There is a popular saying in Latin America: “Children and drunks always tell the truth.” Why do we lose this sincerity and truthfulness as we grow up? Why does a person develop toward lying?

It is because our mind develops in order to protect us from the harm that we can do to ourselves. Since we are always chasing egoistic fulfillment, we are forced to hide this desire, and therefore, we deceive all the time. It turns out that we are all liars because we do not want to do anything good to others, but we are outwardly hypocritical, pretending that we are doing good deeds toward one another.

We try to hide our intentions from each other, which are aimed only at using others for our own benefit.

Only the environment determines how close or far from the truth a person will be. The environment affects a person and is able to radically change him from one polarity to the other. It can make him good and kind to others, and the opposite to the point where he becomes complete unrecognizable.

If we create a society in which everyone agrees to build good relations as the most important value, then it will be possible to teach both children and adults correct relationships so that everyone feels that they depend on others and are obliged to behave with them carefully. If we feel our dependence on everyone, it will not be at all difficult for us to treat them with warmth.
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From KabTV’s “World” 8/11/22

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Question: What is the difference between what the science of Kabbalah offers humanity and what ordinary education teaches about loving each other and being good children? What is our know-how?

Answer: Our know-how is that we need to create groups in which people would communicate with each other and begin to feel that by getting closer they really enter into a completely different sense of the world, and that it is in the closeness, and not children, but adults, they should rise above their egoism, above the force that separates them from each other.

People should understand that by coming closer despite opposing egoistic forces, they will be able to feel a completely different state of themselves, others, and the connection between themselves and others.

They should begin to feel the new state of society, which is based on friendship, love, and mutual support. This is what we need to teach them.

In principle, this is the basis of the holiday Tu B’Av (Day of Love) that follows the 9th of Av, which represents shattering, separation. The 15th of Av (Tu B’Av) means, on the contrary, unification, closeness.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 8/5/22

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Question: In our life, as a rule, if a person did something wrong, it is customary to apologize. How are things in Kabbalah? After all, a Kabbalist, in principle, understands that everything that happens is beneficial.

Answer: If you cause obvious harm to a person, then you are obliged to apologize to him.

We have a code called “Set Table” (Shulchan Aruch), which is similar to how you set the table before a meal. If you follow this code, it opens up a normal, beautiful life for you. It describes all the laws: between people, between people and animals, between people and nature, with oneself, with parents, with children, with generally everything.

These are like the instructions for use that are attached for machines, but these instructions are for a person.

Question: Should a person publicly apologize?

Answer: No, not necessarily. Only if you publicly insulted someone; then you have to apologize publicly. And if the person has died? You must bring ten witnesses to his grave in the cemetery, take off your shoes, sit on his grave and ask in front of the witnesses that he forgive you. There are such interesting conditions.

Question: But at the same time, who knows who does good and who does bad? For example, we may perform some supposedly negative action and we do not know what we are doing.

Answer: When a person grows spiritually, he knows. He receives other opportunities to balance what he did in the past.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Sorry…” 2/27/13

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Comment: You told me how your teacher Rabash was patient with his haters. He tried to justify everyone because he perceived everything as an interaction with the Creator, as a common system.

My Response: Yes, but all the same, in interaction with the Creator there are such images that are pleasant, decent, and noble and there are ones that are opposite them. Therefore, I do not have to love everything. If I love everything, I will not correct anything.

Question: Then what is the essence of this correction? Was Rabash processing what was revealed to him within himself and then giving out this information?

Answer: He was not saying anything to anyone. He was only teaching his profession: how, by controlling yourself, one can begin to control the immediate environment and build the next degree through it. This is the profession of the Kabbalist.

But he was not giving out any useful information. Today I do it because the world has become common, round, and interdependent. The world depends on how we develop relative to it and how it appears to us relative to ourselves.

This interdependence forces the Kabbalist today to come out of his corner and take some interest in politics, economics, and so on. This is why I write relevant blog posts. Kabbalists of the past did not even dream that they would have to answer such questions and be engaged in this.

Comment: Rabash, however, was very secretive. Apart from the information he passed to you, he did not really get in touch with anyone.

My Response: He did not have to. Who could he talk to? There is nothing to talk about with believers, they simply believe. There is nothing to talk about with non–believers, they do not believe. He only spoke with those who came to him and wanted to study, to sit down and study.

