Question: In the year 586, the Babylonians captured and destroyed Jerusalem and took its inhabitants into slavery. 70 years later they returned from the Babylonian exile and passed through the Mount of Olives (Har HaZeitim), which stretches from the east to Jerusalem.

It is written in the sources that King David sang his prayers on the Mount of Olives and that the Messiah will come from there on a white donkey. What are these terms: “white donkey” and ” Messiah”?

Answer: “Donkey” in Hebrew is “Hamor” from the word “Homer – matter.” It represents all the egoistic matter of our world.
At first, this donkey is completely black, but it will gradually turn white because the world will be corrected, will become white, and will be rid of egoism.

We will correct the egoism of our world to such an extent that it will agree to and be fully able to work for bestowal, for the benefit of everybody.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/22/22

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Question: What does it mean to sacrifice one’s animal desire?

Answer: We are talking about animalistic egoism, which thinks only of itself.

In other words, you have to kill and burn all thoughts about yourself. The part of egoism that you have processed correctly should be raised to a level where you can eat it, meaning use it properly and turn it into energy so that your spiritual state rises even higher.

Just as today you consume food and it gives energy to your animalistic body, the correct use of your animal egoistic desire gives energy to your spiritual body.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/22/22

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Question: Current statistics show that in the near future a very large percentage of the population will be unemployed. What will happen if these masses of people do not know about the purpose of creation?

Answer: We will make them study. When a person begins to learn, listen, speak about, and discuss the topics of exploring and mastering the next, higher level of one’s existence, he brings about a great correction to the world.

Seven billion people don’t need to work twelve hours a day. Half a billion is enough to provide for us all, to feed us, etc.

Evenly distributing responsibilities for a reasonable level of sustenance would allow everyone to be fed, clothed, and provided with optimal living conditions. The rest of the time, say five or six hours a day, they will engage in internal self-improvement via television and the rest of the mass media channels.

It is necessary for a person to truly rise to a new degree. Meaning, this is our job, not producing unnecessary trinkets, but rising to the level of eternity and perfection and becoming equal with nature and harmoniously connected with it.

Everyone must take part in this. This is the reason there will be so much free time. A person is obliged to spend half of his working hours on his inner spiritual development. To do this we have to establish a massive educational system—virtual, full-time, part-time, no matter what.

It is necessary to bring up the new person who will become Adam, similar to the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Partnership Agreement” 4/7/10

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Question: Can we say that today nature kind of gives us the opportunity to have more spare time only for us to develop spiritually?

Answer: Only for this purpose. After all, why does a person exist in this world? Only in order to provide himself with what is necessary on the animal level and become equal to the Creator on the spiritual level, while acquiring the absolute.

Why should we live at all? To help your body process tons of food and die? In this case a cow has more reason to exist than I do because it provides me with milk and meat. There is a clear purpose in its existence: to feed me.

What do I live for? My existence is absolutely pointless. Any creature in nature, except for man, has a definite purpose. Nothing is created in vain. And only man, who does not know this upper goal, is created in vain.

Comment: But Kabbalists claim that we will come to it anyway.

My Response: Of course! And it is better for us to do it as soon as possible; otherwise, nature will push us with blows.

Over thousands of years of existence, we have internally, egoistically reached such a level of development where we find ourselves in a single chain, globally interconnected. And this is already a spiritual system.

Global communication exists at the next level of nature. And this is a problem because being globally connected egoistically is a huge peril. Everyone affects everyone negatively.

Imagine what a historical state we are entering now; every year we will observe huge negative changes in society and at all levels of nature. Tsunamis, earthquakes, and epidemics are all a consequence of our disequilibrium. This is how we ourselves set up nature.

Therefore as soon as the global level manifested itself, Kabbalah was immediately revealed as a method for its balance. And if we do not use it and do not balance ourselves in a single system, then we will mutually “poison” each other, push and alienate ourselves from others. Then this system will collapse very quickly, and we will come, God forbid, to a world war.

The method of Kabbalah is our only salvation.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Partnership Agreement” 4/7/10

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The language of  The Book of Zohar is tailored for the soul, despite the fact that a person does not understand what it says. Like, for example, a person who enters a perfume store, even though he did not take anything from it, he still absorbed their pleasant aroma (Moshe Chaim Ephraim, Degel Machaneh Ephraim).

