Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Unwise Smartest People”

A famous Israeli singer recently wrote on social media that Operation Breaking Dawn, the three-day military campaign in May in which Israel fought against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, may have been a military victory, but it did not solve anything. Other than making us feel good about ourselves, it accomplished nothing. If anything, the pride is detrimental to us, rather than beneficial.

The singer also referred to the reputation of the Jewish people as being the smartest in the world. He said that our ingenuity in developing sophisticated defense systems makes us dangerously complacent and smug.

I agree with this statement because weapons, however sophisticated and advanced, will not bring us peace. At best, they can give us a respite from active hostilities, but if we use the pause to rest or build even more sophisticated weapons, and think that this is all we need to do, then we are a stupid smartest people.

We need to understand that weapons, however effective and advanced, will not end our wars because weapons do not bring peace. The saying si vis pacem, para bellum (if you want peace, prepare for war), is true only if our definition of peace is absence of active hostilities. This is not the definition of peace as I know it.

In Hebrew, the word shalom (peace) comes from the word hashlama (complementarity). Complementarity is when two contradictory, alien, and often hostile parties forge a bond that transcends their disagreements and conflicts. They do not suppress or cancel their disputes, but value unity more than the cause of their conflict. Therefore, they form a bond that is stronger than the reason for their fight.

Indeed, the bond must be stronger than the conflict so as not to break under the pressure of the division. It follows that the harder the dispute, the stronger must be the unity that the parties build, if they wish to maintain peace.

Achieving such peace requires working on connection, on bonding. It requires constant elevation of the value of unity, solidarity, cohesion, and mutual responsibility. This is the people of Israel’s only “weapon” that will give us real and lasting peace—first among ourselves, and subsequently with our neighbors.

It will not be easy. We are not only smart; we are also very selfish. There is no question that preferring unity to the pleasure of self-righteousness is not easy. On top of that, we lack the basic wisdom to understand that our strength lies in our connection, and that this is our only road to victory. But difficult or not, unity is still our only tool for achieving final victory.

Our successes on the battlefield buy us time, but we must use them wisely. If we use them to rest, we will eventually lose. If we use our breaks from active hostilities to strengthen our connection, we will promote peace within Israel and with our neighbors. This is Israel’s only hope for peace, and the only smart move that the smartest people can make.
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Medium published my new article “On the Borderline”

There is a reason for the apocalyptic talk that is so prevalent these days. The threat of the Russia-Ukraine war turning nuclear at the beginning of the war, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station that has become a center-point of contention, the growing tension between China and Taiwan, with the active involvement of the US, the constant threat of North Korea to use nuclear weapons — all these and more give the uneasy feeling that the world is on the brink of disaster. There are less catastrophic, but still very painful processes, which are already underway. Inflation is soaring in the US and Europe, accompanied by recessions, and the erratic, violent climate only exacerbates the situation.

These crises are happening concurrently because we are truly on the borderline. We are heading into a new era where our previous, self-centered way of life will become obsolete.

We are shifting from the selfish era into an era of such complete connection and mutual dependence that selfish thoughts, much less selfish acts, will not be tolerated. We will have to learn to be mutually considerate, initially, and mutually caring, ultimately. We will not be able to choose not to care for others because not caring will mean not surviving.

It will not be a bad world. On the contrary, it will be a world where everyone is responsible and cares for everyone else, a world where we will not have to tend to ourselves because everyone else will do it for us. It will be a world without abuse, wars, or crime. The only crime will be inconsideration, selfishness.

I have no doubt these words seem fantastic today. Indeed, we are still far from it. However, revolutions of this kind do not happen overnight; they are a process, and we are already well into it.

The reason I am writing about this now is that we are already on the borderline. We should begin to familiarize ourselves with the concepts and rules that will govern our lives in the future because the sooner we know them, and begin to live by them, the smoother the transition will be.

If we resist the trajectory of the evolution of the world, the threatening situations we are seeing today will materialize. If we embrace these changes, they will happen smoothly and pleasantly. I hope we will choose the latter.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why is the world becoming more godless?“

We live in times of ever-growing concealment from the upper force, which is why our world seems to be getting darker from one day to the next. That is, we increasingly find ourselves in wars, struggles and anxieties with no end to them in sight.

This is actually the revelation of the upper force, the Creator—but in a negative form. We can invert this revelation into its positive, but one way or another, the Creator is coming closer to us. It is like a big comet flying toward our planet from outer space and we get told that it will hit us in 20 years.

For the time being, we are in the dark, and this darkness is the lack of the correct revelation of the Creator. It is also a sign that the Creator is coming closer to us. The upper light wants to appear, but we do not let it, and we thus perceive an ever-expanding darkness sweeping over our world.

