Audio Version Of The Blog – 1/8/23
Posted on January 8th, 2023
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Rabbis’ Letter against the new government is a big deal over nothing”
As the new Israeli government was taking shape, an open letter titled A Call to Action began to circulate among American Jewish communities. The signatories, some of whom are prominent figures in American Jewry, pledged “to not invite any members of the RZP [Religious Zionist Party] … to speak at our congregations and organizations. We will speak out against their participation in other fora across our communities. We will encourage the boards of our congregations and organizations to join us in this protest as a demonstration of our commitment to our Jewish and democratic values.”
This letter is worth mentioning only because it is a good reminder for Israelis what American Jewry thinks of Israel. The letter exposes the simple truth that the majority of American Jewry, not all, but certainly a substantial majority among them, oppose Jews being in Israel, and oppose the State of Israel altogether. From their perspective, it would be best if Israel did not exist.
I understand why they need to speak out. First of all, if they keep quiet, it is as if they do not exist, so they need to make some noise. Second, by and large, American Jewry has one goal in mind: to make its stay in the US as safe and serene as possible. Since the world sees Jews as connected all over the world, American Jewry finds itself having to explain the position of the State of Israel, and it makes them feel uncomfortable and unsafe. Because they feel that the existence of Israel risks their own safety in the US, they do not want Israel to exist, certainly not as a Jewish, Zionist entity.
Israel’s Judiciary: Reform or Ruin?
Lucky for Israel, it is not in any way dependent on American Jewry. The money they donate will not be missed if it stops flowing; Israel is strong enough without it. The lobbying they do for Israel has also not been there for us for many years, and Israel’s strength lies elsewhere today. Therefore, I do not think that Israel should mind at all what Jewish congregations in America think about Israel.
The interests that shape Israel’s position in the world are far more comprehensive than our relationship with this or that denomination in American Jewry. Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and Iran all take part in the map of interests, and Israel is much more powerful than it used to be, both on the military end and on the economic end.
In fact, even if the US would, for some reason, stop providing military and economic aid to Israel, it would not hurt Israel’s position or harm it economically or otherwise. I do not see such a scenario unfolding, but just to give some perspective as to how independent Israel has become, it is good to remember that we are standing on our own two feet today.
The new government that has just been sworn in is rife with experienced people, who know what they want and how to achieve it, and despite some newspapers’ attempts to portray the new government as a disaster in the making, the majority of the people in Israel feel more confident now than under the previous government.
Yet, above and beyond all the political arguments, the main problem that severs American Jewry from Israel and from Israelis is the simple truth that there is hatred between us. It is fine not to agree. There are arguments in every nation, and some people even choose to leave their country because they disagree with the policy of their government. However, no Chinese in exile and no Iraqi who has fled his country’s regime would want their country to stop existing altogether. This aspiration is uniquely Jewish, and stems from our total hatred for each other, what we Jews know as sinaat hinam (hatred without cause).
If we could overcome that hatred, we would be able to overcome every disagreement. Since we do not want to even admit that our hatred for each other is so deep, we have no chance of curing it. Specifically for the people of Israel, sinaat hinam is an unforgivable sin, the root cause of all the torments that the nations of the world have inflicted on us throughout the generations.
If we tried to love one another, we would not have to hate each other in politics; we would not feel we must appease the nations, and the world would not hate us. When humanity looks at us, it sees our hatred for each other, and seeing it makes them hate us to the core, to the point where they do not want our existence in this world.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is Israel’s side of the story?“
Recently, at a border crossing in Huwara, a large town South of Nablus, a Palestinian terrorist was shot dead by an Israeli border police officer during a struggle after the terrorist tried to steal the officer’s weapon. The event was filmed, distributed on social media and presented as the execution of a Palestinian. Israel was condemned for the act by the United Nations, America and others, and it once again awakened the question as to whether others will see Israel’s side of the story. That is, the officer acted in order to protect his own life and the life of others, and it is also written in the Torah that if a person comes to kill you, you need to kill them first.
That others will see Israel’s side of this story depends solely on whether we Jews act out of a common unification toward each other, above our differences. The world will then shift its attitude toward Israel from negative to positive, i.e. to a people who bring peace and love to humanity. As much as we behave as a divided people, then the world will likewise feel that we bring sorrow and torment to the world—and they will continue viewing us in a negative light.
