Comment: The pain that we feel physically goes all the way to consciousness through the brain. And the intensity of the pain depends on my attitude to it.

In the burn department of a hospital in Illinois, virtual reality is used: When changing bandages for patients, the patients wear virtual glasses. And instead of thinking about burns, they play with snowballs, and the pain is reduced.

Right now, humanity is in pain. It becomes physical. What should a person think about in order to reduce this pain or somehow cancel it? What “virtual glasses” should I wear?

My Response: I think the best thing is to think about how nature is leading us to a brighter future. The most beautiful thing in our time is that there are no personalities in history here, but nature itself takes us and kneads us like this, like dough.

Question: So in order to cope with this pain, what do I have to realize?

Answer: Realize what nature does. It leads us by its plan. For the first time in the history of mankind, nature simply takes us by the ear, like a boy, and leads us forward to the right place.

Question: That is, if at the moment of this pain that I am experiencing now, I begin to build this reality that it is nature that leads us all to a very bright future, to a good relationship, to a world of light, a world of warmth, then my pain will begin to decrease?

Answer: It will stop! Because the pain depends on the fact that you do not see the goal ahead. And if there is a goal, then the goal must absorb the pain.

When we do things, they can be pleasant or unpleasant. If we examine our body, we will see that there is no difference between pleasure and suffering. In the feeling inside the person, no difference. It is only in his idea of what it leads to, what it is.

Question: And then the suffering begins, that it all leads me to the end, I will disappear and that’s it?

Answer: Absolutely. And if you imagine that this leads you to a huge gain, to pleasure, then you are ready not only to endure it, you are ready to prolong it and even enjoy it.

Why am I saying this? It all depends on how we set up society. We have a relatively small problem here. If society is set up in such a way that nature itself leads us to a good future, to an arrangement, to a life without problems, if we show such films, such pictures of the future, then people will be able to experience all this relatively easily.

Question: So the pain will stop then and they will start moving toward this future?

Answer: Yes, and we do not deceive them. People went into battle to the death for the future, for the sake of imaginary values that people invented. And here is nature itself.

It is a movement toward the equivalence of nature. To the integral universal relation, connection. This means that a person will exist in the most comfortable environment. It’s a billion times better than in the womb, because you know it.

All of nature, all of humanity, all that exists in the cosmos and in all the worlds, all this surrounds you with a good wrapping.

Question: And this scenario should be built?

Answer: We are approaching it, in fact, but we can accelerate this movement.

Question: Is this what pain is given to a person for?

Answer: Otherwise, he wouldn’t have realized. A person can only attain one thing from the other. Therefore, now we feel confusion, pain, and so on, in order to rise above it and feel truly connected, love, and perfection.

Question: Is this what it is called to rise above the pain?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/29/20

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Question: In Kabbalah, there is a concept called Lishma or for the sake of the Creator. However, if we consider the Creator as nature, the upper mind, and not some person, then it is not clear what “to do something for His sake” means?

Answer: In Kabbalah, the Creator is regarded as a quality, a law, a force of nature, not a person. It is not a personified individual but a force such as gravity or electrostatic forces operating around us as fields.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that there are only two forces in the universe: one of them is the force that operates for its own sake. As a rule, there is attraction and rejection in nature. This, however, is not the point. The point is why I attract and why I reject. That is, there must be some thought, some intention, behind this force.

I can attract and I can reject. Both can be for my own benefit and for the benefit of someone outside of me, for the benefit of others. The action outside of me, when I take into account not myself but only the benefit of others, is called the action of Lishma (not for my own sake, for the sake of the Creator).
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States. Lishma (For The Sake Of The Creator)”

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “To Bestow Contentment to the Creator”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, ‘Histaklut Pnimit,’ Chapter 8, Item 31″

Selected Highlights

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The Creator deliberately collides opposites so we would need a third force to connect good and evil, right and left, any contradiction at all levels and in any form. This third force, that is, the force of the Creator, is revealed as reconciling all opposites.

We will see how hatred in our world is growing day by day. All connections that people have established until our time will now begin to break, crumble, and expose our separation and hatred.

This revelation will be so substantial that it will become clear that we cannot establish connections between us on our own. There is only one upper force that prevents our connection and the good existence of all of humanity, of every family. Relations between countries, between people, and man with himself will explode, revealing the shattering more and more so that it becomes obvious that only with the help of the upper force is it possible to connect everyone and cover all crimes with love.

