The Path to Correct Connection

Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”: Thus, we should scrutinize and examine those four properties in order to thoroughly understand what we have been given thus far, and by them know what aid we should hope to get from them in the future.

Here is where mutual work takes place. On one hand it involves our attempts to identify the properties of mercy, truth, justice, and peace inside us, to develop them, and then start to compare them.

On the other hand, through our work with them, we need to see in what way they are helping us. How can we use mercy, truth, justice, peace, and their opposite counterparts in order to connect?

Today the world is going through a state of complete collapse and everyone is distancing from each other. People understand that they cannot be together in the family. Countries cannot keep their citizens inside the country. Countries themselves are disintegrating, scattering to no one knows where. That is, the entire world is moving away from each other in all possible degrees of freedom.

As a result, we gradually come to realize that what we lack is the correct connection between us, that is, the correct use of the categories of mercy, truth, justice, and peace. After all, only in this case will we reach the absolute perfect state.

Then we will not simply have peace on Earth, good relations in the family, and so on, on the contrary, if we advance correctly, then nature, the Creator, will be pushing us further to negative qualities, showing us even greater deficiencies.

As, for example, an adult compared to a child, it seems to the child that if he is holding a toy in his hands, the world is perfect and he does not need anything else. An adult, however, needs more and more. So do we.

Therefore, we should not assume that negative qualities that life presents to us are something negative. They are forces guiding us to the purpose of creation. If we work with them correctly, we will move very quickly and correctly to the goal.
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From KabTV’s “Fundamentals of Kabbalah” 7/28/19

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Question: The world is becoming global. Many economists and scientists write about it. But what does this knowledge give me as an ordinary person from the point of view of Kabbalah?

Answer: This knowledge does not give a person anything if he does not understand where we are going. Globalization suggests that the world is round and that we are all interconnected with each other.

Moreover, there are two types of relationships. We are either connected poorly, egoistically, and then we enter into fights and begin to tear each other apart, or we can somehow find ways of proper communication between us.

Therefore, on one hand, according to serious scientific calculations, it is necessary to reduce the population of the planet by 60 to 70% or the planet will simply not support us.

Or, we can expose ourselves to nature and reduce our population sharply and harshly with enormous suffering, epidemics, or war.

Or, it can be done in a different way by us in no manner diminishing ourselves and even, perhaps developing further—if we find the right connection between us and nature. And nature will not oppose us, but will treat us kindly, just as we treat it.
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From Kab TV’s “Close-Up. Reference Point” 9/9/09

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Comment: Humanity faces many complex challenges: climate change, food shortages, chronic and oncological diseases. And while technology may provide access to high-quality education, food, and healthcare, at the same time hundreds of millions of people are being deprived of the opportunity to work. This could have colossal consequences for us as a species. There are scientists who devote the bulk of their time to studying this so-called “mass extinction of professions.”

My Response: This is nonsense! I totally disagree with them! Man was not born to just work and occupy himself this way. A person must study his destiny in this world and realize this destiny. This is the meaning of his existence in this world.

Everything else should be only as needed, as an auxiliary! But only this way!

Question: Do you think it is wrong that it occupies most of a person’s time?

Answer: Of course! See what they did to people! From morning till night, people run around this earthly ball and are looking for something there, poking around, digging! See what is being done! What an “anthill” we have created in order to occupy ourselves!

If you took the screen, like on a computer, cleaned it, and left just the most necessary things, you would see that a tenth of humanity is more or less engaged in real, necessary productive work. Take the rest away, send them to sleep! And everything will calm down.

Question: Provide only what is necessary?

Answer: Of course! Nature will force us. See how it uses a stick to drive us toward happiness.

Question: How can a person shift? After all, this is his life.

Answer: If he does not hear, then his nature will switch—precisely by blows.

Question: These blows come precisely to switch us?

Answer: Yes. And what, now we are going to do useless things, just to occupy ourselves, not to think about anything?

We need to provide ourselves with what we need, and all the rest should be directed only to correct communication with each other to achieve mutual understanding, mutual help, to process our brains and feelings so that we feel the need for each other, moral support for each other, and so on. It will save us

Question: In this you can find happiness and whatever you want, the way you used to find it in your work?

