Audio Version Of The Blog – 1/15/25
Posted on January 15th, 2025
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Comment: Currently, society faces a growing trust crisis in the media, the government, and among individuals. We see a lack of understanding of what trust is and how to nurture it.
My Response: This happens because our egoism has grown and demands entirely new relationships: clearer, more connected, rougher, and tied to each other. Each of us has significant egoism, and everyone desires greater independence from others. That is the first reason.
Secondly, this coincides with societal, technological, and lifestyle development. Today I can live independently and provide for myself without worrying about others. But to bind oneself through family ties, friendships, workplace relationships, or otherwise, requires effort, sometimes considerable effort.
Thus, in today’s world it is challenging to compel people to connect with others. They only do so for tangible rewards or when absolutely necessary.
Question: What is trust?
Answer: Trust is when I rely on another person according to an agreement that we have mutually established.
Question: What underlies trust?
Answer: Trust is based on the hope for another’s perspective, assistance, or support.
Question: Can you depict an ideal state where trust exists?
Answer: This is only possible when people realize that they are part of an interconnected system and fully interdependent. They need to uncover this complete interconnection. Only then can we discuss a society where individuals feel unity, exchange efforts, and work and care for one another.
Right now, this does not exist. Even our systems—healthcare, finance, everything we have built—serve to divide society.
Comment: Decades ago for example, in the Soviet Union, there was a certain level of trust—people could leave a key under the doormat, and not lock the door when they were at home.
My Response: It is not about whether the door to an apartment is open or closed. The point is that people are closed off from one another by their internal door: “I do not want to hear what is happening to another person. It does not matter to me at all.”
But we acknowledge that without a universal, correct approach to our nature—aimed at its correction—we will not progress. Superficial fixes will not help.
Question: How do we achieve this?
Answer: We must recognize that egoism is at the core of our nature and learn to work with it so it becomes a helper rather than a hindrance. This is a long-term upbringing of society.
Question: Is it possible to restore trust between one person and another, independently of the macro-world?
Answer: No, that is impossible. Everything is one system. We have reached a stage where the world is integral, and in an integral system the particular and the general are equal. Therefore we will not be able to fix relationships even between two people, even between a guy and a girl who want to build their relationship on some level of trust. No, they are part of society and will relate to each other in the same way as it happens in society.
That is why everything is falling apart on all levels simultaneously.
Question: What will be the turning point? What will trigger some other process?
Answer: The turning point will come with the recognition of evil. To achieve this, widespread dissemination and explanations are needed to make people aware that we are leading ourselves to the brink.
Question: What is the formula for trust?
Answer: Trust is the realization and sensation of inner connection among us. Its manifestation at every moment and in every state is what defines trust. Otherwise, it does not exist.
Trust is a profound force, the foundation of any state or society. It bonds all members into a single system where they need nothing more than the sense of being part of one network, entirely dependent on one another. That is where the concept of “trust” originates.
Question: What about confidence?
Answer: Confidence stems from a sense of connectedness among us.
Question: Is it akin to faith in another person?
Answer: Faith is a property of bestowal, which also arises from my sense that we are interconnected.
Trust is when I use the system of connection between us, which exists and reveals itself to me. To the extent that it is revealed, I am in mutual connection with others. This is trust. It is not something that does not exist, which I supposedly create. This is completely incorrect. I make use of purely psychological and physical elements for this.
Comment: Suppose one person says to another, “I do not feel like you are doing anything, so I cannot trust you.”
My Response: Right. He does not feel it, but someone else does. We need to make it so that everyone feels that we are in one connection, one dependency, one network, and then, inevitably, we will treat each other differently.
I do not need to know what each of them feels! I only need to know that in this way, I depend on them, and they depend on me, and everything I do toward them comes back to me. This needs to be taught, shown, and explained, to open people’s eyes.
If we want to do something serious, this requires serious desires, serious foundations. People must understand that if they begin to delve into the meaning of life, into the origins of life, into the reasons for life, why a person exists, how he was created, and what drives him, then this is serious work on oneself.
