Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Will the Jews be Blamed for the War in Ukraine?”

As with any conflict, especially a major one, it is only a matter of time before a blaming finger is turned toward the Jews. The war in Ukraine is no exception. As the war continues, more and more posts and videos are popping up online blaming Israel, or Jews, or both, for the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine. In our defense, we may argue that the truth is to the contrary: Israel’s prime minister tried his best to broker a truce, we set up a field hospital in Ukraine at our own expense, Israel took in tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees although we are a very small country, and Ukraine’s prime minister is himself Jewish. But no one listens to us since the hatred of Israel and Jews is as old as Judaism itself, and its roots are buried deep in the heart of every person on the planet.

In his comprehensive composition A History of ‎the Jews, acclaimed historian Paul Johnson eloquently articulated how the world feels about Jews: “At a very early stage in their collective existence they [Jews] believed they had ‎detected a divine scheme for the human race, of which their own society was to be a pilot.”

Indeed, the Jewish people did not evolve naturally, out of a core clan or tribe. It evolved by gradually gathering individuals from many different tribes and nations over generations. These individuals eventually amalgamated into a nation by following a single tenet that determined everything they did: the aspiration to love each other as themselves.

If you examine the legacy of Judaism, you will find that it consists primarily of social rules that determine how to build a just and cohesive society where people care for one another. This is why Rabbi Akiva, possibly the greatest sage since Moses, said that the encompassing law of Judaism is “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is also why Hillel, another one of our greatest sages, said to a man who asked him to explain the whole Torah (Jewish law) in a nutshell (allegorically, while he is standing on one leg): “That which you hate, do not do unto another; the rest is commentary.”

When we were tasked with being “a light unto nations,” at the foot of Mt. Sinai, this love of others was the “light” that we were ordered to shine, our unity above all differences. King Solomon immortalized the tenet of love above all divisions with his words (Prov. 10:12), “Hate stirs up strife, and love will cover all crimes.”

Throughout our ancient history, we struggled to maintain our unity and love for one another. We fought to overcome internal hatred and struggles that arose within us, and be the light to the nations that we were ordered to be.

However, toward the beginning of the Common Era, we succumbed to self-hatred and our social structure collapsed. That failure had made us the world’s pariahs, as we had failed to be a light unto nations. Until we restore our unity and fulfill our vocation, the nations will not forgive us and will not want us among them.

For the most part, they will not be able to articulate exactly why they hate us, so they will rationalize their anger by blaming us for contemporary plights such as diseases, wars, economic crises, religious conflicts, and all the other problems for which Jews have been blamed. However, underneath them all, there is, was, and will be only one grievance that the world has against us: our lack of unity, and in consequence, our failure to shine the light of unity to the nations.

Only when we rise above the division that has been tearing us apart from within for more than two millennia, the world will accept and welcome us. If we unite, we will not need to explain our position; we will not need to justify ourselves; and we will not need to fight against antisemitism. If we defeat the antisemite within us, who hates his own brethren, the external antisemitism will vanish on its own.
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Medium published my new article “Indebted against Our Will”

Much has changed in the job market over the past two years. There is a constant shortage of employees as more and more people are unwilling to groan under jobs they do not like. They are looking for freedom and satisfaction, and they are willing to settle for lower wages in return for more freedom. People are becoming increasingly narcissistic. As a result, they are reluctant to follow instructions, and will easily quit just to be free of their bosses. In many cases, people have become so rebellious that they can barely obey law enforcement officers. They simply cannot bow to anyone. But when we break the system that sustains us without building a better one instead, we are risking ourselves and all of society.

If we live in a society, any society, we are indebted to it whether we like it or not. The society influences us, and we influence the society. Since we cannot survive on our own, we are compelled to live in a society.

Therefore, in order to live in a society that we like, we must know the rules of our society and how to conduct ourselves calmly within it. To achieve calm, we must maintain balance among all parts of society. This includes not only the people in our society, but our entire environment, since our peace of mind and well-being depend not only on the people around us, but also on the climate, vegetation, and everything that surrounds us.

The key word in the formula that makes life peaceful and sustainable is “balance.” Everything in nature is balanced in the sense that it is equally nourished by its surroundings and nourishes its surroundings.

We, on the other hand, think only of ourselves. We have no interest in giving anything to anyone. But a society of narcissists is unsustainable. Since everyone operates with only themselves in mind, the society is collapsing. This imbalance between giving and receiving is the source of all our troubles.

We struggle against the compulsion to maintain balance, but the result is that we are in a climate crisis, social crisis, and an economic crisis. There is a growing shortage of food, extreme weather events are increasing in frequency and ferocity, inflation is soaring, and social orders are collapsing the world over.