Yet, we do not know how to do this because, from the point of view of our common sense, it is illogical since it is above our degree. Only the wisdom of Kabbalah explains how to make such a connection, come closer to each other, and establish peace so that humanity does not crumble and scatter in different directions like animals fleeing from beatings.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/21,” Justifying The Creator”

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My new article on Linkedin “The Crime of Being Jewish”

“Dirty Jew,” shouted a man in New York’s Times Square while he punched, kicked, and pepper-sprayed a young Jewish man who ended up in the hospital as result of the recent unprovoked attack. “I would do it again” said the pro-Palestinian aggressor after being arrested and briefly held in custody, according to prosecutors. That is today’s America. Rampant widespread antisemitism aggravated by the latest escalation of the Israel-Gaza conflict. It is a turning point for the Jewish people to either wait for the worst to happen or unite and survive and live happily and safely.

As humanity progresses and becomes more enlightened, hatred of Jews becomes less logical and at the same time expands and deepens. Hatred no longer belongs to a people or to a transient union of peoples, but it is spreading throughout the entire global world almost at once. Never has the condemnation of Israel and hatred of the Jews been as open, unequivocal and extensive as it is today. If once hatred was hidden, except in times of particular outbursts, today it roams shamelessly in the streets; Jews are brutally beaten simply for being Jews and no one seems to even try to stop it.

What would be considered inconceivable in the past is now a reality: American Jews are afraid to wear yarmulke in public, as confirmed by the Jewish Federations of North America. Unfortunately, history has shown us that our enemies will leave no stone unturned until they fulfill their goal: to cause harm or annihilate Jews wherever they are. To hide, assimilate, and try to become like everyone else will not help.

Why? Because Jews are not like everyone else. We must carefully study our history and exemplary sources and stop repeating the same mistakes of continually minimizing the threats with blind and unconscious stubbornness that brings us murderous blows.

The people of Israel are different because they are not a group of people born in a common region. We do not share a common culture, mentality, and similar tendencies. We are a collection of people from every nation, descendants of Mesopotamia, ancient Babylon, who gathered around the ideology developed by our ancestor Abraham: a connection between human beings over differences that divide us.

Abraham came up with the idea of unification from the deep confusion and discord that prevailed in the kingdom of Babylon. Abraham trained us to unite as one man with one heart, not only to discover the positive, good and benevolent power that would improve our lives between us, but to become a model of a reformed society that would pass the idea of unity and in this way to radiate light into the nations, the peoples of the world. This is our fate; we have no other purpose and no possibility of escaping from it.

This is why the Jews in the Diaspora will not be able to assimilate into their homelands no matter how hard they try. And we in Israel must not think that we are any different or more united than them. We are also in exile. Not in body, of course. We are physically on the land of Israel, but the spirit, the mentality, the thought, are all completely in exile.

“Exile” is first and foremost a departure from the commandment to connect, a flagrant disregard for our destiny. When Jews live an egotistical routine, for their own benefit only, they become the greatest egoists in the world, exactly against their potential to be pioneers of the global connection.

In this mission there is no difference between us and the Diaspora Jewry. We all have one fate and we are currently very far from it. Everything can change at the speed of light. Change depends on a modest understanding that life has a purpose and it does not end with corporeal achievements, which only are accompanied by suffering and war. A little understanding that we were not born just to survive around seventy years in perpetual existential fear and then die, will help us to live differently, safely, peacefully, happily, purposefully. Only a little understanding, a subtle inclination, a good thought toward connection between us, will make a huge difference toward a more promising future for us and our children.

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Who won the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas, and why?“

Israel might have won the battle militarily, but it is losing the war for the world’s support.

With each conflict between the two, public opinion grows stronger against Israel, making it lose face more and more on the world stage. Israel also might win future military battles, but the world has tilted in favor of the Palestinians. If Israel continues focusing primarily on its military defense while making no key changes on an ideological level, then it can expect increasing delegitimization to reach levels where the world will wish for its elimination.

How, then, can Israel win the world’s support?

