Entries in the 'Coronavirus' Category

The Science of Working on the Heart

214Kabbalah is called a hidden science because it is revealed only to those who use it correctly, that is, through their unification and building a system of connections between them. They reveal this science within this network of connections.

The science of Kabbalah is not a product of the human mind, like some abstruse theory. To study Kabbalah, you do not have to be a person of particularly sharp mind. The main thing this science requires is that a person is ready and able to work on one’s heart.

These people must be able to organize their desires in such a way that all the desires of one person complement the desires of another one, and another one, etc. In this form, they build a network of connections between them in which they reveal the common power of bestowal, that is, the Creator.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/28/23, Writings of Rabash “Concerning the Importance of Friends”

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“We Could Be Looking at Another Wave” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “We Could Be Looking at Another Wave

It may not seem like it now, but I have a feeling that we are headed for another wave of Covid. The story with Covid is not over yet; in about two months, around November, we will see another wave of Covid in Israel and probably around the world, and vaccinations will not stop it.

I am writing this because I feel that it will be a bigger blow than before. Since we learned nothing from the previous wave, other than to mock the virus, it will come to us in a new and more aggressive form, and there will be bigger problems than before. I have not been privy to some secret scientific information to support it, but this is how I feel—that another wave is due.

The first thing that the next wave will teach us is that we learned nothing from the previous ones. We did not draw the right conclusions from the previous states; we did not look for a new antidote for Covid, so it will return in order to make us learn.

As with the previous waves, the only way to truly overcome Covid is through our connection. I realize that connection among people seems irrelevant to our success in fighting against Covid, but regardless of our opinion, there is no other solution.

I have no doubt that we will spend many more billions of dollars on medical “solutions” around the world, and many more people will die, but we will still not get rid of Covid. We will not be rid of it because we are still not ready for connection.

Nevertheless, nature will not let up. It will teach us to connect even if we do not want to learn how. If we are aware of nature’s “intention,” we will learn more quickly. If we ignore it and insist on remaining self-absorbed and self-indulgent, nature will take longer to teach us and the lessons will be more painful, but it will ultimately defeat us and we will agree to connect.

Once nature has purified selfishness from our hearts so we cannot harbor bad thoughts about each other, the air will be clear of harm-doers such as viruses. We will extract selfishness from within us when we realize that the only medicine for our blows is connection and closeness of hearts among all people.

“The Global Turbulence of the Travel Industry” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “The Global Turbulence of the Travel Industry

Remember the days when traveling was relaxing, exciting? Those memories have been challenged in recent weeks by the chaos experienced at airports around the world, particularly in North America and Europe. A surge of summer passengers, eager and waiting to travel since the onset of the pandemic, has been confronted with widespread understaffing due to Covid-19 layoffs which have put pressure on airports and airlines.

Once considered redundant, travel industry workers who were laid off are now reluctant to return to jobs due to low wages, job insecurity, and poor working conditions. As a result of the lack of human resources globally, thousands of passengers have missed boarding calls and flights while waiting in nightmare queues, and often their luggage has been delayed or lost. And if all this is not enough, many airline staff, including pilots, are protesting over fatigue, stress, and staff shortages. Due to the lack of manpower, airlines around the world have canceled thousands of flights and many more cancellations are expected throughout the holiday season.

Whoever decided to initiate the wave of mass layoffs in the days of the pandemic should have also considered how to recruit and train new workers when they would again be needed. After all, the expectation was known well in advance since tens of thousands had already talked about a vacation abroad the day after the travel restrictions were lifted. So why didn’t they get organized in advance to provide services to the traveling public?

The coronavirus has accustomed us to a new quality of life–to working from home in comfortable conditions, to seeing that it is possible to get by with less, so now the low salaries offered in the industry provide little incentive to return to work.

In the short run, better wages for employees would spur recruitment, but in the long run, this will not truly satisfy employee desires. The very fact that this is a worldwide phenomenon suggests that it is a fundamental human problem that might even be called the “plague of laziness.”

It is forbidden to disconnect between cause and effect. During the pandemic period people changed from within. Their desires and requirements have grown, so that today they demand more comfort and are unwilling to make large efforts without being paid appropriately. This is the evolving trend in human society, and it is an expression of continuing development that requires a new fulfillment.

In the end, the international chaos in the aviation industry reveals how unorganized we are on a social level. This is only a sample of the situation that exists in all the other industries in the economy. We are disorganized across the board, while the crisis has not yet reached its peak. As long as we do not settle the problems the suffering and frustration will intensify to the point that we will no longer contain them, then surely a comprehensive change will be forced upon us.

