From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/16/21

According to Reuters, “Australian scientists and artists are looking to hold the world accountable for the Earth’s future by creating an ‘indestructible’ storage device to record humanity’s handling of the climate change crisis.” The device, which they dubbed “Earth’s Black Box,” will record “every step that humanity takes towards or away from the impending climate catastrophe.”

I understand people’s need to leave something behind, and I can see why they think we are all going to die soon. But what are we going to show, how foolish we were? What have we got to show that will make future inhabitants of Earth avoid mistakes?

In my eyes, we need to focus on the here and now, on building our lives rather than documenting our deaths. After all, the only reason we are nearing extinction is our relentless drive to destroy each other, regardless of the fact that we are destroying the entire world in the process. If we only stopped trying to destroy each other, we would stop destroying the planet and everything would be fine.

Now, before we are gone, we should bring this truth to everyone’s awareness and start changing our relationships toward mutual support and improved connections. We can build solidarity among us, but we must first accept that it is necessary for our survival. Otherwise, our obstinate egos will not allow us to think of anyone but ourselves.

Even this initiative, which seems like a good idea, leads us in the wrong direction: away from thinking about connection and toward accepting an inevitable destruction. It is not inevitable; it will not happen if we focus on fostering solidarity rather than hostility.

We needn’t document the past; we need to build the future. We can build a beautiful future, but we can only build it together. If we build it for each other and not only for ourselves, everyone will be safe and sound, and there will be no climate catastrophe to document.

Photo Caption:
Scientists Build Indestructible Earth Black Box To Record Climate Change And Civilisation, 10 Dec 2021 Credit: Earth’s Black Box/Cover Images

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There is an intermediate state between egoistic love for oneself and love for the Creator: love for one’s neighbor. And for this purpose the Creator created this vast world and us, gathered us into a group, into a ten, so that we could learn from our relationships with our own kind what hatred and love, unity and separation, quarrel and reconciliation are.

This is how we get a feeling of what it means to get closer and connect with a friend, and by this example we learn how to get closer to the Creator.

It turns out that our whole world, the whole reality in which we exist, is an exercise, a child’s game. It is written that this whole world is a game that we must use in order to prepare ourselves for a real relationship with the Creator.

Now we are beginning to gradually draw near to the relationship with the Creator and we will be able to see what to pay attention to in this game, how to delve into the game between us, so that we can then realize it in relation to the Creator.

There should be such reciprocity between us that we feel not ourselves and others but a common sense of connection, an interweaving in which it is impossible to separate one from the other and understand who is where. There is one common unity where there is no Creator and no creation, but there is one whole, like two drops merged into one. All personal feelings and ideas of everyone about themselves and others completely disappear. Only one remains, and that’s it.

We are not able to imagine it now because our entire arsenal of reason and feelings is built on the contrast of opposites. And here there are no opposites, only the attainment of unity, which is the ultimate goal of development.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/21, “Love for the Creator”

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the reason behind the increase in natural disasters nowadays?“

When we observe natural disasters, we might be able to understand certain geological and ecological factors, but what is behind those factors? In other words, what is behind the world that we perceive around us?

We might say, “the laws of nature,” but that provides no complete answer.

Why, then, do natural disasters happen to begin with, and why are they on the rise in recent times?

Natural disasters result from our imbalance with nature. While the world and our universe abounds in inanimate matter and physical forces, qualitatively speaking, the inanimate level of existence is the lowest qualitative level in nature. The highest qualitative level is that of the human.

Balance or imbalance at the human level determines our balance or imbalance with nature. Therefore, the more our connections become imbalanced—where we relate to each other by increasingly prioritizing self-benefit over benefiting others, i.e. becoming more and more egoistic—the more we experience crises such as natural disasters.

We live in a globally interconnected, interdependent and closed system where we all influence each other. One of our problems is that we fail to feel the vast extent of our interdependence. Therefore, we need to first learn about our interdependence, and from an increasing understanding and feeling of our interdependence, start establishing new conducts among us: laws of cooperation, mutuality and reciprocal concessions on a worldwide scale. Until we wake up to the extent of our interdependence, then we will fail to reach the required balance in our connections that would balance us with nature. We can then expect natural disasters—together with several other crises—to continue increasing until we positively connect.

Hillel the Elder formulated the first step toward observing such laws: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.” In other words, at the very least, take great care not to harm other people. Observing this condition is an initial step toward enacting the laws of cooperation and mutuality among each other. Therefore, while this condition still does not bring us into balance with each other and nature, it does put an end to our exploitation of each other and nature for evil purposes.

