My new article on Linkedin “The Folly of the Battle for Seniority”

Whether it is a war between tribes in Africa or between countries in Europe, every war begins with an ideological dispute, which then translates into a military conflict. The same goes for the current war in eastern Europe.

The ideological question at the heart of the collision between Russia and Ukraine is far deeper than a territorial dispute; it is a war over establishing “my place in the world.” Russia claims that it was there first and the Ukrainians hardly deserve the title of “nation.” Ukrainians, on the other hand, assert that it is to the contrary, and they are in fact the elder nation. Historians will keep contending over who is right for a long time coming, and they will probably never agree.

We Jews, however, know only one thing for certain: Seniority does not matter. Although we are one of the most ancient peoples on the planet, and although we are the “root” of two religions that have spread throughout the world—Christianity and Islam—and of countless philosophies and teachings, it gives us no preference or favor in the eyes of the world.

In fact, we should be the first to point out the futility of fussing over seniority. Instead, we should stress that the family of nations should be more like a real family. In a family, some children are born earlier and some later, but they are still siblings, not enemies, and there are love and mutual support between them. As in a family, the elder siblings should not feel superior, but rather responsible for the wholeness and well-being of the family.

Seniority should mean a higher level of development. Yet, nothing is more primitive (and foolish) than using seniority to demand prerogatives. The fact that I came first gives me no right to patronize others. On the contrary, it makes me responsible for them.

A military parade showing off tanks and missiles is no more civilized than a war dance with arrows and spears. Both are equally primitive. However, in the case of the war dance, there are no pretensions, while in the case of the military parade, it professes to show progress. In fact, it displays only man’s hyper-developed brutality and egomania.

Instead of warring over superiority, we should understand that we are worthy only when we unite above the differences, just like a family is a good family only when all its members are united and care for one another. The differences between us do not threaten us; they complement our weaknesses and help us achieve what we would be unable to achieve otherwise.

Just as complementarity is the basis of balance in nature, it should be the basis of human society. If we used each other’s qualities for the common good, we would all benefit from our uniqueness. We would value and care for each other precisely because we are so different.

Civilization is headed toward complementarity, not particularity. Today, those who patronize others will not succeed. It is simply the time in our evolution to correct the family of nations and begin to function like a good and caring family.
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My new article on Linkedin “AI, Draw the Love between a Flower and a Bee”

There has been a buzz lately about Artificial Intelligence (AI) machines such as Dall-E 2 or Google’s Imagen creating realistic looking images of completely unrealistic scenes by describing the desired image in words. For example, if you want a picture of a giant cobra made of corn slithering on Mars, or a human palm with leaves growing from its fingers, simply type the phrase into the machine and there you have it.

Following the accolades there come the questions. Will it threaten the livelihood of artists? Will it make photographers obsolete? Will graphic designers become a thing of the past? This is how we operate, judging everything in terms of what is good for me, as if we can stop the world’s progress if we disagree with it.

We have tried to stop many technologies that are far more ruinous than artificial artistic images. It has never worked. We could not stop the making of nuclear weapons or the production of killer drones, and we will not be able to stop the development of AI in general, and AI art in particular. Nor is there any need to stop it. Instead, we should try to see how innovations can fit into our lives and improve them.

Technology is advancing along with our aspirations for self-expression. In other words, it is not technology itself that is advancing, but humankind. Because of it, trying to hinder the advancement of technology means trying to impede the advancement of humanity. This goes against nature, and it will never lead to positive results.

Technology is a raw material. Just as a sculptor might use a rock to chisel out an image, or a musician would use a musical instrument to create music, AI is the instrument that creates the artist’s creation. The only question is what kind of art we want to create.

If I were to use this kind of art, I would try to create spiritual art, one that shows the hidden connections between different elements in nature. If we could show how everything is connected and dependent on the well-being of everything else, we would relate to the environment and to other people very differently from the way we do today.

For example, I would ask the machine to draw the love between a flower and a bee. Not a flower and a bee, but the love they feel for one another. Because they do, except we do not feel it (for the most part). The relationship between the bee, which needs the flower’s nectar to feed herself and her young, and the flower, which needs the bee to pollinate and reproduce, is a symbiotic relationship that involves two very different levels of nature—the animate and the vegetative. Because of it, the two are deeply connected and feel close to one another.

