Question: Modern psychology assures that the phrase “Don’t cry, my child, here is a candy for you” is a terrible mistake parents make. Psychologists say that you need to help your child get through the sadness.

What do you think about that?

Answer: First, I believe that parents should not answer their child: “Get over it and get used to it.” This is not a parenting approach—on one hand. On the other hand, since it is necessary to explain why someone is in such a state, even a child, it is necessary to teach parents how to answer correctly.

Question: So you don’t support giving candy?

Answer: No. It is not good to avoid and remove yourself from the need to go through these states with the child. While he is still a child, it is necessary to teach him how to get over it correctly. Together with the parents. And then he will be able to do it himself.

Question: That is, the child got hit, he is crying, you should not buy him a candy so that he stops crying. We need a conversation with him. What can you say to a child who got hit?

Answer: Explain to the child that he needs to be more careful, why he was hit, what happened.

Question: So you seem to be talking to him like equals?

Answer: No, he should feel that an adult is talking to him. And yet, he should feel that he is being educated. A child should understand that the adult wants to explain to him how to treat any, especially unpleasant circumstances in his life correctly. Even animals teach their offspring: they help, explain, and play with them.

Question: And if a child is assembling a kit and he fails, a parent comes, does he have to assemble the kit for him?

Answer: You have to be a teacher. The teacher is the one who hints at the correct options, explains the wrong ones, mistakes, and so on. That is, it is “debriefing.”

Comment: Psychologists say that if a child is sad, there is no need to rush and get him out of this by any means. It is necessary for him to feel what sadness is.

My Response: Not sadness for the sake of sadness, but for him to just know how to get out of it, and that these states have the right to be with us just like fun and joy.

Question: What should the correct attitude of a parent toward a child who is growing up be?

Answer: To become his friend and to do things with him.

Comment: Is it possible to become a child’s friend at any age? Can I be a friend to my three-year-old son?

My Response: It is already too late with a three-year-old one. Starting at about one year of age, a child already understands that you are playing with him and how you are playing, as equals or not.

Question: That is, you need to become a child’s friend?

Answer: Yes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/15/21

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Preparation to the Lesson

Lesson on the Topic “The Lord Will Finish for Me”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1, ‘Histaklut Pnimit,’ Chapter 8, Item 30″

Selected Highlights

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My new article on Linkedin “Where Have All the Workers Gone?”

Although economies are reopening in many countries as more and more people are vaccinated, a crucial part of the job market is still struggling to restart: workers. The customers are there; the businesses are open, the employers are hiring, but the workers seem comfortable staying at home. In some countries, and in some occupations, the situation is so dire that job applicants are interviewing potential employers instead of the other way around. There are even bizarre cases where employers actually pay applicants just to come to a job interview!

When Covid-19 just started, I wrote that when humanity comes out the other end of the pandemic, it will be a different humanity. It seems like we are seeing it unfolding. Some people say that people got too much money as Covid relief, but I think it runs much deeper than that: People simply do not want to work. They realize that their jobs were a type of slavery and they have opted out. This is what is happening.

I think it’s better for everyone that this is happening. There is less pollution, less exploitation of people, animals, and natural resources, and everyone is gaining besides the tycoons, who want to keep piling up billions, but for what purpose?

Our jobs, and even more so career jobs, used to determine our self-esteem. But many people don’t care about this anymore. They don’t care what people think; they want to rest and pass their time in peace, and it is better for everyone that they do, especially for our poor planet.

The more idle we are, the less contradictory we are to nature. Take any animal, and you will see that when it doesn’t search for food, shelter, or tends to its young, it rests peacefully. Until now, we haven’t been like animals. We spent every moment working more hours, making more money, or spending our money and making other people work more hours. The result was that we have polluted and nearly ruined our planet. If people lived like animals, working only when they need to, we wouldn’t create all the problems we’ve created for ourselves, we wouldn’t be exhausted, and we wouldn’t be stressed.

It is in our interest to be lazy, and it is in the interest of tycoons that we will work as hard as possible. This is why they sell us the notion that our job title defines who we are. But when we don’t really care what people think of who we are, then we have no reason to impress them with fancy job titles. We can finally rest!

Now that we have more free time, we will gradually find more meaningful things to do with our time. We will ask why we are here, and we will discover how our presence here relates to the presence of all the other people in the world and to the world around us. We will see that the world is one system; we will find our place in it; and we will be happy and at peace. This is why I’m grateful for this new trend of not working needlessly.
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My new article on Linkedin “Pariahs”

All over the world, and on every social media platform, antisemitism is thriving. What’s more, no one seems to want to stop it. Had Jews expressed themselves this way toward people from other ethnicities or countries, they would have been expelled, banned, boycotted, and possibly tried as criminals. But when it comes to bashing Jews, it’s open season. Why have we become pariahs?

