Audio Version Of The Blog – 5/2/23
Posted on May 2nd, 2023
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Comment: We are used to the phrase “Israel’s Independence Day.” We are used to this holiday, and we celebrate it. In today’s world, the word “independence” is heard everywhere: independent countries, independent republics, independent press, independent experts… All sides of conflicts, all parties, speak about it, the rights, the lefts, individuals, everyone!
Besides, it is not just a word, but a very important concept in Kabbalah.
My Response: In Kabbalah, this concept is absolutely the opposite of what people, the world, society, countries, and nations understand.
What does independence mean? Independence from what?
Comment: This is the independence of my borders, independence from someone else. I want to live by myself, with my national independence, republican, state, and so on. If no one gets to me, this means that I am independent; I will build my own world. This is called independence.
My Response: But this is impossible because, in today’s world, everyone depends on each other. So how can we be independent? If you are going to be independent, you should go into the woods and provide yourself with what you can. You are condemning yourself to terrible conditions.
Question: You can say it in another way: “So that no one dictates to me how to live.” Is it also impossible?
Answer: This is the same thing. No one will dictate anything to you, but how will you provide for yourself? How will you create and preserve this independence? It is completely unclear how this is possible.
Today, a developing country in the world should be connected to all the countries by good mutual ties. Only in this case, can it feel comfortable for everyone; otherwise, it will feel crushed, limited, humiliated, and so on.
Question: If it will be on its own?
Answer: Yes, but no one will give it such an opportunity. After all, all countries surround each other and want, like wolves in the forest, to snatch from others as much as they can. This is our normal, egoistic world. It cannot be any different. It was always like that, only we covered ourselves up a little. We did not reveal it enough in our egoism.
Question: Do you think there is no point in demanding independence in this world? It does not exist and will not exist?
Answer: We can demand, but at the same time, we must demand from ourselves! This is the most important thing. If we observe such conditions then there are good neighborly relations, peace, and mutual assistance between us, which are contrary to our inherent, natural quality to receive, conquer, and force peace.
Comment: If we have a connection, then it is against someone. All this is vicious.
My Response: Of course. Therefore, everything we create is only supposedly for the benefit of ourselves and to the detriment of others. There cannot be one instead of the other.
Kabbalah speaks of independence where we rise above our egoism. Independence from our personal egoism. This is what real independence is, and then I only think about others. It is among the others, in good relations with others, which I create with all my capabilities, there I feel independent.
Question: Are you saying, “only about others”? Do I not think about myself at all?
Answer: I do not, I am a consequence. I exist even today as a consequence of the attitude of everyone else toward me.
Question: Does it mean that I can only think about others, and then the consequence will be how they treat me, how I am, and so on?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Should my first thought not be: “Will they treat me well if I treat others well?”
Answer: I do not think this is the nature of a person and our society. Therefore, to say such beautiful phrases as: “Do not hit others, and they will not hit you,” and so on does not work.
Question: Does what you say work? How is it possible in our world that I do not think about myself, but think about others? Publicly, for example.
Answer: The fact is that, of course, it does not work anyway. If I treat others well, I will only give them an additional reason to grab me and bite off all sorts of pieces of me. Thus, the whole problem in human society is for it to transform itself from a pack of predators into an organized, mutual, voluntary, and kind community.
Question: Do you believe in this fiction?
Answer: No, I do not believe it by any means, but I say it because in principle this is the only solution. Exactly when we realize that this is the only solution, albeit a fantastic and impossible one, then we suddenly can implement it.
Question: From where?
Answer: From above. We will be able to receive such a force from nature that will lift us above our egoism, and then it will be implemented. I will be above my nature, I will be above my thoughts, I will be above my decisions. How will it work out? It will work out because the second force of nature will be revealed—the quality of bestowal, connection, and love.
Question: Can you guarantee this to me? For example, I am a politician or an ordinary person, and I hear you. Can you guarantee me that?
