Comment: Michael writes: “Now more than ever, there is a huge hatred that rules everything. I am sure it will divide us, those who were once brothers and sisters, for thousands of years. We will never be the same again, we will not sing naive songs about friendship and love: ‘Children of different nations, we live dreaming of peace… . Youth sing the song of friendship… . You cannot stifle this song, you cannot kill it… .’ Did we really sing that? Today we all burn with hatred. What can we do about it?”

Answer: We were just like children in kindergarten who were taught to sing. They did not know; they opened their mouths and sang without understanding the meaning of these words.

Today, we gradually begin to understand the meaning of these words, and we do not want to sing these songs. Tomorrow, we will begin to realize how really great these words were, but no one has ever been able to implement them.

And then we will strive to think and dream about how we can get closer to this realization because it is impossible to exist without it. We will find a way to achieve a world in which children of different nations, all of humanity will feel like one unified whole.

Question: “We live dreaming of peace” was the anthem of the democratic youth, as far as I remember. So you are saying that we sang these songs kind of mindlessly?

Answer: We perceived it like children. Both adults and children perceived it this way. And now we are given suffering and reason in order for us to understand what we lack in these words, in our awareness of them. And we will come to the point that we will begin to implement the lyrics of this song at their true level. I see it coming. You’ll see!

Comment: I take this external song, put it in my heart, and sing it.

My Response: Yes, and all this is happening. It depends on us to shorten the time. Acceleration depends on us. We must try.

Question: And this transition, which you say should happen through the mind, through the heart, how does it happen?

Answer: Through gradual awareness. It is not just some kind of leap or hocus-pocus. This is what people want to happen, really want to attract themselves to this state or this state to themselves, performing all kinds of actions between them in our world—rapprochement and so on.

That is, it is a lot of work both physical, moral, and pedagogical. In general, we still have a lot of work ahead of us here.

Question: So the events that are happening should have happened?

Answer: We are yet to see that everything negative that happened at all times among all nations was all only suffering from the fact that we were moving away from each other and did not understand how much we should, on the contrary, get closer.

And now all these sufferings will manifest themselves in us and push us toward closeness. And then we will be grateful for them and realize how much there is only happiness in the world and movement toward the light.

Everything that happens is a movement toward happiness and light.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/3/22

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Question: It is written that when a person dies, he is brought before the high court: heaven or hell. What is this high court?

Answer: These are terrible states when a person reveals his attitude toward the world, how he lived, and how bad he was. At the same time, he is full of regret and sorrow, and understands where it all came from. But this is no excuse for him. In other words, everything that a person begins to realize about himself is called hell.

What we imagine about standing before the high court and being judged for some actions in this world, none of that is true and there is no point talking about it. Everything that happens in the upper world is nothing we can imagine in our egoistic thoughts.

Comment: But if one did not have such notions about the high court, he would do whatever he pleases in our world. This way at least there are some limits.

My Response: I don’t think it keeps people from misbehaving. Who really knows or believes these fables? People are not afraid of anything.

A while back they used to be more primitive. It is quite possible that such notions restrained them. But all the same, a person’s egoism prevails over everything. So if one does not strive for his correction and to really build a different person out of himself, someone above egoism, then nothing will help him.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/11/22

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When one corrects himself consciously and automatically puts his spiritual life above the level of the body, he does not require blows or physical suffering. He runs toward the goal, ahead of the rod that drives him to happiness. But if he does not work on correction, then he moves under the blows of this stick. This is the only way.

If necessary, this life is taken away from him. Next time the soul will dress in a body and will exist again. We are given chance after chance because nature is obliged to bring all its parts into harmony. This is its general law, the law of universal balance.

Question: Is a person asked whether he wants it or not?

Answer: A person is not asked anything! What does one understand in this life?

Comment: Then it is not so clear. On one hand, a person has the freedom to choose how to develop in relation to nature, toward the goal or against it. On the other hand, he is not asked anything.

My Response: We exist in a system of still, vegetative, and animate nature. We are shown the imbalance between us so that upon reaching the balance we come to a higher level—being similar to the Creator.