[230447]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 5/28/23
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Comment: The world is gripped by an epidemic of fear. People are losing trust, and they no longer listen to each other. As a result, they are driven not by greed, as before when we wanted to achieve something, but by fear, which has real causes. How can we get rid of it? After all, we are actively moving toward a dead end.
My Response: I think this is very good. This is not a dead end. When you approach a dead end, you suddenly see that there is a door in it, and it leads to the next world.
Once this was covered by faith. A person believed in various gods, it doesn’t matter what, and it was easier for him. Today, this faith is disappearing, it is not kept up, and therefore, a person cannot compensate for his fears, anxiety, and various problematic feelings. He cannot correlate them with the desire and the government of the upper one, with the upper force, and everything falls on him. It is hard for him!
Fear blocks a person. He wants to close his eyes and crawl under a blanket like a little child, as if nothing is happening.
Question: How can he get out of there?
Answer: He needs to be educated. But not through mechanical toys, as scientists are trying to do.
Comment: Scientists are still asking questions.
My Response: Asking questions is good. But this is connected with the meaning of life. Such questions are already beyond our understanding. How do we exist? For what purpose? What is life? How does it begin, and how does it end? What is the meaning of the existence of nature itself?
But to simply relate everything to God does not calm a modern person. This was good enough before the age of Enlightenment, but from the 17th to 18th centuries and onward, this approach no longer works.
A person will still be forced to see that he faces the question of the meaning of existence: what is it for, why, what is its meaning?
Fear exists at the basis of our life because if it were not for fear, why live at all. Why do I need all this?
Scroll through a person’s entire future life—it already exists, there is nothing else—and he would not want to live.
If he sees what he is going through, and all this in order to enjoy something and immediately fall into depression or suffering, and also work hard. He has two weeks of vacation a year, if he spends it well at all, children who take advantage of him, a wife who does not let him have fun, a favorite football team that loses, fishing which no longer exists because these places do not exist anymore, and so on…
Even in ancient sources it is written that if a man could see his life in advance, then he would naturally not want to be born and live.
We forget ourselves, therefore, our whole life is built on this oblivion. Look what we are doing with our lives today! We are trying to dumb ourselves, all the time more and more, more and more. Advertising, competition … For what?
After all, if you leave a person alone with his thoughts, he will either become a terrorist, a murderer, or kill himself, or start using drugs, which is the same thing.
Question: But they say that a person must have a goal and by striving for it, he can overcome any difficulties. What is the right goal for a person?
Answer: This question should not be aroused in people. You must first prepare yourself well for this. It is written that if you put an obstacle in front of a blind person, by doing so you commit a terrible crime. If you put a stone or a tree in front a blind person, he will stumble and fall. How is this possible? And people are all blind. How can you talk to them about the meaning of life?
They do not have an answer to this, and they will only become depressed. Therefore, gradually revealing the question about the meaning of life, you must know in advance how to simultaneously provide them with the correct answer which will be acceptable and desirable for them. Then they will see joyful horizons expanding for them, and not dark ones.
Comment: It turns out that from birth, education should be gradually integrated into communication.
My Response: This is what education is about. And everything else fills a person with completely unnecessary information.
Question: How can an adult person who has lived his life get to the question of the meaning of life?
Answer: If he has lived his life, there is no point in it. If, during this life, he receives information about its meaning, and begins to change his life in accordance with the meaning he has acquired, then he rises to the next level of existence. He becomes a human to the extent that he can answer the question about the meaning of his life.
[221922]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/6/18
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Question: It is said that whoever controls information controls everything. But in recent years, with the advent of new technologies, information has not only become abundant; it has become excessively abundant! Managing it has become incredibly difficult. Psychologists argue that people are now experiencing information stress.
What is information? Why do we crave it so much? And why, even understanding that it’s “garbage,” are we afraid to lose it?
Answer: We feed on this “garbage,” these “wastes.” For us, losing this “waste” means losing our nourishment. And humanity is terrified of that.
It cannot absorb proper, truthful, natural information, information that speaks of relevance, necessity, or truth. It thrives on yellow, gray news, on airing “dirty laundry.” This is what sustains it.
This is how modern society has raised humanity up. And we can see the consequences. Of course, if you remove all this fake content and leave only the truth, people would howl. What would they consume then?