If we want to feel free, we must free ourselves from egoism. This is what causes our narcissism, and this is our real tyrant. The ego enslaves us and forces us to obey its will. If we choose freedom from egoism, we will learn what real freedom means.
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There is no need to be afraid that all our attempts to bestow will eventually turn into an egoistic action for our own sake. We still need to continue. If I give a friend a gift, then of course, this is also an egoistic action, but it is pleasant to me and pleasant to the one to whom I do it.

It turns out that we get closer and thus provide the Creator with a place where He can enter between us. The closer we are to each other, the more opportunities the Creator has to be included in this gap.

The Creator does not need a wide gap; on the contrary, He needs there to be a difference between one and the other, but it should be zero. If there is a difference, but this difference is zero, then the Creator is there.

We want to bring our qualities, intentions, thoughts, and desires so closely together that they all act in the same direction and so there is almost no difference between them. The difference between us comes from the side of nature, from the side of the Creator, but we want to merge with each other above these differences.

It turns out that the gap between us in our connection is zero, and then we reveal the Creator in it one hundred percent. After all, the Creator does not need a place; if there is a place, these are already impure forces.

If we would wish to get so close that there will be zero gap between us, then the Creator will do it.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/22, “Pesach (Passover)”

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does nature do for human beings?“

Nature is global and integral. It demands of us humans to consciously, scientifically and rationally abide by its law of integral connection, that we would create systems in humanity that let us align with its principle law.

When we correct our connections to each other in such a way, we then reach a state where nature’s other levels, i.e., its still, vegetative and animate levels, would also “click” into balance and the world would become calmer and more peaceful.

“Correcting our connections to each other” means organizing our lives such that we would enjoy positive connections to each other all around the world. When it comes to developing a common concern for each other and our planet, our very survival is at stake.

The more we head into the future without correcting human connections, then the more we will experience negative feedback from nature as various disasters, pandemics, shortages and other crises. Moreover, the severity of such blows would increase until a very small number of people would remain on the planet, who would understand that they have no choice but to build positive and caring connections.

Based on the video “What Does Nature Want?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Are people with an obvious inclination for power closer to correction and spiritual development? According to the pyramid of desires, they should be more developed.

Answer: Perhaps they are closer to recognizing the evil of power, but it depends on the circumstances. The fact is power is not about only one person. We are talking about an individual who exists in society. Therefore, we cannot talk about him in isolation from society, from the outer conditions.

Thus, we have to take into consideration a person, society, the Creator, and the way the Creator governs us through society.

Question: How will the desire for power be expressed within a person in the future?

Answer: I hope we will show people that power has to be kind and caring just like a mother’s power over her baby. Such should be the power of the society over an individual and no more.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/22/22

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Comment: Over a year ago the biggest trade agreement in history between 15 countries was signed. It promised an increase in income for every third inhabitant of the planet and gave hope for the revival of world trade and cooperation. The agreement united China and the Asian-Pacific region countries including Australia, Japan, and South Korea.

The agreement allows trading partners in Asia to gain access to each other’s markets, reduce taxes on goods, and improve living standards, especially for the poorest countries in the region. They say: “The agreement is open to all. We are waiting for India here.”

Why not live like that? They set noble goals. Even though they are egoistic, they are set to provide income for people who are poor and have nothing today.

My Response: Yes, people there live poorly, of course.

Question: Why can’t all leaders rise above their pride, enter into one union and start to slowly revive our world, which is falling economically all the time?

Answer: I do not think it is possible. I do not even hope that it will all be as cheerful as they write. Someone has to win at the expense of the one who loses.

Such is our world! Therefore, agreements are agreements, but then politics and petty egoism come into play, and that is it.

Question: So we will not be able to live normally in this world?

Answer: No. We cannot. And these good impulses, they are all not good. The point is, how will they win? At the expense of whom will they win?

Question: So you think that one way or another, I have to suppress someone?

Answer: Our world is created in this way.

Question: And when they say “equal agreements”?

Answer: It is what they always say: mutually beneficial conditions, mutual trade, wellbeing of nations.

Question: What union will work?

Answer: The one that has a different goal: to lead people to unity, to rise above themselves, above their egoism, and above their nature. Otherwise nothing will work.

Question: So my goal to provide wellbeing to a third or half of the world’s population, to the whole world, will not work anyway?

Answer: No.

Question: And the goal should be that the people of the world will be able to unite?

Answer: Yes. Such a goal is in a state of good balance with the general force of nature and with the general development of humanity. And then of course, it will work.

Question: Can you imagine such leaders who say: “We are now uniting in order to…”?

