Audio Version Of The Blog – 11/13/22
Posted on November 13th, 2022
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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 11/13/22
Today, at 5:30 p.m. Israel time, thousands of women from around the world will gather for a unity event. Women of all faiths, traditions, cultures, ages, and ethnicities will strive to bring their hearts closer together above all the differences that naturally set us apart.
This event is so special that I wish I could dissolve unnoticed among them and simply absorb their desire to unite. When women unite, it is far more powerful than when men do it; it can really change the world.
When the children of Israel came out of Egypt, the prophetess Miriam gathered all the women and with singing and dancing she united them, paving the way to freedom for all the people of Israel. Now it is time for the whole world to unite, and this evening, women from the world over will sing, dance, and read excerpts that talk about unity. I have no doubt that they are forming the basis for the exodus of all of humanity: liberation from the fetters of egoism to the freedom to love one another.
As a man and as a teacher of thousands of male students (in addition to the female students who are gathering this evening), I can say that we are all rooting for you and praying for your success. Just as women create life, and just as they know how to look after their homes, they can revive humanity and look after the entire world.
I have no doubt that if women were adamant and assertive, we men would yield to their will. If women want to correct the world, if they unite in order to achieve it, we men will rally behind them, and together we will form a spearhead that will lead the world out of the darkness of hatred and war, and into the light of unity and love.
Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Bad Jews – A History of American Jewish Infighting”
Emily Tamkin, a Jewish writer from the UK who writes about American Jewry, has recently published a book titled Bad Jews: A History of American Jewish Politics and Identities. The book’s publisher, Hurst, describes it as “A lively, thoughtful history of America’s Jews, exploring their complex relationships with national culture, identity, and politics—and each other.”
The book caused a bit of a stir among Jewish publications. JTA, for example, wrote that Tamkin “takes a different tack, tracing the history of American Jewry through the ways Jews on one side of social upheaval seek to discredit the very Jewishness of those on the other side.” The book itself focuses on what is happening in America, since “American Jewish history,” writes Tamkin, “is full of discussions and debates and hand-wringing over who is Jewish, and how to be Jewish, and what it means to be Jewish.”
When a student of mine told me about the book, he asked for my opinion on these questions, stating that they “haunt” virtually every Jewish person. He also noted that when Tamkin asked people, “What comes to mind when you hear ‘Bad Jew’?” the most common answer she got was “When I think of a ‘Bad Jew,’ I think of myself.” Since, as Tamkin writes, “The issue of what it means, or doesn’t, to be a Good Jew or a Bad Jew is particularly fraught at this moment in US history,” the student asked for my take on the topic.
So, first, we need to realize where the word Yehudi (Jewish) comes from. There is the known answer, that Yehudi comes from Yohuda (Judah), the name of the tribe that lived in the land of Israel during the Second Temple. However, there is another meaning to the word: Yehudi also comes from the word Yechudi, meaning united. This makes perfect sense if you remember that we were pronounced a nation only after we committed to love each other “as one man with one heart” at the foot of Mt. Sinai, yet, for the most part, this explanation did not receive the notoriety it deserves.
If you look at being Jewish through the spectacle of Jewish unity, as I do, then being a good Jew means first and foremost that you want to unite with all the Jews, that this is what really matters to you, your prime value. If Jewishness is about unity, then a Jew is a person who knows, feels, understands, and even spreads the idea that the most important thing is to be connected in ties of love with all the Jews, regardless of denomination, customs, political views, or any other issue that currently divides and splinters the Jewish people.
The author wrote that one of the answers she got to the question about the meaning of being a bad Jew was “someone whose conception of Judaism doesn’t have applications to the wider world.” I understand where this answer comes from. It is with good reason Jews gave the correction of the world such a pivotal place in their identity. We even gave that mission its own Hebrew term, Tikkun Olam (Hebrew for “Correction of the World”).
However, we must know what it means to correct the world, to be responsible for it, or even to care about the world. Tikkun Olam are not simply words; they imply a very specific task, and until we accomplish it, we will not be “good Jews.”
