Comment: In European countries, such as France and Germany, the birth rate is falling. Today, Europeans do not want to have children and openly talk about it.

My Response: This will be the case in most countries of the civilized world. We see no benefit, no purpose, in childbearing. “What do I need this for?! I live in such a way that I curse my life, I feel completely aimless in it, unfulfilled, and it’s all a burden to me. Why should I have children?! So that they live even worse than me?!”

Today humanity has already passed the peak of its development. For many thousands of years we have been climbing and climbing, and we always had the hope that the next generation would be better off. People had a dream, and it didn’t matter that it was incomprehensible, inexplicable.

So, both in Europe and in America, people hoped that they were living in order for their children to be better, and for their grandchildren to be even better. At the end of the twentieth century, the peak of such an attitude to life passed without being noticed. We don’t think like that anymore.

I have talked to hundreds of people all over the world and they all clearly understand this problem. Humanity has lost hope that it is developing for the better.

Why give birth?! For what?! I can allow one child for myself. Not for the child, but for myself. That is, we are egoists, we are ready to give birth to a child so that we have something to do, something to play with, to make life more pleasant for ourselves. But not for the child.

If we thought about them, about the unborn, we would not have given birth to them. After all, we see that our life, as a result, is not filled with anything good; it’s the pursuit of existence in a continuous struggle. And for what?

Even in ancient wisdom it is said: “Not by your will you are born, not by your will you live, not by your will you die.” So why should I do it to them? What would I suffer all my life for? Just to provide them with some kind of existence? What for? What’s the point?

Today, this issue is facing humanity more clearly, acutely, and realistically.
[297677]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Europe Today” 1/26/11

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “The Approach to Studying the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah” (Giving of the Torah) 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 2,” “Inner Observation,” Chapter 3, Item 28

Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is gold so valuable besides humans liking it aesthetically?“

Why is gold so valuable? It is because we want to apply our efforts into various immutable material objects, i.e. objects that will not decay or rust.

In relation to spirituality, gold represents the full correction of egoism, i.e. when our inborn desire to enjoy acquires a full intention of bestowal and love for the other. In the language of Kabbalah, gold represents our connection to the Sefira of Keter, and silver represents the ego’s partial correction, our connection to the Sefira of Bina.

As long as egoism rules in the world, we will value gold as the universal and global equivalent of the egoistic forces, i.e. the forces of the desire to enjoy for self-benefit. But when people trade their egos for positive connection, i.e. when our desire to enjoy acquires an intention to bestow upon others that lets us positively connect to each other, then we will value gold as an ordinary metal, and will no longer use it for trade. At that point, we will only use the value of bestowal to one another as a measure for trading.

Based on the video “Why Is Gold So Valuable?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Jingming Pan on Unsplash.

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Question: Usually, on the eve of the holiday of Passover, hundreds of thousands of Israelis go on vacation to Sinai in Egypt. Does this mean that our nature does not change like in those days when not everyone wanted to exit Egypt? Is a person preoccupied with self-gratification and self-fulfillment?

Answer: Obviously. The nature changes only in those who wish to rise above it.

Question: Can we say that 3,400 years ago a small number of people came out of Egypt, meaning out of egoism, who revealed the Creator?

Answer: No, I cannot say that. It is impossible to explain this! Because our entire world is illusionary, imaginary, and depicted in our feelings. It seems to us that it is something unshakable. But it is nothing! It is sensations that arise and disappear in us; therefore, it is impossible to bring a serious platform to it!

The only thing that is possible is to come, study, and feel for yourself.
[297506]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/14/22

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Question: Is including the entire world into oneself the correct perception of a person? Or, on the contrary, is it the dissolving in the entire world? Can there be such extremes?

Answer: These are not extremes, but essentially the same thing. This means that I have to annul my egoism, my “I,” in relation to the world, and then I will feel that I am within it or it is within me.

The reason for the division between oneself and the entire world lies in a person’s egoism, when I divide everything I sense into “I” and something outside of me. If I gradually erase this boundary, then through leveling my egoism, I will feel the world as a part of me.

In order to perceive the world correctly, I have to annul my egoistic perception, and then I will see the world as it is. Ideally, this is, of course, a long way. It is possible to get closer to this only through connection, adhesion, and coming closer to everyone around.

Inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels of nature exist around us. If we get closer to them, then we are gradually coming closer to embracing all of nature so that it is fully felt by us.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 4/29/22

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Question: Some countries have adopted a law stating that a woman who has three or more children is considered to be a mother of many children and is supposed to devote herself to the family completely.

Why are there periods when the birth rate exceeds the death rate and vice versa when the death rate exceeds the birth rate?

