and love. We just wanted more of the usual corporeal benefits in life.
However, when we enter the exile, the need to reach connection and the quality of bestowal develops within us. We begin to recognize our egoism; we try to reveal the qualities that prevent us from exiting Egypt, and we get rid of them in order to come to spiritual qualities instead: to the land of Israel, to the intention to bestow.
This is the time when a person discovers his egoistic desire and decides that it is evil because it does not allow him to rise from this world in order to become closer to the Creator, to the force of bestowal and love. He begins to realize that in this life he lacks the feeling of the Creator.
These states are revealed in a person gradually, depending on his realization. Sometimes he associates himself with reception, then with bestowal; sometimes he seeks to unite with others, then move away from them. We need to go through all this and feel it in order to give importance to our relationships: to what extent we feel close to each other, that is, ready to exit Egypt, or separated, that is, in exile and far from redemption.
Or perhaps we have not even entered the exile yet because we do not feel that we are suffering from our separation.
We see the states that humanity is going through now: wars, hatred, consolidation, and confrontation between unification and rejection. This is how we live between hatred and love, and we must choose where we want to go. It is said that a person should see himself coming out of Egypt every day, that is, he should check his attitude regarding coming out of egoism, whether he is in Egypt or whether he is close to redemption.
It is impossible to exit Egypt before we connect or at least understand that it depends on our inner connection and that we all have one goal for which we live. If we manage to reach connection in our global Kabbalistic group, then it will spread to all of humanity.
We need to feel how much we are distanced from each other, but want to come closer and closer in order to feel ourselves in one common desire, in one intention and yearning, standing before one Creator who unites us. If we want to connect with the Creator, we must first connect with each other. It depends on our connection how much we can connect to our one, single root.
Until we finish this work, we will not be able to come out of exile. All of us need to connect with each other and with the Creator as soon as possible. Everyone should help others in this because we all depend on each other. To the extent of our inner rapprochement, we come closer to redemption. The difference between the word “redemption (Geula)” and “exile (Galut)” is only in one additional letter “Aleph” which symbolizes the name of the Creator (the first in the world).,
If we add only one condition to the exile, the presence of the Creator within our connection, who will illuminate and fill all the voids and severed ties between us, then we will reveal Him and attain the upper world—spirituality. This will be called the exodus from exile, from the lack of feeling the Creator to His revelation, from our separation to connection.
The connection between us is the Kli, and the fulfillment that is revealed in it is the Creator, the light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/22, “Pesach (Passover)”
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There was a Jewish man in Shushan, the capital. Why was his name “Jewish,” since he was a Benjamite? It is because he unified the name of the Creator before all the people in the world. And because he unified the name of the Creator, he was called Yehudi [Jewish] – Yechidi [unique] (Megilat Esther) .
“Yichud” means one, the only, the one. This word was used by the Jews of that time because they believed in a single Creator and that only the quality of bestowal should prevail in the world. Not only Mordecai was in such a realization, but also a whole nation.
In a rage, Haman decides to destroy not only Mordechai—the desire not to receive for himself—but all Jews, that is, the forces striving for unity.
Haman said to King Ahasuerus: There is a certain people, scattered and dispersed among the other peoples in all the provinces of your realm, whose laws are different from those of any other people and who do not obey the king’s laws; and it is not in Your Majesty’s interest to tolerate them.
The Jews did not want to obey Haman and Ahasuerus because the laws that reigned in this empire and in general on Earth were egoistic.
Question: Aren’t the laws of Ahasuerus laws of the Creator?
Answer: No. This is a two-faced king. Sometimes he is like the Creator and sometimes he is the opposite. It is unclear whether he is with Mordechai or Haman. That is the whole problem. What do we see in the world? The triumph of egoism. Whoever has more of it in all the qualities of a person is stronger, smarter, and luckier.
Therefore, it is said that everyone living in the capital of Shushan is perplexed: “So where is the Creator? Where is His strength? How does He manifest?”
Here, the action of Purim arises (Purim from the word “Pur, lot”), lots are cast. Otherwise, I cannot collect myself and find out who is in charge of this world: the Creator, the great, the whole, or the evil forces of nature. One of two things.
Evil forces of nature appear in front of me all the time. How do I know that there are good forces behind them? How can we reveal them? Megilat Esther gradually tells about this. After all, “Megila” is from the word “Gilui, revelation.” And “Ester” is concealment. Meaning, the revelation of concealment.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/15/22
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Israel Is Only the Beginning”
A few days ago, Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Israel’s prime minister, Naftali Bennett, and the de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, held a confidential meeting in Egypt. The three met to discuss possible repercussions of the new nuclear pact with Iran. I think there is good reason for concern. While the Iranian people are not inherently hostile to Israel, the extremist regime of the Ayatollahs seeks world domination, and wiping Israel off the map is part of their plan to rule the world.
