The three developmental stages of the Jewish people are symbolically called the forefathers—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or the right, middle and left lines. Sometime after leaving Babylon, this society needed additional development, which can only happen when greater egoism is revealed, is corrected, and it is risen above even more.

In the past, Abraham pondered how the absolute quality of love and bestowal could be reached. Later, he revealed this problem and found the solution: there needs to be a constant growth of egoism above which his group, this small nation, will keep rising.

Therefore, the next stage of development required an increase in egoism within this group and the revelation of its second stage (the first was revealed in Babylon), over which they needed to rise.

But it is not that simple. At first, egoism grows and everyone takes it well, falls into it, and begins to work with it. That is, all kinds of selfish motives dominate, influence, and subdue people. They try to rise above them by adhering to the same methodology, the ideology of Abraham, to unite and care for each other rather than for themselves, as much as possible.

The Torah (Bible) mentions this struggle, about the nation going through the Egyptian states, how they fought among themselves and together against their ego, against the Pharaoh, the new level of egoism that continually broke out between them.

Abraham’s group was in Egypt for 210 years. This is a conditional measurement of units of time, just like the four stages of direct light at the foundation for the four-letter name of the Creator, that is, a formula in which there are always four components of successively developing stages.

Therefore, the egoism that manifested in them consisted of four stages, and the time of the Egyptian exile it was called 400 years. In fact, it lasted 210 years (conventional units), and the remaining exiles fell to 190 years.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. History of the Jewish People” 5/4/14

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Question: How does a person’s involvement in the internal processes of the group help him accelerate his progress and even, perhaps, go through spiritual states more painlessly?

Answer: When a person is engaged in materials that speak about the next level of the world, then from there, from that level, the surrounding light shines on him. He gets a little charge.

By being engaged in connection with his friends, he prepares the conditions for the influence of that same surrounding light on him. The most important thing is to work with light, meaning with your next level. To the extent that he aspires to it in study, in connection with friends, in disseminating it, in inspiration, in exalting it, from there the upper light shines on him the quality of bestowal that reigns at that level.

It is in this quality of bestowal that a person begins to rise above the virtues that he has at the moment. This is the principle of spiritual ascent—to attract the quality of the upper level, the radiance of the upper light.

Question: What happens if a person cannot find himself in this system?

Answer: He leaves this method and will return to it no one knows when. He will be given the same awakening again, only the external conditions will be much worse with problems, wars, and sufferings that will help him overcome the difference between the stage he is on and the next one, i.e., between today’s egoistic quality and the next, future, altruistic one.

Question: Have some of us already experienced this separation; have we repeatedly come and departed from this method?

Answer: I don’t know, maybe. Someday you will know, although it doesn’t matter. What is the difference, because when a person is in this method, he is immersed in it. If he goes forward, then he goes; if not, then no. It still does not convince him whether he was already in it or not. It is like he has been reborn every time.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Seven Years of Abundance and the Seven Years of Famine” 4/15/14

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Attendance Is Mandatory”

“Attendance Is Mandatory” may sound like the beginning of a post about school attendance, but it is not; it is a post about compulsory indoctrination at universities in Israel. On Sunday, at an academic convention at Haifa University, Israel, a new book was presented: Islam Is the Solution. The author of the book is none other than Abdullah Nimar Darwish, who founded the Islamic Movement in Israel, was convicted of terrorism, and served jail time in Israeli prison. One of the university professors declared that the status of the lecture is “attendance is mandatory,” and demanded that the students participate actively in this “important discussion.”

The university’s formal explanation was that the lecture is an academic event in every sense of the word. Despite the fact that the book and the lecture present terrorists as victims and Israelis, not Israeli soldiers, but all Israelis, as abusive oppressors, the university declared that it is tantamount to any other reading material.

Could the situation have been the reverse? Could a Zionist activist, convicted of terrorism against Palestinians, be invited to speak at Birzeit University near Ramallah (the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority)? Never in a million years, and rightly so; it makes no sense to invite an avowed enemy to speak to young people in your country and influence their pliable minds.

