Good leaders first and foremost need to love the people they lead.
Their people need to be like their baby, the number one priority in their lives. They should thus be willing to live, work and sacrifice themselves for their people.
By loving their people, good leaders have no thoughts about themselves, but only about how to benefit their people.
In addition, good leaders should have the ability to foresee the future, to feel closeness toward the people they are directly responsible for, as well as the wider spectrum of human society. Good leaders should thus possess the wisdom to understand that a positive future depends on positive connections among people, and have it in their interest to develop positive ties not only among their own people, but between their people and all others. In other words, good leaders need to have a broad heart, a willingness to love everyone, and treat everyone’s success as their own success—not to build their own people’s success on the ruin of others.
The Torah does not really distinguish Aaron. He accompanies Moses all the time as if hiding in his shadow. Moses acts as a connector between the Creator and the people, and Aaron stands beside him as his assistant and brother.
The role of Aaron is not very clear from the story. But exactly because it is not understood, it is apparently more hidden. It means it is closer to a person, to you and me in relation to our work.
Aaron prepares the vessels, the connection of people with the Creator. Moses comes from above, and Aaron comes from below, from the people, from all the properties of a person, the entire group, the ten in relation to the Creator. And therefore, the role of Aaron does not stand out so much because one must add his work to it. Moses acts as the representative of the Creator before the people, and Aaron is the representative of the people before the Creator.
If I am under the rule of the Creator and there is none else besides Him, then I must always be content in any state. And if I am dissatisfied with something, then it means that I am separated from the Creator. Therefore, I need to return to the connection with Him, and a sign that I have this connection will be my joy in any state, whatever it is.
The quality of Aaron is the most important quality in a person. The qualities of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses are just preparation from above. And the quality of Aaron is our work from below, which we realize when we achieve faith above reason, that is, mercy (Hesed), which is above all, bestowal, which is above any desire to receive pleasure.
To study the qualities of Aaron means to accept him as a guest in our Sukkah. We want his property to build our soul, the right connection between us. To clothe the Hesed property on all of your inner properties called “the people of Israel” means to do the work of Aaron—to take over his property on yourself, on all your desires to receive pleasure. [272034] From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/20, “Sukkot“
Question: More than 50% of American Jews have never visited Israel. Why?
Answer: They have no connection with Israel at all. For them America is their homeland, their country. If they are not pressured by anti-Semitism, they show no relation to Israel. This is the law of nature. It is inside people.
Where did modern Zionism appear? In Russia. After all, it did not arise in Germany or anywhere else, but namely in the south of Russia where pogroms were imposed and enormous pressure was exerted on the people.
Remark: There are many who claim that the assimilation of Jews among other nations is a silent Holocaust. For example, the American linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky, a Jew by birth, believes that Israel is an aggressive state that has no right to exist. He does not believe anti-Semitism is a problem in America. And there are hundreds of such professors.
My Comment: The fact is that Jews are a people that fell from the level of love your neighbor to the level of unfounded hatred for each other. Therefore, Noam Chomsky says what he really feels. He does not cheat, he does not try to show off in front of other cosmopolitans. No. He just feels that way.
And there are a lot of Jews who think this way without any backward intent or any gain for themselves in Israel and throughout the world.
This is a consequence of the spiritual shattering. Reshimot (informational records) that appear in people force them to think and speak like that. You cannot do anything with them. I met with them and I realized that it was simply useless. A spiritual gene that sits in a person rules him this way.
Remark: A lot of Jewish anti-Zionists are ardent supporters and inspirers of the BDS movement, which advocates an economic boycott of Israel, divestment, and sanctions against the state.
My Comment: They are not just supporters, but participants and leaders of these anti-Semitic movements. But they do not consider themselves anti-Semites. [270867] From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel” 8/12/19
Remark: According to Kabbalah, two forces exist in nature: the force of bestowal and the force of reception. The force of bestowal emanates and develops. The force of reception differentiates, it is responsible for diversity. The collision of these two forces in man is the essence of conflicts.
