Question: Thinkers of various eras condemned wars, passionately dreamed of eternal peace, and developed various aspects of how this common peace would be realized.

What is the spiritual root of the concept of peace from the point of view of Kabbalah?

Answer: Peace in Hebrew is “shalom,” which implies a greeting. Usually this is a kind greeting from person to person or from nation to nation and it doesn’t matter who is involved. Shalom from the word ‘“shlemut”’ means perfection, wholeness, and completeness. I think this is the simplest and most correct meaning of the word “peace.”

From the point of view of Kabbalah, we can say that a perfect person, a perfect society, and a perfect reality are the concept of peace.

Indeed, when all the qualities in a system (a person, a society, the world) complement each other and they interact with each other correctly, this object is in the state of peace.
[294868]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalah Express” 3/4/22

Related Material:
The Path Between Good And Evil
Perfection
The Thorny Path To Love

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization - No Comments →

Comment: The large numbers of people becoming unemployed should be provided with necessary income. You said this 20 years ago. Today, it is discussed more and more.

Meaning, today’s global productivity is great enough to provide everyone with necessary food, clothing, and shelter without having to work. You suggest putting these people in classrooms for them to study something.

My Response: Not just to study. I propose making these people workers of a new generation so that they can transform their egoism into altruism with the help of a special study. This is the most inner work a person can do in one’s life in this world.

If we start this, we will see firsthand how our world will change. We will bring a positive force, energy, and direction that is lacking now. This force can only come from man, since he is the only bearer of evil or possible good. It will lead to massive positive changes in the world. This is as stated by Kabbalah as well as myself personally.

Question: Can regular classes, in accordance with a special methodology, really accomplish this? Is it just reading or working with teachers?

Answer: It involves people working on themselves and between themselves. Nothing else is needed.

It is better for us to start this early rather than to wait until the world is completely drained, falling into all sorts of problematic states, and descending into wars that are now quite feasible.
[294588]
From KabTV’s “Virtual World” 2/9/22

Related Material:
What Will 70% Of The World Population Study?
A Glance At Short-Term Perspective
Professions Of The Future

Filed under: Children, Crisis, Economy, Education, Globalization - No Comments →

Question: Alexey asks: “The world has gone crazy. How can we prevent a Third World War? It will most likely be nuclear.”

Answer: Yes, of course. I do not think that countries will hold back, because now they are beginning to refer to each other as: “You,” “And who are you?”, “And you,” “Know your place!”, and so on.

That is, they do not turn to people or the leaders of a country, but to the country as if the country itself is a person. And this is why I am afraid that it really could happen. It is not that nerves will snap. I see to what extent one person can still command and indicate his will, his decision, and everyone will bow down before him and fulfill it. This should not be the case in the modern world.

Only God is infallible.

Question: Are you saying that in order to get to the button, a person should go through a great number of internal and external barriers?

Answer: Yes. It cannot be under the control of one person, one finger that presses something and does something. This should be a decision and a simultaneous pressing in different places. Maybe there should be several start buttons. This must be a conscious decision of the majority!

Question: Do you have a feeling that a Third World War is approaching?

Answer: Kabbalah does not deny this. Baal HaSulam writes about this.

Comment: Yes, the great Kabbalist Baal HaSulam wrote that a third and even a fourth nuclear war are possible in order for humanity to come to a correction.

My Response: To final correction. So that it will see that it can be stopped on the way to final correction. Humanity must overcome itself and rise above its egoism so that this egoism will be in front of it as its most important enemy. Not Americans against Russians and so on, but exactly my inner enemy—egoism.

Question: Only with it can there be a war of annihilation?

Answer: This is called annihilation. In fact, what we should destroy is the intention for one’s own sake.
[294971]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 2/28/22

Related Material:
Will There Ever Be Peace in The World?
Two Versions Of World War III
Preventing World War Three – Part 2 “We Need The Good Force!”

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, News, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: The perception of reality implies that the whole world is made of opposites that are constantly at war. If earlier wars were to conquer, recently they carry a character of enforcing peace. Is it possible to establish peace by force?

Answer: Never. No way. Peace can be achieved if you strive for it with great effort. Peace is a union of antagonistic opposites under a common roof, we have to know how to achieve it.

The fact is that in the state of peace all the internal contradictions remain. They cannot be avoided, erased, annulled, or excluded. They can only be in harmony with each other, in mutual complementation. Only then can this state be called peace.

We have to constantly care for it and fortify it because the contradictions will not disappear. That is, peace is a dynamic state, a state of internal dynamic equilibrium of opposites.

