Comment: There is a kind of emptiness in the way the world talks about connection, and in your words about connection there is a feeling of being filled with light. And even when your students talk about it, it feels like there is light there.

My Response: But people from the outside will not feel it right away.

There is a story written two and a half thousand years ago about how King Solomon suddenly found himself on the street in the guise of a beggar and could not prove to anyone that he was a king. No one believed him: “Who is this ragamuffin? He trudges along the roads and claims that he is the king.”

And instead of him, the devil Ashmedai sat on the throne, conducted all the business, and no one could understand that there was a substitution because everyone was at the simple level of this devil. This continued until King Solomon came to the Sanhedrin.

Sanhedrin was a meeting of wise men like a type of parliament. Before the ruining of the Second Temple we were commanded by wise men, and everyone had the right to address them with any question.

Solomon came to this meeting and asked them only one question. All 70 sages stared at him and could not answer. Then they asked: “Who are you?” He said: “I can answer all your questions, and from this, you will understand that it is I who am the wise Solomon and not this man who sits on the throne instead of me.”

The sages checked and made sure that it was so. Solomon returned to his place as a king, as the wisest and spiritually highest person, and Ashmedai was kicked out in disgrace.

Why am I saying this? Until the great sage Solomon came to the Sanhedrin, no one could understand that he was talking about something correct.

That is how we are. We say a lot of things, expose ourselves to the outside, but in most cases we seem, putting it mildly, unrealistic, immaterial: “It is all beautiful, good. The guys are great; they believe that the world can be made better so that people love each other…” and so on.

The world absolutely cannot believe that connection is its necessity, its goal, to which it goes to like a train. It must crash into something because the goal is in front of it and it cannot turn anywhere; it is getting closer to it every minute.

And if you put a system of balancing the similarity between yourself and this goal, then the train will slow down and gently enter it, like a pink cloud: happy, soft, kind, filling, illuminating, and giving a sense of eternity, perfection!

And if not, then this goal will collide with the train like a huge granite rock, will crush everything into a pancake, and then you will slowly begin to recover. But this recovery will be terrible and difficult and will take tens or hundreds of years during which you will, literally lick your wounds and heal yourself.

It will be something incredible—the world after the catastrophe where it will gradually learn and realize on its miasmas what the opposite of them is.

But I am an optimist. We need to disseminate more, and then everything will work out.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The World After Сatastrophe” 2/14/13

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Comment: When I hear the melody that the friends sing together, I catch some kind of vibration. And if I enter with my minimal vibration, then a feeling of some kind of volume, a kind of stereo, is formed.

My Response: Thanks to your voice, you begin to hear everyone else and perceive the whole range of sounds through it. And if you listen from the outside, then you perceive others not through your voice, not through your participation, but one-sidedly, not as from within.

By participating in a common action, you connect with everyone, and through this connection you feel the inner strength, the inner meaning of “vocal singing,” a chorus, or some kind of common action.

This is the difference between attempts to overcome individualism in our world, that is, to supposedly connect with each other, but at the same time everyone is watching from the outside, from what Kabbalah offers, helping a person to go inside, free from himself, and feel exactly the commonality, a “not himself.” Here a person has to go into annulment of himself, into the restriction of “I” (Tzimtzum Aleph).

Comment: But he feels it all through himself. This is very clearly felt when everyone is singing.

My Response: The fact is that such ranges suddenly open up in you, such sensations, such possibilities of subtle perception and all kinds of internal switching, as if you suddenly enter through a small door into a huge hall, and such divine music sounds in it, such perfection, that you begin to try to gradually find yourself in it through start-stop actions. This is the first acquaintance. Naturally, this pulls a person and pushes him, like a child.

Comment: At the same time, each voice individually can be absolutely terrible and imperfect.

My Response: Of course! It really is so.

Question: If you record this singing does any energy remain in it or is it felt only at the moment of singing?

