At Odds with Their People

Comment: In the first third of the nineteenth century, the disintegration of the Jewish people in Germany reached its climax, and one of the symptoms of the national malaise was the phenomenon of self-hatred.

Quite often, the Jews who assimilated became Christians or atheists and developed hatred for those who still observed their traditional customs.

My Response: If a Jew is not a Kabbalist who exists on two levels and understands both his animal level, which relates to the peoples of the world, and the spiritual level, which raises him above the animal level and calls him to unite, if he is not guided by the spiritual Kabbalistic principle of “all sins (that is, all differences between us) will be covered by love,” then in the end he becomes at odds with his people.

He loves some, dislikes others; this synagogue he attends, but in that one he will not set foot, etc. All this is based on conflict between people. Therefore, there are as many opinions as the number of Jews out there. The Jews have the same conflicts as all the other nations of the world because their animal root continues to exist from the time of Ancient Babylon.

Comment: The German-Jewish psychologist Kurt Lewin wrote from America, where he fled in 1939: “[a person] will dislike everything specifically Jewish, for he will see in it that which keeps him away from the majority for which he is longing. He will show dislike for those Jews who are outspokenly so, and will frequently indulge in self-hatred. Self-hatred arises from a sense of inferiority, from the fact that the Jew looks at himself through the eyes of the non-Jewish majority, out of fear of being unlike the majority, of being different.”

My Response: Naturally, he will try to be more German, French, and English than the Germans themselves or the French or English. This is what we see.

For more on this topic, read my books Like a Bundle of Reeds: why unity and mutual guarantee are today’s call of the hour, and The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism, Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord.
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From KabTV’s “The Germans of the Laws of Moses” 8/12/19

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New Life 1269 – The Citizen And The Leadership In A Corrected State
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi

In a corrected world, a citizen is supposed to feel the state as a family, which his wise relatives manage. Today there is unrest all over the world because the world is managed by the force of the ego. Leaders today divide the nation in order to weaken and control people, and think about their own chair.

It is impossible to change the feeling of disconnection between the public and the ruling elite unless each citizen and all of us together learn how to connect to each other. If everyone feels mutual care and responsibility, we will not be afraid or worried about anything. The warmth, love, and connection between people will draw support from nature, which is also one. In a state where people live as one family according to the principle “love thy friend as thyself,” every citizen accepts the others as his brothers.

If the nation connects in this way, the leadership will be forced to go along with it. The State of Israel will become a caring, unified system, and then people will feel that there is a global innovation here that is worth replicating and will want to get closer, and the unrest in the world will subside.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1269 – The Citizen And The Leadership In A Corrected State,” 7/20/20

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Lesson Preparation

Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” 

Lesson on the Topic of “Love Covers All Transgressions”

Lesson on the Topic of “Bnei Baruch As a State of Transition”

Selected Highlights

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Question: The environment affects us through three channels. The first is the media. The second, are the examples of people around us. And the third is through thoughts and desires since we are in the same system on the same globe and all are interconnected.

Which of these factors is most influential?

Answer: The strongest factor of influence on a person is the surrounding society, its examples and opinions.

Question: We humans can only change our attitude to the world, but is that enough? Or do we still need to change the world?

Answer: We ourselves cannot change the world. We can gradually change our attitude toward it, and then we will see another world.
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From KabTV’s “The Post-Coronavirus Era” 5/7/20

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There is no more important action than the practical implementation of mutual guarantee. In this aspect, it is necessary to consider any state, the entire process we go through and its final result. Every moment of life should be directed toward a single goal: toward more and more approximation to the concept of mutual guarantee.

And if we establish this correctly, we will immediately see how our whole life takes on a completely different color, and all problems, including the crisis caused by the coronavirus, disappear one by one. After all, they come with one purpose: to awaken us to the mutual guarantee.

Therefore, for any breakdown, small or large, there is only one way to fix it—only by strengthening our mutual guarantee. We should try to think about this every day, especially after the last congress where we have already begun to build this mutual guarantee between us and all the inhabitants of this world, and we will continue this path.

The Creator does not exist until we build this concept through our union and mutual guarantee. And then He is revealed and begins to exist for us.

The Creator is what unites us. If I treat the group as one whole in which there is no difference between us, then within this concept I begin to feel the Creator. The Creator is the power of unification that we can generate if we strive for unity and support. There is no Creator without creation. This power is the purpose of our union.

We know in advance that there is such a state in which we are united together in mutual guarantee as one person. We turn to this state with prayer, we want to extract strength from it. This state already exists and lives because it is eternal. We only need to reveal it in practice.

This is the difference between the mutual guarantee, which is still developing and changing between us, and the mutual guarantee that we strive to achieve as a result of our absolute unification.

The mutual guarantee is the general law of the right connection between us. And the concept of the Creator is revealed when we really join each other as one. And then, within this unity, we comprehend the ideal of complete, perfect unification, which is called the Creator.

