In the News (ABC News): “New research from New York University found that public school curriculum is falling short in providing “culturally responsive” education, a blind spot that researchers believe could be failing students across the country. …

“‘Culturally responsive’ education infuses the backgrounds, cultures, identities, and lived experiences of the students into the instruction of a classroom. These identities inform a teacher’s communication style, the tools they use in their lessons, and more, according to researchers from NYU’s Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools.

“For example, educator and curriculum evaluator Sara Carroll-Muniz said in a press conference that when her students were having difficulty understanding allusion in poetry, she instead sought it out in songs they loved.

“‘We’re leaning on a lot of old, white poetry to try to get this message across and it just wasn’t clicking,’ Carroll-Muniz said at the press conference. ‘Hip-hop is rife with allusion … it’s just such a wonderful source for exploring that.’ “

How do you like the idea that, for example, arias in biology and lyrical songs in higher mathematics are being created? What will happen if we teach and instruct in this way?

Answer: Of course it will be clearer to the students.

Question: So they do not need to make any effort to understand?

Answer: None of this is needed. What for? It should get in easily in a sensory way.

Question: So we must work according to them, according to the students. If a student wants to, let him sing higher mathematics. What do you think of this way of teaching? Do you like it? Would you like to study in such a school?

Answer: I think it would help many people absorb mathematics, physics, and so on. All of this can be transferred to very simple things.

Question: You keep saying that the main thing is not even education, but the process of upbringing. Does it exist in this?

Answer: There is definitely the process of upbringing here. They teach students how to teach others, younger ones and so on.

Question: Can you say that when they sing together in class, then this is a process of rapprochement?

Answer: Rapprochement and adaptation. Of course.

Question: That is, is everything that is transferred to joint singing, to joint action, is collected in a “piggy bank”?

Answer: Yes, of course. Thus, in general, you can achieve a lot of success. But who needs it, just between us?

Question: You believe that it is so good that no one needs it as a result. And if it were bad, then maybe someone would need it?

Answer: This is how things work.

Question: So we do not want our children to rush to school to be willing to be together in class?

Answer: What is the point of this?! There is a thug waiting for them there, beating them, taking away their lunch money and things like that. I know that this is how it goes.

Question: Do we not need such a gentle upbringing?

Answer: We need a different upbringing. One in which the most ignorant students will understand that you need to be in good connection and in good relationships with each other. Otherwise, their society will reject them.

It is the most terrible thing when no one says hello to you, when you are rejected, when everyone laughs at you, and the girl you adored yesterday is puffed up and walks past you. These are all very good educational methods.

Question: So, suppose these are methods of education and upbringing. Do you mean tough methods of upbringing?

Answer: Yes, in the beginning this is what is needed, of course. If I am not connected with the collective by good ties, then nothing will help me.

Question: So are you saying to throw all education out of your head because nobody needs it? I exaggerate on purpose.

Answer: This is not an exaggeration. This is the foundation.

Question: And to start to take care of the connection in the classroom, the real connection, so that it becomes the most essential and important thing? And then add to this all the education, everything, absolutely everything.

Answer: Everything else will come on top of this.

Question: Will they ever want to implement this?

Answer: For this you just need good educators who know how to get into the students’ hearts, correctly distribute such roles among them, and somehow create such an atmosphere.

Question: Should educators themselves relate to each other in this spirit?

Answer: This is still far away, of course. And there is no way we can educate teachers! But maybe, it will be possible to come to an agreement with them so that they first unite in the teachers’ room, and then, in this state, go to the classroom. And then we will get good results in everything: kindness in the first place, mutual assistance, and the desire to study better.

Question: Will we get this too?

Answer: Absolutely, because otherwise we will let others down, and our students themselves will sneer at us. And so on.

Question: That is, our class should be the best, we should all be the best together. Is this also a conclusion?

Answer: Yes, but we should not point out that we should be better than others.

Question: Can educational bodies, ministries of education and upbringing, still take this as a basis?

Answer: No. This will be in real demand when you can pay teachers well.

Comment: To pay teachers, and then they will build the process like this? But they themselves should want this to happen in the classroom, right?

My Response: The point is that it will not last long because they do not have that kind of upbringing yet. You have to spark their interest.

Question: But money does have a serious effect here, doesn’t it?

