Question: How can we solve a friend’s problem?

Answer: There are problems that a friend can solve when connecting to the Creator. There are problems that friends get so that I will connect to the Creator and solve them. There are states that are felt as global problems, and I connect to the Creator and He solves them through me.

This means that everything is materialized through me, but it comes from the Creator. I am a short-circuit between the Creator and the friend, the group, or the whole world, and that is how we solve the problems.

This is the reason that all our thoughts should flow in the following direction: all the problems stem from the Creator, and we solve them only by connecting to Him. What is more, each one can do it for others.

When working in the ten, we will see that not a single person can correct himself, ascend, connect, or exit the bad state. It is said that only friends can free a person from prison. He can never do it by himself.

We will go through such states all the time, and although we do not feel it now, we will soon see that it is indeed so. So we just need to connect to each other. It is as it is written: “They Helped Every One His Friend” and not any other way.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 2/11/19

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Filed under: Group Work, The Tens | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: Young people often ask:”Why doesn’t anybody need me?” At the same time, they have parents, a school, and money; they are well brought up and study well, but they experience an absolute feeling of emptiness as if no one cares about them.

Answer: It is not a false perception. Indeed, we are in a vacuum. And although there are billions of people around us, we cannot say that we feel their positive influence on us.

All the vibes that we receive from the world around us are either negative or emanate outright soullessness and indifference.

Question: And what to do? People feel absolutely unwanted despite the fact that they seem to be surrounded by quite a lot of attention and care. What can they do to feel they are needed?

Answer: But they do have some goal in life if they are talking about the meaning of life. They should feel that they are going straight toward it: one more small step, one more step, and they are moving.

Otherwise, these questions will arise and people will start hating themselves. But if man has a clear goal, he wants to reach it and every day approaches it, then he is inspired by his life, by his advancement, and he is happy that he exists.
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From KabTV’s “Integral World “7/13/18

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Filed under: Children, Education, Meaning Of Life | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Comment: You constantly ask your students to start writing articles, and tell us it will help us. Then I have a difficulty with having received directions from the teacher that I cannot fulfill. I have no desire to write.

My Response: This is natural. Because the teacher said so. If the teacher gives advice, it is a problem to fulfill it. Yet, precisely because of that, it is desirable to fulfill his advice.

Question: What if I do not have the strength?

Answer: Then you should pray to have strength.

Question: What is this feeling of great regret that there is an opportunity, and suddenly something fetters me?

Answer: If my egoism pushes me to do this, then I can. However, if this is not egoism, but, for example, a teacher, then I cannot. That’s where you can see who’s at work here.

Question: What do you recommend?

Answer: To cry out that I cannot do anything because I obey only my egoism.

Question: Is it true. Moreover, the more I study, the more I realize that everything I do comes from egoism. However, we should not despair, right?

Answer: What does despair have to do with it? This is our nature. There should be no despair, in any case. On the contrary, we should be happy that the truth is revealed.

There must always be an independent expert point, outside of the body when I look at myself from the outside.
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From KabTV’s”Teacher—Student” 2/7/19

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Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” mean?“

A week is a cycle, and every seventh day is a break that as if stops then restarts the universe.

It is written that the Creator worked for six days and rested on the Sabbath, the seventh day.

This means that we should also work for six days and rest on the seventh day. However, our work differs from the Creator’s work.

The Creator’s work is creation. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, the weekdays represent the six Sefirot of Zeir Anpin—Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod and Yesod—six directions.

On the contrary, our work is to change ourselves in accordance with these six Sefirot. When we finish that transformation, we reach the last Sefira. However, the last Sefira becomes revealed in us by itself. Here, we have nothing to do, just to not interfere.

If we correctly attract the six forces upon ourselves, then the seventh force of the Sabbath, Shabbat, from the word Shvita (a break during work), does all the work by itself because we embody no interference to the Creator’s actions.

We receive everything possible in the six stages, the so-called “six days,” which connect in us, and then on the seventh day, we receive their result. In other words, we work during the six days to resemble the Creator’s qualities of love and bestowal, and on the seventh day, we need only let the Creator perform upon us the conclusion and outcome of our six days of work.