Question: Why is humanity so drawn to information? What is it looking for in information?
Answer: Modern humans cannot live without it. It is the environment in which they exist. Taking it away would be like separating them from home, family, work, or anything else. But separating them from information would be even more devastating because it fills them from within.
Without a flow of information, a modern person would simply lose their mind.
Question: What is “correct” information?
Answer: Correct information is that which reveals my role in this world to the extent that I can bring positive influence to it and, in turn, receive positive influence from the world.
Question: You say that correct, truthful, and genuine information would be completely unpalatable, undesirable?
Answer: People don’t want to hear the truth! Truth is painful. Truth is unpleasant. They want to hear what pleases them: a bit of gossip, a bit of sex, a bit of fear, a bit of joy, all in measured doses, carefully controlled by specialists.
Question: What does information mean to a Kabbalist?
Answer: For a Kabbalist, information means something entirely different. They are not interested in what people argue about via cables or other communication methods. They are interested in a connection with the upper force, from which all actions, conditions, and events in our world originate. When a person has this connection, they need nothing else. It allows them to be everywhere and in everything simultaneously, in both worlds.
Question: Suppose you were given control of all media outlets. How would you present information, what kind?
Answer: I would leave everything as it is now and gradually, in small, controlled doses, introduce “medicine”—more correct information. Information that supports positive changes in a person, develops a sense of truth, self-control, and so on. This way, people would begin to adapt correctly to their surroundings, understand their nature, the nature of the world around them, and their ultimate purpose.
We, Kabbalists, are waiting for humanity to reach the revelation of evil—the revelation that it exists in evil, in lies, that it feeds on substitutes. To the extent that we realize this is all trash, literal poison, we will gradually be able to replace fake information with correct information that nurtures us.
Why do I need information? To form my understanding of the world and transform myself in alignment with a new world. This information should be correct, truthful, and, most importantly, caring.
[238127]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/29/18
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Question: Suppose I am driving down the road, and another driver cuts me off. What should I do at this moment to connect this incident to “There is None else besides Him” at the deepest level?
Answer: You need to remember that everything happening to you occurs solely under the guidance of the Creator. After that, your work begins.
Additionally, your group should remind you of this; talk about it and discuss it. Connection with the group is essential so that you can bestow to them, influence them, and they in turn can influence you. Working alone will inevitably leave you trapped in egoism.
If a person is not part of a group, not connected with others in serious spiritual connection, it is almost useless to work with him. This is permissible only if he is a beginner who has found a small society where he can develop as an integral part and complement himself within that society. Only in such a case!
We exist in a system of forces that operates this way. Just as in our world, we are entirely dependent on one another and see that we are involuntarily moving toward greater integration, so it is here as well.
If your egoism pushes you away from this, that is natural. It will repel you, providing countless justifications and arguments that you can progress on your own. However, in the end, all of that is false and will lead to nothing.
[339228]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/4/19, Preparation for convention in Moldova “The Work in Concealment”
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Question: What should one do if he comes to a mutual guarantee, to a covenant, but then encounters corporeal obstacles and realizes that his friends do not actually provide for all his corporeal needs, and he falls?
How can one rise again and return to mutual guarantee?
Answer: A person must correct himself in a state of descent.
Question: Does the desire we reveal between us and the Creator then become the source of all changes?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Who initiates the formation of a covenant? Is it me initiating the covenant or does the Creator grant me this opportunity?
Answer: Of course, it comes from the Creator. Everything begins with Him.
Question: When Jacob makes the covenant, he sets conditions to the Creator. We are taught that we should not expect any reward. Why then are conditions set?
Answer: A condition does not imply a reward. If we want to form a covenant, it already includes obligations from both sides that must be fulfilled. This is exactly what we need—to take a specific position on this matter relative to Jacob.
[339214]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/3/25, “Arvut on the Way to Lishma”
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Question: Will the system work effectively when we decide to take a targeted common action in relation to, say, the Internet or something else? If everyone does it correctly, how effective can it be?