Answer: Absolutely everything. Complete relaxation! It is only necessary to understand that we have no other way out. And the sooner we start doing this, the easier it will be to move on to this new type of human life.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 8/12/21

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We have no other choice: we must acquire the force of bestowal in addition to the egoistic force of reception given to us by nature. And then we will have in our hands two reins with which we can control the world and our lives.

But where do we get this force of bestowal? It exists in nature, but it is absolutely alien to us. Man was created with the sole force of egoism and cares only about receiving.

We need a second force, an altruistic one, in order to build a complete system with the help of two forces and to be able to control the world with two reins, like a rider of a horse.

And there is such an opportunity! The second force is present in nature; you just need to learn how to use it. If we want to attain the force of bestowal, we can act by combining two opposite forces—just like nature works where there are plus and minus, heat and cold, etc. All of nature except man consists of two opposites: the entire still, vegetative, and animate world, as well as the still, vegetative, and animate level in man himself.

And only man, in his inner intention, acts with the sole force of reception. There is no force of bestowal in him at all. Even if he gives, it is only with intention to receive something; that is, his giving is a hidden reception.

This is our problem and because of it we cannot build a normal society or family. We cannot perceive reality correctly because it is woven from two forces. We are in a spiritual, infinite world, but we do not feel it. We lack only one more organ of perception for us to sense it, the organ of bestowal in addition to reception.

And then, we will feel a complete, perfect system, and understand where we exist and how to live. We will discover that we are actually eternal and perfect! We are not so temporary and mortal as it seems to us now when we observe everything with only one sense, which is so tiny, short-sighted, and does not see beyond the degrees of this world.

The universe is much bigger and higher, but we cannot even feel it with this desire to receive that we have; it is so pitiable.

All systems of nature consist of two balanced forces: reception and bestowal, plus and minus, absorption and segregation. And the human system contains only one force, and we always face shattering because we want to use only the power of reception and not the power of bestowal. We lack a second force. We are obliged to establish systems of bestowal between us. Yet, we are not capable of this by nature, and therefore we need to build a new relationship between us.

No one is born with the force of bestowal. Everyone knows that small children pull everything to themselves and do not agree to let it go from their hands. This is our nature. And how do we build systems that will fulfill us and balance our relationships?

We need to achieve a balance. No one forbids us to use the power of reception, but it is necessary to balance it with bestowal, and then the human system will begin to work correctly like metabolism in the body, like all natural systems.

Otherwise, we exist in nature as a hostile, foreign body, like a cancerous tumor.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/6/21, Writings of Rabash, Note 919, “Concerning the Environment”

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My new article on Linkedin “It is OK that the US Cares Only about Itself”

Since World War II, America has been almost perpetually engaged in some sort of war. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, not to mention meddling in Cuba, and countless other overt and covert military and political occasions of American involvement in other countries. Indeed, there is substance to America’s moniker, “the world’s policeman,” as an op-ed in The New York Times called it. Ironically, America is doing all this only because it wants peace and quiet. It has no real interest in policing the world. If it could, it would remain aloof, as it did at the beginning of World War II. For America, this indeed would be its best decision.

With two docile neighbors, Canada to its north and Mexico to its south, an ocean to the west and an ocean to the east, the US has very little to worry about. It is a vast country, with hundreds of millions of people, robust manufacturing systems, the most advanced scientific institutions and facilities in the world, and abundant natural resources. If any country can be self-sufficient, it is the United States.

Americans are brought up to relate first and foremost, if not exclusively, to America. They are taught very little about the rest of the world, and I can understand why. Were it not for the aspirations of other world powers to challenge America’s position as a world leader, it would probably choose not to interfere in global affairs.

But for all their efforts, the US is still the dream country for most people. This is why despite its social crisis and economic (relative) weakness, it is still such an attraction for millions of immigrants crossing thousands of miles to get there from Latin America. This is also why almost every scientist would want to relocate to the US given the appropriate conditions.

As for the rest of the world, things are much more precarious. China is pitched against Russia, claiming that vast swaths of land belong to it. Craftily, it is sending Chinese workers who settle in those lands and marry local Russians. This will become a big problem in the future.

There is also the matter of Muslim areas in southern Russia and to the south of Russia, which will now form alliances with Afghanistan and pose a problem for Russia. In the future, Russia will not be able to control those republics that used to be part of the Soviet Union. Between those three—Russia, China, and the growing dominance of Islam—is where I see the future dangers.

