From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 12/2/21

Some memories never dim. About sixty years ago, I had a row with a girl with whom I had a relationship. At one point, I became so angry that I brought my fist right up to her face and threatened to punch her. In response, she kissed my fist. It blew me away. I didn’t know what to say. Her gesture gave me an example I will never forget of how to teach by example.

There is no way to nurture love other than to show it. My teacher, RABASH, would say that love is like a pet: You must constantly feed it if you want it to grow.

Infatuation is not love; it is attraction. Love is what you feel after the infatuation is over, provided you nurture it. Especially, it is the result of showing it even when we feel the opposite. We feed it by saying it, by showing it, by showing others how we feel about our loved one, whether we feel it at that moment or not.

I am not talking about love for our children; this is natural love. Think about your partner. How often do you tell your partner that you love him or her? It needs to be said openly, verbally, with sound, so everyone can hear it.

And most important, it is not our partner who needs our love, it is we who need our love for our partner. Through our efforts to show love, we change ourselves for the better and set an example that makes our partner want to do the same, just like that girl did to me so many years ago.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 28/11/21

A few days ago I visited Mount Vesuvius in southern Italy. In the fall of the year 79 CE, the mountain exploded. The explosion was so violent that it shot a cloud of fragmented rock and gasses to a height of 33 km (21 miles), released pulverized volcanic glass (pumice) and hot ash at a rate of 1.5 million tons per second, and unleashed a torrent of liquid rock and gas that flowed down the mountain at a speed greater than a Category 1 hurricane. To this day, such events are referred to as “Vesuvian eruptions.” That outburst buried the lavish Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and to this day the tragedy symbolizes nature’s wrath at man’s decadence.

Volcanic eruptions are nature’s way of restoring balance. Just as viruses trigger “eruptions” of pandemics today, so this colossal explosion served the same function then.

All of reality evolves in such a way that to shift from one state to another, it must reach a certain threshold and then erupt. Planet Earth and the entire universe evolve in this way.

At the same time, natural disasters are not mandatory, certainly not at such levels of destructiveness. Because humans exert a negative influence on nature, we tilt it off balance, tremendously increasing the severity of volcanic eruptions and other cataclysms. If we understood the extent of our influence on nature, we would see that there is a lot we can do to calm it down.

Since nature is in balance, anything that is unbalanced in it has a negative effect on it. In all of nature, humankind is the only part that is corrupt and distorted. We inject nature with swarms of selfishness and almost no good will. We contribute nothing to the prosperity of other plant and animal species, and deplete, pollute, and corrupt everything we touch.

Clearly, such a severe imbalance requires intense rebalancing. This is what we experience as “natural disasters,” whose viciousness and deadliness are “man-made.”

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 25/11/21

Sometimes I feel that we will never learn to sympathize or care. Instead of feeling compassion, we will become so alienated that we will destroy ourselves one person at a time until we’re all gone.

If we consider our true nature, this is what is supposed to happen. When I think about it, I become so pessimistic that I think it would be best to convene the plenary of the United (and pathetic) Nations and agree to all push the red button at the same time and blow it all away once and for all. At the very least, we would clean the earth of humans.

If you look at the world, you see everyone—politicians, scientists, money moguls—working toward a single goal: to destroy others and not be destroyed themselves. There is no cure for our disease because we ourselves are the pathogen. Humanity is sick because we are sick in spirit. When our minds are evil, everything we do, say, or think is evil, and so is the world we have created. When I’m in such moods, I just want to fall asleep, forget about everything, and never wake up.

At the same time, I have no choice but to keep doing what I feel is my assignment, my task—to tell the world that there is a completely different way. I feel that I must make people aware that suffering is not mandatory. We can exist in a completely different way and be in a completely different state than where we are today.
We must remember that nature consists of opposites. If there is black, there is white; if there is darkness, there is light; and if there is absolute evil, and there is, then there is absolute good.

And so, for all the pessimism I sometimes feel, I know that after the darkness we are in, the light will come. We will become the opposite of who we are today.