Answer: Of course material interest does have an effect. That is, there are two components here: material interest and ideological interest.

Question: Can teachers spark each other with ideas?

Answer: I do not think so.

Question: Do you remember your first teacher? I remember you speaking about her with such warmth.

Answer: Oh! She was a special woman—young and married to a military man at the time she was teaching us. We lived on the edge of a military garrison. He often met her on the way back from work. I remember myself waving to him.

She was very, very devoted to us. She loved us.

Question: Maybe this is the key to real success?

Answer: Yes. But then the next year I moved to another school. It was a different life.

Question: If a teacher lives like this loving the class, loving the students… Or will this not last long as well?

Answer: This has stayed with me for the rest of my life. These are childhood experiences.

They gave me an example of what the first teacher could be.

Question: We started with rap, with an attempt to transfer the material to music understandable for a child, and then things will advance. What needs to be done to still have this atmosphere in the classroom?

Answer: If teachers can speak confidentially with children, then they can easily set the children on the right attitude to studies, to life, and to others.

Question: But in this way or another, you say it should go through the connection that exists in class?

Answer: Yes. This is the main thing. This is the basis.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/10/22

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Question: You often say that we do not destroy our egoism because it is our nature, but we destroy its egoistic intention, its egoistic use. What is the difference?

Answer: The most important thing is the intention! The fact is that you can stab a person with a knife with malicious intent and kill him, or you can use a knife with good intent, as a surgeon usually does to cure a patient. In principle, both actions are the same, but the intentions are different.

A person who does not understand the meaning of the actions will think that it they are the same thing, but in fact it all depends on the intention. Therefore, we must understand the intention of each person and judge him only by his intention.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/8/23

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Сomment: Recently, you gave the following definition of a hero: A hero is one who gives all his strength, but does not win, and yet he is a hero. This is completely different from what is accepted in our world.

My Response: All the definitions in our world are opposite to the spiritual ones. In the corporeal world they are based on my victory or my achievement, and not on the victory over myself.

When we watch movies, especially American ones, we admire them and even cry with emotion: “Finally they meet! Finally he achieves it! Finally something happened! Finally he was acquitted!” and so on.

It all boils down to the fact that a hero achieves his dream. It is realized despite all the haters and spiteful critics who wanted to trip him up. He was heading for his goal, for his dream, despite the hardships, and now he has broken through the thorns to the stars!

In principle, this is how the victory of egoism is implanted: I am going on my own, achieving my goal, and as a result, I am a hero.

But in spirituality this is not the case at all. It is amazing how different it is! After all, spirituality is achieved by revealing that you are inside your egoism in a completely wrong state, that your desire to perpetuate yourself, to win, and to prove your case is a purely egoistic desire, which in principle is harmful and deceitful, and that at the same time you are following the lead of your ego, your animal being is pulling you forward!

This is a huge lie that our nature plays with us, and it constantly urges us: “Come on! Do it! Prove it to everyone!” And we obey it all the time like blind kittens. We are slaves of this nature!

Such heroism is extolled in Hollywood films. But these are the most terrible manifestations of egoism because they are detrimental and harmful to others.

In his blindness, a man does not understand that nature is simply playing with him like with a small child: “Come on! Do it! See how you can do it! Well done!” This is how we all are, and we are still proud of it—vanity, pride, and arrogance. What for?!

Where are all those rich and wise, those supermen?!

All this is so petty and does not go beyond the level of small blind kittens, although in principle it looks like we are talking about strong and smart people. But they sit in their egoism and realize the instructions of nature and all the time seek out how they can even better realize their ego. Therefore, Kabbalah laughs at this “Hollywood.”
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Who is the Real Hero?” 1/28/12

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Preparation to the Lesson

Zohar for All “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” “On the Night of the Bride,” Item 136

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to The Book of Zohar,” Item 70

Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why as a society are we so corrupt?“

Behind our every action and thought is an egoistic desire that makes us want to enjoy at the expense of others and nature.

Moreover, this egoistic desire constantly grows.

If in the past we could have been friendly with each other, today we view each other through the lens of how can we use each other to gain something. And we are not to blame for such an attitude. It is because our ego grew.

What can we do about it? Inside of us is some kind of an animal that constantly grows, and it demands that we exploit everyone and everything around us as much as possible for self-gain.