Based on the TV show, “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 26, 2019. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Commandments, Q&A, Quora, Torah | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What does the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” mean if not what it says?“

The sixth commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” means to cause no detriment whatsoever to others.

The previous five commandments explain a process that leads to us receiving the forces called Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod and Yesod, and we need to become a receptacle that lets these forces act correctly in us, not interfering with the effect that they have on us.

Using these forces correctly means to use them for the sake of bestowal, and thus “Thou shalt not kill” means the contrary, that we use these forces for self-benefit.

In other words, if we use our connection with the spiritual forces, with the Creator, for self-benefit, then this act is called “killing.” By doing so, we kill our desire, which is the fundamental matter of our existence. Our desire gets killed because it becomes filled with pleasure; the pleasure aimed at self-benefit kills the desire, and the desire becomes extinguished.

Based on the TV show, “Spiritual States” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman on December 26, 2019. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

Filed under: Commandments, Q&A, Quora, Torah | Add Comment / Ask Question →

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My new article on Linkedin “Open Letter to the International Criminal Court”

To: The International Criminal Court (ICC)

Subject: The Court’s announcement that it will open a formal probe against Israel concerning alleged “war crimes” during the 2014 Operation Protective Edge military campaign.

The ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, recently stated that “The decision to open an investigation followed a painstaking preliminary examination.” More importantly, the prosecutor asserted, “My office takes the same principled, non-partisan, approach that it has adopted in all situations over which its jurisdiction is seized,” and the investigation “will be conducted independently, impartially and objectively, without fear or favor.” At the same time, the court admitted, “The ICC is not a panacea, but only seeks to … promote accountability … in an effort to deter [war] crimes.”

But the Jews have long forgotten all about their achievement. They, too, have fallen prey to hatred and have become hostile to their own people just as before they united for the first time in antiquity. In such a state, they cannot set an example of unity; they can only project hatred, which they do in abundance. And because of the world’s expectation from them to project unity, the more they hate each other, the more the world hates them and accuses them of causing wars.

An effort to deter war crimes is a noble goal, no doubt, but I respectfully disagree with the means to achieve it. I, too, am unhappy with the way that the Jewish people and the Jewish state are conducting themselves. However, I think that in order to alleviate the suffering of the parties involved in this conflict, the pressure on Israel should focus on what Israel projects to the world, and not only to the issue of the Palestinians.

No institutions are more preoccupied with the State of Israel than the UN and its various subsidiaries. Many people, Jews for the most part, feel that this “obsession” with the Jewish state reflects a double standard that stems from antisemitism. I, too, believe that the UN is thoroughly antisemitic, but I also understand why this is so. Additionally, I do not think that the “obsession” with Israel is uncalled for. In my view, it is a natural phenomenon that stems from people’s inherent feeling that Israel is an obstructive force. For this reason, I view the nations’ preoccupation with Israel as an attempt to deal with what they perceive as a problem.

I agree that Israel is an obstructive force, but for a different reason than the one that the international community stipulates. In my view, Israel is an obstructive force because the internal division among Israelis reflects negatively on the world and excites conflicts throughout the globe. The nations do not blame Israel for all the wars because Israel actually starts them. They blame it because Israel is projecting the venom and hatred that then cause wars to erupt. And how does Israel do this? The hatred of Israelis for each other reflects on the entire world and poisons the air throughout the planet.

In my book Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour, I elaborate on the origin and significance of the Jewish people to the well-being of the world. Israel, being the Jewish state, should be a leader in carrying out the duty of the Jewish people toward the world. We must remember that the Jewish people is not an ethnicity in its own right, but the descendants of ancestors who came from the numerous tribes, clans, and peoples that inhabited the ancient world in the Fertile Crescent. These people became a nation only after they resolved to rise above their animosity, which stemmed from their different origins and roots. In having achieved this unthinkable union, they presented the world with a method to eliminate hatred, wars, and lift the peoples of the world to a spiritual level of existence, where global brotherhood prevails.

