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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “75 Years of Indecision – When It Comes to Israel, Jews Are Still Divided”

Seventy-five years ago, on November 29, 1947, “a 2000-year-old dream became reality: A Jewish State was born anew in its ancient homeland,” writes the official web page of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the topic. “On that day,” the statement continues, “the UN General Assembly voted on Resolution 181, adopting a plan to partition the British Mandate into two states, one Jewish, one Arab.”

The following day, Israel’s War of Independence began, initially against the Palestinian Arabs, who denied the UN’s right to determine the fate of Palestine, and subsequently against six invading Arab armies. Israel won the war and survived against all odds, but its greatest battle has yet to be decided—the battle for the support of the Jews.

The nations did not want a Jewish state. This was clear then, as it is clear now. The Holocaust was a powerful lever to bring the world to support the establishment of the State of Israel, and there were other considerations such as the emergent Cold War, where the US and the USSR wanted to dominate the oil-rich Middle-East.

Today, however, there is no question that if the UN voted on the establishment of a Jewish state, probably not one country would say yes. The problem that the world had hoped to solve by giving the Jews their own country has clearly not been solved. Antisemitism is rife, spreading quickly, and the Jewish question that the Germans intended to solve through extermination is a mainstream, and worse yet, legitimate topic of conversation. Things are moving in a very negative direction, and without a drastic change, they will end the way all of our good times ended: in tragedy.

However, as I indicated above, our toughest battle is not against the Palestinians or the United Nations. The worst enemies of Israel are overseas Jews and Israelis who feel that the Jewish state should not exist, and they do all that they can to destroy it—from using manipulative and false media, to supporting terrorists and praising their horrific acts.

This inner battle is the toughest because in order for us to win, we must first be willing to admit that there is something more important than being right, and that something is internal unity among the Jews. Until we accept that our troubles do not come to us at the hands of the Palestinians or the nations, but stem from our own disunity, and until we agree to work accordingly and unite despite our mutual dislike, the aversion of the world toward us will only grow.

Today in Israel, the majority of the Jews agree with the existence of a Jewish democratic state. There are many who do not, who think that Zionism is a contemptible idea, but they are still a minority in Israel.

Outside of Israel, however, the situation is very different. In the US, by far the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, as well as in many other communities, the majority of Jews consider Israel a nuisance, a trouble maker that gives the entire creed a bad name and causes the world to hate overseas Jews for Israel’s “crimes.” These Jews, who adopt the Palestinian narrative hoping that the world will spare them its hatred because of it, actually saw the wind, and they will reap the storm like the rest of us.

Jews are known for being opinionated and obstinate. I am all for firmness of views, especially when it is supported by serious data and reasonable arguments. However, at the end of the day, our well-thought-out views will not prevail over the equally well-thought-out views of the other side, nor are they intended to. The differences of opinion are there precisely so we will rise above them and place unity above what appears to be sensible arguments. When we do so, we will realize that however sensible, no argument can win if it does not stem from unity and promotes unity. In the end, it is our unity that brings peace with the Arabs, and not the tactics that either side hopes to implement.ADVERTISEMENT

The reason so many Jews oppose the Jewish state is that they do not realize their own role, and how the State of Israel is vital for their success. If they knew that the role of every Jew is to show unity precisely above division, and that this is the only way the nations will accept us, they would look at differences of opinions not as existential threats, but as challenges that we can overcome only together.

When we do so and unite, we will become a model nation, a light to the nations. This is our calling, our vocation, and we will never know peace until we do this. No political agreement will grant us what our unity will grant us. If we do not unite, instead of peace, the opposite will happen. Therefore, the only way that Israel can truly win its War of Independence is by uniting, not by fighting. This is our ticket to peace.
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Question: Victoria writes: “I am so often ashamed of myself today! Such things are happening around, so many tragedies, troubles, so many lives are ruined, and for me it’s all someone else’s pain, not mine. Everyone I know feels the same. I understand that this is the cause of all the troubles. How can you make someone else’s misfortune become your own? I’m sure it would change the world. What are we all missing?”

Answer: To feel the neighbor as yourself.

Question: How do we do it?

