Question: Let’s say that I feel that I cannot justify the Creator either in my mind or in my heart. Nonetheless is this a state of awareness?

Answer: Yes. There is a very smooth gradation that can go from double concealment to  single concealment, then back to double and again to single. This is because when we go forward, by correcting our sensations all the time, we correct them in ascents and descents, ascents and descents.

The ascents and descents give us the feeling of a double or single revelation of the Creator, and then concealment, and then revelation. In other words, these states alternate all the time.

Despite the fact that concealment pushes me away, I do not see the Creator, and I do not understand Him, I am always in some doubts and contradictions, I still do not leave this work and insist on understanding and distinguishing Him. Then the Creator is gradually revealed to me.

I begin to feel that everything comes from Him, and everything has its own reasons, which are intentionally manifested in relation to me and give me the opportunity to be in double or single concealment, and in double or single revelation, so that I would always feel the contrasts between darkness and light. After all, it is with these contrasts that I begin to understand what the principle of His control over me is and how I should respond to this with feedback.

Basically, I need to reach a state where neither double nor single concealment obscure Him from me.

By rising above myself in any darkness, I will feel how to behave correctly, and the darkness will never separate me from the Creator. On the contrary, it will be helping me to be connected to Him by rising above it.
[274951]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/14/19

Related Material:
A Single Concealment And A Double Concealment Of The Good
Forward, Toward Concealment
Night: Prelude To The Day

Filed under: Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Virtual Convention “Preparation for the Lesson 3”

Virtual Convention “You Have Made Me, Building the Greatness of the Creator,” Lesson 3

Virtual Convention “Preparation for the Lesson 4”

Virtual Convention “Being A Conduit,” Lesson 4

Filed under: Conventions | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: The great Kabbalist the Ari wrote that there are five kinds of desires. Two categories are my inner desires. They are close to me, so I care about them. And there are three more categories of desires that are outside of me that include people I cannot take care of because I feel them as strangers.

When I apply the method of Kabbalah, will I feel their desires much closer than I feel my own today?

Answer: Yes. As much as your mortal, temporary body is now dear to you, to that extent you will feel that they are your eternal, perfect soul, and you will invest in them more than supposedly in yourself.

Comment: It is hard to believe that this is possible.

My Response: It is possible. You just need to see the correct connection.

The Creator does not require anything that you are not able to do. But He invites you to change your point of view so that you determine that what exists outside of you is more important than you yourself today.

Question: Where is the Creator here?

Answer: The Creator is a common force of nature that created everything, divided everything into two parts and sets the condition: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is the minimum, but in fact, you must love your neighbor more than yourself. And then you will take care of your soul, of your eternal state, eternal potential, and not of yourself as an animal, temporary and flawed. Thus, you will come to a completely different sense of the world.
[275017]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 1/28/19

Related Material:
Why Is My Neighbor Any Of My Business?
Filling The Desires Of Others As If They Were My Own
How Can We Fill The Desires Of Billions Of People?

Filed under: Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: Is the very meeting of future parents in our world predetermined or not?

Answer: It is predetermined. It was no accident that I met this person.

Question: Why is this done? Why do couples connect in this way?

Answer: There are no coincidences in the world. No coincidences at all! As it is said in The Master and Margarita: “The brick is neither here nor there… it never merely falls on someone’s head from out of nowhere.”

Question: If so, is the birth of a particular child who will be born predetermined?

Answer: Everything is absolutely predetermined until the end of all time. There is nothing new.

Question: Can we say that there is a good time for conceiving a child?

Answer: That doesn’t matter either, and it also does not depend on people. It is all arranged from above, and so it happens. In fact, a person does not choose anything.

Question: But when parents decide they want to have a child, what should they think about?

Answer: That they want to make a good person who would be useful to the world and would enjoy the fact that he is beneficial to the world.

Question: What is “to benefit the world”?

Answer: To bring people together.

Comment: Imagine giving this task to parents!

My Response: They think about it in the act of conception. As it is written in Ketuvim, Job 3:2: “Would the day in which I was to be born be lost, and the night when one said, ‘A man has impregnated.'”

Comment: Usually a person thinks more about himself, so that there is a good, kind, warm, beloved, healthy child. Think about him more.

My Response: No. By this you do not make a child but an animal. And if you think about how he will be in the world as a person, for the world, then you make a person.

Question: What if a couple cannot conceive a child, but they really want to?

Answer: Try as much as you can. You cannot do anything. Even today it still depends on higher providence.

