My new article on Linkedin “Not Gonna Lie”

NGL is a new and quite popular mobile app. Its letters are an acronym for “Not Gonna Lie,” and the app presumes to offer “a fresh take on anonymity.” According to the creators of the app, “anonymity should be a fun yet safe place to express your feelings and opinions without shame.” In reality, the app has become a breeding ground for insults, slander and threats. Indeed, people freely express their opinions there, but it is anything but a safe place. But then, with human nature being what it is, what can we expect?

We think that overt hatred and violence happen mainly in movies, and in reality, people are far more restrained. Perhaps they are a little more restrained, but an app like NGL proves that it is only a facade, and given the opportunity, everyone will be at each other’s throats. If there is anything good about apps like NGL, it is that through them we can recognize how bad we are.

It is not only apps, but everything that we create ultimately becomes bad because of our evil nature. Even if we wanted, we could not create anything else. The fact that there are inventions that seem harmless or even good does not mean that they are as they appear to be, but only that the wickedness in them has not been exposed. This exposure, by the way, however difficult, is the first step toward removal of the pestilence.

To agree to be kind to one another, we need to realize the depravity of our nature. With very few exceptions, people have no shred of goodness. They use everyone else for their own needs, and the only difference in their behavior toward others depends on what pleases them, without regard for others.

Even good people are good only because it makes them feel better about themselves, and not because they are selfless in any way. Had they been born with less compassion in their hearts, they would have behaved less kindly toward others. In other words, their kindness does not stem from their kind hearts, but because this is what their selfish wants tell them to do. Granted, this is preferable to people who enjoy bullying, but the motive behind their actions is still selfish, and given the right circumstances, their egoism will show its face.

In conclusion, Not Gonna Lie really does not lie. The question is what we want to do about the truth that it reveals. Do we want to let human nature lead us to more abuse, pain, distrust, alienation, and their horrific offshoots of depression, violence, substance abuse, and war? Or, do we want to say “Enough!” to our egos and decide together to change our attitude toward each other and rise above our abusive nature? Now that we know, we have a choice.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Bad Neighbors Should Part Ways”

A few hours after US President Joe Biden departed from Israel, Islamic Jihad fired several rockets at Israeli cities. Israel’s automatic response was to retaliate with bombs at empty warehouses that harmed no one and caused little damage. In this usual scenario, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are running the show. They have the initiative and Israel only responds. When they want, there is quiet in Israel; when they want, there is no quiet in Israel. Israel’s response, it seems, makes no difference. In this war of attrition, we, Israel, are clearly not on the winning side. Our enemies will keep hurting us until we want to leave this country; this is their goal. Therefore, if we want to stay here, the only solution is to completely separate ourselves from them. Bad neighbors should part ways, not stay in the same place and go on fighting.

If your neighbor does not stop trying to kill you or force you out of your home, yet you want to live, then you have two options: leave, or force your neighbor to leave. When no reconciliation is possible, there needs to be total separation.

Therefore, the State of Israel should be cleared of anyone who threatens its existence or the existence of its residents. Additionally, anyone who tries to kill Israelis from outside of Israel should be treated the same as he is treating Israelis. It is not politics; it is common sense, and every democratic country in the world applies this principle.

Trying to reason or compromise with people who do not listen to reason and do not want to compromise is not political moderateness; it is folly. This approach has led to relinquishing more and more territory, which invariably becomes a basis for more rockets, bombs, and knife attacks on Israeli citizens. In short, it does not improve the situation, but makes it far worse because there is no intention on the other side to live side by side, but to drive us out. Consequently, every bit of ground we waive is another victory for the other side, which emboldens it and makes it more audacious.

It is true that the world will not like it if Israel forced a separation of population, but there is no other choice. If we want to survive, our attitude toward the Palestinians should be that there is no contact with them whatsoever, and anyone who tries to kill us, we kill them first.

However, total separation is only a temporary solution, only the first half of what we have to do, the half that should enable us to carry out the second, more important task.

This second half pertains to what we have to do among ourselves. Toward ourselves, we should be just as tough, but toward cohesion rather than separation. The only thing that determines our endurance is our social cohesion, our unity. Therefore, this should be our sole focus when it comes to Israeli society.

Unity does not mean uniformity. It does not mean that we must all think the same or want the same things and have the same goals. Unity means that above all our many differences, we feel as one nation, and each faction in the nation contributes its unique perspective to the common pool of ideas and attitudes. In this way, we will not have a divided society, but a society that is vital, vibrant, and dynamic.

The secret of our people’s success throughout the centuries has not been our intellect, but the reason for our intellect and fortitude. That reason is that we have always had different views, yet we have known how to keep ourselves together despite our different views. The constant arguments and debates have developed us and made us resilient and smart.

Today, because we have become intolerant toward each other, we are very weak and vulnerable, as each side blames the other for its woes. In truth, the fault is not in this or that view, but in the fact that we cannot rise above them and keep ourselves together.