My Comment: Yes. But without this it is impossible. If there was no egoistic force in each of us, then that single altruistic force that would act on us would be very monotonous. It would not be able to develop us. We develop from opposites.
Therefore, on one hand, the force of breaking is necessary. And on the other hand, the force of unification, integration is necessary.
Question: Does that mean that conflict is a natural state?
Answer:The most important thing is what we want to achieve through conflicts. If these conflicts are proper, if they are organized by us in such a way that we develop correctly and learn from them how by rising above them it is possible to exist in a better way, then we would see the positive force in them, a positive force that breaks us down so that we rise even higher above them. [271167] From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 7/16/20
Question: You say that decisions should be made collectively, preferably in a group of ten people. The main thing is not to argue, but to annul yourself. But if everyone annuls themselves, how is a decision made? What is the technique for collective decision making?
Answer: This is the whole technique: to annul yourself all the time for the sake of a collective decision.
Question: If everyone annuls himself, who is going to make a decision then?
Answer: But you will speak out. Then from all the denials of each one’s self, a common solution will appear. It will appear from the fact that you all annul your egoism, and then the decision that is above you will appear.
Remark: But this is already the higher level. There should be really clear communication between people.
My Comment: We need to implement this.
Question: Is it possible to use voting in this case?
Answer: No! This is all savagery and selfishness. We see what happens in the world as a result when a group of time-wasters, people, who do not understand anything, not being guided by the upper reason, not connecting to it, give out their opinion.
Question: And if one solution does not appear in the group?
Answer: There is nothing to do then. We wait. We don’t make any decisions. There is a leader, there is a manager, and we follow them implicitly. [271395] From KabTV’s “Management Skills” 6/11/20
Pandemic fatigue takes place when people get exhausted with the pandemic’s restrictions over a prolonged time period, and become less inclined to adhere to public health guidelines.
People with pandemic fatigue turn their attention away from health department regulations, and while different people feel and react to it differently, symptoms often include restlessness, irritability, low motivation, and difficulty to concentrate. It might also include socially retreating or changing eating and or sleeping patterns.
Also, people experiencing pandemic fatigue might react by blatantly opposing its regulations: attending parties, protests, cafés, restaurants, bars, and generally rejecting social distancing, mask-wearing and the recommended level of personal hygiene.
However, despite the various types of pandemic fatigue that many people experience as we plod forward in these testing times, the coronavirus itself remains unaffected. As carelessness increases, so do the amount of people testing positive for the virus. And we see that wherever governments loosen their public health restrictions, infections also increase.
The stressful paradox that many face today, where on one hand, they see no light at the end of the pandemic’s tunnel the further they trod into it, and on the other hand, they burn out in desperation, will lead more and more people to erupt in resistance to the regulations.
Pandemic fatigue should ultimately serve to accelerate our demand to try new remedies for the coronavirus. Instead of twiddling our thumbs waiting for vaccines, we can try to implement a remedy that is risk-free, and which costs us nothing. Before discussing this remedy, I’ll make an important disclaimer that this by no means suggests that we pay no attention to public health guidelines, but on the contrary, while rigorously following public health regulations, we can try to implement the following remedy to the coronavirus: adjusting our attitude to each other to think positively, considerately and responsibly toward one another.
If we could look deeper into what brought about this pandemic, then we would see that negative attitudes to each other create the biggest imbalance in nature, which invites a negative response upon us from nature. Likewise, if we change our attitudes to each other from negative to positive, careless and exploitative to considerate and responsible, then we would enter into balance with nature—and nature would respond positively to us in return.
So while we keep our physical distance from each other for the time being, we would be wise to seek how we could become closer in our mental and emotional distance. One practical way to do so is by relating to the observance of the health department regulations not for each one’s individual protection, but on the contrary, that we observe the health department regulations, keeping our social distance and wearing masks, etc., in order to not infect others. In other words, if we all thought of only “myself” as the one who hosts the virus, and that I now do not want to infect anybody else with it, then we would be on track to seeing the virus quickly subside from our lives.
