Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What can be the solution/s to the Israel-Palestine conflict?“

The current Israel-Palestine crisis is another chapter in an age-old conflict dating back to our early efforts to reestablish a Jewish State.

In short, we hold the key to put an end to this crisis. Our unity or division makes the difference between our enemies subsiding or rising up against us. Also, the extent to which we are united or divided mirrors the extent to which our enemies calm down or flare up.*

Why is our unity the definitive factor in this conflict?

It is because unity, and specifically unity above division, marks our uniqueness and what made us a Jewish people to begin with some 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon. When Babylon experienced a crisis of social division, with conflicts and hatred tearing apart the ancient Babylonian society, Abraham—a Babylonian priest who discovered the path to unite above the growing divisions, i.e., reaching the revelation of the single force of love and bestowal that exists in reality above the growing ego—began openly teaching this path he discovered to anyone wanting to learn.

Since division throughout society was felt as a major problem, several people gathered around Abraham and implemented the method he taught. They went on to discover the unique unifying force of love above their divisive drives, and by doing so, became known as “the people of Israel.” The word “Israel” comes from “Yashar Kel,” which means “straight to God,” i.e., straight to the single force of love that fills reality. Later, this group became known as “the Jews” (the Hebrew word for “Jew” [Yehudi] comes from the word for “united” [yihudi] [Yaarot Devash, Part 2, Drush no. 2]).

Therefore, the Jewish nation was founded on this ideological basis. People living in ancient Babylon, who felt the pressure of the divisiveness and hatred of the time, gathered under Abraham’s guidance, and they eventually united above their divisive drives. By doing so, they became known as “a light unto the nations.” That is, their attainment of nature’s unifying force above the human ego, which causes all the divisiveness and problems in society, positively affects all of “the nations,” i.e., all people in the world. A critical mass of people uniting in love above their differences and divisions spreads love, unity, mutual care, support and encouragement throughout humanity at large. And when people feel this force of unity connecting them, they feel happier, full of confidence, strength and warmth, and then they revere the source that brings them such sensations.

As it was then, so it is today, but on a much greater global scale.

The human ego, divisiveness, conflicts and hatred are all on the rise, and they lead to crises across the board. For instance, the escalation in Israel and Palestine comes during a period of mass shootings in the United States becoming almost as commonplace as eating breakfast, and more generally, despite our increasing technological and economic connections worldwide, we feel more isolated, stressed, depressed, empty and anxious than ever before. The more people feel all kinds of negative feelings and phenomena in their lives, the more feelings of discontent toward the people of Israel surface.

If we Jews function according to the original unifying inclination that brought us together, we will then spread a positive unifying force to the world, and thus experience a positive reaction from the world. If, however, as is currently the case, we fail to make moves toward our unity, then we obstruct the positive unifying force from reaching humanity, and hatred naturally stirs up against us in order to prod us to unite. It is thus my hope that we will wake up to our fateful need to unite sooner rather than later, as doing so would spare ourselves and humanity much pain and sorrow.

We simply have no clue as to what a unifying calibration of our attitudes to each other would result in. The current Israel-Palestine crisis will calm down, and moreover, crises spanning personal, social, economic and ecological levels all throughout humanity would also subside. The rampant exploitation, manipulation, hatred and abuse in humanity would invert into its positive forms of mutual support, consideration, encouragement, love and care.

That is why I put in so many efforts to spread the message about the need for Jewish unity, because its implementation or neglect will determine whether humanity shifts to a harmonious and unifying course of development, or whether we will continue declining down the current divisive path.

* See my book, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism: Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord, for more details on this topic.

Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Israel Today, Q&A, Quora | Add Comment / Ask Question →

My new article on Linkedin “Our Own Worst Enemies”

About a week ago, Amit Segal, a political commentator for Israel’s Channel 12 News, interviewed former Israeli ambassador in Washington Ron Dermer, who served from 2013 to 2021. To me, the most significant point that Dermer put across was that the support for the State of Israel among American Jews is dropping. Moreover, Dermer stressed that some of Israel’s most vociferous and venomous critics are Jews. When I look at those critics, it seems to me that they are not only hateful toward Israel, but that they take pride in their hatred.