Question: And what will help more here: going to healers or doctors?

Answer: We must visit doctors, we must do everything possible.

Question: And at the same time ask the upper one to help?

Answer: Of course, all together.

Question: When will He hear this request?

Answer: This is unknown to us. As much as people strive to do good to each other and with the Creator, the closer they will be to the fulfillment of this desire, although this does not guarantee it.

Comment: It is not very clear: “good to each other and with the Creator.” Explain this point, please.

My Response: To act between each other as it was originally established by the Creator.

Question: How is this established?

Answer: Everything is built on goodness.

Question: How should expectant parents behave during pregnancy?

Answer: We must be considerate with each other, especially with a woman. And try so that a woman during pregnancy has good thoughts, music, readings. In general, to influence her with positive and more elevated emotions and knowledge. All this influences the child very much.

Question: What kind of music would you choose?

Answer: I personally support classical music because it is the most proper, the most complete. Of course, not heavy but soft classics.

Question: What should a woman during pregnancy think about?

Answer: It is written about this in the Torah that a woman only thinks about the one who is in her, who was conceived and grows in her. Only about him. Nature has already foreseen this, so there is no need to interfere with it.

Question: What is the most critical time of pregnancy?

Answer: As a rule, the first few months. Then the foundation of the child is laid.

Question: When should the child be handed over to the mother?

Answer: You must immediately place the child on her so that he feels that he is still connected with the mother.

Question: Does this give him more security?

Answer: Both to her and to him. There must be a connection. It is very important.

Question: What does mother’s milk mean for baby’s growth?

Answer: Mother’s milk is not necessarily from his mother, it can be from another woman. Although, it is preferable for the child to receive milk from his mother. And this milk is the closest substance to the child, carrying so many elements we do not even suspect.

Question: What does the baby get with mother’s milk?

Answer: It is impossible to express. The upper light, called Ohr Hassadim, light of mercy, he receives from above through his mother’s milk.

Question: How does a mother communicate with a breastfeeding baby?

Answer: She talks to him through it. He feels her through her chest and she feels him through her chest. This is an amazing mechanism in both animals and humans.

Question: How long should a mother breastfeed her baby?

Answer: It is generally recommended up to two years.

Comment: Nobody follows this.

My Response: I know that no one follows it. But, according to the spiritual law, breastfeeding should be up to two years.

Question: And if you must go to work as it is today?

Answer: Well, everyone does, that is true. Who cares about some spiritual or natural laws?

Comment: You are saying that everything is predetermined and all actions are predetermined.

My Response: If you ruin your life, do not blame nature.

Question: So, we ruined life so much? We send mothers to work in six months, a year, and so on.

Answer: Of course.

Question: What needs to be done to make things right?

Answer: To make it right—the woman should not work at all.

Comment: This, of course, is impossible in our times.

My Response: Why? Why is it bad if only the man works and earns enough for his family, and this would be enough for the family to live normally, calmly, quietly?

Question: Tell me, if the mother is annoyed or after a quarrel with the father, should she feed or not feed the child at that moment?

Answer: This is not good. The child will feel this very much on himself, and therefore, such states are absolutely undesirable! A woman must be protected, isolated from any negative, unwanted influences.

Question: That is, all this enters the child, both irritation and hatred?

Answer: Of course. All this will creep into the child and manifest in negative consequences.

Question: Does the infant generally feel what is happening at home in parental relationships?

Answer: Of course. He feels everything. Everything is felt by him “through the air” even if it is in the next house, in another city. All of this is transmitted. He is very sensitive. The mother for him is like a receiver that he listens to and perceives even if she does not say anything to him. But everything that affects the mother, he feels it all.

Question: It turns out that the mother is like a sixth sense for him?

Answer: Of course. It seems to us that he came out of the mother and the umbilical cord was cut off. Nothing is cut.
[274965]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/5/20

Related Material:
Sex, Love, Test Tubes And Nature
Who Should Be Educated First?
Love Will Make A Child Smarter

Filed under: Children, Education, Man and Woman | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Comment: There is something called xenophobia. It is the desire for self-preservation based on dislike, intolerance, and prejudice toward people who are different, with a different skin color, extra weight, short height, etc. Our brain immediately identifies them as strangers.

There is a law of similarity of form according to which people who are similar attract each other and opposites repel. We say that we must follow the laws of nature.

My Response: No, the law of nature is not necessarily to be closer to those who are like you. In most cases, it is necessary to connect with those who are different from you in order to create a broader field of social relations.

