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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Filed under: Israel, Israel Today, New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

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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Jerusalem (“Ir shlema“) is translated from Hebrew as the perfect city. The word “Ir – city” in Kabbalah is the inner state of a person when everything he does is assembled in him into one single perfect structure. It is like his home and he wants to relate his inner state to the Creator.

This happens either within one person or the whole of humanity when one supreme value is formed over all existing disagreements between people. This is why Jerusalem is called the heart of the world, the capital of the world.

In addition, it is also called the City of David in honor of King David who lived 3,000 years ago and revealed the perfect state in himself.

But Jerusalem existed long before that time. According to the sources and what is passed down from generation to generation, we did not build anything new here. On the contrary, we accepted everything that was already on this earth and only raised it to the next degree.

Basically, Israel prides itself on taking the inanimate level and elevating it to the spiritual.

Question: What is the difference between Hebron and Jerusalem from a spiritual point of view?

Answer: Before coming to Jerusalem, King David ruled seven years in Hebron (from the word “hibur – unity”). And when he attained perfect awe, he realized from his inner attainment that he needed to move to Jerusalem and build the Temple there.

In spiritual terms, Jerusalem strives upward and Hebron yearns downward. Hebron is connected with the desire of Malchut, and therefore, the graves of the forefathers are there in the cave of Machpelah: Adam and his wife, Abraham and his wife, and Jacob.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/22/22

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Baal HaSulam writes that the nation of Israel was based on just one principle, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” the law of mutual guarantee. But they could not observe it because egoism grew, evolution continued, and they had to build the Temple with an altar in the material world.

If earlier a person sacrificed his egoism, later in the external world it began to manifest itself in the form of animal and plant sacrifices, where supposedly all kinds of egoistic qualities of a person were taken and sacrificed for the soul’s ascension.

But this is an external manifestation of a person’s inner correction when he is ready to give everything that is in him in order to turn the qualities of reception into the quality of bestowal, to change his egoistic movements to altruistic impulses.

Question: If we talk about nature as the Creator, as an upper force that controls everything, how can this reconcile with the fact that there are some stones where some unfortunate animal is taken, killed, and some words said? And how does this relate to the correction of the soul?

Answer: It is very hard to understand. If we were in an ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, we would see that it is like a slaughterhouse where cows, calves, and sheep were slaughtered, bread was baked, and wine and water were poured on stone tables upon which animals were butchered. This is some kind of incomprehensible work like in a slaughterhouse.

But in fact, it is all internal work. Unfortunately it should be held at this level too because this is the lowest level of egoism of a person who is corrected in this way.

We consist of two levels: animal and human. The human level is corrected by the fact that we change ourselves from receiving to giving, from all bad and negative egoistic qualities to positive, altruistic qualities. While doing this, we should not forget, at the same time, that we are in this world.

How can we perform such actions in our world? We take the animal that is in us— this is personified by any kosher animal—and kill it within ourselves, that is, kill the animal nature in yourself and then burn it in a certain way and eat it, which means, use it correctly.

In other words, we must raise it to the level of service of a person within himself who is already in connection with the Creator. This is an allegorical personification of correcting our qualities and raising them to a spiritual level.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/22/22

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Question: Is there any difference if a book was written by a single person like Baal HaSulam or by ten people like Rabbi Shimon and his students?

Answer: In Kabbalah either one person writes a book about what one attains, as Baal HaSulam did, or a group of people who are connected together write a book. Between them, there are various states in which they begin to perceive the Creator differently. This is what they describe.

Moreover, the states that Rabbi Shimon and his students went through among themselves, they described in the form of journeys to some earthly places. But in fact, they did not move from the cave they were in. Everything happened only in one place and in connection between them.

The more they increased their connection with each other, the more they attained the Creator. And vice versa, the more they became estranged from each other, the less they felt the Creator. Those scrutinies of nearing and distancing between each other in the ten and accordingly with the Creator is what they recorded. And they are included in The Book of Zohar.

Baal HaSulam wrote that the students of Rashbi attained all 125 steps. This means that they revealed all their original egoism, rose above it in connection with each other, and felt the single upper force in this connection.

Accordingly, they became similar to it as one man with one heart and attained the Creator in their common desire.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/15/22

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