Answer: It depends not on the conditions of our world, but rather on the period when a certain correction takes place in souls. Since our egoism grows and cannot remain in such a huge size in every person, it is like this person has to be divided into a few people. Then each of these people will have less egoism and they will be able to correct it. It is like in the example when we want to lift a trunk of a tree and since it is too heavy we call one more person and one more.

Question: Does it mean that legislation to stimulate the birth rate will not help if the souls will not have a necessity to divide the egoism into a great quantity of parts? It can still correct itself on its own.

Answer: Yes, of course. But on the other side, at the corporeal level, we have to act as usual following the principles accepted in the society. This way we will act on the spiritual principle as well. If people, based on their egoistic interests, want to have more children it will lead in the end to a greater amount of egoism that can be corrected at any given moment of time. Therefore adoption of such laws is still a beneficial thing.

For our egoism today we still lack a few billion people and the correct education. Then we would quickly be able to correct all universal egoism and come to the good state.
[297410]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Outlaw” 12/19/10

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The state to which we are headed is predetermined by nature. It should be such that from the recognition of the inevitability and absolute helplessness, we would come to the conclusion that we have nowhere to run. What is left for us is only to jump out of our essence, out of our nature, to get out of it, to rise above it.

Egoism, which supplies all these problems for us, makes our life worthless, useless, and lately simply unbearable, is, as it is said in the Torah (Bible), “help against you.” Thus, it pushes us out of itself, like the Egyptian plagues that went through people and pushed them out of Egypt. This is how figuratively the development of humanity is presented in the Torah.

That is, attaining our egoism and revealing what an enormous problem it is for our existence will force us to abandon it and move to a different state where we will be connected with each other through other ties of brotherhood, mutual assistance, and kindness.

As a result, either by a good or a bad way, or through war, or through awareness, we still will reach the level of complete interconnection, will become harmonious with nature and absolutely balanced with it.

Then, in this ideal state of balance, we will find ourselves existing in a completely different form, at a level where eternity and perfection, like nature itself, are revealed to us. We will come to this anyway, but perhaps through bad development. Here is a very critical point in the development of humanity where Kabbalah may or may not play its positive role.
[297716]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Europe Today” 1/26/11

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Comment: Scientists have established that a woman’s brain changes after childbirth, more gray matter appears in it. A woman becomes smarter, more mature, and, as if, moves to some different degree.

My Response: Of course. It is such a hormonal explosion, an impulse to the inner growth of consciousness and confidence! The world is becoming more understandable and closer to her.

Therefore, there is a big difference between a woman who has given birth and a woman who has not given birth.

All the stages that a woman goes through in her development from the state of a child, a girl, and a woman to the state of conception and childbirth are ascents on spiritual degrees. By giving birth, she rises to the level of Bina, the level of understanding.

Bina comes from the word “Havanah” (understanding). A woman becomes more mature, more confident, and riper in her development and attitude to the world and to life. The inner basis of what she did not have before and what men lack, appears in her.

All this is precisely the result of the process of childbirth, nursing, and upbringing. That is, the mother, who goes through all these states, becomes, so to say, the basis of nature, the basis of the world. The man messes about, plays pranks, and the woman becomes more mature, serious, and sensible.
[296903]
From KabTV’s “Close -Up. Unwanted Children” 11/28/10

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Question: During the time of the Sanhedrin, a person was evaluated only in regard to spiritual crimes? What does it mean?

Answer: During the time of the Sanhedrin, people were in attainment of the Creator and that is why their crimes were evaluated only in relation to their spiritual descent. Meaning, that it was clear to a person that he cannot harm another because by doing so he harms himself.

Through the Creator, through this global force, global reason, global thought, everyone was intertwined in each other. That is why afterward, the fall from the spiritual degree was expressed in the fact that instead of love for your neighbor, hatred erupted.

And the Sanhedrin existed when everyone was, if not in love, then in mutual involvement among themselves, since this gradation is very wide. What does mutual love mean? Mutual interdependence, mutual inclusion into one another, understanding, and so on.

It was absolutely clear to people that by uniting with each other and with the Creator, they attain that spiritual life, that spiritual sensation of eternity and perfection that reigned between them then.

If in a person, because of some internal conditions, egoism that was constantly growing suddenly emerged, then he involuntarily fell and by this, caused harm to someone personally or to the society.

Then the Sanhedrin would make a joint decision on how to bring him up to the correct degree. People were engaged in that and not in humiliating and incarcerating.

This is how it was during the time of the Temple’s existence when there was a Temple in the heart of every person, which is the quality of bestowal.
[297339]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Outlaw” 12/19/10

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