Prophets, Joshua, 8:1; 8:17-8:19: And the Lord said to Joshua, Fear not, and be not dismayed; take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.

And there was not a man left in Ai or Beth-el, that did not go out after Israel; and they left the city open, and pursued Israel.

And the Lord said to Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in your hand, toward Ai; for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that was in his hand, toward the city.

And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand; and they entered into the city, and took it, and hastened and set the city on fire.

A person stretches out his hand in order to overcome his egoism and thus bring the general egoism—called the people, the city, under his control. The raised hand is like the staff raised by Moses.

Question: Does it mean that as long as he holds the spear, people will have the strength to conquer the city?

Answer: No, this is not about people. The Torah addresses a single person and indicates how he should behave in such and such circumstances. It gives examples of how to overcome your egoism, how to conquer it. The Torah does not speak about anything else.

The seizure and destruction of the city mean the destruction of the egoistic desire in a person. Such cities and countries exist within every person. The entire universe is within him.

Question: Why does it say that one should raise his hand with a spear and hold it?

Answer: So that under no circumstances you would miss this particular action and this opportunity to conquer the egoistic property within yourself.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 7/19/21

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “Faith Above Reason” 

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,” Item 39 

Selected Highlights

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Question: Olga writes: “I read somewhere or heard from you that the embryo in the womb sees its entire life from the beginning to the end. Is that so? And if so, then why does it lose these abilities later?”

Answer: This refers to a spiritual embryo, not to an ordinary one. Our embryo is no different than the embryo of animals. We are born just like animals. And gradually, if we develop, we develop perhaps into decent people and maybe even into spiritual people who feel the Creator.

Question: Let’s say that we develop as a spiritual embryo. So what does it mean that this spiritual embryo sees everything? What does it mean: “everything, from the beginning till the end”?

Answer: How it sees itself: where it is from, what it is, for what purpose. That is, it begins to see its entire path from beginning till end but on a very narrow scale. And it understands why it was born and exists in a spiritual form.

Question: And what is this, this end? What can I see if I am a spiritual embryo?

Answer: Complete adhesion with all souls and with the Creator. That is all. It is an ascent to the quality of bestowal, the quality of love, the quality of absolute connection with everyone, when the feeling of time, movement, that is, this whole world, ceases to be felt.

Question: At what point does a person become a spiritual embryo?

Answer: When one stops thinking about oneself.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/15/21

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Question: Is it possible for a soul to be reborn during one lifetime? Can the soul die and be reborn in the same body?

Answer: The soul is not born and does not die. It is immortal because it is the attribute of bestowal.

So, you do not need to worry about what will happen with your soul. It can of course develop only if you develop it. Nothing else happens to it. It is an eternal entity that is in each of us and between us, and we need to simply reveal it to ourselves.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 6/23/19

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Question: What benefits does a person who has a screen bring to society? Does his ability not to think about himself somehow affect other people? Or are these purely internal calculations and no one knows about it?

Answer: Indeed, people may be completely unaware of the presence of the screen because they do not have such property and do not feel spirituality. This is first.

Second, if a person wants to obtain a screen, he should come to lessons and study the properties of reception and bestowal in the group.

Question: And if he is already in a group of like-minded people and he rises above his egoism there, is this somehow felt by those who study with him?

Answer: No. Why? This can only spoil them. Working with the screen is an individual interaction of a person with the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 8/20/21

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Question: “How should one relate to fortune tellers? I have been told things that it is better not to repeat. Should I believe them or not? And if yes, how can I avoid what they predict for me? I believe you. I do not want to believe them.” Sergei.

Answer: You understand that a lot of people have the ability to sense the future. I have met such people. I talked about this with my teacher. And he had several such students in his lifetime who came, studied a little, and acquired this sensation of the future.

But I personally did not feel an immediate attraction to them.

Question: What about curiosity? To know what will happen to you, how fate will turn out?

Answer: No. I will tell you frankly, what will happen to me in a week, a month, a year, ten, twenty years—well, so what? I think it is much more interesting to live when you do not know anything. You just do not know anything! It is much more interesting, it is exciting.

And when you know everything, it is like you came to a movie, as we used to do to cinemas, sat down in your chair, and suddenly you find out that you remember this movie perfectly, you have already seen it. All the sharpness is gone.

Question: In other words, it is desirable to live as you say: tomorrow is tomorrow, what will be will be. Everything is in the hands of the upper. And you move along with this current?

Answer: Yes. The best thing is to know nothing and be the master of your life.

To what extent you are the master or not, you will start to understand that this is also pointless. I go forward according to the rules that the Creator has set in order to come to Him. I am getting closer to Him precisely according to the conditions that He has set out for me. And I want nothing else. I do not want to see another iota more! I do not want anything else! I want to be only this: a devoted follower of the Creator.

This is the most beautiful thing that can be! This is a great reward for a person when he can behave like this!

And at the same time, listening to how your future is being slandered, no way! We must come to bestowal from inside-out.

Question: And if around a corner during this journey of, as you call it, surrendering to the Creator terrible things suddenly happen?

Answer: There is nothing terrible or not terrible. It all depends on how you feel about it. If you give yourself to it openly, just like that, you open your soul: whatever is there is there and it is from the Creator; there is nothing terrible.

It is just that everything instantly becomes simple, clear, and soft. What your attitude to the Creator is, that is how you make Him—the Creator. And that is all. And there is the right connection between you.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/22/21

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Question: What elements does the screen consist of?