Inverting the focus from one’s personal protection and benefit to the protection and benefit of others holds immense power. By using this period to make significant improvements in our concern and responsibility toward other people, we would bear witness to tremendously positive effects spreading throughout human society, starting by securing each other’s health.
We thus have nothing to lose and everything to gain, just to twist a little attitude knob within us so that we relate positively, considerately and responsibly toward each other, and then we would be headed on a path to healing not only ourselves, but human society as a whole.
We must try to build as many correct relationships, correct qualities, Hassadim, between us in the group as possible and not wait. Usually the inner Klipa persuades a person: “Wait and you will receive everything. The Creator will take pity on you and help you.”
But without our request, without awakening from below, that is, without beginning to work, we will not get help from above. You must know this.
People have been standing on one spot for years waiting for the Creator to give them spirituality. But you have not started working! You must start, and when you are pleading that everything is about to collapse and an unbearable burden is about to fall upon your back, then the Creator will help you. This moment needs to be held and realized. This is the secret of the spiritual work: we start, and the Creator finishes; this is so in every action.
I must act as if everything depends on me. And if in the middle of the way I suddenly find that I can not cope on my own, then I will add a prayer to the actions. Thus, my work and prayer together create the conditions for this to be realized. Remember this, start implementing it, and you will see how it opens the path for you. Step by step, you will certainly move forward.
A person waits for many years and does not want to start the work himself, waiting for a miracle from above. Our egoism convinces us: “Wait, the Creator will take pity on you, He will come, do everything, and reveal Himself to you.” But it will not happen! Until we start working and see that we are not able to cope and then ask for help, the Creator will not come and do it.
It is said: “The Lord will finish for me.” But it is precisely: “He will finish.” It is my responsibility to start it. Therefore, anyone who complains that he has been studying for many years and has not seen success, he simply did not work correctly. He had to start the work, find out that nothing comes out of it, raise a prayer, and demand that the Creator take part in it. Then you will see that He will help.
The Creator wants to participate in your work but only together with you in the same way as we do with children. If a child starts something himself and then an adult helps him, then the child understands how it needs to be done and learns. This work is called the work of the Creator, not of a man. After all, the Creator does it! But only when the person really needs help. [272027] From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/7/20, “Sukkot“
Answer:To see my students advancing in their understanding of the structure and the goal of creation.
Question: What is your favorite work?
Answer: Studying, spiritual education.
Question: What awakens you to study in the most efficient way?
Answer: Only my students and the goal of our life.
Question: What are the advantages and disadvantages in your daily work?
Answer: I would not say that there are any particular advantages or disadvantages in my work. It is meticulous daily work for many years with different kinds of videos, writing, speaking, holding different gatherings, meetings, conventions, etc. It makes no difference how it is done as long as the work leads to the spiritual advancement of those who participate in it and that they appreciate this opportunity.
Question: Who or what can obligate you to stop working?
Answer: I think that only death can force me to stop working.
Question: What do you think is the best way to motivate employees?
Answer: The feeling of necessity and at the same time satisfaction. This means the need to work and the satisfaction from the work.
Question: Do you agree that work makes a person?
Answer: The exertion for the sake of the upper goal inspires anyone and turns a person into a human being.
Question: Which habit, which skill would you like to acquire in the near future?
Answer: To become better.
Question: What kind of work are you ashamed of?
Answer:I don’t think that any kind of work can be shameful if it is done for the sake of society. Why? When a baby defecates in his diaper, we wash and clean him, and we are not ashamed of this work. If a sick person needs help, we don’t disrespect taking care of him either. There is nothing humiliating about any kind of work that is done for the sake of society or an individual.
Question: Have you done certain work that you can be proud of?
Answer: I have organized a system of virtual learning with my students since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in which everyone is mutually connected. This is something to be proud of. [271338] From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 6/4/20
Michael Laitman, On Quora: “What makes a good leader?“