All over the world, universities determine their agendas according to their donors’ identity. When their prime donors are anti-Israel, such as the case with many universities in the US and the UK, the schools’ curricula reflect this view. But in Israel, where universities are heavily subsidized by the Israeli government, promoting an anti-Israel agenda simply makes no sense. I understand that in this way, these academic institutions are trying to show the world that they are democratic and offer equal opportunities to everyone, but I do not think that endorsing explicitly anti-Israel speakers is appropriate.

I am all for freedom of expression, and I think there should be no oppression of any person or opinion. However, academia should be a place where people learn skills and professions, not where they are brainwashed.

I am not saying that it is easy to teach history, civics, philosophy, and other courses in humanities, liberal arts, and social science without exposing one’s political leaning, but this should certainly be the goal. This should be the official policy of the state, the official policy of the university, certainly with state-funded universities, and professors and lecturers should aspire to abide by it, with the help of rigorous monitoring by university staff. The fact that today’s lecturers and today’s curricula are far more politically biased, in some cases even blatantly so, means that politicizing a course is a trend, and trends can be reversed.

There is, however, one subject that should be taught without any restraints or fetters: connection and mutual care among people. The world we see today reflects the tensions and enmities that pervade society. The reason so much of today’s schooling is political is that the aspiration to enforce one’s view on all of society has intensified in everyone, making previously non-political discussions heated and hate-filled disputes over governance and government, where each side believes that the other side is not only wrong, but that its view is an existential threat and should be treated as such.

As a counterweight to this trend, we must teach—and this is the most important lesson all of us should learn if we want to survive—that we have no other choice but to learn to care about each other. Israel is not the United States. If we are not united, we will not survive. If we are united, we will have no enemies. In my opinion, “Unity First” should be a mandatory course in every faculty, discipline, and major in academia.
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Filed under: Education, Israel Today, New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Heat between Us Melts the Ice”

A study published in the journal Science and quoted in Time and elsewhere states that the world’s glaciers are shrinking and disappearing faster than scientists thought, with two-thirds of them projected to melt out of existence by the end of the century at current climate change trends. We can slow down the thaw “if the world can limit future warming to just a few more tenths of a degree and fulfill international goals,” say the authors of the study, but even they admit that it is “technically possible but unlikely.” In other words, humanity, again, is the problem.

Scientists have been warning about melting icebergs for decades, but so far, we have been reluctant to do what it takes to stop it. Everyone knows what to do in order to slow down the melting, but the profit that governments and powerful corporations make from industries that accelerate global warming are too big of a bait to resist.

The rising sea level, by the way, is only one of the dangers lurking in the melting icebergs. A potentially worse problem is the release of viruses and bacteria that are currently kept dormant under the ice, but will awaken once the ice is gone and the temperature rises. This process is already underway, but so far, according to scientists, we have been lucky and no serious pathogens have been discovered in the melting permafrost.

Another problem is the release of methane gas, which is currently locked in the frozen lands of Siberia and Alaska. The methane is already being emitted into the atmosphere as the ice is melting and its impact is accumulative.

Regrettably, as scientists fear, we are unable to make the necessary changes, even though they are recognized and workable. At the current level of antagonism that saturates every faction of human society, there is no chance that companies or governments will do anything for the sake of humanity unless it serves their own interests.

Melting glaciers is far from being the only problem that threatens humanity. War, pollution, inflation, oppression, slavery, hunger, depression, substance abuse, pandemics, extreme climate events, from severe droughts to extreme storms, is there one problem that does not stem from humanity’s concentration only on its own interests? It makes no difference who does the harm, since in the end, everyone is a culprit: Every person on the planet participates in depleting, polluting, and exploiting the soil, water, air, animals, and people. The more powerful the person or the institution, the more exploitative they are, but the trend is the same everywhere and for all people.

Therefore, the solution must be comprehensive and address the root of the problem rather than each symptom separately. Focusing on one crisis at a time, be it climate change or deforestation, or war, or hunger, or water pollution, or any other problem—will only exacerbate the problems rather than alleviate them, since it will distract us from the root cause and its only possible solution: changing our attitude to one another and to our surroundings, in that order.

We must teach ourselves to care for one another. Since this is very difficult to do, since we do not want to care for one another, we must teach ourselves about our mutual dependence—that if we hurt others, it hurts us.

Also, because we are all culprits, we must teach this everywhere and to everyone, without exception.

