From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/11/20

We are about to live in a new world, a very different world from the one we’ve known. We will change many of our engagements. We will come to like staying more at home and will do our business over the internet. Many of our current businesses and activities will become obsolete or profoundly different after COVID-19.

It will be many more months before the coronavirus is gone, if not more. When we return to normalcy, it will be a different normal: our engagements and preferences will be different and we will live in a different world because we ourselves will be different people. But it will be a better life.

Life is about more than getting to know what restaurants or culture each country and city has to offer. We were going with the flow, but I think the flow will change. It will be a more relaxed world and people will be more contemplative and calm.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/10/20

COVID-19 is not just another blow. It is the first time in history that a crisis simultaneously strikes the whole world: every country, continent, and island. The virus has tied all of us together with an invisible thread, all the nations and all the people. It has proven to us that we are all not only connected, but are dependent on one another. As we try to emerge from the crisis, we will discover that no one can become virus free unless we all become virus free. We are in a state of global mutual responsibility. I am grateful for this revelation because realizing this interdependence allows us to begin to tilt all of humanity toward unity and love of others. Now everyone will understand that it’s all of us or none of us at all.

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How do we exit our egoism? We exit our desire to enjoy and want to be in connection with each other. Therefore, nobody pays attention to himself anymore but only to what is between us. And between us is spiritual space. It is outside of me.

I am my egoism, outside of it is the force of love and bestowal, the Creator, a place called the upper world. There is the goal of our lives, the purpose of creation, which we must reach.

Each time, to the extent that we rise above our egoism, our “I,” and take a step toward a friend, we begin to feel the spiritual world, the upper force, a reality outside of us, outside of our ego. Thus, we have the opportunity to move away from the coronavirus. This virus pushes us out of our egoism; it forces us to exit our “I.”

This is the most effective and proper remedy. Exiting egoism is the solution to all the problems; the virus is sent to cure egoism. It shows us the need to rise above our egoism, above our “I,” and connect with others. This is how we find the right remedy and properly correct our state.

I must run away from myself, the egoist, into the space between us, to where the spiritual world, the Creator is. But I do not understand what “between us” is. This is a space that I don’t feel the existence of, yet. But we must strive for connection, then we will feel that on this bridge between my egoism and yours is the upper world, another dimension, that is one level above us.

This is where we find the land of Israel (“land” means desire and “Israel” means straight to the Creator, Yashar-Kel), this is where we can yearn for the Creator and be able to feel Him, this is where He exists. This is where the future world is, our spiritual eternal life—everything is only there, in the connection between us.

Therefore, loving the friends as yourself is the main law of all corrections within which the Creator dwells.

Connection with friends becomes more important to me than myself. The more important my friend is, the greater is my advancement, and the further removed I am from this world until the spiritual world becomes more important to me, that is, love and bestowal to the friends, our connection becomes more important than myself.

It means that I break the barrier between Egypt and Israel, cross the Red Sea (Final Sea), the final borderline beyond which there is no turning back. After all, prior to this, there is still a danger of returning to Egypt.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/20, Lesson on the Topic “Pesach (Passover)”

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As a result of the quarantine, many feel isolated, as if they fell into a black hole. We must understand that our whole world, our whole galaxy, the universe itself, is inside a black hole. There is no way around it, it’s a fact. So, there is nothing scary about feeling this darkness.

They say that the gravitational force of this hole is so great that even light is unable to break free of it, everything gets sucked into this black well; this is how great the force of egoism is there. Egoism consumes everything, allowing nothing to escape. This is the world we live in, inside this black pit.

However, everything that we see on the outside is actually inside us; we see ourselves. So, if we see darkness, we are revealing our true qualities and are able to make conclusions about our state. From this it will become clear how to climb out of this pit, this black hole.