At the “inauguration” of our people, we were commanded to unite “as one man with one heart,” as RASHI interprets. Immediately after, we were declared a nation and were tasked with being “a light to the nations.”
In other words, our unity and our obligation to the world are indivisible. We cannot be a light to the nations if we are not united. At the same time, we cannot unite unless we do it in order to be a light to the nations.
When our ancestors united for the first time, under the guidance of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they were not a biologically related group. They were an eclectic crowd that was taken by the idea that all the people should unite, and we should not succumb to our ego. This is why Abraham advocated kindness and mercy, to teach people how to rise above their self-absorption and care for one another.
Abraham was a maverick, a pioneer, a trailblazer, but thanks to him, these noble ideas are now universal. As a nation that formed out of disparate tribes and clans, it was our duty to be the living proof of Abraham’s paradigm. This is why we became a nation only after we united, and not a moment prior.
Since our inception, we have known that unity is our “secret weapon.” However, we never understood why, what was the secret of the strength in our unity. The secret is not that unity itself makes us undefeatable, but that our unity dissolves the world’s hatred toward us and turns it into respect and awe. It gives the world the example of unity that it needs so that all of humanity can unite, as well.
Not only we received a message when we were at the foot of Mt. Sinai. At that moment, the nations of the world received the knowledge that we received the calling. Since then, they have been waiting for us to live up to it. This is why they support us when we are united, and scold us when we are divided.
Being a good Jew or a bad Jew, therefore, is not a judgment we pass on each other or on ourselves. It is determined by our commitment to the world, which we fulfill through our efforts to unite among ourselves and serve as an example that if we—the most divided nation, whose members often abhor one another—can unite, then the whole world can, as well.
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Due to all the events taking place in the world, the Creator gradually brings to our consciousness, blow by blow, that we are developing in the wrong manner, both individually and everyone in general. We finally have to understand the laws of the system we are in.
It is naive to think that we build these systems ourselves. We see that our universe and all of reality exists according to certain laws that are revealed by physics, chemistry, biology, and astronomy. Everything acts according to these laws, and we humans also obey them. Why do we suddenly think that we can invent new laws ourselves, as we please?
If everyone wants to establish their own laws for the existence of the world in the way that is convenient for them, then only wars and conflicts between people result from this. No one understands what the correct system of world governance is. During elections, everyone shouts at each other that they know how to build the world better than the others. But the world does not need to be built; you just need to understand how it is already built and how to correctly integrate in the system that already exists.
It is said that “the world works as usual” and there is no need to change anything in it. You only need to change yourself, to bring yourself in line with the system that is embedded within reality—meaning the task is to change a person, not to change the world.
To understand this we have been given the science of Kabbalah. And when we begin to find out how much we contradict the laws of general reality and find in ourselves the reason for this opposition—our egoism; we can correct it by integrating into the system of creation and by rising above the whole creation like the Creator. As it is said: “And you will become like gods, and know the laws of good and evil.”
Then we get unlimited possibilities in the whole creation. And not only in the material world that we feel in our five physical senses where we can freely move from one side of reality to another, but also in spiritual reality.
All this can be achieved, but of course this is a long process during which we will need to educate ourselves and our children. It can stretch for several generations until the entire human society comes to harmony with nature.
Inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature do not need correction since they act according to natural instincts. Only we humans are the opposite of nature, and so we harm ourselves and the whole of nature. Therefore, it is our duty to study the laws of nature and change ourselves in accordance with these laws, which we can reveal.
These days many people have questions that cause misunderstanding and pain. Why are there such wars and suffering in the world?
So far we are only studying the laws of nature, and then we will begin to fulfill them little by little; that is, we are getting closer and closer to connection and even to love between all people, to the highest level of unity. And then we will begin to understand how we can change ourselves. And in accordance with our changes, nature will begin to change, turn toward us, and become kind and friendly.