But not only there. Tensions that have long been considered gone seem to emerge these days, when the ego reigns supreme in human society. The recent friction between France and the UK and US over the nuclear submarine deal with Australia is one example of it, but I feel that there is more to come in this area.

Despite the looming dangers, we can prevent a worldwide eruption, if we want. We can decide that two world wars were enough, and we want humanity to take a different course, a more caring and collaborative one. But do we want it? Currently, it doesn’t seem that way.
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Comment: Some project that by 2030 people will not own anything and will rent everything they want: goods, services, housing, cars, almost everything. Much will be provided by subscription.

It sounds kind of strange. We always wanted a garden, a vegetable patch, a house to pass on to our children, so that something would be mine, permanent. And suddenly they forecast that all this will slowly die off. This is how humanity will live.

My Response: In order for this to happen by 2030, it is necessary for a lot of things to happen in advance. There is a lot of realization in private property, in work, in the connection between people – in all this. In relation to the family, to children, to the country. All these natural connections of people between themselves: the community, the country, the town, everything there is!

We do not even imagine that all this still lives in us. We give it all away and transfer it from ourselves for the benefit of society, in doing that I transfer myself for the benefit of society.

Comment: And I would live just leasing, I would rent everything.

My Response: It’s not about renting. The fact is that at the same time I shift, I give my future into someone else’s hands. Do they have to be strangers? Or should they be like a child in its mother’s arms? This is a huge difference!

I can’t believe that it will be by 2030.

Question: But do you think that you really need to somehow cut yourself off from egoism?

Answer: The fact that you need to cut yourself off is certain. The fact that people will want to cut  it off from themselves through suffering or by the way of the upper light is also surely certain.

When? Sooner or later it will happen. The trend is there, it is planned, it has existed since the creation of the world and it cannot be changed in any way. It is this tendency that leads this whole world in a certain direction.

Comment: Which means, I give up my personal property that I acquired and transfer it to the kind, warm hands of my friends, the country that takes care of me, and I live renting, and I rent everything. No one cheats me, and so on.

My Response: It will be, absolutely! We are getting closer to this every day, but not at this pace.

But if there are already those who say this… they have always said it…the very first societies were communist.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 7/22/21

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My new article on Linkedin “The China-Taiwan Conflict – Is It Real?”

Between Friday and Monday, more than 150 Chinese fighter jets entered Taiwan’s airspace. For their part, the Taiwanese have stated that they are preparing for war with their neighboring giant, and the US has urged China to discontinue its provocative intrusions. While the growing tension is indeed disconcerting, I think it is a rather bogus conflict between two parts of the same nation, and it is in the interest of other countries to pit them against each other. Either way, I believe that when China wants it, the two will reunite, Taiwan will rejoin China, and China, too, will change accordingly.

If anything, perhaps China’s intention in its aerial incursions was not to scare Taiwan, but to provoke the US, Taiwan’s professed protector. But in truth, I don’t see what China has to gain from a war with Taiwan. There is no territory there, and all the technology that Taiwan has, China has, as well. I’m certain there are ulterior motives here that are not reported by the press, but either way, I see no cause for war here.

We need to understand that China isn’t just another country. It is a behemoth of a republic with a population of more than 1.4 billion people. These people come from different, and often clashing cultures, religions, social statuses, and ways of life. Therefore, the Chinese government must maintain a very strict form of governance in order to keep the country under control. It is said that we should not judge other people until we are in their shoes. Therefore, I wouldn’t rush to pass judgment on China.

Moreover, if China really wanted to retake Taiwan, it would do it just like that and no one would lift a finger to stop it. The US, Europe, Russia, none of them cares about Taiwan and would certainly not risk themselves going against China. If China decided to overtake Taiwan, they would protest, but it would be nothing but hypocritical lip service. Moreover, the fact that Taiwan is still a sovereign country proves that China doesn’t want to reclaim it.

In general, I think we’re moving into a new era. The whole concept of the nation-state is dissolving. Today, there is nothing more to it than a flag and an anthem.

Many years ago, I was in Northern Ireland while they were still fighting for independence from the UK. I even participated in one of their marches and pretended to be proud that I was one of them.

