Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What happens if a kid hits a teacher?“

Recently in Israel, a ninth grader at an art school in Tel Aviv slapped his teacher in the face, and it was followed by other students in the class applauding him. The student was suspended, and the teachers at the school spoke out against violence and discontinued their work that day.

I see this incident as a result of our current form of education. It is as if that boy gave a slap to the whole education system, and it could be that all teachers and the entire education system need to feel it. He is a result of that system, which includes not only the schooling he receives, but our society in general, our families, schools, workplaces, the media, TV, radio, and what goes on in the streets. If horrible examples are abundant in the environment that influences us, then what do we expect to see in our lives? Today’s youth are simply the results of this environment.

We need to completely change this education system because it currently has no aim of nurturing and growing children into happy, confident and well-connected human beings. Instead, it aims at nothing more than giving people a few subjects, and leading them to a certain grade standard. In other words, today’s education fails to develop the inner human in us.

What should be the main objective of the education system? It should be to develop human beings in the fullest sense of the term. In order to develop human beings, the educators themselves require learning of what that means and how to do it. If we bring about such a change, then we will start seeing the emergence of a whole new harmonious and peaceful society. Children and teens will have a positive attitude toward their parents, teachers and other people in general. We will also know how to positively connect with each other, why we connect, what is the meaning of life, and how to realize it.

That is of utmost importance in education. We will also learn different subjects and topics along the way, but we need a new foundation that defines who and what we are, why we are here, and how we can improve ourselves.

Based on the video “Ninth-Grader Slaps Teacher in the Face – A Kabbalist’s Response” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do people burn books?“

Book burning is an expression of destroying ideas that were built on a previous generation, which is considered outdated and opposed to the ideas of the new generation. Quite frankly, it is an easier action than educating the current generation.

Education, however, cannot be replaced by anything else because its goal is to bring about inner change in people. Everything other than education is something external. Expressing hatred toward certain writers and books is a departure from correct education.

Past writers wrote what they did in a way considered correct for their time. In general, each generation destroys what the previous generation built, but there is a correct way to destroy something in order to correctly build anew.

The correct form of education is when people are taught to love one another. By reaching a common love among everyone, we remove the basis of inequality. Book burning, however, lets hatred proliferate among all strata of the population.

We need an approach where we accept the occurrence of whatever happened in the past, and we should not burn anything or break any monuments. In other words, we should not recall the bad. Instead, from the present moment onward, we should adjust our attitudes to each other—to try and love one another. We would then have no need to destroy anything that came beforehand.

We would then also understand that whatever happened had to have happened the way that it did. We were all young, we soiled our diapers. That is how we grew up. We did silly things, smashed and broke dishes, or whatever else. We all went through such paths of growth.

We undergo natural stages of maturation, and we should not forget about what has happened. Moreover, we have nothing to be ashamed of nor to justify in our past. We just have to understand why nature made us the egoistic beings that we are, and that we have a massive ego still dwelling in us. We should then focus on what we need to do in order to correct our current ego.

The human ego is a desire to benefit at the expense of others and nature. It enslaves each and every one of us within ourselves. If we set ourselves on a path to break free from our enslavement to the ego, we would then become grateful for the pages of history, because they led to our current heightened awareness and the decision to realize our true freedom and independence.

We need to learn how to control the ego dwelling within us correctly. If we destroy it, then we correct nothing, and simply keep ourselves suspended in the air.

Based on the video “Why Do People Burn Books?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Brendan Stephens on Unsplash.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Pesach (Passover)” 

Selected Highlights

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A negative force should be perceived as a necessary element for the right direction toward the goal. In this goal, positive and negative forces come together, and thanks to their connection, the goal becomes visible to us.

In the material world, we first see the target and then we must try to aim at it. But in spirituality, it is completely different: If I aim correctly at the target, then I see that it is in front of me.

In spirituality, we always first find ourselves in front of a wall, and only if we find a solution will we see that there is a door in the wall. And the solution is not to find out what hinders or helps us, but to be able to gather all prerequisites so that they complement each other and there is nothing superfluous.

Therefore, every decision is an achievement of perfection. And in perfection there are no good or bad components, there are no negative or positive ones, but everything complements each other.

In the material world, you can see a closed door, but in the spiritual world, the door is visible only if it is open. An open door can only be seen through the eyes of perfect faith. The moment we reach perfect faith, a passage opens.

If there is a blank wall in front of me where no door is visible, but I really want the passage to open, then it will open.

In the material world, we first see a closed door and only then try to open it. But there are no closed doors in spirituality: either the door is open, or there is only a blank wall. And when I reach perfect faith, I instantly see the open door.

Perfect faith means that nothing separates me from what is on the other side of the wall. If I achieve such qualities in myself, then the separating barrier disappears.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/22, “Pesach (Passover)”

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Comment: Scientists have established that there is no gene of altruism as we understand it in nature. It exists only in the form of collectivism, when I as an egoist perform actions aimed at the benefit of the whole organism because I understand that I cannot exist without it.

This is well known from the example of ants, which when infected with a deadly virus leave the anthill so that they would not infect others.

My Response: Ants have altruism developed at the genetic level and they carry out orders without having freewill. We do not have this gene by nature. Therefore, we cannot compare ourselves with ants. If I were programmed like them, I would also think about my neighbor.

However, this would not be altruism but the same egoism that makes you think about others. Is a mother who thinks about her child an altruist? No, this is her child, and she feels him as the most precious part of herself.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up, Gene of Altruism” 9/19/10

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Question: A person has an inherent need to believe in something, to have idols, to look up to something, to worship something. Is faith inherent in our nature or is it a result of the development of society?

