Audio Version Of The Blog – 4/2/23
Posted on April 2nd, 2023
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The New Refuseniks”
In the early 1970s, when I first asked for permission to immigrate to Israel, the Soviet authorities denied my request. In those days, I was not alone. Many soviet Jews who sought to leave the Soviet Union were refused and became what we now know as “refuseniks.” Even though I was denied, I kept hoping. After several years, I was finally given permission to make Aliyah [immigrate to Israel].
I paid a heavy price to come here—money, career, family—and came to Israel penniless with a wife and newborn son to feed. I did this because I believed that Jews should live here, and I wanted to contribute my share to the revival of the Jewish people in their homeland.
I served in the army, and then worked for the Israeli air force as part of a team that calibrated navigation and stability systems of fighter jets. I knew that if I did not do my job right, I would risk the pilot’s life. I treated my job as a sacred duty and would not dare slight any aspect of it or allow myself any kind of negligence.
These days, a new kind of refuseniks has emerged. The new refuseniks are not denied anything. They are not refused; they are refusing. Many of them are Israeli air force pilots who declared that they refuse to partake in training or in military action until the government withdraws from its intention to overhaul the Israeli judicial system. They declare that they are doing this in the name of democracy, but their ultimatum attempts to force their opinion, a minority opinion, on the democratically elected government. Indeed, with each passing day, the true nature of our “democracy” is surfacing.
We should not be surprised. After all, we are the people of Israel, the obstinate nation where each member feels that they should be the prime minister. It is true that as we are approaching crucial times in the history of humanity, the people of Israel will have a special role and each member of the nation will have to function like a prime minister, but it will not be in the sense that we are absolute leaders and everyone obeys our orders. On the contrary, it will be by setting an example of kindness and love of others above all the differences. The current attitude, where anyone who thinks a little differently from me is my sworn enemy, is the exact opposite of how we should behave toward each other.
Worse yet, as time passes, we are growing increasingly vicious toward others. Our nation has a history of self-inflicted trauma. We do not need to go back to the days of the ruin of the Second Temple, when a ruthless civil war destroyed the city of Jerusalem and prepared the ground for the Romans’ takeover of the land. It is enough to look back at the days preceding, and during Israel’s war of independence, when Jews told on other Jews to the British authorities and got them hanged, or when Jews fought Jews over possession of arms that came on board the ship Altalena, resulting in multiple casualties by drowning and by gunfire, shot by other Jews, and the sinking of the ship with most of its badly needed weapons and munitions still on board. It was a classic case of Jewish egocentrism: Either I win, or no one wins.
The current struggle is no different. It is not about a judicial reform; it is about power. When we are willing to destroy our country if we are not in power, this is what will happen. We will sink the country just like Altalena sank. And just as with Altalena, the few survivors will blame each other for our destruction.
At the moment, the only way I see to reverse the trajectory of mutual destruction is through the world’s pressure. If the nations hate the Jewish state with sufficient ferocity, it may just be enough to force us to unite. But even then, we will remain united only while we are under threat. The minute the threat is gone, so will our unity.
Of course, we could unite of our own volition and resolve that nurturing solidarity is preferable to a pointless struggle to the death, but at the moment, I do not see that Israelis are even looking in that direction, they feel too entitled, and are too proud being refuseniks.
[310970]
My article in Newsmax: “Netanyahu Will Achieve Nothing With Appeasement”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to pause judicial reform in order to give time for negotiation with its opposers will achieve nothing. The struggle is not about this or that law, or about how to appoint judges to Israel’s Supreme Court.
The struggle is about power and control, and when it comes to power struggles, there is no room for compromise. As several leaders of the protest have stated, as well as major media outlets, the resistance will not stop until they are in power and Netanyahu is behind bars.
It is to be expected that there will be disagreements and struggles between the coalition and the opposition. In fact, there are power struggles even within the coalition, and divisions into Right, Left, and numerous other kinds of disagreements.
We should not expect anything else when every politician wants nothing but personal promotion and does not care about the country, or even about one’s party. All we can and should expect is constant power struggles.
In light of such self-centered motivations, I cannot take sides and decide which side is right. Nevertheless, it pains me to see what is happening in my country. People often ask me about my position. I express my position in my lessons, but it is not political.
My position is that we have no choice but to connect above our differences. We will not feel any closer to each other, but at some point, we will realize that despite our mutual aversion, we have no choice but to learn to function like a united family.
As long as each side’s motivation stems from narrow, partisan interests, neither side can be right. The only thing that is “right” is unity; everything else is inherently wrong.