Therefore, we see among biological connections of all kinds that they need to be combined with others, sometimes very different from one another. This leads to an even greater diversity in nature.

Therefore, you will not only cross redheads with redheads, tall ones with tall ones, etc., which can only lead to incorrect consequences.

Question: So, what is this law of similarity of form, like attracts like?

Answer: This refers to inner similarity when people are attracted to each other and feel the same aspirations.

In Kabbalah, this is the most important quality; we come together in groups with the intention of reaching a special goal, a non-corporeal one, which cannot be determined by any standard, material conventions.

People with different skin color, those who are tall, short, fat, or thin can take part in this process. The main thing is that everyone should have the desire to connect with others by rising above their own nature. They begin to connect in a completely different way and with qualities that are inconsequential in this world.

In other words, when we talk about similarity, we mean the similarity of people’s goals, but their qualities and character traits remain different. The greater the variety, the more we arrive at similarity.
[275005]
From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 10/14/20

Related Material:
Xenophobia: The Desire For Self-Preservation
Through Similarity Of Properties
Fear—Agent Of Development

Filed under: Education | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: Are there situations when it is worth following just one person—a leader and not a team?

Answer: Yes. If we want to achieve a higher goal, then we cannot rely on the opinion of the crowd because by remaining a crowd with many opinions, it cannot produce anything special or higher than itself. We see what comes out of it. All this is invented only to fool people.

If we want to rise above our state we do not need a crowd. We need to train people, even that same crowd, to be a collective that can rise above themselves in faith above knowledge, that is, to the next level of development, sensing the creation.

Question: But in order to rise to this state, it is necessary to annul personal opinions and combine the efforts to create a unified desire. Why can’t we just add our opinions and not annul them?

Answer: No. If we do thus, we will not reach faith above knowledge. Each of us must humble ourselves in relation to the collective, and then we will all come to a state, where in our union, we become higher than each of us individually or together as a sum.

A completely different principle works here. I work with my egoism, raise society in my eyes, and accept it as something sacred. Despite the fact that I am right as an individual, I accept the opinion of society above my own because it is a society! I understand that there is a common strength, a common opinion, in it.

This is not the opinion of the crowd. By w anting to be connected together, we are all inside each other, each annulling oneself. Then we create such a state where everybody equalizes oneself with the others. Then we begin to feel the next level of our development, each from the point of annulment. This is called faith above knowledge.
[274073]
From KabTV’s “Communication Skills” 9/25/20

Related Material:
Is Polling People Effective For Decision Making?
Different Levels Of Decision Making
The Wisdom Of The Crowd And The Wisdom Of Kabbalah

Filed under: Education | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3 Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Medium published my new article “Social Media and the Almighty Dollar”

Yet again money and control usurp American ideals as recent social media giants’ actions demonstrate. Instead of these new communication platforms bringing us together, diminishing distances between us and creating one global village, they are undermining America’s core values of democracy, pluralism, and freedom of speech as YouTube, Facebook, and others decide to censor political content to benefit and solidify the power of one side of the American political spectrum.

YouTube, the Google-owned channel, announced it will remove videos disputing the 2020 presidential election at a time when the legal team of the incumbent president is still contesting the results amid fraud allegations, which include video recordings supposedly proving their claims. In addition, Facebook, owner of WhatsApp and Instagram, is also in the center of yet another controversy. The U.S. government and 48 states and districts are suing the company, accusing it of abuse of power to harm smaller competitors.

Pluralism as Phony as a $3 Dollar Bill

Today, the media, and social media in particular, enjoys boundless benefits as if it were a blank check. It avails itself of widespread influence and power as never before. At any instant, public opinion can be swayed one way or another. With a bag full of billions, anyone can become a president or prime minister. It may seem as if social media has an ideological preference for one political side over the other, but in fact, it is all about the almighty dollar.

Money can buy control, and control can overwhelm and influence everything, allowing the freedom of unruly behavior and excessive power. Day after day, social platforms become places open to slander and vitriol one another, fueling the human ego which enjoys flowing over everyone until people are gradually weakened and surrender. A space with no limits gives license to complete dominance. Day in and day out, hatred for other people becomes greater like a cancer eating away at the body of human society that proliferates toward causing the body’s death.

The proper role of the media is to bring us together, to serve to connect all the organs in a single healthy body. How good it would be if all the different parts of society would sit together — the left and the right, the representatives of all the different interest groups, even those at the margins of society — and all work together for the benefit of the public.

