Comment: All government leaders are charismatic, self–confident personalities. In their charisma, they are not inferior to you or to everyone else.

My Response: But my charisma is of a different nature. The difference is that I think about the well-being of the world in accordance with the upper will. I study it and try to be its humble conduit, suppressing myself, my egoism, and any personal interests I may have.

My personal interest lies in having no personal interest at all. And for rulers, everything is built upon elevating themselves regardless of the means, sell anything to anyone in any way, just to stay in power and rise even higher.

Question: How do you restrain yourself from seeking personal gain?

Answer: To do that one must first acquire the attribute of bestowal, which is only possible under the influence of the upper light. And only when a person attains that can he really do something for the benefit of the world, and not for himself.

Question: But can he fall into such a state when he starts using it himself?

Answer: He may fall into a state when he suddenly wants to take advantage of it, but he will refrain from doing so. After all, these are special descents meant to further correct oneself.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Brainwashing!” 5/14/11

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Question: Alfred Nobel, the one after whom the famous Nobel Prize is named, turns out to have worked seriously for war. He invented a detonator, dynamite, explosive mixtures, and built military factories. It is reported that in 1888, an obituary accidentally appeared in the newspaper stating that he had died. His brother had died, but a newspaper reported him to be dead.

Suddenly, obituaries and articles about him labeled him “The merchant of death, who grew rich by developing ways to maim, mutilate, and kill, and the dynamite king.” This story turned him upside down. He did not want to die with humanity remembering him only as a villain. And he bequeathed all his fortune to create a fund, the interest from which would be given to those who bring the greatest help to humanity.

Does a person not want to remain a villain in people’s memory?

Answer: This is very important for a person.

Question: If I have been doing evil all my life, I want to leave in a way to be remembered that I am a righteous man? I ate up people, and they will say that I, on the contrary, helped people and so on.

Answer: Yes. He has done a lot of evil to humanity by inventing all this.

Question: He invented it, built military factories, and earned money from it. This money is largely bloody, it turns out.

Is public opinion such a crazy lever that it can turn the villain over? Here it turned him around. He wanted to leave as a man.

Today we see how many villains there are in the world. If everything is directed at turning them over, can public opinion be built so that they turn around? Is it possible or not?

Answer: No, they control public opinion, they do not care. They work on humanity in such a way that they remain just good boys in public opinion.

Question: Can I be free from public opinion? A lot of people write, “I am free.”

Answer: Everyone writes it. That is why they write. No one is free, and it puts a lot of pressure on everyone.

Question: In principle, is it possible to lead a person like this, to regulate him? It is public opinion.

Answer: If public opinion understood itself well and correctly influenced people, the world would be different.

Question: So, are you laying your hopes on this?

Answer: I do not have any hopes because society is such that it is not interested in this. And the person will pay another couple of million, and there will be a good opinion. You see how all the mass media are bought.

Comment: Yes. And they build public opinion. I was with you in 2006 in Arosa. You had an Arosa Report. Peacemakers gathered there, those who wanted to make the world a better place. You went there in the hope that you could convince them of this.

In your report in Arosa, you said that if we create such a public opinion that we encourage only those who are engaged in giving back to society, doing good deeds, then the world will slowly begin to change. At that time, you still had hope that the world would change.

My Response: It was a different time, 17 years ago.

Question: So, was it time of some hope?

Answer: Of course.

Question: What happened during this period?

Answer: Humanity has become completely different. For the worse. Today I would not say that at all. Then they listened to it with some interest.

Comment: Not with some, but with great interest. I was just on the camera, filming the audience that was listening. There was a professors, there were the luminaries of the world. And they all listened very carefully. Very! To the whole report.

My Response: I would not say that today. It would sound naive.

Question: If we create good media, if we create such a public opinion?

Answer: It will not help in any way. In no way!

Question: Did something happen to you or did something happen to the world?

Answer: No, it is such an egoistic movement in the world that absolutely no one cares about anything. We do not even need any proof here.

I do not believe in a good change in the world at all. I only believe that humanity will bring itself to such a state—I hope not to the final one—when it realizes that it needs to change seriously.

Question: So are you saying that only when humanity is horrified it will change? Is this the direction you have today?

Answer: Yes, it should see its end.