To answer this question, we must remind ourselves of our origin and our vocation. In the prologue to his book A History of the Jews, Christian historian and novelist Paul Johnson eloquently describes the sense of purpose that pervades the Jewish people, and to which he, as a Christian historian, was very receptive: “No people has ever insisted more firmly than the Jews that history has a purpose and humanity a destiny. At a very early stage in their collective existence they believed they had detected a divine scheme for the human race, of which their own society was to be a pilot. …The Jewish vision became the prototype for many similar grand designs for humanity, both divine and man-made. The Jews, therefore, stand right at the centre of the perennial attempt to give human life the dignity of a purpose.”

Indeed, from the very beginning, Jews were not as the rest of the nations. We didn’t come from anywhere in specific. Rather, we came from everywhere to follow a specific ideology that the son of a Babylonian priest by the name of Terah had conceived. The son’s name was Abraham, and the message he conveyed was clear and simple, though hard to carry out: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

At the time when Abraham began to preach for mercy and camaraderie, his countryfolk were in the midst of a wave of growing egoism. The Babylonian empire, where Abraham was born and raised, later became known as the “cradle of civilization.” But while Abraham had lived there, its people could not tolerate the idea of mutual responsibility and care for others that he had taught. They were enthralled with glorifying themselves and sought to build a tower that would reflect their greatness. Abraham, who criticized them sharply, ridiculed their beliefs and culture, and broke his father’s idols, was therefore persecuted and eventually expelled from his homeland. Thus, Abraham became the first Hebrew pariah.

Wandering westward across the Near and Middle East, Abraham continued to speak about unity and love of others wherever he went. Many of those who agreed with him joined him and gradually formed a group made of strangers who began as alienated, and often hateful strangers, but who nevertheless believed in unity above animosity.

Generations of trials and tribulations had solidified Abraham’s group until they were declared a nation at the foot of Mt. Sinai, named after the Hebrew word sina’a [hatred], which they had overcome in order to become a nation. But the nation of the Jews was unique. Since they did not have a common origin, but consisted of people from all over the ancient world, whenever they could not maintain unity above their estrangement, their different roots emerged within them and pitted the members of the nation against each other. As a result, in order to maintain their nationhood, they had to constantly reinforce their unity and solidarity. And since their roots were from many foreign nations, yet they had proven that cohesion among strangers was possible, they became a role model of peace among the nations.

This was their vocation, the purpose that Johnson had so perceptively observed. The ancient Jewish society became a pilot for a plan to establish peace on earth, harmony among all nations. When they were united, they were a living proof that such a feat was possible, thus carrying out their task to be “a light unto nations.” But when they succumbed to division and enmity, they proved that humanity was hopeless and doomed for eternal warring.

This is why whenever Jews show hate toward each other, the world hates them, too, and treats them as pariahs. Conversely, when they unite, they become the world’s favorite. Since the roots of the members of the Jewish people lie deep within each nation that emerged from the ancient cradle of civilization, the enmity or unity among the Jews reflects itself directly in relationships among the nations. This is why they blame the Jews for the wars among them. They cannot explain it rationally, of course, but they feel that their hatred for each other is the fault of the Jews. As history has proven, no rational argument will convince them otherwise.

This is also why when Jews unite under the pressure of the nations, the nations’ animosity subsides. Inadvertently, the unity of Jews eases the world’s hatred toward them since their unity increases the unity of the world, even if they do not mean to do this and are unaware of it. If Jews were even slightly more conscious of their ability to help the world unite, I have no doubt they would pursue it heart and soul. The problem is that they insist on denying their uniqueness, their vocation and purpose, and that their society must once again be a pilot for world peace. Until the Jews accept this, they will continue to be pariahs.
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A righteous person is a person who has corrected himself to the extent that he does not see the world as shattered, but feels all the parts of creation connected together and complementing one another.

Therefore, he understands, feels, and discovers that all of creation is one vessel, one desire, which receives its fulfillment from one Creator. And therefore, he justifies creation.

He cannot justify creation before He reveals it as one vessel and one light within it. That is, the righteous person justifies the Creator according to His actions and becomes incorporated in the action that reveals to him the entire creation as one single whole.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/21, “Justifying The Creator”

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What comes first, thought or desire?“

Desire comes first, and thought is an upshot of the desire.

