We are all in a state of exile, which is an exile from the perception and knowledge of the Creator, the upper, spiritual world. There are only two states: exile and redemption.

Being in a state where the Creator is concealed, we find ourselves in reality as it appears to us now, that is, temporary and changing under the influence of the laws of nature.

But there is a spiritual reality that we can ascend to. There are other times and definitions active there, and we find ourselves above time, motion, and space.

How can we pass from this world, from the material reality perceived by the physical senses, to the spiritual reality? To do this, you need to develop spiritual sense organs that perceive the spiritual world.

Even while in the animal body, while still living in this world, we can experience spiritual reality along with material reality. In the end, the material reality will melt away and we will all enter the spiritual world.

How can we achieve liberation from our egoism, which now holds us in the feeling of this world only? According to the Creator’s program, egoism gives us various problems and troubles in order to force us to rise and leave this world. After all, if we always felt good in it, we would remain in these small egoistic desires forever.

The Creator wants us to develop, and therefore awakens suffering in us with various problems, forcing us to think about changing our state. He also points us in the direction of change, awakening egoistic relationships between us that lead us to understand the need to rise to a different perception of the world, to a reality above our reason.

The transition from world to world depends on whether a person perceives reality personally, individually, feeling the world as we see it today. Through personal perception, it is impossible to feel the world differently. Or a person begins to connect with others and perceives reality from this connection.

One begins to think not about himself, but about what is good for the group, for the ten, or even for the whole of humanity. He identifies himself with others, outside of himself, and perceives reality through them. This will already be a spiritual perception of reality because he rises above his egoism, the desire to receive, which is called a body, to another perception in the global desire between him and others, which is called a soul.

That is how he gets a new perception of reality. Therefore, the transition from the physical perception of reality to the spiritual one is an ascent from feeling within a person personally to the global sensation of the group, from the sensation of I to WE. The greater this WE, the stronger the sense of spiritual reality, eternal, perfect, and independent of the personal perception of an individual.

This will be a new, true perception of the only existing reality. We now live in an imaginary reality and our entire world is an illusion that arises in our material sense organs due to egoistic desires that pull everything to themselves. This reality exists only in our imagination.

When we ascend from the material world to the spiritual world, we feel as if we are waking up from a dream. We are now in a dream and must wake up.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/20, “Bereshit“

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Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Perception, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Two thousand years ago, the nation of Israel fell from its spiritual level to the corporeal one, from the intention of bestowal to the intention for its own sake. As a result, we have turned into completely different people, into a different nation with a new religion, a new outlook on life, and a different perception of reality.

Previously, we perceived all reality as one single whole in which one force acted, and we all belonged to it. But gradually, together with the collapse of the First Temple and then after a thousand years of the Second Temple, we began to move away from bestowal and unification into perceiving life as we see it today, that is, purely corporeally, egoistically, and recognize the unification of a man only with himself, but not with others.

Today we will have to make a lot of effort to return to the spiritual, true perception of reality.
We must understand that this perception of reality and intention is in conflict with what is accepted in all religions. Each religion wants to establish itself above others, be proud of it, and teach the same to the people who follow it. We, however, need to advertise a union that will raise us above all problems because they are all a consequence of remoteness, separation, and unfounded hatred among us.

If I perceive reality egoistically, care only about my own existence, see others from afar, and do not unite with them through feelings into one whole, then I see the world as it is today, in my five  sense organs.

But if I unite with someone else, at least with one person, for this I need to annul myself and then I will already begin to perceive the reality with different organs of sensation. These will no longer be the ordinary sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, but the Sefirot Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin, and Malchut.

I will see reality as single and perfect. It will already be a reality that does not exist within myself, but outside of me. That is, it will not be limited by my sensory organs. To the extent that I abandon my personal sensation, my desire to receive pleasure, for the external perception, for the desire to bestow, to that extent I will reveal the true reality.

I will reveal the light in the desire for bestowal, which I was able to build within my desire to receive pleasure, the form of bestowal and love, that is, the form of the Creator. From a passive observer of reality, I will turn into its active researcher. This is what the science of Kabbalah teaches us.

We must all receive the form of a spiritual Partzuf, which contains desire, restriction, screen, and reflected light. Then it becomes active, can bestow to the master, unite with Him, and attain Him, as it is written: “And you will be like God, and know good and evil.”