Answer: It remains, nothing is lost. But you can never return to the old; you are always directed only toward new attainment. Here, it’s not like Baron Munchausen’s “the sounds froze and then thawed.” You have to try to do things in a new way and even think less about the old.

Question: But if someone else hears this singing, will he receive some kind of energy from it, from within?

Answer: How will he hear? From the fact that we sing, let’s say, together? Physically sing? After all, we can sit and not sing, but simply enter a state where we feel each other’s commonality.

A person should be ready to hear. Nothing will work without preparation.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Mystery of Choral Singing” 1/31/13

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Question: Academician Garyaev found two types of unusual kinds of memory of DNA molecules. He put forth that the thought of nature or the general thought of development contained in DNA is indestructible. He discovered and wrote about the DNA phantom effect that confirms that a person does not die completely. He contends that nothing alive disappears without a trace, something remains in the form of information, and perhaps it is actually immortal. What is this “general thought”?

Answer: It is the immense general system of nature that actually exists but of which we perceive only a small part through our egoistic filter. Therefore, it seems to us that everything is born, lives, and dies. This is how we, being small, limited researchers, perceive everything through the prism of our egoism.

In fact, nature is one single organism, a vast, integral, analog system within which everything acts instantly and instantly connects with each other.

There is no time, no distances, and no movements because every particle includes in itself everything like in a hologram, and therefore everything exists in an ideal form, motionless, because any movement means a transition from imperfection to perfection. But in fact, this does not exist in nature.

Time, movement, and space are the coordinates of our flawed perceptions.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Human Genome” 7/17/11

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic, “For Every Penny Joins Into a Great Amount” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Item 22

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 4, Chapter 1, Item 7

Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Why do so so many people try to live longer?“

People generally do not know why they want to live longer. Therefore, I encourage first stopping to ask “Why do we need to live longer?”

Let’s say that I have an elixir of life. You can take one drop and will live for another hundred years. Then what? How will that help you?

We have a very strong instinct for life. If we could choose to live another round of life, then most would go for it, solely out of the fear of dying. In other words, our impetus to keep living does not stem from a positive motivation, but from a negative one—our fear of death.

We fear death and try to escape it when we lack a clear purpose in life. Alternatively, there are also a lot of elderly people who agree with death, who have a willingness to lie down and to never get up. They have simply grown tired of life and see it pointless to endure the same motions day after day.

On the other hand, if we find life’s purpose and see that reaching it justifies prolonging our lives, then we can feel free to request a longer life: to go to the cashier, write our statements, and order the elixir. However, if I had such an elixir to give, then I personally would not give it to anyone. Instead, we should fit our movements toward our life’s purpose into the natural time frame that we have been given.

While people chase various goals in life, the ultimate purpose of life that we will all eventually reach is an eternal sensation of the force of nature that created and sustains us, which is a force of love and giving. As I have previously mentioned, the meaning and purpose of life cannot be a true one if it does not involve reaching an eternal sensation, and it involves aiming to benefit others and nature.

I understand that it is quite complicated to reach a decision to aim for such a goal, and it is even more complex to implement it. However, if we aim ourselves in such a direction, and use the method, the tools and the social environments at our disposal in order to strengthen ourselves toward that goal, then we would eventually discover a newfound balance with nature. Likewise, questions about living longer would disappear from our scope.

Based on the video “Why Do So Many People Try to Live Longer?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Semion Vinokur. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Age of Togetherness”

Why does it feel more and more like humanity is the bully in the neighborhood? Between nations, in personal relationships, with coworkers, among peers at school, and toward nature, we are as clumsy as an elephant in a china store, breaking everything we touch and leaving a chaotic mess behind us. There is a reason for this: The world around us is changing. While we are trapped in a mindset of having to work only for ourselves and that if we are weak, others will eat us, life has revealed its connected nature and shows us that if we act alone, we fail. Reality has ushered in the age of togetherness, and if we want to succeed, we will have to adapt.