The lack of connection between us, and the lack of awareness of our human nature particularly as a result of the pandemic, reveal the simple fact that we are no longer able to even enjoy even the short vacations which were taken for granted not long ago.

If we do not wake up, the situation will only get worse. Human nature does not freeze its yeast; the desire to receive pleasure will force people to demand more and more. At the same time, we naturally become more lazy, selfish, and greedy. In the same way that there are no flights now, tomorrow there will be no trains, hotels, restaurants and what not, so that we will have to acknowledge in our flesh that change is mandatory.

Large companies in the economy need to implement an ongoing process of education to raise awareness of the fact that we live in one single interconnected natural system in which humanity is interdependent.

This very initial understanding from our education will develop within us a new attitude toward life, teaching us how to direct our egoistic nature to harmonize with conditions of interdependence and mutual guarantee. Out of the corrected and improved relationships between us we will be able to easily motivate workers and propel all the systems in the economy to avoid future bumpy rides in our society.
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“Time for the Next Impact” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “Time for the Next Impact

In the first wave, Israel went into a strict lockdown. It was nothing like the curfew that we see in China, but still, businesses were closed and people’s movements were heavily restricted. In the second wave, the lockdown was not as strict, not all businesses were closed, and people’s movements were restricted less than in the first. The third wave was even more lenient, and so on. Now that we are at the beginning of the sixth wave, no one is paying attention. People, even those in charge of coping with the pandemic, have come to treat Covid as another type of flu.

It is not as though the virus had no impact on humanity, because it did. However, for the time being, it seems as though it did what it came to do and it is time to move on to the next phenomenon that will bring about the next change in humanity.

Speaking of which, I think that the next phase will have a bigger impact on our feelings than on our bodies. It will impel us to draw closer to each other emotionally as a means to protect ourselves against illness. It will somehow be combined with human relations and will be less about physical closeness and more about emotional, internal closeness. This phase will force us to examine how we relate to one another, and how that relation influences us—positively or negatively.

It is still not clear to me how this phase will manifest, but I do hope that we will see it in the near future.

“Why Hasn’t COVID-19 Ended Yet?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: Why hasn’t COVID-19 ended yet?

COVID-19 has not ended yet because we still have not responded properly to the virus.

How were we supposed to respond? We were supposed to connect with each other, i.e., to come closer together and become a bit more humane and courteous toward one another. If we would have done so, then we would have weakened the virus.

We have to understand that COVID-19 is no ordinary virus. It is a virus that demands of us to change our attitudes toward each other for the better.

It might seem outlandish that the virus would know about how we relate to each other, but it indeed knows and includes everything. First of all, it is a living particle. It is not on the still or even vegetative levels of nature, but it is on the animate living level—just like us. It has intellect and emotion, and it perceives and influences the environment. It connects with other particles, enters the human body and takes control over it.

In short, the virus is much smarter than we think, and only when we make a significantly positive shift in our attitudes to each other will it go away for good.

If we wanted to check this in practice, then we could take one country or state—say, for instance, the State of Israel where I am living—and we could decide that we treat each other courteously, that we help the needy, the elderly and children—we think about others and try doing good. We should alleviate the situation where we become approached with questions such as, “Why didn’t you do this or that?” but we each make an attitude shift: we seek out where we could add in our positive attitude toward others, to show them that we truly wish to benefit them. If we do so for even one month, then afterward we could check what happened with the virus. Would it still be around or not? We could then also review other phenomena in our society, for instance, the amount of deaths by car accidents and other such problems in our society. It is very easy to review such results. Everything is in our hands to impact a positive change in the world.

Based on the video “Why Hasn’t COVID-19 Ended Yet?” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.
Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash.

“Farewell Mask Mandate”

Dr. Michael LaitmanFrom My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/25/22

Last Saturday evening, the mask mandate has been lifted in Israel. Although enforcement of the mandate had been lax for the past several months, if not longer, now that it is official, people say they can breathe freely. But can we? We wish! We can bid farewell to the mask mandate, but other mandates will replace it because we have more lessons to learn.

We learned a lot over the past two years of mask mandates and vaccines. The virus engulfed all of humanity and turned us into one mass. At work, on the street, on public transportation, on planes, in public places, we have begun to feel how interdependent we are. Nothing accomplished it prior to the corona virus.

However, its work of welding us together is not over; it has just begun. I have no doubt that in the near future, we will see the sequel.

The thing is that it is time for us to fuse ourselves together, to start becoming one. If we do not do it voluntarily, reality will impel us to do it nonetheless.

Perhaps it is indeed time to take off the masks. We used to say that we should wear masks not to avoid being infected, but to avoid infecting others, especially the elderly and the physically vulnerable. But since no one minds that argument anymore, it seems as though the social benefit of masks has run its course, and we need a new whip to force us to connect.