If we could show how everything is connected in this way, we would be able to sympathize with all of nature and with all the people, feel connected to them, and develop affection for all things and all people. If we could do that, we would not need to worry about limiting the development of potentially injurious innovations, since the affection between us would guarantee that we use everything only to benefit everyone, and never to harm them.

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Medium published my new article “Between Pain and Forgiveness”

When we are hurt by others, it hurts terribly, and it can happen in our lives at any moment. Questions immediately arise: When is there room for forgiveness and what is it anyway?

It is human nature to enjoy, to satisfy ourselves with all kinds of things that seem good to us. We want to enjoy food, sex, family, money, honor, control, information, and a combination of these above all. We constantly work to fulfill our desires, and consider how much energy we should invest in something specific depending on the expected outcome.

To illustrate, let us say we want to buy a nice suit for a particularly festive occasion. We invest a large amount of money in it, equivalent to almost a week’s work, and purchased it with great pleasure. The long-awaited day arrives, we put on the new suit and walk around among everyone with a smile from ear to ear. People say, “What a great suit.” The chest swells with pride.

And suddenly someone utters in front of everyone, “What’s that funny suit you are wearing? What kind of costume is that?” And from that moment on, reality changes. Everyone giggles, and we are filled with shame.

Later that evening, we run into the same person again, who quietly tells us, “Sorry if I said something inappropriate earlier.” Immediately we respond with a rejection. Is such a request for forgiveness a reparation for the harm done? Certainly not. That is why we do not accept it.

Real forgiveness should have been one that compensates me for the large sum I invested in buying the suit, for all the expectations I had of receiving compliments, respect and recognition, hopes that were replaced by contempt, ridicule and shame. For all the things that have accumulated in me, I need proper compensation.

The reparation can be made through revenge, as it is usually done, or alternatively by the person in question coming to me with a sincere apology and convincing me that he or she understands the damage and terrible insult caused to me. Let’s say the person writes a check that would cover the purchase of ten more suits, for example. In that case, if I feel that the apology is indeed sincere, and the check also seems respectable enough to me, then I am willing to forgive, to erase the case as if it had not happened.

In principle, the size of the blow is the size of the compensation that can cover it. Forgiveness, revenge, slight, insult, investment, these are all things measured only in relation to my egoic desire to enjoy. If the ego still feels hurt and demands revenge, it means that the place of hurt has not been filled with proper compensation. The pit that opens up in the heart is still open, so we cannot truly forgive.

Until now, we have analyzed phenomena that we all know. At some point, a feeling may arise in a person in which the desire for revenge, of seeking honor, of fights for control and wars — become extremely exhausting to us. It destroys our health, our relationships, our whole lives. “What do I get out of all this,” we begin to ask ourselves, “What is it worth living for? Is this my mission in life, is this all I have to do?”

The awakening of these inner questions brings us to a quest for inner development, a method of overcoming the limitations of the egoistic nature. This wisdom teaches that the great purpose of our existence on earth is to discover the universal power of nature, the quality of love and giving, and it is discovered by acquiring a similar quality to it. This revelation is called spiritual because it elevates every human being to a higher, eternal and complete level of existence.

How does it happen? Broadly speaking, by developing loving relationships in a small group that serves as a laboratory, we complement each other in ways that we cannot achieve alone. We learn to connect with each other in harmony, like different organs in a body. Injury, reparation, revenge, forgiveness, all these games lose their meaning because we understand that we are not fighting against each other, but we all together raise above our narrow calculations in the face of our common egoistic nature.