If we are not aware that the opposite of darkness exists, it will take longer to find it. It will come one way or another, but our sages tell us that we do not have to sink all the way to the bottom to get all the way to the top if we make a concerted effort to get there sooner. We just need to recognize the evil in our nature and toil and pray to become the opposite: absolutely loving and absolutely loved.

Image Caption:A cat runs past burning barricades during a metalworkers’ strike in Puerto Real, near Cadiz, Spain, November 24, 2021. REUTERS/Jon Nazca

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 10/2/21

For many years, students and friends have been asking me to tell them the story of my time with my teacher, RABASH. For many years, I felt that there was no need for it, that times were different and things work differently today.

But through my conversations with Semion Vinokur, many of the stories percolated to the surface nonetheless. Semion, who really feels me, managed to put them down on paper in his unique and captivating style, and all of a sudden, there was a book.

The book, which was titled Always with Me, begins with my childhood questions and my years as a young man. But these are but the prelude. The bulk of the text tells the story of my years with RABASH: how I found him, how I became his disciple, his assistant, and why I am committed to passing on his message of love for all of humanity.

Today’s Kabbalah students learn very differently from the way I learned with him. However, every student goes through a very similar internal process and can sympathize with the experiences described here.

Since times are different now, I cannot teach my students the way RABASH taught me. Although the way is slightly different, attaining spirituality still requires and will always require dedication and devotion to the goal.

RABASH passed away in 1991, but he will never pass away from my heart or from my mind. When I teach, he is always with me. When I rise in the wee hours to prepare for the next morning lesson, he is the one who guides my heart. When I speak with world leaders or with scientists, it is his legacy that guides my thoughts and words.

I hope that when you read the stories, you will get a taste of the greatness of the man who has made Kabbalah approachable to every person on this planet. RABASH’s teachings are a gift to humanity, and I do my utmost to see that everyone enjoys it.

What I have become, I have become thanks to him, because indeed, he is always with me.

And finally, a word of gratitude to Irina Rudnev and Mark Berelekhis for their meticulous translation into English.

Get a copy on Amazon:

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 10/9/21

According to the newspaper Haaretz.com, “The world’s largest video game streaming site has drawn ire over a new Palestinian third-person shooter depicting the killing of Israeli soldiers.” The computer game, called “The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” is portrayed as “educational,” and the player’s only task is to kill as many Israeli soldiers as possible. The more soldiers you kill, the higher your score. Clearly, there can only be one result from “learning” through this game: the making of killing-intent children. I would be very upset about it if I didn’t know that it is actually we who are giving them the opportunity to think this way and design such games. We needn’t fight against the makers of the game, but uproot the thought of creating such games in the first place.
Tacitly, the world agrees with the Palestinians. The nations, too, want to eliminate the Israeli army, the Jewish state, and the Jews altogether. The only difference between the Palestinians and the rest of the world is that the rest of the world is not acting out its will, yet.

My words may sound harsh, or as if I’m trying to intimidate, but everyone knows they are the truth. Hatred for Israel will continue as long as the Israeli people are contemptuous of their duty to set an example of brotherhood and love of others. Until we demonstrate, through our own society, that “love your neighbor as yourself” is the rule that everyone must follow in order to have a good life and maintain a sustainable society, the hatred of the nations toward us will not subside.

It makes no difference that we are helping other countries or that we are contributing to science and medicine more than any other country. The only thing we need to do is show the world what love is, what is connection, through our own example. This is the essence of being “Israel.” Until we show them this, they will have no compassion for us. All they need from us is an example; they will do the rest.

If we set an example of brotherhood and love of others above all our differences and disagreements, they will love us. If we set the opposite example, as we do now, they will hate us, as they do today, and wish for our elimination.

You can find more on this topic in my book:
The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 27/9/21

Over the past weekend, my students from around the world gathered for an event of profound unity. Using a unique virtual platform, built by the students themselves, nearly 6,000 friends got together online for what was probably the largest interactive convention ever held.