In religion, a person performs corporeal actions and wants to receive a corporeal reward for them. But we want to perform spiritual actions, that is, build a mutual connection, unity, up to love between us. This will be our reward.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/20, “Bereshit“

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Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Israel, Kabbalah Study, Nations of the World, Religion, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

My article in Newsmax: “Ignoring COVID is Playing Russian Roulette With Our Kids’ Health”

For all our efforts to deny its severity, COVID-19 is not a joke. It’s a serious illness and the more we ignore it, the more serious it becomes.

If at first we thought that it affected only elderly and unwell people, we now know that it affects everyone, at all age groups and at all levels of health. But the most frightening aspect about the coronavirus is its impact on children. While most infected children remain asymptomatic, some develop a very severe condition known as Paediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (PIMS), which affects their brain, and can even lead to death.

Ignoring the risks from COVID-19 is in many ways like playing Russian Roulette. The odds of dying in this case are much slimmer, but the head at the gunpoint is that of our children. Are we willing to take the risk?

The more we stall with dealing with the virus, the more infectious and more violent it becomes. What will happen if we stall for another six months? How much worse will it impact us and our children? Do we want to wait for the mortality rate to rise? Do we want to sit by until hospitals are unable to treat people with any illness because their beds are taken by COVID patients? We really should know better.

The novel coronavirus isn’t here on a brief visit. I said it when it first arrived, and now science is beginning to recognize it. A few days ago, John Edmunds, a member of the U.K. Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, told lawmakers that “We are going to have to live with this virus for evermore. There is very little chance that it’s going to become eradicated.” In simpler words, the life we had until 2020 will never return; we have to build a new and better one.

The first place to start in reconstructing our lives is our society. If we examine each crisis that humanity is grappling with, we will find specific causes for each of them. But behind each crisis, whether it is climate change, forest fires, COVID-19, hunger, war, water pollution, air pollution, substance abuse, poverty, obesity, domestic violence, racism or any other crisis, they are all caused by our lack of consideration, by our alienation from each other.

We patronize some, demonize others, abuse, manipulate and cheat our way to wealth and power. Some are more aggressive, some are less so, but this is the dominant mindset around the world. This is also the mindset that has inflicted on us the countless crises plaguing our planet. We will never overcome them until we uproot our constant mistreatment of each other.

We know that mutual responsibility is great for all of us; we feel it instinctively. But whenever we want to implement it, the “voice of reason” awakens in our heads and says that it is pointless to attempt to implement it since too few people are willing to make the effort, that it’s against human nature, that we’re dreaming if we think that this can ever work, etc.

But is it against human nature to want to feel safe? Is it against human nature to want to be able to trust people? Is it against human nature to build networks of mutual responsibility in order to secure everyone’s health and well-being? On the contrary, nothing is more natural than these behaviors. Every settlement provides its residents with exactly these benefits; it is why people live in settlements and communities, and when we choose our leaders, we look for the ones who can best provide us with these necessities.

But while we are living in systems that secure our lives, we mistreat each other — the building blocks of the systems that sustain us. It does not make sense. It’s as if cells attacked an antigen that came to help them fight a virus, and then complained that they were sick.

We must stop yielding to our egos. They are warping our perception and make us think all the wrong things about each other. They make us hate each other when in fact we’re all dependent on each other and wouldn’t be able to live if it weren’t for all of us.

And if we’re not strong enough to fight our egos for our own sake, let’s at least do it for our children. It is not their fault that we are letting our egos run amok; it is not their fault that we are heartless, gutless and cannot look beyond our noses. Let’s at least give up on our egos for their sake, so they, too, will have a future, and let’s not play Russian roulette with our kids’ heads at gunpoint.
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Filed under: Coronavirus, New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

My new article on Linkedin “The Satire of Antisemitism”

On Twitter and Facebook alone, a staggering 1.7 million antisemitic posts were made this year, said U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism, Elan Carr. That is no laughing matter. But what if we fight hate with satire like comedians try to do? Could that be an effective way to tackle conspiracy theories against Jews? I think, “Yes.” Regardless of whether it is done in a straightforward fashion or from the flip side, what matters most is to awaken the question of why the endless Jew-hatred exists, as an important step to solving the problem for good.

Only the people of Israel can make a difference in the world because they are the people who received the method of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah, which describes the means for drawing the unique force in nature capable of neutralizing any disruption and negativity in reality. That force that balances hatred is the power of love created through Jewish unity. When Jews are united and become an example to follow, they will arise as the “light unto the nations,” lighting up the path to a positive future for humanity. That will be the day when fairness, equality, and mutual understanding will have the last laugh.