Answer: There is a method for this—the science of Kabbalah. Otherwise, a stranger will always remain a stranger, and people will not understand each other, and the world will be separated. As a result, such a global, calm, quiet, prolonged chaos, if not some kind of world, global war, nevertheless will drive humanity into its corners. I think we will see in our time how much people will become isolated.

Question: Tell me, why are people really looking for different ways, but not uniting toward a common pain?

Answer: It is against our nature.

Question: Will we be running into different corners all the time?

Answer: Yes, and how!

Question: We will not converge to the center?

Answer: No. Now the period will come when people will separate from each other as much as possible! Egoism will force us to do this. Quietly, calmly, it will disperse us in corners so that we realize it. The realization of the results of this egoism will lead us to its denial.

Question: Which means, in principle, it becomes its own gravedigger as a result. What interest does it have in ruining itself?

Answer: The fulfillment of the secret meaning of development in order for us to realize that we need to be above our nature after all.

Question: When you say “Secret meaning” are you saying this because no one really understands it?

Answer: Nobody knows, sees, or feels it. Of course.

Question: Now it looks like a fantasy for humanity to become one. Internally, maybe everyone wants it. Now it is clear what the cause of all the troubles is. It is clear that there is no coalition, there are no connections, everything is solved with the help of force, wars, weapons, and money.

And it is clear that if all this were suddenly canceled and we moved toward some kind of connection, it would be good for us. It’s obvious, right?

Answer: This has been talked about for millions of years.

Question: Yes, scientists, writers, and philosophers, all the more so, claim it—all these utopian cities, utopian systems. The only question is: why is it getting worse and worse, with a greater awareness that we need to unite?

Answer: The Soviet government set a very bad example for us. How false it is—communism, the commune—it actually led to enormous problems, suffering.

Question: But it wasn’t just done from above, was it? The upper force made it so that we saw that it was impossible to build communism in a single country.

Answer: Impossible, according to our understanding! And if we take the plan of nature and the right correction of egoism— whatever is written in the science of Kabbalah—then you will have to turn to the ancient science and implement it. Otherwise, nothing else will work! Here you will have to solve many problems at the same time.

Question: So our mind absolutely does not play any role here, but on the contrary only ruins everything?

Answer: In general, yes.

Question: In what sense must the mind be involved, since it is given to us after all? It is given to us for something.

Answer: It was given for us to understand that with our head, with our concepts, we will not be able to achieve anything.

Question: In order not to create progress and so on?

Answer: No. To go, on the contrary, against it, in search of a reverse solution.

Question: And as a result, you say, we will come to the conclusion that it will be reasonable if we understand that…?

Answer: Nature will teach us with brutal blows. We won’t be able to do it otherwise. Either we will take these blows internally and correct them within ourselves, or nature will correct us with external blows—wars, exterminations, famine, and so on.

Question: So the whole path now is to experience all this within?

Answer: Yes. Instead of freezing and starving.

Question: Are you now saying that everything we see externally—wars, possible freezing, starvation—is it because we have not experienced it internally?

Answer: Yes, we don’t want that.

Question: So, in order to stop all these external threats that threaten us in the future, we have to experience internally?

Answer: To realize that we have to change ourselves, our nature. It is possible if people want it. Meaning, if they realize it. Awareness can be either through great suffering, or through enlightenment. I can’t say anything else here.

Question: As you say, our nature is egoistic, and it needs to be turned into altruistic? That’s it?

Answer: That’s it. And again we reach the finale. This connection is a voluntary, conscious, correct connection of everyone for everyone’s sake. Not according to the patterns of egoism!

Question: Is this whenever we unite against someone?

Answer: Even if not. It’s just when egoism invents all sorts of methods for us. When we, supposedly smart, get together, and start deciding what to do. That is not how it is done.

Question: But how?

Answer: By making people aware that there is a technique, and it is here, in the depths of the ancient wisdom, Kabbalah. Otherwise, it will be the end of us!

In principle, this is natural wisdom, which is located within nature and goes against the egoistic nature of man, and this anti-egoistic nature a person will have to discover, study, apply, and implement for himself.

Nothing more is needed! This is the only wisdom that humanity must master.

Question: And everything will change?

Answer: Precisely then it will.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/13/22

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Mutual guarantee is the global law of the existence of humanity as one soul. If it is realized between people, then all the degrees below us, meaning the animate, vegetative, and still nature, will reconnect into one single system.