Answer: The screen consists of two forces: the magnitude of the egoistic desire to attract to yourself and the forces of bestowal, rejection, unwillingness to work with this force of attraction.

Question: Can a person be born with a screen?

Answer: No, never, not at all. We are all born as little egoists and remain so throughout our lives. If a person is engaged in Kabbalah and begins to understand that it can provide him with an altruistic, anti-egoistic quality, and continues to work on it in order to acquire this quality, then gradually a screen is formed in him. This is a cumulative process.

The screen is a purely individual quality. It cannot be adopted from someone, bought, exchanged, or borrowed.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 8/20/21

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My new article on Linkedin “Humanity’s Penitential Days”

This week begin the Ten Penitential Days. In those days, traditionally, Jews repent for their misdeeds during the past year and ask for forgiveness from both each other and the Maker of the world. Looking at the past year, however, it seems as though the whole world needs to go through a process of repentance. Instead of praying for the tragedies to stop, we must understand that we brought them on ourselves, so if we stop what we are doing wrong, the tragedies will stop, as well.

Repentance does not mean remorse. It means, first and foremost, a reflection on what we did wrong, and a commitment to change it going forward.

When I was a child, I could get away with almost anything. My parents and everyone around me forgave my naughtiness and attributed it to my age. As I grew up, people gradually changed their attitude toward me; they became stricter and harsher, and sometimes even punished me, and I didn’t understand why. When I asked my mother about it, she explained to me that I was no longer a little boy, and that since I was growing up, I had to behave accordingly. And when I didn’t, they reproved me.

We are all in that state now. We, the human race, are no longer children. We have grown up, become extremely powerful, yet we remain as mischievous as when we were children. As a result, everyone around us, the whole of reality, is telling us off. Just as grownups punished me when I did not meet the level of maturity they had expected of me, nature punishes us when our behavior is infantile compared to how we should behave.

The difference between a child and a grownup is in the relation toward others. A child sees only itself; a grownup sees the collective, and oneself as a contributing and positive part of the collective. A child enjoys getting what it wants; a grownup enjoys contributing to the collective, to the community, and finds reward and satisfaction in the joy of others.

Nature is urging us to go in this direction: to become more considerate and caring. The natural disasters of the past year (and the years before) are not nature’s punishments; they are the consequences of our previous thoughtlessness toward each other and toward nature. If we change our mindset, they will stop, as it is our self-absorbed mindset that causes them.

The Ten Penitential Days are a reminder for all of us to reflect on how we treat each other. It is a chance to acknowledge the harm that we are causing through our narcissism, and make a common effort to reform ourselves, for everyone’s benefit.

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My new article on Linkedin “Europe Walling Up Is Too Little Too Late”

All over Europe, walls and fences are springing up on the borders between countries. Between Greece and Bulgaria, Austria and Italy, Hungary and Serbia, Lithuania and Belarus, and between many more countries, walls and fences have emerged. Unlike before, countries are not trying to protect themselves from one another, but from Muslim immigrants invading their territories. Regrettably for Europe, neither walls nor any other barrier will do any good; it is too late to save The Old Continent.

While governments have opened the borders for immigration from Muslim countries, they did not prepare the newcomers for the new culture they were about to encounter, nor check if they were even willing to amalgamate in it. Even now, when the harm of unchecked immigration has become known, European politicians are not attempting to stop it.

The only country attempting to stop the Muslim invasion is Austria, but it is alone. Over time, the pressure from other European countries to open its borders will force it to comply, and it, too, will be lost.

There will not be any fanfare or long and violent clashes; Europe has already surrendered to Islam; the deal is done. It should have stopped it long ago, but once it chose not to, it sealed its fate.

But the Muslim invasion into Europe will not be the end of the story. Following Islam, China will come with its own aspirations, and the two will squabble over the carcass.

The two powers have very different goals. Islam wants to impose itself on the entire world. If people accept it willingly, very well. If not, they will be forced to accept it or they will be executed.

China, on the other hand, wants only to control. Their one and only aspiration is world domination; they do not care about religion. I think that after some time and perhaps some bickering, they will divide the world between them one way or the other.

And in the midst of it all will be the Jews, of course. They always have been, they always are, and they always will be involved in global transformations.

Nevertheless, I think that it’s better if things develop in this way since the other option is a nuclear world war. If the process is more gradual, there is a chance that people will understand in a more peaceful way that we have to change how we think and how we relate to one another.

If people realize that egoism is the sole ruler of the world, there is a chance they will agree to start working on themselves. As power struggles prove that there is no ideology but domination and compulsion, hopefully, people will realize that this is an unsustainable course for humanity. It is better to realize this through political processes than after nuclear and hydrogen bombs demonstrate the consequences of egoism.

When people realize that we have no other choice but to stop being so selfish, we will be able to start developing a new humanity. It will not be any ideology we currently know, but a simple acknowledgment that we invariably influence one another, and that one person’s misery makes all of humanity suffer, even if we do not know this person.

As a result, we will build systems that ensure everyone’s well-being.

The awareness that a narcissistic frame of mind is ultimately destructive to the narcissist will push people out of it. Then, when we become genuinely inclusive in our mindset, we will build a society that is caring and supportive of everyone, and we will relinquish domination in favor of cooperation.

However, it must happen willingly, or it will not work. We have to reach rock-bottom, to realize that we are hopelessly malign, and that only a complete rejection of our nature will lift us out of the quagmire of cruelty. When we finally choose connection over separation, we will lift ourselves from misery to bliss.

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