When I realize that I have hurt someone, I go directly to the person and ask him or her what I can do to make amends for what I have spoiled. To get closer to him or her, to connect with the person and do everything I can to restore the power of love between us. And if someone has hurt me, I remember that it is not his or her fault, but the human ego, and try to help the person rise above it. In this way, we gradually approach a situation where our world becomes a place where it is fun to live. With the highest power of nature, in reciprocity, support and trust.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Why Advanced Nations Become Antisemitic”

What do the Babylonian Empire, ancient Rome, 13th century England, 15th century Spain, and 20th century Germany have in common? All of them were among the most, if not the most advanced nations of their time, and they all tormented the Jews or altogether eliminated them. Even more interestingly, they all turned on the Jews when they were in their prime. Why are we, the Jewish people, always blamed for all the woes? Why are we attacked, and why do the most vicious attacks come from the most advanced nations? To answer these questions, we need to know our place in the world and our obligation to humanity.

The more chaotic the world becomes, the more it turns against the Jews. Jews are always blamed for things that go wrong. When adversity becomes too much to bear, the frustration erupts against the Jews.

We Jews always feel that it is unjust that we should be blamed for things we did not do, but this does not change the world’s opinion, and for a good reason. Without realizing it, the world is not really accusing us of doing harm, even though some make up various libels. In truth, the world is accusing us of not doing what we should be doing, which is what we did for ourselves when we became a nation: unite our warring hearts.

Especially today, when every problem—even as minor as monkeypox—spreads around the world and becomes a global problem, it is manifestly clear that only worldwide mutual responsibility can help us overcome the world’s problems. In the absence of mutual responsibility, humanity tries various makeshift solutions, which ultimately only aggravate the problems. Everyone knows that if we could only work together, humanity would overcome every problem, but we cannot bring ourselves to cooperate, and so we are forced to improvise and ultimately fail.

The ancient people of Israel, whose founding fathers came from a variety of (often hostile) tribes, had found a way to unite against all odds. They realized that unity was the most important asset for society and made all other values secondary. They taught this to each other, they taught this to their children, who taught their children’s children, until they had become a new nation bound not by blood relations but by the value of unity.

No other nation had been born this way before or since, and no other nation has managed to forge such a bond among its members. The people of Israel, for their part, became responsible for sharing their unique method of building nations that live in peace with one another and among themselves. The early Jews were well aware of their commitment, but since the last exile, two millennia ago, they had forgotten it. The world, however, still remembers that the Jews hold a special secret that they are denying it. This is the reason for the world’s perpetual resentment against the Jews.

Moreover, the more advanced a nation is, the more difficult it is for its people to maintain solidarity, and the more they need the ancient Hebrews’ method for achieving unity. If we examine the legacy of the ancient Jews, we will find that it is not the love of knowledge or the zest for power, but the motto “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Because solidarity is such a rarity in advanced nations, these nations become the most resentful toward Jews and blame them for their troubles.

While this is true of advanced countries, it is also true in general, that when any adversity comes upon a nation, it comes because of one core reason: lack of cohesion, lack of solidarity, or in other words, lack of unity. At that time, the nation’s people feel that it is the Jews who are behind it. They cannot articulate why they think so, but they do nonetheless. However, the fact that they blame us for their adversity necessarily implies that they believe in our ability to prevent it. Indeed, if we taught them how to unite the way our founding fathers had united, they would not fall into their sorry state. This is why they hate us.

Therefore, if we want the world to stop hating us, we must help correct the world by learning how to unite. To do this, we ourselves must unite above our divisions, just as our ancestors did when we first became a nation. Once we achieve this, we will become the example of unity that the world wants to see in us. We can walk in circles for centuries to come, but it will not change the fact that until we unite among us and set an example of unity to the world, the world will remain mired in wars, blame us for them, and beat us up as punishment.
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My new article on Linkedin “The Price for Adopting a Victim Mentality”

A person with a victim mentality tends to feel as a victim of the hurtful actions of others. While some people have in fact been victims of wrongdoing, developing a victim mentality means that they become fixated on blaming their misfortunes on the misdeeds of others. The problem with developing such a mentality is that seeing oneself as a perpetual victim prevents one from rebuilding oneself and succeeding in life. In order to maintain the victim image, people must remain eternal losers, but only they will lose as a result.

It is very difficult to determine where exactly to draw the line between blaming other people for one’s woes and beginning to exploit the wrongdoing that was done to a person for gaining unwarranted benefits. Either way, perpetuating a self-image of a victim impedes one’s efforts to rebuild one’s life and realize one’s potential.