In this new age, we cannot succeed alone. People’s strength comes not from their own abilities, but from their ability to connect and collaborate with others.

When we think of collaboration, we often think of having to compromise and give up things we would like in order to maintain a connection. That is no longer the case. On the contrary, the new togetherness requires that we use all of our skills, talents, ideas, and aspirations. However, we will use them for the common good rather than our own.

Currently, we use our abilities to benefit ourselves and prevent others from hurting or surpassing us. This puts us in a constant war with others. As a result, we frequently cancel each other’s good ideas and strengths, they often cancel ours, and we all end up tired, worn out, with unfulfilled potentials, and the whole of society loses.

When we use our individual advantages for the common good, we boost each other’s qualities, enhance each other’s achievements, and facilitate the realization of each other’s full potential. Everyone benefits from this. We feel fulfilled, confident, welcome in our social environment, and all of society benefits from our contributions. The energy we used to spend on self defense is geared toward development, and the achievements spur us on to give even more of ourselves to the collective.

The only thing that stops us from living out this dream society is our obstinate ego. As long as we let it rule, it will continue to destroy us and demolish our society. Eventually, it will destroy everything, and we will realize that we have no choice but to let go of our ego.

If we realize this now rather than later, we will spare ourselves that dismal outlook and bring the future into the present. If we help each other rise above ourselves, we will be able to do this, because in the age of togetherness, even rising above the ego is possible only if we work together.
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Medium published my new article “Success Begins at Home”

A recent study conducted by the Israeli Ministry of Finance has found, unsurprisingly, that where you live has a major impact on your chances of success. The study found that people who live in disadvantaged areas of Israel have lower chances of academic and financial success. The study also found that these people’s chances of mobility — moving up from lower income brackets to higher ones — are also lower if they live in poorer areas of the country.

The solution people most often use if they want to improve their situation is to move to more affluent parts of the country, where the environment encourages achievements and opportunities are more numerous. This perpetuates the poor state of deprived areas. The study suggests that the solution to this problem may be in developing young, local leaders who will create their own environment of success and lift their area to better achievements.

This idea may work, but I believe that success begins at home. If your family encourages you to achieve and gives you examples of success, your chances of success are much better than otherwise. For example, I have three grandchildren who live in Canada. The oldest went to college last year, the middle one went this year, and the youngest is still in high school but will certainly attend college. The role models they see make it almost a given that they will follow the same path. They simply know that a college degree is a mandatory part of their education. Regrettably, in Israel’s underprivileged areas, most people do not even consider the idea of academic schooling.

The cost of higher education in Israel is also prohibitive for many, but there are many scholarships and other programs that allow students from disadvantaged areas to study at a fraction of the actual cost, or even at no cost. So the problem is not one of affordability, but of approach, awareness, and confidence.

Therefore, I think that the first step toward success must begin at home, by creating an environment of encouraging academic schooling. If there is such an environment in a family, it may be able to offset a less positive external environment with regard to higher education.

Subsequently, young local leaders can rise and lift the entire community. If they focus on the common good and try to improve the situation of society as a whole, and if they ‎themselves set an example of success, they can do a lot of good.

Leadership development requires special programs and unique training. The leaders must first learn how to behave among themselves, and then with their community. They should not be raised to be politicians, but leaders who pave the way through personal example. If they can demonstrate how problems are solved by caring for the whole and cooperating with others, they will succeed, and the community will succeed with them.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The odd synchrony between new eras and revolutionary kabbalists”

This week, we commemorate the anniversary of the passing of the great kabbalist Isaac Luria, known as the Holy ARI. It is therefore a good time to reflect on an odd synchrony between his arrival and the global events of his time. However, before we speak of the ARI, we should speak of the founder of the wisdom of Kabbalah, as such, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, also known as Rashbi.