Until we, Jews, overcome the hatred we feel for one another, there will be no healing for the hatred toward us. Throughout the centuries, we have been hated for every conceivable reason, as well as for some inconceivable ones. Hatred needs no reason or reasoning. The hatred for the State of Israel is only the latest in the series, but it is the same Jew-hatred that has tormented our people for centuries.

Indeed, the greatest antisemites are the Jews themselves. In antiquity, it was the Jew-turned-genocidal-anti-Semite Tiberius Julius Alexander who slaughtered 50,000 Jews in Alexandria, Egypt, and led the Roman army into the Temple through the Golden doors his own father had built. In the Middle-Ages, it was Cardinal Juan de Torquemada, a descendant of Jews, who initiated and oversaw the Spanish Inquisition that led to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. In modern times, Jews have been acting against Jews on countless occasions, but perhaps one of the most notorious among them was Rabbi Stephen Wise, the leader of American Jewry during World War II, who helped President Roosevelt hamper the immigration of the Jews from Germany and Austria to the US while they could still save themselves from the persecution of the Nazi regime.

In order to understand how it is possible that Jews would hate Jews so vehemently, we need to understand that the root of the Jewish people is connection. We became a nation at the foot of Mt. Sinai when we agreed to unite “as one man with one heart,” and we lost our nationhood, along with our land, when we succumbed to unfounded hatred. Since then, and for the past two millennia, we have been in exile from each other, from our most basic tenet, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The State of Israel represents a chance we have been given to restore our nationhood, namely our unity. Jews who oppose the State of Israel are actually opposing unity. Perhaps subconsciously, they do not want to unite “as one man with one heart,” and certainly not to love their neighbors as themselves. They preach justice for others, but they exude hate for their own. In the name of equity to all, they promote prejudice and discrimination against their folk.

It will not help. Until we, Jews, overcome the hatred we feel for one another, there will be no healing for the hatred toward us. Throughout the centuries, we have been hated for every conceivable reason, as well as for some inconceivable ones. Hatred needs no reason or reasoning. The hatred for the State of Israel is only the latest in the series, but it is the same Jew-hatred that has tormented our people for centuries.

However, here, in sovereign Israel, we finally have a chance to reinstate our unity, and regain our nationhood. This is our duty to ourselves, and our onus toward the nations. Unity is the only way we can become “a light unto nations.” If we want to win the world’s favor, we must focus on internal unity. When we display hatred toward each other and sympathy for others, they see it as sycophancy, and no one likes a sycophant. I think it is time we started looking more at each other and built some inner strength, and less at others and what they might think. They will think about us what we will think about each other.

Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Israel Today, New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

The Role of the Man and the Role of the Woman

Question: How important is a woman’s work according to the wisdom of Kabbalah?

Answer: On the whole, a man is a more mobile creature than a woman. He is active, he runs about, jumps, and crosses seas and oceans. But he does all that for a woman in order to have everything that both she and he need. A woman, on the other hand, helps him, because without her help a man will not succeed.

So the advancement in groups is based on the clear mutual cooperation between the male part and the female part. If we say that we are in a process of fulfilling the idea of accepting the leadership of the Creator and His work now, we need two reins for that, both the male and the female reins. The female rein is the left one, and the male rein is the right one. Through these two representatives of the human race we can resemble the Creator.

It is important to emphasize that the wisdom of Kabbalah designates an even greater role for a woman than for a man. We don’t see it at the moment because men are more prominent as usual, but in fact, subconsciously there is actually the female desire in everything, the female force and the female participation.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 3/3/19

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Question: If there are problems in relations between people, does Kabbalah help solve these problems?

Answer: Partly. I cannot say that in everything at once. I cannot say that a person begins to study and it immediately becomes clear to him where he is and how he should act. This is not the case. But a person begins to understand how he should act in order not to make mistakes.

Although these actions may not be entirely convenient for him—actions of bestowal, actions of benevolence, love, and so on—they show him in which direction he must act in order to be in the correct relationship with the universe, with nature, with all the forces that affect us. Put yourself in a state where all forces will act on him for the good.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/4/21

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Question: Recently, I see how people close to me seem to have turned over. They were full of feelings, the meaning of life, joy, hatred, and love. And suddenly indifference to the goal, to others, to the troubles of others, to the happiness of others. There is not even envy.