Question: Is it possible to achieve eternal peace?

Answer: To the extent you uphold this state, so it will remain.

Question: Does this process have an end?

Answer: In the end, you will constantly reinforce peace, praise and elevate it. What’s wrong with that? It will be a constantly evolving universe of harmony.
[294920]
From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 3/4/22

Related Material:
The Path Between Good And Evil
The Highest Harmony Of The Spiritual World
Taste The Creator

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization, Perception, Q&A - No Comments →

Medium published my new article “What the US Stands to Gain”

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, addressed the United States Congress. Zelenskyy “pleaded with the United States to ‘do more’ by implementing a no-fly zone, providing additional aircraft and air defense systems, and creating a new security alliance.” Shortly after the speech, President Biden pledged “$800 million in security assistance,” including “800 Stinger anti-aircraft systems, 100 drones,” and other weapons and ammunition.

The Americans are very cautious. So far, they have not given fighter jets to Ukraine, and prevented Poland from giving it 28 MIG-29 jets, arguing that it might push the war toward a global conflict since Poland is a full member of NATO. Despite Zelenskyy’s request, the US did not declare a no-fly zone over Ukraine in order to avoid a direct conflict with Russia.

Judging by the results, I think that the US has so far conducted itself correctly. Their intelligence regarding Putin’s intentions seems to have been correct, and their analyses of the unfolding situation seem to prove themselves. They deserve credit for this.

Currently, the US is definitely gaining from the situation. Along with its allies in NATO, it is wearing Russia out, exhausting its military strength, and depleting its resources in a war it cannot win. America’s goal is simple: to empty Russia of arms, ammunition, and supplies, and silence it for a long, long time.

I do not think that the US or NATO have any plans to invade Russia or occupy any of its territories. It is more of a preventative measure than a strategy of offense.

The US already controls NATO. Once Russia is out of the global power game, it will leave only China to deal with, and in my view, America does not regard China as a military threat.

It is not as though China does not want to dominate the world, because it does. However, the Chinese do not have an inherently aggressive approach. They want to dominate through their labor power and purchasing power rather than through military occupation. In my opinion, they will succeed.

The saddest part of the story, however, is the Ukrainian people. No one cares about them; they are the cannon fodder in this war. The US is using them to exhaust Russia and drain its power, the Russians are destroying Ukraine in an effort to prove their strength until none of it is left, and in between, the Ukrainians are being killed in droves and their country devastated.

At the moment, the US has no interest in ending the war, not before it has achieved its goal: Russia’s depletion. Therefore, in all likelihood, it will continue to support Ukraine just as much as is needed for it to keep fighting, but not to win. If Ukraine defeats Russia before the Russian army has been eliminated, then the US will not have achieved its goal. Therefore, the grim conclusion is that the longer the war continues, the better it is for the US and NATO, and the worse it is for Russia and Ukraine.

This war is terrible, as is any war. Regrettably, humanity does not learn any other way. All the lessons we have learned, we’ve learned through pain. Now, too, humanity is learning a painful lesson: military power does not win wars.

Despite their inconceivable inferiority in soldiers, weapons, training, resources, and every military aspect one can think of, the Ukrainians are not only hanging in there, but are gradually moving on the offense. They are fighting for their country, and Russia’s warplanes, tanks, and warships are no match to their unity and determination. The lesson we should all learn from this war is that in the end, solidarity and mutual responsibility will triumph; these are tomorrow’s tools for success. What a shame it is that the tuition comes in the form of human lives and misery.
[295488]

Filed under: Crisis, New Publications - No Comments →

Medium published my new article “The Price of Freedom”

As the battles in Ukraine escalate and the pressure on civilians intensifies, it is becoming clear that a compromise or a “reasonable” solution are both out of reach. Not only is the misery on the ground escalating, but the enmity between the two nations is deepening as the suffering of people intensifies. Today, overpowering other nations with military force is impractical. Therefore, the parties will eventually have to put down their arms. If at that moment, the adversaries understand the need to give each other freedom, they will be able to advance constructively. If, however, they insist on trying to dominate each other, the price of freedom will soar, though freedom will eventually come.

While it is difficult to examine a conflict objectively when you are a party to it, the longer the sides stall with making this effort, the more they will prolong their suffering. In the end, they, and the whole world with them, will understand that the war being fought today is a fight not only for the freedom of nations, but the freedom of every person, and in the end, the freedom of our souls. The struggle, therefore, is the price we pay for our freedom.