The coronavirus comes from “a place called Wuhan, which is in Israel” joked Jewish comedian Sasha Baron Cohen on a popular US television show, and was reported in some media outlets. People certainly don’t take him seriously and it is clear that his intention isn’t to stir up provocation, but to use sarcasm as an effective way to disparage antisemitism. Why could this be a great strategy? Because we need a creative approach to address the increasing animosity against Jews around the world. It might help us to highlight this phenomenon bluntly and vociferously on social media where antisemitism crops up and spreads like a virus.

The world’s attention is currently focused on the other epidemic, Covid-19, which has upstaged Jew hatred slightly but not erased it from the playbill, as statistics show. As soon as the plague weakens, the voices of our enemies will intensify again, blaming Jews for the pandemic and other libels, as antisemites so openly do at every first opportunity and through any means at their disposal.

However, we waste our time trying to combat the haters head-on or by struggling to remove unwanted content. These actions will not help, nor do we have the immense power and resources it would take to eradicate the problem. As soon as the measures to eliminate antisemitic posts are implemented in one place, they rapidly reproduce like weeds in a field. Therefore, the only strategy that will bear fruit is to learn how to take the negativity thrown our way and contrast it with all the goodness expected from the Jewish people.

In fact, let’s take a step back and think about this clearly for a moment. When antisemites blame Jews for all the calamities in the world, they are actually pointing to Jews as the only force capable of causing change in the world, as the only people who have the power to solve any crisis humanity faces but who are failing to fulfill this goal.

That is a true statement—they are absolutely right. Only the people of Israel can make a difference in the world because they are the people who received the method of connection, the wisdom of Kabbalah, which describes the means for drawing the unique force in nature capable of neutralizing any disruption and negativity in reality. That force that balances hatred is the power of love created through Jewish unity. When Jews are united and become an example to follow, they will arise as the “light unto the nations,” lighting up the path to a positive future for humanity. That will be the day when fairness, equality, and mutual understanding will have the last laugh.
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Filed under: Anti-Semitism, New Publications | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What is the purpose of life?“

The purpose of life is to attain the highest and most exalted state that nature prepared for us: to ascend above our inborn egoistic selves and gain a clear understanding, perception and sensation of why we—and nature on all of its levels, inanimate, vegetative, animate and human—exist.

Moreover, the purpose of life cannot be forced upon or shown to anyone, similarly to how we cannot prove mathematical laws to cats. Instead, every person needs to discover the purpose of life for themselves: to elevate themselves in perception and sensation until they gain a complete vision and feeling of reality.

The ascension above our inborn egoistic nature to the discovery of nature’s wholeness is the fullest meaning of becoming a human being. In Hebrew, the word for “human” is “Adam,” which stems from the phrase, “Adameh le Elyon” (“similar to the most high”), which means that if we rise above our narrow egoistic perception and attain a whole perception of reality, we fulfill our role of becoming “human” in the fullest sense of the term.

In principle, there are two forces in nature: reception (egoism, negative) and bestowal (altruism, positive). We are born and raised solely on the force of reception, which is expressed in us as egoism: the desire to enjoy at the expense of anything or anyone outside of oneself.

Our egoism develops and grows over many generations, from a small desire to enjoy that demands nothing more than its basic survival needs—food, sex, family and shelter—to a bigger ego that requires fulfillment from myriad social connections—money, wealth, honor, respect, fame, control, power and knowledge. In our era, we have reached a uniquely significant transition point where we bear witness to our egoistic development reaching a dead end, i.e., feeling it increasingly hard to feel fulfilled from egoistic pursuits, which also gives rise to a plethora of negative attitudes in society—people taking out their dissatisfaction on each other more and more, leading to increasing polarization and hatred throughout society.

Today’s overblown egoism thus points the way to the need for us to draw an opposite, positive and altruistic force in order for us create balanced relations among each other and with nature.

Both our inborn egoism as well as the positive altruistic force stem from nature, and the purpose of life is that we apply ourselves to attract nature’s positive altruistic force above our egoistic one, in order that we live in balance and harmony with nature.

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

Lessons in the Form of a Round Table

Question: What is the main difficulty in organizing lessons in the form of a round table? What should we pay attention to?

Answer: It is very difficult to make a round table from a lesson because a lesson requires a teacher. If the teacher excludes himself from this circle and is present as an outside moderator, then it is another matter.