Answer: Faith is a characteristic of a highly developed organism. We cannot say that some primitive creatures or animals have faith. Faith is a natural need of a person since it comes from his insecurities.

Faith is an internal movement of a person who wants to put himself on some kind of pedestal, on some essential natural or scientific basis, where he can rely on something.

Question: As a Kabbalist, what do you believe in, what do you worship?

Answer: In general, I do not believe in anything and I do not worship anyone or anything. But, on the other hand, there are things that I elevate, respect, and try to reach the level of. You can say that I kind of worship them, but this worship is more like respect.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/5/22

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The coronavirus gave us a short breather for a few weeks and then began to spread with renewed vigor. We wonder why this epidemic seemingly will not end? But this is a sign that we have not yet done what we should have done to properly respond to this virus.

As usual, there is no other cure but connection or rapprochement between us and a more human and attentive attitude to each other. This would have greatly weakened the virus.

We expected that after half the country had been ill with omicron, some kind of general immunity would arise, yet for some reason the pandemic is not going away and instead is growing again. The fact is that the previous laws do not apply to this virus. They won’t help anymore.

After all, this is not an ordinary virus, but one that requires us to fix the relationships between people. It would seem, what can the virus know about our relations? However, the virus knows everything because it has all the information inside it. We think it’s just a piece of DNA, but it’s alive!

This is not a dead element or a vegetable, but is in fact on the animal level, the same as ourselves. The coronavirus has a mind and feelings. It perceives the environment and influences it. It is able to connect to others, penetrate into the human body, and integrate into it so much that it begins to control this body.

Do not treat it condescendingly and with neglect. It seems to us, well, how can the virus know if I said hello to my neighbor today? But the virus is smarter than us and it knows everything. The virus controls the world because it is a particle of the Creator.

Coronavirus is an important element of nature, which includes in it a special concentration of all the information about this world in order to influence it. Therefore, it can be destroyed only by improving our human relations.

This may sound a little naive, but let’s try it! We don’t have anything to lose. Let’s start treating each other well and with great attention and care. We will take care of the needy, the elderly, the children, and each other; let us not litter the street or make noise. Let’s try to think about others and try to do everything to make them feel good.

I’m not waiting for someone to tell me what to do, but I’m looking for where I can help others with my kind attitude and show them that I really wish them well. Let’s conduct such an experiment in the country and in a month we will check what the situation is with the coronavirus through the following questions: Is the pandemic continuing or not? How many people have died this month? How many died from road accidents? It’s easy to check, let’s try it.
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From KabTV’s “Insight” 3/21/22

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The question of the purpose of life arises in a person because nature pushes us to this, its program, according to which, we must develop until we comprehend the entire volume of the universe and feel the framework of a common world that goes beyond this world, to wherever we feel ourselves today only in our animal hypostasis.

Today we are made up of inanimate, plant, and animal matter. And we have to go one step further.

We are just animals. As long as I exist, my physical body exists. That is, my “I” is included in this animal and lives in it.

And how can I pull this “I” up from my animal state and make it develop individually, separately from my animal, independently of it, so that even if this animal dies, my “I” remains? How can I tear off this “I” so that it exists independently? This, in principle, is the idea of ​​Kabbalah because in this case we have something to live for.

To tear off your “I” means to rise above your animal state so that it does not prevent you from existing independently. In our world, all sorts of theories have long been developed about how to suppress the body, practically kill it, destroy it with all sorts of suffering, torture, hunger strikes, meditations, etc.

Kabbalah is a special technique based on the fact that a person, along with this life and together with this body, must begin to feel a still and vast world in which his “I” exists above his body, independently of it.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up, Theater of the Absurd” 7/18/10

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Comment: The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud argued that if a person asks about the meaning of life, it is a mental illness.

My Response: From the point of view of a psychoanalyst he is right because a person should live normally and peacefully in his animalistic state. Children, spouse, work, nature, this world, everything is created so that one would find their place in it.

All our impulses, good and not so good ones, both high and low, in principle, should arrange the world that surrounds a person. He must find himself in all this and balance it with all his flaws and opportunities in the environment, in the place, and in the era in which he lives.

Freud was coming from the fact that a person in our world, in general, is self-sufficient. The entire environment around him is designed by the Creator so that a person can reach the right rapport with himself, with nature, and with his inner self.

From Freud’s point of view, everything closes within the framework of our world and there is no need to look for anything else.

On one hand, he was right. Humanity has been moving in this direction for tens of thousands of years since we climbed down from the trees and began to develop as humans. In this regard, we have always found new horizons of development, new motivations in our world. Each generation set itself new tasks and new solutions for them.

In each generation, there was a constant reevaluation of values. Even in ancient Greek writings it was said that our world is not the same as it was before: everyone strives for freedom, children do not listen to their parents. That is, everything moves, everything changes.

Freud had no idea that the world would reach a state where even the most ordinary people would have a question about the meaning of life from within. He believed that a simple person acting within the framework of our world was self-sufficient.

Comment: I imagine the state of a person in whom the question of the meaning of life awakens. He may not always even realize what kind of question it is.

My Response: But this is already a post-Freudian person.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Is Frankl right?” 9/27/10

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Question: Has there ever been a family model in which men and women were equal partners?

Answer: Men and women can be equal partners either in a primitive society where they clearly know their duties, are close to nature, and perform naturally what is given to them by nature.

Or when they, having gone through all the furnace of hell that we went through in our history, reach complete disappointment in what we have done in this world, in the family, with ourselves, with children, and come to the conclusion that we still need to learn from nature how to create a society, family, and the relationship between children and parents based on it.

And then we will need Kabbalah, that explains how to create the right communication in the family, in society, and in the world.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Siamese Twins” 9/19/10

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