Israel can win the world’s support if its people understand that their strength is in their unity, and only in their unity. When united, the people of Israel realize their roots, the foundation that made them the people of Israel to begin with. The unity of the people of Israel draws a special unifying force and example to humanity, which in turn makes humanity feel that there is a reason and benefit for Israel’s existence. However, when divided, as the country currently looks, for instance, as it cannot even form a government over multiple elections while having 120 members of parliament scattered across dozens of parties, then the division and hatred projecting from this small country causes the world to frown upon it. More and more people then latch onto an anti-Israel stance in order to justify the deeper hatred they feel toward us.

Thus, in addition to boosting Israel’s military defense systems, Israel needs to remind and educate its people that its strength is only in its unity. While, on the surface, it appears as if more and more people hate Israel because they view Israel as oppressing and abusing human rights against Palestinians, at a deeper level, the core reason for the hatred of Israel is due to today’s people of Israel failing to live up to what made them the people of Israel to begin with: they give into their divisive drives, desires and thoughts instead of uniting above them. The hatred among the people of Israel today projects subconsciously onto humanity as a whole, and as humanity feels increasing suffering and perceived injustices due to increasing division, then more and more people hate the people of Israel, and the hatred becomes expressed increasingly as hatred for the State of Israel.

The growing hatred against us is an indicator that we need to return to our roots and reason for our being here. Our nation was founded on principles of love, unity and mutual responsibility. We became a nation when we applied the law of “Love your neighbor as yourself” to our relationships above our divisive drives. Therefore, by not exercising unity above our divisions, we fail to live up to what made us the people of Israel to begin with, and as a result, people around the world increasingly feel no justification for this people holding a land of their own.

In order to validate our claim to the Land of Israel, we need to revive our unity. By doing so, we will become a positive conduit for the unifying force to spread throughout humanity, i.e., as it is written, we will become “a light unto the nations.” While divided and hateful of each other, people around the world feel that we project division and hatred to the world. They feel us as the source of all evil, of every problem in their lives. If we thus rise above our divisiveness and unite, the world will support us, including the Palestinians. If we, however, let our divisive drives run us, then the world will eventually expel us from this land.

About the people of Israel being founded on following the law of “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Kabbalist Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) writes the following in his article, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee).”

All of Israel are responsible for one another (Sanhedrin, 27b, Shavuot 39). This is to speak of the Arvut (Mutual Guarantee), when all of Israel became responsible for one another. Because the Torah was not given to them before each and every one from Israel was asked if he agreed to take upon himself the Mitzva (precept) of loving others in the full measure, expressed in the words: “Love thy friend as thyself.” This means that each and every one in Israel would take it upon himself to care and work for each member of the nation, and to satisfy all their every needs, no less than the measure imprinted in him to care for his own needs. And once the whole nation unanimously agreed and said, “We shall do and we shall hear,” each member of Israel became responsible that nothing shall be missing from any other member of the nation. Only then did they become worthy of receiving the Torah, and not before.

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My new article on Linkedin “There Is a Purpose to the Israeli Palestinian Conflict”

The conclusion of Operation Guardian of the Walls marked the end of yet another round in what seems to be a never ending conflict. After every round, we get some rest, but it is always shorter than we’d like, and the relentlessness of the enemy is tiring and wearing down our motivation. At the same time, we have nowhere to go, so we cannot afford to pack up and leave; it is a battle we cannot afford to lose.

While it seems like there is no end to the conflict, in fact, there can be an end to it, and it depends on us. First, we need to realize that neither military operations nor peace treaties will solve the problem. Dividing the land among Palestinians, Jews, Bedouins, and whoever else wants a piece of it will not solve anything and will not end the violence, since the conflict is not over territory, religion, or nationality.

It is an essential conflict whose purpose is to bring all of humanity to recognize the purpose of creation, the purpose of our own existence, and the purpose of the existence of nations, countries, religions, cultures, and races. This conflict is at the core of reality. This is why it seems inscrutable and insoluble.

When we solve the Palestinian Israeli conflict, we will balance the entire world, all of reality. Subconsciously, people feel it, which is why this conflict and this region are always at the center of attention. People rightly feel that their own well-being depends on what is happening in the Middle-East, and specifically between Israel and its neighbors. When we balance our relations here, it will resolve every other imbalance the world over.

The balance that we need to find will connect us to one another, and subsequently to the origin of creation. This origin, which we may call God, Allah, or any other name, has created all the contradictions in reality. However, it created them balanced and harmonious. Day and night, ebb and flow, winter and summer, male and female, attraction and rejection, birth and death, everything is balanced and the existence of one supports and is dependent upon the existence of the other.