Answer: And they will explain that “might goes before right,” that you cannot go against nature. And it turns out that going against this basic law of nature is stepping on some kind of a rake again, on one side or on the other, under some other pretext, it does not matter.

Question: That is, if a person does not change and is a wolf to another man, or will be in competition with another one …?

Answer: They are originally wolves. And they will not cover it up with some good external deeds. This will come out and lead them perhaps to an even bigger war among themselves.

Question: Are you saying that if we are wolves, then we cannot achieve anything in this world?

Answer: Nothing, only suppressing each other, only rising one above the other. We must play our egoism.

Question: Who does the wolf have to become for everything to happen? For everything to be good?

Answer: He must understand his wolf nature, and understand that nowadays we cannot act any other way, but only by being aware of our nature and gradually resisting it together. It is not easy, but we should at least admit it.

Question: What advice would you give to these leaders in this situation, in this world? If you were listened to, what would you say? Take care of yourself?

Answer: Yes, take care of yourself. Write a general memorandum of your intentions and how you expect them to be realized; explain it to each other. This is possible only if you advance alongside the development of nature so that your development coincides with its development.

We see over the course of millions of years (with humanity it is over thousands of years) how nature develops us egoistically and at the same time creates such conditions that we must somehow cope with this egoism and balance it. And if we do not, then it is done through war.

So we have no choice but to first understand our nature, what state we are in and what the path of our development should be and that it must necessarily be in connection between us above our egoism.

Question: And is this your advice to leaders?

Answer: Yes, to admit that we all are egoists. It is not that difficult. But the fact that we should work on our egoism and get closer to each other, this is already a problem. How can we see us rising above egoism and acting against it? How can we weaken the egoistic ties between us and replace them with some kind of more or less altruistic, equal ties that are actually based on mutual understanding and mutual connection? It is not easy.

Question: Would the law of mutual guarantee that we are talking about suit them? Can it be included in the memorandum?

Answer: In principle, this implies that we commit to act in mutual assistance.

Question: Mutual assistance to what?

Answer: Mutual economic assistance, which in fact provides for universal development, the one in which no one acts at the expense of others, so that no one suppresses anyone else.

And how is this possible if we are in a closed space, in the closed world? We must initially determine for ourselves the norms of our behavior, each one in relation to all. It is, as it were, a group of 15 people who must work out some kind of a system for relating harmoniously.

Question: And if they decide to build some kind of common territory in which everyone will, in general, be satisfied with this connection, then should they follow these principles?

Answer: They must develop the population. They must explain to the population that the future of the world lies in a good connection between people, otherwise war in our time will destroy them in a second.

Therefore it is necessary to act in such a way so as not to lead these 15 countries to a fierce war in which they have already been, each in their own way; but here it can explode in general. So this association will split into many different small associations, which will begin to fight among themselves, hog the blanket, and this will all end.

Question: This striving for a good connection is necessary, isn’t it?

Answer: Who will lead this good relationship? Who will promote it? Who understands what this good connection means? Who will oppose the egoistic one-man politicians, each of whom in turn wants to climb over everyone and be above them? This is the nature of our world. And who is in charge of these states? The biggest egoists.

So I do not know. Personally when I look at it all, I just care that it does not explode.

If they do not follow the path of the correct education of the population of their 15 countries, then in the end they will see how angry they are with each other, how much their inner egoism does not allow them to connect with each other at least to some extent, and as a result a trade war will begin, then a political war, and then a real war.

Question: So isn’t education the only way?

Answer: Only education, changing a man.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/3/22

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Question: It is known that stress increases the likelihood of hypertension, heart attack, and stroke, and it shortens life.

But at the same time, other research  concludes that the absence of stress has a bad effect on a person’s tendency to empathize and that their positive emotions are less vivid. And it is very interesting that embryos that have been stressed during fertilization are more successfully attached in the uterus and fathers with high levels of the stress hormone take better care of the child.

Is it necessary to fight stress? What is it and why is it given to us?

Answer: Our life is stressful all the time. And inside it, at all biological levels, there is also constant stress. Life is a clash of opposites and their combinations. It occurs on the border between plus and minus. And therefore it can always be described as stress.

Question: So is the combination of opposites such an explosion? Is stress good or bad?

Answer: It’s all necessary. When it is necessary, we don’t define it as good or bad. Rather, we need to talk about how we can manage these states.

Question: So stress can be managed?

Answer: Absolutely! Otherwise, why are we given brains and our whole environment? In order to adapt ourselves to proper stress management.

Question: How can stress be managed?

Answer: It is by understanding that the combination of plus and minus at all levels, in all circumstances, is necessary and should exist, and we need to learn how to do it.

Question: How do we do it?

Answer: It is very simple. Build love over all manifestations of hatred.