Question: Do you have any hopes? We are talking, we are broadcasting something, you are broadcasting something, one way or another many, many people are watching this.

Answer: I hope people will see that they are going to a quick and inevitable end. And then, perhaps, they will understand that there must be some way out. But they do not see this way out.

Tell people today: “Let us treat each other well!” So, what is next?

Comment: Yes. They will immediately remember the cartoon about Leopold the cat: “Let’s live peacefully.” All the time there was: “Let’s live peacefully.” This is a childish approach for them. And it is very high for you.

My Response: This is a very high approach, but, unfortunately, it sounds impossible. Although I do not laugh at it and understand that, in principle, that is how it should be. But how much suffering humanity still must go through before it says, “Enough is enough!”

Question: But one step before the abyss, what will humanity or man suddenly think about?

Answer: I think that when people realize that they are losing everything, for example, children, something so terrible that there is nowhere to run or turn away to, and it is necessary to make a decision, in this case, perhaps they will agree to change something. Because the change will still come from above, but only when we are ready for it. This readiness is like this: when children and grandchildren are under threat of death, disappearance, and extermination, then we will be able to do something with ourselves.

Comment: But this is such formula that I cannot stop on the way, but only must come to this point.

My Response: Yes, we move on this way and cannot stop.

Question: So, neither my mind nor logic will work?

Answer: There must be a feeling, and the feeling is the most internal: dead-end, inescapable. But let us hope that, on one hand we will do something with our dissemination. But, on the other hand, humanity must see its end and decide. I think it can be done.

Question: So, can it be heard?

Answer: Yes. You see, if Nobel was turned upside down, then other people can be too.

Question: Do you still have this hope, some kind of a tiny dot?

Answer: There must be a way out. Otherwise, our whole existence is meaningless. But how do we make it happen quickly, smoothly, and maybe even in some way manageable? This is a problem.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/29/23

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Question: If a person suffers in this life, is it karma for bad actions in a previous life?

Answer: Reshimot, memories, records of the past, put pressure on a person and determine his present and future. But a person, by his behavior, can change the influence of these records from the past and make sure that they are perceived positively in the present. It all depends on us.

Question: What are these records, which in Kabbalah are called Reshimot?

Answer: They are information about past actions.

Question: Is there a Reshimo from future actions?

Answer: Since there are no future actions yet, there is no Reshimo. We have only assumptions about future actions.

Question: Where is this information data recorded, these Reshimot from the past?

Answer: They are written on our desires, which is called in our soul.
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From KabTV’s “Blitz of Kabbalah Tips” 5/18/23

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Question: In the article “Lock and Key” from the Introduction to The Book of Zohar it is written that countless treasures are hidden in the palaces. What are the palaces inside a person, and what are the treasures?

Answer: The palaces of the Creator are Kelim (Vessels), that is, great desires that can be revealed and filled with the upper light, with the upper treasures revealed in them, in these palaces. And they become like countless treasures.

However, we are not talking about treasures of our world where precious stones, gold, silver, and so on immediately come to mind. This means attainment, understanding, and mastery of all the secrets of nature.
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From KabTV’s “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” 5/21/23

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Can plants really talk to one another?“

A research team from Tel Aviv University recently discovered that plants make sounds. They stated that the plants’ sounds are like clicks with the same intensity as human speech at frequencies above the range of human hearing. Various animals like bats, mice and insects can pick up the plant sounds, but we cannot.

So what do plants talk to each other about?

Everything created in nature is the desire to enjoy life. Plants thus communicate to one another the extent by which they can enjoy, what they should be cautious of, and that their communication would benefit other plants because they feel themselves in a single field.

It is not only plants. Every atom, molecule and rock has a life of its own and elicits various forms of communication according to its place in the system.

What does this mean for us, humans?

We need to learn how to rise above our egoistic desires, where we each seek to enjoy at the expense of one another, which makes us mutually reject each other.

Instead of rejecting each other, we should learn how to positively connect and complement one another. We would then exist in nature as in a single field where we discover a single force.