Answer: I can only tell you again in more detail so that you understand that there is no other way. Or we are going to perish and die in every generation. And in the future generation, the same fate is prepared for our descendants. Nothing is changing, except that the sufferings are becoming greater, and the possibility of solving them with the help of wars and deaths is becoming more and more terrible.
Question: Will I come to what you say through understanding this and feeling this?
Answer: Yes, in the end, we will understand. Moreover, this is a very scary decision because we will feel like we are being skinned. Because this is the opposite of me.
But there is an opportunity to resolve this issue in a kind, peaceful way. It means to study our nature and study the force of nature that can help us change ourselves. Then we will be able to place ourselves under the influence of this good force of nature, and it will change us from little evil predators to big kind creatures.
Question: Do you think we are getting closer to this understanding that we are little evil predators?
Answer: We are getting closer. However, so far we are also approaching it in a bad way.
But according to the way all kinds of positive and negative forces are being revealed more and more, especially in our generation, and we are given the opportunity to talk about it and somehow implement them; that is, there is hope that we will be able to formalize for ourselves, for our understanding, and for our knowledge of this system of nature’s forces, and to understand how we can balance it and express the good force from it.
I think we can do it. Otherwise, we will still come to this, but in a very long way, a terrible way of suffering.
Question: It is said that the Messiah will come when the face of humanity will be like the muzzle of a dog. Does this apply to us, to our time?
Answer: Yes, it is people’s awareness of their terrible, bestial nature. We are getting closer to this now. But we can see it from afar, and that is enough. We do not necessarily have to get right into the dog’s den. It is enough just to see it and be scared.
Comment: God grant that it will be so.
[297387]
From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 5/3/22
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Question: We have reached a milestone date: 75 years of Israel’s independence. It has been 75 years since the Jews found their home, 75 years of wars, 75 years of proving that this is our place, that we want to live here, and so on. These have not been easy years.
How would you sum up this 75th anniversary?
Answer: I would like us to understand that time is not working for us. We must admit that in the eyes of the world, despite all our attempts to present ourselves as the best, we still look like the worst.
Comment: This is a paradox. We have huge achievements in medicine, in progress, in everything.
My Response: Absolutely no one needs this from us. On the contrary, if we suffered, then maybe a certain number of non-Jews would love us. Or rather, they would feel sorry for us. But not in this way.
Comment: The great Kabbalist Baal HaSulam welcomed the creation of the State of Israel.
My Response: He hoped that this state of Israel would be the right one.
Comment: What do you consider right?
My Response: It is when the people who will inhabit it will try to show the entire world what the purpose of a person’s life on Earth is.
Question: You take it globally. What about the fact that a home was created for Jews who were persecuted and exterminated?
Answer: What for?
Question: To live at home, so that no one touches you. Is that not an idea?
Answer: This is impossible for the Jews. We were kicked out of our home. We have never had our own home in general. The fact that we lived for several hundred years, even less, in the land of Israel in the past, says nothing.
Question: How about the fact that Temples were built here?
Answer: So, what? We took the land from other nations and built them. Were there no nations here before that?
Rashi wrote that the nations of the world would come and ask: “Why did you take the land away from the nations who lived here?” And the Jews will have to answer. He asks, what can we answer? “The entire earth belongs to the Creator. He gave it to other nations, and then took it from them and gave it to us.”
But this is correct if we follow His instructions, will, and desire. Yet, we do not do that. Therefore, there is no life for us here and there will not be. Will not be! I say this to everyone and always.
Comment: We started by saying that this is a holiday, but what you are saying does not sound festive.
My Response: This is a holiday because the people received the opportunity, as Baal HaSulam says, to exist on their land and fulfill their mission before all of humanity. So, if we fulfill it, because this opportunity still exists, then everything will turn out right and everyone in the world will understand why Jews exist and what we should do.
Question: What is the mission of the Jews, and why do they exist on this earth?
