World Kabbalah Convention 2020 Album—In Tel Aviv, Israel
Posted on March 1st, 2020
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 3/1/20
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 3/1/20
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 3/1/20
3 days.
150 countries.
26 languages.
5,000 participants.
3,000 virtual connections.
World Kabbalah Convention 2020.
Thank you 🙏🏼
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/23/20
The people of Israel have a close relationship with the desert. In each era we come and go, wandering and returning to this barren place. And so do we, students and members of Bnei Baruch from all over the world disconnect once a year, and head for a weekend in the desert, to unite and focus on the power of connection between us. There are no disturbances in the quiet desert. The thoughts are clear. Intentions flow. The desert is not like the image that comes to mind, a dead space with nothing. The desert has a sea of life. A little digging in the ground will reveal real water sources. As with our inner relationships, we go a little deeper and discover a new dimension—perfect and eternal.
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/21/20
About thirty years ago, I used to regularly walk in Yarkon Park, Tel Aviv with my teacher, Kabbalist Baruch Shalom Halevi Ashlag (Rabash).
Just 200 meters from the park bench pictured in this photo, across the road, thousands of people from all over the world will gather for the 2020 World Kabbalah Convention, people who share a common purpose—to discover nothing less than the purpose of life, the revelation of the Creator, using the method of Kabbalah.
If you would have asked me thirty years ago, when I was accompanying my Rav, that an event of such magnitude would happen—that so many different people would flock to Israel from dozens of countries, and that men and women, young and old, of many different tongues, would gather in order to demand the purpose of their lives above life’s other engagements—on one hand, I never would have expected it.
On the other hand, I really did expect such a gathering, and even much bigger ones.
However, one principle I learned very well over the last thirty years is that we do not determine what will ultimately happen.
And what would Rabash have said about such a tremendous gathering, where we all assemble in his name, as “Bnei Baruch” (“the Sons of Baruch”)? Knowing Rabash, I’m sure he would have said that he expects us to apply more efforts.
I have no doubt that he would be pleased with us if he were to see our large, global and grassroots group, and knew that we have no recourse but to grow spiritually and construct ourselves “as one man with one heart.”
From Abraham in ancient Babylon, through the Ari, Ramchal, Baal HaSulam, and Rabash… all these great Kabbalists and others hoped and worked very hard to spread the method of Kabbalah to all humanity.
This year’s World Kabbalah Convention will be a spiritual breakthrough and a major leap forward. As humanity further develops and crises strike from all angles, we have a very interesting time ahead of us, and I’m sure that we will realize it well.
We need only have a little more patience. Increasing our positive connections at every moment is of primal importance right now.
The 2020 World Kabbalah Convention in Tel Aviv, Israel is open to everyone, and I invite anyone who feels any kind of attraction or curiousness to these ideas to attend.
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/21/20
Musa from Istanbul, Ingrid from Berlin, Vlad from Kiev, Helena from Spain—hundreds of people from around the world are coming to Israel in an ongoing stream gathering for the 2020 World Kabbalah Convention.
The world’s biggest annual Kabbalah event will take place at Ganey Hata’arucha, Tel Aviv Exhibition Grounds in 2020 on February 25-27.
Participants are coming together to discover the integral system that binds us all together, to feel, if only for a moment, the united soul called “Adam HaRishon.”
The World Kabbalah Convention magnifies the efforts and desires of Kabbalah students to draw the positive force dwelling in nature to the world, to awaken love among one another until a fire of unification sets off between us all “as one man with one heart.”
One clear conclusion that has emerged after many years of Kabbalah study: no science, wisdom or approach, psychological or pedagogical, will help human society curb or balance its overblown ego—the desire to enjoy at the expense of others—which is today at such high proportions, threatening our very existence.
As the positive forces of love, connection and giving, and the negative forces of hatred, division and egoism, become more polarized and opposite to each other, gnawing away at society in myriad ways, the more people are discovering how the wisdom of Kabbalah contains a special igniting force that can balance these forces and generate a whole new level of harmonious existence among humanity.
If you feel concern about the state of the world, the future of our following generations, then you are invited to connect to the convention broadcasts and participate by listening to the lessons, the discussions, the participants’ concerns, hopes and prayers for the fate of the world.
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/19/20
If we used to caution our kids about talking to strangers and walking in side alleys, today they sit at home with their mobile devices and all the dangers are at their fingertips.
The latest dangerous viral trend, the Tripping Jump Challenge (a.k.a. Skull Breaker Challenge), distributed on the social app, Tik Tok, has already led to death and injury.
In the challenge, three people line up and jump at once. The participant in the middle is unaware of the prank, told that they are simply recording a slow-motion video of the jump. After the jump, the two on the sides proceed to trip the unsuspecting participant in the middle, while they are in the air, so that they fall backwards.
The “best-case scenario,” if you could call it that, is shock and taunting of the one who got pranked. This is also why the participant who gets pranked is often also not a friend of the pranksters, but a victim of bullying.
The worst-case scenario, however, is much worse: death and severe injury.
The tragic nature of this phenomenon shows us how we are incapable of controlling ourselves as a society.
It is not the first viral challenge that has led to harming and killing its participants. Also, once again, it has taken death and injury for us to wake up to the problem and try to apply a patchwork solution, until the next case comes along.
We have the means at our disposal to restrict the Internet so that such negative phenomena stay away from our children and teenagers.
We can demand that international organizations oversee the Internet, determining and monitoring what is allowed and disallowed.
Also, we can do so not only when it comes to the question of harsh violence and porn, but upon everything contemptuous and slanderous.
We could raise youth awareness to be better equipped in dealing with the freedom they have on the Internet.
But we don’t.