The science of Kabbalah teaches us how we need to change in order to reveal the true laws of nature.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/22, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Peace in the World”
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Question: As a rule, most of the time a person talks to himself. Who is he talking to: his ego or the upper force? How can I tell if I’m talking to myself or to the Creator?
Answer: You are talking to whomever you envision. It can be close or distant friends, relatives, parents, the Creator, an evil force, a good force, it doesn’t matter what. Whomever you imagine is whom you are communicating with.
Question: Actually, if there were no pauses between speaking but only constant sounds, we would not hear each other at all. Is that why pauses are important?
Answer: That is right. It is very interesting to watch TV shows when several politicians meet; each one speaks without paying attention to the other; there is continuous constant noise. This is typical for them.
But ordinary people still communicate in such a way as to give each other the opportunity to speak and to somehow express themselves. By doing so, they show respect for each other.
In fact, a pause, a silence, and then speech are like inhaling and exhaling. These are necessary natural parts.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 10/23/22
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What qualities make a good politician?“
Before discussing the qualities that make a good politician, we need to understand that there is a higher force of nature determining and directing human development in order to guide us to aim for everything we think and do in connection with it. In the end, human connections will need to be glued together with the higher force of nature in order for human society to shift to a direction where we discover a new form of prosperity and happiness, perfectly adapted to our interconnected and interdependent world.
We thus need to place the attainment of the higher force of nature at the apex of human activity, i.e. at the heart of educational programs, decisions and laws. It should manifest on personal, family, social, state and global scales. By doing so, we will organize human society toward positive future progress, where we will discover the higher force of nature in our connections.
A good politician is thus one who aims to draw the higher force of nature into society, caring that connection-enriching education will fill society, and that people will gain the tools to positively connect and draw the higher force of nature into their lives. Good politicians will also not arouse hatred because they will be grateful to their opposition. They will use their opposition in order to show how correct their methodology is, because it will be the truth.
Based on the video “What Qualities Make a Good Politician?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Question: What is the right way to imagine the soul at this stage? Where can I find this organ inside myself?
Answer: The soul is a property of similarity to the Creator. If I begin to strive to bestow, to fulfill, and to be kind to others, that is, if I will try to somehow manifest in myself all the properties of the Creator that I know in relation to others, then I will increasingly feel myself approaching the Creator until I begin to feel Him more and more clearly.
It is this aspiration to discover an inclination for bestowal and love for other people in myself, that will be called the soul inside me.
Question: But why is it so? It is not clear.
Answer: There is nothing else besides this.
Comment: It is love and unity again.
My Response: This is the property of the Creator. It is His manifestation in relation to us, and in us this property is manifested as opposite to the Creator.
Question: Could they not have come up with something else?
Answer: You do not like it because it is too far away from you, opposite to you. That is why it was created this way, so that you could attain the Creator from the opposite state.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 10/16/22
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Question: You said that until the age of 13, a person perceives the world only in feelings. Does the mind switch on after age 13 when it can analyze everything that it felt before?
Answer: Approximately, nowadays, it may be not at 13, but at 25 because the current generation is in delayed development. This is noted by everyone: psychologists, sociologists, statistics, and polls.
Our generation is more infantile. Young people want to stay at home, do not want to start families and take responsibility; they prefer to sit in a cafe, buried in their phones.
Comment: According to our development, each person is, in principle, a child. He does not perceive the world with his mind at all.
My Response: We perceive everything through feelings, although we cannot admit it to ourselves, we do not understand it because our matter is the will to enjoy, to be filled.
Therefore, first of all, we are sensory sensors, and only later do we become aware of what we feel. Our consciousness is secondary, and matter, which is feelings, is primary.
Our feelings control us so much and dominate our consciousness that we simply do not notice this fact, we do not recognize it. We cannot get out of this, observe from the outside, and investigate. I am not even trying to explain this to people.