Suddenly such a state came after all this crises, all these blows. Suddenly the person hid in this niche and it is good for him to live in it. What is it?

Answer: First, it is the awareness of a person. That is, a person must realize and say that he is in such a state. “I was struck by this state. I am in it, and I do not see how I can get out of it.”

Comment: But if so, this is already a prayer. He already wants to get out of this state.

My Response: No, he doesn’t want to. The fact of the matter is that he sees that he does not want anything, he is absolutely apathetic to what is happening, and has an unwillingness to change anything because he sees that nothing can be changed! And no matter what he does, it will, perhaps, only get worse.

“Therefore, we do not need to change anything! So we will live as long as we need, we will live, when necessary, we will die. Everything will be fine. Why twitch? We see that from all our interventions in what is happening things can only be worse. Let’s not do anything, let’s leave it all. Like in a boat, we see that we can’t get anywhere and do nothing. Let’s throw away the oars, we’ll sit quietly.”

Question: And he even sort of feels good?

Answer: Of course he feels good. You understand that you surrender yourself to the will of the waves.

Question: You made an accurate diagnosis. Now, how can we get a person out of this or not?

Answer: Who can one withdraw? Who has the ability and understanding of where to withdraw?

Comment: Sit down and talk to him.

My Response: About what? What can I tell him?! I can tell him the other way around: “You have come to the correct conclusion. Sit down and don’t fuss.”

Exactly. Because he has no solution, he does not know or understand anything. He is not in connection with the forces of nature that attract us to somewhere. And therefore, the best thing about it is to surrender to the will of the waves.

When Rabbi Akiva was asked how he escaped from the sinking ship, he said: “I grabbed the board, bridled it, sat on it, and for all the waves that passed, I bent my head, and they passed over me. And so these waves pushed me to the shore. Why? Because I did not resist them.”

Question: That is, you propose, as a recipe for a person in this state, first of all, not to interfere. Secondly, that he be in this state of floating at the behest of the waves?

Answer: Yes. And this is the most true when you surrender to the will of nature. Because you still have no other choice. And in nature you know that there are great forces, there is a great mind, and there is something that is above us, some laws, unknown to us, eternal, and so on. And there is something in it that still controls us. So why should I resist? I will only drain my strength, fall to the bottom of my boat, and that’s it.

Comment: So your advice is to wait? Time will take its toll.

My Response: It’s not just waiting. This is a type of prayer, this is agreement with the higher nature: “I am ready to obey you.”

Comment: Do what you want with me.

My Response: Yes. And in fact, you always do what you want with me. But now I finally begin to feel that I don’t need more. This is already a stage of comprehension, a stage of communication.

Question: That is, if a person comes to this thought, this is already a great advance toward the Creator, one might say, toward the law of nature, which governs everything?

Answer: Of course. He does not climb with his limited thoughts when he wants to spoil nature even more and more. Enough! Do not get involved, do not interfere with the flow of nature and what it does to us! So it is said in the Torah too: “Sit and do nothing—it is preferable.”

Question: Is that how you feel about a person who has entered the spirit of indifference?

Answer: And he has nothing else. Where will it come from? Therefore, he is right. This is the surest way out in his condition.

Question: And what is your advice to me, as his friend?

Answer: It depends on how this friend can understand where he exists, in what forces of nature and if he can use these forces correctly. That is, add yourself to the same direction in which nature wants to lead him. That is, in this case, I do not resist the will of the waves. I am ready to go along with the waves in the same direction, also including my forces in this.

So everything is very peaceful, calm, and good.

Comment: So you have sung such a hymn to the indifferent now.

My Response: This is not indifferent, but reasonable.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/22/21

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Zohar for All, VaYetze, item 14: Although these seven holy Havalim are the sustenance of the world, opposite them are seven Havalim from which all the Dinim [judgments] in the world come out.

There are seven original desires in each of us. They do not change.

If we use them for our own sake, they turn into the judgments directed at us. If we use them for the sake of bestowal, for connection with others, then they turn into blessings.

