From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 9/14/20

Not long ago, I received a heart-wrenching letter that highlighted something we often have to deal with: guilt. Because guilt affects all of us, I felt it would help many people if I replied to the letter openly, without disclosing the identity of the sender.

“Dear Michael Laitman,

“My name is … and I live in Russia. I am an avid listener of your talks and never miss a show. I owe it all to my beloved wife, with whom I lived as one soul for twenty-eight years. We couldn’t have children, so we adopted a boy and raised him with great love, especially my wife. She loved him dearly.

“When the coronavirus pandemic started, my wife and I were very careful. We worked from home, listened to your talks, and agreed with your every word. Our son, however, treated the virus like a challenge or an invitation. He would walk out and scoff at our concerns. He wouldn’t wear a mask. We couldn’t explain to him anything from your words; he simply wouldn’t listen. As a result, he got Covid and infected us, as well. I handled the virus quite easily but my wife didn’t; she passed away.

“Since then, I haven’t been able to look at my son. I hate him. I understand that it’s impossible to bring my wife back, but I don’t want to live with this hatred for my son. Moreover, he, too, feels guilty; I am aware of it, but I can’t help it. I look at him, I turn my eyes away, and I can barely restrain myself from exploding on him. I have no love within me, none at all! Dear Michael, how do I bring my love back? What should I do? How do I forgive my son? I don’t know what to do. Please help me.”

As distressing as this tragedy is, and perhaps because it is so, I hope this story will help us understand how nature works and that in truth, this heartbreak is no one’s fault. It is no one’s fault because just as the father cannot help but hate his son, his son could not help but be reckless. We don’t own our thoughts; they emerge in us from the same place where everything emerges. Call it “nature,” “reality,” “God,” or what have you, but we do not know what we will think one second from now, let alone what we will do.

I know this isn’t easy. I, too, have plenty of reasons for anger. But when you study the wisdom of Kabbalah, you come to see that everything has a purpose: to lead you to reveal life’s deepest, most fundamental force, the source of everything, the Creator of all things. And not only that, you find that its goal is to make us like it, exactly like it. When you discover that creative force, you realize that it is nothing but pure goodness. Its goal, therefore, is to make you, me, and all of humanity just as good as itself.

When you begin to become like the Creator, even if a little bit, you understand why things happen the way they do. Until you become like it, it is impossible to justify your son, or the Creator for your tragedy.

The Creator leads the world to goodness through two reins: pleasure and pain. However, its direction, as just said, is only one—to make you like it: a complete giver. The worst cataclysms in human history, unfolded as they did at the hands of that same, benevolent force, and for the purpose of making us benevolent, as well. And if they unfolded painfully, it is only a sign that we must increase our efforts to become like it, so it wouldn’t have to rush us through the rein of pain.

The coronavirus, too, comes from that same source, and its aim is the same: to make us good, loving, and giving. Right now, you probably cannot love your son. But when you connect to the Creator and begin to become like it, you will find within you such profound love for your son and for all of creation that you never knew existed. You will love him more than ever, and more than you thought possible.

Therefore, my friend, don’t look back and don’t waste energy or time on sulking over the past. It will only bring you more pain. Instead, look up, and go find the Creator in your life. Look for people like you, who want to know the Creator of life, the source of everything, and with them, you are certain to succeed.

Best of luck,
Michael

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 9/7/20

It is becoming clearer with each passing day that we are all fighting the same enemy. This enemy convinces some of us that Democrats are evil, and convinces others that Republicans are inhuman. It whispers in the ears of some that there is no coronavirus and there’s no need to wear masks, and whispers in the ears of others that those who do not wear masks are irresponsible and selfish and put others’ lives at risk. This enemy tells us that Blacks are anarchists and a host of other “compliments,” and it tells still others that Whites are immoral racists. But most of all, it tells us all, “I am your friend, I’m on your side.”