Once we establish mutual care, it will be easier to facilitate a workable and successful policy and follow it. Our awareness that we are obligated to follow it if we ourselves do not want to be hurt will make us abide by the regulations that will facilitate a difference in human society and in our relation to the planet as a whole.
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Any light that expands from Him instantly consists of two discernments: The first discernment is the expanding light itself, before the form of “desire to enjoy” appears in it. The second discernment is after the form of “desire to enjoy” appears in it, at which time it becomes coarser and somewhat darker due to the acquisition of disparity of form (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 6, Item 24).

Aviut is what distinguishes the creation from the Creator. Creation feels its difference from the Creator; this quality is called Aviut, that is, something that obscures the light of the Creator and feels the difference from Him.

In our world, this is manifested as the coarseness of desire. There are desires that are coarser or purer. The gradation of these desires is called Aviut.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 1/1/23

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The history of the world can be viewed either as earthly or as one that unfolds in our growing egoistic desire.

I see it in front of me supposedly on a deep, three-dimensional spherical screen called this world. Inside it and around me, I am watch the cinema, which is live, and I participate in it. But in fact, it is inside me, in my desire.

Our whole world is my desires, my projection, I just see it from the outside and not inside myself. It does not matter if it is outside or inside, but all this is me.

However, the fallacy of my perception must be put aside because I divide the entire universe into myself and outside myself because this is how my egoism perceives this picture so far. And when I remove my ego, I will find that all this is only my “I,” and I will feel everything inside myself and not outside of myself.

We are talking about egoism, which developed from the Big Bang to inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature.

Human nature manifested itself, supposedly, 50,000 BCE, and up to 5,000 BCE, a primitive communal society developed, in which everyone was equal and everyone had the same possessions.

First, desires that worked on an inanimate level developed, and in the 5th century CE, desires for wealth appeared. This period was marked with a very rapid development of humanity, the appearance of the first technologies, and so on.

From the 5th century BCE to the 15th century CE, until the end of the Middle Ages, there had been a period of striving for power. And along with the Renaissance, great discoveries, printing, and other achievements, the period of development of sciences, the era of enlightenment began, which lasted until the end of the 20th century.

The current 21^st century and beyond is already a completely new period that goes beyond the limits of nature to a higher level—the level of similarity to the Creator. However, we cannot handle it. For the first time in our history, we find ourselves completely ignorant of what is happening to us.

There are many different opinions and theories. We realize that none of them tell us anything. But by the development of nature, we can guess that it requires from us integrity, unity, and realization of the biblical principle “love your neighbor.”
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Real History of the World” 1/21/12

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Comment: There is a notion in the classification of cults that if you begin to doubt the teachings of the group because the promised success does not come, then you should always blame yourself since you supposedly do not work on yourself enough or have little faith.

My Response: Yes, this really is so. Why not if everything depends on you? Everything that we study, we take from true Kabbalistic sources. In accordance with the recommendations of Kabbalists, we form a group, activities, daily routine, way of life, and dissemination.

If people have some claims against us, then let them turn to these sources and begin to criticize them. I can tell them where all this is written. Literally against each of their accusations or statements, I can show what is written in the Kabbalistic books. We are just trying to follow these instructions.

So, their claims are not against me, but against our sources, against those great Kabbalists who attained the upper world, described it, and gave us the entire Kabbalah, the entire Torah. Because the Torah is the outer part of Kabbalah. And Kabbalah is the inner part of the Torah. Therefore, Kabbalah is called: Torat Emet  – True Torah.

This means that they have a problem not with us, not with me, and, in general, not with the group, but the problem of self-identification, with understanding who they are. In fact, they exist in this world in order to advance themselves somewhere, correct, find the source of life, the purpose of creation, and go toward it.

I do not think my answers about the difference between Kabbalah and a cult will help someone, because people opposed to us are obliged to prove to themselves that they are right. Time will convince them differently, or rather the blows of fate. We are approaching this. That is why it is said: “What the mind does not do, time does.” The same will happen to them.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Kabbalah about Cults” 12/18/13

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In the end, our relationship deteriorated to such an extent there was only one thing left: to agree that we respect each other extremely (George Bernard Shaw).

My Response: Yes.  🙂 That is all that is left.

