My new article on Linkedin “Russia-Ukraine War: The Pandora Box is Open”

The ramifications of this war run much deeper than the impact it will cause to those directly involved in the conflict. It will reshape the world, as it is likely that other latent frictions between countries and territories will be activated as a consequence of the Russia-Ukraine situation. This war just opened an era of wars, small and large, between different peoples.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently said that this war could easily become “the biggest war in Europe since 1945”, and I agree. If countries with similar backgrounds cannot reach agreement between them, then how much more likely it is that several countries that have big differences and ancient conflicts may easily slip into war for no apparent justifiable reason.

On a personal level, it saddens me to see how fate turns around and once again we find ourselves at war. I am sorry and restless since I have many students in Russia and Ukraine who are under threat and feel how the deteriorating situation is affecting them and the whole world. In Israel, too, I have many students who follow with concern what is happening in Eastern Europe, anxious about the fate of their family members and friends.

My hope is that the manifestations of hatred between the Russians and the Ukrainians will stop soon, two peoples who have lived side by side throughout history. If it were still possible, I would give everything I could to silence, calm down, avoid the escalation, but this is impossible for now.

There is not much that we can do at this stage. We can only long for peace and a ceasefire, talk about all parties showing restraint. The parties in conflict could follow the example of the Native American tribes who buried their hostility in a ceremony during which previously warring tribes agreed to settle their differences and live in harmony, and sealed their agreement by the chief of each tribe burying a war hatchet in the ground.

Such a scenario does not look realistic under the current circumstances. Thus, above the forces of hostility, above the egoism and control as the driving forces of all the conflicts in the world, we can only raise a global prayer for peace, asking that we all get along with everyone. Because only in the power of connection and in the connection between our hearts, can a great positive force arise, a force that is able to unite all parties, to reconcile the haters, to awaken the truth in us all that we all belong to one soul. As it is written, “He who makes peace in His heights, may He make peace upon us…” (The Book of Job, 25:2)
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Today everyone is asking the question: Will there be a war in Ukraine or not? I am not a politician, but a Kabbalist, and I look at everything only from the point of view of the global correction of the world, in which all nations will one day come closer and unite. And in this form we will achieve peace and perfection in our existence on the globe.

According to this conflict between Ukraine and Russia, we can see how much each nation and each country will have to correct until we can mutually connect with each other in a proper and kind form.

That’s why I don’t want to examine politics. It is obvious that there are no one who is right in this dispute because we are all egoists and everyone must correct their egoism until we all unite in a friendly way. And before that, we will be haunted by wars and problems. If we do not think about correction, about covering all crimes with love, then there will be no good life.

But still, I think that gradually we will understand that problems between nations cannot be solved through wars. These wars between countries and people will take a new form. After all, we already see that it is impossible to use nuclear weapons or chemical weapons. And then what remains? Fighting each other with sticks and stones again?

In the modern world, there can no longer be a war in the form that it once was. Almost everyone already agrees with this. No one has such a force at their disposal with which it would be possible to come out victorious in the war.

Therefore, I think that humanity will begin to conduct an internal audit of its thoughts and perception of reality, and will realize that we must move to a new phase of confrontation. It will be a confrontation not between us, not between these or other neighboring countries, but a confrontation with ourselves, a war with our own nature.

And I think that we have already come close enough to a state when it will be possible to talk about it and find understanding among people that correction is required precisely in relations of a person to himself and to others. This is the only way to achieve balance and harmony between all people.
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From KabTV’s “Conversation with Journalists” 1/17/22

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From My Facebook Page Michael Laitman 2/24/22

The war between Russia and Ukraine leaves me bewildered, uneasy, and mainly worried, very worried. I have many students in both countries, and I care deeply for all of them.

These two nations that have lived side by side for so long, have so much in common. They have been through a lot, but I didn’t think that they would end up in an all-out war. As unfeasible as it may seem today, the only solution is still to rise above our egos and unite, since in the end, it is only the ego that sets the tone in this conflict.

Unless we, all the people, not only those in the embroiled countries, rise above our egos, the war will spread to other countries and will have horrendous consequences. As former deputy commander-in-chief of NATO Richard Sherriff said, the situation “could turn into a catastrophic war… on a scale not seen in Europe since 1945.”

Precisely because two nations that have so much in common—religion, intermarriages, and more—are emphasizing what divides them, I see the situation as ominous to the entire world. They are building a wall between them in their hearts, which will be very difficult to break down later.