It is not. It is against all of us as a society and each of us as individuals. It cares only about itself and wants nothing but our servitude. It is our ego and it has mastered the “divide and conquer” technique. It is time to come together and dethrone it before it drives us all to kill each other.

The ego blinds us to our mutual dependency. It makes us think that we would be so much better off if only the other side didn’t exist. But without each other, without our opposites, we ourselves would not exist. We are two sides of the same coin; you can’t remove one side of the coin but leave the other side. If you try, there will be nothing left.

Just as there is not a single system on all levels of reality that is not dependent on its opposite, so it is with people. We wouldn’t be able to even think of life if there weren’t death. We wouldn’t know the meaning of light if there weren’t darkness, experience love if there weren’t hate, or feel compassion if we didn’t feel cruelty.

Moreover, we wouldn’t know our views, qualities, and likes and dislikes if we didn’t have other people to whom we could compare ourselves. The opposites in our world not only sustain it, but also make it as rich and beautiful as it is. We love diversity and contradictions in nature, so why do we hate them in our own society? Because enjoying and appreciating our differences goes against our ego, which tells us that only we matter, and no one else.

As a result, our ego makes us interpret oppositeness of views, looks, and faiths as negative. This is how it destroys our world. If we’re not careful, it will soon destroy us by setting us against each other on a war that no one will win but the ego.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 9/2/20

The previous century was fraught with social experiments, which cost us heavily. Twice humanity became embroiled in world wars, tens of millions of lives were lost, as hundreds of millions lost their loved ones and their livelihood. In the second decade of the previous century, we tilted to the extreme left, with communist Russia. Some two decades later, much of Europe took a sharp turn to the right, with the emergence of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

In the middle of the century, after two world wars proved that neither extreme works, we went for capitalism and the United States became the world leader. With capitalism, we thought we’d found the answer. It basically ignored ideologies and allowed both democratic America and communist China to become capitalist superpowers. Instead of consecrating ideologies, it venerated money. And since everyone loves money, we learned to work together.

Yet, now even capitalism is failing us. The gaps between the haves and the have nots, and people’s inability to climb out of poverty have made capitalism yet another kind of tyranny: a tyranny of moguls rather than of rulers.

Today’s social tensions in America and elsewhere in the world, particularly in Europe, signify that capitalism too has run its course. We have no more options for government; we’ve tried everything. Now, either we introduce a new ingredient to mitigate the severity of the situation, or everything will collapse.

If we try to pinpoint the missing element in all the past regimes, we will see that it is caring, simple human caring for one another. All the previous ideologies tried to find the best social structure in a reality where people do not care for one another and exploit one another. In short, the previous ideologies tried to find a way to rein in the obscene, self-centered human nature. But since those who ran the countries were themselves products of human nature, their efforts were bound to fail. Now, for the first time in history, we are realizing that it isn’t society we need to change, but the people who make it.

If we teach ourselves to care for one another, it will not matter what form of governance we have over our heads. Our society will be good regardless of the government since we will care for one another. If human nature is the sore, we cannot bandage it or restrain it with a cast; we have to heal it.

And the first thing we need to learn is that diversity does not weaken. On the contrary, it not only strengthens, but enables life and evolution. Imagine what would happen to us if an organ in our body tried to force out or eliminate any organ that wasn’t like it. This is kind of what we’re trying to do every time we exclude another person, faith, or ideology. If we acknowledge the natural fact that diversity enriches and strengthens, we will find that even the most extreme ideas have merit, as long as they do not lead people to physically exterminate one another. Ideas, even the most extreme, lead people to question their own beliefs, polish their thoughts, and learn more about themselves. Without differences, we would be robots.