For forty-eight hours of joy, we had lessons, workshops, watched movies and clips. We ate and drank, sang in multiple languages, at every hour of the day, and at every time-zone in the globe.

Every event was simultaneously interpreted over the internet into dozens of languages by the friends themselves, which fastened and strengthened their bonds. They divided into groups, then mingled the groups, divided into languages, then mingled the languages, and all with one aim in mind: to generate worldwide unity.

This weekend, Chinese bonded with North and South Americans, who bonded with Iranians, who bonded with Israelis, who bonded with Russians, who bonded with Europeans, who bonded with Africans, who bonded with Australians, who bonded with Chinese, until the circle was complete. Indeed, we all became one sphere, held together by invisible threads that stretched from heart to heart to heart. Veteran students, complete beginners, and everyone in between felt very much at home in this gathering, and everyone wishes to continue fostering our unity.

In this troubled time of deepening chasms among and within nations, when hatred and violence seem to have the upper hand, my students proved that if we truly want to unite and nurture love among all people, no rift will divide us. On the contrary: The deeper the rift, the tighter the bond.

I am confident that such events have an enormous positive impact on the world. Hopefully, with persistent work on unity, we will be able to spread the love that we nurtured this weekend to the entire world, so that all of humanity may taste the taste of oneness and choose to beat swords into plowshares.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 22/9/21

Tomorrow, Google will celebrate 23. In just 23 years, Google has managed to change the way we do so many things that the list is too long to remember. But perhaps Google’s first revolution was the way we gather information. It is with good reason that we tell people “Google it!” in order to find out something. You would think that making knowledge so accessible to everyone would make the world a better place, but reality has proven otherwise. Knowledge, we have learned the hard way, is not the same as wisdom.

Knowledge is the accumulation of information; wisdom is the ability to use it correctly, which is what really counts.

It is great that we can find all the information we need so quickly. However, although information is so easily accessible, we are not happier now than we were 23 years ago. By all accounts, we are more depressed, anxious, violent, and generally more miserable.

Why are we so miserable? We misuse the information that we gather with such ease. Without knowing how to use what we know correctly, the more we know, the more miserable we feel.

The benefit from Google’s success in making knowledge readily available is that it shows us what our world really looks like. It shows us what humans do to one another and to nature, and that humanity is only growing meaner and more vicious.

If we want to be happy, we must use this information wisely. What we know about ourselves must prompt us to seek to change ourselves, to change our very nature, which makes us harm each other so readily. We clearly cannot help ourselves.

Now it is time to shift to the next level of learning, to use what we know with wisdom and make our world a better place. To do that, we should not seek external changes, which will only distract us from the crux of the problem. No, we should look within, at our own motivations for the things we do and say.

Alone, we will not be able to change our nature from the nastiness within us and become caring and compassionate. Together, there is no end to what we can achieve. Indeed, if we support each other, we can even turn ourselves into completely different human beings: kind, caring, and connected.

Everything we learn from Google or from any other source should go toward improving ourselves. There is no other problem in the world but human nature. It is our own vile disposition that tells us to look elsewhere, but it’s a decoy; we should not be tempted. The sooner we learn it, the sooner we will know how to distinguish between knowledge and wisdom, and how to use knowledge wisely—for the common good, and for our own.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 25/7/21

Today’s troubles may not seem as bad as the ones that humanity had suffered in the past. Rarely are scores of people killed, there is no pestilence that is threatening to decimate half the population of Europe, no tyrant has conquered half the world, at least not yet, and starvation isn’t threatening the to claim billions of lives. There are certainly many of the problems I just pointed out, and many more, but nothing as colossal as we’ve seen throughout the chronicles of humanity.

Nevertheless, the problems are very serious. They are serious because we may not be perishing in droves as before, but our tolerance is also not nearly that of our ancestors. We are sensitive, and therefore suffer and hurt much more from much less pain. This may sound like a flaw, but in truth, the pain is not pointless; it stirs us into action. If we need fewer afflictions in order to move, it is better for all of us. If such levels of pain weren’t enough for us, we’d be seeing levels of anguish similar to the atrocities that our medieval ancestors had endured.