In fact, the whole purpose of our diverse viewpoints is to rise above them and form a canopy of unity under which all views can exist. If we try to revoke an opposing view, we end up canceling our own view, as well, since our view can assert itself and develop only in relation to other views that stand against it.

And finally, if we establish unity above our divided views, we will set an example to the world, the example that it wants to see from us. We embody in our nation every viewpoint on the planet. If we can unite above our myriad opinions, we will show the world the way toward peace among the nations, too.

By this, and only by this will we win the favor of the world. Then, even the Palestinians will make peace with us.
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And He restricted that Light, and drew far off to the sides around that middle point.

And there remained an empty space, an empty air, a vacuum

Precisely from the middle point.

And that restriction was equally around that empty, middle point,

So that the space was evenly circled around it 
(Ari, The Tree of Life).

Question: What does it mean the space was evenly circled around it?

Answer: It cannot be expressed in other words. In this way, in the language of geometry, we can explain that in the center of the Creator, in the center of light, a void in the form of a circle was formed.

There are no mutual changes, restrictions, or separations, and all its qualities mutually complement each other so that only empty space remains.

The concept of place always implies desire. That is, initially an empty desire was created, which did not feel anything, even the Creator. The entire creation begins with this, the gradual development of desire to a state where it already acquires some kind of its own powers, goals, and thus begins to interact with this emptiness within itself.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/5/22

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Question: What is the main function of Reshimot?

Answer: The main function of Reshimot is an informational record of all your future states. However, this is just a record. How it will be manifested within you depends on you.

When you begin to enter these states with your senses, the way you will feel this will depend on your attitude toward them. A person who wants to develop spiritually will feel this in one way, and a person who wants to develop differently will feel this in another way.

For example, a child is brought to school where he is given various tasks. One child shouts: “Why do I need this?! For how many years will it go on like this?!” He is told: “Ten years.” And he is ready to just jump out the window.

And the other kid comes to school, and he likes it, he is happy to complete tasks, for him ten years fly by very quickly.

Question: It turns out that I cannot change the fact that I have to study at school for ten years? Is it written in my Reshimot?

Answer: Yes, but you can feel these ten years as ten days.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/12/22

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Question: “World” is from the word “Olam,” “Halama,” meaning, concealment. How does concealment reveal perfection?

Answer: In order to fuel the desire to attain the Creator in the created beings, the ladder-like system of worlds was created, by which the created beings gradually ascend and attain the Creator, which means perfection, eternity, the universality of the upper force more and more.

In the book The Tree of Life, the Ari writes: Ein Sof restricted Himself, in His middle point that is, even the minimal manifestation of the Creator disappeared and absolutely everything has been hidden from the created being.

This is necessary so that a true desire for the Creator begins emerging in the created being and freedom of choice appears.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 7/5/22

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Comment: You recently said, “First there was the word, and it was the word of God.” What was the first word?

My Response: “Bereshit.” There are Kabbalistic explanations for the word “Bereshit” that take thousands of pages. Thousands of pages! Entire treatises explain what Bereshit means. Because this word “Bereshit” contains absolutely everything! Apart from it, everything else is a consequence of it.

Question: Can “Bereshit” be translated as “at the beginning”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Can you compress these thousands of pages of treatises into a few sentences?

Answer: This word “Bereshit” contains the essence of the Creator, the purpose of creation and its full program of development, up to the last state.

Question: What is the essence of the Creator?

Answer: The essence of the Creator is good who does good.

Question: What is the essence of the creation that He created?

Answer: The desire created by the Creator, which yearns for adhesion with the Creator, for coming closer to the Creator is called creation.

Question: Does it mean that the program of creation is to come closer to the Creator? If we yearn for coming closer to the Creator, do we fulfill the purpose of creation?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 6/20/22

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Question: Are prophetic dreams a certain kind of attainment?

Answer: Prophetic dreams, which many people like to talk about, have nothing to do with Kabbalah. A person cannot fall asleep, wake up, and remember his dream, as it is said about the Pharaoh and other characters in the sagas of ancient Egypt.

In fact, none of this exists! There are other states that we can call that, but not what happened to Pharaoh or anyone else.

A person who is in contact with the Creator has a certain attainment of the Creator, which can be called a dream. But this is not a dream.

For example, in the Psalms of David it is written: “We were like them that dream” (Psalms 126:1). The point is that when we return to the full attainment of the Creator, we will realize that all our past attainments were like in a dream. It was not a full degree, but only six degrees out of ten.

Question: It may seem that way to us, but we are not in fact talking about our world?

Answer: No! What does our world have to do with it? It is generally considered imaginary by us.

Comment: It is interesting that all this is written about the spiritual, but nothing is said about our world. We live here and we want to know what’s going on here.

My Response: Nothing is happening here. If we want something to happen, we must become similar to the Creator. As we become like Him, we will begin to feel where we are and how this world is moving.

Question: But we exist in this world, in this body. I would like to know how much a person should sleep at all, even a Kabbalist since he also lives in a physiological body?