Israel is held to completely different standards than any other nation because there is more of a demand upon Israel than on any other nation. We initially became the people of Israel when we followed Abraham’s guidance and reached a state of “love your neighbor as yourself.” Attaining a state of a common love toward each other is a law that we need to abide by in order to realize what we need to do in the world. After we implement this law among our own connections, we will then be able to love others too, and then they will also love us in return.
It acts like a chain, and the first link of that chain is love for our fellow people here—among the people of Israel. If we reach a state where we positively connect to each other above our differences, we will then positively influence the rest of the world. Other nations will then gain an ability to positively connect, and then they will understand that Israel grants them this ability. We will then become treated contrarily to how we are treated today: as bringers of peace. Humanity’s good or bad future rests in how the people of Israel will attune their attitudes toward each other.
Based on the video “When Will People See Israel’s Side of the Story?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Question: Your teacher was already an elderly person when you met him. You knew that in any event he would pass away. Did you prepare yourself for his death?
Answer: It was absolutely clear to me that I would be unable to live a single day in the surroundings where he was once he was gone. I was in that place and with those people only because of him. Only! The moment he would not be there, I would not be there either.
Rabash left. He died in my arms in the hospital. There was no one around him but me. It was Friday. I called and told the guys that our teacher is not here anymore. People started coming to the hospital. The same day the funeral took place at 11 in the morning. We went to Jerusalem. I remember all of this as in a dream.
I still thought that I should not be so easily separated from the others and they from me, and that we should break into many parts. I understood that eventually I would have to do that. I was thinking that we would have to reorganize somehow in the same system, in the same society. After all, in Kabbalah it is written about society, about group, so it means I have to do something. And I tried.
In the end I felt rejection from the others, and they felt the same way toward me, and everything broke into many pieces. One group stayed in Bnei Barak, another one in Jerusalem, the third one somewhere else. It happened as I expected.
Question: Does it mean you played the “film” of what would happen after Rabash’s death for yourself?
Answer: Absolutely. No doubt. I even talked using hints about this with Rabash. Why not?
In the same way today I can talk about what will happen when I am gone; there has to be a group the same as now. The core of the group is the people I rely on even today. I can even say their names. They can lead the group correctly together and in no way will be swayed by other opinions that jump out here and there.
The same happened after Rabash was gone. Right away upstarts appeared. With the teacher they were sitting quietly in the corner, but now they got a feeling that everyone is equal. No way! There are no equals.
There are people who are not capable, do not understand, and still undeveloped internally to be inside the governing system, in the core. And there are those who according to their inner readiness, to their connection with me are ahead. They possess the inner self-discipline; they can continue to carry on this mission. Therefore, I think it will get organized this way.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10
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Question: In the modern world, fast intimate relationships are very common, when people literally without any prerequisites can quickly get together and then separate. What do they gain and what do they lose?
Answer: This is the necessary path of our downfall. We cannot say what people gain or lose in this case, and as this will become clear only at the end of our fall, we will see that we gain nothing by this, that a completely different paradigm of attitude to marriage and family is required, that we lose, and we lose a lot on this.
But such an atmosphere stems from modern culture. Literature, music, cinema; look what is being done! And children grow up on this, they are completely different. They have a different view of the world.
Today, a mother takes her 12 – 13-year-old daughter to a gynecologist, who prescribes birth control pills for her and that’s it. The mother no longer thinks about what is happening to her daughter because she knows that there is no other way. And the daughter easily, without reservation, may talk to her about her problems. She thinks it’s all right and normal. That is, young people have a completely different approach to life, it’s a different culture.
Such is the transitional period, when we left the previous, traditional matriarchy-patriarchy and did not get anywhere in the end; we cut off old ties, but there are not any new ones. This general chaos will haunt us until we begin to feel that without correcting the nature of man, we will not move anywhere.
In the meantime, we will go deeper and deeper into chaos in all areas of human activity: political, social, etc. We have very serious changes in society ahead of us.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Quickie Sex” 12/21/13
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Adam and Eve are two forces of nature that were tricked by the Creator to perform the sin.
As tempting as it is to say ‘yes,’ Adam and Eve do not describe a man and a woman of our world. They refer to spiritual forces which bestow (man) and receive (woman), meaning two forces of nature. This is, in fact, the Creator and the created being. The Bible talks about the connection between them, how the created being derives pleasure from the Creator, is filled by it and then becomes an egoist. This is the sin, the fall of the souls into this world and so on.
In other words, the story of Adam and Eve is about our highest spiritual roots and it isn’t about a man and a woman. We are descendents of Adam and Eve, but they are the spiritual forces that gradually materialized and reached this world after thousands of steps.