But for all the hatred that is now erupting, in the end, we will have no choice but to rise above it and unite. Despite the agony and exploding rage, the war will hasten our realization that our only chance for happiness is not through destruction of others.

Negativity has never produced positive results. This is why eventually, all the parties will succumb to exhaustion and despair, and agree to try the path of mutual consideration, and even mutual concern. I hope and pray that it will come soon and with as few casualties as possible.

When my teacher, RABASH, passed away, he left behind many notes where he wrote down his thoughts. After some years, I published them under the title Assorted Notes. Below is one that seems particularly pertinent today, and which I titled “Love of Others”: I look at one tiny dot, called “love of others,” and I think about it: What can I do to help people? As I look at the public, I see people’s suffering, illnesses, pains, and the suffering of individuals inflicted by the collective, meaning wars among nations. And besides prayer, there is nothing to give.

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My new article on Linkedin “We Can Still Lift Up the World”

There have always been clashes in humanity. There have been clashes between countries, between North and South, or between regimes and ideologies. But the clash today is deeper. It is a clash of nations that are unwilling to accept one another as they are, and want to oppress one another. Yet it is not too late to lift up the world from its decline, and we, the people who understand the value of diversity, are the only ones who can do this.

To build a peaceful world society, we need people to appreciate diversity. Only people who seek connection above differences can build a society that grows stronger the more it becomes diverse.

Everything that has survived the test of evolution comprises opposites that complement each other. From the atomic level to the most complex structures in the universe, everything consists of opposites that collaborate to create a strong structure where one element compensates for what the opposite element does not have. Therefore, if you destroy your opponent, you also destroy yourself.

As long as we maintain the attitude of “Only I am right,” the world will continue to deteriorate. It makes no difference who is right. An approach that does not include all parties, claims the sole right to the truth, denies its opposite, its counterpart, thereby voids its own existence.

Think of “day” without “night,” “love” without “hate,” “spring” without “fall,” or “kindness” without “cruelty.” None of the “positive” terms would exist if their “negative” opposite did not exist. Likewise, our entire world would not exist were it not for the balance between opposites that complement each other and compensate for each other’s “shortcomings.”

As precarious as the current situation is around the world, it is also an opportunity. Now we can circulate the idea that only by accepting, and even embracing our opponents, can we ourselves thrive. The growing political tensions make us attentive for any sign of reason, and the sound of reason today must declare that war to the end means the end of everyone.

I hope and pray that in this war, reason will win.

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Comment: The story of the founding of the ancient Olympic games includes the creation of the Ekecheiria, the Olympic Truce, which allowed the Games to be held without attack and its participants to travel unharmed through warring territories. The Greeks saw the the Olympics had potential for  promoting peace among their often warring city-states.

“This potential was especially important to Pierre, baron de Coubertin, and his predecessors in the modern Olympic revival who believed strongly that the Games were capable of advancing international understanding and the cause of world peace. The Olympics have played that role with marked success, especially among athletes and spectators, if not governments. Emphasis on a kind of Olympic peace has become a major feature of modern Olympic ideology. In the year 2000 Olympic officials established the International Olympic Truce Foundation to encourage the study of world peace and the creation of progress in its pursuit. The foundation is headquartered in Athens and has endeavoured to institute a new kind of official Olympic truce that would, unlike the ancient version, persuade countries not to wage war during the Olympic Games” (Britannica).

This means that at the time when the Olympic Games are held, no one is at war with anyone.

And for the first time in the 125-year history of the existence of the International Olympic Committee, 20 countries refused to sign the UN resolution for observing  the Olympic Truce during the Games.

My Response: This only shows what humanity is slipping into, that this is a terrible state of people and countries and how they treat each other, with such meanness, with such treachery.

This speaks of our time, of the huge egoism that has developed in humanity that we cannot curb in any way. We need only the special upper force for this.

Question: So you think it is going to get worse and worse? Will 30, 40, or more countries join?

Answer: Absolutely! Of course! This is all pure bluff.

Question: What does it take for a coup to happen suddenly at some point?

Answer: It will not happen. This will lead us to the fact that either we will bow our heads, accept the upper governance, and agree to be governed by an absolutely benevolent upper force, or we will not need the Olympic Games at all.

No one will escape. We will plunge into such wars… they say there have already been such periods on Earth.

But today is a special period because we have the opportunity to overcome this insane leap of egoism and rise above it.

Question: Is that why these crises occur?

Answer: Yes, of course, to show us in advance what can happen and to still push us to overcome these egoistic crises.