Besides, there are many entities that want the mandate stopped. The Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, and other government agencies want the masks off in order to gain popularity. The fact that a few months from now, we will pay for it with our health is irrelevant.

Regrettably, we are not coming out of the pandemic as we should. I had hoped that we would emerge from it united, but we are emerging from it more divided than ever. Therefore, I have no doubt that a new, more violent plague will come and mandate our unity nonetheless.

Cure By The Power Of Good

626The coronavirus gave us a short breather for a few weeks and then began to spread with renewed vigor. We wonder why this epidemic seemingly will not end? But this is a sign that we have not yet done what we should have done to properly respond to this virus.

As usual, there is no other cure but connection or rapprochement between us and a more human and attentive attitude to each other. This would have greatly weakened the virus.

We expected that after half the country had been ill with omicron, some kind of general immunity would arise, yet for some reason the pandemic is not going away and instead is growing again. The fact is that the previous laws do not apply to this virus. They won’t help anymore.

After all, this is not an ordinary virus, but one that requires us to fix the relationships between people. It would seem, what can the virus know about our relations? However, the virus knows everything because it has all the information inside it. We think it’s just a piece of DNA, but it’s alive!

This is not a dead element or a vegetable, but is in fact on the animal level, the same as ourselves. The coronavirus has a mind and feelings. It perceives the environment and influences it. It is able to connect to others, penetrate into the human body, and integrate into it so much that it begins to control this body.

Do not treat it condescendingly and with neglect. It seems to us, well, how can the virus know if I said hello to my neighbor today? But the virus is smarter than us and it knows everything. The virus controls the world because it is a particle of the Creator.

Coronavirus is an important element of nature, which includes in it a special concentration of all the information about this world in order to influence it. Therefore, it can be destroyed only by improving our human relations.

This may sound a little naive, but let’s try it! We don’t have anything to lose. Let’s start treating each other well and with great attention and care. We will take care of the needy, the elderly, the children, and each other; let us not litter the street or make noise. Let’s try to think about others and try to do everything to make them feel good.

I’m not waiting for someone to tell me what to do, but I’m looking for where I can help others with my kind attitude and show them that I really wish them well. Let’s conduct such an experiment in the country and in a month we will check what the situation is with the coronavirus through the following questions: Is the pandemic continuing or not? How many people have died this month? How many died from road accidents? It’s easy to check, let’s try it.
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From KabTV’s “Insight” 3/21/22

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“China Lockdown: Food Shortages Anger Aplenty” (Linkedin)

My new article on Linkedin “China Lockdown: Food Shortages Anger Aplenty

China is running out of food and people are growing desperate. That’s no small problem when more than 190 million residents in some 23 cities are living under full or partial lockdowns enacted as part of the official “zero Covid” policy following record numbers of cases, particularly in Shanghai, the epicenter of the outbreak.

Shanghai, China’s most populous city with 26 million residents, report thousands of new Covid-19 infections daily, the worst increase since the virus appeared in the central city of Wuhan in 2019. China is one of the last remaining nations still committed to eradicating the pandemic, unlike most of the world, which is trying to live with the virus in its Omicron variant.

Shanghai’s strict lockdown impacts millions of people who are suffering from food shortages, some say they are already starving. Parents are forcibly separated from their children who have tested positive for the disease. As living conditions continue to deteriorate with no end in sight, the anger of the population grows. The normally disciplined and obedient Chinese defy authorities through street protests and warn of the consequences, including potential civil unrest.

Indeed, the food shortage could have a major impact on Chinese society. There is nothing more important than food. It is the basic sustenance of any society, literally. Food is our most important need on the scale of human desires, followed by sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge. Rational thinking does not work on an empty stomach, and what controls the mind is the way to satisfy basic needs at any cost.

As a result of the pandemic, the Chinese are certainly going through great changes. They are a people with a very strong foundation and tradition, so any change they go through could be an example for the rest of the world. But can popular social pressure bring about change in China’s governance? Governance is a problem everywhere in today’s world. Countries that expected full hegemony over others are realizing that it is no longer as easy when large masses are poised to oppose.

Governing would be easier if there were a king who ruled according to family heritage, could lead the people, and the people would accept his mandate as part of an agreed lineage. But that is not the case, so people must understand that nature acts as the supreme king. Humanity must get away from expecting great changes from governments and politicians, the earthly level of governance, and realize that there is a supreme realm, the realm of nature, that controls our lives, the virus and everything in reality.

We will be able to abide by this dominion when we realize that we can solve our supply and health problems when we come to terms with the power of nature. We must achieve a balance with it by recognizing that there is a price we must pay for overpopulation and exploitation of our limited natural resources.