But those days are over. The world is becoming rounder; everyone is connected to everyone else, and the whole concept of borders is losing its meaning. Were it not for drug trafficking and defense, there would be no reason for fences between countries.

I think the world is headed for a better place, a more collaborative manner of existence. We will have to endure a few more blows, but we will eventually understand that there is a very clear trajectory here—toward unity and cohesion. If we understand it, we will be able to advance toward it willingly and much more pleasantly.

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We must understand that corporeal life will depend every day more and more on our spiritual state. We see how humanity is plunging day by day into ever greater global problems and into ever greater misunderstanding, confusion, and uncertainty about the future.

The Creator wants to make us feel that we are dependent on forces unknown to us. All the systems of this world that we have built to gain greater strength, security, and confidence in life are being destroyed. Day by day, a person will feel less and less confident and he will not know how to build the future or what tomorrow brings.

This lack of security will break people because it will be impossible to make any plans either for today or for tomorrow. It will be impossible to know what to do and how to live. Humanity will lose all hope and prospects for the future and will feel like a lost child who stands and cries not knowing where to go, where his parents have disappeared.

There is another problem here, having lost its support in life, egoism grabs at straws and starts looking for the guilty one. If I find who is to blame for everything, then I will have a goal and a landmark that will not let me hang in the air between heaven and earth.

And this is a very dangerous turn to confrontation. Therefore, it is necessary to show humanity that there is no choice, and that the solution can be reached only through connection.
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From the International Kabbalah Convention 9/25/21, “Entering Impregnation – Revealing a New World”, Lesson 1

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My new article on Linkedin “Is America Slipping Off a Cliff?”

A survey published on September 23 by the reputable Pew Research Center determined that “President Joe Biden’s job approval rating has fallen sharply in the past two months. Fewer than half of U.S. adults now approve of the way Biden is handling his job as president.” America will keep tilting to the left and to the right, but in the end, I believe it is simply too big and too focused on itself to fall.

“Since spring, public confidence in Biden has declined across several issues,” writes the research. “Compared with March, fewer adults say Biden cares about people like them, and fewer describe him as standing up for his beliefs, honest, a good role model and mentally sharp.”

I had no doubt as to whether Biden would be good for America. Nevertheless, I don’t think his term marks the end of America, as some pundits believe.

At the end of the day, America is very capitalistic. It uses democracy only as a motto for election campaigns, but when it’s all over, all that is left is the pursuit of power and wealth.

There has also been a lot of talk about the end of the American empire. That, too, I believe, is misunderstood. America doesn’t really care about any country other than itself. The only reason it attempts to meddle in other countries’ politics is in order to secure itself. If it thought it could secure itself in a different way, it would not bother dealing with foreign affairs. In other words, it has no interest in being an empire in the first place, so the whole conversation about it is off target.

Despite the seclusion, I think that the global decline in all aspects of life will not pass up on America. Examine any area of human engagement and you will find that it is in decline. The cataclysmic events we have seen happening over the past two years or so—the fires, storms, the virus, politics, foreign affairs—indicate that we need to change our thinking.

We have to start thinking how we want to see our world and all of our global society. Then, we have to plan how to fix it and start taking baby-steps to implement the plan. At the moment, we are inflicting so much harm on ourselves and on the world that without changing course, it will be very hard to rebuild after the destruction.

For guidance, we need to look at what is happening in nature. After all, we, too, are animals. Just as there is a dynamic balance in nature, there should be a dynamic balance in human society. Our current lack of it projects on all parts of nature and manifests in worsening climatic events, outbreaks of plagues, and pollution of ground, water, and air.

Ideologies are a thing of the past. If we haven’t given up on them yet, it is time we did. The current kings are money and power, but they, too, will have to make way to balance. We simply have no choice; it is either this or destruction.

Since the world is irreversibly connected, eventually—despite some countries’ wish to isolate themselves, as does America—we will all have to take the entire world into consideration. Focusing on the success of one country cannot lead anywhere good when everything is tied together.

Mountain climbers tie themselves together to help each other avoid falling to their death if one of them slips. Humanity is doing the opposite: We’re already all tied together, yet we’re trying to make everyone else slip, as if this will not drag us down with them.