As agreeable as such a condition might sound, it is naive to think that it is possible for us to observe it off the bat. In order to observe such a condition, we need a new kind of education that focuses primarily on bringing us into balance with nature. We need to reach a feeling of our global interdependence, and currently, we are far from that.

The more we go through such education, the more we should reach a sensation of our interdependence—a sensation that should guide our prioritization of altruism and cooperation over egoism and exploitation. We would then be able to renounce myriad forms of exploitation that exist in our world today. That is the first step: the understanding that harming others boomerangs back to us, ultimately harming ourselves. Natural disasters are an example of that kind of indirect harm we bring to each other by failing to enter into balance with nature.

Based on the Daily Kabbalah Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on March 14, 2011. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Image by NOAA on Unsplash

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Question: Tatiana writes to you: “Do I understand you correctly that everything began from a woman, that a woman caused a sin, and a woman must lead the world to correction?”

Answer: Right. I greatly rely on women because I believe that a woman can force a man to do what is needed in the family, in society, and in the world.

I hope that the era of women is gradually beginning. Women must demand a new world.

I think the next stage will be when women will stop giving birth altogether and will stop doing household chores. What they need is enough for them. And then the whole world will gradually begin to sink.

Question: Such a threat to the world should come from them?

Answer: This is not a threat to the world, but a threat to our state, our insane, savage civilization.

Question: Why? Do you pin all your hopes on a woman just because she gives birth to life?

Answer: I think that this is a great force in our world, which is still dormant. When women understand that the world is really going in the wrong direction and there is no other force except for them, they will be able to begin to relate to the world differently, and no one can stop them.

Question: And what is the main thing in their properties?

Answer: It is based on the fact that they feel that the world has no future. And they will not agree to that.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 11/4/21

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New Life 1326 – Trust Between Parents And Children
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Building children’s trust in their parents provides them with a firm foundation for confidence later in life. Trust must be taught by example through telling the truth, keeping one’s word, and cultivating love and respect within the family.

Sometimes a parent is faced with a dilemma and must choose between keeping their word and doing what is right. In such a case, it is necessary that the child understand and feel the dilemma they faced and the parents’ pain from breaking the trust between them and that the parents love for her or him was greater than their word. We are connected as if in a single body in which we can approach life together.
This summary is written and edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1326 – Trust Between Parents And Children,” 12/5/21

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In our world, people are animals in the sense that like animals they do not have freewill.

The upper force (nature) controls us the same way as the entire animal world so we are no different from them. Now we are discovering it more, examining our genes, hormones, and psychology.

For example, we see how similar the fates of twins who grew up far from each other are—their habitat, children, and family—although they are not close by. That is, a person is determined from within, and even external conditions do not particularly change him. Everything is in us. Nature rules us and guides us through life.

It seems to us, like little children, that we are free. But children are constantly under the care of adults, we follow them all the time, but to them it seems like they are free. It is the same with us, we think that we are free because we are blind.

Question: Then, where does a person’s striving for music, poetry, or something sublime come from?

Answer: In the same way, animals sing, dance, and play with each other. It is just in a human it is more developed.

I am not saying that a person is not different from the animal level. He is different. He has fantasy and many additional properties. But it does not correspond to the concept of human in the sense that Kabbalah presupposes.
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From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Centaurs” 1/15/10

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Preparation to the Lesson

Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati #127 “The Difference Between Core, Self, and Added Abundance”

Lesson on the Topic: “Love for the Creator”

Selected Highlights

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/15/21

Searches for the answer to the question “Why do I feel sad?” broke all records with a 10% jump from the previous year in the rankings of the most popular Google searches for 2021. Searches on topics such as: anxiety, stress, sadness, grief and methods to cope with them increased incomparably.

I can understand why people feel that way and I feel sorry for them. Even more difficult for me is to see that this suffering is not producing any results. It is as if the pain were not big enough to bring them out into the streets to demand global change.

Obviously we need to get to a level where the suffering is already coming from multiple directions and is felt by everyone. Only then will we begin to understand that across all the worries and problems, we need to connect with each other, to unite to influence leaders, to drive out the blight, to bring down inflation and to eliminate sadness.

I see this clearly: all human suffering stems from a lack of connection between us. We do not have good, friendly and amicable relations. Yet, simultaneously we are interdependent of each other and our happiness is dependent on the happiness of others, but we refuse to accept this reality.

Instead, we do not care that we cause harm to others, we do not curb our egoism, our relentless penchant for self-benefit, that drives us to commit harm and to be indifferent.

When suffering inevitably increases (Google searches show suffering is trending upward worldwide), then collectively we can recognize the problem and its solution, but when will that happen? How many more blows and of what magnitude will we have to endure? We are like heedless, stubborn children who do not want to hear anything. We do not want to acknowledge that we live by the laws of the ego. So, through blows and catastrophes nature will compel us to realize we have no choice but to submit to and abide by its laws since we are surrounded by and enclosed within the inescapable force of nature.