The single force that we come to eventually discover wants us to positively connect to each other with relations of mutual consideration. By doing so, we would experience the harmony and perfection of that field. It is written about such a state that “the wolf shall dwell with the lamb.” That is, at a certain point, all parts of creation enter into a state of mutual complementarity and peace. That time comes when we—human beings—will want it. By wanting to rise above our egoistic desires and enter into mutual complementarity among all people, we then compel the rest of the parts of nature to do the same, and we then come to experience nature’s eternity and perfection.

Based on the video “What Do Plants Talk to Each Other About?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Inevitable Clash between Democratic Institutions and Democracy”
In light of the growing social and political tensions in Israel, Gadi Taub, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Policy and the Department of Communications at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as a political commentator and author, published an op-ed article in the Israeli newspaper Maariv. Prof. Taub argues that the phenomenon of powerful elite groups attempting to impose their governance on the people, often against the people’s democratic choice, is not unique to Israel. Taub writes that judges, public officials, NGOs, central and federal banks, as well as international forums are leading the effort to impose their governance. At the end of the day, Taub concludes, this struggle comes at the expense of democracy, even when it is fought purportedly in the name of democracy and for its sake.

Among the most conspicuous institutions that Prof. Taub describes as denying power from the people is the European Union (EU). At face value, the EU is a democratic entity where every citizen of Europe is represented through the European Parliament. In practice, however, the institutions that make the decisions are the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), and the European Central Bank (ECB), whose representatives are not elected by the citizens of Europe themselves but by governments. The European Parliament is not entitled to make rules, but only to confirm or reject the laws presented to it by the European Commission.

If this description gives the impression that the European Union is not really a democracy, that impression is correct. However, it is not only the EU that serves as a facade for democracy. Every institution is like that. Democracy, as such, does not exist, and never really existed. Some form of it existed in ancient Greece, where multiple city-states lived in what became known as “direct democracies.”

Today’s democracies, however, are “representative democracies,” and the representatives serve only those to whom they owe their seats. Their goal is to maintain and, if possible, increase their power. They tout slogans such as “democracy,” “justice,” “freedom,” and “equality,” but their only ambition is to dig their nails deeper into the state’s institutions and federal budgets. They couldn’t care less if, in the process, they will deny everyone else the justice, freedom, equality, and all the other lofty values they proclaim to cherish.

The parties to the power struggle are all aware of their quackery, but the general public is not, and people naively participate in the “democratic” process thinking that their votes matter. Every so often, parties switch chairs between opposition and coalition, but it is all part of the game, and, as we can see, nothing really changes.

Since there is no real democracy, and even when there was one, such as in ancient Greece, it did not benefit the majority of people, but only the elite, I think we should focus not on the type of regime we have, but on the people who constitute it, namely ourselves. In my opinion, what matters is not how the government treats the people, but how we treat each other.

Our current societies are built on the premise that we are aliens toward each other. It assumes that we do not trust each other, that we want to hurt each other if we can, exploit each other, and deceive each other. As a result, we build police forces, courthouses, and restraining regulations meant to prevent us from destroying our society. But because at the end of the day, the police, judges, and regulators are all made of the same self-centered material that all of us are made of, the “democratic” societies with their lofty aspirations are collapsing just as every regime has in the past.

Therefore, to build a sustainable governance that benefits the people, we must first change the people, and only then the government and mode of governance will change for the better. If we establish our relationships on mutual responsibility and concern for one another, we will not exploit, deceive, or steal from one another.

In short, everything depends on education. We need to teach ourselves about our mutual dependence, and that if we hurt others, it hurts us. In fact, we need to learn it in such depth that we will not only know it, but feel it in our bones. If we begin an educational process where we learn about that, our rulers will act according to these values, and we will not need to worry about corruption or exploitation.

Perhaps brotherly love sounds far-fetched and credulous today, but everyone intellectually understands that we are all dependent on each other. Now we need to bring it to our awareness to the point that we will feel compelled to act on it. This will start us off in the right direction.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Is it fair to push your child into activities they don’t want to do?“

A child’s upbringing should take place under the influence of the surrounding society.

Parents are a very important aspect of our upbringing, but in principle, in any society children are educated not by their parents, but by their surrounding societies and communities, i.e., by a great big family.

We are influenced from the moment we are in our mother’s wombs. We are then born and raised close to our mothers, and afterward, we move away a little and our education takes place under social influences.