Granted, there is a lot to learn here, but if we start by agreeing that we are all parts of one, human family, then we will learn how to embrace the different, how to learn from one another and grow stronger, wiser, healthier, and richer together.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 9/2/20

The virus didn’t come to correct us. It came to show us that we have to correct ourselves. However, it will not do our work for us. We have yet to accept that we can’t win the hide-and-seek we play with Covid, where each time contagion levels drop, we ease restrictions and go wild until the virus “sees” that we came out of our hideaways and returns more contagious and violent than before. Recklessly, we are playing with the lives of our loved ones, and not just the elderly and sick among us, but also with those of our children.

Just as jockeys whip their horses to make them run faster, nature whips us using Covid-19 to impel us to start working on our relations with each other. We have already made some progress, and most governments acknowledge that they cannot simply let people starve for lack of jobs. But these rescue packages are few and far between. Even worse, they miss out on the main problem: our indifference toward each other. If we were less careless and more caring for our fellow people, we could easily overcome any trials that nature sends us. If we don’t begin to implement programs that teach us how to care for one another, alongside the monetary aid, we will end up in social breakdown and bloodshed.

The simple truth that Covid is showing us is that all we think about is our own profit, and that if we can gain at someone else’s expense, so much the better. To our defense, we could argue that this is human nature, that nature has created us egoistic so we can’t be blamed for being so. While this is true, it is also true that nature does not leave its creations self-centered. It does the opposite, weaving them into a network of reciprocal connections, so the unity among them becomes their ultimate source of strength. If we insist on being egoistic, we will end up destroying one another; we will put each other to death in the most literal sense of the word. It’s just a matter of time, and not a long time from today.

Nothing is still in nature; everything evolves at its own pace toward the inexorable result of complete merger. Humanity, like all other natural elements, evolves in that direction, too. If we look at human societies throughout history, we can easily identify this trajectory. We moved from clans to villages, from villages to towns, from towns to countries until we finally became a global village.

However, we did that only on the social level. Emotionally, we are as separated now as we always have been. In fact, in many ways, we are more separated now than ever, since our individualism is constantly challenged by our forced interdependence. We cannot do anything for ourselves: We can’t make our own food, our own clothes, or our own homes. But we hate this fact even if we’re unaware of it; we want to feel as unique, special individuals. The clash between the two creates the myriad disruptions our society displays, from violence to substance abuse, to suicide, escapism of all sorts, fanaticism, mental and emotional disorders, and all the other signals of distress that people are sending.

But nature will not leave us alone; it will bring us ever closer to each other, which will make us feel ever farther from each other in our hearts. There are only two ways that this can end: a complete breakdown of society, or the joining of humanity with nature’s trajectory toward union. This is why it is imperative that governments and authorities set up educational programs that inform us about the direction of development and help us join it.

People don’t know why they feel more hateful, why they are more suspicious toward others, and why people are so mean to one another. If they knew, they could choose to unite and end their misery. But because they are oblivious to nature’s inexorable progress, they have no choice but to protect themselves and their families as best they can until it all falls to pieces, which will happen soon.

The only difference between humanity and the rest of reality is that the evolutionary process that happens instinctively in all other creatures must happen consciously in us. We are indeed the apex of creation, but we can conduct ourselves accordingly only if we understand creation. This is why humanity will get no allowances; we will have to learn how everything works, and we will have to pay our dues. But the quicker we learn, the lower will be the dues.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 9/1/20

The American Dream is dead and buried. All that’s left of it are shattered houses destroyed by storms, smoking ashes of burnt down towns, frightened families in downtown cities where gunfire is routine, and a virus that’s spreading out of control. The free press, America’s most treasured asset, has been bought by moguls who infuse their political agenda into every line in every story and every frame in every clip, to the point where there is no honest reporting in the country that used to be the leader of the free world. It isn’t just the dream of a house in the suburbs with a picket fence around the yard that’s gone; it’s the American way of life that’s gone with it. America is being torn to pieces from within by hatred, and from without, by nature. And it won’t be long before the anger turns against the Jews. It’s already begun, and it will soon turn very deadly.