Therefore, we have no choice but to start seeing humanity as one nation, and the world as one country. Eventually, we will even have to learn to care for one another and truly feel like a global family. But not just yet. Now, at the very least, we must begin to think of ourselves as a single nation in a single country, and conduct ourselves accordingly.
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My new article on Linkedin “What Schools Are Not Teaching (And Should)”

Societies have failed their exams on education. From the beginning to the end through all the school years, our children are sentenced to tiring days confined within classroom walls. It is clear that today’s educational system is far from perfect, but can we afford to just wait for a miraculous change to happen? We need to start asking what the changes are that we would like to see. How should schools be designed so that our children will enjoy their time spent learning and they will actually learn things that enable them to realize their full potential as human beings?

Similar to the way many layers of various minerals were deposited to create the Grand Canyon, so children are treated at school. They are all assembled as a big block, filled layer by layer, like in a production line, without regarding how the place should be built to be adapted to the particular physiological and emotional needs of a child who is growing and developing. Unfortunately, any typical school is a place steeped with violence, ruthless competition and anger, where many students suffer from boycotts, bullying, and other serious phenomena. Nationwide, 42.1% of U.S. students ages 12-18 experienced bullying in the classroom according to federal statistics.

The variety of problems we see in society begin in schools. The contempt, condescension and bad relations so common on social networks, in the workplace, on the roads, as well as in the media, in politics, any and everywhere, are all side effects of what happens in schools. A person, a human being, a humane member of society, is not built there as is evident in the end result. We pay the price throughout life as individuals and as a society.

In order to design something completely different we need to start by drawing a picture of the life we would like our children to live in adulthood. In a world that is becoming more and more connected, the most important thing for success is to know how to build positive relations with others. A person who knows how to make mutual social connections and who could organize good connections between people around him or herself, such a person would succeed in anything and everything: in business, in the workplace, in relationships and in the family. Therefore, the main occupation of the schools should be to build a person with the ability to connect with each and every one.

How do we do that? About a third of school time should be devoted to methods such as circle discussions, conversations, workshops, contact exercises, friendly games, watching meaningful movies, theater simulations, role-playing games and all sorts of means aimed at developing a person’s ability to feel others and communicate well. The goal is to build a deep bond between the children, to make them feel like a cohesive group where everyone feels for everyone and supports each other.

The topics that should be studied in such a framework are from the field of human relationships and the psychology of social relationships between children and parents, boys and girls, etc., so that everyone will understand how others are constituted and see what they can take from it for fulfillment. It goes without saying that we will first need to prepare an infrastructure of teachers who will be experts in leading such processes and detailed curricula.

Another third of the time should be devoted to study tours, field trips, outside of school. The goal is to get to know life itself, the city, the country, the world; to see how different facilities work like banks, factories, courts, hospitals, high-tech companies, automobile repair shops, agricultural greenhouses or chip manufacturing laboratories. They need to see everything with their own eyes, understand how things work, talk to professionals who will explain the working methods, the technologies they use, the laws on which they are based.

Children should be prepared for each tour in advance and followed up with a summary where each child will present his or her impressions of the tour to their classmates, and everyone will absorb the impressions of everyone else. Such tours will inspire children to understand why it is necessary to learn about all sorts of professions that seemed unnecessary in the first place. Another beneficial option is arranging for the youth to be integrated in various workplaces each week so students will be able to find out which profession they are interested in. This will naturally increase their desire to learn and polish their abilities and skills.

The remaining third of the time should be devoted to imparting knowledge in all kinds of elementary subjects such as mathematics, English and science. Here, too, the learning must be conducted in a group format where everyone supports and helps each other to understand things. This would be really meaningful learning, not just a hollow slogan about education.

Thus, school will become an open and fun place, a university of life. And unlike the knowledge retained for a short period of time as currently happens, children will absorb information and experiences deep inside them, and most importantly: wherever they go later in life, they will want to build this kind of relationships around them.

Looking ahead, later in the 21st century the most sought-after profession will be experts in building social connections. Computers and robots will perform most jobs in the future, and what we will be left with is mainly to take care of developing integral relationships between people. This is how the human race will progress by adapting to the system of nature in which everything is connected and interdependent. In such a state of mutual cooperation our life and the life of the future generation will be the best it can be.
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