If we receive the quality of bestowal, we will immediately be set free. Therefore the desire to bestow is called the land of freedom and the people living there, a free nation. Then you will fly out of this black hole and become a free nation in our land, our desire. Ask the Creator and He will make it happen. All we have to do is to humble ourselves and ask for help; this is our entire correction.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/20, Lesson on the Topic “Pesach (Passover)”

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If now I feel that I have connection with the Creator, it will corrupt my work. I will be satisfied that I am connected to the Creator and am near Him, bestowing to Him, and feeling his reaction.

These connections will only weaken me and bring all sorts of egoistic calculations: I to the Creator, and the Creator to me. So maybe it is better not to see that but to yearn and long for Him? What is better for a person in order to be drawn to the Creator as much as possible?

We also see this in our world: If two lovers are separated by distance, they worry that they are far from each other and dream of meeting again when they will embrace and be together as one body. Then, when they actually meet, connect, and achieve what they desired, then all the romance disappears. The desire that burned in them when they were separated vanishes and all taste is lost.

If there is no hunger, no appetite for a meal, then you cannot enjoy it. First you need to accumulate the deficiency for the meal and be hungry, then this hunger will help you reveal the tastes in the meal.

Now during the coronavirus epidemic, the Creator wants to divide us by distances. He says, “Do not come closer than two meters to each other! More than two do not gather together!” Tomorrow it will be impossible to come close to one another at all until we feel how divided we really are. We should accumulate a need to connect, tire of sitting at home alone and dream about being with people, feeling them, and understanding them.

Then I will think: I wish the virus would disappear so that I could communicate with others and be with friends, not just to be together, but because within our connection, we can reveal the Creator, a higher degree of existence where we feel our life as eternal. Now I sit at home and I am afraid of death. I know that I will die anyway, if not from this coronavirus, then in another ten or twenty years. No one doubts this.

However, now I am as if slowly beginning to see: Is this virus appearing to give me eternal life so that I can live forever in a completely different form, without worrying about making money, air pollution, and all the other problems? This virus is directing me to ascend to another level.

I am at the degree of this world and the virus wants to take me to the next degree where life is eternal and perfect. It gives us the opportunity to penetrate through the connection between us into another essence of nature where we are not connected with physical bodies, this earth, the globe, or this universe. It is like we are slipping into a different dimension.

It turns out that I can use this critical state to achieve eternity and perfection and to rise above my nature.

My dream is not for the virus to simply evaporate as if it did not exist, but to reach a special, higher state through it, to rise above this matter to spiritual matter, from the feeling of this reality to a higher reality. There are many degrees, but the main thing is to go from the corporeal degree to the spiritual one.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/26/20, Lesson on the Topic “Building The Future Society”

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People, how do you feel during these days of the global coronavirus epidemic, which is pulling you into a whirlpool of feelings and thoughts? Just like in a kaleidoscope, one state replaces another, from heart attack to complete indifference. Horror waves roll one after another as if nature were whipping you in a blender. Everything that you were capable of and knew, everything you got used to for decades of your life—children, work, making money—everything is crossed out and is disappearing. How can we help you and relieve this enormous pain?

I know that you are a rational, intelligent, respected person at work. You like to have specific numbers and calculations that are above feelings. But now, you want to hear something emotional that goes right into your heart.

I will try to do this; just understand, the science of Kabbalah addresses the human heart through the mind or the mind through the heart. It combines these two opposite, completely different systems.

Our whole life is built on circles of relationships: relationships with ourselves, relationships with our spouses, with children, relationships with the Creator. Now all these relationships are undergoing revision, and most of all, our relationships with ourselves.

Coronavirus has made such a radical change in our lives that a person constantly finds himself in stress and fear, which dulls one’s mind and burdens one’s heart, like a heart attack, and in confusion, like a trapped animal.

What should you think about in order to calm down a bit and feel protected? It is worth making a complete revolution in your views on life. On the contrary, I think that before the coronavirus we lived in eternal stress and confusion, in tangled and unbalanced conditions.

We ran from morning to evening and from evening to morning to accomplish what society, bosses, family, and someone else obliged us to do. I was indebted to the bank, indebted to work, I owed, owed, owed. Such was my life.