America is the capital of egoism, where private property is hallowed and individualism venerated. It is a country that has consecrated self-entitlement and now grapples with its abhorrent progeny: alienation, isolation, loneliness, and depression. And the Jews will be regarded as the instigators of this agony.

Throughout history, the Jews have been blamed for every plight that has ever struck a nation. Even where there are no Jews, the Jews are blamed for all their troubles. It is a natural law to blame the Jews for every misfortune, and America is not above the natural law.

Jewish ingenuity and keenness of mind have given the world countless presents, from which everyone enjoys, and for which on one thanks the Jews. But Jews have also given the world a present that it rejects unequivocally since it does not see its benefits: love of others. When the Jewish people formed, at the foot of Mt. Sinai, they became a nation only after they agreed to unite “as one man with one heart.”

Immediately thereafter, they were tasked with passing on that unity to the entire world, to be “a light unto nations.” Unless the Jews unite once more and set an example of this light of unity, the world will not opt for unity, but turn to violence time and time again. And in the process, it will blame the Jews for causing the bloodshed and punish them accordingly.

American Jewry is splintered internally, disputed with Israel, and proudly displays its conflicts. Many American Jews think that their expressions of aversion toward fellow Jews present them as enlightened or portray them as sensitive to social injustices. In truth, however, it only increases the already mounting hatred toward them. When the levee breaks and the flood begins, no one will be spared.

But there is no reason for despair; the road to happiness is paved and clear: unite, and your fiercest enemies will become your greatest supporters. The world needs unity more than ever, but it will not know it until someone points a light in that direction. And the only ones who can do it are the Jews. If they unite among themselves, they will send a clear signal to the world that that’s the way to go, and the world will follow.

Jews are obstinate; I have little hope they’ll listen. They did not listen in the 1930s when some Jews called on them to unite; I hope they will today.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 8/28/20

My teacher used to say that if a person stands next to a heavy bag and asks people to help him pick it up and mount it on his shoulder, no one will help him. But if he picks up the bag, places it on his shoulder, and the bag almost slips because it’s too heavy for him to carry by himself, everyone around will jump to his assistance. The moral of the story is simple: Before you ask for help, make an effort to help yourself. Then, if you need help, it will come for certain.

Today, more than ever, it is clear that only we can help ourselves. If we wait for government officials to do our work for us, we can wait forever. But through mutual responsibility, there is no limit to what we can achieve.

There are many lessons we can learn from the Covid-19 pandemic, but in my opinion, the single most important takeaway is that we are one system, and the well-being of the system depends on the quality of the connections among its parts. The virus, with its unbelievable ease of contagion, has taught us that an infection anywhere is an infection everywhere. Against our will, it made us responsible for each other’s health, but in doing so, it stressed a truth we had already known: We are completely dependent on each other.
The realization that we are responsible for one another didn’t come only to teach us that we must not infect each other with diseases. It came to show that if we want to have a good life on this planet, we have to connect our hearts, since otherwise we will not have the motivation to do what we must in order to help one another physically.

Put differently, the health crisis we are experiencing with the pandemic is first and foremost a social crisis, a symptom of social disintegration. In fact, if we did not suffer from social disintegration, the majority of crises we are currently experiencing would never materialize. The wave of gun violence in New York City and Chicago, are they not a symptom of social disintegration? The crisis of addiction to prescription and even over the counter drugs that has been killing tens of thousands of Americans each year, is this not due to social disintegration? What about domestic violence, police brutality, racism, fanaticism, sexual abuse, verbal and physical abuse, depression, obesity, the cancel culture, are they all not consequences of social disintegration?

Clearly, the true remedy that we need today is to care for one another, or at least to be responsible for one another. But no one will build social responsibility for us if we don’t do this by ourselves—community after community, city after city, state after state, and all over the country.