The moment we begin to move toward the quality of bestowal instead of reception, to altruism instead of egoism, we begin to understand what The Book of Zohar is talking about and what it urges us to do. Therefore, we easily follow its recommendations and understand that The Book of Zohar is an instruction for correcting and filling the soul.

Question: Many sages write that a person who studies The Book of the Zohar does not understand anything, but by reading it invites an illumination upon himself that changes him. Why is it arranged in such a way that a person reads, but does not understand?

Answer: Try reading adult books to a child, not even complex ones but the most elementary, simple, and everyday ones, and he also will not understand what they are about because he does not know the meaning of their words.

The method is in the fact that by opening The Book of the Zohar and starting to read it, you yearn for a greater connection with your friends and through them, allegedly, with the Creator, “allegedly” because you do not know what goes where. But all these inclinations, together with The Book of Zohar begin to reveal the internal system of the world within you. At the same time, you get some kind of illumination of the upper light, which corrects you. And in this way you are advance.

Question: So you do not recommend reading The Book of Zohar alone? Do we need to read it together?

Answer: Preferably together with at least two or three people.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/15/22

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is your ideal boss or leader?“

An ideal leader should be sensitive toward others.

There are, however, no examples of ideal leaders, and if we would find such an example, we would later discover that it is a lie.

In order to merit a leader who is sensitive to others, we need a certain kind of education out of which such a leader would blossom. In other words, the problem is more widespread than with people who reach positions of power; it is a problem with education in general. Education is the world’s biggest problem, i.e. that we are not teaching people how to become human beings.

The education we need today is to raise people to become human beings in the fullest sense of the term. That is, a human being is one who rises above the animal level of existence—where we prioritize self-benefit over benefiting others—and who relates to others out of genuine love and care.

Based on the video “What Is the Main Characteristic of an Ideal Leader?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Pesach (Passover)” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Love of God and the Love of Man” 

Selected Highlights

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Negev Summit: Israel as ‘A Light unto Nations’”

The role of Israel as a connecting force in the Middle East is not a coincidence; fostering unity has been the essence of the people of Israel since time immemorial. As part of an historical summit in the Israeli Negev town of Sde Boker, top diplomats from Israel, the US, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco have agreed to meet regularly to establish a permanent forum for the creation of “regional security architecture,” in light of the possible renewal of the Iranian nuclear deal.

The unprecedented forum is one of the results of the “Abraham Accords” which brought normalization of diplomatic ties between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco. While the new Middle Eastern regional front will also focus on joint efforts in the areas of counterterrorism and defense, education, health, tourism, food, water, and energy, the main concern for Israel and its Arab allies is Tehran’s threat.

The State of Israel must do everything in its power to protect its security, both by forming alliances and by striving for additional political meetings, and there is no doubt that a unified security front in the Middle East can deter Iran. On a more internal level, if the people of Israel demonstrate a unified spiritual front against any threat, this will sooner or later neutralize it. Cohesion is the ultimate power for the redemption of people from troubles and torments. As the sages said, “When Israel are as one man with one heart, they are as a fortified wall against the forces of evil.”

And why exactly do we, the people of Israel, have the power to change complex and sticky situations? Because from our beginning about 3,800 years ago, we acquired from our ancestor Abraham in ancient Babylon a method of connection which taught us how to transcend the egoism that ruled us, how to rise above differences, and how to direct ourselves toward the supreme force of nature. Thus, “Israel” (from the Hebrew Yashar-El) means “straight” to “God,” and from its foundations, Israel has always been an ideological group aimed at being a unifying force in the world.

If we as the people of Israel were stronger on the inside in terms of cohesion, we would see significant results in all areas of life without the need for political agreements. However, as long as we are not united on the inner front–strongly connected in one heart–then there will be a vital need for our leaders to sign agreements on the political and security fronts.

Meanwhile, buds of the future role of Israel can also be seen forming on the physical level. Israel is revealing an extraordinary political feature of being at the center of every fateful conflict and threat–from the “Negev Summit” bringing the Middle East countries together over Iran, through the role of mediator between Russia and Ukraine, to the recent visits of the President of Israel to Turkey and the Israeli Army delegation to Morocco.