It is the same principle. There must be hatred, rejection, and any negative and above it undoubtedly a positive.

This is what the science of Kabbalah speaks of—how to get a plus from a minus, to leave a minus and leave a plus, and so that they exist in addition to each other. In Kabbalah, this is explained as the correspondence of darkness and light.

Question: But how do I attract love if I hate, and hate intensely?

Answer: This must be achieved through education, when a person realizes that there is no plus without minus and no minus without plus and that the correct combination of the two creates life. When a person comes to this understanding, he becomes calm and reasonable, follows the middle line, and builds himself and the world.

Question: What are my actions if I hate?

Answer: Realize that everything comes from an upper force and is given to us so that we balance all negative qualities, properties, and circumstances with positive ones. And all this can happen only in our awareness. When we realize this, we begin to treat everything with kindness, we do not denying anything, but rather we accept everything as an absolute necessity.

Question: So is this hatred a necessity now?

Answer: It is necessary for us to rise above it and exist above it and in it. And then we will balance these two forces of creation: plus and minus.

Question: That’s the whole difficulty: above it, is it possible somehow?

Answer: No, it will only be possible egoistically. In order to exist with it, it is necessary to rise above it and balance all negative properties by adhering to the Creator.

Question: It’s not easy. Can you give some simple formula for rising above hatred?

Answer: The formula is such, that minus equals plus. That is it. Where there is a minus, you should see a plus.

Question: What I hate now is a minus?

Answer: This is a minus until you realize that it is also a plus at the same time.

Question: So it’s good that I hate now?

Answer: Yes. But why is it given to you? So that you can turn it into a plus.

It means to understand that your attitude to the world depends on your attitude to the world. You have to change your attitude to the world. And how? It’s very simple. Replace egoism with altruism and hatred with love. And everything will be fine.

Question: So I hate this person, but I say to myself: “This is given to me so that I love him”?

Answer: You are given just the opposite properties. Replace them with the reverse ones and you will receive a wonderful world.

Question: Is it within my power?

Answer: It is not within your power to transform or to accomplish it, but it is in your power to ask the Creator to make it so you reach a state where you really crave it.

Question: Is this what hatred comes for? So that I beg that I want passionately to replace it with love?

Answer: Yes. And then you will realize that all this was not for that, but in order for you to have contact with the Creator. And that’s it.

Question: Is He calling us to turn to Him?

Answer: Otherwise we would not have turned in His direction.
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From the TV program “News with Michael Laitman” 12/23/21

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Question: Today, in the era of neoliberalism, the power of the state over the individual is gradually waning. Is this good or bad for the development of mankind?

Answer: I do not think that the power is diminishing because the state does not give up its positions, its power, and does not transfer them to the individual.

Comment: But a person feels freer than a few hundred years ago.

My Response: He feels this way only because he is constantly inventing all sorts of mechanical machines, toys, and tools that give him the illusion of freedom, but nothing more. Are we free? Today I depend on everyone: they listen to me, everyone can see where I am, what I am, and so on. Where is this freedom?

Comment: Anyway, a few hundred years ago, any ruler could do whatever he wanted with an individual without any punishment. Today, there is no such thing in democratic countries.

My Response: It does not mean anything. The freedom that we had before has taken a different form today. But this does not mean that we are free. Just as you let a child out of your arms, he runs around on the lawn, and it seems to him that he is free. But you are watching him.

That is, the nature of man has not changed, just the power over people has taken other forms, even more defined, rigid, and restricting. They watch you; they see right through you!
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/22/22

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Comment: I heard of a case where the parents of students filed a lawsuit against the teachers who taught their children that man originated from the ape.

My Response: Our body really originates from a monkey, and our “I” comes from the upper force. You cannot get away from it! They forget about the second half.

The human in me did not come from a monkey. Only my body is a consequence of animal development.

Comment: The fact is that those parents urged the teachers to give a child some freedom of choice between the fact that he is not only a body and that it is possible that there is something else in it.

My Response: To choose between a monkey and the Creator? Good choice. But how will they do it?

In fact, between the monkey and the Creator there is the “I” of man. If you open Kabbalistic books written long before Darwin, you will see that the human body originated from the monkey—from inanimate to vegetative level, from vegetative to animate.

This is stated in The Book of Zohar 2,000 years ago and in the writings of the Ari 600 years ago. And Darwin’s theory is only 250 years old.

The intermediate state between the animal and human body is the monkey. Nevertheless, it will be proven by science. But that is not the problem!

The problem is that the human self has no connection with the monkey. It is just our body, our physiology, our flesh.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Theater of the Absurd” 7/18/10

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Pesach (Passover)” 

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