We, humans, have disrupted this balance because we only focus on taking and receiving, and we strive to give nothing in return. This is why we exploit natural resources indiscriminately, even at the expense of the future of our children. This is also why we conquer, humiliate, and enslave other nations. In our effort to feel good about ourselves, we denigrate, patronize, and belittle others in order to make ourselves feel superior. Indeed, all our troubles come from the imbalance within us.

The Jews, whose nationhood was established uniquely through the oath to unite “as one man with one heart,” were the first to rise above the natural human predisposition for selfishness. This is why they were appointed to be the “light unto nations,” to set an example of unity and thereby show other nations how to unite above their inherent self-centeredness, balance themselves, and subsequently lead the world to balance.

Indeed, throughout history, when Jews united among themselves, the nations supported them. When they divided among them and became belligerent, the nations disparaged and reviled them. In the days of the First Temple, Nebuchadnezzar II conquered the land of Israel and destroyed the Temple only after Jews became spiteful toward each other and “stabbed each other with the daggers in their mouths” (Yoma 9b). Later, when they united while in exile, King Cyrus gave them back the land and helped them rebuild the Temple.

During the period of the Second Temple, when Jews were united, the nations would “go up to Jerusalem and see Israel … and say, ‘It is becoming to cling only to this nation’” (Sifrey Devarim, 354). When they divided and wanted to become like the Greeks, in whose kingdom they lived, they broke into war, the Seleucids conquered the land, and they freed it only after they united under the Hasmoneans.

But the Hasmoneans, too, did not maintain their unity as power struggles drove them apart, which brought upon us the Roman rule. The latter conquered the land and made Judah a Roman province. However, the Romans, too, would have been completely content to let us lead our lives according to our way, had it not been for the inner struggles among us and the corruption of our leaders that forced them to appoint their own procurators (governors). Finally, we broke into a full blown civil war and sought nothing but to exterminate one another. The end result of that war was the destruction of the Second Temple, and the exile of the remnants of the nation, and the slaying of the majority of their coreligionists.

Today’s Palestinians are doing what the nations have always done with regard to Israel: They are pressuring us to unite and become the example we must be—not for our sake, but for the sake of the world. This is why the world supports them. Since it is indeed our duty to unite and become the world’s example of unity, where all the opposites are balanced, the Palestinians are right to be angry with us. Nothing we will say or do for them will pacify them until we do what we must: unite among ourselves and thereby become a light unto nations.

Our choice is simple: Set an example of unity and win the world’s favor, or keep nurturing mutual hatred until the world expels us once again and executes us like the Nazis.

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The War with Your Selfishness

Question: Is the war of Gog and Magog a constant war between a person and their egoism?

Answer: Yes. But, basically, it takes place in our time and on. Therefore, this period is called the end of days. Even Baal HaSulam called it the last generation.

Question: Is it because egoism has grown today?

Answer: Now the very last stage of the ego is manifested—absolute hatred and rejection of one another.

Question: The concept of the end of the world is associated with the war between Gog and Magog. In Hebrew, the end of the world is Sof haOlam. “Olam” comes from the word “Haalama,” (concealment). Is this the end of hiding, i.e., a positive phenomenon?

Answer: Of course! We are heading toward an absolutely positive phenomenon. The only question is when will come to it? Can we shorten this path? They say yes and that Kabbalah points out how to do this. Let us hope for such an outcome.
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From KabTV,s “Spiritual States”, 4/30/21

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Zohar for All, VaYetze, Item 15: “This is the breaking of the wind, as it is written, “Vanity and striving after wind.” However, the work of the Creator raises the light above the sun, extending the light from below upwards, from the sun and above, not from the sun and below.”

Instead of receiving, you aim for bestowal.

The fact is that if you want to draw the light for yourself and it enters you, then it is not the good light, it is the direct light. However, if you aim for bestowal, then the reflected light appears in you, which allows you to see everything around you. By emitting light from yourself, by becoming similar to it, you become like a source, a projector, and in this light you see everything.

Question: I have heard that there is light coming from the eyes. Is it possible?

Answer: If someone is looking at you, of course, you feel it. But it is not the light of the eyes. Basically, it is a thought. This is how our thoughts connect.

There is nothing special about the eye. It is a simple, primitive device. What is there? Everything happens inside: desires, thoughts, and intentions expressed through our external organs are strongly felt by us.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #13

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