To win this war, we need to understand what we are up against, who is our real enemy. The more we look into the drivers behind this war, the more we will realize that the real culprit is the human ego, which drives all people to seek glory, fame, power, and wealth. We all possess an ego; it is a monster that lives within us, and only circumstances and characteristics beyond our comprehension determine if we reach a position where they might manifest in us. But even if they are not expressed, an egoistic tyrant still lives in all of us.

Therefore, our battle should be on two fronts: the physical and the internal. On the physical front, we need to do what we can to save our lives. On the internal, more important front, we need to stand up to the tyrant within us and seek to rise above the ego that separates us and pits us against each other to the death.

The battle against the ego takes place in different ways at different times and at different places. In some places, it unfolds violently, through wars, terrorism, or other forms of violence. In other places, it manifests through economic sanctions, shortage of staples, skyrocketing energy prices, and other forms of economic hardships that influence our lives. In still other places, the war unfolds through political battles. Either way, these hardships are all prices that we pay for our freedom.

The ego may win in some places and lose in others, but in the end, it will lose altogether. The time of its dominion is coming to a close.

In his essay “The Freedom,” written in the 1930s, the great thinker and kabbalist Baal HaSulam wrote that every tendency and characteristic in an individual is unique and we must cherish and nurture it. Afterwards, he elaborated on the importance of maintaining the freedom not only of individuals, but also of nations. In his words, “From the above-said, we learn what a terrible wrong inflict those nations that force their reign on minorities, depriving them of freedom without allowing them to lead their lives according to the tendencies they have inherited from their ancestors. They are regarded as no less than murderers.”

And to be free, we must be liberated from our ego. In order to achieve this feat, we must form new connections among us based on mutual concern and mutual support. Instead of suppressing one another, society must learn to encourage everyone to be their true selves.

For their part, individuals must learn to rise above their egos, too, and use their unique skills and capabilities not for their own benefit, and often at the expense of others, but for the benefit of society. In this way, if everyone will contribute what nature has given them to the benefit of all of humanity, there will be abundance, peace, and harmony on our planet. Therefore, the sooner we choose to pay the price for freedom from the ego, the sooner we will reach prosperity.
[295356]

Filed under: Crisis, New Publications - No Comments →

We are at the center of the events of Purim, at the center of the battle between the Creator and Haman, the power of good and the power of evil. It is us who decide the outcome of their battle, and therefore, we are called Israel, that is, aspiring straight to the Creator.

And the Creator is the root for both Mordechai, the force of good, and for Haman, the force of evil. And therefore, it is said in Megillat Esther that the city of Shushan was in turmoil and did not know with whom the truth lies and what the Creator wants.

After all, the Creator allows Haman, the force of evil, to rule. Our whole world is driven by egoistic forces. Or maybe the Creator wants us to aspire toward the forces of love and unification no matter what? But we see how weak the force of good is, that is, Mordechai, who sits at the city gates. And Haman is close to the King and controls the entire kingdom.

Therefore, the story of Purim is called Megillat Ester, that is, “the revelation of the hidden.” And it is specially built in such a way as to give us the freedom of choice, to decide for ourselves with whom we want to go, with whom the truth lays: with the force of unification or disconnection.

And although our whole life is subject to the force of separation that forces everything to be divided into mine and yours, the true victory is not in subordinating one to the other, but in mutual fulfillment, in helping each other. Neither one tries to win, but on the contrary, each strives to yield to the other and act directly opposite to egoism. And that is how one wins. We will see how in the conflicts taking place in the world today it is the quiet power that wins over and not the one that fights trying to subdue others.
[295239]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/22, “Purim“

Related Material:
Two Powers: Mordecai And Haman
When Good And Evil Merge Together
The History Of Purim: Revelation Of The Concealed

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Globalization, Holidays, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Michael Laitman, On The Times of Israel: “The Only Destroyer in the World”

It has been more than three weeks now since the war in Ukraine began, and there is still no truce in sight. Reuters estimates that more than 15,000 people have died, and more than three million have been displaced. Still, there is no end in sight. It is becoming clearer by the day that there is only one reason for the war and one goal that the killing and destruction aim to achieve: domination of the ego.

In his classic essay from the early 1930s “Peace in the World,” the great thinker and kabbalist Baal HaSulam wrote that man is governed by the sense of uniqueness, the feeling that only I exist in the world. A few years after he wrote the article, the whole world experienced the devastating effects of this perception.