How incongruent we are with the general global nature and the harmony we lack between us is gradually revealed. If we overcome this with the help of Kabbalah, we rise to the next degree. If we do not overcome, nature still pushes us forward with suffering and forces us to reveal the method of correction.

We cannot correct ourselves except by the method of Kabbalah because this is the only way to attract the upper light to ourselves, the only way to reach contact with the Creator, with the upper force that corrects our egoism.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Partnership Agreement” 4/7/10

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How do I become more compassionate and empathetic?“

During the 2021-22 winter in Israel, there were several cases of elderly people found on the verge of hypothermia due to their inability to pay the costs involved in heating their homes. As such, a petition emerged that called to cover the heating costs for all elderly people who could not afford their electricity bills.

I would take such a proposal a step further: that a national plan should be prepared whereby the elderly would not need to pay for heating in the winter at all.

In general, such a situation brings up the question of empathy, namely: what do we need to do in order to feel the pain of others? That is, when we are freezing cold, we feel such pain distinctly and act on it immediately. However, if we know about others who are cold, we are inclined not to act with the same level of urgency.

To empathize with the pain of others, we need to open our hearts to them. “Opening our hearts” means participating in their sorrow. In this particular instance, it means that we should act toward them as we would act for ourselves if we were freezing cold.

The problem is that our nature makes us take care of ourselves while keeping others at a distance. Yet, we should know that the upper force, the Creator, which is a force of love, bestowal and connection, holds our nature, our hearts. Therefore, if we would ask the Creator to open our hearts to the sorrows of others, then we would receive an open gate to the world’s correction, i.e. to a state where we become sorrow-free and achieve balance, peace and harmony. Moreover, by doing so, we would receive a feeling of the upper force, which would fulfill us completely.

As for this particular case with heating for the elderly in winter, there is a key argument—“Where would we get the money to pay for all of that electricity?”—to which I think that if the people in this country were all concerned about fixing this problem, then we would find that it is no large sum of money. All we need is to increase care for each other.

Based on the video “The Need to Increase Care for Others” 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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My new article on Linkedin “A War over Worldviews”

The war in Ukraine seems to be at a stalemate; Russia had underestimated the determination of the Ukrainian people and the military power of its army, and Ukraine is not strong enough to drive the Russian forces out of the country altogether. As a result, a war that many expected to last no more than two weeks before Ukraine capitulates has become a war of attrition that is decimating Ukraine’s cities, displacing a quarter of its people, so far, and killing thousands of civilians. On the other end, the war is exhausting Russia’s military might, depleting its resources, and frustrating its leadership.

Yet, a more clandestine, yet very significant process is taking place in Ukraine: a farewell to imposing ideologies and the onset of a more rational approach to governance. Winston Churchill, England’s prime minister during World War II, knew a thing or two about fighting against tyrants. In 1947, he said, “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

I tend to agree with this statement, although clearly, we have witnessed the faults of Western regimes since 1947 more than once. Yet, it is not because we need to change the Western approach to governance, but because we need to add a missing element that will solidify it and guarantee its success: sincere concern for others.

If Western governments are plagued by the same hunger for power that soils every other regime, they will inevitably become despotic, too, albeit perhaps with titles that sound more appealing, and therefore more misleading.

In order to succeed, the goal of Western civilization must be to establish societies that are not only free from tyranny, but free from hatred of others, as hatred is the cause of tyranny and oppression.

Liberation from hatred is humanity’s next step. It is imperative to maintain democracy while we are evolving, but we must not think that democracy is the end of the road. All the while, we should be teaching ourselves how to care for others, starting with our own countries, and ending with caring for other nations just as we care for our own. Only in this way will humanity have a future that is not strewn with bloodshed.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Globalization 2.0”

BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, overseeing $10 trillion. Last Thursday, its founder and CEO Larry Fink, sent a letter to shareholders stating that “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put an end to the globalization we have experienced over the last three decades.” Fink is not alone. Wall Street investor Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital echoed similar concerns in his own letter to shareholders on Wednesday. He wrote that negative aspects of globalization have been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and have “caused the pendulum to swing back to local sourcing.” I do not foresee countries disconnecting from each other, but there is definitely a shift. We are heading toward a world where economies share with one another, and people feel more like a global society than an assortment of nations. We are headed toward the next phase of globalization: globalization 2.0, if you will.