Answer: The Jews exist in order to live on this earth in unity with each other, in such a unity that will be called absolute unity. When they will be able to show all other nations an example of how to actually live without wars, without violence, without mutual hatred.
This is what we must show to the whole world. Then we will have the right to exist. Everyone will understand why we exist at all. And everyone will be happy to see that we exist on our own piece of land in order to translate all this into action and example.
Question: Then will everyone want this piece of land to exist, for Jews to live here, and for them to prosper?
Answer: Yes. In particular, our cousins the Arabs.
Question: In that case, what is independence in light of what you are saying?
Answer: Independence is independence from our egoism, when we can rise above it and show this example to all the nations of the world how to live in connection, in friendship, and in mutuality. Everyone will want to follow it.
This is our mission from above. Therefore, we are a special nation in this sense, and we cannot escape anywhere from fulfilling this mission. But it may take several thousand more years until we come to this.
Question: Thousands of years?!
Answer: Thousands. Has it been 2,000 years? Another 2,000 years will pass. It does not matter how long it takes, but we still will not be able to run away from fulfilling our mission.
We can hope that over the next 2,000 years, we will understand something after all.
Question: Is there such a layer in us that it cannot be penetrated?
Answer: The egoistic layer is such that maybe the next 2,000 years will do something to us.
Question: But anyway, one way or another, this is not our work, this is the work of the Creator. He might as well do it tomorrow. Why do we have to wait 2,000 years?
Answer: We are obliged, we have to agree to this job. We must wait for such a revolution in ourselves when we want to be not competing with each other but loving each other, to “love your neighbor as yourself” and be able to convey this as an example to all other nations of the world.
Comment: You have always said that a good businessman is a strategist, he looks forward to many years. A bad businessman wants to quickly grab something right now and that is it. You are such a businessman that you are looking forward to 2,000 years. You are engaged in this, you are disseminating this, and at the same time, you are saying that this is…
My Response: I live in this every day with the hope that after some time, I am not saying 2,000 years, but as we understand, not yet today, the people will begin to change.
Comment: And for this, you are ready to keep saying it today and repeating it.
My Response: In order for this to begin to be implemented in a few thousand years.
Question: But are you still an optimist?
Answer: I am not an optimist. I say that this is the law of nature, and we will still be obliged to implement it.
[311981]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/20/23
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In the News (New Scientist): “In 1989, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts detected an unknown sonic presence at 52 hertz. It was initially thought to be from a submarine, but marine biologist William Watkins later determined that it was the sonar signature of a whale, which he gave the nickname “52”.
“It is an unusually high frequency for whale vocalisations, and Watkins was intrigued enough to search for 52 until his death in 2004. But despite picking up 52’s call every year, Watkins never found the mysterious whale. …
“Why 52 calls at this frequency is also a mystery – the whale’s species hasn’t been confirmed, and it is possible that it is the only one of its kind in the ocean. The one thing we do know is that 52 is almost certainly a he: male whales do the singing.
“The reason for 52’s presumed loneliness has nothing to do with the fact that he has always been detected swimming alone. Instead, it is because the unique frequency of his call means that other whales can’t understand to respond. …
“In our increasingly connected world where contact and interaction is only the click of a button away, the fact that so many people still report feeling lonely makes it easy to identify with 52’s situation. There is something deeply affecting about a creature as intelligent and social as we know whales to be, swimming the vast ocean, year after year, never having any proper contact with another of its kind.”
My Response: In place of humanity, I would still start to get in some kind of contact with it. If the frequency at which it talks or wants to talk is known, then we have no problem creating such a device.
Question: Do you think it wants to communicate?
Answer: Undoubtedly. But it scares other whales away with its higher frequency.
Question: And what should we, such lonely whales that live in this world and exist in this loneliness, do? Now a lot of people have gone to live in huts in the forest somewhere in the Taiga and have been living there for 20 to 30 years. This is how people live.
Answer: It is their choice, and I would not say that it is bad. They still find themselves there. Through communication with themselves, they communicate with nature. Perhaps even with the Creator. It is better than communicating with people.
