Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does the future hide from us?“

We have been created such that we should build our own future from how we adjust ourselves in the present, and not draw it from various sources and wait passively for the future to simply happen.

We have to make sure that even in the present we currently live in, we operate in such a manner where we constantly construct ourselves. Otherwise, if we sit and wait passively for the future to happen to us, we simply let life’s circumstances determine our future.

We are formed by the desires inside us and in our surroundings. Therefore, in order to determine our future, we should consider how we connect optimally among each other and with nature.

We are all parts of a closed system that we need to enter into balance with if we are to experience it harmoniously. We should thus be interested in improving our relations in order to reach balance with nature, because if we make no strides in our attitudes to each other and to nature, then we will experience this closed system we are in negatively, through all kinds of afflictions.

Based on “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 21, 2021 and a Kabbalah lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on January 13, 2019.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Question: Does a person choose his environment?

Answer: No. As it is said in one of the articles of Baal HaSulam, the Creator brings a person to the desired state: “You place my hand on the good fate, to say, ‘Take this for you.’”

It depends on us only to strengthen ourselves in this way, or at least not to leave. Cling to it with your teeth and keep it that way.

Question: It is said that a person is obliged to nourish from his environment. What kind of nourishment are we talking about?

Answer: It means absorbing properties, values, assessments, and tastes from your environment.

Question: Why is dependence on a spiritual environment considered freedom?

Answer: Because you become free from your egoism.
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4

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Question: Why does the property of bestowal prevail precisely within the friends and not somewhere else? After all, we studied that the Creator is everywhere and He is pure bestowal.

Answer: But we do not see this. When we develop the quality of bestowal through our friends, we will see that the entire world is in this quality.

But now I am in a state where I feel that the entire world is egoistic. Therefore it is written, “Everyone judges according to his own flaws.”
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From the International Convention “Rising Above Ourselves” 1/8/22, “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends” Lesson 4

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Question: In 1938, Einstein wrote in an article entitled “Antisemitismus,” “Why Do They Hate the Jews?,” “In brief, we may call it the process by which dislike and hatred of a given person or group are diverted to another person or group incapable of effective defense. … Why did the Jews so often happen to draw the hatred of the masses? Primarily because there are Jews among almost all nations and because they are everywhere too thinly scattered to defend themselves against violent attack.” In addition, “Almost beyond imagination were the charges brought against them, charges known to their instigators to be untrue all the while, but which time and again influenced the masses.”

How does Kabbalah explain the reasons for antisemitism? Why are Jews hated even in countries where they have never been seen?

Answer: Explaining the source of antisemitism, Einstein, of course, is far from being a genius. I have read his publications on these topics as well as those of many other great people. Not understanding the spiritual root of what was happening, they picked up certain connections and laws from the corporeal world. But true connections exist only at the spiritual level.

Therefore, everything they say on this topic is completely wrong. That is, some of their observations may be partially true and partially not, but the foundations are completely wrong.

If Jews did not have the Kabbalistic methodology that should correct our world and bring all of humanity to perfection, then the world would not have any complaints against them. And now completely different people suddenly begin to assert that Jews are the cause of all evil in the world.

And in fact, it is true because so long as  the world is corrected and some people have the “key” to its correction, then they are to blame for what is happening in the world. We must quickly pass on this “key” to everyone else.

In humanity, this feeling exists at a subconscious level because we are all children of nature. Nature develops us and people feel it internally. The world feels its dependence on Jews.

The internal demand for correction, for the fact that we should exist on a different level is externally expressed in the form of antisemitism.

In addition, since the development of Jews happened in order to bring the world to correction, in accordance with this, they have a huge potential for studying, understanding, correcting, and developing the world.

And we see that in sciences, arts, in everything where they make efforts, they achieve results hundreds of times greater than everyone else. This comes from their spiritual disposition.

This phenomenon is confirmed by statistics. Despite antisemitism, facts and figures speak for themselves. Jews are always at the head of all kinds of movements in science, art, politics, jurisprudence, everything. They are obliged to fulfill their spiritual task.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Expulsion” 12/11/09

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic: “Faith Above Reason” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam “You Have Made Me in From Behind and Before”

Writings of Baal HaSulam “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 117

Selected Highlights 

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If I want to perform some powerful action, I have to use a force that is directed against it. Then I will receive an additional force through which to support my action.

Therefore, in order to reach spiritual attainment with faith above reason, we need this reason. The more I work above reason, against it, the more this increases my faith. There is no force in faith itself.

Faith is bestowal, which is very weak on its own. But if I amplify it through reason, then I elevate faith to the level of reason, and in this form, I ascend to the degree of Keter.