Previously, production required working hands. When the cost of labor became prohibitive in the West, companies sought cheaper labor elsewhere and began to move production lines overseas. At the same time, communication improved, transportation became more affordable, and products that were once distributed locally began to find global markets.

Today, however, there is less need for working hands, since much more is done by robots and automated machines. Products have also become increasingly compact, and these days even services such as call centers are outsourced to other countries. Locality, it seems, has lost much of its significance; it has become less important where something is produced, and less of a factor in its pricing. Clearly, many products are still dependent on location, such as ores or fuels, but the trend is crystal clear.

While locality has lost much of its significance, connections between countries have become imperative for their survival. The economic asphyxiation imposed on Russia through sanctions due to its invasion into Ukraine will hurt it very badly. Just as globalization sustains some countries, especially those heavily dependent on export or import, denying it can destroy a country by cutting off provisions and disconnecting it from the global financial system.

The only time when disconnecting a country is helpful is when it is for the purpose of forming a better, more correct connection. Just as parents sometimes send their children to their separate rooms when they cannot stop fighting until they cool down, sometimes countries need to do the same.

The situation between Russia and Ukraine is an example of such a situation. The two nations share the same culture, their languages are very similar, they intermarry freely, and even the borders between them fluctuate (and are therefore disputed). However, when they cannot get along and begin to fight, they must be separated until the tension subsides and they can communicate constructively.

Currently, it does not seem possible, but through their conflict, humanity will learn how to do it. It is, however, a terrible shame that people, and indeed entire nations, must pay so heavily to learn how to communicate, something that should be obvious to all of us.

In correct relationships, the participants regard the common needs before their own. It is as if there is a big bowl in the middle of the world, and all the countries circle it. Each country throws its dish into the bowl, and everyone enjoys the resulting stew.

On the one hand, countries talk about sustainability and restriction of production in order to curb greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, the same countries produce twice as much as they consume or export. The surplus litters Earth’s soil, air, and water, while people who cannot afford the products starve for lack of the unsold goods. It is unjust, unwise, and unsustainable.

Globalization means we have become one society. It is time we began to act the part. It is time to establish global planning, global production, a global welfare system that really works, a global health system, and global education.

If we felt more like one family, or at least one country, and less like gang members who have been thrown into one prison cell to fight to the death, we would not need armies. The funds we would save would finance much more than the needs described above. There is an abundance of everything on Planet Earth. The only thing amiss is good connections.
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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “How connected are we with other people on this planet?“

Today, we live in times that kabbalists call “the last generation,” and the laws that apply to the last generation are no longer laws that pertain to certain regions or countries, but to humanity as a whole.

Moreover, we very much need to see these laws with our own eyes: how they encompass our planet, how everyone receives the intellect, emotion, perception and inclination toward these laws, and that we live in such tight and inescapable global interdependence.

Take, for example, the coronavirus pandemic. Look at how it connects everyone in a common concern. If we fail to reach the feeling of our interconnectedness out of our own accord, then a pandemic comes around to show us our connection. And if that is still not enough, then we can expect to experience more extreme natural occurrences, such as hurricanes and other disasters, in order to show us how small we really are, and how we need to be better connected in order to spare ourselves such blows.

Today’s times are global and human society has become global. All we need today is to understand the extent to which we are global, and to reach a common understanding of the general collective force that encompasses us. If we reach such an understanding, then everything will work out just fine.

Based on the video “A New Global Era” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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The famous Kabbalist of the XVI century Ramak wrote in the book Ohr Yakar that people studying The Book of Zohar awaken forces of the souls of the righteous together with the force of Moses. After all, a person who studies The Book of Zohar is in connection with the source of the upper light, with the force of bestowal and love. Therefore, he passes the upper light through him to all the souls that are below him.

There is a point in each of us that distinguishes him from others. It is within this point that he is the only one above all the others. This is how each of us passes the upper light through him to all other souls.

Therefore, we do not need to change the world. By changing himself, a person changes everyone else because he is in connection with them.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 2/15/22

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