Therefore, to help victims of all types of misconduct, we should focus on the positive rather than on the negative. Instead of reinforcing and perpetuating their image as passive and weak people whose vulnerability had been exploited, we should teach people who have been hurt by wrongdoers that they can always succeed regardless of the circumstances. We should empower people and help them believe in themselves.

The same approach should apply to populations that had been victims of exploitation and abuse. Instead of teaching them to focus on the wrongs that had been done to them, we should help them gain self-confidence and achieve what they did not believe they could. While we cannot change the past, we can choose the future, and this should be our focus.

The activism of certain opinion leaders and other public figures “in favor” of victimized sections of society is nothing but manipulation. Reality proves that these “champions of the afflicted” do not really help them, and in the end, the victims remain empty-handed and crippled by a victim mentality that guarantees they will have nothing in the future because they chose a wrong approach.

While there are certainly people who have done wrong, seeking revenge will not help the victims. Instead, they should focus on building a just and cohesive society for all.

If we create social solidarity, we will solve the problem of exploitation and abuse altogether. If we want equality, we must fight for equal opportunities to succeed, and we will achieve this if we create a society whose members feel connected to each other, cultivate solidarity, and are proud to live in a cohesive and caring community.

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Comment: There have been entire nations in history that disappeared from the face of the earth. But this was preceded by the fact that they always conquered and subjugated other nations. And after that, after some time had passed they themselves disappeared.

My Response: This is a natural process that is absolutely and clearly repeated in nature. Ask any history teacher and he will tell you that these laws are constantly repeated in history. If you come to someone and want to absorb his nation, in the end it absorbs you because nature resists violence.

Wherever we go against its laws, we can never win. As a result and maybe after several generations, the defeated survive and still become winners.

Question: What happens to the nations that disappear from the face of the earth?

Answer: Nothing disappears but just passes from one form to another.

In general it isn’t worth talking about nations because there is no such thing. We are the ones who artificially divide the nations.

Nations are divided into 70 parts according to 70 spiritual roots. But all the same, they come from the same root and therefore, in the end we will rise to this spiritual root and gradually, as academician Vernadsky said, “All this will come to connection.”
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Prophet” 11/23/11

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Question: What does Kabbalah say about education? By stuffing young people with knowledge about chemistry, physics and other sciences, we do not take into account any human factor, we do not give them any fundamental life values.

Answer: Kabbalah says that education is the most important thing! Not chemistry or physics, because they can develop only if a person is correctly disposed to apply them. And without proper education, he uses these sciences to his detriment.

Therefore, we must first properly educate a person, and then give him chemistry and physics; otherwise, he will feel bad from them, he will do damage.

Why do we need today’s chemistry and physics? What do we do with the help of science and technology? We are pumping the last juices out of nature and that is it.

Kabbalah speaks only about the education of a person. Everything depends on it! Moreover, it says: If we properly educate a person, then no physics and no chemistry will be required. A person will suddenly find himself existing in a comfortable world, nature will treat him well, and he will not feel anything bad from it.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Europe Today” 1/26/11

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Question: Mark writes: “Why is it that whenever we want good, we come to bad? If we want peace, we come to war. We want happiness, we get only suffering. We want to educate children, and as a result they are brought up by TikTok, corrupted peers, and scandalous media. It turns out that we do not care about our children. Yet, we have no strength to change anything. Why do you want one thing, but always receive another?”

Answer: Because you, a human, have created a world that affects your child and affects him from all sides. You raised all his friends, you built all this mass media and so on. You did all of it, with your own hands. Now all this affects your son and forces him to be this thing that is embedded in all these means that put pressure on him.

You are responsible for the entire world.

Question: Can you say this to everyone?

Answer: I can. You are responsible for the entire world. Therefore, there is no need to hide somewhere or run away;  nothing will work.

Question: Did I make the world bad?

Answer: You!

Question: How can I make it good?

Answer: First of all, think about the fact that you are responsible for this world, and you can return it to a good state, correct it. So now you are thinking only about the way to correct it. In fact, by correcting yourself, you are correcting the entire world. If you are really sure of it, then it will happen that way.