Answer: The minimum amount of sleep time should be equal to the horse’s sleep – 60 breaths. This is how a horse usually sleeps, then wakes up and sleeps again, and wakes up again. This is minimal sleep. In general, sleep should last six hours; not even in a row, but in general, during a day.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 6/28/22

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Comment: According to some studies, ultrasound radiation is harmful to the condition of the unborn child if it is conducted in the early stages of pregnancy.

My Response: Any phenomenon that we artificially evoke in nature is ultimately harmful to us. We must live in a natural way, the way we were created, without especially inventing anything.

Sages of the past thought about this, about not revealing the science to humanity, to force it to change internally and to gradually enter into an integral nature. Then it will be happy.

We have already gone through thousands of years of our egoistic development and only now we are beginning to understand that it is better to develop not technologically, but internally, and then we will enter perfection.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Human Genome” 7/17/11

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Filed under: Body and Soul, Health, Kabbalah Study, Science | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “The Ruin as an Opportunity for Correction”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” 

Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What do you think of U.S. officials who said Monday the bullet that killed veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was likely fired from an Israeli position?“

I heard about CNN reporting that IDF soldiers shot the Al Jazeera reporter, Shireen Abu Akleh, as a targeted attack, which is uncanny because firing at civilians is the opposite of what the IDF teaches their soldiers from their very first training stage. It is no secret that the media is presenting Israel in an increasingly negative light, and it is because we Jews are not doing what we are supposed to, i.e. what humanity innately expects from us.

There is a subconscious expectation dwelling in humanity toward the Jewish people: to reveal the method of the world’s correction so that the world will become a positive, warm and friendly place. A common counterargument to this that I often hear from Jews in Israel is that “I wish the world would be a kinder and better place, but we’re living next door to people who teach their children to kill Jews from a young age.” What we fail to understand is that we are to blame for the increasingly negative attitude toward us, from our neighbors systematically teaching their children to kill us, to the global media painting a dark portrait of us.

It is almost impossible for us to hear that we are to blame for the negative attitude toward us, because we perceive ourselves as the victims, and it seems preposterous to say otherwise. Why? It is because we do not want to see the core reason behind this statement: that we have a role to guide the world to its correction, i.e. to a state of “love your neighbor as yourself.” Ultimately, although it appears we are headed in an opposite direction, humanity in general is headed to a state of mutual love, consideration, respect, support and encouragement. That state is set in nature, and our current state of development is akin to an unripe fruit that becomes increasingly bitter, until at its very end it inverts, becoming sweet, ripe and good to eat.

So who are we Jews in this developmental process? Unlike other nations that have biological roots, we share an ideological foundation: we first become known as “the people of Israel” when, under Abraham’s guidance in ancient Babylon, we attained a state of “love your neighbor as yourself,” and that heightened connection between us—balanced with nature’s force of absolute love and bestowal—attracted nature’s positive force into our connections. That is what it means to be “Israel,” from the two Hebrew words “Yashar Kel,” which means “straight to God”—understanding God as the root force in nature, a quality of love and bestowal that created and sustains reality.

Today’s increasingly negative attitude toward us is due to the increasing need in humanity for the revelation of nature’s positive force of love and bestowal, and that there is a critical mass within humanity who hold the key to attracting that force, and they are not doing so. Instead of acting like an open tap that lets nature’s positive force of love and bestowal stream freely into humanity, this critical mass instead acts like a cork, blocking the positive force from humanity. Without letting nature’s positive force of love and bestowal into humanity, the negative force of human egoism continually grows unabated, and thus problems across the board increase: from personal problems such as depression, loneliness, stress, insecurity and anxiety, through to problems in society such as increased distrust, inequality, poverty and crime, to name a few.

The more humanity experiences hardships, the more a subconscious negative feeling emerges in humanity toward the Jewish people. Today, that negative feeling becomes expressed as a recent exponential rise in antisemitic crimes and threats, together with an increasingly negative view of Israel.

If we Jews would start realizing our role, to achieve relations of “love your neighbor as yourself” among each other and to become a conduit of that positive force dwelling in nature toward the rest of humanity, then we would see the negative attitude toward us dramatically invert to a positive one. The subconscious urges within humanity would take a major turn. People would start feeling a new light, harmony and peace fill their lives, seemingly out of nowhere, but it would be due to our attainment and projection of a mutually considerate attitude that is sourced in nature.

We hold the key to making this immense positive change a reality. We just need to find the lock and turn it, and then we will see how a whole new perception and sensation of reality would open up. We would understand the core drive behind what currently appears as unjust and unfair accusations against us, and through our own attitude shift toward each other above our differences, we would enable that attitude shift en masse.

It is my hope that we will awaken to this process sooner rather than later, because the sooner we do, the more we will spare both ourselves and the rest of humanity much suffering.

Based on the video “Media Coverage of Al Jazeera Reporter Shireen Abu Akleh’s Death – A Kabbalist’s Response” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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