We need to invert this darkness into a great light. Doing so depends solely on human relations. If we change our relations—inverting our attitude to each other from divisive to united, hateful to loving, and prioritizing self-benefit to prioritizing the benefit of others—then everything that we feel as darkness will immediately invert to light. We will then experience a newfound harmony, peace and happiness—the likes of which we have never experienced before.

Based on the video “Why Is Darkness Abounding in Our World?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Teach Your Children Well”

A few days before the beginning of the school year in Israel, the feeling here is that the education system has seen better times. Many teachers are quitting, especially the young and more gifted ones, and few are filling the blanks. A teacher’s salary is unattractive in Israel, to say the least, they have no respect from parents or students, and their social status is poor. In consequence, the entire system is now on the brink of collapse. In this column, I would like to relate to the role that parents can play in improving children’s education, and to the basic principles that I believe should guide a successful education system.

First, we need to realize that expecting parents to actively participate in improving the education system is unrealistic; it will not happen. Parents cannot and will not take responsibility for their children’s education. They were not taught how to do this, and they do not want the burden. Parents pay hefty sums for education in Israel, which is supposed to be free, and the Ministry of Education has the biggest budget of all government offices, except, perhaps, the defense budget, so parents rightly feel that this should suffice to finance proper education for their children.

In fact, one way to solve the problem is to indeed shut down the entire education system and establish a private one, instead, where parents’ payments will go directly and only toward their children’s education. Currently, when the government funds education, it spends the money where it wants, only some of it actually goes toward the education system, and no one is happy.

Even now, when the children purportedly get everything they need at school, parents who want their children to do well at school and continue to higher education must pay extra for extracurricular lessons, which are very expensive. This is actually one way to get the parents accustomed to privatizing the education system.

There is, of course, the justified fear that the haves will get better education than the have nots, but this is already the case, so in that sense, a private system will not be worse than the current one. If the entire system is privatized, parents will at least know what they are paying for, what they are getting in return, and they will be able to make educated decisions on their expenses.

At the same time, we do want all the children, and not only those from affluent families, to receive a good education. After all, children are the future of any country, including the State of Israel. To provide a good education for everyone, a team of highly skilled, unaffiliated professionals in education should design a system that is not related or obligated to any political system, but is committed only to the benefit of the children and to producing optimum education.

That education must incorporate far more than implanting information in children’s brains. Educating is not indoctrinating. Educating means teaching children how to be successful grownups. Being successful does not mean that people know a set of required information. Success depends first and foremost on a person’s social skills, and not a person’s level of schooling.

Acquiring social skills means learning to communicate, cooperate, share, take others’ perspectives in mind, be considerate, listen to others, and express oneself in non-threatening ways. These are all essential skills for life. In fact, they are the skills we use the most. Yet, we teach none of them at school, and for the most part, parents do not have the time, energy, or skills to teach them. As a result, children grow up to be emotionally ill-equipped adults who have to cope with relationships at home, at college, at work, with spouses and partners, yet they lack the knowhow.

If we want to teach our children well, we must build a system that teaches children to be human beings, first, and knowledgeable people, next. We must invest directly in the education system, and see to it that education means providing social skills, learning skills, and information, in that order.
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We must remember that the entire wisdom of Kabbalah is founded on spiritual matters that do not take up time or space. They are not subject to change or absence and all the changes that are spoken of in this wisdom do not imply that the first form becomes absent and is replaced by a different form. The above change rather implies an additional form, while the first does not move from its place (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot).

Question: What is this spiritual reality that has neither time nor space? How can one imagine it practically, not philosophically?

Answer: The Creator created desire. The desire itself is called “place,” and the thing it desires is “fulfillment.”

Fulfillment is the light that fills a desire, which feels itself being empty. And once it is full of light, it feels itself as being perfect.
The entire creation consists of these two substances, the place and the fulfillment.

Question: How should we imagine this? Should we imagine that this happened once upon a time or is happening now?

Answer: It is best to imagine that it happened in the past. Just like the Ari wrote: Know that before the emanated beings were emanated and the created beings created, an upper, simple light had filled the entire reality.

What does reality mean? It means a place. Then the Ari explains that it is the desire to feel light as fulfillment. The quality of light is to fill this desire in order to give it pleasure.

All this was happening before the Big Bang, before our corporeal reality appeared.
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From KabTV’s The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES), 8/14/22

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Question: What would happen if all Jews leave Europe?

Answer: I do not think this is going to happen. When the Jews in France wanted to leave (there were half a million of them there) the newspapers wrote that France could be shut down. Meaning, their participation in the management of industry, science, and art is such that nothing would remain of France. I do not know to what extent this is true. I am not connected with it, but this is what happened.