Since then, people have not become less self-centered, but actually much more so. In 2009, psychologists Jean M. Twenge and Keith Campbell gained renown for their insightful book The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement. In it, they not only lament “the relentless rise of narcissism in our culture,” they also stress that “the rise in narcissism is accelerating.”

The current conflict in Ukraine demonstrates that human egoism has indeed reached a level where the horrors of World War II are no longer a deterrent. Once again, the ego will stop at nothing to gain power and control. The ego, as Baal HaSulam describes it, “feels that all the people in the world should be under his own governance and for his own private benefit.”

We cannot uproot the ego; it is our makeup. Yet, we do not need to. Instead, we need to redirect it toward constructive goals rather than destructive ones. Since we possess an inherent sense of uniqueness, we should make people feel unique for their contribution to society rather than for their power and control.

Through public opinion, we can “manipulate” ourselves to act in favor of society rather than against it. In this way, we will create communities where people feel emboldened, safe, and loved precisely because they contribute their skills and efforts to the common good.

The pointless destruction we are seeing today is the product of our nature. We could avoid it if we recognized our nature and dealt with it properly. Because we are not taking control over our ego, the ego is controlling us. There can be no compromise: Either we, as a society, govern and direct each person’s sense of uniqueness toward constructive goals, or our sense of uniqueness, aka narcissism, will lead us where it will. If we opt for inaction, the latter will happen and we will destroy ourselves and the world we live in. This is a certainty.

“The wise man’s eyes are in his head,” wrote King Solomon (Eccl. 2:14); he sees the future. If we are wise, we will work to build a good future for ourselves and for our children. If we are not, we will destroy our future by our own actions.
[295441]

Filed under: Crisis, New Publications - No Comments →

The war has led to a big increase in oil and gas prices, which has a hard impact on people’s lives in many countries. What can we do to make people suffer less? The only thing that can help is to unite people more and attract the light of the Creator to cover all crimes.

But we must understand that the states that the world is going through now are large corrections that cannot be avoided. These are not personal, private problems but global correction. We will have to pay for the world to become corrected.

Therefore, it is not necessary to concentrate so much on the increase in prices, of course, they will rise. But we must understand that this is how we pay for our freedom, for not being bribed by personal comforts. You need to rise a little above your egoism and understand that you must pay for freedom, for correction, there is no way out.

We want to be a free people in our country, that is, free in our desire and to direct it to where it is needed: to connect, to make the final correction so that no one tells us how to think and what to desire, not to make slaves of us, and own our thoughts and desires.

This freedom must be paid for by efforts to rise above egoism. Then in our connection, we will be freed and there we will cleave to the Creator.

We are free in our connection with each other, no one obliges us to connect; we, ourselves want to serve each other. This means freedom: I feel that I depend on everyone and serve everyone, and through them, I serve the Creator. There is not a single free desire in me, but I feel free because all the use of my desires leads me to dependence on the Creator. But I am free because I know how to use myself in the best perfect way.
[295188]
From the Daily Kabbalah lesson 3/14/22, “Winning the War (with an evil inclination)”

Related Material:
How Can Military Conflicts Be Avoided?
Rise Above The Oppositions
Movement According To The Ray Of Light

Filed under: Crisis, Depression, Globalization, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: You say that it is not enough to be a good person, it will not do anything, that you still must make corrections. What does making corrections mean? And how does a person making corrections affect the rest of the system?

Answer: Nature is showing us today our disparity with it. Man is the only creature in all of nature that acts against it. We, people, are given the opportunity to act within certain limits, as we want, as we wish, up to the point of self-destruction.

Unfortunately, we violate the overall harmony because we are directed against global, integral nature in which there is a law of complete interconnection, that is, the law of mutual bestowal, mutual support, and mutual guarantee, as a single organism in internal homeostasis of all systems, in equilibrium, balance, and harmony. And we do not know it.

Question: If we do not know this harmony, then why are we being beaten?

Answer: We are beaten so that we recognize it. By our actions, we reveal shortcomings that we must correct according to the level we are at. That is, if I were a schoolboy in the first grade and did something wrong, they show me how to do it right at my level. And it does not matter that I might be hurt a bit. Nature takes into account my actions only at the level at which I should function correctly.

That is, nature, as a true judge, corrects us with suffering, and pushes everyone in accordance with his level of development.
[294954]
From KabTV’s “Close-Up. Partnership Agreement” 4/7/10

Related Material:
See The True Reality
Ynet: “What Is The Hidden Law Of Nature?”
Faith Above Reason Is Bestowal Above Reception

Filed under: Crisis, Globalization - No Comments →