If humanity were united at its human degree today, we would see such changes in the entire universe where all nature gathers into one system, where no eruptions occur, and complete harmony reigns throughout the still, vegetative, and animate world.

As the prophets said, the wolf will live peacefully next to the lamb, and the whole creation will exist in single harmony. In this way we will bring the whole universe and the whole world to a single connection, and the Creator will reveal Himself within this harmony as one force that fills and embraces the whole creation. Our mutual guarantee and connection will not only improve our life, but it will also correct the whole creation and will combine it into one perfect system.

And this is bound to happen because these informational genes are recorded in the creation and forces are acting in it that lead it to this goal. We can bring this goal closer with our participation. Everything depends on us!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/11/22, “Arvut on the Way to Lishma“

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Question: Let’s say you are explaining The Study of the Ten Sefirot, how is it that you constantly remember what to talk about?

Answer: It lives in me! It is my nature. I am not inventing anything or remembering something artificial. It is me! It is like you are asking me about myself or my family.

I just have to wake up, cheer up, and have some coffee. Then my systems wake up, like when you turn on the computer, for example. First of all the lamps warm up, etc. After that it does not matter what question you ask, I have an answer.

Why am I not preparing for lessons? Because I do not care what the topic is. You are asking me about the way I am arranged inside. You say: “What is Aba ve Ima, how does ZON rise or fall, or something happens to these worlds or those worlds?” But this is all the inner feelings of a person. After all, this does not exist outside of a person, but rather within him. This is why you are actually asking me how I feel, it is that kind of a question.

Comment: This is so incomprehensible! Let’s say when people study to be teachers, they first study the system and how it all works.

My Response: It is because they just learn it mechanically—there is such a system and such worlds. Ask them where these worlds exist—somewhere out there, in another dimension, in another area.

But they exist in me! These worlds do not exist anywhere at all, only inside a person. In the “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Baal HaSulam writes that all the worlds are inside a person.

Question: So many books have been written about this! How do you manage to give different comments for different states?

Answer: I have all this stored inside. When you ask me something, I dig inside myself and spread out the information to you, as if from some warehouse.

Kabbalah is not just a science that I have studied. All these definitions, sensations, levels, states, and phenomena exist in me, and I am just telling you about them. Therefore it is not difficult for me at all.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. How Do You Know Kabbalah?” 11/12/13

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Question: Basically, I see other people not as they are. With a general system of such chaos of perception of reality, what should I cling to? Surely there must be some kind of beacon that will guide me forward. What should I focus on in order to go the right way?

Answer: You have a group for that. It is why humanity is given to us in such a broken form. It is so that I can clearly, really correct my egoism, not corporeal egoism but spiritual egoism; it is, to put me in such states where I attract the spiritual energy that corrects me upon myself.

Question: Why do most people have the feeling that the group and friends are an order of magnitude higher than you anyway, that they are more collected and more connected?

Answer: Because this is really so. This is not a distorted but a correct representation. A group of Kabbalists who are trying to unite is always closer to spirituality than one person.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Whom to Believe?” 11/26/13

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Question: Do all people potentially have a point in the heart?

Answer: Everyone has it now. Inside every human ego, inside every person there is this point! But it can be very difficult to wake it up and raise it above the ego. It depends on the internal structure of the person.

Question: And what does “the enemy of my egoism, the friend of my soul” mean?

Answer: The enemy of my egoism and the friend of my soul is the point in the heart. The soul is called the corrected state of a person, the quality of bestowal and love manifested in a person relative to others. Naturally, this quality is an enemy of egoism and a friend of the soul.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Evolution of Humanity” 11/16/13

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Comment: They say that today we live in a world of instant gratification. You order something and already demand it to be here. You cannot stand to wait in line, you hate it. Traffic jams are even worse; I want to get to my destination right away.

Do you remember how it used to be with photography back in the days? You first insert the film, then roll it, then you take a shot. You ask that no one moves; otherwise, it would be out of focus. You do not develop it until you have used up the whole film. Developing photos was also a process.

Life was different, and all the time, in every moment, there was anticipation, expectation.

My Response: Yes, you participated in the process.

Question: And today, you click and instantly take a photo. Then you take it again. Tell me, what have we lost with all these clicks?