In fact, we have always been driven by such a desire, but it was not as big as it is today, so we did not experience it in the increasingly negative ways in which we feel it today.

The reason the egoistic desire grows in us is not simply for us to experience our lives and our society becoming increasingly corrupt. It is for us to reach a realization that our nature is indeed egoistic at its core, that we truly wish to use others and nature for self-gain purposes as much as possible, and that such a drive leads us to a plethora of negative outcomes throughout society. Then, this realization should develop in us a desire to make a fundamental change in ourselves: to change our egoistic nature to an altruistic one, where instead of thinking how to use others to gain from them, we will think about how to use ourselves to benefit others. If we will not undergo such a transition, then society will eventually fall apart.

Based on the video “Why Is Society Becoming More and More Corrupt?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Then the light was emptied from the entire place, meaning from all four degrees that exist in the place. Even though she diminished her desire only from phase four, it is the nature of the spiritual that it is indivisible (Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, “Inner Observation,” Chapter 7, Item 27).

Question: What does it mean that the spiritual is indivisible?

Answer: If you admit that you have reached the incorrect state, then all the previous states that led you to this also have no right to remain.

Afterwards, he re-extended a line of light from the first three phases, and phase four remained a vacant space.

The fourth phase (Malchut) decided not to be the way the light originally created it. Therefore, there is a prohibition on it to receive light and to change under its influence. As a result, the light again extended through the three previous phases, and the fourth one became different.

Malchut makes a restriction on itself; meaning, it does not want to remain the same as before, but only wants to receive, but not for itself. Thus, the fourth phase completely changes the meaning of the development of creation. This is already a conscious creation that does not want to receive pleasure for its own sake, but wants to become similar to the upper force, to the light.

Question: Can we say that freedom of choice is happening here for the first time?

Answer: Yes, we can. But basically, the desire, being in the state it so far is, has no other choice, it is obliged to act in this way. This is not yet the creation of our world and not real freedom of choice.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 1/1/23

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Question: Does a person have a fate?

Answer: Yes, he does.

Question: What is fate?

Answer: Fate is what is predetermined.

Question: Does it mean that somewhere something is written about each person? To what degree of detail?

Answer: It depends on the person himself. There are people who are born, go to school, then to work, and then to the cemetery.

And there are people for whom all these change very often. It is not clear why this is one way for some, and the other way for others. It depends on the inner structure of the soul.
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From KabTV’s “Blitz Questions and Answers” 1/6/23

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Question: If all states Malchut must go through are predetermined and we are parts of this Malchut, meaning, this desire, what can we influence? Do we only feel it and that is it?

Answer: No. We are part of Malchut that can change everything. We cannot only change these states but also their purpose. In other words, we are not able to change the laws of creation, but we can change their result.

Question: But if there is something that is planned out up to the end of correction and these states already exist in potential, can I change them? I can only feel them. These states should pass through me and that is it.

Answer: Yes, that is correct. We cannot really change either our path or our goal. They are predetermined. But each moment we can check ourselves whether we are on this path, if we can accelerate it, whether we agree with the path of our development, and so on.

We can change ourselves, our attitude to what is happening, but not what is really happening.

Question: So, if the program has, for example, World War III in it, then it will happen and I can only change my attitude to it?

Answer: No, we can change the course of history itself.

Comment: This is confusing if all states are predetermined.

My Response: All states are predetermined, but we can change them because we can come to them in many possible manners and ways.
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From KabTV’s “The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES)” 1/1/23

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Question: The past is always open and unchangeable. And the future, on the contrary, is closed, unknown, and variable. Do you agree with this statement?

Answer: I believe that both the past and the future, and, in general, time exists only in us.

Psychological, internal changes take place in us, which each time draw us a new perception of the world around us, although it does not change at all. We live in absolute full light, such a force that constantly affects us evenly.

But we are changing, and therefore the feeling of smooth, endless, calm light changes in us.

Question: But the future can somehow be changed?

Answer: There is nothing to change! There is only one even light in which we are created. We change according to our inner feelings, and in accordance with this we feel the picture of the changing world.

Therefore, we can only influence ourselves to change in a more objective way.

Question: It turns out that the future has several options. If I do not change myself, I will feel the future in one way, and if I change, then in a different way?

Answer: Yes. But it is you.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/25/22

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