Rashbi, author of The Book of Zohar, the seminal book of Kabbalah, lived at a critical junction in the history of humankind. He lived in the 2nd century CE, not long after the ruin of the Second Temple and the exile of the people of Israel from Jerusalem and dispersion throughout the world.

That period, the first CE centuries, was a time of radical global transformations. The world was shifting from paganism to monotheism. Rome was gradually declining, along with its pantheon of gods, and a fledgling religion that became known as Christianity was accelerating its expansion. That time also saw the dimming of the Greek culture and the beginning of a darker epoch in the history of humankind: the Middle Ages.

When the Middle Ages had ended and a revival known as the Renaissance began, a new kabbalist with revolutionary teachings emerged, as well. Isaac Luria, The ARI, lived in the mid-16th century. That was also when the Renaissance was beginning to spread throughout Europe. It was also the time when Martin Luther lived and spread his ideas. These two revolutionary movements, Renaissance and Protestantism, had changed the world forever. Lurianic Kabbalah, named after Isaac Luria, The ARI, was equally revolutionary; it changed the way Kabbalists studied and taught Kabbalah, and paved the way for explaining it in a manner that the world can understand.

The third great kabbalist who lived at a pivotal time in history was Rav Yehuda Ashlag, known as Baal HaSulam. He lived through both world wars and warned of an impending genocide of the Jews years before it happened. He also lived to see the establishment of the State of Israel and the emergence of the Soviet and American blocs.

In his writings, Baal HaSulam wrote extensive and clear commentaries on the writings of his two predecessors, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s The Book of Zohar, and the writings of The ARI. He is the one who truly made Kabbalah accessible to everyone, and who pioneered the spreading of the wisdom of Kabbalah to the entire world.

While I do not see a direct connection between the arrival of revolutionary kabbalists and the advent of ideological, religious, and cultural transformations in the world, there is still a connection between the two in the sense that they both express the appearance of an evolutionary change in humanity. The world changes in its physical expression, and Kabbalah changes in its spiritual expression, but both processes demonstrate the advent of a new phase in the evolution of humanity. Therefore, while they happen simultaneously, they are not derived from one another.

The odd synchrony between the arrival of new eras and the appearance of revolutionary kabbalists is therefore created not because they are connected to each other, but because both are connected to the same source, the engine of reality, the creative force of giving that engenders everything, sustains everything, and develops everything to its ultimate goal: complete unity of all things, bound together by threats of mutual giving and love, in utter oneness.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is consciousness?“

Consciousness is the energy, matter, information and qualities that we receive and that forms in us when we connect to the general collective volume of information.

There are forces that we receive from outside of us, and these forces form the picture of our world. If we connect in a balanced manner to the information outside of us, then we experience a state of peace and harmony. On the contrary, if we fail to connect in a balanced manner to the forces outside of us, we experience imbalance and disharmony.

We should thus not consider how we receive information from the outside, but how we connect to the general collective information field. The the extent of our balance or imbalance with the external field is responsible for how we feel the world, whether pleasurable or painful.

The quality of the general informational field outside of our perception is that of love and bestowal. If we wish to create the same quality within ourselves, then we connect to it and start sensing its information without any interference. We then achieve a state of total peace and harmony, a complete understanding and feeling of nature, the creation and the universe. In other words, by balancing ourselves with the quality of love and bestowal that exists outside of us, we become as eternal and perfect as that quality, i.e. as nature itself.

On the contrary, our inborn desire to separate, assort and compartmentalize distances us from the eternity and perfection of nature. It gives us a transient and incomplete perception of the universe. As a result, we experience an accumulation of suffering throughout our development, which is necessary to prod us to a point where we will desire to undergo a fundamental transformation of our paradigm: to wish to exit our detached perception and sensation, and enter into a balanced, harmonious and peaceful connection with the general informational field.

Based on KabTV’s “Close-Up. Hologram” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on July 28, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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