Israel is gradually gaining ground in taking up its rightful role as a connecting force between peoples. In the future it is also expected that Israel will formalize its physical and spiritual role to become a sort of international parliament and forum through which countries can communicate –a contemporary Sanhedrin reminiscent of the ancient assembly of sages in the Land of Israel. As the Jewish thinker Rav Kook said, “The purpose of Israel is to unite the whole world into one family.”

Countries all over the world will subconsciously continue to feel that Israel should function as the connecting factor between all nations and peoples, regardless of who leads the nation in turn. The world will continue to ask us to act as mediators. World demand will spur us to continue to perform the task entrusted to us since the days of our original agreement with Abraham, to truly become “A Light Unto Nations.”
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “ISIS as a Meter for Jewish Unity”

Two things characterize the horrific terrorist attacks that occurred in Israeli cities recently: 1. The assailants were Israeli citizens, born and raised in Israel to Bedouin and Israeli Arab families. 2. The terrorists were inspired by ISIS. This wave may subside, but the trend going forward is clear: There will be more and more terrorist attacks within Israel, perpetrated by supporters of ISIS, who come from Israeli citizens of Arab or Muslim descent.

Not all Arabs and Muslims are terrorists. Many of them simply want to lead their lives in peace and enjoy the affluence that living in Israel enables them to achieve. Nevertheless, the education they receive, the media outlets that broadcast to the Arab speaking population in Israel, and the ambience they grow up in leave them no choice but to become a society that inherently rejects the presence of Jews in Israel (to which they refer as Palestine), and the existence of the State of Israel altogether.

Over the past several years, the State of Israel has invested many billions of dollars to promote education, housing, job opportunities, and community services in Arab and Bedouin communities in Israel. Regrettably, because of the inherently anti-Israeli disposition, it is not generating any closeness between Arabs and Jews, and it is failing to generate gratitude among Arabs toward the state or foster any sense of commitment toward it.

It is not only the recent terrorist attacks that prove it. After the attacks, spontaneous celebrations broke out in several Arab towns within Israel. As I said, it is the ambience that fosters the next killers.

But the heart of the problem is not the hatred of Israeli Arabs toward Israel. The heart of it lies among us, Jews. Our own division is fueling their hatred and audacity. The more divided we are, the more our haters feel emboldened and their hatred intensifies.

Just as with any form of antisemitism, the fuel behind the entrenchment of ISIS among Israeli Arabs and Bedouins is our own division—first and foremost within the State of Israel, and subsequently, among Jews the world over.

If there is no peace among us, we will have no peace with anyone. ISIS is only a meter that shows us how hateful we are toward each other. Its life’s marrow, its oxygen, its fuel is our hatred for each other.

Inadvertently, the Jewish people determine how the world will treat them. Our foes may be Muslim, or Christian, or proponents of social ideologies such as Nazism or communism, but in the end, the fuel behind them is our own division, our odium for one another.

Hitler derided our division and feared our union. So did Henry Ford, and many other antisemites throughout the ages. Fittingly, our sages have repeatedly lamented our division as the progenitor of our downfalls, and praised our union as our source of success.

No other nation is expected to display internal unity. When other nations are united, they are feared. When we unite, we are loved.

Nothing about us is the same as it is for other nations. Our roots are different: We are descendants of eclectic natives of countless tribes and nations who had joined together under the tenet of loving others as themselves. Accordingly, the world expects us to show that we care for one another regardless of our circumstances. When we succeed, they praise us, and when we fail, they scorn us and say that we are redundant. The more brazen ones among them try to do away with us, and the rest of the world tacitly supports them.

Accordingly, when we try to appease the world by dispensing billions on what we regard as their needs, they consider it bribery and do not hate us one bit less for it. On the contrary, it only increases their contempt toward us. In doing so, they are telling us what they really need from us: to focus on each other.

This is why the heightened level of ISIS activity that we are witnessing in Israel these days means that we have grown more separated than before. Accordingly, the only action that will turn down the hatred is to strengthen our internal unity.

You will find more on this topic in my book The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism.
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