Question: What do you mean by “correcting myself”?

Answer: From egoism to altruism. That’s it!

Question: Is that all there is?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Can you imagine, that’s all there is, and here around us there is such a complex world?

Answer: There is nothing around us. This is all just a display of our idiotic, shoddy egoism! And a shallow one at that, at its lowest level! These are not the great upper forces of nature, negative and positive ones at a morally high level, and so on. This is a little thing that we mess around with like children in a sandbox.

Comment: So, you answer affirmatively to the questions, of which we have a million. They say: “Laitman reduces everything to egoism.”

My Response: Yes, that’s right!

Question: Is it the basis of everything? Of all the troubles, all the suffering, everything in general?

Answer: Yes, and the basis of happiness as well.

Question: Is egoism also the basis of happiness?

Answer: Yes. And it is not going anywhere. We just need to handle it correctly. Thanks to it, we will come to happiness.

Question: In what instance? What do I need to do?

Answer: Use it correctly.

Question: Is this the only thing that is required of me?

Answer: The only thing. You have nothing but egoism in your nature. You have to stand on this egoism, and you have no right to destroy it (even if we assume that there is such an opportunity). No way! Kabbalah forbids it. It even prohibits all kinds of diets and other things like that.

You have to be a normal person. Normal! And to think only about one thing: How can I transform my egoism so that it works for bestowal and love. There is nothing easier.

Question: So, is this the only thing that the wisdom of Kabbalah is engaged in?

Answer: That’s all we need to be engaged in.

Question: Then what is hidden about it?

Answer: It is concealed from us. Therefore, it is hidden. But there is nothing hidden about it.

Comment: Hidden wisdom, signs, letters, gematria…

My Response: It is all because we have nothing to do with this! As soon as you start to move toward this, you immediately begin to understand what it is talking about—about the reverse side of our world.

Question: So, is one simple formula at the heart of everything anyway?

Answer: Yes, invert egoism to its opposite.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/28/22

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People who are more or less connected with nature by profession feel it better. Nature itself forces them to be more delicate, closer to their essence. At first glance they may seem crude, but they feel nature and its laws through themselves, and therefore, they are different.

Comment: In particular, the academic Vernadsky said that humanity should live the life of a single whole. In his opinion, the whole development of technology is not accidental and is connected with the fact that humanity must reveal its globalization. But he wrote about it in general terms, in general concepts. He did not know how to do it.

My Response: He had no methodology. To do this, you need to know all the layers of the spiritual world up to the highest degrees, to the spiritual root of everything that exists.

It is necessary to attain all five worlds, all 125 degrees, not counting our world, and find in that root its five primordial parts, the five initial stages of development, in order to understand the whole plan, the entire previous history of our descent from that root from top to bottom to the material world, and then our ascent from bottom to top.

Vernadsky did not have this device. But he still attained a lot. He felt the thought of creation all around our world, and he called it Noosphere.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Prophet” 11/23/11

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Question: Why at this stage, is nature so ruthless toward us and will not forgive our segregation?

Answer: Because we have grown out of the past state.

For 5,000 years, and even more, we were evolving egoistically. Nature only pushed us: “Advance, advance. If you want to separate, separate. Build. Make revolutions. Do whatever you want.”

And now we have reached the peak of egoistic development in science, culture, technology, and in everything. We have passed this peak and that is it, now we are going down. We need to go further, but with a different attitude to ourselves and to nature, in merging, uniting, and rising above our egoism.

Having passed the egoistic peak, we wanted to continue to rise egoistically. But as soon as we proceeded with this, we immediately began to fall. We cannot continue to rise egoistically but only upon the connection between us, only above the ego.

This is where the breaking point begins, which is now being felt more and more acutely. Therefore, according to Kabbalah, humanity will either come to huge wars that will lead to even greater suffering and will force us to think and abandon our egoistic development, or we will realize that we cannot develop further egoistically. Then where do we get the power that transforms our egoistic energy into the energy of connection between us, into bestowal, into mutual correct human coexistence?

This power is in Kabbalah.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Europe Today” 1/26/11

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