It turns out that we need opposite forces, the forces of evil. So, the Creator created the evil inclination and in addition to it the Torah, which is a means for correcting it. The Torah is the force that helps us rise above the evil force that is revealed in us each and every time. In this way we rise more and more above the evil in order to resemble the force of bestowal, the force of good.

Even though the force of bestowal is very small, by elevating it to the height of all evil, it becomes high, strong, and great.

Therefore, we need to appreciate disturbances and understand more and more the mechanism of this work, that is, understand we need bad states.

No wonder the symbol of medicine is a snake from whose venom we make medications. It is known that “Every medication is a poison, but not every poison is a medication.” Each medication in its basis is a poison that we use as medication.

But not every poison is a medication. That is, until we process this poison correctly, we cannot use it as medication.

This is why it is said that there is no evil in the world, but it only seems to us for the time being until we rise above it and give to all this evil the form of bestowal. When we are able to turn it into bestowal by attracting the upper light to it that will correct it, darkness will immediately turn into light, bitter into sweet, and poison into medication.

This is what we are trying to implement in practice by studying articles of Kabbalists on the topic of “Faith above Reason”: how do we use reason, the egoistic will to receive, and build above it the will to bestow. Then, depending on the degree of the coarseness of the egoism revealed in the will to receive (zero, one, two, three, and four), we attain the force of bestowal (Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida), five degrees that are divided further into 125 degrees.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/28/22, “Faith Above Reason”

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Medium published my new article “Clean Energy Requires Clean Intentions”

The gold standard for clean energy is to be “carbon-neutral.” If production of energy does not emit more carbon than it absorbs, that process is regarded as clean energy. Recently, researchers at Technion Institute of Technology have even surpassed the gold standard. They managed to generate electricity from algae with “currents that are on the level of those obtained from standard solar cells.” Better yet, in the process, the algae emitted oxygen and absorbed carbon. This “carbon-negative” process both generates energy and cleans the air.

Regrettably, humanity will not enjoy the fruits of this stunning discovery. Human nature will ensure that only those who “own” the patent will benefit. The rest of us will pay for it, if we can afford to, and the environment will be abused in yet another nasty way.

Nature has abundance. With the right approach, we could provide ourselves with all the energy, food, and everything else we need with very little effort. We could really live in Heaven on Earth if we would only change our attitude.

In our present attitude, we constantly try to gain as much as we can, much more than we need, so that others will not have. By doing so, we condemn ourselves to a constant war with every person, with all of humanity, and with all of nature. In other words, our self-centered, malevolent attitude toward others sentences us to an eternal war from the day we are born to the day we die — drained and defeated.

Nature gives all creations precisely what they need. It has also installed in them the instinct to use only what they need in order to satisfy their needs and not beyond. But nature has created humans different: Greedy, abusive, and domineering.

There is a good reason for the “flaws” that nature has built into us: If we make a conscious effort to transform ourselves and become like the rest of nature, we will understand and feel nature on a deeper level than any other being can.

Just as nature gives everyone exactly what they need, we, too, must learn to see that everyone has what they need, including ourselves, and that no one abuses or exploits others. If we adopt this approach, we will discover countless ways to improve our lives. We will have all the energy we need and more, all the food, water, housing, education, recreation, and everything we want, and in abundance. As long as we do not try to deny others what they need or harm them in some other way for our own pleasure, our lives will be flawless.

Using the considerate approach, there will be no wars, no shortages of anything, and no pollution. With all of Earth’s systems in balance, it will finally become the heaven it was meant to be, when the only noxious element upon it has been reformed.
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Medium published my new article “Spyware Will Not Hurt Us, Spying Will”

Pegasus, the spyware developed by cyberarms firm NSO Group, can be covertly installed on mobile phones and other devices running most versions of iOS and Android. It can read text messages, track calls, collect passwords, track the target device’s location, access its microphone and camera, and harvest information from apps. The spyware, which was developed in Israel, is used by authorities all over the world, as well as in Israel, and has raised the alarm against unlawful infringement of privacy. In my opinion, the problem is not the spyware, but the spying, the foul intentions of those who use technology to harm, manipulate, and abuse others.

The fact that such spyware exists does not surprise me. It is clear that governors and government officials are not saints and that they do anything they can to know as much as they can about each other so they can manipulate and control others more easily and gain more power.

We need to recognize that our society is broken. The way the government operates simply reflects the society from which the governors come. The same goes for law enforcement and the justice system in general. If a society is corrupt and filled with people who wish to hurt and overpower one another, we cannot expect its representatives to be any different.