Question: Does it surprise you that, on one hand, athletes are sent to compete together, hug, shake hands, and on the other hand, these same countries refused to sign a peace agreement and say that it means nothing? They sent athletes, ok, they did that for peaceful sports, games, and we will wage war. Doesn’t this coup seem strange to you?

Answer: This is the duplicity of our world. Man is like that internally.

And according to the time, he is once like this, another time like that. I hope, again, that today’s state will lead to awareness and to the understanding of the cruelty and irrationality of our egoism.

Question: What will become of these Olympic Games if this turn you are talking about happens?

Answer: Then the games will turn into a festival, a celebration. And the celebration will consist not in someone defeating someone, but in friendship truly winning.

Truly! So that everyone in their sport demonstrates their desire to show friendship, connection, love, mutual understanding, and closeness to others through their sport.

Question: Without any duplicity?

Answer: Certainly! But I do not know how to do it. Let them search. We will give awards for this.

Question: Specifically for this? Not for those first places that were snatched in the fight?

Answer: Of course. Not for playing dirty tricks or using all kinds of drugs and means!

Comment: That is how it is today.

My Response: Yes, these are today’s games, and in this case, it is better to shut them down.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/31/22

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In the News (Daily Mail): “A paralysed man in Australia has become the first person to tweet a message via direct thought thanks to a tiny brain implant the size of a paperclip. 

“Philip O’Keefe, 62, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) which has left him unable to move his upper limbs, tweeted: ‘No need for keystrokes or voices. I created this tweet just by thinking it.’ #helloworldbci

“He was diagnosed with ALS, a form of Motor Neurone Disease, in 2015, and successfully turned his direct thought to text using the Stentrode brain computer interface (BCI) on December 23.  …

“‘My hope is that I’m paving the way for people to tweet through thoughts,’ was his closing statement.”

My Comment: Thought is material.

Question: When you say that thought is material, what do you mean by it?

Answer: That we influence the world with it. That is, a person can learn to influence some external device—electrical, electronic, even mechanical, or some other—and put it into action at will.

Question: These are mechanical actions. Can we mentally connect or mentally convey: “I love you”?

Answer: You can. But this also requires very serious training.

Question: Do I need to do any exercises?

Answer: These are Kabbalistic exercises when a person begins to work on himself, on his desires, and thoughts until he begins to unite with others in these thoughts, desires, intentions, and goals. Then people perfectly feel each other, and they do not need any words or any external communication for this. They can be at a distance—literally like the two ends of the Earth—and feel close, and as if talking to each other.

Question: Must there be a certain purity of thought here?

Answer: Naturally. Only if everyone wants to communicate with each other only out of love.

Question: Can we pierce space with only the intention of love?

Answer: Only this!

Question: Does a mother maybe feel her child who is a thousand kilometers away? Do twins often feel each other too? There are many examples. Is it based on this?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Question: Is the future of mankind based on mental connection with each other?

Answer: I think that we will have such technology for the internal development of a person and the ability to connect him to some external devices or tools so that we will not have any problem of interaction between people and machines. And we will control them with the power of thought. It is also material like all other forces.

Question: Why is it not given to us now to understand this?

Answer: Just as we were not given electricity, x-rays, and chemistry, not anything was just given. It is revealed gradually to the extent that we can somewhat cope with it. You see today how bad relationships, weapons, threats, and all this overtake the correct inner human relationships.

Question: Here, on the contrary, there is no time for thought. Can a thought penetrate only from a position of love?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: By the time we get to this!

My Response: There are no problems on the part of nature; it would like to reveal everything to us. The problem is on our side. Nature reveals the maximum to us that we can handle so as not to destroy ourselves.

Question: So it is trying to protect itself because it knows that we will begin to think in terms of destruction and not in love?

Answer: Definitely! Certainly! What if such a weapon appear were to appear by the power of thought?! Then you and I would be sitting tomorrow on an empty globe. Birds, silence…and only us. A person is very dangerous. There is no greater evil in nature than man.

Question: But will we get there anyway? Will nature guide us?

Answer: Nature will not destroy us. It will still teach us. But learning will be long and possibly painful.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/30/21

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Question: It is said: do not tell fortunes and do not perform witchcraft. Why is it impossible for a person to know his future? Can’t it somehow improve his life?

Answer: This cannot help him in any way, he does not need to know this or even strive for it. Absolutely not!

Question: And if we are not talking about a personal future, but the future of all mankind? After all, Kabbalists write about this?