Covid-19 is a challenge. And rising to the challenge means that the challenge should raise us to a higher level than before. Otherwise, why did the challenge come in the first place? In the case of the coronavirus, it evidently came in order to raise us from the nadir of isolation to the zenith of connection. This, today, is our road to happiness.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 8/26/20

In less than a month, we will be wishing one another Shanah Tova (have a good year), the Hebrew equivalent of Happy New Year. But the beginning of the Hebrew year is not only a time of joy. First and foremost, it is a time of reflection. This year, it seems especially pertinent to reflect on where we are, where we are going, and what we can do to make this year, and the years to follow, safer, happier, and better for ourselves, for our loved ones, and for all of humanity.

We, the people of Israel, are a unique phenomenon in the history of humanity. Similar to the United States, we came from all over, descendants of tribes and clans from all over the Fertile Crescent. At times, those tribes were enemies, at times they were but strangers. But unlike the United States, those fugitives united under Abraham, and under Moses, they abandoned their egos and pledged to be “as one man with one heart.” Only then did they become a nation.

And when our forefathers took that oath, they were also tasked with being “a light unto nations,” to spread their method for unity above hostility throughout the world, so all the people could become one, global nation. In one of final moments of greatness, our great teacher, Rabbi Akiva, left us with a legacy, the essence of our law: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This, he said, is the whole Torah.

Since then, we have forgotten it. We have succumbed to hatred of our brethren, to disunity, wiliness, slander, and derision. We have proven to the world again and again that we do not merit being “a light unto nations” since we are not true to our legacy of unity above hostility, or as King Solomon put it, “Love will cover all crimes” (Prov, 10:12).

So come this High Holidays season, I wish for the people of Israel to be the people of Israel. In fact, I wish for the world that Israel will be Israel, since I know that when Israel are what they should be—united in mutual responsibility and loving their neighbors as themselves—the whole world will rise above disputes and animosities, and peace will rule the planet.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 8/20/20

We are nearing the end of the summer and Covid-19 isn’t letting up. Wherever restrictions are eased, it erupts stronger than before, infecting younger and younger people, and with strains up to ten times more contagious. As temperatures begin to drop and outdoor entertainment becomes less appealing, people will either avoid going out or attend indoors events and increase the already high risk of contagion. At the same time, those who stay home can expect irritation and low spirits, at best, and temper tantrums are more than likely. And worst of all, domestic violence is bound to soar.

Also, as jobs run out and scores fall into a cash-flow crisis, food insecurity and disconnection from utilities will become commonplace. In that state, hopelessness coupled with the tense upcoming elections will exacerbate street violence, homicide, looting, and arsons to the point where they become routine. In many towns and neighborhoods, people will not dare set foot outside their homes. Unless something changes fast, we’d better prepare for a very tough winter.

But if anything can change, it is the future. The future is always in our hands to shape. And now is our last call to shape our society into a community, a congregation of accountable individuals who are responsible for one another and do not let other people fall by the wayside just because they’re not on my political, racial, or ethnic side.

We are living the final days before the collapse, but we haven’t fallen yet. We can eyeball the hatred in our hearts and tell it, “The more you grow, the more we the people will unite. It is only thanks to you, hatred, that we tighten our bond.”
It’s natural for opposites to dislike one another. Love between people of conflicting views always requires hard work. But precisely because of it, it is the only love that you can truly say you chose of your own volition. Only when you rise above your natural inclination can you say that you have made a free choice. But once you’ve made it, it is yours.

This should be our preparation for the tough winter ahead. Hatred will come for sure, but we must be prepared to fasten the wings of our society together right above the hate. And the more it grows, the tighter we will tie ourselves together. If we do that, then by winter’s end, hatred will be gone, and Covid will be gone right along with it.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 8/18/20

A friend told me that psychologists say that our biggest problem is that when life slows down because of the coronavirus restrictions, it makes us think about why we live. In fact, they say that the main problem is when a person begins to think about the meaning of life, what he is living for.