Even when a person comes and sits down, what is there to talk about with him? There is nothing to talk about. You open the initial material or give him to one of your students so that he can study with him. Rabash never studied with the new ones. He always passed them on to others. That was all.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Love the Enemy” 2/18/13

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “When should parents support their child, and when shouldn’t they?“

The support we receive from a young age builds us for life, so it is imperative that children receive support. However, together with the support, children need to understand that we give them support in order to progress them, i.e. that they have to realize themselves.

If we end up doing everything instead of the children, then if we later do not do something, they will feel insecure. Moreover, if we do everything instead of the children, then they will have no need for a sense of confidence, which ends up becoming detrimental to their development.

We thus need to support children in a way where they receive everything they need in order to realize themselves.

Based on the video “What Is the Best Way to Support Someone?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman, Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Filip Urban on Unsplash.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic, “Reinforcing Ourselves with There Is None Else Besides Him” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “600,000 Souls”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 4, Chapter 5, Item 1

Selected Highlights 

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Medium published my new article “No Confidence? No Happiness”

We feel confident when we are hopeful about the future. When we have something to look forward to, we have a reason to live. If we lose it, we lose hope, happiness, and might even become suicidal. The future is more important to us than the present because the present will pass, but if the future is bleak, it makes everything black.

Look at how much we invest to secure our future: health insurance, home insurance, social security, life insurance, car insurance, and if we can, we save money in various forms of investments and savings accounts. We do all these precisely because we are so uncertain about the future.

Previously, our family was our anchor, our safe haven. That is no longer the case. We often feel alone and isolated, and cannot be certain that anyone will come to our aid when we need it. We are living in the age of loneliness.

As our world changes, it is becoming increasingly interconnected, and everyone influences everyone else. We are all dependent on each other, and the network of ties exposes our need for mutual responsibility, which we do not have.

At the same time, revealing our lack of solidarity is the first step toward building it, since if we do not know that we need something and do not have it, we will not try to gain it. Therefore, now that we have realized that we are interdependent, we should begin to learn how to conduct ourselves in such a society.

Our task today is to restore confidence in the future, and thereby happiness. We will achieve this only by adapting our society to the integrated reality of our lives. In other words, we need to learn to care for one another to the extent that we are dependent on each other.

A newborn baby is completely dependent on its mother. However, the mother’s love for her baby makes both the baby and the mother happy. The correspondence between the level of dependence and the affection they feel for one another makes the dependence pleasant rather than a burden, which is how we feel it in our relations with people for whom we do not care.

Dependence without mutual care, therefore, leads to lack of confidence and happiness. Dependence joined by mutual concern leads to feeling confident and happy. Since dependence is an irrevocable fact, if we want to feel secure and happy, we must learn to care for one another.

Achieving this requires everyone’s participation. There need to be appropriate educational programs, participation of the members of the community or town, and eventually all of society, as well as a proper emphasis on developing such programs on the part of the authorities. Currently, we are still looking for other solutions and try to deal with each problem separately. When we find that our efforts lead to no solution unless we deal with the root of the problem, we will be willing to make a coordinated, collaborative effort to change our society for the better by learning to become more caring individuals.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Hidden Cause Behind England’s Water Shortage”

Despite the recent torrents in London, this summer, England has been experiencing a serious drought. But not only England, most, if not all of Europe has been experiencing a sweltering summer with gigantic forest fires that have consumed countless homes in addition to trees and wildlife.

But there is another problem that is exacerbating the crisis: leaking pipes. Water companies in England and Wales lost more than one trillion liters via leaky ‎pipes last year. In the US, the situation is not much better. According to a report on Technology Networks Applied Sciences, “An estimated 20 to 50 percent of water is lost to leaks in North America’s supply system.”

If the climate is changing and droughts have become more frequent and more severe, why are we not doing something about it? Why are we letting so much water go to waste? There is a simple answer to it, and this is the hidden cause that makes the climate crisis so severe in the UK and around the world: We do not care about each other. If we did, we would not let this happen.

If I were to build a home somewhere for my family, would I not see to a proper water system? Would I not see that it is properly maintained? Of course I would. Because I love my family, I would see that our water supply system is intact.

In other words, the leaking pipes are merely an indication of a much bigger problem: alienation and carelessness among us. Why do we have homeless people? Why are there drug addicts lying in street corners until their lives run out of them? Why are there so many people abused and bullied and enslaved? There is only one cause behind all these wrongs, one problem that we need to fix. From the slightest injustice to the most horrible crime, they all stem from our lack of care, from our indifference, coldness, and the pleasure we derive from other people’s pain. If we cared, or at least did not hate so much, our world would be infinitely better.