These relatively mild crises are transforming us. Bit by bit, they are engendering a new humanity, where people feel connected and mutually dependent. In this humanity, it will be a given that an infection anywhere is an infection everywhere. People will know that this motto pertains not only to viruses, but to anything that pains humanity. Look at the floods that have inundated towns and villages all over the world, the raging forest fires around the world, the social tensions that seem very similar in multiple countries, and of course, the virus. We truly have become a global village, and nothing proves it more unequivocally than our troubles.

Yet, we can turn this bane into a boon. Closeness is troubling and crippling only when there is hatred among people. When brotherhood and friendship rules among them, closeness is welcome and advantageous. Our closeness is a fact. We cannot disconnect from the rest of the world. Therefore, the only option we have is to turn our foul connections into positive ones. Unity is the cure for all our ills and agonies, and we will decide whether to cure ourselves or keep on suffering.

Photo Caption:
Residents are silhouetted as they watch the Blue Ridge Fire burning in Yorba Linda, California, U.S. October 26, 2020. REUTERS/Ringo Chiu/File Photo

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 3/16/21

An anonymous student wrote me a letter saying that he can’t help but tell people the truth. He says that if he keeps it to himself, he feels bad about it, doesn’t know how to deal with it, and he asked what he should do about it.

Well, first of all, he doesn’t know the truth. What he knows is only what his ego tells him. Moreover, his “outcry” isn’t really coming from the depth of the heart, but from the ego; he wants to force his opinion about what is true and what is untrue on others. He thinks he understands people’s situation, what they’re doing wrong and what they can do right, so he wants to force his understanding on them.

There is nothing here but ego, which I would say must be destroyed altogether. Who gives him the right to force his opinions, feelings, and preferences on others? Did anyone ask him to do this or expects this of him? Even if he thinks that he will do them a favor by this, it still doesn’t give him the right to soak them up with his understandings, conclusions, preferences, and goals.

If you want to know the truth, then the truth is that people have to be given free choice; they need to choose their own truth, and that’s the end of it. This is the most important principle in education—for children, as well as for grownups.

What he should do is keep silent, and understand how self-absorbed he is, to the point that he must stuff others with his views. This should be this student’s lesson and a lesson for all of us when we feel superior or more knowledgeable than others. It should also teach us how to relate to people who “tell us the truth.”

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 1/24/21

Joe Biden hasn’t even been inaugurated but we already hear that he wants to resume the nuclear agreement with Iran. The New York Times wrote as early as November 17 that Biden “has promised to move quickly to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran,” and The Times of Israel wrote on January 16 that according to a report, “Officials in the incoming Biden administration have already begun holding quiet talks with Iran on a return to the 2015 nuclear deal.”

For four years, Donald Trump did his very best to stymie Iran’s nuclear plans to build an atom bomb. His success was very limited, but it did slightly hinder their progress. Now Biden wants to return to the 2015 agreement that Obama signed. This means that the Iranians will return to full speed development, if they haven’t already got a bomb, and the monitoring of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be as “efficient” as it was before Trump scolded them for their inaction and withdrew from the agreement. Now, the new administration will let the fox guard the henhouse once again.

I’m not optimistic about this because I don’t see that Iran has any interest in making peace or even lowering the flames with Israel. In fact, their struggle is not with Israel as such, but with the rest of the Arab world. Israel, in this case, is just a means to an end, and the aggressive extremism serves the Ayatollahs very well. They have no other country against which to show off their devotion to Islam so they use the Arab-Israeli conflict as a pretext to show off their orthodoxy.

They also don’t care about their own people—whether they suffer from the sanctions or even from bombs, as long as they can maintain their prominence and clout in the Arab world. So, because their hatred for Israel is not the issue, but the internal struggle in the Arab world, there is really nothing that Israel can do to mitigate the conflict. All it can do is protect itself militarily.

We’ll see what happens in the future, but for the time being, this is yet another issue that doesn’t look promising as we begin the new year with a new administration.

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