To this, I can only say that the coronavirus came specifically in order to make us think about the purpose of our lives. But it didn’t come to make us miserable. On the contrary, it came to teach us what real happiness is. By forcing us to think of one another, even if it’s only in order to avoid contagion, it is inadvertently shaping us into a community, making us notice, and eventually care for one another. And by correcting our relationships, we will begin to feel the world we live in, and not just ourselves. Just as the cells in our body “feel” and are “conscious” of the entire body, we will feel and be conscious of the entire world.

There will be no fear among us, no ruling or bullying, no survival of the fittest attitude, but rather mutual support, care and consideration of each other, just as all the cells and organs have their unique traits but work for the sake of the entire body. We can already hear people saying that everyone needs to wear face masks not in order to avoid catching the virus, but in order to avoid infecting others. This is just the first step in the establishment of a completely new reality—one that is based on consideration, compassion, and care.

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 8/14/20

Higher education has never been so low. From the zenith of being the sole possession of reclusive monks who dedicated their lives to delving in secret ancient texts in isolated monasteries, science has become a tool in the hands of the rich and powerful to dominate, exploit, manipulate, and intimidate rivals and the general public. Humanities and social sciences, which once debated ideologies and discussed the merits and demerits of human nature and humankind, are now used as indoctrination tools to plant dogmas in young and malleable minds.

Universities were once a place where you came to grow as a person, broaden your horizons, learn about the world we live in, the ideas that permeate society, and formulate your views about the world. But since universities have become dependent on private funding, their facade as intellectual establishments has been nothing but a front. Today, when you enter college, you can tell from day one what will be your worldview and political affiliation when you graduate.

Even history, a field of research that was supposed to be a straightforward study of the past, is subject to so many interpretations and distortions that no one can agree even on the facts. Ask a thousand historians, and you will hear a thousand views, often completely contradictory, on the same event and based on the same evidence.

To have any merit, humanities and social sciences must be disconnected from hard sciences and acknowledged for what they are: personal interpretations of reality based on personal background and personal knowledge. As things currently stand, universities are both the source of the social fragmentation that is disintegrating society, and a hub where intolerance, division, and destructive views are nurtured in the name of “academic freedom.”

An academic degree still enjoys respect, especially higher degrees. However, if matters continue to develop as they have been for several decades now, universities will lose all merit in the eyes of the public. According to the institution from which one has graduated, you will know what political view to expect, and accordingly, people will decide whether or not to listen to that person.

Worse yet, higher education institutions are failing to provide students with required knowledge for today’s job market. Already, professional trainings are far more effective for employers than a university or a college degree. Since the knowledge, training, and professional experience of applicants who have been given professional training are far more relevant for what employers need, they will often prefer them over applicants who have expansive general background but little professional required knowledge, and who require more training to become productive workers.

There are, of course, benefits to academic learning. Being able to formulate one’s thoughts in a consistent, clear manner is very important for any person. Also, the rules of academic writing allow us to go over vast amounts of material very quickly without losing essential information. Learning how to meet deadlines, handle pressure, and collaborate with peers to produce a better outcome are all desirable results of academic learning. Yet, the price tag of warping young minds in order to acquire these skills does not seem to justify it, especially since there are other ways to get them.

And perhaps the biggest loss of all is the leakage of permission to interpret into hard sciences. You cannot call something “hard science” or “exact science” if it is based on interpretation rather than on measurements and results. If you can play with numbers the way you play with words, then the numbers are meaningless as is the science you profess to present. For this reason, hard sciences must be cut off from institutions that teach humanities and social sciences, and the two latter ones should not be regarded as sciences whatsoever, since they are not.

To merit its name, higher education needs to focus first and foremost on acquiring social skills, communication skills, ability to articulate feelings, embrace conflicting views, and making room for diverse perspectives in a vibrant society. Put differently, higher education should be about elevating the level of humanness in humans. Education must be pristine in terms of political bias (as hard as it truly is to do), and focus on creative and inclusive thinking to create broadminded individuals rather than the current opposite. Unless the academia reverses course soon, it will be too late to save it.

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