However, thought influences desire and vice versa. For instance, we might have a very small desire for something, but if we think about it more and more, develop and nurture those thoughts, then as a result, our desire grows.

Also, desire can influence our thoughts, and if the desire changes, then a certain thought can disappear.

Desire, however, is primary and thought is secondary. We were given thought in order to increase our desire, and with thought, we can focus on the desire, format it, and fulfill it.

Based on the “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” Lesson with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on February 2, 2019.
Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

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Comprehend the World of Forces and Light

Question: Christian sources and Judaism indicate that after the war one God will rule over the whole world in the new Jerusalem. What does this mean?

Answer: It means above the whole world, in Hebrew Melech al kol haaretz, i.e., “King of all the earth.” “Earth” (“Aretz“) is from the word” Ratzon,” (“desire”). This means that all creatures will have a single desire. You just need to unite and in this unity reveal the hidden force of nature, which will manifest itself as a single, good, eternal state of all mankind.

At the same time, humanity is already rising to the spiritual level. It does not remain to exist in the material world, in material bodies. It all disappears. And man comprehends the world of forces and light.

Question: The Dead Sea Scrolls also say that this will happen in the New Jerusalem. What does “New Jerusalem” mean?

Answer: Jerusalem, from the word “Ir shalem,” that is, “absolute awe” before a higher power. “Awe” is a great desire to be like this one force. We must join her, find her, so that we have only one desire: to comprehend the single power of the Creator in our union.

Our unity must create such a condition where the united power can manifest itself in us. Precisely because we are all so different, so distant from each other, so opposite, we must unite in such a way as to ultimately create a single field between us, which consists of all of us, all the opposite desires, aspirations, intentions, and thoughts. Then the higher power will manifest in us as one. This is what we should strive for.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 4/30/21

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Comment: Rabbi Nachman wrote that he had a dream as if he had entered a cave where there were many different books. When he began to open them, they all opened in the same place and spoke about the same thing.

My Response: So it is, they all speak only about how to return to the state of spiritual fusion, union, ascent. In principle, all the primary sources are written for our time. We are now in the last, fourth exile from spirituality, and from it, we must come to complete unity with the King, with the Creator.

Question: But if all the primary sources say the same thing, why are there so many different books?

Answer: Because, first of all, there are four primary languages.

In our body, everything consists of five parts (the root and its four effects): five parts of the lungs, five parts of the mouth, five senses, five fingers on the hand, and so on.

The fact is that the light that builds the soul for itself is its root system, the so-called crown, the root. From the root come four stages, four emanations of the light that builds desire for itself. Only the last, fourth stage is the true desire that wants to rise to the light, to be the same as the light.

Thus, everything in nature is created in five stages, and therefore we have four types of language, that is, four types of perception of light by the creation.

In addition, there are four types of creation itself: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human.

Kabbalah describes all the stages of our change, i.e., climbing the 125 stages of the five worlds, the last of which is the root one.

In each world, there are five so-called Partzufim (great stages), each of which is subdivided into five more sub-stages—Sefirot. It comes out to 225 steps. All of them turn into one single comprehension of the Creator, called “His unchangeable indelible four-letter name.”

The four-letter name of the Creator includes the outgoing root (point) and the four letters that represent this point. That is, in the form of these five representations of Him, five manifestations, we feel Him.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #14

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A person’s spiritual development should be in accordance with his desire, in joy. He should feel that even the efforts he makes against his will should bring him joy.

Question: But it is not natural, is it?

Answer: A rock climber who climbs a mountain and suffers, is it suffering or joy?

Question: But he does it willingly, right?

Answer: Here too one does so willingly. No one can force you. Let us say a mother can bring a child to some group, as I was taken to a music school so that I could study there.

But in Kabbalah this is impossible. If a person does not want to, if he does not have internal impulses, if he does not feel that he must bring himself into this team, then nothing will come of it.

Question: Can the Creator force us to reveal Him?

Answer: No. Not in any way. He can induce us to do this through some external conditions, and He does.

Question: Isn’t this called forcing?

Answer: Of course, it is forcing. But this is not in Kabbalah. This is generally all over the world, in everything in our lives.

A person engages in order to get out of being forced, to correctly understand the conditions of the Creator and creation, to take up this task upon himself and participate in it consciously and willingly.

Once he acquires the forces and goals of nature and makes them his own, then it is no longer forced.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States”

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