In other words, first comes our inner animalistic development, and then we undergo a period of nursing until the age of three in which we are still non-socially-developed beings. Then, from the age of three, our education includes society.

When we are under society’s influence, we should seemingly show no trace of our parents’ influence. Society then shows us that our social interaction and integration with society is important. Such is the correct form of education, especially in our era when we are becoming a globally interconnected and interdependent society.

Therefore, the more we teach children the art of communication and integration with society, the more benefit they will reap. Society will then determine the kinds of activities that the children will want to engage in.

However, such development takes place together with others. It then becomes easier, more interesting and more attractive for children to engage in various activities. They will then gladly participate in the activities that society deems enjoyable, without parental pressure.

Based on KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Influence of Society” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on April 30, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Is the US Government Seeking to Delegitimize Israel?”
About a week ago, it became known that the “Biden administration’s outgoing ambassador to Israel personally signed off on a controversial $1 million grant to a program critics said was meant to delegitimize Israel, according to internal State Department communications.” According to a trove of emails released following a request by the America First Legal Foundation under the Freedom of Information Act, outgoing “U.S. ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides … personally cleared the State Department to offer $987,654 for groups to investigate alleged human rights abuses in Israel, Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip.”

When the initiative became known, twelve Republican lawmakers pressured the State Department to cancel the program, saying that it would embolden the global BDS movement. “As a policy matter,” they wrote, “it is wholly unacceptable for the State Department to fund NGOs to delegitimize and isolate Israel.”

As painful as it may be, I think that Israel should wake up from the illusion that America is its best friend, and realize that the US treats Israel just as it treats any other country: according to what is best for America, and only for America. Today, it is easier for America to cater to the Palestinians and to the Arab world than to look after Israel’s interests.

Moreover, I feel that the administration in DC believes that it will be able to work things out with Israel if there are misunderstandings, whereas with the Arab world, it needs to work harder in order to gain its trust. As a result, the Biden administration makes greater efforts to appease Israel’s enemies than to please Israel. As long as Israel continues to ignore this reality, America will have no reason to change this policy.

It is not that there is a deliberate attempt to weaken Israel or hamper its efforts to protect itself. It is only a matter of priorities, and at the moment, keeping warm relations with Israel is low priority for the US.

It is not only the US that is giving Israel a cold shoulder. There are even Israeli representatives around the world who are working against Israel in the countries where they serve. Some of them even encourage political leaders and Jewish community leaders abroad not to meet with Israeli ministers on official visits to their country. Their motivation for doing this may not only be that they oppose the current government in Israel, but also that in today’s international arena, you are treated better if you treat Israel worse. To many people and countries, the temptation to win easy compliments is more than they can resist.

For its part, Israel can reverse the trend, but not by denouncing such behaviors. Criticizing others for hating you will not make them like you.

The only way to make the world like us is by starting to like each other. The internal division in Israeli society is exuding toxic attitudes and pugnacious thoughts. It is causing the world to reject us from its midst, and makes us pariahs among the nations.

More than any country in the world, Israel is always on people’s minds, and the atmosphere that it projects permeates people’s hearts. When people in Israel are contentious, so is the world; when Israelis are at peace with one another, so is the world with them.

Our sages have always told us that if we change, the world will change with us. We have no other way to change the world’s attitude toward us except through our internal unity, yet we have always refused to use it. Nevertheless, until we give peace among ourselves a chance, the world will not be peaceful toward us.
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Question: My question is about the program of egoism. If a person has come to the invention of the bow, then the chariot, and so on, then in principle it is possible to predict the next stages in the development of his egoism. Now we have a lot of different technologies. Are there any other stages of development?

Answer: All these technologies will not be needed. A virtual connection will develop more, which at a certain stage will help people until they have an internal connection with each other.

From a virtual connection, they will come to a spiritual connection. They will not need anything else. They will make minimal use of this world in order for the body to exist until they completely correct themselves.

Then the feeling of the body will disappear because it is the lower egoistic animalistic part. The still, vegetative, and animate parts of nature will be included in the level of “man” and that is it.

There will be only one desire, which consists of all the others. But it will be fully directed toward bestowal, and therefore the body and this entire world will disappear from our sensations. The corporeal world is contrived by us; that is, it exists only in our thoughts.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Evolution of Egoism” 5/7/11

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