Answer: The future of humanity is described in several rather ugly scenes, and we should try to avoid them, to strive for a good future.

Question: Why is the future always described in black colors?

Answer: Because the last corrections are very difficult. We are constantly moving toward correcting the world from small, easy corrections to larger ones.

Therefore, all future corrections are much more serious. But we will be better prepared for them. Thus, what could not be corrected in previous generations, we will be able to realize.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/21/21

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Question: You often talk about future events. In particular, you predict unemployment, antisemitism, viruses, and other catastrophes. Two years ago you said that this coronavirus would not pass, it would be with us for a long time. I don’t think a lot of people were talking about it back then. Where do you get it from?

Answer: From the feeling that it is in nature. We receive data from nature, and based on these events we must change, but we do not change. So all this will continue. It is logical. There is nothing else here.

Everything bad will continue until we change it for good—we ourselves, with our rapprochement and our good attitude toward each other. If this trend does not exist, then, naturally, good disappears more and more from our world and is replaced by evil. We do it ourselves.

Comment: I understand the general direction. If humanity does not change, correct itself, and unite, it will be so. Nature has so many ways to make us come to a good state. But you were talking specifically about the virus.

My Response: A virus has a modern impact on humanity.

Comment: But the virus could last for two months, and then it could be replaced by, say, an earthquake or other problems. But you said the virus would remain.

My Response: Any influences on humanity on the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and higher levels come gradually. If there has already been an impact at the level of viruses (these things exist and connect people to each other), then this is a big problem. I think that viruses will not pass for a long time and they will force us to start thinking differently.

It is a natural mechanism that affects our relationships. It divides some and unites others.

Question: How does a Kabbalist determine how long a virus will last? Does he sit, study it, and proceed from his understanding?

Answer: The Kabbalist is in this. Of course, in his knowledge there are limitations in height, in depth, and in the axis of time. But in general, he is familiar with this based on his comprehension. This is part of his life, part of the picture of the world that is revealed to him.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 12/21/21

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Question: People of the world of the twentieth century, the world of the past, lived based on the idea that every person can find some rational occupation and that every country needs to be developed and to produce something useful.

Then in various countries—in Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Venezuela—young majors and colonels, presidents, and fathers of the nation came to power. They built factories and roads, trained people to become engineers and doctors, created tank brigades, and tried to reach the American and German standard, and even the Soviet standard.

What happened? How did it suddenly turn out that entertaining is more profitable than producing something, that speculating in numbers is more profitable than trading goods, and that managing chaos is more profitable than managing teams? The old world went into a decline, and the leaders stopped being fathers.

How did this happen to us?

Answer: People have discovered that they do not need it all, not progress or anything else. All people need are bread and circuses.

Question: Are we so primitive?

Answer: This is our nature! This is not what is called primitivism. Primitivism is a high art.

Comment: But we are the supreme creation of nature, as they said in our youth.

My Response: In your youth you were taught that you are the supreme creation of nature. But in fact they just did not want to tell you. If you, as a prudent and wise person, want to live your life rationally, then choose a quiet job, a quiet environment, and a favorite hobby.

Comment: So at first humanity wanted something and the leaders wanted to be the fathers of the nation, to be the fathers of their people.

My Response: They just wanted to be in charge. There was nothing else in them. They were driven by nothing else except the desire to egoistically show themselves, whether for the better or for the worse, to be talked about, to have power and fame.

Question: Why did this disappear?

Answer: First, our egoism is changing. And second, they found out that nothing good comes from this, and that all of humanity is ungrateful. No matter how much you try to get it to do something, it does not want anything!

Question: Where is everything going now?

Answer: Today none of the leaders care that his country, his people, would be higher, better, cleaner, or special.

Comment: That they would live well, would live better.

My Response: His children, yes. But just his children.

Question: Have we become petty, smaller?

My Response: Egoism has become greater. Therefore it demands more from us and we, of course, cannot object to it in any way.

Question: Are you saying that there will never come a time when there will be care for people? Even an ostentatious concern, no matter what, even talked about?

Answer: No, you no longer can buy people with that. You can climb on any podium and scream. They will move past you and go on. This is it; the world has already been through all this.

Question: Then the main question is: where are we going? To which leaders? Can a sage become a leader today?

Answer: No, no one. Which sage? Who would listen to him? A sage is made by the audience, who points at him and says: “This is a sage! Look!”

Question: Do you think that it is people who choose the leader?

Answer: Of course!

Question: Can they choose a leader today like in the past?

Answer: No. It is all gone.