Answer: Our global system of uniting various groups into one group and disseminating the Kabbalistic methodology for the correction of humanity, both individually and collectively, consists of two main directions. The first is our internal work where we unite among us. The second is bringing our strength of unity, information about Kabbalah, and the methodology of connection to the world.
Sometimes it seems that much of this work is useless both for the world and even for us. In reality, we are constantly engaged, working, studying materials, and adapting them for the end user, which helps us better understand and connect with them.
In the process, we are nurturing ourselves. A tremendous amount of time and resources have been invested so that someone who initially knows and understands nothing gradually develops into what we call today an educator—someone who can engage with the world, speak, explain, and demonstrate. Such a person knows the sources and is seen as a valuable asset, a gem, to the world. This refers to our students.
Thus, our work, no matter what we do, includes seemingly unnecessary actions, those of secondary importance, where we simply labor and invest ourselves. Yet this work becomes part of the overall system and does not disappear even if its results are not immediately apparent.
Nonetheless, in my eyes, this has immense value. As a result, I have already raised thousands of people worldwide who appreciate, understand, and know the wisdom of Kabbalah. But the most important aspect is not just these individuals themselves, but the fact that they have already contributed to the collective system.
This is an eternal, perfect system that does not perish with a person. What you contribute to it remains forever. It becomes part of it and is combined with the efforts of all generations and brings humanity closer to the final correction.
[339194]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Effectiveness of Joint Actions” 3/20/10
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Question: The point in the heart is the next level of the development of the desire through which I can begin to feel the desires of others. How can one feel the desires of others?
Answer: With my egoism, I cannot in any way operate on the level we are now discussing. I cannot connect with others. Egoism remains egoism.
The only thing I can do is try through the point in the heart, the seed of my next, spiritual level (the quality of bestowal), which is still dormant within me, to connect with a friend. Together, we attempt to develop our connection.
Through our efforts, we receive help from above, from the governing force, and then, out of our two points, a unity emerges, a single common point. This is not just a point, but a kind of a vessel that can be filled with the upper force because it is similar to it in its qualities.
Question: How can one understand what the upper force is?
Answer: It is the benevolent governing force that determines absolutely everything. All my knowledge, intentions, desires, thoughts, and actions are generated solely under its influence.
At every moment of my existence, I must stay connected to the upper governance in everything! Apart from the point in the heart, everything that constitutes me: my perception of the world, my behavior, everything is the result of this upper governing force. There is not a single action, desire, or thought in me that is not created by it.
Question: Where can I find the strength to remain in this state 24 hours a day?
Answer: We must cultivate this state within ourselves by uniting into a group and agreeing to care for each other so that no one loses the correct intention. In this way, we draw closer to one another and to the upper governing force. One person cannot do this alone. Ideally, a group of ten people should support him.
I must always be connected to the upper force never forgetting that everything within and around me is created by it. Alone I cannot sustain this thought continuously; I forget it almost immediately because I am not similar to it.
But if we form a ten where everyone thinks about others to ensure they succeed in this, then my action is no longer dictated by egoism as much as it would be if I were solely focused on not detaching myself from the upper governance. In this case, it becomes easier for me to maintain an anti-egoistic intention because I think about others and not myself.
Egoism even allows me to care about others, to not lose the correct intention, to not fall from it, and to attribute everything that happens to the upper force.
This state is called mutual guarantee. To the extent of our efforts, the governing force helps us remain in mutual guarantee and supports us. In this way, we create a common vessel, a collective mechanism that is in contact with this force.
We are no longer talking about individuals comprising our ten but about its common intention, strength, movement, and thought, which are now in contact with the upper force. All of this occurs under the influence of that same governing force.
[219023]
From KabTV’s “The Last Generation”
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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 49
Does Thinking about the Creator Always Dispel Fear?
No, if a person does not link the fear to the Creator and recognize Him as its source, the fear persists. Only by scrutinizing that the fear originates from the Creator as a means of connection can the fear be resolved. This is discussed extensively in Baal HaSulam’s article that acts as a foundation for discussing these many states, “There Is None Else Besides Him” (Shamati, Article 1).
From a Talk on the Article “Why Is Shabbat Called Shin-Bat in the Work?” 5/27/2002
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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 10
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Selected Highlights
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