And then something incredible called coronavirus appears. And this virus suddenly calms my whole life. I stay at home and do not go to work. Children are not wandering somewhere, nobody knows where, and they stay in their rooms, my spouse is also at home. We watch TV together or everyone is busy with their computers doing their own thing. Everything seems to be good. Probably the main reason for the confusion and fear is the possibility of lost income. Before that, everything was clear and reasonable, and suddenly, everything became incomprehensible, unclear, and every day prospects are more and more threatening. You are worried not about the distant future and time of retirement, but about the fact that there will be no money for food next week, next month.

So far, those are only fears, not reality. There are groceries in the house, the refrigerator is full. There is still some money in the bank account. These are only hypothetical fears about possible development of events. But if we live day by day, then we can say that life has become calmer.

What is the point of worrying about the possible future if you cannot help it? We do not know what will happen tomorrow, so why drive yourself crazy with excitement and fear today?

Of course, we have responsibilities for family and children, but our worries will not help in any way. What will be will be; we are all in the hands of a higher force, and all my efforts will not change anything, either in a good or bad direction. It will be as the Creator planned.

Maybe in such a state I will understand faster where the Creator is pulling me. After all, there is none else besides Him, and He always advances us toward the goal. So, let’s think about this goal and find out what the Creator wants from us. Our state is a consequence of the program of nature, and we should not think that we are smarter than it. It would be great if we understood where we are, in what universe, in what environment, under the influence of which forces.

All of it does not depend on us. We are just tiny particles of creation that think they understand something in nature. But even if we really manage to understand something in it, we would use it to our detriment. Therefore, do not regret that we did not achieve the goal that we set for ourselves because there was nothing good in it.

Before the epidemic broke out, humankind across the globe was on the verge of catastrophe, facing great adversities. Everyone has already openly talked about the impossibility of avoiding war, about the general global crisis in ecology, human relations, industry, politics, and finance. The world, built by man on the basis of his egoistic mind and feelings, was simply terrible and moved from one crisis to another.

What was good in your previous life? What are you sorry for now? Only that among all these problems, you managed to get your pitiful salary and feed your family. Did it make you feel perfect and happy? You regret that, at least, you knew everything in advance: there would be enough money by the end of the month and, if not, from where to borrow it. At least you had some certainty, and now you are nervous about the unknown. What should we do with this inner turmoil and feverish thoughts, the  “What if’s”?

Such thoughts are now tormenting most of the world’s population because this epidemic will soon cover all continents. Coronavirus swallows the whole world, all of humanity. Everyone will start to think: “What will happen to me tomorrow? Who do I depend on? How can I influence my fate? How can I guarantee myself  good today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow?”

It is very good that such questions are awakening in people and especially in young people. Is it all about money? If we are only concerned about our income, then we want to live like animals for whom the main thing is to be sure that they will be fed today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and the rest is not important. So, do I want to “eat with a donkey from the same feeding trough” or am I a human, still thinking about other things?
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From KabTV’s “New Life 1214 – Coronavirus. How To Deal With Fear?” 3/19/20

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Question: Is it worth taking care and worrying about the health of the planet and not indulging in excesses, not getting involved in chemicals?

Answer: Kabbalah says absolutely nothing about that. It says that you must engage in attaining a higher goal. Then everything else will also return to normal and will naturally fit in your efforts to correct the soul.

Do just that. Do not waste your time on preservation of nature and everything else. Nothing of the kind is needed. You have no idea what the laws are behind all this.

If you strive for your soul’s correction, then you naturally include all other conditions for the world’s correction.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah,” 1/26/20

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Question: At the very beginning of the epidemic, people were allowed to gather up to 5,000 individuals, then up to 2,000 people, then 500, 100, to 10. And today you cannot get together with 10 people. That is, nature forcibly separates us, but for what purpose? What will happen next?

Answer: Kabbalah says: The assembly of sinners is bad for them and bad for the world. And the separation of sinners is good for them and good for the world.