Question: In what do you see the difficulty in organizing such a round table?

Answer: The difficulty is in the students themselves, whether they are ready for this, whether they understand the importance of doing exercises in this way.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 7/9/20

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New Life 475 – Personal Interests Vs. National Interests
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

A true leader needs to be above his ego, devoted to the people, and detached from any personal interest. This is someone who is ready to leave his post and clean the streets if that is what is needed for the good of the people. Leadership is a reflection of the public and can only be corrected from the bottom up since any existing system shreds and devours those who enter it. We will get to know evil out of the dark, corrupt ego and move in the direction of connection. Once a new spirit is created, it will be projected onto the leadership. To be Israel is to love thy friend as thyself and discover the upper force between us.
From KabTV’s “New Life 475 – Personal Interests Vs. National Interests,” 12/16/14

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

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Question: How can we combine collective management with vertical management? To what extent should the boss or leader take the opinion of the people into account?  Should this be done  only when he or she does not have enough information to make a decision?

Answer: We take into account the opinion of the people only when it is necessary to make common actions to solve problems, but nothing more.

Question: So there should be a hierarchy in management?

Answer: Management must be vertical. And a collective must be a collective. A manager must take care about the understanding of the task, the goal to be reached, the solvability of this task, its sequence. For all this should be agreed between everyone, accepted, approved, and everyone should be inspired by the implementation of the task.

Question: In this process, do we need to take into account the opinion of every person? Even in an organization employing several hundred people, not to mention the state?

Answer: You can hold a meeting, maybe even more than one, in order to make the need and sequence of actions clear to everyone.

Question: So it is important for a leader or a manager to hear the opinions of the people, but they have to make decisions by themselves?

Answer: Yes, they listen to the opinions of the people, and it is good for the subordinates to know where everything should lead. There is always room for some mistakes, an opportunity to fix or improve something, and the subordinates themselves will prompt their managers.

Remark: This is all about solving easy tasks. And if you need to solve a serious problem where there is a lot of confidential information and the people do not have this information, then it is quite difficult to make a decision.

My Comment: Then the making of the decision is split into certain segments. At the same time, we must try to do so that a team is involved in their implementation.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 6/11/20

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Question: The process of perception of new information goes through stages. The first stage is selective, a way of capturing information, then there is recognition based on some associations, followed by interpretation, assessment of the significance of the information, its understanding. And, finally, is the retention of information. Do you agree with this?

Answer: More or less. But all this is very difficult for a person. Let’s say I’m starting to get to know something and I have to check myself against this long list to find out how much am I in this flow of information or in its absorption within myself. This is almost impossible.

Remark: Scientists say that it is important to link new material to clear examples. Otherwise, the material will not be absorbed. For example, it is useless to tell a person about mutual guarantee unless we provide some examples.

The sages knew about this a thousand years ago and wrote the study materials (in the sources) in the form of stories. So when you talk about mutual guarantee, imagine someone drilling a hole in a boat, it all becomes very clear.

My Comment: Sure. In principle this remains, only a lot of data and conditions are added.

Question: I think that it would be a good idea to give various examples in our explanations. For example, when you say: “You must become as round as nature or reflect its laws,” what can I imagine?

For me, nature is forests, groves, the cosmos. What examples could you give when you say that man must reflect the laws of nature?

Answer: One should simply study what nature really is, its laws, what is it trying to tell us. One must acquire some new skills, knowledge, and expand one’s perception.

Question: You often say that the solution to any problem is in uniting humanity. And here the question arises: What picture should I imagine? What does uniting mean? Everyone understands this in their own way.

Answer: Unity is a connection between several completely different beings, concepts, or knowledge when they have a common platform.

The basis for all objects and phenomena lies in desires. And if the desires are directed at unification, then people are looking for some kind of foundation or platform. This usually leads to the fact that they outline for themselves the next, more elevated state and strive for it, and help each other.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 7/24/20

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Question: You often say that women can manage better than men. Why? What is your claim based on?

Answer: A woman, unlike a man, can manage many jobs. Let a man do a general cleaning of the apartment, he will not cope with it in a month. Give it to a woman; everything will be perfectly done in one day. That is, a woman is adapted to solve small but varied tasks.

Question: How do female leaders differ from male leaders?

Answer: I do not think that they are in any way different from each other at all because this is no longer a woman and a man, but a person who lives by an idea and has nothing to do with gender differences.
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From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 6/11/20

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