In addition, throughout history we have seen such examples that when Jews left countries, the countries declined.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 8/5/22

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Question: You said that in everything one should see the manifestation of the Creator, except for “leave.” But is “leaving” an inner feeling? After all, you are not being kicked out.

Answer: “Leaving” is an inner state when you are dragged all over the place seemingly by your personal thoughts, decisions, conjectures, and so on. And you resist them.

This does not refer to some external problems that a person has with a group, or at work, or at home, and therefore he is thrown out, no! These are precisely his internal problems, the inner call that tells him: “Go, do something more real, more necessary.” Therefore, he finds an excuse for himself and leaves.

But there are those who, despite all the real excuses, despite everything, say: “No! I will be engaged only in my spiritual advancement, and in everything else, only to the extent required for me to exist. Otherwise, there is nothing in this world, in this life.”
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Confessions of the Kabbalist” 2/23/13

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Comment: Oleg wrote to you: “Still, it’s scary to die. I’ve been watching your shows non-stop for almost a year now. It’s like a drug. While I’m watching, it’s not scary. But as soon as I leave the computer, I just return to my family, news, illness; it’s scary right away. The transition is scary that I will suddenly be gone. And the fuss around the disease is imposing fear. Even though you understand that there is no hope, you still bustle. I don’t want to leave like this; I want to leave with dignity. But there is no strength.”

By the way, a lot of people write that our broadcasts and your explanations give them a lot of strength. That’s for sure.
So, what can we say to Oleg?

My Response: There is nothing to worry about. Nothing begins and nothing ends; everything just goes on. As a person finishes with this relation, with this picture of life, another picture begins to sprout.

Question: Why is a person given this feeling of fear, of transition?

Answer: It helps them to break away from themselves a little, and then a little more. And so, during several such transitions, he will begin to perceive the rejection of his egoistic self more and more correctly.

Question: And this calm, which, let’s say, people get when you explain things, should they calmly accept the explanation and then depart?

Answer: Of course, yes. Nothing ends in nature. There is no end, and everything just flows from one picture to another.

Question: And what is death then?

Answer: There is no death. Actually none.

Question: And what is being broadcast to us, what is it? You said the main thing is to break away from the “I.” Is it our “I” that broadcasts?

Answer: Yes, relax and free yourself.

Question: Is this how a person should depart?

Answer: Certainly.

Question: So you’re saying he doesn’t even go anywhere?

Answer: If he knows how to do it, then he does not leave.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/2/22

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Question: When you studied Kabbalah, you did not have a group; there was only a teacher. How did you hold on to the importance of the goal in order not to regress in any circumstance?

Answer: It is a different path without a group. It is much more difficult and less effective. After all, I have not advanced at the pace that people who come to us today are advancing. It took me several years to grasp what a beginner grasps in six months or a year.

A person masters the initial stage that one goes through today three times faster than me and those who studied with Rabash. One year for three. What I comprehended in three years, our beginner comprehends in a year.

He gets intensively involved in the work, in understanding, in the system, and in the group. He is drawn into this all, receives explanations, and absorbs material through all the pores. If a person goes through a serious yearly practice with us, then in principle he lays down the foundations for the correction of the soul.

And then it depends on the person. But I believe that at least the first year is a necessary and sufficient condition to become a beginner Kabbalist. After that, if he decides, let him become a Kabbalist, that is, let him start working with himself.

I think that according to the measure of its expansion in the world and how it deepens into us, the preparation period will get shorter. People will start to absorb everything very quickly because it will be perceived through the surrounding ether, through the air.

Such surroundings will be created and such waves will affect us so that everything will seem to be clear! It’s like how children who are born today start playing with phones and computers already from the cradle. What I can’t do is nothing to them.

“How do you know what to do? Did you study somewhere?”

“Why study? Everything is clear anyway.”

That is, their internal logic is built according to what was created by other people in the last generation or a few years before their birth. It will be the same here.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Various Kabbalah” 2/22/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Will war ever stop?“

War will stop on one condition: that we will want to determine connection as being better than separation, and love as being more important than hatred.

In such a state, there will be no “mine and yours,” but everything will belong to all of us equally. While it could be argued that there were failed models of governing society in the past that exercised such a principle, it is not that those models themselves failed, rather the corrupt egoistic human nature is what failed.

We thus need to correct our egoistic human nature so that it would prioritize benefiting others over benefiting itself. That is possible by increasing the importance of connection and love over separation and hatred through our myriad social and educational influences.

When we correct human nature, then we will want to be together with everyone. By doing so, we will gain a sensation of boundlessness: we will stop being limited by our current limits of separating mine from yours, and perceive that we own everything. That is, the correction of our nature is a correction of how we perceive ourselves, others and the world around us, and we will likewise see an end to all war when such a correction takes effect.

Based on the video “Will There Ever Be an End to Wars and Struggles?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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