More importantly, we need to understand that we cannot continue to exploit others only for our own personal gain without consequences. In the not-too-distant future, both Western and Eastern cultures will have to discover that what humanity is lacking is a sense of mutual responsibility.
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“How Connected Are We With Other People On This Planet?” (Quora)

Dr. Michael LaitmanMichael Laitman, On Quora: How connected are we with other people on this planet?

Today, we live in times that kabbalists call “the last generation,” and the laws that apply to the last generation are no longer laws that pertain to certain regions or countries, but to humanity as a whole.

Moreover, we very much need to see these laws with our own eyes: how they encompass our planet, how everyone receives the intellect, emotion, perception and inclination toward these laws, and that we live in such tight and inescapable global interdependence.

Take, for example, the coronavirus pandemic. Look at how it connects everyone in a common concern. If we fail to reach the feeling of our interconnectedness out of our own accord, then a pandemic comes around to show us our connection. And if that is still not enough, then we can expect to experience more extreme natural occurrences, such as hurricanes and other disasters, in order to show us how small we really are, and how we need to be better connected in order to spare ourselves such blows.

Today’s times are global and human society has become global. All we need today is to understand the extent to which we are global, and to reach a common understanding of the general collective force that encompasses us. If we reach such an understanding, then everything will work out just fine.

Based on the video “A New Global Era” with Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman and Oren Levi. Written/edited by students of Kabbalist Dr. Michael Laitman.

“Here Comes Another Wave” (Medium)

Medium published my new article “Here Comes Another Wave

While the media is busy covering the war in Ukraine, Covid has returned to haunt humanity. In China, more than fifty million people are on tight lockdown; in Hong Kong, the number of dead is rising; in Israel, the reproduction number (R) is climbing fast and is now well beyond the spreading mark of 1. If we thought Omicron was contagious, the new strain, BA.2, is 30 percent more so, and hybrid variants like the Deltacron are emerging, too. New strains and new waves will keep appearing until we learn all that we need to learn from the virus.

The virus is not here to teach us about itself; it is here to teach us about us. We think of these waves as waves of Covid-19, but they are not. The original strain is virtually gone; we are dealing with a different virus because we ourselves are different. This is why the vaccines that defeated the original strain are no longer effective.

As I said from the first appearance of the virus in early 2020, this virus, or its “relatives,” is here to stay. It needs to teach us how to live more peacefully and harmoniously with each other and with nature, and it will not leave until we learn.

We may not have noticed it, but the virus has already done a great deal of teaching. Our career aspirations have changed dramatically. Suddenly, everyone is talking about The Great Resignation and the fact that so many people now prefer to work from home.

Many people have also become content with less money in return for more peace of mind. The movement toward a four-day workweek is also gaining momentum around the world. Even in Asia, known for its workaholism, big corporations such as Panasonic and others have switched, or are in the process of switching to a four-day workweek.

Traditional education is also falling from grace. “Until 2019, the number of homeschooled students had been growing by between 2% to 8% each year. From 2019 to the fall of 2020, the percentage of homeschooled students changed from 3.4% to 9%.” According to the National Home Education Research Institute, “there were about 3.7 million homeschool students in 2020–2021 in grades K-12 in the United States (roughly 6% to 7% of school-age children).”

These are not minor changes. Fewer working people means more modest consumption, less congestion on the roads, especially if people are working from home, and more family time. Likewise, homeschooled children require a parent to stay home and tend to the education and occupation of the children. This, again, affects many other aspects of society.

This is why I think that Covid is not a punishment but a correction. The only reason that we feel this correction as painful is that we resent the change, so nature imposes it on us.

At our current level of narcissism, without restraint from the outside, we might destroy ourselves and the world with us. The war in Ukraine is only an example of what pride and power-hunger can inflict. Therefore, I think we should be grateful to Covid’s restraints. We are counting its victims, but we have no idea what catastrophes its appearance has prevented.

That said, I do not think we should continue to suffer its restraints. Since nature imposes corrections on us, and we have no choice but to obey, as is clearly the case, we can impose these corrections on ourselves instead of inviting nasty bugs to do it for us.

All we need to correct is our egoistic behavior. To do that, we need to be aware that in a world that has become totally interconnected, thinking that we can take all that we want regardless of others and enjoy other people’s pain is not only reckless, but destructive to everyone, including to ourselves.

We need to understand that if we want to subjugate other people, even in thought, much less in action, we are harming ourselves and our environment. No other being but humans have such evil, narcissistic thoughts. If we annihilate them from within us, we will put an end to war, hunger, exploitation, abuse, tyranny, and everything else that plagues our world. If we are reluctant to learn, the viruses will clear out these plagues from humanity.
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