Question: We do not even want to choose a leader who would take care of us, right?

Answer: No. First of all, I do not believe anyone, I do not trust anyone. If I choose someone today, then tomorrow I will reject him. It turns out that there are no leaders and there are no sages; we are left lost, confused, small, and selfish. And we do not need any of this.

But we also do not know what we need.

Question: What will happen?

Answer: I think that, as usual, a war will choose great people. I cannot imagine how it is possible to influence people. After all, no one listens. No one hears.

Question: What is the purpose of nature? What is the purpose of the Creator who put us in this position?

Answer: To develop the correct egoism in us, which would understand that it is actually purposeless. It is very necessary, but it is not aimed at the right goal. And to make it wonder how to redirect itself.

Question: Does our egoism need to feel this? Do we need to feel this?

Answer: Yes, but we do not have enough inner acuity of perception for this. Therefore we do not know. We go there, we go here…”Look, Black Friday! Let’s run to the store!”

Question: Are you saying that there should be some kind of pain?

Answer: Yes. A storm! A very serious storm.

Question: So, are you expecting a storm and there cannot be any other way?

Answer: No. This storm does not have to be physical. It can be internal, inside people, but it should happen. It has to swoop in just like that. It should take us by surprise.

Question: Could it be a stark void or something else?

Answer: A person falls under its influence and begins to change.

He will finally want purpose—the real one. Not in shopping, not in recreation, not in anything. He will want purpose because he will understand that this is what can fill him, stop him, direct him, and give him meaning.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 12/20/21

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My new article on Linkedin “The Freedom Convoy Is a Power Struggle”

The Freedom Convoy was originally created to protest vaccine mandates for crossing the United States border, but later turned into a protest about Covid-19 restrictions in general. While many of the drivers and activists partaking in the convoy do it in good faith, the forces behind them have nothing to do with freedom or health, and everything to do with power and wealth.

It is very sad that such an important issue as our health has been hijacked from the public, as well as from health professionals, who are the ones to whom we should listen. Instead, each side, for and against compulsory vaccination and mask mandates, pulls its way not because of health concerns, for most of the time, but because political and industrial entities are paying top dollar for people to push the agenda that benefits them financially or politically. As for people’s health, it is inconsequential. Since there is no profit in caring for the public, there is no reason to promote it.

As I see it, the only benefit from the struggles erupting over vaccine and mask mandates is that we will realize our true nature. In the end, each side is so focused on winning that it is impossible to know who is right, who is wrong, or even if there are right and wrong in this clash.

The solution to the questions of who is right and what is the right thing to do will come only when we change human society from the basis. The virus is dissolving the fabric of society precisely in order to force us to rebuild it, and rebuild it right.

Reconstructing society must begin where society is weakest—in our attitude toward others. Only when we begin to treat others with consideration first, and finally with concern, other aspects of society will begin to improve, as well. Until we initiate this transformation, matters will continue to deteriorate. If we do not reverse course in time, society will collapse.

War, any war, never leads to peace. A war ends when one or more parties lose, or when the parties run out of power, funds, soldiers, or any combination of the above. It does not end because the parties want peace.

The only way to turn enemies into friends is through explanation. Once people are too exhausted to fight, they will have no choice but to listen. Then it will be possible to talk to them about mutual dependence, the benefits of cooperation, the advantages of peaceful relations, and other ideas that pride and vanity shun while we are strong.

Interestingly, the Hebrew word for peace is “shalom,” which comes from the word “shlemut” (wholeness/complementation). It means that we are at peace only when we complement one another and together make up a whole. To do that, we must look at every problem from every angle, and embrace all perspectives.

Our sages expressed this notion in various ways, some of which are quite poetic. The book Likutey Halachot (Assorted Rules), for example, writes, “Vitality is mainly through unity, by all the differences being included in the source of the unity. For this reason, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ is the great rule … to include in unity and peace. The vitality, sustenance, and correction of all of creation are mainly by people of differing views becoming included together in love, unity, and peace.”

Similarly, Raaiah Kook wrote, “Any division between … one collective and another … builds worlds. Since everything is improvement and construction, there is no reason to speak bitterly, but to announce the greatness that both sides are doing, and that together, they are perfecting the everlasting structure and are correcting the world. Then, … the love will grow according to the intensity of the hate, and the connection will grow according to the size of the separation.”

Only if we approach our dispute with this positive and proactive attitude, do we have a chance of turning the deepening divisions in society into greater unity. If we insist on fighting through the end, our society will end before the battle ends.
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