Deep within, the Jewish people are tied in an unbreakable connection to the tribes and clans from which they came. Deep within, the descendants of those tribes, which by now have spread throughout the world, feel that connection and will therefore never stop observing and examining the Jews. These descendants carry with them the latent memory of the achievement of their ancient tribespeople, and demand that they will share their secret with them. They demand that the Jews will teach the world how to form that union above hatred that they once formed among themselves.

But the Jews have long forgotten all about their achievement. They, too, have fallen prey to hatred and have become hostile to their own people just as before they united for the first time in antiquity. In such a state, they cannot set an example of unity; they can only project hatred, which they do in abundance. And because of the world’s expectation from them to project unity, the more they hate each other, the more the world hates them and accuses them of causing wars.

Therefore, the ICC, and every international institution, should focus its attention on the unity of Jews among themselves. It should demand that the Jewish state become an example of brotherhood rather than enmity, of cohesion rather than division. Since Jews are connected to the entire world through those long forgotten roots, their connection will reflect on all of humanity and change the atmosphere throughout the world. For this reason, if the ICC wants the Palestinians and the entire world to have a good life, it must pressure the Jews to be Jews once more—united above their hatred—and everything else will follow.
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Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Israel, New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

My new article on Linkedin “The Benefit in the ICC’s “Unbiased” Investigation against Israel”

Fatou Bensouda, the prosecutor in the investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) into possible “war crimes” against Israel, promised that the investigation “will be conducted independently, impartially and objectively, without fear or favor.” Right. As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out, the ICC, which was established to prevent atrocities like the Holocaust from happening again, is now coming after the Jewish state. Instead of genuine impartiality, “It turns a blind eye to Iran, Syria and the other dictatorships that are committing real war crimes left and right,” said Netanyahu. As always, the easiest way to expose antisemitism is to look for double standards, and in this case, it couldn’t be more patent.

If we want to win the world’s favor, we have to stop treating each other with such guile and odium. We have to stop hating one another or the world will not stop hating us.

Yet, anyone who knows me, or who has read my books, The Jewish Choice, and Like a Bundle of Reeds, will not be surprised if I express no grievances against antisemites or the existence of antisemitism. In fact, I fully understand where it is coming from and I treat it as a natural phenomenon and a call to action rather than as an unwarranted accusation against my people.

I am not in the least surprised that the world judges us by a different standard than it judges the rest of the nations. They expect something different from us and judge accordingly. We may state that we are the same as everyone else, that we are no different from any other nation, but no one believes this declaration, and deep down, neither do we.

Instead of complaining about the world’s double standard against the Jews, we should see it as both a compliment and a challenge. They expect us to be more righteous than everyone else, more ethical than everyone else, and when we fail their test, they accuse us of crimes against humanity.

We try to be righteous and ethical but the world does not believe us. It is wrong, of course; no army is more careful with human rights violations than the Israeli army, but no one believes us, and for a good reason: This ethical conduct is unreliable for a very simple reason—the way we treat each other. We first have to learn how to relate to one another, and then the world will listen to our arguments about being virtuous. They see in our treatment of each other a testimony to our wickedness, and they will not believe a word we say in court before we act out who we profess to be.

Let me ask you this: Would you trust someone who you knew was mean to his own brother, stole from his own sister, framed his own parents in order to put his hands on their money and property, and then told you he’s a good person? No, you wouldn’t, and rightly so. This is how the world sees us Jews—as a band of warmongers stealing from each other, cheating on each other, betraying one another, while pretending to be harmless and innocent. In their eyes, we are guilty before the trial at the ICC even started, and it makes no difference what we will say in our defense.

If we want to win the world’s favor, we have to stop treating each other with such guile and odium. We have to stop hating one another or the world will not stop hating us.

They know we are smart; they know we are able; and they know what we have contributed to the world. However, they also know that they cannot trust us because they see how we treat one another. If we want fair treatment anywhere, we must start by doing so among ourselves, and then we will begin to see the world changing its approach toward us.