A nuclear agreement will not prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. On the contrary, it will lift sanctions, release seized funds, and enable the fanatic regime to develop whatever it wants. This should be of great concern not only for Israel, but for every country in the world, and first and foremost for the countries in the region. This is why the leaders of countries that are threatened by the nuclear ambitions of Iran’s leadership met, and the unlikely alliance should send a warning signal for everyone.
The war in Ukraine and the looming nuclear pact signal to all of us that we must make a thorough revision of everything. We need to carefully examine what we want with ourselves, what we expect from life, from humanity, what future we are preparing for our children, if any, and what future we would like to build for them.
At the current levels of belligerence around the world, there is only one direction where the world can go: destruction. As Russia’s foreign minister has warned, if we end up in another world war, it will be a nuclear one. At the end of the war, we will still have to rethink everything, just as I am suggesting now, so why not do it while we are still here, instead of leaving it to the tormented few who will survive a global nuclear extinction?
I think we should all realize that from here on, things will only deteriorate until everything collapses. If we understand this, we will be able to agree to sit down and contemplate how we can prevent the impending catastrophe. We will succeed only if everyone agrees and cooperates. Since today, every country can set off a world war, all the countries must convene and jointly resolve to reform their connections.
There will be no affinity among the countries, no warmth or sympathy. However, it will buy us time to start building a new spirit.
Then, when we understand that no one succeeds unless we all succeed, we will be able to build a common world society where nations are not inherently hostile to each other, and even respect each other’s contribution to the world society. In such a state, we will be able to resolve differences without violence.
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Question: What is this concept of judging the Creator? How can one ever judge the Creator?
Answer: We always judge the Creator by judging our life, ourselves, everything He has created, what He has done to us, and how He governs us.
In order to objectively judge the Creator, you must first reach the level of independence in order to rise above your nature and be independent of both yourself and the Creator.
Therefore, until a person is freed from his egoistic intentions, he cannot objectively judge the actions of the Creator in relation to him and others.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/11/22
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Question: Jews not only head to Israel, but they also disperse all over the world. Where can Jews find a quiet, warm place?
Answer: I think that they will not find such a place anywhere. Of course they can find temporary shelter here or there. But in principle the entire globe is already beginning to turn brown: South America, North America, and Asia are on the way. Together, fascism and pan-Arabism will make life unbearable for Jews everywhere.
Question: Why are we driven from everywhere? Why have we been treated like this since Roman times?
Answer: For not fulfilling our historical function. We all owe. We must show people the correct existence of a nation. And in general, there is no such thing as the Jewish people because we are gathered from the 70 nations of the world.
At one time in ancient Babylon, Abraham, the religious leader of the Babylonians, began to gather like-minded people around him and teach them to unite in order to be like one person with one heart and one thought. He led a group of people who agreed with his teachings from Babylon to the land of Israel. This was the beginning of the formation of the Jewish nation, which was basically assembled from the 70 major peoples of the world.
Question: Let’s say that the Jews in all manifestations start behaving correctly and unite. Then what? There will be no governments? Will there be just one country? What will it look like?
Answer: Indeed, it will be like one country, like one nation on the entire globe. And people will understand that it is in this form that they can exist.
Question: Do you think this is possible?
Answer: This is spiritual evolution that we are participating in.
I wish all people to know the purpose of life, the purpose of human existence. This will answer all questions, including how we should live, what we should achieve, how to raise children, and where we should arrive.
Question: If humanity studies its properties, won’t the principle of unification become a dangerous weapon in the hands of vain people?
Answer: No. If the association is carried out according to the correct laws, it brings great benefit to all because it corresponds to a single integral nature.
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From KabTV’s “Meetings with Kabbalah” 1/5/22
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The most fundamental book on Kabbalah, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, begins with the question of the meaning of life. This book includes information about the entire universe from the moment of its creation to its correction and the achievement of the most complete state. It is very specific, covers everything, and is intended only for Kabbalists.
The “Preface to the Study of the Ten Sefirot” explains why a person needs Kabbalah and knowledge about all the worlds, their structure, interaction, and functioning.
From the first page, the reader is led to a very simple question. Do you wonder what the meaning of life is? What do you fill yourself with? If you are satisfied, go on living as you have lived.
But if you ask yourself this question and feel empty, if you ask about the meaning of life and do not understand what it is for and this question weakens you so much that it makes you depressed, gives you a lack of motivation to do anything, then this book is for you. It will tell you where you really are, what your purpose is, what you can really realize now, and what to achieve.
A person is offered eternity and perfection, otherwise it is not worth living.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up, Summing Up” 4/7/10
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