Every problem has its scientists and experts who make plans for tackling it. (Notice they do not talk about improving, much less solving it.) They never succeed. For all the budgets that they get, things are not getting any better. There is a good reason for this: There is no care in all their plans, no heart in all their actions.

How come mothers can usually raise their children successfully unless external circumstances beyond their control prevent it from them? In fact, sometimes they succeed despite impossible circumstances, but these are exceptions, not the rule. Mothers succeed because they care, and for no other reason. They have no plans, no foreknowledge about being a mother, and often get conflicting advice from friends and “consultants.” Yet, for the most part, they raise their children fine. Why? because their love guides their actions. If love guided our relations with our fellow persons, we would be living in a very different world, a far better one than we have today.

If previously, we could get away with our negative attitude toward each other, today’s world is so interconnected that everything we do affects everyone else far more quickly and intensely. If kindness, or even mutual consideration were optional until only recently, today they are mandatory.

We can argue that caring for each other is unrealistic and idealistic, that it is an unachievable and naive goal. It may seem that way, but if you consider that the option of letting things continue as they have been leads to certain decimation of much of humanity, I hope you will agree that idealistic or not, it is worth giving it a serious effort. If we acknowledge the fact that we are all dependent on each other, we will realize that no matter what, we must find a way to stop hating, and start caring for each other, even if just a little bit.
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In the News (The Express Tribune): “Morimoto first offered his services in June 2018 after posting a tweet that read: ‘I offer myself for rent, as a person who does nothing. Is it difficult for you to enter a shop on your own? Are you missing a player on your team? Do you need someone to keep a place for you? I can’t do anything except easy things.’ …

“People rent him for various reasons, he says, but most are bored or lonely and simply want to be listened to. …

“Morimoto – who is married and holds a postgraduate degree in physics from Osaka University – told: ‘I’m not a friend or an acquaintance. I’m free of the annoying things that go with relationships but I can ease people’s feelings of loneliness.’ ‘I personally don’t like being cheered on by other people. It bothers me when people simply tell me to keep persevering. When someone is trying to do something I think the best thing to do is to make it easier for them by staying at their side,’ he added. In less than three years Morimoto – who used to work in publishing but quit to ‘do nothing’ – has published books about his career choice, inspired a television drama and acquired 270,000 Twitter followers.”

Question: What does the demand for this guy tell you?

Answer: This first of all says, unfortunately, that people are lonely, that they need someone to be there, but there is no one.

Question: To talk it out, to be with someone?

Answer: For everything. And probably, he justifies this hope. He knows how. He’s probably not a physicist, but a good psychologist. It’s good to be around him. He can do everything! Listen, talk, whatever you want. He can be anywhere and do precisely what is expected of him. It’s very difficult. This is not an obsession, but an addition to the person who hired you.

Comment: It would seem that this is such an easy job, but you say that it is not easy at all.

My Response: It’s not a very easy job. This is a psychological job and is very difficult . But apparently, people say it’s worth it.

Comment: This means that a person needs someone who will not put pressure on him, who will listen to him, and connect with him.

My Response: It’s not just submission, and as a role, I would say it’s a very lively one. Can you imagine, your name is called and you come on a date. From afar you wonder, let’s say, if this will be a woman or perhaps a man? And if an old man or an old woman? And if it’s a girl? And to just fit in like a clip, you have to fit into each case 100%,.

We have a huge request for this. Enormous!

Question: Is it because humanity is becoming more and more lonely?

Answer: Yes, especially in Japan. People don’t get married there, people don’t meet, and they don’t give birth much today.

Comment: The world is moving toward the fact that these services will be more and more in demand.

Answer: These services will actually reveal what we lack. And people will start gradually incrementally learning to become like that. I want such a person next to me, my addition in him and his addition in myself. And it will be happiness. It is the addition of people to each other.

Question: As a Kabbalist, what does this tell you? What is it?

Answer: This is called “love for one’s neighbor.” It is very simple. It is something you have to show to the other and the other will be happy to show it to you.

Question: What do you think would happen if you set up an experiment in which he is not paid for these services, would he continue?

Answer: I am sure that if he does his job well, it is not for the sake of money. Otherwise it wouldn’t have worked. And he wouldn’t have been hired.

Comment: And so the rumor went about him that there is such a person.

Answer: This is Japan. It’s not just a rumor, as it’s instantly recorded.

Question: Do you think that there is some element of love for one’s neighbor on his part?

Answer: Yes. This is when you adapt to your neighbor in a good sense of the word. And he is glad to see you and responds to you in the same way.

Question: And are you glad that he is happy?

Answer: Yes. This is effectively a kind of love for another.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/11/22

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