Only those who begin to acquire a second feeling, the quality of bestowal instead of the quality of reception, can calculate, realize, evaluate, and weigh to what extent they are in the quality of reception, and in accordance with this, how they can control and evaluate themselves, and so on.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Mind and Feelings – What Is More Important?” 10/7/13
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And they created school the way the devil had ordered. A child loves nature, yet they locked him up within four walls. A child cannot sit still without moving, yet they forced him to sit still. He loves to work with his hands, yet they started teaching him theories and ideas.
He likes to talk, yet they ordered him to keep silent. He strives to understand, yet he was told to memorize. He would like to research and seek out knowledge on his own, yet it was given to him in a ready-made form.
And then children learned what they would never have learned under other circumstances. They learned to lie and pretend (Adolphe Ferrière, a founder of the Progressive Education Movement).
My Response: It is just as accurate today.
Question: Why did they take this free bird, a child, and stuff him into a cage?
Answer: It is because for you adults, this is simpler and clearer. To pressure a child by force and make him stay in our four corners, and that is all.
Question: Then what are we taking away from him?
Answer: We take away the free development of his soul, heart, mind, and even physical development.
Question: Do you think this is the most important thing for a person?
Answer: I think a child should grow up free. That is, he should sit and listen to adults, but it has to be interesting for him.
And he should spend more time outside with his friends. Simultaneously with friends and a teacher. To go out to the field, fidget with some cars and large machines, and other things like that. Raise a child according to his own ways.
Question: Do you think this is more important than, say, to sit him down and study physics or algebra?
Answer: There is no use of it. Only a few push through it and only because they want to be better than others.
Question: So, you are least interested in knowledge?
Answer: Right. We do not need it.
Question: So, knowledge least of all. And what you just proposed, what is that? Does this set a person free? What does it give him?
Answer: What I am proposing develops a child through the natural course of his activities. In this case, he will invent all kinds of things. Not some airplanes or helicopters but spaceships! Based on completely different principles, ones that we assume are used by aliens. And so on.
So, this liberation will give freedom to ideas, and we still do not know what a child has inside. There are entire worlds in him.
Question: You speak of freedom; what are the principles of this freedom for a child?
Answer: The principles of this freedom are free contact with nature, discussions, conclusions, and debates with adults and peers. All this is very necessary for their proper development. Otherwise, you are simply placing them inside a square or a cube, and they cannot get out of it for the rest of their lives, you constrain their thinking.
Question: And you stop this whole progress by that?
Answer: Yes.
Question: What does this require of teachers?
Answer: It requires teachers to become different—not like teachers we have today. We have to redo all of it over the course of many years. But then, we will get completely different results.
Question: By realizing this, will we one day reach the fact we need to change everything? The Department of Education…
Answer: Through a great revolution.
Comment: You understand that this includes everything—the entire bureaucratic system.
My Response: All of it!
Comment: Bureaucrats will reject it.
My Response: I am not speaking of whether they would want it or not, whether we should fight for it or not. I am not calling for anything.
Question: So how will it happen?
Answer: I don’t know. I simply talk about what is true.
Question: Can our thinking be taken and changed from above?
Answer: Anything is possible from above. And by “from above,” I don’t mean the government.
Question: So, the upper force can just transform our thinking?
Answer: Yes.
Question: In what circumstances will it do so?
Answer: I cannot assert this with complete confidence, but it seems to me it is when we become completely disillusioned in what we have.
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From KabTV’s “New with Michael Laitman” 9/29/22
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Question: Let’s say a person has committed some kind of offense. How can we help him? Should we moralize? After all, there are a lot of methods.
Answer: We can help him by attracting him to us and connecting with others. We should attract him to us to be in the team and interact with everyone. We need to try to adapt him to that, and that is all.
What is not clear here? All the people who read my blog or listen to me will immediately understand this elementary truth.
What, am I supposed to trample him into the mud? By that I am not correcting him. I have to aim for correction! And what can it be, if not the return of the prodigal son back to the integral, perfect Mother Nature?
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Perfect Punishment” 10/10/13
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