Question: How is it possible to bring a relationship to this point and not to blow up, break up, or destroy it, but arrive at mutual respect and the ability to communicate?

Answer: “We respect each other”; that is, we know for sure that we should not stab each other nor get too close, but respect each other at a distance.

Question: Is this called rising above hatred?

Answer: We rise above it; we take our relationship into account. And we understand that we cannot achieve much more for now. But gradually, of course, everything can come back again.

Question: What can we do so that we do not let it happen again? We have a bad relationship, we hate each other. But here it says: “We need to sit down and start respecting each other.”

Answer: Break up and gradually start getting closer, this is what everyone generally advises. But get closer gradually so that I clearly understand the boundaries and so does my partner.

I have to see that they are not trying to hurt me, and I have to show how much I am trying not to hurt them. And then, as we start getting closer, we will feel how close we should get. This depends on inner sensitivity.

Question: Is this a necessary path toward further closeness?

Answer: Of course.

Question: What is achieved as a result? Do we connect somewhat or not?

Answer: We can connect in a way that will be even better than with those we had a good relationship with.

Question: So, from such hatred we can come to such closeness?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Is this how it happens that from the greatest hatred people come to the greatest closeness?

Answer: That is how it usually goes.

Question: So this is the most important way: break up and start slowly getting closer?

Answer: Yes, it is highly advisable. The whole ancient political superstructure, program, and politics were always conducted this way.

Question: Why do we not hear much about it today?

Answer: We have weapons. That is, everything has been replaced. It used to be that I have a saber and you have a saber; I have a spear and  you have a spear; horses here, horses there. But today, it is all about the number of planes, tanks, missiles, and everything else; therefore, there is nothing to negotiate about.

Question: How can the world come to such everyday simple wisdom? You have just spoken not of higher wisdom, but of our earthly wisdom. Or is it still higher wisdom to operate this way?

Answer: The world has no ideals today. Humanity has no respect for anyone. If before it was the Pope or a special king or someone else, today there is not.

Question: Why are there no ideals left?

Answer: Because force replaces all other considerations.

Question: So, it becomes an ideal for me to be strong?

Answer: Yes, I have a bomb in my pocket and that’s it.

Question: Why is that? We talk all the time about the upper providence, the upper force. Why would it bring the world to such emptiness?

Answer: So that we understand we truly do not have anything at all. We are faced with the need for some real ideals in order to judge and compare ourselves with. In the meantime, there is none of this.

Question: What is, in fact, an ideal?

Answer: In fact, the ideal is, I would say love.

In the age of nuclear power when we can break everything and leave nothing, love is the opposite of it. What else can you do? Nothing. If we could beat each other up and then make up, that is another story. But when we are on the verge of a nuclear conflict, there can only be the opposite of it—love.

That is why I believe, in our days, there is an opportunity to come to such a state, to such a rapprochement called love. Because there is no other way.

In our time, peace is possible for the first time in many millennia! Because I have all sorts of nuclear weapons and so do you. Thus, there is nothing left to do but to put it aside and try to get closer to each other in order to find the benefit.

Question: You have one simple answer: live based on love?

Answer: Yes. As Longfellow, an American poet of the 19^th century wrote: “Bury your war clubs and your weapons… Smoke the calumet together and as brothers live henceforward!” That is what you need.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 9/29/22

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We are in a state where, after successive exile from Babylon, Egypt, and Persia, we are figuring out the conditions for the ascent to the last degree, meaning the way out of the current global crisis of all mankind.

Now modern global plagues are manifesting in front of all mankind. They have not yet fully manifested, but we are already beginning to be a little aware of them and we feel their approach. Threatening “tsunamis” are coming at us. People are beginning to understand what Pandora’s Box they have opened with their insane, thoughtless egoistic actions.

Today we must put the methodology of Kabbalah into action. I am happy that I have something to do with this, and I can reveal and explain to people what we are obliged to do, what state we are in, what kind of world this is, and what opportunities we have.

I am glad that we can discover this technique within ourselves, like in a laboratory, and then present it to the whole world, show that it is effective, show how to work practically, become an example for all mankind, and return it to a state of upper force, meaning, to the quality of bestowal and love in a kind, quick way, as soon as it’s possible.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. History of the Jewish People” 5/4/14

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