Medium published my new article “Humor, a Serious Matter”

What makes humor so necessary in our lives? What should be a source of laughter? Everything has been created for our development, including a sense of humor. It gives us the strength and the ability to develop.

Anyone who is close to people who are professionally involved in the field of humor knows that these are often unhappy types of people by nature, very serious, and sometimes even depressive. Out of the urge to get themselves out of the gray cloud in which they are immersed, they develop a sense of humor.

In general, the more a person develops, the more capable he or she is of appreciating fine humor. I refer to humor that has brilliance — an unexpected connection between distinctive things which in our normal way of thinking are completely unrelated.

Refined humor requires us to be able to observe our nature from the side, to be able to make fun of ourselves. Such humor is based on the ability to identify within ourselves several different identities: the original form we received from nature, the form in which we were educated, and the forms we have adopted throughout various stages in our lives, and these are the forms we have absorbed from others. Out of all these comparisons of identity come all sorts of important inquiries.

Humor can convey criticism, on the one hand, and on the other hand, it should be given in a spirit of love, pleasantly. We should never make fun of others and provoke hatred. We should laugh only about the general frailties that exist in humanity to clarify the weaknesses of our selfish nature as human beings, to help us develop awareness and cognition of our foibles. Because, if we are aware of our negative qualities then we can work on rising above them.

After all, this is the way that nature created us, imperfect. Nature gave us a sense of humor in order to help us to criticize ourselves and transcend our nature. Humor allows us to view ourselves from a higher perspective, and thus it can also help to elevate us outside of our current degree to a higher one. Viewing and laughing at ourselves from the side can spark inner scrutiny into who we truly are. If we know how to laugh at ourselves, then it is as it is written, “God has brought me laughter,” (Genesis 21:6) — a situation from which we can grow.

Good humor should always be gentle, bring about development, and evoke affection for what we are referring to. It is supposed to turn our heads upside down, to soften a rigid atmosphere.

What is it about humor that can open the heart and bring down walls between people? Humor removes from us all the puffed up clothing we put on. It is as if it undresses us from all the poses and masks, making us all equal and simple. When we laugh together about weaknesses that are in all of us alike, we immediately create a softer relationship between us.

There is no stronger means than humor to eliminate boundaries, barriers, and distances. The great challenge of our time, the most serious one, is to develop humor to bring people closer to each other, to make us more connected.
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Medium published my new article “Why We Cannot Stop Fighting”

When you reflect on the history of humanity, you see that people have always been fighting one another. It seems like there is never really peace, but only a pause between battles. Man’s disposition for constant fighting seems even more perplexing when you compare it to nature, where there is fighting only in order to eat, to avoid being eaten, or for the purpose of mating, but then animals rarely hurt each other. Why do humans fight when there is no existential reason that forces them? Moreover, even when a battle is not fought with weapons, we are still at war: We argue, debate, and fight to win the public’s opinion. In short, our entire existence consists of fighting.

There is a good reason for it. It may seem like there is no existential reason that impels us to fight, but in fact there is. While animals fight for their physical survival, we fight for our spiritual survival. Our egos drive us to exceed and triumph, since without feeling superior, our bodies may exist, but we will not feel alive. Nothing is worse for the ego than humiliation; people take their own lives because of it.

In other words, we feel alive only when we dominate someone else. This is the only assertion to our existence that the ego accepts. This is why we are compelled to fight against each other even when there appears to be no reasonable cause for it. Since all our communications, on every level, are battles of some sort, we seem to be condemned to a life of endless battles until we are exhausted and pass away.

But there is a profound reason for it. The endless fighting forces us to ask about the meaning of everything — why we fight, why we hurt each other, why there is so much meanness in the world, and in the end, why we exist.

These questions eventually lead us to realize that there is not only one (evil) force in the world, but rather two forces — one positive and one negative. The positive force creates life, warmth, growth, and connection, while the negative force generates death, cold, decay, and separation. If there were only one of them, we would not exist. It takes both to create life, and it takes both to generate development and change. It turns out that, ironically, it is war that makes us feel alive.

As a result, if one country wants to dominate, there must be other countries, too, so it will have whom to dominate. Also, if one country dominates all the time, the sensation of domination wanes, the high-handed country loses its drive, weakens, and another country takes over.

The battle between the positive and negative forces enables life, so it must exist. However, it is up to us to determine whether it becomes a war or not.

In order to enable existence and development, yet keep them peaceful, we need to understand the meaning of peace. The Hebrew word for peace is shalom, from the word shlemut, which means wholeness or complementation. In other words, there is life only when both sides exist and complement each other. Also, the power of one determines the power of the other, since the struggle between them continually drives them to evolve.

To end wars, we need to understand this process and embrace it. It will not stop the struggle between the forces, but it will make it constructive rather than destructive.

When athletes want to improve their achievements, for example, they train against greater and greater resistance. They understand that only if they challenge themselves will they become better.

Likewise, only if the competition among nations and people intensifies will we all improve. However, only if we remember that the purpose of the competition is not to control, defeat, or humiliate others, but to improve everyone involved, we will be able to both compete, yet welcome our challenges and challengers, for were it not for them, we would stagnate.

When we shift to a mode of mutual complementarity, there will not be anyone who is stronger than the other. Instead, there will be mutual commitment to cater to everyone’s well-being. Our understanding that we are mutually dependent and our perceived adversaries are in fact the guarantee of our development is the key to building a thriving, evolving, and sustainable society around the world and in every country, whose members live peacefully and happily.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is universal spiritual law?“

The universal spiritual law is a law of love, as it is written, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

We lack perception and sensation of this law in our world as it exists in a dimension concealed from our inborn qualities. In order to make contact with this law, we need to equalize our qualities with those of that dimension.

We can discover the universal spiritual law and reveal the dimension where we experience it directly by exiting ourselves. In other words, we need to exit the desires we currently feel, which we know as our earthly world, and enter into the desires that are outside of us, which is called the “upper world” or “spiritual world.” By doing so, we can truly feel what is outside of us: the universal spiritual law.

Based on KabTV’s “Close-Up. Beyond the Last Line” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on May 3, 2010. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Pesach (Passover)” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Exile and Redemption” 

Selected Highlights

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