By connecting with each other in this way through our desires, we form a common body that begins to exchange energy, information, and vitality within itself and comes to life. To the extent of our connection, from inanimate stones we turn into vegetative, animate, and even human matter.

Therefore, the seven pillars (desires) can be negative, as today in our world we are driving ourselves into the ground by using them only for our own sake, thereby killing everything around us: both ourselves and the surrounding nature. Yet, we can turn this into a blessing.

Everything depends not on how we use what is around us, but on how we use ourselves. Our attitude to each other and to the surrounding nature determines everything. Therefore, it is written “Hevel Havalim (Vanity of vanities) are the sustenance of the world.” “Vanity of vanities” is my attitude to others. If I direct it incorrectly, it actually turns into evil and judgment.
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #13

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Question: Why was it necessary to shatter the common soul?

Answer: In order to understand what the Creator means.

Let us say you take a beautiful statue or something magnificent, an amazing work of nature, and break it into small pieces. You break the perfection, which is like the Creator. This is how Adam was created.

The Creator Himself takes and breaks His beloved, His only work, into billions of pieces. Why? How? If someone saw it from the side…! We do not understand why He created the world so evil, so dreadful. He created man so terrible, so low. The great, perfect, eternal Creator created something completely opposite to Himself, and yet enjoys that we are suffering here?!

How can this be? I would not wish this state we exist which in on any enemy: this flawed, petty, humiliated, state constantly in pursuit of somehow trying to fulfill ourselves. This is a terrible condition! If we are talking about the eternal and perfect Creator, the power that can do anything, He suddenly created such a thing?!

This is because we see ourselves in this broken state and do not understand that it is best. If we begin to gradually assemble ourselves from it, we will collect ourselves into the similarity of the Creator. Moreover, from this work, we will understand who the Creator is.

We will begin to understand the whole plan of the Creator: why He decided to reduce Himself to the level most opposite from the initial perfection and give us the opportunity to gradually create this perfection from ourselves?

People who want to rise to the level of the Creator wonder about the meaning of life, about the meaning of suffering: “What are they for? What is the meaning of our life? What is it about and what is its purpose?”

When these urgent questions arise in them and life is no longer smiling at them, they must find an answer to it. They feel that everything else has no flavor and all that is left to do is to plunge into drugs, alcohol, or whatever just to forget about this monotony. So, such people are shown from above that there is a method of achieving perfection, which is called the science of Kabbalah.

This method has been hidden for many thousands of years. The Book of Zohar, written two thousand years ago, says that it will be revealed in two thousand years, when we mature to realize that our world and our existence are flawed, we can do nothing with ourselves, and we face total despair.

That is when this Book will find a person and say: “Are you sure you are throwing up your hands in frustration? Then I Will show you the way.”
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From KabTV’s “The Power of The Book of Zohar” #3

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Comment:  Igor wrote a comment about one of your videos about the last generation: “You have come up with a terrible name, the last generation. But I like this name. Yes, we are the last generation because the end of the world is approaching. And I am glad about it.”

My Response: I do not know what he imagines as the end of the world. I do depict the end of our world.

The last generation is the last generation of egoism, the last that exists in this egoism, in this terrible relationship between people, etc. And then the next generation will come. It is not the last; it is the first generation of the new world.

We are still the last generation. We must recognize the evil of all of our past states and simply swear that we will never use it again.

Question: This generation should realize the evil of egoism?

Answer: Yes. So much so that it will never return to it so that this impression from the recognition of evil will remain in it and serve as the correct support, the soil for germination of a new generation.

Question: What is your job? To make people understand and accept this?

Answer: To inform them that we are egoists, that we must rise above it, that we must take the positive force of nature as the basis of our existence and not the evil, not the negative force of nature. And thus move forward.

Question: When such people ask questions, it is clear where they are leading to, that there will be an apocalypse, the end of the world, it is written in many holy books. What does it mean? What is the end of the world?

Answer: The end of the world means the end of our egoistic existence.

Nature is eternal, nothing ends, we will not disappear. We will still grow over and over again. So, nothing threatens us. On the contrary, we will be forced to return to these states again and again in order to draw the right conclusion and live correctly.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 3/15/21

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Lesson on the Topic “Perception of Reality”

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 1″

Selected Highlights 

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