Question: What is our sin?

Answer: It is that we were originally born in sin. And these are not religious phrases. Human nature is sinful in that we are egoists and think only about ourselves, how to make things better for ourselves and worse for others. Everything is relative. We live by constantly comparing our personal condition with others.

Therefore, the separation of people from each other, in principle, weakens their envy and jealousy and thus calms the state of society. After all, if society is comprised of people who are friendly to each other, to the extent of their friendliness, they can get closer. And if it is selfish, then to this extent they should move away from each other.

Question: That is, nature created us as selfish, so it is as though there are no claims against us?

Answer: Yes, it is said in the Torah: I (the Creator) created egoism. Exploring nature, we see that the attraction and rejection of all its parts, all the laws of nature, are based on the egoistic properties of matter.

Question: So, if we do not use our egoism correctly, then nature generates all kinds of viruses and other cataclysms so that we recognize the need to correct the ego. Is selfishness the same virus?

Answer: At any moment in time, we wish to receive maximum pleasure, and even better, if it happens at the expense of others. Our whole selfish nature is a virus. Inanimate, vegetative, and animate nature and humans are in His power and manifest themselves only in this way.
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From Kab TV’s “Coronavirus changes reality,” 3/19/19

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The Times of Israel published my new article “Ma Nishtana? A Passover Unlike Any Other”

The Passover holiday this year is expected to be the most unique in modern history. For the first time, the Jewish people, regardless of their location, will celebrate not only around the table but inside the Web. It is a special occurrence as physical restrictions have been imposed to celebrate with extended family—particularly to protect the most vulnerable, the elderly, from potentially contracting the COVID-19. This new situation is also an opportunity to zoom out and look at the bigger picture: the connection between the exit from Egypt and the exit from this pandemic.

On Passover night, everyone sits with their loved ones at a festive table to read about freedom and the sufferings of slavery and plagues, and the desire for liberation. We ask ourselves, Ma nishtana? (what has changed), which is an inner reflection on what makes this night different from all other nights. This year, that traditional question adopts a deeper dimension, demanding from us a meaningful and thorough scrutiny.

Passing Over All Calamities

Passover (Pesach) means “passage” or “transition” from the egoistic state of self-love to love for the neighbor, where you think of others, even if just a little. This transformation is similar to completely replacing a computer’s operating program. Likewise, we have to replace our current inner program of a selfish and egoistic approach with one of mutual consideration.

The coronavirus pandemic surged throughout the world precisely to serve that purpose: to make us realize that the whole of humanity is a single unit, where any element in nature, even as minuscule as a virus, can affect the whole system in the blink of an eye. The pandemic is telling us: “Stay home; you will be locked-down until you begin to realize how internally locked-down you are inside your ego.” Our current circumstances indicate that nature is interconnected and humans are the ones who are isolated, an internal isolation from each other.

The phrase, “we were slaves,” that we recite as part of the Seder tradition, refers to the great ego that rules everything, that we are slaves of Pharaoh, of our egoism—our lack of consideration for others. In the modern world, we seem to have raised Pharaoh’s power to such an elevated height that it batters us with its immensity. Unrestrained egoism pits us against the others, provoking rejection, quarrels, and struggles.

COVID-19, Not a Plague but an Opportunity

All human beings and all parts of nature are linked within one closed system, and if one individual thinks only of himself, he is harmful to everyone else. Furthermore, such harm reproduces and spreads widely and rapidly like an epidemic. Just like a healthy body requires complete integration between all its organs and systems, integration is also the only formula for a healthy society that will ensure that no damage is done to either mankind or the rest of nature. Through the coronavirus, nature is trying to bring us to the awareness that mutual guarantee, becoming as one man with one heart, is a necessity for our survival.