In Eden, the female part called Eve wanted to become even more sanctified and to rise even more. Therefore, it wished to copulate with the male part and to ascend to the level of the Creator. This is what is written and that is what these forces – these souls – understood. In this manner, they become close to the Creator, to bestowal.
Eve didn’t do anything wrong. She brought everything into development. Adam himself wasn’t able to perform this sin, but with her help it was done. They were tricked into it by the Creator so that they would sin, because the whole chain of events has to come down into this material world. And from it, we have to reach the highest spiritual level once again.
All the states described in the Torah do not speak about geography, not about the way the group of Abraham left Egypt, approached Mount Sinai, crossed the desert, and entered the Land of Israel, but about internal states of people. They began to feel a great development of egoism. It was hard for them, but gradually they came to the point that they were constantly ascending and descending in connection with each other and trying to stay at the level of love, friendship, and the state of “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Sometimes it was working and sometimes not, but it went on like this until they realized that they must break away from egoism because it became so huge that it was impossible to deal with it.
You cannot immediately jump onto this mountain, but only gradually revealing the ego to the extent that you can use it, rise above it and thus raise yourself, even though negative qualities are constantly being revealed in you. But you are not afraid of them. You understand that thanks to them you rise above them by using them correctly, and this is your spiritual elevation.
It was in this way that the group of Abraham in connection with each other broke away from the egoism that is called “Egypt,” rose, and began to work on themselves. First, they began to establish a relationship of mutual assistance, so as not to harm each other, since before that they were ready to bite each other’s heads off. Mount Sinai represents the mountain of hatred between them.
Their state can be called a “desert” because they did not feel any taste in it since work for bestowal does not bring any fulfillment to egoism. So, they worked on themselves for 40 years, until they fully rose to the level of Bina.
Then they went through the so-called 40 years of wandering in the desert. Wandering symbolizes a constant search: Where in this egoism, which I constantly raise out of myself, can I find the quality of Bina, the quality of bestowal?
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. History of the Jewish People” 4/5/14
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Question: How did you find the strength to learn from Rabash Peh el Peh (mouth to mouth)?
Answer: I do not think I was the luckiest or the strongest as was the case with Joshua relative to Moses or with other Kabbalists. I had very big breakdowns.
That is, you come and go along with the teacher and you suddenly break down. And you cannot do anything; there is a contradiction: “Well, how can it be? This is not how he does it! This is not how he thinks! This is not how he acts! I have to do it differently! I… I… I…”
It cannot be fixed. It was probably necessary to go that way. To what has passed, we must say: “This is how it should have happened.”
But it is necessary, of course, to try to make all this happen in an absolute internal fusion. This is called Peh el Peh—spirit to spirit.
The fact is that now we are talking about a relationship that does not exist today between a student and a teacher. First of all, I do not see that this is possible between me and any of the students.
Secondly, the global wave that is rising today is not aimed at merging with the teacher and thus receiving spiritual Peh el Peh from him but in finding spiritual things among them, in scrupulously following all the instructions of the teacher.
Then the teacher becomes not a Teacher with a capital letter, not a spiritual father, but a leader, an instructor on the way; that is, he accompanies a group of students from the side.
We are in a state where we are pioneers. So, it is hard to say how it should actually be. After me, my students will discover further inside them what is inherent in them and will see how to behave further. But still, what is happening now will speak to them and will move them.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10
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Comment: Sects seem to characterize themselves with the assertion: “This group is the chosen one, the rest of humanity will perish because they do not belong to this group and do not allow it to save them.”
My Response: No, that is wrong! The Kabbalistic group exists in order to spread Kabbalistic knowledge throughout humanity because only to the extent of this knowledge do we all advance by good and kind means; otherwise, it will be bad for everyone.
After all, suffering are the uncorrected qualities that work against us. If we correct them, they turn into good, benevolent ones. In this case, we are in the same boat with humanity.
We do not look down on anyone: “We told you everything, the rest is up to you. Should you perish, we will keep going forward to the light!” Nothing like that, we are all in the same boat.
Moreover, if we do not succeed in spreading the method of correction to the world, which must be implemented now, we are to blame, not the world.
I do not blame the world, I justify it all the time. I understand the nature of man, one cannot act differently until I help them change it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalah about Cults” 12/18/13
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| [media 1] | [media 2] |
Zohar for All “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “The Donkey Driver,” Item 78
| [media 3] | [media 4] |
Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 25
| [media 5] | [media 6] |
Selected Highlights
| [media 7] | [media 8] |
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