Moreover, if we wanted to, we could impact a revolution by instigating a new form of education spanning the education system as we know it, in addition to media and cultural influences that shape our values—connection-enriching education that aims to clarify how a positive future depends on actively developing positive social connections.
Since most of the complaints about the harm caused from such incidents come from concerned parents, then this appeal is primarily to the parents: With your common concern for your children, unite and together break the social consensus that everything is permissible. Otherwise, tomorrow your child could very well be the next victim.
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/18/20
Let’s all come together and by our common, strong desire, make our world a better place.
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/18/20
In 1986, the world’s biggest nuclear accident took place in Chernobyl. Escaping from vast amounts of radiation, people hastily left their homes. Today, after over 30 years, the 30 kilometer closed zone around Chernobyl is inhabited by dozens of species, many of which haven’t lived in that area for centuries.
What this example shows us is that human interference is much worse than radiation. Why?
The wisdom of Kabbalah says that humans have an additional aspect to the rest of nature: the human ego, which is a desire to enjoy at the expense of others.
Therefore, as far as we go, we interfere with the perfectly balanced natural system with any smallest action, even if we are unaware of it. Therefore, when people leave, nature rejuvenates.
Can we achieve a nature-like harmony in human society?
Definitely. This is what we have to do. How? Study the inner sense of nature, its laws, and try becoming integral with it, flowing into one another. When we reach such unity with nature, we will see that, in fact, everything is simply blissful.
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/10/20
Over the generations, clothes have been a definitive mark of a person’s economic and social status. However, recent times show a striking change. All around the world, wealthy and publicly respected people no longer follow the old standard dress code.
Today, a plain t-shirt, jeans and sports shoes can be the attire of the rich and poor alike. Society has undergone emancipation from noticeable expressions of wealth and rank in dress with a recent move toward a “simpler is better” approach.
In the first decades of the 20th century, men still flaunted well-tailored suits, dress shirts with cufflinks, and elegant hats on their heads. Women, already exempt from corsets, wore colorful long dresses with matching accessories head to toe. Designers still offer new fashions four times a year, but our search for personal expression has turned elsewhere.
Time passed and desires changed.
Although largely unaware of where our loss of interest in clothing comes from, today’s younger generation emphasizes personal character and their inner world over the rags that cover it.
This is the call of the time: We have reached the point where the person must precede the clothing.
There is an old saying, “Don’t let your clothes wear you,” i.e., the outer covering should never be more important than the inner person. The time has come to uncover exactly what we have been hiding underneath the stylish outer wrappings.
What have we been trying to cover up? What are we longing to find? Could it be that we have been covering some kind of shame?
According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, which explains phenomena in our reality as branches of spiritual roots, there is a connection between physical clothing and shame.
We instinctively wear clothes in order to cover the shame of our egoistic nature.
We hide the fact that we host a human nature that wants only to enjoy itself at the expense of everyone and everything else. Essentially, we use clothing in order to conceal our selfishness.
As the Torah teaches, after the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, the Creator told Adam that he needed to be clothed. This means that the person’s egoistic desire undergoes a correction, becoming covered with an opposite intention of love and bestowal.
When we put on this “spiritual apparel” of a common intention to love, bestow and positively connect with each other above the naked and divisive ego, and create a supportive social environment that promotes altruistic spiritual values to us, we then attain the spiritual state called “love will cover all transgressions.”
Then, we dress up in the image of the Creator.
From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/9/20
In addition to the illness, death and fear that the coronavirus has effectuated, the global economy has suffered a major $160 billion blow. In China, Apple, McDonald’s, Starbucks and dozens of other chains have closed their stores. Entire cities have been shut down and most of the “Made in China” industry has been frozen.
Humanity has yet to digest the magnitude of disruption that China, the country with the world’s largest population, can inflict. China has become a cold mega-factory operating to serve its own money and power interests on the backs of an impoverished sweated labor workforce. It has developed into a powerful and assertive country with its tentacles spread throughout the world.
The vast amount of harm that the coronavirus has triggered makes a clear point: Nature disagrees with such a quickly expansive self-benefit-focused approach. The integral and altruistic quality of nature requires each of its parts to complement one another, thereby harmonizing themselves with the whole. For this reason, it is imperative that we stop for a moment and critique the situation that the crisis in China presents, since humanity is not above nature’s laws.
History is replete with examples of the rise and fall of powerful empires that sought to aggrandize themselves at the expense of others: Ancient Egypt; the Babylonian, Roman, and Mongolian Empires; colonial Britain and France; the Nazi regime; the Soviet Union, and the list goes on. The reason behind every collapse is that, ultimately, nature forbids overblown egoism to trample the world unabated, with one country or empire having pirate access to much of the world’s resources.
More blows such as the coronavirus can be expected if China continues to fiercely expand its power around the world at the expense of other countries and populations. These crises could take many grave forms—lethal diseases, financial ruin, wars and more. The press of human development has brought us to an era characterized by inescapable global interdependence. There are no more empty spaces and we have nowhere to hide. The crises will only intensify.
The magnifying glass is now over China to undergo this attitude shift: to become positively connected with, and concerned about, humanity’s growth and success. We are all in the same boat. Therefore, if someone adds too much weight on their side, we will all topple over. China’s current egoistic expansion is doing just that. It is a recipe for disaster. China thus needs to shift its robust influence in the direction of benefiting the whole world instead of benefiting only itself.
Therefore, I hope that China and the world will rush to treat the underlying disease of the egoistic nature residing within us and not settle for merely calming the coronavirus crisis. When we learn to think globally instead of nationally, the world finally will experience peace, stability and harmony.
(Image of Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang who died of Coronavirus)
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