Therefore, COVID-19 cannot be considered a malevolent plague that has appeared for no reason or purpose, just like the plagues in the Haggadah we traditionally read about during the Passover Seder (ceremonial meal). The virus is actually an opportunity for humanity, this year like no other, to break free from the clutches of self-destruction and slavery. These challenging times are placing a mirror before us, raising awareness of what we need to correct in order to be in balance with nature, which is our intention to consider the well-being of others. If the purpose behind our connection with the world is to exploit everything around us only for personal gain, the time comes when these bad connections become so unbearable that nature breaks them apart by manifesting itself as a calamity.

When we fix our disruptive and destructive human relations and unite above our differences, we are saved from our enemies and come out from exile to freedom. The exit from egoistic thoughts and actions to those of bestowal is the deeper meaning of coming out of Egypt.

Each unification of our hearts and good intentions with another is a realization of the principle “love thy friend as thyself,” the great rule of the Torah.

All of the commandments, meaning the actions toward these corrections, are included within that one great rule until we finally reach the complete correct connection and enter the Land (Eretz, from the word Ratzon [desire]) of Israel (Yashar-El, meaning straight to the Creator). In other words, our desire becomes similar to and unites with the force of nature that controls everything—the Upper Force that brings about freedom, health, and all goodness in life. Happy Passover!
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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 4/9/20

Flattening the Negativity Curve about the Future

One thing we have certainly learned from the coronavirus quarantine is that nature could live peacefully without our interference. As countries begin to consider lifting the lockdowns imposed to avoid further contagion, we see unequivocal signs of the planet’s ecological recovery. Nature is a master teacher, now it is our turn to become exemplary students, pass the difficult test handed to us, and advance a grade by improving the relationship between us and the environment.

“As people stopped commuting and traveling, the Earth’s surface vibrated less,” reads a recent National Geographic article which explains how the coronavirus has “quieted” the world with the measures to curb the pandemic, thus reducing seismic noise. It puts in perspective the tremendous impact of humans on nature for better or worse.

Since COVID-19 pushed the world’s pause button, satellite images released by NASA show a significant reduction in toxic emissions and pollution in America. The air is dramatically cleaner in big cities across the globe, the chirping of birds has replaced the unbearable metropolis noise, and animals reclaim their habitats penetrating the big cities. One obvious conclusion is that instead of man’s hectic race to manipulate the world, it is much better when we sit quietly and allow nature to breathe, recover itself, and bloom.

Our attempts to control others out of pride, and particularly, our predatory behaviors toward each other, have brought despair and affliction upon us. However, humankind has the ability to consciously make a change. The first step toward change is awareness. Otherwise, it is impossible to fix something that we just assume works well.

Back to “Normal?”

If we stop producing, acquiring, and accumulating the unnecessary stuff that is choking the planet, if we discuss and internalize what really matters in life and invest more time in nurturing good and healthy relationships, we will stop feeling that life is a dead-end road and our future will seem brighter and clearer.

Like never before, we are on the verge of a historic breakthrough. As humanity impatiently awaits the reopening of society and businesses, we should not become nostalgic about the past. Returning to what we call “normal” would be returning to the abnormal state that constantly left us unfulfilled, chasing unrealistic goals, and immersed in exhausting competition to succeed at all cost. However, since the old, egoistic patterns have proven themselves unworkable, it is worthwhile to look forward to welcome change, instead of backward. Ultimately, the current crisis has come to raise us and all of creation to a higher level of existence, so we would be wise to flow with the harmonious power of nature and allow it to heal us.

How do we ensure that we do not derail our trajectory toward a renewed and rehabilitated world? We will stay on the right track if we realize that nature is whole and round, where all its elements must be connected in one integral system in which they support and complement each other.

Humanity needs to replicate this pattern and move in sync with nature by gradually refraining from treating one another badly. We must understand that we constitute a delicate system in which each person depends on the other and we need to constantly strengthen social cohesion. This is the formula of nature for a wonderful and balanced existence, one that is complete and eternal. Thus, it is precisely from this enormous coronavirus crisis that we can flatten pessimism about the future and raise the curve of the positive new life.

[People stand and cheer healthcare workers outside Mount Sinai West Hospital at 7pm during outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York]

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