It has been this way for decades. What started with wiretapping and other forms of surveillance has simply adapted itself to today’s technology, but in essence, nothing fundamental has changed. This is why it is not the spyware that is hurting us, but the spying we constantly do on each other.

When parents look after their children and want to know their whereabouts, they are not “spying” on them; they are looking after their loved ones. But when strangers or authorities do the same thing, it is spying because their intentions are to hurt or manipulate us. In other words, the problem is not with the software but with its operators.

If we want to “correct” Pegasus and other malware, we need to correct the mal-will that is operating them, namely human nature. The malice we harbor for each other is the root of all evil, not only Pegasus, but everything we do that is intended to hurt, harm, manipulate, exploit, and overpower other people, and the whole world, if possible. If we do not correct the root of the problem, namely ourselves, we will not be able to correct anything.

As a first step toward correcting our root, we need to acknowledge that we are as rotten as our actions toward each other. Here, transparency and courage are key. If we are unwilling to look at ourselves in the mirror, we will not advance toward fixing anything in society. We will have to wait until enough malpractice surfaces to convince us that we must correct not the practice or the practitioners’ tools, but the practitioners themselves.

Once we, all of society or at least its majority, accept that we are the problem and not what we use to satisfy our ill-will, we can begin to work on ourselves. This is when we will begin to examine ourselves instead of blaming others for our woes.

When we shift the focus from others to ourselves, we will begin to see that we are just as bad as everyone else. It will not be just one or two people going through a process of revealing their evil selves. It will be a process where all of society realizes this. As a result, people will begin to change their attitude toward others from wanting to exploit them to wanting to support them.

The realization process may take a long time, but the transition from an exploitative attitude to a supportive one can be very quick. After all, there is nothing that we need to do here; it is only a matter of changing the intention behind our actions, and changing the intention can happen as quickly as our thoughts change.

Therefore, the most important phase in our correction is happening right now.

The sooner we expose the wickedness of human nature, and the more profoundly we acknowledge that this is who we are, the sooner and easier will be the shift from bad intentions to good ones, from spying on each other to caring for each other.
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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “Remembering the Holocaust: What Is New About Old Antisemitism”

Record antisemitism in the U.S. and around the world has become a regular headline. But there is an important difference between it now and in the past. The perfect storm caused by the interplay of all-powerful social media platforms and the link between COVID-19 conspiracy theories against Jews and criticism of Israeli policies has triggered antisemitic violent rhetoric worldwide. A staggering 3.5 million posts with antisemitic content were posted on social media last year according to an annual report of the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs released just before the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The number of antisemitic posts on five different social media platforms increased by 1,200% in May 2021 compared to data from 12 months earlier. This was prompted by Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls, which was launched in May in response to Hamas firing thousands of rockets at densely populated Israeli cities.

The recently published findings of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency on the state of antisemitism worldwide point in the same direction. 2021 was the most antisemitic year of the past decade. In addition to anti-Zionist diatribes, antisemitism took the form of conspiracy theories blaming Jews for the pandemic and comparing vaccination regulations to Nazi Germany’s policies. Reminiscent of the past, Europe was the epicenter of nearly half of the antisemitic incidents reported last year; North America followed with 30%.

There were some quiet years, but today Jew-hatred is reaching new levels all over the world. Antisemites are eager to find what they see as the final solution. Of course, if we consider the consequences of the Holocaust, the situation today is much better. But if we look at what has happened in the last ten years and even in the last 20 years in the United States and in Europe, we can clearly see that the situation is not changing for the better.

The peoples of the world cannot escape antisemitism; it is in their genes and in their blood. It is a law of nature. Jews can ask nothing of them until the Jews themselves bring correction to the world. They hate Israel until Israel corrects them.

If Israel does not unite and become a role model to make all the nations of the world rise up against their egoism, that is, against the hatred among them, then the nations of the world will unite and rise up against the people of Israel. One of two.

It is written that “the externality of the entire world, being the nations of the world, intensify and revoke the Children of Israel – the internality of the world. In such a generation, all the destructors among the nations of the world raise their heads and wish primarily to destroy and to kill the Children of Israel, as it is written (Yevamot 63): ‘No calamity comes to the world but for Israel.” Rav Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam, The Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”).

So what is on the horizon for the Jews in the world? The answer depends solely on the Jews. In the meantime, we are approaching a situation where everyone will gang up against the Jews until the Jews open their eyes and realize that they have no choice but to activate the spirit of connectedness between them. And to rise above their selfish calculations since this is the only way to save themselves (and the world). Only in this scenario will antisemitism cease, “And all the nations will acknowledge and recognize Israel’s merit over them, until the realization of the words: ‘And the people shall take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord.’” (Isaiah 14:2)
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