Regrettably, we are not only far from this perspective, we are growing further away from it by the hour. In the current situation, when political leaders and media outlets push for violence, I think that bloodshed is highly likely. I would not be surprised to see gunfire and casualties as a result of the political upheaval.
At the same time, I do not think that a full-blown civil war is imminent in Israel. Despite organized efforts by interested parties and governments to pitch Israelis against each other, I think that Israeli society is not going in that direction, at least not yet.
Even though I am pessimistic about the outcome of the current negotiation, I think it is good that we are talking. Talking is always preferable to fighting.
However, if the parties want to make the discussions productive, they must first admit that the struggle is not about laws, but about power. Regrettably, since the establishment of the State of Israel, I have never seen a real discussion and openness regarding how to share or manage power.
In all likelihood, we will continue to struggle until we face annihilation. Only then, perhaps, we will realize that we are governed by our own wickedness, and we will resolve to change our nature.
But to get there, I am afraid we will have to experience despair, anxiety, and a physical threat of destruction. We always have been an obstinate people, and we always will be. We are in for a rough ride; I only hope we wise up before we crash.
[310844]
Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Debate Is Not about Laws, It Is about Control”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to pause the judicial reform in order to give time for negotiation with its opposers will achieve nothing. The struggle is not about this or that law, or about how to appoint judges to Israel’s Supreme Court. The struggle is about power and control, and when it comes to power struggles, there is no room for compromise. As several leaders of the protest have stated, as well as major media outlets, the resistance will not stop until they are in power and Netanyahu is behind bars.
It is to be expected that there will be disagreements and struggles between the coalition and the opposition. In fact, there are power struggles even within the coalition, and divisions into Right, Left, and numerous other kinds of disagreements. We should not expect anything else when every politician wants nothing but personal promotion and does not care about the country, or even about one’s party. All we can and should expect is constant power struggles.
In light of such self-centered motivations, I cannot take sides and decide which side is right. Nevertheless, it pains me to see what is happening in my country. People often ask me about my position. I express my position in my lessons, but it is not political.
My position is that we have no choice but to connect above our differences. We will not feel any closer to each other, but at some point, we will realize that despite our mutual aversion, we have no choice but to learn to function like a united family. As long as each side’s motivation stems from narrow, partisan interests, neither side can be right. The only thing that is “right” is unity; everything else is inherently wrong.
Regrettably, we are not only far from this perspective, we are growing further away from it by the hour. In the current situation, when political leaders and media outlets push for violence, I think that bloodshed is highly likely. I would not be surprised to see gunfire and casualties as a result of the political upheaval.
At the same time, I do not think that a full-blown civil war is imminent in Israel. Despite organized efforts by interested parties and governments to pitch Israelis against each other, I think that Israeli society is not going in that direction, at least not yet.
Even though I am pessimistic about the outcome of the current negotiation, I think it is good that we are talking. Talking is always preferable to fighting.
However, if the parties want to make the discussions productive, they must first admit that the struggle is not about laws, but about power. Regrettably, since the establishment of the State of Israel, I have never seen a real discussion and openness regarding how to share or manage power.
In all likelihood, we will continue to struggle until we face annihilation. Only then, perhaps, we will realize that we are governed by our own wickedness, and we will resolve to change our nature.
But to get there, I am afraid we will have to experience despair, anxiety, and a physical threat of destruction. We always have been an obstinate people, and we always will be. We are in for a rough ride; I only hope we wise up before we crash.
[310869]
Comment: You have students who constantly sleep in class.
My Response: When I was studying with Rabash, we also had a student who worked very hard at a construction site and he fell asleep all the time in class. He was never late, he came at exactly three o’clock in the morning, sat down, and slept. This continued for seven or eight years until the death of our teacher. And Rabash didn’t say a word to him.
Question: If he was sleeping, then nothing happened to him?
Answer: No, it happened because he made his efforts—he came!
By the way, he was a hard worker by his physical constitution. It was hard for him to work internally, with his head. He did not understand anything either in studies or in spiritual work, but he had a desire, he wanted, and no one had any complaints about him. He was in everything with us.
[310514]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Light Lulls the Body” 10/20/12
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Question: We live in turbulent times, after all. We look back and we see pandemic and war. We have also had powerful earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. I will not even mention the death toll because it is growing rapidly. Every day they add two or three thousand unfortunate, dead people. It is also very cold there. The cold weather hit exactly at the same time. Now, probably, it is almost impossible to find people who are still alive.