We cannot achieve this complete connection with one jump, and therefore, there are 125 steps, 125 steps created by the upper light when spreading from top to bottom. Therefore, we have the opportunity, step by step, to achieve an ever greater degree of mutual guarantee between us and, as a generalization of this state, with the Creator.

One can only judge about the Creator within the Kli, and therefore, within the concept of a guarantee; a guarantee with the Creator is attained in a group. This means that all the work goes between us.

A surety is a condition for the flow of life in a common body, metabolism, the flow of forces, lights, desires, a condition for life. And therefore there are no small and large in it.

All nature acts according to the law of universal mutual guarantee, otherwise it could not exist. But this is an unconscious step, to which the natural instinct obliges. Whereas people who are above the inanimate, vegetative, and animate level are obliged to fulfill the law of mutual guarantee at the human level of their choice, through their efforts, prayer, and mutual assistance.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/20, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Love will cover all transgressions. This means that day by day we will have to reveal new sins because without this it is impossible to advance. Selfishness is bound to develop more and more. The Creator only gave rise to creation by breaking the common soul of Adam HaRishon. From this, the evil inclination began to unfold, our great desire to receive pleasure, and we need to help this egoism open more and more so that it does not remain at the inanimate, vegetative, or animate level.

But egoism can be revealed only in the opposite form. If we want to accelerate the disclosure of egoism, we must, on the contrary, strive to achieve unity. And if yesterday we did not come to a greater awareness of evil than the day before yesterday, then we did not strive for unity.

Every day we try to unite, and as a result, rejection will open up to us, for which we will ask for the power of correction so that love will cover all transgressions. And so we will continue to advance.

It is necessary to reveal evil and attract good to it in order to cover all crimes with love. Without transgressions, there will be no union, there will be no correction of the Kli. We must open all the cracks, all the breaking, in our union, in the vessel of the common soul of Adam HaRishon. And this is possible only when we strive to unite.

First, we perform artificial actions, trying to achieve unification, but we see that the Creator does not allow us to unite. On the contrary, it reveals hatred and rejection between us. And this is the desired result, because crimes are being disclosed on top of which we can truly unite and cover them with love. But this is already with the help of a prayer to the Creator who will give us the power of unity. And so we come to correction.

This is the work: We strive for good, and the Creator reveals evil to us, but we try to cover evil with good, and we turn to the Creator for help. These are the two actions: back and forth, back and forth, corresponding to the four stages of the Kli.

You can imagine that we are sitting in a boat and rowing together, each with his own oar. Each does work in his own Kli. He is drawn to union and sees that rejection awakens in its place. And then he makes a second movement: He turns to the Creator, asks for help, and sees how the Creator makes a row of paddles for him. He does not leave the Creator until He completes the action, covering all crimes, transgressions, with love.

I do the first row with an oar: I try to connect with my friends and I see that I am not achieving what I want, but I am revealing negative qualities. And then I turn to the Creator and ask Him to correct this negative. And so we row all the time: one-two, one-two. The first one or two are mine, where nothing works for me, and the second one or two is done by the Creator and are already successful. It is said about this: “The Creator will finish this work for me.”

The first time I try to do and reveal the shortcomings, and the second time I turn to the Creator with these shortcomings and see a successful result.

A ten sits in one boat, and each holds his paddle with both hands. The Gabai sits at the stern and cheers on the rowers, while the Shaatz sits at the bow of the boat. And that’s how we all go.

The first paddle movement is to reveal a flaw. I want to connect with my friends, but I reveal that I am not capable of it. That is, the first time I try to do it myself and find out my impotence. But at the same time, I am aware of my failure, that is, I open the Kli. And in the second stroke with the paddle, I already ask the Creator to help me and finish this work for me.

This is the case every time: the first stroke is the revelation of the lack and the second stroke is the Creator’s help. As a result, we advance in our boat, first making efforts to reveal evil, and then turning to the Creator for correction and revelation of the goodness.

First of all, I must be grateful to the Creator and friends. After all, the goal of creation can be achieved only by tuning into the friends with closed eyes, if they want and can accept me. And the Creator must dissolve me in my friends, unite me with everyone without any distinction between us.

Therefore, I am grateful to the Creator and the friends for the fact that they exist and give me the opportunity to join them, lose myself, and be born again, which is called “going through the eye of a needle.” Nothing remains of me except the net desire, which I drag through the eye of a needle, and so I move from world to world.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/17/20, “Love Covers All Transgressions”

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Where is the point in the heart? Is it a physical, sensory, or spiritual property?

The point in the heart is a particle of the divine from above, a spark of the Creator’s desire to receive pleasure, embedded into creation’s desire to enjoy.

Our whole heart is an egoistic desire to enjoy, and the point in the heart is the desire to bestow. And both exist by the grace of a higher power.

We need to develop both the heart and the point in the heart, and start working with them so that the whole heart, that is, the desire to enjoy, performs actions according to the instructions of the point in the heart. This is called correction.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/27/20, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

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New Life 1267 – Leadership In The Coronavirus Era
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

World leaders need to learn the wisdom of Kabbalah and tell the public the truth that all of humanity must love one another as one man with one heart. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how all of nature is a single, global, integral system and how it requires humanity to be in equivalence of form with it, meaning to help each other as interdependent friends. Leaders need to create national education programs that teach everyone how to overcome the mutual rejections that occur between people by rising above egoistic differences and opposing views with the attitude that love covers all crimes. Leaders themselves will need to set an example of how to keep the laws of nature through their own behavior. Both the public and the leadership will learn to work together in mutual understanding and spread peace and tranquility everywhere.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1267 – Leadership In The Coronavirus Era,” 7/15/20

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Medium published my new article “Save Our Home: Planet Earth”

Entire neighborhoods are engulfed in fire; thousands have been evacuated from their homes in California. A historic and unusual summer thunderstorm and rare massive lightning strikes combined with record-breaking heat ignited devastating fires across the Golden State. Death Valley reported temperatures of 130°F in what is believed to be the highest temperature ever measured on Earth, and this is attributed to climate change. Other natural disasters around the globe endanger our very existence. What is nature trying to tell us? Its message is clear. We are unwanted guests on this planet unless we humans change.

Other natural disasters around the globe endanger our very existence. What is nature trying to tell us? Its message is clear. We are unwanted guests on this planet unless we humans change.

Global warming not only causes blazes, agricultural problems, water shortages and puts certain species at risk of extinction; it is also blamed for glaciers melting away in Greenland and other locations to the point of no return, dangerously raising sea levels. It is said that there are actions we can take to tackle global warming, such as reducing gas emissions from the industrial sector, but there are so many economic and personal interests that very little is actually done.

If the ecosystem continues deteriorating at such a fast pace, half of humanity may become extinct, and the half that will survive will have to change its way of life from end to end. Continuing our “business as usual” approach despite Earth’s outcry is extremely dangerous.

Man is a very delicate creature. We need so many conditions to live and so many factors affect us: earthquakes, storms, plagues. The problems we face are global in scope; therefore, solutions require global thinking. Yes, thinking. Everything starts with our thoughts.

People think only of themselves, of what is bothering them today and what may produce big profits. Moreover, international organizations, which are supposed to safeguard our planet, fail the test over and over again. Every country is busy developing weapons and economic power, fighting others in all sorts of arenas and thinking that this is how control will be gained. If an ecological disaster does not affect us directly, we do not care.

We have not realized yet that our planet is our common home and whatever happens within it has an endless chain of reactions which will eventually affect us. Someday, we will have to understand that the problems begin with the selfish nature of man, who operates from an individualistic, me-centered, exploitative and narrow vision that wants to keep everything for himself. Until we transcend individual and national borders and start thinking globally, nothing will help.

Sometimes it’s the turn of certain countries to undergo natural disasters, and then it’s the turn of other countries. But overall, there will be no place on Earth that will not face problems. The coronavirus is the first global disaster, with many others waiting in the wings, if necessary. It is nature’s way of making us feel on our own skin that we are all part of one system.

The Destructive Fires Burn Between Us

Ecological calamities make people believe that nature has gone crazy. This is not the case. It simply behaves according to the laws of cause and effect of the integral system in which we live, a system that ties all the details of reality together. What happens inside the Earth, on its surface, and in the whole universe is linked and interconnected because nature is one.

Humans, for our part, need to comprehend that the state of nature depends on the relationships between human beings, and on the willingness of man to adapt to the integrality of nature — that is, taking only what is necessary for survival and caring for the good functioning of the entire system, instead of considering only egoistic calculations.

How are human relationships and what happens in nature related? There are four levels in nature: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human. All but man exists in accordance with nature’s laws of reciprocity and balance. The other levels have no free choice in anything; they act instinctively taking only what is needed for their survival. Conversely, the human level is the only one that commits atrocities on Earth and does so intentionally, consciously, for the sake of causing harm. Thus, all the negative reactions we receive from nature are just a consequence of our actions. Simply put, we bring these blows upon ourselves.

As of today, humanity does not have an agreed-upon plan to save the planet, and we are just putting out fires instead. And the truth is that the most destructive fires we must put out are those burning within us, in our mutual relations. The ego of man has nearly reached the flash point burns nature just to exploit everything to his advantage.

If we try to build a harmonious system of human relations, all of nature will calm down. The comprehensive solution to the ecological and social dangers we face lies in efforts toward global connection in which we will feel how dependent we are on everyone. Therefore, we will think twice before engaging in ill-treatment of one another. Thus, only through mutual responsibility will we attain the right frame of mind to save our common home and live safely and happily under one roof: our planet.
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