Question: Especially in our time?
Answer: Of course. If they do not feel that they have a special goal, a mission, that obligates them to be in the world among people, then they feel very good. I think that, in principle, they find themselves there.
Question: And if you had a choice, would you go somewhere?
Answer: Undoubtedly.
Question: Would you lock yourself in a room?
Answer: Undoubtedly! I am trying to do that anyway, although this is all unsuccessful. But I still move away from people, from the world, as much as I can.
Question: Is it possible to create a world in solitude? Is it possible to love loneliness? Is it possible to be in it all the time?
Answer: If a person rises, really rises, then he feels he is alone; he is lonely. This is a wonderful state, but at the same time he feels himself in connection with the Creator.
Question: Still a person advances to this?
Answer: Yes. This is the lone whale.
[309813]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/16/22
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Question: Do you feel how much a person is invested in what is given to him?
Answer: First, participate in everything the main group does. Secondly, it is necessary to do internal work, which, in principle, the main group does and constantly talks about. Do all this and you will advance forward.
How much to invest? Invest and you will see. When you work together with everyone, you gradually get involved in a common spiritual work, you will not go anywhere. So it goes.
Question: Do you feel how much a person’s investment is to his maximum or not?
Answer: What is the difference?! It is his own business. What kind of test can there be? He is building his spiritual future with this!
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. What to Expect from Kabbalah?” 12/22/12
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Comment: From time to time there are reports in the press that thousands of birds, fish, or other animals are dying all over the world.
My Response: Such reports appear only when it is clearly happening in front of people’s eyes, but in fact, we are in the state of a huge, terrible catastrophe!
This is not just an ecological disaster, but a natural one where we will have nothing to eat. Not only will there be no money to buy something, printing it is not a problem, you will not be able to feed anyone! There will be food riots, epidemics, a kind of ten Egyptian plagues, if we do not start to change ourselves.
Mankind, with its persistent unwillingness to pay attention to what nature requires of us, causes increasingly harsh, severe forces, like a child who does not want to listen to what he is told. Eventually, he will be forced. But with what methods?!
As long as they don’t give him a slap, it doesn’t matter. “Let’s live somehow without it! You can’t do anything.” And when the time comes that we are no longer able to do anything, airports will stop, communication will disappear, there will be no normal water.
We see what is happening. I don’t want to scare anyone. I’m just stating that all this suggests that we are out of complete balance with nature.
[311639]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Mass Death” 1/9/11
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Question: Nastya writes: “One day the lights went off and I called a neighbor who had two children and invited her to visit me. We were sitting and talking at the table with candles burning with the children were nearby. As soon as the lights came back on, the children ran and turned on the TV, and we became silent.
What do you think about this feeling of happiness that was there and then was suddenly gone?“
Answer: Yes, it is gone because it presses. But it has always been so. Recall past times, even centuries ago.
Question: How can we feel such happiness now? Is it possible in the light, with modern technology, progress, and all this or not?
Answer: No. With present life, the way of life, its pace, and everything else that exists, we cannot make ourselves happy. We give in to what we have created, and it is killing us.
Question: I would say that we are bought. Do you think it is not necessary to create or still move toward the goal, toward what I want to be?
Answer: To move toward the goal, you just need to live in a much simpler way, not to wait until nature, society, or the Creator crush us, but do it, perhaps reasonably and gradually, somehow by yourself.
Question: Do you have an idea of how a person should do it?
Answer: It will not work to turn off the lights. It will not work to diminish anything. There are too many interested egoists who will still produce all sorts of rubbish and make all sorts of dull productions on screens—anything possible. All this needs a very strong push and revelation of evil in order to correct it.
How can we uncover this evil? By a serious war?
Question: In whom will it reveal itself, in consumers or in those who push everything into a consumer?
Answer: It is required from both sides. Both from producers and consumers.
Question: So that it is suddenly revealed that this is all evil?