For more on this topic, read my books The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord, and Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour.
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Filed under: Anti-Semitism, Crisis, Israel Today, New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Will colonizing Mars or the Moon help save humanity?“

No. Thinking that colonizing other planets, moons, or any other locations will save humanity fails to take into consideration the root cause of our problems: that human nature, the egoistic will to enjoy at the expense of others, is all that needs to change in order for us to enjoy better lives.

If we send a bunch of people who have undergone no inner change to Mars or the moon, then they will exploit, manipulate and abuse each other over there similarly to how we do so on Earth.

Saving humanity and creating a better life for all people thus requires changing ourselves, not our location.

The essence of our self-transformation is our attitudes to each other. We need to realize that human nature is fundamentally evil because it makes our every desire and thought prioritize self-benefit over benefiting others.

Moreover, such a nature gives rise to exploitative, manipulative and abusive behavior, which can be expected to take place anywhere we go, whether Mars or the moon, if we fail to change our nature to its opposite: prioritizing benefit of others and nature over self-benefit.

Therefore, if we truly wished to save humanity and create a better life for everyone and our future generations, then we would need to focus on implementing a new kind of education: a method of connection that would guide our attitude shift from self-centered to other-centered, egoistic to altruistic, detached to positively connected, divisive to unified, and hateful to loving. Undergoing such a transformation would elevate us to a new level of life that would be balanced with the laws of nature. It would in turn bring about newfound harmony, happiness and confidence all throughout humanity, the likes of which we cannot even imagine today.

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

Photo by Christian Lischka SJ on Unsplash.

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

Comment: Larry King, the legendary presenter and television icon, has died at the age of 87. He conducted over 40,000 interviews and was included in The Guinness Book of World Records. In an era when emotional leaders were quick to ask questions, interrupt others, he mostly listened. He asked the question, “Why? What do you think,” and he listened.

This made him stand out from all. Among his interlocutors were all the U.S. Presidents, starting with Nixon, and also Margaret Thatcher, Vladimir Putin, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Mike Tyson, Paul McCartney, and you, Michael Laitman.

At the end of the conversation with you, he suddenly said to the production team: “I want to talk to him more, continue the time.”

My Response: Yes, he knew how to show the interlocutor that he was interviewing him. And he listened and heard. And although at first I did not feel any special interest in me on his part, in just a few minutes he began to change. He began to get used to the situation, he himself began to live in it, to empathize.

Listening is a gift from God. Who knows how to listen nowadays? No one. Even psychologists. The main thing for them is to foist on you what they think, and that’s it. They do not work for internal contact with the patient, with the sick person, with the interlocutor, or with the interviewee. This is not the case today.

Question: So, in principle, the art of listening is the main art?

Answer: Yes. This is what Larry King was famous for. We had nothing pre-assigned—an unexpected meeting. I practically answered the questions that interested him. And in no case as an interviewer, but as a person who wants to understand a little bit about life, what is going on in his family, what is happening in his life, with work, with a view of the world.

He understood me. That is, he did not have such an automatic switch on what only he needed and the rest does not matter, as television and radio hosts usually have. No, he absorbed it all for himself.

Question: What are the main qualities of a leader? To reveal a person, what do you need to be able to do?

Answer: To reveal a person, you must enter into him without need to spin it.

It is not necessary, because you unwind him, and he, therefore, like a child in your arms, is very light, external. This is not his inner essence. It is necessary to do so that a person opens up himself, and in such a way that he begins to open up in everything that he did not even think about, did not imagine, that he would ever be able to speak.

Question: And this happens when the one who asks presents the question and kind of cancels and listens?

Answer: Not only is it canceled, but when he wants to enter into the interlocutor, sympathize, be with him, not just empathize. And even more so not to show that you catch him on something or you spin it on something. With Larry King, I felt that this is a person who is really interested in understanding me.

At that time he had problems with his loved one, who was very sick. He disconnected from it and went into what I was telling him. This captured him more than his personal problems, and that is why he was so interested in me, and he was late for this interview. And he did not want to leave, he held my hand.

I just understood what he needed, that he was going to the hospital right after talking with me, and so on. It was impressive. That is, in the end I interviewed the person. Although this is not my specialty, not my task, I was impressed by him. It is precisely this turn, what he can do. He remained human.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/25/21

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