The inanimate, vegetative, and animal levels in creation practice mutuality based on their interdependence, and therefore the general natural system preserves them and provides the balance between them. Only the human race acts contrary to this system and shows no tendency to reciprocity; it singularly disrupts this equilibrium. We receive only for ourselves according to the laws of egoism and are unwilling to give according to the laws of nature. Thus, we disturb the balance not only between us, but also in all the other levels of nature, and they, like a mighty boomerang, smack us right back.

The year 2021 has been a year of discovering great inadequacies in the relationships in human society, a revelation of so much ugliness of the selfishness that dominates the human race and drives it to fight, harm and destroy. We must see this exposure of our nature as an opportunity and the foundation for building a new social structure.

We will rise from the crisis in the right way if we direct our efforts toward connection and cooperation. In this way, by the end of next year, our most pressing questions in life, such as “Why am I sad?” “Why am I suffering?” will be answered and put back in order.

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Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The World’s Only Harm-Doers”

As I wrote some three weeks ago, last Thursday the UN passed the final resolution regarding its support for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA). The tally, in a record vote, was 164 in favor of the resolution, and 1 against—Israel. The resolution was one of several votes, all of which condemn Israel very sharply, and one even declares that “the Palestinians are entitled to their property [since 1948] and to the income derived therefore in conformity of equality and justice.”

Two days prior, “expressing outrage over Israel’s continuing harassment of human rights,” the UN Human Rights Council has resolved to set up “an international, independent commission of enquiry to investigate, ‘all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up and since 13 April 2021.’”

If the entire world, not figuratively but literally the entire world, tells us that we are evil, that we are the only harm-doers, and we see no fault in our actions, shouldn’t we at least ask why the false perception? Could it be that it is our perception that is false? How come we never ask ourselves these questions and automatically reproach the entire world of being antisemitic? If it is antisemitic, and if it wants our destruction, why did it give us a country in the first place? And if it gave us a country, why does it now want to take it away?

It is not that Israeli copywriters are worse than their Palestinian counterparts, or that Israel does not allocate enough resources to explain its position. The simple truth is that in the eyes of larger and larger portions of humanity, we are the only harm-doers in existence. It makes no difference what we say or how we say it, since if we are the only ones to blame, then there is no one else to blame but us for everything that’s wrong with the world.

If this is the case, we should ask ourselves why the world thinks so. It does not think so because there is a Jewish state, since during the Holocaust or during the expulsion from Spain there was no Jewish state, but still we were regarded as the only harm-doers in the world. The world does not think so because of the libel that we pollute wells that cause pandemics, since the world hated us before and after the pandemics. The world also does not hate us because of anything that has to do with Christianity, since Muslims and even complete atheists readily hate us. Finally, the world does not hate us because of our race since there was antisemitism long before there were Nazis and racism.

The world changes its pretexts for hating Jews faster than the seasons change, but our own sages never change their minds, not once. They, too, think that we are the only harm-doers in the world, or as they put it, “No calamity comes to the world but for Israel” (Yevamot 63a). However, they also tell us why they think so, and their reasoning has never changed.

The only purpose of our people is to serve as “a light unto nations.” Once we united “as one man with one heart” and established our nationhood, we were tasked with setting an example to humanity. We, the nation that emerged from an assortment of strangers who hated one another, became a proof that with great resolve, people can rise above their hatred and unite.

Through our unity, we formed a society based on mutual responsibility and loving our neighbor as ourselves. We fell out of unity and rose back to unity, and along with our ups and downs, we lost and regained our sovereignty in the land of Israel. Accordingly, our sages never pinned our downfalls on foreign tyrants; they always attributed them to our disunity. For instance, they did not write that Titus destroyed the Temple, but rather, “The Second Temple … why was it ruined? It was because there was unfounded hatred in it” (Yoma 9b).

We should have no qualms about it: If we maintain our division, the resolutions of the UN will grow increasingly hostile and increasingly emphatic toward the Jewish state. Soon, the nations will declare, by a huge majority if not unanimously, to give Palestine to the Palestinians and that Resolution 181, to divide the land between Jews and Arabs, was an unfortunate mistake.

As long as we are not being what Jews are meant to be—people who unite above their division—the world has no need for us. Once it gives up on our ability to set an example of unity, it will resolve to eliminate the Jewish state and expel its Jewish residents.

If we care about our future more than about the pleasure of righteous indignation, we should muster the resolve to show the world that Jews who hated one another just a moment ago can truly be as brothers.
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