When there are wars between people, then, in principle, it may be possible to come to some kind of agreement at some point when the forces are exhausted. But when war is declared by nature, what is there to do?
We are such little bugs! We have developed science and technology, but we cannot foresee what is happening. What is going on there is hell! The war that nature has declared on us, what should we do with it? How can we work with this?
Answer: I think there is nothing we can do. Nothing!
The Torah says that if you do the right thing, according to your conscience, and so on, then everything will be fine. The Creator—Nature (in gematria “Teva”) will treat you normally, and everything will be fine. You will get the sun in time, the rain in time. In general, everything will be alright. But this is on condition that you will be good.
Question: You said that Nature—”Nature” with a capital letter—is equivalent to the concept of the Creator. The gematria of these two words in Hebrew is the same. That is, we are talking about the Creator, right?
Answer: Yes.
Comment: You also say that if we are good to the Creator, then He will be good to us.
My Response: Naturally. Fulfill His commandments and you will see how He treats you absolutely in the same way! The commandments are the laws of nature.
The laws of nature are not physics, mathematics, and so on, which we know from science. The laws of nature are those that relate to the level of a person’s attitude to the world. That is, it is the relationship of people with each other, the relationship of a person with inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature. This is a person’s attitude to the universe, to the cosmos, to everything. All of this means the attitude of a person to the Creator.
In general, it should be just love, a correct and warm attitude to everything that is outside of you. To everything outside of you.
Comment: That is, I have a love for myself, there is no getting away from it.
My Response: This is your egoism.
Question: Are you saying that I do not have it for the other and for what is outside of me?
Answer: No, of course not.
Question: Or is it insufficient?
Answer: No! It does not exist.
Question: How can I exit myself and start loving something around me? Are there any steps that a person should take? We are now talking, in principle, about how to resist or how to stop this entire war that nature has declared against us. If possible, give specific advice. How can I exit myself and start loving something outside of myself?
Answer: This is “love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the most important and general commandment of the entire Torah.
Question: When you say “neighbor,” do you mean only a person who is close to me?
Answer: In general, in principle, this is an attitude to everything around you. You must develop this love in yourself and start giving it. Moreover, not just by calculation: this I love a little more, this a little less, and so on. Love! To love is when your heart tells you what your attitude should be.
Comment: The topic of the heart is also not very clear to us.
My Response: We need to work on it. This is not just to flip some switch. This is a whole process to love someone outside of yourself.
Question: What does it mean to love?
Answer: To love means to treat another as yourself. What could be simpler?
Comment: That is for sure. But we cannot make this step.
My Response: No. We do not even understand how.
Question: How to make it then?
Answer: I do not know. We need to just watch some movie first, about how a person loves himself so that I can learn from this how I should love others.
Question: Do you mean, kind of to copy it?
Answer: Yes. Go on, show me in some movie about how much I love myself, without any exceptions. Then I will see from here how I should love others. So that I always have this example.
Comment: So, I live all the time to receive something sweet, good, warm, kind, and cordial, I want everyone to treat me like this.
My Response: Mainly, to be right all the time.
Question: You are right here, yes. Do I suddenly have to give it up and say, “You are right”?
Answer: Yes.
Question: This is a serious job. Will nature calm down then?
Answer: Of course, it will calm down! Because you, the most important instigator of all this negative process, will simply remove yourself from the picture. Nature corrects us and leads us to this very decision.
And nature reacts to this. It has given the human this world, this Earth, at his mercy. Do whatever you want.
Comment: But, in principle, it is giving and bestowing.
My Response: It is giving and bestowing to the extent that you are giving and bestowing.
Comment: You put an equal sign here; if I am the same as it, everything will be fine.
My Response: A person must come to the similarity with the Creator. This is why nature is not giving up here.
Question: If we reduce everything to a short sentence, then it turns out that we must be similar to the Creator and that is it. Just how to do it?! Will it not rest until we come to that?
Answer: No! It is said about this: “Rise to the level of the Creator.”
Comment: Do you know that seismologists are already predicting that it will not stop, but will continue to shake us more and more? There is something going on with the core, something with the Earth. I will not go into the technical details. But they say it will continue to shake and there will be more and more places where it will be seriously shaking. That is what they say.
My Response: It is as if the Creator is playing with our Earth as with a ball.
Question: Is this, as you say, until we make this decision and begin to move toward the Creator?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Do we just need to make this decision? Is that all that is required of us?
Answer: But we need to agree! To accept means to agree. This is not like at a meeting—we accepted this unanimously and went home. There should be unanimous agreement here, of all people to live according to the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Question: Can we say that all 613, or even 620 commandments are included in this one commandment?
Answer: Of course.
[309574]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/9/23
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Kabbalists do not enter into a trance like psychics and do not delve into themselves in some kind of ecstasy, like other sorts of mystics from ancient times to our time.
Since they have a screen, they consciously, with reason, with feeling, they clearly and calmly exist not only in the external layer of information and forces, but also in the inner one where all events are organized and decisions are made because in their movement they walk the middle line.
The right and left lines are bestowing and receiving, but they are always in the middle line, like at the equilibrium point of the arm of scales, which is why it is called the tongue of the scales. Being constantly in the middle line, Kabbalists always make precise calculations so that the measure of their attainment and the screen are balanced all the time.
Their advancement lies in the fact that, just as egoism is constantly increasing, the screen must also increase. In this way, they move as if on two legs.
Therefore, they have clear and controlled movement. We know that when a tunnel is being built, a shield moves ahead, cuts off the layers of soil, one by one, throws them out, and goes forward. Similarly, so do the Kabbalists.
[310206]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalists Versus Psychics” 7/14/1?
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When we reprogram ourselves from reception to bestowal, a completely new system is built. We begin to take into account others: their desires, intentions, and thoughts. They become more important to you than yourself because they are an object that you want to fill, and you view yourself as only an instrument of filling them.
At the same time, you must reach a state where you enjoy filling them, and doing it above the huge egoism and hatred that is revealed between you; meaning, you build love over hate.
And all this should happen consciously, actually, when you are making great efforts to change yourself internally, to create completely different values in yourself, the values of bestowal and love, specifically above hatred.
As a rule, you are indifferent to our world and you find it disgusting. There are several people for whom you have a heartfelt feeling and there are several others for whom you have a pleasant feeling, only because you use them for your egoism. And your attitude to everyone else is as follows, from indifference to neglect and petty, everyday hatred of our world.
When you are engaged in spiritual transformation, you will not feel your neighbor as a loved one. No! You will constantly reveal that this is your hater and always have to build a connection above the degrees of hatred and rejection. 125 degrees is the thickness of your egoism, which will grow all the time, and over them you need to constantly create absolutely complete connection and love.
Love is when all the desires and aspirations of a neighbor, everything that he wants, you supply to him with all your heart, despite the disgusting attitude burning in you toward him. In our world, these are incredible opportunities that a person must find and begin to display toward others.
[310405]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. A Man Without a Soul” 10/6/12
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Question: Before you started studying Kabbalah, did you have a predisposition to it?
Answer: Yes, I did. I have felt absolutely dissatisfied all of my life. I was not satisfied with this reality in any way.
I had questions about why I was born and why I existed, although I had everything in abundance. I grew up in a decent, intelligent family. Any education, whatever one needs, I could have it all: any children’s clubs, books, no problem. Yet, I was interested only in finding answers.
Question: Usually young people live by certain interests. When they turn thirty, there is a turning point. Therefore, they very often come to Kabbalah after thirty. Did you also come to Rabash at this age?
Answer: I would have come earlier, of course! I think around 13 to 14 years old because my studies at school, at the university, and everywhere were just attempts to find something, otherwise I would not have had the strength to study.
I was lazy and jumped from one thing to the other. Nothing attracted me! I could not bring myself to do unnecessary things. It was very hard. Although, if something is important to me, then the concept of laziness disappears altogether. But this is like everyone else. The most important thing is the importance of what you do.
Comment: On the other hand, thanks to this, you have experienced certain facets of life.
My Response: Only based on a feeling of deep dissatisfaction.
[310401]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Break Away from Everything Earthly!” 10/16/12
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Comment: In principle, a Kabbalah lesson is perceived by us in conceptual apparatus. But you keep saying that this leads us away from the correct understanding because the perception of the mind does not give anything and we need to break away from the images.
My Response: Yes! Because the main thing for us is to develop sensory perception, to feel what we lack.
Our mind is secondary, it develops in accordance with sensations. If I did not have one of the organs of perception, then, accordingly, the brain would not work with it.
If I did not have all the organs of perception, then the brain would not work with anything at all. It would not exist. It would be in the form of a rudimentary, point-like state. From what, then, could it develop? Imagine, if there were no sensory organs, then there is no brain.
Thus, a person has only a theoretical possibility of starting to develop. Some kind of impetus is needed to give a person direction in the development of one’s feelings, and then in the development of his mind. This initial state is called “point in the heart” or “Reshimo” (record, informational gene).
[310395]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Nothing Exists!” 10/3/12
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