Unification at All Costs

Every opinion should have its own space, no opinion should be subjugated, and no voice should be silenced, but that is not happening anywhere in the world at any time. We need to come to terms with the fact that the current state of affairs is unsustainable — all is rotten, and therefore, radical change is needed.

While it seems like a utopian fantasy to envision social media playing such a role of unification, it is only because we are perpetually exposed to a world of lies and misinformation harmful to society’s health and sanity. Social media, the way it works now, should be completely shut down; otherwise, it will destroy society. People have the power to change it, but only through a strong and unified demand.

A new rule should guide the work of the media and all social media platforms: publish news and content that contributes to the public’s well-being, and strive to unite human society. No one would have the right to undermine another’s opinion, but only to balance it with a different position, to guide the varying points of view toward being mutually complementary, toward completeness.

Precisely when opposites reach mutual acceptance, society reaches a new stage of development. Social media fostering these values is what our global and interconnected world needs today. The benefits to all would be priceless!
[275362]

Filed under: New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Medium published my new article “The Worst Year Ever?”

Stephanie Zacharek, a film critic for Time magazine, wrote in its feature article that summarizes 2020, which it titled “The Worst Year Ever”: “If 2020 were a dystopian movie, you’d probably turn it off after 20 minutes. This year wasn’t doomily thrilling, like a fictional apocalypse. It was, in addition to being wrought with pain, maddeningly mundane, the routine of the everyday turned against us.” Moreover, “Our most debilitating threat this year,” she adds, “was a sense of helplessness,” and “Not since the spread of fascism in the 1930s … have we been faced with so many abnormal events.”

With all due respect to the distinguished film critic, I wholly disagree. There has been nothing abnormal about this year, since there is nothing abnormal about this pandemic. On the contrary, up until this year, we have been leading a maddening, abnormal way of life, and the “restraining order” we got from the virus has reinstated normality on Planet Earth. For the first time in more than a century, life functioned normally!

We have been pushing nature’s limits to the brink of snapping, and the virus is only the mildest way it could conjure up to make us stop before we blow ourselves up along with the rest of the planet. Nature could not be gentler with us than with Covid-19.

Besides, how can any sensible person say about forest fires, hurricanes, a pandemic, and earthquakes that they are abnormal? How can natural phenomena be abnormal? Only a warped perspective can view natural phenomena as uncanny and the artificial as normal. Not only that, for a distinguished magazine like Time to declare in its feature piece for 2020 that nature is, well, unnatural, is a testimony to our miscomprehension of the world we live in. If anything is to be regretted about this year, it is our folly.

The people at Time clearly have no clue about their role as a means of communication, about the role of the media. Instead of using their magazine for educational purposes, to teach people where we are and where we’re going, they’re using it to circulate eloquent inanity.

2020 is the best year ever! It is the first time when nature has shown us, in plain view, how it responds to the distortions we install in its system. It tells us we have crossed the line and if we continue on the road we’re going, we will extinguish ourselves. Mother Nature is doing all she can to save her ungrateful children, and we whine like spoiled brats that she isn’t giving us the candy we want.

When you don’t know what you’re doing, stick your hands deep in your pockets and keep them there until you are smarter. We have been doing the exact opposite: switching every knob and pressing every button we could find in order to somehow squeeze more fun out of nature. It is only a miracle we have survived this far. The coronavirus saved our lives by forcing us to go home and limit our abuse of our only home. It is clearly a blessing, yet foolish we curse her on the front page of one of our most acclaimed publications.

The media is our number one educational tool. We should use it to learn about ourselves and our surroundings, not to complain about nature’s teaching but to explain how we should work within the ecosystem that is our universe. It is a closed system, and any wrongdoing bears its consequences. We may not feel it right away, but it is only because we are insensitive to our surroundings and oblivious to our interconnections. If we were slightly more aware of our interdependence, we would see the negative impact of our misdeeds straight away, and wouldn’t think that when those offenses take their toll on us, it is not our fault. Because not only is it our doing that we’ve had such an “eventful” year, it is nobody else’s.

If we do not learn the lesson that Covid-19 has taught us in 2020, 2021 will teach us the same lesson even more painfully. It is not for nature’s meanness, but for our denseness. I feel sorry for Mother Nature; it is not easy rearing such obstinate children. At the same time, I’m grateful that she always chooses the least painful means to teach us what she must, and that she has finally chosen to reveal to us her ways, so we can study them and become grownups in our own world, too.
[275410]

Filed under: Coronavirus, Crisis, New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →