Coronavirus Outburst

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/4/20

The coronavirus isn’t just another outburst. All over the world, it is forcing us to rethink our way of life. Right now, we’re worried about our livelihood, understandably. But this is just another sign that the COVID-19 crisis isn’t just a health crisis; it is first and foremost a social crisis, exposing the ills in our society.

When the dust settles from the battle with the superbug, we’ll have to rethink everything: how we make a living and at whose expense, how we bring up our children and what values we teach them, how we treat each other and what merit we give to our lives by focusing solely on our own benefit.

With all the ills of American society, depression, desperation, and growing violence, and with the mounting international tensions between superpowers, and even with regional powers such as North Korea and Iran, the break from madness that the virus has imposed on us is likely to have saved humanity from a much worse cataclysm. But if we don’t seize the moment and change ourselves now then we’ll have wasted the lives of the victims and mayhem will ensue.

Audio Version Of The Blog – 4/4/20

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Methods Of Getting Out Of Descents

laitman_528.03Question: What are the methods for getting out of descents?

Answer: The most effective method is to have an appropriate environment. Baal HaSulam writes in his articles that the influence of the environment on a person is the most important and powerful way to get out of any state; because you join a group and it involuntarily pulls you along.

In a group of like-minded people, you go through different states, study together, participate in workshops, perform actions even mechanically. Thus, the group will influence you, and everyone will be able to exit himself.

Question: And then the descent will pass?

Answer: Yes, but what exactly will pass? If you come to the appropriate society, engaged in spiritual elevation, then eventually, you begin to rise with them. This is the first thing.

Secondly, if there is no group nearby, then I advise you to immediately open the Internet, go to our website, and look for all kinds of lessons. First of all, I recommend reading the article “There Is None Else Besides Him.”

Question: You can open a book?

Answer: Of course, because you are somehow connecting with the author. Therefore, the environment can be not only people, although this is the most effective, but also different media resources.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 3/27/19

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The Time Has Come For The Creator To Draw Near

laitman_251Question: The interest in the wisdom of Kabbalah is growing. Does this mean that the Creator is getting closer to us?

Answer: Of course. The time has come for the Creator to draw near.

On one hand, it is an unpleasant feeling because attributes that are in contrast to our ego emerge in us. But on the other hand, it motivates us to search for the right contact with the new attributes that emerge.

Nature is revealed at a new level, and we must gradually enter into contact with it. This, of course, is no simple matter. Therefore, it is actually now that the wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed and it explains what is happening to us.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/26/20

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How Can We Advance Toward The Impossible?

laitman_600.04Comment: While listening to the lesson I came to the conclusion that we are going to undergo repulsive states in which I will have to do unpleasant things, which I don’t want to do at all.

My Response: Of course you don’t want to. There is nothing more repulsive than working against our ego. It is simply impossible.

Question: So where do I find the power to advance toward the impossible, toward something that is unpleasant? Who will give me the desire and the power to do that?

Answer: Ask why the Creator puts you under these conditions. It is so you will ask Him for power and thus connect to Him.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 1/12/20

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Period Of Wandering, Part 4

laitman_747.03The Goal of the Four Exiles of the People of Israel

Question: The Jewish people went through four exiles. The first, the Egyptian exile, lasted 210 years. Next, the Babylonian exile lasted 70 years, then an even shorter Assyrian, Babylonian exile, and the very last exile endured for about 2,000 years.

The Book of Zohar says: “Why were the people of Israel enslaved among all nations? In order for the world to be exalted with their help.”

Yehuda ha-Levy writes in the book The Kuzari: “There is a hidden wisdom in the fact that Nature leaves us in exile.”

Later sources also say that Jewish knowledge after the destruction of the First Temple spread throughout the world. There are so many historical facts how the ancient Greeks learned from the prophets.

In particular, Baal HaSulam in his article “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy” writes: “sages of Kabbalah observe philosophic theology and complain that they have stolen the upper shell from their wisdom, which Plato and his Greek predecessors had acquired while studying with the disciples of the prophets in Israel.”

Does this mean the exile itself was a programmed event?

Answer: Yes. We see this from the ancient sages of the times of Rabbi Akiva who knew that there would be a first and second exile. In addition, it was known in advance when all the people would come together again and what would happen to them in our time.

Question: So people don’t have any freedom of choice at all?

Answer: People have freedom of choice. It consists only in accelerating these events, but in no case skipping them.

Question: For what purpose were the people of Israel driven out of their land?

Answer: The fact is that a person must feel himself completely remote from all other people, both in the people of Israel and throughout the world. Moreover, such a mixture should be achieved between them that they are an almost homogeneous mass. Therefore, the people of Israel went into exile in order to psychologically and morally mix with the peoples of the world.

Only after this was it possible to return and restore the people of Israel, first in unity among themselves, and then with the peoples of the world. In the process of exile, there was a “relocation” of special qualities, the so-called “points in the heart,” capable of uniting with each other and revealing the Creator.

It comes from the people of Israel and goes to all the nations of the world. Therefore, we see that in the process of exile there was a kind of infusion of the people of Israel into other peoples and the peoples of the world into the people of Israel.
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From KabTV’s “Systematic Analysis of the Development of the People of Israel”, 7/15/19

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 4/3/20

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“Anti-Semitism: The Virus Break Is Over” (Times Of Israel)

The Times of Israel published my new article “Anti-Semitism: The Virus Break Is Over”

Before COVID-19 took over the world by storm, the newspapers were very often focused on the spreading global anti-Semitism. The coronavirus put people on survival mode, and when you’re busy saving your life and the lives of your loved ones, there is little energy to hate.

But now, it seems, the hiatus from anti-Semitism is almost over and Jew-hatred is returning. It was obvious from the get go that Jews shouldn’t pin their hopes on the superbug to spare them the wrath of the nations, but seeing the return of anti-Semitism even before the peak of the pandemic, is certainly cause for concern.

As pundits and environmentalists around the world have been asserting day and night, the outbreak is a product of our egoism. Our greed, profiteering, and exploitation of nature and each other have depleted Earth’s resources, driven animals from their natural habitats and into unhealthy proximity to humans, and pushed tens of millions of people below the income threshold that allows for maintaining proper health. This is a breeding ground for germs of all sorts, a biological bomb waiting to explode.

In simple terms, our ego has depleted the planet, pushed it off balance, and now the planet is taking back the helm and restoring balance, at our expense. It is not revenge, but an act of restoring balance.

Blame the CEO

If the coronavirus taught us anything, it is that we cannot keep dancing only to the tune of our egos; we have got to balance it. Yet, how do we do that?

I elaborated extensively on answering this question in my books Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour and in my latest publication, The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism: Historical facts on anti-Semitism as a reflection of Jewish social discord. Succinctly, anti-Semites blame us for all that’s wrong with the world since they feel that we control the world, so anything that’s wrong with it, it is because of us. In the same way you blame the CEO of a company when it does not perform well, anti-Semites blame the Jews when the world does not perform well. Today, according to the ADL and many other NGOs monitoring Jew-hatred, a great, and growing number of people in the world are anti-Semitic. Couple that with the fact that the world has thrown a pandemic on humanity and you have a perfect storm threatening to explode on the heads of the Jews worldwide.

The odd voices on the fringes of the Left and the Right shrieking that the Jews are to blame for everything are the droplets that come before the rain. But the clouds in the very near horizon are dark, heavy, and truly menacing.

Finding Shelter in Each Other

The Jews have not run out of time. The hiatus isn’t over yet. Their shelter, as always, is in their unity. This is, always has been, and always will be their canopy, their shelter from the storm. Every Jewish leader since the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has urged Jews to unite in order to avert affliction.

However, especially today, our unity cannot be for our own sake. We are not the only ones who need unity; the whole world needs it. We, Israel, are blamed for the destruction of the world by egoism; therefore, we are the ones who must show the way out of it by uniting above our own. If we unite and become a role model of unity, we will be the modern version of “a light unto nations,” the exemplar that the world needs today.

With the world’s enslavement to egoism, who better than us can lead the way to freedom in the days of Passover? If we unite in order to help each other rise above our egos, this is the only example that the world needs to see. This is why unity is so precious to us and why it is our only hope.
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Coming Out Of Egypt

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/3/20

The whole world is coming out of Egypt these days, not just the people of Israel. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, Egypt symbolizes the ego, and through #COVID-19, we are being pulled out of our egoism and into a more inclusive and considerate worldview. The #coronavirus is forcing us to look at the health of the whole world and not only our own; it forces us to be in mutual guarantee and mutual responsibility.

The Hebrew word “Mashiach” (Messiah) comes from the word “Moshech” (pulling). These days, we are all being pulled out of our inherent egoism. It is unpleasant and often frightening, but it’s the beginning of a new era in humanity, a time of mutual care and mutual responsibility, a time of unity.

This Passover, as we celebrate the exodus of our people from Egypt, let’s also be thankful for the beginning of the exodus of the entire world, every person in humanity.

“Not End Of World; Pointing To Human Advancement” (Newsmax)


My article in Newsmax: “Not End of World; Pointing to Human Advancement”

The global outbreak of one of the worst epidemics in history — the coronavirus, extreme weather phenomena, earthquakes in different parts of the world, are all events that have triggered doomsday predictions and alarm.

Convinced that we live in apocalyptic times, some are taking measures to cleanse their conscience or even get ready for a cataclysm. Fearing the end of days, an Israeli citizen recently returned to the authorities a 2,000-year-old stone he stole 15 years ago. Others in America are preparing themselves to live in Stone Age conditions fearing the world will completely run out of resources. The ultra-rich are also acquiring bunkers or purchasing remote properties fully equipped as hideaways to escape the ravages of prophetic times.

Are the current afflictions a sign of greater suffering that can be anticipated to the point of total annihilation? The answer is no. There is no end of the world. Matter does not become destroyed, it only becomes transformed to a better and more advanced state.

Corrective Measures From Nature

What we see as threats from nature are, in fact, serious actions to advance humanity, not to wipe it out. The coronavirus, which expands around the world and frightens humanity, is a signal from nature to stop our frenzied life for a period of time and to rethink our route. We have been abusing and damaging nature on the still, vegetative, animal and human levels, squeezing and draining the planet. By routinely wreaking havoc, the coronavirus shows us that 90% of everything we do is unnecessary and harmful to the world.

Like a father toward his children when they misbehave, who yells and puts pressure on them until their conduct is corrected, nature is telling us that we need to review our egoistic and destructive attitudes to each other and to the environment, attitudes that lead to the exploitation and manipulation of our surroundings and other people for personal gain.

The human ego develops like an illness that incubates silently until it explodes and weakens the entire body. In order to recover balance, the body needs to halt its daily routine, stay in bed, rest and recuperate and rethink its future steps in order to heal. In the same way, the planet, which acts as a single body, has activated its self-preservation system through COVID-19 in a purifying and healing process from the sickness of overblown human egoism.

The Message That the Virus Sends Us

The virus is sending us a clear message: We, as a human society, are sick as a result of selfish consumerism and harmful relations, overpowering and trying to control others in opposition to nature’s synchronized functioning where precise and harmonious coordination between all of its elements prevail. If we can learn this lesson and start correcting ourselves, we will activate nature’s positive force that restores balance.

Individually and collectively, we must scrutinize whether our thoughts are for the benefit of others and behave accordingly, and by this, we will reverse the current crisis through a change in our mindset and relations toward others.

Rich or poor, smart or simple, strong or weak, blue-blooded or a common citizen, the pandemic makes no differentiation between us. The purpose is to make us feel that we are all equal in the integral and circular system we live in. Acknowledging our equality is a major step toward organizing human society in a way that is more harmonious and balanced with nature.

If we refuse to make moves toward building positive human connections and instead return to the previous egoistic state that led to our current crisis, we could expect to head toward a significant man-made catastrophe such as a third world war, one that would bring about a whole new level of unfortunate suffering.

However, further suffering can be avoided if we see all unfolding events as an opportunity to connect in better ways with each other and start behaving accordingly.

Our destiny will be determined by either our negligence or our responsibility and positive actions. Therefore, at the present and vital stage of our battle against the coronavirus, we should clearly understand the reason for the situation. The crucial discovery and knowledge of the true illness — our destructive egoistic nature — will direct us toward the medicine: strengthening the sensation of social cohesion. Such awareness will lead to the end of the disruptive and unbalanced world we know, and will signal the beginning of a new harmonious world filled with a plethora of goodness.
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