Answer: That this is the end! You cannot go any further; that is it! There must be an uprising. Let us make the world simpler, more understandable, more comfortable, and most importantly, calmer. In such a world we will be able to clarify in ourselves what we are for, why, and what we should come to.
Question: And the last question, what will we understand in this case, as you said? What will we understand then?
Answer: We will understand that the main thing is what a person desires in this world. So that he clarifies it, but very seriously, not halfway. And then he will achieve this goal.
Question: So do you put it this way: “I need to get rid of all this ‘noise’ and very, very quietly focus on what I want.”?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Is that all? And what will he understand? What he wants?
Answer: He will understand the meaning of life—the most important thing that he has.
Question: What is it in?
Answer: The meaning of life is in attaining the meaning of life.
Question: It is like a wheel: the meaning of life is attaining the meaning of life. Is there some kind of eternity in this, in what you are saying?
Answer: Of course. It is absoluteness, eternity, perfection, and infinity.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/14/22
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Question: What is happiness?
Answer: Happiness is the feeling one has at the moment of achieving a dream; it is a contact with a dream or at least with something one desires.
In corporeal life, a person comes into contact with various pleasures, but he is still unhappy because these contacts bring death. They instantly disappear. They are temporary because everything ends.
At the end of everything there is death, hopelessness, and disappearance. Therefore, as the saying goes, there is no happiness in life. And indeed it is so because life has its limits.
Happiness is when you come in contact with a dream; it is with you, and it is eternal. There can be no happiness if it is transient. Therefore our world is inherently flawed.
Question: Is the attainment of the first degree of the spiritual world already attainment of happiness?
Answer: It is the attainment of eternity and perfection. Even if it is not yet complete, you understand that you are entering this degree. Then you already know where you are going, and you already have different ideas about the world, the universe, and existence.
You understand that you are dealing with eternity, perfection, infinite fulfillment, infinite knowledge, and that whatever you want, you will be able to obtain.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Happiness” 1/18/11
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New Life 159 – The Ten Commandments, Part 2
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz
The Ten Commandments instruct us to maintain certain norms in order to reach connection, reciprocity, mutual responsibility, and harmony among us as a new type of society. They were placed before us at Mount Sinai as a symbol of our transcendence above hatred and separation. We discover the ten laws of the single system on our way toward complete, mutual connection. We need to re-establish all of the Ten Commandments with a new quality. For example, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13) actually means that I should not cut myself off from anyone, even when it seems as though the other person hates me. We begin to connect according to the principle, “love your friend as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18) and the spiritual meaning of the Ten Commandments will be revealed to us along the way.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 159 – The Ten Commandments, Part 2,” 3/17/13
This summary was written and edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman
 Video: Play Now | Download |
 Audio: Play Now | Download |
Comment: There is a state when a student speaks against a teacher.
My Response: Then he is not a student! By doing this he completely cuts himself off from spiritual advancement. Much has been written about this. The most important thing in our movement is simply to idolize the friends, the group, the teacher, and the Creator, and to do it more and more at that. How will you advance without this?
If someone speaks badly about the teacher, then that is it, he cuts himself off! After all, in spirituality there are no conditions that someone heard something, and someone did not. You have such thoughts, that is it! Nothing else matters.
There are many so-called students who attend classes, hang out in different groups, and think badly or speak badly of others. I am very sorry that such events take place because it is useless to deal with them, in the end they will not advance.
Question: But can a person get through this state and become aware of it? Or do you think that if he went into such a stupor, he would not come out?
Answer: For everything, so to speak, there is forgiveness, but a person must work on himself. It happens to everyone! I am completely calm about this. But he should be aware of what he is controlled by.
Comment: You said that it is necessary to remain silent and not interfere with those states of a friend that seem bad to us.
My Response: You can sometimes point at it in jest or in between words. But in general no! What is the benefit of that? He must experience all this internally and rethink it.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. To Hate the Teacher and Friends” 12/29/12
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