Answer: Creativity. We do not participate in the process, in the creation. We cannot influence it. We just click, click, click, and nothing else.

Question: So are we going to click through our whole lives?

Answer: And we do. Before, we could bring our own colors into it, touch up on it. In general, do everything. The photograph itself was artistic. Because you tuned the settings, the mechanism, added a little bromine to the developing liquid, and so on. It was creative.

Question: And you enjoyed being a part of this process?

Answer: As a boy, I really enjoyed being in the process. I would not want it to be automated.

Question: So, this very special moment of pleasure is lost?

Answer: Yes. And when you printed photos from film to paper, you took matte, or smooth, or glossy paper, and chose different parameters. It was all an expression of your feelings. It is missing here.

Question: Why is this happening? Why was this moment of pleasure taken from us?

Answer: We have replaced the world of creativity with the world of machines. As we are, so is the world.

Question: Why? What happened to us?

Answer: The world has dried up. There is no literature in it. There is no art the way it used to be. It all remained in the 18th to 19th century.

Comment: And classical music stayed there too.

My Response: Yes, everything stayed there. And today, there is none of it.

Question: Why? Do we not want to enjoy?

Answer: Man is becoming mechanical.

Question: Then I ask you to speak on behalf of the upper force. Upper force, why do you do such things to us? What for?

Answer: I will answer you on behalf of the upper force. “First, so that you realize the bleakness of your existence, the lowliness of your existence—and want to change it.”

Comment: But You created us like this, upper force!

Answer: “That is correct. I did. And I created you this way specifically for you to choose the right way of life.”

Question: Couldn’t we have been initially placed into the right way of life?

Answer: “No way! Or you would have been a machine. But now you have a choice between this and that. And I want you to exist in this choice and gradually choose the optimal existence in which you would be like Me for yourself .”

The upper force has a program, a goal! Everything is prepared.

But the fact is that to become like the Creator means to become absolutely kind, absolutely loving toward everyone, and so on. Here, on the contrary, a person must cultivate anti-egoistic qualities within himself.

Question: So that is all the upper force wants from us? Is that the only thing, the most important thing?

Answer: The only one!

Question: How should we treat this? What should we do? Love?

Answer: First of all, we completely disagree with this.

Comment: Of course, I do not agree with suffering.

My Response: Yes. But I see that if I am thinking sensibly, then I will probably not have any other choice but to agree with You.

Question: Are you already talking to the upper force on behalf of humanity?

Answer: Yes.

Question: So should I agree?

Answer: In the end, yes. And if we create such a society, such connections among us where we support this idea, it will be very easy for us, and we will quickly reach this state.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/25/22

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Question: Do I understand correctly that one of the basic principles of Kabbalah is to make commitments to others, fail, and because of lack of strength to turn to the Creator for help?

Answer: If you advance correctly, it will always be like that for you. You will try to do something good for others, and then it will begin to be revealed that you do not really want it.

You will try to do even better and more, but you will never succeed; and then, from disappointment, you will understand that you must turn to the Creator. It is on this that your synapses and all sorts of connections in your brain will be shorted. You will already have a predisposition for it, and such a state will start being created.

Question: What connections are important to build at this moment? Is that supposed to be a prayer?

Answer: Yes. It is a prayer, weeping, and the gate of tears; only they help a person. When he sees that everything is closed before him (and it should be so), and only the gates of tears are open, that is, only the Creator can help him, then it happens.

Question: Why does it take such a long time to build connections?

Answer: Our egoism does not allow us to do it faster. It keeps saying, “Dear, wait, you do not need others. Try it yourself.” It does not direct you to the Creator. The appeal to the Creator is the last thing; just as there are ten Sefirot, and only the last one works.

Question: In principle, it is the eternal question of students: “When will it happen already?” How long do they have to wait? Or does everyone come to this not at the same time?

Answer: It will happen when you want it to happen.

Comment: But it takes longer to get there for some and it is faster for others.

My Response: Of course. Some come to that point quicker, some slower, and not all together. A single person can be the one in the group to reach this. But a certain number come to this almost simultaneously.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Basic Principle of Kabbalah” 11/9/13

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Faith Above Reason”

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Freedom”

Selected Highlights

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